Emmett J. Scanlan On The “Devil” Inside Him

Joe Marler Will See You Now

Host Joe Marler sits down with actor Emmett J. Scanlon to discuss the intersection of his professional acting career and his personal neurol

Key takeaways

• Emmett J. Scanlon lives with aphantasia, meaning he cannot visualize mental imagery or recall childhood pictures.
• Scanlon uses the Hebrew word 'Emet,' meaning truth, as the inspiration for his professional name.

Main topics

• Aphantasia and mental imagery
• The impact of fatherhood

Notable quotes

Our job is to be memories for our kids and ghosts for their future.

Conclusion

A deeply moving episode that demonstrates how embracing one's unique n

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Mate, 22? That is just, that is completely impossible. 22 pieces? Yeah. Eyebrows, eyebrows it right now. What Speaker 3 (0:13) an experience that was. So you weren't able to make it, I went to the Invictus Games dinner. Speaker 2 (0:18) Yeah. Why did your mouth do that after you said that? Because Speaker 3 (0:21) that's me showing off that I went to something like that. Oh wow. Invited by Prince Harry himself. Okay. Well, I say himself, by his team. Himself. Took my mum with me. Speaker 2 (0:33) You took your mum instead of me. Well, you weren't available. Everyone was asking Speaker 3 (0:37) after you. I didn't get invited. You were invited big time. So there was an auction because it was a charity fundraiser and you've got people there who run companies with their revenue in the billions. Not millions, billions. Billions. Like to buy a table on this thing is thousands and thousands of pounds. Yeah. And there was an auction and they're auctioning off things like afternoon tea with Elton John. Please. please tell me your mum bid on it. Starting bid, £5,000, £10,000, £15,000, £20,000. What? £20 Speaker 2 (1:10) ,000 for afternoon tea? Speaker 3 (1:11) Oh, Speaker 2 (1:11) it Speaker 3 (1:11) went higher than that. I don't know what it ended up on. It went higher than that. But before we left my house, my mum was like, right, okay, I'm ready to go. Also, I've got a bit of cash out at the cash machine just in case. You said there was an auction. She had £30 on her. She had 30 grand. Speaker 2 (1:27) Who's going to start us at 30 then? Oh, me, 30 grand. Thank you. Jake's mum, 30 grand. What? Speaker 3 (1:34) We'll go in at 20. She heard 20. She's like, we'll go in at 20. Yeah, 20 grand. I mean, loads of this stuff. I mean, amazing though. They raised millions. I was just about to Speaker 2 (1:43) say, surely they raised loads. They raised loads of money. They raised Speaker 3 (1:45) loads of money. And we met all of these Invictus athletes. It was very cool. Speaker 2 (1:50) You know what I'm really wanting to know is... Did he remember you? Didn't see me. What? Speaker 3 (1:57) Well, actually, no, he did see me because I arrived at the same time as him. And when we arrived, there was loads of photographers all shuffling around. My mum was like, oh, Jake, I think they want to get a picture of you. Jake, I told you you were doing so Speaker 2 (2:10) well. Turns Speaker 3 (2:10) out he'd arrived at the same time. And then they said, sorry, Harry's arriving. Do you mind just standing to the side? Yeah, absolutely. Who were you Speaker 2 (2:17) sat with then on the table? Speaker 3 (2:18) Were you on the Duke's table? I was sat with your old mate. Speaker 2 (2:23) Chris Brooker? James Haskell. Right, rephrase that sentence. I was sat with your mate James Haskell. You were sat with an old teammate of mine. I Speaker 3 (2:32) was sat with your mate James Haskell. You were sat with an old Speaker 2 (2:34) teammate Speaker 3 (2:35) of mine. Yeah, we were sat together. Speaker 2 (2:37) Okay, how was that experience for you? It was Speaker 3 (2:39) very good, very enlightening. Learned a lot about you. Sure. In your younger days, the sorts of things you used to get up to. Go on. Does the phrase fire pussy ring a bell? I can't believe that's a sentence I've said out loud. Does the phrase fire pussy ring a bell? So, picture the scene. Who do we got in today Speaker 2 (2:57) then? Picture the Speaker 3 (2:58) scene. We're sat on this very posh table with very posh food and very posh, like, all these wine glasses or whatever. To the right of me, Haskell. Then me. Then to the left of me, my mum. Then to the left of her, a colonel. Speaker 2 (3:11) What? Speaker 1 (3:11) Yeah. Speaker 3 (3:12) Very nice man as well. Very gentle, very warm, talked to Zawasem all about his life in the military, kept pouring glasses of wine for my mum. And I was like, okay, that's nice. The first one, fair enough. The second one, he's trying to get my mum drunk. He was a very, very lovely man. And so we're talking and then we start talking about fire pussy. And apparently you were involved in this. It's important Speaker 2 (3:32) you get to the detail of the story quicker. Speaker 3 (3:34) So... Quicker. James Haskell was telling me about Fire Pussy and basically this game that you rugby lads used to play when you were indoors, I can't stress this enough, this is indoors. And you'd start a fire, I don't know, were you in a hotel or training room or something like that? It was a team room, yeah. Start a fire, say in that waste paper bin, and you keep throwing things, bit of paper, bit of wood, bit of this curtain, whatever. The fire gets bigger and bigger and bigger. Whoever gets so scared that they put the fire out because it's getting unmanageable is then labelled the fire pussy because they were too much of a pussy to let the fire keep going. Speaker 2 (4:08) What sort of thing were you getting up to? Well, you've just described what sort of thing that's getting Speaker 3 (4:13) up to. Speaker 2 (4:14) Yeah, it was in my younger years, mate. I was 27. Speaker 3 (4:20) So we're finding out about Fire Pussy and my mum can't believe it. She was a bit disheartened about not being able to bid 20 quid for Afternoon Tea with Elton John. So this story is sort of a bit of a gear change for her. At which point the Colonel... who'd been sat sort of quite amicably and quite nicely next to us. He chips in and says, oh, that actually reminds me, James, of a story from when I was back with the lads. And I think, oh God, here we go. He said, I shouldn't say it in front of your mother though. I said, you can say it in front of my mum. Oh no. He said, oh, go on then. So it reminds me of a time with the lads and we had a competition to see exactly how many two pence pieces we could fit under our foreskins. At which point my mum goes, what? I'm thinking, what? He goes, I got to 22. 22! Speaker 2 (5:06) There's no way he could fit 22 2P pieces in his Speaker 3 (5:12) foreskin. I could not believe it. I thought to myself, I'm amazed by, I'm just so excited to be involved in this new world of... Go on. Of army and aristocracy and in this massive great hall where there's the banquet being served. Because everyone is so mild-mannered and polite and lovely, whilst also being able to explain to you that they once tried to put 22... Well, they not tried. They successfully did, but then tried to put 23 two-pence pieces down their foreskin. I found myself having a wee and tugging on my foreskin, trying to think, I don't know if I could fit one one-pence piece down there. Speaker 2 (5:51) Did you go back to your mum and say, you've got to change from that 30 quid? My mum split the 20, would you? What I'm wondering is, say your head is the shaft here. Am I now putting... Speaker 2 (6:11) Am I putting my 2P in here like a slot and then stretching the foreskin this way? Or am I putting the 2P like on top of your head like a biscuit? Oh, Speaker 1 (6:24) I Speaker 2 (6:24) didn't even see Speaker 3 (6:24) like that. Oh, I Speaker 1 (6:25) see. And then Speaker 3 (6:25) it comes up as if to Speaker 2 (6:27) lengthen the actual appearance of my penis. Speaker 3 (6:29) Oh, that's how you do it. Oh, in that case, you can fit more. I mean, 22. Oh, I see. I thought. I thought, say this is the penis, I thought you were pulling that back to slide them in the side there. What? I thought, of course. Oh, you're saying you plop it on top and you wrap it round. Oh, gosh, of course. Speaker 2 (7:01) Who is it? Tell the people. Speaker 3 (7:03) Well, we have a manly man. A manly man? A manly manly man. You've seen him on Peaky Blinders. You've seen him on Kin. Oh, hello there. You've also seen him on Mobland. It's Irish mega hunk. Speaker 3 (7:18) Emmett J. Scanlon. Huge. Speaker 2 (7:22) And every time you say his name, you have to say all of it. Speaker 3 (7:26) Emmett J. Scanlon. So he's mega hunk. He's a mega hunk. He basically Speaker 2 (7:32) plays like hard men, like gangsters all the time. Although in Peaky Blinders, he was a retired football pro that they converted to be on the side and he would throw football matches now for them. for betting and stuff like that. So he was gangster, but not prominent gangster. Speaker 3 (7:52) Gangster adjacent. Speaker 2 (7:53) That is exactly what I was looking for. You've got loads of kids, right? You could make a crime family. Speaker 2 (8:00) What be like the new mob land? Yeah, Speaker 3 (8:03) yeah, yeah, yeah. In your crime family, who would have the different roles? Who would be the one, who'd be the muscle? Who'd be the brains behind the operation? Who'd be the one that's laundering the money? Who'd be the one who's... Speaker 2 (8:15) Maggie would be the snitch. Speaker 3 (8:17) Right, so you already know who's snitching on the family? Speaker 2 (8:19) No, no, no. She wouldn't snitch on the family. As in, she'd be the snitch. As in, she'll be the informant. She'll be able to infiltrate the... Oppositions. Yeah. Get all the information, bring it back. Like, she just picks up on everything. Daisy's obviously the muscle. Speaker 3 (8:38) Yep. Speaker 2 (8:39) Jasper is like the Tom Hardy figure. He's like the fixer. You send him out, he's like, jolly, quite polite at times. Good morning. Switch, though. I'm Speaker 3 (8:49) going to smash your face in. Yes. Unless we sort it out. Speaker 2 (8:52) Do you know what I mean? Pixie, I don't even want to explain to you what Pixie will be. She's a four Speaker 3 (8:56) -year-old, right? Speaker 2 (8:57) Yeah. Five. Five. She's a five-year-old, right? Four. Speaker 3 (9:03) They call her 4-5. No one knows if she's 4 or if she's 5. Either way, gets the job done. Speaker 2 (9:09) Felix just really likes animals. Oh, Speaker 3 (9:12) right. Okay. Don't let me set the dogs on you. Speaker 2 (9:15) Yes. Yeah. Very nice. He's got the dogs and he owns a pig farm. Yes. Never trust a man who owns a pig farm. You look a little bit peaky blinds actually with that Speaker 3 (9:24) haircut. Speaker 2 (9:25) Precisely what I've Speaker 3 (9:26) done today. Yeah. I don't know how that's gone so unnoticed. Speaker 2 (9:29) It's taken you this long to pick up on the fact that Speaker 3 (9:31) I've Speaker 2 (9:32) got this lid. Yeah. Apparently, this was the lid that the famous real life gangster Al Capone had. Really? He had it beach blonde? No, without... I couldn't get the shoe polish to go Speaker 3 (9:44) in it. Right, Speaker 2 (9:44) okay. Do Speaker 3 (9:45) you know what I mean? Well, you Speaker 2 (9:46) had it done Speaker 3 (9:46) in Speaker 2 (9:46) Turkey. Right. I actually had mine done in Leeds. Oh, fine. You Speaker 3 (9:51) had it done in Leeds? Yeah. Speaker 3 (9:54) Al Capone had his bleach blonde hair transplant down in Leeds. Right. Speaker 2 (9:59) Enough of your pratting about. Right. All right, we've got a guest that we need to bring in and he spent way longer than most with Janet. So, shall we just get him in? Speaker 3 (10:09) Let's do it. Let's get him in. Hey, Janet. Speaker 2 (10:12) Yo, Janet. Send in Emmett, will you? Speaker 2 (10:26) Hi Janet, could you send in Emmett J. Scanlon? Fuck off. Please can we keep all of these Speaker 3 (10:34) in? Speaker 2 (10:38) Yo Janet, send in Emmett. Emmett J. Scanlon. Send him in. It's not a silly bike. Why's he got a lisp? Speaker 3 (10:53) I'll do my gangster voice. Give Speaker 2 (10:54) me a gangster voice. Speaker 3 (10:55) So you could do like Michael Caine, like that. Oh, yeah. Or you could do Statham. Speaker 2 (11:00) Okay. Yeah. All right, Janet. Yeah. Send in Emmett J. Scanlon, will you? I won't ask twice. That work? Speaker 3 (11:10) That loves it, yeah. Speaker 2 (11:13) Emmett J. Scanlon Speaker 3 (11:14) everybody! Speaker 2 (11:15) Hey! Good morning, man. Speaker 1 (11:17) Hello, Speaker 2 (11:17) Emmett. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's great. Speaker 1 (11:19) Lovely. Hi there. Hi. Okay. Come here. Oh, yes, please. I'll have Speaker 3 (11:23) one of those. Speaker 1 (11:24) Come on. What's your name? I'm Jake. So Speaker 3 (11:26) nice to meet you. Do you know what the worst part is? I said I'm Jake. I know who you Speaker 1 (11:34) are. Speaker 3 (11:34) I completely succumbed to it as well. Are you Speaker 1 (11:37) kidding me? You're Jake slash Luke for six weeks. Speaker 3 (11:39) Whoa! Whoa! That is such a deep cut of the podcast. Speaker 1 (11:44) Listen, guys, can I just say before we start this off that I am a massive fan of this podcast. I remember when we were talking about the potential of me coming on here, it was about eight weeks ago, two months ago. And I was like, well, I better do some research. I better watch one of the episodes just in case I happen to be on this show. So I do. I watched my first episode I watched was the Ross. hemp episode and he's clearly insane bananas like brilliant and a legend in his own right i don't listen to him for three hours if i could have and i was like this is amazing so then i watched three other episodes on the bounce and every single one of them was brilliant and i was thinking to myself well okay the bar is high now and i'm already doing this and doing like this makes me uncomfortable because i don't have a mask to hide behind i don't have a script to hide behind i don't have lines to say I have to be authentically myself while fucking cameras are rolling. So I was like, for the next seven days, I tried to find a shit guest. For real. I tried to find a low bar, a low bar from which to build my confidence on. So when I came on here, I could go like, however this goes, it doesn't matter because I'm not going to be as bad as X, Y, or Z. And I found... Speaker 1 (12:59) No one. Not one. So statistically, this episode has a good chance of being a low bar, which makes me excited, but also makes me feel like Will Ferrell in the bear pit where he immediately regrets this decision. So please, to the editor, be kind. This is already one of my favourite Speaker 3 (13:20) periods of time I've spent in my life. Forget about the episodes. Speaker 2 (13:27) Emmett, thank you. very much for doing your research and saying such lovely words. That is kind. Massive fun. Shall we begin with the intake questionnaire? Please. Full name. Speaker 2 (13:39) Emmett Robert Speaker 1 (13:40) John Scanlon. So Speaker 2 (13:42) when Jake, when we were saying in the intro about who we've got on. Speaker 1 (13:46) Yeah. Jake Speaker 2 (13:47) said we've got Emmett J. Scanlon. Yeah. Speaker 1 (13:49) And I Speaker 2 (13:50) said, are we Emmett J. Scanlon all the time? Like, do you insist on people calling you Emmett J. Scanlon? Speaker 1 (13:56) No, not at all. In fact, my nickname is just Scan. So anybody who knows me and who's friends with me just call me Scan. So you can call me Emmett J. Scanlon. Speaker 3 (14:08) Why Speaker 1 (14:08) did you keep the J, not the R? Speaker 3 (14:10) Oh. Speaker 1 (14:11) That was my confirmation name. I was basically named... My dad named me Emmett after an Irish rebel called Robert Emmett who was hung, drawn and quartered by the English. This has got awkward.