The Press Box - This Week in Ringer Culture (Dec. 4-8, 2017) (Ep. 394)

Episode Date: December 9, 2017

'This Week in Ringer Culture’ features ‘Larry Wilmore: Black on the Air’ with Dan Rather on a pressing question he’d ask President Trump in an interview (0:30), ‘The Bill Simmons Podcast’ with Bryan Cranston on what it was like to get famous later in life (03:30), ‘The Big Picture’ with director Sean Baker on the making of ‘The Florida Project’ (06:45), ‘The J.J. Redick Podcast’ with James Corden on his preshow routines (10:00), ‘House of Carbs’ on a crazy food-life hack (15:30), and ‘The Watch’ bonding over a Netflix original from earlier this year (19:45). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to this week in Ringer culture. I'm Liz Kelly bringing you the highlights from the Ringer podcast network. It is the happiest time of year and the Ringer is fully embracing the holiday season. On the site this week, we've got the best stuff we bought in 2017 and lists of best film, TV, and music of the year up. You can check that out and more on The Ringer.com. In this first clip, Larry spoke with former CBS evening news anchor Dan Rather at Live Talks, Los Angeles on Tuesday. Here he answers an audience question regarding Trump. Mr. Rather, if he's...

If you could ask one question of President Trump and get an honest answer for him, what would that be? Ah, the second part is tricky. If you could ask one question of President Trump and get an honest answer, the second part is tricky. What would that question be? You're Dan Ratherer. You're back at the White House asking President Trump. My guess is that you're more likely to see Fidel Castro ride through here on a giraffe than you're... There you go.

And keep you mighty passing time. No, there's no way of knowing the second part of that question. But. I'm still working on the draft. You have to give me a second. I think that the question, I have a long list of questions that I ask President Trump, but beginning with this. And whether he would answer it truthfully, answer it all or answered it truthly,

I don't know. But I would, my idea would. would be to continue to repressing if he didn't. And the question is this, Mr. President, of what are you so afraid? You are obviously terrorized. You're absolutely afraid that special counsel Mueller or somebody is going to find out something about you

that's so terrible. What is it that you're so fearful of, keeping in mind, Mr. President, if you will, whatever it is, better to get out front of it now. But I would press him And if he said, well, you know, I don't have any fears, I'd press. Because what we're seeing with this president,

they're all the marks there, that he is really a man in great fear that he's going to be found out, something's going to be found out. Tax returns, connection with the Russians, I honestly don't know what it is.

But there is something or several somethings that he's actually terrified are going to be found out about him. And any line of question, you would seek to smoke that out, to get that out of him, that would be my opening question to him. As to whether, you know,

he probably would try to duck and dodge for the first several questions. But one technique of interviewing, not necessarily aggressively so, is just keep asking the question until the interview subject, either answer the questions or make it clear he's not going to answer.

Yeah. But I think that's the key question with President Trump. What is it that he's so afraid of? Next up, we have my boss, Bill Simmons, talking to possibly the best TV dad and drug dealer Brian Cranston. Here they discuss Cranston becoming famous later on in his acting career. Like I noticed probably like late 30s, early 40s was when you really started working seriously. I'm always fascinated about this topic. I had John Hamm on a few years ago and we talked about it for a while about these people that either they moved out here or they were out here to begin with.

they get into acting, they do a whole bunch of things and there hits a point where you might get your break, you might not. And around like 35, 36, 37, you see people start to give up or stay with it. What made you stay with it? I love it. That's the thing I always tell young actors. I said, you know, I want to find out why are you doing this? Why do you want to do this? And if it's, if it's for any other reason other than you love the empowerment of acting and how it makes you feel as a person, then you shouldn't try. As a professional. Fine. Use it as an advocation. Go to the local theater at night after work and express yourself. But if you're talking about trying to do this for a living, the only way you'll sustain the hardship

of it, the toughness of it, is if you love it. It's like not giving up on a relationship. Yeah. No, you hit a rough patch in a marriage, work it out. Don't give up. Work it out. Figure things out. Did you hit, what was like your darkest moment where you're like, I love this? I know I can do this, but I can't get through here. No. Frustration is always a part of any creative endeavor. You know, a writer will sit looking at a blank page. Yeah.

Singers will go through rough times with their voice or is changing or to write music or to sculpt. You don't know how you need a muse. You need something that breaks through sometimes. With an actor, it's opportunity. You need opportunity. Every actor is willing to fight to earn a job, but you need the opportunity. You need the chance to get into the room and show people what you can do. And without that opportunity, you don't have it.

So I tell actors all the time there are really four components to becoming a success. actor, you need talent. That's first and foremost. And not in a boastful way, but you have to say, yeah, I'm talented. Secondly, you need persistence, and then you need patience. And then the fourth component is luck. Yeah. There is no, there is no career, successful career that's been created without luck.

I'm sure that you can look back and you go, well, what were the lucky breaks in my career? I think seven. Yeah, exactly. It's not even just one. It's like several. You were prepared to take advantage of the luck, of the opportunity. And that's what you have to do. So keep working for an actor.

Keep working on a monologue. Keep keeping that instrument, that muscle strong. And then when you get the break, you're ready. Moving from actors to directors, we have Sean Baker, who directed the Florida Project, which recently received several Critics Choice Award nominations, including one for Best Picture. He spoke with Sean Fennessey on The Big Picture this week about the writing process for the film.

Let's talk a little bit more about the Florida Project. Okay. This story came to you from your co-writer, Chris Burgess. Yeah. Bergh. Bergosh, excuse me, came by way of his mother. Yes. Who lives nearby the Orlando area.

Yes. So what happens after that happens? How do you guys write a story around this idea? Well, in this case, he had been sending me, he got wind of this situation. happening in Kissimmee, which is right next to Orlando. And he started sending me news articles because the news media had already picked up on this. And there were actually several articles written about it. And when I say about it, I'm talking about the juxtaposition of children living in these

budget motels outside of a place that we consider paradise for children, you know, or like the happiest place on Earth for children. So that's how I became aware of even the entire issue through this location. This is also the location that news journalists have decided to focus on as well. So that was really the impetus. And then Chris and I then we have to then find a story. We have to find a story somewhere in these worlds that we are interested in focusing on. So we brainstorm.

Okay. I guess that's the first step. Usually it's over the phone. And in this case, I think we came up with the mother-daughter thing pretty early on just based on the fact that most of the single thing. single-parent families were run by their mothers, by the mothers. Also, on top of that, there's a little bit of the Disney trope thing going on there, where it's like the damaged mother and the single child.

And I think that that's what started us down this road. We didn't jump right into a script or a scriptment because we couldn't do our research right away. We had to get a grant. We couldn't get a grant until we made Tangerine, which was the film I made before this. That opened up doors for us. That got us the grant. Then we started doing our trips there. And that's when it's really, it fleshes out way more than just that little log line.

You know, mother, daughter, in a motel. You suddenly are like fleshing out the world because Chris and I go there. We absorb as much of the environment as possible. We speak to everybody. It's a very journalistic approach. And then through this, once you get enough, once you collect enough stories and enough anecdotes and meet enough people and meet enough. enough characters and understand the politics of the world, then you finally get to a place

where you start to, you start to see like, oh, that could be a plot, that could be a plot. What are you doing, though? Are you knocking on doors at motels? Are you hanging out parking lots? Sometimes. I mean, we would never just knock coldly on a door. You usually see people. You approach them and politely tell them what you're doing.

And then that leads to somebody either being enthusiastic or not. If they're enthusiastic, then they start introducing you to other people. And it becomes a thing where you're then talking to a whole community eventually. But, you know, it takes a little while. You know, you don't always meet the enthusiastic person who wants to talk right out of the bat. In our final interview clip, we have the JJ Redick podcast. First, thank you all so much for listening to the premiere episode last week. It had an amazing opening.

Now the ringer's resident shooting guard has gone two for two on guests this week, talking with late, late show host James Corden, about his pre-show routines. I've been on your show twice. Yes. I'm like a C to D-Lister. But you've had Tom Hanks on your show. You've had a number of just huge, huge celebrities, a number of huge musical acts. Yeah.

Is it different when those type of guests are on? Of course. Because, you know, when you've got really, really big, great people on, you know, we're aware that we are a show that historically in the past hasn't always attracted those names and that we are a show that I think right now or certainly in the past a couple of years is probably punched above. our weight in terms of budget, in terms of staff size, in terms of time slots and things like that. You know, I think we've found some bits and things which have given the show a greater relevance than perhaps has been there before. But I don't have any sort of interstitions or things like that, really. Because when I was in a play on Broadway and I got into a crazy amount of superstitions where it actually started to mess me up, like I had a whole thing of like,

I had to put one sock on first and then the other sock and I had to get, there would be a band that would play before we started and I would have to, I would have to start getting dressed until the band had started. I had to be dressed by the time they finished a song. I could only step through the door with my left foot. When I got down the stairs, I had to high five all the crew and then I had to do this sort of silly dance with this girl, Jemima and these are all things that just started adding and adding and adding. And then I used to do a bit where in the show, I used to throw a peanut up in the air and catch it. And so I'd keep half a peanut in my pocket. So I'd take that half of peanut out and I'd put it on a particular shelf and it had to remain there until the next day when I'd take it off. And it's just ridiculous. I mean, it's absurd. My wife was like, who are you? And I talked actually, not in any sort of deep sense. I just happened to meet a sports psychologist actually. And I said to him, I was like, it's, it's messing me up, man. I was like, it's ruining my day to the point where I'm, I feel like I, and I don't know what it is and I've never really been like this. And he's, he said, it's just about eliminating doubt. He said, that's all it is. You're, you're doing something

at such a repetition every day where you absolutely have to perform every time you step on the stage. It really is resting on your shoulders. And all you're trying to do, all this is, is your subconscious trying to eliminate doubt from your body. With every single intuition, you're pushing doubt further to the back of your mind so that when you step on, you feel like you're 10 foot tall and that's all it is. And then he went,

but it's all rubbish and you should probably not do it, you know. So I've tried, I've purposefully tried to not have any superstitions or anything at this show. No routines, like pre-show routines. I mean, obviously you're going to put a suit on. Yeah, there's a routine in that I have my makeup done,

the monologue guys will come in, I'll get dressed, I'll meet the guests. And the only sort of superstition we've got is I'll go and say hi to the audience and then when I walk around backstage, anyone who's in the corridor behind the curtain, we have to have a high five. And that's the only thing that exists. But that just started on day one. And that just happened on the first show. There was lots of people saying, good luck. And then I was like, well, we'll carry that on,

but I'm not adding any more. Right. Because I don't have time to add 40 minutes worth of stuff to it. You know? What do you do? Listening to you talk about that, I'm reminded of my own sort of pregame rituals. Yeah. And I was actually having a discussion today with one of our assistant coaches who said, I watched you warm up the other day. You really do a lot of stuff. And then he's like, would you ever eliminate anything or would you only add? And I said the same thing you just said, I would only add. I couldn't eliminate anything.

Yeah. And so this is my 12th year. Yeah. So by my 12th year now, like there's like 42 things that I have to do before the game. And every so often, like it happened last night right as I was going out for the last night. out for the jump ball, I put a little rosen on my hands and I spit in both hands. I rub the rosen together. I go rub my feet on the sticky mat and then I go back to the rosen and put some more rosen on my hands, spit my hands one more time, go back. And as I'm doing this process, I said to myself,

this literally doesn't fucking matter. Why do you do this every time? Some of the stuff is functional. Like for you putting a suit on, you have to do that. You have to do that. Like warming my muscles up, I have to do that. Of course, but it's the tiny, it's those tiny little things. If you watch Raffa Nadeau play tennis, it's insane his now. The headband, the headband, the nose, the ear, the ear, the, he bounces the ball so many times, moves his shorts, does a thing. That's all just stuff that's just built up over time because the bigger you get and the closer you get to the thing, you start, because actually what I've realized is whoever you are, whether it's you as a professional sportsman, it's me doing this, it's, it's,

A huge singer, a big band. People ultimately in their core are racked with, why me? Why am I the person that's ended up here? Switching gears on you guys completely, Juliet Lippman and Joe House described one of the more insane food and life hacks from earlier this month. Check it out in this clip from House of Carbs. This comes to us from Food Beast,

and this is about a man who use an empty chip bag to help him play hooky from work for two years. What a story. So this guy, he was in Australia. His name is Tom. And according to the telegraph, Tom would hide his work mobile phone in an empty bag of Twisties, which is the kind of chip we don't have here,

to prevent his GPS from being tracked. Twisties chip bags contain a lining of foil that allows them to act like a makeshift Faraday cage that blocks electromagnetic signals. By placing his PDA, his mobile phone, and the empty chip bag, Tom was able to avoid work to go golfing on multiple occasions. occasions as the GPS signal was glitched up. Thus, he was basically getting paid his $11,000

Australian salary, which is about $84,000 in the U.S., not bad, to play golf. And after two years, he was eventually caught and fired by its company after an anonymous letter was filed with the business that spilled the beans on his sneaky actions. Tom appealed the firing with Australia's Fair Work Commission, but the tribunal court ruled in favor of his bosses, who presented evidence that he was at the golf club and didn't check in to required work areas on multiple occasions. This is legendary house. This is just legendary. I love Tom. I also love Australians because this is exactly, I have this elevated view of the Australian sort of free spirit ethos. I have no basis in fact for, you know, all the Australians I've known have been lovers of life.

And I just picture Tom as a real lover of life. Yes. He's like, I could go do this installation job. He was an electrician by trade, I believe. I could go do this, you know, this 60-watt heavy up at this residence, or I could go play 18 unbelievable holes with my mates and have, you know, some, some, I don't. A lot of the hungry people out there are Australian. We get tons of stuff sent to us.

I was going to try and name an Australian dish that's been sent to us, but I was, I'm positive I would botch it, so I'll leave that alone. I am interested in twisties. Do we know what twisties are? Yeah, they look like the crunchy Cheetos, like the crunchy small kind. You know what I mean? Okay. But the twisty doesn't refer to the shape.

Or does it? They kind of look twisty if you look at them. All right. I'm going to look them up. I want to get at some twisties. Yeah. They're like crunchy Cheetos. I wonder, do I have to import them?

Or is it possible to get them domestically? Yeah, you probably do. One of our Australian pals could hit us up with some twisties. Yeah, Ozies. one of our taste tests. Hit us up. It would be nice. The Aussies are awesome.

But this dude, I mean, obviously I get down with him because he plays golf. So he was using his, you know, this subterfuge for the forces of good, which is to go play golf. I just wonder, like, how was it that he was able to avoid detection for two years? I don't know. Like, I could see him getting away with that for, like, three months. But at some point, like, the electrical works got to get done. I know. Yeah, he was electrician in Perth. I don't really know. I guess. I don't know. How many times have you, like, had an issue in your home with, like, electric or something else? And, like, the process gets drawn out, like, takes longer than it's supposed to, like, a lot. Every time. Yeah. Basically every time.

So if, like, he's smart about it and only adding, like, an extra day to each job instead of, like, the same customer always getting delayed, then maybe you don't go, you don't get detected for a while. Well, you know, this is a great point. And he clearly is a smart guy because. because he was sticking his PDA in the bag of twisties. And he knew that the bag would protect, you know, his tracking. Yeah, I will say. Great job, Tom. In an ironic twist, Tom is now reportedly working as an Uber driver, which is entirely dependent on GPS system.

So that's hilarious. And lastly, we are going to end on a very happy note. Like I said, the ringer is fully feeling the holiday spirit. And this clip you're about to hear puts me in a better and more Christmassy mood than any Hallmark movie showing this month. On the watch this week, Andy Greenwald has given Chris Ryan the ultimate gift with a review of a very certain Netflix original. Check it out. It's the holiday season. I did something for you. No, I did something for us. I watched Ozark. What? You did? Yes, I did. Oh my God. I told you. How many did you watch?

Chris, I've seen four episodes of the Netflix television show Ozark. I have never been more happy to be on a podcast with you. And here's what I want to say, you. Yes. What? Yes. What did I do wrong to make you think our relationship was so broken that you couldn't pull an executive card and say that I had to watch Ozark? Hit pause, man. Everybody who's in the control room, may God and our listeners is my witness, have I ever undersold Ozark?

You said two things to me. You said two things to me. Well, you said one thing and you did another thing. One thing you said was, you probably won't like the pilot. Yes. Have we met? I just, no, you don't like pilots. And you don't, I thought you might think it was just too crazy.

This is like a pilot that went into a room with Colin Farrell, Circa True Detective Season 2. It's two seasons of a show in one episode. Can we intercut this podcast with the Rayville Coro drug montage? Because that's the pilot of Ozark. Yeah. Why would I not like that? Second, you were then you backed off.

I was a little resistant. I was like, I don't know, I'm kind of busy. You said I wouldn't like it. And then you backed off. And here's what I need. You need to push me in front of that train. Yeah. House of Cart style.

Yeah. Because here's the thing about this show. It might not be good. Oh, but it's great. It's great. It's great. Yes. It might be amazing.

Yeah. This is one of the most. I'm like, you guys don't understand. He's physically shaking right now. pressure spiked when you did this. This is a fascinating thing. It is wild to watch this show. I just spent most of Friday wondering whether or not, like, how high I could feasibly

put Ozark without having my, like, my internet access band. Right. Like, you know, in my top 10. Yeah. Where did you end up with it? Three. But it's creeping up a little bit more, right? I would say, I'll look you in the eye as one of your best friends, if not your best

friend and tell you that I enjoyed watching Ozark more than Twin Peaks. You know, I'm going to go out on a limb and say more things happen in Ozark. Yeah. We could talk about this in one of two ways. I've watched. I got to just see what happens in the first four episodes. So just you keep talking. What happens?

Literally everything happens. There's nothing left to happen. The next four episodes could, they could just be on a boat or just could be Julia Garner doing dishes. That's fine. There's more than enough. So you ended it four where Jason, Bateman explains how to money launder

while can't you hear me knocking as playing. That's the beginning of four. Yeah. That's just how it starts. I mean, there's a lot, there's a lot to say here, because we could talk about the specifics of it, and I feel like a lot of people who listen to this podcast have watched it on their own by their own free will, and we don't want to spoil it for those who haven't. Maybe those who are waiting on for me to say it,

but what I really want to say, before we go into the spoil Ozark zone, I want to do one very chaste, boring, un-Ozark thing when I talk about it, which is sometimes I say on this podcast, put on your industry hat, and it's fun to watch things to learn about how TV is made. Sure. If you ever, if you have that hat in your closet, take that hat out, do three lines of speed, don't really do drugs, and then watch the pilot. Because weirdly, the reason I didn't watch it was because the general layer of static I heard about it, without reading too much about it, because in case I did watch it, I didn't want to spoil it, was that it was basically like, it was.

it was just so derivative of breaking bad. So attempting to be like this broken man, difficult man in a difficult situation story that has become very played out on TV. What I didn't realize in watching the pilot is that it may actually be a way forward for television. I don't know if it's the right way forward. By doing these kind of Nerf football versions of prestige television shows?

No, by just literally Jackson Pollocking every fucking crazy idea all at once. Right. having six character turns in two episodes. But to be fair, that actually sells it short. Yeah. Because weirdly, in the midst of this cocaine fever dream that is the show, there is some sensible plotting.

There is some attention paid to character or family dynamics enough to care. And then there's a subplot about the FBI agent who's like Michael Shannon Light. Yeah. Just getting full head jobs and like thinking about stuff. delivering monologues with a shirt off. And Harris Eulen walking around with an oxygen day. And then Harris Eulen is in the show. Like there is definitely too much, just too much.

Yeah. But all shows have too much. That's television. Yes. I would rather have too much in this way. I would rather have this party go for a little too long than have a little too, than have too little of it. Like, so did we need the ex-lover FBI agents?

Probably not. Right. I mean, it's just an extra thing. Did we need Harris Eulen? The relationship between the FBI agent and the bait salesman quite tender, though. Yes, right, right. See, that's the thing. It always pivots.

Okay, that is the roundup for this week. Thank you guys for listening. I'll be back next week trying to spread more holiday cheer. And in the meantime, you can find full-length versions of all these podcasts and subscribe at the ringer.com slash podcasts.