MovieMaker

Before the age of 30, Rishi Rajani rose to become president of Lena Waithe's Hillman Grad Productions, the company that brought you Queen & Slim and BET's Boomerang and Twenties, among other projects.

In this episode, he talks about how Hillman Grad wants to help other people break into Hollywood—especially underrepresented creators who want to make protest art. He also talks about how he worked his way up from the mailroom, and why, in 2020, the mailroom still matters.

Because Rajani climbed the rungs himself, he knows how hard it is—and he has a bold idea for how to end the problem of rich kids getting all the best Hollywood internships and other opportunities.

Look for our full profile of Ranjani in the upcoming issue of MovieMaker Magazine, which also profiles LuckyChap Entertainment, the company founded by Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley, Sophia Kerr and Josey McNamara.

Here are highlights from our interview with Rishi Rajani, with timestamps:

1:50: Rishi Rajani interview begins.

2:00: We talk about The 40-Year-Old Version, Radha Blank's debut film, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival.

3:45: Rishi Rajani talks about his job interview with Lena Waithe.

4:00: "Bringing other people up... has really been the core mandate of everything we do."

5:40: How an unsuccessful collaboration ultimately got Rajani his job.

9:30: "If you're truly going to be supporting younger voices, you have to get their stuff made."

11:30: His Malawi-born father's love of American Westerns.

15:50: Let's talk about overcoming nepotism.

19:00: The rich-intern problem, and how Hillman Grad wants to fix it.

21:00: How high you have to score on The Black List to draw Hillman Grad's attention.

31:30: Let's talk about Queen & Slim.

34:00: His advice for people who want to produce movies.

36:35: Why working your way up from the mailroom is no joke.

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Director Destin Daniel Cretton had no choice but to make sure Just Mercy, his Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx death row drama, was very accurate: Cretton says Bryan Stevenson, who inspired the film, "was constantly keeping us in check in the best way."

Stevenson's memoir, Just Mercy, describes his efforts to save Walter McMillian, a man who was wrongly convicted of murder in 1988. Jordan plays Stevenson, and Foxx plays McMillian.

1:36: Destin Daniel Cretton interview begins.

2:10: How Bryan Stevenson's memoir, Just Mercy, affected him

3:10: How Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx got involved

3:44: How working with at-risk kids helped lead to a career in Hollywood

5:40: How he met Ryan Coogler, and Coogler quickly connected him with Michael B. Jordan: "He put me on hold and when he reconnected me, Michael B. Jordan was on the line."

7:00: How Jamie Foxx joined Just Mercy.

8:30: The moment when he knew the movie was working.

10:30: Why he stuck close to the facts.

We had to stick close to the facts because Bryan Stevenson was working closely with us every step of the way and making sure that we were telling a story that would resonate not only with an audience but would resonate with lawyers who are doing this type of work, that would resonate with people on death row who are going through this process, and would resonate with the clients and the people who are in this story, some of which are still alive, or their relatives are still alive. Bryan cared deeply about all of that, and was constantly keeping us in check in the best way.

Accuracy was definitely important so that when they watch this movie, people can understand what it really takes. This isn't a made-up version of what it takes to prove somebody's innocence. This is the long process that is in place right now in our system."

We talked with Cretton about Just Mercy, how working with at-risk youth shared his whole Hollywood career, and his upcoming Marvel movie, Shang-Chi.

Here are highlights, with timestamps:

1:36: Destin Daniel Cretton interview begins.

2:10: How Bryan Stevenson's memoir, Just Mercy, affected him

3:10: How Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx got involved

3:44: How working with at-risk kids helped lead to a career in Hollywood.

5:40: How he met Ryan Coogler, and Coogler quickly connected him with Michael B. Jordan: "He put me on hold and when he reconnected me, Michael B. Jordan was on the line."

7:00: How Jamie Foxx joined Just Mercy.

8:30: The moment when he knew the movie was working.

10:30: Why he stuck close to the facts.

12:30: What Bryan Stevenson has in common with Mr. Rogers.

13:40: "I can't deny that we didn't go far and wide searching for that flaw."

15:30: Let's talk about the death penalty.

18:00: How often the government gets it wrong.

18:20: A quick shoutout to Clemency, and how Cretton captured the atmosphere of a Southern prison in the 1980s.

21:54: The advice he got from Brie Larson and Michael B. Jordan about joining the Marvel Universe.

If you like this episode, you would like MovieMaker.com.

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The Lighthouse was one of Willem Dafoe's biggest acting challenges: Dafoe and Robert Pattinson are onscreen for almost every second of Robert Eggers' film, shot in harsh weather on a barely hospitable stretch of the North Atlantic. But Dafoe says in our interview that he delighted in the challenge of having nowhere to hide.

Then we talk with Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, whose film The Mustang is one of the most underrated of 2019. The Mustang stars Matthias Schoenaerts as a Nevada prison inmate whose life is changed when he joins a program to train wild horses. Among other things, she talks about why "cinema is to be seen in cinema."

Here are highlights of the episode, with timestamps:

1:25: Willem Dafoe interview begins with him explaining how he was cast in The Lighthouse.

3:30: How our feelings about Dafoe's The Lighthouse character, Thomas Wake, change during the film: "You see his various strategies to dominate or ameliorate or find some sort of… peace or sense of security."

7:00: How to play a potentially unlikeable character: "In order to not have them be a cartoon or not have them be just a mouthpiece to express a point of view or explain something, to really represent them, you have to take their side."

10:28: "You know, the challenges are the blessings."

12:50: We make Willem Dafoe laugh, by asking him what he's learned.

15:40: How Willem Dafoe has fun.

18:00: Check out MovieMaker.com/Subscriptions and use offer code XMASMM.

19:10: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre interview begins.

19:45: She tells us why prison movies are so compelling.

23:00: "The man sees through the eyes of the animal how aggressive he is, and the animal teaches him patience, respect and trust."

30:20: Did being French help her see the American criminal justice system more clearly for The Mustang?

34:55: "We need to preserve cinema. Cinema should be seen in cinema, not on a laptop or in a plane or an iPhone which is even more terrifying."

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Clemency is one of the last films to be released in 2019, and it's one of the best films of 2019. This week we talk to the film's director, Chinonye Chukwu, and the film's stars, Alfre Woodard and Aldis Hodge.

You know all the cliches of death-row movies: the cruel warden, the Jesus imagery, the lawyers who clear their client at the last second. Clemency knows them too, and subverts them in favor of a nuanced and honest look at the fundamental problem with the death penalty. It doesn't preach. It doesn't need to.

Woodard plays a warden completely different from every other we've seen on film, and Hodge plays a condemned man who makes us feel every agonizing moment of his countdown. But please skip the Hodge interview, which comes last, if you haven't yet seen "Clemency." The film is in theaters December 27.

Here are highlights of the episode, with timestamps:

1:15: Alfre Woodard interview begins

1:27: She explains why so many wardens come from the fields of mental health or social work.

4:15: "Every time we do it, it puts a stain on our soul as a culture, as a nation. Especially a nation where we call ourselves a nation of faith. ... It's a breach for everybody."

8:25: Alfre Woodard on meeting death row inmates in her research for the film: "It was the most humbling experience I've ever had in my life."

11:01: "You just have to kiss yourself up to God. Anything can happen."

15:48: Chinonye Chukwu interview begins.

16:30: "Regardless of innocence or guilt, do we as a society have a right to kill?"

18:03: "I don't need to justify his humanity. ... I really tasked myself to craft a narrative where we don't really know if this person's innocent or guilty and we don't know very much about his past. We are just staying with him in the present."

20:15: Why she chose to cast black actors as both the warden and the inmate: "I thought that if the warden is white and the person on death row is black, then the racial dynamics become the narrative, and not an interrogation of the prison space and the practice of capital punishment and the system of incarceration."

20:50: How she captured the feeling of the prison.

23:38: We talk about witnessing an actual execution.

30:00: We discuss the Golden Globes not nominating any female filmmakers in the best directing categories.

31:45: "We all should support the films that don't get supported by these structures and entities."

33:32: "We have to be willing to use our privileges and access for those who aren't as privileged. And sometimes it is sacrifice but that's what we have to do sometimes in order to move forward."

34:00: CLEMENCY SPOILERS FOLLOW.

35:00: Aldis Hodge interview begins.

35:35: "It's not about him committing a crime. It's about us as a society feeling justified to commit a crime that we shroud in the identity of true justice."

41:02: Audio quality improves thanks to a microphone switch. Thanks for your patience.

42:38: "I want art to be part of the progressive conversation."

45:00: We talk about Aldis Hodge's watchmaking, and why he's pursuing it.

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Alan Cumming and "Two Popes" screenwriter Anthony McCarten are our guests this week.

We talk with Cumming -- whose Twitter profile describes him as a "Scottish elf trapped inside middle-aged man's body" -- about dancing, DJing, mentoring young moviemakers, and his role in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. He tells us about the visual sex joke that Kubrick asked him to do again and again, and about what it's like to be Alan Cumming, witty and outgoing star, and Alan Cumming, real person.

Then we talk with McCarten about how his Catholic upbringing informed "Two Popes," his mixed emotions surrounding ABBA's "Dancing Queen," and what you need to know when you start writing your script. He also talks about how the stories of two pontiffs with very different world-views reflects the political situation in the United States today.

Holiday shopping? We invite you to visit moviemaker.com/subscriptions and use secret code XMASMM to get nice discounts on MovieMaker Magazine subscriptions.

Here are highlights of the episode, with timestamps:

1:15: Alan Cumming interview begins.

4:04: "I've chosen to do something waaay outside my comfort zone."

4:45: A few words about cabaret bar Club Cumming.

5:34: "I think I've understood from way way long ago how important fun is as a component in your life... especially when you do things that are very dark. And a lot of my work is very dark."

7:00: Don't be the kind of DJ who refuses to dance.

11:00: "I think of myself as a character... I think there's me, and then there's Alan Cumming. And Alan Cumming goes out and is like, 'Hello everybody, hi! Yes, I'm here! That's right. Thanks so much!"

12:30: Let's talk about the 20th anniversary of Eyes Wide Shut and what he learned working with Stanley Kubrick.

13:05: "It's a huge thing in my career, even though it's like maybe four minutes."

15:55: "There's a saying, which is, you can go as big as you like, as you want as long as you mean it."

17:08: Anthony McCarten interview begins, as he explains how he used humor to humanize Two Popes.

18:40: The Vatican's response to Two Popes.

19:19: "We built our own Sistine Chapel."

24:00: "There's very very little tolerance or listening to the other side. ... Sometimes the talking should stop and we should listen a little more."

31:50: ABBA's "Dancing Queen": "I was kind of traumatized by that song."

37:20: Anthony McCarten talks about his script for Bohemian Rhapsody.

41:00: His advice for screenwriters.

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Margot Robbie, our first guest, is earning accolades galore for her role in "Bombshell" as Kayla, a Fox News employee whose TV ambitions draw the attention of the predatory Roger Ailes. She talks with us about playing a character with whom she has almost noting in common, and how she used social media to understand her.

We also talk about one of the most underrated parts of her acting, how she balances acting and producing, and that story that she slapped Leonardo Di Caprio during her "Wolf of Wall Street" audition. If you're a rising actor, should you hit your prospective co-stars? She has some advice.

Margot Robbie also talks about how she used to work at Subway.

Our second guest, Charles Randolph, talks about how his religious upbringing -- including a plot to take Bibles behind the Iron Curtain -- informed his script for "Bombshell." He talks about why he likes writing conservative characters, the intense research he did for "Bombshell," and his upcoming scripts about John D. Rockefeller and Hulk Hogan v. Gawker.

Please subscribe to MovieMaker interviews, check out MovieMaker.com, and be sure to check out the next issue of MovieMaker Magazine, featuring a look at Margot Robbie's Lucky Chap Productions and their upcoming slate of female-focused films, from "Birds of Prey" to "Promising Young Woman" to "Barbie."

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Hotel Mumbai, the feature debut from Australian writer-director Anthony Maras, deserved more attention when it premiered in the United States earlier this year. Now that the film has premiered in the most important country on its release calendar, India, we spoke to Maras about the horrific attacks that inspired Hotel Mumbai and the heroism of the real people involved.

Maras' story is essential listening for anyone making their first film. Many surprises that seemed likely to doom the project turned out to be its salvation. He talks about how he won it back from The Weinstein Co. after the Harvey Weinstein story emerged, the injury that delayed shooting, and other hurdles. But he never loses sight of the real focus on the tragedy, its victims and its survivors.

Hotel Mumbai is now streaming on Hulu.If you enjoy this interview, please check out similar interviews and features at MovieMaker.com.

Here's a breakdown of our talk, with timestamps:

1:45: Anthony Maras discusses the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, and how he decided to make Hotel Mumbai.

4:45: Maras talks about the altruism of the people targeted in the attacks. "You had kitchen staff from the Taj Hotel who were literally stuffing pots and pans and baking trays down their shirts. These were to act as bullet -proof vests as they were shielding their guests from gunfire."

8:20: How Dog Day Afternoon influenced Hotel Mumbai.

10:45: How the filmmakers made decisions about how to portray the terrorists in the film.

20:30: How Maras and co-writer John Collee researched the film, and why Dev Patel was determined to make Hotel Mumbai.

23:00: Hotel Mumbai was initially a Weinstein Co. release. The first Hotel Mumbai test screening was on the same day as the first New York Times story about Harvey Weinstein. That led to a fight to get the film back.

24:50: Why moviemakers should have good lawyers.

25:25: How an on-set accident ended up rescuing the film.

40:55: The importance of listening.

42:35: Maras' oddest job on the road to becoming a moviemaker.

43:00: An impromptu toast to UC Santa Barbara, America's finest university.

49:45: Five Things Anthony Maras has learned as a moviemaker.

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Writer-director Annabelle Attanasio's debut feature film "Mickey and the Bear" stars Camila Morrone as an 18-year-old helping care for her father (James Badge Dale), a veteran coping with PTSD. In this episode, Attanasio talks about crafting an elegant, efficient script that skips exposition and lets the actors really act.

Morrone and Dale also talk about the importance of persistence in being a professional actor, and Attanasio talks about her own acting on the CBS drama "Bull" helped shape her "Mickey and the Bear" script.

If you like this episode, you'll probably also like the stories at MovieMaker.com.

Here are some highlights of the episode, with timestamps:

1:45: Interview begins

2:30: Some nice words about Gen Z and a brutal attack on Generation X

3:30: Annabelle Attanasio explains where the idea for "Mickey and the Bear" originated

4:39: Camila Morrone self-taped her audition in her kitchen

6:05: James Badge Dale, Morrone and Attanasio discuss what it means to succeed as an actor

8:30: Attanasio discusses why she wrote a "quite spare" script without needless exposition

12: The most difficult scene in the film

15:45: How the film addresses the treatment of veterans and the opioid crisis

16:45: How their parents impacted them

21: Respect to "The Young Girls of Rochefort"

22:15: Let's talk about a casting mystery

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This week, two interviews we love: The first is with "Queen & Slim" star Daniel Kaluuya, and the second with "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" writers Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue, as well as Tom Junod, whose Esquire profile of Mister Rogers is a major influence on the film.

In "Queen & Slim," which is in theaters Wednesday, Nov. 27, Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith play a couple on a first date who are racially profiled on a traffic stop that quickly escalates into a national call for justice. He talks with us about how "Get Out" led him to "Queen & Slim," what made the role both relatable and unusual, how he's handling the Scorsese v. Marvel discussion, and why he's going from "Black Panther" to a film about real-life Black Panther activist Fred Hampton.

In "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood," which is in theaters Friday, Nov. 22, Tom Hanks plays "Mister Rogers Neighborhood" host Fred Hampton, who tries to heal a troubled journalist named Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys). Harpster, Fitzerman-Blue and Junod talk about how much of Vogel's life is based on Junod's. They also talk about what Mister Rogers wanted, how boys and girls are taught to deal with emotions, and a certain urban myth about Mister Rogers being a sniper or Navy SEAL. (To be 100 percent clear: He wasn't.)

Thanks to the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, where we conducted both interviews. If you like us, check out the latest issue of MovieMaker Magazine, which has "as told to" accounts from Harpster and Fitzerman-Blue, as well as "Queen & Slim" writer Lena Waithe and director Melina Matsoukas.

Here are some highlights of the episode, with timestamps:

1:15: Daniel Kaluuya interview begins. Audio is dodgy for a few seconds. It gets better at...

2:14: Audio issue fixed. Enjoy Daniel Kaluuya's awesome British accent in all its glory.

3:30: Why he knew he wanted to play Slim.

4:54: Why "Queen & Slim" is more "Thelma & Louise" than "Bonnie & Clyde."

10:01: He weighs in on the supposed fight between cinema and the Marvel Universe

13:40: He discusses the upcoming film "Jesus Was My Homeboy," in which he'll play Black Panther activist Fred Hampton.

16:05: Interview with "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" screenwriters Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue, and Tom Junod, whose Esquire article "Can You Say... Hero?" helped inspire the film.

17:15: Let's talk about anger.

21: How much is Mathew Rhys' "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" character, Esquire journalist Lloyd Vogel, based on Esquire journalist Tom Junod?

26:20: Would Fred Rogers be disillusioned by the world today?

26:40: About that Navy SEAL thing

28:50: How Noah discovered Mister Rogers was "a warlock who speaks toddler."

30: At one point Mister Rogers estate said there will "never ever be a Mister Rogers movie."

34:10: Where the Mister Rogers sniper urban myth came from.

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In the first episode of MovieMaker Interviews, "Dolemite Is My Name" screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski tell us how they went from college roommates to masters of the biopic. They walk us through their writing process, from research to cards to first draft, then get into specifics about "Ed Wood," "The People vs. Larry Flynt," "Man on the Moon," "Big Eyes," "The People vs. O.J. Simpson," and finally "Dolemite Is My Name." Jokes are told. Mel Brooks calls. And we learn the "Dolemite" line that came indirectly from Dave Chappelle.

Here are some highlights, with timestamps:

1:12: Interview begins.

1:48: Scott and Larry praise the genre films of Herschell Gordon Lewis.

2:35: Shout out to Los Angeles' Nuart and New Beverly theaters.

3:22: How Larry started gaming Scott from the first day they met.

4:19: Scott explains his and Larry's obsession with "indie genre cult movies."

8:20: Who types, and who sits on the couch.

12:06: Scott and Larry explain the importance of funny voices in their process.

13:50: Rights.

14:13: Diving into "Ed Wood."

14:50: Meeting Larry Flynt.

15:30: Working with Margaret Keane on "Big Eyes."

15:58: Being journalists to research Andy Kaufman for "Man on the Moon."

17:30: How "People v. OJ Simpson" was unique

21:30: How Dave Chappelle contributed a scene to "Dolemite Is My Name"

24:57: Mel Brooks calls

27:30: A fantastic Village People story

30:18: Scott and Larry's advice to screenwriters

34:30: The crossover between Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" and "Dolemite Is My Name"

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