The Interviews (ft. Jack Whitehall & Haley Bennett; Cary Elwes; Curry Barker)

0:14Chris Hewitt:Hello Pod, I'm Chris Hewitt and welcome to another jam-packed edition of The Interviews. First up, who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? Not Haley Bennett and Jack Whitehall, that's for sure. just a little joke there they are the stars of Tina Garabi's new film Virginia Woolf's Night and Day inspired by the Virginia Woolf novel in which Bennett plays a young English woman who yearns to be an astronomer in Edwardian England but constantly butts heads with the buttheads who think that a woman should know her place Whitehall plays her well-meaning if slightly bumbling childhood friend turned suitor the film is out now in cinemas And I spoke to Bennett and Whitehall over Zoom just the other day about anti-chemistry, Edwardian improv, and of course, Nandoz.

1:02Chris Hewitt:Nandoz comes up on this podcast so often, I can't even begin to tell you, and now I'm hungry. Anyway, here it is. Enjoy. Hayley Bennett, Jack Whitehall, how the devil are you both? Welcome to the Emperor Podcast. Thank you very much for having us on. Thank you. Excellent. Whereabouts are you at the moment? in a very swanky Soho Members Club. Is it the original Soho? Was this Groucho Club? No, it's the Union Club. Was it always the Union Club? It feels like it was probably always the Union Club. Very bohemian chic. For all of the press, they've put us in quite sort of old timey places, which has been very nice.

1:40It's immersive. Wolfcore. Wolfcore. Wolfcore. Yes, we're here surrounded by watercolours and books books

1:50Chris Hewitt:fine furniture taxidermy yeah so there's stuffed animals looking at you right now yes there's one very scary stuffed animal in front of me oh no that's my publicist sorry

2:07Chris Hewitt:and yet you're both in modern day dress so it doesn't quite take you back to filming this movie I guess it's much warmer we were in Newcastle in December we had one um little um jaunt uh into newcastle in our full period costume into anando's at one point during production which is quite enjoyable because hayley said that she'd never had anando's and i was like well this needs to change immediately so we practically shut down the set and said everyone needs to down tools so we can walk over the road into the nando's and try some piri piri sauce yes edwardian attire that's a piri period sauce I think.

2:49Yes, period period sauce, exactly. You got some quite funny looks from the other patrons.

2:54Chris Hewitt:I can imagine you did. Hayley, okay, there's a lot to dig into there. So you'd never been to Nando's before? At all? Never. Why? Well, I mean, okay, I've been living here for eight years and I never had Nando's. That was a mistake. I was missing out. This feels like a deliberate choice that you had made to not Nando. I wasn't on a Nando strike. sounds like you were sounds like you were more of a nando than a nando I think so once you had it did you enjoy it have you been back since in your own garb I did although our costume designer Esther was really hardcore and I just saw her like leering at me because I was shoving like hot like don't spill that hot don't spill that hot sauce I don't know what accent that was she was just giving me like dirty looks shaking her head she was terrifying yeah that's not a conducive way to enjoy Nando's when you're being death stared by a German costume designer from over the road she saw me the other day and she goes oh you look much better you're very thin now what's happened thanks hi good to see you no more Nando's no more Nando's yeah that's okay i promise we're going to talk about the film in a second but jack are you a big nando fan big nando head well i well yeah i was i mean my sort of famous nando story is that i was given the nando's black card in my early 20s when i just broken through on television and i was so excited it felt like for me getting an oscar like the my whole career had been building to this moment and i got the nando's card but i was still living in manchester at the time in a student house full of my friends and i would go there and i would take my nando's black card to the local nando's in fallowfield and you were allowed four free meals but i worked out a hack which is that a whole chicken counted as a meal so i would bring about 20 students in every day order four whole chickens for all of them and just feed the 5 000 and uh yeah i was the first celebrity ever to have the nando's black card uh taken away from me because i abused the privilege but kept a lot of students fed yeah I think you should be rewarded with more Nando's black cards to be quite frank that's the ultimate accolade by the way that's when you know you've made it we really better get like life free like a life of Nando's after this you think I mean I've been banging on and dropping that story for nearly a decade and they've never offered me another one there's probably a lesson in there somewhere I don't know but you've probably had this question an awful lot given that this is Virginia Wolfe's Night and Day but for both of you going into this were either of you afraid of Virginia Wolfe?

5:55Chris Hewitt:Was this a bit daunting? Yes I think so Yes and no because this novel isn't you know her most not many people know about this novel and it was something you know i think it was her like it was something that it was like a like her adopted child and she kind of dissociated herself from it in a way um so it didn't feel um as daunting as it would be if it were like you know the lighthouse or the waves or yeah orlando you know and in fact that is definitely true like i've done literally adaptations before and you have to be pretty stringent with the script and you know it's the book is gospel and you need to be really careful about deviating from it too much but what was great about this is sort of Tina's approach to the material which was to have fun with it and to make it feel fresh and modern and you know encourage improvisation and trying to find some kind of looseness and you know energy in the scenes which meant that we we were we were given a little bit more free rain than you might have if you were doing a sort of standard period drama.

7:06I mean, Justine wrote a fantastic script. So what we were working with was amazing, but, you know, we were given the sort of liberty to sort of extrapolate. And I think that was quite a fun way to be able to do something like this and not a way that I'd worked in before.

7:23Chris Hewitt:Hayley, I'd seen another interview with you, with Justine, actually, where you talk about having the freedom to improvise, which blows my mind, you know, in a way, because you're improvising with in the period as well so was that difficult for you both to do that yeah i mean every now and again you get something wrong and you'd be in the middle of a scene you know say oh i'm absolutely gagging for hernando's or something that wasn't quite you know of the period but yeah it was like genuinely it was it felt really freeing and and it and it meant that you were just like a sense of delightful chaos yeah and everyone was um so game to kind of improvise and have fun um and the fact that it is a comedy and we we just had like had to trust our you know fellow filmmakers to you know cut out the fat yes the flabby stuff yeah absolutely and what made it in did any improvs make it in that you can identify uh there was a few i like the one about nancy oh yeah i didn't know that yeah that was fun i'll be honest in france in a scene that was like really not meant to be funny in any way and i was just like on one take can i say this because i think it will be funny and then said it and some people cracked up and i was like well it's obviously never ending up on the film but yeah at least i got it out of my sister's jack is that he you know brings such a like a wit and a charm and absurdity to the role but also underneath all of that is like um a tremendous heart and uh yeah like everything that he does no matter how ridiculous it is always has this kind of real if he he's very genuine thank you and of course hayley you know as a you but you also had to improvise not just within the period but i improv the egg scene where i like yeah that's that that wasn't scripted did you just have an egg on you at the time it was a breakfast scene and there was an egg on the table and i i was dealing with disappointment and sitting with my parents uh and i just picked up the egg and just started smashing it and they their reaction was so funny i i and then the dog came and started eating eggshells which is great but i just loved the absurdity of it and yeah the freedom to kind of make these um choices and fought like to to be able to follow your impulses yeah to do that as well in another accent isn't insane it's like i've had to you know use accents in films before and if ever i deviate from the script we literally we end up in jamaica south africa it just goes all over the place and then any country other than the the accent i am attempting and he was amazing and was a yeah again like able to sort of be free and loose and make you know daring choices and then also you know remain within the accent and that is just like yeah there's my plaudits yeah hayley is that is the accent something you've just picked up naturally as a result of living over here or have you always had that in your pocket uh no i it's something i've learned and i've had to unlearn now when i go do american things and they're like can you use your american accent i'm like i am i am using my american accent what are you talking about no no actually that's you sound very very english i learned my English accent from my seven-year-old daughter, Virginia.

11:10So she's starting to read now, which is great. So I could just say, like, how do you say that? So you say that for me? What, mummy? Could you just read that line out for me? Yes, so she's my dialect coach. We were filming in Newcastle, though, so every now and again, because of the local influence, she would veer a bit Geordie. So we would be there, and it would be very RP, and then all of a sudden she'd be like, how are you man that's like can he put it up there i was like oh no she's gone again she's gone again we're gonna have to cut went full jimmy nail you'll never go full jimmy nail

11:45Chris Hewitt:that's never go full jimmy that's one thing i've learned over the years um i've gotta let you guys go in a second but um the relationship in the film between your characters uh kit and william is really really interesting because you know william is madly in love with kit kit perhaps isn't so bothered about William. So it's not so much like a kind of will they, won't they. It's kind of a more like will they, no, they won't kind of thing. That's a really interesting chemistry to play. Will they, won't they. Yeah. I'm such a beg in it. It was so fun to play that energy and just be like so smitten and besotted and just like it has this amazing array of reactions to my nonsense I love that the pickle in the jar the last pickle in the jar you're the loveliest pickle in the jar you need to do his face also Hayley from your point of view was that something that was easy to tap into not a repulsion to Jack necessarily but you know I think it's the opposite it because he's so lovable you know um it's like don't you know they can't have they have great they have great like ick chemistry yeah um but he's so lovable it's hard you know to reject him in that way but lovable like a little dog maybe like one of those dogs that's got the wheels at the back yeah it's a bit of lame dog like lovable like that like one of those dogs that you wind up that kind of lovable.

13:25Chris Hewitt:The sort of dog that might be stuffed and on the wall of the place where you are right now? Yes. Lovable in a taxidermy. In a wrong kind of taxidermy. As sexy as taxidermy. It's a little wonky. Yes. I think that's in the book, isn't it? William Rodney walked into the room. Sexy as taxidermy. He was as sexy as a wonky stuffed dog. Oh yes, you've read the book. I've read the book. I'm quoting it verbatim. But anyway, on that note, I do have to let you guys go. And presumably, if you are in Soho, you're heading straight to Nando's right now. Correct. Off for Cheeky Nando's. Little Cheeky Nando's.

14:05Chris Hewitt:Fantastic. Enjoy that. And thanks for your time. It's been an absolute pleasure. Thanks, guys. Go to you. Bye, Chris. There you go. That was Hayley Bennett and Jack Whitehall. And I hope that he, and indeed I, is successful in his pursuit of a Nando's black heart. Virginia Woolf's Night and Day is out in cinemas right now. Not out in cinemas right now, but on Sky Cinema instead, is Gus Van Sant's Dead Man's Wire, which tells the story of Tony Kiritsis, a guy who in 1977 in Indianapolis held a mortgage broker hostage for 63 hours via a saw-off shotgun affixed to his hand with a dead man's wire.

14:43Chris Hewitt:In other words, a wire that would fire the shotgun at his hostage, killing him instantly should Karitsis himself be killed or incapacitated by the police or anyone else. The film came out in the cinemas a couple of months ago starring Bill Skarsgård as Karitsis and I was really impressed by it. I was also super impressed by Cary Elwes' turn as Michael Grable, the first cop on the scene. In fact, and I'm not making this up, I knew that Elwes was in the movie but honestly didn't recognise him for the first 10 minutes or so as this is a performance far removed from the slick, smooth, matinee idol Elwes we know from the likes of The Princess Bride.

15:23Chris Hewitt:Or maybe I'm just easily fooled by someone dying their hair. Either way, with this and his turn as a shaggy PI in the Paramount Plus series M.I.A., Elwes is having something of a late blooming moment as a character actor. And so, when Dead Man's Wire hit Sky Cinema just the other week, I used it as an opportunity to leap on to assume with the English actor and have a quick latter with him about, well, all of the above, and also working with his brother Cassian, who produced Dead Man's Wire. Enjoy. We are delighted to be joined on the Emperor podcast by the great Cary Elwes. How are you, sir? I'm well, thank you, Chris.

16:02How are you?

16:03Chris Hewitt:I'm very, very good. Where in the world are you at the moment? I am in Malibu. Fantastic. Excellent stuff. Well, thank you for doing this. You have a wonderful kind of one-two punch. Dead Man's Wire is just about to hit Sky Cinema. It came out, obviously, in theatres a couple of months ago. And MIA is tearing it up as well on Paramount Plus at the moment. Both of which, I would say, Carrie, you are not entirely recognisable as yourself, I would say, initially. certainly Dead Man's Wire when I first saw it I was like where's Carrie Elwes for the first 10 minutes that's a hell of a performance a hell of a transformation sir thank you Chris yeah it was a lot of fun to do I love working with Gus Van Zandt he's a wonderful director if you look at his body of work he's an exceptional filmmaker and yeah I kind of pitched him the idea of having me play the detective because it's rare that I got offered to play the blue collar roles.

17:17And he's based on a real person, obviously. And so I went down to Indianapolis and met with his family and gathered a lot of intel and came to work with a lot of things to play with.

17:32Chris Hewitt:So he actually looks like the real guy? You look like the real guy? Yeah, we had a picture of him. He was an undercover narcotics agent, so he changed his look frequently, and that was the one. I showed that picture to Gus, and we both agreed that was a great look for him. It is something of a family affair for you as well, because you work on it with your brother, Cassian? Yes, yes, I did. He produced the picture, and I kind of campaigned to be in it. initially he was a little resistant but Gus was very nice about it. He called me and he said I really want you to do this picture so it was nice.

18:13Chris Hewitt:So Cassian didn't, he was resistant at first? A little bit. I think that he didn't want to force Gus's hand and I understand that from a producer's standpoint but it all worked out. Yeah, yeah. I don't I mean, I don't think people are going to be leveling accusations at you of nepotism, I don't think. You know, he'd been wanting to work with Gus for a long time, and I understand that he didn't want to upset the apple cart, so to speak. But like I said, it all worked out. over the years you are you know a leading man but were you also keen to kind of push the character actor part of yourself and while you've played many wonderful characters over the years are you excited now as you get older to maybe push that side of yourself a little bit more than perhaps you'd been allowed to in the past yes that's a very good observation chris um i do i do like to mix it up.

19:18And if I'm given an opportunity to do so, then I usually grab that opportunity.

19:24Chris Hewitt:How often do opportunities like that come your way? I get to pick and choose now, so that helps a great deal. Because it's been really, really fascinating the last few years for you, watching your career. You've been obviously working with the likes of Guy Ritchie quite a lot and Chris McQuarrie on the last two Mission Impossible possible movies uh and what's that been like for the last few years you know getting to getting to pick and choose and getting to these really interesting projects with directors like that well it's it's um it's i'm very grateful i you know to have the opportunity to work with with extraordinary filmmakers has been a dream of mine my whole i think any actor or worth their salt, wants to work with talented people.

20:13And so, you know, getting to work with directors I've admired for a long time, I kind of, it's been something of a goal of mine to make myself find a way to get to these people in one way or another, to persuade them to let me work with them. But in most cases, they've come to me, which has been very gratifying.

20:40Chris Hewitt:Yeah, Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning. You play Denlinger. I don't want to give too much away about that movie, but let's just say. Sure, you can. You can. It's okay. Yeah, keep an eye on that guy is what I would say. He's the director of National Intelligence. We are big fans of that movie and Chris McQuarrie. Yeah, he's terrific, McHugh. He's great. He really is. Yeah. God, we had fun making that. It was so much fun. Yeah. And to work with Tom again after so many years was such a thrill. Yeah, absolutely. Did you swap old Days of Thunder stories? Yeah, you know, it's like no time has passed when you hook up with an old friend.

21:18It's great, you know.

21:20Chris Hewitt:What was the Days of Thunder experience like for you, just to go back to that one? I was very young, Chris, you know. Let's see. I think it was in the early 90s, I think. Yeah. I auditioned for Tony Scott in New York, and Jerry Bruckheimer came into the room after the taping, and Tony had left to go discuss it with Don and Jerry. And Jerry came in and goes, okay, pack your bags, you're going to Daytona. And it was like that. And it was like being taken on a whirlwind journey of pure excitement. I had to learn how to drive NASCAR. I was taught by some of the great NASCAR drivers, Kyle Petty. Amazing, amazing, amazing experience.

22:17And to be working with Tony, who I had a huge admiration for, and we became good friends. was also he was very very similar to mccue in many ways very very humorous and very smart uh had a keen eye um and and for both uh story and for for camera uh just just everything just a really

22:43Chris Hewitt:wonderful sweet human being yeah he was uh he was absolutely terrific i'm a huge huge fan of of tony scott and uh i i had the pleasure of talking to him once just once but he struck me as a really rock and roll kind of guy as well very much so yeah that's a good analogy um yeah he was all about his energy is really when you look at his films top gun days of thunder man of on fire all of them yeah they all have his energy which is this it's very kinetic chris yeah um and uh you get caught up in it. And so everybody, if you look at his films, everybody's performances are a little bit heightened, you know?

23:30And he likes that theatricality. Yeah. But his personal charm was just extraordinary, extraordinary, and just completely overwhelmed everybody who got to work with him and meet him. You get caught up in the Tony Scott whirlwind, you know? And it was great.

23:55Chris Hewitt:Let's talk about MIA. Again, this is a very interesting, very, very different character for you. First of all, how did it come about? How did the show come your way? Well, the showrunner, Karen Campbell, approached me, and they said they'd written this role for me. And he's an ex-homicide detective from Miami turned private investigator. And he's a guy who's on a journey to rediscover his moral compass. And I thought it was a very nuanced character. I really thought, okay, here's another chance for me to delve into something that's perhaps not in my comfort zone. Yeah. And yeah, great fun, great cast.

24:47And of course, it's, you know, it's the kind of entertainment you'd expect from Bill Dubuque, who gave us Ozark, you know, it's really an action filled crime drama.

24:59Chris Hewitt:Yeah. You said there, you know, it's a chance to go outside your comfort zone. What do you consider your comfort zone as an actor to be? Well, I think it's not, that's a good question. I guess I don't like, as you mentioned earlier, that I've been kind of searching for more character-driven roles. It's easy for me to just, someone says, oh, I want that leading man. look, don't put any makeup, just clean shave and just your face. That for me, it's a comfort zone, but it's also uncomfortable in that it's too comfortable, yeah? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And so if I get offered a role that I'm a little nervous about or unsure whether or not I can play it, that's usually the roles I kind of gravitate towards, Chris.

25:59Chris Hewitt:Do you find for a little bit as well after Princess Bride, although you've done a lot of dramatic roles, that maybe people were not just pigeonholing you because of your looks, but pigeonholing you because of comedy and they wanted you to be the comedic guy or the upper class Brit in some ways? Yeah, I guess. I don't know. I've turned a lot of those down. Because the filmmakers are important to me. I can only really stretch myself if I'm in the hands of a great filmmaker. You're only as good as the person who's behind the camera and the people you're acting with. and so if the cast is great the writing is great and the director is great those are the three boxes that check for me well one last thing to talk about which I think checks those boxes for you is one of the next things you'll be doing which is very young Frankenstein or should I say Harry very young Frankenstein Frankenstein yes my pronunciation was very wrong there I mean obviously he's reuniting you with Mel Brooks you've got taika waititi on board that sat galifianakis is on board that sounds like a blast what can you say well again check all those boxes i've i've been wanting to work with taika for a long time just a long time ever since i saw jojo i just thought this is a man i have to work with and you know i loved his series what we do in the shadows as well yeah um and zach obviously is is a is a comedic icon and uh and a joy just a joy we had just I think we ruined a lot of takes on that show a lot including Taika who has you know we just had so much fun I cannot wait to see that and I'm going to let you go but it's been an absolute pleasure talking to you thanks so much for your time well that was Cary Elwes and if you haven't seen Dead Man's Wire it's available now on Sky Cinema and also now it's now on now that makes sense last but not least this week here's one for you if you are one of the many many people obsessed with obsession Curry Barker's wild horror movie has become one of the biggest box office stories in years capturing the public imagination and packing audiences in pretty much everywhere since it opened about six weeks ago it's just hit the$300 million mark worldwide and the$200 million mark in the States alone and it's still going strong becoming along the way one of the most profitable films of all time what with his budget of$750 ,000.

28:43Chris Hewitt:We didn't speak to Barker when the movie came out but as our obsession grew so did our desire to have a chat with him and we broke open a bunch of one wish willows and our wish finally came true as we sat down with him on Zoom this week for a wide-ranging chat about the movie's success and some of its wilder plot twists and turns. That interview can be found in full over on our spoiler special feed empirespoilerspecials.com if you don't already subscribe it's worth it for less than the price of a cup of coffee or if i speak in terms i can understand as a non-coffee drinker roughly four bags of squashies every month but right now we're bringing you roughly the first half of that warning spoilers abound particularly towards the end so if you haven't seen obsession be careful so here it is ben travis our ben travis talking to curry barker enjoy a huge welcome to the director of obsession curry barker how are you doing man good how are you i'm great i saw this film a couple of weeks ago now and it is burned in my brain uh it's i can't even imagine what the last like month or so has, has been for you.

29:53How start to bring me into where you've been at for the last couple of weeks. Yeah. Um, right now I'm, I'm, uh, I'm trying to, yeah, it's, it's overwhelming. And so sometimes I have to just turn my phone off or, but it's, it's so, it's so, um, crazy and, and, uh, it's, it's, it's doing things that nobody, it's almost like hey I didn't ask for this like I just wanted it to be you know a decently successful movie I didn't know it was going to be breaking every record and whatever and just yeah it's a lot to live up to and so that that can kind of start to get scary but I'm just focusing on my next film and trying to keep my head down and and and yeah we're working at like you know i i i'm in my room and just trying to pretend like nothing else matters you know at the same time as much as you're trying to kind of shield yourself a bit stuff must be making its way to you who has got in contact to say i love the film have there been any people who are like heroes of yours who have dropped you a line and said holy shit man yeah yeah 100 100%.

31:10All my favorite people have pretty much reached out at this point. Bill Hader, Zach Kreger, Ari Aster, Steven Spielberg, Paul Thomas Anderson, Quinn Tarantino, Nathan Fielder, Tim Robinson, who I love. Yeah, I mean, just the list just goes on and on. I mean, there's even Taron Egerton, who plays Eggsy and Kingsman and Elton John. I'm a big fan of that guy. And he sent me this long voice message about how much he loved the film. And it's like, it's insane, man. He went beast mode this year at Apex. He went a bit Curry Barker there. Also, you mentioned Nathan Fielder and Tim Robinson. A lot of your films, even your work obviously before Obsession, it feels like there's a lot to do with social tensions and social boundaries.

32:11I can imagine what a combination between your horror instincts and their propensity for poking at the edges of social interactions could result in. Yeah, yeah. I love their work. I would love to collaborate with them. I don't know in what capacity or what that looks like, but I would love to. So what was the moment when you realized that Obsession was really getting this kind of insane level of traction? Because it started high anyway, but it was that gravity-defying thing that basically very, very, very few films get, which is the numbers are climbing each week. What was the moment where you started to think, oh, wait, something is happening here that's not normal?

32:58uh i mean yeah they you know the the focus features team and and all the people around me were very good at managing my expectations you know doing the thing that you're supposed to do with directors which is tell them that that it's okay and that um no matter what the numbers are don't worry it doesn't matter and so i was i was kind of given the lowest version of what this movie could do and kind of been told like, this is what's going to happen. The second weekend it's going to drop and that's just normal. And it's, um, so we were looking at like eight or 9 million the first weekend as a projection.

33:35And so even just the first weekend when it hit 17 million, everyone was freaking out and was like, Curry, this is crazy. Um, and I was like, and me, like who wasn't really that educated. I'm not like I never really followed box office numbers or stuff. So I wasn't like educated enough to know like what's good and what's not good. Now I now I've educated myself quite a bit. But I was like, oh, is 17 like great 17 bad? And they're like, dude, it's insane. And so the next weekend. I was just ready. I was ready for it to drop. I was ready for it to be, you know, 10 or 15 or whatever. And it just, it went to like 26 or something.