11.27.98

[SCOTT SPEEDMAN is wearing a black Tshirt, charcoal grey pants and is carrying a coffee mug. His hair is quite blond and longish.]

MIKE BULLARD
Folks, we're very gratified to have this gentleman as our first guest on this show, he stars in mine and actually the bands favourite Sunday night mega hit, Felicity, on CTV, in fact, you may know, his character is the reason Felicity chucked her medical career to go to New York, please welcome Scott Speedman.

[Female audience screaming.]

[SCOTT SPEEDMAN enters. Shakes hands, embarassed.]

MIKE BULLARD
Yeah, Scott Speedman, ladies and gentlemen, interesting thing to that, I was talking to.......

[Female audience still screaming.]

SCOTT SPEEDMAN raises his hand to the audience.

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
(to the screaming female audience)
Quiet. Some wild ones!

MIKE BULLARD
Interesting today, I was talking to our producers and you were discovered on Speakers Corner?

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
Yeah, yeah, yeah, my girfriend dared me to do gown and put myself on Speakers Corner, they were casting for Batman Forever, Boy Wonder, and I was a swimmer and had just got injured, and she said I should go down, so I went down, I threw my dollar in and said my name..;;

MIKE BULLARD
Before you go on, that's a great story, how does a swimmer get injured?

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
Ah, I just overtrained, too much swimming.

MIKE BULLARD
Were you a heavy water swimmer out around Pickering, the nuclear site, I just wondered how that happened.

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
No, no, too much swimming, too much swimming, so ah yeah, so I did it, put it in, said my name and where I lived, so this casting director for Batman Forever, Mali Finn, called me and wanted me to come down to audition, my Mom got the message and she thought it was from some porn thing, so she didn't want me to go, cause it was at this hotel, so I convinced her it was alright.

MIKE BULLARD
Are you telling me the truth, the people from Batman Forever actually called?

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
Yeah, yeah, yeah, man, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I'm serious, Mali Finn, the casting director was in town, they picked like three or four amateurs.

MIKE BULLARD
The only part they could possibly cast from Speakers Corner, to me, would be the Penguin, based on some of the individuals I've seen on Speakers Corner.

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
I saw it for the first time ever the other night and I couldn't believe it. My friend, my best friend, turned and went, "Why'd they call, why the hell did they call you, man?", I was like, I looked at him and went, I don't know, I have no idea.

MIKE BULLARD
...so you went down to the audition?

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
Yeah, I walked out of the elevator, I had never acted before and the hallway was packed with actors, packed with actors, and she groups the amateurs in a little group, and she calls us in and gives us a script. We're supposed to not memeorize, but just read, get a feel for the script. So I take it outside, I'm looking at it and there's this part that's blocked out, and you're not supposed to be able to see it, she crossed it out, marked it, and I looked at it, put it under the light and under the light it says, it's during a scene, a scene between me and my Mom, you know we're fighting and I pull down my pants, and it says he pulls down his pants........

MIKE BULLARD
It says he pulls down his pants?

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
He pulls down his pants, right, so I go back inside and we're all sitting .......

MIKE BULLARD
But this has been blocked out.

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
Blocked out, I wasn't supposed to be able to see it. So we're sitting there in a group of five amateurs, and you know who Joey Giarmani is, the kid from Degrassi?

MIKE BULLARD
Yeah.

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
He was there, he was there, and I was so nervous.

MIKE BULLARD
I had my first TV appearance with him.

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
Really, how'd it go?

MIKE BULLARD
I didn't know who he was, I cuffed him on the head, and I got canned. I had no idea he was a big star at the time.

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
Huge star, so I was really nervous, so she goes around the room, and she goes to the first guy, second guy, and we started improving, we're improving,improving, and we get to this point in the scene and I don't know what to do, I'd never acted before, before I knew it, I had my pants down (Scott makes a gesture of undoing his zipper, he laughs and continues), I was sitting in the middle (again Scott is interrupted by the audience hooting and hollering at this point). He's laughing....

MIKE BULLARD
That's how I got this job.

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
So I'm sitting in the middle of the room in my underwear, I'm staring at her, waiting for her to react, and she's looking back at me blank. I'm like, is this bad, I don't know. So she stops, I'm sitting there in my underwear, at that time I wore little briefs and ah, and ah, she says, "Great, you risked, you risked", so she called me back for an audition and she got me an agent.

MIKE BULLARD
So at that time you wore little briefs?

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
Little briefs, now boxers.

[Audience laughs out of control.]

MIKE BULLARD
"There you go kid", they pan to a young guy in the audience who must have been interviewed by Mike during his monologue. The guy must be a fan of Speedy's.

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
Who is he, man? I thought it was a buddy of mine, I heard about it upstairs. It's somebody I've never met.

MIKE BULLARD
I have no idea who he is, but if I were you, I'd memorize that face.
(beat)
Now, how are you dealing with the fame thing, now that we're on that topic?

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
Well, I mean, to be honest, I mean, when you're in LA, like its fine, cause everybody in LA is on TV or film or something. When I come up to Toronto though, it's been pretty weird. I went to my sister's school recently, my sister's a teacher, so she asked my to come by the school (some people in the audience clap at the word teacher), ahhhhh, all the teachers in the audience.

MIKE BULLARD
Either that or students of your sisters, actually if they are students of your sisters, that's rather sad.

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
So me and my best buddy went by........

MIKE BULLARD
Apparently we're not going to go there to help my little joke(he says this to the audience).

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
So me and my best buddy went by, we thought everybody would be just sitting there nervous, and it was really weird, it was the first time I ever had to deal with that. When I showed up, it was weird, I guess the show's doing well cause.....

MIKE BULLARD
Well I heard today, you can't walk down the streets in Toronto without people recognizing you.

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
Yeah, no, no, I can, they recognize me, but they are very nice, very nice.

MIKE BULLARD
Somebody told me that they go "Hey Ben" and you turn around.

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
Yeah, yeah, that's what I do (laughing).

MIKE BULLARD
Turns out they thought you were the converted rice guy.

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
Right, right.

MIKE BULLARD
Very embarassing moment.

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
And then I turn around and they're very disappointed..

MIKE BULLARD
Now you brought a clip from the show with you?

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
Yeah, it's a scene recently, I think it's already shown, actually, you don't know.....

MIKE BULLARD
Oh, we do a, by the way, I should tell you, we do a Felicity update every second Monday.

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
You do? Wow, wow, That's interesting. I hear the bad watches it.

MIKE BULLARD
The band are huge fans.

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
(to the band)
Why are you guys watching it?

BAND
For you, Ben.

MIKE BULLARD
Okay, you brought a clip with you, let's take a look.

SCOTT SPEEDMAN
Take a look.

[A clip of Zach and Ben in the cafeteria just before they get into a fight.]

[After the clip, Mike thanks Scott for coming.