Speaker 1: Loogal his only films to be buried with. Hello, and
Speaker 1: welcome to Films to be buried with. My name is
Speaker 1: Brett Goldstein. I'm a comedian, an actor, a writer, a director,
Speaker 1: an iheartradioer, and I love film. As George Santaniana once said,
Speaker 1: the Family is one of Nature's masterpieces. The other is
Speaker 1: Jurassic Park two The Lost World. It's wildly underrated, particularly
Speaker 1: the scene with the splintering windshield. Yes, George, you're right.
Speaker 1: Every week I'm by a special guest over. I tell
Speaker 1: them they've died, then I get them to discuss their
Speaker 1: life through the films that meant the most of them.
Speaker 1: Previous guests include Barry Jenkins, Jamila Jamil, Mark Frost, Sharon Stone,
Speaker 1: and even Bred Clambles. But this week it's the excellent
Speaker 1: actor Himesh Patel. You can watch all of Shrinking on
Speaker 1: Apple tv Plus, and you can watch nearly all of
Speaker 1: Ted Lasso's seasons three so far. You can get episodes
Speaker 1: one to eight all on Apple tv Plus. Watch them
Speaker 1: love it. Head over to the Patreon at patreon dot
Speaker 1: com forward slash Brett Goldstein, where you get an extra
Speaker 1: twenty minutes of chat with him. Ash, he tells me
Speaker 1: a secret. We talk about the best beginnings and endings
Speaker 1: of films. You get the whole episode, uncut, ad free
Speaker 1: and does a video. Check it out over at patreon
Speaker 1: dot com. Forward Slash Brett Goldstein. So himsh Patel, Himsh
Speaker 1: Patel is a lovely and brilliant actor. You know him
Speaker 1: from Yesterday, you know him from Tenet, and you know
Speaker 1: him from his Emmy nominated performance in Station eleven. We
Speaker 1: recorded this on Zoom just a few days ago and
Speaker 1: one of the things we talk about a lot actually
Speaker 1: is his nine years on the show EastEnders. Now, if
Speaker 1: you don't live in England, you might not know where
Speaker 1: that is. It's one of the biggest shows in England,
Speaker 1: probably the biggest show in England. It's the soap that
Speaker 1: has been on forever, is on forever on at night.
Speaker 1: It's very well done, it's excellent. He was in it
Speaker 1: for nine years. We talk about that, so when I'm
Speaker 1: talking about Easterners, that's what we're talking about. He's a
Speaker 1: lovely bloke and I really think you're going to love
Speaker 1: this episode. So that is it for now. I very
Speaker 1: much hope you enjoy episode two hundred and forty five
Speaker 1: of films to be Buried with. Thanks, Hello, and welcome
Speaker 1: to Films to be Buried With. It is I Brett Goldstein,
Speaker 1: and I am joined today by an actor, a superstar,
Speaker 1: a film star, an eastender, a station elevener, an avenue fiver,
Speaker 1: a tenant, no numberer, a legend, a hero, a husband,
Speaker 1: a father, and a lover at least three times a week,
Speaker 1: according to the news, Please welcome, he's here. Can we
Speaker 1: believe it? An Emmy nominee, an award winner, a beautiful man.
Speaker 1: Here he is. I can't believe it. He's right to me.
Speaker 1: It's mister Himswn.
Speaker 2: Hello, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Hi.
Speaker 2: What's the according to the news three times a week
Speaker 2: I'm a lover?
Speaker 1: Is that? I think it was just a headline in
Speaker 1: the in the news that comes out every week that
Speaker 1: three times a week, at least three times a week,
Speaker 1: you make love.
Speaker 2: I don't know what papers you read, but I personally
Speaker 2: make love.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: It was like in the you know, often in this
Speaker 1: sort of in other news like it's a positive thing.
Speaker 1: It's not.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's it's still a very interesting insight into
Speaker 2: my my personal life.
Speaker 1: Pr people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but look, I mean it's just no comment that one.
Speaker 1: Hes thank you for doing this. You're in England right
Speaker 1: now in your attic? Is that true?
Speaker 2: I'm in my attic. Yeah, yeah, it's It's where i
Speaker 2: have my little office. It's not like I've been consigned
Speaker 2: to the attic to do.
Speaker 1: This, no hims. Can we can I ask you a
Speaker 1: few questions about your life and career. Yeah, you are
Speaker 1: a movie star at alleged you started in these standards.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize how long you were in these standards.
Speaker 1: You're in the standards for all nine years?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Nine years? Yeah? Basically. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Can you in one sentence summarize what that's like.
Speaker 2: One sentence? Did you say a word?
Speaker 1: Yeah? It was.
Speaker 2: I mean I'd have nothing without it, you know. I
Speaker 2: was sixteen, sort of plutch from obscurity in a little
Speaker 2: village and yeah, right time, right place, and definitely the
Speaker 2: right role, because I'll be honest, I was basically playing
Speaker 2: myself when I first started, right, you know, to some degree,
Speaker 2: and some may argue I'm doing it to this day,
Speaker 2: but I couldn't have imagined anything more at the beginning,
Speaker 2: you know. So it's quite overwhelming really looking back on that,
Speaker 2: And that was half my life ago, and yeah, it is.
Speaker 2: It's an odd thing for me to think that I
Speaker 2: was there for nearly a decade. Yeah, it feels like
Speaker 2: a lot has happened since, obviously, But I did so
Speaker 2: much growing up there as a person as an actor.
Speaker 2: I learned so much. I was so lucky to work
Speaker 2: with a lot of very very good actors who were
Speaker 2: there to work, you know, and make make it all
Speaker 2: as good as it could be, you know, because there's
Speaker 2: a huge workload, so many episodes every week.
Speaker 1: You go every day every day, nine to five.
Speaker 2: Basically, yeah, yeah, and there's a danger that you can
Speaker 2: start sort of spreading yourself thin. But I was just
Speaker 2: lucky that I was surrounded by people who they loved
Speaker 2: what they do, They love being actors, and they wanted
Speaker 2: to turn up to work every day and make it,
Speaker 2: make it great. And so I learned a lot about
Speaker 2: being an actor and my craft and actually the fact
Speaker 2: that it's hard work. You know, it's not about fame,
Speaker 2: it's about doing good work. And as I say it
Speaker 2: and stills a hard work ethic. The areas I work
Speaker 2: in now of like you know, TV, different types of
Speaker 2: TV and film. The time you have was just such
Speaker 2: a luxury, you know, It'll always feel like a luxury
Speaker 2: to me though that You're like, Okay, well we've got
Speaker 2: to light the scene now, so i'll see you in
Speaker 2: an hour. I'm like, Wow, that's incredible that we'd have
Speaker 2: done an episode. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, So this side of it,
Speaker 2: it's interesting.
Speaker 1: You say it's not about fame, and I agree, and
Speaker 1: I believe with you, But I also I am aware
Speaker 1: of these sort of side effects of being in EastEnders.
Speaker 1: In particular. I think it's a certain type of fame, right,
Speaker 1: You're you're very, very very famous in England if you're
Speaker 1: in these stenders, and you're famous in a way. I
Speaker 1: remember I made a short film with someone who was
Speaker 1: in these Stenders. I'm trying, we're trying to get a
Speaker 1: shot with him outside in the morning, and we couldn't.
Speaker 1: We just couldn't because people just kept walking back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we couldn't shoot. And I remember thinking, God, this is
Speaker 1: a certain type of fame that's actually quite I imagine
Speaker 1: it must be quite difficult, because not only are you
Speaker 1: very very form needs people, you're in the home all
Speaker 1: the time. You're like it seemed in a way that
Speaker 1: maybe it's different to if someone sees Brad Pitt, they
Speaker 1: might be like, oh my god, Brad Pitt. Someone sees
Speaker 1: some of me senders they feel like their family or
Speaker 1: their friend, or there's something very very familiar where they go, yeah,
Speaker 1: how you doing, mate, Like how how was that? For
Speaker 1: nine years?
Speaker 2: I think it's it's that it's yeah, the familiarity is
Speaker 2: one thing, but they're not familiar with you the person.
Speaker 2: They're exclusively familiar with the character. So you know, no
Speaker 2: one knew my name, they didn't know who Himesh was.
Speaker 2: They knew Tamoir, and so they were just that's what
Speaker 2: they'd say. As time war on, I got quite lucky
Speaker 2: that I looked very different to my character as a
Speaker 2: concerted effort. I was like, you know, I'm not gonna
Speaker 2: wear glasses life, and I'm gonna, you know, dress differently,
Speaker 2: And in a way it was calculated. In a way,
Speaker 2: it was just me growing into my own person. But
Speaker 2: it just meant that I didn't as much as other
Speaker 2: friends of mine who were on the show, who you know,
Speaker 2: even even friends of mine who left the show years ago,
Speaker 2: who still they still feel a bit sort of insecure
Speaker 2: in the times because it's really expected and people it's
Speaker 2: a type of fame, a type of sort of way
Speaker 2: that people approach you. That it's just different to what
Speaker 2: I've experienced since doing something like Yesterday or whatever where
Speaker 2: what I have with that, with being in films and
Speaker 2: that sort of thing now is I don't notice it
Speaker 2: because people aren't so ready to sort of come up
Speaker 2: to you and be quite informal, which people always will
Speaker 2: be with soap actors because of that familiarity thing and
Speaker 2: that they think a lot of them genuinely think you're
Speaker 2: your character. They understand you're an actor, but they also
Speaker 2: don't they're not drawing enough of a line between the
Speaker 2: two things. And that's a very odd thing to experience.
Speaker 2: And I still, i'd say over here, I largely get
Speaker 2: recognized for EastEnders still more than anything in terms of
Speaker 2: people approaching me. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And when you do the Stenders, is it all year?
Speaker 1: Is your contract a year or does it have gaps?
Speaker 1: Actually don't it?
Speaker 2: Yeah? It's all yeah, I think if I unless it's changed. Now,
Speaker 2: I had like about two weeks of holiday I could take,
Speaker 2: and I had to book that in well in advance
Speaker 2: because obviously they're storylining, like you know, half a year
Speaker 2: and more in advance, so they've already got like a
Speaker 2: rough schedule out and they're like, and you could go
Speaker 2: to them and go, can I book a holiday? And
Speaker 2: you know, four months and they're like no, sorry, mate, Yeah,
Speaker 2: you're going to be You're going to be in solid
Speaker 2: there's a big storyline coming in. So you know, it's
Speaker 2: a funny existence, but.
Speaker 1: You're you're you're about to cheat on somewhere.
Speaker 2: Fuck yeah, damn it. It was all I knew, of course.
Speaker 2: So then it's been funny sort of evolving away from
Speaker 2: that and going, oh, I can just just go on
Speaker 2: a holiday when I want to go on a holiday.
Speaker 1: So when you I don't know your story, So did
Speaker 1: you did you choose to leave with you are like
Speaker 1: like nine years? How did you? How did it end?
Speaker 2: I chose I chose to leave. Yeah, it was my choice.
Speaker 2: I was coming up, as I said, about nine years,
Speaker 2: and I think, you know, there's a thing that happens
Speaker 2: on soaps where a lot of it gets becomes like
Speaker 2: sort of heightened uber heightened sort of melodrama of like
Speaker 2: buildings exploding and people killing each other and whatever. And
Speaker 2: the thing about my character and that show that I
Speaker 2: loved was that it just felt like he was sort
Speaker 2: of on the outside of the genre as it were,
Speaker 2: It felt like he was on the outside of everything,
Speaker 2: sort of going, this is all a bit weird, isn't it.
Speaker 2: And so I thought, eventually, you know, his time will come,
Speaker 2: and I don't know if I want it to be that.
Speaker 2: At the time, the character was in a relationship and
Speaker 2: the actress, my friend Maddie, had made the choice to leave,
Speaker 2: and I was like, well, I'm going to leave too,
Speaker 2: because I want them to leave together and be happy.
Speaker 2: And so we left and we're happy since then Maddie
Speaker 2: went back to the show on her own and it
Speaker 2: turned out we'd gotten divorced off screen. So fuck, that's
Speaker 2: a show. But what's it like?
Speaker 1: What's your goodbye like on these tenders when he's been
Speaker 1: there nine years every single day except for Yeah, it.
Speaker 2: Was it was the emotion sort of caught me by surprise. Really.
Speaker 2: They threw this lovely, big old party at the BBC
Speaker 2: l Street Bar for me and Maddie and they played
Speaker 2: like a you know, as they do for everyone when
Speaker 2: they leave, like a montage of all your best bits,
Speaker 2: and you know, my family were there, and so many
Speaker 2: people showed up and you know, from the crew and
Speaker 2: the cast, and yeah, I sort of went to do
Speaker 2: a speech to say thank you to everyone, you just
Speaker 2: got caught in my throat and I remember going, oh, dear,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, I'm not dead inside. It turns out, so yeah,
Speaker 2: it was. It was an emotional goodbye and also you know, scary.
Speaker 2: It was all all I'd known, and it was a
Speaker 2: leap of faith that I knew I had to take
Speaker 2: because I wanted to explore other things, and thankfully it
Speaker 2: worked out.
Speaker 1: How long was the gap before you were then a
Speaker 1: massive movie start it?
Speaker 2: It was less than two years that I was shooting Yesterday, Yeah,
Speaker 2: and then it was you know, amazing, but three years
Speaker 2: between leaving Extendards and Yesterday coming out. But yeah, it
Speaker 2: felt very quick, you know, less than two years between
Speaker 2: auditioning and getting the movie and going on that journey. Yeah,
Speaker 2: very lucky.
Speaker 1: How was your mental health? If I may ask you
Speaker 1: finish these tenders, let's say two weeks later, when you're
Speaker 1: so used to this constant work and this constant thing
Speaker 1: and now you're you have a day free, what do
Speaker 1: you do?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Some of it was sort of it felt quite freeing,
Speaker 2: you know, after so long of just being able to
Speaker 2: go I can just do what I like now. And again,
Speaker 2: I got lucky that things sort of came my way.
Speaker 2: I think if I'd been less lucky, then maybe I
Speaker 2: would have had to sort of have those dark knights
Speaker 2: of the soul and gone, what am I going to do?
Speaker 2: How am I going to figure it out? So actually
Speaker 2: I kind of just got to enjoy it. But there
Speaker 2: were those moments of you know, I remember the day
Speaker 2: I left, drove out the gates for the last time
Speaker 2: and parked up outside my flat and just thought, BlimE me, okay,
Speaker 2: here we go. You know, as an adult, I've never
Speaker 2: known this. I've never known it, you know, And there
Speaker 2: I was a twenty five sort of first time just
Speaker 2: sort of going, now, I don't know what's going to happen.
Speaker 2: Hopefully I'll be okay, I've just.
Speaker 1: Never Hopefully I'll be a mess with me. Yeah, don't
Speaker 1: worry about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if only I had that sort of phrasing confidence.
Speaker 2: You do see some people who sort of go, yeah,
Speaker 2: i'm gonna I'm probably gonna make it, and some of
Speaker 2: them do and you're just like, wow, that's amazing, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well you're also very good. Thank you him as
Speaker 1: I've forgotten to tay so and I feel like an absolute.
Speaker 2: On.
Speaker 1: I feel awful. I should have I should have said
Speaker 1: it at the top actually, because we've gone really far
Speaker 1: back into your person. Should have said it. I'll say
Speaker 1: it all right. Look, yeah, you've died. You're dead dead,
Speaker 1: You're dead dead. Typical.
Speaker 2: It's typical, isn't it. Yeah?
Speaker 1: What what how did you die? Yeah?
Speaker 2: How did I die? Yeah? Look, it was actually quite banal.
Speaker 2: I have this thing where I sort of trip on
Speaker 2: the pavement or on my own foot at least once
Speaker 2: a day. At least once a day, I'm walking down
Speaker 2: the street and I sort of lose my footing, and
Speaker 2: so I think it's going to be something that boring.
Speaker 2: I'd like to think that I've lived, you know, to
Speaker 2: a ripe old age, so that my kids are you know,
Speaker 2: what's that age, let's go, you know, eighty seven. Maybe
Speaker 2: there's nothing else wrong with me. I'm still I'm still
Speaker 2: walking fine. And then I just sort of just I
Speaker 2: just trip on a as I do every day, except
Speaker 2: this day it was at the top of a flight
Speaker 2: of you know, concrete steps, and I just sort of
Speaker 2: go hurtling down them and break a few bones along
Speaker 2: the way and then smash my head on the bottom
Speaker 2: one and off we go. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think it's loads of loads of people around.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, a lot of people who just sort of go,
Speaker 2: who's that? What a loser, right, you know what? What
Speaker 2: a crap way to die. I think some of them
Speaker 2: is slightly traumatized. I'd like to think some of them
Speaker 2: at least have a sort of shocked maybe like this
Speaker 2: seems funny until your face explodes and you're like a
Speaker 2: watermelon on them, and then they feel really bad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and then I shouldn't have I shouldn't have laughed.
Speaker 1: And if anyone knew that was and they're like, I can't.
Speaker 1: I mean there's no recognizable features. He's it's like a
Speaker 1: water melon. I don't know what.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, that's really good as well, just like that
Speaker 2: to be the case that you know, despite a lifetime
Speaker 2: hopefully a lifetime at that point of being in movies
Speaker 2: and TV and that I die.
Speaker 1: Recognize. Yeah, was it the point of your death at
Speaker 1: the top as you first I went, yeah, then to
Speaker 1: the bottom went there's no way of no, there's no
Speaker 1: way of no.
Speaker 2: That's ideal. That is yeah, that is my ideal death.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Do you worry about death, Yeah, I do.
Speaker 2: I mean more so in my own death. I worry
Speaker 2: about since I've had kids, I sort of I worry that,
Speaker 2: you know, because I think death can and are the
Speaker 2: worst times. It can be so sudden. Now my death
Speaker 2: has a real material effect on someone's life existentially. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I do worry about that. And I've always had a
Speaker 2: sort of odd maybe an obsession actually with death because
Speaker 2: some of my earliest memories I was in I was
Speaker 2: in are being at my granddad's funeral in India. I
Speaker 2: was three when I went out there and he my
Speaker 2: mom took me out there because he knew he was
Speaker 2: going to he was going to pass away, and he
Speaker 2: wanted to meet me and met me. I met him
Speaker 2: and then like you know, it was very quick decline,
Speaker 2: and so I was out there for them for that
Speaker 2: and it was like, you know, a very traditional Hindu
Speaker 2: ceremony and you know, they had him sort of laid
Speaker 2: out in the house and stuff like that. So my
Speaker 2: earliest memories was very much about death. So I think
Speaker 2: I've I've often realized I've had this sort of understanding
Speaker 2: of mortality for almost all my life in a way
Speaker 2: that maybe other people. You know, it develops over time.
Speaker 1: Do you happen to remember you were only phrasing. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you would. Do you remember seeing his
Speaker 1: body and all of that? Do you remember that being
Speaker 1: sort of scary or comforting or apparently?
Speaker 2: I was curious?
Speaker 1: Was there any version of it that it was like
Speaker 1: a nice thing?
Speaker 2: I think? My mom tells me I was curious. He
Speaker 2: donated his his eyes, but they you know, he was
Speaker 2: laid out so that they put cotton in his in
Speaker 2: his eye sockets. Such a such a grim thing to
Speaker 2: say that the meaning behind it, that's quite lovely. He
Speaker 2: donated his eyes. But yeah, so I remember obviously that
Speaker 2: was actually probably quite a traumatic thing for a three
Speaker 2: year old to be looking at. Yeah, but my mum
Speaker 2: dresses up sorry to us with the eyes open with
Speaker 2: like white I think, I think so. I think that's
Speaker 2: probably the only reason I would have asked. Otherwise I
Speaker 2: would have been like his eyes. So yes, safe to
Speaker 2: say death it forms the baseline of perhaps all my trauma.
Speaker 2: Then you yeah, perfect, this is that's why I'm here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is it. What do you think happens when
Speaker 1: you die?
Speaker 2: As I think about it a lot, but I'm also
Speaker 2: not in Spirituality has played a part in my life,
Speaker 2: but ultimately I'm not someone who necessarily believes in a
Speaker 2: genuine sort of physical afterlife where we're all actually you know,
Speaker 2: present in some way. But I think maybe we don't
Speaker 2: necessarily understand you know, the sort of parameters of sort
Speaker 2: of consciousness and what you know, the way that people
Speaker 2: talk about sort of perceiving time and how that can
Speaker 2: change and depending on sort of how things are taken
Speaker 2: along in your brain. My theory is that when one
Speaker 2: has that sort of final moment before you die, that
Speaker 2: maybe you actually perceive it as something really long, and
Speaker 2: so you create some sort of heaven in your head
Speaker 2: just before the lights go out, and it can last
Speaker 2: as long as you want it to last. So to
Speaker 2: all of us outside of it, we're watching it go.
Speaker 2: They took their last breath and they're gone. But maybe
Speaker 2: in our our experience of death, that before we take
Speaker 2: that last breath, we actually get to, you know, have
Speaker 2: a sort of you know, long, long long time in
Speaker 2: this in this world we create in our head with
Speaker 2: all the people we love. For what, however, so you
Speaker 2: choose to sort of create something. That's what I like.
Speaker 2: That's that's what I use to comfort myself when I
Speaker 2: think about death, like a weird sort of bubble.
Speaker 1: I've never I've never heard that before. I really like that,
Speaker 1: thank you. That is a brand new theory. I really
Speaker 1: like it. But so then, so then my question is,
Speaker 1: if that's the case, then I do like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's this sort of dreamscape that you make last
Speaker 1: as long as you want. When that reaches its end, then.
Speaker 2: What then then, but you'd be on You'd be feeling
Speaker 2: more euphoric than you've ever felt before, So you'd feel
Speaker 2: accepting of it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But then it's like avoid, Then it's avoid.
Speaker 2: Then it's yeah, we're all We're all done at that point. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So it's it's on one hand, really lovely, on the
Speaker 2: other hand, completely bleak.
Speaker 1: Given your your pretty deep words about the perception of
Speaker 1: time and space and eternity, do you understand tenant.
Speaker 2: I walked into that one, didn't know? Yeah? I do,
Speaker 2: actually to some degree. Good it actually did take it,
Speaker 2: did I did actually watch it twice and in the cinema,
Speaker 2: And but I think Chris's movies are designed to be
Speaker 2: that way, especially that one.
Speaker 1: You have to I had to draw a map when
Speaker 1: I got home, and this was this was the Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I get it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if he himself has has
Speaker 2: this map in a notebook somewhere, you know. But yeah,
Speaker 2: it also seems to me that he just creates these
Speaker 2: concepts in it and that's his genius.
Speaker 1: He just has it all. Yeah, he's like, it's obvious,
Speaker 1: isn't it, Like I guess. Yeah, Well I got news
Speaker 1: for you, buddy boy. There is a heaven, oh gay
Speaker 1: for you. Maybe for you it's when you've created in
Speaker 1: your dying seconds, maybe we'll see. And this heaven is
Speaker 1: filled with all your favorite things. It's filled with your
Speaker 1: favorite thing. What's your favorite thing.
Speaker 2: Beyond my children and my partner, I'd say chocolate.
Speaker 1: So it's filled with chocolate, you know what you know
Speaker 1: those like dairy milk, those squares that's what you sit on.
Speaker 1: But they're like the right temperature that they're just soft
Speaker 1: enough to not liquid, but they're just you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, perfect, And the walls are like liquid chocolate
Speaker 1: that just is like a fantin our time, sort of
Speaker 1: China chocolate factory style. Yeah, and there's a sort of
Speaker 1: flake that serves you, a giant flake, and it serves
Speaker 1: you trays of chocolate and dairy milk, buttons and shit.
Speaker 1: And there's tablery mountains over there. And sure, I mean
Speaker 1: it's great. And there's them chunky kit kats, says like cars. Anyway,
Speaker 1: they're delighted to see you in heaven. Great and they
Speaker 1: but they want to talk about their big fans. They
Speaker 1: want to talk about your life. They want to talk
Speaker 1: about your life through the medium of film. And the
Speaker 1: first thing they ask you is, what's the first film
Speaker 1: you remember seeing? J Mespatel.
Speaker 2: My initial thought was that it was the Mighty Morphin
Speaker 2: Power Rangers movie, and my only lasting memory of going
Speaker 2: to see that movie is not watching it, was being
Speaker 2: huddled into my mum from very early on. Something scared me.
Speaker 2: I was just basically refused to watch most of it
Speaker 2: and then turned around when they were winning at the end.
Speaker 2: So I can't really I don't know if. But also
Speaker 2: that wasn't it transplis that wasn't necessarily the first movie
Speaker 2: I remember watching or not watching in that case, Actually
Speaker 2: the first movie I remember watching as a Bollywood movie
Speaker 2: called Hama ghekon, which I think translates to who am
Speaker 2: I to you? Or some I would say, which isn't
Speaker 2: necessarily a great.
Speaker 1: Title from movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've got a memory of sort of the curtains parting,
Speaker 2: maybe during an intermission or something because Bollywood movies, and
Speaker 2: I don't know if still the case. I've sort of
Speaker 2: lost track over the last ten odd years of Bollywood,
Speaker 2: but you know I used to. It was what we
Speaker 2: watched as a family growing up. They were all well
Speaker 2: so back then in the nineties, well, you know, now
Speaker 2: you could probably go and watch most Bollywood movies at
Speaker 2: your local multiplex. You know that it's got a pretty
Speaker 2: good distribution now, whereas back then it would be in
Speaker 2: those sort of metropolitan hubs where there was a big
Speaker 2: sort of South Asian community. So for us it was Leicester.
Speaker 2: We would drive to Leicester and go and watch movies there,
Speaker 2: and you know it was it was more often than
Speaker 2: not a really fun experience because you've basically got this
Speaker 2: packed cinema full of everyone looks like you, they're more
Speaker 2: or less from the same background, and you're all digesting
Speaker 2: this movie and roughly the same way. No one's got
Speaker 2: expectations of it being you know, anything else, but also
Speaker 2: everyone's probably talking throughout it or whatever. If I went
Speaker 2: into that situation now, I'd probably be driven up the wall.
Speaker 2: But back then it was again all you knew. So yeah,
Speaker 2: but this film was you know, I've not watched it
Speaker 2: in years. Growing up watching Bollywood, it was almost more
Speaker 2: about the songs than it was about the film. The
Speaker 2: songs the soundtracks were the things that ended up sort
Speaker 2: of making the movies the sort of all time classics
Speaker 2: that they have sort of since become. But this is
Speaker 2: also one of those movies, and I think, you know,
Speaker 2: I only just sort of read up on it having
Speaker 2: realized it was probably the first movie I remember seeing.
Speaker 2: But I'm sure a lot of movies of that era
Speaker 2: you could look at now and go it's just a
Speaker 2: bit off. It's a bit The sort of the morality
Speaker 2: of this whole thing and the sort of gender stereotyping
Speaker 2: is is quite problematic. And this is sort of like
Speaker 2: it's like this big family and it's all but based
Speaker 2: around a wedding. They're a very rich family, it would seem,
Speaker 2: but that you know, and there's a young guy and
Speaker 2: he's his brother's getting married, I think, But then his
Speaker 2: brother's wife dies. She falls down the stairs, and I
Speaker 2: scammed through it recently. I mean that her falling downstairs
Speaker 2: was yeah, yeah, weird that hey, But I'd like to
Speaker 2: think that when I fall down the does and die,
Speaker 2: it would be slightly more dramatic and believable than what
Speaker 2: was presented in this movie, because I was openly laughing
Speaker 2: when I when I sort of revisited it recently, it
Speaker 2: was beyond absurd. It was like, you know, something from
Speaker 2: Toast of London or something it was. It was just like,
Speaker 2: so's there's something funny, and watching it with a nostalgic eye,
Speaker 2: going this this stuff is just absurd. I mean, the
Speaker 2: songs are kind of great from a Bollywood musical point
Speaker 2: of view, but the story is all over the place,
Speaker 2: and the sort of the thing of going families and
Speaker 2: duty and all this stuff, which you know, on some
Speaker 2: level is a beautiful sort of bedrock of the culture
Speaker 2: in which I grew up. There's also an element of
Speaker 2: going yeah, but also not necessarily doesn't have to be
Speaker 2: so simplified, like they've got this thing. Whether like the
Speaker 2: female leader sort of talks about working in computers. It's
Speaker 2: as simple as that she works in computers. But then
Speaker 2: you never see her do anything like that in the
Speaker 2: whole In the whole movie, she's just like cooking and dancing,
Speaker 2: being a good woman of the house. And you're like,
Speaker 2: that's just rubbish.
Speaker 1: When you say everyone everyone's talking in the cinema, is it?
Speaker 1: Are they talking like catching up or are they talking
Speaker 1: at the film with their chat?
Speaker 2: Like, like, you're probably right that it is. I think
Speaker 2: that in my head it was just people sort of
Speaker 2: interacting with the film, and there is a bit of that,
Speaker 2: but you're right, probably some of them is they're just
Speaker 2: catching up. They're just having a little chat, talking about
Speaker 2: you know, gossiping about about family stuff or whatever. So yeah,
Speaker 2: that's my that's my earliest memory of being in a cinema.
Speaker 1: I feel sorry for your moment might two month in
Speaker 1: Power Ranges that you're not watching it and she's like,
Speaker 1: so I've got she's.
Speaker 2: Got to sit through it.
Speaker 1: Where what is the film that scared you the most
Speaker 1: other than Power Ranges?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that was up there. I still think about it.
Speaker 2: I mean, they're the sort of predict answer for this
Speaker 2: one would be The Shining But I and I will
Speaker 2: give it a shout out it is a phenomenal movie.
Speaker 2: I think I had I had sort of had it
Speaker 2: sort of tarnished in my head because of the stories
Speaker 2: of sort of Kubrick and Are the way that he
Speaker 2: treated Shelley Duval, and I thought it was Jack Nicholson
Speaker 2: as part of that. But then I sort of I
Speaker 2: think maybe recently Shelley Devol kind of said that Jack
Speaker 2: Nicholson was actually really good to work with, So maybe
Speaker 2: the jury's out on that. But it's still an amazing movie,
Speaker 2: and it's still it basically taught me what I love
Speaker 2: about the kind of horror that I like, which is
Speaker 2: that sort of drip feed of dread over you know
Speaker 2: a period of time. I'm not really that big on
Speaker 2: jump scares. I prefer something that's just creepy, and so
Speaker 2: my choice is actually a film called It follows Ah.
Speaker 1: It's a great film.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's still I watched it about a
Speaker 2: year ago again and it's just it has it has
Speaker 2: got some jump scares, but married with that, it's just
Speaker 2: got this phenomenal concept of like, you know that if
Speaker 2: this sort of curse that gets asked on when you
Speaker 2: have sex with someone and then you basically you see
Speaker 2: this some someone basically slowly walking towards you, and when
Speaker 2: if they get to you, they will sort of kill
Speaker 2: you in the most gruesome way. But you can outrun them,
Speaker 2: you can keep running away from them. They're never going
Speaker 2: to run after you. They're just going to keep and
Speaker 2: only you can see them. It was such a genius
Speaker 2: concept for a horror movie, I thought, And you know,
Speaker 2: since people have analyzed it and you know, talked about
Speaker 2: how sort of an allegory for sort of STDs and
Speaker 2: whatever that sort of thing, but I'm sure that there
Speaker 2: might be some truth to sort of that being the
Speaker 2: germ of the idea, but it just as as a
Speaker 2: horror movie. It's really got just a brilliant concept cinematically,
Speaker 2: you know, you can just because there's a lot of
Speaker 2: these like panning shots. There's a shot in the in
Speaker 2: the school I think they're at where the camera just
Speaker 2: sort of is on a revolve, I think, and you're
Speaker 2: sort of and now you're aware of the concept. You're
Speaker 2: just watching everyone in the background going is that?
Speaker 1: Is that?
Speaker 2: Is that? Is that? And actually one of them kind
Speaker 2: of is I think, But you never then sometimes you don't.
Speaker 2: It cuts to another scene and you're like was it,
Speaker 2: and so I really loved it. I thought it was
Speaker 2: fantastic and it's oddly a horror film that I will
Speaker 2: happily watch again. Often with horror you kind of don't
Speaker 2: want to go back to it because it's too disturbing. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a really good one.
Speaker 1: What about crying? Do you cry a lot? And what's
Speaker 1: the film that made you cry the most?
Speaker 2: You cry it? Yeah? I think there are some films
Speaker 2: that can really hit me. But the one that most
Speaker 2: recently I watched and noted me for six was a film,
Speaker 2: an animated film called Song of the Sea. It's an
Speaker 2: Irish animated film. I know that the team behind it
Speaker 2: have made a film called The Book of Kels. I
Speaker 2: think it's cooled, but I haven't seen that. Actually, I've
Speaker 2: still only seen Song of the Sea. It's this beautiful
Speaker 2: story about a family. The mothers died, I think the
Speaker 2: idea actually died giving birth to their second child, and
Speaker 2: so this dad is sort of raising these two children
Speaker 2: and they end up going on this sort of adventure altogether.
Speaker 2: It's at based on Gaelic sort of myths, and there
Speaker 2: was just that there's a point towards the end where
Speaker 2: you know, the little boy has never met his mum,
Speaker 2: and he gets to see her in this sort of
Speaker 2: spiritual form, and they have this option of sort of
Speaker 2: bringing her back or something like that. And I just remember,
Speaker 2: I haven't watched it since, and I certainly haven't watched
Speaker 2: it since having kids with my own, because I just
Speaker 2: think it's going to destroy me, because even just thinking
Speaker 2: about it now, it's just like this, it's basically this
Speaker 2: idea that they have to they have to accept their loss,
Speaker 2: that she's gone, you know, and that they'll be okay,
Speaker 2: they'll be okay without it, and it's just I mean,
Speaker 2: I just remember going if I've never sort of openly
Speaker 2: howled crying at a movie, but I was close with this,
Speaker 2: you know, and I was watching it at home. I
Speaker 2: could have if I wanted to, If I remember correctly,
Speaker 2: it was quite early on in my relationship and my
Speaker 2: partner had suggested watching this movie. And I think if
Speaker 2: I just sort of completely lost it, maybe I wouldn't
Speaker 2: be here today with two kids. But yeah, it's a beautiful,
Speaker 2: beautiful film. The animations gorgeous, the music stunning, and it's
Speaker 2: just so so heartfelt, and I recommend it. It's a beautiful movie.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I was moments away from.
Speaker 1: Just yeah, did you was your partner crying?
Speaker 2: Yeah? You know? But okay, yeah she's dead inside. She's yeah,
Speaker 2: she couldn't care less.
Speaker 1: She wasn't looking at you like what.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's a scrolling I said.
Speaker 1: You watch it because I like cartoons. What's the film
Speaker 1: that people don't like it? It's not critically acclaimed, but
Speaker 1: you love it. You don't care what anyone says.
Speaker 2: I'm picking a film that was picked by our mutual
Speaker 2: friend James McNicholas. I'm going with Batman Forever. Yeah, Batman Forever.
Speaker 2: Great yet great chat. My thing with that movie started
Speaker 2: because it came I think when I was five, and
Speaker 2: I remember I had some cousins who came over from
Speaker 2: abroad and we all went to the cinema. They got
Speaker 2: to go and watch Batman Forever because it was like
Speaker 2: a twelve or something, and I wasn't allowed to go
Speaker 2: with them. So it kind of took on this sort
Speaker 2: of because I also loved Batman. I loved watching that
Speaker 2: sort of animated series as a kid, but I'd never
Speaker 2: seen a film Batman at that point, so it kind
Speaker 2: of took on this sort of legendary status in my
Speaker 2: head of this is the Batman film that I'm going
Speaker 2: to watch it, and then eventually I think we got
Speaker 2: it on video and I watched it sort of maybe
Speaker 2: a few years later, and was just obsessed with it.
Speaker 2: As a kid, I was obsessed with because a Batman,
Speaker 2: and I loved it and I thought it was genuinely great,
Speaker 2: and I was largely obsessed with Jim carry as the Riddler. Right,
Speaker 2: But we watched it during lockdown as a sort of
Speaker 2: you know, stick it on, why not, we haven't got
Speaker 2: anything else going on, and it'll be fun to revisit it,
Speaker 2: and it in my head it actually it's obviously parts
Speaker 2: of it that's just awful and make no sense. But
Speaker 2: I can't help but love it. I'll always love it,
Speaker 2: you know, because and I actually still really enjoyed like
Speaker 2: Jim Carrey is, like I think in a way it
Speaker 2: feels like he's the only one who knows what movies
Speaker 2: in to some degree or does it well enough.
Speaker 1: I think. The problem with it it's got two faces
Speaker 1: in that one.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, that's Tommy Lee Jones. Yes, yeah, and she's
Speaker 2: in the next one. Yeah, that was the next the next.
Speaker 1: One, this is Nickel Kidman the good soundtrack, Well.
Speaker 2: It's yeah, it's got Kiss from a Rose by Seal,
Speaker 2: which actually James McNicholas told me this recently. He's a
Speaker 2: bit of tid bit of trivia. The Kiss from a
Speaker 2: Rose a was on seals album from like two years
Speaker 2: before that, and then was also on the soundtrack for
Speaker 2: Never Ending Story three, but it didn't didn't didn't pick
Speaker 2: up any attention from that that movie. And then it's
Speaker 2: this odd, odd sort of thing when you look back
Speaker 2: in the nineties and these huge blockbusters just had these
Speaker 2: like random soundtracks of assorted songs that they just sort
Speaker 2: of had kill me through but yeah by you too. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but it was so funny to me like this Erarell
Speaker 2: had already released this song on his album It Gained
Speaker 2: No Traction twice and then Yeah, and then it came
Speaker 2: out with Batman Forever and it won him a Grammy.
Speaker 2: He won like three Grammys for that one song because
Speaker 2: of a Batman Move. Whereas now you just can't there
Speaker 2: isn't There isn't that same thing that there isn't a
Speaker 2: soundtrack album of pop songs for a Batman Moves.
Speaker 1: It's weird, You're right.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I sort of loved watching it. I believe
Speaker 2: Two Face gets defeated by some coins. I think Batman
Speaker 2: throws some coins at two Face and he falls over.
Speaker 2: That's how That's how he gets defeated.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I remember loving Batman Fever because I was young.
Speaker 1: But I think the issue with it and it's it's
Speaker 1: worse than Batman and Robin. What Jim Carry's doing is
Speaker 1: sort of very loud and fast and high energy and crazy,
Speaker 1: but so is everyone else in that film. Tommy Jones
Speaker 1: is also everyone's everyone's gone mad. There's no there's no
Speaker 1: boundaries and no one's there's no boundaries of performance. No
Speaker 1: one's going maybe you could rain that, yeah, just a
Speaker 1: little bit. It's like they've all looked at Jim Carry
Speaker 1: and gone, oh, we do that. We're going at that speed,
Speaker 1: are we. Tommy Jones is off his nut in that film.
Speaker 2: He is, yeah, but he's really going for it. He's
Speaker 2: going for it, but he still just doesn't reach the
Speaker 2: height of Jim Carrey. In my book, like this is something,
Speaker 2: but I think it's something that I think I read
Speaker 2: that they didn't get on or something, or Tommy Lee
Speaker 2: Jones had just didn't have time for Jim Carrey, and
Speaker 2: I think it was that thing of like because I
Speaker 2: think he was doing it but maybe not enjoying it,
Speaker 2: whereas maybe Jim Carrey was doing it and genuinely enjoying it.
Speaker 1: That's it. Yeah, I think that shows interesting. What about
Speaker 1: a film that you used to have but you've watched
Speaker 1: recently and you don't like it anymore?
Speaker 2: And I'm glad that whatever holds out for you. Thank you,
Speaker 2: yes for this. I've gone for a movie called The Party.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you're familiar with this Peter Seller's movie.
Speaker 1: The Peter Sellers. Yeah, yeah, I could see why one
Speaker 1: might have an issue with this for sure.
Speaker 2: So it's a movie about Peter Sellers plays naturally. Peter
Speaker 2: Sellers plays an Indian actor by the name of go
Speaker 2: on by the name of I think his name is
Speaker 2: Hyundi v. Buckshee, and he has come over to Hollywood
Speaker 2: by some sort of machination I don't remember exactly why,
Speaker 2: and he's sort of that he ends up at this
Speaker 2: party and it's basically just in ninety minutes or whatever
Speaker 2: how long it is, of him just making an absolute
Speaker 2: fool of himself, you know. But ultimately, and I remember
Speaker 2: watching because it was one of those movies that my
Speaker 2: dad was fond of, and it's so odd sort of
Speaker 2: looking back on that and going, Dad, why do you
Speaker 2: find this fun? I'm actually not asked in this. I
Speaker 2: think I might ask him this, now, what did you
Speaker 2: Where's what's the humor there? You know? But I think
Speaker 2: it's I think of going they can you know, you
Speaker 2: can laugh at yourself, but it's where it's people. It's
Speaker 2: like the reason, Goodness gracious Me works as a TV
Speaker 2: shows because it's made by four brown people, and so
Speaker 2: they're allowed to do all the joke about brown people.
Speaker 2: Whereas watching a movie like this, you're like, everyone involved
Speaker 2: in it is white for sure. There's absolutely no where
Speaker 2: there's a single brown person on that set in nineteen
Speaker 2: sixty whatever, and so they're all just going, let's just
Speaker 2: you know, brown face up. Peter Sellers just make him
Speaker 2: out like what we assume a stupid Indian man would
Speaker 2: be like if he came to Hollywood, And it was
Speaker 2: kind of odd sort of watching it again in prep
Speaker 2: for this. It was the first thing that popped into
Speaker 2: my mind, and I sort of scanned my way through
Speaker 2: it and just went the gags are on paper, great gags,
Speaker 2: you know, is it is funny, but it's not. None
Speaker 2: of it's okay. Really, Ultimately, it's very miss it's very misguided.
Speaker 2: And to kind of imagine a bunch of people sort
Speaker 2: of going, this is great, this is so funny, what
Speaker 2: a great idea. We're brilliant, aren't we brilliant? You know?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Then I read something really odd that apparently, like I think,
Speaker 2: like someone really I mean, maybe it might have even
Speaker 2: been like sutage it ray or some like a very
Speaker 2: respected Indian filmmaker was a huge fan of it or
Speaker 2: something and just when and wanted to work with Peter Sellers.
Speaker 2: So there was an odd thing. I don't know. It
Speaker 2: kind of made me think about sort of the bar
Speaker 2: that one sets for oneself based on where you're sort
Speaker 2: of placed societal, you know, and you just kind of go, well,
Speaker 2: what can I expect? I'm just going to laugh. I
Speaker 2: guess I'm a joke or we're getting into sort of
Speaker 2: deep psychological stuff here. But like, it's funny to me
Speaker 2: that like generationally it's you know, it maybe is accepted
Speaker 2: by a generation who go who I guess, in some
Speaker 2: twisted way feel represented.
Speaker 1: Well maybe if it's if it's literally the only thing
Speaker 1: as well, Yeah, it must have been.
Speaker 2: Yeah back then, I mean in that arena of on
Speaker 2: that side of the world, for them to even acknowledge
Speaker 2: that brown people exist, that South Asian brown people exist,
Speaker 2: would have been amazing, you know. But it just doesn't
Speaker 2: leave a good taste anymore. So, as much of a
Speaker 2: genius as Peter Sellers is very good answer, what's the
Speaker 2: film that means the most to you?
Speaker 1: Not necessarily the film itself is good, but the experience
Speaker 1: you had seeing it will always make it meaningful to you.
Speaker 1: In Miss Bettel, what is it?
Speaker 2: This is a sort of a bit of a wide
Speaker 2: ranging answer, and I guess you'll probably maybe picking one
Speaker 2: of them, But in my head it's sort of the
Speaker 2: Lord of the Rings films, because in it was a
Speaker 2: real a sort of turning point in my life on
Speaker 2: many levels, and it sort of those early years of
Speaker 2: sort of transitioning from primary school to secondary school and everything.
Speaker 2: I didn't find it easy, I didn't enjoy it. But
Speaker 2: for those three years at Christmas there was a promise
Speaker 2: of this massive movie that I was going to love,
Speaker 2: and the first one I ended up seeing with my
Speaker 2: dad and a friend of mine, but because I didn't
Speaker 2: really know what it was, and then I was like,
Speaker 2: this is really good, and I read the books, and
Speaker 2: so the second one and the third one I went
Speaker 2: in to see with my sister, both of them, and
Speaker 2: I look back on them now and I think they're
Speaker 2: amazing movies. I think there were real game changes in
Speaker 2: terms of blockbuster cinema, but there's just there was just
Speaker 2: something special about of the security of it and the
Speaker 2: comfort that it gave me. And I guess if I
Speaker 2: picked one out, I'll pick the last one, Return of
Speaker 2: the King, because it was the first time I remember
Speaker 2: being so excited to go and see a movie, you know,
Speaker 2: just being like, this is it. It's all been building
Speaker 2: up to this one, and the cinema is going to
Speaker 2: be packed and we're all just going to be like,
Speaker 2: how is it going to play out? It's going to
Speaker 2: be amazing. And you know, I'm very close to my
Speaker 2: sister and so to have that sort of those memories
Speaker 2: of going to see those movies with her and just
Speaker 2: being so excited about it, and it was incredible as well.
Speaker 2: They weren't a disappointment at all. They were quite something.
Speaker 1: Yeah that it was this event every Christmas? Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was a real thing. Yeah, that's nice.
Speaker 2: So we'll go with I'll go with Return of the King.
Speaker 2: Let's go with that third one.
Speaker 1: I'm actually gonna let you have all three because thank you,
Speaker 1: because the point of your answer is all three, and
Speaker 1: I don't normally do that. I'll let you have a
Speaker 1: different sort of heaven and this. I don't know what's
Speaker 1: going on here. I've gone stuff in.
Speaker 2: Now it's good.
Speaker 1: Is the film you most relate to?
Speaker 2: Film I most relate to? I'm going with Boyhood again.
Speaker 2: I was so excited to see this movie because I'm
Speaker 2: a huge fan of Richard link Later and I was.
Speaker 2: I actually recently, within like a year, had seen that
Speaker 2: before Trilogy and just fell in love with that, you know,
Speaker 2: maze Yeah, and I've never seen someone do that with time,
Speaker 2: you know, tell a story over what was it eighteen years?
Speaker 2: And then to know that he had this movie sort
Speaker 2: of coming down down the road, but he'd been shooting
Speaker 2: over twelve years, and I was just so excited for it.
Speaker 2: It felt like the kind of thing that's done in
Speaker 2: huge budget filmmaking, except it wasn't that tall in it.
Speaker 2: I knew it was going to be something really personal
Speaker 2: and special. What I wasn't expecting was just how personal
Speaker 2: it would feel to me, because I was roughly the
Speaker 2: same age as the character in the movie, if maybe
Speaker 2: sort of five odd years off, but there was still
Speaker 2: a lot of the same sort of cultural touch points.
Speaker 1: Well at the end of the movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, sort of you know that so you know,
Speaker 2: start shooting in two thousand and two, and a lot
Speaker 2: of those sort of touch points just that they really
Speaker 2: I was like, I remember like waiting in line to
Speaker 2: pick up a Harry Potter book, and then the sort
Speaker 2: of the music he was listening to, Like there was
Speaker 2: this one point where there was like this like Foo
Speaker 2: Fighters album track from like their two thousand and four album.
Speaker 2: It was just playing in the background of a scene,
Speaker 2: and I, on one hand, I just appreciated the sort
Speaker 2: of detail of the sort of timeline of it all.
Speaker 2: But I was just like that I used to listen
Speaker 2: that's like one of those tracks that no one knows
Speaker 2: that I that I know, and it's in this movie,
Speaker 2: you know. And then you know, stuff like he had
Speaker 2: this at the end when he's like driving I think
Speaker 2: to college and he stops off to take a picture
Speaker 2: and it was he was using the same camera as
Speaker 2: the one that I had at the time, you know,
Speaker 2: Canon sevent d. I think it was remember, go, this
Speaker 2: is really weird. And then the song that was actually
Speaker 2: then used in the trailer, and then at the end
Speaker 2: of the movie, this song called a Hero by the
Speaker 2: Family of the Year. I'd already heard it like two
Speaker 2: odd years before. It's a friend of mine and maybe
Speaker 2: like this long like Spotify playlist, and it was there,
Speaker 2: and I remember going, some beautiful song there is. So
Speaker 2: there was this odd sort of confluence of stuff that
Speaker 2: was already sort of in my life and that wound
Speaker 2: up being in this movie. And obviously, naturally the movie
Speaker 2: is about about life and those those teenage years and
Speaker 2: how difficult and tumultuous they can be emotionally, and yeah,
Speaker 2: I just it was really moving and really masterfully done.
Speaker 2: I thought, you know, it could easily have been so
Speaker 2: gimmicky and so sentimental. And actually, you know, there's something
Speaker 2: about Richard Linklater's sort of tone. He never he never
Speaker 2: gets too I'm never annoyed by the sort of he's sentimental,
Speaker 2: but it's it's it's such a truthful sentimentality. I find it.
Speaker 1: Oh, Yeah, he's amazing. He loves people, he loves people
Speaker 1: and he but it doesn't You're right, he's not sentment.
Speaker 1: It isn't like cheesy. I think the fact that he
Speaker 1: really really gets time means that anything that's kind of
Speaker 1: moving is fully earned, because it's like, yeah, time has happened. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it isn't sort of yeah, it's amazing. That's
Speaker 1: a great answer. What's the sexiest film I've ever seen?
Speaker 2: I tell you the truth is that I didn't have
Speaker 2: an answer for this twenty minutes before we started recording,
Speaker 2: and I was like, I was like, what is going
Speaker 2: on and why am I struggling to find a sexiest movie?
Speaker 2: And I realized it, well, I haven't realized fully my
Speaker 2: hunches that are you know, growing up in a culture
Speaker 2: that more or less it goes or sex doesn't exist.
Speaker 2: It doesn't exist. You know, every Bollywood movie will more
Speaker 2: or less either revolve around or end with a marriage,
Speaker 2: and it's romantic, there's love, but sexy and sort of
Speaker 2: the sex part of it was never present, and so
Speaker 2: you're sort of led to sort of go, well, I
Speaker 2: guess sex is something that is probably shameful him. I
Speaker 2: shouldn't I should never, I should never enjoy it. So
Speaker 2: it took me a minute to go sexiest film, because that's.
Speaker 1: Why it's such big news. You have you do it
Speaker 1: three times a week. I think that's why it became.
Speaker 2: I think that's what it is. Yeah yeah, yeah, so
Speaker 2: you need to find out how that got out there. Yeah, so,
Speaker 2: but I had to sort of go. Most recently, I
Speaker 2: think the sexiest film I saw was Hustlers. Fuck yes, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's just undeniably you're never going to forget the first
Speaker 2: time j Loo turns up in that movie. You're just
Speaker 2: never going to forget it, you know.
Speaker 1: And it's you're never get it. You're never going to
Speaker 1: forget that, and you're never going to get over her
Speaker 1: hugging in a big up third coat. Yeah, you're just
Speaker 1: never going to go over.
Speaker 2: There's the initial thing of going, this is really sexy,
Speaker 2: just on primum and it's just really sexy, and then
Speaker 2: you're like, what's really sexy is that she's really good
Speaker 2: at everything she does, just good, pulls off this amazing
Speaker 2: performance in this movie, I think, and it just throws
Speaker 2: herself into this character that is also a very sexy thing,
Speaker 2: I think. But yeah, it's a very sexy movie. So
Speaker 2: that's why I'm yeah. I mean, it's a perfect answer.
Speaker 2: I can't believe it took you this long to get there.
Speaker 2: It's obviously obviously the.
Speaker 1: Subcategory to this question troubling boner is worrying why dunes,
Speaker 1: which maybe all of your boners I don't know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what do you have it? It really led
Speaker 2: me down that road of going every everything is a troubling.
Speaker 1: Boner in my life, a film you found arousing that
Speaker 1: you weren't sure you should.
Speaker 2: What came to mind on this one was there's a
Speaker 2: film called Disclosure, Michael Douglas more film, and it was
Speaker 2: one of those that we for some reason, the DVD
Speaker 2: was lying around. My parents used to have a shop
Speaker 2: where they would rent out films, you know, latest blockbusters
Speaker 2: and like some old films and whatever. And then every
Speaker 2: now and then they'd be like, I know, for some
Speaker 2: reason didn't get returned or whatever it do. It end
Speaker 2: up coming into the house and it would just be
Speaker 2: lying around and this movie was there, this DVD, and
Speaker 2: I remember just kind of going, I wonder what this is.
Speaker 2: And there's quite early on in the movie the sort
Speaker 2: of the crux of the whole thing is that Demi
Speaker 2: Moore's character sort of coerce is quite quite forcefully sort
Speaker 2: of coerce is Michael Douglas's character into sort of having sex,
Speaker 2: although I think the whole point is that they never
Speaker 2: really have sex, but there's, you know, some sexy stuff happens,
Speaker 2: and I remember going, this is kind of because it's
Speaker 2: kind of hot, and it's kind of like, you know,
Speaker 2: because then he kind of does get into it, and
Speaker 2: it's a bit angry and you know, just like, oh,
Speaker 2: I think it's hot, but I don't think it should be,
Speaker 2: and it definitely shouldn't be because it's it's not really consensual,
Speaker 2: is it. And then the movie goes off in this
Speaker 2: weird tangent towards the end where have you seen it?
Speaker 2: It sort of winds up in some sort of weird
Speaker 2: nineties v It becomes like a corporate computed yeah, because
Speaker 2: it's basically they're working for a tech company. And then
Speaker 2: he winds up in some VR space looking through files
Speaker 2: to prove that she did something or didn't do something.
Speaker 2: But it's like it's like you know, Windows ninety five
Speaker 2: virtual reality, and it's it's quite funny to look at
Speaker 2: now there's like this very odd moment where like Demi
Speaker 2: Moore's face is like sort of superimposed onto this very
Speaker 2: blocky three D figure, and it's just laughable. Maybe in
Speaker 2: ninety four or ninety five, whenever it came out, it
Speaker 2: was like the peak of technology. Wow, Yeah, they couldn't
Speaker 2: have imagined Avatar back then, But now it just looks
Speaker 2: like a terrible video game.
Speaker 1: Well, dad, what is the greatest film of all time? Objectively?
Speaker 1: The greatest film? Objectively?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's hard because we're saying objectively objectively, Yes, I'm
Speaker 2: going with two thousand and one, A space odys see it.
Speaker 2: I kept wanting to find something that might have a
Speaker 2: bit more sort of humor. But then I thought, when
Speaker 2: I think there is some humor, I think how.
Speaker 1: Hall is kind of funny. That's funny, you know.
Speaker 2: I think like The godfather sits alongside this in terms
Speaker 2: of films that changed Western cinema at least really worshipts,
Speaker 2: you know, And I think Godfather becomes that because I
Speaker 2: think it really it's about those actors, and you know,
Speaker 2: for me, it was definitely like a game changer. But
Speaker 2: two thousand and one, I was like, this is astounding
Speaker 2: the scale of this is in a way more epic
Speaker 2: and tangible than anything I've grown up watching because it
Speaker 2: was literally, you know, it was all miniatures, and there's
Speaker 2: something about that that's just you're not going to get
Speaker 2: it with CGI and just the confidence of it tonally,
Speaker 2: you know, to make a movie that breeds like that,
Speaker 2: I don't know if you'd be able to do it today,
Speaker 2: really would you. I mean, it's we're not used to
Speaker 2: that sort of movie that just sits on this sort
Speaker 2: of tone for that long. And there's an element of
Speaker 2: what I was talking about with sort of what I
Speaker 2: like about horror, where it just sort of this dread,
Speaker 2: this sort of thing just running underneath the whole thing,
Speaker 2: where you're like, what is happening? I'm not And what
Speaker 2: I love about it is the mystery of it. You know,
Speaker 2: you don't really get any answers. You had, so much
Speaker 2: has left up to interpretation. It's saying so much existentially
Speaker 2: and running through the whole thing. You have this sort
Speaker 2: of very gripping narrative of this robot that's the sort
Speaker 2: of AI that's trying to sabotage everything, and so therefore
Speaker 2: it's also very prescient in everything but it got the
Speaker 2: year a bit wrong. We certainly weren't doing that in
Speaker 2: two thousand and one. We wish, yeah, but you know,
Speaker 2: everything else about it was so was so on point
Speaker 2: and yeah, and it's one I you know, love revisiting.
Speaker 1: It's amazing that it wasn't that we hadn't been to
Speaker 1: the moon yet when that was made, and the way yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: shows it's kind of amazing. It was amazing.
Speaker 2: I watched this documentary called rum Yeah, and they were
Speaker 2: sort of apparently there was a theory that Kubrick shot
Speaker 2: two thousand and one as a sort of test run
Speaker 2: for faking the moon landings. That's sort of a conspiracy
Speaker 2: theory that goes around, which makes me like.
Speaker 1: That he's acknowledging it in the Shining because the carpet, the.
Speaker 2: Carpet, Yeah exactly, exactly, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: It all makes sense. What is the film you could
Speaker 1: or have watched the most over and over again?
Speaker 2: I avoided School of Rock. School of Rock is kind
Speaker 2: of the genuine answer, but I'm going to leave that
Speaker 2: to one side because everyone says it. I'm going I
Speaker 2: was also the going to go for Interstellar, but I
Speaker 2: think maybe that's a bit weird. I haven't watched it
Speaker 2: in a while. I feel like if I watch it
Speaker 2: next time, I'm going to be crying a lot because
Speaker 2: I now have children of my own, but I'm going
Speaker 2: for Michael Clayton. Yeah, I absolutely love this movie. I
Speaker 2: think it's a masterpiece and the writing just it's the
Speaker 2: kind of movie that I will watch over and over
Speaker 2: again just because I love to hear that dialogue. It's
Speaker 2: just so brilliantly written. That opening monologue. I remember watching
Speaker 2: for the first time and I was just I was
Speaker 2: just in straight away. I was like, this is amazing.
Speaker 2: This is absolutely amazing. And Tom Wilkinson's performance, isn't it
Speaker 2: on another level. I mean, everyone's just operating at the
Speaker 2: highest level, and it's again kind of quite It continues
Speaker 2: to be so relevant, and it's yeah, it's got that
Speaker 2: sort of lovely sort of Hollywood button on the end,
Speaker 2: sort of George Clooney gets to do his sort of
Speaker 2: charming sort of got ya at the end. But yeah,
Speaker 2: it's I just I love it. I could watch it
Speaker 2: over and over again. It's a great movie. I think
Speaker 2: kind of underrated, maybe quite underrated, or not as appreciated
Speaker 2: outside of sort.
Speaker 1: Of maybe underscene. Yeah, yeah, people seen it. What's on
Speaker 1: the other end of the scale, and we don't like
Speaker 1: to be negative? Soon stay here too long? Yeah, the
Speaker 1: worst film you've ever seen.
Speaker 2: Gone here with Cowboys and Aliens. This is the Yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't know. There was like a twenty ten movie.
Speaker 2: I think it's one of those that I went Daniel Craig,
Speaker 2: but it was it was What got me was how yeah,
Speaker 2: how did how did it go wrong? The people you've
Speaker 2: got involved in I believe Damon Lindeloff was involved somewhere
Speaker 2: down the line and writing it. But you've got Daniel Craig,
Speaker 2: Olivia Wilde, Harrison Ford, Paul Dano's in it, Sam Rockwell's
Speaker 2: in it, and yeah, John who you know, is one
Speaker 2: of the great It's it's just an odd one. Like
Speaker 2: it's really not good and I'm still sort of trying
Speaker 2: to figure out how it how it happened.
Speaker 1: I think the issue with it is I don't think
Speaker 1: it's bad necessarily. I think that it's a film called
Speaker 1: Cowboys and Aliens and it's not fun.
Speaker 2: It's really serious, isn't it. Yeah, it's very serious, very earnest.
Speaker 1: It's very serious and dramatic and like what if Cowboys
Speaker 1: and Aliens? And you're like, hang on, wait, wait, wait,
Speaker 1: it's called Cowboys and Aliens. That sounds like it's good,
Speaker 1: sounds like fun. Yeah, where's the fact there's no fun
Speaker 1: in it? I'm still not sure serious serious series.
Speaker 2: Yeah, big fan actually of Cowboys and Aliens.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I think it's my memory of it is
Speaker 1: it's is. It's a good film as in, it's well done,
Speaker 1: it's just odd because it's not fun. It's like a
Speaker 1: quite heavy drama about cowboys and aliens.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, I think you're right. I think that's what
Speaker 2: it is. It's that I just couldn't take it seriously.
Speaker 2: But there are also like things in it that just
Speaker 2: make very little sense. And I mean one of the
Speaker 2: things for me is I think the way that the
Speaker 2: people get abducted by the aliens isn't that they just
Speaker 2: sort of get lifted up by a you know, invisible force.
Speaker 2: There's literally like lassus that come down. So it's like,
Speaker 2: hang on, so is it cowboys cowboys are aliens? Is
Speaker 2: that what you're saying? Yeah, so yeah, cowboys or aliens.
Speaker 1: What's the funniest film you see? What's the film that
Speaker 1: made you laugh? The most.
Speaker 2: I'm going with Blazing Saddles excellent. It was one of
Speaker 2: those movies only my dad introduced me to and I'd
Speaker 2: never seen anything like it at that point. It was
Speaker 2: just so anarchic. I've never I'd never seen anything so
Speaker 2: a narcic and so but also watching it more recently
Speaker 2: and going it made so many great points that continue
Speaker 2: to be relevant. There's your moment of going, okay, maybe
Speaker 2: now if you make it now, there's bits and pieces
Speaker 2: that maybe need to shift here and there. I think
Speaker 2: mel Brooks playing a Native American maybe not a good move,
Speaker 2: but it's brilliant. It really makes me laugh, and especially
Speaker 2: the way it sort of just falls apart at the end.
Speaker 2: I always enjoy it. It's a some degree. It always
Speaker 2: catches me by surprise that they just sort of they
Speaker 2: just it's because you're invested. Yeah, you are, actually because you.
Speaker 1: Actually are invested. You're emotionally invested in it.
Speaker 2: But I just love the idea of someone just going, well,
Speaker 2: I don't know how to finish this movie, so let's
Speaker 2: just this is going to happen. Then just let just
Speaker 2: let them do whatever they want to do and we'll
Speaker 2: just figure it out.
Speaker 1: You know, we'll just run around a lot. Yeah, it's great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: who makes me tell? You've been wonderful? However, when you
Speaker 1: were eighty seven years old and you went through a
Speaker 1: walk and you got to the top of some steps,
Speaker 1: concrete by the way, and you and someone at the
Speaker 1: bottle of steps looked up. They were a fat They
Speaker 1: were like, I think that's much out and their friends gathered,
Speaker 1: I think that's him. And then you tripped on your
Speaker 1: own on a little step and you fell down down
Speaker 1: concrete concrete. People. People giggled, oh cough, Oh god, they said.
Speaker 1: And then you fell the last six steps, landed on
Speaker 1: your head. Your head exploded like a watermelon, and the
Speaker 1: people that were laughing went, oh god, I don't think
Speaker 1: we should laughter. I think he I think he's dead.
Speaker 1: And then someone said, do you know who it was?
Speaker 1: And they looked home and it was just your particles,
Speaker 1: just blobs of blood. There's nothing to really say who
Speaker 1: you are at all. It's just the torso of an
Speaker 1: eighty seven year old man and blobs of blood and brains.
Speaker 1: And someone goes, I thought it was him. Cut how
Speaker 1: can you tell? They say. Anyway, I'm walking along with
Speaker 1: a coffin you know. I'm like, I see this crag
Speaker 1: around and go, who's that? And they go he says
Speaker 1: it was him to tell it, And they're going, it
Speaker 1: can't be that. How can you tell? And I go, well,
Speaker 1: there's no way of telling anyway. I packed, I said,
Speaker 1: give me, and we start stuffing your body to think.
Speaker 1: I'm like, could he you see any bits of bloob
Speaker 1: over there? Like we could any bit of him? Just
Speaker 1: grab it. People getting cheeking out, they're chapping in stones,
Speaker 1: all sorts of stuff as well. Anyway, coffee ends up rammed. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: there's it's jammed in there, there's nothing, there's no room.
Speaker 1: There's only enough room for me to slip one DVD
Speaker 1: into the side. You'd take across to the other side.
Speaker 1: And on the other side it's movie night every night.
Speaker 1: What film are you taking to show the chocolate in
Speaker 1: Heaven when it is your movie night, mister hims Patel.
Speaker 2: It's not one of the movies that I've picked so far?
Speaker 2: Is that okay?
Speaker 1: Great?
Speaker 2: It's Ali. I'm going with a yeah. It's a life
Speaker 2: affirming movie. I think beautiful. But the first time I
Speaker 2: saw it, someone had left film for on the telly
Speaker 2: and I was walking past, and I just have a
Speaker 2: memory of loking past the go up the stairs and
Speaker 2: then sitting down on the sofa and not moving for
Speaker 2: two hours, isn't it. I was just so taken away
Speaker 2: by this movie. So and it's just beautiful, you know,
Speaker 2: every time I watch it, I feel, you know, the
Speaker 2: world is a better place, you know, it's it's one.
Speaker 2: It's really gorgeous. So it'd be nice to share that heaven.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what a lovely man? Who is that? Ending people
Speaker 1: should look out for listen to watch? Coming up?
Speaker 2: I mean coming up. I don't know everything I'm doing.
Speaker 2: I have no fixed date for when it's coming out.
Speaker 2: But you know, I did a series called Station eleven.
Speaker 2: I'm very proud of it. It's in the UK. It's
Speaker 2: on I think what's now called lions Gate Plus. I
Speaker 2: believe that's where it's not. You could watch that I did.
Speaker 2: I did get nominated for an Emmy. I don't know
Speaker 2: if you've heard of the Emmy's bread. They're pretty, they're
Speaker 2: pretty fun. It's a whole thing. Maybe you'll get invited
Speaker 2: one day. But yeah, okay, yeah, so I did that.
Speaker 2: That's good. But I've done a couple of short films
Speaker 2: that I'm I'm quite proud. I did a short film
Speaker 2: called Enjoy, which is available on Disney Plus in the UK.
Speaker 2: I love that I did the short film called Two Dosas,
Speaker 2: which is on YouTube okay, and a short film called
Speaker 2: The Fox, which is also on YouTube. Three short films.
Speaker 2: You know, we're on a film podcast. I think giving
Speaker 2: shout outs to short films is quite nice, so check
Speaker 2: those out.
Speaker 1: That's very nice. Give much Betel. Thank you for your
Speaker 1: time and for your excellent answers and forgetting completely correct
Speaker 1: the greatest opening. You are brilliant. Thank you, Thank you
Speaker 1: very much. Have a lovely death, and good night to you.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: So that was episode two hundred and forty five. Head
Speaker 1: over to the Patreon at patreon dot com. Forward slash
Speaker 1: Brett Goldstein for the extra twenty minutes of chat, secrets
Speaker 1: and video with him. As we're remember to watch Ted
Speaker 1: Lasso and Shrinking on Apple TV Plus. You can guide
Speaker 1: to Apple Podcast give us a five star rating, but
Speaker 1: don't write about the show. Write about the film that
Speaker 1: means the most to you and why thing to read.
Speaker 1: And it always makes my neighbor Marien happy, and you
Speaker 1: want to make her happy. Don't you. We all want
Speaker 1: to make her happy. Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 1: I hope you're all well. Thank you to him us
Speaker 1: for doing the show. Thanks to Scrubius Pippen the Distraction
Speaker 1: Pieces Network. Thanks to Buddy Peace for producing it. Thanks
Speaker 1: to iHeartMedia and Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network for
Speaker 1: hosting it. Brand new to them, so thank you for
Speaker 1: having us. Thanks to Adam Richardson for the graphics and
Speaker 1: leads a Learning for the photography. Come join me next
Speaker 1: week for the resurrection of Edgar Bloody right. I hope
Speaker 1: you're all well. Thank you for listening, and that's it
Speaker 1: for now. Have a lovely week, and in the meantime,
Speaker 1: please be excellent to each other.
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