Happy Sad Confused - Alden Ehrenreich

Episode Date: July 15, 2020

It's been 2 years since "Solo" hit the big screen and Alden Ehrenreich is back at long last. His first project since that showy role? The lead in "Brave New World", helping to launch the Peacock streaming service. Alden joins Josh to talk about that new project but also where he established his film taste and why "It's A Wonderful Live" is his comfort movie of choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

D.C. high volume, Batman. The Dark Nights definitive DC comic stories adapted directly for audio for the very first time. Fear, I have to make them afraid. He's got a motorcycle. Get after him or have you shot. What do you mean blow up the building? From this moment on,

none of you are safe. New episodes every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, Sad, Confused begins now. Today on Happy, Sad, Confused, Alden-Eren Reich, on Brave New World, a future for Hans Solo, and his comfort movie, It's a Wonderful Life. Hey, guys, I'm Josh Horowitz. Welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused.

We have a new guest this week, Alden Eran Reich, someone that I've had. the privilege of talking to for the gig at MTV over the years, but never on the podcast. And certainly, he's had an interesting beginning to his career coming up with the likes of Francis Ford Coppola and Warren Beatty being directed by those luminaries. And then, of course, starring in his own Star Wars from a couple years ago. And now he's back two years later with his own show on Peacock. Peacock, Sammy. Do you know what Peacock is?

Yeah, everyone does. What is it? It's the NBC streaming service platform. Sammy, you're so plugged in to streaming services now. Yeah, it's my thing. I have Quibi. Do you, okay, do you subscribe to Quibi or do you do just the trial thing? Let me tell you exactly what happened with Quibi. Please. Princess Bride.

Yes. Oh, yeah. Let's talk about that. What did you think of it? Oh, my God. I have never enjoyed anything. more in my life. Let's give some context. So it's Jason Reitman, noted filmmaker,

decided to launch kind of a recreation of the Princess Bride in ten different parts with a bunch of celebrity friends. And it's just word for word, recreation. It's kind of low rent. I could think, be kind, rewind, Michelle Conjury style.

All shot on their phones. Exactly. And it's all benefiting, I want to say, food banks. World Kitchen. Yeah, that sounds right. Some great cause. Sandras. Exactly, exactly. And it rolled out over 10 days on Quibi. And yeah, Sam, I actually am with you. I ate it up. It's great. I loved it. I want them to do other movies. I'll tell you I had one problem with it. Okay. Mandy. I would have loved. I thought of that. Mandy does not show up, though. Yeah, Carrie always does show up. Robin Wright does not show up. No, which that's upsetting. But if Mandy

showed up, I would have I know, I was a little surprised by that and how heartbreaking, how beautiful that it ended with Carl Reiner. Oh my God. It was unbelievable. It was very touching.

We are not on the Quibi payroll. I mean, I've had my fun with Quibi. They've had their troubles, but I will say this is a really charming piece of work that they created. has so many cool stars. Yeah, I actually, I, I, I corresponded with Jason about it. I reached out to him because I was such a fan of what he was doing.

And at the time, he was, he was very appreciative. And I said, who are you? Leave me alone. No, but I said at the time, I was like, I can't wait to see how you use Charlize, because I know he's tied with Charlize and done a few films with her. And sure enough, she does pop up in a fun role. That was. What was your favorite one? Oh, man, there were a few. There were a lot of really good and interesting cast.

things. Who did Caitlin Dever play? Caitlin Dever did a good... She did, she was... It was her and Finn Wolfhard did the sword fight scene. Yeah, and I think well, she was in Mandy's role. I want to... No, maybe not. She was... No, no, no, she was... I think she was the man in black.

Yes, she was the man in black. I thought she did a good job. There's so many, now I'm blanking on all the ones I liked. Oh, the Jack Black one where he's climbing up. You know who I thought? There's and his mask is like half off his face. Jason Siegel did a good Andre the Giant. incredible Andre the Giant

I just I literally smiled and felt so happy the whole time I loved that yeah no that sums it up well it is a nice breath of fresh air and a nice source of joy in the universe right now so check that out yeah I think you can still probably get a trial subscription to Quibi and that's worth checking out and we'll see where Quibi goes from there

because they've definitely had some some issues but they got a lot of money behind it and they're going to keep pumping out product and we'll see Their biggest thing is something that probably cost nothing because it's all shove on their phones. Exactly, exactly. But yeah, so the way we got here was we were mentioning Peacock, which is the newest streaming service, which is debuting. I think it's literally, by time you hear this, it has debuted, it's out. And one of the initial offerings on Peacock, one of the initial offerings is Brave New World,

which is based on Elvis Huxley's, you know, hugely influential book. And this is a big kind of mini-series, I think it might be an ongoing series. and it stars Alden Aaron Reich and to meet Moore and a bunch of interesting folks and a very ambitious big budget you can see that they spared no expense on this and this is Alden's first big role first role at all actually since playing Han Solo in the solo movie yeah it's been two years and I think this is you know when I was in my research I think this is probably one of his very first interviews at all since Solo so this is it I was really pleased to catch up with him not only to talk about a brave new world,

but to also talk about sort of the aftermath of Solo, a film that he's proud of and obviously went through a lot of different kind of troubles, including the change of directors and the perception of the audience and the high expectations. It didn't perform box office-wise, how Disney certainly wanted it to. And so we have an interesting kind of a post-mortem

on solo and whether he sees a future for him playing that character. And, yeah, as a start, Horse Man and his fan of Alden's. It was really, really cool to be, I think, one of the first conversations with him about sort of what went down with solo. And then beyond that, of course, as you know, Sammy, we've been doing comfort movies. And this is one of the first, probably the first one where we've really got an old school. We got a pick from the actor where they really went to an unadulterated classic. Alden's pick was, It's a Wonderful Life, which Sammy has

never seen. You're such an asshole. I was going to fake it. Really? Okay, what do you know that let's summarize it's a wonderful life for me jimmy stewart that's all drop the mic i mean yeah that's accurate christmas i only describe movies oh my god you're you're great on password singular words exactly um it is a seminal uh christmas movie it's donna reed it's jimmy stewart it's um one of the great villains of all time mr potter it's uh you know i was going to say everybody has its wonderful life as part of their film vernacular i guess except for sammy well it's yeah i like to break the malt i guess you do check it out it's a legitimate great movie i've seen it many many times um and this was a nice excuse to revisit it do love classic movies

apparently not if you don't i've been exclusively watching old movies okay and this one it's just every time it comes up i'm like eh this one it's you know what i'm going to say and we get into this conversation with Alden about it. It's not what you think it is, I would venture to say. It's not as warm and fuzzy and cheesy. It's actually a pretty dark movie. George Bailey, Jimmy Stewart's character

is a kind of a beaten down really like, you know, a guy that just wants to get out of a small town and live a big life and keeps making sacrifices and finds himself on the short end of the stick and then you know, it's suicidal. Literally he's about to kill himself and then find out what

life would be like without him in it. And it's, I was actually surprised when I watched it on sort of how dark a film it is, and in particular how dark a role George Bailey is for Jimmy Stewart. It's a, it is a classic. It stands up to the, you know, the reputation it has. So if you haven't seen it before like Sammy, if you're a weird unicorn like her, see it for the first time. If you have seen it before, but not for a number of years, this is a good excuse to go back and check it out.

And really fun to mix it up with Alden about this one because he knows his movies. and it was a good pick and a fun conversation. Other things to mention Stur Crazy, My Comedy Central series continues with a wonderful guest by the name Esther Vitsky, sometimes known as Little Esther, a very funny comedian with a new special on Comedy Central. We had a blast chatting next week on Stir Crazy,

a very, very familiar person to Happy Set, confused listeners, and Sammy, I'm not going to say it. It's not me. It's not Sammy. But if you listen to Happy Say, confused if you're if you have a similar taste of sammy for instance yeah i think you're gonna enjoy next week's guest on start i think they will oh my god um and then other things to mention you know you don't want to give a little plug uh people have been talking on twitter a lot about

the new big netflix action movie with charlie's theron the old guard i liked it a lot it's uh directed by jina prince blythwood who's a really uh strong filmmaker who's getting a shot at kind of like a superhero-ish film in this one. And there's been a lot of chatter in the film Twitterverse about it. And I just want to add my two cents and say it's definitely what we're checking out. And kind of the closest thing you're going to get to like a big summer movie right now is the old guard on Netflix. I saw you took a, it gave you an opportunity to really take a stance on Twitter about people pronouncing her name. You like got really passionate about it.

You know what? I think I'd probably mention this in the podcast at some point. It gets under my skin that people. mispronounce Charlie's Therons, Theran, not Theron, not Theron, not Theron, not Theron, that they mispron. I don't care if John Q. Public messes it up, but my point was if you're a film journalist, a film critic, someone that interviews people who are living, I would think you would know how to pronounce the name of one of the top 10 movie stores on the planet and someone that's been a big movie star for 25 years. All I'm saying.

I think it's a good cause for you. This is the stuff I get animated. Your face is bright red. I get angry about Donald Trump, COVID, Black Lives Matter, and this pronunciation of Charlize Theron's name. These are my causes. Yep, this all checks out. These are all the big ones for me.

Yep. Yes, so I did want to plug that one. Anything else? Anything else we should plug? Sammy, what have you been watching? Palm Springs. Oh, yeah. loved, loved, loved

that movie. Like, want to watch it again immediately. Sammy's on board with the Palm Springs train. Everybody that sees it, I feel like this movie. It's on Hulu right now. Andy Sambor, Kristen Miliotti, the less you know going in, the better, but even if you know the kind of twist involved, I think you'll still appreciate it. Funny, sweet,

smart, definitely one of my favorites of the year. I'm with you. Really good. Okay, let's go to the main event. Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to happy say confused. Spread the good word. And I hope you guys enjoy this chat. with Alden Aaron Reich. It's good to see you, Alden.

How you doing, buddy? I'm good. How are you? I'm doing all right, all things considered. We were just catching up. I guess it's been about two years since the insanity of the solo press tour. Does it feel like two years or 10,000 years? I mean, that was an unusual kind of event.

Yeah, it feels like you were the last interview, I think I did on the entire junket. I feel like I'm privileged that I've hit you and these weird spots in your career. Like, I hit you up, I talked to you in Francis for Tetro in what has to have been one of your first interviews, I would guess. Yeah, I remember, if my memory's right, oh, maybe we were in New York then.

Yeah, it might have been, yeah, it was definitely one of the first ones. I was 19. Crazy. And then to see you kind of like come back around in this new way in recent years and then, yeah, caught you at the end of the solo press tour, which was a trip and now you're back with Brave New World we're going to talk about that

we're going to talk about some comfort movies there's a lot to catch up on first just talk to can we do a little debrief on sort of like where you were at because I saw you again at the end of that press tour and it was unlike any kind of an experience of unusual kind of experience in many ways did it take you time to kind of decompress

like to kind of like where was your head at when Solo came out well you know you're so inundated with things that you have to do that you're kind of just you're functioning on a kind of autopilot basically. So I took time

off mainly because like it was about a three year process altogether from the time I started auditioning for it. I auditioned for it for six months and then I was, we were shooting for I think 11 months and then the press tour was three months so

it was like I just hadn't been home with people for a long time. Right. So I went back to sort of like what my M.O. was when I went to college, which was, if something comes along that I love, then I'll do it. But if otherwise, it's like kind of, you know, you have to go be a human being once in a while. Totally, totally. And so this, this is literally the first time you went in front of the cameras again since that experience, right? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I started reading stuff, and I was reading things that were good, but just didn't really dig in for me or weren't enough

of a challenge or whatever it was, and then I read this, and it was just like the smartest, most human and emotional piece that I'd read in a really long time, and nothing like I'd ever read before. So it was, yeah.

I don't know about you, but, I mean, for me, I think it's going to be the expense for a lot of people. The term, Brave New World, what it refers to, this seminal kind of work, it's one of those books that, like, I think a lot of people know about. I'd never read it. Right. And I think we have vague, like, notions of what it's about.

It's kind of the Orwellian kind of sphere and what the words kind of conjure up. Yeah, so you say you hadn't read the book. What did Brave New World even mean to you when this project came around? I was aware of it, you know, like sort of in the same way we kind of all are a little bit, you know, you kind of have heard of it and have some big sense of what it might be. Getting into it, the thing that was really interesting was like, it's a utopia, you know, in the way it presents as a utopia. It's like a, it's a dystopia dressed up as a utopia.

Yeah, if you're passing through, this looks great, but it was a little bit underneath the surface. Yeah, you're there for a little while, but it's, and so, you know, and the ways, you know, Orwell was Huxley's student, and I'm going to totally botch this story completely. But David Wiener, the showrunner, told me a story at the initial meeting that I had with them, which is that Huxley sent him a letter after 1984 and said, you know, this is a great book. But my concern for the future is not this, you know, overt totalitarian ruler that takes over everything. It's more that we will give up our freedom because things are made so convenient, because we're taught that our world is so wonderful, because we'll, you know, we'll do it our ourselves because we get stupid and that resonated a lot more with me and felt more

prescient and you know it's also a world where bad feelings are sort of illegal you know all the things of monogamous relationships or family or having parents or all of that all those things are illegal in in New London and what that's really about is controlling the inner life of people so that they always feel happy everybody's taking soma, which is this pill that makes you, that balances your levels. So you never have to feel fear or anger or frustration or anxiety or anything like that. And so the show becomes this really emotional and really interesting treatise on what is the value of the feelings that we call bad feelings?

Like, what is it to live a life without them? Right. And obviously, there's something less than human about it. Like, where does that stuff go? And so it's both this really interesting philosophical show. and also every scene is just living in the moment-to-moment thing of these people and what they're going through and how these things exist in their day-to-day lives.

You're helping inaugurate the way to streaming service, Peacocks. Everybody should check it out. Brave New World is an ambitious undertaking. Clearly, there's no, you know, a hell of a cast and a hell of a production value behind this one, and well worth checking out. I'm excited to talk to you today also about, you know, as you know, on the podcast lately,

I've kind of changed the subject a little bit so that we can kind of celebrate movies that we find comfort in. And I'm always interested in hearing about sort of where people form their tastes, who influenced their film tastes. So indulge me, if you will. Let's go back when you were a kid. Who is the biggest influence on forming your tastes as a film lover? Well, you know, when I was a little kid, there's so many iterations of it.

When I was really a little kid, it was turn classic movies was on all the time. any movie that I would see, I would just want to be the person in the movie. I used to take, my family had these old books they used to do that was like the MGM story or the world of movies and I'd take little pictures of my face and cut it out and put it on the people and photocopy it and our photocopier. And I just wanted to do it and I remember seeing as a really little kid

you know, westerns, Butch Cassidy and Sandance Kid, and my mom really loved John Wayne. When we did like little film festivals in the house of Mark's Brothers movies

or Charlie Chaplin movies, which I think is great because I think if you don't see that stuff young, you'll never want to watch it. Totally. Watching modern shit, why would you ever watch a silent movie? Yeah, same with me.

My dad definitely got me into Mark's Brothers app and Costello, those kinds of things. And yeah, like I think that, that's the time between like 5 and 15 where you're really sponging it all up and then you're kind of taste form and it's harder to kind of adopt new habits you're totally right yeah absolutely and like you know and and and you can it'll always be with you in a way once you happen at that age so it was a lot of that and then when i was and it was always that it was just

watching all these old movies all these kind of movies from the 50s and um and on what they were showing at turn classic movies now turn classic movies is probably showing stuff from like the 90s, I don't know. They're actually not. I've been discovering it because my dad watches it wall to wall, so I've discovered through him and like some other channels. It does bother me, I'm not going to lie, when I say

things like IFC or BBC and it's like IFC is just, I mean, I love independent film, but what they're shown is not independent. Right, right, that's right. When oldies stations starts playing songs that you think are new. But that's even different. That's like you can understand because like, yeah, we all

get older, but like in no era, was what they're showing an independent film. That's another story, though. Right. Is it true? I read this, so your parents weren't in the industry at all, right? But is it true that your namesake is Bill Alden Robinson? Yeah, not an...

Right director. Yeah, my mom was pregnant, and they went to see Field of Dreams, and they saw his name on the screen, and that was where they heard the name Alden for the first time. So they didn't know him. It was literally they just liked the name. That's so funny. Just like the name. And then when I was working on Warren Beatty's movie. He was over for dinner at their house

and Warren invited me up and I got to tell him that and we took a picture. Amazing. And I had a kind of version of that. I met a kid who was named Alden after Star Wars came out, which was really amazing. Oh, man. Amazing.

So actually, I did want to get to that because you had a really fascinating career in that, you know, proportionally speaking, the filmmakers that you have worked with in a relatively small body of work are like the the greats like beyond and men and several of them are the kinds of filmmakers I know from experience and reading and interactions that are more than just like hired guns they they create an environment they expose their actors the films I mean

so two I want to go into a little bit before we get into your comfort movie is Coppola and Warren Beatty um Copa who basically started your career with Tetrow and cast you that. Did he expose you to film? Did he like bring you to the fame Napa estate and like kind of open your world a little bit? Yeah, I mean that was like the most kind of wondrous experience. I was 17 and I was auditioning for that movie and I mean it's a long story but basically that was a five month I think

audition process. I flew up to Napa to the vineyard. We had a big lunch outside on the deck. I brought up this white navy uniform that I wore in the screen test. We did a screen test there. Tetro, that film, which is my first film, was kind of referenced the red shoes

and Tales of Hoffman a lot. So we watched Tales of Hoffman, I think. And then the process of making that is I went down to Argentina. I did a screen test in Argentina. He had me direct a bunch of Argentine actors in a play in his backyard. So he gave me an Ionesco,

and I had to direct that to a bunch of actors who didn't speak English. And then we came back and we had a whole rehearsal process for a month. I was living with him. We'd go and have a costume party where you'd have to dress as the person your character would come into a costume party as. Then I'd go back to his house and he'd be like, you know, you should watch Rockwell and his brothers or Ashes and Diamonds or movies like this. And it was just this incredible experience.

It was my first experience. And it was much more of like an extension of high school theater than anything else. Right. Which is really where he honed this process, which was directing plays at Hofstra and then going into working with a generation of actors and filmmakers who were so connected to the theatrical tradition. Although the whole cast of The Godfather, obviously, is coming out. the actor studio and all these people have this really deep connection to what it's like to rehearse and all that and that is um and i so i just thought movies were like that you know

and that's also to go back to the other question that was the second phase for me when i was like 13 right read the godfather and saw the movie and that whole generation of actors coming out from that time in 70s cinema was such a huge revelation because you know that is like a cinema where almost the way like in certain parts of the film universe right now like technology is kind of the star of the show it's like that's the most that's what's the most innovative that's the new thing you're seeing on screen yeah back then it was a new acting technique a new way of actually acting on screen that was a special effect yeah exactly yeah so to be like in a movie about italian family working for him was like a totally a dream come true um and then he's been just the most gracious generous person ever since and i've you know gone up and visited with him at the vineyard and he's about filmmaking and it's always you're always learning and like the thing with him too is that it's this pure inspiration he's still so inspired about what the medium can be and he's so bold and kind of brave and has so much resolve in what he believes in and and in art it's

his belief in art is a lot higher and a lot kind of grander than most people, I think. It sounded like in recent years he was going to finally get it back around to making his fabled Megalopolis. Yeah, I think he's working on it, yeah. Yeah, I spoke to, like, an actor recently that was like at a read-through. Like, it's closer than it's ever been, I think, which is kind of staggering. I'd love to see at least another, I mean, all his stuff, whether experimental or more traditional or is fascinating. So whenever he gets behind the camera, I'm down. And then, I mean, again, we could spend hours talking about Warren Beatty, you certainly put in years with Warren.

I mean, there's nothing normal about his process. I know the way he casts and the way he then kind of brings actors into his world for, you were, I mean, you were, you must have spent countless months, days. Years. With Warren Beatty. I mean, it was. It was, I was 19. It was after Tetra came out. It was that summer.

And I went and had lunch with him. for the first time and Warren was really Warren is much more central Warren is in Hollywood you know like when it's in and has always been in Hollywood and Francis has always been outside of it

and Warren has this you know experience that is pretty singular I think there's probably a handful of other people who have this but like he was before that the generation that he helped usher in and champion and was

age-wise a part of is not who he started with the way his contemporaries did. So he started in the whole Hollywood studio system with Kazan and you know, he was new and had friendships with Blueby Mayor. No, he was a contract player.

He was part of that system. Right. And he, so, and his stories are unbelievable and has known everybody. Yeah. It has a very specific point of view on everybody and the meetings are you know four hours long at least you know like that's kind of the shortest there were ones that were nine um and for me it was just like this great

apprenticeship and this learning about getting to ask questions about someone who was new all the people that I grew up watching on screen um you know and that was five years you know we talked about it when I was 19 and he was going to shoot it and you know I think the next year and we shot it when I was 24. It's funny to think because it's like in a way not to diminish the work and what happened, but it's like almost the bigger thing you probably got out of it was

five years of hanging with Warren Beatty than like the time on set in a way. Oh yeah. I mean like what I learned from him on every level is kind of immeasurable because it was just also just watching him as a kind of example and watching him as an actor

who you know really helped another generation helped kind of storm the castle a little bit, but he was the guy opened the gate in a way because he was already Yeah, I mean, I

will say, like, you know, I've been doing the podcast for a number of years and I've never had a, I've been never seen a smile wider in my face than the hour I spent with Warren and I'm like he he's just, oh my God, like on that's tip of the iceberg, like I can only imagine the, he, yeah,

you just want to hear every story because he is like, he as you say, a week to our past, and for a film geek, that's, like, that's, like, amazing. Okay, so, so we've danced around it enough. I asked for a comfort movie from you. You went old school, you went classic.

Talk to me about why you chose what you did and what resonance it has in your life. Well, you know, it's like, I think this, you know, it's a wonderful life is, it's funny to think of it as a comfort moving

way, because you kind of think, oh, well, something that you mindlessly watch or something that you can kind of get cozy and forget about stuff. And that's not my experience of the movie, but I do find it deeply comforting because my experience of watching it is this, it's everything I

want in something. It's in the sense that you walk out of it sort of a different person, and you walk it to me every time I've ever watched the movie, it's like this wake-up call about our lives are short, certain things matter, and

and certain things don't right and when you are able to stay connected to the things that do your life is so much better for it um and there's it just it's not a movie about a movie it's not a movie about it's it's it's kind of more than a movie to me it's like a it's a kind of um it's storytelling in its highest form in sense that it it it it does something to your life you leave that theater i try to go see it every year in a movie theater because you leave the theater feeling a connection to the other people in the dark room that you didn't when you walked in there. Right. And it's kind of a magic trick at how it does this, you know, but it's there's just something about it that I find it's just magic. Well, it is an interesting one because it's one of those movies that is so ingrained in most of us.

Like I don't remember the first time I saw it. It's a wonderful life. It's kind of always been there. And yet, part of the joy of this podcast is revisiting things. I haven't seen it in a while, and I watched it the other day. And yeah, each time this is the mark of a great film. Each time you come to it, you get something a little bit different out of it. You see different things.

And I can mention a few things I saw this time around. But like, it's to set it up for the audience. I mean, not that it requires much setup, but of course, this is Frank Capra. The ultimate Frank Capra film, Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed. It's, let's see, date is December 20th, 1946, Lionel Barrymore as Mr. Potter, Thomas Mitchell, as Uncle Billy, Henry Travers, as Clarence. And of course, tells the story of George Bailey,

who has selflessly given up, sacrificed many points in his life for others, and then reaches kind of a critical point in his life where he thinks of giving it all up and then has shown sort of what life would be like without his existence. Look, now you don't even have to see the movie. I've summed it up. But it's so much more than that.

I mean, I don't know where to begin except, well, you know, I mean, here's the thing that struck me on this probably 25th time I've seen it is Jimmy Stewart. Jimmy Stewart's performance and George Bailey as a fascinating character. You know, I feel like people talk about George Bailey and Jimmy Stewart in these wholesome terms, like he's just like perfection. And George Bailey is kind of a dark character. He like...

Yeah, well, it's, yeah, I think there's a shadow. There's like a world, almost what we were saying about Brave New World. There's a kind of version of It's a Wonderful Life that people think of when they hear the title if they don't know the film. And the film is radically different than that. In the same sense, and that's that Jimmy Stewart embodies that. I mean, in this, in the sense that you think of Jimmy Stewart as this awshucks, sweet guy. And you watch this movie and, like, there is a rage and a despair. His performance in this is to me, you know, it just feels like one of the most deeply felt,

genuine not only do you feel like he believes in what the movie is you feel that he believes in what the character is going through you feel that he's living it you feel that he is completely in it in this story and in this

world and and Jim it's kind of this confluence of Jimmy Stewart of person you know this is the first film he did after came back from the war I saw that yeah he was really scared about the kissing scenes he was like you know said like like a fellow gets rusty and he was but he was also coming back a war hero with seen um he was the i believe the captain in the air force and saw real combat and you feel this um very different

darker edge and this has been talked about obviously but this new thing in him yeah um that adds this whole other resonance to to his work well and he's i think he's about 38 when he makes this film As you said, he'd spent four years in the war his first time back in front of a camera after that he'd consider retiring. And, you know, he runs the gamut. He's playing George from 21 to 38, and, you know, it works clearly. And we're seeing him at different levels of optimism and despair, and he's able to kind of show all those shades of the romantic, of the defeated man, of the reborn guy by the end. And, you know, you know this as well as anyone, like having played like an iconic hero. And, you know, Harrison's talked about in these terms, like a Jimmy Stewart.

Like, it's tough to be the leading guy. It's tough to be the every man. It's tough to, like, have to play a role where an audience is projecting themselves onto that actor. Did you, is that something that you've thought about a lot, especially in recent years, where you've played protagonists at the center of a story where you have to be kind of, in some ways, the every man. I wouldn't say Hans on every man, but he's certainly a... Yeah, more so in solo, probably. Sure, yeah.

But, yeah, I think, you know, I think the best way you serve that is pretty much to be as human and make it as personal as you can. You know, that's the thing you feel with Jimmy Stewart. It's like, if you're specifically you, that becomes universal in a sense. Right. Not to say you're you and some confluence of you in the role. But there's also, you know, your function is different, too. That's something I think about a little bit.

You know, when you're the protagonist of the movie, you are carrying what the movie's about, and you are also the person who is after something, who's sort of like need in the story becomes the engine of the story. Right. So you have to keep sort of a closer eye on that. totally your supporting role your dream or whatever you're after is the less consequential you know to the to the story working you know you could you could do a

great job and have that or do a bad job and it's okay but right yeah um you know I think also the thing with it's more life is like the movie starts with God talking to an angel about a guy who's going to commit suicide and it's like that's weird Totally. Yeah, I was watching it. The structure of the story is amazing because you start with that kind of that, that, that kind of prolog. You're in the stars and they're talking to each other. And then it's kind of normal and linear. The supernatural stuff doesn't kick in until the last like 25 minutes of the movie. You have a 90 minute movie just about his life. And then like the high concept stuff starts. Right. And in a weird, in like a kind of like structural sense, Clarence is kind of the protagonist because he's the one who's tasked. with this deed, the first part of the movie is Clarence's like briefing on George Lee's play.

But while you watch it, you know, you are getting involved in it seeing it. And the movie has these kind of short stories in it is almost like it has these like very standalone, beginning, middle and end sequences that each have this

just sense of wonder. I mean, it's hard to talk about this movie in a way because like it captures something that What's wonderful is that you can't quite capture. It's, but you're watching this kind of, when he comes home and she's made that house and gotten everybody on their wedding night because of the bank run,

you know, them after the dance walking and the George Lasso's the moon, like them on the phone when he has that phone call is such a fucking weird, dark version of like the beginning of a love story. The difficult person, he's angry. He's a challenging person. It's so not, it's so, you know, and it's about disillusion, really.

Like, what do you do with disillusion over and over and over again? He's thwarted. He has a dream that he cares about. He's thwarted over and over and over again. And how do you avail yourself to what life is rather than living in a kind of fantasy about what you hope it could be? So in some way, there's this resonance. to the movie that I think is so much more complex and deeper and more profound than what it presents at, but you feel it, you know, and I think people feel it. I think one of the many reasons why it works is obviously beyond just Jimmy Stewart's performance, this ensemble around Donna Reed is excellent in the film.

Wynel Barry Moore is iconic. I mean, he's been, Mr. Potter's been parodied to death, but there's a reason for that. Uncle Billy, Thomas Mitchell is fantastic, and as we mentioned, Clarence, played by Henry Trave. Zuzu is still around. Young Zuzu is 80 years old. It's only 80s, not like she's even like 90s. I mean, she's around. But it also has like, even for a film that was shot like on a back lot and sets, it actually feels like Bedford Falls feels like a fully realized community. Like you know the cop, you know, the purveyor of the drugstore,

you really have a sense of this living, breathing, small town. small town. And I think that's also what I feel like we all like know that town in a way. Absolutely. You know, the only other thing that makes me feel the way this movie does is our town, which has a very similar reputation as being something a lot less deep than it is. And when you see it, it's like to me the greatest work I've ever seen.

Right. And you you have this sense of a kind of universal home or place or community or town that I think we all yearned for and kind of know in some archetypal way. It's fascinating to, I mean, a lot of, especially film buffs, know kind of the arc of this film, but, you know, at the time, it was a box office disappointment. It got very mixed reviews, and it kind of achieved the second and third life. Ironically, in part, I think, thanks to it being the public domain. So, like, any channel started to, like, show it over and over again.

That was my experience as a kid, probably yours as well. And to the point where it became a point. perennial. It's, you know, it's that, it's a holiday film, even though a lot of it doesn't take place at the holidays, but it is something that, you know, it's as ingrained as now it's like, when I grew up, I was watching Miracle on 34th Street, and it's a wonderful life, and now

it's Elf, and, you know, it's just part of that pantheon. Yeah. Capra, apparently, I was surprised to see this, that, supposedly he relied a lot on improv. He, he encouraged, yeah, he encouraged his actors to improvise. I was surprised by that, too.

You know, I think Capra's also really interesting, because, like, he can pull off things that you would vomit if other filmmakers did it. Right. Because it feels like I read some of his autobiography, I think when I was doing Warren's movie, actually. And the whole thing is, like, the way he viewed his life was a Frank Capron movie. Every scene is him going into, like, the office of some big shot

and saying, like, you know, I know I'm only supposed to be delivering the mail. Oh, I got an idea and, like, all this stuff. And he means it. And I think you feel that. And I think that's true. Of all films, like, if the person means it, it can sort of be anything. If it's sincere and genuine. And when you get the commercial-feeling version of this movie, it's literally the worst thing in the world.

And you want to, like, yeah. How do you say that? Because I feel like that's been a common theme in some of the comfort movies people have chosen. It's like, you know, we're also cynical now, and I'm guilty of it, too. But, like, if it's earnest and real, if it's authentic to the filmmaker and the writer and director's story, and they really, you know, like in a much, much different way, we talked about Magnolia recently, which is a really raw, earnest kind of movie, as dark as it is. But because it is just so authentic to his life, I think that's why it resonates. And as is the first comparison between Magnolia and it's a wonderful life in history, but I think you see where I'm going with us. Right.

It was nominated for five Oscars, despite being kind of a mixed reception. Here's a fun time. Best actor? I believe the best actor, but here's the one when it won. It won a special technical award for its depiction of snow. Oh, my God. It's good. That looks good.

No, looks good in that. Let's throw some arbitrary awards to this film. Best performance in the film. Who would you give the award to? I mean, you just. I mean, she's phenomenal. And who else is great

in it? I mean, I feel like everybody is it, Glory Graham. She's great, always often playing that part in movies, like she plays that in Oklahoma. But yeah, Jimmy Stewart in this

and, yeah, you can point to just so many different moments that are so incredible. I also, a small award goes to the silent bodyguard of Mr. Potter who I don't think ever speaks. But you feel his presence.

Best scene? You have a favorite scene in the film? It's such a movie where I really could name and describe like seven scenes, but I think you've got to say the end because what you get at the end of that movie is just a more

powerful than most movies. Is there a favorite, again, these are all part of, like, it's all part of the vernacular now, but is there a line that resonates with you, a line you've found yourself quoting over the years? I mean, anyone, pretty long it stuck out to me last time I watched it was, I think it's I'm going to jail, isn't it wonderful? Something like that, yeah, yeah. And he says something like, isn't my, Bert, I'm going to prison, isn't it great?

And, like, that's where you get to me, like, this deeper sense of the film is that, like, sort of, you know, to go back to Star Wars and Joseph Campbell in that work, not Star Wars itself, but the work of Joseph Campbell and something he was writing about, is kind of yes to life, this yes, this acceptance and saying yes to what happens to you. Right. even and especially when it isn't what you pre-configured. And that line felt emblematic of that to me. To have someone screaming with joy, like, yes, I'm going to prison. It's just a saying yes, an embracing of life in its fullest. This is probably Sacralogic to even ask. Should there be a remake or sequel?

It's got in, actually, there was a radio play version, which I think Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed were in. There have been some kind of TV remake redoes. What do you think? Stephen Stewart calls you up and says, Alden, I have this great new reboot. I want to do it's a wonderful wife. Are you my George Bailey? What do you think? Well, Stephen is a, I do whatever he wanted to.

That's the exception. You know, whatever, Mr. Potter. But I think, like, the radio version, definitely no, there should never be a remake, in my opinion, just because you'll fail, not because it's, like, sacred, just because it won't ever be as good. But the radio play versions of it are not the ones with them, but the ones they kind of do now are nice,

because it's just like it doesn't feel like it's trying to read, update it. It's just like a different way of the same story. Sure. Yeah. That is, it's a wonderful life. If you guys have not watched it ever, remedy that immediately. If you haven't watched it sometime like I have, it's worth another look and worth kind of like, you know,

as Alden put it so well, it's a film that, you get something different out of each time, and I certainly did. So I'm glad you brought it back to mind for the purposes of this podcast. So where are you at right now? We're all kind of in this weird new world. You're obviously talking about Brave New World. Are you starting to think about working again? I mean, we all kind of don't know when that can happen, but what were you at?

I mean, I think we're learning right now what it is to film something at this time. So, like, we really don't know. and there are people we're opening up and filming things and I think we're learning how truly safe it is because safety is so much more important and so we'll see I'm reading things I'm in pre-production

on a kind of medium-length film that I wrote and I'm going to direct when this is over and then you know reading a few scripts and we'll see. I think for me it's like I need to know really what the protocols are and that they're incredibly safe

and that we've learned the craft of this before I for that. Yes, I mean same in both shooting my stuff but also even going to the movies. I mean, look I live and breathe this stuff but like I'm not going to, you know, as much as I want to see Christopher Nolan's new movie, I don't want to risk my life to see it. It's not worth it.

Right. I'm just curious because like I've had a chance to, I talk to Ron Howard a couple of times in recent years he's he's proud of solo I think solo has if anything grown in estimation by folks I think it it was had so much baggage at the time when it first came out it was just as we referenced earlier it was an odd circumstance um do you feel like you have new perspective and pride in it that you didn't two years ago or or has it changed much for you or what um I feel yeah it doesn't feel new to me I mean I felt that then and I think

we were kind of aware going into it like not there were kind of two levels of baggage one was the publicity of of the director change etc but the other thing is that there's kind of not a movie you know that you that the general person would have let you know when you hear there's going to be a Han solo movie i think everybody has a version of that movie in their head right and so my experience of anything like that is that when you first see it, all you're doing is, it's like when you see a movie that was adapted from a book, all you're doing is

that's not what I thought it was going to be. And so I think I think there's I think like what happened, my sense of what happened in this kind of it being championed again in whatever way it has is that people walked away from it and returned to it as what it is.

And the thing that I think is the coolest about it's just the people that are in you know like there's just it's such a cool cast amelia and donald and phoebe and woody and everybody and paul betney and tandy newton so i i think um yeah i feel you know and hearing about kids signing like boxes of you know with uh action previews and stuff and it like that's that's who these movies to me are really for it's like for kids and the kids in us and i think um that felt great and continues to go great like I can say my nephew it's his favorite of all the Star Wars films

it's a special one in this wake of I mean obviously and I don't want to go down the road of the production but like Gordon Miller obviously weren't able to finish what they want it to do so in this age of like the Snyder cut the air cut there's not

we shouldn't hold our breath like there's not enough for a Lord and Miller version of that film and would you even want to see what that even looks like yeah I don't know I really don't know you know, so much of this I was in the dark on as far as what was going on behind the scenes. Yeah.

You know, I think there's a million reasons why that probably won't ever happen. Are you cool with... If they did, if they really wanted to, and everybody was cool with it, I'd be happy to watch it. Interesting day, yeah. In this age of Disney Plus, would you ever want to play the character again? Different iteration, different kind of...

It'd have to be really... I would if it was a... really, it actually had to be the right version of this. There was like a cool, you know, what's cool and we're kind of free in a way, you know. You got past the hard part. The hard part.

So I think, and I always thought that honestly is like the fun of the character, this is, you know, maybe the comment that I'll regret saying the most, but the real fun of that character, my favorite part of that character is something that kicks in at the end of the movie. You know,

it's when he becomes that guy, at the end, that's the guy you love. So getting, you know, getting into that kind of going from there is interesting. So we'll see. But I think now they're being so inventive with how they're using Star Wars and putting out stories in a different way that maybe they'll be, you know, I can see maybe some out-of-the-box interesting iteration of it somewhere. We'll see.

Who knows? Yeah, I'm rooting for it, man. I'd love to see you a strap on the belt another time in a different kind of incarnation. It's good to catch up with you, man. I always enjoy our chats. We've talked about every kind of different sort of film over the years, and it's fun to not only talk about a new series,

Brave New World on Peacock, but a veritable classic, and it's a wonderful life. Thanks, buddy, as always, and I can't wait to see you in more normal times. You bet. Thanks a lot. And so ends another edition of Happy, sad, confused. Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person. I'm Davey Ridley, and I definitely wasn't

pressured to do this by Josh. I'm Amy Nicholson, the film critic for the LA Times. And I'm Paul Sheer, an actor, right, and director, you might know me from the league, Veep, or my non-eligible for Academy Award role in Twisters. We love movies, and we come at them from different perspectives. Yeah, like

Amy thinks that, you know, Joe Pesci was miscast in Goodfellas, and I don't. He's too old. Let's not forget that Paul thinks that Dude, too, is overrated. It is. Anyway, despite this, we come together to host Unspooled, a podcast where we talk about good movies, critical hits.

Fan favorites, must-season, and a Casey Mistoms. We're talking Parasite the Home Alone. From Greece to the Dark Night. We've done deep dives on popcorn flicks. We've talked about why Independence Day deserves a second look. And we've talked about horror movies, some that you've never even heard of like Ganges and Hess. So if you love movies like we do, come along on our cinematic adventure. Listen to Unspooled wherever you get your podcast. And don't forget to hit the follow button.