← Films To Be Buried With with Brett Goldstein
Films To Be Buried With with Brett Goldstein
Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who / In The Loop / Criminal Record) • #393
01:08:45
Join your host Brett Goldstein as he talks life, death, love and the universe with the wel versed and well rounded national treasure that is PETER CAPALDI!
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- [00:01]
A
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- [01:01]
B
only Films to be Buried with. Hello and welcome to Films to Be Buried With. My name is Brett Goldstein. I'm a comedian, an actor, a writer, a director, a chimichurri and I love films. As Leonardo da Vinci once said, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. You should watch the Sheep Detectives. It's out this week on the 8th and it's fucking brilliant. Every week I invite a special guest over. I tell them they've died. Then I get them to discuss their life through the films that meant the most to them. Previous guests include Barry Jenkins, Kevin Smith, Sharon Stone and Even. But this week we have the brilliant actor, writer, producer, musician and doctor is Peter Capaldi. You can see me live if you want to come see my stand up. I've got a couple of dates coming up in New York and LA brettgoldsteintour.com that sort of thing. Have a look. You can figure it out. You've got Google you can work out, can't you? All of Shrinking Season three is available to watch on Apple tv. You can still watch my film all of you, which are made with Will Bridges and Imogen Poots on Apple tv. And I'm in the Sheep Detectives, which is one of the best scripts I ever read, written by Craig Mazin that is out in cinemas May 8 and I highly recommend it. Head over to the patreon@patreon.com BrettGoldstein you get an extra 20 minutes with Peter. We talk beginnings and endings. He tells me a secret. You get the whole episode uncut, ad free and as a video. Check it out over@patreon.com BrettGoldstein. So, Peter Capaldi, you might know him from Doctor who, from the Thick of It, from his Oscar winning short film, Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life. Criminal Record Season 2 is on Apple TV and his second album, Sweet Illusions, is also out. Now, this was my very first time meeting Peter. We recorded this over zoom a few weeks ago. I absolutely loved it. It's one of my favorites. He was a delight and I really think you're going to love this one. So that is it for now. I very much hope you enjoy episode 393 of Films to be Buried. Hello, and welcome to Films to Be Buried. With it is I, Brett Goldstein. And I'm joined today by a BAFTA winner, a London Film Festival winner, an Oscar winner, a local hero, a dangerous liaison, a soft top, hard shoulderer, a writer, a director, a thick of iter, a looper, King Charles I. He's in big mouth. He's a thinker, he's a benediction. He's one of the all time greats. He's the Devil's Hour and he's also one of the all time great Doctor who's of all time. I can't believe he's here. Can you believe he's here? He really is. Please welcome to the show. It's the brilliant, it's the amazing. It's Peter Capaldi.
- [04:02]
C
What a welcome. Thank you so much. So kind of you.
- [04:06]
B
What a treat. What a treat to meet you. I'm a huge fan. Thank you for doing this.
- [04:10]
C
My pleasure.
- [04:11]
B
You may be sick of talking about it, but what a great Doctor who. What a great Doctor who you are.
- [04:17]
C
That's always nice to hear.
- [04:19]
B
I loved it.
- [04:21]
C
The funny thing is, often you'll get fans come up to you and say, you're my third favorite Doctor, which is a very odd way to open a conversation. I say, you're my 400 millionth favorite fan.
- [04:34]
B
Was that experience as the biggest fan, as you were, was it wonderful or did doing it, was it ever like, ah, or was it really magical? Because you seem to enjoy it very much.
- [04:46]
C
Yeah, it was never. It was always wonderful because you were Doctor who. You got your tardis, was yours. You woke up in the morning and you went to work and blew up Daleks, or fought men in latex suits and got to be Doctor who. So it was, it was truly wonderful. It was. I mean, it was labor intensive.
- [05:07]
B
It's hard in it.
- [05:08]
C
You know, we used to film from like January through to October and there were a lot of lines to learn and A lot of early mornings. But you couldn't not love it. You'd have to be very hard hearted to get a kick out of it, you know. And of course, I'd been a huge fan when I was a kid, so I think that gave me a sort of advantage because I always felt if we were in trouble, I always felt I sort of knew who Doctor who was and didn't really have to do a lot of sort of proper acting in connection with that, any backstory or anything. I sort of knew who he was because I'd met him when he first appeared in 1963, when I was a kid.
- [05:48]
B
Yeah.
- [05:49]
C
He was there in the corner of my little living room in this little screen, and he was magical. And it was. I found. I mean, this is, I think, something that we'll probably come back to. The experience of growing up with that character is different from the way a child of the same age would experience it now, in the sense that the shows only went out once a week. There was no. If you didn't. If you missed it, you never saw it again.
- [06:14]
B
So it lived in your imagination.
- [06:16]
C
Lived in your imagination. That's where it grew for a decade. That's where it grew. And so it became ever more powerful. So when I became Doctor who and we tour around and people would want to show me clips from the old show, I didn't really want. They called it the old show. It wasn't the old show to me, but they. I. I didn't like seeing them because I would see that they didn't always get their lines right and that the sets were a bit cardboard and all that.
- [06:46]
B
Yeah.
- [06:46]
C
Because in my mind, they were spectacular. Yeah. Although I guess, actually, I think they weren't spectacular. They were sort of intimate and kind of quite. They were between you and the screen. It was the thing that you could do. You could be very, very. It was your show. It was my show, you know, so it was. It went. Mark Gator said, this runs very deep with you, doesn't it? And I said, yeah, because. Because how it was, you know, I didn't expect ever to be Doctor who. I mean, I didn't go through my life, think, you know, grieving over the fact that I wasn't Doctor who. I didn't. It didn't occur to me.
- [07:17]
B
Yeah.
- [07:18]
C
I enjoyed the show when it came back and stuff, but I didn't think that I would be involved with it. And then Mark Gatiss was doing a thing called. It was a. It was. It was a film about the making of doctor who in 1963. And he knew. And they had all these old props, they had an old TARDIS and all that stuff, and they had David Bradley playing Doctor. An Adventure In Time and Space, it was called.
- [07:40]
B
Yeah.
- [07:40]
C
And he said to me, do you want to come down and meet Doctor who? And to me, David Bradley, who was. Who looked incredibly like William Hart. Well, that was Doctor. So I went down and had my photograph taken, a selfie with him, with his long white hair and all that stuff. And while I was there, Mark said to me, how would you feel about being Doctor who? And I thought this was a piece of. I thought it was a conversation, you know, a rhetorical thing. And I said, well, I think that. That. That ship has sailed, really, hasn't it? Because I'm too. They didn't have young Doctor who's. I mean, I was like 56 or 57, I think, at the time, and I didn't expect them to be out. And so I said, well, of course I'd love to, but I. You know, I don't think that's going to happen. And then I remember I was getting my. They had an old prop TARDIS there and I stood in it, and suddenly there were all these people taking photographs of me around this herd, that so many people are taking photographs of me here around this tardis. And what he'd been doing, really, was checking me out to see whether or not I was interested, whether that was something. So they had some kind of foreknowledge about the fact they were going to offer it to me. But it was very exciting to meet David Bradley as William Hartnell and play with all the old Daleks and the old. Because they weren't old Daleks to me, they were Daleks.
- [08:52]
B
It's really beautiful. And I think it shies. I think it shows throughout everything you did with it. And it's the fact that you're like the steward of the imagination of it and the magic of it for people. And I saw. I don't know what it was. It was some. I don't know from where it was, but there was like a clip of you talking to a kid and you were so lovely with the kid about Doctor who and what it meant and why you were gonna be different, but still the same. And I thought, it's a real responsibility. Doctor who is very unique in that way of, like, you are responsible for the legacy, for continuing the ma. You know what it's always like being Santa Claus. It's like you.
- [09:31]
C
I was talking to somebody about this, I remember because I spoke to Matt Smith and David Tennant are all friends, and they were great about. They were full of great advice. And I remember Matt saying, you know, you know, if you're in a bit of a. If you got bed the wrong side.
- [09:46]
B
Yeah.
- [09:47]
C
And then you bump into a kid who suddenly recognizes you as Doctor who. You don't want to be the one who disappoints the kid. Yeah. You don't want to be the one who spoiled that idea. Because you are the kind of. You can't sort of go, oh, I'm just an actor. Yeah, you are for the time that you're doing that, the embodiment of that character. You're the physical embodiment of that idea. And if a kid sees you, they love you.
- [10:15]
B
Yeah.
- [10:17]
C
So you got to not disappoint them. You've got to be. All you got to do is be nice.
- [10:22]
B
Yeah.
- [10:23]
C
But I would say there's a strange thing, and I will say this because people were sort of well known, but the BBC used to do a thing in conjunction with various charities, and they bring kids who were in a little bit in trouble to the set. And the privilege of being with them who saw this character as a real thing was amazing. You know, that's something that all of us really cherish.
- [10:46]
B
Wow. So you must have. I've just realized that you walking down the street is probably for some people, you could walk down the street and have a child burst into tears with happiness and have someone ask you to tell them to fuck off. Because of the thing of it is
- [10:59]
C
that that has happened to me. Yeah. Yeah. Because people like to tell me to ask me to tell them to fuck off or swear at me, you know, from a car, use very, very bad language and swear at me as they pass. And that was a wonderful piece of luck. You know, it was a great thing that you could have both of these kind of constituencies. And also for me, you know, all of them are quite young, which is. Which is lovely as well. I'd get a lot of kind of studently people coming up and asking me to verbally abuse them and whatnot, which was a pleasure.
- [11:32]
B
So you did these huge things. You continue to be in huge things. And you also write and direct and are a musician. I always ask people this, and it's kind of an impossible question. And it sort of depends what you're offered as well. But, like, I believe you're in a position certainly in my eyes where you must get offered a lot of things. So. So what Is it. Do you know what it is that makes you choose your next thing?
- [11:52]
C
Not really. I mean, I would just say about what you've just said, it's very kind of you. I would say I've had a go at all of these things. I'm not necessarily saying I do all of these things. You know, I'm not a writer, I'm not a director.
- [12:08]
B
You are an Oscar winning writer director, though.
- [12:10]
C
Yeah. But that's not what this is. What I think after I've struggled with this for years with trying to figure out there's a thing that happens which is unfortunate, which is if you move from, you will experience this, or perhaps you haven't experienced it. Perhaps things have changed. I found when I wanted to try and direct, my acting career dried up, right?
- [12:29]
B
Yes.
- [12:29]
C
Because people sort of thought we're saying, well, what is he, what does he do, what does he want to do? And there's a sense that you have to be fully committed to one thing or the other.
- [12:39]
B
Yeah.
- [12:40]
C
And I've realized over the years that I'm not any of these categories. Musician, actor, director. I'm just this guy that likes to have a go at this stuff. It happens to all be in that area. It all largely comes from the same scene. I mean, I went to art school originally and the ethos there was always that you, you tried to create and you didn't put limits upon what you were creating. Just if it was there, you had to go and see how far you could take it. So that's kind of what I've done. But that doesn't fit into a kind of career structure or people want you to be one thing or. But I would be. I'm very keen that people don't think that. I think I, I am all of these, I am all of these things, but I don't think I'm really great at all of those things. Are really successful all those things. And particularly as a musician, I'm not. I have great friends who are, who are musicians who have given their life to it.
- [13:40]
B
Right.
- [13:40]
C
And who have gone through all the up, the downs and the struggles as I have with acting, really. Because most of my life has been spent acting and that's not always been hugely successful. It's not always worked for me. And you have to, to live a life with this stuff, you know, So I don't for a moment think, because I'm not picking up a guitar and picking up where I left off at the age of 23 and have having to go that I'm in any way in the same ballpark as them? You know, I'm just having a go.
- [14:09]
A
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- [14:37]
B
Peter, I've forgotten to tell you something.
- [14:40]
C
Yeah.
- [14:40]
B
Most bad that I didn't tell you earlier. I probably should have said it at the beginning.
- [14:45]
C
Too late now.
- [14:46]
B
But I got sort of. I was just so excited to meet you. I sort of. I got. I guess I got carried away and I should have. I probably should have said this. I said I'll say it. You've died. You're dead.
- [14:57]
C
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
- [14:58]
B
You're dead.
- [14:59]
C
Yeah.
- [14:59]
B
I'm so sorry.
- [15:00]
C
That's.
- [15:01]
B
Or not.
- [15:02]
C
It happens. Yeah, I wasn't expecting it, but there you go.
- [15:05]
B
How did you. How did you die?
- [15:07]
C
In quite a mysterious fashion.
- [15:09]
B
Oh, go on. Oh, I love that.
- [15:11]
C
Well, I think there was a. You know, I think the thing was I disappeared for a few days, I think, and people didn't know where. Where I was. And concerns were growing because I think maybe a series I'd done hadn't been recommissioned or something. Maybe someone had seen me on Tuesday and I was okay, a little bit down. And so there were concerns about me. But a nationwide search wasn't launched. But there was an awareness, there was
- [15:38]
B
a mini manhunt, a local manhunt.
- [15:41]
C
You should be looking for a sad looking man in his late 60s. And I think there was an accident in a chip shop, I think, I think I was eventually tracked down to a chip shop in Lytham St. Anne's, which is a seaside resort in Morecambe, which is where I went as a child.
- [15:59]
B
Oh God.
- [16:00]
C
And I think an over fried chip. I swallowed an over fried chip, they think, but.
- [16:05]
B
But no one knows if it was an accident.
- [16:07]
C
They don't know.
- [16:08]
B
Oh God.
- [16:10]
C
It cost a block. Something like that. It might have been a Maybe, I'm not sure. A bus might have been involved. I was like when I was a kid you'd hear about people getting run over by buses, which doesn't seem to happen anymore.
- [16:23]
B
Yeah, you know what? It used to happen a lot more, didn't it?
- [16:27]
C
It did. And there was a strange. It was, It's a strangely nostalgic way to go because it was kind of quite. It was horrible, but a little bit comforting because it was a bus.
- [16:34]
B
Yeah. Well, maybe you. Maybe you were choking on the chip and you went out into the street to get help.
- [16:40]
C
And I think that's what it was. I struggled. I reached out and.
- [16:43]
B
Yeah.
- [16:43]
C
Lost my. Yeah, so it's great.
- [16:47]
B
Yeah, it's really. No, I love it. It's a really depressing death. But. But what's good. What's good about it is people will be thinking about you a lot because at first there's a disappearance. You know, you get a week's worth out of it, I think, rather than if you just died without the disappearance.
- [17:02]
C
Yeah. The disappearance is, unfortunately, that stimulates an appetite for a good end. I don't know whether I've provided a good end for it, but that's why I'm not a writer.
- [17:12]
B
No. Well, I think people will debate. There'll be a lot of chat with the man who served you or woman who served you the chips.
- [17:20]
C
Yeah.
- [17:21]
B
Whether. You know, was this an accident?
- [17:23]
C
But I think it goes back to the. Perhaps it was a sitcom that didn't get recommissioned.
- [17:27]
B
My God, it was a sitcom as well.
- [17:29]
C
You know what I'm talking about? You know what? You know what I mean? You know, he seemed in good spirits.
- [17:34]
B
Yeah. He made funny stuff. He was just making a funny show. He was funny.
- [17:38]
C
And he had always said he wasn't bothered about that showbiz stuff.
- [17:41]
B
Yeah. He even went so far as to say, I'm not really anything. I'm just a guy trying to.
- [17:46]
C
Just a guy doing stuff.
- [17:48]
B
Doing stuff. That's why I learned, like at art school. I don't care. I got no skin in the game, he said, and went for a very long walk. Do you worry about death?
- [18:01]
C
I didn't used to
- [18:05]
B
until right now.
- [18:06]
C
Well, it was much further away. It's much on my mind. Oh, sorry. I seem. I've got an email come through. I don't know why that. Did you hear that?
- [18:14]
B
I didn't hear it.
- [18:14]
C
It was from the funeral parlor. It was a price list.
- [18:18]
B
Okay.
- [18:20]
C
Now. Yeah, I do think about it a lot. Yeah, I didn't used to, but I mean, like last year, I didn't think it just suddenly come upon me. It's just. I think I'm. Because of my grandfather now. Because.
- [18:32]
B
Oh, well, congratulations.
- [18:33]
C
Thank you. You realize this, you know, I have three grandchildren and I suddenly realized there's only. There's a limit to how long I will see them and know them.
- [18:42]
B
Yeah.
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C
That never occurred to me that there'd be an ending to this.
- [18:46]
B
Oh, God.
- [18:47]
C
Apart from. In comic terms.
- [18:48]
B
Yeah. So.
- [18:49]
C
So, yeah, I do think about a lot now.
- [18:51]
B
Yeah. What do you think happens after you die?
- [18:53]
C
I think it just absorbed into the stardust. Because we're all made of stars, aren't we? We're all made of the same material.
- [18:59]
B
We are made of stars. Yeah.
- [19:01]
C
That the entire universe is made up. So you just become what you were before. Or perhaps another thing. I don't think you.
- [19:06]
B
There's.
- [19:07]
C
I don't believe in any reincarnation or for heaven or anything, but a consciousness. But I do believe in atoms and material. Well, it is a fact. This material doesn't disappear. It just turns into other material.
- [19:21]
B
So you don't believe in reincarnation, but you could come back as a toothbrush.
- [19:24]
C
Yeah. It's not a very good attractive religion. I can get that. It's not that you just come back as a toothbrush, but you wouldn't have consciousness as a toothbrush.
- [19:34]
B
I'd hope not.
- [19:35]
C
No.
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B
That's a nightmarish existence.
- [19:39]
C
She's got lovely teeth. She's got lovely teeth.
- [19:41]
B
Thank you. Well, I got news for you, Peter. There is a heaven. Sorry? You're going there and it's filled with your favorite thing. What's your favorite thing?
- [19:50]
C
Lasagna. Oh, my God.
- [19:53]
B
It is wall to wall lasagna. The walls are lasagna. The sofa's lasagna. Like the perfect temperature. Nice and warm. They won't burn you. You could sit lovely. Like, imagine this sort of pillowy feel, like quite a fancy on a giant lasagna. Everything lasagna.
- [20:10]
C
And it's a special city. That's yesterday's lasagna. It's just made of. Yes.
- [20:15]
B
Yeah. It's a little bit more solid over there. And anytime you just grab a handful, eat it, it grows back. It's a lovely. It's a lovely. You'll be so happy there. But the people of heaven, the lasagna people of heaven, they're so excited, the lasagnas. The Lasagnans, as they prefer to be called. The Lasagnans are so excited to see you. They want to talk about your life, but they want to talk about it through film, which is odd for lasagnans, but that's their way. And the first thing they want to know is what is the first film you remember seeing? Peter Capaldi.
- [20:45]
C
Well, I mentioned memory earlier on in relationship to Dr. Who, and I think I thought the first film that I'd seen was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Not when it originally came out, obviously, in 19 Hoo ha. Yeah. But I'd been taken to as a kid in the 60s because this was another world. And I think it's important to kind of sketch in how movies were consumed, which is like television. They weren't available on your laptop or anything. They just went to this special place called a cinema in which you paid tickets to go in and sat with other people and watched them on a big screen and they'd only be there for a week or so, then they'd be gone and they might not come back. And so. And films were kind of legendary. Your parents had seen films and they spoke about them with hushed words and how great they were and how wonderful they were. And when they'd seen them, and they hoped that one day they'd come back again. Gone with the Wind, for instance, which was an enormous, colossal hit, they would talk in hushed tones about that, that they had seen it when it first appeared and maybe it would come back and they'd get a chance to see again. And so Disney used to do this thing of they re released their films that, I mean, obviously even then Snow White was a classic film and they released them every five or six years or whatever. So I thought that was the first film because I remember I'd seen it in the cinema, but I had a memory of something else. I had a memory of a star in the sky and I had a memory of quite a dark and frightening place with strange figures in it and at a memory of a little boy in danger. And I thought, that's Pinocchio. Oh, wow, that's Pinocchio. And I actually just looked up the re release dates for those Disney films and Pinocchio was re released in the UK in 1962. So I would have been about four or five.
- [22:43]
B
Wow, that's a good memory.
- [22:45]
C
Yeah. And so Snow White didn't come out again until like 1964 or 1967 or something like that. So it must have been Pinocchio that I saw because it's in there.
- [22:54]
B
Yeah. Which is a terrifying film.
- [22:57]
C
It's terrifying, but it's quite beautiful. It's quite a. Quite a. You know, I think it's a wonderful film and I've seen it subsequently, you know, and I think it's really quite an incredible achievement.
- [23:07]
B
Wow.
- [23:08]
C
It's so scary. It's so scary. With Stromboli, the puppet maker, and then they take Pinocchio to the to the island where they all smoke cigars and all the, all the, all the boys get to do what they like. They smoke cigars and they drink and then they become asses.
- [23:25]
B
Yeah.
- [23:26]
C
Because they've behaved so badly. And of course, the star is the beautiful star in the sky. The herald's the arrival of the. Of the blue fairy, who's. I mean, I love these. When you see the human figures in these Disney films, they are so period. I mean, she, she, you know, she looks like she could have been in. In a Busby Barclay film.
- [23:44]
B
Yeah, exactly that. Yeah.
- [23:45]
C
You know, with that, that sort of elegance. And also that song, you know, when you wish upon a star, which is the theme. Is the Disney theme Disney? Yeah, but you hear it in. At the end of Close Encounters of the. Of the Third Kind in the John Williams score when the. The mother ship arrives and it takes them away just gently through all the. Do, do, do, do. Do you hear? When you wish upon a star. What a song. You know, it's. It's both absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. So that's Pinocchio for you.
- [24:17]
B
That's an excellent start.
- [24:20]
A
This episode is brought to you by. Prime Obsession is in session. And this summer, prime originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories. And the book to screen favorites you've already read twice off campus. Elle every year after the Love Hypothesis, Sterling Point and more slow burns, second chances chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime.
- [24:49]
B
What is the film that scared you the most? Do you like being scared?
- [24:53]
C
I love horror films, but I'm not very scared. I'm not very scared of them.
- [24:57]
B
Okay, interesting.
- [24:58]
C
But the one that scared me was the Exorcist.
- [25:01]
B
Okay.
- [25:01]
C
Because it wasn't built like a kind of horror film. It wasn't built like the horror. I mean, I love Hammer films and all that. And, you know, I loved. I got to meet Peter Cushion when I was. Peter Cushion was one of the big stars of the Hammer movies. In fact, I loved him. So I got his autograph and I copied my autograph from his because he's got the same. Because he's Peter Cushing and I'm Peter. So I copied my autograph from this. But the Exorcist I thought was very. It was. It was kind of modern. It was in the real world and of course had Tubular Bells. I mean, you wouldn't. Who would think to pick Tubular Bells as the theme for a horror movie? But it absolutely works and it has just the whole thing is infused with a sense of unease, and I think that's one of the most difficult things to do.
- [25:45]
B
Yeah.
- [25:46]
C
And I really admire when directors can do that. The whole thing, you just know something not good is going to happen.
- [25:52]
B
Yeah.
- [25:53]
C
And the fact that it is also a supernatural thing. There are very few kind of. You know, there are vampires and werewolves, but we sort of know they don't really exist. But the possession thing.
- [26:05]
B
Yeah.
- [26:06]
C
Is much more of a gray area. It's much more of a, you know, maybe that actually does happen. And also, you know, I was brought up a Catholic, so I'm always a bit scared of priests, you know, and there's always a lot of power there. And of course, it has that fantastic, you know, flash shot where the sudden the devil's face appears in that cut with it. Because the guy. I can't remember the name of the guy who played the priest, he didn't really seem to appear again, but he had that face. He looked really Italian. He looked like he could have been the Godfather or something. But he wasn't. But he never really made many other movies. But, no, that was scary.
- [26:36]
B
That is scary. And I watched that when I was little. I watched it when I was little and I wasn't scared, but I sort of thought it was stupid and didn't. Didn't get me at all. And then when I was much only, like a few years ago, I watched it and it scared the shit out of me. I was like, it's such a good. It does the thing I love of atmosphere. It's like. It feels really real, the world of it. The.
- [26:59]
C
Yeah. I also think this.
- [27:01]
B
Yeah, it's slow in a good way.
- [27:03]
C
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think this. I mean, I think maybe some of the effects now feel a little stagey. But of course, that's because they're real. They're not.
- [27:12]
B
Yeah.
- [27:12]
C
They're not digitized. But there's also a thing from that period of films actually look incredibly good.
- [27:17]
B
Yeah, I think I did.
- [27:19]
C
You know, they actually. I don't know how they do it. What. Obviously, the shot on film and all that, but, you know, the creator's sensitivity to light and to a composition is. Seems way ahead of where we are. It's like, you watch, you know, Taxi Driver. You know, watch a minute of Taxi Driver, and yes, there's all the drama and extremity of Taxi, but the actual images, the color, the way. The way it looks is amazing.
- [27:46]
B
I watched the whole thing about this, and it was really depressing about why films don't look good anymore. And it's to do with. Well, it's partly that they're not shot on film, but I think it's that everything now gets cleaned up digitally and so it softens. No one sweats anymore. No one looks nasty, no one looks right. Everyone has a slightly digital scene to their face, which I think is almost done automatically now, without any thought.
- [28:11]
C
Right.
- [28:11]
B
There's like a base level of cleaning up to the image. So therefore there's a sheen to it that they didn't use.
- [28:18]
C
That's not real. That's not. That's not.
- [28:21]
B
Yeah.
- [28:21]
C
I guess old filmmaking has a closer relationship to what the human eye sees, I guess.
- [28:27]
B
What is the film that made you cry the most? Are you a crier?
- [28:30]
C
I'm a terrible crier. I mean, I cry all the. All the time. All the time. Although I find it very difficult to cry on film when asked. I don't know why that is, but I cry or anything, as you've seen. And I think there's different levels of movie crime, really. I mean, I think basically anything by Terence Davis makes me cry. There's always a scene in the Terence Davis, or not even a scene, as I'm always a moment.
- [28:56]
B
How was working with him?
- [28:58]
C
Fantastic. I was so thrilled to work with him because I was a huge fan of his and I loved him.
- [29:05]
B
I loved it.
- [29:06]
C
Well, you know, this is the kind of director I don't know how you would feel about being directed like this or directed like this, but I loved it. Terence would basically say to you, stand there, look to the left for two beats, bring your head back forward for one beat, then walk off. I'm like, yes, this is because I also know he's composed a picture in which that action will work. But also he gave me a note once, which I love. This is so Terence Davids, he said. Just a little bit more elegiac, he said. So I thought, oh, I'll give that a shot. I'll try and be a bit more energized.
- [29:40]
B
Yeah, I'll do some. I'll do some elegia for you.
- [29:44]
C
But he was lovely and I loved. And. But, yeah, I mean, I loved it. I mean. Distant Voices Still Lives is. Makes me cry because it reminds me. Not that my childhood was any like thing. It reminds me of childhood and it reminds me of. It's so incredibly British. It's the story of him growing up in a very. His father's very abusive and his mother's very loving and it's full of Love and pain and it's human, but it's also. There's a scene in it where they'll have a sing song in a pub. And it breaks my heart.
- [30:18]
B
Yeah.
- [30:19]
C
Because that's kind of, it's sort of what people used to do. It's not a raucous thing. So they, they don't, they don't all go out. They don't attack a hotel afterwards. They, they, they, they are attacking. You know, it's a very, it's a, it's a very. Again, it's a, it's a. It's about the past. It's, it's what people did. They sat and sang. So that's my. That makes me cry. But the film that will make you cry without a shadow of a doubt is a film called the Champ. Have you seen the Champ? Jon Voight and Ricky Schroeder.
- [30:51]
B
Yeah.
- [30:51]
C
Franco Zay Ferrelli's version of it. And it's an old, you know, it's. I don't know, it's like a kind of fun.
- [30:57]
B
It's a weepy for boys is what
- [30:59]
C
it's an old, it was originally made in 1931 with, with, with I think like Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper. And it's an old, old fashioned film about a box. I love all these American films about boxers, you know, because they're classic, iconic kind of characters. And I said, I can't remember how it happens, but it's either the boxer's son or it's. He's a little kid, he's about six or seven and ends up. The boxer have to look after his son. But the boxer has to do one last fight in order to try and get some money to look after the kid. And of course, in the one last fight, he gets knocked out and killed. And it's a scene when they bring him into the dressing room and the kids there and the kids can't believe that he's. And wow. I mean, you just can't get through it. I mean it's. And I think it's almost like it must be. It would be against the law now, I think to make a child act a go through this because Ricky Schroeder just breaks his heart.
- [31:57]
B
Yeah. Have you ever had to do a scene like that?
- [32:03]
C
No, but I'm saying it's not easy. I've done something where I did, you know, I mean the show, Criminal Record, which is the Apple show, which is just the new season of. That's coming on.
- [32:12]
B
This is what's coming next.
- [32:13]
C
This is what's coming next. But we did a scene in the first season where I had to. There was a kind of flashback scene where I had to. I'm not giving away the plot of it, but there's. Something bad had happened to me and it wasn't in the script. And I was talking to the. To another actor about something else in this scene, and he asked me about this bad thing that happened to me, and I just started to cry and I did. It was beyond my control, and it was. And I don't know whether it's the pressure of the anxiety of doing the job or just your age, because it was quite genuine. And it came out of a. I think, I guess, being in the zone, quite powerful. But it's not something. I mean, some people are great. They can just cry. I can't. I've never been able to do that. So I always dread it when I open a script and it says, he gets very emotional.
- [32:55]
B
Yeah.
- [32:56]
C
I hate that. Most people. Most actors do. Do you. Do you. How do you find that?
- [33:01]
B
I think that, yeah, you always feel pressure. You go, there's too much pressure. But it's almost like you. I think. And I don't know. Who knows if I'm any good at it, but I think it is the. You have to let go of. You have to cry. You have to have tears. You have to do it and just be like, whatever happens, happens. If you're in. If you're in.
- [33:20]
C
Yeah.
- [33:21]
B
Right.
- [33:21]
C
Yeah.
- [33:21]
B
As in, you can't. If they're like, can you do a big old cry? I don't know. But if it's like, react honestly to this.
- [33:29]
C
Yeah.
- [33:30]
B
And hope for the best.
- [33:31]
C
But it's interesting. I find it getting older as. As an actor. I can't. You know, I mean, I idolize Anthony Hopkins. I just think he's incredible.
- [33:40]
B
He's very.
- [33:40]
C
And I watch him. I go, how do you. How do you. Where do you even start? What. What is it that you are doing? What is he doing here? And I can see, the more that I've studied him, that there are little things that he does that are. That are obviously. I know. Let's not call them tricks, but they are keys in his toolbox. He's got them there. And he can put them in there to get. To take the. To do something, for instance, to make something more. He's always kind of just out of nowhere, looking around there, you know, over his. And it's got no bearing on anything. It doesn't. That's not a person with a gun over there or the camera doesn't cut over there. He'll just occasionally throw looks away and what they are are little ticks that are. That look real. So he's pushing the thing into a kind of zone. So he's convincing you that this is real. But then he infuses the lines with. And not just the lines, but the spaces between the lines with emotion and memory. And I wish actors, I'd love to say to him, how do you. What are you doing? But actors don't do that. They don't. They don't give away their secrets.
- [34:43]
B
Interesting.
- [34:45]
A
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- [35:05]
B
Lly.com but maybe I haven't done enough of it to have any kind of unifying theory other than it's magic. Yeah, I think it's magic because sometimes it doesn't happen. And then that's when it's hard where you're like not connected, not present. And then the skill of that is. It's all fucking meditation or something, isn't it? It's like being, like zoning out everything and being.
- [35:30]
C
Well, you know, but you know that you have to. You know, I remember John Ham saying, you know, his responsibility when he plays Don Draper is to get these 12 episodes finished by October or whatever, to get the train in the station. So you have to be able to deal with the reality of, you know, if you're in Doctor who, you know, you're making episodic television. You don't have days to do this stuff. You've got to go fast. And if you don't get it right, you don't get it right. The great thing is you get another chance, maybe tomorrow to try something else. But you can. The more skill you develop then, the more, you know, I kind of know that I can get through the day. I can do the day's work. That doesn't mean that it's particularly good. But what I love is when we've got a little bit of time and we can say, okay, well, let's just try one that's this way, let's try one that's that way and do variations as opposed to pursuing a kind of definitive performance. But you need time to do that.
- [36:29]
B
I think it's also. It's taken me a long time. I don't ever want to be like, I find the whole thing so embarrassing and I just want to be. I want everyone to have a nice time on set and, and I never want to be like an actor and be like, could I have a minute? You know what I mean? I embarrassed to ever ask for anything. But what I sort of have learned is when it's an emotional thing or something, it's like I just take myself to a corner and just stand there quietly. I don't go, I need a minute. I'll just do it quietly and be in my head, you've got it. But I did this rom com recently and we did this big sort of finale, you know, love declaration bit. And we did a rehearsal just to check how we're gonna do this. And both of us were like, not expecting it, but incredibly emotional, like in this rehearsal. And I, and I remember being like, can we just shoot it? Because I'm worried that we're gonna cry in this rehearsal. And then it's all got. You know what I mean?
- [37:27]
C
Absolutely.
- [37:28]
B
And I just. And it's hard to ask for. You know what I mean? You don't want to be like, I understand everyone's got to do their thing, but I feel like, let's get this because I think, yeah, we'll run it out.
- [37:37]
C
I completely, I think everything you've just said to me absolutely makes sense and is right. First of all, it is embarrassing to draw attention to yourself as an actor.
- [37:47]
B
Say.
- [37:48]
C
It's like when they say embarrassing when you think, oh, I'd like another take. I mean, as a director and you've. I know you'll have this experience as well. You know, if I'm directing, I'm just amazed at what the actors do. I'm just my jaws on the floor and I go, you know, with this amazing. And we've sort of got it in the first take. But then when it's, do you mind if I have another one? And I hate. I would never. I don't ask for another takes. Like, I can't deliver and I'm frightened of the pressure of delivering something else. And also it's other people's time as well. It's not just your time, it's other people's time. But I think, I think older act and I think more. The actors who have come up in the theater are more skilled at using their time effectively and are very self reliant and so they don't need other people's micro climates. They don't have to create a microclimate, you know, to make it. They seem to be able to just make it happen. But there's no, you know, I think whatever gets you through the night. I don't care. Whatever it takes. Whatever it takes. Because I don't know what it takes. I'll try anything.
- [38:54]
B
What is the film that you love is not critically acclaimed, but you love it unconditionally?
- [39:01]
C
Oh, well, it's not critically acclaimed and my wife certainly doesn't like it. But because it's a film called Dracula AD 1972, which was.
- [39:11]
B
Yes, I believe I've seen it.
- [39:12]
C
To me, it's. It's up there with Citizen Kane, really is. It's one of the. And it's not. No one would think it was a bad film. It's not a bad film, but it's perhaps not as in the zone of films that are. It's not going to appear in any top 100 best film lists. But it's a film in which Dracula, played by Christopher Lee, there's a fantastic opening sequence where he and the forementioned Peter Cushing playing who is the one and only Dr. Van Helsing, they had do a battle to the death in 19th century London. And that's how the movie starts. But Dracula crumbles to dust and his dust is collected by a young man called Johnny Alucard, which those who are smart will recognize as Dracula spelled backwards. And Johnny Alucard collects his dust, his ashes, and puts it in a little vial. Vial. A vial. Is that the way you say that little glass tube?
- [40:05]
B
Yeah.
- [40:06]
C
And he himself is obviously a vampire of some description or something because he survives to 1972, which is the year the film was made and released, and the year Ziggy Stardust the spiders from Mars appeared. And he brings Dracula back to life. And this is what I love about it, this is what makes it so much fun. He brings Dracula back to life in 1972. But obviously the people making the film are gentlemen. I'm sure they were largely gentlemen of a certain age who did not know that Ziggy Stardust and Led Zeppelin were around in 1972. They are still living in a kind of Tommy Steele cappuccino bar, kind of 60s. So they have a sort of swinging 60s with all these cool cats and stuff like that in it. And so Dracula has to, you know, engages, is brought back to life and has this gang of cool, but not really cool cats and it's fantastic. It's just so brilliant. And I remember I also saw it in the cinema and I think it was the first X film because in those days this were the. That I actually got in to see, you know, because I would have been 14. So I managed, I managed to go and pass myself off as an 18 year old and got in to see it on the big screen. So it was amazing.
- [41:24]
B
Yeah, that's nice. On the other hand, what is a film that you used to love, that you have watched recently and you've thought, I don't like this anymore because I've
- [41:33]
C
changed because of some of the work. I looked at a lot of crime movies because of Criminal Record because we wanted a certain look for that, which is a kind of American.
- [41:43]
B
You produce Criminal Records. Right.
- [41:45]
C
I was one of the executive producers of it, but we were very, I was very keen. I was a great fan of those, you know, the Long Good Friday and Mona Lisa and all those kind of films that were set in London.
- [41:55]
B
Yeah.
- [41:55]
C
That were crime movies but also the romantic. But London as a backdrop was just amazing in all of those films. But I also looked a lot of American films. You know, Michael Mann is incredible. The Insider is an absolutely incredible. Visually it's just absolutely stunning. But I looked at a film called Internal affairs which I'd remember seeing when it first came out. Mike Figures, I think. And it, and it was. I remember it as a very hard hitting sort of crime drama based in LA with Richard Gere as a very corrupt Andy Garcia. Andy Garcia, yeah, as a guy who, you know, as the young cop who still has a moral compass. And I just found as many of those films from that period, I think it's early 80s, they're kind of bogus, you know, they're sort of, they're sort of not really real. They're sort of a kind of weird kind of male fantasy about how cool it is to be horrible and also how sexy it is to be horrible. There's a number of, on recent watching found it to be quite unpleasant in its. The way that it handled women. But then that's possibly probably. There were a lot of, you know, films reflect the periods that they were, they were made. But what it didn't have the, the grit that I thought that it had.
- [43:16]
B
Yeah. A lot of 80s films were made by people on loads of cocaine. Probably thought it was sexy to be horrible.
- [43:23]
C
Yeah, I think that's true. I think that's true. Yeah.
- [43:27]
A
This episode is brought to you by State Farm. You know those friends who support Your preference for podcasts over music on road trips. That's the energy State Farm brings to insurance. With over 19,000 local agents, they help you find the coverage that fits your needs so you can spend less time worrying about insurance and more time enjoying the ride. Download the State Farm app or go online@statefarm.com like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
- [43:52]
B
What's the film that means the most to you? Not necessarily the film is any good, but the experience you had seeing the film will always make it meaningful to you. Peter Capaldi.
- [44:03]
C
Well, there's a film which is an amazing film, and my beloved wife, Late Night went to see this film and had very poor reviews. And one of the things I learned about this experience was really not to believe reviews because it was universally kind of panned. And we thought, well, let's go and see anyway. Let's see what it's like. And it was Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
- [44:28]
B
Oh, my God.
- [44:29]
C
Which is one of the greatest, One of the greatest comedy, one of the greatest films ever made, you know, with this balance of humor and heart, is absolutely pitch perfect.
- [44:45]
B
Yeah.
- [44:45]
C
And I thought, well, I don't believe reviews one. And second, I thought, this is such an incredible film. How can we do something like this? And that's how I ended up writing this little film called Soft Top that
- [44:58]
B
we're playing straight to that movie, which
- [45:01]
C
was a little road movie, because I thought, how can you make something similar to that with that form in the uk? How can you try and make that work? But it was sort of inspired, but although it's obviously not anywhere near that at all. But, you know, it was that. It was such an inspiration to me because I thought this, this, you know, bringing these two characters together and. And there were quite a lot of films around that time that sort of played with that. What's the great film with Robert De Niro and Midnight Run? Oh, yeah. I mean, Midnight Run is just absolutely stunning. Absolutely stunning. But it had a kind of road movie element to it as well.
- [45:38]
B
Yes.
- [45:39]
C
And it seemed a very American thing to do because obviously they have the space. We don't have the space. But if you come from Glasgow, then you have. And go back. That's a little bit of space that play with.
- [45:50]
B
I couldn't cry watching the last 15 seconds of planes Trains in automobile at any time.
- [45:56]
C
Yeah. And also. Oh, that's fantastic. And also the I like me scene.
- [46:02]
B
Yeah.
- [46:03]
C
You know, when Steve Martin confronts him in the hotel room. But what a boring guy is.
- [46:07]
B
Yeah.
- [46:07]
C
And he does, you know, and the Path that he takes out of that is to say that he thinks he's okay, his wife thinks he's okay. His friend, you know, his friends like him. I like me. I mean, it's hot. And John Candy is just.
- [46:19]
B
Yeah.
- [46:19]
C
Stunning.
- [46:20]
B
Yeah. What is the film you relate to? You most relate to the Florida is
- [46:28]
C
Ed Wood, which is. Which is the film that Tim Burton made about BER Lugosi. And Ed Wood, who was, to those who don't know, has been unfairly labeled as the worst film director of all time. And his work has been accused of being some of the worst films ever made. But he was somebody, as you will know this, you'll recognize this. The struggle to make anything makes you a kindred spirit with anybody else who's trying to do it. And so Edward is struggling to make his own movies with zero money, you know, but I think he has a job at studios. He gets access to studio props and stuff like that. And also, it's a beautiful film shot in black and white. And they managed to find that. That period, that kind of post war period in Los Angeles, or maybe, probably it's the 50s, possibly. I can't remember. I remember because I was very interested in Bela Lugosi because obviously he'd played Dracula. There's a fabulous sequence in it where Martin Landau, who plays Bela Lugosi, for those who don't know, Bela Lugosi, used to play Dracula in the original Universal. There's a theme through all my picks here. He played the original Dracula in the kind of 1931 Universal Dracula. And he ended up. He. He became a heroin addict and had a very sad end. But on that path, descending path, he got embroiled with Ed Wood, who was this not highly respected director, but agreed to do some films with him. But there's a fabulous sequence in it where Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi, is watching the real Bela Lugosi when he was younger in an earlier film. And it cuts between Lando and the real Berlagosa.
- [48:17]
B
Yeah.
- [48:17]
C
Which is fantastic. And just the whole idea of trying to make a film, you know, just the. The pain of it, you know, and the belief that this time it will work, this time will be the one. This one, this will be the breakthrough, you know. And also there's a sequence in it which I often thought about Doctor who, which really. There's a sequence in it where they're making a horror movie and they. They don't know what the monster is, but he manages to find, because he works at the studio, a giant s a giant squid prop. And he manages to. To. To borrow it overnight. So they've got to shoot at night. And so they have this giant squid. And he says to Baylor, you go in and you fight the squid, and it almost kills you, but you defeat it. Okay, says Baylor. And then he. And he lies down with the squid and he says, where are the operators? What do you mean? Where are the. You know, the people who operate the. Where's the. Where's the motor? Surely this has a motor that keeps it, makes it alive. And he said, no, it's just a rubber squid. So he just had to fight it. There was no puppeteer. And occasionally in Doctor who, I'd find myself. I would be saying, where's the operator? Moment. And they would say, there is no operator. You have just got to fight it. It's a force field, you fool. There's a force field right there. So obviously you can't get past that force field. Where is the force field? It. Well, it's coming. It's coming later or. You know, I had to fight. I had to fight a giant. I had to fight a giant spider in Doctor who. And it was just a large rubber spider, like a giant version of something you get in a joke shop.
- [49:56]
B
Right.
- [49:57]
C
There was no Muppet people.
- [49:59]
B
That's good acting. That is.
- [50:01]
C
I'd like to see Daniel. Let's see Daniel Day Lewis have a go at that.
- [50:06]
B
Anthony Hopkins with a spider trying to look to the left for no reason. Love to see that.
- [50:12]
C
No big deal. No big deal.
- [50:16]
B
What's the sexiest film you've ever seen?
- [50:19]
C
I've ever seen.
- [50:20]
B
Yeah.
- [50:20]
C
I think. And this might be an odd choice, but I think a very sexy film is Blade Runner.
- [50:26]
B
That is an odd choice, but I'm not here to judge. I'm here to listen.
- [50:29]
C
Well, you're here to listen. Well, first of all, it's imbued with the glamour of. Of a Ridley Scott film. Yeah. Ridley Scott being part of a group of filmmakers who cut their teeth on commercials.
- [50:43]
B
Yeah.
- [50:44]
C
And so it has a sleekness and an almost kind of slightly sort of porny sheen to it. The whole thing.
- [50:55]
B
Yeah.
- [50:55]
C
And his eye is so highly developed and he. And he casts so brilliantly, and he has such a kind of. Such access to the history of film that he. Well, there are characters in it who are just. Who look incredibly sexy.
- [51:12]
B
You know what? You won me over. You're right.
- [51:14]
C
Just go. Go and have a look at it. And look at the gentle. At the gentlemen and ladies in that film.
- [51:20]
B
In Blade Running they're all fair. You're right.
- [51:22]
C
And they're all absolutely. And they're all lit to their best. And they are dressed with an elegance that points to an appetite being stimulated.
- [51:37]
B
I think that's an excellent answer. There is a subcategory to this question. Troubling boners, worrying why don'ts, which is a film you found arousing. You weren't sure you were meant to.
- [51:47]
C
That's a tricky one. I don't really. No, I think they must.
- [51:52]
B
None of your boners have been traveling.
- [51:54]
C
I think films usually do the business, don't they? They know what they're about.
- [51:59]
B
Okay. What is objectively the greatest film of all time might not be your favorite, but if aliens came and said, what's the pinnacle of cinema? What would you show them?
- [52:12]
C
Well, this is. Yeah, I mean, it's a kind of bogus question, isn't it, really? Because there is.
- [52:17]
B
You can't.
- [52:18]
C
There is no one. And I know you've banned the Godfather from being referred to.
- [52:23]
B
It's been a while. If you need to do it, you can do it.
- [52:26]
C
Well, if we're saying, you know, I think great films are where everything's great. I mean, the direction, the dialogue, the music, the sound effects, the costumes, the editing, the acting.
- [52:40]
B
Yeah.
- [52:40]
C
And I think The Godfather Part 2 excels in all of those departments. I'd also say Distant Voices, Still Lives.
- [52:48]
B
Yeah.
- [52:49]
C
Excels in those department. And also the Elephant man excels in those department. You know, the. The greatest film. I don't know. It can be a very small film that is absolutely beautifully realized.
- [53:04]
B
45 years.
- [53:06]
C
Yeah.
- [53:06]
B
I'm going to choose the Elephant man from your list.
- [53:08]
C
The Elephant man is amazing. I love it. I love the Elephant Man. It is one of the. It is it. I remember seeing it because a lot of these ones I saw when they came out, you know, in the cinema, and I can. I was watching the Elephant Man. Someone asked me to stop breathing so heavily because obviously I was so enraptured by the whole thing. And of course, the cinema got very, very silent because no one had seen anything, but I was obviously panting in a very engaged way.
- [53:38]
B
I love that. It's so beautiful. And did you watch the Mel Brooks documentary that Judd Apatow made?
- [53:44]
C
I haven't seen it. No. I've got. That'll be my treat for tonight. What did he say about it?
- [53:50]
B
Well, there's a whole section on the Elephant man, and one thing that's like, they say was, like, the greatest sort of egoless gift is that he Produced the Elephant man, and he chose David lynch and took a huge risk and all of that stuff. But he took his own name off the credits so that people wouldn't go in going, oh, it's gonna be a comedy. He was egoless. Let's make this beautiful film. And they don't need to know I did it.
- [54:16]
C
It also shows the range of his talent.
- [54:19]
B
Yeah.
- [54:19]
C
Mel Brooks. But, yeah. No, I think that was an amazing thing. Also, again, another fabulous Anthony Hopkins performance. And one of my most favorite bits is, this sounds really silly, is he walks past a horse and he goes to the horse, but you think, well, he's just making a noise that some people make when they walk past a horse. It's very natural.
- [54:39]
B
It's real. Yeah.
- [54:40]
C
But I also thought he lives in a world. You know, in Victorian times, there were horses. But also he's the kind of guy that. That doctor is the kind of person that would be aware of the. Of the horses as an animal.
- [54:51]
B
Yeah. What is the film you could or have watched the most over and over again?
- [54:56]
C
I'm looking here. I think I wrote this down. Let me see. Because. And you think if I watched it over and over again, I would remember it? I could watch over and over again? Well, I could watch the Big Lebotski over and over again.
- [55:08]
B
Oh, nice.
- [55:09]
C
I could watch with nail and I. Yeah. Over and over again. I think they're fantastic. Edward Scissorhands. I could watch a film that I'm in, but not very much. And it's not because I'm in it. Dangerous Liaisons.
- [55:21]
B
It's a great.
- [55:23]
C
Absolutely great film. Yeah. And I think John Malkovich was Michelle Pfeiffer, Glenn Close, Umar Thurman, Peter Capaldi. I mean, what a cast. And they were amazing to what. I mean, that's the kind of job I like to do where I don't have a. I didn't have much of a responsibility, but I got to be around all of those people got to watch that. And I sat when we. When we did the read through the table read. Glenn Close couldn't be there because she wasn't arriving until later. So Stephen Frears said. Said to me, you've got to read Glenn Close's part.
- [55:58]
B
No.
- [55:59]
C
So I had. I had to read Glenn closest part with John Malkovich. Michelle Pfeiffer.
- [56:05]
B
Wow. How'd it go? Were they like, we should recast?
- [56:09]
C
We should recast? It was great. It was just so great. And John was just like, how is he doing this? How is this happening? You know, he was Just incredible. And it was at a time, I think. I mean, he was still at the early part of his career. So I don't. I think he was still. I think it's fair to say he got a little less interested in. Or he got a little fed up with not getting as good parts.
- [56:34]
B
Yeah.
- [56:35]
C
Later on. But at that time, he still seemed sort of hungry and febrile and amazing.
- [56:41]
B
Can I ask a question? I think that Stephen Freers. I think he is on the list that Rob Reiner was on, which is the list of, like, most underrated directs. When you go, he's made. Stephen Frieza's made ten masterpieces, maybe more. But they. He seems. At least his films seem egoless. As in, he doesn't insert himself into film. He just tells a story incredibly well. And depending on the genre, depending on the thing, it's like, you know, it's a Stephen Fries film because it's fucking good. But you couldn't define it because they're all so different.
- [57:14]
C
Yeah.
- [57:14]
B
How is that?
- [57:16]
C
I think he's incredibly underrated. I think he's incredible. And I loved. I came back to the hotel one night and he was sitting having a coffee or something, and he had this folder, and the folder was open, and in it there were stills of Fred McMurray and Barbara Stanek from Dublin. Denby too.
- [57:31]
B
Yeah.
- [57:31]
C
And I said, why have you got that? And he said, well, this is a film noir. So that's what this movie is. This is Barbara Stanek and Fred. And I thought, oh, yeah, it is. That's. So he. So although he kind of presents as a kind of. I'm just getting on with it, it'll be what it'll be. He had a very powerful vision of what this film was. And if you think of it in terms of film noir, that's what it is. And I think it's a great, great movie.
- [57:59]
B
It's a great movie. I have this question and it's. What's the worst film you've ever seen?
- [58:03]
C
The worst.
- [58:03]
B
Longer. I do this. Oh, you've got it. You've got an answer.
- [58:06]
C
No, I don't. I wouldn't say. I wouldn't. Because nobody wants to make a bad film. So some. Some films don't work out. Films I've done haven't worked out. So I don't want to join Leo.
- [58:15]
B
I think I'm gonna start retiring that question because I feel the same way. Yeah, you've done a lot of comedy. You're in one of the greatest comedies of all time. What's the film that made you laugh the most?
- [58:26]
C
Well, I think with Nell and I, it's a. Yeah, funny. Where every line is. It's not just set up and gag, it's every line. And those performances, you know, Richard E. Grant, and it's just phenomenal in it. And Paul McCann and Richard Griffiths is one of my most favorite actors of all time. You know, he's up there with Anthony Hopkins, but unfortunately it's not with us anymore. He's absolutely stunning and could turn any line into a comic zinger. But there's a film that makes me laugh, which I was. It's only a short film and it's. I love WC Fields.
- [59:02]
B
Yeah.
- [59:03]
C
Most of your listeners won't know, but he was, I guess, in the 30s, a very celebrated film comic who played a drunken, sort of rambunctious kind of annoyed figure who was always getting into twisty kind of problems. But he made a short film called the Fatal Glass of Beer, which is about a man in the yukon played by W.C. fields, who is approached by a Mountie who he knows and asked to sing a song, which is about his son Chester, who's a young man who went to the city and fell into bad company and ended up drinking the fatal glass of beer, which led to his ruin. And it's kind of all like that. It's just hilarious. But the dialogue is much more ornate.
- [59:53]
B
Yeah.
- [59:54]
C
And it's truly one of the funniest things. If you get watch on YouTube or something. It never leaves me. It is just hilarious. And W.C. fields plays the dulcimer in it. And it's just. You can't. You know, it's just. You can't imagine anyone doing this stuff now. It's absurd and kind of musical like, but truly, truly funny.
- [60:16]
B
Great. Peter Capaldi, you have been an absolute delight. However, when you did a sitcom, you know, you just like making stuff. You're not. You wouldn't call yourself a writer, director, an actress. You're just a guy doing his best. I did my thing and the sitcom second series didn't get recommissioned. But what would you care? You don't care about that sort of thing. You know, it's just business. Who cares? But then he went for a walk. He went for quite a long walk. And then people started to say, where's Peter gone? And it was in the papers. People said, he's walking around looking a bit sad, actually. And for the first time, some kids came over and said, doctor who? And he said, leave me alone. It's not. And that was new. They noticed the sadness and someone said, tell me to fuck off. And you went, just leave me alone. And you kept walking. You walked all the way to Lyddenson, Anne's near Milcombe and went to a chip shop. But this was. A lot of people didn't know where you were. It was in the papers. It was like, has anyone seen this man? And people were like, he's quite recognizable. You'd think you'd see him, but no one had seen you. And then you turn up in this chip shop and you say, can you just. And what was weird is you ordered a plate of chip.
- [61:33]
C
You said, bag of chips. It was a bag of chips, not a plate of chips.
- [61:36]
B
No, but you ordered a bag of chip, you wanted one chip and you said, over fry it. You said, just keep frying that chip. And that's the thing.
- [61:42]
C
No, I think that the over fried chip was an accident. Sometimes you get that if a bag of chips. Sometimes you get a chip that's been around for too long.
- [61:50]
B
Listen, there's a lot of theories about what happened here. Was it an accident? So you get this bag of chips and within it was an over fried one. Was it an accident? Did it happen on purpose? Who knows? You eat the chip, it gets stuck in your throat, it's hot. The person who cooked the chips has gone into the back room. They don't see this happen. So you're trying to get help. Maybe you step out into the street, chuggy, and a bus hits you, runs over you. Ka kun, ku kun kukun. I'm walking past with a coffin. You know, I'm like. I go, I'm here looking for Peter Capaldi, who's been missing for a week. We think it might be something to do with his sitcom he said he didn't care about. And the bus driver goes, you'll never believe what I've just done. And I go, what? He goes, I've only run him over. I go, no. Oh, was it an accident? And he goes, sure. Anyway, I then say, can you help me? So we get. You're squashed into the tarmac, I'm having to peel bits of you off.
- [62:48]
C
No, I know. I think I just got a heart attack or a fright or something like that. I don't think I was actually.
- [62:53]
B
No, you were, you were. Yeah, yeah, well, you were there. It was pretty. It was really horrible. Anyway, we put you in the coffin. There's more of you than I was expecting, what with the chip and everything. The coffin's Absolutely rammed. There's not enough room in it. There's only enough room to slide 1 DVD in the side for you to take across to the other side to show the lasagnans. And every night in lasagna heaven, it's movie night. What film are you going to show the lasagnans when it's your movie night in heaven? Peter Capaldi, please tell us.
- [63:26]
C
Meet me in St. Louis.
- [63:28]
B
Oh, what a treat.
- [63:29]
C
Oh, they're going to have a lovely time. Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas been sung by Chidi Carlos.
- [63:36]
B
People are very happy to see you. They love that choice as they eat lasagna from themselves.
- [63:41]
C
And speak lasagna.
- [63:43]
B
And speak lasagna.
- [63:44]
C
Do you speak lasagna?
- [63:45]
B
Fluently. Peter Capaldi, what an absolute pleasure. Would you like to tell people what to watch coming out soon from yourself or look out for?
- [63:56]
C
Yes, Criminal Record on Apple tv. It's a fabulous dark crime thriller. We've already done season one which went very well with Apple tv and this is the second season, so I hope people are going to tune in and enjoy it.
- [64:10]
B
Fantastic. I really, really appreciate your time. I really love this one. Thank you so much, man.
- [64:15]
C
It's been so nice talking to you. Thank you so much. And your show is great. This is great. All these podcasts are fantastic and I really enjoyed you in shrinking as well.
- [64:25]
B
Oh, thanks, man.
- [64:27]
C
Fantastic.
- [64:27]
B
Thank you very much. I'm going to stop recording before you make me cry.
- [64:31]
C
Okay,
- [64:35]
B
so that was episode 393. Head over to the patreon@patreon.com BrettGoldstein for the extra 15 minutes of chat secrets and video with Peter, go to Apple podcast. Give us a five star rating, but write about the film that means the most to you and why it's a lovely thing to read. It helps with numbers and everyone likes to read. It's really appreciated. Thank you. Watch all of you on Apple tv. Watch Shrinking on Apple TV and watch the sheep detectives in the cinemas and come see me live however you figure that out. I don't know. You're clever people. You'll work it out. I hope you're all well. I appreciate you listening. Thank you so much to Peter for his time. Thanks to Scrupious Pip and the Distraction Pieces Network. Thanks to Buddy Peace for producing it. Thanks to Adam Richardson for the graphics and Lisa Lydon for the photography. Come and join me next week for another incredible guest. That is it for now. Thank you for listening. In the meantime, have a lovely week and please now more than ever be excellent to each other. You can't reason with the sun. Trust us, we've tried. This summer, it's time to put that angry ball of fire on mute. Columbia's Omnishade technology is engineered to protect you from the sun's harsh rays that can burn and damage your skin. The sun is relentless, but so is our gear. Level up your summer@columbia.com to spend more time outside and less time slathering on aloe lotion. You're welcome, Columbia. Engineered for whatever
- [66:34]
A
spring just slid into your DMs. Grab that boho, look for that rooftop dinner, those sandals that can keep up with you, and hang some string lights to give your patio a glow.
- [66:44]
C
Up.
- [66:45]
A
Spring springs Calling Ross. Work your magic.