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Speaker 1: Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and

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Speaker 1: analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Thursday, October second, twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Littleton. I am co

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Speaker 1: editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm in

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Speaker 1: LA He's in New York, and Variety has reporters around

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Speaker 1: the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,

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Speaker 1: Variety's Standadario goes inside the mind of a man who

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Speaker 1: is playing a serial killer. Charlie Hunum is Variety's cover

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Speaker 1: star this week, and I have a little fun by

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Speaker 1: stepping into the wayback machine to visit the Variety archives.

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Speaker 1: I found an October front page of Daily Variety from

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Speaker 1: many years ago that has some pretty wild parallels for today.

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Speaker 1: But before we get to that, here are a few

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Speaker 1: headlines just in that you need to know. Peaky Blinders

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Speaker 1: is coming back with the new generation of Shelby's. Netflix

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Speaker 1: and BBC have given a two season order to a

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Speaker 1: sequel series from creator Stephen Knight. No word on the cast,

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Speaker 1: but original star Killian Murphy is on board as an

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Speaker 1: executive producer. My colleague Alice Schaeffer in London has the

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Speaker 1: big story on Variety dot com. Jane Fonda is fed up.

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Speaker 1: The legendary star from a famous Hollywood family has relaunched

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Speaker 1: the Committee for the First Amendment that was an initiative

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Speaker 1: founded in the nineteen forties by her father, Henry Fonda,

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Speaker 1: to guard against attacks on free speech during that dark

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Speaker 1: period when a troubled senator from Wisconsin terrorized the nation

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Speaker 1: with his Red Scare tactics. Jane clearly sees history repeating itself.

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Speaker 1: She says, quote, the McCarthy era ended when Americans from

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Speaker 1: across the political spectrum finally came together and stood up

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Speaker 1: for the principles in the Constitution against the forces of repression.

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Speaker 1: Those forces have returned, and it is our turn to

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Speaker 1: stand together in defense of our constitutional rights. En Fonda

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Speaker 1: has more than five hundred A listers on board, including

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Speaker 1: Kerrie Washington, Pedro Pascal, Billie Eilish, Sean Penn, and Barber

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Speaker 1: Streisand on a much lighter note, Nicki Glazer has set

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Speaker 1: a new comedy special at Hulu. It'll be shot in

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Speaker 1: her hometown of Saint Louis and air next year. Of course,

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Speaker 1: we'll see her on January eleventh, when Glazer hosts the

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Speaker 1: Live Golden Globe Awards telecast for the second year in

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Speaker 1: a row. All of these stories and so much more

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Speaker 1: can be found on Variety dot com. Rate Now now

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Speaker 1: we turn to conversations with Variety journalists about news and

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Speaker 1: trends in show business. In today's Cover Story segment, we'll

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Speaker 1: talk to Dan Didario, Variety's senior correspondent, about his profile

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Speaker 1: of actor Charliehunum, The Son's Anarchy veteran is back to

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Speaker 1: series TV in Netflix's Monster The ed Geen Story. Hunham

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Speaker 1: has taken a long break from acting and he's really

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Speaker 1: hunkered down as a writer in recent years. He's even

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Speaker 1: sold a pilot to FX. Before we hear from Dan

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Speaker 1: about profiling Hunum, who is a native son of Newcastle, England.

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Speaker 1: Here's a clip from Variety's Cover Story video of Hunum

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Speaker 1: explaining the unusual break that got his acting career started.

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Speaker 2: This neighborhood called Biker which is actually when my father

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Speaker 2: was from really historically super rough neighborhood. But there was

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Speaker 2: a TV show called Bika Grove where I grew up,

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Speaker 2: and it was like the only TV show and about

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Speaker 2: like a I don't know, two hundred mile radius that

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Speaker 2: was shot where I was from, and so it was

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Speaker 2: like this tiny little emblem of hope that it was

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Speaker 2: actually possible to become an actor coming from Newcastle. When

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Speaker 2: I was eighteen, I'd already started like pursuing hopefully a

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Speaker 2: career in film by going to film school and studying film.

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Speaker 2: It was Christmas Eve and I was in Newcastle doing

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Speaker 2: Christmas shopping and so I was in JD Sports at

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Speaker 2: about four point thirty in the afternoon Christmas Eve, trying

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Speaker 2: on some sneaks for my brother and sort of dancing around,

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Speaker 2: and this lady was looking at me. So I blew

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Speaker 2: her a kiss, just being the cheeky young man that

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Speaker 2: I was. And it turned out that her name was

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Speaker 2: Elizabeth Binns and she was the production manager for Biker

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Speaker 2: Grove and she came over and said, you're a charming

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Speaker 2: young man on you and I said, on my good days?

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Speaker 2: And she said, well, have you ever thought about acting?

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Speaker 2: And I went, well, yes I have. And now here

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Speaker 2: I am.

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Speaker 1: Dan Didario, our Ace cover story writer. Thank yous for

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Speaker 1: joining me again.

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Speaker 3: Thanks as always for having me.

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Speaker 1: So this week's assignment, we set you off to take

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Speaker 1: the measure of Charlie Hunnam, a really good actor who

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Speaker 1: became known in the US for his role on FX's

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Speaker 1: Sons of Anarchy, a very high octane drama. It ran

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Speaker 1: on FX from twenty eight to twenty fourteen. But as

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Speaker 1: your story points out, we haven't seen a lot of

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Speaker 1: Charlie Hunem in the last some years. What a great

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Speaker 1: assignment to go find out what this terrific actor has

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Speaker 1: been doing of late, And of course the occasion is

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Speaker 1: he's got a new show. Dan, tell me the setting

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Speaker 1: in which you met and what it was that brought

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Speaker 1: Charlie Hunnan back to work in front of the camera.

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Speaker 4: Well, we met at an office space in North Hollywood.

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Speaker 4: It's the office where he has been spending the past

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Speaker 4: few years writing pilots. Like any good screenwriter, he has

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Speaker 4: a daily practice. He works on his pages. And this

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Speaker 4: is very notable what he's doing with Ryan Murphy, Ian

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Speaker 4: Brennan and director Max Winkler on Monster the Ed Greenes Story,

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Speaker 4: because it's one of the only times he's acted in

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Speaker 4: front of the camera this decade. He had an Apple

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Speaker 4: TV Plus show about three years ago and a very

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Speaker 4: small role in a Zack Snyder film, and that's pretty

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Speaker 4: much the only other acting he's done. He took the

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Speaker 4: COVID pandemic very hard, he told me, and he got

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Speaker 4: very interested in indulging other passions. He sold pilot to

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Speaker 4: Effects and house Slipping. He's a man of many talents

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Speaker 4: right there.

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Speaker 1: You know, there's a million stories that we could chase

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Speaker 1: at anytime, and when you settle on one, you just

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Speaker 1: never know what you were going to get. I don't

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Speaker 1: know that any of us knew that Charlie Huntum had

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Speaker 1: ambition to write.

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Speaker 4: He was every bit as excited talking about acting as

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Speaker 4: he was about writing. And he thought it was a

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Speaker 4: real full circle moment because while he'd worked on other

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Speaker 4: shows Sons of Anarchy, what really launched him stateside and

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Speaker 4: that was on Fax. So to sell a pilot to

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Speaker 4: Effects again, he was.

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Speaker 1: Over the moon, dandy. To give you any hint, the

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Speaker 1: focus of this pilot. Was it a comedy? Is it

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Speaker 1: a drama? Is it a classic FX dark drama edy?

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Speaker 4: The sense I got was that it was in the

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Speaker 4: world of drama. But I'm a writer as well. I'm sympathetic.

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Speaker 4: You know, you sell no wine before it's time. He

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Speaker 4: would not spill the details because he wants to be

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Speaker 4: out when it's ready. So that's the writer in him.

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Speaker 1: Oh, we know those writers. What was it about this

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Speaker 1: particular series, Kailer that brought him back to being the

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Speaker 1: lead in a series.

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Speaker 4: So if you don't necessarily know the name ed Geen,

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Speaker 4: you know his legend because ed Gean is the murderer

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Speaker 4: who died in an insane asylum some years ago, whose

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Speaker 4: crimes inspired the Texas Chainsaw Masker, are said to have

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Speaker 4: inspired Psycho, are said to have inspired Buffalo Bill in Silence.

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Speaker 3: Of the Lambs.

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Speaker 4: And he was a very grizzly guy, suffered from all

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Speaker 4: sorts of mental illness, and the way it manifested itself

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Speaker 4: was in his mutilating his victims or graver robbing. Obviously

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Speaker 4: not the kind of stuff you necessarily want to be

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Speaker 4: watching over breakfast, but it is a story that goes

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Speaker 4: deep and dark, and from what I've seen, the season

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Speaker 4: is interested in probing the roots of how a person

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Speaker 4: comes to do something like this and the ways in

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Speaker 4: which it ripples outwards through culture. The season is explicitly

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Speaker 4: concerned with the ways in which the culture metabolized Gain

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Speaker 4: and made him into a character. I'm told that Alfred

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Speaker 4: Hitchcock enters the story as a character played by Tom Hollander,

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Speaker 4: and so all of this adds up to a three

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Speaker 4: course meal for an actor. He didn't just transform his voice,

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Speaker 4: his bearing, but he gets to go to places that.

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Speaker 3: Only Ryan Murphy can take you.

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Speaker 4: Ryan Murphy oversees the whole thing, with his top lieutenant

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Speaker 4: Ian Brennan writing every episode and Max Winkler directing some episodes.

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Speaker 4: And Ryan Murphy is extremely interested in the extremes of

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Speaker 4: human nature and what we can learn from our shared

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Speaker 4: cultural history. And I think that Charlie Hadden was eager

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Speaker 4: to get on that ride.

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Speaker 1: To the credit of the Ryan Murphy organization, they tell

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Speaker 1: the drama, but there is always that underlying of why

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Speaker 1: did this happen? And oftentimes how did so many people

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Speaker 1: miss it? What was the racism, what was the blindness

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Speaker 1: to what was going on? What was the LGBT discrimination

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Speaker 1: going on? And there is a lot to probe. So

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Speaker 1: you're sitting there talking about a notorious serial killer. How

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Speaker 1: did you find Charlie to be in terms of to interview?

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Speaker 1: Was he warm? Was he forthcoming?

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Speaker 3: Yeah?

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Speaker 4: He was warm and forthcoming, willing to go anywhere in conversation.

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Speaker 4: I was quite struck. He was very honest about it.

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Speaker 4: First of all, we were supposed to meet in his

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Speaker 4: favorite coffee shop.

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Speaker 3: We got there.

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Speaker 4: And he didn't want to discuss the pretensions of an

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Speaker 4: actor in his process and all those things that are

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Speaker 4: part and parcel of talking to an actor.

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Speaker 3: He didn't feel comfortable.

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Speaker 4: Talking about that in front of the baristas he saw

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Speaker 4: every day. He thought he would look pretentious, And so

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Speaker 4: we went to his office space and he opened up

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Speaker 4: and he said, you know, I haven't had occasion to

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Speaker 4: do this in a while, and that gave rise to

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Speaker 4: a really interesting open conversation. I would say that he

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Speaker 4: now whars the story lightly. He does not carry it

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Speaker 4: with him because, as he said, when he's working, he's

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Speaker 4: really in it.

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Speaker 3: He is mission driven.

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Speaker 4: Nothing will divert him from the goal of doing an

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Speaker 4: amazing job playing Edgine. But when he emerges, he has

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Speaker 4: to re enter his real life, and he was in

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Speaker 4: real life mode. It was just a frank, open conversation

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Speaker 4: with someone who is that wonderful thing passionate about what he.

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Speaker 3: Does the whole time.

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Speaker 1: During suns of Anarchy, all the FX folks would say

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Speaker 1: that he was just a really kind and warm person.

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Speaker 1: Despite the crazy things that he did is in front

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Speaker 1: of the camera. Of course. Charlie is a son of

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Speaker 1: Northern England, now relocated to southern California and house flipping.

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Speaker 1: I think that's also an interesting pastime.

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Speaker 4: First of all, it runs in his blood. He told

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Speaker 4: me that growing up, his family moved annually because his

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Speaker 4: mom was always on the hunt for bigger and better.

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Speaker 4: I think it was a way to express the creative

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Speaker 4: impul at a time when he felt constrained from working.

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Speaker 4: He did not want to be working during high COVID

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Speaker 4: pre vaccine COVID, and this was a way of working

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Speaker 4: in a different way. I think that the creative impulse,

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Speaker 4: if it's strong enough, cannot be suppressed.

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Speaker 3: It just comes out in different form.

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Speaker 1: Well, Dan, thank you for delivering us a very good

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Speaker 1: profile of an actor and a creative person in our

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Speaker 1: industry who seems to clearly be at an inflection point.

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Speaker 1: I have a feeling that we are going to be

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Speaker 1: talking a lot again about the new season of Monster

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Speaker 1: on Netflix.

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Speaker 3: Thank you for the assignment and thank you for having me.

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Speaker 1: Now, listeners, let's time travel back to nineteen fifty six.

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Speaker 1: For Kicks, I often flipped through varieties voluminous archive to

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Speaker 1: find stories and headlines with news from the past that

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Speaker 1: resonates in the present day. The front page of Daily

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Speaker 1: Variety from October first nighteth teen fifty six really fits

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Speaker 1: that bill. Remember, folks, we've been at this since nineteen

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Speaker 1: oh five, and away we go. On this Monday edition

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Speaker 1: from the early fall of nineteen fifty six. Our banner

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Speaker 1: headline is Government aid for distressed exhibs. The story is

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Speaker 1: all about the Small Business Administration in Washington, d c.

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Speaker 1: Recommending that it grant low interest loans to struggling movie

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Speaker 1: theater owners. Remember, television was still relatively new and it

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Speaker 1: was taking a big toll on moviegoing in these days.

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Speaker 1: The other top of the page story is about the

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Speaker 1: Board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

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Speaker 1: voting unanimously to create the Foreign Language category at the Oscars.

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Speaker 1: Before that, films produced outside the United States had to

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Speaker 1: be dubbed or subtitled in English and released in the

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Speaker 1: US to be eligible for competitive Oscars. Otherwise, foreign films

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Speaker 1: were only given Oscars on an honorary basis. That the

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Speaker 1: headline in this edition doctus immens the Academy's first formal

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Speaker 1: step toward the presentation of the first Competitive Foreign Film OSCAR,

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Speaker 1: recognizing the nineteen fifty six film year, and the winner

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Speaker 1: was Frederico Fellini's Lestrada, a brutal drama set in postwar

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Speaker 1: Italy that starred Anthony Quinn. Back to the front page.

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Speaker 1: There are twelve story starts in total. It was packed.

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Speaker 1: Here's two more fun ones. There's a good yarn about

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Speaker 1: the famous producer Samuel Goldwyn, who was known to be

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Speaker 1: a handful. He's the source of the original g in

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Speaker 1: MGM Metro Goldwyn Mayor. Although Samuel Goldwyn was famously elbowed

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Speaker 1: out of the Goldwyn Pictures business that he founded in

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Speaker 1: nineteen twenty two just as that company was acquired by

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Speaker 1: Metro Pictures, and then Metro Pictures turned around and merged

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Speaker 1: with producer Louis B.

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Speaker 3: Mayer.

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Speaker 1: Samuel Goldwyn was in the name MGM, but he never

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Speaker 1: was a player in the business. Samuel Goldwyn is also

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Speaker 1: the grandfather of actor, writer director Tony Goldwyn. The headline

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Speaker 1: reads sam Goldwyn invades Another World, Ike's White House press room,

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Speaker 1: and the story reads dateline Washington, September thirtieth. Samuel Goldwyn

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Speaker 1: called on President Eisenhower Friday, and then stepped into the

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Speaker 1: White House press room to find himself in a world

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Speaker 1: that knew him not. Goldwyn was introduced briefly to the newsman.

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry, said the correspondent for a large n Y paper,

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Speaker 1: but I missed your name. Goldwyn, surprised, obliged with the information,

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Speaker 1: a wire service man asked, are you still the head

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Speaker 1: of mg M? Goldwyn looked at him suspiciously for a

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Speaker 1: moment and replied, slowly and carefully. I sold Metro thirty

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Speaker 1: eight years ago. Are you kidding? No, sir, was the reply.

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Speaker 1: I guess we live in another world here. That's the

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Speaker 1: whole story. And finally, here's a classic bottom of the

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Speaker 1: page two sentence item about a casting call for the

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Speaker 1: movie Raintree County that's in nineteen fifty seven Civil War

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Speaker 1: set romance weeper starring Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Cliff. The

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Speaker 1: headline reads one thousand Raintree Extras twenty year MGM record.

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Speaker 1: The story states Metro will place a twenty year record

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Speaker 1: call for extras next week when the company uses one

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Speaker 1: thousand for Raintree County. It's the largest since nineteen thirty six,

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Speaker 1: when the studio used as many in the Good Earth listeners.

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Speaker 1: As we return to twenty twenty five, I want to

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Speaker 1: point out that there's a rain Tree Circle Street in

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Speaker 1: Culver City that sits on a patch of land that

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Speaker 1: was once owned by MGM and used for filming Raintree

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Speaker 1: County and many other movies. The history of our business

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Speaker 1: is everywhere in southern California. You just have to look

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Speaker 1: for it. As we close out today's episode, here's a

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Speaker 1: few things we're watching for Variety is loaded with promise.

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Speaker 1: Next week coming up, we have our annual ten Screenwriters

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Speaker 1: to watch feature in print and online. The scribes will

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Speaker 1: be spotlighted with an event in two weeks at the

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Speaker 1: Santa Fe Film Festival in New Mexico. We also have

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Speaker 1: our ten Broadway Stars to watch feature. We'll hear more

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Speaker 1: about that on Monday from Gordon Cox, Variety's main man

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Speaker 1: on the main Stem. Before we go, Congrats to Mike Cavanaugh.

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Speaker 1: He's been promoted to co CEO of Comcast. Cavanaugh has

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Speaker 1: spent the past three years as president of Comcast, and

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Speaker 1: he's been the top boss for NBC Universal. He's the

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Speaker 1: first to share CEO power with Brian Roberts. Thanks for

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Speaker 1: listening this episode was written and reported by me Cynthia Littleton,

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Speaker 1: with contributions from Dan Didario. Stick's Next hick Picks. Please

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Speaker 1: leave us a review at the podcast platform of your choice,

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Speaker 1: and please tune in tomorrow for another episode of Daily

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Speaker 1: Variety and Listeners Shaunatova