It's our great and bountiful podding leader Chris Hewitt's birthday on this week's episode of the Empire Podcast, and to celebrate we have a brace of top notch interviews and four incredible guests in all. First up on the guesting front, Chris sits down with Willa Fitzgerald, star of buzzy new thriller Strange Darling, and somehow manages to avoid spoiling the twists and turns of the movie whilst discussing, among other things, Giovanni Ribisi's pivot from acting heavyweight to cinematographer extraordinaire [23:05 - 40:27 approx]. Then Chris goes one on three with the powerhouse trio at the heart of Netflix indie drama His Three Daughters, Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen and Natasha Lyonne [1:01:45 - 1:14:52 approx].
Either side of our star interviews, Chris is joined back in the podbooth by Helen O'Hara and James Dyer for an Agatha All Along inspired listener question on the best movie witches and a good ol' deep dive into this week's movie news. On the agenda, there's David Schwimmer's revelation that he turned down Will Smith's role in Men In Black, *that* wild Mickey 17 trailer, Lionsgate's Faustian AI pact, John Cena entering his Matchbox era, and James Cameron's reveal of his next non-Avatar movie. And as if Chris' birthday celebrations couldn't get any wilder, the team even find time to review His Three Daughters, Strange Darling, and Coralie Fargeat's squirmy body horror The Substance, too. Oh, and did anybody mention that it's Chris' birthday? Certainly not Chris — wouldn't dream of it, would he? Eh? EH? EH?! *Ahem* As ever, please do enjoy.
You can listen to this week's episode (and over 600 more) on the pod app of your choice.