George Blitch: 0:14

Hey, lamonica, thank you so much for joining me today. How are you? I'm good. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. I'm glad to have you here. I'm excited to talk about the Terminalist Dark Wolf Episode 4 just dropped today at a 7. You were featured in the first two man. I'm going to dive into that, but I kind of wanted to, you know, kind of give a little bit of background to listeners. You know you had a very prestigious athletic career, played college football, you had some NFL tryouts and then you kind of ended up moving into the acting world. But there was a quote that I heard where you said you wanted to maybe do a professional football for like six or seven years and then move into acting. And I was kind of curious when did that acting bug, you know, hit you and when did you kind of start working on that craft? And then you know, we'll kind of thread the needle from there to what you got going on these days.

LaMonica Garrett: 0:58

Yeah, I, I grew up I mean, I watched tons of television growing up and I got influenced by stuff I saw. Films I saw helped shape me, but you know, you don't really know how to get into acting Like. I grew up in San Francisco in the early part of my years and we don't see actors out there. I never saw them. But I played football as well and what I did see we grew up right behind Candlestick Park, what used to be candlestick park, and I saw jerry rice, I saw joe montana and ronnie lott and ray wershing and roger crew, like I see all these guys that seemed attainable to me, like they're right there in front of me.

LaMonica Garrett: 1:35

So I pursued football but I always had in the back of my head like I would do plays growing up. Uh, you know, I wasn't really in the drama, you know department at school, but it was just I love playing Pictionary and just like I love that part of, you know, of being creative. And when football was over, I was like you know what that's always been my plan b I was going to play football for a little while. Then transition and I was the transit.

George Blitch: 2:03

The transition just came a little faster and I moved out to hollywood and, um, slowly but surely, you know, uh, you know, figured it out well, I was curious too, because there was something that kind of mixed a little bit of both worlds there and that was your time playing slam ball, which is if anyone hasn't seen it, you need to go do a youtube search with your name and slay Ball. What an epic event, man. It's so much fun. But I was curious how you got into that and then maybe we can talk about you know how that ended up getting a little character arc there in One Tree Hill and how that came to be.

LaMonica Garrett: 2:36

Yeah, that's how it started. Man, me and a friend of mine were in acting class and we got word like there's a new tv show coming out called slam ball and we thought it was a scripted, you know, new drama or something. We're like sports, you know, we did that athletics. We can use that to kind of maybe help get a part on this show. So me and him, my buddy pat, we went down to the convention center in los angeles and we're in a room full of like three or four hundred dudes and we're like looking around, they're they three or 400 dudes. And we're like looking around there they're pretty much telling you what this new sport is. And we're like this isn't a TV show, like this is a new sport. They're trying to, you know, get up off the ground. And we're like, okay, we still had that.

LaMonica Garrett: 3:16

I had that competitive bug in me still, you know, from playing. It was like fresh off of football. So I'm like, uh, yeah, like I could put acting on hold a little bit and see what the slam ball thing does. It looked fun. Uh, so we, you know, you go up there, you interview, and they're like, yeah, you know, come to this location downtown, we're going to strike. You know, try people out. I tried out for it and each day if you didn't hear your number call, everyone had these numbers on their chest. Then come back tomorrow and it went all the way down like that and I ended up, you know, making a team. I ended up being an all-star. I like the last season I played, I led the league in scoring. Uh, it was a fun experience. We saw the world. We traveled to europe, you know, china. We did all these things, went, went all these places and it was still a brotherhood, like that locker room energy that I missed from football. We had that.

LaMonica Garrett: 4:09

And, funny enough, slam Ball was on. There was a show called One Tree Hill where they're going to have a two or three episode arc and they wanted Slam Ball to be embedded in it. So they were going to audition an actor and teach him to play Slam Ball, to be the antagonist to James Lafferty and Joe Manganiello. And I'm like no, no, no, no, no, no, this is me. Yeah, this is me. This is tailor made for why I came here and I, you know, convinced the guys, like the higher ups, to let me audition for it. They let me audition, I got the part, went down to Wilmington, let me audition for it, they let me audition.

LaMonica Garrett: 4:47

I got the part, went down to Wilmington, north Carolina, filmed it and being on set and just with the cameras, the other actors, the energy it reminded me of why I came back to Los Angeles in the first place and I'm like that was I told the slam ball higher ups, like I think this is it for me. And that was years later. That was maybe five or six years after, you know, we had been playing. So I'm like I think I'm done guys, like I went back home, I got into two more acting classes and it's just been nonstop. And that's oddly, what gave me my first credits in television was, you know, going this route. There's never a perfect way. Like you, just the season of yes, you roll with the flow and you, you know, positive things happen for you.

George Blitch: 5:29

Well, and I want to get into that idea of like manifestation and visualizations. You've talked about that before in some other interviews. But one of the things you know I kind of wanted to touch back on. You kind of mentioned that brotherhood and that's, you know, your time there with all the family there, with the Terminalist series, right, I mean you were in the original Terminalist series and then that would probably be it for you there. And then all of a sudden you get a phone call at some point in time saying that hey, these guys are going to do the prequel. Jack Carr had seven books in the series and the Dark Wolf was never one of those, but that kind of manifested in. And then all of a sudden your character is invited back in. You're invited back in. Take me back to that day where you get the phone call and you hear about this Cause. I'm sure that was at some point. It was out of left field until it was more developed and you were a part of it. What was that like when you first got that call?

LaMonica Garrett: 6:18

It was, uh, it was. It was humbling. Anytime you're called back from people that you worked with before, it's a good feeling. That means you did a good job. For one, they like your work, they like being around you. And lately a lot of that is like character. You know, we want good character people here, so it just feels good all around. But when your character dies, your acting character dies on a show, you think that's it, you know, and that's, that's what it is.

LaMonica Garrett: 6:45

And they did a prequel and they told me that originally this commander wasn't going to be commander Cox, it was just another role, like just another commander that happened to be on the base, but uh, the Jillio, and then Jared Shaw and Max Adams and those guys they were like we can bring LaMonica back for this. I don't know if he's available, but do you think he'd do it? And I'm like this is like leading in. We're right about to go to season two of shooting Lioness and it was like there was a small window and there's been jobs that have come around that I've had to say no to because it bleeds into. You know, lioness has the priority of my time, so if it messes with that, if it interferes at all. I can't do it and I've had to say no to other projects but this one. There was a small window where they call Paramount and Paramount was like, yeah, you got them. You know, right, when he's done he has to come here to Texas and we, you know, we'll figure it out.

LaMonica Garrett: 7:40

So we got all that settled and it was just like being around those guys again and a lot of like jared shaw, ray, mendoza, they came on lioness to work with us too. So it was real familiar. Justin garza, all these guys like we've been interacting between productions for a while, so they feel like family anyway. So when I was out there in budapest with with jared and those guys I'm taking pictures sending from terminalists, sending them to our group chat online s like hey, y'all. Jared said what up, you know, and it was just, it was nice to you know to be wanted for one. But when you see the material for these two episodes that commander cox has and it was like they sent it to me he, hey, would you want to do this? And I'm reading it and I'm like you're absolutely right. I'm like when and where, like, this is nice and meaty stuff. So, yeah, that whole thing it, it, it fit perfectly. And that usually doesn't happen. But whenever those guys call and they know that, like I'm, I'm game, I'm game.

George Blitch: 8:46

Well, and those guys call and they know that like I'm I'm game, I'm game well, and that I was, you know, curious as far as, like you know that idea of what that was like to be back with that family because you know you have a few different families and pockets of folks that you work with. But there's something that's special. When I've talked to jack, you know, I've seen all these other interviews with chris and taylor and everyone talks about that brotherhood that's there, that kind of has a very feel like that's you know that military vibe man and and I was kind of curious what that's like for you and what that feeling is like on set and you know all the veterans that are there and you know the different folks in the agency.

LaMonica Garrett: 9:18

What was that like for you and if you maybe expand on that a little bit, there are some shows why I do a good amount of uh, service people like servicemen, military um, in the past as well, and some shows might have one or two guys that have like a marine on set or uh, you know a navy seal guy that's on set like you could ask questions from you know like, uh, my character, would this happen or how would he approach this? How would he, you know, interact with these with you know his guys, if he's a commander, whatever Terminalist, everybody like you could throw a rock and hit nine or 10 people that could give you all the feedback you need. All these guys have been there and done it. So it was just an embarrassment of riches of brains you could analyze and talk to to help your character out. So that was one and two.

LaMonica Garrett: 10:13

We have fun when we're filming. We mix it up. In Budapest we were like we'd be rehearsing, we'd work some here and there and we'd go hit the bars Like, yeah, it's a good, good team, good environment and yeah, there's no lack of fun had when, when we're not working. So and it's you know, a bunch of navy seal guys that before that we were on lioness season one together. So we're in budapest now like okay, we're. I hope they're ready for what's about to happen.

George Blitch: 10:45

Well, you know, I heard that there was some really competitive paddle games. Did you get in on any of those?

LaMonica Garrett: 10:51

No, not the paddle games.

George Blitch: 10:52

See, they were too afraid to have you on.

LaMonica Garrett: 10:54

They knew it was going to happen, yeah my reputation probably preceded me, but no, I've never paddled before in my life. And the thing was, when we got to Budapest, I was there for maybe three or four weeks in the very beginning. So you know people still getting situated. Like Taylor Kitsch said, when he first got there he was jet lagged, like it was slow to you know to build a snowball, but when it got going it was a well-oiled machine. But we hit like hanging out wise, we hit the ground running Nice.

George Blitch: 11:24

Well, you know, for those who haven't tuned in to the series yet, obviously, terminalist Dark Wolf, the prequel kind of Ben Edwards' origin story, played by Taylor Kitsch, and you got a lot of the other cast characters and some that'll be seen in True Believer and different things that are being filmed now. But let's take us back. We're in 2017, mos, mosul, Iraq. Why don't you just set the stage for what's happening in the series and maybe tell us about Commander Cox and what your role is there playing him?

LaMonica Garrett: 12:00

Yeah, in 2017, there's a terrorist. The CIA you know they're in, they're handling the. You know the primaries, that the people that we're supposed to be after. They have a side agenda that's going on with these guys While our soldiers are like, just, we need to get rid of these people. This is target number one.

LaMonica Garrett: 12:21

And for Commander Cox and the higher ups and Commander Cox used to be one of those guys he used to be with his guys, so he's in a tight spot between the brass up here and his soldiers that he would much rather be out with.

LaMonica Garrett: 12:36

You know hunting, so it puts him in a tight spot and you know it all comes to head at the end of episode one when the soldiers figure out that we're protecting an asset that we should be going after and it's just the drama. There was a scene with With with myself, with Taylor, with Tom Hopper, luke Hemsworth we were all there when Taylor's character kind of figured it out and he just let Commander Cox. He let like, he let everybody in that room have it, and there was something in me and Commander Cox where I agree with what you're saying. I'm with you, but I it was a. It was just such a good scene with so much're saying I'm with you, but I it was. Uh, it was just such a good scene with so much going on and that was a like a breaking point, a transition point for a lot of characters in that room. Uh, you know something to drive on for the rest of the season.

George Blitch: 13:28

Well, absolutely, and you know, can I speak frankly? And then, boy, that that was a whole different world. And then you know in episode two, um, you know, and there's some spoilers, so if you haven't heard, you know, wait, watch it and then come back. But as far as episode two, at you, after everything's figured out, you're in a room there, you're in the CIA folks and they're basically saying, hey, we need the trident of him and one other man. And then you have a speech that you have as commander Cox, which is really just mind-blowing man, because you're going to have to take his bird and you talk about you're stripping his soul. Man.

George Blitch: 14:02

I mean, that was an intense, intense prologue there. I was wondering just like, what was that like for you getting that, and like reading that, because you come from a military family. Your dad has a bronze medal. You, the Bronze Star, you know the importance of a bronze medal. Like you, you, ron star, you know the importance of what it is to have something and to earn it and then also see that go away. And I was just curious as far as like, what was that like getting ready for that scene for you?

LaMonica Garrett: 14:28

uh, that's one of the scenes I saw in the material they sent me before I agreed to come back and it just it means so much on so many different levels in reality and in the, the context of the script, of the characters. I think I saw something where Taylor Kitsch said what was said in that monologue is like gave him the drive for the rest of the season and there was so much riding on the words being said there and, like you know hindsight, looking what commander Cox and terminal list won where he ended up going, I think it's, it's tragic when you see who he was from back in the day and saying these words, he meant those words, like those words were embedded in his soul, his fibers. And I think when they, when they said, when they heard everything that commander cox had to say in that monologue and they were still like you know the ambassador, you know they, they agree with my decision and it's got to be one more, in that moment I think it started to break up stuff and commander cox himself to future wise, from the from that point on to where you see him pick up in terminal list, one down the line, that's where the fracture started for him as well, like maybe these guys, you know they don't have our back like they should, they don't? You know what are we doing? I shouldn't be up here with I should be with my. There was a lot going on in that moment but doing that scene you could hear a. You could hear a church mouse pissing in cotton when we were, when we were, when we were filming that, and it was like and max adams wrote it and max was right there and I had worked with fred toy, uh, the director, we had worked together on designated survivor years before.

LaMonica Garrett: 16:11

He was our producing director and we were familiar. So I'm like I'm looking around like max, like what else? These are your words like um, you know, am I doing it? Like what do you need from me more? He's like man, you're, you know nothing. Fred came over nothing. The jillio that, like all those guys that were like we did a few more takes at different variations and stuff like that, but for the most part like just being around all these navy seals coming from my own family and just knowing the context of the words that had to do with this script. It, yeah, that's.

George Blitch: 16:46

I had a head start with everything oh, I had to rewind and watch again. That was so powerful man, it was just incredible. Uh, you know, and it really I think it did set that tone and it kind of I could could tell that fracturing is like okay, this is tied into what happens later and you know, there's no information yet, but there's a lot of timeline between what happened with this origin story and the terminalist and there may be something that you know, I talked to Jack Carr when he was on late, you know, not too long ago, a couple weeks ago and they're talking about, yeah, there's room to grow, there's all sorts of ways this could go. So, you know, hopefully it's not just you know the end of our time with Commander Cox, because you're just brilliant in both of those man, you did a great job and I really love having you on there. It's great.

George Blitch: 17:30

You know you mentioned Designated Survivor and that's when you played Secret Service Agent Mike Ritter 2016 to 18. And in that you talked in another interview before about how you went and actually did some interviews with the Secret Service agents there when Obama was there and talked to them and I know in 1883, they had the cowboy camp as like for the Terminalist and for Dark Wolf and you know even Lioness there too. What kind of training, uh? And as far as exposure to that brotherhood and that, you know military, you know nature, what was that like for you? Uh, what were some of the trainings and the things you did, cause obviously there's a lot on set. You know you gotta be able to hold your weapon right, you gotta use it right, gotta have the right lingo and things. What was that training like on that kind of military side of things? I know you've done many other shows too, but just kind of curious how you got to be so fluid with those types of characters.

LaMonica Garrett: 18:26

It's been. The training has been more so in depth lately, like Terminalist and Lioness, 1883. Like we've, the training has like 1883, it was a month before we started filming we had cowboy camp and that kind of you know, you're learning to ride, you're learning to really get after it, lope, do all this stuff. You're roping, you're doing all the things needed to look believable in this role. But you're also building camaraderie with your castmates. So every day you're waking up at the, you know, the crack of the sunrise, we're on our horses at 6 am, we're riding for four or five hours. Then we go to the weapon side of it because you have these old like winchester rifles that aren't even around anymore. Uh, then you have, you know then, wagon, wagon riding training. Like where are you going to learn to ride a wagon? These uncomfortable no springs, I hate it riding wagons, uh, but but all with that being said, you're building like just family. In that month you're eating together. Then this was during covet as well, 1883. So we couldn't leave the ranch. So we're just like you know we work, do cowboy camp, we karaoke at night. We'd work, do cowboy camp, we'd karaoke at night. We'd have dinner together, Like it was just a real, you know, team-building environment and it went right into shooting. And as far as weapons training, like Lioness, we two weeks beforehand we'd have weapons training, cqb, you know we had formations, just it was. And the same thing for for terminalists. I wasn't um, I was a commander in terminalist, so I didn't get to be out there with all the you know the, the running and gunning with the guys. I get that on lioness, but yeah, they go through the same thing. And and you got all these guys like ray mendoza, jared shaw, season lioness, they were the ones with our weapons training, helping us, you know, with all the stuff tactical to make it look believable, and it's been the same Like now we have other guys from different you know backgrounds, but it's all, they're all legit and it's, it's fun, man, you know it's like and you, like you said, going to the White House.

LaMonica Garrett: 20:34

When do you, as a cast or just in regular society, get to go and just experience some of these things? I just saw Virginia Madsen at an event, maybe a week or two ago, and she comes up to me. I was talking to a director and she was like, hey, me and him were in the Oval Office together and I look back and gave her a hug like yeah, like we were. Hug like yeah, like we were. I got to speak to the head of um, the the the detail for obama. There was people, uh, that were on our show, like the chief of staff. Got to speak to the head of chief of staff over that, currently in the white house. All of us got to speak to our positions and just get further in depth with the character and it's just been. It's fun. Man like that that doesn't um, none of that gets taken for granted. These are life experiences, but we use them for work well, you know.

George Blitch: 21:22

Another one of those two that I wanted to talk about is like the idea of who you played in 1883. Right, you're playing thomas. He's a former slave. At 12 years old, his owner's dead. He ends up having a chance of freedom, he takes off and one of the things that I think it's not portrayed as much maybe now there's a little bit more, uh, knowledge of it. But, like 25% of the Cowboys were black Cowboys I mean my family. It goes way back. We were very good friends. The guy named Bob Lemons, who you know, you and I talked about at one point in time the original Mustang.

George Blitch: 21:54

All right, there's a book there.

George Blitch: 21:55

And speaking of rifles, we actually have his rifle that he used. Like there's history with our families go way back I'm working on a book now but all that to say, like there's such a rich history of black cowboy culture that hasn't been really explored as much and I was just wondering what that was like for you to be able to portray such a strong character and kind of maybe shine a little light on that and that way of life in that time that I think gets overlooked from especially all the old Westerns. Right, it's just not there as much.

LaMonica Garrett: 22:26

Especially on television. In film you have it here and there. My favorite movie ever was Unforgiven Morgan Freeman Ned. You see it in some older movies, but not many. And in television it was, I think, lonesome dub like deep, that was all that you said. He was great, but it wasn't prominent. So when I'm reading this script, um, you know, I read the first three episodes, two episodes before I got the part, and I'm just like man, like if, even if I don't get it, I can't wait to see this because this is whoever gets this is going to. You know, sky's going to be the limit, but this is one of those stories that it transcends, like just storytelling and television, like these are people's lives. I can't tell you how many places I've been, especially like during the time it was running and maybe a year or so afterwards we'd be on vacation and there'd be, like you know, people coming up to me saying thank you, like genuine, heartfelt tears in their eyes. You're telling my family's story.

LaMonica Garrett: 23:29

I grew up in Texas, I grew up a cowboy, we're cowboys. I started doing Bill Pickett rodeos and talking to black cowboys all over the country and it's just significant. And when you you do the research and you see the impact and the whether it's um, like the technology or the, you know, just creating all these things in the cowboy culture that we use every day. Not, I'm not a cowboy, but I'm an ambassador for it. But, talking to those guys, the things you use every day in cowboy culture that were created by these black cowboys back in the 1800s, that you've never, never, known, it's just yeah, there, there needs to be more stories on it. Taylor Sheridan, like he like cracked the glass, and I think it just should be so much more. You know of these kinds of stories told and I'd love to keep telling them, but there's room for a lot of growth and you know, it's just, it's awesome to be a part of that, that culture.

George Blitch: 24:31

Well, I'm glad that Taylor has done that. And again, there was another amazing role you had there. Um, I know that some of the other prequels had gotten, you know, a second season and stuff. I know that 1883 isn't on the board to do that and I think that's uh, it's tough, man, because I just wanted to keep seeing all that. I mean, what an amazing cast and you've worked with so many amazing actors and actresses. And you just mentioned there, too, one of your favorite movies there unforgiven there with morgan fre Freeman. I know you're a big fan of Shawshank as well. What was that like to then? I know you guys all have the scenes together, but you got a chance to meet Morgan and you know kind of what was that like for a kind of a culmination of getting into the business and then being able to be with one of the people. That was kind of a mentor, in that sense right, of some of the roles.

LaMonica Garrett: 25:12

He's a legend man, like it's Morgan Freeman and, like you said, we don't have scenes together in Lioness, they're in the, you know, the White House part of it and we're out, you know, in the field. We were in. We're filming season one and I hadn't met him yet and we were out in Spain like wrapping up the season, doing some stuff before we headed to Morocco to finish. And they were. I was like one of the. You know I'm going to meet him one of these days out here. He was staying in the hotel across from the Airbnb that I was staying at. I'm like I'm going to run into him sooner enough. You know we're going to, we're going to figure it out and we're sitting. I'm sitting around the Airbnb and I hear, yeah, morgan's last day is today. I'm like, excuse me, today I stopped what I was doing.

LaMonica Garrett: 25:54

I called production to see if they could. Where we were filming was maybe 45 minutes away from where we were. They had a shuttle come get me On my day off. I went there and waited like six, seven hours, like let him do his work. The director knew that I wanted to meet other actors that he's worked with, like Michael Kelly helped facilitate it and at the end of the day, they brought me over to him and I met him and I'm like, hey, man, like you know, he's had a huge influence on me. Like you said, shawshank, lean on me.

LaMonica Garrett: 26:25

Unforgiving, unforgiving, ned, I'm like dude, like your career, and I got a late start into college, into acting. I didn't start until my like early to mid thirties. He got started later and didn't have his first break Like, I think Shawshank or driving Miss Daisy, one of them. He got when he was like 50 years old and that's when he started snowballing and just it picked up. So I'm like you, give me hope in all different kinds of directions, especially starting late, as I did, knowing, like you, could have a whole career, your second half of life and and do great work. So I met him and I've talked to him since then. You know season two, but, yeah, he's he's a legend and I've worked with some Sam Elliott's a legend. I've worked with some some really amazing people and I'm, you know, I'm grateful and hopefully it.

George Blitch: 27:16

You know I'm grateful and hopefully you know it continues to keep tracking Indeed, and I remember I was just when you mentioned Sam Elliott. I think there was a time you were with Tim McGraw and, like Tom Hanks came in and was saying like oh my gosh, you got to meet Sam Elliott. Like the idea of this legend meeting a legend and how you know, it's just still like so exciting to meet some of these people who have laid down a path of brilliant careers that we can all be inspired to and enjoy it's. It's a. That was a funny little anecdote I heard.

LaMonica Garrett: 27:45

It was great. It was a makeup trailer. Tom was in the makeup trailer to him and Tim were buddies before they're talking. And you know, I heard Tom's like oh my God, I got to meet Sam Elliott today and I'm like, dude, you're Tom Hanks, like what's going on right now? But it was.

LaMonica Garrett: 28:02

There's such a mutual respect for what each other, what we all do, and how we're all influenced. You know, some people could have the ego or the bravado to be like oh yeah, I don't watch this or I don't, whatever. If you've influenced me, I'm going to give you your roses. Hey man, I love your work. I do it often. Uh it, it catches some people off guard. You know, like there's a a tough. I'm a six, three, 230 pound dude. You know, you think you might have this, this. I'm walking around like you know I'm this big tough guy or whatever. But if I see people and I see other actors, whatever energy they're giving off, I'll come over and break it up like hey man, I love your work. You know, I don't want anything else, I just want to let you know like you're. You know you're doing good work and I keep it moving, but there's, with a lot of taylor sheridan productions. There's that mutual love. Billy bob, uh, same thing. Everyone just enjoys being together and it's a mutual respect amongst actors.

George Blitch: 29:03

Well, it's a great family of folks that you've kind of touched base on and with and working with. I mean such richness in characters and just people who are putting their heart and soul onto the screen for us, and I was just going to ask you too, is that you know, know what all do you have that that's coming up? Obviously, lioness 3 has been tapped as up a couple weeks ago. Uh, that's got the green light. Um, I know osiris. Just, you know, if you want to maybe tell little people, uh, tell people a little bit about osiris.

LaMonica Garrett: 29:31

That came out, I think, at the end of july, right, yeah, we, we shot that new orleans, uh, a couple years ago. Max mart Martini, linda Hamilton, that's another one working with like you're telling me, I get to run around a spaceship with guns and Linda Hamilton's next to me and it's sci-fi in this genre. Like that was amazing the director, william Kaufman. That's the first time I met him, but we hit it off. And it was another situation where, after a season, we're filming the finale of season two, lioness and William Kaufman is already in Bulgaria going into production on this really well-written action film. That's just amazing. And the actor that they had, like something happened where he got injured beforehand and they didn't know it until the last minute. And this is an, it's an indie project. There's not these huge big budgets to where, oh, we'll go back home and find another actor and we'll shoot it in five months. They have this window of five weeks where we have to get this done. If you're sick, you've got to figure it out and you've got to shoot through it, you've got to do whatever. So now they're minus the lead actor of the film. You're carrying the whole thing, william Kaufman.

LaMonica Garrett: 30:44

The director hits me up, we're filming the season finale and I'm in an area on the ranch where we're filming, where I'm not getting any phone calls, there's no reception. We're just in a cooling van because it's like 112 degrees in Fort Worth. We're in a cooling van for like five minutes, uh, trying to get cool. Before we got to go back out there. My phone rings and I'm like I haven't heard my phone ring all day and it's the director. He was like hey man, we're in a crunch right now. When do you finish line S? I'm like we're done in like the next week or so. I'm sending you this script. I need an answer by the end of the day because the producers want to go out to some big names and this and that I told them you were, you know. So okay. So I take my phone with me, I download the script while I have reception, I'm reading it in between scenes while we're filming and I'm like this is I need to do this. Like this is me, nobody else, this is me, nobody else, this is me. I was able to send him a text back saying let's get it done. Call my reps, like we'll figure it out.

LaMonica Garrett: 31:46

We finished Lioness season two and three days later I'm on a plane to Bulgaria. And what was amazing about that trip as well was my wife is Bulgarian and she's from Sofia, so her family, her whole family, is still out there. We have a five-year-old that hasn't met his grandparents yet, hasn't met his uncle, his cousins. We go out there as a whole, we put him in school. Out there he's hanging out with his cousins. No one speaks English, he's the only like he's figuring things out, but he's hanging out while I'm working with his aunts. You know his uncles, his grandparents there. It was just, it was one of those experiences that you know it, it resonates. It was just one of those, those life experiences. But we shot that.

LaMonica Garrett: 32:28

The movie is called Nightingale Me and Andrew Howard are the anchors on it, with a really, really good cast. Good cast, uh, lenz edwards, um, uh, daniel bernhardt, like it's just, it's really really good cast. Navy seal. Long story short, he, he ends up on a rescue mission in the middle of the ukraine and russia conflict. So just being out there on your own in the middle of everything, chaos that you don't know, you can't understand anything. You just know you have a mission to get your goddaughter out of harm's way and it's just fun action. It's uh, really touching stories, moments interacting with you.

LaMonica Garrett: 33:08

You know ukrainian people and we had people like actors from the ukraine that had left the mid, that left the war, like there's one scene where we're running from a drone that's exploding and firing at us and a woman that was in the scene was a Ukrainian actress and she had a. She had a real scar right here on her face. Like how'd you get that scar? She said, from the drones that are in the, like the, but the real ones in Ukraine, I'm like it was. There was a lot of actors and actresses crying the Ukraine because it just it's so close to home, but that's why it's it's. It means a lot to a lot of people. I can't wait for this movie to come out and it's. It'll be out in 2026, at some point, not sure where, when, but yeah, look for it.

George Blitch: 33:54

Oh for sure. Well, maybe we can have you back on when that's about to come on and we'll chat a little bit more about it. So I know we've got time constraints here, but tell me a little bit more. Is there anything else that's coming out that we need to know with any other projects and also in what's next idea? I mean, you've had a competitive athletic career, you've had an amazing career as an actor, and I know that you know it takes a whole career of experiences to be the overnight success, right? I mean, you have put in your 10,000 hours and then some. I was curious about that next step too. Is there something else that you see on the horizon that you're like I want to do that someday, because obviously you've had a lot of success in these other realms.

LaMonica Garrett: 34:43

What is it that you are looking at and telling about some other projects? Just kind of give me the horizon, man. What do we got? Yeah, one thing I've always had on my bucket list, even when we were in Budapest, like filming. I'd be out, going to a cafe or something and I'm just sitting there in this European feel and I'm just taking it all in. You know, you got the buses, you got the just busyness of europe.

LaMonica Garrett: 34:58

I'm like this goes, falls in the suit, but like one day I want to do like a jason bourne type, you know, action film based in europe, um, just different settings, different things that you're not really used to seeing. You know, coming from like black actors, like said, like black actors don't sell in Europe. That was a thing from back in the day. I think Will Smith and you know other the Rock has disposed of that myth, but you just haven't seen a lot of it in these, in these certain roles. So I was able to do that later on, that last year in Bulgaria. That that's exactly what it was. It was, um, that jason bourne kind of thing, but more military. Uh, I want to do more westerns.

LaMonica Garrett: 35:44

I tell my reps all the time like I want to get back on a horse. There's nothing like being on a set out in nature riding your horse, getting after it. You could feel his lungs in between, like your, your legs, breathing. You're spitting dialogue, you're shooting guns and it's just like. You know, whether it's too hot or too cold, it doesn't matter, you're just. You feel like you're one with nature.

LaMonica Garrett: 36:07

And there was someone in the in my comment section on one of the things I post on social media. They said do you think you're being typecast on social media? They said do you think you're being typecast? And I remember having this talk with sam elliott and sam elliott said oh god, yes, I hope so, I hope I'm being typed.

LaMonica Garrett: 36:26

That just means you're working and you know you might play these military roles and have this military background, like in 1883 I was a sergeant, you know know, in the Civil War, this Pinkerton agent. But you're in a Western in the 1800s, on a horse In Osiris. I'm, you know this, I was a Marine, but you're on space with Linda Hamm, like with these different elements. Just because you're a soldier doesn't mean that this soldier can't, you know, evolve and end up in different situations and circumstances. And I love playing soldiers. I love being, you know, just active while I can. There's going to be a whole part of my career where I'm sitting behind a desk, you know, delegating authority, where I can't move around like I used to. So I want to do as much running and gunning and full body acting as I can right now because I'm having so much fun doing it.

George Blitch: 37:19

Man, well, you do an exceptional job. All the projects you've been a part of, I've been a big fan of. I know a lot of my listeners are too. You know I'm going to have all the notes of all the different shows we talked about below so people can go check them out in the podcast. But as far as people who want to go ahead and follow your career and follow your socials, why don't you go ahead and give them those where they can? You know your your your tag there so they can follow you?

LaMonica Garrett: 37:40

Yeah, it's pretty easy. I kept it all contained. It's LaMonica Garrett, all one word. Instagram, on Facebook, on X, all the threads, everything. It's just my first and last name all together, lower lowercase. And yeah, I try to keep. I'm not as good as I should be on socials. When I'm working I post a ton. When I'm not working I kind of go silent, like family life is family life, but work like I'm the guy on set always pulling a camera up in people's faces and getting behind. You know some behind the scene takeouts and I'll end up posting that.

George Blitch: 38:23

So it's a, it's a fun ride while I'm working. If you, uh, if you follow me nice well, is there anything else you want to leave as parting words that maybe some of your fans, friends, supporters over the years? Anything you'd like to say before we uh sign off here?

LaMonica Garrett: 38:30

ah, man, I've just had a really good village of people supporting me and seeing the growth and seeing the progress. And, like you said, it's the overnight, you know, sensation of like, no, like it. I felt I've fallen on my face a ton, and that's how I figured out. Things don't work. I failed early and often and I think now I'm starting to see what I you know, what I can be, and I don't even think, I don't think I've had my breakout yet. I think that's yet to come. So just yeah, keep following me and we'll, we'll see where this thing goes.

George Blitch: 39:05

Fantastic. Well, monica. Thank you again so much for joining me. It's been an honor and a privilege and I look forward to having you on again someday.

LaMonica Garrett: 39:11

Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

George Blitch: 39:13

Cheers man, you take care.