Chapter 1: What humorous anecdotes does Brian Cox share at the beginning?
You know, Will, I'd love to do a podcast with you today, but I'm a little sore about something. You know, I've noticed in the past, you know, you do like a fake countdown for stuff. And you will stop after three and you won't go all the way.
We've been through this before. We did it on a previous cold open. I don't think I've ever mentioned this to you before.
Five. It may have come up on a cold open once. Welcome to Smartless.
Now I'm, no, I'm going silent from four down. Welcome to Smart Less.
How did everybody sleep? We just saw each other 10 hours ago. Really well. Good. Oh, good. Why? Do you have a story about your sleep? Uh, no, I was good. It was okay. It was okay. Wait, did you have the mask on last night? No, I didn't sleep with the mask. Oh, you don't do the hose? No, I stopped that. It didn't really work. Don't cover your mouth when you sneeze. By myself. Just practice.
No, because then I just get my sleeve dirty. Oh, because you're going to be on camera.
It gets all over the Laura Piana, huh? Beautiful, beautiful casual for Laura Piana.
Your friends at Laura Piana sent me this beautiful jacket.
I like them, actually. I, or him, or whatever. Do you? I did take a valium to sleep like a cup. Look at him go. I don't know.
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Chapter 2: How does Brian Cox describe his experience directing his film Glenrothan?
He's sneezing. Will, did you get into the bottom of a bag last night? Are you all out? You have somebody on their way over? I don't even know. It must be the AC in this room.
Is it the AC? We got a whole junket to get through. When was the last time you guys saw Don in New York City? I tell you, it's amazing. It's just so full of promise this year. Don and his van?
Yeah.
I love going out for beers for breakfast. Oh, my God.
Sean, what did you do last night? Scotty and I... Oh, I ran the show. I have to run the line, so that took a couple hours. And then he did about a pound and a half of Sloppy Joe's. By the way, I totally had a Sloppy Joe at 10 o'clock.
That's crazy you just said that. It's not much of a stretch or a leap for me to go to Sloppy Joe. I really did have a Sloppy Joe.
Did you put it together yourself or was it left over from the kitchen help you have? It was left over. But it's funny that you say that because I remember yesterday when I was like, I'm eating lunch at 2 o'clock or 2.30. So that's why I had a sloppy joe at 10 o'clock. But then what did you have at your 2.30 late lunch? I had a fried chicken salad. You had a chicken salad?
No, no, fried chicken salad. Oh, fried chicken salad.
So they took what? They took the lettuce and the chicken, they threw it all in the fryer? What happened? Everything gets fried in that scenario, even the bowl or... And then we call it tempura. So you had the fried chicken salad. Tempura salad. Right, Sean?
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Chapter 3: What challenges did Brian face while making his directorial debut?
You had the snickerdoodle at 11.30. Yeah, I did. Right, the big one. Then you kept going in and out of the bag to keep it fresh was your logic. That's exactly right.
And the fried chicken at 2.30.
So then at 2.30 you have the fried chicken salad with what did you drink? What was your beverage at that lunch? Milk with every meal. At the lunch? Yeah. At the restaurant? No, no, it was here. Did they look at you? Did they say, is there a child coming to this lunch? No. No? It was here at home. We don't offer stuff. We don't have a kid's menu. Yeah, but here are the crayons.
So you have that at 2.30, and then you're trying to tell us that you have the fried chicken salad, and that you had nothing else until you had the sloppy joe. At 10.30. Yeah, that's true. No dinner. Nothing. Nothing. No snack.
Yep.
No, nothing. No candy? You didn't go buy the candy jar? The candy bowl? I don't think I did. I don't think I did is a real soft way. It's an entry into, you know, actually, what was it? Just be honest. Just a milky way. I maybe had a couple of starbursts. A couple of starbursts.
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Chapter 4: How did Brian Cox transition from acting to directing?
There we go.
So you wanted to get some plastic in there. He needs some binding. Something to bind up that sloppy Joe. Yeah, forget about rice. Wow.
Oh, man.
Anyway, what?
And you're like, I can't figure it out. I don't feel it. I'm so tired all day. I don't know why I'm going. My sleeve's fucked up. It's so weird. I don't know. What'd you have? Let me run you through it. None of it adds up. Let me run you through it. I tell you what, though, Sean, I tell you what does that up. Oh, yeah. The acclaim for our guest. He has been nominated for four Golden Globes.
Oh, really? Is that right? And he's won one. Oh, okay. And he's been nominated for countless SAG Awards. I think like seven, won a couple of those. Jesus. Won an Emmy, nominated five times. BAFTAs, he's been nominated like seven, eight times, won two of those. This is a qualified guest. This is a very qualified guest.
This is a guy who his list of performances is one of those guys that has its own page. You know what I mean? And it has nothing to do with the length of time he's been on this planet, but just about the amount that people want him to be in their projects. I love that. I love him from everything. He is... He's one of the guys you're going to say, we'll guess it if we...
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Chapter 5: What insights does Brian provide about his upbringing in Dundee?
You're going to guess if I say he is the original Dr. Hannibal Lecter. He's got a brave heart. He knows a little bit about the Bourne identity. And he's also in line for succession. It is the one and only Mr. Brian Cox.
Good Lord. This is a guest.
Hello, sir.
Good morning. Hello, Jason. Hello, Sean. Well done, Will. Nice to see you all.
Great to see you, Brian. Plus, I should mention also, Brian, that your new film that you've directed, Glenrothan, releases on April 17th.
What's the name of it again? Glenrothan?
It's called Glenrothan. It's about a Scottish... It's about two brothers who are... They own this distillery. But the younger brother, who's played brilliantly by Alan Cumming, he's the one that was the real talent in the family. And I also play Sandy, the oldest brother, who is just a plotter. He's just a manager. That's what he does. And...
The other brother has had a bad relationship with our father. And I actually cast my own son as my father because I wanted him to see what it was like being a father. Oh, that's wild. That's wild. So we did that. And he was very good. He was very tough and very scary as well.
Brian, this can't be the first time you've directed something, is it?
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Chapter 6: How does Brian view the impact of cinema on his career?
And it was a very odd situation to be in, you know, because I came from an egalitarian viewpoint. I wanted everybody to do their best work. You know, we've all suffered at the hands of various directors over the years and their conceptions that they wanted to include us in. And I just want them to fuck off, really, basically.
You know, fuck me about with all that shit, all your ego stuff and control. And I just, I really, some directors I really like. I've worked with some really good ones. But a lot of the time you go, the best director I ever worked with, unquestionably on film, was Lindsay Anderson. You know the director, Lindsay Anderson? I don't. Have you heard of him? No. You don't know Lindsay Anderson? No, no.
I should get to know her. Jesus God almighty, it's just appalling. You young people, what you don't know. Click, and then you just hang up. You live in a wonder world. I don't know. Man or woman? Man, Lindsay is a man. He directed a very famous... Well, he directed a series of films. The first film I ever saw was a thing called The Sporting Life. Oh, sure, I've heard of that. With Richard Harris.
Okay. It was about a rugby team set up north, written by wonderful David Story, who's a great... Well, he's passed away now, a great writer. And, yeah, I mean, he was just... What made him great? What did you like about his style? Because he just... gave you the right note. He gave you the right note. I mean, he would come up with stages.
We would do a scene, and the play I did was with Alan Bates. Do you remember Alan Bates?
To have a good name.
Alan Bates, the actor Alan Bates. Yep. Sure.
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Chapter 7: What are Brian's thoughts on the differences between American and British cinema?
Sean, you know who the actor Alan Bates is. Yes, of course. My God, you guys need some training. You really do. Anyway, Alan Bates, who was famous in Zorba, the Greek, and he did a lot of movies, Alan. And... He played my elder brother and I played the younger brother.
And Lindsay would come up with, he said, he would come in and he would go, it's good, it's good, but there's a little bit of attitudinizing in the scenes. Can we kind of remove the attitudinizing and just play the scene? I mean, that simple thing, the simple note where you go, ah, I see what you mean. I'm striking an attitude that I try to hold on to throughout the scene.
Yes.
But actually the scene reveals itself. And the attitude reveals itself. And he was the first director to understand. Now, most directors wouldn't know what the fuck he was talking about. Right, right. You know, they just don't have a fucking clue, you know. Sorry, I mustn't be too harsh.
Had Lindsay ever done any acting? Do you know?
No.
No, he started a magazine with a guy called Gavin Lambert called Sight and Sound, which was the big first film magazine that was made really after the war. Because he was at university post-war. Yeah. It was just extraordinary. I mean, the other thing he did was a film called If. I don't know if you saw that. That was a film with Malcolm McDowell, which was set in a public school.
And he did a film called Oh, Lucky Man, which was the follow-up to that. So catch-up buys. Yeah, yeah.
I know. I know. I feel like I've seen If. Wait, Brian.
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Chapter 8: What reflections does Brian have on his career and future projects?
That was a lot of fun. That was a lot of fun. Good fun. Brian, did you have... So when you ended up making your feature film debut, directorial debut... did you find that it shifted? Did you sort of retroactively, like, go back and kind of shift your opinion of directors? And did it sort of even anything out?
Well, I had more sympathy for them. But I still think a bunch of them are twats. Yeah, sure. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I must be too. But I think you all agree with me. I think you've all been through that as well.
Yeah, it's always interesting. A director definitely needs to have a plan and, pardon the term, a vision and all that stuff. But when it comes to performance, you realize that they think they can control it, but it is like one of the few lanes in making something that you can't control. You can't control performance. You can't control music.
Like everything else you can kind of get in there and make a decision on. But performance and music, there's stuff that happens in between action and cut that you just can't micromanage. It's got to live. It's got to breathe. And that character is the actor's character. It's not the director's character or the writer's character. Like you have to own it.
And to be able to give the actor the kind of latitude to really feel like it's theirs, I think that frees up a really exciting performance as opposed to – trying to get them to do the version of the character you always saw in your head.
Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, you know, I've suffered under that for the last 50 years or even 60 years.
Well, you've pushed through it very, very successfully. My God, the performances I've been able to watch you do, Brian, it's just... It's an incredible career. Let me just say thank you.
Yeah. You have done so many. And, you know, these guys know I go on and on about my...
some of my favorite films uh and you have one of the one of one of will's favorite quotes too um about uh what what is it i'm going to paraphrase it here uh i'm too old too rich and too famous to give a fuck yeah it's something like that i'm too old too tired and too talented to give a fuck yeah
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