Episode 1401 - Todd Field

Todd Field toyed with many pursuits before he ever directed a film. First there was close-up magic. Then he went to school on a music scholarship. He also hoped to become a baseball player, working as a batboy for a minor league team. He helped invent Big League Chew. Then he became an actor and worked with Stanley Kubrick and Tom Cruise, who both offered Todd support as he made his first movie. Todd and Marc talk about the decisions that led him to each of his three films: In the Bedroom, Little Children, and Tár.

Episode 1400 - Andrea Riseborough

Andrea Riseborough can't lie. She's terrible at it. But she believes that trait helps her as an actor because there's no hiding her emotions. Marc can attest to this, having acted opposite Andrea in To Leslie, but she's been at it since she was nine years old doing David Mamet plays with other kids. Marc and Andrea talk about her background in theater, how Mike Leigh gave her a charmed entry into film, and how she's personally confronting the current challenges of film creation and distribution.

Episode 1399 - Katt Williams

Katt Williams is a one-of-a-kind comic performer, so it’s only natural he should have a one-of-a-kind backstory. Katt tells Marc about his travels as a teenager, trying to make it on his own in Florida, then in Haiti, then around the country in all 50 states as a door to door salesman. Katt recalls the days he was opening for comedians like Jeff Foxworthy and Dan Whitney, before he became Larry the Cable Guy, and he talks about some of his surprising inspirations, from Jack London to Don Knotts.

Episode 1398 - Colin Hanks

Colin Hanks knows there are public perceptions of him that are tricky to navigate. For one, the man known as America’s Dad is his actual dad. There’s also the fact that people have a hard time seeing him in roles other than The Nice Guy. And then there’s the way people still think of him as a young man even as he enters middle age with children of his own. Colin and Marc talk about the mindset he’s had to put in place to feel at ease with himself, much of which he had to absorb as he processed the loss of his mother.

Episode 1397 - Ben Foster

Ben Foster was 14 years old and when he had what he calls a breakdown. Ben had a moment while acting where he completely lost himself and he needed to get back to that place at all costs. Marc talks with Ben about how he chased that feeling from the set of a Disney Channel sitcom into dramatic work in movies like Hell or High Water and Kill Your Darlings, where his commitment to the role is never in question. They also get into his two most recent performances in The Survivor and Emancipation, where he felt a deep responsibility in depicting both the victim and perpetrator of human atrocities.

Episode 1396 - Eric McFadden

Guitarist and singer-songwriter Eric McFadden is a blast from Marc's past. They knew each other when they were teenagers growing up in Albuquerque, fostering their creative passions in art studios, record stores and guitar shops around town. After coming in brief contact with each other throughout the years, Eric and Marc finally sit down in the garage to talk about what happened when Eric left New Mexico, how he wound up working with George Clinton, Bernie Worrell, Eric Burdon from The Animals and others, as well as launching his own solo career. 

Episode 1395 - Courtney Love

Courtney Love is finishing up her first record in more than a decade while she lives in London, perhaps permanently. Courtney fled LA because, as she tells Marc, she needed to get out of the “overculture.” It’s one of many realizations Courtney came upon in recent years, after a lifetime of ups and downs, peace and chaos, fame and infamy. Courtney takes Marc along for the journey as they sip tea in a London hotel.

Episode 1394 - Scott Cooper

Writer-director Scott Cooper says the best thing to came out of his acting career was the friendship he struck up with Robert Duvall. At Robert’s suggestion, Scott started writing his own films, including one he sent to Jeff Bridges. And because Jeff Bridges agreed to make the film, Scott began his career as a director. Scott and Marc talk about that film, Crazy Heart, as well as Out of the Furnace, Black Mass, Hostiles, Antlers, and Scott’s latest mystery film about Edgar Allan Poe, The Pale Blue Eye.

Episode 1393 - Rian Johnson

Rian Johnson revived the mystery genre with his movie Knives Out and now he’s seeing what other places he can take it, both with the sequel Glass Onion and his new detective series Poker Face. But that’s the kind of filmmaker Rian is. As he tells Marc, Rian enjoys hopping genres, whether it’s a noir takeoff like Brick, a time travel riff like Looper, or the metatextual Star Wars mythology he explored in The Last Jedi. They also talk about Rian’s direction of two classic Breaking Bad episodes.

Episode 1392 - James Austin Johnson

James Austin Johnson figured out at a very young age that he could do impressions. When he got older and started doing comedy, he wanted to figure out a way to do them that didn’t feel like a Las Vegas lounge act. Now, as the preeminent Trump mimic and SNL’s resident impressionist, James tells Marc how he figured out how to hone in on the people he was imitating and how Covid isolation led to his Trump breakthrough. They also talk about James’s early years as a child actor in conservative Christian media productions.

Episode 1391 - Tommy Tiernan

Comedian Tommy Tiernan knows a fellow traveler when he sees one. Ever since he saw Marc perform, he recognized a kinship, which is something Marc notices himself when he’s in Tommy’s home country of Ireland. Tommy and Marc talk about the shared outlook of Irish and Jewish comedians, as well as why they both feel like they’re hooked on doing standup at this point in their lives, why they’re both no good at having fun, and why Bob Dylan remains such an inspiration to Tommy.

Episode 1390 - Elvis Mitchell

Elvis Mitchell waited his entire life to make the new documentary Is That Black Enough For You?!? As a film critic, professor, chronicler of the entertainment business on his show The Treatment and, most importantly, a lifelong movie fan, everything prepared Elvis to write and direct an examination of Black Cinema, particularly the revolutionary films and artists from the 1970s. Elvis takes Marc through the entire journey, with plenty of stops along the way to talk about their favorite movies and performers.

Episode 1389 - Clea DuVall

It’s the holidays, which means Clea DuVall’s movie the Happiest Season is once again part of a new tradition for people everywhere. That’s still taking time to sink in for Clea because it’s a film she wrote and directed that deals with a personal struggle she didn’t even make public until a few years ago. Clea talks with Marc about how she dealt with coming out in her personal life but staying closeted in her professional life. They also talk about her new series High School, based on the memoir of Tegan and Sara.

Episode 1388 - James Gray

Filmmaker James Gray had crisis of confidence after watching a rough cut of his first movie, Little Odessa. Now that he’s made his most personal film yet, Armageddon Time, James and Marc talk about what it took to rebuild his confidence over 25 years, survive fights with Harvey Weinstein, and brave a film shoot in the Amazon that almost killed him. They also talk about Ad Astra, The Beatles, The Stones, Jaws, Apocalypse Now, and Fred Trump.

Episode 1387 - Rob Delaney / Sam Lipsyte

Rob Delaney says the last time he was on the show, he didn’t have two coins to rub together. After that, he started a family, moved to London, created the hit show Catastrophe and saw his career take off. Then unfathomable tragedy struck with the illness and death of his youngest son. Rob talks with Marc about picking up the pieces and putting his thoughts into a new memoir, A Heart That Works. Also, Marc spends some time with his friend Sam Lipsyte to talk about Sam’s new novel, No One Left To Come Looking For You.

Episode 1386 - Live with David Baddiel

Live from The Bloomsbury Theatre in London, Marc welcomes comedian and writer David Baddiel to the stage. In light of David’s new book and accompanying documentary, Jews Don’t Count, Marc and David talk about what it’s like to make sure they’re both publicly counted as notable Jewish entertainers. They discuss the recent rise in antisemitism, the ways in which it gets overlooked in the culture and what can be done about it. Marc and David also make sure to spend some time on English breakfasts, Catholicism, and being cat guys.

Episode 1385 - Robert Siegel

Writer-director Robert Siegel wanted to explore a career in either comedy or journalism. It turns out he got to do both as Editor-in-Chief of The Onion. But while The Onion was mostly comedy tinged with tragedy, Robert tells Marc how he wanted to flip that dynamic once he started writing screenplays. They talk about how the stories he told in The Wrestler, Big Fan, The Founder, Pam and Tommy, and now Welcome to Chippendales all begin with a very specific type of great American tragic hero.

Episode 1384 - Bruce Wagner

When Marc reads the works of author and screenwriter Bruce Wagner, he starts to question reality. Bruce’s depictions of Hollywood personalities and show business darkness cut close to the bone and leave Marc trying to make sense of the life he chose. Bruce and Marc talk about where it all comes from, starting with his upbringing in the heart of Old Hollywood. Bruce also explains why being a victim of identity theft helped him write his new novel, ROAR, and why he decided to release his previous book, The Marvel Universe, into the public domain.