Center Stage with John Early & Da'Vine Joy Randolph

Topics covered include: Aidan first becoming aware of Charli, early demos of “I Love It,” Scandi accents, the whelks at Caroline Polachek’s birthday, silliness as high art, imposing structure, growing up on Tumblr, voyeurism, Aidan’s work with Timothée on the Marty Supreme campaign, a general sense of FOMO, teapot necklaces, Aidan’s mom’s notes on the “Guess” music video, not wanting to present yourself as an entrepreneur, embracing embarrassment, Charli’s early tracks like “Dinosaur Sex” and “I Wanna Be Darth Vader,” being a tiny bit hungover, and a brief round of the Cauldron Game.

Topics covered include:Voice memos as audio documentaries, the difficulty of keeping things small, Sean seeing Marty Supreme three times in theaters, maximalist territory, swimming in bigger lakes, moviemaking as time travel, Jack Fisk set stories, directors’ knee health, Jennifer Venditti’s wildly original casting process, feeling afraid of the script, Sean perfectly timing his edible intake at the Oscars, Darius Khondji as the “Prince of Darkness,” hunting down period accurate Cinemascope lenses, Ronnie Bronstein’s love of Shark Tank, and Marty Supreme’s epic alternate ending.

Topics covered include:Car rides to and from set, Emily’s special nickname for Dwayne Johnson, performing with a camera inches from your face, delicately handling playing a real person, Wonderbras, The Rock as the most patient man on Earth, not being concerned with being likable, Mary Bronstein’s intimate rehearsal process, audiences inherent distrust of a woman misbehaving, Emily reconnecting Dwayne and Benny on set of Oppenheimer, wanting to feel terror when choosing projects, and being hyper aware of the ocean.

Topics covered include: Getting comfortable in the chaos, moments of brevity, John writing his directorial debut on set of Eternity, double-fisting at TIFF, attending Interlochen at the exact same time, training in opera, Da’Vine’s stint as a camp counselor for child prodigies, ill-informed southern accents for The Laramie Project, witnessing the greatness of Audra McDonald in Gypsy, a shared love of Company, John’s huge plans for Da’Vine’s career, vocal tics, Da’Vine losing her voice on Broadway after she got nominated for a Tony, choosing to be the clown, and the great problem with contemporary musicals.   

Topics covered include: Martini celebrations, hydration regimens, learning the true meaning of the word ‘release,’ feeling visible but not seen, the special privacy of making a debut film, bringing your whole humanity to the words on a page, sharing an editor with Terrence Malick, being moved by how little you know, the Mother/Sister/Daughter theory, the subtle differences between Pedro Pascal, Chris Evans and Dakota Johnson, alleviating grief by thinking about The Next Thing, desperately needing sleep, Celine going straight from the Oscars to the first Materialists scout, Eva’s intricate process directing a movie they also acted in, sparring of ideas, committing to subjectivity, and having bangs.

Topics covered include: Steven Soderbergh’s greatest commentary tracks, the first Mission Impossible as a perfect film, writing movies for actors not executives, Ari telling Bill the idea for Eddington outside of an Italian restaurant, Bill laughing at the sound of Toni Collette’s head falling off in Hereditary, being intuitive and impulsive, David Lynch as a great spiritual teacher, using genre film as a shield, Ari’s deep research process in New Mexico before making Eddington, the genius comedy of Christopher Morris, walking into the meat grinder, unmade horror scripts, Bill’s cameo in Beau is Afraid, going beyond the breaking point, Steven Spielberg as the king of shot sequencing, childhood obsession with screenplays, Sturges on Sturges, Bill filming shorts as a kid with his sister in Tulsa, meeting Scorsese at SNL, and 50+ films that shaped them. 

Topics covered include: True artists, Kyle meeting David Lynch for the first time on the Universal lot, getting Invisalign for the bit, Benito's world getting rocked by Blue Velvet in high school, saliva overproduction, going blonde, Overcompensating's origin story on the New York standup circuit, finding the laughter and heart in coming out, new perspectives in watching your old work, Kardashian skits with stakes, college as an epicenter of comedy and heartbreak, pledging Beta, Kyle's first job working at a lumber mill in Yakima, dad's loving Pride merch, Tom Hanks’ sage auditioning advice, college golfer siblings, being fluent in the "Apple" dance, Kyle's first introduction to Sex and the City's Trey MacDougal, and being all up for the craziness.

Topics covered include: Success giving you brain damage, Andy’s lifelong love of Jackass as a “silly, honest, and ancient” art, squirming to hide the truth, Turkish hair transplants, the influence of The King of Comedy on Friendship, the psychedelic experience of seeing your movie with a crowd, knowing enough to know that you’re wrong, wall-to-wall c*cks in Jackass Forever, beating fear spirals, and why it's absolutely essential to see Friendship in a movie theater.

Topics covered include: Jane Goodall as Isaiah’s lifelong Patron Saint, a very cheap edition of Tarzan of the Apes that changed a young Jane’s entire world, supportive mothers,The Legend of Ochi as a critique of anthropocentrism, Jane’s first experience watching one of the famed Gombe chimps David Greybeard use a tool for the first time, stewardship versus dominion, controversy around Jane’s first National Geographic cover, using empathy in the scientific method, the importance of anecdotes, inventing a fictional primate for the Ochi, filmmaking’s parallels to science, the possibilities of nonverbal communication between man and animal, a quest to understand if adult male chimps like rock and roll music, the size of a dog’s heart knowing no bounds, Jane experiencing the effects of USAID defunding, a shared determination to heal the world by reaching hearts and enacting change, and the aquatic ape hypothesis. 

Topics covered include: Charles connecting with his dad through his role in Warfare, total immersion, knowing your castmates' meal requests by heart (Noah Centineo: 3 burger patties), sage advice from Alex Garland to “never say yes to anything before you read it,” pinch me moments, impersonating Will's American accent, Charles working with fellow Garland alum Cailee Spaeny on the newest season of Beef, feeling out of continuity with your own life, playing many rounds of Mafia after hours, wild peacocks, Will having an absolute blast with Jenna and Richard E. Grant on set of Death of a Unicorn, Michael Gandolfini as the worlds best storyteller, and Warfare as the most transformative and meaningful experience of their lives.