Happy Sad Confused - Michael Fassbender, Vol. IV

Episode Date: November 30, 2023

It's been 4 years since Michael Fassbender was on the big screen but he's making up for lost time with 2 new movies, NEXT GOAL WINS and THE KILLER. Josh and Michael catch up on it all including his passion for race car driving and quoting movies. SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS! DraftKings -- Download the DraftKings Casino app NOW and sign up with promo code HappySad Factor -- Head to ⁠FactorMeals.com/HappySad50⁠ and use code happysad50 to get 50% off! Check out the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Happy Sad Confused patreon here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! We've got discount codes to live events, merch, early access, exclusive episodes of GAME NIGHT, video versions of the podcast, and more! To watch episodes of Happy Sad Confused, subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Josh's youtube channel here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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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. You're like a human movie jukebox.

A movie comes up and you go right into a great quote. Going to the quad. We're all getting naked, running to the quad. Oh, come on, guys. It's all boreblerings these days. Hey, forget about the fucking dough. Well, if this is it, oh boy, I hope you don't mind if I go down, speaking the kings.

Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now. I'm Josh Horowitz, and today on Happy Second Fused, it's been four years since Michael Fastbender has been in a film. If I didn't like him so much, I'd be enraged. Luckily, he's gracing us with not one, but two new films, Tycho Waititi's Next Goal wins, and David Finchers, The Killer. Okay, fine. All is forgiven. Michael Fastbender is back on the podcast where he belongs.

Hey, Michael. Hey, good to see you, Josh. It's good to see you, man. far too long. I know secretly why you're back. You know this is your fourth time on the podcast, by the way. I thought so, yeah. It all started. Do we do we did the first one with first class? Was it? Probably first class, maybe Frank even. It might have been Frank. First class. Last time we chatted it was you and Danny McBride, which was an interesting experience to say the least. And working with him was interesting. God, I love him. He's so fun.

He's the best. But you'll be happy to know this puts you in the lead in the power couple. Alicia had three. You had three. Vastbender takes the crown number four. Congratulations, Ledy. Thank you. So it has been a minute since we talked, but it's also been a minute since we've seen you in a film.

I mean, I'm sure life stuff, pandemic stuff, maybe you wanted to take a break. Give me a sense of like where were you at coming out of Dark Phoenix? Did you need a little break after that one or what? Well, for sure, after Dark Phoenix, I, you know, the idea was that I, you know, I always wanted to go racing. And then the opportunity came about then with the Ferrari challenge to start racing in that season in 2017. And then I really wanted to go further and do some GT racing and then sort of got involved with Portia and then started that journey with the ultimate goal to race in Le Mans. And so the race season starts beginning of April and it goes to the end of October. So it's just kind of, it's a bit tricky to get insured to go filming, you know, while doing that.

But, you know, next goal wins. We did shoot this time four years ago. Right. We shot it, you know, end of 2019. And then obviously the pandemic hit. And then Tyca was off shooting Thor. And for, you know, various reasons, you know, it ended up sort of. coming out now.

So Anna also did Kung Fury too, which... Right, where is that at? I was going to say, what's going on, Michael? I think there's just some legal wranglings going on there, but hopefully we'll see it by today. I mean, David Sandberg, you know, he's such a creative person and just, you know, the dream had come true for him. You know, this is a guy that met first Kung Fury that went out in the internet.

and practically in his bedroom, I think. So I really hope that comes together and it will see the light of day. It's fun, though, because between these, I mean, you mentioned Kung Fury in there too, but next goal wins. And the killer, the killer is like, for me, the funniest movie of the year. I'll be honest. It is, and maybe that's my dark soul just emerging, but I laughed so much. This is, this is secretly Michael Fastmender's year of comedy, I think.

And I don't know if you, like, did you face? fancy yourself as a comedic actor prior to working with Tyca, going to the darkness of Ventures comedy. Are you in, is that a comfort zone for you? Or did this feel a little bit out of your normal depths? I always like comedy. In fact, when I first started acting when I was 17, you know, I started with like comedy sketches.

And, you know, I've always, you know, I knew, you know, I still know, fletch off by heart. the whole film. So that was, that was something that I watched on a loop when I was a teenager. And, but yes, it's, it's, you know, it's obviously a challenge to, to do it right, to be funny. And Tyke obviously is a master. And, you know, it was, it was just the opportunity to work with him. And for sure, it was challenging that, you know, it's a lot of improvisation. So, you know, you, it's, you've just got to go for it and, and just sort of be prepared to fall flat in your face. and get up and try again. And I loved it.

It was just, you know, a lot of fun, but also, you know, challenging. Quick aside. Do you own rubber gloves? I don't own rubber gloves. No, you failed me. The Fletch reference. I'll never, yeah. I'll never own rubber gloves again after using them in the killer.

And they were actually fisting gloves, be precise. I think we actually bought that company out of their fisting gloves. I think they're done now. They're out of business. I've noticed that for my orders. I can't find them. So if you get to hook me up. So I mean, I would imagine next goal wins.

The reason to do this among others is to work with the mad genius that is Tycho Waititi, because there's nobody like him, the way he runs a set from what I gather, kind of organized chaos. It's a very positive atmosphere. Um, did you gel immediately? Did you speak Taika? Because he's like, he's on his own wavelength, certainly. He definitely is. I mean, we, we had the first sort of Zoom meeting that we had and we just sort of hit it off straight away, really. And then just on set exactly what you said, it's a very, you know, um, infectious sort of atmosphere. He loves being on set shooting. That's where he wants to be. And then, you know, the sporting cast, just a, um, a great bunch of people.

And so, yeah, we just hit the ground running, you know. And again, you know, it was a low budget. You know, we had a fixed schedule to get it all done. So we had to kind of hit the ground running, but it was always fun. How would you describe your facial hair in this one? Is this, have you achieved new hair goals in this? Is this something that you feel sticky? Sticky because it's, you know, it's a fake beard.

Right. So that always, like, it's always hard to not do things like this. when you're laughing. Beards, they're sticky and can be slightly restrictive. But every now and again, I like to grow a beard myself. Yeah. This is an interesting film in that, look, especially here in America, sadly, we were raised on this obsession with winning, right?

Winning at all costs. This is a film not about the winners, certainly. And it's really not a sports film, but it's not a sports film about succeeding necessarily. It's a sports film more about finding human connection and community. Were you raised in a competitive way? I mean, you talk about, I mean, you obviously have a huge passion for racing. That is a competitive sport. Are you a competitive guy?

I'm competitive with not a lot of talent. So it's a very difficult headspace to be in. Right. You're fucked, man. You're totally. It's quite torturous, actually. It's the worst sort of combo. Yeah, no, I think it's, you know, it's very interesting.

You know, you say that, like, you know, we watch, well, I certainly watch documentaries and, you know, fascinated by people that have sort of reached a peak in whatever they do and that elite level of performance. But I guess, you know, that's a rare thing. You know, most people experience failure. And it's sort of how you deal with faith.

Why are you staring at me like that? You're like, you just totally zoned in on me right there. There's only one place I can look. I mean, you know, and it's, you know, what I love about this story is it's like it's just about, community and doing it together and you know what it takes to get back up you know try again try again fail better the next time i think that's a really positive message and um a very sort of heartfelt message that's that beautiful speech that devita uh gives to thomas at the end he was like well

you know come on let's fail together then you know it's like you don't have to be your own um so yeah i just thought it's such when i saw the documentary and just saw that this sort of positive attitude of the American Samoan team. I just thought it was like, you know, it's so infectious. Yeah. So you've been, I mean, it's talking about kind of silly competitive stuff. And it's always word to talk about acting in a competitive way. But you've been nominated twice for Oscars.

Did you find yourself getting sucked in where you were like, I need this. I want this. I want to take, I mean, obviously, you're not going to want to take down actors you admire. But like, does it kind of, does that horse race? No, no, I heard that about you. Marbles and the steps of the showgirls. I mean, you know, it's, listen, once you're in the mix, you're in the mix, and it's hard not to sort of, yeah, get drawn in.

I mean, to be honest with you, it's, and everyone says this, but of course, it's just a great honor to sort of be nominated in the first place. But for sure, you're thinking, you know, there is a chance, is there a chance? Could there be a chance? But like I say, you know, just very privileged to just be nominated in the race. Are there two sad slips of paper that still exist in a breast pocket of a suit somewhere with the acceptance speech? You know what? I never wrote the speech.

So I was gambling. On your improv skills. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Coming fulls are a good idea, actually. I did have one for a breath in that speech. It was awful. I would imagine improv doesn't come so much into play with Mr. David Fincher.

Let's talk about my obsession with the killer. I'm a Fincher obsessive lifelong. Where in the list of accomplishments does being the guy in a Fincher movie, seeing your name in the credits, being working with this man for months at a time, Stan? This must have been a moment. Yeah, absolutely. You know, especially what we were saying earlier, you know,

I was doing the racing season during the year and then just got a call from David and we started talking and he had this idea. And I, you know, I'd always said to, well, for years I'd said to Connor, my partner at DMC, the production company that I have, I was like, you know, what about films like La Samurai and Point, you know, point blank? I was like, these are, I love this kind of film where it's all pared down and stripped down and mean and lean. And then, you know, Fincher got in contact and had this idea. Basically was samurai for 2023. Yeah, basically. Yeah. And I was like, wow, this is amazing.

Yeah, it was just, I felt, you know, so lucky to, you know, to work with him. We had a great relationship. He's super generous. And it was, yeah, it was just one of those really special moments and opportunities. and I love the film. I love the whole crew that he's got, the precision that he goes about and how he works.

High standards, it's just great. It's, I feel super lucky. Yeah, he creates a world. It sucks you in. I found myself, I went to see it in the theater when it was playing, and then I had to watch it again the next day because it's just,

it's one of those films that rewards multiple viewings. Absolutely. It truly does. I thought, well, maybe people won't revisit but they do. And certainly when, you know, when I revisited, I was like, oh, wow. You know, you see all the different layers and the detail because everything, you know,

he is so detailed in the work. So I actually felt like I found more in that second viewing. Yeah. So it's interesting to say that. 100%. So he also, look, he has like all the notoriety about him, about the unique way he operates. And I respect it. Look, I mean, he's not maybe for every actor, but like he, look, his perspective is film is forever.

we're going to get it right. If it takes five takes or a hundred takes, we're going to get it right. What else are we doing here, basically? And it seems like he almost likes to kind of, maybe this is the wrong way to put it, but the grind down an actor so that they've like, they're not even thinking about the acting.

Like they're just kind of like doing it like, not overthinking it in a way. Is that somewhat accurate? And did it did that jive with your, your style, your approach to acting? I would find that he searches for things through repetition. You know, through repetition, things start to reveal themselves. And you can strive to, I mean, perfection you never can achieve, I guess. But it is that target of perfection. It is the

goal to find the perfection. And as exactly as you said, once the scene is done and you leave that day, I mean, you're not going to get a chance again. And we work, you know, super efficiently. He's crew, you know, a lot of the crew, he's worked with them on many projects, so they know it. So we're moving fast. If there is a lot of takes, we're going, you know, we're moving fast. There's, it's not a lot of, you know, downtime sitting around. It's a very efficient set. And I really enjoyed that.

And everybody is being treated the same way. So the dog grip, you know, camera operator, sound, everything has to be, you know, everybody is being, communicated to the same way. I'm, you know, and everybody is trying to reach that high standard. So I loved it. Hey, Michael. Hey, Tom. Well, big news to share it, right?

Yes, huge, monumental, earth-shaking. Heartbeat sound effect, big. Mitch is back. That's right. After a brief snack nap. We're coming back. We're picking snacks? We're eating snacks.

We're raiding snacks. Like the snackologist we were born to be. Mates is back. Mike and Tom, eat snacks. Wherever you get your podcast. Unless you get them from a snack machine, in which case, call us. I'm Amy Nicholson, the film critic for the L.A. Times. And I'm Paul Shear, an actor, writer, and director.

You might know me from the league, VEP, or my non-eligible for Academy Award role in Twisters. We come together to host Unspooled, a podcast where we talk about good movies, critical hits. Fan favorites, musts season, and in case you missed them. We're talking Parasite the Home Alone. From Greece to the Dark Night. 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. I mean, a little small spoiler, but in the opening, it kind of fucks up. Doesn't, doesn't complete the job. And then wackiness ensues for the next two hours in terms of trying to, in terms of trying to, you know, there are some, yes, there's some reckoning that needs to be had to happen.

Here's my key question, having seen the movie a couple times. Is the killer good at his job? Is he, is he a good contract killer or is he kind of shitty? Because he makes some very key mistakes that don't, like, jive again with the voiceover. He says one thing in the narration, and then he totally miscalculates for what we see on screen. Well, I think that's, that's, you know, kind of what's happening there. You're seeing the unraveling of this person and their process, you know. And I think, you know, he is good at what he does because obviously we see the fruits of his labor.

You know, he had made a significant amount of money. So one would imagine he's been doing it for a while since university and dropping out of that first career choice. And just by his age, one would imagine he's been doing it, you know, I would say, you know, for 15, 20 years. Got it. And, you know, at this moment in time, perhaps he slipped a little bit. And we see, you know, we see cracks. Right. And certainly, you know, at the end, you see the little crack with the Twitch.

So, you know, it's sort of, we meet him at a point where it's starting, I think, you know, to unravel. I always thought as well, you know, with somebody like he says at the beginning, you know, if you, you know, if you can't deal with boredom, this isn't the job for you. And that's the thing, you know, he spends so much time by himself with these thoughts, you know, there is a, you know, a chance that one would go a little crazy. Yeah, yeah. So he has some very interesting kind of predilections and habits. He listens basically to one group, the Smiths. I mean, I guess if you're going to choose one group, that's not a bad one. If you had to choose one artist to listen to the rest of your life, Michael,

what are you listening to for the rest of time? Wow. Okay. Marvin Gay. Okay. Have you ever, like, keyed into one artist for a role? Like, I always remember the story. I think it was Daniel Day Lewis for Gangs of New York. York was like listening to Eminem.

I read that. Yeah, I read that. I was like, interesting. And when I watch Back his performance, I can see some M&M in there. He loses himself. I think I get quite obsessive. When I like a song, I might like over, you know, listen to it a lot. In terms of, I think David Bowie, a bit for David and Prometheus, the man who felt her

I think there was like, there was definitely some inspiration there. What is the challenge of, look, this is a role that calls upon a great degree of physicality and not much dialogue. And then we have, on the other hand, this narration that follows throughout. We are in his head, as you said before. You know, it is a very specific kind of delivery you give in that, for that narration. Was that easy to key into? like does David direct you in a very specific way of like what he's going for what he wants and what you want out of the killer's narration yeah for sure the narration you know we took great

detail in delivering that so I think it was four sessions we did and it was you know it's supposed to be obviously very intimate and finding a certain tone in the delivery um we we, Dave was like, I want to be super relaxed. So we actually came up with this system where I was lying down. Oh my God. And the cue cards were on a screen above my face and the microphone was here. We first tried it where I was face down. But I think everything got a little nasal.

And in the end, yeah, I was lying in a bed. It was the most comfortable sort of ADR voiceover session I've ever done. Sounds like therapy. Yeah, yeah. A little bit. But yeah, we took our time. It was four sessions of that. And I was grateful for that because obviously, you know,

it is the sort of inner workings of this character. And as you say, we don't hear them say much, you know, on screen and with other characters. So it was important to get that, you know, to get the right pitch for that, to get the right tone. What does your own inner monologue sound like? Does it, is it in your voice? When I'm acting, it's, you're beautiful. you have a secret, you're a killer.

Is that only for this role or generally? No, in general, I just change, obviously, the killer. Oh, I see, yeah, yeah. You're a coach, yeah. You're a robot. Yeah. You're beautiful, you have a secret, you can bend metal. You hate James McAvoy.

Yeah, exactly. I hate Charles, but like him, but love him, but hate it. You have a hell. of a fight in this one. It recalled for me the great Haywire fight as well. Did he have some flashbacks? How did this one compare to that? Well, it's funny. I think, you know, David's sort of like my character in Haywire, and I think that was the first sort of like maybe idea for me in this film. Yeah, you know, it did remind me of Haywire because it was that thing of just messy, brutal, trying to do something that looks as sort of real.

and out of control as possible on screen. True chaos. Yeah, where a lot of times things can look a little slick, which is great. It has its place too, but this one was sort of down and dirty. And what's super interesting with the end result in the film is David's taken out all the grunting sounds,

you know, which makes it even more disturbing. So if you, you know, watch that scene again, you realize there's no, oh, you can just hear the impact hits. It actually makes the sort of the fight quite intimate, you know, and even more disturbing. The sound design from top to bottom in this, now I'm going to have to go back and notice that, but like the use of the Smiths and how it's received by the audience versus the character in different ways without ruining anything is really fascinating.

Yeah, I mean, it's funny, you know, I mean, again, it's sort of like this guy puts together a hit playlist. but not the kind of hit playlists as you're used to. No, the juxtaposition is perfect. Yeah, exactly. Also, you get to, like, you get the, look, you get to be this cool contract killer in a David Fincher movie, and with all due respect, I don't know if he has the coolest wardrobe, or maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe you think it is the coolest wardrobe. Maybe bucket hats are going to come back into fashion, thanks to this character. Well, that was something very, you know, early that we sort of, you know, leaned in on. And it happened straight away in the first costume fitting, because, you know, Obviously, the comic book being inspired by Le Samurai. And then, but Alan Delon looks amazing, you know, his hat and his suit. And we just started putting on, you know, the costume.

And it was like, I never wanted this guy to be cool. I always found him to be kind of socially inept. I didn't, you know, it was a character for me that I don't imagine has any friends. The only person in his life is his girlfriend. And, and again, you know, what he wears, we were just picking. like the bucket hat everything was a little off and i and i liked that and i thought okay this is somebody that could sort of disappear you wouldn't notice them also his wardrobe is something that he could buy in any airport right you know all those things sort of made the the costume very

sort of specific to how he operates um as opposed to trying to get a cool look so that you know we worked against that straight away from the beginning i guess that goes to the the um the diet of the killer as well, which is if there's no red flag that he's a psychopath, it's that he's eating like hard-boiled eggs and insure and egg McMuffins without the bread. Like, this is, this is not a well man. Well, this is somebody, yeah, that doesn't really experience the sort of pleasure of eating. It's a purely practical. Which shucks the poses of, of course, we told the Swinton, right? With the Till the Swinton character is totally the contrast there. She's enjoying her life. Exactly. And maybe she's let her guard down a little bit there. And I

felt like the scene between the killer and the expert, you know, the scene between, that with Tilda was kind of like him looking in the mirror, you know, what his future was going to be like, you know, and how the end was going to come about for him in some weird way. It's like a mirror. That's why, you know, that's why, again, he's going against the mantra, you know, it's a big risk going in there doing what he's doing. I also do love the aliases. He adopts throughout, though I feel like it's so close to your sweet spot. So it's like essentially he adopts all these like 70s like 70s like patriarchs, men from 70s like sitcoms. And I know your sweet spot from our last conversation. This is really more of like 80s action. So I feel like it could have

been, you know, B. A. Baracus, right? Or Magnum, P.I. Thomas Magnum. Like that should have been the aliases for Michael Fastbender. That's right. Or again, coming back to Fletch, you know. Yes, of course. yeah yeah um you know bar bar when he's the doctor exactly that's two bees no b a b a r he's like but that's two bs but right next to each other that's what i thought you meant um yeah um that didn't remind me of fledge i was like oh that's kind of funny so you bring up something that's come up in our last a bunch of conversations we've had over the years whenever i bring up a movie we bring up a movie that we have in common especially that one that you grew up with that often is one i grew up with You're like a human movie jukebox.

A movie comes up and you go right into a great quote. So can I put you on the spot? Can I throw a movie at you that I hopefully feel like you know? And let's see if you've got something. Okay, do it. All right. We're going to do some different categories. Let's start with comedies.

Old school. Cover your ears. Ear muffs. Bad words. Bad words. E-muffs. Going to the qual. We're all getting naked, running to the quad.

How about, let's do a Fletch, Fletch. Okay, Fletch. Oh, come on, guys, it's all borebearing these days. Hey, he burns himself on the engine of the plane. Big Lobowski. Big Lopowski, okay. Forget about the fucking dough. What's your Scorsese jam?

You want to do Mean Streets? Do you want to do Taxi Driver? Oh, in Taxi Driver, doesn't he have a car? conversation where the guy goes, what's the most dangerous thing when you're driving? Sneezing. You know the scene where he's doing the interview for the job? Right. Funny, because I've often thought about that when I'm racing.

I was like, why don't I sneeze when I'm racing? You have power over here. I would imagine. And finally, reservoir dogs. Okay, so it's like, you're like the world's smallest violin. It's terrible, though. It's half a quote. You want to go to your own, In Glorious Bastards?

Do you remember any of your own lines? Well, if this is it, oh boy, I hope you don't mind if I go down, speaking the Kings. Perfection. Love it. Still an all-timer. Let's reflect for a moment on the amazing roster of filmmakers you've worked with, and you're still young career, sir. You've been doing this a while, but we're just getting started.

Okay, so most recently, Fincher, Tycho Waititi, Steve McQueen, Ridley Scott, Danny Boyle, Cronenberg, Soderberg, Terence Malik, Tarantino, Andrea Arnold. let's take a moment a little, I mean, that's, has that been the barometer for you, kind of like to chase the filmmakers you admire because you want to be put in the hands of the, of the greats? They're going to take care of you. They're going to make a great film. Absolutely. You know, that's like I feel so lucky, you know, to be in, you know, in that company to work, you know, under the vision of these great artists. And that's what makes all the difference. Yeah. And it really elevates anything I can do.

And that is, you know, that's the simplicity of it. I mean, you know, making a film is super difficult anyway. You can put all the right elements in place and it just doesn't work or the zeitgeist isn't there and whatever else. So you really want to, you know, give yourself the best chance at getting it right and, you know, working with, you know, that great list of people you named, you know, that's, that's just the education of being in a set with them is huge. And many of them, you know, multiple times, obviously, which is remarkable too.

You know, Ridley, for instance, you've obviously worked with a bunch. So I guess at this point, so you obviously did Prometheus, which I think you know I love and am obsessed with, Covenant, which was great in its own right, a different kind of take. But like, there were plans to do more, right? And I guess we're never going to see more. But like, at this point, can you say, like, what? like, what was the plan for David going forward after Covenant? Were you excited about what was to come?

I had no idea. I didn't know after Prometheus, you know, whether we were going to be going on another journey. So I thought, you know, what I loved about the whole sort of Prometheus sort of launching sort of the alien sort of franchise in a totally different sort of way and, you know, bringing AI into it, I thought it was fantastic. and this idea of creation, you know, and where we were created from. And then this, you know, this AI has then now become obsessed with the idea of creation, God.

And I thought it was, you know, super interesting because obviously he had such an iconic franchise with Alien and the Alien itself. So I just thought it was such an inspiring tangent that he took there. I think it was the years ago. I mean, it was celebrating in its time, but it's just going to grow in estimation, I feel like Prometheus. And Covenant, I have to say, the sexual tension between David and Walter, you had great sexual chemistry with yourself. The fingering scene is going to be studied for ages. Oh, yeah, that was funny. That was like a lot of fun and fighting myself.

That was cool, too. But yeah, I think, you know, the thing, you know, with the Walter and David is like you have one that is, devoid of ego and the other that is just sort of drenched in it. Right. So it's just fun. That's a fun contrast. Yeah. Yeah.

And then a side part and away simply. Obviously, yeah, totally different. Completely different people. Yeah. It's like back and like, again, to use an 80s reference, remember a Knight Rider when David Hasselhoff would have the mustache as his evil twin, Garth? God, that's right.

Yeah. Yeah. I love those episodes. He had the, and he had a big truck. Cliving, was it, Goliath? Yeah. Goliath, yeah, and then the Tranzam was nightrider. Yeah, yeah, well.

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Conditions apply, visit your local Volvo retailer or go to explorevolvo.com. Goodbye, summer movies, hello fall. I'm Anthony Devaney. And I'm his twin brother, James. We host Raiders of the Lost Podcast, the Ultimate Movie Podcast, and we are ecstatic to break down late summer and early fall releases. We have Leonardo DiCaprio leading a revolution in one battle after another. Timothy Chalmay playing power ping pong in Marty Supreme.

Let's not forget Emma Stone and Jorgos Lanthamos' Bagonia. Dwayne Johnson, he's coming for that Oscar. In The Smashing Machine, Spike Lee and Denzel teaming up again, plus Daniel DeLuess's return from retirement. There will be plenty of blockbusters to chat about, too. Tron Ares looks exceptional, plus Mortal Kombat 2, and Edgar writes, The Running Man, starring Glenn Powell. Search for Raiders of the Lost Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Okay, it's official. We are very much in the final sprint to election day. And face it, between debates, polling releases, even court appearances. It can feel exhausting, even impossible to keep up with. I'm Brad Nilke. I'm the host of Start Here, the Daily Podcast from ABC News. And every morning, my team and I get you caught up on the day's news in a quick, straightforward way that's easy to understand, with just enough context so you can listen, get it.

and go on with your day. So, kickstart your morning. Start Smart with Start Here and ABC News because staying informed shouldn't feel overwhelming. We've never really talked about your passion for racing and it's really obviously become a big, big part of your life the last few years.

And I saw you had a wipe out last year. Was that like a near, was that like as scary as it looked at Le Mans in 20? 2022 when you crashed? It was high speed for sure because it's coming towards the end of the Mulsane Strait. It's never really that scary because when you're sort of sliding or heading towards the wall, you're just trying not to hit the wall or trying to figure out, you know, what you can do in that moment. And then you're just thinking, God, I hope this isn't going to be like such a big impact that the car is going to be destroyed.

So you're thinking about those things more than... physical sort of safety. I guess that comes into play, too, but mainly just sort of, you know, a little embarrassing, really. You know, I'm a 47-year-old man that doesn't know how to drive, Michael. So I've already, I've offered...

I'm going to say the same about me. That's not sure. I've seen the video, yeah. He doesn't know what he's doing. Wait, do you have a license? I've offered Vin Diesel the opportunity to teach me, but I'm going to open it up. If you want to teach me to drive one day,

I'm ready. Let's do it. Let's do it next time. We'll do the interview in a car while driving because it's good. You know, it's multitasking. Yeah, that's exactly what they want to do while driving. As many things as well. Exactly.

Yeah, yeah. Using your phone. Right. That's the worst BSA ever. Are you especially critical of driving movies? Are you more of like a Days of Thunder guy or a Taladagena night's guy? What's your assessment of the Fast and Furious movies? I like Talladega Nights, I've got to say.

And I think a lot of people in the racing fraternity do as well, because we're always like, don't know what to do with my hands. I love it. Yeah, I love that. I love the Senate documentary. Oh, that's great. Yeah. And where are you at in terms of, we mentioned your beloved McAvoy, who I assume you haven't spoken to since you stepped off the set of Dark Phoenix. You were like, this is it?

I'm going my, we're going on separate way. We know again, actually. We haven't met up in person in quite a few years now. I saw Nick Holt, when I was in Nicholas, I saw him in New Orleans. He was shooting. Oh, the Renfield movie. Yeah.

Exactly. And we were shooting the killer. So I got to sort of hang out with him and catch up with him. You know, we always stay close. You know, even if we don't, if I don't see him, you know, we sort of get back into the banter straight away. So I've just been texting with James. but we haven't managed to meet up in person, unfortunately.

Do you miss moving things with your mind? Do you miss the helmet at all? No, you know, the pressure was getting to me in the end, moving stuff all the time on demand, all these kids asking me to do it. And I was glad the hours left. I can't do it anymore. Are you satisfied with your run?

Obviously, Dark Phoenix was what it was and maybe didn't turn out the way everybody hoped it would. But was it time for you? Like, do you feel like, you know, you did your time as Magneto? You know, I think we had a great run. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. And by the time, you know, Dark Phoenix was over, yeah, I was like, well, you know, I was lucky. You know, we had a fantastic run of it.

But it is funny. That opening stuff I did do with the, this kid before was like there. And you know the way you can click open a boot in a car. Right. I had like the clicker in my pocket. And I did do that, and the boot of the car opened up, you know, and still to realize it was a trick. Don't. But yeah, no, I enjoyed the time, you know, and then it sort of came to sort of, I think, natural conclusion.

What does you make your life in Portugal, as I understand it, Lisbon. What does Lisbon have that New York doesn't, Michael? What are you just trying to stay as far away from me and everybody as possible? What's going on? Well, I love New York. and I loved, like, I lived in London for 20 years. I do like cities, but I'm a country boy, you know, at heart. I grew up in the country, and I think at a certain point,

I just wanted something with more of a relaxed rhythm. And I enjoy surfing, so I wanted to be somewhere that I had access to that. And Lisbon's perfect for that, you know, 25 minutes, 30 minutes, I can be down on the beach. It's just a lifestyle choice. And you need. Your distance. Where are you at on theater right now? Because I feel like we've talked about this before. I think it's been a long time since you've been on a stage. Correct me if I'm wrong. Are you feeling that it at all at this point? Or is it like when it come, when the right thing happens, it'll happen? There was one time where I thought Steve Jobs would be good on stage. It would have worked. Did you ever seriously talk about it? I didn't talk to anybody else about it. I just talked to myself. Walked around, something muttering to himself. We've been marvelous on stage.

I just thought, wow, that's kind of the perfect script for a three-act play. It literally isn't three-acts, yeah. It totally works. All right. Well, we'll get on it. We'll talk to the powers that be. What is on the docket? I see a bunch of potential projects. Sadly, this Nancy Myers thing, I guess, isn't happening. That would have been a fun one, I suppose. yeah that would have been super fun she's like great and you know we had great conversations and yeah it just didn't work out um so i don't know what the future of that project is um but it was great part yeah script um so do you know what the next one is like i see i see hope

potentially with alicia um yes is that is that on the docket we're talking about that that that's going to happen at some point next year We're just trying to figure out when. I think they've already started shooting. And then, you know, with my production company, we've been developing a night boat to Tangiers, is a Kevin Barry book. And he's written the screenplay for us.

So that's been in development. And then we also have other projects at DMC that's in pre-production as well. I have a follow-up question from, I have a follow-up question from, from our last conversation on the podcast seven years ago when we were talking about Star Wars and you talked about that you had a conversation or two about it was the role Kylo Ren you can say now we have enough enough distance it was Kylo Ren just blink twice if it was Kylo Ren who is Kyler ran stop it Adam Driver's character I can never remember the names oh Adam Driver's character

the you know the bad oh no no it wasn't it wasn't no no Oh, okay. It was Yoda's grandfather. He never made it in the actual movie. Big Yoda. Yeah, they call them Big Yoda. Yeah, yeah. Big Yoda.

Yo, big Yoda. Big Yoda in the house. Yeah, he was a rapper, and he spoke backwards. What we might have had. Last great movie you saw. Have you been seeing anything? Did you Barbenheim? Meistro.

oh so good right yeah yeah i haven't got a chance to see either barbie or oppenheimer oh my gosh i know we were traveling around and there was no cinema that actually had it in english got it so i kind of feel like i've missed the boat there i do have a little cinema screen at home so i'm going to watch it on that for sure nice all right so what about you oh my god i'm obsessed with, honestly, the recent obsession is the killer. I loved Oppenheimer. Poor things. Amazing. This is the time of year. This is all the good stuff. I love it. Yeah. I can't wait to see poor. No. If you're a Yorgos fan and Emma kills it, unbelievable. All right. So we're going to end with the happy second fuse profoundly random questionnaire as if my questions already haven't been random.

Here we go. Michael, what do you collect? Do you collect anything? what do I collect I don't think I collect anything I'm not much of a collector no okay not a hoarder well I still actually with the toys that I had from when I was a boy I still have them yeah because my son's playing with them now and that's quite nice I was like oh I'm glad I was I was very particular like keeping like all my matchbox cars really like without scratches and stuff and now he's just destroying them in like a matter of two days action figure guys guy? Did you have like the Kenner Star Wars things? Star Wars. Star Wars.

The Millennium Falcon still there. Had the EWalk Village Imperial Walker. Love it. Have you decided which of your films to show your son first? It's going to be shame, right? You're going to start with shame for him. Start with shame, for sure.

You know, this is like, this is what your mother was getting herself into. How do you think you about him? You should learn about shame very early on. I did. He might as well just watch the movie.

Last time you danced. I fancy you as a dancer. You're a dancer, aren't you? Yes, but it has been too long. Yeah, at home with my boy, sort of dancing. I'm trying to sort of start the day. Yeah. Very sweet.

What's the wallpaper on your phone? Chandelier. He calls it the drink song. Oh, the chandelier. he was like the drink song and then the other one was diamonds of sierra leone he calls that twinkle twinkle fast it's kind of brilliant i'm so excited to move on to move past you and start talking to the next generation of fast vendor discard michael out of the picture um what's the wallpaper on your phone uh picture of alicia and uh my son that's the correct answer

are you the last actor you were mistaken for oh this is great uh you and mcgregor i've signed pictures of him that's a collectible yeah yeah it's like that's happened a couple of times in fact one time when i was in austin shooting the malick movie there was a guy that i got on one of those tuk-tooks cycle ones and he was like you know you look like the actor iwan mcgregor I was like, yeah, that's true. I was like, you look like Nicholas Cage, and he did look like Nicholas Cage. Maybe it was Nicholas Cage. That would really put the, take the story to the next level.

Most embarrassing, movie you haven't seen that you're most embarrassed to admit. A movie that I haven't seen that I'm most embarrassed. I don't know, actually. Okay. That one I, well, I should have seen Oppenheimer by now. There you go. Okay. We're staying current.

What's the most, there's nothing annoying about you, obviously. But if I had to ask your loved ones, what's the most annoying thing about Michael Fastbender? What's the habit maybe that people say, all right, enough, Michael? Hmm. I don't know. He's perfect. He's perfect, ladies and gentlemen. Oh, I'm just, there's a long list.

How about what do you hate about yourself? Let's do some self-loathing, some therapy. What do I hate about myself? I hate my own self-loathing. Perfect. Perfect. Yeah. Yeah.

What's the worst note a director has ever given you? What's the worst note? Wow. What would that be? That would be. It's so hard to kind of say what the exact note would be. It would. because sometimes like what seems like a bad note from a good director is a good note you know what I mean

so at the time you're like faster and it's like okay yeah but if it's the wrong director and they're not like then any note can be a bad note right um it's more of the delivery system than the actual note yeah sometimes the directors weren't even on set so i was getting directed by the first ad right okay I can guess on some of those. That's not a conversation on Zoom, I think. What drives you? I did get directed by another director on Zoom as well. Oh, someone, a remote, some directing you remotely.

That's what John Carpenter just did that. He came back to directing, but directed remotely. I quite liked it, actually, because I could just walk away. Like, uh-huh, uh-huh. Whatever. What's your pet peeve on a set? what drives you crazy? What's kind of like? I guess the danger on a set is there's a lot of downtime. Yeah. So it's like trying to sort of get engaged when you need to get engaged and

the sort of staying sort of in a space where you're attentive when you need to be. And sometimes I think when there is that space in between when you're working and the downtime, I think the danger is to fall in to formulate ways of doing things. Right. Rather than being in tune to what is actually happening now, you know. So that that is a danger that I'm aware of in myself. Well, I suppose that's why to bring it full circle, it's why folks, even though they're like, they couldn't be more different kind of directors, Tyca, who keeps it so lively and loose and

fun is great. And then David, who while very meticulous, you described as kind of like, it's not downtime, actually. It's like everybody, it's a very focused work and seems like you have to stay, you're staying in it. And that must be, that's where you want to be. As you said, the danger is in kind of like the mind wandering and getting out of your own head, right? Absolutely. And I think, you know, all those great directors that you mentioned, you know, they have an ability of doing that and whatever style that they do do it. And yeah, you know, keeping people engaged and focused. Is there one director left on the west right now?

Who's on top of your mind that you're dying to work with? oh you know there's so many great directors out there you know we spoke about i've always loved the cohen brothers right you know they're um fantastic i mean the big lobowski i just think you know but just what a genius script and what you know son of wabowski michael fastbender the first cone brother sequel ever he's old he's old yoda he's a child yes he's playing all the relatives now grandpa yoda what did we call it When he was on tour with Metallica, wasn't he eroding with Metallica?

He was, yeah, exactly. Yeah, man. Excellent stuff, as always, Mr. Fastbender. I hope it's not as long until the next time we meet. Congratulations, honestly. These two films are fantastic. Everybody should check out Next Goal wins. It's in theaters.

The Killer, which should be in theaters. I'm just going to say it, but you can watch it on Netflix. It's amazing and worthy of your time. My best of the family, I'm very happy for you, man. And yeah, let me know when you want to. start teaching me to drive when I'm ready. Okay, let's do it, man. Great to see you. Good to catch up. Thanks again, ma'am. Have a good one.

Cheers, Josh. 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, and I definitely wasn't pressured to do this by Josh. The Old West is an iconic period. of American history and full of legendary figures whose names still resonate today. Like Jesse James, Billy the Kid, and Butch and Sundance, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Geronimo,

Wyatt Earp, Batmasterson, and Bass Reeves, Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickok, the Texas Rangers, and many more. Hear all their stories on the Legends of the Old West podcast. We'll take you to Tombstone, Deadwood, and Dodge City, to the plains, mountains, and deserts for battles between the U.S. Army and Native American warriors to dark corners for the disaster of the Donner Party and shining summits for achievements like the Transcontinental Railroad. We'll go back to the earliest days of explorers and mountain men and head up through notorious Pinkerton agents and gunmen like Tom Horn. Every episode features narrative writing and cinematic music, and there are hundreds of episodes available to binge. I'm Chris Wimmer. Find Legends

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