The McAuley Tucker Show

A director sat her film school entrance exam in a language she didn't speak, and this conversation goes somewhere press days rarely do, all the way to whether we gave up on faith too fast. Before A Prayer for the Dying, Dara Van Dusen was a New Yorker studying directing in Łódź, Poland, where her graduation film earned a spot at Cannes. Now the film she spent 17 years trying to make is here, w...

Comedy only works when the actor takes it dead seriously, Jack Griffo says, and from there the talk moves well past the usual press-day loop into producing, Nickelodeon notes and the sister who has been beside Violet McGraw since the start. You may know Violet McGraw from The Haunting of Hill House or as Cady in M3GAN, and Jack Griffo as Max Thunderman on Nickelodeon. In Double Trouble, a holiday...

On this episode, the directors of an Annecy-winning animated film talk about the 10 years it took to finish, the signed book that sent one of them back to school to learn English, and what keeps a production alive when it keeps stalling. Ervin Han has directed and produced animation for Disney and Cartoon Network and co-founded the Singapore studio Robot Playground Media. Raúl García spent years a...

Two Disney roles, one of them landed under a different name, is where this conversation begins, and it ends somewhere much quieter than a press junket usually goes. Demián Bichir, the Mexican actor Oscar-nominated for A Better Life and a voice a generation of Latin American kids grew up with, stars opposite Salma Hayek Pinault as Tito in Angelina Jolie's adaptation of Alessandro Baricco's...

Tibi Useriu learned to run in a prison yard 27 steps long, and his story is the reason for this conversation, but the real fight turns out to be the one between a director who hated reenactments and a producer who only wanted to make Heat, and from there the talk drifts into mentors, family and a Burmese novel, the places a junket never reaches. Mila Aung-Thwin is the Canadian director and produce...

Tessa Blake spent twenty years directing other people's television before anybody handed her a story she could originate herself. When one finally arrived, she took it to the very top of northern Minnesota for a month and made it with a cast she still sounds surprised said yes. She is the director behind American Horror Story, Matlock and 9-1-1, and the documentary Five Wives, Three Secretarie...

A festival debut discussed without a single line of festival talk, and most of it is about what went wrong first, from unavailable equipment to a character who was written as the wrong person. Lauren Meyering is the director of Horsegirls, a debut feature about hobby horsing that premiered at Tribeca and is now in cinemas, and Lillian Carrier stars in it as Margarita. Lauren opens up about the thi...

A film shot in 2016, replicated on stage around the world, and then assembled into a feature nearly ten years later. The director explains why that order was deliberate and what it made possible. Daniel Askill is a director whose long collaboration with Sia produced Sia: Nostalgic for the Present, which the two of them co-directed, a film assembled roughly ten years after the material was original...

On this episode, one of Spider-Noir's villains explains why he thinks the actor is the most replaceable person on a film set, and the conversation goes everywhere a junket never does, from a homicide-detective father to the studio he left Hollywood to build. Andrew Lewis Caldwell is the actor behind two decades of comedy and voice work, from Hannah Montana to College to the game Deathloop, now...

On this episode, a single question about an Indonesian love song stops Joe Taslim mid-interview, and the conversation that follows goes somewhere a fight-scene junket never does. Joe Taslim is the Indonesian actor and former national judoka behind The Raid, Fast & Furious 6, and Sub-Zero in Mortal Kombat, now playing a journalist in Kenji Tanigaki's martial arts thriller The Furious. Joe t...

Discover how a drama teacher who was also an actress helped Adelaide land her first agent through VHS audition tapes at age 14, and why playing women of deep religious faith has become a recurring pattern in her career despite growing up in a non-denominational school. Adelaide Clemens is the talented actress behind powerful performances in Rectify, Under the Banner of Heaven, and the newly releas...

Find out why men were crying on director Cole Webley's shoulder at Sundance over a father who barely speaks and how self-funding a $200,000+ feature film with your own family changes dinner table conversations forever. Cole Webley is the director of the Sundance-selected drama Omaha, a filmmaker who spent two decades shooting commercials around the world before making his first feature at age...

In this exclusive press junket sit-down, director Nicholas Ma reveals what it really meant to sit with Fred Rogers as a child and how that moment quietly shaped a film about a girl whose best friend is a potted plant. Nicholas Ma is a Harvard-educated filmmaker whose debut feature Mabel, co-written with Joy Goodwin, follows a science-obsessed child named Callie as she navigates the gap between her...

Find out why Hudson Hensley had decided to quit acting right before the audition that landed him in a trailer next to Hugh Jackman, and what Samuel L. Jackson said to him that left nothing but air coming out of his mouth. Hudson Hensley is a young actor who stars alongside Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson in the film Song Sung Blue, a performer who endured 5 years of rejection and nearly walked away f...

Find out what Daniel MacPherson discovered watching his own closeup next to Russell Crowe's on a monitor between takes on Pokerface and why he says becoming a father at 40, 23 years into his career, gave his acting "steroids." Daniel McFersonson is the Australian actor starring in Beast alongside Russell Crowe, his 3rd film with the Oscar winner, a performer who shares an unlikely co...

A Puerto Rican actor flies his teenage daughters to Puerto Rico, shoots a film with Wanda Sykes in her first-ever dramatic role in Undercard, and wraps the project, then immediately starts filming a Yellowstone spin-off in Texas. That's just the last twelve months of Berto Colon's life. Berto is a working actor you've already seen without knowing his name from shows like The Penguin, O...

Skinner is held against his will in outer space and forced to paint monsters for two hours straight while Allen Cordell Interview captures the madness. Skinner is a legendary Oakland artist whose work defines the gritty, colorful aesthetic of massive murals and Adult Swim projects. He is joined by filmmaker Allen Cordell, a director obsessed with the weird and beautiful intersections of stop motio...

Kevin James didn't just star in Solo Mio, but he painted every piece of art on screen and helped launch a viral marketing campaign that tricked the internet into falling for his character. John Kinnane and Jeffrey Azize are some of the creative powerhouses behind Solo Mio, a film that successfully transitioned Kevin James from a slapstick icon to a vulnerable romantic lead. John, the films co-...

Find out why one of the internet's most prolific interviewers is terrified of sharks and how he managed to turn a movie blog into a seat across from Oscar winners. Dan, better known as The Movie Dweeb, is an entertainment journalist who has mastered the art of the unconventional celebrity interview. He has sat down with everyone from Owen Wilson to Margot Robbie, building a massive following by fl...

Todd Edwards explains how a group of friends in the Midwest managed to create an animated classic in their garage that eventually went head-to-head with Disney and DreamWorks. Todd Edwards is the visionary screenwriter, co-director, and producer behind the cult classic Hoodwinked! . As a pioneer of independent CG animation, Todd proved that a compelling story and grit matter more than a hundred-mi...

Two breakout stars from the new Superman film reveal what it’s actually like to work on a James Gunn set and how a few minutes of screen time can steal an entire movie. Grace and Dinesh are the fresh faces of the DC Universe. Grace plays one of the intricate robots in the Fortress of Solitude, while Dinesh portrays Malik Ali, a character already being hailed by fans as the emotional heart of Metro...

A veteran producer explains why he spent a 2:00 AM bidding war in a parking lot and why the most important part of his job happens behind a desk, not a camera. Nicholas Tabarrok is a high-level film and television producer with a career spanning Toronto to Los Angeles. From the cult hit Defendor to the historically significant Irena’s Vow, Nicholas has mastered the business of independent cinema....

The man behind the "Kanye East" meme reveals the shocking reality of going viral, from recording a hit song on his lunch break at Arby's to living in a tent despite having a million streams. MikeManik, famously known as Kanye East, is an internet icon who turned a viral TikTok moment into a legitimate music career. He has rub shoulders with DMX’s team and appeared in one of MrBeast’s videos. Mike...

Learn how a career in environmental science and a random trip to an acting agency led to a speaking role in the biggest game-to-movie adaptation of the decade. Hiram Garcia is an environmental consultant based in New Zealand who took a massive leap of faith to the other side of the world, only to find himself on the set of the Minecraft movie directed by Jared Hess. Hiram breaks down the bizarre p...

Gerardo Davila is a veteran actor and spokesperson who transitioned from the Dallas rap scene to becoming a staple in James Gunn’s cinematic worlds, appearing in both The Suicide Squad and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Gerardo shares the gritty reality of his "restless 20s" and how managing a gym for ten dollars an hour taught him the business skills needed to survive the entertainment industry....