Speaker 1: In this spooky episode of pop Culture Weekly, It's Halloween.
Speaker 2: I talk with Michael Myers himself, Nick.
Speaker 1: Castle, end Ray herself from the Galaxy Far Far Away,
Speaker 1: Daisy Ridley.
Speaker 2: Let's go.
Speaker 3: Welcome to pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon from iHeartRadio
Speaker 3: your pop culture news, views, reviews and celebrity interviews on
Speaker 3: all the movies, TV, music and pop culture UKRABE Weekly.
Speaker 3: Here's Kyle McMahon, Nan Nana no.
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon.
Speaker 1: I of course am Kyle McMahon, and it is another
Speaker 1: October episode that means Halloween.
Speaker 2: You know, that's my.
Speaker 1: Favorite day of the year. It's my favorite time of
Speaker 1: the year. I love horror, I love spooky season, and
Speaker 1: this month I feel like we've been bringing all the
Speaker 1: great you know, spooky people out, spooky content, horror movies, thrillers,
Speaker 1: just you know, getting it all up. Last episode we
Speaker 1: had Bruce Campbell, who's so amazing. We talked about Hysteria
Speaker 1: and Teacut, which is this terrifying series on Peacock. It's
Speaker 1: just been oh and Kado Lake, the m Night Shyamalan
Speaker 1: produced film that I talk with Dylan O'Brien and Eliza
Speaker 1: Scanley such just such great content, and this episode is
Speaker 1: no different. I talk with the Shape himself, the original
Speaker 1: OG Michael Myers. Yes, I talk with Nick Cassel all
Speaker 1: about Halloween, which is out in theaters right now, with
Speaker 1: a couple of the sequels as well. And then I
Speaker 1: talk with Ray Daisy Ridley. Yes, Daisy Ridley, I talk
Speaker 1: about her brand new film called Magpie, which is really
Speaker 1: really really creepy and really really really good.
Speaker 2: You're gonna love it. But we'll talk about that in
Speaker 2: a moment.
Speaker 1: First up, let's get right into my interview with the
Speaker 1: one and only Nick Castle, who gives us a very
Speaker 1: cool exclusive on the future of the Halloween franchise. Here
Speaker 1: he is Nick Castle. So, is this like your busy
Speaker 1: time of the year. I mean, obviously you're busy all year,
Speaker 1: but is this like an insane time for you?
Speaker 4: Well, you know, I'm not busy all year. I'm a
Speaker 4: retired motion picture director writer and having a wonderful time
Speaker 4: in retirement. But nonetheless, what I do do is go
Speaker 4: do a lot of horror conventions, fan conventions, and especially
Speaker 4: this time of year is very popular. Over the last
Speaker 4: eight weeks, I've gone to six different cities just to
Speaker 4: talk to the fans, and they have a blast with
Speaker 4: this character, signing autographs and masks and knives and all
Speaker 4: times of stuff. So I have the pleasure and the
Speaker 4: privilege of being an ambassador for John's movie and for
Speaker 4: a lot of the other a lot of the other
Speaker 4: films that have been spawned by this character.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, Halloween is such an iconic film, the franchise.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm a huge horror fan. I'm a huge
Speaker 1: Halloween fan. Halloween is my favorite. It's the og for me.
Speaker 1: What is it like to be you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: you are the shape Michael Myers. What is it like
Speaker 1: to be that character in a film that has just
Speaker 1: through decades endured.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, it's pretty funny. Actually, I find it
Speaker 4: ironic because you know, what I'll be remembered for is
Speaker 4: this movie after having done a dozen movies or writing
Speaker 4: of another three or four. But it's so much fun
Speaker 4: because you get to meet the fans at these conventions,
Speaker 4: and that's how I know how beloved in its own
Speaker 4: strange way, this character is meeting people that actually are
Speaker 4: affected by this that their first movie was Halloween, or
Speaker 4: their first horror movie. They sat down with their parents
Speaker 4: and watched it, and they remember it fondly for that,
Speaker 4: so it's almost like a family affair. And of course
Speaker 4: it happens every year. It was brilliantly, you know, titled Halloween.
Speaker 4: So every year around this time, you're reminded not only
Speaker 4: of the season, but of this little movie that was
Speaker 4: done so well that you don't mind going back to
Speaker 4: it over and over again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and for you, you know, over these decades, when
Speaker 1: you look back nineteen seventy seven, nineteen seventy eight, did
Speaker 1: you ever think that this was going to you know,
Speaker 1: that you'd be talking about at forty some years later.
Speaker 4: Absolutely not. You know, at the time, this was a
Speaker 4: little film that you hoped would get you know, decent
Speaker 4: distribution and that you hope John would get another job.
Speaker 2: From right.
Speaker 4: And within the year it was the largest grossing independent
Speaker 4: film of all time, and especially for the budget was
Speaker 4: was was a crazy reality. And so h no no idea.
Speaker 1: And you've talked about you know, you've talked about the
Speaker 1: film so much. Uh, is there anything that you know
Speaker 1: is little known about you know, a little known fact
Speaker 1: about the film that you haven't maybe been asked about
Speaker 1: or haven't discussed.
Speaker 4: Oh dear, you know, yes, I've Folks like you have
Speaker 4: mined pretty much everything out of this brain. The one
Speaker 4: thing I like to remind people of is the UH
Speaker 4: as a partnership that John had with Deborah Hill, the
Speaker 4: producer and writer of the picture, was no small part
Speaker 4: in making this thing a reality and making it so good.
Speaker 4: She she helped work with the young actresses on the
Speaker 4: set UH and like I said, co wrote it with
Speaker 4: him and was a tremendous talent. Died too young and
Speaker 4: didn't get to have as much as the fun of
Speaker 4: these last decades of how how the movie has grown
Speaker 4: in in fan base exponentially, it seems almost year after year.
Speaker 4: So I tribute just a reminder to folks that there
Speaker 4: was a woman involved with this this show, that that
Speaker 4: had a lot to do with its success.
Speaker 2: I love that so much.
Speaker 1: And you know, Halloween is playing right now and what
Speaker 1: nearly eight hundred theaters across the country. It's not every
Speaker 1: movie that gets that gets a re release, you know,
Speaker 1: like that, especially decades later, is you know for you
Speaker 1: you also did the thing that I love about, you know,
Speaker 1: a franchise like Halloween. Is that then you have different
Speaker 1: takes on it. You know, Rob Zombie did a take
Speaker 1: on it, and and then the recent trilogy from from
Speaker 1: David Gordon Green, which which you were in. Do you
Speaker 1: enjoy seeing the different you know? And then there's there's
Speaker 1: books and games and comic books and all that. Do
Speaker 1: you enjoy seeing the different kind of you know, creative
Speaker 1: takes on the franchise?
Speaker 4: Oh? Yes, I mean, in fact, I wouldn't mind seeing
Speaker 4: more of them. I'd love to see a film do
Speaker 4: an episode each from a great filmmaker to do their
Speaker 4: own Michael Myers like Rob just did, and David Gordon Green,
Speaker 4: you know, he came up with the concepts of doing
Speaker 4: a forty years later one and how they approach it.
Speaker 4: I thought that was magnificently done. And then talking about
Speaker 4: artistic endeavors, there are even books now of people that
Speaker 4: have done artwork that include the movie or the character
Speaker 4: that are just spectaculars that are beautifully done. So the
Speaker 4: movie has inspired a lot of artists and you can
Speaker 4: see it in and when I go, especially when I
Speaker 4: go to these conventions where people will bring posters of
Speaker 4: things that people have made out of, you know, from
Speaker 4: their homes. You know, there's just spectacular work and it's
Speaker 4: it's it's it's really quite remarkable.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: And do you happen to have any any idea where
Speaker 1: you know, is there talk of.
Speaker 2: Bringing another film out?
Speaker 4: Oh? Yeah, I spoke to Malika cod who is the uh,
Speaker 4: the owner of the franchise. Oh. They're busy trying to
Speaker 4: figure out the next next, the next iteration. And of
Speaker 4: course I think he's talked about having a relationship with
Speaker 4: Mery Max and they're thinking maybe TV might be the
Speaker 4: next step. I don't know what that means exactly, but
Speaker 4: that might be the next time you see the Halloween
Speaker 4: world pop out.
Speaker 2: I love that. And originally wasn't.
Speaker 1: John's original idea was to do like each year would
Speaker 1: be It wouldn't be necessarily Michael Myers, but it would
Speaker 1: be a different story taking place on Halloween.
Speaker 2: Is that true?
Speaker 4: That was true? You know. In fact, the third iteration
Speaker 4: of Halloween that John did with Halloween three Season of
Speaker 4: the Witch, which didn't have Michael Myers, had a great story.
Speaker 4: At the time, it didn't work for the audience because
Speaker 4: the promotion of it didn't really explain that this wasn't
Speaker 4: Michael Myers, so everyone was disappointed when they went to
Speaker 4: see it, or many people were, and now years and
Speaker 4: years and years later, having you know that behind him,
Speaker 4: that movie directed by Tommy Lee Wallace is a big
Speaker 4: fan favorite. So yeah, I think if you promoted it right,
Speaker 4: an anthology series about using John as the mastermind of
Speaker 4: the series and promoting it and shaping it would be
Speaker 4: a great way of telling the stories.
Speaker 2: Again, Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: Maybe that ties in with, you know, a television type
Speaker 1: thing and then you have Michael Myers whatever each season
Speaker 1: finale or something.
Speaker 4: Hey, there you go. We may steal that idea from it.
Speaker 2: It's yours.
Speaker 1: I just want more Halloween content, Nick, You you know
Speaker 1: you've done so much work. August Rush is a personal favorite.
Speaker 1: I love that film. It's such a meditation for me.
Speaker 1: I believe in music and film and familial familial familial ties.
Speaker 1: Do you find you know you've done such varied work.
Speaker 1: Do you find that as an artist that's kind of
Speaker 1: you know, what kept you going for so long that
Speaker 1: you were able to do a Halloween and then an
Speaker 1: August Rush and a Mister Wrong and that sort of thing.
Speaker 4: Well, sometimes you make your career and sometimes your career
Speaker 4: makes you for John, for instance, he was very clear
Speaker 4: about producing a John Carpenter movie for me, it was like,
Speaker 4: you know, it wasn't as easy as not that it
Speaker 4: was easy, but it didn't fall that way. It was
Speaker 4: like who had the best script, what studio wanted to
Speaker 4: hire me, things of that nature, so that you know,
Speaker 4: you you get this kind of eclectic you know, career
Speaker 4: that that I've had a ball. So it's it's not
Speaker 4: formed into, you know that the kind of world that
Speaker 4: John was able to create, but it's a world that
Speaker 4: I've enjoyed every minute of and and had some great
Speaker 4: luck with doing films that I generated from my own
Speaker 4: little brain to motion pictures that were handed to me
Speaker 4: that I just love the idea. So I've been lucky,
Speaker 4: and now in retirement I can look back and just
Speaker 4: promote my friends' movies like this.
Speaker 2: I love that so much. Nick, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: People can go to Halloweenportal dot com and get all
Speaker 1: of the information and they can go like me and
Speaker 1: go see Halloween and a few of the sequels as
Speaker 1: well in theaters on the big screen. Thank you so much, Nick,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Thank you. Unhappy Halloween. See the folks there.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Sarah you as well. Nick Castle. I can't believe I
Speaker 1: talked to Michael Myers. This has been like a dream
Speaker 1: this month. Bruce Campbell, last episode, Michael Myers. You know,
Speaker 1: Nick Castle, this episode just so awesome. I'm like living
Speaker 1: my dream and you guys make it happy and I
Speaker 1: appreciate that and love that from you and for you
Speaker 1: and for me.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: It's awesome because he directed also like The Last Starfighter,
Speaker 1: which is such a great movie, and Dennis the Menace,
Speaker 1: which was hilarious that came out in What ninety three
Speaker 1: and it had Walter Mathow and Christopher Lloyd in it.
Speaker 1: Like what a cast, Natasha Leone, Lea Thompson. So anyway,
Speaker 1: all right, we're gonna take a super short break, so
Speaker 1: hang out here. So hang out here with me and
Speaker 1: support our sponsors who make this show happen.
Speaker 2: I will see you in sixty all right.
Speaker 1: Thank you for hanging out with me and supporting our
Speaker 1: sponsors who make this show happen every single week and
Speaker 1: bring you amazing interviews like Nick Castle, Michael Freakin Myers
Speaker 1: and this next interview, who I am so excited about
Speaker 1: my next guest has captivated audiences around the globe with
Speaker 1: her incredible talent and charisma. She has empowered people, especially
Speaker 1: women and girls, around the galaxy with her breakout role
Speaker 1: as Ray in the blockbuster Star Wars sequel trilogy, and
Speaker 1: she's proven herself to be a force to be reckoned
Speaker 1: with in Hollywood and beyond. And her new film, Magpie
Speaker 1: is an incredible twisty, turny, hitchcocky and thriller that she
Speaker 1: conceived of herself and now stars in. Let's talk with
Speaker 1: Daisy Ridley. So, first of all, Daisy, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for speaking with me. I really appreciate it. Magpie
Speaker 1: is so good. I love it.
Speaker 2: Thank you, of course.
Speaker 1: So tell me about you. Know, from my understanding, this
Speaker 1: film came from you. The idea for it came while
Speaker 1: you were filming something else, which I think is so meta,
Speaker 1: especially with the film itself.
Speaker 2: How did that come about for you?
Speaker 5: So the actual original idea was a little different to
Speaker 5: where Tom ended up taking it. The original idea was
Speaker 5: if an actress is away from home and destabilized by
Speaker 5: something and does not have the solidity of sort of
Speaker 5: the bedrock of something keeping her feeling calm, I mean
Speaker 5: being away filming anyway, even with all of those things,
Speaker 5: and the stability can be very strange and very isolating
Speaker 5: and offering you're away from home. So the original concept
Speaker 5: was what would an actress do if she became so
Speaker 5: in love with the child that was playing her child
Speaker 5: she tried to infiltrate that family. So that was the
Speaker 5: original idea, And when Tom started working on it, he
Speaker 5: just said he felt really more drawn to the woman
Speaker 5: at home, who is the person who isn't able to
Speaker 5: go and have this amazing experience on set where these
Speaker 5: intimate bonds are formed incredibly quickly and everything feels exciting
Speaker 5: and fresh, and who is she and how is she
Speaker 5: coping with the feeling of being the other woman in
Speaker 5: terms of her child And then of course, coupled with that,
Speaker 5: her husband has a wondering eye.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so you know, this kind of incubates with
Speaker 1: you and you decide, you know, there's something here that
Speaker 1: I want to do with it. So you took it
Speaker 1: to a producer friend of yours and it kind of
Speaker 1: blossomed from there, right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So me and Tom had already started spitballing and
Speaker 5: he had actually written, I mean he wrote incredibly quickly
Speaker 5: because we were so excited about the idea, and particularly
Speaker 5: when he started working on it, and I knew his
Speaker 5: writing anyway, I've read a lot of his other scripts
Speaker 5: which were beautiful. So we pitched it to Kate, who
Speaker 5: I produced the movie with, and she was very interested.
Speaker 5: And then in a way we went, so things you know,
Speaker 5: shifted as we went, but certainly the idea was there,
Speaker 5: and then we knew we wanted a killer ending, and
Speaker 5: then Tom really sculpted that because we had there had
Speaker 5: to be enough layers between everyone, and you had to
Speaker 5: believe those relationships and you had to care about these
Speaker 5: people and what happened in order for us to pull
Speaker 5: that off.
Speaker 6: So all of that was built by him.
Speaker 1: I love that And part of what I love is
Speaker 1: it so in its own way hitchcocky and almost And
Speaker 1: I'm a huge Hitchcock fan.
Speaker 2: Are you? Are you a Hitchcock fan?
Speaker 1: And does that kind of play into when you're doing,
Speaker 1: you know, different projects, especially when you're producing and you're
Speaker 1: you're so involved in the development of is that something
Speaker 1: like you know conscious for you, like, you know, I
Speaker 1: want to kind of do something in this vein or
Speaker 1: that vein.
Speaker 6: Well, we had inspirations from the beginning.
Speaker 5: One was Tully. This amazing film was Charlie's. Then we
Speaker 5: had seen Homecoming, the show with Julia Roberts with that
Speaker 5: very claustrophobic zoom, so there had been references anyway, and
Speaker 5: we really, me and Tom really wanted to make the
Speaker 5: sort of film and we all love all sorts of films,
Speaker 5: but something that we would really want to see. So
Speaker 5: the genre feeling and that noir feeling was something we
Speaker 5: always wanted. But we were also incredibly lucky to have
Speaker 5: Sam Yer to come on board as director and Laura
Speaker 5: Bellingham come on as dop and we had talked about Hitchcock,
Speaker 5: and Sam's big inspiration was John Demi and a big
Speaker 5: reference with Silus of the Lambs, And so when you
Speaker 5: have amazing people who you trust and there are productions
Speaker 5: outre Amanda mccarth's just phenomenal. So because we had this
Speaker 5: amazing crew, I was able to sit back and then
Speaker 5: be blown away by the work that they were doing.
Speaker 5: And of course we were all involved in those conversations,
Speaker 5: but the minute they started spitballing their ideas together and
Speaker 5: they did the shot list and how they were going
Speaker 5: to capture it, it was just brilliant and even on
Speaker 5: set watching scenes come together before they're edited, before anything.
Speaker 6: The way Laura was capturing everything was so.
Speaker 5: Gorgeous and gives that feeling of what is going on.
Speaker 5: We're seeing things that we shouldn't be seeing, and we're
Speaker 5: not seeing things that we should be seeing. Where's that
Speaker 5: line and where's the line between what's real and what's not?
Speaker 6: But really, yeah, so much of that is down to Laura.
Speaker 2: And for you, you know, I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: You know, often for those watching or listening, films and
Speaker 1: projects are filmed out of order, and I'm trying to
Speaker 1: be as.
Speaker 2: Spoiler free as possible. Is it hard for you?
Speaker 1: And I would assume that's a little bit easier for
Speaker 1: you since you were involved since the beginning, But is
Speaker 1: it hard for you as you're filming, when you're doing
Speaker 1: sequences out of order to kind of be like, Okay
Speaker 1: is in this space for this scene, and then she's
Speaker 1: in that space for that scene.
Speaker 2: Know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: Yes, certainly we did.
Speaker 5: The first chunk of the shoot was all in the house,
Speaker 5: but we did it as chronologically as possible, so even
Speaker 5: within the hatch, she has an emotional journey of that
Speaker 5: real claustrophobic feeling feeling at the beginning and then the
Speaker 5: end of the movie where she's a lot more calm
Speaker 5: and she is holding the cards at that point. So
Speaker 5: there were moments where I can't remember what scene we did.
Speaker 5: A big leap we did. We went from seeing them
Speaker 5: I've seen fifty to scene ninety. But also again to
Speaker 5: Sam's credit, I mean we talked before every scene about
Speaker 5: where Anette was. And having a director you really trust
Speaker 5: is fantastic because I also wasn't watching the dailies of myself.
Speaker 5: I was only watching the other people do scenes because
Speaker 5: that was something I felt would be too difficult.
Speaker 6: So when you trust, people are like, is this coming cross?
Speaker 6: Is this the right thing?
Speaker 5: Yeah, so there was one time where it was a
Speaker 5: bit of a leief and I thought, oh, okay, and
Speaker 5: that it is slightly different here.
Speaker 6: But the amazing thing is too she is never broken.
Speaker 5: She's really beaten and really bruised emotionally, but she's never
Speaker 5: broken and the strength and we meet her and Ben
Speaker 5: in a difficult time. We never see them as they were.
Speaker 5: We come into their relationship mid difficulty, so we had
Speaker 5: already established that and from there, I mean, things get
Speaker 5: worse for a net before they get better. But she
Speaker 5: always maintains that she has her kids to think about
Speaker 5: and they're really the motivation for her drive. And because
Speaker 5: as well they have these beautiful kids to film with.
Speaker 5: The hip particular who plays Matilda, she her little face
Speaker 5: was such a drive for me too that that kept
Speaker 5: me centered in it all as well.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: And finally, you know, and I've asked Robert Pattinson this,
Speaker 1: and I've asked Daniel Radcliffe this, When you do you know,
Speaker 1: when you do such an icon of character and a
Speaker 1: giant franchise like Ray, and then you go and do
Speaker 1: these projects that are on the opposite kind of scale, is.
Speaker 2: That super fulfilled? Like, like, I feel like as.
Speaker 1: A creator, you know, obviously I'm not an actor, but
Speaker 1: I feel like as a creator, it kind of like
Speaker 1: checks all these marks and the fact that like I
Speaker 1: can go and do this giant project and then that
Speaker 1: affords me to go and do kind of anything I want.
Speaker 2: Do you find that true.
Speaker 6: For you in terms of being afforded the privilege?
Speaker 5: Absolutely, because I also know without the bigger films, it
Speaker 5: would be more difficult to make the smaller films, which
Speaker 5: is just the truth of it. But It's interesting in
Speaker 5: terms of approach, I feel the same in approaching every role,
Speaker 5: and it's certainly different going from shooting one hundred and
Speaker 5: forty days to shooting for twenty three days. But I
Speaker 5: feel really genuinely blessed with the people that I've got
Speaker 5: to work with. And ultimately, art is art, whether it's
Speaker 5: your big movie that's going to be seen on an
Speaker 5: Imax or a smaller movie that you hope will connect
Speaker 5: with people. Either way, you know, you hope that the
Speaker 5: emotional story will connect. Either way, you hope that the
Speaker 5: vista of it all will connect, so that in terms
Speaker 5: of approach it doesn't change. But my hope always is
Speaker 5: I mean that I've become a better actor each time,
Speaker 5: to be honest, but also that each film, even if
Speaker 5: it means something to one person, whether it means something
Speaker 5: to one hundred people or one person, that one person
Speaker 5: is as important. So the hope would always be that
Speaker 5: whatever it is I'm making connects in some way.
Speaker 2: I love that so much, Daisy, it connected with me.
Speaker 1: I can't wait till it comes out so I can
Speaker 1: talk about it with people. Magpie exclusively coming out in theaters.
Speaker 2: I can't wait for everybody to see it. Thank you, Daisy,
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Have a great.
Speaker 1: Thanks, Daisy Ridley. I cannot believe that I talked with Ray,
Speaker 1: Daisy Ridley, Ray, Star Wars, The Force Awakens, Star Wars,
Speaker 1: The Last Jedi, Star Wars, The Rise of Skywalker. I mean,
Speaker 1: I Daisy Ridley, people, Daisy freaking Ridley. I'm like pinching
Speaker 1: myself and this episode. I also talked with Nick Castle,
Speaker 1: Michael Myers himself, like what is going on in my life?
Speaker 1: I love you guys for being with me and supporting me.
Speaker 1: You know, watch the videos if you want. The video
Speaker 1: version of the interviews are up on the website and
Speaker 1: Facebook and all that good stuff. Keep tuned in with
Speaker 1: the podcast. Obviously, we're gonna be doing some cool giveaways
Speaker 1: coming up soon, just in time for the holidays, and
Speaker 1: so much more coming to you all because of you,
Speaker 1: and I love you for that, all right, I will
Speaker 1: see you next week.
Speaker 2: I love you.
Speaker 3: We are Thank you for listening to pop Culture Weekly.
Speaker 3: Here all the latest at pop cultureweekly dot com.