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Speaker 1: Hey, guys, how you doing good.

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Speaker 2: It's good.

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Speaker 3: I'm keen to hear your review for the Whale.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, this is a film that we're going to

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Speaker 1: be talking about a bit in the next couple of

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Speaker 1: months to come. Because Brendan Fraser, who was a nineties

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Speaker 1: heart throb, like he burst onto the scene in nineteen

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Speaker 1: ninety two seems like a long time ago now in

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Speaker 1: Icino Man, remember that Man, where he played a defrosted

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Speaker 1: cave man, and that film was also notable for giving

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Speaker 1: us Pauly Shaw like Pauli Shaw was a thing that

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Speaker 1: actually happened in the nineties, it's hard to believe now.

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Speaker 1: And Sean Aston as well, was in that film before

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Speaker 1: everybody realized he was actually a hobbit so and so.

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Speaker 1: And Brendan Fraser though, was the real star of that movie,

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Speaker 1: and he was able to kind of leverage the success

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Speaker 1: of that film into a whole bunch of leading roles

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Speaker 1: in films in the nineties and noughties, films like George

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Speaker 1: of the Jungle, which people loved him in that one

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Speaker 1: with his shirt off, great with his shirt off, bon Fraser,

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Speaker 1: The Mummy, The Mummy, three of those. Mummy maybe dazzled.

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Speaker 2: Yeah that warning his ex girlrid Yeah yeah, yeah early that.

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Speaker 1: Uh and so, but the Mummy was huge. The Mummy also,

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Speaker 1: of course gave us Dwayn Johnson, would we have the

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Speaker 1: rock if it wasn't for the Mummy returns? When he

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Speaker 1: played the Scorpion King, some of the worst CGI you'll

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Speaker 1: ever see has not aged well anyway. And so then,

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Speaker 1: for a number of reasons, some of them not not

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Speaker 1: really fantastic, Brendan Fraser's career, Brendan Fraser's career took a

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Speaker 1: bit of a downturn over the past ten years or so,

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Speaker 1: and he had dealt with a lot of stuff in

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Speaker 1: his own personal life and divorce some some you know,

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Speaker 1: child custody stuff as well, and so he's kind of

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Speaker 1: dropped off the radar completely. Life happened exactly, and then

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Speaker 1: he was cast by Darren Aronofsky, who of course is

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Speaker 1: the director behind sort of really sort of darkly psychological

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Speaker 1: films like Black Swan and Mother and Requiem for a

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Speaker 1: Dream about Wrestler and so he makes pretty serious films.

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Speaker 1: And for years he'd been looking for somebody to play

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Speaker 1: this morbidly obese teacher named Charlie An adaptation of a

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Speaker 1: stage play called The Whale that was written by a

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Speaker 1: dude named Samuel d. Hunter couldn't find the right actor

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Speaker 1: to play this role and then realized that, you know

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Speaker 1: what Brendan Fraser is. The dude cast him to play Charlie.

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Speaker 1: And it has just proven to be like capturing lightning

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Speaker 1: in a bottle for Brendan Fraser. Certainly, he's been getting

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Speaker 1: standing ovations at film festivals around the world. He had

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Speaker 1: like a six minute standing ovation at the Venice Film

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Speaker 1: Festival and there was that footage that leaked online of

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Speaker 1: him in tears, just overcome with the emotion of it all.

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Speaker 1: And then last month he was nominated for his very

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Speaker 1: first Academy Award as Best Actor for his performance. And

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Speaker 1: so we're going to be talking about Brendan Fraser. It's

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Speaker 1: a huge, huge comeback. It's an amazing story. The film

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Speaker 1: itself is like a nice guy.

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Speaker 3: It's one of those.

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Speaker 1: You know, he's kind of made him cry, did you really?

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Speaker 1: He's a very sensitive dude. It's Ben from per the

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Speaker 1: moment now he's a very very sensitive dude, very thoughtful,

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Speaker 1: very interesting to talk to. The film itself, so it's

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Speaker 1: about it's about this character Charlie, who's house bound because

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Speaker 1: he weighs like three hundred kilos, like, he's a really

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Speaker 1: morbidly obese guy and who's gone through some personal trauma

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Speaker 1: in his life and has basically decided that he's going

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Speaker 1: to eat himself to death. So it's pretty pretty tragic tale.

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Speaker 1: He teaches online so he doesn't have to he doesn't

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Speaker 1: have to go into the class anymore, and he has

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Speaker 1: the little webcam turned off so his students don't have

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Speaker 1: to look at him. So it's a really sad story.

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Speaker 1: And the only person who's really there to look after

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Speaker 1: him is his best mate, Liz, who's a nurse and

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Speaker 1: has been his longtime friend and is the sister of

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Speaker 1: his partner who died and which is the cause of

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Speaker 1: this trauma, and she realizes that his kind of days

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Speaker 1: are numbered. All she can really do is kind of

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Speaker 1: offer him companionship and a bit of comfort in his

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Speaker 1: sort of final days on earth. But he has one

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Speaker 1: important task to do before he goes, which is to

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Speaker 1: reconnect with his estranged daughter, who's played by Sadie Sink

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Speaker 1: from Stranger Things, who's pretty good.

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Speaker 2: In this as well.

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Speaker 1: And Liz is played by Hong Chow, who's a great

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Speaker 1: Chinese American actress, and she was nominated for an Oscar

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Speaker 1: as well for her role in this film. She's really

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Speaker 1: really great. And so the film is about how he

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Speaker 1: goes about reconnecting with his daughter, who finds him like

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Speaker 1: disgusting and is angry with him for abandoning her mother

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Speaker 1: when she was just a little baby. And interestingly, like

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Speaker 1: Aaronofsky takes a sort of an interesting approach when it

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Speaker 1: comes to this film, Like he he's a guy who

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Speaker 1: kind of uses what we call body horror when it

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Speaker 1: comes to film, so like using the human body to

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Speaker 1: create kind of like you know, sort of horrific scenes

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Speaker 1: that really put the audience on edge. So in Black Swan,

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Speaker 1: it was Natalie Portman like pulling feather quills out of

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Speaker 1: her skin, and so in this film he does it

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Speaker 1: as well with sort of like the Charlie's sort of obesity.

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Speaker 1: And there are times where it's kind of like really

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Speaker 1: overwhelming and terrifying to see this kind of like hulking

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Speaker 1: figure on screen. And so for me, maybe that didn't

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Speaker 1: really help the audi have empathy and sympathy for the character.

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Speaker 1: It kind of turned him into a bit of a monster,

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Speaker 1: which I don't know if I'm really down with the

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Speaker 1: morality of that, but Brendan Fraser's performance kind of brings

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Speaker 1: it back and kind of grounds it in this humanity

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Speaker 1: that I think is really hard to turn away from.

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Speaker 1: He had to put one hundred and twenty kilos of

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Speaker 1: prosthetics to play the three hundred kilo Charlie. Is an

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Speaker 1: incredible amount of special effects involved. Like none of it

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Speaker 1: was digital. It was all analog special effects, so like

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Speaker 1: the director had to come in between takes and kind

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Speaker 1: of move parts of him into place. So it was very,

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Speaker 1: very strange. It is hard work the way they went

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Speaker 1: about making this movie. But the other problem for me

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Speaker 1: with it is because it's based on this stage play.

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Speaker 1: At times, some scenes feel like they probably would work

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Speaker 1: better on a stage than they do in a cinema,

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Speaker 1: and so like it kind of takes you away from

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Speaker 1: the reality of cinema and it makes you think, Okay,

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Speaker 1: it's kind of a bit contrived at times, but overall,

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Speaker 1: it's just such an impressive performance from Brendan Fraser, Like

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Speaker 1: he is absolutely amazing, and you'd have to say he's

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Speaker 1: the favorite for the Oscar at this point.

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Speaker 2: Based on this, we're just talking about that.

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Speaker 3: What are you giving the Whale?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not perfect, it's got some problems, but I

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Speaker 1: think for Brendan Fraser's performance and Hong Charles performance alone,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to give this one three and a half stars.

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Speaker 1: Definitely worth a looks, Definitely not easy to watch, but.

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Speaker 2: It was a source of ridicule for a four while

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Speaker 2: while it wasn't Brendon Fraser.

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Speaker 3: So I was going to ask you your thoughts on

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Speaker 3: the Oscar because this is a really tough year. You'd

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Speaker 3: agree to be nominated for the Men's Award because you've

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Speaker 3: got Colin.

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Speaker 1: Farrell, Yep, Butler great performance.

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Speaker 3: And Brendan Fraser, and so far they've all won an

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Speaker 3: award for their performances. So you're going, You're going, Brendan.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I just think that the comeback story, I think

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Speaker 1: is a very powerful in the minds of the voters

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Speaker 1: and the Oscar voters.

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Speaker 3: That's true, it's not doesn't it's not just it's.

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Speaker 1: Not just come down to and so like I think

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Speaker 1: Austin Butler would have a red chance any comebacks, a

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Speaker 1: comeback story around Brendan Fraser.

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Speaker 2: I want tears on the pod, especially a guy who's

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Speaker 2: never really kill for a while, but also guy has

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Speaker 2: never really been the change.

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Speaker 1: And a nice guy people love.

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Speaker 3: Ask you something else, but you're talking about the him

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Speaker 3: an Oscar's night. Kate Blanchett, Yeah, nominated. Of course, she's

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Speaker 3: been very lippy lately about how you know we shouldn't

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Speaker 3: get awards, you should just say, you know, we're all wonderful. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: she was quite happy to hold that a ward above

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Speaker 3: her head and say I'm off.

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Speaker 1: And I'm sure put her on the mantle pace if.

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Speaker 3: She won the Oscar, and I think she's probably very

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Speaker 3: likely it's not, as it's not as tough in the

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Speaker 3: women's category this year as it is in the men's.

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Speaker 3: Do you what do you think she should do? She

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Speaker 3: should put her Oscar where her mouth is or.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, give it back.

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Speaker 1: Well, you know, I actually think he's a conspiracy theory, Earl,

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Speaker 1: that she has already won a couple of Oscars, She's

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Speaker 1: won pretty much everything, and she's the sort of person

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Speaker 1: who I think doesn't necessarily want to keep on winning awards.

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Speaker 1: She does want to generally share it around, and so

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Speaker 1: maybe she was deliberately trying to encourage Oscar voters to

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Speaker 1: give it to Michelle Yo instead.

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Speaker 2: Do you think so?

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Speaker 1: I think it's possible.

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Speaker 2: Okay, it's definitely possible. Or maybe on the night she'll

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Speaker 2: do a Marlon Brando and send it a Native American

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Speaker 2: to collect for.

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Speaker 1: Her, because she doesn't seem to want it so and

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Speaker 1: Michelle Yo definitely deserves it.

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Speaker 2: And she took it wonderful. Yeah, she took it home.

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Speaker 2: And that's a big mantle piece. She's got it.

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Speaker 3: It's gonna be an interesting Oscar's night, these guys.

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Speaker 2: Sweet Benochet returns next week and will work out which

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Speaker 2: Oscar nominee he made cry