Podcast

Amanda Seyfried is riding a wave of critical acclaim and awards buzz as we head into the thick of awards season. Her luminous performance as Marion Davies in David Fincher’s Mank has earned her the best reviews of her career. She’s even tipped to be a Supporting Actress front runner for the 2021 Academy Awards.

Even though she’s juggling press junkets with caring for her newborn child, Seyfried enthusiastically embraces this moment in support of a film she truly loves.

“It’s incredible. It feels incredible. I love being able to talk about ‘Mank,’ ” Seyfried gushes. “It could all be so hard if I didn’t feel like this movie wasn’t a masterpiece or if I didn’t have pride in my own performance. I did work hard, and I am proud of it. I’m proud of the movie.”

Seyfried’s Marion Davies introduces the world to a version of the actress completely distinct from Citizen Kane’s Susan Alexander, a point Seyfried underscores during this interview. Her Davies is free-thinking, honest, and candid about her opinions. Plus, she’s a woman in love who stands by William Randolph Hearst through the good and the bad. Seyfried captures Davies with a depth and expertise that appears carefree and breezy but, in reality, is a carefully constructed portrait of a strong woman.

And everyone is taking notice.

Here in the latest Water Cooler Podcast, Seyfried talks about creating the character of Marion Davies and what support she used beyond Jack Fincher’s brilliant script. She also talks about filming the brilliant circus party sequence in which Marion Davies is a key participant without uttering a word. Finally, she considers what the real Marion Davies would say about her stunning performance were she alive today.

So, sit back and enjoy this podcast interview with Mank’s Amanda Seyfried and watch for more podcast interviews from Awards Daily as we head into the heat of awards season.

Thanks for listening and thank you, in advance, for subscribing and rating us on Apple Podcasts!

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Music from https://filmmusic.io

“Cheery Monday” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Shadan Larki speaks with Kingsley Ben-Adir, who stars as Malcom X, in Regina King’s directorial debut, One Night in Miami.

Kingsley Ben-Adir, a successful star of stage and screen in his native England, is having a Breakthrough moment stateside. In fact, Ben-Adir was recently awarded the Breakthrough Actor award at the 2021 Gothams for his portrayal of civil rights icon Malcolm X in One Night in Miami. The film, which marks Academy Award winner Regina King’s directorial debut, is an imagining of the night when four long-time friends, and icons of American culture, meet in Miami.

Be sure to keep an eye on your podcast and social media feeds as the Awards Daily team has plenty more podcasts and interviews to bring you as awards season heats up. But for now, please enjoy my podcast interview with One Night in Miami’s Kingsley Ben-Adir

Thanks for listening and thank you, in advance, for subscribing and rating us on Apple Podcasts!

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Music from https://filmmusic.io

“Cheery Monday” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Sid and Nancy. Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Sirius Black in the Harry Potter series. Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. Darkest Hour.

These are but a handful of the most iconic performances in Oscar-winner Gary Oldman’s brilliant career. After decades of quirky, acclaimed roles, Oldman finally received long-overdue recognition from the Academy with his role in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. He won Best Actor in 2018 for his role as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. Accentuated by Kazuhiro Tsuji’s Oscar-winning prosthetics, Oldman’s Churchill emerged as the kind of role that marched unstoppably through awards season.

But his latest turn as Herman J. Mankiewicz in David Fincher’s Mank is one for the ages.

From the screenplay by Fincher late father Jack, Oldman’s Mank is a complicated portrait of a complicated man. He’s a hopeless alcoholic, a bruised ego, a vessel of acerbic wit, and ultimately a man of surprising depth and honor. Watching Mank, we’re witnessing a man willing to betray a deep friendship in an act of vengeance Hollywood style. But this is not a take on classic characters as seen through the prism of modern cinema. As with the film itself, Oldman’s Mankiewicz is rendered in the black and white tones of a 1930s-era performance, a perfectly calibrated 1930s-era performance.

It’s a high wire act that only the greatest actors would dare attempt.

“I felt that Jack [Fincher] had captured an essence, a real spirit, in ‘Mank.’ Remarkably so,” Oldman explained. “A great of my work was in the text and done for me. It did not require contemporary acting. David wanted it to have a patina, a veneer of the old way of acting.”

Here, Oldman talks to Awards Daily about the complexities in capturing the essence of Herman Mankiewicz without filmed footage or extensive detail typically uncovered during initial research. He also talks about Fincher’s preference that Oldman avoid burying his performance in prosthetics, making the actor initially feel “naked,” as Oldman reveals.

Finally, Oldman dives into the creative process behind filming his 8-minute monologue during the famed circus party sequence. It’s a monologue that, according to Oldman, he performed nearly 100 times.

So, sit back and enjoy this podcast interview with Mank’s Gary Oldman and watch for more podcast interviews from Awards Daily as we head into the heat of awards season.

Thanks for listening and thank you, in advance, for subscribing and rating us on Apple Podcasts!

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Music from https://filmmusic.io

“Cheery Monday” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Clarence speaks with Delroy Lindo, the award-winning star of Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods.

Early in his career, celebrated actor Delroy Lindo spent 10 years honing his craft on the stage. His first major recognition came with a Tony nomination for August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Upon returning to television and film in the early 1990s, Lindo’s supporting role in director Spike Lee’s landmark Malcolm X – and later Clockers – brought him the first of many film accolades.

But a new partnership with Lee in his newest film Da 5 Bloods appears poised to bring Lindo the greatest recognition of his legendary career. Lindo captivated with his incredible performance as Paul, a Trump-loving Vietnam vet. Viewers and critics alike widely acclaimed Lindo’s performance as perhaps the best of his career. His Paul is unafraid of his initially unexpected political beliefs. He loves his Vietnam war brothers, but he’s driven by the allure of treasure hidden in the jungles of Vietnam.

That unrelenting obsession culminates in a fascinating and remarkable monologue delivered by Lindo directly into Lee’s camera. It’s an unmistakably brilliant moment in an unmistakably brilliant performance.

As we head into Golden Globes, SAG, and Oscar season, critics groups have already recognized Lindo’s performance with Best Actor mentions, including the prestigious New York Film Critics Circle.

Here, in a podcast interview with Awards Daily’s Clarence Moye, Delroy Lindo shares his experience on working with Spike Lee and Da 5 Blood’s fantastic ensemble. He talks about what critics’ awards mean at this stage in his career. Finally, he dives into what it took to film that legendary monologue that closes Da 5 Bloods.

So, sit back and enjoy this podcast interview with Da 5 Blood’s Delroy Lindo and watch for more podcast interviews from Awards Daily as we head into the heat of awards season.

Thanks for listening and thank you, in advance, for subscribing and rating us on Apple Podcasts!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Music from https://filmmusic.io

“Cheery Monday” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

The 2021 Golden Globe nominations are nearly upon us. To prepare, the Water Cooler Gang plus Jalal Haddad kick off their 2-week coverage with the film categories.

The 2021 film awards season is about to kick it into high gear. Next week, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announces their 2021 Golden Globe nominations in categories covering film and television. We start our 2-week coverage with the film categories on this week’s podcast. What film will lead nominations? How big will Netflix’s nomination haul really get? Will Trial of the Chicago 7 and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom dominate? And what about Mank? Will the brilliant ode to 1940s cinema and Citizen Kane resonate with HFPA voters? The Water Cooler Gang is joined by Jalal Haddad to dish the potential scenarios.

Be sure to check back with us next week as we cover the television races.

We close our podcast, as always, with the Flash Forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week.

Thanks for listening and thank you, in advance, for subscribing and rating us on Apple Podcasts!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Music from https://filmmusic.io

“Cheery Monday” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

The Water Cooler Gang tackles the Critics Choice nominations in the television categories. Plus, we review the first post-Avengers television series WandaVision.

The 2021 Critics Choice nominations were announced today. Traditionally, they contain a general sense of potential frontrunners for the upcoming Emmy race. While the Critics Choice did recognize Ozark, Mrs. America, and Schitt’s Creek, they also both showered affection on and snubbed some new series. Will the Television Academy similarly double-down on The Crown season four? Will they also wholly embrace Lovecraft Country or Perry Mason? We dive into the nominations and forecast how they potentially reflect the upcoming awards landscape.

But first, Disney+’s WandaVision heralds the new direction in Marvel’s television fortunes under the guidance of mega producer Kevin Feige. Does WandaVision and its slavish devotion to classic sitcoms work for Marvel neophytes? Or does it roll out its secret too slowly for general audiences? Clarence (avid Marvel fan) takes on the series with Joey and Megan (Marvel agnostics).

We close our podcast, as always, with the Flash Forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week.

Thanks for listening and thank you, in advance, for subscribing and rating us on Apple Podcasts!

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Megan and Joey look at two new network sitcoms that dropped this week: FOX’s Call Me Kat and NBC’s Mr. Mayor.

For this week’s episode, Megan and Joey hang by the cooler to talk about two new network sitcoms, FOX’s Call Me Kat and NBC’s Mr. Mayor. Kat is a remake of the BBC Two comedy starring Miranda Hart while Mayor is the latest offering from Robert Carlock and Tina Fey. Can both shows compete with bingable streaming comedies, or do they feel like a feel-good throwback?

At the top of the episode, we talk about the fresh confirmation of HBO Max’s revival of Michael Patrick King’s Sex and the City titled “And Just Like That…” With everyone paired off (except for Kim Cattrall’s absent Samantha), how can this work when the original was all about finding love and being single? Don’t worry! We have a solution!

We close our podcast, as always, with the Flash Forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week.

Thanks for listening and thank you, in advance, for subscribing and rating us on Apple Podcasts!

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We’re kicking off 2021 with a look at the TV for which we’re most excited. Also, if Emmy doesn’t shift, what are the frontrunners at the halfway mark?

We’re back in the new year full of hope and good cheer! Given that, the Water Cooler Gang looks forward to the first few months of 2021. What television series are we most looking forward to? Plus, now that we’ve reached the halfway mark of the 2021 Emmy season, what series are in the front runner spots for Drama, Comedy, and Limited Series?

We close our podcast, as always, with the Flash Forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week.

Thanks for listening and thank you, in advance, for subscribing and rating us on Apple Podcasts!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Music from https://filmmusic.io

“Cheery Monday” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Joey, Megan, and Clarence each reveal their top shows of 2020.

We close our podcast, as always, with the Flash Forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week.

Thanks for listening and thank you, in advance, for subscribing and rating us on Apple Podcasts!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Music from https://filmmusic.io

“Cheery Monday” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

This week, Joey, Megan, and Clarence gather ’round the Water Cooler to exchange virtual Xmas gifts. Plus, we each reveal our pick for the show you must watch before 2020 ends.

Xmas 2020 is finally upon us. We’ve made our lists and checked them twice. Given that we all proclaim ourselves more nice than naughty, we’re exchanging virtual Xmas gifts around the Water Cooler. But first, we each reveal our selections on the shows we think you should watch before the end of the year. We know you all have them. We have 16 of them. They’re shows that may not have made it to the top of your list during the year, but they’re vital and influential shows that you should consider before making your best of 2020 television list.

Speaking of which, next week we’ll be back with our final podcast of 2020! And that will be our official Best of 2020 TV lists. Be sure to watch Awards Daily TV throughout the next week as other AD TV writers provide their own takes on the best television 2020 had to offer.

We close our podcast, as always, with the Flash Forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week.

Thanks for listening and thank you, in advance, for subscribing and rating us on Apple Podcasts!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Music from https://filmmusic.io

“Cheery Monday” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)