Columns
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Aidan Gillen is Still “Fishing From The Ether”: Back To One, Episode 266
Aidan Gillen returns to the podcast (first time: Episode 40). You know him from some of the most beloved shows of the century: Game of Thrones, The Wire, Peaky Blinders, to name a few. Now he stars in the Irish neo-noir film Barber, where he plays a private investigator hired by a wealthy widow to find her missing granddaughter. He talks about why he doesn’t look at the lines until the day before shooting, how his latest venture on the stage affected his work, why he still doesn’t like rehearsal for film, what bothers him about an “actor-centric” production, and […]
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“Each Episode is Like Its Own Movie”: DP Benji Bakshi on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
In December of 1964, principal photography finished on the pilot of Star Trek, featuring captain Christopher Pike (played by The Searchers’ Jeffrey Hunter) as the commander of the Enterprise. When the show’s first episode finally aired almost two years later, Pike was nowhere to be found. The initial pilot had been scrapped and re-shot, with William Shatner’s James T. Kirk taking the helm and a different crew boldly going where no man had gone before. However, that wasn’t the end of Christopher Pike. The character returned as a Kirk mentor in the J.J. Abrams-directed reboot films. Now, with the Paramount […]
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“If We’re All Gonna Die…Then Why Wouldn’t You Take a Risk as an Artist?” Onur Tukel (Back To One, Episode 265)
Onur Tukel is a boldly independent writer-director-actor who, for more than a decade, has been making cutting edge comedies in New York City that sometimes land in the horror category, sometimes social satire, are often absurd, mostly hilarious and always thoughtful—Catfight, Applesauce, Summer of Blood, The Misogynists, Scenes From An Empty Church, to name just a few. His latest, Poundcake, about a serial killer who only targets straight white men, is maybe his boldest yet, which says a lot. In this hour, he talks about his reluctant approach toward acting in his own films, the ways he has navigated low […]
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“You Are Enough”: Ron Cehpas Jones on Back To One (Expanded Re-Release)
The great actor of the stage and screen, Ron Cephas Jones died on August 19, 2023, at the age of 66. On this episode from 2020, he details the value of a true collaborative relationship with the director, why the script never leaves his side in preproduction, talks about what it was like to slowly build “William” on This Is Us through many seasons of that show, and takes us back to his early days at LAByrinth theater in New York City to explain how Philip Seymour Hoffman forever changed his approach to work, plus much more! This is an expanded version […]
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The Adults Special Episode with Michael Cera, Sophia Lillis and Hannah Gross (Back To One, Episode 263)
These interviews were recorded prior to the SAG/AFTRA strike, in June 2023, as part of the Tribeca Festival. On this special episode of Back To One, actors Sophia Lillis, Hannah Gross and Michael Cera talk about their work in writer/director Dustin Guy Defa’s wonderful new film The Adults. We get a glimpse into each of their general preparation processes before doing a deep dive into their work on this actor-centric production. They each talk about how they built the reality of their complex sibling relationship, why the songs and dances that play such a big part in their characters’ past feel […]
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“I Spent Nearly 14 hours Staring At That Lamp”: DP Paul Yee on Joy Ride
When you make your living in production, the relationship between work and time off can be a complicated one. After months of Fraturdays and Second Meal pizza at 2 a.m., you need to rest, decompress and resume the parts of your life that have been essentially paused during shooting. But stay off set too long and dread can fester—a fear of dwindling bank accounts, falling short on days for insurance and being usurped in your market’s hiring hierarchy. Cinematographer Paul Yee is acutely aware of that delicate balance and how it feels when the equilibrium becomes askew. He took a self-imposed […]
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“How Many Times Do I Have To Get Lucky To Survive?” Strike: A Special Episode of Back To One
On this special episode, I visit the picket line at each of the four SAG/AFTRA strike sites in New York City, in one continuous, unbroken audio “take.” Actors Michael Gaston, Clarissa Thibeaux, and others talk to me about what’s at stake, and en route to each location I share my own thoughts on the issues at hand, make some predictions, voice concerns, and offer up my total and complete solidarity to the cause, all supported by the loud and never-ending symphony of the New York City streets! Get ready for the strangest, but definitely most sonic-rich, episode of this podcast […]
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Back To One, Episode 261: Dierdre Friel
This episode was recorded prior to the SAG/AFTRA strike. Dierdre Friel always finds a way to ground her characters in such a deep reality that you feel like they aren’t written at all, just simply among the living. Two examples of this can be found in “Ella” on New Amsterdam, and “Greta” on Physical, the Apple TV+ hit that enters its third season on August 2nd. On this episode, she details the helpful exercise of laying out the similarities she shares with the character and using Meisner’s “what if” when the differences outweigh them. She talks about her amazing experience training […]
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DP Markus Mentzer on Shooting Six Episodes of I Think You Should Leave in 24 Days
With only 24 days to capture nearly 30 sketches, the average I Think You Should Leave bit is shot in roughly six to eight hours. That might be for the best. When you’re slopping up steaks or shooting body after body busting out of cheap wood and hitting pavement, probably wise not to linger at a location for too long. Cinematographer Markus Mentzer, who has been behind the camera for all three seasons of the Netflix show, breaks down the newest crop of sketches for Filmmaker. Filmmaker: Your first three camera department credits on IMDB are Out of Time, In […]
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“What I Long For in My Work is Self Revelation”: Chris Messina (Back To One, Episode 260)
Chris Messina is that rare character actor leading man who is the go-to supporting actor in seemingly everything. From The Mindy Project and Newsroom, to She Dies Tomorrow and I Care A Lot, he handles ultra-serious roles (like in Blame, which I loved) or uproarious ones (such as in this year’s hit Air) with what seems like effortlessness, and now he’s starring in the new series Based on a True Story with Kaley Cuoco. In this hour, he generously takes us on an extended tour of his process. He talks about learning to “experience” rather than “act,” why the thought […]
