Olivia Taylor Dudley | Aliens & Nerdy Magic

[00:00:00] Olivia Taylor Dudley: When I was younger, yeah. All my dogs are named after Aliens. It's Steady. Alf and Li Lou, Dallas, multipass. So like I love sci-fi.

[00:00:10] Announcer: Welcome to Story and Craft. Now here's your host, Marc Preston.

[00:00:15] Marc Preston: All right, here we go. Another episode of Story and Craft. Thank you so much for stopping back by. Uh, hey, if this is your very first episode, well thank you.

[00:00:24] Marc Preston: Thank you so much for checking out the show today, having a great conversation with the actor and producer, Olivia Taylor. Dudley, uh, you might know her from the show on sci-fi from a few years ago called The Magicians. She's got a new film out called Touch Me. It is a. Sci-fi, horror, comedy aliens. I mean, it's, it makes a lot more sense as we discuss, uh, her background and why this is just kind of a cool project for her.

[00:00:53] Marc Preston: Really had a great conversation. Really enjoyed sitting down with Olivia, uh, talented. Cool. Really enjoyed the [00:01:00] conversation. Hey, do me a favor. Always ask. So humbly, if you would please make sure to follow Story and Craft on your favorite, uh, podcast app. Make sure to like the show as well. That way people can find it.

[00:01:12] Marc Preston: It, it makes it a lot easier. Uh, also, uh, everything you could possibly want to know about the show past guests, just go to story and craft. pod.com. There you go. Also, big fan of independent media and we're kind of joining up with the Good Times happening over at Substack. Alright, so you gotta go to, uh, story and craft.substack.com.

[00:01:36] Marc Preston: Really cool thing, uh, that way you get an email every time a new episode comes out. Cool. Way to stay in touch and to, uh. Just know what's going on with the show. Alright, so I'll tell you what, let's jump right into it. It's a great conversation. Really enjoyed sitting down meeting and, uh, learning a lot more about Olivia and aliens.

[00:01:55] Marc Preston: I don't think we've talked about aliens since, uh, Neil deGrasse Tyson was on. So really enjoy, uh, [00:02:00] the opportunity to get back and, uh, talk about all things extraterrestrial. Why not? Alright, so let's get after it today. It is Olivia Taylor Dudley Day right here on Story and Craft.

[00:02:12] Olivia Taylor Dudley: So

[00:02:13] Marc Preston: where are you joining me from today?

[00:02:15] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Uh, Los Angeles.

[00:02:16] Marc Preston: Is that home base for you?

[00:02:17] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah. Yeah. We lived out in, uh, Highland Park.

[00:02:20] Marc Preston: You know, I know somebody else that lived out that way. Oh, I'm trying to remember. I'm, you know, I'm trying to use my memory. That's not gonna work for me, but, uh. I am, uh, on a, uh, small island in south Texas called South Padre Island on the very tip of the Texas coast.

[00:02:34] Marc Preston: Yeah. After bouncing around, being from Dallas and living in New Orleans 20 years and being in, uh, Southern California, I was like, you know what? I'm trying to do the Tropical Mayberry thing. You know, that's kinda like, that's kind of where I'm going right now. If I work from anywhere, this is where I wanna be.

[00:02:47] Marc Preston: So you got me right before lunch here. So you got, you got any plans for lunch today? Anything going on?

[00:02:53] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Uh, plans for lunch? No. Most likely just, um. Heat up some leftovers with my dogs. [00:03:00]

[00:03:00] Marc Preston: Oh yeah, that's dogs plural. Uh, how many do you have?

[00:03:03] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Uh, I have three dogs.

[00:03:04] Marc Preston: What kind of pooches do you have?

[00:03:05] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Um, they're all rescues.

[00:03:07] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Um, one is like a kelpie mix and the other two are both hairless dogs. So, um, one is called a Peruvian Inco. Orchid is the breed, and the other one is a show and queenly, um, not very simple names for a reason.

[00:03:18] Marc Preston: That sounds like the name of an exotic jewel, not a dog. You know, that's, you said they're hairless.

[00:03:24] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah. Yeah. You know the movie,

[00:03:25] Marc Preston: I'm on the opposite of the scale. I've got a golden retriever, which is the very opposite of hair that make vacuum cleaners cry. You know?

[00:03:32] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah. That's pretty much the exact opposite, but don't worry, my dog that has hair makes up for the other two. She sheds like crazy.

[00:03:38] Marc Preston: It's astonishing how much this little guy sheds.

[00:03:40] Marc Preston: And actually he's, he's gonna be two, so he is kind of heading outta the crazy velociraptor teenage phase.

[00:03:46] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Oh

[00:03:46] Marc Preston: yeah. Um, and, but when I got him, I was the, and the litter, I was like, ah, I might get two. I've never had two golden. So this, he's my third golden. And I was like. You know, and I forgot about the puppy years.

[00:03:56] Marc Preston: I'm like, man, if I got two goldens, I think it would be just like insanity, [00:04:00] you know? So there

[00:04:01] Olivia Taylor Dudley: so high energy.

[00:04:02] Marc Preston: But yeah. By the way, if you do hear some scratching, that's, that is my guy. I got him upstairs. He, he wants to be down here desperately. No worries, worries. Be

[00:04:08] Olivia Taylor Dudley: here barking. That's mine.

[00:04:10] Marc Preston: Well, very good.

[00:04:11] Marc Preston: That's, that's good. That's good. So, but, uh, so, uh, as far as the, you know, you got your, your new project coming out here. Soon, but the one you just did, you're not just acting but you're producing it also. Correct?

[00:04:22] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Uh, yeah, I'm a producer on it as well. Yeah, I do quite a bit of producing. I love it. But yeah, on this one,

[00:04:28] Marc Preston: see, that is astonishing that you could do that.

[00:04:30] Marc Preston: 'cause uh, for me, the act granted of my resume is exponentially smaller than yours. But that's like, that's a big hat to wear, you know? Is that just, but we're kind of in the era. If you want to get something out there, you create it yourself. Is that, was that kind of your mentality? Just, you know,

[00:04:43] Olivia Taylor Dudley: yeah, I kind of fell into producing because, um.

[00:04:46] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I mean, I used to make, I, you know, I was in the early wave of people making web series back in the day, like when YouTube started and stuff like that. And I had a web series for a really long time, and that just kind of made me have to wear all the hats and mm-hmm. So I [00:05:00] kinda learned every department and how to do everything, directing, writing, editing, producing.

[00:05:04] Olivia Taylor Dudley: And then when my acting career started taking off, I kind of put those things aside for a while. And then when smaller projects that I was acting in. We're struggling, you know, a lot of indie films, they're very difficult to make. Um, I kind of would jump in in different areas and be like, well, I can help, or, I know how to fix that, or, I know how to do that.

[00:05:21] Olivia Taylor Dudley: And so I kind of fell into it on accident. And then I just started producing indie films for friends and movies that I was in. And I love it. I love producing, I love all aspects of filmmaking. I, I love directing, I love editing. I love the whole process. So I find that producing is a really nice way to oversee the whole process.

[00:05:41] Olivia Taylor Dudley: You know what I mean? From start to finish.

[00:05:43] Marc Preston: Are you naturally a, a logistical thinker?

[00:05:46] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Absolutely not. No. Okay. I I, no, I'm actually so disorganized and, and I, and I have, um, pretty bad A DHD and I, I'm not made for it, but I have a good creative

[00:05:57] Marc Preston: No, no. See, I disagree. I think the A DHD thing [00:06:00] actually probably serves you 'cause you can manage.

[00:06:02] Marc Preston: Multiple things. Yeah. Kind of at, at a, at a time without it being overwhelming. Well,

[00:06:07] Olivia Taylor Dudley: totally.

[00:06:07] Marc Preston: I think the A DH ADHD thing, you kinda overwhelm yourself sometimes with like, you know, there's, there's something else I can do. Oh, that's, yeah, that's a shiny thing I can actually work on over there. Oh. But there's this, somebody told me once, the best way to do it is work on two things within the same projects.

[00:06:20] Marc Preston: Maybe film is like that. You got the producing thing then. Yeah. The editing thing for me is kinda like the second storytelling. Totally. You know, it's sort of, do you'd like to sit in the bay with the editor or are you like hands on you actually do the editing yourself?

[00:06:31] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I've done editing in the past on small projects that I'm, I love editing, but.

[00:06:36] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Um, most of the time, you know, we hire an editor and then I sit with the editor in the editing bay with the director. The last like three films I produced, I was with them every single day, um, you know, for two months in the edit, and I love it. That is, I think, the most exciting part. I mean, acting is my number one love.

[00:06:54] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I love it so much. But there's something about being in the edit that is. Magical and you can reshape [00:07:00] the story and performances and find things that weren't there on the day that somehow are magically in the edit. And it's, it's such a satisfying thing to have to solve those problems. I think that's where I really thrive as a, as a creative in filmmaking, is in the writing and the editing part.

[00:07:16] Olivia Taylor Dudley: With other people. I'm not good at answering the emails. I'm not good at like the logistics, like calling sag, like that stuff is harder for my brain. But figuring out a storytelling problem is something that my brain, it's like. Loves to do

[00:07:30] Marc Preston: because that's right. Where that's where the rubber's hitting the road.

[00:07:33] Marc Preston: Yeah. You know, 'cause that part of it, you can actually, uh, you know, when you have to do the logistics or the finances, that's just, that's not moving the story forward.

[00:07:40] Olivia Taylor Dudley: No.

[00:07:40] Marc Preston: You know, but it's essential. Necessary.

[00:07:41] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Very necessary. But it is, yeah. Some people.

[00:07:44] Marc Preston: So you love it. So you started off with YouTube. Is this like pre like the, is this way back in the day before even Vine and all that was this?

[00:07:52] Marc Preston: Uh, yeah.

[00:07:53] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Funny enough, yeah. Um, I had a web series called Five Second Films, which we put out a film every day for. Over a decade and then [00:08:00] ended up making a feature film and like when,

[00:08:01] Marc Preston: oh wait. Every, every single day you put out a, when you say a film,

[00:08:04] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I guess, and it was five seconds long, so we five

[00:08:07] Marc Preston: seconds

[00:08:07] Olivia Taylor Dudley: long.

[00:08:08] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah. So we were, uh, the four first like short term content that came out before Vine, before TikTok. Um, and actually like. Those were, that was kind of our idea. And then a lot of people took it and ran with it and made a lot more money than we did. But it was way back before, you know, YouTube was monetized and we were one of the first groups that they offered advertising and monetization.

[00:08:31] Olivia Taylor Dudley: And, um, it didn't last long because it was only five seconds and I don't know why, but advertisers thought that was just not enough time. But we were just kind of time when it came to short. Content. Um, but yeah.

[00:08:42] Marc Preston: Was each five second block, was it a continuation of an ongoing story or was it a standalone story All on its own.

[00:08:49] Olivia Taylor Dudley: They're so stupid. They're all standalone stories. They're all comedy. They're really silly. They're, some of 'em are dark. Some of 'em, we always had like, great guest stars, you know, pat Oswalt was always a regular, [00:09:00] um, we we're still really, yeah, we're still making them 'cause we have such, we had such a huge cult following.

[00:09:03] Olivia Taylor Dudley: And like, like Jack Quaid is a really big fan, so he comes out and shoots every now and then. We ha still have a good following and we'll get the gang back together again every now and then. But they're, they're so silly and they're really lo-fi and just like a set up a joke and knock it down kind of a thing.

[00:09:19] Olivia Taylor Dudley: And sometimes it's elaborate and sometimes it's not.

[00:09:21] Marc Preston: Are are they still living in the YouTube ecosystem where they can be found?

[00:09:24] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah, they're on our website. I don't, um, you know, they're on our website, five second films and, and on TikTok, and I think we have like a million followers on TikTok. I don't know, it's, it's so weird that that thing just keeps living on.

[00:09:37] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Um, all these years later. It's so funny,

[00:09:40] Marc Preston: you were on the Vanguard. If you, you, you started off with like five seconds, so that's kind of like, you know,

[00:09:46] Olivia Taylor Dudley: yeah.

[00:09:46] Marc Preston: Maybe you inspired a whole generation That is inspiring another generation, you know?

[00:09:50] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah. We like to think we did. Um, we just ended up not getting.

[00:09:53] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Paid for it, which sucks, but it's fine because it's now having a second life because attention spans have [00:10:00] gotten shorter and shorter and shorter. And so like the younger generation has now discovered us, and now we're having a second wave of popularity with that. But yeah, I mean, it was a really good, like training ground for me as a filmmaker and as an actress.

[00:10:13] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I, I did a lot of comedy when I was first starting out and having to, you know, make a joke and a whole setup and a joke and a performance. And a story work in five seconds is really difficult. And it was a really great way, um, to just every single day be working on that muscle and have to be funny and on.

[00:10:31] Olivia Taylor Dudley: And yeah, it was a. Great time. Great time in my life.

[00:10:35] Marc Preston: Well, how did you get Pat Oswalt in your ecosystem there? 'cause now he had, for me, he is one of my favorite, you know, I'm a Gen X kid, so you know, he's, he's one of our guys. You now, yeah. Pat's

[00:10:45] Olivia Taylor Dudley: the best. So

[00:10:45] Marc Preston: how did y'all end up connecting? Uh, was it,

[00:10:48] Olivia Taylor Dudley: um, you know, Patton is so wonderful.

[00:10:51] Olivia Taylor Dudley: He's such a supporter of young artists and he was always. And still does looks for people online to support. [00:11:00] Like there's so many comedians out now that he found and just like lifted up and that's what he did with us. He found our web series and he was like, wait, I love these guys. Let me come out and shoot with you.

[00:11:09] Olivia Taylor Dudley: And then that turned into. So many, him hooking up all these other talented comedians and actors coming in and we just, you know, he was in our movie, we made a feature with that group called Dude Bro Party Massacre Three, which is just a ridiculous movie that, um, Patton was in. And yeah, I just talked to him yesterday, like, he's just such a supporter of young artists.

[00:11:29] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I wish, you know, there were more like him. He's great.

[00:11:32] Marc Preston: Were you like a theater kid coming up? Uh, was was the comedy thing acting produced? Was this part of the, uh, on, on the menu for you or did you just kind of, when YouTube and all that kicked off did, you're like, oh, there, here's something I can just kind of play with and it manifested from there.

[00:11:47] Olivia Taylor Dudley: No, I, I, um, I was not a theater kid. I didn't actually, um, I never finished high school. I dropped outta school really young. I dropped outta school in seventh grade actually, because I had, um. Really [00:12:00] severe social anxiety and um, anxiety. And I couldn't handle being in school and the way it was learning and it was just not working for me.

[00:12:07] Olivia Taylor Dudley: And I was just a weird little ranch kid, horse girl. And I, so I was homeschooled and just home with the animals all day. So I watched a lot of TV growing up. I was like raised by the TV and I just became obsessed with movies and. The E channel and like, you know, like any documentary about a filmmaker or an actor, I was like obsessed with when I was younger and I told my parents, I was like, I wanna be an actor.

[00:12:31] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Even though I've never done theater, I'd never done any acting of any kind. And my mom and I tried to get me an agent when I was 15 and I did, but I didn't move to LA then. Um. I ended up dropping outta high school, like homeschool high school at 16, and then I moved to LA by myself when I was 17 to pursue it.

[00:12:49] Olivia Taylor Dudley: So I'd been wanting to pursue it since I was younger. I would say probably, I don't even know what age, but forever I've only, this is the only thing I've ever wanted to do. So, five.

[00:12:59] Marc Preston: When you were [00:13:00] growing up, what was, what was it that you were watching that, I don't wanna say inspired you, but the things that, that kind of, that grabbed your attention, that kept you occupied,

[00:13:08] Olivia Taylor Dudley: you know.

[00:13:09] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Whenever I get asked that question, the first movie that made me realize even what acting was, was The Exorcist, which I watched at a far too young age. I was five years old when I watched it, and I, I snuck into my, um, dad was watching it with a friend upstairs and I snuck in and I saw what was on the tv and I froze.

[00:13:27] Olivia Taylor Dudley: And I just watched it for like two hours and I had no idea what the heck it was, but I just remember seeing Linda Blair on the screen just being so incredible and terrifying. And when I realized that it wasn't real. But that looked like so much fun for that little girl. Like, 'cause she was so young in that movie.

[00:13:43] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I was like, well, I'm gonna do that. And I had such a vivid imagination growing up that it just, I dunno, it just kind of grew from there.

[00:13:50] Marc Preston: I mean, seventh grade, I actually, there was a, a fellow I know who is a, uh, an acting coach, wrote a book, I think he said, if you can make it through seventh grade, you can act, or something like, seventh grade sucks.

[00:13:59] Marc Preston: You know, I, whenever [00:14:00] I meet somebody, it's like, oh man, junior high was great. I'm like, you're an alien. I dunno. Seventh grade sucks.

[00:14:04] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I guess it's great for some people, not me. I've learned how to be a socialized person the older I get and like I, you know what, it also, the older I get, I realize like the place I'm most comfortable 'cause I have so much social anxiety that I, I've done so much work on at this point.

[00:14:20] Olivia Taylor Dudley: But when I'm on a set, I have none. I have no anxiety. When I'm on a set, and I remember the first time I stepped on a set, I felt. Yeah, totally in my skin, I think.

[00:14:29] Marc Preston: Do you think it's because there's structure on a set? I mean, there's a clear mission and structure and everybody knows every, everybody's got their own specific jobs, so

[00:14:36] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Exactly.

[00:14:36] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Like

[00:14:36] Marc Preston: kind of fit into a

[00:14:37] Olivia Taylor Dudley: spot. I knew. I know what everyone's gonna do, so there's no surprises and everyone wants to be there for the most part. And it's, it's fun. And I don't know, there's just something about knowing like how the day is gonna go time-wise. I know I'm gonna be here for this long, we're gonna do this for this long.

[00:14:52] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Like there's something about that that eases my. Anxiety a lot. And I also just love, like the community on a set it, you start to feel [00:15:00] safe because it becomes a family, so, mm-hmm. You know, it's like a traveling circus, but that also, I just. I feel like that really helped ease my anxiety and it's like my happy place, but my happy place.

[00:15:12] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah. Definitely not in school. I was not happy in,

[00:15:15] Marc Preston: I was, I'm still there with you. I mean, there was time, remember being in seventh grade, you know, you know it's a, God plays this weird trick on you. It's like, you know, social weirdness Plus there was in puberty for good measure. You know, it's like everything's just happening.

[00:15:27] Marc Preston: I'm getting PTSD just thinking about it. Oh yeah. Um, was the horror thing, was it a, a fair assumption that, that seeing that, uh, the Exorcist was that kind of your Hmm. Horror, you know, it's, you know, it's fake. So would you, is that the reason why you like to play with that a little bit with, uh, throughout your career?

[00:15:44] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah, probably. I've loved horror since I was little, like, not just the Exorcist, but my, my mom is really into horror and sci-fi, so growing up we watched every horror and sci-fi movie. Known to man and you know, unsolved Mysteries was always on and the Twilight Zone was always on

[00:15:59] Marc Preston: [00:16:00] Roberts Robert Stack. I, I saw this funny meme the other day.

[00:16:02] Marc Preston: He said he's always in a back alley behind an Applebee's, and it's gotta be dark. Like anytime you hear Robert, they always shot his setup. It was always just like spooky, you know? He was sort of like a. Vincent Price.

[00:16:15] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Totally.

[00:16:16] Marc Preston: Kinda a guy, you know?

[00:16:17] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah. Um, it, it, it was a good, I was just raised with, I was raised with it in a way, so it wasn't scary to me.

[00:16:25] Olivia Taylor Dudley: It was more just like an escape and exciting and fun. Like my mom and I still watch The Shining at least twice a year together. Like we, I don't know. It's just comforting to me. You know, it also

[00:16:37] Marc Preston: career wide Chinese, that's, that's one movie that I still couldn't, I mean, as a kid and even, I'm just like, it's good.

[00:16:45] Marc Preston: Don't get me wrong. It's very good. I get why it's good, but it's, it is just, anytime I'm out anywhere and it happens, occasionally I'll see two T, I'll see a twins. I just, that, that movie always pops into my mind. So apparently it affected me on some level. I don't, you know.

[00:16:59] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah.

[00:16:59] Marc Preston: But [00:17:00] The Shining, y'all just kind of bonded on horror movies, or does she kind of, you know?

[00:17:04] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah, I guess so. She, I mean, my childhood is a little bit weird on our, I grew up on a ranch. My family, we have a horse ranch on the central coast of California and my grandma lived there and we lived there and my sisters and, uh, my grandma was really into like aliens. I grew up being obsessed with aliens and magic, and it was just kind of like a nerdy.

[00:17:28] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Magic type household. So I think my mom Was it

[00:17:31] Marc Preston: an escape for you maybe kind of a

[00:17:33] Olivia Taylor Dudley: little bit or

[00:17:34] Marc Preston: what?

[00:17:34] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah, I, uh, I think so. Uh, I, I loved the idea of not being in the real world. So I mean, I think a lot of people who end up being actors have a vivid imagination since they were little. And, and I don't know, it was just really like nurtured in me to explore.

[00:17:50] Olivia Taylor Dudley: My imagination and storytelling.

[00:17:52] Marc Preston: Well, I think the alien thing is pretty cool though. I mean, you know, I, I just, I have a hard, you know, I, I don't know. That's, that's for me. I, in fact, I used to have, I don't wanna [00:18:00] say a kid. This is, this is back when the internet was really kind of getting going. I mean, I always say late nineties, maybe early two thousands, and they had a screensaver.

[00:18:07] Marc Preston: Uh, I had a, everybody had goofy screensavers, but I rummaged up. Wanda was, uh, CE. Screensaver and IT, or SETI, SETI, and it would just, it would just run the background and, and just basically just digested information, processed the uh, uh, all this data that the satellites are pulling in. And like, I wasn't really into it, but it's just cool watching my computer work, thinking maybe my computer will be the one that finds that one single kind of like contact, you know, in that movie.

[00:18:36] Olivia Taylor Dudley: That is literally my, my life's obsession. I actually named my dog Seti. My big hairless dog is named after the Seti Institute.

[00:18:44] Marc Preston: Really?

[00:18:44] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I know it well. Um, when I, when I was younger. Yeah. All my dogs are named after aliens. It's Seti, Alf and Li Lou Dallas Multipass. So like, I love sci-fi, but I wanted to do that when I was younger.

[00:18:56] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I wanted to go work for the study Institute contact was like a really big one for [00:19:00] me, so. Mm-hmm. Um, that's funny. Yeah,

[00:19:02] Marc Preston: but now they do this thing where it's not like really big satellites. They have whole fields of smaller satellites or something. Yeah. But I don't think they're doing that program anymore.

[00:19:11] Marc Preston: Not, it was so neat that screensaver, you know,

[00:19:12] Olivia Taylor Dudley: they're not doing that program. They're not doing a lot of it. Like the funding kind of fell through. It's still, it's still going, but I guess it's very expensive to, you know, take up space and the satellites up there. So.

[00:19:29] Marc Preston: What do you think about this new thing they're talking about that, uh, tr uh, Trump is, uh, I honestly think it's a distraction from the Epstein files, but, you know, whatever. Yes, sir. Um, but they're talking about wanting to release whatever information they got and that's, that's something that's like happening right now, so

[00:19:43] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I

[00:19:43] Marc Preston: know.

[00:19:44] Marc Preston: Have you been keeping up with that or?

[00:19:45] Olivia Taylor Dudley: A little bit. But some of it seems like, you know. Not nothing. I, it feels like nothing's gonna come of that. I don't believe that anything's gonna be released sometime, you know, every 10, 15 years. Somebody says that's gonna happen. But we'll see. I don't know.

[00:19:59] Marc Preston: I honestly, [00:20:00] you know, my whole view of it is I don't, I think people inherently like, yeah, universe is big.

[00:20:04] Marc Preston: There's probably something out there. I think there's so much going on. It'd be like, okay, this is one other thing we know now. Okay, yeah. Onward, you know? Yeah.

[00:20:11] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I don't think anyone would be surprised if aliens were walking among us. We'd be like, as a least of our problems right now.

[00:20:17] Marc Preston: It would be kind of a relief.

[00:20:19] Marc Preston: It would be a nice little distraction, you know?

[00:20:21] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah.

[00:20:21] Marc Preston: I gotta ask, what was your favorite as a kid? What was your favorite movie? Two or three, uh, alien based shows on tv.

[00:20:30] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Oh gosh. Shows

[00:20:34] Marc Preston: or movies. Or movies, you know? Yeah,

[00:20:35] I

[00:20:35] Olivia Taylor Dudley: mean, X Files like, I mean, alien. I loved Compact.

[00:20:40] Marc Preston: There's a show, I dunno if you remember V.

[00:20:42] Marc Preston: Do you remember? V? It was called, it was called V It was, uh,

[00:20:46] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I never watched,

[00:20:47] Marc Preston: they did a remake on a, B, C, I think. But, uh,

[00:20:49] Olivia Taylor Dudley: no, I didn't see that one.

[00:20:50] Marc Preston: I could talk all day about that. 'cause I, I find it quite fascinating. I think it's just, you know, uh, like Carl Sagan, I love reading his stuff.

[00:20:57] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Obsessed with Carl Sagan growing up.

[00:20:59] Marc Preston: It's really [00:21:00] interesting. You look at some of the stuff that he wrote where speeches he gave that had been transcribed, I think probably in the nineties. It's, he was almost like a fortune teller of where we are right now.

[00:21:10] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Completely.

[00:21:11] Marc Preston: He, he knew it. Yeah. So have you done any projects at all that, that center on that, either, you know, something you've done.

[00:21:18] Marc Preston: Uh, produced or something you've been in? Have you done anything alien ish?

[00:21:22] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Well, the movie I have coming out now touch me is, is an alien ish movie, so I'd

[00:21:29] Marc Preston: like to pause ish. Yeah.

[00:21:31] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Well, it's, it's, it's like a psychosexual horror alien CFA movie and about a, a co two co-dependent, CO two codependent best friends who, um, one of them falls in love with an alien who's on earth, and then they both end up falling in love with him and having a.

[00:21:47] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Relationship and it's, it's really weird and funny and bizarre and definitely an alien movie, but I feel like I've done other ones alien movies. Um, now I'm blanking on them. [00:22:00] I love sci-fi. Like I feel like growing up all I wanted to do was be an alien hunter or go to space. Mm-hmm. I had such bad motion sickness that, and I didn't go to high school, so I feel like I, I'll never work for nasa, but,

[00:22:14] Marc Preston: well, I think, it sounds like to me you sort of found your own, you.

[00:22:18] Marc Preston: Knew the subjects you wanted to study.

[00:22:20] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah.

[00:22:20] Marc Preston: And you dove in. You know, and I think a lot of people I know, I, I've spoken with, I think, um, the names are gonna say, there's a couple other people I've spoken with just the last couple months who left school early. I mean, it was just, they, they knew what they wanted and they just, it's nothing I recommend for kids.

[00:22:36] Marc Preston: Yeah. With the exception. There are some people to see with clarity where they are, where they want to be, and they, you know, they want to educate themselves, you know, so everybody has a different path. And I, you know, yeah, I've sp literally in the last two months I've spoken with a couple people who very successful.

[00:22:51] Marc Preston: But,

[00:22:52] Olivia Taylor Dudley: um, I feel like it's a lot of actors ha you know, have odd schooling backgrounds. Like, I'm so lucky that my parents were so supportive of it, but I think it's [00:23:00] because I was so driven at such a young age, I think they realized they couldn't really get in my way and they knew they could trust it.

[00:23:06] Olivia Taylor Dudley: That's what I was gonna actually pursue. And, but it's Now were

[00:23:09] Marc Preston: you an only kid or

[00:23:10] Olivia Taylor Dudley: did you, did you

[00:23:11] Marc Preston: have brothers?

[00:23:11] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I have an older sister and a younger sister. And um, yeah, but it's wild to think back now, like I moved to LA by myself when I was 17 and I lived with some cousins for. A little while, a few months, but then I was just out on my own just trying to break into this business and, you know, that was before, you know, that was before we had like GPS systems in, in our cars and I was like printing out MapQuest and I was trying to find my way around and get jobs and I just like, I really hustled.

[00:23:39] Olivia Taylor Dudley: And I think about now what actors, what they have the access to, um, to start their career. And I'm like, whoa, I'm so jealous.

[00:23:46] Marc Preston: Well, when you look back, were you blissfully oblivious to what kind of a bite you were taking out of life by going to LA like? Yeah, I mean, looking back LA can be an intimidating.

[00:23:58] Marc Preston: Incredibly intimidating place for adults, you [00:24:00] know, but as a kid where you just had that perfect mix of naivete where you're like, you just, I think

[00:24:04] Olivia Taylor Dudley: so I had family down here like a couple cousins, like I said, and I had been coming to LA for a couple years 'cause I was also a, a dancer growing up. And I would come to LA with my friend and take class every couple weeks.

[00:24:16] Olivia Taylor Dudley: So like, I was like dipping my toe into what it was like to come down to LA without my parents. And I mean, I was a. I wasn't like a wellbe behaved kid growing up either. Like getting, I did try going to high school for a month and I got kicked out, like to public school. So like I, I was kind of like a tough kid and I, I, I felt like I could.

[00:24:35] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Survive by myself anywhere was my attitude. I was very confident. And I mean, I did, I, I don't know how I did, but I did.

[00:24:42] Marc Preston: So what did your folks do? I mean, I know, I know y'all had the horse ranch. Mm-hmm. Uh, but was that, was that your father's vocation or y'all, was that ancillary to what his main gig was?

[00:24:51] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Um, no.

[00:24:51] Olivia Taylor Dudley: My dad is, um, well now he has a house painting business, but growing up he's a geologist. Um, and my mom, um. Uh, [00:25:00] she was a model growing up and, and then has pivoted to a bunch of different things. She's an entrepreneur. She's, she's done a lot of things and the horse ranch was actually, it was my grandma's ranch and, um, I grew up with horses and so did my mom.

[00:25:12] Olivia Taylor Dudley: So I rode my whole childhood and I still ride. I have a horse in LA so the horses were more me and my mom.

[00:25:18] Marc Preston: Living here on the island, they actually have a horse, the whole stretch of the island. Like the, the like where all the restaurants, the con, you know, all the living, it's only like a five mile stretch.

[00:25:26] Marc Preston: Beyond that it's just dunes. And there's a place up there where they do have a little, you know, you can go grab a horse and go for a ride on the beach and

[00:25:34] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Oh,

[00:25:34] that's

[00:25:34] Marc Preston: like, that's part the, the Texan in me is like, ah, that sounds like really cool. So it's either, it's either getting a four wheel drive, vehicle drive on the beach or get a horse maybe too.

[00:25:42] Marc Preston: Yeah. Now is your grandmother still with us?

[00:25:44] Olivia Taylor Dudley: No, she passed away. Um. A while ago. Yeah. Yeah. It's a bummer. She was such a supporter of my career and she was just such a weird duck. I mean, like her and I were just like soulmates. But yeah.

[00:25:56] Marc Preston: What do you think the genesis of her interest in [00:26:00] space stuff and you know, all that.

[00:26:01] Marc Preston: Yeah. You know, where did that come from, do you think?

[00:26:03] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Oh man. I don't know if you had asked her. I think she thought she, I mean, she would have stories of being abducted by aliens. She was convinced, you know, she had a few, few, um, near death experiences that I think opened up her, her mind to other dimensions and like, you know, she.

[00:26:23] Olivia Taylor Dudley: She was a wild woman, so I don't know. She always was that way since I was little. She, we would sit out on, we had this rock out in one of the fields on the ranch that we carved into a seat for her and I to sit in and we would sit there with the telescope and just sit there like almost every night and look for aliens.

[00:26:40] Olivia Taylor Dudley: But the ranch itself, I mean, this is like a whole nother podcast in itself, is a bit of a vortex and kind of attracts. Odd energy like that. So I don't know where she got it from. Nobody else in her family was like that.

[00:26:52] Marc Preston: Well, they say there are places on earth that are, um, and I, I don't know the phrase of it, but certain, certain energy ish zones or [00:27:00] what, I think they said that they, they correspond to where some of the pyramids are.

[00:27:03] Marc Preston: I don't know. Yeah. I don't go down that road.

[00:27:04] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Well, if you asked her, she, she would love, that was, that would be her jam right there to talk about that.

[00:27:10] Marc Preston: You know, I always find that it's interesting to, to look at the science of things.

[00:27:14] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah.

[00:27:15] Marc Preston: The same time philosophically like a big fan of Alan Watts, you know, just, you know, he just kind of contemplate and it's funny the other day.

[00:27:20] Marc Preston: I don't dunno what happened, but there was a, on the island we had a, uh, the power at, on this whole part of the alley zapped for about 15 minutes or so, and I peeked out. I mean, it was pitch black. I peeked outside. I was like, oh my God, I can see all the stars. This is 'cause that never really happens 'cause you know, the light or light pollution.

[00:27:36] Marc Preston: So it's, it's uh, definitely being out on a ranch where you can see that if, if, if nothing else, it probably opens up the contemplative parts of you. Yeah. I'm assuming. Oh yeah. You know, now touch me. Was that something you, you produced it, but did you, were you involved in writing it as well

[00:27:52] Olivia Taylor Dudley: or? No, I actually didn't come on as a producer until we were already working on the project.

[00:27:57] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Um. It's, [00:28:00] it's, the project came to me very late in the game. Um, a producer I had done a couple movies with called me up and was like, Hey, I have an actor that fell out of this project and I think you'd really dig it. It's about aliens and, and tentacle sex. And it's wild and weird and I think you might be the only chick that would be into this.

[00:28:17] Olivia Taylor Dudley: And I was like, okay, send it over. So I read it.

[00:28:19] Marc Preston: Well, you know, there's a whole Japanese like thing about that. Yes. Like that. Yeah. So

[00:28:23] Olivia Taylor Dudley: that's like, yeah. Well the whole movie is very, um, Japanese coded and is that's. Inspired by old Japanese films.

[00:28:29] Marc Preston: Really?

[00:28:30] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Okay. Okay. It's really cool. But, um, I read the script and literally two hours after I read the script, I went and met with the director.

[00:28:38] Olivia Taylor Dudley: 'cause I was flying out the next day to go film a movie in Arkansas. So I had just that day to like figure out if I wanted to do this movie and I met with him and, um. I just adored him. Like we, but the movie also deals with a lot of mental illness and, um, my main, the character has obsessive compulsive disorder and I also have obsessive compulsive disorder and so does the director.

[00:28:59] Olivia Taylor Dudley: So we kind of [00:29:00] talked for about that for like two hours at this bar. We didn't even talk about the movie. And then by the end he was like, oh wait, do you wanna do the movie? And I'm like, yes, please. It's such an odd blend of genre and tone and. Um, I just fell in love with how weird it was and I was like, this is either not gonna work at all or it's gonna really work.

[00:29:17] Olivia Taylor Dudley: And so I, you know, I took a bet that it was gonna really work and so then I went off and shot this other movie and then came back and only had four or five days between the two and then started shooting Touch me and then partway through, um, towards the end of filming, they asked me to come on to help finish the movie, um, and be in the edit with him and stuff.

[00:29:37] Olivia Taylor Dudley: So this one I'm more of an executive producer because I didn't get the movie going, but I helped finish it.

[00:29:43] Marc Preston: Where did y'all shoot it?

[00:29:44] Olivia Taylor Dudley: In la, which never happens. It was so nice. Yeah, I loved that. Well,

[00:29:49] Marc Preston: that is, that is very cool. Now

[00:29:50] Olivia Taylor Dudley: dogs,

[00:29:51] Marc Preston: do you have any little ones rolling around besides, do you have any, uh, non furry friends?

[00:29:55] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Nope. Fur. I just

[00:29:55] Marc Preston: have furry people.

[00:29:57] Olivia Taylor Dudley: No, I just have, uh, naked dogs [00:30:00] and, and, uh, I have a horse, but no, no, no kids. I love animals. I can, if I could, it

[00:30:05] Marc Preston: sounds like title of a book, naked Dogs in a Horse.

[00:30:07] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah.

[00:30:08] Marc Preston: Um, but I see somewhere that you narrow, uh, I don't know if it was a project you worked on or you, uh, you wrote, but do you do like a audio book narration?

[00:30:15] Marc Preston: Did I see that? Uh

[00:30:16] Olivia Taylor Dudley: oh, yeah. Um,

[00:30:17] Marc Preston: maybe not.

[00:30:17] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I, yes, I do voiceover work. I haven't done that in a while, but I got hired to do this, um, book series. Uh, it was a sci-fi book series that. They wanted to have an actor, like not just a, a voice actor, but somebody who had a presence. And at the time I had a show called The Magicians that was on, we did five seasons of, and that was a fantasy genre show.

[00:30:38] Olivia Taylor Dudley: And so they, they asked me to come do that. And I can't even tell you how that was, was the hardest job I've ever done because I'm dyslexic. And I told them that. I was like, I can't, this is gonna take forever for me to read. They're like, but you, you. You literally read Words for a Living, but, and I was like, I know, but my process for acting and memorizing lines is so intense just so I can get the freaking [00:31:00] words out in front of the camera.

[00:31:01] Olivia Taylor Dudley: But having to sit in a booth and read out loud was so hard. And it was, I read multiple books for them. I mean, I, yeah, I ended up winning an award for my performance in that.

[00:31:10] Marc Preston: Really?

[00:31:11] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah,

[00:31:12] Marc Preston: thats, I do a lot of voiceover, and that's one, one genre that I, I appreciate it and it's kinda like, for me, being in a booth recording for long stretches is.

[00:31:22] Marc Preston: That's just not my, I do shorter

[00:31:24] Olivia Taylor Dudley: stuff. Yeah. I love voiceover work. It's so fun. I love doing it. It's just reading a book is was my nightmare because I was just so concerned that I sounded dumb and stupid and couldn't read. Like it's just an insecurity I have because I mix up my words. But it ended up being really fulfilling.

[00:31:40] Olivia Taylor Dudley: But eventually I was like, I, my. I was like, I gotta, I can't do this anymore.

[00:31:45] Marc Preston: Well, acting, you're memorizing the script, so it's coming from the inside. Yeah. You know, you're not reading it as your before. So is that kind of how you approached it when you did the audiobook? Did you like memorize chunks of it or did you still just, you know, read it?

[00:31:57] Olivia Taylor Dudley: It was impossible to memorize chunks of it. I read, you know, [00:32:00] so many books for them. There was no way to, no, I had to just go in cold and. I knew the director was frustrated, but also she was lovely and she would mm-hmm. Give me extra time and I was like, I'm sorry. Oh, that's

[00:32:12] Marc Preston: awesome. Did you, did you do it from home or did you,

[00:32:14] Olivia Taylor Dudley: did you have like a.

[00:32:16] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah, I recording studios here in in LA in Burbank, and then when I was shooting magicians I was, we shot that in Vancouver, so on my days off from that show I would go record in a studio up there. But yeah,

[00:32:28] Marc Preston: there's so much stuff out in the world that I haven't seen or even things right now that I do wanna say.

[00:32:32] Marc Preston: I just don't have the time. Yeah, I didn't have the opportunity to catch magicians. What was the, kind of the general thrust of. That I'm sure somebody's listening. He is like, how do you not know what magicians, you know? Um, it's kinda like, I still haven't seen Game of Thrones, so, you know, I'm one of those guys.

[00:32:46] Marc Preston: Yeah. But it's still out there. Eventually I will, I just haven't seen it yet. I, so what was kinda the gist of magicians?

[00:32:51] Olivia Taylor Dudley: So much content out there? Yeah. The Magicians is, oh, I'm so proud of it. It's one of my favorite things I've ever done. It was based on a book series called The Magicians by, uh, Lev [00:33:00] Grossman, which was a really popular fantasy book series.

[00:33:02] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Um, and it's, you know, I guess we always just say it's Harry Potter for adults. Um, it's like Harry Potter esque, but more elevated and edgy and contemporary and, um, it was so fun. We did five seasons of it. Uh, I played league character, Alison Alice Quinn. I loved her. She was like the best character I've ever played and I miss it.

[00:33:24] Olivia Taylor Dudley: It had such, it was really fun to be on a fantasy genre show for so long. 'cause you get. Amazing fans, the audience for those shows, I mean, they're rabid for it. And I, you know, I would go to con cons and comic cons and stuff, and you just get so much fan love. And it was, that was, that's

[00:33:40] Marc Preston: gotta be so rewarding when you do something that, that you are passionate about.

[00:33:43] Marc Preston: And that is, you know, and in other people it could be years later, are still down with it. You know, I have friends that do, um, that do voiceover stuff for, for like anime, whatever, right? And there's this whole ecosystem, you know, uh, and it's another thing like I think, uh, even Pat Oswalt's. Into [00:34:00] that kind of like the con thing or what?

[00:34:01] Marc Preston: Yeah. Um,

[00:34:02] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I hate going to cons because of the people. It's really hard to do for me. Like it's so many people, I get really overwhelmed. Mm-hmm. But as long as I take my medication, I'm fine. Figure it out.

[00:34:14] Marc Preston: Yeah. I, I could imagine, because you know, you, you know, it's, you want them to have a great experience, but at the same time it's like, you know, I can imagine that being overwhelming.

[00:34:20] Marc Preston: Everybody wants a piece of you. Uh, what haven't you worked on? Is there something that's floating out there like this genre, this kind of thing, this kind of project, it's kind of itching at you, you know, you want to do that, but you haven't had an opportunity yet, or maybe something you've done, you would like to return to.

[00:34:37] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I mean, there's so many things I wanna do. I wanna be working every single day. So it's, um, I mean, I really love. I love doing drama and I, I like, what I love doing is finding indie filmmakers like first time filmmakers and like people who have some unique vision and just digging in and not knowing what it's gonna turn out to be.

[00:34:56] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I mean, that's not necessarily the most lucrative path in this [00:35:00] business. They don't pay well, but I, I just love finding really passionate filmmakers and I, I'm not really. Married to the idea of any sort of genre or anything like that. Like I love all of them. I love doing comedy. I love horror so much. I love, you know, I love all of it, but no, I think it's just more based on the filmmaker is what I'm looking for.

[00:35:23] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah. You know, it's

[00:35:24] Marc Preston: funny, I've always been curious, like I, I understand like some horror. Things I kind of get Jordan, Jordan Peel. Jordan Peele.

[00:35:31] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Jordan

[00:35:31] Marc Preston: Peele. Yeah. His, his stuff like, yeah. I kind of, I kind of get that. I can get into it, but I'm wondering in, in your words or in your, your thought, what is it that's magnetic about horror to horror fans?

[00:35:42] Marc Preston: What is that thing that makes it so appealing?

[00:35:46] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I think that, you know, what makes horror appealing to audiences is that what I've learned from it and like. What people are now talking about, why it's so enticing is that it [00:36:00] for me, it, it lowers my anxiety and it lowers other people's anxiety because they know the thing is gonna happen and then it's gonna be over and you're actually safe.

[00:36:06] Olivia Taylor Dudley: It hasn't happened in real life. There's something about being able to control a scary situation that is comforting for people. Oddly enough, you'd think it'd be the opposite, but I think horror fans really get a lot of. Comfort in seeing something happen that's not happening in real life, if that makes sense.

[00:36:25] Olivia Taylor Dudley: And my, the thing that I'm attracted to with horror films and a lot, I, I feel like a lot of people in, in the business is that you can, you know, you can use it as a vehicle for any other thing you're trying to say. Like, like with Touch Me, it's really, the movie is about mental, mental illness and trauma and things that we go through as human beings, but it's, you know, masked by this crazy alien, tentacle, weird.

[00:36:48] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Movie and but you secretly are. Talking about these other things and getting that message across, and that's just something that no other genre out there can do. [00:37:00] But other than like horror because you, you can't, you know,

[00:37:02] Marc Preston: I think, I think it just came up with the, uh, movie poster. Crazy tentacle, weird movie.

[00:37:06] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah.

[00:37:06] Marc Preston: What are your thoughts? Do, do you like, you know, when we were growing up in the movies are gonna be in the theater, well, depending on how they perform for a long time, and then dollar theater and then cable or, you know, do you like the direction we're going now where it's less. Emphasis on the theatrical.

[00:37:23] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I mean, that's such a, it's so hard because I, I,

[00:37:27] Marc Preston: because, because you, because I'm thinking horror, you know? Yeah. That's something you could be in a big room with other people, right. You're all experiencing it. That kind of heightens it a little bit. You know?

[00:37:34] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I'm such a movie nerd, and I love going to the movie theater.

[00:37:36] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I mean, we all grew up going to the movies and, you know. Physical media and going to Blockbuster and all that. And like, it was like you really had to put in the effort and then it was an experience. And like I always want things to come out theatrically. It's just not the way the business works anymore.

[00:37:50] Olivia Taylor Dudley: But so it, I wish everything came out theatrically. That would be amazing. But it also, you know, streaming and, you know, online platforms really offer so many. [00:38:00] Young filmmakers and people who wouldn't have a chance to put their projects out there to be seen. So it's like a double-edged sword. But I wish there was that middle ground, which where, you know, movies, small movies like mine, like it's great that we're gonna have a small theatrical release.

[00:38:12] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I mean, it's gonna release everywhere, but like, you know, the window is much shorter than it used to be when it's in a theater. I wish we could go back to some middle ground where. It was, yeah,

[00:38:21] Marc Preston: it was funny. I was watching, um, uh, Matt Damon was in an interview recently. Yeah. And he, I think he was lamenting, 'cause he's like, because with streaming you almost have to reintroduce the premise.

[00:38:32] Marc Preston: Every, you know, I'm not a writer, but you have to do it incrementally because you got people with, uh, you know. Those of us all with a DHD, not bagging on a DH, adhd, but some people, they're doing well. It's not that they're doing other stuff on their phone or doing that. So there's something to be said about putting everything down.

[00:38:48] Marc Preston: Sitting down and just locking in on the, uh, you know, thing.

[00:38:51] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Well, yeah, I mean, it's scary because now, like a lot of the streamers, they make writers have to do that. They literally have to write scripts that way. And [00:39:00] TV shows have to be written where you re. Restate the plot every so often, and that that's really changed, just literal storytelling, and that sucks.

[00:39:09] Olivia Taylor Dudley: That part I really hate. Um, I, I, I also, it's sad, like I've gone to the movies quite a bit lately and I find myself, it's hard to sit and concentrate and I'm like, this is my favorite thing in the world to do, and yet my attention span has gotten worse and worse and worse. And I'm like, oh, wow, that's scary.

[00:39:24] Marc Preston: You think we're kind of rewiring ourselves? Yeah. Just the way we consume, you know, I think

[00:39:28] Olivia Taylor Dudley: so.

[00:39:28] Marc Preston: I like my, my kids, they'll watch stuff on like an iPad or phone. I'm like, no, I've gotta watch it. I've got a 75 inch tv. So to me that's big enough. Yeah. You know, it's, it's nice you see everything, but I think there's, I think I, in fact, I heard, um.

[00:39:41] Marc Preston: Spielberg years ago, uh, going back maybe five, maybe more years ago, said that we're gonna head in a direction where they're gonna have maybe a few big blockbusters. They're gonna hang out in theaters for a long time. Everything else is gonna be in and right out. I mean, what he said, almost like a prophecy.

[00:39:55] Marc Preston: Yeah. Seems to be happening. But I, I would like to think that the pendulum would swing back, [00:40:00] like vinyl music, music on vinyl kind of came back. I'd like to think that there would be something. You know, in the world of AI and all that, there's gonna be this hunger, thirst for authenticity. Watching the story arc.

[00:40:10] Marc Preston: I

[00:40:10] think

[00:40:10] Olivia Taylor Dudley: there is, I think there is already in the last year, like, you know, gen Z and Gen Alpha, like they want physical media. They're going out and buying DVDs and VHS players and they're discovering like camcorders and like all the things that I grew up with and they want it, and they're, they're, I don't know where the stats or where I've read this, but I have been seeing.

[00:40:31] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Articles about them wanting to not be on their phones and go to the movie theater. Mm-hmm. And I hope that that, you know, eventually trickles up into theatrical becoming more of a thing. I mean, the business is so, you know, Rocky, right now, we don't know what, you know, there's all the new mergers and all these things, so it's like, what, what's gonna happen to theatrical?

[00:40:50] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I don't know.

[00:40:51] Marc Preston: Well, I I, I would like to think that there's gonna be, you know, I remember there was a time in the nineties, you know, you had. Uh, Kevin Smith and Link letter and all. There [00:41:00] was the, they're kind of the indie ish stuff. I would like to think that maybe that we're gonna kind of cruise back into another indie era, which I think would be fantastic because I think there aren't nearly enough comedies out there.

[00:41:11] Marc Preston: I know. Uh, it has to do with economics. 'cause our, what we perceive, you know, comedy that lands well here, doesn't do well in international Marcets. Invest in it as much. Yeah. As far as, uh, anything in the OnDeck circle that you have besides touch I, me, do you have anything kind of coming out soon?

[00:41:26] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah, I'm, I'm, I have another film that was out on the, the film festival circuit and it still is right now.

[00:41:31] Olivia Taylor Dudley: So we're trying to sell that one. Hopefully that comes out, um, in the next year. And, um, that one is called Abigail Before Beatrice. It's like a cult movie, very much more like grounded indie film and I'm really proud of that one. And then I'm developing. A few other projects, um, that we haven't announced yet, but I'm developing and trying to get funding for a few projects right now and then, you know, meeting on other things that are shooting.

[00:41:57] Olivia Taylor Dudley: That's kind of where I'm at right now, is in a lot of [00:42:00] development.

[00:42:07] Marc Preston: As we kind of wrap up, I always kind of toss out my seven questions on the back end. Mm-hmm. Just a little fun extra thing I like to do, and I, I inevitably always say to talk food at least once. The first question is, what is your favorite comfort food? Oh. Something like you've had a bad day or great day.

[00:42:22] Marc Preston: You just, you just, you need it.

[00:42:24] Olivia Taylor Dudley: My favorite comfort food is microwave. Macaroni. Not very fancy

[00:42:29] Marc Preston: macaroni, no macaronis come up a good handful of times. In fact. Another Pat Al Oswald thing he said about Denny said on the menu, they have a box of Kraft macaroni and cheese. They don't even try to hide it, you know?

[00:42:41] Marc Preston: Yeah, that's

[00:42:42] Olivia Taylor Dudley: my

[00:42:42] Marc Preston: point. But yeah. So was that when you were a little girl? Were, were you just kind, was that one the first thing you kind of learned how to make on your own and you

[00:42:48] Olivia Taylor Dudley: just Yeah, I think, um, I mean, it's. Actually quite complicated in my brain, has to do with my OCD, but like comfort foods growing up were a big thing.

[00:42:56] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Like when I had bad anxiety, I only wanted to eat [00:43:00] pasta and playing food and simple like starches and carbs, and that is carried through as an adult. Whenever I'm stressed or have a bad day or have anxiety, I, I, I have to eat like. Pasta or macaroni or something, I can predict what it tastes and feels like, if that makes sense.

[00:43:18] Olivia Taylor Dudley: That's like,

[00:43:18] Marc Preston: yeah, it's consistent. I mean, craft, craft, macaroni and cheese is, you know, consistent. Now, if you were to sit down with three people, uh, the next question, you know, living or not, y'all are gonna talk story for a few hours. Mm-hmm. Uh, who, who would those three people be you'd like to sit down with?

[00:43:33] Marc Preston: Hmm.

[00:43:35] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Um, Carl Sagan, Stanley Kubrick. In Bjork,

[00:43:41] Marc Preston: you know that, that's very cool. I, I always say this, I think, not that you're having a conversation with 'em, but it's interesting how would they interact with one another? That would be very fascinating,

[00:43:50] Olivia Taylor Dudley: you know? Yeah. I think, I think shit would get weird real fast with that bunch.

[00:43:55] Marc Preston: Um, now going back to when you were young, who it was your very first celebrity [00:44:00] crush when you were a kid.

[00:44:01] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Oh, mm. I don't know. I feel like I was really, uh, I think I had a crush on Elijah Wood in the movie Flipper. I feel like that's something I remember, but I don't know. I should have that, an answer to that, but I, I can't, I never really had like, um, somebody I was obsessed with in that way.

[00:44:23] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I was just like obsessed with all actors. I don't know. Yeah. But I mean,

[00:44:27] Marc Preston: well it's, it's, it's funny, your name is Olivia is, you know, my, my oldest daughter Lily, uh, is Olivia and Hailey were like two names. Thought would be great. And I was like, why do I like those names so much? Oh, Olivia Newton John. Oh

[00:44:38] Olivia Taylor Dudley: yeah.

[00:44:39] Marc Preston: Big crush when I was a kid. Totally. So I. But I have, you know, three kids, you know, my son Zachary. But, uh, uh, I have, uh, Lily and an Emma, you know, good names Hailey, and, and, and I think it's Hailey Mills. I, you know, yeah, when I was young I thought,

[00:44:51] Olivia Taylor Dudley: oh yeah.

[00:44:52] Marc Preston: Um, big fan of Olivia just throwing in. It's

[00:44:54] a

[00:44:54] Olivia Taylor Dudley: good name.

[00:44:55] Marc Preston: Um, let's say you're gonna be, uh, the next question. You're gonna be living on an island for a year, exotic island. You [00:45:00] like being there. It's fantastic. Uh. But there's no streaming. So if you wanna listen to music, you gotta bring a CD or a box set, uh, and a movie, uh, that you can, you know, music can listen to over and over again, and a movie you can watch over and over again.

[00:45:13] Marc Preston: What would that CD be and what would that DVD be that you would bring to the island for a year?

[00:45:19] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I mean, the DVD would just be the Shining. I know I've already talked about it, but it is a comfort movie for me. Um, and that is always the one that I'm like. I watch over and over, so I think I could handle it.

[00:45:32] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Um. I don't cd. I don't know. I mean like Bjork is my favorite artist, but I feel like I might go crazy if all I listened to was her music on an island, something classical. I do like classical music, so I don't know who it would be, but I. Uh,

[00:45:48] Marc Preston: something, something classical. Okay. Is that we kinda like listen to at night to kind of unwind mm-hmm.

[00:45:53] Marc Preston: As classical. Mm-hmm. Okay. Now, if you were to say from the time you get up to the time you go to bed, what would be the component [00:46:00] parts, like the recipe for a perfect day for you? If all these things kind of happen, that would be a spot on perfect day for

[00:46:06] Olivia Taylor Dudley: you. Oh yeah. I mean, I aim for it all the time. I like to wake up early.

[00:46:10] Olivia Taylor Dudley: With my dogs. Like I love watching the sunrise and I love watching horror movies in the morning. Um, so I always kinda have an ongoing movie I'm watching. I don't necessarily finish it, but I like starting the morning with a really intense film, I think, because that's when my brain is awake. I'm such a morning person.

[00:46:25] Olivia Taylor Dudley: And then if it gives me anxiety or like it's, it's too heavy, I get to go on with the rest of my day. So I would watch a horror movie, make breakfast, then I would go to the barn and ride my horse, uh, spend a couple hours at the barn and then I would probably. Try to have my sister over and my girlfriends over for wine on my deck, and then I would probably watch couple episodes of friends with some, like a good dinner or microwave macaroni, and then I would just go to bed with my dogs and cuddle with my dogs.

[00:46:57] Marc Preston: It's a very interesting curated day and, and it's

[00:46:59] Olivia Taylor Dudley: [00:47:00] probably really boring for most

[00:47:00] Marc Preston: people. No, I think it's cool. 'cause you're st there's the, i I have this philosophy on life in general, and I think it trans, it's sort of like interpersonally or even, uh, food. It's balance and contrast. You know, I have this, I have this theory that we like that.

[00:47:15] Marc Preston: Then you start off with hor but you end up with. You know, friends,

[00:47:18] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I like to end the day with lighthearted things because also I get sleepy as soon as the sun goes down. It drives my husband nuts because he can stay up late watching things and I can't, so I'm like, I have to just turn on something that.

[00:47:30] Olivia Taylor Dudley: My brain cannot, isn't gonna be overstimulated.

[00:47:33] Marc Preston: I, I'm the same way. The problem with me is if, if I get something like, uh, last night, last couple nights it's happened where for some reason I just wake up at 3:00 AM Yeah. I think it's 'cause the dog jump into the bed and then my brain decides to grab something that's been thinking of during the day and just a project I'm working on.

[00:47:49] Marc Preston: I'm like, this sucks. Now I gotta try to get to sleep. And there's just, you know, it's whole thing me every

[00:47:53] Olivia Taylor Dudley: night.

[00:47:53] Marc Preston: So I find that if I, I, you know, music or something that kind of distracts that little, like, you know. A [00:48:00] caffeine fueled teenager in my brain finally kind of chills out, you know? Um, now if you weren't doing this for a living, the next question, you know, somebody said, listen, the acting to produce entertainment performance, it's just not available to you.

[00:48:12] Marc Preston: Mm-hmm. What would be the next vocation that you think would bring you joy?

[00:48:16] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I mean, other than going to outer space, which isn't a possibility, I, uh. Go back to horse training. I would just go back to the horse world. Um, I've trained horses my whole life and I, it's, it's definitely like, would be my plan if I wasn't acting for sure.

[00:48:34] Marc Preston: Well, I'll tell you, seven miles south of me, that's where SpaceX, uh, sends out their rockets. So maybe I can, you know, if you want to do the space thing sometime I can maybe hitch a ride over there.

[00:48:42] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I always

[00:48:43] Marc Preston: say I wanna do

[00:48:43] Olivia Taylor Dudley: it, but I would probably, it would be a nightmare actually to actually be in outer space, probably.

[00:48:48] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I don't know.

[00:48:48] Marc Preston: I don't know. I, I, the only thing that would bother me is the claustrophobic nature of it. That's the only thing you know. But, uh, but it is pretty cool though.

[00:48:56] Olivia Taylor Dudley: It just

[00:48:56] Marc Preston: sounds more romantic. It's not like sonic. Yeah. Yeah. My, my, my [00:49:00] Golden does not like the Sonic booms, though. I made a mistake taking out a beach to watch a launch, you know?

[00:49:04] Marc Preston: It was, uh, it was, it, it is pretty cool though, kind of the space part of me. It kind of gets tickled every time I watch it. Um, now if you, if you, uh, then last question. If you're to jump in that DeLorean, you're gonna go back. You're 16 years old, you got a piece of advice. You got a few minutes with yourself to either make that moment of your life, uh, in some way, maybe a little better, or get on a different TRA trajectory.

[00:49:25] Marc Preston: What piece of advice would you offer up to a 16-year-old you?

[00:49:30] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I think I would probably. I mean, I would have so much to say to 16-year-old me, but I think I would just try to reassure myself that, you know, I'm somebody who's always had very intense feelings and very big emotions, and when I'm in them, I don't see a way out of them.

[00:49:45] Olivia Taylor Dudley: But the older I get, I'm able to know that like whatever that feeling or emotion is, it's gonna pass and you're gonna be okay. And I think I would just like to tell myself that when I was younger that you're gonna figure out tools to be okay. And when things get. Sad, [00:50:00] or you're angry or you're overwhelmed and you don't know what's gonna happen.

[00:50:04] Olivia Taylor Dudley: It just keeps going and it works itself out.

[00:50:06] Marc Preston: Why don't adults te, I, I wonder why don't adults tell kids that more?

[00:50:09] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I don't

[00:50:10] Marc Preston: because I think that's something that,

[00:50:11] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I dunno, because I try to tell my nieces that and they don't hear it, so I'm like, I guess that's just a journey you have to go on as a person,

[00:50:18] Marc Preston: because what a great way to put it.

[00:50:19] Marc Preston: Bigga. You just don't see how, but you've been through enough stuff in life. You actually see. You don't know what the on-ramp is or off ramp rather. Yeah. But it's going to be there with the whole phrase of this, this too shall pass. Exactly. You know? Doesn't make it suck any less. Yeah. But, you know, it's, uh, but that is, that's one of the things I've tried to communicate to my kids.

[00:50:37] Marc Preston: You know, they, I think they had an little easier go at some level than I did growing up, but I'm like, yeah, it's, you know, life, it's, it's, it's waves, you know, it's up and down. You know, you gotta, but that's, that's perfect. But now I, uh, you know, I'm, I'm excited to see this, uh. As you put a crazy, weird tentacle movie, uh, touch me now who, who's in that with you?

[00:50:56] Marc Preston: Anybody, uh, that we would know?

[00:50:58] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Um, uh, Lou Taylor [00:51:00] Pucci, um, plays Brian the Alien, and he's just, he's an actor I've been a fan of forever. He is in so many indie films. And then Jordan Gure is, um, in it with me, and he he's an amazing actor too. Yeah, it's a, it's a very fun cast and. I, there's no other movie like it.

[00:51:16] Olivia Taylor Dudley: I'm very excited and like, what is the audience? How is it gonna be received? I can't wait to see.

[00:51:23] Marc Preston: It sounds pretty awesome. Uh, and I'm looking forward to it. And I, and I'm actually gonna go hunt down the magicians. I think that's gonna be my, uh, weekend watch. It's, we have a big spring breakdown here. Yeah.

[00:51:32] Marc Preston: And I do not like being on the road with the big spring breakers Oh yeah. Down. So that, that might be the thing that I, that I kind of do to pass the time. Definitely. I appreciate you spending some time with me today and, uh, thank you for having me. This is lovely. Oh, it's, it's more than a pleasure and uh, hopefully we'll have an opportunity to, uh, catch up down the line.

[00:51:48] Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah, for sure. Have a good one.

[00:51:51] Marc Preston: Well, there you go. Olivia Taylor Dudley, uh, really enjoyed the sit down. I mean, it, it's been a while since we've been able to talk about [00:52:00] things, extra terrestrial aliens. The new film makes sure to check it out. It is called Touch Me. It is in theaters right now. Just, just came out a few days ago.

[00:52:10] Marc Preston: So, uh, Olivia was a blast and uh, really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know her and I'm glad you did as well. Alright, so, uh, as always, please make sure to follow a story and craft on your favorite podcast app. Uh, that way you get notified. New episode comes out. Make sure to, like the show helps people to find story and craft and I appreciate that very much.

[00:52:32] Marc Preston: Uh, everything you could possibly wanna know about this show past guest, everything else. Hey, it's on story and craft pod.com. Uh, also, uh, substack we're there, big fan of independent media, uh, now more than ever. So, uh, glad to be at story and craft.substack.com. You get an email if you so desire every time a new episode rolls out.

[00:52:55] Marc Preston: So great way to stay in touch with the show. Alright, so I'm gonna head on outta here. Dinnertime for [00:53:00] me, and as always. Thank you so much for making what I got going on here, part of what you've got going on. It does mean a lot to me. And, uh, we'll check you next time right here on Story and Craft. Talk to you soon.

[00:53:12] Announcer: That's it for this episode of Story and Craft. Join Marc next week for more conversation. Right here on Story and Craft Story and Craft is a presentation of Marc Preston Production's, LLC. Executive Producer is Marc Preston, associate producer is Zachary Holden. Please rate and review story and craft on Apple Podcasts.

[00:53:34] Announcer: Don't forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. You can subscribe to, show updates, and stay in the know. Just head to story and craft pod.com and sign up for the newsletter. I'm Emma Dylan. See you next time. And remember, keep telling your story.