May 3, 2023 • 61 mins
LOOK OUT! It’s only Films To Be Buried With!
Join your host Brett Goldstein as he talks life, death, love and the universe with the fabulous actor HIMESH PATEL!
You'll likely know the excellent Himesh from films such as Yesterday, or perhaps the pallindromological Tenet, but you are also very likely to be aware of his work on the smaller screen in shows such as Avenue 5, Station 11 or the behemoth that is Eastenders (the unbingeable one). Well, here is your chance to get acquainted with Himesh himself, as we hear about it all - the act of crying at films becoming a fork in the road for the future, re-examining problematic films, TV vs film process, and the difference in being recognized from both media. A lovely one right here!
Video and extra audio available on Brett's Patreon!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Loogal his only films to be buried with. Hello, and
welcome to Films to be buried with. My name is
Brett Goldstein. I'm a comedian, an actor, a writer, a director,
(00:21):
an iheartradioer, and I love film. As George Santaniana once said,
the Family is one of Nature's masterpieces. The other is
Jurassic Park two The Lost World. It's wildly underrated, particularly
the scene with the splintering windshield. Yes, George, you're right.
Every week I'm by a special guest over. I tell
them they've died, then I get them to discuss their
(00:41):
life through the films that meant the most of them.
Previous guests include Barry Jenkins, Jamila Jamil, Mark Frost, Sharon Stone,
and even Bred Clambles. But this week it's the excellent
actor Himesh Patel. You can watch all of Shrinking on
Apple tv Plus, and you can watch nearly all of
Ted Lasso's seasons three so far. You can get episodes
one to eight all on Apple tv Plus. Watch them
(01:05):
love it. Head over to the Patreon at patreon dot
com forward slash Brett Goldstein, where you get an extra
twenty minutes of chat with him. Ash, he tells me
a secret. We talk about the best beginnings and endings
of films. You get the whole episode, uncut, ad free
and does a video. Check it out over at patreon
dot com. Forward Slash Brett Goldstein. So himsh Patel, Himsh
(01:25):
Patel is a lovely and brilliant actor. You know him
from Yesterday, you know him from Tenet, and you know
him from his Emmy nominated performance in Station eleven. We
recorded this on Zoom just a few days ago and
one of the things we talk about a lot actually
is his nine years on the show EastEnders. Now, if
you don't live in England, you might not know where
that is. It's one of the biggest shows in England,
(01:48):
probably the biggest show in England. It's the soap that
has been on forever, is on forever on at night.
It's very well done, it's excellent. He was in it
for nine years. We talk about that, so when I'm
talking about Easterners, that's what we're talking about. He's a
lovely bloke and I really think you're going to love
this episode. So that is it for now. I very
much hope you enjoy episode two hundred and forty five
(02:09):
of films to be Buried with. Thanks, Hello, and welcome
to Films to be Buried With. It is I Brett Goldstein,
and I am joined today by an actor, a superstar,
(02:29):
a film star, an eastender, a station elevener, an avenue fiver,
a tenant, no numberer, a legend, a hero, a husband,
a father, and a lover at least three times a week,
according to the news, Please welcome, he's here. Can we
(02:52):
believe it? An Emmy nominee, an award winner, a beautiful man.
Here he is. I can't believe it. He's right to me.
It's mister Himswn.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Hello, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
What's the according to the news three times a week
I'm a lover?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Is that? I think it was just a headline in
the in the news that comes out every week that
three times a week, at least three times a week,
you make love.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
I don't know what papers you read, but I personally
make love.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
It was like in the you know, often in this
sort of in other news like it's a positive thing.
It's not.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah, no, it's it's still a very interesting insight into
my my personal life.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Pr people.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, but look, I mean it's just no comment that one.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Hes thank you for doing this. You're in England right
now in your attic? Is that true?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I'm in my attic. Yeah, yeah, it's It's where i
have my little office. It's not like I've been consigned
to the attic to do.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
This, no hims. Can we can I ask you a
few questions about your life and career. Yeah, you are
a movie star at alleged you started in these standards.
I didn't realize how long you were in these standards.
You're in the standards for all nine years?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yeah? Nine years? Yeah? Basically. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Can you in one sentence summarize what that's like.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
One sentence? Did you say a word?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah? It was.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I mean I'd have nothing without it, you know. I
was sixteen, sort of plutch from obscurity in a little
village and yeah, right time, right place, and definitely the
right role, because I'll be honest, I was basically playing
myself when I first started, right, you know, to some degree,
and some may argue I'm doing it to this day,
(04:45):
but I couldn't have imagined anything more at the beginning,
you know. So it's quite overwhelming really looking back on that,
And that was half my life ago, and yeah, it is.
It's an odd thing for me to think that I
was there for nearly a decade. Yeah, it feels like
a lot has happened since, obviously, But I did so
much growing up there as a person as an actor.
(05:05):
I learned so much. I was so lucky to work
with a lot of very very good actors who were
there to work, you know, and make make it all
as good as it could be, you know, because there's
a huge workload, so many episodes every week.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
You go every day every day, nine to five.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Basically, yeah, yeah, and there's a danger that you can
start sort of spreading yourself thin. But I was just
lucky that I was surrounded by people who they loved
what they do, They love being actors, and they wanted
to turn up to work every day and make it,
make it great. And so I learned a lot about
being an actor and my craft and actually the fact
(05:50):
that it's hard work. You know, it's not about fame,
it's about doing good work. And as I say it
and stills a hard work ethic. The areas I work
in now of like you know, TV, different types of
TV and film. The time you have was just such
a luxury, you know, It'll always feel like a luxury
to me though that You're like, Okay, well we've got
(06:10):
to light the scene now, so i'll see you in
an hour. I'm like, Wow, that's incredible that we'd have
done an episode. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, So this side of it,
it's interesting.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
You say it's not about fame, and I agree, and
I believe with you, But I also I am aware
of these sort of side effects of being in EastEnders.
In particular. I think it's a certain type of fame, right,
You're you're very, very very famous in England if you're
in these stenders, and you're famous in a way. I
remember I made a short film with someone who was
in these Stenders. I'm trying, we're trying to get a
(06:43):
shot with him outside in the morning, and we couldn't.
We just couldn't because people just kept walking back. Yeah,
we couldn't shoot. And I remember thinking, God, this is
a certain type of fame that's actually quite I imagine
it must be quite difficult, because not only are you
very very form needs people, you're in the home all
the time. You're like it seemed in a way that
(07:04):
maybe it's different to if someone sees Brad Pitt, they
might be like, oh my god, Brad Pitt. Someone sees
some of me senders they feel like their family or
their friend, or there's something very very familiar where they go, yeah,
how you doing, mate, Like how how was that? For
nine years?
Speaker 2 (07:19):
I think it's it's that it's yeah, the familiarity is
one thing, but they're not familiar with you the person.
They're exclusively familiar with the character. So you know, no
one knew my name, they didn't know who Himesh was.
They knew Tamoir, and so they were just that's what
they'd say. As time war on, I got quite lucky
(07:39):
that I looked very different to my character as a
concerted effort. I was like, you know, I'm not gonna
wear glasses life, and I'm gonna, you know, dress differently,
And in a way it was calculated. In a way,
it was just me growing into my own person. But
it just meant that I didn't as much as other
friends of mine who were on the show, who you know,
even even friends of mine who left the show years ago,
who still they still feel a bit sort of insecure
(08:01):
in the times because it's really expected and people it's
a type of fame, a type of sort of way
that people approach you. That it's just different to what
I've experienced since doing something like Yesterday or whatever where
what I have with that, with being in films and
that sort of thing now is I don't notice it
because people aren't so ready to sort of come up
to you and be quite informal, which people always will
(08:24):
be with soap actors because of that familiarity thing and
that they think a lot of them genuinely think you're
your character. They understand you're an actor, but they also
don't they're not drawing enough of a line between the
two things. And that's a very odd thing to experience.
And I still, i'd say over here, I largely get
recognized for EastEnders still more than anything in terms of
(08:45):
people approaching me. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
And when you do the Stenders, is it all year?
Is your contract a year or does it have gaps?
Actually don't it?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah? It's all yeah, I think if I unless it's changed. Now,
I had like about two weeks of holiday I could take,
and I had to book that in well in advance
because obviously they're storylining, like you know, half a year
and more in advance, so they've already got like a
rough schedule out and they're like, and you could go
to them and go, can I book a holiday? And
you know, four months and they're like no, sorry, mate, Yeah,
(09:15):
you're going to be You're going to be in solid
there's a big storyline coming in. So you know, it's
a funny existence, but.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
You're you're you're about to cheat on somewhere.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Fuck yeah, damn it. It was all I knew, of course.
So then it's been funny sort of evolving away from
that and going, oh, I can just just go on
a holiday when I want to go on a holiday.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
So when you I don't know your story, So did
you did you choose to leave with you are like
like nine years? How did you? How did it end?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
I chose I chose to leave. Yeah, it was my choice.
I was coming up, as I said, about nine years,
and I think, you know, there's a thing that happens
on soaps where a lot of it gets becomes like
sort of heightened uber heightened sort of melodrama of like
buildings exploding and people killing each other and whatever. And
the thing about my character and that show that I
(10:03):
loved was that it just felt like he was sort
of on the outside of the genre as it were,
It felt like he was on the outside of everything,
sort of going, this is all a bit weird, isn't it.
And so I thought, eventually, you know, his time will come,
and I don't know if I want it to be that.
At the time, the character was in a relationship and
the actress, my friend Maddie, had made the choice to leave,
(10:25):
and I was like, well, I'm going to leave too,
because I want them to leave together and be happy.
And so we left and we're happy since then Maddie
went back to the show on her own and it
turned out we'd gotten divorced off screen. So fuck, that's
a show. But what's it like?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
What's your goodbye like on these tenders when he's been
there nine years every single day except for Yeah, it.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Was it was the emotion sort of caught me by surprise. Really.
They threw this lovely, big old party at the BBC
l Street Bar for me and Maddie and they played
like a you know, as they do for everyone when
they leave, like a montage of all your best bits,
and you know, my family were there, and so many
people showed up and you know, from the crew and
(11:12):
the cast, and yeah, I sort of went to do
a speech to say thank you to everyone, you just
got caught in my throat and I remember going, oh, dear,
oh yeah, I'm not dead inside. It turns out, so yeah,
it was. It was an emotional goodbye and also you know, scary.
It was all all I'd known, and it was a
leap of faith that I knew I had to take
(11:33):
because I wanted to explore other things, and thankfully it
worked out.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
How long was the gap before you were then a
massive movie start it?
Speaker 2 (11:42):
It was less than two years that I was shooting Yesterday, Yeah,
and then it was you know, amazing, but three years
between leaving Extendards and Yesterday coming out. But yeah, it
felt very quick, you know, less than two years between
auditioning and getting the movie and going on that journey. Yeah,
very lucky.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
How was your mental health? If I may ask you
finish these tenders, let's say two weeks later, when you're
so used to this constant work and this constant thing
and now you're you have a day free, what do
you do?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah? Some of it was sort of it felt quite freeing,
you know, after so long of just being able to
go I can just do what I like now. And again,
I got lucky that things sort of came my way.
I think if I'd been less lucky, then maybe I
would have had to sort of have those dark knights
of the soul and gone, what am I going to do?
How am I going to figure it out? So actually
I kind of just got to enjoy it. But there
(12:37):
were those moments of you know, I remember the day
I left, drove out the gates for the last time
and parked up outside my flat and just thought, BlimE me, okay,
here we go. You know, as an adult, I've never
known this. I've never known it, you know, And there
I was a twenty five sort of first time just
sort of going, now, I don't know what's going to happen.
Hopefully I'll be okay, I've just.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Never Hopefully I'll be a mess with me. Yeah, don't
worry about it.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Yeah, if only I had that sort of phrasing confidence.
You do see some people who sort of go, yeah,
i'm gonna I'm probably gonna make it, and some of
them do and you're just like, wow, that's amazing, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Yeah. Well you're also very good. Thank you him as
I've forgotten to tay so and I feel like an absolute.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
On.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I feel awful. I should have I should have said
it at the top actually, because we've gone really far
back into your person. Should have said it. I'll say
it all right. Look, yeah, you've died. You're dead dead,
You're dead dead. Typical.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
It's typical, isn't it. Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:47):
What what how did you die? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
How did I die? Yeah? Look, it was actually quite banal.
I have this thing where I sort of trip on
the pavement or on my own foot at least once
a day. At least once a day, I'm walking down
the street and I sort of lose my footing, and
so I think it's going to be something that boring.
I'd like to think that I've lived, you know, to
(14:13):
a ripe old age, so that my kids are you know,
what's that age, let's go, you know, eighty seven. Maybe
there's nothing else wrong with me. I'm still I'm still
walking fine. And then I just sort of just I
just trip on a as I do every day, except
this day it was at the top of a flight
of you know, concrete steps, and I just sort of
(14:35):
go hurtling down them and break a few bones along
the way and then smash my head on the bottom
one and off we go. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
I think it's loads of loads of people around.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Yeah. Yeah, a lot of people who just sort of go,
who's that? What a loser, right, you know what? What
a crap way to die. I think some of them
is slightly traumatized. I'd like to think some of them
at least have a sort of shocked maybe like this
seems funny until your face explodes and you're like a
(15:09):
watermelon on them, and then they feel really bad.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah, yeah, and then I shouldn't have I shouldn't have laughed.
And if anyone knew that was and they're like, I can't.
I mean there's no recognizable features. He's it's like a
water melon. I don't know what.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Well, yeah, that's really good as well, just like that
to be the case that you know, despite a lifetime
hopefully a lifetime at that point of being in movies
and TV and that I die.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Recognize. Yeah, was it the point of your death at
the top as you first I went, yeah, then to
the bottom went there's no way of no, there's no
way of no.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
That's ideal. That is yeah, that is my ideal death.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Yeah. Do you worry about death, Yeah, I do.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
I mean more so in my own death. I worry
about since I've had kids, I sort of I worry that,
you know, because I think death can and are the
worst times. It can be so sudden. Now my death
has a real material effect on someone's life existentially. So yeah,
I do worry about that. And I've always had a
(16:15):
sort of odd maybe an obsession actually with death because
some of my earliest memories I was in I was
in are being at my granddad's funeral in India. I
was three when I went out there and he my
mom took me out there because he knew he was
going to he was going to pass away, and he
wanted to meet me and met me. I met him
and then like you know, it was very quick decline,
and so I was out there for them for that
(16:37):
and it was like, you know, a very traditional Hindu
ceremony and you know, they had him sort of laid
out in the house and stuff like that. So my
earliest memories was very much about death. So I think
I've I've often realized I've had this sort of understanding
of mortality for almost all my life in a way
that maybe other people. You know, it develops over time.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Do you happen to remember you were only phrasing. I
don't know if you would. Do you remember seeing his
body and all of that? Do you remember that being
sort of scary or comforting or apparently?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I was curious?
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Was there any version of it that it was like
a nice thing?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
I think? My mom tells me I was curious. He
donated his his eyes, but they you know, he was
laid out so that they put cotton in his in
his eye sockets. Such a such a grim thing to
say that the meaning behind it, that's quite lovely. He
donated his eyes. But yeah, so I remember obviously that
(17:34):
was actually probably quite a traumatic thing for a three
year old to be looking at. Yeah, but my mum
dresses up sorry to us with the eyes open with
like white I think, I think so. I think that's
probably the only reason I would have asked. Otherwise I
would have been like his eyes. So yes, safe to
say death it forms the baseline of perhaps all my trauma.
(17:58):
Then you yeah, perfect, this is that's why I'm here.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Yeah, this is it. What do you think happens when
you die?
Speaker 2 (18:06):
As I think about it a lot, but I'm also
not in Spirituality has played a part in my life,
but ultimately I'm not someone who necessarily believes in a
genuine sort of physical afterlife where we're all actually you know,
present in some way. But I think maybe we don't
necessarily understand you know, the sort of parameters of sort
(18:27):
of consciousness and what you know, the way that people
talk about sort of perceiving time and how that can
change and depending on sort of how things are taken
along in your brain. My theory is that when one
has that sort of final moment before you die, that
maybe you actually perceive it as something really long, and
(18:48):
so you create some sort of heaven in your head
just before the lights go out, and it can last
as long as you want it to last. So to
all of us outside of it, we're watching it go.
They took their last breath and they're gone. But maybe
in our our experience of death, that before we take
that last breath, we actually get to, you know, have
(19:09):
a sort of you know, long, long long time in
this in this world we create in our head with
all the people we love. For what, however, so you
choose to sort of create something. That's what I like.
That's that's what I use to comfort myself when I
think about death, like a weird sort of bubble.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
I've never I've never heard that before. I really like that,
thank you. That is a brand new theory. I really
like it. But so then, so then my question is,
if that's the case, then I do like that. Yeah,
but it's this sort of dreamscape that you make last
as long as you want. When that reaches its end, then.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
What then then, but you'd be on You'd be feeling
more euphoric than you've ever felt before, So you'd feel
accepting of it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
But then it's like avoid, Then it's avoid.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Then it's yeah, we're all We're all done at that point. Yeah,
So it's it's on one hand, really lovely, on the
other hand, completely bleak.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Given your your pretty deep words about the perception of
time and space and eternity, do you understand tenant.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
I walked into that one, didn't know? Yeah? I do,
actually to some degree. Good it actually did take it,
did I did actually watch it twice and in the cinema,
And but I think Chris's movies are designed to be
that way, especially that one.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
You have to I had to draw a map when
I got home, and this was this was the Yeah, yeah,
I get it.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if he himself has has
this map in a notebook somewhere, you know. But yeah,
it also seems to me that he just creates these
concepts in it and that's his genius.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
He just has it all. Yeah, he's like, it's obvious,
isn't it, Like I guess. Yeah, Well I got news
for you, buddy boy. There is a heaven, oh gay
for you. Maybe for you it's when you've created in
your dying seconds, maybe we'll see. And this heaven is
filled with all your favorite things. It's filled with your
(21:09):
favorite thing. What's your favorite thing.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Beyond my children and my partner, I'd say chocolate.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
So it's filled with chocolate, you know what you know
those like dairy milk, those squares that's what you sit on.
But they're like the right temperature that they're just soft
enough to not liquid, but they're just you know what
I mean, perfect, And the walls are like liquid chocolate
that just is like a fantin our time, sort of
China chocolate factory style. Yeah, and there's a sort of
(21:36):
flake that serves you, a giant flake, and it serves
you trays of chocolate and dairy milk, buttons and shit.
And there's tablery mountains over there. And sure, I mean
it's great. And there's them chunky kit kats, says like cars. Anyway,
they're delighted to see you in heaven. Great and they
but they want to talk about their big fans. They
(21:57):
want to talk about your life. They want to talk
about your life through the medium of film. And the
first thing they ask you is, what's the first film
you remember seeing? J Mespatel.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
My initial thought was that it was the Mighty Morphin
Power Rangers movie, and my only lasting memory of going
to see that movie is not watching it, was being
huddled into my mum from very early on. Something scared me.
I was just basically refused to watch most of it
and then turned around when they were winning at the end.
So I can't really I don't know if. But also
(22:28):
that wasn't it transplis that wasn't necessarily the first movie
I remember watching or not watching in that case, Actually
the first movie I remember watching as a Bollywood movie
called Hama ghekon, which I think translates to who am
I to you? Or some I would say, which isn't
necessarily a great.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Title from movie.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yeah, I've got a memory of sort of the curtains parting,
maybe during an intermission or something because Bollywood movies, and
I don't know if still the case. I've sort of
lost track over the last ten odd years of Bollywood,
but you know I used to. It was what we
watched as a family growing up. They were all well
so back then in the nineties, well, you know, now
(23:11):
you could probably go and watch most Bollywood movies at
your local multiplex. You know that it's got a pretty
good distribution now, whereas back then it would be in
those sort of metropolitan hubs where there was a big
sort of South Asian community. So for us it was Leicester.
We would drive to Leicester and go and watch movies there,
and you know it was it was more often than
not a really fun experience because you've basically got this
(23:31):
packed cinema full of everyone looks like you, they're more
or less from the same background, and you're all digesting
this movie and roughly the same way. No one's got
expectations of it being you know, anything else, but also
everyone's probably talking throughout it or whatever. If I went
into that situation now, I'd probably be driven up the wall.
But back then it was again all you knew. So yeah,
(23:53):
but this film was you know, I've not watched it
in years. Growing up watching Bollywood, it was almost more
about the songs than it was about the film. The
songs the soundtracks were the things that ended up sort
of making the movies the sort of all time classics
that they have sort of since become. But this is
also one of those movies, and I think, you know,
(24:15):
I only just sort of read up on it having
realized it was probably the first movie I remember seeing.
But I'm sure a lot of movies of that era
you could look at now and go it's just a
bit off. It's a bit The sort of the morality
of this whole thing and the sort of gender stereotyping
is is quite problematic. And this is sort of like
it's like this big family and it's all but based
(24:38):
around a wedding. They're a very rich family, it would seem,
but that you know, and there's a young guy and
he's his brother's getting married, I think, But then his
brother's wife dies. She falls down the stairs, and I
scammed through it recently. I mean that her falling downstairs
was yeah, yeah, weird that hey, But I'd like to
(24:58):
think that when I fall down the does and die,
it would be slightly more dramatic and believable than what
was presented in this movie, because I was openly laughing
when I when I sort of revisited it recently, it
was beyond absurd. It was like, you know, something from
Toast of London or something it was. It was just like,
(25:20):
so's there's something funny, and watching it with a nostalgic eye,
going this this stuff is just absurd. I mean, the
songs are kind of great from a Bollywood musical point
of view, but the story is all over the place,
and the sort of the thing of going families and
duty and all this stuff, which you know, on some
level is a beautiful sort of bedrock of the culture
(25:40):
in which I grew up. There's also an element of
going yeah, but also not necessarily doesn't have to be
so simplified, like they've got this thing. Whether like the
female leader sort of talks about working in computers. It's
as simple as that she works in computers. But then
you never see her do anything like that in the
whole In the whole movie, she's just like cooking and dancing,
being a good woman of the house. And you're like,
(26:03):
that's just rubbish.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
When you say everyone everyone's talking in the cinema, is it?
Are they talking like catching up or are they talking
at the film with their chat?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Like, like, you're probably right that it is. I think
that in my head it was just people sort of
interacting with the film, and there is a bit of that,
but you're right, probably some of them is they're just
catching up. They're just having a little chat, talking about
you know, gossiping about about family stuff or whatever. So yeah,
(26:35):
that's my that's my earliest memory of being in a cinema.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
I feel sorry for your moment might two month in
Power Ranges that you're not watching it and she's like,
so I've got she's.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Got to sit through it.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Where what is the film that scared you the most
other than Power Ranges?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Yeah, yeah, that was up there. I still think about it.
I mean, they're the sort of predict answer for this
one would be The Shining But I and I will
give it a shout out it is a phenomenal movie.
I think I had I had sort of had it
sort of tarnished in my head because of the stories
of sort of Kubrick and Are the way that he
treated Shelley Duval, and I thought it was Jack Nicholson
(27:14):
as part of that. But then I sort of I
think maybe recently Shelley Devol kind of said that Jack
Nicholson was actually really good to work with, So maybe
the jury's out on that. But it's still an amazing movie,
and it's still it basically taught me what I love
about the kind of horror that I like, which is
that sort of drip feed of dread over you know
(27:34):
a period of time. I'm not really that big on
jump scares. I prefer something that's just creepy, and so
my choice is actually a film called It follows Ah.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
It's a great film.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Yeah, I mean it's still I watched it about a
year ago again and it's just it has it has
got some jump scares, but married with that, it's just
got this phenomenal concept of like, you know that if
this sort of curse that gets asked on when you
have sex with someone and then you basically you see
this some someone basically slowly walking towards you, and when
(28:08):
if they get to you, they will sort of kill
you in the most gruesome way. But you can outrun them,
you can keep running away from them. They're never going
to run after you. They're just going to keep and
only you can see them. It was such a genius
concept for a horror movie, I thought, And you know,
since people have analyzed it and you know, talked about
how sort of an allegory for sort of STDs and
whatever that sort of thing, but I'm sure that there
(28:29):
might be some truth to sort of that being the
germ of the idea, but it just as as a
horror movie. It's really got just a brilliant concept cinematically,
you know, you can just because there's a lot of
these like panning shots. There's a shot in the in
the school I think they're at where the camera just
sort of is on a revolve, I think, and you're
sort of and now you're aware of the concept. You're
just watching everyone in the background going is that?
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Is that?
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Is that? Is that? And actually one of them kind
of is I think, But you never then sometimes you don't.
It cuts to another scene and you're like was it,
and so I really loved it. I thought it was
fantastic and it's oddly a horror film that I will
happily watch again. Often with horror you kind of don't
want to go back to it because it's too disturbing. Yeah,
(29:12):
it's a really good one.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
What about crying? Do you cry a lot? And what's
the film that made you cry the most?
Speaker 2 (29:19):
You cry it? Yeah? I think there are some films
that can really hit me. But the one that most
recently I watched and noted me for six was a film,
an animated film called Song of the Sea. It's an
Irish animated film. I know that the team behind it
have made a film called The Book of Kels. I
think it's cooled, but I haven't seen that. Actually, I've
(29:40):
still only seen Song of the Sea. It's this beautiful
story about a family. The mothers died, I think the
idea actually died giving birth to their second child, and
so this dad is sort of raising these two children
and they end up going on this sort of adventure altogether.
It's at based on Gaelic sort of myths, and there
(30:03):
was just that there's a point towards the end where
you know, the little boy has never met his mum,
and he gets to see her in this sort of
spiritual form, and they have this option of sort of
bringing her back or something like that. And I just remember,
I haven't watched it since, and I certainly haven't watched
it since having kids with my own, because I just
think it's going to destroy me, because even just thinking
(30:23):
about it now, it's just like this, it's basically this
idea that they have to they have to accept their loss,
that she's gone, you know, and that they'll be okay,
they'll be okay without it, and it's just I mean,
I just remember going if I've never sort of openly
howled crying at a movie, but I was close with this,
(30:45):
you know, and I was watching it at home. I
could have if I wanted to, If I remember correctly,
it was quite early on in my relationship and my
partner had suggested watching this movie. And I think if
I just sort of completely lost it, maybe I wouldn't
be here today with two kids. But yeah, it's a beautiful,
beautiful film. The animations gorgeous, the music stunning, and it's
(31:07):
just so so heartfelt, and I recommend it. It's a beautiful movie.
But yeah, I was moments away from.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Just yeah, did you was your partner crying?
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Yeah? You know? But okay, yeah she's dead inside. She's yeah,
she couldn't care less.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
She wasn't looking at you like what.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Yeah, she's a scrolling I said.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
You watch it because I like cartoons. What's the film
that people don't like it? It's not critically acclaimed, but
you love it. You don't care what anyone says.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
I'm picking a film that was picked by our mutual
friend James McNicholas. I'm going with Batman Forever. Yeah, Batman Forever.
Great yet great chat. My thing with that movie started
because it came I think when I was five, and
I remember I had some cousins who came over from
abroad and we all went to the cinema. They got
to go and watch Batman Forever because it was like
(32:04):
a twelve or something, and I wasn't allowed to go
with them. So it kind of took on this sort
of because I also loved Batman. I loved watching that
sort of animated series as a kid, but I'd never
seen a film Batman at that point, so it kind
of took on this sort of legendary status in my
head of this is the Batman film that I'm going
to watch it, and then eventually I think we got
it on video and I watched it sort of maybe
a few years later, and was just obsessed with it.
(32:26):
As a kid, I was obsessed with because a Batman,
and I loved it and I thought it was genuinely great,
and I was largely obsessed with Jim carry as the Riddler. Right,
But we watched it during lockdown as a sort of
you know, stick it on, why not, we haven't got
anything else going on, and it'll be fun to revisit it,
and it in my head it actually it's obviously parts
(32:47):
of it that's just awful and make no sense. But
I can't help but love it. I'll always love it,
you know, because and I actually still really enjoyed like
Jim Carrey is, like I think in a way it
feels like he's the only one who knows what movies
in to some degree or does it well enough.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
I think. The problem with it it's got two faces
in that one.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Right, Yeah, that's Tommy Lee Jones. Yes, yeah, and she's
in the next one. Yeah, that was the next the next.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
One, this is Nickel Kidman the good soundtrack, Well.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
It's yeah, it's got Kiss from a Rose by Seal,
which actually James McNicholas told me this recently. He's a
bit of tid bit of trivia. The Kiss from a
Rose a was on seals album from like two years
before that, and then was also on the soundtrack for
Never Ending Story three, but it didn't didn't didn't pick
up any attention from that that movie. And then it's
(33:44):
this odd, odd sort of thing when you look back
in the nineties and these huge blockbusters just had these
like random soundtracks of assorted songs that they just sort
of had kill me through but yeah by you too. Yeah,
but it was so funny to me like this Erarell
had already released this song on his album It Gained
No Traction twice and then Yeah, and then it came
(34:06):
out with Batman Forever and it won him a Grammy.
He won like three Grammys for that one song because
of a Batman Move. Whereas now you just can't there
isn't There isn't that same thing that there isn't a
soundtrack album of pop songs for a Batman Moves.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
It's weird, You're right.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
But yeah, I sort of loved watching it. I believe
Two Face gets defeated by some coins. I think Batman
throws some coins at two Face and he falls over.
That's how That's how he gets defeated.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
So yeah, I remember loving Batman Fever because I was young.
But I think the issue with it and it's it's
worse than Batman and Robin. What Jim Carry's doing is
sort of very loud and fast and high energy and crazy,
but so is everyone else in that film. Tommy Jones
is also everyone's everyone's gone mad. There's no there's no
(34:55):
boundaries and no one's there's no boundaries of performance. No
one's going maybe you could rain that, yeah, just a
little bit. It's like they've all looked at Jim Carry
and gone, oh, we do that. We're going at that speed,
are we. Tommy Jones is off his nut in that film.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
He is, yeah, but he's really going for it. He's
going for it, but he still just doesn't reach the
height of Jim Carrey. In my book, like this is something,
but I think it's something that I think I read
that they didn't get on or something, or Tommy Lee
Jones had just didn't have time for Jim Carrey, and
I think it was that thing of like because I
think he was doing it but maybe not enjoying it,
whereas maybe Jim Carrey was doing it and genuinely enjoying it.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
That's it. Yeah, I think that shows interesting. What about
a film that you used to have but you've watched
recently and you don't like it anymore?
Speaker 2 (35:43):
And I'm glad that whatever holds out for you. Thank you,
yes for this. I've gone for a movie called The Party.
I don't know if you're familiar with this Peter Seller's movie.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
The Peter Sellers. Yeah, yeah, I could see why one
might have an issue with this for sure.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
So it's a movie about Peter Sellers plays naturally. Peter
Sellers plays an Indian actor by the name of go
on by the name of I think his name is
Hyundi v. Buckshee, and he has come over to Hollywood
by some sort of machination I don't remember exactly why,
(36:22):
and he's sort of that he ends up at this
party and it's basically just in ninety minutes or whatever
how long it is, of him just making an absolute
fool of himself, you know. But ultimately, and I remember
watching because it was one of those movies that my
dad was fond of, and it's so odd sort of
looking back on that and going, Dad, why do you
find this fun? I'm actually not asked in this. I
think I might ask him this, now, what did you
(36:44):
Where's what's the humor there? You know? But I think
it's I think of going they can you know, you
can laugh at yourself, but it's where it's people. It's
like the reason, Goodness gracious Me works as a TV
shows because it's made by four brown people, and so
they're allowed to do all the joke about brown people.
Whereas watching a movie like this, you're like, everyone involved
in it is white for sure. There's absolutely no where
(37:07):
there's a single brown person on that set in nineteen
sixty whatever, and so they're all just going, let's just
you know, brown face up. Peter Sellers just make him
out like what we assume a stupid Indian man would
be like if he came to Hollywood, And it was
kind of odd sort of watching it again in prep
for this. It was the first thing that popped into
my mind, and I sort of scanned my way through
(37:28):
it and just went the gags are on paper, great gags,
you know, is it is funny, but it's not. None
of it's okay. Really, Ultimately, it's very miss it's very misguided.
And to kind of imagine a bunch of people sort
of going, this is great, this is so funny, what
a great idea. We're brilliant, aren't we brilliant? You know?
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Then I read something really odd that apparently, like I think,
like someone really I mean, maybe it might have even
been like sutage it ray or some like a very
respected Indian filmmaker was a huge fan of it or
something and just when and wanted to work with Peter Sellers.
So there was an odd thing. I don't know. It
kind of made me think about sort of the bar
(38:13):
that one sets for oneself based on where you're sort
of placed societal, you know, and you just kind of go, well,
what can I expect? I'm just going to laugh. I
guess I'm a joke or we're getting into sort of
deep psychological stuff here. But like, it's funny to me
that like generationally it's you know, it maybe is accepted
by a generation who go who I guess, in some
(38:34):
twisted way feel represented.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Well maybe if it's if it's literally the only thing
as well, Yeah, it must have been.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Yeah back then, I mean in that arena of on
that side of the world, for them to even acknowledge
that brown people exist, that South Asian brown people exist,
would have been amazing, you know. But it just doesn't
leave a good taste anymore. So, as much of a
genius as Peter Sellers is very good answer, what's the
(39:01):
film that means the most to you?
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Not necessarily the film itself is good, but the experience
you had seeing it will always make it meaningful to you.
In Miss Bettel, what is it?
Speaker 2 (39:11):
This is a sort of a bit of a wide
ranging answer, and I guess you'll probably maybe picking one
of them, But in my head it's sort of the
Lord of the Rings films, because in it was a
real a sort of turning point in my life on
many levels, and it sort of those early years of
sort of transitioning from primary school to secondary school and everything.
(39:32):
I didn't find it easy, I didn't enjoy it. But
for those three years at Christmas there was a promise
of this massive movie that I was going to love,
and the first one I ended up seeing with my
dad and a friend of mine, but because I didn't
really know what it was, and then I was like,
this is really good, and I read the books, and
so the second one and the third one I went
in to see with my sister, both of them, and
(39:54):
I look back on them now and I think they're
amazing movies. I think there were real game changes in
terms of blockbuster cinema, but there's just there was just
something special about of the security of it and the
comfort that it gave me. And I guess if I
picked one out, I'll pick the last one, Return of
the King, because it was the first time I remember
being so excited to go and see a movie, you know,
just being like, this is it. It's all been building
(40:16):
up to this one, and the cinema is going to
be packed and we're all just going to be like,
how is it going to play out? It's going to
be amazing. And you know, I'm very close to my
sister and so to have that sort of those memories
of going to see those movies with her and just
being so excited about it, and it was incredible as well.
They weren't a disappointment at all. They were quite something.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Yeah that it was this event every Christmas? Yeah, it
was a real thing. Yeah, that's nice.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
So we'll go with I'll go with Return of the King.
Let's go with that third one.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
I'm actually gonna let you have all three because thank you,
because the point of your answer is all three, and
I don't normally do that. I'll let you have a
different sort of heaven and this. I don't know what's
going on here. I've gone stuff in.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Now it's good.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Is the film you most relate to?
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Film I most relate to? I'm going with Boyhood again.
I was so excited to see this movie because I'm
a huge fan of Richard link Later and I was.
I actually recently, within like a year, had seen that
before Trilogy and just fell in love with that, you know,
maze Yeah, and I've never seen someone do that with time,
you know, tell a story over what was it eighteen years?
(41:27):
And then to know that he had this movie sort
of coming down down the road, but he'd been shooting
over twelve years, and I was just so excited for it.
It felt like the kind of thing that's done in
huge budget filmmaking, except it wasn't that tall in it.
I knew it was going to be something really personal
and special. What I wasn't expecting was just how personal
it would feel to me, because I was roughly the
(41:48):
same age as the character in the movie, if maybe
sort of five odd years off, but there was still
a lot of the same sort of cultural touch points.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
Well at the end of the movie.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
Yeah, yeah, sort of you know that so you know,
start shooting in two thousand and two, and a lot
of those sort of touch points just that they really
I was like, I remember like waiting in line to
pick up a Harry Potter book, and then the sort
of the music he was listening to, Like there was
this one point where there was like this like Foo
Fighters album track from like their two thousand and four album.
(42:19):
It was just playing in the background of a scene,
and I, on one hand, I just appreciated the sort
of detail of the sort of timeline of it all.
But I was just like that I used to listen
that's like one of those tracks that no one knows
that I that I know, and it's in this movie,
you know. And then you know, stuff like he had
this at the end when he's like driving I think
to college and he stops off to take a picture
(42:40):
and it was he was using the same camera as
the one that I had at the time, you know,
Canon sevent d. I think it was remember, go, this
is really weird. And then the song that was actually
then used in the trailer, and then at the end
of the movie, this song called a Hero by the
Family of the Year. I'd already heard it like two
odd years before. It's a friend of mine and maybe
like this long like Spotify playlist, and it was there,
(43:00):
and I remember going, some beautiful song there is. So
there was this odd sort of confluence of stuff that
was already sort of in my life and that wound
up being in this movie. And obviously, naturally the movie
is about about life and those those teenage years and
how difficult and tumultuous they can be emotionally, and yeah,
I just it was really moving and really masterfully done.
(43:20):
I thought, you know, it could easily have been so
gimmicky and so sentimental. And actually, you know, there's something
about Richard Linklater's sort of tone. He never he never
gets too I'm never annoyed by the sort of he's sentimental,
but it's it's it's such a truthful sentimentality. I find it.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
Oh, Yeah, he's amazing. He loves people, he loves people
and he but it doesn't You're right, he's not sentment.
It isn't like cheesy. I think the fact that he
really really gets time means that anything that's kind of
moving is fully earned, because it's like, yeah, time has happened. Yeah,
I mean it isn't sort of yeah, it's amazing. That's
(44:02):
a great answer. What's the sexiest film I've ever seen?
Speaker 2 (44:07):
I tell you the truth is that I didn't have
an answer for this twenty minutes before we started recording,
and I was like, I was like, what is going
on and why am I struggling to find a sexiest movie?
And I realized it, well, I haven't realized fully my
hunches that are you know, growing up in a culture
that more or less it goes or sex doesn't exist.
(44:29):
It doesn't exist. You know, every Bollywood movie will more
or less either revolve around or end with a marriage,
and it's romantic, there's love, but sexy and sort of
the sex part of it was never present, and so
you're sort of led to sort of go, well, I
guess sex is something that is probably shameful him. I
(44:49):
shouldn't I should never, I should never enjoy it. So
it took me a minute to go sexiest film, because that's.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
Why it's such big news. You have you do it
three times a week. I think that's why it became.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
I think that's what it is. Yeah yeah, yeah, so
you need to find out how that got out there. Yeah, so,
but I had to sort of go. Most recently, I
think the sexiest film I saw was Hustlers. Fuck yes, Yeah,
it's just undeniably you're never going to forget the first
(45:22):
time j Loo turns up in that movie. You're just
never going to forget it, you know.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
And it's you're never get it. You're never going to
forget that, and you're never going to get over her
hugging in a big up third coat. Yeah, you're just
never going to go over.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
There's the initial thing of going, this is really sexy,
just on primum and it's just really sexy, and then
you're like, what's really sexy is that she's really good
at everything she does, just good, pulls off this amazing
performance in this movie, I think, and it just throws
herself into this character that is also a very sexy thing,
I think. But yeah, it's a very sexy movie. So
(45:59):
that's why I'm yeah. I mean, it's a perfect answer.
I can't believe it took you this long to get there.
It's obviously obviously the.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
Subcategory to this question troubling boner is worrying why dunes,
which maybe all of your boners I don't know.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
Yeah, that's what do you have it? It really led
me down that road of going every everything is a troubling.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
Boner in my life, a film you found arousing that
you weren't sure you should.
Speaker 2 (46:31):
What came to mind on this one was there's a
film called Disclosure, Michael Douglas more film, and it was
one of those that we for some reason, the DVD
was lying around. My parents used to have a shop
where they would rent out films, you know, latest blockbusters
and like some old films and whatever. And then every
now and then they'd be like, I know, for some
(46:52):
reason didn't get returned or whatever it do. It end
up coming into the house and it would just be
lying around and this movie was there, this DVD, and
I remember just kind of going, I wonder what this is.
And there's quite early on in the movie the sort
of the crux of the whole thing is that Demi
Moore's character sort of coerce is quite quite forcefully sort
of coerce is Michael Douglas's character into sort of having sex,
(47:15):
although I think the whole point is that they never
really have sex, but there's, you know, some sexy stuff happens,
and I remember going, this is kind of because it's
kind of hot, and it's kind of like, you know,
because then he kind of does get into it, and
it's a bit angry and you know, just like, oh,
I think it's hot, but I don't think it should be,
and it definitely shouldn't be because it's it's not really consensual,
(47:38):
is it. And then the movie goes off in this
weird tangent towards the end where have you seen it?
It sort of winds up in some sort of weird
nineties v It becomes like a corporate computed yeah, because
it's basically they're working for a tech company. And then
he winds up in some VR space looking through files
(47:58):
to prove that she did something or didn't do something.
But it's like it's like you know, Windows ninety five
virtual reality, and it's it's quite funny to look at
now there's like this very odd moment where like Demi
Moore's face is like sort of superimposed onto this very
blocky three D figure, and it's just laughable. Maybe in
(48:21):
ninety four or ninety five, whenever it came out, it
was like the peak of technology. Wow, Yeah, they couldn't
have imagined Avatar back then, But now it just looks
like a terrible video game.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
Well, dad, what is the greatest film of all time? Objectively?
The greatest film? Objectively?
Speaker 2 (48:41):
Yeah, it's hard because we're saying objectively objectively, Yes, I'm
going with two thousand and one, A space odys see it.
I kept wanting to find something that might have a
bit more sort of humor. But then I thought, when
I think there is some humor, I think how.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
Hall is kind of funny. That's funny, you know.
Speaker 2 (48:59):
I think like The godfather sits alongside this in terms
of films that changed Western cinema at least really worshipts,
you know, And I think Godfather becomes that because I
think it really it's about those actors, and you know,
for me, it was definitely like a game changer. But
two thousand and one, I was like, this is astounding
the scale of this is in a way more epic
(49:20):
and tangible than anything I've grown up watching because it
was literally, you know, it was all miniatures, and there's
something about that that's just you're not going to get
it with CGI and just the confidence of it tonally,
you know, to make a movie that breeds like that,
I don't know if you'd be able to do it today,
(49:41):
really would you. I mean, it's we're not used to
that sort of movie that just sits on this sort
of tone for that long. And there's an element of
what I was talking about with sort of what I
like about horror, where it just sort of this dread,
this sort of thing just running underneath the whole thing,
where you're like, what is happening? I'm not And what
I love about it is the mystery of it. You know,
you don't really get any answers. You had, so much
(50:01):
has left up to interpretation. It's saying so much existentially
and running through the whole thing. You have this sort
of very gripping narrative of this robot that's the sort
of AI that's trying to sabotage everything, and so therefore
it's also very prescient in everything but it got the
year a bit wrong. We certainly weren't doing that in
(50:21):
two thousand and one. We wish, yeah, but you know,
everything else about it was so was so on point
and yeah, and it's one I you know, love revisiting.
Speaker 1 (50:33):
It's amazing that it wasn't that we hadn't been to
the moon yet when that was made, and the way yeah, yeah,
shows it's kind of amazing. It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
I watched this documentary called rum Yeah, and they were
sort of apparently there was a theory that Kubrick shot
two thousand and one as a sort of test run
for faking the moon landings. That's sort of a conspiracy
theory that goes around, which makes me like.
Speaker 1 (51:00):
That he's acknowledging it in the Shining because the carpet, the.
Speaker 2 (51:03):
Carpet, Yeah exactly, exactly, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (51:07):
It all makes sense. What is the film you could
or have watched the most over and over again?
Speaker 2 (51:13):
I avoided School of Rock. School of Rock is kind
of the genuine answer, but I'm going to leave that
to one side because everyone says it. I'm going I
was also the going to go for Interstellar, but I
think maybe that's a bit weird. I haven't watched it
in a while. I feel like if I watch it
next time, I'm going to be crying a lot because
I now have children of my own, but I'm going
for Michael Clayton. Yeah, I absolutely love this movie. I
(51:36):
think it's a masterpiece and the writing just it's the
kind of movie that I will watch over and over
again just because I love to hear that dialogue. It's
just so brilliantly written. That opening monologue. I remember watching
for the first time and I was just I was
just in straight away. I was like, this is amazing.
This is absolutely amazing. And Tom Wilkinson's performance, isn't it
(51:59):
on another level. I mean, everyone's just operating at the
highest level, and it's again kind of quite It continues
to be so relevant, and it's yeah, it's got that
sort of lovely sort of Hollywood button on the end,
sort of George Clooney gets to do his sort of
charming sort of got ya at the end. But yeah,
it's I just I love it. I could watch it
over and over again. It's a great movie. I think
(52:20):
kind of underrated, maybe quite underrated, or not as appreciated
outside of sort.
Speaker 1 (52:25):
Of maybe underscene. Yeah, yeah, people seen it. What's on
the other end of the scale, and we don't like
to be negative? Soon stay here too long? Yeah, the
worst film you've ever seen.
Speaker 2 (52:35):
Gone here with Cowboys and Aliens. This is the Yeah,
I don't know. There was like a twenty ten movie.
I think it's one of those that I went Daniel Craig,
but it was it was What got me was how yeah,
how did how did it go wrong? The people you've
got involved in I believe Damon Lindeloff was involved somewhere
down the line and writing it. But you've got Daniel Craig,
(52:57):
Olivia Wilde, Harrison Ford, Paul Dano's in it, Sam Rockwell's
in it, and yeah, John who you know, is one
of the great It's it's just an odd one. Like
it's really not good and I'm still sort of trying
to figure out how it how it happened.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
I think the issue with it is I don't think
it's bad necessarily. I think that it's a film called
Cowboys and Aliens and it's not fun.
Speaker 2 (53:22):
It's really serious, isn't it. Yeah, it's very serious, very earnest.
Speaker 1 (53:27):
It's very serious and dramatic and like what if Cowboys
and Aliens? And you're like, hang on, wait, wait, wait,
it's called Cowboys and Aliens. That sounds like it's good,
sounds like fun. Yeah, where's the fact there's no fun
in it? I'm still not sure serious serious series.
Speaker 2 (53:43):
Yeah, big fan actually of Cowboys and Aliens.
Speaker 1 (53:47):
Yeah, but I think it's my memory of it is
it's is. It's a good film as in, it's well done,
it's just odd because it's not fun. It's like a
quite heavy drama about cowboys and aliens.
Speaker 2 (54:01):
Yeah. No, I think you're right. I think that's what
it is. It's that I just couldn't take it seriously.
But there are also like things in it that just
make very little sense. And I mean one of the
things for me is I think the way that the
people get abducted by the aliens isn't that they just
sort of get lifted up by a you know, invisible force.
There's literally like lassus that come down. So it's like,
(54:23):
hang on, so is it cowboys cowboys are aliens? Is
that what you're saying? Yeah, so yeah, cowboys or aliens.
Speaker 1 (54:35):
What's the funniest film you see? What's the film that
made you laugh? The most.
Speaker 2 (54:39):
I'm going with Blazing Saddles excellent. It was one of
those movies only my dad introduced me to and I'd
never seen anything like it at that point. It was
just so anarchic. I've never I'd never seen anything so
a narcic and so but also watching it more recently
and going it made so many great points that continue
to be relevant. There's your moment of going, okay, maybe
(55:02):
now if you make it now, there's bits and pieces
that maybe need to shift here and there. I think
mel Brooks playing a Native American maybe not a good move,
but it's brilliant. It really makes me laugh, and especially
the way it sort of just falls apart at the end.
I always enjoy it. It's a some degree. It always
catches me by surprise that they just sort of they
(55:24):
just it's because you're invested. Yeah, you are, actually because you.
Speaker 1 (55:27):
Actually are invested. You're emotionally invested in it.
Speaker 2 (55:30):
But I just love the idea of someone just going, well,
I don't know how to finish this movie, so let's
just this is going to happen. Then just let just
let them do whatever they want to do and we'll
just figure it out.
Speaker 1 (55:43):
You know, we'll just run around a lot. Yeah, it's great. Yeah,
who makes me tell? You've been wonderful? However, when you
were eighty seven years old and you went through a
walk and you got to the top of some steps,
concrete by the way, and you and someone at the
bottle of steps looked up. They were a fat They
(56:04):
were like, I think that's much out and their friends gathered,
I think that's him. And then you tripped on your
own on a little step and you fell down down
concrete concrete. People. People giggled, oh cough, Oh god, they said.
And then you fell the last six steps, landed on
your head. Your head exploded like a watermelon, and the
(56:25):
people that were laughing went, oh god, I don't think
we should laughter. I think he I think he's dead.
And then someone said, do you know who it was?
And they looked home and it was just your particles,
just blobs of blood. There's nothing to really say who
you are at all. It's just the torso of an
eighty seven year old man and blobs of blood and brains.
(56:47):
And someone goes, I thought it was him. Cut how
can you tell? They say. Anyway, I'm walking along with
a coffin you know. I'm like, I see this crag
around and go, who's that? And they go he says
it was him to tell it, And they're going, it
can't be that. How can you tell? And I go, well,
there's no way of telling anyway. I packed, I said,
give me, and we start stuffing your body to think.
(57:08):
I'm like, could he you see any bits of bloob
over there? Like we could any bit of him? Just
grab it. People getting cheeking out, they're chapping in stones,
all sorts of stuff as well. Anyway, coffee ends up rammed. Absolutely,
there's it's jammed in there, there's nothing, there's no room.
There's only enough room for me to slip one DVD
into the side. You'd take across to the other side.
(57:30):
And on the other side it's movie night every night.
What film are you taking to show the chocolate in
Heaven when it is your movie night, mister hims Patel.
Speaker 2 (57:39):
It's not one of the movies that I've picked so far?
Is that okay?
Speaker 1 (57:41):
Great?
Speaker 2 (57:43):
It's Ali. I'm going with a yeah. It's a life
affirming movie. I think beautiful. But the first time I
saw it, someone had left film for on the telly
and I was walking past, and I just have a
memory of loking past the go up the stairs and
then sitting down on the sofa and not moving for
(58:03):
two hours, isn't it. I was just so taken away
by this movie. So and it's just beautiful, you know,
every time I watch it, I feel, you know, the
world is a better place, you know, it's it's one.
It's really gorgeous. So it'd be nice to share that heaven.
Speaker 1 (58:16):
Yeah, what a lovely man? Who is that? Ending people
should look out for listen to watch? Coming up?
Speaker 2 (58:24):
I mean coming up. I don't know everything I'm doing.
I have no fixed date for when it's coming out.
But you know, I did a series called Station eleven.
I'm very proud of it. It's in the UK. It's
on I think what's now called lions Gate Plus. I
believe that's where it's not. You could watch that I did.
I did get nominated for an Emmy. I don't know
(58:45):
if you've heard of the Emmy's bread. They're pretty, they're
pretty fun. It's a whole thing. Maybe you'll get invited
one day. But yeah, okay, yeah, so I did that.
That's good. But I've done a couple of short films
that I'm I'm quite proud. I did a short film
called Enjoy, which is available on Disney Plus in the UK.
(59:06):
I love that I did the short film called Two Dosas,
which is on YouTube okay, and a short film called
The Fox, which is also on YouTube. Three short films.
You know, we're on a film podcast. I think giving
shout outs to short films is quite nice, so check
those out.
Speaker 1 (59:21):
That's very nice. Give much Betel. Thank you for your
time and for your excellent answers and forgetting completely correct
the greatest opening. You are brilliant. Thank you, Thank you
very much. Have a lovely death, and good night to you.
Speaker 2 (59:36):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (59:39):
So that was episode two hundred and forty five. Head
over to the Patreon at patreon dot com. Forward slash
Brett Goldstein for the extra twenty minutes of chat, secrets
and video with him. As we're remember to watch Ted
Lasso and Shrinking on Apple TV Plus. You can guide
to Apple Podcast give us a five star rating, but
don't write about the show. Write about the film that
means the most to you and why thing to read.
(01:00:00):
And it always makes my neighbor Marien happy, and you
want to make her happy. Don't you. We all want
to make her happy. Thank you so much for listening.
I hope you're all well. Thank you to him us
for doing the show. Thanks to Scrubius Pippen the Distraction
Pieces Network. Thanks to Buddy Peace for producing it. Thanks
to iHeartMedia and Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network for
hosting it. Brand new to them, so thank you for
(01:00:22):
having us. Thanks to Adam Richardson for the graphics and
leads a Learning for the photography. Come join me next
week for the resurrection of Edgar Bloody right. I hope
you're all well. Thank you for listening, and that's it
for now. Have a lovely week, and in the meantime,
please be excellent to each other.
Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
Backs Outside Prods at Sad Prosy thats outtas Bass Back
Blast Outside Back Bass Back
Loogal his only films to be buried with. Hello, and
welcome to Films to be buried with. My name is
Brett Goldstein. I'm a comedian, an actor, a writer, a director,
(00:21):
an iheartradioer, and I love film. As George Santaniana once said,
the Family is one of Nature's masterpieces. The other is
Jurassic Park two The Lost World. It's wildly underrated, particularly
the scene with the splintering windshield. Yes, George, you're right.
Every week I'm by a special guest over. I tell
them they've died, then I get them to discuss their
(00:41):
life through the films that meant the most of them.
Previous guests include Barry Jenkins, Jamila Jamil, Mark Frost, Sharon Stone,
and even Bred Clambles. But this week it's the excellent
actor Himesh Patel. You can watch all of Shrinking on
Apple tv Plus, and you can watch nearly all of
Ted Lasso's seasons three so far. You can get episodes
one to eight all on Apple tv Plus. Watch them
(01:05):
love it. Head over to the Patreon at patreon dot
com forward slash Brett Goldstein, where you get an extra
twenty minutes of chat with him. Ash, he tells me
a secret. We talk about the best beginnings and endings
of films. You get the whole episode, uncut, ad free
and does a video. Check it out over at patreon
dot com. Forward Slash Brett Goldstein. So himsh Patel, Himsh
(01:25):
Patel is a lovely and brilliant actor. You know him
from Yesterday, you know him from Tenet, and you know
him from his Emmy nominated performance in Station eleven. We
recorded this on Zoom just a few days ago and
one of the things we talk about a lot actually
is his nine years on the show EastEnders. Now, if
you don't live in England, you might not know where
that is. It's one of the biggest shows in England,
(01:48):
probably the biggest show in England. It's the soap that
has been on forever, is on forever on at night.
It's very well done, it's excellent. He was in it
for nine years. We talk about that, so when I'm
talking about Easterners, that's what we're talking about. He's a
lovely bloke and I really think you're going to love
this episode. So that is it for now. I very
much hope you enjoy episode two hundred and forty five
(02:09):
of films to be Buried with. Thanks, Hello, and welcome
to Films to be Buried With. It is I Brett Goldstein,
and I am joined today by an actor, a superstar,
(02:29):
a film star, an eastender, a station elevener, an avenue fiver,
a tenant, no numberer, a legend, a hero, a husband,
a father, and a lover at least three times a week,
according to the news, Please welcome, he's here. Can we
(02:52):
believe it? An Emmy nominee, an award winner, a beautiful man.
Here he is. I can't believe it. He's right to me.
It's mister Himswn.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Hello, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
What's the according to the news three times a week
I'm a lover?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Is that? I think it was just a headline in
the in the news that comes out every week that
three times a week, at least three times a week,
you make love.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
I don't know what papers you read, but I personally
make love.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
It was like in the you know, often in this
sort of in other news like it's a positive thing.
It's not.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah, no, it's it's still a very interesting insight into
my my personal life.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Pr people.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, but look, I mean it's just no comment that one.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Hes thank you for doing this. You're in England right
now in your attic? Is that true?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I'm in my attic. Yeah, yeah, it's It's where i
have my little office. It's not like I've been consigned
to the attic to do.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
This, no hims. Can we can I ask you a
few questions about your life and career. Yeah, you are
a movie star at alleged you started in these standards.
I didn't realize how long you were in these standards.
You're in the standards for all nine years?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yeah? Nine years? Yeah? Basically. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Can you in one sentence summarize what that's like.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
One sentence? Did you say a word?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah? It was.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I mean I'd have nothing without it, you know. I
was sixteen, sort of plutch from obscurity in a little
village and yeah, right time, right place, and definitely the
right role, because I'll be honest, I was basically playing
myself when I first started, right, you know, to some degree,
and some may argue I'm doing it to this day,
(04:45):
but I couldn't have imagined anything more at the beginning,
you know. So it's quite overwhelming really looking back on that,
And that was half my life ago, and yeah, it is.
It's an odd thing for me to think that I
was there for nearly a decade. Yeah, it feels like
a lot has happened since, obviously, But I did so
much growing up there as a person as an actor.
(05:05):
I learned so much. I was so lucky to work
with a lot of very very good actors who were
there to work, you know, and make make it all
as good as it could be, you know, because there's
a huge workload, so many episodes every week.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
You go every day every day, nine to five.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Basically, yeah, yeah, and there's a danger that you can
start sort of spreading yourself thin. But I was just
lucky that I was surrounded by people who they loved
what they do, They love being actors, and they wanted
to turn up to work every day and make it,
make it great. And so I learned a lot about
being an actor and my craft and actually the fact
(05:50):
that it's hard work. You know, it's not about fame,
it's about doing good work. And as I say it
and stills a hard work ethic. The areas I work
in now of like you know, TV, different types of
TV and film. The time you have was just such
a luxury, you know, It'll always feel like a luxury
to me though that You're like, Okay, well we've got
(06:10):
to light the scene now, so i'll see you in
an hour. I'm like, Wow, that's incredible that we'd have
done an episode. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, So this side of it,
it's interesting.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
You say it's not about fame, and I agree, and
I believe with you, But I also I am aware
of these sort of side effects of being in EastEnders.
In particular. I think it's a certain type of fame, right,
You're you're very, very very famous in England if you're
in these stenders, and you're famous in a way. I
remember I made a short film with someone who was
in these Stenders. I'm trying, we're trying to get a
(06:43):
shot with him outside in the morning, and we couldn't.
We just couldn't because people just kept walking back. Yeah,
we couldn't shoot. And I remember thinking, God, this is
a certain type of fame that's actually quite I imagine
it must be quite difficult, because not only are you
very very form needs people, you're in the home all
the time. You're like it seemed in a way that
(07:04):
maybe it's different to if someone sees Brad Pitt, they
might be like, oh my god, Brad Pitt. Someone sees
some of me senders they feel like their family or
their friend, or there's something very very familiar where they go, yeah,
how you doing, mate, Like how how was that? For
nine years?
Speaker 2 (07:19):
I think it's it's that it's yeah, the familiarity is
one thing, but they're not familiar with you the person.
They're exclusively familiar with the character. So you know, no
one knew my name, they didn't know who Himesh was.
They knew Tamoir, and so they were just that's what
they'd say. As time war on, I got quite lucky
(07:39):
that I looked very different to my character as a
concerted effort. I was like, you know, I'm not gonna
wear glasses life, and I'm gonna, you know, dress differently,
And in a way it was calculated. In a way,
it was just me growing into my own person. But
it just meant that I didn't as much as other
friends of mine who were on the show, who you know,
even even friends of mine who left the show years ago,
who still they still feel a bit sort of insecure
(08:01):
in the times because it's really expected and people it's
a type of fame, a type of sort of way
that people approach you. That it's just different to what
I've experienced since doing something like Yesterday or whatever where
what I have with that, with being in films and
that sort of thing now is I don't notice it
because people aren't so ready to sort of come up
to you and be quite informal, which people always will
(08:24):
be with soap actors because of that familiarity thing and
that they think a lot of them genuinely think you're
your character. They understand you're an actor, but they also
don't they're not drawing enough of a line between the
two things. And that's a very odd thing to experience.
And I still, i'd say over here, I largely get
recognized for EastEnders still more than anything in terms of
(08:45):
people approaching me. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
And when you do the Stenders, is it all year?
Is your contract a year or does it have gaps?
Actually don't it?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah? It's all yeah, I think if I unless it's changed. Now,
I had like about two weeks of holiday I could take,
and I had to book that in well in advance
because obviously they're storylining, like you know, half a year
and more in advance, so they've already got like a
rough schedule out and they're like, and you could go
to them and go, can I book a holiday? And
you know, four months and they're like no, sorry, mate, Yeah,
(09:15):
you're going to be You're going to be in solid
there's a big storyline coming in. So you know, it's
a funny existence, but.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
You're you're you're about to cheat on somewhere.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Fuck yeah, damn it. It was all I knew, of course.
So then it's been funny sort of evolving away from
that and going, oh, I can just just go on
a holiday when I want to go on a holiday.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
So when you I don't know your story, So did
you did you choose to leave with you are like
like nine years? How did you? How did it end?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
I chose I chose to leave. Yeah, it was my choice.
I was coming up, as I said, about nine years,
and I think, you know, there's a thing that happens
on soaps where a lot of it gets becomes like
sort of heightened uber heightened sort of melodrama of like
buildings exploding and people killing each other and whatever. And
the thing about my character and that show that I
(10:03):
loved was that it just felt like he was sort
of on the outside of the genre as it were,
It felt like he was on the outside of everything,
sort of going, this is all a bit weird, isn't it.
And so I thought, eventually, you know, his time will come,
and I don't know if I want it to be that.
At the time, the character was in a relationship and
the actress, my friend Maddie, had made the choice to leave,
(10:25):
and I was like, well, I'm going to leave too,
because I want them to leave together and be happy.
And so we left and we're happy since then Maddie
went back to the show on her own and it
turned out we'd gotten divorced off screen. So fuck, that's
a show. But what's it like?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
What's your goodbye like on these tenders when he's been
there nine years every single day except for Yeah, it.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Was it was the emotion sort of caught me by surprise. Really.
They threw this lovely, big old party at the BBC
l Street Bar for me and Maddie and they played
like a you know, as they do for everyone when
they leave, like a montage of all your best bits,
and you know, my family were there, and so many
people showed up and you know, from the crew and
(11:12):
the cast, and yeah, I sort of went to do
a speech to say thank you to everyone, you just
got caught in my throat and I remember going, oh, dear,
oh yeah, I'm not dead inside. It turns out, so yeah,
it was. It was an emotional goodbye and also you know, scary.
It was all all I'd known, and it was a
leap of faith that I knew I had to take
(11:33):
because I wanted to explore other things, and thankfully it
worked out.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
How long was the gap before you were then a
massive movie start it?
Speaker 2 (11:42):
It was less than two years that I was shooting Yesterday, Yeah,
and then it was you know, amazing, but three years
between leaving Extendards and Yesterday coming out. But yeah, it
felt very quick, you know, less than two years between
auditioning and getting the movie and going on that journey. Yeah,
very lucky.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
How was your mental health? If I may ask you
finish these tenders, let's say two weeks later, when you're
so used to this constant work and this constant thing
and now you're you have a day free, what do
you do?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah? Some of it was sort of it felt quite freeing,
you know, after so long of just being able to
go I can just do what I like now. And again,
I got lucky that things sort of came my way.
I think if I'd been less lucky, then maybe I
would have had to sort of have those dark knights
of the soul and gone, what am I going to do?
How am I going to figure it out? So actually
I kind of just got to enjoy it. But there
(12:37):
were those moments of you know, I remember the day
I left, drove out the gates for the last time
and parked up outside my flat and just thought, BlimE me, okay,
here we go. You know, as an adult, I've never
known this. I've never known it, you know, And there
I was a twenty five sort of first time just
sort of going, now, I don't know what's going to happen.
Hopefully I'll be okay, I've just.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Never Hopefully I'll be a mess with me. Yeah, don't
worry about it.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Yeah, if only I had that sort of phrasing confidence.
You do see some people who sort of go, yeah,
i'm gonna I'm probably gonna make it, and some of
them do and you're just like, wow, that's amazing, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Yeah. Well you're also very good. Thank you him as
I've forgotten to tay so and I feel like an absolute.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
On.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I feel awful. I should have I should have said
it at the top actually, because we've gone really far
back into your person. Should have said it. I'll say
it all right. Look, yeah, you've died. You're dead dead,
You're dead dead. Typical.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
It's typical, isn't it. Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:47):
What what how did you die? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
How did I die? Yeah? Look, it was actually quite banal.
I have this thing where I sort of trip on
the pavement or on my own foot at least once
a day. At least once a day, I'm walking down
the street and I sort of lose my footing, and
so I think it's going to be something that boring.
I'd like to think that I've lived, you know, to
(14:13):
a ripe old age, so that my kids are you know,
what's that age, let's go, you know, eighty seven. Maybe
there's nothing else wrong with me. I'm still I'm still
walking fine. And then I just sort of just I
just trip on a as I do every day, except
this day it was at the top of a flight
of you know, concrete steps, and I just sort of
(14:35):
go hurtling down them and break a few bones along
the way and then smash my head on the bottom
one and off we go. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
I think it's loads of loads of people around.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Yeah. Yeah, a lot of people who just sort of go,
who's that? What a loser, right, you know what? What
a crap way to die. I think some of them
is slightly traumatized. I'd like to think some of them
at least have a sort of shocked maybe like this
seems funny until your face explodes and you're like a
(15:09):
watermelon on them, and then they feel really bad.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah, yeah, and then I shouldn't have I shouldn't have laughed.
And if anyone knew that was and they're like, I can't.
I mean there's no recognizable features. He's it's like a
water melon. I don't know what.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Well, yeah, that's really good as well, just like that
to be the case that you know, despite a lifetime
hopefully a lifetime at that point of being in movies
and TV and that I die.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Recognize. Yeah, was it the point of your death at
the top as you first I went, yeah, then to
the bottom went there's no way of no, there's no
way of no.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
That's ideal. That is yeah, that is my ideal death.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Yeah. Do you worry about death, Yeah, I do.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
I mean more so in my own death. I worry
about since I've had kids, I sort of I worry that,
you know, because I think death can and are the
worst times. It can be so sudden. Now my death
has a real material effect on someone's life existentially. So yeah,
I do worry about that. And I've always had a
(16:15):
sort of odd maybe an obsession actually with death because
some of my earliest memories I was in I was
in are being at my granddad's funeral in India. I
was three when I went out there and he my
mom took me out there because he knew he was
going to he was going to pass away, and he
wanted to meet me and met me. I met him
and then like you know, it was very quick decline,
and so I was out there for them for that
(16:37):
and it was like, you know, a very traditional Hindu
ceremony and you know, they had him sort of laid
out in the house and stuff like that. So my
earliest memories was very much about death. So I think
I've I've often realized I've had this sort of understanding
of mortality for almost all my life in a way
that maybe other people. You know, it develops over time.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Do you happen to remember you were only phrasing. I
don't know if you would. Do you remember seeing his
body and all of that? Do you remember that being
sort of scary or comforting or apparently?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I was curious?
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Was there any version of it that it was like
a nice thing?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
I think? My mom tells me I was curious. He
donated his his eyes, but they you know, he was
laid out so that they put cotton in his in
his eye sockets. Such a such a grim thing to
say that the meaning behind it, that's quite lovely. He
donated his eyes. But yeah, so I remember obviously that
(17:34):
was actually probably quite a traumatic thing for a three
year old to be looking at. Yeah, but my mum
dresses up sorry to us with the eyes open with
like white I think, I think so. I think that's
probably the only reason I would have asked. Otherwise I
would have been like his eyes. So yes, safe to
say death it forms the baseline of perhaps all my trauma.
(17:58):
Then you yeah, perfect, this is that's why I'm here.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Yeah, this is it. What do you think happens when
you die?
Speaker 2 (18:06):
As I think about it a lot, but I'm also
not in Spirituality has played a part in my life,
but ultimately I'm not someone who necessarily believes in a
genuine sort of physical afterlife where we're all actually you know,
present in some way. But I think maybe we don't
necessarily understand you know, the sort of parameters of sort
(18:27):
of consciousness and what you know, the way that people
talk about sort of perceiving time and how that can
change and depending on sort of how things are taken
along in your brain. My theory is that when one
has that sort of final moment before you die, that
maybe you actually perceive it as something really long, and
(18:48):
so you create some sort of heaven in your head
just before the lights go out, and it can last
as long as you want it to last. So to
all of us outside of it, we're watching it go.
They took their last breath and they're gone. But maybe
in our our experience of death, that before we take
that last breath, we actually get to, you know, have
(19:09):
a sort of you know, long, long long time in
this in this world we create in our head with
all the people we love. For what, however, so you
choose to sort of create something. That's what I like.
That's that's what I use to comfort myself when I
think about death, like a weird sort of bubble.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
I've never I've never heard that before. I really like that,
thank you. That is a brand new theory. I really
like it. But so then, so then my question is,
if that's the case, then I do like that. Yeah,
but it's this sort of dreamscape that you make last
as long as you want. When that reaches its end, then.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
What then then, but you'd be on You'd be feeling
more euphoric than you've ever felt before, So you'd feel
accepting of it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
But then it's like avoid, Then it's avoid.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Then it's yeah, we're all We're all done at that point. Yeah,
So it's it's on one hand, really lovely, on the
other hand, completely bleak.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Given your your pretty deep words about the perception of
time and space and eternity, do you understand tenant.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
I walked into that one, didn't know? Yeah? I do,
actually to some degree. Good it actually did take it,
did I did actually watch it twice and in the cinema,
And but I think Chris's movies are designed to be
that way, especially that one.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
You have to I had to draw a map when
I got home, and this was this was the Yeah, yeah,
I get it.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if he himself has has
this map in a notebook somewhere, you know. But yeah,
it also seems to me that he just creates these
concepts in it and that's his genius.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
He just has it all. Yeah, he's like, it's obvious,
isn't it, Like I guess. Yeah, Well I got news
for you, buddy boy. There is a heaven, oh gay
for you. Maybe for you it's when you've created in
your dying seconds, maybe we'll see. And this heaven is
filled with all your favorite things. It's filled with your
(21:09):
favorite thing. What's your favorite thing.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Beyond my children and my partner, I'd say chocolate.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
So it's filled with chocolate, you know what you know
those like dairy milk, those squares that's what you sit on.
But they're like the right temperature that they're just soft
enough to not liquid, but they're just you know what
I mean, perfect, And the walls are like liquid chocolate
that just is like a fantin our time, sort of
China chocolate factory style. Yeah, and there's a sort of
(21:36):
flake that serves you, a giant flake, and it serves
you trays of chocolate and dairy milk, buttons and shit.
And there's tablery mountains over there. And sure, I mean
it's great. And there's them chunky kit kats, says like cars. Anyway,
they're delighted to see you in heaven. Great and they
but they want to talk about their big fans. They
(21:57):
want to talk about your life. They want to talk
about your life through the medium of film. And the
first thing they ask you is, what's the first film
you remember seeing? J Mespatel.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
My initial thought was that it was the Mighty Morphin
Power Rangers movie, and my only lasting memory of going
to see that movie is not watching it, was being
huddled into my mum from very early on. Something scared me.
I was just basically refused to watch most of it
and then turned around when they were winning at the end.
So I can't really I don't know if. But also
(22:28):
that wasn't it transplis that wasn't necessarily the first movie
I remember watching or not watching in that case, Actually
the first movie I remember watching as a Bollywood movie
called Hama ghekon, which I think translates to who am
I to you? Or some I would say, which isn't
necessarily a great.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Title from movie.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yeah, I've got a memory of sort of the curtains parting,
maybe during an intermission or something because Bollywood movies, and
I don't know if still the case. I've sort of
lost track over the last ten odd years of Bollywood,
but you know I used to. It was what we
watched as a family growing up. They were all well
so back then in the nineties, well, you know, now
(23:11):
you could probably go and watch most Bollywood movies at
your local multiplex. You know that it's got a pretty
good distribution now, whereas back then it would be in
those sort of metropolitan hubs where there was a big
sort of South Asian community. So for us it was Leicester.
We would drive to Leicester and go and watch movies there,
and you know it was it was more often than
not a really fun experience because you've basically got this
(23:31):
packed cinema full of everyone looks like you, they're more
or less from the same background, and you're all digesting
this movie and roughly the same way. No one's got
expectations of it being you know, anything else, but also
everyone's probably talking throughout it or whatever. If I went
into that situation now, I'd probably be driven up the wall.
But back then it was again all you knew. So yeah,
(23:53):
but this film was you know, I've not watched it
in years. Growing up watching Bollywood, it was almost more
about the songs than it was about the film. The
songs the soundtracks were the things that ended up sort
of making the movies the sort of all time classics
that they have sort of since become. But this is
also one of those movies, and I think, you know,
(24:15):
I only just sort of read up on it having
realized it was probably the first movie I remember seeing.
But I'm sure a lot of movies of that era
you could look at now and go it's just a
bit off. It's a bit The sort of the morality
of this whole thing and the sort of gender stereotyping
is is quite problematic. And this is sort of like
it's like this big family and it's all but based
(24:38):
around a wedding. They're a very rich family, it would seem,
but that you know, and there's a young guy and
he's his brother's getting married, I think, But then his
brother's wife dies. She falls down the stairs, and I
scammed through it recently. I mean that her falling downstairs
was yeah, yeah, weird that hey, But I'd like to
(24:58):
think that when I fall down the does and die,
it would be slightly more dramatic and believable than what
was presented in this movie, because I was openly laughing
when I when I sort of revisited it recently, it
was beyond absurd. It was like, you know, something from
Toast of London or something it was. It was just like,
(25:20):
so's there's something funny, and watching it with a nostalgic eye,
going this this stuff is just absurd. I mean, the
songs are kind of great from a Bollywood musical point
of view, but the story is all over the place,
and the sort of the thing of going families and
duty and all this stuff, which you know, on some
level is a beautiful sort of bedrock of the culture
(25:40):
in which I grew up. There's also an element of
going yeah, but also not necessarily doesn't have to be
so simplified, like they've got this thing. Whether like the
female leader sort of talks about working in computers. It's
as simple as that she works in computers. But then
you never see her do anything like that in the
whole In the whole movie, she's just like cooking and dancing,
being a good woman of the house. And you're like,
(26:03):
that's just rubbish.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
When you say everyone everyone's talking in the cinema, is it?
Are they talking like catching up or are they talking
at the film with their chat?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Like, like, you're probably right that it is. I think
that in my head it was just people sort of
interacting with the film, and there is a bit of that,
but you're right, probably some of them is they're just
catching up. They're just having a little chat, talking about
you know, gossiping about about family stuff or whatever. So yeah,
(26:35):
that's my that's my earliest memory of being in a cinema.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
I feel sorry for your moment might two month in
Power Ranges that you're not watching it and she's like,
so I've got she's.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Got to sit through it.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Where what is the film that scared you the most
other than Power Ranges?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Yeah, yeah, that was up there. I still think about it.
I mean, they're the sort of predict answer for this
one would be The Shining But I and I will
give it a shout out it is a phenomenal movie.
I think I had I had sort of had it
sort of tarnished in my head because of the stories
of sort of Kubrick and Are the way that he
treated Shelley Duval, and I thought it was Jack Nicholson
(27:14):
as part of that. But then I sort of I
think maybe recently Shelley Devol kind of said that Jack
Nicholson was actually really good to work with, So maybe
the jury's out on that. But it's still an amazing movie,
and it's still it basically taught me what I love
about the kind of horror that I like, which is
that sort of drip feed of dread over you know
(27:34):
a period of time. I'm not really that big on
jump scares. I prefer something that's just creepy, and so
my choice is actually a film called It follows Ah.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
It's a great film.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Yeah, I mean it's still I watched it about a
year ago again and it's just it has it has
got some jump scares, but married with that, it's just
got this phenomenal concept of like, you know that if
this sort of curse that gets asked on when you
have sex with someone and then you basically you see
this some someone basically slowly walking towards you, and when
(28:08):
if they get to you, they will sort of kill
you in the most gruesome way. But you can outrun them,
you can keep running away from them. They're never going
to run after you. They're just going to keep and
only you can see them. It was such a genius
concept for a horror movie, I thought, And you know,
since people have analyzed it and you know, talked about
how sort of an allegory for sort of STDs and
whatever that sort of thing, but I'm sure that there
(28:29):
might be some truth to sort of that being the
germ of the idea, but it just as as a
horror movie. It's really got just a brilliant concept cinematically,
you know, you can just because there's a lot of
these like panning shots. There's a shot in the in
the school I think they're at where the camera just
sort of is on a revolve, I think, and you're
sort of and now you're aware of the concept. You're
just watching everyone in the background going is that?
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Is that?
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Is that? Is that? And actually one of them kind
of is I think, But you never then sometimes you don't.
It cuts to another scene and you're like was it,
and so I really loved it. I thought it was
fantastic and it's oddly a horror film that I will
happily watch again. Often with horror you kind of don't
want to go back to it because it's too disturbing. Yeah,
(29:12):
it's a really good one.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
What about crying? Do you cry a lot? And what's
the film that made you cry the most?
Speaker 2 (29:19):
You cry it? Yeah? I think there are some films
that can really hit me. But the one that most
recently I watched and noted me for six was a film,
an animated film called Song of the Sea. It's an
Irish animated film. I know that the team behind it
have made a film called The Book of Kels. I
think it's cooled, but I haven't seen that. Actually, I've
(29:40):
still only seen Song of the Sea. It's this beautiful
story about a family. The mothers died, I think the
idea actually died giving birth to their second child, and
so this dad is sort of raising these two children
and they end up going on this sort of adventure altogether.
It's at based on Gaelic sort of myths, and there
(30:03):
was just that there's a point towards the end where
you know, the little boy has never met his mum,
and he gets to see her in this sort of
spiritual form, and they have this option of sort of
bringing her back or something like that. And I just remember,
I haven't watched it since, and I certainly haven't watched
it since having kids with my own, because I just
think it's going to destroy me, because even just thinking
(30:23):
about it now, it's just like this, it's basically this
idea that they have to they have to accept their loss,
that she's gone, you know, and that they'll be okay,
they'll be okay without it, and it's just I mean,
I just remember going if I've never sort of openly
howled crying at a movie, but I was close with this,
(30:45):
you know, and I was watching it at home. I
could have if I wanted to, If I remember correctly,
it was quite early on in my relationship and my
partner had suggested watching this movie. And I think if
I just sort of completely lost it, maybe I wouldn't
be here today with two kids. But yeah, it's a beautiful,
beautiful film. The animations gorgeous, the music stunning, and it's
(31:07):
just so so heartfelt, and I recommend it. It's a beautiful movie.
But yeah, I was moments away from.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Just yeah, did you was your partner crying?
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Yeah? You know? But okay, yeah she's dead inside. She's yeah,
she couldn't care less.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
She wasn't looking at you like what.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Yeah, she's a scrolling I said.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
You watch it because I like cartoons. What's the film
that people don't like it? It's not critically acclaimed, but
you love it. You don't care what anyone says.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
I'm picking a film that was picked by our mutual
friend James McNicholas. I'm going with Batman Forever. Yeah, Batman Forever.
Great yet great chat. My thing with that movie started
because it came I think when I was five, and
I remember I had some cousins who came over from
abroad and we all went to the cinema. They got
to go and watch Batman Forever because it was like
(32:04):
a twelve or something, and I wasn't allowed to go
with them. So it kind of took on this sort
of because I also loved Batman. I loved watching that
sort of animated series as a kid, but I'd never
seen a film Batman at that point, so it kind
of took on this sort of legendary status in my
head of this is the Batman film that I'm going
to watch it, and then eventually I think we got
it on video and I watched it sort of maybe
a few years later, and was just obsessed with it.
(32:26):
As a kid, I was obsessed with because a Batman,
and I loved it and I thought it was genuinely great,
and I was largely obsessed with Jim carry as the Riddler. Right,
But we watched it during lockdown as a sort of
you know, stick it on, why not, we haven't got
anything else going on, and it'll be fun to revisit it,
and it in my head it actually it's obviously parts
(32:47):
of it that's just awful and make no sense. But
I can't help but love it. I'll always love it,
you know, because and I actually still really enjoyed like
Jim Carrey is, like I think in a way it
feels like he's the only one who knows what movies
in to some degree or does it well enough.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
I think. The problem with it it's got two faces
in that one.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Right, Yeah, that's Tommy Lee Jones. Yes, yeah, and she's
in the next one. Yeah, that was the next the next.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
One, this is Nickel Kidman the good soundtrack, Well.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
It's yeah, it's got Kiss from a Rose by Seal,
which actually James McNicholas told me this recently. He's a
bit of tid bit of trivia. The Kiss from a
Rose a was on seals album from like two years
before that, and then was also on the soundtrack for
Never Ending Story three, but it didn't didn't didn't pick
up any attention from that that movie. And then it's
(33:44):
this odd, odd sort of thing when you look back
in the nineties and these huge blockbusters just had these
like random soundtracks of assorted songs that they just sort
of had kill me through but yeah by you too. Yeah,
but it was so funny to me like this Erarell
had already released this song on his album It Gained
No Traction twice and then Yeah, and then it came
(34:06):
out with Batman Forever and it won him a Grammy.
He won like three Grammys for that one song because
of a Batman Move. Whereas now you just can't there
isn't There isn't that same thing that there isn't a
soundtrack album of pop songs for a Batman Moves.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
It's weird, You're right.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
But yeah, I sort of loved watching it. I believe
Two Face gets defeated by some coins. I think Batman
throws some coins at two Face and he falls over.
That's how That's how he gets defeated.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
So yeah, I remember loving Batman Fever because I was young.
But I think the issue with it and it's it's
worse than Batman and Robin. What Jim Carry's doing is
sort of very loud and fast and high energy and crazy,
but so is everyone else in that film. Tommy Jones
is also everyone's everyone's gone mad. There's no there's no
(34:55):
boundaries and no one's there's no boundaries of performance. No
one's going maybe you could rain that, yeah, just a
little bit. It's like they've all looked at Jim Carry
and gone, oh, we do that. We're going at that speed,
are we. Tommy Jones is off his nut in that film.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
He is, yeah, but he's really going for it. He's
going for it, but he still just doesn't reach the
height of Jim Carrey. In my book, like this is something,
but I think it's something that I think I read
that they didn't get on or something, or Tommy Lee
Jones had just didn't have time for Jim Carrey, and
I think it was that thing of like because I
think he was doing it but maybe not enjoying it,
whereas maybe Jim Carrey was doing it and genuinely enjoying it.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
That's it. Yeah, I think that shows interesting. What about
a film that you used to have but you've watched
recently and you don't like it anymore?
Speaker 2 (35:43):
And I'm glad that whatever holds out for you. Thank you,
yes for this. I've gone for a movie called The Party.
I don't know if you're familiar with this Peter Seller's movie.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
The Peter Sellers. Yeah, yeah, I could see why one
might have an issue with this for sure.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
So it's a movie about Peter Sellers plays naturally. Peter
Sellers plays an Indian actor by the name of go
on by the name of I think his name is
Hyundi v. Buckshee, and he has come over to Hollywood
by some sort of machination I don't remember exactly why,
(36:22):
and he's sort of that he ends up at this
party and it's basically just in ninety minutes or whatever
how long it is, of him just making an absolute
fool of himself, you know. But ultimately, and I remember
watching because it was one of those movies that my
dad was fond of, and it's so odd sort of
looking back on that and going, Dad, why do you
find this fun? I'm actually not asked in this. I
think I might ask him this, now, what did you
(36:44):
Where's what's the humor there? You know? But I think
it's I think of going they can you know, you
can laugh at yourself, but it's where it's people. It's
like the reason, Goodness gracious Me works as a TV
shows because it's made by four brown people, and so
they're allowed to do all the joke about brown people.
Whereas watching a movie like this, you're like, everyone involved
in it is white for sure. There's absolutely no where
(37:07):
there's a single brown person on that set in nineteen
sixty whatever, and so they're all just going, let's just
you know, brown face up. Peter Sellers just make him
out like what we assume a stupid Indian man would
be like if he came to Hollywood, And it was
kind of odd sort of watching it again in prep
for this. It was the first thing that popped into
my mind, and I sort of scanned my way through
(37:28):
it and just went the gags are on paper, great gags,
you know, is it is funny, but it's not. None
of it's okay. Really, Ultimately, it's very miss it's very misguided.
And to kind of imagine a bunch of people sort
of going, this is great, this is so funny, what
a great idea. We're brilliant, aren't we brilliant? You know?
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Then I read something really odd that apparently, like I think,
like someone really I mean, maybe it might have even
been like sutage it ray or some like a very
respected Indian filmmaker was a huge fan of it or
something and just when and wanted to work with Peter Sellers.
So there was an odd thing. I don't know. It
kind of made me think about sort of the bar
(38:13):
that one sets for oneself based on where you're sort
of placed societal, you know, and you just kind of go, well,
what can I expect? I'm just going to laugh. I
guess I'm a joke or we're getting into sort of
deep psychological stuff here. But like, it's funny to me
that like generationally it's you know, it maybe is accepted
by a generation who go who I guess, in some
(38:34):
twisted way feel represented.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Well maybe if it's if it's literally the only thing
as well, Yeah, it must have been.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Yeah back then, I mean in that arena of on
that side of the world, for them to even acknowledge
that brown people exist, that South Asian brown people exist,
would have been amazing, you know. But it just doesn't
leave a good taste anymore. So, as much of a
genius as Peter Sellers is very good answer, what's the
(39:01):
film that means the most to you?
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Not necessarily the film itself is good, but the experience
you had seeing it will always make it meaningful to you.
In Miss Bettel, what is it?
Speaker 2 (39:11):
This is a sort of a bit of a wide
ranging answer, and I guess you'll probably maybe picking one
of them, But in my head it's sort of the
Lord of the Rings films, because in it was a
real a sort of turning point in my life on
many levels, and it sort of those early years of
sort of transitioning from primary school to secondary school and everything.
(39:32):
I didn't find it easy, I didn't enjoy it. But
for those three years at Christmas there was a promise
of this massive movie that I was going to love,
and the first one I ended up seeing with my
dad and a friend of mine, but because I didn't
really know what it was, and then I was like,
this is really good, and I read the books, and
so the second one and the third one I went
in to see with my sister, both of them, and
(39:54):
I look back on them now and I think they're
amazing movies. I think there were real game changes in
terms of blockbuster cinema, but there's just there was just
something special about of the security of it and the
comfort that it gave me. And I guess if I
picked one out, I'll pick the last one, Return of
the King, because it was the first time I remember
being so excited to go and see a movie, you know,
just being like, this is it. It's all been building
(40:16):
up to this one, and the cinema is going to
be packed and we're all just going to be like,
how is it going to play out? It's going to
be amazing. And you know, I'm very close to my
sister and so to have that sort of those memories
of going to see those movies with her and just
being so excited about it, and it was incredible as well.
They weren't a disappointment at all. They were quite something.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Yeah that it was this event every Christmas? Yeah, it
was a real thing. Yeah, that's nice.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
So we'll go with I'll go with Return of the King.
Let's go with that third one.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
I'm actually gonna let you have all three because thank you,
because the point of your answer is all three, and
I don't normally do that. I'll let you have a
different sort of heaven and this. I don't know what's
going on here. I've gone stuff in.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Now it's good.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Is the film you most relate to?
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Film I most relate to? I'm going with Boyhood again.
I was so excited to see this movie because I'm
a huge fan of Richard link Later and I was.
I actually recently, within like a year, had seen that
before Trilogy and just fell in love with that, you know,
maze Yeah, and I've never seen someone do that with time,
you know, tell a story over what was it eighteen years?
(41:27):
And then to know that he had this movie sort
of coming down down the road, but he'd been shooting
over twelve years, and I was just so excited for it.
It felt like the kind of thing that's done in
huge budget filmmaking, except it wasn't that tall in it.
I knew it was going to be something really personal
and special. What I wasn't expecting was just how personal
it would feel to me, because I was roughly the
(41:48):
same age as the character in the movie, if maybe
sort of five odd years off, but there was still
a lot of the same sort of cultural touch points.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
Well at the end of the movie.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
Yeah, yeah, sort of you know that so you know,
start shooting in two thousand and two, and a lot
of those sort of touch points just that they really
I was like, I remember like waiting in line to
pick up a Harry Potter book, and then the sort
of the music he was listening to, Like there was
this one point where there was like this like Foo
Fighters album track from like their two thousand and four album.
(42:19):
It was just playing in the background of a scene,
and I, on one hand, I just appreciated the sort
of detail of the sort of timeline of it all.
But I was just like that I used to listen
that's like one of those tracks that no one knows
that I that I know, and it's in this movie,
you know. And then you know, stuff like he had
this at the end when he's like driving I think
to college and he stops off to take a picture
(42:40):
and it was he was using the same camera as
the one that I had at the time, you know,
Canon sevent d. I think it was remember, go, this
is really weird. And then the song that was actually
then used in the trailer, and then at the end
of the movie, this song called a Hero by the
Family of the Year. I'd already heard it like two
odd years before. It's a friend of mine and maybe
like this long like Spotify playlist, and it was there,
(43:00):
and I remember going, some beautiful song there is. So
there was this odd sort of confluence of stuff that
was already sort of in my life and that wound
up being in this movie. And obviously, naturally the movie
is about about life and those those teenage years and
how difficult and tumultuous they can be emotionally, and yeah,
I just it was really moving and really masterfully done.
(43:20):
I thought, you know, it could easily have been so
gimmicky and so sentimental. And actually, you know, there's something
about Richard Linklater's sort of tone. He never he never
gets too I'm never annoyed by the sort of he's sentimental,
but it's it's it's such a truthful sentimentality. I find it.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
Oh, Yeah, he's amazing. He loves people, he loves people
and he but it doesn't You're right, he's not sentment.
It isn't like cheesy. I think the fact that he
really really gets time means that anything that's kind of
moving is fully earned, because it's like, yeah, time has happened. Yeah,
I mean it isn't sort of yeah, it's amazing. That's
(44:02):
a great answer. What's the sexiest film I've ever seen?
Speaker 2 (44:07):
I tell you the truth is that I didn't have
an answer for this twenty minutes before we started recording,
and I was like, I was like, what is going
on and why am I struggling to find a sexiest movie?
And I realized it, well, I haven't realized fully my
hunches that are you know, growing up in a culture
that more or less it goes or sex doesn't exist.
(44:29):
It doesn't exist. You know, every Bollywood movie will more
or less either revolve around or end with a marriage,
and it's romantic, there's love, but sexy and sort of
the sex part of it was never present, and so
you're sort of led to sort of go, well, I
guess sex is something that is probably shameful him. I
(44:49):
shouldn't I should never, I should never enjoy it. So
it took me a minute to go sexiest film, because that's.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
Why it's such big news. You have you do it
three times a week. I think that's why it became.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
I think that's what it is. Yeah yeah, yeah, so
you need to find out how that got out there. Yeah, so,
but I had to sort of go. Most recently, I
think the sexiest film I saw was Hustlers. Fuck yes, Yeah,
it's just undeniably you're never going to forget the first
(45:22):
time j Loo turns up in that movie. You're just
never going to forget it, you know.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
And it's you're never get it. You're never going to
forget that, and you're never going to get over her
hugging in a big up third coat. Yeah, you're just
never going to go over.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
There's the initial thing of going, this is really sexy,
just on primum and it's just really sexy, and then
you're like, what's really sexy is that she's really good
at everything she does, just good, pulls off this amazing
performance in this movie, I think, and it just throws
herself into this character that is also a very sexy thing,
I think. But yeah, it's a very sexy movie. So
(45:59):
that's why I'm yeah. I mean, it's a perfect answer.
I can't believe it took you this long to get there.
It's obviously obviously the.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
Subcategory to this question troubling boner is worrying why dunes,
which maybe all of your boners I don't know.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
Yeah, that's what do you have it? It really led
me down that road of going every everything is a troubling.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
Boner in my life, a film you found arousing that
you weren't sure you should.
Speaker 2 (46:31):
What came to mind on this one was there's a
film called Disclosure, Michael Douglas more film, and it was
one of those that we for some reason, the DVD
was lying around. My parents used to have a shop
where they would rent out films, you know, latest blockbusters
and like some old films and whatever. And then every
now and then they'd be like, I know, for some
(46:52):
reason didn't get returned or whatever it do. It end
up coming into the house and it would just be
lying around and this movie was there, this DVD, and
I remember just kind of going, I wonder what this is.
And there's quite early on in the movie the sort
of the crux of the whole thing is that Demi
Moore's character sort of coerce is quite quite forcefully sort
of coerce is Michael Douglas's character into sort of having sex,
(47:15):
although I think the whole point is that they never
really have sex, but there's, you know, some sexy stuff happens,
and I remember going, this is kind of because it's
kind of hot, and it's kind of like, you know,
because then he kind of does get into it, and
it's a bit angry and you know, just like, oh,
I think it's hot, but I don't think it should be,
and it definitely shouldn't be because it's it's not really consensual,
(47:38):
is it. And then the movie goes off in this
weird tangent towards the end where have you seen it?
It sort of winds up in some sort of weird
nineties v It becomes like a corporate computed yeah, because
it's basically they're working for a tech company. And then
he winds up in some VR space looking through files
(47:58):
to prove that she did something or didn't do something.
But it's like it's like you know, Windows ninety five
virtual reality, and it's it's quite funny to look at
now there's like this very odd moment where like Demi
Moore's face is like sort of superimposed onto this very
blocky three D figure, and it's just laughable. Maybe in
(48:21):
ninety four or ninety five, whenever it came out, it
was like the peak of technology. Wow, Yeah, they couldn't
have imagined Avatar back then, But now it just looks
like a terrible video game.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
Well, dad, what is the greatest film of all time? Objectively?
The greatest film? Objectively?
Speaker 2 (48:41):
Yeah, it's hard because we're saying objectively objectively, Yes, I'm
going with two thousand and one, A space odys see it.
I kept wanting to find something that might have a
bit more sort of humor. But then I thought, when
I think there is some humor, I think how.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
Hall is kind of funny. That's funny, you know.
Speaker 2 (48:59):
I think like The godfather sits alongside this in terms
of films that changed Western cinema at least really worshipts,
you know, And I think Godfather becomes that because I
think it really it's about those actors, and you know,
for me, it was definitely like a game changer. But
two thousand and one, I was like, this is astounding
the scale of this is in a way more epic
(49:20):
and tangible than anything I've grown up watching because it
was literally, you know, it was all miniatures, and there's
something about that that's just you're not going to get
it with CGI and just the confidence of it tonally,
you know, to make a movie that breeds like that,
I don't know if you'd be able to do it today,
(49:41):
really would you. I mean, it's we're not used to
that sort of movie that just sits on this sort
of tone for that long. And there's an element of
what I was talking about with sort of what I
like about horror, where it just sort of this dread,
this sort of thing just running underneath the whole thing,
where you're like, what is happening? I'm not And what
I love about it is the mystery of it. You know,
you don't really get any answers. You had, so much
(50:01):
has left up to interpretation. It's saying so much existentially
and running through the whole thing. You have this sort
of very gripping narrative of this robot that's the sort
of AI that's trying to sabotage everything, and so therefore
it's also very prescient in everything but it got the
year a bit wrong. We certainly weren't doing that in
(50:21):
two thousand and one. We wish, yeah, but you know,
everything else about it was so was so on point
and yeah, and it's one I you know, love revisiting.
Speaker 1 (50:33):
It's amazing that it wasn't that we hadn't been to
the moon yet when that was made, and the way yeah, yeah,
shows it's kind of amazing. It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
I watched this documentary called rum Yeah, and they were
sort of apparently there was a theory that Kubrick shot
two thousand and one as a sort of test run
for faking the moon landings. That's sort of a conspiracy
theory that goes around, which makes me like.
Speaker 1 (51:00):
That he's acknowledging it in the Shining because the carpet, the.
Speaker 2 (51:03):
Carpet, Yeah exactly, exactly, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (51:07):
It all makes sense. What is the film you could
or have watched the most over and over again?
Speaker 2 (51:13):
I avoided School of Rock. School of Rock is kind
of the genuine answer, but I'm going to leave that
to one side because everyone says it. I'm going I
was also the going to go for Interstellar, but I
think maybe that's a bit weird. I haven't watched it
in a while. I feel like if I watch it
next time, I'm going to be crying a lot because
I now have children of my own, but I'm going
for Michael Clayton. Yeah, I absolutely love this movie. I
(51:36):
think it's a masterpiece and the writing just it's the
kind of movie that I will watch over and over
again just because I love to hear that dialogue. It's
just so brilliantly written. That opening monologue. I remember watching
for the first time and I was just I was
just in straight away. I was like, this is amazing.
This is absolutely amazing. And Tom Wilkinson's performance, isn't it
(51:59):
on another level. I mean, everyone's just operating at the
highest level, and it's again kind of quite It continues
to be so relevant, and it's yeah, it's got that
sort of lovely sort of Hollywood button on the end,
sort of George Clooney gets to do his sort of
charming sort of got ya at the end. But yeah,
it's I just I love it. I could watch it
over and over again. It's a great movie. I think
(52:20):
kind of underrated, maybe quite underrated, or not as appreciated
outside of sort.
Speaker 1 (52:25):
Of maybe underscene. Yeah, yeah, people seen it. What's on
the other end of the scale, and we don't like
to be negative? Soon stay here too long? Yeah, the
worst film you've ever seen.
Speaker 2 (52:35):
Gone here with Cowboys and Aliens. This is the Yeah,
I don't know. There was like a twenty ten movie.
I think it's one of those that I went Daniel Craig,
but it was it was What got me was how yeah,
how did how did it go wrong? The people you've
got involved in I believe Damon Lindeloff was involved somewhere
down the line and writing it. But you've got Daniel Craig,
(52:57):
Olivia Wilde, Harrison Ford, Paul Dano's in it, Sam Rockwell's
in it, and yeah, John who you know, is one
of the great It's it's just an odd one. Like
it's really not good and I'm still sort of trying
to figure out how it how it happened.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
I think the issue with it is I don't think
it's bad necessarily. I think that it's a film called
Cowboys and Aliens and it's not fun.
Speaker 2 (53:22):
It's really serious, isn't it. Yeah, it's very serious, very earnest.
Speaker 1 (53:27):
It's very serious and dramatic and like what if Cowboys
and Aliens? And you're like, hang on, wait, wait, wait,
it's called Cowboys and Aliens. That sounds like it's good,
sounds like fun. Yeah, where's the fact there's no fun
in it? I'm still not sure serious serious series.
Speaker 2 (53:43):
Yeah, big fan actually of Cowboys and Aliens.
Speaker 1 (53:47):
Yeah, but I think it's my memory of it is
it's is. It's a good film as in, it's well done,
it's just odd because it's not fun. It's like a
quite heavy drama about cowboys and aliens.
Speaker 2 (54:01):
Yeah. No, I think you're right. I think that's what
it is. It's that I just couldn't take it seriously.
But there are also like things in it that just
make very little sense. And I mean one of the
things for me is I think the way that the
people get abducted by the aliens isn't that they just
sort of get lifted up by a you know, invisible force.
There's literally like lassus that come down. So it's like,
(54:23):
hang on, so is it cowboys cowboys are aliens? Is
that what you're saying? Yeah, so yeah, cowboys or aliens.
Speaker 1 (54:35):
What's the funniest film you see? What's the film that
made you laugh? The most.
Speaker 2 (54:39):
I'm going with Blazing Saddles excellent. It was one of
those movies only my dad introduced me to and I'd
never seen anything like it at that point. It was
just so anarchic. I've never I'd never seen anything so
a narcic and so but also watching it more recently
and going it made so many great points that continue
to be relevant. There's your moment of going, okay, maybe
(55:02):
now if you make it now, there's bits and pieces
that maybe need to shift here and there. I think
mel Brooks playing a Native American maybe not a good move,
but it's brilliant. It really makes me laugh, and especially
the way it sort of just falls apart at the end.
I always enjoy it. It's a some degree. It always
catches me by surprise that they just sort of they
(55:24):
just it's because you're invested. Yeah, you are, actually because you.
Speaker 1 (55:27):
Actually are invested. You're emotionally invested in it.
Speaker 2 (55:30):
But I just love the idea of someone just going, well,
I don't know how to finish this movie, so let's
just this is going to happen. Then just let just
let them do whatever they want to do and we'll
just figure it out.
Speaker 1 (55:43):
You know, we'll just run around a lot. Yeah, it's great. Yeah,
who makes me tell? You've been wonderful? However, when you
were eighty seven years old and you went through a
walk and you got to the top of some steps,
concrete by the way, and you and someone at the
bottle of steps looked up. They were a fat They
(56:04):
were like, I think that's much out and their friends gathered,
I think that's him. And then you tripped on your
own on a little step and you fell down down
concrete concrete. People. People giggled, oh cough, Oh god, they said.
And then you fell the last six steps, landed on
your head. Your head exploded like a watermelon, and the
(56:25):
people that were laughing went, oh god, I don't think
we should laughter. I think he I think he's dead.
And then someone said, do you know who it was?
And they looked home and it was just your particles,
just blobs of blood. There's nothing to really say who
you are at all. It's just the torso of an
eighty seven year old man and blobs of blood and brains.
(56:47):
And someone goes, I thought it was him. Cut how
can you tell? They say. Anyway, I'm walking along with
a coffin you know. I'm like, I see this crag
around and go, who's that? And they go he says
it was him to tell it, And they're going, it
can't be that. How can you tell? And I go, well,
there's no way of telling anyway. I packed, I said,
give me, and we start stuffing your body to think.
(57:08):
I'm like, could he you see any bits of bloob
over there? Like we could any bit of him? Just
grab it. People getting cheeking out, they're chapping in stones,
all sorts of stuff as well. Anyway, coffee ends up rammed. Absolutely,
there's it's jammed in there, there's nothing, there's no room.
There's only enough room for me to slip one DVD
into the side. You'd take across to the other side.
(57:30):
And on the other side it's movie night every night.
What film are you taking to show the chocolate in
Heaven when it is your movie night, mister hims Patel.
Speaker 2 (57:39):
It's not one of the movies that I've picked so far?
Is that okay?
Speaker 1 (57:41):
Great?
Speaker 2 (57:43):
It's Ali. I'm going with a yeah. It's a life
affirming movie. I think beautiful. But the first time I
saw it, someone had left film for on the telly
and I was walking past, and I just have a
memory of loking past the go up the stairs and
then sitting down on the sofa and not moving for
(58:03):
two hours, isn't it. I was just so taken away
by this movie. So and it's just beautiful, you know,
every time I watch it, I feel, you know, the
world is a better place, you know, it's it's one.
It's really gorgeous. So it'd be nice to share that heaven.
Speaker 1 (58:16):
Yeah, what a lovely man? Who is that? Ending people
should look out for listen to watch? Coming up?
Speaker 2 (58:24):
I mean coming up. I don't know everything I'm doing.
I have no fixed date for when it's coming out.
But you know, I did a series called Station eleven.
I'm very proud of it. It's in the UK. It's
on I think what's now called lions Gate Plus. I
believe that's where it's not. You could watch that I did.
I did get nominated for an Emmy. I don't know
(58:45):
if you've heard of the Emmy's bread. They're pretty, they're
pretty fun. It's a whole thing. Maybe you'll get invited
one day. But yeah, okay, yeah, so I did that.
That's good. But I've done a couple of short films
that I'm I'm quite proud. I did a short film
called Enjoy, which is available on Disney Plus in the UK.
(59:06):
I love that I did the short film called Two Dosas,
which is on YouTube okay, and a short film called
The Fox, which is also on YouTube. Three short films.
You know, we're on a film podcast. I think giving
shout outs to short films is quite nice, so check
those out.
Speaker 1 (59:21):
That's very nice. Give much Betel. Thank you for your
time and for your excellent answers and forgetting completely correct
the greatest opening. You are brilliant. Thank you, Thank you
very much. Have a lovely death, and good night to you.
Speaker 2 (59:36):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (59:39):
So that was episode two hundred and forty five. Head
over to the Patreon at patreon dot com. Forward slash
Brett Goldstein for the extra twenty minutes of chat, secrets
and video with him. As we're remember to watch Ted
Lasso and Shrinking on Apple TV Plus. You can guide
to Apple Podcast give us a five star rating, but
don't write about the show. Write about the film that
means the most to you and why thing to read.
(01:00:00):
And it always makes my neighbor Marien happy, and you
want to make her happy. Don't you. We all want
to make her happy. Thank you so much for listening.
I hope you're all well. Thank you to him us
for doing the show. Thanks to Scrubius Pippen the Distraction
Pieces Network. Thanks to Buddy Peace for producing it. Thanks
to iHeartMedia and Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network for
hosting it. Brand new to them, so thank you for
(01:00:22):
having us. Thanks to Adam Richardson for the graphics and
leads a Learning for the photography. Come join me next
week for the resurrection of Edgar Bloody right. I hope
you're all well. Thank you for listening, and that's it
for now. Have a lovely week, and in the meantime,
please be excellent to each other.
Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
Backs Outside Prods at Sad Prosy thats outtas Bass Back
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Brett Goldstein
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