This is the Culture Study podcast, and I'm Anne Helen Peterson.

I'm Maggie Farrell, and I'm very happy to be here.

I'm the author of several books, including Hamlet, and my new book is called Land.

Maggie, you have so many fans in our larger culture study newsletter, podcast universe.

So before we talk about your new book, I have to ask, what has it been like to watch Hamnet

become what it has become.

And I know you were a co-producer, co-writer on the script.

It's one of my favorite movies of the last year and not. what it has become. And I know you were a co-producer, co-writer on the script. Like,

it's one of my favorite movies of the last year. And not just because Paul Muscal is my boyfriend.

And I love his large thighs so much. But yeah, the last, like, and you're like, you're, like,

you're like gearing up to release this new book, but also, like, going through awards season.

Like, what has this been like?

Well, it's thighs aside.

No, it's been extremely surreal and really wonderful.

You know, it's not something that I ever, ever expected would happen to me.

I certainly had no thought at all that I would be invited to the Oscars.

I would have to go shopping for a frock. So, no, it was all extremely surprising. Every kind of, every, you know, step on the way, right from when Chloe Shaw asked me to write the screenplay with her every single step was a surprise so yeah yeah it's been a wild ride and it's been so fun

to dip my toe into that world and just to see it all up close has been so interesting but just to give you some idea of how weird it was, I was, I'm just going to say this sentence. It's a very weird sentence. I was queuing for a limousine at the Oscars, as you do. I'm just going to say it. And I was standing talking to my friend who's with me, and I thought to myself, that's really weird. That man behind me sounds exactly like George Clooney. That's so weird. And then I thought, I turned around and I thought, that's because it is George Clooney. But, you know, as a kind of civilian, it took me a really long time to kind of catch up with that. And I thought, God, he sounds so like it. It's really uncanny. And then I thought, well,

yeah, of course it's him. He strikes me as one of those people that is absolutely as handsome and stunning, like just like movie star handsome in person. Yeah, I think he is actually.

There are some people that you see him off screen, and you think, ooh, they look a bit funny.

But no, I can report safely from the front lines of the Oscars that he is actually is handsome in real life as he is. I can also tell you the safety that Chase Infinity is literally the most beautiful human being I've ever seen. Oh my gosh. She's extraordinary. gorgeous. So gorgeous. There's something, I think she hasn't in a light bulb, kind of glows. She's amazing. I think it's youth. And she told me she liked my hair, which I was so, and I was so starstruck. I was kind of, oh, thanks. Thanks, my much. So one of the reasons when I heard that Chloe Jean was attached to the film, I automatically, like, I knew that it was in good hands. the writer, her movie from 2017, is one of my favorite movies of the last decade.

Amazing. I automatically, like, I knew that it was in good hands. The writer, her movie from 2017, is one of my favorite movies of the last decade.

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