This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von

#622 - Miles Teller

November 4, 2025

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  • Miles Teller and Theo Von discussed the unique, often bizarre local festivals and cultural quirks of Central Florida, such as the 'Cooter Festival' celebrating the Cooter Turtle. 
  • The conversation briefly touched upon the concept of eternal life and love's importance after death, prompted by Miles Teller's new movie, *Eternity*. 
  • Miles Teller shared a deeply personal story about losing his home in a fire and how the subsequent rebuilding process strengthened his relationship with his wife, Kelly. 
  • Miles Teller values camaraderie and leading from the front on film sets, preferring collaborative environments over authoritarian direction. 
  • The conversation touched upon the intense commitment of working with Tom Cruise on *Top Gun: Maverick*, highlighting the logistical challenges of filming on an active aircraft carrier. 

Segments

Miles Teller’s Home Base
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(00:01:30)
  • Key Takeaway: Miles Teller’s current home base is Nashville, Tennessee.
  • Summary: Miles Teller confirmed his home base is Nashville. The conversation referenced a prior meeting in Troubadour with Will Stelly and Todd Graves. Todd Graves owns a triceratops skull which he lent to a museum in Louisiana.
Florida Childhood Anecdotes
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(00:02:58)
  • Key Takeaway: Central Florida’s Citrus County hosted unique local events like the Cooter Festival and attracted national media attention for unusual town ordinances.
  • Summary: Miles Teller grew up partly in Central Florida, noting that his county hosted a ‘Cooter Festival’ celebrating the Cooter Turtle. The town of Inglis, next to his, once banned the devil from entering the town, which drew coverage from The Daily Show. The Cooter Turtle gets its name from the African word ‘Kuta,’ meaning turtle.
Anatomy and Nicknames
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(00:05:12)
  • Key Takeaway: The discussion humorously explored the concept of having two vaginas, referencing a TikTok personality and a high school acquaintance nicknamed ‘Double Barrel Cheryl.’
  • Summary: The conversation pivoted to discussing a woman on TikTok born with two vaginas, two uteruses, and two cervixes. This led to recalling a high school acquaintance with the same condition nicknamed ‘Double Barrel Cheryl.’ They joked about assigning different uses or ‘Yelp reviews’ to each anatomical feature.
Grateful Dead Community Support
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(00:09:04)
  • Key Takeaway: The Grateful Dead community demonstrated profound generosity by sending Miles Teller replacement vintage shirts after his home burned down.
  • Summary: Miles Teller expressed deep appreciation for the Grateful Dead community, noting their crowds were ‘rainbow-colored before anybody’s.’ After his house burned down, Deadheads reached out to his wife, Kelly, to send him shirts from their personal collections.
Florida Humidity and Dancing
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(00:12:06)
  • Key Takeaway: The thick, humid air of the South, particularly Florida and Louisiana, evokes a feeling of mischief and influences physical expression like dancing.
  • Summary: The humidity in Louisiana makes handshakes difficult, and the air in Florida feels thick and infectious. Miles Teller noted that this environment makes him feel mischievous, reminiscent of his teenage years. He also mentioned that he dances enthusiastically to music, contrary to the stereotype of a reserved actor.
Loss of Home and Material Attachment
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(00:25:04)
  • Key Takeaway: Losing their home in a fire was a deeply violating experience, but Miles Teller found a silver lining in the shared trauma strengthening his marriage.
  • Summary: Miles Teller’s house in Studio City was robbed while he was filming, leading them to buy a new home in the Palisades where his wife felt safe. After their house burned down, he initially couldn’t face reality, but later told his wife the shared trauma would bond them stronger. His wife introduced him to the term ‘bright-siding,’ which invalidates the trauma being experienced.
Eternity Movie Themes
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(00:33:43)
  • Key Takeaway: The film Eternity explores the concept of choosing an eternal afterlife theme, forcing characters to weigh a life already lived against a lost, idealized love.
  • Summary: The movie Eternity features a purgatory-like Grand Central Station where the deceased choose an eternal theme, such as ‘Manson World’ or ‘Chocolate World.’ Teller’s character vies for his deceased wife’s affection against her first love who died in the Korean War. The film balances humor with sincere emotional stakes regarding love and memory.
War Widow Statistics
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(00:42:51)
  • Key Takeaway: World War I resulted in an estimated three to four million women being widowed due to the conflict’s high military death toll.
  • Summary: The discussion referenced the high number of widows created by historical wars, specifically World War I. For WWI alone, approximately three to four million women were widowed out of roughly 9.7 million military deaths. The Korean War, relevant to the film’s plot, resulted in around 36,000 widows.
Value of Relationships Over Work
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(00:38:19)
  • Key Takeaway: Miles Teller believes that relationships and connections with family and higher beings are the most important aspects of life to reflect upon at one’s deathbed.
  • Summary: Teller stated that when he imagines his deathbed, he will focus on his wife, friends, family, and relationship with a higher power, not material possessions like his Bronco or movies. He noted that he has recently taken a break from heavy touring to nourish these relationships, as constant travel makes life feel unreal.
Childhood Florida Oddities
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(00:51:48)
  • Key Takeaway: Florida high schools featured bizarre anti-drug programs involving police officers and drug-sniffing dogs.
  • Summary: The conversation recalled strange high school events, including a D.A.R.E. officer named Officer Bob who once had to give his anti-drug talk via megaphone from his car. A memorable tactic involved hiding real marijuana on a student to demonstrate a dog’s ability to find it. This segment also briefly touched upon unusual teacher roles in the high school setting.
Key West Music Scene
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(00:54:16)
  • Key Takeaway: Key West is highlighted as a top location for live music alongside Austin and Nashville.
  • Summary: Miles Teller expressed that Key West is his happy place, noting it hosts some of the best live music in the country. He described the atmosphere as chaotic, with bars often looking like they survived a hurricane. The discussion also referenced Nick Swartzen’s expensive, extended stay in Key West.
SWAT Anti-Tobacco Program
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(00:55:37)
  • Key Takeaway: SWAT (Students Working Against Tobacco) is a Florida-specific youth organization focused on anti-tobacco mobilization and education.
  • Summary: The group discussed the SWAT organization, which is specifically a statewide youth movement in Florida dedicated to fighting tobacco use. They recalled building a float for a homecoming parade as part of their activities. One anecdote involved a student hot-boxing a paper-mâché tree float with blunts, resulting in him being too high to attend school for a week.
Filming Logistics and Collaboration
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(01:02:33)
  • Key Takeaway: Miles Teller prioritizes feeling a connection with scene partners over personal comfort on set, valuing teamwork above all.
  • Summary: When filming, Teller insists on feeling the connection with his scene partner, even if it means foregoing the use of an ‘X’ mark for eye-line. He prefers to lead from the front, knowing everyone’s name, viewing acting as a team sport rather than an isolated endeavor. He dislikes working with directors who act like dictators and are closed-minded to input.
Eternity Movie Concept
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(01:06:43)
  • Key Takeaway: The movie Eternity features a concept where the afterlife includes visiting a museum of one’s own life memories.
  • Summary: A key element of Eternity involves a museum-like archive where characters can revisit exhibits of scenes from their past lives after making a choice about eternity. Teller found this fantastical element, relating to ‘core memories,’ to be a dope aspect of the film. He described the movie as funny, sweet, sincere, and character-driven, suitable for a whole family to see during the holidays.
Louvre Heist Details
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(01:07:32)
  • Key Takeaway: A recent Louvre jewelry heist was executed in minutes using scooters and power tools to cut through a balcony window.
  • Summary: The conversation detailed a recent heist where four individuals used scooters and a truck with a mechanical ladder to access the Louvre’s balcony. They used power tools to carve into the window of the Apollo gallery, which houses royal jewels, and escaped with eight items in about four minutes. The segment noted that only 75% of the Louvre’s rooms are covered by security cameras.
Tom Cruise’s Work Ethic
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(01:12:22)
  • Key Takeaway: Tom Cruise is an immensely dedicated professional who labors over the script and knows everyone’s name on set.
  • Summary: Teller described Tom Cruise as disarming and a consummate professional who labors over the script, often spending hours in meetings starting from page one, scene one. Filming Top Gun: Maverick required working in concert with the Navy, often with only small windows of time available on the carrier. A sailor on the carrier shared a poignant thought: ‘Nightmares are also dreams.’
Veteran Support and Sacrifice
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(01:16:06)
  • Key Takeaway: The difficulty in bringing soldiers home from war is a complex issue, and genuine appreciation often means more than rote phrases.
  • Summary: Teller reflected on the difficulty of transitioning veterans back to civilian life, noting that while we know how to send people to war, we still don’t know how to bring them back effectively. He shared that a simple ‘Welcome home, son’ from a stranger at a gas station was more impactful to a veteran than generic thanks. He suggested that political leaders might make different choices if they had ‘skin in the game’ like soldiers do.
Miles Teller’s Personal Life
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(01:42:48)
  • Key Takeaway: Miles Teller’s wife, Kelly, is launching a robe and pajama line, and their relationship is characterized by constant togetherness and her calm demeanor.
  • Summary: Teller and his wife have been together for almost 13 years, and he considers her the most pure-hearted person he has met. His former entourage friends were initially upset he got a girlfriend, feeling it interrupted their ’entourage moment’ in the Valley. Teller noted that he and his wife are inseparable, as she often joins him while filming, and she is unflappable.