Justin Cornwell on Improvising with Dave Chappelle & Starring in Training Day

Today’s guest is our good friend, the incredibly talented actor, singer, and artist, Justin Cornwell!  If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to hit that SUBSCRIBE button and leave a comment below! Justin sits down to share wild stories from his decade-long run working consecutively in network and studio television. He talks about his nerve-wracking audition process for Spike Lee's Chi-Raq, improvising a scene with Dave Chappelle and Wesley Snipes, and acting alongside Tom Hardy in the upcoming Netflix film Havoc. He also reflects on starring in Training Day with the late Bill Paxton and surviving intense 16-hour days on set.  Plus, we dive into Justin's hidden talents—from his killer karaoke skills and spot-on impressions to his jaw-dropping portrait art. We also discuss his new indie film Million Dollar Bet (releasing on April 30th), the crazy world of prediction gambling apps like Polymarket and Kalshi, and his dream of starring in a triumphant biopic. 

Creators and Guests

Host

BJ Hendricks

Actor and producer with deep roots in the business. BJ brings an authentic, no-holds-barred perspective on the realities of making it and staying in Hollywood.

Host

James Cullen Bressack

Award-winning filmmaker with over 25 directing credits, and over 150+ producing credits. Known for his work across horror, action, and thriller genres, James brings decades of behind-the-camera experience and raw industry insight to every conversation.

Producer

James Rundquist

What is The Tracksuit Podcast?

The Tracksuit Podcast is media industry professionals sit down with fellow creatives, filmmakers, and experts for wide-ranging authentic, unfiltered conversations about the entertainment industry - covering everything from the business of entertainment to the unexplained. Hosted by BJ Hendricks and James Cullen Bressack.

Justin: 00:00

Welcome to the Tracksuit Podcast. Welcome to the Tracksuit Podcast

BJ: 00:08

where we are gonna be in tracksuits and talk to awesome entertainment people and entertainment biz. Today's guest is our good friend Justin Cornwell, not Cronwell as I've been trying to call him for the last couple of weeks, but, Justin Cornwell who is in so many amazing things and we are so excited to have him here. Thank you.

Justin: 00:25

Yeah. What's up, yeah?

James: 00:26

What's up? What's up, Justin?

Justin: 00:27

What's up, man? I'm doing great. I'm using my, sexy podcast voice for you.

James: 00:31

Oh, oh, yeah. I I could I could tell it switched. You know, one thing that's really interesting about you, I I wanna kind of just dive in on before we even get deep into the podcast. You you mentioned your sexy podcast voice. You do really great impressions.

Justin: 00:46

Oh, no. Well Yeah. I mean, I I think I do pretty good impressions.

James: 00:49

He does fantastic impressions.

Justin: 00:51

Do you do you

James: 00:52

you care if I kinda mention a couple that you're pretty good Okay. I mean, you do he does an amazing Dave Chappelle. What? Like like

Justin: 00:59

What are talking about? I don't do Dave Chappelle. I I don't.

BJ: 01:04

I have a stand in right there. That's amazing.

Justin: 01:08

I'm way too tall to be Dave Chappelle. Dave Chappelle's short. He has no talent. He's talentless.

James: 01:17

No. But he could do a great Dave Chappelle. I mean, I think so tell me, does that come from the acting side or you're also an incredible singer? Does come from the control of your voice from singing?

Justin: 01:26

You wanna know in in a lot of acting practices, I try to tell people that I think that a lot of things that actors neglect is voice training. And when you get your voice body, connected to the ground, that mind body spirit thing is easier to kinda access and then I think that's why the impressions can come in, that's why people can transform into characters and stuff like that. And I and like I just wish like and I think that comes from the singing, right? Because then I've studied voice for so long and then I'm acting but then it's like, this is really one thing working together. And I think a lot of people neglect their voice and I think that makes a lot of performances suffer.

James: 02:03

Yeah. Because you have incredible control over your voice being able to do impressions, such a fantastic singer. I mean for people listening who who who don't know this, Justin can really sing. Anytime we go to karaoke, he brings down the house and everybody just like freezes and goes like, is is this a professional singer

Justin: 02:21

doing that? Yeah. No. He's it is it is it have is is

BJ: 02:25

karaoke together.

James: 02:26

I definitely if I ever wanna get a song in, I make sure I go before him.

Justin: 02:30

Oh, yeah. I just bring a bunch of other professional singers that to pad me up, you know what I'm saying? So I don't feel like an a hole and be like, oh, gosh, we don't can't do karaoke now, just just sing Whitney Houston. I'm like, uh-huh.

BJ: 02:41

How old are you, Justin?

Justin: 02:43

I'm 37.

BJ: 02:44

37. Oh, was black don't crack.

Justin: 02:47

That's for You

BJ: 02:50

look you look phenomenal. I was like, I wasn't for sure. Did you start singing or acting first?

Justin: 02:54

Wow. That's actually a good question.

BJ: 02:57

I mean just whenever I don't I don't know exactly when you started in Well you know

Justin: 03:00

I grew up in a video store my grandmother owned back in Ohio. Like a rental video? Yeah like a rental video. Oh, that's

James: 03:07

awesome. She

Justin: 03:07

was booing all the movies. But sold But she had

James: 03:12

a legal storefront but And

BJ: 03:13

we had legal storefront,

Justin: 03:15

copies of the tape, sorry Hollywood. I'm paying my dues now. But I've watched everything before Netflix and all that kind of stuff, man. You just had access and you could rewind and watch it a 100 times. Yeah.

Justin: 03:28

And I fell in love with storytelling and and just all of that stuff first. And then I think I just really liked you know, singers and I could tell how moved my mother was by like R and B music and stuff. And I want and then when I sang it made her happy, so I always kept singing. So I think they kinda developed at the same time. I think being in movies and stuff is something I wanted to do for myself, but I realized singing makes people happy so I developed that as well.

BJ: 03:56

That's amazing. My ex girlfriend from years and years ago, we used to hang out. She used to work at a video rental store like a kind of a knock off like not blockbuster type And I'll bring this I'll bring this back up later because you went to the Faces of Death premiere here recently and that was something where I would see that Faces of Death old movies sitting in there, you know, on the seeing people die

Justin: 04:19

on the internet when we were kids.

James: 04:20

Yeah. Yeah.

BJ: 04:21

That was way three like social media stuff. It just kinda like be off topic on that

James: 04:26

viral video essentially.

BJ: 04:27

And it was so crazy. Like an actual video. And nobody would ever rent them. You know what saying? They would just sit there, you know, and nobody really ever wanted I mean,

James: 04:33

what do

Justin: 04:33

you mean nobody? I definitely rent them.

BJ: 04:34

Well, you rented them.

Justin: 04:36

You recorded that. I'm gonna see that line while that guy a 100 times.

James: 04:39

I would go to I would go to the video store when I was a kid and the the clerk would just be like, yeah. We got some fucked up shit. And he'd just like name all the like, Ichi the killer, all these crazy things, like, you know.

Justin: 04:50

Because that was like Yeah.

James: 04:51

That was like your your, like, your Sherpa of film. Like, you know, you had, like, this this, you know, like, burnout video store clerk that just knew, like, really crazy movies and would just recommend them to you. And I was, you know, 12 years old watching, like, old boy and Ichi the killer and faces of death being like, this is awesome. I can see all these crazy movies.

BJ: 05:12

Ichi the killer got brought up so much back when we when I first met you.

Justin: 05:16

Oh, yeah.

BJ: 05:16

Yeah. That was that was such a big movie that people were pushing on to say, hey. Like, we're trying to make some things that are like this because that was overseas. Right?

James: 05:23

Yeah. Well, it was a it was a Japanese movie, but it's also the only movie I remember that somebody gets kicked so hard across the face with, a a shoe that has, a knife in it that their face gets cut off and hits the wall. And I was like, that's pretty cool.

Justin: 05:37

Then you must have loved that freaking Corey John I did with Gareth Evans.

James: 05:41

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No.

James: 05:43

Exactly. You that was that was awesome. And and, actually, speaking of that, what was it like working with him as well as Tom Hardy? Because I'm a huge fan of of all of his movies, both of them were

Justin: 05:56

in this

BJ: 05:56

Yeah. What did you work

Justin: 05:57

with Tom Hardy

James: 05:57

on? Havoc. Oh. Yeah. Netflix.

James: 06:00

Havoc.

Justin: 06:00

Last year, we shot it in 2022 in Wales for about five months. And I got to hang out with him and it was my second film with Forrest Whitaker because we did a musical just literally the year before that.

James: 06:12

Chi Rac?

Justin: 06:13

No. No. The musical Jingle Jingle.

James: 06:14

Jingle Jingle. Right. Right. Right. Yeah.

Justin: 06:17

So that was literally like we did that.

James: 06:19

But Shyrack was also a musical. Right?

Justin: 06:21

Well, yeah. But Shyrack was shot in Chicago Yeah. In like 2014.

BJ: 06:27

Mhmm.

James: 06:28

So That's where you worked with Dave Chappelle. Yeah.

Justin: 06:30

Did. If you watched the scene in the strip club. And it's Dave Chappelle like, you know, Spike would just put the camera on Dave and he would just do this long push in and just let Dave riff for like twenty minutes. And then he would reset the camera. He wouldn't even cut.

Justin: 06:46

He was just heads up. It must have been horrible in the edit, he didn't even cut. He just reset. And it just reset and did these long push ins and Dave just just I'm doing my thing. You know what I'm like?

Justin: 06:55

And it's this long reset, these long push ins and then he's throwing a joke at me and then I'm I think I'm standing behind Wesley Snipes, we're all standing in a row. And when you see in the frame, it's like I'm like in the frame, it's the three of it's like the four of us standing in a row while while he's like, where's all the strippers at? I need my strippers.

BJ: 07:13

That is wild.

Justin: 07:14

And if you watch the movie, is a funny scene because then Wesley Snipes looks back at me and another guy. Well, first he looks back at the first main guy and he goes, he's like, all the girls quit sleeping with dudes and like just quit being like, you know, sexually available for men until they stop fighting in the streets. And that's kind of the premise of Chi Ride. And we go there, Dave Chappelle, the strip club owner is like, there's no more strippers on the pole, we gotta get something. And Wesley Snipes does this voice and goes, baby, go ahead and get on that pole.

Justin: 07:43

And he looks back at us, I'm like, holy shit. This is all in front. And I'm looking at Spike and I'm like, I'm not gonna get on a pole in my first movie. This is crazy. The first movie.

BJ: 07:57

That was your give

Justin: 07:59

me some time, you know. Yeah.

BJ: 08:00

That was your first movie?

Justin: 08:01

That was the first time I was on a

BJ: 08:02

movie set. How did you get that role?

Justin: 08:05

Auditioned for Spike at at this little theater around the corner called the Black Ensemble Theatre in Chicago. It just came through my agent. I had already done Empire at that time and I also done like cast stars on like Chicago PD or something like that. So I was already a union actor by that time. And I get this audition, don't even tell me Spike's gonna be in the room.

Justin: 08:28

You know, usually they'll tell you who's gonna be there. They're there's an untitled Spike Lee project and they're just doing some rounds of auditions and stuff. And then I showed up over there and it's like tons of people. I was like, what is this? They're just like, Spike's here.

Justin: 08:40

I'm just like, are you kidding me? I was not even I only had one line of dialogue for the audition, now I'm freaking out. This is my best audition story too because I walk in the room and Spike it's Spike and casting director Kim Cullen, who's since casted me on Umbrella Academy and she also cast me on that. She's great. But it's Spike and Kim Cullen.

Justin: 09:01

And I walk in and I'm nervous as heck, actually. I've never actually really meet people like Spike Lee in my life at this point. I mean, I've done a couple of little Empire Meturagi and that kind of stuff, know, but I'm in Chicago, know, and I'm just kinda getting started as an actor like my first couple years or whatever. And I just wanted to impress them. So I came in with it was one line of dialogue.

Justin: 09:23

I was like, I don't need my size. I just left the sides outside. And as I'm walking there memorized, I'm a Shakespeare actor. I walk in there and I look at Spike and I look at Kim and he goes, you ready? He's like, I'm ready.

Justin: 09:35

And Spike looks at me and he go, where's your sides? I'm like, there's only one line side. You he come to an audition without your sides in your head? What's wrong with you? I'm like, no, Spike.

Justin: 09:46

I I know the line. This is one I'm hiding and do it. And I'm like, oh, no. Oh, he threw you for a loop? Fucked up the line.

Justin: 09:55

He fucked up

James: 09:56

the line?

Justin: 09:57

I fucked up

BJ: 09:57

the line.

Justin: 09:57

Yeah. I totally started freaking out. It's flop sweating instantly. I'm like, I just brought my size up.

James: 10:02

But you

Justin: 10:02

still booked it. Well, see that's the thing. I was like, man, I I fucked that up really bad. Can I guess on here?

BJ: 10:09

Yeah. Of course. You walk out of that thing in that? Like walk out of the audition thinking that you

Justin: 10:13

the line. Kim was like, just calm down.

BJ: 10:16

We'll do it again. I was like, alright.

Justin: 10:18

Yeah, where you going that thing, man, when you doing that? You know, like whatever. Yeah. And then I was just like, and he was like, hi, get out of here. I'm like, thanks, Spike.

Justin: 10:27

And I left. And then I was like, I didn't hear nothing for like a week or something, like a phone call. Like, hey, Spike wants you to meet him at the W Hotel downtown. And I'm like, oh man, I got the part, man. I'm gonna meet Spike Lee movie.

Justin: 10:41

Yeah. And I went over there down to the W and it's like And he's

James: 10:45

like, where are your sides? I

Justin: 10:49

thought that I was like, oh, I'm gonna be Spike in the hotel room blah blah blah. It's 300 people there. At the w. Oh, yeah. At the w.

James: 10:58

Oh, it's a callback at the w.

Justin: 11:00

And I was like, why are you cata calling us back like Yeah. And and then when I got in and then with them and they was like, we all waited there for hours and then one at a time we would go into a hotel room with Spike and if all 300 people one at a time one at a time coming out. And I've seen they holding stuff in their hand, they got hats or something like that. And it was my turn to walk in after like hour and a half I walk in there and it's just Spike in this hotel room by himself. And I sit down and he goes, I want you to be in Iraq.

Justin: 11:30

I want you to be in the movie. And I'm like, oh shit, this is so cool. I'm gonna be in Spike Lee movie. And and he goes, I don't have any lines for you though.

BJ: 11:41

You said cool, don't have my time. Yeah.

Justin: 11:46

And and it was really funny, he goes, and he explains the whole thing, he was like, you got the Trojans and the and the Spartans and the blah blah blah, and then he's like, you're gonna be on the Trojans, then you gotta do this and then blah blah blah, you're gonna be one of Wesley's, you know, captives, blah blah, you're gonna be in a couple scenes, blah blah blah. And so, he he explained this, he talks really fast and he goes, so so what team are you on? I was like, oh shit, the Sharks? And he goes, no. That's West Side Story.

Justin: 12:10

The Sharks

James: 12:13

are the Jets.

Justin: 12:13

Yeah. And I think that he I think that he laughed. He laughed at the end of laugh at that. He was like, I'm like, what's that story? That's fucking awesome.

Justin: 12:22

So And so, yeah, I'm in the movie.

James: 12:24

Yeah. So so you have, you know, a a unique situation because I think I saw you post about this on your Instagram, but you have now like was it five or six years in a row had a network show?

Justin: 12:39

Ten years.

James: 12:39

Ten years in a row. Network a network

Justin: 12:41

A studio. No. A studio. I've I've worked for the studios consecutively for ten years in this town. That is incredible.

James: 12:49

That is I mean, that's something that most I don't think many people can say.

Justin: 12:53

I I have to kind of attribute it to a great team of people around me who believe in me and getting some incredible advice at the beginning of my time here in Hollywood when I got moved out here from my Warner Brothers to do a training day.

James: 13:09

Right. Yeah. Let's talk about that too because yeah. You you were the lead opposite Bill Paxton. Yeah.

James: 13:14

You know, what was that like?

Justin: 13:15

That was incredible, man. You have to understand I was at that time I had done, you know, those couple guest star spots I talked about, Chirac. Yeah. And and it had gotten to the point where I was like

James: 13:26

That was like a watershed moment though.

Justin: 13:28

When I was getting more auditions from Hollywood than I was getting theater auditions in Chicago. Yeah. And I just thought, well let me just concentrate on these Hollywood auditions. It seems like somebody in Hollywood wants to see me some more because they keep sending stuff with my name on it. Then I'm like, they know my somebody's typing my name when assist I didn't even if it's an assistant, somebody's typing my name on the watermark.

Justin: 13:47

Yeah. They're they're saying that means they're saying it or it's written down on a list somewhere in Hollywood.

BJ: 13:52

I mean, even even to throw it off a little bit like your even like Matlock the other day when you was doing a new episode like they had your name kind of like watermarked across the whole script which is the first time I've seen that just

Justin: 14:02

But that's how I was getting sides. That's awesome. And the sides would be watermarked just like that with my name on it. And I was just like, I've never even seen that in Chicago. But in Hollywood, it's like somebody's watermarking these sides just for me.

Justin: 14:14

And I was like, somebody's saying my name somewhere in the Hollywood casting office. And I was just like I should concentrate on this.

BJ: 14:19

Did you attribute that to the cast and director from that first project that you were able to kind of Well you

Justin: 14:24

know funny enough I did get more after that and Kim Cullen has been one of my biggest supporters and just just a great just a great woman and hired me for several things now including Umbrella Academy and

James: 14:38

And Matlock came from you working with that same team on Bel Air, right?

Justin: 14:46

Well, one of the producers on Matlock, her name is Gina. She was also a producer on Bel Air.

James: 14:50

Oh. But I mean it's it's great because it just goes to say how important relationships are in this business and

Justin: 14:57

But also the and second

James: 14:58

gotten to know. Was a

Justin: 14:59

friend had been a friend of mine for almost ten years. I met her when I was doing training there. Yeah. And she she would tell me that Matlock was a very similar dynamic like, you know, the the young black upstart and the and the older, you know, north seasoned person then they're but they kinda have interpersonal conflict but they also have to, you know, find a find find a way to get to get along so they could fight a bigger evil kind of thing, you know what I mean? Like that was the same dynamic that Training Day had.

Justin: 15:24

But you know, because I was the young kinda upstart and Bill Paxton with you know but that bled out into real life you guys. Me and Bill end up becoming just great friends. Hanging out every single day, carried tons of dialogue. He would tell me it's the most dialogue he'd ever done in his whole career. And we would go back to his place every day and we'd have a little whiskey, little Woodford Reserve as it was his favorite double barrel and we'd have a little bit of that and we'd go go through the scripts for the next day.

Justin: 15:51

And we were doing sixteen hour shoot days back then, they don't really do that anymore.

BJ: 15:54

How many days? How long were you on

Justin: 15:56

on the Well, sometimes we'd push into weekends too, but this is but there was eight day episodes, so so I would ended up having to cross shoot two episodes on a single day. So I would I would end up in every almost every scene. And so like, you know, it's it's Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and

James: 16:12

then 12 episode season, right?

Justin: 16:13

It was 13.

James: 16:14

13 episodes.

Justin: 16:15

And so then when you but then what happens is by the time you get to episode nine, ten, eleven, twelve, 13, you're backed up. You didn't shoot that one thing right, you gotta do a reshoot here, you gotta do a reshoot there. So now we're doing Saturdays. We're doing and we're breaking turnaround. Which I was just like, a new pair of shoes, new pair of shoes, new pair of shoes, new pair of shoes.

BJ: 16:33

How many days or how long did that take to shoot?

Justin: 16:36

That whole thing was six months. It was a blitz to the end. It was a mid season replacement type show. Was a summer show, 13 episodes.

James: 16:43

Here though, right?

Justin: 16:45

LA was a big character of the show and that was such a cool kind of thing. I've never been really been to LA except for one time I was being testing for something for shots fired literally the week before I got training day and it happened like that. It was just like I'm testing for something, one show on Fox and then the next week I had my own show. I was just like, this had moved fast as hell. Like, I literally went from zero to a 100.

BJ: 17:07

Did you audition for Training Day?

Justin: 17:10

I I did one audition on tape in Chicago and they gave me 14 pages. They said, can you get this in by tomorrow? I said, yeah. And and I and I did it off book and it's a it's a bunch of exposition too. And they were just like, how did you memorize it that fast?

Justin: 17:26

Was like, I've been doing Shakespeare for the last six years, you know what I mean? This television dialogue is actually not that dense. When you've been when you're like reading, reciting like monologues of like bible verses dang there, you know what I mean? So my mind was already kinda ready for that. And then I ended up just They they called me the next day, it was a Wednesday.

Justin: 17:45

I turned it in It was a Wednesday, got the audition. I turned it in on Thursday. On Thursday night, they said, we need you in Hollywood tomorrow.

James: 17:55

That's crazy. I

Justin: 17:56

was in Hollywood I was in Hollywood Friday afternoon.

James: 18:00

And you were in Chicago

Justin: 18:01

Yeah. At that time. Literally, I was an extra on a tobacco commercial print shoot. When I got this size, they didn't wanna let me go to they didn't wanna let me go to the shoot because I look like the main guy. And there's just like, don't use him.

Justin: 18:14

So I said extras holding and just read these sides. And then and that I had times. Didn't literally didn't have to do anything but sit in holding for six hours and I memorized the thing on things. And then after that, I shot it. Thursday Thursday, they wanted me in LA, they got me plane tickets instantly like as soon as they saw it.

Justin: 18:32

Friday afternoon, I'm at Warner Brothers doing the screen test with in front of Jerry Bruckheimer and Danny Cannon who did the first Judge Dredd movie with Stallone. Yeah. Ended up being the executive like creative producer and the director the first episode of that. And I'm in front of these guys now and the entire team at Warner Brothers literally and I'm shaking. I'm a flop sweating guy.

Justin: 18:53

Why I do most of my stuff on tape. I'm a flop sweating. I'm I'm flop sweating. They literally they literally

James: 18:58

I've spent a lot of time with you

Justin: 19:00

and I've never seen you like get nervous like that. So I think

James: 19:03

it's funny that I I I I almost wonder like is that actually how you are? Is that mentally what you think you're like when you're nervous?

Justin: 19:11

They took me out of the room and they said, hey, you're shaking on camera.

James: 19:15

Well, guess that answered that.

Justin: 19:19

It was just like, go ahead and take a walk around the campus and come back and we're gonna shoot it again.

James: 19:24

I mean, but that shows that also shows how much they must have actually wanted you because They had all They were like, yo, he's nervous, he's shaking. Like, we're we're taking him anyway.

Justin: 19:33

What I what I learned is that you have to allow people to be a part of you have to be a part of people's dream and allow them to be a part of your dream. I walked into Warner Brothers and they brought me in a little bit earlier than the other guys and when they got there, I got there on time, like four or five of the producers ran out and they go, oh my god, Justin Cornwell. And I'm like, alright. And they're just like, you're Kiki's client. I'm like, who's that?

Justin: 20:00

She used to be our intern way back in the day and she was the best intern and now she's an agent and you're here and you're here with us and there's an opportunity like they were already writing the and we found this great girl who's an agent in her climb up, like they're writing the anecdote that they're gonna say at the Yeah. Dinner and it's me in their story. They're already writing it.

James: 20:21

That makes sense.

Justin: 20:21

I mean, it's not about the casting process at this point now. It's they're creating stories. And she was

James: 20:26

an intern there for them and then became an That makes sense. Yeah. No. They had already wrote the fairy tale.

Justin: 20:31

They wrote the fairy tale. Not only for me but for her and for it so they could say that they did it and I was and I was just like, oh, they're this is happening to me now.

BJ: 20:38

So so I got

Justin: 20:39

to feel back though like

James: 20:40

how Yeah. Enjoy the ride at

Justin: 20:41

that point.

BJ: 20:41

Exactly. How was your mama feeling on that situation?

Justin: 20:44

She was proud. Yeah. I bet.

James: 20:46

How old were you at that time?

Justin: 20:47

26.

James: 20:48

I mean that's kind of an incredible moment.

Justin: 20:51

For 26 dude. I was like, oh my God. And it's funny because I didn't have any student loans and like I had no debt like I had just got out of debt and suddenly, you know, I got some money in my pocket. And I'm on the billboards and I'm on every bus in town and almost me and Bill Baxter doing our know, our me mug like really cool jawline guy thing.

BJ: 21:10

That's a jawline, that jawline. Do you still get scared now when you go to auditions or even to like you know just to to have that first scene or the first few

Justin: 21:19

scenes I way less nervous though. That's awesome. How do you

BJ: 21:22

do how do you deal with that?

Justin: 21:23

Well, I don't go to auditions.

James: 21:26

Well, yeah. They don't even do mostly in person ones anymore. It's usually tape at

BJ: 21:30

this point. Right? There's so much tape.

Justin: 21:31

Everything they did on Wonder Man was the hardest thing. We used to be having to drive from North Hollywood to Santa Monica to go to like Betty May's or something like that. Our hardest thing now is to find someone who won't f up the read basically.

James: 21:44

Yeah. So I'm I'm gonna pivot real quick because I told you to bring your iPad because one of your amazing talents that I don't think anybody who follows you really knows or many people know is you are an incredible artist.

Justin: 22:01

Yeah. I've been I'm I'm in love with art.

James: 22:04

Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, anytime I hit you up, you know, most people will be like, oh, gotta I study these lines or I'm doing this or that. You're like, yeah. I got I gotta finish drawing this thing. I'm I'm working on it.

James: 22:14

Like, you will literally sit at your house drawing for hours and hours and hours, very frequently. So I I kinda wanted to have you show just something so people could see, just how incredible of an artist you actually are. I mean, it's it's it's it's honestly shocking. It's it's kinda mind blowing.

Justin: 22:33

And if you're cool with

BJ: 22:34

sharing some things, we'll throw it on the screen on the side so you guys can all see what we're seeing. So what was your question? Well, did you did Were you more as a kid growing up in the rental house for the movies? Were you still like doing artwork back then? Like was that something you started That was

Justin: 22:49

the first time I was identified. Anything artistic, I would draw the faces of the kids around me in kindergarten. Oh, wow. And then the and the and the art teacher said, he's really that's what my mom's like, your son's really good at this. He can make the kids look like them.

James: 23:03

You must have been a very interesting kid. You're over there singing songs, reciting Shakespeare, drawing pictures of everyone.

Justin: 23:10

I didn't start reciting Shakespeare at college. Okay? Yeah. Shakespeare came later. I was singing songs, I was acting ADHD ed out, which is basically the beginning stages of every actor.

Justin: 23:22

And I was drawing pictures and and yeah, I was that's what I was doing. But then by the sixth grade, was programming computers.

James: 23:33

Well, let's let's let's check out this let's check out something of

Justin: 23:37

your You wanna know this is a cool thing. I wanna show this piece because it's I worked really hard on it. I think I wanna make some posters probably selling this stuff. It's it's my cast of Havoc.

James: 23:47

Oh, amazing.

Justin: 23:47

If you guys seen the movie, for the rap gift, when we the when we wrapped the movie, I drew everybody's face and it took me the whole like time, did like eight hours for each person. I drew everybody's face and a portrait, like a black and white portrait and I gave it to them with a handwritten card and and then I gave it to everybody for the rap gift. And then as a opening gift, I thought we'd open sooner than three three and a half four years later but as an opening gift, I ended up sending everyone canvases of the collage of everyone's faces together. Oh, wow. And the can printed on canvas and I sent to the director one printed on metal with scratches and stuff and it looks like gun metal and stuff like that.

James: 24:28

That's epic.

Justin: 24:28

And this is this piece right here. You see below right here. Right.

BJ: 24:35

That's wild.

James: 24:36

You wanna move it a little closer for BJ to see real quick?

Justin: 24:39

Yeah. Go ahead and you can like zoom in on the the faces there. Oh my see the detail because because each of those faces are actually

BJ: 24:47

Like wait, are you are you drawing us like just with like

James: 24:50

pencil unmistakably Tom Hardy and Louise Guzman right there.

Justin: 24:53

Unmistakably. That's that's extraordinary. This is what I used to do traditionally Yeah. When I'm in my traditional practice, I did mostly realistic faces in charcoal and graphite. And so what I wanted to do is kinda recreate what I did realistically with digital tools but only using the tools like I would use the tools on paper.

Justin: 25:12

You know what I mean? So that's why it has a look of it looks like I you can see every line. I actually have it so you can see as I Can

James: 25:19

you zoom in and show that to camera? Yeah.

Justin: 25:21

Yeah. No. So you can see Louis Guzman here, me right here. Drawing myself is kind of funny. And it you know, and it's

James: 25:29

He made sure he had a strong jawline and jawline. Does studying faces like this and and and expressions help with your acting?

Justin: 25:38

It's not working. There we go. This is extraordinary.

James: 25:42

And so does studying faces like this and understanding facial expressions so much when you're drawing help with your performances as an actor?

Justin: 25:50

You know, it's funny because I I wanna do like If I ever become a teacher of this, I wanna do a class. There's a book that I read that instantly transformed my acting. And then when I mentioned the book, no one actually ever has ever heard of

James: 26:06

it. Shout it out on the podcast.

Justin: 26:07

I'm about to shout Oh, it

James: 26:10

he was just building anticipation. My bad.

Justin: 26:14

And I hope I don't mess up this guy's last name. But the book But there's two volumes of this book and I actually haven't even really read the second volume because it's like It's called Acting Face to Face by John Saddell, I think his name is. And and when I mentioned this, like people like I've never heard of this book. It's like acting face to face. And and and you can see on I got my director calling me from Million Dollar Bet right now because we're

James: 26:37

I was just gonna bring that up next actually. Million Dollar Bet.

Justin: 26:40

You wanna talk to him on the podcast?

James: 26:41

That's up You to

BJ: 26:43

go with it, we do it.

Justin: 26:44

Hey. What's going down, Thomas, from Million Dollar Bet? I'm on a podcast right now, and you are too. Well,

James: 26:52

actually, yes. So we'll we'll we'll jump right into the to that. So you have which I've already seen the movie. It's awesome. It's a great performance by you.

James: 27:00

You have million dollar bet coming out very soon. You wanna give just like a a a brief synopsis of what that movie is, and you you shot it during COVID, if I'm not mistaken, right, in Las Vegas.

Justin: 27:11

I mean, shooting it during COVID an intense situation, but we all banded together and got the movie done. But I think it's a brilliant little movie. I think it has a lot of heart. It also shows the power of friendship. It also shows the power of learning from your mistakes and stuff like that.

Justin: 27:26

How would you give a synopsis of the movie, Thomas?

BJ: 27:32

Hello? Do you hear me?

Justin: 27:35

Yeah. Can hear you. Can hear you. What how would you describe the million dollar bet, Thomas?

BJ: 27:43

For for me, it's a it's a it's a it's a very simple but strong film about friendship and money that in the special situation of Las Vegas. And yeah. Touching touching very well briefly, but intense this aspect. Yeah.

James: 28:06

Yeah. And it it's a, it's a story basically for for people listening. Justin's character is a gambler, and he makes a bet against one of his friends that his friend cannot run a certain amount of

Justin: 28:19

72 miles. 72

James: 28:20

miles in twenty four hours. And and it's some some hijinks ensue.

Justin: 28:27

Yeah. And it actually releases on on Prime, Apple TV as well, April 30. Yeah. So it's is coming up very soon. This is my plug for the movie.

Justin: 28:38

Yeah. Yeah.

BJ: 28:39

With like Las Vegas as the backdrop

Justin: 28:40

of And it's I think it's brilliant. You use and it's shot shot in Vegas and I think that it's it's shot in parts of Vegas that don't feel like the Strip. It feels like it feels like outside and more lived in.

James: 28:50

Yeah. The the the seedier, like, parts of it where people have moved there as gambler as professional gamblers.

Justin: 28:58

Oh, okay.

James: 28:59

And I think that's kind of very interesting, to to explore. And I also think, you know, this is one of the more indie projects you have done. I think it's I mean The most indie.

Justin: 29:10

Well, I mean yeah. I guess you would be call it the most indie at $300,000 with the budget. And I've done another indie, but We Are Boats, it had it was like me and Liam Hensworth and Uzo Dua like like it was indie, but we had a bunch of stars in it and stuff like that. You know what I mean? So this is probably the most indie thing that I've done.

Justin: 29:27

But I think the scrappiness of it, I think is it's endearing.

James: 29:31

And but it lives on your shoulders a lot of the movie.

Justin: 29:34

Yeah. Yeah. Me and Douglas and Sean, but I think that we I think we balance it pretty well. Okay. Thank you.

Justin: 29:39

See you guys.

BJ: 29:39

That's real life. That's real life LA. Right?

James: 29:44

We're we're gonna keep that mister busy Justin Cornwell. We're gonna keep that on the podcast. So

Justin: 29:50

That was my whole conversation.

James: 29:52

So I've I've been meaning to ask you about that because I know I know you do like to play cards, which the character does in the in the movie. Did that come from doing the film or was that before?

Justin: 30:02

I've been playing poker for a long time. Yeah. I think the issue that I have was that I hadn't I hadn't done it for any kind of big money, but then I lived out in Vegas for that time and just started spending money at the Nepal.

James: 30:14

You started becoming the character of Gold Method? Yeah. Mean

Justin: 30:16

I am.

BJ: 30:16

Well, Bruno Mars. I was nervous

Justin: 30:20

that this movie was kind of riding on these performances and I was just like, well, if this is the only time I get to be number one on the call sheet on an indie film, let me go method.

BJ: 30:34

Yeah. We'll play a little bit on that deal.

Justin: 30:36

And then I'll definitely go method for this.

BJ: 30:38

You late night in the casino.

Justin: 30:40

It's just hanging out. Totally messed up my marriage. Better age. You know? But but I but I will say I

James: 30:46

do think it's interesting too because, you know, I I don't think a lot of actors realize this, but I actually think your big swings as performers are the indie projects you choose, not the not the studio or or TV shows. I mean, those will definitely advance your career and and and are awesome. Don't get me wrong. But but taking a stab at an indie project, you're obviously doing it for the love of the character and not the money. So, you know, so so choosing that, I think that is the swing.

James: 31:17

You know? And I so, you know, was was it the was it the gambling or just the fact that this is a broken guy trying to put himself back together and and and really at the end of his rope?

Justin: 31:28

I I I love I love people in desperation. Yeah. I think desperation makes for good drama. I think it makes for good suspense.

James: 31:37

It hides that you're shaking when you're on camera too.

Justin: 31:39

And I can use that nervousness that I didn't see what we have

BJ: 31:41

to do.

Justin: 31:42

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

James: 31:46

No. But I mean, he gives a very very great performance that is super, I think, unique because you you do show that desperation, but at the same time, we can't decide if we wanna root for you or not because of the circumstances of the of the film. You're very likable, but so is the person you're betting against.

Justin: 32:06

I think I'm the I'm the villain of the story, but I'm also the only person who has an arc in like his his whole redemption thing, you know. Yeah. So I think that, you know, at the end of the story, one person doesn't change, they're doing the exact same thing and the other person completely changes. You know what I mean? So you can you can see that his heart grew three sizes that day or something like that.

James: 32:29

Was the Grinch. The Grinch of of Vegas.

Justin: 32:33

Yeah. But I think that he well, you know, this is based on a true story. That guy goes off to make tons more money in the crypto space. Oh. So gambling.

Justin: 32:42

A different kind of gambling.

BJ: 32:44

Oh, so wait wait. Maybe I missed it. Sorry if I did. That's based on a true story? Yeah.

BJ: 32:48

Yeah. Oh, that's awesome.

Justin: 32:50

I actually was doing it in Vienna. Was supposed to do a video call with this guy for an audience but I couldn't make it. Was in the middle of some production. But but yeah, yeah, it's true story. This guy and his friend made us silly prop bet and at the end of it he decided to do something else with his line.

James: 33:08

Pre poly market. This was before that, the Cal Shi where you

Justin: 33:12

could just bet on anything. Oh my gosh. I mean, at some point, all this has gotta be illegal.

James: 33:18

I'm sure it is. I don't understand how I mean, California, you're not allowed to gamble.

Justin: 33:23

I mean, I put it be to win and I won and I was just like, money. This is gotta be illegal. It's like my bookie is on my app now. An AI bookie. It's crazy.

James: 33:36

They did a whole South Park audit where the kids are like betting on literally everything like, you know, will Kyle's mom get angry? Right. You know, and it's like, then they're just pissing off the mom on purpose to

Justin: 33:46

get her to like At what point because this stuff used to be like, at what point did the society start to say, oh, we're we're encroaching too much on the thing that we were trying to stop, know, rampant gambling and all this other all this other dark stuff.

James: 33:59

I you know, I have absolutely no clue. I think that for some reason, there is a gray area when it comes to this because you can't gamble with money, but what you're gambling with in in these situations is like like some other currency, be it crypto or whatever, and then you're transferring it back to money. So I think it's because crypto has not yet been classified fully

Justin: 34:25

as On on Cauchy, you're you're actually gambling with straight money like on stake, you're gambling with SC. And then like Yeah. When you trade there, but on Cauchy, you're gambling with money. Oh, really? Really?

Justin: 34:33

Yeah.

James: 34:33

Because on stake, I know the SC thing, so that's how they get away with it. It's like sweeps coins.

Justin: 34:37

But if there's there's another loophole on Cauchy where you're like you're you're where you're you're betting what you can't you can you can bet on speculation like you it's not illegal the way that they're doing it. They're like they've gotten through the loopholes where you could just bet like this. And so the way you explain to me how's

James: 34:53

It feels

Justin: 34:53

a completely different thing. Feels illegal. The other day we

BJ: 34:56

just literally was just like, damn, whoever made that app is fucking making that money at this point. Yeah.

Justin: 35:01

The steak guys are probably making

James: 35:03

Yeah. But I mean, it feels I mean, it feels it feels like we allow it to go on. I I'm sure it'll get shut down soon or eventually, but it's it is

Justin: 35:11

my bets quickly.

James: 35:12

It is. Yeah. It is Or is It is odd that it went from, like, completely illegal, like, to, like, oh, yeah. Now there's 40 different types of apps you can bet on and play slot machines and cards and all these things from your house and suddenly you can lose thousands of dollars in four clicks.

Justin: 35:31

But do you know how this is rigged during the Oscars? I went on Kalshi and I saw the percentage of the speculation for who they thought was gonna win. Calshi was almost 99% right on every category except for I think documentary where the the Putin won one that was kind of a Yeah. Oddball. And I was just like, somebody knew who was gonna win.

James: 35:51

Well, have you seen like the have you I mean, not to get slightly conspiracy ish, but have you seen

Justin: 35:55

What we can't

James: 35:56

like the massive, you know, plays that have happened on either Polymarket or Kalshi where it's like, will, you know, really attack Iran or whatever and like nobody knew that that was gonna happen and then suddenly will this happen within this day and it does and it's like, wait, hold on. Or like, will, you know

Justin: 36:16

These people in government are making hundreds of thousands of dollars betting betting on themselves to do stuff.

BJ: 36:21

Mhmm. They say I'm about to push this button right here, let me bet on that shit.

Justin: 36:24

Mhmm. Exactly. I mean, like, but like, if if if you were betting on what would happen in the the finale of the certain t a TV show. Right? Yeah.

Justin: 36:33

And you're in the show and you know exactly what's gonna happen? Yeah. Well Did you not put a bet on that? I mean, that's

James: 36:38

so true. The fact that they're you're able to bet on who's gonna win wrestling matches, like Mhmm. WWE is scripted.

BJ: 36:46

Like

Justin: 36:46

So there's somebody who's making bank because they know exactly how it's gonna turn out. Yeah. They know exactly what's gonna happen. They they might even be over there making this the speculative bet, you know what I mean? Yeah.

Justin: 36:56

And so now Well,

James: 36:57

I I wonder if there's there's like I I bet you there isn't any thing to stop insider trading within that sort of thing. Right?

Justin: 37:03

Well, mean, they but not because it's not regulated by like the FCC Exactly. And But yeah.

James: 37:08

I mean, like, it's like who's gonna win, you know, Love Island? Like right?

Justin: 37:11

Yeah. They've already ended It's the it's

James: 37:14

it's months it's it's been done for months.

Justin: 37:15

It's an entire crew and cast

James: 37:18

know what happened.

Justin: 37:19

Money money rinsing scheme. When you and I met

BJ: 37:22

and we were doing that business memory, we used to go to Lantana. Yeah. Yeah. I used to go down to that bar underneath. That was where the Survivor off these guys were like, yo, dude, we taking Survivor and we are editing.

BJ: 37:34

Every day they would come in, the editors, and they would be like, yo, dude, we are just creating stories on Survivor. Like, it's not even a real story. We creating it through the edit. And they were like, it's we all are like kinda pushing for one person that we all kinda have. It's almost like that Josh Kelly, unreal, situation where it's each producer gets a person and they're all kind of working to see how they can get that person to win that situation by edit, by everything that they can like manipulate, by interviews, that Crazy type of shit.

BJ: 38:03

And I was like, y'all know who wins. And he was like, we kind of manipulate who wins. Like, we can kind of script it story wise to do it. I was like,

Justin: 38:11

that's insane. I don't watch this stuff.

BJ: 38:12

Yeah. Same. Same for us too. I I reality show, besides the Kardashians. Besides Love is Blimey.

Justin: 38:21

Love on the Spectrum. Love on the Spectrum.

BJ: 38:24

I said, damn. I'm already in

James: 38:25

It's not quite a reality show, but I'm I'm very much into jury duty.

Justin: 38:29

Yeah. But it's like a mock reality.

James: 38:31

Yeah. Yeah. But that's just it's a lot of fun. And I think it's very wholesome. Like, it's it's it's they they did it the right way.

James: 38:38

Like, they're not, you know, being mean to this guy. That's, you know, the only for for people who haven't seen jury duty, it's a it's a TV show on Amazon where essentially everybody's an actor except one person who doesn't know that everybody else is an actor. So he's on a jury, and everybody's an actor. It's a fake case, but he they're filming this thing, and he thinks, like, this is just how jury duty goes. And they just put him in weird circumstances, but it's it's very funny, and it's, it's it's a lot more wholesome than you would think.

Justin: 39:06

Damn. That's brilliant. That's brilliant.

BJ: 39:08

That that brings it back to

Justin: 39:09

I wanna do a horror movie

James: 39:11

like that,

BJ: 39:11

by the way. Fucking phenomenal.

James: 39:12

Where where, you know, everybody's an actor but the lead, and they just don't know that we've created this entire scenario that is a full from beginning to end horror movie for them to survive.

Justin: 39:24

I mean, but I'll be careful because in the middle of that they kill somebody for real because it's cute. Right?

BJ: 39:28

But they are

James: 39:29

just they make that's why Justin's not gonna be

Justin: 39:32

the one who's in there.

BJ: 39:33

I think Justin's doing the killing.

Justin: 39:35

He's like completely convinced I died first. Of the deal on there.

James: 39:38

Well, so Justin sadly, mean this has gone pretty quickly but we are getting towards the end of our our podcast. I know you have a pretty busy day ahead of you with going to a Laker game and obviously whatever that phone call was.

Justin: 39:52

They won me a table read for a short anthology movie that I'm Oh, very It's an anthology of shorts that and and when they do one in Paris and they'll do one in Prague and they'll do one here in LA. Oh, amazing. Table read today? Yeah. You busy.

Justin: 40:05

We gotta shoot it tomorrow.

James: 40:07

Damn. Well, I'm glad you could squeeze us in today. Yeah.

BJ: 40:09

Thank you. Thank you. You So so

James: 40:13

where can people find you?

Justin: 40:14

You can find me on Instagram, Justin underscore Cornwell. You can find me on Twitter, Justin underscore Cornwell. And yeah, that's probably only places you need to find me. Anywhere else, it's my house or it's creepy. Anywhere else is your house.

Justin: 40:31

From my my final question,

BJ: 40:34

like is there anything if you could have any role that you really have dreamed of, you've done the the on stage kind of Broadway style vibe, you've you've you've done the singing type vibe, is there any role that you would like would be your end all be all to have? Something that you really really really really really wanna do? I mean, could definitely see you in Marvel movies and things like that.

Justin: 40:54

You know what mean? Listen, I think when I was a kid I was always like, I wanna be in Blade. I wanna be Blade or something like that. And that's still out there, know what I mean?

James: 41:01

Well, that must have been awesome meeting Wesley Snipes and working with him then.

Justin: 41:04

It was. Yeah. So that was kind of a dream come true. And with Deja Pell in the same scene, it's like there's lot of greatness right there. And so I thought about man I could be a good blade.

Justin: 41:17

But I'm writing a situation about like Nacking Cullen and Eartha Kittens this other thing that I just think it would be brilliant to play someone like that. I'd love to do a biopic. I was scheduled to do one last year about the first black guy who had his own firm on Wall Street but the funding kind of fell through and the direct you know, whatever Hollywood stuff. And I just really wanna do a triumphant biopic, know what I mean? That would be cool.

Justin: 41:45

Yeah. Of Of somebody that you know that did something that it's kinda unsung or something like that.

James: 41:51

Pursuit happiness type.

Justin: 41:53

You know what I mean? Yeah. That's like pursuit happiness type thing but like a pursuit happiness type thing. Yeah. Or like a Nat King Cole like do you know this big I'm too tall to be Michael Jackson, he's already got a biopic so.

James: 42:05

Yeah, comes out next week.

Justin: 42:06

Yeah, go watch it, it's gonna be good. I have a good feeling so I got some friends in it and behind the scenes.

James: 42:13

Yeah, yeah, Coleman Domingo who know.

Justin: 42:15

I met Coleman who was we had the same PR team and he just came up to me back in 2016 and just on this red carpet at NAACP Image Awards. Was just like, hey, Justin, heard you was good.

James: 42:26

Well, correct. What's what's really incredible about Colman Domingo's career is he's been a working actor forever. And in the past, what, five years, his his career has blown up both him both him and, Walton Goggins. Have they've both been working nonstop forever, but literally in the past five years, they've like, it switched into, like, celebrity.

Justin: 42:50

I don't know what that is, but I think as

James: 42:52

I mean, I think it's amazing. I think it shows that if you just keep at it and keep doing stuff, you know, something will switch.

BJ: 42:58

I'm Justin Cornwell on next White Lovers, so you would

Justin: 43:01

be fucking dope on White Lovers. I think though what it is especially for Coleman and talking to the PR and stuff, it's being able to identify yourself. And I think a lot of actors we we become other people and we don't have a branding that's very strong, we're just acting. And then when you when you got Walton Goggins and you got Cullen Bamigo, they'll do that one or two you know, roles that suddenly their branding starts to come into focus. And they and then they know how to put the clothes on.

Justin: 43:29

Yeah. And then they know how to walk. And then suddenly it's them themselves and who they are is more of a an easily accessible thing that people can now be like, oh, and Coleman does this and that and that. And and you become much more than just an actor and then the roles come in because people understand you and they understand what you'd be good at and then the roles come in that are really very much tailored to you because people can see you and understand you like this Joe Jackson role he's about to do. I just saw a picture I was just like, bro, he's gonna get Oscar nomination for this.

Justin: 44:01

I mean, gosh, darn, the hair and makeup team looked amazing. And and Coleman just in in the one clip where he goes, I'll tell you what to think. I was just like,

BJ: 44:09

I was scared. Was scared

Justin: 44:11

in half a second of a clip of Joe Jackson. I was just like, he gonna beat my ass. Better learn these dance moves.

BJ: 44:18

You you the next one on the list to get those awards though, for sure, man. Like, we really really really really really really appreciate you coming in and taking the time today though. Hanging out with us.

James: 44:28

And always a pleasure and thank you so much for coming on Justin.

BJ: 44:32

Thank you so much. I mean we could probably do two of two

Justin: 44:34

to five hours but You're always welcome back.

BJ: 44:41

Sure. Thank you so much.

Justin: 44:43

You. You.