The Empire Film Podcast

This week's Empire Podcast (episode 664 if you're keeping score!) is more packed with goodness than your average Easter egg. Not only do Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara, and Alex Godfrey get into a discussion about what exactly makes a musical a musical (along with an impromptu visit to a certain mountain), but they tackle the week's movie news, including the revelation that the Oscars will finally have a Best Stunt Design category (not...

Kevin Macdonald's latest documentary, One To One: John & Yoko, is out now in cinemas around the UK, folks, and it's well worth your time for anyone with even a passing interest in John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, and their lives after The Beatles split up. But if you're a Beatlemaniac, this is manna from heaven as it not only brings you remastered footage of the One To One benefit concerts that Lennon and Ono performed at Ma...

This week's episode of the Empire Podcast is jam-packed etc. etc. Bumper-sized, and so on and so forth. But it's true, perhaps this week more than ever as Chris Hewitt sits down for chats with two pairs — first, there's Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, who reunite almost 30 years after The English Patient for this week's Odyssey-sampling drama, The Return. [24:05 - 38:32 approx] Then, there's Rami Malek and Laurence Fishburne, s...

This week's Empire Podcast sees the long-awaited return of one of our favourite guests, the wonderful British actor Will Poulter, who talks to Chris Hewitt about his role in the new movie, Death Of A Unicorn, playing a prize A-hole, and impromptu tongue-twisters. [20:38 - 33:28 approx]Another returning guest joins us this week, as the delightful Amber Midthunder sits down on Zoom with Amon Warmann to dive deep into her role in the ...

We start on a director's chair. We pull back to reveal its back. On it is emblazoned a name. That name? George MacKay, the wonderful star of this week's thought-provoking original movie musical, Joshua Oppenheimer's The End, who pops into the podbooth to have a good old natter [from 30:49 - 48:20 approx] with... We pull back. It's another director's chair. On it, another name: Chris Hewitt. Everyone shrugs their shoulders. But wait...

Welcome to The Shameless Plug, a brand new Empire Podcast regular show, folks. As the title suggests, every month Chris Hewitt will sit down with Empire editor, Nick de Semlyen, for a deep dive into the latest issue of Empire, bringing you the stories behind the stories and covering everything including the cover. This month's cover feature is Thunderbolts*, and Chris talks about his trip to Atlanta to visit the movie's set, while ...

It's another bumper-sized edition of the Empire Podcast this week, folks, in which Chris Hewitt sits down on Zoom with the legendary director, Barry Levinson, on the eve of the release of his new gangster movie, The Alto Knights, starring Robert De Niro, Robert De Niro and Robert De Niro's dogs. [23:31 - 40:13 approx] Then, we also hear from Gints Zilbalodis, the director of this year's Oscar-winning animated movie, Flow, in an exc...

This week sees the release of Hans Zimmer And Friends: Diamond In The Desert, a concert film like no other, which captures the great Hans Zimmer and his band in full flow in Dubai, and also intersperses a number of revealing interviews Zimmer conducted with the likes of Christopher Nolan, Zendaya, Billie Eilish, Pharrell Williams, Denis Villeneuve, Johnny Marr, and Timothee Chalamet. It's quite the achievement, and in this Empire P...

Welcome to episode 659 (yes, we're keeping count) of The Empire Podcast, folks. And it's a belter, as Chris Hewitt sits down on Zoom with The Electric State's Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt to talk about their favourite Russo brother, accents, and which one will attend the parade if/when Liverpool win this year's Premier League title. [23:34 -37:14 approx] Chris also has a fun chat about lie detectors, Benihana, and dinner part...

This week's Empire Podcast features two cracking interviews with two directors at different stages of their career. First, actor-turned-director Jack Huston sits down on Zoom and tells Chris Hewitt how he managed to make his directorial debut, the black-and-white drama Day Of The Fight, recruiting Joe Pesci for a supporting role, and the influence of his famous grandfather, John Huston. [26:52 - 47:11 approx] Then, Helen O'Hara sit...

Don't call it a comeback. This week's episode of the Empire Podcast sees Pamela Anderson, star of Baywatch and Barb Wire, sit down with Alex Godfrey to tell him about how Gia Coppola's The Last Showgirl has given her a second chance in Hollywood. [23:46 - 38:29 approx] Our other interview sees Mickey 17 (out next Friday, fact fans!) star Naomi Ackie talk to Helen O'Hara about working with Bong Joon Ho and multiple Robert Pattinsons...

After the guestapaloozas of recent weeks, we're back to just one guest on this week's Empire Podcast. But what a guest it is, as the great Tatiana Maslany, star of the new Stephen King adaptation The Monkey, pops up on Zoom to talk with Chris Hewitt about death and Comedy Bang Bang. [25:00 - 43:07 approx] In the podbooth, Chris is joined by Helen O'Hara and James Dyer to discuss their favourite Stephen King movies, review The Monke...

Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight heads to the mean streets of Victorian London for A Thousand Blows on Disney+, and what better way to celebrate than with a special Pilot TV/Empire crossover podcast? Chris Hewitt, James Dyer and Kay Ribeiro get under the skin of Knight’s latest period piece, which combines bare-knuckle boxing with organised crime as all-female gang The Forty Elephants rampage through the East End. Plus, Kay spe...

It's a brave new world for the Empire Podcast this week, folks, as Chris Hewitt welcomes a quintet (not to be confused with a Quinjet, although a couple of them might have access to one) of amazing guests. From the latest MCU film, Captain America: Brave New World, Chris first chats to Danny Ramirez, aka Joaquin Torres, aka the new Falcon, about football, flying, and fraternising with famous co-stars like Tom Cruise and Harrison Fo...

Another bumper-sized edition of the Empire Podcast this week, as Chris Hewitt sits down on Zoom for chats with a trio of terrific talents. First, there's Ke Huy Quan on Love Hurts, the action movie that represents his first lead role, and first movie since winning an Oscar for Everything Everywhere All At Once. [17:33 - 34:18 approx] Then there's John Magaro, star of September 5, on how that movie and Steven Spielberg's Munich make...

It's another bumper, jam-packed edition of the Empire Podcast this week, folks! The great Angelina Jolie heads up our trio of amazing guests, as she talks to John Nugent about taking on the challenge of playing the legendary opera singer, Maria Callas, in Pablo Larrain's Maria. [20:48 - 34:02 approx] Plus, Chris Hewitt has a fascinating chat with Jason Reitman about how, exactly, he recreated Saturday Night Live's opening night for...

This week's episode of the Empire Podcast brings you not one but two Oscar winners, as first Chris Hewitt sits down with Michelle Yeoh to talk about her new Star Trek movie, Section 31, and how the Best Actress Oscar for Everything Everywhere All At Once changed her life [20:56 - 36:39 approx]; then, John Nugent has a fascinating chat with The Brutalist star, current Oscar nominee, and former Best Actor winner, Adrien Brody, about ...

This week's Empire Podcast sees Chris Hewitt, Alex Godfrey and Beth Webb bid a sad, but heartfelt, farewell to the great David Lynch, who has died at the age of 78. It's also an epic epitaph in many ways, clocking in at around 40 minutes, as the trio, all huge Lynch fans, pay tribute to the genius behind Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Dr., Twin Peaks, and more. [44:18 - 1:26:33 approx] Elsewhere in the episode, which was recor...

Here it is, folks. The 650th episode (if you don't count all the other episodes) of the Empire Podcast, recorded live on Friday January 10th in front of a sell-out crowd at our spiritual home of Kings Place, London. And it's an absolute belter, in which Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara, James Dyer, and Beth Webb show barely a passing awareness of the week's movie news, review A Real Pain, Babygirl, and Maria, and answer a bunch of questi...