Amanda Seyfried

0:14Amanda Seyfried: Welcome to the Off Menu Podcast, taking the pasta dough of conversation, putting it through the pasta machine of humour and making the tagliatelle of podcasting.

0:22James Acaster: That is Ed Gamble, my name is James Acaster, together we own a dream restaurant and every single week we invite a guest, asking the favourite ever starter, main course dessert, side dish and drink. not in that order and this week our guest is Amanda Seyfried

0:34Amanda Seyfried: yes a wonderful actor James of course one actor man yeah so many things

0:40James Acaster: Mank got an Academy Award nomination for Mank oh yeah yeah yeah Mean Girls Mean Girls of course

0:48Amanda Seyfried: Mamma Mia Mamma Mia of course and the new film that Amanda will be talking to us about The Testament of Anne Lee or The Woman Clothed by the Sun with the Moon Under Her Feet

0:59James Acaster: It sounds fantastic. It does. It's about... I never heard of An Lee. Didn't know who An Lee was. Somebody founded The Shakers, which is a religious sect. It's an incredible story. We're going to talk to Amanda more about it. We are. Learn more about it. And I'm very much looking forward to seeing the film.

1:12Amanda Seyfried: Yes, very much so. The Testament of An Lee is in cinemas on the 20th of February this year. We will also, of course, be talking to Amanda about her dream menu, James.

1:23James Acaster: Oh, yes. I thought we would. Yeah. However, if Amanda says the secret ingredient, which is an ingredient we deem to be unacceptable we will have to kick her out at the dream restaurant yes we will and the secret ingredient this week is Calteen Bars

1:37Amanda Seyfried: Calteen Bars is from Mean Girls

1:38James Acaster: yeah it's from Mean Girls yeah it's from Mean Girls so probably unlikely

1:42Amanda Seyfried: it's not going to come up because I don't think it's a real thing but it's something from Mean Girls yeah

1:47James Acaster: yeah so like that's us hedging basically making it safe that we don't have to kick the guest out hey here's a little secret for you okay I love Mean Girls Ed loves Mean Girls everyone embarrassingly I've never seen Mean Girls that's crazy to me it's crazy you've seen so many films

2:03Amanda Seyfried: it's insane Mean Girls is such a good film I've been to see Mean Girls the musical I love Mean Girls

2:08James Acaster: yeah so I've got to watch it

2:09Amanda Seyfried: and I love Mean Girls no? yeah yeah not going to bite on that I didn't know you liked Mean Girls yeah sure come on be as cold as you like your wife's quite nice oh yeah she's a lovely lady yeah I found a good one yeah yeah but you

2:26James Acaster: but you love mean girls

2:28Amanda Seyfried: yeah I ain't marrying a mean girl no

2:31James Acaster: but you like them yeah yeah yeah who's your favourite

2:35Amanda Seyfried: who's my favourite mean girl yeah you know I couldn't say what in my life yeah I couldn't say that that would be they don't probably don't know realise they're a mean girl Chloe Petz yeah yeah

2:46James Acaster: you can watch this on YouTube tomorrow

2:48Amanda Seyfried: yeah tomorrow you can watch this on YouTube but why not listen to it now and then watch it on YouTube tomorrow

2:52James Acaster: yeah do both and see if it's as you imagined it

2:54Amanda Seyfried: in your head yeah yeah exactly Exactly. Let's get on with it then. This is the off-menu menu of Amanda Seyfried.

3:08James Acaster: Welcome, Amanda, to the Dream Restaurant. Welcome, Amanda Seyfried, to the Dream Restaurant. We've been spending here for some time.

3:14Ed Gamble: Thank you so much.

3:16Amanda Seyfried: I'm being a genie there. James is a genie in the podcast because he can get you whatever meal you want. What colour? Yeah, good question. Any colour you want. It's like your dream. Pink.

3:25James Acaster: pink yeah yeah i think it's the first time you've been pink i love it glitter hair yeah nice giant purple eyes yeah maybe a tail yeah i wouldn't turn down the tail yeah yeah like a fluffy tail like a cat tail yeah a sleek cat tail yeah any color you want oh that's nice the tail color it's rare that you get to pick i like to stick with pink really so that it looks like it's like one is part of me. Yeah. I don't want to go like a different color and then like I think I'm going to follow your lead and continue with the pink tail. Maybe some blue stripes actually.

4:01Ed Gamble: Yeah. Like Bagpuss?

4:03James Acaster: Like Bagpuss. You like Bagpuss?

4:05Ed Gamble: I like his look. I like his name.

4:08James Acaster: Yeah. Wasn't expecting a Bagpuss reference from you.

4:11Ed Gamble: I wasn't expecting to discover Bagpuss.

4:14James Acaster: No.

4:14Ed Gamble: Because I still don't really get it but I it's one of those UK-isms that I was very fond of.

4:21James Acaster: How did you get introduced to Bagpuss?

4:23Ed Gamble: Just by living here back in the day. It's probably the same week I learned what Minge meant.

4:29James Acaster: Oh, that's quite the week. Yeah, that's a big week. And I was in a lot of queues as opposed to lines.

4:37Ed Gamble: And a lot of quids everywhere.

4:40Amanda Seyfried: Yeah. This was huge. How long were you living in the UK? On and off for a while. Yeah.

4:47Ed Gamble: Many years.

4:48Amanda Seyfried: And picking up all these bits of information like Bagpuss and Minge. I learned a lot in the first week from my two friends and my driver,

4:55Ed Gamble: who's still with me outside. Oh, yeah. He's family. But it's just funny. The words, you know, your slang is completely, it was completely foreign to me. It was exciting to be in this new foreign world. They speak English, but they don't.

5:13Amanda Seyfried: Did you take, like, Minge back to the States? Yeah, I sure did.

5:18Ed Gamble: There's Minge's everywhere now. people say it

5:20James Acaster: people say it in Hollywood

5:22Ed Gamble: well my handle on Instagram is Minji because Instagram's been around for 15 years or whatever yeah and it's just my nickname and I have it on my foot tattooed on my foot with a few other girls and it's just a nickname you don't think about what you're saying anymore it's just term of endearment

5:40Amanda Seyfried: so you have Minji tattooed on your foot just Minj just Minj yeah yeah just Minj on the foot Minji for the socials for the socials that's fun Yeah, that's fun. You've got to keep it fun for the socials.

5:55Ed Gamble: Add a Y to your names.

5:57Amanda Seyfried: Yeah. Eddie and Jamesy.

5:59Ed Gamble: Eddie.

6:00Amanda Seyfried: Eddie E. Oh, so you're adding an extra Y. Yeah, yeah. Oh, I pre-added the Y, but if you want to add an extra Y, that's fine. I'll be Eddie E and you'll be Jamesy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

6:11James Acaster: Carry on, go and recurring E sounds at the end of our names. The more E's, the more fun you are?

6:16Ed Gamble: Yeah, the louder you say it, I guess. the more impact it has. So maybe.

6:21James Acaster: Bad pussy? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

6:24Amanda Seyfried: For example. That actually gets better the more easy you add to it. The initial way.

6:29Ed Gamble: Bad pussy. Thank you for bringing that back so quickly and so gently and so with such a commitment.

6:37James Acaster: Yeah. Had to commit to it. If I went in half-assed there, that would have been bad. Yeah, that would have been really bad. I think the only way is to fully commit to that.

6:46Ed Gamble: You know what? But the first cat I ever really knew was called Bad Pussy.

6:51James Acaster: Right, it was called Bad Pussy. Bad Pussy. Yeah, yeah. That was its name by its owner named it that?

6:56Ed Gamble: Yeah.

6:57James Acaster: Yeah.

6:57Ed Gamble: Because she climbed the curtains.

6:59James Acaster: Oh, yeah.

7:00Ed Gamble: So I inherited that. I think it was my aunt. This was my grandparents' cat. So Aunt Bad Pussy.

7:08Amanda Seyfried: So your grandparents' cat becomes your aunt.

7:11James Acaster: Yeah, that's the way it works. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. You want to look up family trees, Ed, and that's how it works.

7:16Ed Gamble: My mom's sister was bad pussy.

7:18James Acaster: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Your mom's sister's bad pussy. Aunt Bad Pussy. That should be a character in a film.

7:27Ed Gamble: No, you have Bag Pussy, which is way better.

7:30James Acaster: Yeah, that's true.

7:31Amanda Seyfried: At least we just discovered.

7:33James Acaster: We're not related to Bag Puss, though, sadly. We don't know. I haven't been on the Who Do You Think You Are? You could go on that show. There's a show called Who Do You Think You Are?

7:40Ed Gamble: Oh, I did a show like that in America.

7:42James Acaster: Yeah, there's a couple of them in America, right? and like yeah I might be related to Bug Puss could be yeah that would be very exciting

7:50Ed Gamble: probably not though

7:51James Acaster: who were you related to when you did it

7:53Ed Gamble: a lot of most of my family came over from outside of Frankfurt in like the mid 1800s so they're all dead yeah

8:04James Acaster: all everyone all your ancestors are dead

8:09Ed Gamble: if they if the ones who migrated yes they are in fact longer

8:14James Acaster: That must have been so sad to find out. Yeah.

8:17Ed Gamble: Yeah.

8:18James Acaster: The American version of this show is different to our one. But your one, they just go, bad news, they're all dead.

8:24Ed Gamble: Not at first, but one of my great, great, great grandfather was murdered in cold blood in his pretzel shop on a street that is very close to my house in Allentown in Pennsylvania. Oh, wow. They moved from outside of Frankfurt to Allentown, Pennsylvania and lived there from the mid-1800s.

8:44James Acaster: Wow.

8:45Ed Gamble: I think that's commitment.

8:46James Acaster: Murdered in a pretzel shop.

8:48Ed Gamble: And he was murdered. He was just robbed and murdered. Yep. In a pretzel shop.

8:52James Acaster: So is it going to be triggering being on a food podcast because of the pretzel shop incident? Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Such a good actor that we all fell for it. Yeah, definitely. I genuinely fell for that. Yeah.

9:05Ed Gamble: I really love pretzels, though, but they're not part of my dream food.

9:08Amanda Seyfried: No. Well, fair enough. Yeah, they bring up bad memories as well, though, right? No. No?

9:14Ed Gamble: no i now i i eat pretzels differently now yeah it's my my entire experience eating pretzels

9:20Amanda Seyfried: is enhanced because of my history yes of course yeah it's more like a tribute yeah yeah yeah so it is an honoring every time yeah well look that little bit of acting you gave us just there

9:31Ed Gamble: absolutely sugars to the core yeah i felt that and obviously we'd like to talk about the testament

9:35James Acaster: of ann lee which is actually the whole title is even longer if i do you know the title off by heart you know it off by heart yeah the woman clothed by the sun with the moon under her feet it's a very nice title beautiful yeah this kind of amazing images yeah absolutely absolutely what can you tell us about andy so i didn't know anything about this person not many people did

9:56Ed Gamble: yeah it's you're not alone i mean i grew up in america and you would have thought you know a feminist um who was able to create the biggest utopian society in american history would have been at least mentioned once or twice in school and nothing. And I actually grew up in the Northeast where she settled. So she's really an icon, a feminist icon, you know, for people who really studied that time period, especially it's like she was, you know, women were men's property, their husband's property and there were slaves. And yet she created this, this community of people who were just treated equally like completely inclusive she was their mother but she was one of them and she kind of created a space for people to to you know grow in prosperity with you know just building and being together and having no having complete equality and that was just like that's very progressive still progressive it's still goddamn progressive um and she made managed to do that until she you know in in the shaker community lives on I mean, there's three, but still we're talking 2025.

11:07Ed Gamble: Obviously, the thing that I think most people can't really get down with is that they were a celibate. But the celibacy came from something very real, like a very real trauma in her life. She lost all of her kids in stillbirths and in infancy. So that could bring a person to their knees. That can make someone desperate for some kind of peace and end of suffering. and she was able to find that and bring people in, which is, you know, to lead through love and compassion and nurturing instead of power and fear is an extraordinary thing. It's pretty simple and it lifts people up for the greater good.

11:43She like, you know, she made an impact

11:45Ed Gamble: for a lot of 6 ,000 people at one time. So weird that I didn't know about her and people definitely are going to know now because Mona had such a vision, a clear vision about what she wanted this movie to look like. She's the director. so there's a lot of music a lot of movement nothing you've ever heard or seen before so that's special too just very unique everything about this project role of a lifetime can't believe we made it for like under 10 million dollars yeah it's like an epic 34 day shoot which is epic tale shot in 34 days is near near to impossible does it make it easier that not many

12:24James Acaster: people like know that much about how to play a role like that it's definitely easier because we

12:29Ed Gamble: we take liberties in everything that we do you know when we're portraying somebody it's it's our portrayal it's not fact even when you're playing real people and it's based in fact it's not necessarily the way it was because you can't reenact that but but with with less information out there the more we can actually take liberties and and the easier it is for for audiences to be drawn in because because you know when you don't know what you're getting into you know you're not you don't have any expectations and you get to tell this story for the first time

13:00Amanda Seyfried: as well so people are finding out about this woman and you're the one who's telling them that

13:04Ed Gamble: must be an exciting thing it's yeah it's well it's intimidating as well because i mona fastwell wrote this with her partner brady and she's directing this and because it's her baby because she's so curious and really obsessed with this, with this woman. And so I also wanted to be, I wanted to provide her everything she needed for, you know, in order to direct me in order from, you know, to embody her for her and, uh, and, and to honor the character, the, the actual Ann Lee, to honor Mona and Ann Lee and everybody who worked tirelessly to bring this to life. I have to be, I have to go there. I have to go all the way there.

13:44Ed Gamble: That's scary. Because sometimes the parameters of being on set aren't enough to keep you safe from your own, you know, breakdown, emotional breakdown. So I haven't gone nuts yet, though.

13:56Amanda Seyfried: That's good. We're very glad to hear it.

13:58James Acaster: We're very glad to hear it. We always start the dream meal with still a sparkling water. Do you have a preference? Still, still, still, still. Oh, yeah. No doubt in your mind there. Do you have anything against sparkling water?

14:13Ed Gamble: No, nothing against it. I'm just always thirsty and sparkling water just doesn't cut it.

14:17James Acaster: Doesn't quench the thirst at all.

14:18Ed Gamble: And it's bubbly. And so we know what bubbles do.

14:24James Acaster: Sure. Do you drink a lot of water when you're on set, when you're acting?

14:28Ed Gamble: More than anybody I know.

14:30James Acaster: Yeah.

14:30Ed Gamble: Fact. I've never met somebody who drinks as much water as I do.

14:35James Acaster: Wow.

14:36Ed Gamble: Yeah, I'm always thirsty. I always have a bottle by my side. In fact, I always have my Nalgene with the two eyeballs that I designed on the Nalgene website once and had to buy 48 of them because...

14:46James Acaster: What are you saying? Nalgene bottle, yeah.

14:49Ed Gamble: It's just a plastic BPA-free water bottle with a little handle. There's little eyeballs on it. I'm running out of them, but I put a really nice straw inside of it and it's constantly filling up. I bring it everywhere with me except overseas.

15:04James Acaster: So do you miss the bottle when you're traveling? Every day. What are you having to settle with here?

15:09Ed Gamble: well glass

15:11James Acaster: and I drink about

15:13Ed Gamble: three or four of these a day

15:14Amanda Seyfried: wow that's a decent amount of water that's a lot

15:19Ed Gamble: I love meal water

15:22James Acaster: drink it out the bottle right now huge respect we've had some guests on who don't drink any water

15:31Ed Gamble: I know a lot of people who don't drink water they drink soda I'm just like I was just curious as to what their organs look like but what do I know yeah

15:41Amanda Seyfried: and you can't ask people what their organs look like

15:43Ed Gamble: no it's like it's really I mean unless you're a doctor you have some like special devices you really can't

15:51Amanda Seyfried: you can't tell and you can't ask it's frowned upon to say sometimes it comes through your skin yeah it does well this is why I thought you know if you're hanging out on set with a lot of other actors and stuff surely all the other actors are down in water because you've got to keep the skin looking fresh

16:06James Acaster: I don't know we've interviewed Florence Pugh and she said she never drinks water. That's true. Which is crazy to me. Google it. Yeah. So like...

16:14Ed Gamble: She never drinks water?

16:15James Acaster: Doesn't like it, doesn't see the... Just thinks it's a lie. Thinks like how good it is for you is a lie. I also think we can trust our bodies.

16:23Ed Gamble: If we crave something, we probably need it. I mean, doctors always say, you know, if you crave meat, it's because your iron levels are low. So I think in some ways, our body's going to take care of us. In some ways. and I think if you don't crave water, you're probably getting enough liquid hydration through fruits or vegetables. So I don't know. Who knows? Also, when you're drinking juice, that's partly water. Yeah. So she probably has what she needs.

16:52Amanda Seyfried: Do you reckon?

16:53Ed Gamble: I do reckon. I know a lot of people who don't drink water.

16:56Amanda Seyfried: But I worry about those people. I do worry about internally.

16:59Ed Gamble: Do you drink a lot of water?

17:00Amanda Seyfried: I drink a reasonable amount of water. I go through phases with water where sometimes I'll really be across hydration. Mind is laughing. Yeah, yeah. What about alcohol? Yes, drink that. Phases? No, no, not phases all the time. I go through phases. Yeah, I think both of us go through phases with alcohol. I'm entering a phase right now of not drinking it.

17:18Ed Gamble: Why?

17:19James Acaster: Because I'm just coming out of a phase where it got a little bit too much, wasn't feeling happy a lot of the time, so not doing it anymore.

17:26Ed Gamble: I think it's hard when you drink socially. you know i'm this is apart from people who who have addiction problems which i grew up in i i'm completely respectful and in awe of people who who get through that period and quit using their you know their drugs quote unquote and um and and for me it's like i've never had that addictive personality but i really enjoy alcohol and and it's it's i've realized as i'm away from my kids It's a lot. And I'm social and I'm out every night doing these press events or, you know, seeing friends. It's really, really hard not to have a drink. And then I try to do it.

18:04Ed Gamble: And I, you know, I just end up wanting to go home early. And then when I do have a glass of wine, it makes me have more fun and go home a little later. So it's like, do I want to have a little bit more fun and get less sleep? Or do I want more sleep and less fun? And then I'm just like, always between those two places.

18:24Amanda Seyfried: it's a balance and especially when we're recording this in the uk in you know november december time when it's cold outside it's dark all the time and then there's so many events everyone's like it's christmas we got to go out and like after two weeks you're like oh my god i've never felt

18:37James Acaster: worse yeah it's bad i'm trying to remember like the start of last year because i have there's christmas new year then my birthday is early january my birthday is early december so

18:49Ed Gamble: So I have like December, all the Christmas parties, Christmas, New Year's. Go ahead.

18:54James Acaster: But the same problem, I imagine. You get to the end of that and you're like, I cannot do this anymore.

18:59Ed Gamble: I can't believe you have your birthday after all that.

19:00James Acaster: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's two weeks after Christmas. So like, it's like straight in. And obviously, yeah, New Year's is in between it. So I'm... You're dead meat. I'm dead meat. And there becomes a point where I'm just like, I just can never, ever look at alcohol ever again. This is bad. and I'd turn up at stuff and if I was like, what are we drinking? I'd resent them for even asking. And then all of a sudden you miss it

19:25Ed Gamble: and you're like, okay, I'm going to...

19:27James Acaster: Yeah, and then a few months later you miss it, have one and go, oh man, this is so delicious.

19:31Ed Gamble: Yeah.

19:32James Acaster: It's so good. And then you're like, I love you.

19:36Ed Gamble: Then you're in the dream. I love you so much.

19:38James Acaster: I'm not even straight in there. So the dream on the cycle is like when I start drinking again, then it's every so often it's not that often and every now and again i'm having one a time and i'm just really enjoying that martini or that gimlet or whatever the drink is and then eventually it just gets back round to who cares this is this is i'm having like either if i go on tour same as you with the day of working if i'm doing a gig every night really impossible you just want to unwind after the gig have a lovely one you're not getting drunk every time but you have in one you have in two it builds up poplums or bread poplums or bread am I deciphered poplums or bread bread bread bread

20:21Amanda Seyfried: bread great it's got to be bread is there a particular sort of bread sourdough sourdough every time

20:26Ed Gamble: salted butter

20:27Amanda Seyfried: amazing is there a place where you get the best sourdough where in the world have you eaten the best sourdough you've ever had

20:34Ed Gamble: I would probably say Zurich

20:36Amanda Seyfried: Zurich we've not had a shout out

20:38James Acaster: of a Zurich sourdough recently yeah were you filming there were you working there I was not

20:45Ed Gamble: I was just on tour with Mona and our kids we took our daughters with us oh that's nice your daughters get on really cute yeah yeah they sure do her daughters they're two years older than mine but they're they watched my daughter her daughter showed my daughter Mean Girls for the first time on that trip while Mona and I were having a meeting a zoom meeting her daughter showed your daughter yeah

21:07James Acaster: was that weird for you I was like

21:10Ed Gamble: I don't know if she you know what here's my code did your daughters know

21:16James Acaster: who was in the film when they started watching

21:18Ed Gamble: she's just been wanting to watch it she's just patient and it was it felt like it was fine she gets things and then if there's things she doesn't it's over her head and it doesn't matter and if she has questions she comes to me about it and we're honest but I didn't think there was anything in there that she was gonna be too confused by or scared by

21:36James Acaster: are you still getting that film quoted at you a lot yeah all the time and is that nice because i guess you've been in so many things now that you know there's things that uh can keep coming back and things that don't so does it is it just like just quite nice to have something just oh yeah still be in the zeitgeist yeah it's also just really special

21:55Ed Gamble: because it was my first movie yeah and i i was just like they like put a rain tower over me for my first shot ever on on film yeah and it was like movie magic in it was surreal the whole thing was surreal it's um i'm never i you know barely a day goes by where i'm not like oh fuck did i get here it's just so cool and magical my job is still so insane at times i get like crazy opportunities and I feel like they're all safe because it's within these parameters of make-believe. So I can really explore myself so well, I mean, in front of people, like publicly explore my own spirituality, sexuality, like, you know, explore meaning necessarily not physical, but like my ideas and thoughts on things.

22:51Ed Gamble: But, you know, as I walk through other people's shoes, it's just fascinating.

22:55Amanda Seyfried: Do you know when you're making a project that it's going to be one of those things that people are quoting back to you years later. I don't know. Always a surprise.

23:02Ed Gamble: It's always a surprise. Especially because the landscape changes so quickly. Like something's trendy and then all of a sudden it's not. Like rom-coms are, they thought they were back, but they're kind of not really. And you know, you just, like I never expected Letters to Juliet to be something that people are like, I loved Letters, I just watched it. It's more like Jennifer's Body, Mean Girls and Mamma Mia. Those we know people saw. in in droves i mean not jennifer's body not in the box office but you know it's a cult classic it's huge yeah and and it's just you know i just had so much fun i guess i guess the point is anything that that hits is it just a blessing and anytime someone stops me to say something you know how a film has affected them or to quote me it's it's a celebration it's not a pain in the

23:52Amanda Seyfried: ass do you have anything that you're like that should have hit that should have been that should

23:57Ed Gamble: have been the thing um i thought jennifer's body should have hit because it was really so well written and directed and megan and i we we were really incredible together in that like we had such an amazing chemistry it should have hit the music everything about it but they marketed it in a way that didn't help us at all that's so funny i'm sure i can think of 17 different things that should have hit and didn't but you know i wasn't surprised that dear john hit i mean that was a best-selling book i'd be surprised if the housemate doesn't hit but those are just that's ip that's just so popular you know it's just the landscape changes all the time you never know you just never fucking know and that's why it's always about the journey for me i mean listen the press stuff can get relentless of course and um it's not natural to have to talk about something so often and like repeat yourself so much and try and keep the light behind the eyes when you're talking about it um but but you know i'm i am good at it and but it takes a lot out of me but it's more about like what happened last year in budapest and shooting it's just like it's always about the journey um never about the end result for me as an actor and i don't it doesn't have to be about the end result for me because i'm not cutting it together yeah and then when it when it cuts together really nicely and you like your performance when like this the testament of Anne Lee clothed by the sun the moon under her feet under her feet under my son used to run around the house saying well I made him I taught him this but I was learning the accent the Mancunian accent for like a year and he was like this accent is very fucking hard and it was just really funny because he didn't know what he was saying but yeah of course

25:50Amanda Seyfried: yeah you're sort of he's not even saying the word because he's putting the accent I don't know if

25:55Ed Gamble: I'm doing it right no I'm not

25:56Amanda Seyfried: more Liverpool that's more Liverpool that yeah so you're ready for your next role you can be a Scouser yeah yeah Scouser

26:06James Acaster: so let's get into your dream meal proper your dream starter

26:10Ed Gamble: a kale salad chopped kale salad, Tuscan, finely chopped, long ways like spaghetti noodles, gently massaged with an extra virgin olive oil, and shredded Parmesan cheese. Simple. Delicious.

26:31James Acaster: Simple, delicious.

26:32Amanda Seyfried: I love the level of detail.

26:35Ed Gamble: And you didn't ask me what my pub snack was.

26:40Amanda Seyfried: No, well... James, ask Amanda what a pub snack is.

26:43James Acaster: Sorry, I know I always ask that. And I skipped it for you and I shouldn't have. What's your pub snack?

26:49Ed Gamble: Castle Fultrano olives. Pitted.

26:53James Acaster: Yes. Lovely. Would you like those at what point? Before the appetizer. With your water and your bread. You'd like the olives there.

27:03Ed Gamble: Sourdough bread, the salted butter, and the Castle Fultrano olives.

27:06Amanda Seyfried: What's so wonderful about these olives in particular?

27:09Ed Gamble: they're so salty and rich and not bitter like kalamata olives are they have the most perfect texture and they are just like a like as delicious to me as meat used to be oh it's like a hot dog

27:26Amanda Seyfried: used to be yeah they do i think i'm thinking of the right ones they do almost have like a meaty

27:31Ed Gamble: texture yeah they're like almost round yeah yeah they're green like bright green nice how long have you not had meat for um i think i had meat the other night oh sorry i thought you were saying yeah i thought the same thing no i did i i don't i don't prefer i don't eat it very often i i when i say what i eat i don't eat fish at all haven't since 2021 and i don't really eat beef um i had the other night had something that was i don't know what it was well let's try and work it out

28:07Amanda Seyfried: But it was delicious.

28:09Ed Gamble: What was it?

28:11Amanda Seyfried: Where were you?

28:12Ed Gamble: I was in LA.

28:13Amanda Seyfried: Okay. Narrowed it down.

28:14Ed Gamble: It was a cocktail party where they had hors d 'oeuvres, which I hate. What? I just want a plate full of stuff. Oh, all of them. Yeah. I just, I can't. It's also, you're always in conversation. Were you like, no, no, thank you. Oh, no, thank you. Oh, no, no, no, thank you. Oh, yeah, sure. I'll have one. Oh, can I have two? Okay. And it just breaks up your conversation. It's not, I don't like it. um but it was something there was meat in it and i was not expecting it and i was like oh and so i grew up just obsessed with hot dogs and sausage so i'm i'm a pork kid and i really really don't really don't eat kind of that kind of meat i only eat chicken but you're a pork kid but I I came from a pork background where we ate it and you know I'm in the process of trying to figure out how I'm going to secure a pig for our farm and it just really just doesn't I do have a lot of chickens at the farm and I eat chicken but for some reason I can't really wrap my head around having a pig and then eating pig

29:21Amanda Seyfried: that's interesting

29:21James Acaster: because you've got a farm I do didn't I have a farm yeah it's exciting we haven't had many guests on who have a farm

29:29Ed Gamble: really yeah like mostly rescue animals from like they're all it's what it's it's called a sanctuary and I actually just got a 501c3 like it's now a tax deductible charity because they're expensive because there's a lot of medical bills invoices constant because they're horses and goats and you know they're just lopsided one-eyed animals

29:54Amanda Seyfried: yeah so you've got to look after them a lot you need a lot of there's just a lot of medicine like and goat medicine is different to horse medicine well the vets come to you and it's a whole other thing the vet the x-rays happen at home um the farrier comes to do all the horses but at different

30:09Ed Gamble: times because the donkey needs a different kind of shoe is the or that needs a different kind of trimming as the horse needs shoes and certain horses don't need shoes and certain ponies my ponies just like running around you know we've got like just a bunch of diseases that they have you know not terminal but just you know some of them are just ancient and every time i leave i don't know if i'll see them when i come home um lots of just accidents happen on the farm on wood um to some some of the you know just the raccoons were trying to get into the ducks the

30:43Amanda Seyfried: other day you have raccoons on the farm yeah but like you're looking off they're not they're not

30:48Ed Gamble: Like ill raccoons. Who have them as pets. But you can't do that. Have to have a permit for it. I'm not going to go looking for a wild animal to domesticate it.

30:58Amanda Seyfried: Yeah.

30:59Ed Gamble: That's fucked up. But if one were injured.

31:02James Acaster: Yeah. Yeah. You could look after it.

31:05Ed Gamble: I'd make it sleep in my bed for sure. I still want to bring some of my animals inside the house. But the only animals that I think could fit are the goats and the chickens. And they shit everywhere all the time. Yeah. Can't stop them. Unstoppable.

31:28James Acaster: Your dream main course. Okay.

31:32Ed Gamble: No judgment. It's going to be a very, very fresh cut and toasted plain bagel. Zaybars, if we're getting specific. Okay. you're gonna have a medium amount of cream cheese on that plain whipped sometimes it's fine and then there's gonna be some sliced really deliciously sliced avocado separately and I mean do I have to add something else no you don't have to

32:01Amanda Seyfried: this is your dream meal and why were you worried about us judging you you said no judgment meals

32:07Ed Gamble: I mean it's not like a dinner meal it's more of like a breakfast meal

32:10Amanda Seyfried: is that how you prefer to eat like sort of more snack more snacky bits, more sort of breakfast-y food instead of like a big...

32:15Ed Gamble: My favorite thing is a buffet. Or like a Mediterranean platter. Nice. Vegetarian Mediterranean platter because they've got so many dips. The more dips, the more condiments, the better. I can't help myself. I mean, I guess if we're going to add something to that plate, it would be like applesauce.

32:35Amanda Seyfried: No, I might...

32:36Ed Gamble: But like homemade.

32:37Amanda Seyfried: That feels like a crazy addition to the bagel plate, but applesauce with the avocado and the cream cheese and the bagel. That's interesting. I was unexpected. Bit of zing. Bit of zing.

32:48Ed Gamble: Thank you. I love applesauce. I love apples any which way.

32:54James Acaster: Applesauce feels like, you know, you get that on a farm.

32:58Ed Gamble: Yeah. We don't have apple trees. We have two like really, really, really young adolescent apple trees. And I don't know when they're going to start, you know, growing us at my own apples. but we live upstate, you know, so it's Hudson Valley. Apples are just the best ones. Do you know what ugly apples taste better?

33:17Amanda Seyfried: Is that true?

33:18Ed Gamble: Yes.

33:19Amanda Seyfried: That'd be a good title for a film. Ugly apples taste better.

33:21Ed Gamble: Because they're ugly, so they have to have...

33:23Amanda Seyfried: They have to show off, right?

33:25Ed Gamble: I saw where your head went. Okay.

33:29Amanda Seyfried: All these pretty apples, they don't have to taste good. People are going to eat them anyway, right?

33:33Ed Gamble: Yeah, they're going to be given to the princess.

33:35Amanda Seyfried: Yeah.

33:37Ed Gamble: And they're going to be poisoned. Yeah.

33:40Amanda Seyfried: I don't know why princesses are still eating apples at this point. I don't think they are.

33:45Ed Gamble: I don't think it's on trend right now.

33:46Amanda Seyfried: No.

33:47Ed Gamble: No, they're all eating Ozumbic.

33:50Amanda Seyfried: Yeah.

33:51Ed Gamble: Sorry.

33:52James Acaster: It's going to be a great new Disney film. Yeah, yeah. Where did you say this bagel was from?

33:59Ed Gamble: Zabar's. Where's that again? It's in New York City.

34:01James Acaster: It's in New York. So New York, best bagels? Very fancy deli. Yeah.

34:05Ed Gamble: Best bagels in New York? I think a lot of people would disagree with me, but they're just right up the street from my apartment so when I'm in the city I'll get my coffee and my bagel let's say bars

34:16James Acaster: oh great

34:18Ed Gamble: yeah I think

34:18James Acaster: I feel like I've been there

34:20Ed Gamble: I'm sure you have Upper West Side

34:21James Acaster: I think someone took me there yeah I think Orange Riding I think Annette's dad took me there

34:25Ed Gamble: it's a market too next door to the deli there's like an actual whole market

34:29James Acaster: right yes that's where I get my olives

34:31Ed Gamble: that's where I get my shredded Parmesan sometimes you know I was doing a play interested or no yes you like whiskey

34:37Amanda Seyfried: yeah

34:38Ed Gamble: I would do I was doing this play

34:40Amanda Seyfried: I like that you asked if you were interested before you decided what you were going to tell us about

34:45Ed Gamble: do you want an anecdote it's not even wow I really set it up basically instead of eating dinner I would have like a like a big lunch before my night time show when I was off Broadway in New York 10 years ago and I would go home and have I would pour Jameson with the good Jameson what's the brand of Jameson that's better it's like it's a more

35:06Amanda Seyfried: is it still called Jameson but there's like an extra thing on it.

35:10Ed Gamble: An extra Y.

35:10Amanda Seyfried: An extra Y. An extra Y. It's Jameson-y. Yeah, yeah.

35:14Ed Gamble: And I would pour the Jameson and then I would just take the sweet and dry vermouth and go to kind of make my own fake perfect Manhattan because I'd love to drink. And I'd put three Luxardo cherries in it and then pour a little bit of the Luxardo cherry juice.

35:28Amanda Seyfried: Oh, wow.

35:29Ed Gamble: So it was super sweet. And then I would take a block of manchego cheese on a plate. I'd cut it in half and I'd thinly slice the manchego block until it was completely done and I would eat the whole thing. And each one was about slicing it very thinly and I'd be watching TV, drinking my Manhattan and as soon as I was done, I would go to bed. That shape I've ever been in.

35:49Amanda Seyfried: What a great night that sounds like. Every night.

35:54James Acaster: Every night. I miss it. Yeah, yeah. I got the feeling it was like happy times for you when you were reliving it.

36:00Ed Gamble: Now I just would never eat anything that late at night.

36:04Amanda Seyfried: Yeah, it's always a bit that I think, you know, it happened to me at some point in life as well where it's like I can't be eating that late

36:09Ed Gamble: because you wake up really feeling like shit yeah

36:12Amanda Seyfried: especially a block of cheese you know

36:14Ed Gamble: well it was half a block and the manchego cheeses aren't that big yes

36:18Amanda Seyfried: they're like

36:19Ed Gamble: I would get like the thinner one and I would cut it but it would it was yeah it was a lot of cheese it was a lot of cheese my cholesterol is not great I stopped eating so much cheese because it was giving me eczema and I think my body is very grateful

36:40James Acaster: your dream side dish you know

36:44Ed Gamble: like sauteed apples

36:46Amanda Seyfried: lovely the apples are clearly at the forefront of the brain I love Balmers

36:52Ed Gamble: when I lived here Magnus and Balmers really I lived for that I lived for a pint of that because it felt like I was really part of the pub culture because I had the yellow drink in the glass yeah

37:02Amanda Seyfried: with ice in it as well did you get it with ice in it no no no no Right, yeah.

37:06Ed Gamble: No.

37:07Amanda Seyfried: People get it. People, when they're in pubs, they pour it into a glass of ice.

37:11Ed Gamble: No, they don't. Not when I lived here.

37:13Amanda Seyfried: No, they don't. I hate to pull rank here, but I have been here for quite a long time. No, they don't, Ed.

37:19Ed Gamble: Well.

37:20Amanda Seyfried: Okay. No, they don't. Back in the day when I was living here. Yes.

37:24Ed Gamble: Nobody ever offered me ice. And if they had, I wouldn't have taken it.

37:28Amanda Seyfried: Yeah. Straight from the bottle.

37:31Ed Gamble: Also, it passes through you quicker. warm alcohol or room temperature is better for you i really because you just want to out the system as quickly as possible you you get looser faster okay so no eyes please i want to get loose

37:49Amanda Seyfried: quick you're like i need to get drunk and i need to get drunk now yeah and if you i heard if you use a straw you get drunker quicker because then it goes under the tongue and it absorbs quickly

38:00Ed Gamble: into your system does it does is the under the tongue thing true because i do it with everything every supplement I take it's all like mushroom and tinctures and CBD

38:08Amanda Seyfried: is that true? apparently apparently because it's more like spongy underneath the tongue so it just everything I mean I've run out of facts here

38:17Ed Gamble: I'm curious to see what would happen if we each took like a swig of whiskey and kept it under our tongues and if you know you would have to like kind of count down how how long it took you to feel a little fuzzy I don't know if you stop

38:34Amanda Seyfried: Yeah, it's difficult to judge, I guess, because how do we know how fuzzy each other are feeling? You can say, I'm feeling fuzzy now.

38:44Ed Gamble: I'm feeling fuzzy now.

38:45James Acaster: But then I'll be holding the whiskey under our tongue. Yeah, but maybe... So we'd have to say, oh, hey, hey. You can probably do that. You're a trained actor.

38:51Ed Gamble: But you can be like... Because if it's under your tongue, is it faster to keep it under your tongue or faster to swallow it?

38:59Amanda Seyfried: Good question. How absorbent is it if we keep it there? Is it just going to...

39:03Ed Gamble: Or is it still faster if we like suck it down, like drink it?

39:06Amanda Seyfried: Yeah. I feel like still drinking it would be... I don't know.

39:08Ed Gamble: It's faster to get into your bloodstream. Yeah. Here. You know what I mean?

39:11Amanda Seyfried: You go via under the tongue and then swallow it. I think you're getting double whammy then. Double whammy. You're getting whiskey.

39:18Ed Gamble: I know what you're not doing.

39:19Amanda Seyfried: Yeah.

39:20James Acaster: You're not doing that. I'm not putting the whiskey into my tongue. That's how I know I've got a problem.

39:25Amanda Seyfried: We used to do strawpedos quite a lot. Do you remember strawpedos? Where you get like a bottle of beer or something and put a straw in it, then bend the straw over so you've still got the air going through the straw into the bottle and then when you neck it back you basically can drink a bottle of beer and two sips

39:42Ed Gamble: but for what purpose?

39:44Amanda Seyfried: getting loose quick I feel like you're judging me now Amanda but you're the one who's just said we should all put whiskey under our tongue and see who gets fuzzy first yeah but that's like a proper like

39:54Ed Gamble: this is an experiment

39:56Amanda Seyfried: that was not

39:57Ed Gamble: this was science based it was just curious about how the body works yours is just

40:04James Acaster: bad lifestyle I think we've interviewed enough actors now for you to know that's not gonna fly going me and my friends used to do this just get shit face quicker they're gonna look at you like that doesn't sound very healthy

40:16Ed Gamble: it's like telling me that you did whippets yes

40:18Amanda Seyfried: I did do whippets but they weren't whippets is the like the squirty cream gas right it's gas

40:26Ed Gamble: yeah yeah I don't know how do you get it

40:27Amanda Seyfried: nitrous oxide nitrous oxide yeah yeah Yeah, we did Whippets.

40:31Ed Gamble: They offer that at the dermatologist. What? Yeah. They offer it at the dentist, but they offer it at the dermatologist as well. And I'm like, every time I go, she's like, do you want to try? And I was like, I'm driving.

40:45James Acaster: Steve Martin's character in Little Shop of Horrors.

40:48Ed Gamble: Yeah, that's true. Oh God, the best.

40:51James Acaster: Yeah, so good. The best. If someone said to you, you are allowed to retrospectively, retroactively give someone an Oscar, who didn't win it, didn't even get nominated maybe, but you think that's one of the best performances of all time and how did it not get recognized?

41:07Ed Gamble: Of all time.

41:09James Acaster: It doesn't have to be your answer forever. Don't think people are going to hold you to this.

41:13Ed Gamble: I just think that, I think that Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes should have at least gotten nominated for Roman Juliet. But I say that as it was my favorite movie growing up. It's like why I became an actor. Like one of the reasons I was just, I really felt myself through that movie, even though I was so young. And I was obsessed in a way, like not necessarily with either one of them, but just with the story and how fucking grounded it was. Like I really understood that I was watching something very special. I mean, it's very Baz Luhrmann. It's a spectacle. but it was um and it was fast-paced and i don't know if it would have been my favorite movie now as a 40 almost 40 year old but it's certainly like i think they were it's still i just think they were unbelievably beautiful together and to have that impact on a nine-year-old 10-year-old just um i'm sorry i was i was 10 96 96 came out that should be an oscar's best couple best on screen couple yeah the oscars i mean listen the oscars are all like it's a tricky

42:20James Acaster: tricky business yeah it's obviously a bunch of bullshit but like it's fine it's fun to ask

42:25Ed Gamble: like any awards it's a bunch of bullshit because it's always a group of people right

42:30James Acaster: yeah yeah so also the oscars the campaigning and stuff just makes me think oh it's that's what it

42:35Ed Gamble: makes you feel like but in order to get to campaign you have to you have to blow some people's minds or you have to have something unique and i feel like i am 100 i'm 100 behind my campaign with mona it is weird it does feel wrong but every time i get in a room with critics or voters i i have i have real conversations as humans right off the bat so it feels like it gets it like the first time i sat down with the critics during this like law like beginning of the campaign And I was like, so how many of these have you gone to this week? Did you go because you like the movie or did you go because you were hungry?

43:14Ed Gamble: Like, what is it? And I just get down to business because like I like to keep the elephant out of the room because we're all here because you're like we need something from each other. And that feels unnatural and kind of weird. But there's always we're all human beings. So there's always a way to relate. And then, you know, you make it less icky. but at the end of the day it's better to get a nomination than not to so I have to show up and I'm proud of my work yeah thank god

43:48James Acaster: your dream drink a lot of shout outs for a lot of different drinks so far so this could be tough competition

43:55Ed Gamble: I would have a I think in the beginning of the night you start out with liquor because liquor before beer, you're in the clear. Of course. I would start out with a glass of Middleton, no ice. And throughout the night, I would have one Manhattan during dinner, perfect Manhattan. One cherry, two cherries.

44:16Amanda Seyfried: So not the one you made yourself with the shavings of manchego. You'd get like a bartender to do it.

44:20Ed Gamble: I didn't put the cheese inside the Manhattan. No, no, no.

44:24Amanda Seyfried: With the manchego, I didn't think you put the cheese inside it. Although I want to try that. No, no, no, no.

44:28Ed Gamble: The Manhattan's coming with between the kale. Yes. I mean, that's right. The kale, chopped kale and the bagel.

44:34Amanda Seyfried: But do you want, you know, the one you made yourself or do you want like a professional bartender? Oh, I would rather have a professional bartender. In fact, I've been having a lot of really great,

44:45Ed Gamble: perfect Manhattans. And then after, I would probably switch to a really good natural Hungarian or Austrian wine. Nice. And that would be three drinks and I'd be plenty hammered. And then do you want to know what my dessert is?

45:04James Acaster: Yeah, we can move straight on to it if you want.

45:05Ed Gamble: Or why? Is there something else? Wait. What's between the main course and dessert?

45:11James Acaster: We'll be just talking about the drinks for a bit and then I'd move us on to dessert. But if you want to move on to dessert straight away. We have some just sort of natural banter or something. You're the guest. We could move on to the dessert if you would like to. I don't mind.

45:23Ed Gamble: What are your favourite desserts?

45:25James Acaster: oh this guy's obsessed okay okay sorry so if you if you last day on earth and they were like

45:33Ed Gamble: chocolatey chocolate chocolate chocolate chocolate thing or just sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet

45:39James Acaster: you're more sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet well i guess but like i i mean it's hard i think consistently my favorite desserts tend to be things that are actually a bit sweet and salty and have a bit of both. The things I notice that always become my favorites and that I go for. But then also, yeah, I guess I'll go more on the sweet side just for the fact that every time there's some sort of French toast anywhere, if it's done really well, that usually ends up being my favorite thing I've had.

46:07Ed Gamble: That's so American, French toast.

46:09James Acaster: I guess I'm born in the wrong country.

46:12Ed Gamble: Is it big here?

46:14James Acaster: Not as big. Definitely it's more of a French toast. is more i mean i feel like it should be french but like yeah i think it does feel more american

46:22Amanda Seyfried: well it's pretty is it a version of pound per due is that fair to say which i think is a french dish which is like this stale bread and then they put it in egg and then and then fry it yeah so yeah it's sort of like come from that i think love it this guy always keeps surprising me but with like the syrup and things like that and that that's that feels very american to me yeah depends on

46:43Ed Gamble: syrup but yeah yeah wait so if but for both of you um love hearts or or bounty i'd rather have

46:52James Acaster: a bounty than the love hearts that's very easy for me yeah i think it's bounty for me as well

46:55Amanda Seyfried: because i'm more of a i'm more of a chocolate guy bounty wouldn't be my go-to chocolate bar but the love hearts just a bit chalky and i find the messages inane okay peppa uh sorry um what are those pig um percy pig or like m &ms percy pig m &ms every time every time peanut butter m &ms oh didn't say peanut butter m &ms yeah didn't say peanut butter m &ms said said m &ms did you mean original original flavor all right i still go with those even though sometimes with american chocolate and i find this with m &ms i feel like they smell like you're like urine like hershey's and M &M's to me smell like sort of urea.

47:37Ed Gamble: Urea?

47:38Amanda Seyfried: Yeah.

47:39Ed Gamble: That's specific.

47:40Amanda Seyfried: Yeah, so it smells like a compound of urine to me. I love the country though and I'd love to get a visa. Cinnamon buns or scones? I'd probably rather have a cinnamon bun. I think it's cinnamon bun. Yeah, yeah. Most of the time. Scones can, for me, are a little bit like, with jam and cream and all of that, delicious, but you didn't mention that and I'm learning that if you didn't mention it it's not part of the choice.

48:05Ed Gamble: Oh yeah. No, you're right. Yeah.

48:07Amanda Seyfried: So I'm going to have to go with cinnamon buns on this occasion. Thank you very much Amanda.

48:10Ed Gamble: Okay. Sourdough bread with salted butter or plain bagel with cream cheese?

48:17James Acaster: I'd go for the plain bagel with cream cheese. Oh, okay. I'd go sourdough with salted butter just because salted butter. I'm all about the salted butter. Yeah, I get it. I think. This is what I'm feeling at the minute. Also, you said it was toasted earlier the bagel.

48:27Ed Gamble: It's toasted. Absolutely still toasted. So I think the toasted bagel

48:29James Acaster: with the cream cheese is what I'm currently in the mood for.

48:32Ed Gamble: It's just the best. It's what I had. Like every night for probably a year when I was in middle school, I would eat that before bed. And I was so free. It felt like it wasn't a burden. Like if I went to bed now after having a bagel, I'd just be miserable.

48:54Amanda Seyfried: But in the moment of eating the bagel, you'd feel incredible, I bet.

48:57Ed Gamble: no the guilt sets in like probably like three bites like last night i had sourdough with salted butter at midnight and i was like oh it's so good

49:10James Acaster: so it's the guilt isn't it is the problem i have this a lot and i think if i didn't feel this guilt which is who knows where that's come from a whole bunch of different things then i would just be loving this it's not making me feel physically bad really it's not it's just It just tastes really nice. It's great. That's all. It's just the guilt that you've acquired as you've got older. I know.

49:34Ed Gamble: And it's information though as well. The guilt is based on information. Like certain things you eat can like ruin your blood pressure for, I mean, like it can alter your blood pressure so you don't sleep as well. And you, and you, your body is trying to digest these certain things and it's better to have your body digest this before bed. Like cherries. Apparently that's the thing that's scientifically proven. God knows where I read it. Probably the Atlantic, but it's apparently like there are a few things that you can eat before bed that are going to benefit you and if they're not that then you might as well go to hell and just accept that cancer is coming coming to you you know what i mean so what is your drink dessert

50:14Amanda Seyfried: rice pudding rice pudding yeah rice pudding for sure is that something you ate you ate

50:21Ed Gamble: growing up a lot of rice pudding yeah it's so good when it's homemade oh it's just got the texture and the pudding i love vanilla pudding i i'm from this small small like i it's not a small town it's a pretty big town in pennsylvania but like small house you know twin duplex whatever and you know we just had a lot of canned food and powdered food you know my parents like tuna fish Like they would make stuff, you know, that was frozen, but they had no time to cook. We didn't have fresh food. And it's not because we couldn't afford it, but it was because we didn't care to go after it. And so I would just, everything's just bottled, canned and powdered and frozen.

51:05Ed Gamble: And you would just like throw the powder in and put the milk in and mix it and it would become a dessert. And then you would just pour cereal in it or whatever. and rice pudding was so um like exotic at one point and then i realized that they sold them in those little snack pack things yeah and i ate the shit out of that for as a kid and do you want one of the snack packs as your dream dessert no it would have to be homemade i have my my standards have have leveled up a bit and did you want do you want it warm or cold i think it's the big

51:37Amanda Seyfried: question with rice pudding yeah i completely agree with you yeah it's so much more comforting and And like it just, even though you would have thought if it was warmer, it'd be more comforting. But to me, cold rice pudding. Sometimes I get rice pudding when I order Turkish food and they just throw in a rice pudding. Cold rice pudding with cinnamon on the top. Oh, I know. It's so good. It's so, so good.

52:01Ed Gamble: I remember somebody gifted me frozen rice pudding from this really famous rice pudding place in like probably somewhere in the middle of America. and I remember just I don't know I had like an issue defrosting them and thawing them and so I ended up putting them in the microwave and like the plastic bowl kind of like frivoled and it ruined it was a bad moment it's heartbreaking it was heartbreaking you were looking forward

52:29James Acaster: to the rice pudding and then you had a problem on your hands it was awful

52:32Ed Gamble: you realize microwaves are can be an angel or a devil yeah

52:39James Acaster: and do you want cinnamon on top of this particular ice cream yeah yeah i put cinnamon in my coffee

52:43Ed Gamble: my iced coffee because i don't do milk anymore because it causes eczema like i mentioned earlier

52:48Amanda Seyfried: they're laughing at me yeah now and again we can hear people yeah people on the team laughing laughing through the wall no i wasn't expecting to hear them laughing when you're talking about

52:59Ed Gamble: having eczema though to be honest they might just be giggling they laugh at we often hear this

53:03James Acaster: sometimes when people's you know bring their team along with them and they'll be in the other room and there'll be laughs this is the most it's been at unexpected points i'd say but i'm like that's that's an interesting yeah yeah they're really laughing you have an expert yeah they think it's

53:23Ed Gamble: funny yeah yeah yeah well it's not funny um i love milk yes i love milk i love a cappuccino more than you're an average guy and I can't drink them anymore no I did have one yesterday

53:37Amanda Seyfried: oh well there you go okay yeah this is like the meat thing again

53:40James Acaster: you've whispered into a microphone I think you're going to be rumbled on that yeah yeah you're right before I read your menu back to you is that because you're quite detailed on this and you had the pub snacks is there anything else that you want on the menu before I move on I don't want to be you're full

53:58Ed Gamble: I am full

53:58James Acaster: it's quite a light menu

53:59Amanda Seyfried: well I think if you're ending on rice pudding as well It's pretty impressive.

54:02Ed Gamble: It's full. It's dense. There's a lot of bread.

54:05Amanda Seyfried: You've got carbs flying around.

54:06Ed Gamble: Carbs and sugar.

54:07James Acaster: Yeah.

54:07Ed Gamble: That's why it's a dream.

54:09James Acaster: You would like still water. You would like sourdough from Zurich with salted butter and pitted castell... I don't know how to pronounce the audience.

54:18Ed Gamble: Castellvetrano.

54:19James Acaster: Yep. Starter. You would like Tuscan chopped kale salad gently massaged with extra virgin olive oil. Long ways. And shredded parmesan. Long ways. Main course. Very fresh plain bagel from Zabar's. Zabars. Zabars. Zabars. Cut and toasted with a medium amount of cream cheese and sliced avocado and some homemade apple sauce. Side dish, sautéed apples. Drink glass of Middleton whiskey, no ice early on, a perfect Manhattan with one to two cherries later, and a natural Hungarian or Austrian wine.

54:51Ed Gamble: Yeah.

54:51James Acaster: And then for dessert, you would like homemade rice pudding cold with cinnamon.

54:55Ed Gamble: Yeah.

54:55James Acaster: How do you feel about that? I love it. I actually, you know what would be funny?

54:59Ed Gamble: I'm turning 40 and I'm having like a little party upstate with some of my local friends and it's at a roller skating rink and they're like doing all the food they're gonna do like empanadas and pizza and shit and you know it should just be that

55:15James Acaster: it's your birthday sounds good yeah it's your birthday I should like

55:19Ed Gamble: switch things up I have like a minute to do it it's like a week to prep bagels for everybody do you think they would be sad no

55:27Amanda Seyfried: it's your birthday And even if they were, I think they'd have to slap a smile on because it's your party.

55:34Ed Gamble: Shit. I have to order the cupcakes.

55:39Amanda Seyfried: Surely someone out there can deal with that.

55:41Ed Gamble: I don't want to forget that. There's too much on my plate. Literally. Sorry.

55:49Amanda Seyfried: What a perfect way to end. You need to go and order the cupcakes. So thank you very much for coming to the Dream Restaurant, Amanda. Thank you, Amanda. Thanks for having me.

55:57Ed Gamble: wouldn't that be so nice if you then offered it up

56:00Amanda Seyfried: it would be nice yeah but we don't know what people are going to say so it would be insane if we managed to pull that together at the last second

56:07Ed Gamble: that's the but that's the challenge isn't it

56:09Amanda Seyfried: that is a huge challenge

56:10Ed Gamble: you would have a chef out there listening

56:11Amanda Seyfried: yeah yeah

56:11Ed Gamble: to everything

56:12James Acaster: yeah

56:14Ed Gamble: or a 3D printer

56:16James Acaster: a 3D printer we 3D print the meal

56:18Ed Gamble: can you do that?

56:22Amanda Seyfried: well when it's things like Zaybars it'd be difficult for us to run off to Zaybars yeah but it doesn't have to be

56:26Ed Gamble: but you can get as close as you want and that's another added challenge.

56:30Amanda Seyfried: Yeah, yeah, that would be an added challenge. Well, Ben, can you deal with that for the next episode? Because we're obviously doing the chat so we can't be involved.

56:38Ed Gamble: You should have a caricature artist.

56:41Amanda Seyfried: Who draws the meal.

56:42Ed Gamble: And who draws the meal.

56:43Amanda Seyfried: That's actually a really good idea.

56:44Ed Gamble: Because you know, it takes, so I'm having a caricature artist at my birthday party.

56:47James Acaster: Congratulations.

56:48Ed Gamble: And he says, there's certain ones, he's like, I can do this much in one hour. If you want it more detailed, I can only do two for an hour. so like apparently it takes him 10 minutes to draw it so if you have 20 minutes to draw everything it would be cool to give somebody something to leave with because I'm leaving empty handed

57:05Amanda Seyfried: you wanted to leave with something?

57:07Ed Gamble: I didn't want to leave with something but I just thought about it

57:09Amanda Seyfried: yeah it would be nice to leave with something definitely you can keep that mug yeah there you go take the coaster the coaster's yours yeah we've got I'll take that

57:17Ed Gamble: yeah take that plate

57:19Amanda Seyfried: you can take that

57:19Ed Gamble: are you guys comedians?

57:21Amanda Seyfried: yes we are yes

57:22James Acaster: if you have to ask at the end of the episode So it's probably not.

57:26Amanda Seyfried: Yeah, that's real bad.

57:28Ed Gamble: You make me laugh. You're funny. Yeah. Right at the end. But like, still. I'll go on tour with you too.

57:42Amanda Seyfried: There we are, James.

57:44James Acaster: Lovely menu.

57:45Amanda Seyfried: Lovely menu. And at the end, realised we were comedians.

57:48James Acaster: Yes. You know, that was a real

57:54Amanda Seyfried: kicking the plums at the end there kicking the plums and then the cameras went off and Benito kicked us in our plums he did

58:00James Acaster: he always does that he goes remember I love that because I love Mean Girls

58:05Amanda Seyfried: thank you so much to Amanda for coming on the podcast I'm not saying Caltean Buzz I'm not saying Caltean Buzz of course thank you Amanda for that don't forget to go and see The Testament of Anne Lee or The Woman Clothed by the Sun with the Moon under Her Feet in cinemas on the 20th of February don't forget to watch us on YouTube tomorrow

58:22James Acaster: this episode

58:23Amanda Seyfried: This is on your computer cinema tomorrow.

58:26James Acaster: Yeah, it's a computer cinema. That's what I call YouTube, the computer cinema. Yeah, it's a computer cinema. They should rebrand us that. Yes.

58:31Amanda Seyfried: I'm touring America if you're an American person who lives in America in the specific places I'm going. Yes. And I might be in Canada as well, but I don't know that yet because it's quite far in advance. But I'll definitely be in America if you're in Portland or Chicago or San Francisco or New York, LA, San Francisco. Why not come along? EdGamble.co.uk for tickets. Seattle. see ya hello thank you very much for listening we'll be back next week goodbye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye

59:06bye bye bye

59:12James Acaster: hey I'm Alison Spittle and I'm Fern Brady and you might remember us both from our episodes of Off Menu I think in my episode I got very angry when I ordered toast in a restaurant and was presented with hot bread and then told that that was the nature of sourdough, that it simply doesn't toast as a bread. And I said that I'd take it in the hand and the mouth like communion. Did you? I did.

59:34Ed Gamble: That kind of brings us on to the topic of our new podcast, Ignore That Feeling, a show by two ex-Catholic girls who have never learned to acknowledge a single emotion ever.

59:45James Acaster: And the podcast is out every Tuesday, starting Tuesday, the 10th of February. So please listen and subscribe.