Maltin on Movies

Our guest has been acting for most of her life and her credits include such memorable movies as Swingers, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Boogie Nights, Bowfinger, and The Hangover. In her latest film (which debuts today on demand), Place of Bone, she plays a tough, implacable frontier woman who wields a rifle with authority and intends to protect her teenage daughter at any cost. In October we'll see her second effort as writer, director and star, the romantic comedy Chosen Family.

If you don't think sound editing and mixing is a creative process, think again! Our guests are both nominated for Emmy Awards for their work on the Apple+ miniseries Masters of the Air—and they might be identified as Masters of the Ear. They have created a soundscape that is the equal of a major Hollywood feature, as you'd expect in a high-profile show executive produced by Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman and Steven Spielberg. Mike Minkler is also a third-generation soundman with three Oscars to his credit—so far—and was Leonard's first guest when he started teaching at USC twenty-six years ago. Jessie is as impressed with our guests as her Dad.

Colm Meaney makes a vivid impression whenever he appears on stage, screen, or television. (His latest, Duchess, debuts on digital today, August 9.) More people probably know him from the two Star Trek series in which he appeared—The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine—but we remember him best as the father in The Commitments and its follow-ups The Van and The Snapper. Leonard and Jessie were pleased to find that he shares our fondness for that trilogy from Irish writer Roddy Doyle as well. But there's little he hasn't done, from John Huston's final film The Dead to Con Air and an episode of The Simpsons where he played (what else?) a quintessential Irish bartender. He spoke to us from his getaway home in Majorca, Spain!

You've been entertained by Jim Cummings at some point over the last forty years whether you know it or not: he is the voice of Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Darkwing Duck, the Tasmanian Devil, and countless other cartoon characters. And like his hero Mel Blanc, he is not merely "doing" voices—he's acting and singing his heart out. Leonard and Jessie are especially fond of his vocalizing as Ray the Cajun firefly, who croons "Ma Belle Angeline" in Disney's The Princess and the Frog. It was a pleasure meeting and chatting with someone we've both admired for years.

If his face is familiar, that's because Raphael Sbarge has been working since he was a boy—in theater, television and film. His credits range from Murder, She Wrote and Risky Business to Fear the Walking Dead. More recently he has moved behind the camera, crafting documentaries like Only in Theaters, the story of Los Angeles' beloved Laemmle Theaters chain. That's the project that brought him in contact with Leonard and Jessie, who are happy to have him as this week's guest.

If you enjoy watching classic films you're probably acquainted with Alan Rode, prolific author, commentator (on numerous DVDs and Blu-rays), and host (with Eddie Muller) of the Noir City Festival, an annual event in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago. He also hosts and programs the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival every year in Palm Springs, California. He has several books to his credit, including a biography of character actor Charles McGraw and his magnum opus, Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film. He is a longtime friend of the Maltin family, so Jessie and Leonard had a grand time comparing notes on all aspects of film buffery.

An Oscar winner (for Mask in 1985) and multiple Emmy winner (for various incarnations of Star Trek), Michael Westmore carries a name that is synonymous with makeup in Hollywood. He's proud of his heritage, which began with his grandfather in the silent-film era and flourished in the 1930s, when his father and uncles ran the makeup departments at virtually every major studio. He studied art history in college, then his uncle Bud took him on as an apprentice at Universal in the early 1960s and he unexpectedly (or inevitably) wound up in the family business. Mike wears his accomplishments lightly and for all he has done he remains delightfully down-to-earth.

After starring in the TV series Royal Pains for eight seasons and appearing in recurring roles in shows ranging from Ally McBeal to The West Wing, Mark Feuerstein is ready to explode his good-guy image in the new MGM+ crime drama Hotel Cocaine. He's never been so sleazy as this onscreen but as Jessie and Leonard quickly learned, in real life he's a mensch who is devoted to his family and his craft. They all had fun during this fast-paced encounter, and hope that the feeling is contagious.

Nick Stahl has been working in front of the camera since he was 13 years old and winning young admirers like Jessie because he's so believable in every part he tackles. Mel Gibson chose him to costar in The Man Without a Face, which put him on a fast track to success. His widely varied credits include The Terminator 3, In the Bedroom, The Thin Red Line, andSin City. After a break he returned to acting and quicky landed guest shots on such series as Fear the Walking Dead and Let the Right One In. He can be seen in the recent VOD release What You Wish For.

This week we introduce you to two more Emmy contenders for their exceptional work. Cian O'Clery directed, executive produced and photographed) the heartfelt documentary seriesLove on the Spectrum, which shows how people with autism search for love just like all of us. Mac Quayle is a busy composer of music for film and television who has become a favorite of the prolific producer Ryan Murphy (Scream Queens, American Crime Story, Feud, et al) who already has an Emmy to his credit for Mr. Robot, for which he scored 45 episodes. His latest effort is The Great Lillian Hall, now playing on HBO.

This week, we're meeting more fascinating people who are Emmy contenders for their work on high-end television, which nowadays has the production quality of feature films. An Emmy contender in the realm of limited series, All the Light We Cannot See has been adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by the brilliant writer Steven Knight. It draws on the talents of many people, among them our guests, sound man Craig Henighan, cinematographer Tobias Schliessler, and casting directors Lucy Bevan and Emily Brockman.

The brilliant writer-director Steven Zaillian (Searching for Bobby Fischer) is a strong Emmy contender for his eight-part adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's Ripley novels, along with the collaborators we spoke to: composer Jeff Russo (an Emmy winner for Fargo), Oscar-nominated production designer David Gropman, and editors David Rogers and Joshua Lee. Even if you haven't yet watched the series on Netflix it's fascinating to listen to these creative people talk about what they bring to every film or show they take on.

Avy Kaufman's name should be familiar to anyone who reads credits, as we do. She has cast scores of films and television series, from The Ice Storm to Succession, and launched many a career along the way. You can hear the pride in her voice when she recounts how she brought young Haley Joel Osment to meet the star and director of The Sixth Sense. Recent credits include some of the most talked-about television shows of our time: Mare of Easttown, Under the Banner of Heaven, Billions, and Fellow Travelers, which could earn her a fourth Emmy Award. (She has three: one for Damages and two for Succession). Avy wears her passion on her sleeve and that makes for great conversation.

There's only one Mira Sorvino—Oscar winner for her unforgettable performance in Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite, costar of the enduringly popular Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion, Harvard grad (cum laude), mother of four, and daughter of the celebrated actor and singer Paul Sorvino.credentials are pretty amazing; then you talk to her and discover what a quicksilver mind she possesses. To limit our conversation to film, we discussed directors she has worked with, from Spike Lee to Robert Redford, and she had something interesting to say at every juncture. Leonard and Jessie were impressed, to put it mildly. THE IMAGE OF YOU released In Select Theaters and is available to buy on Digital on May 10th, 2024.

Marc Wanamaker is a walking encyclopedia of Hollywood legends and lore. He grew up in the community and soon realized there was history all around him. He began to amass a collection of rare photographs which eventually numbered in the thousands. Marc has been an invaluable resource for authors, scholars, documentarians, and even the movie studios themselves. His newest book, written with Steven Bingen, is called Hollywood Behind the Lens: Treasures from the Bison Archives. Leonard conducted this interview without Jesse but luckily Marc never runs out of things to say about his favorite subject.

If you only think of Clint Howard as Ron Howard's kid brother, it's time to reassess. He and his older sibling recently wrote a joint autobiography called The Boys which explains their loving relationship and points to their actor-parents as lifelong role models. Early on, Clint embraced his destiny as a young-ish character actor. There's almost nothing he hasn't done in his sixty--some years in show business, from the original Star Trek to The Cat in the Hat (one of many Ron Howard movies in which he appears.) He still lives in the San Fernando Valley not far from Leonard and Jessie, because he's just folks—like his parents.

Frank Marshall's chance meeting with Peter Bogdanovich launched a career that led to him producing Indiana Jones, Star Wars and Jurassic Park movies, among many others, often in partnership with his wife Kathleen Kennedy. Now he's released a record album that returns him to the world his father Jack Marshall inhabited: a long-forgotten session featuring two gifted jazz trumpeters. Chet Baker and Jack Sheldon In Perfect Harmony: The Lost Album. It's a treat to hear, on CD or limited-edition vinyl from Jazz Detective. Leonard and Jessie loved mining Frank's memories of learning the film business from the ground up. Like many people of vast experience, he's excited about the next project—and the one after that. Yet he can still spin an Orson Welles anecdote with aplomb.

Our guest is a five-time Oscar nominee for Best Costumes—most recently for Killers of the Flower Moon, although she is equally lauded for her work on Dune, parts 1 and 2. Her background in the fashion world, and as an art history major, gives her unique credentials for someone who provides costumes for movies. She also has world-class stories to share about her collaborations with such major directors as Philip Kaufman, Terence Malick, and David Fincher. Leonard and Jessie had a blast mining that treasure chest of memories and observations. The making of The Revenant could fill a one-hour podcast all by itself!

Internationally renowned actress, model, and individualist Isabella Rossellini is charm personified. She has a supporting role in Alice Rohrwacher's new import La Chimera,which opens in theaters March 29, and recently completed two seasons of Julia, playing Julia Child's longtime friend and cooking colleague. She also carries with her the torch lit by her famous parents, Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini and does so with grace and ease. Leonard and Jessie only had a half-hour with her but were happy to have had the opportunity.

His alter egos are world-renowned, but Leonard and Jessie didn't focus on Miss Piggy or Yoda in this conversation, recorded in front of a live audience at Esther's Follies in Austin. The main topic was directing movies, which Oz has done so well for so many years: The Muppets Take Manhattan, Little Shop of Horrors, In & Out, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Bowfinger, and What About Bob? are just a few of his credits. What is the through-line, if any, from puppetry to filmmaking? Listen and hear what the amazing Oz has to say.

In honor of the Academy Awards, we're revisiting our 2017 interview with Keith Carradine, who won his Oscar for writing and performing the song "I'm Easy" in Robert Altman's masterpiece Nashville (1975). Since we spoke, the actor has remained a familiar face on television as he and his siblings carry on the acting tradition that began with his prolific papa John Carradine. Like his dad, he eased into the niche of a "working actor," starring on Broadway, logging 105 episodes of Madam Secretary—as the President of the United States—and even turning up in Jane Campion's Oscar-winning The Power of the Dog. He's a laid-back charmer who makes what he does look easy.

Originally published Jun 10, 2021 From The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Taxi to such movies as Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News and As Good as It Gets, writer-director-producer James L. Brooks has created quality entertainment for decades and has no intention of slowing down. He has served as mentor to the likes of Cameron Crowe and Wes Anderson and continues to work with young talents behind the camera. Oh yes—he's also produced The Simpsons for the past 30 years. Leonard and Jessie were honored to talk to this multi-award-winning talent about his remarkable career.

Cord Jefferson is riding high as the Oscar-nominated writer and director of American Fiction, which has widely and properly been acclaimed as one of the best films of the past year. Even more exciting is the fact that Jefferson has never made a movie before. Leonard and Jessie enjoyed exploring the building blocks of his career that led to this achievement. He was on the writing staff of Larry Wilmore's Late Night comedy show and Aziz Ansari's Master of None, among others, when a series of events pointed him toward filmmaking. Step One was finding a property he cared enough about to adapt and then direct. Unlike other neophytes who get their first break right out of film school, Cord had traveled the world and worked as a journalist before he ever stepped foot on a movie set. We are eager to see what comes next.

As editor of Empire, Nick de Semlyen presides over the best film and television magazine in the English language: Empire. Every issue is jam-packed with deep-dive articles, interviews, set visits, and fun facts for both the fan and the aficionado. Nick has also written two excellent books examining American films of the 1980s: Wild and Crazy Guys and The Last Action Heroes. Leonard and Jessie got to meet him on their last trip to London which cemented a friendship that grew out of their admiration for his work. This episode affirms the belief that the only thing better than watching movies is talking about them with a fellow enthusiast.

The senior film critic for the Los Angeles Times, Justin Chang is also a graduate of USC and took Leonard's class—three times. Leonard takes no credit for Justin's brilliance as an essayist or as a world-class punster. Jessie has known him her whole life and is also an unabashed fan. Just back from the Sundance Film Festival, Justin made time for us to talk about his career and some of the nuts and bolts of being a daily newspaper's leading critic.

Our guest this week is now appearing on movie theater screens in The Color Purple, recreating the role of Sofia that she originated in the Broadway revival. But as you'll hear, that is just her latest achievement in an ever-growing body of work on stage, screen and television. Fans of Orange is the New Black knew her as Taystee, and followers of the recent series Peacemaker could see yet another facet of her boundless talent. A graduate of Juilliard, she is riding high during this awards season but Leonard and Jessie agree that we'll be watching her in every medium imaginable for years to come.

Sam Wasson has become one of the finest Hollywood historians of our time, and also one of the most productive. His newest book, The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story is not a conventional biography but an insightful analysis of the formidable filmmaker. It joins Sam's earlier books on Blake Edwards, Paul Mazursky, and the making of Breakfast at Tiffany's and Chinatown as essential reading. He also coauthored with Jeanine Basinger a hefty new volume called Hollywood: the Oral History. He and Leonard maintain a mutual admiration society and Jessie is its newest recruit.

Any film that includes Patricia Clarkson in its cast has the cinematic equivalent of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. She is that good, that committed, that versatile. Her credits run the gamut from well-loved indies like Lars and the Real Girl, The Station Agent and Dogville to mainstream hits like The Untouchables and TV series, including Six Feet Under, which earned her two Emmy Awards. Her latest release is Monica, about a transgender woman coming to terms with her dying mother. Leonard and Jessie had a ball talking with an actress who loves what she does and has an unquenchable zest for life.

Oscar-winning actress, mother, championship archer, film festival director, memoirist, founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media…Geena Davis has many hats but wears them lightly. The star of such enduring films as Beetlejuice, A League of their Own, and Thelma & Louise is a cut-up at heart, as Leonard and Jessie quickly learned. It's easy to see how she has accomplished so much, especially in the area of female representation in media. She's smart and talented but also endearing…and happy to talk about the people she's worked with (from Penny Marshall to Tim Burton) as well as her history as a creator of whimsical inventions.

David Keith has been out of the spotlight in recent years but when he hit it big in An Officer and a Gentleman he became a hot property. Many movies followed, including The Lords of Discipline, Firestarter, Heartbreak Hotel (in which he played Elvis Presley), and The Indian in the Cupboard, to name just a few. He's kept busy doing episodic television and directing a handful of genre films. Now he's working as a creative executive producer, and in his new horror-thriller Walden (available on VOD beginning December 12) he's given himself a good part as a judge. He sat on his front porch in Knoxville, Tennessee and reminisced with Leonard and Jessie for a cozy, comfortable conversation.

A lifetime of acting, mostly on stage, finally paid off for Paul Raci when he earned an Oscar nomination for a part he was born to play in Sound of Metal. It has changed the trajectory of his career, and he is happy to talk about working with Nicolas Cage, Jennifer Lopez, and Colman Domingo on recent projects. But what Leonard and Jessie took away from our conversation is Paul's admirable work ethic and total dedication to his craft.

If you weren't among the seven million people watching Melvin Gregg's 7-second Vine videos online you may know him from such films and TV shows as Nine Perfect Strangers and the brand-new feature Share alongside Bradley Whitford and Alice Braga, now available on VOD. His acting ambitions brought him to Hollywood but unlike other young, struggling thespians, he devised a game plan to get him in the door with A-list filmmakers. Leonard and Jessie advise you to keep an eye on Melvin: he's going places.

Tony Anselmo's face may not be familiar, but the whole world knows his voice—that is, when he speaks as his alter ego, Donald Duck! Tony inherited this unique job from its creator, Clarence Nash, and he feels very protective of the famously furious mallard. He is also a graduate of Cal Arts and has been an animator at the Walt Disney studio since 1980. Leonard and Jessie are longtime fans and friends, as they share a love of all things Disney.

Elizabeth Daley has served as the Dean of the USC School for Cinematic Arts for 30 years, which means she's been Leonard's boss for 25 of those years. Leonard and Jessie realized that they'd never sat and just talked to her for an hour—until now. Elizabeth studied theater and migrated to television early in her career, then answered the call from academia for what she thought would be a temporary assignment. Now she consults worldwide based on her vast experience dealing with students, teachers, and such alumni as George Lucas, who laid the foundation (literally) to rebuild the school in downtown Los Angeles. You'll hear other names appropriately dropped, from Hitchcock to Zemeckis in the course of this wide-ranging conversation.

Just in time for Halloween, we reconnected with director and film aficionado John Landis for a wide-ranging, clearly spontaneous conversation about horror films past and present. John's Halloween bona fides: he directed An American Werewolf in London, the underappreciated Innocent Blood, and Michael Jackson's Thriller, about which Jessie was particularly curious. Leonard is always impressed with John's vast knowledge of film history, especially in the horror/sci-fi/fantasy genres. Jessie's nearly two-year-old daughter Daisy make a cameo appearance near the end of this episode.

The actor you know and love from the Evil Dead movies was an animated guest when Leonard and Jessie spoke to him in front of a lively audience at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas back in 2016.

Having just wrapped Fantastic Fest 2023, Leonard and Jessie are thinking about past experiences at this unique gathering in Austin, Texas. Step back six years to enjoy an episode recorded at the Alamo Drafthouse Lamar's lively Highball Lounge with the late, great comedian Gilbert Gottfried. He was one of a kind, and so is this raucous hour-long interview.

Writer-director Greg Nava made his reputation with the unforgettable 1983 film El Norte, and then gave the world an exceptional musical biopic, Selena. He is happy to recount the stories behind those memorable films for Leonard, who witnessed El Norte's breakout screening at the Telluride Film Festival, and Jessie, who has committed Selena to memory. This long-overdue conversation follows a happy reunion at this year's Telluride fest.

Harold Lloyd dangling from the hands of a clock on the side of a building is arguably the most famous single image from the silent-film era. The movie in which that scene appears, Safety Last, was made in 1923 and is being screened Sunday at 2pm at the Academy Museum, with a 27-piece orchestra playing the late Carl Davis's original score. Leonard and Jessie are delighted to welcome back Suzanne Lloyd, who was raised by her grandfather and grandmother, and her longtime friend Rich Correll, who as a teenager began the process of preserving Harold Lloyd's film collection. We owe them both a debt of thanks for keeping these movies safe for current and future generations to enjoy.

Gifted and versatile are two adjectives that describe the women responsible for creating costumes for Netflix's Emily in Paris (Marylin Fitoussi, who spoke to us from Paris), Queen Charlotte (Lyn Paolo and Laura Frecon) and the esteemed Colleen Atwood (Wednesday), who with this show continues her long partnership with filmmaker Tim Burton.

Several contributors to the Netflix series Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities discuss their collaboration: prosthetic makeup designers Sean Sansom and Mike Hill, production designer Tamara Deverell, and cinematographer Anastas Michos.

Two talented women talk about working on the long-running Netflix series The Crown: costume designer Amy Roberts and hair and makeup specialist Cate Hall. How does the challenge of replicating well-known figures from recent history affect their approach? Listen and find out.

Today we talk to some of the talented people who worked on the Netflix series Beef: costume designer Helen Huang, casting directors Charlene Lee and Claire Koonce, and editors Laura Zempel and Nat Fuller. You don't have to be familiar with the show to enjoy hearing them describe their work and the passion they bring to each new project.

Alan Silvestri's credits as a film composer are a bit overwhelming: Forrest Gump, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Abyss, The Avengers, and on and on. He has just hatched his first Broadway show, a musical version of Back to the Future that will soon open in London as well. And when John Williams was unable to compose the music for Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One, Alan was the one chosen to fill his shoes. (It's a great story…) Leonard and Jessie knew this would be an exceptional interview because Alan and Leonard share a history: they graduated from high school in the same class!

He acted in George Lucas' first student film. He directed Honey, We Shrunk the Audience for Disney theme parks in 70mm 3-D. He made a virtual reality television series. He studied at USC with actress Nina Foch and "total filmmaker" Jerry Lewis. But as long as he lives, Randal Kleiser will be best known as the guy who directed Grease. He has a new book called Drawing Directors, based on his close encounters with notable colleagues, and has completed a documentary about his high school graduating class called Baby Boomer Yearbook. As Leonard and Jessie learned, Randal lives in the present, looking toward the future.

His name may be most closely associated with Laugh-In, the television comedy phenom of the late 1960s/early 70s, but George Schlatter has spent a lifetime in show business, with countless credentials and friendships to show for it At the age of 94 he's Still Laughing—which is the name of his newly published autobiography. He kept Leonard and Jessie laughing as he spun tales of working with Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, and the stars he launched on Laugh-In like Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin. The stories never stop…...

As president of Duplass Brothers Productions, Mel Eslyn has her finger in a number of creative pies. (She's an executive producer of the underappreciated HBO series Somebody, Somewhere). The new theatrical release Biosphere bears her stamp as co-writer and director; she even got to direct her "boss," Mark Duplass, who costars in this provocative comedy with Sterling K. Brown. Leonard and Jessie admire the way Mel and her colleagues work: offering opportunities and a helping hand to deserving beginners.

In this bonus episode, Jessie talks to actors Molly C. Quinn and Jennifer Holland and writer-director Natasha Halevi about their film Give Me An A. In the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, a number of actors, writers and crew joined forces to create this anthology feature about body autonomy. It's raw and real, alternately serious and ridiculous, expressing genuine feelings about this startling reality.

The League is the latest documentary directed by Sam Pollard, and like most of his other work it is first-rate: a fascinating history of the Negro League and its often-overlooked contribution to baseball in America. Pollard has won almost every prize imaginable in his field and edited six features with his friend and contemporary Spike Lee. As Leonard and Jessie learned, he is also a major cinephile whose influences are wide-ranging. The League opens in selected theaters on July 7 and heads to VOD one week later, July 14. You don't have to be a baseball fan to appreciate this slice of Americana: it is not to be missed.

Matthew Jeffers is a little person who possesses major talent. At one time his options in show business would have been limited, but witnessing the success of Peter Dinklage inspired him to pursue an acting career. Leonard and Jessie are among those cheering him on, as his costarring role in the 2022 sleeper Unidentified Objects has earned him a following. You also may have seen him on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel or FBI. One thing is certain: his future is unlimited.