Podcast
-
Back to One, Episode 99: Lesley Manville
The brilliant British actor Lesley Manville has given us two of the truly great cinematic performances of the last decade, Mary in Another Year and Cyril in Phantom Thread (which landed her an Oscar nomination). But those are just two in a long list of living, breathing characters she has inhabited with subtlety, nuance and depth, both on the stage and screen. In this episode, she talks about her latest–Joan in Ordinary Love, her formative years with Mike Leigh, the necessity of director input, why she doesn’t want to take her characters home, and much more! Back To One can be […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Mar 3, 2020 -
Back to One, Episode 93: Marsha Stephanie Blake
Marsha Stephanie Blake destroyed me. Not just once, a few times. Her devastating portrayal of Linda McCray in When They See Us was justifiably recognized with an Emmy nomination last year. She talks extensively about one line in particular that really got to me in that incredible limited series. She also “kills” with comedy too. Like in The Merchant Of Venice on Broadway. She talks about obsessively studying Al Pacino during that run, and relishing her time with Viola Davis on this season of How To Get Away With Murder. She was on her way toward a career in medicine when […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Jan 22, 2020 -
Back To One Episode 87: Aaron Taylor-Johnson
To say Aaron Taylor-Johnson puts 100% into every role is actually a bit of an understatement. He starts to live as the character months before filming begins. Then, when it’s over, it takes him months to “shed the layers” of the character before returning to himself. This might sound like a bunch of hooey, until you actually see the brilliance of the work and the fullness of transformation. He got his big break with Kick-Ass, spent some time in the Marvel universe, played John Lennon in Nowhere Boy, then won a Golden Globe for playing a psychopath in Nocturnal Animals. […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Dec 10, 2019 -
Back to One, Episode 81: Alex Wolff
He’s only 21, but going by the depth of his work and the eloquent way he talks about it, Alex Wolff feels like a seasoned veteran. “I’ve basically been on camera since the sonogram,” he says, joking about his childhood in The Naked Brothers Band with his brother, Nat, on Nickelodeon. Since then he’s knocked out a handful of impressive performances in films like Patriots Day, My Friend Dahmer, and Hereditary. Now he’s written, directed and stars in a labor of love called The Cat and The Moon. He talks about treating his actors like kings and queens on that […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Oct 29, 2019 -
Back to One, Episode 79: Tim Heidecker
I didn’t know if Tim Heidecker was going to show up for this interview, or if I was going to get his boorish, abusive, dim alter ego, Tim Heidecker. Luckily Tim Heidecker leaves Tim Heidecker in the On Cinema universe. That project he started with Gregg Turkington is comprised of an ongoing series called On Cinema at the Cinema, various spin-off series including The Trial of Tim Heidecker, special episodes, segments, tweets, songs, and now the feature film Mister America. In this half hour, I ask Heidecker to lift the hood on his performance style and the evolution of his […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Oct 15, 2019 -
Back to One, Episode 77: Josh Pais
One could easily call Josh Pais a scene-stealer, but that’s not accurate. He actually feeds the other actor in the scene, and they both grow. Check out Leaves of Grass with Edward Norton, Synecdoche New York with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Lynn Shelton’s Touchy Feely, and his recent work on Ray Donovan, to name just a few of his dozens of credits. This fall he’s in Norton’s Motherless Brooklyn, and Joker with Joaquin Phoenix. In this episode he talks about finding the character in his body, counting on spontaneity, partying in the unknown, creating not recreating, and Committed Impulse, his high […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Oct 1, 2019 -
Back to One, Episode 74: Wyatt Russell
Despite growing up in a Hollywood family, Wyatt Russell didn’t seriously consider pursing acting until an injury ended his professional Hockey career. In a few years he’s managed to cultivate a subtle and distinct style in comedies (22 Jump Street), dramas (Overlord) and a unique and unclassifiable series that lies someone between (AMC’s Lodge 49). In this episode, he talks about embodying the lovable Dud in that series, embracing an enunciation lesson from Joe Wright, getting “caught watching” Michael Parks, plus much more! Back To One can be found wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Sep 10, 2019 -
Back to One, Episode 72: Lee Pace
Lee Pace has one of those dream acting careers where he gets to be painted blue or dons elf ears to play Ronan (Guardians of the Galaxy) or Thranduil (The Hobbit films), sparking the imagination of countless fans around the world, and then he hits the Broadway stage and knocks ‘em dead as Joe Pitt in Angels in America. I ask him if he takes stock of that aspect of his career, and we talk about a curious note Barry Sonnenfeld gave him while making Pushing Daisies that he still uses to this day. Plus why he’s not bothered by […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Aug 27, 2019 -
Back to One, Episode 68: Damon Herriman
It’s rare for one actor to be cast as the same real-life character in two different productions almost simultaneously. When that real life character is Charles Manson, that makes some news. Australian actor Damon Herriman has taken on this challenging role in both Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood and the second season of David Fincher’s Netflix series Mindhunter. Herriman is perhaps best know for playing Dewey Crowe in the series Justified and currently plays Paul Allen Brown in Perpetual Grace LTD. We talk about the character of Manson, how good writing makes for good acting, and why […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Jul 30, 2019 -
Back to One, Episode 66: Jesse Eisenberg
While he might be best known for his Oscar-nominated performance as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, Jesse Eisenberg’s preternatural ability for making unique characterization choices has won him roles in wildly original films, both indie and studio, such as The End of the Tour, Adventureland, Holy Rollers, American Ultra, Zombieland, and two of my favorites, The Squid and the Whale and The Double. Now he continues that trend with Riley Stearns’ The Art of Self Defense. In this half hour he talks about the effort he put into finding the right tone to play the absurdity in that film, […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Jul 16, 2019
