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Louis Virtel is joined by Bryan Safi to celebrate what would have been Marilyn Monroe’s 100th birthday and reflect on her lasting impact on culture. Then they dive into the liminal space themed horror film Backrooms and the rise of Gen Z horror auteurs. Plus, modern scream queen Samara Weaving stops by the show to discuss her new movie Carolina Caroline.

TRANSCRIPT

Louis Virtel And we’re back with an all-new episode of Keep It. I’m Louis Virtel. Now, this is very selfish. Today I am joined by an Emmy winner, not just a nominee. You know, I think it’s tacky to win, but I’m gonna forgive him. This is a friend of mine, and actually a former boss of mine. He’s an actor, fellow podcaster, and now he’s making his Off-Broadway debut in the fabulous show which he did in Edinburgh and is now doing Off-broadway. Are you mad at me? This is Bryan Safi.

 

Bryan Safi Oh my God. First of all, we do need to clarify that it was a daytime Emmy. Does that change things? No. Does that bring me down a level? No.

 

Louis Virtel Sorry, EGOT has leveled the playing field. Now daytime is just, Emmy is an Emmy.

 

Bryan Safi You know what? Thank you, you’re right. So yes, I do have one and was also nominated for another 55 years ago.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. That was right, you wrote for Ellen in those days.

 

Bryan Safi That’s when I wrote for Ellen, yeah, exactly, yeah. And then, I mean, it’s so hilarious that you called me your boss. I never felt like that. I never wanna be a boss again by the way.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, he you now host the attitudes podcast It was once upon a time called throwing shade and there was a TV show based on throwing shade on TV land Which was basically a all of that together is so crazy. Yeah, I know why yes TV land, right? Rudely interrupted bewitched

 

Bryan Safi to make television. Well, it actually was King of Queens and the letters we got. I remember that people were so pissed and they were like, what, this is nothing like King of Queen. And we were like proudly. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel I think Leah Remini would have been a fine addition to the show.

 

Bryan Safi A hundred percent. I’m trying to remember if this was pre or post her Scientology takedown.

 

Louis Virtel It was right in the middle of it I think because I remember discussing it with the other writers on the show.

 

Bryan Safi And there’s manicures, remember?

 

Louis Virtel Yes, precisely. Ah, those nails, so bad. No, but at the time, it was a you and Aaron Gibson. It was like a gay guy and a woman hosted Daily Show, basically. Yeah, right. And I just wanna say, we still need that.

 

Bryan Safi I know, right? Isn’t that wild? Yeah. That gap still hasn’t really been filled in that way.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, but now you are the star of a show you’ve written yourself, which I’m thrilled to hear is being received fabulously. Thank you. Across the pond and now will be here too. What is it like putting this show together and what neuroses are we tapping into?

 

Bryan Safi Oh my God, it is so, it honestly is way more stressful than I ever thought it would be. Really? To be honest, yeah. I mean, it’s a blast because like, for so long I’ve been in partnerships and it’s nice to just do something solo and also I’ve on this show which I love, 9-1-1 for like eight seasons now. Jesus Christ, no kidding. Yeah, which is wild.

 

Louis Virtel I mean, you know Angela Bassett kind of well. Yeah. That’s crazy. I mean sort of well, my sister- Sort of well.

 

Bryan Safi My scenes are mostly with Jennifer Lefkiewicz, who’s- Who is producing this show, by the way. She is, yes. She’s the best. I love her. So in that way, I guess it is kind of a partnership. But yeah, basically you said neuroses and that’s the name of the game here. It really is just like a gay panic attack on stage for like 70 minutes. It’s got music, it’s got games, actually. I always think of you when I think of a gay.

 

Louis Virtel Oh my god, well now I’m gonna move into this show.

 

Bryan Safi No, please come and if it’s sort of like if you’ve ever had a conversation and then replayed it like 9 000 times This is the show. Yeah, and Also, it’s audience their audience interaction in it in a good way like planned And so the show’s a little different every night. So I say it’s like sleep no more for people pleasers. Oh, okay

 

Louis Virtel Did you ever, when I did Sleep No More, which has gotta be a decade ago now, I had just bought new shoes that didn’t fit. My feet, it looked like I had just survived like ready or not by the time I had gotten out. Like fully bleeding out my ankles to watch like two people do like acrobatics in a small room.

 

Bryan Safi And now there’s like a Phantom of the Opera, do you know about this? It’s like on five floors.

 

Louis Virtel Can you imagine?

 

Bryan Safi Running through the house like you’re in Clue. And I also imagine the people who are going to see Phantom of the Opera cannot stand for that long. I mean, this is, at this point, an octogenarian audience. But yeah, I don’t know, they’re just putting them through their paces, I guess. But this show, oh, this, the big selling point is everyone sits.

 

Louis Virtel Fuck yeah. DER-

 

Bryan Safi my show. Yeah, it’s awesome.

 

Louis Virtel How what was Edinburgh like I kind of don’t really have a sense of what the culture of you’re doing the show every night There is it seems like you’re you’re all hanging out with all these other performers all the time

 

Bryan Safi Yes, I have to say, at first blush, nightmare. Yeah. My hell, truly. It was the best. I don’t know, it was just so nice to be surrounded by people who were creating their own things like that. And really, the cream does rise to the top there. You see things you cannot imagine. I mean, I shared a dressing room with three lesbian Norwegian clowns. What? Yeah, they were fabulous. So you’re just meeting all these different kinds of people and being influenced by them. I loved it. I would go back. To perform, but I’d also go back just to like watch it. It just doesn’t, there’s nothing like it in the world. Certainly not. I mean, I don’t even think like Montreal, the Just For Lives things is anything like what they were doing over there. I love.

 

Louis Virtel Do you have to change anything about your show so that it can fit in the off-Broadway space, or is it basically ready to go based on what you had done there?

 

Bryan Safi It’s pretty ready to go, what I just, the great thing about Edinburgh is like going in, I had this, you know, I knew what the show was going to be and then someone told me the best way to use Edinburgh, because you’re doing like 30 shows in a row, is to just workshop your show through every performance. So I came out with a completely different show. Wow. Much, a bulletproof one, but much different than I thought it would be. And that’s when it became, it started to feel more like, I don’t know, with the audience stuff just more open in that way and something very. Unusual, I think, that I didn’t anticipate doing. I did not think I was necessarily a clown-type performer, and that’s where we’re going.

 

Louis Virtel We are in a universe, Guy Branum has been guest hosting the past few years. I know it, yes. Yes, and clowning has become so legitimate a word in LA now. I know. And it wears on me. And I know if I went to only one class, I would get it. But as of now, it’s just, I’m just so, 2012 internet coded where I’m like, clowns are.

 

Bryan Safi No, for sure. And also, you but you do watch it and you genuinely laugh. And these people are so incredibly talented. But it is ridiculous that we’re talking about it. Me telling my parents like there are clown elements.

 

Louis Virtel And they’re like, oh good, yeah.

 

Bryan Safi They’re like, that’s great, is it like a rodeo? I’m like, there’s just two barrels on stage and I’m popping out of each one. Trying to avoid wild horses, yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Okay now I’ve also brought you here to discuss a important pop culture landmark It is the hundredth birthday of Marilyn Monroe as in yesterday or I guess now when this podcast comes out two days ago Yeah, you were alive What’s she doing yeah, she’s the last person on barbiturates in the world yes 100% now you are an old movie queen like I am big time. Yeah. Yes. Do you still have like a steady TCM diet?

 

Bryan Safi Of course, yeah, definitely. Yeah, I go back just as much as I go present and forward.

 

Louis Virtel No, oh, I refuse to go forward. I know.

 

Bryan Safi Yeah, of course I do, and I would say I still believe that her talent is underrated. I do think that the idea that she was potentially a genius might be overrated. Sure. But I do her talent was underrated, and I think what makes me especially sad about someone like her is truly she did embody every character. You believed everything she said. When you look at All About Eve, when you look some like it hot, you are in. I mean, you just believe everything she’s doing. And I think what’s sad is that she didn’t make it to the 70s where her talents and her despair, frankly, and her vulnerability might’ve been used even better. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean by those? And even when I look at movies like today, like she could have been Ginger in Casino, no problem. No problem.

 

Louis Virtel Oh absolutely.

 

Bryan Safi She could have been Betty Diane in Mulholland Drive. But certainly. She could’ve been Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin, because that was the movie all about looks like. I think now, if she’d been born later, what a career she would’ve had.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, no, she is indeed special in all her movies. And it’s funny, we’re about to talk about the horror movie Backrooms later. There’s in that movie, in this crazy world it creates, they talk about how disfigured people you see in this universe are based on memories of memories of memories, like distortion in the human brain. And I sort of feel like that’s where we’re at with Marilyn Monroe. It’s like an image of an image, literally the Warhol pictures of Marilyn Monroe, and it’s sort of like, how much of this is real and like based on like, actually having perceived this woman and watching her movies. Right. And the truth is, she does have talent in all these movies, but I feel like all of the movies she was in are not really what you think they are. No, in fact- You know, like the seven year itch is sort of like a convention, almost seems kind of like Neil Simon-ish, and we think of it as having this like, Lored, you know, leg-bearing scene, et cetera. A hundred.

 

Bryan Safi And also when you watch her stuff, these movies have been so elevated because of the fact that she’s probably the greatest American icon, at least in pop culture.

 

Louis Virtel A lasting icon, yeah.

 

Bryan Safi Exactly. And some of the movies are just not good. I mean, there’s some where, like The Prince and the Showgirl is one of the most boring movies I’ve ever seen in my life.

 

Louis Virtel Right, no, and it’s like she does, obviously we have the movie about the Prince and the Showgirl, My Week with Marilyn, and you do see, like she does a little boop boopy doop movement that is entrancing, but that is not the whole movie. No, not at all.

 

Bryan Safi Not at all, but I don’t know. I also wonder sometimes in the way that she is on the wall of every Airbnb in Palm Springs. You know, she and Audrey Hepburn. Yes, right. I do often wonder, do the people who have these prints, have they ever seen one Marilyn Monroe? I do wonder if some of her super fans have never even seen a movie of hers.

 

Louis Virtel No, well, I mean, poster culture is like its own form of fandom at this point. 100%. But it’s like, it is worth to go worth it to go back and see some of these movies. Like I was just watching Don’t Bother to Knock, which has a really great dramatic turn from her. Even like in All About Eve, which you just mentioned, she has a very small role, but she’s perfectly cast as this like new actress that the theater critic in the movie is sort of like propping up. And in fact, the funny thing about that movie is she has the X factor we’re supposed to believe Eve has.

 

Bryan Safi You literally just blew my head off. Yeah, right. Absolutely right. She should have, no shade and Baxter, right? Happy 100. She should, she should.

 

Louis Virtel No, because like you hear Anne Baxter like wins raves for her debut performance taking over for Margot Channing. Are we sure? Yeah. What did she do? 100%. Did she bring out fireworks? Are we short? Are we sure?

 

Bryan Safi When she’s giving her speech in Margot’s dressing room, the whole time you’re like, I mean, I obviously don’t buy this.

 

Louis Virtel So you’re not talented. You’re not even a good sociopath.

 

Bryan Safi But Marilyn, it comes out of reports. I think what’s also interesting about Marilyn as being probably the biggest sex symbol in American history potentially, is I wonder if she would have been able to… To have taken control of it in, because sex symbols still, in this day and age, do not age well in Hollywood. Like, they’re still stunning, but there really aren’t roles for them in that way. And I really think the exceptions to that are Cher and Dolly Parton. But those were also genius business people. And I wonder if Marilyn Monroe could have had it that way, I don’t know.

 

Louis Virtel And also they were genius, like straight actors too. Like Dolly Parton and Cher could almost kind of play anything.

 

Bryan Safi Share, I know you mentioned it quite a bit, but share in, well, in everything, but also come back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean out shining, all of those actors. And it just, that character just coming out of her pore. I mean, she’s one of the most natural actors I’ve ever.

 

Louis Virtel No, she, she is a little bit like Marilyn Monroe in that way, where it’s just like, I don’t know what it took to get you in that room. But Marilyn Monroe, it’s like, you were five hours late or whatever. Cher strikes me as slightly more responsible. But it’s, like, it feels, and I hate this word because I know it’s not effortless. You know, you watch them and it’s I believe whatever very parlor room drama is happening right now because you are so committed to it, because you have such a palpable personality. It feels like somebody I know or want to know.

 

Bryan Safi Yes, 100%. It just comes through, it comes from within them or something. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right. I’m heartened to hear you say that Marilyn Monroe could have been something more interesting in the 70s, because it does feel like even in like, you know, I would say some like it hot is maybe her most successful role. It does feel she never got the like Hitchcock casting Grace Kelly in rear window and finding the real like power underneath the, you know glossy veneer. Yes, you

 

Bryan Safi And I think some people are born too early and some people were born too late. For instance, if Sharon Stone had been alive in the time of Prime Hitchcock. Done. Being done, I mean, that would have been it because Sharon Stone was a great director, nobody’s better, you know what I mean? But I do think if Marilyn Monroe had been born a little bit later, people would have really been interested in the vulnerability and the complication and the battle that was happening in her head, potentially, and a little more. I think she was someone who might have been born too earlier.

 

Louis Virtel She also is somebody where she’s constantly quoted. And I’m like, what percentage of this was real? And what was the context under which she said it? Like we quote her like she’s Aesop. First of all, yes. Second of all.

 

Bryan Safi Has any of them ever stuck with you?

 

Louis Virtel No, the only thing I can remember is when she was in The Misfits, which is her last movie. Somebody asked her about Montgomery Clift and she said, he’s the only person in worse shape than I am. It’s like, guys, we could have gotten her into a ward that day. We just weren’t paying attention.

 

Bryan Safi Instead, we’re like, ah, ha, ha.

 

Louis Virtel Right. Good one. Right.

 

Bryan Safi Dead in minutes. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Some of her quotes are like, they look at you, but they don’t see you. And you’re like,

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, I mean, right. You’re in a movie. True. Yeah. Right.

 

Bryan Safi Exactly, yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Anyway, I’m thrilled for Brian to be here, especially since we’ll be talking about this movie Backrooms today, and when we asked you if you were going to see it, you’re like, I’m already seeing it tonight.

 

Bryan Safi Isn’t that wild? So are you a horror fan? You know, I would say in the last few years, yes, because I think we’ve transitioned more into horror comedy than ever before. Certainly. So I do feel, I saw obsession too. I do like there is, there are laughs to be had now in horror in ways that maybe growing up I didn’t really feel, I mean, Scream was probably the first real one, but I appreciate that.

 

Louis Virtel No, there’s more Ruth Gordon’s and Rosemary’s baby than ever before.

 

Bryan Safi Please nobody is better in anything ever. Oh, yeah in that movie. No, I love not a nice person allegedly by the way

 

Louis Virtel No, well she seems like one of those like hustler type people who like throw a script in your face and be like put me in this or whatever. Yeah.

 

Bryan Safi Yeah, I mean you have to admire that but according to Barbara Streisand in that the Bible she wrote

 

Louis Virtel World’s greatest book

 

Bryan Safi He worked to create his book. Ruth Gordon was sort of odd and not very friendly.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, right. Okay, so this episode we have Brian here to talk about horror and more and actually Hitchcock is gonna come up again later In the episode during my Keep It you’ll see.

 

Bryan Safi Oh, fabulous.

 

Louis Virtel And our guest today is the fabulous Samara Weaving who is in the new movie Carolina, Caroline And we talked about her horror past and the choices she makes in this movie Which by the way is so fabulous and so is Kyle Gaulner another Horror alum.

 

[AD].

 

Louis Virtel Last Friday, A24 released their newest film, Backrooms, the directorial debut of, let me brace myself for this, 20-year-old YouTuber Kane Parsons. The film follows a furniture store owner who stumbles upon an alternate dimension of liminal spaces and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renata Reinsva, and Mark Duplass. It’s an adaptation of an internet creepypasta turned YouTube web series, and Backrooms is currently number one at the box office, making Kane Parson the youngest ever director to open at number one. In the US. Brian, as we said before, you already had a ticket to this movie by the time I asked you to join the podcast. What were your thoughts going in? Were you familiar with the lore of the movie?

 

Bryan Safi Only slightly familiar, but actually the question I wanna ask the most is during the break, you asked me, I asked you to see this movie and you said you were already seeing it and you were surprised. I’m very surprised that you were seeing this movie.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, this is not my world at all. Okay, yeah. No, I mean, I will say this. The word I would use to describe this movie does appeal to me, which is Kafka-esque. I love anything that’s in the world of like, you know, the space between us is very strange. Like I love the movie Alien, just like the space of the sense of dread and the sense alone-ness. To me, there’s something very German about it that I really like.

 

Bryan Safi And I am always drawn to anything liminal spaces. I think during the pandemic, especially, it was haunting and beautiful to see no one gathering by the Trevi Fountain. Yes. To see no one in a mall. Right. You know what I mean? Those those images really are haunting and honestly alluring and attractive in that way. And I feel like in that way, the movie knocked it out of the park. The production design was incredible. The vibe was, I mean, it was also like the first adaptation of a vibe I had ever seen in a movie. Right, yes. Because really, this movie is just a vibe. Certainly. Really, and so for that, and you can’t take it away from Kale Parsnaps. He really did. Which you can buy at Trader Joe’s, yes? No, I means he really did make something that… People are completely fascinated by, I worry for the future of the discourse on this movie because in the same way that I would say right after The Matrix and right after Inception, this bros really took over in this conversation and it became like, no, well, this means this and the carpet stain means this and da-da-da, da-de-da. When really I think what you got from this movie was a, at the end of the day was really maybe not a story or a fully thought out one, but maybe a creepy vibe. Right.

 

Louis Virtel No, when the movie starts out actually, before it gets to the actual back rooms, it is a Chiwetel Ejiofor acting movie. And I actually was kind of down for that. I thought he was really bringing it. He was fabulous. I was like, I miss this man. Yeah. What have we been doing with him?

 

Bryan Safi Completely. And then when they bring in Renata Price, I was like, this is the best cast. I would watch these two people in any movie ever made. I just didn’t expect them in this one.

 

Louis Virtel I also, I feel like after a while, like she is accumulating credits at such a clip now, where it will almost be awkward not to pick her as your favorite actress. I truly feel like she’s taking over in a hostile way, acting. And I say this affectionately, because I think she is fabulous.

 

Bryan Safi I think she is like on the path to becoming the most famous actress in the world. Yeah. Like she does just, I don’t know, she’s in such the zeitgeist right now in that way. But I thought she would tell, I thought the performances were incredible and were the most standout things about it. I do have a problem. I always want the director to know what the ending means. Even if we don’t. I do think that David Lynch, he has said, fully understands Small Holland Drive. Thinks that it’s, you can figure it out if you really try to, he knows what it is. We don’t. Not even close, yes. In a beautiful way. Yeah. And I do feel like in this movie, he might not have known.

 

Louis Virtel Well, I also think the problem is, because the credit to the movie is, as you said, it’s an adaptation of a vibe. And I almost wish they just let the vibe sit. I feel like too much of the movie ends up explaining what we just saw in a way where it’s like, no, we could have made these deductions ourselves. It’s like it’s creepier if we put less like textbook vocabulary to what we’re seeing and just let whatever the German word is for this feeling take over. That said… The heart and soul of this movie, which is just being in this like yellowish space where every frame of being in the space, at least one thing is a little bit wrong. You know, right? Like that wall isn’t high enough or, and I think that’s the creepiest part of the movie before they get to like, oh, there’s like a shadowy figure who will murder you in here. I almost wish it would just stay in the spaces of I feel like I’m at my old Sunday school and the part that they shut down. And there’s tables here for some reason, and there is some story I know nothing about. That already is so creepy.

 

Bryan Safi Completely. And it’s a cool conversation to have of like in your memory, what’s real and what’s been distorted. Yes. And I also thought it was cool. The idea of setting this in, was it in the early nineties, maybe? Yeah. Right. Yeah. I thought that was cool too, because you are dealing with a generation and Kane is in that generation of. They don’t remember not having the internet. Right. There is sort of a fantasy in nostalgia of that era. You do hear more and more about. Gen Z people, you know, ditching their phones, getting flip phones, that sort of a thing. So there is like a longing for that space while also this fear of AI. I mean, it’s an interesting place to be caught between. And the movie does deal with those things. It just doesn’t, and I love movies that don’t close a loop, believe me. But at the end of this, I sort of felt like, and it’s done.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, well, also something that I thought was fascinating was again, the physical world of the back rooms is like so eye-popping, so eye catching. But what I love is when you get out of that space in this movie, like the places they live are no relief because it’s so ugly. Every space is so fucking ugly in this move, but in a conventional way, it reminds me of every dentist office I was ever in. It reminds me, you know.

 

Bryan Safi Every, I wanted to steam clean every piece of furniture in Renato Rainsvah’s office. And the bed, and just all those polyblends, like it was just.

 

Louis Virtel Because also she has a sort of resting chicness that maybe she can’t help and yet Every drab silhouette she wore every like like the furniture in her She’s she’s she would tell edge of force therapist in this movie like what she’s sitting in is so gross though Like though everything is like too cramped

 

Bryan Safi It’s so great. I just, I can just smell the coffee stains. Everything is just, it is, it’s disgusting. What I also liked about it though, and what I think is cool that these, and you see the same thing in, um, uh, Obsession.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, yes, which you said you’ve seen. Yes.

 

Bryan Safi Yes, is these young guys directing these movies who come from a YouTube world, who are tapping into, I don’t know if you would call it in-cell-ish sort of behavior, in a good way, who were commenting in a good way of sort of like Chibatel Ejiofor’s character is like, I’m lonely and it’s not my fault. It’s your fault. You know what I mean? And he blames everything on the way. In Obsession, it’s the same kind of conversation happening. And I haven’t really seen too much of that yet. Right. And that, I think, is really cool that these guys are tapping into that.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, no, because no, it’s gross. And then of course, like, but that’s not the entire movie. They are outmatched in grossness by the horror to come. So I love that pairing.

 

Bryan Safi And I think he was smart, maybe, he was a genius in not ending this movie in any kind of a way because this is one of those movies like a paranormal activity. I mean, you could make 50 of these. Do you know what, this could be, there will be a backroom’s 25, I’m convinced of it. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel No, yeah, you’re right. Why wouldn’t it be? Because it’s not really copying any other horror film. Like Paranormal Activity has a specific style and a specific look. So if you want more of this, you basically have to get back rooms.

 

Bryan Safi Yes, 100%. And I do just want to say again, like, this guy clearly is, I know that Backrooms wasn’t his initial idea. He just sort of

 

Louis Virtel Right, there was an internet pre-existing thing and then he turned it into a YouTube phenomenon, yeah.

 

Bryan Safi Yes, exactly, but for 20-year-old to really, for anyone, really, to have the – this is going to sound redundant – but the visual vision.

 

Louis Virtel This guy

 

Bryan Safi I had.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, the commitment to it. It doesn’t, like once you’re in the back rooms, there’s not one physical choice he makes that felt, I don’t know how else to put it, off the mark or like, I’m not somebody who responds with angst or anxiety to much that I watch and the minute you’re there, I was in that. Me too. I was like, I wonder how much I can take.

 

Bryan Safi And I’m so envious of it because there’s no way at 20, I mean, maybe when I’m 80, I’ll be like, I’m making a choice, you know what I mean? This guy has all the confidence in the world. I’m extremely envious about that.

 

Louis Virtel No, no, what is creepier than a young director? It makes no goddamn sense. Like John Singleton putting together boys in the hood. How? And what were you copying by the way? He was like 24 or something. Wild. No, you know, like the Orson Welles type people. It’s like, how can you have a gift for this? It’s so weird and so technical and doesn’t only involve you. A hundred percent. Like everything else has to be working Gangbusters too.

 

Bryan Safi Yes, I imagine we will only be hearing everything about what this guy is up to and what he’s doing next. And honestly, if the first YouTube directors really happened, because what’s also curious about this movie is no actor, for instance, has really transitioned, I don’t think, from, say, social media or YouTube specifically to a mainstream career in that way. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, I don’t think so.

 

Bryan Safi I don’t think so, but these two, these two for two, Curry, what’s his name, Stevens? I don’t know, yes, from Obsession. And Cain Parsons really, I mean, it shows that that works. A director or someone with a style, that does seem to work.

 

Louis Virtel No, you know what actually does come to mind is like Lena Dunham coming from tiny furniture and like I don’t know how ambitious she was to make like a real TV show or something but then suddenly a one-of-a-kind TV show that like I.

 

Bryan Safi Oh Quinta Brunson is another example actually, yes.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah Quinta Brunson yeah yeah yeah.  Where it’s just where did this come from?

 

Bryan Safi We all had to go to USC or whatever. 100%, yeah, yeah, in that way, that’s nice.

 

Louis Virtel Now, you brought up horror as it pertains to comedy. Do you have favorite comedy performances in horror? Ooh, that’s a good question.

 

Bryan Safi Um, I don’t know if this is necessarily, I also love horror dance.

 

Louis Virtel Go on, like Cisteria?

 

Bryan Safi Yes!

 

Louis Virtel Oh yeah.

 

Bryan Safi Like Cisteria.

 

Louis Virtel Oh I think about that movie a lot even though it was like.

 

Bryan Safi Bloated.

 

Louis Virtel Way too fucking.

 

Bryan Safi Way, way too long, and probably his worst movie, but probably also my favorite of his in that way.

 

Louis Virtel In that way. I mean, like that Julia Roberts movie, that might be the worst one now.

 

Bryan Safi Which one was that?

 

Louis Virtel The one after the hunt.

 

Bryan Safi Oh, yeah, I gotta tell you, people on United Airlines love that movie. It is on every screen. And you wanna know what I realized? It is, I believe, this is how basic we are. It is the first movie in alphabetical order on United. That’s how it works. And truly, everyone is watching it. And I’m like, you literally just press the first, you opened movies and then press the 1st one. You’re right. That’s what people do.

 

Louis Virtel I honestly don’t even know. I scroll through our hours. No, please. And I always find something like old that like, I’ve maybe even seen before, anyway. But like, you should just call a movie, Ah, A-A-A A-H. And I’m telling you, people are gonna watch it.

 

Bryan Safi 100% it’s always those early movies that like it’s so wild to me. I can’t imagine operating that way

 

Louis Virtel No, but I’m sure like, I think we do live in an ADHD universe where like, there’s a certain kind of person that can’t scroll. A hundred percent. You know, they’re just like, they literally hit the screen with the back of their hand on accident, you know, like a gorilla or something.

 

Bryan Safi Yeah, no, for sure. They’re like, oh, there’s two movies on here.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, I guess I’ll go with the Julia Roberts one, right? Yeah, you said horror dance. I mean Suspirio what else counts?

 

Bryan Safi Hang on, hang on. There are others, I just can’t think. There is another one that I love.

 

Louis Virtel Well, you know what’s a funny scene in Suspiria is Tilda Swinton having to teach some movement that involves jumping up and down and she goes, you’re just not getting it.

 

Bryan Safi Oh, and she keeps. It’s so funny. And literally the move is to jump and then she, the lines in it, she just goes, higher, higher, higher, higher. And then Dakota Johnson. I love Dakota Johnson’s performance in that.

 

Louis Virtel Well, I went on a date with my dear good friend, Joel Buck, at the time, who is a movie queen. And he told me, he wanted me to see it with him because he was like, I’m a huge fan of Dakota Johnson. I was like that’s chemically impossible. And I went to that movie and I’m like, I love her, she’s fucking awesome. Have you seen The Materialists? Duh, yeah. She’s great in it. Honestly, she is the only thing I think is great about it, but.

 

Bryan Safi One of the strangest, that was the last movie I saw on a plane, by the way. It was The Materialist. Yeah, that’s the thing, they have 50 options and I’m like, I guess The Materialists. No, right. There’s no right movie for a plane I think is correct. One of strangest movies I’ve ever seen in my life. The whole thing about like the surgery they get.

 

Louis Virtel Oh yeah, and then that comes back and turns into a major part of the movie. I thought it seems like a one-off joke they’re making.

 

Bryan Safi And there’s cavemen in it. Yeah, the framing of the movie. That movie is uncanny balling.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, Celine Song gave a very earnest interview about the movie, and it’s about a woman who is a matchmaker, and she’s choosing between two guys who are okay.

 

Bryan Safi Right, and who both had the surgery to make themselves taller.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, or just, it was just the, not- Hidra Pascal. Yeah, Hidro Pascal. Yes, that’s right.

 

Bryan Safi Yeah, it’s one of the strangest movies very backrooms feeling in that way. Yeah

 

Louis Virtel These are connected universes. Exactly, yeah. God, I haven’t thought about that movie in a while. Materialist, yeah? No, materialist, because it seemed like it was gonna be a kind of Woody Allen-ish exploration of dating politics, and then by the end I was like, I don’t think this movie knows what it wants to do with these characters. Like, it’s not really saying anything.

 

Bryan Safi Right. This is honestly similar to how I felt about this movie. It’s like, I don’t at the end know. I guess I could figure out what it was trying to say. But did any of the… I’m actually curious, and I’m sure there are spoilers here, but did anything happening with Mark Duplass make sense with you? No.

 

Louis Virtel And also that felt like it was a role written in at the last minute or something. It just was not crucial or interesting or gave him anything to do.

 

Bryan Safi At all, once we got to the end of that movie, I really truly didn’t understand what was happening.

 

Louis Virtel I will say this is a confounding movie to grade on a scale because it succeeds at the main goal it has, which is transmitting this vibe we have from these YouTube videos.

 

Bryan Safi Hmm?

 

Louis Virtel Exploring that and deepening it a little bit but then I wonder how much narrative responsibility it has otherwise and it’s like that’s it’s it feels like me saying well it wasn’t about world war ii so we have to dock at some point so this is me like putting um you know uh an

 

Bryan Safi scale that has nothing to do with this movie on it and what was interesting is in my theater and I thought Friday night I assume it had started Wednesday yeah probably so much of the audience repeat customers oh yeah I I do as I mentioned before I do feel like this movie is going to be huge on friday yeah everyone is going through an express an opinion on this and what it means and what its doing

 

Louis Virtel I also just think horror fans refuse to see these movies not in a theater. Like it really is, they are married to the concept of going out to see the movie. Imagine watching this at home. It would be all wrong.

 

Bryan Safi Totally, and I am 100% behind that. I think it is really generally very exciting that these new directors, these established actors, what a cool combo, are bringing people to the box office. Now, which did you like?

 

Louis Virtel Now, which did you like better, this or obsession?

 

Bryan Safi It’s so, they were so different. I would say, honestly, I probably liked Obsession a little more because I liked what it had to say and I also thought it was very funny. And the performances were also very good. But I did really, I mean, I hope I’m not sounding negative about it. I really appreciated Backrooms. I liked the vibe of it. I liked to look of it, it shocks me that a movie like that would draw such a box office. And I think that’s very, very cool. Like… I think if this guy is trying to become the next David Lynch, why not? That’s great. That’s a great aspiration.

 

Louis Virtel Are you a David Lynch head, generally speaking? I’m a Mulholland Drive head. I’m Mulholla, I actually love the straight story by him. Yeah, but also my problem is, again, I think this is my German literalness. I just prefer things make sense. Can I just come out and like, oh, you said something and that was funny. Right. You know, and that true, et cetera. Whereas the thing he’s going, even going back to the elephant man or eraser head, I’m just like, so much of this, not at me, please.

 

Bryan Safi Yeah. And sometimes I guess why I say, I think Mulholland Drive is perfectly beautiful in camp. I think things like Wild at Heart push it over the line. So I like that space.

 

Louis Virtel Why is his name sailor? Yes, right, in Wild at Heart.

 

Bryan Safi Completely. I mean, the best thing about it is, well, Laura Dorn’s performance is so good, but that crimp tear. And Diane Ladd rubbing the lipstick on. Oscar-nominated.

 

Louis Virtel Oscar-nominated performance that I mean people often ask. What’s the craziest Oscar nominated performance? I don’t think you can argue anything but that

 

Bryan Safi It’s, it’s definitely up there. I have another one, but it’ll piss you off.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, go away, a crazy nominee?

 

Bryan Safi Well, yeah, one that I was like, wow, she got nominated for that hit me. I was OK with the nomination, but I was surprised. Kim Basinger and L.A. Confidential.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, no. Whenever I talk about that movie I just think people remember her on the poster and they were like, well she’s the one woman in the movie will nominate her and then somehow she won. She does have two scenes that are good.

 

Bryan Safi Yeah, she is good in it, she’s good in-

 

Louis Virtel Brian, you actually have said something before that I think I’ve repeated as if it’s my own, which is that- Please, to be quoted by you is my greatest honor. Okay, you said Kim Basinger good is the same thing as Kim Bazinger bad. It’s so true.

 

Bryan Safi Honestly, it is.

 

Louis Virtel She’s been great in a number of movies. Absolutely.

 

Bryan Safi Absolutely. Name, truly, name a more stunning human being.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, and on screen she looks 11 foot 7.

 

Bryan Safi 100%. Did you see, you know what, this isn’t interesting, but basically, Kim Basinger, it was Alec Baldwin’s birthday, and Kim Bazinger, like, posted on Instagram, because it was the anniversary of some terrible movie they did together, like The Marrying Man, and she was like, basically like, I can’t believe it’s the anniversary of this, and at the time, I was married to The Marying Man. Hope you’re well, Alec. And I was like, where did this come from? From calling the daughter a piggy. Yeah, right. Kim released, allegedly, she released that audio. Yes, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? To that point, I mean, Kim, she’s grown. Yeah. I appreciate the art.

 

Louis Virtel Also, what are we she was in like

 

Bryan Safi The natural, she’s in so many weird old movies. So many weird movies, the original Batman. Yeah, right. Jerry Hall, by the way, she to me was Chewabitale Ejiofora as the pirate at the end of the movie, except in Batman. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Oh my god. Yes, I actually forgot about that. At the end of this movie, Chiwetel Ejiofor appears in another form. And that is, it becomes a little bit traditional horror in that moment, but it is, or it looks like almost like an animated movie or something.

 

Bryan Safi But I thought it was cool, yeah, I thought I looked good. I actually thought that that monster at the end was creepy and it made sense that he could sort of shape shift and elongate his arms, that it was just the amalgamation of a memory. I thought that was cool.

 

Louis Virtel Also, by the way, I think now in retrospect, 12 Years a Slave counts as underrated. Like it’s this movie that people treat like homework. There are so many characters in that movie that are specific to that movie. I’m still thinking about crazy ass Sarah Paulson in that moving.

 

Bryan Safi Terrifying. Yeah, that movie is incredible. And also, it’s so it is so funny that a movie could win Best Picture and be underrated. Yes, right.

 

Louis Virtel Because that movie is that, it’s wild, yes. So much of the time when something wins Best Picture, I personally don’t find Oppenheimer to be genius. I thought there were good parts in it. I love when it becomes a courtroom drama from 1957 because anytime a movie reminds me of a play I did in high school, I wanna be in it

 

Bryan Safi Honestly, me too, except for our town, which I hate more than shit. Interesting.

 

Louis Virtel I do hate our time. Yeah.

 

Bryan Safi Why is there a stage manager, you know? I don’t know, I hate everything about that. I hate when they pet that fake cow. I don’t like anything about it.

 

Louis Virtel I really should do a podcast just about the things we had to perform in high school, and how much we hate that. Oh, just like Brighton Beach memoirs. Yeah, I’ll write the Neil Simon. What I’m saying is I want to have a podcast about hating Neil Simon I’m in. Yeah, okay good.

 

Bryan Safi And loving Marcia Mesa.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, right. Oh, Shooken, come on, that’s fine.

 

Bryan Safi Oh wait.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, that’d be fun. Fully, that would be great. I’m sure she has good opinions about the whole thing. Okay, tell me what you thought about back rooms. Again, this is not my universe. It’s probably more yours out there on YouTube where you’re watching this. Let me know and we’ll be right back with Samara Weaving.

 

Louis Virtel [AD].

 

Louis Virtel Our next guest is an Australian actress and a modern day scream queen. She’s starred in the ready or not movies, Scream 6 and The Babysitter. Her new movie, which I just watched last night, loved, Carolina. Caroline is in theaters this Friday, June 5th. Please welcome to Keep It, Samara Weaving.

 

Samara Weaving Hello!

 

Louis Virtel And also you had a baby so recently it’s bone chilling. How recently did this occur?

 

Samara Weaving Uh, eight weeks ago.

 

Louis Virtel Okay, yeah. Thank you so much for being here and active and being able to pay attention to questions because I can’t put myself in your shoes. I don’t think I would be that alert.

 

Samara Weaving Oh, you know what, that’s how much I love this movie and how much people to see it that I’m willing to leave my baby in to. Is that pretty cool about it? I think if it was-

 

Louis Virtel That’s a specific kind of joy.

 

Samara Weaving You know, like if it was any other thing, I’d be like, forget it. Don’t worry. But this movie, I’m just obsessed with it that, you know, I just want to shout it from the rooftops.

 

Louis Virtel Well, I kind of get it because first of all, it’s a movie about the chemistry between two people who have a kind of Bonnie and Clyde relationship. They set out on the road and are kind of like quick change thieves. Reminds me a little bit of the movie Paper Moon for a while. And then, you know, some turmoil occurs, both between them and the world. But the thrill of this movie initially is your chemistry with Kyle Gullnur as this Bonnie and Clyde type couple is so awesome and so immediate. It locks you into this movie. Talk about. Working with him and did you know there was chemistry there that immediately?

 

Samara Weaving Do you know what, I think we got really, really lucky. I don’t, I mean, I don’t think it’s that chemistry like that is something you can manufacture or like act. It’s something that the lens, like the camera just picks up and we just got along so well. Maybe it’s because I was such a fan of his. I watched him in Adam’s other movie, Dinner in America and like fell in love with him in that. So I was really excited to work with him. And I probably can give credit to Adam because I think he knew that we would really get along and that that would read on camera. And I’m pretty sure that accent, everyone falls in love with a woman who has that accent.

 

Louis Virtel Well, let’s talk about that accent for a second. You are a Southerner in this movie, and there’s something very immediate about that accent too that is both inviting and there is a vulnerability to it. How long did it take you to find that specific place in your voice?

 

Samara Weaving I’ve been working with my dialect coach Liz Himelstein for a really long time, and we were researching and finding like real human people. Like she has a catalog of recordings, she’s incredible, of people she’s interviewed with accents like that. And there was this one woman who just sounded so sweet and there’s like a naivety to it. And we just tried to copy her accent because I think you can get away with a lot. When you sound that sweet.

 

Louis Virtel And that sweetness pervades this movie, even when it is very much not sweet. It becomes quite violent, et cetera. Something that also fascinated me about this movie is that he wanted to film it in chronological order. Does that help add to what you’re trying to build? Does that make it easier for you as an actor in any way?

 

Samara Weaving Shooting it in chronological order, it actually changed the ending of the movie. We realized as we were shooting that we should capitalize on this chemistry and how the scenes were playing. We all sat down, I don’t want to give any spoilers, but we had this meeting with Tom Dean, the writer and Adam and Kyle and I, we were going, I think we need to rewrite the ending because we were falling in love with the characters and We were such fans of what we were doing. That, um, yeah, we, we rewrote, which I’ve never, that’s never happened on a movie before and I don’t think it would have happened if we were shooting it in chronological order. Usually I like to do a scene from the middle of the movie first. I, there was an actor who was talking about this going, I like too shoot the middle of the move first because that’s when you’re like the rustiest and the most Nervous? And then you shoot the beginning and the end because the audience, if there’s a bad scene in the middle, people will forget it.

 

Louis Virtel Right.

 

Samara Weaving But yeah, for this reason, like, yeah, like Kyle meeting my character for the first time on day one, like us meeting each other in the scene and like the nerves and it all really played into it.

 

Louis Virtel You said that your director sort of intuited that the two of you would have good chemistry. Why would he suspect such a thing? I mean, you obviously both have scream literal pasts, scream-oriented pasts both associated with horror. But at the same time, I just feel like the both of you have a casual sense of darkness that you can conjure. And I feel like there’s a similarity there.

 

Samara Weaving Yeah, I think he both knew that we were just weird and strange, cool freaks and was like, these two will get along, you know, like he invited us both over to his Airbnb he was staying at like when we first got there and then suddenly we realized no one else was in the room and we were just chatting. I was going, okay, I see what you’re doing here, Adam.

 

Louis Virtel But also it seems like it’s extremely collaborative, given that you were able to have a conversation at the end about changing the script of the movie. What’s it like just collaborating with him in general, like putting a scene together? It sounds like you have a different relationship than you would with most, you know, auteuristic directors.

 

Samara Weaving Yeah, every director’s, you know, got their own approach and I think what makes Adam so special is that he can adapt to the actors he works with because I know he’s been, you know, he’s worked with like kids before and he’s works with Adam before, with Kyle before and with this one he really just instinctively let us play and he didn’t really give a lot of notes I think he really trusted us to play our instincts of the scene, which I think is what brought that sort of magic to it, that there wasn’t a lot of… I mean, Kyle and I worked very similarly in that we prep really well and we rehearse a lot, but then on the day, Adam kind of stayed out of our way, in a sense, and was like keep the cameras rolling, let them do what they do. Um think because you do have to be quite vulnerable, we had to be really vulnerable with each other and be kind of like, you know, flirty and like pretending to be in love and maybe if he had like run in with notes, it would have broken that magic a little bit. Um, like it got to the point where Kyle and I would rehearse on the weekend and Adam just went, don’t tell me what you’re gonna do. I’m just gonna roll and you do what you want and that level of like trust and belief in us was really Lovely.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, that’s fabulous. There’s also a scene in this movie involving Kira Sedgwick, who plays a very Southern Fried character whom you are very excited to meet, and she doesn’t know why initially. I would describe it as a brutal scene, and I honestly didn’t know that side of Kira Sedgewick, and I’m a pretty devoted close follower of her filmography, TVography. Did she do anything in that scene that really surprised you? What was it like working with her in that moment in this, you initially start off in this kind of lovely setting and then it becomes nearly violent by the end.

 

Samara Weaving Yeah it was almost like a one it was like a play that day i hadn’t met her before um the schedule was so tight and she had so many things going on she flew in like that morning and then i sort of met her in the scene um like as her character the i mean tom deane is such an incredible writer that i knew it was going to be a really powerful scene but she brought she It was like a tornado came in, absolutely destroyed me, and then she left. It was… I felt like I had front row seats to the best play in town. I really didn’t have to act very much. Like she just committed so hard to that character. I mean, the way she moves in it, just her entrance was just so powerful and incredible. It was. Yeah, that was one of those days where you go, wow, that was my job is cool.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Also, what I liked about that scene also is like, your accent and personality is pure charm in the movie, and that she got to be a Southern character who is suddenly extremely repellent. It really gives the movie a boost in a really cool way.

 

Samara Weaving Yeah there’s that real harshness to her that um it feels like there’s just she’s got so many edges and she’s really been through it and what i found fascinating about her is that i weirdly empathized with her i mean the fact that she is just you can tell she’s just in so much pain because someone doesn’t behave like that unless They’ve. Been through so much, like she brought this level of trauma that isn’t necessarily written, that that’s all her preg.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, it is jarring. And speaking of that, I was wondering, you’ve been in so many movies, you know, that are, if not horror, there’s a lot of shock value to the movies you’re in. Can you think of any time a fellow performer on screen did something that actually shocked you within the moment? Like a sort of candid, we get a candid reaction from you based on what they decide to do in the moment.

 

Samara Weaving I don’t know if this answers the question but it’s a similar thing where it was just a really odd choice was in Ready or Not, the first one, I didn’t plan it but at the end and spoiler if you haven’t seen ready or not. I just decided to start laughing. That wasn’t written in the script. It was, I don’t know why, but I just felt the absurdity of the movie, of what was happening, and just started pissing myself. And the directors were like, dude. We didn’t think we were going to use that take. We almost thought it was like a blooper but it it really helped bring the movie back together so that was pretty…

 

Louis Virtel Cool also that to me feels very rational It’s like at the end of Texas Chainsaw Massacre when she’s leaving on the back of the car after just narrowly escaping being murdered she’s like laughing to herself like that to mean feels like a Particularly human response to being through something so insane like your mind rationalizing it with this is funny in some way

 

Samara Weaving Yeah, totally. I think it was a really like authentic response that weirdly worked. But, you know, originally it was meant to be this like horrific, you know, traumatic response. So yeah, there’s also in Carolina, there was a moment now that I’m thinking about it, I left the scene with Keira and my character’s quite distraught. And I was meant to sort of like just get in the car and kind of stonewall Oliver’s, uh, Kyle’s character, and he had just played it so sweetly. And, um, instinctively, I just grabbed his hand out of the window. And now that’s one of my favorite bits is that, and that’s only because he, like the look on his face was so adorable that. There was this immediate need to get his assurance.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, no, it establishes the depth of your relationship, too. Yeah. In that moment, it’s almost like your id was reaching out to him. Right. Now, having been in so much horror, can you be just a fan of horror movies going forward? Do you avoid watching horror movies? We’re in this moment right now where obsession and backrooms are coming out. It’s like the movies that people are still most talking about. Do you have an appetite for it as a viewer, or are you just like, you know what, when I’m in horror movies, that’s when I participate with that genre?

 

Samara Weaving Used to be like that. I used to not watch them but now I’m such a fan. I think because I’ve just been around it and I talk about them so much and my husband’s a huge horror fan. Um I’m so glad that you know like Sinners is at the Oscars and at the box office horrors seem to be doing like way better than other films. And it feels like this genre is finally getting the recognition that it really deserves because it’s tough, man. It’s tough making horror movies.

 

Louis Virtel Would you say that those are the hardest roles you’ve done, horror?

 

Samara Weaving No, if anything, Carolina Caroline was maybe not like the hardest physically, like horror movies are really demanding physically, but there was something about being really vulnerable and having to play something I hadn’t really done before that was quite terrifying.

 

Louis Virtel And my last question to you is, I’m sure being lumped in with all the great Australian actresses there are gets tiring after a while, I am sure you are not best friends with them, whatever, but I have to say, Australian actress, all these high profile people have the capacity to shock. Almost every time I see a Nicole Kidman movie or Jackie Weaver or Judy Davis or whomever, they always turn something where it’s like, where the hell did that come from? And you are definitely in the company of that. What is it do you think about? This like this country that produces people who can be so effervescent on screen and then also so bone chilling.

 

Samara Weaving Oh, well, thank you. I don’t know. Maybe we’re all descendants from criminals?

 

Louis Virtel There it is. Yeah, you admitted it. Okay.

 

Samara Weaving Because Australia was a giant jail, so we’re all related to British criminals who sat in the sun for too long.

 

Louis Virtel Just respecting your ancestry by being shifty on camera.

 

Speaker 3 Yeah!

 

Louis Virtel Well, thank you so much for being with us today. The movie is so good. I hope people rush out to see it. And also it’s such a great movie to see in a theater too. It has that kind of, you know, Bonnie and Clyde Paper Moon verve. And I hope that people see that in a theater.

 

Samara Weaving Me too. It’s always good to see films how they were meant to be seen on a on a big old screen.

 

Louis Virtel And I think horror fans in particular refuse to see them on a small screen. So I think they’re really propping up the movie business, right?

 

Samara Weaving I think so!

 

Louis Virtel Thank you so much, much appreciated.

 

Samara Weaving Thank you.

 

Louis Virtel [AD].

 

Louis Virtel And we’re back with the meanest part of the episode, it’s keep it. Brian, is there anything that is bugging you in pop culture that you’d like to really spin out about?

 

Bryan Safi Well, I feel the thing that’s bugging me the most right now. Have you heard of Noosa Yogurt and its fans? No, help me. It is a huge cult. It’s this…

 

Louis Virtel N.U.S.A.

 

Bryan Safi N-O-O S-A

 

Louis Virtel Oh, okay. I sort of feel like I can picture a logo, but anyway. But anyway.

 

Bryan Safi People are kind of rabid about it. I’ve been hearing about it more and more, and really people say it’s the best yogurt that will change your life. It’s like ice cream, blah, blah blah blah. And it is all those things. If you want your yogurt to be like incredibly unhealthy, but what I’m equally obsessed with that Aaron turned me on to was, there’s a yogurt called Elanos that does that thing where when you rip off the lid, it has like a quote on it.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, sure.

 

Bryan Safi A slice of life. So for instance, it’ll say like, my day’s not good without Eleanos. But there was also one recently that’s Aaron ripped off the lid and it said, yup, I’m that girl at the brunch table who doesn’t like yogurt. Eleanos changed all of that. And I thought to myself, well, that’s a personality I haven’t had before. You know what I do? Yogurt has disrupted her life. Disrupted her life and also. What is my response supposed to be? Oh, you’re that friend? Ah ha ha ha, you are that friend, got it. There’s always one. Never heard that personality in my life. But the noose of people are insufferable. They’re very much like the people who say, this happens to me all the time, I don’t know if it happens to you, but just you’ll say something, they’ll be like, oh, you have to go to Berlin. Sure. You have to go to, it’s just that same sort of insufforable personality.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, so, wow. Oh, right, because you’re very invested in groceries culture. I love groceries.

 

Bryan Safi I love the aisles, the carts, I love buying stuff and then like watching them walk down the runway at the end, like so crap.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, yes, the show event.

 

Bryan Safi Yes, and you can feel how happy they are they’ve been chosen. Like it really, it radiates for me. I can never take one Apple life tick too, because I think the other one’s gonna be lonely. I really anthropomorphize our grocery store and my hands on health. Oh, wow.

 

Louis Virtel Real Noah’s Ark behavior. Yeah, we’re getting two Fs. Yes. Exactly, yeah. Have you ever worked in a grocery store? Never. Okay, because I have. You’re kidding. Yes, when I was in college. And do you know what I miss about it? Because I feel like this is kind of going away. You would have to memorize all the fruit codes. Okay, yeah And that was true like monkey computer brain. Like I was like four or eight lines. Yeah, yeah Were you a cashier? Yeah. Oh my God. Oh, excuse me. I was the only male cashier at the grocery store at home. Honey, I was Amelia Earhart, honey. I bet. Okay. I bet you had the longest lines.

 

Bryan Safi I bet everyone wanted to be checked out with you.

 

Louis Virtel I literally had favorite customers and we had rapport. One was absolutely named, get ready, Cheryl. Cheryl, if you’re listening, I miss you. She would always be behind a, it was like, where I’m from is a Polish suburb of Chicago. Lots of Polish people who I’m sure meant well but didn’t speak English. And they respond to that static with angst. And so you would have to get through that interaction. But then Cheryl would come by and be like, oh, I saw that whole thing.

 

Bryan Safi The best when you can relate to someone like that.

 

Louis Virtel See what? It was at the time, Chippain’s, Peter Chippin, may he rest, but now it’s something else, which I actually forget. No, it was formative, and everybody I ever met was like, you should write something about being in a grocery store. I was like doesn’t sound fascinating at all.

 

Bryan Safi It would to me, if you ever write it, I’ll be the first one to buy it.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Bryan Safi Does this mean you consume yogurt on the regular? You know what’s a new thing for me? That and cottage cheese. Do you eat cottage cheese? People love it.

 

Louis Virtel Well, get this, I’m obsessed with going to diners right now. I love getting like 10 scrambled eggs. What diners are in LA? I go to the one on Sunset Mels. Oh yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just like the space of it, the whole, like I wanna listen to Paul Anka, you know that kind of thing. But like, I usually get this breakfast that comes with cottage cheese. I do not fucking get it at all.

 

Bryan Safi I mean, neither, but I’m into it somehow. I feel like I’ve been forced into it. Really? I think by social media, I do feel like every, Annie, I don’t know how I get there. Like I start watching, I Don’t Even Know, Joan Crawford’s Way of Life clips on Instagram, and somehow that turns into. I guess because she would eat cottage cheese. I don’t know, somehow it turns into trainers then saying like, cottage cheese is the best protein you can have. Yeah. And it’s, I’ve been convinced and now I eat it. I just, it feels like alien food to me. It’s always disgusting. Yeah, the color. And especially remember when like, did your mom ever use to eat it?

 

Louis Virtel No. Good for her. Yeah, no, I grew up in a very like, my mom did her best, but I had three straight brothers and we just wanted like Burger King. Hell yes. You know? Yeah, just.

 

Bryan Safi Just fucking, you know, just, I don’t know what guys are.

 

Louis Virtel Fries the head like a metallic sheen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. That doesn’t mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

 

Bryan Safi Yeah, exactly, exactly. No, my mom was very much like all foods that were beige. So like cottage cheese, plain bagel, maybe a tomato. Oh yeah. Egg whites.

 

Louis Virtel Oh no, I love mid-century modern colored food. I understand that. I don’t know that I consume much of it. But I also got that out of my system. I would say I eat pretty well now. Yeah, yeah, I believe that. Okay, my keep it this week, as I said, pertains to Alfred Hitchcock. Did you know that we’re getting a limited series adaptation of The Birds starring Sarah Snook? Speaking of Australian actresses, another one. Here’s the thing. At first, when I heard this news, I thought, this is a bad idea, because the whole point of The Birds is, first of all, it’s not the movie people think it is. No. At the end, it turns into a horror movie with birds flying over the place, but it’s mainly about this couple, Tippi Hedren and Rod Taylor, who are trying to appease his weird, overbearing mother, played by Jessica Tandy. Absolutely. And then it takes this hard left turn into, actually, we’re just getting our eyes pecked out. And in fact, Suzanne Plachette, in her amazing Elizabeth Taylor makeup, discovered with her eyes pecked out, is one of the most glamorous images I have ever seen.

 

Bryan Safi Also, that Tippi Hedren is such an obsessive stalker. I mean, she takes a boat by herself to go across the bay for a guy she’s seen one time. Yes. And not even had a conversation with.

 

Louis Virtel No, and she’s like this weird socialite who throws herself into fountains. So there’s real like an imbalance of something going on there But um, okay, so i’m looking at this adaptation. I’m like, how are they going to make this compelling? Because what’s also good about the actual bird attacks is you don’t know why they’re happening, right? You know, it’s just like people sense that there’s a vibe shift at the bay and then the birds start attacking And then I looked into it They’re not even setting it up bodega bay. It’s not the same character. It’s just Sarah snook is playing someone in Alaska dealing with birds Bitch, just say you’re making something else. What? This has nothing to do with Hitchcock. Yeah, that has nothing do with it. One of the creators was like, we’re going closer to the Daphne du Maurier original story, but I was like that, which takes place in Cornwall. That’s still not the same. I was honestly.

 

Bryan Safi I’m just gonna say there’s absolutely no way in hell, Daphne, from what I know about Daph, there’s no way she said that story in Alaska. That is…

 

Louis Virtel I just don’t know again, and we’re getting a cape fear limited series adaptation to yeah again another move I’m talking about the score says easy remake actually the Mitchum one, too I think it’s good because of the brevity you were just like what’s wrong with this guy What’s wrong? What’s the revered De Niro character?

 

Bryan Safi Also Jessica Lange in Cape Fear is, there’s like one scene where Julia Lewis is like, I’m going out or something like that and Jessica Langing goes, okay, fine, I do it. I don’t care. And she’s so good and it’s so, every performance in that is so bizarre, is truly bizarre.

 

Louis Virtel And also, like, it’s an homage to the original K-fear, but, like the way he’s closed in on certain faces, like, way too close, it, like uncomfortable.

 

Bryan Safi It’s strange. The way that Robert De Niro dresses as a housekeeper. And I mean, the whole movie is so bizarre. But that’s, yeah, I didn’t, I did read that Sarah Snook was doing an adaptation of The Birds for a series. And one thing I love about The Original Birds is, first of all, it is a long movie. It isn’t, and it’s, like you said, nothing really happens until the very end. But what’s cool about it is the ambiguity about what’s happening there, very back rooms. But, you know, you don’t know, like people have theorized, like, oh, it’s a commentary on environmentalism or something. That it’s like, the ecosystem is falling apart and these birds are reacting to it, things like that. But. Yeah, that is, that’s, that wild.

 

Louis Virtel Because in the original movie, it’s wrapped up with Veronica Cartwright, who is the younger sister of Rod Taylor, has a pair of birds that are lovebirds. Yes. And at the end, somebody goes, well, the lovebirds didn’t hurt anybody. And then these two other characters are love birds. So it’s sort of like saying, well we all got pecked to death, but these two people should be together. Like, I don’t know why they were trying to wrap it up that way.

 

Bryan Safi Veronica Cartwright, by the way. Speaking of alien, yes, yeah. Exactly the same, all through her life. I mean, in looks, you know what I mean? Like, she’s someone, if they show me the baby picture, I’d be like, that’s absolutely Veronica Cartright.

 

Louis Virtel Right, yes. She looks the same 12 and now, yes, exactly.

 

Bryan Safi Ryan, thank you so much for being here.

 

Louis Virtel Thank you for being here. Thank you, such a pleasure. And you can be my boss.

 

Bryan Safi Again at any time. Same, by the way. I felt like you were my boss today in a loving way. Yes, it felt, it was so nice.

 

Louis Virtel I also need to go to New York anyway to see Death of a Salesman and I need to see you too. Please come. So I will be there.

 

Bryan Safi Please come, you can go to, areumadameshow.com for tickets. I mean, you won’t, you just, if you come to New York, just let me know and I’ll look at your tickets, but areumatameshow for tickets

 

Louis Virtel When does it start there?

 

Bryan Safi July 10th to August 15th. Oh, OK, fabulous. So it’s 30 shows only. How nervous are you? You know, what’s funny, I’m not necessarily nervous about the show itself. I’m more just because I think the show is great. It’s it’s where it needs to be. And it feels solid. But I’m you know, you get through the launch and that’s nerve wracking. And then now you get through the like people coming and right. You know what I mean? But that’s with anything. But I don’t know. I’m just excited to be doing it there. I cannot.

 

Louis Virtel I cannot wait to see it you are so marvelously talented and also not contrived at all you are your own thing and it is so fabulously

 

Bryan Safi Yes. Same with you, Louis. I could do this all day. I love you so much.

 

Louis Virtel Okay, come back, please, way more often when you’re not killing it in New York. I’d love to. Yes. Thank you for joining us. Thank you to the fabulous Samara Weaving. We’ll be back next week with more Keep It. Keep It is a Crooked Media Production. Our show is produced by Caroline Rustin, Kelsey Gante, Kendra James, Lindsey Gomez, and me, Louis Virtel. Our team includes Matt DeGroot, Rachel Gaewski, Delon Villanueva, Claudia Sheng, Mia Kellman, Jay Banks, Charlotte Landes, and Jordan Cantor. Our staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.