Regé-Jean Page

Summary

Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster

Episode Summary: Regé-Jean Page (April 1, 2026)

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Episode Overview

In this vibrant and comedic episode, actors Ed Gamble and James Acaster welcome Regé-Jean Page (star of Bridgerton and the new rom-com You, Me & Tuscany) into the Off Menu "dream restaurant." With their signature chemistry and irreverence, the hosts guide Regé-Jean through the ritual of selecting his favorite starter, main, side dish, dessert, and drink—while discussing his career, his latest work, food escapism, and plenty of film and comedy tangents. The conversation is lively, full of playful April Fool's pranks, film-love, and riffs on acting and cuisine, especially the joy and escapism found in food and movies.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Regé-Jean Page’s Film & Career Reflections

[16:21–21:39]

• Regé discusses You, Me & Tuscany, the new rom-com with Halle Bailey, highlighting its escapist appeal and the joy of shooting in picturesque Tuscany ("Tuscany is real. You can leave the cinema and buy a ticket and actually go." [20:13, Regé]).
• He touches on learning Italian for the role and the joy of embodying diverse characters as an actor.
• The discussion also veers into the appeal of playing multifaceted roles: “I want to be more like a session musician... I wanted to come in, have a certain set of skills, do a job, immerse myself in the world and... then go live a completely different life.” [22:01, Regé]
• They riff on the potential for Regé-Jean to someday play a president in American cinema and the difference between British and American casting perceptions.

2. Food, Location, and Memory

[27:31–29:07; 65:02–65:25]

• The role of landscape in both food and film: Regé rhapsodizes about Tuscany’s natural beauty, the artistry and even the competitive barrel-rolling traditions he witnessed, and how landscape, memory, and food are intertwined.
• “A lot of the thing with me with food... is it’s where you’re eating it and who you’re eating it with...” [65:25, Regé]
• They delight in the authenticity of Italian food on set, especially when local chefs insisted on making dishes for the film (as opposed to "movie food" [28:58, Regé]).

3. Food Choices & Menu Discussion

Water Choice

[34:37–35:43]

• Regé selects sparkling water ("stingy fizzies")—joking about it being “controversial" as some find bubbles unnecessary: “It’s water that hurts.” [24:58, Regé]

Popadoms or Bread

[48:48–32:49]

• Regé picks bread, celebrating Italian regional bread diversity and drawing a comparison to regional UK accents and food feuds: “It’s like that in Italy, but with food... you make that pasta that way? You are an absolute savage.” [31:35, Regé]

Starter

[43:38–47:00]

• Chooses a fish carpaccio based on a memorable meal in Rome: “It was delicious. It was very finely seasoned. Some olive oil, something a little bit tangy—maybe some lime... life-changing.” [48:31, Regé]

Main Course

[56:29–59:06]

• Picks “really, really good fish and chips” inspired by dining in New Zealand, emphasizing fresh, local fish, al fresco dining by the ocean, and sensory details like batter-steam and the aroma of lemon groves: “You want to be able to almost smell the environment that the food has come from.” [57:27, Regé]

Side Dish

[62:58–65:25]

• American-style Brussels sprouts: fried, indulgent, salty with a barely poached egg on top—reminiscent of a dish in an LA restaurant. He laments UK overboiling: “We boil them to death and then just plop them on a plate, sad and wet...” [63:30, Regé]

Drink

[69:57–73:39]

• Caipirinha, a Brazilian cocktail of lime, sugar, and cachaça. Regé shares fondness for making caipirinhas himself but wants this one expertly prepared: "Maybe as a long-form starter, I want to come in every weekend, get to know the staff, make it a place I feel comfortable...” [73:37, Regé]

Dessert

[73:54–74:18]

• Tiramisu: “Italian trifle. Definitely superior.” [74:02, Regé]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Escapist Movies & Food:
  “The world is a little rough out there... and the idea of having places to go where... realism can straddle both sides of that line... I think this is the type of movie that does that.” [19:25, Regé]

• On Being a Film ‘Gun for Hire’:
  “I wanted to be more like a session musician. I wanted to be a gun for hire...” [22:01, Regé]

• On Legendary Acting Advice:
  “On screen, it feels a little bit more like being a sous chef: you chop the vegetables very nicely, then you hand them over to the chef in the editing room...” [40:01, Regé]

• On a Perfect Menu:
  “In this dream restaurant... all of these dream courses have been made by me and the kitchen staff together. And we’re having like a staff meal at the end of the day... And that will make everything taste better because I’ve learned to make this drink...” [73:37, Regé]

• April Fool's Day Pranks:
  Multiple times, James tries to prank Regé-Jean (e.g., pretending the episode isn’t recording—[47:20]), leading to playful banter:
  “April Fools. This is going down on April Fool’s Day. I just got Regé Jean with an April Fool.” [47:32, James]
  “You got mercked.” [47:48, Regé]
  The hosts discuss the emotional side of pranking:
  "He was so happy for us. And I was like, oh, no, that's a genuinely nice emotion." [76:35, James]

• On Halle Bailey:
  “One of the most infuriatingly nice human beings on the planet... sunshine comes out of her pores...” [26:48, Regé]

• On Acting Methods & the ‘Smolder’:
  Recounts filming Mortal Engines and the note to "do it sexier" ([52:14]); how “the origin story of where I learned to do it sexier” came from a megaphone note on a massive set.

• Bread and British Politics:
  “It’s like a nation of Jeremy Corbyns, except instead of courgettes, it’s olives. Everyone's got their allotment, but it’s a rolling Tuscan field...” [32:03, Regé]

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Important Timestamps (MM:SS)

• Regé arrives and shares a "restaurant explosion" film story [06:27–07:54]
• Discussion of You, Me & Tuscany, food, and escapist movies [16:21–21:39]
• Stingy Fizzies (sparkling water debate) [24:52]
• Italian food snobbery and bread regionalism [31:14–32:49]
• Carpaccio conversation and 'backing into a meat slicer' tangent [43:41–47:16]
• April Fools pranks (is the episode recording?) [47:20–47:44]
• Main course choice and the joy of fish and chips [56:29–59:06]
• Brussels sprouts side and food + memory [62:58–65:25]
• Dream drink: caipirinha and the fantasy of making your own dream meal [69:57–73:37]
• Dessert choice [73:54–74:18]

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The Menu: Regé-Jean Page’s Dream Meal

• Water: Sparkling ("stingy fizzies")
• Bread: Sourdough with nice butter and olive oil (Italian regional bread if possible)
• Starter: Fish carpaccio (inspired by a memorable Roman meal)
• Main: Fresh-caught fish & chips, with lemon from the nearby grove, cracked salt, and al fresco sea breeze
• Side: American-style Brussels sprouts, fried and served with a barely poached egg
• Drink: Caipirinha (Brazilian cocktail)
• Dessert: Tiramisu

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Tone & Vibe

True to Off Menu’s style, this episode fizzes with improvisational humor, warmth, and playful British irreverence, alongside genuine passion for both food and the magic of creative work. Regé-Jean Page provides reflective insight into both the acting process and how food/place/memory intertwine, while gamely joining in all the hosts’ tomfoolery—including multiple April Fools’ moments and digressions into accents, film characters, and hypothetical SNL sketches (“Kermit Barack”). The episode balances in-depth chit-chat with culinary nostalgia, with the sort of laughs and engagement that fans love about Off Menu.

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For New Listeners

This episode stands out for its cinematic anecdotes, a vivid sense of place and taste, and playful chemistry between host and guest. Whether you're a Regé-Jean Page fan, a rom-com devotee, or just want to imagine the world as it could be over a perfect meal, this conversation is both a feast and a delight. And, no: he did not order Reggae Reggae Sauce.

Transcript

[James Acaster]

This is James Acaster. I'm on tour with my show James Acaster. We've added some extra London dates on the, I want to say 1st and 2nd of August at the Royal Festival hall and also the Blackpool dates which are pretty soon actually. What they're not sold out. Come please buy tickets to the Blackpool one and there's some others as well that still aren't sold. Glasgow springs to mind. New Newcastle springs to mind also. So come and see the show. I'm very proud of it. Ed's yawning [e-mail]

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[Regé-Jean Page]

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[Ed Gamble]

Welcome to the Off Menu podcast. Taking the alphabetty spaghetti of conversation, pouring it into the pan of podcasting, heating it up with the flame of friendship. Ladling that alphabetty spaghetti onto the plate and it spells one thing. O F F M E N U. The off menu podcast

[James Acaster]

that went from just being the shittest one you've done to the best one you've ever done.

[Ed Gamble]

Thank you very much. I knew what point I was hitting at the end.

[James Acaster]

That is it. Gamble. My name is James A Caster. Together we own a dream restaurant and every single week we invite in a guest announcing their favourite ever start a main course, dessert side dish and drink. Not in that order. And this week our guest is Reggae

[Ed Gamble]

Jean Page, a wonderful actor. James I first became aware of Reggae Jean Page in Bridgerton, of course, where. Where a lot of the world became aware of him for the first time, I believe.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, I. I I remember seeing him in the Gray Man. That was the first time I saw him.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Is that Post Bridgerton there? Yeah, but I haven't seen Bridgeton. Oh, yeah. It's crazy that I've not seen Bridgerton and for no good reason. I've got. No.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

And I should watch it.

[Ed Gamble]

We've had a lot of Bridgerton people on this. On this very part.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. I should save it up.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

And watch all of it. But, yeah, I've seen reggae elsewhere.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes.

[James Acaster]

So very excited and very excited to watch Yumi in Tuscany.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes. Reggae's brand new film starring alongside Halle Bailey.

[James Acaster]

It's a great rom com. Yes. Looking forward to seeing it very much. But even though we're looking forward to seeing Yumi in Tuscany and reggae, Jean Page is a fantastic character. We will have to kick him out if he says the secret ingredient. An ingredient which we deem to be unacceptable. And this week, the secret ingredient is Reggae Reggae Sauce.

[Ed Gamble]

Had to be.

[James Acaster]

We haven't had anyone on who's called reggae before.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

So of course we're going to choose Reggae Reggae Sauce. I would be surprised if reggae chooses this.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. You would feel like he maybe had that joke made about his name before.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

So he probably wants to avoid it at all costs. Although it's a wonderful source.

[James Acaster]

Wonderful song, Wonderful song.

[Ed Gamble]

Loved Levi Roots, his first appearance on Dragons Den. That's where I became first aware of him. What about you?

[James Acaster]

Oh, yeah, No, I knew his early, but I knew him from the Notting Hill Carnival. Yeah. So I already know him.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. You were in at the ground floor with. Yeah.

[James Acaster]

But a classic moment of British television. If you're listening overseas.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes.

[James Acaster]

Try and watch Levi Roots on Dragon's Den and you too will want to invest.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Good.

[Ed Gamble]

So we've plugged reggae's new film. We've plugged Levi Roots on Dragon's Den. I'm going on tour next year. Tickets available [e-mail], uK and Ireland tour.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Fresh. Hell.

[James Acaster]

It's April Fool's Day, if you're listening. Yeah. When it goes out, when this episode goes out, it's April Fool's Day.

[Ed Gamble]

Behave yourself.

[James Acaster]

I'm. No, I'm going to, you know, the one day of the year I can't behave myself.

[Ed Gamble]

It's not. But it's not that day of the year now.

[James Acaster]

I can't behave her.

[Ed Gamble]

It's March for us.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Currently it's March. But, like, this is going to go out on April 1st. But that doesn't mean, you know, you know that us, people who love April Fool's Day, pranking, we. I'm pranking. We can't help ourselves. When I know this is going on April Fool's Day, I've got the. I've got the imp in me.

[Ed Gamble]

But that. But. But that means that I'll let you have the impingue because we're recording for April 1st, but when it is April 1st for you in real life.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

No pranks.

[James Acaster]

You didn't make the rules, man. You squares don't get to dictate how the rules.

[Ed Gamble]

Okay, the rules are you can't do an April Fools in March. So then no April Fools. But I'm happy to change the rules slightly, but there's no April Fools for you on April.

[James Acaster]

You seem to be under the impression that you make the rules. You're not the rules.

[Ed Gamble]

I think I make the rules on this pod.

[James Acaster]

You're not an imp.

[Ed Gamble]

Benito, back me up here. Bonito makes the rules. So on April, actual April Fool's Day, James. No April Fools for James. If he chooses to nominate this as

[Regé-Jean Page]

this is April Fool's Day, because this

[Ed Gamble]

is going on April Fool's Day.

[James Acaster]

He says he doesn't care.

[Ed Gamble]

Okay.

[James Acaster]

I mean, we must have known that was gonna be the response.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Mad if he cared about anything. Yeah. On the pod.

[Ed Gamble]

On the pod.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. He cares about some stuff. He cares about syncing up the audio.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. Toast.

[James Acaster]

He cares about his dog Toast. Yeah, but that's not on the roller coaster.

[Ed Gamble]

Roller coasters.

[James Acaster]

He cares about the roller coasters. I guess I'm gonna assume he cares about his marriage.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Probably paying the bills. Paying the bills. He cares about. I think he cares about it. I think he's the kind of guy who thinks about that more than he

[Ed Gamble]

cares about the rules of the pod.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

This is the off menu menu of reggae John Page. Welcome Reggae to the dream restaurant.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Hey, thanks for having me.

[James Acaster]

Welcome. I actually scared you there.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It's not so much that. A little overwhelmed.

[James Acaster]

Sorry.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It's not generally how restaurants.

[James Acaster]

Welcome, Page, to the dream restaurant. But it's been here for some time.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Flashbacks. Been blown up in a restaurant before? Yeah, yeah. First film job I ever did, I had like five lines. And then we got blown up in a restaurant in Bulgaria.

[James Acaster]

Wow, man. Gutted.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah. So, you know, thanks for bringing that back up. Got it. Appreciate it.

[James Acaster]

What was the film?

[Regé-Jean Page]

Well, literally gutted bits everywhere. Carpaccio Alorago.

[Ed Gamble]

I thought that was the name of the film.

[Regé-Jean Page]

That's the first time I've referred to Myself in the third person today.

[James Acaster]

Really? Today.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Today, yeah. Yeah.

[James Acaster]

You've done it before.

[Regé-Jean Page]

We tried to slip one in every day. Like, where's a third person reference?

[James Acaster]

What was the film, though?

[Regé-Jean Page]

It was called Survivor. It was Emela Jovovich and Pierce Brosnan running out with guns, I think.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

And you didn't survive Survivor.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I did not survive.

[Ed Gamble]

You were not the titular survivor.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I was the example of how not

[James Acaster]

to be the survivor.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I was the stakes.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Acaster]

You know what I mean?

[Regé-Jean Page]

You know, sometimes you got a dead girlfriend or something in the beginning, and I was just dead kind of expendable. I was an expendable in survival.

[Ed Gamble]

Were you in. Were you sort of like a dead girlfriend flashback? Were you. You know. You know when it's always under the covers when they think about it.

[Regé-Jean Page]

No, it was more like him, you know, the. The rookie cop, the ingenue.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

We're just like, ah, that kid's got moxie. He's got probably. Oh, he's dead. Yeah, it was that. It was that kind of.

[James Acaster]

But did your death drive the main character?

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah, it was a great motivation. That's good. That is good. Look at me. Look at this face. It says motivation.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Motivation and death. Yes, that's what's on my cv. Horse riding, sword fighting. Motivation and death.

[Ed Gamble]

Did you do the classic thing you hear from a lot of actors, where you put things like horse riding and sword fighting on the CV before you can do them?

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yes, absolutely.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

And then you just learn if you have.

[Regé-Jean Page]

That's what acting is. You pretend to do things, including on your cv. That's how I sell it to myself. Yeah, no, I've done that more than a couple of times. I can horse right now.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes.

[Regé-Jean Page]

But haven't for a little while, so who knows if I still can.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Have done sword fighting. Haven't for a little while. Who knows if I can.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Can be blown up.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

In restaurants, if necessary.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Don't recommend it.

[Ed Gamble]

No, it was.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Have you ever given. Have you ever actually scared anyone with that?

[James Acaster]

Been blown. Oh, normally I'll scare them with poppadoms or bread.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

I can scare them with that. But, like, I'm trying to think if I've actually scared someone with that opening, maybe.

[Ed Gamble]

Well, you're right. That's not the normal welcome to a restaurant. It's not a normal restaurant. You wouldn't.

[Regé-Jean Page]

No.

[Ed Gamble]

If you walked in and the waiter screamed like an explosion sound effect at you, it wouldn't feel like a good welcome, would it?

[Regé-Jean Page]

I mean, the visual was I imagine like party streamers and like confetti and like it felt celebratory.

[Ed Gamble]

That's nice because it's, it's James bursting out of a lamp because he's the genie. But we've, we've never had. We've never had. I like the idea of rubbing a lamp and streamers come out with the genie.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah, he's a lovely. He's a Soho genie.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, he's a Soho genie.

[James Acaster]

Exactly.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Genie with legs or genie kind of still kind of with the trail going into the tip of the leg?

[James Acaster]

Well, I'm kind of your genie, so however you see me, really.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I don't see the legs. No legs. Do you know what I mean? Like when genies just have like the trail y bit. Yeah, yeah, It's.

[Ed Gamble]

I don't think I can imagine a genie with legs, to be honest. I think it would freak me out.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I mean, the genie has legs like Robin Williams is sometimes.

[Ed Gamble]

Sometimes he has legs.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah. And sometimes he plays both sides. Yeah, he plays both genie sides.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

I wouldn't like it if I rubbed a lamp and a genie came out with legs. I'd say, I don't want any wishes from you.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Wrong kind of genie.

[Ed Gamble]

I don't trust you.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It's a bit genie discriminatory.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, well, in the, in the, in the genie world, there's still a lot of things to be sort of to

[Regé-Jean Page]

feel like he used up one of your wishes on his own legs.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Hang on.

[Ed Gamble]

I didn't wish for those legs.

[James Acaster]

So you'd have to wish for no legs. Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

And that's my second wish.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It's a little bit upstairs, downstairs that it's like, you servant, you don't get to use your powers for legs. I demand that you are chained to the lamp.

[Ed Gamble]

Look, it's difficult. I mean, the genie, the genie, lamp rubber relationship is quite fraught with. There's a lot of discussions to be had around that, I think so.

[James Acaster]

Lamp rubber.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I was about to say you yelled out from like the terraces at football. Lamp rubber.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Sounds like the genie should be in charge.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[James Acaster]

Don't know what a lamp rubber gets to call the shit. Sounds like a right little.

[Ed Gamble]

What would you, what would you, what would you call the person?

[James Acaster]

Well, as the genie, I'll call the master. Oh, yeah, of course.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Bit old fashioned.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, I see.

[James Acaster]

Hey, I can't help it. I'm a genie man.

[Ed Gamble]

All right?

[Regé-Jean Page]

Stop calling me master.

[James Acaster]

Okay, okay.

[Ed Gamble]

First wish, second wish.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Come up with a better term for the master for me. Okay, thinking, yeah, we can be on first name basis. That works.

[Ed Gamble]

I just don't want you to.

[James Acaster]

I'm gonna call you Reggae Jean for the whole podcast.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Excellent. Are you going to play the genie for the whole podcast or is.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, I kind of. I kind of tend to go in and out of it. In and out usually.

[Regé-Jean Page]

So mainly.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, like legs sometimes, no legs other times. Oh yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

But still in the genie. Has anyone else called you a genie at this point or have I completely made this up?

[James Acaster]

I know other people have called me genie in the past and I'd like. I want you to use your genie powers to do this for this meal. You know, like some people are like, okay, use your genie power. So never get full. Use them so I can have gluten. Use them so that I'm in Barbados for this course, you know.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Excellent. Good genie.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah. Sometimes like if a. If an item on a menu's been discontinued and they want to have it again, I can do that.

[Regé-Jean Page]

You discontinue items on this in this restaurant?

[James Acaster]

No, in the world.

[Ed Gamble]

In the real world.

[James Acaster]

Like if you're local.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Hang on. You're a genie in the real world. The rules of this are getting really weird.

[James Acaster]

I'm a genie in all worlds.

[Regé-Jean Page]

You're a genie?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, we're in our world, but also the real world exists.

[Regé-Jean Page]

In which James is a genie.

[Ed Gamble]

In which James. Yes, I guess he is a genie in the outside world as well.

[Regé-Jean Page]

He's a magical man.

[Ed Gamble]

He's very committed. He's like. He's very method James.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah, method genie.

[Ed Gamble]

He sleeps in a lamp.

[Regé-Jean Page]

He sleeps in a lap.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, I'm very, very method. I'm an actor as well.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I went to Stone Cave in Clerkenwell. No, it's like a cafe that's decorated as a stone cave. It's like a breakfast spot.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

And it feels like I'm imagining that in my head. Like you built a life size lamp with just like rugs and beanbags. It feels like where I'd find

[James Acaster]

where

[Regé-Jean Page]

I imagine people imagine comedians live. There's a lamp somewhere. Just something. Just an OD environment in which your creative juices can breed magic.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, it's difficult to imagine. I mean, me less so, I think, but it's difficult to imagine James in a normal house, isn't it?

[Regé-Jean Page]

I don't want to say that to his face.

[Ed Gamble]

Look, you know the vibe.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I don't generally imagine James in many places.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, Reggae knows your vibe. Came in this morning and said that he's the only person he's Ever bought comedy from.

[James Acaster]

Bought my comedy.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

I bought your head.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Bought your comedy. I bought your comedy on Vimeo, which is a really weird.

[James Acaster]

It was a weird move.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It was. I mean, to be honest, weird moves is. Sorry, I feel like I'm leaving you

[Ed Gamble]

out of the whole thing. Please leave me out.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Would you like to be a genie?

[Ed Gamble]

I'm not a genie. No, I'm the. I'm the human sommelier.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Human sommelier.

[James Acaster]

You're the maitre d?

[Regé-Jean Page]

I'm the maitre d referred to as human sommelier. Human maitre d.

[James Acaster]

You're very human on this, but you've been the human quality to the pod.

[Ed Gamble]

I'm the human. I was just doing an interview this morning, and someone described me and James as Tess and Claudia. And I'm more Tess and James is more Claudia.

[Regé-Jean Page]

This is a fun game.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Like, just before we went on, we were doing. I called you an affogato. Lord knows why.

[Ed Gamble]

Sorry.

[Regé-Jean Page]

And you were. You were the coffee.

[Ed Gamble]

I'm the coffee. And James is the ice cream. James is the ice cream. Which I think makes sense as well.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Even though I'd love to be fun ice cream, but also coffee gives people a boost, doesn't it?

[Regé-Jean Page]

Coffee brings.

[James Acaster]

It's more grown up with that.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah, it is a little more grown. I think that's what it is.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. I'm grown up, but also I'm the sort of go between sometimes between James and the guest. But I don't have to do that today. Because you're already aware of James's vibe because you paid for. For his comedy. Whereas sometimes if we have an American guest on. Yeah. There's a lot of translation issues that I have to deal with.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Shouted popping.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It goes bad sometimes. Yeah. But you've. You know. Do you want to know this? The money that you paid for my comedy, most likely I spent that on an affogato.

[Regé-Jean Page]

There you go. And that's how you got here.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Oh, he pays me.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Placed you between him and guests to stop either of us mourning each other's faces.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. But I tell you what, I'm going to spend my money on a ticket to go and see you. Me and Tuscany.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Excellent.

[Ed Gamble]

That's how James is saying it. Is that correct?

[Regé-Jean Page]

First person to pronounce it that way. And I like it.

[Ed Gamble]

You mean Tuscany a lot.

[Regé-Jean Page]

You. No, no. You got to get the rhythm.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Me and Tuscany.

[Ed Gamble]

Tuscany, yeah.

[James Acaster]

Rhymes. I saw a trailer for this in America. I was in a cinema in New York watching another Film. This is a trailer beforehand.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Which film?

[James Acaster]

I was watching Send Help.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Oh, wow, we're coming in before Send Help.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. You were, yeah. Very different vibes.

[Regé-Jean Page]

We're a great chaser to that. Like, if you're feeling traumatized, you can come out and go, you know what? I want to go to Tuscany after that.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it was quite a nice little vibe switch before the film. But when you came on screen in the trailer, someone shouted damn from the back of the cinema. A lady shouted it.

[Regé-Jean Page]

A lady shouted it.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah. A lot more vocal in the cinema in America.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It is. We had a screening on Monday here, and they were actually the most vocal crowd we've had so far. Really proud of London because our producer was like, man, I was expecting that Stay London crowd, which is. We were rapping London. I was really, really proud of it.

[Ed Gamble]

That's good. Yeah.

[James Acaster]

They were loving you in the trailer. So imagine what it's gonna be like when the full film is out.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Were you loving me in the trailer?

[James Acaster]

I was, of course.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Did you turn around and shush the lady?

[James Acaster]

I said stop shouting. Damn. That's reggae.

[Ed Gamble]

Jean, be respectful.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Show some goddamn respect. Yeah, yeah. Of course I was loving the trailer. I gave it a standing ovation.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Oh, thank you very much.

[James Acaster]

I do that for many trailers. Best tagline in the film. Best tagline we've ever had. I'm going to read it so I get it, right.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

She came for the pasta and got lost in the source.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It's love. It's made for a food podcast.

[Ed Gamble]

I know, it's perfect.

[Regé-Jean Page]

She came for the pasta glass. A lot of people are enjoying that tagline.

[James Acaster]

Not bad.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I don't know who came up with it, but they. They're clearly sitting home very, very smug right now.

[Ed Gamble]

They did their job.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Like, people talk about the trailer, they talk about damn, and they talk about the person.

[James Acaster]

It's got one of my favorite things, like, and I haven't seen this in a film for a while and always love this in rom coms, where someone tells a line, tells a lie, and the lie just completely gets away from them.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yes.

[James Acaster]

Like, to the nth degree. So this. This person says that she's engaged to someone that she's not, and then the whole family embraces her. Into the family.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

And then you come along, she's like, oh, the fancy, this guy, but I'm pretending to be engaged to someone else. It's a lovely setup. I don't think I've seen it. Joe White reminds me Of. And I love this film. While you were sleeping. Remember that?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, Yep.

[James Acaster]

Very.

[Ed Gamble]

I don't remember that. You know, I don't remember.

[James Acaster]

While you're seeing. So good. So I'm very excited about this.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Watched it while you were sleeping?

[James Acaster]

Yeah, I watched it while you were sleeping. And that's what. I watch films. I wait till head to sleep.

[Ed Gamble]

That's not the Bobcat Goldthwaite one about. No, no.

[James Acaster]

I don't even know what he's talking about.

[Ed Gamble]

The Bobcat Goldthwaite one.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I'm not even sure those are words. What's going on?

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Goldthwaite is a wonderfully talented comedian and he's made some great films. One of them is about, I think, someone who's performed a sex act on their dog. Have you seen that one? Let sleeping dogs lie? That's what I'm thinking of.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Doesn't sound like he did.

[Ed Gamble]

It's a good film. There's also World's Best dad, which is. Robin Williams is in that one.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

That's pretty dark.

[James Acaster]

I'm not gonna.

[Ed Gamble]

I won't mention that other one. That's pretty dark compared to Let sleeping dogs.

[James Acaster]

I like era Robin Williams film. Yeah, Yeah, I remember it.

[Regé-Jean Page]

A line that gets out of hand. It's a great setup for a movie.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

More than anything else, because rom coms in particular are a great vehicle for escape. I think that's a lot of what we're doing here. It's this idea of, like, giving people the excuse to live a life outside of their own. Like, it's a big what if, you know what I mean? Like, you're stuck. The best rom com is usually someone stuck in a rut. Like my favorite, it's Sleepless in Seattle, where unusually, it's the man who's stuck in the rut, and then his chaotic child brings him out of it. And in this movie, she's stuck in a rut. She goes, never mind. I'm just going to buy a ticket to Tuscany and squat in someone's house. We had, like, a synopsis. Someone had written a synopsis for the movie, and they described her as a squatter. And I was like, it's not how I would have. Not the word I would have chosen to sell our rom com. Like, yeah, she sleeps in some. She breaks into his house because he, like, told her where it is. It's funny and romantic. In the movie. Squatting less so.

[Ed Gamble]

That is the definition of squatting. It's the definition of squatting.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It feels like a Google translate of the synopsis.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Do you know what I mean?

[Ed Gamble]

It's not what you want to be thinking about when you go into the film. It's not called, like, squatting. Squat for love or something.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Exactly. I feel like that was on the whiteboard and it got crossed out pretty quickly.

[Ed Gamble]

Almost immediately, someone started writing. Don't even finish writing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no.

[James Acaster]

So you're excited for people to see this?

[Regé-Jean Page]

Extremely excited for people to see it. Really, really excited. I've seen a few people see it now. It's the first time I'd seen the finished movie with an audience in London, which is a bit of a risk because everyone's scared of British audiences. Because we have a reputation for being emotionally restrained.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes.

[Regé-Jean Page]

But the joy of this screening was that I think because we are notionally restrained, when people give us an excuse to express ourselves, we go nuts.

[James Acaster]

That's good.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Like, we're just. We're always looking for an excuse to open the gates and go, I have feelings. And then go back to zipping up the upper lip or whatever. So, no, people had a really, really great time. I think low key. I think that the world is a little bit depressed. It's pushing it, but it's a little rough out there in the world. And the idea of having places to go where it's like, well, I do believe in reflecting the world as it is, but I also believe in reflecting the world as it could be. And I think that realism can straddle both sides of that line. And I think this is the type of movie that does that. It's the idea of. I think I've been saying to a couple of people, like, it's not like the Princess Bride. Like, Tuscany is real. You can leave the cinema and buy a ticket and actually go. And it does look like that. Like, we went out there, we shot in Tuscany. And you wake up every morning and it looks like it's not real. There's a painting outside your window. You run through the rolling golden fields that. I was down the road from where they shot that opening shot of Gladiator.

[James Acaster]

Oh, yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

With Russell Crowe runs his hand through. I went to the field. It looks like that.

[Ed Gamble]

Did you run your hand around?

[Regé-Jean Page]

Of course I did.

[James Acaster]

Well, I did.

[Ed Gamble]

Of course. Absolutely crazy.

[Regé-Jean Page]

You can't go past me. Like, nah, not gonna do that.

[James Acaster]

Why would I? Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

But no, the first time I went by, because I was there for months before we shot, because I had to kind of dig in. Cause my character's Italian and British. In order to make sure that The Italian felt real and lived in. And I do lots and lots of Italian spe, which I don't remember any of, by the way. So I was there when the fields were still, like, green. And they look like a Miyazaki painting. Like, it was amazing. And so by the time it turned golden, we'd come back because we shot in Rome, in Chinacita, where they do, like, Fellini films. Like, the historical studio came back, the seasons had changed. It's beautiful in both seasons. Sunsets are incredible, the hills are incredible, the heat is incredible. The food is amazing, by the way. And so our job was just kind of to sit in that environment, soak up as much as we could, and then just put it on screen and bring it home so you can be like, I want that. And then hopefully fill you with enough joie de vivre, which is the wrong language for this promo tour, that you desire to go out and actually do it, because you can. And then that way you get from the world as it is to the world as it could be, and everyone's happier. So basically, I'm saving the world with a rom com, is what I'm looking for.

[Ed Gamble]

You are, yeah.

[James Acaster]

It's very important. And with actors, you've learned Italian for this film and now come. It's mad. Like, do you think there's a certain type of person, like masochists?

[Ed Gamble]

Well, I wanted to be able to do something like that. Completely invest yourself in something to do the job, and then as soon as you finish, somehow you manage to wipe your brain. Ready for the next. The next thing you're doing?

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yes, but I mean, the childish way that I sum that up, when I wanted to become an actor was I kind of. I wanted to be more like Boba Fett. And I will explain this because. So I was making music when I was a teenager and, like, I was in flirting with the music industry, and I decided that somehow acting looked like a more stable career path. Because I reckon on the ladder of exploitation, it goes like modeling music, acting. I'm not quite sure where comedy falls

[Ed Gamble]

below that, I think.

[James Acaster]

I absolutely dread to think. Yeah. Where we are.

[Ed Gamble]

I don't think we're even in the same sphere, to be honest. Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I think that's the joy of comedians. You're not in the same sphere.

[Ed Gamble]

No, we're not in the same sphere.

[Regé-Jean Page]

You bring wonderful things from outside the sphere.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Looking through the window and taking the piss. Yeah, yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

But you need that. You need to listen through the window and take the piss. It's not Far off, the acting thing, but, like, so the Boba Fett of it all is that I didn't like always being the, you know, how, like, Madonna, like, reinvents herself every 10 years or whatever. I didn't like having to reinvent the same thing. I wanted to be more like a session musician. I wanted to be a gun for hire. I wanted to come in and, like, have a certain set of skills and do a job and immerse myself in the world and, like, be Italian for a while and then leave the studio and then go live a completely different life. I want to be an astronaut the next week or, like, president the week after that, or. You know what I mean?

[James Acaster]

Yeah, you'd be a good president. Yeah. Have you played a president yet?

[Regé-Jean Page]

Oh, don't think. No, I don't think I have. I've played a couple of princes and things.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

But no, not a president also, possibly because we don't have a president here. So I'd have to convince the Americans to let me play a president.

[Ed Gamble]

They would love that. They would love it. They would love you to play, like, president.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah, but they like quite paternal figures for president. Like, you got to get to, like, Morgan Freeman age. You know what I mean?

[James Acaster]

Sure.

[Ed Gamble]

No, I think you could be a sort of hot shot. A hot shot young president. Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Do the Hugh Grant, but for the Americans.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah, I'll pitch that to the Americans. Yeah, absolutely. It's like, you know. You know what Hugh Grant did for the Prime Minister? Prime ministership.

[James Acaster]

Yes, yes.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Prime ministership. I want to do that for the White House.

[James Acaster]

It's the only thing I like.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

But also, this is how I pitch. It is how they get their revenge on the Brits. Because, like, he, like, gives Billy Bob a dressing down and it's like, this is how we get them back.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It's like, hey, you know. You know what the Brits need a bit humbly?

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Why don't you get a young hotshot president to dress down their prime minister for hitting on your staff that you were planning to take advantage of?

[James Acaster]

Yeah, he's hitting on Martin McCutcheon. Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

From EastEnders.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, that's Tiffany from EastEnders.

[Ed Gamble]

How dare you.

[James Acaster]

We will start with still a sparkling water. REGGAE do you have a preference?

[Regé-Jean Page]

I do. Controversially, it's probably sparkling water.

[James Acaster]

Now, why is this controversial?

[Regé-Jean Page]

Because I feel like people judge you for sparkling water. They're like, what's wrong with water? Why are you putting stingy fizzies in there?

[James Acaster]

Stingy fizzies.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Stingy fizzies.

[Ed Gamble]

Some people say bubbles, but I enjoy that. Stingy fizzies is now in.

[Regé-Jean Page]

The trainer of mine called it once he was. I don't get sparkling water. I think everyone's lying. No one enjoys it. It's water that hurts.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Which I thought was a great.

[Ed Gamble]

What a sensitive mouth that guy had.

[Regé-Jean Page]

He was a sens. He is a sensi. He was a sensei. He's still alive. He's a sensi. He's a lovely. You know, like large, lovely men.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Like, he's absolutely massive. Terrifying to look at. And the softest, like, mountain dog of a person. No.

[James Acaster]

They must do.

[Ed Gamble]

If it's sticky fizzies. That guy.

[James Acaster]

No, Leave him alone. Sensitive mouth.

[Ed Gamble]

Sensitive mouth. He's a stingy fizzies.

[James Acaster]

Stingy fizzy. Sounds like something like a character in Clockwork Orange would say.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

It's how they would talk about. That's how they would talk about fizzy water. They go, the stingy fizzies.

[Ed Gamble]

Sticky fizzies.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I imagine you as a Clockwork Orange genie.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Oh, I don't want to hear.

[Ed Gamble]

You do have a slight Clockwork Orange vibe.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. It's not.

[Ed Gamble]

I can imagine you in the outfit. Right.

[Regé-Jean Page]

You see it, right?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, I totally see it.

[Regé-Jean Page]

There's a rhythm to it, like singing. Fizzy. Sounds like something that'll come up in the Clockwork Orange or possibly in a James Acaster show.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

You'd pay for that.

[James Acaster]

There's a bit of crossover. You pay for that on Vimeo. Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Like, we're talking.

[James Acaster]

I don't know if I want to be. I'm treading carefully because I don't want to be associated with those guys.

[Regé-Jean Page]

No.

[Ed Gamble]

Linguistically, we're only talking. Linguistically. We're not saying you'd beat anyone to death with the massive knob. You know, linguistically, like, Clockwork Orange nearly said chocolate orange. I'm totally in the mood linguistically.

[Regé-Jean Page]

A chocolate orange. That's a great tagline for a poster. I'm not gonna lie.

[James Acaster]

Not as good as she came for the pasta. Got lost in the sauce.

[Ed Gamble]

Is food a part of the film? And that's a part. Yeah. So there's a lot of, like, food.

[Regé-Jean Page]

So she's a chef in the film. Halle Bailey. The great Halle Bailey, by the way, does a wonderful job in this movie. Have you ever met Halle?

[Ed Gamble]

No.

[Regé-Jean Page]

She is one of the most infuriating nice human beings. Nice human beings on the planet. You know when you see people and you keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. And it turns out that the other shoe is made out of fairy dust and slowly floats to the ground. It just. She's one of those people, like, she walks around and just sunshine comes out of her pores, and people are happier that she's there.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It's impossible not to be charmed by this woman. And so she's a great protagonist in that sense, where you root for her. You want to live this fantastical escape through her. And the vehicle for her, that is she plays a chef. So she's a chef in New York who's not living up to her dreams. And part of her journey to Italy, other than bumping into me and falling in love, which is spoilers. But it does happen.

[Ed Gamble]

She Awful rom com. If that doesn't happen.

[James Acaster]

Awful rom com.

[Regé-Jean Page]

You're like, oh, wow, meet cute. And then nothing.

[Ed Gamble]

Oh, it's a comm.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It's just. It's a sad. It's not a sad comm. It's a happy comm.

[James Acaster]

It's a happy, common happy com.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Hit every lens. Happy com. She came for the pasta. She did get the sauce.

[James Acaster]

She got the sauce.

[Regé-Jean Page]

And she learns to be a chef in Italy. She realizes her inner chef. And she learned real Halle Bailey, real life, learned from the Iron Chefs, which is a thing that I don't know what they are, but she does. It's a very big deal.

[Ed Gamble]

Huge show. Iron Chef.

[Regé-Jean Page]

There we go. So she trained with them, learned how to chop like a chef and look like she knows what she's doing as a chef. And she's very passionate about food in real life. So she's into her cooking, and the character's really into cooking. And so you're meant to fall in love with a few things in this film. Like the leaves couple. Like, you live vicariously through them, and you're meant to fall in love with the landscape, Tuscany, otherwise, Tuscany to everyone else. And you're meant to fall in love with the food. And the food is incredible. And I think couple of days into filming, we had, like, you know, the props department were doing an all right job with the food, and there was. Typically, as Italian chefs are, they tend to be very disapproving men. They're lovely and very generous and loving, but they often do this through disapproval. And so they were looking at the food going, no, no, no, no, no. And so, like, we're shooting in a real restaurant, and the guy whose restaurant it is is watching and looking at the movie food and just slowly dying.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

And then he offered to Step in for a second. He was like, can I make you something? And then I think that we just kind of roped him in for the whole film because his food was absolutely stunning.

[Ed Gamble]

I love the disapproving Italian chefs. My favorite genre of video is people snapping pasta in front of their Italian partners. Breaking the. Breaking the spaghetti in half.

[Regé-Jean Page]

They're like. They're hamming it.

[Ed Gamble]

No, but they're genuinely like. They'll have the camera hidden in the kitchen and then they'll snap the. Snap the spaghetti and they go mad.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. I've never heard him say this before. It's very nice and I'm glad, you know. It's very nice to hear it.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

But it's not his favorite genre of video.

[Ed Gamble]

Oh, yeah.

[James Acaster]

Top five Karens is his favorite. Shaman.

[Regé-Jean Page]

What's top five Karens?

[Ed Gamble]

Just like compilation videos of like Karen freakouts.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Right, I see. Which is related.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

To pasta freakouts. Sure.

[James Acaster]

These are millions of people freak out.

[Ed Gamble]

These are Italian Karens. This is the.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I feel like the motivation's different.

[Ed Gamble]

I. I understand the pasta one more than a lot of these.

[James Acaster]

Top five Snap the pasta. I don't get these videos. What are you talking about?

[Ed Gamble]

Well, you're not supposed to. That's like, that's like a crime in Italy. To snap the dry pasta in half to fit it into the pan.

[James Acaster]

Got you.

[Regé-Jean Page]

And the, the. The outsider's perspective is like, oh, aren't the Italians sensitive and funny? Because what we're doing is breaking pasta and having a full on emotional breakdown. But the equivalent is. I think if we were translating, it's the videos that the rest of the world enjoys of making tea badly in front of Brits.

[Ed Gamble]

There you go. Putting the milk in first.

[Regé-Jean Page]

That sort of stuff. It's the equivalent. It's like, it's okay, so I'm just gonna put this cup of hot water in the microwave with the tea bag in it. In a cup of milk, not water.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

And watching Brits cry over that would be the same video.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

But it's a lot more romantic when the Italians about the pasta, like these

[Regé-Jean Page]

hangers do most things. Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

The gestures and all that. It's fun to watch put tea in the microwave video. I don't want to see that. Some bloke just go, you know, you made that tea wrong.

[James Acaster]

Popups or bread. Pop ups or bread. Reggae page pop knobs or bread.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I don't like this genie.

[James Acaster]

I had to go big. You knew it was coming. We mentioned it earlier. We'd seeded it yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Pops of bread. Bread, please. I would like bread. I think there's a lot of places we can go with bread. I think I like being surprised by which type of bread turns up in a restaurant.

[Ed Gamble]

Well, we could go to it. We could go to Italy. For your dream. For your dream bread.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Of course, the other joy of Italy is that you never quite know what you're getting, because every region does everything completely differently and they are very passionate about it, and every other region does it terribly, which is the same as the uk, by the way. One of the things I explained to my American friends is that we have so many accents, because you travel 20 miles and you have hundreds of years of history of everyone hating each other. So we speak differently and we want to know that you're not us and we know that we hate you because of how you pronounce that vowel.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It's like that in Italy, but with food. It's like, you make that pasta that way. Oh, you are an absolute savage like this. And so likewise, you get lots and lots of different breads. Never tasted bread like that in my life. It is fantastic everywhere. My favorite hobby while I was in Tuscany was just getting in the car driving. There were all these tiny little hamlets of, like, 800 year old buildings. Like maybe there'd be two restaurants per hamlet if you were lucky, and maybe 30 buildings. And so you just kind of pick one at random and just eat whatever it is that Nonna's cooking in the back. It's usually like someone's grandma or like a married couple just running this tiny restaurant and just discover what pasta is here or what the bread is here or what everyone grows their own olives. It's like a nation of Jeremy Corbyns, except instead of, like Courgettes, it's olives. Everyone's got their allotment, but it's a rolling Tuscan field. I don't know why Corbyn came to mind.

[James Acaster]

No one in Italy not saying how they voted in elections and Brexit refuse to say.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Not quite. Not quite. Corbyn.

[James Acaster]

They refuse to tell people how they

[Regé-Jean Page]

voted, but they enjoy their garden.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yes, that's what I'm saying.

[Ed Gamble]

Which is not in the top five things I would even think of with Corbyn, to be honest.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It was the first thing I thought was a man that makes makes jam.

[James Acaster]

I did an episode of Mop the Week once and that was the picture of the week. Was Corbin with a massive marrow and we had to see.

[Regé-Jean Page]

That's probably why come up with little

[James Acaster]

funny things about it.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. I think of sitting on the floor of the train that time, Remember?

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yes.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It's low hanging fruit jokes about marrows.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, we got him. We absolutely still watch it on YouTube. We absolutely tore him one. And then I think the next story was that Trump was running for president. We're like, imagine that.

[Ed Gamble]

Brexit's not going to happen.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah. The world is great. Ha ha, ha ha. He's got a marrow.

[Regé-Jean Page]

And therefore we made a film about Tuscany. Yes. Because we wanted to think about sunshine and rolling golden and Russell Crowe on a vengeance mission in the background.

[James Acaster]

That'd be great if like. Yeah, there was little. Little scenes of Russell Crowe and he's kind of still his character from Gladiator just knocking around.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It would be delightfully absurdist. Like there's a really gentle love story unfolding. Then every now and then, Russell Crowe pops in furious, soaked in blood.

[Ed Gamble]

You see bits of Gladia in the background. You're like, when is this film set?

[Regé-Jean Page]

The closest we get to Gladiator is we do a barrel rolling race. Have you seen the film?

[James Acaster]

Not yet. I've seen the trailer get received better than I've ever seen any trailer get received in my life.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I have heard anecdotal reports of the trailer getting applauded. Yes, it's a good time. That was before Wicked though, so that makes sense.

[James Acaster]

Before horror films.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Which way are you going to go? Yeah, but no, we did barrel rolling in this. It's close we get to stunts. It's like a very real tradition in one of these tiny little towns where they extremely competitively race barrels. Like massive wine barrels full of wine. I think so they're incredibly.

[James Acaster]

Oh, wow.

[Regé-Jean Page]

You gotta actually be genuinely, incredibly fit. Like, folks train for months to do this and I think I've seen some of the most gnarly stuntman injuries on this film than I have in, like, I saw the Gray Man. Like, I've seen like massive Russo action movies. Evans and Gosling taking chunks out of each other. And I saw the most blood and guts in the barrel rolling for you, me in Tuscany.

[Ed Gamble]

A lovely rom com.

[Regé-Jean Page]

We don't have any of that on screen. Like, we keep all the injuries off screen.

[Ed Gamble]

Sure.

[Regé-Jean Page]

But the training we did for the barrel rolling was no joke whatsoever. You're kind of racing uphill, pushing this thing downhill, trying to learn how to. Steering a barrel is not a straightforward thing. It's not the type of thing I wouldn't even lie on my CV about. Lie about Riding a horse. Barrel. Steering, skiing. Lie about swinging a sword, but barrel.

[Ed Gamble]

No, no, no, no, no.

[Regé-Jean Page]

This is serious business.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. It's also a mad thing to put on a CV before you've had to do it in a film.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah, but is it a conversation starter like you slide the piece of paper across the table, as I do with my cv. Every time. Just slide it like I'm American Psycho.

[James Acaster]

I can think of it.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Let's see his cv. Shh. Very nice.

[James Acaster]

I like you have a lot of film references at your fingertips, ready to go at all times.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I don't want to be tested on this. Okay, go on. Where are you going?

[James Acaster]

I'm not going to test you. I'm just going to. I was going to say if there was any film in history that you. You could go back and star it and you could. And you could be the lead in it.

[Ed Gamble]

Great question.

[James Acaster]

What would it be? Great question. And I don't normally ask this to actors, but, like, I can tell this is the kind of thing you might be thinking about anyway, or, you know, it's a fun.

[Ed Gamble]

You really want to get into American Psycho there.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Well, I mean, who doesn't want to?

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah. I think you would be good as that character.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah, I. I actually. I would like. They are remaking that.

[Ed Gamble]

Didn't they say they were doing Lady American Psycho?

[Regé-Jean Page]

No, no.

[Ed Gamble]

I read a story that they were doing it with Margot Robbie doing Lady American Psycho.

[Regé-Jean Page]

When.

[James Acaster]

Okay, I get.

[Ed Gamble]

I get a lot of those Instagram accounts that are clearly just someone's made something up and then it becomes a news story.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I thought that was Glenn or Austin was doing. That was the last time I heard there was. There was circling, like Austin Butler or Glenn Powell.

[Ed Gamble]

But you want it to be a bit different, right? Yeah, yeah.

[James Acaster]

Glenn Powell's kind of just done it as well.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

He has just killed a bunch of people.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

On screen.

[James Acaster]

On screen.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Breaking news, though. Yeah. I think he enjoys that area. I'd love to. You know what? It's top of the dome, so let's say American Psycho. I'd love to do something like that. I enjoy that aspect of, like, I wanna be Boba Fett. Maybe it's that.

[James Acaster]

Oh, yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I like that aspect of diving into particularly warped areas of the psyche. Not for the sake of being edgy and dark, but because they're fun places to explore. I like. One of the first things I start from with any character is what they love and what they're afraid of. And I feel like with characters like that both of those answers get really deep, knotty. Like, what are you running away from and what are you running towards, essentially, is what that question is. And I think that doing that for. Is it Bateman, the character? Yeah, Patrick Bateman. I always call Jason Bateman Patrick Bateman. And it's not a good thing.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, that whole thing gets confusing. There's Christian Bale playing Patrick.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah. Yes.

[James Acaster]

But I always think Jason Bateman and

[Regé-Jean Page]

then a bunch of Wall street traders just like, idolize him for it. They're just like, yeah, man, that's exactly what we. Like, you're the man.

[Ed Gamble]

And he's like, guys, you missed the point.

[Regé-Jean Page]

That's not the takeaway. But no, I'd love to dive into that something. Something as intense as that and kind of cautionary. And it's like, did you watch Nightcrawler?

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Like that's that kind of exploration of essentially the psychopathy or sociopathy you need to be successful in a cutthroat capitalist society fascinates me. I find that really interesting because you can put on screen. I find those characters really sympathetic. Cause they're tragic. They're not heroic. They're tragic. They've fallen off somewhere. They've taken all the lessons that the world teaches you of. You have to want it more than anyone else and then take it to the nth degree. Where does that actually lead? And it leads to cutting up bodies in your living room, listening to Phil Collins.

[Ed Gamble]

He didn't do it, man.

[James Acaster]

Oh, yeah. So you. In the. In the film. He didn't.

[Ed Gamble]

He didn't do it.

[James Acaster]

He didn't do it. Patrick Bateman, the American Psycho. If he didn't kill anyone, he's imagining it. Because at the end of the film, it's a bit open ended, isn't it?

[Ed Gamble]

Well, same with the book. In the book, it's even more like.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

You're pretty much sure he didn't do it.

[James Acaster]

They had Willem Dafoe play it three different ways. Did you know that?

[Regé-Jean Page]

I did know that.

[James Acaster]

Every single scene. Every single scene he did, they got him to play it like he knows that he did it.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Play it like he has no clue. Play it like he's like, suspect. He's not sure. Yeah. And then they would use different takes throughout that you didn't ever really know.

[Regé-Jean Page]

You got a really trusted director for that.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, like that.

[Regé-Jean Page]

That throws my little actor brain into a spin for a minute because I'm like. I've got this whole internal logic going. You're like, yeah, not Interested in that?

[Ed Gamble]

Get rid of it.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Cover it up. Do something utterly nonsensical, which is great if you, like, trust and, like, unnerve the audience. If you don't, it's like, what, What. What did I think about this so deeply for?

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Why wouldn't that be nice? Going to see the film, not knowing. Not knowing which one they've used.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Kind of.

[Ed Gamble]

Kind of a nice surprise for you.

[James Acaster]

I think the answer is no.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Kind of.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

If you make me better, sure. If you make me worse and furious. Do you know what I mean?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It's like people ask what the difference between stage and screen is a lot of the time, and I'm sure that you actually probably have opinions on that. But it's the biggest difference for me is, like, on screen, it feels a little bit more like being a sous chef. Like, you chop the vegetables very nicely, then you hand them over to the chef in the editing room and they make whatever dish it is. They're gonna make out those takes. And so there's a release of control. Like, your job is to provide really high quality ingredients and then trust your director and editor to cut your performance willy nilly, however they feel. And then on stage, the difference is you spend months with your director rehearsing, which you don't necessarily do on screen, and you kind of work out every detail and think everything through and talk through all the meanings. And then once you hit opening night, I'm driving.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, your headshots.

[Regé-Jean Page]

You know what I mean? And so I'm actually putting the dish together. And you're in very real time adjusting to what the room is like that night, like, what the audience is like, what you're getting back from them. And so it does change, but you're at the controls, you're flicking the switches. You're kind of going, okay, this'll work here, this won't work there. And you make. You absolutely carry the through line from thought and motivation through to the conclusion and what that journey looks like each night, which is the polar opposite screen, where your hands are off the wheel. You know what I mean?

[Ed Gamble]

Do you have a preference?

[Regé-Jean Page]

No, my preference is to mix that up because I think one feeds the other. If you get too into the driver's seat, you kind of forget how to let go. And if you get too used to letting go, you don't know how to drive the thing the whole way through. And I think you need both. You need to be able to see the whole character arc on screen. And likewise on stage, you need to have Those muscles of release to make sure that, for instance, everyone else on stage is doing the same thing. And you need to take that info in. You need to be able to kind of keep it limber. So my answer to all things is always both. Always both. Canon Monte Cristo. That's where I'm doing the closest thing to that kind of psychopathic space because he's an absolute maniac, the Kelly. By the way, have you read Canto Monte Cristo?

[Ed Gamble]

No.

[James Acaster]

And I know Jim Caviezel 1 years ago when I was a kid.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It's good, that one.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Caviezel, man.

[Regé-Jean Page]

In terms of compressing that story.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Have you said that to his face?

[James Acaster]

He wouldn't come on this.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, he might.

[Regé-Jean Page]

He might say nicer things about him.

[James Acaster]

It choose bread, that's for sure.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Okay. We're just in bread. Yeah, we're judging bread.

[James Acaster]

Jesus loves bread.

[Ed Gamble]

Monte Cristo sandwiches.

[James Acaster]

Oh yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Monte Cristo professionals.

[Ed Gamble]

Oh no, Caviezel's gone off.

[James Acaster]

Caviezel. Caviezel straight on the blower immediately. He's got a team.

[Regé-Jean Page]

He's got a team everywhere. They got eyes everywhere.

[James Acaster]

Filming the Christ supremacy or whatever.

[Regé-Jean Page]

He is the Count now.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

And you're now on the list.

[Ed Gamble]

We never. We never actually establish which bread you want in your dream mail.

[James Acaster]

I'm not interested.

[Ed Gamble]

The Romantico sandwich.

[Regé-Jean Page]

That's an intense bread. Yeah, that's not a bread. That's like a main.

[Ed Gamble]

It's a side.

[Regé-Jean Page]

At least it's not really just the bread.

[Ed Gamble]

No.

[James Acaster]

Nah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Simple sourdough, nice butter, good olive oil.

[James Acaster]

Fantastic.

[Regé-Jean Page]

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[James Acaster]

Let's get into your menu proper now. Your dream starter.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Proper dream starter. It's probably kind of a carpaccio type situation.

[Ed Gamble]

Not a carpaccio dirego, of course.

[Regé-Jean Page]

No, not a carpet of myself. Yeah, that's a little bit. It's odd. Yeah, yeah, that one I can imagine. It's very, very Hannibal. Like, where would I slice pieces off my arm?

[James Acaster]

Well, that's a good question.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Situation.

[James Acaster]

So, yeah, so you have to.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Where would you carpaccio yourself?

[Ed Gamble]

I've got an answer straight away if you want to think about it. Go on. It's the butt.

[Regé-Jean Page]

You'd carpaccio the butt.

[Ed Gamble]

I think it's the easiest bit to slice up. And you could back into the machine, but you've got. Okay.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Do you often think about backing it up into.

[Ed Gamble]

It's not the first time I've talked about where I'd slice carpaccio off myself.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Possibly on the therapist kitchen.

[Ed Gamble]

But that's the easiest. If you put the machine at the right height, you back it up into the machine.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Which machine?

[Ed Gamble]

You know, the slicer, the thin slicer that you see. Like a deli slicer.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Then you could just back it up into the machine. Right, right. Otherwise it's tricky. Like, where else are you. Where else are you getting it from?

[James Acaster]

But are you talking about the junk in the spinning?

[Ed Gamble]

You know, there's junk in the trunk. You know, you don't have to deal with bones or anything.

[James Acaster]

Sure. It is.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Where people generally find that they have the expendable bits. Like you take bits from your butt for grafts things or like to craft a six pack, if you believe conspiracy theories.

[James Acaster]

But like in. And let's just keep doing film references in 7, where the guy is being told to like take a pound of flesh off of himself and he goes for his love handles.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Because he thinks he's found like a similar kind of like.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Acaster]

And he just bleeds out. It's pretty. Pretty messed up, man.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes.

[James Acaster]

Like you back up into that machine. I don't think it's going to go as well as you think it's going to go.

[Ed Gamble]

I don't think it's going to go well.

[Regé-Jean Page]

You look pretty pleased.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, it was, you know, you threw that out there. And I think I answered it pretty well.

[Regé-Jean Page]

You're pitching. Backing up into a meat slicer.

[Ed Gamble]

Into a meat slicer.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Convenient. That's the adjective you chose.

[Ed Gamble]

Where on my body is more convenient to get the car packed.

[Regé-Jean Page]

See, I was imagining just like a. Like a, you know, like a carrot peeler. Just like a bit of the forearm.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. Be painful though, wouldn't it?

[Regé-Jean Page]

And the other one was going to be

[Ed Gamble]

walk in the park.

[James Acaster]

You better be grabbing your junk in your hand upwards. Your balls are going to get in there.

[Ed Gamble]

Where do you think my balls are?

[James Acaster]

Between your legs. If you back up, you never. Your ball sack could get caught up in that machine, I think.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah, but is the sneakiest humble brag a man with big balls?

[James Acaster]

Not me. This is Ed Gamble.

[Ed Gamble]

My balls are hanging. They're not swinging around back there. They're not in my ass.

[James Acaster]

Come on, man. I've heard the rumors.

[Ed Gamble]

Do you think I'm tucking 24?

[James Acaster]

I've heard everyone talk about my big ball.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah. Pivoting.

[Ed Gamble]

Thank you.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I looked at the difference between carpaccio and sashimi on the way here to make sure that I knew they were different things. And apparently it's this one season. Carpaccio is. Oh, it's got the whole kind of salt, acid, fat heat thing going on. And sashimi is unadorned.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes.

[Regé-Jean Page]

And only fish.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes. It's a nice way to start a meal. The sort of raw, like, fresh taste.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I'm big on fresh tastes.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I always want something a little bit acidic going on. I think maybe I just kind of want waking up most of the time.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. You know, but yeah, no, we still busy guy. I think the schedule's busy. You want to have something that's going to give you that wake up, start the day all day long.

[Regé-Jean Page]

So I came here.

[James Acaster]

That's why he came here. But for the listener, it's 6 in the morning.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes. It's 6am Me and James are in

[Regé-Jean Page]

our pajamas, if you ever suspected. That's what explains a lot of this, is that it is early.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

I would never talk about backing up into a meat slicer post.

[Regé-Jean Page]

We're not gonna escape that cul de sac of the conversation, are we?

[Ed Gamble]

Not a cul de sac if we can't escape it.

[James Acaster]

Sorry, guys. Benz has told me the episode isn't recording. April Fools. This is going down on April Fool's Day. I just got Reggae Jean with an April Fool's.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I mean, is it.

[James Acaster]

I April fooled you.

[Regé-Jean Page]

The emotion was released.

[James Acaster]

I told Benito I was gonna get you with an April Fool. This goes out on April 1st. This an April Fools?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Excellent.

[James Acaster]

You just got April fooled. I told you how to do it, Benito.

[Regé-Jean Page]

There was a little bit Rio Ferdinand that you know.

[James Acaster]

You got mercked.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

You got merc.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. It was very Rio Ferdinand. Because, like, with Rio Ferdinand as well, like, no one cared when he did it.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

He would always come out and be like, you got mercked. And they would be like, all right. Hello, Rio.

[Ed Gamble]

I don't think Rio can't.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Rio seemed delighted.

[Ed Gamble]

I don't think Rio was invested in

[James Acaster]

that show at all. No. About as much as I was just then.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, you said that's the quickest April fool to revealing it was an April Fool's I've ever seen.

[James Acaster]

It was great.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It was a pretty great turnaround. I'm not sure you committed to the bit.

[James Acaster]

No, no, no. But as Much as Rio did.

[Regé-Jean Page]

My third wish is commit to the bit.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It should be.

[Ed Gamble]

Are we having a beef carpaccio for the start?

[Regé-Jean Page]

Oh, I.

[James Acaster]

Moving on from May before, generally.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Don't be bitter about it. You didn't commit to the bit. Have another go. It's all right.

[James Acaster]

I'm not gonna get you later on.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah, that's a promise.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Yeah, that's a promise. You're gonna get caught.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I'm usually a fish situation. Best carpaccio I ever had was I was at Peluigi in Rome while shooting this film. And I was a little bit overwhelmed and very hungry. And the waiter, like, you know, one of these voices, been there forever, like, in the best possible way. It's like, okay, this is what you do. This is the entirety of your being. You are charming old Italian waiter. And he just kind of looked at me and went, I'm gonna get you something nice. And I was like, great. And he brought out this incredible fish based cut. I think it was like salmon carpet. Was it salmon? It was some kind of fish. It was delicious. It was very finely seasoned. Some olive oil. Something a little bit tangy, I'm guessing, maybe some lime over it. And it was life changing. And I'm sitting in this Italian piazza with this delicate light food that's just been served to me by a waiter who's just like, this is what you want, and hilarious. It's such an institution. They're restaurants. I think, like three Hollywood agents I knew from LA were at the other table, floated in, which was not sure that's a plus to the story.

[Ed Gamble]

When you're trying to experience that escapism and be like, I'm finally. I can relax and enjoy this carpaccio at the moment.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It's a danger of travel, though, isn't it?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Like, I am experiencing this thing that no one else. Oh, there you are.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

And all you can hear is, do the deal. They sound like that.

[Regé-Jean Page]

That is exactly what Hollywood agents sound like in the year 2020.

[Ed Gamble]

And I did a cigar for people who are just listening.

[James Acaster]

Make the film. Make the film. Do the deal.

[Ed Gamble]

I've spent a lot of time in Hollywood. Sorry.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. He spoke to them all.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

With a megaphone going, do the acting. Yeah, yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

He's wearing one of those big puffy hats, you know, and plus fours.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Have you ever had a director with a God mic on set before?

[James Acaster]

No, no, I've not. I think the few things that I've done, they've just been going around just Talking normal.

[Regé-Jean Page]

So God makes a very disconcerting. Like when you have the big, big massive sets.

[Ed Gamble]

Like, one of the.

[Regé-Jean Page]

One of the earlier films I did was a film called Mortal Engines. It was about cities on wheels eating other cities. Like, great. Let's just enjoy that concept.

[Ed Gamble]

We should get one of those on off menu.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, we should get.

[Ed Gamble]

Get one of the cities on off menu.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. See what it would choose.

[Regé-Jean Page]

What's your favorite?

[James Acaster]

Bristol. Starter. Bristol.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Just a small city to start.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, just a little. Just Bristol to start with, please.

[Ed Gamble]

Tokyo for Bay.

[James Acaster]

Who directed that film.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Christian Rivers. It was his first large film because he was approached by Peter Jackson. Peter Jackson had the rights to the movie, and Christian had been storyboarding for him for, like, 15 years. He'd. I think he sent him fan art. Like, it was early. I don't even think it was Lord of the Rings. I think it was like a film that he'd done before Lord of the Rings. And Peter brought him on from this fan art because Christian just written to him going, I want to work with you. And they worked together for years and years and years. And I think Peter had just finished the Hobbit trilogy and was basically like, I've got these rights. I am making a Beatles doc. Why don't you do this film? And so we're on this massive, massive set. Green screens everywhere. Like, massive. There's gotta be 200 people on set. Green screens everywhere. Huge built set. It's my first shot of the day. I'm being introduced in an extremely Legolasque fashion. Like, there's a huge crane. It's doing, like a panning shot up from the legs into the face. There's a fan blowing my dreadlocks in the wind. He's like, right, so this is your em. Introduction. She's gonna come off the airship, and she's just gotta see you and see her life. Cause we do the first take, and the camera pans up and my hair's blowing in the wind.

[James Acaster]

Fans.

[Regé-Jean Page]

And I'm like. And then cut. And so he's maybe 50 meters away, maybe more.

[Ed Gamble]

I'm up on a platform, 200 people

[Regé-Jean Page]

just milling about doing their work. Bell goes, brrr. Everyone's like, hammering and stuff. He goes, right, could you do that again, but maybe do it sexier?

[James Acaster]

All right, let's go.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Belle goes. We go back.

[Ed Gamble]

Silence.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Camera pans up. Crane whooshes. I go up. Hair's blown in the wind. I'm kind of squinching the eyes.

[Ed Gamble]

Cut.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Year six. Isn't that.

[Ed Gamble]

That's A difficult note, isn't it?

[Regé-Jean Page]

Echoing off the walls. This is my first day on a blockbuster. We go through take three, we go through take four, we go through take five. Work starts slowing down because everyone's hearing. Could you just do that? And this time, just look out through your eyes and smolder. Go. And so, like, you've gotten to the point where, like, take eight, the ent. Entire set has stopped. There's, like, monitors around the place, and everyone's just kind of watching. If this kid's gonna get it and get it being. Can you smolder, could you possibly do it a bit sexier than that?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

And that is the origin story of where I learned to do it sexier.

[Ed Gamble]

It's a hard note that. Do it sexier and smolder. How do you. Yeah, how do you smolder? Because you would have thought smolder is just a natural thing that people do without thinking about. Right?

[Regé-Jean Page]

I'm pretty sure it's a Christian thought. Yeah, it's a thing that I thought I was doing.

[Ed Gamble]

Doing without.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, sure.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I clearly was not doing it without.

[Ed Gamble]

You smolder, man. You smoldered when you came in. You're always smoldering.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Well, I am now.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. That's crazy.

[Ed Gamble]

I come ready.

[James Acaster]

That's because of the origin story.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I never want the godmite coming at me again.

[Ed Gamble]

Now you have to constantly smolder. You never want to let it.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Smoldering at all times, just in case.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

That's why I love Christian. I love you, Christian. If you're watching this, it was. It's a wonderful origin story. And we were all doing our best.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. A lot of actors have those things where it's like that they. They like, came up with something, whether it's like a laugh or a certain look or whatever that they did on one film that actually you don't realize as a. As somebody watches films that they are doing that quite a lot because it becomes so natural and baked in.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

I mean, but, like, they can all go, like, I did this film. I had this thing. I had to learn how to do this. And actually that wasn't something that I then just forgot and then went on to other films. That one transfers onto.

[Regé-Jean Page]

You pick bits up. And it is usually like a story of, like, an older actor who's just like, what are you doing here? And you sudden to learn to step up. Useful trauma, if you will, which is a phrase that you probably only come up with if you came up Catholic. But, you know, you do. You pick up Little bits. And you always watch senior actors on set. You do. Always trying to take the lesson from directors, even if they're not always quite as brutal as that. And so I like watching actors kind of snowball through their careers. You kind of see them pick up the toolbox sometimes. Like, you see stuff that people keep from film to film. And then you see like, oh, that, that idiosyncrasy started to kind of blossom after that movie. It's. It's a meta way of watching films you don't want to watch. You don't want to see it the first time. Yeah. You know what I mean? Because that just means that your habits are shining through a bit too much. You're starting to see the actor instead of the character. And I always. I love when I forget which actors I'm watching.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Which is. It's not a particularly profound thing to say, but it is true.

[James Acaster]

But it is, though. It is mad. It is. I mean, I say it to actors who come on here and then they look at me like, yeah, that's good acting.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Acaster]

I'll be like, man, when I see you in different films, it's like a different person. And they're like, yeah, yeah, man, that's what I'm going for.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah. But you know what? I think that they are absolutely bull. They're full of crap at that point. Because what they're doing inside. Well, they're going, yeah, that's my job inside.

[Ed Gamble]

They're going, they've nailed it then.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah, that's a perfect tent. And they're sitting there kind of celebrating on the inside and just taken out on James.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Ed Gamble]

I think it's wonderful that this little guy is amazed by it. It's like magic to this guy.

[James Acaster]

Magic to this guy. Ed's taken in by the top five cabins. Yeah, yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

We've got to get delightful little guys.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Dickensian Urchins wants us to hurry up.

[James Acaster]

We've just been told by. So basically we're getting on with reggae too.

[Ed Gamble]

Well, yes.

[James Acaster]

We've just been told by Benito. We've got 20 minutes left. We've literally got four courses. So we're going to do it, which

[Regé-Jean Page]

is very realistic, by the way. We're in the restaurant, the waiters come by like five or six times. Oh, sorry, yeah. No, we're just going to look at the menu and we're just having a chat.

[James Acaster]

We're still chatting with those.

[Ed Gamble]

It's one of those restaurants. They said we need the table back by 9:30. That's what they've said. So you've got to really rush this.

[Regé-Jean Page]

And we haven't even got to the picky bits. Dream main course, it's kind of. I do pretentious main courses. I've kind of got a toss up between just like a really good fish and chips. Cause wait, hang on. This is dream restaurant, right?

[James Acaster]

Dream.

[Ed Gamble]

It's your dream.

[Regé-Jean Page]

So like, do I get to define the dream or is it your dream?

[Ed Gamble]

It's your dream.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Okay, so this restaurant in my head is. It's gotta be like by a large body of water, like by the ocean or by a lake. I had this really, really good fish and chips in New Zealand. And so it's just gotta be like fresh fish that's caught like from, from, you know, 100 meters away, preferably in a non polluted bay. You get the idea. It's a dream bay.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Just like a good batter. Chips made well blanched and you got, you want to feel like some salt air. We're dining al fresco.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes.

[Regé-Jean Page]

In this restaurant. You might have to keep the noise down after 11.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, fair enough.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It's just a good fish and chip. Actually, you know what? I had a toss up and I've lost it. No, it's fish and chips. I talk myself into it. It's a really, really good fish and chips. A fresh lemon grown in the yard of your dream restaurant. You're growing lemon trees with squ. Squeezing that over the fish and the chips. Cause why not? We got like some fresh cracked salt on that. And you wanna be able to almost smell the environment that the food has come from as you're eating it. You know, like you're smelling the lemon grove in the background a little bit. It kind of comes by on the breeze every now and then.

[Ed Gamble]

That's nice. You know what I mean? Yeah, the potato feel. Are you smelling the potato field?

[Regé-Jean Page]

You could get a little fresh grass scent on the air. You know what I mean? There's a little bit of the earth about you. It's. It's damp, but not too damp. So like you can feel, you know that after rain smell.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I've got a little after. Right. That was called petrich.

[Ed Gamble]

That's what that smells called. After, like rain. Rain on concrete specifically is petrichor.

[Regé-Jean Page]

No, I don't rain on concrete.

[Ed Gamble]

That's a nice smell though.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I want rain on the potato field. Okay.

[Ed Gamble]

I don't know. Potato core.

[James Acaster]

Potato, potato core.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah. Not sure that's a thing. I think I'm not gonna fall for that April Fool. You're gonna have to get up early in the morning for that.

[Ed Gamble]

Well, it wasn't even an April fool then.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Whatever soil petrichor is.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes.

[Regé-Jean Page]

We've got a bit of that on the breeze. We've got a bit of lemon on the breeze. We've got to be honest, I'm here for the breeze almost more than the fish and chips. I'm not gonna lie.

[James Acaster]

It's rare.

[Ed Gamble]

We get dream. The dream breeze included

[James Acaster]

before. No, it's nice to have a dream.

[Regé-Jean Page]

They're also shell shocked. They're hiding in the restaurant from the

[Ed Gamble]

streamers at the beginning.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

And has the fish come from the body of water that you just had?

[Regé-Jean Page]

The fish was caught, like, no further away than like, 500 meters from. You know what I mean? The lemon are like 50 meters that way. The potatoes possibly slightly further away. Because you need a field for that.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

And that's all on the board.

[Ed Gamble]

You don't want them breeze too much from the potato field because there is manure involved.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah, exactly. We're keeping the potatoes. Why'd you bring up the potato field?

[Ed Gamble]

Well, you. You brought up the potato field.

[Regé-Jean Page]

No, I think I brought up the body of water and the lemons.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. We recorded.

[Regé-Jean Page]

And you decided to bring manure into this situation.

[Ed Gamble]

Well, I brought the manure in. I will admit that. You did.

[Regé-Jean Page]

April 4th.

[Ed Gamble]

You did.

[James Acaster]

That was the. April four was that you brought manure into it.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah. I don't want to be pranked by you.

[James Acaster]

Gregor was saying his dream main course, and your April fool is that you said, I'm the potato filter.

[Regé-Jean Page]

There's one. What about a side?

[Ed Gamble]

He got murked.

[James Acaster]

He got murked. He merked you. Sorry, Reggie.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I came on the podcast and was like, would you like some shit on the side? And what about backing up into a slicer?

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Both you. Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Sorry. Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Disgusting. Man.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Reggae.

[Ed Gamble]

Brought up the field. And where on your body would you get a carpaccio from?

[Regé-Jean Page]

I did bring up where. Yeah, but then you brought up where.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. You did it.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

You've been. You've let yourself down.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Can you be pleasant with this horrible concept? And you went, no.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. You've really let yourself down this episode.

[Ed Gamble]

Well, you got punked and you got murked.

[James Acaster]

We. Listen. We got make a Sean on the podcast. Yeah. Everyone's excited. Yeah. Dan, Edward. Dan, everyone that I've told. You've gotten on the podcast.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. And I've let myself down.

[James Acaster]

And you've let yourself down.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

There's been so Many people listening to this podcast. So many who are head over heels

[Ed Gamble]

for this man, who have never listened

[James Acaster]

to the podcast, and you're picking up and cutting me off your butt. There's not. This is not the listen people came for.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Do we believe this podcast or are

[James Acaster]

we just bleeping everything that he says for this. For this episode? Everything he says could be believed, which

[Regé-Jean Page]

actually be really fun.

[James Acaster]

Six minutes, according to Benito.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Now we're criticizing you for. And you look like the victim of the podcast. Poor man.

[James Acaster]

15. Oh, you're doing 15 with your hand like that.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, that's not how things work.

[James Acaster]

Well, that says six to me.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Right?

[James Acaster]

If you want to spend another 10 minutes debating this, I will.

[Ed Gamble]

James is lashing out.

[James Acaster]

Okay, my video says I got mercked. Fair enough. He murked me.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It's because we haven't had our mains. James is getting cranky. He's hangry.

[Ed Gamble]

I genuinely am hungry, and I'm thinking about this fish and chips, and it's making me even more hungry because it sounds delicious.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Great.

[Ed Gamble]

Good. That's it. Favourite moment of fish and chips. When you break the batter and a bit of steam comes out the middle.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yes, absolutely there. Stay in that zone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Steam coming from the fish, not from the field.

[Ed Gamble]

Like a big fart.

[James Acaster]

Oh, no, no. For fuck's sa. Like a little bill.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Like the radio shows.

[Ed Gamble]

This can't stop murking you.

[James Acaster]

You can't break the batter in front of someone from New Zealand. They'll go crazy. There's a. There's videos of that online.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Mom. I like to propose a dinner optimization plan for 2026. Soccer practice every week. Get back late and you're stressed out about making something fast but actually nutritious for dinner. When Ashley's mom picked me up, I noticed that she made blue. It came like a little kit. By the time it was ready, I still had shin guards on. And it was real food. Fresh veggies, protein, actual flavor. Taker from the younger generation. We're innovators, giving a couple blue apron meals around. Not the worst idea.

[Ad Voice]

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[Regé-Jean Page]

Terms and conditions apply.

[Ad Voice]

Visit blue apron.com terms for more.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Hey, listeners, meet Russell. Hey. Russell just launched a fitness app, and he needed to get the word out to busy professionals looking to see stay fit. So I turned to acast. I used their smart recommendations feature to

[James Acaster]

easily find shows that talk about health and fitness. Booking sponsorships through their platform was a breeze.

[Regé-Jean Page]

And just like that, my app Was

[James Acaster]

in their ears during their morning run.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Sounds like a smart move. Russell, how's business looking now? Sweat is pouring, and so are the installs. Spread the word about your business with podcast ads on Acast. Start today at go.acast.com.

[James Acaster]

Dream side dish.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Sorry. Batter, batter, side dish.

[James Acaster]

Yes.

[Regé-Jean Page]

We're eating food. Okay, so we're at the restaurant. Breeze is blowing, breaking the fish, eating the fish, eating the chips on the side. I think we're having. We're having Brussels sprouts, but. Okay, but we're having Brussels sprouts made this.

[James Acaster]

No, no, I'm not.

[Ed Gamble]

I love Brussels sprouts.

[Regé-Jean Page]

We're having American Brussels sprouts.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Because I don't know how, like, we give the Americans a lot of stick for food. The world does.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

And we get a lot of stick for food as well. But Brussels sprouts is why we get stick for food. We boil them to death and then just plop them on a plate, sad and wet, and it's not a good situation. I remember my mind being blown when I ate sprouts in the States. They're like, do you want sprouts? I was like, absolutely not. They're like, why not? They're my favorite. No one's favorite food. This conversation went on for years until I finally tried some. And there's. Oh, I forget the name of the restaurant now. It's just opposite the Paramount lot in la. La. Excellent city for food, by the way. There's a lot of issues with Los Angeles, but the food scene, incredible. It's Osteria something. It's an Italian name.

[James Acaster]

If you're getting on Google Maps, I can see them doing it, but they

[Regé-Jean Page]

do an incredible brussels sprout side. It's fried in something that must be like a big pan of butter. It's indulgent and salty, and they do it with a poached egg that's, like, barely poached. It's almost like a simmered egg. It's like, if you can't do uncooked egg white, if you're afraid of the flob, this isn't for you.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

But it ties everything together really delicately, and it is one of the most delicious things I've eaten in my life.

[James Acaster]

I've never heard about a dish that has that.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I hadn't heard of it either. I was there with a friend after. Oh, name drop. I'm not gonna drop the name. It was after we did the Vanity Fair cover shoot a couple years ago. We went to this restaurant that's why I know it was up to the Paramount locks we're shooting on the Paramount lot.

[James Acaster]

We can try and guess the person.

[Regé-Jean Page]

You actually almost certainly can.

[Ed Gamble]

Were they on the COVID as well?

[Regé-Jean Page]

I mean, I've said too much.

[James Acaster]

They're on the COVID The COVID is what? What's the COVID Bridgerton.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It was. A gorgeous restaurant. Delicious. Great day. And it's again, a lot of the thing with me with food which ties back to the movie, by the way, is it's where you're eating it and who you're eating it with. Like, the food is one thing, and those sprouts are delicious, but it's. I only remember it cause it's tied to a memory of like, a really cool day with really cool people.

[James Acaster]

You won't know that you won't name,

[Regé-Jean Page]

and I won't just. Cause I don't want to be that guy.

[James Acaster]

Do you know what I mean?

[Ed Gamble]

You can be that guy.

[James Acaster]

Are they people that you're in a show with, or are they people that you were just in the photo not

[Regé-Jean Page]

playing 21 questions on the people?

[Ed Gamble]

He loves guessing costumes. He loves guessing games.

[James Acaster]

I love guessing games, though.

[Regé-Jean Page]

That's why I'm teasing you.

[James Acaster]

You're there with Paul Mescal.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah. Benito, look up the vanity package.

[Regé-Jean Page]

He brought the little chain and his earring. Did you watch SNL on Saturday? The British one?

[James Acaster]

I wasn't able to.

[Ed Gamble]

Well done on your fantastic cameo.

[James Acaster]

Congrats.

[Ed Gamble]

Enjoyed it very much.

[Regé-Jean Page]

The Paul Mescal references in the Shakespeare sketch were really good. Incredible.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. Very, very funny.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I would quote it, but I don't think I want to be clipped on that.

[James Acaster]

Did you enjoy it? You enjoy doing it?

[Regé-Jean Page]

It's Time of My Life. I. That kind of stuff. I love them. It was fun coming back and doing it here because it's nice to kind of. I don't know if this is close to your heart or not, but seeing, like, a proving ground for, like, young British comedy talent. Because we don't do sketch shows that much anymore. Don't know how you feel about sketches.

[James Acaster]

Yes, great.

[Ed Gamble]

Professional comedians love sketches.

[James Acaster]

It started out in sketch.

[Ed Gamble]

Started out in sketch.

[James Acaster]

Of course. Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It's like, got this wonderful tradition for it, and it's. It's really nice kind of seeing what will happen when we bring an American format. Because I feel like we don't do improv as a form the way Americans do. Like, we do. We have a huge tradition of comedy. Sketch comedy. Like Footlights. Sorry. Having a clue. Like, we do very. We do wordy game type of improv. And they have this much more kind of physical, very almost formalized form of improv. Like it has a form and a structure. And seeing what we do to kind of put a twist on that is going to be really interesting. Yeah. Doing SNL in the States is one of the best things I've ever done, ever. I was the middle of COVID so I was starved for human contact. And suddenly I had a live audience in front of me. And you must both know that feeling when the devil gets you a little bit, when suddenly there's just a bunch of people. I can play with this. And so suddenly getting to do a bit of live performance, because I'd been on screen for ages, I hadn't done stage for years at that point. And it reminded me of being in a band a little bit. So the cast of SNL are always knackered because that seven day turnaround is insane. And they were on like, I don't know, week six or eight of their series. It was the height of COVID Everyone was just so tired. And I remember the last rehearsal before the live show. Lorne kind of sits everyone down and he kind of went, look, guys, the kid's giving it everything. And they were like, yeah, right. I guess he is having fun. So they kind of. They decided graciously to carry me through it. But I remember between sketches, because I'd grown up in bathroom, we did the dress rehearsal and we did a sketch. And then we're kind of resetting the cameras and things. And I started riffing with the audience. Cause I was like, they're there. And it was like an old instinct where I'm like, okay, so moving the cameras is essentially my guitarist is tuning up. And so I got a bit of audience banter. Cause that's how you keep people warm between the songs. And I remember Kenan looked over to me and went, okay. Almost like the memory of what it was like to really be enamored by the situation of live performance suddenly kind of rushed back like I was his Prustian.

[James Acaster]

Madeleine cake.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Madeline cakes. That's food.

[James Acaster]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Always comes back to food.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah, Always comes back to food.

[James Acaster]

It's exciting because we're. That's. I had to cut this out the episode. But Ed and I are going to be hosting one of the SNLs in this country. Yes. April Fool. Fucking got him. I got him. I got Reggae John. You got mad. I got Reggae Johnny. Absolutely bought it. I got him.

[Regé-Jean Page]

April 4th. I really thought that I wasn't Gonna.

[James Acaster]

You got murked.

[Ed Gamble]

I don't think Reggae Jean's come out the worst from that. I think it's a worse prank on you.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Because you're not.

[Ed Gamble]

Because we're not.

[James Acaster]

Oh, yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

You just said that. He was delighted for us.

[James Acaster]

He's really happy for us.

[Ed Gamble]

He was so happy for us. And we're not doing it.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I was gonna come back to guest on your show.

[Ed Gamble]

It was gonna be great.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, it would have been good.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, that would have been great, actually.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Regé-Jean Page]

You've made yourself to keep that in the show now.

[Ed Gamble]

You've made your. SAD now. Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Oh.

[James Acaster]

Not. Not as good a career as I just pretended.

[Ed Gamble]

April Fool. I'm not doing that well.

[James Acaster]

April4. We haven't been asked to do.

[Regé-Jean Page]

You will. You could.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Maybe this is. Maybe this is your Make a Wish video. They're just like, look how sad this Dickensian action is.

[Ed Gamble]

But we know everyone involved in it, and we can't ask, does that make you. No. And I'm happy for all that. Those guys. Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Happy. Your dream drink.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Dream, dream drink. Dream drink. Dream drink. We're gonna stay on the team of being fresh and being woken up. If I'm drinking alcohol, it's usually a caipirinha with this meal, I think, because I often. If I'm drinking alcohol, it'll be like an old fashioned or a caipirinha. And if we're on our seaside dream restaurant, then I think we want that line fresh awakening. Also, because in my head, we're kind of hitting sunset, and so, you know, you got those, like, string lights in our alfresco situation. It's getting dark. There's probably a band warming up, like a salsa band or something. Nice. And so you're kind of. You're getting yourself into. As we go towards the desserts, we're loosening the hips.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

You know what I mean?

[James Acaster]

He's loosening the hips. Backing into his meat slicer.

[Regé-Jean Page]

We'd done so well.

[James Acaster]

Yes.

[Ed Gamble]

Sorry.

[Regé-Jean Page]

We'd gotten so far away.

[James Acaster]

Sorry.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Did I bring out my head teacher voice on you? We had done so well. You had made such progress. We really believed in you.

[Ed Gamble]

I feel this is the president character coming out now. Yeah. Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

But he's got to have a more. More inspirational cadence.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

We had done so well. We really believed in you.

[James Acaster]

That's good.

[Regé-Jean Page]

And you have let down this country.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Your.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Your morals.

[James Acaster]

This is your beliefs.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Stop interrupting the president. I think that's really good. Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, that was good.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Via Kermit.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

The ultimate teacher, I believe, like Kermit Barack would be a great Sesame street character.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, you.

[Ed Gamble]

If we do host snl, you've got to come on and do Kermit Barack. That's going to be that. That's going to be the opening scene sketch.

[James Acaster]

They have to paint you green and then you're sitting on a lily pad, but you're being Obama.

[Regé-Jean Page]

We're getting a little more shooting stars than snl, do you know what I mean?

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

It's all episode, man.

[James Acaster]

It's our episode. When we host it. We're gonna go get Mega Yard. He's gonna be Kermit Barack. Not even Kermit Obama. You can paint him green, put him on a lily Paddy. Just let. Just let him go. Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Little known fact, Kermit's last name is, in fact O Bama.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, it is. Not a lot of people know that. That's true. You gonna April fool this.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I was thinking about it.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Not even close.

[Ed Gamble]

A lovely caipirinha.

[James Acaster]

That's a fantastic drink.

[Ed Gamble]

Lovely caipirinha.

[James Acaster]

I've not heard of this drink before.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Oh, it's just like. It's just literally lime and cachaca. Yeah. So it's like a rum type situation.

[Ed Gamble]

Brazilian.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Brazilian, yeah, yeah, Brazilian. So cachaca, lime, sugar. That's it. The reason I know what it is because the only drink I was good at making when I worked, and it's incredibly simple. It's the first one they taught us. You just kind of muddle lime and sugar and then pour stuff in. And that's kind of. Your drink is great.

[James Acaster]

Would you like this one to be made by you then?

[Regé-Jean Page]

No, absolutely not. Are you insane? I'd like a good one, please. I haven't made one in years, though. There we go. In this dream restaurant, maybe as like a long form starter, I want to kind of come in every weekend, get to know the staff, make it like a place that I feel really comfortable. And like, you know what? Come behind the bar. Let's teach how to make some drinks. And then I get really good at making the drinks. And actually all of these dream courses have been made by me and the kitchen staff together. And we're having like a staff meal at the end of the day. That kicked everyone else out, you know what I mean? Except the band. They can stay. And that will make everything taste better because I've learned to make this drink. It's not real me. It's me in the dream restaurant now. I'm so good at making cocktails. I've contributed to the batter for the fish. I helped pick the potatoes. Over the last few months, I've escaped the world. I've become a farmer at a restaurant that serves only us. That sounds like an album. A restaurant that serves only us. It sounds a little bit keen, actually.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Yeah. Keen would call it that.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Somewhere only we know the restaurant.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Yeah. I think you're the first guest we've had whose dream meal involves changing their entire life.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. And having a new job.

[James Acaster]

Two minutes. What's your dream? Dessert?

[Regé-Jean Page]

Tiramisu.

[James Acaster]

Tiramisu. Don't mind if a tiram.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Italian trifle.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, Lovely stuff, Italian trifle. I wish we could delve into that more.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Definitely superior.

[James Acaster]

But. But we can't. You gotta go. So I'm gonna read your menu to you now so you feel a bit about it. That's the shortest we've ever spent on dessert. But luckily it was tiramisu. So, like, we spoke about tiramisu.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Good thing we spent so long on carpaccio and Ed's butt.

[Ed Gamble]

That wasn't my fault. I was answering the question that was asked.

[James Acaster]

Sourdough. Nice. Butter. Olive oil. Starter fish. Carpaccio main course. Fish and chips with fresh lemon and cracked salt. Side dish. American Brussels sprouts. Drink. Can't pronounce this.

[Ed Gamble]

Caipirinha.

[James Acaster]

Dessert. Tiramisu. That is a very nice menu. Sorry that we had to rush for it because we got so deep into the Actors Studio. Sorry.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I did fish for starters and mains. I feel like that's a bit of a.

[Ed Gamble]

No, that's fantastic. I love it. The fresh fish to start.

[Regé-Jean Page]

And we're by the seaside.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

We're by the sea. So we're by a body of water.

[Regé-Jean Page]

There we go.

[Ed Gamble]

We've got one minute. We'll just. We'll say goodbye.

[James Acaster]

I guess we'll say goodbye.

[Ed Gamble]

We'll see you at the SNL UK studio.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah, I'll see you at the SNL studio.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I want to see your surreal SNL episode.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

I really do. I will contribute some kind of character to that.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, we'll get you in immediately.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Well, you don't know if he'll be on a lily pad. I'm not commissioning.

[James Acaster]

You know what the character is going to be.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Maybe I'm gonna call my American agents on you.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Do the film. But he's not being a frog.

[Ed Gamble]

He ain't doing Kermit.

[James Acaster]

Come on, Kermit. Obama's different.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Reggie. Jean doesn't Kermit.

[James Acaster]

Bonobo.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Reggie Jean.

[Ed Gamble]

Reggae thank you so much for coming to the dream restaurant.

[James Acaster]

Thank you, mate.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Thank you for having me.

[Ed Gamble]

Well, there we are, James. A wonderful chat with Reggae Jean Page.

[James Acaster]

We got so lost in conversation, we forgot about the menu. As Reggae said, though, that is what it's like sometimes in the restaurant where you got the menu and they keep on coming around and going, are you ready to order yet? Oh, sorry, We've just been chatting.

[Ed Gamble]

Been chatting.

[James Acaster]

And they come out again. Yeah, again.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

That's what it felt like.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

And it's nice to have an episode like that.

[Ed Gamble]

I love the guy.

[James Acaster]

I loved. I loved Reggae Jean.

[Ed Gamble]

Enthusiastic, talented, got involved with the pod. Great food choices.

[James Acaster]

Lovely food choices.

[Ed Gamble]

Setting was wonderful. Nailed it. I thought he nailed that.

[James Acaster]

I think absolutely nailed it. Not to mention he didn't say Reggae Reggae. So source.

[Ed Gamble]

He got pranked a few times.

[James Acaster]

He did get April fooled. Yeah, I definitely really. April fooled him at the end.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, you really did.

[James Acaster]

To the point where I felt bad because that's the thing, actually. People don't talk about. When you do April fool someone good,

[Ed Gamble]

you talk about the snl. April Fool. Yeah, you got yourself there.

[James Acaster]

But I got him as well. He was so happy for us. I felt bad. He was like, yes. And I was like, oh, no, that's a genuinely nice emotion. And I'm about to crush it.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

By going, no, we're not doing it. And I know. I got myself and you.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Oh, God.

[James Acaster]

That's the thing is about April. That's something they don't tell you about cranking.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

I bet the Jackass Boys feel bad all the time.

[Ed Gamble]

I bet they don't.

[James Acaster]

No, they probably don't.

[Ed Gamble]

We had Steve Owen. Do you think he felt bad?

[James Acaster]

He didn't seem to feel bad. No, no, he was. He felt a lot of things. Yeah, but he didn't feel bad. Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

You. Me in Tuscany is out on April 10th in cinemas. Go and see it. It. I'm on tour. Fresh Hell is the name of my show. Tickets on sale now. Edgamble.co.uk for tickets UK and Ireland tour. Come see me.

[James Acaster]

I'm also on tour, to be fair. And actually it was. It was told to me recently that not all the dates have sold out, so I should probably promote that.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. Does it. Do you feel like this is a good way of promoting it?

[James Acaster]

The show's just called James Acaster. It's on. I'm on tour.

[Ed Gamble]

It's brilliant.

[James Acaster]

Some of them have not sold out.

[Ed Gamble]

That's just not a good way to promote things. I don't think.

[James Acaster]

No, no.

[Ed Gamble]

Just say tickets available.

[James Acaster]

Tickets available.

[Ed Gamble]

James Acaster is the name of the show.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

It's brilliant.

[James Acaster]

Some people have complained that it's just called James Acaster. Yeah, yeah. They've gone, why is it. Why have you not come up with a name?

[Ed Gamble]

Well, you know, there's a reason.

[James Acaster]

There's a reason. Come see, come see.

[Ed Gamble]

This is obviously available on YouTube. Some of you will know that, because you'll be watching this on YouTube right now. If you are listening, it is available on the YouTube. So go and subscribe to us on YouTube as well, because Benito cries himself to sleep every night that we don't have enough subscribers.

[James Acaster]

Is this bit on YouTube? On YouTube?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Even this bit when we're saying it's on YouTube. It's on YouTube.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

It seems mad that we include this.

[Ed Gamble]

But don't you argue with him. He's done a course.

[James Acaster]

Oh, yeah. He has done a course recently.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

On how to put things on YouTube, I think. Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Because we've not. This is the first one we've managed to upload because he's done the course.

[James Acaster]

The rest of them have just been.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

I don't know. He just puts them. His own computer. They're on his desktop. Yeah, yeah. And he watches them and things. They're on the Internet.

[Ed Gamble]

He's accidentally put them on pornhub.

[James Acaster]

Oh, no, no. Well, before we finally find our audience that's our true audience, we should put one on pornhub.

[Ed Gamble]

That'd be funny.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Let's put one on pornhub.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Do you think?

[Ed Gamble]

On pornhub, if you put things that aren't porn, they get banned for not being explicit enough.

[James Acaster]

That'll be interesting.

[Regé-Jean Page]

Yeah, let's.

[James Acaster]

The listeners. You can vote on Twitter or Instagram or whatever. Just this. Make sure you message Bonito. Huh?

[Ed Gamble]

And that's the vote, is it?

[James Acaster]

The vote is. Is you message bonito and you ask for an episode of your choosing that we've definitely filmed. We've already filmed. And Benito will put it on.

[Ed Gamble]

It probably can't be a big celeb, because I'd imagine anyone with like, a PR team might be a bit annoyed that we've put their episode on pornhub.

[James Acaster]

I guess. Did we film the huge Davis one?

[Ed Gamble]

Good question.

[James Acaster]

Because he's big, but there's a.

[Ed Gamble]

Also, he sounds like a porn star,

[James Acaster]

so I think that sounds like a porn star.

[Ed Gamble]

Pornhub.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. So he put huge Davis off menu. That sounds.

[Ed Gamble]

That sounds sexy, doesn't it? Yeah.

[James Acaster]

And then he does describe a porn scene in it of the two of us making love.

[Ed Gamble]

Can we put it on pornhub? Bonita? He's nodding.

[James Acaster]

Why? Why? He's shaking his head like he's all sad about. But you should do it, Bonita. That's funny. Why would you not do. I can't even think about why you wouldn't do it.

[Ed Gamble]

I find it funny that someone might be, like, yanking one out and skipping through the videos and they accident. They accidentally. Accidentally. They accidentally jizz. When we're on.

[James Acaster]

They go, this sounds like exactly what I want to see. Huge. Davis. And then they put it on and it said, going like, take in the pastor of conversation. And then they. That's funny.

[Ed Gamble]

That's funny. We'll do that.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Anyway, thanks for watching and listening.

[James Acaster]

Thank you. Sorry. Reggae we did it again.

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[Regé-Jean Page]

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