The A24 Podcast

Topics include:Being former arch-nemeses, cutthroat Pizza Hut auditions, oceanic engineer parents, busking on Santa Monica promenade, childhood fixations on West Side Story and Happy Gilmore, shape-shifting performances, having an out-of-body experience working with Robert Pattinson on the first day of Primetime, Skyler “beaming like a maniac” watching Austin in a top-secret screening of Resident Evil, Lance Oppenheim’s deep collaboration, decapitated whale heads, shining Ryan Gosling’s shoes, Ben Stiller and Robin Williams helping Skyler ask his girlfriend to prom on set of Night at the Museum, the courage to call Robert De Niro “Bob,” and the joy of taking big weird swings. 

They debate planning versus improvisation in filmmaking and whether intention should guide creative sets. Flat hierarchies, power dynamics, and responsibility to collaborators come up repeatedly. Childhood lying and high‑school TI‑83 hijinks spark funny memories. Tales of early scripts, rereading The Odyssey, and the brutal three‑year slog of shaping a standup special add behind‑the‑scenes color.

Devonté Hynes, composer and multi-instrumentalist behind film and ballet scores. Thomas Bangalter, French electronic composer and one half of Daft Punk. They talk cello-led scoring, blending strings with dialogue, designing orchestral electronics for Tron: Legacy, making synths feel soulful, ballet-first composing, and curiosity as an antidote to algorithmic predictability.

Olivia Wilde, actor‑director known for Booksmart and The O.C., and Seth Rogen, comedian-actor behind Knocked Up, talk about making The Invite. They trade wild audition tales, reminisce about first meeting at a table read, unpack adapting a play to film, describe on-set dynamics and the mirror bedroom scene, and tease audience reactions and provocative moments from the movie.

Topics covered include: Learning to write everywhere, Lee Sung Jin's after death theory, the Bardo, David’s screenplay with Micheal Imperioli, Buddhism, the process of selecting iconic needle drops, bonding over created universes, comparing writers to golfers, Pavlov's dog, realizing The Sopranos was funny, favorite (and least favorite) lines in their shows, selecting Finneas for the wall-to-wall score of Beef season 2, the fifth character of fate, using John Carpenter as temp score, finding inspiration in the rock and roll of Mean Streets, rewatching old episodes, and David’s current passion project. (edited) 

Topics covered include: Deep collaboration, early drafts of Mother Mary, being quick to discard dialogue, finding inspiration in the Faroe Islands, Anne's fear of making the easy choice, the qualities of being a Texas gentleman, the touchstone records that the cast listened to on set from Ke$ha to St. Vincent, Anne’s intensive pre-production process, David offering a special live reading from the Mother Mary script, dance as a monologue, feeling truly transformed as a person after completing the film, bleeding hearts, and praise for Nick Cave.

Topics covered include: Kane's parents keeping him off the internet until age eight, pirating way too much software, the origin of the Backrooms, the purgatories we build for ourselves, meeting your heroes after early virality, building 30,000 sq. ft. of sets on a soundstage, Kane accidentally calling his film a "product" and immediately wanting to flee to the woods, shotlisting an entire feature in Blender, renting out a Vancouver theater to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey during prep, James Wan's hopeful advice for young filmmakers, Renate's spiritual curiosity, control variables, and bringing the family together for the theatrical premiere of Backrooms.

Topics covered include:NPR podcast voice, evangelical upbringings, Beef creator Lee Sung Jin's incredible observations of things that are both really painful and really funny, little mullets, Ali's love of Ex Machina, parallel play, the impressive amount of bodily fluids in Beef, Oscar first meeting Carey Mulligan on set of Drive, getting to play really bad people, going down a YouTube rabbit hole to learn how people respond to psychedelic toad venom, the intricacies of staging a masturbation scene, Ali competing for roles with Stanley Tucci, and Sonny’s trick of taking you to Korea so you have nobody to complain to.

Charli XCX, boundary-pushing pop musician known for experimental sounds and visuals, and Aidan Zamiri, filmmaker and creative director noted for music-focused films, trade surreal anecdotes. They chat first encounters, Tumblr-era aesthetics, blending silliness with high art, film collaborations and rollouts, FOMO-driven creativity, early teen scenes, and playful on-set rituals.

Josh Safdie, a filmmaker celebrated for his kinetic storytelling and co-founder of the Safdie Brothers, joins Sean Baker, known for his unique narrative style, to delve into their film, Marty Supreme. They explore the tension between minimalism and maximalism in filmmaking while sharing quirky anecdotes, like Baker's edible timing at the Oscars. Safdie reveals creative techniques that blur the line between documentary and fiction, and they discuss fascinating topics like casting methods, the allure of period authenticity, and the wild alternate ending featuring a vampiric twist.