Streep is rejected here; her mid-eighties work and Devil Wears Prada through Iron Lady represent possible peaks, with no real career fallow period.
Baldwin possibly qualifies alongside 30 Rock and SNL. — Bill Simmons
Steve Martin’s late-seventies success is preferred; his-and-her sinks receive a positive discussion without a firm peak judgment.
Meyers’s peak shifts from The Holiday to Something’s Gotta Give based on film quality, nominations and box-office discussion.
Divorced-couple romances have earlier screwball peaks, including His Girl Friday and The Philadelphia Story.
Krasinski’s A Quiet Place and marriage to Emily Blunt displace this performance as his peak. — Bill Simmons
The Holiday’s British cottage is preferred for Meyers houses; this kitchen receives a best-kitchen vote but Something’s Gotta Give is defended for space, storage and island layout. — Amanda Dobbins
Emily Blunt as an action star is the first answer, with a great two-year run here and in Sicario; the hosts want more, questioning whether Jungle Cruise counts but counting A Quiet Place. — Sean Fennessey
A Quiet Place's ending, cutting hard to credits after she does something cool, looks borrowed from this movie by Krasinski and again casts her as a Ripley-like survivor against aliens. — Sean Fennessey
She is tough, cool, funny when needed and no-nonsense, which nobody would have guessed from Devil Wears Prada. — Sean Fennessey
Smarmy Cruise has aged well, recalling Jerry Maguire, like Daniel Kaffee from A Few Good Men 20 years later. — Sean Fennessey
The mix of green screen and practical effects, and not being afraid to riff on Groundhog Day, are also cited. — Sean Fennessey
The sci-fi World War II setting, a Rosie the Riveter, keep-calm-and-carry-on England in 2020 with everyone working for the war effort, is a world worth spending time in. — Sean Fennessey
Blunt is named as what has aged best and the other host gives her his vote. — Sean Fennessey
The curveball is casting the next James Bond rather than this film's roles; the Idris Elba angst conversation is declared over since he is now older than any previously cast Bond, though Daniel Kaluuya fits some of the profile.
Among white male Brits there is no strong class: Richard Madden, Scottish and hot after Bodyguard, is a little wooden without Craig's layers of pain, after a Richard-James-Steve Madden stumble; the next Bond must be handsome, different from the archetype, a good actor, sexy, cool and good with a gun.
All the thirty-something British actors are already in Marvel or other franchises; Tom Hardy would be welcome but won't take the mask off, Kano, the grime emcee from Top Boy, is a way-out-of-the-box pick, and no Cumberbatch.
On a woman as Bond, Charlie's Angels is a depressing example of marketing to women, but Emily Blunt is the one: British, charismatic, great in action films from Edge of Tomorrow to Sicario, already engaged with English mythology via Mary Poppins, though Bond is called an inherently conservative property unlikely to make that choice.
For the film itself, Rubenek (as transcribed) as M is wished for, and nobody missed Felix Leiter, Jeffrey Wright's character who picks Bond up at the airport, since this movie refreshingly does not care about America.
In the formal casting what-ifs, most having been covered already, the one new item is that Fincher cast Emily Ratajkowski on a recommendation from Ben Affleck, which the hosts find the funniest thing they have heard and worth a shout-out, joking about hiring her as a football writer to cover the NFC.
Jon Hamm was going to play Nick but Matthew Weiner would not let him out of his contract for the last season of Mad Men, the way The Office accommodated Ed Helms filming The Hangover at night; the part could have ignited Hamm's career as Don Draper in a bad marriage, though whether Hamm would have done the side dick is called the only question that matters.
The case against Hamm is that the role needs innate likability, and nobody ever simply liked Don Draper even if Hamm is loved in The Town and Baby Driver; the counter is that Nick is supposed to seem rationally likable yet somehow repellent, which Hamm could swing.
The relationship we have with Hamm is with Don Draper, while with Affleck it is with Affleck the public person; a Hamm version would still have been a good movie, because the film is about marriage, what women and men say they want, stardom and the media, bigger than Fincher's narcissism explanation; another voice thinks Hamm would have been good but loves that Affleck did this at the point of his completed comeback.
Tom Cruise as Nick Dunn is floated, with one voice calling the idea amazing, and rejected by the rest: he is too short and lacks Affleck's bulk and wide shoulders, you need to believe Nick can keep up with Amy, you need to see his belly exposed when he rolls over, and nobody can picture Cruise sitting down for Battlefield 3; Clooney fifteen years earlier is possible but a little too skinny.
Reese Witherspoon obtained the film rights intending to produce and play Amy, met Fincher and somehow gave the part up; the hosts cannot picture her riding Neil Patrick Harris covered in blood, finding her too earnest, open and likable to go dead-eyed the way Amy requires.
Other names reported for Amy: Charlize and Natalie Portman, both of whom would have been interesting though Charlize carries baggage as an actress, Emily Blunt, Rooney Mara whom Fincher had just worked with, Olivia Wilde, and strangest of all Dancing with the Stars' Julianne Hough, who got far down the road before her bid at a serious acting career stalled.
Fincher wanted an actress with a Faye Dunaway in Chinatown persona, someone who has experienced avenues of pain no one can articulate; he settled on Rosamund Pike because at 35 she could pass for 29 or 40, she was an only child like Amy, and after four or five of her movies he had never got a beat on her, an opacity he found interesting, when the natural move would have been Charlize.
Fincher has always had an eye for unproven, on-the-cusp talent, Pitt in Seven, Eisenberg and Rooney Mara in The Social Network, Mahershala Ali and Taraji Henson in Benjamin Button; the hosts expected Pike's career to go somewhere else after her Oscar nomination, and before this her notable role was Jack Reacher, an embarrassing part two years earlier.
Asked whether baggage with a real celebrity hurts a part like this, the answer is that for Amy you need to be totally confused about the person, the opposite of the Affleck character whom you must root for implicitly, so somebody you have never seen before makes it scarier. — Shea Serrano
Pike's biggest role until then was Jane Bennett in Pride and Prejudice, the book that turns up in the bookshop where they have sex.
Asked who won the movie, the answer is 'no contest, nothing to discuss'; no name is spoken in the transcript. — Bill Simmons
For the number-two winner, Emily Blunt is offered first, then Hathaway is chosen because the film proves her as a mainstream lead. — Bill Simmons
Hathaway had the much harder part and Emily Blunt the easier one, though she brought pizzazz; since the film starts both careers, maybe they tie. — Bill Simmons
"Everybody wants this. Everybody wants to be us."; "She's not happy unless everyone around her is panic, nauseous or suicidal."; "By all means, move at a glacial pace. You know how that thrills me."; "The tales of your incompetence do not interest me."; "Please bore someone else with your questions."; "No, I shant."
The first quote offered is Miranda's line that everybody wants this and wants to be us, followed by the line about her not being happy unless everyone around her is panic, nauseous or suicidal. — Amanda Dobbins
More Miranda lines are offered: move at a glacial pace, the tales of your incompetence, and please bore someone else with your questions; they are joked to be things one panelist wishes she could say to her employees. — Amanda Dobbins
An Emily Blunt line from the Harry Potter sequence: when Hathaway's character asks her to wish her luck, she answers 'No, I shant' in her English accent. — Amanda Dobbins
The panel concludes one co-host is really Anna Wintour (transcribed 'Anna Wintor'), or would like to be. — Amanda Dobbins
Asked whether this is Hathaway's Apex, the first answer is no; Rachel Getting Married, Ocean's 8 (admitted recency bias) and 'intercellar' (as transcribed) are floated. — Amanda Dobbins
The correct answer is declared to be that this is her Apex, since she becomes a top star with her whole career ahead; this is accepted, and she gets 'the Dark Night' (as transcribed) because of it. — Bill Simmons
Emily Blunt's Apex is said to be happening right now, with A Quiet Place leading into Mary Poppins; one panelist is nervous about Mary Poppins. — Amanda Dobbins
A tangent debates whether anyone under 40 knows Julie Andrews' Mary Poppins, and one panelist shames musicals. — Amanda Dobbins
For Meryl Streep a yes is offered; one panelist recounts fighting with her husband over calling this Streep's greatest performance. — Amanda Dobbins
Sophie's Choice is called the iconic example, and Streep is argued to be the best actor ever, male or female. — Amanda Dobbins
Her best performance is said to have to be something like Sophie's Choice, though she lacks a Vito Corleone-type mainstream role, with Miranda the closest. — Bill Simmons
A March 2009 column called her the best actor ever; she is compared to LeBron for durability, and Adaptation and The Hours back to back are praised. — Bill Simmons
Simon Baker is called rough, now making a lot of money on a CBS show as The Mentalist. — Amanda Dobbins
A case for Adrian Grenier is first rejected because Entourage was his apex, then accepted because this came during Entourage, putting him on the mountaintop. — Bill Simmons
Anna Wintour (transcribed 'Anna Wintor') reportedly liked the movie despite initial skepticism and enjoyed Streep for her decisive nature. — Amanda Dobbins
Tabloid talk about her divorce is attributed to the New York Post; the movie is said to have rehabilitated her and corrected the book's portrayal, so she probably likes it. — Amanda Dobbins
She reportedly warned designers invited to cameo that they would be banished from the magazine; nobody knows whether that is true, but Vogue and other magazines avoided mentioning the book. — Bill Simmons
Streep was not on the cover of Vogue for a very long time after the movie, though she was recently. — Amanda Dobbins
Six years after filming, Stanley Tucci married Felicity Blunt, Emily Blunt's sister; the transcript also has a belief that he broke up with 'E. Falco' for her. — Bill Simmons
The first bag Miranda carries is a Prada bag. — Bill Simmons
Giselle agreed to be in the movie only if she did not have to play a model. — Bill Simmons
Costuming cost over a million dollars despite designer loans, under Patricia Field of Sex and the City, who got an Oscar nomination; the panel thinks that is low. — Bill Simmons
Streep told Variety in 2006 she took Miranda's soft speaking style from Clint Eastwood, who never raises his voice so everyone leans in; the whisper is called what makes the performance. — Bill Simmons
Bosses who stay insanely calm are said to destabilize the people around them. — Amanda Dobbins
Miranda's line about everybody wanting to be 'us' originally said 'me'; Streep changed it as too self-involved. — Bill Simmons
A double standard is argued: men respected as difficult method actors versus Streep and Hathaway labeled problem children, though Streep is called an anomaly nobody can overrule. — Amanda Dobbins
A deleted scene where Andy saves Miranda and Miranda thanks her was cut for making her seem likable; it surfaced online two years ago, and one panelist refuses to watch it, likening it to the Almost Famous extended cut. — Bill Simmons
In one more piece of research, John Krasinski has reportedly watched the film 75 times, which ties one panelist. — Bill Simmons
Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci are ruled ineligible: the award cannot go to an integral part of the movie and has to be someone who comes in hot. — Bill Simmons
The only answer is Giselle, whose eyelash-curler line is quoted. — Bill Simmons
She left the panel wanting more, like playing six minutes for 12 points and 10 rebounds, with calls to release more of her scenes. — Bill Simmons
She has never been dislikable; she could have been brought to Paris, but the amount was just right, the definition of the award. — Amanda Dobbins
Boss being mean to an assistant plot; Meryl Streep's hair; Emily Blunt's breakout role; Andy's pre-makeover sweaters; Foreshadowing of the millennial workplace; Anna Wintour's reputation
Andy's pre-makeover sweaters are praised, but her Steve Madden-esque loafers and black tights with slingback heels are a hard no. — Bill Simmons
The film's picture of how that generation works at the office is called prescient foreshadowing of millennials. — Amanda Dobbins
Anna Wintour's reputation (transcribed 'Anna Winter') is said to have aged best because of the film, which was based on a book by her former assistant, citing an Alison Herman piece for The Ringer; others are not positive that is the case. — Amanda Dobbins
A Teen Vogue sequel idea leads to a tangent about The Hills, where bosses came out worse. — Amanda Dobbins
The final pick is the boss being mean to an assistant, called the best version of that plot; being able to sympathize with the boss is credited. — Amanda Dobbins
Kate Winslet was approached for Mal before the part went to Marion Cotillard; the hosts think Cotillard, who often plays a stormy femme fatale, is a very different actress, and that a French rather than English woman is what the crazed dream wife needed, since Winslet would not have been as frightening.
Nolan's films are said to keep returning to a dead woman who lets the leading man discover his emotional vulnerability; the casting is seen as letting him pretend something more complex was going on with the character, and a joke in a producer voice notes that Kate with Leo would have added twenty million.
For Ariadne the considered names were Evan Rachel Wood, Emily Blunt, Rachel McAdams, Emma Roberts, Jesse Schramm (as transcribed), Taylor Swift and Terry Mulligan (as transcribed), to disbelief around the table; Ellen Page is judged perfect for combining intense intelligence with wide-eyed vulnerability, something clinical and nurse-like, where Evan Rachel Wood would be too tall, beautiful and imperious.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Arthur was also offered to James Franco, who turned it down over scheduling; JGL's blankness and deadpan are liked for the part.
Don Johnson was considered for Peter Browning, the part Tom Berenger took; Johnson's ruined-man quality might have worked, Berenger was a shock to recognize, and Browning is not an essential character so Johnson would have been fine.
