Working: Director Phil Alden Robinson on the Making of His Cult Classic, Sneakers

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Music, Tv & Film, Arts

4.2 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 October 2020

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, host Isaac Butler cracks the code of the heist film genre with Phil Alden Robinson, director of the 1992 cult classic Sneakers. In the interview, Phil talks about Sneakers’ nine-year writing process, the film’s alternate endings, and how he landed a cast of cinema legends, including Robert Redford and Sidney Poitier, to portray his meticulously crafted characters. After the interview, Isaac and co-host June Thomas talk about Phil’s ability to strive for perfection while also being a super nice guy. In Slate Plus, Phil talks about his favorite heist movies. Send your questions about creativity and any other feedback to working@slate.com. Podcast production by Cameron Drews. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on Working. It’s only $35 for the first year, and you can get a free two-week trial. Sign up now to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody it's Tim Heidecker you know me Tim and Eric Bridesmaids and
0:03.4	Fantastic Four. I'd like to personally invite you to listen to office hours live
0:07.8	with me and my co-host DJ Doug Pound and Vic Berger.
0:12.3	Howdy.
0:13.0	Every week we bring you laughs, fun, games and lots of other surprises.
0:16.4	It's live, we take your Zoom calls.
0:18.0	We love having fun.
0:19.0	Excuse me?
0:20.0	Vicks said something.
0:21.0	Music, music.
0:22.0	Music. I like having fun. like to laugh I like to meet people who can make me laugh
0:29.0	Please subscribe no Subscribe no. I don't think they teach this in film school is you have to figure out as quickly as possible
0:46.2	what each actor needs for them to do their best work.
0:51.7	And you've got to adjust your technique to interlock with theirs and everybody
0:57.5	needs something different.
1:00.3	Welcome back to Working I'm your host June Thomas and I'm your other host Isaac Butler.
1:08.0	The voice we just heard belongs to Phil Alden Robinson, a writer director who has made some extraordinary movies.
1:16.2	Field of Dreams, sneakers, which I think is the cultiest of all cult movies that are actually good, and he's also one of the creators of the
1:24.9	good fight one of my favorite TV shows but for someone who has had that level of
1:30.0	success his is not a household name, so tell me more about him.
1:35.0	Yeah, absolutely. So Phil has had a career that I find really fascinating. He is best
1:41.4	known for two films he made within a couple years of each other.
	...

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