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Back to One, Episode 37: Disobedience Actor Alessandro Nivola
We’re catching Alessandro Nivola at a very interesting moment in his career. A day before our talk, he was awarded Best Supporting Actor at the British Independent Film Awards for his incredible performance in Disobedience, and a few days before that it was announced that he will star in David Chase’s Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark. He talks about the benefits of having time to prepare for the role of Rabbi Dovid Kuperman and facing the challenge of delivering that important climatic speech. And how, for him, inhabiting a character often starts with the voice. Plus he confesses […]
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“Big Companies Can’t Change or Adapt… We are a Speedboat”: Director and VFX Artist Ken Locsmandi on His Under $1 Million, Lo-Fi Sci-Fi Beyond White Space
As the owner and visual effects supervisor at Filmworks, FX, Inc., Ken Locsmandi has worked on films by major directors like David Fincher, David O. Russell and the Wachowskis. In the last couple of years, he has expanded his company’s scope, producing his own films in an attempt to put his expertise and resources to use on independent work that can stand alongside studio productions costing literally hundreds of times what he has to spend. When I saw Locsmandi’s directorial debut, Beyond White Space, as it traveled around the film festival circuit this year, I was stunned by its level […]
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Back to One, Episode 36: The Long Dumb Road‘s Jason Mantzoukas
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 […]
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Back to One, Episode 35: James Ransone
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, […]
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Back to One, Episode 34: Escape at Dannemora Co-Star Eric Lange
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 […]
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Back to One, Episode 33: Jinn and Luke Cage Co-Star Simone Missick
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, […]
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Back to One, Episode 32: Melissa Leo
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 […]
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Back to One, Episode 31: At Eternity’s Gate Actor Willem Dafoe
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 […]
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“I Wanted to Do for Adam What Demme Did for David Byrne [in Stop Making Sense]”: Steven Brill Talks About Directing Adam Sandler: 100% Fresh
Adam Sandler may have chosen to title his Netflix stand-up special Adam Sandler: 100% Fresh as an impudent jab at the critics who consistently trash his comedies, but it’s garnering the actor some of the best reviews of his career. (As I write this, it’s not quite 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes — just an impressive 92%.) That’s deservedly so, given that the special contains Sandler’s funniest and most wide-ranging material in years. The act, written by Sandler with an assist from Paul Sado and Dan Bulla, veers back and forth between razor-sharp observational material, unapologetically juvenile (and hilarious) obscenity, […]
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“I Didn’t Want the Movie To Fall Into the Category of Just Being a Film for Other Filmmakers”: Duncan Skiles Talks About Directing The Clovehitch Killer
Duncan Skiles’ new thriller The Clovehitch Killer is the kind of horror movie that gets under your skin and stays there, reverberating in the viewer’s head for hours, days, even weeks after it’s over. Its impact is all the more impressive given its low-key, understated quality. Skiles patiently, meticulously creates a mounting sense of dread without melodrama or explicit violence, relying instead on eerily stark, formal compositions and a career-best performance from Dylan McDermott. McDermott plays Don Burnside, a family man and active member of his community whose affable, slightly goofy façade masks a serious dark side. When Don’s teenage […]
