WG: Including Walmart Black Friday Deals!
AM: Exactly! Without a doubt!
Why did you want to be connected in to this amazing project and tell us more about it.
WG: Well, first and foremost, Walmart is a part of American culture. It’s not the whole culture, but it's certainly part of American culture. It is a corporation that has been in all of our lives for such a very long time! And where I come from on Fairburn Road, a lot of my friends as we got older, we started to work there and I had the good fortune - I'll tell you a little bit about my history with this company.
AM: Please.
WG: I was a poor kid from the South and I made really good grades and I had the opportunity to go to school. But we didn't have a lot of money and we had to get the pay the rent. I got a small Scholastic Scholarship, you know. But in addition to that, there was a gap of funding that we just couldn't make that square around that square if you will and my mom, you know through our friends or whatever, heard that Walmart, had a grant.
AM: Oh wow.
WG: It was a sizeable amount of money and when I went you know in 1988 or 1989. I’m dating myself, don’t tell anybody!
AM: Ha! That's okay!
WG: My mom encouraged me to write this essay, you know, to the Walmart. That's how it works and that’s what I did - and I won!
AM: Wow.
WG: The money that I, I desperately needed, you know, my first year in college and in addition to that incredible opportunity, this company gave me - they also printed an 8x10 picture of me. I don't know what it was. I think it was a headshot. It was my first headshot, I think that's what it was. They put it up in their store, you know, for the better part of 6 months. People would call me because you know we didn’t have cell phones then, but they would leave these stupid messages on my answering machine, “saw your picture in Walmart, Walton. Are you part of the Walton family?"
So anyway, that was that's kind of my history with this company. This opportunity kind of came along and they sent this script and I thought, “wow, what a what an interesting way. Two sell things, right?” You know, it's a hybrid between entertainment and doing what we're gonna do anyway, which is to find things for our loved ones at the holidays. Black Friday deals have been around for a long time. They played an important role in my family's ability to buy things for Christmas and it does for a lot of people in this country and all over the world and I thought, what a cool thing to be a part of. I'm so happy that I did it. There's all these wonderful actors that I work with like Ian Somerhalder. There are others like Lisa Rinna, Taye Diggs who I've known for a while, Anthony Ramos and it’s great folks and it's 10 stories. These stories are vignettes if you will. There’s a supernatural genre, action genre, mine is a Western genre!
AM: Shocker!
WG: But you know what? I've done action!
AM: Of course!
WG: I have done a lot of genres in my time, but this is one that they saw me in and invited me to kind of come along this journey. We had such a great time filming it. You know, it was just so much fun and they’re such a great company to work for and work with. So, when I think people will watch them and they'll see the things that they want to buy and some things featured in a way that makes them laugh. It brings a smile to their face and so it’s a great way to go about it!
AM: Well, do you know when your episode will drop, do they all drop at one time? Like what's kind of the flow?
WG: Well you know, there are ten. I’m not exactly sure when they all drop. I know mine will drop towards the end of November which is, which is kind of very, very exciting because it's getting close to Dec. I think more will be revealed as it goes on. The first one drops on Nov. 11th-17th. I think that’s the first block and they'll kind of rolled out from there.
AM: Wow it’ll be great to see them!
What do you love about the holiday season?
WG: Oh God. You know, I just did this article, I won't say for the publication, but it’s about the holiday season. It's really kind of a Thanksgiving more than a Christmas article. I just love the opportunity to commune with family and friends. You know, we all have our rituals right? We all have the things that things that we do but the thing that I do that I've been given the opportunity to do is I don't really watch a lot of sports. I’m not that guy even though I played a bunch of sports growing up.
I make a fire and I and I sit around that fire with my family and with my friends and I have a glass of wine and I listen to music. And I just commune. What better thing is there than that and to tell people that mean something to you how much you love them?
AM: That's really nice and very sweet!
You're always working on so many projects. I can't wait till White Lotus comes out and I know that you have a bunch of other stuff as well. Is there anything that you would like to share with us, that you're working on that we can keep an eye out for?
WG: Well, you know, I think you said it, you know, I got a bunch of things that are coming out. I have a few movies that are coming out. My wife has a movie that she wrote and directed called The Uninvited, which is dropping pretty soon.
Then there is The White Lotus and we just finished the new season of the Righteous Gemstones!
AM: So excited for that!
WG: So good. It's so good.
AM: Everytime I watch that show, I grew up in the Midwest with an Evangelical and Pentecostal background and there's just so many things that happen on that show and my boyfriend will ask, “Is that real?” and I'm like, “yes!”
WG: Oh yeah! That’s real and that one is real too!
We're going back to Fallout here pretty soon. And then, kind of beyond that, reading and waiting and seeing what the future brings live everybody else! But right now, Walmart!
