Interviews Archives | Bright Wall/Dark Room

Lulu Wang on the set of THE FAREWELL (2019) | A24

"Based on an actual lie.” That’s how Lulu Wang’s new film The Farewell starts out, before China-born, U.S.-raised Billi (Awkwafina) returns to Changchun as her family prepares to say goodbye to their matriarch Nai Nai, who’s been diagnosed with cancer. The one catch: Nai Nai doesn’t know she’s sick. Read More

“Mad Men is smarter than the people who think they are smarter than Mad Men…”

Chad Perman·

Interviews Mad Men: The Final Season

BW/DR: So, it looks like you took over as the official Mad Men recap writer at Vulture in March 2012, right at the... Read More

“TV can be every bit as complex a medium as any novel…”

Chad Perman·

Interviews Mad Men: The Final Season

“Lady Lazarus” (Season 5, Episode 8) Bright Wall/Dark Room: So, Alissa, how did you first come to Mad Men? Were you... Read More

Director Marilyn Ness | Photo courtesy of Andre Lambertson

Charm City Director Marilyn Ness on Avoiding Sensationalism and How Women Are Shaping Documentary Films

Eileen G'Sell·

Interviews

"It’s a super testosteroney movie—a bunch of men, a lot of violence, the cops are dudes, the guys in the neighborhoods are dudes. But no one was looking at this with empathy, like, “What does it mean to be a human being living in this space?” To me that was a very female gaze, though the movie wasn’t about women." Read More

Director Susanna Nicchiarelli on the set of NICO, 1988

Nico, 1988 Director Susanna Nicchiarelli on Fame and the Final Days of the Cold War

Eileen G'Sell·

Interviews

"The fact is that these final years of Nico’s life were arguably the best years because she was much more in control, she was happy, and she had her band." Read More

Archival photo Nanfu Wang and her parents | One Child Nation | Amazon Studios

One Child Nation Directors Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang on Children, Choice, and the Chinese “Propaganda Machine”

Eileen G'Sell·

Interviews

"You know how, in therapy, you realize something was the cause of something else? This film was like natural therapy for me. I started thinking, 'What else do I remember about the one-child policy, and how did it affect me?'" Read More

An Interview with Allison Janney

Chad Perman·

Interviews Issue 41: Margaret

"I’ve gotten better at letting it go, but something like that scene sort of stays with you for a bit. It’s hard to shake that off after the work is done. It definitely involved a really long hot shower and maybe a bath and a martini or something." Read More

An Interview with J. Smith-Cameron

Chad Perman·

Interviews Issue 41: Margaret

"I find Joan's behavior embarrassingly human but endearing. As a middle-aged woman who is now a mother of a teenage girl myself, I think it's a strikingly accurate character-relationship dynamic." Read More

An Interview with Kenneth Lonergan

Chad Perman·

Interviews Issue 41: Margaret

"I remember from a sort of a child-like point of view in a way—I’ve never felt like I’ve completely mastered what it’s like to be a grown up." Read More

An Interview with Matt Damon

Chad Perman·

Interviews Issue 41: Margaret

"Kenny has such a deep understanding of his characters, and also a deep understanding of human behavior. The way his characters relate to each other just strikes me as completely real and relatable, in a way I find profound in its simplicity." Read More

An Interview with Matthew Broderick

Chad Perman·

Interviews Issue 41: Margaret

"I think it’s a movie to really be proud of, no matter how difficult it was to make. I’m glad that Kenny survived it, really, and that everyone will gradually come to watch Margaret eventually. I think it’s something that will last." Read More

An Interview with Tony Kushner

Chad Perman·

Interviews Issue 41: Margaret

"It’s basically a coming of age story, but it appeals to me enormously because Kenny manages to both embrace the wonderfulness and beauty of adolescence and the shaping of an adult—how glorious it is, and what a great triumph it is for all of us that anybody survives their childhood or their adolescence." Read More