February 24, 2025 • 10 mins
Actor Zachary Levi talks new movie 'The Unbreakable boy' and much more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mario. Fun with Mario Lpez.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's up with Mario Lopez. Joving now on Zoom. Actor
Zachary Levi, I what's going on, Zach oh Man?
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Just loving life. Just very happy, very blessed.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
You're looking good as always. Congrats on the new movie
called The Unbreakable Boy. It's a true story, right, I
love true stories.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
What's it about.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Yes, Yes, it's a true story. And I love true
stories too. That's part of the reason I wanted to
do it. It's I mean, honestly, it's real slice of life.
It's very grounded. It's about a family couple that, you know,
they start dating and on their third date, they get
pregnant and they're like, oh, what do we do? And
they're like, well, you know, we should see this through,
and so they choose to have the kid while they're
(00:41):
still navigating their own relationship. And their child is born
and immediately there's like some interesting complications. They're not really
sure what's going on, and they find out that their
child has osteogenesis imperfecta, which is brittle bones disease, and
so already they're like, wow, okay, this is something that
we got to navigate. And then they have a second child,
and they're okay, they're normal and healthy, and then a
(01:02):
few years goes on and they realize that their oldest
son also then gets diagnosed with autism. And so the
movie is really about this family navigating the waters of
what it means to you know raise you know, two boys,
but the oldest being on the autistic spectrum, and you know,
the couple themselves kind of fighting their own inner demons
(01:22):
and trying to figure out how to love themselves whilst
trying to love each other, whilst trying to love their children,
and again navigating what are waters that a lot of
people are now navigating, which is, you know, the autistic spectrum.
And I think that's something that kind of touches everybody's
life at this point. It has become very ubiquitous. And
so that's really what the story is about.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I love I love the premise, and I totally see
that being a real life a scenario, which obviously it was,
and relationships are challenging enough to have those sort of
additional obstacles. My gosh, is there a faith based element?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
I gotta imagine did they turn to that at all?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
They do? Yeah? Absolutely, you know, it's a I would say,
it's like a fate infused film. You know, it's something
that the couple, Scott and Teresa, you know, they're not
they're not you know, specifically religious or or or faith
based people to begin with, but as they are, you know,
navigating their journey, they you know, start going to church
(02:21):
and and then ultimately, you know, Scott, the father that
I play, you know, a lot of a lot of
the film is is him coming to terms with accepting
the life that you weren't expecting, right, Like so much
of our journey as human beings is we have these
ideas and these expectations of how life is supposed to
(02:42):
go right, and God is constantly being like, yeah, no,
you don't get to determine where your life is going.
We obviously, you know, can make decisions, and we can
make choices, and those can lead to certain places, but
at the end of the day, there's so much it's
outside of our control. And Scott fights that and fights
that and fights that because he wasn't expecting to have
a child that was struggling with the things that Austin,
(03:03):
his son with autism, is struggling with. But through that,
his son Austin is you know, just boundlessly optimistic and
so full of love and so full of acceptance. And
Scott really learns, you know, as parents do, right, Like
the parents are teachers, but the children are really teaching
us all the time, so much more than we can
(03:24):
never imagine. And so Scott is learning so much from
his son, how to be more present, how to be
more loving, how to be more accepting. It's a really
beautiful man, It's a really really beautiful story.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
It sounds like a beautiful film. Congrats on that. And coincidentally,
you also have your first child on the way, right.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
I do? I do?
Speaker 3 (03:41):
How far along as your lady?
Speaker 1 (03:43):
She's seven months we're yeah, she's giving birth in just
a couple of months, beginning of April. I'm so pumped.
I've wanted to be a dad since I was a kid,
So this is, you know, a real dream come true.
And my girlfriend Maggie is so wonderful and she's going
to be such a great mom, and so we're really
really pumped about that. And we're gonna have our kid
out here in southern California where I grew up in Ventura,
(04:05):
surrounded by my family. So yeah, it's it's a whole
new chapter of life, and one that I am really
excited about, you know, going on.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
It's the best. It's the best role you're ever gonna have.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
The let's tell you right now, amen to that.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Yeah, you're gonna love it. Do you already know what
you're having?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
We don't know. We're gonna wait till the end.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
I did too. It's the best. I did that with
all my kids. Good for you.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
We're in the minority, but it's you're on a high regardless. Yeah,
I mean you only have the two options regard to
the Boyds to guard. You're still on a high.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
You're like, Wow, it's the best.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah, I don't. I don't. I don't begrudge anybody who like,
you know, for me, it was kind of like I could.
I was good either way. But Maggie, you know, it
was really interesting. It was it was a really beautiful observation.
She was like, listen, you know, if I got to
carry this baby all the way to term and then
I got to push this thing out of me, I
want every last little bonus at the end, you know.
And and so if we don't know the sex of
(04:56):
the child, that's another extra little surprise, and and an
extra little thing to like get me there. I was like, babe, absolutely,
let's wait until the end.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
It's a big thing and it's so worth it. That's
cool that she had the attitude. I had to actually
do some convincing.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
To my wife. But then she the other kid. She
didn't fight me on it. So no, it's great. Good
to hear man. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
You also have some other flicks on the way. A
movie called Not Without Hope. This one's a survival film
about a boating accident. Oh, the one with the NFL players. Yes,
they had a Brian Gumble did the real sports version.
I think of it was fascinating. Oh, this is great.
When is this coming out?
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I don't know. We're still in post production on it.
They're still trying to figure out ultimately selling it to
the right buyer and distributor and all that stuff. So
I think I hope that we'll figure that out some
like it will come out at some point this year.
I think that that's the plan.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Not Without Help is the name of it, right, yep,
Not Without Hope also a true story.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Yes, no, I love that.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
You. I'm always talking again when they have they say
that without story, I'm assuming you're playing the survivor.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
I'm playing the survivor. Yeah, that's heavy. It's a really
really heavy movie as you can imagine.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Oh my gosh, just the story itself. You watch and
you didn't you can't even believe it. Where'd you shoot it?
We shout in Malta, of all plays, Wow, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, Malta. Malta has been having kind of a moment
because they have a good film and Center program, and
also they have because the whole movie takes place basically
in the ocean, right, and so we needed to find
a you know, they have these big water tanks essentially
that you can go film in, and Malta's got one
of the there's probably like half a dozen around the world,
and Malta's got one of those tanks, and so that's
(06:36):
where we shot. That's cool.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
I'm looking forward to checking that out.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
And last, you're doing an action film with leam Neeson
the Legend called Hotel Tehron.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Have you started filming that one yet or.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
That's all yep, we already filmed that. We filmed that
last fall. We shot for a month in Mississippi, and
then we shot a few months in the Republic of
Georgia out in Eurasia.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Yeah, it was a tripman. You've been doing some racking
up some miles right there?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
How is how is Georgia? And how is Liam Nison?
Every time I talked to him, I really got to
pay attention. He is such a low talker, right, My
guy's like mad whispery and I'm like, say it again,
I really, I gotta imagine acting.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
That's gotta be tough. You can't hardly hear the guy.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Oh no, no, honestly, man, it was it was dreamy.
I mean he's such a good dude.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Oh he's a great dude. I just can't hear him.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Yeah. Yeah, he's a great dude. And and he plays
the role so well. I mean it's definitely in his wheelhouse.
I mean that's you know, ultimately why I think, you know,
we we wanted somebody like Liam to to portray that role.
Not a true story, but kind of based on some
true lore of basically, when the Fall of Iran happened
(07:44):
in you know, the late late seventies, there were a
lot of well, there were a lot of people fleeing Iran,
and there was a lot of money and gold and
things that were left behind while people were fleeing, And
so I play a CIA operative kind of leader of
his squad of operatives that we're going into save a
(08:05):
political prisoner. And in the process also how it's kind
of like an action heist flick, so there's like a
highest element involved where we got to go rob this
place of the gold that was left behind in it.
So and that I think, well, also I don't know
that will come out this year, maybe next year, but
later this year I did a film called Sarah's Oil
(08:25):
that I believe is going to be coming out this Christmas.
And that's a true story, a beautiful, wonderful, incredible true story.
In nineteen eleven, this ten year old black girl in Tulsa,
Oklahoma was ultimately given because she was a member of
the I can't remember which tribe I'm going to blow that,
(08:47):
but anyway, she was a member of one of the
native tribes and when the United States gave land back
to the tribes, she being older than nine years old,
she got her own one hundred and sixty acres and
what the you know, the government thought was probably you know,
useless land because you couldn't grow anything on it. But
she was very special, precocious, spiritual, intelligent girl who could
(09:09):
read and write. And she was reading the newspapers and
she saw that the oil boom was coming across the nation.
And she went to her land and she prayed over
her land, and she believed that God told her that
there was oil in it. And sure enough, as you
learned through the movie, she goes and hires this wildcatter,
this independent oil man to help her get the oil
out of her land. Bro she had the largest and
purest oil reserve in all of North America. She became
the richest woman in America as a ten year old
(09:31):
black girl in nineteen eleven.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Tots A awesome story, incredible story. How have I not
heard about that story before?
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Because there's a lot of these stories that unfortunately gotten hurried. Yeah,
so we made that film. We shot that last summer
in Tulsa, and that comes out, I believe this Christmas.
So that'll be coming outcent too.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
I want to watch all these movies. Correct.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Help you go, man, we'll talk about all of them
when they released.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
We will.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Man.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Congratulations both professionally and personally. Buddy, Good luck you in
a couple months and hopefully we'll get to see you
soon in person.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Listen.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Meanwhile, be sure to catch Jack in the new film
The Unbreakable Boy, which is out right now.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Thanks for checking in man.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Thanks Mario, good to see you, bro, Are you too?
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Take care
Speaker 2 (10:14):
With Mario Lopez
Mario. Fun with Mario Lpez.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's up with Mario Lopez. Joving now on Zoom. Actor
Zachary Levi, I what's going on, Zach oh Man?
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Just loving life. Just very happy, very blessed.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
You're looking good as always. Congrats on the new movie
called The Unbreakable Boy. It's a true story, right, I
love true stories.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
What's it about.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Yes, Yes, it's a true story. And I love true
stories too. That's part of the reason I wanted to
do it. It's I mean, honestly, it's real slice of life.
It's very grounded. It's about a family couple that, you know,
they start dating and on their third date, they get
pregnant and they're like, oh, what do we do? And
they're like, well, you know, we should see this through,
and so they choose to have the kid while they're
(00:41):
still navigating their own relationship. And their child is born
and immediately there's like some interesting complications. They're not really
sure what's going on, and they find out that their
child has osteogenesis imperfecta, which is brittle bones disease, and
so already they're like, wow, okay, this is something that
we got to navigate. And then they have a second child,
and they're okay, they're normal and healthy, and then a
(01:02):
few years goes on and they realize that their oldest
son also then gets diagnosed with autism. And so the
movie is really about this family navigating the waters of
what it means to you know raise you know, two boys,
but the oldest being on the autistic spectrum, and you know,
the couple themselves kind of fighting their own inner demons
(01:22):
and trying to figure out how to love themselves whilst
trying to love each other, whilst trying to love their children,
and again navigating what are waters that a lot of
people are now navigating, which is, you know, the autistic spectrum.
And I think that's something that kind of touches everybody's
life at this point. It has become very ubiquitous. And
so that's really what the story is about.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I love I love the premise, and I totally see
that being a real life a scenario, which obviously it was,
and relationships are challenging enough to have those sort of
additional obstacles. My gosh, is there a faith based element?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
I gotta imagine did they turn to that at all?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
They do? Yeah? Absolutely, you know, it's a I would say,
it's like a fate infused film. You know, it's something
that the couple, Scott and Teresa, you know, they're not
they're not you know, specifically religious or or or faith
based people to begin with, but as they are, you know,
navigating their journey, they you know, start going to church
(02:21):
and and then ultimately, you know, Scott, the father that
I play, you know, a lot of a lot of
the film is is him coming to terms with accepting
the life that you weren't expecting, right, Like so much
of our journey as human beings is we have these
ideas and these expectations of how life is supposed to
(02:42):
go right, and God is constantly being like, yeah, no,
you don't get to determine where your life is going.
We obviously, you know, can make decisions, and we can
make choices, and those can lead to certain places, but
at the end of the day, there's so much it's
outside of our control. And Scott fights that and fights
that and fights that because he wasn't expecting to have
a child that was struggling with the things that Austin,
(03:03):
his son with autism, is struggling with. But through that,
his son Austin is you know, just boundlessly optimistic and
so full of love and so full of acceptance. And
Scott really learns, you know, as parents do, right, Like
the parents are teachers, but the children are really teaching
us all the time, so much more than we can
(03:24):
never imagine. And so Scott is learning so much from
his son, how to be more present, how to be
more loving, how to be more accepting. It's a really
beautiful man, It's a really really beautiful story.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
It sounds like a beautiful film. Congrats on that. And coincidentally,
you also have your first child on the way, right.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
I do? I do?
Speaker 3 (03:41):
How far along as your lady?
Speaker 1 (03:43):
She's seven months we're yeah, she's giving birth in just
a couple of months, beginning of April. I'm so pumped.
I've wanted to be a dad since I was a kid,
So this is, you know, a real dream come true.
And my girlfriend Maggie is so wonderful and she's going
to be such a great mom, and so we're really
really pumped about that. And we're gonna have our kid
out here in southern California where I grew up in Ventura,
(04:05):
surrounded by my family. So yeah, it's it's a whole
new chapter of life, and one that I am really
excited about, you know, going on.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
It's the best. It's the best role you're ever gonna have.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
The let's tell you right now, amen to that.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Yeah, you're gonna love it. Do you already know what
you're having?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
We don't know. We're gonna wait till the end.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
I did too. It's the best. I did that with
all my kids. Good for you.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
We're in the minority, but it's you're on a high regardless. Yeah,
I mean you only have the two options regard to
the Boyds to guard. You're still on a high.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
You're like, Wow, it's the best.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah, I don't. I don't. I don't begrudge anybody who like,
you know, for me, it was kind of like I could.
I was good either way. But Maggie, you know, it
was really interesting. It was it was a really beautiful observation.
She was like, listen, you know, if I got to
carry this baby all the way to term and then
I got to push this thing out of me, I
want every last little bonus at the end, you know.
And and so if we don't know the sex of
(04:56):
the child, that's another extra little surprise, and and an
extra little thing to like get me there. I was like, babe, absolutely,
let's wait until the end.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
It's a big thing and it's so worth it. That's
cool that she had the attitude. I had to actually
do some convincing.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
To my wife. But then she the other kid. She
didn't fight me on it. So no, it's great. Good
to hear man. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
You also have some other flicks on the way. A
movie called Not Without Hope. This one's a survival film
about a boating accident. Oh, the one with the NFL players. Yes,
they had a Brian Gumble did the real sports version.
I think of it was fascinating. Oh, this is great.
When is this coming out?
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I don't know. We're still in post production on it.
They're still trying to figure out ultimately selling it to
the right buyer and distributor and all that stuff. So
I think I hope that we'll figure that out some
like it will come out at some point this year.
I think that that's the plan.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Not Without Help is the name of it, right, yep,
Not Without Hope also a true story.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Yes, no, I love that.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
You. I'm always talking again when they have they say
that without story, I'm assuming you're playing the survivor.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
I'm playing the survivor. Yeah, that's heavy. It's a really
really heavy movie as you can imagine.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Oh my gosh, just the story itself. You watch and
you didn't you can't even believe it. Where'd you shoot it?
We shout in Malta, of all plays, Wow, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, Malta. Malta has been having kind of a moment
because they have a good film and Center program, and
also they have because the whole movie takes place basically
in the ocean, right, and so we needed to find
a you know, they have these big water tanks essentially
that you can go film in, and Malta's got one
of the there's probably like half a dozen around the world,
and Malta's got one of those tanks, and so that's
(06:36):
where we shot. That's cool.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
I'm looking forward to checking that out.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
And last, you're doing an action film with leam Neeson
the Legend called Hotel Tehron.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Have you started filming that one yet or.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
That's all yep, we already filmed that. We filmed that
last fall. We shot for a month in Mississippi, and
then we shot a few months in the Republic of
Georgia out in Eurasia.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Yeah, it was a tripman. You've been doing some racking
up some miles right there?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
How is how is Georgia? And how is Liam Nison?
Every time I talked to him, I really got to
pay attention. He is such a low talker, right, My
guy's like mad whispery and I'm like, say it again,
I really, I gotta imagine acting.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
That's gotta be tough. You can't hardly hear the guy.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Oh no, no, honestly, man, it was it was dreamy.
I mean he's such a good dude.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Oh he's a great dude. I just can't hear him.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Yeah. Yeah, he's a great dude. And and he plays
the role so well. I mean it's definitely in his wheelhouse.
I mean that's you know, ultimately why I think, you know,
we we wanted somebody like Liam to to portray that role.
Not a true story, but kind of based on some
true lore of basically, when the Fall of Iran happened
(07:44):
in you know, the late late seventies, there were a
lot of well, there were a lot of people fleeing Iran,
and there was a lot of money and gold and
things that were left behind while people were fleeing, And
so I play a CIA operative kind of leader of
his squad of operatives that we're going into save a
(08:05):
political prisoner. And in the process also how it's kind
of like an action heist flick, so there's like a
highest element involved where we got to go rob this
place of the gold that was left behind in it.
So and that I think, well, also I don't know
that will come out this year, maybe next year, but
later this year I did a film called Sarah's Oil
(08:25):
that I believe is going to be coming out this Christmas.
And that's a true story, a beautiful, wonderful, incredible true story.
In nineteen eleven, this ten year old black girl in Tulsa,
Oklahoma was ultimately given because she was a member of
the I can't remember which tribe I'm going to blow that,
(08:47):
but anyway, she was a member of one of the
native tribes and when the United States gave land back
to the tribes, she being older than nine years old,
she got her own one hundred and sixty acres and
what the you know, the government thought was probably you know,
useless land because you couldn't grow anything on it. But
she was very special, precocious, spiritual, intelligent girl who could
(09:09):
read and write. And she was reading the newspapers and
she saw that the oil boom was coming across the nation.
And she went to her land and she prayed over
her land, and she believed that God told her that
there was oil in it. And sure enough, as you
learned through the movie, she goes and hires this wildcatter,
this independent oil man to help her get the oil
out of her land. Bro she had the largest and
purest oil reserve in all of North America. She became
the richest woman in America as a ten year old
(09:31):
black girl in nineteen eleven.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Tots A awesome story, incredible story. How have I not
heard about that story before?
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Because there's a lot of these stories that unfortunately gotten hurried. Yeah,
so we made that film. We shot that last summer
in Tulsa, and that comes out, I believe this Christmas.
So that'll be coming outcent too.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
I want to watch all these movies. Correct.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Help you go, man, we'll talk about all of them
when they released.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
We will.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Man.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Congratulations both professionally and personally. Buddy, Good luck you in
a couple months and hopefully we'll get to see you
soon in person.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Listen.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Meanwhile, be sure to catch Jack in the new film
The Unbreakable Boy, which is out right now.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Thanks for checking in man.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Thanks Mario, good to see you, bro, Are you too?
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Take care
Speaker 2 (10:14):
With Mario Lopez
Host
Mario Lopez
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