SmartLess

I have a Dr. Seuss tattoo; my daughter was I used to read that book to her a lot and my mum read it to me, Oh, the Places You'll Go! and she just would draw that little character and loved it so I got that tattoo.

Guys, Emma Thompson have you seen Remains of the Day yes yes I mean I've seen that so many times.

The first play I did that I really loved was The Importance of Being Earnest. And then I read everything that Oscar Wilde wrote and I just became obsessed with him.

the 25th anniversary of the first film, The Fellowship.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Philip Kaufman, fantastic.

I'm reading a book right now that I was, it's called Midlife Crisis.

I remember the one, um, script that I had, I think I have to credit my mother for this is I had, uh, the script for Holy Grail. Oh, wow. Um, Monty Python. Monty Python? Monty Python. It was published as a little book and, and I loved that movie so much. This would be like probably eight, 78 or 79 whenever they came out.

You have a book called Imminent, which I'm getting. It's Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs. It's called Imminent.

But I can't wait to read it.

It's one of the best second halves of a book I've ever read. It's just mesmerizing. And so then, and then I realized I made a film. And so I just, I didn't know that you had made that film. And I watched it. It was beautiful. It was lovely. It's such a great story.

Alone In Berlin is, I mean, I'm kind of slightly obsessed with both wars, actually, because I think they left traumas in our country, in the UK, that have never really been healed or addressed.

About a Boy the first project that you did or was it the first thing that really kind of like launched you into... Like breakthrough.

About a Boy was so huge. Yeah. ... it was a big hit and really put you on the map.

It was a big hit. It was... I think it was one of those things where it was a big hit and it helped launch you into bigger things.

They're growing crops like Matt Damon and The Martian.

I did a production of The Crucible a long time ago with Liam Neeson that Arthur Miller was actually involved in. And before I accepted the job, I was offered Goody Proctor and I thought, oh, for fuck's sake, who wants to do The Crucible? Oh, God, you know, ye buckle shoes and ye olde speak. Oh, for God's sake. And I called my dad and I was like, I've been offered Goody Proctor and I don't know, I don't know if I'm, he was like, oh no. He was like, you do that. You must do that. He's like, it is a great play. And it's only because we've all seen nine hour high school productions of that play that it's sort of, you know, it's badly represented. Not that it shouldn't be done there, it should. But, you know, you don't realize how great that play is. And I had no idea what a masterpiece that thing was. A masterpiece.

I just picked up, oh God, what's it called? I Won't Leave You, Do Not Leave Me. I forgot.

Also, The Librarianist is really good. I've heard that one. Patrick DeWitt. Yes, I heard that one. Very, very good.

Oh, The Prime of Miss Jean Brody. Which I obviously didn't have a clue what it meant at the time.

in the 70s, Nancy Friday wrote a book called My Secret Garden

she did the introductions to chapters and she invited women to send in letters to her about their sexual fantasies and it was a book that, so anonymous letters from women, particularly, mostly in America, writing about their sexual fantasies

it was like a number one, but all of a sudden everybody wanted it. Women were carrying it in their purses but it was a real insight into, you know, what women think about when they think about sex

The first novel I published was called A Conspiracy of Tall Men. And it was about a professor of conspiracy theories whose wife is killed in a plane crash. And he finally gets the conspiracy he's been looking for. But of course it's no solace because, you know, he had to lose his wife to get it.

you guys see Hamnet?

I went for The BFG.