I don't know if it's a weird thing I do, or it's an annoying thing I do, but whenever I meet people, and I'm hanging out with them for the first time, one of the things I always do is I play that “Stress” video for them on my phone at some point. I'm just like, "Have you seen this? And if you haven't, you have to."
I had the same thing with a movie called Happiness.
Rest in peace, Phillip Seymour Hoffman. He was fucking great.
He's one of the best actors ever. I was watching that on my first dates, just to see what the vibe was, see what the temperature was. Have you seen the new movie Licorice Pizza?
Yeah. It was Paul Thomas Anderson, right?
Yeah.
Okay, yeah. Paul Thomas Anderson, yeah. I love that movie. It was an epic movie even though it's very… normal, what happens. It's very relatable, and it's very human. I love anything where... it's like this thing where a writer, or a filmmaker or whatever, can handle that sort of social awkwardness, that kind of earnestness, and do it in a way that's just real. It hits it. It's not a spoof. It's just very human.
Yeah, same here. I love that movie. It's like what you're saying. It's when you're making a movie, and it's a coming of age film, but it doesn't have to involve a big tragedy. The moral doesn't have to punch you in the face. I didn't realize that was Philip Seymour Hoffman's son until I saw the credits. I was just like, "Oh shit, they got someone who looks just like Philip Seymour Hoffman to get the vibe of him."
It's definitely something in the genes, the genetics. They can act. They can act their fucking dicks off.
If you watch a movie like that, are you interested in the scripts since you're a writer? Do you want to read the script?
I do read screenplays. One of the things, when I was learning to write, I suppose, that was really helpful is something that I carry around with me. I have it with me right now, but it's Ingmar Bergman screenplays.
Which ones?
Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, whatever. I think that, as a writer, I guess, studying screenplays, it’s a cheat sheet for how to do arcs. You don't have all the prose, but it's all the stories. So it was very helpful to me to learn that way. Quentin Tarantino's another one – I've read a lot of his screenplays. I know that's not especially original of me, but I like the way he formats them.
People are so left field that they can't even mention Quentin Tarantino, but there's no script that's better than Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs.
For sure. Yeah, I mean, it's like, I don't know, politics is always hard. I saw this interview with you one time, and they were talking about the Norwegian death metal scene. And you were like, "I don't fuck with his politics, but his music is great," is what you said in so many words. And I felt that.
Whenever someone's been so acknowledged in society, especially in Sweden, you have to check him. That's what happened with Ingmar Bergman. He was number one. He was like, the top don. He was the big cat in everything. At one point, he thought that he had eight kids, and then the interviewer has to -– because he's doing an interview -– and they're like, "Oh, Bergman, how are your kids?" He's like, "Oh, they're great. I have eight kids." Then the interviewer has to correct him like, "No, I think you have 10 kids at this point." He's like, "Oh, yeah, yeah. Ten kids." He didn't care about what was going on in his life. He just devoted himself to writing and making movies. But the best movie he made, because I never actually saw The Seventh Seal, or I never read any of the script, but I've seen one of his movies 10 times. Literally, this movie is the greatest movie. It's called The Hour of The Wolf.
That one is not included in my book, so I have to check it out.
You have to check it out. It's one of the best movies. It's Ingmar Bergman trying to do horror. It's so good. It's about this dude who has insomnia, and he goes out to the Swedish countryside. He's there with his wife, and he has this little journal where he's drawing, and he's saying, "Oh, this is a woman that I see in my dreams. She has a hat, and when she takes off her hat, her face falls off. These are two kids who have crow faces.” These are his dreams in his drawings. Then in the morning, his wife sees a woman with a hat, and she comes up to her and she says, "You know what happens if I take the hat off?" So it's like his nightmares are coming into reality. It's great. It's about being isolated in the Swedish countryside and all that good shit.