Mountain Musings

I asked about movie-making and the legacy of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which had its 40th anniversary on 2015. It is by far the longest-running theatrical release in history. Can you guess who Susan took to her first midnight showing?

I devise a very scientific point system and break them down by scene and by performance. It's one hell of Horse Race!

It may come as no surprise that Pharrell is a total genius at everything he does. Art collecting is no exception. Mentored by uber-gallerist Emmanuelle Perrotin, he collaborated with artist Daniel Arsham on a set of instrument-themed sculptures modeled after his childhood Casio. I only got to ask him one question, but it was a good one.

I was truly excited slash terrified to interview Ms. Knightley. As I waited outside her suite my palms went clammy, lips dried up, stomach went to pieces while visions of gigantic,18th-century wigs flashed through my head. She is definitely the most eloquent and well-spoken subject I have interviewed to date. After we chatted about her career and her proclivities towards rebellious women, we touched on the ever-simmering controversy of the depiction of women's bodies in the media, herself the center of some controversy at the time.

In the critically acclaimed, stomach-churning NBC show Hannibal, Hugh Dancy plays a mentally unstable criminal profiler. Dancy's credits include Black Hawk Down, Elizabeth I, Confessions of a Shopaholic, Saving Grace, Hysteria, and Evening, the last of which he co-starred with his future wife Claire Danes. She also plays a mentally unstable criminal profiler on Homeland.

High Maintenance is a breakout web series released in 2013 and acquired by HBO two years later. Created by husband and wife team Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld, the non-conventional series features a completely different cast in each episode. The only connection is the pot delivery man played by Sinclair. I had the great fortune of tagging along with Ben, Katja, and actors Max Jenkins and Heléne York (who starred in the episode, “Olivia”) as they enjoyed a frigid St. Patrick’s eve. 

I interviewed the Theory of Everything actor about playing the world’s smartest man, Stephen Hawking (a role that went on to earn him the Academy Award for Best Actor). As Mr. Redmayne’s knowledge of science is rather thin–as is mine–the conversation drifted towards more interesting topics like stage-kissing boys and collecting art, both of which he does with great skill.

The singer BANKS emerged from the Lana Del Ray, Adele musical universe of 2014–white girls singing soulful melancholia with electronic beats. Keeping in fashion with the Millennials, I thought it would be fun to do the interview via text messages instead of over the phone. Who talks on the phone anymore, right? Actually, it's a pretty engaging medium for an interview. 

A veteran stage and television writer in the U.K., Abi is best known to American audiences as the screenwriter for The Iron Lady (which earned Meryl Streep a Best Actress Award), Suffragette, in which she teams up again with Ms. Streep and Carrie Mulligan, and the 2011 noir masterpiece Shame, co-written and directed by Steve McQueen. We got a great shot of her in the exact spot she had Michael Fassbender doing something very naughty.