Episode 808 - Mr. Rick Worthy
Mr. Rick Worthy is a Martial Arts practitioner and an accomplished TV and Film actor.
I kept asking myself, What do I want to do? Well.. I want this character to live on the page. I want to bring him to life. I think I’ve got to figure out how to do it.
Mr. Rick Worthy - Episode 808
Some of you may recognize him from various film and TV series such as Gossip Girl, Washington Black, Supernatural, the Magicians, Stargate, The Man in the High Castle and so much more. Mr. Rick Worthy started training at age 9 in Detroit, where he grew up. He started at a time when martial arts weren’t often taught to children. Mr. Worthy trained in Taekwondo when he successfully persuaded his parents after seeing Bruce Lee over and over in the cinema. This passion remained with Mr. Worthy as he went on another journey to Hollywood as an actor.
In this episode, Mr. Rick Worthy talks about his journey into martial arts as well as the many tv series under his belt. Listen to learn more!
Show notes
You may check out more about Mr. Rick Worthy on IMDB or follow him on Instagram
Show Transcript
Jeremy Lesniak:
Welcome, this is whistlekick Martial Arts Radio. I'm Jeremy Lesniak. Today I'm joined by a name that some of you may know, and if not, I would all that guarantee you would recognize this man, Mr. Rick Worthy, who is he? If you don't know, I'm gonna tell you in a minute. If you're new to the show, hang tight because we've got a great episode for you. But a few things that you might not be aware of. We do all the things that we do out of a love, out of a passion for traditional martial arts and traditional martial artists worldwide. Our mission is to connect, educate, and entertain as many of you as possible on the way to a very simple, very lofty goal of getting everyone in the world to train. For just six months, even just six months. If we could get everybody in the world to train, I think you would agree with me, it would make the world a much better place. Until then, we will do what we are doing and what do we do? Well, if you go to whistlekick.com, you'll see all the things that we do. We've got this show, but we also have a lot of other stuff. We have books, we have training programs, we host events, we make products. Check us out there. Use the code podcast15. Get yourself some training equipment or a training program or maybe a shirt or a hat. We do lots of great stuff and it's a lot of fun to do all the stuff that we do, including the show whistlekickmartialartsradio.com is the place you go. If you wanna go deeper on one of the episodes, perhaps this one, perhaps you're, you're listening and you think you know, I wanna check out photos later. Go to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. Rick sent over a number of photos and I be, you'll recognize quite a few of those photos, I did. What else can you do? Well, you can join our Patreon. We have a Patreon that has exclusive bonus stuff and it's all over the place in a really good way. When we have something, we're like, you know what? This isn't gonna make it out to the feed, but let's put it out to Patreon. The Patreon contributors, some of 'em are in as little as $2 a month spend. Some are spending a hundred dollars a month and we have tiers in between. But what do we do At every level? We deliver overwhelming value. We give you stuff that you're not gonna find anywhere else. Stuff that is great. Like at the upper tiers, you can either have me train you, you, you want me to help you work on something. We'll do that on a monthly basis. Or if you're a school owner, we have a school owner's mastermind that you can only get to if you're part of the Patreon, you can write it off. It's a business expense. But there's also bonus merch and book drafts and training program drafts and lots of cool stuff that comes through and people love it. And how do I know? Cuz they don't stop. Now, today's episode with Rick Worthy. This is a man who's been acting professionally for 30 years. And while he's not a martial arts actor, I wouldn't call him that he's done martial arts as an actor, but really this is a story of someone who started out very early as a passionate martial artist and it set him on a trajectory, but not in the way that I think a lot of people might expect this episode to go. We've had actors who trained his kids and they became either martial arts actors or you know, stunt folks. That's not Rick's story, and I love it because it's not a story that we've had on a bunch of times. It's his story and he's the only one that can tell it. I had a wonderful time talking to him, and I'm sure you are gonna have a wonderful time hearing or watching it. Here we go.
Hey Rick, how are you?
Rick Worthy:
Thank you so much for the invitation, it's been…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Of course.
Rick Worthy:
Been number of weeks, so you know, life happens and…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Rick Worthy:
Turned 56 last month and…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Happy Birthday.
Rick Worthy:
I celebrated actually, I was actually coincidentally doing a convention for the TV show Supernatural.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Rick Worthy:
Just south of London. So I flew over to London, probably my birthday’s March 12th. They flew me over like March 9th. I had a day to kinda recover from jet lag, and the convention was, you know conventions, I'm pretty sure you do. Full on like Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and it turns out the last day of the convention was my birthday, so everybody sang I birthday to me and
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well, that's awesome.
Rick Worthy:
You know it was like one of those things, it was cool. Yeah. Yeah. It was cool.
Jeremy Lesniak:
If you did, I would assume if you're still doing conventions that you dig conventions, right? People either love that energy or they don't.
Rick Worthy:
I love them, man. I think it's one of the coolest ones probably for sure. One of the coolest things ever, you know, is to do a convention, particularly for Sci-Fi horror. You know genre television is, it really, really is part of my life so I just can't do them all the time. I need to do maybe I need like three, maybe four good ones a year, and then
Jeremy Lesniak:
They take a lot outta you.
Rick Worthy:
That's it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
The first time I went to a convention.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Andrew and I went, what was that 20, 2021? We went together to Rhode Island ComicCon. Right. It's the closest big one for us.
Rick Worthy:
I love Rhode Island ComicCon.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. It, it was great. And a good friend of mine been on the show. Craig kind of like gave us the lay of the land and showed us everything.
Rick Worthy:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And I was, as a spectator, I was exhausted after day one. So I could only imagine what it's like, you know, shaking hands and it's not like I'm outta shape or something's just being around that many people and that much energy it was intense.
Rick Worthy:
But out you know I always say it's the one place where I feel like I can just be myself, you know? And you know there's no pre-sense that no one. It's just me with my fellow nerds, you know? And sadly I haven't, I've worked with other actors. They don't understand. What it's like to be at a convention, you know? And I was on a show called The Magicians, and I think me and maybe two other actors, they sort of went, you know, like we know the conventions world.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Rick Worthy:
Really, you know, and, but they were like, well, what is you? Well, you should go to one, you know you happen to be on the show where we'll probably get invited, you know? So I think a couple of them are starting to do some of the conventions, so yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Nice. Nice. You said something that's kind of interesting, that it's at these conventions that you get to be yourself.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And that's something that I, say more about that. Cause I think I get it, but I probably don't.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah. Well, I feel like I can just kind of, just, just nerd out man. You know, and just be Rick. And you know, when I'm sitting down, you know, at Christmas dinner, you know, with the family, you know, I'm, me and maybe my nephew, my youngest nephew, maybe like we're the kinda nerds in the family. Like we love Science fiction, we love Star Trek, we love Battle Star. You know, we love all this stuff that, you know, that I grew up with, and I got for his generation, he's in his 20s. He's growing up with as well, you know, but you know, the new Star Wars movies and all the different star tracks, stuff like that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Rick Worthy:
I like when I'm there, like I buy Funko pops. I do the same thing I do when, since I was nine years old, I buy stuff, I walk around, I get comic books. You know,
Jeremy Lesniak:
You have better access now, right? You can probably go up to anybody now and, and say, Hey, can I talk to you? And they actually talk to you instead of, you know, 30 seconds.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah. Exactly right. Yeah. I met Luke Carig when I was about nine or 10 years old at Motor City Comic. Cause I grew up in Detroit. And it's funny now because now we were both on the convention circuit.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Rick Worthy:
You know, and I will be at a convention. I think he was at, gosh, I dunno if he was at Rhode Island this last year, but he was at another one that was at, I think Salt Lake City, ComicCon maybe last year or the year before. And my friend dragged me over to his table and said it was so embarrassing. He said my friend Rick wants to meet you, he wants to tell you this whole story about meeting you when he was nine years old and I was like, oh man.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But he's the best guy because in again, 2021. So Andrew, you know, did all this research about who was going to be there that had some martial arts training, and spoiler alert…
Rick Worthy:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Audience like this is why Rick's on the show today. We actually, were not just talking about Comic-Con and TV and movies, but we go over to Lou Ferrigno cause Andrew had some very specific martial arts questions and, you know, we've gotta press badges on. And as soon as he figured out that we actually cared, he ignored his line for long enough that his handlers were kind of like, Hey, you've been talking to you guys for like five minutes. You gotta let him move on. And it was just, it was such a trip and it's something that I find really interesting. You know, when we talk to someone who is known for not martial arts, right? You're known for a ton of things. It's a long list. You know, to me you're that character from Supernatural. I love that show. And as soon as you know.
Rick Worthy:
Oh wow, thanks.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, that's just…
Rick Worthy:
Thank you.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's you know, as soon as Andrew said that he had talked to you and he was like, in case you don't remember, you know, this is who he is. I was like, oh, I know that guy. Right. But…
Rick Worthy:
That guy.
Jeremy Lesniak: That guy. You, I mean, your IMDB list is probably the longest of anybody we've had on the show, and we've had some folks who've done a lot of stuff, you know?
Rick Worthy:
Wow.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And…
Rick Worthy:
I guess that's like that's good. I guess I've been around for a long time, man. You know, like…
Jeremy Lesniak:
You've been, when was your first role? When did you start?
Rick Worthy:
Age 20.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Rick Worthy:
So that's 30.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So 36.
Rick Worthy:
36 years ago. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Rick Worthy:
And it's been making a living at it since age 26. So 30 years this year. Yeah. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's, it's a long, it's a long time.
Rick Worthy:
It's a long time. yeah, some of the guys you know and I know some of the guys that I sort of you know, quote unquote started with, you know, like some of them had left business. Others. Well, my best friend moved to Australia and got married and teaches theater, but he actually has a career there, so he does theater there and the action and he is in the new Elvis Presley movie. He has a really great, he has one scene and he's really great and he plays a reverend I forgot the character's name by but his name is Charles Allen. And, I was like, man, you're working more in Australia than, than you are in Hollywood, so stay, stay, stay there, you know?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. And the kind of the anecdote of Elvis mix for a great segue because if you look at
Rick Worthy:
Yes.
Jeremy Lesniak:
The world, you take a layer down. Martial arts threads through all of it. You know, Bill Wallace has been on the show.
Rick Worthy:
Wow.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Speaking of a friend.
Rick Worthy:
Wow.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right. Who started teaching Elvis, right? Like if know your martial arts history, you see that it threads through everything and I'm sure that we're gonna get some of those threads.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But we gotta roll the tape back all the way. When did you start training?
Rick Worthy:
Wow. Well, I grew up in Detroit, Michigan, in this, in the early seventies. I was born in 1967, and I started training when I was about nine. So that's about 1976.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's super.
Rick Worthy:
We were, yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Kids weren't training in the seventies. How did you pull that off?
Rick Worthy:
I begged. My brother and I begged. I think it was, was actually a fantastic question. I've never, I always want to talk about this and I just want to thank you. First of all, you and Andrew for the invitation because very few people have, either they don't know how to talk about martial arts or, you know, what my history is, or, you know, it's something that they don't know, know it themselves. So they're not sure how to ask, they just usually just go to stunt fighting.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Rick Worthy:
So when I was a kid, we were in love with Enter the Dragon and all things Bruce Lee. And there was a one little movie theater that was playing all the Bruce Lee movies on Saturdays and Sundays, Matt day, and we begged our mom and dad to please take us there, so we see you know our, this guy we kept hearing about and who we love so much named Bruce Lee. So you know, we would go and in the back that at that time, maybe two bucks, three bucks to go see him that day or something. May not even that probably. They eventually let us ride our bike to the theater like we would go back to see it again and again you know. And we all collectively me and my brother and some of the young kids in our group, we all fell in love with Bruce Lee. And I begged, literally begged my mom and dad to please let us study. You know, we were young, so we couldn't really intellectualize at that time. We were like please let us study karate, you know.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Rick Worthy:
And you know for us what it was for us was Taekwondo, Korean karate and I studied under Master Lee. And for me, I would never forget him. I will never forget him till today. He was pretty tough on me but he believed in me and even now I still rememberthe things he taught me. Yeah. And I remember some of my classmates and I had a crush on this one girl she was but she was, we spared one time. I'll never forget she got, she hit me pretty quick and I'll never forget how terrific she was, you know? And…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Did that increase the crush or did that…
Rick Worthy:
At that time it did.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Temporary?
Rick Worthy:
Yeah. But you know, like we were just, you know, I was just a kid. My brother didn't continue, but I did, you know, like cause I loved it so much. So we moved to a different part of Detroit and even then, you know, it's just probably not a great idea to let your kid be on the bus, you know, going anywhere in big city. But, you know, again I begged my mom, dad, I'll be there. I'll call on the payphone when I'm there. So the whole thing. So they let me go continue studying you know. And which is typically like all day Saturday afternoon type thing. And I think maybe this was maybe one other day, but I just remember it was Saturday was the day. Then I would get on the bus and head back home and I carried it with me, you know sadly I, you know, I never achieved my black belt. It was those things that I felt like I was like so, so very close, you know, if, remember correctly, and you can help me with this the ranking that I remember was white, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, black. And I got up to purple and I just remember that I kept thinking, man, I just hope we don't move. Cause I really wanna, I wanna continue, you know, but we ended up moving to the suburbs of Detroit in 1980, 1981. Right at the, really sort beginning of the crack cocaine epidemic. You know, we got a lot of, you know, so I look back on it now and now I'm like, I'm glad we did leave the city man, because I'm sure some of the kids that I grew up with they probably aren't even here today, you know?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. Okay, so a few things. Were you in specifically a kids' class?
Rick Worthy:
I didn't remember it was like a youth class. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay. That was that really uncommon back then. We've had a lot of folks that started training at that age and, or I should say at that time, and quite often what we hear is, you know, I was the only kid in with the adults and they tolerated me. And it wasn't until I was, you know, 14 or 15 that I really could kind of hang.
Rick Worthy:
Wow. Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So what, you know, you said your brother stopped training, you obviously stopped training when you moved. I'm sure we can talk in retrospect about a lot of impact that had on your upbringing. But what about at the time when you were that kid, were you aware of anything other than this is fun?
Rick Worthy:
I'm sure there, I think I was able to, I think ascertain some the wisdom of it all, you know, and so those gems of, those pearls of life wisdom if you'll, and, I knew it was like for us, you know, we were poor kids, you know, predominantly poor, predominantly black neighborhood growing up in Detroit in the seventies. There were a couple of white families, couple of Asian families, couple of Indian families, as an East India, as an Indian. And you know we were, it was sometimes pretty rough neighborhood, you know? Thank God you know, we, you know, not into a whole different discussion about the hood with the inner city, but when we were there, you know, kids weren't shooting each other, you know, it was more like were, there were for sure street fights and brawls and, you know, maybe a knife like this kid pulled a knife on me one time. He stole my paint set of all thing. Nowadays the kid will get shot for that, you know.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Rick Worthy:
So I think the, like we were, I was aware that this wasnyou know, this was something that I could potentially use if I had to, but also not use as well. You know, like it was the sort of thing where like I always, you know I was always, I was taught, you know to not fight. But if you have to fight, absolutely have to, you know, then fight with everything you have, you know, fight to win. And
Jeremy Lesniak:
Was that just outta your martial arts training or was that part of your family upbringing?
Rick Worthy:
Martial arts training. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah. But it's interesting cause my dad, who's to this day age 80's still the toughest son of a bitch in the world. He's straight from the streets, my dad, you know, but he's also like, you know, without having a college degree. He's became incredibly successful human being you know. Became a Major Rep for United Autoworks like international rep. So like, you know, for us, he's like a major, you know, success story and, but my dad grew up as he said you know I grew up tough, I grow up hard and you guys wouldn't have to, you know. But I remember him saying look if you ever fell like someone's gonna take a swing at you, you swing first.
Jeremy Lesniak:
There's a little bit of Cobra Kai in there, huh? Yeah. Strike first. Strike hard.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah, totally. Yeah, this is exactly right. I love…
Jeremy Lesniak:
And you know, there's something to that too, right? Like actually I was talking about this, in another episode with someone, this idea that if you watch Karate Kid as a little kid, it's very black and white.
Rick Worthy:
Right?
Jeremy Lesniak:
You watch it again as an adult and you're like, oh, there's actually a lot of nuance in gray going on.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah, man. Yeah. It's so true. And I, you know I'd love to meet the cast of Cobra Kai, actually haven't met them, but we've been in the same room at the same time. We just have not actually met. Zebco the and Ralph Macchio, and yeah. And I saw the, how do you pronounce his last name? Is it Zebco?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Zebco.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah Zebco, and, I saw an interview that they did I believe probably San Diego ComicCon and someone had asked question Is the Karate Kid really about you or it's about Ralph Macchio's character? And you know I think he said that he saw it as, as about his character, you know, and, and it's a whole other discussion about what's that movie really about? And it made made the whole thing man, you know.
Jeremy Lesniak:
There's a fun story arc and I've brought this up a few times on the show, if you've seen how I Met Your Mother.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
They thread that through and Neil Patrick Harris's character talking about you know, that was the first time I'd ever heard that theory that the karate kid was really about…
Rick Worthy:
Right
Jeremy Lesniak:
Johnny. Not about Daniel.
Rick Worthy:
Exactly. I think something just happened with my video.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I lost your video, but now you're back. So no worries.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah. So you said you read something about that said it was really about the other time.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You can make the argument again, you know, when
Rick Worthy:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
When you assume the karate kid, right? It's gotta be Daniel. It's gotta be Ralph Macchio.
Rick Worthy:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But if you start to look at it, you know, again, as an adult, you can make the argument, you know,
Rick Worthy:
Might be Johnny.
Jeremy Lesniak:
He spent a lot more time training. It meant a lot more to him.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
For a longer period of time.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah. It's powerful. It's powerful. I'm so happy for these guys. I mean, as an actor, you know, it's like, you know, I'm happy when, I think, especially when 30 years go by, man, you know? And, you know, they get a 30, maybe 35 years and they get a chance to do it again and, you know, support their families and get back in it, man, you know? I thought it was so as an older actor now, like I appreciate that, you know, when they get the second chance to dance, you know?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Rick Worthy:
And it's, I think it's cool. I think it's so so cool. And they're great in the roles, you know, they're playing the older version of these guys, you know, all grown up.
Jeremy Lesniak:
The first season, that first season when they dropped it on YouTube, I watched it and I said, this is about as perfect as season of television as I ever seen, was…
Rick Worthy:
Ever seen.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So good. It was.
Rick Worthy:
So good. Yeah. Yeah. And just done with such care, you know, like they really wrote it Right. Directed it right. The actors performed it right. It's every shot is just right. You know, and the music, everything. Just, you know, I love the casting of the kids as well, as this Cobra Kai students. And you know, like all of the casting are so spot on. And, I'm like, you know, I lived in LA for 28 years. When the pandemic began, I sold everything, moved to New York, you know, and
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Rick Worthy:
And yeah. And…
Jeremy Lesniak:
What general park are you in? The city or at?
Rick Worthy:
Yeah. I'm in Manhattan. I'm like not near like Gramercy Park like, pretty much Gramercy Park. Yeah. And you know, completely different. I just need a completely different place for me, so Yeah. But like, I look at Kobra Khan like that's not like it, Its like the valley it's I know that street you know. Ventura Boulevard you know the whole thing.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. Maybe a little bit more truth in the sentiment expressed going on, and…
Rick Worthy:
Yes.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And some of us would like to admit.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So here's a question. You know, you talked about the affinity for Bruce Lee and for those old kung fu flicks as a kid. And, you know, we can kind of split those films into two pieces, the martial arts piece and the film piece. And, you know, you check the martial arts piece. Was your inspiration to go into acting at all tied to that experience?
Rick Worthy:
I'm not sure I would say that. I think probably when I was a bit younger I didn't maybe know it consciously at the time, but I think when I was about five, I, my mom and dad must have said this. Kid's different because I would you know , my other heroes were Batman and Spiderman. So I had pretty much three heroes. Bruce Lee, Spiderman, Batman, Batman and Robin. And had a crush, on Wonder Woman Lynda Carter, who didn't. Yeah. I still do. And I remember just like, just thinking that I was Spiderman, you know, when I was a kid. I would crawl down the street or you know like my mom and dad were like just let him be who he is, you know. I, especially around Halloween, you know, that was my top two costumes be Batman and Spiderman. I think I probably sort unconscious level knew I said to be other people you know or portray other people but I, didn't yet know that that would lead to becoming a stage actor and then actor on TV and film. So, it, like, it all sort of has as you said, like a line. There's like a nice through line of the whole thing. Thank God, man, when I studied martial arts, I was able to, I did a mini-series when I was, about 38 for ABC Family called, Well before that, it did an episode of Stargate and I played, a [00:23:36] if I'm saying it right, everyone has different pronunciation of it. And, Peter DeLuise, Dom DeLuise's son was directing the episode. And, Christopher Judge, it was his episode. He, it was his creation, his story, his villain, his, you know, he wrote up, his script. And they looked at my audition on tape from LA and they were in Vancouver filming. And, I got the job. So when I got the set, they're all standing around waiting to meet me to see what I looked like, and you know how tall I am physically. And then, and then the first question they said was, well, the first thing they said was, thanks for coming. I said, I'm happy to be here. The first question that they had was, can you do anything? And I said, what do you mean? I said. Can you do, can you fight? Can you do anything? I said, as a matter of fact, I can, you know, and so when we did they, and they were like, oh, great. So we did this elaborate huge stunt fight with, it was kinda like the Matrix, and it was me versus Chris Judge Tilk, and he's about four times my size. You know, he's wide. And I said, only on TV. But man, it was like, man, it was a fight, bro. And I did 98% of the whole thing. You know it was some nice some really nice Taekwondo kicks and punches and roundhouses and you know I mean just back fists and, really cool stuff. And, I just remember Peter was like, nice, you know, we're gonna cut it all together it's done it's gonna be great. Then they had some guys come from Brazil who were Capoeira.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Capoeira.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And these guys were like, I'm looking at you, you like, you look super fit. These guys were like you. They were like super fit, you know? And they, this one guy doubled me because I had to do, like, I had to spring up from the ground off my back and onto my feet. And there was a time when I could do that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's a hard move.
Rick Worthy:
Back in the eight, it's a hard move, especially…
Jeremy Lesniak:
If you miss it a couple times, you really don't wanna try it again for a while. It hurts landing.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah, it hurts. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And I was break dancer in the 80's and so that kinda help, you know, I can do it I just got to get into the rhythm of it and do it, and man I just couldn't do it. Not with all the costume stuff on and everything, you know, the wardrobe and they brought the double in and this guy was just ripped. So, but if you look at it, I mean, think the camera caught his flip up in the, at the right distance. You know, because if you, unless you're really paying attention, you can't tell maybe that that's not me. But yeah, it was, it, you know, I was like, man, I love this stuff, you know, and just watching them, you know the capoeira, you the whole thing, they brought us, professional people, to help make us look great. I look at it now I mean I had like four percent maybe body fat you know I just finished this rigorous program and like, when I'm in shape, I'm really lean and toned, but I'm not big, you know, but I'm like, I'm a basketball, like lean and toned and strong, you know? And it worked and it totally worked you know and I think when I hit age 30. For some reason, my body chemistry shifted just like my dad said it would. And I know, I just, I couldn't go out to happy hour three times a week anymore. All that's gone. So yeah, so I was ready for this role, and to this day I'm really proud of the commitment that I put into just getting into shape. And then the role came up just literally just as I finished this 12-week program,
Jeremy Lesniak:
It was meant to be.
Rick Worthy:
I was ready. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You said something that makes me ask this question. You know, we've had, we've got plenty of folks on coming out of the, the film in the stunt world and the fact that they hired you to do what could be and what turned out to be a very physically intensive role in the scene specifically, but they didn't know what your background was. So did they cater the choreography? Did the stunt folks work with you and say, what can you do? What do you know? Did that scene have genuinely your skill versus you kind of getting cookie-cuttered into what they had already come up with?
Rick Worthy:
I think probably cookie, like cookie-cuttered into what they had designed in their minds. And they want, I think they wanted to see if I could do it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Rick Worthy:
And I just, you know, like anything, I'll just, I'll give it my best, you know, and yeah. Until something goes wrong or, you know, maybe we need to try something different. But everything that they threw at me, I was able to do and to really, I think, portray the character. And there was also a weapon that we used. It was like a giant stuff and I think the word is Zack Nicotyle, Zack Nicotyle. It's an alien weapon you know that is far more more effective than, you know, any technology that we have.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure.
Rick Worthy:
It's a, yeah, exactly. So I had to swirl, twirl this thing around, you know, and fight with it. And it was fun. It was really fun. They also, again, they had, you know fabulous stunt, stunt team that can do those things work, you know, expertly. And I could do after doing Stargate, you know, I think the, I was about 35 and I said, man, I really, really just miss all this so much, you know?
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's what I was gonna ask you cause you're talking about it and you're smiling so wide.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, it's like it's, I think for a long time I've been trying to figure out how do I get really back into it and really go after with my black belt, you know, and continue you know as someone once told me the black belt is just the beginning you know and I about five years went by and Paul Wesley from the TV Show, The Vampire Diaries. Paul Wesley was cast along with myself to be these angels in this miniseries in ABC family called Fallen, it's a six-hour miniseries. And we had to train with guys who were like MMA guys and martial arts guys and boxers in Chatsworth, California for like six weeks and man, they got us into shape I did not lift a single barbell or nothing, you know, and they and I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Like I remember looking at myself one day, I was like, Wow. You know, set with humility. I'm looking ready, man. Ready to do this, you know, and felt fit and healthy, and we, I had to do a fight. My character was kinda like Morpheus and I had to do a fight where I had to fight like six Warrior Angels in this alley in Vancouver at three o'clock in the morning. And we trained and trained and trained and trained and trained. And then I remember Mike Gunther came up to me that's not court. He looked at me and said, your ready. you know. I've been waiting for weeks for that, you know? And he said, you're ready, you know. And I'll see you in Vancouver. I said great. And we did it and I remember when we were training then they really, they put me through it. You know they did and they were impressed that I could do anything, you know? And they said that's gonna help us a lot. And I remember I forget this guy, this gentleman's name, he was so to me, he was third, fourth-degree black belt Taekwondo, and he came up to me said Rick you need to get back into this and because you, you're this close. Like, you just need to commit to it and just follow through, do it, you know? And I, no one's ever said that to me before. You know, that really hit me, you know. And I said, I think maybe I will you know. And you know life happens man and almost had a child I was about 40. My girlfriend had a miscarriage, you know, life happens and things happen, man. And you know, next thing you know, you wake up and you're 50 so.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well, so you're an actor, so I can do this. Let's imagine an alternate world where…
Rick Worthy:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You don't take Taekwondo.
Rick Worthy:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It doesn't sound like you would've not become an actor. It sounds like that still would've happened based on what you've said, but what would've been different about your acting?
Rick Worthy:
Wow.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And let's extend it, let's make it a bigger question. What would've been different about life without,
Rick Worthy:
Well, like yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That time.
Rick Worthy:
I, yeah, for sure. I know in my heart that it's changed me a lot, like tremendously. And I think, it's giving me a, a spiritual sort of can't really put a price, you can't put a price on that. Like it's, it becomes a part of you. And I have a respect and the humility now, you know cause of the time that I spent training in Taekwondo and also just working with professionals that I work with on camera as well, you know, who are, and I, you know, they, I have all the respected humility and I sort put myself in student mode again. You know, when I'm around someone, you know and for sure I think it has given me a way of relating to people and myself. I'm for sure not perfect assure you that, but I'd like to think that it's given me a sense of putting, keeping my feet on the ground. You know, and just kinda being aware of who I am, and where I am and, you know, my name's Rick. This is who I am, this is what time its, it's right now, you know, and, and I value that, you know, I so wish my nephews would study martial arts. I think they would love it, number one. And I, they greatly benefit from it as well. And they're young. They're young guys, and you know they had the time to do it you know. And it's kind of one of those things where like I, it was maybe I was in the right place at the right time and. You know, Bruce Lee was all the rage. I don't know. All I know is that I fell in love with him and also just martial arts film in general. You know, everything from master of the flying Guillotine to you know all the Jackie Chan all this stuff in between you know and all this. The Last Dragon, you know, and all the Samurai films that have come out in the last 20 years including Last Samurai and I just love it all man there's a spiritual aspect that I think is so attractive to my soul I think.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Full disclosure I have a little bit of an agenda, you know, in getting you to go back and train cause I think that would awesome. But I was talking to a friend not long ago and she said something similar that you said about your dad, you know, she's like, I want to get my kids into it. And her and her husband, you know, they'd found a school nearby and I'd helped them. They're in North Carolina and, you know, looked at the websites and said, you know, yeah, this looks like a good choice. I think this one over this one. And oh yeah, this one fits better in our schedule. And she said, you know, it's, it looks like the kids and my husband are gonna go do it. I said, well, and then she went on to say, you know, I hope they stick with it and all that I said, well, why not you? If you want them to see that it's important, why don't you do it? So maybe put that back on you a little bit, you know, if you wanna show them, you know?
Rick Worthy:
Yeah, yeah. It's an excellent, excellent, excellent idea. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So this is where having the body of conversations that I have, you know, I get to go and go into the archives because people will often say, and you don't strike me as this person, but you know, we have people from all over the world that watch and listen to this and. You know, some of those folks fell outta training and, and you know, I constantly poke at 'em a little bit from afar and say, you know, I hope you get back into it. But there's a natural reaction to say, well, you know, I'm getting older and this cause well, we're all getting older. But then you get someone like Ron Van Clief who came on the show, and I don't know if you know that gentleman, I'm guessing.
Rick Worthy:
Well, I know Lee Bank Leaves.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So Ron. Ron.
Rick Worthy:
Is that any relation at all?
Jeremy Lesniak:
I don't know. I don't know. He did a little bit of film. He stepped into the UFC at 50. He's a bit of a competitive legend.
Rick Worthy:
Wow.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh yeah.
Rick Worthy:
Seriously?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Rick Worthy:
At age 50. Wow.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I believe he was 50 and…
Rick Worthy:
Wow.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Started training BJ J in his seventies.
Rick Worthy:
Wow.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Now one could make the argument. Ron Van Clief is one of the toughest human beings that anyone has ever known because he is. But he was very clear when he was on the show not long ago that even now he's 80, 81. He gets mad if any of the young guys go easy on him.
Rick Worthy:
Wow.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. He's like, it might take me three days before I can go back, but I don't let them take it easy on me and that's all, that's all to say, you know, it's never too late.
Rick Worthy:
Absolutely. Yeah. I've been threatening to get up and commit, you know, and really go for it, you know? I have a friend, she's lived in Florida. She recently moved to, I believe South Carolina. She's about 40. My friend Jennifer ex-police officer, when the pandemic began, she began studying I believe Kenpo. And she said it was like the best thing ever after single lady. And, you know she said like, it has literally shifted her whole life you know. And love that. I love that so much. She showed me a video of her doing a one of her forms and I was like, wow. You know, it was her, but it wasn't her. Like, it was different like it was like she has become you know someone else.
Jeremy Lesniak:
She acting?
Rick Worthy:
She was and just the joy that she has when she talks about it, you know, she talks to me about it and it's so wonderful. What's actor who did Love and Marriage ed? Oh, wonderful sitcom.
Jeremy Lesniak:
O'Neil is that his last name?
Rick Worthy:
Ed O'Neil.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Rick Worthy:
Ed O'Neil.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So he has a black belt in BJJ. We've been trying to get him on the show for ages. Anybody out there can get us there.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah, yeah, for sure. I had assumed that you had already had him on your show. I've never met him. I think he's amazing. Comedic talent. Dramatic.
Jeremy Lesniak:
He's phenomenal.
Rick Worthy:
He is fabulous. Yeah. But what I did know was that he, you know, he had committed to getting to studying and getting black belt. And then he said something he said, I just had to tell myself I have to show up. I have to show up. You know, and with his enormous work schedule and family and all the stuff happening, you know, TV Show, he like, I have to commit to this and I'm going to show up and man that inspired the hell of me to be honest. You know, like I was like well hell if Ed O'Neil can find the time to do that, then why can't, why can't I, you know? Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
To me, training is, I kind of think of it like sleep, right? If you didn't know what sleep was, if you didn't understand sleep, you some alien being sleep takes away our time.
Rick Worthy:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But if we sleep adequately, the time we have otherwise is more valuable. Right. We can do more, be more.
Rick Worthy:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
We live longer, right? Like and so to me, as someone who's been training pretty much my whole life, that's kind of how I see my training.
Rick Worthy:
Wow.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Rick Worthy:
Wow.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Like if I don't train and I, you know, training goes in waves and, you know the last couple years, because of all this physical training is not quite where I would want it to be cause there are only so many hours in the day. But I still train a little bit every day I'm still punching and kicking something.
Rick Worthy:
That's awesome.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Because what's life without it? Right?
Rick Worthy:
Right. What's, if you don't mind me asking, what is your discipline?
Jeremy Lesniak:
So I grew up with karate and when I moved to Vermont I started training Taekwondo. And because of this show I heard from the name Bill Wallace Superfoot, Bill Wallace.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah. Superfoot Wallace. Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Was introduced to Bill and now trained
Rick Worthy:
Wow.
Jeremy Lesniak:
With that organization. And I've earned, earned a black belt with Bill.
Rick Worthy:
Fantastic. Wow.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I live a blessed life. Yeah.
Rick Worthy:
No doubt man. I just remember, I remember, you know, like I would read Black Belt Magazine and I would see, you know, Superfoot Wallace, you know.
Jeremy Lesniak:
He made a great cover.
Rick Worthy:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Cause that kick always looked great on a cover.
Rick Worthy:
That kick.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And he could still do it. I mean, he would, he would say it's not the same, but to us mortals it. Yeah. He can still do it.
Rick Worthy:
It's the same.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It still looks great.
Rick Worthy:
I'm guessing he's probably 77.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I believe that is correct.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah, like late, maybe like late seventies.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But I'm pretty sure he is exactly 77. Somebody's gonna check me on that .
Rick Worthy:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But it's yeah. Give or take a year.
Rick Worthy:
That’s incredible. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And he still does seminars all over the place.
Rick Worthy:
Wow. I just love that. I have thought about him over the years, what happened to Superfoot, you know, Bill Superfoot Wallace? And then there was gosh, well I, you know, I think about Jim Kelly, about John, John Saxton as well.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Rick Worthy:
And, you know, well, Jim Kelly was Jim. Jim Kelly was a real much, you know, may he rest in peace
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure.
Rick Worthy:
He was a real martial artist. Yeah, for sure. And then, but John Saxon was too, I think, or or did he study for the, for Enter the Dragon? He was, okay.
Jeremy Lesniak:
My understanding is that he was a legitimate martial artist.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Almost everybody on that movie, movie set was.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah. It's so cool to see, cause I've seen the movie I'm like yourself like so many times, dozen, dozens of times and, and will, you know, and it's just like when they're all outdoors fighting like the giant you know field and when, you know when John, well, when John Saxon comes, I just remember when he, one of my favorite scenes is when he trying to figure out each person going to fight and when John Saxon comes ups, and it's just all punches man and strikes, strike, strike, strike you know deadly and quick you know.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Rick Worthy:
You know, and then he does a couple of kicks. But then Bruce is like, you know, he does the thing where he holds his wrist up, with the other gent, with the other, I forget the guy's name, the scar across his face. And, you know, and he like, Kapow. Oh my God, you're like this guy, the other guy doesn't have a chance. You know, it such a, it was such a, you know, and then of course Jim Kelly's, you know, infamous fight with Han, you know, inside of Han's office. You know, like we have seen my brother and I, and our friend, we've seen this, this film, that film so many times. And I think it's, you know, sadly, you know, Mr. Lee is not with us anymore you know but man I wonder what he would be like, you know, if he was, if he was still here.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's a question that we all ask often because here we are 50 years after his passing and he's still the most recognizable martial artist in the world. That's quite the legacy, right? Like you could show Bruce Lee's picture to anybody pretty much anywhere in the world and they know who he is.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Can't say that about anybody else.
Rick Worthy:
I know. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Maybe Chuck Norris.
Rick Worthy:
Literally. Maybe Chuck Norris. Yeah. And to see them, you know I mean, well the fight they had, you know, the Rome, the Coliseum in Rome, that was man, I was actually thinking about that a couple of days ago that one of my friends she just came back from there and she showed me a picture of she's standing in front of the Coliseum. I've been there myself, I didn't go in but it was on the outside it always makes me think about Chuck Norris, Bruce Lee fight you know, and…
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's iconic.
Rick Worthy:
In the Coliseum, two warriors. You know, and it was such respect and heart, you know, like that they had for each other. It was amazing. You know, extremely well done and I can talk about stuff.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So here's a question for you and I'm gonna not let you use and answer with Enter the Dragon, cause we've just talked about that. But imagine, you know, we get some kind of interesting time machine and you can put yourself into any role that has at least some martial arts element to it from any film in history.
Rick Worthy:
Wow.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's not Enter the Dragon. Who would you have wanted to bring to life?
Rick Worthy:
Wow, man. Wow. Well, I think about, lemme see, gosh, I thought Bruce Lee was great in Green Hornet.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That is a polarizing role. People either loved him in that or hated him in that sense.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah. And I mean I think like you looking, I watched The Green Hornet really? Because of him, you know, like, that's why we watch Green Hornet
Jeremy Lesniak:
I think most people did.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah. Cause we were like, this guy is badass you know? And maybe that was my first inkling of Bruce Lee and then, cause we were so young, then Enter the Dragon, maybe right after that, maybe. But we like, loved him. We thought Kato was just the coolest. He looked so cool and he had the mask and the hat, you know, and he was fast and quick and we're like, why isn't he the superhero? Instead of the other guy you know.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right. If it had been 30 years later he probably would've been, you know, there's an ultra boundary. You know, we look at it in context. The fact that he was there at all was a big deal.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah. It was a huge huge deal for sure. Yeah. And you have to look that I mean you brought up an excellent point you have to look at the times and the cultural context and you know that he was living in and the racism that was there and the sort of infrastructure of Hollywood and, you know, nowadays, like now, hey give him, give them seven pictures. Right. Three-picture deal with MGM, you know?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Rick Worthy:
You know and sadly, you know I think he paved the way for a lot of people. For sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
For sure.
Rick Worthy:
For sure. Yeah. And you know I can only hope that you know, some kinda way he knows that, but I dunno, man I, gosh, I, that's a really, really, I mean, that's really, really,
Jeremy Lesniak:
You can get back, you can get back to me on that. How's that? How's that?
Rick Worthy:
Okay. Yeah. We can get back to that. I just had this idea that when all those Ninja films came, a lot of Ninja flix came out in the 80s.
Jeremy Lesniak:
The 80s ones.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah. With starring Sho Kosugi.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. Classic.
Rick Worthy:
If I said his last name. Yeah, I think so. And Sho Kosugi, Kosagai man I love them to this day. I think he is about 70 now, he is just phenomenal. He was in a movie that I saw at that place called Ninja Assassin and he place the. Did you ever see that one?
Jeremy Lesniak:
I don't, I saw it go by. I don't remember if I watched it because
Rick Worthy:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
A lot of them blur together. You watch enough of them and they start getting blurry.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah. I think I caught it like, probably, gosh, probably 2018 or 2019, or maybe before that. But I said, oh, this looks interesting. And it looks pretty cool, you know? And he plays the, like the headmaster of this private ninja, you know, clan of assassins, you know, and then, and all, they're all teenagers. They're all 14, 13 years old. And this one kid falls in love with this other kid, and they make a plan to escape one night, one stormy, rainy night, you know, very, very picturesque, you know, imagery. And he makes it, but she doesn't, like, she can't quite climb over the wall and then she falls back down or something, and then they capture her and they torture the hell outta her, you know? And, but he survives and he makes it, he fast forward 10, 15 years later he's 25. And, you know just on the run for his life. Cause they're trying to find him and it was really cool how they did it. Like how they can sort of, I know it's movie stuff, but you know, I'm not a ninja that was like they can sort of like sense each other like. They're coming now I can feel it you know, and but Shoka Sagao plays the, the headmaster man, it's one of his best performances like. It was amazing. You know, he was just like, you didn't wanna cross paths with him you know, you can do stuff that sort of transcends physics, you know? Yeah. So, yeah. I dunno. Maybe something like that. I dunno.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Alright. That works. It works. Now let's bring it back to reality. What about upcoming roles? What do you got in the works that you can talk about?
Rick Worthy:
Man I spent last year in New York working I played a dad, on Gossip Season 2 and it's on HBO Max and it's one of those roles where it you know I'm a parent which is fine, but I, like, I always tell my agents, I'm like, I don't mind. You know, I've been playing a dad for 15 years now, but I just want to be interesting, you know, and I said, go to bed, do your homework. So the producers told me that they were so but you love them. They're so nice. And they were like, we promised you're gonna give you some really, like, you know, heavy stuff to do. We're just trying to figure it out. So it turns out I ended up becoming sort of like this. Gosh, they, they described it as Jeff Bezos, but like the dark, dark side of Jeff Bezos, like he's these Upper East Side, New Yorker who you know they own a pharmaceutical company. They become rich and like outrageously rich you know and powerful. And they just put people under them, you know, and
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's gotta be fun to play.
Rick Worthy:
It was fun. Cause I, you know, I'm, me, you know, this is me that you're talking to now is Rick. But like, I had to just go to this other, find this other dark people thing that's, it's somewhere out there or in me or out there and play this character and also still be a dad, you know? So I said, okay, now not, that's it. That's interesting. I like that, that's good active stuff so that was fun. And sadly it won't be there. There won't be a Season 3. I think uit was 2, it was too much for I think for HBO Max like it was I dunno if it was financially too much. We were getting locations like the Guggenheim Museum, you know, stuff like that, you know, that stuff is very pricey. Sure. So, yeah, so I don't know why it was canceled but it was canceled and what I've been working on since 2021 it's an independent film that I, wrote myself and…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh, cool.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah. And I started, I wrote the first part. I wrote it the first draft myself, and then a friend of mine gave me some really great notes. She's a terrific young writer and actor. She's my friend, Shanie Schwartzman. Hi Shanie. And I told her about you and me tonight so they said okay, great mention our name, and yeah and I said, your notes is so terrific I would love for you to write a couple of things and she said are you sure and I said yes so now it's co-written with me and Shanie Schwartzman. And it's essentially a character that I've been really kinda wanting to play, I think for 30 years, man. And really what he is sort of a modern-day superhero and more kinda like grounded in reality, like in the world of spies and espionage and kinda like The Equalizer.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sounds like that character might need some martial arts skills.
Rick Worthy:
Absolutely. And I've been like you know I've been trying to find a vehicle that would give me that kind of guy and also a character that a character where I can do some fighting, you know, and do some cool stuff, you know, and have a great, a stunt choreographer who can design some really awesome stuff for me to do. So we have those elements now in place and we shot like five minute teaser short film.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh, fun. Is that teaser public?
Rick Worthy:
I just saw, it's not.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Rick Worthy:
But man I looked at some of the footage, man. It's spot on man like it really is and I have to say I think a really solid team around me you know the director who directed the teaser he is a martial artist himself. He studied Kung and he lives in Manchester, England. And he, you would love him. His name is James Twyman. And James said I'm gonna design the choreography. I'm a martial artist and I lived in China for a year and I studied you know at a temple. I was like.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, I'd love to talk to him. Let's get him on the show.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah, I'll connect you. I'll sure connect you. He looks like Jim Kelly, like his afro is like this high. And he's like, so cool. And I said, you know, you reminded of Jim Kelly. He said, man, he is like in this British accent. It's like my favorite guy, man. And I think he wants do like a write a script about Jim Kelly and play it you know I said go do it. Sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Jim Kelly would deserve some kind of retrospective for sure.
Rick Worthy:
Oh, for sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That mean broke ground.
Rick Worthy:
He broke some ground, man, you know, black belt Jones, and you know, movies. All the movies he did in that 70ss era, you know?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Rick Worthy:
And but so yeah, we, the footage looks great and you know, I got myself in the decent shape, you know, and I think all that's gone out the window since I been my birthday, but last month. Yeah. And you know it's cool to see a character that's an older guy who is throwing down, you know, I love…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well it's happening.
Rick Worthy:
Denzel Washington is 60.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Rick Worthy:
It's happening maybe like Denzel Washington is 68.
Jeremy Lesniak:
What's the average age of the cast of John Wick 4? You know, it's not.
Rick Worthy:
Absolutely.
Jeremy Lesniak:
They're not in their 20s. Keanu is 59.
Rick Worthy:
Exactly. And that is to me like I wanna stay on that level and that track. And because I know it's like. I look at Liam Neeson, you know, and the movies in the Taken movies, and I'm like, I love him.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Does anyone even know how old Liam is? Is he, he could, if you told me. I know he's not, but if I had just met like discovered who he was and you said, oh, he is 45. Like, okay. He seems
Rick Worthy:
Yeah, exactly.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Hasn't aged in 20 years.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah. Hasn't age, you know, and I think it's inspiring man, you know, for me and it's like, I love it. I love that we can have older actors who can still be the lead and still carry something. And still, it's still a wonderful story that, you know, that we're telling, you know, I mean, I've so much of tv, a lot of stuff on streaming platforms and no disrespect, you know, but I can't relate to a lot of it. I'm just not, I'm not in my, I'm not 25 anymore. You know, like I want something with a character who maybe he's divorced, maybe he has a teenage daughter or son, you know, and maybe he's just trying to handle life, but he's also saving the world, you know? And that's essentially what this character is that I created. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I don't, there's a movie and I brought it up once on the show. There's a movie on Netflix called Lou, it's an action film starring Alison Janney, who in the film is playing a grandmother who…
Rick Worthy:
Okay.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Is a complete and utter badass.
Rick Worthy:
Wow.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And when I saw that, and when I saw how good it was, I said…
Rick Worthy:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
This is indicative of a change, the fact that this film was made…
Rick Worthy:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And put out, and the fact that it was so well done and not put out in like a, you know, low budget kind of prove you wrong kind of a thing. I said, bro, there's opportunity now. I think we just added
Rick Worthy:
Oh, for sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That film added 20 years to act, you know, especially women, women struggle with this. They talk about it in the acting.
Rick Worthy:
For sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, we just added 20 more years, 30 more years to women's acting careers. Yeah, absolutely.
Rick Worthy:
And you said it was the starring Alison Jenny too, huh?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Rick Worthy:
Wow, man. I love her first of all.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. Oh, she's wonderful.
Rick Worthy:
I absolutely love her. Wonderful. And to know that she's, I gotta write this down, it's called Lou.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Lou, L O U I'm hoping I'm getting this right. I'm second guessing myself, but I'm pretty darn sure.
Rick Worthy:
Okay. Because, that sounds like, man, that sounds like something I would totally watch, like probably tonight.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yes, lemme know what you think. It's good. You know, and I think, you know, you brought up an interesting point and I think we can, you know, we can. Connect some dots here. It's the relatability, right? When we go to…
Rick Worthy:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Go to the movies. When we watch tv, yeah, we want to get outta where we are, but we, we have to care about the characters. And how do you care about, care about people in general? Real or fictitious? You have to have something in common with them.
Rick Worthy:
You gotta have something at the end of the day. You know, you really have to, I mean, you can have a great, like this character has been sort of, and I told Shanie and James this, you know, I said, this character has been kinda walking around in my dreams for about 15 years, maybe. I just didn't know how to, what to do with them, you know? Like I knew that there was something there. And I made an early, early draft at an early script, and it was horrible, you know? But at least I sort of got something out.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah. And I wasn't ready yet to write a thing, you know, then when the pandemic came, you know, we, we were all alloted this alloted time, you know and essential workers still had to of course, work. And I consider myself this very blessed man that I was able to, you know, to turn on my computer and, you know, order food and stuff like that, you know, like I know a lot of people didn't have that opportunity. And I watched a lot of stuff that I had not only worked on, but stuff that I had heard about and I kinda re-educated myself on the movies that I love and re-watched all kind of stuff you know. Martial arts film as well. And I kept asking myself what do i want to do, what I wanted to do? Well I want this character. To live on the, on the page. You know, like, I really want, bring it to life. I think I've gotta figure out how to do it. And when I met my friend Shanie said, just start, just start writing. And I wrote, the first scene I wrote was on my phone. It was a, and I wrote it as a text message to myself. And then I emailed it to myself and then I sent it to Shanie and I said, what do you think? And she says it got legs. Just keep going you know and that took weeks and weeks you know and finally, I had a vomit of the first draft if you will.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yep.
Rick Worthy:
But it wasn't, and I never said I was a writer, I'll say that, but I got something out you know and after months of rewrites and here read this give me some notes. All of that you know what we created, I think was a really solid character that I love and care about. And I think people will. And also the story, kind of, the story I think is, I humbly say, I think it's really cool.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well I look forward to checking it out. You know, I know this stuff takes time, but when, you know, when it hits, you know, I'll be there. And if you need someone to get beat up and thrown around once a while, just gimme a shout, you know.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah, for sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I'll come down. I'll go, you know, throw me through a fake glass window or something you know. I'm game.
Rick Worthy:
Are you in New York or like, where are you?
Jeremy Lesniak:
I'm in Vermont.
Rick Worthy:
Los Angeles. You're in Vermont. Okay. Man, I, you know, the dream, which I it's must have to, it must, we must make this reality is we wanna shoot the whole thing or most of it in Washington, DC and maybe
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh cool.
Rick Worthy:
Partly like in New York. Cause it takes place in world of espionage and law enforcement, stuff like that plus the world that the character lives in as well as the other characters. So we have CI, we have FBI, we got you know, DC Metro Police like they're all kinda characters in the elements in the story, but our hero, played by myself, he, you know, he's kinda on the world stage, but home is DC And I spent a lot of time in Washington, DC. I love Washington, DC. I think it's a wonderful city. So cool. All the museums and everything, great restaurants. But something about that city fascinates me. So when I started writing, like I said, well, I think I know who he is, and I think I know where he lives, I think I know what he does for a living. And I'm gonna make him just a unique sort of Equalizer/ Jason born kind of guy. Really, you know? Yeah. But you know, we, I think it's important to surround yourself with excellent and hopefully real martial artists like yourself because accidents happen and also, like the real fight, real fighters, and they understand where the camera is and everything. They know how to make this fight look even like so much better, you know? And I did a fight, I did a fight with do you know William Lee?
Jeremy Lesniak:
No, I don't think so.
Rick Worthy:
William, he's an actor who is a real martial artist. And I believe his family owns various martial arts dojo's around the country, I believe. So he comes from a family of martial artist. He's just as nicest guy ever. He's so kind, very handsome guy he's very sweet and i had to fight Will in this mini series that I was telling you about like and I took out the five, six other guys before him, and then he's the last guy. He's a total western, you know, dumb, dumb boom, you know, classic, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly you know.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Love those.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah and man he came at me with a flying superman punch like you know. He is in the air. And I'm supposed to block him like this. My two hand like that, you know the last thing I remember was his fist coming at me like this.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Did they use it?
Rick Worthy:
They didn't use it, but…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh.
Rick Worthy:
I can't, I can tell you that the, well, I can tell you two things. Take two was perfect. Perfect take. Everyone's wide awake and poor Will like he felt terrible.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Rick Worthy:
Man, it's all right. It's alright. I'm ok. But I was out for, they say probably under a minute. I was knocked out and I just remember like, I remember waking up to this, Rick you're right? Rick. Rick, you know. Like that and then I was like whoa you know and but I could it was like one of those things where I'm like, I'm glad it happened because at least now I know kind of what that feels like. I don't want it to happen again but I think it kind of points to a couple of things and I number 1. Because Will's alike yourself. He's a pro. You know, he knows where this is versus this, you know, and I think it was a situation of, we were it was three o'clock in the morning and we're pretty all of us are pretty wiped out that
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Rick Worthy:
You know and I think if the production team had scheduled that fight, let's say at 10:00 AM you know, in order, 6:00 PM instead of 3:00 AM I think, I don't think I would've gotten knocked out all, I think would've been, Okay. That was good. Let's do another one you know?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Where can people find you? You go on social media, you got a website?
Rick Worthy:
I am.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Where do we send them?
Rick Worthy:
I kinda have this, I'm on Instagram. That's all I use. I have had this kinda love, hate relationship with social media and…
Jeremy Lesniak:
I think most of us.
Rick Worthy:
Anyone, yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Rick Worthy:
It was like last July, I was sitting in a cigar shop. I like cigars. I was sitting in a cigar shop in DC I having some whiskey and I was smoking cigar. And then I said, I'm done. I'm just done with it. And I canceled it right there. And my last picture is me holding a whiskey and saying, you know. Adios. And I was off of it for four and half months and I got a flood of if you just sort of taken a break, but two days after you take even a break, people like, are you okay? Are you alright? I'm like, Yeah I'm fine, you know. I was off of it, I gotta tell you I was doing something which I had just used to do before social media, I was actually looking at people in the eyes and having coffee with people and, you know, Hey, let's go out to dinner. You know, or let's just go for a walk or something. Let's walk the dogs together, you know? And I hate that, you know? I get it. I just hate that so much of how we interact is you know, and I'm guilty of it too. You know, it's you, you know, you're looking down at your phone. Yeah. And I just wanna be more present in the world.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Completely get it. I'm with you. It's…
Rick Worthy:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, there's an upside to it, you know, there's a marketing element. I'm sure your agent wasn't thrilled…
Rick Worthy:
Oh, for sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That you did that.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But like anything, it's about balance, right?
Rick Worthy:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, we can't live with these things attached to our face. You watch a lot of kids now, and even if they don't have it, they're still like this. Right. They've…
Rick Worthy:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Warmed into that shape.
Rick Worthy:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But it feels like it's correcting. I feel like the pendulums swung and it's, we've got a backswing on it now, so I'm looking forward to that.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah. But don't you ever, do you ever worry like, well, okay, well what's gonna be the next thing in five years? You know, it'll, like, we've got Twitter, we've got Facebook, we've got, TikTok, we've got Instagram. What's gonna be the next thing, man, you know? Cause there was a time when before all that there was this thing called MySpace…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Rick Worthy:
You know? Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Before that there was Friendster.
Rick Worthy:
There was Friendster. That's right. That's right. That's exactly right. That's exactly right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And, you know, there was a time when nobody thought Facebook would be replaced. And guess what? Facebook's been replaced. I mean, they've had con I believe consecutive quarters of loss and…
Rick Worthy:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
No, there will always be something new. You know, we all, we're human nature. Right? We want the new shiny.
Rick Worthy:
Well, for sure. Yeah, exactly. I, like you said, I think it's, I think I'm just trying to find the balance of it all. Like man, I went to Puerto Rico last year, finally been wanted to go for years I finally went to Puerto Ricoand I didn't even, and it was so nice to be in the sunshine. And I didn't even take a, I took a lot of pictures, but I didn't post a single one on Instagram. Like, I was just like, I'm just enjoying this. And, you know, this time, you know, and just being in the Caribbean, and you know you see people on vacation and they're just, it becomes an Instagram vacation. I've done that a couple times too. You know, it's like, we gotta get that picture.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I get it, I get it. It's balance. It's balance.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So given that our audience is, predominantly active martial artists. You know, and, we'll, I'm sure we'll have some people come in. Cause this is, as you said, this is a different sort of conversation for you. So we'll end up with some folks who don't typically listen to the show and may not train. But given that most of them do, what would you say to them as we close up here?
Rick Worthy:
Wow, man. I would say keep training and you know just keep it in your life and I'm so grateful for, you know what martial arts for me, Taekwondo has done for me. Even though it was a short period of my life, it stayed with me all these years. It's surprising how like I remember basic form one, two, and three. I remember all the different exercises we did. I remember I can still hear Master Lee's voice in my head. Yeah. I remember him reprimanding me. He said Rick do 10 more push-ups, you know. he was hard on me. But he, I now see why, you know, like he pushed me a little harder because I think he saw potential, you know, and, but it was, it wasn't like hard heart, but it was like more, it was tough love type thing and paid I remember it paid off, man We did a tournament in Ann Arbor Michigan. And he saw my potential in doing I remember him telling me, he said to the whole classroom I had to spar against this is like I could see it man like it just happened you know a few days ago there was a young kid named Milo, and I remember Milo and I had Spar in front of the class. And Milo got, you know he beat me in the fight, you know? And Master Lee said, okay, everyone, Milo's a better fighter than Ricky, but Ricky is better at at his forms, you know and I was like, wow. You know, like he saw that, you know, and, sure enough when I went to Ann Arbor to compete in this tournament. There's a picture of me and all of the, we were all in Ann Arbor, Michigan that's like 1981. That's the one picture I wanted, I'll see if I can get my mom or my dad's.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Please.
Rick Worthy:
Yeah. And very humbly say, I did really well in my forms. You know, like I placed, I believe second or somewhere I don't, I didn't get the number one, but I was like, I was right, I believe number two or something. Can't, but it was like I did really well, man. You know, and I, that kinda had a nice true line for me later. When I became a dancer, I had already been kind, I had already done martial arts, and then when dancing came along in my life, I was great dancer. I was a committed, great dancer for about five, four years and early 1980s, in 1983, 1984, All the stuff that I learned, you know, from massively like I have it in me you know. I was pretty fearless and dancing is about form and it's about movement and space and using your body you know and my brother and I taught ourselves how to dance. My mom taught us, initially, we were really, really little. I always say we were moonwalking before Michael Jackson. So we were moonwalking in 1972. Maybe Michael was too. But when the whole craze came out in the 80s with the moonwalking and MJ and everything. Like we were like, we're gonna do that. You know, we taught ourselves how to do that. And we ended up competing on, um, a very early reality TV show called Dance Fever. And they flew us out to Hollywood. We were 18, 19 years old and we competed on national TV you know and you look at all the, I look at all this stuff, video of us dancing back then, and I can see all the martial arts in our moves, you know and especially mine. And it's like one of those things that it stay, had stayed with me and is a part of me, and I carry it with me like all the time you know so yeah. And I'm not too old to get back in there yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Hey, what did you think? Good conversation, right? I really enjoyed talking to Rick. Rick, thank you for coming on. Just a fun, a fun chat. And we chatted for a little while after Just he's got some cool stuff going on. I'm looking forward to this movie that he's putting together. Super pumped. You know, I think anytime someone has spent, as long as he has kind of chewing on what this artistic expression is going to be in this case, what this character looks like. It's something that I'm excited to see because they tend to end up with detail and nuance. For those of you who don't know that, that's kind of the story of the novel that I wrote. It was in my brain for a while and it was exciting to get out. And anytime someone's excited to create a piece of art, I tend to enjoy it more than if it follows some kind of formula. Like a lot of TV and movies to these days. If you wanna go deeper on this episode or any of the others we've done, go to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com, sign up for the newsletter there, or at our other website, use code podcast15. Join the Patreon, check out the family page, whistlekick.com/family. But you also might consider having me out as teach a seminar at your school. We can do that and we can probably do it for less money than you think. The goal with these is not to make a ton of money. It's really to cover expenses and spread what we do. Can't do it for free, but. This is not an expensive endeavor, and I really like doing it, which is why we keep the cost down. But something else that I enjoy doing, we keep the cost down on is our consulting offerings. If you have a martial arts school and you are not working with a consultant, I will say with almost a hundred percent certainty, you should be, and there's a good chance that we're gonna be the best fit for you. Why? Because of our approach. If you've been a fan of the show for a while, you know the things that are important to me, and they're probably important to you, and we translate those into the way we consult with schools. You want more money, you want more students, you want more profit. You wanna open another location. I don't know. There so many things that you might want to do to create the martial arts school of your dreams. We can help you get there. We will help you get there. All you have to do is reach out, jeremy@whistlekick.com. That's my personal email address. If you wanna follow us on social media, and I hope you do in all the places, we are @whistlekick everywhere you could think of. Until next time, train hard smile, and have a great day.