Feeling Seen

Even if you don't know her name or face, you know her voice -- at 16, Auli'i Cravalho was the voice of Moana (and like Moana, she was a 16 year old Hawai'ian with a lot to carry). Now she's starring in live-action projects like Hulu's new queer high school rom-com, CRUSH , in which she plays the hardworking and mysterious A.J. But before all of that, Auli'i saw herself in another mold-breaking Dis...

When Krys Marshall (FOR ALL MANKIND's Danielle Poole) told us she felt seen by Clementine from ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, Annie from ANNIE HALL, and Selma from DANCER IN THE DARK, we couldn’t wait to get together and hear the full story. Krys and Jordan talk about how these free spirited (and sometimes misunderstood) women speak to Krys as an actor and as a person.  In one quick thing,...

As a kid, he was Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Data in The Goonies. But as he got older, Ke Huy Quan began to feel that there wasn't really a place for him in front of the camera. After decades of telling himself he didn't miss acting, Crazy Rich  Asians made a splash, and Ke began to think that maybe it was time to get back to acting. Ke opens up about all of that, and l...

Every creative starts somewhere. Could it be that Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), the messy, gutsy heroine of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark , was the spark that kickstarted screenwriter Liz Hannah’s creative career? Liz shares her love of Marion with us, along with stories of Longshot , The Post , and her latest miniseries, The Girl From Plainville , which she co-created with Patri...

Anybody can go crazy, it just takes one bad day. All-around great guy Josh Johnson – stand-up comedian, writer for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah , and the list grows on – explains the ways he sees himself in one of the most iconic villains of the Modern Era, particularly as played by Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. Then, Jordan has one quick thing to say about the new action epic hitting US scr...

Now and Then : a mid-’90s coming of age movie with nostalgia for the ‘70s, beloved by kids who wouldn’t be teenagers until the aughts. Jordan and co-host Laura Leigh Abby (whose podcast is Seventeen: Conversations with my Teenage Self ) both hold the film as a beloved classic, but as adults they notice some things in the film they didn’t see as kids.  Before we go, Jordan X -plains it all! Listen...

Mariama Diallo’s new debut feature film, MASTER , may be a horror movie, but just like Kasi Lemmons’ first feature, EVE’S BAYOU , it tackles themes of ritual and the supernatural. Mariama was about the same age as Eve (Jurnee Smollett) when she first saw the film. She and Jordan discuss both films, and the ways in which the promise of progress in ‘90s entertainment have been slow to materialize. T...

Acclaimed director Hany Abu-Assad is a real standup guy. Randle McMurphy…eh, not so much. But ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST has us rooting for McMurphy nonetheless, and for a young Hany, he offered a glimpse into the nature of oppression, and the power of creativity as a form of resistance. No, really!  After Jordan and Hany have a deep and thoughtful conversation about all that, and about his n...

Kali Reis is a champion boxer, but as she shares in this interview, she has always been "boxing for a cause" -- in particular, that of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women. In her feature debut, 'Catch the Fair One' (directed by Josef Kubota Wladyka), she plays a  woman whose world is shaken when her sister goes missing.  Reis, who is of Wampanoag and Cape Verdean heritage, brings us a character...

When it comes to film characters, author and commentator Charlie Jane Anders found that she had to took way back to a movie she loved as a child, AUNTIE MAME (1958) , to name someone that made her feel seen in an aspirational way. But in that special FEELING SEEN way, the search for a character to identify with ends up revealing a whole slew of exuberant women who aren't afraid to live their big,...

Jordan's dreams come true as she and fellow-Oregonian Jasmin Savoy Brown (THE LEFTOVERS, YELLOWJACKETS, SCREAM) have a heart to heart about Raven in THAT'S SO RAVEN, Meg in WRINKLE IN TIME, and the girls of PLAN B...and dairy, queer representation, standing up for what you believe in, and why releasing music is scarier than making TV and movies. Then, Jordan's hoping for that DEEP WATER will be bo...

Comedian, author, actor, and pop culture commentator extraordinaire Guy Branum steps into the Feeling Seen-iverse with his own special mélange of characters: both The Reverend Mother AND The Baron from David Lynch's 1984 adaptation of DUNE. Then, in One Quick Thing: Jordan addresses action fandom's "irrepressible thirst" for Alan Ritchson's Jack Reacher.  *** Follow us on  Twitter ,  Instagram , a...

Bridget Everett is a comedian, singer, and the star of her own new HBO series, Somebody Somewhere . Her journey to the semi-autobiographical series had lots of twists and turns along the way. On this week's episode, Bridget talks to Jordan about how she sees herself in the title character of 1993's Rudy -- from being underestimated to being cheered on by heroes when she needed it most. BRIDGET! BR...

Comedian, actor, and all-around great guy River Butcher joins Jordan to dig into the ways he saw himself in Back to the Future 's Marty McFly (and in Marty's dad, George McFly), which he first saw at the tender age of four.  How did Marty's cool skateboarding -- and also his awkwardness with Young Lorraine Baines -- strike a chord with a kid figuring out their place in the world? All this and more...

It's showtime! This week's co-host is Chelsea Stardust, director of the horror comedy Satanic Panic , along with All That We Destroy , which was part of Blumhouse's Into the Dark series on Hulu. The character that made her feel seen? Fellow goth only-child Lydia Deetz of Beetlejuice , of course.  Long before she was a rising star in horror cinema, Chelsea was a Midwestern kid with a love for the s...

This week's guest: Michael Jai White. He's an actor, a martial artist. He played the title character in the original live action Spawn movie. He played the title character in Black Dynamite. The title character in Tyson, the Mike Tyson biopic.  Or  maybe you saw him in Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married? Or Insecure? In those True North inserts? He's a big deal, a true action hero who's always dr...

This week: Isabelle Fuhrman! She's an actor - maybe you know her from The Orphan - she played Esther, the title character. One of the most iconic genre roles of all time! She also played Clove in the Hunger Games, one of the biggest movie franchises of all time. Wow! Isabelle breaks the Feeling Seen format a little bit this week - she talks with Jordan abut her newest movie, The Novice. It's an in...

Joining us this week is the magnificent actor Bree Elrod. You can see Bree in one of 2021’s best films, ‘Red Rocket.’ But she’s on the show this week to talk about 1973’s ‘Paper Moon’ and the character of Addie Loggins played by Tatum O’Neal. Bree discusses trying to maintain the level of curiosity and openness in her acting that is inhabited by O’Neal’s fresh-faced performance in the film. Bree a...

This week we are joined by the bigger-than-life personality that is the magnificent Eureka. You may know them from ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ or their new show on HBO called ‘We’re Here.’ But they are gracing our show this week to discuss Josie “Grossie” Geller from the classic Drew Barrymore film, ‘Never Been Kissed.’ Eureka discusses how they’ve had to “customize” every aspect of their life – both phy...

This week we are joined by the wonderful actor and producer Molly Quinn. You may know her from her role as the daughter of the titular character of ABC’s hit show ‘Castle,’ Alexis Castle. Or you may know her from her new movie, the latest entry in the beloved “nun horror” genre, ‘Agnes.’ But on this very show she is going to talk about a character that has inspired her and made her “feel seen” – a...

The creative force behind the documentary ‘The Problem with Apu,’ comedian Hari Kondabolu, is on the show this week. Hari discusses a composite of media in which he saw parts of himself in growing up, but never the full picture. Here are just a few of the titles mentioned – Harold & Kumar, Office Space, the comedian Stewart Lee, and the BBC show Goodness Gracious Me. But that only scratches the su...

This week we are joined by IndieWire’s TV editor Kristen Lopez to discuss the “millennial classic,” ‘My Girl.’ Specifically, she’s here to talk about the Anna Chlumsky character of Vada Sultenfuss and the effect that she had on Kristen’s life. Kristen also talks about growing up disabled and how that influenced how she related to characters in film. Plus, at the end of the program, Jordan talks ab...

This week’s show could be titled “A Very Special Episode.” We actually have the wonderful Susan Orlean on to talk about watching Meryl Streep her in the movie ‘Adaptation.’ She takes Jordan through the process of discovering that she was going to be a character in the movie. But she also reveals the realizations she made about her own ill-fated marriage while watching the film on the big screen. P...

This week we are joined by the beloved host of Maximum Fun’s movie podcast, Maximum Film – comedian, writer, and actor Ify Nwadiwe. He’s on the program to talk about 2015’s ‘Dope.’ And specifically, he’s here to talk about how he saw himself in the South Central-raised, Nigerian American character Malcolm; all characteristics that also apply to Ify. Plus, Jordan discusses the new ‘Chucky’ and ‘I K...

It is the inaugural episode of the Feeling Seen podcast, and we’re starting things off with a BANG. We have writer and podcaster Emily St. James (Vox, The A.V. Club, Arden Podcast) on to talk about seeing herself in the character of Dani from Ari Aster’s ‘Midsommar.’ She discusses how Florence Pugh’s character finds community within a circle of women, and how that touched Emily as she was on her j...