Jason Manzoukos has made a living “bringing the funny” in tv shows like The League, Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place, and movies such as The House, and The Dictator. Now he stars in Hannah Fidell’s The Long Dumb Road with Tony Revolori (The Grand Budapest Hotel). In this half hour, I send him down a rabbit hole on the evolution of comedy, he tells a great story about getting the hard truth from a casting director early in his career, and talks about when to “pitch an alt.” Plus I forbid all comedic podcast banter and he […]

James Ransone doesn’t like to talk about himself. He also doesn’t like to talk about acting. This might have been a disastrous interview except that his expressed frustration at having to speak about these things actually spawned an interesting and raw conversation about acting. I first noticed Ransone in the role of Ziggy in Season 2 of The Wire. He went on to star in the HBO miniseries Generation Kill, and in movies like Sinister, Tangerine and Spike Lee’s Oldboy remake. This year he played an astronaut in Hulu’s The First and he’s now shooting IT Chapter 2. His direct, […]

You recognize Eric Lange. He’s been a working actor for 20+ years, with extensive theater work and a long list of television and film credits (Narcos, Lost, Weeds, The Bridge, to name a few recent ones). For Escape at Dannemora (directed by Ben Stiller), he gained 40 pounds to play Lyle, husband of Patricia Arquette’s character, in the Showtime limited series based on the real-life prison break. He tells a wonderful, “outside-in” tale of finding a way into Lyle through some magic teeth, and waxes about the “getting paid to wait” life of acting for the camera. Back To One […]

Simone Missick is best known for playing Misty Knight in the Netflix/Marvel series Luke Cage (as well in The Defenders and Iron Fist). She tells a great story of getting that part, and her game plan for auditioning in general, and also talks about knowing when to offer script changes, even for Marvel material! Then we talk about her important new film Jinn, about a teenager torn between her burgeoning sexuality and her mother’s newfound Muslim faith. Jinn is now available on VOD and Digital. Back To One can be found wherever you get your podcasts, including iTunes, Google Play, […]

Melissa Leo has acquired a lot of acting wisdom. On this episode, she graciously shares some. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her incredible performance in Frozen River, and won one for playing Alice Ward in The Fighter. Recent notable performances can be found in Francine, The Most Hated Woman In America, and her latest, Unlovable, where she plays opposite Charlene deGuzman, who co-wrote the script based on her real-life experiences in a program for sex and love addiction. Leo talks lovingly about that production, and about how she sometimes gleans more substantial info from a dolly grip […]

With over 100 films in his legendary career filled with versatile, bold, and iconic performances, Willem Dafoe is one of the most respected actors of our time. His artistic curiosity in exploring the human condition leads him to projects all over the world, giant Hollywood movies as well as small independent films. In this episode he talks about inhabiting Vincent van Gogh through the act of painting for his latest film, At Eternity’s Gate, and how being part of a strong director’s vision is actually freeing. Plus I try to get him to talk a bit about the nuts and […]

From her breakthrough in Kick-Ass through great roles in Let Me In, Hugo, and Carrie, Chloë Grace Moretz has become one of the hottest young actors in Hollywood. In this half hour, she talks about her recent decision to take time to “reassess who I am and find myself within my roles again,” which led to her brilliant performance in The Miseducation of Cameron Post, this year’s winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance (now streaming on demand). She also talks about avoiding what she calls “emotional cavities,” and how she craves to be taken off guard in her […]

With riveting performances in films such as Hell or High Water, The Messenger and 3:10 to Yuma, Ben Foster established himself as an intensely serious actor who goes all-in for a role. With this year’s Leave No Trace, Foster takes that same intensity and brilliantly turns it inward, portraying a laconic veteran who suffers from PTSD and survives in the woods of Oregon with his teenage daughter, played by Thomasin McKenzie. Foster talks about working with McKensie to establish the connection they needed, why he took performance enhancing drugs to play Lance Armstrong, and the “emotional erectile disfunction” of over-directing. […]

Elsie Fisher was not just some 13-year-old Bo Burnham plucked from Middle America to star in his debut feature Eighth Grade. She has been a working child actor in Hollywood since infancy. She did, however, just finish eighth grade in public school when filming began, and she managed to create a performance so vulnerable and true that the seams of the acting craft are invisible. In this half-hour, I attempt to get Fisher and Burnham to open up about the origins of this movie and how this young lady carried it so successfully that it just might be the performance […]

Jim Cummings’ performance in the Sundance winning, one-shot short film Thunder Road was the talk of the indie film world in 2016. Then he turned it into a feature, and it won the Grand Jury Prize at the SXSW Film Festival. Now Cummings has decided to turn down less than thrilling distribution offers and make the risky decision to distribute Thunder Road himself. It was the right move. The film has not even hit American screens yet and it has already made its money back and more. He talks to me about “performing” the script into existence, mastering the long […]