 I consider the 90s one of the greatest series for television shows. She loves the 90s. It was a bit maybe, you were the 80s? What are you saying, I'm old. For TV shows. I was the kind of night rider and kind of all of that stuff. Blue Thunder and kind of, that was all my stuff, the A team. But for me it was get up every Saturday morning, 6am until midday it would be like saved by the bell, duck tails. I was probably just coming in at 6am from some rave the night before to be totally honest at that point when you were still in your school uniform. So anyway, it's the 90s. Sorry carry on. 90s, one of the greatest deals. It's not very politically correct is it for this era that we're in at the moment but that's just me I'm afraid, I'm a 70s kid. So one of the most iconic 90s TV shows. Also comment below what your favourite 90s or 80s clubs were that you were out until 6am. Especially if you were in the north of England around Hacienda time around only there we probably bumped into each other. Anyway, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. You would have heard of them. I love the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers actually. A bunch of teenage kids running around stopping aliens, morphing into incredible power rangers. I mean everyone wanted to be one. It was a very different looking show at the time. We hadn't really been exposed to that. It was a very that kind of Japanese kind of vibe, very kind of high impact and I think it's the first time we'd seen that kind of stuff on TV before. So took off, I remember seeing them in like I was obsessed with the magazines growing up. Tiger Beat, Team Beat, Bob, 16, all those names. No idea. So but we are lucky enough to be chatting to David Yost today who you will all know as Billy the Blue Power Ranger. Lovely chat. We also interviewed him as part of life after flash when we were doing that and we actually got to meet him in person. He was a really lovely guy. Took the time to chat to us, had a really interesting story and this is a great interview so enjoy it. The fabulous David Yost that we met for life after flash has kindly joined us on the web show David, how are you faring in these times? First of all thank you for having me and obviously it's a pleasure to see you again. Obviously the world is in a bit of a upheaval right now. At least where I live the United States probably more so than a lot of places. So I mean I'm hanging in there as best I can. Obviously I've never dealt with a pandemic before and so it's a learning curve as they say and I am a firm believer in wearing masks and doing everything that we're told to do to social distance and keep ourselves safe and so you know it's definitely been a learning experience and you know I think it teaches it's taught me a lot about myself and you got to be creative that's all I've been doing is creative and everything I do. Power Rangers and your characters and you were a staple of so many childhoods growing up but what were the movies and TV shows that you grew up with that inspired you? For me I grew up in the 70s so I'm a 70s kid and that's when Star Wars came out so that was like my first introduction really I think to sci-fi and so I was always kind of fascinated with Star Wars and I was a huge Darth Vader fan I don't know what that says about me but I just really always resonated with him and then as time went on obviously I got to see amazing films like Flash Gordon so you know I became a big fan of Sam Jones and that movie always sticks in my head even to this day I just love watching it every time I get a chance to see it so those are a couple of them and then they're like superhero wise I really resonated with a cartoon that was called Underdog and not too many people know about Underdog but I just I don't know I always took it to heart because he was not supposed to make it and he always made it so that's sort of three of my things. What drew you to acting in the first place? I got my start as an actor in second grade I was seven years old and I was lucky enough to be cast as Dopey in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for our school talent show I guess it was and so I got to play Dopey and I was left on stage by myself seeing hi ho hi ho it's off to work we go and I just remember the entire school like laughing at what I was doing and I just thought wow this is this is fun I really I really want to do this so from that moment I did every school play possible I took acting classes you know I did everything I could I went to university as you guys say college that was what we say and you know I got a degree in communications and in theater and then moved to LA to be an actor and luckily enough got Power Rangers right out of the gate but you know it's just something that I always wanted to do my whole life was to act just because I enjoy it and it's a lot of fun how hard was that decision for you to make that move to LA to pursue the dream because it does come with a lot of stigma you know you hear about people chasing their dreams and it seems like one of the most one of the toughest careers to try and achieve success it is it's a very difficult career and you really have to think about what you're getting into I try to tell that to a lot of people just really make sure that you're committed to yourself and to the craft because it's a it is a roller coaster and it is up and down but it wasn't a difficult decision for me it's just something again since I was a kid like that was always in my head I put it in my head I'm moving to LA I'm going to be an actor you know and a lot of people laughed at me and just were worried about me at the same time but I stuffed everything I could get into my car and I drove to LA I didn't know anybody I didn't have a place to live and you know I spent three days trying to find an apartment found an apartment and then I lived in an apartment for months without furniture and just slept on the floor so you know but I was so committed and then I was out pounding the pavement I moved to LA ironically two weeks after we had the LA riots so LA was in a horrible state it was not a good time to move to Los Angeles but that's that's when I chose to move here and it worked out for me and I think really it worked out because I was focused and I was driven and I wasn't going to let anything stand in my way and currently if I'm wrong because you can never trust the internet it when after you moved it wasn't actually that long before you got the role in Power Rangers that is an internet thing that we can believe that is true so I only lived here for I would say three months and then I got the first audition for Power Rangers and at the time it wasn't called Power Rangers it was called Phantoms and I saw an open casting call I just went to the open casting call with thousands of other people and just slowly go you know it just kept getting more and more narrowed down and it was like a two-month audition process so you know when it was all said and done I had been in LA for about five months and you didn't get to pick your color no we didn't get to pick our colors they were already pre-assigned actually when we were auditioning we didn't really know a lot about the superhero aspect of it the spandex the helmets you know they didn't really tell us that they were more focused on the the teenagers as they as we were being cast as and the chemistry that we had together and if we were either a martial artist a gymnast or a dancer I was a gymnast I was a competitive gymnast a lot of my life growing up but so my gymnastics sort of helped get me the role but anyways we didn't get to choose our color I originally had auditioned for the Red Ranger but after three auditions for that character I knew the producers were going to be going in a different direction and so I asked the casting director can I please read for the role of Billy she said no we have all these other guys and you don't look like them we're kind of going in that direction and I said please I know I can do this and she just said I just don't think the producers are going to be open to it and so I went into the bathroom at her studio whatever and I wet my hair down and I borrowed somebody's glasses and I borrowed somebody's button-up shirt and I came back and I said please let me read for the role of Billy Billy's the nerd that's why I was doing all those things he's the intelligent one of the group she said okay you know I'll see what we can do and they allowed me to audition and then I had five more auditions for the role of Billy after that so the lesson in that is to be persistent and if you if you really believe something in your heart which I knew I could do this role I knew I needed to act it was what I was there to do and so I had to prove and I had to do whatever I could to convince them that I could do it and so you know I like to tell people this story because a lot of times people tell us no and we accept the no and we walk away and you know I just didn't want to accept the no so obviously don't be crazy don't go don't make people feel really uncomfortable but you know if you really feel something in your heart then you you have to do everything in your power to make it happen going off my question list I was so slightly with this next one but what was it about Billy that made you know that you should be playing that role again I don't know it just it it was just me wanting to be a working actor I love acting and Billy certainly was a challenge for me because he's super intellectual and I David am not I'm like an average student I always got C's and Billy was always A plus student and so you know even the audition scene Billy had all these big words that I didn't necessarily know what they meant so I'd have to go back to my apartment I would look things up in the dictionary and then I was trying to make them sound natural coming from David as Billy and so you know it was even though you know it's a kid's show and it's kind of cheesy and all that kind of stuff it was it was a it was work for me which I really enjoyed because I got to create a character that was so unlike who I really was in real life Billy taught me a lot and so I honestly have been honored to get to play a role like that what were your first impressions once you had started shooting what were your first impressions of the script and the show and did you know that it was going to be such a huge hit I mean the initial impressions I I mean I thought it was okay I didn't really understand again it's like this idea that hasn't ever been contrived or done before so we're taking footage in the beginning they're taking footage from a Japanese television show and they're cutting it in with American footage and so just that concept I was like okay I don't I don't necessarily get it and then they're talking about dinosaurs they're saying we're morphing and I was like what all this stuff mean so you know I was just happy to show up to set I can remember one of the first days of filming we filmed at a bowling alley and I you know I showed up and they're like oh you know over here your trailers over here and then we're gonna take you to wardrobe and we're gonna take you to makeup and I was like oh my god my dream's coming true this is like I'm really acting like I have a trailer and I get to go to wardrobe and have to go to makeup and so all that was a lot of fun and then you know getting to become the character and getting to film for the majority of us on the on the cast we had never really done too much TV or film so it was such a training ground for us to work in front of camera and so all that beginning stuff was amazing and it felt so much fun for all of us and you know we filmed the original pilot and then they cut it together and they showed it to us and we were all kind of like okay you know we'll see we'll see how it goes it it really wasn't that great but luckily enough in the United States we had a network called Fox and Fox picked it up and you know they ordered 40 episodes right out of the gate and so we went and we filmed 40 episodes almost all of it was filmed prior to it even airing and so we had no real gauge of how successful the show was going to be and then the show started airing in I think it was at the very end of August beginning of September and we immediately shot to number one in the United States and the phenomenon began as they say and then the show started airing around the world and again worldwide we started becoming the number one kid show throughout the world so that's such an honor there's no way to gauge there's no way any of us could have predicted that that would have happened and that I am here all these years later almost 30 years later I'm still talking about it I'm still lucky enough to travel around the world and go to Comic-Cons and meet people in their 20s and 30s that freak out when they see me or my co-stars from the original cast because we had such a such a crazy impact on their lives and I think that's the most humbling thing about the whole experience is that it's just not something that I ever would have thought that a character that I was playing would give people hope you know they would see that Billy was a nerd or Billy wore glasses so it gave them confidence to feel okay about wearing glasses or they saw that Billy had friends so because he's a nerd he has friends I'm a nerd I can go out and make friends or you know it got them involved in gymnastics and martial arts and dancing and just giving kids confidence so that's such an honor to get to be part of a show that does that and just continues to do that now a lot of our fans have kids of their own and they've introduced their kids to the original Power Rangers and their kids love it so it's just like this trickle down effect that has been awesome when we interviewed you you it's always stuck with me the story you told where you said you were looking for a house and you went in and and one of the bedrooms was just plastered with your characters posters and that was such a surreal experience that still sticks with sticks in my mind obviously and it was actually a soap a soap actress here in the United States it was her house and so it was her kid and it was just like it was just interesting to walk into a bedroom and see Power Rangers posters but not only Power Rangers poster blue ranger stuff kind of like you know trickled around the room and I was like oh wow like I that's such a weird experience but obviously again awesome you know I as part of the original cast which has been like I guess the most popular cast you know we still have all these action figures continually being made in our image in our likeness and it's it's just interesting to to see that it just keeps going and going and going and obviously again I am just so humbled by it all and so honored and so to get to walk in to be searching for a house in LA and walk into some kids room and see that you know the show that I'm a part of is really affecting him it's awesome. You touched on how it's impacted you this amazing series that you were part of but just how quickly it became popular and a you know number one in the States how was that for you you know you just moved to LA wanting to be an actor and then suddenly not only did you get a role which a lot of people who moved to LA might not do but then you become one of the most popular characters on television seems overnight how did you cope with that? Again it's a learning curve because you know nobody can really prepare you for what fame is really like and so you lose a lot of your privacy in a lot of ways and so you know it starts off where you know you'll start going to the store and you'll see people looking at you or kind of whispering and you're like what's going on because you know for me I just was going to work every day and doing my job I kind of forgot that I air on TV and then it started clicking in my head oh they they recognize me and then you know as time goes on on the show becomes more popular people are pushing their kids at us their kids are scared and crying and you know they're saying take a picture with them take a picture with them and all that kind of stuff so you know it just kind of you have to learn how to navigate that so you know obviously when you decide to be an actor in television and film obviously you know that becoming famous is part of the deal and so you know it it teaches you that you just kind of have to always be a good person which there's nothing wrong with that so you just want to always make at least I do I just always want to make sure that when I do meet people that I make them feel happy and that they they get a moment and I try never to say no if somebody asks to take a picture I mean there are there have been times where you know I don't feel I look my best and I'm like I'd rather not but I always try to take pictures with people as best as I can but yeah it's definitely a learning curve when the fame of the show started do you find it hard to be a role model I don't know if it's hard but again uh you know being on a show like how rangers uh you're playing a superhero and you're playing a wholesome teen I guess and that's how people see you and so I don't necessarily get to express myself I choose to be cautious about what I do even like on a political level I don't want to upset people I don't know it's such a complicated thing to navigate this part of it too even just yesterday on Twitter I had they had some people I don't know what's going on in the United States right now but we have cops that are dressed just like civilians and they're grabbing people off the street and throwing them into unmarked cars and just speeding away with them it's kidnapping and so I wrote wtf uh and you know you know I said this is a straight out kidnapping whatever and uh one of my fans said you know they were genuinely upset they said power rangers don't use wtf so the f you don't you don't use that and I was like oh yeah you're probably right and so I should have said wtf you know so uh just little things like that were you know it's like I'm constantly feeling like oh yeah I kind of have to watch myself and I do want to watch myself because again I have to remind myself even though I did the show 30 years ago and I think my fans are 25 to 35 years old and they might be able to handle it um I have to remind myself that there's little kids uh that are still watching the original and uh they see things because they're connected in social media and so I really want to make sure that you know I'm not doing anything to shock children that's interesting because you you're because you have to be a role model as you David but you also have to still be Billy so you've you've got to be two role models almost but yeah it becomes complicated in some ways but you know I just really just try to be myself and uh try to watch my language that's that's what I have to do why do you I mean it's lasted years as we've spoken about it's still loved I was a big fan of it still am growing up as well um why do you feel like it is still so popular and loved I think the thing that I'm most proud about uh with the television show at least Mighty Morphin Power Rangers when we started this in 19 we filmed the original pilot in 1992 uh it didn't start airing till 93 but back then uh I was always proud that we had an ethnically diverse cast and so I really felt like uh everybody was represented for the most part in some way and uh again just me getting to play a nerd kids that are intelligent kids that are on the spectrum they could relate to my character so I just I love that we were so diverse but we came together and we were the best of friends and we really showed that we could all just get along and I think it's interesting that you know in the world especially in my country we're seeing so much crazy craziness with racism and all this stuff but I'm glad it's coming to the surface so that we can get to uh maybe living how the Power Rangers lived uh just you know in harmony so uh and just uh support each other in terms of what we bring to the team so Power Rangers again a great message from the show was teamwork uh and that it's not just about one person it's about all of us working together and so that's sort of you know what we have to do in the world as well as work as a team and in addition to acting you also are producing as well now um was that an organic experience or organic organic transition for you a natural one I think it was really natural and actually pretty easy for me you know again being on Power Rangers we filmed that TV show very in a very fast paced environment we filmed four episodes at one time so we would call them clusters and so everything that would take place let's say in the command center for those four episodes we would film and then we would move to our gym and juice bar set and everything that we did in uh everything that would take place in the four episodes in that set we would film and then we'd move to the school and then we'd go out onto locations stuff like that so it was very fast paced and constantly doing wardrobe changes and hair changes for the girls and uh all that kind of stuff so it makes you learn uh a lot about production and just how things work and how precise things have to be I mean filming four episodes in the command center knowing that every episode sometimes you have three or four different wardrobe changes uh you know you really have to keep your wits about yourself uh to really make sure that everything is happening as it is and so when I moved into becoming a producer I took so much of the knowledge that I had learned just from being an actor on Power Rangers and just really put it to play and uh I think it really helped me move up the ladder really quickly uh I started like everybody else as a production assistant uh but they they saw how competent I was and how I could help them speed things up and so the company that I was working for at the time uh just kind of moved me up real quick and it worked out in my favor you had touched on being a gymnast and I have to say I've always been a little envious because I I went to level one and then quit when I was really young and I've always regretted it and so whenever I hear that people have succeeded I have a little bit of the green monster but did that I imagine that physically obviously helped you get the role in Power Rangers but was that something that taught you the kind of mental strength that you needed for perhaps the move to LA and then working in such a fast-paced environment? I mean it's certainly possible I've never thought about it in terms like that uh obviously being a competitive gymnast uh I I don't know how my my mom did the things that she did she would work a full-time job and then take me and my sister to gymnastics and on top of doing all the house chores and all that kind of stuff she maybe taught me a lot about the mental fortitude that I would need in life but being a gymnast it's obviously a rigorous sport and challenged me mentally in a lot of ways I there was a lot of things about being a gymnast that scared me or terrified me but it never you know just swinging around bars and doing double backs and all this kind of stuff you know at first I'd be like oh I don't know if I can do this but I'm kind of like a visual learner and so my coaches would always be like how did you do that and I'd be like I don't I don't know I just saw that person do it and and I watched how they did it and that's how I that's how I would learn so uh you know that taught me a lot probably so it's interesting to me that you pose that question because I had never really thought about it and I I imagine I did get a lot of strength from being a gymnast and just being dedicated to that sport and that probably did help me you know make these decisions that maybe some people wouldn't make like moving from Iowa to Los Angeles to be an actor um you did in 2002 again if I've understood this correctly in 2002 you did the play Fallen Guardian Angels for charity um it's theater something you want to do more of it always seems to be the outlet that actors feel like they can really sink their teeth into because you're not stopping and starting and changing cameras all the time no I mean I think it's so important and so crucial for any actor I mean if you take the craft seriously you need to do theater uh if not do it at least be reading plays all the time because it teaches you so much uh Los Angeles unfortunately I don't think is a great place to do theater I don't think we have a lot of good theater here just because there's so many theaters and you know they're all like 99 seats or smaller 50 seat theaters and it's just difficult to get people everybody's so caught up in the film and the television industry here it's just difficult to get people in to see theater but yeah I would never be opposed to it I always wished uh that I had a better singing voice uh because I mean Broadway would have been something that uh that's something that I'm very envious of as actors that are able to go out on stage and just sing and be part of those amazing productions that because I don't because I don't sing I don't get to even I don't even get to really try for those things but uh yeah I mean I would love to do theater at some point again for sure come to London we have plenty yes you do and but again you guys are just you guys are better than Broadway uh but I love I love theater in London for sure is there anything else that you're working on at the moment uh all coming up that you can share because of the coronavirus it really has kind of changed uh a lot of things that I thought I was going to get to be doing in terms of a web series that was coming up and um you know auditioning has just been so weird I've had auditions and then it's like um they're like well okay that was great we're kind of we're kind of just waiting to you know everybody just keeps thinking that this is going to be over and we're going to get to to move on uh and I there are other countries like Canada uh they're moving forward uh just the United States I don't know what's wrong with us we can't get our head screwed on straight to to follow the guidelines so I think we're going to be delayed a lot longer I kept hoping for the 20 January 2021 we could start maybe ramping up again uh so we'll see but yeah I mean there's definitely a couple of web series that uh I'm sort of attached to and involved with and hopefully they will come to fruition uh rather quickly uh other than that I mean I have had a few auditions for some films and I'm just not really sure where where they stand at this point um uh but uh and then in terms of producing you know it's sort of the same thing I have some ideas uh that are written out and scripted and everything and it's just a matter of really trying to to get them sold uh which is what everybody is trying to do right now so we'll see and what I've loved about talking to you is that your answers seem to not only answer the question but you've had a really kind of lovely message or piece of advice for people as you as you say but I'll ask this one anyway um for people who would where you were in Iowa dreaming of moving to LA to become an actor what would your advice be for them getting into this industry is not easy uh and you just have to really be committed to yourself you have to really believe in yourself you can't come uh don't become an actor because you want to be famous uh I know that we're kind of in that world right now about influencers and social media and becoming famous but that can't be your driving factor uh because even that is so small so uh you become an actor because you love you love to act you love to create you love to become characters uh you love to entertain you love to tell stories that's what you have to to be within yourself and so if that's the truth about yourself and then you believe in yourself wholeheartedly I mean from the time I was little from the time I was on stage at seven years old I knew it was like a instant flash in my head that that's I have to do that uh and there's nothing you know there's nothing that's really gonna stop me from doing that I have to give it my all so um you know you have to be be willing to to move to a city uh that you might not know anybody in uh Los Angeles New York Atlanta in the United States is becoming popular obviously there's a lot going on in Canada uh so you know you have to figure out where the place is that you're going to go and uh just get rigorous and get uh creative uh I will say part of what helped me uh get noticed uh was my creativity and so things are different now uh in terms of getting in front of casting directors but back in the day I would sit in my apartment with no furniture and every day that I would come home from work I would create envelopes I would take magazines and I would cut pictures out I would make these amazing collages on these envelopes and then I would mail my photo to the casting directors uh just because I needed to stand out because they get hundreds of envelopes every day so if they just see this one envelope that was a collage that somebody took the time to make that made me stand out no matter what they're going to open that envelope I believe that and so they opened it and maybe I was right maybe I wasn't wrong I definitely got auditions uh and got called in so that was me being creative and doing whatever I could to get noticed and so you know you have to think of creative ways to to make sure that you you are being noticed and that people are going to know your name so be committed be rigorous and be creative okay may I feel like I should applaud that thank you thank you so much for joining me on the web show really appreciate it um hope you stay well and stay safe in these very strange times and bring on 2021 so let's go 2021 get this year over with but uh same to you and thank you so much it's always a pleasure to see you I think you're an amazing talented woman and uh just an honor to get to work with you and be interviewed by you so thank you thank you thank you and uh obviously wishing you all the best in the UK and just stay safe happy and healthy okay thank you and coffee in LA or London whoever gets there okay yeah for sure that is it for another week that's it that was lots I know maybe we'll morph into some dinosaur what would we if we had to could we combine together into one super powered thing with ink and with we'll morph this one in into the mix as well she can she can be the top half she's a bit it's really hot today so she's been sleeping on my lap the whole time sorry anyway thank you for watching uh we have another interview next week yeah don't forget to subscribe like share all of the usual nonsense yeah because we'll be having some subscriber only competitions and stuff coming up so join our little life after club subscribe we will be continuing with these amazing interviews and so much more until next week have a great week have a great week people