He’s played Mussolini and Moe Howard of the Three Stooges. Paul Ben-Victor is one of those face-is-familiar actors who can embody any kind of character from a street hood to a cop. You can see him right now in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman or you may remember his recurring roles The Wire, Everybody Hates Chris, and Entourage. He’s not used to blowing his own horn, but Leonard and Jessie enjoyed coaxing anecdotes and observations from this lifelong performer who builds and rebuilds houses when he isn’t working on a film or TV show.
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote completes a quest that has consumed Terry Gilliam for thirty years, but as Leonard and Jessie learned, he bears his burdens lightly. He made his name supplying unique animated sequences for Monty Python’s Flying Circus and his films include Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Brazil, and The Fisher King. He’s a delightful man with stories to tell (about everyone from Robin Williams to Heath Ledger) and a great outlook on life.
You’ve seen her in countless TV shows like The Mindy Project and Oscar-winning movies like Little Miss Sunshine and No Country for Old Men. Beth Grant’s acting teacher once described her as “the salt of the earth” and that’s exactly what she is. Her stories are candid and often hilarious, describing how she prepared for her first-ever sex scene and learned how to act in The Artist by watching Charlie Chaplin. Jessie and Leonard have wanted her as a guest since this podcast began and she was well worth waiting for.