Interviews With "The Knife" Filmmaker/Star Nnamdi Asomugha & Star Melissa Leo

The Next Best Picture Podcast

Tv & Film

4.2 • 542 Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"The Knife" is an American psychological drama film produced and directed by Nnamdi Asomugha (in his directorial debut) and co-written by Asomugha and Mark Duplass. The film stars Asomugha, Melissa Leo, Aja Naomi King, and Manny Jacinto as it follows a family throughout one night after an intruder breaks into their home, leading to a tense, mind-twisting investigation. The film premiered in competition at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival, where it won awards for Best New Narrative Director and Best Cinematography and was nominated for the Founders Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature. Asomugha & Leo were kind enough to speak with us about their work and experiences making the film, which you can listen to below. Please be sure to check out the film, which will be released in theaters on August 15th from Relativity Media and Inaugural Entertainment. Thank you, and enjoy! Check out more on NextBestPicture.com Please subscribe on... Apple Podcasts - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/negs-best-film-podcast/id1087678387?mt=2 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/7IMIzpYehTqeUa1d9EC4jT YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWA7KiotcWmHiYYy6wJqwOw And be sure to help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month at https://www.patreon.com/NextBestPicture and listen to this podcast ad-free Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to The Next Best Picture podcast, and these are Dan Baer's interviews with the director, star, co-writer, and producer of the film The Knife, Namdi Asamuga.
0:12.0	And one of the film stars, Academy Award winner Melissa Leo.
0:17.0	Busty. Come on, it's time for bed. Let's go.
0:19.4	Night, Daddy.
0:20.1	Night, baby.
0:21.6	Oh, ha, ha.
0:22.6	I asked my grandma once.
0:36.6	What happens when you make a bad choice?
0:41.3	Chris!
0:44.3	She's on the ground bleeding to death.
0:46.3	Is that her knife? No.
0:48.3	The police, they'll look at us and they'll look at her,
0:50.3	and they'll come to their own conclusions.
0:52.3	All you have to do is tell the truth.
0:54.6	All right.
0:55.0	Welcome everyone to the next best picture podcast where we are talking with
0:59.9	Namdi Asimuva, the director, co-writer, star, and producer of The Knife.
1:07.6	Thank you so much for joining us today.
1:10.8	Thank you for having me. Excited to talk about it.
1:14.0	See, as am I. You know, you are a former pro football player, a film and theater producer, a stage actor, a film actor, and now a writer and director on The Knife in addition.
1:27.5	Is there anything that you can't do?
1:30.3	Yes.
	...

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