When he finally retired from being a video game referee, he said, “All these years, now I’m going to go after my dream.” he would say his dream, sometimes he would say his next phase of
life. And it was at that point that I thought he was still talking about this. Now he’s freed himself up, so he truly could do this if he wanted to. That’s when I thought he really is gonna make this happen, or at least he’s gonna have fun trying to make it happen. And everything just fell into place. He met the right people.
He met the people who wanted to work with him and support him. He already had a support network. I don’t just mean from me, but from other players as well. People who had such good experiences with him over the decades. And again, at that point, I thought, wow, he’s really gonna do this.
And I thought what he had achieved in the gaming world was so incredible. It was hard to argue, even in my own mind, that he couldn’t do it because he had already achieved so much. Therefore, it’d be stupid for me to think that he couldn’t do it.
The question was whether he was going to be persistent enough to persevere. And again, as time went on, I saw it unfold, and it actually got exciting. He’s driving three hours to go to a studio to rehearse a few songs. Nobody drives three hours just to be a screwball. They go there because they’re gonna do it, and then he is done, and he gets to drive three hours back. Now, the whole time he’s driving, I’m on the phone with him and he is telling me what he’s gonna do on the way there, or he is telling me what he did do on the way back.
So, it easily captured me. It easily captured the people that supported him because although we weren’t there at the studio, we saw his situation growing and unfolding, and so to finally see him get on stage and finally do it. And to pick on him and laugh at him because he wondered if he’d be able to do it. He wondered if he’d have the nerve to stand on stage in front of all those people. He stands on the stage all the time in front of people. So, at that point, we were picking on him. Yeah, you’ve been on the stage talking about video games in front of hundreds or thousands of people. I expect this next time you go on stage, you’re just gonna collapse, but those are self-doubts that we all have in our own growth.
“I just wonder if [Tom Cruise] will come up short. That was my humor.”
He went through every bit of it, and sometimes it’s more fun to watch somebody have fun. Sometimes it’s more fun to watch somebody succeed. Sometimes it’s more rewarding to be a part of that simply because you supported it, and then you see it happening. And that’s exactly what happened with Walter.
It’s so amazing in the film to see him at 74 years old at the time, following his dreams and to see your support of him too. I just love to see it. Walter told me he loves to meditate. Has he gotten you to try meditation?
No, he hasn’t. Yeah, no. He is pretty serious. And I don’t know if I’ve learned not to fight him or if I just gave up fighting him. We’re going somewhere and he’ll say, “No, I have to meditate first. Can’t you meditate while we drive?” No. It’ll only be a short bit, it’s an hour and a half later, there are no short bits. But it obviously does well for him. He meditates twice a day, but when he meditates, he also does yoga.
So, if you consider the fact that he’s now almost 76, he bends down, picks stuff up, walks over there, and goes there. Like somebody who’s 20 years old, he’s as flexible as a teenager. So when I see all these things, he is somehow, I gotta believe that he has some knowledge, some truth, some benefit to all that he does. And I’m happy for him and happy for myself too. No, I haven’t started doing it. So, when you do it, let me know how it is.
Is it true that Tom Cruise was supposed to play you, but you said only Billy can play Billy?
No, I didn’t say only Billy could say Billy. When we say Tom Cruise, whether it was actually Tom Cruise or it was Tom Cruise’s group, because as you would know, it was a whole lot more than just the actor themselves.
And yes, we were told by the producer that they came back and said that they liked it. I think they were the ones that actually inquired about taking control of the whole project. But ultimately it was one of them who said no, only Billy Mitchell could play Billy Mitchell. I don’t know if that’s a compliment or not, but I’ll take it as a compliment.
