SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
There's a saying that two heads are better than one, and in our weekly movie segment, ALL THINGS CONSIDERED host Ailsa Chang takes a look at how that adage is particularly true when it comes to certain combinations of filmmakers and actors.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
All right, one of the buzziest studio releases of the year so far has been the supernatural horror film "Sinners."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SINNERS")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) I don't believe in magic, ghosts, demons - just power.
CHANG: The critical and financial hit marks the fifth collaboration between actor Michael B. Jordan and director Ryan Coogler, going back all the way to Coogler's 2013 debut "Fruitvale Station." And he got us thinking about other notable director-actor partnerships. Indeed, some of our greatest filmmakers and actors are inseparable in our minds, known best for the incredible work that they have produced together. Like, think Scorsese and De Niro.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "TAXI DRIVER")
ROBERT DE NIRO: (As Travis Bickle) You talking to me? Then who the hell else are you talking - you talking to me?
CHANG: Or Spike Lee and Denzel Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MALCOM X")
DENZEL WASHINGTON: (As Malcom X) We didn't land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock landed on us.
CHANG: To talk about more great collaborations between directors and actors, I'm joined by NPR film critic Bob Mondello and Aisha Harris, co-host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. Hey to both of you.
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: Hey, good to be here.
AISHA HARRIS, BYLINE: Hey, thanks for having me.
CHANG: All right, Bob, I want to start with you because, you know, we mentioned a couple notable director-actor pairings there. What are some of your favorite cinematic power couples, so to speak?
MONDELLO: (Laughter) Well, as the eldest among us...
CHANG: (Laughter).
MONDELLO: ...Let me play historian for a second and do some early pairings. There's the silent film great D. W. Griffith, who directed Lillian Gish in 14 features and made her the first lady of American film.
CHANG: Wait a minute, you're not that old.
MONDELLO: I was not there at the time.
(LAUGHTER)
MONDELLO: Director John Ford and John Wayne. Wayne was a B movie actor before Ford hired him for "Stagecoach," and that made him a name star.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "STAGECOACH")
BERTON CHURCHILL: (As Ellsworth Henry Gatewood) You're the notorious Ringo Kid.
JOHN WAYNE: (As Ringo Kid) My friends just call me Ringo, a nickname I had as a kid.
MONDELLO: They paired up again for "The Searchers," the war movie "They Were Expendable" and about a dozen other films. John Huston and Humphrey Bogart are - were inseparable for a bit. Bogie was already established. He'd made about three dozen films...
CHANG: Wow.
MONDELLO: ...But he wasn't a star. And Huston was directing his first film ever called "The Maltese Falcon." The rest is history.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE MALTESE FALCON")
WARD BOND: (As Detective Tom Polhaus) What is it?
HUMPHREY BOGART: (As Sam Spade) The stuff that dreams are made of.
BOND: (As Detective Tom Polhaus) Huh?
CHANG: Aisha, what about you? What are some standout teams?
HARRIS: Well, I am not that old here...
(LAUGHTER)
HARRIS: ...But...
CHANG: Give us some color films, please.
HARRIS: OK, color films - still old. I love the collaborations between Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli. They made several movies together, starting with "Meet Me In St. Louis" in 1944, and they actually met and fell in love and eventually married after that movie.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS")
JUDY GARLAND: (As Esther Smith, singing) Clang, clang, clang went the trolley. Ding, ding, ding went the bell. Sing, sing, sing went my heartstrings. From the moment I saw him, I fell.
HARRIS: And if we're going to go more recent and more present, Tarantino and Samuel Jackson. They made...
CHANG: Oh, yeah.
HARRIS: ...Six movies together. Of course, Bong Joon Ho and Song Kang-ho, who have made four movies together so far, most recently "Parasite."
CHANG: Yeah. And what do you guys think is key to these relationships? Like, why do they seem to catch lightning in a bottle whenever they work together? What do you think, Aisha?
HARRIS: Well, I mean, I think, when it comes to some - a team-up like Bong Joon Ho and Song Kang-ho, what I love about Bong's films is that no matter how dark or bleak they can get - and they do get very dark and very bleak - they tend to have this very offbeat, quirky sensibility. There's always some humor thrown in there. I think Song is able to embody both of those qualities of, like, the fun and the dark and the slapstick occasionally, handily, in those roles when he's playing with that director.
CHANG: Well, Bob, what else do you see in these actor-director collabs that is hard to replicate with just any pairing of a director and an actor?
MONDELLO: Well, the example that I always keep coming back to is Pedro Almodovar has worked with lots of people, obviously, and Antonio Banderas has worked with lots of people. But when Pedro Almodovar discovered Antonio Banderas, he was 22, and he molded and shaped him in those first few pictures - "Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown," "Law Of Desire," "Matador" - those movies. And I think he saw in Banderas something that other people didn't see. When American studios and directors looked at Antonio Banderas, they saw Zorro. And that is not what that man is all about.
CHANG: Yeah.
MONDELLO: They saw "Puss In Boots." So, I mean, I think it's clear that there is something tight between those guys, which is not there when he works with other people.
CHANG: That said, I mean, there are so many ways to create magic - right? - not just the right team. Because I would think for the sake of creativity and versatility and play, you would want an actor to work with multiple directors and a director to switch it up with their lead stars. Like, Aisha, wouldn't it be cool to see Ryan Coogler work with, say, I don't know, Timothee Chalamet, or see Michael B. Jordan in a Paul Thomas Anderson movie. Like, what do you think?
HARRIS: Well, yeah. I mean, I personally would love to see Michael B. Jordan work with Steven Soderbergh. I think if he was doing some sort of, like, heist film or something that requires, like, a whole team, and there's an ensemble, like, I think seeing Jordan work with someone like that would be so fascinating. But the thing is, like, Michael B. Jordan, so far, his best collaborations have been with Ryan Coogler. And I can't fault him for wanting to keep going back to that well because no one else has been able to figure out how to make Michael B. Jordan the star that he is.
CHANG: OK, so we can understand why Michael B. Jordan would keep going back to that well of Coogler. But we don't want that well to become a rut. So besides the fantasy of Michael B. Jordan and maybe a Soderbergh pairing, who else do you wish would work together more? Like, the one or two collabs that should have been or would be the beginning of a beautiful friendship if they just gave romance a chance. Bob, what do you think?
(LAUGHTER)
MONDELLO: OK, well, this is my fantasy, OK?
CHANG: Yeah.
MONDELLO: Purely my fantasy.
CHANG: I love your fantasies.
MONDELLO: I want to see Daniel Craig...
CHANG: Ooh.
MONDELLO: ...Working with Alfred Hitchcock.
CHANG: Oh.
HARRIS: (Laughter).
CHANG: One's dead.
MONDELLO: I think that would be really...
HARRIS: OK. Yes.
MONDELLO: ...Sublime, OK?
CHANG: (Laughter).
MONDELLO: Because I think he's established in the "Glass Onion" movies that he would be a fun person in that kind of film.
CHANG: Yeah.
MONDELLO: And I think that would be sensational. I think Hitchcock could bring out all kinds of interesting things in Daniel Craig. So I'm hoping to see that in the future.
(LAUGHTER)
CHANG: Beyond the grave. Aisha?
HARRIS: Bob, I admire that fantasy...
MONDELLO: (Laughter).
HARRIS: ...That leap of faith, that, somehow, we'll figure out how to bring Hitchcock back. I'll stay more realistic here.
CHANG: (Laughter).
HARRIS: I would love to see Greta Gerwig work with Saoirse Ronan again. They've already done "Lady Bird"...
CHANG: Yes.
HARRIS: ...And "Little Women" together.
MONDELLO: Yup, Yup.
HARRIS: And that pairing has been very, very magical. And then finally, I would say Barry Jenkins and Brian Tyree Henry who...
MONDELLO: Oh, nice. Yup.
HARRIS: ...Collaborated on "If Beale Street Could Talk."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK")
BRIAN TYREE HENRY: (As Daniel Carty) I just got out the slammer, baby. Two years.
HARRIS: He has this one standout scene in that film where he's playing someone who was in prison for a while, and he comes out, and now he's like - he's describing what that does to a person. And everything about it is just - like, I encourage people to go seek that movie out if they haven't already. It kind of flew under the radar compared to "Moonlight," Barry Jenkins' previous movie.
CHANG: Totally.
HARRIS: But, like, he is so good, and I would love to see what else they would do together with Jenkins directing him.
CHANG: That is NPR's Bob Mondello and Aisha Harris, another great collab, I might say. Thank you to both of you so much.
MONDELLO: Thank you.
HARRIS: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF KHRUANGBIN'S "PEOPLE EVERYWHERE (STILL ALIVE)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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