The A24 Podcast

Topics include:

Being former arch-nemeses, cutthroat Pizza Hut auditions, oceanic engineer parents, busking on Santa Monica promenade, childhood fixations on West Side Story and Happy Gilmore, shape-shifting performances, having an out-of-body experience working with Robert Pattinson on the first day of Primetime, Skyler “beaming like a maniac” watching Austin in a top-secret screening of Resident Evil, Lance Oppenheim’s deep collaboration, decapitated whale heads, shining Ryan Gosling’s shoes, Ben Stiller and Robin Williams helping Skyler ask his girlfriend to prom on set of Night at the Museum, the courage to call Robert De Niro “Bob,” and the joy of taking big weird swings. 

Topics covered include: Flat hierarchies, having little child liar’s brain, plausible deniability, the golden era of TI-83 calculators, Stavros’ first script “Greek Town,” creative interpretations of The Odyssey, spending three years developing a standup special, the magic of capturing something you can’t repeat, first impressions of Dominic Sessa on set of Tony, real life dynamics mirroring the film's cast, being as invincible as a Clorox bottle, Leo Woodall’s pitch perfect performance, and finding Antonio Banderas mid-shoot playing piano and singing for his hosts in Provincetown.

Topcis covered include: Devonté’s cello score as the fifth lead in The Invite, Daft Punk working with an 85 piece orchestra on Tron: Legacy (also starring Olivia Wilde!), finding the magic chemistry between strings and dialogue, monophonic vs. polyphonic, a great note from a Disney executive, extreme precision, the true effort it takes to bring soul to synthesizers, composing the Mythologies ballet score before the choreography existed, Random Access Memories being made like a film without cameras, the 250 tracks on Daft Punk’s “Touch,” spending two years with just a piano and GoPro, restoring Electroma in 35mm for Tribeca Film Festival, and curiosity as an antidote to the algorithm.

Topics covered include:

Saying bad things about famous people, first meeting at Olivia’s table read for Knocked Up, G-rated bisexuality on The O.C., the craziest audition of Seth’s life, constantly being mistaken for a courier, anti-gravity, The Invite’s origins as a play, dreams of being all alone in outer space, Seth’s good cop, bad cop dynamic on set of The Studio, laughing at your partner’s jokes, getting a little insight into their castmate's sex lives, and the true joy of finally getting to be funny together in The Invite.

Topics covered include: Learning to write everywhere, Lee Sung Jin's after death theory, the Bardo, David’s screenplay with Micheal Imperioli, Buddhism, the process of selecting iconic needle drops, bonding over created universes, comparing writers to golfers, Pavlov's dog, realizing The Sopranos was funny, favorite (and least favorite) lines in their shows, selecting Finneas for the wall-to-wall score of Beef season 2, the fifth character of fate, using John Carpenter as temp score, finding inspiration in the rock and roll of Mean Streets, rewatching old episodes, and David’s current passion project. (edited) 

Topics covered include: Deep collaboration, early drafts of Mother Mary, being quick to discard dialogue, finding inspiration in the Faroe Islands, Anne's fear of making the easy choice, the qualities of being a Texas gentleman, the touchstone records that the cast listened to on set from Ke$ha to St. Vincent, Anne’s intensive pre-production process, David offering a special live reading from the Mother Mary script, dance as a monologue, feeling truly transformed as a person after completing the film, bleeding hearts, and praise for Nick Cave.

Topics covered include: Kane's parents keeping him off the internet until age eight, pirating way too much software, the origin of the Backrooms, the purgatories we build for ourselves, meeting your heroes after early virality, building 30,000 sq. ft. of sets on a soundstage, Kane accidentally calling his film a "product" and immediately wanting to flee to the woods, shotlisting an entire feature in Blender, renting out a Vancouver theater to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey during prep, James Wan's hopeful advice for young filmmakers, Renate's spiritual curiosity, control variables, and bringing the family together for the theatrical premiere of Backrooms.

Topics covered include:
NPR podcast voice, evangelical upbringings, Beef creator Lee Sung Jin's incredible observations of things that are both really painful and really funny, little mullets, Ali's love of Ex Machina, parallel play, the impressive amount of bodily fluids in Beef, Oscar first meeting Carey Mulligan on set of Drive, getting to play really bad people, going down a YouTube rabbit hole to learn how people respond to psychedelic toad venom, the intricacies of staging a masturbation scene, Ali competing for roles with Stanley Tucci, and Sonny’s trick of taking you to Korea so you have nobody to complain to.

Topics covered include:

Aidan first becoming aware of Charli, early demos of “I Love It,” Scandi accents, the whelks at Caroline Polachek’s birthday, silliness as high art, imposing structure, growing up on Tumblr, voyeurism, Aidan’s work with Timothée on the Marty Supreme campaign, a general sense of FOMO, teapot necklaces, Aidan’s mom’s notes on the “Guess” music video, not wanting to present yourself as an entrepreneur, embracing embarrassment, Charli’s early tracks like “Dinosaur Sex” and “I Wanna Be Darth Vader,” being a tiny bit hungover, and a brief round of the Cauldron Game.

Topics covered include:

Voice memos as audio documentaries, the difficulty of keeping things small, Sean seeing Marty Supreme three times in theaters, maximalist territory, swimming in bigger lakes, moviemaking as time travel, Jack Fisk set stories, directors’ knee health, Jennifer Venditti’s wildly original casting process, feeling afraid of the script, Sean perfectly timing his edible intake at the Oscars, Darius Khondji as the “Prince of Darkness,” hunting down period accurate Cinemascope lenses, Ronnie Bronstein’s love of Shark Tank, and Marty Supreme’s epic alternate ending.