Year: 2022

“You know, when we took that picture in Brooklyn, some guys were driving by, and just when we were about to take it, those guys rolled down their window and said ‘Hey! Are you the Teriyaki Boyz?!’” Tablo, the frontman of Epik High, shares. He is pointing at the framed Map The Soul 2009 tour poster propped up behind me that was signed to my name. It’s been 13 years since that encounter and through it all, Tablo has managed to navigate the trials and tribulations of life, balancing marriage and fatherhood, while being one of the three geniuses behind the Korean alternative hip-hop group Epik High.

Considerably penning some of the most powerful and intricate bars in music, Tablo (whose real name is Daniel Lee) alongside Mithra Jin and Tukutz, has been in the Korean rap game for over 20 years — debuting in 2003 (though formed in 2001). Some of their greatest hits like “Umbrella”, “Run,” and “1 Minute, 1 Second” preach like biblical verses that can name them the Holy Trinity of hip-hop; as the consistent callouts on our vulnerabilities, love, society, and our mental health remain evident in their discography. Not to mention how seamless the three finesse music that can be dark, grim, and real, and then counteracting that with a visual component full of satire and fun.

“Well, see the thing with Epik High — and I think it’s the key to our success — we’re not very self-serious,” Tablo says via Zoom, while donning a white ‘90s style Nirvana tee. It’s always been like that over the last two decades. Epik High may be the legendary hip-hop trio everyone knows, but to the guys themselves, it’s a camaraderie of three who are continuing to experience life together while doing what they love to do.

With 10 studio albums, two EPs, and a couple of compilations and remixes under their belt, Epik High are on the forefront of Korean hip-hop, amplifying the genre to the mainstream. Their achievements and success speak for themselves: iconic collaborations ranging from underground to international artists, groundbreaking performances at Coachella, award-winning projects — they’re all more than epic.

Part one of their two-part tenth album, Epik High Is Here Part 1, paints the grim reality of the human condition in the midst of adapting to the new norm in the global pandemic. However, with the release of Epik High Is Here Part 2, the 12-track project serves as the sonic journey of what seems to be the beginning of the end. Lead singles “Super Rare” and “Gray So Gray” — two songs with polar opposites in meaning — Tablo, Mithra Jin, and Tukutz perfectly encapsulate the duality of susceptibility and badassery Epik High was always known for.

In what can arguably be the perfect pandemic soundtrack, Tablo, the recording artist, lyricist, composer, producer, Stanford graduate, family man, and, ironically at the moment, self-proclaimed “COVID brain” caught up with me in the midst of quarantining in his bedroom in to discuss Epik High’s legacy, Epik High Is Here Part 2, touring, and Coachella.

Congratulations on Epik High Is Here, Part 2. What was it like working on it this time around?

We imagined this coming out when all of this COVID stuff would be over. We wanted the album to be a celebration; so we had happier, upbeat songs because we thought it would be like this great reopening where everybody rushes out into the streets and just [gives] hugs and kisses, goes to parties and shows. But as we all now know this is going on a lot longer than we imagined. As time progressed, the way we create our albums, our mood, or our thoughts at the time really dramatically affects it. It’s not like we can set out to create a happy album. And as this was getting extended and you know all of us were dealing with our own demons and stuff, I think it just naturally turned into the album that it is right now. I actually like it a lot, I think it reflects better what everybody may have been going through and hopefully, they can identify with that and get the consolation that they need.

You’ve invited old and new faces to collaborate for Part 2. How was working with them?

I always think it’s interesting where I have an ear to the music scene. I’m not as active in public, but I’m always listening to new stuff that comes out and making a mental note of people that I want to work with. We work with them then we discover they were fans of Epik High at some point. For example, with “Face ID”, GIRIBOY and JUSTHIS posted their Epik High album collections on Instagram and shared how this is a moment for them. That really pulled on my heartstrings because I was just happy to be working with these talented kids. WONSTEIN did covers of our songs back in the day and gave us demo CDs. I met pH-1 for the first time at Epik High’s New York concert. Everything feels like it’s coming back full-circle to be working with them. So even when we’re working with artists that we’ve never worked with on this album we’re somehow all connected and it fits in with the theme of the album that combines the past, present, and future.

In “Super Rare,” you touched on hustle culture and the journey to fame. What are your thoughts on success?

You know how they say success is subjective and everyone has their own definition of success? Unfortunately, that’s not how the world works. Regardless of your personal definition of success, society has decided certain criteria for what they deem as actual success. Even if you have achieved personal success and you’re perfectly content, society will look at that and say, “That’s not success…” and then proceed to crush your perfect contentment. I’ve always had to fight to defend my personal definition of success. I always have people trying to tempt me to try to do something I don’t really particularly want to do, promising me things that really don’t mean that much to me (money and fame) and Epik High has been very good at doing it on our own terms and maintaining it. But it hasn’t been easy.

Then what would you say is your personal key to success?

I’m not doing what I do as a means to get to something or to acquire something. I decided early on that I will do what I can’t avoid which for me is creating stuff. You can take my career away, you could literally ban me from doing music but the very next minute I will be creating something else. It’s just unbearable for me to not create something and that’s just who I am. Once you discover that, that’s success. Success for a short moment is attainable by anybody and if it is fleeting, it’s not really success. I want to be achieving things only if they’re lasting. And the first thing I discovered was that I have an inevitable passion for what I do.

You always have to think of the bigger picture because you never know when something is going to end the next day.

Exactly! I mean, who really wants 15 minutes of fame, right? We’ve done it for 20 years now, we’ve had moments where we had the spotlight on us and throughout it all, I don’t think those moments really matter. There are certain things that are lasting and if you are able to spot them, appreciate them and fight to defend them. That’s success.

Fans may notice the reunion between Epik High and Younha on this album with “Gray So Gray” and “Rain Song.” How was working with her again after 14 years?

Yeah, it’s been awhile! I was surprised how well we worked together even after all these years. I realized there aren’t many vocalists who can deliver the melodies that I write the way she does. Literally, she sang it once and it was perfect. Then we went on Yoo Jae Suk’s show and Jae Suk hyung (“older brother”) was like, “I really want to hear you guys do another song together,” and it just worked out where his wish came true.

​​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSC47Yp-Hpg

You’ve sprinkled references to past releases in this album. Is there one you’ve become fond of?

The beginning of “Champagne” has an audio clip from a video of us [performing “Go!”] at our first performance as Epik High. And this was when we weren’t famous, when we didn’t even imagine we would ever be famous. We were in a tiny underground club performing for whoever was there. We put it in the song because […] I don’t really separate the past, present, and future. I think of it as this singular thing that is happening constantly. Hence Epik High Is Here.

Speaking of “Champagne,” how does it feel to come this far?

We’re not super serious about ourselves so I don’t even think we’ve ever sat down and been like, “Look at all the things we’ve achieved!” or “Look how far we’ve come!” We get together and we’re like, “What do you want to eat today? We got to finish this thing.” It’s always hectic and fun. It’s nearly impossible for us to be serious about anything, especially ourselves. We’ve never really pat ourselves on the back.

What are you popping a bottle to now?

I just want to get over COVID. I haven’t seen my members for a while in real life. The good thing is we’re going on tour for over two months and we finish it off with Coachella. It’s going to be an amazing adventure. We haven’t been able to tour for over two years. So, just think of how much energy we have to release on stage. We’re just gonna go crazy so we’re totally excited for that right now.

Anything else you’d like to tell me?

I think we’re gonna live in a pretty exciting world. You can call me a futurist or whatever you want, but I’m always interested in the future about what can be. And usually, the things I imagine materialize. It’s not fantasy. You know the fact my best friend is 11, my daughter? I watch the things that she’s interested in and I can just see that we’re about to head into a world that we’ve never experienced. It’s going to be fascinating, scary at times, but ultimately beneficial in some way. There will always be forces that try to reign that in, or to stop it from happening or to criticize without full information because of fear, but that’s always happening.

And the reason that I’m mentioning this is one thing about Epik High, when we started, artists were releasing cassette tapes. Then one or two albums in, we didn’t have to release cassette tapes anymore because people wouldn’t buy them. Then streaming happened and social media happened, before that the smartphone came out. All of these things while we were doing Epik High, so many paradigm shifts have happened with technology, with culture. The fact that we have been able to navigate through all that is because we enjoyed it. Not because we sat back. We didn’t do that! We enjoyed it and that made us able to navigate through all those changes certain companies can’t even do. I would just love for people to be critical in a world where everyone is trying to scam you. But my message for people would be to enjoy it a little bit as well, you know?

Epik High Is Here Part 2 is out now via OURS Co/Genie Music. Get it here.

Next year’s Best Picture winner, Jackass Forever, is not only Johnny Knoxville’s final Jackass movie. It’s also his final “big stunts” movie, period.

“I knew going into this movie that this was going to be the last time I was going to do big stunts because I’ve got kids and I’ve had so many injuries,” Knoxville told NME. “I feel like I could go out good in this film by being my last with big stunts. I’ve got nothing left to prove in that area.”

In his younger days, Knoxville could get flipped by a raging bull with the ease of a line cook flipping a pancake. But now that he’s 50, that same stunt in Jackass Forever led to a broken wrist, broken rib, and a concussion, resulting in a brain hemorrhage. “We backload my most dangerous stunts to the end of the film. So I had two or three more stunts left to do, big ones, but after that I couldn’t,” he said. “The doctor’s like, ‘No way, you can’t, you’ve had 16 concussions, you’ve just had a terrible concussion, your brain is scrambled right now.’ And I was like, alright, so those got kicked to the side.”

Knoxville should take the next 30 years off and return when he doesn’t require the grandpa makeup to fall out of a ceiling. What a comeback.

(Via NME)

(Spoilers for Peacemaker will be found below.)

Following the climactic battle in the Peacemaker finale, the Justice League make a surprising, yet entirely non-helpful appearance in the final moments of show. The humorous cameo seems to solely exist for Peacemaker to make another joke about Aquaman (Jason Momoa), uh, loving fish, but this time with an assist from The Flash (Ezra Miller). However, the brief moment is jam-packed with all kinds of implication for the DC Extended Universe.

For starters, the cameo continues the official Warner Bros. stance that Joss Whedon’s Justice League is still canon, and not Zack Snyder‘s four-hour extended cut. While there was a time when it seemed like Warner Bros. was abandoning the shared universe it was building, the Justice League cameo confirms previous remarks from Peacemaker creator James Gunn that the studio was no longer shying away from connecting its film universe. This was evident in The Suicide Squad, which proved to be much more of a sequel to David Ayer’s original film than expected.

Of course, Momoa and Miller being the only two actors to appear in the cameo makes sense considering both Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and The Flash both hit theaters later this year. That’s just good old fashioned cross-promotion right there. As for the other members of the group, that’s where things get interesting. In an interview with Variety on the Peacemaker finale, Gunn revealed that he really only expected to get Momoa after writing the cameo in the script. Miller was a surprise addition, and Gunn never planned on getting Henry Cavill and Gal Gadot, but their Superman and Wonder Woman silhouettes are clearly shown in the cameo. Does this open the door for Cavill to return as the Man of Steel? Quite possibly.

Noticeably absent, though, are Ben Affleck‘s Batman and Ray Fisher‘s Cyborg. While Fisher has been engaged in a tense public feud with Warner Bros., Affleck is reprising his Dark Knight role for The Flash, so it’s odd that he wasn’t included. When asked by Variety why Batman and Cyborg are missing, Gunn said, “There are reasons for it, but I’m actually uncertain whether I can say what those reasons are. It might have to do with future stuff.”

Peacemaker Season 1 is available for streaming on HBO Max.

A little over a week ago, word came out that the Los Angeles Police Department was investigating Charlotte rapper DaBaby for assault with a deadly weapon after a video surfaced online of the rapper and his companions attacking a man identified as Brandon Bills, the brother of DaBaby’s ex DaniLeigh, in a bowling alley. It was reported two days ago that Bills was seeking compensation, suing DaBaby for assault, battery, emotional distress, and negligence, according to court documents obtained by TMZ.

Now, according to TMZ, DaBaby’s lawyer Drew Findling is claiming that Bills initiated the threats: “It is offensive that this alleged victim threatened and instigated violence and has now used this incident to make a quick money grab […] Garbage like this has no place adding to the backlog and wasting law enforcement time and energy.”

Bills did threaten to fight DaBaby due to his ill treatment of DaniLeigh in a video he shared back in November. “When you come to the West Coast, bro, which I know you be out here, you’re going to catch this one-on-one fade, bro,” Bills said. “One-on-one fade to see what happens between me and you. I want to see how gangsta you are, to see how much of a real man you are.”

John Oliver will be back on your TV with Last Week Tonight‘s Season 9 premiere that airs on February 20. It’s been a long wait for those of us who appreciate the show’s particular brand of satirical humor, and the writers surely have no shortage of material upon which to give their takes. Speaking of “takes,” Oliver straight-up described his response (while speaking with USA Today) to the Joe Rogan/Spotify mess as a “punchy hot take,” and that demands a certain respect of the self awareness at hand.

Because obviously, you and I can joke about giving a hot take while tweeting a hot take, but we don’t have the same twinkle in our eye and the “mongrel” (his word) permutation of a British accent going on while doing so. And after seemingly everyone else on topical TV has weighed in on Rogan’s habit of casually dropping misinformation to his millions of viewers (as part of his reported $200 million contract), people would like to know what Oliver thinks as his hiatus comes to an end, so here’s what he told USA Today:

“It feels like they’re reckoning with the line between what a platform and a publisher is. Previously, (Spotify was) a platform. But when you employ (Rogan) and you make his show for him, that line between publishing and platform gets blurry, so now you’re accountable in a very different way than you were before.

“Secondly, it’s clearly not just (about) Rogan. There is a much broader problem of people confidently passing on (malarkey) whether they know it’s (malarkey) or not, and whether they intend to misinform or they actually misinform, at some point it doesn’t really matter, right? The consequence is the same. There’s a punchy hot take for you.”

Fair enough, and Oliver makes a fine point about how people often talk without thinking (or simply claiming to “do my own research” without doing any research at all) and don’t really care that they are spread erroneous information to others. And that’s kind-of the vibe that Rogan emitted during his initial apology after Spotify put a “content advisory” on his podcast episodes. At the time, he described his podcast as something that “started off is just f*cking around with my friends.” And all he wanted to do is “just talk to people and have interesting conversations.” Somewhere along the way, though, Rogan stacked up millions upon millions of listeners, and that, of course begs for accountability with what what he’s describing as simply having fun with friends. If it’s really all about fun, maybe stop talking about Covid altogether.

(Via USA Today)

FX’s hit series Atlanta finally returns this spring after nearly four years and several lifetimes since the second season graced our screens. The highly-anticipated third season will air on March 24th, and show-runner Donald Glover confirmed that the fourth season will be its last, to air later in the fall.

The upcoming season will take place primarily in Europe, where the crew filmed most of the season. During a recent TCA press tour, series screenwriter Stephen Glover (Donald’s brother) recalled how different it was to film in London vs. the States.

“This group of people walks up. And maybe one of them kind of notices Donald or recognizes him, Glover said. “And she stops and they start asking if they know anywhere around here to get something to drink. I think we were talking to them for a second. It’s this girl and two or three guys.”

On the first night abroad, the crew were harassed and racially profiled by a group of locals, who accused them of trying to break into a closed bar. One of the harassers insisted the team must be carrying “hammers,” aka guns.

“Mind you, all of the writers on Atlanta are Black. So, he’s making a reference that we all have hammers, and we can just break into this place, which we kind of ignored,” Glover added. Show co-writer Stefani Robinson chimed in, “It was so insulting but not insulting at the same time because it took us five minutes to fully understand. He got to a point of like if the insinuation was lost on us, he got specific and he was like, ‘You guys are Black, you’ve gone to jail and you do things like that.’ Like he kept doubling down on it.”

It gets worse, as Glover describes talking to the woman. “She’s talking to us. And then, after a minute, the guy just runs back down the street and grabs her and throws her over his shoulder, and he’s like, ‘Run. They are going to rape you, like, rape you.’ The girl was literally, like, ‘I’m sorry,’ as she’s being taken away. So, it was pretty bad. We are just standing there, like, ‘What just happened?’”

Despite the horrifying interaction, the team was able to shoot the season in Europe, in addition to finishing the fourth and final season. Donald Glover says he doesn’t feel sad about the series ending, since the show progressed so naturally. “The story was always supposed to be what it was. And the story, it really was us. Everybody in that writers’ room, everybody on set. It really was what we were going through and what we talked about…I think it ends perfectly.”

Season three airs on March 24th on FX, streaming on Hulu the day after.

When 50 appeared during Dr. Dre’s Super Bowl halftime performance packing a few extra pounds, the jokes came flying. A seasoned vet of the internet troll game himself, 50 took the roasts in stride, and even re-posted a few of his faves. Then, he used his Instagram account to explain why he wasn’t bothered by the burns after creating his own merch of the meme-worthy moment.

“I call this teasing me,” he wrote. “They’re just teasing me because they know I can drop the weight. that’s why I laugh with them. Fat-shaming only applies when you’re ashamed of your fat.”

For what it’s worth, it should be common knowledge that 50 was a little rolly-polly when he first appeared on the scene in 1999 with the attention-grabbing “How To Rob” — which was itself an introduction to his trollish sense of humor, as he name-checked over 50 celebrities and hip-hop personalities that he would be more than happy to mug on the subway. But, of course, by the time of his re-introduction to the public at large with “In Da Club” — the video for which he reproduced during his Super Bowl performance — he’d slimmed down greatly, presenting an imposing, muscular physique with which he’s been associated for much of his career.

And he’s right about one thing: He certainly can lose the weight — seemingly at will. In 2011, he was able to drop 54 pounds for his cancer-riddled role in All Things Fall Apart, so he’s no stranger to physical fluctuations.

The 2021 NBA Draft happened more than six months ago, and the prospects selected are making an impact as they begin their professional careers. If anything, this rookie class is performing at a better level than expected, with several players making positive waves in meaningful situations and others showing flashes of what is to come. With that in mind, the race for the 2021-22 NBA Rookie of the Year award is also heating up.

In this space, we’ll highlight the top candidates in alphabetical order, along with a few honorable mentions, and project what might take place in the second half of the season. A lot can change with more than a quarter of the season remaining, but the early returns are promising, and the candidates are intriguing.

Scottie Barnes

In similar fashion to another prospect we’ll discuss in this space, Barnes is contributing to a good team. He is a starter for the Raptors, playing well over 30 minutes per game, and fits in snugly with Toronto’s innovative approach. He is disruptive on defense. He is shooting better than expected. He is rebounding and passing at a high level by rookie standards. It’s going very well, and he could crash the top three by the end of the season. That’s not too bad for a pick at No. 4 overall that surprised many people.

Cade Cunningham

Since Nov. 28, Cunningham is averaging 17-5-5 for the Pistons while shooting more than 37 percent from three. That seems like a typical profile of a No. 1 pick that entered the league with sky-high expectations. Unfortunately for Cunningham’s ROY candidacy, he had a slow start and a couple of injuries along the way, in addition to team struggles. If he maintains this recent baseline in terms of production, Cunningham should have the inside track to a top-three spot.

Evan Mobley

When a prospect is garnering frequent comparisons to Tim Duncan, that is probably a good sign. Mobley isn’t on Duncan’s level just yet, to be fair, but he is the best defender in the class and he is also putting up numbers on a good team. Mobley is shooting 50 percent from the floor, averaging nearly 15 points and eight rebounds per game, protecting the rim, defending in space, and filling in the gaps like a veteran. It also helps that Cleveland is a very good team, and he is a big part of the team’s success. Mobley is the clear favorite to win the award right now, both in perception and in the betting market.

Franz Wagner

Wagner has played in every single game for the Magic, and his numbers are startlingly good. After a rough Summer League performance, expectations were low, but Wagner’s shooting percentages have been rock solid, and he’s been quite aggressive in hunting his own shot. On top of that, the former Michigan standout has keen instincts on the defensive end, pairing anticipation and awareness with great size at the forward spots, and Wagner is also a willing passer. He really should be in the top-three mix, even if the other candidates are more prominent names.

Honorable Mentions

Chris Duarte – The second half of the season might be an “all you can eat” scenario for Duarte with the Pacers finally in a rebuilding mode. Even before that, Duarte was firmly in the rotation for a team that featured several key veterans, and he doesn’t look out of place. That was one of the positives about the Oregon product in the draft, and he is already quite solid.

Josh Giddey – He isn’t an efficient scorer yet, and that needs to develop in the future. However, Giddey’s size and passing vision are tremendous, and he has flashed in the morass that is Oklahoma City.

Jalen Green – It isn’t a big surprise that Green is off to a slow start, both because he missed time with injury and because rookie scorers sometimes need some seasoning. His efficiency will (or at least should) keep him out of the top spots right now, but the talent is undeniable.

Herb Jones – Jones isn’t going to have the offensive stats that get noticed, but he’s been the second-best defender in the class behind Mobley. That is earning him a ton of minutes for the suddenly vibrant Pelicans, and Jones has managed to post solid shooting efficiency based on a moderate shot diet. He’s a fun player.

Davion Mitchell – Mitchell has a long way to go as a primary option on the offensive end, but there is more playing time available for him in the absence of Tyrese Haliburton. The lottery pick is also very good at bothering opposing guard with his on-ball defense, and that is his calling card at this stage.

There were a couple of pieces of unfinished business I had to bring up with Boyd Holbrook before getting into his new film, Sean Ellis’s The Cursed – a stylized, yet gnarly 19th-century werewolf movie that premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival to strong reviews (back when it was titled Eight for Silver). The last time I spoke to Holbrook he was promoting Logan, and Holbrook was so confident of Logan’s upcoming success (he was right to be optimistic), he was trying to bet anyone that Logan would make more money than Deadpool, a movie Holbrook liked a lot, but also targeted as a movie he wanted to beat because it, too, was a rated-R superhero movie. In the end, Logan did incredibly well, but still made about $150 million less than Deadpool so I was curious how many $5 bets he lost.

Also, while trying ot make a point, Holbrook took a shot at McDonald’s. Basically his point was people eat McDonald’s once then never eat it again. Now, due to no other information than the continued existence of McDonald’s, this can’t possibly be true. After that interview published, I received a handwritten letter from a publicist at McDonald’s thanking me for defending them against Boyd Holbrook (I didn’t really so much “defend” them as much as just point out people do eat their food; I, too, have had McDonald’s more than once) and also included some sort of elaborate Happy Meal looking collectible that I only saved, for five years now, and through a move, for this moment to show Boyd Holbrook what he had done. And that, who knows, maybe The Cursed could have had a Happy Meal tie in, including bloody werewolves for the kids, but now that would never happen.

Holbrook is also in Indiana Jones 5, directed by his Logan director, James Mangold. The plot of Indiana Jones 5 is so secret we still don’t even know who Holbrook is playing. But the question today is, would Holbrook risk another $5 on the future of its box office?

The last time I spoke to you, you tried to bet me and anyone else who would listen that Logan would make more money than Deadpool. Logan made $619 million, and Deadpool made $782 million. But your publicist wouldn’t let me take the bet because she was worried you were going to lose $5 to about 50 people…

That’s okay. I mean, 50 times $5…

Yeah, $2,500 … I feel you could probably swing that.

Well, yeah. Maybe. It depends on what it is. But hey, hats off to Ryan Reynolds. He’s doing great things.

Now you’re making a face like Logan underperformed or something, this beloved movie that everyone saw.

No, it overperformed, but a bet’s a bet.

Also last time you made a crack about how no one eats McDonald’s twice. Now, I didn’t defend McDonald’s, but mentioned I think people do seem to eat it more than once. After that published I received a letter in the mail from McDonald’s thanking me for defending them against Boyd Holbrook and it came with this fancy Happy Meal display I saved just for this moment to show you.

Wow. Don’t tell me it’s…

Yeah, the Hamburglar is in here.

That’s awesome. Well, damn. Do I have a hit out on my head from McD’s? I hope not. I was just playing, guys. I was just playing.

You cost yourself a sponsorship that day. You could be the face of McDonald’s.

I was really gunning for a lifetime supply of apple turnovers. By the way, are one of my favorite things and my guilty pleasure.

Just in general or their version of it?

I just remember that as a kid it was just this staple. You had me, McDonald’s.

You’ve turned a corner on that particular franchise.

I guess I have to, yeah. A lot of lessons were learned today.

Okay so this movie used to be called Eight for Silver. And now it’s The Cursed, which it’s probably a better title? I’m just used to the other one.

Yeah, me too. I mean, I get it. I was reading a lot of the comments and a lot of people enjoyed Eight for Silver. It is original, what it is to the film, and I also get it for marketing’s sake and what is this movie about? It could be that, which is fine. I even had a friend, he had a film. It was called Weirdo, which is such a great title. Of course, to spare him some ramifications because if McDonald’s is coming after me now and Ryan Reynolds, I won’t tell the name of what it was changed to, but yeah. It happens. It happens.

So see, if you hadn’t said what you said, kids could have gone to McDonald’s this week and gotten Happy Meals with werewolves in them in support of The Cursed.

Wow. Wow. All is lost. You know what they say, be nice to the people on the way up, because they’re the same people on the way down.

It’s such a good pairing. Get kids out there interested in gnarly horror really early on.

Yeah. Eight and up, seems appropriate.

This movie is pretty gnarly.

Yeah. I’m a big fan of, personally, I love watching horror films. There’s nothing better than getting a scare from a movie. And Sean’s an amazing director, and the film is really gorgeous and stunning, and it’s got that art-house feel to it. And I got to go all over the south of France. It was creepy and just kind of haunting out there in these vineyards. You just have this fog that looms over anyways.

What do you like about horror?

There’s something about it. It doesn’t matter if they’re great or if they’re bad or if they’re whatever. It’s just something about that anticipation. Because I don’t particularly like being scared in my life either, but I do like to double down when I’m watching a horror film and just kind of let this in.

Do you like the actual scary stuff? Or more the Friday the 13ths or Nightmare on Elm Street type movies that are fun?

Oh man, when I was growing up, Freddy Krueger, Jason, Friday the 13th, Halloweens, those three films were at the apex of horror films. So yeah, I’ve always enjoyed … “love/hate relationship” I guess is maybe the way to say it because you love the feeling off getting scared, but you hate the anticipation of the feeling of that.

I don’t know if you know this, but Jason and Freddy, they fought.

It’s like Alien vs. Predator type of epic battle.

We need more of those types of movies.

Yeah. Put the main bosses against each other.

You’re in the new Indiana Jones movie. They’re being very secretive about it. But I have one Indiana Jones question. Are you going to bet $5 it makes more than Deadpool?

Um…

You don’t have to do it with me, anyone out there can take this bet.

No, listen. Listen. I don’t have it in for Ryan Reynolds…

You made it clear. You like that Deadpool a lot. It was a spirited competition. In fun, you wanted to beat it.

Yeah, exactly. It was a spirited competition. I think this Indiana Jones film is going to be kick-ass.

Oh, I can’t wait.

I can’t wait for it either. I’ve seen a lot of it.

Oh?

Yeah. I’ve been doing it for nine months. But yeah. It’s badass. I don’t think it’s any secret that Jim Mangold is directing it.

The Logan director himself.

Exactly. And he’s an amazing guy to work with.

It seems like a good choice for you to be in multiple movies of his.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Jim has a way to just draw an amazing performance out of every actor he works with, and I think he’s very suited for this one. Logan, and obviously Ford v Ferrari, all the action stuff. I think you’re going to see all that kind of bottlenecking for Indiana Jones. We’re on literally our last week, week and a half of filming.

Oh wow.

And so I’m just trying to enjoy the last bit of it.

It’s always great talking to you, and I can’t wait to find out what the good folks at McDonald’s have to say to me this time.

Hey, tell them let’s squash it, man. Let’s squash it. I want to do some apple turnovers. I’ll work the food line. Put me in the window.

They’ll be happy to hear that. They finally won you over.

Come on. Put me in.

‘The Cursed’ opens in theaters this weekend. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Before she started dating (and later, broke up with) Kanye West, Julia Fox was in Uncut Gems. It was a “crown jewel” performance in a great movie (I am still angry Adam Sandler wasn’t nominated for an Academy Award), especially for someone making their feature film debut. But Fox had a history with New York-based directors and co-writers Josh and Benny Safdie, who partially based the character of, well, Julia on her.

Uncut Gems is back in the news not only because we should always be talking about Uncut Gems, but also: during an interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast, Fox had an inexplicable pronunciation of the film’s title. Prepare to watch this clip at least 15 times.

After Unka Jamz (?) became a TikTok trend, Fox commented on the clip, writing, “Omggggg, I was stoned, leave me alone!!!! Hahahahahah.” It’s too bad the Weeknd already released an album this year: “UNCLE JAMS” (??) could be his next hit single.

As for Fox, on top of continuing her acting career, she would like to step behind the camera, too. “My dad always told me that I should have been an actress, but that wasn’t really my main focus,” she told Interview Magazine. “I really love to be the director, the person in charge, making my fantasy come to life. But if I love someone else’s fantasy, I’ll definitely help them bring theirs to life, too.” Until then, I’m going to watch this again:

(Via E! Online)