The B-Side: A Film Stage Podcast The Film Stage

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones they made in between.

Today, we discuss one of the most prominent descendants of Hollywood royalty: Drew Barrymore! Filling in for Dan Mecca, Letterboxd’s Mitchell Beaupre joins Conor as a guest host, alongside exceptionally talented writer (and Cinephile Game Night champion) Marya E. Gates! Marya’s substack is well worth the subscription, often highlighting underseen work by women directors, among other great stuff. The B-Sides featured today are: Poison Ivy, Guncrazy, Boys on the Side, and Miss You Already. The gang also takes a couple pit stops at 2007’s Lucky You, and Drew’s charming 2009 directorial debut, Whip It!

An emblematic child star, we discuss Drew’s innate magnetism and affability, on display throughout her career. After breaking out in E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial and navigating an infamously tragic childhood, she has boasted impressive instincts on how to play into and against her “nice girl” persona. Throughout her career she’s made a point of collaborating with women directors, and has a notable penchant for material centering female friendships. All of this while showcasing an astonishing knack for sparking chemistry with just about all of her co-stars; a true movie star indeed.

We take tangents to highlight the impressive filmography of Barrymore’s Guncrazy co-star James Le Gros, Drew’s track record of films with bangin’ soundtracks. We also lament both Hollywood’s underappreciation of Whoopi Goldberg as a dramatic force, and the fact that Drew Barrymore has yet to return to the director’s chair.

Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor. We are also now on Spotify and Stitcher. Enjoy!

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones they made in between.

Today, we dive into the career of the stunning and stunningly talented Penélope Cruz. The indelible actress broke on to the scene in 1992 with Jamón Jamón, followed a few years later by her first
collaboration with Pedro Almodóvar in Live Flesh. Soon enough, Cruz was in Hollywood pictures like Blow and The Hi-Lo Country.

Our B-Sides include: Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Chromophobia, Twice Born, and this year’s The 355. Joining us today is returning guest Katharine Clark Gray of Uncompromised Creative. Gray is a writer for the Wait What network, and was part of the team recently awarded two Webby Awards for the episode “President Barack Obama: When the moment chooses you, part 1.”

We discuss the early, predictable type-casting of Cruz in Hollywood, the unfortunate failure of some of those earlier studio pictures (All The Pretty Horses in particular), her enduring range as a performer, and the hope to see her in more comedies (Official Competition coming soon!)

Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor. We are also now on Spotify and Stitcher. Enjoy!

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones they made in between.

Today, we discuss one of the most intriguing actors of his generation: Val Kilmer! To tackle such an enigma, we bring in the legendary Katie Walsh! A must-follow on Twitter, a co-host of the insatiably-entertaining Miami Nice Podcast, and an accomplished writer. The B-Sides featured today are: Kill Me Again, At First Sight, The Salton Sea, and Mindhunters.

We discuss how Kilmer was a prodigy - the youngest student admitted into Juilliard’s drama department - before his Broadway debut in the (ultimately) star-studded Slab Boys. There’s talk of his well-documented penchant to be difficult on set, as well as those who defended him and his abilities.

We confront Dan’s deep admiration for the poorly-aged The Salton Sea, make brief mention of other B-Sides like Thunderheart, The Real McCoy, and Spartan, and reference both Kilmer’s autobiography I’m Your Huckleberry and the 2021 documentary Val. Finally, we acknowledge that perhaps Val Kilmer was ultimately a movie star that never really wanted to be a movie star.

Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor. We are also now on Spotify and Stitcher. Enjoy!

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

Today we explore the agony and the ecstasy of the Almost Movie Star: young performers who found success early on and were given a few opportunities to establish themselves as bankable leading performers. Our subject on this episode: Taylor Kitsch. We focus on his full career, with a special investigation on his 2012 slate: John Carter, Battleship, and Savages.

Our guest is Valerie Ettenhofer, TV critic at Film School Rejects and News writer at Slash Film. A longtime Tim Riggins fan and incredibly well-watched critic, she brings her insights to examine what about Kitsch works so well and what may have prevented him from breaking out as a worldwide movie star.

Kitsch has been in the public consciousness for over a decade and a half, standing out among a stacked cast in the seminal show Friday Night Lights. For the young actor, the project was an early, creative windfall. An aspiring hockey player undone by injury, he enjoyed a short-lived stint as a model but struggled to find sustained work. At one point, he lived in his car in Los Angeles. He was couch-surfing in New York before that. Retreating back to Canada, he began getting cast as the one-scene himbo in a couple of movies (John Tucker Must Die, Snakes on a Plane) before landing a bigger part in the surprisingly-enduring The Covenant. Then came Tim Riggins. And the rest is history.

Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor. We are also now on Spotify and Stitcher. Enjoy!

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

Today we discuss perhaps the greatest living actor: Gene Hackman! Dan and Conor are joined by one of their good, good friends Mitchell Beaupre! Senior Editor at Letterboxd, co-host of their Weekend Watchlist podcast (as well as the brand new podcast Acting Out with Ryan and Mitchell), and contributor to great sites like The Film Stage (!), Paste Magazine, The Playlist, and Little White Lies. Our B-Sides today are: All Night Long, The Package, Heartbreakers, and Welcome to Mooseport.

We talk Hackman’s beginnings, Mitchell’s superb piece on Hackman’s spectacular 2001, the actor’s own reflections on his accomplished career, his mid-career hiatus, and - finally - his frequent combativeness with his directors. Additional topics include Tommy Lee Jones’ wild ‘90s, Jennifer Love Hewitt’s recollection of Heartbreakers (both the good and the bad), the work of René Descartes, Nicolas Roeg’s Hackman-starring epic Eureka, and the iconic Fox television show Party of Five.

Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor. We are also now on Spotify and Stitcher. Enjoy!

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. And sometimes we’re lucky enough to talk to them directly!

Today is one of those glorious days. Dan and Conor are joined by Guy Pearce, the incomparable actor who’s got a new film coming out in theaters - Memory (April 29th!) - and plenty of accomplished past work to dig into as well.

We focus on The Count of Monte Cristo, The Hard Word, and Lockout (a.k.a. Space Jail). Plenty more is touched on in our 25 minutes of Guy Talk™. Pearce explains his disappointment in Gillian Armstrong’s Death Defying Acts getting buried by Harvey Weinstein fifteen years ago, gets honest about certain movies he deems his “divorce films,” and highlights other B-Sides he’d encouraged his fans to check out (Ravenous, First Snow).

Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor. We are also now on Spotify and Stitcher. Enjoy!