Talking Pictures

Director/Producer Hiro Murai whose new show is Apple TV’s “Widow’s Bay,” joins host Ben Mankiewicz. They discuss why he and Donald Glover collaborate so well and how their initial approach to making “Atlanta” was unsustainable. Murai and Ben debate the value of surrealism in art and Murai reveals that he once pitched himself to direct a Beyonce video but completely understands why he didn’t get the gig. His answers to the Super 8 span Japanese films like Miyazaki’s “My Neighbor Totoro” and Takeshi Kitano’s “Sonatine” to the Albert Brooks comedy “Modern Romance” and Kubrick’s “The Shining.”

Films Mentioned:

Rosemary’s Baby

Eraserhead

Cool Runnings

The Shining

Terminator 2: Judgement Day AKA T2

Elevator To The Gallows

Boogie Nights

No Country For Old Men

Jurassic Park

Modern Romance

La Chimera

2001: A Space Odyssey

Ran

My Neighbor Totoro

Tampopo

The Sound of Music

Reds

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oscar-winning actress Sally Field gets real with Ben Mankiewicz. Drawing on her memoir In Pieces, she discusses her fraught relationship with ex-boyfriend/Smokey and the Bandit co-star Burt Reynolds and his similarity to her abusive step-father. During The Flying Nun she was introduced to the Actors Studio where she transformed from a sitcom actress Hollywood had written off into someone who could fight for Norma Rae, fight Spielberg twice for Lincoln, and win both battles. In the Super 8 she praises the work of Louise Fletcher in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and reveals she rarely cries at movies.

Films Mentioned:

Remarkably Bright Creatures

Smokey and the Bandit

Sybil

Norma Rae

The Way West

Places in the Heart

Lincoln

Gone with the Wind

Them!

The Searchers

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Charade

Steamboat Bill, Jr.

The Enchanted Cottage

A Letter to Three Wives

Hooper

Absence of Malice

Steel Magnolias

Forrest Gump

Hud

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon joins Ben Mankiewicz to share unvarnished stories of a life in films– from making Rocky Horror Picture Show, Bull Durham, Witches of Eastwick, and Pretty Baby to navigating the cynical world of showbiz. She argues that every film is political– either challenging the status quo or enforcing it– and reveals her input into the iconic ending of Thelma & Louise which turns 35 this year.

Films Mentioned:

The Nutty Professor

The Accompanist

Dead Man Walking

Joe

Atlantic City

Pretty Baby

Rocky Horror Picture Show

Witches of Eastwick

Bull Durham

Sirat

Afterlife

Grapes of Wrath

Lord of the Rings

Bambi

Waiting for Guffman

Best in Show

Thelma & Louise

Being There

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

The Front Page, 1974

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oscar-nominated actress Rosie Perez sits down with host Ben Mankiewicz to discuss the films that shaped her career—Do the Right Thing and Fearless—as well as early favorites like Saturday Night Fever and Double Indemnity. She reflects on building a career in an industry that didn’t readily accept her for who she is, and speaks candidly about being raised in a strict Catholic home for girls. In the Super 8 segment, she tells Ben about an amazing boxing story she’d love to see on the big screen.

Films Mentioned

The Way We Were

Do The Right Thing

Fearless

Criminal Justice

The Bells of St. Mary's

The Little Princess (Shirley Temple version), 1939

Old Yeller

Rosemary's Baby

Saturday Night Fever

Double Indemnity

Cool Hand Luke

Some Like It Hot

Detour

Young Frankenstein

Stormy Weather

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Comedian and actor Patton Oswalt joins host Ben Mankiewicz for a live taping of Talking Pictures recorded at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on the eve of the 2026 TCM Classic Film Festival. An obsessive movie fan, Patton sees hundreds of films a year; he hates talkers in theaters but loves when going to a movie turns into a bonding experience with strangers. From his acting career, he tells stories of being suspended in a tree on the set of “Magnolia” and doing a sex scene with Charlize Theron in “Young Adult.” In the Super 8, Oswalt shares films you’ll want to remember and see the first chance you get.

Films Mentioned:

Young Adult

Ratatouille

The D.I.

Halloween

Magnolia

Hard Eight

Young Adult

Stalag 17

The Great Escape

Yojimbo

Bad News Bears, 1976

Casablanca

Pee Wee’s Big Adventure

Return of the Living Dead

Three Kings

Gates of Heaven

Bachelor Party

Baby Driver

After Life

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Planet of The Apes

Wait Until Dark

Man With No Name

A Catered Affair

The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming

Sergeant York

The Taking of Pelham 123

Female Trouble

Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

The Twelve Chairs

Blazing Saddles

Ikiru

Kingpin

Quick Change

Pig

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices