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CY Cornell Young On Pivot Podcast

“My whole life, I've been a people watcher. So all I've done is just collect data. And I didn't know how much I could use that in acting until I started acting. I was like, no, I know this dude. I can watch you long enough and I'm like, oh, yeah, I can do those mannerisms… I grew up impersonating people my whole life. And I didn't know that was acting.”

Pivot Podcast · Tech Strategy & Big Tech · October 2026

“My whole life, I've been a people watcher. So all I've done is just collect data. And I didn't know how much I could use that in acting until I started acting. I was like, no, I know this dude. I can watch you long enough and I'm like, oh, yeah, I can do those mannerisms… I grew up impersonating people my whole life. And I didn't know that was acting.” — Cornell Young, Pivot Podcast

Context

Asked whether he could play a darker role, Young said the story matters more than the role. He links his acting to growing up in different St. Louis environments and watching people.

Transcript

Pivot Podcast Around 36:09 into the episode
Ryan Clark

seem like a hard role to play?

Channing Crowder

Yeah, a hard role to you to play. Because you don't seem like you like humans to be, you know, you don't seem like you'll be a hunter. You don't seem like you want people's things to be hurt and killed and things of that nature. You seem a very calm, level-headed person.

Cornell Young

…and I just seen everything. And my whole life, I've been a people watcher. So all I've done is just collect data. And I didn't know how much I could use that in acting until I started acting. I was like, no, I know this dude. I know this dude. I know this dude. I can watch you long enough. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I can do those mannerisms. I act like I act like my uncle all the time. I grew up impersonating people my whole life. And I didn't know that was acting. And I'm just being goofy. You know, my uncle, my aunts, my cousins, I'm just acting like them and the family bugging up. Like, you act just like them. And I'm like, I ain't know I was acting. I'm just trying to make people laugh. You know what I'm saying? Have a good time. But you start to really see how much you pick up on certain things and certain people. And, you know, just, I feel like I…

Speaker 1

People watching must be that Aquarius in you. Come on, huh?

Cornell Young

Yeah, you already know what it is. You

Speaker 1

said we feel like.

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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