Advertise on podcast: Movie People: Interviews & More From the Southampton Playhouse

As Project Hail Mary makes waves at the box office, co-director Phil Lord talks through the unique challenges of the project and what its success means for the state of theatrical movies.

This week, we're joined by Dr. Shawn Domagal-Goldman, the head of astrophysics at NASA, who advised on Andy Weir's hit book that inspired Project Hail Mary. Dr. Domagal-Goldman explains the hard science behind the spacefaring adventure and how movies inspired his career.

This week's episode features a reunion between Southampton Playhouse artistic director Eric Kohn and his former colleague, IndieWire's Anne Thompson, a veteran entertainment journalist who has been covering the Academy Awards for decades. Plus, on our Playhouse People segment, Think Inc. trivia founder Paul Johnson shares his movie fandom.

The new animated Pixar hit Hoppers follows a teenager who befriends her local beaver population. Like many Pixar favorites, it combines big ideas with imagination and heart. Director Daniel Chong talks to Movie People about how he navigated that formula and the films that inspired his own work. This episode also features South Fork Natural History Museum's Frank Quevodo on the defunct beaver population of Long Island and a new edition of Playhouse People with Rebekah Wise.

With four Oscar nominations and a year's worth of acclaim, the Brazilian period piece The Secret Agent has made waves around the world. Director Kleber Mendonça Filho and producer Emilie Lesclaux traveled to the Southampton Playhouse in the final week of Oscar campaigning before voting closed to discuss the genesis of the project and its global resonance. Also in this week's episode: Filmmaker Nathalie Musteata joins us to discuss her short film Two People Exchanging Saliva, which is currently nominated for Best Live Action Feature Film. And we close out with a new segment, Playhouse People, featuring members of our community and their relationship to our historic movie theater.

Comedian Jimmy Tatro talks about his role in Scream 7 and how comedy prepared him for doing a horror movie.

This week's episode features longtime Baz Luhrmann collaborator Jonathan Redmond, who was nominated for an Oscar for his work on 2022's Elvis. The duo have followed up that achievement with EPiC: Elvis in Concert, a dazzling look at the King of Rock 'n' Roll in action with never-before-seen footage. Redmond shares the history of the project as well as how he came to work with Luhrmann more than 25 years ago on Moulin Rouge!

With Sinners cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw poised to make history as the first female cinematographer to win an Oscar in her category, this week's Movie People looks back at another woman who deserved it more than 20 years ago. Just in time for Valentine's Day, veteran cinematographer Ellen Kuras visits the Playhouse to discuss her experiences with the masterful sci-fi romance Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

One year after Sinners first opened on IMAX, in the wake of the movie's historic 16 Oscar nominations, we're kicking off Black History Month by taking a look at the backdrop of the movie that goes beyond the South where it takes place. Southampton African American History Museum founder Brenda Simmons joins Movie People to discuss the legacy of the juke joints seen in the movie — and so much more.

This week's episode featuring Jennifer Venditti, the woman behind the many memorable faces of last year's breakout hit Marty Supreme. Venditti has been a significant player in the casting director universe for years, but it was only in 2026 that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decided to add a new category recognizing her craft — and now, she's one of five nominees up for the very first Best Casting Oscar in history. In this conversation, she recalls her unique journey into the world of casting and why it stands out from so many others.

This week's episode features Sundance Film Festival director Eugene Hernandez, an East End resident who has spent the past 30-odd years advocating for independent film. As the festival enters its final edition in Park City, Utah, Hernandez shares his insight into the importance of the festival for anyone who cares about film culture -- and what might come next.

This week's episode features veteran sound designer and Sag Harbor resident Leslie Shatz, whose credits go back to Apocalypse Now and The Empire Strikes Back. His latest credit, Dead Man's Wire, marks his latest collaboration with Gus Van Sant. In this conversation, he explores on the past and (difficult) future of his profession.

We are wrapping up a busy year with a truly wonderful guest: Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, one of the most celebrated directors working today. From the early genre efforts like Cronos and The Devil's Backbone all the way through Pan's Labyrinth and The Shape of Water, del Toro has built a career out of generating empathy for monsters and mining them for all the metaphorical value they offer up. It was only a matter of time before he directed his attention toward the most famous fictional monster at the center of FRANKENSTEIN, as he has done with his new adaptation of the Mary Shelly novel. Del Toro joined us for a conversation about his longstanding obsession with the material, and closed out the chat with a poignant series of observations about the past year and how the movies helped us through it.

Filmmaker Josh Safdie and veteran cinematographer Darius Khondji join the Southampton Playhouse to discuss the new dark comedy Marty Supreme, which stars Timothée Chalamet as ping pong pro Marty Mauser, and share some of the films that inspired them. Then, expert 35mm projectionist James Faller explains his craft and why watching movies projected on film is sometimes better than digital alternatives.

The Playhouse closes out its East End Cinema series with a 50th anniversary celebration of the most famous Hamptons movie of all time, the legendary documentary Grey Gardens. Producer Susan Froemke, co-director Muffie Meyer, and Rebekah Maysles of the Maysles Documentary Film Center joined Playhouse artistic director Eric Kohn to discuss the genesis of the movie and its ongoing legacy.