Hey, an Actor!

HAA's favorite Danish-American is, of course, Christian Honore. But, as he isn't a movie actor, attention has turned instead to one of the lynchpins of the Lord of the Rings trilogy: Viggo Mortensen. The Brothers Wilson feature his literal crowning glory in Return of the King, whilst ignoring his pre-Tolkein career in favor of an atypical comic book movie, A History of Violence, and his part in the recent Academy Award-winning biopic Green Book. Along the way, Pandy spends the entire recording baking bread, Ian starts a new recurring trope, and there's some light mockery of Blink-182 to boot.

This episode represents an Hey, An Actor first, as The Brothers Wilson record together overseas in the Netherlands in order to bring you a timely episode. And it's about Lord Elrond himself: Hugo Weaving. The hosts look at his pre-franchise career hits of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert with Weaving as a drag queen, and The Interview, with Weaving as a murder suspect in police custody. And in a rare contravention of the double-dipping rules, The Brothers cover V for Vendetta at a time that has never been more apt for Britain. The episode also charts Weaving's true feelings towards being Megatron, uncovering the truth about The Magic Pudding, and Pandy experiences the true horror of an email bot going rogue.

This month, The Brothers Wilson meet the summer heat with a subject with the coolest eyes in all of Hollywood, as Hot Fuzz will prove. Cate Blanchett is duly in the spotlight, with a selection of roles portraying real-life figures, ranging from Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth to Katherine Hepburn in Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, and as evil Dana Scully in globetrotting action drama Hanna. Along the way there's The Oscar Game, Pandy's Tudor facts, odes to Ponyo, and a hugely random Disney song. Also, Ian surprises Pandy with his knowledge of BioShock, and just how do you pronounce Saoirse Ronan's name?

An episode of Hey, an Actor that has been three-plus years in the making, The Brothers Wilson are able to use The Year of the Rings to finally talk about the crown prince of motion-capture: Andy Serkis. The coverage of The Lord of the Rings is picked up with the full debut of Smeagol / Gollum in The Two Towers, whilst further mo-cap is covered in Steven Spielberg's adaptation of The Adventures of Tintin. And without the digital effects, we also cover Serkis' portrayal of English rocker Ian Dury in his biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll. Along the way, discover amazing things brought up in conversation, such as trees not having lungs, overrated British sitcoms, and new HAA character Pandywise the Dancing Clown. The episode also sees the debuts of the Hey, an Actor caption competition and one Lincoln "Link" Wilson.

The people voted! As such, the fifth instalment of The Year of the Rings on Hey, an Actor is to feature fiction's favorite gardener: Sean Astin. The Brothers Wilson chart their featured actor's pre-Samwise career from his child star hit The Goonies through to cult 90s hit Encino Man to, well, Icebreaker. The coverage hits upon important subjects, such as the career trajectory of Bruce Campbell, the cult of Andy's Friends, and two Englishmen's views on Pauly Shore. We also discover which film is to Ian what Halloween is to Pandy.

Liv Tyler is The Brothers' featured actor this month of The Year of the Rings. We explore her role in low-budget, art-house, indie classic Armageddon, early career music shop romp Empire Records, and spooky stalker flick The Strangers. You will also hear how ridiculously tired Pandy is, discover why Ian developed a phobia of The Cure's Robert Smith, and hear how Heather Graham helps jog Pandy's memory of the ending to The Strangers. Plus: What song does Michael Bay use at all of his film pitches? Why does Pandy mention Bugs Bunny in a discussion of a horror film? And where did Robin Tunney's hair go? All these questions answers, as well as the results of our first Hey, an Actor featured actor audience poll of Sean Astin v Orlando Bloom.

The Year of the Rings continues on Hey, an Actor! with our other Hobbit protagonist in the spotlight: Elijah Wood. The Fellowship of the Ring is our featured presentation, whilst Netflix hit I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore is championed by Pandy, and North is submitted by Ian as a mean of highlighting famous bad reviews. Other topics of discussion include the merits of CBeebies programming, fake political ministries in New Zealand, and the medium of reviewing via claps. Also, do The Brothers Wilson read at leisure?

This month, The Brothers Wilson take on a fellow countryman who is a known supporting character actor whose eligibility for an episode is very much boosted by The Year of the Rings: Sean Bean. Ian is introduced to the Bechdel Test-endorsed video game adaptation Silent Hill. Whilst Pandy takes in an equally cheery film about plague-ridden England in the Middle Ages, and the quest to unearth a necromancer with a young Eddie Redmayne entitled Black Death. Finally, the podcast reviews an early role in which our subject plays a vengeful IRA terrorist relentlessly pursuing Harrison Ford's Jack Ryan in Patriot Games. On top of this, the episode contains discussion about video games being brought to the screen, Ian's inability to pronounce the most famous animated lion role portrayed by James Earl Jones, and Pandy's demented obsession with animated pre-school YouTube star Bob the Train. Choo-choo, melon farmers!

The Brothers Wilson kick off 2019 (AKA The Year of the Rings) by looking at young Bilbo himself: Martin Freeman. Pandy gets to experience horror anthology Ghost Stories for the first time, whereas Ian is introduced to the lore of Douglas Adams through the film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And the Tolkien vibe is thoroughly kicked off as The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (AKA Hobbit #1) is covered. The episode also identifies the next Daniel Day-Lewis, Pandy re-opens his film-reviewing wounds regarding Halloween, and the word "spines" is bandied around for the horror genre. Do listen!

Fresh from their one-month hiatus in order that Pandy could properly double the children he is responsible for, what better way for The Brothers Wilson to round off International Year than with acclaimed Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki! The customary two films for them to explore this December are 2001 worldwide hit Spirited Away, and iconic 1988 ghost-cat / rabbit epic My Neighbor Totoro. Accompanying these are an admittedly sparse number of outtakes and the Tomlinson Awards! Along the road, Ian and Pandy encounter frankly racist accents, the podcast's first cold open, and find out just how tired they are. (Spoilers: Very!). Plus, who is the first actor for next year's Year of the Ring?