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Chapter 1: What insights does Danny Pintauro share about his childhood acting career?
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There was no anything inside those eyes. They turned black. It scared the hell out of me. Evil, wake up. I'm the one that saw the murder take place by Krivak and DePippo.
Anthony DePippo showed no signs of remorse, appearing unfazed after being sentenced to the maximum.
I said I'm not guilty. I'll take it to the grave.
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Chapter 2: How did Danny transition from child actor to adult roles?
This is going to change my life and my family dynamic forever because everything that had existed prior in my reality is now untrue. Listen to Deep Cover, The Family Man on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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What a lot of people don't know about the podcast is that very early in the process, we made a pact with each other that while recording, we would never censor ourselves in the moment, knowing that we would deal with whatever we wanted to cut in the edit. That way, we wouldn't find ourselves holding back or fearful of where a comment could take us.
We would just let the process guide each episode. And hilariously, in the end, minus some totally insane tangents, we mostly find ourselves keeping everything in. And that's because since day one, we've tried our hardest to let honesty lead the way. We'd lean into the good and the bad that came with what is hands down the strangest job a kid could have.
And that's why we appreciate this week's guest and his recent journey to inform and destigmatize the real journey of an actor. At just seven years old, he made his Hollywood debut as an original Paul Ryan on the legendary soap opera As the World Turns, a role played by a total of nine actors over 30 years.
But his first big break was in the 1983 Stephen King horror movie Cujo when he played Tad, the young son who convinces his family to adopt the once friendly and easygoing St. Bernard, who becomes rabid when bit by a cave bat. Thank you so much for having me.
Yet no matter how iconic a show is or how recognizable a cast becomes, once the spotlight dims, not everything is promised to fall into place. The calls slowed down and he'd try to focus on stage acting, a trade he learned at Stanford when he took time off in the 90s to focus on his education.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did Danny face after leaving Hollywood?
That's so funny.
OK, so your dad, he worked on a lumber yard, right? Yeah. OK, so he worked in a lumber store and your mom was a hairdresser who on a lark decides to send your picture in. And you now are consistently booking jobs. Yes. You've already now been on a bunch of commercials, modeling jobs. You've done a for years. You've done a soap opera. You've done a massive movie like Cujo.
Are your parents freaking out? How do they just all of a sudden now, is their full-time job on set with you? How are they responding to this sort of immediate response? career you have. So the thing about it is that the money wasn't particularly great until that point. It was useful and it was important, but dad still worked.
So it was mom who was taking me to New York every day or whenever I needed to go. And at that point, Cujo was a big deal, but it's more of a hindsight big deal than it was then. They weren't actually sure how successful it would be. Horror, the whole thing. It just didn't feel like... We had a blockbuster on our hands. Yeah.
So I don't think they came out of the movie thinking, wow, this is going to be it. We're done. We're set. So it wasn't until the pilot for Who's the Boss? That felt real and that felt important. And then there was this waiting period back in New Jersey waiting to see if the pilot got picked up. And when it did, my mom and I flew out to California. We stayed at those apartments near the Oakwoods.
The Oakwoods.
We all lived there.
We all lived there. Everybody's lived at the Oakwoods. And then dad quit his job, packed up the house, sold the house, moved the house, moved everything. So he came a few months later. Yeah, because it was very fast. Oh, my gosh. I have to ask just Cujo-wise, did you meet Stephen King?
no i spoke to him on the phone apparently um i don't remember the call um but he was kind of a mess at the time if you know according to his sort of life history and his writing he was yeah he was he says he doesn't remember writing kujo really yeah yeah he says it's a pretty good novel i have no my collection of writing that's hilarious rock and roll i guess yeah
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Chapter 4: How does Danny describe his experience with vulnerability and honesty?
It was a beautiful relationship, but we weren't like hanging out or calling each other. She was hanging out with the boys that she was, you know, that she was into or
she was definitely doing some of the going out to events in hollywood and being sort of seen she you know she was very popular at the time right so this little kid who doesn't really who just wants to do his homework is like not on her radar right yes but it was never more than that now now we're closer than we had ever been on the show which is so wonderful to me and um
She is a really, really terrific woman, and all of the things that she strives to be and strives to achieve for other people just blows my mind. I don't know how she gets up every day and just keeps so focused on achieving these goals in the world. If I could just be a little bit more like her, I'd be happy.
Aww.
Aww.
In the moment, it felt like it was going on forever. I didn't think I was going to live. I was terrified.
There was no anything inside those eyes. They turned black. It scared the hell out of me.
That was your first murder case? Yes, sir. Fair to say this was the biggest case of your career?
Yes, sir. Rape and murder of a 12-year-old child.
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Chapter 5: What impact did Danny's openness about his struggles have on his career?
It's everybody. It's well, it's also because everybody can just point their camera at themselves on their phone and be an influencer or do whatever they have to do. So the idea of these massive companies now saying we're going to put hundreds of millions of dollars into stuff that people are doing on YouTube for free. It's like, well, why would why would we do that?
So, yes, in such a state of flux right now. And the other thing I try to explain too is that, as you say, all of the studios are basically owned by a corporation. So instead of the studio being able to say, oh, man, we got to make this thing. It's going to be amazing. They have to say, hey, corporation, what do you think about us making this thing?
Stockholders.
Then the corporation says, well, what's the risk assessment on it? And then it gets canned.
know because it's not going to be it's not going to make them money and or the other thing that i feel like is happening maybe tell me if you feel like this is true is that those corporations know that if they have celebrity names in the first eight roles on the call sheet they're going to make money or it's going to be more successful rather than take a chance on someone who isn't a celebrity name so i feel like yeah we're getting farther and farther down on well it's
Even worse, unfortunately, because when we and we talk about this all the time, there was there was a real delineation between the type of actor you were in the 70s, 80s and 90s. You were a television actor or you were a movie star. And now because films are dead, all the people that were movie stars are now coming onto television and all the people that are television stars are being pushed out.
Yeah. Even my dad sees it. He's like, what's going on? Yeah. And that's how and here's the thing. They're all out of work. So they're going to say yes. Of course. They're going to say yes. George Clooney does Nespresso commercials. Exactly. For me, those are not as crazy. I just saw, I won't say names. I just saw an episode of something.
A fairly famous actor came on and I was like, oh, they're going to have a great guest star. Three lines. Yeah. And then they left. And I went, wait a second. Hold on a minute. Like, is this where we're at? Is that? Yeah.
So the person who would normally have played that role, the like co-star level actor, guest star level actor, new upcoming person who they would have taken a risk on for those three lines is now being played by someone who's been on a series regular on a television show. Arrived on the set and they said, you have 30 minutes.
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Chapter 6: How does Danny's journey reflect the realities of child actors today?
There's always been a fantasy, like a mystique about actors. And they project onto things. onto actors, we all do. I think we, you know, we project like they must live a fantastic life in a big house and have people waiting on them. It's like this, it's like a version of the American dream, right? Like we project it onto actors.
Like if you're on a TV show, if you're in a movie, you've made it and it's done. And it's just not the truth at all.
And it's only gotten worse.
Because the general public understand what a non-famous actor is doing. Gigs, restaurant work, they understand that. But then when you try to apply it to any of us, they don't understand it. It's so fascinating to me. But one of the big things to talk about with it all is the residuals. And I've seen so many things since I talked about it a few weeks ago. I've seen so much about it.
And I think they're finally starting to understand what it means and what residuals actually mean and what they do.
don't yeah yeah yeah when you open that 38 cent check yeah um i mean there's so many times and sue will be like this is absurd where the stamp on the front costs more than the check inside there is already a time that's happened to me so many times i mean it's crazy where it's like they literally sent a 55 cent stamp or whatever to send me a 12 cent check like what the hell is happening it's crazy
In the moment, it felt like it was going on forever. I didn't think I was going to live. I was terrified.
There was no anything inside those eyes. They turned black. It scared the hell out of me.
That was your first murder case? Yes, sir. Fair to say this was the biggest case of your career?
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Chapter 7: What unique business venture is Danny pursuing now?
I have this sort of cartoon figure of me and I made a 3d version. Oh my gosh. yeah 3d printing man is absolutely the way to go especially for uh dungeons dragons yeah man it's already i mean i love it i love it so much man that's that is so cool random but it's you know paying the bills so yeah we do enjoy it and you enjoy it i absolutely enjoy it yeah
If you had your druthers and you could be performing in any capacity doing anything, what would you be doing? It's so hard because it's been already four years of trying to come back. And I feel like what's currently happening is people are getting to know me as a human, which I think is really nice. All of this press is all about getting to know who I am.
But the business, the casting directors, the directors, nobody knows what I can do as an actor. So at this very moment, the answer is truly I will do whatever. I can to just get back in front of the camera so people can see that I still know what I'm doing, that I still have it, and that I am a capable human being. The hard part, of course, for me is that, you know, I have a lot of boxes.
Those boxes that we talked about, the queer box, the HIV box, don't forget about that from 2015. Do you all know about that? No. Oh, well, by the way, in 2015, Oprah called me or her people and said, we want to do a Where Are They Now special on you. And I said, well, I'm ready to talk about something else. So what do you think about that?
So, yeah, 2015, I came out to Oprah as being HIV positive on her show.
okay uh big deal big big deal actually scarier than coming out as gay um well yeah but you didn't you didn't get to really do that on your own yeah yeah for sure no and i was definitely ready to talk about it and i also felt like it was time for me to do i felt like the universe was saying it's it's an important thing for you to do right now and at the time it really was
And I made a huge difference in a lot of people's lives in terms of just having someone else to look to who's living happily with HIV. So I've got that box. I've got the gay box. I've got a Jonathan Bauer box because that's never going to go away. Right, right. So it's just it's hard. And I just really just need something.
It just needs something to come through that I can get up there and be like, guys, here it is. And it's just hard because 30 auditions, self tapes, no feedback. No callbacks, one callback. It just starts to get to a place where you really doubt yourself and you really doubt your ability.
And you just, I have to remember the outcome of the audition is not a reflection of whether I'm a good actor or not. It's so hard though. You just have to remember that there are a thousand moving parts. But yeah, I'm ready. And I just, I need, it needs, I'm ready. And everybody says that they feel like something is coming, which feels really nice.
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