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Joining us on KJ today, it is an actor you

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know from Wings, The Shining, Chicago Med,

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Steven Weber, welcome to the KJ Today show. This is

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a place for the positive vibes of pop culture, people

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that out and pets. And I tell you what, when

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I when I brought your name up, it's always fun, you know,

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with such an accomplished actor like you to ask people

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like, you know, what, what are we going to talk about? And

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obviously, Wings came up and The Shining because of October. But

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overwhelmingly, everybody that is

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here tuned in just loves the

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character Dr. Dean Archer on Chicago Med, which

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we got a new episode tomorrow. So let's start off

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by talking about your involvement. Because if I

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remember correctly, this was supposed to be maybe a smaller recurring

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That's right. That's right. Good morning. Yes, he

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was supposed to be a very problematic, even scary

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little character who was not going to last very

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long. But I think they the show liked the dynamic of

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the character and whatever it was I was bringing to it. And they decided

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to keep him around. The funny thing is that when I bump into

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medical people in the real world, they will often say, you

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know, your character, Dean Archer, who, if you don't know, is

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a short-tempered, he's a bit of an egomaniac, etc.

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He's actually pretty close to the reality of what a lot of these doctors

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are like. And not that a

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lot of them aren't great-looking and heroic, but the

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day-to-day wear and care of that job

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can make a person you know, not particularly pleasant to

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be around. But the show thought that it would

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be a good addition to their already kind of

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storied characters and cast. And I'm so grateful

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And I know you can't talk a lot about where the character is

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going, but we're aware of his own medical

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issues. When you start to find out, OK, well,

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maybe my character isn't going to last as long as I'd like, does

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it change the way that you are playing things? There's

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emotions that get involved. And obviously, I hope he continues on

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for many, many, many years. But there is that element that

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Yeah, I mean, there's a little bit

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of trepidation when you open up a script. I imagine it's

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like being on the old, on the show, The Sopranos, where people

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open up the script thinking, am I going to get whacked this week? And

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my particular character is interesting because, yeah, he has had some

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medical issues, but those have, for the most part, been

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resolved. But in the upcoming shows, there are

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more challenges and struggles for this character, as

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well as the other characters, that put a little

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fear into your heart. Think, oh my gosh, is he

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going to be around? And to

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put everybody at ease, without taking too much of the mystery away, I would

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say, yeah, I think he's safe. It's safe

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to say that Dean Archer is going to be around for a little while. he's

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going to be challenged. And yeah, it's interesting

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because of the reality of being a working actor

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in this industry, where work is quite often hard to come

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by. And recently, it's been very difficult for a lot

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of amazing performers and technical people and

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creative people out there in terms of getting work. There's

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always something added

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to the experience of of reading a script thinking oh

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god here it comes oh no yeah and and so yeah there's

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a little fear a little desperation you want to do a little better

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you want to want to be a little nicer a little more efficient so

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So it's, it's been interesting we're here in Indianapolis and

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I, you know, I have a podcast as

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well as this show that's called the kind of nerdy girls it's

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like, you know, deep into any kind of, you know, fandoms. And

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it was interesting to see how these shows, you know, you know, all

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of the Chicago shows have grown into a fandom and

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in a community. And I know that was just a

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convention last month up in Chicago, kind of celebrating all

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of the actors from all of the shows. Do you do you participate in

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those fan experiences? Is that something you enjoy

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It is. I was unable to participate in the

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recent one involving the Chicago shows. But

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in the past, I've done so-called autograph conventions and fan

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conventions. And they are often incredible.

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Not often, they always are. It's amazing to actually

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meet people that like your work and like the

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show. And it's often

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moving and It's a great

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part of being on a show like this. It

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has a big fan base and a lot of people get so

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much from this show. I enjoy

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I wanna switch over because I'm the kitty correspondent for

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Pet Pals TV. So anytime that we can talk about animals,

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I'm gonna take the chance here, Steven. And you were

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the voice of Charlie be barking and all dogs go to heaven.

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So let's switch over to voice acting a little bit and wanna

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know, do you have a strong connection? Do

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you have your own pets and was playing a character like

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Well, first off, it was a lot of fun for me, not least because

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I got to work with Dom DeLuise, among others,

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Ernest Borgnine, and that was a lot

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of fun. I'm a relatively new dog person,

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as is my family. I really didn't have pets growing

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up and with my family, with my kids, and we didn't

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have a dog until fairly recently. So we are the We

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are owned by our beloved dog whose

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name is cat. We have a dog named cat And

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uh cat is a yep She's a

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jack russell. Uh dachshund mix so

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she's fast and uh And she's

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she's made our lives. Um Just

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wonderful. Um, so i've become a devoted dog person.

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Um and uh I even constantly

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post pictures of her online. She's

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been everything. So I now get it. I'm

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Yeah, I gotta ask the, you know, because naming a

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pet is, I mean, that's, it's big in the beginning, like,

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oh my gosh, what are we going to do? Did, did Cat

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come with the name Cat? Or how was the family discussion in

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No, I think her original name was Bernadette. And

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I think that had too many syllables in it for my kids, my

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kids who at the time were, you know, late teenagers. I

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think they thought it would be amusing to name the dog Cat. And,

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and so it just stuck. It was really fun. And it's a good conversation

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I love it. I want to switch over. I have a fan

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listening named Charles, who is big into

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Marvel. And I know that you have had a little experience

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with some voice work with Avengers Assemble and Ultimate Spider-Man.

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I am, you know, I am a Marvel fan and also some

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aspects of DC as well. But yeah, I was I

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was there completely for all the Marvel movies

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because I grew up with that. world. I

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was a big comic book nerd when I was really small. And

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I wish I'd kept all those issues because I'd be a wealthy man now.

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Right? I love y'all. Gosh, yeah. But

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it's silly to say that I like saying I wish I'd kept all

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the loose change that I just put in the you know, the cushions

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of my seat car or my car seats.

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Yeah, I loved that world a lot. And so being able to voice

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Norman Osborn and the Green Goblin in Ultimate Spider-Man was

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fantastic fun. I just felt so privileged to

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play a minute part in that world, that brilliant

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Is that something that if you had an opportunity to, you

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know, if Kevin Feige came to you, is there a

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particular character that you might like to, you know, bring

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Look, it'd be great to do something on screen

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in that world. It wouldn't have to be

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heroic. I could be just a paper pusher, you know, that works

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in the Avengers office. I mean, there's got

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to be custodians that work at the big, you know, Avengers base,

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right? I remember seeing a skit a long time ago that

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about the Death Star and Darth Vader, you know, there

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had to be people who

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worked for Darth Vader in the catering portion

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of the Death Star, you know, and they have to do that stuff. That'd be fine.

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Honestly, you bring that up and I'm thinking that

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would be an interesting perspective for

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Marvel to take of the cleaning staff

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The cleanup. I mean, could you imagine being the Hulk's cleanup

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staff? It would be terrible. But

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All right, Stephen Weber here with us on the KJ

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Today Show. Chicago Med, we

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love it here. We love what you're doing. And I certainly, I

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think there were some fans that breathed a sigh of relief to

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hear that we still get more of Dr. Archer and we will be

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cheering you on. Thank you so much for being here with us today, Stephen.

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Thanks for joining me for another celebrity interview. KJ Today,

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where you'll find the positive vibes of pop culture, the people to

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know, and pets. If you like this interview, please make sure

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you give it a like, rate, review, and subscribe, and join

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us on YouTube the first Wednesday of every month for

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the full KJ Today show, where we play trivia, bring you

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more celebrity guests, and even a pet of the week to keep you feeling