Happy Sad Confused - Kevin McCarthy

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

It's a special Happy Sad Confused cross-over episode with fellow film enthusiast and master interviewer Kevin McCarthy! Josh and Kevin trade interview stories, podcasting techniques, and movie hot takes, and more! Check out Kevin's podcast, On Film with Kevin McCarthy. Check out the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Happy Sad Confused patreon here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! We've got discount codes to live events, merch, early access, exclusive episodes, video versions of the podcast, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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they used to, you need to see this. Watch Catherine Heigel's free video now at hscpet.com. That's hsc pet.com. Your dog's health will thank you. Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, Sad, Confused begins. Hey guys, it's Josh. Welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused.

Today on the show, this is an unusual one. This is a crossover episode. Josh Horowitz, Kevin McCarthy. Is it Happy Say It Confused? Is it on film? What's the name of this podcast? I don't know, but this is a fun one. Hey, guys, welcome to another edition of Happy, Say, Confused.

We're trying something a little new out today. If you follow my work, you may know the name Kevin McCarthy. I'm virtually certain most of you do. I certainly do. I've known Kevin for, I don't know, 10, 15 years at least, probably. Kevin is fantastic at what he does, and what he does is actually what I do. We travel in the same space. He's a film journalist, film host, film interviewer.

He is formerly out of D.C. now in Los Angeles, making it big there, and has recently started his own podcast called On. film this episode is indeed a crossover episode this is going to be available on kevin mccarthy's on film feed it's available on my happy sad confused feed and um we we've been talking about having a chat for a long while as i said he recently started a podcast when he moved out to la um and i've been giving him i don't know i don't want to say i've been giving him tips because kevin knows what he's doing he's killing it many ways better than i am But I've got a couple years on him, and I'm always there for him to give advice.

He's always there for me to give advice. And it's a rare thing when we can kind of, you know, it's a weird thing to find someone in the industry, I think, that you can lean on and talk shop. And Kevin is one of those guys. And we decided to have this conversation, as opposed to our usual chats on text or over the phone, in front of cameras and on mics for you guys. This is a really fun chat about movies, about journalism, about interviewing technique. And I certainly got a lot out of it. I hope Kevin did. And most importantly, I hope you guys do too.

If you haven't checked out Kevin's work, look him up. Kevin McCarthy on Instagram, TikTok, on film is the name of his podcast. He's been getting amazing guests. His first guest, I think, was Josh Brolin. And since then, he has been just, as I say, killing it. He comes at interviews from a different vantage point than I do, which I think allows for us to root each other on. He's more into the technical aspects of filmmaking.

We're both geeks in our own way, but I think our styles couldn't in many ways be more different. So I think we compliment each other very well and I was excited to have this chat with him. If you love what I do, if you love what he does, if you love movies, if you love watching, movie interviews, I think you're going to get something out of this conversation. So if you haven't already subscribed not only to this channel, but subscribe to Kevin McCarthy's YouTube channel, subscribe to his podcast on film, and yeah, more fun content for your ears and eyes, courtesy of Kevin McCarthy. I hope you guys enjoy this. Perhaps we'll do this again sometime. As always, I'll remind you guys, if you like what I do and want to support it, go to our Patreon.

Patreon.com slash HappySyke, and if you just get early access, access to all our shows, all our discount codes for all our events, merch, all sorts of fun stuff. So patreon.com slash happy, say I confused is your home for all things Josh Harowitz and Happy Say I Confused. And without any further ado, this is a conversation shot actually on Kevin's home base. I kind of let him drive the ship here because it was his home base in Los Angeles. I was visiting over a long weekend, going to the Critics Choice, snuck some time in to see Kevin. So this is really Kevin's podcast, but I thought I would sneak it into my feed here.

I hope you guys get something out of it. Enjoy me. And the one and only, Kevin McCarthy, everybody. Welcome to On Film with Kevin McCarthy? Right? My logo's up there, Kevin. It's my show. This is Happy Say I Confused.

My logo is right next to it. My people were supposed to tell your people. This is my damn. I did the podcast way before your podcast, Kevin. logo is first, by the way. I am on your set, though, to be fair. It's true. We're in Los Angeles. This is happening, Kevin. You ready for this?

I am beyond... Well, first of all, I get to be a guest on Happy, Sad, Confused. I get to be a guest on film with Kevin McCarthy. This is like the greatest crossover ever. The internet's either going to be very excited or no one's going to care about our families or friends. I think people are going to be really excited about this. Honestly, and Josh and I, we know each other

for how long now? Over 15 years. Yeah, I would say, right? And we met originally through the Junkett Circus. a lot of long years with four to eight minute slots on junkets. And when you meet a kindred spirit, someone that actually knows what they're talking about, cares. You bond. Yeah. And we've been in hallways together.

That sounds weird. But it's so funny. Director Park Chan-Wook was just sitting there five minutes ago talking about the hallway scene in Old Boy. Right. And like, we have our own hallway scenes. We have our own hallway scenes. Yes.

To be clear, most of our careers have been spent in the hallways of like the Four Seasons hotel waiting to talk to movie stars and directors and be really nervous and to talk to each other about how nervous we are before walking into a room. Yeah. And for people out there listening to us, if you're not familiar at all with what a press junket is, so Josh and I came up in the press junket circuit. We'll get into our histories. Josh's podcast, I think,'s turning 11.

Nearly 12, yes. We're going to run this on both Happy Second View. So Happy Second Fees listeners, viewers. Welcome to the show. And Kevin's running this on his. So this is a very cool first for Happy Second Fees. first for you, I guess, a crossover episode. 100%. I mean, I just started my show in August.

And honestly, like, Josh has been a great person to speak with about the podcast process because you've been doing it for much longer than I have. And I think one of the things I mentioned with the junket process, or people out there who don't know, essentially movie studios do these big press junkets where they bring the actors and filmmakers to essentially hotels and press go in and out of these rooms for four to six minutes at a time. So I started this show primarily to get into the, those longer formed discussions.

I would imagine... Same thing for me. Yeah, what was... Do you remember the initial idea of Happy Sack Confused? It's exactly what you're talking about just because I'm a little bit older than you. I started it a little bit earlier perhaps.

But like, yeah, so like about 12 years ago, I'd been doing, you know, my day job for many years and to a degree still has been covering movies for MTV. So like doing the red carpets and the junkets and everything. And amazing. Like what opportunities and very cool experiences. But at a certain point, I was getting like numbed to like, you know, MTV actually getting.

that's like a decent amount of time at Junkets, but again, for those that don't know, a decent amount of time at a Junkett is like eight minutes, which is not... Eight minutes is like gold. If you have eight minutes... Kevin back of the day used to be like, you got eight minutes?

Because, I mean, when I started Junkett's four minutes was the standard. Right. And so... It was the standard for most people. It is, but when Josh would be like, I have eight, I'm like, how is that possible?

He goes, well, I work for MTV. And I'm like, but that's incredible. And I never even thought to think, like, oh, I can sit down with Ethan Hawk for an hour? That's possible? How do I even get to a stage like that? And this was not the dream,

but it was certainly an antidote to what I was doing. And by the way, I still actually don't mind doing a shorter form, a 10 or 12 or 15 minute interview because that kind of has its own challenges that are unique to the format. But yeah, like I started the podcast in my office at MTV, kind of off the grid. I was not supposed to be doing it.

I literally just bought like a single microphone and didn't know what I was doing, and started to book folks that I knew. My first guest was Kate Mara, Robert Rodriguez. Kate Mara was your first guest? Very first guest. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, that is the weirdest thing

because Kate Mara just followed me on Instagram last night. Like, I woke up this morning with a follow. That is a universal sign right there. Wait, that was your first guest. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She did me a solid, so I will always be grateful to her. And mine was Josh Brolin. And so, that's interesting.

So was the show called Happy Sadd, confused at the time? It was. So back, Happy Sack confused, the name predated the podcast because, you know, on the junket circuit, often journalists would sometimes do photos with, with the folks that they're interviewing. And it always felt a little like silly and awkward to do that kind of thing. You know how, how that vibe is. But I still kind of wanted to memorialize the moment in some way. So I had the stupid idea at the time, which actually turned out to be a good idea, which was like, I'm going to ask a celebrity to do a happy photo, a sad photo, and a

confused by it with me. And ironically, the first time I ever did it was for the least, like, fun movie ever. It was for Zero Dark 30. Jessica Chastain was my first victim of the photo series. And did you, when you did you have to pitch it to her team first? Or did you just say, hey, I'm doing this thing. Do you pitch it to Jessica directly? No, I was always back in the day, especially, like earlier, we've talked about this before, I think, like the kind of stuff I used to do because I also have, like, a comedy side to my career. I was very, like, I don't know, balls I don't know what the word is, just to, like, go for it and assume consent and try stuff out. What's that word?

It's like, ask for forgiveness late. What is it? Yeah. Not permission. I don't know. Whatever. But, yes, you know, I did not vet it with publicists. I never used to vet, like, games I would do back in the day.

And most of the time it worked out, sometimes it didn't. I'm much more, I don't know if I'm conservative now in what I do. But, like, I think I have a better gauge for what I can get away with during interviews. And hopefully people trust me now not to make fools of them. But yeah, Jessica. was game and yeah, the photo series kind of took off. And then when I started the podcast, I had no better ideas, honestly. How long was your first episode?

Do you remember? It was probably like 45 minutes if I had to guess. And you shot it in your office. I didn't shoot it. It was audio. Truly happy sat confused was audio up until the pandemic. And really? Yeah.

I never shot any happy set confused episodes. And it was really out of doing it over Zoom over during the pandemic. And I had video and, you know, I was shooting video anyway thanks to Zoom. And I was like, okay, I might as well use the video. I had friends and colleagues. You might know Christian Harloff. I don't know if you know him or not. He was always encouraging me

to start a YouTube channel. And I did, and I was so late to the game on that. At least you're doing that right from the start, very wise. But I'm also starting in a more modern era of podcasting where it's become, I mean, as you know, and I think you and I can both gauge this, that, like, filmmakers and actors really do love these longer-formed conversations

to dive into craft and just in general have a flowing conversation. but like podcasting is really become one of the stops that a lot of actors and filmmakers are doing on their press tours now. Totally. It's replaced kind of like the late night talk show to a degree. I mean, they still exist,

but I mean, I'm so excited for what you've already carved out. Like, you're very early in this run, and the fact that you start off with someone like Brolin speaks volumes of your, like... That's all Brolin. Brolin made that happen. I mean, and we're going to dive into this because I want this episode, and for both of us, to be... kind of an inside look into how this works

because Josh is somebody who cares so much about what we do for a living and it's just cool to find somebody who genuinely cares so much about it. And with Brolin, for example, like you and I have talked about this, relationships over the years. And we can get into this in the conversation

about how we would meet publicists at press junkets. I would always go up to a publicist and introduce myself. Hi, I'm Kevin. Thank you so much for your time with your client. And that was something I just did early on,

and I think you did that as well, and you just start to form relationships and friendships as well. And Brolin was somebody who I just became friendly with through the Junkett scene. Like we met on a few movies. I think Socario was the one where we really kind of hit it off and had a lot of fun with that one, and then we just became friends.

So by the time I left local television, so Josh was saying he worked for MTV, or still works for MTV. my outlet was a local television station in D.C., WTTTG, and that's where I would do my four-minute junket slots for. And now, as of June of 2025, my wife and I moved out to L.A. I started this show, and Brolin, who had built a relationship with over the years, great guy, love you, Josh, if you're listening,

was, hey, man, I'll be your first guest, let's do this. And it was just incredible. We were at a weapons press junket. I had just done a five-minute press junket interview with him. I stood up, and he was essentially like, when are we doing the longer one? I'm like, hey, let's meet for 30 minutes. He goes, no, let's do 90. And I'm like, 90.

I've never even thought about doing 90 minutes with especially someone of that caliber and the filmography that Josh has. And so, yeah, we recorded that episode in Santa Barbara at a recording studio that I found. I mean, for people who don't know, I'm just going to put this out there, I currently produce, edit, host, book, and... and pay for my whole show. So there's nobody working for this show but me. And so that's been a bit of a challenge.

And I know you're at a stage with your podcast where you have, you could have editors and you can have people helping. I have editors at least, but it's funny you say that because I get questions all the time, like first people are very kind of like, oh, can I join the team or like who's on the team? And I'm like, team.

That's very sweet. But yeah, I mean, I've told you this. We've had so many conversations about sort of like the ins and outs of what we do and just like how to do what we do. I think you know this. Like the first like six, seven years of the podcast, I wasn't making any money.

Literally, it wasn't making any money from it. I didn't even really occur to me to try to monetize it. It was a true passion project. It was like yourself. It was just like born out of like love and curiosity. And I think that's often where the best projects come out of.

I had to do it. I wanted to do it. And the financial part of it, it is great that like happy second uses at a place now where like yes it can sustain me and i can pay for some editors but like no one's booking the show no one's prepping any questions no one's choosing the guests um and you know you'll you'll get to a place i'm sure where you can hopefully get a little bit more um help just to like relieve your brain a little bit because it's you know the way you and i approach interviews the the necessity of a long-form conversation is it's a lot of

prep. I know you're like me. You don't want to like walk in here, even though you could. Both you and I could just riff with somebody for an hour. I don't like that feeling. I like to feel way over prepared. Like, I mean, this morning I was prepping for, you know, two podcast interviews. I'm sure you're already prepping for the next. Who do you prep for? I'm doing Tom Hittleston in two days and Jennifer Lawrence in three days. And Josh does these live shows. So just the timestamp this, we're recording this on Sunday, January. Fourth. Yes. David's Critics Choice Awards, which is why I'm New York-based, Kevin's L.A. now, as you heard, and I'm in L.A. for Critics' Choice, and we've been talking about doing something like this for a while,

and our schedules lined up to fit this in. Yeah, and I wanted to mention that because by the time this episode comes out, the Oscar nominations will probably be out. So, just in case you're listening to this, this is January 4th, but we're going to try. On Ari's got all the nominations. Gerlena already won best actor.

It's over. I watched it on the point, which is why I have Tron Airy. on the brain. I watch every Jared Aletto movie on a plane now. Really? Morbius was on a plane? Oh yeah. Dude, the 9-inch nail score in that movie's amazing. Oh, in Trond. In Trond. I thought it was in Trond. No, no, I'm going back to Tron-Arys.

But Josh does these amazing live shows, and obviously check out his social media. We're on his channel, on my channel as well. But you have live shows with Tom Hiddleston and Jennifer Lawrence. And you record those for the podcast. I do. I record a lot of those for the podcast. I've been recording when I get out to L.A., I've done events.

here with Gary Oldman, Seth Rogen and Ben Stiller, which you came to. Is there a different prep for a live show versus a show you do on your own? To a degree, and you do, I mean, I know you haven't recorded live for the podcast exactly yet, though I see, you've repurposed a couple things, right? No, I did one with Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson

and Craig Brewer. I did it at the DGA, and it was recorded as a podcast episode. Yes. And I guess, I don't know if I prepared it differently, but I tried to think about the audience there and then my audience listening. Yes. So when you're doing like a,

when you're doing like a Jennifer Lawrence live show, you're thinking about Happy Side Confused listeners or you're also thinking about the audience there? It's less change in prep than in change in how I conduct the interview in front of an audience. I don't know if you feel the same way, but like I, it's a different vibe for me. I'm playing to, my most important audience is the guests, right?

Like it's that interaction. But there are times when you, at least I feel like I want to play to that. audience and reference the audience and involve them in the conversation to a degree. And it's, it's kind of more of a performance, at least for me, you know, it's laying back and letting the, the lines that elicit, you know, laughs sit and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, more about timing, um, and kind of interacting with the audience to a degree, but it's, I don't really change the questions or the format. It's more about just, like, changing how I'm

conducting the conversation in the moment, if that makes sense. sense. And you keep in like audience laughter, you keep those beats in as well as as the edit for the for the podcast. Because I'm assuming, and I've listened to it before, but like you're saying it off the top where you are, like what you're doing. And so the audience already expects that you're in front of a live audience. And the audience listening at home knows that. Yes. And I think they both, they all have their pros and cons. Like sometimes it's nice to just sort of like, you know, one on one, no pressure of anybody watching except for the guest. But it's also great. I find and you've moderated a ton of things. Like, the, you know, the The good thing about that kind of thing is the guest, it's incumbent upon them to be entertaining and charming. No one wants to embarrass themselves in front of 500 people. So it kind of like puts a little bit more onus on them to be like big and fun and, you know, just entertaining. Whereas like, you know, they're generally gonna be charming

with us anyway because again, it's all being recorded. But like one on one, I think there's less pressure on them to be like big. That makes sense. Yeah, no, it's interesting. It's interesting. And you talk about prepping, like, like, We prep days in advance for a lot of these things,

and especially if we have multiple ones coming up that are back to back. Like, I'm prepping, like, tomorrow I have Paul Taswell, who is the costume designer for Wicked, and then also Amanda Seifred tomorrow for the new movie, The Testament of Anne Lee, which is just an incredible performance. But it is fascinating because as we sit here in the studio right now, it's interesting to sit across from somebody who does what I do and what we do for a living.

But obviously, you know, going back to that first episode, you did with Kate and then going forward in the 11, 12 years of the show, how much is the show evolved? Because like I'm still finding my show. Right. Like when I sat down with Brolin, I remember someone saying to me,

like, what exactly is the show? And I'm like, well, it's a longer form, craft-driven podcast that is hopefully helping to give audiences an inside look into all the decisions that filmmakers make. Whether it's movement, physicality, cinematography, editing, sound design, score. Like how are all the different people

who collaborate on a film affected by everybody else's work? And I was like, okay, that's where the root of the show is because I grew up on DVD features, right? That was my film school. Like I would watch Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings featureettes about how Andy Circus was performing as Golem and Smeagel. It was just unbelievable. That's how I learned about filmmaking.

And I was like, well, what if there was like a longer form podcast that kind of acted like DVD features in a way? But I'm sitting there talking to the artist who actually made the work. And so that's kind of where I had it. And then so when I did Brolin, I'm like, what's my show exactly? I'm still figuring it out. I'm six months in because I had Sam Worthington on, right?

Yes. Sam Worthington walks into the studio, into this exact studio. First thing he says to me is I've watched every episode of your podcast. And I'm like, whoa, so does he know what kind of questions are about to come at him during the interview? And then we sat down and the interview became more of a conversation. rather than an interview, right? And there are certain guests where that works, and there are certain guests where that doesn't work.

With Sam, it became like this, like, oh, I love this vibe. This is a much different vibe than my typical question and answer, but not every guest is going to be like that. I think that's key. It's like, for me, you can only impose a format to a degree. Like, I think you are so ahead of the game in terms of like the show, and I've watched most of the episodes, and you know I've told you this off, Mike, but I'll say it on.

Like, you're killing it. And I knew you would. I told you, you know, credit to myself. I was saying to Kevin, this move is going to be great for you. Josh. This podcast is going to be great for you. There's nobody I have more confidence in.

You are so respected in the industry. And the quality, the level of guests and the level of conversations you've been doing in the first few months, so proud of you. And that means the world to me. I'll say the same thing about you because Josh is somebody I've looked up to

since I first started in this industry because you were paving away of like, oh, I want to get to a point where I have longer time. But then Josh is also the nicest guy. We talk about movies, we geek out about things. When I was leaving my job in D.C. to come to L.A. to start this show, you and I got on the phone.

We had a lot of conversations. There was an idea at one point where we were going to do a show together. That might happen at some point. You never know. But, yeah, continue what you were saying. But, yeah. Well, I was going to say, I think you're ahead of the game because I think you've already dialed into, you're smart.

Like, you're playing to your strengths. Like what you, and this is, I think, partially why, like, you know, we've talked about this. also off mic, like I think one of the things we enjoy is that we, like, there's always going to be, I wouldn't say there's competitiveness, but like I get, you know, excited or like, like, oh, Kevin got somebody that I want, and I'm sure you feel the same way. Of course. That's always going to happen.

But it's a respectful thing. Like, I'm never, like, jealous. It's more of like, oh, I wish I would have gotten, you know, Guillermo del Toro for Frankenstein. What would I have asked him? But then I'm also at the same time happy that you got him. I'm just confused and sad that I didn't. But it's also, the good thing is, and the thing that I think, that I think, probably makes us both feel good, is we do way different kind of interviews. Even though we occupy,

and I'm sure a lot of the audience overlaps, but you know, you are so focused and like have such knowledge and respect for every department and the craft behind it. And I have that to a degree, and I can hang with a DP and a composer to a degree, but it's not, it's not the level of immersion and obsession that you have. And I think that the fact that you're dialing into that is really smart. and finding your own niche. But you're not going to have that same kind of conversation with Sam Worthington, who's an actor and an artist and has a certain level of expertise or knowledge

of cinematography and costuming. But I guess what I was going to say is, like, I think you're already, like, finding, you know, your unique way into conversations. But I think, like, for me, my conversation with, like, a Tom Hittleston is going to be way different than with the Duffer Brothers or with Jennifer Long. And like so I'm gonna certainly have the kind of topics and approach that I always take based on the person

I'm gonna always kind of tailor it to the person I know Jennifer's gonna be fun and I'm gonna and I'm prepping to like you know Because you know where you go with her go with her We'll be right back with more happy said confused Adobe acrobat studio your new foundation use media spaces to generate a presentation grab your docs your permits your most AI levels of your pitch gets it in a groove. Choose a template with your timeless cool. Come on now, let's flex those two.

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and I'll be guiding guests through the creepy questions and chaotic games, all to win the ultimate title of horror movie champion. Listen to Tickled to Death, wherever you get your podcasts, and hit follow, unless you want the show to follow you. Someone told me this a while back, and I learned this, not the hard way,

but I learned this in the junket world, when I would be lucky to interview somebody multiple times and it took a while to figure somebody out. Like Harrison Ford, I don't think I figured out Harrison Ford how to interview him until like my fifth time. Yeah, same probably. And he's such a nice guy, he's great in an interview, but he's a craft guy.

He loves craft and acting and filmmaking and discovering a character. And I remember when I first met him, I wanted to geek out. I'm like, oh my gosh, it's Hans Sol or Hans Sol. And I'm like, it's Indiana Jones, and that's not his vibe. He's an actor who creates a character. Those characters happen to become legendary and iconic. And so how do you meet these people where they're at? And I was like, oh, on the fourth or fifth time I got him, I'm like, oh, I understand what he likes and what he's interested in talking about.

He was always nice to me, but I never felt like I got to a connected level of craft conversation until I really understood, oh, he's passionate from about every. everything with character development. I think that people often say to me, and I take it as a high compliment, like, oh my god, everybody seems so comfortable with you, they trust you, they go places, they went with other people. And a lot of that, part of it is,

I know what I'm talking about, and I have hopefully an affable vibe, and I'm listening, and I'm engaging, whatever. But a big part of it is just having history, like exactly what you're saying. He's one of my favorite people to talk to now. Harrison Ford, every time I book him, like I know now where I have to go with it.

Because at the end of the day, and I think you would agree this as well. My questions come from a genuine place of curiosity. Which is a huge different. You would think that's not a differentiating point between most folks in the business, but it is so invaluable because, again, I'm sure you get this a lot. You should get this a lot. I get the compliment of like, oh, you actually, you care, you're genuine. And that should be a baseline. It's not sadly, not to denigrate other folks that do what we do, but there are folks that just like are reading off a card and they come and go. And I think the folks that last really live and

breathe this. And I think hopefully your conversations, my conversations, people can sense, like, we love this. We absolutely live and breathe this. Like, we both grew up in different ways, obsessed with what we are now making or living. And I think that the passion comes through in every conversation. Yeah, and it's interesting because I, my goal at the end of every show is that if one person listens to the episode and learns something that enhances their experience with that film, I've done my job. And I go back, because I started as a film critic, and I go back and look at, like, I look at older reviews I used to give. Like, I remember reviewing Shutter Island on TV. And my entire review was focused on the cinematography, the music choices, the performance,

the movement, the twist. And I'm like, oh, I was already kind of setting myself up in a way where I just translated film criticism into interviewing. Like Park Chan-Wuk, who was just in here, he used to be a film critic years and years ago. And so, like, I just found it really interesting that, like, it was almost like I didn't realize this was going to be the dream, but I was setting myself up for what that was going to be. Same thing in a different way for me.

It's like, I think my interviews reflect everything that I love, which is, like, there's a certain level of geekiness and obsession. There's a certain level of, like, you know, people, like, can be crap sometimes like, oh, you're always asking about superheroes or auditions or things they didn't get. I'm like, I'm asking that,

because I love that stuff. I love hearing the what-ifs. Like, what did you almost get? This project that, like, famously never happened. What was the audition? Like, I love listening to that. That's why I'm asking. It's not for clickbait.

I swear to God. Yeah, you're coming from a genuine place. And that's why you get the answers. Because I would argue. Right, because if someone is fishing for that news, they can detect that and they're not going to give it to you. Dude, the body language is everything. Like, if you want to sit across from somebody

and have a genuine conversation, and you're coming from a real place. That person knows it, and they want to come from a real place as well. That's, and I think that's the key, in my opinion. Like, you have to come at it from an actual genuine place of curiosity, and then that will. People love people who are passionate.

Yes. One of the best comments I ever got on anything I ever did was, I don't even watch any of the films you talk about. I just like watching you talk to people about their passions. I see that. I can get that. interesting. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, they don't even, like, I remember being in a Q&A event, and this woman came up to me afterwards, and she's like, I haven't seen any of the films that you guys were just talking about, but I was blown away by the conversation. I'm like, that's interesting to me. I'm like, why would that be interesting to somebody if they haven't seen the films?

It's because there are people talking about things they love. I want to hear about, because we've talked, before this, it's funny, we came up with, like, 25 different topics. We can get to, like, three of them. We're not going to have enough time. But, like, looking ahead, because we always like to geek out about movies

and filmmakers and actors and stuff. Should we talk a little bit about just like the dreams, the ones that we're still chasing, the ones, should we try to manifest for each other this year? Let's do a manifesting of a moment here, a moment of gratitude and manifestation. I'm very grateful for everybody I've had. I was because you were asking me like,

oh, let's think about like our favorite interviews and like at least the ones for me that I think of, like are the filmmakers I grew up loving, like yourself, I'm sure. It's like for me, we both had a lot of Tarantino time. Tarantino, very meaningful for me, no one meaningful for both of us. I think this year, Spielberg has to be like one of the top seeds. Because it's interesting.

Like in this year, we have new Spielberg, new Nolan. Deney? Deney. In your Eritu? Fincher. Fincher. Yeah. So is Fincher your number one?

I think Fincher might be my number one. Over Spielberg? I think maybe. Neither have been on the show before. Neither have been on them. I've interviewed both. Spielberg very little, like small junkets kind of thing. things. And Fincher, I've done a couple, actually, I've moderated a couple things. I like Fincher

for a number of reasons because, you know, I like his films I'm obsessed with, of course, needless to say. But I also like who he is as like a human being. He is very dry. It's very funny. He's dark. He's twisted. These are things I respond to. And John, that's one thing, like, you're talking about me being like versed in the craft. Yes. Josh has, you have a great ability to stick with a comedic and conversational bit going back and forth. Like, I would be afraid to go comedic with David Fincher. But you would be amazing on craft level with Fincher. So our two Finchers would be way different and both amazing.

Yeah. Because you would go so hardcore on craft. Like telling me about the score and this shot and the color grading in this scene. I couldn't keep up with, like, the dry humor. It would, I just wouldn't be able to do it. Yeah, and I would be, like, joking about, like, the what's in the box and, like, all the crazy dark stuff. Oh, my, yeah.

And the gloves and the killer. Like, yeah, all that stuff. But, yeah, Fincher is definitely my vibe. He's one of my spirit animals, and I just obsessed with his work. Hypothetical. Yeah. Someone comes to you, you have an hour with Spielberg, hour with Fincher, and you have to choose. Yeah, I don't know.

Here's the concern on Fincher. Have we talked about this? He infamously did Mark Marin and never let Mark Maron run the episode. Which is so Fincher. Yeah. Because he's so meticulous, he's so like, you know, controlled. troll-driven. So I would have fear that I would do Fincher and then he would be like, cut all this out, never run it. So maybe I go with Spielberg then. Because of course, I mean, we're all children of Spielberg. I mean, and where do you start? Where do you start? Where do you even start? I had McCulley Culkin on the show a couple months ago and I only got through half of his life. Yeah. And I was like, and then to think of it. You didn't get to Richie Rich. Rich. No, we got to. Richie Rich was where we got to because after Richie Rich, he stopped acting and went back to high school. Oh, so you didn't get to like 50. maybe and other stuff later on.

Party Monster, I didn't get to saved. But thinking of that, like, was it Party Monster? Not 54? I think that it got him confused. They came out at the same time, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But Spielberg, yeah, where would you even begin? Because I guess you would have to like, okay, where's my focus? Because, so Disclosure Day is his movie that's coming out this year. It's Universal Film.

It's a UFO film. So clearly-counters, you do that. That's what you would do. You connect it there because that's going to be a big part of the conversation. Yeah. But yeah, he would be a dream. You've interviewed him. I know a couple times. He's the one that like you showed a short to, you're short to. Dude, this, my Spielberg. You have so many crazy story.

It's insane. I'll keep it brief. But back in 2011, he was releasing Tintin and Warhorse. Yeah, I did that junkie. Right. In New York. And he was shooting Lincoln and Richmond, I believe. And I think he was coming up to New York on the weekends to promote Warhorse and Tintin.

Right. So I got him two weeks in a row. I got him four minutes for, for, uh, for, uh, horse, four minutes for Tintin. And then I've been lucky to get him over the years. I got him for the post. I got him for Ready Player 1. I got him for the Fablemans.

I've been extremely lucky, but the first time I sat down with him, I wrote 17 questions for a four-minute conversation. I got to three. When the interview ended, we stood up and took a photo. And I remember we took four pictures because the lighting wasn't right. He was essentially directing the guy in the room in a way to get the best-looking photo. But yeah, him and I weirdly had a

interestingly cool connection. Like he was telling me he wanted me to make a short film. I did make a short film. I sent it to him. It was a really interesting whole full circle, but to get him on the podcast would be remarkable. But is, so Fincher aside, is he your number one

this year? I guess so. I haven't thought about it, I mainly thought about it because we were texting about this the recently. I guess he's probably top of the list because I've done Deni a couple times I've done Nolan a few times. Dude. We're both going to do Nolan. It's going to happen, obviously.

When Josh calls Nolan Chris, I'm like, I couldn't do that. Oh, yeah, for context, a couple times in the interviews, sometimes this is a real thing. This is really funny. Like, what do you call the person? I say Mr. Nolan. And I know you and like Jake is always, nice, our friend Jake Hamilton is always like very differential, Mr. This, Mr. That. And that's part of like his Southern, like, you know, thing.

But I don't, it would be very rare for me to call somebody Mr. And maybe I'm a jerk that way. No, it's funny. You actually, dude, you pull it off. I can't pull off calling him Chris. I just can't. Right. I can't do it.

It's not my, it's funny. I've had success with that kind of ingratiating, maybe overly so thing a couple times. I think, because it made me just think of when you said that, there's a moment in one of the Gary Oldman things I did. I've done a couple events with him, and he's just, oh my God, talk about the best, amazing. And he, at one point he was talking about, like, not being proud of his, like, Harry Potter performance. And like the entire audience was like, oh, and I literally like interrupted him like, Gary, are you kidding me? Like something like that. And the fact that I was saying that like I grew up talk about people I was obsessed with growing up like I memorized like the script for Bram Stoker's Dracula as a kid. The shadow work in that film to this day. I would love to geek out with him about how he filmed the shadows. Oh, yeah. Well, Coppola was a huge. I did Coppola last year and that was a megalopolis that was a bucket list or two years ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's funny like you. you find the right moments to do it.

And what I'm referring to is you were interviewing Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer. And I think you were talking about Bond or something. And you're like, come on, Chris or whatever it was. But it was so funny. And I'm like, I could never get away with that. I do take pride in like, again, because people, I'm sure they ask you all the time, like interview techniques and I have my own approach and things I think are valuable. For instance, like, I am, people always ask me like, you know, how do you prep?

What's the most important? I always say questions are important, listening is way more important. Anybody can read a good question, listening and responding and being in the moment. And what you're talking about is a good example of that is like being able to interject and even interrupt sometimes and call somebody out and say like Chris, Gary. And like get them to kind of like respond to me responding to them often will elicit, I think the best response. 100%. I mean, it's awesome to see because it really kind of grounds the moment. Right? Because interviews are high stakes in a way, right?

And like I think you cut through that with having a bit of a comfortability with saying that. Because you're not saying it disrespectfully. I hope not. You're saying it's not meant that way. No, it's funny. It's like, come on, come on. We're just hanging out here.

It's just funny. And so it's cool. So prep though is interesting because you and I probably prep similarly. But again, like you said, it's guest to guest to guest. Yes. So you're prepping for Jennifer Lawrence right now and you're prepping for Hittleston. Hittleston.

And so those are two people you've talked to a lot before. What do you do when you've basically asked somebody everything? Such a good question because I'm literally in the middle

of that with Hittleston. I have done Hittleston. This is going to be, I think, a six time. Or Sam from Outlander. Sam Huan. Same kind of thing. Oh my God.

What's left? What else do you have to ask him? Like it's crazy. So what do you do? Like I'm not at a point yet where I've had enough guests repeat because I'm just starting. But like when you have someone back on

for a long reformed chat, Obviously their new project becomes... New project will eat up some of the time. It's challenging. I'm not going to lie. I mean, like, Hiddleston, luckily, is a talker, so I don't need to give him that much. But you can play with Hiddleston, too, because you know him.

I do know him, and I can play with him, and we can riff about his return to, like, Avengers. He's only going to say so much. I can do that kind of thing. And that becomes funny in itself because you know they can't answer it, and you try to play with it that way. I also, like, you know, to your point about, like, finding a format, finding repeatable,

like what your way into the podcast is, Like, I know you've been, like, you know, repeating questions, which you absolutely have to do, should do, because it gives it some consistency. But when does it become old for the audience? Like, for example, if you have a repeatable question, like sometimes they'll get a comment going, hey, maybe ease up on that legacy question you're asking.

I'm like, yeah, but that's kind of a staple of the show as to where the, because all the answers are so different. I think if you like it, if you find you're getting different answers, keep at it. They're always going to be people that are going to give you crap. I get that. So I do like the profoundly random questions, which I'm going to give you before.

where we end this. I'm gonna give you a few of mine. 30 minutes, yeah. And I love doing it because it does open up people in different ways, but Hiddleston's done it. Like, and like, you know. Yes, what do you do? You don't do it again, do you?

I sometimes will swap something in. I'm actually toying with the idea, maybe if we have time, I'll try this out on you. I'm toying with the idea of swapping out profoundly random questions, at least for repeated guests, with a new kind of more, movie-centric. Don't worry.

It's not similar to your stuff, but a similar, no, movie rapid fire thing that kind of like gauges people's. Like this or that kind of thing? Yeah, a little bit. So I might try that on Tom. Yeah, it's like, it's just trying stuff out. I have like a kind of like a kind of a mini game thing that I might try to, you know, try on him.

Yeah, it's just, but it is that's kind of the most challenging is I find. Yes, you have the benefit of knowing the guest knows you, they'll be comfortable, but there is yeah, you can't do the same stories. Although on the other hand, it's, it's, I find, I'm my own worst critic where like,

I don't know if you find this, approaching an interview, I research so much and I listen to so many interviews and I don't want to hear the same stories. But sometimes your audience doesn't know those stories. They don't, and they generally don't. Yeah. They really don't.

And that's okay. And honestly, and that's what's interesting. And I struggle with this too, because I want, I don't set out to ask different things I set out to ask things I want to know the answers to. But if the guest has answered something similar before, I still want to know. And like I had Matthew Lillard in here recently,

and I'm sure he's told the scream story a million times, but I wanted to know. Orch and Wood dissecting the hallway sequence. Exactly. But you have to, because you know what? You care about that, and I want to hear him talk about that on your show. Or McCullochal. Like how many times he's talked about Home Alone?

Right. I'm still going to ask him. And that becomes interesting. my wife was really the help in this. She's like, Kevin, not everybody listens to every single interview out there. I remind myself of that all of time. If you happen to have a similar question

and you want to get a story from somebody, then ask it. It's hard because you don't want the repeated answers. And we both know this. For people who watch press junket interviews before, a lot of actors have canned answers, right? And like things that they're saying on the press tour that speak to the film.

And you obviously, want to get around that and get the person to open up further than that, but sometimes you're just going to get a, if there's a crazy story that happened on that set, and you have that guest in studio, and that story's already been out there, and you want them to expand on it, you ask it. I've also learned this a lot from, and I know you do a lot of more of this recently good for you, which is like moderating, which is like what I do too, a lot of, right? And those kind of events, like, that's, you are there to service their story, their basic

story. And again, for the audience, like, I don't want the audience to, I don't want to assume the audience knows everything I know, because I'm the 1% that knows everything about it. And that's the biggest problem that we can have. We are so inundated with material and information that the audience, like I was, I ran into a buddy of mine the other day. I was walking my dog, and I was, hey, I'm having Cynthia Reevo on my show.

Have you heard about this cool thing she does with perfumes? He goes, no, what do you mean? He goes, oh, yeah, so she was shooting, Wicked 1 and 2, and she had different perfumes for each movie so she could figure out where she was in the arc. I'm like, he goes, he goes, I know that. He goes, oh, I didn't know that. I'm like, oh, I probably should re-ask

her that because my audience might not know that she does that. And it was like, okay, but maybe she's already spoken about it in different places, but I'm like, you know what? The answer she's going to give me is going to be different, and it's also coming from a place like, I just want to know why and how she does it. You know what I mean? And it's the beauty of long form.

It's like you have time, so you can have some of that stuff in there, right? When I did my Duffer brothers, spoiler conversation. Like, you know, I had already read a bunch of spoiler interviews they did the day before. And they talked a lot about, like, the final scene in the basement and how it was done. And I was like, I haven't seen them do it on camera. I haven't heard it for myself. It's a very important scene to the show.

Like, I'm going to spend three minutes on that. And you want to know. I want to know. Exactly. And I think that's the key is like every single question you and I ever ask on our show is because we want to know the answers to it. And that kind of goes back to that. But it is fascinating because you're right. It's like we have to also think about our audience.

Yes. Because we're an authority in a way, I guess, if you want to use that word. We're hopefully they're coming to us to learn and meet people at a different level than a normal press junket interview or a normal television interview. And our job is to present that person in that way. Because I really feel like, and I would agree with you, I'm sure you'd agree with me, the person comes out more in a podcast. 100%.

Not that the person's not there in a short one. or form interview, but it's much more... You can hide behind the canned answers way more easily in a six minute interview than... Something, generally speaking, will... The real person will emerge at least partially through 45 minutes or an hour. When do you start hitting a flow?

Yeah, that's... I mean, that depends on the guest and the history and everything, right? Like, sometimes they can hit the ground running, but like, you know, I noticed this again. I was listening to the tougher brothers back, and it was like, okay, about 10 minutes in, we start... They relaxed and we're kind of like, okay. Sometimes it's 30 minutes in. Sure. Like, I'll be in an hour conversation.

and I'll start to feel the flow. The flow, you know what it feels like. It's like you're just in tune. Yeah. You're in tune with each other. And you can feel their shoulders come down and they're just like, okay, this person knows what they're talking about. I'm safe.

I can be a little bit more open. And that can happen even with somebody you already know. It's just like, you know, it's just any kind of conversation. The length will be your best advantage. And I think that's why people respond so well to podcasts. More happy, say, confused coming up. I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa, and this is Moms and Mysteries.

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I get a lot, and I had to navigate this early on as what if you don't like the project that you're interviewing the person for? Huge. Yeah. My argument to that was always, I can still find things that I want to talk about. And I've been in plenty of situations where I've walked into a room. I didn't like the person's film. I don't sit there and go, I didn't like your movie.

You sit down and you have a professional conversation about the craft of what that movie did. So even if I don't like a film, I can go, hey, that score was great, that shot was incredible, the editing was great, that performance was good. Maybe the movie didn't work overall for me,

but I can still find ways to ask about it and be respectful to the artist because I find that to be a different thing. Film criticism and interviewing are two different things. Yes. But ethically, for me, since I started off as a film reviewer, my movie reviews always had to be separate from the interview. You must feel such a relief that you don't have to do that anymore.

But there was a lot of times where I would interview a cast and I have to come home and then, you know, the review, I would give a bad review to the film. And I don't like giving, you know, I don't like saying negative things about anybody's art because I feel like everybody struggles to make their art and it a lot. lot of work goes into what that art is. And I try to find a happy medium. But to me, those two were always separate. I never let the interview affect my review.

But now I'm in a place where I'm just doing interviews. But it's also tricky, though, and we've talked about this, is we know a lot of people now. We've been doing this a while. And the lines get a little blurry where, like, you know, bro, when you consider a friend? There are people that I consider friends and people that I interact with or text with a little bit. And it is like you do want to maintain, I actually really hesitate.

I hate calling myself a journalist. I don't think I'm a journalist. I have too much respect for the profession of journalism. Maybe or maybe not. I think we're in a hybrid state of journalism, I guess. Everything is murky. I certainly don't consider myself, not that there's anything wrong with it, an influencer, I don't consider my, I hate the term content creator.

I'm a host. I'm an interviewer and host. And I do think I pride myself on authenticity, as we've discussed. And I do feel like I have found my way in to, giving folks the truth about projects and speaking truth to their careers more than 99% of folks in the business. Meaning, like, I will, and it's funny because sometimes you'll get, you know, I read the comments too much like we all do, but like sometimes it'll be like, people will say like, oh, they should have asked this question. They should have like said this or

that. I'm like, you don't know how it's just not appropriate or polite to like be rude to somebody about a past something in their career. That being said, I'm not afraid to like, again, depending on the comfort level, give them some crap about, like, every interview I've had with Will Arnett, I will bring up Jonah Hex and, like, Brolin too. But Brolin, those actors that are in Jonah Hex have publicly talked about how bad the film is.

And again, it's like a feel for it. How much do I know the person? How much do I know a sense of humor they have? I love the opportunities to be able to, like, ask, like, Dakota Johnson and City Sweetie about Madam Webb. Like, you know, it's tricky, and you still have to be respectful.

but like even being able to poke a little bit in a respectful way. But if you're interviewing Dakota for Madam Webb, no, of course, I would never. That's a very different situation because you're not going to sit there and poke fun at it, you're going to have a conversation. And I did do.

I did Dakota for Madam Webb, and certainly I never came on there and said, what a masterpiece, you killed it. She also had admitted she had not seen the movie when we did the interview, so the writing was on the wall. But I found ways in to, as you say, talk about things, you know, production around the film, other aspects as opposed to saying like,

starting at a baseline of like, you did it again. Yeah. Well, like privately, like you and I, we know a lot of actors and filmmakers privately. I've had discussions with actors off-mic and off-camera about films that I didn't like of theirs. And that's a completely normal conversation because when we mean in the middle on that way,

I'm assuming you've been in that same boat as well. Yeah. Wait, before the time gets, can I test my, new movie Q&A on you and I'll do the PRQ the profoundly random questions. We call it PRQ in the business. I want to try my new questions on you

because you're my guinea pig, okay? Okay. Let's do this. Okay, so this is, I'm calling this for now the happy, say, I confused movie Matrix. And by the way, this is one of my pet peeves is somebody reading their questions off an iPad or a phone. If you do it in the business, it's okay.

I just hate it. I went to the laugh factory the other day to see a comedy set and Nikki Glazer got up on stage and did her Golden Globes speech. that she's going to do next Sunday and she was reading it off the phone, but she was doing it because the jokes were just freshly written.

She was testing them to the audience. And she killed it, you told me? Killed it. All right, wait, now I've lost it. Give me one second. Editing, editing, okay, here we go. All right. The movie may, no, that's the wrong document.

I'm so sorry, Kevin. No, no worry about it. Okay. The happy, say, confused movie Matrix. The first victim is Kevin McCarthy. This is huge. Alien or aliens? Aliens.

Me too. I'm a Cameron guy. Yeah. I mean, all respect to alien. Yeah. Aliens, I would argue, is the greatest action movie, along with T2. T2. Never made.

T2 is my favorite movie of all time, but it's interesting. Most people would say alien. A lot of people would. You're aliens, too. I'm totally aliens. Oh, hell. Who's the best Spider-Man of all time? Peter Parker or Spider-Man?

No, meeting. Oh, I see. Ooh, you've already found a wrinkle. Because I feel like when it comes to Batman, for example, I think Bail. is the best Bruce Wayne of all time, but I think Keaton's the best Batman. I thought you're an Affleck guy. You like that fight.

You like that BVS fight, I know. You're right, I do love Affle. Yeah, anyways. All right, Spider-Man. I'm going to go with Tom Holland. Okay. What's the best comic book movie of all time? Dark Night.

Who's your favorite James Bond? It's tough, because I think the best Bond movie I've ever seen is Skyfall. Is it Connery or Craig? It's got to be Connery, but I prefer Craig and Pierce Broson's films. Pierce Broson's films. GoldenEye is one of my favorite.

GoldenEye's a good one. Golden Eye is like top bond for me, but I think Connery is the best actor to ever play Bond. He certainly set the mold. Scariest movie ever made? Sinister or The Shining. Good ones. What's the funniest movie ever made? Either Blues Brothers or Dumb and Dumber.

What's a movie you can quote backwards and forwards? I know you can do a lot, but what's the one that comes to mind? Terminator 2 and Interstellar and... You're the wrong person because there are too many. A lot of them, yeah. And finally, what's your go-to movie theater snack? Milk duds, an icy mixed with blue and red, popcorn buttered middle way through first and then more on top.

And then depending on my mood, nachos with an extra cheese or a hot dog with just mustard. How are you alive? Do you still do this? Yeah, every day. When's the last? It's my breakfast. I'm not joking. That's once a week. I hate your metabolism.

My cholesterol is not loving me right now. Wait, so where, what's your movie snack? My movie snack is, see, I should answer this for myself. Yeah, it's a good idea. I'm a pretty basic. I'm a diet Coke, like a, sorry, a Diet Cherry Coke. Cherry Coke, zero, whatever you want. And I'm Red Vines over Twizzlers.

Okay, so I've just really started my journey with Red Vines. It's a journey. Because we're in L.A. And I go to the New Bev a lot and the Vista, and Quentin's theaters have a lot of older candies. And like, do you remember Goobers? Sure. Oh, I miss Goobers. Is it a peanut involved, yeah.

Yeah, you're a peanut allergy. No, I don't have a peanut allergy, but I never used to, growing up I hated chocolate and peanut butter. Now, like, I could live on it. But, yeah, it was a thing. All right, let me ask you some questions. Yeah, go for it. Okay, so a movie you would love to rewatch again for the first time, the memory is gone.

So this is an interesting question because the memory, I understand, like, where you may have seen it, who you may have been with. So put that aside, and you get to watch the film not knowing anything about it again for the first time. To come to mind.

Okay. Maybe this has come up with guests already. Matrix? That's like the biggest standard answer I get. It was so mind-blowing. It was like no one had seen anything like it. I mean, I was 14. Yeah.

And I remember where I was with my dad, my uncle, my brother. Yeah. I remember we went to Pizzeria Uno afterwards. And I was telling my dad, I'm like, I'm buying that movie. He goes, no, you're not. It's rated R. We're 14. Do you remember where you were?

I do remember. It was, I think it was Lose 84th Street on the Upper West Side with my brother. Wow. Most of my movie memories growing up are with my brother, my older brother. The other one that comes to mind is a much different kind of movie, but I know I'm sure you love it too. speaking of Fincher, I'd love to see Seven again for the first time.

Yeah. Because it was so shocking. Yeah. That ending is still one of the best, most shocking endings ever. And I think just to experience like the visceral, I mean, constant surprises and edge of your seat, John Doe coming out of nowhere. Yeah, I think that would be remarkable to see again with no knowledge.

And Seven is also an interesting, interesting movie in terms of not showing the violence. Yes. Until the ending, don't see any of the kills. That's all the aftermath. And that's why I always felt like the lust scene was so effective because it's so horrifying to hear the character explain what happened. Hyperventilating. Oh, it's worse than, it's worse than what Fincher could have shown us. Favorite shot in cinema history. Oh my gosh. Favorite shot? Kevin. Oh, no. What comes to mind?

I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is, Return of the Jedi. When Luke kind of comes out with, like, the lightsaber, like, Vader's taunting him. Yeah. And it comes out, and those lightsabers clash in the darkness. Iconic. I just got chills just talking about it.

Dude, have you ever seen the Revenge of the Jedi poster? Of course, yeah. Where it's like the lightsabers are, the colors are switched. I think that's the shot. I ruined, speaking of my brother in childhood, we had the comic novelization of Return of the Jedi before we saw it, and I read it. I was seven years old, and I ruined the ending.

I remember screaming up to my brother when I was reading the comic book, I'm like, Darth Vader turns good, and he, like, wailed on me. He was so angry. You imagine that happened during the social media at times? That would have been everywhere. I know, I know.

So, okay, that then brings up an interesting conversation, then, because I, I want to, I want to do some hot takes here. Okay. Because I weirdly like a lot of the third films in trilogies. Right. So personally, Return of the Jedi is my favorite Star Wars film. And I don't know, I know, I know, but I don't know if this is an age thing.

I found films at, I found films sometimes at three. So Die Hard 3, I saw before Die Hard 1 and 2. Right. I saw Back to the Future 3 before I saw 1 and 2. It's been very confusing. Very confusing. But I love Doc's love stories. So those, a lot of the threes have become my favorites over the years.

So I'm a return of the king guy. Yeah. I love Last Crusade. I love Return of the Jedi. I love, you know, so I'm curious, not Godfather three, but I mean, I do love the Coda Cut. But I mean, like, where are you a three guy on any of those? No. As you went down that list, there would be none of those that I would defend as better than the...

I thought we were going to be closer because you said aliens. I was like, okay, that's two over one. Yeah. So, and I'm a defender of Alien 3. Speaking of, again, Fincher. I love aliens. Alien 3, man. Come on.

I don't understand the hate for that film. You know our guy, Nolan, told me, loves Alien 3. We like it more than Fincher does it, apparently. Definitely, yeah, definitely. Again, I would have to bring that up with Fincher, and he would immediately end the interest, probably. But then that goes back to what we were saying earlier. It's like, how many times has Fincher talked about what's in the box?

Right. How would you not ask that question? Right. Of course you're going to bring that up. No, but going through this, I mean, look, I would say I love Back to Future 3, great. One is by far the best. Last Crusade, I've had this argument. I think with my wife actually and others,

I love Glasgow, Cray, don't get me wrong. Raiders is a perfect movie. Temple of Doom, actually, I think, is remarkable, culturally a little problematic nowadays, but still the opening sequence, arguably the best sequence. Yes, of any indie film. I think that's the best opening of the whole franchise. Fantastic.

Okay, all right, are you at least with me on Return of the Jedi being the best opening? Return of the Jedi. The best opening. Of the three? Yeah, maybe I could do that. Okay. Maybe I could do that.

Thanks for coming over to my side on that one. I appreciate that. I'm Returned the King, good. I'm not the biggest. I mean, I love War of the Rings, but I can't claim to be an expert. I think I'm a fellowship guy. I think it's set it all up. You like the ones.

You're a one guy. I'm a one guy. I like setting up the world, I think. T2 or T1? T2. I mean, I love Terminator, but like you have to kind of accept it for what it is, right? It was like, it was an amazing B movie he made, essentially. But T2, he had all the tools.

I mean, T2 was a game changer. That's one. I vividly remember seeing for the first time. I know this is, you know, your bread and butter. That's the movie for you. But, yeah, same for me. Like, that rocked my world. Is that your pivotal opening?

Like, I opened my show every time by asking somebody, like, the pivotal film that gave them the understanding of the communal experience, mostly in the theater capacity? Yeah. So do you have a, do you have a theater experience as a kid that meant a lot to you? And then do you have a film that opened up your world of movies for you? I mean, I have such vivid. I went to the movies all the time as a kid. Like I said, my older brother, Adam, took me to the movies all the time.

Who's a writer? He wrote on Lost and created once upon a time, co-created that. And, yeah, I have so many vivid memory. I mean, it's funny. Like, we keep returning to the same films. But, like, seeing Return of the Jedi on opening day, I will always remember. I remember I dropped the big thing of popcorn, and my grandmother got really upset with me. I remember that.

Isn't that crazy how vivid that memory is? I'm pretty years. I've seen the trailer for Return of the Jedi. I got it, 1983, May 25th, I think was the opening day. Yeah, I mean, I remember, I mean, you, yeah, there's so many memories. I mean, the first movie I remember seeing in a theater is Time Bandits, the Terry Gilliam movie, which is so effed up. The end of that movie is like, so dark. And I love Terry Gilliam.

That was a huge one for me to talk to him on the podcast. Yeah. Yeah, so, so many. I mean, I remember, like, the first time, this actually wasn't even a theater, but, like, I remember the double VHS tapes of Godfather and Godfather too and like discovering those for the first time and like that was definitely an eye opening moment of like oh I need to see

everything by this filmmaker this is this is clearly cinema whatever that means were you a blockbuster kid I was a blockbuster kid certainly blockbuster over like West Coast video wasn't around or like tower video was a big one in New York

and I used to rent movies to such a degree that like I was really bad at returning them on time and I racked up so many late fees to my parents, like, were ready to, like, send me to, like, military academy. Like, it was insane how bad I was. Yeah. What's your favorite movie of all the time? I don't really have a go-to. No, I don't have my go-to. I mean, honestly, like, T-2. You don't have a T-2? T-2 and aliens are kind of like,

like my twin greatest action movies of all time. My favorite comedy of all time, I would say, is Young Frankenstein, the No Brooks movie. Made a huge impact, and I still think it's the funniest movie over made. Love and Death by Woody Allen, problematic as he is, was a big one for me. Yeah, I mean, I could rack up so many. I like De Palma was huge for me growing up.

All of his films, blowout's amazing. Untouchables, I actually really love. I saw that when I was like 11. Yeah, the Godfather's Needless to say, Empire Strikes Back. PTA, Magnolia rocked my world. Magnolia is my favorite of his. Oh, that's your favorite PT. Okay, let's get into some hot take territory here.

I'm a phantom thread guy. I love Phantom Thread. I don't get me wrong. I also love licorice pizza. And I know that's the one that people generally don't love as much. No, Inherit Vise is the one that's... Yeah. I'm not a big...

I'm not big on Inherent Vice. No. But I actually personally need to give it another try. I only saw it once. I tried. Where are you on one battle? Love. That's like top tier.

Top tier. Are you a Phantom Thread guy? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I'm not like as much... I know there's the master of... It's such a weird tone and so kind of enigmatic and it's just a hard it's not a fun not that movies have to be fun I wouldn't say Magnolia is a fun watch, but I don't know it's a tough one for me I respect it. I love it

There'll Be Blood is a masterpiece of course I would put there'll be blood Magnolia at top tier Maybe one battle I need to give it like a year or two before I assess Because it's like you know a Tarantino front like once upon a time and I think actually we share this I remember you talked about this it took me a minute to realize how amazing I mean, I loved it from the start, but like, it's top tier. It's, it might be his masterpiece. It's up there within glorious for me. I think it's his masterpiece.

I mean, I saw it twice on 35 and then once on 70, and the 70-mill experience changed everything for me. Number one, Fincher is seven for you. Yeah, I think so. I might have to go with, I think Zodiac is the best movie he's ever made, but I'll never see it ever again. I saw it recently, a friend of mine rented out of theater, and we watched. it on the big screen and it was fantastic. The beach scene is, I can't get it. I can't watch that scene.

Again, it's not, I, I'm kind of with you on Zodiac. I think it's like arguably his masterpiece. It's epic in so many different ways. It's not like, I wouldn't say it's like a satisfying. Seven, it's weird to say seven is satisfying, but seven is such like an elegantly made perfect construction for me. I find it so, I often talk about movies that were I feel like satisfied.

They're full meals. Like everything is like, tied up. That's why no one films are so they're so satisfying. He returns to the theme at the end. He knows how to like just like set you out on the like walking out of the theater feeling like oh, drop the mic.

He just like end of dark night, dark night rises all his films like yeah. I saw Oppenheimer ten times. And that's not a, that is a heavy film. What movie have you seen the most in a theater? Probably Oppenheimer. Yeah. What about you? I think mine is

the Phantom Menace. I think I I'm a fan of Matt, it's like 20, 25 times. Dude, there are some really good scenes in that film. I'll defend it. I don't mind defending the pod race is amazing. I have some... Listen, I mean, there's things in that film I don't love, but you also have to give credit to the ambition.

Oh, my God. And it's a really, really... It's an ambitious film. I always say, people are probably sick of me using this phrase on the podcast, big swings. I need a big swing. I don't care about the doubles. I want the home runs. That's why I like the cloud atlases of the world. If you're re-roved,

was wild and insane and it worked. When they work, so satisfying. I'm glad it happened. Yes. George Miller, by the way, that's a big one for me. He's done the pot a couple times, and I think that guy's brain is just like another level. I mean, he's incredibly isn't he in his 80s? Probably by now, yeah.

Who else is, like, I was trying to think of some filmmakers, because there's that famous quote from Tarantino about stopping after 10 films, and then you see certain filmmakers who are obviously excelling way later in their lives as well. I mean, Ridley is still killing it, but Ridley still hit and miss, Which is the number one, Ridley.

Oh, good question. Maybe Blade Runner? Yeah, I think it has. What do you think? It has to be Blade Runner. Has to be. Or Gladiator, but I feel like that's too easy of an answer. I love Gladiator, but I was never like a huge gladiator guy, to be honest.

Blade Runner. Maybe it's alien. Alien's pretty great. Number one, Nolan? Number one, Nolan, I think I would do Dark Night. Interstellar. A little basic. I'm not an interstellar.

I like, again, I like it. I know you have the tattoo. That's the end of our podcast right there. Interstellar is like... You've got the EWalk tattoo and the interstellar tattoo. Job of the Hut is just sitting on my chest right here. Wait, I promised you the profoundly random questions. Yes, yes.

We have time. Okay, we're right here. Okay, let's do it. Josh and I are up against the clock because we have to get to an award show, which sounds insane to even say. We have to go to the Critics Choice Awards and hang out with Linar DiCaprio. I have to change out of my big trouble and little China shirt. Is that what I'm wearing? No, Buccaro Banzai today.

Okay. Buccaro Bonds, that's a good one, man. Talk about a movie that rocked my world. I just think I was eight or nine. Dogs are cats. Dogs. I love cats, though, but my mom is allergic to cats, I never had cats growing up.

So dogs are, is my default. And I love my dog Murphy, and you love your dog as well. Lose, he's the best. What do you collect, Kevin? Movie tickets, dubs. Yeah. What's your favorite video game of all time?

Either Donkey Kong for 64 or Mario Card 64. Classic. Free Fighter 2 Turbo too. This is the Dakota Johnson Memorial question. She asked me this. I will ask you, would you rather have a mouthful of all bees or one B in your butt? Oh my gosh. Probably the butt because more bees makes me nervous.

And I got stung 15 times when I was a kid when I was mowing the lawn. At once? Yes, at one time. So just give me one B. I get it. Where are you on that? I'm with you. One B in the butt.

Get it over with. What's the wallpaper on your phone? My wife and I and my dog. Yours? Oh, it's Lucy. Yeah. There you go. Last actor you were mistaken for. Do you ever get mistaken for anybody?

Okay, I don't understand this. People say Bradley Cooper. I don't see it at all. Someone said the other day I looked like Bradley Cooper and John Grisinski together. Like a brundle fly? Yeah. Oh, that's a movie.

We could talk about the fly. That's a perfect movie for me. Cronenberg. What's your mistaken actor for you? I was mistaken for you recently. I told you that. You went with it, didn't you? Yeah.

Someone complimented me on my scoop with Sean Levy, getting Thomas Newman doing the score. But the funny thing is, there was like a preamble. He was like, oh, I'm such a fan of your work, you're amazing. I'm like, yeah. Oh, yeah, I'm like playing it off like, great, great, great. He's like, you know, in that recent, the Sean Levy. Because you were past the point of no return.

You couldn't tell him then that it wasn't me. That's great. Oh, that's good good. I guess I can't do worst note of director has ever given you. I'll skip that. In honor of happy second fuse, who's an actor who always makes you happy. Jim Carrey.

Movie that makes you sad. Marley and me. Which I will never watch again. Do you remember how they marketed Marley and me? It was like a Chris Smith movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like, what? It's cruel.

And a food that makes you confused. Brussels sprouts. Oh, really? Yeah, what about you? What's the food that makes you confused? I have a bunch. I always say beats. anything beat-related ruins the whole experience from me.

Huh. Okay. And then, wait, I have a couple of things. We have to get out of here. Let me think here. There's a couple of things I want to ask you. Movie you've watched the most in your life. It's probably Phantom Menace. It's probably, again, like growing up, like a big old nerd of like Star Wars and Star Trek, like I went to sci-fi conventions, like just the sheer volume of like Star Trek in my brain. I've seen all those movies all stars and Star Trek like way too many times. Ratha Khan is the best track movie, right? There's no question on that, right?

Yeah, I would say. So you're a two over one guy on that one. Three's good, but not the... Yeah, searcher Spock, okay. The Nimoy direct three? Yeah, and four. Let's not go on Final Frontier with Shatner. As we reach the end here,

let's put this out into the world. So we touched this a little bit in the beginning. The Dream Guest for 2026. We're manifest. You have to choose the one. I think we should do different ones. So you're Spielberg. I'm going to go Nolan.

But you're getting Nolan. You don't need to. It's happening. I never assume. Okay. I never assume I'm getting anybody. I have been to the theater to watch the prologue four times. Christopher Nolan is my favorite filmmaker ever.

And to think that he could possibly sit here on my show, I obviously did a show prior to this called Real Blend. We did have him on for that. I've sat down with Christopher Nolan before in press junket situations, but I can't fathom him sitting here for my show. So I'm not going to say it's going to happen.

I'm hoping it happened. That's my number one. He's going to be sitting in this seat with a 64-ounce mug of tea. And it's just going to be crying. You're going to be crying. You have to choose. I mean, I don't think it'll happen because he, like I said, if he killed the Marin one, it's not going to happen.

But I might as well shoot for the stars. Let's make Fincher happen. And it's four of folks who don't know. He's directed this Tarantino script, this Cliff Booth movie. Yeah, and it's barely like an episode. I am tight with Netflix. Netflix takes good care of me. It's a Netflix movie.

It might help. Okay, so Netflix called you right now. They say, Josh, you're confirmed for Fincher. What's the first thing you do to prepare? He's one that I might like do a rewatch of virtually everything. I mean, he's worth it. And what a joyous assignment to rewatch all those movies. I love the game.

Game's so good. I've been searching for years. We'll end of this. We're over. But like, I've been searching for years. I love the t-shirt that Sean Penn brings out at the end. You know what I'm talking about? I was left for dead in Mexico.

And all I got was this lousy t-shirt. Now that I got the cruise cake, I want that t-shirt in my life. Wait, okay, we can't get out of here without discussing the cruise cake. So, hold on. So Josh, Josh has been so. passionate about getting this cruise cake. Sad is another word. I was on the carpet with him in New York for the last mission

where you made the pitch. That was, by the way, a last minute idea. That was not planned. I'm very proud of myself in a sad way. Yes, for context, like yourself, we've covered a lot of mission premieres. We've got a chance to interview Tom a lot. He's so gracious with his time on carpets.

Usually carpet interviews are like 10 seconds. He actually gives a decent amount of time. I've hosted, been very privileged. I hosted the world premiere of Top Gun Maverick. I hosted the world premiere of Dead Reckoning, part one at the time, no longer part one. And Tom Cruise landed in a helicopter on an aircraft carrier from Top Gun and then went right over to Josh.

Insane. It was unbelievable. Insane. Yeah. So I've had history with Tom. He probably would recognize me to a degree. I wouldn't say I'm besties with him. So, and I've been joking for years, the famous Tom Cruise cake, for those that don't know,

he gifts many people in his life, friends, colleagues, et cetera, a holiday chocolate white chocolate coconut cake every holiday season and I'm like I've hosted two world premieres I've done him like

15 times why am I not on the coconut cake list come on I know a couple journalists that are I'm like come on so I did

I made my pitch in person at the last premiere on the carpet and I said I was very proud of myself again very impromptu I said the only Tom by the way

as I'm ending the interview the only thing I love more than Tom Cruise movies are coconut cakes and he laughed and he goes that's a good hint Good hint.

And then... Do you think he really remembered? I don't know. I truly don't know. How is that possible? I don't know how he got my address. I don't know who did it. Wait, wait, you didn't send your address to anybody?

It just showed up? Yeah. Kevin. Kevin, it was a miracle. It was a Christmas miracle. Wow. Dreams can come true. That's what I'm saying.

That's mind-blowing. That's my gift to you in the audience. Okay. Well, obviously, I have tears in my eyes. So we have to wrap this up. Okay. We'll do this again. We'll figure out more.

We've been talking about. doing this or other things. And hopefully we'll do more. I love this. I'm happy we did it. You too. I'm sad. It's over.

And I'm confused why you don't love a turn of the Jedi. So we're gonna, we're gonna go ahead and just end on that. I'm gonna destroy your set now. Yeah. I'm gonna burn it all down. Thank you, Josh.

Thanks, buddy. 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 Daisy Ridley,

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