Latest / Kyle Meredith With... / Rachel Bilson, Arden Myrin, and Rob Riggle on Christmas at the Kringles, Wild Improvisation, and Kevin Lewis’ Unseen 25-Minute Cut

Transcript

Rachel Bilson, Arden Myrin, and Rob Riggle on Christmas at the Kringles, Wild Improvisation, and Kevin Lewis’ Unseen 25-Minute Cut · Kyle Meredith With...

0:00
[SPEAKER_01]: It's easy to hear your favorite artist on WFPK from wherever you are.
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0:25
[SPEAKER_05]: and welcome to another edition of Kyle Meredith with it's the interview series presented by WFPK at WFPK.org consequence and the consequence podcast network thanks for making your way here check it out you know the drill if you like what you see what you hear hit that subscribe button put that new interviews just like this one every single week
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1:01
[SPEAKER_05]: That was always a help out to us so much.
1:03
[SPEAKER_05]: We've had some great guests here lately as well.
1:05
[SPEAKER_05]: Just talked with my buddy Kate Siegel.
1:08
[SPEAKER_05]: She's part of the new Carrie series, but also directed episode three,
1:14
[SPEAKER_05]: Hangout with Deborah Ann Wall and Jeffrey Donovan to discuss the cycle on shutter.
1:19
[SPEAKER_05]: Steven Wilson Jr., who's got a handful of new tracks out, area winter and Lorraine Newman Boats starring in The Sisters Grim on Apple TV.
1:29
[SPEAKER_05]: We hung out with Danny Elfman, Richard Patrick from Filter, Rizza, and the entire cast of carry.
1:34
[SPEAKER_05]: Actually, that's what you can get when you subscribe to the Kyle Meredith with podcast.
1:40
[SPEAKER_05]: That's me, Kyle Meredith.
1:41
[SPEAKER_05]: Today we are going to be talking with some of the cast and director of Christmas at the Kringles.
1:48
[SPEAKER_05]: The story follows the Seversons, a family starting fresh in a quiet suburban neighborhood, whose next door neighbors, the Kringles, celebrate Christmas year round.
1:56
[SPEAKER_05]: What begins is charming, quickly turns unsettling, as Mark and Julie grow concerned about their sons growing attachment to the family.
2:04
[SPEAKER_05]: After a heated confrontation, Mark heads next door to bring his family home, only to uncover the cringles true intentions to hypnotize and indoctrinate them.
2:12
[SPEAKER_05]: What follows is a life or death rescue mission as Mark teams up with a rogue badass Santa and a high stakes action-packed fight to save his family.
2:22
[SPEAKER_05]: The film stars Ron Livingston, Rachel Billson, Rob Riggle, Arden Mirren, Beverly DeAngelo, David Wayne, Thomas Lennon, and Donald Faeson.
2:32
[SPEAKER_05]: It's an incredibly stacked cast.
2:35
[SPEAKER_05]: And I'm going to be talking with some of them.
2:37
[SPEAKER_05]: Rachel Billson, Arden Mirren, Rob Riggle.
2:40
[SPEAKER_05]: and the director Kevin Lewis now we're going to start with with Rachel Wilson who spent much of Christmas at the cringle just trying not to laugh at Art of Marin and Thomas Lynn and even while her own character was being hypnotized into a holiday nightmare we got to talk about the Christmas obsessed cults at the center of the movie how Rachel kept silent night playing in her head during her druged out scenes and
3:04
[SPEAKER_05]: and why Arden thinks she'd make a pretty great coat leader herself.
3:06
[SPEAKER_05]: So let's get into this part one as we're talking about Christmas at the cringles.
3:11
[SPEAKER_05]: It's Kyle Meredith with Rachel Bilsen and Arden Miron.
3:17
[SPEAKER_05]: It's so nice to get to get to talk to you both.
3:19
[SPEAKER_05]: Congrats on a wonderfully weird crazy movie that you've been a part of here.
3:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
3:26
[SPEAKER_02]: We're we had the best time making it and I feel like it comes across on screen.
3:31
[SPEAKER_05]: It actually does.
3:32
[SPEAKER_05]: It really does.
3:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's so much fun.
3:34
[SPEAKER_05]: Rachel, we'll start with you here.
3:36
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, the fun of evil Christmas, I feel like just lends itself to the whole holiday anyway, but but how exactly was this pitch to you?
3:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I knew Kevin Lewis the director a little bit and it was pitched as a Christmas horror comedy.
3:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Ron Livingston was attached.
3:54
[SPEAKER_00]: They were attaching Rob Riggle and then I heard Arden and Thomas Lennon were in talks and it was just like, well, this sounds, are you sure, I sure you want me to do this because I felt lucky honestly just to be asked and
4:09
[SPEAKER_00]: to participate and read it, but like, it's just the best written Donald Fazon and like, it's just the, and Beverly D. And you know, sorry, I mean, it's a good idea to get out of your pants.
4:20
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just crazy.
4:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was the most fun ever.
4:24
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just so grateful that I was able to be a part of it.
4:27
[SPEAKER_05]: And you're talking about all of that cast and art and seeing you and and Thomas playing off of each other.
4:32
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, what's the direction here?
4:34
[SPEAKER_05]: Do they just say, just go all in, give me everything?
4:37
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, they let us, basically we would get the script as written and then they would let us time and I go and it was so fun and I think most of what you see of our lines is probably improvised, right?
4:52
[SPEAKER_02]: A lot of it.
4:54
[SPEAKER_05]: Is that right?
4:54
[SPEAKER_02]: I think so.
4:55
[SPEAKER_02]: I think most of them are.
4:57
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't trust that because I was on the other side and I don't think I'm laughing and I was just like,
5:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't even shoot me, just shoot the back of my head.
5:06
[SPEAKER_02]: I think they just trusted that we really meant, like we, you know, in character, like, you know, in the cringles spirit and it was an easy to play, like an obsession with Rachel and Christmas and so it was really fun to try to go into like an organic place of just this couple that is miscited and obsessed with each other and obsessed with joy and like are blind to their flaws
5:33
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean this is like a yes and moment where both of you don't realize when to stop saying and yeah it you you I hope they do a director's cut because what got cut?
5:44
[SPEAKER_05]: I just I'm not in theory is he what I was just crazy yeah Rachel you're kind of talking about too because I mean you do you do comedy in the past but there is a bit of playing against type with this I mean is that a is that a is that perception is what that is
6:02
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I think that's true.
6:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Just, I mean, it was so hard to be the straight person, you know, and like have to keep a straight face the whole time.
6:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, Ron was unbreakable.
6:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't understand how he did this.
6:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I need to learn from you because I, I think he was to get a cold the whole time.
6:18
[SPEAKER_02]: I think he was just sick.
6:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
6:22
[SPEAKER_02]: He said, dude, you guys were so good.
6:26
[SPEAKER_02]: You were so good.
6:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Acting against her and Tom just bouncing off each other.
6:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're just standing there and you have to like, not be laughing.
6:36
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the hardest thing I've ever done, but the most fun, fun I've ever, like, had in my life.
6:41
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, the look in your eye when you get drugged out, you know, they're after the team and to hold that for most of the rest of the movie too, like, like, like, you know, we're talking about everybody else going crazy, but but seeing you just lose it in that scene, like, where did you have to go?
6:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh my god, I was missing violent night over and over in my head and then just like, you know, watching them and I don't know, just the whole environment being on set with everyone and the crew and everyone working on it, you just really felt like you could do anything.
7:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And then our DP, the shots like random was, we're insane.
7:20
[SPEAKER_00]: It was just
7:21
[SPEAKER_00]: it was so cool and so fun.
7:24
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if I can answer it.
7:27
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know how I got there.
7:28
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a great job too.
7:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Like it was on a, like, you know, the budget wasn't huge.
7:33
[SPEAKER_02]: And what they did, what the art department did, and they blacked out the window.
7:37
[SPEAKER_02]: So it was in this real house.
7:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And that was just decorated for Christmas.
7:41
[SPEAKER_02]: And you didn't know of day was night night was day, like it's just blackout.
7:45
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like midnight at all times.
7:47
[SPEAKER_02]: So you enter this Christmas Wonderland, it was like this three story house that just was Christmas everywhere.
7:54
[SPEAKER_02]: So even if you had a minute off, you're still in this environment and these crazy wonderful outfits that our costume designer did, it was, you really just got into the world of it.
8:07
[SPEAKER_02]: There was never getting out of it.
8:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
8:10
[SPEAKER_05]: I really considered that because I don't know how long the shoot was, but you're right.
8:13
[SPEAKER_05]: Like if you're stuck with like one set,
8:15
[SPEAKER_02]: with a 20 days or 20 days shave and then like 18.
8:19
[SPEAKER_02]: It was short.
8:20
[SPEAKER_02]: It was under three weeks.
8:21
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, but still, I mean, hell, one week inside something.
8:25
[SPEAKER_02]: It was great.
8:26
[SPEAKER_02]: I loved it.
8:27
[SPEAKER_02]: It didn't get kind of dank after the dinner scene.
8:31
[SPEAKER_02]: It got a little like, but after the dinner is fine.
8:33
[SPEAKER_02]: It really got hot and the first fly is like, yeah.
8:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
8:37
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
8:38
[SPEAKER_05]: Art, and you also had done Christmas with the cranks.
8:43
[SPEAKER_05]: I told Christmas.
8:45
[SPEAKER_05]: Did that, did that connection come up for you when you were taking it?
8:48
[SPEAKER_02]: My brother, my brother was the premier of that with me.
8:51
[SPEAKER_02]: He was like, how crazy is it that you're in crisis?
8:55
[SPEAKER_02]: with the cranks and Christmas at the cringles.
8:58
[SPEAKER_02]: I love it.
8:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Bring it on.
8:59
[SPEAKER_02]: I want all the Christmas movies that are quirky.
9:02
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, I was just thinking of like some of your others, too, because because you take that in the peer pressure that happens with both of these movies that we're talking about with the Christmas movies.
9:09
[SPEAKER_05]: And then you take in Sashable and Onix and the righteous gemstones.
9:12
[SPEAKER_05]: And I'm wondering, do you have enough tools to start your own cult at this point?
9:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, for sure.
9:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm definitely going to be a target for a cult.
9:20
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that I'm a member of your cult.
9:23
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, you know what's thank you?
9:24
[SPEAKER_02]: I need a fun uniform.
9:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe look at jumpsuit.
9:27
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, you have to stir the look of robber, some kind of an outfit.
9:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Seems like I'm a night owl.
9:32
[SPEAKER_02]: So already I will make everyone else exhausted, but I'll be thriving while they're sleepy, right?
9:37
[SPEAKER_02]: We have some fun dance or song.
9:39
[SPEAKER_02]: I guess they're a cult.
9:40
[SPEAKER_05]: I think you're rule sound really easy for this cold.
9:43
[SPEAKER_05]: They didn't say the complicated is most cold stew.
9:45
[SPEAKER_02]: We're gonna see you start it out.
9:46
[SPEAKER_02]: You wear them out, you make people tired.
9:48
[SPEAKER_02]: So you just, I get them on my lack of sleep schedule.
9:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Then I've got my cat with thumbs coming in and braiding people's hair and off we go.
9:55
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like I have to say this word and Rachel with all apologies, but Christmas it kind of feels like it fits right into this I think that's what it's a combo for sure This one I think is more suitable and appropriate and maybe even traditional than Christmas if I have to just you know
10:14
[SPEAKER_05]: uh... it's it's it's so much crazy that i absolutely love uh... in this and i did not know what i was expecting what i went into it so uh... it's just the compliments there uh... seriously it's so much fun watching you all this and everything you do with both of your podcast and and aren't i'm looking forward to space cowgirl because speaking of crazy off the wall stuff that sounds like it's own madness
10:35
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to thank you so much.
10:36
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm so proud of it.
10:37
[SPEAKER_02]: I've been working on it for five years.
10:39
[SPEAKER_02]: I wrote a musical.
10:41
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a rock.
10:42
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, um, Itaania meets Hedwig and Hedwig meets Book of Mormon.
10:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And, um, we're doing a stage reading with a band, like two for Broadway investors and February.
10:54
[SPEAKER_02]: And,
10:55
[SPEAKER_02]: it's it's really good it's really good and it's it's crazy and I say that avery Pearson shout out he wrote the songs together but he's a genius and at the reading we have Jerry O'Connell is playing my love interest one of the astronauts and then we have Hailey Joel Osmett is an astronaut and then Timbalt's from Jim Stone to plays BJ Jim Stone he's playing my husband
11:21
[SPEAKER_02]: and then Kate McCoochi from, so we have all these great people in Andy Fickman is directing it who did Heather's the musical, so, like, you know, anybody listening, Broadway investors, next stop Tony's Anthony Award.
11:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Anthony's.
11:38
[SPEAKER_05]: Uh, every every bit of that sounded perfect.
11:40
[SPEAKER_05]: I can't wait to see it.
11:41
[SPEAKER_05]: It's really fun.
11:42
[SPEAKER_05]: And seriously, thanks again to both of you all for taking the time to talk about this when Christmas had the cringles.
11:47
[SPEAKER_05]: Uh, it's going to be a holiday tradition for somebody.
11:50
[SPEAKER_02]: So your friends tell your friends how hilarious it's scary.
11:54
[SPEAKER_02]: It's Christmas.
11:54
[SPEAKER_02]: It's Halloween where the little engine that could.
11:56
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you enjoyed the movie, tell your friends because, um, we got this big wide release and it's just like a little independent movie.
12:04
[SPEAKER_02]: So help us out.
12:05
[SPEAKER_05]: Absolutely.
12:06
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you all so much for the time.
12:07
[SPEAKER_05]: We're lovely talking with you both.
12:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Likewise.
12:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Nice to meet you.
12:11
[SPEAKER_05]: Hey, just take a quick pause to remind you.
12:13
[SPEAKER_05]: If you like what you're hearing right now, please do consider hitting that subscribe button.
12:17
[SPEAKER_05]: It helps out so much.
12:18
[SPEAKER_05]: And we'll be right back right after this.
12:21
[SPEAKER_05]: All right, welcome back.
12:22
[SPEAKER_05]: It's Kyle Meredith.
12:23
[SPEAKER_05]: We're talking about Christmas at the cringles.
12:26
[SPEAKER_05]: And next up is Rob Riggle, who plays a foul mouth, Drunken Santa.
12:31
[SPEAKER_05]: And we got to talk about the surreal experience of trading punches with Beverly DeAngelo.
12:36
[SPEAKER_05]: That fight actually happens in the movie.
12:38
[SPEAKER_05]: And why he's been branching out into more dramatic roles.
12:40
[SPEAKER_05]: So part two of Christmas at the cringles, it's Kyle Meredith with Rob Riggle.
12:46
[SPEAKER_04]: Hello, how are you?
12:47
[SPEAKER_05]: I need to say this at the beginning because I know it's not the place you grew up, but hello from Louisville.
12:52
[SPEAKER_05]: Hey!
12:54
[SPEAKER_05]: Land of your birth.
12:55
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's right.
12:56
[SPEAKER_04]: I was born there in Jefferson County.
12:58
[SPEAKER_05]: That's right.
12:59
[SPEAKER_05]: We have humongous pictures of you everywhere around.
13:02
[SPEAKER_05]: I think that's actually Jennifer Lawrence, but you look at this thing.
13:05
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm sure it's not me unless it's got a bunch of darts in it.
13:08
[SPEAKER_05]: does he let it's right there as well?
13:10
[SPEAKER_05]: It's all one big thing.
13:12
[SPEAKER_05]: Man, it's it's great to see you any time you're on screen, and I mean that, but in an unhinged character as this drunk Santa with Christmas at the cringles.
13:23
[SPEAKER_05]: So so what you get the script and you say, I can play this.
13:26
[SPEAKER_05]: I can do this.
13:27
[SPEAKER_05]: How did this arrive?
13:28
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, what it was was, obviously when I saw the script and it said drunk Santa, it got my attention.
13:34
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm like, all right, what are we doing here?
13:36
[SPEAKER_04]: And then knowing, I was friends with the producer, I know the producer Andrew Ortonberg and I know, and I knew of Kevin Lewis.
13:46
[SPEAKER_04]: So when I knew they were involved, it really had my attention.
13:50
[SPEAKER_04]: When I read the script, I was like, oh, yeah, I think, I think,
13:54
[SPEAKER_04]: Drunk Santa could be a lot of fun.
13:56
[SPEAKER_04]: Then I heard they were casting some amazing people and I was begging them to let me be part of it.
14:01
[SPEAKER_05]: So I mean one of them very first things we hear from you is what Mary Christmas Foxstick.
14:06
[SPEAKER_05]: I think is is the line like like that's it Like I've heard this from some of the actors too, but how much what is the script look like because it just sounds like
14:19
[SPEAKER_04]: It doesn't say that, I can assure you, that's why I appreciate Kevin Lewis our director so much, because he did allow for improv, and a lot of the cast, you know, their comedic actors, you know, so we do a lot of improv, we came up doing improv, it's kind of in our DNA.
14:33
[SPEAKER_04]: So, you know, we always usually come to a set with ideas, a tonality, and then of course, when you get to use your own verbiage, that helps sometimes.
14:47
[SPEAKER_04]: And yeah, that made for a wonderful film, you know, Tom and Arden are just amazing comedic actors and improvisers as well.
14:58
[SPEAKER_04]: So,
14:59
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, I would not want to have been Ron or Rachel in some of those scenes that they had to do together because they were hilarious.
15:06
[SPEAKER_04]: And Tom and Ard would always give you a new offering, you know, we might do a take one way and then we'd go back and, you know, back to one, we're going to do it again.
15:14
[SPEAKER_04]: They'd come out and they'd hit you with something that was not what they just did, right?
15:19
[SPEAKER_04]: And it would catch you so off guard that it was really pleasing.
15:29
[SPEAKER_04]: But then, you know, you would find things because that's how you discover like, oh, that was gold, you got to do that again, because that was just too good.
15:38
[SPEAKER_04]: And then those things end up making the movie.
15:40
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, is there a, who wins King of Comedy?
15:44
[SPEAKER_05]: Like, I'm just like, who's the hardest not to break against on a cast like that?
15:47
[SPEAKER_05]: Maybe it's you.
15:48
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know, you know, it's, it depends.
15:50
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, everybody's trying things, you know, that's the thing.
15:54
[SPEAKER_04]: The creative process is not,
15:56
[SPEAKER_04]: pretty, and it's not always perfect.
15:59
[SPEAKER_04]: That's why it's a process.
16:01
[SPEAKER_04]: And especially creativity, you know, and when you're working with so many different actors and some people prefer improv, some people hate it, some people respond differently.
16:11
[SPEAKER_04]: So you have to be respectful of everybody, but if you get into a place where everybody's
16:17
[SPEAKER_04]: feeling it, knows their character, knows what we're trying to do, understands the scene like we mean.
16:22
[SPEAKER_04]: All right, let's, let me, I'm going to say something that no one knows I'm going to say, and sometimes it works.
16:27
[SPEAKER_04]: Sometimes it doesn't, you know, and that's fine.
16:28
[SPEAKER_04]: If it doesn't, you got to let it go and you don't do it the next take.
16:32
[SPEAKER_05]: Everybody knows that.
16:32
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
16:34
[SPEAKER_04]: And, you know, but for some people, they don't like that in the process, because it is messy.
16:38
[SPEAKER_04]: But for some people, you know, it's like, yeah, that's just the way it is.
16:41
[SPEAKER_04]: That's how we, that's how we create.
16:43
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, it's like you've you've you've done Santa before, right?
16:46
[SPEAKER_05]: Like you've voiced Santa.
16:49
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
16:49
[SPEAKER_05]: So what's what's then the trick?
16:51
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know if that's true.
16:52
[SPEAKER_05]: Like like I'll bring about what I'm getting at too because with with Tom, uh, Lenin, it was in a different movie like a couple of years ago, but I remember him saying like, I think people hire me to be Thomas Lenin.
17:04
[SPEAKER_05]: It's like even when you're Santa, like do you think this is who this guy is or is there
17:13
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I think you have to bring a little, it's got to be a little bit of both.
17:16
[SPEAKER_04]: You kind of have to be true to yourself on some level, you know, you are connected and some level.
17:21
[SPEAKER_04]: And it might be, you might keep it down to 1%, or you could make it 99%.
17:26
[SPEAKER_04]: But yeah, I looked at this strong Santa character as limitless because he was, he had a bad attitude, but he had a good heart.
17:36
[SPEAKER_04]: He was flesh and blood because he was getting bloody and beat up and he was beating other people up.
17:42
[SPEAKER_04]: But at the same time, he had the supernatural element to him that kind of made it the next factor.
17:47
[SPEAKER_04]: So all that X factor around him kind of gave you a license to take it in weird places and do things, which I love.
17:53
[SPEAKER_04]: That's, I mean, that's a gift.
17:56
[SPEAKER_04]: And Tom, I mean, give me a Tom.
17:59
[SPEAKER_04]: Tom is so talented.
18:02
[SPEAKER_04]: He can, he covers the spectrum of character ability.
18:08
[SPEAKER_04]: He can do it all.
18:09
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't even know if there's a word, but I just made it up.
18:11
[SPEAKER_04]: Anyway, he can cover the whole spectrum.
18:14
[SPEAKER_04]: He can do any character he wants and it's always believable.
18:18
[SPEAKER_04]: And he's really good at it.
18:19
[SPEAKER_04]: He's really talented.
18:20
[SPEAKER_05]: And he does all the things.
18:22
[SPEAKER_04]: He's like, he's like, yeah, he's a multi-threat, which is what you got to be.
18:28
[SPEAKER_05]: Right.
18:28
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, I was, you know, you've got that going on, too, of course.
18:32
[SPEAKER_05]: Like I'm looking at all the projects that you have just right now, because, you know, and, and, and, what Brian Cliff, because you're talking about the same producers and everything, because you've got nickels.
18:42
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
18:42
[SPEAKER_05]: And this and the pirate king on the way.
18:46
[SPEAKER_05]: And,
18:47
[SPEAKER_05]: What an incredible showcase of talent that you yourself get to display.
18:52
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know about that.
18:54
[SPEAKER_04]: I've been really lucky to lately.
18:57
[SPEAKER_04]: This is my second horror film.
18:58
[SPEAKER_04]: I had don't move, come out in September.
19:01
[SPEAKER_04]: And now this.
19:03
[SPEAKER_04]: And then Nichols, like you mentioned, and Jimmy is coming out November 6th.
19:09
[SPEAKER_04]: And Pyrrkin comes out at the beginning of 27.
19:12
[SPEAKER_04]: And they're all dramas or horror.
19:14
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, with the exception of this, this has some comedy mixed into it.
19:17
[SPEAKER_04]: So it's been really fun and really, I don't know, good for my soul to get to paint with other colors.
19:26
[SPEAKER_05]: Hopefully that's the thing everybody wants though, right?
19:28
[SPEAKER_05]: When do you get to a point where you start looking specifically for that?
19:32
[SPEAKER_05]: Like, these are the things I might be known for.
19:34
[SPEAKER_05]: Let's run the other direction.
19:36
[SPEAKER_05]: Is it one of those?
19:37
[SPEAKER_05]: Is it as calculated as that?
19:39
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know if it's calculated as that, but it's kind of you do it for your own health and your own well-being, you know, if all you do is work out your biceps and the rest of your body atrophies down to nothing, you're going to look pretty weird.
19:52
[SPEAKER_04]: So I like to, you know, I want to balance it out.
19:54
[SPEAKER_04]: I have studied acting for many years and I did study improv for many years and I love comedic acting.
20:03
[SPEAKER_04]: Love it.
20:04
[SPEAKER_04]: I'll do it all day, every day as long as they'll have me.
20:07
[SPEAKER_04]: But I can't paint with other colors.
20:08
[SPEAKER_04]: I have some other colors.
20:10
[SPEAKER_04]: And so if I get the opportunity, I want to paint with them and see what happens because if nobody appreciates fine, but I enjoyed it and it meant the world to me and it made me feel like I grew a little bit.
20:22
[SPEAKER_04]: And so that's a good thing.
20:23
[SPEAKER_05]: I'll have seen you in those roles, and a role like this, you know, I was just talking with Kevin.
20:28
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, looks like the door is open there at the beginning, you know, for around two with Beverly DeAngelo maybe, which I got to say, as far as careers goes, the fact that you can put something on your resume that I got to be the crap on Beverly DeAngelo.
20:44
[SPEAKER_04]: Believe me, nobody, I appreciate more than anybody.
20:46
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm like, this, I felt terrible about it, but I loved it, but I hated it, because it's she's a Hollywood legend.
20:54
[SPEAKER_04]: And here we are, hooking in Japan, and I'm thinking, this is great, but I feel, I don't want to do this, but at the same time, I go, this is amazing.
21:02
[SPEAKER_04]: So it was surreal.
21:03
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, I know there's some movie magic involved in that, and maybe even some said folks, but I don't want to believe that.
21:07
[SPEAKER_05]: I want to believe every bit of that fight was exactly as I saw it on the screen.
21:11
[SPEAKER_04]: There was a lot.
21:12
[SPEAKER_04]: There was a lot.
21:13
[SPEAKER_04]: I give her a lot of credit.
21:14
[SPEAKER_04]: She got in in the mix.
21:17
[SPEAKER_05]: Rob, it is seriously such a pleasure to get to talk to you on here and congrats on this movie.
21:20
[SPEAKER_05]: And I'm so looking forward to these other projects that you got coming up to.
21:24
[SPEAKER_05]: I will I will be watching every single one of them.
21:26
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I appreciate that.
21:27
[SPEAKER_04]: It has a nice to talk to you as well.
21:39
[SPEAKER_05]: And now it's time to talk with director Kevin Lewis, all about Christmas at the cringles.
21:44
[SPEAKER_05]: We get into his love of Sam Ramey's wild camera work, why he considers the movie a spiritual successor to his film, Willie's Wonderland, and the 20 to 25 minutes of unused footage that he'd love to release as the cringle cut.
22:00
[SPEAKER_05]: Part three of Christmas at the cringles, it's Kyle and Meredith with Kevin Lewis.
22:05
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a lot of fun watching your new movie as balls and crazy as it was.
22:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Good.
22:12
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm glad you had a good.
22:13
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
22:14
[SPEAKER_05]: Let's start with the obvious.
22:15
[SPEAKER_05]: Where does this come from?
22:17
[SPEAKER_05]: You see a script.
22:18
[SPEAKER_05]: What do you see in this story?
22:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, I got this script four years ago and I just loved it.
22:23
[SPEAKER_03]: I had the idea of a Christmas, you know, family, you know, cult 365 days a year of celebrating Christmas.
22:29
[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, sign me up.
22:30
[SPEAKER_03]: There's just a lot to mind from that.
22:32
[SPEAKER_03]: And it was, I was looking for a project that,
22:36
[SPEAKER_03]: had the Willy's tone that I did with Willy's Wonderland, the kind of bonkers vibe.
22:40
[SPEAKER_03]: So I always called this some movie like Willy's 2.0, it had the DNA of it.
22:44
[SPEAKER_03]: And I love doing like four comedies and balancing the edge, you know, of that.
22:51
[SPEAKER_03]: You just said everything I was looking for, I was excited to explore the holidays.
22:55
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, well, it seems like I mean with Christmas, like, like, you know, we've seen Nightmare before Christmas, there's, you know, there's the crazy axe-wilding sand as an even back to Scrooge, like, well, like, what, what is it?
23:06
[SPEAKER_05]: What is it for you that just lends itself to the evil side of the holiday?
23:11
[SPEAKER_03]: I love taking things and deconstructing it, right?
23:15
[SPEAKER_03]: So what's more pure than Christmas, but then you can start, you know, when people start obsessing over it and things and I always want to make a hallmark goes the hell type movie.
23:24
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, it's like, it starts off a little hallmarky and it starts just going, you know, twisting and turning down and descent.
23:31
[SPEAKER_03]: So,
23:33
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's got a great palette to do right with the lights and all the props and things.
23:38
[SPEAKER_03]: You could do a lot of fun stuff too.
23:40
[SPEAKER_03]: But I always also wanted to make a Christmas suit.
23:42
[SPEAKER_03]: I wanted to make it have heart and have a message about being present.
23:48
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, just with Mark Severus and his family and the magic of Christmas, you know?
23:53
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, it's interesting to the way that kind of weaves in and out of the way you've done storytelling in the past, you always have that sort of duality.
24:01
[SPEAKER_05]: like I was looking at what I wrote down here is like communities that conceal terrible secrets and mythology.
24:09
[SPEAKER_05]: Both of these things seem to always find their way into, you know, the projects that you're working on for any specific reason.
24:18
[SPEAKER_03]: I want, you know,
24:20
[SPEAKER_03]: mankind and people, they've got a lot of different shades of gray, right?
24:24
[SPEAKER_03]: We're not all one kind, and so I love the idea that you've got kind of this shiny surface on the outside, but then there's nefarious things going on in the inside, you know?
24:37
[SPEAKER_03]: And, you know, what looks to be pure or innocent, or something is actually pretty terrifying, you know?
24:45
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, so that's kind of fun to play with, you know.
24:48
[SPEAKER_03]: And in Christmas is such a great world to do it with.
24:52
[SPEAKER_05]: And what you can do is you were saying visually, and those close-up shots and, you know, what you guys were doing with the camera there, like, you know, I've heard you, like you don't seem like you shy away from visual references.
25:05
[SPEAKER_05]: when you're making it like like did like were there some for these or maybe even their musical references.
25:10
[SPEAKER_05]: I do love the kiss poster over your shoulder and I'm definitely giving you a run for help or mine as well.
25:15
[SPEAKER_03]: So yeah well know that the definitely visual references on this movie uh my D.P.
25:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Brandon Cox and I we we work really like a 75 page shot list like I did with Willie's and so this is a love letter to cinema you know movies that I loved from the John Hughes
25:35
[SPEAKER_03]: So definitely visual, you know, I had some of the characters like talk to the lens, you know, like John the Demi had in the Hawkins in a sense of lamps, you know, there's just some unsettling thing about that.
25:49
[SPEAKER_03]: They're talking to the audience.
25:50
[SPEAKER_03]: They're not looking their eye line looking at the other character or the other actor.
25:54
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like they're talking right directly in the lens down the barrel.
25:58
[SPEAKER_03]: And that was interesting.
25:59
[SPEAKER_03]: making the camera part of the characters.
26:02
[SPEAKER_03]: So when it would whip over, you could put a wish in.
26:05
[SPEAKER_03]: So people kind of, you're cognizant of the camera.
26:09
[SPEAKER_03]: What you brought up, you're cognizant of the look.
26:11
[SPEAKER_03]: I want to make a kind of a Norman Rockwell oil painting look to the movie, but graphic novel with the Dutch angles and the dolly zooms and stuff like that that out.
26:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Again, I love with in three o'clock high and evil dead.
26:26
[SPEAKER_03]: all those fun, visceral movies, aggressive camera work, you know, I just love that stuff.
26:32
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, especially, I mean, what was it?
26:33
[SPEAKER_05]: It was such a part of 80s culture, you know, those, those ones you'd make it.
26:37
[SPEAKER_05]: And it is, that's, you know, the stories are great and the acting is great, but there are those shots that those are some of the reasons why I go back to those movies, just so I can see, you know, grandma carrying the apple pie, but the camera's right there on the apple pie walking around, you know, or something like that, you know, it's like,
26:53
[SPEAKER_03]: Totally, that's in the baked in my DNA and why I've got into making movies in the first place.
26:58
[SPEAKER_03]: Ever since I did hiate movies or super-rate movies, VHS movies, so I'll always have that.
27:04
[SPEAKER_03]: That's just, I just love it.
27:06
[SPEAKER_03]: I love, Evil Dead 2 is the first movie where it showed me what you could do with a camera.
27:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2.
27:13
[SPEAKER_03]: I was like going away, the creative
27:17
[SPEAKER_03]: the juice that Sam Ramey had and out those movies, man, just blew me away.
27:21
[SPEAKER_03]: So we're always trying to like tap into that, you know, bit.
27:25
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, then we also have to bring up your incredible cast that you landed on here.
27:32
[SPEAKER_05]: There's so many different people that have connections to Christmas who Riggle has, boy Santa, before Artem was in the crank.
27:39
[SPEAKER_05]: You just all of these things,
27:43
[SPEAKER_05]: on here.
27:44
[SPEAKER_05]: When you're searching these out, they're all comedic geniuses, but was that part of it at all because what an incredible coincidence if not?
27:51
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, when I got the script, I always pictured Ron Livingston as Mark.
27:56
[SPEAKER_03]: So when he said, yes, it was the same thing with when I did Willis with Nick.
28:01
[SPEAKER_03]: I pictured Nick doing as a janitor or so it was awesome that your first choice says, yes, wants to do it.
28:08
[SPEAKER_03]: And so for him, and then of course you'll rob wine to do, you know, drunk Santa and then it got ardent and Thomas Lenin and Rachel and then Donald and
28:19
[SPEAKER_03]: working with all these geniuses, man.
28:21
[SPEAKER_03]: It was just every day.
28:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Kyle, it was just like, it was a walk-in-uncloud night, you know, and got great footage, great work with them.
28:31
[SPEAKER_03]: We all saw the movie the same way, you know, and they all just brought something new and interesting and their magic Christmas, you know, dust to the parts, they're just awesome.
28:41
[SPEAKER_05]: And you just let them do what they're going to do.
28:43
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
28:44
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, and it was cool.
28:45
[SPEAKER_03]: It was like, you know, you could tweak them here and tweak them there as like I like this take.
28:49
[SPEAKER_03]: Every take was different, you know, because they have such great comedic improv skills.
28:55
[SPEAKER_03]: And so that was the thing is editing this movie and it's like, all right, you know, what am I going to go with?
29:00
[SPEAKER_03]: I can only go with one, you know, and so that was, it was tough, you know, and it was, but it was also a lot of fun.
29:07
[SPEAKER_05]: I want to see the director that said that, like you've just said that, and then make the other movie, like just use the unused footage and make the same plot, but they completely like,
29:18
[SPEAKER_05]: Has it been done?
29:19
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know, it's you know, I want to see that happen.
29:22
[SPEAKER_03]: It's funny.
29:23
[SPEAKER_03]: I had that idea of doing like the cool like a TV show, but like you take a script.
29:28
[SPEAKER_03]: You have three directors.
29:29
[SPEAKER_03]: You take a script.
29:30
[SPEAKER_03]: It's the same script, but they can get the actors.
29:33
[SPEAKER_03]: They could they have the same budget.
29:35
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's like, we've been interesting to see them three different versions of a movie, you know?
29:41
[SPEAKER_03]: Uh-huh.
29:42
[SPEAKER_03]: Uh-huh.
29:43
[SPEAKER_03]: But with this, you know, there's like 20-25 minutes of, uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh
30:02
[SPEAKER_05]: you've done it.
30:03
[SPEAKER_05]: Now what I will say, you know, with with the ever potential of further adventures, I think no old 10 and bomb, I want to know that story at this point.
30:13
[SPEAKER_03]: David Wayne's character, like this.
30:15
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, it's so good.
30:16
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
30:17
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, like bring back an old 10 and bomb.
30:19
[SPEAKER_05]: It's like how much do you
30:21
[SPEAKER_05]: Like, you know, some directors, they know all of their characters.
30:26
[SPEAKER_05]: John Hughes would say that.
30:27
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, he's like, I know what my, all of my characters are doing right now.
30:30
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
30:31
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, you look at some, I like, no, Tim, that you consider what that whole backstory of him and everything else is or, or do you wait to see if you can create that later?
30:39
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, no, for sure.
30:40
[SPEAKER_03]: I've thought so what we can do if we did another one.
30:43
[SPEAKER_03]: I've got some ideas, I'm always thinking that, but then it's like, you don't want to heck sit man, you don't know if this movie does well, it'll be amazing.
30:51
[SPEAKER_03]: I'd love to revisit this world, you know?
30:55
[SPEAKER_03]: Again, working with these actors, it was the best time, you know, I just they brought so much
31:02
[SPEAKER_03]: to the parts and to the story and it's just a couldn't have been happier.
31:05
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
31:06
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, it's such a fun one to watch.
31:08
[SPEAKER_05]: It seriously is, uh, congrats on a man.
31:11
[SPEAKER_05]: And Kevin, it was so nice to get to talk to you about it.
31:13
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you.
31:13
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.
31:14
[SPEAKER_03]: I really enjoy a call.
31:15
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks so much.
31:16
[SPEAKER_05]: And there you go, my thanks to Kevin, Rob, Riggle, Arden, Rachel, Billson, and of course thanks to you for checking out the episode.
31:23
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31:28
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31:37
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31:44
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[SPEAKER_05]: That does it for another edition.
32:46
[SPEAKER_05]: Kyle Meredith.
32:47
[SPEAKER_05]: I'll see you next time.
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