Shane Black (Play Dirty; The Nice Guys)
The Writers Panel
Ben Blacker
4.7 • 796 Ratings
🗓️ 30 September 2025
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Shane Black (writer/director, Play Dirty, The Nice Guys, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang; writer, Lethal Weapon,The Last Boy Scout) returns to discuss his connection to Donald Westlake, the writer on whose work Play Dirty is based, what he and his co-writers each bring to a script, how he pushes through imposter syndrome, respectful but playful actors, how production is just "shopping for ingredients," and lots more.
Listen to the last time Shane visited the podcast in 2016 on Apple podcasts or wherever you get your pods.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, Sweaterweather. |
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| 0:30.3 | Ah, Benny's parents. Thanks for coming. Hiya. So, Benny has really blossomed this term. |
| 0:35.4 | You're telling me, he outgrew his bike. We sold it on eBay. Oh, that's not quite what I meant. It's free to sell on there? Free to sell. Easy too. Sold Benny's bike, your guitar, my jacket. You sold my guitar? Shall we talk about Benny? When it's this easy to sell for free, you can't help but say you on it's eBay. |
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| 1:00.0 | There are some things you'll never understand. |
| 1:02.7 | Like, why did that person ghost me? |
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| 1:33.0 | Hey folks, it's me, Ben Blacker, the creator and host of the Writers Panel. Thank you so much, as |
| 1:38.4 | always, for listening to the podcast. Before we get into today's episode, and we've got a string of really strong episodes coming up, I think, for the next couple months. |
... |
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