Columns
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Back to One, Episode 164: Matthew Rhys
After six seasons, Matthew Rhys won an Emmy for his stellar work on The Americans. Spielberg’s The Post, and A Beautiful Day in The Neighborhood (opposite Tom Hanks) followed, and now he’s nominated for another Emmy for his incredible work in Perry Mason on HBO. In this half hour, he compares the experience of building (and “wrestling”) his two major television characters into life. He talks about the humiliating way he learned the acting lesson that listening is just as important as speaking. He shares a few tools he uses when he can’t get in the groove, explains why he’s […]
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“The Horse is Constantly Looking at the Technocrane”: DP Andrew Droz Palermo on The Green Knight
In The Green Knight, King Arthur’s hedonistic nephew Gawain (Dev Patel) leaves the comforts of Camelot for an epic quest to confront the titular verdant specter. Based on the anonymously authored 14th Century poem, the latest film from David Lowery (The Old Man & the Gun, A Ghost Story) invites a multitude of interpretations. I construed it as a journey from the imagined invincibility of youth to the shadow of mortality eventually cast upon us all—a reading no doubt colored by 18 pandemic months of wondering if a trip to the grocery store would kill me. Days after my screening, […]
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Back to One, Episode 163: Jess Weixler
Teeth, Somebody Up There Likes Me, Chained For Life, The Good Wife, are just a few of the great Jess Weixler’s credits. Ten years ago she co-stared in The Lie with Joshua Leonard. They played a couple with a baby and one big problem. He directed. Most of the dialogue came out of improvisation. Now they’ve done it again with Fully Realized Humans. They again play a couple. This time the baby is in utero and the laughs are bigger, the situations more absurd yet also more thought-provoking. Weixler is credited as co-writer. In this episode she details the improv […]
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“It’s My Job to Make Sure That the Viewer Looks at the Right Thing”: DP Autumn Durald Arkapaw on Loki
With two dozen films since 2008 and 60-odd years of comics, there’s a nearly infinite amount of source material to pull inspiration from when embarking on a new endeavor in the Marvel Universe. But what makes the new Disney+ series Loki such a visual delight is how it derives inspiration from beyond the bounds of that universe. Melding classic sci-fi and midcentury modern design, Loki is “Blade Runner meets Mad Men,” embedding the titular God of Mischief into a dystopian bureaucracy bent to the aesthetic peculiarities of Gilliam, Kubrick and Fincher. With the show’s entire first season now available on […]
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“Directors are Not Born Being Blockbuster Filmmakers”: Producers John Davis and John Fox on Jungle Cruise
With all the changes that have been taking place in the film industry over the last few years, I’m always fascinated by the filmmakers who seem consistently able to adapt to the shifting landscape while still remaining true to their own tastes and sensibilities—the producers and directors whose careers span decades and show no sign of decline. The release of Disney’s new adventure film Jungle Cruise gave me the opportunity to talk with two such filmmakers, producers John Davis and John Fox. Davis has produced over a hundred movies and TV shows going back to the 1980s and early ’90s, […]
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Back to One, Episode 162: Phillipa Soo
Phillipa Soo’s first time on Broadway was in the unprecedented phenomenon that is Hamilton. She was nominated for a Tony for her portrayal of Eliza, and now she’s nominated for an Emmy for her incredible work in the filmed version. In this episode, she talks about how she managed to not let the superlatives overwhelm her into paralysis during that run, and the surprising way deeper, more playable meanings began to grow out of the text. She details a few specific ways the tools she was given at Juilliard came in handy, particularly in her first New York stage production, […]
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“Where in Europe Can We Find Some Castles?” David Lowery on The Green Knight
A 14th-century epic poem by an anonymous author serves as the basis for one of the most visually and aurally thrilling movies of 2021 in writer-director David Lowery’s The Green Knight, an adaptation of the Arthurian legend Sir Gawain and the Green Knight that’s made for adults but casts a spell on the audience every bit as magical as that of classic family films like E.T. and The Wizard of Oz. Dev Patel stars as Gawain, King Arthur’s brash nephew who accepts a challenge from the title character that sends him on a mythic quest which will most likely end […]
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Jellyfish Flares, Malick Homages and “Igor, the Possession Lens”: DP Caleb Heymann on the Fear Street trilogy
“A Film Trilogy Event.” That’s how Netflix heralded the arrival earlier this month of Fear Street, a trio of interconnected horror movies based on R.L. Stine’s popular book series that debuted on the streamer in one-week intervals. That wasn’t exactly the plan when cinematographer Caleb Heymann stepped onto the Georgia set in March of 2019 for the first of 106 days of shooting. As production began, Fear Street was a 20th Century Fox endeavor with a theatrical release planned. However, Heymann says he wouldn’t have altered the films’ style regardless of the distribution method. “I don’t think [the viewing platform] […]
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Back to One, Episode 161: Jon Huertas
Jon Huertas is the first actor on the podcast to talk extensively about the “BMS Technique” for preparation. He plays Miguel on This Is Us. His past credits include Castle, Generation Kill, and the new film Initiation. He tells an amazing story about botching an audition so badly that he felt a formal apology was necessary (of course he landed the role). He talks about the importance of making different choices with every take, his mission, on the other side of the camera, to create content about Latinx people that completely avoids stereotypes, and much more! Back To One can […]
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“Faces Take Five Minutes to Light, Backgrounds Take Five Hours”: Cinematographer Matt Wise on his Lighting Philosophy and the Horror Comedy Werewolves Within
Trapped in an isolated mountain community by a snowstorm, a forest ranger (Sam Richardson) and a postal worker (Milana Vayntrub) must discern which of their neighbors is the culprit behind a lycanthropic killing spree. Though based on the Ubisoft VR whodunit, the film version of Werewolves Within owes an equal debt to the various genre favorites of director Josh Ruben, from horror comedies (The Monster Squad, Arachnophobia) to small town satires (Fargo, Hot Fuzz) to murder mysteries (Clue, Knives Out). The challenge of converging those disparate inspirations into one cohesive whole fell to cinematographer Matt Wise, a veteran of low […]
