If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to see it, did it really fall? If a show becomes a Netflix hit but nobody is making viral TikTok dances about it, is it really a hit? It sure seems like it. Times are changing!
The latest series to make its way up the Netflix Most Popular list is The Night Agent, which has quietly become one of the streamer’s biggest shows. Why there haven’t been any Garbiel Basso fancams making the rounds yet? It is surely puzzling, but a lot of people are really into this show. There is still time.
The Night Agent racked up 130.48 million hours on the English-language TV list last week, which brings the grand total to 515.57 million hours viewed since its premiere last month. Half of those views are from fathers all around the country, just killing time until Yellowstone makes its grand return.
The series premiered on March 23rd and has kept climbing up the Netflix Most Popular list, now sitting at No. 9 after knocking off the likes of the famous influencer scammer in Inventing Anna and the non-famous single mom scammer Ginny & Georgia. Scamming isso last year, though. In 2023, we are strictly watching government conspiracy dramas and comedies!
Based on the novel of the same name, The Night Agent follows Gabriel Basso as Peter Sutherland, a young FBI agent who works as a night telephone operator at The White House, a place which should, in theory, be notoriously hard to call, but people seem to get through anyway. While answering calls, he is suddenly pushed into the world of government cover-ups and moles…and NOT the good kind.
The show was recently given a second season order from Netflix, so now is the time to check it out before it becomes too big and nobody wants to talk about it anymore because they are just so sick of it. It happens to the best of them.
The Memphis Grizzlies will have an eye on the play-in games as they enter the playoffs as the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference for the second consecutive season. Last year, the Grizzlies faced the Timberwolves in the first round after Minnesota won their initial play-in game. The Wolves pushed Memphis to a fiercely competitive six games in a series that was much closer than a 2-7 matchup might indicate.
Before this year’s play-in games — particularly Minnesota’s game against the Lakers on Tuesday night — Dillon Brooks provided his preference for a first round matchup in a way only Dillon Brooks could.
Dillon Brooks: “I wouldn’t mind playing LeBron in a 7-game series.”
Why?
“The legacy is there. First time back in the playoffs, knock him out right away in the first round. It’ll test us good. They got good pieces, good players, and that’ll be a good 1st round matchup for us.”
It’s not surprising that Brooks would invite a tough challenge. The Grizzlies forward consistently takes on the toughest matchups and thrives on making that matchup — and everyone else who is not his teammate — miserable. In a vacuum, a player inviting a tougher matchup to sharpen their game for later rounds is a pretty healthy mindset. However, when the team you’re asking for employs LeBron James, that invitation could bring more than Brooks bargained for. Not to mention, Brooks has spent the entire season supplanting himself as the NBA’s most reviled villain.
LeBron doesn’t need much motivation for playoff basketball, but Brooks’ comments are certainly the sort of thing that attracts his attention.
To that end, the 10 bottles I’m listing below are all great tasting. That collision of rare and tasty is why they’re listed at this price point and what actually makes them worthwhile to buy and enjoy.
When it comes to ranking these whiskeys, I’m going on taste and depth. The top five bottles on this list transcend that though and are just straight fire pours of whiskey. The rest might be a little more niche for some bourbon drinkers. But hey, that’s part of the fun — trying new things, finding new loves, spending way too much time and money hunting down these bottles…
Okay, let’s dive in and find you a great rare bourbon whiskey to add to your bar cart.
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months
This release from Diageo’s Orphan Barrel program is from Cascade Hollow Distilling Co., better known as George Dickel. The whiskey is a marrying of two 16-year-old bourbon barrels that were hand-selected by Dickel Master Distiller Nicole Austin. The unique catch here is that the ABVs are very low for a “barrel-proof” bourbon.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This opens with a hint of buttery cornbread that immediately veers into cinnamon apple clusters, soft nutty chocolate spread, and a hint of stonefruit tobacco in an old leather tobacco pouch.
Palate: There’s a mild sense of eggnog spices next to vanilla buttercream with a clear note of old, musty cellar beams leading back to that warm tobacco chew that’s laced with winter spices and sharp marmalade.
Finish: The end leans into the woodier aspects of the winter spices while peach pits and vanilla cream mingle with dry chocolate powder cut with espresso bean tobacco rolled with old cedar bark and left to dry on earthy wicker.
Bottom Line:
This is earthy and creamy, which is an odd combination on paper but somehow works in this bottle. It’s a testament to expert blending by a true master. This is a rare one that proves your whiskey nerd status while giving your palate a nice expansion.
Kentucky Owl’s batch releases are always adored when they drop. The latest batch — just dropped in late December 2022 — is a blend of seven to 14-year-old bourbons blended with four-year-old bourbon to create a deep and engaging flavor profile at cask strength.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose feels quintessential from the jump with sweet and creamy toffee, woody winter spices, and orchards full of dry and ripe winter fruits (think pears, tangerines, and maybe even some pomegranate) with a hint of nasturtium.
Palate: The taste is soft and lush with a sharp winter spiciness — think cinnamon bark, star anise, and clove buds — aside burnt orange and salted caramel candies over a hint of figs and plums next to creamy vanilla just kissed with mint.
Finish: That creaminess drives the finish toward an orange marmalade tobacco end that’s full of subtle notes of spice, vanilla, and apple/pear/cherry cream soda and cedar bark.
Bottom Line:
This is another winner from Kentucky Owl, and worth drinking throughout 2023. If you’re already a fan, you’ll love this batch. If you’re not yet a fan, you’ll see why so many folks fall in love with this stuff.
8. Wild Turkey Aged 13 Years Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey “Father and Son” Limited Edition
This whiskey is hewn from barrels that meet a specific flavor profile selected by father and son team Jimmy and Eddie Russell. The juice is classic Turkey with a mash bill of 75%, 13%, and 12% malted barley. Beyond that, the whiskey rests for 13 years before it’s vatted and then proofed way down (for a Turkey release anyway) with that famously soft Kentucky limestone water.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with lush notes of cherry tobacco, dried summer flowers, eggnog spice, rich vanilla oils, freshly fried apple fritters, and a touch of orange oils lurking in the background.
Palate: There’s a mix of light cedar next to a Hostess Cherry Pie vibe, a touch of fancy root beer with plenty of sassafras, dry vanilla husks, and a hint more of orange.
Finish: Brittle toffee covered in chalky dark chocolate arrives on the mid-palate and leads towards a finish that has a leathery tobacco spice next to a dried-out black tea feel that ultimately ends a little soft and watery on the short finish.
Bottom Line:
This is super easy to drink neat or on the rocks but might disappear a little in a cocktail thanks to that low ABV. Still, if you’re looking for the softest and most easy-going Wild Turkey sipping experience, then this is the bottle for you.
7. Joseph A. Magnus Cigar Blend Bourbon Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This sourced bourbon is built from 11 and 18-year-old bourbons. The real star of the show with this whiskey is that those bourbons were finished in armagnac, cognac, and sherry casks before batching and bottling as-is.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This opens with sticky toffee pudding that really amps up the cinnamon and nutmeg next to black-tea-soaked dates next to some stewed prunes wrapped in chili-chocolate-laced tobacco leaves and dripped in honey and then walnuts.
Palate: A savory fruitiness opens the palate with figs and pumpkin that leads towards an apricot jam with a hint of clove and cinnamon next to light touches of old library leather and cobwebs.
Finish: A faint hint of dark berries arrives on the mid-palate before the finish luxuriates in burnt toffee, almond shells, more of that leather, and dried-out apricots.
Bottom Line:
These releases are consistently delicious. They will challenge your palate and expand it all while tasting damn near perfect. Make sure to add a little water to really let this one bloom in the glass — it’ll get nice and creamy.
This entry point to the much older and much higher-priced, George T. Stagg, is killing the bourbon game right now. The whiskey is generally eight to nine-year-old bourbons, made at Buffalo Trace, and batched and bottled with no fussing, cutting, or filtering. The results are an award-winning bourbon that’s getting harder and harder to find.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There is distinct and rich molasses next to hints of pecan, dark and bold holiday spices, and vanilla oils on the nose.
Palate: The palate holds onto those notes and adds a cherry sweetness with a hint of woody apple in the background and a touch of toffee.
Finish: The end is long and very hot, leaving you with a spicy tobacco buzz on your tongue and senses.
Bottom Line:
This is another crowd-pleasing favorite. Stagg stans go deep with their fandom. These get a little too hot for me, so I recommend a rock or two. That said, if you’re looking for an ABV/proof firey explosion, this is the bottle to get.
5. Weller The Original Wheated Bourbon Full Proof Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This expression is a marriage of some serious barrels of unknown age. That batched whiskey goes into the bottle at “full proof” which is not necessarily “barrel proof.” The “full proof” this refers to is the proof of the hot juice when it goes into the barrel for aging. That whiskey will come out of the barrel somewhere around 57% but not right at it. So there may be a little proofing water involved to make sure that the final blend in the bottle is always 114 proof and not 114.7 one year and 113.1 the next year or 115.9 the year after that.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Ripe and sour cherries lead the way with a thick vanilla underbelly, a hint of salted caramel, and woody cinnamon next to whole nutmeg bulbs on the nose with this slight echo of almost singed cherry bark.
Palate: The palate leans into the sharpness of the cinnamon and the lushness of the vanilla as a foundation as layers of buttery caramel cake frosting with a hint of sassafras and licorice next to dry cedar bark braids with a thin line of sweet grass and a whisper of sourdough fritters.
Finish: The end leans into creamy brandy butter cut with dark-chocolate-covered dried sour cherries sprinkled with salt and rolled in fresh tobacco leaves and stacked next to orange-laced marzipan in an old and slightly sweet cedar box.
Bottom Line:
This is another winner. It’s just so nuanced and deep while feeling familiar and almost comforting. Make sure to add a little water or a single rock to really let the lush creaminess of the vanilla and dark chocolate shine through with an added hint of burnt orange on that rich marzipan.
This rare release from Rabbit Hole is a five-grain bourbon that’s made with some unique grains. The standouts are chocolate malted wheat from Germany (4%) and chocolate malted barley (3%) from the U.K. combined with 70% corn, 13% rye, and 10% malted rye. That juice rests in Kentucky until it’s just right for batching and bottling completely as-is in only 1,365 bottles.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose is brimming with dark chocolate cut with hazelnut, chili pepper, and orange with a molasses sweetness over cinnamon toast with a hint of sharp spearmint and maple.
Palate: The palate has a sense of that hazelnut tied to cinnamon bark and black cherry tobacco with a sense of firewood bark resting in rich black dirt next to dry dark chocolate just flaked with salt.
Finish: The end has a sense of old boot leather and cedar chocolate boxes just emptied and refilled with spiced cherry tobacco and eggnog-infused espresso beans.
Bottom Line:
If you can get this as MSRP, get two — one to save and one to drink. Honestly, that’s true of every bottle on this list. Still, this is the best Rabbit Hole has to offer in my opinion. It’s that good.
3. Old Charter Oak French Oak Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This whiskey is part of the Old Charter oak finishing series. In this case, Buffalo Trace’s iconic Mash Bill No. 1 bourbon (the same one that creates Eagle Rare, Stagg, Benchmark, etc.) is filled into French oak casks right off the stills (bourbon has to be aged in new oak — there’s no rule on which species of oak). After 12 years, those barrels were batched and just kissed with local water for bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Rich vanilla and floral honey mingle on the nose with a touch of rum raisin, cinnamon-soaked dates, and grilled peaches with a whisper of brown sugar syrup sweetness that’s also somewhat floral.
Palate: That bright and floral honey opens the palate toward moist vanilla cake frosted with nutmeg and clove icing next to rich tobacco that’s just kissed with red chili and white pepper.
Finish: The end has a hint of hazelnut next to dark chocolate-covered espresso beans, a touch of dry lavender, and fresh figs tossed in honey and mint.
Bottom Line:
This is delicious whiskey. There’s really nothing more to say.
2. Angel’s Envy Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Port Wine Barrels Cask Strength
This modern classic is a yearly limited release from the beloved Lousiville distiller. The whiskey is made from a mix of locally sourced barrels that are finished in Ruby Port casks. The best of the best are hand-selected by Angel’s Envy’s team for as-is batching and bottling with only 14,000 odd bottles making out this year.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This opens with a deep sense of blackberry jam over a Southern biscuit with plenty of brown butter, vanilla sauce, and apple fruit leather with a dash of cinnamon, allspice, and star anise next to a whisper of cherry cream soda and orange-chocolate tobacco packed into a cedar box.
Palate: The palate is soft and supple with a brandy butter vibe next to mince meat pie with powdered sugar icing, meaty dates, black tea, and rich Black Forest cake.
Finish: The end subtly meanders through shaved dark chocolate and stewed cherry, eventually landing on a vanilla-laced tobacco leaf rolled up with apple-cider-soaked cinnamon sticks and old wicker canes.
Bottom Line:
This is goddamn perfect. I wrote “excellent” in my notes when I first tasted this one this year. If you’re even remotely an Angel’s Envy fan, then get this bottle immediately. If you were ever on the fence about the brand, this bottle will convert you.
Michter’s originally dropped this back in 2014; it has since become a mainstay of their release schedule. The whiskey is standard bourbon that’s then finished in a toasted barrel from the famed Kelvin Cooperage in Louisville. They build these barrels by hand from 18-month air-dried white oak and then lightly toast (not char) the inside before the aged whiskey goes in.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This opens with a pecan pie vibe that’s nutty, dry, and full of dark Caro syrup sweetness with a hint of candied orange peels, a touch of cinnamon, and dry cedar bark.
Palate: The palate holds onto the sweetness as it leans towards a campfire roasted marshmallow, a touch of saffron and clove-stewed pears, a pile of sappy firewood, and creamy nuances of vanilla pudding all meander through your senses.
Finish: The end has a light savory nature that leads back to the pear, vanilla, and marshmallow on a very slow fade toward a pile of fresh firewood piled high on soft black soil.
Bottom Line:
The softness and sweetness of the bourbon create a nice balance for the earthy wood notes. If you’re not into the hefty woody whiskeys, don’t skip this as this might be the whiskey that gets you onto the toasted side of bourbon life. It’s that good.
Let’s begin with an anti-warning of sorts: this post will not contain spoilers for Netflix‘s Beef because I don’t want it spoiled, either. I’m seven episodes into one of the best new TV shows of the year, and loving every minute of it (especially the soundtrack). I’m savoring the final three episodes of the season like the best bite of a burger, so I have no idea what happens in the finale — other than what creator Lee Sung Jin teased in an interview with Rolling Stone.
“I wanted it to have a conclusive feel just in case,” he said, “but there are a lot of ideas on my end to keep this story going. I think should we be blessed with a season two, there’s a lot of ways for Danny and Amy [played by Steven Yeun and Ali Wong] to continue. I have one really big general idea that I can’t really say yet, but I have three seasons mapped out in my head currently.”
If season two need a subtitle, Beef: Chicken is available.
Beef, which stressed out Wong and Yeun (it’s a Tuca and Bertie reunion!) so much during filming that their bodies “both broke out in hives,” is available on Netflix now.
The New Orleans Pelicans will be in a win-or-go home situation on Wednesday as they play host to the Thunder in the 9-10 play-in eliminator in the West, but they’ll have to navigate that game and a possible Friday play-in game for the 8-seed without Zion Williamson.
Their young star forward has been out for more than half of the season with a hamstring injury that he aggravated prior to the All-Star break, extending his absence for the entire second half of the season. As the playoffs get set to arrive, Williamson is healed physically, but is not ready to return to play because of the mental hurdles still in his way. As he explained to reporters on Tuesday, he’s not yet ready to play with the decisiveness and explosiveness that makes him an unstoppable force going to the rim, and if he can’t play like Zion, he feels he’s more of a hindrance than a help to his team.
“I can pretty much do everything,” Williamson said. “It’s just a matter of the level that I was playing at before my hamstring. I’m just a competitor. I don’t want to go out there and be in my own head and affect the team. I can just be on the sidelines supporting them more. I know myself, if I was to go out there, I would be in my head a lot. I would hesitate on certain moves and that could affect the game.”
This is a part of injury recovery that often gets overlooked by fans, but trusting that you won’t aggravate the injury — especially for something as fickle as a hamstring when you’ve already aggravated it once and had to shut things down — is very difficult. Williamson is dealing with that struggle now, and the Pelicans seem willing to give him that space he needs, also understanding they want Zion to be able to play like himself when he’s out there.
On Friday, David Griffin explained the Pelicans dealt with a similar situation with Brandon Ingram, who has come back from an injury of his own to play at an incredibly high level of late. His confidence in his body is a big reason he can do so, and as such New Orleans is well aware of the importance for Zion to get to that point as well, via NOLA.com.
“It’s more of like a hesitancy,” Griffin said. “I think we went though this before with Brandon Ingram. He said, ‘When I feel like me, I’ll play.’ You can see when someone is trusting it and confident. He’s not in that space right now.”
Williamson, who has been open about the mental toll of injury rehab in the past, reiterated the difficulty of this most recent stretch where he’s been off the court, noting that he would love nothing more than rejoining the team and getting to play basketball again.
“Sh*t sucks. I don’t know how else to say it. I love this game. I say it over and over,” Williamson said. “For those people that think I want to sit on the sidelines just to sit there, I don’t know why people think that. It sucks. I just want to be playing basketball. For real.”
Unfortunately, there’s not much in the way of a tangible checklist of things for Zion to go through before he returns to play. As he explained, it’s just a matter of when he feels like himself again and has that confidence to do all the things on the court without hesitation. Until he reaches that point, the Pelicans will have to try to go on another miracle run from the 9-10 game without him, as they did reaching the first round a year ago.
Last month, Camila Alves revealed that she was on the Lufthansa flight that suddenly dropped 4,000 feet in what’s been described as a terrifying Final Destination-like situation. The plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Virginia after the turbulence caused the passengers to experience “zero gravity” conditions during the jarring drop.
What wasn’t known at the time is whether Alves’ husband, Matthew McConaughey was aboard the flight. Conflicting reports made it seem like the Texas actor was elsewhere, but he’s now confirmed that he was on board and experienced the ordeal.
While appearing on Kelly Clarkson’s “Let’s Talk Off Camera” podcast, McConaughey revealed that the situation happened so quickly that the pilot didn’t even have a chance to warn passengers.
“My tray table is what held me down,” the actor, 53, recalled. “I did not have my seatbelt on, and there was not a seatbelt warning right before it happened.” The Oscar winner noted that he “immediately reached over” to make sure his wife, Camila Alves, had her seatbelt on.
The “hell of a scare” left McConaughey feeling like he had “no way to get control of this situation the moment.”
After describing the other passengers’ reaction, which ranged from eerie silence to shocked laughter, McConaughey had his nerves calmed by a pilot friend who was flying with the couple.
“The steel, it buckled… and I was like, ‘Can the plane hold that?’” McConaughey told Clarkson. “And he was like, ‘These things are so tested, that yes, don’t worry, the plane structurally can hold that.’”
More importantly, McConaughey’s friend assured him that he — the pilot friend, not McConaughey, although let’s not rule that out either — could fly the plane if something was wrong with the original pilot. “He was like, ‘No problem.’ And I was like, ‘Great, love to hear that.’”
It’s been months since Spotify had its annual takeover of social media with Spotify Wrapped, a feature that allows listeners to share breakdowns of their most-played music. The most significant downside to Wrapped, though, is that it only comes once per year. So, a developer is now offering an unofficial solution to fill the void, and you can check it out right now.
How To See Your Spotify Pie Chart
As Metro notes, a California-based student named Darren Huang has unveiled Spotify Pie, which generates a pie chart based on the last month of a user’s Spotify listening activity.
Using it is pretty simple. Head to the Spotify Pie website (on mobile or desktop devices) and log in with your Spotify credentials. From there, the page will quickly populate a pie chart that breaks down your top genres. Hover over the slices (or, on a mobile device, tap) to see the top artists that fit into these genres. The genres can get pretty granular: My personal list included “edmonton indie” (Mac DeMarco), “seattle indie” (The Postal Service), and “dmv rap” (IDK).
Below the pie chart and its corresponding key is a list of the most-played artists, which the top picks presented in a larger font.
The site seems harmless, but as with any third-party application that accesses your data and login credentials, proceed with caution.
If that all sounds cool, check out Spotify Pie here.
Spotify fans who can’t wait for Spotify Wrapped have a fun new toy they can use to share their musical tastes with friends.
Spotify Pie is just what it sounds like; a pie chart breaking down users’ musical tastes by artist and genre. Rather than waiting all year to utilize it, Spotify Pie will be updated monthly, giving fans the option of sharing and comparing their charts with others year-round. Here’s a completely random sample I found online:
GitHub
Spotify Pie was developed on GitHub by Darren Huang, an LA-based programmer and fashion model(!) who is not affiliated with Spotify. As with all third-party apps, use it at your own risk. You can access Spotify Pie here.
Meanwhile, Spotify does have a few official updates and additions coming soon, including Spotify Clips, which sounds a little like TikTok for artists’ profiles, and a virtual DJ powered by AI, which will give listeners information about its curated playlists using a computer-generated voice.
Spotify is also expanding its reach into television, with its popular RapCaviar playlist spinning off into a Hulu documentary series called RapCaviar Presents. If you check out the Roddy Ricch episode, you can see yours truly doing a phony TikTok dance.
Two weeks before the release of Flashdance, 40 years ago this week, Paramount thought they had a flop. To be fair, director Adrian Lyne thought he had a flop too. The director who would go on to make films like Fatal Attraction and Indecent Proposal had these fears exacerbated by the fact that people at the studio stopped returning his calls. Just the fact Lyne is talking about Flashdance now 40 years later is probably your first clue that, no, it was not a flop.
Flashdance would gross $200 million at the box office and become a sensation. Though critics were not kind to the movie, it would go on to receive four Oscar nominations, something even Lyne forgets – two songs were nominated, “Maniac” and “What a Feeling,” with the latter winning; it was also nominated for editing and cinematography – and became such a cultural force that even Peanuts created its own parody, Flashbeagle, which Lyne says he owns.
Flashdance isn’t really a movie concerned with plot. Alex (Jennifer Beals) works at the local Pittsburgh steel mill and at night she performs provocative (yet let’s say PG-13 rated) dances at a local bar. Her dream is to be a dancer. She starts dating the owner of the steel mill, Nick, who might just have some connections at the local dance conservatory. And that’s about it. But it’s a tight 97-minute movie that has no fat and almost plays like one long music video. (With a break here and there about a subplot about an aspiring comic named Richie Blazek who works as a cook where Alex dances. Oh, also, Robert Wuhl plays an extra who just hangs out at the bar where Alex dances and it feels like he’s just watching the movie along with us.)
For its 40th, Paramount has released a new 4K disc, which is out right now. And, yes, Flashdance will be back in theaters at the end of April. Ahead, Adrian Lyne takes us through what it was like to think he had a disaster and his career was over to only, instead, make the third highest grossing movie of 1983.
Over the last couple of years, we’ve shown Flashdance to a lot of friends who haven’t seen it and they all love it.
Critics didn’t.
You know what, though? This got nominated for four Oscars. I don’t think people realize that.
Well, yes, I guess it did. Yeah. I forgot that as well! I mean, editing was one of them, right?
Yes. And cinematography.
I mean, honestly, I was offered it twice, actually. And did it the third time. I thought that it was a little silly, the story, but I just wanted to do something with the dances and make them interesting. I saw it again as well recently. Actually, I saw it last night because I haven’t seen it forever. And I think Jennifer Beals was really quite good.
She is.
She had a vulnerability, a childlike quality that made you forgive a lot. So I was quite pleased with that, really with her. And also the dancer, Marine Jahan, was really good. So I had two in one in a way.
Unlike Fatal Attraction and Indecent Proposal, which have famous plots, Flashdance is not a plot-heavy movie. We have to like these people.
Actually, there’s a scene where Alex sort of flirts with Nick when they’re eating in a restaurant, a posh restaurant.
[Laughs] Yeah. Right. But there was a line in the script, which honestly I think was the best line in the movie that somebody persuaded me not to put. In those days I was very sort of anxious and sort of uncertain. And she’s looking at her plate and she has broccoli and something else, but she has broccoli and says, “What are these little trees?” Which I thought was enchanting. Because it’s a childlike thing. She’s never seen broccoli before. And I think it would’ve made her seem much better and less knowing, if you like, because she would’ve been perceived as a child really.
I’m wondering if they wanted to cut it because of the age difference between her and Nick? Is that why? I’m just spitballing. I have no idea.
No, it was just, “No, we don’t want that.” Whatever. And I just accepted it and, 40 years later, it still hurts me.
Well, you know what? I bet they’d let you put that back in now if you wanted to. I have a feeling it’s made enough money that you have that clout.
[Laughs] Unlikely.
It sounds like you are surprised it became the phenomenon it became.
Yes, I really am. Because there was no confidence in the movie at the theater. I mean, I didn’t have any confidence. I remember watching the movie and I said to my assistant, Casey Silver – who became chairman of Universal, 20 years later or something – we’re watching it, and the executives were behind in the back watching. And I said to him, whispered, “Is this as bad as I think it is?” There was a long silence. And then he said, “Yes.” And so I said, “Is there any way we can get out of the theater without the executives seeing?” And almost at exactly that moment, people started laughing at something. And it was a good laugh, I could tell. So I sort of gradually became aware, and they actually quite liked it.
Was it a Richie Blazak scene? People forget there’s a whole subplot about the cook trying to become a comic.
Well, it may be. Yeah, he was nice.
How does a movie that even the director, you, thought wasn’t good become a phenomenon? That doesn’t happen very often.
No, it doesn’t. And towards the end, I couldn’t get anybody on the phone two weeks before it came out.
What? Really?
I couldn’t get anybody on the phone! The studio thought it was going to be a disaster because they sold off 30 percent of their financial interest in it.
Oh, that was a mistake.
Two weeks before it came out they did that. I think the dances were fun. I mean, I knew that I wanted to do a wet dance before. I didn’t know how or what to do, but I just knew that I wanted to see water flying around because I hadn’t seen that before. And the studio was very dubious about this. And so I had to show, or tried to show them, what I wanted to do. There were these bleachers. I was at the bottom of the bleachers on the floor, and they were looking down at me with the girl. And I had a hose pipe around the girl. I was the one pointing the hose pipe around. And I said, “Well, this is what we’re going to do.” And I haven’t got the slightest idea what I was going to do. But I just knew it. And the skepticism on their face was just marvelous. I mean, it was just awful.
Though a big thing working in this movie’s favor is it moves. There’s no fat. It is a streamlined movie that feels almost like a 90-minute music video.
Yes, it is. And it was a disaster at 20 minutes longer.
That’s interesting.
There’s a very good editor who I got on very well with.
Yeah nominated for an Oscar for editing. That’s how good. [Bud S. Smith and Walt Mulconery, who would lose to The Right Stuff.]
Yeah. Funny, right? I’d forgotten that. You’re right. And it was a total disaster at 20 minutes longer. We came out and we went to a place at Paramount, in those days, there was a bar called The Nickadel. And it was at the exact entrance just to the left of the entrance of Paramount. And so we all got drunk. So depressed. And then when we took 20 minutes out and it worked. Well, it worked better.
Sadly, Irene Cara passed away in November. When was the first time you heard “What a Feeling”? That song is still amazing.
Yes, it is. It’s marvelous. I mean, I was there when they recorded it. Fantastic. Yeah. No one knew it was good. And “Maniac”…
Michael Sembello…
I worked very closely with Phil Ramon, who was a lovely man. And I said, “I’ve just heard this thing on a tune by Kraftwerk. Have you heard of them? It’s a German band.” And we were doing “Maniac,” and we were working very closely on it. And it’s great. I said, “It goes be bing, bong, bing, bong, bing, like a bell. Like a bell, bing, bong, bing, bong.” And I said, “We should try it on ‘Maniac.’” And he liked it. And so we stuck it in. We stole it from Kraftwerk.
It’s so strange to hear you say that basically you got drunk because you thought this was going to be this disaster. And a year later there’s a Snoopy remake called Flashbeagle. They made a Peanuts cartoon out of it!
I’ve got that! I’ve got that one. Isn’t that funny? I rang Charles M. Schulz up, or I wrote or something, and he was adorable on that. And I have the original artwork on that.
Right now, Pedro Pascal is one of the biggest stars in the world that isn’t named Nic Cage. But even Nic Cage loves him, so you know he’s the real deal. Still, it’s hard to remember a time when Pascal wasn’t everywhere (it was only a few years ago, after all), but he has been open about his struggles as a young actor in the past, way before he ran (or levitated) with the Baby Yoda crowd.
Pascal met his longtime friend and fellow actor Sarah Paulson in New York in the late 1990s, where they would frequently dream of their future as bigshot Hollywood stars while watching movies. “We would go to see movies all the time in those years,” Paulson recently told Esquire. “and we would get so lost in them. You can fill in the blanks about the why of that however you like, but I think there were things we wanted to escape mentally, emotionally, spiritually.”
The two had quite a bond, remaining friends over the years, and it seemed like they were actual friends, not fake Hollywood buddies. But Paulson also helped him out when he began to struggle as an actor. “He’s talked about this publicly, but there were times when I would give him my per diem from a job I was working on so that he could have money to feed himself,” Paulson explained. Pascal has been open about his missteps in the entertainment industry early on, also telling Esquire, “My vision of it was that if I didn’t have some major exposure by the time I was 29 years old, it was over, so I was constantly readjusting what it meant to commit my life to this profession.”
Once he decided to adjust his mindset, Pascal was able to land jobs like Game of Thrones and The Last Of Us, which shot him to superstardom. Next up, he has a series of movies on the docket, including Strange Way Of Life with Ethan Hawke.
But Paulson isn’t surprised by his recent uptick in popularity. “You just want him to succeed,” she said. “And that to me, I feel like, is the sign of a major movie star.” Maybe now people will start celebrating him as an actor instead of just a silly online trend. Maybe!
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