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Ira recaps Coachella for Louis, then the two discuss Gilbert Gottfried, odd Celine Dion “biopic” Aline, and flight mask mandates. Plus, Alexander Skarsgard joins to discuss The Northman, working with everyone’s favorite actresses, and more.

 

Ira Madison III: [AD]

 

Ira Madison III: And we’re back with an all new episode of Keep It. I’m Ira Madison III

 

Louis Virtel: I’m executive producer, Louis Virtel. I’ve never really had a title before. It’s so shocking to have one.

 

Ira Madison III: Yeah, congrats.

 

Louis Virtel: I know

 

Ira Madison III: You earned it.

 

Louis Virtel: Staff writer LouisVirtel elevated. I’m so excited to talk about Coachella with you, but I have to ask, did they play Natalie Cole’s cover of Pink Cadillac? Because I just heard that walking into Starbucks and girl, that song is still fuckin fire

 

Ira Madison III: Who would have played that?

 

Louis Virtel: I mean if you ask nicely. I don’t know. There’s a lot of deejays there. They can look it up on their phone. I heard our friend Ty Sunderland was playing there. I’m sure he could put that up on his little fuckin iPod or whatever he operates off of.

 

Ira Madison III: Ty Sunderland did play and also, Vincent came out to sing Higher, during Ty’s DJ set and it was like a remix of it, where only he sings every verse. And it was amazing. I love it better than the original.

 

Louis Virtel: Oh, interesting. Vincent. If I want to see him, I can just go to Barry’s Bootcamp down the street, so I am not super sad to have missed that. Seems like a nice guy, though.

 

Ira Madison III: He’s like a star. You know, it’s just it’s just so wild that he immediately has like all the presence and the making of like someone who like when you step on stage is just electric.

 

Louis Virtel: Can I tell you something? And I say this with affection to our friends over at Las Culturistas. Matt Rogers calls so many people a fucking star it is the term now upsets me, and I mean, whatever, like somebody has large enough eyes she’ll be like that’s a star. But also maybe being a star is about having large eyes. So I don’t know.

 

Ira Madison III: Are you starting drama because we both had Michelle Yeoh on the show last week?

 

Louis Virtel: I do think she’s a traitor. I do. That was unusual. That, like, never happened. Strangely, like, we’ve not had the same. I don’t think that’s ever happened before.

 

Ira Madison III: And judging from the screenshot, it was the same day.

 

Louis Virtel: Oh no. Oh, please. She got off the zoom with us and rolled right along in. Yeah. She was like, Oh, there was fagots one and two. Here’s fagots three and four.

 

Ira Madison III: I actually thought that the conversation’s book ended each other perfectly.

 

Louis Virtel: OK, good but I refuse to listen to that podcast, so I wouldn’t know.

 

Ira Madison III: And I also just sort of love, you know, that Wednesday is like gay podcast day.

 

Louis Virtel: No, yea.

 

Ira Madison III: Keep it you get Las culturistas back to back

 

Louis Virtel: Yeah. What else do you get on Wednesdays? Is Gray’s Anatomy on Wednesday?

 

Ira Madison III: I don’t know. I don’t. I don’t listen to other podcasts. You know,

 

Louis Virtel: I have to say I’m always thrilled when people come up to me and be like, Oh, I listen to the podcast just in general, but also because I it is hard for me to listen to people speaking without me being in the conversation. Like, you know, that meme of people like listening in on a conversation, pretending it’s their best friends. I can’t do that. I have to know if I hear an opinion about Throw a name out there, Eddie Redmayne. Look, I have like six jokes ready to go, guys. He looks like Amelia Earhart. OK, see, I’m in the conversation now where I belong.

 

Ira Madison III: If only he would take a flight.

 

Louis Virtel: Wow, you wish Eddie Redmayne were dead? Wow.

 

Ira Madison III: We don’t know that that bitch is dead.

 

Louis Virtel: That’s true, right? She could be on that island.

 

Ira Madison III: She could be with the Windham-Burke baby.

 

Louis Virtel: Is that anything like the Lindbergh baby?

 

Ira Madison III: Yeah. The Lindbergh baby was the actual best friend of the Lindbergh baby. And he was also kidnaped. But no one talks about the Lindenberg baby being kidnaped. This is the Lindbergh are wealthy and white, and the Lindbergh baby was, you know, was mixed.

 

Louis Virtel: Oh, I say, Oh, got it. Are you pitching to Peacock right now? What is this all about?

 

Ira Madison III: OK, I am kidnaped. Mulatto. Oh, Lindbergh, baby.

 

Louis Virtel: Well, that was a real jerk. And we thank you for coming to this meeting today.

 

Ira Madison III: But anyway, I’m going to get into a lot more of my Coachella opinions this week. And we’re also going to talk a bit about Gilbert Gottfried.

 

Louis Virtel: Icon. Legend. I was going to say I was going to bring this up in the segment, but I’ll just bring it up now. I think among celebrities, it’s the fastest voice recognition you could ever have as a celebrity. Like in under one second, you would know it’s Gilbert Gottfried, and I don’t know that anybody would be faster.

 

Ira Madison III: The idea of recognizing celebrity voices is so interesting to me too, because obviously there are some like Gilberts, who are iconic and loud at each other, like immediately recognizable, right? Speaking before what you were talking about. Just sort of like people recognizing us from Keep it. I am always still floored when someone’s like, I recognize your voice immediately.

 

Louis Virtel: Oh, right, but no, because they’re taken to their Wednesday morning where we come into consciousness, which with our incredible opinions about whatever.

 

Ira Madison III: I just will rarely hear a voice and be like, Oh, I know who that is. Even like my best friend’s voice.

 

Louis Virtel: Oh, you’re right. Me too. I don’t know that I would be able to place things like that immediately, either, unless maybe it’s a song I’m listening to. But otherwise you’re right. No, I don’t think I’m that acute when it comes to that.

 

Ira Madison III: Um, we also have a very exciting interview this week, and I tried to contain myself as I speak to Alexander Skarsgard on his new film The Northman.

 

Louis Virtel: Guys, I was supposed to be a part of this interview, and then I got I had to rehearse for something at work, and I fucking love Alexander Skarsgard. Did you get into Passing at all? Who spent two seconds casting him in that? Because like, if you want like evil blond guy, I mean, he does it well.

 

Ira Madison III: I was busy talking about him being naked in every episode of True Blood.

 

Louis Virtel: Oh my god, you’re I mean Edward R. Murrow over here. OK.

 

Ira Madison III: I’m getting to the facts that people want to hear about.

 

Louis Virtel: OK. No, that’s what I mean. No, the Peabody is coming your way soon, I’m sure.

 

Ira Madison III: Anyway, I’m sure Alexander Skarsgard will talk about Passing on this week’s episode of Las culturistas.

 

Louis Virtel: Oh, fuck them, fuck them. Actually, speaking of Bowen Yang, did you see SNL this weekend? I was loving Lizzo’s new song.

 

Ira Madison III: I Love Lizzo’s new song. I do not love whoever is dressing her right now.

 

Louis Virtel: Didn’t love the outfit. It was a little well, it reminded me of Dua Lipa’s recent tour is kind of what the vibe, which is kind of appropriate given that it’s a disco fied song and it’s you think you would hear more songs like this in the wake of future nostalgia, which, you know, was allegedly the beginning of a disco revival for us all. But it actually is disco sounding sounds a little bit like Old Luther to me, and it’s called About Damn Time. Yeah, it might be my favorite Lizzo song.

 

Ira Madison III: Its very Niles Rogers.

 

Louis Virtel: Nile Rodgers is exactly what it sounds like.

 

Ira Madison III: It’s very, you know, Bruno Mars-y. You know, it’s very like JT copying Niles Rodgers, but neither of them produced it.

 

Louis Virtel: Weird. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III: Yeah, I absolutely love the song too. And I just I. I like her outfits when she leads into camp. Like, I love when, like Marco Monroe from House of Avalon was sort of like styling her Bret Nelson was styling her. Um, I was like, I just think that sometimes when you are dressing, you know, sort of like a bigger Black women, you know, like it can veer into like drag queen territory and cause, you know. People just have no taste, and I just I really liked like so much of her looks when they’re fun and campy and fashion. The SNL office was just very weird.

 

Louis Virtel: Hmm. And also, she did a good job hosting too. She was game among the recent rash of musicians who hosted SNL. I thought she acquitted herself nicely.

 

Ira Madison III: Yeah. Anyway, we’ll be back with more Keep It.

 

Ira Madison III: [AD]

 

Ira Madison III: All right. Well, we’re back. More Keep It. Week one of Coachella was over the weekend headlines, allegedly, by Harry Styles, Billie Eilish, Swedish House Mafia with The Weekend and you know, I went

 

Louis Virtel: I would say, you’re an entrenched reporter, thank God we sent you out there with your lanyard.

 

Ira Madison III: Yes, me and James Charles running around the desert.

 

Louis Virtel: Oh, was he there?

 

Ira Madison III: Of course he was there.

 

Ira Madison III: Well, here’s my here’s

 

Louis Virtel: Here’s the thing about James Charles. I’m never curious where James Charles is, so I have no way of knowing where James Charles would be.

 

Ira Madison III: That’s tea that’s tea actually. You know, there are a lot of a lot of celebs moseying about. I am upset to know that Charlie Puth was just wandering around and I did not run into him.

 

Louis Virtel: And now he was not performing at Coachella correct?

 

Ira Madison III: He wasn’t performing. He wasn’t performing. No.

 

Louis Virtel: Wow. And so I’m sure he was wearing one of his bucket hats. Like the other 10000 attendees, there. Looking like Henry Fonda in UnGolden Pond,

 

Ira Madison III: Chalamet was there.

 

Ira Madison III: He was, Oh my god, pain.

 

Ira Madison III: Yeah. A friend of mine alleges that they saw Margot Robbie, but the story is very murky and they were on drugs.

 

Louis Virtel: And also, Margot Robbie kind of looks like everybody, so, you never know.

 

Ira Madison III: Yes, but she has been to Coachella before.

 

Louis Virtel: OK. All right. So it’s it’s possible.

 

Ira Madison III: It’s possible. It’s possible. Yeah. So let’s get into this program. Which I always.

 

Louis Virtel: So I assume I assume this means you’ve watched a ton of music actually like you.

 

Ira Madison III: I watched a shit ton of music. I mean, that’s sort of why I always love going. I’m not one of the. Influencers who goes to goes just to the parties in the desert, there are parties that happened in the desert, but Coachella is in Indio and then the parties are usually in like Palm Springs, which are parties that are like an hour away from the actual festival. So if you want to go, you’re going to be sacrificing seeing something else or you going to be stuck in traffic all day. So a lot of people show up to just go to the parties and not actually go to the festival.

 

Louis Virtel: Now I want to say that the party aspect sounds attractive to me, but I just I enjoy Off-Season Palm Springs so much more like I love. I love the luxuriating in a mid-century. You know, you want to feel like the cast of Bewitched was recently just hanging out around you. That’s what I love about Palm Springs. Not like we’re all dressed like we’re in a Kesha video and everybody’s 23.

 

Ira Madison III: Well, I mean, speaking of there was a Rhonda the weekend of Coachella

 

Louis Virtel: Rhonda is a big gay party here in L.A., which,

 

Ira Madison III: yeah,

 

Louis Virtel: it feels like we have the same. There’s like four branded gay parties in L.A., and there’s one of them every weekend. So if you have, quote unquote FOMO, for one, it’s ridiculous because a synonymous party is going to be the next weekend. Anyway, Rhonda is one of them.

 

Ira Madison III: But yeah, but this one was for Poalm Springs attendees. And then, of course, a bunch of people drove down from L.A. just to go to it.

 

Louis Virtel: OK, great. So they weren’t interested in the artistry of Swedish house mafia. So they’re dead to me. They’re dead to us.

 

Ira Madison III: Listen. Gays are the sisterhood of traveling parties. So but if we get to just sort of what I saw, let’s first talk about the headliners.

 

Louis Virtel: OK.

 

Ira Madison III: Harry Styles, Billie Eilish. Weren’t giving

 

Louis Virtel: Weren’t giving?

 

Ira Madison III: They weren’t giving. I mean Billie did her thing, and people are divided on whether or not she was it. You know, the stans really loved her. I’ve seen her before and I thought that previous. I thought her previous Coachella set, which had some kinks in it, was slightly better for me. It was weird, too, because she ended her set with just shouting out to the audience. “Thank you. Sorry, I’m not Beyonce”. And it’s like,ok girl.

 

Louis Virtel: Whoa.

 

Ira Madison III: I’m like, I’m like over this self-deprecating thing.

 

Louis Virtel: Also, by the way, it’s just like the wrong note to end a performance. Now I’m thinking about your self-consciousness as opposed to the music, but also it’s like girl people are f ing rolling. Just just go with it, OK? People are looking at the sky. Their pupils are giant rombuses.

 

Ira Madison III: Well, not her teen fans.

 

Louis Virtel: If if OK if teenagers make it out to Coachella. I’m thinking about the movie 13. Right now, I’m turning into Holly Hunter. I’m wearing my boot cut jeans and I’m pulling my kids into juvie.

 

Ira Madison III: The thing about the show is that you go there for like. To have basically a party of the desert, you know, and then I think that what you have performances like Harry and a Billy after that are really uplifting. It sort of takes you down a bit. The highlight of Billy said For me was actually Damon Albarn showed up from Blur and the Gorillaz. And you can also hear on the live stream that happened because Coachella is always live streamed every year as well. Finneas muttering We’re going to get sued by Taylor Swift for this.

 

Louis Virtel: Right? Because Damon and Taylor Swift had that little back and forth when I forgot what Damon said about her that got in the LA Times

 

Ira Madison III: Becauuse she doesn’t write her own music.

 

Louis Virtel: Right.

 

Ira Madison III: Then he said that, like Phineas and Billie were like. Amazing songwriters.

 

Louis Virtel: Right, right, right. Yeah. She Billie did do my favorite song of hers from the most recent album, which is oxytocin, though my verdict?

 

Ira Madison III: I loved it.

 

Louis Virtel: Yeah, that’s a great song, though my verdict on her remains that I like her music and love her. I think she’s a cool, one of a kind person who actually is like, she exemplifies what people think Gen Z music and esthetic is. While as a personality, she is not that at all, like she seems like motivated and fun and rad. You know, as opposed to, you know, zonked out, which I guess is what the Z stands for.

 

Ira Madison III: Is that with the Z stands for?

 

Louis Virtel: I know. I’m like Abbie Hoffman defining generations over here.

 

Ira Madison III: I thought it stood for Zoloft.

 

Louis Virtel: Yeah right. That could be. Could be. Zonked is more general. so

 

Ira Madison III: Zoloft Nation. Can’t wait for the sequel to Prozac Nation. But anyway, I generally enjoyed Billie, but I see I do sort of agree that, like, I vibe with her as a person more than I tend to vibe with the music, even though I actually absolutely love this album. Um, it sounded better on the album to me than live.

 

Louis Virtel: Right? Not music. I would need to hear live. That’s how I feel about that. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III: Harry Styles was extremely disappointing and which is very weird

 

Louis Virtel: That really sucks because people are amped for him.

 

Ira Madison III: Yeah, people are amped for him, but it’s also weird to even think about him headlining Coachella. It’s always been sort of weird just because what sort of hits does he have.

 

Louis Virtel: Right? That Sign of the Times song like, is he going to pull that? I mean, also, did he? Does he dip into one direction or no?

 

Ira Madison III: We got that’s what makes you beautiful. And that’s it.

 

Louis Virtel: Hmm.

 

Ira Madison III: And I feel like, you know, sort of Beyonce right? You know, like she, first of all, had more albums that Harry when she hit the Coachella stage. So we’re already off with the comparison. But she will dip into her Destiny’s Child hits because they’re great songs and they’re audience pleasing, you know, like you’ll get a bootylicious, you’ll get a survivor, you know, like she will amp you up with those. I mean, Harry doing, that’s what makes you beautiful is just sort of like, here’s the one damn One Direction song you’re going to get from me.

 

Louis Virtel: And also, like one damn like gigantic hook you’ll get from Harry Styles. Not that I don’t like his solo stuff, but like, that’s what makes you beautiful is obviously got that supercharged, radio-friendly thing. Also, you know, what is the underrated One Direction song? Night Changes. That’s the one was liking.

 

Ira Madison III: I mean, Night Changes. Night changes is iconic.

 

Louis Virtel: Yeah, I love that song.

 

Ira Madison III: I’m also partial to kiss you.

 

Louis Virtel: Oh, yeah, oh, I haven’t heard that song in ages. Actually, I haven’t heard any of their songs in ages. It’s always weird. I know I’ve talked about this on the show. The sensation of when music is inescapable for a long time, and then you don’t hear it for years and years again. It’s like if you heard Bodak Yellow right now, you’re like, Whoa, it’s been four years since I’ve heard that, or however many how long it’s been. But it used to be every song on the radio.

 

Ira Madison III: I mean, Honey Dijon played Bodak Yellow during her set.

 

Louis Virtel: Oh, really? Well, you know

 

Ira Madison III: Which is fucking great.

 

Louis Virtel: Apparently, Madonna showed up at a Honey Dijon concert over the weekend

 

Ira Madison III: and in Los Angeles,

 

Louis Virtel: which is down the street from where I live. So I mean, not that I need opportunities to like, run into Madonna. I think she needs to stay like twenty five feet away from me, but it’s pretty unnerving.

 

Ira Madison III: It was at this club called Sounds and, side note, apparently, the gays were upset with this party.

 

Louis Virtel: Why?

 

Ira Madison III: Because because it was at this straight venue and um, you know, they were taking their shirts off to dance, especially to Honey Dijon. But I guess security was telling people to put their shirts back on.

 

Louis Virtel: Oh my god.

 

Ira Madison III: Madonna didn’t want to see that fagotry.

 

Louis Virtel: You know what? If anybody has had enough of the fagotry, I think Madonna deserves it. Guys sit down. I don’t want to see your tattoos of me. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III: Anyway, Honey Dijon was fucking great. She sort of closed out the festival and was opposite The Weekend and Swedish House Mafia. I opted for that for like a fun dance party over seeing The Weekend because I’ve seen The Weekend live before and I preferred listening to the music rather than seeing it live. Swedish House Mafia I saw a bit of and they were fantastic.

 

Louis Virtel: Did you get to see Carly Rae Jepsen?

 

Ira Madison III: I did Carly Rae Jepsen, Carly Rae Jepsen was fucking amazing and so here’s the thing about Harry too.

 

Louis Virtel: Oh. OK. That’s exactly what I needed to hear because I’ve been worried for her in this new era. I wanted to know if she played any of the new songs.

 

Ira Madison III: No. She was amazing.

 

Louis Virtel: Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III: She was amazing. She played the new song Written On The Wind, I believe, produced by Rostam. It’s a great song, and she seems like she’s still the same Carly Rae Jepsen that we’ve always been into, and that’s my thing about her and some of the other people who performed. There were plenty of performances from people who were more lively, more engaging than the headliners. Harry Styles was a very disappointing headliner, because one like I said, he didn’t give us a like a moment of crowd pleasing songs with the One Direction hits, which is like, That’s the whole point of Coachella, you know, it’s like a big mainstream event, and it’s sort of like drawing people in with your, sort of your history, you know? And Shania Twain showed up during his set.

 

Louis Virtel: Ohh.

 

Ira Madison III: To do, Man I Feel Like A Woman and then sing The One with him, and she was the most exciting part of the set.

 

Louis Virtel: Well, I mean, that’s somebody who has headlined just fucking football stadiums, so I’m sure she was ready for that.

 

Ira Madison III: Yeah. A star. A fucking star.

 

Louis Virtel: Not that he hasn’t that story, but like she’s been doing it for a hundred years. And also so you ever just listen to a Shania Twain album? The way those would be engineered like, she would put out one album and it was supposed to put out hits for like seven years or something. So it’s just like it. Like, it’s overwhelmingly banger oriented.

 

Ira Madison III: And I mean, every like young straight man in the audience knew those Shania songs, too.

 

Louis Virtel: Oh yeah.

 

Ira Madison III: Those those were inescapable songs when they came out.

 

Louis Virtel: I watched the That Don’t Impress Me Much video recently. And what’s shocking about it? I mean, other than the leopard or cheetah outfit, whatever it is, she is really washed out in that video. It’s like bright white light on her face all the time. And yet no one has ever looked better. It looks like someone took a picture poorly of somebody, and yet she looks amazing.

 

Ira Madison III: So Michael Jackson VIDEO.

 

Louis Virtel: Yes, right?

 

Ira Madison III: No.

 

Louis Virtel: You know what? Yes, yes.

 

Ira Madison III: Of this before Harry was. I’ll get back to our pop girls like Carly Rae Jepsen.

 

Louis Virtel: OK, good.

 

Ira Madison III: Kim Petras. But so before Harry Big Sean played. Oh, how Big Sean Big Star was fucking fantastic. Oh, I’d never seen him live. But he has so many hits and he’s been on so many songs that he was able to play. His features is going to play his songs and friends came with me who sort of like didn’t really know him. But it turns out they knew a bunch of his music because his inescapable to his crowd. Well, sort of like bigger than Harry’s crowd.

 

Louis Virtel: Weird.

 

Ira Madison III: And he wasn’t a headliner. He was right before him and Meghan Thee Stallion’s crowd, who was the absolute fucking best of the weekend. Bigger than Billie’s. And she was right before Billie. Doja Cat’s crowd was fucking huge. And this year, a lot of people were talking about the fact that the had the acts before the headliners who weren’t granted headliner status. It was sort of like the pop and hip hop spear, Big Sean Doja Cat Meghan, like were better than the headliners.

 

Louis Virtel: Well, I am grateful for Meghan because not only is she a new and obviously exciting rapper, but the like, she’s committed to showmanship. You know, there’s no actually Doja Cat, too, like if you see them on an awards show, you know, like, All right, put this next out, you’re actually going to get a full production here.

 

Ira Madison III: Meghan was like exhilarating from the moment she hit the stage from the outfits, which unfortunately were adults who about given. But we’re going to ignore that Dolce and Gabbana sucks because they sort of have a history of like racist, homophobic remarks and just generally big shitty people.

 

Louis Virtel: Yeah, it’ll be right on Instagram. You can you can read the remarks and then of course, they’ve been to jail for their, like, bizarre business dealings.

 

Ira Madison III: Yeah, um. They are really sort of going hard with dressing like black celebrities right now because, you know, black people have generally been shut out of the fashion industry, but it’s harder for black people versus white people, you know, to get outfits for red carpets and, you know, like for like awards shows and things. And I fully believe that they are just giving away shit to like black stylists so that they can dress black clients and sort of like paper over their shitty past and behavior.

 

Louis Virtel: Hmm. Well.

 

Ira Madison III: It’s like it’s very obvious, like it’s giving payola.

 

Louis Virtel: Right? Payola one of the great words and haunted Dick Clark for the rest of his career. But I’m sorry it was worth it that it’s an amazing word. OK, so Meghan gave you a great show

 

Ira Madison III: Meghan gave a great fucking show. Like everyone I talked to was just sort of like, That’s the best of the weekend. And Coachella can sort of be hard if you’re like around a group of people in the crowd who sort of like aren’t on the same level as you. But thankfully, I was around people who like, knew all her lyrics were very excited to see her. Unfortunately, Doja Cat wasn’t as amazing, and this is when you get into the disconnect between the streaming versus the live production. Everyone who saw Doja Cat on the stream saw a fucking amazing show. The production was the production was too much, you know, when there’s like the huge screens that should be showing, like what’s going on on stage because people in the back aren’t close enough to see what’s going on. At certain point, she just wasn’t on the screen or there were other weird graphics going on showing like her planet, her vision and when she was on the screen, it was like there are like 15 different Snapchat filters over her each time, so you could actually barely see her. It doesn’t make a fun show,

 

Louis Virtel: you know, that reminds me of every time I hear a recap of a Super Bowl halftime show from somebody who is at the stadium because it’s built only for television and you can barely hear the people or see the entire thing. Obviously, like a stadium is gigantic, so depending on where you sit, you may see it later. Not much at all. But I remember one friend of mine was that it was to a woman said no, it was Madonna’s and which was like kind of one which was built for television and looked generally great on TV. And he said that he felt bad for her watching in the stadium like no one was reacting or knowing what was happening. You know, it’s just it’s oriented specifically for cameras.

 

Ira Madison III: Damn so you mean, people didn’t even see Janet’s titty in the stadium

 

Louis Virtel: Maybe. Could’ve been

 

Ira Madison III: bad.

 

Ira Madison III: They didn’t even see MIA’s finger.

 

Louis Virtel: Oh my god. Oh, that was her rogue moment. Like putting up a middle finger. Am I like what?

 

Ira Madison III: She was barred from coming back into the U.S. for years.

 

Louis Virtel: No, it’s like a middle finger. It’s like, that’s something I’m like, That’s something Kid Rock does. I don’t know. It’s such a strange moment for her. Maybe Madonna told her to do it. That could have been anyway.

 

Ira Madison III: So the gay pop girls, um Carly Rae, Iconic.

 

Louis Virtel: Right.

 

Ira Madison III: Rina Sawayama, was fucking amazing.

 

Of course. Friend of Keep It.

 

Ira Madison III: I adore her. She is very into her emotions and like, is a very nice person.

 

Louis Virtel: As a German, I think thats pathetic.

 

Ira Madison III: But there was a moment where she, you know, had us try to do a “say gay” chant, and I never want to do one of those in my life again.

 

Louis Virtel: Wow. Was she secretly Debra Messing, who was doing this? Patricia Arquette? Is that you? “Don’t say gay” really hit the 50 to 60 actress crowd hard.

 

Ira Madison III: Yeah, I I get the sentiment, but I don’t think it’s helpful and it feels it feels weird saying it.

 

Louis Virtel: Right. Also, it’s just like we’re just out here living being gay, I don’t need I don’t need to make a rally for the rest of you guys get behind whatever the fuck it is I’m doing with my life.

 

Ira Madison III: No. Um, Kip Petrus started out with the entire slut pop EP, and that was great.

 

Louis Virtel: Have we had a moment to discuss the slut pop ep? I don’t know if it uniformly it’s amazing, which is feels like a read, considering it’s like 14 minutes, but there are some real funny, funny songs and fucking good songs on it, namely Throat Goat, which if you’re familiar with the Wikipedia of Nancy Reagan, you’ll know what that’s all about. And then X-X-X that is THE song.

 

Ira Madison III: Perfect.

 

Louis Virtel: I love there.

 

Ira Madison III: Perfect.

 

Louis Virtel: Put that on at any party I’m having a good time.

 

Ira Madison III: Unfortunately, she had a lot of technical difficulties, and so

 

Louis Virtel: She’s had a lot of technical difficulties getting out of the chart. So not surprised

 

Ira Madison III: But the second half was a bit of it was a bit of a struggle, you know, with mikes and shit like that. She didn’t get to do coconuts bars in Malibu. And because let me tell you, the Coachella set is like the Apollo. When your time is up, where your time is up, they pull you off that stage.

 

Louis Virtel: Shuffle along. Did she at least get to do heart to break, which it truly is baffling to me that that did not chart. I mean, one of the great pop hooks of the past, however many years, 10 years I’ll say,

 

Ira Madison III: she did, but she did a remix of Hearts Heartbreak Break, and I don’t want it at all that I was not here for.

 

Louis Virtel: Oh, with with. I don’t want another.

 

Ira Madison III: No like, she did like two just sort of like slot pop esque remixes.

 

Louis Virtel: Hmm. Give us the song. How mysterious?

 

Ira Madison III: Yeah. Anyway, I had a I had a pretty good time. It goes well, I will say that this year was uniformly disorganized. It was sort of like, you know, two years off because of the pandemic. It seemed like the traffic situation is sort of a mess um the cell phone service situation is a mess. They’ve had 20 fucking years to figure that out, you know, and it was it was felt very slapped together this year. I mean, normally they drop even the schedule of like when people are performing like a couple of days before. They dropped it, like less than 24 hours before the actual festival happened. People are driving to the desert like checking their phones, like when the fuck is the schedule dropping?

 

Louis Virtel: I would almost send you back for the second weekend just to round up more celebs walking around because, you know, like.

 

Ira Madison III: There will be none. There will be none.

 

Louis Virtel: You think it’s a first weekend thing?

 

Ira Madison III: The, the celebs, and the gays, influencers, all first weekend.

 

Louis Virtel: All I know is one time years ago, I went with a friend to Chateau Marmont. I forget that occasion, but that’s if you don’t live in L.A. that sounds like, Oh, you got to go to the Chateau Marmont. No, it happens from time to time. Everybody goes there

 

Ira Madison III: and they have bad salads.

 

Louis Virtel: Many problems. But anyway, I saw fuckin Diane Keaton there once and then it occurred to me, You know what? Diane Keaton’s got to do something. So it’s like when you get these opportunities where celebrities may be somewhere. You know what? You probably will see a whole bunch.

 

Ira Madison III: Yeah. I will also say shout out to the Avalanches who are this Australian music duo who were fucking amazing? I wasn’t expecting the last show that I got, and I thought it was great. That’s sort of what I love about Coachella. When you just sort of you’re into an artist and you go and check them out and they sort of surprise you in ways you didn’t expect. Disclosure was great. As usual, Black coffee was great.

 

Louis Virtel: Did you see any? Did you see Danny Elfman?

 

Ira Madison III: I did not see Danny Elfman.

 

Louis Virtel: Because well apparently he slayed.

 

Ira Madison III: Yeah, but I did hear him mash up. I did hear that he mash up The Simpsons theme song with the Desperate Housewives theme song.

 

Louis Virtel: Come on! I mean,.

 

Ira Madison III: Which is a gay dream,

 

Louis Virtel: right? Also, he could have just closed out his set by being like, and here’s my wife, Bridget Fonda, and then pointed at her. And then everybody would have been screaming and crying and rolling all over again. Bridget Fonda, we miss you.

 

Ira Madison III: Do you think that would have happened, Louis?

 

Louis Virtel: If I’m running Coachella, that’s in the contract, single white fagot’s going to be drawing you up a contract.

 

Ira Madison III: Lastly, Maggie Rogers, great as usual, I love her new dikey haircut.

 

Louis Virtel: A few people have those right now. Florence Pugh, I’m talking about you?

 

Ira Madison III: Yeah, it’s like it’s it’s giving like 90s chic.

 

Louis Virtel: Oh, sure.

 

Ira Madison III: You know, like the like short pixie haircut. It’s coming back again. It’s just like a wife beater.

 

Louis Virtel: Someone should be showing up to Coachella and Lilith Fair Garb. I mean, that’s just how life should be

 

Ira Madison III: Uh purple disco machine. Fantastic, as usual. And the city girls, the city girls were amazing. And I will just say that JT and Carissa are so fucking funny because they clearly, you know, like a 40 minute set for them is a lot. To just be like thrust into this without, you know, a ton of like live shows under their belt. But they they’re just so funny and have great personalities that like, you don’t mind when JT is like, you know, I’m really tired of seeing this one from me because I’m tired.

 

Louis Virtel: You know, you know what? We need to keep like a personality index of just new celebrities who actually have interesting personalities because it’s just not a requirement anymore. We’re in the Dua Lipa universe, where you can just sort of fall asleep in front of us and we love it. So let’s keep track like, you know, like like Doja Cat. Do you need more of that?

 

Ira Madison III: Yeah, more of that. Less narco Labradors?

 

Louis Virtel: Yes. Oh, wow. Do you write for E.W.? Wow.

 

Ira Madison III: All right, when we’re back. Alexander Skarsgard joins me for a chat about The Northman and a lot more.

 

[AD]

 

Ira Madison III: [00:40:41]Our next guest, you will know from True Blood, the iconic Big Little Lies and recently an HBO succession, which all of you know is my favorite TV show. He’s also a part of what I would call the Skarsgard Dynasty. And the star of the Robert Eggers latest film, The Northman. So please welcome to keep it. Alexander Skarsgard Hi. [24.4s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [00:41:06]Hey. [0.0s]

 

Ira Madison III: [00:41:07]It’s so nice to have you here. [1.1s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [00:41:09]Pleasure. [0.0s]

 

Ira Madison III: [00:41:11]I weirdly have a Alexander Skarsgard story that I tell people from when I worked at MTV News. And it is. I was. It was at the MTV Movie Awards, and I think it was when you did Tarzan. [13.3s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [00:41:25]Oh yeah. [0.2s]

 

Ira Madison III: [00:41:26]I was at the bar trying to order a drink and there were a ton of people there. And then you showed up at the bar and the bartender immediately went to you because who wouldn’t? [10.8s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [00:41:38]Exactly. [0.0s]

 

Ira Madison III: [00:41:39]But then you pointed out that I was at the bar and had him get my drink first. [5.1s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [00:41:45]I thought you were going to say you, I pointed out that you were at the bar is that you’re you’re in my way. Get out of my way. Was I wearing pants? [8.4s]

 

Ira Madison III: [00:41:55]Well, I mean, you usually don’t wear pants in anything I’ve seen you in, which was gonna be one of my first questions. [9.1s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [00:42:05]But that was the night that I presented an award with no pants on. At the MTV movie awards. [5.9s]

 

Ira Madison III: [00:42:11]Yeah. You had pants at the after party. [1.6s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [00:42:13]I did. OK, alright? [0.8s]

 

Ira Madison III: [00:42:14]Yes. Yeah. [0.4s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [00:42:15]So I don’t have to apologize for walking up on you with no pants. [2.9s]

 

Ira Madison III: [00:42:19]I don’t think you’d have to apologize for that to anyone. That brings me to this question, though from True Blood to Tarzan to now The Northman, you famously just have roles where you have to not be wearing anything on set constantly. How have you gotten used to that? [23.5s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [00:42:44]It’s not that I’ve gotten used to it its that I demand it. It’s in my contract. I refuse to work with clothes on. It’s inhibiting. I need to be free. Yeah, I it’s. All right, there’s been a couple of projects with little to no clothes on. Yeah. [22.0s]

 

Ira Madison III: [00:43:07]Mm hmm. I mean, thinking about like True Blood in general too, you know you I feel like that was every day on set just cause certainly, you know, having to either film a sex scene with someone else or, you know, sort of have to film sort of a scene where you’re covered in blood and not where anything I. What’s that like on set, I guess. And just preparing for this is my job, and I’m also acting while doing all of this. [29.4s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [00:43:39]Was I. Yes, it was quite a graphic show. And we would kind of. Oscillate between. Killing and having sex every other day and sometimes both simultaneously on. It was now it was so crazy and it’s an absolute blast showing up on set and they’re like, All right, so today we’re going to rip this guy’s heart out. And then you’re going to drink out of the heart on using the aorta as a straw, and then you’re going to jump into this orgy over here. Oh, I think that’s a that’s a good day’s work right there. Yeah, it was. We had seven very, very crazy but fun years. [53.1s]

 

Ira Madison III: [00:44:34]Well, going from that, which was a violence, you know, television show to The Northman, which is also incredibly gory and violent. What would you say the differences were in, I guess, sort of shooting scenes like that where you’re doing a lot of, you know, like stunt work or your, you know, doing a lot of gory scenes like eating someone’s heart or. [22.6s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [00:45:00]The Northman was definitely a more kind of extreme and immersive experience. We shot through blood on on, mostly on soundstages in Hollywood, and we shot it in a. Quite a conventional way, it wasn’t a conventional show. But, but but on the way it was shot, we did have coverage and we could shops big fight scenes and stuff and into bits and pieces and would often have more than one camera going, so you’d have more coverage on. The Northman was on shot on some very remote locations on. And the way Robert Eggers, the director of the way he works, is it’s quite unique, especially when it comes to a big action adventure movie. It’s done on film, which is quite rare these days to shoot on film, and it’s done with one camera. And most of the scenes are shot, which is one long. It’s just one long continuous shot, one take. So you don’t really have the the luxury of chopping it up into bits and pieces and focus on one part of the fight and then finish that have a cappuccino and then go on to the next scene. I have to do the whole thing on which was a blessing and a curse there. It demanded a lot of preparation and rehearsals in order to get that right because some of the big set pieces are very lots of components and moving pieces to make that working and very challenging. But it was also again, that immersive experience was exhilarating and thrilling because again, when you’re on set and in the set is actually built, we’re up on a mountaintop and not on on the backlot or on a soundstage in. And Robert is also all about authenticity and historical accuracy. So you know that you’re on the live set that looks exactly like a Viking village would have a thousand years ago. And and you get to play the sequence and go through with the whole thing from the beginning to the end. So when you’re in it and the adrenaline is flowing, you can actually just let go and then both till the very end as opposed to stopping starting, which is often the case. So definitely more challenging, but but also in a way more rewarding. [151.3s]

 

Ira Madison III: [00:47:33]Mm-Hmm. In this film, you are reunited with Nicole Kidman and you had such great scenes with her in Big Little Lies, and now you have an amazing scene with her, The Northman that I’m sure everyone’s going to be talking about once the film is released. What do you like most about sharing scenes with Nicole and what was it like being, I guess, like in this extreme environment too, as opposed to how you shot Big Little Lies? [34.3s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [00:48:09]Shooting Big Little Lies and sharing that experience with Nicole was and is was one of the highlights of my career. I privilege of working on such a such amazing material with one of the greatest actors of our time to go into that darkness together. And it was extraordinary and and and obviously very difficult because of the subject matter, how on how dark it is twisted. But we became very close on the set of Big Little Lies and we formed a really strong connection and a bond, partly because we we had to in order to go there, we really needed to take care of each other mentally and physically be. I’m so grateful that I did that. Nicole was my partner in that because she is absolutely extraordinary. Obviously, as an actor, but also as a human being. And again, it was coming out of that was on. It was a quite a journey and we said that be great if we could find something else to do together and be reunited. And so when the first draft of The Northman came in, there was no question about who we wanted for Queen Geismer. And so I met up with Nicole and we talked about it, and we were obviously thrilled when she said yes. And it’s another very dark, very twisted. This time we’re mother, son, husband and wife, but equally dark and twisted and dysfunctional. But but in that scene that you referenced was actually our first scene together. Wow. Yeah. Nicole joined us. We had spent two months shooting those big set pieces, the big action scenes on it. And so that was the first day, first day together. And and after two months of crawling around the mud and with, you know, I’m bruised and bloody and in a lot of pain, it was thrilling to shoot all those action scenes, but to be in an intimate room, intimate setting with to be reunited with Nicole after two months of big action and stuff and and to get to work on that long, intense, dark, twisted scene was such a treat. On and again, we already had that connection that trust so we could, in a way, just hit the ground running when we started working on it. And I don’t know how Nicole fell, but I was just like Buzz, and I was so excited because again, it’s so well-written that scene and so surprising. And to kind of jump in and explore that together with with Nicole, was one of the highlights of the entire issue. [189.3s]

 

Ira Madison III: [00:51:21]And I mean, obviously, you know, you come from a acting family background, but, you know, working with like Nicole, you’ve worked with like a switch to like gave me a movie viewers like me, you’ve worked with a lot of iconic actresses from Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia. You know, like, what’s it like working with, I guess, sort of like these actresses who are at the top of their game who’ve been doing this sort of forever? And what have you sort of learned from having them as scene partners? [36.9s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [00:51:59]I think all those three ladies that you mentioned are they’re up there for a reason. They are. Extraordinarily talented, but also. People want to work with them, not only because they’re talented, but because they’re also they bring a lot of joy to asset and enthusiasm and energy. So that’s I think that’s why on the part of the reason that people just keep coming back and want to work with them again and again because they’re they’re so fantastic. And I had the privilege of working with on lookers, not only on Melancholia, but she did a show called On Becoming a God in Central Florida, and I got to play her husband again on a slightly lighter tone, more comedic than than Melancholia. But but again, to be reunited with Kurt in the way I was reunited with Nicole was on It’s so wonderful when you’ve had that shared an experience, and it’s so intense. Then years later, to be reunited and working with with with someone who’s at that point, a dear friend. And when there’s that connection and so much trust and so much joy in jumping in and starting to work together, so I’ve been like you’ve said, I’ve been very fortunate in working with wood, with some of the greatest out there. [87.4s]

 

Ira Madison III: [00:53:27]Yeah, I mean, melancholia is truly like one of the best films of the past few years. One of my favorite performances,. [6.8s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [00:53:35]We actually had so much fun shooting that movie. I remember that set. We shot it in southern Sweden, and we were just laughing, having a great time like going up to dinners, drinking on weekends and when people, I mean, the movie is about the end of the world.  So people are imagining like, you know. It’s dark and depressing and and people imagine like, Oh my God, how did you guys make it through that? I was like, We have the best time we went to a music festival in Gothenburg one week. Living the dream was amazing. Maybe because we think we needed it, that it’s the subject matter and the relationships are so dark and dysfunctional that maybe we need a bit of balance. So but but it was a really incredible experience. [47.3s]

 

Ira Madison III: [00:54:23]Well, I mean, it’s a Lars von Trier film and like you’d expect, like those films are dark and twisted, and you’d expect, I guess, the set would the sort of process of making. It would also sort of mirror that. I mean, what what what have you learned about Lars von Trier, I guess, from your father being in so many of his films? [20.9s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [00:54:46]So Lars is diametrically opposite Robert Eggers and his style of filmmaking. And I, without sounding too diplomatic, I. I love both, and I love. I feel very privileged to be able to go from one to the other. I just worked with Lars again on a couple of months ago. He’s doing on a sequel to the Kingdom, his limited series that he did 25 years ago on this. Rob is all about meticulously planning every shot, every detail, storyboarding it on the lighting, the set for hours and it’s just every shot is a Renaissance painting. Lars, you show up to a set working with Lars. You don’t we don’t bloc it seems not even. I mean, you don’t rehearse or you don’t block it, so you show up and Lars is OK. OK, let’s see what happens. And I’m like, Well, should I come in through the door or am I already here? I would say, Have fun play, OK, go up. And then the camera is and it’s all natural light stand and you can move around 360. There are no marks that you have to hit or on again. You just like play around with it. And it’s often completely chaotic. But but somehow Lars finds something interesting in that chaos, and then he’ll pick up on it and then start to massage it and go again. And and obviously he’ll give notes once we start shooting. But his approach to it is very much on very free form compared to to Robert. [105.3s]

 

Ira Madison III: [00:56:32]I mean, what was shooting that limo scene like in Melancholia where you was? [5.3s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [00:56:38]That was our very first day on set. And on speaking to like Lars, this style of filmmaking where we’re in the limo and again, we don’t block it, we don’t rehearse it. Lars was like, All right, you guys are sitting here. Alex, you’re talking to the driver trying to direct him and help him on this like mining road. And maybe at some point you’ll get out of step out of the limo to help him out to direct him on. And I ask. All right, which side which door would you want me to step out? So sitting in the limo, the middle, you know, because I on a normal movie, the director will be like, Oh yeah, well, I’m doing the master from over here. So it’s actually good if you step out on this side and then I’ll see you or you know. But I’ll never forget the look Lancz gave me when I asked, so which side is this like? Alex, I don’t know whatever you feel like exploring the good, I’ll find you, I find you in that kind of as like, All right. OK, so this is the style of filmmaking where you basically just do what you feel like and then he’ll come running with the camera handheld and finding on that kind of. So that set the tone that was no matter how complex and difficult the scene was, we had scenes with five cars pulling up and people getting out and technically quite quite messy scenes and still no rehearsals. No like it would be complete and utter chaos. But on, I guess Lars finds some, some some on creativity and in that chaos. [98.4s]

 

Ira Madison III: [00:58:18]Mm hmm. Um, is there anything that you feel like, you know, you’ve learned from? Your dad, you know, like in terms of acting in terms of just sort of sort of like how you approach work or do you find that you have a completely different approach to like material than him? I mean, you’ve worked with him on a few things as well at this point. [26.5s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [00:58:46]First of all, he never really. I’m grateful and I appreciate that he never really try to steer me in any direction. And in terms of career choices. Mm-Hmm. When I was a child actor for a bit and what? I didn’t want to do that anymore. When I was 13, he was super supportive. And then for eight years, I didn’t want to do any acting, and he was. And then when I came back to it, it was like when I was 20 21, I want to try. I was equally supportive. So that’s kind of been his approach to. To all of us, all my me and my siblings, that is always there if you need advice or help or but he’s not going to on. And obviously. Try to share experiences and stuff that he’s learned throughout the years, but he’s very much. His approach has always been very hands off and explore. Go have fun, do your thing. All I want is for you guys to be happy, and I don’t really care how you find that happiness, what you want to do. I’m here for you. And that gave us it gave us a lot of confidence and allowed us to go out and find our own paths. And so it was. I’m very grateful for that. And then I’ve always admired his approach to. To the industry and to his profession. Because he’s got it’s a hybrid of he takes his work incredibly serious, and he works super hard and is diligent and. It’s always on time. He knows his shit, he’s done his homework on. But he’s also feels it doesn’t take. It too seriously my job, nor in self. And at the end of the world and and I think that’s a healthy approach to it, where it’s not the most important thing in the world. It’s it’s it’s it’s important and it’s a big part of who he is and what gives him joy in life. But it’s not the most important thing, and I think that’s quite healthy on especially. When it comes to all the chaos around. The the the actual work when you’re on set is one thing, but there’s obviously so much around it with on releasing a movie, the the press junkets the the the award shows all like all that chaos around it, that he’s always admired his approach to it and has a very healthy kind of distance to it where he can laugh at it and how silly it can be. [165.4s]

 

Ira Madison III: [01:01:32]I mean, how exhausting in a press junket for you at this point, because you do big blockbuster films. But I mean, I imagine even like the Trueblood for seven seasons, get out. I imagine for seven years you’re being asked the same question. [13.5s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [01:01:46]I find it. Well, first of all, it depends on the project, like if you’re genuinely excited about a project and you love talking about it and you had an amazing experience shooting it, then you’re more incentivized to actually spend hours and hours and hours talking about it, obviously. And it also depends on the format, like doing. This kind of stuff where you can have a real conversation on is lovely. Do indeed, so when you do, I think, you know, some days you do sixty four minute interviews with like 30 seconds. Then it doesn’t really. There’s no time for a conversation or you don’t even have time to just ponder something because then those four minutes are gone. Or in one journalist’s only have one, maybe two questions. And yes, it gets a bit repetitive and the you don’t get into a conversation that flows really because you don’t really have time for that. So that can be relentless. But it’s obviously it’s part of the job and it’s on. It’s a week or two on and and you just get through it. Of course. [80.2s]

 

Ira Madison III: [01:03:08]Yeah. I mean, what do you find that you prefer, you know, doing like a big action movie or sort of doing something smaller? I will say that even when I see you and like an action movie, something that you feel like is a throw away like a Godzilla vs. Kong. Do you still sort of bring there’s always something about your eyes in a film where it’s like, you’re thinking, I don’t know, sort of like this. Almost like, I think Michael Keaton’s, another actor who I feel like has this quality of like, it’s like your eyes are always looking at something that’s going on in the frame or the scene and you’re thinking about what is like your your brain has an internal character and what you sort of you don’t see that in bigger action movies. It’s even in Tarzan. [50.6s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [01:03:59]I’m thinking about laundry, like should I do laundry? But like I did, I turn off the stove. Thank you. Thank you. I really that and that. Thank you very much. I really appreciate hearing that. It’s very nice of you. And it’s not really about the like the scale of it. I think it’s it’s a boring answer, but it’s ultimately it’s about the character you’re playing. Are you excited to play that character? And it could be in a big $200 million monster movie or a small student film if you’re curious and creatively excited when you read the script and feel like. I want to I want to spend a couple of months with this character. I want to learn [45.4s] [01:04:45]more about him and that is the kind of the essence of it. And then the other component, obviously, who is the filmmakers that someone you really want to work with? Are you going to work with Nicole Kidman? Yeah, this. Yes, of course you say yes, then you know, it depends on all those component. But then also the. The extremes are fun, and when you’re thrown from again comparing Robert Eggers to Lars von Trier diametrically opposite, but it is creatively inspiring when you’re when you find yourself in an environment that is very different from what you’ve just gone through. Those are the most fulfilling jobs where where you feel like this is completely new and that also goes for a genre for scale. On doing a tiny little indie on. And then go from that to something like The Northman or Godzilla vs. Kong, which is like crazy big is a lot of fun. And if you’re connecting and having a great time playing the character, it’s that it’s a true privilege to be able to kind of go back and forth between different genres and a limited series to a movie. It’s a big movie, too, a small movie and on if I can keep doing that and I’m I’m incredibly lucky. [90.7s]

 

Ira Madison III: [01:06:17]Yeah, I mean, Godzilla vs. Kong will always have a place in my heart only because it’s the first film I saw after the pandemic. The first. It is the first film I saw in theaters. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s like the first film where. I think I said this with a Friday, it was the first film where I didn’t check by phone while watching it in like two years, because when you’re watching movies at home during the pandemic, like your phone’s body, you like, everything’s going on. It’s the first time I got to sit in a movie and was like, Wow, I’m actually watching a movie again. [32.0s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [01:06:49]And I think that was part of the success of the movie. It’s so unapologetically big and loud and fun, and people, after watching movies on their phones and iPads and computers, it really craved something big and fun and visual. And just turn up to 11 and think they sure got that with Godzilla vs. Kong. [28.6s]

 

Ira Madison III: [01:07:19]I mean, they get it with The Northman, too, and I can’t not let you go without also asking about shooting the scene with Bjork, who’s also done iconic Lars von Trier film. Yeah, dancer in the Dark. Yeah. What was that scene like? Because it’s sort of what it’s what I expect. What I knew Bjork was in the film. I was like, This is exactly what she’s going to deliver, exactly the one scene we’re going to get from her. [23.5s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [01:07:43]Yeah. If she did not disappoint. I think this is the first time since Dancer in the Dark, her first movie since Desert in the Dark. And it really it all came together because Bjork. Actually is a friend of Sean, who’s the screenwriter who co-wrote the screenplay for The Northman together with Rob. They’re old friends. They had like a punk band in Iceland in the 80s and basically grew up together. So that’s how Rob and John were able to convince Europe to to join on and to shoot that scene was, I mean, it was incredible. Incredible. I’ve obviously been a massive fan of yours since I was a teenager, and she is just as cool and authentic as. As you can imagine, it’s on that night and we shot it in this. This burnt out barn on an. With a massive full moon behind her, I don’t even think it’s in the movie you don’t see, but like in that night, obviously it had to be a full moon when you worked with Bjork, so that was just right behind her head and that that that image that visually standing there the way she looks, you know, and I’m sure people might have seen her in the trailer like that. And with a moon in the background, it was just like, Yeah, I was pinching myself. I couldn’t believe my luck that I was. I guess there was one of those moments where I I’m not sure I was very present in the scene. I kind of felt like I was watching something extraordinary, like I was eating my popcorn and like, Wow, this is great. And then I realized, Oh shit, I’m on camera. Yeah, but what a treat. [125.5s]

 

Ira Madison III: [01:09:50]Yeah, I mean, Bjork, Nicole Kidman. I didn’t even mention Anya Taylor-Joy, who’s also fucking amazing. I mean, from Eggers first film The Witch to to this. So I mean, what’s it like being with Anya in the scenes? I mean, what sort of intensity to see bring to a role is it? Did you feel like you matched wavelength? Because, I mean, she made chess look very intense in the Queen’s Gambit [26.9s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [01:10:18]It was very helpful. Having, again, Robin, I had worked together for many years before we started shooting the film, but I’d never been on set with him and you had. So that was very good to have the fellow actor who had the experience of working with Rob because again, it’s so specific and particular and so, so talking to her was was great in prep of understanding a bit how well that process would be like on set. And we also spend a lot of time talking about in the beginning of the movie, there’s not that much they don’t share the screen very much in the beginning of the film Amazon will Olga on, but they obviously have this very strong connection. She is integral to to this to turn to his destiny, his fate and it it was it was imperative for the audience to feel that. So we we. And I talk a lot about it with Rob, obviously, about how to actually charge those scenes and make them, even though in the beginning there was only a few of them, we really want the audience to feel that this is an electric connection. It’s really something special. And on that, they feel that pool in a way. And yeah, and it was a lot of fun working, working with on and prep on that and then shooting. She’s incredibly talented, obviously, but also so sweet and humble. And and then just the best, most amazing team player. It was tough out there and there were days where it would be deep, deep, deep in the background, behind two hundred extras on a field for a week on. But she would always give 100 percent, even when she wasn’t on camera, but be there and be supportive and and and push the other actors and the extras and everyone. And just like constantly on just a source of joy and energy. And that was helped a lot when when those those tough day and night shoots. [134.8s]

 

Ira Madison III: [01:12:34]Yeah, I mean, to go from doing basically being in the mud and dirt in the which to then wanting to do it again, like she must really love that. [9.6s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [01:12:44]Yeah. Robin is on air like this should super tight. They really felt each other on the edge. So it’s beautiful to see that creative connection and personal connection as well. [10.7s]

 

Ira Madison III: [01:12:56]Yeah, I mean, I really I really, really enjoyed the film, and I feel like everyone in the film is someone I sort of really admire their work, you know? I mean, Claes Bang was in the square, which is one of my favorite films of the past few years. [12.3s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [01:13:08]Oh that’s such a great film. Yeah. [1.0s]

 

Ira Madison III: [01:13:09]Yeah. And it’s a nice seeing of as though discovering Scandinavian cinema, I guess as an American. [8.7s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [01:13:19]I’m happy to hear that. Ira. [0.3s]

 

Ira Madison III: [01:13:22]Yeah. Last question before I go. Other actresses who I forgot to ask about you working with you were in Gaga’s music video for paparazzi years before she was Academy Award winner Gaga. Do people still recognize you from that video? [18.7s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [01:13:43]I get it occasionally. Yeah. I don’t even think I knew who she was at the time. I believe that was. I believe it was her first album, right? [11.4s]

 

Ira Madison III: [01:13:55]Yeah, it was definitely the first album. Yes. [1.5s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [01:13:58] Well, my friend Jonas Auckland. Director, that video and I think I was shooting season one of True Blood or something. It was very early days on. A true blood and yeah, he Giannis call as though I’m doing this music video and this this, this, this, this girl, Lady Gaga and the stories like you try to kill her and then she ends up killing you and you’re going to speak Swedish and you want to do it. And I said, absolutely.And then we had a crazy weekend up in Malibu shooting that beautiful villa on [45.5s]

 

Ira Madison III: [01:14:44]well I love you casually being friends with the director of ray of light, which is that iconic video as well. [4.5s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [01:14:50]He’s a fellow Swede, and we tend to little weird little community here in the states of Swedish people in the industry. [8.1s]

 

Ira Madison III: [01:15:00]Yeah, I can imagine there’s not that many of  you. [2.7s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [01:15:03]Its like a cult. Yeah. [0.2s]

 

Ira Madison III: [01:15:06]Well, it was really nice to talk to you today. [1.8s]

 

Alexander Skarsgard: [01:15:09]I really enjoyed it, Ira. Yeah, again, it’s nice to have a real conversation and after three hundred four minute interviews, it’s I really, really love [8.0s]

 

Ira Madison III: [01:15:18]The Northman is in theaters April 22nd. [1.9s]

 

[AD].

 

Gilbert Godfrey passed away at age 67 this weekend as a comedian. He was known for his crude humor and appearances on Hollywood Squares. Comedy Central Roasts uh and a bunch of iconic film roles like Iago in Aladdin. A lot of people put photos of Iago in their Instagram Stories this week.

 

Louis Virtel: Sure. No. Again, it reminds me of, you know, my favorite thing people did on Twitter, and they still do it on Robin Williams birthday when it’s

 

Ira Madison III: a photo of the genie.

 

Louis Virtel: The photo was R.I.P. Genie. You’re free. I’m sorry. It’s so insane. It’s I can’t believe I brought it up because I’m turning red. It’s so shocking and childish anyway. Yes, Gilbert Gottfried. When we were

 

Ira Madison III: He actually was a genie.

 

Louis Virtel: Oh, but I didn’t know that. Well, yeah, its your king of Agrabah. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III: If I were still allowed on Twitter, I would probably post something like. R.I.P. Mork, you can go back to your home planet

 

Ira Madison III: Mork wow, you might. You might get that Pam Dawber retweet. You never know. No. When we were devising this episode, Ira was like, Oh, you should take the lead on Gilbert Gottfried. You probably know way more about him than I do. But honestly, I think, you know all the Gilbert Gottfried stuff. He was like an SNL cast member in the early 80s for like a very brief stint during their first sixth season, which is when, after John Belushi and Gilda Radner left, they rolled in a new cast, had a new producer for a year. Lorne was supposed to come back the following year, and it was a massive failure. They only kept Joe Episcopo and a new young performer named Eddie Murphy the following year, and that’s eventually when Eddie Murphy popped off. But Gilbert Gottfried at that time.

 

Ira Madison III: I love Where do you go with Zo like VH one? Oh yeah, the music territory and they only catch a young performer named Eddie Murphy, a lil tease.

 

Louis Virtel: You know what? I think I think I am utterly brainwashed by those like I think that’s how you’re supposed to be a broadcaster, like the true story, you know? But anyway, so Gilbert Gottfried at that time didn’t even use his trademark squinting or the voice you know of him. He was actually unrecognizable in most ways, but in the years following, he obviously got the Aladdin voice role. I remember him as a kid from the cast. Problem child movies, which.

 

Ira Madison III: OK, can we talk about these movies,.

 

Louis Virtel: OK, because I watched them

 

Ira Madison III: Of course, I mean, I think everyone our specific age group was obsessed with the problem child movies and they were constantly on TV. Yes, I’ve seen Problem Child one into more. We talked last week about how many times we’d seem like our favorite movies like Bring It On and how many times you’ve seen Clue. I actually would posit we’ve probably seen Problem Child more than those films. No, it was always on TV. Always

 

Louis Virtel: Unavoidable. And also, it’s that part of that brand that was in vogue when Home Alone was popular, right? Like I did kids, you know, like tricking the adults. That was that was always baked into like all of our advertising. Like, I remember the Burger King kids club that was always like, we’re like rowdy and on our own, and the adults can’t tell us what to do. Everything about our lives was like, kids are special and like little punks, little amps.

 

Ira Madison III: What’s weird is you might think that Gilbert Gottfried is the loudest person in the problem child movies, but everyone in those fucking movies is screaming.

 

Louis Virtel: It’s like you were saying about all that, like children’s entertaining is just yelling. Really,.

 

Ira Madison III: Problem Child is about John Ritter trying to raise this kid. Junior, played by Michael Oliver, who is a young terrorist.

 

Louis Virtel: Yeah, right. I don’t want to know what happened to him, if you know what I’m saying. I don’t want to look at the January 6th record, etc..

 

Ira Madison III: I think that even as a kid, I was not the problem child side.

 

Louis Virtel: Oh wow. You were. You were advanced. You’re like prison works.

 

Ira Madison III: I hated this child at 12. It’s hoped the sequel Problem Child two, where you were introduced to a female problem child who is even more evil than.

 

Louis Virtel: Right. She and she had kind of like a haunted, like a Juliette Lewis quality that seemed like if Juliette Lewis were four and possessed, that was her whole vibe.

 

Ira Madison III: The girl was named Trixie, and she was. She was evil

 

Louis Virtel: right. No, and they and they were kind of adversaries at first, and then they worked together. But here was a gay thought I had as a child. I I rooted for her because her mom are not her mom. Her mom was played by Amy Yazbek, who is in the original and of course, was married to John Ritter for a while. I think Amy Aspect plays two different roles in these movies, but Junior in the second one, his dad marries Lorraine Newman, speaking of the original cast of SNL. And I remember fucking loving her. I was like, Oh, like a a sullen bitch. This, I understand.

 

Ira Madison III: Can we get to the Wikipedia for Trixie the girl problems child in Problem Child 2? She. Her real name is Ivy Ann Schwan. Apparently, her mother, Donna, was her manager during her child acting career and was also deeply religious. So she turned down the role of Claudia in the film Interview with the Vampire, so she turned down an audition.

 

Louis Virtel: I see, Oh, I was going to say I feel like

 

Ira Madison III: I think she would have gotten it.

 

Louis Virtel: Yeah, right? Uh.

 

Ira Madison III: And there’s like nothing with her. After 2015, her years active are listed 1989 to 2015?

 

Louis Virtel: OK, well, again. So these kids would like ruin John Ritter’s life? You know, I remember a scene where they projected babysitters having sex out of the side of the house anyway. Who is this movie for? Because you would think it’d be for kids, but obviously kids shouldn’t be seeing that either. Not to be Tipper Gore about it. But anyway, Gilbert Gottfried played the principal in these movies. And I mean, it’s him screaming at you for ten minutes. You know who was also in those movies? Jack Warden, who plays John Ritter’s dad and is, you know, in like heaven can wait and shampoo just a classically grizzled bastard actor. And I bet he’s I bet he’s the part of those movies that holds up.

 

Ira Madison III: So these films were box office successes, though.

 

Louis Virtel: Right. And critically panned,.

 

Ira Madison III: Critically panned. The first one like grossed seventy two million worldwide. The second film didn’t gross as much, but it beat T2 Judgment Day at the box office.

 

Louis Virtel: That is too bad. I mean, again, guys historians should be chasing a lot more to this moment. You know,

 

Ira Madison III: also there was a problem child three junior in love, and it was a

 

Louis Virtel: TV movie. Oh, I saw it at the time. Oh, I saw it.

 

Ira Madison III: Yeah, yeah. Justin Chatman replaced Michael Oliver and William Katt replaced John Ritter that everyone else written for the film.

 

Louis Virtel: I, you said that actor’s name and I can actually picture him. I remember him replacing John Ritter, who, by the way, irreplaceable per se and not just because of Three’s Company. Weirdly, people don’t know this. I think it’s on the back of Hollywood high, right in the middle of town. I see it every day because the Kimmel Studios are across from it. There is a giant mural of John Ritter there, so you can you can add it’s the high school where their mascot is the shakes, which is, you know, in tribute to Rudolph Valentino. But I’m going to say politically, that probably doesn’t hold up. But anyway, right there you can see a big giant mural of John Ritter looking exactly .

 

Ira Madison III: I love that man. That’s my father.

 

Louis Virtel: The humanity. What do we all want? Oh, bad Santa. That’s what else we put him in.

 

Ira Madison III: I was raised are reruns of Three’s Company, and by saying raise, I watch them myself late at night. Yegi adds, I think John Ritter is just truly like my favorite adult actor as a kid.

 

Louis Virtel: Yeah. Oh, genius, physical comedian and I. I feel that Joyce DeWitt inhabits me from time to time. I feel like I have the choice to wit energy about me

 

Ira Madison III: and still holds up. It still holds up, by the way, Three’s Company. You think so? I think it does it hold up. It’s sort of like weird, homophobic, sort of sexist, but misogynistic jokes. But the conceit, like the comedy in it, like you will still laugh watching it.

 

Louis Virtel: Because it’s so broad. I mean, it’s like you’re watching a television telenovela of a telenovela. OK, quickly. I’m going to wrap up Gilbert Gottfried by saying he had a podcast in recent years where he events that he is this old Hollywood super savant. He would like interview veteran actors, and he was much beloved in that way. He was canceled for some tweets regarding a tsunami a few years ago. But, you know, you know, bad jokes, he’s from another era. Maybe you make bad jokes sometimes. I’m not saying he should be on council on the saying. It’s notable, and I don’t want that to go unnoticed.

 

Ira Madison III: Oh, wow. He was dismissed by Aflac because of those tweets.

 

Louis Virtel: Correct. Correct.

 

Ira Madison III: He tweeted 12 jokes about the earthquake disaster in Japan, right?

 

Louis Virtel: It was. It wasn’t one. It was a dozen.

 

Ira Madison III: She was on a roll.

 

Louis Virtel: He was like, I’m positive. This is still great.

 

Ira Madison III: I mean, a lot of people will also remember have from the aristocrats, which everyone was talking about in 2005, as it was the funniest thing that has ever been invented.

 

Louis Virtel: Well, it was maybe we even brought this up and Bob Saget passed away, but this is a documentary where people tell the same joke their own version of a familiar joke, which is they explain this family carnival act. And it usually it’s there’s a lot of lewd and ridiculous things they do like, Oh, the son is jerking off the dad who’s doing whatever, whatever. And then it ends with, And what’s the name of this group? And you say the aristocrats? My favorite in that movie is Wendy Liebman, whose version of it is opposite. She describes something really benign. She’s like a family sits down to dinner. They thank each other politely. They leave the room and then you ask, What’s the name of that group? And she goes, the cock sucking motherfuckers see a play on a joke.

 

Ira Madison III: It took me a while to realize it’s sort of like an aristocrat was just sort of like a member of like a social class. Yeah, it’s like inherited titles because I was always I was always confused because one of my favorite films as a kid was the arrest of cats.

 

Louis Virtel: You’re right. And those are fancy people. So.

 

Ira Madison III: Yeah, people don’t talk about the aristocrats enough.

 

Louis Virtel: I don’t even know that I’ve seen it.

 

Ira Madison III: You’ve never seen the aristocrats?

 

Louis Virtel: No, I’m getting it even mixed up with Oliver and company in my head.

 

Ira Madison III: I mean, that is a Billy Joel classic, right?

 

Louis Virtel: Yeah. And Bette Midler.

 

Ira Madison III: Yeah, yeah. His only his only album. I like the Oliver and Co. soundtrack.

 

Louis Virtel: Wow, you went with the hardest take possible. I do enjoy 50 seconds straight, but OK.

 

Ira Madison III: I’m sorry. I hate Billy Joel.

 

Louis Virtel: I get this. I don’t know that I do, other than he is the most literal songwriter of all time. If you’re looking for a metaphor, you won’t find it. You’ll find someone just very straightforward telling you about an emotion

 

Ira Madison III: Scenes at an Italian restaurant. It’s really about an Italian restaurant, right?

 

Louis Virtel: Here’s a bottle of red, a bottle of white. He’s just he’s like a journalist.

 

Ira Madison III: Um. Gilbert is also like great in the Beverly Hills Cop franchise.

 

Louis Virtel: Mm-Hmm. Yes. God, I haven’t seen Beverly Hills Cop in forever. And you talk about a movie you used to see on TV all the time, but that’s exactly the genre of movie that I haven’t seen much of recently.

 

Ira Madison III: I mean, I feel like we could do it. It’s higher up. So on movies, we remember only because they were on TV all the time.

 

Louis Virtel: Yeah. Oh yeah. Especially on Comedy Central.

 

Ira Madison III: Shawshank Redemption

 

Louis Virtel: Yeah. The Chase with Charlie Sheen and Kristy Swanson. Why have I seen it 40 times? Anyway, something broke in me when Cloris Leachman died. It’s just like, Oh, I guess anybody can die. So I’m now callous, but I think it’s important to take time to specifically recognize celebrities for whom there is no second one of. And Gilbert Gottfried is exactly that.

 

Ira Madison III: Baby. She was 94.

 

Louis Virtel: I, she should have been 115. I just saw footage yesterday of Carol Burnett, like out meeting somewhere. She’s like 88 years old. She is looking spry and sharp as a tack. So you know what? No excuse. Stay sharp, everyone.

 

Ira Madison III: That’s Cloris Leachman’s problem. She didn’t stay sharp. Shoulda been like Carol Burnett, bitch.

 

Louis Virtel: That’s my eulogy.

 

Ira Madison III: All right. Well, we’re back. Keep it.

 

Ira Madison III: And we are back with our favorite segment of the episode. It’s keep it

 

Louis Virtel: Wahoo

 

Ira Madison III: Louis whats your keep it?

 

Louis Virtel: Shall I start? OK. This is an odd keep it for me because I don’t think the movie is entirely a thumbs down, but there are. Keep it within this film that should be acknowledged. You guys know what Alien is, which is the new unofficial Celine Dion biopic that is French, starring an actress named Valerie Le Murcia. I’m sure you’ve seen the press for this.

 

Ira Madison III: Well, you know, I was in Paris. The the movie was everywhere. Everyone’s lips. We’re talking about L.A..

 

Louis Virtel: Well, first of all, in Paris, they all definitely pronounce the US in Paris. So you nailed that. But a couple of things here, it’s perfectly watchable. And the actress who’s playing Celine Dion in it is exceptional. You come away from the movie being like, Wow, she really inhabited not just the kind of reality of Celine Dion, but her utter French goofiness. Truly, it looks like Celine Dion is somebody who’s may as well have been raised by Jerry Lewis comedy The Way she is just popping off with like strange movements all the time kookiness. There’s no other word for it. But here’s what’s going on with this movie. That’s strange. My keep it is two one. They are awfully forgiving of the fact that Rene Charles, who is not named Rene Charles in the movie, definitely groomed Celine Dion. I mean, when you’re marrying somebody you’ve known since you’ve been managing someone who is a pre-teen. I mean, it should be investigated more. And obviously her parents in the movie question it. They’re like, he’s an old fat guy. Why are you into him? And she basically just insists I’m in love with him, and he is kind of following her lead, which is like a grooming tactic. Anyway, it should be investigated by somebody.

 

Ira Madison III: One of the four g’s,.

 

Louis Virtel: Yes,

 

Ira Madison III: grooming girlbossing, gatekeeping, and gaslighting.

 

Louis Virtel: OK, that’s very funny. Secondly, this actress, Valerie LaMercier, also plays Celine Dion as a child in the film, meaning a child is on screen and her face is beamed onto her. And we see Celine, for example, auditioning for a record label with Valerie La Mercier as you know, middle aged face on this girl. And in one of the reviews, our friend Kyle Buchanan, who co-hosted a few weeks ago, said she looks like something that haunts Vera Farmiga and one of The Conjuring movies. And I have to tell you, you are clutching onto your seat when these scenes are happening. You cannot believe this is how they have decided to handle the childhood of Celine Dion, as if she was a little girl with the face of a much older person. It is mind blowing. It reminds me a little bit of an old Oscar nominee from the 50s. Julie Harris, in an adaptation of the member of the wedding of Carson McCullers. Book is 29, playing a 12 year old, but that has sort of a Broadway vibe to it in the way that, you know. Who is it? Celia Keenan-Bolger plays like a little girl, and to kill a Mockingbird on stage like it feels somehow a little bit more justifiable and there are no computers involved

 

Ira Madison III: And her brother Andrew Keena-Bolger is perpetually 12.

 

Louis Virtel: Yeah, he’s a friend of mine, looks like Mighty Max, if you remember Mighty Max.

 

Ira Madison III: Of course I remember Mighty Max. You know what? Actually. You know what that sounds like. It sounds like the goosebumps book The Haunted Mask.

 

Louis Virtel: Yes, right? Well, anyway,

 

Ira Madison III: the old man mask on your face and then turning old.

 

Louis Virtel: Wow. Yeah, it’s exactly like that just to let you know. I want you to see this movie because it’s provocative and strange enough that it’s worth viewing. But my god, I cannot believe the decision they made to illustrate her childhood that way. Also problem with this movie, though without the Rene Charles thing, Celine’s life is largely drama free. Like, they try to make big scenes out of like becoming famous album covers, you remember, and the fact that she’s saying my heart will go on at the Oscars, but that’s not like. I don’t know. It’s not really worth encapsulating in a film, so as you can see, I have mixed feelings about this movie.

 

Ira Madison III: You know, I haven’t really loved many French films since New Wave became old wave.

 

Louis Virtel: Great. Ira just tilted his beret at me, as he said that

 

Ira Madison III: you could read the rest of my takes in Cahiers de cinema,.

 

Louis Virtel: Cartier

 

Louis Virtel: I just took four years of french I should be criticizing you way more often, Ira. What is your keep it?

 

Ira Madison III: So my keep it this week involves the airlines.

 

Louis Virtel: Oh, sure.

 

Ira Madison III: Yeah. You know, so Delta. I’m a Delta girl. United, American, Alaskan and Southwest have now ended their mask mandates and of course, people have a lot to say about it. Here’s my thing. Clearly, I’m not running around in a mask every day or, you know, like I didn’t have one on at Coachella except when I was protecting myself from the dirt and the dust of the desert. On a plane. Honestly, I think I’m going to always wear a mask on a plane because they are disgusting.

 

Louis Virtel: It just feels right to have a mask on on a plane. I have to say, even though, like, I’m somebody who wants to luxuriate a little bit, I want to have a pleasant experience. There is just something of like, who the fuck is next to me? Like, this guy probably owns a macaw. I don’t want to be near that.

 

Ira Madison III: Yeah, it’s just it’s just what you remember how close you are to other people and you’re thinking about what they did that day. Did they shower you? Did they brush their teeth? Are they covered with the blood of their spouse who they just had up and buried underneath the bed before they hopped on a plane? You never know.

 

Louis Virtel: Hitchcock movies are often true. That’s right.

 

Ira Madison III: Strangers on a plane. That’s what we’re talking about here. OK. And I don’t trust strangers. I don’t trust strangers. And I want to be protected.

 

Louis Virtel: You know what, I haven’t really thought about it right now, but I bet celebrities really are going to miss mass culture if that ever goes away. I mean, we can’t wear it. Yeah, it’s that has to have worked out for them

 

Ira Madison III: masks and like, like like a hoodie, like sunglasses, like you are basically just like invisible to the populace when you do that,

 

Louis Virtel: right? No. A couple of years ago, I was on a plane and I sitting across from me was Cherry Jones. And like, I had to like, clutch my heart like, Oh my god, there’s Cherry Jones. I bet Cherry Jones would be really annoyed to find I was looking at her for most of that flight. So she would probably just prefer to keep a mask on.

 

Ira Madison III: A lot of people recognizing Cherry Jones on flights, Louis?

 

Louis Virtel: I mean, but the particular way in which a freak like me would recognize a celebrity, you just don’t want to be. You don’t want to be in the crosshairs.

 

Ira Madison III: Actually, probably you add a lot of straight men recognize Cherry Jones on a plane. She was the president in twenty four.

 

Louis Virtel: No I know that I would intersect with 24 culture does not feel like it also. Succession, of course.

 

Ira Madison III: I loved twenty four.

 

Louis Virtel: That seems like you. I’m not surprised.

 

Ira Madison III: You know, it’s also why I’m xenophobic.

 

Louis Virtel: Well, also no network television of the 2000s. It doesn’t surprise me, you were a viewer.

 

Ira Madison III: Also, you know, like 24, it was a show for men.

 

Louis Virtel: Sorry to laugh in your face.

 

Ira Madison III:  for real men. for real men. You know, and.

 

Louis Virtel: It’s crazy that I’m taking off the headphones and I’m walking away from the computer.

 

Ira Madison III: I love popping up brewski and watching Kiefer Sutherland torture terrorists.

 

Louis Virtel: Brewski. Right. That’s what men say.

 

Ira Madison III: In the name of America.

 

Louis Virtel: They definitely use slang from Wayne’s World still. Yeah. For sure.

 

Ira Madison III: Pop a cold one.

 

Louis Virtel: Pork rinds. All these male signifiers from like 1991.

 

Ira Madison III: You know what? Speaking of planes, you know what planes actually got me into recently?

 

Louis Virtel: Hmm?

 

Ira Madison III: Slim Jims

 

Louis Virtel: It’s from our time.

 

Ira Madison III: Like jerky.

 

Louis Virtel: Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III: Well, I never liked jerky at all. And then once the pandemic hit, every airline decided to stop their meal service, and they gave us these shitty like American version of bento boxes with like bad cheeses and jerky in them. So I just like start eating, you know, the brie with the jerky and turns out I like jerky.

 

Louis Virtel: Oh, I like uh. I like strips of jerky. The Slim Jim consistency. It feels like it’s going to take my teeth out. But like a turkey jerky. Absolutely. Mind you, I’m like salt planet, period. So almost anything salty I love.

 

Ira Madison III: Yeah. So you know what? I like jerky, like a real man.

 

Louis Virtel: OK. Tell it to your tell it to your shrink. Great.

 

Ira Madison III: Yeah, I’ll tell it to my heart. A song that real men love because real men love Taylor Dayne. She’s one hot babe? Yeah, she’s one hot babe.

 

Louis Virtel: I always say about Taylor Dayne. She has the soul of a divorcee, but she’s never been married, and that’s talent.

 

Ira Madison III: What encapsulates the soul of divorcee?

 

Louis Virtel: You’re asking me?

 

Ira Madison III: Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel: Just, you know, a sense of like

 

Ira Madison III: three time divorcee Louis Virtel.

 

Louis Virtel: I I I just think it means you’re free and unfettered and like, you know, a little angst ridden and love, you know, just loving letting your rancor fly.

 

Ira Madison III: You’ve definitely shouted about alimony to a stranger before. Definitely. You know, like destroyed the personal belongings of of a man.

 

Louis Virtel: Well, I I feel that I live that picture of Nicole Kidman leaving her last meeting with Tom Cruise that led to their final divorce, where she’s exulting in the sun and probably getting like a ninth degree sunburn.

 

Ira Madison III: And your hair doesn’t look like that when you leave Barry’s

 

Louis Virtel: little red curlicues all over my face.

 

Ira Madison III: Anyway, that’s our show this week.

 

Louis Virtel: That was a fun one. So you’re not going to do Coachella weekend two, huh?

 

Ira Madison III: Absolutely not.

 

Louis Virtel: OK.

 

Ira Madison III: I am old.

 

Louis Virtel: Right. You ever think about how we’re old? Because we did. We weren’t when this podcast started, but now something has changed.

 

Ira Madison III: My back is my back has like, this is screaming like Freddy Krueger’s back. Like with the souls of all the children he’s murdered.I was like, please let us please, please lie down, Ira.

 

Louis Virtel: My neck, my back used to mean something different to us. And now it’s just what we say when we go to the hospital.

 

Ira Madison III: All right. Cathy Comic

 

Louis Virtel: Don’t drag Cathy into this. Cathy Guisewite we love you.

 

Ira Madison III: Do we love Cathy?

 

Louis Virtel: I think she’s I think if Kathy didn’t exist. There would be a real hole in the like legacy of comics and ladies there in.

 

Ira Madison III: That’s fair. You know who’s underrated as a as a as a as a woman in comic strips?

 

Louis Virtel: Go ahead.

 

Ira Madison III: That nosy bitch Mary Worth.

 

Louis Virtel: Oh yeah, no one, ever talks about Mart Worth.

 

Ira Madison III: She is always like, she is always at her neighbors business. And I think more people should appreciate, just like, how how saucy that comic strip is.

 

Louis Virtel: Yeah. OK. Mary Worth you got me thinking. I thought the first lady of comics was Lucy Van Pelt, but it might be Mary Worth.

 

Ira Madison III: Also, at this point, she is six hundred years old.

 

Louis Virtel: No, there’s no such thing as new comics. I can’t imagine something like, Oh, I have a new comic strip coming out.

 

Ira Madison III: All right. Thank you to Alexander Skarsgard for joining us. We will see you next week.

 

Ira Madison III: Keep it as a Crooked Media production. Our senior producer is Kendra James, our producer is Chris Lorde, our executive producers are Ira Madison III.

 

Louis Virtel: And Louis Virtel.

 

Ira Madison III: Our editor is Charlotte Landes and Kyle Seglin is our sound engineer.

 

Louis Virtel: Thank you to our digital team, Matt DeGroot, Nar Melkonian, and Delon Villanueva for production support every week.