Joey King

Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert. I'm Buck Rogers and I'm joined by the Duchess of Duluth. Hi. Hi. Today we have a young actor who's abnormally talented.

Young Buck.

A young Buck. I gotta tell you, we've been on a good roll of getting surprised by young talent, haven't we?

We have, yeah. Everyone's been great.

Yeah, Camilla, now Joey King.

Yeah.

Joey King is an Emmy nominated actor. You know her from The Kissing Booth, like the biggest series ever. I know, huge. Franchise on Netflix. The Act, Bullet Train, got to work with B.

My favorite children's book of all time.

So sweet.

Love it.

I didn't even know she was that little kid in that until we started researching her. Yeah. The Princess, and she has a new series out now on Hulu called We Were the Lucky Ones. Please enjoy, as much as we did, Joey King.

He's an armchair expert.

He's an armchair expert.

He's an armchair expert.

Shit.

So that's my claim to fame. So flattering. I know, that's me, guys. Thank you for-.

That's a big deal.

Cute Nikes.

Thank you. Yeah.

Dunks, right? They're not Jordans, or are they Jordans? They're Jordans, yeah.

They're ones. I got them as a present for myself when I finished filming my show in Romania, because I was there for so long, and then I was like, I want to buy myself something I really want.

Yes, I love buying stuff for myself. I feel you're entitled to comment first, because you're a fashionista, and I'm not. Although I am an expert on Jordans. Yeah, you are.

I'm not an expert. I just really like them. You can tell how creased they are.

Don't forget, Rob, to take a photo of them, because people will be mad that we don't post a photo of them. Did you go on the website and peruse? How did you come to find this pair?

So I was in Romania filming, and one of our first ADs, her name's Claire, she had this pair of shoes on. I was like, I love them. Do you mind if we match? And she was like, no. I got them at this random mall store in Romania.

Do you think they're authentic, or they could be?

They are authentic.

How do we know?

The price? The price?

Well, that's a good clue.

Well, it was like a real shoe store, but it came with like a tag or whatever.

That might have sounded disparaging to Romania, but I do feel like you could get some knockoff shoes there, no?

You probably could.

Because we just learned about bags in Turkey.

We did. Apparently, there's all these Hermes bags you can get in Turkey that are fake, but they look exactly the same.

We had a guest who's very rich, and she had this beautiful Hermes bag yesterday, and Monica said, beautiful bag. She said, it is a fake.

And she has a real one, too.

I love that. Willingly giving up the information. I agree. I think it's really classy to just be like, hey, cards on the table. This is my thing.

I saved a few bucks on this.

By the way, though, I did not save any money on these shoes.

You didn't. You paid full freight.

Full frickin' price.

How did you like Romania? My wife did a movie there, and she was anxious to come home.

Where was she? Was she in Bucharest?

I think she was more in the woods, filming a horror movie.

Okay.

Yeah. I'm sure, if she was in Bucharest, she would've liked it.

I love the people there. I missed home a lot.

Are you Slavic of some type?

I look it. So my heritage is Romanian, Polish, all that, so I'm like Ashkenazi, Jew, Eastern European.

You look very Polish to me, and I say that as someone that's married to a Polish woman, so no disrespect.

Extra respect.

The fact that I went to school, in junior high, there was a girl that looked just like you. It's been driving me mad since I saw you in The Act.

Wow.

Patsy Fugate.

Shout out.

Wait, the fact that you remember her name, I thought you were just gonna be like, it's a nameless woman.

No, Patsy Fugate, she had moved up from Kentucky and joined us in seventh or eighth grade.

I saw a girl yesterday who looked a lot like me. You did? I went to the lovely ice cream shop in LA called Salton's Draw. Oh, delish. My fave.

The simulation is very lazy at times. Yeah, I'm sorry. They're making duplicates, and then they're linking them too closely to you.

I know, it was in LA.

There's been a lot of mistakes in the sim lately.

There have been. I have been having a lot of deja vu lately. Yeah, that's a sign.

What was the most recent one?

It was just a particular scenario. My husband was bent down in the pantry looking for something. I was wearing my PJs. Everything just was like, this has happened. We've done this.

Do I hate it? I most recently had it going into the underpass of the 405 on the way to the Richardson's house, and I guess my thought is, oh yeah, here we go. I already know what happens next, but what am I supposed to do? I guess I feel a pressure.

What do you mean? what happens next?

Meaning. I've already seen this whole scenario that I find myself in currently. In the past, I've already imagined this, and now I'm here, and what am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to do something very specific? Why would I be told right now to remember this?

Okay, so you kind of dissect it a little bit, like it's a thing that you should pay attention to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I dismiss it, but now I'm like,

I get scared. I'm never gonna come out of it,

because you're aware, right?

I've done it before, but it feels like it's a feeling that might never end, and I get scared.

It's like a suspended state, a little bit, right? I think it's a seizure. You feel like you're leaving.

I think it's connected to seizures.

What I'm hearing is we all experience deja vu a little differently.

Yes!

I don't overthink deja vu at all, and I feel so sad that you're afraid you're gonna get stuck in this state of mind.

Well, as you can see, all of this perfectly mirrors our already existing story, so of course Monica does. That's super Monica. It is, yeah. And of course, I am, like, I already trial ran this, and there's a right move to make, because I'm always plotting my quick escape or to conquer something.

Are you a little bit of a worst case scenario person? Always, yeah. Because I'm a huge worst case scenario person. You are. There's not a second, it's kind of insane.

You were what, four at the Northridge? No.

No, I wasn't even born yet in Northridge, but my sister almost died in Northridge. Oh! But I have experienced some really bad moments where my mom is in the doorway, and she's reaching for me while the house is shaking. So, as I've gotten older, I'm so afraid of earthquakes, and I try to remember to sleep with my dog's leashes next to my bed in case we have to get out fast.

Do you have shoes right next to the bed?

I always have shoes somewhere accessible. I'm not a nakey sleeper. I have to wear pants to bed, because I'm like, if I gotta get out in a jiff, me and my husband are very different. He's not a worst case scenario thinker at all.

Well, that's good that you're together, because the two of you would drive yourself insane.

We would live in a bunker.

Yeah, you'd be hiding under the bed. I'm a pajama pants sleeper, because my legs sweat.

Yeah, me too. I'm chafing my sleep a little bit.

So it's not just the escape, it's also there's some sweating.

But you don't think the pants make the sweating worse?

There's a barrier.

They wick up the sweat. When I do sleep nudie, I'll wake up and I'm like, I can feel my thighs are slippery.

I hate it. It's so gross. A lot of people are like, it's so healthy for you, and I'm like, I really wanna be- Who says that? There's like studies or some shit that sleeping naked is really good for you, but I can't do it.

And you wanna be sexy too? Part of me is like, I wish I were sexier.

I sleep with mouth tape. I have a night guard.

What's mouth tape?

Mouth tape, you're supposed to, I mean, not supposed to.

Oh, to breathe through your nose.

I don't try to be hot when I'm sleeping. I wanna be hot at some point, like when me and Steven are watching Frasier and we haven't put in our night guards yet. I'm like, hey, do you wanna? But when the night guard goes in, the mouth tape goes on, the hair masks go in, you don't come back from that.

I'm afraid that if you tape your mouth shut and you get a stuffy nose in the night, you'll die.

When I'm sick, I never sleep with it on. I have a pretty decent nasal passage. on its own. I do not struggle with deviated septum, so I recognize my privilege.

Your privilege, yes, yes, yes. Okay, now, of course, you're married, so you can put the mouth tape on and all this shit, but first, couple nights together, you're like, hold on, I gotta go put my clothes on and my mouth guard, right? So I agree that we're not trying to be sexy at this stage, but there is a point where you're trying to keep things hot and mysterious and sexy.

During the day, I still wanna be cute from my hubs. I think it's fun to sometimes put a little effort in, just even when you've got nothing going on. Yeah, look at me.

You look adorable.

I'm wearing a ball gown skirt today.

No, you look so cute, I am obsessed.

Thank you, but you gotta wear your cute clothes.

You have to wear them. I love getting dressed up. You know, when you show up somewhere and you don't know the vibes, you overdress a little bit and then you're like, oh, I overdressed. Well, that's okay, at least I look gosh, darn cute. Yeah.

I'm completely always the opposite end of that spectrum. I'm showing up places all the time and being like, oh fuck, this wasn't a T-shirt and jeans and the only one in here, not in a suit. That happens to me nonstop.

That's your own childhood. You would never wanna show up overdressed.

Be a big sore thumb. Yeah, you'd get attacked for being rich. Back to that, because that's actually my follow-up question about the Jordans.

How rich am I? Let me tell you.

Well, Shirley- We would like to know.

Your big splurge to reward yourself at the end of a long shoot could be something bigger than Jordans. So there's a little clue in there and I'm curious what's happening. That cannot be the biggest splurge of your life. Of course not.

Okay, okay. But it was a little gift to myself because also, at the end of the shooting, I got married and I had this incredible, elaborate, gorgeous wedding. Spain. Yeah. So that was pretty expensive.

How many people?

It was 115, which, for like a destination wedding, is an incredible turnout. It is.

How many of those people did you have to fly there?

Certain family members. I wanna make sure they're taken care of. Everyone else, I was like, pay your own way, damn it.

The one thing that I think is clever about a destination wedding is you're gonna inevitably cull the herd. A lot of people aren't gonna pony up for that. And that almost seems like a good strategy. That wasn't the case for yours. I gotta imagine that's everyone you invited, pretty much.

So we wanted to do. destination always. Part of it was like, we don't want certain people to come. Yeah.

Of course, that you have to invite.

Yes. And you're like, oh, well, oh, it's so far. There's certain people, I won't name names, but they didn't show up, which was great.

Oh, wonderful.

It'll just be like also super private if we go far away. But we didn't know where we wanted to go. We kind of stumbled upon Majorca because our wedding planners was like, have you ever heard of Majorca?

Is that not in Greece?

It's off the coast of Spain. To be honest with you, when my wedding planner said, have you ever heard of Majorca? My husband goes, of course. And I was like, never. And so I'd never even heard of Majorca, which is crazy.

But you've heard of an orca. I have heard. So you might've thought like, oh, my orca. My. It's like a sea-world-y.

I was just watching a brutal episode of Our Planet last night of whales killing whales.

Whale on whale?

Whale on whale. Whale aside? It was so disturbing, but it was really incredible.

Do you have any desire to go on an African safari?

Yeah, I would love to do that.

I highly recommend it. Of all the trips I've taken, that's the best of all time.

I spent like six months in South Africa, but I never had a free weekend.

What were you shooting for six months in South Africa?

I was shooting Kissing Booth 2 and 3.

You guys shot them concurrently?

We shot them at the same time. You did? We shot all three Kissing Booths in South Africa, though.

And do you now have an affinity for that place?

I spent too much time there. I loved it so much, but not that comfortable going and exploring on my own. And especially, I feel like South Africa dips in and out of, like safety issues. Yeah. And so I felt like a little hold up at times.

How old were you when you were shooting that?

First Kissing Booth, I was 17.

Oh, my Lord. Was your mother traveling with you at the time?

When I was 17,. yeah. Kissing Booth 2 and 3, I was 21..

Totally different vibe, I'm imagining. Well, I know, because I watched some interviews with you and you were getting high and stuff, so I know things change along the way.

It was an accident.

You're playing it fast and loose with accident.

You're allowed.

You can't accidentally eat an edible. I mean, someone could say you want a brownie and you didn't know.

The timing of it was the accident. It was 21,, it was our last day of shooting and we were there forever. And I took half of them and I thought we were on our last shot.

It was a brownie?

It was a cookie. It was a pacing issue.

Yes, it was our last setup. I thought I was gonna be able to go back to my hotel room, pack up, enjoy my little cookie experience and just kind of chill out. Then they added like seven more shots.

And that's what happened. That makes a lot more sense.

It was a bit of a panic time. I will never, ever do that again.

Did you tell anyone?

Yeah, I told Joel, my castmate. He was like, what?

I'm hanging on by a thread here, Joel.

I'm barely here. I was like, this is a problem. I feel so guilty and unprofessional.

Is it legal there?

I don't know, actually. It was a gift.

Yeah, it was a beautiful gift. Well, but I just wonder, at least here in California, were you to take an edible, you would actually know what the milligrams were. But when you're in a black market situation and someone gives you a cookie, I mean, it could have 35 grams of THC or it could have two.

Yeah, I also wasn't the smartest. I wasn't familiar with any of the dosing grams or milligrams or anything. I was just flying by the seat of my pants, which, shockingly, I never really do. that. Growing up, I was never a very disobedient child.

I know Monica could be great roommates.

I really like them.

I'd be trying to pirate the cable from the neighbors and you guys would be like, no!

Don't do that! Don't do that, Dex! I'm calling the police.

Why don't we ever agree to live with you? You're told!

My mom is very particular. She's a clean freak. I have a very chore-like mental capacity, so I'm always just like, oh my God, I gotta empty out the lint dryer and then I gotta take out all the hair in the vacuum roller. Chores and rules, I do well.

Type A.

Good. But I'm not type A.

My oldest sister is type A and then I feel comparatively like the fast and loose one, but I'm still very rule-oriented. I don't know what I am. I'm figuring it out. It's okay.

You don't have to be pigeonholed.

You have two older sisters? I do. What are the age gaps?

They're six and seven years older than me.

Oh my, Jennifer, that's enormous.

Yeah, we're so close.

Have always been or just developed in adulthood?

They have always been so good to me and close with me. They were a little riffy when they were teenagers. They have more to fight about. They borrow each other's clothes.

One year apart, that's tough.

Fighting each other's style. Why are you talking to Jennifer? She's my friend.

All that fun stuff, but they were both so sweet with me and then now all three of us are just constantly talking. We can't not have a dialogue going.

Oh, that's lovely.

It's literally the best thing in my life. They're my favorite.

Okay, so you're a unicorn in that you're from LA, which is so weird. So you were born in 99 in LA, Los Angeles. City of Angels, is that correct?

99 in Simi Valley. City of Angels, adjacent.

As we discussed.

Made famous by the Rodney King beating.

And the Chipotle E. Coli.

Wow, wow, wow. And the Ronald Reagan Library. Yes, which apparently is beautiful. Have you been to it? You must have gone on a field trip there when you were a kid.

Oh my God, we went all the time. You went all the time. It's like the only thing to do there.

It's beautiful, though, right?

I've not been there in a while, but it's nice.

Were your mom and dad married?

Unfortunately.

Okay, are they from here or did they move here?

So my dad's from Arkansas and my mom's from Philadelphia.

Wonderful, what brought them here?

My mom moved to LA with her family when she was nine. My grandmother and her best friend decided to make the move to LA at the same time. I was like, our best friends, we're better with it, let's go to LA. Exactly, and they're still BFFs to this day.

Can I pause you for one second? Please. I've interviewed a handful of people your age, and most often, none of the references I say they get. But I worked with this wonderful actor, Mae Whitman, on a show.

I love Mae Whitman.

She's the greatest person ever. And, like you, she was a baby in movies. So she's so fucking adult. I don't know, I must be 14 years older than her or something, but when we were working together, I was 32, she was 21.. Every reference she knew.

Absolutely. As much as I also think it's a good thing, there's things that people have said that's like creepy when you're getting older. But like, I've been on sets since I was four. What do you want from me? All I knew was adults my whole life.

You're surrounded by adults. So you're hearing them talk and you're hearing all their references, and you're just picking up all this shit that you would have never picked up otherwise. You're 24? Yeah.

Your life becomes a lot bigger when you are on set because you're exposed to so many things. Simi Valley, yes, it's right next to LA, but before you have a license, it's a very small world in Simi Valley. And so I could have never left. My afterschool activity, I went to this place called Skate Lab, which no longer exists, but that was the socialization.

Is that a roller skating rink?

It was a skateboarding scooter and BMX, but it was like the best part of Simi Valley to me, because it was what I did for fun, but leaving all the time to go on location and work with all these new people. And, for example, my family, they're all very picky eaters. I was only exposed to like unique foods, even just by going to restaurants for work dinners at like a very young age and being like, what's that? I've never had that before. So like my mind was so expanded during my sponge years.

because of all these adults. Wow, this is an interesting dynamic. If I were your parents, it's almost like, oh, what is it, great expectations where Pip's embarrassed of his father. Was there any dynamics where, it's like, you were more worldly, their kid was getting more worldly than them, and it felt weird.

My mom has kind of embraced and chuckles at the fact that I'm so much more adventurous with food than her. She's always been like, I can't believe you, you're such a hoot, you try anything. So she's so cute because she's always been such a little cheerleader for me and like, oh, good for you, girl, but also is at the same time like, ew, I don't want that.

But they never felt like, oh, we might not be enough for this girl now. Like her, world's gotten so big.

No, you know what, though? I think that that's what a lot of child actors and their parents struggle with. That's why a lot of them wind up going kind of off the deep end, because their parents no longer feel like an authoritative figure to them. My mom always knew her role was to be my parent. There's a lot of opportunities that present itself when you grow up in the industry, where you can go down a really different path.

Yes, and they weren't letting you believe your own shit.

Exactly, and I think a lot of the time parents that I've seen, they do start to think, am I enough for my kid? I just want them to be happy. Growing up-.

Well, there's a very weird dynamic happens when they start supporting their family.

The family, I never did. And I don't wanna say that that's the wrong way, because a lot of people have had to do that, and that's just survival and everything.

And a parent gives up their opportunity to work.

Exactly, but I never did that. I never supported my family. My money was mine that my mom saved for me and put away from me.

What was it like to be rich as a child?

She never told me I was. Yeah, that's smart. It's interesting, I was rich for a kid.

Yeah, let's just say you probably had hundreds of thousands of dollars when you were a kid.

I got there eventually, but it was pretty amazing. This is where this mindset comes from. After every job I finished, my mom was like, you can buy yourself a present, whatever you want with your money. Because she was like, you've earned it and this is your money that I'm saving for you. But at the end of the day, you should be able to understand that hard work you can reward yourself.

Of course. Yeah, that's great. What kind of dumb things did you buy?

Oh man, I got some, I got like, yeah, right, Jordan? But I got myself, I'll never forget this cool little electric moped that was tiny at like Walmart, for like $1.99.. Oh yeah, that's a big deal. And that was a splurge.

Did you crash it?

No, I was, see, again, so responsible. The only thing I did, my mom was very conscious of me hurting myself, because I was always very clumsy and I hurt myself very easily. She didn't want me to do dangerous activities, but I really loved to skateboard and we lived on a hill as a kid. And I thought, oh, this hill's so crazy big, you know, it'll be fun if I luge down the hill on it and lie down on my skateboard. You lie on your back on my skateboard and like, went down this hill, that's like a mile long.

Did you get speed wobbles? Because I was a big skateboarder. as a child. When you went down really steep hills, you had to really bend your knees because the board starts wanting to wobble like this.

It's so scary. So I had to tighten my tracks whenever I would luge and then I would loosen them whenever I would just skateboard.

Nice, very well done.

Very scary. I'm so not like that anymore. Really? I am so afraid of hurting myself. But I think most kids are just like, oh, I never want to throw myself around.

That hasn't happened yet for me.

I know, you're a rare.

Still waiting.

But that's good, that's cool.

I don't know, I'm constantly like, when am I gonna get on this motorcycle and go like, hmm, this is over. I don't feel like that time is any more near. Motorcycles. scare me so bad.

Yeah, everyone. My hands just got sweaty when you said that.

Is he just thinking about it? Can I show you something? Yeah. Like, look at this. Look at all this metal.

He's taking his shirt off for this.

No. Oh, my God. I'm exposing a clavicle. Big scar. I would never take my shirt off.

So you've been in a bad accident, I assume.

Yeah, over the handlebars at the racetrack. Oh Lord. Both shoulders are that way. One for a dirt bike and one for a road bike.

Were they totally both shattered?

This one was in four different pieces floating around. Oh my God. And then I had to get a plate in and the plate was working. and then, on the way here, one morning, I crashed an electric bicycle and then it rebroke, and then I had to get two plates and then I had to do a bone transplant for my hip to mash it all together.

I'm such a pussy when it comes to pain.

You are.

Like, oh my God.

Oh, my God.

Like what's the worst pain you've experienced? And then knock on wood.

Wait, that's a really, I've had some shit. I split my lip open once. That was bad, but it was fine.

I feel like you'd be predisposed to split your lip open.

It's gonna happen.

Your big lips are gonna.

It's just gonna split. I've done it.

Yeah, but you're big, you're just gonna. You're gonna pay the price. If that could be all like limousines and fucking free jeans, they come with a price.

Every now and then they split. I broke a finger once. I was really mad and I punched the floor. Oh.

The floor.

The floor's an interesting choice.

I'm not an angry guy. But this, I was really angry.

Wow. Was it directed at a boyfriend?

Sure was. Of course, always is. How did you know? I punched the tile floor. I didn't feel a thing, obviously.

Did the same boyfriend drive you to the hospital? That's kind of embarrassing. when you like, it's a very guy thing to do. You punch a wall and then you break your hand and then you have to go like, I need to go to the hospital. Oh my God.

After this whole display of gorillaz. I was so mad, I took myself. I wanted nothing to do with the whole thing. I was like, I'm doing it myself. I'm gonna go to CVS and call my sister and she's gonna come, get me.

I have some questions along the way. First of all, I guess I'm curious how you get into acting at four years old. You have the only commercial career I've ever seen that would rival Monica's. Oh. Monica would have like six nationals running at one time when I first met her.

I did have a lot.

She never went to an audition. she didn't book.

That's not true.

I'm telling you, the batting average was outrageous.

Did you like walk into the lobbies of those audition rooms and everyone in there would be like roll their eyes?

Like, oh, shit, might as well pack up.

Padman's here, pack it up.

She'd call her, pack it up, Padman.

There were plenty I didn't get, but I did pretty well. I did do pretty well, I have to admit it.

When this show was first blowing up, our comment section, all it was was people going like, is Monica in a Geico commercial?

Is Monica in the AT&T? That's so funny.

I stopped and I sometimes regret it.

Well, and you got superstitious. What's your favorite commercial you ever did?

She's been in one with huge stars. Her commercial career is better than my movie career was.

The first commercial I ever booked, this is the first like real job I ever booked, was for Herbal Essence. Mermaid.

Oh. So, yeah, so you've got fabulous hair. Thank you. Outrageous.

Of course you go in a hair commercial. Exactly, like your lips broke, she's gonna get her fucking hair caught in something someday. It might end up in some ears.

Oh my God, don't say that, I could die.

I've like shaved my head three times. I just want it to be so beautiful and thick and healthy, but it's just not. It looks very healthy. And what do you look like with the shave? My mom, French, braided it for me today.

You're up.

Wait, yeah, we gotta talk about shaving. How do you look with a shaved head?

I think I look pretty good.

I really liked it. Sinead O'Connor vibes?

Yeah, I think every woman should do it once.

Here's the thing, I shave, so, Icarus, I flew too close to the sun. I was in seventh grade and it's the only year of my life that I was super cute. I was like Brad Pitt, one year of my life.

At least you had that.

I cherish it and everyone should have that year in their life. I feel so grateful.

You peaked in seventh grade, that's great.

A big time. But I got so cocky and part of my popularity was I had a really tall spike and bangs and long hair in back. And then I fucking shaved my head in eighth grade and my nose quadrupled in size. As soon as that hair went away, I was like, oh no, what's that? Oh, my God.

That's really funny. Yeah.

You have great standalone features, that's why.

I know what you're saying, because I shaved my head for the first time when I was 11.

My little round face.

I had the cutest little button nose, the biggest lips, little chin. And then the next time I shaved my head, I was 13.. Well, things are changing a little bit when you're 13.. 13.. Things got a little bulbous here and there.

Yeah, you have to make that decision.

I overcompensated, but I've leveled out. My confidence is somewhere in the middle between hating myself and thinking I'm the best thing since sliced bread.

That's the goal.

I'm almost never in the middle. I'm on either end of that spectrum. No, me too. So I'm the biggest piece of shit in the world.

Today I'm the biggest piece of shit in the world. My in-laws are visiting me and I was laying on my kitchen floor talking to my mother-in-law. And I was like, I just hate myself today. And she's like, how are you going to do this interview?

Oh, that was today?

That was literally a couple hours ago. And I was like, I don't know Sharon. And my husband was like, mom, don't make her feel bad. What a disaster. It was so funny.

Wait, why did you hate yourself today?

Oh, good question. So I started my period two days ago and obviously you hate yourself, no matter what. Like, and that's fine. At least I can diagnose it. There's a reason, not a mystery.

You could be Angelina Jolie. If you have a huge pimple on the end of your nose, you're fucked.

I almost showed up without makeup on because I was nervous that piling it on the eczema thing will make it worse. But you guys, it is so red and itchy and raw.

Do you have a cream for that? Cause I have many.

I do, but I'm a little bit like, I need to heal this from the inside out. I don't know how, but I'm gonna take a stupid holistic approach because I want to. Yeah.

People will hate that I say this, but I have psoriatic arthritis.

I got tested for that and I didn't have it.

I'm so sorry.

I'm sorry, you haven't.

We could be brother and sister in this, but for me, it's a hundred percent diet.

I would say most of the time I'm pretty good and I indulge when I want to, but lately.

Well, your period was coming. Period was coming, in-laws in town.

It's fun to go to In-N-Out.

We just went yesterday.

I went on Monday. I did.

So good.

And then I went to Salt-N-Straw last night.

I told you. You start to just hate yourself and then you just keep making it worse on purpose because you're like in a hole. All you want is the comfort. I'll love myself when I wake up tomorrow. It'll be fine.

Yeah, you want the comfort food and then the comfort food is the cause, but then you will need more of it.

I say this about myself. I have zero homeostasis. So I'm either getting better as a person or I'm getting worse. There's never any neutral.

You're a man of extremes.

Yeah, I'm either waking up a tiny bit earlier and I'm meditating a little deeper and I'm read journaling, or it goes the other way and it just goes down, down, down, down, down.

Me as well. All or nothing. I'm making healthy smoothies in the morning. Then I'm taking time to do NSDRs.

What's NSDRs?

It's no sleep deep rest. It's basically meditation, but it's just a little different. I don't know. I found out about it on a Huberman.

I was just gonna say, are you a Huberman listener? Good ol' Andrew.

I don't know.

That's so ridiculous.

Cold plunge here and there.

Oh, we do too. We're religious about it. Okay, back to the shaved head.

Back to business.

Yeah.

Back to your seventh grade, Brad Pitt peak.

What happened? More off of me. Exactly, what happened? I grew like 10 inches and lost weight and my nose got bigger.

When I shaved it the third time, I was feeling pretty confident in myself. I was happy with who I was at that point. Like. I wasn't like a 14 year old anymore who was nervous about what everyone thought, but I'm smart enough to know the difference between looking cute while going to the grocery store and then getting dressed for an event and having your photo taken professionally. Those are the times where you've got a shaved head, your features are very differently exposed.

It'll be posted somewhere where people can comment. Yeah.

No, I was doing it for jobs. Always? Every single time was for a job.

I guess I saw you with a shaved head.

Yeah, on the act. it was for that. And which time was that? It was the last time. It was the last time I did it.

The third is a charm. You got nominated, so you finally. Finally.

I worked out.

That's why I'm doing it. I only care about awards.

Okay, so I started to ask you, but how do you get into it at four?

So my two older sisters were already kind of in it. And basically how this happened was my oldest sister was just so freaking cute as a kid. Hunter? Kelly, big black, curly hair, really beautiful white skin with freckles, so cute. Everyone's telling you, you gotta get her in a commercial, you gotta.

Oh, they went to college?

Yeah, they did. So then my middle sister, everything my sister wanted to do, she wanted to do. And then I came along and I was just this huge personality and I was like, everything they do, I wanna do too. And they were like, okay. I would go to improv class with my sisters and I was really young and kids of that age weren't allowed to be in that class, but my mom and the theater owner became like friendly.

So you were probably 10 when you filmed it, because it came out in 2010.

I was nine.

I do wanna just ask, reign over me.

First movie I ever did.

Did you like Adam Sandler? Were you too young to like Adam Sandler? Were you excited that you were in an Adam Sandler movie?

I mean, God, how old was I?

One years old. No, you were eight years old. When it came out, you were eight years old.

Okay, so I was probably six or seven.

You don't remember a fucking thing of that probably.

Barely, I was in a flashback. I had nothing to do, but it was my first time being on a film set. And it's funny because now I've run into Adam Sandler, since. He like came up to me at the Critics' Choice Awards and was like, I'm such a fan. And I was like, I was in your first,

my first movie was with you.

And it was a really, really cool full circle moment. Yeah.

Okay, so Ramona and Beezus.

Beezus.

Beezus.

That's my favorite book of all time.

Ramona and Beezus. And you liked it before you got to play her?

Loved those books. I grew up on the entire Ramona series because there's like nine books or something. There's spinoffs of, like Henry and The Best Friend, Howie. So I was obsessed with those books. Every one in my grade, it was required reading, but we adored it.

Now, when you had been reading it, because I do think we all do this, we make ourselves the lead character. When you were reading it, were you already pretending you were? Is that a weird, does that make any sense? I see what you mean. By the time an audition comes around, if you had been living in the books, I'm there.

I knew them so well, but I didn't know if I necessarily put myself in as Ramona. But I was such an avid reader at that age. I would get totally lost in whatever I was reading. So it kind of was putting myself in Ramona's shoes or whoever I was reading. You know, I was obsessed with those Goosebumps books.

Wow.

I know, it took them a long time to cast. So they were like, can we see you again now that you're older? And I was like, yes.

And that you just loved.

So much. It was fabulous. It was hard work. I was nine. I was carrying a movie.

Oh, my God.

I didn't know like the responsibility of it necessarily, but I knew how tired I was and how hard it could be and balancing that in my school.

Where did it shoot?

Vancouver. That was the job, that I fell in love with it. And I really haven't lost that spark.

When you were falling in love with it, by the way, I've worked with some kids that then became really great and big stars. Sometimes something wrong can happen, which is like you love it. It's play. And then you go, I want to be great at this. And something gets fucked up in that transition of trying to be great now.

Exactly, yeah. You become a little too aware of yourself. When you're young, you're just doing. And then when you get older, you're acting.

You're self-conscious because you're a teenager. I'm just trying to figure out where, in that process, were you. Did you already know you wanted to be a great actor, or were you just like, this is so fun. I enjoy this so much.

I've never, ever thought to myself, I want to be a great actor. But I do want to be a great actor, but I've never thought about it in those terms. I've just been lucky enough to have success. from a young age up until not that long ago, I'm auditioning. And if I get it, I do the job.

Well, now it's like, well, where am I trying to go? Cause I got to reverse engineer what I want to do to get to that point. Whereas before you're just like, this job comes along. Me, likey, go audition. Yes.

It is tricky. And becoming aware of yourself is tricky, of course.

I'm sure it's a little different from you. I was older, but it was like, I'm trying to get this thing. I'm trying to get this thing. I'm trying to get this thing. That's very easy.

Sometimes it feels worse, which is crazy.

It is a funny thing. Cause, obviously so grateful to have all these choices now, to be able to kind of choose the direction I want to see myself go in. But it is a lot more challenging. for sure. Cause, you are driving the ship at that point.

But you want to stick around minimally. You're like, I want to be able to keep doing this.

This is what I always say. When people ask me, what do you want to do next? It's like, I have lots of things I'd like to accomplish over time. My biggest thing is I would love to have longevity, please. I love what I do so much.

Well, sadly, there's a pretty bulletproof plan for that. And this is where I fucked up enormously, is you just work with the greatest person available to you. But all these really tasty things come your way without the great person attached. And they're very tempting and the money's better. For me, that was the thing.

I know. These are where the choices come in. I, as a child actor, had a lot of people helping make decisions for me, which was wonderful. And it obviously got me where I am now. But now that I would like to make the decisions, I need input, of course.

We could not possibly do this interview and not address something that Monica's gonna just lose her mind over.

Oh, my God, what? Vogue?

Taylor Swift video. Oh. Mean. 2011.. Oh my God.

I love her so much.

How do you feel about her? Monica is the biggest Swiftie on the planet Earth.

Well, that is not true. We know how Swifties keep.

Swifties.

Be Swiftin'.

Don't gun for their title of the biggest Swiftie. I would never, never, never say that. No, I know you wouldn't. I'm saying you don't gun for their title, Dex.

Well, I wouldn't, but I shouldn't even suggest that she is, because then they'll come after her.

Yeah, don't rope me into that. Okay, sorry. I'm not even close.

Honestly, though, I don't know. I think Swifties just love finding out other people are Swifties.

No, they're a good group.

They're cute.

They're so cute. They're kind of like armchairs.

I'm just gonna be respectful. Like, I know the level.

What are you out of 10?

If I'm being honest.

What's your Swift meter at?

Probably a six and a half on the scale.

Because you didn't even know about them.

This is a crazy question. What are you out of 10?? I know. Because now everyone's gonna be like, she's only a six and a half. I know.

Look what you've done. You've trapped me.

You have pigeonholed her.

But I feel like you didn't know about the Blueboard Cafe when I took a picture in front of it. That's the first time I was like, oh, she's not a eight or a nine.

I'm not claiming.

I just respect her. You're putting so much pressure on her.

I know. She had me believing she was a 10, because she talks about her so much. I'm like, oh, she must know every single thing about her. And the way Monica likes people is to do that. So she liked Matt and Ben.

Are we talking about the Matt and Ben? Yeah, of course. Okay.

And I am a 10 on Matt and Ben. There's no question. There is no one who is a bigger fan than me for them.

Some girl's getting in her car right now with a rifle. Go ahead.

Like some girl's like, I love Matt LeBlanc and Benjamin Franklin more than you. And she's coming right now.

Matt LeBlanc and Benjamin Franklin.

They see the Matt David poster and they're like,

She's like, my mistake. I'm so sorry.

That was a very fast poll.

That was.

Joey, really good.

I had to think about that one. Thank you.

Anyway, I just respect the fucking hell out of her. I think it's incredible what she's done.

She's a killer. She is.

And she's a genius.

Were you a fan of hers before? you did the music video? And was she there? She was directing it.

I was 11 or 10 or something. And what? 11 and 10 year old is not freaking out over Taylor Swift?

You were also hanging at the skate park with a shaved head. I don't know. That was. It could have gone the other way.

Listen, I'm like an onion. So many layers. Peeling back my layers.

That's what I'm here to do. I sharpen my fingernails just to get clawing at those layers.

I would consider myself very girly, but I'm also capable of being very, not girly. Sure.

Yeah. You're multifaceted.

I'm very complex. Yeah. I would say, as I'm getting older, I'm leaning into more girliness. Cause I'm just like, I love being a woman. The older you get, the more you feel that.

Three weeks. 75% of the time.

Actually like two.

I was gonna say, I get like one good week a month. I know, like four days. There's like one week a month where I'm like, I'm on top of the world.

I know, it's such a beat down. But it's beautiful. Why I am amazed by women.

You know what I do think about a lot? How Taylor performs on her period. Can you? I don't think about it a lot, that's weird. But I think about it occasionally.

Can I suggest something? It is very probable she doesn't get her period like an Olympic athlete. These athletes will have big stretches where they don't get their period.

Yes, a lot of physical exertion, but she does take care of herself in a healthy way. Yeah.

Even these athletes that don't get it for like a year at a time, they're taking care of themselves. It's just something about the body knows this is not the time for this. Yeah. Like you're running from a lion. seemingly.

That's too long for her not to get her period. I want her to get her period.

Taylor, if you've gotten your period, will you just reach out?

Yeah, could you reach out and let us know? I'm a little confused on people who take birth control and never get their period. I don't understand it. In my head, I'm like, that can't be good for you, but I'm hearing you don't need to get your period.

Yeah. But then what happens to the eggs?

Do we just absorb them?

I'm gonna tell you something that I read, which is really interesting. So if you look at the history of the birth control pill.

It sucks.