Movie Interviews

Amy Winehouse performs at London's Music of Black Origin Awards in 2007.

Documentary Seeks To Free Amy Winehouse From Her Tabloid Legacy

3:07pm July 08, 2015

In the dawning of the digital age, "She was the unlucky one to be having a nervous breakdown in public at the time," Amy director Asif Kapadia tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross.

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Filmmaker David Thorpe practices vocal exercises he learned from a speech pathologist in an effort to alter the way he speaks. In Do I Sound Gay?, Thorpe searches for the origin of the "gay voice" stereotype.

Arts

Filmmaker And Speech Pathologist Weigh In On What It Means To 'Sound Gay'

11:35am July 08, 2015

In Do I Sound Gay?, director David Thorpe searches for the origin of the so-called "gay voice" and documents his own attempts (with speech pathologist Susan Sankin) to sound "less gay."

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Director, writer and producer Judd Apatow has both a new memoir and a new movie right now. Trainwreck, which he directed, is in theaters starting July 17 and Sick in the Head was published in June.

Books
Arts

From Early Failures To New 'Trainwreck,' Judd Apatow Gets Serious

10:11pm July 05, 2015

by NPR Staff

It's an understatement to call the man busy. With a new book out, a movie due soon and another wrapping up on set, Apatow caught a breath and reflected on stumbling blocks, Freaks and Amy Schumer.

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Arts

Alan Rickman Returns To Directing With 'A Little Chaos'

8:34am July 05, 2015

by Lynn Neary

Alan Rickman has had a rich career as an actor. For the first time in nearly two decades, Rickman is behind the camera for the movie A Little Chaos.

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It's All In Your Head: Director Pete Docter Gets Emotional In 'Inside Out'

1:20pm July 03, 2015

The new film illustrates the inner workings of an 11-year-old's mind. Her emotions — Sadness, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Joy — are the stars. Originally broadcast June 10, 2015.

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Arts

'Dope' Director On Geekdom, The N-Word And Confronting Racism With Comedy

1:18pm July 01, 2015

Rick Famuyiwa's new film is about a black high-school student who's into 90s hip hop and Japanese comic books. He calls Dope a celebration of kids whose interests don't fit into pop-culture norms.

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From 'My Adidas' To FUBU, Fashion And Hip-Hop Have Always Matched Beats

9:40am June 28, 2015

by Andrew Limbong

A new documentary, Fresh Dressed, explores the relationship between the clothes and the music of hip-hop — including the rise and fall of black-owned brands and black designers.

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"[Sadness is] such a funny opposite energy to Joy, who is literally jumping up and down," Poehler says. "And Sadness just wants to lie down and kind of feel her feelings." Poehler plays Joy (left) and Phyllis Smith plays Sadness in the new film Inside Out

Arts

'Sadness Is Like A Superhero': Amy Poehler On Pixar's 'Inside Out'

10:23am June 24, 2015

by NPR Staff

The movie, directed by Pete Docter, follows the five emotions inside an 11-year-old's head. Poehler plays Joy, but she says Sadness' strength is she knows how to talk about loss.

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Arts

'Me And Earl' Director Traces Path From Scorsese's Assistant To Sundance

5:55pm June 23, 2015

Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon's film Me and Earl and the Dying Girl won the audience award and the grand jury prize at Sundance. He talks about how losing his dad shaped his approach to the film.

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Apatow (who dressed up as Harpo Marx for Halloween in 1975) was one of the youngest kids in his grade. "When you're little, that year is impactful," he says. "You are smaller, you are behind in every possible way."

Books
Arts

Judd Apatow: A Comedy-Obsessed Kid Becomes 'Champion Of The Goofball'

1:07am June 23, 2015

When Apatow was a teen he landed interviews with an impressive roster of comics for his high school radio show. Sick in the Head is a collection of those conversations, and more recent ones as well.

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