Top 5 Interviews of 2024 + Mike’s Bucket List Interview Picks!

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to Movie Mike's Movie Podcast. I am your host, Movie Mike, and well, well, well we've reached the end of another year. Looking back my top five interviews of two thy and twenty four. Before we get to those, I just want to say thank you for listening. It genuinely means the world to me, and sometimes people just say that, like all it means the world to me. It legit means so much to me that you listen to this podcast. As of now, I have been doing this podcast for five years. Hey, five year anniversary. I didn't even think about it. I don't really like celebrating those types of anniversaries. If it is in a wedding or engagement anniversary, I don't really think about it because I just keep moving, I keep rolling. But it was December twenty nineteen when I did the first ever episode of Movie Mike's Movie Podcast, and now five years later, I think like two hundred and sixty seven maybe sixty eight episodes in what a ride it has been. I go back and listen to those first early episodes where I was just screaming, not knowing what I was talking about. I love movies. Then, I've always loved movies. I just didn't really know how to do a podcast about myself. And how this podcast has grown because of you listening. I'm talking about my day ones who have been there since episode one back in twenty nineteen.

00:01:17
Speaker 2: You guys know.

00:01:17
Speaker 1: Who you are, and over the course of these years we've developed this movie crew. I feel like we have this bond of just people who enjoy talking about movies. You're not always going to agree with me, but I can always see in the comments, the emails, the views, or the downloads, everything means a lot to me. So it genuinely does, and it affects my well being of a little bit because sometimes when I need to have something that is just me, then I can appreciate and look back at like, oh I did something there and connected with people. That is what this podcast is. So I think whenever I'm feeling a little like I don't even know what I'm doing at this point, I go to this podcast because I feel it's where I'm the most comfortable and where I've really wanted to do in my life what I've set out to do. So really means a lot to me. When you say you're subscribed to everybody who listens every single week, specifically everybody who listens every single Monday when episodes get released, I know who you guys are because I see those come I see those messages flood in. So before I look back on these fun interviews I've been able to do this year, which I would love to do more coming in twenty twenty five. That's always my goal with this podcast is to grow it and growed and grow it. And there's a lot of people who I want to have on this podcast. I think at the end of this I'll give my bucket list interviews, not just the twenty twenty five because I don't know if some of these.

00:02:38
Speaker 2: Are approachable or aplau or.

00:02:42
Speaker 1: Not plausible, but if they are, where I'm at for next year. But they are my ultimate bucket list interviews of the year, so means a lot to me. Thank you for being here, thank you for being subscribed. I say that all the time, but right now, at the end of a year, I just really look back and think of how how much you guys have just changed my life. So I appreciate you, every single one of you. Enough of that, let's get into the top five interviews of the year before I get too emotional here. At number five, I really enjoyed The First Omen. I think it is one of the top five horror movies of the year. Kind of went understated Disney getting into the game of not just putting out animated movies, not just putting out big action franchises, but getting into horror now and seeing some of these things depicted in this movie, thinking, oh, Disney doesn't gear anymore. As long as it makes money, they're going to be putting it out. I talk to director Arcasia Stevenson and star Nail tiger Free, and I just love their relationship. I haven't seen an actor and director have just a true friendship that I felt through this interview where it feels like they genuinely trusted each other, enjoyed each other, and we're proud of their work. And that made me love this movie even more so. At number five, talking about the First Omen, which you can watch on Hulu. No, it's not really horror movie time, but for me, anytime at the horror movie time, but this is Arkasia Stevenson and Nail Tiger Free.

00:04:16
Speaker 2: At number five.

00:04:18
Speaker 1: I just watched the movie and I loved it, and I'm glad to be able to talk to you both together because I think the dynamic of actor and director.

00:04:24
Speaker 2: Is really special.

00:04:25
Speaker 1: I haven't done an interview like this before, so I'm really excited to dive into this movie before we get into just everything I loved about it. My wife hates horror movies, and it's really hard for me to convince her to watch a horror movie. She doesn't like anything that evokes any kind of anxiety. How would you get somebody who doesn't want to watch a horror movie to watch the first omen?

00:04:45
Speaker 3: Hmm? Bribe them with me?

00:04:48
Speaker 4: Well, you know, I think the vagina SHOT's a big draw. You know, that's a first I think in horror films, at least for Disney horror films, depending on well.

00:04:59
Speaker 3: Actually, I know that might skin her off even more.

00:05:02
Speaker 5: Well, the thing is, you know, I'm very proud of how pretty I think our film is, you know, and I think that that's that's a draw because we do get to shoot in Rome, and I think that you you really get a sense of the city and you get a real sense of the period.

00:05:17
Speaker 3: Am I selling your wife?

00:05:18
Speaker 6: Yet?

00:05:18
Speaker 2: I can't tell she loves Rome. I could convince her with that. With the imagery.

00:05:22
Speaker 3: Okay, room.

00:05:26
Speaker 1: Sells a romance story, Vagina. Yes, So when I try to find a movie right now with a strong female lead, I always find myself going back to the horror genre. I think in the last three years, that is where I've gone to to find a true hero.

00:05:42
Speaker 2: Story that's female led.

00:05:44
Speaker 1: It is just a genre that is kind of dominating right that right now, And that is what I got from the first omen And I think a lot of that that comes across off screen probably had to do with your relationship as director and actor. So how much of that relationship and what was that first true test of like, Okay, we trust each other. We're gonna do some crazy things in this movie, but it's going to be working.

00:06:07
Speaker 7: I mean, trust is super important, really important, especially with the like material that we were handling and you know, some sensitive stuff that we were diving into together. But to be honest, I don't know if this says more about me than anything, but I trusted Gosh pretty much straight away.

00:06:21
Speaker 3: I Mean we had such.

00:06:22
Speaker 7: A like cool, beautiful, like first meeting, which was my Zoom audition, and even though we had like a screen and an ocean separating our technically at the time, like, I just felt so connected to her and safe, and yeah, I felt like I trusted her straight away, and it only.

00:06:40
Speaker 3: Grew Thank you for saying that, because I felt the same thing.

00:06:43
Speaker 4: It's you know, Neil is on set every single day, She's in almost every single scene of this movie, and so so much pressure was on you and so much was writing on you. And what was so magical is that she approached that with absolute zero fear, which I think is really rare to find somebody who's willing to get down and dirty. It's a very physical role in extremely emotionally taxing and there was not a single obstacle that you weren't down to tackle. And it was really special because in this in this our first meeting, Nell read you were gracious enough to read for us, and she read the most intense scene, which is in Brennan's apartment. Actually I won't spoil anything, but it's a very intense scene. And she did that on the spot on zoom and I started crying. I started crying, and we were everybody was just kind of frozen, and we're like, okay, this is this is our partner, you know, so we just knew right away.

00:07:42
Speaker 1: You were mentioning some of the hard things that, you know, Neil, you had to do. I really loved how your character kind of evolves throughout the movie of the sinister thing continue to happen. She kind of just grows and gets a little bit more kind of demented in a way.

00:07:56
Speaker 2: Was that something that you looked at when you first got the scriptles game?

00:08:00
Speaker 1: How am I going to kind of play out this character and show that she's evolving, that she's starting to become a little bit more hesitant about what is real what is not real?

00:08:08
Speaker 7: Yeah, and well Cash describes it so well. Is that it's like, you know, it's it's like the descent into Hell. And I feel like visually that was something that carsh did too in the movie, where it's like, you know, we start in this picturesque, beautiful place and then we kind of end in like an inferno, we end in Hell, And I felt like that was kind of what Margaret's trajectory had to be. She had to get broken down so much and beaten so much that she kind of rose, And I felt like that's I had these markers for Margaret, you know, Margaret when we meet her, Margaret in the middle of Margaret at the end and just trying to piece piece.

00:08:44
Speaker 3: That journey together.

00:08:47
Speaker 7: But you know a lot of it was on the page, and it was just about kind of finding the nuance and making it feel real. And you know, we didn't want it. It wasn't like a like a torture born thing like enjoy watching all these things happen.

00:09:01
Speaker 3: It was like, you know, she.

00:09:02
Speaker 7: Had to go through all of this to come out the other side.

00:09:07
Speaker 4: And what was really actually I just thought about this and what was really interesting is because a lot of the horror comes from If you took this supernatural element out of this film, it's still I think a very terrifying horror film because you're dealing with, you know, repressed trauma and repressed intuition. And as these things start to resurface in Margaret, she doesn't know what's supernatural? What is a past trauma that is now she's now remembering and experiencing in real life again. And what was so interesting about the way you performed is Nel never said Okay.

00:09:38
Speaker 3: What is this? Is this real? Is this not real? Is this a memory?

00:09:41
Speaker 4: And I loved that about you because that was what the character was experiencing, this real ambiguity as to what her reality was.

00:09:51
Speaker 1: I think it's also sometimes in just the Omen franchise, it's not always the deep dark Sinister Monsterville, and it's also the authoritative figures in the movie.

00:10:01
Speaker 2: And I think that was also a big.

00:10:02
Speaker 1: Part of this, of Margaret rebelling against the authority there.

00:10:06
Speaker 7: Yeah, totally. I mean, Margaret had been told not to trust what she saw her whole life. You know, it's like she's been gas lit by the people who are supposed to take care of her. And that's just a terrifying concept in itself. I think that's so pertinent and so true what Carsha says that even if you do take the supernatural element out of it and that part of the horror away from it, it's still very much would be a horror film because it's you know, an abused woman and a woman who is going through traumas that women have to go through all the time, and it's you know, that's why that was also why it felt like such a pertinent story to me, because it's like, you know, even if this wasn't a part of the Omen franchise and Damien wasn't the result at the end of it, and it was something else, it would still be on the page and off it I hope hopefully it would still feel like like a true, a true horror film. So, yeah, I just saw what you said.

00:10:57
Speaker 3: No, I love it.

00:10:58
Speaker 4: I mean it's true. Yeah, it's Margaret a character who was bred to breed. Yeah, you know, and that's that's not a foreign Yeah.

00:11:05
Speaker 3: I came up with that. Just sell I thank you, But that's.

00:11:09
Speaker 4: Not foreign for Yeah, that's not a foreign experience for women. And and so I think, yeah, you could have the same effect even without the demonic elements.

00:11:20
Speaker 1: I think to fully like buy into doing a horror movie, you probably have to become really invested in the source material and also believe it yourself. You're living in it, you're seeing it every day, You're having to experience that. Do you ever lean into it a little bit too much to where it starts affecting your mental state? Because I'll watch a horror movie, I'll go to sleep and I'll have a nightmare. But you are working, you both are working in this every single day. Does it ever just start to affect your personal life?

00:11:45
Speaker 3: No, not at all. We are absolutely.

00:11:46
Speaker 2: Completely normal, all good, right fully functioning.

00:11:51
Speaker 3: We live we live on the ground in caves.

00:11:53
Speaker 7: Yea, yeah, yeah, I mean you have to. You have to learn to separate from it because if you take too much of it in. I mean, nobody was living in the world more than Cash. I mean, it was your every waking moment for so much longer than anybody else was involved in it, because you know, you were there at its inception and they're right until the bitter end. And I came in for a couple of months and did my part and left, and you know, Kash is still there in that world. But yeah, for me, it's just luckily I have things that can very definitively separate me from Margaret, Like you know, my eating something is small as having a different accent to the character, it can separate you from them straight away. And yeah, I mean I think when I was younger, I used to hold my characters much closer in my real life. But that's actually, I think a hindrance because you have to be able to kind of be a chameleon and shed your skin and then go back in and do it again. But yeah, I try not to let too much of it in, otherwise I think I'd be alone.

00:12:52
Speaker 1: A big debate online right now is the discussion of the effects versus practical effects in this movie movie. What's the percentage on what was things that you actually made for the movie, that you could actually interact with, and things that happened in post production.

00:13:08
Speaker 4: Yeah, the only thing that isn't a practical effect is the jackal at the end, at the very end, So I'd say it's ninety percent practical ten percent CG.

00:13:16
Speaker 3: I think, you know, something that was really.

00:13:18
Speaker 4: Important to us is that, to the best of our ability, to use a practical approach, just because I think when you're trying to embody the spirit of nineteen seventies filmmaking, you know that that people are looking for something very tactile and textured, and I think also when it comes to horror, it's bringing that reality into set for something for you to see.

00:13:42
Speaker 3: Bazil I think as a huge effect on everybody.

00:13:45
Speaker 4: So we, you know, we really wanted to as much as possible rely on our makeup, effects and SFX team.

00:13:52
Speaker 1: Another thing I think kind of doesn't get talked about enough in horror movies is the sound, which I found it to be really haunting in this movie, and a lot of the jump scares that happened as a result of the sound the quick whispers, the quick just out of nowhere in your face moments. What was the idea behind some of the sound design.

00:14:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, you.

00:14:09
Speaker 4: Know what, I was really excited about both our score and the sound design because I think that there wasn't really a defined line.

00:14:17
Speaker 3: Between the two in this project.

00:14:20
Speaker 4: Because a lot of our sound design, if you listen very closely, is Nell breathing, or Nell screaming, or Nell praying, And so a lot of that whispering is Nell and some of the other women in the film, you know, muttering prayers almost manically, and a lot of you know, in a lot of the very intense set pieces like the birth clinic scene, a lot of that sound design is is just female breath. And then a lot of the score was female breath layered with a lot of female vocals, even female you know screams. So just this constant parent and remind her that there's there's humans involved in all of this violence was really important to us, if that makes sense.

00:15:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, you talked about the human part there. The other part that I found kind of enjoyable that I haven't really seen in a horror movie is there's what I feel is kind of a win for Margaret's character of just having a little small moment of levity whenever she goes out for that night, even though she's reluctant to go. It's like, Oh, here are all these crazy things happening, But then she goes gets to go out and have fun and dance.

00:15:28
Speaker 2: What was the idea behind that scene?

00:15:30
Speaker 4: Margaret is I would say, a very sheltered character, but she's not stupid, you know, and that it was really important for us to create a really three dimensional, dynamic character who felt very grounded. And so if this conspiracy, she was going to fall into this conspiracy, she had to be seduced into it, and I think in a really relatable way. And so having Nell's character at the disco was not only I think one of my favorite scenes just because you're so endearing and delightful, but you actually start to root for her and Poollo and their romance, which I think you need to do that to not undermine the credibility of Margaret. But yeah, how did you feel?

00:16:17
Speaker 7: No, I mean that's exactly it like that, It was, It was it was when you see it when watching shooting it certainly it was a beautiful thing to shoot, and there was so much levity there in those moments with me and Andrea, who's fantastic, and it makes it all that more heartbreaking when you find out, you know, the truth behind his character and the truth behind the intent of the disco. You know, that is probably the scene with the most levity. But then it also leads to the most grueling elements of the film. And she it's it's kind, it's sober, so sweet, because she's given this moment of freedom and experience and youth, and it's all it's all there to manipulate her, and it's all there to to suck her in and and yeah, so douce her into this into this world. So she's just being manipulated left right center.

00:17:01
Speaker 4: And if you're not in love with Margaret at that point when she dances onto the dance floor, you definitely are.

00:17:09
Speaker 3: It's just how I dance melksher at the club.

00:17:14
Speaker 1: Like, Yeah, we mentioned this about being a Disney well Disney owned film. If you could go back now and star in the horror remake of a Disney classic, what would you want to be in Disney Classic? They're going to do a r rated horror adocation. What would you want to start in?

00:17:33
Speaker 7: I know this I would want to do like the Hands Christian and this version of the Little Mermaid where mean become knives, like the ground becomes knives and she becomes.

00:17:42
Speaker 8: Foam on the water.

00:17:43
Speaker 7: And it's like, it's very dark. The original fairy tale is very very dark. So if they made that version, I would love to do it.

00:17:52
Speaker 2: And then how would you direct that version?

00:17:54
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, well, you know it's so lovely? Is I grew up on that version?

00:17:58
Speaker 6: Yeah?

00:17:58
Speaker 3: And I actually have a Mermaid because of that. That's so crazy that you bring that up.

00:18:03
Speaker 7: I had the original storybook and it was so I feel like it could be easily a horror God, why has nobody made this.

00:18:10
Speaker 2: I think we just found the next film.

00:18:12
Speaker 4: It's your idea out.

00:18:16
Speaker 1: You give me a small part in it, and we're all good.

00:18:20
Speaker 7: Well.

00:18:20
Speaker 2: I appreciate the time.

00:18:21
Speaker 1: I hope everybody goes and watches the movie because I really enjoyed it. It has made me want to go back and revisit all the omen movies, and for me, I feel like it's the biggest breadth of fresh air in the franchise and just congratulations on the movie.

00:18:35
Speaker 3: Oh that's a human movement.

00:18:38
Speaker 2: Appreciate it.

00:18:39
Speaker 3: Thank you guys, you bye bye.

00:18:42
Speaker 1: At number four, I sat down with the director of Amber Alert, which you can rent now, I think it's like five ninety nine wherever you rent your movies, and his wife and producer, Summer Blessa, and they were super awesome. And what this interview taught me is how hard it is to make a movie. They've been trying to get this thing made for years and it is such a grind. The odds are stacked against you to not only get your movie made, but then to get it out actually in theaters, which is probably the hardest it's ever well, I would say it's the hardest it's ever been because there are so many movies coming out and it's hard for a studio to take a chance on you to put it out in theaters to promote it when they could just easily put it on their streaming service. But I think in twenty twenty five will probably see more of a rise in independent filmmakers, and with the way that movie studios and the relationship between movie theaters is going, I could see it be a little bit easier for certain independent movie makers to actually get their movies in a theater. And I say that because I think movie theaters just want something shown on their screens that it's going to get people in there. I'd be able to take that risk. Now, are they going to put it down in thousands of screens across America? No, But just to have your movie in any set amount of theaters I think is huge for a director, For a filmmaker, I also think, not just in twenty twenty five, but moving forward, the way media changes, that is not going to be the end all be all for filmmakers anymore. It's just not We are going to consume things differently. I still think that ultimate goal is to have a movie yet in theaters. Much like a musician wants to put out an album, they want to press a physical copy. I think that will always be there. The movie going experience, I think will always be there. But I think it comes down to connecting with an audience. You think about some of your favorite movies of all time, you probably didn't see them in theaters. It's also just a small window for something to be out and people to consume it and people to make money off of it, which is what it comes down to you at the end. But talking to them both just made me realize how hard that struggle is and how really emotional it is. Once you see that read come true and you can tell somebody, hey, I have a movie out in theaters right now, you can go watch it. They were super proud of it. I really enjoyed this movie because I didn't have a whole lot of expectations going into it. I also love me a good thriller where you're like yelling at the screen like no, why would you do that? So at number four, I have Carrie in Summer Blessa talking about Amber Aller. I feel like a lot of being a filmmaker, being an artist is observing the world around you. I feel like that's really the thing that defines like somebody who's actually going to follow through with it is you observe it, also write it down and then execute it. Like you've been talking about the filmmaking process, just like the inspiration of this movie, it came from seeing the Ambreller and thinking, WHOA that should be a movie? Are you constantly observing things and writing things down? Because the other day, like I was on a flight and I sat down on the exit road and they're like, hey, if you know something to do that whole thing of something goes wrong, like are you willing to help? And I just you know, willing to say, ah, yeah, thinking in that moment of like what if I actually had something actually went down and I was put in that situation of I actually have to do something now, and I was like, hey, that could be something. Are you constantly observing things like that?

00:22:11
Speaker 2: I made it.

00:22:12
Speaker 9: I definitely, Yeah, truth does a lot more interesting than fiction. Just reading the news, I mean I have a whole little bookleted news art culset are just freezing for me personally. I like things that should possibly happen and that are real.

00:22:27
Speaker 10: How about you?

00:22:28
Speaker 11: Oh, I mean I feel like I tend to go more in the fantasy or the romance brow and calm world burns less. I mean, it's still human nature, it's still based on you know, relationships, but maybe the less less news driven or reality, or I like.

00:22:45
Speaker 9: Observing it seeing things I'm like, oh that might have to be all filmed. But like what you're talking about is like it's like some type of little scene there or set up.

00:22:54
Speaker 2: You know, you just gotta write it.

00:22:56
Speaker 12: Yeah.

00:22:57
Speaker 1: The next step as a filmmaker, what would be my next on that idea? Is it writing a title, writing a synopsis? What is that when you sit down to like you just have this idea? What is that next step to flesh out a script?

00:23:08
Speaker 9: You just need to put it in the paper? Like everything. I mean that that's the hardest thing is just getting and even if you don't have the entire film down, or you just might have a scene, write the scene, you know, if you have a first act, right, the first act, I just think and it's still difficult to like sit down, you know, a blank piece of paper. It can be so overwhelming and so but it's just it's just couldn't in the work.

00:23:38
Speaker 13: Yeah, no one will make a film of just an idea.

00:23:41
Speaker 11: So you need to have eventually it flushed out into a full script and then you can share it and have people give you insight and hopefully up people who are like, yeah, I see the vision too, let's go think it.

00:23:54
Speaker 1: That leaves me to my final two questions. We're sitting here the night before the premiere here in Nashville. Are you feeling the overwhelming joy of it finally being out at for ten years? Or are you feeling nervous about people are going to react to it this week because I know, as somebody who deals with reading the comments, reading getting all the messages, I don't see the ones they say, hey, and that was a great episode you did, that was a great interview. I see the ones they say this sucks, like why did you put this hell? Like I used to feel terrible.

00:24:23
Speaker 9: The positive things and then something Dong says, you suck, Yeah, and you just focus.

00:24:29
Speaker 13: We feel it so hard. Yeah, it's definitely him the nature.

00:24:32
Speaker 2: I mean, I think that.

00:24:33
Speaker 9: Would be the old wise man that I am that I don't read comments. I read comments and before I remember specifically a long time ago, and like the comments made me feel like I was like the graded I was Spielberg. You know, these people are like this so bazy. I don't ever read comments.

00:24:55
Speaker 13: You take it with the great to take it with a grain of salt.

00:24:57
Speaker 9: Like I love what we do, and I love this path that we've chosen his career, but I just love so many other things in life that bring me joy that no one's going to take us down over some comments that you're not doing.

00:25:10
Speaker 11: You know, yeah, you're not going to make everybody happy with every film. Yeah, you know, there's films that we love that changed our lives that some people don't like. At the end of the day, that's we just want to make something that's entertaining, to make it people thinking and.

00:25:24
Speaker 9: Talking, and we're like risk takers and gamblers. I'd rather you absolutely hate my film and talk about it and be so passionate about your disdain instead of just making something that they're like, uh, it's okay, like it was like forgettable. But yeah, we're we're excited to just get it out there and hear what people think and their response. And we're very confident in the film too. We think it's a great film. The feedback's been really good, and I think.

00:25:55
Speaker 13: People are really going to enjoy seeing Hayden and Tyler and yeah.

00:25:58
Speaker 1: Yeah it's Tyler like I've really never seen it, Like I've been watching one Avid Elementary and it's like, oh, this is a totally different side of it.

00:26:03
Speaker 6: Yeah.

00:26:03
Speaker 9: Yeah, he's a killer, Like he's just so locked in. It's so good, so insightful. And Haten too, like they were just like we're the perfect people at the right time to have this, you know.

00:26:16
Speaker 13: Yeah, they both brought such humanity to the rules and personality and it was really really fun to work with them and see what you know, their perspectives on their characters and they they s brought so much.

00:26:29
Speaker 1: And my final question is why Louisville, Kentucky. I'll give you why I think you picked it. After watching the movie, I feel like that city which I've been to you, I love Louisville. It makes it feel so much more real, like you could happen to anybody. If you said this movie in La it would feel like, oh, it's just another movie in LA where crazy things happen all the time, or in New York. But for me, like just seeing them, like at the beginning, they just had a random.

00:26:53
Speaker 2: Park and that's where it happens.

00:26:55
Speaker 1: Is that the reason why it's in Louisville or is it just I just want to say, Litville, Kentucky is awesome, great people. Our crew was like we missed those those people. They were so awesome and just like genuine down.

00:27:10
Speaker 9: The earth and they kind of knew our story, like that we've been hustling for ten years, that we were gonna make it that we were no one was gonna let us, and they just like got behind us like family and really helped us make an amazing film.

00:27:25
Speaker 11: As the producer, I will say was because of there was a few different places that have great test incentives that we were debating over. And I think exactly what you said though, is you know, one of the strengths of the film is that it could be anywhere except maybe la but in general, like this happens all over the country.

00:27:43
Speaker 9: And it was originally written in Phoenix, Arizona, because Phoenix is the kidnapping capital of the country.

00:27:50
Speaker 13: Yeah, we wanted to make sure it didn't feel like it could be anybody, yes, and.

00:27:54
Speaker 9: So we just kind of tweaked it a little and it was couldn't I couldn't imagine anywhere else now. And I love the lushness, the beautiful degree, Like I mean, I do want to fight a lot with the rain. Then we had to day. We didn't shoot for a whole morning because the rain that you know, it was. There were some challenges, but it works out.

00:28:15
Speaker 1: Worked out.

00:28:20
Speaker 2: At number three. This guy was a delight. Paul King.

00:28:23
Speaker 1: He is the director of Wonka, which came out last year. Around this time last year, I was just walking around singing there chocolate and there's chocolate. If you haven't seen Wonk at this point, it is on Max. Timothy Challamet is a great Wonka and Paul King is a great director.

00:28:38
Speaker 2: He is also the director of the Paddington movies.

00:28:41
Speaker 1: And you have Paddington three coming out next year, which looks just as good as Paddington two, which is one of the best family movies of all time. I need to do a rewatch of one and two going into three. That looks fantastic. Paul King was actually out doing press for that movie, and he said that Wonka two is in development. Didn't say if Timothy Chalomey is coming back, but he did say he wants it to be more like the books, which is.

00:29:06
Speaker 2: Kind of what Wonka was.

00:29:07
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of people who had problems with the Willy Wonka from back in the day wanted it to be more like the book because I think the book is a little bit more whimsical, so maybe he could get back to that. But he seemed like a genuinely nice guy. He loves musicals, and I become now an adopter of loving musicals.

00:29:26
Speaker 2: So at number three, I have Paul King.

00:29:29
Speaker 10: Harry Paul, I'm really good thank you. How are you?

00:29:31
Speaker 2: I am great good to get to talk to you.

00:29:33
Speaker 1: The original Willi Wonka is one of my top ten favorite movies of all time, so I hold it very precious and after seeing Wonka, I completely loved it, and I'd have to imagine it was such a hard thing to do. And the thing I want to start with first is I love the way Timothy shallow May portrayed Wonka. Did you have that vision first before he was cast?

00:29:53
Speaker 2: Or was he cast and then that vision happened and it came to life.

00:29:57
Speaker 10: Well that's a really good question. Thank you.

00:30:00
Speaker 14: That means a huge amount to me because the original Willy Wonker is is right up there for me too, and it's a daunting experience to kind of walk in those footsteps. I think when I started working on the movie, i'd been fortunate enough to meet Timothy in that kind of year where he did call.

00:30:17
Speaker 10: Me by your name, and Lady Burden knew what.

00:30:20
Speaker 14: A wonderful actor he was, and I really wanted to write something for him, and so pretty much from the second David Haymees suggested a young Willy Wonka film to me, I was like, well, that could be Timothy shaller Mate. So there's obviously never a guarantee that you're going to get the actor that you want. But in my head I sort of went, well, him or someone like him, I don't know who there is like him would be absolutely wonderful in this world because he feels so sort of mercurial, but he's also emotionally grounded and slightly unknowable, and he has that whole sort of range. And I felt that he could feel like a younger Willi Wonker or you know, Geene Marder twenty years before the events of that movie. Like it felt like there's a sort of kinshit there somehow, but without doing an impression. And you know, once we'd written the script and sort of sent it to him, it's a nerve wracking moment because you sort of go, if it's not you, I really don't know who it could have been.

00:31:14
Speaker 10: And I thank my lucky stars.

00:31:16
Speaker 1: He said, yes, you mentioned Gen Wilderlier And I got to imagine when you're you know, had this vision of this movie in your head, there's all these things you want to pull from the original. Was there anything that you didn't get to put into this movie that you wanted you from the original, either it was too expensive, or it just didn't work, or it just didn't make sense.

00:31:33
Speaker 14: There was one bit we tried to do the forward role and the pop up thing, and it felt it just felt a little shoehorned into the moment. It was felt like kind of an Easter egg for the sake of an Easter egg. And and we didn't do it in the end because it felt like it was it was there for fans rather than because it didn't serve the story.

00:31:51
Speaker 10: So I think.

00:31:52
Speaker 14: But what was so funny was how much kind of went in and some of it where it went in, and I'd kind of forgotten where it had come from. But you know, obviously I sort of imbibed the original so much that it was sort of like would come out and you sort of go just little bits of choreography and little gestures, and we always kind of were aware of it on set, where you go, oh, you could do the cane thing, and you could do the step thing, and and this is the coin and the storm draining, and I think some of the kind of building blocks. It was kind of really looking at that movie and the original book and go, here's the kind of this is like the playground.

00:32:23
Speaker 10: You're in, now, go play with the toys.

00:32:25
Speaker 1: I think my favorite shot out of the entire movie, Like I'm just a stickler for cinematography, and when I see a great shot, I just make a note of it. The one shot I made a note of it's whenever there's that great silverware to Timothy Shell. May you really just see like the shadows on his face and the outline of the hair, how much time goes into just getting there one shot?

00:32:44
Speaker 14: Probably too much for that shot that was. I mean, I love that shot so much, but it was it was it was actually a find on the quite near like on the day, I think that we had the shot of him from behind with the behind the was like when he opens the door and walks out, and that was going to be our hero shot. And we were setting it and went, oh, there's a lovely there's a found that there was this lovely profile and chunking Chung like incredible cinematographer. We then went, this is a lovely angle. But we kind of wanted to get both and we were sort of trying to get it and then we were Okay, we're gonna have to stop everything and get this silhouette perfect because it could be the shots of the movie. And I do remember we filmed it and it was like we sortaly didn't whe where he goes, here we go Mama, and I was like, that's definitely how the Treasure's going to start. And then there it is.

00:33:35
Speaker 1: The thing about this movie is that it feels oddly nostalgic for me here and I was born in the nineties, so even the original came out was before my time.

00:33:43
Speaker 2: But there are so many different generations of Willie Wanka fan.

00:33:46
Speaker 1: Do you have the people who discovered it maybe in the two thousands, the people who love the original, and then it's a family movie at the same time, How do you want that line of making a movie that's appealing to kids but also appealing to the adults who are just lifelong fans.

00:33:59
Speaker 14: Yeah, it's it's It's funny how that it is interesting, because it's definitely I think most kind of like known characters and known through one iteration, you know, like you sort of go iron Man, say you go. Most people will have come to it through the Robert Downey junior iron Man, you know.

00:34:17
Speaker 10: Or you sort of gore.

00:34:18
Speaker 14: There will be some comic book fans, but you sort of go, there's one kind of hero iteration. Willi Wanka really isn't like that, as you say, because there's the book, which has an army of fans around the world, one of the best selling childrens book of all time. You got two absolutely beloved movies, and it's it's really tricky to kind of to to sort of walk that line. And I guess what I realized early on was you sort of have to pick your hero references. And for me, it was like the book first and foremost, because that's the kind of the mothership, and I didn't want to do anything that wouldn't kind of sit comfortably with that. And then the the g Model movies. So in my DNA, I mean, I was born in the seventies, but I really grew up with that movie as my Willy Wonka. So and there were so many iconic choices they made that I kind of wanted to honor in terms of like balancing kids and grown ups. I sort of, for me, my favorite family movies and my favorite movies probably in general, movies that can can appeal to everyone. And I never really try and go, here's a bit for the kids, and here's a bit for the grown ups. Just try and make something that's this exciting and fun for everyone. You know. It's kind of I think my co writers Simon and I we're trying to make each other laugh and find things that we find emotional or funny or silly or eccentric or you know, touching, and if it works, pray that there are enough people out there with our sense of humor and sentiment.

00:35:42
Speaker 1: Well, I think it's such a great job and appealing to everybody. The thing I was surprised about is a lot of people somehow did it realize they were going into a musical. Well, it's such a big part of the first one, it's such a big part of the second one. The music is like the foundation of the movie, Like it's a musical. Were you surprised just about that and people saying, ah, I had no idea as a musical, Yeah, well, I think it was.

00:36:04
Speaker 10: It's tricky because it's sort of.

00:36:07
Speaker 14: A lot of the promotional materials didn't really have any singing in them, or that you know, there would be a shot. But it's a and I know there's a sort of larger conversation about how musicals are sold, which is is a really tricky thing to do because.

00:36:20
Speaker 1: It's almost like a bad word to say it's a musical, like somebody's not gonna go watch it.

00:36:23
Speaker 2: That's what it feels like to me.

00:36:25
Speaker 14: I think I think that is true, and I think some some people. The thing is some people will immediately just go, I don't like a musical, and and that's the end of their conversation. But I always kind of go, really, when I meet somebody says they don't like musicals, and you know, you don't like singing in.

00:36:38
Speaker 10: The rain, and they I like seeing the rain. What about sounding music? Well, obviously sound of music's good.

00:36:44
Speaker 14: Well you don't like you like all of those? Yeah, yeah, I think it's I think it's more that so yeah, hopefully, hopefully. And I think what's difficult with a musical with original songs like we have is that you sort of go They're hard to get into promotional materials because people don't know them, and you sort of go, it's hard to kind of so it was easier for the to lean on something like pure imagination, where you go, people know that one, they know the young Plumpus tune, and it's kind of a there's a sort of recognition, but hopefully people have enjoyed the songs when they got some eventually.

00:37:18
Speaker 2: I mean I had a song stick in my head. I was leaving the theater singing scrub scrub.

00:37:22
Speaker 10: Yeah, me too.

00:37:24
Speaker 1: So you've succeeded at telling which I love that this was a companion piece and not a remake, not a sequel. You've succeeded at the young Willie Wanger story. I feel like there's another story there because you really showed Wanco and he was like bright eyed and bushy tail before he had any level of cynicism which we saw in the nineteen seventy one version. Do you think there's a story there where he kind of starts to turn his perspective a little bit, becomes a little bit more jaded.

00:37:49
Speaker 14: Yes, I do, Yes, I think there's absolutely a story there. I think it's I think it's a real challenge with the story where you feel he becomes more cynical and jaded to sort of find an ending that is satisfactory. And I think one of the things that liberated us for this movie was to go, We're not going to try and take him all the way to the chocolate factory because he seems quite a sort of damaged soul at the beginning of the Chocolate Bat. You know, he's rettly reclusive and needs to retreat it behind the walls. So I think there could absolutely be other Willing Won stories that could work, and I would love to find one.

00:38:21
Speaker 10: But they're hard.

00:38:22
Speaker 14: They're hard to find, and in a way, the closer you get to the beginning of Charlie that the harder it gets, you know, to find a movie that works as a story.

00:38:30
Speaker 10: But we'll certainly give it a go.

00:38:33
Speaker 2: Well, I'm in a prayer, my tickets already. I'm already in for it.

00:38:35
Speaker 10: If you make it great, thank you.

00:38:38
Speaker 2: I appreciate it. Paul's great. Good to talk to you, good to toy to you too, Thanks so much.

00:38:42
Speaker 1: And number two, I have the director of the original Twister Yondabond, and I talked to him actually before Twisters came out, which I didn't really feel the need to ask him about it, like, hey, how do you feel that they're rebooting the franchise with a non Dirigg sequel. I would have to imagine, especially after talking to him in this interview, that he thinks it's probably a movie that didn't need to be made.

00:39:03
Speaker 2: I love one. I've seen it so many times.

00:39:05
Speaker 1: We talk about that, and I love two, so I didn't want to have those two opinions conflict with me. I think it was blown away by how many times I've seen this movie. And I think you could tell that I was a genuine fan because he really got into talking to me about all my dumb questions about Twisters. So at number two, I have yondemont. Hey, it is Mike from a movie Mike's Moet Podcast.

00:39:27
Speaker 8: How are you?

00:39:29
Speaker 2: I am great.

00:39:29
Speaker 1: I just want to say that Twister is one of my favorite movies of all time. It is the only film out of any movie that I've seen over fifty times.

00:39:37
Speaker 2: I make a point to read Wow.

00:39:39
Speaker 1: Since I was a kid, I watched this movie and the reason I have such a bond with it is I grew up in a trailer park and I was terrified of tornadoes and by watching Twister, because if a tornado came through the trailer park, we were done for. So I was always freaked out watching the news. I just had all this anxiety and I would watch Twister because it almost helped me deal with that anxiety. If I can literally watch the worst possible scenario of what could happen.

00:40:03
Speaker 2: It kind of helped me work through that. So that is why I've seen it so many times.

00:40:07
Speaker 15: Oh wow, wow, wow, that's amazing. I mean, I mean I never heard somebody seeing it for fifty times, but that must.

00:40:15
Speaker 6: Be a record bike that us be. The funny thing is that it is still a very watchable movie. They still feels like it could happen today, and the way it is filmed, the excitement and the cast they all like still today's people. They're not like from a different period, even though thirty years ago. I think that's why it's so relatable. It's very relatable this movie. I mean, everybody can see themselves more or less being a storm chaser, being want to be that everybody likes danger and to some degree, and that both wouldn't want to go that far bad people who are really willing to go on cars and drive towards that's pretty insane situation. But they exist and they are they are They love it, but also they love the science line it too.

00:41:03
Speaker 8: I was fine someone that match a lot of them. That is not only the fact.

00:41:07
Speaker 6: It's not only the adrenaline that that it creates, it's also really like we really want to see and photograph it that Joe to people, and that was really pretty surprising to.

00:41:18
Speaker 8: To really to really see that happen. It's really good.

00:41:22
Speaker 1: And I think the other thing is it's not just a movie about people chasing tornadoes. It's also a story of all these people who are just friends, but also the story of Bill and Joe of going there to get the paper signed. That's the whole reason he shows up back there, and you have that threat throughout the entire movie, of the tension between them. I think it's something I probably didn't appreciate as a kid, but as an adult I understood it and how that was really that was the story. You could almost make a movie where you take away the twisters and it's just Bill and Joe.

00:41:50
Speaker 6: You could make a movie like that. That wouldn't be as exciting, I think. But no, but of course that is that is true.

00:41:59
Speaker 15: Of course that's all that whole idea of that team and how they get along and the relationship to Bill and and and and and talent that was like, that was that was the story, That was the plot, and and how that kind of they started in intermingle more and more and more and and and because seeing that happen, that's also because they got closer again, of course, and youvolve and it wasn't in danger and other people have to come and help you.

00:42:26
Speaker 8: It is it's changed relationships and shave bond.

00:42:30
Speaker 1: So when it comes to just the camaraderie that you feel from the cast, I think the best example of that is the breakfast scene where everybody's just they're having literally what looks like the best meal ever, and you just feel that bond between everybody. Everybody gets their moment to shine, everybody's getting in their jokes. What was it like filming that scene? Was it a much larger scene that was cut down to what we saw in the movie or was it all on the page?

00:42:54
Speaker 8: And it was most of it was on the page.

00:42:56
Speaker 6: And also quite a bit was improvised because I told them, but I said, this is okay. If you step on somebody's line, if you want to say, just jump in and then you can come back to that later.

00:43:08
Speaker 8: And I let that all happen. And when you have a bunch of people that get along really.

00:43:13
Speaker 6: Well, they are fine with that. They wouldn't get mad as you just tap on somebody's line. They would just come back later, and so I really wanted that to happen. And don't be afraid it's a fun scene. It has to be a fun scene. Well, you guys having a great time, you having a really great meal after being in the field, not eating anything or just cookies whatever what.

00:43:34
Speaker 8: You have in the truck.

00:43:35
Speaker 6: But this is like a really a scene in which showcase of friendship and the friendship in a way that everybody accepts the sort of witnesses and strengths and it becomes like one one group. The whole scene is based but the group and nothing else. And I agree, I love that scene. I really totally, really really excites me. Still it's still fun to us.

00:44:00
Speaker 1: Was that your philosophy throughout the other parts of making the movie, aside from that of letting people improvise? Since you do have these just huge personality Bill Pax and Philipinore Hoffman and they're doing these scenes together, were you okay with them just throwing different lines in there that were in the script.

00:44:15
Speaker 6: Yeah, but only only if they still would would move the movie forward.

00:44:20
Speaker 15: I mean sometimes it came up with sentences or I mean never long sentences, so that that actually would help to see and then I definitely let them do it.

00:44:30
Speaker 6: I mean that the screenplay is like based a little bit how storm Chases talk. You know, we we listened to them many times and it met them, and so it has had to resemble that.

00:44:44
Speaker 8: So and does people stalk, no to stop?

00:44:46
Speaker 10: Basically all of them they all talk at once.

00:44:49
Speaker 6: And and then and you pick up something that you pick up something him or her.

00:44:53
Speaker 8: So it is it is. It is a little bit like the same way as they would would act in real life.

00:44:59
Speaker 6: And and Bill, if they would have if this would be all will storm Chases, they wouldn't talk a much different.

00:45:05
Speaker 1: Being that I have seen the movie over fifty times. I know every single scene down to the every single line. And for me, there was nothing, there's nothing I would change about the movie. I think it is a perfect film. But for you, now, almost thirty years since it's been out, how often do you rewatch it?

00:45:19
Speaker 2: And is there anything you would change?

00:45:21
Speaker 15: It's a question that I've been asked many times. Is going to be director Scott? I was asking directors to what do you mean? Well, I'm really big director makes directors. Now everything is in a movie. This is my movie. I don't have anything. I don't want to put any deleted scenes in. We work really hard to make this and this works perfect. Why would you, as seen or take things out that either already work and change it with something else.

00:45:48
Speaker 8: I mean, there was at one point there's some studious for worried.

00:45:52
Speaker 15: About about that the audience would not understand the idea of getting those little balls in the air, the little.

00:46:00
Speaker 8: Power, and they had to be explained except they see it. They don't have to. You don't have to explain. They can't see god damn happening.

00:46:07
Speaker 6: So why would you really really really haven't seen and people explaining that? And I had to film it, but then also most of it from back out again because it was completely redundant, and because the whole thing is a little bit It is not only a movie.

00:46:24
Speaker 8: Told by sentences, by by dialogue. It's about the whole physical reaction to of all the people towards what they what they encounter. It's there to get inness. It's there.

00:46:38
Speaker 6: That being upset or angry at disorder and then getting changing again. That was that was my wholecal I didn't want any anything that looked like a real movie, like a regular movie, as you'd see not a real movie like a regular by people sit down and talk. It's like even that. That's why they scene on the tape because if they sit around the table, but he said up and I was sent up and he grasps over the table.

00:47:02
Speaker 8: Give me some of that. So they're almost doing things while they're having this discussion. Just funny discussion. And that's I love that. I think it's so good.

00:47:10
Speaker 2: So there's nothing you would change.

00:47:11
Speaker 1: But what was the most physically or not physically, but just the most the hardest scene to just tackle that had maybe a lot of production elements to it, or it were just so time consuming. You're like, that almost killed us, but we got it in there.

00:47:25
Speaker 8: Actually just quite a few of those things.

00:47:28
Speaker 2: Because there was a lot of practical effects too.

00:47:31
Speaker 6: It was at the special effects like for instance, like when the combiness fall from the air and the tractors fell from the air to really catch a timing lid best a helicopter really flying close over the cars and this Helen and Build driving the car and they had to maneuver that way around. I mean the thing would fall down and it could fall down there and they quickly would have to react and response to that. So I was filmed them at the same time as that as when it as when it happened, so that I would have the.

00:48:05
Speaker 8: Responses to the real action in front of them.

00:48:07
Speaker 15: And of course we I had such good relationship and with special effects, I knew it was gonna be okay, especially the pilot and I communicate with them, but I was sat in the car.

00:48:19
Speaker 8: With them too, by the way, but it's happened.

00:48:21
Speaker 15: So you sit in the car and and you measure and now, and then I knew how many seconds it would take to hit the ground, and then I let so. And when Bill heard me say now, they knew something was going to happen, but not exactly what YE had. And that boom that the combined a filet and those things I was really cumbersome to set up and really have with so many moving parts, and that was tough, and I was so happy that that was done. Ultimately, Yeah, I.

00:48:48
Speaker 2: Really appreciate the time.

00:48:50
Speaker 1: I'm now going to go watch it for a fifty first time, so thanks for talking to me. Okay, Out School one of my favorite movies of all time, and Nanny the other year that probably would have made it in at number one.

00:49:07
Speaker 2: Because he's somebody that I just never thought I would talk to.

00:49:10
Speaker 1: But taking the top spot in my top five interviews of twenty twenty four, I have Robert England and Heather Langenkamp aka Freddy Krueger and Nancy from the original Nightmare on Elm Street. They were out talking about the fortieth anniversary of this movie. I think the thing that stuck out to me going into this interview as they thought that nobody would care that they would be out promoting, is that they thought that nobody would care about this, that it'd be the fortieth anniversary, they'd agree to do some interviews, and they were so surprised at the overwhelming response that they got of how many people like me wanted to talk to them about this movie forty years later. And like I was talking about earlier, whether Kasha Stevenson and Nel Tiger free health.

00:50:00
Speaker 2: They have a great friendship.

00:50:02
Speaker 1: You can tell by talking to Robert and Heather that they have remained friends over the years and still after decades about talking about this movie, like how many times can you be asked about the bathtub scene and about Freddie that they still enjoy getting together and talking about this movie and if ken year old me knew that someday he would be talking to Freddy Krueger. He would run away in terror. But at number one, I have Robert England and Heather Langenkamp as my number one interview. So I want to do a buy the numbers interview. We're gonna see how many number of related questions we're here to get in here, starting off with forty. It's been forty years since the movie came out. I want to know after the movie came out, as a result of it, when was the first time each of you felt famous.

00:50:49
Speaker 12: Gosh, I felt famous, probably way after Robert, but people continuously mispronounced my name. But when like, somebody really pronounced my name correct act at one of the wonderful autograph shows that I go to and there were a bunch of people there in the audience, I kind of felt that was the first time I felt famous.

00:51:08
Speaker 16: I was in Milan, Italy to receive an award for Best Supporting Actor or Ensemble I can't remember which, for a TV series I was in. And we pulled up and I was in a rented tuxedo and I got out and the audience, the people in the piazza the plaza in front of the scholar started chanting Freddie, Freddie, and they.

00:51:35
Speaker 17: Literally picked me up and passed, you know.

00:51:38
Speaker 16: And that's when I knew Freddie was international and that Freddie had taken off. And I was just beginning to enjoy fame from the TV series, which was science fiction.

00:51:50
Speaker 17: But it's that moment in time when audience has put your name to your face. That's true fame, you know.

00:51:57
Speaker 16: And for me, it was a combination of that, and I became an international actor overnight, and.

00:52:03
Speaker 17: That's just a great gift.

00:52:04
Speaker 16: They never teach you that in school or what that's going to be like, but it's just this great adventure that becomes like a parallel to your career in Hollywood.

00:52:12
Speaker 2: The next number is thirteen.

00:52:14
Speaker 1: That's the number of times Freddy says bitch throughout the entire franchise. I heard Jalil White recently, who played Erkele, saying that doing that voice has damaged his vocal cords.

00:52:25
Speaker 2: It's shredded because of that.

00:52:26
Speaker 1: For you, doing the Freddie voice over those movies hasn't messed with your real voice.

00:52:32
Speaker 17: Well, here's the thing. When I do the movies, I might only have one line a day.

00:52:37
Speaker 16: You know, when I do these junkets like I'm doing here with you, or when I do morning radio shows and things like that, they want me to talk like Freddy a lot. And if I'm doing a lot of those, I can heard my voice. But playing Freddy, I probably only have one or two lines a day, if any, because Freddy doesn't talk that much.

00:52:59
Speaker 17: So it never bought rcle. He can't stop chatting.

00:53:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, talking about the time.

00:53:05
Speaker 1: That's the whole episode of the whole series. The next number is thirty two. The entire movie was filmed in thirty two days. Heather, what was your favorite day on set?

00:53:13
Speaker 14: Oh?

00:53:13
Speaker 12: Gosh, Probably the days I didn't have a big makeup I mean a big stunt or something. I know, the day with Johnny when we're walking across the bridge in Venice, or the day with Amanda where we're at the party and where you know, first talking about Freddy. Those days were really luxurious because there wasn't a lot of tension acting and I could just hang out with everybody and have a great time. Most other days when we did do like the bathtub scene or chase scenes, all of those were really you know, you don't have a lot of time. You have to be on your mark, you have to know exactly what you're doing. A lot more pressure, a lot less time to hang out and just kind of have a great time on set with my co stars.

00:53:52
Speaker 16: Any day when I'm getting the makeup off, yeah that's happy. But I got the makeup off one day and it was a couple of you know, Freddie Booger's hanging from my ears and underneath my chin, and Heather and I wanted to see the revolving room and this was going to be the shot of Johnny Depp's bed exploding with all the blood coming out in a gusher like Old Faithful.

00:54:17
Speaker 17: And they had this.

00:54:18
Speaker 16: Great revolving room and it was the same room they used for Amanda on the ceiling, for Tina on the ceiling, but they had redressed it to become Johnny Depp's bedroom.

00:54:28
Speaker 17: And they had been working.

00:54:30
Speaker 16: All night and they had it all ready to go, and Heather and I walked out to watch it, you know, and I was still wiping some of my makeup off, and Heather was in her little pajamas, and I remember standing out there and they spun it the wrong way, and Wes and Jacques Heiken, our cinematographer, were inside in these Volkswagen bucket seats with the camera mounts, so they would be upside down while the thing they erupted and came down so it would look using gravity to make it look like it exploded. That's how they did it. They got the idea from the shine. Anyway, they spun it the wrong way and all the blood came out of the windows of Johnny Depp's bedroom and out the door of Johnny Depp's bedroom and covered west and Jacques Heiken and I remember standing with you and we saw this puddle coming at us. And I looked down and if you know anything about movie sound stages in Hollywood, they're all cables, electrical cables everywhere, plugged in. And I said, this doesn't look good of us. The two of us ran all the way back to the Baker.

00:55:29
Speaker 6: Yeah.

00:55:29
Speaker 16: Yeah, but we didn't get to But that's like, I really remember that. I remember that, yeah, because I was. I really thought something terrible was going to happen.

00:55:37
Speaker 2: The next number is seven.

00:55:38
Speaker 1: That's the total number of minutes that Freddy was on screen in the first movie Robert, based on your relationship.

00:55:44
Speaker 2: With wesb Seven minutes in Heavens seven minutes.

00:55:47
Speaker 1: Based on your relationship with Wes Craven, do you think that was more by design because he wanted to keep Freddy mysterious or was it more based on the budget of the movie.

00:55:56
Speaker 17: No, I'll tell you what I think their true truth was, and it's because.

00:55:59
Speaker 16: I I got access to this right at the last minute. With the final makeup tests and wardrobe tests. Both Robert Shay and Wes were petrified about lighting the makeup. The makeup look great, but they were worried about the lighting. And what we discovered almost immediately, because I think I had a scene with Heather pretty quickly, is that I could not step into the kids lighting. They were lit traditionally and attractively. If I went in there, I became to my makeup look too white or too pink, and so we had to light me. And it was incumbent upon Heather and Johnny Depp and Amanda Whist and everyone to step into my lighting and which was more dramatic and darker. And that's how they solved that. But they were so nervous about the makeup and what it would look like, and they hadn't started seeing dailies yet or rushes yet that I think they just had minimized my screen time because of that, and there came a probably came a point where they probably wish they just shot more. But there's nothing in Nightmare one that I shot that's not in the movie except maybe a little bit on the ceiling dragging Amanda.

00:57:20
Speaker 12: And also with Ronnie at the end in that burn scene, I know that. That's yeah, it's pretty short, much shorter than I think what was shot.

00:57:28
Speaker 16: Yeah. I think I went in there and substituted at the beginning, and then Tony went in to stunt my stunt Noble went in and did the flame stuff.

00:57:35
Speaker 17: But I know there, yeah, because I remember being in that room. So I must have been doing something with Ronnie.

00:57:39
Speaker 16: I think I you know, I might have kissed her or pinned her down or whispered something in her ear and leaned up and then I combusted, and I think they substituted the stunt man in then that was a famous fire stunt at the time.

00:57:52
Speaker 17: But yeah, that except for that though, I got all the screen time that was there. But you know, no small parts, only small actors.

00:57:59
Speaker 1: The next time is seventy nine, that is the total number of kills Freddy has throughout the entire franchise, out.

00:58:05
Speaker 2: Of this movie or out of any movie.

00:58:06
Speaker 1: What is each of your favorite kills that Freddy has done, Heather, what's your favorite?

00:58:11
Speaker 12: I have to say the most unique and disgusting kill was when he kills brook These in Nightmare four Who's the cockroach and she turns into the cockroach, And that one just is funny and disgusting and grotesque, and it's also one of my best friends getting killed.

00:58:27
Speaker 16: Besides, it's also very Pafka esque, which really serves the surrealism.

00:58:33
Speaker 17: And the Nightmare mayor thing.

00:58:35
Speaker 6: I think.

00:58:35
Speaker 16: I like the boy with the hearing aid that was brutal part in part Yeah, in part six is so politically incorrect. And I always like Amanda on the ceiling. The ceiling that's so disorienting.

00:58:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's so unexpected too, the way it starts the movie, like you don't see that coming.

00:58:52
Speaker 17: I remember she's the janetly sacrificial lamb. Yeah, that's why the lamb's in there in that corridor school corridor.

00:58:59
Speaker 1: And two thousand and three is the next number. That was the last Freddy movie that came out with you, Robert, when is the actual last time that you put on the costume? Just have you ever just been hanging out in your house like I want to feel like Freddy today.

00:59:12
Speaker 16: Well, I did one appearance in Europe and one appearance in Chicago for the fans, and I wanted to make sure it was me, so I didn't wear the costume, just the makeup.

00:59:25
Speaker 17: And then uh so that was like you got to have your picture taken with Robert.

00:59:29
Speaker 16: England, the actor that played Freddy Krueger as Freddy Krueger as opposed to just being a Freddie impersonator. And then I did do My agent's favorite TV show was The Goldbergs, and I got a beautiful five page letter from Adam Goldberg telling me this true story about how he had to watch The Nightmare and elm Street movies next door in his neighbor's house.

00:59:51
Speaker 17: And I love that actress Wendy on that show.

00:59:54
Speaker 16: I've loved her since Arino nine one one, and so I want to work with her because she's so funny. And we worked it out that we wouldn't make too much fun of the Freddie character, we just you know, balance him out. So I did finally break my rule and take Freddy out of the series and do that show. But it was the right show because it was a celebration of the nineteen eighties. It was a celebration of Nightmare on Elm Street.

01:00:21
Speaker 10: It was a true.

01:00:22
Speaker 16: Story, and it was my agent's favorite TV show that he shared.

01:00:26
Speaker 17: With his family. He and his family would sit down and watch it together. So I sort of had to do it for him.

01:00:31
Speaker 1: And finally, ten minutes was the runtime of this interview. Thank you for making my childhood nightmare come true.

01:00:37
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you so much. That's wonderful. Thank you lot of math in that interview.

01:00:41
Speaker 1: There I go, and that is the list, and that is the episode. I told you guys, I would tell you who is on my bucket list my dream interviews, not even of next year, but just of all time. I'll do one director and one movie star director. First, I think it comes down to two people, Quentin Tarantino and Jordan Peele. I love both of them for very different reasons, and overall I would go with Quentin Tarantino only because I believe he is on the tail end of his career now that he's saying that he has a set number of films that he's going to do. I believe that the next one is going to be his last one, even though he was gonna do that movie Critic movie, and that movie has now been scrapped. So I don't know if you're going to come back to that have an entirely different movie, or if still the next movie he does will be his last movie. But I feel like I have a limited time to talk to Quentin Tarantino, and there'd be so many things to get into with him, And I think the hard thing about doing that is I.

01:01:46
Speaker 2: Feel he is so particular.

01:01:48
Speaker 1: And it's so easy to set him off that if you ask him the wrong question, I feel like he could turn on you. I saw him recently talking about Yellowstone going off on that. He just knows what do you like. He knows what is good, and he's not afraid to say what is bad. And that would be a tough one to do it. I'd have to do a lot of homework. I had to come in just prep solid, because he is somebody who can't really screw around with. So I would be really intimidated, really nervous to do that one. And I don't really get nervous to do interviews. But that would be a really cool one because I mean just the legacy of films that he has, that would be my bucket list director actor, I'm gonna go big. I would call Leonardo DiCaprio just because he doesn't miss it anymore. And I would really want to know how he just approaches roles now and how particular he has to be in what movies he says yes to, not even getting into his just crazy history of banger after banger from dudes in Titanic, The Departed, Inception, Shutter Island. I mean, you think of movie star, and you think of Leonardo DiCaprio, and also somebody who doesn't really do interviews anymore, and that of all the celebrities that still have some kind of mystery about him, he is on that short list that not on social media, you don't really see a whole lot of him outside of him partying on yachts with twenty year olds. But I would like to know more about his career and what he thinks are his best movies, what movies he thinks ah, I probably should have said not of that one, and more importantly, why he told Timothy Shallow made to never do a superhero movie. I gotta know why. I mean, I kind of know why, but I would like to know it from him. So bucket list interviews of all time Quentin Tarantino, Leonardo DiCaprio. But those are my two and that is the episode for this week. If you're listening to this on release week, still on vacation. But I will be back next week with a brand new episode.

01:03:52
Speaker 2: Hopefully you got some time off too. It's still holidays.

01:03:56
Speaker 1: We're in that time where right now where we don't really know what day it is. We're kind of in limbo when New Year's coming up and then it's like, oh, I gotta go back to work. I'm in this haze, man, I gotta get Peggett to a routine. So we're still all living in that. Hopefully you got some rest ate, some good food, got to watch a bunch of movies.

01:04:16
Speaker 2: That is what I've been doing this entire break.

01:04:18
Speaker 1: If you need to know, probably seen it on me posting on Instagram or TikTok. That's all I've been doing. So I'll come back next week. I will do my episode where I talk about my top ten films of the year for twenty twenty four. I wanted to wait this year because so many new movies come out over Christmas. It's like four big ones coming out, and whenever I do that episode early, I always kind of neglect those movies because they come out towards the end of the year.

01:04:48
Speaker 2: But it's a big time for movies.

01:04:51
Speaker 1: So this time I wanted to wait until I saw all those and could weigh them against what is currently on my list of the best movies of the year. So we'll come back next week with that episode, and until next time, go out and watch good movies, and I will talk to you later.