Encore: Aubrey Plaza, John Patton Ford on the student-loan anxiety thriller ‘Emily the Criminal’
The Business
KCRW
4.6 • 676 Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, The Business revisits a conversation with actor Aubrey Plaza and director John Patton Ford about their film “Emily the Criminal.” When Plaza’s colleague handed her the script for the drama thriller, she was immediately struck by it. “It was just one of those scripts that I started to read, and I just flew through it,” she says. “It's so readable and fun … it has this momentum that propels you forward.” While Plaza had found her next great project, Ford explains why it took 12 years to write the story. With Plaza, they discuss the struggles of making “Emily The Criminal” and independent movies in general, and the film’s unexpected success. First, Kim Masters and Matt Belloni look into how the Writers Guild of America has voted to authorize strike, while Netflix details its plans for a crackdown on password sharing in the United States, and Fox News and Dominion reach a settlement.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From KCRW, I'm Kim Masters, and this is The Business. |
| 0:05.1 | This week, we revisit our conversation with Aubrey Plaza and Emily the |
| 0:09.2 | criminal director John Patton Ford, whose career got off to a promising start. |
| 0:14.3 | His first short film played at Sundance and was shortlisted for Oscar. |
| 0:18.4 | Then, for 12 long years, he couldn't get a feature film off the ground. |
| 0:22.6 | That is, until busy actress Aubrey Plaza committed to produce and star in the project, |
| 0:28.1 | which she definitely didn't do for money. Back in the day before my time, you know, a $2 million |
| 0:33.7 | movie could go to Sundance and get the reviews that we've gotten and really be a |
| 0:37.7 | real success. And it would motivate people to make movies like this because you felt like you |
| 0:41.4 | hit the jackpot. But that business model doesn't really happen anymore. Aubrey Plaza and John |
| 0:45.9 | Patton Ford talk very candidly about the struggle to make Ford's well-reviewed debut film, |
| 0:51.0 | Emily the Criminal. But first, we banter. stick around. It's the business from KCRW. |
| 0:57.7 | I am joined by my colleague in banter, Matt Bellany. Hello, Matt. Hi there. So, a lot of news. |
| 1:04.0 | Let's start with the looming strike. As you know, the Writers Guild, normally the most aggressive |
| 1:08.7 | in these situations of the guilds, had a vote to |
| 1:11.5 | authorize a strike if they can't make a deal with the producers, with the studios. And almost 98% |
| 1:17.0 | of those voting, and a majority, I think, did vote, voted for the strike authorization. So it seems |
| 1:22.4 | that the writers are extremely amped up and really sick of the whole thing. They feel that the streaming revolution |
| 1:28.3 | has really hurt them. They don't make the money that they used to. They have to scramble. |
| 1:32.6 | They don't get residuals. All these grievances. This has been a fight that was looming for a long |
| 1:37.3 | time, and now it's here. And I guess the question is, what are the other major guilds involved |
| 1:42.1 | here at the Directors Guild and SAG after going to do? |
... |
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