00:00Matthew Lillard, Aldous Hodge, welcome to Odyssey Conversation with Romeo International.
00:05I gotta jump into the most important part before we even start.
00:09You country line dance? You wanna tell us about that?
00:12I put damn sure don't country line dance, okay?
00:15I came up dancing, but that was the one I skipped.
00:18I ain't gonna lie. When I saw that in the script, I was terrified.
00:21I said, hold up now, hold up now.
00:23Because, you know, I came up on, you know, like, reggae, hip-hop, soul music.
00:27I was like, I don't know how to catch the beat on this country stuff.
00:29Our showrunner, Ben Watkins, he's awesome.
00:31But what he does is he'll find out what you scared of, and he gonna use it against you.
00:36You know what I'm saying? Don't tell the man nothing about what you scared of,
00:39because it's gonna pop up in the show.
00:40The first season, it was karaoke. Second season, it was line dancing.
00:43I don't know what third season gonna bring.
00:45That's why I'm naked the entire second season.
00:47It is.
00:48You should tune in to Cross February 11th.
00:52It was gravely uncomfortable working with you in those scenes.
00:54Matthew, your character, I don't know if it's the writing or the timing,
00:58because even when we talked about it in the first season, it just always hits.
01:02Your character, this, can we call him a delusional billionaire?
01:06No, bro. You can, don't disparage my man.
01:09He has a vision, not delusional. He has a visionary.
01:13The delusional part is, the first scene that y'all had together,
01:15you're showing Cross the speech.
01:18You're more concerned about what he thinks about the speech
01:20than what's in the box.
01:21We can't give away what's in the box.
01:23Oh, you're telling secrets out here?
01:25So, to step into this character, the delusional billionaire,
01:30and we live in 2026 with delusional billionaires,
01:33how did you create the character, or did you pull from anybody current?
01:37Yes, Matthew. Who did you pull from, Matthew?
01:39Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:40Well, I mean, we see it out there, right?
01:42We see it in the world.
01:43There's, like, what's happening right now is crazy.
01:46The great thing I think about this show is that Ben Watkins
01:49and his writing team and the executive producer, my man,
01:53they have created a world in which you can jump into,
01:58and the writing is so good that I really just depended on the words
02:03and made big choices, strong choices around that.
02:08But no, nothing specifically from the world.
02:10I mean, I think that there's all kinds of examples
02:13of the audacity of the rich, the audacity of the successful,
02:18especially now.
02:19And that's the crazy thing about the show this year
02:21is that it's as if it was written day and day.
02:25I mean, it's so, it's exactly what's happening right now in the world.
02:29Especially with the subject matter.
02:32The subject matter is now.
02:35It's very now.
02:35Yeah, so it's kind of, one, it pulls you in automatically.
02:39And then, number two, for your character this season,
02:43one thing that I loved about the first season,
02:45the villain was based upon his own personal pleasures.
02:50This one has a meaning behind it,
02:53but also there's a meaning behind each individual character
02:56because you get to follow deeper into everybody's life now.
03:01Yeah.
03:01And if you don't watch each individual's life,
03:04you miss something.
03:05Exactly, yeah.
03:06That's purpose.
03:07I think the thing that I love the most about this season's arc for,
03:12I would say villain,
03:15but I would say the theme here is vigilantism,
03:18where we present sort of a question or query, rather,
03:21to the audience of, you know,
03:23if someone does bad things for the right reason,
03:28can you understand or justify that?
03:30Vice versa, if someone does things
03:34things that may presumably be good or beneficial to many,
03:37but they do so by terrible means,
03:41is that acceptable?
03:42How do you feel about where you stand on your morals and ethics?
03:47What makes a villain and what makes a hero?
03:49Well, that's sort of the conversation we have because we have a few people doing some things this season
03:56that are questionable.
03:58Obviously, with Cross,
03:59he remains, you know,
04:01committed to his ideals of justice through and through,
04:03but his reality gets rocked,
04:05and he has to now question where he wants to stand in the world.
04:09And obviously, you know,
04:11to the point you said,
04:11we do get to explore the back stories of some of our other favorite characters,
04:15and the audience is going to have a lot of fun with that.
04:18But yeah,
04:18we get to play a little bit with values here.
04:21In that same comparison,
04:23does your character see himself as a bad guy?
04:25No!
04:26No, dude!
04:27No!
04:27Because I got up to episode five.
04:29Oh, that's good.
04:30And then I was like,
04:31I don't really think he sees himself as a problem.
04:35No, listen,
04:36I think the great thing about playing these quote-unquote bad guys
04:39is that none of them see themselves as bad guys, right?
04:42They're all,
04:43they have a reason,
04:44Darth Vader has a reason for crushing the rebellion.
04:47For baiting Darth Vader.
04:48Yes, exactly.
04:49Like, Voldemort is not that,
04:51in his world,
04:52in his family,
04:53he's a hero.
04:54Are you saying you're Voldemort?
04:55I am kind of like Voldemort.
04:58I, in fact,
04:59I play bad guys all the time.
05:01And I do think that that is the joy of playing bad guys,
05:03is that you can commit fully to their point of view.
05:06And listen,
05:07I play,
05:08my character's name's Lance Duran.
05:09He's literally trying to feed the entire world.
05:13Now,
05:14do things happen that sometimes equal collateral damage
05:18that may or may not be good?
05:20I don't know.
05:21It's yet to be determined.
05:23But the reality is that he,
05:24he believes deeply that he's on the right path.
05:27I'm excited about the new season.
05:29I've been a fan since the first one.
05:31I do love the twist and the dynamic.
05:34And I will say this,
05:35low key,
05:35I am cheering for the...
05:37Yeah,
05:38that's what I'm saying.
05:39That's what I told you.
05:40It's vigilante.
05:40I said,
05:42would you rock with that person,
05:45doing what they got to do,
05:46when you know...
05:47And that's how well the writing is.
05:49Question is,
05:50would you do the same thing
05:51if you had the capability?
05:53That's the great thing about the show.
05:55Who?
05:55Yeah,
05:56yeah.
05:56That's easy.
05:57That's going to be the conversation
05:58after people watch.
05:59It's...
05:59And then,
06:00you know,
06:00it's the quiet thing,
06:00there's oh,
06:02there's a question,
06:03you know,
06:03there's something that happens there,
06:04and you listen to me and to me.
06:04Yeah,
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