The Interviews (ft. Christian Bale, Piper Curda & Bobby Moynihan, Edgar Wright)

14:31Christian Bale:yeah

14:31Chris Hewitt:you and Peter Boyle I think we can say this are now the only two people who played the Frankenstein's creature Frank to have sung Putting on the Ritz

14:39Christian Bale:love it I know I love that opportunity you know it's one of my favourite scenes in any movie ever and to get to find a place where we could chuck that in was wonderful how was it? totally totally anachronistic and we just didn't give a shit

14:57Chris Hewitt:rightly so rightly so Mel Brooks didn't give a shit so why not just go for it what was it like filming that sequence because that whole All sequence is extraordinary.

15:07Christian Bale:Man, at the end of each day with the prosthetics, they would slice me open at the back and you'd get about between a pint and a litre of just sweat dripping into the glass. And then we would all share it and drink it just as a little camaraderie thing.

15:26Chris Hewitt:There's a really interesting wrinkle in that sequence and throughout the movie as well. Frank is in love with cinema. And he's in love with one actor in particular. Yes. As well. and he projects so much onto this guy, Jake Gyllenhaal's character.

15:41Christian Bale:Yeah, no, I love that element of it because, of course, when you've got nobody, then you can find somebody in cinema. It's his best friend. It's his father figure. It's his role model of what it means to be a gentleman, of what it means to be a real man. It's who he imitates when he first arrives and meets Euphronius, played by Annette Bening. Yeah. It's who he's trying to imitate and how he feels he should behave when he first meets the bride because nobody's ever taught him at all. And then he realizes that's not that's not what the bride is looking for. And in many ways, this kind of protest dance that comes out of meeting his hero.

16:24Chris Hewitt:Yeah. Yeah. Upon which time Frank, you know, he probably still doesn't get it, but we all see, ah, he's a stalker, isn't he? Yes.

16:36Christian Bale:Yes, he loves this man. Yes, he feels less alone. Yes, he's had nourishment in his life because of Ronnie Reed, and it's healthy beyond belief. It's a wonderful thing, and it's what cinema really can provide. But he turns up, and he's a big, smelly stalker. who doesn't seem to comprehend that, of course, the guy on the screen cannot know him.

17:01Chris Hewitt:Yeah.

17:01Christian Bale:And even more, cannot be his friend and know all about him. And it just destroys Frank. He doesn't get it. But it's when we see the birth of the real Frank coming through and the bride recognizing that as well and her loving it. And it's a protest dance. And there's a bit that I love in it that I put in there, which was one time I was at a zoo and these chimpanzees were taking their shit and throwing it at me. And, uh, and so we do a bit where we kind of do that and we chuck it. So there's a, there's a, all of it means something. And at the end of it, Frank has become his own man. Yeah. He, he still adores Ronnie, but he's been disappointed and he knows it's not the, the, the, the, the best friend, the father figure that he always thought it would be.

17:50Christian Bale:and the bride is now sparking a revolution through both of them actually finding their own identities. In a way, they say never meet your heroes,

17:59Chris Hewitt:and that scene is illustrative of that. But at the same time, it puts them on this path. So maybe you should meet your heroes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Have you had a hero that you've met that where the old adage has been disproved, where it was good to meet your hero?

18:16Christian Bale:Yeah, look, I mean, I wouldn't say he was a hero. But certainly Gary Oldman was someone who I looked to as an actor who was just incredible and someone I hope to be able to be something like that, you know, one day. Because I'd also loved watching Steve McQueen, but that's unattainable. Yeah. He's so fucking cool. It's just like, oh, give it up now. Come on, mate. I'm in a little small town in England. It's just never going to happen. So that was a great lesson. in, all right, there are some people that can be movie stars and just going, yeah, I'm not going to manage that one. Gary, I looked at him and went, he's a really good actor.

18:57Christian Bale:I never needed to meet him. I did. No disappointment there. I've worked with him. No disappointment. He remains kind of my main man in terms of why and who I wanted to aspire to. But I do think for most people, I see the look in people's eyes when people meet me. and I know oh fuck I just disappointed them oh god it's dawning on them they never should have done this right they should have left it on the silver screen they shouldn't have done it you might be reading too much into it so I know I'm like I'm happy I just want to know their work I just want to listen to their music I want to see their artwork you know I want to read their book I want to watch their film but I actually actively try to avoid me

19:44Chris Hewitt:a point leading or being met by that's the thing to go yeah that's the thing to do very last thing Christian real quick I believe Heat 2 is in your immediate future talking of heroes I adore Michael Mann I adore that film yeah adoring 2

19:57Christian Bale:we've been meaning to work together for many many years and this is going to be a cracker yeah really looking forward to it

20:03Chris Hewitt:that was Christian Bell and The Bride is out in cinemas across the country and if you want more The Bride interviews The Bride herself Chassie Buckley and the film's writer-director, Maggie Chilenhall, will be on this week's Mothership Empire podcast, which is also out on Friday. Well worth a listen, that one. The interview. Not the podcast as a whole. We haven't recorded it yet, but I assume that will also be well worth a listen. This week also sees the release of Pixar's latest movie, Hoppers, in which a young woman called Mabel finds herself, for reasons far too complicated to go into here, transported into the body of a robot beaver, and finds herself making friends with a community of animals led by another beaver called King George.

20:45Chris Hewitt:Now, I know what you're thinking, but as the movie itself says, this is nothing like Avatar. And that's true, because honestly, you're not going to believe the wild turns that Hoppers takes. But at the centre of the mayhem at all times is a rather sweet friendship between Mabel and King George, and so I was delighted to talk to the actors, voicing them Piper Curta and Bobby Moynihan, formerly of SNL, earlier this week. And this one, folks, is one of my favourite interviews in a while. I mean, obviously, I love all our interviews equally, but some I love more equally than others, and this was just a ton of fun.

21:23Chris Hewitt:Oh, and Comedy Bang Bang fans will be glad to know I asked Bobby Moynihan about Fourville. And if you've no idea what I'm talking about, then seek out the episodes of that show where he plays Fourville, a stabby little orphan, opposite the host Scott Ockerman and Paul F. Tompkins as Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber. I prepare to lose your damned minds. Oh, in fact, you know what? I'll wait for you to listen to them and then come back here to listen to this. They're about two hours long each. There's four of them, so... I'll just drop in eight hours of silence... now.

22:01Chris Hewitt:Hey everyone, it's Chris here, just dropping in real quick to say that we've been told by the powers that be that dropping eight hours of silence into a podcast is frowned upon. I tried to negotiate. I tried to reason with them. But the most they said I could drop in is eight seconds of silence. So here it is. Eight symbolic seconds of silence.

22:29Chris Hewitt:Okay, now that's over. Here is Piper Curta and Bobby Moynihan. This one is pure joy. Enjoy. Piper, Bobby, Bobby, Piper, welcome to the Empire Podcast. Nice to meet you. Yeah, when did you guys meet? Just now. Six seconds ago.

22:43Piper Curda:Okay, well, I'll leave if you want to get to talk amongst yourselves. No, we met at D23. Okay. Yeah, we did not record together. We met after we were done recording. Or maybe we weren't done. No, we were done because they had to show the movie.

22:57Edgar Wright:No, we were done. Yeah, we were done. August. August of last year.

23:01Chris Hewitt:That is so weird. Yeah. I mean, the way that animation works.

23:05Edgar Wright:Yeah.

23:05Chris Hewitt:as opposed to live action acting. What do you call that? In-person acting?

23:10Edgar Wright:I think I've also just referred to it as live action acting. Live action acting.

23:14Chris Hewitt:Just acting? I think that means animation acting isn't acting, right? I don't want to make it sound like it's not.

23:20Piper Curda:But maybe they call it voice acting.

23:23Edgar Wright:Oh, voice acting. Voice acting versus acting.

23:25Chris Hewitt:You just send your voice and you leave your body at home. Mm-hmm. I often do that. No dogs, you have to. Bobby today is represented by his iPhone, which he has sent over. Correct, my avatar, my iPhone. I wish that would be the best. Pre-recorded all your lines. Bit of improv in there just in case you guys want to use some bulbs. But it is wild because you genuinely don't get to meet, for the most part, some animated movies do this where they get people together and they record in the booth. But it's weird because you've got no idea of who you're acting opposite.

23:56Piper Curda:I remember they would play your lines and I would react to them sometimes.

24:02Edgar Wright:Was it me or was it The Scratch?

24:04Piper Curda:both sometimes sometimes you know it's like if they had your lines available they would play you know it changes but uh uh uh it's it is crazy it is like what we haven't met half the cast yeah

24:15Edgar Wright:you know i i i met him and john and dave and then i met nicole at the red carpet very very briefly

24:22Chris Hewitt:and that's it wow do you so you haven't had a chance to go out for like a big cast dinner or Or anything, yeah.

24:29Edgar Wright:No, I mean, like, well, they're all, the cast is amazing. They're all such heavy hitters. They're all so busy. They got other stuff going on, you know?

24:36Chris Hewitt:They can set two hours aside.

24:39Edgar Wright:No, they were all, I mean, so many of them were at the premiere. But with the way that it works when you're in the movie, which I just, I guess, was not familiar with. You're just running around and talking to different outlets and doing different things that you just, like, don't end up actually meeting these people in the one.

24:57Piper Curda:I often see actors and they go like, hey, we were in a movie together. And I go, oh, no way.

25:02Edgar Wright:Yeah.

25:04Chris Hewitt:And then you get to do the voice. It triggers the memory for you. Never.

25:13Chris Hewitt:Amazing. Listen, I never do this. I never normally do this. This is an audio podcast, but we are recording it obviously on video. Are you going to talk about me? I have to talk about your outfits because, Piper, this is astonishing. Thank you. Is that a cricket jumper? What is that?

25:27Edgar Wright:This is Tom Brown, who is a lovely designer that I have only dreamt of wearing. And my amazing stylist, Amanda Lim, pulled this outfit for me. And I'm just having a great time. You can ask me the worst questions in the world. And I'm just happy I'm wearing them.

25:42Chris Hewitt:Oh, I plan to ask the worst questions in the world. I'll give you a little preview already of my questions. I know nothing about anything.

25:49Edgar Wright:But thank you. Bobby's jumper game has been very strong this whole tour as well.

25:53Piper Curda:I like everyone calling it a jumper in England.

25:55Edgar Wright:Well, we're in the UK.

25:56Piper Curda:Yeah. I'm a jumper dog. You've got to do it right. It's paper, not sidewalk. Which also is the name of the movie in France.

26:01Edgar Wright:Jumpers. Yes, this is true. What? In France and in Italy, the movie is called Jumpers. I don't know about France, but I know in Italy, my friend who's Italian told me that they don't, like H's, they don't pronounce H's or they're silent in Italy. They refuse, yeah. In Italy. So, yeah.

26:16Chris Hewitt:It's an ideological thing. They just hate H's.

26:18Edgar Wright:And so, to make up for that, they'd call it Jumpers instead, which is interesting.

26:23Chris Hewitt:Blimey.

26:23Edgar Wright:Yeah.

26:24Chris Hewitt:Blimey O 'Reilly. Okay, so is that a phrase you've heard before by the way? Never met him either. Blimey O 'Reilly? No, never.

26:30Edgar Wright:I'm gonna start using it though.

26:31Chris Hewitt:Take it back to the States. Oh, I will. It'll be sweeping the nation before we boil fire by Monday.

26:37Edgar Wright:Poppers 2, Blimey O 'Reilly.

26:39Chris Hewitt:Sorry, jumpers 2. Sorry, yeah.

26:42Edgar Wright:My bad.

26:43Chris Hewitt:Because Bobby, that's a big old cobra. I bet you I made it. You of course are... Did you first of all? I saw this myself. Thank you. That's amazing. Thank you. If true. It's the truth. Not the truth. I didn't think it was the truth. That's okay. Do you want to apologize to the people who are lying? No. Okay, that's fine. I mean, you seem better. See, worse questions. You're going to hold your feet to the flames until you apologize. It's a lovely jumper. You, of course, play a beaver. The natural enemy, I'm guessing, of cobras. George would not last five seconds in a bout with a cobra.

27:23Piper Curda:I don't know. I think he might charm them.

27:27Edgar Wright:I think he might, you know, he's going to not be the most muscly guy in the world, but he could talk a snake into not eating him easily.

27:35Piper Curda:King George.

27:35Edgar Wright:Well, there is that one part. You think?

27:37Piper Curda:Yeah. Also, a lot of pent up rage in there, that King George.

27:41Edgar Wright:Oh, probably, yeah. If a snake attacks me, I'm winning. Right. I'm not going down easy.

27:47Piper Curda:And I am King George. Now I'm mad at snakes.

27:50Edgar Wright:There's a part in the movie where King George has a confrontation with a snake. Do you remember this? No. Do you?

27:58Chris Hewitt:I saw the movie yesterday. Yes. I say yes.

28:01Edgar Wright:I mean, cut this out if you don't want it. But you are in the mouth of a snake, remember? And I jump on it and he spits you out.

28:09Piper Curda:Yes, that's right.

28:09Edgar Wright:So, would venture to say you're wrong without Mabel's help.

28:15Piper Curda:Let's see these bonus features where he pile drives, elbow drops on a snake.

28:23Edgar Wright:Sorry, improv's all yes and. You're totally right. You would win.

28:28Chris Hewitt:Very much so. Even if it means that your character dies in the course of the improv.

28:35Piper Curda:If it happens, it happens.

28:36Chris Hewitt:Does this mean that your sympathies lie with snakes, Bobby? Oh. Wow. Because you've... You're putting me on the spot. I am. I told you I was going to ask the worst questions in the world. I don't like you. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

28:50Piper Curda:I'm just kidding. I'm 100 % kidding. No, it's fine. I will say I do have a, I definitely have a bigger place in my heart for beavers now than I thought I would. Did you have a place in your heart for beavers at all? No, I didn't. And now I do because of this movie and because Daniel Chong made me realize that we should care more as people. And now I do.

29:10Chris Hewitt:And that's the truth. Because that is a big part of the message of the film. you know that we're all basically screwed unless we do start paying attention to to animals and to the environment yeah we've learned a little bit about ourselves today i love you thanks man

29:27Edgar Wright:i'll be 150 pounds for this session um yeah wow just bill out to your insurance wow you're coming over here and you're charging those prices from the off immediately i can get psychoanalyzed for

29:40Chris Hewitt:20 pounds. I mean, it's terrible psychoanalysis. I can't even say it. That's how bad it is.

29:46Edgar Wright:We're in a dying industry, right? We need to make money somehow.

29:51Chris Hewitt:Anyway. Wowzers.

29:52Edgar Wright:I'm not licensed. She's good at it.

29:54Piper Curda:You charge for what you're worth. I should say I'm not licensed.

29:58Edgar Wright:That's why I try to get extra.

30:01Piper Curda:You're going to have to pay for those lawyers.

30:06Chris Hewitt:I'm going to look at my list of questions now. Very nice. I forgot to write them down. Yeah. Oh, God. But you mentioned improv there. Oh, did I? This man knows his way around semi-prov as well. I think so. Yeah.

30:19Edgar Wright:Okay.

30:20Chris Hewitt:I've heard comedy. I've done it, yeah. Yeah, I know you know your stuff. All right. I know you know your stuff.

30:26Piper Curda:You're going to tackle me at some point. You're going to tackle me.

30:29Chris Hewitt:I've never felt this aggression towards them before.

30:32Piper Curda:This is wild. Bobby. I keep beefing with our... I don't. I just think it's funny to start fights with interviewers.

30:44Chris Hewitt:Yeah. It's snappy like a twig. Plus, Piper would join in. That's not fair.

30:51Piper Curda:It's the only time I'm tough during Pixar movies.

30:57Chris Hewitt:Good question. There are about, what, five, six other people in this room? Which side would they be on?

31:04Edgar Wright:Well, I think contractually.

31:11Edgar Wright:No, no.

31:12Piper Curda:That's up to them. He doesn't care at all. This guy's not even paying attention. He's like, they can all fight. No problem. I'm on my phone. He looks up to you.

31:22Chris Hewitt:Just a pile of dead bodies. What happens?

31:29Edgar Wright:So improv. Improv.

31:32Chris Hewitt:Improv in the booth when you were doing your animation. Voice acting. was there a lot?

31:39Edgar Wright:not so well you know actually there were a couple parts where it's just written a little chaotically so they're like and then just throw in whatever you want you know so there's the part when Mabel first becomes a beaver and is sort of like talking to the animals and is like you know hearing them speak and starts running through the glade and is like oh what's up with all of you like hi that was one of the parts where they were like, just say some stuff. And I was like, okay. And like, there's literally a part that they put in the movie where I go, you're a deer. And that was like at the very end of like 20 or 30 seconds of improv-ing where I was like actually saying some maybe good or interesting stuff.

32:22Edgar Wright:And then I was running out of stuff. So I was like, hi, duck. Hi, deer. You're a deer. And that's just in there now. So there were a couple moments like that where they were like, just, you know.

32:33Chris Hewitt:Did you throw a few F-bombs in there? Oh, absolutely. Getting tired of it in the heat of the moment.

32:37Edgar Wright:Yeah, it was like, if I say it enough times, maybe they'll put it in there. So every other word. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. Yeah, so, but I don't know. With you, I mean, imagine.

32:47Piper Curda:I improvise a great deal. I like to do it, but I don't have to with Daniel.

32:52Edgar Wright:It's a shame he's no good at it.

32:54Piper Curda:I don't have to with Daniel. He knows exactly what he wants. And when I go to work with Daniel, I a little bit feel like I go, he's better at this. I'm going to let him take the lead. there are times when I go like I got this and let me do what I do best and I don't do that with Daniel I kind of go like how do you want me to do this and it that helps me a great deal so I didn't improvise a lot but then there are like tiny things like when he's saying all the names and then he goes like oh and hello to you Steve like that like it was just like I added that on and it made like I noticed it made it in and I remember going like oh that made it in like I was surprised because Daniel will just add in little tiny things that I improvised but I don't think there's any like huge stuff that I go like oh my god I made that up and now it's in a Pixar right yeah yeah some of that but like yeah yeah it was amazing I was an inside out at one and two and Monsters University I did a lot more improvising on those okay Monsters University stuff a lot of it was improvised a lot of my lines were just me joking around saying stuff and then they threw it

33:56Chris Hewitt:so how does it work because quite often in an improv situation you'll have one someone else to

34:00Piper Curda:bounce off at least one other person to bounce off um that one it was the uh i was like the sidekick it was like uh johnny was the bad guy and i was chet yeah so i just kind of threw them a bunch of lines and just like would be like you're crazy johnny like you know just like like the whole thing was like he was obsessed with him right so i just threw out a bunch of stuff and then they would just like use them or throw them in there's one the line where like i'm coughing as i walk off camera and like i was clearly improvising and like trailed off but they used did and he like walks off camera while he's coughing and i'm like that's the like that's the coolest thing in the world that they animated that um that's really funny and for inside out one and two i recorded with paula poundstone like we recorded together in the book oh amazing so why didn't they do that for hoppers um well we would have fought we would have fought each other it would have been a much shorter movie yeah because i like to fight everyone I'm saying fighting.

34:54Piper Curda:You can't tell this about me.

34:56Chris Hewitt:They wheel you in like Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs. You're like, you're chilling. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They just took the mask and the shackles off.

35:04Edgar Wright:Oh my god. If we were ever to make any sort of sequel to this though, I would maybe try and be like, hey, what if we did like, what if you put us together for like an hour?

35:13Piper Curda:Oh yeah.

35:13Edgar Wright:We'd get nothing done. But like, you know, we'd have a great time.

35:16Piper Curda:I also don't think they would allow us not to now. Yeah, I think they're right. We know each other. amazing numbers to the silence of the beavers sure they're gonna love that they really

35:30Chris Hewitt:are blimey O 'Reilly numbers to blimey O 'Reilly

35:36Piper Curda:it's the

35:36Chris Hewitt:silence of the beavers very very quick Bobby you mentioned comedy bang bang yeah you haven't been four full for a while not in here I

35:45Piper Curda:have I want it back Me too. They have four-ville action figures now. Did you see that? Slice-led action? Oh, yeah. I'm living on that four-ville. I'm making that four-ville money. Ask me if I know what that is. I made eight bucks.

36:03Chris Hewitt:You make the four-ville money, and you make 150 pounds a time for psychoanalysis. Better deal. Yeah, that is a better deal.

36:09Piper Curda:Comedy Bang Bang.

36:11Edgar Wright:I've heard of Comedy Bang Bang.

36:12Piper Curda:Yeah, I play an orphan who stabs people. He gets a bit stabby. Yeah, he's a little stabby.

36:17Edgar Wright:Of course he does. What else? What else would it be? He's also a time Bobby.

36:21Piper Curda:It's like five more, but one less.

36:26Chris Hewitt:And on that snort.

36:27Piper Curda:That's so funny.

36:32Chris Hewitt:I think we'll bring this to an end. Yes. There we go. Nobody's in the middle of the floor. That's good. That's good. No! Just kidding. I'm just kidding. All right.

36:41Edgar Wright:He likes you. I do.

36:44Chris Hewitt:Ooh, another abrupt ending. I should explain that I don't record all these interviews myself on my own equipment. I do some, but most are recorded in hotel rooms by other people. And this week, it seemed that the fingers were a little bit trigger happy on the old stop button. But I'm sure you'll agree that that interview with Piper Curta and Bobby Moynihan was a ton of fun. Just like Hopper's, in fact, which is out in cinemas. Go check it out. Last but not least this week is another excerpt from a spoiler special interview. Edgar Wright's action-packed adaptation of Stephen King slash Richard Backman's The Running Man, starring Glenn Powell as a man who takes part in a killer game show, has finally hit shiny disc formats this week.

37:30Chris Hewitt:And to celebrate, I'm bringing you about 15 minutes or so of my spoiler special chat with Edgar Wright. The rest of it is available on our spoiler special feed, along with nearly 500 other spoiler specials. So if you don't already subscribe, give it a whirl at empire.supportingcast.fm. Now this is a spoiler special chat, so do be mindful of that as we do get into it right from the off. Spoilers abound right from the off. And I should also say that there may also be an abrupt ending to this because it is an excerpt. But I will do my best to make sure it doesn't come mid-send. We are delighted to be joined on the Running Man spoiler special by the film's director and, of course, co-writer Edgar Wright.

38:14Chris Hewitt:How are you, sir? I'm good. Obviously, people are listening for Running Man spoilers here. But I want to start off by talking about a 1972 film called Skyjacked. Oh, yes. Which is in your film.

38:29Bobby Moynihan:Yeah, so this is a sort of strange kind of... I wouldn't even call it an Easter egg because it was unintentional. So, you know, we started working on the script in early 22, so myself and Michael McCall, who I co-wrote Scott Pilgrim with. And one of the ideas, there's a scene in William H. Macy's basement. He's a sort of black marketeer, and he has this little underground lair where he kind of sells things at cost to kind of, you know, people who need meds and all sorts of things. Like, you know, he's a wizard in the black market. Anyway, and he has these kind of cathode ray TVs, the TVs that don't watch you back.

39:09Bobby Moynihan:And we thought, well, what if an old movie is playing on there? And what if the old movie is foreshadowing for something that happens later? So because the third act involves a plane sequence and a kind of like a hijack, in inverted commas, we thought, well, let's have a hijack scene on one of the TVs. And so we were talking about the airport movies from the 70s. And then I said to Michael McCoy, I said, I'm sure there's this film called Skyjacked but I'm pretty sure in this film called Skyjacked this guy holds up a plane with a live grenade and that could be the little foreshadowing thing that foreshadows a grenade as well there's a grenade, yes it's sort of two for one it's eight shadowing oh my god, you know when your brain got to that pun quicker than I did and I'm now annoyed eight shadowing classic Chris Hewitt so So I'd seen Skyjacked.

40:05Bobby Moynihan:I don't think Michael had seen it, so he watched it. And we found the scene and said, okay, this is great, and we'll kind of use this. And we literally used a line from the scene in the screenplay. And then cleared the clip, and then, you know, the person holding the grenade, the person who takes the plane hostage in Skyjacked is James Brolin. so this is a long time before Josh Brolin comes into the frame for Killian and gets cast in the movie but then when he does it suddenly occurred to me, it didn't occur to me straight away either, it was like I said to Josh, I said hey you know your dad's in this as well and he goes what do you mean?

40:44Bobby Moynihan:I said there's a cliff of Skyjax and he goes no way actually in the scene also in the scene is Rosie Greer who is in that scene as well who is Josh's godfather

40:55Chris Hewitt:Oh my God.

40:57Bobby Moynihan:Yeah. So actually when Josh watched it for the first time, he watched it sort of screening near his house in California. And we were talking about it on the phone. And I texted him and said, did you see your dad? He goes, yes, I saw my dad.

41:11Chris Hewitt:He gets a nice big close-up. I know, absolutely. It's a beautiful shot of him. That tickled me immensely. I saw the film. The first time I saw it, I've seen the film twice. I saw it the first time, but I didn't recognize it as skyjacked. And then second time around, I did some digging.

41:26Bobby Moynihan:I was like that film there's something about that film you know the one person who spotted it yeah and of course he would is Joe Dante oh of course that's the thing is I kind of think like only you would only you would make that connection on a first watch

41:39Chris Hewitt:it's a John Gilliman film it is yeah there we go so about two years before Towering Inferno if I'm right in thinking amazing alright so that's enough sky check for the time being but you're right I mean it does it does foreshadow obviously what happens at the end of the film but it also foreshadows the grenade as well. And the YVA sequence has probably been my favorite gag in the film, which is Ben going, The Y? Yeah. Which tickled me immensely. But it's also... I have to give credit to Michael McCall for that gag. Oh, really? Yeah.

42:12Bobby Moynihan:I mean, Glenn's... No, I mean, I don't have to, but I have. No, you should.

42:17Chris Hewitt:But it's also this really, really... Michael, if you're listening, I love you. Intense, sprawling action sequence. Listen to the regular podcast, Edgar shot that over many, many months in several different countries as well. Was that the hardest thing to pull together in the entire movie? Just in terms of action on different levels, you've got Ben doing different things, he's on a roof, he's naked.

42:40Bobby Moynihan:It was all difficult. It was a very complicated movie and it's a lot of sort of moving parts and there's a lot of, to create kind of these action sequences that traverse a lot of ground, it's a lot of work. so it's not the only complicated bit in the movie but it's one of them and also it's things where you're just trying to be clever in terms of shooting when Ben is looking out the window and giving voices to the drunks outside the liquor store Looking At Glenn was shot in London at the set that you were on in Leavesden and the reverse is shot in Bulgaria months later there was a continuity thing we had the cast and crew the other day and I had to give the biggest hug to Lizzie Pritchard, our script supervisor, because there's like an enormous amount of work to keep track of everything, you know?

43:32Bobby Moynihan:Jesus.

43:33Chris Hewitt:Yeah, because there's a lot of stuff going on in that scene. And one of the things, because we are tethered to Ben's viewpoint throughout the entire movie, one of the things we never really get to see, apart from in the scene with Elton, where Elton literally calls the goons on Ben, we don't get to see who daubs him in. We don't get to see who tips off the hunters about Ben's presence. I was wondering in that scene, is it Rich Hall?

44:00Bobby Moynihan:No. Actually, no. I don't think it is. Also, I'm the first person to mention Rich Hall as well. I love the Rich Halls in this movie. I think the Rich Hall is actually the first movie he's ever done. Really? He's obviously done a lot of TV, and it was on Saturday Night Live back in the day. I've known Rich for a long time, and we thought of him for that part. and I think it's funny he came in to do ADR and he said oh I was surprised to get the call for the ADR and I said I was so sure I was going to be cut out I said I'm not cutting you out Rich no you know what we honestly I mean it's something that Bradley says later Bradley the character played by Daniel Ezra he said the network cheats they can find anyone at any time so there's a there's an element where there are recording reports happening where the public can sort of you know kind of snitch on somebody and get money.

44:53Bobby Moynihan:But it's sort of established by Bradley, who's the sort of superfan and the conspiracy theorist, that the whole thing is like a sham.

45:03Chris Hewitt:Yeah.

45:03Bobby Moynihan:Like, you know, it's why, because, you know, Glenn has that line to Daniel where he says, I don't understand. You could set up your grandkids for life with one record and report. And he says, you think the network would actually pay us that money? Or, you know, come up with some bullshit. case and arrest us. So basically it's the idea that they're not going to pay out.

45:26Chris Hewitt:He's got a thing around his wrist which tells him that the time at any given moment they're not tracking him through that or the tapes, which is something that's in the book if I remember rightly.

45:38Bobby Moynihan:I think it's that thing, you know, I mean, I think the honest answer is that we don't need to know. Like Ben doesn't know. He's paranoid. But it's not Stacy. I don't think it was Rich Hall's character but is it like the network are just kind of like cheating? Yeah, because the hunters are on very, very quick and bossed.

45:57Chris Hewitt:Yeah. Yeah, which is like something Carl Glissman's in the street looking up. Was that something fun for you to play with in terms of amping up the paranoia? You're keeping an eye out? Oh, yeah.

46:08Bobby Moynihan:I mean, there's something that's very vivid to me in the book, that sequence. Yeah. Where he's in the kind of the YMCA. YMCA in the book and YVA in the film because apparently the C in YMCA took offense to the script.

46:25Bobby Moynihan:So apologies to the C's. You've offended the C's. I've offended the C's again. So that was something that was really vivid to me from the book. And it always reminded me, the scene in the book, reminded me of the scene in Butch Casting and the Sundance Kid with the super potty and the man in the white hat.

46:47Chris Hewitt:Yes. where like that's such a great movie in terms of that those guys are coming and they don't seem to be able to shake them and then you know another thing that's very vivid to me from the book

46:57Bobby Moynihan:is the idea that especially you know he said this the narrative is is tethered to ben richards another thing from the book that i really wanted to bring to the screen yeah a lot of other films of this ilk will like cut back to the network headquarters or you know cut to sheila and Kathy and we did get notes about that you know script notes about that about what about expanding the perspectives in the movie and we were very you know sort of we were very clear that we wanted to stay with Ben and we thought that was more powerful and more intense that you only have the same information that he does you know so you don't kind of like can't really like jump around to see what's around the corner you know we play a little bit faster the list within the YVA that you cut outside to the hunters but by that point Ben knows that they're there and you could maybe say it's part of the TV coverage as well yeah well there's the rovers everywhere like it's going out Bobby T is commentating on what's happening so so that was so it's really fun in that respect to make it that intense but it does make it sort of challenging and freeing as well in terms of like keeping the focus on Ben Richards that you're living vicariously through him.

48:19Chris Hewitt:There's two things I want to talk about developing from that. One is the opening shot. I'm always interested in opening shots and the choices of opening shots. And here we have the foundry, the factory that Ben has gone back to try and beg for his job back. And then you pull focus and you see Ben's reflection in the window. It's a really cool opening shot. Was that always how you began the movie?

48:44Bobby Moynihan:No, actually, the first draft of the script, me and Michael worked on the treatment together, and then he wrote the first draft. It started with Ben in the apartment watching Speed the Wheel, which is kind of how the book starts, that he's in the apartment with his baby. it was actually Simon Kimberg's idea I forget whether it was before we sent it to the studio but he said what about having a scene where you you see because in the scene he talked to Sheila about begging for his job back and swallowing his pride and doing something that you get to understand that something that Ben Richards is not doing lightly going back to sort of like a dangerous job where he's obviously already had some major fallout with his employer and been blacklisted.

49:31Bobby Moynihan:For somebody who's got a lot of pride, like Ben has to go back and sort of like beg for work is a big deal for Ben Richards. And in the first incarnation of it, that was talked about in dialogue. And I think Simon Kinberg said, what about seeing that scene and opening with it? So we thought, okay, that's a good idea. So actually that was something that then came later, the idea of having that kind of like sort of cold open in the factory. but then it was the idea of like and I think actually we went further it was like then it started in a sort of started on a close up of Ben and again it was a thing about trying to expand it so it was like I didn't really I tell you what it was I didn't want to get outside to have any exteriors I wanted to stay in these kind of claustrophobic rooms in the first three scenes the first scene is in factory like office then a waiting room then their apartment which is windowless and then you're in a hallway and then finally with the opening credits you go boom and go into the world and there's a lot of world building in the opening credits but it was, I didn't really want to have like a wide shot of the exterior of the factory so that's then I came up, well what if you just saw the factory through the reflection on the glass and then pull focus to Ben for the first line and so that scene in the office with David Zayas was the first I think it was the first day that we did at Leavesden on the set it was a very ambitious scene to do first because young babies real babies in the shop first time working with babies and I gotta say really, apart from their amazing handlers the amazing handler Michelle, but also Chang Hoon, the DP and Richard Graysmart, the first lady are both fathers, unlike me and Glenn so they knew how to kind of like deal with babies and like I mean it was those first scenes doing like the first three scenes with the baby was I mean it was amazing doing that performance of real kids rather than like a dummy like because it feels really real and also you do have to sort of navigate through like a baby about to ball its eyes out at any second

51:50Chris Hewitt:there's a moment during where Ben is watching Speed the Wheel. I'm so glad that Hammy made it into the movie, by the way.

51:57Bobby Moynihan:I think on the, there was a longer bit with Hammy that's on the deleted scenes. My girlfriend is in that scene as well. She plays Sean Hayes' assistant.

52:07Chris Hewitt:I love it. Were you seeing the little baby playing, what's the baby's name? I presume it was twins? It was Sienna and Alyssa. Okay. And they're just entranced, so I don't know what you were showing them at the time. Oh, okay, I can tell you. Okay.

52:21Bobby Moynihan:So I think, I think, yeah, because Glenn is trying to distract the baby from crying. Because the baby's been ill and in a lot of pain. So he's trying to coddle her. And she obviously went to sleep, but he's trying to just mollify her. And Hammy, the mascot on the show, is kind of like a very... I had to explain to Michael Bacall what 321 was and Dusty Bin. In fact, when we were writing, we watched an entire episode of 321. which if you've ever watched I don't know if you've ever re-watched an episode of 321 I haven't it is one of the weirdest most obtuse game shows of all time and then showing it to like an American who's never seen it I showed him we watched that and we watched the entire episode of It's a Knockout as well for younger British viewers I mean me and Chris were showing our age now talking about It's a Knockout in 321 but so yeah so Hammy was like our Dusty Bin Dusty Bin was the mascot in 321 and I'm thinking, well, if I have a giant hamster, I think actually in the script, I think it was maybe, it was written as being an animatronic hamster.

53:26Bobby Moynihan:So it was going to be a lot more like Dusty Bin size. I think it was my brother, maybe inspired by having seen my neighbor to Toro on the West End, was like, why isn't it a big puppet? I think at one point it was going to be inflatable and then it was like a big puppet. So the hammy thing, so there's actually an extra bit probably on the Blu-ray because there's some sort of deleted extended scenes of like a bit called the hammy dance. Oh, that's amazing. but did you see in the end credits as well that like sort of like down with Hammy flush Hammy no I didn't see that oh you didn't see that in the end credits no I mean amongst lots of anti-authoritarian stuff imagery yeah there's a sort of shot of Hammy and it says flush Hammy

54:04Chris Hewitt:oh my god I can't get on board with that I'm sorry I'm pro network you couldn't find a toilet big enough

54:09Bobby Moynihan:to flush that one

54:11Chris Hewitt:when it comes to Hammy I'm very very pro network

54:13Bobby Moynihan:oh yeah to answer your question oh yes what was I doing to make the baby engage with the TV yes I had a stuffed toy. I don't think it was a hamster. It was like a fox. And basically Glenn would say, look at the fuzzy hamster. And we'd play the music and I'd be sitting behind the camera waving this toy. And it would work for about 10 seconds and then they'd get bored. But that's what the baby's looking at. You got the shot. You got the shot.

54:36Chris Hewitt:Okay, that was slightly abrupt, but not too abrupt. But anyway, it was Edgar Wright talking about The Running Man, which is out now on all Home Ent formats and is well worth your time. And to hear more from Edgar, check out the spoiler special interview in full. Right, that's enough from me and enough indeed from this week's edition of the interviews. Again, a reminder to check out the regular episode of the Empire Podcast, which this week features me, Helen O 'Hara, James Dyer and Alex Godfrey, plus that interview with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jesse Buckley and all the film-related fun you could possibly wish to pour into your ears.

55:10Chris Hewitt:thanks for listening to that and this and indeed more see you next time bye