(L to R) Elizabeth Banks and Matthew Macfadyen star in ‘The Miniature Wife’.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Elizabeth Banks and Matthew Macfadyen about their work on ‘The Miniature Wife’, the initial pitch for the series, Macfadyen’s inspiration for his character, acting six inches tall, and working with the practical and visual effects.
Elizabeth Banks as Lindy in ‘The Miniature Wife’. Photo: Rafy/Peacock.
Moviefone: To begin with, Elizabeth, can you talk about showrunners Jennifer Ames and Steve Turner initial pitch to you and what intrigued you about the story and your character?
Elizabeth Banks: They pitched me ‘The War of the Roses’, but one of them is six inches tall. I love ‘War of the Roses’, and I immediately got the tone they were going for. I felt like it was unique and an absurdist way to tell a very relatable story about someone who feels diminished in their relationship or small in their career or a little unseen suddenly, and I think we all have those moments and have those people in our lives who make us feel small. This is a character whose mother has made her feel very small and she’s obviously working through that trauma. Her father left, and now her husband is paying attention only to his career and not to her needs. I just felt like a lot of people were going to relate to this couple. The device of shrinking me really helped build everything that we wanted to say about relationships and power dynamics within them in the show. So, I got the notions right away and how the absurdist way we were going to do it was going to enhance the whole endeavor.
Matthew Macfadyen as Les in ‘The Miniature Wife’. Photo: Peacock.
MF: Matthew, I understand that you drew inspiration for your character from Bill Nye, Kevin Kline, and Steve Martin. Can you talk about how that inspiration helped you create Less on screen?
Matthew MacFadyen: Well, they’re little bits of ingredients in the cake. I think Steve Martin and Kevin Kline especially were touchstones in the sense that some of the inspiration for the series is those ‘80s and ‘90s romantic comedies that are witty, barbed, and funny, with wonderful dialogue, and that was the flavor of it. Not sentimental, not syrupy, just entertaining. So, that’s why I was thinking of those guys. But Bill Nye, is an institution I’ve discovered from people growing up and I can see why because he’s really kind of charismatic and funny and great. He’s got a wonderful quirky energy, and I thought maybe some of that is in layers.
Elizabeth Banks as Lindy in ‘The Miniature Wife’. Photo: Peacock.
MF: Elizabeth, when you were shooting the scenes where your character is small, did you have to rely on your imagination a lot and was it helpful when you had giant props available to use in the scene?
EB: I was very isolated on a green screen and having to imagine everything around me and a cat chasing me and a bird and all of it. So, they really helped me by giving me actual props to interact with. Whether it was a pill bottle that I’m trying to break open or toothpaste or lipstick or the giant chocolate bar that I got to eat. They made a giant popcorn kernel for me that was edible. All those things really helped. Then of course, I have the dollhouse. That set was incredible, and everything felt real. So, it was interesting to be able to explore that like a little toy and then have my own toys, you know? It was very helpful, and technically challenging, but very fun.
(L to R) Matthew Macfadyen as Les and Elizabeth Banks as Lindy in ‘The Miniature Wife’. Photo: Peacock.
MF: Finally, Matthew, when you were in scenes with Lindy when she was small, was the biggest challenge for you not having anyone to react to?
MM: Yes, but we’ve been saying that acting is an imaginative exercise. If we had scenes together, we’d run the scenes before we shot them separately. So, we’d always have something in our heads, but it’s an exercise in imagining. So, that was part of the endeavor, I suppose.
(L to R) Matthew Macfadyen as Les and Elizabeth Banks as Lindy in ‘The Miniature Wife’. Photo: Screengrab/Peacock.
What is the plot of ‘The Miniature Wife’?
A married couple (Elizabeth Banks and Matthew Macfadyen) battle for power within their relationship which is complicated when a technological accident shrinks the wife to 6 inches tall.
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Riz Ahmed stars in ‘Hamlet’.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Riz Ahmed about his work on ‘Hamlet’, taking on the iconic role, shooting the “To be or not to be” speech, and why Shakespeare’s work is so timeless and universal.
You can watch the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview.
Riz Ahmed stars in ‘Hamlet’. Photo: Focus Features.
Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about the challenges of playing the iconic role of Hamlet, and is it a role that you’ve always wanted to play?
Riz Ahmed: I’ve wanted to play this since I was 17 and I was in English class feeling like this is some stuffy, boring museum artifact, and that Shakespeare is not for me. I had an amazing English teacher who put it in front of me and made me realize, “Wow, this is pretty close to how I’m feeling.” The central feeling, I would say for Hamlet is, “Is the world going crazy or have I lost my mind?” I think that’s how we’re all feeling. That’s how I was feeling then, and it’s how I’m feeling now, and dare I say, it’s how most of the world feels now. So, I wanted to play it because it was very relatable. I think that’s the challenge and the gift of taking on something like ‘Hamlet’, a role like this, is it’s been done so many times. I think the challenge is, what is specific and personal about your interpretation? That’s also a gift. It’s been done so many times, there’s no illusion that someone’s going to perform a definitive Hamlet. You’re liberated in a way to just do something as uniquely specific and personal to you and your experience as possible. So, it’s a strange combination of feeling like, “We’re going to step into these big old shoes that don’t belong to us.” While at the same time going, “Well, actually we get to run around in these shoes however we want.”
(L to R) Morfydd Clark and Riz Ahmed in ‘Hamlet’. Photo: Focus Features.
MF: Shakespeare’s work is universal and can be adapted to any time-period or culture. What is it about his work that you think has made it stand the test of time?
RA: I think it’s a couple of things. Firstly, a lot of the stories are drawn from myths that are not British, that are ancient. The first words you hear in our Hamlet are words from the Bhagavad Gita, which is the foundational Hindu myth. That’s because that story is very similar to the story of ‘Hamlet’. It predates ‘Hamlet’ by thousands of years. This idea of choosing family loyalty or doing the right thing, that’s a timeless theme. So, I think that’s one reason why it can cross barriers of culture. It belongs to myth that belongs to all of us. The second reason is because it’s like music. The logical understanding of every word was not something that even audiences were doing in Shakespeare’s time when it comes to these plays. Shakespeare made up like 4,000 new words. They didn’t understand half of what he was saying, but it’s music. It’s rhythm, its flow, its percussion, its energy, and it’s intention. If you hear it like music, it moves you like music and music crosses all boundaries.
(Far Left) Riz Ahmed stars in ‘Hamlet’. Photo: Focus Features.
MF: Finally, I’ve never seen the ‘To be or not to be” speech depicted the way you did it, with the character in a car speeding towards oncoming traffic. Can you talk about shooting that scene and how that added urgency to the speech?
RA: Absolutely. Our interpretation of “To be or not to be” is that it’s not about, “Should I kill myself or not?” Which is how it’s usually performed, right? It’s a much more urgent, confronting question. The question is, “Should we fight back against injustice, even if it means we might die?” That’s a contemporary, radical question. Then if you look at the language itself rather than looking at the traditional way it’s performed, that’s what it’s saying. So, we had to stage it in a way and have that confrontation and that urgency. If the speech is a game of chicken, we’re going to stage it like a game of chicken. So, he is literally doing that. He’s driving down a freeway, heading towards a lorry a hundred miles an hour, asking himself, does he have the guts to take on something bigger than himself? So, we staged it that way in a way. We’re just trying to honor the DNA of this speech rather than honoring the traditional way it’s done. We really tried to make something that’s for people who feel like Shakespeare isn’t normally for them and hopefully it gives them a visceral experience.
‘Hamlet’ opens in theaters on April 10th.
What is the plot of ‘Hamlet’?
Haunted by his father’s ghost (Avijit Dutt), Prince Hamlet (Riz Ahmed) descends from elite London society into the city’s underground, moving between Hindu temples and homeless camps. In seeking to avenge his father’s murder, he begins to question his own role in his family’s corruption.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Emmanuelle Chriqui and Hayes MacArthur about their work on ‘A Love Like This’, their first reaction to the screenplay, their characters, shooting in Malibu, working together, collaborating on set with director John Asher, and what they’ll remember most about making the movie.
(L to R) Emmanuelle Chriqui and Hayes MacArthur star in ‘A Love Like This’.
You can watch the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview.
Moviefone: To begin with, Emmanuelle, can you talk about your first reaction to the screenplay and why you wanted to be part of this project?
Emmanuelle Chriqui: When they first sent me the script, I was kind of shook. I was very emotional. I think on some levels, I related to Leah, in certain ways that had happened in my life, and it scared me too. It scared me a lot to tell a story like this. But I just knew that if we could get the right person, this could be a cool experience and a kind of deep story to tell that would create interesting conversations at the very least.
MF: Hayes, what was your first reaction to the screenplay, and did you understand and relate to your character right away?
Hayes MacArthur: So, I got a call from John Asher kind of out of the blue, and he said, “We’re making a movie”. He didn’t tell me what it was about, but he told me the way he wanted to shoot it and the constraints of what the production would be. He said he wanted it to look like a Mike Nichols movie, like a fly on the wall for this couple for this weekend. I read it not knowing what it was about, which was a very cool way to not have it described to me first. No log line or anything. It’s funny to hear Emmanuelle say that she was scared. I was terrified too of stepping into this because when I looked at the circumstances around how these two characters were getting together and what was unfolding over this weekend, I didn’t know how it would play out and how to make that accessible and likable to an audience. But going into that house in Malibu and seeing that there was already this filmmaking organism in place of everybody just showing up. It was on right away. We had a very small crew to make this. Everyone was doing multiple jobs, but I could just immediately feel that we were going to pull it off. It was a crazy process to be shooting these very emotionally intense scenes and then going into another scene immediately after and switching gears and just being joyous and laughing the whole time. I don’t think I would have done this unless I knew Emmanuel was doing it because we have a long friendship. We’ve worked on projects together before and we have so many mutual friends. I think it would have been hard to step into material like this with someone that I didn’t really have a history with.
MF: Hayes, did you and Emmanuelle create a backstory for your characters’ relationship history, and if so, how did that help your performance?
HM: I think a lot of it was in Jeffrey Ruggles‘ script, and taking what was there. It was built in with a lot of backstories that you learn as the story unfolds, information is parsed out in a very clever way. So, knowing that you were telling a story about a relationship, about a couple that’s been in love since high school, and they’ve gotten together every year. There was like a built-in nostalgia to it.
(L to R) Emmanuelle Chriqui and Hayes MacArthur star in ‘A Love Like This’.
MF: Emmanuelle, did the fact that you and Hayes already knew each other help you build the relationship between the characters in a way that would have been more challenging with an actor you didn’t have a history with?
EC: For sure. In addition to that, I think there is magic when you’re doing a project with somebody and the chemistry is there and the history is there, and the friendship is there. It fills in all the blanks. There’s this organic thing that happens on set. It’s like, you can’t expect the unexpected and that’s the beauty of having history coming into this, knowing each other, already having worked together, and having a great time. That also just filled it all in, which was great.
MF: Hayes, you’ve done a lot of comedy throughout your career. Were there moments where you felt yourself relying on your comedic instincts and you had to pull back a bit?
HM: I think that’s a natural default mode of mine in life, and I love doing studio movie comedies and network television. But, as you get older, a lot of life is drama too. I haven’t had a place to put that really in any of my work prior to this. It was a great experience to be able to use that stuff. But again, I think it is about the people that you are doing it with that can bring out the best of it.
MF: Emmanuelle, what was it like shooting at one location and filming a movie again in Los Angeles?
EC: The best! Listen, Malibu is like a dream. Like I said before, everybody was in an outstanding mood every day, and you’re like, “Well, this has got to be the view and the water and all the things that contribute to this other than just wanting to be there.” It’s a love letter to Malibu. There was like twelve years of my career where I only shot in LA. Then, in the last decade, I’ve shot one thing in LA. So, to be home and to shoot and have this experience, it was everything and I would do anything to have more production come back to LA. It’s so sad to me that it is what it is right now.
Hayes MacArthur stars in ‘A Love Like This’.
MF: Hayes, is it true that you also lived in the house in Malibu while you were filming?
HM: I lived in the house downstairs with Mike Manasseri, who was a producer on the film. I would wake up in the morning, go upstairs, shoot, the crew would all leave, and Mike and I would clean the house, cook each other dinner, talk about the day, and then go back down to bed and wake up the next morning and shoot again.
MF: Emmanuelle, what was it like working with director John Asher?
EC: John was a dream. I mean, I know I keep saying that, but really these two weeks were spectacular. John was the absolute master of the ship, and he created such a safe place for us. All Hayes and I had to do was show up and lay it on the ground. John went out of his way to make sure that we felt that there was a safe place to do that. He was so good at raining it in. There were times where this could have easily been a romantic comedy. John would be like, “Hold on, that’s not the movie we’re making.”
MF: Hayes, what was your experience like collaborating with John on set?
HM: I think it really helps that John’s an actor too, and he’s come from that background. So, it was the shorthand and the way he helped because this is pretty much just a two-person piece. So, it was this intimate triangle, the three of us figuring out all these moments together. John was right on our level in terms of the tone of the scenes and what’s really happening. So, John was like a puppeteer pulling all these different strings at the same time. It was fun.
Hayes MacArthur stars in ‘A Love Like This’.
MF: Finally, Emmanuelle, what will you remember most about making this movie?
EC: Oh, so much. Seriously, there have been so many times in the past two years where I was like, “If I could snap my fingers, I would go back there. Bring me back to those two weeks of Malibu.” I think I walk away with a lot, and I think that the thing that’s so cool is that we made this movie during a strike. We got a waiver, and I think we were able to execute a story that is going to make people think and feel, and show that you don’t need a million dollars to make a movie. You just need like a lot of heart and soul and people who want to be creative. There are loads of people that want to be creative. So, find your people, and do it. You can do it and the fact that our movie is coming out, is just like, we can do it!
‘A Love Like This’ opens in theaters on April 3rd.
What is the plot of ‘A Love Like This’?
Follows Paul (Hayes MacArthur) and Leah (Emmanuelle Chriqui) in a tale of two lovers who rent a Malibu beach house for the weekend, but there is more to their relationship than it seems.
I(L to R) Adam Rosette, Michelle Raimo Kouyate and Tyree Dillihay seen at the ‘Goat’ Movie: Family Roarball Experience for Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation’s ‘Goat’ at Intuit Dome on February 01, 2026 in Inglewood, California. Photo: Eric Charbonneau/Sony Pictures via Getty Images.
‘GOAT‘ was a big hit with families, becoming one of the best-grossing movies in the genre earlier this year. Now, the film is available to rent or purchase digitally. Moviefone was invited to attend a press day to learn more about the making of this new Sony Pictures Animation film in support of the digital release. We learned how to draw Will Harris, stepped into the recording booth, and listened to the creatives discuss character creation, arena design, and more.
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Moviefone also attended an in-person press conference with filmmakers Tyree Dillihay and Michelle Raimo Kouyate. Here are five things we learned from them.
When talking about coming up with the real life basketball moves that are used in ‘GOAT’, director Tyree Dillihay reveals that they could not have done it without the help of basketball legend Andre Iguodala.
Tyree Dillihay: Anybody know the name Andre Iguodala? He’s won a few championships. He played with Stephen Curry. He’s had an illustrious basketball career. He’s our basketball consultant. He’s a genius. We call him a beautiful basketball mind. And the reason why is because he accomplished more in two hours than we could have accomplished in months. That’s how long we were kind of banging our heads.
2) Cutting Great Scenes Is Not Easy, But Can Be Necessary
Tyree Dillihay at ‘GOAT’ filmmaker digital release press conference. Photo: Tessa Smith.
Along with the digital release of ‘GOAT’ comes bonus content, including deleted scenes. One scene in particular introduces the Thorns players and was a favorite of the filmmakers, but after a lot of debate, they decided it needed to go.
Tyree Dillihay: That’s the first time you actually see the locker room. We wanted the audience to experience the locker room and this fulfillment of being a professional through Will’s eyes. If you see it too early, it kind of ruins the surprise. Whereas if you hold it long enough so you can experience it through Will’s eyes, we feel it had greater impact.
Michelle Raimo Kouyate at ‘GOAT’ filmmaker digital release press conference. Photo: Tessa Smith.
Michelle Raimo Kouyate: We also wanted to meet the team through Will’s eyes. Jett, that was a different story because she was the second lead. But the rest of the team, we needed to meet through his eyes.
3) Steph Curry Had A Lot Of Input On ‘GOAT’
(L to R) Ayesha Curry and Stephen Curry at the World Premiere of Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation’s ‘Goat’ at AMC Century City on February 06, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Eric Charbonneau/Sony Pictures via Getty Images.
Producer Steph Curry is a busy man, but he still found time to help the filmmakers make ‘GOAT’ the best it could be.
Michelle Raimo Kouyate: He was really instrumental in helping us figure out the reality of the game play. Even though it’s animals, he really helped us with that. He gave us thoughts on what it was like to be a new player that was different from everyone else and breaking new ground. He also gave us input on what it’s like to be a superstar with all the pressures that come along with that. And he’s an incredible voice actor. He voices Lenny. So he was very influential.
4) Tyree Dillihay’s Relationship With His Mother Had A Huge Impact On Will Harris’ Story In ‘GOAT’
(L to R) Michelle Raimo Kouyate and Tyree Dillihay at ‘GOAT’ filmmaker digital release press conference. Photo: Tessa Smith.
The story of ‘GOAT’ went through a lot of revisions, over 2,000 to be exact. Tyree Dillihay’s relationship with his mother was a big inspiration when rounding out the character of Will Harris.
Michelle Raimo Kouyate: Tyree grew up with a single mom and it was really the essence of that story, Tyree’s story, that mom who believed in him, in a dream that a black kid from Inglewood would become an artist. His mom really believed in him in that way so that was the underpinnings of the story. It was always in what we understood of the character, but we didn’t always have it in the movie. We realized when we were screening it that we needed to bring that into the movie. It gave the character a whole other reason and it gave you an understanding of who he was and how much rode on him.
5) ‘GOAT’ Is A Love Letter To All The Things Tyree Dillihay Loves
For Tyree Dillihay, ‘GOAT’ is a dream project. He put blood, sweat, tears, and everything he loves into making this film.
Tyree Dillihay: This movie is a love letter to all the things that I love. I love basketball. I love sneaker culture. I love fashion. I love tech. I love the game. I love cartoons. Like everything that I love is in this movie. Talk about a dream project. This is mine. This is me. I’m very happy to be in every single frame of the film because I wanted to feel everything that I love. I hope it exudes through the film. You ever watch a piece of the film and you might get goosebumps? That’s what I’m talking about. There’s been times where we’ve looked at the film, Michelle and I. We’ve cried numerous times. We’ve seen this thing a million times and we keep crying.
The story follows Will, a small goat with big dreams who gets a once-in-a-lifetime shot to join the pros and play roarball – a high-intensity, co-ed, full-contact sport dominated by the fastest, fiercest animals in the world. Will’s new teammates aren’t thrilled about having a little goat on their roster, but Will is determined to revolutionize the sport and prove once and for all that “smalls can ball!”
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(L to R) James Cameron and Dr. Samuel Ramsey talk ‘Secrets of the Bees’.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of visiting Lightstorm Entertainment’s offices, along with other members of the press, to speak with James Cameron and Dr. Samuel Ramsey about the new docuseries ‘Secrets of the Bees’, finding the story in post-production, the special cameras utilized for the project, the science of the series, what they hope viewers learn from the show, and why nature is important to Cameron.
You can watch the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch the interview.
(L to R) James Cameron and Dr. Samuel Ramsey talk ‘Secrets of the Bees’. Photo: Jami Philbrick.
Moviefone: To begin with, Mr. Cameron, can you talk about developing the show’s narrative in the post-production process and discovering the story based on the incredible footage you were able to capture?
James Cameron: It’s a recursive effect. You go in with a rough script and you go in with experienced people who have done this kind of macro photography out in the field. It’s basically a wish list or a hope list. You go and if you get the right people on the team, you’re going to get the results that you wanted, you’re going to get the kind of mind-blowing footage that you want. But when you do discover something new, then the script changes and the edit will change. So, you put it together and you rough it in according to what your game plan was, but you also must be ready to follow a lead and write new dialogue. We find that the voiceover narration and so on and the way in which it’s structured and explained is quite fluid right through to the end of postproduction. So, the story is continuing to reveal itself to us as we go along. I mean, I’d say all documentaries are like that, but certainly natural history documentaries at this kind of scale are absolutely like that. The story’s constantly revealing itself to you as you go along, just as nature is constantly revealing itself to science as you go along. It’s kind of a parallel process.
Cinematographer Owen Carter filming the broomstick bee (Osmia bicolor) sequence in ‘Secrets of Bees’. Photo credit: National Geographic/Nadege Laici.
James, can you talk about the cutting-edge camera technology you utilized to make this series?
JC: Well, our camera team is very experienced with macro photography and have been doing it for decades. The camera technology itself wasn’t really the leap forward. It was really, how do we configure the hive environment around various other environments like tunnels and things that were done with the solo bees. But how do we get into their world? So, you know, I’m not an expert in animal photography, where you’re creating an environment that, we’ve got the best people in the world to do that. But it’s about not interfering with their behavior, making it seem natural for them but still getting the camera in a manner that’s reasonably predictable, that the bee or the animal will do that behavior right in front of the lens. When you have a little tiny area of photography, you have a very shallow depth of field, and this is always the problem with macro photography. So, it’s really about the human in the loop experience team, and these days, less than breakthroughs in the optics, per se.
A scene from ‘Secrets of Bees’. Photo credit: National Geographic.
Dr. Ramsey, from a scientific point of view, can you talk about what you learned about the world of bees from this project?
Samuel Ramsey: So, the way that these kinds of things often work is that when you’re conducting science, sometimes you just don’t have the time and space to be patient. A lot of the most incredible discoveries come from patience. What Jim was just talking about, about being able to get those cameras into that space, you can’t just leave the camera there forever. The bees will cover it in propolis, and wax and you’ll never be able to see anything. You’ve got to get it in there and wait, watch, and really spend the time looking at what they’re doing and hope for the best. That can be really difficult at times in science, but it’s in these spaces where you have the resources and the team that comes along with working with National Geographic, where you can really do this incredible stuff because we’re working with people who do all of this for a living, who are the best, and the top of their field at doing this sort of stuff. So then, with the bees that were using these leaves as a way of covering up the smell from the hornets, that’s the first time that that’s ever been documented. It is incredible to watch them do something like this, and of course, all of us were blown away. We expected that they would be able to do something like that, but not specifically that because it showed that they weren’t just looking for one thing and doing something on instinct. They had the ability to think, “Well, if I can’t find this, maybe I’ll use this as an alternative and it will allow us to cover the smell so that the hornets don’t kill us.” It’s an incredible process. But what it really involves a lot of is patience, because we go there, we’re looking for something specific, but we don’t know exactly what we’re going to see. We must wait and watch and really drill down and allow for time to show us the incredible secrets of the bees.
A beekeeper holds a honey frame which has a large group of honey bees on it at the University of Colorado in ‘Secrets of Bees’. Photo credit: National Geographic/Ryan Tidman.
Dr. Ramsey, what do you hope viewers learn about bees from this series?
SR: I want people to take away from this series that bees are working hard in the background doing things that keep our entire ecosystem healthy. They don’t get enough attention and they certainly don’t get protected nearly enough. Oftentimes when we say, “Save the Bees,” we mean “Save the Bee.” We’re thinking about the one bee species that we keep inside of a box because that’s the one that’s the most precious to us and it’s the one that we know the best. But they are the canary in the coal mine for the other 20,000 species of bees out there that we don’t have as close a connection with, and we’ve been able to show in this documentary some of their secret lives that they’re living underground and inside of tubes and the kinds of ways that they’re interacting with the world. If we couldn’t show that to people, it would be easier for them to discount that those things are important. But now that we’re able to put that front and center in front of people’s eyes, we want them to take away from that that these organisms are important, that they’re incredible, and we want them to expand that phrase of “Save the Bee” back to “Save the Bees” to keep the rest of them safe, healthy, and happy.
Bumble bee passes nectar from her fore legs to hind legs in ‘Secrets of Bees’. Photo credit: National Geographic.
Mr. Cameron, what do you hope people learn from watching this series?
JC: Well, you’re opening several different areas here. So, in terms of what I think the series in general is trying to convey, and the ‘Secrets of the Bees’ is an excellent example, is a sense of wonder about the natural world, because we won’t appreciate and make space for and protect that which we don’t love and don’t care about. The way to get people to care about things is to put them into it in a way that’s accessible, that’s not scientifically off-putting. Our primary purpose is not to sound very strident warnings, but as the series has progressed, we have shifted our emphasis a little bit toward this is what is endangered, this is what we may lose. You start off with “Isn’t this amazing?” Therefore, “Isn’t this precious? Oh, and by the way, it’s at risk.” That’s the last leg of that. “What can you do personally?” We don’t get into that that much, but that’s a critical area. I think this is where, when you start the conversation, it’s important not only as documentarians but as the National Geographic in general, to have answers. I think one of the issues that we all face in a global population of eight billion people is, what can I as an individual do? I can’t influence policy, and we all think of it as a government top-down system, and it doesn’t have to be. Let me give you an example. I’m vegan, I want to say that right up front. Animal agriculture is responsible for so much deforestation and loss of habitat that impacts not only bees but all species. The way in which we do our food system with massive industrial agriculture that’s mostly monocropping is also highly deleterious to bees, so it’s not just as simple as insecticides. It’s also, the simplification of monocropping just vast fields of corn or soy or wheat versus diversified vegetables and fruits, which is really what we should be eating as the intelligent hominids on the planet. For example, as a thought experiment, if people just stopped eating meat, which you can and you’d be healthier if you did, we could re-wild more than half of the planet, more than half of the area that’s been dedicated to agriculture, could be re-wild. That would be very good for the bees and for just about every other species out there. So, we make choices as a civilization and as individuals, and those choices have consequences. I think that the way to start getting people to think of those consequences is to let them see the victims, if you will. So, if we can relate to these bees, these hardworking ladies in these hives all over the world, then we may start to make better choices.
Asian giant Hornet portait at the entrance of an Asian honeybee hive in ‘Secrets of Bees’. Photo credit: National Geographic.
Finally, Mr. Cameron, nature plays an important role in many of your films including ‘The Abyss’, ‘Titanic’, and the ‘Avatar’ franchise. Can you talk about why nature is important to you as a storyteller?
JC: I grew up living in a suburban neighborhood, but two blocks away a forest began that went for hundreds of miles. This was in Canada, so it was a rural area, and I grew up with a natural curiosity. I spent all my time out in the fields and out in the woods collecting bugs, snakes, frogs, turtles, and everything that I could get my hands on. I was reading about it and doing dissection, preservation, and drawing it all up, so I was a junior naturalist. Nobody asked me to do this, nobody told me to do it, it was just my natural curiosity. So, I know that that’s always been a driver throughout my life. Before I settled in on a career in film, I went to college to study astronomy and physics, believe it or not. So, I think curiosity is our superpower as human beings and I think science is a natural extension of that. Yes, of course we all reap the benefits in our technological world of science. But I think science in and of itself is just an amazing thing, and I have such respect for researchers and my curiosity is very broad.
‘Secrets of the Bees’ premieres on Disney+ and Hulu April 1st.
What is the plot of ‘Secrets of the Bees’?
Hosted and narrated by BAFTA and Emmy-winning National Geographic Explorer Bertie Gregory, ‘Secrets of the Bees’ uses groundbreaking filming technology to reveal the extraordinary world of bees. With the expertise of entomologist and fellow National Geographic Explorer Dr. Samuel Ramsey, the series uncovers their astonishing architecture and intelligence, unlocking their secrets and featuring never-before-filmed moments.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with legendary screenwriter David Koepp about his work on ‘Cold Storage’, the challenges of adapting his own novel, what he had to cut, his writing process, casting, and working with director Jonny Campbell, as well as reuniting with his longtime collaborator director Steven Spielberg on the upcoming ‘Disclosure Day’, and his memories of working with the lateRobert Duvall on ‘The Paper’.
Moviefone: To begin with, as a screenwriter, you have adapted other author’s books to the big screen before. But what are the challenges of adapting your own book into a screenplay?
David Koepp: Well, it’s a little harder and it’s a little easier. It’s easier because I had 30 years of screenwriting instincts in the back of my head when I was writing the novel. So, I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was kind of sketching out the movie in my head as I wrote the book. But then it’s harder in that you must cut a lot of stuff. They’re very different mediums. Books are 350 pages long, movies are 120, double spaced. The rules of what you can do in each one is very different. But one thing’s for sure, a whole bunch of stuff must go when you make the movie. It’s one thing when you’re cutting someone else’s favorite parts. Who cares? Just get rid of it. But this time it was me cutting my favorite stuff because it just doesn’t work in a movie or there isn’t room for it or it’s wrong for the pacing or whatever. I found that a little bit harder than I had in the past.
Joe Keery in ‘Cold Storage’. Photo: StudioCanal.
MF: Was there anything you had to cut from the book that was particularly heartbreaking for you?
DK: Probably the authorial voice, the person who’s telling the book, it’s not a character, but just the tone in which the book is told. The author is allowed to have a pretty heavy hand and he’s being a bit of a wise ass. I’m trying to be funny. I’m having a very good time with it. I made myself laugh. There’s no one to carry that in the film. A character can’t talk like that. You’re not going to have endless voiceover. So that must go. Since a lot of the book’s humor came from that, I felt like I really lost something there. It takes a few drafts then for the script to evolve, and that tone, maybe mischievous or playful that you wanted, now can be inhabited by some of the characters or in the storytelling itself, where you cut, when and how. So, that that took a few drafts.
Georgina Campbell in ‘Cold Storage’. Photo: StudioCanal.
MF: Both the book and the film introduce the concept of a rat king, which is a real phenomenon in nature. When you learn about new concepts like that that interest you, do you file them away somewhere and say, “Oh, this would be an interesting idea to incorporate into a story some day?”
DK: Yeah, I have a very large story ideas file on my Mac. I use Mac Mail. So, I send myself a lot of emails or I’ll run across an article and I’m like, “Oh, that’s creepy. That’s got to go somewhere.” So, I just park it all there and review it from time to time. When something crystallizes into an idea, and this is really plumbers talking about their wrenches at this point, but I start moving old emails with fragments of stories into a new file, which bears the name of the whatever the project is. It becomes a dumping ground for stuff that I think might work. The great thing about researching on the internet as opposed to researching with a chatbot, is the chatbot will give you very specific answers about what you asked. When you have a broader Google search, weird things come up that you wouldn’t have thought were related. Then you might click a link in that, and you go somewhere else that you didn’t think of. I think that’s probably the way I came across a rat king. I knew I wanted rats. I was researching, “What are the grossest rats in the world?” I came across the story of a rat king and then I found out more about it. So, it’s following those weird little roads, but having somewhere to put all those ideas in the meantime, which is important. So, you figure out where they go.
(L to R) Joe Keery, Liam Neeson and Georgina Campbell in ‘Cold Storage’. Photo: StudioCanal.
MF: Can you talk about putting together the cast and did their final performances match your imagination when you were creating the characters?
DK: Yeah. Because I was a producer, I was involved in casting. When the performers come in, there’s a natural tendency to rewrite a little bit to suit them. Obviously, they come in and they should be playing the role that’s written because that’s what they’re there to do. But they also have their own personalities, and they bring certain things, and you want to accentuate some things that they do well and maybe move away from things that aren’t natural for them. I remember in rehearsal; I wrote a whole new scene for Joe and Georgina because they had such a nice rapport. So, I wrote a new three or four page scene that I think helped them understand and get to know each other better. Only a few lines of it ended up in the film. I knew that it wasn’t ever going to be in the film because it didn’t fit in that part of the movie. But it very much fit in terms of helping them understand who they were. I think they have a great chemistry and that’s because they understood who they were very well.
Liam Neeson in ‘Cold Storage’. Photo: StudioCanal.
MF: Can you talk about working with Jonny Campbell and why was he the right person to direct this movie?
DK:Gavin Polone, my producing partner, and I, saw his series, ‘Dracula’ that he did for Netflix, which we really liked very much and thought, it looked great, it was funny, and it was funny within the context of a vampire movie, which is not so easy to do without being silly. Then we just had a great meeting and really saw things the same way. I knew I didn’t want to direct it because I’d spent so much time writing the book and so much time writing the script. I was like, “I can’t. I’m just going to want to record it the way it is. I need someone who can interpret it.” So, it seemed like the right thing to do.
Emily Blunt in ‘Disclosure Day’, directed by Steven Spielberg. Photo: Universal Pictures.
MF: Speaking of directors, you’re re-teaming with Steven Spielberg for this summer’s ‘Disclosure Day’. What was it like working with him again?
DK: Well, it’s always fun. This is our 5th movie that he’s directed. Probably the 10th or 12th overall, including things he’s produced that I’ve written. It’s great because he hasn’t really changed in 30 years. His favorite part is making it up, and he’s the original, “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if guy?” The answer usually is, yes, it would. It would be very cool. Let’s try and figure that out. I will say on this one, I found him more the most intense that I’ve dealt with him. I think he felt a lot of pressure because he knew, “Hey, I’ve done movies with UFOs in them before, three times. If I’m going to do it again, it must be different and it must be perfect.” I think to his remarkable credit, if you look at the tone and the type of movie that ‘Close Encounters’ is versus ‘E.T.’ versus ‘War of the Worlds’, and now this, they’re very different movies. Each one of them is a different genre, they’re just exploring some similar subject matter.
(L to R) Michael Keaton, Marisa Tomei, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, and Randy Quaid in ‘The Paper’. Photo: Universal Pictures.
MF: Finally, we recently lost legendary actor Robert Duvall, who you worked with on ‘The Paper’. What are your memories of working with him and what was it like watching him say the lines that you wrote?
DK: Oh, man, Duvall’s great. He’s terrific in it. That whole cast is a dream. I mean, you got Glenn Close, Michael Keaton, Robert Duvall, then Marisa Tomei, and they’re all perfect for the part and they were all doing such a great job. I do remember one day on the set with Duvall, where it was one of the staff meetings, which are very funny, and they’re very hard because they were six or seven pages long and there’s ten characters in the scene. There’s a lot to coordinate and get right. He yells something at one point. I turned to Ron Howard, and I said, “Is he really mad or is the character mad?” He said, “I don’t know. I think both.” But it was completely indistinguishable, one from the other. It did create a little bit of distance because you don’t want to get in his eye line.
(L to R) Georgina Campbell and Joe Keery in ‘Cold Storage’. Photo: StudioCanal.
What is the plot of ‘Cold Storage’?
The film follows Travis (Joe Keery) and Naomi (Georgina Campbell), two employees at a self-storage facility built atop a former military base, whose night shift transforms into a nightmare when a government-sealed parasitic fungus escapes from the underground levels. As temperatures rise, the microorganism unleashes its brain-controlling, body-bursting mayhem on anything in its path. The duo must join forces with a weathered bioterror operative to contain the threat before it triggers humanity’s extinction.
(L to R) ‘Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man’ screenwriter Steven Knight and Tim Roth.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Tim Roth and screenwriter Steven Knight about their work on ‘Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man’, developing the screenplay for the movie, how Roth got involved with the project, his take on his character, working with Cillian Murphy, how Thomas Shelby has changes since the series, and why Knight wants to thank the fans for their devotion.
You can read our full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Roth and Knight, as well as director Tom Harper.
Steven Knight attends the World Premiere of ‘Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man’ at Centenary Square on March 02, 2026 in Birmingham, England. Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for Netflix.
Moviefone: To begin with, Steven, can you talk about developing the screenplay and did you always know that this film would be how the ‘Peaky Blinders’ story would end?
Steven Knight: Yeah, the actual details of the story were not set, but I always wanted it to end in the Second World War, and for it to end as a film. In fact, somebody showed me a clip of an interview I did just after the end of the first series, when it was a little BBC Two thing. For some reason, I’m very arrogantly saying, “What I want to do is take this all the way to World War II and I want it to be a feature film.” I’m thinking, “What are you going on about?” But here we are.
Tim Roth attends the World Premiere of ‘Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man’ at Centenary Square on March 02, 2026 in Birmingham, England. Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for Netflix.
MF: Tim, were you a fan of the TV series and what was your first reaction to the screenplay for the movie?
Tim Roth: I hadn’t watched the series at all. I’d worked with Cillian back in the day, and then I’d known him over the years, and we’d given him an award in Cannes and stuff like that. I mean, I was a fan and I loved him, but I hadn’t seen the show. I’d bumped into him when he was filming it over the years, because I’d be in Liverpool, or I’d been in Birmingham or whatever. There was a joy there. Also, the series had a reputation within the acting world of, “Oh, you want to work on that. It’s such fun. The characters are great to play,” and so on. So that happened. But what happened was I texted Cillian after he got his Oscar and told him, “Just keep your head down and run for the hills.” He said, “Doing it. Do you want to do a film?” That was how it happened. He did the same with Barry and I think he got Rebecca on. So, he’s causing some kind of furor in the casting world because he’s actually taking over as a casting director.
MF: What was your first reaction to your character? Did you understand his point of view right away?
TR: I thought he was brilliant. When he was written, he had a different twist to him. He was in the upper classes. I asked these guys if I could flip it and make him more of a normal guy, because I felt If he’s coming out from what seems like a much more normal and regular place, when the mask comes off, its more terrifying. Also, he needs to be able to communicate with Peaky Blinders and they wouldn’t talk to a toff. They wouldn’t talk to an upper-class snob.
MF: Steven, can you talk about how Thomas Shelby has changed since the series and what it was like working Cillian Murphy again?
SK: Always great to work with Cillian, because he’s not only just a brilliant actor, but he leads the line. He’s such a professional, all those things, et cetera, et cetera, but all true with him. I wanted the character to have done something, because Tommy Shelby’s done some bad things over the years, but I wanted to find him, and he’s done something that he cannot forgive himself for, and it’s to do with his family. That guilt is a new thing. Then, I wanted to offer him the opportunity of redemption, the opportunity to be forgiven for what he’s done by doing something good. It’s something good for his son, but it’s also something good for the country. Both acts, both things are done by the same action, which is how the film ends. When you’ve got actors like this that are so good, you can be quite bold in the scope of the emotional territory you’re going for.
(L to R) Cillian Murphy and Steven Knight are reunited on set as production officially starts on the upcoming Netflix film.
MF: Tim, what was your experience like working with Steven and director Tom Harper on this project?
TR: They gave us the space, which is a rarity nowadays, especially. Usually, all screen time is taken up with people speaking, or the music, or both. Cillian was talking about this this morning. You never get moments of silence to play. It’s a very rare thing now. I mean, there’s a history of that in the show and in the film. It rears its head well. So, we could watch each other without it being cut. We could just take the time. I think that makes it more cinematic, and a more beautifully told story. I wish it was in the cinemas longer, I must say. But there’s a community out there and they got it now. So, they get paid back and it’s lovely.
MF: Finally, Steven, as you know, fans of the series are very excited for this movie to finally be released. Have you felt that fan anticipation since the series ended?
SK: I mean, the fans have been the engine of this whole thing. They’ve been the energy behind it. It was not massively publicized when it first started. It wasn’t promoted heavily. Fans found it. I think when people find something for themselves, it increases the loyalty to it and people get evangelical about it. They want other people to know how good it is. So that’s what happened with this. We really wanted the energy of the fans to not diminish. So, we knew there was a timescale to this. We wanted to get the film out there. But what I have noticed is there was a lot of anticipation, people who wanted it. But something new has happened. There’s an increasing amount of energy and fandom going on with the film. Like back home in England, you can’t get a ticket. It’s sold out everywhere and in Birmingham, there’s a cinema that’s doing four shows a day, starting at 8:00 AM, and you still can’t get a ticket. So, what we wanted to do from the very beginning was reward the fans with a film that’s in theaters where people can go and watch it together. They can dress accordingly if they wish but share the emotion at the end. That’s what’s happening, so there’s a new level now.
What is the plot of ‘Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man’?
After his estranged son (Barry Keoghan) gets embroiled in a Nazi plot, self-exiled gangster Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) must return to Birmingham to save his family — and his nation.
Who is in the cast of ‘Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man’?
(L to R) Dominic Sessa and Rose Byrne star in ‘Tow.’
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Rose Byrne and Dominic Sessa about their work on ‘Tow’, the true story it is based on, their characters, the film’s unique tone, and working with director Stephanie Laing.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Byrne and Sessa, and director Stephanie Laing.
Rose Byrne in ‘Tow.’ Photo: Courtesy of Roadside Attractions.
Moviefone: To begin with, Rose, can you talk about your first reaction to learning of Amanda Ogle’s true story and why you wanted to play her and bring her story to the screen?
Rose Byrne: I mean, I was so intrigued. It really confronted my own prejudices of what someone is who’s unhoused, what they typically behave like or look like or sound like and where they’re from. She really turned all those things on its head in that sense. That’s something that really speaks to Amanda about how people have so many prejudices around that. It’s a systemic problem in the country and how that can happen to anybody through a series of bad choices and bad luck. She also hates authority. She’s very hostile. She’s suspicious of people. She’s a fun character to play and to hopefully have the audience root for her as well because she’s going up against this horrendous company, this monolithic company who couldn’t care less about her and her situation. In the end, she’s not really fighting for the car. She’s fighting for something inside. She’s fighting for her own dignity and respect. Then this very unlikely lawyer, this double act that becomes Kevin and Amanda. That was also really appealing to me and a fun part of the story. That was so true. It really happened. It’s so funny to see them together because they’re such an unlikely pair.
(L to R) Dominic Sessa and Rose Byrne in ‘Tow.’ Photo: Courtesy of Roadside Attractions.
MF: Dominic, can you talk about why Kevin decides to help Amanda, and what it was like creating that relationship on screen with Rose?
Dominic Sessa: It’s hard to understand. On paper, why would he commit himself to this journey? I mean, this huge commitment that it ended up becoming. But I think it does have a lot to do with his age. I’m close to that age that he was at the time now. I feel that sense of you wanting to prove things, especially for this character right out of law school, you have something to prove. This maybe initially presented itself as an opportunity to be like, “Oh, I graduated. I know what I can do. I passed the bar,” all of that. Then I think beautifully just turned into this very caring relationship where it didn’t become about himself. He really was doing it just for this other person to the point where he was making mistakes and felt bad about them and nervous to present that to her because he had felt such an obligation to her and this car.
‘Tow’ director Stephanie Laing.
MF: Rose, what was it like working with Stephanie again after ‘Physical’ and really collaborating with her to tell this specific story?
RB: It was wonderful. We’ve done so many episodes of TV together and you just clock those hours, you really have a shorthand, which is wonderful. This film was made in 19 days. So, it was like an episode of TV. It was so fast and furious, and we had one take, maybe two. Stephanie is incredible that she keeps everything on track. There’s no drama. She’s very organized and she has wonderful visual instincts. She casts so well. It’s not everybody can do that, particularly in these circumstances. She’s a wonderful leader and there’s no ego to it. She’s very driven by material, by performance, and it just reflects on the set. So, it was very well run considering how tight it was.
(L to R) Rose Byrne and Octavia Spencer star in ‘Tow.’ Photo: Courtesy of Roadside Attractions.
MF: Finally, Dominic, can you talk about the unusual tone of the movie and was Stephanie helpful with balancing the comedy and the drama on set?
DS: I think that was what attracted me to the movie. A large part was the tone of it and how it has this parabolic trajectory where you are laughing and then something devastating can happen. I think Stephanie’s really had a good sense of the tone and that’s what she wanted the movie to be. I think those are the movies I like the most personally and to act in as well. So, the first time we met, I understood what she was trying to do, and I think it’s the perfect tone for this story.
‘Tow’ opens in theaters on March 20th.
What is the plot of ‘Tow’?
Amanda Ogle (Rose Byrne), a homeless Seattle woman, fights her way out of tow-company hell to reclaim her life and the car that held it all together after receiving a tow bill for $21,634.
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Josh Duhamel attends the LA Special Screening of ‘Preschool’. Photographer Credit: Jesse Grant.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with actor and director Josh Duhamel, as well as Michael Socha about their work on ‘Preschool’, the film’s tone, how Duhamel’s previous experience directing prepared him for this project, Socha’s character, what it was like being directed by Duhamel, and shooting the movie’s funniest scene.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview.
(Center) Josh Duhamel as “Alan” in Comedy, Family Film, ‘Preschool’. Photo courtesy of Republic Pictures (a Paramount Pictures label).
Moviefone: To begin with, Josh, can you talk about how your previous experience as a director prepared you to make this movie?
Josh Duhamel: Good question. I think that my previous experience gave me the confidence that I could do it. I think that first time out of the gates is very scary, but I knew enough to know that I didn’t have to know everything. You surround yourself with a great cast, a great crew, a strong editor, a strong production team, and strong department heads. There’s nothing more collaborative than making a movie or a TV show because all these super talented people from different walks of production must all come together. Part of the beauty of this is that it is all hands-on deck, and everyone’s here to make a great movie. We just had a fun time making the movie. Especially when you’re trying to make a comedy, you want it to feel creative, collaborative, and light because that transfers to the screen. So, this one was no different than the other two in that I knew that I just needed to surround myself with talented people.
MF: Can you also talk about the specific tone you were going for and how you were able to achieve that?
JD: It was originally scripted from Malibu, this preschool was sort of a new age, progressive preschool instead of this 400-year-old institution, which was kind of like Hogwarts. That changed the dynamic of what the film was going to be, but I thought for the better. There’s no shortage of tremendous talent in the UK and everybody, Michael, Anatonia (Thomas), Charity (Wakefield), James Cosmo, Fenella Woolgar, and all my day players, they are Shakespearean trained actors. These are very talented people. It was intimidating for me if I’m being honest. But tonally, it does change that. It became more of a collaboration of American comedy and British humor, and I love British humor. Thankfully, I had actors who really understood that and pulled it off.
(Top to Bottom) Josh Duhamel as “Alan” and Michael Socha as “Brian” in the Comedy, Family film, ‘Preschool’. Photo courtesy of Republic Pictures (a Paramount Pictures label).
MF: Michael, can you talk about what Brian is willing to do to protect his child’s education and could you relate to your character?
Michael Socha: The thing is with Brian, I understand him. I get it. Do you know what I mean? I’m working class myself. I grew up working class and I understand, I suppose, the preconceived ideas of what not being working class is. I know that a lot of the people I grew up with, they were always fighting to get out of the rut that they were in, assuming if they’re not working class, then life’s going to be amazing and they’re going to have everything they want. But that’s just obviously not the case. This film, I suppose, makes that quite apparent.
MF: Michael, what was it like working with Josh both as a director and a scene partner?
MS: Josh was wicked. I can’t fault him, I really can’t. He was a kind director and gave me all the time I needed. He’s a great actor to work with, and a definite team player in every sense. Honestly, I’m not just saying it. I thoroughly enjoyed myself working with Josh. So, if he ever wants to cast me again in any future projects, I’m available for you, Josh.
(L to R) Michael Socha as “Brian” and Director Josh Duhamel in the Comedy, Family film, ‘Preschool’. Photo courtesy of Republic Pictures (a Paramount Pictures label).
MF: Josh, can you talk about shooting the scenes with the fictional children’s band ‘The Wild & Crazies’? Was that all scripted or was there improvisation involved?
JD: It’s one of those things whereas you’re prepping for the movie, “Okay, we got ‘The Wild and Crazies’ coming here,” and then it’s like, “Wait a second, we have to actually create a kid’s show within the movie.” So, we really dove in on what drives me crazy about some of these kids shows, some of the creepiness, and the backstories of these characters. I decided that I wanted The Monkey to be sort of that Mick Jagger burnout who thought of himself as an actual rockstar and ended up accidentally in this kid’s band because he needed the money and then it turns into this giant thing. They’re smoking and drinking backstage, we don’t show it, but you can feel it. So, we really spent a lot of time, not only with their characters, especially The Monkey, but also their costumes. The kids think they’re funny, but the parents find them almost scary in a weird way because they’re so odd and strange. We had a lot of fun. This whole thing is just so weird.
MF: Michael, your character has a huge fight scene with ‘The Wild & Crazies’, what was it like shooting that?
MS: I remember just being knackered. I realized how unfit I was after probably by take two. I was like, “Oh no, I got to get back in the gym.” But it was great because they were stunt people in real life. Everybody except for Colin Carmichael, The Monkey, he was not a stunt person. So, they were just incredible and willing to take a couple of licks. Do you know what I mean? They took a couple of knocks. It was fun, but I realized how unfit I was.
(L to R) Fenella Woolgar as “Mrs. Lawrence”, Charity Wakefield as “Lauren”, Josh Duhamel as “Alan”, Michael Socha as “Brian” and Antonia Thomas as “Sarah” in the Comedy, Family film, ‘Preschool’. Photo courtesy of Republic Pictures (a Paramount Pictures label).
MF: Finally, Josh, was it challenging directing the children on set?
JD: It wasn’t so bad. The hardest part about directing kids is that you only have them for so many hours, so you really must be smart about how you schedule it. But they were both great kids and they were both willing to try all kinds of stuff. They were both also very athletic. The actor that plays Brian’s son was a Jiu-Jitsu artist, so we shaped a scene where he kicks my ass at their house and does the flip and the whole thing. This kid is an actual jiu-jitsu stud. He’s very good at it. Then the actress that plays my daughter in the movie is a gymnast, so I tried to incorporate as much of that as I could because the physicality makes it fun, but they’re also very good actors and actresses. They were both pros, thankfully, because that could have gone sideways quick.
‘Preschool’ will be available digitally on March 17th.
What is the plot of ‘Preschool’?
Two fathers (Josh Duhamel and Michael Socha) become engaged in a battle to try and enroll their children into a desirable preschool.
Who is in the cast of ‘Preschool’?
Josh Duhamel as Alan
Michael Socha as Brian
Antonia Thomas as Sarah
Charity Wakefield as Lauren
Fenella Woolgar as Mrs. Lawrence
James Cosmo as Joe
Colin Carmichael as The Monkey
(L to R) Josh Duhamel as “Alan”, Michael Socha as “Brian”, Antonia Thomas as “Sarah”, and Charity Wakefield as “Lauren” in the Comedy, Family film, ‘Preschool’. Photo courtesy of Republic Pictures (a Paramount Pictures label).
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Nick Offerman and Jordin Sparks about their work on ‘The Pout-Pout Fish’, the screenplay, their characters, and the message of the movie.
(L to R) Nick Offerman and Jordin Sparks star in ‘The Pout-Pout Fish’.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews.
(L to R) Nick Offerman and Nina Oyama star in ‘The Pout-Pout Fish’. Photo: Viva Pictures.
Moviefone: To begin with, Nick, can you talk about your first reaction to the screenplay and why you wanted to play Mr. Fish?
Nick Offerman: Well, it’s funny. It’s a very strange luck that Mother Nature created me with my face and my dour, slow talking voice that got me to a place in my career that the business would say, “Hey, we think you would be perfect to play this ugly depressed fish in this beloved series of children’s books.” So thankfully, I’m able to see the good in that and not take it as a personal slight. So, I read it, and I was immediately taken with the story like the rest of the world. Everybody I mentioned it to that was familiar with it just was over the moon and said, “Oh my God, I can’t believe you’re going to get to do this.” So, there wasn’t much about it that wasn’t a no-brainer. It was just being the lucky guy who had the right turned down face.
MF: Jordin, what was your first reaction to this script and why did you want to be part of this project?
Jordin Sparks: Honestly, I related to Shimmer a lot. I related to her on a personal level. She is kind of like this mythical creature, and everybody’s searching for her, and everybody has these ideas of who she is and what she can do. That’s a lot of pressure and expectation to have when nobody really knows who she is. So, for me, being in the spotlight from a very young age, I felt those kinds of pressures too. Obviously, different circumstances, but the pressure and the weight still feel the same of people having expectations of how I should be or what my art should be like or what I should talk like or how I should act. I think it was cool to be able to see the description of her, and I was like, “Wow, I really relate to that.” So, there’s an empathy that I feel like I have that I got to bring to it because even though Shimmer feels like there’s all these pressures on her, she still has the mind and the heart to be like, “How can I help?” I think that’s a beautiful trait to have, and I’m kind of the same way. Not kind of, I am the same way.
A scene from ‘The Pout-Pout Fish’. Photo: Viva Pictures.
MF: Nick, did you give any suggestions to the animators as to how you thought your character should look?
NO: Well, I don’t have anything to offer the genius of the animators, but they take my offerings. They always film you while you’re recording, and one of the things that’s fun about voice work is that I feel uninhibited by my physical body in a way that I obviously am inhibited on camera. I’m constrained by the natural world. I can’t do three back flips, or I can’t stick my thumb in my mouth and blow myself up into a balloon. So, when I’m doing an animated voice, I like to blow away the bounds of physical constraints so that I can sound like anything is happening. So, even though no one’s asked me for additional input, I like to try and inspire the animators with the noises that I make, and the faces that I make. It’s really fun because they really take cues from things that you do, and they work that into the animation. I mean, it’s so fun to watch the finished product because they’ve added so much magic and charm. They make me look a lot funnier and a lot more charming than I could ever be.
MF: Jordin, how do you prepare for a voice role like this? Is it different than preparing for a live action role or going into a studio to cut a song?
JS: That’s a good question. I think going in for a song, it’s kind of comparable to that because you do different takes, and then you try and figure out what it sounds like the best. When I’m on camera, there’s so many more details that must be considered like where my arm is, where I’m looking, or what the outfit looks like. With animation, you can kind of scale back a little bit on the pressure, but at the same time, whatever you’re saying must work and must be perfect because you are representing that character with just your voice. So, there is a little bit more nerves to that. But with this character, because I related so much, I was able to kind of drop into those feelings, and I was able to collaborate with the producers and the director. They were on Zoom because they were over in Australia. I was here in the States, and he’d be like, “Okay, try it this way,” and I would. Then, he said, “Okay, why don’t you try it the way that you think?” Then, we would come together and be like, “Okay, maybe here, it should sound a little bit more like what you were doing on this one.” So, it was a very collaborative process, but I think the thing that brought it all together was my ultimate mom voice. That really helped. With my eight-year-old, I say, “Okay, how do I calm him down?” So, I brought some of that into it as well.
(Center) Nick Offerman stars in ‘The Pout-Pout Fish’. Photo: Viva Pictures.
MF: Nick, the film features some uplifting messages about community and working together. How important is it to you personally to work on a project that has something important to say about the world we live in?
NO: Very much. I mean, whether it’s Shakespeare or something really timely, like this story that’s a lot more modern, I mean, that’s why I got into this business. It’s fun to be part of the medicinal side of storytelling. Human beings will always have weaknesses, we will always fail each other for reasons of selfishness or vulnerability or pain or fear. So, we will always need these stories to tell each other, to remind ourselves to choose love, to take care of each other instead of hurting each other, and to try and endeavor to hug one another rather than punch each other. So, a story like this that exemplifies the diversity of a neighborhood to say, we need to be open to each other’s different households, to rely on the strengths of that diversity to create a strong community rather than to shun one another. It’s great. I love being part of that kind of storytelling because we’ll always need it.
MF: Finally, Jordin, the film teaches the lesson that you can be a self-reliant person, but you can also turn to other people for help if you need it. Was that a message that you responded to personally?
JS: Yes, I relate on the one end of feeling like it’s so nice to have somebody to just lean on even if they might not understand exactly what you’re going through. But on the other side of being that person, you have one hand to help yourself and you have one hand to help others. Any way that I can do that, any way that I can help, any way that I can encourage the youth, kids, anybody is what I want to do. So, I have a lot of that intention in the art that I create in my music, in voiceovers, in acting different characters, in writing, so I’m always trying to leave people better than I found them. Whether it’s after three minutes of listening to a song or being able to see this movie, I want to make people feel and would hope that those things that I create or that I’m a part of can uplift them after they experience them.
Editorial Note: Don Kaye conducted this interview and contributed to this article.
A scene from ‘The Pout-Pout Fish’. Photo: Viva Pictures.
What is the plot of ‘The Pout-Pout Fish’?
Living on a rundown shipwreck, Mr. Fish (Nick Offerman) one day discovers a hyperactive young sea dragon Pip (Nina Oyama) – who had mistaken his home for a junkyard – pilfering his belongings. The heated argument that ensues leaves both their houses in ruin. But there is hope! Embarking on a seemingly impossible quest in search of the mythical “Shimmer” (Jordin Sparks) to grant them a wish, there’s only one problem: someone else is on the hunt.
