Kernels

The one and only Tommy Wiseau sits down with us to talk life after 'The Disaster Artist', 'The Room' on Broadway, his love of architecture, 'Ocean's 11', and his plans for a horror movie about using 8% of your brain (?), in certainly our most directionless conversation yet.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Chris talks to the man behind Peep Show and In The Loop about his major new HBO show Succession, which centres on a Murdoch-esque family ruling the American media. The pair explore how writers' rooms work, what a showrunner actually does, getting your head around complex business jargon for a script, the 'toilet paper draft' and the future of liberalism in the face of Trump.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Atlanta's Brian Tyree Henry just earned an Emmy nomination for his work on Atlanta and is tapped to work with Steve McQueen and Joe Wright on upcoming films. He sits down with Chris to discuss the stage and screen actor's similar acting style to James Gandolfini, how Atlanta season 2's standalone episode format was kinda scary for the cast, the show's silent moments, patient plot advancement, and how it doesn't try to hammer you over the head with a message.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Indie film pioneer Mark Duplass has been forced to issue an apology for recommending a podcast to his followers. We look at how internet mob mentality can seemingly elicit a mea culpa from anyone for just about anything, how there is now no room in Hollywood for dissent, and where all of this might be headed.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Westworld, the heir apparent to Game of Thrones, is back on HBO for a second season, but is it a sophisticated puzzle of a show or just an overly-complicated scramble of information? Christopher Hooton and Jacob Stolworthy chew it over.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

After breaking through as Denise in Netflix's 'Master of None', Lena Waithe has found herself doing motion capture in Steven Spielberg's new action-adventure epic, 'Ready Player One'. She talks to Christopher Hooton about working with 'kind soul' Steven Spielberg, growing up in the South Side of Chicago, and the future of 'Master of None' following the whole Aziz Ansari situation.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In something of a meta pod, the Kernels team review and discuss host Christopher Hooton's just-completed first feature film, Meniscus. Jacob Stolworthy and Jack Shepherd give their thoughts on the experimental format drama and find out how Chris and his co-director, David Rapson (also on the pod), turned it around on next to no budget.Later, the guys talk The Lost Boys podcast and, ahead of the Oscars, question whether dishing out awards to actors playing historical figures is justified and if we're confusing impressions with good acting.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Oscar nominations are out and for once there's barely a ripple of outrage - the list is good and we can broadly say that the right films, actors, directors and crew members have been picked. The same might not be true with the winners however, with several obvious picks the favourites to win, overlooking some sensational cinema that came out in 2017. Taking up a bunch of categories, Christopher Hooton looks at who will win and who should with colleagues Jack Shepherd and Jacob Stolworthy.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths director Martin McDonagh talks working with the same actors, not having written enough gay characters, worrying about the body of work he'll leave behind, how Seven Psychopaths could have been better, and why he doesn't want to move into TV.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jake Gyllenhaal is a quiet but powerful actor who's explored some different types of characters in reason years. Jacob winds up talking to him about oddity 'Nightcrawler', how he chooses films, his sister Maggie's move into television and his latest film, 'Stronger'.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

You know the drill. Critics publish scathing or just lukewarm reviews of blockbuster franchise films, fans go in droves to see them at cinemas anyway and end up fighting their corner. Not so with 'The Last Jedi', with reviewers loving the latest Star Wars movie but many fans loathing it, some even going so far as to sign a petition trying to get it struck it from the Star Wars canon.FIlm reporters Jack Shepherd and Jacob Stolworthy join Culture Editor Christopher Hooton to try and work out what happened, whether the criticisms are fair, and what this polarised feeling means for the future of the franchise.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Black Mirror creator discusses his sudden rise from columnist to award-winning screenwriter, how he owes everything he knows to Ross Kemp series Ultimate Force, and how nice it is not to have to tweet so much anymore.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Disaster Artist, a Warner Bros film about a relatively obscure indie drama gone wrong had no right to work. And yet director James Franco has created not only a hilarious movie about how The Room was made and the auteur behind it, Tommy Wiseau, but a human one. Chris talks to James and his brother Dave (also the stars of the movie) about his own experience with Tommy, the "secret tapes" James got hold of to inform his performance, Seth Rogen struggling to keep his shit together on set, how one of the screenwriters turned in a script draft before he'd even seen The Room, and the complexity of shooting a film within a film.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Netflix's new original series Mindhunter has enrapt a legion of viewers with its smart, reserved style. Chris Hooton sits down with episodes 3 and 4 director Asif Kapadia to look at how it came together, how Brad Pitt's DVD of Senna led to his signing, directing an actor as serial killer Ed Kemper, learning from David Fincher on set, and how a season of TV's episodes are carved up for different directors.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"I'm not supposed to be in this movie." A character actor with an extraordinary filmography, Willem Dafoe sits down to discuss why he's taken such a left turn so late in his career with new indie The Florida Project, which mostly stars non-actors.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Blade Runner 2049 is an audacious proposition: a $185 million film that doesn't patronise the audience or feel made by consortium. The Independent's Christopher Hooton, Jacob Stolworthy and Jack Shepherd discuss the film's controlled insanity and submit that director Denis Villeneuve is going to be a household name in the same way Christopher Nolan is.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

An actor you'll never see in a cape, Ethan Hawke is more interested in humanist roles. He chats to Kernels' Jacob Stolworthy about the movies of his that people want to talk to him about, his special relationship with director Richard Linklater, how he earned his screenwriting credit in the Before trilogy and the future for protagonists Jesse and Céline.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The incredibly versatile and efficient director (Ocean's trilogy, Logan Lucky and more) talks to host Christopher Hooton about coming out of retirement, fucking with the studio system and the value of pseudonyms, before getting grilled on what he's been watching in 2017.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In spite of Star Wars swallowing up most of his time, Adam Driver has still managed to fire out some great indies the past couple of years. He talks to Christopher Hooton about Paterson, While We're Young, his next Steven Soderbergh movie, Logan Lucky, his process and the importance of making a good meatloaf.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

After completing Disney animation 'Pete's Dragon', director David Lowery took a real left turn, heading to Texas with friends Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck and making weird, avant garde, self-funded indie film 'A Ghost Story' in secret. Chris Hooton talks to him about this bold move, Casey acting under a bed sheet for most of the movie, finding motivation in the face of the futility of existence, and how great pie is.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.