Am I Too Old to Start Acting? Bob Started at 80, Kyler Is 23, and Ageism Runs Both Ways

Should I just like… Welcome to the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast and Mornings with Matt, where we discuss the connection between life and acting. So I've been with Joey all morning, and he just needs a song to get started, because all of a sudden it was like, bam! What a voice. Listen, if you know Drake, I'm kind of like Drake. I just flipped the switch, you know? Which is why I don't know why it is that you're single.

It's crazy. So wild. This is the second day in a row where you just… Really, what's happening is, Matt and I… How's that possible? We're going for record. How quick can we get it in there? Is that what we're doing? I think so. I think that's… We're going for record? Yeah, maybe we can get it up before even it goes live somehow. Maybe through the text. Like, Joey doesn't know, but the title is actually that.

I mean, here's the thing. I have a feeling that a lot of girls want to date you, Joey. But the problem is they don't believe in themselves. But, but I, but I want to start and go back to this idea of, like, uh, just, just ageism in general. Um, cause I think, I think that you can go to both ends of the spectrum and you can say, sometimes kids don't get a fair shot.

Sometimes young adults don't get a fair shot. Sometimes, uh, adults don't get a fair shot. Sometimes older adults don't get a fair shot. And a lot of that time, it's, it's us or our parents putting these ideas in our own heads. You know, like, um, I am the one holding me back. But, but it feels real. You know what I'm talking about? I do, yeah. Uh, I know that when, when we were starting out, I felt this as we started to even just do some teaching.

We talked about it in the other episode. Um, but I think like we hold back a lot of times because we put ourselves in these boxes, right? So with the teenagers, we run into this a lot where a lot of their friends are doing nothing except for their schooling and just hanging out. So school and hang out. And that is very standard for teenagers. Like, it's like, get your schoolwork done.

Maybe you have an extracurricular activity or something like that. And you hang with your friends. That's what high school is. But there are plenty of people who have decided not to put themselves in that box and have, for instance, ended up in our adult program at as young as 15. Um, because they just act differently. They have a different mindset. Uh, the way that they walk in and the energy that they have presents them differently to the point where my first interpretation, by looking at them would be like, Hey, they look young.

And then they walk into the, uh, the classroom and the way that they sit, the way that they listen and the way that they get up and perform makes everyone go, Oh dang. And you almost feel bad for judging for that second. Like if they've done their job right by presenting themselves the correct way. And we've probably all been in the situation too, on the reverse end of things where you gave somebody too much credit where they, they looked a certain way, they had a certain age, they, they dressed a certain way.

So they were giving, they were giving you all the signs that they were put together. And then all of a sudden you, you spend a day with them or you, you have a session with somebody and you're like, Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. You're, you're still kind of a kid in there a little bit. Um, so it goes both ways as I, as all I'm, as all I'm trying to say.

No, absolutely. I mean, think about this, right? So you're young, like, like Joey, what are you looking at your thumb? No, I'm just kidding. I'm just playing. So, so you're what? You're 20? Uh, yeah. So you're 20, 20 years old. Okay. Not for long. When you were, when you, when you're like 1920 in this age, you thinking about teaching at first probably was like crazy. Yeah. Teaching adults even would be like, huh?

Like that seems, seems out of my league. Like you're almost 40, Matt. How, how could I possibly teach? I'm 20 years younger than you. Right. But what does age have to do with it? Now, I believe in age when it comes to experience. That's different, you know, but if you earn experience and you gain experience, then you can share the experience. Right. So think about this. Let's take, uh, you want to learn something about coding.

Or automation. You think it might be a good idea if you're 40 or 50 and you have, and, and you're wise, but you don't know a lot about it to go and learn from 19 year old Zuckerberg. Uh, a hundred percent. Of course. Probably. Had nothing, had nothing to do with his age. It probably, it probably benefit you to learn from 10 year old Zuckerberg. Right. Sure.

You know, so, so that's like, that's a clear example right there of, you know, obviously. The age in that, in that category doesn't matter. So if that's true, what else is true? Probably age in almost any category doesn't matter when it comes to knowledge and sharing knowledge. It's just a matter of, are you humble enough as the person who's older to receive the information from a younger person?

Mm-hmm. And as a younger person, can you gain the confidence? Can you breathe into the confidence to be willing to share what you have with somebody else? And if you can get to that place, then you can really be, you can really do a lot at a young age. Yeah. Absolutely. And I get all the way around the board. I think that's where now we can really start learning from each other.

And I think that would create a type, because we're kind of going through this in our, in our church right now, which is like intergenerational and sort of connecting different generations. I think, I didn't even think about this idea until you just brought that up, but I think sometimes there's that gap because here's where I am, here's where you are, and we're not willing to learn each other's stuff.

So you're talking about, let's say, a teenager, somebody's talking about like coding, social media, or something, and an older person's automatic thing is to judge it. Or there's like a new kinds of music or something. Yeah, TikTok, right? I mean, there's, it's like somebody could totally judge someone for some, doing it for a while, and then totally turn around and start doing it themselves. And all of a sudden, like, I'm just kidding.

Brian's just salty because I started to make TikToks and I pull better than him. He pulls great. You pull well, he really does. You make good TikToks. The one thing that I pride myself on that I showed you, Matt, last night, but this is crazy to me. I own the hashtag AZCards. Yeah, well, you own it. That's because it's yours. That's nuts. But I got to tell you, the one last night, I had that great idea.

The Bosa idea. I don't know this idea. Well, it's already out, so it doesn't matter. But Bosa says, Joey had this really hilarious TikTok where Nick Bosa, who's from the 49ers, he says something like, well, yeah, now we know kind of where he goes and where he's planning on going. He's talking about Kyler Murray and how to stop him. And then Joey did some kind of celebration thing.

And I wanted the response to be, well, yeah, now you know where he's going. The end zone. Oh. Because Kyler ran all over those guys. It was awesome. 97 yards. Such an incredible game. Well, okay. Let's go ageism right there. I was about to say that. Were you? Go. Hit it. It was. Just the fact that he, like, it's interesting, but you look around the league, all the different starting quarterbacks, there are no two that are the same age for the most part.

Like, there's Aaron Rodgers, who's one of the oldest in the league, who threw four touchdown passes last week. And then there's Kyler Murray, who's one of the youngest in the league, and he brought his team to a victory and was, like, number two in fantasy points last week. And it's like that anywhere. It's based on talent, what you're willing to grow, what your journey has been, who you talk to, who your mentor is, who you're mentoring.

Like, all of that plays a factor. And it's interesting, because I brought up Aaron Rodgers, but I think one of the best things for him, because he had an amazing game on Sunday, I think one of the best things for him was them bringing in that rookie quarterback, drafting him. And I was skeptical about it, but clearly he's become a mentor, and clearly that made him up his game because of the job security thing.

Like, it's not that he's totally rude about it. He probably does help him out, but also he has to sharpen his skills because there's a guy behind you now that's, like, worth starting at some point. Well, and, you know, to coach someone, when you are forced to give away information at a high level, it makes you better automatically, you know? So, yeah, I was thinking about with sports, what's interesting is when you, it was always interesting for me when I finally got to the age where the new sports stars were younger than me.

Oh, yeah. And it's super weird, you know? Like, think about this, Joey, for you. And it makes you stop for a second and go, eh, about your own life, like, you have to. But, like, Dort from ASU, I'll mispronounce his first name. It's Luguentz. Lu Dort from Canada. He's a baller. He's on what team? OKC. He's on OKC. And he gives, like, the best performance in the playoffs thus far this year when he did play in Game 7.

They still lost, but he was, like, he crushed. Yeah, like, 30 points. And as a matter of fact, he was, like, the most of any rookie in the playoffs in history or something crazy. So, he did this thing, right? And then I'm like, you're 20. He's, like, 18. Yeah. What? Like, two years younger than you. And this is what he's doing. And think about this. He's three years away from being legally allowed to drink alcohol.

I'm, like, a month away from that. And he's dominating the playoffs. You know what I mean? And, like, adults are watching him and tuning in and cheering and all this stuff. And you have to, like, stop for a second and go, oh, OK. Like, crazy. You can do a lot. You can accomplish a lot at any age. It's just a matter of what time have you put in.

Yes. So, we take him and, like, he's got his 10,000 hours. For sure. In physicality and in sports and in different things. And so are so many of these other athletes. And so, when it comes to acting, like, I see the kids. I notice the ones who are putting in the time consistently. And you watch them work and you're, like, OK, they're putting in their time. Yeah.

Look at little – I'm sorry. I have one more thing. No, you're good. Look at little Finney, my son, my one-and-a-half-year-old son. Browser. He's obsessed with physicality and sports. Like, all day, every day, he's grabbing a ball. Ball? My daughter, all day, every day, is grabbing a pen and a paper and she's drawing. Such an incredible artist. So, now, what will happen is by the time they're each 10 or 15 or something, everyone's going to be, like, wow, they're a savant.

Like, they were just naturally good at this thing. And it's, like, eh. They were naturally good at wanting to do it every day for hours and hours and hours and hours. You know, my one-and-a-half-year-old, truthfully, is not that great at sports. I still have to lift him up to the basketball hoop or he can't shoot it, you know? Yeah. But he's already working on his form. He doesn't know it yet.

He just loves doing it and does it over and over and over and over again. Eventually, that will pay off in a huge, huge way. 100%. Yeah, and I think at some point, you have to make, going back into, I guess, the teenager and anybody, you have to just make that decision that you're not going to let those things phase you and you're just going to make it happen, like you said.

You're going to get down, you're going to put your head down, and you're going to get to work. Totally. Because you're going to catch crap for that. I mean, until you get to that status, there's going to be people who are like, hey, come do this, come do that. And it's like, no, I'm working. Yeah. You know? And because I want to. So what's the reverse end of this?

Ah. Go ahead. No, you go. You got a what? No, I was just going to say I have a cool story about that kind of stuff, like with kids and whatnot. Like, I remember when I was growing up, I was 4'5 to 4'7 all the way until literally like my junior year. I was so small. I have a picture of myself going into freshman year. And I'm a midget.

But I really wanted to play basketball when I was younger. Like, really, really bad. So I was at the house doing at-home work. I would have teachers come home to give me my homework, right? And all I wanted to do is play basketball. Like, I just wanted to be on the team. I really liked the coach. And I was like, I'm going to do it. And so then I was practicing every day in my backyard.

And I remember, like, it was like five hours a night. And I was still terrible. But I did it every night, just like playing, playing, playing. And then tryouts come. And I beat a guy out. And I made the team. But I beat a guy out to make the team. And I was terrible. I played, like, two minutes the whole season. The ball got stripped from me on those only two minutes.

But it was a really cool experience about work ethic and wanting to do something and doing it. And I wouldn't change it for anything. It wasn't by any means a waste of time. It was a ton of fun. I got to experience being on a team, which I loved. I got to be coached by an amazing coach who had a huge heart, just wanted to make me better, even though everybody else said I was too short to shoot a basketball.

And what age or what grade were you? I was eighth grade. So that was your last chance at that school? Yeah. To do that thing. Yeah. So that's actually a great story, then, to lead into what I was about to say, which is let's look at the reverse side of this, the idea of being too old. And I think what happens is a lot of times we don't try something because of our own pride.

And we look at it, and it's like, you know what? Maybe I'm too old to go take that dance class. Or I'm too old to start acting. Or I'm too old to whatever the thing is for you. So here you are in eighth grade. I know that sounds young, but it's actually you're the oldest you can possibly be at a school. There's already a team established. There's already kids established that play.

You don't. And you decide, I'm going to do this thing. And it turned into a memory for you. And I know you play ball now regularly. And honestly, you're still just okay. Oh, no. I'm not great. Yeah. And so, but you could get better. You're at an age where you could continually grow and get better if you want to, and you wanted to do that thing. And think about this.

Like, how old were you in eighth grade? I'm not even, I don't know, math there very good. Eighth grade? 12 or something? 13, 14. 13, 14. Okay. So let's say, for whatever reason, you were just obsessed with it. If you were working on it for five hours a day, from then till now, and you never stopped, you still might not have made the high school basketball team.

Yeah. You probably wouldn't have played in college because it's so hard to play in college. But you'd be a baller. Oh, yeah. Like, you'd be a competitor that would be really, really tough to play against in any, like, recreational league. You would be one of the best players if you put that time in. Yeah. Absolutely. You know, and there, so there is a, there is a thing, you know, in certain aspects, in certain, you know, avenues where, yes, there are going to be some elite human beings that will be able to pull off certain things based on whatever.

Like, let's look at Joey for a second. Joey is very symmetrical. You look at his face. He's got, he's got a future in acting. I mean, he's very handsome. You know, once his braces come off, I mean, it's just like, I personally can't even believe he's single. Can't believe it at all. Twice. Twice in one day. To me, I don't, it's like, it blows my mind, boggles my mind.

Wow. But no, but for real, he's got the dimples. He's got the whole thing. Like, I'm telling you, if you look at a picture of Joey Young and George Clooney Young. Oh, yeah. The young George Clooney. George Clooney was just as awk-y as Joey, but they have the same base features. Yep. So, having said that, Joey has the capability, and I believe he will be, actually. And so, this is my belief system, my real belief system I'm putting into Joey's mind.

I'm investing early in this kid, by the way. You should, too. He has the capability to be an A-list actor. Mm-hmm. A-list. And I mean, that's like a big deal, to be an A-list actor. And I believe Joey's got that in him. Now, he would have to have the skill set, though, to back it up. And, no offense, you're nowhere near it. You're nowhere close. You know, you're still very much amateur level.

But, as you grow and develop and progress, and you've got the years to do it, which, you know, plenty. Let's say it takes you two decades. Who cares? It takes you two decades to become an A-list actor. I mean, bro, that's huge. Well, there's a reason a lot of the A-list actors are in their 30s or 40s or whatever, and that's because it takes that time to get there.

Right. You know, you look at them, and they are older, and I would say that's probably the reason. Yeah, well, because they… Because they can't get there without the experience, the knowledge. And they didn't start when they were three for whatever reason. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, 100%, dude. So, anyway, like, taking that idea and going, all right, so what if I'm 60, though, Matt? Mm-hmm. What if I'm 70?

Well, yeah. Do it. Just do it. Just do it. Do the thing that scares you. Do the thing that will humble you. And go take the class. And what's the worst thing that's going to happen? Absolutely. You're going to get two minutes of playing time. You get the ball stripped. And it's going to be this experience that you grew and developed yourself and that you can look back on and go, that was awesome.

I don't regret it. I loved every minute of it. Mm-hmm. And I just got to be a part of a team or I just got to be in a movie or I just got to be in a commercial. I just got to be in this acting class and feel totally free. And now, all of a sudden, my mind is focused on, like, rather than me being too old to do this, my mind's going, huh, I wonder what I could accomplish in the next five years.

Absolutely. In the next 10 years. And if you take that idea and you release the pride, which is, I think, what it really comes down to, is, like, pride and fear. You know, fear of being looked at a certain way or honestly fear that you're not going to achieve what you want to achieve or whatever. So, the cool thing about this is if it becomes less, and this is its own episode, really, less about the shiny thing, less about, like, getting there or whatever and, like, you guys said, experiencing it.

That's where something really powerful can happen. And so, if I'm throwing you on the spot, just let me know. But there's that story I really like that you told about that guy who was much older and he was in the play with you. And it changed his entire life, right? Yeah, I don't know if it, if it, if it changes life, it was one of the most memorable times of his life is what he said.

Yeah. Yeah. His name was Bob Nimlow, and he came to, into acting, he started in his 80s. This was a Golden Glove boxer from New York. This was a tough dude, very funny. Like, I loved being around him. He would always talk about the ladies in the retirement home and how he was, like, you know, dating all the time. And it was just, like, he was super fun and funny to be around, but he didn't know anything about acting.

But the dude, in his 80s, worked circles around the kids in their 20s that were in the same class. And we did the Lonesome West play, and he auditioned. It called for a young priest. That's what the description is. He was by far the best actor that showed up to audition. I cast the 80-year-old. I mean, I cast him. I'm like, you're, you're, I know you're gonna do the work.

You showed up. He was the best. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna discriminate. And we put on a play, and it was awesome. Like, it was so cool. And, and his daughter reached out after he passed away, and just, she just said, Hey, thank you. I want you to know that, that literally, when he was on his deathbed in the last few weeks, he just said, I'm so glad I started acting.

It was one of the best things I ever did. What? Right? I mean, crazy. And so, so at the end, at the end of your life, you get to this place, and if we can all just kind of fast forward and get there, mentally, and, and it's like, don't give up on your dreams. Don't try to, don't stop trying to achieve stuff. Of course, push yourself. But also, you can release all that, too.

Because at the end of your life, you're not gonna care about the stuff. You're not gonna care about the money. You can't take it with you. You're just gonna care about, how much love can I give in the last few moments I have to breathe? Absolutely. You know? Yeah. And so, so, so that's, that, that's my Bob Nimlow story. Yeah. You know, speaking of powerful stories and just powerful companies in general, it's time now All right, ladies and gentlemen, that is our show for today.

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