155: When I geek...with Jess Weixler

That's usually how our shows are held. Oh, and if at some point you could say hi to Jim and his Atherton friends, that would be so awesome. Should we just go ahead and knock that one off? Yeah, can we do that? And one thing, if you could tell them, because they're at a certain age, they're growing up, and you could tell them, it's just a movie.

Oh, of course. It's just a movie. But your dad wants you to know... That it's just a movie. And hi, Jim and all your Atherton friends.

That is so cool. Go Atherton. The rebel is still in our hearts. Falling Program is a proud member of the Palava family of podcasts. Check out all the shows over at palava.com.

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Way down among Brazilians Coffee beans grow by the billions So they've got to find those extra cups to fill They got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil. What's up and welcome to Movie Meltdown. I'm Brian. I'm Fred. I'm Marlena.

And this week we have a special guest co-host with us. You may remember from earlier this year, very briefly, we have actress Jess Wexler with us. Hello. I did get it right this time, did I? Yeah, you did.

Well, it's kind of... It's a little... Weichsler? Weichsler. Weichsler?

Yes, it's bizarre. Is it German? Yes. Well, I think it's, like, Austrian. Oh.

Weichsler. It's a fake name, because, like, Weichsler is a real name. Yeah. And I think my family's name was Weichsler, with a C-H, and they were escaping Austria, like, the sound of music or something, and. Changed it to an X.

In between singing and dancing. In mid-song. In mid-song, they were like, let's put an X in there. Faulkner stuck a U in there. That's all it takes.

Just shove another letter and you're safe. Yeah, I think we were Muellers. And we just changed it to Miller because. You know, it sounds... Sounds like a job.

Yeah. Sounds like you have a job. Mm-hmm. That's what you're looking for. I'm a miller.

My grandma and great-uncle were Steinbergs, and they changed their name in the 40s. Not anything to do with, like, a negative, like. They were just bored? No, no, no. It had nothing to do with people, like, having a bad opinion about Jewish people, because, I mean, their dad was Jewish, but, like, Because people made fun of them and called them hamburgers.

Oh. Just the burg part? The burg part, yeah. Oh, just the burg. Steinway.

I think, actually, maybe it's Steinburgers. Steenburgers, Steinburgers, something like that. They just better be glad they weren't around in the era of the Hamburglar. I know. No hope for those kids.

All right, so it is once again time for another edition of Decaffeinated Movie Geek. Cappuccino on my butt. I still drink coffee. The last fucking thing you need is another cup of coffee. It's time for Decaffeinated Movie Geek.

We're coming to you live via digital recording from Nancy's Bagel Grounds, where we get together, drink coffee, and talk movies. And as with many of our episodes, we have our special flavors. So this time we will go to Jess. Jess, what flavor of coffee are we drinking this time? Pacific Blacktail.

Very good. We think it comes from the ocean. The bottom of the ocean. I think it's a deer in the ocean. I don't know what you're talking about.

It's a deer that they've made. It's a coffee. Dolphin steak. Those are PC, right? Ground up into Pacific black tail.

This isn't a commercial for them at all. It's Mahi-Mahi. Yeah. Soon to be extinct. So, yeah, of the many caffeinated movie geek episodes we've done here, and there's been quite a few now, this is actually the first time we've lured or brought an actor or a filmmaker in.

So thank you for joining us here on our sort of semi-home turf here. We always, you know, rope our friends and the rest of the crew into it. But, yeah, I've been trying to bring people in for a while now. So, luckily, we worked it out this week, so you can join. Sweet.

I'm offered to be the first in the round. Yeah, that's cool. May many follow. Maybe we can get over that ancient animosity between geeks. I don't think that's happened tonight.

I don't think tonight's that defined. I don't think there's any hope. You don't know me very well. Maybe it was the techies. I was going to say, you obviously at least fall into some level of geekdom.

It may be more performance-oriented, but... We'll get into that. There's a lot of geek in this little girl. That's what I figured. That's why I was normally going to some sort of geek activity.

So this time I thought we would just give it to you, and this can be, you know, Jess's geek activity. Yay! We can do the whole thing and wrap it up with your geekdom, as widespread as it may be. All right. So we will take a break.

We need a refill on coffee. Yes. The hills are alive with the sound of music. With songs they have sung for a thousand. Years The hills fill my heart.

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Are you listening to Movie Meltdown? I'm Amanda Burse. I hope so. Love and marriage, love and marriage. That's part of your problem, you know.

You haven't seen enough movies. All of life's riddles are answered. In the movies. And now, on with the show. She comes along.

She gets inside. She makes you better than anything you've tried. Wave goodbye to what you were. Okay, so it was kind of nice to have you in town. This makes this interview a little different, because, yeah, we were discussing earlier, you know, you went to school, like, up the street.

We're all sort of connected to... Your son's friends, Fred, hang out there. Both of my parents went to your high school. Your parents went to Appleton, too? Yep.

I make so much sense of that to you. Sketchy. Oh, boy. There's a bunch of grungy kids going there. Anyway, so, yeah, it kind of has a nice different spin to it that we've got this, you know, we're all sort of thrown back in the middle of the old neighborhood for you.

So, I don't know, I guess just to give people the 101 on you. Again, went to Atherton, came from here, and then escaped. Changed your name and escaped, you know, running from the Nazis like you did. And, I don't know, I guess, do you want to go into all the, I mean, you went to Juilliard? I did, if I'm very fortunate. about that.

They're pretty selective, so points to you for being a nerd. Thanks! Geek and a nerd. Those are two very different sections. I totally geeked and nerded.

I got my check off of my Shakespeare monologues. All prepared. That's a combination of both. That's nerd and geek. I straight up did the nerd and geek audition and it worked.

But I actually haven't... Are stories allowed? A minor story? Oh, go to town. Um...

I was like, oh, I'm totally going to be an actor and went to Chicago and auditioned for all the major schools. And the first day I auditioned, I was so nervous. I got into none of them. And the next day, I was like, this will not kill me. These nerves will not kill me.

Literally, I do not recommend this. It happened involuntarily. Woke up, vomited, and then went to my next string of auditions and got into all those schools. So it's sort of. That was.

Maybe it is what you do. I don't think it's what... I do not promote bulimia or any of these things. No, no, no. But you just have to get the evil out of it.

Exorcist style. There's something about Mary's school of acting. Oh, wow. You can't go with the loaded gun. Yeah.

Maybe when it comes down to it. Whatever it takes to settle down. Get a massage. You know, I'm sure there are other ways. Oh, man.

So, yeah, you've since moved to New York officially? Is that your main home? Oh, not anymore. I moved to New York and I was there for 11 years, with school included. Yeah.

And then. Two years ago, I moved to L.A. Been sucked in. I've been sucked over to L.A. Evil vortex of the West Coast.

You know, I totally thought it was going to be evil, and I, like, stayed clawing onto New York with Tooth and Nail because I'm obsessed with New York. It's culturally intelligent. You know, very geeky in all the right ways. But work was starting to fade in New York, and there was just more in L.A. And I got to L.A., and I...

I'm going to blurt out my first curse word here. I fucking love it. Nice. I love it. I'm like on the water.

I surf in the mornings. It's more about living, isn't it? It is more about living. I have more space. I was in a shoebox in New York paying outrageous amounts of money.

Now I pay reasonable amounts of money and live like in an average to small apartment, which feels like a palace. Yeah. Yeah. You can surf on the Ohio. Our lives are the same.

I just remember seeing a couple of books somebody put together of cutting-edge, leading artists in New York and then on the West Coast. And the difference was all the people in New York were very intense about what they had to say about their work, and that was what they had to say. And then you go to the West Coast artists... And their comments were all about how they like fishing. And they really didn't touch, they let their work speak for themselves.

And then they just talked about, you know, just. Their lives, you know. I'm not saying one's better or worse, but, you know, sometimes it is good to let your work speak for itself and try. To have a life. If it's possible, if it's, like, possible for artists, I think it's really smart to live in both places, because you kind of.

Need a bit of both. Like, I'm really grateful that I had to fight so hard for so long. I mean, I'm still totally fighting, but I got the spirit of it from, like, pounding the streets every day, riding the subway every day. You know, sometimes people do get... You know, if you bring that into kind.

Of, like, hey, whatever. We'll just wake up in the morning whenever we wake up. You combine these worlds. Yes. In the middle somewhere.

Yeah. In the middle of Kentucky. And that is the life of a Kentuckian. I suppose so. So you, I mean, you at least were somewhat well-received while you were there.

Are you sick of the New Yorker quote? Is that... Or anybody who gets a quote about them in the New Yorker, just, like, go ahead and post it up on billboards. Oh, no. What is my New Yorker quote?

Well, I mean, they named you the new indie queen of that year. Oh, but they do that every, like, few months. I think so. You're telling me they have a new indie queen every few months? You're telling me there wasn't a crown involved?

Because if you didn't get a crown, I'm upset. A tiara? Yeah, I want a tiara. I want a scepter. It definitely was a Saturday.

At least a cape. A cape. So I assume the tiara you're wearing right now was from the ceremony. No, I just wear this. I have one for each day of the week.

The really strange thing is we're all wearing tiaras. To kind of seriously answer your question, I will never be ungrateful for my. Indie New York life. Life. Yeah.

It was pretty cool. Well, I mean, it's got a huge sort of underground scene, and the indie film scene is kind of huge there, so I mean, I guess that's the place for specifically what you. Had been doing at the time. But yeah, you seemed at least to have, you know, they kind of worked you into that, so. I don't know, did we want to go through some of the stuff, just to familiarize people?

Again, we've probably seen at least a few of these. Most people, especially in our circle, a lot of people And I think that's probably the first. That's always teeth. You're still probably quite notorious for that one. Yes.

I don't know if there will ever come a time, even if I become some massive movie star with tons of Oscars, where they won't be like, so teeth. Remember that one? Really? You made that movie? You're the girl.

With the what-sies in there. Uh-huh, yeah. Can I mention, my wife and I watched that movie together. That was the last thing we did together. The comment that she made, you know, sometimes there's something in.

A movie, like if you're a cop, you watch a cop movie, there'll be something you go, no, that's not, I wish we could get results like that. Anyway, my wife was watching the movie with me, and at one point she goes, Oh, right, and she didn't get that dress stain. That was a choice. And I'm like, well, Lynn, so in your experience with castration sex, you ruin your dress. What are you going to do?

It's like, I know what really happens. It's the price you pay to do it. I mean she's like. Oh right that's amazing so my question on it was you get that screenplay the first time what do you think reading this did you know midway in that was the premise or do you get halfway through wait a minute Um. No, I had no idea what I was reading when I picked it up, and I proceeded to read it, stopped about halfway through or something, and I was like, no, I'm not auditioning for this.

Um, and then my agents called, because the casting directors at the time were Hopper, Smith, Barden in New York, who were amazing indie casting directors, and now they've gone and cast, like, The Help and all this other stuff. They're great. And, um, they were just really pushing for me to come in. And so I was like, final audition for the best friend, the smaller part, because I don't need to be the girl with the teeth in her. And, um, when I was in there, then, uh, they kind of convinced me to read the sides for the lead cold, just read.

Them off the paper. Um, and then I got a call like two days later with them offering me the part. And I was like, I don't know. And, um, They proceeded to take me out to dinner and talk to me about it. And I, through the course of this meal, realized how smart everybody was that was involved.

That this wasn't like, it wasn't torture porn. You know, it's a satire. Yeah, for real. It is. And we were just talking recently about how rare it is to really see horror and comedy combined.

Yeah. Now, people talk about it, but really it doesn't work very often. I think there's some case where it does work. Thank you. It's supposed to.

It is funny. I mean, for something that could have gone down the road of being just sort of schlocky and sort of using that as the exploitation end of it, it does seem like it's got a lot to say. It's got a lot of other stuff going on with the character, specifically your character, that I think is smarter than you would expect going into that. Premise, at least. Yeah, and it's been tagged as a feminist movie in a lot of circles.

And it's done more in that realm. And I was even interested just hearing them talk about it. I was like, oh, I can see that. And it is a satire. It's not some bad.

B-horror movie or something like that. But now, there are a few things that I've heard in posts that have made me really proud. And one of them is there are a few major colleges that have this as, like, listed in their monstrous feminine studies courses. And, like, John Waters has used it in talking at colleges, which is really cool. And I also had.

I knew some women who had come from Ghana and Africa because they had been nurses here for friends of mine. And. It apparently got big in Africa via being bootlegged. And to me, that was the coolest of all because they have an actual device like this in Africa because rape is such a problem there. Because it's so overwhelming.

Yeah, so if a woman gets raped, they can have this thing if they feel like they're in danger and it'll mutilate the man so that he can't do it. To other women. That's amazing and sad that that needs to exist. It's so sad. It's so sad.

But the fact that, like, somehow, I don't even know how it resonates with them. I think it's still a comedy there, but I'm sure it plays on a whole other level. And apparently most, not most, I don't know how many people, but these women knew who I was immediately. Oh, yeah. Where, like, teeth is huge.

And I was like, that's the place where it should be playing. Yeah, that's where it's doing the most good. Yeah, yay! So, yeah, so I've, even in the middle of making it, because I had so much fun, I never regretted doing it and was really happy that They talked me into it. I just figured at some point you were like, oh, I'm never going to get a date again.

No, what it did is it cut out that I'll never date somebody who has issues with reality. I'll only date sane guys. Sane guys with wicked senses of humor. Oh, that narrows the field. Yeah, you're in trouble.

There's no way I'm dating a guy who doesn't have a wicked sense of humor. Man, all the lights just went out. On the board, there's just a few flickers. There's just a few flickers. I'm insane.

Throw that in the middle of L.A. You're in trouble. Oh, wow. But yeah, I mean, I figured that had the most behind it there, but I guess just some of the others. Peter and Vandy, which I have recently watched, it's got some amazing scenes in it.

And I mean, if there's any you want to So in there, I watched Alexander the Last. You have a lot of really impressive stuff to do on that one. And specifically when we watched The Lie this past. And if you go back, you'll listen to that episode. And that was months.

Before it ever actually came out. So we were being super selective on what we said. Because again, we were trying not to spoil anything because it was well before anybody was going to see it. So we definitely were not going to touch The Lie itself. But even like Performance-wise, we almost didn't want to clue people in too much on who was doing what and what was going on.

So it's very vague, but if you go back and listen to that one, you can hear us just sort of go on and on about this specific actor. We never name who it is because we're trying to keep everything vague, but the scene that this actor has to do while listening to this song, that's one of the most amazing scenes I've ever seen. Oh, thank you. It's just a shot of your face for the entire length. Of a song, and it is one of the most expressive scenes I have ever seen.

It's kind of amazing. I think it's just something that a lot of people can relate to, and, like, somebody that they love is like super proud of something that they did and within a few brief moments you realize oh no. Yeah this is that scary picture on the refrigerator. This this isn't they're not gonna make it this is not at least not with this but uh yeah so um i yeah i loved working on that. And Yeah, that scene, and again, the one at the end between the two of you is also equally as impressive, but I think that one just, because it sort of catches you off guard and you do so much with that, it's pretty impressive to watch.

So definitely, if for nothing else, that scene. Go watch that scene. Thank you. We wanted to, or eventually it got and then maybe we chimed in afterwards or something. That's really where, like, the lie starts.

The lying starts right there. Nothing is said. It's all you. The lies are going both ways. But I've noticed you do that really well in general.

I mean, there was one in Alexander the Last that you, I mean, you had this moment where you start to say something and you stop. and then end up not saying it, but the way that you do it is almost, like, ten times more expressive than... I don't know, you do a really impressive job of non-verbal acting that a lot of people I don't think tap into, so it's... Thank you. Yeah, I think it's pretty impressive, so... Yeah, go run.

Down the list and see whatever you haven't of hers, because, yeah, I think she does some impressive work. Oh, thank you so much. I don't know, any other specifics of those you wanted to go to, or. I don't know. I can't off the top of my head sort of think through my whatever, but I have one that I made this year that I'm really excited about, so we'll see how that turns out.

It's really funky. Super funky one. I kind of like going into where you sort of attached yourself to, again, sort of the geekiness, but also the performance end of it. I guess, how early on, what was the earliest point you. Cookies are being stolen.

What was the earliest point you kind of remember, you know, wanting to do that? Like seeing something and going, that's what I want to do. I think it was so early that I can't pinpoint that moment. but there are definite incarnations of the idea that I was like, I'm going to be a star. Don't we all play that game? Part of me started screaming that, and for what reason, but...

And your mom had that moment of, oh, this poor child. I was really, really young, and I. There are videos of me, too, dancing around, holding toothbrushes as microphones, and You do that now, don't lie. I still do it. We never change.

It's cool to be yourself. Yeah, and my grandma started putting little microphones in my hand, so I was going to be a rock star for a really long time, and. Then I think. I started seeing plays. I think plays were the first time I really thought, oh, I can do this.

Because I saw somebody in person. Like, I'd always seen people on TV and thought, I want to do that one day. But it just felt like such a huge gap. Between getting from where I was here in Kentucky, yeah, to that mystical little box. It is kind of.

It's a million miles away. It's a million miles. How do you get there? I still want to get there. It's too far away.

So I think I started seeing just stuff on the stage, everything here. And as I got into, I mean, I was a total Shakespeare nerd in high school. Did stuff with Walden Theater, and they exposed me to, you know, great, difficult, adult, mature plays that kind of made me grow as a person. And then I was really like, no, this is for me. This is what I want.

I think with a lot of people, that's where you, on the beginning stages, everybody sort of goes into plays. What I always wonder is what leads you towards film? I mean, film is a much more specific type of acting and very different than what you have to It's the same basic idea, I know. But, I mean, you sort of have to focus on things a little differently. So what made you want to go more into film?

Or do you still do plays? I do still do plays, or I did when I was in New York. But I am focusing more on film right now. And it comes from the same places, the theater and when I was here. But I would see movies and they would just, I would feel like I had been changed after them.

Like, I was thinking differently. I cared so much about what had happened to the people. And it made me look at things from an objective, outside perspective. Even if I noticed things in other characters, like, oh, I do that. I do that sometimes.

And I couldn't reflect on it until I had seen it in context. In somebody else's context. Yeah, I just. started falling. In love with movies and just wanted to be in that world. I started trying.

I understand that. I, yeah, I think that's what brought me to this every week and probably everybody listening has that same little relationship with movies. So it's, yeah, it's, but it's kind of, I mean, is, is it something you're conscious of that you're, did you have to start doing things a little differently with your acting as you got more familiar with the camera and. The way that you sort of set up everything? Yeah.

The basics are all the same. You can just notice it on film. You can get away with a moment that you're not present inside of on stage. Because everybody goes in and out. One of my favorite acting coaches in New York used to talk about a batting average compared to everything to baseball.

That being a great actor is about having a high batting average. But you don't like. Yeah. hit everything out of the park that's just not the way things work so many times as you have to repeat a show yeah yeah so and um the camera is just so on you it which is i think where i eventually started learning that i didn't have to say something or it was okay yeah to um make transitions in the silence. That's what I wonder, because I think that's something that reads so well on film, and that you've done so well that, yeah, I think doing that on stage would be wasted. You know, the front row might get it, but, you know, you almost need to be right there in the middle of it to kind of pick up on all that stuff.

Yeah, and I've probably always played subtle, for better or for worse. I remember I was chastised at Juilliard, possibly for not projecting. And also, I hate to inform anybody here in Louisville that, you know, wants to go into the theater. There's a little bit of a leap that we have to make because of our accents. I don't know what you're talking about.

We don't have that. It's like you should just talk a little bit more like this. Like, it's just a little bit more in the back of the throat. You kind of swallow it. You lose words and you're not You're not projecting.

So I had to learn to speak in the front of my face and project in a way which was completely unnatural to me at first. We don't talk like that. I don't know what you're talking about. I think I can volunteer. I have the laziest voice.

In the world. Lazy, but all of us. And I hear the sound. It's like way back here. Yeah.

And it's not even sometimes I just push the next syllable out. Yeah. And I get compared to Carlton the doorman on Mara Tyler. Yeah, I was starting to say, that reference is losing its audience. Yeah, so then it becomes Garfield.

Yeah, which even then you're like, you sound like Bill Murray? Yeah, it was the same guy. But yeah, I guess something to do, I often wonder if we're losing that to something, because I feel like so much of my childhood was television and movies that I feel like that's New York and L.A., so I don't feel like, you. Know, who I interact with here. I don't hang out with people here.

So you've picked up the accent from TV. I feel like I should have, at least. So I wonder if, especially now, people are talking across the Internet, across the world now. It's like, are we eventually going to kind of lose a bigger part of that? I mean, I guess they'll always be.

I think that's where it might come to. Yes. Well, I mean, people aren't that aware of their accent until they hear it. I had no idea what. My voice sounded like until I listened to an episode of the show.

And I was like, oh, my voice sounds like it's horrible. So I'm just, you never listen to the show. The way you sound and the way you think you sound are totally different. Like, I don't think I have an accent, but, like, if I'm in a different town and there's people talking around me, like if I'm in Ohio, people are like, what is wrong with your accent? I'm like, I don't have an accent.

You have an accent. And then a fight breaks out. Yeah. It's weird. Everybody kind of does.

But even growing up, my brother told me I didn't have the accent that I was supposed to have when I grew up. Yeah. Because I would, I was like putting oil on the chain on my bike. He was like, oils? What's what?

It's all. All. All. People aren't going to know what you're talking about. I still don't.

If you talk properly, people aren't going to know what you're talking about. I do have a bit of a southern accent, but not the right one. Not the wrong one. That's how we do things. Everyone in my family says oral.

Oral? Yeah. They add a whole bunch of extra. Whatever it is, however it's manifested itself, we all started talking in the back of our throats. Yeah, I do.

And it's really not helpful for the stage. No. Or anything, really. But we do it because that's the way we are. And that's why I picked a medium where I could shove a microphone in my face.

I don't even know how to not talk in the back of my throat. I don't even... I can't even begin to, like, fathom how I would change that. It's hard. It takes about four years.

And you have to have people telling you you're not doing good a lot. Sounds fun. Sure. It would probably be really, really expensive. So you have several years and several thousand dollars.

For a scholarship. For a scholarship. Which I don't have. Those are trouble. So you auditioned for Juilliard in Chicago at the big.

Yeah. My wife went. To Chicago and auditioned with, I don't know, the actor W. Earl Brown, and he got in, and she didn't get what she was looking for. But she only auditioned for what she auditioned for, but he got into DePaul.

DePaul. DePaul, yeah. Oh, cool. Well, it was the Goodman School then, but now it's just... They're still good.

DePaul is still on the top of the list. For, you know. Oh, and he's a good actor. Yeah. But he was so excited.

He came back. He was like jumping around. It's got to be a big day. I really, I know this is going to just start sounding preachy or something. It's all about persistence because so many people have worked or didn't get into, you know, like I didn't get into anywhere the first day.

You know, there's, it's kind of just like you just keep going at it. You don't keep vomiting. Yeah. No. You get it over with, and then you're good.

No. That's the secret. Now we know. 101. Like a helpful video.

A user's guide. College. That's terrible. All jokes. Just jokes, kids.

Just jokes. Just jokes. Just jokes, everyone. Just jokes. We're rarely PC.

It's okay. I would think by now they know to expect the sort of behavior from us. I feel sorry for the person that listens to the show, or any show for that matter, and is like, this is a great idea, I'm going to try that. We're not responsible if you decide to do it. We take no responsibility.

I was going to ask, I mean, in a little while, when we get to the other movie, we're going to run into a weird situation. Where an actress sees a role and wants to take. It upon herself to play that which I thought was kind of odd so we'll get more into that later but I was just kind of wondering from an acting standpoint have you ever seen something like on I guess on screen as a performance and been like I need to do that I thought that was almost strange actually that. In the remake of the movie we're going to discuss later she supposedly watched that and went you need to remake that movie with. Me so I'm like that seems like an odd thing so I don't know if I think that about every movie.

Well, that's true, but that doesn't surprise me with you. I feel like that about plays. It's always like that with plays, I guess. Because there are parts where you're like, ooh, I want to play that role. And I guess I've felt that about some parts in movies where like, ooh, that would be a roller coaster.

Armageddon with me. But the whole remake thing is rarely exciting. It's strange, isn't it? It is. It's strange.

Sometimes. And that's what I thought, especially in such a short span of time. I mean, within 10 years to turn around and have to do what, you know, was otherwise a pretty well-received role yourself. I don't know. That seems.

I love Naomi Watts, too. I mean, she's one of my favorites. We'll get into talking about the movie. I'm not sure why they remade it within the course of 10 years, especially shot for shot. unless it's just another funny game. I get it.

I almost. Yeah, I almost suspect it's one of those things that's like when Robert Rauschenberg did two paintings that were identical, and they had different little expressive brushstrokes. They're more or less the same, and he shows them side by side, and it's like, what's the difference? If it's an exercise or something. Well, I know that the... topic and the premise is more has only increased in um prevalence is that the right word relevance relevance there we go i came up with that resonance all of these are more appropriate than prevalence which i don't think exists um resonance yeah it only becomes more and more resonant um unfortunately as time goes on the world unfolds more um And maybe it was his way of trying to revive the idea of analyzing the torture.

I felt it had. To be something or else he wouldn't have the patience to remake it. He'd want to do the next thing. Maybe. He had to have some feeling about wanting to make it again.

Yeah. I don't know. That's just my feeling. I wouldn't have the patience. We can get to that, I suppose.

We'll get a little ahead of ourselves. Maybe he just wanted to... appeal to an American audience. That's usually what the reasoning is, is just to open up, I mean, with all those horror remakes that they did, it's just because Americans are too stupid to read, so it's like, we have to remake The Ring, we have to remake The Grudge, and it's exactly the same, but we need, you know, some WB star in the middle of it. I wasn't aware of this movie until, you know, you told me to watch it. Oh, really?

I never heard of it. But it's like, this isn't Naomi Watts' only foreign horror remake. That's true. That's kind of weird. It's questionable whether we can call this a horror.

Yeah, that's arguable. Again, I guess we'll get into that. We mentioned shoving your character into other movies. Yours have all kind of fit within that same realm. Is moving to a different type of movie, a different level of movie, something you specifically want to do?

Like, big Hollywood blockbuster kind of stuff? Is that something you're actively seeking? Or is it just real? Oh, yeah. Of course.

But not, I mean, like anyone who loves what they do, I would like to love what I'm doing. You know, and I don't think budget or, you know, there are plenty of big studio movies that are gorgeous. Yeah. Some of them are just huge independent slash kind of studio movies, like, I don't know, The King's Speech or something like that. It's weird that there's that level now.

Yeah, I never know what package it's going to come in, but I do know when I see something and I'm like, if I can get on board with that, I'm definitely going to try. You've made very smart choices with, you know, looking through all the stuff you made. So, yeah, I wondered how specific you were with what you wanted to do going into the bigger part. I've also made a lot of unwise choices. Those just have gotten buried, thank God.

I was going to leave that for you. Let's just keep it. Okay, let's add them all right now. With indies, the problem is that oftentimes you work with first-time filmmakers and sometimes they're awesome. Like, Mitchell, who did too, was a first-time filmmaker, but I was like, he's smart.

It's very visually interesting. Yeah, but I've gambled on some people and halfway through, I'm not going to out them and be like, this is not going to work. How do I get out of this movie? And then I die. She got that page in there real quick.

I have quite literally done that all day. I was like, I don't think she would follow them. I don't think she would keep going. I think she's going to stay at the house and not be in the movie anymore. Yeah, but you can't trust anybody who's never in anything bad.

That's true. That's just weird. It's just sort of life in general. You're not doing something they ought to be doing. The world is filled with forgiveness.

They figure, you know, you're going to trial and error along the way. I suppose. Well, I thought we'd round it out, you know, with the real geek activities. So I guess, aside from performance, what level of geek are you? What are your super hardcore geeky things?

I mean, what type of stuff? I guess anything other than movies that you fall into. Oh, what makes me a geek? I was way more of a geek before I started surfing. Yeah.

Because now that I surf, it has definitely pushed my geek down. To me, everything falls into that. Wow, you lose a lot of geek points. I lose a lot of geek, I think. I'm of the opinion that geek applies to everything.

You're just a surf geek now. Yeah, you can be a surf geek, but you lose... general geek points in all other respects. It's more the surfing. It's a peak in the surf area. But my surf geek, here's something that makes me a surf geek, though, is I have to wear booties when I surf.

When I geek. When I surf geek. I always wear them when I geek. We all have our geeks booties. My booties and my geek out.

I have them. Officially issued to me by the Geek Squad. I'm wearing none. The Geek Squad at Best Buy? No, no, no.

See, they sold out. We don't like those guys. The old school geek stuff. Yeah, because I have a fear of the ocean floor. A healthy fear of the ocean floor.

You don't know what's down there. I don't blame you. I got hit with a stingray. I don't trust it now either. So I just wear these adorable geeky booties.

Sure they are. Geeky booties. Geeky booties. And what else do I do that's super geeky? I told you I like to study like Shakespeare and stuff.

That's super geeky. Every summer I go and do Chekhov. That's pretty geeky. Gotta have some geeky stuff that is not theater related. Help me out.

What are some of the traditional geeky video games? You don't do a lot of the computer. I'm not a computer. Video games? I'm a huge angry bird player.

Huge. There's a whole new level, but then Phil is like my six-year-old nephew. You can hook it up to your TV. I haven't figured that out yet. But I do spend time, you know...

This is going to really be telling. There are one or two nights where I've been like, I don't feel like going out. And I will literally pour myself a whiskey and sit on the couch and play Angry Birds. And the booties as well. Oh, you have to have the booties on for that.

I totally have to do that. I don't know why that's like, that's all I want to do. Just have a glass of whiskey and. Play Angry Birds. Your geek points went up a little for me there.

That's very awesome. What is the whiskey? What is it? It's all over the map. Bullet is kind of a standard.

So you're not going to plug us here? Maker's Mark is here. I do Maker's Mark all the time. That's the only whiskey I do. As long as they send a check over.

Bullet is a Kentucky whiskey. Bullet's Kentucky? I don't know if it's Louisville. I don't know. I used to.

My wife's family knows this guy, Baker Beam. For a while, he was the head distiller at Jim Beam. And for a few years, every year, he would give us a bottle of his own label, Baker's... I don't know what I did to get off that guy's Christmas list. Because that's not something I'm going to go out and buy for myself.

Oh, you've got to get on that Christmas list. Yeah, I know. I did something bad. You piss a lot of people off. It's probably something I said on here.

More than likely. It happens a lot. Oh, I just thought of another geeky thing I do. So I drive out to Pasadena sometimes to visit my friends at Caltech. And what we do is then we go to the Chinese superstore because they have superstores like bigger than Walmart out there just filled with like products from China.

Wow. And we just go like late night shopping because they're open super late and like stock up on crazy foods that, like, you can't pronounce and stuff, and take it home and try to cook it. Cool. Very fun and geeky. That is totally geeky.

Yeah. It is a huge food geek market. Experimental food geek. Yeah, but it's also crazy shopping excursion geeky, food geeky. With friends from Cal Tech.

Okay, all right. We got that. That has been written in the record. All right. Bring my points back in.

Bring them up. I'm doing okay now. And then I guess just any, back to the movie end of it, have you watched anything lately other than the movie later today that's good, bad, or otherwise, I guess? I've been super into Henneke lately. I mean, to just get on with funny games, there's like, He's a genius, and if you hear him talk, if you listen to his commentaries, I mean, when you hear me talk later, I'm going to be like, well, Henneke said this about the movie, and Henneke said that about the movie.

I think she's on the stage payroll. He's kind of a genius. The piano teacher and Benny's video, and yeah, they're all. Just geniuses. And then the Ernest movies, of course.

Oh, yes, yes. Like Ernest Goes to Christmas or something like that. To balance out your life. How else have I seen? Ernest Goes to Borrow Eggs.

That was the last one he ever made. I'll go ahead and put in this promo because it's my best friend. Tree of Life. Jessica Chastain. Anything She Touches.

Skull. So. Go see her movies. They're all in the theater right now. Yeah.

All right. And I did also just see Girl with Dragon Tattoos. I saw that, too. I thought it was pretty awesome. I still kind of, yeah.

I was, again, I'm doing remakes for America. I was worried about the idea at first, but the trailers made it look good, so I'm interested in it. I think they even liked it better than the other ones. I held off because I was getting ready to watch that one when they started, and I'm like, ooh, Fincher, really? Really?

I think I kind of want to see his first and then maybe go back in. So I sort of held off and went, I want to see what he does with it fresh and go in without. Knowing, I mean, I already know a good portion. But without really experiencing the whole first movie, I kind of want to go in and see what he does first. Cool.

Yeah, you're going to see it in a way that... Yeah, I thought that would be interesting. It makes me want to use the word badass again. Describer, and I haven't used that word since like 2003. Oh, that is so not geeky of you.

Badass never died. Whoa, she's a badass. What a badass. It's in my notes to use it a little bit. I'm going to start using it at least once daily.

You can just talk to us and be like, badass. That part was totally badass. Yeah, if you're really geeky, then you'll have discussions on whether you hyphenate that or not. I've checked on that. I maintain you do not.

The sad part, I think I've checked that before. I do not. I think it falls under both categories. Really? I think I've seen versions of it that are one word, that are hyphenated, that are two words.

And it's all allowed. Yeah, I can't really find a definitive. I argue if you're up to date in usage, there's no hyphen in badass. Besides, we have to conserve the hyphen. It's our most precious resource.

No, see, I'm of the other camp. Really, you hyphenate badass? I bastardize as much of the English language as possible, so I hyphenate. Usually I just start jamming words together and then hyphenate them all. I don't do that.

And then you've created your own word, phrase, whatever. I love to do that. I get in trouble for it when I'm writing papers. They'll circle it, not a word. That's a German instinct.

That's how Germany works. They actually just put all the little things, like the word for telephone means little black. Box that talks. Really? Yeah.

Nice. That's what I've been told. That's what I'm doing then, right? That's what I've been told. Creating my own language.

Yes. Bastardized English. Yeah. Nice. Why not?

Might as well. All right. I guess we can round out your geek activities. And now it's time for a Marlena moment. Okay.

I don't know if I've mentioned this on the air before, but I have been horribly afraid of pigs, like, for quite a while. I once. Dated, air quotation. A pig? No, no, no.

This guy who had little, like, Boston Terrier dogs that would, like, come down the hall and sound like pigs snorting their smooshy faces. And it scared me, just because I'm afraid of pigs. Whenever I go to, like, a barbecue restaurant, there's, like, little pig salt and pepper shakers on the table, or any image of a pig. I shudder. I try to hide.

I run from it. From an image of a pig, like a fake pig. Stuffed pigs don't like them. But. Christmas Eve, my family Christmas, my little cousin comes in.

With this little, I don't know what it was. It was something in like a blanket bundle. Bundle of joy. It was a bundle of joy. And I hear everyone else in my family go, oh.

So I think it's a puppy and I run up to like see what it is. And she moves the blanket away and it's a pig. And so do you. That's like they're holding a snake. Yeah.

Like a rattlesnake in a little swaddling clothes. It was a pig. Yeah. So, I mean, like, as ridiculous as it is, I, like, run and hide in the next room, and I'm, like, shaking and crying, because it's like an infant five-week-old pig. And, uh, you know...

In the picture, it looks tiny. It is. It's the size of... It was, like, the size of. My hand, pretty much.

But, uh. my little cousin comes in with a pig and she's. Like it's just a pig it's just a baby and I'm screaming get it away from me get it away. From me and they finally calm me down and force me to hold it and it's like the sweetest cutest little pig and it makes these like it started making these pig noises and that freaked me out all over again but then I got used to it you don't like pigs pigophobia they. Call that pigophobia pigs are the best pigs are smarter than children. In German they call that pigophobia maybe that's.

Why you're scared yeah And. I'm still saying it now needs to be the special guest at the Oscar party. I decided years ago to have a theme party which became the Oscar Mayer party. So now you eat as much pork as possible while watching me. Remember even with those creepy wooden things?

I'm a vegan. Are you? I'm semi-vegan. I'm only semi-vegan too, honestly. I've been a vegetarian since I was 14.

Me too, I think. And then a friend of my daughter's was doing the vegan thing and I got interested in the cocaine and what you can do. So I'm kind of doing it, but not I wasn't fully committed. I was doing it for fun. I'm still not, but I think I am going to be vegan as much as I can.

And then those socially awkward events, I'm just going to say screw it. Because I don't want to be one of those people who is just like, I don't do this about anything. I don't want to be hardline about anything. It's like, I generally don't. Left to my own devices.

I'm not going to do it. You know, if somebody makes a big deal of taking me to their favorite restaurant, it's, you know. Yeah. I've opened it up to that for years now, and nobody ever takes me up. I try to bring in the other alternatives, but, you know, nobody shows up.

Well, if we have Lucy, she's vegan. See? You're never into it. What, you were going to bring live pigs to the Oscar party? I thought it was fitting just to, you know, hang out and have a game going.

I was told once that the end of the cartoons... Porky. Pig in Sweden, if you translate what he says, instead of saying, that's all, folks, he says, that's all you get for your quarter. That's all you get for your quarter. That's what I was told.

That seems fitting, too. If you translate the way Porky Pig is translated in Sweden, Translate it back. That's how it comes out. I was told that at a party by somebody who watched Porky Pig and Sweet. Amazing.

I have a vegan geek thing. Again, we welcome that. Truthfully, my sausage of choice these days is the whatever the, what's the green box? Morningstar. I prefer that over regular now.

They're pretty good at making the fake. It's so expensive though. What's really good, I invented a vegan BLT. And you get the meatless Italian sausage. You cut it into little strips and pan fry it.

And then, you know, you get just whatever else you put on a BLT. Not the LLT. It's really good. Yeah. It makes stuff really good.

I mean, at the risk of sounding... not geeky, and just opinionated. We welcome that. One of the big problems is that they don't charge enough for meat because they don't charge enough for actual meat. And that's why everybody falls into that category. That's why everybody eats it at every meal, and the industry is a disaster, and it is factory farming that is killing the world.

I agree. You get swept up in it, but... I agree there's a lot of what's wrong with that industry and that entire way of thinking. I don't think eating dairy in and of itself or any of that stuff is at all bad. I just think factory farming is disgusting.

Well, and it is for the people who do it, too, because they grew up when they were kids on a farm where there were animals. But now the animals wouldn't survive outside because they've been bred outside. And they have to live in a, now they work in. Factories instead of a farm. They're kept in tiny cages and they, to get all gross on this, you know, defecate on themselves and then take tons of hormones and they're shy.

It's just awful. And they wear geek booties. And they wear play angry birds. The cows? No, right, no.

They don't, do they? I was watching a different documentary. If only they had that sweet life. I mean, what are you talking about? Oh, but here's the geeky, nerdy, vegan-y thing that I do.

I make my own cheese. Do you? I haven't heard that story. Really? Out of cashews, and I get these seaweed agar flakes from the Chinese superstore that I go to and melt them down into almond milk.

And that makes a gelatin-like substance. And then I grind up the cashews and nutritional yeast and miso and mix that into it. And I am telling you, this creamy cheese... Vegan will blow your mind. Oh, I want to know.

I challenge you to not. Love my vegan. At this point, we went hand out. Next time I'm in Louisville, I will bring nachos. Nice.

And we will have a. We do work a ridiculous amount of food. It's hard to find a, like, Daiya is the only vegan cheese I can. Find around here. Oh, and it's kind of gross.

Well, it's a little gooey and, like, stringy. There's something about it. It works with something. Yeah. Some things you can get away with it.

Like, You can make pesto with it, and it's pretty good. Or one of them, because there are a couple of kinds. And then they have that, like, non... They have. That cheese substitute, but if you look at the ingredients...

It's got casein in it, and that's a milk product. It's like, what's the point of a substitute. That has a milk product in it? You have to go nut cheese in general, and I know that's it. Let me take that back.

Reverse that. Reverse that. It's not on here. I'm talking cashew. No, I am talking cashew and almonds, guys.

Cashew and almonds. All right. I am dealing with juveniles. Have you ever made paneer? Paneer?

Paneer. No. Oh, that's the cheese. Yeah, that's not vegan. It's like Indian cheese.

It's like cottage cheese. You just... Honestly, if cheese comes from a farm, I'll eat it. Yeah? Off of a real sweet-loving farm.

Where they all wear booties all day long. Yeah. Well, I was just amazed because, you know, there was paneer and I like Indian food. But then you can just make it on your stovetop. And at first I didn't believe it, but you just take milk and boil it and put lemon in it.

And then it. Does that? It turns into cheese. It turns into like Indian food cheese. I have a friend who makes labneh cheese.

Yeah. Yeah. I can't remember what it's made of. This is the cheesemaking episode. No, I just realized as we're getting into it how truly geeky talking cheese is.

I told her you can make up about anything. And the sad thing is we could probably walk around Frankfort Avenue and find ten more people who know way more about cheese. Who way want to talk cheese with us. When people are walking by, it's like we should bring them in and see what they think. What's your favorite cheese?

Yeah. I just watch them at the mailbox there, and I'm like, are they returning something to Netflix? Get them in here. They're a movie geek. Get over here.

All right. Well, this has been the cheese hour. I do want to know how to make that cheese. I'll send you a recipe. I want to know.

That's cool. And it's fast, too. It sounds like a lot of ingredients, because it kind of is. Really? It's fast?

It doesn't take very long. You just need a killer blender. You've got to have a good blender to... To crush the cashew nuts. Like, actually capable of killing.

Yeah. I think I rented Killer Blender once. Yeah. Yeah. It was a good movie.

There's some funny games sprinkled in there. What are you going to. Do about it? Sprinkled in there. Well, we, you know, I would hope at this point people are so suckered into our, you know, enthralling conversations that they'll want to come back next week for, okay, kids, get out your Dakota pins, because next week we will be back to discuss.

The original, and what, Austrian we decided? Is that his country of origin for that one? The original version of Funny Games. So, yeah, we've gotten carried away on many, many geek topics here. So, yeah, we will wrap it up for now and be back to tell you about Funny Games next week.

And that's all you get for your course. Otherwise, that about does it. We will return next week. Same geek time, same geek feed. Thanks for listening.

Here I am. I lie so still and watch the moments and I understand. I try so hard to picture you, my dear. I am dealing with juveniles! This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and edited by the Oddity Studios, with opening music performed by the Empires.

For more on how to sponsor or support the show, email producer at moviemeltdown.com. Talk hard!