Welcome to the Actor's Guide Podcast, Episode 19!
This is the big Oscars recap as well as our favorite moments of Awards season, including our very first Actor's Guide Podcast Awards (they're not real but special nonetheless). How did Conan O’Brien do his first time hosting the Oscars? Biggest Shock? Biggest Cringe? Favorite Couple? (Not who you're expecting).
And of course we had to talk about Adrien Brody... which gets E-Kan and Rían on their favorite speeches and the power of brevity, whether you're giving an Oscars speech or writing an Instagram post.
Admittedly we thought some of the moments this season were better than the films, and many of them were provided by Kieran Culkin. Did you know that Jesse Eisenberg never saw any of Culkin's work before casting him in A Real Pain? We discuss it, and it might change how you look at your social media and branding. Does anyone remember the time Kieran Culkin took a dig at Adrien Brody taking up too much time at the podium at the SAG Awards, BEFORE the Oscars? We did. You can't write this stuff.
The guys get into a deep conversation about actors’ process and where’s the line between having doing your best work while also not alienating or annoying your fellow actors. This is a good one, everyone!
Jeremy Strong Interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM4vf6oskw8
Eisenberg on Kieran Culkin - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu80XNnRjpw
Kieran Culkin and Colman Domingo interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBKUDVZlLdI
Hidden Gems: Hi Tech Golf - https://supersocial.ie/games/hi-tech-golf/ Chase Lounge at LaGuardia - https://www.chase.com/personal/credit-cards/education/basics/guide-to-the-chase-sapphire-lounge-at-laguardia-airportTime stamps:
(00:00) Intro
(02:20) New CA Bills and Keep California Rolling
(03:20) First Oscar reactions
(06:13) Biggest Shock
(07:50) Biggest Loser
(09:00) Anora
(10:46) Adrien Brody
(12:20) Our favorite speeches ever
(14:50) The power of brevity
(16:50) What we can learn from Adrien Brody
(19:50) Why we love Kieran Culkin
(22:12) Our favorite couple
(26:30) When Kieran took a shot at Adrien Brody
(27:16) Cutest Moment
(29:30) Jeremy Strong and an actor's process
(34:45) Kieran Culkin on actors as storytellers
(37:20) Eisenberg saw none of Culkin's work before casting him
(39:36) Hidden Gems
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Joe Pesci's Oscar acceptance speech,
which was brilliant.
He just went up, bent
his head for a second,
and then he just looked up and went,
"It's my privilege," and just walked off.
I was like, "Brilliant."
People underrate how important it is
to be concise and clear.
There's a famous quote, a
tribute to Blaise Pascal,
who's a famous mathematician.
He's writing a letter.
"I've made this longer than usual
(00:21):
"because I had not the
time to make it shorter."
Okay, I like that.
All right, welcome to the Actors Guide
to the End of the World podcast,
where we talk about acting in Hollywood
in a way people understand.
I'm E-Kan Soong, and this is my partner.
Rían Sheehy Kelly, how you doing?
What's up, buddy?
Make sure you follow us
wherever you find your podcasts.
We're on YouTube, we're on Substack.
(00:43):
Please leave a review
if you get a chance.
We would greatly appreciate it.
Follow us on all social media, Instagram,
Friendster, Bebo, if you live
in Ireland in the early 2000s.
Yeah, at Actors Guide podcast.
This is going to be our big Oscars recap.
And we're gonna jump around a lot.
(01:03):
It's gonna be a good time.
Sit back, relax.
We're gonna have our own
Actors Guide podcast awards
from the past Oscar
season and awards season.
Random ones, they're
gonna be some fun ones.
I will warn you, just a spoiler,
if you don't like Kieran Culkin,
you might not like this podcast.
I have a lot of takes on Kieran Culkin.
(01:24):
I wanna talk about him.
All right, this is interesting.
I didn't know this.
No, you had some takes on Kieran Culkin.
Now, just to clarify,
these are not physical awards
that will be presented to
any of the actors involved
or any of the people involved.
They're more sort of metaphysical awards
that they will maybe feel.
Yeah, they're more figurative awards
because that means much
(01:45):
more than a physical award.
I never thought that.
So if I win any awards, I
want them to be physical
just for their record going forward.
And our sponsor for today's show,
Indestructive Trailer.
Take care of your actors
without needing to worry
about taking care of your trailer.
These trailers are put to the test
and are built to last no
matter who's on the call sheet.
Little Terror who just
got her own Disney show,
(02:06):
a A-list starlet who needs
room for their entourage,
a reality show star
with their family raccoons.
Indestructive Trailer
has got you covered.
And now comes with a bidet.
For the raccoons.
All right, so I'm on the move,
so I got a new location.
I'm gonna be a little quieter.
So this is gonna be
like if we were on NPR.
(02:26):
So this could be a nice--
I'm gonna try and make
this auditory experience
pleasant for you.
Exactly.
ASMR.
Last week's episode, obviously,
if you got a chance to listen to it,
that was right before the Oscars.
We were talking about the favorites,
we were talking about betting lines.
So it's nice to talk about it afterwards,
see what happened and
what were your big takeaways?
What did you think about the telecast?
(02:49):
Well, I didn't watch it live,
obviously because it was
on at one in the morning
or something here it started out.
So I watched bits and
pieces of it the next day.
To me, it was a pretty
conventional Oscars, I thought.
I don't think there was
major offsets or controversies.
Conan O'Brien's a
pretty safe host, you know?
(03:10):
And I love Conan O'Brien,
but there was nothing controversial
there, particularly.
I did see some criticism of him online,
bits and pieces of
criticism, I don't really know why.
But like I said, I didn't
watch the whole ceremony,
but I love Conan.
In terms of awards, no major surprises.
I suppose the big,
(03:30):
I did think that Demi
Moore was maybe gonna win.
Okay, okay.
Okay, we'll get into that one.
Let's talk about Conan a little bit.
I'm a huge fan.
This was his first time doing the Oscars.
First of all, it's a
nearly impossible job.
There's a lot of
reasons why comics and hosts
don't wanna do that job.
(03:52):
I think Conan gets points
because he made it a Conan still.
So he still brought the quirky, the
little cringy humor.
We're giving awards right
after the city had strikes
and these disastrous
fires where it's a tricky line
(04:15):
to balance. It is.
And I think he did the best that he could
for what he had.
I think so.
And one thing I love about
Conan, he's always himself.
I don't think he's, he
never strikes me as somebody
who's overwhelmed by a situation
or intimidated by the scale of something.
So I thought he did a
(04:35):
really nice job there.
And you know, there
are funny bits in there,
like his bit with Adam
Sandler and I don't know.
I just, I enjoy him anyway.
So I was probably a bit
more predisposed to liken it.
And also to be fair, I agree.
And it's like, I think
you and me both would be,
would Conan's fans for Conan Brunt.
(04:57):
I do not think that the
majority of the Oscar audience
is that type of humor.
I don't even know if this
was really the right audience,
but he took a big swing.
Let's just go with the
award for the biggest shock
is 100% Demi Moore not
winning over Mikey Mattis.
(05:20):
Hands down, the biggest shock.
First of all, you know how much I was
rooting for Demi Moore.
That being said, if you look
at our lines from last week,
Mikey Mattis was not that far behind.
Said no one was
expecting her to actually win
on the biggest stage
and the biggest awards.
Did you see her face?
(05:42):
You saw her take a hit.
I think, you know, her face,
you could tell she
was really disappointed.
And I understand it.
I understand the buzz.
Like based off her speech, you know,
here's an actor who
thought she was never,
she was never gonna win awards.
I was told, you know,
her speech was great.
She was taught, she was told that she,
that wasn't, she's not that type of
actress or whatever.
So I think she was very hopeful.
(06:03):
And I could see why.
It's just a human, natural thing.
You're like, oh my
God, I could win an Oscar.
You know, like at
this stage of her career,
having been, you know, being
through what she's been through
and having had the career that she's had,
that now she's in this
position to maybe win an Oscar.
The fact that how much
I've been talking about
Demi Moore going through this, I was,
I felt invested too.
(06:26):
And you want, and here's the thing,
you can't know for sure, but supposedly,
apparently she said one
word and she just went nice.
Oh, I didn't say that.
I didn't read that.
Then also could be wrong.
It was basically a lip
reading and also people
who were paying close attention.
(06:48):
That's what they're
saying that their reaction was.
Now, it very well
could have been Clickbaity.
Her photo after the
Oscars, she was in a bathrobe
with two huge bowls of French fries.
So I think she's gonna be okay.
And also the irony.
The substance is about an older woman,
an older star, supposedly past her prime,
(07:10):
and it's this battle
with a youthful upstart.
The irony is Demi Moore loses the Oscar
to a 25-year-old Mikey Madison.
And have you actually seen the movie?
Have you seen the substance or?
(laughing) I know, I know, but this
is the other sad part is
we might not be talking
about the substance as much.
(07:31):
If anything, we're the
biggest losers in the fact
that we can't talk
about the substance anymore.
I'll wager you'll find a way
to crowbar it into every episode.
Yeah, yeah, we will.
Number one loser, and
I think I tweeted this,
the biggest loser of
the entire night was Hulu
because the telecast ended
right before Best Actress.
(07:53):
Literally.
It just ended or just caught out?
Right before Best Actress is announced,
they're going through the
nominees, telecast ends.
It was like one of those things
where you're recording on a DVR
and you only recorded three hours,
but the rest, if it goes
over time, it just cuts out.
Oh yeah. It literally ended.
So you have to record
the post-show, yeah.
(08:14):
Exactly. The post-show, yeah.
So there was nothing there,
and here I am just Google
searching who wins Best Actress
and the biggest upset
of the entire night.
I completely missed.
So worst loser is Hulu,
or biggest loser is Hulu.
Were they the only ones broadcasting it?
Was it not on network TV or has--
(08:35):
Well, technically it was on network TV,
so if you had ABC,
you could watch it live
and so on and so forth.
So there's that, I mean, it was great
because it was
accessible for some people.
By the way, the Oscars was the most
watched in five years,
so I wanna say it was a
five-year high for viewing.
(08:55):
We have the biggest shock of the night.
On number two is we knew
Enora was going to be strong,
but for Sean Baker to make
epic history winning four,
I mean, come on.
I was not predicting that.
Things change pretty quickly.
You can go Anelia Perez and just
completely disappear
(09:15):
off the map in a couple weeks.
You have momentum being built up,
but man, Enora got hot.
Enora got really hot at the right time.
Yeah, I'm delighted for him.
What was Enora, like a $6 million movie
or something like that?
It was a lot of budget, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Loved it.
And it's brilliant to see
an indie movie do that well
and sweep all of these awards
(09:37):
because it sort of
reinforces the idea that like,
yeah, you can make these movies.
These people will see these movies.
People will do enjoy these movies.
It doesn't have to be blockbusters.
It doesn't have to be sequels.
It doesn't have to be remakes.
Yeah.
And if you didn't get to
listen to our last episode,
we talk a lot about Sean Baker
(10:00):
and his essentially
this whole award season
is a love letter to independent film.
So we break down his film
independent spirit award speech
last episode.
So if you're interested
in hearing more about it,
check out that.
I mean, four Oscars.
I think first person
ever since Walt Disney.
I mean, by the way,
I didn't even know Walt
Disney won four Oscars.
(10:21):
Walt Disney won four Oscars for four
separate films in 1953.
So Sean Baker, I mean,
doing something like this is just,
how many times do you
actually see the best director
or writer also edit the film?
It's incredible.
Let's talk about Adrian Brody's speech
(10:42):
for the rest of the podcast.
So now, for the rest of this episode,
for the rest of this episode,
we're gonna talk about
Adrian Brody's speech.
And it still will not be as long as
Adrian Brody's speech.
Exactly, exactly.
Adrian Brody's speech was
almost as long as the brutalist.
(11:02):
He topped his award season run.
I'm not gonna lie,
I didn't listen to all
of his speeches before,
but that was actually,
that was like literally one of his worst.
That was, it was like,
usually people build up, build up
and you save the gold at the end,
like least articulate.
I don't wanna smash the guy,
because obviously he's
(11:23):
been getting hammered
the entire week, but
it's just kind of funny
where the music starts coming.
Please give me a moment.
I will not be egregious.
He says, I will not be egregious.
And he goes on for another 15 minutes.
I thought it was the
most beautiful example
of an actor taking space.
(11:43):
I feel like actors,
we all need to learn how to
take space like Adrian Brody,
because that was masterful.
It was wild.
I think my main issue with it was
he didn't say anything really.
He just didn't-
That's my point.
He was just windy and rambling.
I think it was 10 seconds longer
than the previous record holder.
Oh, was it really?
Yeah, it was like 5.30.
(12:04):
He was 5.40 or something like that.
He's a phenomenal actor.
I think he's a stunning actor.
I just, I was watching his speech going,
okay, okay, okay, okay.
And I think when you
see a speech like that,
you really appreciate
a speech that's funny
or short or meaningful or, you know,
(12:24):
the Colin Farrell is,
I think he gives my favorite awards,
acceptance speeches.
I really enjoyed Colin
Farrell's accepted speeches.
And then I saw it stacked up against,
compared to Joe Pesci's
Oscar acceptance speech,
which was brilliant.
She just went up.
He took it from,
I think Brenda Fricker
was presenting the award
and he took the Oscar statue
(12:44):
and he kind of like
bent his head for a second
and he like kissed something.
And then he just looked up and went,
it's my privilege and just walked off.
And I was like, brilliant.
Oh, is that what you did?
And then Bjork, that's the Bjork,
kind of wonderful acceptance speech.
Did you see that?
I saw Bjork said,
I am a grateful
grapefruit and then walked away.
(13:06):
And I thought, brilliant.
That's, they're the
kind of speeches you want.
Short and sweet.
Exactly.
Yeah, there was a famous,
I don't know if this
ever crossed your radar,
but Eric Canton, I was
a phenomenal footballer
for Manchester United,
but he was banned for months of a season,
like seven or eight months or something,
(13:27):
for jumping into the
crowd and kicking a fan
who was abusing him.
And when he gave a press conference,
all he said, he
gathered this press conference
and all of these journalists are waiting
and they're waiting for him to say,
to apologize or to say something.
And all he said was, in a
thick French accent he says,
when the seagulls follow the trawler,
(13:49):
they think it is because sardines
will be thrown into the sea.
Thank you.
And walked away.
And it was just brilliant.
I love speeches like that.
Yeah, yeah.
Not that that was an awards speech,
but it just-
People underrate how important it is
to be concise and clear.
Yeah.
In our day and age,
(14:10):
in our day and age of,
I mean, here we are on a podcast, right?
We could blab on for four hours,
but there's a power in
being clear and concise.
Anyway, that's all I'm saying about that.
You're dead right.
No, you're dead right.
But like brevity and economy of language.
Yeah, brevity is a good word.
I wonder if he taught,
and here's what I was thinking to myself.
(14:31):
I wonder if afterwards
he got off stage and went,
oh no, what did I do?
That was way too long.
Or if you just had great
speech, Adrian, you did it.
You know that-
I wanna talk about that.
Sorry.
There's a famous quote
on this idea of brevity.
There's a famous quote.
I do not believe it was
(14:52):
attributed to Mark Twain.
It was attributed to Blaise Pascal,
who's a famous mathematician.
He's writing a letter.
I've made this longer than usual
because I had not the
time to make it shorter.
Okay?
Okay.
(laughing) Okay, I like that.
Just let that sink in
because this attributes
to anyone who's writing,
(15:14):
anyone who's editing,
whether it's an
Instagram reel or a blog post.
I didn't have the
time to make it shorter.
The economy of words of what is
absolutely necessary,
writing whatever you're about to say
or whatever you're writing down,
that's where the real work is.
(15:36):
If it was long and floppy
and you're going on a speech of five
minutes, that's easy.
But to make it a tight
minute and a half, that's hard.
And so I just wanna, I just, I love that
because that's always echoing in my head
when we're talking.
No, you're right.
And just on that,
because I grew up in a house
(15:57):
with two journalists.
My parents are both journalists
and newspaper journalists.
So the importance of language
and the importance of saying,
using only the words you need to use
to say what you're trying to say.
And also the way you structure,
even the way you structure an article
by saying the most important things first
(16:19):
and then in order of importance,
down the article.
But you hit it at the top,
you only say,
and I think in script writing as well,
like it's important to cut out fluff.
Don't just throw--
There shouldn't be language in
there just for the sake of it.
You need to, the character needs to say
what they need to say
without dressing it up in anything else.
(16:41):
It's just noise down at that point.
So let's talk a little
more about Adrian Brody.
If anyone remembers,
Adrian Brody came onto
the scene with the pianist.
Essentially very little known.
Keep in mind, this is 20 years.
So credit to him, 20
years later, you win an Oscar.
So that's a career right there.
(17:05):
If you don't remember,
he went onto the speech.
He was getting
presented by Alec Halle Berry.
He went up and he hissed
her straight on the lips
as if he won the lottery.
That does not fly, I believe in 2025,
(17:26):
just openly kissing
anyone without warning.
So I will preface that.
It was a different time.
That was how he first won his Oscar.
I don't know too much about Adrian Brody,
but obviously he's an incredible actor.
My point is, what is going through
the mentality of Adrian Brody?
You have this epic awards
(17:46):
run on his way to the stage.
He takes his gum out and
tosses it to his girlfriend.
Oh, I just saw that today.
I hadn't seen that clip
and I just saw it today.
And it was fire.
I thought he just handed it to her.
He just lobbed that on her.
Was any of this pre-planned?
I do not know and we're
(18:06):
not here to speculate.
My point is, is--
I doubt it.
This guy takes, is not
afraid to take up space.
And he was not shy, accepting his award
for five minutes and 40 seconds.
So I don't think he's
second guessing anything.
He first went on the
stage kissing Halle Berry
(18:27):
in what was in Epic Oscar's moment,
for better or for worse.
And 22 some years later, here he is now.
So who kissed him on the stage?
Somebody did it to him this time in
retaliation as a joke.
I think Halle Berry kissed him.
Oh, that's what it was.
I think that was the joke.
And if you're watching this on video,
(18:47):
we'll put this picture in the video.
Yes, they did reenact
it, okay, all right.
Yeah.
To each their own.
You know what, I think I
would wish the confidence
of Adrian Brody
giving an acceptance speech
for any actor because--
I agree, I agree.
You know.
I'm not joking around.
We share this on our social media.
(19:08):
Like I basically said,
may all actors take up space
like Adrian Brody.
It's like, I mean,
it's a beautiful thing.
I think more actors could
take more space like that.
You might get slated
for it, but you know,
if that's a kind of
confidence, you have good view.
Also, don't kiss people without consent.
Just what we're talking about.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
(19:29):
Going off of Adrian Brody,
we didn't even talk about
all of Ciaran Culkin's
speeches, the awards show run.
I actually think that
there's a handful of speeches
that were really cool,
fun, meaningful, heartfelt.
And I'm not gonna lie,
a lot of these speeches
and these moments were
better than the films.
(19:50):
I don't think this was a great year,
Oscar Phillips, I
thought it was really good.
I thought these speeches
are almost more interesting
than a lot of the movies.
So let's start out with Ciaran Culkin.
Very interesting guy.
Yeah.
I am so like, if you
watch any of his speeches,
(20:11):
whether they were
planned, whether or not,
they were all hilarious,
they were so self-effacing,
humble, but he's also just like,
I don't even know what I'm doing up here.
You know what I mean?
And it's just like,
each one is so different.
It's not, it's a lot like his acting.
It's a lot like his acting piece.
Obviously at this point,
he's already won many
(20:32):
awards for succession.
He's sweeping them up and here he goes,
he's sweeped all the
words and he won an Oscar.
The flip side of those
coins is you have Ciaran Culkin
where we're like, we'll give you an award
just so you can accept
and make a speech about it.
That's how entertaining it was.
Versus Adrian Brody and
five minutes and 40 seconds
is not long enough for him.
(20:53):
Yeah.
So like my favorite
performer of this award season
goes to Ciaran Culkin.
Oh yeah.
I'd agree with that.
I thought his speech was great
and you know,
referenced the speech before
when he said, let's have a third kid.
And then, you know, his wife had said,
his wife's yeah, and
his wife was like, yeah,
(21:13):
win an Oscar and then
we can have a fourth.
And he just brought it up.
Like a good writer,
he saved the best speech for the end.
Okay, so keep in mind,
if you're watching
someone win five awards,
they're coming up with five
different speeches, possibly.
Right?
Obviously that's a good problem to have
whether they prepay or not,
(21:34):
obviously they prepay a little bit
because you know, a lot of
them have it written down.
Anyway, that was the
culmination of all of his speeches.
Unlike Adrian Brody, who
saved his worst for the end.
Yeah, the only odd
thing about that was like,
why is she basing how many
kids they have on awards?
But it was a very entertaining speech.
(21:55):
You know, we'll say
that for another podcast.
No, no, I'm not getting involved
in the planning of their family,
but I really enjoyed his speech.
And I think he's a fascinating actor.
And watching, because I
watched a lot of the interviews
with Jesse Eisenberg
around working with him
on a real pain and it's such a
fascinating relationship
(22:16):
that the two of them
have a fascinating dynamic.
Because Jesse Eisenberg as director
was trying to direct him and he would,
I've also seen Kieran
Kolkan say that like,
lines go into his head really fast.
So he's very free with dialogue.
But I think he just
doesn't plan anything.
I think he just shows up and does.
I remember you mentioning that
and I look back at a lot of their
(22:38):
interaction in interviews.
So I was actually, I
wanted to bring that up.
So my award, the best couple
is Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Kolkan.
Yeah, it's a fascinating relationship.
Like it's really interesting.
Here's the thing, because I heard enough.
(22:59):
It's not the fact that,
we wanna be, of course,
like who are we to pick apart
what the process is?
We're just going off of sound bites.
It's not the fact that he doesn't,
like he has a weird savant like skill
(23:20):
where you're right,
he can instantly pick
up things within minutes.
But I don't want us to
sound like he doesn't prepare
or doesn't do the lines as written.
(23:40):
No, no, I don't mean that.
Okay, okay, okay.
I don't think he goes in unprepared.
I don't know what his
preparation is like at all,
but I don't think he goes in unprepared,
but I think he goes in very free.
And I don't know that he,
I don't think he pre-plans.
It doesn't seem like
he pre-plans anything.
It seems like he's very present in
(24:01):
whatever's going on.
And it's like asking,
I think I saw an interview
where he's someone's director
told him, okay, just do it like that.
And he's like, I have no idea what I did.
So he doesn't, it's not
like he's trying to replicate.
So back to this whole
Jesse Eisenberg thing.
(24:21):
Jesse Eisenberg said,
"Kieran Culkin was so brilliant
and in their dynamic in the movie,
their dynamic in the
movie is making fun of him,
just saying, you know, snarky.
Kieran Culkin, between
all of the takes and on set,
was just making fun of Jesse
Eisenberg and belittling him.
(24:42):
All of the takes
whenever they were on set."
Geez.
When you hear about
all these method actors
staying in character, Jesse Eisenberg,
when she making a joke, it was like,
he's brilliant in the movie.
And basically the dynamic,
he just kept going when
we were in between takes.
He was basically saying things like,
hey, so what stupid shot
are you gonna set up next?
Oh yeah, that's what you have?
(25:04):
That's the best you can come up with?
Like, you got the movie.
So Jesse Eisenberg as a
brilliant director is like,
I don't know if I should tell
him to stop and be nice to me
or just let him keep going.
So that's how brilliant he was.
Even on "Succession."
Obviously "Succession" was
very unique in its filming.
You know, they had multiple cameras.
So it was very much
like being on a theater
(25:26):
or on a recording a stage play.
They had multiple cameras.
You could always be acting.
You could always do everything.
And you don't know if they'll make it on,
but you're giving them great coverage.
So it's not like he's improv-ing
when not preparing his ass off,
but they were pissed at him
because they look at Darren
Colkin and on "Succession,"
(25:47):
they would look at pages and pages like,
okay, got it, let's just do it.
Like he showed up to a real pain
and was immediately
brilliant in rehearsal.
So it's like, whatever that promise,
I just didn't know it
was gonna mess with it.
But it's like, we
would all dream of that.
It's just a savant-like thing anyway.
I think it's incredibly inspiring.
(26:07):
And his speeches are very similar.
Oh, by the way, the cherry on top,
not at the Oscars, but I
believe those are the SAG Awards.
He opens up his SAG
Awards speech and he goes,
"Oh yeah, blah, blah, blah."
And he's riffing and all that stuff.
He's like, "Oh yeah, well, I already used
the most of my 45 seconds,"
which is the allotted time, Adrian.
He took a dig at Adrian Brody
(26:30):
about speaking too long
in his SAG Awards speech.
Oh, had Adrian Brody done a long speech?
I don't know.
And everyone laughed at him.
He was like, "Oh, that's so Karen Culkin
and Adrian Brody laughed."
"Here we are a week later."
And Adrian Brody goes for
five minutes and 40 seconds.
Adrian Brody did not shy away
(26:52):
from every second of that speech.
It's just so funny.
It's just so funny
putting it all together.
I warned you guys before, if
you don't like Karen Culkin,
I'm sorry, I'm not gonna
stop blabbing about him.
This is the new substance.
Yeah, exactly. This is the cutest makeup moment.
The cutest makeup
moment goes to Karen Culkin
and Jeremy Strong.
(27:12):
Do you watch the expression?
Oh yeah, I loved it.
Now that the show's over,
they could be like, "Oh yeah, well,
Jeremy want it like
this," or da-da-da-da,
or it's like, you know, Brian could,
like they talk about
each other in interviews
where it was understood that
there was some tension there.
Did you know anything about this?
Yeah, I've heard some
tension between Jeremy Strong
and the rest of the actors and--
Yeah, exactly, exactly. Here's the thing, we're culminating, we're
(27:34):
going back to the Oscars
at the end of this awards season,
and we have Karen Culkin
sweeping up all the awards,
versus Jeremy Strong,
who is incredibly, got
nominated for the apprentice
and does a great job
and watching Karen
Culkin win all these awards.
It was actually really sweet.
He actually gave a
shout out to Jeremy Strong.
He's like, "Yeah, I know, I'm not
(27:54):
supposed to point anyone out."
I'm not supposed to play favorites, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, I'm not
supposed to play favorites,
but Jeremy Strong, like, Jeremy, you were amazing.
Yeah, I'm not supposed to play favorites. Like, Jeremy, you were amazing in that.
And then I saw this other
photo of behind the scenes,
I think it was Variety
or Hollywood Reporter,
and they had a
picture of them two hugging.
The cutest moment, forget Kylie Jenner
and Timothy, whatever,
that was the cutest moment right there.
(28:15):
No, I appreciate how into
this you are, I like that.
Yeah, Jeremy Strong
always strikes me as an actor
who kind of just marches
to the beat of his own drum.
He reminds me a little bit of,
Michael Shannon is who I'm
thinking of, Michael Shannon.
Oh, Michael Shannon, what a badass.
Yeah, Jeremy Strong
reminds me a little bit
(28:35):
of Michael Shannon, like Michael Shannon,
I remember reading an interview with him
in some magazine or
something, New York Times or something.
But he, like, they went for a walk,
he said, "Let's go for a walk."
I think he was living in
New Jersey at the time.
And they went for a
walk around the block.
The interview only noticed,
the interviewer only noticed about
halfway down the block
that he wasn't wearing any shoes,
he was just barefoot
walking out in the streets.
Like I, there's a, you
(28:58):
know, he's a phenomenal actor,
but I'm just, I'm in
awe of people really,
but like who just sort
of marches to the beat
of their own drum and don't give a shit
what other people think,
like genuinely don't care
what other people think.
I had an opportunity to see Jeremy Strong
do some interviews and
talk about the movie.
(29:18):
Now it doesn't help
when obviously Brian Cox
has a very hard take about it, right?
Oh, I still don't know
exactly what the process is
of what's on set.
They, the gripe was that
sometimes it's alienating.
Now, I don't know what really happened.
Do you know what I mean?
We're just kind of
(29:39):
going over here saying,
I don't think Jeremy
Strong is ever not respectful.
But I think we have
more access to everything
than we've ever had.
We have more access to people's lives,
personal stories from set, you know,
we have more access in the way of knowing
Yeah.
Stars a bit better, you know what I mean?
(29:59):
They're knowing big actors
and knowing what happens at all times.
So I think that anything you do on a set
is likely to come out, how you behave.
I don't know how he
works, but I admire the fact
that he has a process that he sticks with
and he gets the results.
The one thing I want to
say about Jeremy Strong
was he did a Q and A for The Apprentice
(30:23):
and he had an old friend
director who interviewed him.
And I actually, I'm
about to put this on YouTube.
The 45 minutes that he
talked was a masterclass.
Like it was
interesting because someone said,
when you talk about
like, I don't even know
if he used the word method acting,
(30:44):
but they were whenever like,
when you talk about your process on set,
what exactly does that look like?
And you walk through
everything of what that looks like.
Oh, I'd love to hear that.
No, exactly.
And I was like, oh my God.
I was like, you know, aside
from all the hearsay of like,
hey, this is process is different
(31:05):
than the other process
and so on and so forth.
When he was saying and walking through
what this looks like, it did
not sound weird or foreign.
And so that's kind of like
my point where I was like,
me as an actor was learning so much.
I was like, oh my God, this is amazing.
I was like, there's like 30 people in
this data right now.
And I can't, I can't believe that I got,
I was lucky to see this.
(31:25):
Like ultimately it's like
when we start explaining it,
whether it's Daniel Day Lewis
or Kieran Coken or whatever,
well, it's so hard to put into words.
And it's like, if I'm not seeing
what's behind the scenes of succession,
we really don't know
what really happened.
You know what I mean?
Oh no, no, I love that.
I applaud him, like you said,
for being able to stick to his guns and
(31:45):
protect his process.
And obviously, you
know, you wanna be civil
and you wanna be
respectful to the other actors,
but ultimately is whatever
helps you be brilliant, do it.
Absolutely, and I think
he takes it very seriously.
It seems like he's a guy, the art of it,
the craft of it very seriously.
And the other thing that I just,
that while you were talking there,
(32:06):
that it just occurred to me like,
where a sort of a
hierarchy of allegiance,
what is your ultimate allegiance to?
Is it to the film itself?
Is it to the story?
Is it to the other
people that you work with?
Is it to, you know, so where does,
what's the most important?
If you work in a certain way
and you need to work that way
in order to produce the performance
(32:27):
that you think the
piece warrants, you know,
yeah, maybe it's difficult for other
people to work with,
maybe it's not, but.
Just because I was just on set,
being friends and having a
great time is not priority.
(32:48):
I mean, you know, it's
high up there to be civil
and obviously really like
people who you work with,
but that is not even
close to being in priority.
So doing your work,
and if you're number one
on the call sheet, even more important,
I wanna say the most
(33:09):
important thing is be brilliant
and do the best work,
whether you're the grip,
whether you're the
director of photography,
and hopefully you just spent two years
away from your family
and it was completely worth it.
Knowing your job and
knowing what you're there to do
is really important.
I think my question was,
(33:30):
if it alienated people,
are you still
prepared to follow, you know,
to have a, if your
process alienated people
and pissed people off,
would you still stick with it,
even if it caused friction on a set?
You know, I think it depends.
If you're high on the call sheet, if,
(33:51):
depending on your role,
if the success of the
project weighs on your shoulders,
here, I would love to have that problem.
And I assume you would
too, to be that high up.
Yeah, that brings a great question.
Is it worth it?
Is it worth it to rub
people the wrong way
(34:11):
and maybe there's a little tension?
Is that worth it to get a better product?
And, you know, we can only speculate.
You thought I was done with Karen Culkin.
This was months ago.
Karen Culkin did an Actors on
Actors with Coleman Domingo.
Yes, excellent.
Excellent.
When Variety has, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So this was a lifetime ago.
(34:33):
This was a lifetime ago.
This is the award for hottest take, okay?
Karen Culkin is having this conversation
with Coleman Domingo
and everything is really cool
and, you know, winding down.
And Karen Culkin cannot help himself
because he keeps it rolling
because he drops this
bomb on Coleman Domingo.
(34:55):
He essentially says, guys, I hate it
when actors call themselves storytellers.
Yeah.
And he literally says, sorry, Jeremy.
I know Jeremy's not gonna like this,
but I just don't understand
why actors call themselves storytellers.
Tell me the story.
It's not your story to tell.
It's like, and this is
months before he goes
(35:16):
on this epic run and
wins the Oscar, right?
So there's a beautiful
humility in him knowing his purpose
whereas like, this is what I do.
You call me in to do this job.
It makes the project better
and there's no ego about it.
And to his point is,
(35:36):
this is the writer's story.
He's like, I'm not telling the story.
Everything's on the page.
I'm just doing what he wrote.
And to be honest,
that's also a nod to Leslie.
If you'd been at the
studio, it's like, you know,
hopefully we have great material.
All the things, everything's on the page
and you're doing what
you're servicing the writer.
You know, all the makeup
and all of our actors egos,
(35:58):
we can step that aside.
It is the writer's story
and how can we best serve the story?
And Coleman Domingo is
like, wait, I'm sorry.
What do you mean?
And so they unravel it.
And then Coleman Domingo
eventually gets back to IC.
So we're all here to serve the story.
We're not telling the story.
We're not taking over the story, but
(36:18):
we're here to serve it.
Yeah.
And then Karen Cogan's
like, yeah, you put it
in a way nicer way than I was saying it.
But that's kind of
exactly what I'm saying.
Like, what do you in
service to first, you know,
before anything else?
And that's kind of,
that's it really, isn't it?
Like it's the story.
And ironically then, Karen
Cogan is a wonderful example
of somebody who like
(36:39):
the way you described him
staying in character on set
and making fun of Jesse
Eisenberg between takes.
Jesse Eisenberg didn't love it,
but that's how he
worked in order to, you know,
create that character.
And it worked because he won an Oscar,
you know what I mean?
A phenomenal performance on an Oscar win.
So I guess that answers the question.
Like that's sort of
(37:00):
your number one priority
is serving the story and, you know,
producing the best
possible work that you can.
One last little tidbit.
I don't know if you knew this.
It came out when they
got to know each other,
Jesse Eisenberg and Karen Cogan.
It came out that Jesse
Eisenberg cast Karen Cogan
(37:21):
in this movie, not
having seen any of his work.
Oh, well, I didn't know it.
Literally none of his work.
And there's something beautiful.
We could probably talk
about this in another podcast,
but we talked about, we
talked about social media.
We talked about personality.
We talked about essence.
We talked about four
(37:42):
seconds of watching a soft tape.
Jesse Eisenberg never saw any of his work
and somehow knew Karen Cogan was his guy.
And they talked about
this in that Coleman Domingo.
Exactly.
They talked about this in
Coleman Domingo's interview
with Karen Cogan.
So by what he basically met Karen Cogan.
(38:06):
And I think he technically passed by him,
like literally passed by him.
That's their only connection.
There's something
brilliant about that casting.
Obviously, Karen
Cogan is easy to be found.
He's obviously a
superstar and won many awards.
And, you know, going
back to the conversation
as far as watching a
soft tape for four seconds,
I'm not saying that
(38:27):
they're necessarily correlated,
but that is kind of
amazing that Jesse Eisenberg
is that much of a
brilliant writer director
that he just kind of knew.
We'll put a link to the interview,
but Karen Cogan is
like, Jesse didn't know me.
Coleman Domingo argued and said,
I have a feeling you had that presence.
If I pass by you, I think I know you.
(38:50):
And I think that's a beautiful insight.
Thinking about social
media, thinking about branding,
thinking about all the things
that you're putting out there
and just knowing someone
will be able to get to know you.
Maybe, maybe.
So what I gather from
that is that Jesse Eisenberg
hasn't seen how it all.
(39:11):
In all honesty, I wouldn't be surprised
if Jesse Eisenberg
hasn't seen Home Alone.
But yeah.
I feel sorry for him if he hasn't.
So there you have it, folks.
That is our Actors Guide Podcast Awards
from the awards season, from Oscar night.
(39:33):
Anyway, all right, let's do Hidden Gems.
So I went and played high
tech mini golf, which was fun.
And basically, high tech
mini golf is where you--
there's like a chip in the ball.
It's like mini golf, like crazy golf,
where there's a chip in the ball
and it records your strokes.
You don't have to worry about it.
(39:54):
And it has various
different light up things.
It's just basically a more futuristic
version of mini golf.
And I quite enjoyed that.
Wait, what's so high tech about it?
It's not like super high tech,
but basically there's a chip in the ball
and it records your
strokes automatically.
And you get points
awarded and you can hit it
through a multiplier thing,
which gives you more points.
(40:16):
And there's ways to--
it's basically the person
with the most points at the end
wins.
Oh, I see.
That's fun.
Calculate it.
It's basically a more video game--
it's a more video game
version of mini golf.
Yes, but it's actual mini golf.
Yes, a more video game.
And they had a cool
(40:36):
playlist, which I really enjoyed.
So there you go.
So it's at supersocial.ie,
which is in the Leopards Town
Pavilion in Dublin.
Cool, man.
So my hidden gem, if
you go to LaGuardia--
I had to fly out last
minute from New York.
And I choose to fly out
LaGuardia in New York.
(40:56):
If you happen to have the
Chase Reserve credit card
or if you have a priority
pass for airport lounges,
the new Chase Lounge in
LaGuardia is so amazing.
Like, I don't know how hidden it is,
but I cannot rave about it more.
OK, so you imagine
everyone dreads about flying.
(41:17):
You fly.
It's uncomfortable.
This is a lounge.
If you have access to it as an open bar,
which is understood,
it has gourmet meals just freshly made
and like a buffet, OK?
I just discovered in the many rooms,
they have a wellness room, OK?
(41:37):
I want to say that they also have showers
if you pay extra fee.
It's so beautiful a lounge.
Obviously, there's seating.
You have internet.
You have your own work cafe.
You're about to fly out.
They have a QR code where you can scan
and order actual menus
that a restaurant's
going to prepare for you.
It could be a burger.
(41:58):
It could be a chicken--
Zatar's chicken sandwich.
It could be braised beef.
They're going to make you these meals.
This is all free of charge with access.
I also discovered they have a
arcade room and music jukebox
and a separate room I
didn't go to the other time.
I literally go to LaGuardia Airport
(42:19):
just so I can go to this lounge.
They have cold brew on tap.
They have spa water, literally spa water.
It says that on tap.
It's all local coffee from Joe's Coffee,
which is well-known in New York.
I cannot-- about this--
Anyway, that's my--
(42:40):
I'm literally in heaven
before I fly out of LaGuardia.
I've almost missed my
flight numerous times
because I'm having too
much fun in that lounge.
And I'm not even
drinking the free drinks.
So be aware.
Don't miss your flight.
These are having too good a time.
Anyway, that's my hint of joy.
(43:01):
Nice.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode.
This is a celebration
closing out our award season.
And I hope to see you next week.
Yep, absolutely.
Go see you next week.
Joe Pesci's Oscar acceptance speech,
which was brilliant.
He just went up, bent
his head for a second,
and then he just looked up and went,
"It's my privilege," and just walked off.
I was like, "Brilliant."
People underrate how important it is
to be concise and clear.
There's a famous quote, a
tribute to Blaise Pascal,
who's a famous mathematician.
He's writing a letter.
"I've made this longer than usual
(00:21):
"because I had not the
time to make it shorter."
Okay, I like that.
All right, welcome to the Actors Guide
to the End of the World podcast,
where we talk about acting in Hollywood
in a way people understand.
I'm E-Kan Soong, and this is my partner.
Rían Sheehy Kelly, how you doing?
What's up, buddy?
Make sure you follow us
wherever you find your podcasts.
We're on YouTube, we're on Substack.
(00:43):
Please leave a review
if you get a chance.
We would greatly appreciate it.
Follow us on all social media, Instagram,
Friendster, Bebo, if you live
in Ireland in the early 2000s.
Yeah, at Actors Guide podcast.
This is going to be our big Oscars recap.
And we're gonna jump around a lot.
(01:03):
It's gonna be a good time.
Sit back, relax.
We're gonna have our own
Actors Guide podcast awards
from the past Oscar
season and awards season.
Random ones, they're
gonna be some fun ones.
I will warn you, just a spoiler,
if you don't like Kieran Culkin,
you might not like this podcast.
I have a lot of takes on Kieran Culkin.
(01:24):
I wanna talk about him.
All right, this is interesting.
I didn't know this.
No, you had some takes on Kieran Culkin.
Now, just to clarify,
these are not physical awards
that will be presented to
any of the actors involved
or any of the people involved.
They're more sort of metaphysical awards
that they will maybe feel.
Yeah, they're more figurative awards
because that means much
(01:45):
more than a physical award.
I never thought that.
So if I win any awards, I
want them to be physical
just for their record going forward.
And our sponsor for today's show,
Indestructive Trailer.
Take care of your actors
without needing to worry
about taking care of your trailer.
These trailers are put to the test
and are built to last no
matter who's on the call sheet.
Little Terror who just
got her own Disney show,
(02:06):
a A-list starlet who needs
room for their entourage,
a reality show star
with their family raccoons.
Indestructive Trailer
has got you covered.
And now comes with a bidet.
For the raccoons.
All right, so I'm on the move,
so I got a new location.
I'm gonna be a little quieter.
So this is gonna be
like if we were on NPR.
(02:26):
So this could be a nice--
I'm gonna try and make
this auditory experience
pleasant for you.
Exactly.
ASMR.
Last week's episode, obviously,
if you got a chance to listen to it,
that was right before the Oscars.
We were talking about the favorites,
we were talking about betting lines.
So it's nice to talk about it afterwards,
see what happened and
what were your big takeaways?
What did you think about the telecast?
(02:49):
Well, I didn't watch it live,
obviously because it was
on at one in the morning
or something here it started out.
So I watched bits and
pieces of it the next day.
To me, it was a pretty
conventional Oscars, I thought.
I don't think there was
major offsets or controversies.
Conan O'Brien's a
pretty safe host, you know?
(03:10):
And I love Conan O'Brien,
but there was nothing controversial
there, particularly.
I did see some criticism of him online,
bits and pieces of
criticism, I don't really know why.
But like I said, I didn't
watch the whole ceremony,
but I love Conan.
In terms of awards, no major surprises.
I suppose the big,
(03:30):
I did think that Demi
Moore was maybe gonna win.
Okay, okay.
Okay, we'll get into that one.
Let's talk about Conan a little bit.
I'm a huge fan.
This was his first time doing the Oscars.
First of all, it's a
nearly impossible job.
There's a lot of
reasons why comics and hosts
don't wanna do that job.
(03:52):
I think Conan gets points
because he made it a Conan still.
So he still brought the quirky, the
little cringy humor.
We're giving awards right
after the city had strikes
and these disastrous
fires where it's a tricky line
(04:15):
to balance. It is.
And I think he did the best that he could
for what he had.
I think so.
And one thing I love about
Conan, he's always himself.
I don't think he's, he
never strikes me as somebody
who's overwhelmed by a situation
or intimidated by the scale of something.
So I thought he did a
(04:35):
really nice job there.
And you know, there
are funny bits in there,
like his bit with Adam
Sandler and I don't know.
I just, I enjoy him anyway.
So I was probably a bit
more predisposed to liken it.
And also to be fair, I agree.
And it's like, I think
you and me both would be,
would Conan's fans for Conan Brunt.
(04:57):
I do not think that the
majority of the Oscar audience
is that type of humor.
I don't even know if this
was really the right audience,
but he took a big swing.
Let's just go with the
award for the biggest shock
is 100% Demi Moore not
winning over Mikey Mattis.
(05:20):
Hands down, the biggest shock.
First of all, you know how much I was
rooting for Demi Moore.
That being said, if you look
at our lines from last week,
Mikey Mattis was not that far behind.
Said no one was
expecting her to actually win
on the biggest stage
and the biggest awards.
Did you see her face?
(05:42):
You saw her take a hit.
I think, you know, her face,
you could tell she
was really disappointed.
And I understand it.
I understand the buzz.
Like based off her speech, you know,
here's an actor who
thought she was never,
she was never gonna win awards.
I was told, you know,
her speech was great.
She was taught, she was told that she,
that wasn't, she's not that type of
actress or whatever.
So I think she was very hopeful.
(06:03):
And I could see why.
It's just a human, natural thing.
You're like, oh my
God, I could win an Oscar.
You know, like at
this stage of her career,
having been, you know, being
through what she's been through
and having had the career that she's had,
that now she's in this
position to maybe win an Oscar.
The fact that how much
I've been talking about
Demi Moore going through this, I was,
I felt invested too.
(06:26):
And you want, and here's the thing,
you can't know for sure, but supposedly,
apparently she said one
word and she just went nice.
Oh, I didn't say that.
I didn't read that.
Then also could be wrong.
It was basically a lip
reading and also people
who were paying close attention.
(06:48):
That's what they're
saying that their reaction was.
Now, it very well
could have been Clickbaity.
Her photo after the
Oscars, she was in a bathrobe
with two huge bowls of French fries.
So I think she's gonna be okay.
And also the irony.
The substance is about an older woman,
an older star, supposedly past her prime,
(07:10):
and it's this battle
with a youthful upstart.
The irony is Demi Moore loses the Oscar
to a 25-year-old Mikey Madison.
And have you actually seen the movie?
Have you seen the substance or?
(laughing) I know, I know, but this
is the other sad part is
we might not be talking
about the substance as much.
(07:31):
If anything, we're the
biggest losers in the fact
that we can't talk
about the substance anymore.
I'll wager you'll find a way
to crowbar it into every episode.
Yeah, yeah, we will.
Number one loser, and
I think I tweeted this,
the biggest loser of
the entire night was Hulu
because the telecast ended
right before Best Actress.
(07:53):
Literally.
It just ended or just caught out?
Right before Best Actress is announced,
they're going through the
nominees, telecast ends.
It was like one of those things
where you're recording on a DVR
and you only recorded three hours,
but the rest, if it goes
over time, it just cuts out.
Oh yeah. It literally ended.
So you have to record
the post-show, yeah.
(08:14):
Exactly. The post-show, yeah.
So there was nothing there,
and here I am just Google
searching who wins Best Actress
and the biggest upset
of the entire night.
I completely missed.
So worst loser is Hulu,
or biggest loser is Hulu.
Were they the only ones broadcasting it?
Was it not on network TV or has--
(08:35):
Well, technically it was on network TV,
so if you had ABC,
you could watch it live
and so on and so forth.
So there's that, I mean, it was great
because it was
accessible for some people.
By the way, the Oscars was the most
watched in five years,
so I wanna say it was a
five-year high for viewing.
(08:55):
We have the biggest shock of the night.
On number two is we knew
Enora was going to be strong,
but for Sean Baker to make
epic history winning four,
I mean, come on.
I was not predicting that.
Things change pretty quickly.
You can go Anelia Perez and just
completely disappear
(09:15):
off the map in a couple weeks.
You have momentum being built up,
but man, Enora got hot.
Enora got really hot at the right time.
Yeah, I'm delighted for him.
What was Enora, like a $6 million movie
or something like that?
It was a lot of budget, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Loved it.
And it's brilliant to see
an indie movie do that well
and sweep all of these awards
(09:37):
because it sort of
reinforces the idea that like,
yeah, you can make these movies.
These people will see these movies.
People will do enjoy these movies.
It doesn't have to be blockbusters.
It doesn't have to be sequels.
It doesn't have to be remakes.
Yeah.
And if you didn't get to
listen to our last episode,
we talk a lot about Sean Baker
(10:00):
and his essentially
this whole award season
is a love letter to independent film.
So we break down his film
independent spirit award speech
last episode.
So if you're interested
in hearing more about it,
check out that.
I mean, four Oscars.
I think first person
ever since Walt Disney.
I mean, by the way,
I didn't even know Walt
Disney won four Oscars.
(10:21):
Walt Disney won four Oscars for four
separate films in 1953.
So Sean Baker, I mean,
doing something like this is just,
how many times do you
actually see the best director
or writer also edit the film?
It's incredible.
Let's talk about Adrian Brody's speech
(10:42):
for the rest of the podcast.
So now, for the rest of this episode,
for the rest of this episode,
we're gonna talk about
Adrian Brody's speech.
And it still will not be as long as
Adrian Brody's speech.
Exactly, exactly.
Adrian Brody's speech was
almost as long as the brutalist.
(11:02):
He topped his award season run.
I'm not gonna lie,
I didn't listen to all
of his speeches before,
but that was actually,
that was like literally one of his worst.
That was, it was like,
usually people build up, build up
and you save the gold at the end,
like least articulate.
I don't wanna smash the guy,
because obviously he's
(11:23):
been getting hammered
the entire week, but
it's just kind of funny
where the music starts coming.
Please give me a moment.
I will not be egregious.
He says, I will not be egregious.
And he goes on for another 15 minutes.
I thought it was the
most beautiful example
of an actor taking space.
(11:43):
I feel like actors,
we all need to learn how to
take space like Adrian Brody,
because that was masterful.
It was wild.
I think my main issue with it was
he didn't say anything really.
He just didn't-
That's my point.
He was just windy and rambling.
I think it was 10 seconds longer
than the previous record holder.
Oh, was it really?
Yeah, it was like 5.30.
(12:04):
He was 5.40 or something like that.
He's a phenomenal actor.
I think he's a stunning actor.
I just, I was watching his speech going,
okay, okay, okay, okay.
And I think when you
see a speech like that,
you really appreciate
a speech that's funny
or short or meaningful or, you know,
(12:24):
the Colin Farrell is,
I think he gives my favorite awards,
acceptance speeches.
I really enjoyed Colin
Farrell's accepted speeches.
And then I saw it stacked up against,
compared to Joe Pesci's
Oscar acceptance speech,
which was brilliant.
She just went up.
He took it from,
I think Brenda Fricker
was presenting the award
and he took the Oscar statue
(12:44):
and he kind of like
bent his head for a second
and he like kissed something.
And then he just looked up and went,
it's my privilege and just walked off.
And I was like, brilliant.
Oh, is that what you did?
And then Bjork, that's the Bjork,
kind of wonderful acceptance speech.
Did you see that?
I saw Bjork said,
I am a grateful
grapefruit and then walked away.
(13:06):
And I thought, brilliant.
That's, they're the
kind of speeches you want.
Short and sweet.
Exactly.
Yeah, there was a famous,
I don't know if this
ever crossed your radar,
but Eric Canton, I was
a phenomenal footballer
for Manchester United,
but he was banned for months of a season,
like seven or eight months or something,
(13:27):
for jumping into the
crowd and kicking a fan
who was abusing him.
And when he gave a press conference,
all he said, he
gathered this press conference
and all of these journalists are waiting
and they're waiting for him to say,
to apologize or to say something.
And all he said was, in a
thick French accent he says,
when the seagulls follow the trawler,
(13:49):
they think it is because sardines
will be thrown into the sea.
Thank you.
And walked away.
And it was just brilliant.
I love speeches like that.
Yeah, yeah.
Not that that was an awards speech,
but it just-
People underrate how important it is
to be concise and clear.
Yeah.
In our day and age,
(14:10):
in our day and age of,
I mean, here we are on a podcast, right?
We could blab on for four hours,
but there's a power in
being clear and concise.
Anyway, that's all I'm saying about that.
You're dead right.
No, you're dead right.
But like brevity and economy of language.
Yeah, brevity is a good word.
I wonder if he taught,
and here's what I was thinking to myself.
(14:31):
I wonder if afterwards
he got off stage and went,
oh no, what did I do?
That was way too long.
Or if you just had great
speech, Adrian, you did it.
You know that-
I wanna talk about that.
Sorry.
There's a famous quote
on this idea of brevity.
There's a famous quote.
I do not believe it was
(14:52):
attributed to Mark Twain.
It was attributed to Blaise Pascal,
who's a famous mathematician.
He's writing a letter.
I've made this longer than usual
because I had not the
time to make it shorter.
Okay?
Okay.
(laughing) Okay, I like that.
Just let that sink in
because this attributes
to anyone who's writing,
(15:14):
anyone who's editing,
whether it's an
Instagram reel or a blog post.
I didn't have the
time to make it shorter.
The economy of words of what is
absolutely necessary,
writing whatever you're about to say
or whatever you're writing down,
that's where the real work is.
(15:36):
If it was long and floppy
and you're going on a speech of five
minutes, that's easy.
But to make it a tight
minute and a half, that's hard.
And so I just wanna, I just, I love that
because that's always echoing in my head
when we're talking.
No, you're right.
And just on that,
because I grew up in a house
(15:57):
with two journalists.
My parents are both journalists
and newspaper journalists.
So the importance of language
and the importance of saying,
using only the words you need to use
to say what you're trying to say.
And also the way you structure,
even the way you structure an article
by saying the most important things first
(16:19):
and then in order of importance,
down the article.
But you hit it at the top,
you only say,
and I think in script writing as well,
like it's important to cut out fluff.
Don't just throw--
There shouldn't be language in
there just for the sake of it.
You need to, the character needs to say
what they need to say
without dressing it up in anything else.
(16:41):
It's just noise down at that point.
So let's talk a little
more about Adrian Brody.
If anyone remembers,
Adrian Brody came onto
the scene with the pianist.
Essentially very little known.
Keep in mind, this is 20 years.
So credit to him, 20
years later, you win an Oscar.
So that's a career right there.
(17:05):
If you don't remember,
he went onto the speech.
He was getting
presented by Alec Halle Berry.
He went up and he hissed
her straight on the lips
as if he won the lottery.
That does not fly, I believe in 2025,
(17:26):
just openly kissing
anyone without warning.
So I will preface that.
It was a different time.
That was how he first won his Oscar.
I don't know too much about Adrian Brody,
but obviously he's an incredible actor.
My point is, what is going through
the mentality of Adrian Brody?
You have this epic awards
(17:46):
run on his way to the stage.
He takes his gum out and
tosses it to his girlfriend.
Oh, I just saw that today.
I hadn't seen that clip
and I just saw it today.
And it was fire.
I thought he just handed it to her.
He just lobbed that on her.
Was any of this pre-planned?
I do not know and we're
(18:06):
not here to speculate.
My point is, is--
I doubt it.
This guy takes, is not
afraid to take up space.
And he was not shy, accepting his award
for five minutes and 40 seconds.
So I don't think he's
second guessing anything.
He first went on the
stage kissing Halle Berry
(18:27):
in what was in Epic Oscar's moment,
for better or for worse.
And 22 some years later, here he is now.
So who kissed him on the stage?
Somebody did it to him this time in
retaliation as a joke.
I think Halle Berry kissed him.
Oh, that's what it was.
I think that was the joke.
And if you're watching this on video,
(18:47):
we'll put this picture in the video.
Yes, they did reenact
it, okay, all right.
Yeah.
To each their own.
You know what, I think I
would wish the confidence
of Adrian Brody
giving an acceptance speech
for any actor because--
I agree, I agree.
You know.
I'm not joking around.
We share this on our social media.
(19:08):
Like I basically said,
may all actors take up space
like Adrian Brody.
It's like, I mean,
it's a beautiful thing.
I think more actors could
take more space like that.
You might get slated
for it, but you know,
if that's a kind of
confidence, you have good view.
Also, don't kiss people without consent.
Just what we're talking about.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
(19:29):
Going off of Adrian Brody,
we didn't even talk about
all of Ciaran Culkin's
speeches, the awards show run.
I actually think that
there's a handful of speeches
that were really cool,
fun, meaningful, heartfelt.
And I'm not gonna lie,
a lot of these speeches
and these moments were
better than the films.
(19:50):
I don't think this was a great year,
Oscar Phillips, I
thought it was really good.
I thought these speeches
are almost more interesting
than a lot of the movies.
So let's start out with Ciaran Culkin.
Very interesting guy.
Yeah.
I am so like, if you
watch any of his speeches,
(20:11):
whether they were
planned, whether or not,
they were all hilarious,
they were so self-effacing,
humble, but he's also just like,
I don't even know what I'm doing up here.
You know what I mean?
And it's just like,
each one is so different.
It's not, it's a lot like his acting.
It's a lot like his acting piece.
Obviously at this point,
he's already won many
(20:32):
awards for succession.
He's sweeping them up and here he goes,
he's sweeped all the
words and he won an Oscar.
The flip side of those
coins is you have Ciaran Culkin
where we're like, we'll give you an award
just so you can accept
and make a speech about it.
That's how entertaining it was.
Versus Adrian Brody and
five minutes and 40 seconds
is not long enough for him.
(20:53):
Yeah.
So like my favorite
performer of this award season
goes to Ciaran Culkin.
Oh yeah.
I'd agree with that.
I thought his speech was great
and you know,
referenced the speech before
when he said, let's have a third kid.
And then, you know, his wife had said,
his wife's yeah, and
his wife was like, yeah,
(21:13):
win an Oscar and then
we can have a fourth.
And he just brought it up.
Like a good writer,
he saved the best speech for the end.
Okay, so keep in mind,
if you're watching
someone win five awards,
they're coming up with five
different speeches, possibly.
Right?
Obviously that's a good problem to have
whether they prepay or not,
(21:34):
obviously they prepay a little bit
because you know, a lot of
them have it written down.
Anyway, that was the
culmination of all of his speeches.
Unlike Adrian Brody, who
saved his worst for the end.
Yeah, the only odd
thing about that was like,
why is she basing how many
kids they have on awards?
But it was a very entertaining speech.
(21:55):
You know, we'll say
that for another podcast.
No, no, I'm not getting involved
in the planning of their family,
but I really enjoyed his speech.
And I think he's a fascinating actor.
And watching, because I
watched a lot of the interviews
with Jesse Eisenberg
around working with him
on a real pain and it's such a
fascinating relationship
(22:16):
that the two of them
have a fascinating dynamic.
Because Jesse Eisenberg as director
was trying to direct him and he would,
I've also seen Kieran
Kolkan say that like,
lines go into his head really fast.
So he's very free with dialogue.
But I think he just
doesn't plan anything.
I think he just shows up and does.
I remember you mentioning that
and I look back at a lot of their
(22:38):
interaction in interviews.
So I was actually, I
wanted to bring that up.
So my award, the best couple
is Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Kolkan.
Yeah, it's a fascinating relationship.
Like it's really interesting.
Here's the thing, because I heard enough.
(22:59):
It's not the fact that,
we wanna be, of course,
like who are we to pick apart
what the process is?
We're just going off of sound bites.
It's not the fact that he doesn't,
like he has a weird savant like skill
(23:20):
where you're right,
he can instantly pick
up things within minutes.
But I don't want us to
sound like he doesn't prepare
or doesn't do the lines as written.
(23:40):
No, no, I don't mean that.
Okay, okay, okay.
I don't think he goes in unprepared.
I don't know what his
preparation is like at all,
but I don't think he goes in unprepared,
but I think he goes in very free.
And I don't know that he,
I don't think he pre-plans.
It doesn't seem like
he pre-plans anything.
It seems like he's very present in
(24:01):
whatever's going on.
And it's like asking,
I think I saw an interview
where he's someone's director
told him, okay, just do it like that.
And he's like, I have no idea what I did.
So he doesn't, it's not
like he's trying to replicate.
So back to this whole
Jesse Eisenberg thing.
(24:21):
Jesse Eisenberg said,
"Kieran Culkin was so brilliant
and in their dynamic in the movie,
their dynamic in the
movie is making fun of him,
just saying, you know, snarky.
Kieran Culkin, between
all of the takes and on set,
was just making fun of Jesse
Eisenberg and belittling him.
(24:42):
All of the takes
whenever they were on set."
Geez.
When you hear about
all these method actors
staying in character, Jesse Eisenberg,
when she making a joke, it was like,
he's brilliant in the movie.
And basically the dynamic,
he just kept going when
we were in between takes.
He was basically saying things like,
hey, so what stupid shot
are you gonna set up next?
Oh yeah, that's what you have?
(25:04):
That's the best you can come up with?
Like, you got the movie.
So Jesse Eisenberg as a
brilliant director is like,
I don't know if I should tell
him to stop and be nice to me
or just let him keep going.
So that's how brilliant he was.
Even on "Succession."
Obviously "Succession" was
very unique in its filming.
You know, they had multiple cameras.
So it was very much
like being on a theater
(25:26):
or on a recording a stage play.
They had multiple cameras.
You could always be acting.
You could always do everything.
And you don't know if they'll make it on,
but you're giving them great coverage.
So it's not like he's improv-ing
when not preparing his ass off,
but they were pissed at him
because they look at Darren
Colkin and on "Succession,"
(25:47):
they would look at pages and pages like,
okay, got it, let's just do it.
Like he showed up to a real pain
and was immediately
brilliant in rehearsal.
So it's like, whatever that promise,
I just didn't know it
was gonna mess with it.
But it's like, we
would all dream of that.
It's just a savant-like thing anyway.
I think it's incredibly inspiring.
(26:07):
And his speeches are very similar.
Oh, by the way, the cherry on top,
not at the Oscars, but I
believe those are the SAG Awards.
He opens up his SAG
Awards speech and he goes,
"Oh yeah, blah, blah, blah."
And he's riffing and all that stuff.
He's like, "Oh yeah, well, I already used
the most of my 45 seconds,"
which is the allotted time, Adrian.
He took a dig at Adrian Brody
(26:30):
about speaking too long
in his SAG Awards speech.
Oh, had Adrian Brody done a long speech?
I don't know.
And everyone laughed at him.
He was like, "Oh, that's so Karen Culkin
and Adrian Brody laughed."
"Here we are a week later."
And Adrian Brody goes for
five minutes and 40 seconds.
Adrian Brody did not shy away
(26:52):
from every second of that speech.
It's just so funny.
It's just so funny
putting it all together.
I warned you guys before, if
you don't like Karen Culkin,
I'm sorry, I'm not gonna
stop blabbing about him.
This is the new substance.
Yeah, exactly. This is the cutest makeup moment.
The cutest makeup
moment goes to Karen Culkin
and Jeremy Strong.
(27:12):
Do you watch the expression?
Oh yeah, I loved it.
Now that the show's over,
they could be like, "Oh yeah, well,
Jeremy want it like
this," or da-da-da-da,
or it's like, you know, Brian could,
like they talk about
each other in interviews
where it was understood that
there was some tension there.
Did you know anything about this?
Yeah, I've heard some
tension between Jeremy Strong
and the rest of the actors and--
Yeah, exactly, exactly. Here's the thing, we're culminating, we're
(27:34):
going back to the Oscars
at the end of this awards season,
and we have Karen Culkin
sweeping up all the awards,
versus Jeremy Strong,
who is incredibly, got
nominated for the apprentice
and does a great job
and watching Karen
Culkin win all these awards.
It was actually really sweet.
He actually gave a
shout out to Jeremy Strong.
He's like, "Yeah, I know, I'm not
(27:54):
supposed to point anyone out."
I'm not supposed to play favorites, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, I'm not
supposed to play favorites,
but Jeremy Strong, like, Jeremy, you were amazing.
Yeah, I'm not supposed to play favorites. Like, Jeremy, you were amazing in that.
And then I saw this other
photo of behind the scenes,
I think it was Variety
or Hollywood Reporter,
and they had a
picture of them two hugging.
The cutest moment, forget Kylie Jenner
and Timothy, whatever,
that was the cutest moment right there.
(28:15):
No, I appreciate how into
this you are, I like that.
Yeah, Jeremy Strong
always strikes me as an actor
who kind of just marches
to the beat of his own drum.
He reminds me a little bit of,
Michael Shannon is who I'm
thinking of, Michael Shannon.
Oh, Michael Shannon, what a badass.
Yeah, Jeremy Strong
reminds me a little bit
(28:35):
of Michael Shannon, like Michael Shannon,
I remember reading an interview with him
in some magazine or
something, New York Times or something.
But he, like, they went for a walk,
he said, "Let's go for a walk."
I think he was living in
New Jersey at the time.
And they went for a
walk around the block.
The interview only noticed,
the interviewer only noticed about
halfway down the block
that he wasn't wearing any shoes,
he was just barefoot
walking out in the streets.
Like I, there's a, you
(28:58):
know, he's a phenomenal actor,
but I'm just, I'm in
awe of people really,
but like who just sort
of marches to the beat
of their own drum and don't give a shit
what other people think,
like genuinely don't care
what other people think.
I had an opportunity to see Jeremy Strong
do some interviews and
talk about the movie.
(29:18):
Now it doesn't help
when obviously Brian Cox
has a very hard take about it, right?
Oh, I still don't know
exactly what the process is
of what's on set.
They, the gripe was that
sometimes it's alienating.
Now, I don't know what really happened.
Do you know what I mean?
We're just kind of
(29:39):
going over here saying,
I don't think Jeremy
Strong is ever not respectful.
But I think we have
more access to everything
than we've ever had.
We have more access to people's lives,
personal stories from set, you know,
we have more access in the way of knowing
Yeah.
Stars a bit better, you know what I mean?
(29:59):
They're knowing big actors
and knowing what happens at all times.
So I think that anything you do on a set
is likely to come out, how you behave.
I don't know how he
works, but I admire the fact
that he has a process that he sticks with
and he gets the results.
The one thing I want to
say about Jeremy Strong
was he did a Q and A for The Apprentice
(30:23):
and he had an old friend
director who interviewed him.
And I actually, I'm
about to put this on YouTube.
The 45 minutes that he
talked was a masterclass.
Like it was
interesting because someone said,
when you talk about
like, I don't even know
if he used the word method acting,
(30:44):
but they were whenever like,
when you talk about your process on set,
what exactly does that look like?
And you walk through
everything of what that looks like.
Oh, I'd love to hear that.
No, exactly.
And I was like, oh my God.
I was like, you know, aside
from all the hearsay of like,
hey, this is process is different
(31:05):
than the other process
and so on and so forth.
When he was saying and walking through
what this looks like, it did
not sound weird or foreign.
And so that's kind of like
my point where I was like,
me as an actor was learning so much.
I was like, oh my God, this is amazing.
I was like, there's like 30 people in
this data right now.
And I can't, I can't believe that I got,
I was lucky to see this.
(31:25):
Like ultimately it's like
when we start explaining it,
whether it's Daniel Day Lewis
or Kieran Coken or whatever,
well, it's so hard to put into words.
And it's like, if I'm not seeing
what's behind the scenes of succession,
we really don't know
what really happened.
You know what I mean?
Oh no, no, I love that.
I applaud him, like you said,
for being able to stick to his guns and
(31:45):
protect his process.
And obviously, you
know, you wanna be civil
and you wanna be
respectful to the other actors,
but ultimately is whatever
helps you be brilliant, do it.
Absolutely, and I think
he takes it very seriously.
It seems like he's a guy, the art of it,
the craft of it very seriously.
And the other thing that I just,
that while you were talking there,
(32:06):
that it just occurred to me like,
where a sort of a
hierarchy of allegiance,
what is your ultimate allegiance to?
Is it to the film itself?
Is it to the story?
Is it to the other
people that you work with?
Is it to, you know, so where does,
what's the most important?
If you work in a certain way
and you need to work that way
in order to produce the performance
(32:27):
that you think the
piece warrants, you know,
yeah, maybe it's difficult for other
people to work with,
maybe it's not, but.
Just because I was just on set,
being friends and having a
great time is not priority.
(32:48):
I mean, you know, it's
high up there to be civil
and obviously really like
people who you work with,
but that is not even
close to being in priority.
So doing your work,
and if you're number one
on the call sheet, even more important,
I wanna say the most
(33:09):
important thing is be brilliant
and do the best work,
whether you're the grip,
whether you're the
director of photography,
and hopefully you just spent two years
away from your family
and it was completely worth it.
Knowing your job and
knowing what you're there to do
is really important.
I think my question was,
(33:30):
if it alienated people,
are you still
prepared to follow, you know,
to have a, if your
process alienated people
and pissed people off,
would you still stick with it,
even if it caused friction on a set?
You know, I think it depends.
If you're high on the call sheet, if,
(33:51):
depending on your role,
if the success of the
project weighs on your shoulders,
here, I would love to have that problem.
And I assume you would
too, to be that high up.
Yeah, that brings a great question.
Is it worth it?
Is it worth it to rub
people the wrong way
(34:11):
and maybe there's a little tension?
Is that worth it to get a better product?
And, you know, we can only speculate.
You thought I was done with Karen Culkin.
This was months ago.
Karen Culkin did an Actors on
Actors with Coleman Domingo.
Yes, excellent.
Excellent.
When Variety has, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So this was a lifetime ago.
(34:33):
This was a lifetime ago.
This is the award for hottest take, okay?
Karen Culkin is having this conversation
with Coleman Domingo
and everything is really cool
and, you know, winding down.
And Karen Culkin cannot help himself
because he keeps it rolling
because he drops this
bomb on Coleman Domingo.
(34:55):
He essentially says, guys, I hate it
when actors call themselves storytellers.
Yeah.
And he literally says, sorry, Jeremy.
I know Jeremy's not gonna like this,
but I just don't understand
why actors call themselves storytellers.
Tell me the story.
It's not your story to tell.
It's like, and this is
months before he goes
(35:16):
on this epic run and
wins the Oscar, right?
So there's a beautiful
humility in him knowing his purpose
whereas like, this is what I do.
You call me in to do this job.
It makes the project better
and there's no ego about it.
And to his point is,
(35:36):
this is the writer's story.
He's like, I'm not telling the story.
Everything's on the page.
I'm just doing what he wrote.
And to be honest,
that's also a nod to Leslie.
If you'd been at the
studio, it's like, you know,
hopefully we have great material.
All the things, everything's on the page
and you're doing what
you're servicing the writer.
You know, all the makeup
and all of our actors egos,
(35:58):
we can step that aside.
It is the writer's story
and how can we best serve the story?
And Coleman Domingo is
like, wait, I'm sorry.
What do you mean?
And so they unravel it.
And then Coleman Domingo
eventually gets back to IC.
So we're all here to serve the story.
We're not telling the story.
We're not taking over the story, but
(36:18):
we're here to serve it.
Yeah.
And then Karen Cogan's
like, yeah, you put it
in a way nicer way than I was saying it.
But that's kind of
exactly what I'm saying.
Like, what do you in
service to first, you know,
before anything else?
And that's kind of,
that's it really, isn't it?
Like it's the story.
And ironically then, Karen
Cogan is a wonderful example
of somebody who like
(36:39):
the way you described him
staying in character on set
and making fun of Jesse
Eisenberg between takes.
Jesse Eisenberg didn't love it,
but that's how he
worked in order to, you know,
create that character.
And it worked because he won an Oscar,
you know what I mean?
A phenomenal performance on an Oscar win.
So I guess that answers the question.
Like that's sort of
(37:00):
your number one priority
is serving the story and, you know,
producing the best
possible work that you can.
One last little tidbit.
I don't know if you knew this.
It came out when they
got to know each other,
Jesse Eisenberg and Karen Cogan.
It came out that Jesse
Eisenberg cast Karen Cogan
(37:21):
in this movie, not
having seen any of his work.
Oh, well, I didn't know it.
Literally none of his work.
And there's something beautiful.
We could probably talk
about this in another podcast,
but we talked about, we
talked about social media.
We talked about personality.
We talked about essence.
We talked about four
(37:42):
seconds of watching a soft tape.
Jesse Eisenberg never saw any of his work
and somehow knew Karen Cogan was his guy.
And they talked about
this in that Coleman Domingo.
Exactly.
They talked about this in
Coleman Domingo's interview
with Karen Cogan.
So by what he basically met Karen Cogan.
(38:06):
And I think he technically passed by him,
like literally passed by him.
That's their only connection.
There's something
brilliant about that casting.
Obviously, Karen
Cogan is easy to be found.
He's obviously a
superstar and won many awards.
And, you know, going
back to the conversation
as far as watching a
soft tape for four seconds,
I'm not saying that
(38:27):
they're necessarily correlated,
but that is kind of
amazing that Jesse Eisenberg
is that much of a
brilliant writer director
that he just kind of knew.
We'll put a link to the interview,
but Karen Cogan is
like, Jesse didn't know me.
Coleman Domingo argued and said,
I have a feeling you had that presence.
If I pass by you, I think I know you.
(38:50):
And I think that's a beautiful insight.
Thinking about social
media, thinking about branding,
thinking about all the things
that you're putting out there
and just knowing someone
will be able to get to know you.
Maybe, maybe.
So what I gather from
that is that Jesse Eisenberg
hasn't seen how it all.
(39:11):
In all honesty, I wouldn't be surprised
if Jesse Eisenberg
hasn't seen Home Alone.
But yeah.
I feel sorry for him if he hasn't.
So there you have it, folks.
That is our Actors Guide Podcast Awards
from the awards season, from Oscar night.
(39:33):
Anyway, all right, let's do Hidden Gems.
So I went and played high
tech mini golf, which was fun.
And basically, high tech
mini golf is where you--
there's like a chip in the ball.
It's like mini golf, like crazy golf,
where there's a chip in the ball
and it records your strokes.
You don't have to worry about it.
(39:54):
And it has various
different light up things.
It's just basically a more futuristic
version of mini golf.
And I quite enjoyed that.
Wait, what's so high tech about it?
It's not like super high tech,
but basically there's a chip in the ball
and it records your
strokes automatically.
And you get points
awarded and you can hit it
through a multiplier thing,
which gives you more points.
(40:16):
And there's ways to--
it's basically the person
with the most points at the end
wins.
Oh, I see.
That's fun.
Calculate it.
It's basically a more video game--
it's a more video game
version of mini golf.
Yes, but it's actual mini golf.
Yes, a more video game.
And they had a cool
(40:36):
playlist, which I really enjoyed.
So there you go.
So it's at supersocial.ie,
which is in the Leopards Town
Pavilion in Dublin.
Cool, man.
So my hidden gem, if
you go to LaGuardia--
I had to fly out last
minute from New York.
And I choose to fly out
LaGuardia in New York.
(40:56):
If you happen to have the
Chase Reserve credit card
or if you have a priority
pass for airport lounges,
the new Chase Lounge in
LaGuardia is so amazing.
Like, I don't know how hidden it is,
but I cannot rave about it more.
OK, so you imagine
everyone dreads about flying.
(41:17):
You fly.
It's uncomfortable.
This is a lounge.
If you have access to it as an open bar,
which is understood,
it has gourmet meals just freshly made
and like a buffet, OK?
I just discovered in the many rooms,
they have a wellness room, OK?
(41:37):
I want to say that they also have showers
if you pay extra fee.
It's so beautiful a lounge.
Obviously, there's seating.
You have internet.
You have your own work cafe.
You're about to fly out.
They have a QR code where you can scan
and order actual menus
that a restaurant's
going to prepare for you.
It could be a burger.
(41:58):
It could be a chicken--
Zatar's chicken sandwich.
It could be braised beef.
They're going to make you these meals.
This is all free of charge with access.
I also discovered they have a
arcade room and music jukebox
and a separate room I
didn't go to the other time.
I literally go to LaGuardia Airport
(42:19):
just so I can go to this lounge.
They have cold brew on tap.
They have spa water, literally spa water.
It says that on tap.
It's all local coffee from Joe's Coffee,
which is well-known in New York.
I cannot-- about this--
Anyway, that's my--
(42:40):
I'm literally in heaven
before I fly out of LaGuardia.
I've almost missed my
flight numerous times
because I'm having too
much fun in that lounge.
And I'm not even
drinking the free drinks.
So be aware.
Don't miss your flight.
These are having too good a time.
Anyway, that's my hint of joy.
(43:01):
Nice.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode.
This is a celebration
closing out our award season.
And I hope to see you next week.
Yep, absolutely.
Go see you next week.
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com