Happy Sad Confused - Tom Hiddleston and Genden Phuntsok

Episode Date: September 11, 2026

Tom Hiddleston and Genden Phuntsok join the pod from Telluride Film Festival! This is Tom’s seventh time on Happy Sad Confused, but Genden’s first! Tom and Genden tell Josh all about their new film TENZING, the time a group of monks recognized Tom and Willem Dafoe while shooting the film, and whether they’d actually climb Mount Everest. Plus, Tom spills about his MAD MAX: FURY ROAD audition and AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY! SUPPORT THE SHOW BY SUPPORTING OUR SPONSORS! Rula -- Rula patients typically pay $15 per session when using insurance. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.rula.com/happy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ #rulapod Quince -- Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Quince.com/HAPPYSAD ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠for free shipping and 365-day returns. Limited Time Offer–Get Huel today with my exclusive offer of 15% OFF online with my code happy15 at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://huel.com/happy15.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ New Customers Only. Thank you to Huel for partnering and supporting our show! UPCOMING EVENT! 10/13 -- Joe Manganiello in NY -- Tickets here: https://www.92ny.org/event/joe-manganiello-with-josh-horowitz-bloodlines Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Three of the most quiet self-effacing monks approach us, and one of the monks said, excuse me, Mr. Loki, Mr. Green Goblin, may we have a photograph. Yeah. Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins.

Hey, guys, it's Josh. Welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad Confused, coming at you from the Telluride Film Festival with the stars of Tenzing, Indin Putzak, and of course, one of our favorites, Tom Hiddleston. Hey, guys, thanks for joining me on another edition of HappySeg Infused. If you're watching this, maybe, you're wondering, where the hell is, Josh?

This is a little bit nicer than his usual apartment or studio setting. Yes, I'm in Telluride, Colorado. This is maybe my favorite weekend of the year at the Telluride Film Festival, where I got a chance to see some of the best films of the year, world premiering here, and also talking to some great filmmakers and actors, like my guests on the podcast today. Of course, Tom Hiddleston, there is no greater friend to Happy Say I Confused than Tom, and also a new friend, Gendon Putzak, who stars as Tenzing Norgay in this remarkable true story, of course, of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay and their amazing Ascent Up Everest in 1953. This is a film that comes out in a few weeks. It comes out in October,

so consider this an extended kind of sneak preview of this film. As you'll sense from the conversation I have with Tom and Gendon, this was quite an undertaking, quite an adventure. They shot on location in Nepal and New Zealand, I believe. and it's a subject that Tom, who as you know from past conversations I've had with him, I'm sure, he's passionate about every project, but this one in particular feels like a very special adventure for him. So I'm thrilled to share this with you guys. This was shot right before their big world premiere here in Tell You're right at a chance to see the film a couple weeks ago back in

New York, but a really appropriate, a beautiful, idyllic setting for this story about nature and man's bond with nature, I suppose. Before we get to that conversation, a couple quick reminders, as always, check out our Patreon, patreon.com slash happy, sad, confused for early access, discount codes, live events. We've had a live one coming up with Joe Mangonello, October 13th, and many more to be announced very, very soon. I'll say quickly, just hopefully get a sense of the surroundings from this introduction here.

But tell you ride a film festival, I can't say enough about it. I've been coming for five years now. I've seen so many great films here, Wild Horse Nine, the debut, if I can get my words out correctly today, I'll have to see Alpha Gang in just a few minutes, starring Chris Pine, who I just ran into. He's petting a dog, of course. Like, this is the nature of Telluride. You run into folks all the time. You know, I've seen, like, Leia Seude running around.

I've seen Emma Stone twice. I've seen, you know, literally some of the best actors and filmmakers on the planet. And it is such a cool, relaxed vibe. because everybody is here pretty much for the right reasons. We all love film. We all love celebrating great film and no festival programs better than Tell Your Ride. So as long as I'm able to,

I'm going to keep coming to this festival, and hopefully you guys can get a sense of how special it is from these conversations. Okay, I'm going to take you now to this conversation with Tom and Gendon. I'll know quickly that Gendon's first language is not English, so, I mean, what props to him? I have no second language skills.

So he's great, but he used an interpreter here and there, So there might be like, you know, a little bit of a miscommunication or just, you know, language barrier at times. But he's fantastic, charming, smart, and wonderful. So I'm thrilled that I got a chance to talk to him and obviously always thrilled to talk to Tom, who is an amazing advocate for this film. There's also some fun stuff. A little bit of doomsday in there, a little bit of Mad Max talk because it was recently revealed to me in a previous conversation that Tom auditioned for Mad Max Fury Road way back when. So I had to get that story out of him, too, obviously. all of that and more on this episode.

I hope you guys enjoy it. Here you go. Gendon, a pleasure to meet you, sir. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Nice to meet you too. And Tom, our 300th adventure together, has taken us to telly ride. For the first time.

For the first time. We've had many adventures, but never in Telleride for me. Never together. Congratulations. I'm very excited to talk to you on a number of levels. This film was about to premiere here in Telly Ride. I can't think we're better, more suitable place for its premiere. Tell me a little bit about, I don't know, just the appropriateness maybe of this festival.

Does this feel like a good landing spot for Tenzing? I think so. Here we are in the mountains. Yeah. The American mountains. Many miles from the high mountains of the Himalayas. You've never been to Teddy Ride before, right? Yeah, it is the first time.

First time for me too. We've done many things together for the first time. Yeah. We had to. We had to. But even just driving up here, actually reminded me of, I think most people land in Montrose.

And driving up, it's a night, what is it, an hour and a half to drive into telly ride. And it reminded me, and I said out aloud, this makes me think of the trek that we did.

Yeah, yeah, from L'Oklah to base camp. Of course, the topography and the geology is slightly different, but it was like the pine forests and the rushing rivers and the big sky and then the mountains getting larger and larger the deeper you go. Yeah, I mean, we could talk about that for a four or three hours that track, right? Yeah, yeah. I was going to say, I mean, any film, hopefully film can feel like an adventure, but the nature of this film,

the story you're telling, the way you shot it, it feels like a great adventure. I mean, for you, has any experience compared to this, Gendon? I mean, being front and center, playing this iconic role. Can you encapsulate a little bit about what it feels like to be here about to premiere this film? For us, also the movie,

when we filmed this movie, also similar like the environment, like this. Yes. And this movie festival is also like that. Yes. So we are, I have a feeling like we are very close to our movie and also our movie connected

with the television. at a movie festival because the location is really nice and beautiful and also they will close our movies view absolutely

so yeah this is this film I mean I was privileged enough to see this a couple weeks back before I got here you do you both are excellent in it it's very impressively well told by the director

who previously had done a lot of documentary work that clearly she brought to this yeah I reached out to you as soon as I saw it because I was so impressed it was amazing so it was so it was so

I didn't know you were watching it. I didn't know there was a screening. I was so touched in and moved by what you said. Yeah. Well, I guess my question for you is because I could tell from your response and our conversations that, look, you take on all films and they all hope to aspire to something great. But this does feel like a very unique adventure in your life and career.

Entirely. Entirely. It's been a long time coming as well. I first met Jennifer Piedom in the spring. of 2023 and she sent me the script and this beautiful letter and I found this script incredibly moving just that the statement embedded inside the story which was to bring Tenzing from the background into the foreground and to reframe a familiar story about these two men who did an extraordinary thing

an impossible thing, an unimaginable thing, a thing that had never been done before, and the fellowship and the friendship between them. And in her letter she said to me, I can't remember I've told you this, she said, it was right at the end of the letter where she was outlining her kind of mission for the film.

And then she said, we've never met before, but I have a sense that you're the kind of person who'd be up for an adventure like this. And my first question was, how did you how did you know yeah like because I am I'm down this sounds like an adventure but not yeah and I when we met that first time she said we're going to go to real mountains yeah we're going to do this in Nepal we're going to do this in the foothills of the Himalayas we'll go to catmandu

the British embassy of Kathmandu will be the British embassy of Kathmandu and then and then the second half of it was in New Zealand and Edmund Hillary is among the most beloved and and and revered of like all New Zealand citizens. He's so, he's held so dear in the minds of all New Zealanders. He's still on the $5 note. To be playing Eben Hilary on the Southern Alps of the South Island of New Zealand, and having never been. The whole thing was just climbing in real mountains,

hanging off real crevasses, the two of us roped together. Real snow, real ice, real crampons, real ice axes. It was there is no, there's no green screen. We're never in a studio. This is all real. And you feel it, watching the movie. You can, having watched a thousand movies, we all know whether intellectually or emotionally,

we can feel that you guys were out there. For you, for Gendon, I mean, like, as I understand that there was a bit of, you know, you have to get to know your co-star. What was the process of getting to know Tom and vice versa getting to know Gendon? You spent some time before filming together? Yeah, yeah. We should tell the story of where we met. Yeah, they said Tom will come there.

I'm more earlier than arrived in Nepal to just train or prepare for the movie. And then I went to Lugla to experience life. And that's also Sharba. And then Genevah told me Tom will come. We haven't ever met before. But from the story of Edmund Hillary and Tanzan, and really no way all about their relationship or something. And then I walked from Cumbjung to Lugla, mid-town.

It's mean it's like the airport. So, yeah, like Tanzan-Hillary Airport. Sure. The name is that. And that's very meaningful for me. Of course. And then I went there and then waiting He came out of the airport

And went and see him just to Just like we were very Similar before And just give hug each other And then he also like that To hug me And then we Talk and talk and talking

All the way to maybe Almost two days Four days I think Yeah four days To Kroo Yeah And to Tengboshi Yeah

Tembuchi And all this experience We have Very good time and all the way we practice our dialogue. We discuss about our character, the relationship with us, and we discuss about how we should connect our spirit together,

develop our friendship, or everything. So that's a really good experience for me. It was amazing. Yeah. How familiar were you with Tom's work? Have you seen a lot of the marble work, the non-marvel work of Tom?

Of course, I watched many times. Tom's film before. Of course, Tom have many fans in China. And in China, we call them Dozen. Dozen. Yeah, it's a new name for you in China. Yeah, I'm aware of the name. I'm aware. So you know that. No, he's Shanghai, Beijing. Yeah. So I hold it very dear. It's a huge honor to have a nickname in China. Yeah, yeah. So I also watched most of his movie. Yeah. Yeah. You're very kind of that. Yeah. Can we, can. Can we? Can we? Can we talk a little bit about, I mean, the physical challenges of this? As you say, you're on mountains, you're in crevices, like you clearly that you're doing as

much of this for real as possible. 100% for real. Did you feel in danger at any point? No. I tell you why. Well, here's the thing. We were surrounded by the experts. We were surrounded by to go back to this.

It was extraordinary, unprecedented, unrepeatable, unforgettable moment. I flew from London to Kathmandu. And then within, I think within 15 hours, I was in a helicopter from Kathmandu to Lucla. So Lookler is where you land if you want to trek to base camp. It's where they got to when in 1953, they would have walked from Kathmandu. And there's now a strip of runway inside the mountain. It's quite the landing in a fixed-wing plane of a helicopter. The airport was built by Tenzing and Hillary.

in the 60s in order to bring in supplies to build schools and to help the Sherpa community and improve their living conditions and their facilities. And it's called the Tensing Hillary Airport and there's a huge statue of both of them. Yeah. And I've been in Nepal for 24 hours and suddenly, and it was just the two of us

with two Sherpas called Pubatashi and Dr. Nemo. Both of them are from the Kumbu Valley. Pubatashi has summited Everest 21 times. No, no, 33. 33? Yeah, 33, the last one, he said his mother very worried about him to climb the mountain. Yeah.

And the last one is he was on the middle of the way up the Mount Everest, and then his mother was passed. And after that, he stopped to climb the mountain. It's a legend. And Pobotashi is features very prominently in Jens. documentary Sherpa and has dedicated his life to to the mountain and helping people get to the top and get back down again safely. So you had Purbatashi as your guide in Sherpa culture, in their ways of life, in their in their techniques, their climbing techniques, but also their

spirituality and everything. And we had Dr. Nemo who was born in Kumjung, which is on the way to base cap and every as I say every tracker goes through Kumjung and Dr. Nehman was educated at the age of six at a school called the Hillary School which Hillary built and Dr. Neum is now my age and he's a high altitude doctor who's worked in the UK for the NHS he's worked in the United States he's worked in China and he's a specialist at high altitude medicine both of them gifted and it was just the four of us for four days walking through the same terrain across the same you know, wrought iron,

high altitude bridges, the same pine forests, the same tea houses, walking with the donkeys and the mules. And the silences that we shared and also the conversations we shared. And suddenly the sky on the third or fourth day starts to be filled with what seemed like gods.

Enormous mountains, the biggest mountains in the world, 8,000 meter plus, peaks and one of them is Everest and you see it for the first time. A gentle reminder of what you're doing. I know. And we had so many conversations about it was such a gift from Jen to us to have that time away from any kind of official pre-production, away from the cameras, just to get to know

each other to talk about the story we were going to share, the responsibility we both felt to inhabit the lives of these extraordinary men. who changed the idea of what's possible. They both became the most famous men alive after their summit, but they were very humble and very grounded people. But as I said, to go back to a question, we were completely surrounded by experts. We had a mountain safety expert called Guy Cotter,

who himself has summited Everest six times. The son of Ed Cotter, who was one of Edmund Hillary's best friends. And they cut their teeth as climbers in the late 40s with George Lowe and Earl Ritterford. So, I mean, had Barry Blancher, all these people who love mountaineering, who've dedicated their life to the mountains,

heard about the film and wanted to help us. We were the only people almost who had never done it before. Would either of you at this point now, have you like, would you want to scale ever? like for real like to do it for real I worry for my fingertips I worry if actors need their fingertips that's important I just it's it's interesting also Everest itself is so busy and you know we know there's so many people up there and there's a wider conversation happening about how busy should the mountain

vision and and that do you need us that it should be a requirement that there's a certain level of expertise to even attempt in because mountains like the ocean can can render great serenity but they have so much power that if you don't know what you're doing they can they can be very dangerous places remind you of the power of nature yeah there's different when you front of the snow mountain and the mountain you feel you are so tiny humanity so tiny front of the nature but we saw it Yeah. Before we started filming, we saw Everest together.

We got to, we hiked, it took about four or five days to Tang Boshu where there's still an old monastery. And it's almost the last building that you, any tracker or any hiker sees before they get to the mountain. And then we didn't have time to go all the way because we had to get it back. But there was a helicopter to take us back to Lookler. And before going back, we just went through the valley over base camp and we clapped eyes on on Everest. and looked up through the icefall, the Kumbu Icefall, the Western Coom, the South Summit, the neighboring faces of Lotsie and Knopsy. And what was extraordinary was, my first sight of Everest was with you.

And we looked at it together. We both saw Mount Everest for the first time. But our viewpoint also was exactly the same as Hillary's first viewpoint. He had been on a reconnaissance expedition in 1951 with this great romantic climate. called Eric Shipton because Nepal had opened its borders to Western expiration in the late 40s and they went up a peak that's opposite Everest called Pimori and suddenly they looked down and they saw this route a new route that was never available to Mallory or any of those climbers that was possible through the icefall and I had exactly the same view of Everest for the first time

it gave me chills it's just knowing that I tell the story he was there and he was there 70 years ago looking exactly at this angle and then being selected, you know, because they were, it's worth saying as well, Tenzing. Yeah. Nepal had, every year, they gave different permits to different nations to have a go, to make an attempt. So the previous year, the permit had been given to the Swiss. Yeah, yeah.

With a great climate called Raymond Lombard, Lombard, and Tenzing had been with Lombard, and they were only something like how many, there were 800 feet from the summit or 800 meters. They got so close. So by the time you get to the spring of 1953, Tenzing already has the distinguished honor of having been the highest ever. So he's already broken a world record

and he's about to break another one. More happy say I confused coming up. All right, Outer Banks fans, it's time to listen up because you know I love this cast. Madeline Klein is one of the all-time great conversations. We've had unhappy, say, confused. Chase Stokes was just on my dog show, who's a good guest. He's a big-time dog dad like myself. I got a chance actually to see Madeline and Chase and the whole gang the other day

when I hosted the Outer Bank's final season event for the fans out in Los Angeles. It was such a blast. And I know we're all maybe a little sad that the show is ending, but here's the great news. Not only do we have a great final season of Outer Banks on Netflix, but there's also a podcast for you. Did you know that? It's called Outer Banks, the official podcast. And as you'd expect, from an official pod, this one has all the Pogues that you love. It has Madeline and Chase and Madison and Jonathan and Carlasia and it's hosted by a legit superfan in Ria Chiffo of Chicks in the Office. I've been listening and honestly, it's the perfect

companion piece to this final season. It's funny. It's intimate. It looks back at the entire run of the show, not just the final season. So trust me, if you love Outer Banks, this show should be at the top of your list to check out. You can watch Outer Banks, the official podcast, only on Netflix, or listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. That's Outer Banks, the official podcast on Netflix or listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Check it out, guys. In Toronto, every arrival is a statement, and nothing says it better than this.

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Very deeply. In honoring the story. I mean, for you, what was important for you to convey about Tenzing's contributions, his spirit. What do you hope folks come away with seeing the film about this man? From Tenzan's store or Stendant's character, I found that Tanzan and admitted Hillary also. They are very humble and no profile. And do you know, in their mind, just thinking about we are humanity, we want to help each other, forgive each other, and respect each other. So become peace. community.

So that's really strong spirits warning like this to me. Because they don't want to say, you are from this country, I'm from this country. There's never things sort of these things. I found that's from their story and from their book. They said, we are all from different countries, different places, but we are humanity. And we just doing one thing, just to claim the mountain. Not others. So their mind is a very pure and kind and compassion to all other people.

Tenzin always thinking about how it can make the other people happy or comfortable. So this is very great character of Tenzin's. And he's always doing. So he said sometimes he's really hard because the Sharpa team think. he just depends on the mountaineers the other people and the Europe people thought

you are right yeah he's caught between both worlds and Tanzan really hard between them he always want to think so many why to to manage the problems

and yeah he's he told about like this I think it's really hard but he's done very good job I mean there's you kind of alluded to this especially in these times, it's really, it's beautiful to see a story about two men seemingly very pure of heart who were good, just good men, good people, trying to accomplish something and knowing that they can't do it alone, that they need a partnership, a brotherhood.

Every, every climber knows that you summit as a pair. Yeah. And you share the risks, you share the challenges, you share the success. Nothing else matters. Yeah. And I want you to tell everybody about your connection to Nobu, Tenzin. Oh, yeah. And the family. Because before I started our work, film the movie, and I really pushed to myself, forget myself, and joined to Tenzin's character. And I watched all the documentary about Tenzin and written many books about Tenzin.

and even I just turn off my phone and I deleted all my just amusement app. Right. I don't have anything. Just focus. Yeah, just I'm 100% focus

on the script and feeling that. And after for a while, I'm really a feeling, yeah, I'm in like this. And the way all the first time I met them, like Nobu or they are. I don't know why. I have a very special feeling that's

they are my family. Just like I am the soul of Tenzin and looking to them, just between us have just a glasses, a glass. Just looks, I'm younger than them, but back of the glass, I'm looking at my sons. I have something like this feeling, and I'm going to cry, but of course, I stop. I've got goosebumps right now.

Yeah, that's very special for me. It's good, yeah. And also, when I was Comjong, I want to speak the Sharpa language. And I'm living in Pubu's home. Yes. And I study my dialogue. And every day I speak to them, Pubu and Pubu's wife, Pubu's daughter. And sometimes I go out and go to the village.

And I will speak my dialogue to every people I met there. And sometimes I will speak my dialogue to the yaks, sheep, and horses. I saw it. I saw it. It was so sweet. You got to run your lines. You're going to run your lines with the yaks. It was so sweet.

Every actor should have a yak. So they can just run the lines. Yeah. We was that honestly, I saw it with my own eyes. How is this man put in? My screen partner is either really dedicated or crazy. It was amazing. And I remember also, I mean, it was four days of days and nights.

And, you know, you learned, you learned new languages. You learned English. and Sherpa. But you were also speaking Nepali and you had to learn the Sherpa dialect and the way of life. And we went, there's a place called Namchi Bazaar and all

mountaineers who've been through the Krumbu will know what I'm talking about. It's sort of the last place you can buy supplies. It's high. And everybody gets to Namchi. And I remember when we left Namchu that morning, you put

the bags we were carrying. on your forehead like you were a Sherpa porter. Oh yeah, yeah, he would try that. And we were going up the hill and he had the bag so there's a leather strap which you put on your forehead. And it's really steep. I mean, it was a lot of, it was a high climb to Kumjung. And I remember you start to see the yaks

and we were running lines and doing bits of scenes and he would just do all his Sherpa dialogue to the yaks. And then Pupatashi would say, no, no, no, it's a slightly different bell sound. And you go, sorry, sorry, you do it again. Always. But also there was this, the fact that we had this experience of doing it together was just, you know, and you were looking out for me because you've been in altitude for a while and we were going quite high. I remember we were staying overnight at a tea house and I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.

Do you remember this? Yeah, yeah. It gets really cold up there. You sleep in your, you know, down jacket. I got up to go to the bathroom and I went back in and there was a knock on the wall and it was again and saying, Tom, are you okay? Are you feeling okay? I'm like, I'm okay, I'm okay. Hemsworth never did that thing.

But in the middle of the night, never knocking on the wall just to check on me in case I had altitude sickness. Here's the question. Do you ever practice lines with your dog? Does Bobby ever? Always. Always. Seriously? Yeah.

Do I really, not really know. But I do, he will have heard them all. Right. Of course. Because I take my lines on dog walks because I need to, but I need to learn my lines on the move. Right. And so I'm like, okay, let's go out. And he starts wagging his tail on the go for a walk.

the ears prick up and I'll have my lines recorded sometimes and I'll be doing them out aloud he'll look back at me and go forget it he's running his lines I'll go find some rabbits or whatever you know this is the best way to get doomsday spoilers is to follow you on a walk just talk to bobby or talk to bobby bobby's got them all can we briefly we started by talking about tell your ride I don't know if you've run into folks here I was just talking to canbrana at the brunch which must be so wonderful for you to be so lovely to see him in this environment have you so you've run to Ken, have you met anybody yet at the brunch, any actors you and I? Last night, I introduced you to my old friend Rebecca Hall.

So, remember at the dinner last night? Yeah, yeah, yeah. My friend from university, Rebecca, yeah. She's a really amazing, extraordinary actor and artist, and she's the guest director of the festival. She's programmed some of the films. But she's, yeah, I've known her since we were 18. Oh, yeah, yeah, you told me that yesterday.

She's great, yeah. So we met Rebecca. And you met Rami Malik? Oh, yeah. Rami? Jumbi, you wanted to ask him for a photo. Oh, yeah, yeah. Freddie Mercury himself?

He's really busy and in that... He was busy. Maybe tomorrow? After he sees the film, he's going to come to you. Yes, exactly. He'll come to you. And you should brush him off and say, you're busy. Oh, no, no.

We're so much to talk about this. Can I briefly say? Anything. We've talked about Norbu. And I met Norbu, too, who's one of the... Tenzing sons and Jamling Tenzing three years ago and sort of just wanted to hear their father's story from them. But I was really fortunate and grateful for the experience of meeting Alexander Hillary. As soon as I landed in Kathmandu, he was actually, he's hugely responsible for the

Himalayan Trust, which was what was set up by Edmund Hillary in his lifetime. And actually after the summit of 1953 Edmund Hillary dedicated his whole life to improving the lives of the Sherpas and I think viewed the Khumbu Valley as his second home obviously he lived in New Zealand still and had a home

there but spent a great you know a great many chapters of his life in the Khumbu where he just wanted to give back I think and as I say he built schools and he built medical facilities and help build the airport and he set up the thing called the Himalayan Trust which is which is still about trying to give back and and and serve the community and he Alexander Edmund's grandson happened to be in Kathmandu

so I met him on the evening that I landed and it was so extraordinary to shake his hand and sit with him for an hour or two in a way and also reassure him that I was committed to this with total sincerity, that I was aware of the enormous privilege of playing his grandfather, and was there anything he wanted me to know? And actually his response was just how much he loved this part of the world. And that actually towards the end of his life, the things he was most proud of were his connections to the people of those mountains.

It wasn't necessarily the summit, although he loved climbing very deeply. Yeah. And then I spoke to Peter, Edmund's son and Alexander's father, and Peter told me some amazing stories about his dad. And I got this sense of the spirit of mischief and playfulness and sense of humor that I got. You get from all the books. I read the books.

I watched the documentaries. I read all the different accounts, John Hunt's account. John Hunt is played in our film by the great William Defoe. George Lowe, who was his best friend also a Kiwi, wrote a book called Conquest of Everest with a photo essay but to hear it from his son there was one story he said they were

they were tracking together much later when Peter was a a grown man somewhere in India and it was a very very difficult the weather was extremely difficult and the rain was coming down and the wind was building up and they were climbing

this rock face and there was gale force winds and they scaled the rock face and found a plateau where they could pitch their tents and they were struggling to get canvases were being blown away and things were falling off the mountain

rain was horizontal it was the fine art of suffering as all high altitude mountaineering is and it was grim and they finally got the tents up and they finally crawled in you know absolutely drenched and soaked to the skin

and in complete silence and they made a brew and they all sat down and settled in and his dad, Ed Hillary, was the first to say anything and he said, he just piped up, you know, folks, some people wouldn't think this was much fun. And everybody laughed and suddenly it was a great adventure. And that he had this gift of transforming hardship. Adversity into, aren't we lucky? We get to do this. get to do this. And I really think that's what I got. You can translate to everything you do.

We've had that conversation about acting. That's what you do. Aren't we lucky? But I kept feeling that. And as you say, like he was such a good man and Tenzing was such a good man. And we met, do you remember we met, it's also worth saying, because we've never talked about it. In Namchi, we met Kanza Sharper. Oh, of course. And Kanza, who's very sadly no longer with us. Yeah. He died late last year. We met him in and we had at his house and he is the lot he was then the last surviving member of the expedition. He was the youngest chipper and we sat with him for an hour or two and just sat at his feet and listened to his stories. Yeah he told him many stories.

Many stories. Many stories. He's very helpful to us and at that time I'm not to believe myself I can perform 10 the well and and I said do you think I can perform 10th well? I'm going to act at Tenzin And he said, okay, you don't worry about that. You can do that. You are just very looks like a Tanzan right now. You are here.

He turned to his children and said, He looks just like him. Don't need a better endorsement than that. Yeah, that's give me many encouragement to, okay, maybe I can do that. It sounds like there were so many signs along the way, whether it's seeing Everest meeting these people that were connected, part of it. Yeah, yeah, that's really good. And also one time we, you remember we went to the school that's an Midey Halle School.

Yes, we went to the Hillary school. We watched our room. There is all the Admerellery, some pen or something. And we watched a shorter video about Hadeemid Hillary. You remember that? Yeah. And he said, not humanity conquered the Mount Everest. The Mount Everest accepted humanity.

I was so beautiful. I really love this speech. Yeah. It revealed something to us, yeah. Yeah, I think so. Hillary really did many good things in the value of the Himalaya and even I thought

if there is heaven maybe Hillary is there if he is not in the heaven I think there is not existing If he didn't make the cut then who would be who would right? I really thought that because he did very good job

to give back to the Himalaya value and Shabas. He was He also said that all my fame or everything is come from Himalaya. I want to this give back to Himalaya. So he just built many school, hospital to the Shepa people. So in my mind, he's also like a god. Yeah.

Like a Buddha like this. Yeah, really. And also they loved the wilderness. And I think that was where their bond was formed. that they loved mountains. Yeah. They loved the freedom of being folded into nature and actually forgetting that I think they really loved that.

And it struck me that everything I learned about both of them is that they felt completely themselves when they were out in the elements. And what gift to find, again, a compatriot, a brother in arms out there, right? It was amazing. More happy say I confused coming up. New from Nespresso.

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Can I ask you two off-topic things quickly? Of course. Can I ask about the Mad Max thing? We corresponded about this recently. Yes. So as you saw from my reaction when I was talking to Gao Godot, it was a great reaction. I did not know that my buddy Tom Hiddleston audition for Mad Max. I've actually nearly told you that many times.

But then I've thought, well, it's time. Can you tell me your perspective on what it was like to audition? It was an extraordinary day. It was a whole day. I remember we had been, well, initially we'd been given speeches from iconic movies. Right. Have you heard this bit? I'd heard that bad.

To pick. What did you get? Yeah. I did the speech from Network. Yes. Peter Finch. The meltdown. Yeah.

And because actually I, it was such a great piece of writing. I don't remember how I did it, but I remember just that was my speech. And then the next round was around, there were these pairings. There were a pairing of a man and a woman together. And it was, I remember it being a day. It probably wasn't a day. It was probably like five hours or six hours. Still, that's unusual.

with gal um gal godot and uh we'd never met before and it was i felt at the end of the day like we had played every single scene that was possible to play right um she was extraordinary she was so available and so committed and i i remember there was this i don't think anyone else has told this sort there was a we were asked by george miller's Acting coach, acting, dramatist. Insert Michael Fastbender's look to the camera there. And it was, I was given, she was given a line, she was given the line, I love you, and I was given the line, I'm sorry.

And that was all you were allowed to say. So, and then we had to play the scene. I had to invent a scene out of nothing with those two lines. Just going back and forth. And you could say your line as many times as you like. And all she could say was, I love. you all I could say was I'm sorry and we went on a journey. It's all I was said we went.

It was it. How long was that scene you think? About 25 minutes. 25 minutes of just I love you. I love you. I'm sorry. You thought your job on this was hard. Twenty-five minutes.

Yeah and then here's the kicker. We finished, we'd we'd we've we've wept and we had, you know, struggled and she'd left the room and come back and you know, I'd wept and and then the exercise was stopped and, um, George Miller's acting, dramaturg said, okay, now Tom and gal switch lines.

We go again. So I had, I love you, and she had. I'm sorry. Yeah, I mean... This is my new podcast, devoted just to Man, Max Fury Road editions. I could live on these stories for a long time. What's interesting, having seen now of the discourse,

there's obviously a great... There's an extended discourse, yeah. Michael Fastbender story. Cap Dennings. I mean, I don't think, Anyone can top Tom Hardy at mom's house, at mom's house, until 11 o'clock at night, just shooting the breeze. But yeah, it sounds like every audition was slightly different. But I do remember feeling that was a workout.

Yeah. That was an acting workout. Okay. And last thing, nothing you can tell me, obviously, about Doom State, but we'll hopefully be talking more about that. And much ado in New York, I can't wait. It strikes me that you and Patrick Stewart have both died three times. Is that right? Throughout the Marvel films.

Is somebody going to be... come out ahead? Do you think you or Patrick is going to take the mantle of most deaths on screen? Is it three? Three each for you? Is that the count? You've had three, I believe. Hang on. Are you counting the end of Thor one?

Yeah. That's the death? Wait, now I am now, wait. Does letting go of, letting go of the spear. Let's go. I could have done it. Infinity War is one. We know that.

Infinity Wars one. That's a death. That's a death. Dark World is two. That's definitely two. Yeah, I guess that's my third then. Thor is three? Yeah.

Is it not? Yeah, I count it. No, I count. You're Loki. Okay. Yeah, yeah, I count it. So that's three.

I'm not as well versed in the Patrick Stewart law. Oh, too. I, look, if I keep going down the path of the end of this sentence, I will find myself revealing things that, it depends what you, you know,

I'm not, I'm going to stop. I have to stop. Are you happy that? I mean, Loki seems integral to the film. Yes? Would you say that? Yes.

That's a badge of honor among 50 characters to feel that you're amazing. Certainly, certainly. Come on, I'm holding the timelines together. Okay. I respect it. I just say, don't. All right, I'll let you go on that. You know, we live in a multiverse now, I think.

And Loki has, is the god of stories. So there it is. Yeah. Do you remember, is an, do you remember we were in a monastery? in lower Mustang. This is an extraordinary moment. It was you and me and Willow. And so there's actually just not just of northeast of the Khumbu Valley because the kumbu is still an extraordinary destination and everybody should go by the way.

It's a completely life-changing thing to do to take just to take your best friend or your partner or your children or your, you know, dear friends and do the do the trek to base camp. It's a it's a pilgrimage. that I recommend with every fiber of my being. But it's still busy. It's busy with the modern world. You know, at Namche, you can go to Yak-Buck. And get a Yak-Buck coffee. Sounds great.

It's my favorite mug. Better on Starbucks? Look, I don't want to get into a whole, like... Sort of beef. I didn't mean that. I'm sorry, sorry. I have the cup. I drink my morning coffee in the morning at home is out of my Yak-Buck.

I love that cup so much. Anyway, we were then, so we couldn't, there were certain things we couldn't do in the Kumbu Valley because it has all of the, you know, it comes with the 21st century. It's got, right. And people are there and they should be there. So we couldn't film there with all of our period costumes and our period details. So we actually went further east to a place called Lower Mustang and Jomsom, which is very remote, near the border with China.

And I loved it there because it was so quiet. We did lots of climbing, do you remember? We went up again. Yeah, yeah. But we were in, we had been for a day or two, a real active monastery with, you know, which houses monks who've been there for many, many years in John Song became the location for where we have our puja.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where they stop, where the expedition stops and asks for a blessing from the last. right is that yeah yeah yeah um and uh we had all the western climbers participate in this extraordinary religious ceremony long story short we're in this monastery and the monks have generously given us this location for a day and they're very curious because we have all the accoutremae sure filmmaking and cameras and microphones and we do things again and again and again and retake and um at the end of the day we go onto the rooftop and we take some stills photographs

remember and three of the of the most quiet self-effacing monks approach us and one of the monks said excuse me mr loki mr green goblin may we have a photograph yeah the power and willam and i looked at each other and it was like of course you can and yeah so they had these photographs of of um you were the monks yeah loki and the green goblin just up in in the high the high hills of of yeah up at a lower mustang great storytelling transcends goes everywhere that's it there it's but i also it was the the the the respect of mr that the mr loki mr green goblin maybe have a photo yeah yeah that's the way to we didn't want you to feel excluded from that yeah yeah we'll get him in the mcc uc don't work i help you take photo i'm the photographer

Well, that time. That's right. You are the mean actor. That's right. You're Tenzing. We don't do this without this. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But it was an amazing.

Here we are. We're in one of the most remote places I've ever been, which is a, you know, a remote Buddhist monastery in the, in the Himalayas, in the foothills. And reminded. Mr. Loki and Mr. Green Goblin. Well, look, film at its best should feel like an adventure for you guys and for an audience. And this seems to satisfy both. I'm so thrilled that

This is like the beginning It's like the first interviews You really given about this So I appreciate you guys It's great to meet you, Gendon And congratulations I mean this is a high bar to achieve And a really important thing to honor

And you did an amazing job Can I say you just should have seen How hard this guy worked There's a scene in the film Where And I could honestly You know I could go on all day But the most difficult

Puber Tashi And all the great summons of Everest will tell you The most dangerous part of Everest is not the summit. It's the Kumbu Icefall. And the Kumbu Icefall is just after base camp. And an icefall is exactly what it says on the tin. It's a waterfall that's frozen, which means it's moving all the time.

And the Sherpas would go up ahead of the climbers and try to basically plot a route through the icefall. Cravasses everywhere, serrax, that are the... as high as high-rise buildings, and if they fall on top of you, that's it. It's Russian roulette. You do not know when the waterfall is going to change. Oh, yeah. And there's a moment in the story where they're trying to plot a route through the icefall.

And they come across a crevasse, which seems completely unpassable. It's too deep, and it's too wide. And the expedition can't get around, they can't get through, they can't get across it. They have to go back and find another way. So everybody retreats to base camp, beds down for the night. And the next morning, Erhildare gets up thinking, I'm just going to go and check it out and see if I can find a way. And on the way there, he hears a strange unnatural sound of metal against methyl.

And you realize Tenzing has got up an hour before him and he's already down there. He hasn't fallen down there. He's climbed down the crevasse. He's climbed into the crevasse. and then traversed the base of it and then it's climbed up it. And the way you do that in high altitude mountaineering is you, because it's a sheer wall of ice,

you have to, as the mountainers would tell you, you cut steps. So you cut with your ice ice ice on your own ladder. Each foothold and handhold becomes the ladder that you build. And most mountaineers, and Hillary would certainly say it's a routine mountaineering issue. But it took you, it took, I mean, it would have taken half an hour.

And when we did it for real, the extraordinary stunt department led by Orgy Davis put Gendon at the bottom of the crevasse. And then Gendon climbed out of it. There was no, let's just cut some steps for you. And the camera was on a jib. There were a couple of cameras shooting at the same time. and Jen just said, okay, Gandon, climb.

That's a real climb. And he all watched him climb out of a crevasse. How does that? I climbed three or four times. You've earned a romantic comedy. You've earned a very nice, easy movie next.

Don't we do this again? He did it. He's incredibly tough. Yeah, that's really tired, you know, I tried it three times. Climmed a three or four times. And of that,

I'm really exhausted. It's just a line on the edge of the crevas. And remember there's the other moment where, and this really happened, and Hillary writes about it, where they were high up on the Western Coombe or the Lotzy face, which is the sort of, it's the most exhausting part of climbing Everest. And you just have to cut steps so that everyone can get supplies, because it's a pyramid of effort. You have to carry the loads of your food and your oxygen cylinders and your tents.

so you're climbing high and then sleeping low and then getting up your sugar and your coffee and your oxygen and your cheese and your dried apricots and tin peaches and your sardines you climb down and go back up again it's it is such painstaking work but there was a moment where tennzing and Hillary had decided they recognizing each other and the kind of mutual talent they were very strong they were very determined they worked very fast they were probably the fittest of the group and they had a bit like scuba diving you you do it as a pair and they had paired up and they were out there cutting steps on the lotsy face and they were and they were quite confident they were running back down at the end of the day and Hillary writes about jumping across

this very narrow crevasse and you know and he was feeling the wind in his sails and looking forward to getting home for for dinner and a cup of tea and the the other side of the the ledge gave way under his feet and he was falling. And he said, Tenzing saved his life because he did what's called a self-arrest. You jam the iceax into the snow. It could be a rope together. Wrap the rope around the ice axe and then it locks.

But Hillary is now suspended in a crevasse, basically being held by Tenzing's weight and the ice sacks. And then Hillary has to climb out. But I remember when we did it, they gave you my full weight. Yeah. I was in the crevasse for real. And this is a tall man.

This is a lot. It's tall man. It's really heavy. And essentially, Gendon has to then pull me out of the crevasse as I'm cutting steps and trying to take some of the weight. That's a really, really, that's, you don't want to perform that. It's you're really doing that thing. Best days.

Honestly, best days. I'm glad I got to enjoy it in my comfy seat in the theater. I enjoyed it in the. best possible. The whole thing was unprecedented and unrepeatable, don't you think? Unforgettable. I've never made a film like this. They may never make another one like this again. Every part of this is a really yeah, remember. It's all on the screen. You should feel, both of you should feel very proud of it. Thank you, Josh. We're hours away from the big premiere. Enjoy the moment. This is a special one.

Congratulations. Great to meet you, Genden. Thank you. Tom, I don't know where we're going next, but we'll find another city, another. We will. We will. We'll do. We'll. We'll. We'll. The the act continues. Yeah. Toronto. Let's do it. I see in Toronto. All right.

Good to see you guys. Thank you both. Appreciate you. 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. You've got your favorite blanket, a freshly poured drink and a cold case burning a hole

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