You know, so you'd be actually doing doing the movement, and you you could sell it, obviously. So I'm doing like this. No, I'm doing that. Oh, you're doing it. But you're you're you're providing the the motion. Okay, ready?

I'm not the force. No, I'm providing the the motion. So you're just you're just selling it, without actually.

I'm ready to sell it. Yeah. Hey guys, Nicky Novak here in the Young Hollywood studio with Michael Malarkey, great to see you. Thank you so much for coming in.

Good to see you too. Pleasure.

Um, thank you for calling me ahead of time and, you know, planning the stripe thing.

Well, I thought, you know, stripes look great on camera. They do, don't they?

Wait, who told you that? Yeah. You did. I did. We're sort of rolling. Um, wait, I just noticed something and I'm going to go really inappropriate to start off this interview. Are you ready?

What are you going to say?

Because during Comic-Con, I was making fun of Paul and Ian, because their chest hair, because they grew their chest hair over the summer, because I guess it's the only time because I guess Paul has to shave his chest on the show, because he has to remain ageless. And I'm noticing that you're fine in that department.

Uh, well, sorry. Yeah. Sorry to break it out, but the cleavage was there.

What shows for later? Can I show a little more? You can show more. You can show cleavage. You can do whatever you like.

No, I mean, I will, I'd rather die than shave my chest.

Stage combat, fight scene. Yeah. Um, I read somewhere that you, um, you know, you always see have these stunt coordinators. And at one point, you guys actually used weapons instead of the rubber fake kind because you were so adept at it.

Well, this was my one Diva moment so far on the show. But no, we we basically we rehearsed with certain certain weapons. And when we got to shoot it on the day, they had the Like the fake light ones that look bad, but they're not Yeah, you know. But we rehearsed, we went to shoot on the day. And I can't really say anything more than that, but um, one of them was a little wobbly, basically. A knife that was like With a little bit more like a, I can't say it on the show, but you can use your imagination. Um, so

Yeah, sure. A whip.

Yeah. But anyway, when I was kind of blocking or parrying, as they say, um, his weapon, it was like boinging, you know, like quite obviously. And I was kind of going through his weapon instead of actually blocking it. And I was just kind of I broke three of them from just from the sheer force of it, you know. Yeah. And um, I just kind of threw one down at one point and it was like, guys, this is like giving Shotsy a toy camera to shoot with. We need the real equipment. Otherwise this fight, we're not going to sell it. And finally, they kind of caved in and were like, okay, okay. I was like, look, we haven't hurt each other. We haven't even touched each other's fingers or anything the whole the whole fight. And um

Like throwing the mic.

And the time he used real knives is the time we're going to really mess up, and cut each other's fingers off. Yeah. That's the worry. And obviously our stunt coordinator, you know, it's very important health and safety, um, as we all know. And um, however, there's certain times when you just kind of have to put your foot down and you're like, I want to make this the best it can be.

Before we finish the interview, I really want a tip and stage combat or a little move because I'm not a badass at all, but I want to look like one on TV.

You look like a badass.

Do I? You told me. You looked at the shoes when you said that. Yeah, you know. I love it. I love you, man. Um, I'm going to bring up something else from Comic-Con that was revealed, um, that you have, and I know you were trained I was cringe with these preamble. You trained in London at the London, what was it, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. Um, which is no joke. And you have like a warm-up, like some sort of an animal noise warm-up situation that your castmates make fun of you for. Yeah. And what is that again?

Well, this this is something that I did not learn at LAMDA. I mean, they'll want to stay 100 feet away from this thing. But no, for me, it's not really a warm-up. It's like when I when I'm kind of, um, I mean, I do do a warm-up before, you know, just to kind of relax the voice and open everything up and feel comfortable. Right. Yeah. And um, but this is like when I feel I'm shooting a scene and I'm like locked in a certain pattern where I just can't seem to, you know, find the honesty in it, you know, where you're just kind of shadow boxing. And then I kind of need to do, I feel like I need to do something completely stupid or weird to kind of feel free to to just do something different in the next take, you know. So what I do is is normally just random kind of animal noises. I don't know where it comes from, but mostly it's a cat, you know. I do this kind of

And some people obviously love. I heard the horse too. What was it? Oh, yours is way better than mine. Do you recommend hosts do this before interviews?

I think you should.

I think I should. Yeah. What was the Yeah, open it up more. It was really kind of scared when I did that. Use your yeah, use your whole head. There you go. Feel free to cut that part out.

No, leave it.

Clearly, I'm not the actress in this equation. We're going to keep yours in for sure. We're going to cut mine out. What what quality does Enzo have that you, Michael, wish you had?

Great one-liners.

You seem to have good ones.

Oh, yeah. Thank you. I wish I could script my day beforehand and have it all prepared sometime.

You wish you had writers walking around with you to tell you what to say before you say it. But don't we all have that those moments where somebody says something to you and then later on you're like, Yeah. You just got to call your Vampire Diaries writers and have them And an earpiece. So, if you could have any actor, you could write your own script, and you could have any actor come on the show and play opposite you. It would be, um, my father, meeting my father for the first time.

Can I guess?

Yeah.

Jeff Goldblum.

How did you know? What are you playing? Let's start it again. No, no, no, it's fine. I like it. You didn't give the big reveal.

Jeff Goldblum, right? I like my surprises being spoiled.

Yeah. Um, I just I just love the guy. I think he's one of our cookiest in in in the business, you know. He teaches an acting class in L. A. You don't need it. But you could go and just, you know, hang out and

Yeah, I kind of feel like I'd say, "Hey, you want to be on the Vampire Diaries with my dad?" Or actually, I just love to do a play or something where I played his son or something, you know. As opposed to doing on Vampire Diaries, I don't think he'd he'd probably come do.

So it would be some so one of the classics would be your choice.

Yeah, yeah, I'd love to do actually Arthur Miller's, um, The Man Who Had All the Luck, is is one that I would absolutely love to do play the lead role in.

Now, your fans are going to start reading these plays. Do it. You inspire. You put them on your Instagram. I know you put books on your Instagram.

I do. Yeah, just did.

Encourage people to encourage people to read. I know you have an EP coming out called Knots. Why was it called Knots?

Cuz I get loads of knots in my back.

Is that really what it is?

Yeah, you know. Go to chiropractor every week. No, it's uh, basically, um, although I do have a terrible knot in my back. I'm sleeping on my brother's brother's couch the past couple nights. Um, it's called Knots, um, basically, one of the lyrics in the last song, The Beauty of Running Circles, which you can actually get now if you pre-order the EP on Bandcamp.

Out now, ladies and gentlemen. I love.

Yeah. And um, it goes, I'm the only one who's tangled up in here, but I've grown to love the knots. The beauty of running circles is that you never seem to stop.

So how can you say that you don't have one-liners and you're not good at it if you wrote that?

They're pre-planned. You think I could ahead of time. Just write out a bunch of one-liners and just have them in your pocket for when you need them. There you go.

But um, you are your voice is unbelievable, your singing voice. And when I was listening to your stuff, you do sound like Johnny Cash.

Okay.

Have you been told that?

No. I have actually on two one of the tracks in particular, uh, The Greatest Trick I Know. Um, it's a very two-step kind of rolling thing. And um, yeah, I think there's a little Cash channel in there, I'm sure.

I think you said at one point, one of the things you said, I don't want to misquote you. Something about have a backup plan.

Yeah.

What's your back what was your backup plan before?

That one. That's why I know. I was free fallin'. You know, it's it's tough because when people normally, you know, I didn't find out I wanted to be an actor until I was about 21.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Yeah. So it was it was I initially was, um, you know, I didn't go to university. I I played in bands and just was hanging out, man, you know. And when I finally got into acting, it was like, all I could see was wanting to do that. And I think a lot of people when they go into it, they're just so focused on what they want to do, um, that sometimes you can become a slave to that. And when things maybe don't work out, you just have no idea what to what to do with the rest of your life. I think it's important to cultivate your life experience. And this is not just having a backup plan. It's I think it's about not being a slave to your profession, whatever it is, you know. Read books, travel, be interested about stuff. Talk to people who are outside of your business and gain perspective. Before we go out, All right, I'll teach you stage combat, then. So, basically, stage combat is all about, one of the main rules for it is victim control. So, when the person's doing the attacking, for example, if I am pulling your hair, you know, I'll be There are extensions. They'll come right out. Are they? I'm going to rip them out. Okay. Basically, I would be not actually holding your hair firmly. I'd kind of have a a fist like this around it. And you would be holding my hand. And you'd be actually pulling my hand around as if I'm pulling your hair. So you'd be, you know. And maybe How's the face?

Oh, that's great. Here, do it to me. I'll show you.

You're like, "Let me show you." So for example, you know, so you'd be actually doing doing the movement. And you you could sell it, obviously.

So I'm doing like this. No, I'm doing that. Oh, you're doing it. But you're you're you're providing the the motion. Okay, ready? I'm not the force.

No, I'm providing the the motion. Okay. Okay, ready? So you just you're just selling it, without actually.

I'm ready to sell it. Right. And you don't have to do your head, too. No, it felt good. It was kind of like a music video. You're like, how you do it on Baywatch.

Anyway, that's that's a little little something-something for you.

Well, thank you so much for coming in. This is a lot of fun.

I'll give you a massage now in return. All right. Great. Cut the cameras. Vampire Diaries. Check it out. Knots. He's amazing. You're awesome. Great actor. Great having you here. Come back anytime.

Pleasure. Thanks.