On today’s episode, Variety’s Brent Lang interviews Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves as they breathe new life into “Waiting for Godot" on Broadway. And Ellise Shafer in London reflects on how the U.K. is paying tribute to a native son as the documentary “Ozzy: No Escape From Now” premieres.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
For years.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I think I've been like a Vulgarian, and I thought
it was waiting for GOODO. But it is not.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Only for Vulgarians.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
It's whatever. Beckett did not like being dragged into the debate.
It just made him irritated. So people asked him how
he pronounced it. He told them to pronounce it however
they felt like it. But it's notable that in every
production he directed, whether it was here or in Germany,
or in Ireland or in England, it was always gotto.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and
analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Tuesday, October seventh, twenty
twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Littleton. I am co
editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm in
La He's in New York, and Variety has reporters around
the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,
(00:58):
we'll turn the mic over to my colleague Brent Lang,
Variety's executive editor. He interviewed Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves
on stage on Monday about their partnership in Waiting for Godo,
the latest staging which just began its Broadway run at
the Hudson Theater. That was Alex Winter. You heard in
the cold open discussing with Brent the pronunciation of Goddo
(01:22):
we also hear in this episode from Elise Schaeffer, senior
news editor in London, about the reaction in the UK
to the Ozzy Osbourne documentary that premieres this week. She
grew up in an Ozzie loving household in the Midwest
and she has perspective on what this son of the
UK's Midwest Birmingham meant to his fellow Brits and fellow rockers.
(01:44):
But before we get to that, here are a few
headlines just in this morning that you need to know.
The Motion Picture Association is not amused Sora too. The
video AI platform is fueling an explosion of copyright infringement
of MPa members work, basically clips from your favorite movies
(02:06):
being altered. The MPa put out a statement very late
East Coast time on Monday night on this aspect of AI.
The studio's interests are aligned with those of artists. Wholesale
reproductions of copyrighted material are not cool, As MPa chairman
Charles Rivkin says, quote well, established copyright law, safeguards the
(02:30):
rights of creators and applies here end quote. Obviously more
to come on this. A twenty four had a surprise
on Monday night for New York Film Festival attendees through
a surprise world premiere for the new drama Marty Supreme
starring Timothy Chalomy. Director Josh Safti told the crowd he'd
(02:51):
just finished the film at two am the night before.
Charlomy plays an aspiring Ping pong champion. The Safti brothers
are really having a moment. Benny Safti has been raking
in accolades for the Smashing Machine since the Venice Film Festival.
All of these stories and so much more can be
found on Friday dot com. Right now, now we turn
(03:16):
to conversations with Friday journalists about news and trends in
show business. Brent Lang did a terrific interview with Waiting
for Gato stars Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter. I've been
saying it wrong all these years too, for those of
us of a certain age. The idea of the stars
of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure starring as Vladimir and
(03:39):
Estragon is a punchline from an old Johnny Carson Tonight
Show monologue. But it's happening Alex Winter, as you'll hear,
grew up on stage. Keanu talks about Comedia del Arte
and the real life friendship between these two comes shining through.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
How did the idea of appearing on stage and reviving
the show come up?
Speaker 5 (04:01):
I was in a hotel room around one am with
jet lag in London, and I was in the fugue state,
and then something came from the universe and said do
waiting and I said, GOODO. Back then waiting for GOODO
with Alex and so then I facetimed him and then
(04:23):
this part I'm about to make up, He said no,
it's waiting for Goato and I was like, cool, do
you want to do that play? And he was like yes.
Then we went on the journey to kind of make
the dream reel and Alex kind of spearheaded. He was,
of course being experienced with Broadway and he.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Was like a great idea, we need a director.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
And Alex went on that and you know, gratefully we
connected with Jamie Lloyd and who's amazing.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
So what made you think of Jamie Lloyd for this?
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Alex?
Speaker 3 (05:01):
He had done a lot of work with Pinter, who
was kind of the natural successor to Beckett.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
But it also is a.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Real visionary and Keanu and I had spoken early on
about wanting to do a version of this that was
the sort of approached Vladimir and Estragon in a grounded way,
and so they felt like human beings are not like
kind of academic caricatures and a revered historical document. And
Jamie's work is very very good at both being visionary
(05:32):
but also being very true to human emotion and character.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
I read Vladimir first and then I read estra Gon
and vice versa, just to see who would play who,
and we did that in one day, or Jamie to
hear that reading of the play twice, but anyway, and
we learned a lot that day, I think, And what
really came across was, and this is something Jamie remarked upon,
(05:58):
was that our friendship, our history together really suits the
play because of the friendship and connection and history that
the two characters.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Have, Like Kean, you said, and it's been an asset
for us in this play, which is very challenging to
have that kind of Shorthand are.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
There similarities between Bill and Ted and Beckett. What ways
was your experience on those films helpful when it came
to doing this production?
Speaker 5 (06:27):
Gosh, which one do you, rud? I'll speak about the physical.
I mean when we did Bill and Ted, we both
kind of fell into like a classical approach in terms
of panto or comedia de la arte, you know, and
then making these characters flesh and blood.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
I'm not sure if it's Bill and Ted as much
as a consistency between Keanue and I and Bill and
Ted and these guys. But I always say that the
only real difference between Bill and Ted is that Bill
thinks he knows everything and it's absolutely no idea about anything,
and Ted doesn't think he knows anything but actually always
knows what's going on. And Vladimir and Astrogon are very similar.
(07:08):
I mean, the plays arc such as there is one
is sort of Vladimir coming around to understanding Estragon's point
of view, which in the.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Case of this play is quite tragic.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
There's a lot of Kianu and Estragon, and there's a
fair amount of me in Vladimir, so and that carries
through the Bill and Ted movies.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
How difficult is it to learn the lines because you
know the dialogue is kind of elliptical.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yes it is. It's it's a monster. I mean it's
it's a monster of memorization because it defies Beckett is
a cheeky bugger, and it defies logic intentionally, like there
are sand traps in every line, almost like no, you
think it's going this way, No, it's going to invert.
And I found for myself the way I ended up
(07:53):
memorizing was almost more like memorizing a piece of music,
like it's this rhythm, it's that's how for me, that's
why Gotto made so much sense, because gotto potso go
go all of those rhyme and I would keep hitting
a brick wall if it was like Potso go go goodo.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
I was like, well that doesn't work, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
So it's a lot of its alliteration in rhythm and
rhyme and repetition, and a consonant starts here and then
it repeats there. It's bananas.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Do you find yourself just thinking about the lines constantly?
Speaker 5 (08:23):
Even now? Oh yeah, this for me, I mean I
think for you as well, Alex, if I can speak
for you, The life and art intersectionalization of this play
is quite strong, and it's also fun. I mean, part
of the process is trying to get comfortable internalized lines,
(08:47):
what do they mean? And so I know for me,
you'll you'll be in a moment and you'll just come
up to like nothing to be done, or off we.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Go, or you kind of end up living, dreaming, sleeping,
reciting the dialogue all the time, all day every day.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
We're just kind of in god ittle man.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
And Jamie, you know, was saying in rehearsal, like it's
a play of three thousand moments.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah, so he kind of gave us the heads up.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
He's like, it's going to be.
Speaker 5 (09:18):
This moment, then this moment, this moment, then this moment,
this moment, and you must be precise, confident and commit.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
The upside of that is it doesn't get wrote.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
I grew up doing long running Broadway shows, and you
would shows where you're on stage every night, it shows
a week for like three years, and you'd get bored.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
You were in Peter Pan and and.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
You'd be like, gosh, I've done this so many flipping times,
like how do I find a way into this.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
That's not rote? That is so not going to happen
on this show. But just not. It's just every night
is like, oh God, okay, let's go boom, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
You, let's go do.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Let's god, let's god do.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Players does signed as a trap for the characters and
the audience, and it feels that way, but it doesn't
feel oppressive to act in. Yeah, it's interesting. It's a
brilliant design.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
I have to say.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
The play is very funny, but it is at some
level about refugees and some unseen conflict. I mean, did
it feel kind of pressure more topical than you'd remembered.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
It is timeless, and it's talking about the human condition
and human experience that doesn't seem to change much. Yeah,
I mean even has the line in the play let's
not talk of the past generations now, let's not talk
about the present. Let's not talk about it at all.
But what that intimates to me is also that the conflicts,
(10:48):
the questions, the relationships, our friendships are universal and through time.
And so a play to me is one of those
classics that can all be topical and finds itself quite
topical today.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
It's heavy, you know.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
I mean, sure there's funny moments in it, but the
play is you know, came out of Beckett on the
run from the Nazis Durer world War two and he was.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
In the French resistance.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
And you know, we're obviously refugees, and we're obviously in
some autocratic or fascist environment. That's dangerous. And you know
Keanu's point, that's a timeless thing. You know, we have
existed through time. We're in kind of a time slip.
We talk a lot about time being stopped and wanting
to un moore ourselves from time. So the idea is
(11:37):
very is very universal, but it is very timely. To
say yes to doing this play is no joke and
I'm glad we had three years to get prepared for it.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
It's like climbing Mount.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
Everest every night.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
Now we'll hear from Alice Shaeffer in London about the
reaction in England to this week's release of Ozzy No
Escape from Now. It's a documentary about the final years
of Ozzy Osbourne's life as he battled illness and the
march of time after a life lived on stage. Lee Shaeffer,
thanks so much for joining me.
Speaker 6 (12:24):
You're welcome, happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Elise.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
You are well established on the variety masthead as a big,
big music buff and you reacted like much of the
world in July when Ozzy Osbourne died at the age
of seventy six after a life lived in public and
especially the last couple of years were pretty hard with
some illness. This week has seen the premiere of a
documentary on the famous Black Sabbath front man and solo
(12:51):
artist for many years. That was just so timely because
it was in post production as he went into his
decline an unexpectedly died during the post productions. I can
tell from your coverage and the coverage of others in
our London bureau, this has really been a This has
been a huge moment for the UK. Ozzy Osbourne was
a proud son of Birmingham. As someone who grew up
(13:15):
with him, appreciated him as somebody that your parent liked
and oh my god, this music actually is cool. What
was it like for you to be there in the
UK and process how the nation was losing the favorite son.
Speaker 6 (13:28):
My dad from a very young age showed me all
of his favorite bands and he was very into the
hair metal scene in the seventies and eighties and big
Sabbath fan. So I grew up listening to Ozzie, watching
Ozzie's reality show all of that, and I actually was
with him when we found out the news.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
In London.
Speaker 6 (13:47):
They were here to see another iconic British band, Oasis,
and we just sat down for a really lovely steakhouse
dinner sort of about a very classic London establishment, and
there was actually a sign that said no phones, so
we were all unplugging, having our stake, and a man
next us at the table next us glanced down at
(14:09):
his Apple Watch and audibly gasped and said, Ozzy Osbourne
just died and kind of announced it to this restaurant
and just seeing the reaction of everybody in there. It
was mostly Brits in there besides us, and everybody got
a little emotional, but we all sort of bonded in
that moment over finding out this news together and the
(14:29):
rest of the dinner we talked to the table next
to us, we talked to each other and just shared
memories of Ozzy and, like you said, truly just such
a beloved figure, not only in the UK but around
the world, but especially here. He is this hometown hero.
He was a working class man, grew up in Birmingham
and just truly rose to such great heights, but did struggle,
(14:52):
struggled with substance abuse, got famously fired from Black Sabbath
in seventy nine because of that, and then was also
a reality tea pioneer. I mean, there's so many facets
to Ozzie and of course his enduring love for Sharon,
and we really get to see all of that in
this paramount plus documentary that is out. It's titled No
(15:12):
Escape from Now and really just gives such an intimate,
close up look at the past six years of his life,
which he's undergone a ton of health struggles. One of
the biggest things I took away watching this documentary is
just how much he was unfortunately in pain, but also
how much wanting to get back on the stage really
(15:33):
drove him. It's so sad but also beautiful and poetic
that he did pass away just a couple weeks after
his final concert. I think that he had to do that,
he had to make it for that, and then he
was able to let gov. It's a beautiful story.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Our coverage describes that Billy Corgan, so many other musicians
came out to make sure that he could have his
last show. We saw something similar around Chris Christopherson a
couple of years ago before he passed. Roseanne Cash literally
walked him out on stage so he could have that moment.
Your heart catches when you see that and to see
(16:08):
that kind of love. Ozzy, for all of his theatrics
in the eighties and the crazy hair and all the
showmanship and the pyrotechnics, he always had the respect of
musicians because the music was always there, always pushing the envelope.
And boy, I remember the Osbourne's. I can just tell
you MTV had no idea what they had. If anybody
(16:32):
tells you that it's revisionist history, from night one of
that show, you realize that not only was it a
new era for Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne and their kids,
but it was a new era for television in terms
of putting a lens on a famous family. But I
digress from the main point that the gen xer and
me must make, which is when I was in junior
(16:54):
high and early high school, there was no every kid
mostly boys, but some girls had the jersey shirt, the
Ozzy Osbourne classic black and white jersey shirt. If you
didn't have one, you did not have social status. It
was either Ozzy or def Leppard. British bands were having
a moment back then there in the early eighties.
Speaker 6 (17:15):
This documentary. They didn't know that he was going to pass.
They were in the middle of editing when that happened.
The director Tanya Alexander. She mentioned that it was a
decision they had to make whether or not to push
forward with the documentary, but Sharon told them that they
needed to keep going.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
And to your other point, a life on stage takes
a physical toll. I can only imagine what the inside
of Ozzy's throat looked like. Polyps, throat cancer. That's very real. Again,
a lifetime on stage and in the public eye. Well
at least, thank you so much for coming to us
from a soundproof booth in the basement of our London office.
Speaker 6 (17:54):
Thank you, and rock on.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
That's what Ozzie would want. As we close out today's episode,
here's a few things we're watching for Today marks two
years since the Hamas terror attacks that ignited the war
in Gaza. There are two dramas premiering tonight that address
this Somber anniversary Tonight on HBO max Is one day
(18:19):
in October on Paramount Plus, there's Red Alert Reviews of
both can be found on Variety dot com. As for Variety,
We're gearing up next week for activity at two events
that start with the letter m MIPCOM, the International Content
Sales Gathering in can France and Middelburg, the Film Festival
(18:41):
in Virginia. More to come on both before we go.
Congrats to Louis Provost. He's joined Sony Pictures as executive
vice president of Production. He's spent the last fifteen plus
years at Walt Disney Studios. Thanks for listening. This episode
was written and reported by me Cynthia Littleton, with contributions
(19:02):
from Brent Lang and Alish Schaeffer. Stick Snack's hick Picks.
Please leave us a review with the podcast platform of
your choice, and please tune in tomorrow for another episode
of Daily Variety
For years.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I think I've been like a Vulgarian, and I thought
it was waiting for GOODO. But it is not.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Only for Vulgarians.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
It's whatever. Beckett did not like being dragged into the debate.
It just made him irritated. So people asked him how
he pronounced it. He told them to pronounce it however
they felt like it. But it's notable that in every
production he directed, whether it was here or in Germany,
or in Ireland or in England, it was always gotto.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and
analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Tuesday, October seventh, twenty
twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Littleton. I am co
editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm in
La He's in New York, and Variety has reporters around
the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,
(00:58):
we'll turn the mic over to my colleague Brent Lang,
Variety's executive editor. He interviewed Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves
on stage on Monday about their partnership in Waiting for Godo,
the latest staging which just began its Broadway run at
the Hudson Theater. That was Alex Winter. You heard in
the cold open discussing with Brent the pronunciation of Goddo
(01:22):
we also hear in this episode from Elise Schaeffer, senior
news editor in London, about the reaction in the UK
to the Ozzy Osbourne documentary that premieres this week. She
grew up in an Ozzie loving household in the Midwest
and she has perspective on what this son of the
UK's Midwest Birmingham meant to his fellow Brits and fellow rockers.
(01:44):
But before we get to that, here are a few
headlines just in this morning that you need to know.
The Motion Picture Association is not amused Sora too. The
video AI platform is fueling an explosion of copyright infringement
of MPa members work, basically clips from your favorite movies
(02:06):
being altered. The MPa put out a statement very late
East Coast time on Monday night on this aspect of AI.
The studio's interests are aligned with those of artists. Wholesale
reproductions of copyrighted material are not cool, As MPa chairman
Charles Rivkin says, quote well, established copyright law, safeguards the
(02:30):
rights of creators and applies here end quote. Obviously more
to come on this. A twenty four had a surprise
on Monday night for New York Film Festival attendees through
a surprise world premiere for the new drama Marty Supreme
starring Timothy Chalomy. Director Josh Safti told the crowd he'd
(02:51):
just finished the film at two am the night before.
Charlomy plays an aspiring Ping pong champion. The Safti brothers
are really having a moment. Benny Safti has been raking
in accolades for the Smashing Machine since the Venice Film Festival.
All of these stories and so much more can be
found on Friday dot com. Right now, now we turn
(03:16):
to conversations with Friday journalists about news and trends in
show business. Brent Lang did a terrific interview with Waiting
for Gato stars Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter. I've been
saying it wrong all these years too, for those of
us of a certain age. The idea of the stars
of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure starring as Vladimir and
(03:39):
Estragon is a punchline from an old Johnny Carson Tonight
Show monologue. But it's happening Alex Winter, as you'll hear,
grew up on stage. Keanu talks about Comedia del Arte
and the real life friendship between these two comes shining through.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
How did the idea of appearing on stage and reviving
the show come up?
Speaker 5 (04:01):
I was in a hotel room around one am with
jet lag in London, and I was in the fugue state,
and then something came from the universe and said do
waiting and I said, GOODO. Back then waiting for GOODO
with Alex and so then I facetimed him and then
(04:23):
this part I'm about to make up, He said no,
it's waiting for Goato and I was like, cool, do
you want to do that play? And he was like yes.
Then we went on the journey to kind of make
the dream reel and Alex kind of spearheaded. He was,
of course being experienced with Broadway and he.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Was like a great idea, we need a director.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
And Alex went on that and you know, gratefully we
connected with Jamie Lloyd and who's amazing.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
So what made you think of Jamie Lloyd for this?
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Alex?
Speaker 3 (05:01):
He had done a lot of work with Pinter, who
was kind of the natural successor to Beckett.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
But it also is a.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Real visionary and Keanu and I had spoken early on
about wanting to do a version of this that was
the sort of approached Vladimir and Estragon in a grounded way,
and so they felt like human beings are not like
kind of academic caricatures and a revered historical document. And
Jamie's work is very very good at both being visionary
(05:32):
but also being very true to human emotion and character.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
I read Vladimir first and then I read estra Gon
and vice versa, just to see who would play who,
and we did that in one day, or Jamie to
hear that reading of the play twice, but anyway, and
we learned a lot that day, I think, And what
really came across was, and this is something Jamie remarked upon,
(05:58):
was that our friendship, our history together really suits the
play because of the friendship and connection and history that
the two characters.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Have, Like Kean, you said, and it's been an asset
for us in this play, which is very challenging to
have that kind of Shorthand are.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
There similarities between Bill and Ted and Beckett. What ways
was your experience on those films helpful when it came
to doing this production?
Speaker 5 (06:27):
Gosh, which one do you, rud? I'll speak about the physical.
I mean when we did Bill and Ted, we both
kind of fell into like a classical approach in terms
of panto or comedia de la arte, you know, and
then making these characters flesh and blood.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
I'm not sure if it's Bill and Ted as much
as a consistency between Keanue and I and Bill and
Ted and these guys. But I always say that the
only real difference between Bill and Ted is that Bill
thinks he knows everything and it's absolutely no idea about anything,
and Ted doesn't think he knows anything but actually always
knows what's going on. And Vladimir and Astrogon are very similar.
(07:08):
I mean, the plays arc such as there is one
is sort of Vladimir coming around to understanding Estragon's point
of view, which in the.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Case of this play is quite tragic.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
There's a lot of Kianu and Estragon, and there's a
fair amount of me in Vladimir, so and that carries
through the Bill and Ted movies.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
How difficult is it to learn the lines because you
know the dialogue is kind of elliptical.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yes it is. It's it's a monster. I mean it's
it's a monster of memorization because it defies Beckett is
a cheeky bugger, and it defies logic intentionally, like there
are sand traps in every line, almost like no, you
think it's going this way, No, it's going to invert.
And I found for myself the way I ended up
(07:53):
memorizing was almost more like memorizing a piece of music,
like it's this rhythm, it's that's how for me, that's
why Gotto made so much sense, because gotto potso go
go all of those rhyme and I would keep hitting
a brick wall if it was like Potso go go goodo.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
I was like, well that doesn't work, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
So it's a lot of its alliteration in rhythm and
rhyme and repetition, and a consonant starts here and then
it repeats there. It's bananas.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Do you find yourself just thinking about the lines constantly?
Speaker 5 (08:23):
Even now? Oh yeah, this for me, I mean I
think for you as well, Alex, if I can speak
for you, The life and art intersectionalization of this play
is quite strong, and it's also fun. I mean, part
of the process is trying to get comfortable internalized lines,
(08:47):
what do they mean? And so I know for me,
you'll you'll be in a moment and you'll just come
up to like nothing to be done, or off we.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Go, or you kind of end up living, dreaming, sleeping,
reciting the dialogue all the time, all day every day.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
We're just kind of in god ittle man.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
And Jamie, you know, was saying in rehearsal, like it's
a play of three thousand moments.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah, so he kind of gave us the heads up.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
He's like, it's going to be.
Speaker 5 (09:18):
This moment, then this moment, this moment, then this moment,
this moment, and you must be precise, confident and commit.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
The upside of that is it doesn't get wrote.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
I grew up doing long running Broadway shows, and you
would shows where you're on stage every night, it shows
a week for like three years, and you'd get bored.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
You were in Peter Pan and and.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
You'd be like, gosh, I've done this so many flipping times,
like how do I find a way into this.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
That's not rote? That is so not going to happen
on this show. But just not. It's just every night
is like, oh God, okay, let's go boom, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
You, let's go do.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Let's god, let's god do.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Players does signed as a trap for the characters and
the audience, and it feels that way, but it doesn't
feel oppressive to act in. Yeah, it's interesting. It's a
brilliant design.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
I have to say.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
The play is very funny, but it is at some
level about refugees and some unseen conflict. I mean, did
it feel kind of pressure more topical than you'd remembered.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
It is timeless, and it's talking about the human condition
and human experience that doesn't seem to change much. Yeah,
I mean even has the line in the play let's
not talk of the past generations now, let's not talk
about the present. Let's not talk about it at all.
But what that intimates to me is also that the conflicts,
(10:48):
the questions, the relationships, our friendships are universal and through time.
And so a play to me is one of those
classics that can all be topical and finds itself quite
topical today.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
It's heavy, you know.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
I mean, sure there's funny moments in it, but the
play is you know, came out of Beckett on the
run from the Nazis Durer world War two and he was.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
In the French resistance.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
And you know, we're obviously refugees, and we're obviously in
some autocratic or fascist environment. That's dangerous. And you know
Keanu's point, that's a timeless thing. You know, we have
existed through time. We're in kind of a time slip.
We talk a lot about time being stopped and wanting
to un moore ourselves from time. So the idea is
(11:37):
very is very universal, but it is very timely. To
say yes to doing this play is no joke and
I'm glad we had three years to get prepared for it.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
It's like climbing Mount.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
Everest every night.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
Now we'll hear from Alice Shaeffer in London about the
reaction in England to this week's release of Ozzy No
Escape from Now. It's a documentary about the final years
of Ozzy Osbourne's life as he battled illness and the
march of time after a life lived on stage. Lee Shaeffer,
thanks so much for joining me.
Speaker 6 (12:24):
You're welcome, happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Elise.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
You are well established on the variety masthead as a big,
big music buff and you reacted like much of the
world in July when Ozzy Osbourne died at the age
of seventy six after a life lived in public and
especially the last couple of years were pretty hard with
some illness. This week has seen the premiere of a
documentary on the famous Black Sabbath front man and solo
(12:51):
artist for many years. That was just so timely because
it was in post production as he went into his
decline an unexpectedly died during the post productions. I can
tell from your coverage and the coverage of others in
our London bureau, this has really been a This has
been a huge moment for the UK. Ozzy Osbourne was
a proud son of Birmingham. As someone who grew up
(13:15):
with him, appreciated him as somebody that your parent liked
and oh my god, this music actually is cool. What
was it like for you to be there in the
UK and process how the nation was losing the favorite son.
Speaker 6 (13:28):
My dad from a very young age showed me all
of his favorite bands and he was very into the
hair metal scene in the seventies and eighties and big
Sabbath fan. So I grew up listening to Ozzie, watching
Ozzie's reality show all of that, and I actually was
with him when we found out the news.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
In London.
Speaker 6 (13:47):
They were here to see another iconic British band, Oasis,
and we just sat down for a really lovely steakhouse
dinner sort of about a very classic London establishment, and
there was actually a sign that said no phones, so
we were all unplugging, having our stake, and a man
next us at the table next us glanced down at
(14:09):
his Apple Watch and audibly gasped and said, Ozzy Osbourne
just died and kind of announced it to this restaurant
and just seeing the reaction of everybody in there. It
was mostly Brits in there besides us, and everybody got
a little emotional, but we all sort of bonded in
that moment over finding out this news together and the
(14:29):
rest of the dinner we talked to the table next
to us, we talked to each other and just shared
memories of Ozzy and, like you said, truly just such
a beloved figure, not only in the UK but around
the world, but especially here. He is this hometown hero.
He was a working class man, grew up in Birmingham
and just truly rose to such great heights, but did struggle,
(14:52):
struggled with substance abuse, got famously fired from Black Sabbath
in seventy nine because of that, and then was also
a reality tea pioneer. I mean, there's so many facets
to Ozzie and of course his enduring love for Sharon,
and we really get to see all of that in
this paramount plus documentary that is out. It's titled No
(15:12):
Escape from Now and really just gives such an intimate,
close up look at the past six years of his life,
which he's undergone a ton of health struggles. One of
the biggest things I took away watching this documentary is
just how much he was unfortunately in pain, but also
how much wanting to get back on the stage really
(15:33):
drove him. It's so sad but also beautiful and poetic
that he did pass away just a couple weeks after
his final concert. I think that he had to do that,
he had to make it for that, and then he
was able to let gov. It's a beautiful story.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Our coverage describes that Billy Corgan, so many other musicians
came out to make sure that he could have his
last show. We saw something similar around Chris Christopherson a
couple of years ago before he passed. Roseanne Cash literally
walked him out on stage so he could have that moment.
Your heart catches when you see that and to see
(16:08):
that kind of love. Ozzy, for all of his theatrics
in the eighties and the crazy hair and all the
showmanship and the pyrotechnics, he always had the respect of
musicians because the music was always there, always pushing the envelope.
And boy, I remember the Osbourne's. I can just tell
you MTV had no idea what they had. If anybody
(16:32):
tells you that it's revisionist history, from night one of
that show, you realize that not only was it a
new era for Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne and their kids,
but it was a new era for television in terms
of putting a lens on a famous family. But I
digress from the main point that the gen xer and
me must make, which is when I was in junior
(16:54):
high and early high school, there was no every kid
mostly boys, but some girls had the jersey shirt, the
Ozzy Osbourne classic black and white jersey shirt. If you
didn't have one, you did not have social status. It
was either Ozzy or def Leppard. British bands were having
a moment back then there in the early eighties.
Speaker 6 (17:15):
This documentary. They didn't know that he was going to pass.
They were in the middle of editing when that happened.
The director Tanya Alexander. She mentioned that it was a
decision they had to make whether or not to push
forward with the documentary, but Sharon told them that they
needed to keep going.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
And to your other point, a life on stage takes
a physical toll. I can only imagine what the inside
of Ozzy's throat looked like. Polyps, throat cancer. That's very real. Again,
a lifetime on stage and in the public eye. Well
at least, thank you so much for coming to us
from a soundproof booth in the basement of our London office.
Speaker 6 (17:54):
Thank you, and rock on.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
That's what Ozzie would want. As we close out today's episode,
here's a few things we're watching for Today marks two
years since the Hamas terror attacks that ignited the war
in Gaza. There are two dramas premiering tonight that address
this Somber anniversary Tonight on HBO max Is one day
(18:19):
in October on Paramount Plus, there's Red Alert Reviews of
both can be found on Variety dot com. As for Variety,
We're gearing up next week for activity at two events
that start with the letter m MIPCOM, the International Content
Sales Gathering in can France and Middelburg, the Film Festival
(18:41):
in Virginia. More to come on both before we go.
Congrats to Louis Provost. He's joined Sony Pictures as executive
vice president of Production. He's spent the last fifteen plus
years at Walt Disney Studios. Thanks for listening. This episode
was written and reported by me Cynthia Littleton, with contributions
(19:02):
from Brent Lang and Alish Schaeffer. Stick Snack's hick Picks.
Please leave us a review with the podcast platform of
your choice, and please tune in tomorrow for another episode
of Daily Variety
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