March 12, 2025 • 46 mins
LOOK OUT! It’s only Films To Be Buried With!
Join your host Brett Goldstein as he talks life, death, love and the universe with the iconic and massively prolific actor and director JULIA STILES!
A really lovely episode where we find Julia on top form, with a perfect balance of funny and emotional (with a beautiful reaction to being informed of her demise, as show tradition dictates). Julia's been putting in serious work through the years, not least with 'Wish You Were Here', which she directed and goes into detail on. Of course she and Brett go into all sorts of terrain, including said film direction and being a driver as opposed to passenger, behind the scenes process, not being all the way out in the open, line readings ("Just do it happier!"), doing your own stunts at a younger age, growing up in New York, and good old fashioned fronting. Wonderful. ENJOY! Oh - stick around for added voicenotes at the end...
Video and extra audio available on Brett's Patreon!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Look at how it's only films to be buried with. Hello,
and welcome to films to be buried with. My name
is Brett Golstein. I'm a comedian and actor, a writer,
a director, a bonnet, and I love films. As Yah
(00:22):
Yassi once said, history is not written in a single stroke,
but in layers of lived moments, you know, like in
Forrest Gump and whatnot. Every week I invite a special
guest over. I tell them they've died, then I get
them to discuss their life through the films that want
the most of them. Previous guests include Barry Jenkins, Kevin Smith,
Sharon Stone, and even Dead Clambles. But this week we
(00:42):
have the amazing actor, writer, producer, and director and dancer.
It's Julia Stiles. All episodes of Shrinking Season one and
two are now available on Apple TV. Get caught up
on all of them before we release season three. Head
over to the Patroon at patroon dot com Forward a
safe Prett Goldstein, where you get an extra twenty minutes
with Julia where we talk secrets, beginnings and endings. You
(01:02):
get the whole episode uncart adfree and as a video.
Check it out over at patreon dot com forwards left
Brett girlsde Juliet Styles. You might know her from her
legendary roles in Ten Things I Hate About You, Save
the Last Dance, and more recently, Husslers and Riviera. Julius
Stiles's directorial debut Wish You Were Here, is out now.
You very much should watch it. I'd never met Julie before.
(01:23):
I was very excited to do this. We recorded this
on zoom. It was an absolute pleasure and I really
think you're going to love this one. She also sent
me some voice notes to add to the end of
the episode. Hopefully they're included here. So that's it for now.
I very much hope you enjoy episode three hundred and
forty two of Films to Be Buried With. Hello, and
(01:52):
welcome to Films to Be Buried With. It is me
Brett Goldstein, and I am joined today by an actor,
a writer, a director, a dancer, a born identity, and
ten Things You Hate about a Save the Last Dancer,
a mona Lisa Smiler, a hero, a legend, and an icon.
(02:17):
The list goes on. I can't believe she's here, but
she is. Please welcome to the show. It's the wonderful.
It's Julia Styles.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Oh, thank you so much. What a fun introduction and
such a pleasure to talk to you. Such a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Nice to me you. Juli dar was a big fan.
Sorry the intro was so short. We could have gone
on a lot longer. That's all right.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
I think it was your enthusiasm that made it all
worth it even better. You get the award for a
most Enthusiastic Intro.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Thank you very much, I take it. How are you?
You have just released a film that you have written
and directed? Is this correct?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
That is correct? The movie is called Wish You Were Here?
Did you have a chance to see it? No pressure
if you didn't, I.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Just don't know if this is I'm afraid I did
not have a chance to see it, and I only
knew about it this morning. And I'm very excited that
that's okay.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
No, it's not a test. Not a test. Not a test. Yeah, yeah,
I can talk about it fresh. That's yes. So it's
called wh You Were Here? It's based on a book.
It's been a career. I mean it's been a career long. No,
something that I've wanted to do for at least the
last ten years, and then five years ago an actress
who's actually in the film sent me this book and
(03:27):
said how about adapting this?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
And I fell in love with it.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
And now it's out in theaters and it's been such
a it's very surreal.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Right now it's finally out in theaters.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
And this is the first thing you directed, right, is
that true?
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah? I directed a couple of shorts, but that was
many years ago, made a lot of mistakes or you know,
learned from that.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
But it's been this is the first feature.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
How was the actual making of it? How did you
find being a director?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I loved it. I'm totally hooked. I absolutely loved it.
I mean, it's a ton of work and it's exhausting,
especially when you're in production, but I've never felt more energized.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
There's something it's like going on along car trip.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
You know, if you're in the passenger seat, you start
to doze off, but if you're the driver, you're like
in it.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yes, Yeah, it was really really exhilarating.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, there's none of the boring bits when you're the director.
There's no gaps. There's always something to do. There's always
something to do.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
You always have to be thinking ten steps ahead and
planning your whole day and ready to pivot if things
go wrong, which they inevitably do. But that's more like
the production filming part of it. I found that the
editing room, which is a longer part of the process,
that's months and months plus sound and color and all that,
I found that really really enriching because it's where the
craftsmanship comes in, and that's where you're sort of the
(04:40):
final stages of piecing it all together and polishing it.
And it's also kind of more like a nine to
five job where I felt, yeah, a little more sane.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
That's true. Tell me this, because I'm always interested in
the making of a film. How much changed from your
initial vision of it, how much changed whilst filming? And
then how much changed in the edit? Like how much
of it did you change? The story? Did you change
the order of things?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
I did change a lot from the book.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
I adapted the screenplay, and you know, I had the
blessing of the novelist Renee Carlino. She read my first
draft and then she gave me some notes, but she
really said, you can make this your own. And I
made it clear to her that I was trying to
capture the spirit of her book and that there were
so many things that I loved about it, the dialogue,
the premise, the characters, and I pulled out the things
that I wanted to highlight, but there was a lot
that needed to be distilled for a film because it's
(05:27):
just a completely different medium, you know. And then actually,
it's funny, I went back and looked at I hadn't
looked at the book or the script for such a
long time, I guess, since we were in filming last year.
And I went back, as I thought I was going
to post on Instagram, like, I saw this thing that
the Writer's Guild had done where they take like a
snippet of the or a screen grab of the a
portion of the script, and then the picture that's actually
(05:48):
in the movie. And I was like, oh my god,
it was so different. I saw all my like chicken
scratch notes and highlight or marks.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
But then yeah, there was so much that's different.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
And actually, one of the without giving it a way,
a big twist in the film, there's a change that
I made to the script three weeks before we were
going to start shooting. That's pretty significant change, and it
was because we couldn't afford we didn't have time or
money for a larger sequence that I had, and I
needed to simplify it. And I came up with this
idea that's not in the book, and I was like, now,
(06:19):
to me, it makes the whole movie. It makes it's
one of my favorite parts of the whole piece.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
That's just to say that I think I really loved
I think I really loved the problem solving side of
being a director. I found that my commute to work,
driving to the studio was often like hugely inspirational.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I don't know if that means I.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Was like being a bad driver and not really paying
when I was very much in my own head. I
feel like or walking, like walking and listening to headphones
is very inspirational to me.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Are you in the film?
Speaker 2 (06:47):
I am not. There wasn't really a part for me.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I also think it's way too I don't know how
people like Ben Affleck do it. I think it's too much.
I don't have the bandwidth to be on both sides
of the camera. I was really happy to not have
to go into hair and makeup.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Every morning and worry about what I look like.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
But there was a talk of me doing a cameo
and I had written At one point I had written
a scene that was like a half a page, just
a little bit of me appearing in the film. But
then I cut it. We never filmed it because I
just thought it would be too distracting. It would take
you out of the film if all of a sudden
you saw a person that you recognize and you know
is the director.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
It's just too much.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
That's fair. And how was it with working with the actors?
I bet you were brilliantly directed, I think not.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
I think with the technical stuff like where to point
the camera and lenses and all that, I felt very
comfortable because I've spent decades in those conversations in a
blocking rehearsal where you're listening to the director and the
cinematographer talk about where they're going to point the camera.
My husband works in the camera department, so we always
talk about I've learned a lot from him about lenses
(07:51):
and and focus, depth.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Of field and all that.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
But with the actors, I think I did everything that
I swore I would never do as a director, Like
all the things that you kind of grit your teeth
are like annoyed when a director gives you a line
reading or says like just do it, just do it faster,
or you know, go again, Okay, let's do it again.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Let's do it again.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
You know, I had all these lofty ideas about I'm
going to go in and I'm just gonna, like, not gonna,
I'm not gonna give them a note before the first take,
just so they have the space to figure it out.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
But you don't have time.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
And so I would jump in and be like, just happier,
just do happier, pace it up.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Pace it up.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
You know which I mean? I think my you know, honestly,
you need to do you need to do line reading. Sometimes.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Oh oh that was the other thing is that because
I had I had the script in my head for
so many years, I caught myself going, oh, wait, you're
just giving them notes because you have an idea of
how it's supposed to sound in your head. But why
what's wrong with the way that they're doing it? So
I did have to back off a little bit.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Interest Yeah, the whole line reading thing. Sometimes I'm like,
so I've had directors where they're talking around, talking around,
talking abound, and I know they want to just give
the line reading, but they're trying to find it and
then just say it, just say how you hear it,
and then at least understand what it is you're guy
in FORO interesting.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
I will say now, now I do actually as an actress,
I do appreciate a line reading, and I do appreciate
just like this very direct, like just do it faster
kind of thing, because sometimes that's more clear than some
internal discussion.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Did you have I guess you probably can't say, but
I'm curious if you had behavior from any access such
as like, hey, I've got loads of thoughts on the character.
I think I'd like to change a lot of this
where you were like, just fucking do it. I've written this,
I've spent a lot of time on this.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Well, let me say I will say that I think
I was.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
I mean, I think my actors were. I just absolutely
adore them, and they certainly wowed me and surprised me
a lot. I think I was very sensitive to not
pushing them too hard, even though I kind of knew
that sometimes I needed to. There's a scene where the
male lead, Minha Masud, he has a kind of breakdown
in the hospital, and it's one of the pivotal moments
of the film that launches the whole third act where
(09:59):
he says, like, I can't just sit here and wait
to die. I have to do something. You have to
get me out of here. We have to go on
a trip. And they do end up going on a trip.
And you know, I did quite a few takes because
he's a certain kind of actor where he brings, you know,
his strength. Every actor has their strengths and then the
things that they need to be pushed on, and his
strength is a kind of groundedness. And I think it's also,
(10:20):
particularly maybe for a male actor, very hard to show
vulnerability like that, and so we had to do multiple
takes and eventually he did break down in a wonderful way. So,
I mean, I think they all were fantastic. It was
just figuring out it's like having different I don't want
to say children, like they're not childish, but I mean
it's like understanding different personalities and what can help guide
them to where they need to go.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah, well, congratulations, I'm excited to see it, and I'm
sorry that I haven't seen it, but that is a
very cool thing.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
There were times.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Again, this is to say that I think All the
actors were wonderful, and I was so grateful to have
them in the film, and particularly the lead Isabelle Firman.
I knew that I had worked with her in a
film where I played her mother, actually, and I could
see that she had this dimina to be in every
scene every day, which I needed for Wish you were here.
But I think that if there were any you know,
I definitely if anyone couldn't remember a line, I think
(11:09):
you know this as an actor, you go back and
you go, Okay, there must be something with the writing
that's passing them.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Yeah. Most of the time. Most of the time, that's true.
That's very true. Yeah, it's like a note in it.
When they can't remember it, you're like, something's not yeah, yeah, yeah.
I was thinking about Save the Last Dance All Time
Classic tend things out about you all time Classic. You
are in an unusual position of I don't know how
(11:35):
old you were when these films happened, but I imagine
fairly young, and these were iconic. You're sort of genuinely iconic,
by which I mean you mean a lot of things
to a lot of people, and I imagine you're not
in control of any of that. You are the avatar
of a lot of meaning to a lot of people,
(11:56):
and I wonder how that was and is to actually
live through as a human person.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
As a human person, I mean, I'm still living through it.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
I would what was it like to live through?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
What was it like to live through? Then? What is
it like to live through now? I suppose simple, just
a simple question, what is your existence? What is tell
me about existence?
Speaker 3 (12:18):
I think I'm only now, you know, or recently, really
really appreciating it and really focused on, like really taking
it in the significance of being a performer that can
continue working for many years and have people still talking
about the work that you've done. At the time when
it was happening, it was very surreal, and I think
(12:38):
I had a kind I went through many different stages
of how to. I don't want to say cope with it,
because it's not a negative thing. It's just a very
unique thing to walk down the street and have people
recognize your face and say, oh, I've seen you on
my TV screen. It's a relationship with the world that
is changing and takes a little getting used to. It
can be everything from super exciting to a super scary
(13:00):
and I was very young when it started with me,
so over the course of the last twenty years twenty
five years, it's been a process of figuring out what
that is, how I feel about it, how to navigate it,
and many different evolutions, how to how to appreciate it,
how to try and control it when it feels a
little overwhelming.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I have a really great therapist.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
I was going to ask, what's your what's your tip
for when it's overwhelming? But is it therapy? Get the therapist?
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Well, no, I know, no, I think I mean, that's
part of part of it, but I think more than that,
it's Living in New York City is really helpful because
you are forced to engage with the world and there's
lots of stuff going on around you that has nothing
to do with you, and so that's a good way
to keep thinking anything that really can keep it in perspective.
You know, I'm coming off the promotional train of this movie,
(13:53):
which you were here and can just so, I think
I've always had this aversion to feeling like or this
awareness of like, uh oh, we're thinking about you're thinking
about yourself too much? Yeah, wait, you focus, you're in
your own little bubble where you think everybody's looking at
your Instagram posts, but actually they're not.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
There's a lot more going on around you, you know.
And that's something.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
That was That was the thing that made me nervous
as a twenty something year old. But now I think
I can I understand it. I navigate it more, I
manage it more.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Listen, I don't actively look for these things. So I
may be wrong about this, but you've seemed to me
someone who has existed as a successful, famous, good actor
who I don't know anything about your private life, you
know what I mean, you seem to have stayed out
of Unless I'm completely wrong, I don't feel I see you.
(14:44):
You know what I mean? You exist as someone I
know is a very it does very good work. But
you seem to have maintained a private life. Is that true?
Am I wrong about that?
Speaker 3 (14:52):
No?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
That thank you so much. That's wonderful.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I mean, that's I have always admired and wanted to
emulate actors that you don't know that much about, because
it's easier to believe them as somebody else in a story.
But I but I mean, you know, but there's always
there's always our personal lives and our hobbies or whatever.
We you know, just little anecdotes about our lives go
hand in hand with promoting whatever it is that is
(15:14):
coming out. So inevitably we're gonna know more. You're going
to have to open up a little bit.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yeah, in that way.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
But I'm glad to hear that. It's it's not too much.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Yeah, never. But like some people, you see an awful
lot and they're photographs everywhere, and sometimes I'm like, I
always wonder how much of it is a choice, how
much of it is completely out of their control, and
whether it's a thing that you decided very early on
to stay out of or I don't know how you
can't completely control it. But were you always this way?
(15:43):
I suppose.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
I think I've been pretty protective of it.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Yeah, yeah, great, I love it. I love it do
these styles. I've forgotten to tell you something I should
have told you up top, and it's fucking mad that
I forgot to tell you.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Oh my god, shit, this is what you've died.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
You're dead. You're dead. You are no longer with us,
You're dead. Sorry, how did you die? Oh?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Yeah, god, you really went there? You really went there?
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Yeah, I keep waiting for you to say like in
the Jason Bourne movie, and now you're talking about like
existential existential.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Yeah, you're dead and thanks for spoiling the Born movies.
You're dead.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
These are the things that we always have we avoid, actively,
actively avoid thinking about.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yeah. And this is again why I'm very grateful you're
doing the podcast. How did you die?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
What?
Speaker 3 (16:39):
I'm going to start crying Jesus, this is what I
sort through and wish you were here?
Speaker 1 (16:43):
What?
Speaker 3 (16:43):
This is what has been brought up in Wish you
Were Here endlessly for the last five years with me,
and particularly in the last year when we were making
the movie. This is not shameless self promotion. I'm going
to answer your question. But this has been stirring in me.
This has been stirring in me for years because and
I've been I've been channeling it through Wish You Were Here.
Because one of the reasons I picked this book and
wanted to make it a movie was I thought, oh,
(17:04):
the main characters are so young for and they have
a very young romance, but it's actually a much more
mature story because what they're dealing with is issues of mortality.
And I felt it on set when they play this
game where they tell each other a story of this
imagined love affair that they have together as though they
are an older couple looking back on a lifetime of memories.
And I mean, I can't tell you how the lumps
(17:26):
in my throat for the last over a year longer
than that, and it tugs at something that is definitely
on my mind. And I could see it with the
crew too. They were the clemmed a lot as well.
So how do I okay? I ask, is.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
This a constant thing that plays on your mind? And
the ways has ord? Has this been recently in the
last five years, this has been.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
In the last seven years, I would say since I
became a mother.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Right.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Interesting, the anxiety has it's always bubbling under the surface,
and it's just a question of how to keep it
tampered down and not let it rob you of the
joy of everyday life. Oh my god, people, I must
answer this in so many different ways. I don't want
to think about it.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Think about it.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
You could make we can make it fun. You could.
You also couldn't diet three hundred years out.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I'm gonna die.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
I'm gonna die, well, not too long because I don't
want to outlive my kids.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I'm uh I.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
I have a dance party, hug and kiss, almost like
the reverse of a wedding, or like a buttontz foot
or something like. You have a big party, dance my
face off, drink, hug and kiss everybody.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
But that's the point of not knowing what's going on.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Hug and kiss everyone that I love, in particular my family,
and then we cozy up with blankets and go to
sleep and cuddle and I go peacefully.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
In the night. How old do you want to be
when this happens?
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Ninety?
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Okay, it depends on my physical shape, but I think
if I'm having a dance party, I'm pretty good.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
One of my best friends her grandmother, I'll never forget.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
We would go visit her country house, and her grandmother
was like eighty five years old and would just sit
in her chair, eating peanut m and ms in a glass
bowl and drinking her vodka and just letting everybody talk
and do their stuff around her and watching it.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
And I was like, Oh, that's fun. I think that's
a good way to go into old age.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
That's nice.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, I'd say eighty five or ninety.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Can I ask and feel free to no answer. So
you've started feeling this way since you had children. Do
you think the anxiety is more like because you need
to be around to protect your children, or because you
don't to miss out on your children, or all of
the above, all of the above.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
And I think also you're just way more aware of
life than the opposite and the preciousness of life, I mean,
because I think I feel like in my twenties and
thirty early thirties, I was like so care free, like
that feeling of being invincible. I used to do the
craziest things on film sets because I thought that there
was this like invincibility when a camera's on you.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
That's interesting.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
I remember filming that film, It's like the little independent
film with Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker in Iceland, and
there was a stunt where the we're supposed to drive
a car off of a cliff as like an insurance
f odd thing, and of course they have divers and
stuck people to do it. But I was like, but
I want to jump off the cliff. You're gonna put
the camera on me and I'm gonna jump off the cliff.
And I had to really talk them into it because
(20:19):
it's an insurance. I mean it's a hazard if the
actor gets hurt. And they indulged me. They got like
divers to wait in the water so that they could
pull me out because of what it was Iceland, that
it was very cold, and we did one take. And
I look back on that well, like, never in a
million years would I do that, Like what was I thinking?
Speaker 2 (20:36):
But you were thinking.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
I was thinking of if a camera's on me, nothing
can happen. I mean other stunts in movies too, where
I would never in a million years do it now.
And I think it's because, yeah, you're just aware of
the coming and going.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
I've never thought of it like that. Tell me this,
what do you think happens after you die? Do you
think there's enough to life?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
This is a.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Scene in the movie. This is a conversation that they
have spoil it for you. I think, well, I will
answer that myself. But you know a lot of my
voices in this film too, And I although these were
lines from the book, but you know there's a reason that.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
I plucked them out.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
The main characters say to each other, the guy's dying
and the prognosis is not good, and she says to him,
are you scared? And he goes no, and she goes,
have you thought about what happens after? And he says
he says, he thinks it's lights out, baby, and she says, no,
that's not true. I think that the memories that we create.
(21:31):
I think your artwork, the influence that you have over
other people their memories of you, that's what keeps you
alive anyway, So what.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Do I think it happens to our consciousness?
Speaker 3 (21:41):
So obviously I was like exploring all these questions in
the film, But I what do I think happens? There's
a part of me that does think it's lights out,
like we don't have a consciousness anymore. But I do
believe that there's an energetic I am spiritual, like, I
think there's an energetic resonance, and that the memories that
people have of us do you keep us alive in
(22:01):
some way? But I think in terms of our own consciousness,
I think I don't think. I don't think we're up
in the clouds looking over and everybody.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Well, Julia, the answer you know what happens?
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Tell me, ah, where have you been?
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Yes, there's a heaven. You're going straight to heaven and
while you're up there, you're going to have a lovely time.
And then if you want to come back in a
different form and try something else, you can do. But
in the meantime, there's a heaven and you're going to it,
and everyone is so excited to see you in heaven,
and it is filled with your favorite thing. What's your
favorite thing?
Speaker 2 (22:34):
A thing? Not not people? Music. Music.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Oh, it's filled with music. Oh my god. Every room
a different genre. There's live music, there's dance music. There's
everything you want in all the rooms. But also everyone
wants to talk to you about your life, but they
want to talk about your life through film. And the
first thing they ask you is what is the first
film you remember seeing? Julia Styles at home? It was
(23:01):
Adventures in Babysitting Nice.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
No, you know I actually saw that, well, I had
the VHS, but we also went to the It was
the first PG thirteen movie I was allowed to see,
and we saw it in the theater.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
There must have been one earlier than that.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Oh, I feel like I remember only because I think
I got my cousins in trouble. That my cousins came
to sleep over and we went to the video store
and I picked I was two years older Ernest Safe's Christmas,
and they got they were not allowed to see a
movie like that.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Likes it's so outrighteous.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
So I was the bad. I was the bad I
was the bad cousin. It was the bad influence.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Yeah, when you watched Adventures in Babysitting, do you remember thinking,
fucking hew, this is brilliant. I want to do this.
I do.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Actually, I like the opening dance scene that Elizabeth Shoe does.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
I love that so much. Another movie that my mom.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Insist she took me to see in the theater, but
I was like five years old when it came out,
so I don't know how that worked out, but which
was a huge reference for wish you were here desperately
seeking Susan.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
I remember.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Madonna made me want to be an actress or I
just wanted to be like her, and I just I remember,
on such a subconscious level as a little girl, thinking
like I really tapped into this identity crisis that Rosanna
Arquette was having, wanting to get out of the suburbs
and kind of wanting to emulate Madonna's free spirited.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Life in the East village.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
And then I watched the movie over and over and
over and over again when I was prepping which You
Were Here, and it really holds up. But I used
it as references for like costume and production design and
the color scheme. And it's a much lighter film than
I think Wish You Were Here is.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
But visually I was. I was really into it.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Did you grow up in You?
Speaker 2 (24:43):
I did? And actually the theater that is in the movie.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
I don't know if you remember, but at the very
end they go to a movie theater and it's Bleaker
Street Cinemas, which was on Bleaker Street and LaGuardia Place.
And I grew up in Soho, kind of near the
West Village. And I mean, maybe it's apocryphal, but I
feel like I've talked about it with my mom that
we went to go see it at that theater.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
So meta.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
That's cool. Yeah, what a great reference. And it hasn't
come up on this podcast.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Look at my hair. Look at my hair. My hair
is totally Madonna hair from that era.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
What is the film that scared you the most? Do
you like being scared?
Speaker 3 (25:20):
I do not like being scared, and I don't like
I mean, it's a certain kind of it's a certain
kind of scared, like those deep fears that we have.
I remember being very scared of Freddy. What were the
Freddy Krueger movies Elm Street? Yeah, there was something super
creepy about those, But then silence of the lambs. I mean,
I'm not I'm kind of easily scared.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
I think I think Freddy Krueger is fair to be
scared by day. It is a Peter File that's been
set on fire and has scissors for hands. Scared.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
But there was a video game of it.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
I had the little Nintendo, the Gray Nintendo, and there
was a Nightmare on Elm Street video game, and that
just even the freakin' theme music was.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Too much funny.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
About crying? What is the film that made you cry
the most? Do you like crying? Are you a crier?
Speaker 3 (26:05):
I like, I enjoy a good cry. I made a
movie about that tries to get you to have a
good cry.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
I cry a lot at the end.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
I mean I cried for personal reasons a lot at
the end of Wish you were here from just like
the overwhelm of or not overwhelmed, just the joy and
all the emotions of like WHOA I made this I
made this, we made.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
This, But oh, side question about your film then that
I'm curious.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
I'm also not just trying to promote my movie. This
is a genuine answer.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
No, yes, I'm in. But when you're editing a film,
which sounds like frankly devastating from everything you've said, but
when you're editing it, and there are the bits that
if the film is working for an audience, they will
cry at did you find yourself in the way that
with a comedy sometimes you edit it for so long
that you can't laugh anymore. You forget that it's funny.
(26:52):
Maybe did you get to the point of, like, I
don't find this movie anymore and I have to assume
it still is or was it always? Did it always
work for you? Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (27:01):
There are moments that always worked for me, and then
there were moments where I was able to be a
little bit more objective, which I don't think is a
bad thing either. But I'm trying to think other movies
that other movies that make me cry, Like you know,
it's silly things like the beginning of Dumbo, when when
the elephant, when the elephant, when Dumbo puts his ear
(27:21):
out and yeah, all that, you know.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
All that Dumbo is a fucking killer.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
What is the film that you love? Most people don't
like it. It is not critically acclaimed, but you love
it unconditionally.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Oh, I don't know if it's I don't know if
it's not critically acclaimed. It's kind of a it's a
cult classic.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
I think.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Well, so I do think that people. There's definitely fans
of this movie. The movie Clue is like literally one
of my all time favorite comedies and I know it
by heart. I mean I could we had two hours more,
I could sit here recite the whole movie to you.
I think it's one of the most tim Prey in
his prime.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
I think that's pretty It wasn't well received at the time,
and I think now I think that's a good shot.
I don't know why, because it was fucking brilliant always.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
What about on the other end of the scale, a
film that you used to love but you've watched it
recently and you've gone, oh, I don't like this anymore,
perhaps because you have changed, not the film.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
I want to say, like, either no disrespect to putting Tarantino. Either,
movies like Reservoir dogs or pulp fiction. We love pulp
fiction when it came out, and I wanted.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
To be cool, so I liked it too.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
But that kind of violence to me, I can't really
stomach anymore.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Yeah, absolutely, fair enough. What is the film that means
the most to you? Not necessarily the film is good,
but the experience you had around seeing the film will
always make it important to you. Julius Styles, hmmm, so.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Distracting when you call me them phone name. Not distracting.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
It just feels like lots of important emotional weight is
put on this answer.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Yeah, it's a big one. This one a big one.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
More recently, I think the Lobster. I remember seeing the
Lobster Yogo Slanthromosis film in theaters and going like, whoa,
this is brilliant. This is absolutely brilliant. And it's the
power of going to the theater and being forced to
turn off your phone and just focus on being taken
away in a story. Is what we what we I
(29:21):
crave experiencing, and that was definitely one of those things
one of those experiences for me. Silly enough, I think
also straight out of Compton, do you remember.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
That movie about Nwa.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Just I'm thinking just the experience of being in the
theater because I went to go see it, and I
was very nostalgic about that music as a dumb little
white girl in middle school who again wanted to be
cool and was kind of because everybody was into that music,
or at least at my school they were.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
I was too.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
And there's a term fronting, and I feel like fronting
meaning you're it's like, not like there's something anyway, there's
something so silly about but it was a very but.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
I was because it's not planet.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
But I'm watching the movie and I'm really really enjoying
it and feeling like really tough. And there was like
a girl two people behind me who were talking the
whole time, really loudly at the screen, and I, for
whatever reason, decided to turn around and be like, you know,
first I gave them the Seinfeld like half stare, and
that didn't work. And then and somehow I became sort
of belligerent and was like told them to please be quiet.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
And fuck it, I fucking gave it to it.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
She and she quickly put me in my place, and
then you realized that I'm just I'm not as tough
as I sound. My bark and so she she said
something like like she was gonna cut me or.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
I don't know if so.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
It scared me so much I shut up and we
just watched the movie and I was like, before the
lights come up, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Yeh, that's fucking really makes the rest of that film intense.
And that they were behind you as well. Yeah, I'm
so sorry.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Oh this could be a totally this could be a
totally inappropriate story to tell.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
But it speaking of just remembering more or the experience
of being in the theater than just the movie itself.
This is so awkward. I don't know why I'm even
bringing this up. I went to go see Blue is
the warmest color in theaters and like, that movie is
so graphic. To be sitting next to strangers, it's so explicit,
to be sitting next to strangers is so uncomfortable. But
the person next to me was eating Chinese food, Like what.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
What like nudles? Yes, nudles with chopsteaks.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
And like didn't pause in the full on.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Sex thirty five minutes sex scene. Yes, that's righteous. So
are you aligned seeing this film? No?
Speaker 2 (31:35):
I went with a friend, but was very.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
I believe that's great. Didn't stop. Didn't stop for the
sex scene out of respect to car Still.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Hungry, Still hungry, could wait, couldn't wait a couple more minutes.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
What is the film you most relate Tom.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Desperately seeking Susan again, that storyline. I think that's why
it still resonates with me many many years later. It
just Roseanne arcad character creating the freedom that Madonna has.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Okay, Julia, what is the sexiest film you've ever seen?
I didn't use your full name, so it didn't freak
you out.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Okay, I mean obviously Jerdie Dancing comes to mind.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Yeah, holds up.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
The Notebook is really sexy. Yeah, Notebook's really sexy. Oh,
please be on the pines. I love that film. Yeah, underrated, Juliet.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
If you've listened to the show, you'll know that there's
a subcategory to this question, traveling boners worrying why duns
film you found a rousing that you weren't sure you
should say that again? Saying it? The sub category is
traveling boners worrying why duns a film you found a
rousing that you weren't sure you should? Please? Don't maybe
(32:48):
say it again?
Speaker 2 (32:49):
No, No, I heard it.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
I heard it.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
I get it.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Arousing. Oh man, Oh, I mean I want to say
Romancing the Stone. I'm thinking or overboard.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Yeah, overboard, answer over it's a great answer. Yeah, complicated,
complicated things going on there.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Yeah, I don't think that the tone is a comedy.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
But I found it really hot. It's very sexy. But
also she has been kidnapped, yes, and but it is hot.
That is a great answer. Yeah, Okay, well done, thank you.
We can move past that. Now. What is objectively, objectively
the greatest film ever made? Might not be your favorite,
(33:29):
but it is the best of cinema?
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Cool hand, Luke. Yeah, I'm trying. I'm having a hard time.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Like when you think of the best of cinema, I
want to think of like something visually very stunning, But
I go back to the performances and the story and
Paul Newman still captivating in that, and the chain gang
and the human spirit trying to break out of this captivity.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
It's pretty great, pretty great, great answer. You can have it.
I'm going to give you ten points.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
We're done. We're done. You're on the board.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
We went out, we left, we left. Screening of a
Q and A of whish you were here. And somebody
on the street asked me who was in film school?
And he asked me, like, tell me a movie that
I have to see, or a director that I have
to follow, or tell me the best movie of all time.
And I said, because it was on my mind. I
was like, you know what I think is really underrated.
It is Desperately Seeking Susan and Susan Seidelman is an
amazing director.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
And my husband scolded me and he was like, you
need to say something like Casablanca. I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
I don't think so. Yeah, tell me this. What is
the film you could or have? What's the most over
and over again?
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Could or have?
Speaker 1 (34:33):
It's Desperately Seeking Susan.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
No, no, I would say, it's Clue Again. I know
it by heart. Flames, keeping flames on the side of
my face.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Breath breaths, keep going.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
And you had a weapon, and you had a webinar.
You had a weapon, and you have had a weapon.
One plus two plus two plus one. Communism is just
a red herring. That was the medley, That was a medic.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Do a one woman show where you do all of Clue.
I'm telling you you would sell out for three years.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Done. Done.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
That's a fucking great idea. What is the worst film
you've ever seen? We don't like to be negative. Whether
you want to navigate this question.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Mm oh man? I uh or oh man, I can't.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
I feel like I'm going to insult people and get
hate mail, because the worst is, you know, what is
a bad film?
Speaker 2 (35:25):
It's really you have to I think you have to.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
You have to explain why I would say that gratuitousness
is annoying to me, because then that you could hear
you veer into when something's so bad you like, like
it's funny, and then that's okay too, that's okay too.
I mean, I don't want to pile on because I
feel bad for the actress and it Elizabeth Berkeley. But
everybody you know talks about strip tea strip tease. That
(35:46):
was to me more the show Girls. Yeah you know
that that now becomes a comedy. And again I don't
want to pile on because it's not her fault. It
was she didn't direct the movie. Then I can think
of a more serious film that everybody loves last year.
But if I say that that I didn't I did
not appreciate it. It's not really that. It's not anyone's fault. No,
it's too much. I can't especially now that I've made
(36:07):
a film, I can't handle it. Like there's so much
work that goes into making films. I don't mind if
somebody takes a swing and misses or you know, I'm
more of like if you're going for it's usually the
bigger studio movies where it's just like it's like color
paint by numbers, or they're just putting things together that
they expect audience to see.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
It's like creating by committee.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
I'll say one of my own movies actually that I
think was executed very poorly. There, I'll turn it back around,
so I'm not hurting anybody's feelings. It was a movie
called Down to You with Freddy Prince Junior. He's lovely,
wonderful actor. Yes, but it was a time. It was
a time when teen rom coms were really popular. And
the script and the director wrote the script. He was
(36:50):
a first time director and he was a very very
intelligent and capable guy. The script was very good, and
then Harvey Weinstein got his hands on it and decided
to capital on this trend and it just became dumb.
Like as far as I remember it, I haven't seen
it a long time, but I remember when we were
filming it. We came back to and they're pouring money
at it, like in stupid ways. So when we went
(37:12):
and did reshoots, and I'm told that he decided that
because of the success of Save Last Dance or the
success of Ten Things I Hate About You with me
dancing on the pool table, he like needed to have
me dancing in the film. And it wasn't like I
would I would make a whole movie dancing. I love
to dance, but it was like dumb. It was like, Okay,
let's let's get her on a pool table and have
(37:33):
and try, and you know, it wasn't even imaginative and
I felt so slimy doing it the whole time.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
You know, I don't know if that actually made it
in the film, but it.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
Was annoying to It was annoying because I was like, well,
this is this is so cheap and it's not adding
to the story and this is not like.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
It's not a creative it's not a creative reason. There's
no cre activity behind it. Yeah, Julie s Das you
navigated that so beautifully. You went through all the reasons
why you shouldn't talk about things, and everyone works hard,
and then you managed to bring up Harvey Weinstein. So
therefore you're observed of everything. This is a really good way,
really really good way.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
And by the way I will do we'll say about
strip to sure Girls.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
Sorry again, I even hate that I said that because
piling on to Let's not make fun of Elizabeth Berkeley.
It's not her fault. And what annoys me about that
movie is the exploitation of her. It's like putting her
up there too. It's just yeah, it's just that's interesting.
But anyway, yeah, down to you. You can rent it
and see. Tell me if the dancing on the pool
table scene is still there because it was stupid and
we shouldn't have shot it.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
What is the film that made you laugh the most?
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Bridesmaids? Correct, and I will watch.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
I will just flip on YouTube and watch that scene
in the airplane when I feel like I need to
get a little pick me up.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Still hasn't been topped Bridesmaids.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Nope.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Julius Styles, you have been wonderful. However, when you were
ninety years old, you had a dance party. You had
been sat there on your chair, eating peanut Eminem's and
drinking vodka, and then all your family and friends gathered
around and you said, is it time for the dance party?
And they said yeah. You got up and you danced.
You danced twelve hours straight. All your favorite songs, you had,
(39:11):
everything was playing, all the different types of music that
you've loved for your life. And you're with your kids
and with your husband, with your friends, and you're dancing
dunce and it's really really great. And then after twelve hours,
you will collapse onto a giant, giant couch and you
have a cuddle and you're cuddled and snuggled up together,
and then you close your eyes and you fall asleep.
(39:33):
And then while you're asleep, you have a massive brain
memorryjur and you die. I'm walking past with a coffin,
you know, I'm like, and I go, hey, everyone ever's
part around the catch And I go, where's Julia Styles?
And they go, oh, she's just napping. And they go, oh, no,
I think she's dead. And I go, oh shit, all right,
So I say, oh, come and help me, and basically
(39:55):
we get you into the coffin, but I've misjudged the
size of the coffin. You are going to fit in
that we have to get so I'm like, everyone, can
you get around? Grab access? And we got access. Everyone access.
Start chopping you up, chopping you up into pieces. We
chop you up, and then we put you in a
blender and we pour it all into the coffin. And
the coffin is absolutely full. There's only enough room in
this coffin for me to slip one DVD into the
(40:17):
side for you to take across to the other side.
And on the other side, it's movie night every night.
What film are you taking to show everyone in music
Heaven when it is your movie night to their styles? Wow?
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Oh yeah, I'm got to pick a good music movie.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
It was really wired. I was going to make you
cry with your death.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
No, because I know I have many coping mechanisms too
that happen. Although that sounds like a beautiful thing. That
sounds like a beautiful it's actually my favorite death that
we've had so far on this.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
I'm thinking of music documentaries, but that I don't want
to play that in Heaven. Oh what if I.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
Did like a whole panel for every all the musicians
and having like you know, Simone documentary or most recently
there's this Sly Slide and the family Stone documentary Sly Lives,
and then maybe the band you like that concert that
Scorsese did Woodstock.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
So you're doing a sort of festival up in heaven. Yeah,
it's a music festivor and a music duck festival with
a Q and A with the actual musicians.
Speaker 3 (41:17):
Yeah, and then and like, oh, how accurate was that depiction?
Speaker 2 (41:21):
Was that a good interpretation?
Speaker 3 (41:22):
Maybe some musicals thrown in there with the most recent
West Side Story boz Lehman's West Side Story.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
Oh, I can't believe.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
I didn't mention in any of the questions, very specific questions,
so I'll have to figure out what category this would
fit into. But the boz Lehmon's Romeo and Juliet, well,
that was revolutionary and that was I auditioned for that,
But yeah I did, But I mean I was completely
I was like in the general casting call, I was
nowhere near the echelon that Claire Danes was at the time,
(41:49):
and she was fantastic in it. So everything happens for
a reason. That was such a beautiful movie, that was
a beautiful movie. So what category would that fit into?
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Memorable?
Speaker 1 (41:58):
I don't know. All right, you're going to listen. Normally
it has to be one DVD. But because you're putting
on an entire festival and it's really involving everyone, and
it feels like what you've really done in Heaven is
you've turned it into a community and I love that.
So there's gonna be a music festival, but you're also
taking Romeo plus Juliet Juts. Please tell us before you
(42:21):
leave how where to watch your film and if there's
anything else we should be looking out for in the
coming months.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
It's called Wish You Were Here.
Speaker 3 (42:29):
It's available in the US, oh, digitally anywhere you rent
or buy movies, Prime, Fandango, Apple, and then I think
internationally it'll be coming out later.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
In the year in May.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
For just like ninety minutes, turn off the cynical part
of your brain and hopefully you can enjoy a good laugh,
a good cry.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Maybe you'll laugh while you cry.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
I don't know. I worry I'm going to find your
film absolutely devastating. Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (42:55):
There's definitely moments of levity to suck you in the being. Yes,
it is. Heart wrenching, but ultimately very hopeful. It's not
going to leave you in a pile of despair. It's
going to make you. My intent was to make you
see the beauty in life and you know, appreciate the
life's preciousness. But that's also that's also that's fary devastating.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
Yeah, Julius Darts, thank you so much for doing this.
You have been wonderful. I look forward to seeing your
film and whatever you do in the future. I wish
you a lovely death. Good day to you. Thank you
so much, Thank you so much. I finished recording with Julia,
(43:38):
and then that day she sent me a number of
voice notes that she once included in the podcast. So
here they are, Brett.
Speaker 3 (43:46):
It was such a pleasure to talk to you. I'm
laughing because the nerd in me is now sending you
a PostScript or a post podcast voice memo. And I've
recorded it now three times, and I realized that I'm
speaking like you, that I was doing the same intonations
and kind of pauses, lilt.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
Anyway, put this in if you will.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
But I thought of.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
Two more movies that are extraordinary, and forgot to mention
when we were talking doctor Strange Love, Doctor Strange Love,
Peter Seller's Beautiful movie cinema, classic, hilarious, also deep and meaningful,
whatever category you want to put that in. And then
also El Norte was a movie that I watched many
(44:28):
many years ago, I think in high school, and it
really opened my mind to the story that the family
is struggling with in that film. Postcards from the Edge,
very funny. Okay, thank you. It was really nice to
talk to you. Oh my god, now I'm just being annoying.
I'm annoyed with myself, but I can't help it. The
best ending to a movie, of course, is Thelma and Louise.
(44:49):
Oh my god, please put this in. I know I
sound like a crazy person, but oh well. Oh and
Splendor in the Grass Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood. That
is when she's in the bathtub and she's screaming, I'm
not spoiled, mom, I'm not spoiled.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
That was an awesome movie. Okay, I'm done.
Speaker 1 (45:07):
I'm done. So that was episode three hundred and forty two.
Head over to the Patreon at patreon dot com forward
last Brett Gold's team for the extra twenty minutes of chat,
secrets and video with Julia go to have a podcast.
Give us a five star rating. I'm write about the
film that means the most to you and why it's
a lovely thing to read and it helps numbers and
he's really appreciated. Thank you so much. Thank you so
(45:28):
much to Julia for giving me her time. Thanks to
Scruby's Pipping the Distraction Pieces Network. Thanks you Buddy Peace
for producing it. Thanks to iHeartMedia and Wilfano's Big Money
Players Network posting it. Thanks to the graphics, please the
light in for the photography. Come join me next week
for another amazing guest. Thank you all for listening. I
hope you're well. That's it for now, and in the meantime,
have a lovely week and please be excellent to each others.
(46:08):
Back back by the bat backs out sack bysack by
the bat back colors outcas backs back back back backs
out by back back back
Look at how it's only films to be buried with. Hello,
and welcome to films to be buried with. My name
is Brett Golstein. I'm a comedian and actor, a writer,
a director, a bonnet, and I love films. As Yah
(00:22):
Yassi once said, history is not written in a single stroke,
but in layers of lived moments, you know, like in
Forrest Gump and whatnot. Every week I invite a special
guest over. I tell them they've died, then I get
them to discuss their life through the films that want
the most of them. Previous guests include Barry Jenkins, Kevin Smith,
Sharon Stone, and even Dead Clambles. But this week we
(00:42):
have the amazing actor, writer, producer, and director and dancer.
It's Julia Stiles. All episodes of Shrinking Season one and
two are now available on Apple TV. Get caught up
on all of them before we release season three. Head
over to the Patroon at patroon dot com Forward a
safe Prett Goldstein, where you get an extra twenty minutes
with Julia where we talk secrets, beginnings and endings. You
(01:02):
get the whole episode uncart adfree and as a video.
Check it out over at patreon dot com forwards left
Brett girlsde Juliet Styles. You might know her from her
legendary roles in Ten Things I Hate About You, Save
the Last Dance, and more recently, Husslers and Riviera. Julius
Stiles's directorial debut Wish You Were Here, is out now.
You very much should watch it. I'd never met Julie before.
(01:23):
I was very excited to do this. We recorded this
on zoom. It was an absolute pleasure and I really
think you're going to love this one. She also sent
me some voice notes to add to the end of
the episode. Hopefully they're included here. So that's it for now.
I very much hope you enjoy episode three hundred and
forty two of Films to Be Buried With. Hello, and
(01:52):
welcome to Films to Be Buried With. It is me
Brett Goldstein, and I am joined today by an actor,
a writer, a director, a dancer, a born identity, and
ten Things You Hate about a Save the Last Dancer,
a mona Lisa Smiler, a hero, a legend, and an icon.
(02:17):
The list goes on. I can't believe she's here, but
she is. Please welcome to the show. It's the wonderful.
It's Julia Styles.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Oh, thank you so much. What a fun introduction and
such a pleasure to talk to you. Such a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Nice to me you. Juli dar was a big fan.
Sorry the intro was so short. We could have gone
on a lot longer. That's all right.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
I think it was your enthusiasm that made it all
worth it even better. You get the award for a
most Enthusiastic Intro.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Thank you very much, I take it. How are you?
You have just released a film that you have written
and directed? Is this correct?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
That is correct? The movie is called Wish You Were Here?
Did you have a chance to see it? No pressure
if you didn't, I.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Just don't know if this is I'm afraid I did
not have a chance to see it, and I only
knew about it this morning. And I'm very excited that
that's okay.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
No, it's not a test. Not a test. Not a test. Yeah, yeah,
I can talk about it fresh. That's yes. So it's
called wh You Were Here? It's based on a book.
It's been a career. I mean it's been a career long. No,
something that I've wanted to do for at least the
last ten years, and then five years ago an actress
who's actually in the film sent me this book and
(03:27):
said how about adapting this?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
And I fell in love with it.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
And now it's out in theaters and it's been such
a it's very surreal.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Right now it's finally out in theaters.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
And this is the first thing you directed, right, is
that true?
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah? I directed a couple of shorts, but that was
many years ago, made a lot of mistakes or you know,
learned from that.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
But it's been this is the first feature.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
How was the actual making of it? How did you
find being a director?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I loved it. I'm totally hooked. I absolutely loved it.
I mean, it's a ton of work and it's exhausting,
especially when you're in production, but I've never felt more energized.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
There's something it's like going on along car trip.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
You know, if you're in the passenger seat, you start
to doze off, but if you're the driver, you're like
in it.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yes, Yeah, it was really really exhilarating.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, there's none of the boring bits when you're the director.
There's no gaps. There's always something to do. There's always
something to do.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
You always have to be thinking ten steps ahead and
planning your whole day and ready to pivot if things
go wrong, which they inevitably do. But that's more like
the production filming part of it. I found that the
editing room, which is a longer part of the process,
that's months and months plus sound and color and all that,
I found that really really enriching because it's where the
craftsmanship comes in, and that's where you're sort of the
(04:40):
final stages of piecing it all together and polishing it.
And it's also kind of more like a nine to
five job where I felt, yeah, a little more sane.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
That's true. Tell me this, because I'm always interested in
the making of a film. How much changed from your
initial vision of it, how much changed whilst filming? And
then how much changed in the edit? Like how much
of it did you change? The story? Did you change
the order of things?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
I did change a lot from the book.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
I adapted the screenplay, and you know, I had the
blessing of the novelist Renee Carlino. She read my first
draft and then she gave me some notes, but she
really said, you can make this your own. And I
made it clear to her that I was trying to
capture the spirit of her book and that there were
so many things that I loved about it, the dialogue,
the premise, the characters, and I pulled out the things
that I wanted to highlight, but there was a lot
that needed to be distilled for a film because it's
(05:27):
just a completely different medium, you know. And then actually,
it's funny, I went back and looked at I hadn't
looked at the book or the script for such a
long time, I guess, since we were in filming last year.
And I went back, as I thought I was going
to post on Instagram, like, I saw this thing that
the Writer's Guild had done where they take like a
snippet of the or a screen grab of the a
portion of the script, and then the picture that's actually
(05:48):
in the movie. And I was like, oh my god,
it was so different. I saw all my like chicken
scratch notes and highlight or marks.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
But then yeah, there was so much that's different.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
And actually, one of the without giving it a way,
a big twist in the film, there's a change that
I made to the script three weeks before we were
going to start shooting. That's pretty significant change, and it
was because we couldn't afford we didn't have time or
money for a larger sequence that I had, and I
needed to simplify it. And I came up with this
idea that's not in the book, and I was like, now,
(06:19):
to me, it makes the whole movie. It makes it's
one of my favorite parts of the whole piece.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
That's just to say that I think I really loved
I think I really loved the problem solving side of
being a director. I found that my commute to work,
driving to the studio was often like hugely inspirational.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I don't know if that means I.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Was like being a bad driver and not really paying
when I was very much in my own head. I
feel like or walking, like walking and listening to headphones
is very inspirational to me.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Are you in the film?
Speaker 2 (06:47):
I am not. There wasn't really a part for me.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I also think it's way too I don't know how
people like Ben Affleck do it. I think it's too much.
I don't have the bandwidth to be on both sides
of the camera. I was really happy to not have
to go into hair and makeup.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Every morning and worry about what I look like.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
But there was a talk of me doing a cameo
and I had written At one point I had written
a scene that was like a half a page, just
a little bit of me appearing in the film. But
then I cut it. We never filmed it because I
just thought it would be too distracting. It would take
you out of the film if all of a sudden
you saw a person that you recognize and you know
is the director.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
It's just too much.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
That's fair. And how was it with working with the actors?
I bet you were brilliantly directed, I think not.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
I think with the technical stuff like where to point
the camera and lenses and all that, I felt very
comfortable because I've spent decades in those conversations in a
blocking rehearsal where you're listening to the director and the
cinematographer talk about where they're going to point the camera.
My husband works in the camera department, so we always
talk about I've learned a lot from him about lenses
(07:51):
and and focus, depth.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Of field and all that.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
But with the actors, I think I did everything that
I swore I would never do as a director, Like
all the things that you kind of grit your teeth
are like annoyed when a director gives you a line
reading or says like just do it, just do it faster,
or you know, go again, Okay, let's do it again.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Let's do it again.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
You know, I had all these lofty ideas about I'm
going to go in and I'm just gonna, like, not gonna,
I'm not gonna give them a note before the first take,
just so they have the space to figure it out.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
But you don't have time.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
And so I would jump in and be like, just happier,
just do happier, pace it up.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Pace it up.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
You know which I mean? I think my you know, honestly,
you need to do you need to do line reading. Sometimes.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Oh oh that was the other thing is that because
I had I had the script in my head for
so many years, I caught myself going, oh, wait, you're
just giving them notes because you have an idea of
how it's supposed to sound in your head. But why
what's wrong with the way that they're doing it? So
I did have to back off a little bit.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Interest Yeah, the whole line reading thing. Sometimes I'm like,
so I've had directors where they're talking around, talking around,
talking abound, and I know they want to just give
the line reading, but they're trying to find it and
then just say it, just say how you hear it,
and then at least understand what it is you're guy
in FORO interesting.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
I will say now, now I do actually as an actress,
I do appreciate a line reading, and I do appreciate
just like this very direct, like just do it faster
kind of thing, because sometimes that's more clear than some
internal discussion.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Did you have I guess you probably can't say, but
I'm curious if you had behavior from any access such
as like, hey, I've got loads of thoughts on the character.
I think I'd like to change a lot of this
where you were like, just fucking do it. I've written this,
I've spent a lot of time on this.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Well, let me say I will say that I think
I was.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
I mean, I think my actors were. I just absolutely
adore them, and they certainly wowed me and surprised me
a lot. I think I was very sensitive to not
pushing them too hard, even though I kind of knew
that sometimes I needed to. There's a scene where the
male lead, Minha Masud, he has a kind of breakdown
in the hospital, and it's one of the pivotal moments
of the film that launches the whole third act where
(09:59):
he says, like, I can't just sit here and wait
to die. I have to do something. You have to
get me out of here. We have to go on
a trip. And they do end up going on a trip.
And you know, I did quite a few takes because
he's a certain kind of actor where he brings, you know,
his strength. Every actor has their strengths and then the
things that they need to be pushed on, and his
strength is a kind of groundedness. And I think it's also,
(10:20):
particularly maybe for a male actor, very hard to show
vulnerability like that, and so we had to do multiple
takes and eventually he did break down in a wonderful way. So,
I mean, I think they all were fantastic. It was
just figuring out it's like having different I don't want
to say children, like they're not childish, but I mean
it's like understanding different personalities and what can help guide
them to where they need to go.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah, well, congratulations, I'm excited to see it, and I'm
sorry that I haven't seen it, but that is a
very cool thing.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
There were times.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Again, this is to say that I think All the
actors were wonderful, and I was so grateful to have
them in the film, and particularly the lead Isabelle Firman.
I knew that I had worked with her in a
film where I played her mother, actually, and I could
see that she had this dimina to be in every
scene every day, which I needed for Wish you were here.
But I think that if there were any you know,
I definitely if anyone couldn't remember a line, I think
(11:09):
you know this as an actor, you go back and
you go, Okay, there must be something with the writing
that's passing them.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Yeah. Most of the time. Most of the time, that's true.
That's very true. Yeah, it's like a note in it.
When they can't remember it, you're like, something's not yeah, yeah, yeah.
I was thinking about Save the Last Dance All Time
Classic tend things out about you all time Classic. You
are in an unusual position of I don't know how
(11:35):
old you were when these films happened, but I imagine
fairly young, and these were iconic. You're sort of genuinely iconic,
by which I mean you mean a lot of things
to a lot of people, and I imagine you're not
in control of any of that. You are the avatar
of a lot of meaning to a lot of people,
(11:56):
and I wonder how that was and is to actually
live through as a human person.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
As a human person, I mean, I'm still living through it.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
I would what was it like to live through?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
What was it like to live through? Then? What is
it like to live through now? I suppose simple, just
a simple question, what is your existence? What is tell
me about existence?
Speaker 3 (12:18):
I think I'm only now, you know, or recently, really
really appreciating it and really focused on, like really taking
it in the significance of being a performer that can
continue working for many years and have people still talking
about the work that you've done. At the time when
it was happening, it was very surreal, and I think
(12:38):
I had a kind I went through many different stages
of how to. I don't want to say cope with it,
because it's not a negative thing. It's just a very
unique thing to walk down the street and have people
recognize your face and say, oh, I've seen you on
my TV screen. It's a relationship with the world that
is changing and takes a little getting used to. It
can be everything from super exciting to a super scary
(13:00):
and I was very young when it started with me,
so over the course of the last twenty years twenty
five years, it's been a process of figuring out what
that is, how I feel about it, how to navigate it,
and many different evolutions, how to how to appreciate it,
how to try and control it when it feels a
little overwhelming.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I have a really great therapist.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
I was going to ask, what's your what's your tip
for when it's overwhelming? But is it therapy? Get the therapist?
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Well, no, I know, no, I think I mean, that's
part of part of it, but I think more than that,
it's Living in New York City is really helpful because
you are forced to engage with the world and there's
lots of stuff going on around you that has nothing
to do with you, and so that's a good way
to keep thinking anything that really can keep it in perspective.
You know, I'm coming off the promotional train of this movie,
(13:53):
which you were here and can just so, I think
I've always had this aversion to feeling like or this
awareness of like, uh oh, we're thinking about you're thinking
about yourself too much? Yeah, wait, you focus, you're in
your own little bubble where you think everybody's looking at
your Instagram posts, but actually they're not.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
There's a lot more going on around you, you know.
And that's something.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
That was That was the thing that made me nervous
as a twenty something year old. But now I think
I can I understand it. I navigate it more, I
manage it more.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Listen, I don't actively look for these things. So I
may be wrong about this, but you've seemed to me
someone who has existed as a successful, famous, good actor
who I don't know anything about your private life, you
know what I mean, you seem to have stayed out
of Unless I'm completely wrong, I don't feel I see you.
(14:44):
You know what I mean? You exist as someone I
know is a very it does very good work. But
you seem to have maintained a private life. Is that true?
Am I wrong about that?
Speaker 3 (14:52):
No?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
That thank you so much. That's wonderful.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I mean, that's I have always admired and wanted to
emulate actors that you don't know that much about, because
it's easier to believe them as somebody else in a story.
But I but I mean, you know, but there's always
there's always our personal lives and our hobbies or whatever.
We you know, just little anecdotes about our lives go
hand in hand with promoting whatever it is that is
(15:14):
coming out. So inevitably we're gonna know more. You're going
to have to open up a little bit.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yeah, in that way.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
But I'm glad to hear that. It's it's not too much.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Yeah, never. But like some people, you see an awful
lot and they're photographs everywhere, and sometimes I'm like, I
always wonder how much of it is a choice, how
much of it is completely out of their control, and
whether it's a thing that you decided very early on
to stay out of or I don't know how you
can't completely control it. But were you always this way?
(15:43):
I suppose.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
I think I've been pretty protective of it.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Yeah, yeah, great, I love it. I love it do
these styles. I've forgotten to tell you something I should
have told you up top, and it's fucking mad that
I forgot to tell you.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Oh my god, shit, this is what you've died.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
You're dead. You're dead. You are no longer with us,
You're dead. Sorry, how did you die? Oh?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Yeah, god, you really went there? You really went there?
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Yeah, I keep waiting for you to say like in
the Jason Bourne movie, and now you're talking about like
existential existential.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Yeah, you're dead and thanks for spoiling the Born movies.
You're dead.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
These are the things that we always have we avoid, actively,
actively avoid thinking about.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yeah. And this is again why I'm very grateful you're
doing the podcast. How did you die?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
What?
Speaker 3 (16:39):
I'm going to start crying Jesus, this is what I
sort through and wish you were here?
Speaker 1 (16:43):
What?
Speaker 3 (16:43):
This is what has been brought up in Wish you
Were Here endlessly for the last five years with me,
and particularly in the last year when we were making
the movie. This is not shameless self promotion. I'm going
to answer your question. But this has been stirring in me.
This has been stirring in me for years because and
I've been I've been channeling it through Wish You Were Here.
Because one of the reasons I picked this book and
wanted to make it a movie was I thought, oh,
(17:04):
the main characters are so young for and they have
a very young romance, but it's actually a much more
mature story because what they're dealing with is issues of mortality.
And I felt it on set when they play this
game where they tell each other a story of this
imagined love affair that they have together as though they
are an older couple looking back on a lifetime of memories.
And I mean, I can't tell you how the lumps
(17:26):
in my throat for the last over a year longer
than that, and it tugs at something that is definitely
on my mind. And I could see it with the
crew too. They were the clemmed a lot as well.
So how do I okay? I ask, is.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
This a constant thing that plays on your mind? And
the ways has ord? Has this been recently in the
last five years, this has been.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
In the last seven years, I would say since I
became a mother.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Right.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Interesting, the anxiety has it's always bubbling under the surface,
and it's just a question of how to keep it
tampered down and not let it rob you of the
joy of everyday life. Oh my god, people, I must
answer this in so many different ways. I don't want
to think about it.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Think about it.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
You could make we can make it fun. You could.
You also couldn't diet three hundred years out.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I'm gonna die.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
I'm gonna die, well, not too long because I don't
want to outlive my kids.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I'm uh I.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
I have a dance party, hug and kiss, almost like
the reverse of a wedding, or like a buttontz foot
or something like. You have a big party, dance my
face off, drink, hug and kiss everybody.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
But that's the point of not knowing what's going on.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Hug and kiss everyone that I love, in particular my family,
and then we cozy up with blankets and go to
sleep and cuddle and I go peacefully.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
In the night. How old do you want to be
when this happens?
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Ninety?
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Okay, it depends on my physical shape, but I think
if I'm having a dance party, I'm pretty good.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
One of my best friends her grandmother, I'll never forget.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
We would go visit her country house, and her grandmother
was like eighty five years old and would just sit
in her chair, eating peanut m and ms in a glass
bowl and drinking her vodka and just letting everybody talk
and do their stuff around her and watching it.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
And I was like, Oh, that's fun. I think that's
a good way to go into old age.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
That's nice.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, I'd say eighty five or ninety.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Can I ask and feel free to no answer. So
you've started feeling this way since you had children. Do
you think the anxiety is more like because you need
to be around to protect your children, or because you
don't to miss out on your children, or all of
the above, all of the above.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
And I think also you're just way more aware of
life than the opposite and the preciousness of life, I mean,
because I think I feel like in my twenties and
thirty early thirties, I was like so care free, like
that feeling of being invincible. I used to do the
craziest things on film sets because I thought that there
was this like invincibility when a camera's on you.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
That's interesting.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
I remember filming that film, It's like the little independent
film with Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker in Iceland, and
there was a stunt where the we're supposed to drive
a car off of a cliff as like an insurance
f odd thing, and of course they have divers and
stuck people to do it. But I was like, but
I want to jump off the cliff. You're gonna put
the camera on me and I'm gonna jump off the cliff.
And I had to really talk them into it because
(20:19):
it's an insurance. I mean it's a hazard if the
actor gets hurt. And they indulged me. They got like
divers to wait in the water so that they could
pull me out because of what it was Iceland, that
it was very cold, and we did one take. And
I look back on that well, like, never in a
million years would I do that, Like what was I thinking?
Speaker 2 (20:36):
But you were thinking.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
I was thinking of if a camera's on me, nothing
can happen. I mean other stunts in movies too, where
I would never in a million years do it now.
And I think it's because, yeah, you're just aware of
the coming and going.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
I've never thought of it like that. Tell me this,
what do you think happens after you die? Do you
think there's enough to life?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
This is a.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Scene in the movie. This is a conversation that they
have spoil it for you. I think, well, I will
answer that myself. But you know a lot of my
voices in this film too, And I although these were
lines from the book, but you know there's a reason that.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
I plucked them out.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
The main characters say to each other, the guy's dying
and the prognosis is not good, and she says to him,
are you scared? And he goes no, and she goes,
have you thought about what happens after? And he says
he says, he thinks it's lights out, baby, and she says, no,
that's not true. I think that the memories that we create.
(21:31):
I think your artwork, the influence that you have over
other people their memories of you, that's what keeps you
alive anyway, So what.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Do I think it happens to our consciousness?
Speaker 3 (21:41):
So obviously I was like exploring all these questions in
the film, But I what do I think happens? There's
a part of me that does think it's lights out,
like we don't have a consciousness anymore. But I do
believe that there's an energetic I am spiritual, like, I
think there's an energetic resonance, and that the memories that
people have of us do you keep us alive in
(22:01):
some way? But I think in terms of our own consciousness,
I think I don't think. I don't think we're up
in the clouds looking over and everybody.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Well, Julia, the answer you know what happens?
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Tell me, ah, where have you been?
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Yes, there's a heaven. You're going straight to heaven and
while you're up there, you're going to have a lovely time.
And then if you want to come back in a
different form and try something else, you can do. But
in the meantime, there's a heaven and you're going to it,
and everyone is so excited to see you in heaven,
and it is filled with your favorite thing. What's your
favorite thing?
Speaker 2 (22:34):
A thing? Not not people? Music. Music.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Oh, it's filled with music. Oh my god. Every room
a different genre. There's live music, there's dance music. There's
everything you want in all the rooms. But also everyone
wants to talk to you about your life, but they
want to talk about your life through film. And the
first thing they ask you is what is the first
film you remember seeing? Julia Styles at home? It was
(23:01):
Adventures in Babysitting Nice.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
No, you know I actually saw that, well, I had
the VHS, but we also went to the It was
the first PG thirteen movie I was allowed to see,
and we saw it in the theater.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
There must have been one earlier than that.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Oh, I feel like I remember only because I think
I got my cousins in trouble. That my cousins came
to sleep over and we went to the video store
and I picked I was two years older Ernest Safe's Christmas,
and they got they were not allowed to see a
movie like that.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Likes it's so outrighteous.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
So I was the bad. I was the bad I
was the bad cousin. It was the bad influence.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Yeah, when you watched Adventures in Babysitting, do you remember thinking,
fucking hew, this is brilliant. I want to do this.
I do.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Actually, I like the opening dance scene that Elizabeth Shoe does.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
I love that so much. Another movie that my mom.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Insist she took me to see in the theater, but
I was like five years old when it came out,
so I don't know how that worked out, but which
was a huge reference for wish you were here desperately
seeking Susan.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
I remember.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Madonna made me want to be an actress or I
just wanted to be like her, and I just I remember,
on such a subconscious level as a little girl, thinking
like I really tapped into this identity crisis that Rosanna
Arquette was having, wanting to get out of the suburbs
and kind of wanting to emulate Madonna's free spirited.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Life in the East village.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
And then I watched the movie over and over and
over and over again when I was prepping which You
Were Here, and it really holds up. But I used
it as references for like costume and production design and
the color scheme. And it's a much lighter film than
I think Wish You Were Here is.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
But visually I was. I was really into it.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Did you grow up in You?
Speaker 2 (24:43):
I did? And actually the theater that is in the movie.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
I don't know if you remember, but at the very
end they go to a movie theater and it's Bleaker
Street Cinemas, which was on Bleaker Street and LaGuardia Place.
And I grew up in Soho, kind of near the
West Village. And I mean, maybe it's apocryphal, but I
feel like I've talked about it with my mom that
we went to go see it at that theater.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
So meta.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
That's cool. Yeah, what a great reference. And it hasn't
come up on this podcast.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Look at my hair. Look at my hair. My hair
is totally Madonna hair from that era.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
What is the film that scared you the most? Do
you like being scared?
Speaker 3 (25:20):
I do not like being scared, and I don't like
I mean, it's a certain kind of it's a certain
kind of scared, like those deep fears that we have.
I remember being very scared of Freddy. What were the
Freddy Krueger movies Elm Street? Yeah, there was something super
creepy about those, But then silence of the lambs. I mean,
I'm not I'm kind of easily scared.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
I think I think Freddy Krueger is fair to be
scared by day. It is a Peter File that's been
set on fire and has scissors for hands. Scared.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
But there was a video game of it.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
I had the little Nintendo, the Gray Nintendo, and there
was a Nightmare on Elm Street video game, and that
just even the freakin' theme music was.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Too much funny.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
About crying? What is the film that made you cry
the most? Do you like crying? Are you a crier?
Speaker 3 (26:05):
I like, I enjoy a good cry. I made a
movie about that tries to get you to have a
good cry.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
I cry a lot at the end.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
I mean I cried for personal reasons a lot at
the end of Wish you were here from just like
the overwhelm of or not overwhelmed, just the joy and
all the emotions of like WHOA I made this I
made this, we made.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
This, But oh, side question about your film then that
I'm curious.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
I'm also not just trying to promote my movie. This
is a genuine answer.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
No, yes, I'm in. But when you're editing a film,
which sounds like frankly devastating from everything you've said, but
when you're editing it, and there are the bits that
if the film is working for an audience, they will
cry at did you find yourself in the way that
with a comedy sometimes you edit it for so long
that you can't laugh anymore. You forget that it's funny.
(26:52):
Maybe did you get to the point of, like, I
don't find this movie anymore and I have to assume
it still is or was it always? Did it always
work for you? Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (27:01):
There are moments that always worked for me, and then
there were moments where I was able to be a
little bit more objective, which I don't think is a
bad thing either. But I'm trying to think other movies
that other movies that make me cry, Like you know,
it's silly things like the beginning of Dumbo, when when
the elephant, when the elephant, when Dumbo puts his ear
(27:21):
out and yeah, all that, you know.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
All that Dumbo is a fucking killer.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
What is the film that you love? Most people don't
like it. It is not critically acclaimed, but you love
it unconditionally.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Oh, I don't know if it's I don't know if
it's not critically acclaimed. It's kind of a it's a
cult classic.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
I think.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Well, so I do think that people. There's definitely fans
of this movie. The movie Clue is like literally one
of my all time favorite comedies and I know it
by heart. I mean I could we had two hours more,
I could sit here recite the whole movie to you.
I think it's one of the most tim Prey in
his prime.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
I think that's pretty It wasn't well received at the time,
and I think now I think that's a good shot.
I don't know why, because it was fucking brilliant always.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
What about on the other end of the scale, a
film that you used to love but you've watched it
recently and you've gone, oh, I don't like this anymore,
perhaps because you have changed, not the film.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
I want to say, like, either no disrespect to putting Tarantino. Either,
movies like Reservoir dogs or pulp fiction. We love pulp
fiction when it came out, and I wanted.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
To be cool, so I liked it too.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
But that kind of violence to me, I can't really
stomach anymore.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Yeah, absolutely, fair enough. What is the film that means
the most to you? Not necessarily the film is good,
but the experience you had around seeing the film will
always make it important to you. Julius Styles, hmmm, so.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Distracting when you call me them phone name. Not distracting.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
It just feels like lots of important emotional weight is
put on this answer.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Yeah, it's a big one. This one a big one.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
More recently, I think the Lobster. I remember seeing the
Lobster Yogo Slanthromosis film in theaters and going like, whoa,
this is brilliant. This is absolutely brilliant. And it's the
power of going to the theater and being forced to
turn off your phone and just focus on being taken
away in a story. Is what we what we I
(29:21):
crave experiencing, and that was definitely one of those things
one of those experiences for me. Silly enough, I think
also straight out of Compton, do you remember.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
That movie about Nwa.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Just I'm thinking just the experience of being in the
theater because I went to go see it, and I
was very nostalgic about that music as a dumb little
white girl in middle school who again wanted to be
cool and was kind of because everybody was into that music,
or at least at my school they were.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
I was too.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
And there's a term fronting, and I feel like fronting
meaning you're it's like, not like there's something anyway, there's
something so silly about but it was a very but.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
I was because it's not planet.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
But I'm watching the movie and I'm really really enjoying
it and feeling like really tough. And there was like
a girl two people behind me who were talking the
whole time, really loudly at the screen, and I, for
whatever reason, decided to turn around and be like, you know,
first I gave them the Seinfeld like half stare, and
that didn't work. And then and somehow I became sort
of belligerent and was like told them to please be quiet.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
And fuck it, I fucking gave it to it.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
She and she quickly put me in my place, and
then you realized that I'm just I'm not as tough
as I sound. My bark and so she she said
something like like she was gonna cut me or.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
I don't know if so.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
It scared me so much I shut up and we
just watched the movie and I was like, before the
lights come up, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Yeh, that's fucking really makes the rest of that film intense.
And that they were behind you as well. Yeah, I'm
so sorry.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Oh this could be a totally this could be a
totally inappropriate story to tell.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
But it speaking of just remembering more or the experience
of being in the theater than just the movie itself.
This is so awkward. I don't know why I'm even
bringing this up. I went to go see Blue is
the warmest color in theaters and like, that movie is
so graphic. To be sitting next to strangers, it's so explicit,
to be sitting next to strangers is so uncomfortable. But
the person next to me was eating Chinese food, Like what.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
What like nudles? Yes, nudles with chopsteaks.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
And like didn't pause in the full on.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Sex thirty five minutes sex scene. Yes, that's righteous. So
are you aligned seeing this film? No?
Speaker 2 (31:35):
I went with a friend, but was very.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
I believe that's great. Didn't stop. Didn't stop for the
sex scene out of respect to car Still.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Hungry, Still hungry, could wait, couldn't wait a couple more minutes.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
What is the film you most relate Tom.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Desperately seeking Susan again, that storyline. I think that's why
it still resonates with me many many years later. It
just Roseanne arcad character creating the freedom that Madonna has.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Okay, Julia, what is the sexiest film you've ever seen?
I didn't use your full name, so it didn't freak
you out.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Okay, I mean obviously Jerdie Dancing comes to mind.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Yeah, holds up.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
The Notebook is really sexy. Yeah, Notebook's really sexy. Oh,
please be on the pines. I love that film. Yeah, underrated, Juliet.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
If you've listened to the show, you'll know that there's
a subcategory to this question, traveling boners worrying why duns
film you found a rousing that you weren't sure you
should say that again? Saying it? The sub category is
traveling boners worrying why duns a film you found a
rousing that you weren't sure you should? Please? Don't maybe
(32:48):
say it again?
Speaker 2 (32:49):
No, No, I heard it.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
I heard it.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
I get it.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Arousing. Oh man, Oh, I mean I want to say
Romancing the Stone. I'm thinking or overboard.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Yeah, overboard, answer over it's a great answer. Yeah, complicated,
complicated things going on there.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Yeah, I don't think that the tone is a comedy.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
But I found it really hot. It's very sexy. But
also she has been kidnapped, yes, and but it is hot.
That is a great answer. Yeah, Okay, well done, thank you.
We can move past that. Now. What is objectively, objectively
the greatest film ever made? Might not be your favorite,
(33:29):
but it is the best of cinema?
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Cool hand, Luke. Yeah, I'm trying. I'm having a hard time.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Like when you think of the best of cinema, I
want to think of like something visually very stunning, But
I go back to the performances and the story and
Paul Newman still captivating in that, and the chain gang
and the human spirit trying to break out of this captivity.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
It's pretty great, pretty great, great answer. You can have it.
I'm going to give you ten points.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
We're done. We're done. You're on the board.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
We went out, we left, we left. Screening of a
Q and A of whish you were here. And somebody
on the street asked me who was in film school?
And he asked me, like, tell me a movie that
I have to see, or a director that I have
to follow, or tell me the best movie of all time.
And I said, because it was on my mind. I
was like, you know what I think is really underrated.
It is Desperately Seeking Susan and Susan Seidelman is an
amazing director.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
And my husband scolded me and he was like, you
need to say something like Casablanca. I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
I don't think so. Yeah, tell me this. What is
the film you could or have? What's the most over
and over again?
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Could or have?
Speaker 1 (34:33):
It's Desperately Seeking Susan.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
No, no, I would say, it's Clue Again. I know
it by heart. Flames, keeping flames on the side of
my face.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Breath breaths, keep going.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
And you had a weapon, and you had a webinar.
You had a weapon, and you have had a weapon.
One plus two plus two plus one. Communism is just
a red herring. That was the medley, That was a medic.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Do a one woman show where you do all of Clue.
I'm telling you you would sell out for three years.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Done. Done.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
That's a fucking great idea. What is the worst film
you've ever seen? We don't like to be negative. Whether
you want to navigate this question.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Mm oh man? I uh or oh man, I can't.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
I feel like I'm going to insult people and get
hate mail, because the worst is, you know, what is
a bad film?
Speaker 2 (35:25):
It's really you have to I think you have to.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
You have to explain why I would say that gratuitousness
is annoying to me, because then that you could hear
you veer into when something's so bad you like, like
it's funny, and then that's okay too, that's okay too.
I mean, I don't want to pile on because I
feel bad for the actress and it Elizabeth Berkeley. But
everybody you know talks about strip tea strip tease. That
(35:46):
was to me more the show Girls. Yeah you know
that that now becomes a comedy. And again I don't
want to pile on because it's not her fault. It
was she didn't direct the movie. Then I can think
of a more serious film that everybody loves last year.
But if I say that that I didn't I did
not appreciate it. It's not really that. It's not anyone's fault. No,
it's too much. I can't especially now that I've made
(36:07):
a film, I can't handle it. Like there's so much
work that goes into making films. I don't mind if
somebody takes a swing and misses or you know, I'm
more of like if you're going for it's usually the
bigger studio movies where it's just like it's like color
paint by numbers, or they're just putting things together that
they expect audience to see.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
It's like creating by committee.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
I'll say one of my own movies actually that I
think was executed very poorly. There, I'll turn it back around,
so I'm not hurting anybody's feelings. It was a movie
called Down to You with Freddy Prince Junior. He's lovely,
wonderful actor. Yes, but it was a time. It was
a time when teen rom coms were really popular. And
the script and the director wrote the script. He was
(36:50):
a first time director and he was a very very
intelligent and capable guy. The script was very good, and
then Harvey Weinstein got his hands on it and decided
to capital on this trend and it just became dumb.
Like as far as I remember it, I haven't seen
it a long time, but I remember when we were
filming it. We came back to and they're pouring money
at it, like in stupid ways. So when we went
(37:12):
and did reshoots, and I'm told that he decided that
because of the success of Save Last Dance or the
success of Ten Things I Hate About You with me
dancing on the pool table, he like needed to have
me dancing in the film. And it wasn't like I
would I would make a whole movie dancing. I love
to dance, but it was like dumb. It was like, Okay,
let's let's get her on a pool table and have
(37:33):
and try, and you know, it wasn't even imaginative and
I felt so slimy doing it the whole time.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
You know, I don't know if that actually made it
in the film, but it.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
Was annoying to It was annoying because I was like, well,
this is this is so cheap and it's not adding
to the story and this is not like.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
It's not a creative it's not a creative reason. There's
no cre activity behind it. Yeah, Julie s Das you
navigated that so beautifully. You went through all the reasons
why you shouldn't talk about things, and everyone works hard,
and then you managed to bring up Harvey Weinstein. So
therefore you're observed of everything. This is a really good way,
really really good way.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
And by the way I will do we'll say about
strip to sure Girls.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
Sorry again, I even hate that I said that because
piling on to Let's not make fun of Elizabeth Berkeley.
It's not her fault. And what annoys me about that
movie is the exploitation of her. It's like putting her
up there too. It's just yeah, it's just that's interesting.
But anyway, yeah, down to you. You can rent it
and see. Tell me if the dancing on the pool
table scene is still there because it was stupid and
we shouldn't have shot it.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
What is the film that made you laugh the most?
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Bridesmaids? Correct, and I will watch.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
I will just flip on YouTube and watch that scene
in the airplane when I feel like I need to
get a little pick me up.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Still hasn't been topped Bridesmaids.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Nope.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Julius Styles, you have been wonderful. However, when you were
ninety years old, you had a dance party. You had
been sat there on your chair, eating peanut Eminem's and
drinking vodka, and then all your family and friends gathered
around and you said, is it time for the dance party?
And they said yeah. You got up and you danced.
You danced twelve hours straight. All your favorite songs, you had,
(39:11):
everything was playing, all the different types of music that
you've loved for your life. And you're with your kids
and with your husband, with your friends, and you're dancing
dunce and it's really really great. And then after twelve hours,
you will collapse onto a giant, giant couch and you
have a cuddle and you're cuddled and snuggled up together,
and then you close your eyes and you fall asleep.
(39:33):
And then while you're asleep, you have a massive brain
memorryjur and you die. I'm walking past with a coffin,
you know, I'm like, and I go, hey, everyone ever's
part around the catch And I go, where's Julia Styles?
And they go, oh, she's just napping. And they go, oh, no,
I think she's dead. And I go, oh shit, all right,
So I say, oh, come and help me, and basically
(39:55):
we get you into the coffin, but I've misjudged the
size of the coffin. You are going to fit in
that we have to get so I'm like, everyone, can
you get around? Grab access? And we got access. Everyone access.
Start chopping you up, chopping you up into pieces. We
chop you up, and then we put you in a
blender and we pour it all into the coffin. And
the coffin is absolutely full. There's only enough room in
this coffin for me to slip one DVD into the
(40:17):
side for you to take across to the other side.
And on the other side, it's movie night every night.
What film are you taking to show everyone in music
Heaven when it is your movie night to their styles? Wow?
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Oh yeah, I'm got to pick a good music movie.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
It was really wired. I was going to make you
cry with your death.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
No, because I know I have many coping mechanisms too
that happen. Although that sounds like a beautiful thing. That
sounds like a beautiful it's actually my favorite death that
we've had so far on this.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
I'm thinking of music documentaries, but that I don't want
to play that in Heaven. Oh what if I.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
Did like a whole panel for every all the musicians
and having like you know, Simone documentary or most recently
there's this Sly Slide and the family Stone documentary Sly Lives,
and then maybe the band you like that concert that
Scorsese did Woodstock.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
So you're doing a sort of festival up in heaven. Yeah,
it's a music festivor and a music duck festival with
a Q and A with the actual musicians.
Speaker 3 (41:17):
Yeah, and then and like, oh, how accurate was that depiction?
Speaker 2 (41:21):
Was that a good interpretation?
Speaker 3 (41:22):
Maybe some musicals thrown in there with the most recent
West Side Story boz Lehman's West Side Story.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
Oh, I can't believe.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
I didn't mention in any of the questions, very specific questions,
so I'll have to figure out what category this would
fit into. But the boz Lehmon's Romeo and Juliet, well,
that was revolutionary and that was I auditioned for that,
But yeah I did, But I mean I was completely
I was like in the general casting call, I was
nowhere near the echelon that Claire Danes was at the time,
(41:49):
and she was fantastic in it. So everything happens for
a reason. That was such a beautiful movie, that was
a beautiful movie. So what category would that fit into?
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Memorable?
Speaker 1 (41:58):
I don't know. All right, you're going to listen. Normally
it has to be one DVD. But because you're putting
on an entire festival and it's really involving everyone, and
it feels like what you've really done in Heaven is
you've turned it into a community and I love that.
So there's gonna be a music festival, but you're also
taking Romeo plus Juliet Juts. Please tell us before you
(42:21):
leave how where to watch your film and if there's
anything else we should be looking out for in the
coming months.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
It's called Wish You Were Here.
Speaker 3 (42:29):
It's available in the US, oh, digitally anywhere you rent
or buy movies, Prime, Fandango, Apple, and then I think
internationally it'll be coming out later.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
In the year in May.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
For just like ninety minutes, turn off the cynical part
of your brain and hopefully you can enjoy a good laugh,
a good cry.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Maybe you'll laugh while you cry.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
I don't know. I worry I'm going to find your
film absolutely devastating. Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (42:55):
There's definitely moments of levity to suck you in the being. Yes,
it is. Heart wrenching, but ultimately very hopeful. It's not
going to leave you in a pile of despair. It's
going to make you. My intent was to make you
see the beauty in life and you know, appreciate the
life's preciousness. But that's also that's also that's fary devastating.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
Yeah, Julius Darts, thank you so much for doing this.
You have been wonderful. I look forward to seeing your
film and whatever you do in the future. I wish
you a lovely death. Good day to you. Thank you
so much, Thank you so much. I finished recording with Julia,
(43:38):
and then that day she sent me a number of
voice notes that she once included in the podcast. So
here they are, Brett.
Speaker 3 (43:46):
It was such a pleasure to talk to you. I'm
laughing because the nerd in me is now sending you
a PostScript or a post podcast voice memo. And I've
recorded it now three times, and I realized that I'm
speaking like you, that I was doing the same intonations
and kind of pauses, lilt.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
Anyway, put this in if you will.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
But I thought of.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
Two more movies that are extraordinary, and forgot to mention
when we were talking doctor Strange Love, Doctor Strange Love,
Peter Seller's Beautiful movie cinema, classic, hilarious, also deep and meaningful,
whatever category you want to put that in. And then
also El Norte was a movie that I watched many
(44:28):
many years ago, I think in high school, and it
really opened my mind to the story that the family
is struggling with in that film. Postcards from the Edge,
very funny. Okay, thank you. It was really nice to
talk to you. Oh my god, now I'm just being annoying.
I'm annoyed with myself, but I can't help it. The
best ending to a movie, of course, is Thelma and Louise.
(44:49):
Oh my god, please put this in. I know I
sound like a crazy person, but oh well. Oh and
Splendor in the Grass Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood. That
is when she's in the bathtub and she's screaming, I'm
not spoiled, mom, I'm not spoiled.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
That was an awesome movie. Okay, I'm done.
Speaker 1 (45:07):
I'm done. So that was episode three hundred and forty two.
Head over to the Patreon at patreon dot com forward
last Brett Gold's team for the extra twenty minutes of chat,
secrets and video with Julia go to have a podcast.
Give us a five star rating. I'm write about the
film that means the most to you and why it's
a lovely thing to read and it helps numbers and
he's really appreciated. Thank you so much. Thank you so
(45:28):
much to Julia for giving me her time. Thanks to
Scruby's Pipping the Distraction Pieces Network. Thanks you Buddy Peace
for producing it. Thanks to iHeartMedia and Wilfano's Big Money
Players Network posting it. Thanks to the graphics, please the
light in for the photography. Come join me next week
for another amazing guest. Thank you all for listening. I
hope you're well. That's it for now, and in the meantime,
have a lovely week and please be excellent to each others.
(46:08):
Back back by the bat backs out sack bysack by
the bat back colors outcas backs back back back backs
out by back back back
Host
Brett Goldstein
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