Movie Interviews

Jon Bon Jovi, shown here in 2011, says the band's 1986 hit "Livin' on a Prayer" has "touched more lives than I could have ever dreamt."

'I can only give the best': Bon Jovi on vocal surgery and the road to recovery

7:26am April 30, 2024

by Terry Gross

A few years ago, Jon Bon Jovi stopped performing due to a vocal cord injury. The Hulu docuseries Thank You, Goodnight offers a career retrospective, plus a view of his surgery and return to the stage.

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Arts

Remembering documentary filmmaker Eleanor Coppola

2:27pm April 19, 2024

by Terry Gross

Coppola, who died April 12, was an assistant art director on the 1963 film Dementia 13 when she met, and soon married, its director, Francis Ford Coppola. Originally broadcast in 1992.

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Arts

Journalist says we're 'basically guinea pigs' for a new form of industrialized food

1:38pm April 18, 2024

by Tonya Mosley

Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser says mergers and acquisitions have created food oligopolies that are inefficient, barely regulated and sometimes dangerous. His new documentary is Food, Inc. 2.

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Books
Arts

A look back at how Godzilla and King Kong first roared onto screen

1:23pm April 12, 2024

by Terry Gross

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is out. We listen back to archival interviews with film historian Rudy Behlmer about the original 1933 King Kong and with Steve Ryfle about the original 1954 Godzilla.

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Arts

Rudy Mancuso's 'Musica' brings viewers inside the sensation of rhythmic synesthesia

6:11pm April 04, 2024

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Rudy Mancuso about his new movie, Musica. It's his semi-autobiographical film about living with synesthesia and falling in love.

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Women's college basketball is hot, says now-retired WBNA player Sue Bird (shown here in 2022). "If you liked us in college, why didn't you follow us to the WNBA? It is probably one of the more interesting and maybe more difficult questions to answer."

Sports
Arts

Why haven't NCAA fans always followed the WNBA? Sue Bird has her theories

1:49pm April 01, 2024

by Terry Gross

Bird notes that WNBA players represent society's most marginalized groups. "We're Black, we're women, we're gay," she says. "And those are the groups that are held back in our society."

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Arts

'Shirley' is a celebratory biopic that doesn't end in triumph

6:43pm March 30, 2024

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Regina King and John Ridley, star and director of the biopic Shirley which celebrates Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress.

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Julio Torres attends a screening of Problemista in New York on Feb. 27.

Arts

In 'Problemista' Julio Torres spins immigration stress into satire

2:30pm March 11, 2024

by Terry Gross

The comic, actor and filmmaker came to the U.S. from El Salvador in his 20s. "This movie deals with the problem of immigration, but I think of it as a very silly, happy and joyful movie," he says.

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Arts

How 'Poor Things' actor Emma Stone turns her anxiety into a 'superpower'

1:49pm March 08, 2024

by Terry Gross

Stone had her first panic attack at age 7. She says acting helps with anxiety, because it draws on her "big feelings." She's nominated for an Oscar for Poor Things. Originally broadcast Jan. 31, 2024.

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Arts

Mark Ruffalo shed the Hulk suit and had 'a blast' making 'Poor Things'

1:49pm March 08, 2024

by Sam Briger

Ruffalo's up for an Oscar for Poor Things, a bawdy, dark comedy set in Victorian times. The film is a departure from his work in films like Zodiac and Spotlight. Originally broadcast Feb. 13, 2024.

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