Bryce Hall talks going Horror, Ben Barnes talks Stephen King Series & Embeth Davidtz Directs

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
In this episode of pop Culture Weekly, I talk with
m Beth David's all about her brand new film Don't
Let's Go to the Dogs. Tonight, I speak with Ben
Barnes and Joe Freeman about their new Stephen King Limited series,
The Institute. And then it's all about the new horror
movie Skillhouse as I talk with director Josh Stolberg, and
then the controversial The lovem or Hate Him? I happen

(00:20):
to like him, Bryce Hall. Let's go.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon from iHeartRadio
your pop culture news, views, reviews and celebrity interviews on
all the movies, TV music, and pomp culture U Crab Weekly.
Here's Kyle McMahon.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
NTT non No Net, Hello, and welcome to pop Culture
Weekly with Kyle McMahon. I of course am Kyle McMahon,
and this is the show that's basically like your group Chat,
if your group Chat had much better lighting, way better guess,
and zero patients for basic stuff. This episode is so

(01:01):
stacked I had to cancel plans with my dog Blue
just to record it. That's how stacked it is. I'm
joined by the One and Only and Beth David's to
talk about her powerful new film Don't Let's Go to
the Dogs Tonight, a story that's emotional, raw, and one
hundred percent oscar bait in the best way. I also
speak with Ben Barnes and Joe Freeman, who star in

(01:23):
the chilling new limited series The Institute, and yes it's
based on that Stephen King novel from twenty nineteen, and
yes it's creepy, and yes, Ben Barnes drawline still somehow
defines science. Then we go into full horror influencer spiral
with Bryce Hall, who's out here proving that he's more

(01:43):
than just a TikTok brawler, and Joss Stolberg, the twisted
mind behind Saw and now Skillhouse, a movie that asks
what if influencer culture was actually deadly and spoiler alerted
already kind of is. So let's get right into it.
Let's buckle up, grab your ring light, and hop in.

(02:03):
This is Pop Culture Weekly, all right. My first guest
is a powerhouse of an actress whose performances have been haunting, graceful,
and a wordworthy for decades, whether she's surviving Shindler's List,
shaking up madmen, or calling the shots in the morning show.
Now m Beth David's stars and directs Don't Let's Go

(02:29):
to the Dogs Tonight, a moving new film based on
Alexandra Fuller's best selling memoir about growing up during Civil
War in nineteen seventies Rhodesia. Don't Let's Go to the
Dogs Tonight is raw, is beautifully shot, It gives one
of her most powerful roles to date. End she directed

(02:52):
and co wrote it. Get ready for a deep dive
into memory and identity and one family's attempt to hold
it all together through really just absolute chaos. Please welcome
to Pop Culture Weekly. The incredible and Beth Davis. Thank

(03:14):
you so much, MS for speaking with me. I really
appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Of course, So first of all, congratulations in the film.
It's absolutely incredible. I want to start out by saying that,
of course, you've had an incredible career. You have an
incredible career that, at least to me, seems like you've
had very thoughtful choices in the roles you've played or chosen.

(03:39):
And I feel like that's not always the case for everybody.
Some people need to take a job for money, or
they have a period where, you know, they got to
do what they have to do. All of yours, at
least from the outside, have seen very carefully and thoughtfully chosen.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
Is that accurate, Yes, it's accurate. And I think I've
also done that to a fault at times. You know,
my agents would go, let's not even talk about the
things she said no to. So I think in my
career I said no, probably much too much. In the beginning.
I think I was too thoughtful. I was too careful.
But particularly as I've been you know, as I've been older,

(04:18):
as an older actor, I think the choices were very
much made around material, around directors, and around where in
the world that would take me in for how long
when my children were little. Now i'm free of that
because they're out of the house, and that enabled me
to be able to make the film.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Hm. I love that. And speaking of don't let the
don't Let's go to the dog, Don't Let's go to
the dogs tonight it is your directorial debut. What was
it about this story that made you say that's the
one I want to tell.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
So it was the memoir. It was what Alexandra Fuller
wrote in memoir. And I've spoken to many people who
have lived in Zimbabwe, Southern Africa, Kenya, anyone who's lived
in Africa, and not just because I think it was
the New York Times bestseller people all over the world.

Speaker 4 (05:10):
The way that she.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
Wrote, I think it's the actor part of me that
saw characters that were so multi dimensional, fully fleshed out, original, eccentric,
you know, wildly crazy stories. But she wrote it so
her writing is so gripping and so beautiful. But the
characters were really the thing that called to me, and

(05:32):
I thought, gosh, this setting so so similar, so reflects
a lot of what I experienced in South Africa. I
really think I know how to tell the story's.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
I can see that come through, you know watching the film,
that passion behind it and the connection. So you know,
it's beautifully done in my opinion. And of course, and
there are so many complex themes, you know, colonialism and
loss and coming of age in a kind of around chaos.

(06:12):
What how do you as the director, how do you
translate those themes that are so wonderfully you know and
authentically stated in the book, How do you translate that
to the screen?

Speaker 3 (06:27):
Listen? It was very hard, many many drafts, many many
layers literally and a lot of that again came from
the author. Because the author had the book as a template.
The characters, they were there, they were fully fleshed out.
I knew what the characters were. Then I had to
figure out what's the narrative. Because the book spans twenty
something years, I needed to tell it in a much

(06:50):
shorter space of time. And during the time that I
was writing, so much was given to me by Alexandra
Fuller in terms of this is what you need to
understand about Zimbabwe, This is what you need to understand about,
what her family went through, This is what you need
to understand about I could observe her and see her

(07:12):
at this moment in her life. What are the things
that later come up? So loss and the fracturing of family,
and mental illness and alcoholism and a child who how
does a child survive this? How did what happened with race?
What happened with you know, colonialism? What was left? What
was done to the indigenous people by the colonialism? So

(07:35):
every one of those threads got woven in and I
was very slow with writing it. But the time that
I took to educate myself and the time that Alexandra
gave me to educate me. Really helped me flesh that out,
and that's how I could actually address it in the filming,
because I think it was Guillermo del Toro that said

(07:56):
a film is made up of twenty thousand accidents or something.
Literally every day was an accident. What can I get
the child to do? Can she focus? Can she concentrate?
You know, what are the mistakes she made? She's got hiccups,
she's yawning. Oh, I can take the yawn where the
camera was rolling and when she finished yawning, her eyes
were watering. I'm going to take grab that little piece
and put that into an emotional sequence that I need.

(08:18):
So the script was solid, the story was solid. I
knew that I wanted the mythology as well of the
Shawna people. I wanted that to sort of be the
heavens under which the whole thing rested. So it was
the six years of writing that I think got me
ready to make the film.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
And how do you walk that line between honoring Alexandra's
voice and your own as a filmmaker, Like, how do
you find that balance?

Speaker 3 (08:49):
It's sort of a precarious razor's edge that I walked
because imagine you know, on many levels, I feel like
I'm I've appropriated her story and merged it with my
own and a lot of discussion, you know, a lot
of and there were ways, you know, things in the
ultimate end of the film, one or two scenes that

(09:11):
she said, you didn't need to have that there, but
I felt I needed it there. So there's a certain
point at which you have to separate from the book.
But I think doing the due diligence of really listening
to her, really reading all of her books, everything I
could lay my hands on that she ever wrote, every
interview that she ever gave to understand the person behind
the writing, gave me really deep roots into her world.

(09:36):
And then you have to pivot. And so there's the
extra ten percent where you then go, now, this is
the story that I'm going to tell and with it
bringing my own experience to it. Yeah, and even what
I wanted to show, what is it that I wanted
to show? You know, where could I shoot it? I
couldn't shoot it in Zimbabwe because it doesn't have the infrastructure,

(09:57):
they don't have the cruise and financial I wouldn't get
the tax break that I got in South Africa. So
again I'm sure she would have preferred that I had
it shot really in the exact place that it all
took place. But you have to have you have to
take license with certain things.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
And do you feel you know you've done in your career,
you know, acting, you've done completely fictional things, You've done
things based in history and real life. Miss Honey. I
love Miss Honey. By the way, Thank you. Do you
feel a sense, especially when you're working with Alexander, do

(10:36):
you feel a sense of responsibility in telling a story
that is true or are you able to.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
Actually no, hugely because think about the elements of the story.
There's a massive family tragedy. There's a huge sort of
scar of racism and white supremacy, and it's a real thing.
So if I, if I, you know, tripped carelessly over
those things, I'm not honoring the story. There's mental illness,

(11:04):
there's alcoholism, there's damage done within a family. So I
think I just, yeah, it's a massive responsibility, much like
portraying what we needed to in Shindler's List was you know,
you're not You can't take that stuff on lightly. You
can get criticized too for taking it on at all.

(11:26):
That was a precarious thing for me. A lot of
people said, well, who wants to hear the white point
of view or white woman telling a story? And I thought,
for myself, I know that I had a the end
of the film, for instance, that was me, and I
broke that into the screenplay and I thought, there is
that that I have to put my own DNA into

(11:50):
this in how what do I see when I look
back at Africa? I see that woman. I see what
Bobo sees when she turns around at the end of
the film and looks out the back when that is
what influenced me in my life. I know it influenced
Alexander in her life because she's talked about it a lot.

Speaker 5 (12:06):
But yeah, for you, you know, now that you've kind
of gotten this film under your belt, is there something
that you would.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
Say today to you on day one of shooting?

Speaker 3 (12:25):
Yes, I would say you know how to do this.
So the first week or so, where I think I
was tentative, tentative about directing, you know, tentative about some
of the technical stuff, I would just say you absolutely
know how to do this. Because probably about a week
in I had to say to a couple of departments,

(12:48):
I know how to do this please. You have to
listen to me. And I think as a as a
woman sort of raised at a certain time in the world,
I didn't have that voice necessarily. I didn't feel It's
like Matilda, I don't have a voice. I don't know
how to speak up for myself. And I learned it quickly,
and I'm glad I learned it in time. But that's
what I would say, is you know how to do it.

(13:09):
You know enough, You've been on enough film sets and
you know how to do it.

Speaker 6 (13:13):
Basically.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
I love that, and I think that's a good reminder
for anybody that kind of gets into that imposter syndrome
almost is you know you are here for a reason
to do this now that now that the project is out,
do you see your next project being directing or do
you want to take a break and go into acting,

(13:36):
Like what are you thinking now?

Speaker 3 (13:38):
If a fantastic director comes along, one of the directors
that I love, or a fantastic part, absolutely I would
loved the ease, Oh my god, the ease of just
acting now would be so wonderful to not have the
responsibility of everything. But really, what I want to do
after all of this is done is. I've got a
few ideas. I want to sit down and start writing

(13:58):
again because I'm slow at it, and I have a
couple of ideas of things that I think could make
you know, something interesting, But it's a long process for me.
I'd love to direct again again. I know I have
to love the story as much as I love this,
and I think this is my this is my most
beloved child. I just can't imagine loving a story as

(14:20):
much as I love this. I fell in love with
the book. The book sort of entered my bloodstream, and
so I could draw from that. I wonder that I'll
ever have that kind of rich source material again, but
I do want to. I do want to try and
do it again because the act of creating that in
its entirety was a wonderful thing for me.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
And you've worked with some of the you know, most
amazing directors of all time. You know it, Tim Burton,
Steven Spielberg, Sam Ray. I mean, did you along the
way pick up anything that you now using in your
own directing.

Speaker 3 (14:59):
Yes, for sure. I feel as though, first and foremost
Spielberg influenced me much more than I thought so. First
of all, watching him very decisive very, very visual. But
it's his films, not so much my experience of working
with him, although that I learned a lot about how
you run a set, how you move quickly, how you
decisively know how to shoot exactly.

Speaker 4 (15:21):
What you want.

Speaker 3 (15:22):
But his child point of view, it's in a lot
of his films. That idea of sort of going into
the world of the child and that being the entry
way by which the audience comes into your story is
so powerful and resonated for me over and over again
in his films. And Bob Altman had a way of

(15:43):
just being an incredibly fluid on the ball, you know
that let it evolve the way that it evolves. So
that moving camera. I had to do that because I
had a seven year old in the lead. I had
to be on my toes, have two cameras, and I
always said to the camera that was closest. You've got
to grab everything. Get her, pulling her shorts out of
her you know she'd have a wedgie, or you know,

(16:04):
get her when she has her hiccups, get a close
up of her filthy feet, and be on that magnificent
face as much as you can, because that's the way
that we would tell the story, and Bob Altman just
had a very casual rhythm that wasn't a stressed, wasn't
a contracted, strident way. He was very loose, and especially

(16:26):
working with a child, you kind of had to be
that way to keep it playful, keep it light even
when it's a heavy subject matter, so that everyone doesn't contract.

Speaker 5 (16:33):
You know.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
I love that so much, And Beth, thank you. I
can't wait for everybody to see the film. It is
so powerful and you have done such an incredible job
with it. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Em Beth David,
She's truly phenomenonal, truly one of the greats, and you

(16:57):
can catch her, and don't Let's go to the Dogs tonight,
which is out right now in select theaters and POV
and it's absolutely worth the emotional damage. So bring tissues
and line or you know water. All right, we're going
to take a quick sixty second break to pay the bills,

(17:18):
and we'll be going from childhood traumas to supernatural trauma
when we return, with Ben Barnes and Joe Freeman discussing
their new limited series, The Institute. Be back in sixty
all right, Thank you for supporting our sponsors that support
this show that lets me bring it to you every week,

(17:41):
So thank you for that. Let's keep the vibes, but
now let's make them weird with my next guess. All right,
Stephen King fans, don't freak out. We're due because this
one's for you and me because I'm a Stephen kingfan.
The Institute is the chilling new limited series on MGM
Plus based on Stephen King's twenty nineteen novel about a

(18:04):
mysterious government facility that abducts gifted children with psychic abilities
and then puts them through like crazy experiments, think like
stranger things if it was written by someone who definitely
doesn't believe in happy endings. Starring the always suave Ben
Barnes and rising star Joe Freeman, the Institute really dives

(18:27):
deep into the themes of control, power, and childhood lost
in like the creepiest way possible. So here to talk
about the series and how they survived shooting this psychological
nightmare are Ben Barnes and Joe Freeman.

Speaker 6 (18:48):
Thank Zyl thanks for having us.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
Of course, First of all, congratulations on The Institute. I
really love it. It's such a great series. Tell me
for both of you, you know, Stephen King is such
a legendary talent. You know, what is it like doing,
you know, a version of one of his books? Ben?
How about for you?

Speaker 7 (19:09):
I mean, I've always been such a huge Stephen King.
Fanny's probably the most successfully adapted writer, maybe of all time.

Speaker 6 (19:16):
I don't know.

Speaker 7 (19:17):
I mean I've loved so many of his movies, from
Shaw Shang to The Green mar to Stand By Me
to The Running Man. I'm not a massive horror guy,
which is interesting when you think about Stephen King, you
associating with that, But actually he writes in all these
different genres, and he writes about hope and humanity and
toppling systems of oppression and banning together and friendship and love,

(19:38):
and he writes about all the most important things, and
all of those things I think are very neatly contained
in this Institute story. Really two stories tim story and
Luke's story that then kind of combined into one story
as we go. And it's got a really slow burned,
kind of simmering, horrifying tension to it as well. So
it's really really cool to be able to, yeah, say

(20:00):
that you play a character in the Stephen King cinematic universe.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yeah, how about for you, Joe.

Speaker 8 (20:06):
Yeah, I mean it's just you forget how much he
has has done so the amount of classics that are
out there, and and then you find out that it's
Stephen King, You're like, well, of course it is like
he's just Yeah, to be a part of that is amazing.
And also for my personal family, my granddad, he could

(20:27):
not believe it, Like he is the biggest Stephen King fan.
I know he's got every book and yeah, it was
special to be able to tell my family that, oh,
I've got this this cool job when.

Speaker 6 (20:40):
They're like and to be so brilliant in it as well,
thank you.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
And and running with that. Joe, do you did you
feel some kind of responsibility first of all, you know,
or pressure to do something from Stephen King? And then
with you, you know, you're you're a great father. I
believe you said, like, then you have that on top
of it. Do you did you feel like extra pressure

(21:05):
with that? Yeah?

Speaker 8 (21:05):
I mean, you know, I with with my granddad, he's
one of those people that's just like, oh, I love
it no matter what it is like, but if it's
the worst thing in the world, it's just still right.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
But Stephen King you've.

Speaker 6 (21:18):
Got to be more on it nor more judicious Smith.

Speaker 8 (21:22):
Yeah, yeah, I don't think I have the same relationship
with him as I do with my granddad.

Speaker 6 (21:27):
If you spend more time in possibly you know.

Speaker 8 (21:29):
But he's like, you want to try, and we talked
about this is you want you don't want to distance
it too much from what Stephen King originally wrote for
the characters, because you want to be able to bring
his book to life in the way that he imagined
it as much as possible, while also incorporating your own
stuff into the into the role.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
And for you, Ben, you know, you've done all kinds
of work. Do you do you feel, you know, when
you're doing an adapt adaptation of a Stephen King project,
do you feel pressure or or anything or are you
like be able to are you able to kind of
like chill?

Speaker 7 (22:05):
And I think there is a bit more pressure when
there's a novel because people have preconceived ideas. When they've
read a story about they've imagined the character, They've pictured them,
they pictured them walking around, They've pictured them doing these
having these sort of dynamic adventures, saying the things that
you say. So I think when it's just a script
you're that you're the you're the the author of that character,

(22:25):
you're you know, whereas there's always a bit more pressure
when there's expectation on it, I think. But because it's
a more recent book, I don't know if every every
Stephen King found has found their way to this story.
And I think we've got a really compelling version of it,
and the characters are truthful enough to the story, but
a little bit different enough for the people who've watched
the story to to feel that there's still some suspense

(22:47):
in it. But yeah, I've I've been very lucky to
work on different adaptations. I could never ask like Oscar
Wilde what he thought of my Dorian Gray.

Speaker 6 (22:56):
But but you know, Stephen King coming.

Speaker 7 (22:58):
On board as a as a as a producer on
this show after he watched some certainly felt like a
like a really valuable stamp of approval for us.

Speaker 5 (23:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
Yeah, and you know, going going with that Ben it
is And he tends to write emotionally heavy characters that
you know, not just sometimes the situations that are in
that are scary, but the emotional things that are that
they're facing are scary as well. Is that one of
the things that attracted you to the project.

Speaker 7 (23:31):
Yeah, I mean, I'm always keen to get involved with
projects that I feel like have subtext to them which
can connect with the world that we're living in. You know,
the kind of chaos of the world that the nastiness
of it, the heaviness of it, even the best of
men living with, you know, questioning their conscience. But people

(23:52):
always say that if you you know, you wouldn't. Oh,
I'm wrestling with this. I wondered if I did the
right thing. And the fact that you're wrestling with something
shows what a good person that you are in the
first place, that you're not one of the psychopaths. And
I think it connects with those kind of themes, but
it also connects with what Stephen King writes about a lot,
which is the vulnerable kind of banding together and using

(24:14):
their collective powers to kind of topple systems that seem
to be working unregulated, unchecked, to kind of retain their
power and to you know, just to kind of behave
however they want to behave. And so I think he
is a very thoughtful person about the world that we
live in, and he engages with that through his storytelling and.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
Joe what is the thing that you have found doing,
you know, doing the series, that something that you could
take from either your character or one of the other characters.
Is there is there anything that you have kind of
taken personally home with you?

Speaker 8 (24:54):
Well, I mean from the get go, it was like
I wanted to try and incorporate some of who I
am into Luke anyway, just to make it because you know,
why would you want to make it more difficult for yourself?

Speaker 6 (25:07):
And also it's the most honest.

Speaker 9 (25:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (25:10):
Yeah, so I suppose not I haven't taken anything from
Luke pers but sort of given Luke and I suppose
take it anywhere, like you know, you know what I mean, Like, yeah.

Speaker 6 (25:25):
You've contributed some of Joe Toto into Luke. Yeah, I
like to think.

Speaker 8 (25:29):
So.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
Yeah, and how about for you, Ben? I'm interested in
that for you as well, Like you know, do you
as you do every project that you do, do you
is there something that you take from it? Or are
you more like Joe or you want to give it,
give part of Ben and then move on to the
next one.

Speaker 7 (25:45):
Yeah, I think, I mean, I think you look for
the qualities, certainly for this character. Having played a bunch
of baddies in a row. To have a character who's
gripping so firmly to their moral compass, and you know,
playing character for whom it's important to be a good
man in the world, to be a man and full
of decency, to be someone who's fueled by protection and
love rather than by ambition, which I've played a few

(26:07):
of those in a row. It's always nice to kind
of feel like you're like, you admire the characters that
you're playing, and you're you're looking to represent something in
even in a fictional world, because I think this stuff translates.
Is important the stories that we tell, and it's important
the messages we put out there.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
Awesome. I love that. Thank you both so much. I
can't wait for everybody to see the Institute. They're going
to enjoy it as much as I did. I know it.

Speaker 6 (26:31):
Thank you man, Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
Thank you guys. Have a great day. Ben Bonds and
Joe Freeman, big thanks to them for creeping us out
in the best way possible. The Institute of Streaming right
now on MGM Plus. And trust me, you will never
look at a government facility or a gifted child in
the same way again. Now if you're thinking that show

(26:57):
as wild, but what if someone made a horror movie
about influencers. Well, don't you worry, my beautifuls. The next
guy already did. So let's bring in Josh Stolberg. Josh
is the twisted genius who's written multiple Saw films like
Spiral Saw ten Saw X, Piranha three D and now

(27:20):
brings us the horror movie we all knew was coming.
It's called skill House and it is a razor sharp,
glory as hell satire horror that follows a group of
influencers that are like competing for fame in a reality
show where your follower count just might determine whether you
live or die. And yes, it is just as gloriously

(27:44):
unhinged as it sounds. So we're gonna talk blood, fame
and cancel culture because director writer Josh Staalberg is here
to talk about killing clout chasers, working with actual TikTok stars,
and why horror is still the best genre to hold
up a mirror to our culture. I truly believe that

(28:07):
here he is Josh Stallberry. First of all, Josh, welcome.
I appreciate you speaking with me.

Speaker 4 (28:16):
I'm so happy to be here. I love iHeartRadio. I
listened to it daily, so to what it's where, it's
my podcast streaming of choice.

Speaker 1 (28:24):
So yeah, awesome, awesome, thank you. So congrats on the film.
I want to go back a little bit though, on
your career. First, you've had an awesome career writer and director.
You didn't necessarily start out with horror, but then you
kind of.

Speaker 4 (28:45):
Yeah, here are my first credits, honey, I shrunk the kids,
the TV show Sabrina, the animated series Avatar, The Last
Airbender on Nick, Like, all of my stuff is all
like when I started, was all kid stuff. And then
at some point I was sitting in a room writing
dumb jokes about getting kicked in the balls, you know,

(29:07):
and and and kids laughing at it, and I was
just like, I got it. I gotta find something else.
And my first horror script was actually I couldn't. I
couldn't get hired to write a horror film because I
was known in the in the kids' space. And I
had a friend who owned the rights to Piranha, Piranha.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
The old Piranha movie.

Speaker 4 (29:25):
Yeah, And I called him up one day I heard
he had the rights. I was like, look, I know
you're not gonna hire me to do it. Give me
three weeks. Give me three weeks. Don't sell it, don't
hire somebody else, Just give me three weeks. I'm gonna
write a script called killer Fish, and if you like it,
you can turn it into Piranha three D. And if
you hate it, you can throw it away and I'll
wait till after your movie gets made, and I'll try

(29:47):
to make killer Fish someplace else. And that's when Pete
and I wrote Piranha three D. And it was our
first horror script sold, and it led down the path
of me pursuing horror movies, which has always been I
love like Halloween changed my life as a kid, so
and then being able to like I even got to chance.

(30:07):
Pete and I wrote on did a rewrite of of
a of a Halloween movie. And being able to write
kills for the Michael Myers after having a poster of
him up in my wall growing up was just it.

Speaker 9 (30:20):
Blew my mind.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yeah, And that's actually I was going to ask you
about horror. I'm a huge horror fan and and I
love your horror work. First of all, Piranha was such
a fun horror movie that kind of you know, across
different boundaries genres. This is the word I was thinking.
I mean, maybe some boundaries too roughily some boundaries. But uh,

(30:45):
but then you're the three Saw films you did are
I would say they're they're my three favorite, but I
would say generally in the Saw fandom are probably the
three most beloved FI films as well. Were you a
fan before that or were you like become a student

(31:07):
and then you know, jump into it. No?

Speaker 8 (31:09):
No.

Speaker 4 (31:09):
I saw the original Saw in Westwood the night it
opened Friday night showing at midnight. I was standing in
line in a huge line because the word amouth had
already gotten out, and it blew. When when Tobin Bell
stands up at the end, it just blew my mind.
I became addicted with the franchise. But again, like I said,

(31:30):
I was writing for Sabrina, so nobody would have ever
brought me in. So it took writing Sorority Row in
Pirana three D and those films in order to get
the attention of the studio. So walking in to do
Saw was really kind of a dream come true. It's
one of my favorite franchises. Tobin Bell, I think is

(31:51):
the most iconic car because of how layered.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
The character is.

Speaker 4 (31:56):
And while I really appreciate you Kyle for saying how
beloved all three are, the.

Speaker 1 (32:02):
First two were tough.

Speaker 9 (32:03):
You know.

Speaker 4 (32:03):
Jigsaw was kind of trying to come back to something
after it had been dormant for such a long time
and trying to find a way to make it new
and old at the same time. And then spiral going
so far out into left field with with Chris Rock.
I think while we brought in some fans that were

(32:24):
that became friends of the franchise, because of the of Rock,
the the film I think disappointed a lot of the
Saw fans because he didn't have Tobin Bell in it.
So when we started with ten, I said to them
from the very very get that this should be a
John Kramer movie. This should be all about John Kramer.

(32:45):
Don't want to see a frame of the movie that
he's not in. And I'm very thankful that they said yes.
The the Twisted Pictured producers were both totally on board
and uh and it was.

Speaker 9 (32:58):
It was.

Speaker 4 (32:59):
I am very very proud of that movie and and
happy that it it was so well received both critically
and by the fans.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
Yeah. Yeah, especially for a franchise that has been around
for a long time, you know, Number ten, dude, Number ten, Kyle.

Speaker 4 (33:13):
Yeah, you're not supposed to get a good review on
number ten, exactly.

Speaker 1 (33:17):
They're supposed to be in space or something by that exactly.
So for Skillhouse, you, you know, it really kind of exposes
the dark side of of influencer culture and clout chasing
and that sort of thing. Do you do you is
this like a love letter or a warning about kind

(33:42):
of you know, this cunture.

Speaker 4 (33:44):
I'm hoping it's a bit of a love letter for
the kids because we're seeing them, you know, where we're
we're we're taking them in and trying to show, you know,
show a little bit of their lives, and you know,
we really also try to create an interact to feel
with the way we shot the movie. The screen language
of the film, you know, with the vertical phone frames

(34:05):
and the comment overlays and the deep fake videos, they're
all woven into the cinematography, and we're kind of hoping
that mirrors a little bit about how gen Z consumes media.
So there's that, but me coming at it and looking
at it and getting angry at my kids all the
time for how much time they're scrolling on on TikTok

(34:25):
and why they're now go out and play with their friends.
You know, I really look at this movie as less
of a horror film and more of a horror satire.
You know, we're we're skewering the influencer culture a little
bit about the idea of that the way that they
look at being seen is all about getting likes. It's

(34:46):
all about getting clicks, getting subscribes, getting likes, and likes
are like life for them, and in we decided to
make a movie where you know, they actually are life.
If you don't get the likes, then you die, so
so that was really important and also thematically.

Speaker 9 (35:06):
Thematic.

Speaker 4 (35:07):
Look, I love these kids, I absolutely love them, just
like I love my own kids. But I can I
can be disappointed in the way that they behave sometimes,
I can. I can I can critique the way they
behave sometimes and and and and I am not just
laying it on their feet. I'm also laying it on
the audience's feet as well. You know this this film

(35:27):
thematically is about spectacle for profit, but it's also about
the audience's complicity in what's happening. Uh, these kids would
not be jumping from a run rooftop onto another rooftop
and accidentally killing themselves. If they weren't doing it for likes,
if they weren't doing it, and if when the kid

(35:48):
does die and it goes all spreads all over social
media and goes viral, it just makes more kids see that,
Oh that kid got famous. I can do the same thing.
It's crazy, It absolutely crazy. And and and I And
what we tried to do is the film literally packages
violence for the viewers in the same way that the

(36:09):
the the influencer culture does.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
M I love that. Do you think gen Z in
particular is uh desensitized to violence? Like, do you have
to up the stakes more in film because of what
they expose themselves all the time on their phones.

Speaker 4 (36:30):
That's a really really good point. And the truth is
that I've been scrolling and seeing so much real life
violence on on online, you know, especially with the Wars
going on, and seeing just so many just horrific images,
whether it's from the wars or with from the floods
or like whatever it is. I do think that there
is a separation between real violence and and and art violence,

(36:54):
you know, Like I there's nothing I like more than
coming up with a cool way to kill somebody. But
I'm doing it with the idea that it's a roller
coaster ride for the audience. It's you know, I want
them to experience the thrill and the panic. But you know,
I'm a big I'm a big believer in that horror films,
you should also be able to eat your popcorn at

(37:15):
the same time and not throw up into the bucket.
That said, as you just kind of commented on, I
think horror movies are taking like going up, and you know,
the The Terrifier franchise. I just I've got my own
podcast on that's on iHeartRadio. I'll plug it right now.
Darren and Josh make a movie. We just talked to

(37:35):
Lauren Levera, who's the star of The Terrifier, and that
episode dropped today and the idea, you know, we were
fighting the MPAA on every single you know, we couldn't
show things in Saw because the NPA said no. But
then to see Damien put out Terrifier and just say,

(37:56):
fuck the MPAA, we don't need you. We're gonna go
out at seventeen unrated and it kills, it destroys, it
makes it. I think it might have made more money
than Jigsaw did in the opening weekend. So so you know,
f the gatekeepers, you know, we need to we need to,
you know, let the audience enjoy what they want to enjoy.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
I love that, Josh. Thank you so much. It's a
pleasure speaking to you, and I can't wait for everybody
to see Skillhouse.

Speaker 4 (38:23):
Thanks Lockle, I really appreciate it was really nice talking
to you.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
It was well, thank you you too, man Josh Stallberg,
the brilliantly twisted man who took influencer culture, added blood,
added satire and called it Skillhouse. I'm telling you the
film is a total ride and it just might make
you rethink your next TikTok. Love Josh, such a pleasure

(38:51):
talking him, and speaking of TikTok. When we come back,
we're gonna speak with the man who stars in all
of this madness. You know him, You've seen the head
lines and yes he's still standing. Bryce Hall joins us
right here in sixty seconds. All right, as always, thank

(39:13):
you for supporting our sponsors because they allow me to
bring this show to you. All right, whether you know
him from TikTok, from throwing hands in influencer boxing rings,
or from being on every gen Z mood board marked
chaotic neutral. My next guest has officially entered his horror

(39:36):
movie era. Bryce Hall, stars and Skillhouse blood Soaked No
Filter satire that asked what if Chasing Klout literally killed you? And,
as I said earlier spoiler alert, we kind of know
that it already does, but in this case there's way
more gore and slightly fewer brand deals. Speaking of killer

(39:56):
brand deals, I am dying to support your business. Hit
us up if you're interested. I'm only partly kidding. All right,
let's get into it with Bryce Saw. How you doing, man?

Speaker 9 (40:11):
Oh, I'm vibing. I'm having a great time. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
You loving this?

Speaker 9 (40:15):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (40:17):
So what's the excitement like for you? I mean, you
have a movie coming out this week? Like, tell me
about that. What are you thinking?

Speaker 9 (40:24):
You know? I thought it was gonna be smooth sailing,
just posting my videos and people were just gonna go
in there, and then people were telling me I have
to do press things, and I'm like, what does that mean?
So now here doing an interview with a bunch of people,
and everyone that sees multiple interviews is gonna see I'm
were in the same exact outfit in every interview. So

(40:46):
I think it's great though, besides you know that, So
what was it like?

Speaker 1 (40:52):
I mean, this is you know, you've made a movie.
You've crossed that bridge, so to speak. You know, what's
how has this been for you? Is it different from
is it fundamentally different from what you have typically done
in your career?

Speaker 9 (41:09):
Filmed this three years ago, and it felt like I
was filming a higher production YouTube skit. That's what it
genuinely felt like. It was. It was a great experience,
that was really fun, and I saw some clips and
some final cuts of everything. It's it turned out great,
way better than I.

Speaker 1 (41:28):
Thought it was gonna be. Really Yeah, And so skillels
it kind of dives into the darker side of influencer culture.
You know how much of that obviously this isn't a documentary,
but how much of that is taken from your own life?
For you know, your character in the film in general?

Speaker 9 (41:48):
Oh, it's extremely similar except the fact that I don't die,
and no other social media creators die if they don't
reach a certain amount of views. But the culture of
wanting as much as many eyeballs on you as possible
and doing anything to do that. The message was there,
it's just a little deeper in the film.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
And do you feel that there is this pressure? You know,
you've been creating a long time, you know, do you
feel even today that there is this pressure to be
bigger and better and get more eyes on it? And
you know, is it this constant struggle today? Still?

Speaker 9 (42:26):
For me, I don't do the crazy things that I
was doing when I first started to get eyeballs. Now
it's just it's it's like, I'm the most authentic version
of myself online and I feel like this is a way.
This is my lane, Like the lane that I'm doing
right now is what I want. But social media creators
that are just starting, the live streamers, those guys have

(42:48):
to think of something every single day that's going to
get eyeballs, and I can see how that can be
a lot.

Speaker 1 (42:55):
What's your advice for those guys? And you know those
people starting out.

Speaker 9 (43:00):
Don't take it too far? Actually, I mean even if
I say don't take it too far, they're gonna be like, oh,
that's easy. But you never know when you take it
too far until you get the backlash. So just maybe
ask your peers around you if you're taking it too far.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
Okay, and you know, you have been known for being
pretty unfiltered in your content. Was there ever a time
making this where you kind of had to hold back
some of you, either in actual production or the film itself.

Speaker 9 (43:36):
My character's based off of a more exaggerated version of myself,
so if I did have like a outburst like that,
they kept it in the film. There were some weird
moments where the producer who I'm close with, one of
the producers, Ryan Kavanaugh and Brad Baskin, like I'm close
with them. They would get me angry or pay on
set and I would be ranting about something else and

(43:56):
they would put it in that in a scene that
matched that vibe. It was so weird, like how they
how movie creation works. Like they used some of the
clips where I was arguing and they were putting it
in the film and it looked great. I was like,
what how did you guys do that? They were like
my phone at it. I'm like, what, you know?

Speaker 1 (44:19):
Skillhouse is a horror film, quite obviously, what is the
realist horror moment that you've had? You know, You've had
a long career in your influencing career. I guess it
was the best way to say, you know, ever had
any scary thing?

Speaker 8 (44:40):
Never.

Speaker 9 (44:40):
I never had a scary moment. But I think if
you look at it deeper, some of the comments that
are extremely negative, you could say that that could be
horror related. But honestly, I never really cared for eight
I never really cared if people hated me.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
How did you? How did you like just let that
roll off.

Speaker 9 (45:03):
I think it's the way I grew up shout out
to my mom. I don't know. I just was bullied
throughout my entire high school, middle school, so like I
kind of was just used to people taking shots at
main and then just being like, I don't even care.

Speaker 1 (45:18):
And it's kind of funny, like, you know, thinking about
it in under the lens of your career that you know,
you have had these haters that like, yeah, bro, you're
you're one of tens of thousands of comments on a
video with tens of millions of.

Speaker 9 (45:32):
Views, Like cool, you know what I mean? Yeah? No. Also,
I use it as like great, I respond to some
of the hate comments because it's great video content. I
can make it into like a comedy, like a comic
coal video just based off of like some of their
hate comments. It's it's actually really fun to do.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
I love that. So some critics and I don't consider,
you know, myself a critic. I'm a huge movie buff obviously,
but I review movies, but I don't like I'm not
like a critic. But some critics say that influencers don't
belong in cinema. Do you feel that skill house and
especially you, you know, now that you have a film

(46:10):
under your belt, presumably more to come in your career,
do you feel that that is like an old style,
old way of thinking.

Speaker 9 (46:19):
I think that is an old way of thinking. I
didn't think. I don't think anyone thought social media creators
would be as big as they are today or as
influential in modern day culture as they are today. Like
they're already being in put in random movies like Family
Guys addressed some social media creators. They're they're putting social
media creators everywhere now because it's so hip, it's so new,

(46:44):
Like live streamers are the biggest thing in the world.
Some of these, these these influencers, some of these creators
are getting more views than a less celebrities now, you know,
like it's it's it's new world and social media has
a way bigger impact than people or as Hollywood. Thanks.
I guess this is I guess this is the first one.
This is going to be the first test, like or

(47:06):
the stepping stone to maybe potentially like a new world
of Hollywood.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
Do you think Hollywood fears influencers take kind of taking
over the traditional system.

Speaker 9 (47:20):
I think I can see how it would be scary
because it's a bunch of people who have no pr training,
a bunch of people who have just like experience with
a camera that's on them and they say whatever they want,
like they're they're like a walking time bomb for Hollywood.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Yeah, do what do you see in your future?

Speaker 9 (47:45):
Now?

Speaker 1 (47:45):
You know, now now that you've you've been expanding your
creative outlets, you know, do you did you get the
taste for film and now like you want to double
down on that or you know what? What are you thinking?

Speaker 9 (47:58):
We're already working on really awesome movie. Uh not skillhouse related,
Like it's it's a pretty sick concept and the budget
is pretty high. This this film should be great. Okay,
So yeah, I'm gonna be dipping my toes in every
form of entertainment and acting is one of those things.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
So yeah, that's like the Teaser of the Century. Are
you a horror fan in general?

Speaker 9 (48:23):
I love horror films.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
Yeah, So what are your you know, as you're a
few years ago, as you started into this project, was
there anything that you took binge through whatever to kind
of hype yourself up to be in a horror film.

Speaker 9 (48:41):
I just watched a bunch of horror films. I watched
horror films like every single night. It's the only only
thing I watched. So there's no like real studying for it.
It was just kind of like, oh, this is gonna
be awesome, and some of the things that we were
shooting on set, I didn't think we're gonna look as good.
And then they showed me what it was gonna look
like and what it looked like after it was I
was like, oh my wow. The movie creation behind the

(49:04):
scenes is insane.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
What is some of your favorites?

Speaker 9 (49:10):
Dude? You could ask that, like, for I mean, is
Final Destination considered a horror I would say so. I
think that that whole thing, all the Final Destinations were
one of my favorites. Hereditary, Oh, that is one of
my absolute favorites. Hereditary was a great film.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
Have you seen bring Her Back, Bring Her Back?

Speaker 9 (49:31):
Which one is that? Is that newer?

Speaker 1 (49:33):
It's the Philipower Brothers that did Talk to Me? Oh yes, yeah.

Speaker 9 (49:38):
Like talk to Me was really good.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
Yeah, so that's their latest film. Oh, I have to
watch I've Been It's really dope. If you like to
talk to Me, it's like talk to Me times ten.

Speaker 9 (49:47):
Talk to Me was awesome. Yeah, yeah, that was a
really good one.

Speaker 1 (49:51):
Do you like those kind of artsy you know they
call them elevated horrors or like, I don't care, I'll
watch I like the I.

Speaker 9 (49:59):
Like paranorm horrors okay, yeah, like the kill the serial
killer horrors are not my go to picks, but like
paranormal horrors is like I watch those all the time.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
I love that. Where do you see you know for
your next film? For instance, is that in the horror genre?

Speaker 9 (50:21):
No, this is action and this is an action film. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
Okay, so you're totally like just branching out everywhere.

Speaker 9 (50:29):
Yeah, yeah, this this one's awesome. Like I'm excited for
this one.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
What do you hope for people to take from Skillhouse?

Speaker 9 (50:39):
Just the underlying message of stay grounded, don't do things
for views like that, that that whole thing like just
don't don't go out and do stupid things or not
morally correct things for views.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
Okay, And I got on my way here. I was
stuck in behind an accident and I got there was
a notification on my news that said you have challenged
fifty cent to a boxing match or something. Is that truth?

Speaker 9 (51:07):
That was a joke that TMZ asked. TMZ said, uh,
you're doing the Baron uncle thing. That's awesome. I'm like,
when's your next fight? And I basically answered. I was like, oh, yeah,
I have a fight coming up, actually really soon. And
they go, really, it's awesome. Can we know? And I
said fifty because of the whole lawsuit thing, yeah yeah,

(51:27):
I thought what I mean, I just gave him clickbait.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
I was just like, yeah, here's your clickbait. I love
that because it worked for me. And since I was
like driving, I was like, okay, I can't click THROUGHCHL says,
this's Leonard Olman. Yeah exactly so, and then I came
right here, so I'm like, okay, I'll just ask him
about it. Fifty cent. I interviewed him one time for
the one of the power shows, and he I love

(51:50):
him so much, and I was so nervous meeting him,
and I said, because the power series that we were
talking about was about kind of loosely based on fifties
life when he was younger. So I said something like
so like cringey, Like I was like, so, this is
kind of a story about when you were twenty five
cent and like then I'm like, wait, why did I

(52:10):
say that? And he like stopped like this, and then
it felt like it was forty eight minutes before he
was like and then started cracking up. And then then
I started cracking up because I was like, oh my god,
I thought I was gonna.

Speaker 9 (52:24):
Get beat up or something that went through. Now he was.
He was really cool on set when we were when
we were filming this this film, he was extremely cool.
I don't know what happened with that whole lawsuit thing.
I know he he lost a few days ago, but yeah, yeah,
I don't I don't know what that whole thing was about.

Speaker 1 (52:42):
So he was involved in the production.

Speaker 9 (52:45):
Yes, he was.

Speaker 8 (52:45):
He was.

Speaker 9 (52:47):
He was a huge involvement.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
Which is awesome because a lot of times, you know,
you you see films that have a producer credit from
for some from somebody, and you know, they never went
to set or anything.

Speaker 9 (52:58):
I mean, yeah, no, he he was involved. He was
in a ton of scenes like he was in there.

Speaker 1 (53:06):
I love that, Bro, Thank you so much for speaking
with me. Skillhouse is awesome. I can't wait for everybody
to see it. As I yeah, of course, I'm a
big as I said, I'm a big horror buff and
I don't care if something was made with twelve dollars camera.
If it's horror, I'm in and this one just I
love like the message behind it, you know what I mean. Yeah, Like,

(53:27):
it's it's cool that it that it delves into influencer
culture and plays with our kind of fears on the
you know sometimes the seediness behind people and that sort
of thing. So I'm hyped.

Speaker 9 (53:41):
Yep, July eleventh, it's gonna be insane awesome.

Speaker 1 (53:44):
Bryce, Thank you so much, brother, I really appreciate it.

Speaker 9 (53:46):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (53:49):
Bryce Hall, actor, creator, Boxer and now horror movie anti Hero.
You can watch him and maybe root for him or
maybe not in Skillhouse, which is out in theaters right now.
And with that, that wraps up this episode of Pop
Culture Weekly. We had influencers, icons, trauma, horror, Stephen King

(54:16):
basically a group therapy session with much better lighting. Don't
forget to subscribe and review. Please leave me a five
star review if that's what you feel, or not unless
you're still mad about that one thing I said in
twenty twenty one. All right, see your next episode. I
love you well.

Speaker 2 (54:34):
Thank you for listening to pop Culture Weekly. You're all
the latest at popculturewekly dot com. Child to trauma turns
to a trauma turns to you traumatizing all the people

Speaker 9 (54:56):
Sing it with me,

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