Emory Cohen’s past credits include Brooklyn, The Place Beyond The Pines, Lords of Chaos, and the short-lived but much-loved series The OA. Now he stars as Samuel in Brian Petsos’ wildly unique comedy Big Gold Brick and delivers a performance so full of mania, big humor and bold choices it will have you continuously rapt. On this episode, he talks about the aspects of his process that he relies on with every role, the walk down “the gallery” of past great performances, sometimes “silly” animal work, focused rehearsal with a coach, and he explains why he actually enjoys the restrictions […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Feb 22, 2022Chukwudi Iwuji has been celebrated for his stage work (particularly Shakespeare) on both sides of the pond. He got raves for his Henvy VI at RSC, Othello and Hamlet at The Public, to names just a few. The raves continued for his performances in The Low Road (Obie win) and Ivo van Hove’s Hedda Gabler. He has only recently been transitioning, in a concerted way, to film work. James Gunn rewrote Clemson Murn in Peacemaker after seeing Iwuji’s audition, then put him in Guardians of the Galaxy 3, and called him one of the greatest actors who has graced his […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Feb 15, 2022She has been acting professionally for the better part of two decades, so Joey King has a bit more experience than the average 22-year-old Hollywood actor. And after the gigantic surprise success of The Kissing Booth, and its subsequent sequels, she knows what it’s like to have a global hit on her hands. Add an Emmy nomination for her phenomenal work in The Act to her resume, and you have a well-respected actor/producer with a constant pile of scripts on her desk and first-look deals at Hulu and Netflix. In this episode, she explains how it only seems like it’s […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Feb 8, 2022He played Aquaman on Smallville and Hawk on Titans, and now Alan Ritchson is taking on the role of Reacher in the new Amazon series based on the Lee Child books. Child highlighted the “blend of menace and goodwill” that Ritchson brings to the role as something that attracted him to the actor. Ritchson talks about how the super long audition process functioned almost like a workshop for him to experiment with different approaches to the character, which paid off when he landed the part and finally got in front of the camera. He tells another story of a very […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Feb 1, 2022Norwegian actor Renate Reinsve’s performance in her first leading role, in Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person In The World, earned her the best actress award at Cannes and is slowly taking the world by storm. She embodies Julie with a levity and depth that is both grounded in a relatable reality and poetically expresses the beauty and heartbreak of life at the same time. To say it’s the kind of work that changes people’s lives is not an exaggeration. In this half hour, we take the microscope to her performance and lay out the factors at play in its creation. […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Jan 25, 2022Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Eric Roberts will soon have more credits as an actor than anyone else who has ever lived anywhere in the world. An intensity matched only by raw talent on display in films like Star 80, The Pope of Greenwich Village, and Runaway Train established him as a respectable actor’s actor in Hollywood. And, as he talks about in this episode, once video replaced film, and more people began shooting, they wanted Eric Roberts in their movies. And once he became privy to how many offers were coming in, he started saying yes. Work begot work fairly […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Jan 18, 2022This is Kevin Corrigan’s fourth time on the podcast (his previous episodes are #1, #67, #133). It’s a yearly tradition to visit with the wise sage of indie film acting. We’re catching him right after returning from his latest job in Vancouver. He highlights a few moments from that shoot that stand out for him, shares what’s behind his incredible drawings of moments he loves from various performances, fails at “Kevin Corrigan Trivia” (which leads to some memories of Walking And Talking), talks about what makes it all “worth it,” and much more. Plus we chat way too much about […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Dec 28, 2021Chris Diamantopoulos was always an actor. Never held another job. He was working on the stage at an early age—touring companies, Broadway—then transitioned to television, film, and eventually voice overs. Never stopped. Some highlights: Russ Hanneman on Silicon Valley, Reinhold on Community, Moe in The Three Stooges, the official voice of Mickey Mouse, and right now you can see him playing bad guys in Netflix’s Red Notice and True Story. We recorded this interview hours before he started a new job and he takes us through what’s on his mind on the night before day one. He talks about how […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Dec 21, 2021The Girlfriend Experience put Riley Keough on the radar, and she’s been giving us multi-layered, deeply rooted, captivating performances ever since, mostly in indie films like American Honey, Under The Silver Lake, The House That Jack Built, and now this year’s Zola, where she brilliantly walks the line of authentic nuance and absurdity in the role of Stefani. In this episode, she talks about the touchy endeavor of building the right approach for that character with director Janicza Bravo, the importance of knowing when to tighten up on prep or leave it loose, why she hates auditioning, how her spirituality […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Dec 14, 2021Léa Seydoux was a talented young French actor when she reached planet-wide stardom with her incredible performance in Blue Is The Warmest Color (she even shared the Palme d’Or at Cannes, which had never been awarded to actors before). Since then she has invaded Hollywood, starring in James Bond movies and Wes Anderson films, but also continuing to turn in exceptional performances for international directors like Yorgos Lanthimos, Arnaud Desplechin, Ildikó Enyedi, and, for her latest film, France, Bruno Dumont. In this episode, she talks about the “sweet craziness” of working with Dumont, the importance of learning the “language” of […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Dec 10, 2021