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As I mention to Craig Gillespie ahead, my interest in Cruella, an origin story of the villain from 101 Dalmatians, didn’t quite gran my attention until he became attached. My interest piques because Gillespie was just coming off I, Tonya, and if a movie about a young Cruella (played by Emma Stone) could have the same kind of energy that I, Tonya did, well that was certainly interesting.

And the weirdest thing about Cruella is that it does, and even Gillespie is pretty shocked Disney let him make this version. A version that Gillespie refers to as “dark and gritty.” When I mention a phrase like “dark and gritty” can also produce eye-rolls, Gillespie counters that, yes, that’s true, but “dark and gritty” works when a movie is also entertaining. And there are some strategies he uses to achieve that. And let’s not forget, this is a character whose mission in life will be to skin puppies, so how do you get someone like that on the audience’s side? Ahead, Gillespie explains.

When I first heard they were going to do this movie, I was like, “Oh, okay, sure.” But my interest piqued when I heard you were attached, because I really liked I, Tonya.

Similar to me, I got sent it, it was [president of production at Disney] Sean Bailey called me. And this was after I, Tonya obviously. He said, “What do you think about doing Cruella with Emma Stone and punk rock London with The Clash, a whole bunch of punk music?” And the fact that he was calling after I, Tonya, I felt like I could really sort of almost kind of do the PG-13 version of that. I just felt like that’s what they were looking for, and it ended up being the case, I think, and they were really supportive.

Well, you said you think that’s what they’re looking for. How far were you on the think scale? Because that could have gone poorly?

Literally, it’s like everybody would come in, all my production heads, and they start, in some cases, even presenting some stuff and I stopped them. I was like, okay, I just want to set the record straight. And this is no offense to Disney, but we’re not making a Disney movie. We’re making a 1970s punk English coming of age story. Just think of it that way. It was going to be gritty. It’s going to be dark and messy. I brought my DP with me from I, Tonya, Nicolas Karakatsanis. And so I just went for it. And I have to admit, at times I was kind of surprised I didn’t hear from Disney.

Even in a pitch where you hear, “Oh, I want to make a dark and gritty Cruella,” that on its own could get eye-rolls from people.

Well, the first thing was it had to be entertaining. The dark and gritty, you can do on the side. But the first thing I had to figure out is the script. And I’ve sort of learned over the years and say I’ve got to lean into what I’m really comfortable with: and oddly that’s this high wire act of this dance between humor and comedy and drama. But I need the writing to be there for that. And that was Tony McNamara, who I was actually working with on a script at the time. And he had just done The Favourite with Emma Stone and he agreed to dive into it. And then that’s when, for me, it really came alive. And then it was like once we had that to run with, it got really excited for me.

Like a lot of people, my parents took me to see the animated 101 Dalmatians. So I guess Cruella has been a part of my life that I haven’t thought much about for a long time until now.

I mean, that’s fair.

But once I did, right before watching this movie, if you really think about what this character does, it’s really fucked up. Skinning dogs…

Puppies.

Puppies, right. There’s no real way around that. This is screwed-up stuff.

It’s kind of mind-boggling the lack of backstory there is about Cruella that she’s become so iconic. And I sort of just went back to the animated series. And it’s just that introduction of her in the animated series and she comes bursting into the room and she’s got that green smoke trailing her. And she’s so abrasive, but funny. I mean, I think that’s where the world fell in love with her. It’s just literally that three minutes scene and that was kind of my touchstone for this.

So you’ve kind of done this two movies in a row – and obviously one involves a real person, Tonya Harding – but you’ve taken people and/or characters that the audience is kind of starting out going “I’m not sure I like this person.” And you have to make us sympathize with them, and you’ve done it twice now. Which one was more difficult to do to? And what’s the trick to that?

I don’t know which one was… It’s funny. For me, I feel like everybody in life, there’s a set of circumstances that gets them to make the choices that they’re doing. But when you track that, that’s where you get the empathy because you see what their journey has been, why they’re emotionally where they are, or damaged the way that they are damaged. And I think it’s hard not to have empathy for any individual in that case. And there’s still the old adage of good people can do bad things. But even villains, when they’re doing their evil things, they always feel justified for any set of circumstances. So I’d always hope that with I, Tonya, we would get to that place. I always had that moment in time where she does the skating at the Olympics – that I designed it around landing there. And that was the thing I was most concerned about in that film, that we would land there. But through the performance and just the stripping away of other characters, we got to that sort of beautiful moment with her, the mirror. With this one, I think it’s a different dynamic. Although, I guess you could say it was a similar parallel to Allison Janney: the worst we made the Baroness, the easier it was to empathize with anything that Cruella did.

Okay, there’s the answer. I don’t want to call it “a trick,” but that’s how you do it.

Yeah because the Baroness does some heinous things, obviously. So it’s like, yeah, get her. It’s like maybe you’re not going to actually go out and commit crimes like Cruella does, but you kind of root for her to bring her down and use any of her facilities to do that.

Your last three movies, on the surface all three could have been pretty easily not great. Like with The Finest Hours with Chris Pine…

I think we always start with character for better or worse. And sometimes it can be scary. Like on that one with Chris Pine, it’s like we could’ve just done a conventional action film…

Yes, conventional, you’re wording that question better than I did.

I was like, you know what? Let’s make him like Rocky. And just trying to put Rocky into action situation where it’s just kind of this sweet guy that’s just trying to get by and maybe not up to speed on all the angles here, but he knows his craft really well. It just gave a whole character to Chris Pine that gave me a little trepidation leaning into it, but it just made it more interesting to me.

Even though you said that Cruella wasn’t your style of movie, then you made it your style.

I think, well, the interesting thing with that one, if we are going to gut that, it was my wife. Because I had trepidation, trying to figure out: All right, how do I crack this? And my wife was like, “It’s Emma Stone playing Cruella. Figure it out.”

You have an Oscar winner.

Yeah. I mean, she’s just such a versatile amazing actor and she really is. I said if I knew we would crack the story, she should be amazing in it. And that was the excitement. It was the constant – I wouldn’t say challenge – but it’s like I did more wrangling on this, of the script, and getting it ready literally to the day of shooting. Every morning, I’d be in a nice 45-minute drive to the set and I’d be sitting there reworking things and changing, adding stuff and looking for opportunities every day with every scene that we were doing.

You had a lot of needle drops in I, Tonya and you obviously have a lot of needle drops in this. And you mentioned punk, but not every song in this movie… actually the overwhelming majority of the songs in this movie are not punk. You’ve got Tina Turner’s cover of “Come Together” in this, which is not a punk song.

No, truly I was surprised when I went back and really listened to the punk music from the 70s. It’s not that aggressive, outside of the Sex Pistols. Who, for lyric reasons, was the one thing Disney wouldn’t let us use. But if you listen to The Jam or some of the other English punk, The Kinks, it’s not as aggressive as the speed metal and stuff that came along after that, surprisingly. So it sort of works in some ways, but then there’s something the rock music to me of that era had such a duality to it. It was something that was so full-on or poignant with so many melodies and so many songs, but it was still optimistic or had the strength to it. And I throw music on the day we shot that first scene with the Baroness, and I wasn’t expecting The Doors. But just the way she’s getting out of the car and the power that she has, and just the fear within the stores, everybody’s running around, but it should have The Doors track on. And I thought, Oh, that’s it. And it never changed.

‘Cruella’ opens this weekend in theaters and will also stream via Disney+. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Channing Tatum hasn’t appeared in a movie since 2017’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle (you only hear his voice in Smallfoot and The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part), but he’s making up for the lost time with two excellent-sounding projects.

There’s Dog, a road-trip comedy (and his directorial debut) starring Tatum and A Very Good Boy, and The Lost City of D, in which the Magic Mike actor portrays a hunky book cover model who goes on an adventure with a romance novelist, played by Sandra Bullock. The Romancing the Stone-sounding action comedy also stars Brad Pitt, Patti Harrison, Daniel Radcliffe, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and I would like to see it ASAP. Unfortunately, The Lost City of D doesn’t come out until 2022; fortunately, he’s already promoting the film by showing off his d. (My liberal arts degree is finally paying off!)

The Magic Mike star, 41, posed totally nude save for a monkey emoji over his man parts on his Instagram Story Tuesday, joking that his six-pack abs were the result of “flexing so hard” he “got a cramp.”

What a powerful collection of words.

“You know when you in the make-up trailer a**hole naked holding a towel over your junk you about to do some sh*t on set that you gonna have to prepare ya mama for before she see the movie,” he wrote, along with the “smiling face with horns” emoji and the #lostcityofd hashtag. I do not know what that’s like, Channing Tatum. You can see the photo for yourself here, but be warned, it shows more of Tatum than even Magic Mike.

If The Lost City of D doesn’t make a billion dollars, it should be considered a dud.

(Via Page Six)

John Cena is not having a great week. He inadvertently sparked an international incident, and then he proceeded to clean up the mess by, uh, issuing a hot-button apology that may have made things worse. It’s a PR disaster, so let’s briefly recap here.

Cena, while promoting Fast 9 on a Taiwanese broadcast, referred to Taiwan as a “country,” and China wasn’t thrilled (because Beijing still considers Taiwan to be a territory of the People’s Republic of China, despite Taiwan being self-governed following the Chinese Civil War, which ended in 1950). The issue of Taiwan’s sovereignty will likely always be one of great contention; and Cena’s apology was almost certainly meant to smooth over any potential box-office fallout in China as the movie business struggles to recover amid the pandemic.

The results were more than awkward. The WWE star apologized in Mandarin while declaring, “I must say now, [it’s] very, very, very, very important [that] I love, and respect even more, China and the Chinese people.”

Cena finds himself within an especially difficult position, given that he’s the newest face in an established franchise that’s always come out with box-office guns blazing. That hasn’t discouraged the criticism, though. Not only are “hostage video” remarks floating around on Twitter, but prominent Republicans are pouncing all over him. Leading the way is Sen. Marco Rubio, who already tweets about China multiple times per day and says that Cena’s proving that “[a] world where #China’s Communist Party controls what Americans can say isn’t some nightmarish future threat.”

Several more Republicans weighed in, including Megyn Kelly, Mike Pompeo, Ben Shapiro, and Joe Walsh, and multiple other senators in addition to Rubio.

Some Democrats aren’t impressed either. As Keith Olbermann points out, “apologiz[ing] to a dictatorship” complicates Cena’s existing predicament.

J. Cole — who got to live his dream of professionally playing basketball, if only for a little while — has reportedly completed the terms of his contract with the BAL’s Rwanda Patriots, according to ESPN’s Marc Spears, who reported the news on Twitter. “Source confirms rapper J. Cole of the Rwanda Patriots BBC has completed his contractual obligation to the Basketball Africa League and has departed from Rwanda due to a ‘family obligation,’” he wrote. “J. Cole had five points, three assists, and five rebounds in three games.”

It was Spears who initially announced the surprise signing ahead of the release of Cole’s new album The Off-Season, revealing that the rapper had agreed to a contract for three-to-six games in the newly formed international league. Cole’s manager and business partner Ib Hamad later noted that the timing was purely coincidental due to both the album release and the start of the Basketball Africa League being pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic. Cole’s contract was likely scheduled to last at least the duration of the group stage play, with the additional three games taking place during the tournament contingent on his performance.

Not everyone appreciated having the rap star around, however. Terrell Stoglin, the leading scorer for Morocco’s AS Salé, called Cole’s opportunity “disrespectful to the ones who sacrificed their whole lives for this” and felt “he took someone’s job that deserves it.” Although Rick Ross came to Cole’s defense, it appears to be a moot point now; Cole’s basketball career is, for the moment, over.

Shaky Knees festival is eying a massive return for their 2021 festival. Marking its seventh year, the festival has officially unveiled their 2021 lineup with Stevie Nicks, Run The Jewels, The Strokes, and Phoebe Bridgers leading the bill.

Shaky Knees’ 2021 festival takes place in Atlanta, GA’s Central Park. While it usually kicks off in May, organizers have pushed the date back to the weekend of October 22 through 24. Along with headliners Stevie Nicks, Run The Jewels, Phoebe Bridgers, and The Strokes, Shaky Knees has booked over 60 bands. The lineup includes Alice Cooper, St. Vincent, Modest Mouse, Portugal. The Man, Mac Demarco, Dermot Kennedy, Dominic Fike, Royal Blood, The Hives, Arlo Parks, Ty Segall & Freedom Band, Jay Electronia, White Reaper, Noga Erez, Cults, Peach Tree Rascals, Frankie And The Witch Fingers, Idles, Lunar Vacation, Cloud Nothings, Neal Francis, Liza Anne, Orville Peck, All Them Witches, Tennis, Black Midi, Bartees Strange, The Aubreys, and more.

In a statement about the festival’s return, founder Tim Sweetwood said: “We are really happy to be able to deliver Shaky Knees this October with a lineup that truly has something for everyone. We look forward to getting back into Central Park with our amazing Shaky family of fans and hear some incredible live music together.”

See Shaky Knees’ full lineup below.

Tickets for Shaky Knees festival are on sale 5/26 at 1 pm EST. Get them here.

According to MassLive — an offshoot of Springfield, Massachusetts-based newspaper The Republican — Chicago rapper G Herbo pled “not guilty” to charges of lying to federal agents about his alleged involvement in identity fraud. Herbo appeared in Springfield court via Zoom from his home in Los Angeles to enter his plea in the new case, which resulted from his allegedly telling a federal agent he had no relationship with a defendant in the original case.

Prosecutors maintained that Herbo and the other defendant, Chicago promoter Antonio Strong, actually did have a relationship that saw Strong giving Herbo “valuable goods,” including “private jet charters, luxury accommodations, and exotic car rentals.” Of course, the problem is that those luxuries were supposedly purchased with the ill-gotten gains from an identity fraud scam involving the two men and four others, for which they were indicted in December. However, the additional charges were tacked on more recently; federal prosecutors filed the new charges earlier this month, claiming Herb (Herbert Wright III) “knowingly and willfully made the following materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statements and representations in a matter within the jurisdiction of the executive branch of the Government of the United States.”

Meanwhile, Herbo is set to go to court on the original charges of identity theft in August. He pled “not guilty” to those in December after turning himself in, and before addressing the charges on his recent single “Statement.”

So, before we start, I need to explain how this interview with Cillian Murphy will work. I met Murphy the first time at a downtown New York hotel on March 6, 2020. Even then there was a feeling of, “Is going to a crowded hotel for an interview a good idea?” (It turns out that, no, it probably wasn’t.) Ten days after this interview New York City would completely shut down and Murphy’s movie, A Quiet Place Part II would be indefinitely delayed, for what would wind up being 14 months.

So what you’re about to read is an interview with Murphy from the days right before the pandemic shut down New York City, and then again just this week, talking about what was going through his head at the time last year, traveling around on a press tour when really no one knew what was going on or what we should and shouldn’t be doing. To differentiate between now and then, I’ve put what Murphy said this week in block quotes, which kind of creates the effect that he’s almost commentating on what he said a year ago. So, having said all that:

Cillian Murphy is, of course, correct when he says really doesn’t have a long history of playing movie villains. As Murphy points out, only two of his characters are, without question, “bad guys.” But, it just so happens that both of those roles — Jonathan Crane, aka Scarecrow, in Batman Begins (and who also appears in both sequels); and Jackson Rippner in Red Eye — are on cable in a never-ending loop of repeats. So, yes, people do kind of get it in their head that Murphy has a tendency to play the villain, even though he really doesn’t that often.

Though, this little perceptional quirk serves Murphy well in A Quiet Place Part II. When we first meet Murphy’s Emmett (a neighbor of the Abbott family, it’s in a flashback before the invasion of those terrifying, highly sensitive-to-sound aliens that we met in the first movie. When we next meet him, after the events of the first film, he’s a broken human being and we have no idea what his angle will be or where he’s coming from. Murphy’s Emmett, sporting a haggard beard, has that look on his face of someone incapable of trust. At least at first. (And Murphy has a much, much larger role than you probably expect.)

Ahead, Murphy explains why he’s such a big fan of John Krasinski’s first film — going as far to write a praising email to Krasinski that he wound up never sending for fear it would make him look like he wanted something. Fate ensued regardless, as Krasinski reached out to Murphy with an offer to come on board for the sequel. Anyway, lucky for us, this all worked out. He also expresses his dismay as to why, 15 years later, he has to keep talking about Red Eye. Not so much the movie itself, but the fact that it seems just about everyone has a positive opinion of that movie and wants to tell him about it and he just doesn’t understand why. I try my best to explain. (And, to be fair, he’s the one who brought up Red Eye.)

I’m thinking we shouldn’t shake hands. Also, I just got off the subway…

I read it’s worse to take a cab right now than the subway.

Oh, I didn’t know that. That makes me feel better about taking the subway.

Well, whatever. Don’t get your information from an actor, of course, but yeah.

2021: So here you are on a press tour right as things started to get bad. What was going through your head?

Yeah, well, it was so much uncertainty and confusion. This very low level anxiety that was building all the time. Every day the anxiety seemed to grow. I remember saying, talking to my whole team beforehand and going, “Is this really wise I should be flying to New York? Is this really wise?” And they said “Look, everyone is going, it’s all happening. You’re contractually obliged to do this stuff.” Also, I really believe in the film and it’s what I’ve got to do. We went, we did those three days of press, and then we did the premier. It was a slightly different red carpet because they moved it indoors instead of having it outdoors, which in retrospect is highly inadvisable.

In retrospect, what’s so weird about that time period is we didn’t know what was going on. Like debating if we should shake hands, then the subway versus cab thing, we were just looking for any information.

Yeah, everyone was just reaching. It was very confusing and kind of scary. I remember I got a Lyft back to the airport, to JFK, and we did it in like 20 minutes. The driver said it was the fastest he had ever gone because there was no one going to the airport. I got into the airport and it was dead. And I got on the plane and everyone is, again, in a high state of anxiety. I arrived home and then they shut everything down.

Yeah, right after you left things got pretty scary here.

Well, you know, we went and then had the premier party in this really, really densely packed environment. Everyone was in there kissing and hugging and high-fiving, because the film was being really well received. But that happened. It was just bizarre. Like I said, it was sort of like this cognitive dissonance, you know that thing where they say you can hold two conflicting points of view in your head simultaneously? That what it felt like at the time.

When I put in the request to talk to you I had no idea you wind up as one of the main characters.

I have not seen the movie.

What, really?

No. I just haven’t had the opportunity to see it. But it feels like it’s Millie’s movie for me, from reading it. She’s just extraordinary.

Well, you’re going to be pleasantly surprised how much you’re in this.

Oh, good. That’s always nice to hear.

I assume you’ve seen the movie now.

Yeah, I watched the movie and I’m so proud of it. I think it’s an amazing piece of work from everyone. I think, I really think, it’s Millie’s story, or Regan’s story.

Yeah you said that then, before you saw it.

I think that’s clear, but I’m really proud of my work and proud of the movie. Really, I’m glad it’s being released in theaters and I’m glad people are going to see it on the big screen with the surround sound and the sound design. I’m just glad. It feels like there is a bit of hope around in the film. The film speaks to that I think.

I believe it’s fortunate it had time to get delayed. If it had come out then, I don’t think people would have been receptive. Now, I think people will be.

Yeah. I hope so.

Did you see the first one, like a normal person, and then just go, “Wow, I like this”?

Exactly that. I brought my kids to see it.

It’s a good story about families, but that’s intense.

So, they were 10 and 12 when I bought them. Perfect, you know? I thought it was one of the best movies of the year, in terms of mainstream mass entertainment. I thought it was so brilliantly executed. So elegantly done. As you say, I thought it was a movie about family and about loss and about trying to protect your children in any world, not to mind that fucked up world of the movie. You may know this, and it is true. I penned John Krasinski an email…

I do not know this.

Okay. So, I wrote him an email. I got his email off my agent, and I wrote him an email to say, “One actor to another, I think this is an extraordinary piece of work. Thank you for this.” And I didn’t send it.

Why not?

I got too embarrassed.

Why?

I chickened out, man.

Do you make a habit of sending emails to actors and directors?

I generally send it. I’ve reached out to artists or writers or a lot to musicians, and occasionally to directors.

What is an example of another time you did this?

I’ve done it a lot with writers. Subsequently, then if you’d ever like to meet for a coffee or a chat, I’d love to meet.

And an invite out? That’s great.

But no, that developed, you know what I mean? What I’m trying to establish here is that I was not looking for anything.

Oh, so you were worried he’s thinking, “Well, okay. He wants something.”

Genuinely, all I wanted to say was, “Fucking hell, man. What you’ve done is made this amazing piece of work that not only is clever and smart and emotional, but has made a shitload of money. And you did it within the machine of Hollywood, in the studio system.“ That’s all I wanted to say, but then I thought it could get misconstrued to be like, “Hey man, give me a job.” Which I wasn’t saying. But then, a year later he emailed me.

Did you at least save it in drafts where you could show it to him later?

No, it’s gone. But I told him about it.

And now he doesn’t believe you.

No, he makes fun of me all the time.

So, then how does that turn into you actually being a large part of this movie?

Well then, out of the blue, my agent said, “Listen, John Krasinski, he wants to get in touch with you. I said, “No shit, man?”

Does it feel better that you didn’t send that email and then you get a request that he’s interested in you?

Yes. Well, I suppose it means that it was completely on merit as opposed to anything else.

After this movie my stomach hurt from the tension.

Well, I enjoy not just cinema but all art that exacts some sort of emotional price from you, do you know what I mean?

I do.

That you don’t go out and go, “Meh, do you want to get a beer?” It’s like, “Holy fuck, man. Oh my God, I need to lie down.“ That’s the sort of art I’ve always been attracted to. Generally, you find that in, as a performer, it is normal people in extraordinary circumstances. It doesn’t have to necessarily be in an apocalyptic situation…

Which you’ve done before.

I’ve done that, but it could be in a very banal, domestic situation or whatever. That’s where the drama lies, do you know what I mean? These in particular in the mass media market, people put themselves into the shoes of those people and they question themselves. Because it is just a bizarre magnification of what we’re all living through now.

Does that cross your mind, “Well, I’ve done apocalypse before”?

No, I mean, to me, I certainly am genre-fluid.

You’re an enigma.

Well no, man.

I think of you as an enigma.

Well…

Because I never know what you’re going to do next, which is great.

Well, I just follow what I think is a compelling story: a compelling, unique piece of writing. I mean, the concept of the first movie was so simple but so original, that you can’t make a sound. So, I didn’t think of a genre. I never do, ever do. To me, it’s just a good story, good character, and then the people that are involved.

This just popped in my head. There’s an episode of The Office where Pam tells Jim she wanted to rent 28 Days but accidentally rented 28 Days Later. And now John Krasinski is directing you in an apocalypse movie. It’s full circle.

Wow. That is an amazing reference. It is a long time since I’ve watched that show, and I did watch it, but fuck, I’d forgotten that. I’m going to say that to him. He never said that to me that day. Wow, you have good recall. That’s good recall.

So what did you watch over quarantine?

We watched a lot of stuff together as a family during the pandemic, lots of movies. What we did do, this is a little nod to John Krasinski, but we did the whole series, the whole, is it nine series of the American Office?

Yes, nine seasons.

We did that because my boys had never seen it and they became absolutely, comprehensively obsessed with it. But that’s quality, that’s really quality television.

Well last time we spoke I brought up of the 28 Days Later, 28 Days scene and you even mentioned how you hadn’t seen The Office in a long time.

Yeah! I remember! It was funny I had forgotten that entirely.

Speaking of that, with your past experience with movies about viruses, was there a moment during this, and I’m not even making a joke, where you’re like, “This is getting way too close to the way things happened in 28 Days Later d I don’t like this. This is going to be serious.”

Well, yeah. It was funny because people kept texting me gifs and things about the stuff from 28 Days Later. I had a little exchange with Alex Garland about that. It wasn’t really funny because it was pretty bleak at that time.

Oh, no question.

Yeah. So we weren’t going, “isn’t this hilarious and darkly funny?” It was more like, “holy shit.”

That’s what I’m more wondering. Like, oh, this is actually kind of going the way that movie is going at first. This is really going to turn out bad.

Well, I think if anything you can say that Alex Garland is an incredibly prescient and intelligent writer. That he had the idea in that movie, the kind of big concept of that movie is that the whole island of Britain was quarantined. Then my character sees a plane flying overhead and figures it all out. So we thought that was the most outrageously unlikely thing that could ever happen. Then it came to fruition. I’ve been thinking a lot about this and why people are attracted to apocalyptic scenarios or stories or movies or books. I think it’s because, particularly in the 21st Century, we live, it seems, on the precipice of some awful catastrophe at every minute. You know?

I do.

If it hadn’t have been that this pandemic that was going to overwhelm us, it’s climate change, or what was happening in America, or what’s happening in the Middle East, or what’s happening in Russia, or some awful thing is just around the corner it seems. So that taps into that collective anxiety of these movies.

It’s like those stories that we hear now like, oh yeah, aliens might be real. Which now just comes across as, yeah, I bet after we make it through all this, then we will then have to deal with aliens who want to kills us. That sounds right.

Yeah man, that’s the thing. I think at that point people go, well, something’s coming. Something’s coming. They try and put themselves, the audience, and I do this, you put yourself into the shoes of the character and try and figure out, what would I do? That’s the big attraction of them I think.

Well, that episode was just on a couple of days ago. You mentioned what you look for in a story. Are you at a point you can tell from the beginning if it’s going to work or not?

I’ve had a lot of ones that haven’t worked out, you know what I mean? Once you’re just the actor, then that is the limit to your input into the process. Now on this TV show [Peaky Blinders], I’m a producer on it so I can get a bit more involved, but generally that’s all you can do. For me, I was very reassured by the fact that John was back, Emily was back, Millie and Noah were back. So, that’s much better than the sequel where it’s a whole new gang with the same title. This just-

There are basically just two new people.

Yeah, and it’s expanding the world…

Sometimes “expanding the world” makes me nervous. Turning something simple into something complicated. In this movie “expanding” basically means going to a neighbor’s house.

Yes, it is grounded in some sort of accessible reality in terms of you go, “Well, they can’t get very fucking far, can they?”

When we first meet your character, the audience doesn’t know what his angle is. Because I think a lot of people think of you as antagonist.

Well, I’m glad because, I think for me, in terms of the antagonist, protagonist thing, it’s sort of become a kind of a reductive trope really now. I guess the Batman villain, right?

Yes, Scarecrow is the bad guy. There’s no getting around that.

The guy in Red Eye, right? He’s a bad guy. If you look at any of my other films…

Red Eye is a good movie.

Everyone keeps fucking saying that.

You know why? Because it’s on cable nonstop.

Really?

It’s one of those movies people will be scrolling through and wind up watching…

My point being is, Jesus, can I stop talking about that movie?

To be fair, you brought it up.

I was trying to make a point that aside from those two characters, and there were only two, I think the rest of them exist in this in-between area, which is humanity.

But those two characters you mentioned are very popular characters.

I guess, but they’re are from like the last century, maybe.

Well, no, not quite.

[Laughs] Not quite.

But they are on cable nonstop, so people are exposed to them over and over.

Yes. But so I suppose the thing that I’m trying to say to you is that, for me, that thing of contradiction, that sort of gray area, that complexity? So I think this man, Emmett, is a good man whose circumstances have forced them to exist in this area. Then it’s this girl comes along and she is the physical embodiment of hope. That sounds cheesy, but it’s true, and she transforms him. It’s a beautiful thing. But ambiguity is a wonderful thing in art, and to have the sort of nefarious villain or the square-jawed hero? Boring. To have the guy who is struggling to do the right thing, that, to me, is interesting.

So a year ago you brought up Red Eye, then I said it was a good movie and you didn’t like that and don’t understand why people like it. Guess what, people have had 14 months to do nothing but watch Red Eye.

Well, were people sitting around watching Red Eye? I’m sure they were watching other stuff as well.

I’d say Red Eye is on the list of the many movies that people had plenty of time to watch.

Really? Okay. I don’t know! The honest answer is I haven’t seen that movie since it came out like 15 or 16 years ago, whenever it was. I also think that, when I was a younger actor, I was really, really hard on everything that I was in. I hated watching myself. I hated looking at myself on screen. I remember when I saw it was like “Oh, that’s kind of a schlocky B movie. Rachel McAdams is excellent in it.” But I didn’t think I gave a very nuanced performance in it. But, listen, if people love the movie then that’s great. I’m pleased with that. I’m less hard on myself now when I look at stuff. I’m less hypercritical of my work. But that’s probably a hangover from that to be honest.

Well, thanks for reliving this interview with me. I think about it a lot, because of what happened right after.

Yeah, it’s nice to bring it up because, obviously, wherever my head was at then and wherever your head was at then, we’re now in a totally different place. It’s nice to contextualize it a little bit.

‘A Quiet Place Part II’ opens in theaters this coming weekend. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

It’s been a big past few years for BTS, but the past few days have been especially eventful. Last week, they debuted “Butter” and broke a YouTube premiere record. Over the weekend, they performed the track at the Billboard Music Awards. This morning, their new McDonald’s meal began its global rollout. Hours before that, they were on The Late Show last night, where they made multiple marks on the show.

On the program, the group gave “Butter” it’s debut late-night TV performance, delivering impressive and energetic choreography on an opulent ballroom set.

Elsewhere on the show, they also joined Stephen Colbert for a skit. Ahead of the sketch, BTS began by reminding viewers of the group’s influence, which includes popularizing a “heart fingers” hand gesture, which is made by crossing one’s index finger and thumb to form a heart shape. From there, BTS introduced a number of new hand gestures, including a few other anatomical ones inspired by kidneys and long intestines. One of the gestures actually summons Colbert, much to his disappointment considering he had to hop on a 16-hour flight to South Korea. They also came up with a gesture based on “Butter,” which looks like spreading a pat of it on a piece of toast.

Watch BTS’ “Butter” performance and their hand gestures sketch above.

St. Vincent followed up her 2017 Grammy Award winning album Masseduction earlier this month with Daddy’s Home, a highly referential effort that pulls from early ’70s music. All of the press materials associated with St. Vincent’s new LP are heavily influenced by the retro era, and her recent performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon is no different.

Drawing inspiration from ’70s television series, St. Vincent takes the stage to perform her groovy track “Down.” The musician wore a blonde bob wig, a staple of her Daddy’s Home aesthetic, and a beige trench coat with the word “Daddy” stitched in the lapel.

Along with the late-night performance, St. Vincent has unveiled dates to her two-month Daddy’s Home tour. It kicks off in early August in Maine and features a few appearances at festivals like Pitchfork and Austin City Limits before coming to an end with an October show in Detroit.

Watch St. Vincent perform “Down” on The Tonight Show above and see her Daddy’s Home 2021 tour dates below.

09/03 — Thompson’s Point @ Portland, ME
09/04 — Higher Ground @ Burlington, VT
09/07 — The Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center @ Cincinnati, OH
09/08 — Stage AE Indoor @ Pittsburgh, PA
09/10 — Egyptian Room @ Indianapolis, IN
09/11 — Pitchfork Festival @ Chicago, IL
09/14 — The Armory @ Minneapolis, MN
09/16 — Mission Ballroom @ Denver, CO
09/18 — SLC Twilight Series at Gallivan Center @ Salt Lake City, UT
09/19 — Life Is Beautiful @ Las Vegas, NV
09/22 — Vina Robles @ Paso Robles, CA
09/23 — The Greek Theatre @ Berkeley, CA
09/24 — Hollywood Bowl @ Los Angeles, CA
10/03 — ACL @ Austin, TX
10/05 — The Criterion @ Oklahoma City, OK
10/07 — Uptown Theater @ Kansas City, MO
10/08 — Pageant @ St. Louis, MO
10/09 — Ascend Amphitheater @ Nashville, TN
10/11 — The Met @ Philadelphia, PA
10/14 — Boch Center — Wang Theatre @ Boston, MA
10/15 — College Street Music Hall @ New Haven, CT
10/18 — Agora Theatre @ Cleveland, OH
10/20 — Fillmore @ Detroit, MI

Daddy’s Home is out now via Loma Vista. Get it here and revisit Uproxx’s review of the album here.

Some would argue that straight-to-streaming might be the new straight-to-DVD, and not everyone is happy about it. At least not when it comes to a movie like Batgirl, the upcoming superhero feature directed by Bad Boys for Life helmers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (collectively known as Adil & Bilall). It was recently announced that the movie will forego a theatrical release and head straight to HBO Max, a decision that did not sit right with noted filmmaker/comic book enthusiast/‘Bennifer’ originator Kevin Smith. In the latest episode of his podcast Fatman Beyond, Smith made it clear that he thinks the decision to skip theaters is really, really stupid.

Speaking to his co-host Marc Bernadin, Smith took a moment to go off on an expletive-filled rant about the shortsightedness of this decision, saying:

“I have to call the mayor of Hollywood… What are you nuts! How is this just a streaming series and not a f***ing… Like, they got Wonder Woman. But I’m like, take Wonder, throw in Bat, take Woman off, put Girl, make the same amount of money. Like they could be printing big f*cking dollars. It’s a billion-dollar franchise if handled correctly. And you cast it right, oh sh*t… Look, there are wonderful streaming series. I’ll fight anybody who says Hacks isn’t one of the greatest f***ing series of all-time, now airing on HBO—and I’m not even a paid f***ing advocate. I’m just a big fan. But I would not have thought they would take Batgirl in this direction. Maybe a spinoff animated series sure, but that smells like a movie to me.”

Though he later cut his billion-dollar estimate in half, Smith righty described Batgirl—who made her first appearance 60 years ago, in a 1961 comic—as “one of the most iconic female superheroes from the DC universe.”

Then, in an attempt to paint Batgirl’s significance in terms that non-comic book lovers could understand, Smith suggested: “You cast Olivia Rodrigo as Batgirl, a billion-dollar franchise right there.”

Bernadin, however, had a different idea: “Billie Eilish as Batgirl makes you a billion dollars.”

You can listen to their full podcast below.

(Via ComicBook.com)