The Empire Film Podcast #644: Steve McQueen, John David Washington & Danielle Deadwyler, Josh Cooley

It's another epic episode of the Empire Podcast this week, folks, as a smorgasbord of stars join us on the pod — all of whom shared the unique privilege of Chris Hewitt's company in person for their interviews. First to have Hewitts about them there's the great Steve McQueen, writer and director of Apple TV+ bound Blitz, to talk about how he approached the World War II drama, and working with Paul Weller [18:56 — 35:15 approx]. Then, Chris has a cracking conversation with The Piano Lesson stars John David Washington (following in the footsteps of his father, Denzel, who was a guest on last week's episode) and Danielle Deadwyler, which veers from the hilarious to the heartfelt in no time at all [56:44 — 1:15:50 approx]. And finally, *checks notes* a Chris Hewitt rounds it all off with an extended excerpt from his spoilerific chat with Transformers One director Josh Cooley [1:39:54 — 1:54:52 approx] The full thing is available to Spoiler Special subscribers.

Either side of those, Chris is joined in the podbooth by Helen O'Hara and James Dyer for a truly *ahem* wicked episode in which they discuss the greatest green performances in cinema; talk about how Greenwich has been temporarily renamed Greenwitch; run their eye over the week's movie news (including Robert Pattinson reteaming with Christopher Nolan on his not-Dracula, Steven Spielberg's new event movie, Luca Guadagnino and Daniel Craig's DC pivot, that How To Train Your Dragon live-action trailer, and — yes — The Equalizer 4 and 5 announcement); and find time to review Wicked, Magpie, and The Piano Lesson. Oh, and Chris makes an impassioned plea for the greatest Spice Girls song of them all. Set your spirit free, it's the only way to be. As ever, please do enjoy.

You can listen to this week's episode (and over 600 more) on the pod app of your choice.