Q: You split your time between here and L.A.?
A: I’m in California for one week a month. Last week when I was there, I did a roast with E Entertainment for the 25 worst celebrity faux pas of 2012, which was great.
Q: Where do you live in Dallas?
A: I’m in Uptown. It’s funny, because I live in the Gables. My name’s Clark Gable. I get a kick out of that one.
Q: Are people starting to recognize you now here?
A: Yah! I’ve been getting a lot of positive feedback. At first, taking over the reins from Joey Greco [the previous host], I did take some heat for that. You know, my stepdad is the lead singer and bass player for the band Chicago. He replaced someone, too, and went through the same thing I went through.
Q: I know you never met your grandfather because he died before you were born, but I’m sure you know a lot about him. If a Cheaters camera crew followed him around, what would they catch?
A: I think they’d catch a lot of classy, tasteful unadulterous acts. I think they’d catch him being Clark Gable, being very suave. I mean, he was a womanizer, but in layman’s terms, I think that they’d catch a lot of natural occurrences.
Q: How many times have you seen Gone With the Wind?
A: I’ve only seen it three times, man. I’m not a huge, avid film-watcher of my grandfather’s films. Growing up, my parents didn’t press the whole Clark Gable thing on me. I grew up around a lot of stars in Hollywood. The Hiltons were family friends, so when Paris had the whole sex tape thing, I saw her life explode and get weird, and that was funny to me because these are just normal people.
Q: How much of what we see on Cheaters is actually real, and how much of it is staged?
A: The only thing contrived about Cheaters is when you see us interviewing these people in our studio. The confrontations on the street are always real. Last night, we had these parkour guys, and our security team couldn’t even catch them. The guys were dancing around and running while they were beating the crap out of each other. By the end of 20 minutes of that, they were both just bloody-faced and bloody-knuckled.
Q: How nervous were you the first time that you had to film one of those confrontations?
A: When I go into these situations, I feel good and almost righteous in a way because I am the lead investigator. I am the leader. I’m the quarterback of the football team. But the first time I’ll never forget. It was a Crowne Plaza. It was these two girls. We went up to this rooftop pool. There’s all these people partying and stuff, and all the sudden, this girl comes up and smashes this girl’s head. These girls start fighting, and one girl had really pretty nails, and by the end of this fight, she’d ripped all of her nails off so bad that we had to get a med kit and, like, close off two of her fingertips.
Q: A lawsuit was filed over some events that took place during the filming of your first movie, Looking for Clara. Something about being tied up and forced to drink a whole bottle of limoncello?
A: There was a scene where I was supposed to be electrocuted and gutted. I was shackled in this bathtub at the bottom of the catacombs in the middle of Italy. The director was like, “Hey, man, start drinking this.” I’m not familiar with Italian alcohols. It’s like a liqueur-slash-vodka. So, you know, I’m just sipping on it. And he’s like, “Just drink it for the scene!” So 33 pages later, I’m sloshed, and I’m like, “Dude, I need to go to the hospital.” Long story short on this, I had to get a bunch of stuff extracted. It just screwed my stomach up and made me sick as hell for two days.
Q: When did the movie come out?
A: It hasn’t come out yet because everyone’s so sue-happy right now. I’m staying out of the whole situation.
Q: What’s next for Clark Gable?
A: My main goal is to get some films going on, and I want to eventually get into directing and producing films.
Q: Then you can make other people drink limoncello.
A: Exactly, man. But, you know, we learn from our mistakes, and the best thing to do each day is keep stepping forward.
