Actors
Interviews - Actors
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“I’m a Little Bit Sick in the Head”: Scott Adkins on Accident Man: Hitman’s Holiday
Scott Adkins is a proselytizer for the art of Hong Kong action films, receiving his baptism as a bit player on Jackie Chan’s The Accidental Spy in 2001. He has been trying to bring Chan’s level of craft and creativity to English-language action ever since, climbing the ranks of the direct-to-video market with gravity-defying kicks until his picture on the box could sell units alongside those featuring Van Damme and Lundgren. Though he has made memorable spin-kicking turns on big Hollywood productions like Doctor Strange and Day Shift—even landing a role in next year’s John Wick: Chapter 4—his bread-and-butter remains […]
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Triangle of Sadness Star Dolly de Leon on Finally Letting “Whatever I Have in My Body or in My Heart” Out
Dolly de Leon is a Filipina veteran actor of film and TV who is now, due to her outstanding performance in Triangle of Sadness, being spoken about with words like “newcomer” and “breakthrough.” That might have something to do with the “I’m the captain now” nature of the role she plays in the Palme d’Or winning film. It’s like the character and the actor are both saying “I have arrived.” In this episode, she describes the dark place she was in right before auditioning for the part, how director Ruben Ostlund’s collaborative approach sparked her dynamic creativity, why watching the […]
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The Woman King Star Lashana Lynch on the Soil, the Sisterhood and Making History
Last year, Lashana Lynch made history as 007 in No Time To Die, this year she uses history to energize her powerful performance in The Woman King. In this episode she talks about how filming that movie “barefoot, on that soil,” surrounded by a truly supportive sisterhood, was so significant to her performance. She explains why she doesn’t have (or even want) a go-to preparation process, what choosing the hard road of avoiding stereotypical roles has done for her career, why she cherishes outstanding assistant directors, and much more. Plus she gives us a peek at her role as Miss […]
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“Listening Became My Prime Directive” Back to One, Episode 217: Adrian Pasdar
Adrian Pasdar has experienced a lot in his nearly 40 years as a working actor and in this episode he generously shares the wisdom he’s gleaned. Some of the highlights in his credits include Top Gun, Near Dark, Carlitos Way, Heroes, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, and perhaps the most talked about single-season series of the ’90s, Profit. Not to mention he’s the voice of Iron Man. He talks about how listening became his prime directive as an actor, his search for truth in performance (and the search for a better word than “truth”), “the method” as protective element, and why he […]
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Back to One, Episode 213: Angourie Rice
She’s only 21, but Australian actor Angourie Rice has earned respect in Hollywood for stacking up diverse roles in The Nice Guys, The Beguiled, Jasper Jones, Mare of Easttown, not to mention a few Spider-Man movies. Now she has her first starring role in Honor Society for Paramount+. She talks about how it helped her to be able to relate so much to her character in that film, and why talking directly to the camera was oddly easy. We chat about her podcast, The Community Library, which is a celebration of literature and storytelling of all kinds. This leads to […]
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“We Shot Seven Parties in 20 Days in an Abandoned Mall”: Cooper Raiff on Cha Cha Real Smooth
Titled after the hit party song no child of the early 2000s could escape, Cooper Raiff’s second feature, Cha Cha Real Smooth, originated as a love letter to parents of disabled children. Inspired by the perserverance of his own family (Raiff’s younger sister does not possess the ability to walk nor speak), Raiff’s screenplay eventually grew to become the story of Andrew (Raiff), a 22-year-old Tulane University graduate who moves back in with his brother (Evan Assante), mom (Leslie Mann), and her lover (Brad Garrett) in Livingston, New Jersey. Working a dead-end job and with his girlfriend in Barcelona on […]
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Back to One, Episode 207: James Scully
James Scully plays Charlie, love interest to Bowen Yang’s Howie, in the new film Fire Island, a touching, hilarious, and entirely queer take on Pride and Prejudice, written by and co-starring Joel Kim Booster, and directed by Andrew Ahn. Scully talks about the imposter syndrome that infected the cast, how sometimes when material is so relatable it’s actually hard to gauge if you’re hitting it right, why having a queer director actually improves the work, and how Ahn specifically led the way so thoughtfully and effectively. Plus much more! Back To One can be found wherever you get your podcasts, […]
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Back to One, Episode 206: Rupert Friend
Among many appealing qualities as an actor, Rupert Friend certainly has “range.” His two most recent roles are James Whitehouse—elitist, upper-class British politician in David E. Kelley’s Netflix limited series Anatomy Of A Scandal; and The Grand Inquisitor—blowhard Star Wars bad guy in Obi-Wan Kenobi. He’s probably best known for playing Peter Quinn on a few seasons of Homeland, which got him an Emmy nomination. On this episode, he talks about why his preparation process is more “uncovering” than “building,” how energy management has served him well, the gift of being allowed to “fail safely,” and the most important thing […]
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Back to One, Episode 202: Alison Pill
I was lucky to catch Alison Pill on Broadway, 16 years ago, in The Lieutenant of Inishmore, and then became enamored with her work in shows like In Treatment, The Newsroom, Devs, and movies like Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Milk, to name just a few. Nowadays she plays Dr. Agnes Jurati on the series Picard, and stars with Sarah Gadon in Michael McGowan’s new film All My Puny Sorrows. She shares what she believes to be the secret ingredient that made that film work, and talks about how adopting a physicality for a character is foundational to her […]
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Welcome to the Dollhouse: Kentucker Audley and Albert Birney on Strawberry Mansion
In the year 2035, dream-auditing is a prolific but thankless business, especially for James Preble (Kentucker Audley). Scrummaging through an individual’s archived dreams via an endless collection of VHS tapes, Preble finds himself constantly stuck between mundane reality and the elusive world of someone’s REM cycle. The primary goal of slumming through this government job? Dream taxation. One afternoon, as he visits the home of Arabella Isadora (Penny Fuller and, in the dream world, Grace Glowicki), a welcoming but mysterious dream tax evader, the lines between consciousness and unconsciousness grow blurred. A love story, a comedy, a 1980s children’s fantasy […]
