January 2, 2020 • 55 mins
On this special Q&A episode of The Bechdel Cast, Jamie and Caitlin answer questions from listeners to ring in the New Year!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody. We just have a quick few announcements at
the top of the show. First of all, Happy New Year,
Happy New Year. We wanted to remind you that there's
a bunch of stuff going on in the extended Becktel
universe coming up soon, starting with our live tour that
we're going to be doing this month. If you don't
have your tickets, get your tickets. We're starting on January
(00:23):
in San Francisco as a part of s F Sketch
Fest and we are covering the Social Network Yes, and
then we were scooting on over to New York City.
We will be there for the Brooklyn Podcast Festival on January.
We will be at the Bellhouse and we are covering
Black Swan. And then finally we'll be doing a stop
in Philadelphia at our favorite Good Good Comedy Theater, doing
(00:47):
the sixth Cents on January. So all tickets are live now.
Go to becktel cast dot com and click on live
appearances click on live. Also on that page, I'm going
to be doing a separate tour of some stand up
and I'm doing Bostonmas Girl in San Francisco, Philadelphia, and
New York the same exact cities. Imagine that those tickets
will be there too, So yes, go to bucktele Cast
(01:07):
dot com and check out the see at our shows
and then Jamie, you had another thing you wanted to plug.
Have one last blagum. So if you have been following
me online for the past year or so, you will
know that I have been in mensa, Brad. I mean,
it's no screenwriting degree because it only costs seventy five dollars.
(01:28):
But I I have been doing a project where I've
been in mensa and then I accidentally got targeted by
like an old red group and it has been a
whole adventure of about eighteen months. And I just yesterday
released a four part podcast series called My Year in
Mensa that traces my wild experience but also traces the
history of my que societies, which is not so great,
(01:52):
but it's it's it was very interesting to me and
if you enjoy the Battel Cast, I think you will
enjoy it too, So check it out. It's My Year
in Mensa on all the podcasting platforms except Stitcher for
some reason. Sorry, and yeah, reay review subscribe all episodes
right now, not making it anymore, so please listen woo
and now enjoy the episode do. On the beck dodcast,
(02:15):
the questions asked if movies have women in them, are
all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands, or do they
have individualism? The patriarchy? Zef invest start changing it with
the beck Del Cast. Hello and welcome to the Bechel Casts. Caitlin,
my name is Jamie. This is our podcast about the
(02:35):
representation of women in movies. But today, Oh, first of all,
happy happy, Hopefully this isn't the worst year of our lives.
I hope in advance this is not the worst year
of your life. Today, we are deviating from the format
a little bit. We're gonna be doing a Q and
A episode. But hey, if this is your first time
(02:56):
listening and you just want to know things about us
in our show, we've been that you've never listened, we'll
tell you what the podcast is. Sure. We talk about
the representation of women in movies, and we use the
Bechdel Tests sometimes cast test Um, and that, of course,
(03:17):
is a media metric developed by cartoonist Alison Bechdel that
requires two female identifying characters who have names talk to
each other in a movie about something other than a man. Yes,
so we're starting there's don't pass it. Yes, but you
know progress that's very sl But we're not talking about
(03:40):
a movie today, we're talking about ourselves. Yeah, so we're
going to constantly be taking up passing the Bechtel tests
unless there's there's some questions about Molina. But I think
a long time ago we decided that that does pass.
The back are talking about it still passes. If you
haven't listened to just don't don't listen to this episode.
Uh so we we um. We asked our our Matreon
(04:04):
patreon AK Matreon subscribers to get us a sick lineup
of questions for this episode. By the way, around about
plug for if you can't get enough back to cast,
we do two bonus episodes a month on our patreon
a matren And if you want the privilege of being
able to submit a question for a Q and a episode,
(04:27):
just that well, this is going to be the start
of many or something. I don't know. I hope people
would want that. Um. But in any case, you're taking
from our from our loyal matrons. If you'd like to
become a matron, it's patreon dot com slash back to cast.
If you don't, well we will never know. Hey, was
it your New Year's resolution to become a matron of
our Matreon? Well it's not, so what go to the
(04:51):
website and sign up today, But it's it's it's five
bucks a month if you're interested. There's a backlog of
over fifty this episode. So anyways, that's where the questions
are coming from. Um, should we just jump into it?
I said, we do, all right, starting with the two
first names. Yeah, first names. This comes from LINEA. They asked,
(05:13):
how did you two meet? We met in Boston. We
met in Boston doing comedy, do you I remember Maybe
we've talked about this before, maybe just in the Matron
and I remember, but I think the year would have
been or maybe I had just started doing stand up twenty.
You were cool and doing it. Was at that show
(05:34):
in Jamaica, Jamaica playing Boston Comedy Chicks, and you were
doing it. I was doing it. I was still very
new to stand up. You were like established in the
Boston scene. And you literally because we were sitting at
the same table. I think there's like free pizza, and
I didn't. I just didn't talk to anybody, didn't know
how to talk to anybody. But you talked to me
and you were talking about your masters You're like, yeah,
(05:58):
I'm finishing grad school right now. I was like, wow,
and it sounds like me, but that's classically that doesn't
sound like me because I hate to bring up my
master's So you're really breaking form by really talking about
your master's degree. Where you mistaking me for someone else,
because I don't think I would ever mention my master's
degree in screen running from Boston University. That was Maybe
(06:19):
that's not the first time we met, but that's the
first time I remember us having a conversation. Yeah. Same,
And then we used to do you used to be
in a sketch group at the theater that I worked at, Yes,
at improf Boston. Yeah, we got to know each other
a little better that way. And then I moved to
l A I think a year before you did. And
then literally as soon as you moved here, I was like,
do you want to do a podcast with me? And
(06:43):
and the rest is history. Became very very close to
doing the podcast you're listening to literally right now, indeed,
here we are all right. Next question, Oh, I love
this one comes from leon favorite Alfred Molina performance. Let
me pull up as IMDb. I don't want to is anything. Sure,
I have one off the top of my head, and
(07:03):
it is his performance in the movie Chock a Lot.
I knew you were gonna he's really good in that
he's only really good and everything. He's really good and everything.
But in this movie he plays a villain. Um, he's
a great villain. He's a great hero. He can do anything.
He is doing a French accent. Just the scene where
you get Okay, so if you haven't seen it, you
(07:25):
got to see chocolat I mean, suspend your Johnny Depp Hatriod,
we get it, and you should see there's a scene
where he's so he's like very anti chocolate throughout the
whole movie, which sounds for pleasure. It's a metaphor for pleasure. Yes,
So there's a scene where he accidentally gets a little
fluck of chocolate on his lips and he licks them
(07:49):
and then he's just like goes into this like horn
when he eats the crappy patty. Sure, I have not
seen Did you see there's a SpongeBob movie coming out?
Oh yeah, I'm so excited. Okay, anyway, So, so Alfred
Molina is you know, just he's horny, he's eating all
the chocolate, and it's truly one of the best performances
(08:11):
of any actor. It's heaven time. He's so good. I
think for me, the seminal performance will always be Spiderman too,
counter Auto Octavia's, I think the best, the best villain
performance I've ever seen, Sexual Awakening and all. But he's
also I I rewatched his scene, and but I don't
rewatch Boogie Nights very often. I rewatched his scene and
(08:33):
Boogie Nights a lot like that famous Oh, it's so
he's incredible in that scene. He's so good. Um. I
also just he's been in so much usaw for Rosen too.
How was he in that? Um? His character is not
on screen for very long, and it's just his voice.
He was the only part of Vice that I liked.
(08:54):
I'll say that I like the upcoming Robot Chicken sketch
that he's in that I wrote that will maybe come
out this week. I don't know. Oh, I did like
him in Monster's University. Wait, he's in Monsters Universities. He's
one of the professors. He does a lot of like
Disney animation work. Then, because he's also in record breaks,
(09:16):
the internet. Yes, yeah, I mean, I mean he's he's
first of all, got to get those checks, and he's
he's directing his first, his first movie this year too.
He's just I mean, we love at the cast. And
also this episode is going to come out on our
one year anniversary of meeting Billa. Really ye, because I
remember his January second to nineteen. I'll never ever ever
(09:39):
forget that day. Such a fun day. And if you
live in the l A area, in February and March,
he's going to be in a one man play in
Pasadena and I have tickets to opening. And then I
think we're going to go in March when he comes.
When I come back, Um, when I come back from
New York. Among there are places that I will be
(10:01):
on the East Coast. We're touring. When i'm yes, we're touring,
so don't forget that. We come to ours dot com.
But when I'm in New York, I'm seeing a play
called Paddington Gets in a Jam. It is four ages,
three to eight. How has Alpha Billiona not been in
a Paddington movie yet? I don't know. It seems like
(10:22):
a perfect because he's from Paddington's. Yes, he's from Paddington.
He's British, he's got the right vibe. He would be
he could be a villain or hero. True, that's the
best thing about it. I know he's really good in Frida.
We can stop talking about it. He's good in everything. Yes,
he's good in literally everything. He most certainly is I
(10:44):
think no, But you know what, Leon, To answer your question,
our favorite alpha billing performance would have to be the
Aaron Brockovitch episode Yes, really, career Maker. I think do
you think he would have been in Frozen too if
he hadn't done that? Of course? Not, thank you, thank you.
The answer next question comes from Judy asks which film
(11:06):
are you most surprised actually passed the test? Which episode
do you think has the most outtakes due to tangents,
laughing fits, et cetera. Okay, so two different questions here. Tough, Well,
I mean movies. I feel like most movies i'm surprised
past the test are ones that barely pass the test, right,
So like the I feel like we should have a
(11:28):
shorthand for right now, but like the almost like the
barely pass of like hi to use your name, Hi, Judy,
look at this shoe? Awesome and then the rest is
men killing each other. So those are always like, it's frustrating.
I'm looking at our list of I always remember being
surprised that the Room test Believe it or not, getg
(11:54):
Tommy wizzose. The Room passes the test, which is pretty amazing.
Ground fairly passes. I'm just looking through our Oh, Gelie,
that's when that is shocking and inappropriate. We've passed. What
else do we have? Fair that You're just like, um,
that can't be right. Manhattan passes. Um. Yeah, there's a
(12:20):
lot of problematic movies that past effecteal test, which is
you know, we're always reminding it's a law metrics. Yeah. No,
I think The Room was a shocker. Well. And then
the second part of this question is which episode do
you think has the most outtakes due to tangents, laughing, physic,
et cetera. Um, I don't know. There was one where
there was some where we truly just like go to
(12:40):
another dimension the end of Like, I don't know what
happened to that there. Oh, I wish I remembered what
it was, because there was one that I had like
a separate editing file open four that I had just
I kept putting out takes into that I was going
to like edit into like a super cut I mean,
but I don't. I don't remember what from a recent episode,
(13:01):
the Santa Claus is one of the most wild recording
experiences I've ever. I don't think we even cut that
much from it. We didn't, which is why it was
two and a half our block. But like it was
that I think was one of my favorite episodes to
record because it was just like, where are we? What
was happening? We're like, but we didn't cut that much.
(13:22):
So that doesn't really answer the question what do I
feel like when stuff gets wild? Unless it's like wild
in a oh my god, what is this person saying
kind of way, which is very rarely happened, we just
kind of leave it in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So we
haven't done Back when we used to have more male
guests on the show, there would be more cutting sometimes
(13:44):
to make our male guest not yet hate mail um,
and which is why we have since enforced a very sparing,
every once in a while honored mail guest policy. Indeed,
but I think especially since we put the kabash on
mail guests, for the most part, um, we haven't had
(14:04):
to do that many outtakes. Yet next question comes from
Taylor asks when will you be gay? Um, I'm by
which I did a soft come out this year in
one tweet. But I also don't feel the need to
explain myself. Yeah. Um my sexuality if anyone was curious. Um,
(14:29):
my birth control is making me a sexual so that's something.
But it's coming. Yeah, but I'm going to go off
of it soon and you might be asking why can't
you just like stop taking your pill or whatever. It's
because it's an implant in my arm and I have
to get it surgically removed health care flags. Um. Yeah,
I guess the answer to your question is I don't know.
(14:55):
I guess we're both like question marks all around. Yeah,
we don't know. Um, we're somewhere on the spectrum as
everyone is. I know I've said I guess. I have
said that the show that I'm straight a number of times,
which has never been true. But who cares. I don't know.
It doesn't keep me up at night, nor should it you. Um. Yeah,
(15:18):
I think here's an answer to your question because I
feel absolutely no sexual feelings and have not for the
past several years since I've been on this birth control. Um.
I don't really know who I'm attracted to anymore. Um,
but I think when I get new health insurance and
can go to the doctor and get my thing taken out,
I would definitely consider dating women. So there's that I'm
(15:43):
currently in a relationship with a man. Boo. No, I'm kidding.
I think it's very nice. So I guess, Taylor. I
hope that answers your question. Apart our next question, it
comes from Katie. They ask movies you're most looking forward
to in I don't know. I feel like I never
know about a movie before two weeks before it comes out. Sure,
(16:05):
what are you excited for? I'm I'm excited for Mulan. Yes,
they don't that up. They funked up literally all of
them so far. The truly have so fingers crossed. Yeah,
I would be great. I'm excited for Yeah, what is
even coming out? Let me look it up. Okay, Wait,
In spite of the fact that Scarlett Johansson is canceled,
(16:26):
I am interested to see Black Widow. Um. Oh, the
New Wonder Woman comes out next year. That'll be fun.
The Harley Quinn movie, I guess kind of I'm getting
a little burned out on Margot Robbie tb h even
though she's my my favorite movie ever. Fast and Furious
nine apparently, Sure, Dr Doolittle, I'll see it. I honestly
(16:50):
we should cover the Eddie Murphy one. Um, I oh god,
the return of T. J. Miller new thing with Underwater? Underwater? Yeah?
How a jew betrayal? Oh you know it is a
movie that I genuinely think will be funny to watch
because it looks really really bad. But Harrison Ford Call
of the Wild, Oh my gosh, I'll see ironically, or
(17:10):
Doctor Doolittle and Harrison Ford Call of the Wild. So
a bunch of c g I animals the only wealthy
men in CGI animals. The only movie with a c
g I animal that you should watch is Paddington. Obviously
it looks so bad. Oh, Minions three, Yes, Scocoop, gotta
see Scoop. Yeah. I don't know if the next year
(17:33):
is going to be better, if this is going to
be a good year for movies. Honestly, I will say
twenty nineteen, I think it was a pretty solid year
for movies. A lot of movies I really really liked
came out. Um. Yeah, I guess, Oh, in the Heights
will be cool. I'm excited to see. And I think
West Side Story comes out next year too, or maybe
that's I know, the new Into the Spider Verses coming out,
(17:55):
but I think it's good now, I know we'll be
there it um but that, yeah, that doesn't come out sonic.
I mean, honestly, it's a lot of bullshit coming out
this year. Yeah. I guess there's a plenty of movies
I'll see, but there's nothing like I feel like going
into There was a bunch that I'm like, yeah, but
(18:17):
not so much so far. If if we're missing, if
you have recommendations, drop us a line, please do Yeah.
Next question comes from Allison, and they ask opinions slash
Ideas on how to effectively combat reboot culture, which tends
to perpetuate or trivialize regressive ideas regarding race, gender, sexuality,
(18:37):
et cetera. Combatting it is difficult. I mean, it's just
a very sinister cinematic track. I mean, I think that
if you if you are not about it, don't go
like that's a great way to combat it. Is not
is if you see it and you're unhappy with the
way it's rebooting it make your thoughts known because like
movie production places, for better or worse, are listening to
(19:00):
fans now more than ever. Um. Social media is a
useful tool. Literally ruined Star Wars. It's crazy, but but
like for better where people are listening. UM. And if
you're if you are unhappy with how properties being rebooted
but it's not being done or don't see the movie
you know. I mean there's a lot of recent reboots
(19:20):
that have flopped because no one wanted it. Yeah, money
speaks very loudly in all industries, this one included. And
if something doesn't do well, but that sucks because like
what you should do is put your money towards seeing
movies that you want to see. You want to see,
but it's like I don't want to tell you just
(19:43):
like don't go to this like all female reboot of
x y Z movie because what's gonna well, I don't
know what's going to happen. I think is that executives
are gonna be like, well, no one went to see this,
so that means that no one wants to see, you know,
female driven stories. And it's not that it's the we
don't want to be get like the sloppy seconds of
(20:05):
what men want and stuff like that. Yeah, and I
think that a similar thing was brought up with You're right,
where like when the Charlie's Angels reboot wasn't a smashing success,
it was like, well, this is a reflection on women,
where it's like, no, this is a reflection on reboots.
But it is true that whenever property is rebooted and
(20:28):
it's like an all female reboot or you know, not
every character is white this time, but it's if it's
still sloppily written, and I like and a lot of
times the behind the camera diversity efforts aren't done, it
comes out. I mean, yeah, it's it's tricky combating. It
is really challenging, and I think unfortunately kind of requires
(20:50):
that you do a little homework on your own of like, Okay,
I don't want to see a reboot. What do I
want to see? Who is someone who's work that I
really like, Who isn't getting the representation that they deserve,
Who isn't getting the work they deserve? And you know,
let people know like it it is. Unfortunately, it's like
your money speaks very loudly, and word of mouth online
(21:11):
speaks very loudly, so if there are people whose work
you want to see more of screaming. But yeah, I
don't know. I feel like in some ways we are
trapped in reboot culture for a while. Disney is uh
is has literally taken over the they had of box
(21:32):
office receipts. It's an actual monopoly and we live in hell.
But baby Yoda right kidding? Didn't watch it, but he's
cut are fine? Um? Yeah, I don't know. It's depressing, Allison.
I don't know. Try everyone keeps supporting artists that you like.
That are you know, trying different things? Yes? Uh, let's
(21:53):
take a quick break and then we'll come right back
to answer more questions. Let's do it, and we're back.
I hope you enjoyed that commercial break. Our next question comes,
I love this one only for the Internet, asks what
filmmakers should be legally barred from making any more movies? Okay, well,
(22:18):
let's start with softballs like Woody Allen, duh, duh. Now
let's take it out of the criminal sphere, Michael Bay
That was gonna be my next way is a very
obvious one. Um. Basically, any male director who has assaulted
or disrespected women and continue to have a flourishing career. Shouldn't.
(22:42):
Yeah they're done. Yeah, they're done. We're if we're in charge,
which we aren't, we never will be. They're done. Bye bye.
Michael Bay just made a Netflix movie and I'm like,
what was I don't know. It was just a very
I'm like, Ryan Reynolds, is that? Who was a rent?
I know? It's like, Ryan Reynolds, could you relax? You
have enough money? Were you doing? I would add? Is
it the Fairly Brothers that's made all those horribly problematic
(23:06):
comedies and like the nineties and two thousand's and then
Green Book? Yeah? I think any white director that has
written a white savior story and won an Oscar for it,
Bye bye, done, bye bye, don't need that. And and Okay,
my pie in This Guy at which people always give
me blown back for. But it's a sinister cinematic trend
(23:26):
that I fucking hate is men who directed broad, often
offensive comedies of the nineties and two thousands who are
now experiencing a second renaissance directing more serious movies where
they're mostly copying Adam McKay. Adam McKay can continue working
as far as I'm concerned everyone copying Adam McKay. Let's
(23:49):
say hangover guy, let's say bombshell guy. I'm sure they're
perfectly nice guy, although Todd Phillips does seem like a
fucking dick. But I don't know about I don't know
about ms your bombshell. But he directed all the Austin
Powers movies and now he's like, I get to make
the meat to a movie. No you don't, Bye bye,
you don't get to make that movie. Are the I mean, so,
if we're going all the way radical feminism, yeah, if
(24:12):
you directed Austin Powers, you don't get to make the
meato movie. You can make another movie that no one
gets to seem like, make awesome Powers. Fine. So I
mean it's just it's just frustrated and it's like less personal,
I guess. But the specificity of that trend is weird
to me because the Fairly Brothers also fall into that trend.
The specificity of that trend is weird, and it is
(24:35):
just like, why do these white guys who have been
bajillionaires for twenty years get this second renaissance when so
many directors of colors, so many female directors, so queer
directors are still waiting for their first opportunity at a
mainstream movie grow Up. I agree. Okay, next question, should
(24:56):
we just pick one or two of these? Oh, Lindsay, Lindsay,
I will will answer two of these, first one being
are there any previous spectael Cast episodes that you think
you got wrong and would change your ratings? Um? I
can't think of anything specifically. I stand by all of
my comments in the Matrix episode. Uh, but I think
(25:17):
just in general, Caitlin, I'm curious to your thoughts too.
But I mean, we started this podcast right after the election,
which wasn't planned but depressingly well timed, which was over
three years ago and before. I don't know, Like, I
think that the discourse has kind of grown with our
show and we have listened a lot, and so I
think especially in the first year of the podcast, especially
(25:41):
maybe the first six months, and a lot of like,
I don't know, I mean, I just know that discourse wise,
I I've grown a lot in the past three years.
I've learned a lot, and especially from just like talking
to our guests and just seeking out the information more so,
there's I'm sure and I don't go back and listen
to them. I'm sure that, like, especially in the first
six months the show, there were some things that either
(26:02):
we missed entirely that will be very obvious to us
now or we're just like, is that your take, Jamie?
Is it? So? Yeah, we've We've we've been growing up definitely. Um,
there's a few tropes too that I've learned about or
noticed more since we started. Like even for when we
did the Force Awakens episode, that was after we had
(26:25):
already been doing the podcast for over a year, But
I wasn't that tuned into like the Merry Sue trope
at that point, and I think we didn't really discuss
that on that episode, about how while it is nice
for a Star Wars movie to have a female protagonist,
I didn't really acknowledge that she falls into like that
(26:46):
Mary trope thing. So yeah, I think, yeah, it is
mostly our earlier episodes. We've been learning along with everyone else,
and a lot of times just like it's been a
slow process of just like making sure that we are
fine the right perspectives for the right episodes. And yeah,
like they think that there were early episodes where like
if there was a queer storyline, we wouldn't always seek
(27:09):
out the queer perspective on it, and it's kind of
freeball it and we know better. No, I don't know,
we've definitely yeah, I mean we always acknowledge when we
have blind spots, and I think our blind spots were
I think we've narrowed them down a bit in the
years of doing the podcast, but I think they were
quite at first. So yeah, it hasn't been has been
(27:32):
an educational experience for us, UM, and we are always learning.
We're never the final word and anything. So another question,
are there any movies that get requested all the time
that you simply refused to do? Caitlyen you said he
had an answer for this, Yes you do. UM. I
never ever, ever, ever want to do a movie directed
by Ari Astor. I know you say. I feel like
(27:55):
we're going to end up having to do it, though
I'm sure we will, but after seeing well that that's
been another question that it's not even that I hate
him as a filmmaker, it's just that his movies punish
his audience, and I hate movies that I feel punished
by for just watching them. I don't mind movies that
are punishing you on purpose. Sometimes I don't like his
(28:17):
movies m which is a question that we got. We
got wide in either of you like Midsummer. I couldn't
something about it for weeks. Well, I didn't like Midsummer,
but I did see it three times? So what did
I say about me? But it means I really thought
about do I like Midsummer? I really thought about it.
I was also under the influence of Well told her
who I had a real moment for him over the summer,
(28:40):
Ari asked her, is doing the twenty nineteen thing that
I don't like where he is? Like, women are front
and center in my movies, but I never have a
female co writer, and all my female characters are written weird,
Like great, why didn't you like Midsummer? Horror movies just
aren't really my genre, and his are so unsettling that
I just you're awful after I've seen them. And I
(29:02):
don't like movies that make me feel awful. I like romps.
I like movies that make me feel good, So I
like horror movies and I like feeling awful. So that's
not quite but I I didn't like Well, yeah, I
think that that movie more than any other I saw
this year. Hit that trope on the head of like
touting this female protagonist, but so many tropes are present,
(29:24):
whereas she is strictly defined by her trauma. There's just
it's just a lot of tropes that I feel like
didn't really that everyone got to pass on because they're like,
it's a breakup movie, and I'm like, but but but
but but I just yeah, I didn't. I don't know.
I I love how his movies look. They look good,
and he gets really good performances. I think he also
(29:47):
tends to demonize mental illness quite definitely demonize his mental illness.
Hereditary is where that is, and the horror genre has
done well in some instances, but in others have really
sold people with mental illnesses, just completely sold them out. Yeah.
So I I just think that he has a lot
(30:07):
of blind spots that he has maybe not been forthcoming with.
And it's just like it's okay to have blind spots,
but you know, it's a process and seek out. It
is frustrating to me that he has not had any
female co writers but only writes movies with female protagonists.
Like that is a glaring blind spot and I think
it comes up in both of his movies very clearly,
(30:29):
and it sucks because I think he's a good director
and I would encourage him to maybe get over himself
a little bit. Also, if you've listen to an interview
with him, oh boy, the eyes are you're like, is
this a freshman film seminar? Shut up? Um. So that's
two answers in one. Yeah. Great. Next question comes from
(30:51):
Amber asks can there be more people of color guests? Answer? Yes,
we should do that. Yes, more. We're always making an
effort to make the show as inclusive is humanly possible.
But obviously yeah, they're They're like, we always always room
there and there will be. And if there's a specific
(31:12):
person comedian, writer of color who you would love to
see their perspective on the show, let us know and
also tweet at them in case they don't know we exist.
And I think that we're a fake podcast. Sometimes will happen.
But yeah, point taken. There's always more work and more
perspectives and we'll keep on getting them. Yes, indeed, thank
you for the question. Next one, Henry asks, if you
(31:35):
could redo any of the movies you've already done, which
would you do except Titanic? In doubt? Mean, Um, I
would read. I mean, I think it's really just like
some of our first episode. I would redo. I think
we should redo Kill Bill, possibly with Zack Sherwin. Again.
Interesting because I just know, first of all, we didn't
even give ratings for that episode. Apparently we didn't have
(31:57):
the Nipple scale yet. And I just room giving that
movie so much credit that I would no longer give
it now. Um, with the perspective of time, I think
that I would redo Kill Bill. I would redo Mad
Max Fury Road because that has become truly one of
my favorite movies of all time. And I watched this
really good video essay series about it that brings up
a lot of points that I don't think we discussed.
(32:19):
And yeah, it was another early episode. In the early episode. Yeah,
I would probably redo that one too and give it
more credit, even though I still don't enjoy the genre. Yeah,
that was the steam Steam I mean, and I still
don't like steep aesthetics, but I would give I would
give the characters more credit this time. I actually might
have us redo that one for a Matreon episode for
my birthday month this year. Yeah that's fun. Yeah, Yeah,
(32:42):
I don't know. I mean, for the most part, it's
I mean, you can definitely track our growth throughout the episodes,
but I wouldn't redo the matrix. But that's for sure.
Oh well, because I've seen that movie. We'll see what
happens when my birthday month comes around. Don't don't. That's
my I veto. I'm not going to do it, all right,
(33:04):
I'm gonna do one by myself. Then, No, you can't
tell one by yourself. That's cheating. Oh my god, Okay,
we can do we can do. Okay, here's compromise. I'll
do a sequel. No, those are so bad, I won't
want to at all. Okay, okay, wait, next question. Our
next questions come from Douglas. The first question is are
(33:26):
there any all female reboots? You actually want to say? Um,
I don't know that. It would have to be really
really good. I mean, I I always air on the
side of just let there be new stories in general,
but new stories about women and people of color and
queer people. At the work of updating a story that
(33:50):
it very least has internalized misogyny to not have internalized misogyny,
I feel like we've seen it a lot of times.
It is rarely worked in a really really really affect
to way. For me at least, I would much prefer
to see new stories right, And we might have touched
on this even earlier in this episode already. But for me,
the all female reboot, it's like the industries they have
(34:13):
this notion that, oh, no one's gonna want to see
a movie with a female protagonist unless it's already were
tried and true recognizable property, which is not true. I
don't know why they think that, And and there's so many,
like proven box office things that are like, yeah, that's
(34:35):
not true, but just there's not enough female executives. I'll
answer this question by saying that because this franchise is
very problematic, but also like near and dear to me,
I would like to see a female reboot of Indiana
Jones and I went to play Indiana Jones Done. I'd
see it, thank you. I don't. I can't think of
(34:55):
a property off the top of my head that I
would want to see an all female reboot. There's like
some extended universes I would like to see female stories
inside of maybe, but not beat for beat. Yeah, just
give me news stories. Give writers and directors a chance. Yes.
Another question from Douglas quote. Also, as movies hopefully become
more inclusive, should we assume that any conversation about a
(35:18):
trans man passes the test? That a passing conversation could
be between any combination of female, transmail and non binary
characters unquote. Interesting, very interesting question. I would imagine that
the test should be on the gender you identify as.
I also think that there is space in the test
(35:40):
to be inclusive. I've seen versions of the Battel tests
that it's like not just female identifying characters, it's also
like it's open to like fems and like non binary characters,
which I am totally four. Um. So if it's like
two non binary people talking about another non binary person,
I would say that passes the Becktel test. I'm really
(36:01):
interested to hear Alison Bechtel's thoughts on that too, just
because she's still a working writer, still like an activist.
I mean, I would imagine that she would have the
test be as inclusive as humanly possible. Yeah, I mean,
we don't make the rules in terms of the time,
We just choose the way we interpreted. And unfortunately, because
there's not a lot of transport representation on screen, this
(36:23):
is not really a question we've ever come up against
in the movies that we've covered. Yeah, no, but I
agree with you. I mean the test should and I
think was designed to be as inclusive as possible, and
it will, and it wasn't even designed for to actually
be applied. The way that we're applying it is comic.
It's from a comic and to watch out for collection
(36:44):
and um, the context of like the scene that it
appears in is to lesbian characters talking about this test
and they're saying, oh, I pay attention to see if
women talk to each other in a movie, because if
they're if they're talking to each other but not about men,
then I can sort of ship them together and pretend
that they are queer women because there's especially at the
(37:07):
time that this was written and then also still today,
there there was so little queer representation. Yeah, I think
that that for now is kind of like a person
to person, how do you interpret the test? For our purposes,
we want to make it as inclusive as possible and
as you interpret it, I guess my my thing is
just like, as long as you're comfortable with the way
(37:29):
that the test is treating gender in regards to you
and your identity. You know, we're not going to tell
you you're wrong. So yeah, the test is open interpretation.
I think supposed to be inclusive as possible. Indeed, thank
you Douglas, Yes, thank you. Grace asks is Robert Evans
ever going to be a guest? Yes, at some point.
(37:50):
The thing is Probert doesn't live here anymore, so it's hard.
We don't get to see him very often. But when
the stars align, you know he's going to be. We've
had email chains about it and it's like, are we
going to ask him to talk about what he wants
to talk about, which is guns or so. If you
don't know who Robert Evans is, he's the host of
(38:10):
Behind the Bastards and a part of the iHeart Radio
family of podcasts, A dear friend. If you haven't listened
to a show, it's wonderful. Also worse here ever with
Cody Johnson and Katie Still. Yeah, I mean, we love Robert.
We want to have him in the show. I was
pushing for him to do the Handam Montana movie, right,
which I still if you want that episode tweeted Robert,
(38:32):
remind him and then the next time we're in the
same city will make it happen, but we're we haven't
been avoiding it right to happy. He just doesn't live
in l A anymore. He just doesn't and good and
honestly smart. Grace also asked one of the most popular
episodes slash order our favorite episodes popular episodes, I don't
really know, just a little peak behind the curtain. We
really don't know much about our numbers, which we don't
(38:56):
for a very long time. The Twilight episode was our
most popular. I feel like Twilight and Spider Man two
were up there with the most popular episodes for some time.
I have to imagine that that has changed. I would
imagine the Aaron Brockovitch is probably up there at this point. Um.
My best guess is the more popular the movie, the
(39:16):
more popular the episode, because we've done movies that are
a little more you know, off the beaten path, and
those numbers were far lower. Believe it or not. Um,
but yeah, like I remember, for the longest time, it
was Twilight, Twilight a long time. I mean, honestly, I
kind of still hope it's storylight. But yeah, I would
(39:36):
be curious to know, you know, beats us beats us
to answer your question favorite episodes love actually is still
going to be an all time favorite for me. I
think one of my favorite a recent favorite would be
the Santa Claus because like conversations that I really I
really loved our Lion King episode with Now that was great.
That was a really good cover. I love the also
(39:57):
Black Panther episode witho A Class. I always am going
to love the snow White episode with Jack. That was
when we were singing so much um. That was really fun.
One of the funniest ones that we've done recently I
think was good Will Hunting with Ya. That was so funny.
(40:19):
One of my favorite live episodes we've done it was
Waiting Exhale with Aaron Haynes Whack. That was so much fun.
Lazy episodes favorite and I think I hate about you
the best are always going to be. I just yeah,
we have great guests and we always have fun. I
don't know, bringing on with Maggie is really fun. I
(40:40):
just I love everyone. I love all of our guests. Yeah,
I couldn't pick an all time favorite, but those are
the ones that jump to mind of like, yeah, same, yeah,
let's take another quick break. But I guess what gang
We've got more questions when We're back all right. Next
(41:03):
question comes from Stacy. This one is rather long. It says,
how do you feel the evolution of feminism, specifically second
and third wave affected the portrayal of women in movies
over the years, both positively and negatively through both the
advancement of women and inevitable backlash. For example, there does
not seem to be a linear improvement in the portrayal
(41:24):
of women or minorities in film, and often seem to
be steps taken backwards. How much of that is a
type of protest by those in power trying to stop
any change in the status quo or recapture the good
old days. This is an excellent, complicated question. Yes, so
I do agree that the portrayal of women in movies
(41:47):
has progressed as time goes on, especially through various waves
of feminism that have taken place. And I also agree
that the majority of this progress has applied to the
way that white women are, white hetero women are portrayed,
that as we've discussed on the show many times, that
(42:07):
they tend to be the first stop of who is
afforded progress, and that women of color and queer women
and trans women and just just everyone else kind of
gets left behind and the progress is much slower. And again,
like that is it's very frustrating because you know, Hollywood
is this huge bureaucracy, still majority patriarchy, still majority white.
(42:33):
So you have to scream at the top of your lungs,
you have to vote with your money, you have to
like all this frustrating stuff just to get the bare
minimum accomplished. Um. And I think it's interestingly we've kind
of covered a bunch of movies that I think would
fall into second wave feminism recently, where it was like
white women should be allowed to work in an office.
That was part of what was accomplished First Wives Club,
(42:58):
And as the show has continued, we've tried to contextualize
these a little better. Instead of I think maybe three
years ago, we would have been like, oh, this is
so this movie from nine seventy is horrible to women, right,
and we've had criticism for that and like fairly taken.
We we've been trying to contextualize. Okay, it doesn't read
(43:20):
as narrative, right, but oftentimes those movies do the smallest
bit of progress that allow more progress to take place later.
Obviously we would prefer radical change but there are I
think we have covered movies that represent incremental change that
doesn't read well today but does represent progress for that
(43:42):
time of yes, yes, I agree. Yeah. And as far
as like kind of the backlash that more progressive movies
have been exposed to, I'm thinking, like all the backlash
that the all female reboot of Ghostbusters got, every in
cell boy on the internet was like, this is ruining
(44:03):
my childhood. It's very revealing. Ye Like, if there are
executives out there, studios and networks who are listening to
these shitty, regressive people and their bad opinions and they're like, well,
you know, the in cells didn't like this movie, so
(44:24):
we better not make any more of movies like it.
Then I mean, I hope that doesn't happen, but I
think it's very frustrating who executives choose to take seriously
and they don't. It's weird because I feel like now
with social media, in some ways, we have more of
(44:45):
a voice than ever in having a say, But then
so do shitty guys, right, like little baby boys have
more of a voice than ever. And you can see
that reddit for some cinema trends and it's so it's
you know, as with all things Internet, it is a
blessing and a curse. Yeah, it's about context. I think
(45:07):
of how a movie reads now, and there's always I mean,
anytime there's any sort of progress made or social change
and cultural evolution, there's definitely going to be backlash, and
we you just have to power through it. You just
have to keep fighting the good fight and not succumb
to the regressive tendencies in the status quo because they
(45:30):
are harmful and I wanted to. I guess this is
a good opportunity to shout out. Are older listeners of
the show too, It's like I always especially like I mean,
our main chance to interact is online, but also at
live shows of it is nice to see listeners who
maybe we're growing up during the second or we were
growing up during third wave feminism of like girl power, um,
(45:52):
but to see women who grew up during various waves
of feminism just sharing their experience and talking about how, like, okay,
I was a part of the second wave. Like I've
had conversations with listeners who were like, I was a
part of the second wave feminist movement. But now I
see that you know, if you get stuck in a
certain movement, then you're just denying yourself progress, and that's
(46:15):
how we get turfs um, which is just like yeah,
so yeah, we want to thank our older listeners who
are keeping their minds open and we promised to do
the same. Yes, thanks Stacy. Let's close up with a cup,
Let's close out with a couple of fun ones. Yeah. Yeah,
Unfortunately we won't have time to get to every question.
We've had to skip some. We read them all, We
(46:37):
read them all and appreciate there's only so much time.
I wanted to take this quick question from Jack. Would
you ever consider writing a Becktel cast book? Yes, someone
should contact us. But here's the t Jack no Ends asked.
Here's a question from Michelle. When will you release an
(46:58):
episode about Santa University when someone asks me to make it? Oh? Right,
because you have to. We have to have to exist first,
let's be produced, and then we will do the episode.
A few people asked, yes, A few people have asked,
who's our dream guest? Even if it's not realistic, or
maybe it is, who knows? We got Alfred, We got Alfred.
(47:20):
We can do anything. Who want to have Alison Bechtel?
Of course, Yes, Alison Bechtel would be a dream guest. Absolutely.
People always ask us also if we if she knows
about the show. Um, we don't know, she should I
hope by now, I would think by now she does. UM.
(47:40):
So if anyone has any contexts out there and wants
to hook it up to have her come on, we'd
love to have her. Um. They're also Liz Wallace, who
is the other half of the Bechtel Wallace Testament. Great. Um.
I would love Rashida Jones. I would love to have
of I would love to have Gloria Calderon Kellett. I'm
(48:04):
not sure if she is one of the only female
Latin X showrunners working today. She's very online, she's very
cool and we follow each other on Twitter and I'm
always afraid to teeter her. She's really cool and she
she's the showrunner for one Day at a time on Netflix. Um,
and so I'd love to have her on for me.
(48:24):
Another one would be Laverne Cox I think would be Yeah.
I would love to have Jessica Williams. Yes. I would
love to have Jenny Nicholson. She's a YouTuber that who
I admire. Also Cat Black as one of my favorite YouTubers.
Who else, I mean just everyone, Weatherspoon, Meryl Streep, Meryl Streep,
(48:47):
Nicole Brown. If that Nicole Brown would be an amazing guest.
She's so funny, She's so funny, and she seems cool.
I'm just picking people that I want to hang out with. Um. Yeah,
I don't know. There's so there's so many people tweet
at them and say, hey, have you heard of this?
You should be on it, especially if you know that
they live in our area. We have a whole thing
where we have to convince people we exist a lot
(49:09):
um and so if you can be assist. Oh, anyone
who was in a Christmas Prince Wow, I was not
expecting you to say that, but I agree welcome them,
especially the two different actors who play her dad, Rudy.
It's Bernie Sanders can come on the podcast. Okay, let's
(49:34):
do two more. This one's from Sarah. I'd love to
know if you get any weird or funny reactions from
people about the show. You can't be a male comment.
You can't not not Actually we have I take that back.
We have a lot of wonderful male identifying listeners who
have open hearts and minds, we're not talking about them,
we're talking about the other ones. Uh. We've as I
(49:56):
think early on, it's kind of tapered off. I think
we've kind of found our audience and people who it's
it's pretty clear what the show is about. And if
you hate us and what we're talking about and are listening,
why are you torturing yourself? Like, no need to do that,
but we we used to get some male comments like
(50:21):
one star objectifies men. Oh boy, So that is a
nice reminder to go on whatever podcast platform you use. Yes,
give us nice things, same say nice things. Give us
high ratings. Caitlin doesn't read our iTunes reviews, but I
(50:41):
do because I didn't hate myself. I don't know, but
it's reading our one star ratings can be fun, but
please don't write one. Here's our most recent No, no, no,
it's a nice one. It's five stars. The subject line
is p erasure from home alone. I guess so. I
don't remember saying that, but someone said I literally spit
(51:04):
out my coffee and someone said p erasure during the episode.
I guess that. Yes. Um, well, a fun fact about me.
I forget everything I say immediately after I say it. Um,
a reaction that I still get quite a bit from people.
And this This is sometimes people who know about the show,
(51:24):
but people will be talking about a movie and they
only want to know if it passed the Bechtel test
or not, and I'm like, my god. We spend two
minutes maybe of every episode discussing the Bechtel test, and
then the rest of it is everything else there is
to talk about, but people still only seem to be
concerned about whether or not the movie passes at the
Bechtel test, and I'm like, I barely care anymore. I truly.
(51:47):
We don't. Sometimes forget to do it. I often forget
to pay attention because it's just I think, with like
the three years that we've been doing the show, three
plus years, we've had so many more interest conversations and
there's so many more important things to talk about. It's
a jumping off point. We've been saying it from the beginning,
but we meet it now more than ever. It is funny, yeah,
like when you especially because it makes me so uncomfortable
(52:10):
to like, I don't know, like when you meet someone
and they're like, what do you do? And then they're like,
but what's it about? I'm like, I don't want to
do this, please just let me sit here. Um. But
like when you we're like, oh, it's about the vital test,
and then someone's like and then they're like, so you
just figure out it passes. I'm like, I'm not going
to have sex with you, please please stop. Um. Yeah,
(52:33):
I don't know, but male comments and then people being
like should it take two hours to figure that? I
think we're stupid? I don't know. Um, people are wild.
Everyone listening right now is great. It's great unless you're
not unless you're in the middle of reading a one
star all right, Well, uh one last question, very important,
(52:58):
very strong answer comes from Chris. Can we start a
team moist scabs for all these centrists out there? No? No,
we can't know so centrism. Who are you? Joe Biden?
I don't like centrism. But know what I'm saying is
that what if the scab thing is a spectrum and
(53:22):
we're being too binary about it? No? Okay, well, Jamie
says no, I say yes to say no by scats.
It's team dry scabs, is the answer. If you like
moist scabs, you're Joe Biden. Sorry. Centrism I gotta go.
(53:42):
I think I'm leading. So I've always been team wet Scabs.
Yes you have, but maybe because no, because I'm very
cool and smart. I like this team moist Gabs. This
is the This is one of those things where you
create something and then it becomes out of your control
and it's very uncomfortable. I think that's what I'm experience.
(54:05):
I understand. Um, I am very hesitant about moist Scabs.
I'll try to keep an open mind, but I don't
like thinking about it. Dry Scabs. Sound of shuffling cards
all the way. Um, alright, folks, alright, we actually we
have to go because we have to go back to
recording Matreon episodes. UM. So we hope you enjoyed this
(54:26):
Q and A episode. Thank you for listening. Happy twenty twenty.
We will be back on your main feed next week
with a normal episode with a guest in a movie
and all that chit you know and love from us.
UM In the meantime, Yeah, I give us one of
those five star reviews and join our matrio and join
the matri Matreon dot com slash beactel cast. Fun fact,
(54:50):
we're about to what It's January, so we're doing um,
what are we janet Flix, Jewary, Janetflix, Jewelry, janet Flix,
the janet Flix months. We should have waited till November
and done Netflix November. We couldn't wait. We couldn't wait,
simply couldn't. So this month on the Matreon, in addition
to all of our fifty episodes we've already published, we're
(55:12):
doing someone Great on Netflix, and then we're about to
do the Kissing Booth on Netflix. So if that's appealing
to you, hedn't ever check it out. You can check
us out on all the social media places at bechtel Cast.
You can shop some t shirts if you want, at
t public dot com slash be bechtel Cast. We have
upcoming live shows in San Francisco, in Philadelphia, in New York.
(55:36):
Go to bechtel cast dot com shows. Yeah, we'll be
back next week. Thank you so much
Hello everybody. We just have a quick few announcements at
the top of the show. First of all, Happy New Year,
Happy New Year. We wanted to remind you that there's
a bunch of stuff going on in the extended Becktel
universe coming up soon, starting with our live tour that
we're going to be doing this month. If you don't
have your tickets, get your tickets. We're starting on January
(00:23):
in San Francisco as a part of s F Sketch
Fest and we are covering the Social Network Yes, and
then we were scooting on over to New York City.
We will be there for the Brooklyn Podcast Festival on January.
We will be at the Bellhouse and we are covering
Black Swan. And then finally we'll be doing a stop
in Philadelphia at our favorite Good Good Comedy Theater, doing
(00:47):
the sixth Cents on January. So all tickets are live now.
Go to becktel cast dot com and click on live
appearances click on live. Also on that page, I'm going
to be doing a separate tour of some stand up
and I'm doing Bostonmas Girl in San Francisco, Philadelphia, and
New York the same exact cities. Imagine that those tickets
will be there too, So yes, go to bucktele Cast
(01:07):
dot com and check out the see at our shows
and then Jamie, you had another thing you wanted to plug.
Have one last blagum. So if you have been following
me online for the past year or so, you will
know that I have been in mensa, Brad. I mean,
it's no screenwriting degree because it only costs seventy five dollars.
(01:28):
But I I have been doing a project where I've
been in mensa and then I accidentally got targeted by
like an old red group and it has been a
whole adventure of about eighteen months. And I just yesterday
released a four part podcast series called My Year in
Mensa that traces my wild experience but also traces the
history of my que societies, which is not so great,
(01:52):
but it's it's it was very interesting to me and
if you enjoy the Battel Cast, I think you will
enjoy it too, So check it out. It's My Year
in Mensa on all the podcasting platforms except Stitcher for
some reason. Sorry, and yeah, reay review subscribe all episodes
right now, not making it anymore, so please listen woo
and now enjoy the episode do. On the beck dodcast,
(02:15):
the questions asked if movies have women in them, are
all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands, or do they
have individualism? The patriarchy? Zef invest start changing it with
the beck Del Cast. Hello and welcome to the Bechel Casts. Caitlin,
my name is Jamie. This is our podcast about the
(02:35):
representation of women in movies. But today, Oh, first of all,
happy happy, Hopefully this isn't the worst year of our lives.
I hope in advance this is not the worst year
of your life. Today, we are deviating from the format
a little bit. We're gonna be doing a Q and
A episode. But hey, if this is your first time
(02:56):
listening and you just want to know things about us
in our show, we've been that you've never listened, we'll
tell you what the podcast is. Sure. We talk about
the representation of women in movies, and we use the
Bechdel Tests sometimes cast test Um, and that, of course,
(03:17):
is a media metric developed by cartoonist Alison Bechdel that
requires two female identifying characters who have names talk to
each other in a movie about something other than a man. Yes,
so we're starting there's don't pass it. Yes, but you
know progress that's very sl But we're not talking about
(03:40):
a movie today, we're talking about ourselves. Yeah, so we're
going to constantly be taking up passing the Bechtel tests
unless there's there's some questions about Molina. But I think
a long time ago we decided that that does pass.
The back are talking about it still passes. If you
haven't listened to just don't don't listen to this episode.
Uh so we we um. We asked our our Matreon
(04:04):
patreon AK Matreon subscribers to get us a sick lineup
of questions for this episode. By the way, around about
plug for if you can't get enough back to cast,
we do two bonus episodes a month on our patreon
a matren And if you want the privilege of being
able to submit a question for a Q and a episode,
(04:27):
just that well, this is going to be the start
of many or something. I don't know. I hope people
would want that. Um. But in any case, you're taking
from our from our loyal matrons. If you'd like to
become a matron, it's patreon dot com slash back to cast.
If you don't, well we will never know. Hey, was
it your New Year's resolution to become a matron of
our Matreon? Well it's not, so what go to the
(04:51):
website and sign up today, But it's it's it's five
bucks a month if you're interested. There's a backlog of
over fifty this episode. So anyways, that's where the questions
are coming from. Um, should we just jump into it?
I said, we do, all right, starting with the two
first names. Yeah, first names. This comes from LINEA. They asked,
(05:13):
how did you two meet? We met in Boston. We
met in Boston doing comedy, do you I remember Maybe
we've talked about this before, maybe just in the Matron
and I remember, but I think the year would have
been or maybe I had just started doing stand up twenty.
You were cool and doing it. Was at that show
(05:34):
in Jamaica, Jamaica playing Boston Comedy Chicks, and you were
doing it. I was doing it. I was still very
new to stand up. You were like established in the
Boston scene. And you literally because we were sitting at
the same table. I think there's like free pizza, and
I didn't. I just didn't talk to anybody, didn't know
how to talk to anybody. But you talked to me
and you were talking about your masters You're like, yeah,
(05:58):
I'm finishing grad school right now. I was like, wow,
and it sounds like me, but that's classically that doesn't
sound like me because I hate to bring up my
master's So you're really breaking form by really talking about
your master's degree. Where you mistaking me for someone else,
because I don't think I would ever mention my master's
degree in screen running from Boston University. That was Maybe
(06:19):
that's not the first time we met, but that's the
first time I remember us having a conversation. Yeah. Same,
And then we used to do you used to be
in a sketch group at the theater that I worked at, Yes,
at improf Boston. Yeah, we got to know each other
a little better that way. And then I moved to
l A I think a year before you did. And
then literally as soon as you moved here, I was like,
do you want to do a podcast with me? And
(06:43):
and the rest is history. Became very very close to
doing the podcast you're listening to literally right now, indeed,
here we are all right. Next question, Oh, I love
this one comes from leon favorite Alfred Molina performance. Let
me pull up as IMDb. I don't want to is anything. Sure,
I have one off the top of my head, and
(07:03):
it is his performance in the movie Chock a Lot.
I knew you were gonna he's really good in that
he's only really good and everything. He's really good and everything.
But in this movie he plays a villain. Um, he's
a great villain. He's a great hero. He can do anything.
He is doing a French accent. Just the scene where
you get Okay, so if you haven't seen it, you
(07:25):
got to see chocolat I mean, suspend your Johnny Depp Hatriod,
we get it, and you should see there's a scene
where he's so he's like very anti chocolate throughout the
whole movie, which sounds for pleasure. It's a metaphor for pleasure. Yes,
So there's a scene where he accidentally gets a little
fluck of chocolate on his lips and he licks them
(07:49):
and then he's just like goes into this like horn
when he eats the crappy patty. Sure, I have not
seen Did you see there's a SpongeBob movie coming out?
Oh yeah, I'm so excited. Okay, anyway, So, so Alfred
Molina is you know, just he's horny, he's eating all
the chocolate, and it's truly one of the best performances
(08:11):
of any actor. It's heaven time. He's so good. I
think for me, the seminal performance will always be Spiderman too,
counter Auto Octavia's, I think the best, the best villain
performance I've ever seen, Sexual Awakening and all. But he's
also I I rewatched his scene, and but I don't
rewatch Boogie Nights very often. I rewatched his scene and
(08:33):
Boogie Nights a lot like that famous Oh, it's so
he's incredible in that scene. He's so good. Um. I
also just he's been in so much usaw for Rosen too.
How was he in that? Um? His character is not
on screen for very long, and it's just his voice.
He was the only part of Vice that I liked.
(08:54):
I'll say that I like the upcoming Robot Chicken sketch
that he's in that I wrote that will maybe come
out this week. I don't know. Oh, I did like
him in Monster's University. Wait, he's in Monsters Universities. He's
one of the professors. He does a lot of like
Disney animation work. Then, because he's also in record breaks,
(09:16):
the internet. Yes, yeah, I mean, I mean he's he's
first of all, got to get those checks, and he's
he's directing his first, his first movie this year too.
He's just I mean, we love at the cast. And
also this episode is going to come out on our
one year anniversary of meeting Billa. Really ye, because I
remember his January second to nineteen. I'll never ever ever
(09:39):
forget that day. Such a fun day. And if you
live in the l A area, in February and March,
he's going to be in a one man play in
Pasadena and I have tickets to opening. And then I
think we're going to go in March when he comes.
When I come back, Um, when I come back from
New York. Among there are places that I will be
(10:01):
on the East Coast. We're touring. When i'm yes, we're touring,
so don't forget that. We come to ours dot com.
But when I'm in New York, I'm seeing a play
called Paddington Gets in a Jam. It is four ages,
three to eight. How has Alpha Billiona not been in
a Paddington movie yet? I don't know. It seems like
(10:22):
a perfect because he's from Paddington's. Yes, he's from Paddington.
He's British, he's got the right vibe. He would be
he could be a villain or hero. True, that's the
best thing about it. I know he's really good in Frida.
We can stop talking about it. He's good in everything. Yes,
he's good in literally everything. He most certainly is I
(10:44):
think no, But you know what, Leon, To answer your question,
our favorite alpha billing performance would have to be the
Aaron Brockovitch episode Yes, really, career Maker. I think do
you think he would have been in Frozen too if
he hadn't done that? Of course? Not, thank you, thank you.
The answer next question comes from Judy asks which film
(11:06):
are you most surprised actually passed the test? Which episode
do you think has the most outtakes due to tangents,
laughing fits, et cetera. Okay, so two different questions here. Tough, Well,
I mean movies. I feel like most movies i'm surprised
past the test are ones that barely pass the test, right,
So like the I feel like we should have a
(11:28):
shorthand for right now, but like the almost like the
barely pass of like hi to use your name, Hi, Judy,
look at this shoe? Awesome and then the rest is
men killing each other. So those are always like, it's frustrating.
I'm looking at our list of I always remember being
surprised that the Room test Believe it or not, getg
(11:54):
Tommy wizzose. The Room passes the test, which is pretty amazing.
Ground fairly passes. I'm just looking through our Oh, Gelie,
that's when that is shocking and inappropriate. We've passed. What
else do we have? Fair that You're just like, um,
that can't be right. Manhattan passes. Um. Yeah, there's a
(12:20):
lot of problematic movies that past effecteal test, which is
you know, we're always reminding it's a law metrics. Yeah. No,
I think The Room was a shocker. Well. And then
the second part of this question is which episode do
you think has the most outtakes due to tangents, laughing, physic,
et cetera. Um, I don't know. There was one where
there was some where we truly just like go to
(12:40):
another dimension the end of Like, I don't know what
happened to that there. Oh, I wish I remembered what
it was, because there was one that I had like
a separate editing file open four that I had just
I kept putting out takes into that I was going
to like edit into like a super cut I mean,
but I don't. I don't remember what from a recent episode,
(13:01):
the Santa Claus is one of the most wild recording
experiences I've ever. I don't think we even cut that
much from it. We didn't, which is why it was
two and a half our block. But like it was
that I think was one of my favorite episodes to
record because it was just like, where are we? What
was happening? We're like, but we didn't cut that much.
(13:22):
So that doesn't really answer the question what do I
feel like when stuff gets wild? Unless it's like wild
in a oh my god, what is this person saying
kind of way, which is very rarely happened, we just
kind of leave it in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So we
haven't done Back when we used to have more male
guests on the show, there would be more cutting sometimes
(13:44):
to make our male guest not yet hate mail um,
and which is why we have since enforced a very sparing,
every once in a while honored mail guest policy. Indeed,
but I think especially since we put the kabash on
mail guests, for the most part, um, we haven't had
(14:04):
to do that many outtakes. Yet next question comes from
Taylor asks when will you be gay? Um, I'm by
which I did a soft come out this year in
one tweet. But I also don't feel the need to
explain myself. Yeah. Um my sexuality if anyone was curious. Um,
(14:29):
my birth control is making me a sexual so that's something.
But it's coming. Yeah, but I'm going to go off
of it soon and you might be asking why can't
you just like stop taking your pill or whatever. It's
because it's an implant in my arm and I have
to get it surgically removed health care flags. Um. Yeah,
I guess the answer to your question is I don't know.
(14:55):
I guess we're both like question marks all around. Yeah,
we don't know. Um, we're somewhere on the spectrum as
everyone is. I know I've said I guess. I have
said that the show that I'm straight a number of times,
which has never been true. But who cares. I don't know.
It doesn't keep me up at night, nor should it you. Um. Yeah,
(15:18):
I think here's an answer to your question because I
feel absolutely no sexual feelings and have not for the
past several years since I've been on this birth control. Um.
I don't really know who I'm attracted to anymore. Um,
but I think when I get new health insurance and
can go to the doctor and get my thing taken out,
I would definitely consider dating women. So there's that I'm
(15:43):
currently in a relationship with a man. Boo. No, I'm kidding.
I think it's very nice. So I guess, Taylor. I
hope that answers your question. Apart our next question, it
comes from Katie. They ask movies you're most looking forward
to in I don't know. I feel like I never
know about a movie before two weeks before it comes out. Sure,
(16:05):
what are you excited for? I'm I'm excited for Mulan. Yes,
they don't that up. They funked up literally all of
them so far. The truly have so fingers crossed. Yeah,
I would be great. I'm excited for Yeah, what is
even coming out? Let me look it up. Okay, Wait,
In spite of the fact that Scarlett Johansson is canceled,
(16:26):
I am interested to see Black Widow. Um. Oh, the
New Wonder Woman comes out next year. That'll be fun.
The Harley Quinn movie, I guess kind of I'm getting
a little burned out on Margot Robbie tb h even
though she's my my favorite movie ever. Fast and Furious
nine apparently, Sure, Dr Doolittle, I'll see it. I honestly
(16:50):
we should cover the Eddie Murphy one. Um, I oh god,
the return of T. J. Miller new thing with Underwater? Underwater? Yeah?
How a jew betrayal? Oh you know it is a
movie that I genuinely think will be funny to watch
because it looks really really bad. But Harrison Ford Call
of the Wild, Oh my gosh, I'll see ironically, or
(17:10):
Doctor Doolittle and Harrison Ford Call of the Wild. So
a bunch of c g I animals the only wealthy
men in CGI animals. The only movie with a c
g I animal that you should watch is Paddington. Obviously
it looks so bad. Oh, Minions three, Yes, Scocoop, gotta
see Scoop. Yeah. I don't know if the next year
(17:33):
is going to be better, if this is going to
be a good year for movies. Honestly, I will say
twenty nineteen, I think it was a pretty solid year
for movies. A lot of movies I really really liked
came out. Um. Yeah, I guess, Oh, in the Heights
will be cool. I'm excited to see. And I think
West Side Story comes out next year too, or maybe
that's I know, the new Into the Spider Verses coming out,
(17:55):
but I think it's good now, I know we'll be
there it um but that, yeah, that doesn't come out sonic.
I mean, honestly, it's a lot of bullshit coming out
this year. Yeah. I guess there's a plenty of movies
I'll see, but there's nothing like I feel like going
into There was a bunch that I'm like, yeah, but
(18:17):
not so much so far. If if we're missing, if
you have recommendations, drop us a line, please do Yeah.
Next question comes from Allison, and they ask opinions slash
Ideas on how to effectively combat reboot culture, which tends
to perpetuate or trivialize regressive ideas regarding race, gender, sexuality,
(18:37):
et cetera. Combatting it is difficult. I mean, it's just
a very sinister cinematic track. I mean, I think that
if you if you are not about it, don't go
like that's a great way to combat it. Is not
is if you see it and you're unhappy with the
way it's rebooting it make your thoughts known because like
movie production places, for better or worse, are listening to
(19:00):
fans now more than ever. Um. Social media is a
useful tool. Literally ruined Star Wars. It's crazy, but but
like for better where people are listening. UM. And if
you're if you are unhappy with how properties being rebooted
but it's not being done or don't see the movie
you know. I mean there's a lot of recent reboots
(19:20):
that have flopped because no one wanted it. Yeah, money
speaks very loudly in all industries, this one included. And
if something doesn't do well, but that sucks because like
what you should do is put your money towards seeing
movies that you want to see. You want to see,
but it's like I don't want to tell you just
(19:43):
like don't go to this like all female reboot of
x y Z movie because what's gonna well, I don't
know what's going to happen. I think is that executives
are gonna be like, well, no one went to see this,
so that means that no one wants to see, you know,
female driven stories. And it's not that it's the we
don't want to be get like the sloppy seconds of
(20:05):
what men want and stuff like that. Yeah, and I
think that a similar thing was brought up with You're right,
where like when the Charlie's Angels reboot wasn't a smashing success,
it was like, well, this is a reflection on women,
where it's like, no, this is a reflection on reboots.
But it is true that whenever property is rebooted and
(20:28):
it's like an all female reboot or you know, not
every character is white this time, but it's if it's
still sloppily written, and I like and a lot of
times the behind the camera diversity efforts aren't done, it
comes out. I mean, yeah, it's it's tricky combating. It
is really challenging, and I think unfortunately kind of requires
(20:50):
that you do a little homework on your own of like, Okay,
I don't want to see a reboot. What do I
want to see? Who is someone who's work that I
really like, Who isn't getting the representation that they deserve,
Who isn't getting the work they deserve? And you know,
let people know like it it is. Unfortunately, it's like
your money speaks very loudly, and word of mouth online
(21:11):
speaks very loudly, so if there are people whose work
you want to see more of screaming. But yeah, I
don't know. I feel like in some ways we are
trapped in reboot culture for a while. Disney is uh
is has literally taken over the they had of box
(21:32):
office receipts. It's an actual monopoly and we live in hell.
But baby Yoda right kidding? Didn't watch it, but he's
cut are fine? Um? Yeah, I don't know. It's depressing, Allison.
I don't know. Try everyone keeps supporting artists that you like.
That are you know, trying different things? Yes? Uh, let's
(21:53):
take a quick break and then we'll come right back
to answer more questions. Let's do it, and we're back.
I hope you enjoyed that commercial break. Our next question comes,
I love this one only for the Internet, asks what
filmmakers should be legally barred from making any more movies? Okay, well,
(22:18):
let's start with softballs like Woody Allen, duh, duh. Now
let's take it out of the criminal sphere, Michael Bay
That was gonna be my next way is a very
obvious one. Um. Basically, any male director who has assaulted
or disrespected women and continue to have a flourishing career. Shouldn't.
(22:42):
Yeah they're done. Yeah, they're done. We're if we're in charge,
which we aren't, we never will be. They're done. Bye bye.
Michael Bay just made a Netflix movie and I'm like,
what was I don't know. It was just a very
I'm like, Ryan Reynolds, is that? Who was a rent?
I know? It's like, Ryan Reynolds, could you relax? You
have enough money? Were you doing? I would add? Is
it the Fairly Brothers that's made all those horribly problematic
(23:06):
comedies and like the nineties and two thousand's and then
Green Book? Yeah? I think any white director that has
written a white savior story and won an Oscar for it,
Bye bye, done, bye bye, don't need that. And and Okay,
my pie in This Guy at which people always give
me blown back for. But it's a sinister cinematic trend
(23:26):
that I fucking hate is men who directed broad, often
offensive comedies of the nineties and two thousands who are
now experiencing a second renaissance directing more serious movies where
they're mostly copying Adam McKay. Adam McKay can continue working
as far as I'm concerned everyone copying Adam McKay. Let's
(23:49):
say hangover guy, let's say bombshell guy. I'm sure they're
perfectly nice guy, although Todd Phillips does seem like a
fucking dick. But I don't know about I don't know
about ms your bombshell. But he directed all the Austin
Powers movies and now he's like, I get to make
the meat to a movie. No you don't, Bye bye,
you don't get to make that movie. Are the I mean, so,
if we're going all the way radical feminism, yeah, if
(24:12):
you directed Austin Powers, you don't get to make the
meato movie. You can make another movie that no one
gets to seem like, make awesome Powers. Fine. So I
mean it's just it's just frustrated and it's like less personal,
I guess. But the specificity of that trend is weird
to me because the Fairly Brothers also fall into that trend.
The specificity of that trend is weird, and it is
(24:35):
just like, why do these white guys who have been
bajillionaires for twenty years get this second renaissance when so
many directors of colors, so many female directors, so queer
directors are still waiting for their first opportunity at a
mainstream movie grow Up. I agree. Okay, next question, should
(24:56):
we just pick one or two of these? Oh, Lindsay, Lindsay,
I will will answer two of these, first one being
are there any previous spectael Cast episodes that you think
you got wrong and would change your ratings? Um? I
can't think of anything specifically. I stand by all of
my comments in the Matrix episode. Uh, but I think
(25:17):
just in general, Caitlin, I'm curious to your thoughts too.
But I mean, we started this podcast right after the election,
which wasn't planned but depressingly well timed, which was over
three years ago and before. I don't know, Like, I
think that the discourse has kind of grown with our
show and we have listened a lot, and so I
think especially in the first year of the podcast, especially
(25:41):
maybe the first six months, and a lot of like,
I don't know, I mean, I just know that discourse wise,
I I've grown a lot in the past three years.
I've learned a lot, and especially from just like talking
to our guests and just seeking out the information more so,
there's I'm sure and I don't go back and listen
to them. I'm sure that, like, especially in the first
six months the show, there were some things that either
(26:02):
we missed entirely that will be very obvious to us
now or we're just like, is that your take, Jamie?
Is it? So? Yeah, we've We've we've been growing up definitely. Um,
there's a few tropes too that I've learned about or
noticed more since we started. Like even for when we
did the Force Awakens episode, that was after we had
(26:25):
already been doing the podcast for over a year, But
I wasn't that tuned into like the Merry Sue trope
at that point, and I think we didn't really discuss
that on that episode, about how while it is nice
for a Star Wars movie to have a female protagonist,
I didn't really acknowledge that she falls into like that
(26:46):
Mary trope thing. So yeah, I think, yeah, it is
mostly our earlier episodes. We've been learning along with everyone else,
and a lot of times just like it's been a
slow process of just like making sure that we are
fine the right perspectives for the right episodes. And yeah,
like they think that there were early episodes where like
if there was a queer storyline, we wouldn't always seek
(27:09):
out the queer perspective on it, and it's kind of
freeball it and we know better. No, I don't know,
we've definitely yeah, I mean we always acknowledge when we
have blind spots, and I think our blind spots were
I think we've narrowed them down a bit in the
years of doing the podcast, but I think they were
quite at first. So yeah, it hasn't been has been
(27:32):
an educational experience for us, UM, and we are always learning.
We're never the final word and anything. So another question,
are there any movies that get requested all the time
that you simply refused to do? Caitlyen you said he
had an answer for this, Yes you do. UM. I
never ever, ever, ever want to do a movie directed
by Ari Astor. I know you say. I feel like
(27:55):
we're going to end up having to do it, though
I'm sure we will, but after seeing well that that's
been another question that it's not even that I hate
him as a filmmaker, it's just that his movies punish
his audience, and I hate movies that I feel punished
by for just watching them. I don't mind movies that
are punishing you on purpose. Sometimes I don't like his
(28:17):
movies m which is a question that we got. We
got wide in either of you like Midsummer. I couldn't
something about it for weeks. Well, I didn't like Midsummer,
but I did see it three times? So what did
I say about me? But it means I really thought
about do I like Midsummer? I really thought about it.
I was also under the influence of Well told her
who I had a real moment for him over the summer,
(28:40):
Ari asked her, is doing the twenty nineteen thing that
I don't like where he is? Like, women are front
and center in my movies, but I never have a
female co writer, and all my female characters are written weird,
Like great, why didn't you like Midsummer? Horror movies just
aren't really my genre, and his are so unsettling that
I just you're awful after I've seen them. And I
(29:02):
don't like movies that make me feel awful. I like romps.
I like movies that make me feel good, So I
like horror movies and I like feeling awful. So that's
not quite but I I didn't like Well, yeah, I
think that that movie more than any other I saw
this year. Hit that trope on the head of like
touting this female protagonist, but so many tropes are present,
(29:24):
whereas she is strictly defined by her trauma. There's just
it's just a lot of tropes that I feel like
didn't really that everyone got to pass on because they're like,
it's a breakup movie, and I'm like, but but but
but but I just yeah, I didn't. I don't know.
I I love how his movies look. They look good,
and he gets really good performances. I think he also
(29:47):
tends to demonize mental illness quite definitely demonize his mental illness.
Hereditary is where that is, and the horror genre has
done well in some instances, but in others have really
sold people with mental illnesses, just completely sold them out. Yeah.
So I I just think that he has a lot
(30:07):
of blind spots that he has maybe not been forthcoming with.
And it's just like it's okay to have blind spots,
but you know, it's a process and seek out. It
is frustrating to me that he has not had any
female co writers but only writes movies with female protagonists.
Like that is a glaring blind spot and I think
it comes up in both of his movies very clearly,
(30:29):
and it sucks because I think he's a good director
and I would encourage him to maybe get over himself
a little bit. Also, if you've listen to an interview
with him, oh boy, the eyes are you're like, is
this a freshman film seminar? Shut up? Um. So that's
two answers in one. Yeah. Great. Next question comes from
(30:51):
Amber asks can there be more people of color guests? Answer? Yes,
we should do that. Yes, more. We're always making an
effort to make the show as inclusive is humanly possible.
But obviously yeah, they're They're like, we always always room
there and there will be. And if there's a specific
(31:12):
person comedian, writer of color who you would love to
see their perspective on the show, let us know and
also tweet at them in case they don't know we exist.
And I think that we're a fake podcast. Sometimes will happen.
But yeah, point taken. There's always more work and more
perspectives and we'll keep on getting them. Yes, indeed, thank
you for the question. Next one, Henry asks, if you
(31:35):
could redo any of the movies you've already done, which
would you do except Titanic? In doubt? Mean, Um, I
would read. I mean, I think it's really just like
some of our first episode. I would redo. I think
we should redo Kill Bill, possibly with Zack Sherwin. Again.
Interesting because I just know, first of all, we didn't
even give ratings for that episode. Apparently we didn't have
(31:57):
the Nipple scale yet. And I just room giving that
movie so much credit that I would no longer give
it now. Um, with the perspective of time, I think
that I would redo Kill Bill. I would redo Mad
Max Fury Road because that has become truly one of
my favorite movies of all time. And I watched this
really good video essay series about it that brings up
a lot of points that I don't think we discussed.
(32:19):
And yeah, it was another early episode. In the early episode. Yeah,
I would probably redo that one too and give it
more credit, even though I still don't enjoy the genre. Yeah,
that was the steam Steam I mean, and I still
don't like steep aesthetics, but I would give I would
give the characters more credit this time. I actually might
have us redo that one for a Matreon episode for
my birthday month this year. Yeah that's fun. Yeah, Yeah,
(32:42):
I don't know. I mean, for the most part, it's
I mean, you can definitely track our growth throughout the episodes,
but I wouldn't redo the matrix. But that's for sure.
Oh well, because I've seen that movie. We'll see what
happens when my birthday month comes around. Don't don't. That's
my I veto. I'm not going to do it, all right,
(33:04):
I'm gonna do one by myself. Then, No, you can't
tell one by yourself. That's cheating. Oh my god, Okay,
we can do we can do. Okay, here's compromise. I'll
do a sequel. No, those are so bad, I won't
want to at all. Okay, okay, wait, next question. Our
next questions come from Douglas. The first question is are
(33:26):
there any all female reboots? You actually want to say? Um,
I don't know that. It would have to be really
really good. I mean, I I always air on the
side of just let there be new stories in general,
but new stories about women and people of color and
queer people. At the work of updating a story that
(33:50):
it very least has internalized misogyny to not have internalized misogyny,
I feel like we've seen it a lot of times.
It is rarely worked in a really really really affect
to way. For me at least, I would much prefer
to see new stories right, And we might have touched
on this even earlier in this episode already. But for me,
the all female reboot, it's like the industries they have
(34:13):
this notion that, oh, no one's gonna want to see
a movie with a female protagonist unless it's already were
tried and true recognizable property, which is not true. I
don't know why they think that, And and there's so many,
like proven box office things that are like, yeah, that's
(34:35):
not true, but just there's not enough female executives. I'll
answer this question by saying that because this franchise is
very problematic, but also like near and dear to me,
I would like to see a female reboot of Indiana
Jones and I went to play Indiana Jones Done. I'd
see it, thank you. I don't. I can't think of
(34:55):
a property off the top of my head that I
would want to see an all female reboot. There's like
some extended universes I would like to see female stories
inside of maybe, but not beat for beat. Yeah, just
give me news stories. Give writers and directors a chance. Yes.
Another question from Douglas quote. Also, as movies hopefully become
more inclusive, should we assume that any conversation about a
(35:18):
trans man passes the test? That a passing conversation could
be between any combination of female, transmail and non binary
characters unquote. Interesting, very interesting question. I would imagine that
the test should be on the gender you identify as.
I also think that there is space in the test
(35:40):
to be inclusive. I've seen versions of the Battel tests
that it's like not just female identifying characters, it's also
like it's open to like fems and like non binary characters,
which I am totally four. Um. So if it's like
two non binary people talking about another non binary person,
I would say that passes the Becktel test. I'm really
(36:01):
interested to hear Alison Bechtel's thoughts on that too, just
because she's still a working writer, still like an activist.
I mean, I would imagine that she would have the
test be as inclusive as humanly possible. Yeah, I mean,
we don't make the rules in terms of the time,
We just choose the way we interpreted. And unfortunately, because
there's not a lot of transport representation on screen, this
(36:23):
is not really a question we've ever come up against
in the movies that we've covered. Yeah, no, but I
agree with you. I mean the test should and I
think was designed to be as inclusive as possible, and
it will, and it wasn't even designed for to actually
be applied. The way that we're applying it is comic.
It's from a comic and to watch out for collection
(36:44):
and um, the context of like the scene that it
appears in is to lesbian characters talking about this test
and they're saying, oh, I pay attention to see if
women talk to each other in a movie, because if
they're if they're talking to each other but not about men,
then I can sort of ship them together and pretend
that they are queer women because there's especially at the
(37:07):
time that this was written and then also still today,
there there was so little queer representation. Yeah, I think
that that for now is kind of like a person
to person, how do you interpret the test? For our purposes,
we want to make it as inclusive as possible and
as you interpret it, I guess my my thing is
just like, as long as you're comfortable with the way
(37:29):
that the test is treating gender in regards to you
and your identity. You know, we're not going to tell
you you're wrong. So yeah, the test is open interpretation.
I think supposed to be inclusive as possible. Indeed, thank
you Douglas, Yes, thank you. Grace asks is Robert Evans
ever going to be a guest? Yes, at some point.
(37:50):
The thing is Probert doesn't live here anymore, so it's hard.
We don't get to see him very often. But when
the stars align, you know he's going to be. We've
had email chains about it and it's like, are we
going to ask him to talk about what he wants
to talk about, which is guns or so. If you
don't know who Robert Evans is, he's the host of
(38:10):
Behind the Bastards and a part of the iHeart Radio
family of podcasts, A dear friend. If you haven't listened
to a show, it's wonderful. Also worse here ever with
Cody Johnson and Katie Still. Yeah, I mean, we love Robert.
We want to have him in the show. I was
pushing for him to do the Handam Montana movie, right,
which I still if you want that episode tweeted Robert,
(38:32):
remind him and then the next time we're in the
same city will make it happen, but we're we haven't
been avoiding it right to happy. He just doesn't live
in l A anymore. He just doesn't and good and
honestly smart. Grace also asked one of the most popular
episodes slash order our favorite episodes popular episodes, I don't
really know, just a little peak behind the curtain. We
really don't know much about our numbers, which we don't
(38:56):
for a very long time. The Twilight episode was our
most popular. I feel like Twilight and Spider Man two
were up there with the most popular episodes for some time.
I have to imagine that that has changed. I would
imagine the Aaron Brockovitch is probably up there at this point. Um.
My best guess is the more popular the movie, the
(39:16):
more popular the episode, because we've done movies that are
a little more you know, off the beaten path, and
those numbers were far lower. Believe it or not. Um,
but yeah, like I remember, for the longest time, it
was Twilight, Twilight a long time. I mean, honestly, I
kind of still hope it's storylight. But yeah, I would
(39:36):
be curious to know, you know, beats us beats us
to answer your question favorite episodes love actually is still
going to be an all time favorite for me. I
think one of my favorite a recent favorite would be
the Santa Claus because like conversations that I really I
really loved our Lion King episode with Now that was great.
That was a really good cover. I love the also
(39:57):
Black Panther episode witho A Class. I always am going
to love the snow White episode with Jack. That was
when we were singing so much um. That was really fun.
One of the funniest ones that we've done recently I
think was good Will Hunting with Ya. That was so funny.
(40:19):
One of my favorite live episodes we've done it was
Waiting Exhale with Aaron Haynes Whack. That was so much fun.
Lazy episodes favorite and I think I hate about you
the best are always going to be. I just yeah,
we have great guests and we always have fun. I
don't know, bringing on with Maggie is really fun. I
(40:40):
just I love everyone. I love all of our guests. Yeah,
I couldn't pick an all time favorite, but those are
the ones that jump to mind of like, yeah, same, yeah,
let's take another quick break. But I guess what gang
We've got more questions when We're back all right. Next
(41:03):
question comes from Stacy. This one is rather long. It says,
how do you feel the evolution of feminism, specifically second
and third wave affected the portrayal of women in movies
over the years, both positively and negatively through both the
advancement of women and inevitable backlash. For example, there does
not seem to be a linear improvement in the portrayal
(41:24):
of women or minorities in film, and often seem to
be steps taken backwards. How much of that is a
type of protest by those in power trying to stop
any change in the status quo or recapture the good
old days. This is an excellent, complicated question. Yes, so
I do agree that the portrayal of women in movies
(41:47):
has progressed as time goes on, especially through various waves
of feminism that have taken place. And I also agree
that the majority of this progress has applied to the
way that white women are, white hetero women are portrayed,
that as we've discussed on the show many times, that
(42:07):
they tend to be the first stop of who is
afforded progress, and that women of color and queer women
and trans women and just just everyone else kind of
gets left behind and the progress is much slower. And again,
like that is it's very frustrating because you know, Hollywood
is this huge bureaucracy, still majority patriarchy, still majority white.
(42:33):
So you have to scream at the top of your lungs,
you have to vote with your money, you have to
like all this frustrating stuff just to get the bare
minimum accomplished. Um. And I think it's interestingly we've kind
of covered a bunch of movies that I think would
fall into second wave feminism recently, where it was like
white women should be allowed to work in an office.
That was part of what was accomplished First Wives Club,
(42:58):
And as the show has continued, we've tried to contextualize
these a little better. Instead of I think maybe three
years ago, we would have been like, oh, this is
so this movie from nine seventy is horrible to women, right,
and we've had criticism for that and like fairly taken.
We we've been trying to contextualize. Okay, it doesn't read
(43:20):
as narrative, right, but oftentimes those movies do the smallest
bit of progress that allow more progress to take place later.
Obviously we would prefer radical change but there are I
think we have covered movies that represent incremental change that
doesn't read well today but does represent progress for that
(43:42):
time of yes, yes, I agree. Yeah. And as far
as like kind of the backlash that more progressive movies
have been exposed to, I'm thinking, like all the backlash
that the all female reboot of Ghostbusters got, every in
cell boy on the internet was like, this is ruining
(44:03):
my childhood. It's very revealing. Ye Like, if there are
executives out there, studios and networks who are listening to
these shitty, regressive people and their bad opinions and they're like, well,
you know, the in cells didn't like this movie, so
(44:24):
we better not make any more of movies like it.
Then I mean, I hope that doesn't happen, but I
think it's very frustrating who executives choose to take seriously
and they don't. It's weird because I feel like now
with social media, in some ways, we have more of
(44:45):
a voice than ever in having a say, But then
so do shitty guys, right, like little baby boys have
more of a voice than ever. And you can see
that reddit for some cinema trends and it's so it's
you know, as with all things Internet, it is a
blessing and a curse. Yeah, it's about context. I think
(45:07):
of how a movie reads now, and there's always I mean,
anytime there's any sort of progress made or social change
and cultural evolution, there's definitely going to be backlash, and
we you just have to power through it. You just
have to keep fighting the good fight and not succumb
to the regressive tendencies in the status quo because they
(45:30):
are harmful and I wanted to. I guess this is
a good opportunity to shout out. Are older listeners of
the show too, It's like I always especially like I mean,
our main chance to interact is online, but also at
live shows of it is nice to see listeners who
maybe we're growing up during the second or we were
growing up during third wave feminism of like girl power, um,
(45:52):
but to see women who grew up during various waves
of feminism just sharing their experience and talking about how, like, okay,
I was a part of the second wave. Like I've
had conversations with listeners who were like, I was a
part of the second wave feminist movement. But now I
see that you know, if you get stuck in a
certain movement, then you're just denying yourself progress, and that's
(46:15):
how we get turfs um, which is just like yeah,
so yeah, we want to thank our older listeners who
are keeping their minds open and we promised to do
the same. Yes, thanks Stacy. Let's close up with a cup,
Let's close out with a couple of fun ones. Yeah. Yeah,
Unfortunately we won't have time to get to every question.
We've had to skip some. We read them all, We
(46:37):
read them all and appreciate there's only so much time.
I wanted to take this quick question from Jack. Would
you ever consider writing a Becktel cast book? Yes, someone
should contact us. But here's the t Jack no Ends asked.
Here's a question from Michelle. When will you release an
(46:58):
episode about Santa University when someone asks me to make it? Oh? Right,
because you have to. We have to have to exist first,
let's be produced, and then we will do the episode.
A few people asked, yes, A few people have asked,
who's our dream guest? Even if it's not realistic, or
maybe it is, who knows? We got Alfred, We got Alfred.
(47:20):
We can do anything. Who want to have Alison Bechtel?
Of course, Yes, Alison Bechtel would be a dream guest. Absolutely.
People always ask us also if we if she knows
about the show. Um, we don't know, she should I
hope by now, I would think by now she does. UM.
(47:40):
So if anyone has any contexts out there and wants
to hook it up to have her come on, we'd
love to have her. Um. They're also Liz Wallace, who
is the other half of the Bechtel Wallace Testament. Great. Um.
I would love Rashida Jones. I would love to have
of I would love to have Gloria Calderon Kellett. I'm
(48:04):
not sure if she is one of the only female
Latin X showrunners working today. She's very online, she's very
cool and we follow each other on Twitter and I'm
always afraid to teeter her. She's really cool and she
she's the showrunner for one Day at a time on Netflix. Um,
and so I'd love to have her on for me.
(48:24):
Another one would be Laverne Cox I think would be Yeah.
I would love to have Jessica Williams. Yes. I would
love to have Jenny Nicholson. She's a YouTuber that who
I admire. Also Cat Black as one of my favorite YouTubers.
Who else, I mean just everyone, Weatherspoon, Meryl Streep, Meryl Streep,
(48:47):
Nicole Brown. If that Nicole Brown would be an amazing guest.
She's so funny, She's so funny, and she seems cool.
I'm just picking people that I want to hang out with. Um. Yeah,
I don't know. There's so there's so many people tweet
at them and say, hey, have you heard of this?
You should be on it, especially if you know that
they live in our area. We have a whole thing
where we have to convince people we exist a lot
(49:09):
um and so if you can be assist. Oh, anyone
who was in a Christmas Prince Wow, I was not
expecting you to say that, but I agree welcome them,
especially the two different actors who play her dad, Rudy.
It's Bernie Sanders can come on the podcast. Okay, let's
(49:34):
do two more. This one's from Sarah. I'd love to
know if you get any weird or funny reactions from
people about the show. You can't be a male comment.
You can't not not Actually we have I take that back.
We have a lot of wonderful male identifying listeners who
have open hearts and minds, we're not talking about them,
we're talking about the other ones. Uh. We've as I
(49:56):
think early on, it's kind of tapered off. I think
we've kind of found our audience and people who it's
it's pretty clear what the show is about. And if
you hate us and what we're talking about and are listening,
why are you torturing yourself? Like, no need to do that,
but we we used to get some male comments like
(50:21):
one star objectifies men. Oh boy, So that is a
nice reminder to go on whatever podcast platform you use. Yes,
give us nice things, same say nice things. Give us
high ratings. Caitlin doesn't read our iTunes reviews, but I
(50:41):
do because I didn't hate myself. I don't know, but
it's reading our one star ratings can be fun, but
please don't write one. Here's our most recent No, no, no,
it's a nice one. It's five stars. The subject line
is p erasure from home alone. I guess so. I
don't remember saying that, but someone said I literally spit
(51:04):
out my coffee and someone said p erasure during the episode.
I guess that. Yes. Um, well, a fun fact about me.
I forget everything I say immediately after I say it. Um,
a reaction that I still get quite a bit from people.
And this This is sometimes people who know about the show,
(51:24):
but people will be talking about a movie and they
only want to know if it passed the Bechtel test
or not, and I'm like, my god. We spend two
minutes maybe of every episode discussing the Bechtel test, and
then the rest of it is everything else there is
to talk about, but people still only seem to be
concerned about whether or not the movie passes at the
Bechtel test, and I'm like, I barely care anymore. I truly.
(51:47):
We don't. Sometimes forget to do it. I often forget
to pay attention because it's just I think, with like
the three years that we've been doing the show, three
plus years, we've had so many more interest conversations and
there's so many more important things to talk about. It's
a jumping off point. We've been saying it from the beginning,
but we meet it now more than ever. It is funny, yeah,
like when you especially because it makes me so uncomfortable
(52:10):
to like, I don't know, like when you meet someone
and they're like, what do you do? And then they're like,
but what's it about? I'm like, I don't want to
do this, please just let me sit here. Um. But
like when you we're like, oh, it's about the vital test,
and then someone's like and then they're like, so you
just figure out it passes. I'm like, I'm not going
to have sex with you, please please stop. Um. Yeah,
(52:33):
I don't know, but male comments and then people being
like should it take two hours to figure that? I
think we're stupid? I don't know. Um, people are wild.
Everyone listening right now is great. It's great unless you're
not unless you're in the middle of reading a one
star all right, Well, uh one last question, very important,
(52:58):
very strong answer comes from Chris. Can we start a
team moist scabs for all these centrists out there? No? No,
we can't know so centrism. Who are you? Joe Biden?
I don't like centrism. But know what I'm saying is
that what if the scab thing is a spectrum and
(53:22):
we're being too binary about it? No? Okay, well, Jamie
says no, I say yes to say no by scats.
It's team dry scabs, is the answer. If you like
moist scabs, you're Joe Biden. Sorry. Centrism I gotta go.
(53:42):
I think I'm leading. So I've always been team wet Scabs.
Yes you have, but maybe because no, because I'm very
cool and smart. I like this team moist Gabs. This
is the This is one of those things where you
create something and then it becomes out of your control
and it's very uncomfortable. I think that's what I'm experience.
(54:05):
I understand. Um, I am very hesitant about moist Scabs.
I'll try to keep an open mind, but I don't
like thinking about it. Dry Scabs. Sound of shuffling cards
all the way. Um, alright, folks, alright, we actually we
have to go because we have to go back to
recording Matreon episodes. UM. So we hope you enjoyed this
(54:26):
Q and A episode. Thank you for listening. Happy twenty twenty.
We will be back on your main feed next week
with a normal episode with a guest in a movie
and all that chit you know and love from us.
UM In the meantime, Yeah, I give us one of
those five star reviews and join our matrio and join
the matri Matreon dot com slash beactel cast. Fun fact,
(54:50):
we're about to what It's January, so we're doing um,
what are we janet Flix, Jewary, Janetflix, Jewelry, janet Flix,
the janet Flix months. We should have waited till November
and done Netflix November. We couldn't wait. We couldn't wait,
simply couldn't. So this month on the Matreon, in addition
to all of our fifty episodes we've already published, we're
(55:12):
doing someone Great on Netflix, and then we're about to
do the Kissing Booth on Netflix. So if that's appealing
to you, hedn't ever check it out. You can check
us out on all the social media places at bechtel Cast.
You can shop some t shirts if you want, at
t public dot com slash be bechtel Cast. We have
upcoming live shows in San Francisco, in Philadelphia, in New York.
(55:36):
Go to bechtel cast dot com shows. Yeah, we'll be
back next week. Thank you so much
The Bechdel Cast News
Hosts And Creators
Caitlin Durante
Jamie Loftus
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