3.19 /// Unleashing the Cowboy Within: A Cinematic Dream role...

Ever imagined yourself in the boots of a cowboy, embarking on thrilling adventures in the Wild West, inspired by classic films like Young Guns and Tombstone? In this lively episode of Stephen Speak, your trailblazing host Stephen takes you on an exhilarating ride through the dusty trails of his dream role in acting. With a twinkle in his eye, Stephen paints a vivid picture of a life under the stars, bar brawls, and the heart-stopping thrill of being a skilled gunslinger. You'll not only uncover the heroic, slightly roguish spirit of a cowboy, but you'll also inspire the actor within yourself.

Travel back in time with Stephen as he opens the treasure trove of his childhood memories, shaped by cowboy and ninja toys and a deep-seated fascination with the universe of sci-fi and Star Trek. He'll share his youthful yearnings to be an audacious stuntman performing electrifying stunts. But that's not all, we'll also roll out the red carpet for our listeners and navigate through their dream acting roles, across a diverse array of film genres. This episode is your exclusive backstage pass to a cinematic exploration of dreams, roles, and the potential to awaken the action star in all of us. Buckle up, it's going to be a wild ride!

Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Chapters

• 0:00 My Ideal Role as an Actor
• 6:52 Childhood Toys and Dreams of Acting
• 19:17 Dream Acting Roles in Films

Transcript

Stephen: 0:00

Hello, welcome to Stephen Speak. This episode is going to be about, um, if I became an actor, what would be my ideal role and what is my fantasy for being an actor? Um, you probably can guess, maybe you can't, I don't know More. After this, welcome to Stephen Speak, the podcast. Unscripted Prattle on everything and nothing. I um use myself far too much. I don't know, uh, I don't know why. I don't know why. Anyway, welcome to the episode. Thank you very much for joining me. Once more, thank you for watching. I hope you enjoyed this episode.

Stephen: 0:37

I'm a bit tired today. I was. I was, uh, on the road with the podcast yesterday. I've seen some of the posts from this week and you'll already know this. Up into the social media "StevenSpeakPC for more. Uh, yeah, I was up there recording with Johnny again. Uh, another episode about, uh, his most cycle adventures and one that he mentioned on the last episode that we recorded. So go back and check the other episodes out in season two and uh, we'll, we'll be here from Johnny in season four because there's not many episodes left. Now.

Stephen: 1:25

Season three Um, I know I can hear you all crying. It's, it's terrible. I kind of. I know it's, it's awful. Um, you know a couple of weeks break. I'm hoping to try and do the stuff I didn't do last time. Um, over this break I've got a bit of time off from work, so hopefully I'll accomplish it this time. So my, my idea is uh, I don't know if I've said this before I'll re-do the logo, get some stuff trimmed out, do a little bit of planning, try and invite, try and actually pencil in some guest. Uh speaks again. So yeah, um, yeah, I'm enjoying it. So I really enjoyed doing this. I do. I enjoy sharing my thoughts with you and I hope you enjoy listening to my thoughts and I hope it's not too scary for you. Anyway, today is, as I said in the intro, um badley.

Stephen: 2:13

Um is about what would be my if I could do only one acting role. What would that be? And for me it's playing a cowboy, like a western film. If I could only do one film, if, if, if, the if I got the offer, like you want to be like the lead role or like a, I'd like to be a main character, at least, but I would vote for a cowboy film.

Stephen: 2:41

I just I don't know, I've always, since being a kid, always liked the idea of, you know, kind of roughen it in the desert, having to camp, live under the stars and be self-sufficient, but also be a bit of a rogue, you know, because I think a lot of Pocow we film, especially like the young guns like I grew up with, like films like the young guns and Tombstone and stuff like that. And young guns was very, very like fun, making light of it kind of made light but also was like quite a violent film actually. But yeah, I always like had that, like I kind of had that romanticized kind of thing where you could be kind of good but did a few things wrong, a bit like Robin Hood kind of thing, robin Hood cowboy, maybe that's it. Maybe that's a crossover, maybe I've just invented something and yeah, you know, just just, it's just the whole thing about being a cowboy. You know being skilled with a six shooter using a rifle, riding a horse, camping under the stars, you know going into the saloons and drinking whiskey straight and you know getting into bar fights. And maybe this says something about me what I actually should have turned out. But yeah, I don't, don't do any of that stuff in real life. Drink a bit of alcohol every so often, might even not much anymore.

Stephen: 3:53

If they transposed me directly, take out into a cowboy film, it would be quite a pathetic attempt. But yeah, there's an assumed role as an act tool. I think it would be. I think it'd just be like an amazing opportunity. There's something about a car we've come really like draws me in, like I don't know. I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is because it must have been shit time for everyone that lived like in that era. You know of Outlaws and you know they've got the whole. You know white man kicking out, you know the Native Americans and the straws there and obviously you know, oh yeah, it's just I'm not even gonna profess to know the history that well, but you know, I just I just think it must have been like a really, really you know a lot of these towns and stuff were brand new.

Stephen: 4:45

You know you're trying to be a prospect. You know stiffened, you know panning for gold mining, you know drilling for oil and you know and everyone's just trying to make, make some money and and out on the road and and kind of like that kind of you having nothing, but you know okay with it and and get into a ruckus at the same time I'd obviously want to be the hero, wouldn't want to die. I'd want to be like I don't want to be the person that's a name, not necessarily here up with a person that is like successful at whatever they were doing. You know, getting to a scrape began out of it being a really good you know, quick draw, like that whole thing of like you know like spinning your gun and putting the holster and like really appeals. But that for me, is like is it's something that used to practice as a kid and I don't know, I don't know if that's a thing that like love I've just changed the volume on my mic, so hope that didn't blow your ears out and yeah, I've always.

Stephen: 5:42

I've always thought that I'd be something really cool to do is to be able to like, you know, like shoot like a bullet out there, like someone draws and you can shoot that bullet out there. A bit like on Red Dwarf, the what was it called? The gunmen of the apocalypse? Was it called the episode where they all go into the AR machine and Basically cowboys to rescue Christ? And spoiler alert? I'm saying spoiler alert for that Program is like nearly 40 years old. That's depressing. Yeah, the whole cowboy thing when I was younger actually when I was really young I really liked the Lone Ranger, that kind of like cowboys, indians. Now I always had a six-shooter like a cap gun, which was amazing. I used to play cowboys and Indians all the time Mixed in with I'm not gonna lie mixed in with ninjas. I've always liked ninjas as well, so it was always like cowboys and Indians and ninjas. This is a weird mix, but it's what I used to play.

Stephen: 6:52

I was like you know, you get them sets at the toy shops where it was like you can get like a cowboy set or you can get like a ninja set. I don't know if they still do them anymore. They really do because kids are missing out. They used to be able to get like a six-shooter, maybe a belt and a holster and some fake bullets for your holster, because the gun was a cap gun normally or just a triggered gun, and sometimes they lit up inside like a spark thing. Do you remember them? People were triggering it. They'd rotate like a drum inside and it would spark.

Stephen: 7:22

I took one of them apart once and it was really dangerous. Anyway, that was what I was like as a kid. I used to fiddle and take things apart, I used to get them and I'd either go for like the Zorro Lone Ranger kind of pack where the Zorro had a sword and you also had a gun. So you'd get like a little shitty plastic sword and a holster and a gun and a little bandana, or you'd get a ninja set and that would have like obviously ninja stars and a samurai sword, or you'd get the cowboy set and normally I had towards to be fair, my mum was a bit I threw a ninja star once and my brother hit him in the eye, so that kind of put the nail in the coffin for having them sort of sets. It was always when I used to go to Wile and Normally it would just keep me occupied in the caravan Because they were really cheap and they were really cheap. So I would never normally have them for longer than like the stay in Ireland or maybe they'd last like a couple of stays but they would break pretty quickly. Really really cheap, shitty plastic. It'd like deteriorate in sunlight and stuff terrible.

Stephen: 8:24

But yeah, I was always like going for the cowboy stuff and I've always really loved cowboy films and yeah, that for me is the role I would go for and out of any role. I would just love to be dressed as a cowboy. I have a cowboy hat and I don't wear it enough and I think I might start wearing it. I might get some funny looks at work. But I might just start donning the cowboy hat Because it's practical. I used to wear it quite a lot with my trench coat, which is essentially a duster, let's face it. And when it rains like you, don't feel it Like it's ace, brilliant. I want to start wearing that more. It's actually literally behind me. It's on the head of. Is it Shakespeare or Beethoven's bust? I can't remember what's the one from Batman, the original series. I used to lift his head up and press the button to open the secret door. Is it Beethoven? It's Beethoven, isn't it? Can't see his face. He's covered in hats yeah, but my cowboy hat's on top of him. At the moment. He's literally being a hat. Stand for me, yeah, but if it wasn't cowboy, I would obviously have to be sly for me If I wasn't going to be.

Stephen: 9:35

If I was slowly thrust into the world of acting, I could do more than one film. Definitely, a sci-fi film would be the thing to do, and any sci-fi film wouldn't be good enough. It would have to be a Star Trek feature film and I think weirdly in that I wouldn't even need to be the main character. See, in the cowboy film I'd want to be like a main character, like the protagonist or something like that. But in a Star Trek film a minor role would do me.

Stephen: 10:08

Maybe one line, maybe on the bridge, where someone says I don't know what that was, that's how the captain speaks to you. You know, make the captain to go. Have you scanned the planet? I don't know what captain that's meant to be. I'm in a weird mood today and you go, sir, I don't know why I'm doing this voice. I could just do my own voice. But you know, sir, there's no life science on the planet and that would be good enough for me. I could cope with one line in Star Trek. But for a cowboy film I would want to be the star. I want to be the star. Yeah, I wonder why that is. Actually there's a weird psychology. There isn't there that maybe I hold.

Stephen: 10:53

Star Trek was such like I don't know esteem and like I feel like I wouldn't be worthy to be part of the crew, but like a minor part would be okay, like I couldn't be part of the main bridge crew, like the captain or number one or Deanna Troy, but that's not how. Dress up as Deanna Troy, like I'm just saying, like I couldn't be like the ship's counselor, like one of the main, one of the main posse, but aside character, like a sub character, maybe it could be a bartender, maybe it could be like whoopee Goldberg's character, be the be the wise barman. We just just be be a barman. I don't think, I don't know, that I could pass off wise. Um, yeah, just that's weird that I would be really settled for just a walk on part In in some more. Not that it's ever gonna happen, mind you, you know I'll discount it. You never know what the future holds, do you know? You never know what the future holds. Maybe I'll get to do a cowboy film. Maybe, maybe I'll get to. Maybe I'll get to be an extra in a Star Trek film.

Stephen: 12:02

Um, I used to have fantasies when I was a kid of being a stuntman. So like another option for me would be, you know, if I wasn't gonna be in a cargo film or a walk on pine Star Trek, I would definitely want to be like the stunt person or even the action star that does their own stunts. I think there's nothing cool than that. You know you're acting in the film, then some stunt happens and everyone's like, oh yeah, that's the stunt person and you can go. I actually jumped off that build myself. Oh, I actually rolled that road, that book, he could motorbike. Geez. No, I was trying to say bokeh, bokeh might. I don't know what that was about. Um, bokeh might, yeah, and you get to say I rode that bike through that flaming wall or whatever you know. I think it'd be so cool.

Stephen: 12:45

And then, like Tom Cruise and a few people like Jason Statham do their own stunts. How much Jason Statham does anymore Feel like? I presume he does his stunts. He probably doesn't. Um, there's quite a few Hollywood stars that do quite a few of their own stunts, but like, probably Tom Cruise is the one that really pushes the boundaries for it in the most recent years. But, yeah, I'd love to.

Stephen: 13:05

I'd love to like do me own stunts and be in an action film and be the action hero. Like growing up. Growing up is like an 80s kid, like you got all these like amazing, like 80s films with them, with action stars like Bruce Willis and die hard, die hard too. Um, you know great films like and you know what. For that I don't even care if I was doing me own stunts, because it just looks cool, just to be the action star.

Stephen: 13:30

And I've always, like, wanted to run away from an explosion, like you see in these action. You go pretty much any 80s action film, even to the early 90s and even some some modern day ones, like the expendables. Like you'll be running, running away and there'll be an explosion goes off and you, you say you're at a safe distance, but you still get hit by a shock with it. You say you're at a safe distance, but you still get hit by a shock wave and you have to take cover or you get blown up and you pushed away from the, from the, from the explosion, and that's like an iconic thing in most action films. I'd love to be able to do that.

Stephen: 14:03

And then just Just also being a gunfight in a film like, like something like this that seemed from die hard, when, when, um, they're shooting around the office, you know when they shoot the glass and he hasn't got his shoes on. Spoiler, but it's an old film, so screw you. Have you not seen it? Um, I mean that in a nice way. It's a, that's a, that's a pally, kind of screw you. But you know, when they shoot the glass out and then he's running, not all the, all the scribs are going off in all the sparks and the glass is being blown out and bruise. Well, this is running through shooting back, oh, that's ace. That's ace. I mean a balance set looks nothing like that, I bet. When you bet, when people are on set, they're like, yeah, it's really boring. And then we don't do anything like that, and part of it's not even me, and we have to do it three times from three different angles. It's really loud. Who cares? It looks freaking ace that you're doing it for the, the impression on film, aren't you? And that's what you're doing it for? Yeah, but I'll lose a race. I don't.

Stephen: 15:02

I watched carboos and aliens when they came out just to fit to another thing, and that was not a bad film, but I thought it was a weird concept, um, and it wasn't a bad film, um, but I just like the, I just like the, uh, I really just like the, the cowboy side of it for me. I don't even remember the plot of the film. Like I remember them being aliens. Were they were the real aliens. I can't even remember. Were the fake aliens, was it? Oh no, they must have been, because it was a spaceship, wasn't there? I have no clue. Was it even this planet? Was it a different planet? I don't know.

Stephen: 15:39

The thing I took away from that film is oh, I'd love to be in a cowboy film and not an alien cowboy film. So I think that's the thing I took away from that, just to let you know. Just, let me take some a slurp of Pepsi, not a sponsor. I feel like that should be a slogan of this show. Let me drink some Pepsi, not a sponsor. Maybe they would sponsor me. Then I wouldn't even be asking for much sponsorship. If they give me 100 quid, that's nothing, is it? That would pay for my show for a year? Well, nearly a year. That was a big oh sorry, I'm on the microphone, yeah, but I think.

Stephen: 16:23

Going back to the cowboy thing, I'm not sure what really draws me to be in a cowboy, like in a film way. Maybe it's just because I want to be a cowboy. Maybe I'm just like really wanting to be an actual cowboy. Maybe that's what it is. I know I can't do that because cowboys don't. Well, they kind of do exist, I suppose in some sense, but, like historic being in that time doesn't exist, because when I'm not in that time, this is hard today. But yeah, I think I would want to be a cowboy from then and not now, because that's the full experience. I think I'd get some strange looks if a water-owned crew my hometown in chaps and jeans and chaps and all the regalia.

Stephen: 17:20

I don't know how to feel about a horse, though. I've never really ridden a horse and I'm a little bit scared of horses Not scared as in. It's gonna be a stupid thing to say. I was gonna say not scared as in. They don't scare me, they do scare me, but they scare me in the fact that they're so powerful and big. And I remember watching my friend Louise do a cross-country on a horse once and I knew they were big, but they're big when you're next to them and they're super strong. When I saw her galloping like at full speed on horse, I was like holy shit, no thanks.

Stephen: 17:58

I ride a motorcycle and I've always compared being on a motorcycle to riding a horse, because you've got this machine underneath you, this powerful semi-in-control beast between your legs. When I saw her on a horse going full-pel, I was like, yeah, I think that sticks me more, like I think that's a safer bet, which is really unusual because you think a wild animal or semi-tame animal would be the thing to be the safer bet. I don't know. So maybe I'd be like a cowboy that rides a donkey which is probably more my size anyway, because I'm a short ass or I'd just walk everywhere. It would just take me ages. I'd have to pull a trolley or something with me.

Stephen: 18:45

Maybe that's where the fantasy comes from, the romanticizing, the fact that I would have wanted to be an actual cowboy back in the day Rather than actually just want to act in a film. I still want to act in a film. So if anyone out there is making a cowboy film and you need a starring role, I've acted. I've been in plays, I've done stuff. I used to convince my mum to buy me sweets when pretend, I was upset. I've got skills. So, yeah, there's a bit of a weird episode.

Stephen: 19:17

I don't really know where I was going with it, just something that popped into my brain the other day when I'd seen something cowboy-ish on TV and I was like I'd love to be in a cowboy film. So I thought I'll tell you about it. Thanks for listening. If you could be in a film, just the one one acting job, what would that be? Would it be a cowboy film? Would it be something different? Would it be like a period drama, action star? Let me know, I am interested. I want to hear what you say. I want to know what you think. Thanks for listening. Take care of yourselves. Jerry's bringing us style again. And yeah, I'll speak to you all soon, thank you.