Vendrak The Vertical, Scáthach, And The Kamino Kid (ft. guests Benny Safdie, Malcolm McDowell, Harris Dickinson)

The Empire Film Podcast

Bauer Media

Tv & Film, Film Reviews

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2025

⏱️ 119 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week's Empire Podcast sees us welcome another hat-trick of wonderful guests, as Chris Hewitt has lovely chats with The Smashing Machine writer-director (and Happy Gilmore 2 villain), Benny Safdie, [24:13 - 40:39 approx] and bona fide acting legend, Malcolm McDowell, star of new WWII drama, The Partisan (please excuse the sound quality of Chris' mic); [59:42 - 1:13:48 approx] while John Nugent sits down with Urchin director, Harris Dickinson, about making his directorial debut with the acclaimed drama. [1:37:05 - 1:52:43 approx] Either side of those, Chris doesn't let a little thing like Covid-19 stop him from hosting this week, dialling in to the podbooth (again, please do forgive the odd attendant audio glitch) to have all kinds of film-related fun with Helen O'Hara and James Dyer. The trio discuss some of the best final films from acting greats, run their eyes over Urchin, Play Dirty, The Smashing Machine, and Him, and find the week's movie news to be so lacking that they wind up doing an impromptu Simpsons quiz. Oh, and James is all giddy this week, after a close encounter with none other than Taylor Swift. To find out how close she came to being on this show, or a Cats retro spoiler special, you're going to have to listen. Enjoy.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You can't do much in under five minutes. Boil an egg. Sure. Cook a roast dinner? No chance.
0:06.3	But comparing car insurance prices with mustard.co.uk, easy. See what you could save in just a few minutes.
0:13.6	Click mustard.com.com. UK. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. See website for details.
0:20.5	What's on TV? The answer is a lot. There's never been more choice ever what to put on the box with an abundance of great new shows, but you can miss them all if you don't know where to look. And that's where the pilot TV podcast comes in, your essential guide to every show that matters. Each week, we sift through the very best in prestige TV to help you decide
0:37.7	what's worth spending your time on and what isn't. So join me, James Dyer, as well as venerable
0:42.0	TV critics Boyd Hilton and Kay Ribeiro, and let us help take the stress out of your downtime.
0:47.1	The Pilot TV podcast, because you can't watch everything. On the Empire podcast this week, we have more guests and you could shake a positive COVID test at.
1:10.5	We've got Benny Safty,
1:12.2	director of The Smashing Machine, Gromit. We have the legendary Malcolm McDowell, star of the
1:18.5	partisan, and our old chum Harris Dickinson is back to talk about his directorial debut,
1:23.9	Urchin. All that plus usual news and nonsense. On the movie podcast, it came close,
1:29.3	very close to being hosted this week by Taylor Swift. Hmm. Hello Pod. I'm Chris Hewad. Welcome to
1:36.2	the Emperor podcast. I am down, down, down with the cove this week. Down, down, down with the
1:43.7	cove, down with COVID-19 but thanks to the
1:47.6	miracle of modern technology I am hosting from my London haunt and I'm joined by two colleagues of such
1:55.3	lethal cunning who are in the studio they've schlepped into the studio they are of Geek Queen Helena Hara. Hello. Hello. I don't think you should call it a haunt when you're so close to death store. Knocking on Heaven's door right now as I am. Anyway, yeah, I thought it was going to be okay for today. And then just a little faint line in the COVID test. I've been down all week. And I thought, I'm going to be okay for today and then just a little faint line in the COVID test. I've been down all week and I thought, I'm going to be okay for Thursday. COVID has had other plans. But anyway, we joined by Helen and of course podcast wouldn't be the podcast without the Camino Kid himself, James Dyer. That is me. I'm all of a flutter.
2:35.3	All of a flutter today.
2:36.7	What happened?
2:37.3	All I got were loads of texts saying Taylor Swift is in the building, is in our building,
2:44.9	and James is on red alert.
2:47.8	Yeah.
2:48.6	Red alert.
	...

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