Happy Sad Confused - Zachary Quinto, Vol. II

Episode Date: July 1, 2020

If we're talking about the great filmmakers of all time on this podcast, Paul Thomas Anderson's name is bound to come up and sure enough it's his 3rd film, the sprawling ensemble piece that is "Magnolia" that's the subject of this week's "Happy Sad Confused". "Magnolia" is the subject thanks to Zachary Quinto, returning to "Happy Sad Confused" to dive deep into the many reasons to love this classic film from 1999. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During the Volvo Fall Experience event, discover exceptional offers and thoughtful design that leaves plenty of room for autumn adventures. And see for yourself how Volvo's legendary safety brings peace of mind to every crisp morning commute. This September, lease a 2026 XC90 plug-in hybrid from $599 bi-weekly at 3.99% during the Volvo Fall Experience event. Conditions apply, visit your local Volvo retailer or go to explorevolvo.com.

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

none of you are safe. New episodes every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now. Today on Happy, Said Confused, Zachary Quinto on Nospheratu and his favorite comfort movie, Magnolia. Hey, guys, I'm Josh Harowitz.

Welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. Another returning champion, Zachary Quinto. You know him, you love him, from Star Trek, from Nosephratu, from so many things, came back on the podcast remotely. Yes, these are the times we're living in, but thrilled nonetheless to catch up with Zach about the second season of Nosferatu, which is on AMC,

but I'm really happy mostly to talk to him about one of his favorite comfort movies. As you guys know, if you've been listening, we're celebrating the movies that bring us a little joy, make us feel a little bit safer and happier in this world, and people are interpreting that in every, every different possible way and I delight in that. Zachary chose one of my favorite movies of all time, not necessarily one I would think of as a comfort movie, but again, it's up to how you want

to interpret this guys. He chose Paul Thomas Anderson's 1999 epic film Magnolia. You guys, if you listen to this podcast, are probably familiar with this film. I'm sure you know the works of Paul Thomas Anderson, but to refresh, this is just his third film after Boogie Knights and Hard Eight. This is the giant ensemble that featured Tom Cruise and Philip Seymour Hoffman and Julianne Moore and Liam H. Macy and John C. Riley and just like dozens of others, all delivering a stellar work. It's an Altman-esque intersecting storyline piece set in California, very much based, at least in part from experiences that Paul Thomas Anderson was going through at the time, dealing with the loss of his dad. And it's an intense,

intensely personal, melodramatic at times, but always just stellar filmmaking from top to bottom, stellar acting, the music, everything about this movie is fantastic. You'll hear Zach and I go into depth about what we love about this movie. It is thankfully out there, of course, available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime and iTunes. There's also an amazing documentary. Shout out to Max Mengele for reminding me that this exists. It's on YouTube. It's free.

Just look at Magnolia Doc. It's a over, I think, over an hour-long documentary about the making of the film. And if you like that sort of thing, the ins and outs of how a movie is made, this is kind of a very honest portrayal of that process about one of the best films ever made. I delight in those kinds of things. Speaking of which, and this is a totally different kind of thing, but in some ways very similar, there's a really good making of film doc that's on Disney Plus, of all things. and it's about Frozen 2.

I was not a huge fan of Frozen 2. I had some major issues with it. I mean, I don't know. That's a whole other conversation. But set that aside, this documentary, it's actually a documentary series called Into the Unknown, is a surprisingly honest look at how difficult and challenging any movie is to make,

let alone a ginormous musical animated film from Disney. I highly recommend it. Like I said, I wasn't. the biggest Frozen 2 fan, but this documentary is a fan of filmmaking in the process was fantastic. Other things to mention, Stur Crazy, my series on Comedy Central continues with a very special episode I'm so proud of. We had Will Ferrell on the show, the genius, the brilliant, one of my comedy gods, Will Ferrell, starring in Eurovision Song Contest, The Story of Fire Saga currently on Netflix. That is a fun movie that really, if you want to,

just sort of like, I don't know, not turn your brain off, but kind of at least see something a little bit less heady than, say, a Magnolia. I highly recommend that film, and I highly recommend the conversation and fun I had with Will Farrell on Comedy Central's YouTube page. Just subscribe to Comedy Central, look up stir crazy, check out my social media. I've sent it out, but it's a really fun chat with Will where he broke out some of his favorite artifacts from his films from stepbrothers from anchorman from talladega nights uh really good stuff um i've been mentioning teen wolf the reunion that was long in the making is now up on youtube i've heard so many nice comments from you guys thank you thank you thank you if you're a fan of teen wolf and you haven't

checked it out yet go to mtv's youtube page check it out um and hopefully we'll do more of those i know i there was a tweet um and more than one tweet some people have been mentioning josh you should host a reunion for the hunger games guys I'm in. I want to do it. It's not up to me. Of course, it's up to everybody, including MTV, and the players, et cetera. But I'd love nothing more. And in fact, it actually kind of came up in my conversation when I caught up with Josh Hutcherson just a couple of months back. And he's seen game. So who knows? I don't know. I don't know where Liam's at right now. I don't know where Jennifer's at right now. But it's something I'm definitely interested in. And certainly if you guys want to keep tweeting that, retweeting that, and sending it out. out there. That can only help. Certainly, get some eyeballs on it. And certainly, I'd want to raise some good money for a great charity if we bring all the principals back together. So, who knows? You know, the world out there is still crazy. It's still depressing at times. I want to encourage you guys. If you haven't registered, if you're in the States, if you're an

American citizen like I am, please register to vote. We have to turn this system around in November. November 3rd. It's going to be a huge day in the history of this country. and a lot's riding on it, and it's not just at the presidential level. It's all the races, the Senate races, the congressional races. We have to change things if we want a better society, a better planet for all of us to live. So please register if you haven't already, and as I've said in weeks past, consider if you have the means to contribute to organizations like the ACLU, which are trying to protect our right to vote and get people out to the polls

and certainly to Black Lives Matter and to look up that organization and to see the different ways you can contribute there and be part of the solution rather than a part of the problem. That's the heavy stuff. Not to say a conversation about Magnolia is all light, but at least it's just talking about movies, which can be, at least for me,

a source of light in the universe. I hope you guys enjoyed this conversation. It was Zachary Quinto, one of my favorites. And as I always, remember to review, rate and subscribe to Happy Say I Confuse, spread the good word. We have some awesome returning guests coming up you're going to be very excited about.

Some new folks, too. And, yeah, I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Zach. I haven't figured out a way to start these conversations, Zach. Like, what's the way to, like, how you do and doesn't feel right in these times, does it? No, it certainly doesn't. Extraordinary times we're living through right now. But I see you have a cozy dog in the background. I can see that.

I do have a cozy dog in the background. Hey, buddy. Hey, look over there. Want to talk about some things? He's doing well. I mean, there's great comfort in animals, surely. He's chilling. You know, I think it's, yeah, it's, look, these times are troubled.

They're exhilarating. They're, you know, challenging, but also there's a lot of opportunity in them. And I think the more we can recognize all that and stay engaged and figure out ways to support these communities that are. rising up and demanding to be acknowledged and supported and heard in different ways is it's long overdue so i was really i was really thrilled um when i heard your pick for your comfort movie today um there i've got in all sorts of different kind of comfort movies whether they've been kind of like you know silly 90s comedies or or um yeah you know your buddy simon peg of course picked a george rom romero a day of the dead movie um and you went with one of my all favorites, and I would consider it a comfort movie. Let's get to it. Why don't you reveal what your comfort movie is and why? Yeah, sure. My comfort movie is Magnolia by the inimitable Paul Thomas Anderson. Yeah, I mean, comfort is interesting in terms of, you know, it's not,

I wouldn't call it a fielded, upbeat, rambunctious comedy by any means, but I take comfort in it because of the brilliance of the work. For me, it's comforting to just be so inspired. He's one of my favorite filmmakers. That to me is, it's absolutely in my top three favorite movies of all time. The craft, the artistry, the technique, the narrative, the pacing, the camera work, the acting, all of it.

It's just, and it holds up. I just watched it again, which is why I chose it. You know, it's 20 years old, plus. and it's still just crackles. And, you know, Julianne Moore, Tom Cruise doing, I think arguably the best work of his career, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jason Robards, Philip Baker Hall, Melinda Dillon, Laura Walter.

I mean, it's like the list goes on of John C. Riley. I just can't get enough of what it evokes in me just as a film, just as a, you know. You've selected one that's easy to talk to because there are 1,000 different tannies. We can go on because there's some of the storylines and great performances and the music and the filmmaking. It's just like Amy Mann, yeah.

So there's a lot of directions we can go. First, I want to get some basics out for the uninitiated if you sadly somehow avoided this movie. Came out, as you said, at the end of 1999, one of the great years in film history. December 17th, this was Paul Thomas Anderson's third film. He was 29 years old. Jesus, that's crazy.

I can't tell I didn't think about that 29 but it has that kind of youthful like it's a huge swing right it's just like a big goddamn swing he went for like he was coming off of boogie nights and was and had this juice

and what he said you know and I went back and read up on it a bit and re-familiarized and watch it again is he had like new wine basically was like do what you want to do as your next film and initially he just wanted to do like a small thing just bang out a quick thing. And it just kept getting bigger and bigger.

They gave him final cut. They basically gave him a certain amount of money and said, go do your thing. And this is what came out. We're about the same age. So I saw this. I was on my first job of all of places I was working at Charlie Rose.

Paul Thomas Anderson came to the show to promote Magnolia, and I'll never forget it. Where were you at when this came? I had just graduated college. So I had just moved to, I was here, I was in L.A. And saw, I remember taking myself to the theater to see it alone. And just being absolutely staggered by what a journey it took me on. Yeah, I mean, I was already a huge fan of his.

And this just sort of for me, kind of, it's just so, you know, what he does both narratively and also cinematically, I think the juxtaposition of these two things, this deeply complex interwoven narrative of these characters that all relate to one another in unexpected ways. And then the pacing of the film, I mean, just the camera work alone is so, it just, you know, it just moves in this way that you can't really, I don't know, it's unlike anything, you know.

Yeah, well, when I watched it again, I don't know about you, like, and I've seen it a bunch of times, but it kind of goes in waves, right? It kind of like crescendos and then kind of comes down and then like it builds again to like this kind of like apex like four or five times in the film

and these kind of like set pieces for lack of a better word. You think of a set piece in like an action film but like I think of like a set piece here for like when they all break out into song where the frogs come and the film begins with like

two kind of back to back amazing sequences. You have the Ricky J. narration, setting up these kind of world of coincidences, and then it's that Amy Manson kicks in with like an introduction to this crazy assemblage of characters, and it sort of announces itself, right? Everybody is at a moment of kind of panic in their lives, and some of it is quiet panic and some of it is frenetic panic, but you know, you meet them in this with this swift energy and everybody's moving at a clip, right?

And, yeah, and that to me is, even down to, like, at Jason Robards, you know, who's, was it, that was his last movie? Yeah. You know, he's dying in the living room in a hospital bed of his home, and, you know, his totally, Julianne Moore in that movie, my God,

like, you know, her energy, but, like, they have all these docs. They have like five dogs, you know. Like chaos. It's just there's no stone let them turn in terms of human nature and the expression of who these characters are. It's also completely fully explored. Yeah.

It's loosely, I mean, at least partially loosely based on, I guess, Paul Thomas Anderson's dad had passed away pretty recently and suffered from cancer. And it feels like an intensely personal film yet on this kind of giant canvas. Yeah, let's just go through some of the performances and some of the storylines because they're all worthy of time. You mentioned Tom Cruise. I agree.

I think this is like as good as Tom Cruise has ever been. It kind of capitalized on one thing he's really good at. Like he's obviously so charming, but he kind of is good as he kind of has like a sleazy charm when he turns it on. And as Frank T.J. Mackie, it's like all surface. He's hiding so much. And he's just doing everything he can to bury his parents. until he reaches a breaking point. It's just a hell of a performance.

I mean, he has this reputation, doesn't he? And I think it's diminished slightly over the years now that he's entered a different phase of his life and his career, but there's this charisma that he embodies and that he exudes as a movie star. And we've seen examples of it sort of being dissected or kind of examined or raked through the coals in certain ways. you know, I think of that moment on Oprah and the jumping on the couch kind of thing

where it's like this very performative presentational quality that he leaned into, certainly in his youth as a movie star, and Frank T.J. Mackie embodies that in like the most kind of this search and destroy sleazy, you know, conquer all the women kind of way, but directly under that is all of the trauma and vulnerability that triggers someone

to adopt such an aggressive an outward-facing personality. And we get to see that journey. We get to see the veneer crack and fall away as he first gets called out by I meant to look out. What's the actress, April? I'm going to look at it myself because she's amazing.

He's incredible in that film and that role. I think your name is April. I mean, he does so much in that, in that, it's basically the extended, this extended interview portion where um and he does a lot like by saying nothing like he's just reacting to they both do yeah they both do um it's this it's this total confrontation where this guy who's used to manipulating and steamrolling his way into the psyches of all the people that he's trying to to transform um gets totally and systematically dismantled by this woman who just holds her

ground and has his number and knows that he's full of shit and basically calls him out on it to his face, and he's never had that experience, and especially from a woman. And so that dynamic is also really juicy in that exchange, but they're both, so you have her name, April. Yes, it's April Grace, and yes, Matt props to her because she's amazing in it. Yeah, there's that line, he's, he falls silent, and she's just, like, picking him apart, and he just says, I'm silently judging you. It's chilling, but amazing.

And then it carries into the decision he makes to go. When Phil calls him and tells him about his dad, he goes and has this incredibly, incredibly heart-rending moment of confrontation with his dying father, who's so out of his mind and morphine that he's not even conscious, but he gets the opportunity to confront the father figure in his life, and it feels really powerful.

It's a crazy moment also just to, I mean, we won't make this all about Cruz, but that was the same year he was in eyes wide shut. So he was just, and he had to come off Mission Impossible. He shot eyes wide shut famously for like two years. He's in London with Stanley Kubrick and then does this. And he was just arguably, I think, the most creative, interesting section of his career. It was a good vintage cruise.

Exactly. Well, let's just segue into, I mean, I think also Philip Seymour Hoffman, who we can't say enough about generally. But again, you know, he was obviously one of Paul's close friends and used them frequently in heart eight and boogie nights. but in such a different effect, he's so endearing in this film. He's like the ultimate caretaker and sweet and... Lyatt. Yes, and I don't think it's a surprise that he... Apparently he wrote this for Philip Seymour Hoffman

and wrote it at, like, it's supposedly to hear Paul Thomas Anderson say it, it was the real closest to Phil, and that's why his name is Phil in the movie. Yeah. And that's pretty fast. That's sweet. I mean, yeah, it's just so... So, yeah, I mean, it is, he was, he was an unmitigated genius, and, and this showcases that in such a way. His skill is to do such precise work without having the faintest way of work is just, you know, unparalleled. And effortless and his ability to occupy this space and this physicality, you know, when, when Frank D.

D. Emacki shows up and he's there, and he needs to kind of, manage the situation the way he does that physically or when he's when he's ordering from pink dot which i just love that and he's ordering all this stuff and the the culmination of the orders he has to order these porn magazine get the number for search and destroy to like start the conversation to try to get in touch with frank t j macky and like the way he embodies the embarrassment of asking for those things as part of the order is just so endearing like you said and so um so heartfelt he was yeah real beautiful. Yeah, there's such humanity in all his,

all his performances. Yeah, the woman on the other end of the line, it's like, do you still want the bread and the, and he's like, yeah, yeah, of course. You mentioned Julianne Moore, who like, you know, it's fasting again, watching it again the other day. It's kind of like a series of escalating meltdowns that like, in the wrong hands could be like, oh, God, this person is so overacting. But it's just mesmerizing what she does.

See the desperation, the fear, the anxiety, the addiction, you know, that quality of, you know, like, you know, and the confrontations like you're saying with the pharmacist, you could come in here, you call me late. Like it's just so dramatic and so, but like, but never, never crosses a line. It's always so rooted and so, and with the lawyer, you know, and she's just just golden. And then, you know, the decision she makes in the car before the song to take, all the pills. I mean, she just, the tragedy of her is so real and the panic, the panic of losing this lifeline, you know,

this, this, this, this, uh, relationship that she's relied on for everything, clearly, you know, for material comfort, for identity, you know, what's she going to do? And it's clearly that, it's clear that her, that character is built on

a house of cards and that there's no substance underneath it. And she does that. So, expertly in that moment. So you often hear about, like, you know, directors that are actors, directors, right? And, like, certainly Paul Thomas Anderson would seem to be that. What does that mean in practice for you? Is there...

Well, have you watched the documentary? I just watched it the other day, yeah. Yeah, it's called The Moment. And I remember stumbling onto that years ago, and it's about an hour-long documentary about the making of the film. and it's just so delicious to watch, you know, to really see the process that led to this outcome and to, you know, you watch him working with Philip Baker Hall

and Melinda Dillon. You, the crew really kind of captures Julianne Moore in moments of learning the song in Video Village or sort of being explained. Like, you really see his style of communication with his actors, and so you really know exactly what it means to be an actor's director, creating an environment in which actors feel empowered,

they feel heard, they feel valued, you know, that it's a real collaboration. You see this great kind of interaction with him and Phil Hoffman where he's kind of taken the piss and, you know, they clearly have this really sound creative relationship on which this whole, you know, character is built for Phillips, Jimah Hoffman. And so I would just,

encourage anybody that wants to know what it means to be an actor's director to watch that on YouTube. And you also see him as a pretty young, you know, now I know a 29-year-old, you know, pretty confidence, you know,

some might say precocious director, filmmaker, you know, a tour. But the thing about him is to me, he's never once fallen short of that, you know, assignation. He's never once. I know. in any of his movies not delivered.

And for me, that's, that, that's great. I'd be really interested. I've never met him. I'd be so interested to, you know, to get his point of you now that I'm sure he's mellowed a bit and, you know. Yes, he's, there's a tell, I don't know, you know, he, he did a podcast interview with Mark Marrman. He times over and, like, you know, just sort of kind of different, yeah.

Say it again. Sorry, we were a crossing paths on the audio stream. He did a great interview with Mark Maron. That's pretty revealing that because, yeah, he's kind of like, as you've seen the doc, like he's, you know, very confident, but also very easygoing. Yeah. Kind of like very affable and just charming. I saw him at a Q&A here in New York like a couple years ago after Jonathan Demi passed.

They did a screening of something wild. and he came out to talk about that, and he's just like the sweetest guy. What's your PTA, Mount Rushmore? He's made nine films. What are the, like, top three? Boogie nights. I mean, Magnolia's top for me.

Boogie Knights. Where are you standing up? The master, I feel like, divides people. The master and inherent advice, both, I think, divide people. Where are you on those? yeah they're not ones I've revisited I'll say that fair enough yeah um I've revisited all the three I've mentioned so what do we have we have inherent buys punch drunk love the master boogie nights magnolia um hard eight heart eight phantom thread most recently oh yeah I said

invisible thread phantom thread and then two more um hard eight boogie nights magnolia punch drunk there will be blood how could we forget there will be blood oh right shit shit Jesus. His other kind of massive father-son story. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're all worthy of lots of discussion.

I need to go back to, I haven't seen Hard Eight probably in 20 years, so I need to go back to that one. I haven't seen that a while either. He was clearly influenced by Robert Altman. He famously was kind of like Altman's backup director on the set of Prairie Home Companion. He was, like, on the set, kind of, like, the insurance policy. Is that...

Have you... Have any of your films kind of been shot in... Have that Altman PTA feel to them? Like, do any of them kind of approximate what they go for? I think Margincall, in a way, had a bit of a... The way we shot that movie was, you know, I mean, it's difficult to compare experiences when I didn't have... an experience on any of the TV movies, but, you know, I mean, there was a certainly a kind of really

grounded, rooted, organic unfolding of that narrative and how we capture it, and that was a good experience, but I think that's probably the thing that would come closest to this style. What about, we alluded to the music a little bit, let's talk a little bit more, because both John Bryan's score and Amy Mann's soundtrack, you know, Paul was literally, listening to Amy Mann, he was inspired by her words for music. Again, it's almost plays like a musical at times. I mean, the characters do break out into song at one point. Does that elevate this film to some special heights for you?

I think the uniformity of Amy Mann's presence in the film is really special and gives it a kind of relatability and a dimension that it sustains throughout three hours of the movie. you know, the idea that there's this kind of shift between like that Malora Walters listening to Amy Mann when John C. Riley first comes and pounds on her door and his whole thing is you've got to turn down your music and it happens to be that music

that then threads back in the film later when they all break out into that song. I think the kind of seamlessness with which he wove in her presence to the movie is incredibly unique and really does set this piece of art apart

and then John Bryant who's yeah of course just a musical genius is enhances it all and I'm sure probably had something to do with those choices and the way that you could compose a score for this movie that that keeps

Amy Mann's presence throughout if you're reading a script like this could you imagine coming to the scene where the frogs descend from the sky Like, what would, I mean, I guess you trust in PTA? I mean, it's, again, another big swing that in the hands of many filmmakers would not work, and somehow he makes it work. He really does.

I mean, it certainly is the moment that just, like, crosses the, finally crosses this, there's this tension that builds throughout the film. And then to cross into this surrealistic kind of, you know, absurd thing, which I was talking to somebody about this the other day, and apparently that's a phenomenon that can happen. Right. I've heard that. Yeah. It's not something that entirely is like, you know, outside of the realm of possibility.

I mean, it's obviously an incredibly rare phenomenon, but I guess it's usually associated with like water spouts, sort of these weather phenomenon that can scoop, up huge amounts of water from lakes or ponds and with them all of the aquatic life that's in that water and then take them up and then just drop them on

wherever you know so it does feel like once I learned that it contextualized it a little bit more for me that in a way that made it plausible but I think thematically what it represents in this movie is

this kind of like this force that's so much bigger than all of these individual lives and all of these all this is the interconnectivity of all the characters and it's a unifying catastrophe isn't it? It's something that levels

the playing field for everybody involved and you see the way that the majority of the characters in the film are forced to deal with this unbelievable phenomenon that's happening and what it does to all of them. So I think that's really interesting. I want to mention again for

those that haven't seen it or want to see it again. I watched it on iTunes. It's available on Amazon. You know, you can see a number of different ways. And yeah, the documentary is great. I think I watched that way back when I had the DVD. And I was on Twitter saying I was watching Magnolia. And, you know, Max Mingela actually was like, watch the documentary. And I was like, okay, perfect.

So that's, yeah, that's one of the, I mean, I'm a sucker for a great, candid doc. And those things are sadly not made that much nowadays. Three Oscar nomination, supporting actor for Tom Cruise, Screenplay, Best Song for Save Me. I'm trying to think of the other actors that we should just mention quickly.

Phil Baker Hall is fantastic. William H. M.C. His quiz kid, Donnie Smith. And Robards. As you said, Robards, his final performance, he had just gone through about with cancer and sadly died the next year of cancer.

And yeah, in that doc, talks about like kind of calling upon he thought he wasn't sure he was going to make it and that's clearly all there. Yeah, you see all of that. His ability and willingness to confront his own mortality and that performance is what makes it so

rich and heartbreaking. Yeah. He does beautiful beautiful, simple, powerful work in that movie. Let's give some arbitrary awards. Who gets the best performance in this film award? Yeah. I just simply don't think you can single one person

I really just don't. I mean, it's, everybody across the board is stellar. I don't even know where I would start to say, because each of them brings such a color and a quality without which the film wouldn't succeed the way it does. So I abstain. Do you have a favorite scene? We've talked about many of them.

Is there one that just is perfection to you? I mean, then you add into it, all of the energy that he captures of the quiz show that they're filming on the soundstage with Felicity Huffman and like all of that energy and that camera work. I mean, I think technically that stuff is the, it's not the most emotional or the most necessarily impactful part of the movie, but from a technical standpoint, all of those tracking shots and those, like, long, continuous, uninterrupted, steady cam, walking through the studio and capturing the energy of the audience

and, you know, the other contestants and all of that is just so mind-boiled. When I watched again, I was like, God, man, like the gleepling and the intensity of that. But I think, you know, I think a lot of the stuff, The most emotional stuff for me is the Phil Seymour Hoffman, Robards, Tom Cruise, Sorry, Julianne Moore, like, in the pharmacy and in the lawyer's office

is great sort of deliciousness. But, yeah, I mean, I just, the reason I love it so much is for its uniformity. It's not really so easy to pick out one thing, but I feel, I feel like on a whole, it just exists in this kind of place that for me has really not been, rivals by

by any film since then. I often ask whoever I'm talking to about the movie that we're talking about a quotable line and yeah I think about Julianne Moore the final confrontation she has with her or the breakdown with her attorney and the shut the fuck up I need you to really shut the fuck up yeah completely is there

okay here's a good one. So they're remaking the film. They're obviously never going to remake the film. But what's the role you want? What's the role that you want to crack at? Probably Phil. That's what I was going to vote for. I could see you in that role.

Yeah. I think shut up. It's playtime for these guys. I think that the kind of quiet intensity and the depth of that character is compassion. The sort of bumbling humor of him I think are all qualities that I feel drawn to

and would be interested in. There's no world in which I would ever even begin to rival the integrity of Phillips Seymour Hoffman in that role. So I'd obviously never, I'd never endeavor it, even if given the opportunity. But yeah, just emotionally, I think that's really where my heart and my acting spirit would take me. And finally, I often like to program

I'm a double feature for the audience. Now, this one's 188 minutes. I don't know. Yeah, you're not, you're not watching some movies this night. But I don't know. I mean, I don't have a good vote except to say, as you saw on the doc, he screened network for his cast. So maybe there's something there. Sure, go with his, go with his recommendation.

I don't think you could go wrong with that. Trust me. But I also think, like, if you're looking in the breadth of his work, you know, it would be so interesting for me to watch Magnolia and then watch Phantom Thread. and see the evolution and the process and see the similarities and see the differences and they're you know like it's it's such a different kind of movie i'd be kind of interested to watch them in close proximity maybe maybe a double feature one night and then the next night um well as i said i this this this is one of my all-time favorites when you when i got the email that you wanted to talk about this one i looked at my my shelf and i found this the audience can't see it but my magnolia shooting script that i've had for 20 years um so it's a film what can you say it here Oh, great. Yeah. This is actually autographed by PTA when he came to Charlie Rose. You know, you know, fooling. That's amazing. So, yeah, so I got super excited. I know you always have good taste and you did not disappoint this time, Zach. I'm glad. I share my enthusiasm for this one. Yes, good call. I hope you stay safe and sane and, you know, I hope we can catch up in more normal-ish times. I don't know when that's coming, but hopefully soon.

Thank you. You too. Yeah, it's good, too. good to connect in the midst of everything and talk about things that inspire us and, you know, art is a great unifier and we're, you know, we're lucky to have these examples of work to to keep us connected and to keep us instilled with faith in what we're capable of love. And so, yeah, I appreciate the chance to chat as always and I'm sure we'll do it again soon. Definitely. Thanks, buddy. And so ends another edition of happy, sad, confused. Remember to review, rate and subscribe to this show on iTunes

or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person. I'm Daisy Ridley 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 of the Old West, wherever you're listening now. Thank you.