Speaker 1: You're listening to playback a Variety podcast. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Variety Awards Editor Chris Tapley. We have one of my
Speaker 1: favorite actors in the studio today. You've seen Sam Rockwell
Speaker 1: in films like The Green Mile, Galaxy Quest, The Assassination
Speaker 1: of Jesse James by the Coward, Robert Ford, and Moon.
Speaker 1: This year, he stars in Martin McDonald's Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri,
Speaker 1: and he delivers perhaps his finest performance to date. He's
Speaker 1: sitting right here. But before I bring him in, let
Speaker 1: me also remind everyone stick around after our chat for
Speaker 1: some shop talk on the upcoming Oscar season between myself
Speaker 1: and our old friend Janelle Riley. Sam Rockwell, thanks for
Speaker 1: coming on the show. Appreciate it again. You are one
Speaker 1: of my favorite actors. I'm not just shining because you're
Speaker 1: sitting in front. Thanks man, than appreciated, And I'm gonna
Speaker 1: just kind of back into this. We'll get to Three Billboards,
Speaker 1: but I've got like just a list of stuff out.
Speaker 1: Let's do it, man. Let's talk about how often do
Speaker 1: you get asked about teenage mutant Ninja Turtles? Well more
Speaker 1: than maybe then you think, um, but yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: good one. I mean it's a it's a good one
Speaker 1: in my It's a good piece of history, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's funny. It's like I saw it when I was
Speaker 1: a kid, obviously, and then later on I became a
Speaker 1: fan of years. I'm like, holy crap, Sam rock Walls
Speaker 1: in this movie, he plays like the uh would you
Speaker 1: say the kind of I don't know, Like you're the
Speaker 1: guy who's like the new recruits for the foot Clan
Speaker 1: coming in. You're saying, hey, we can smoke cigarettes. It's
Speaker 1: just like the head thug was that was And then
Speaker 1: Skeet all Rich was my henchman. Yeah, and he was.
Speaker 1: He was a local North Carolina boy. Yeah yeah, asking
Speaker 1: me how to get an age of were in Wilmington's
Speaker 1: now Atlanta is the new Wilming Totally. I'm from North Carolina.
Speaker 1: Oh you are, okay, so you know the deal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like they get rid of all their incentives. Yeah,
Speaker 1: everybody went away so used to be hopping. It used
Speaker 1: to be hopping, you know. So that that's how I
Speaker 1: was nineteen went there did it? I never heard it
Speaker 1: went to the audition. I didn't know teenage mutant what
Speaker 1: you know? And uh, but it was. It was cool man,
Speaker 1: it was it was it was fun. It was fun
Speaker 1: to do. And I met one of my good friends
Speaker 1: on that. He played Donna's Hello, a guy named Leif Tilden,
Speaker 1: and Josh Pie was one of the Turtles. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you know the actor Josh Piece. He's he's great.
Speaker 1: He was in Safe Man and he was one of
Speaker 1: the turtles. Yeah, it's a day job for those guys.
Speaker 1: It's a you know, again, interesting footnote in your career. Right,
Speaker 1: did you do you revisit teenage Mutant nin Turtles? I
Speaker 1: do not because I cringe because my voice is really
Speaker 1: high for some reason. And that well you were nineteen. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: another funny thing I had will him to Phoe in
Speaker 1: that chair last week. Oh yeah, and yeah he's seen
Speaker 1: like sleeper just so William. Yeah, Paul Straighter like to
Speaker 1: work with. He's awesome man. He well, we were joking.
Speaker 1: I just saw it Um Defoe and we were talking
Speaker 1: about the stute. This crazy stupid jacket I had on
Speaker 1: Um that was really loud. It looked like it's ted
Speaker 1: batteries in it, and it was like a Michael Jackson
Speaker 1: kind of like just watched the scene again. Last night. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know, Strader insisted I wear this jacket, which
Speaker 1: completely upstaged me. But it was kind of great. It
Speaker 1: kind of gave me the character. But I was I
Speaker 1: was sort of self conscious about it. Way. I think
Speaker 1: we were joking about that jacket. Yeah. Have you seen
Speaker 1: his new film? By the way, first, Ethan's in it, right,
Speaker 1: it heard its sort of a sequel to Taxi Drivers.
Speaker 1: That's true. No, no, no, it's not. No, it's but
Speaker 1: it's definitely like it's everything Paul Schrader does in his films,
Speaker 1: like very potent in one movie. Basically it's like the
Speaker 1: most potent Pulse Rader movie. Yeah, we've seen. It's really good. Loneliness.
Speaker 1: Uh uh. I also wanted to kind of talk about
Speaker 1: early on, Uh, when did you and Jon Favreau get
Speaker 1: together first, because in the early nineties or something when
Speaker 1: you guys are actors on the scene because you had
Speaker 1: the small role and made which I love. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: you've obviously worked on Iron Man two and potentially we're
Speaker 1: going to be cast as iron Yeah. That's a good question. Actually,
Speaker 1: that connection, very good question. Um, you know, there were
Speaker 1: a couple of things that happened, is is well he
Speaker 1: was in l A man. He was a West Coast guy.
Speaker 1: Him and Vince made their bones in in l A.
Speaker 1: I couldn't survive l A as A as a struggling actor,
Speaker 1: so I had to go back to New York and
Speaker 1: I as I was usually the other way around. Well,
Speaker 1: some people, you know, I say that the actors, there's
Speaker 1: two l as. There's l A when you're successful, which
Speaker 1: is fabulous, and then there's l A when you're not,
Speaker 1: and that's not a good l A. So New York
Speaker 1: is a little easier when you're down and out. It
Speaker 1: was back then. You know, now it's more expensive, so
Speaker 1: but you could you could get by. I had a
Speaker 1: really cheap sublet when I was studying acting and stuff.
Speaker 1: But I met I met Vincent and John at A.
Speaker 1: I saw I saw John somewhere and then he invited
Speaker 1: me to this like running charades party. When I met
Speaker 1: Vince and I I was a big Swingers fan, and
Speaker 1: I kind of I sort of idolized Vince. I was
Speaker 1: sort of like in awe of him, his sort of
Speaker 1: charm and Favreau and I thought they were like just
Speaker 1: kind of amazing, and so I was um. I was
Speaker 1: very excited to be around those guys. And then you know,
Speaker 1: he said, do you want to do this little cameo
Speaker 1: and and made you could play this thug or you
Speaker 1: could play the bust this bell hop, and I said,
Speaker 1: well maybe the the bell hop and I have I
Speaker 1: have more stuff with you guys, you know, and that
Speaker 1: was more fun, and then we became friends. And then
Speaker 1: down the line, my girlfriend Leslie Bib did Iron Man,
Speaker 1: and so when they were doing press for that, um,
Speaker 1: I remember we had a dinner in New York and
Speaker 1: they didn't know. They were nervous. They didn't know the
Speaker 1: thing was gonna be a huge hit, you know. So
Speaker 1: we had this dinner and they were kind of nervous
Speaker 1: before it came out, you know, and it was Downy
Speaker 1: and Me and Leslie and Fab and then um and
Speaker 1: then at one point he had called me him and
Speaker 1: Peter Billingsley had called me like a couple of years
Speaker 1: earlier about iron Man maybe auditioning for iron Man, and
Speaker 1: then that sort of went away. I think down East
Speaker 1: screen tested and he was like, you know, amazing, and
Speaker 1: then he got but um so then cut too, like
Speaker 1: we're if EV and I are doing g Force. This
Speaker 1: is kind of a long explanation was we were doing
Speaker 1: G Force and I said, you know, I was really
Speaker 1: frustrated because it was hard to do the animation. I said,
Speaker 1: can we get the actors in the room together because
Speaker 1: I feel kind of stale here. And so finally they said,
Speaker 1: all right, well fabs available, will bring them in, and
Speaker 1: so John and I got to actually do a scene together.
Speaker 1: We were the two guinea pigs and we could actually
Speaker 1: get physical, and so the scene was immediately so much
Speaker 1: better when we did it that way. And then coincidentally,
Speaker 1: he had um marvel guy, I think it was Kevin
Speaker 1: come down and say, Hi, says I want to talk
Speaker 1: to you about something. You know, I'm debating this thing,
Speaker 1: and Justin Thorow wrote it was very instrumental and getting
Speaker 1: Fab to to sort of, uh consider me. And then
Speaker 1: when Fave sort of grasped onto the idea we already
Speaker 1: knew each other. Throw and I had a history we
Speaker 1: do the theater together. Fav was like, yeah, let's let's
Speaker 1: do this. We're thinking about maybe one villain or maybe
Speaker 1: two villains, and so they came up with that fast
Speaker 1: talking thing and Mickey Rourke being the kind of the
Speaker 1: muscle which kind of became uh young Frankenstein in a way,
Speaker 1: you know, Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle and I would
Speaker 1: do all the fast talking and that's how that came
Speaker 1: to be. Yeah, I'm just always curious what these connections are,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, that's an interesting long history of and
Speaker 1: I'm still friends with those guys. You know. I love
Speaker 1: that scene, those couple of scenes and made I mean,
Speaker 1: the character was so funny and just the way the
Speaker 1: Vince reacts to him throwing the drink. That was an
Speaker 1: improv day. That wasn't supposed to be in that scene,
Speaker 1: and they they threw me in. I was just coming
Speaker 1: to say hi, But that led to half is for family,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's it's a whole you know, because
Speaker 1: we now we've been friends for you know, over a decade,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, Pete, Peter and Vince and John. Yeah, awesome. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I also wanted to talk about Heist, which I watched
Speaker 1: again last night. Yeah. Man, that's a fun that's a
Speaker 1: fun one. Yeah. That love that movie. I love David
Speaker 1: Mammitt's dialogue is like an alien language, especially in that movie,
Speaker 1: because it's like all of the like, I don't know
Speaker 1: if that was real actual lingo amongst like Roberts, you know,
Speaker 1: calling somebody a lame you know that I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: surprised if it was, because, um, you know, Mamma does
Speaker 1: his research and he's such a obviously a great writer.
Speaker 1: But working with Delroy and and Ricky and Gene Hackman,
Speaker 1: I mean that was just and Rebecca. You know, we
Speaker 1: had a great little love scene, pretty to a love scene,
Speaker 1: but you know, obviously Gene Hackman, I mean that was
Speaker 1: pretty cool. That was that was very cool. I was
Speaker 1: just gonna say, like the way the entire cast just
Speaker 1: tears into that dialogue too, I mean, it must have
Speaker 1: just been delicious. Seeing it was delicious. It was a
Speaker 1: lot of fun, man it. Looking back on it, I
Speaker 1: mean it's really a good job. You know. I just
Speaker 1: got out of nowhere and I just met maham It
Speaker 1: and I kind of was kind of cocky in the
Speaker 1: meeting and he gave me the job. You know, I
Speaker 1: just kind of pretended to be a badass. Yeah, just
Speaker 1: all the line readings are so good, and like, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously the Vito gets a lot of the
Speaker 1: great ones. Everybody loves the money. That's why they call
Speaker 1: it money. That's why I forget about he's my uncle
Speaker 1: in that they like dyed my hair black and I
Speaker 1: had that black mustache. I embarrassed myself in front of
Speaker 1: del Roy one time. I did. I did like an
Speaker 1: impression of del Roy Lindo from Heist in front of
Speaker 1: del Roy Lindo. Dude, that's one kind of awesome. That's
Speaker 1: actually one of the most awesome things you were done.
Speaker 1: I embarrassed myself in front of him too once. Uh,
Speaker 1: not really, I mean I just kind of went up
Speaker 1: to him and said, you know, I really think you
Speaker 1: should have been nominated for cider House Rules. I was
Speaker 1: at some SAG thing SAG Awards, um, I think for
Speaker 1: Green a Mile and I said and he was like, ah,
Speaker 1: you know, thanks man, but um you always feel vulnerable
Speaker 1: when you do stuff like that, you know, You're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: hey man, you know, yeah totally. I was just trying
Speaker 1: to explain it, like I loved this line reading he
Speaker 1: had in the movie, and then I gave him his
Speaker 1: own line reading and I was like, and he looked
Speaker 1: at you like you were from Venus or he said
Speaker 1: something like that is that is the first time someone's
Speaker 1: ever said that to me. Yeah, it was like, I'm sure,
Speaker 1: I'm sure, sir. I mean it's Stephen Man dialogue and
Speaker 1: it may look like I'm texting, but this is literally
Speaker 1: where my questions. Yes, of course, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.
Speaker 1: I mean they had to have been, like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: guess the turning point for you in some ways that
Speaker 1: you had been leading a couple of things, but this
Speaker 1: was like Clooney's I think it was his debut as
Speaker 1: a director, and you played Chuck Barris, the Gong Show host,
Speaker 1: potential CIA operative. Yes, and uh it was just you know,
Speaker 1: Charlie Coffin's script. So just talk about working with Clooney
Speaker 1: on that movie and kind of getting that I guess
Speaker 1: vote of confidence that you could shoulder this whole movie
Speaker 1: for him. Yeah, well, you're right. I mean I've done
Speaker 1: a lot of I've done a lot of leads, but
Speaker 1: the movies that not a lot of people saw necessarily
Speaker 1: maybe Lawn Dog's Box someone like, but no, I've done
Speaker 1: it a lot of some other leads and nobody saw,
Speaker 1: so that was kind of practice for this. In fact,
Speaker 1: there's a movie called Jerry and Tom which did a
Speaker 1: lot of that transitional shooting, like Frankenheimer used to do,
Speaker 1: like live television that Cluney did that sort of prepared
Speaker 1: me for this, and theater obviously prepared me. But um,
Speaker 1: you know, without Cluney and Soderberg, I wouldn't have gotten
Speaker 1: that job. I mean, that was the generosity of those
Speaker 1: two guys. You know. Cluney fought for me and so
Speaker 1: did Soderberg. They both fought for me. I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: gotten that job without them, no way. Was it a
Speaker 1: uh I guess it was like a audition situation. It
Speaker 1: was an old fashioned screen test with everything with film,
Speaker 1: real film dollies and tracks. It was a real old
Speaker 1: fashioned screen test. And yeah, and I didn't know there
Speaker 1: was another actor being screen tested. But but um, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was a trip. Man. That was I had like
Speaker 1: a week to prepare really watch was it? Like? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I say, what was it like getting into that guy's headspace?
Speaker 1: And I'm just trying to figure out it was great.
Speaker 1: I hung out with him a lot. I filmed him.
Speaker 1: We hung out. He loved Less Paul and uh we
Speaker 1: would listen to Less Paul and that's how I kind
Speaker 1: of kind of got his movements, dancing movements. We hung
Speaker 1: out a lot. You know. It was it was. It
Speaker 1: was cool. I missed Chuck. I like Chuck. When did
Speaker 1: he pass? Very charming guy? He passed recently? Yeah, it
Speaker 1: seems like yeah, it was long ago, very recently, And
Speaker 1: I think didn't Chuck Berry passed the same the two
Speaker 1: Chucks around the same time. Maybe I could have that wrong.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Yeah, anyway, another one, Uh, this one's
Speaker 1: got an anniversary this year. Yeah, what's that assassination of
Speaker 1: Jesse James me that's ten ten years ago? Oh man,
Speaker 1: that's crazy that I will say. I will lavish with
Speaker 1: praise because I don't think a better film has been
Speaker 1: released since that movie was released. I literally the best
Speaker 1: movie of the last decade. Yes, and I just I
Speaker 1: love you know. It's a really good film, isn't it.
Speaker 1: I I almost didn't do that movie. You know, Andrew
Speaker 1: Dominic is a very talented guy. You know, Chopper, this
Speaker 1: is an amazing film. And uh yeah yeah, Pitt and Casey.
Speaker 1: I mean it's an amazing We had some amazing people
Speaker 1: in that in that cast. You know, Roger Deakins, Roger
Speaker 1: crushing it, dude, crushing a natural lighting. Yeah, you know
Speaker 1: it just this nice idea of doing like a Victorian Western.
Speaker 1: I'm a huge fan of the genre. So just doing
Speaker 1: a Western at the you know, in the last throes
Speaker 1: of the era, and what what were those icons like
Speaker 1: at that time? I just I love that film. I
Speaker 1: love it too, you know. I buss where I became
Speaker 1: friends with Jeremy Runner and we've found a song, good
Speaker 1: Old Rebel from the Long Riders, which we kind of
Speaker 1: stole and being extra Confederates and we renters a good
Speaker 1: singer and we sang it in the in the film
Speaker 1: for two seconds. Andrew wanted us to kind of improvise
Speaker 1: and stuff. But yeah, I mean somebody great, you know,
Speaker 1: Garrett Dill Hunt. It's it's just a great It's got
Speaker 1: that Sam show like Sam Shepard man got arrest his
Speaker 1: soul man. Yeah, it's got that real, you know, sparse
Speaker 1: Terrence Malick feel to it. You know. What was the
Speaker 1: experience of shooting a Western? Like I always a curious
Speaker 1: about because they make a lot of them, you know,
Speaker 1: so no they I've done three of them now and
Speaker 1: and then I just played a cowboy. I had to
Speaker 1: learn how to last so on on stage and that
Speaker 1: was a Sam Shepherd play actually, and it's it's a
Speaker 1: trip you know, you got out the horses. It's not easy.
Speaker 1: It's it's really tough. You're out in the middle of
Speaker 1: the desert and you know, people get hurt. It's crazy.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's wild. I mean for everyone. I did
Speaker 1: a western uh cowboys, you know we did um just
Speaker 1: they want Jessica chests stain and it's it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's not easy. Yeah, a lot of mud. Where did
Speaker 1: you film the chest any one? By the way, that played?
Speaker 1: Uh Toronto? Right, we did that. Where did we shoot that?
Speaker 1: Santa fe of them out there? Now? Jesse James was
Speaker 1: in Canada, right, Alberta, Yeah, Winnipeg, Um, all over the
Speaker 1: Edmonton was it was a fun time. Yeah. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: like I said, I just wanted to skip a quick
Speaker 1: stone across the awesome. That's awesome. That's fine. That's awesome, dude.
Speaker 1: Three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri. It's the new film, Martin
Speaker 1: McDonough's new film. If you loved Ambrusi and uh seven Psychopaths,
Speaker 1: you'll love this one. I think this is his best film. Actually, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's pretty pretty great. And as I was
Speaker 1: telling you in the elevator, I just all the films
Speaker 1: that are coming along. There's just there's a complexity thematically
Speaker 1: in this film that I think is really potent. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if it if it up to the
Speaker 1: guys do not. It just seems like it kind of
Speaker 1: does because there's these themes of forgiveness and reconciliation going on,
Speaker 1: which is interesting. Interesting You've worked with him, Uh yeah
Speaker 1: twice now, right, yeah, twice and then the play too,
Speaker 1: So that's three times when you read a character that
Speaker 1: Martin has written. What what is it about his work
Speaker 1: on the page that grabs you that says, you know,
Speaker 1: are they are they very detailed and defined? Or is
Speaker 1: there a lot of room there to create? It's kind
Speaker 1: of both. They're kind of very detailed and defined. The
Speaker 1: dialogues all there, you know, dialoques amazing, like a Tarantino
Speaker 1: script or a mam At script you know, uh Sam
Speaker 1: Shepherd script. And but he also there's room to play,
Speaker 1: you know, and room to interpret. And uh, it seems
Speaker 1: like all of the characters I've played Mervin on in
Speaker 1: The Behinding and Spokane and Billy and Psychos and then
Speaker 1: Dixon and Three Billboards are all derivative of like Travis,
Speaker 1: Spicle and Taxi driver or something for some reason, or
Speaker 1: Eric Roberts in Star eight Years. You know, there's a
Speaker 1: kind of talking about Paul Trader as a kind of
Speaker 1: loneliness to all these guys. You know, just to set
Speaker 1: the scene, you play a racist, you know, a law
Speaker 1: enforcement officer in this little town in Missouri. Uh. Francis
Speaker 1: McDorman plays a woman who is looking to get justice
Speaker 1: for her murdered daughter and doesn't believe that the local
Speaker 1: police have done enough, and so she buys these three
Speaker 1: billboards to kind of shame them. And your journey with
Speaker 1: her character is what's the heart of the film and
Speaker 1: what kind of makes it so beautiful by the end.
Speaker 1: So working with Francis, what was that like? Amazing? I
Speaker 1: mean you feel like it's you want to you want
Speaker 1: to raise to the you know, rise to the occasion,
Speaker 1: you know, and be the frasier to her Ali, you know,
Speaker 1: you want to like really get in. I mean she's incredible,
Speaker 1: She's a force, you know. And Woody Harrelson and you
Speaker 1: know it's just the cast is John Hawks, Peter Dinklage,
Speaker 1: you know, Abby Corners to all these people. Yeah, Chokoe
Speaker 1: Vanik's great actor. Um who I did a player with
Speaker 1: the place of the other the other deputy. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: just amazing. It's kind of cool that Martin has this
Speaker 1: sort of troop of actors. He's slowly as something like
Speaker 1: you and what he Abby were in Seven Psychos and
Speaker 1: then uh, Colin Farrells and Seven Psychos and thens as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we've got Clark Peters, Amanda Daryl, we got UM's it's
Speaker 1: it's yeah, yeah man, it was in Seven Psychos. So
Speaker 1: he's got he's got a little bit of an ensemble. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a couple of directors out there that maintain that
Speaker 1: kind of thing. What's that like for you? As part
Speaker 1: of this ensemble that kind of gets back together with
Speaker 1: this artist to make a movie. Everyone. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: it's very fortunate to be a part of that, um,
Speaker 1: that team. You know, I'm very lucky that I that
Speaker 1: I sort of stumbled into Martin you know a long
Speaker 1: time ago almost did this play Pillow man. I think
Speaker 1: what he almost did it too. I think a couple
Speaker 1: of people almost did it. But um, yeah, So I'm
Speaker 1: really fortunate between working with him on stage and working
Speaker 1: with him on a film set, is there? Yeah? And
Speaker 1: the obvious is there? You know how does he deal
Speaker 1: with you differently? Well, he was pretty quiet when we
Speaker 1: did the play because John Crowley was directing, who directed
Speaker 1: Brooklyn and but when we did Psychos and the and
Speaker 1: Three Billboards, he was you know, he's obviously very hands
Speaker 1: on and and he but he's he lets you play.
Speaker 1: I mean, he let me play a lot um may
Speaker 1: because my characters are kind of crazy. I had that
Speaker 1: experience with Frank Darribunt. I think he let me play
Speaker 1: and he didn't necessarily let other actors play because my
Speaker 1: character needed a little wiggle room, you know, a little
Speaker 1: elbow room because I'm playing like a crazy person. So
Speaker 1: you can't really like be like, okay, play a crazy person,
Speaker 1: but let's keep it in the lines. But you know,
Speaker 1: you gotta like, you know what I mean, you gotta
Speaker 1: like have a little leeway when you play crazy people.
Speaker 1: I don't think Dixon's necessarily crazy, but you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, totally product of environment. Yeah, we'll talk about that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how did you go about preparing for a role like
Speaker 1: that in terms of meeting people, meeting cops or anything.
Speaker 1: I met a couple of cops, Yeah, I met um,
Speaker 1: I met a couple of cops. I met one Um
Speaker 1: Deemer in l a who what he was with. I
Speaker 1: think Casey did it right along with him. And then
Speaker 1: I met a couple of Missouri cops and had them
Speaker 1: take my lines. My my dialect coach Liz Himilstein found
Speaker 1: these cops in southern Missouri. We had we had to
Speaker 1: have some conversations, like I emailed with Francis and Martin,
Speaker 1: like where are we gonna where's this imaginary Missouri town
Speaker 1: gonna be? Is it gonna be southern or northern? Because
Speaker 1: there's a big difference in the way they talk, And
Speaker 1: so we sort of agreed that it was generally would
Speaker 1: be southern Missouri. And then I then I knew what
Speaker 1: I had to find, and so it was cool to
Speaker 1: go down there to southern Missouri. I did it right
Speaker 1: along Um, this beautiful guy, and he introduced me all
Speaker 1: these all these guys and you know, and so that
Speaker 1: was really cool. That was really uh influenced a lot
Speaker 1: about the characters. Do you feel a sort of pressure though?
Speaker 1: Whenever I mean this is this is a very complex character,
Speaker 1: and obviously it's takes It takes place in a fictional
Speaker 1: Missouri town and the unrest out of Ferguson that is
Speaker 1: obviously just playing on the fringes of this film. Absolutely, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, does that provide a sense of pressure to
Speaker 1: make sure that you're not painting a caricature? Absolutely? And
Speaker 1: that's why I went down there, you know. I mean
Speaker 1: Martin wrote this before Ferguson, but um, I did. I
Speaker 1: did feel kind of obliged to find out the real
Speaker 1: story a little bit, and I asked those guys a
Speaker 1: lot of questions, you know, and uh, you know, the
Speaker 1: bottom line is I didn't see racism down there. I
Speaker 1: mean I didn't. I I saw a lot of stuff,
Speaker 1: but I didn't. Um, but I obviously it exists. And
Speaker 1: and so you know my job. I didn't need to
Speaker 1: go to Missouri to play this part. I mean, it
Speaker 1: just helped me personally. I wanted, I had the time
Speaker 1: and I wanted to do it. But you know, um,
Speaker 1: the Dixon's journey is important, I think to that topic,
Speaker 1: you know, and I think it does say something. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure what quite what it says, but that's what's
Speaker 1: so an enigmatic about the script. I think it doesn't
Speaker 1: it doesn't even seem like it's actively trying to say
Speaker 1: something to you, like it's trying to dictate something. It's
Speaker 1: it just the way that the themes and the characters
Speaker 1: and all the interplay comes together. It just leaves you
Speaker 1: with this sense. Yeah, and I don't even know how
Speaker 1: you put a word to it, but yeah, you could.
Speaker 1: You could put a bunch of labels. You could put
Speaker 1: you know, feminism and you know, um racism and anti ray.
Speaker 1: You can put a lot of labels these days, um,
Speaker 1: anti violence and you know. But it's just really at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, it's a really entertaining and potent,
Speaker 1: uh screenplay, you know in movie I think, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: just wanted to touch on a couple other things real quick.
Speaker 1: You are literally leaving here to I go do some
Speaker 1: costume stuff for your new Yeah, w Bush and Adam
Speaker 1: McKay's mom. I was just to tell your ride. So
Speaker 1: I was hanging out with Christian Bale, who's yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: he got the eyebrows and I just saw him. Yeah
Speaker 1: he looks good man. What uh, what thoughts do you have?
Speaker 1: I mean you haven't started yet, but what thoughts do
Speaker 1: you have going into that where you're gonna play this character?
Speaker 1: You know, uh, just trying to trying to sort of well,
Speaker 1: it's a great script that Adam wrote, and just trying
Speaker 1: to pay respect to, uh the story and what he's
Speaker 1: trying to tell and and and I really I find
Speaker 1: in watching George Bush, George W. Bush constantly on and
Speaker 1: listening to him I for the last two months, I
Speaker 1: find him to be actually very charming guy. And you know,
Speaker 1: obviously nowadays, you know, he seems even more charming. But
Speaker 1: uh yeah, I mean I'm having a I'm having a
Speaker 1: good time doing the research. It's really fun. I sure,
Speaker 1: I assume you saw that thing. I don't even know
Speaker 1: where it was written. But after the inauguration speech, supposedly
Speaker 1: he over and said that was some weird hit, which
Speaker 1: was that with the poncho moment after the ponco Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: after after he his whole like, you know, basically should
Speaker 1: have had just tanks surrounding him or something. Bush was
Speaker 1: like that, that's funny. And uh, we mentioned Ethan you're
Speaker 1: working with on this fum blaze. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah
Speaker 1: I did. We did Stevie's on and link later and
Speaker 1: I did look like a little three day cameo. Was
Speaker 1: that like we were there very briefly. Was we were
Speaker 1: just there to kind of help support Ethan and bad
Speaker 1: Rouge and we had a good time. Um, I hear
Speaker 1: the movie is really good. And he got these two
Speaker 1: got a couple of real musicians, you know, Sexton and
Speaker 1: a couple of really good musicians playing the parts. And
Speaker 1: it's a cool story. And you when you do you
Speaker 1: know about the real guy the guys. Yeah, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: cool story. When I started to look into it, and
Speaker 1: he's got like an unknown playing him, right, Yeah, the
Speaker 1: guy's really good singer musician and he gets it. Man,
Speaker 1: those guys were pretty damn good. And Josh Hamilton's in it,
Speaker 1: and Ethan does some interesting stuff as a director director. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is really a good one for him. I think
Speaker 1: he really I think he just found the right guy
Speaker 1: and then he was able to tell this story. If
Speaker 1: he hadn't found the right guy, couldn't have done it anything. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then something I stumbled across when I was just
Speaker 1: looking into your your CD history was indeed Private Detectives assistant. Yeah,
Speaker 1: gig you had. Yeah, that's a long time. What's the
Speaker 1: most interesting thing that happened on that we tail the
Speaker 1: chick who was having an affair and tried to videotapers
Speaker 1: and he was really sleazy. Where was that? Um that
Speaker 1: was upstate New York or something. I was studying acting.
Speaker 1: One of my fellow acting students got me into it.
Speaker 1: I but they I kept not getting paid and so
Speaker 1: I was like, all right, this isn't you know? It
Speaker 1: was kind of boring a lot of it. That was
Speaker 1: the most exciting thing that happened. Did you retain sleazy after? Yeah?
Speaker 1: But I mean maybe it helped your acting career and
Speaker 1: deserving behavior. And I wanted to close, but talking about
Speaker 1: Phil Hoffman Philip Moore. Hofman directed You Want to Play
Speaker 1: Last Days of Judas to Scariot and uh, huge loss obviously,
Speaker 1: But what was working with Phil Hoffman like? Well, you
Speaker 1: know he was really, um, he was pretty amazing. I
Speaker 1: mean I miss him, like I think almost every day.
Speaker 1: You know, he was really he was a great director.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you that, and anybody who worked on that
Speaker 1: play will tell you that. I mean, he was like
Speaker 1: he was like kind of like Bobby Knight meets Sidney Lamtent.
Speaker 1: I mean he was like he was like a wrestling
Speaker 1: coach and a very sensitive actor friendly director. He was
Speaker 1: really you know, he he he talked his talk, but
Speaker 1: he walked the walk and he demanded a lot of
Speaker 1: you and but he was very nurturing and I you know,
Speaker 1: and in the program when I did Full for Love,
Speaker 1: I dedicated at the Phil because every time I get
Speaker 1: on stage, I think about Phil and a lot of
Speaker 1: times when I get in front of a camera too.
Speaker 1: You know, Phil was the was you know, we were
Speaker 1: kind of like, you know, after it was you know,
Speaker 1: Billy Crude up and Jeffrey right and Lea. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like I think our generation, you know, Roland and Ruffalo.
Speaker 1: You know, we kind of go I mean I wouldn't know.
Speaker 1: Billy and I were kind of like, well, what do
Speaker 1: we What do we do now? You know, what do
Speaker 1: we do now? Who are we gonna? You know, it's
Speaker 1: like that documentary, like Larry Burton Magic Johnson documentary. You
Speaker 1: ever see that thirty for thirty And they kind of
Speaker 1: upped each other's game. There was this beautiful, healthy competition
Speaker 1: between them. And it was kind of like that with Phil.
Speaker 1: Like when I would see Phil do something, I'd be like, oh,
Speaker 1: ship man, I gotta I gotta step it up, you know,
Speaker 1: because Phil's bringing it, you know, And he didn't phone
Speaker 1: it in. He didn't want to phone it in. It
Speaker 1: didn't matter the project either. I mean something like Twister.
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, I know he's on, he's all in, dude,
Speaker 1: he's always all in, you know, sent of a woman.
Speaker 1: But when you saw him on stage, man, I mean
Speaker 1: he did Willie Lohman or True West. I mean, you
Speaker 1: know John c Riley will tell you. I mean he
Speaker 1: and John's John's she Riley is no joke, you know,
Speaker 1: he's a he's a real deal and m but Phil
Speaker 1: was just he would not eight times a week, you know,
Speaker 1: on stage. He would not phone it in. You know,
Speaker 1: he would he would bring it and that takes a toll. Donya. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know. The thing about that that really sucks is
Speaker 1: just when you lose someone in their prime, it's like,
Speaker 1: how many great Phil Hoffman performances have we not gotten?
Speaker 1: So it's just like it's, yeah, it's really sad. I
Speaker 1: sort of felt the same way about Gene Hackman. I
Speaker 1: mean when he retired, it's like that was that's over
Speaker 1: a decade ago, and it's like, yeah, he was ready.
Speaker 1: He was I mean, he was ready. He was tired.
Speaker 1: He was tired. I have to say, like dude, you've
Speaker 1: earned it. You can quit. But like, you know, it's
Speaker 1: just like, man, we could have got some more good stuff.
Speaker 1: Just no, he was he was. I remember he was
Speaker 1: considering the Wes Anderson thing, um, the tenemomb tenem bombs,
Speaker 1: and he it's like, I'm tired, and I'm like, dude,
Speaker 1: have you seen Rushmore? That's a damn good movie. You
Speaker 1: might want to check it out, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying he did it because of me, but
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of people who probably said
Speaker 1: to him, you need to see Rushmore. And he ended
Speaker 1: up doing the movie, you know, but um, and then
Speaker 1: that just finished him. Yeah, that was just then he
Speaker 1: did he did something with Owen Wilson to around that
Speaker 1: time with the there was a military the military thing.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, some kind of like action lines. Yeah yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: He was just tired. He was working a lot. You know,
Speaker 1: he was tired. He was great and highest, He's great
Speaker 1: and higest man great hiest. Yeah. Well the movie is
Speaker 1: called Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. It opens November. You
Speaker 1: should go see it. It's fantastic. I think it's Sam's
Speaker 1: best performance. High high five on the podcast. Thanks for
Speaker 1: coming on the show. Thanks and again everyone stick around
Speaker 1: after this for a dive into the your season with
Speaker 1: Janelle Riley. Will be right back after this now. Mildred Hayes,
Speaker 1: why didn't you put up in the billboards? My daughter
Speaker 1: Angela was murdered seven months ago. It seems to me
Speaker 1: the police department is too busy torturing black folks to
Speaker 1: solve actual crime. Dic. I'm in the middle of my
Speaker 1: goddamn Easter dinner. Sorry, I know, Chief, I think we've
Speaker 1: got kind of a problem. Son, Sun, be good. I
Speaker 1: do anything to catch your daughter's killer. I don't think
Speaker 1: those billboards is very fair. And it took him to
Speaker 1: get out here one and like a bitch. Will it
Speaker 1: be some other poor girls probably out there being butchered?
Speaker 1: Right now? We've had two official complaints about those billboards
Speaker 1: from who the lady with a funny eye, A lady
Speaker 1: with a funny fucking eye and a fat dnnis it's
Speaker 1: a lot of good friends that will it be in
Speaker 1: this town? To Ey you didn't have to drill a
Speaker 1: little hole in the dentist today, did you? Of course? Said,
Speaker 1: of course not. I'm sorry about angel but the town
Speaker 1: is dead set against these billboards, and it's through that
Speaker 1: can can how about your sweetheart? No, I didn't really go, hey, fuckhead,
Speaker 1: don't say what Dickson when she comes in calling you fuckhead.
Speaker 1: We keep a case in the public eye, the pair
Speaker 1: your chance are getting. It's all. You know, if you
Speaker 1: hadn't stopped coming to church, you'd have a little bit
Speaker 1: more understanding of people's feelings on this. Anger man just
Speaker 1: gets great anger in three two one, And as sad
Speaker 1: as the spectacle of these billboards might be, dis reporter
Speaker 1: for one hope this finally puts an end to the
Speaker 1: strange saga of the three billboards outside and put an
Speaker 1: end to shake your fucking retard. This is just a
Speaker 1: fucking start. Why don't you put that on your Good
Speaker 1: Morning Missouri fucking got broadcast? Bit. Alright, we're back. I'm
Speaker 1: here with the varieties. Tell me again, Awards and Features editor, Yes, Jelley.
Speaker 1: We we're gonna talk about the season, which we haven't
Speaker 1: done all year. It's exciting, it's it's I think it's
Speaker 1: better to space these out because you would agree, right,
Speaker 1: we kind of start everything wants to hear me talking
Speaker 1: every day. Well, that goes with the saying for our purposes, no, So,
Speaker 1: you know, diving into the season. We've got our awards
Speaker 1: launch issue this week with Kate Winslet on the cover
Speaker 1: for What Allen's Do film Wonder Wheel. And it's a
Speaker 1: weird year and I feel like, y we you say this,
Speaker 1: you know a lot, but it really computes this time.
Speaker 1: I mean even you know, just coming out of the award,
Speaker 1: the festival season, the early fall festival season, there's no
Speaker 1: front runner. Certainly there's not even it doesn't even seem
Speaker 1: like it's this movie versus that movie versus that movie.
Speaker 1: Like last year we had the Manchester moon Light La
Speaker 1: La Land thing. We don't even really have that. I
Speaker 1: think we have. I think everyone agrees. Dun Kirk is
Speaker 1: probably the most muscular contender. I think movies like Darkest
Speaker 1: Hour are pretty strong. Really yeah, yeah, because just it's
Speaker 1: it's meticulously crafted and it's just gonna could be old
Speaker 1: school thinking. By the way, this gets into my old
Speaker 1: my column this week about of this academy has joined
Speaker 1: in the last two years, that members, assuming they all
Speaker 1: accepted their invitations, accept thank you. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: don't think anyone ever says no. But you can bank
Speaker 1: on about four members and that's that's dressed saying. But
Speaker 1: they're more of like a younger generation and when very internationalized,
Speaker 1: like there's just they make a big show of the
Speaker 1: fact that I think fifty seven countries. They invited people
Speaker 1: from fifty seven countries. So you know, this is why
Speaker 1: I think movies like Three Billboards and Florida Project could
Speaker 1: I don't want to say surprise, because I think they're
Speaker 1: both in the race, but I could see one of
Speaker 1: those winning. Yeah, I mean, and then movies like get
Speaker 1: Out by the way, they could come back, and and
Speaker 1: all these movies from earlier in the year get Out
Speaker 1: big sick Um. I know I mentioned Logan and Dunkirk
Speaker 1: came out earlier. We're really seen like people are going
Speaker 1: to have to have longer memories than they're used to.
Speaker 1: And the other thing that drives me crazy as a
Speaker 1: columnist is I don't see any trends hard. I need
Speaker 1: to find an example of three films that add up
Speaker 1: to something that it's really hard even that it's it's
Speaker 1: it's but let's see, we've got Shape of Water won
Speaker 1: the Venice prizemas new film. I'm not as hot on
Speaker 1: it as everyone else, but his tourism certainly shines through,
Speaker 1: and there are diehearted devotees of that film. I think
Speaker 1: it's his best work. So I also think Sally Hawkins
Speaker 1: stands out because she doesn't speak. You know, it sounds odd,
Speaker 1: but there's so many great women vuying for Best Actress
Speaker 1: this year. In a way, it's sort of you know,
Speaker 1: puts their up there as being somewhat different. You know,
Speaker 1: all those other women talk too much. Come on, it's
Speaker 1: it's yeah that I guess that's one story. Is the
Speaker 1: Best Actress category is nuts. It is nuts. So many
Speaker 1: great performances, Frances McDormand and awards. You know, she doesn't
Speaker 1: do much press, but she's going to get in regardless.
Speaker 1: I think I love Sir Sharonin and Lady Bird. I
Speaker 1: love that movie, so I love LADYE. Ladybird is another
Speaker 1: movie that I feel like with a younger voting audience,
Speaker 1: could you know, actually win some big prizes. Um and
Speaker 1: you know, Greta did such a great job. But that
Speaker 1: she's directed before as a co director. But there's people
Speaker 1: that think that that movie is not a I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously it's not a short thing. Best Picture on me
Speaker 1: A few things are, but I feel like stronger about
Speaker 1: it than other people. People just miss it as slight,
Speaker 1: which is really deceptive. It is not slight at all.
Speaker 1: And Greta Gerwig talks a lot about how the story
Speaker 1: is not autobiographical. Yes, she did grow up in Sacramento, etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: I gotta tell that movie is autobiographical to me. That
Speaker 1: is my story too. I mean there's something about the
Speaker 1: time period too. I think it takes place what he
Speaker 1: or something. Oh, I thought it was nineties, but I
Speaker 1: could be wrong. Maybe again, this is me making it.
Speaker 1: I graduated high school, so I think it takes place
Speaker 1: a little bit after that. And it just I saw
Speaker 1: a lot of familiar stuff in it. I mean the
Speaker 1: Timothy shallow Make character and that he's fantastic. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I know that guy. I've seen that guy. Timothy Schallom.
Speaker 1: Call Me by Your Name Yes is another movie that
Speaker 1: everybody seems very very high on, one of the most
Speaker 1: critically claimed films of the year. Um, he's fantastic. In
Speaker 1: that he's fantastic, Armie Hammer is fantastic. Michael Schulberg Shallow
Speaker 1: Me just there's something about the way he inhabits his
Speaker 1: space as an actor that there's like, I guess there's
Speaker 1: a confidence that I don't know what it is, but
Speaker 1: there's just something about how he carries himself physically as
Speaker 1: a performer that I find really keptain How old is he?
Speaker 1: Because I think he's a lot for a nomination. I do.
Speaker 1: I do think he's like early twenties. I think he
Speaker 1: Oldman are are pretty much our locks. And I know, um,
Speaker 1: isn't it a race to lose to Gary Oldman at
Speaker 1: this point? Well, you know, the Phantom Thread trailer dropped
Speaker 1: today and a lot of people are like Gary Oldman
Speaker 1: is sweating right now because you know, Daniel day Lewis
Speaker 1: is in a movie. But yeah, I'm a little skeptical
Speaker 1: to Daniel Lewis fourth Oscar. Yeah, I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: think so. But the last time, not the last wow,
Speaker 1: years ago, when Gary Oldman was kind of campaigning for
Speaker 1: the contender, it's sort of got mucked up. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's that. There's there's the idea of will his personal
Speaker 1: politics becoming any kind of an issue? I guess, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, that whole situation is a whole other thing.
Speaker 1: But again, there again, you know, the Academy is shifted considerably,
Speaker 1: and it was a long time ago. That was a
Speaker 1: long time ago. And plus, as long as you're not
Speaker 1: a Trump Republican, I think you're exactly exactly so funny,
Speaker 1: Like you've made Gary Oldman in person right right. He
Speaker 1: seems like such a sweet, easy going guy. The funniest story.
Speaker 1: I interviewed him for Tinker Taylor. I went to his
Speaker 1: hotel room. It was like, you know, a junket thing
Speaker 1: or something. It was like eighty five degrees in the
Speaker 1: room and I was like kind of kind of toasting him,
Speaker 1: and He's like, yeah, I like to keep it warm.
Speaker 1: I felt like I was in Dracula's castle, like I'll
Speaker 1: expected there to be like it's a blazing fire behind him.
Speaker 1: But yeah, he's the best, and he's amazing in that movie.
Speaker 1: He he's a beast. He's fantastic. And I don't think
Speaker 1: it's unwarranted either. It's you know, someone some might say
Speaker 1: it's chewing the scenery, but he's playing Winston Churchill. Churchill.
Speaker 1: By the way, if there are any actors out there
Speaker 1: who want to win a Tony, do play Winston Churchill
Speaker 1: before the deadline, because Winston Churchills this year. It's going
Speaker 1: to win the Oscar next year, So get that Tony
Speaker 1: in there. You know, Gary Oldman? Um, no one had
Speaker 1: ever told him that he was referenced on The Simpsons
Speaker 1: when Homer says, who should play me in a movie?
Speaker 1: And Bart says, I don't know Dan Ackroyd, and Homer
Speaker 1: starts choking him and says, too obvious, should be Gary Oldman.
Speaker 1: And I told him that, like I guess during Tinker
Speaker 1: Taylor also, and he was like so tickled, And I
Speaker 1: was like, why has no one told you? This is he?
Speaker 1: As Simpson's fans somehow apparently not because not enough. Um.
Speaker 1: Looking at the other actress contenders, there's a Net Benning
Speaker 1: with another shot on goal. You think that's happening? I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I haven't seen the movie. I just haven't
Speaker 1: heard any buzz on her. She's good, she's good, and
Speaker 1: they picked up they picked up the film specifically to
Speaker 1: get her. I really I haven't seen it yet. I mean,
Speaker 1: she's playing Gloria Graham, right, Yeah, Jamie Bell is great
Speaker 1: in the movie. Jamie Bell is really ungraded in that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Margot Robbie and Story this year. Uh, she you know,
Speaker 1: I guess there's the de lamb of it all. But
Speaker 1: she's just it's a fascinating character to play. I have
Speaker 1: some problems with the movie myself. I think it kind
Speaker 1: of makes but she's amazing, don't you think. I think
Speaker 1: Alison Janny is probably the front runner for Supporting Actress
Speaker 1: for that film. Do you think so? I do? I
Speaker 1: do for lack of better contenders, because I mean, she's
Speaker 1: not fantastic in the movie, but it's just like, but
Speaker 1: I mean, who who is in that Cates strikes me
Speaker 1: as a weird winner? Really? Yeah, yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: could see that, but you know, she is Alison Janny.
Speaker 1: Also like, there are two other fun moms in that
Speaker 1: category as Laurie Metcalf and Ladybird and Holly Hunter and
Speaker 1: The Big Six, both of whom I love. They're both great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, Big Sick is probably my favorite movie of
Speaker 1: the year. I'm a huge, huge fan of it, so
Speaker 1: I would love to see it could nominated across the board.
Speaker 1: I'm a little bummed there isn't more buzz on Ray
Speaker 1: Vermonto for that movie. I think he's fantastic. Of course,
Speaker 1: gump joke is like, gives me life. You know I'm
Speaker 1: talking about it. Oh yeah, Uh, let's see best actor,
Speaker 1: you know, uncharacteristically thin. Uh, there's Jake Jillen hat is
Speaker 1: fantastic and strong good yeah, and and one of his
Speaker 1: best performances and really saying a lot honestly, it is
Speaker 1: especially lately He's The way that movie was shot is
Speaker 1: really intriguing to me too. I just think it's got
Speaker 1: interesting visual ideas for a movie that's kind of familiar
Speaker 1: in some ways their story. It's interesting. People who haven't
Speaker 1: seen it aren't really aware that there's this whole I
Speaker 1: don't want even want to say, subplot plot about you know,
Speaker 1: dealing with the price of fame and being shoved into
Speaker 1: the spotlight. And when I tell them that, they get
Speaker 1: a lot more interested in it because they think it's just,
Speaker 1: you know, they think it's going to be one thing,
Speaker 1: which is good, but I'm like, it's so much more.
Speaker 1: And he is, he is so fantastic. Chemistry with her
Speaker 1: and she's fantastic, but like the Richard treating treating that
Speaker 1: relationship in a different kind of way that the seemingly
Speaker 1: familiar relationship we've seen in movies before, a different ways.
Speaker 1: Another interesting mother in the Supporting Actress category Miranda Richardson,
Speaker 1: do you think she's a contender. I would like to,
Speaker 1: but she needed a couple more Yeah, yeah, I haven't.
Speaker 1: I was hoping to hear other people talking about her
Speaker 1: as well, and I haven't. I would just be happy
Speaker 1: for Jake to get nominated, because what does the man
Speaker 1: have to do at this point to get another nomination.
Speaker 1: I mean, Nightcrawler was one of the best performances I've
Speaker 1: seen ten years. I don't know, I STI don't know
Speaker 1: what happened there either. Christian Bale has a performances. You
Speaker 1: see Hostiles, He's really good and he always is. He
Speaker 1: learned shy in and you know, all all the things.
Speaker 1: They're definitely coming out this year. Okay, Yeah, they found
Speaker 1: they found a distributor, the Byron Allen's company. They had
Speaker 1: a it was it was like between them and Netflix,
Speaker 1: and the theatrical of it all was important, of course.
Speaker 1: I mean, like, just based on what I heard, you
Speaker 1: want to see that, like to see sprawling Western on
Speaker 1: a big screen and Christians great, Rosamond Pike's really good.
Speaker 1: She's yeah, she's I've heard great things about both of them,
Speaker 1: and that's that's going to be uncharted territory in terms
Speaker 1: of a campaign too, because it's not like Byron Allen's
Speaker 1: company came in and all their people are campaigns, but
Speaker 1: they had a campaign uh structure and place, and they're
Speaker 1: allowing them to just kind of put together their own
Speaker 1: team and keep going forward. So it's kind of like
Speaker 1: we're distributing the movie. But you deal with that, and
Speaker 1: that's it's going to be something interesting to watch on fold.
Speaker 1: Denzel Washington Roman j israel Esquires the best title in
Speaker 1: the world, but it's Dan Gilroy the I like it.
Speaker 1: It didn't do great in Toronto. They apparently are recutting it.
Speaker 1: I don't really that's so interesting because you know, um,
Speaker 1: it didn't seem like there was a great response for
Speaker 1: some movies that other festivals responded really strongly too. What
Speaker 1: do you mean, well, like Downsizing, didn't you go to
Speaker 1: Venice and get fantastic and Venice and then tell you right,
Speaker 1: people are like and then by the time it got
Speaker 1: to Toronto, which they had not even planned to go
Speaker 1: to originally, Yeah, the reviews started just kind of sloping down.
Speaker 1: I really like that movie. I did. I liked it
Speaker 1: a lot. What did you think of the hoo it all.
Speaker 1: I thought she was fantastic. I think it's a problematic role,
Speaker 1: but this is probably there's probably too much to go
Speaker 1: into here, unleuch, you have half an hour. But it's interesting.
Speaker 1: I heard someone say she's both the best and the
Speaker 1: worst thing about the movie, Like, you know, they have
Speaker 1: problems with the representation of the character, but they're also
Speaker 1: glad you know she's being represented and what as an actress,
Speaker 1: she's fantastic, She's I mean I loved there in the movie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: me too. I think she can't You can't. You know,
Speaker 1: if she was a writer on the movie, maybe maybe
Speaker 1: you'd feel differently about all of it. But it just
Speaker 1: you can't get it out of your head that you know,
Speaker 1: a white guy wrote this role, and I think, you know,
Speaker 1: in faience it was two white guys. I think pieces
Speaker 1: are on their way. I think, oh boy, prepare yourself.
Speaker 1: What else do we want to look at a half
Speaker 1: Asian woman. I thought she was fantastic. There we go.
Speaker 1: The demographic is spoken, the demographic. Let's talk about get out. Actually,
Speaker 1: it just led the Gotham Awards nomination, which was I
Speaker 1: don't think I was even thinking about it. Being in
Speaker 1: the mix. People have been talking about it, but I
Speaker 1: didn't know how real it was. Well, I mean for
Speaker 1: that specifically, because it's like I wouldn't have expected those
Speaker 1: committees to go, oh, get out, you know, you'd expect
Speaker 1: good time. But you know, so that was kind of cool.
Speaker 1: And the movie made it. It's it's like Universal has
Speaker 1: it ted up and they've got a critically acclaimed movie probably,
Speaker 1: I mean arguably the most critically aclaim with reviews, made
Speaker 1: a ton of money and huge box off the story.
Speaker 1: My mother saw it. She didn't really understand it, but
Speaker 1: she admired it. You need to watch it again actually,
Speaker 1: because I loved it. And you know, we had Jordan
Speaker 1: on the show back when it came out. And and
Speaker 1: by the way, he is a good He is his
Speaker 1: own best advocate. He's out there, you know, at festivals
Speaker 1: and screenings and talking and yeah, that will go a
Speaker 1: long way. So you know, I think there's a shot.
Speaker 1: I mean, I still my instinct is best picture feels hard.
Speaker 1: What about screenplay? Definitely? Yeah, I think it's in for
Speaker 1: a screenplay. And you know, I would love to see
Speaker 1: Katherine Keener. Oh I know, and I'm sorry, um, the actress.
Speaker 1: The other supporting william You know the Betty is her?
Speaker 1: Is her name? Betty? I'm so sorry, Betty Gabriel, Betty Gabriel,
Speaker 1: she's great to did I, who's the girl from Girls?
Speaker 1: Alison Williams. Williams is Okay. That looked weird in my
Speaker 1: head when I was picturing it was like, that's sound. No,
Speaker 1: it sounds, but that's awesome. All three of them are great. Um,
Speaker 1: but Kathy Keener feels like the kind that could really
Speaker 1: sure beloved character actors. Hey another mom villain spoiler alert.
Speaker 1: I think there's two people haven't seen the movie. Well
Speaker 1: you're why are you listening to this podcast? What did
Speaker 1: you think about all the sexes? I really liked it.
Speaker 1: People had kind of undersold it to me as saying, oh,
Speaker 1: it's entertaining, but it really moved me. I thought the
Speaker 1: performances were fantastic. It went to places I didn't expect.
Speaker 1: I am a little surprised, like I think people are
Speaker 1: talking about it, but maybe we just take you know,
Speaker 1: good storytelling for granted. I kind of feel like going
Speaker 1: to bed for that one this year because because I
Speaker 1: saw it and tell your ride, uh I it was
Speaker 1: more emotional than I anticipated. It was the visual storytelling,
Speaker 1: like the way it was shot. Oscar winning La La
Speaker 1: and DP Lena Sangrin shot this as well. Uh, once
Speaker 1: She's falling in love with the character played by Andrea Riseboro.
Speaker 1: Just all of that was handled so perfectly. And I
Speaker 1: thought Steve Carrell was just like used properly in doses,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like, so, I really liked
Speaker 1: that movie, and it's it seemed like the reviews were well,
Speaker 1: like in the eighties or something. I don't know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone disliked it, but I thought people
Speaker 1: would be more passionate or I feel like people sort
Speaker 1: of under soul. I felt that way about a few
Speaker 1: movies this year, though, as um Wonderstruck. I loved Wonderstruck.
Speaker 1: Yeah you didn't like I was so charmed by it.
Speaker 1: The score though, Yeah, I mean, can carterber Will finally win?
Speaker 1: Has he been nominated carterber Well, yeah, I thought he'd
Speaker 1: been nominated for all the Cohen Brothers movies. Okay, so
Speaker 1: we'll check that. I think maybe he has one nomination one. Oh,
Speaker 1: that's that's and I think it might have been. Actually,
Speaker 1: I don't even think it was true, GrITT. I think
Speaker 1: his stuff was rendered. Oh it was last year, two
Speaker 1: years ago. Sorry for Carol obviously. Um, which was wonderful.
Speaker 1: Part of the issue with Battle of the Sexes is
Speaker 1: that it's coming from Fox Searchlight, which has two hardcore
Speaker 1: contenders with Shape of Water and Three. Although I don't
Speaker 1: feel like they've given it short shrift, No, I mean
Speaker 1: they I guess they put it out where they thought
Speaker 1: it had the best chance of connecting with the box
Speaker 1: office was not great. It's ten million or something. Really,
Speaker 1: that's really disappointing. And I think Three Billboards opens early November. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they see that as a movie that I felt like
Speaker 1: I loved so much. I felt like it was made
Speaker 1: for me, but I didn't know if other people would
Speaker 1: like it. And I'm not a huge fan of Martin mcdid,
Speaker 1: but this one kind of blew me away. We have,
Speaker 1: you know, Sam Rockwell is the guests, the interview guests,
Speaker 1: the personer him or Willem Dafoe. I'm thinking, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: the two of them are at the top. Um. It
Speaker 1: just that arc that he has to play. It's like
Speaker 1: rare and he's never really gotten a chance to because
Speaker 1: he should have been nominated for Moon. I thought he
Speaker 1: would definitely be nominated for Conviction, Like it came up
Speaker 1: in my time hop from seven years ago where I
Speaker 1: was like sure things, say Rockwell, this one just plays
Speaker 1: into all of his strength. I mean, he can be
Speaker 1: big and he goes small and scenes and it's just
Speaker 1: it's really cool. Can I actually promote that I will
Speaker 1: be doing a Q and A with Variety and a
Speaker 1: f I on November fourteenth, with Sam Rockwell and Martin
Speaker 1: mcconnaugh talking about their collaboration over the years. Come on out,
Speaker 1: Los Angeles people, please, Um gosh, there's so many other
Speaker 1: things to touch on, but oh, I just thought of
Speaker 1: a funny kind of pun. We're talking about tough mothers
Speaker 1: and the supporting actress category. What about Melissa Leo? I
Speaker 1: was going to say the same thing, there's a there's
Speaker 1: a mother of another sort. She's good and that that's
Speaker 1: a good movie. I'm good again part of like a
Speaker 1: massive Sony classic Stable. But I uh, I like that movie.
Speaker 1: I didn't like him. I like to score like the
Speaker 1: screenplay and the lead novitiate. Yes, what's what's the lad quality?
Speaker 1: Or Quinn is so good? She's really good. And you know,
Speaker 1: I just saw her in This is so random but
Speaker 1: death note um and she's quite good at that too.
Speaker 1: Speaking of trends earlier, I did have an idea earlier
Speaker 1: this year that there's a lot of love stories and
Speaker 1: play interesting. That's an interesting one in that. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I thought, I guess you know her her love story
Speaker 1: with God if you will, and it's it's that's a
Speaker 1: really interesting little movie, and I hope it gets some love.
Speaker 1: Does no invitiate pass the Bechdel test? If they're talking
Speaker 1: about God, that's a good I mean, unless you're just
Speaker 1: as sending. God's a guy. Yeah, so what else? What else?
Speaker 1: Mud Bound, My Dad's pretty good, Sun Dance Foam coming
Speaker 1: back around for release, played Toronto, Mary J. Blige just
Speaker 1: probably a lock for the party. Now, those three supporting actors,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Bank, Scartt Headland and Jason Mitchell, was to stand
Speaker 1: out for you? Jason Mitchell, Yeah, he's good. Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: I mean really, you know, I mean, I don't know,
Speaker 1: Maybe I should double check with them how they're doing it.
Speaker 1: But I think Jason Clark. I also think Jason Mitchell
Speaker 1: was robbed for a nomination for Straight Out of Compton.
Speaker 1: He was awesome in that. It was fun to talk
Speaker 1: to him that year too, because he was just enthusiastic
Speaker 1: and he's still love in life. It seems he's also
Speaker 1: in Detroit. I mean, is that going to come back around?
Speaker 1: I think so, don't you. I mean, in some categories,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Yeah, I mean it was a difficult
Speaker 1: one to write about at the time because I had
Speaker 1: some issues with the movie, and but then my my
Speaker 1: I settled on Look, I don't know. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is a different academy, So who knows how this will land.
Speaker 1: But Bad Date lost money. You know, it's just but
Speaker 1: it'll get screeners out there early. Yeah, I feel like
Speaker 1: some of those performances, you know, could get some traction
Speaker 1: and pretty hard to ignore. Um, so much respect for
Speaker 1: Katherine Bigelow in the industry, Like, who knows, I love
Speaker 1: this film? First they killed my father? Speaking of female director, Yeah,
Speaker 1: isn't it great? It's really good. You know. I talked
Speaker 1: to her about it, um, saying that, you know, it
Speaker 1: was it was hard for me to go into because
Speaker 1: I don't like seeing children in peril, and she said
Speaker 1: it's actually of the movie she's made her her children's favorite,
Speaker 1: and she's like, kids are more resilient than we think,
Speaker 1: and it's true, Like look at it, like I have
Speaker 1: trouble watching First They Killed My Phone. No, I mean
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, it's tough to see kids in peril.
Speaker 1: But I remember reading it when I was twelve years
Speaker 1: old and I didn't have a problem. Then it's only
Speaker 1: when you get older and you have children of your
Speaker 1: own or you know, it means something different to you. Um,
Speaker 1: And honestly, I'd like, I don't want to give anything away,
Speaker 1: but First They Killed My Father ultimately is a very
Speaker 1: inspiring tale. Yeah, and the photography I think is the
Speaker 1: best of the year. Anthony the DP on that not
Speaker 1: to board Janell with are you bring people? Oh god,
Speaker 1: that's a little inside joke for the long time listeners
Speaker 1: were coming up on twenty minutes and we barely scratched
Speaker 1: the surfaces. But that's kind of like a setting of
Speaker 1: the table, I guess if you will for this Oscar season,
Speaker 1: So we'll recon fab a couple of weeks. We got
Speaker 1: the post coming the Spielberg movie coming. Uh. Interesting role
Speaker 1: for Tom Hanks playing Ben Bradley because he's a very
Speaker 1: gruff uh, temperamental character. So seeing Tom Hanks play that,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be fun and to get nominated, can't get
Speaker 1: arrested the same same or Meryl Streep, his co star
Speaker 1: in the film, like she can't even see when will
Speaker 1: she get hurt? She's gonna get that fourth oscar? But
Speaker 1: she plays Katherine Graham, publisher of the Washington Post in
Speaker 1: that movie and it's about the Pentagon papers. Uh what
Speaker 1: else do you call Thomas Anderson's film All the Money
Speaker 1: in the World. I can't wait to see. I'm so trailer,
Speaker 1: so cool and that story is so weird trailer, but well,
Speaker 1: I just think he using your song money is a
Speaker 1: little on the nose. Money, isn't it the song they used?
Speaker 1: They used the time of the season. I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: back and watch it. Please edit this out if I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: I don't need more people screaming at me now. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to picture the trailer with money, like the Pink
Speaker 1: Floyd song. Is that in there? Maybe I watched a
Speaker 1: fan cut. Who knows that would have been cool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but they used time of the season and the trailer
Speaker 1: that I'm familiar with. I'm very excited for the movie.
Speaker 1: But you know they made it so fast. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: they were. They finished shooting like mid August. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: get a little anxious when I see lots of prosthetics,
Speaker 1: but what I've seen so far actually looks good. And
Speaker 1: speaking of you know, rapping recently, who knows if Eastwood's
Speaker 1: movie will pop out there, like I mean, I've heard
Speaker 1: that it will be ready if everyone involved is ready
Speaker 1: to it wants to put it out. Do we even
Speaker 1: know what it's about? It? Really? Yeah, it's about the
Speaker 1: three guys on the train in Paris that subdued the
Speaker 1: would be terrorist attack on that train from Brussels to
Speaker 1: uh France, and he casts the real life guys you're kidding, yes,
Speaker 1: of course, but the story is more about their childhood
Speaker 1: and how they grew up together. So you know, you
Speaker 1: never know where you're going to get out of Clint
Speaker 1: other than under budget and the time. So we'll see
Speaker 1: if that makes it. But anyway, well we'll check back later.
Speaker 1: That that's what we got going on right now, Jennell,
Speaker 1: thanks for coming on. Thanks for about it. Now we
Speaker 1: can put the rest of those rumors that were feuding
Speaker 1: are the rules? I just made that up, But like
Speaker 1: a couple of people have asked you put that up.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be on Yeah, I don't really like garage anyway.
Speaker 1: We'll check back in a few weeks. Thanks, you know,
Speaker 1: IMM