For one year now on this podcast, I have talked to dozens and dozens of actors about their approach to the craft of acting. There are few living non-actor directors whose thoughts on this subject I feel would be worthy for this archive. Mike Leigh is on the top of that list. Listening to actors talk about their working experiences has made me think of an analogy. They are like fish people, showing up on a set expecting some water to work in but mostly finding dry land everywhere, and, for the most part, having to supply the water themselves. […]

He brought to life one of the most iconic TV characters this century, Omar Little on the acclaimed series The Wire. Then Michael K. Williams went on to work with some of the great directors of our day (Steve McQueen, Paul Thomas Anderson, Ava DuVernay, Todd Solondz) and turned in powerful work in series like Boardwalk Empire (where he played Chalky White) and The Night of, to name a few. He’s earning rave reviews for his latest performance in Emilio Estevez’s The Public. In this episode, he talks about one particular “all-in” moment during the filming of that movie, also […]

I first took note of Caitlin FitzGerald in one of the great showcases of incredible acting in recent indie film — Sophia Takal’s Always Shine. You might know her from Masters of Sex where she played Libby Masters, or the third season of the cult hit series Unreal. Her latest film, just released on DVD and Blu Ray, is The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot. In this half hour she generously opens up about the epiphanies and frustrations she’s experienced as a working actor in this business, how good directors help her process, and how she deals […]

She’s perhaps best known for playing one of modern television’s baddest villains, “Vee” on Orange Is The New Black. And now with NBC’s The Village premiering last week, both Fast Color and the new season of Into The Badlands premiering this week, plus Julie Taymor’s The Glorias wrapping this month, all featuring the incredible Lorraine Toussaint, we might as well call this period “The Lorrainaissance.” In this half hour she takes a break from the hubbub and takes us deep into her process, her “almost schizo” embodiment of characters, what she needs on set, and what it means to live […]

I’ve wanted to sit down with Thomas Sadoski since the inception of Back To One. I had a “who is that guy?” experience while seeing him in Neil Labute’s play Reasons to Be Pretty and was positively delighted by his portrayal of the quick-witted Don Keefer in The Newsroom. He’s now part of an incredible ensemble of actors in Life In Pieces, one of the few network comedies worthy of your time. He talks about where he’s at one day before the first official performance of Suzan-Lori Park’s new play White Noise, which he stars in at the Public Theater […]

His portrayal of Lola, the drag queen in Kinky Boots, put Chiwetel Ejiofor on the map, then his astonishing performance in 12 Years A Slave made him a household name. Roles in The Martian, Doctor Strange, and the under-appreciated Z for Zachariah followed. Now he has written, directed and stars in The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind, which is in select theaters and on Netflix. He talks about the art of wearing many hats, directing the extremely gifted young Maxwell Simba in his first film role, and the effort he took to not shortchange his own character. Back To One […]

Shea Whigham could easily be in the running for the hardest working actor in show business. In just this past year, he was in First Man, Beirut, Vice, and brilliantly played Thomas Carrasco, the Department of Defense bureaucrat tasked to investigate Julia Roberts’ character, in the series Homecoming. He’s worked with Martin Scorsese, Werner Herzog, David O. Russell, Terrence Malick, and is probably best known for playing corrupt mob brother Eli Thompson on Boardwalk Empire. In this half hour he talks extensively about his preparation process, what he’s learned from the greats, and much more. The constant room noise you […]

I first took note of Ariel Kavoussi’s singular comedic talent in Onur Tukel’s Applesauce and then Catfight, where she hilariously played Ann Heche’s assistant and stole every scene she was in. She performed a similar theft this past year on the Netflix series Maniac, opposite Emma Stone. She also writes and directs her own work. Her new short film The Poet and The Professor was called a “truly absurdist, provocative, and contemporary feminist film” by Indiewire. We talk about the origins of her approach to comedy, how she works the audition rooms she suddenly finds herself in, and her relationship […]

If I ever need to cry on cue, I can just picture the expression on Josh Hamilton’s face, in Eighth Grade, when Elsie Fisher hugs him. It’s a beautiful, wordless culmination of his incredible performance, which landed him a Spirit Award nomination this year. We discuss that scene, and he shares some of what he’s learned from jumping from the New York stage to the big and small screens and back again over the past 25 years. He talks about the importance of syncing with the director’s vision, being off-book before rehearsals, and why he’s a self described “take whore.” […]

Mads Mikkelsen is perhaps best known for playing villains in Casino Royale, Doctor Strange, and the television series Hannibal, but he’s also been called the “face of the resurgent Danish cinema,” culminating with his Best Actor win at Cannes for his work in Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt. In this half hour, he talks about performing some physically and emotionally wrenching scenes in two new movies he currently stars in, the pure survival film Arctic, and the live action adaptation of the popular graphic novel Polar. Warning: Spoilers abound. Arctic is in select theaters now. Polar is on Netflix. Back To […]