Benicio del Toro, Michael Cera, Mia Threapleton; Danny & Michael Philippou (Bring Her Back); Robert Patrick

In this episode of Pop Culture Weekly, it is action packed. I speak with Robert Patrick, Beneccio del Toro in the cast of The Phoenicians Scheme, and Danny and Michael Philip Howe all about the brand new A twenty four horror film Bringer Back.

Let's go.

Welcome to pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon from my Heart Radio, your pop culture news, views, reviews and celebrity interviews on all the movies, TV, music, and pop culture U CRABE Weekly. Here's Kyle McMahon.

Nick No no no, Nick. Hello, Welcome to pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon. I of course am Kyle McMahon. I thank you once again for joining me on pop Culture Weekly, your backstage pass to the biggest names and buzziest things in entertainment and pop culture. I of course I'm Kyle, and I'm so stoked about this stacked episode

Well, the show is fantastic because it's how we honor our fallen men and women that have given the ultimate devotion to this nation. I'm very, very proud to be here. I come from a military family. My grandfather was a lieutenant colonel of the United States Army fought War One, World War II, and Korea, and I honor his ser us by being here. But I love coming to DC, And even if I'm not doing the show, I'm here every year. I ride my Harley out here and I

Yes, And you know, you've been in so many amazing projects.

Some of them some of them not so good.

Well, you're very kind.

There's a couple.

Then you are here, you're doing You're telling somebody's real story.

You know.

Uh, this is probably one of the hardest acting jobs to do because you're gonna tell one of these heroes, one of these men that has actually been in combat and seeing his brothers fall and witness the horror of war, and tell it from his perspective, in his words, his point of view, and try to find a tone that he will he he will approve of. And he's going to be sitting right there, so the pressure is on.

Well rehearsal you certainly did well.

I had. It was a good rehearsal. Today. Let's hope we didn't blow that for the for the performance, because you only get so many of those everyones.

Finally, I'm a huge X Files fan. I've asked you about it before. Sure, Ryan Coogler is kind of rebooting it with Fox.

Yeah, I'm so old. They don't want me. I'm sixty six years old. They don't want me out there being the X Files. I guess some young, sexy, thirty year old guy, forty year old guy I'd be out there doing that. There's nothing for me to do in the X Files except maybe play the aged John Doggett. But I have a Since you brought up John Doggett, I'm going to talk to you. About John Doggett. You know, John dogget was marine Don Grays's marine. John Doggett was an FBI agent. I told everyone at the end of

Thank you, Sarah.

It's always a pleasure, my pleasure.

I appreciate it.

God, bless you, buddy. There's the handshake here.

Thank you, Thank you, God, bless you, Thank you God. All right, buddy, Okay. Robert Patrick such an awesome guy. He's funny, he's so talented, and his dedication to you know, our nation's heroes is really just so touching and inspiring. So you can still catch the National Memorial Day Concert on demand on PBS's website, on Facebook, and on YouTube. We'll have the links in the show notes and check

Oh my gosh, yeah, I think of having us. Thank you.

Of course, First of all, I love talk to me and I love this film. Who Hurt you guys.

A multiple people. Yeah, it's like any time.

That you're writing any sort of horror film, you're drawing from everything that makes you uncomfortable. You look back on every single experience, you look back on anything that like sticks with you in like a sort of bad way, and then like the film is our way to exercise that sort of stuff.

You know.

It's it's amazing to me because it's just both films are. It's I feel like it's I'm a huge genre fan, huge horror fan, as both of you are. I feel like it's it's helping to elevate the genre, you know. It's I mean, there's a place and a time for like silly, mindless slashers or whatever, and I love those two. But I feel like the work that you guys are doing are helping to lift it to be taken more seriously as films. You know.

Yeah, we always try to super make sure that like the films can exist as a drama film, Like if you took all the horror elements out, you could still tell this story as like a real life story, and well that just helps the horror when you can if you can connect with the characters and they feel real when these things happen. It gives them more impact. So, yeah, we love the mindless slash of stuff.

I do as well.

Yeah, but for our stuff, it's like we like trying to create stuff that's like with three dimensional characters and purpose.

Yeah, and it's working. So, you know, Talk to Me comes out and it's your first big feature film and kind of explodes why did you choose for Bring Her Back? Why did you choose this story?

There was a bit of a pressure to go bigger and to go bolder, and it felt this felt like the right story to tell.

And there were so many offers that came in.

There were so many big, exciting projects, but this felt like the most personal.

Story to tell.

And it was a script that got written while we wrote Talk to Me. So it was something that we just wouldn't be able to get out of our heads unless we actually made it. Anytime I would have been on anything, I would have just been.

Thinking about this.

And I felt like a really personal expression, and I think that always makes the best art.

When you're being as personal as possible. It is kind of in a way, it's bigger that it's bigger in a different way. Yeah, it's definitely more violent.

Yes, I for me, you know, as I watched it last night and there was a scene that I was like, I wish that I didn't have ears and eyes at that moment, if you know what I'm talking about. And but for me, it really boils down to grief and you know, what, what will we do? What could we do for our loved ones? Do you how is that? Does that resonate with the both of you?

Yeah?

Like it was tapping into those fears, Like the idea of a never ending grief is so terrifying, the idea of never being okay ever again, the idea of not being able to let someone go. Manifesting that in your mind and picturing what that looks like and what does that.

Once look like? What does grief look like?

It's all consuming, it's all encompassing, and it's like twisting someone so beautiful into someone you know, horrific.

So yeah, that was a very very big inspiration point for sure.

And do you feel, you know, as you're doing a film like Bring Her Back, do you feel that you know, putting these emotions in like in other words, is that something that's extremely conscious from the beginning as you're conceptualizing the project, like this is a story on as you said, you know, not being able or whatever to let somebody go. Is that a concept that then conceptualizes into a bigger story or how does that process work for you?

Guys?

It's so interesting, like you you find that theme as you're writing, and it's always moments and scenes and characters, and it's sort of like you're putting these things together and the story finds itself as you write. But yeah, the biggest inspiration point for this movie was a friend's little sister who's non sighted and.

Her wanting to catch the boss.

Yeah, and she, like her family was a bit scared to let her do that, because you know, it can be really dangerous. But in her mind, she's like, I need to learn how to be independent, I need to learn how to navigate the world. And I could see both sides of the argument, and so that was a really fascinating thing. And I started writing on that and talking to her a little bit more and like asking what she feels, like, what what do you think that

Wow, okay, so that's so that's actually where the it came from.

Yeah, that was that was definitely one of the first scenes for sure.

That's incredible when you're doing a film like this. Obviously, as genre lovers yourself, do you find inspiration in other films and if so, what were some of those projects for for Bringer Back.

I mean, we looked at a bunch of psycho baby films from the fifties and sixties, and so whatever happened to Baby Jane was a big one. Wait until Dark was a big one. Se you know, Evil was a big one. Yeah, mouse Hunt was a big one. Uh, Michael loves this movie called mouse Hunt.

Uh film mouse Hunt, the the with Nathan Lane or whatever.

Yeah, that's the one baby.

Ye a few scenes we guess which once.

When? And you guys essentially started out on YouTube as you are, you know at that time creators obviously, you know, as artists, we all envision bigger for ourselves. But do you ever think, you know, in five years, ten years, three years, two years, I'm going to be you know, we're going to be creating projects for We're causing bidding wars and being with eight twenty four And was that ever on your radar? Then it's just.

The most impossible thing to imagine. And it just this is always the dream. The dream was always to be able to make movies that we wanted to make. We have no kind of limitations, like whatever idea we wanted to do to.

Create it, that was always the dream.

So yeah, it's so surreal that like we're able to be in this position and we feel so lucky and so honored that we get to do it, and yeah, it's it's scary, so like please don't go away, because it's just like, yeah, it's that that's a terrifying thing as well. And yeah, and I could feel the pressure mounting off to talk to me where I was like getting scared to make another movie, Like I was like.

Am I supposed to top this? Am I?

There's a certain expectation now, And like I could feel myself getting paralyzed by that, and the only way to sort of overcome that was just the sign onto the next one and be like quickly like the doors open, go, let's go, and don't think about it, just just jump in.

I'm so glad you did. And I know everybody that sees it is going to feel the same when when you're doing, you know, a film like Bring Her Back. Do you ever, and I kind of mean this more literally, do you ever put parts of yourself into these characters? I mean you're you're both, you know, writing and directing. It's gotta I feel like kind of be hard not to. Is that accurate?

Yeah? Yeah, I do not write with Michael. Michael did not write this. I did. He did not.

We have a co writer named Bill Hinsman who's so incredible to collaborate with. And yeah, it's interesting, like you draw from everywhere, you draw from yourself, You draw from people that you know, experiences that you've had, and just listening to stories of people and talking to certain people as well, like talking to a bunch of different mothers and talking about like how far would you go for your kid? And even our producer Samantha Jennings is such

And yeah, so I think there's bits of everything in that.

I love that. Thank you boys both so much. I can't wait for everybody to see this. And I'm already excited for your next projects. And thank you.

Awesome, thanks, thank you Danny and Michael philipp.

Love those guys, love their work, love talk to me, love bring Her Back, and I can't wait to see what they do next. I can't wait for you to see Bring Her Back so we can talk about it. It is so good. I really really loved it, and I think you will too. So once you see it, hit me up on social or email, or leave a voicemail on the website or at podcast dot pop culturewekly dot com, or if you're listening on the iHeartRadio app, you can use the talkback button and I might just

Thank you.

So. First of all, the film's incredible. And I got to ask, Benicio, you've worked with Wes Anderson before. Uh, he builds these like worlds that are so unique and incredible. Is that part of the attraction of doing another West film?

Yeah? Absolutely, I think. I think he also creates these characters that are very that are full of contradictions, that are like that are you know, very human, and you know, uh so it's a challenge for for any actor to try to, you know, be that character and bring it to life.

Uh.

And it's it's it's a lot of fun, you know, that that contradiction, the arc. Also, the all three of us, you know, had characters that evolved, you know, and you know that's to have three in the same movie. It's that's that's like, you know, they don't make them like that, movies that have character. You know, all these actors, all these characters are evolving. It's kind of it's really really really exciting and a compliment to us his writing.

I love that. And Michael, you've had a interesting You have an accent that obviously you don't normally have, did you like at the practice that like tell me a little bit about that.

Yeah, it took a little work, and it was kind of a matter of Wes and I delicately kind of finding where, you know, how far you can take that without ruining the movie basically or just you know, tipping it into like being ridiculous or just you know, being too loud of an element in the movie. So it's

Point, that's great and in me, this is your first starring role in a big you know, a big film.

What is that like?

I mean, that's so awesome.

It was.

Unbelievable, and not just as a hyperbolic thing to say it, truly, I did not believe that it was happening to me. I got the first email, which was a self tape request with dummy sides, sides that were or audition pages that were not from the original film script. So I and so I sort of did that and had that moment of thinking, right, Okay, well it's out in the

Well, I think it's real, and I think you've earned it, and you're amazing in it, as all of you are. So thank you all very much. I can't wait for everybody to see the film. It's so great.

Thank you.

A good game, Nicio del Toro, Michael Sarah me a Thriple team, Love those guys, Love the Phoenician Scheme, Love Wes Anderson, and I got to know. If you're a Wes Anderson film, go see The Phoenician Scheme and let me know what you think. I love him. He builds these like worlds that are just you don't find anywhere else, you know what I mean, Like you're You're I always feel like I know it's a Wes Anderson film by the look and the cast and the script and the

I love you.

We thank you for listening to pop Cultureweekly. Here all the latest at popculturewekly dot com.

It was an action packed episode, an action back episode. We had Robert Patrick, Beniji Yountora, the Philip Brothers, Michael Sarah and week Forget Me Fenya. He was a knocking pact show