One on One: Rob Estes

Published Sep 19, 2022, 4:07 AM

It's Jimmy vs Luke...and it's happening right now!
 
Father Knows Best... well....we'll just see about that.
 
Jimmy Mariano is here...love him or hate him...
But, what's NOT to love about the fantastic wonderful Rob Estes!
 
Rob is letting us in on all the secrets about the spinoff that never was.

I am all in all that's kiss you. I am all in with Scott Pattison and I Heart Radio Podcast. Hello, Hello, rob Estus, Hello, Hello, and thanks for joining us. Uh and uh, it's really great to see again. I remember we did some really great scenes together and it's it's it's it's been a while. So your first appearance okay, so you portray Jimmy Mariano, who's Just's dad in two episode one is season two episode twenties Saga Night Gracie in the last most season three episode twenty one, Here Comes the Sun. That's it. This is some total and it seems like so much more so. Um. You're known for your roles as Harry Wilson Team Team Drama nine O two one oh and Sergeant Chris Lorenzo and the crime dramas series Silk Stockings, Col McBride, primetime soap opera Melrose Place. Those are some very fancy credits, my friend, very very very fancy show. And you currently start in the Netflix after franchise playing Ken Scott. Let me start off here by welcome you, welcoming you to the show, and thanks for coming on. But we recently recapture comes of Suns and we want some clarification on something. Did this episode served as the pilot for Jess Jimmie spinoff wind Boots Circle or did you guys shoot another pilot episode? No, we shot a pilot. It's funny because I see I knew you did. I knew that you did. Yes, it was a very interesting time at WB because we shot a spinoff and then I think some of the scenes filtered into um actual Gilmore Girls, not not the spinoff obviously, um, but it actually got picked up. It got picked up. UM. I think they wanted to pick it up for nine and if I would call, Amy wanted more episodes. She didn't wanna do it for whatever. Um whatever they had, okayed um, and so she kind of like, will then we're not gonna do it. So it's very interesting. Yeah, so they so, so the network gave you a nine episode order and Amy wanted a full twenty two or something like that. Yeah. I don't know what the numbers were. It could have been six and she they wanted six and she said thirteen. I don't I don't recall the numbers. I just remember it was. It was a pretty big issue. There were some phone calls that went back and forth, um, and in the in the in the midnight hour, she went, Okay, well then I'm not gonna do it. I'm good. Interesting. Well, you know, because we were going back and forth on the show, I distinctly remembered that you did shoot a separate pilot, but the girls in the research was telling them that no, that served as the pilot those two scenes in the show, and the fans didn't react, so they didn't know. We absolutely did. I remember you shooting the pilot. I think I even went down and visited Milo while he was shooting the pilot. I remember I came down, we boardwalk, we shot it, shot it, um right off Abbotckinney at that house with Sheylyn and um. Yeah. And Milo was awesome. I mean we had such a good time. He's such a good kid. Oh yeah, well, so, well tell me what it was like working with him. I mean it was funny because he was just he's kind of you know, my my interpretation is with my loove. Uh, he wears his heart. He's just very available. Um, and he's real and whatever he does. You know, I watched him on some of his stuff now and I knew back down I was like, once this is done, he's going to become huge, um, because he just you know, he had a little place in Venice that he just got. He was redoing the hardwood floors and his dad were doing, you know, work on it, and I don't know, man, he just he's a really good soul. So I'm so glad to see how well he's done, because he deserved. He's a hard worker. You know, you know him better than I, but that's my remembrance. And it was fun working on scenes that, you know, one in the morning on the boardwalk in Venice, crazy people hanging out of him. It's quite a It's a unique place in the world. There's only there's only one Venice, California, and that's it. Um. When you got the role of Jimmy Mariana, did you know that this was the plan to have a spin off? Is that how they booked you? Like, hey, you're gonna be on the show? We read We went further the network four times with different guys, um hours and hours. So yeah, it was a set up pilot, um. And you know Amy's Amy's dialogue is very specific, you know, I mean she wants people to just roll and run things off. You know, it's like, guess why Laurens so great at it? It just falls out of her mouth beautifully. Um And in the reading um in the tests and I think we did three tests. It was just pages of UM and I ended up getting cast in it. But I don't know that her dialogue fits in my mouth the way it needed to for it to be really successful, you know. And not that I was the death now, but it's pretty specific, you know, And for me, I'm a little more if there's an ant or a butt or a paraphrase, you know that works for me, um uh and that you know, she was much more specific than that. Interesting, how many other do so? It was you and Milo? Were you testing Milo uh three times? Or were you testing with other actors? You know what, I don't think Milo was. Milo was never in the room. It might have been me and Cherylyn. I don't recall me so long ago that was in the thick of you know, there was so many in person tests and auditions. It was just a different thing back then. Um And and w B. For me with um Peter at the helm Um creatively, there was just so much stuff going on there that my brain is a little foggy on it. But I know, I never read with Milo until we I think a table read and it was like, you know, it was really cool. I know it wasn't it wasn't at a table read. I didn't work with Milo until I did some scenes in those, uh the two episodes that I was in. That was the first time I met Milo and that this fotty was awesome. So okay, So, so you guys fit perfectly together as father and son, Um, and I just wanted to tell you that, uh, it really really really really worked. Um. The character however, you know, I you know, you you say some interesting things like her dial I didn't fit in your mouth. I don't know that the character was so well conceived, thought out. Yeah, I mean, I I don't know, so address this because it confused me when I was watching those scenes, because I know you're such a strong actor and you really know your stuff, but I was just kind of wondering how they thought somebody and you're so likable, How somebody so likable could play a character that was so unlikable and think that that was going to be successful. I guess I don't remember all the facts of you know what the backstory was. But you know, I remember there being a part of Jimmy that was like, okay, you know, on some level it's you know, maybe this is a way to make amends atonement, even though I don't know that I'm capable of it, because he says to him, you know, and he I, you know, I don't want you at my house. I you know, and in the midnight hour I let him sleep on my couch. It's like, you know, what kind of person does that? But I think that's you know, part of an arc is you want to get in there and cheer for the person. You're like, oh, what a you know, this guy's got a lot of you know, growing up in maturing to do. Is he capable of it? So I don't know if that was going to be part of the art. Um maybe you know that was that was part of hoping supposed to happen. I don't know, right right, Yeah, anyway, tell us about Sherylyn Fenn. What was it like working on She was great, man, she was just in it and it was so funny. I was like, you know, I grew up in Santa Monica and Venice and she, you know, so many um of my the high school, high school females that I went to school with, you could say that back in the day. Um, you know, they ended up living around there and they were so much like her, just kind of like real chill and you know, earthy um. And back then Venice wasn't or Abbot Kennyet wasn't. You weren't paying three million for hous. It was like the starter place, you know what I mean, the canals and everything. My sister lived there for a while and it had some grit to it. Um. But she was great, um, very into working on scenes. If I recall making adjustments, being able to make adjustments, Um, did you did you read with her? In the addition? You know what I may have I don't recall. I think we did. I think she and I read um and I, oh you know what, I think I gotten cast and then we were finding uh, the other role and I think she and I read them for her test um or I read. I don't know, but that you know, yeah, that kind of rings about. Yeah, alright, So the scene in front of the bookstore with Milo, How did you memorize so much dialogue? What's your process like? Um? How do I rememberize so much dialogue. It's so funny. I watched it, um, like what a couple of days ago, just custing. It's like, oh God, look at yourself and the old days, just like, oh that's horrible. Um. With Milo, we ran it a ton. We ran that scene so many times, and we ran it different ways. Um. And he was just completely of available and willing to do whatever. I think at that time, I was working with Larry Moss in his class and we did all kinds of like you know, fun exercises, and mine was like I'm in man, I'm game. You want to paraphrase the whole scene. Let's paraphrase the whole scene, you know, if you're gonna do it with a Texas accent and okay, whatever whatever works for you. Um. So we have fun. We just throw it around. And I think the process for me was trying to get underneath what why I was there? You know why? Um all suddenly you know there's a there was a connection there again with the two of us as characters. And what does that mean if you think you're a really shitty dad? Um, what do you do even when you think you you still I don't know what to do, But do you have kids. Yeah. Yeah, Oh how old he's a he's a yeah, thanks, he's It's wonderful. Yeah. How about you? I got I have three? Yeah, I got twenty three year old, which I was thinking about because you know, as kids get older, things flip um and you look at the mistakes that you've made and you're like, ah, for the lack of your own maturity, you know what I mean, every parent's gonna make mistakes. But sure, sure anyway, I don't know with my logist, that scene made me rethink of like, Okay, yeah, dad, I wish I had known that back then. Um, but do you do you do you remember that? You know? I mean you know every parent, every parent makes mistakes. It's it's inevitable. You know, there are no perfect parents. Hey man, I just you know, as long as you show up and you're there, I think that's that's that's half the battle. So like that, Um, do you remember the day because I remember very distinctly. Do you're not about a spinoff but about getting gilmarp and becoming Seriously, do you remember the day you were told about the spinoff going forward and that you were involved in it? I don't. I don't remember No, it was kind of it was for me, it was a really crazy time because I had a holding deal with Warner Brothers, um, and just like so much stuff came at me really fast, and I could never quite catch up with some of the things that were happening. So tell us about that. So, so for the fans listening, in a holding deal is when they pay an actor not to take job. Right, So you're just they pay you a pretty nice chunk of money to steal your heels for a year, right until they can find something to put you in and you don't have to take it. They can suggest it. They send you the script. What do you think about this? Would you would you like to do that? We see you. It's a nice position because you can actually, you know, look at um uh what you might want to do, and then you know, you go and you meet with showrunners and you you see if there's there are avenues that are interesting to you that way. Um. Sometimes wish I would I wish I would have been a little more business savty back then. Tell us about some of the projects you met on and were there any projects that you met on that went on and did big things? Uh, it's funny because I always wanted to do a sitcom. That was one of my things. So so you know, this is literally what ye are we talking about? What? What? What year are we talking about? Here? We're talking about I'm gonna guess two thousand, No earlier than that, I would say probably two thousand one and a half. And you had and you had a holding deal at Warner Brothers. And well how it happened was I was doing melrose Place and um and and it's funny because I think I think gil mgirls, you guys did twenty two a year, right, yes, okay, so we did thirty six a year. So on Marrows, you would do thirty six a year. You'd have two teams, have a red team and a blue team, and the and the characters would be heavy and one enlighten another. So you get two paychecks a week. You do thirty six a year, you know, two for a total of I think two hundred and something. Long story short, uh spelling that you know was done with the show. Fox was kind of done with the show. And I get a I'm on set in the middle of a scene and the A D condomnent goes, hey, there's a phone call for you. And I was like, okay, they can wait. No, no, no, no, there's a phone call for you. You You need to take it right now. And I'm like, we'll dude, we're all about to shoot. He said, I don't care, go pick up the phone. And I was like that never. When does that happen the United States? So what's going on? People going you know? Um? So I go and it's Peter Roth, who was the head of TV development for Order Brothers. He was the president, the big guy. Yeah yeah, Peter. Oh heay, Peter, what's going on? And I knew him from working with cattle. He ran Cattle's company from a while. He goes, you gotta do me a favor and I said what. He goes, you still, you gotta stay and work for me, And I was like, what do you mean. I said, if there's a couple of other things that are happening, and he goes, listen to me, I will make this worth your while. You're gonna stay with us, and we're gonna get a holding deal. We'll get it done by tomorrow. Okay. So just just down of the blue like that. Your agent hadn't approached them. It was just Peter picking up the phone. He went around, he went around the back door, because we knew each other and I knew that, you know, I mean I actually rather had the conversation then agents at that point. Um. So anyway, you know, I said, you know, I'm down for this, but I don't want to sit and wait a year. I said, if you can get me, so I'm working. I really wanted to a sitcom. So I ended up doing Suddenly Susan for a season, and then I did a John Burrows pilot called Tikiville, so I got to do some things I really wanted to do. Um and it just kind of built from there. We did two pilots and then I can't remember what ultimately ended up getting. Oh, I ended up getting it getting the evidence for John Wells, the John Wells project, um that we shot in Vancouver. So you know, it was it was really fun. It was fun to you know, to get to jump to front of lines just because Peter Roth went, no, it's it's it's his right, right right right right? Yeah, you know, fantastic. Um. Um, So what was the reaction like getting back to this pilot? Right? And it was the pilot ever aired? No, not to see some of the scene was sprinkled in. I was like, wait, I think that that was from the pilot. No, it never aired. The pilot never aired, right, right, Okay, so so did you do you recall any reaction from Gilmore fans at the time about those scenes and about the pilot. Never remember, Um, the loyalty to Gooldboy Girls was unbelievable, so I'd be in the market whatever in The reaction was, Oh my god, hey, lovel of Love. I'm like, yeah, I think it's gonna be on the show and it was great. Um. And I remember distinctly at Gelson's um, somebody kind of saying to me, you better be a good dad to him. I was like, like, you know, and there was no preamble, there was no no either for him. And I was like, yeah, I don't know you what no, no, no, but you they know you. The gil were fans of the real deal manc Yeah. Uh so, what are your favorite memories from being on that set? You know, God, it's gonna be it's it's gonna sound weird, but for me, um, like, um in the lemonade stands. My little sister worked in that lemonade stand growing up and I'm in there, like you know, mixing it up and running the place. I mean, I can remember, um being on that boarder walk, you know, summertime when it was ninety degrees and I've been at the beach all day. I remember like this little gang of us that would would go and be on that boarder walk and go and you know being a lot of the places that we filmed out from the bookstore. Um, so that was cool. And then Milo man Milo, and I was winner when we shot it. And I showed up with an old vintage World War two jacket. And Milo has really good style, like Milo is just he's tight and he doesn't throw it in your face. It's not about money. He just has good taste. And I said to him, I said, dude, I said, you dressed so like, you know, humble but sharp. And he goes, I was just thinking the same about you, like your your boots and the jacket. And I was like, well, I was thinking the same about you. When he goes, well, we should go shot Melrose. So like we we took a day and just the two of us wasn't got food shop non Rose cruised around. He got a World War two jacket, exactly like I had. It was really cool. Um, So I wish it would have. UM. I think my takeaway from that whole environment is that I wish I would have had more time with that character and with Milo everything, because she's so talented, just to see what could have blossomed, because I don't think it was quite there. You know, but as you know, how many shows have you done, and Gilmore Girls might have been one of them that you know, the first four or five episodes, they're okay, and then the writer starts to write for you a little bit more, you know what I mean, and you know, the show really starts to take its form and it gets great exponentially sometimes. Um, And I wish I would have had the shot at seeing if if that was the trajectory of the spinoff didn't happen. Yeah, So after Gilmore you went on to other TV shows and films obviously, and U currently you are in after uh, the after franchise on Netflix. What else do you have coming up? If anything? It's funny because After After Ever Happy, which is the fourth and Sam it came out in theaters today, so that's kind of cool. So it's in local theaters now for anybody wants to jump on and see it. UM tell us a little bit about it. Great Uh. Ana Todd is the writer. She wrote a series of five UM kind of young, not young, I would say twenty something romantic novels UM. And the two leads Um Hero Fines and Josephine Um have become huge stars. I mean and again it's the fans are almost as rapid as the old Gilmar girls. I mean, they have a loyalty. They post things and it's like, you know, a million hits, two million hits, um. And and it was built from the ground up. Ana Todd wrote it as a in E series. She got a billion hits, then she sold the books UM and now Voltage Um is making the films and UM, this one's really good. It's awesome. I played the lead's dad. I'm the dad. I like just a great guy. Actually reminds me of Milow. Just really solid human being. So it's been a blast to do them. UM. And then they got a movie, Beautiful Disaster. It will come out a couple of months. So just you know, doing it and trying to keep it keep it moving right right right, Um, all right, so you can get after on Netflix right now they dropped. You can you can get the old ones. There's four of them. You can get those on Netflix. And the one after Ever Happy literally hit theaters today, so it's in. It's got a big national release today, right right right? Um? Uh, let me see what else? What else? Anything else you want to talk about? Yeah, I want to discuss the fact that of the best looking guys on Gilmore Girls, you're number five, And I'm yeah, yeah, what are you talking about? Who? Who raided? Who? Who rated this? I think it's what I was looking at IMDb like I was die And then I'm like fIF five, coming in at number five? Number five? Did I just never do with the hat backwards? You were so comfortable? But who? But who are the top four? But Milo? Matt, No, you beat Milo? I beat Milo? Yeah? You killed him? Man trusted Dan Wells? Who's Dan Wells? There you go? He was number one? Yanni Yanni? Leave Matt? Wait minute, wait a minute, you say Yanni Truesdale was number two? Uh? Dan Wells number one? Dan number number one was Dan Yanni Truesdale. Number two, rareman, I don't know who that is, Matt Zerki Zukri. And then you an accomplished actor in film, television and theater. Scott Persons well noticed. Awesome, Uh Jackson Douglas number coming at number seven, my little Bitamlia and the way down. Oh my god, Oh my god. Man, it's hey. We made the let at least we made the list, right exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't even do facials, man, so it's like, you know, I don't belong to ever. He Uh, you gotta represent the regular guys, right. Well, listen, it's been uh, it's been a pleasure catching up and uh, thank you for your time. Rob estis one of the one of the most well known and best actors working, uh in the time. Why did you start out? I mean you must, I mean, would you start out in the like the mid nineties or acting started? Yeah, well, I mean we started. I was a stuntman. I was a stuntman for a while. Um, I hated that, and then I started doing theater. Actually ended up working with Michael remember Michael Winners. Yeah, so he and I did a play in Seattle. We did um Taylor Taylor Josie. You're talking about Taylor Josie. Yeah, I did a play with him. Chuck Off three sisters. Oh he was so good. Yeah he's great. Yeah he's great. But so yeah, I just went into theater like I don't know, I just kind of fell into it. I was a dancer. I was. I did a break I was breakdancing in Venice again for Michael Jackson commercial on Fire. Tell us about that. Come on, I've always I was a break dancer forever. I don't know how or why. I guess because I was invented so much on our football team and everybody. We just did that. And I was at a club one night and think this lady came and said, hey, I got a commercial and you'd be great for it. And I had long blonde hair and like, you know, funky clothes. And I said, okay, because we'll show up to this thing and I want to addition to you. And I said, okay. So I show up and there's like this kid pupping taco iced tea like all these real dancers and rappers before wrap was wrapped. And she said, okay, cool, you're you're hired, Will, And I'm like, I said, I don't have a ssadcratch. She goes, well, you know, we have to pay the penalty of because you can do something whatever. So I got my sad heart that way. So we're I'm on Venice Beach and I didn't even know the Michael Jackson connection, but I'm on I'm on Venice Beach and like a tank top and these funky clothes, just you know, hitting all this stuff on the boardwalk and we're doing it for four or five hours when d and all of a sudden, there's all these walkie talkie clicks going off and people freaking out. I'm like, what happened? We're closing up shots? Why are we closing up shot? So there's been a there's been an accident at Shrine Ontorium, and um it was when Michael Jackson's Jackson's hair caught on fire. And I was like, okay, So I wasn't at the shrine. I wasn't there, but we were. We were. We were shooting an accompanying piece and uh they shut everything down and it never aired. There was never from there on it. But you put that. But that was your first gig. That was my that was my sag. That was it. That was it, And you got it right. You're still in high school. I was out of high school. You're out of high school school. I was at USC program. Huh, you were on the football Wow, you're on the football team at USC. No b f A all arts. So No, I was an act not a football player. Because she said the guys in the football team did a lot of breakdancing. So I that was high school football guys on our football team when I was in high school. So I learned when I was, you know, in middle school, in high school, and then when I went away to college, I would put out of a big piece of cardboard and to make money on the side. Hilarious. Yeah wow, but boy, the injuries, man, that is nuts. And I should have been on a football team. Beat you up. But fun God, I wish we could see some footage. If we could see I wish I had some. Now you don't have any footage of your breakdancing. Come on, but you don't. You don't have any footage of you break dancing? No real, did I did? Of May? I did a May company? Well, think about it. Back then, there were no cell phones, there were no like nobody. I remember going and watching flash Flash dancing in the movie theater like thirty times. Try to get those day us is down. But there was no you know, you couldn't stream, you couldn't just take out your phone and go being so unbelievable. Well, another side, another surprising side of rob Estes. That's very very interesting. Um, alright, buddy, I'm not gonna take up any more of your time. I know you're busy. Thank you good. Yeah right, And I really love that you know that one scene we did where I come in and tell you to get the hell out of town and to leave Jessela. I just I love that scenes so much. It's one of my favorite Luke scenes because it really was him protecting you know, his his family. So it's it's those kinds of scenes really resonate with me. Um, and you were great. What a great scene that was. I think I think I put it on my real I think that's yeah. Um anyway, really special catching up. Thank you for the time, Keep on keeping on man, You're you're you're as good as it gets. Uh and a good guy and uh I really appreciate you coming on. Well bro all right, buddy, Scott, take care, bye, hey everybody, and don't forget Follow us on Instagram at I Am all In Podcast and email us at Gilmore at I Heart Radio dot com. Oh you gil More fans. If you're looking for the best cup of coffee in the world, go to my website for my company scott ep dot com, s c O T t y P dot com, scotty p dot com, Grade, and specially coffeeh