BONUS Marc on Movies - The 2024 Oscars
Guest:So, I have a question for you.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:Did you know when you scheduled your tour that you had scheduled a show for Oscar night?
Marc:Of course not.
Marc:I barely know where I'm going tomorrow.
Marc:The way I engage with my schedule is, it's kind of exciting because it's always a surprise to me when and where I'm going.
Yeah.
Guest:That is good.
Guest:I would enjoy that, actually.
Guest:I think one of the things that makes my day or week harder is when I'm like, oh, man, all that shit I scheduled.
Guest:And I know that I scheduled it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But I feel like if I just woke up one day and somebody told me the things that I was going to have to do, I'd be much happier.
Marc:Well, it happens a lot with the show, too.
Marc:It's like I know we book people.
Marc:But I think I'm actually considering returning to the big sort of write-in book.
Marc:desktop calendar thing.
Marc:I used to buy these books that where you'd open it up and on two pages, it would have a whole month where you could write in it.
Marc:And it was very helpful to me because I could look at it.
Marc:I mean, you can do that on the computer, but for some reason, it seems more...
Marc:I don't do it much on the computer.
Marc:I go day to day.
Marc:And then when you look at the week on the computer, you can't always see everything that's there.
Marc:And when you look at the whole month, it seems kind of cluttered.
Marc:It does the same thing.
Marc:But I'm actually considering going back to the sort of desktop, handwritten, open it up to a month thing just so I know what's going on.
Marc:Like I knew I was leaving for this show, for this series of shows for a long time.
Marc:And I was kind of mentally preparing for that.
Marc:But I don't think I really locked in my mind when the Oscars were.
Marc:It's not something I'd put on any calendar.
Marc:You didn't have it circled on the calendar.
Marc:Block this date.
Marc:Don't dare work on this night.
Marc:So now I'm working.
Marc:And it kind of bums me out.
Marc:I do like sitting and watching it.
Marc:But I'll be all right.
Guest:You'll be able to catch, I think, at least the last, like, two hours or so.
Guest:Maybe hour.
Marc:I could probably watch the whole re-airing, you know, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:I mean, you'll see all the clips and everything, but to watch it in real time, you'll see the big awards.
Guest:You'll see the end of the night awards.
Marc:I think so.
Marc:I think if I don't do some marathon show... Well, all right.
Guest:Well, in thinking about the Oscars, even though you're going to miss most or all of it this year, one thing that you obviously haven't missed is the fact that we've basically run a bunch of people...
Guest:through our show as part of their Oscar campaigns.
Guest:And, you know, I don't know if you realize this, but this has been happening for a few years now.
Guest:Like, are you conscious of that, that that happens?
Marc:Yes, I am conscious of it.
Marc:And it's always kind of...
Marc:I guess it is an exciting thing for us that our audience may have some impact.
Marc:I do believe that a lot of Oscar voters probably listen to our show.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, I think that's the whole reason why publicists have decided that our show is a useful conduit for the nominees.
Marc:Yeah, no, look, I like it.
Marc:I don't remember...
Marc:Like who was on the last couple of years to promote Oscar stuff?
Marc:I like I remember this year, but I don't remember last year.
Guest:Well, last year was interesting.
Guest:Last year was even more than this year, like numerically.
Guest:It was it was so many people from the everything everywhere all at once.
Guest:Oh, those guys.
Marc:Yeah, that was good.
Guest:The guys and Michelle Yeoh.
Guest:It was Brendan Fraser.
Guest:But all those people who came on went on to win, by the way.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And we had, well, we had Andrea Risborough, but that was your own kind of connection to that, which started that kind of grassroots Oscar campaign.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I believe Hong Chao was nominated last year for The Whale as well.
Guest:That was when we had her on.
Marc:She was great.
Guest:But I think this actually started as a noticeable thing for publicists, for representatives, when you did Brad and Leo as part of the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood press run.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Because that was the first time I actually remember us getting roped in to an Oscar campaign.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And it was also compromised because we can only snag them in a back room at the Arclight Hollywood, I think.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:After they did some other event where we chose to do it.
Marc:And Brad was thrilled that I was having trouble with my equipment.
Yeah.
Guest:I thought I was getting a disaster.
Guest:Like, I remember I spoke to you right after that talk.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And you were like, this is fucked.
Guest:I'm never doing this again.
Guest:This is the end of this.
Guest:Like, I'm never going to do another remote interview.
Guest:It screwed up.
Guest:I was, you know, anxious the whole time.
Guest:And you were like, I don't even know what I got.
Guest:It might all be compromised.
Guest:It might be ruined.
Guest:Right.
Yeah.
Guest:And I was like, all right.
Guest:And to me, I guess I thought like, all right, well, even if there's 20 minutes there, it's 20 minutes with huge movie stars or whatever.
Guest:And I started that thing out.
Guest:I think it was, I was like two minutes into it.
Guest:I texted you.
Guest:I was like, are you insane?
Guest:This is the greatest thing ever.
Guest:These two guys, like Brad Pitt, like, oh, I watched your show three times.
Marc:I think he is a big Dave Anthony fan.
Guest:Oh yeah, really?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Even, even DiCaprio was like, yeah, he was talking about this all the time on the set of the movie.
Marc:I think we were helping him out.
Marc:I think he's going through a dark time.
Marc:You got a kick out of it.
Marc:Yeah, right.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:No, I think it was like, I think, well, for me, the two microphone, then me, three people on a portable thing, managing levels.
Marc:And I think it's always, now that with the experience, it's always a cell phone thing.
Marc:But I think that that was actually a connector thing.
Marc:It was the mic connector.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But it worked out.
Guest:Well, then the time I was, you know, the most conscious of us, you know, that we were being solicited for Oscar campaign assistance, basically, was...
Guest:Ariana DeBose from West Side Story.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because it came in early, like as a request.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it was like, you know, so to let people in a little bit on like some bookings and that is that when we get requests, like it has to kind of feel right from the sense of the person has a story that...
Guest:you're interested in or you've seen them in something that you're interested in or whatnot.
Guest:And I think we first got that as a pitch before West Side Story had even come out.
Guest:And then I think you wound up watching it because of Tony Kushner.
Guest:You had him as a guest.
Yeah.
Guest:And so then once you watched it and you had a very positive reaction to the film, and then they were still pitching Ariana to us, and we were able to at least say, okay, there's a story there about her dance background, about her ethnic background.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it was like, yeah, okay, we can do this.
Guest:But they were more gung-ho about it than we were.
Guest:And it was noticeable to me that it's like, what is it about our show that they're so hot on getting this out there?
Guest:And it was definitely, I think, because she was in the pole position for her award.
Guest:And yet she was fairly unknown.
Guest:So they definitely wanted to get her story and her narrative out there because that's what helps with voting, frankly.
Guest:People respond, these Oscar voters, they see all the movies or they see as many movies as they think they want to see.
Guest:And then they kind of vote on like their gut, like it's not a science.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so it helps to have a profile and a narrative.
Guest:If you're, you know, Ariana DeBose, who's this really your first movie, you don't really have that.
Guest:And I was at a time where I was conscious of our show being used for that.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:And I think that, like, you know, our show, not all the time during Oscars, but like it does get other traction in terms of attention when when the entertainment press pulls quotes and pieces.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But they become a little more.
Marc:But no, I know.
Marc:But they become a little more thorough with it.
Marc:Like I see other interviews elsewhere.
Marc:I know you don't like it, but I always sometimes I like it if it's not too shitty.
Marc:But is that how we got Rita Moreno, too?
Marc:Oh, let's see.
Guest:Rita Moreno.
Guest:No, that was a long time ago.
Guest:It was?
Guest:That was for that show.
Guest:She was doing the reboot of One Day at a Time.
Marc:The Norman Lear show.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah, that was at the old garage.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:I think, yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But you know what I kind of liken it to?
Guest:I mean, you're absolutely right that I think for visibility purposes, and we've been told, one of the things we've been told absolutely, unequivocally, especially because we did a book, and we were told by book people that books,
Guest:That our show moves books.
Guest:Except for ours.
Guest:We're great at moving those books.
Guest:The great irony.
Marc:Yes.
Guest:Well, no, see, the funny thing about that is that I bet you that the way we move books for other people.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Is exactly the marginal movement that you need when you're selling at large through other resources, right?
Guest:So if you do a book tour and you're on Colbert, you're on Fresh Air, and you're on this show, you probably sell X, right?
Guest:But if you miss any one of those, you're like X divided by three, right?
Marc:So you miss out.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah, it's not a huge racket either.
Marc:And our book did fine, but we were in competition.
Marc:It just really becomes the gunning for that NYT bestseller list.
Marc:And we were hedged out by nonfiction political garbage.
Guest:Yeah, it was a lot of Trump books.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:It was 2017.
Guest:That fucker ruins everything.
Guest:Yes, exactly.
Guest:He ruined our book.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But yeah, I have always noticed, though, that the way... It's interesting.
Guest:This show...
Guest:I think largely still gets categorized as a comedy podcast, right?
Guest:Like if you see it in like categories, it's a comedy.
Guest:I think it's mostly because it was the DNA of the show, right?
Guest:You started to go almost essentially always talking to comics.
Guest:And yeah, you personally are a comedian.
Marc:And I'm just showing for years on end how I don't, I'm not always funny.
Guest:Well, but beyond like whatever you want to categorize as humor or comedy, I think like what you and I would say is that this show is a, you know, it's a conversation show.
Guest:It's not even an interview show.
Guest:It's just conversations.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But what I've increasingly seen is people put this on a list of movie podcasts.
Guest:Right.
Guest:like the great movie podcasts that are out there.
Guest:And this is one of them.
Guest:And I think I haven't had the time and I don't recommend anybody else spend their time doing this, but I bet you, if you went through and categorized every single one of our interviews, categorize them as whether they're,
Guest:comedy-based interview like with a comedian or you know someone who's on specifically because of film or television or something and then there's others books and some politics musicians some artists musicians right exactly i bet you film is as much or more than comedy at this point on our show
Marc:That's probably right.
Marc:But it was always, in the beginning, I always had sort of a difficult time with just actors because you don't always know what you're going to get.
Marc:And I think as time went on, to be honest with you, a lot of actors got a little more candid, figured out how to do this because the outlets were demanding it.
Marc:There's a lot of podcasts.
Marc:There's a lot of audio stuff.
Marc:But I just never forget that John C. Reilly thing.
Marc:He's like, I don't like to talk about myself.
Marc:I don't want to ruin the mystique.
Marc:And I don't think they're all like that.
Marc:But a lot of times, you know, actors don't always necessarily know how to talk about themselves.
Guest:Right.
Marc:For long form.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:It wasn't part of the... And that was why a lot of times, especially, you know, before we got a better routine around some of this stuff, there was, you know, our main focus of a movie was coming out and you were interested in it was, can we get the director?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because you felt like the director can talk at length about this project.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And we rarely get them.
Guest:Yeah, it was hard.
Guest:It's hard to get directors.
Guest:But I always did think of it like, and maybe this internalizing it this way translates to the show.
Guest:And then therefore, that's why publicists, representatives all will kind of think it makes sense as an Oscar outlet.
Guest:I always used to envision that
Guest:You remember on DVDs, there'd be like special features.
Guest:I don't know how often you ever watched the special features in that.
Guest:But one of the things I loved was if you got a DVD that had a bunch of special features on it, there would often be whatever the best like long form interview with that person was.
Guest:Like usually it was like the Charlie Rose show because he was the only one doing like an hour without commercials.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But whatever the definitive interview was, they would put that on the DVD.
Guest:And I always kind of feel like we do that now, and have been for over a decade.
Guest:You have a director on, and you're like, let's just talk about it.
Guest:Talk about this movie and all your other movies.
Marc:Well, yeah.
Marc:I mean, sometimes it really shakes out well, and more so than not, certainly now.
Marc:Even that episode we're going to run tomorrow,
Marc:For with our past Oscar nominees, like I would bet that that Jodie Foster interview is the the the interview of that.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And that happens a lot, especially with the smaller directors.
Marc:And, you know, I don't know because we take the time.
Marc:But I bet that Lily Gladstone interview is a lot fuller than most of the other ones.
Guest:Yeah, well, we've seen it.
Guest:I've seen the reaction from people.
Guest:I was mentioning this to Chris Lepresto that we have people sometimes come into the show because they are fans of the person you're talking to, right?
Guest:They may have never heard this show before.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then they listen because they're like, oh, my favorite person is right.
Guest:And I've already seen that feedback about the Lily Gladstone one from people who weren't, you know, very familiar with this show that are like, you did the best interview with her.
Marc:Yeah, I like those comments over the stop talking over your guests comments.
Guest:Yeah, that happens, too, with people who just come in for the first time because they're expecting the junket style Q&A.
Marc:Q&A, yeah.
Marc:Yeah, always.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:I remember getting so riled up about that.
Marc:And then just back when I engaged with trolls or people that had problems, I'd be like, it's a conversation.
Marc:It's about me, too.
Guest:to my show it's also i mean like i don't ever try to it's it's like it's like trying to explain you know away santa claus or something to somebody like you just you just either have to take it or you don't it's like i know what the magic is of the conversations i know why it works and i know that a big part of why it works is because of how you are with the guests and so i can't waste my time no like no no but you see he has to talk and interrupt because
Marc:Because, yeah, I kind of know what I'm doing.
Marc:But even with the Ben Mendelsohn, people are like, no Star Wars?
Marc:I'm like, didn't watch it.
Guest:Don't care.
Guest:So that's a perfect example.
Guest:Because not only Star Wars, but he's also in Marvel Universe stuff and that.
Guest:Does it seem like that guy gives a shit about that stuff?
Guest:No.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So if you bring up to him, if you bring up to him, oh, well, what about that Marvel thing you're in?
Guest:He's going to access in his brain, which he's a professional.
Guest:He knows how to do this.
Marc:The narrative.
Guest:The two or three things he's had to say, right, when he went out and did...
Guest:publicity for Captain Marvel or whatever.
Guest:And he'll say that stuff to you.
Guest:What does that do for us?
Marc:Nothing.
Marc:And also like, I don't, I, there, there's certain guests out of respect.
Marc:I'll, I'll, I'll get well versed, you know, but it didn't, it didn't feel necessary for him.
Guest:Well, it's better than it used to be, where it would be like Paul Rudd, who was coming over to promote Ant-Man, and you were like, so what's this ant shit you're doing?
Marc:Yeah, I guess those days are over.
Yeah.
Guest:Well, yeah, I guess it's harder now that you've like been in one.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like you're you're you're in a superhero.
Guest:I guess it's not a superhero movie, but it's a comic book movie.
Marc:Yeah, I got flack for that.
Marc:But even with a lot of interviews, I'll just be sort of honest.
Marc:Generally, I'll go out of my way to make sure I see what they're promoting.
Marc:You know, but sometimes with books like, you know, I'm not going to get all the way through.
Marc:Yeah, that's fine.
Guest:As we've always said, that's fine because you tend to do a better interview when you're not fully loaded with the book.
Marc:If it's a memoir, for sure.
Marc:And if it's not a memoir, I'll generally read it so I can engage in the conversation about whatever it's about.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Do you remember that moment with Eli Wallach back at Air America?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:no probably it was great you know it was a great moment he we had you had a great interview with him it was so fun he was telling all these old stories some of them that didn't go anywhere but that was kind of the charm of them yeah like he'd be like oh i have a humphrey bogart story yeah and it would just be like you know and then he came in and he took off his hat that's my humphrey bogart story yeah yeah
Guest:And I remember, though, that he was very charmed by you.
Guest:You did your thing with old Jewish men that you know how to do.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And at the end of it, you were like, well, thank you very much.
Guest:It was a real honor to have you here.
Guest:And he was like, this has been the most pleasant interview I've done since I've been doing this book, because it was for his memoir.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And you were like, oh, well, thank you.
Guest:That's great.
Guest:And he's like, because you didn't read the book.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And you thought he was like, you know, taking issue with that.
Guest:And you're like, well, no, I didn't want to read it because I didn't want, I want you to tell the stories.
Guest:And he's like, yep, yep, that's it.
Guest:That's it.
Guest:You did it the right way.
Guest:And then I do remember like off mic, he was telling us who I remember, I think specifically it was about Leonard Lopate at WNYC, that he felt like he had a terrible interview with him because he just domineered and just said everything that was in the book already.
Marc:He kept leading them, yeah.
Marc:That's the problem.
Marc:I only read those memoirs if I don't know enough of their early work or if I'm concerned they can't tell the stories, you know?
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:Um, do you ever, speaking about off mic though, do you ever wind up talking to people who are doing their Oscar stuff?
Guest:And, you know, do they ever say anything to you off mic about it?
Guest:Like, do you ever, you know, just to me, it seems like such a kind of crazy, silly thing, but yet it's still ultra important and they all have to do it.
Guest:And they, they also know the kind of importance of these awards.
Guest:Do you, does that ever come across when, you know, they're letting your guards down?
Marc:Oh, sure.
Marc:Either before or after, like, Lily was excited to do the show.
Marc:She knew what I did and was, you know, ready to go.
Marc:And afterwards, she was, you know, grateful that we had such a nice conversation.
Marc:But Rodrigo Prieto, afterwards, he's like, wow, we really...
Marc:Like, I could tell he was locked in, but he was highly aware of everything we covered.
Guest:Yeah, right, right.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:It was like his whole life.
Marc:Yeah, but he wasn't exhausted.
Marc:He goes, well, I guess that's it then.
Marc:Yeah, he was just sort of, wow, we did it.
Marc:Off mic, who else did we have on this time?
Marc:Well, when Brendan Fraser was here, it was fragile stuff, you know?
Guest:Yeah, he seemed like the whole thing was putting him through the wringer.
Marc:Yeah, you know, and I felt that.
Marc:But generally, they're just sort of like, oh, great.
Marc:They never really realize how much time's gone by, which is always a good sign.
Guest:All right, well, let's talk a little bit about the movies that are out this year and nominated and included.
Guest:You know, frankly, I think, you know, we've had this conversation before.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And my feeling is like, you know, we don't have to rehash the pertinence and cultural relevance of the Oscars.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:But I do kind of think that something happened this year.
Guest:And I think a lot of it was due to Barbie and Oppenheimer, right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That hasn't happened in a long time.
Guest:That this idea that, you know, movies that are not like Barbie obviously is based on existing IP, but I don't think you're going to call that movie like a franchise movie, right?
Guest:It was a movie of ideas.
Marc:Not unless they do another one.
Guest:Well, I'm sure they will, but at the same time, it's like it almost succeeded in spite of itself, right?
Guest:Yeah, for sure, yeah.
Guest:And obviously Oppenheimer's is structurally a biopic and wound up taking on the kind of form of a blockbuster movie, even though it's not.
Marc:Like you watch that thing, it's still- Yeah, they're going to do a prequel that's just about Albert Einstein.
Guest:I mean, or I like Enrico Fermi story.
Guest:They can just do like the whole, it's like the Marvel universe, but just with all those little individual scientists.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh yeah.
Guest:The, the, the Krumholtz spinoff is going to, it's going to be a major hit.
Marc:I'd like to see that.
Guest:But yeah, you know, like, so I do think this year there's something, and I wonder if it'll be reflected in the amount of people that wind up watching the show.
Guest:There's something about it that feels more vital to me this year.
Guest:Like, it's almost like it's important to put the focus back on movies when for many years it was like,
Guest:The movies as a popular form of entertainment almost existed in this one sphere where you went to see Marvel and you went to see Star Wars and you went to see cartoons and all the stuff that made the money.
Guest:And then the Oscars, it was like always movies.
Guest:You'd maybe have one movie that made over like $100 million and everything else was like...
Guest:stuff that, you know, was at best, you could consider it indie film, even if it wasn't indies.
Guest:It was, these were smaller films and those are the ones that get honored with art.
Guest:And like, I am, I think it's a positive that the conversation around, like the fact that Barbie made over a billion dollars, billion and a half dollars, and people were concerned about it being snubbed in one or two categories after it got nominated for seven or eight.
Guest:Like that to me is kind of a great thing.
Guest:Like get people acknowledging the, the importance of movies.
Marc:Well, right.
Marc:Well, that, that one kind of crossed over into being not only a cultural, uh, uh,
Marc:movement and moment, but also a totally unique vision filmically.
Marc:And then, you know, the fact that it made money, it sort of elevated everything, everyone's attention.
Marc:And then somehow or another...
Marc:You know, Oppenheimer as well to a degree.
Marc:But really, I think that Barbie kind of brought a lot of people into the experience of movie going again, which was important.
Marc:But then all of a sudden, you know, this field of best pictures is pretty fucking good.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Definitely.
Marc:And that doesn't hardly happen.
Marc:And there's more of them than there ever were.
Marc:I mean, I remember back when there was like five.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Well, this is the 15th year since they started the 10 picture field, right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I can remember a lot of those times where you'd see, you know, the whole idea started because there was a year where the second Chris Nolan Batman movie, which everybody, you know, basically said was like the peak of the genre of superhero movies.
Guest:This was the one with Heath Ledger playing the Joker, The Dark Knight.
Guest:that it didn't get nominated one of the one of the five nominees yeah and everybody thought that's crazy it was like the biggest movie of the year and it was not only the biggest movie but it was like the way barbie's considered this seems like relevant and people are people are taking it in in a different way than just popular entertainment right and that was when they expanded the field right and i think that the thought was you're going to expand it and then you're going to have a
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like the ones that come out and they're like, oh, this is going to run, you know, campaign for Oscar for best picture.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And like they make like $15 million or whatever.
Guest:Not everybody sees it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then you move on.
Guest:Like you could try to guess the last like, you know, from memory.
Right.
Guest:the last two three years of oscar movies and i doubt you could do it right because there's just so many that you that go off the radar very quickly and i feel like this year there's a lot of stuff that people not only saw but talked about at length like it's there's conversation going on about a lot of these movies yeah for sure and uh i i think i i
Marc:I saw most of them, which isn't always the case.
Marc:Almost all of them.
Marc:But yeah, I mean, I can't always remember which ones in the past.
Marc:I mean, I know the older movies, and I know last year.
Marc:But yeah, this cycle seems pretty rich.
Guest:And you know what I think is interesting about that is...
Guest:A lot of times when a foreign film, foreign language film, gets put into the best picture category, it's that thing I was talking about, this kind of like compartmentalized Oscar movie category where popularly people don't talk about it.
Guest:A lot of people talk about this anatomy of a fall.
Guest:It worked the way that regular American pop boilers work.
Marc:It just happens to be French.
Marc:You felt like you had to see it.
Marc:Like a lot of times, like, you know, for some reason, and it's probably some sort of slight, you know, kind of dubious racial judgment around subtitles or the context of another country in terms of how they live.
Marc:The curiosity, you know, you have to really want to see something totally different in a way.
Marc:And with Anatomy of a Fall, it was, yeah, I felt the pressure, like, because people kept talking about it as amazing.
Marc:And, you know, I don't mind subtitles.
Marc:Like, I'm at an age I seem to put subtitles on even for regular movies just so I don't miss anything.
Marc:You and all the 20-year-olds.
Marc:Oh, they do that too?
Guest:Yeah, it's a big thing.
Guest:Apparently the Gen Z and Gen Alphas, they only watch TV with subtitles on.
Guest:Why?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:It's a cultural thing.
Guest:I think it's probably one of those things where this is the generation that has come of age with certain technology that defaults to that.
Marc:And so they just always had it on.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's always kind of comes up.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:They watch it the same way.
Marc:I just, sometimes I don't want to miss things.
Marc:And like I watched McCabe and Mrs. Miller.
Marc:It's helpful because everyone's mumbling.
Guest:See that to me though, makes sense.
Guest:It's like when I feel like even my, this is my personal feeling about it and it has nothing to do with films in a different language that are subtitled, but I'm okay with watching a movie and missing the dialogue the first time.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And then if I like the movie and I watch it again, then I'll put the subtitles on.
Guest:So you can lock in, yeah.
Guest:I don't feel that my engagement in a movie the first time has anything to do with reading or even processing the dialogue.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I want to take the story in.
Guest:And the best movies can tell the story without exceeding amounts of dialogue.
Marc:Yeah, I thought Anatomy of the Fall was great.
Marc:I thought it was like an interesting story.
Marc:And, you know, the balance of emotion was good.
Marc:And then also just, you know, courtroom stuff's always great.
Marc:And seeing a court that's not familiar from American movies was interesting, seeing how the lawyers worked.
Marc:And but it's provocative.
Marc:I liked it.
Guest:Now, what do you feel like you've seen a lot of stuff you've seen?
Guest:You've talked to people who've been involved in the movies.
Guest:Do you have a film or a person like person nominated in a category that will make you the happiest if they win this year?
Marc:I mean, look, I'd love for Lily Gladstone to win.
Marc:I think that'd be very exciting.
Marc:I'd like for Giamatti to win.
Marc:You know, I think that would be great.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I liked Jeffrey Wright in that movie, which I didn't love.
Marc:I'd be happy if he won, though I think he's given better performances.
Marc:Not that that wasn't great, it was just the nature of the character.
Guest:Yeah, you know, that's funny you say that.
Guest:I totally feel like Paul Giamatti gives a great performance in The Holdovers.
Guest:I do think he's done better, more difficult work than that movie.
Guest:Like...
Guest:I think his performance in Sideways is a much richer performance than that.
Marc:The depth of that guy's sort of bitterness and resignation.
Marc:Oh, and in Sideways where he drinks the spit bucket, it's like that's... That's all over his shirt.
Marc:It's the best.
Marc:Just sort of like, I'm garbage.
Marc:Look at me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And this character like has that in him too.
Marc:Yes.
Guest:But part of it is he, the, the wall he puts up of the, like the, the academia and the, you know, the defense that he has to have, it does mute the performance a bit.
Marc:Well, yeah.
Marc:And you don't really kind of get the full picture until he runs into that, you know,
Marc:old schoolmate of his.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:And then you find a whole backstory and you're like, oh my God.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, the notes that they hit at the very end of that movie are truly fantastic.
Guest:It has as much to do with that young kid as it does Giamatti.
Guest:Like their ability to really wring the emotion out of that goodbye is something.
Yes.
Marc:Yeah, no, I think I'd totally love for him to win.
Marc:And those are the supporting roles?
Guest:No, those are both best actor and actress.
Marc:Oh, really?
Guest:So who are the supporters that we talked to?
Guest:You know, best supporting actor, everybody is just under the assumption that Robert Downey Jr.
Guest:is going to win Walking Away.
Guest:He's won every award.
Marc:Oh, but someone's up against him that you kind of want.
Guest:Well, yeah, I'm sure you do.
Guest:It's Mark Ruffalo.
Guest:You loved that performance.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Marc:That, you know, if you know that thing as a as a not just an acting performance, but as a comedic performance is insane.
Marc:That's an insanely nuanced and interesting character that you I don't know that I've seen anything like it before.
Marc:The way he plays the sort of weird strutting insecurity of a cad who's like, it's just such a thin veneer.
Marc:That's a brilliant performance and he deserves it.
Marc:I'd love to see him win.
Guest:You know, it's interesting.
Guest:There's three comedic performances for best supporting actor.
Marc:Yeah, and I didn't think Robert Downey was that funny.
Marc:I wanted to laugh, but it just didn't come across.
Yeah.
Guest:No.
Marc:He just seemed like an asshole.
Guest:Yeah, it's funny how that happens.
Guest:Although, by the way, if anything, this is a make good for Downey.
Guest:He definitely was overlooked.
Guest:I think it was the same year that Heath Ledger won for Best Supporting Actor for playing the Joker, which was a posthumous award.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, you know, it was very hard for anybody else to get any oxygen that year.
Guest:But that was the year...
Guest:that downy was nominated for tropic thunder which is truly one of the great comedic performances of all time that whole movie dude but yeah yeah for sure the movie that movie is even better than it was which is shocking oh no i love watching it comedies don't age particularly well ever yeah and the fact that it's still so good it's so good
Marc:It's crazy how good that movie is, and for the weirdest reasons.
Marc:All that stuff with Ben Stiller at the prisoner camp, it's the greatest investigation of an actor's ego I've ever seen in my life.
Guest:Oh, yeah, totally.
Marc:When he puts those dumb teeth in, and then they make him an Oscar out of wood.
Guest:Yeah, his little Oscar.
Guest:Stickman.
Guest:He wants to keep.
Marc:And he's totally surrendered to it.
Marc:He's totally like Stockholm Syndrome by the whole thing.
Marc:It's the best.
Marc:Yeah, well, Downey won one.
Marc:And I tend to think somehow that, like, well, he's got one.
Marc:Give it.
Guest:No, he never won.
Marc:He never won for Chaplin?
Guest:He did not, no.
Marc:Oh.
Yeah.
Guest:Well, that's why I definitely think this is like, you know, when you talk about narrative too, it's like, there's a guy who, now look, he clearly did like, you know, good work in playing Iron Man in the sense that if you launched the Marvel thing in 2008 with anybody else, it probably doesn't become the success that it became.
Guest:It's largely due to him.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he, you know, you can watch those things.
Guest:He's doing great.
Guest:Fun work in all of them.
Guest:For sure.
Guest:But I do think that mentally people sidelined him as an actor.
Guest:You know, he's just Iron Man now, right?
Guest:Like that was the thing.
Guest:And so I do feel like a big part of awarding him now, rewarding him is the like, welcome back.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's almost a lifetime achievement award.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:We loved that you used to do this.
Guest:And now you're back doing it.
Marc:Sort of like Nicolas Cage after, you know, all the bad movies.
Marc:Right.
Marc:You know, he's back.
Marc:It's like, oh, he's serious again.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Or, you know, Scorsese's Oscars for The Departed, which is crazy, you know, but it's like they, you know, a great movie.
Guest:no it's it's and i think it's like one of his like clearly farted out movies too like he was like yeah i guess we're gonna make a cops and robbers movie here yeah uh but but you know they they they overlooked the guy so much that it became inevitable that is peak walberg though that movie he's fucking he's so good in that yeah i'm the guy doing his job you must be the other guy
Guest:When he can just let loose that version of himself.
Marc:It's the best.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Guest:You know, I think your past guest, Devine Joy Randolph, is another one who seems like she's won every award that there is to win for Best Supporting Actress.
Guest:Who's she up against?
Guest:I think she's going to win this as well.
Guest:But, well, she's up against America Ferrara, who you spoke with.
Guest:But you know who else is really great?
Guest:That woman, Danielle Brooks, from The Color Purple, who really stole that movie in many ways.
Marc:Pretty amazing.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Pretty amazing.
Marc:Yeah, she was... And her story is great.
Marc:And that, yeah, that performance in that movie was kind of stunning.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And yeah, I mean, I'd be happy for either of them.
Marc:I thought Divine...
Guest:divine joy uh was pretty fucking great yeah that's and it was a it's a hard role because it's asking her to hold a lot of gravity without giving her too much it doesn't allow for a lot of showiness it's just you know she has to stay in the center morally of that film yeah and also play all that grief which was kind of amazing
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Emily Blunt also does amazing work in Oppenheimer.
Guest:And, you know, she's nominated in that category.
Guest:And I remember you, you know, like when you came out of Oppenheimer, you're like, she does crazy stuff.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:She's a very good actress.
Guest:Astounding.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, look, The Devil Wears Prada is one of my favorite movies, and she was great in that.
Marc:Did I just say that publicly?
Marc:You've said it before.
Marc:Definitely.
Marc:I can watch that movie anytime.
Guest:Well, you know, she turns up in great movies all the time.
Marc:She was in a Lynn Sheldon movie.
Guest:Oh, right.
Marc:That's right.
Guest:But My Sister's Sister?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But she's also in Sicario.
Guest:She's also in Edge of Tomorrow.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, like, that's the thing.
Guest:You start to get to a point where the common denominator is her.
Guest:It's like, oh, man, all these movies she's in are so good.
Guest:And then you're like, oh, wait, she's great.
Marc:Yeah, when Benicio del Toro puts that gun under her chin to sign the thing.
Guest:That's just one of those movies that can go on at any time.
Guest:The best.
Marc:It's so fucking compelling.
Marc:And it's like, usually you want to just tune in for when he kills that guy eating dinner with his family.
Yeah.
Marc:But then you're like, no, I'm just going to watch the whole thing.
Guest:By the way, that's the guy who made the, I was telling you off mic that you should definitely check out the Dune movies.
Guest:And that's the guy who made them.
Guest:The guy who made Sicario.
Guest:Yeah, I will.
Marc:I've made a note of it.
Guest:So the best pictures that I think you've seen everything here except for past lives, American fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Oppenheimer, Past Lives, Poor Things, and Zone of Interest.
Guest:I didn't know you saw Zone of Interest.
Marc:I did see Zone of Interest.
Marc:Oh.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:How'd that go for you?
Yeah.
Marc:Well, you know, it's interesting when your neighbor is Auschwitz.
Marc:You know, neighbors are difficult in general.
Marc:But the fact that this family didn't really totally register it, I thought, like, I have reassessed that guy, or maybe assessed him thoroughly for the first time and watched, like, all his movies.
Marc:Jonathan Glaser.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And he's...
Marc:takes real risks.
Marc:You know, he can really hold a point of view.
Marc:And he's a very interesting filmmaker.
Marc:And I thought that movie was...
Marc:I thought it was great because, and the whole thing hinged.
Marc:I mean, you know what's up.
Marc:He works at the camp.
Marc:There's interesting filmic choices being made.
Marc:But when the wife, who's just sort of like, you know, just loving the situation she has and planting her garden, and when her mother comes to visit, and there's a moment where...
Marc:the mother's talking about a Jewish woman that she used to work for, and she says, you know, I wonder if she's over there.
Marc:But then at some point, you know, the way you read it is that the mother, you know, sort of realizes deeply the horror of it and has to leave early.
Marc:And...
Marc:And I thought that was like somehow or another the sort of hinge to the whole experience of that movie, that you have this kind of like matter of fact, you know, good German, German military, you know, just treating this as, you know, what is happening and what needs to happen and how to do it as efficiently as possible.
Marc:And also, you know, personal and political ambition on behalf of the husband.
Marc:But when the mother-in-law comes, and there's a moment of her just looking out at the burning sky, and you realize that the soot of thousands of Jews is, and you see her, like, she just leaves.
Marc:And it was this strange, very tempered, and very, you know, cynical bit of hope in the face of that thing that I thought really, you know, oddly made the movie for me.
Marc:But yeah, I'm excited about whatever that filmmaker does at any time.
Marc:And American fiction, again, I felt felt a little frozen in time and they didn't they kind of didn't allude to that because and I've talked to people.
Marc:I mean, I think it's a fun story and I didn't love the fact that we didn't get a real ending out of it.
Marc:But I think that out of all the industries.
Marc:that really made progress in terms of representing different voices, publishing has done it.
Marc:So the thing felt a little dated to me.
Marc:So the comedy didn't land as well as it should as a satire.
Guest:And did you take in the maestro well, or how did you feel about that?
Marc:I thought it was like, there's a lot happening, a lot of film stock, a lot of makeup, a lot of different time periods.
Marc:But I still don't come away from that knowing the story of Leonard Bernstein.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:It's interesting.
Guest:I feel the same way in the sense of not getting it from a biography standpoint.
Guest:But I did like that the movie felt like a swing for the fences.
Marc:Oh, no, no doubt.
Marc:And all the effort that was put in paid off.
Marc:But but you didn't because of all of it, all of the effort, you know, the simple story of what it might have really been like.
Marc:emotionally to be in that orbit doesn't really come through.
Marc:I mean, I think it's in there, but it doesn't, it takes a backseat, you know, way back.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's interesting that Spielberg is a producer on it because I feel like that's part of his fatal flaw.
Marc:Oh, even in that one about himself.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:The Fablemans.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's like, how did they avoid, you know, the, the emotional, uh, the real emotional darkness?
Marc:How did they avoid it?
Guest:He's been doing it his whole life.
Marc:Didn't want to make his mom look bad.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:There, there, there is a, that is a difference between you and Steven Spielberg.
Guest:If there is one, that in about a billion dollars.
Yeah.
Guest:Well, one thing I did want to ask you about is, you know, Jimmy Kimmel is hosting the show again this year.
Guest:And I think I know how you stand on this, but where does he rank for you in the pantheon of Oscar hosts?
Guest:The best.
Guest:Yeah, I think he's definitely one of, if not the best.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Dude, that thing he did that one year, like I will never, you know, he's won my heart over forever.
Marc:When he brought those regular people into that room, that was one of the most subversive, most brilliant things.
Marc:I don't even think he knows.
Marc:how amazing that was.
Guest:I've watched like a making of, of, of him doing that.
Guest:And, uh, it was a big project too.
Guest:Like it was, it took a lot to get that, to get pulled off.
Guest:And they like, they pulled it off live.
Guest:There was nothing about that.
Guest:That was, that was, you know, it was, it was all up to chance.
Marc:It was so great because it was a cultural political statement that,
Marc:And it was hilarious.
Marc:But to see some of those people just like, oh, look who it is.
Marc:And just how small it made everyone in that room look.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:But here they were, you know, dressed to the nines, waiting for the results of the biggest night in their life.
Marc:And they got to deal with these fucking regular people that come out, you know, that see them on the streets and at restaurants.
Marc:And it was just...
Marc:It was very humanizing and very powerful to me.
Guest:I just recently rewatched the end of that year when they got the winners wrong with La La Land and Moonlight.
Guest:And he handles it so amazingly.
Guest:Like, because it's crazy and chaos and you really like shouldn't do much because you want it to just play out.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But and if you the wrong person could have like panicked and thought they had to like take control of it.
Guest:And instead he he goes, Warren, what did you do?
Guest:Right.
Guest:Because it was Warren Beatty who opened the envelope.
Guest:And then Warren gets up to the mic and now he wants to like absolve himself of everything.
Guest:So he's like, I just want to explain what happened.
Guest:Because if you remember, he took the envelope and he opened it and he paused and was looking at it.
Guest:And they thought he was like, you know, doing a bit or something.
Guest:Like, oh, he's not going to say it.
Guest:So instead he showed it to Faye.
Guest:Who took it and she's the one who read it.
Guest:And what he comes out and explains is, I opened the envelope and it said, Emma Stone, La La Land.
Guest:So I was confused and I was pausing to think of what to say or do.
Guest:I wasn't trying to be funny anymore.
Guest:And Jimmy Kimmel walks into like, just as he says that Jimmy Kimmel walks into the frame and he goes, well, you were, but what was it?
Guest:The wrong envelope?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:The, the, the, the backstory was, and I think they fired the whole, that whole accounting team for doing it.
Guest:The, the, um, the guy who is responsible for handing the envelopes out, uh,
Guest:stopped to take a picture of Emma Stone coming off the stage with her Oscar after having just won.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then when they handed out to the presenters for Best Picture, they handed them the backup envelope for Best Actress.
Guest:He wasn't paying attention.
Guest:He confused the envelopes and sent the wrong one out to the stage because every envelope is duplicated.
Marc:I just think also there's something about Kimmel that is more human than most, no matter how big he is.
Marc:And this is something you and I understand.
Marc:He's a radio guy.
Marc:He's a regular fucking Joe when it comes to entertainment.
Marc:This guy's had the greatest career ever because radio guys are just above regular people.
Guest:yeah well that's somebody he said i was reading a thing of an interview he did after that that people immediately thought like did you do this like did you pull a prank right that he's known for doing that like i mean just the the having the regular people show up at the oscars so they thought this was his prank and he was like well first of all i'm not that stupid to try to prank the best picture but secondly if i was if i did that i would have replaced it with like a jiffy lube gift card or something
Marc:yeah that's radio stuff exactly just referencing jiffy lube probably did ads for jiffy lube totally
Guest:Totally.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, I think in a weird way, that's why he is a good late night host, too.
Guest:He knows it's the same thing that, you know, it's why Letterman is one of his heroes, because he knows like there's a certain level where you should not be taking this stuff seriously.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And he's very good.
Marc:He rides a line with, you know, making fun of the, you know, of the egos and everything.
Marc:And, you know, but he's definitely of them and they've, they've grown to love him.
Marc:So that's good.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And the bit that the running bit he has with, with Damon is great too.
Guest:Like that, that always works.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's funny.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Well, I don't know, you know, the running bit with Damon and now that the whatever the fuck him and Affleck are doing with Dunkin Donuts, I don't understand.
Marc:But it's like just ripe for mockery.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, I'm sure they'll take some mockery considering how much they're probably making from that deal.
Marc:But, I mean, come on, the outfits.
Marc:I mean, I know they think it's sort of like, look at the get-ups wearing, but it's like, dudes.
Marc:I mean, it's like, that's the hardest thing about getting older and growing up in a certain time where, like, it was genuinely surprising and almost disheartening.
Marc:To see, you know, your movie star heroes doing shit commercials.
Guest:But now, no matter who you... Yeah, part of it.
Marc:Yeah, no matter who you respect, you're like, oh, there they are.
Marc:They were just there for like 12 seconds for some sort of, you know, adult diaper thing, you
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:In fact, that's the hook on almost all advertising campaigns now is what is the joke beat with a celebrity?
Guest:Right.
Guest:That's what all of those ads that ran during the Super Bowl, they all had some joke beat of some celebrity poking fun at themselves.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yep.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I guess that's, you know, I mean, it's all part of the big finish of what we know as civilization.
Yeah.
Guest:I mean, I guess, I guess it's a little better than knowing that like Orson Welles doing Paul Masson wines was like the end of the rope for that guy.
Marc:He's desperate.
Marc:None of these people are desperate.
Marc:They're like, anyone give me free money.
Marc:Okay.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:It's a little better to know that like, well, they're doing okay.
Guest:They're not, this isn't, this isn't because like they're, they're, they're going to lose their three houses or whatever.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:I, you know, I know what that's, how much can I save face and still you're going to pay me that much.
Marc:All right.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Well, I hope that your show gets done at a decent enough time that you can at least maybe stream some of the awards as you're driving down to JFK Airport.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:Watch TV while I'm driving.
Marc:No problem.
Guest:That's always a success.
Guest:I think it's better for you, though, because it'll keep you off your texts.
Marc:That's true.
Marc:Yeah, I got to get off of that.
Marc:All right, man.
Marc:All right.
Guest:Happy Oscars.
Marc:Thanks.
Marc:You too.