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I’m not even remotely a Tom Cruise fan, but Meeting Tom Cruise is one of the most stupidly entertaining podcasts I have ever mindlessly listened to at work.

This particular episode has been on my Spotify “Bizzy work flow” playlist since it came out— but I apparently didn’t recognize Marc Blucas’ name or I would have listened sooner.

Why should I recognize the name? Why would I have listened? Because Marc Blucas played Riley Finn on the television version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Riley was Buffy’s college boyfriend. I didn’t care for him much at the time (season four of Buffy that is) and then later watching the series with my husband and barely school-aged child.

Riley was All-American, tall, athletic, a psychology grad student and secret army hero hunting demons, which in the Buffyverse made him boring.

So when he appeared on this podcast I listened as a nod to my Buffy fandom days but did not expect to be impress.

He turned out to be a gifted story teller who has lived, as he humbly said, a “charmed life.” Marc grew up in western Pennsylvania in a small town where he got a basketball scholarship to I believe Wake Forest. He had a scholarship to go to law school but after making something like the final four division one shooting challenge he got recruited to play professional hoops in Europe.

Hall of Fame basketball player Tim Duncan was the best man at his wedding.

He had a business with Dale Earnhardt.

He landed a role sinking the three point shots in Pleasantville (another favorite of mine) and worked on First Daughter with Katie Holmes and then got cast in Knight and Day with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.

I don’t think he ever made it to law school but he certainly returned to his roots on a 15-acre farm in Pennsylvania, complete with 300-year-old farmhouse.

I realize now that the various people telling their individual stories is what fascinates me about this podcast.