Jul 1, 2026 · 1 hr 49 min · 12 segments
Join your host Ryan M. Perez as he sits down with actor, writer, and director Macon Blair, known for *Oppenheimer*, *Blue Ruin*, and *Green Room*, to discuss his journey from growing up in Alexandria…
Macon BlairGuest
Ryan PerezHost
Let me, I mean, I mean, if, as soon as I know what's going on in New York, you'll be the first one I let you know.
Like I got some questions written before I do the best, but this has been fucking incredible.
Your research is so thorough and your, your passion is so evident and it's just, it's a treat to get to talk to
Some interesting questions I would love to ask you is like you spent so much of your career telling stories about outsiders and misfits and people on the margins and people who don't always neatly fit into society, which I feel like so much of us actors really are.
What do you think this kind of flock of people understand about the world that the traditional heroes don't?
I think it's like, I think it's from my point of view, why I tend to write those sorts of people is because I'm kind of thinking about it from an empathetic point of view.
Um, maybe not as extreme as whatever it is in the movie, and they're probably not making the choices that are being made in the movie, but that's not the point.
The point is them sort of identifying on some level And I felt like if I wrote characters that were totally dialed in and had it all figured out and had all the correct answers and made all the right moves, that may be cool to watch, but there's a distance there because I don't think that's how most people... see themselves is my assumption.
How would I know? And so I think it's just from a standpoint of wanting the people that are watching the movie to, on some level, feel like that they are connected with these people, that that's the sort of way to do it.
Let me, I mean, I mean, if, as soon as I know what's going on in New York, you'll be the first one I let you know.
Like I got some questions written before I do the best, but this has been fucking incredible.
Your research is so thorough and your, your passion is so evident and it's just, it's a treat to get to talk to
Some interesting questions I would love to ask you is like you spent so much of your career telling stories about outsiders and misfits and people on the margins and people who don't always neatly fit into society, which I feel like so much of us actors really are.
What do you think this kind of flock of people understand about the world that the traditional heroes don't?
I think it's like, I think it's from my point of view, why I tend to write those sorts of people is because I'm kind of thinking about it from an empathetic point of view.
Um, maybe not as extreme as whatever it is in the movie, and they're probably not making the choices that are being made in the movie, but that's not the point.
The point is them sort of identifying on some level And I felt like if I wrote characters that were totally dialed in and had it all figured out and had all the correct answers and made all the right moves, that may be cool to watch, but there's a distance there because I don't think that's how most people... see themselves is my assumption.
How would I know? And so I think it's just from a standpoint of wanting the people that are watching the movie to, on some level, feel like that they are connected with these people, that that's the sort of way to do it.
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