Octavia Spencer, Hannah Waddingham, Tessa Coates, and Matt Miller on Ride or Die and Rewriting the Action-Comedy Rules

0:00 [SPEAKER_00]: It's easy to hear your favorite artist on WFPK from wherever you are. [SPEAKER_00]: Listen on your smart speaker, live stream from our website at WFPK.org from Louisville Public Media. [SPEAKER_01]: And welcome to another edition of Kyle Meredith with it's the interview series presented by WFPK and WFPK.org Consequence and the consequence podcast network.

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0:53 [SPEAKER_01]: The Kyle Meredith with, please do give this series a rating, leave a review, wherever you're listening from, as well. [SPEAKER_01]: We've had some great guest drop them by lately. [SPEAKER_01]: including Kurt Vyle and Kevin Morby. [SPEAKER_01]: They were just here to read Amis to talk about her new record in times of dragons.

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1:33 [SPEAKER_01]: That's me Kyle Mereath. [SPEAKER_01]: Today, going to be talking with Octavia Spencer and Hannah Weddingham, who both are the stars of Ryder Die, as well as the show's creators, Tessa Coats and Matt Miller. [SPEAKER_01]: I'll talk about it here from Ryder Die, it follows [SPEAKER_01]: Best friends Debbie Clayborn play by Octavia Spencer and Judith Burton play by Hannah Weddingham who thought they knew everything about each other except Judith turns out to be an international assassin.

2:01 [SPEAKER_01]: When a mysterious figure emerges from Judith's past and a hit goes horribly wrong, both of their worlds are turned upside down as their force to go on the run together. [SPEAKER_01]: It's a race against time and a road trip across Europe with law enforcement highly trained assassins and some very dangerous criminals at their heels.

2:19 [SPEAKER_01]: Now we're going to start with Hannah and Octavia. [SPEAKER_01]: Hannah of course famous for a Ted Lasso game of thrones, the fall guy, she was a mission impossible eight. [SPEAKER_01]: The woman in Cavantaine, Hocus, Pocus 2, and Octavia Spencer, Oscar winning Octavia Spencer with the help hidden figures, Ma, the Shack, the witches, Thunderforce, just a name, a few there.

2:41 [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to get into Hannah finally getting to throw some punches. [SPEAKER_01]: She's wanted to be an action star for a very long time, and Octavia is going to talk about the relationship they have in this. [SPEAKER_01]: This friendship relationship, as Tessa will say later, you know, it's an action comedy female frontant action comedy, but it's not about the assassin going back for the husband or kid.

3:02 [SPEAKER_01]: It's going back for her friend this time. [SPEAKER_01]: So Octavia is going to really explore what that means and why women deserve more complex roles than just the usual boxes. [SPEAKER_01]: She also, in one of the first episodes, her character tries her best and fails magnificently to do.

3:19 [SPEAKER_01]: an English accent. [SPEAKER_01]: So, I want to ask about that as well, and that's where we're going to start in part one as we talk about Ryder Die on Prime Video. [SPEAKER_01]: It's Kyle and me with Hannah Weddingham and Octavia Spencer. [SPEAKER_03]: Hi! [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, that's a good look at your no.

3:34 [SPEAKER_01]: Got the bowie behind me and everything. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: I guess. [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, it's so great to seeing you all both in this show, um, seriously, you all make the best duo, I swear. [SPEAKER_04]: Hey, thank you. [SPEAKER_01]: There it is right there. [SPEAKER_04]: I was leaving you hanging out.

3:53 [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, I'll start with you like seeing you in these scenes and everything and just being incredible. [SPEAKER_01]: What's what's the best part of being an action star in this show like this? [SPEAKER_03]: that it feels like it's been a long time coming. [SPEAKER_03]: I've wanted to, because of coming from theatre, I've wanted to be more physical.

4:10 [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, maybe not necessarily punchy, but I've wanted to marry my two worlds together so much. [SPEAKER_03]: and push myself physically, so getting the chance to do that with the magnificent Oscar winner that I have to my left and with a crazy crazy script that is so colourful and in place is so dark in [SPEAKER_01]: and that partner, partner to your left there.

4:42 [SPEAKER_01]: It's so great seeing Debbie kind of evolve throughout that series, too, I mean, because she kind of gets to play the Watson a little bit. [SPEAKER_01]: But just like watching you all because, because what it's centered around this friendship of the quote, women of a certain age, which gets the appropriate eye role that it should.

5:01 [SPEAKER_01]: But what does that Octavia, how do you, what do you see that as offering this story? [SPEAKER_04]: I think, you know, we have to celebrate women and no matter what age, it should be speaking to us about the things that are most important and it's the relationships in our lives that feed us, the relationship within our lives that compel us to be the best people that we can be.

5:36 [SPEAKER_04]: I don't want to use betrayal because that's such a tough word, but they're hardships within any relationship, right? [SPEAKER_04]: And I think [SPEAKER_04]: We don't get to see women in such complex roles. [SPEAKER_04]: We're either just the one thing or just the other. [SPEAKER_04]: There are only a few archetypes that women get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to

6:16 [SPEAKER_04]: Hey, Larry, that's a hard day of Judy Denge and all of it. [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's so good. [SPEAKER_04]: No, it's not. [SPEAKER_04]: And can you say, do you know it's not? [SPEAKER_04]: It's not. [SPEAKER_04]: It's not. [SPEAKER_03]: You literally like, okay, wait, it's so inconsistent.

6:34 [SPEAKER_03]: First off, let's just say there is no such thing as a British accent guys. [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's not a British accent English accent English. [SPEAKER_04]: God's sight, but it is it is all over the place because I'm bringing a little beckell it in there, bringing a little hat in there, bringing a little Judy ditch, like all of my favorites, I get to end then, um, Gary Oldman.

7:03 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, you're such a pleasure to talk to you both today about it congrats on this season. [SPEAKER_01]: I so enjoyed it. [SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_01]: And we'll be right back right after this. [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back. [SPEAKER_01]: It's Kyle Manith. [SPEAKER_01]: All right, part two is we talked about Ryder die on Prime.

7:18 [SPEAKER_01]: Now we're going to talk to the actual filmmakers a creator and showrunner. [SPEAKER_01]: Tessa Codes and Matt Miller, Tessa. [SPEAKER_01]: She's a writer, performer, journalist comedian. [SPEAKER_01]: One third of the sketch group, Massive Dad. [SPEAKER_01]: And Matt Miller, he's been a producer on the lethal weapon TV series and Chuck to name a few.

7:37 [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to get into this and talk about how Tessa wanted a female action show where the assassin as we talked about goes back for best friend, not a husband, not a kid. [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to talk about her original Tessa's original idea and turning a buddy comedy set up into an eight episode action movie, giving women [SPEAKER_01]: of a certain age, the kind of kick-ass aspirational roles that they don't get nearly enough.

8:01 [SPEAKER_01]: We're also going to get into the globe-droughting trickery of making Prague stand-in for a half of Europe. [SPEAKER_01]: The opening scene that survived from the very first idea and why Hannah and Octavia's chemistry felt like 20 years of friendship on day one. [SPEAKER_01]: Let's get into his part two of writer-die on [SPEAKER_01]: It's a pleasure to get to meet you and congratulate you on this fantastic series.

8:28 [SPEAKER_01]: Love it every moment of it. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh great. [SPEAKER_01]: Tessa, I'll start with you. [SPEAKER_01]: Take me back to the first version of this. [SPEAKER_01]: What's the idea that brought this one on? [SPEAKER_05]: Um, the very first version of this has a lot of pieces that stayed right till the final version of this, which is quite exciting.

8:45 [SPEAKER_05]: The ski sequence has existed exactly as it is right from day one. [SPEAKER_05]: conceived as wanting to make a female action show. [SPEAKER_05]: That was the remit, and I wanted it to be about a female assassin who goes back for somebody and it not be a husband and it not be a kid, and so she goes back for her best friend.

9:09 [SPEAKER_05]: And so it became this body comedy action adventure, and it's all from all the things I love and all the things that I don't think we get to see enough on screen. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, talking especially with Hannah and Octavia, it was like, you know, of course that that phrase, women of a certain age comes up and I said, it's given the appropriate eye role right from the beginning, but it still allows it to say a lot.

9:32 [SPEAKER_01]: And I think I'm guessing that's sort of what you're getting at as well. [SPEAKER_05]: absolutely like I think they you don't get to see enough women of that age being completely kick ass you know you play like mothers or you know jilted you know no one wants you anymore and your children are grown up and you've been kicked out your job and getting back you like you never see them in like aspirational roles and so that's what I was trying to make and yeah we at the screening last night it was the first time we'd ever [SPEAKER_05]: been in the audience when anyone had seen the show who hadn't made the show, and that got a boo when they when the character says it for the first time, and or a sort of like, oh, noise.

10:09 [SPEAKER_05]: And so that was really heartening that people were responding to that. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, Matt, you know, so maybe there's this choice at some point, you know, can this be a movie or or can it be episodic? [SPEAKER_01]: And luckily there's enough story that you all found there. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, what did you see in it that said, oh, we can take this for a full-aid episodes?

10:28 [SPEAKER_02]: Well, it was always designed to be aid episodes, but I think we structured it almost like a movie, right? [SPEAKER_02]: So, it should feel from beginning to end like you've watched an aid episode movie, but what we did was we made almost every episode in new country. [SPEAKER_02]: So you're on this journey with the two women's, the first two episodes take place in London, but then after that they're on the road and it's the South of France and then Spain and Monica and Switzerland, back to London.

10:58 [SPEAKER_02]: So each episode is almost a chapter in this story. [SPEAKER_01]: Like what is it to to showrun a globe trot like that? [SPEAKER_01]: It's got to be a lot of juggling. [SPEAKER_02]: It's a lot of juggling. [SPEAKER_02]: It's very daunting. [SPEAKER_02]: Now I will say we shot all of those countries.

11:15 [SPEAKER_02]: in Prague, so the Czech Republic was all of those countries, unfortunately on their journey, they didn't ever go through Prague, so we were never able to shoot Prague for Prague, but with the exception of the opening ski sequence, which was shot in Austria, the rest of the entire show was shot in the Czech Republic.

11:36 [SPEAKER_01]: at some movie magic there, man. [SPEAKER_01]: It had me tragic. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, like some carefully placed drone shots with your VFX editor did go to other locations, Monica and other places to kind of get some scope, but the actual filming all took place there. [SPEAKER_01]: And we'll be right back right after this.

11:55 [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back, it's Kyle Manus with Tessa Codes and Matt Miller. [SPEAKER_01]: Tessa, what can you say about the casting here because Octavian Hannah, they're like completely perfect with each other, were they always in the picture or how did you all end up with them? [SPEAKER_05]: They are absolutely extraordinary aren't they?

12:10 [SPEAKER_05]: And they'd also never met before. [SPEAKER_05]: And yet, like day one, the cameras have never knew, oh, these women have known each other 20 years. [SPEAKER_05]: And look at all this history that's immediately apparent in them in their chemistry. [SPEAKER_05]: The, in the early building of the show, very early on Paramount gave me a call and said, we just by chance had lunch with Octavia Spencer today and mentioned purely in conversation.

12:35 [SPEAKER_05]: And she said she wanted to hear more about the show. [SPEAKER_05]: And so I sort of, because at the original, they were both English and it's original inception. [SPEAKER_05]: So I rewrote the character to be American and to be this powerhouse lawyer. [SPEAKER_05]: And then pitched it to Octavia who said, yes, please.

12:53 [SPEAKER_05]: And then several months later, me and Octavia pitched it to Hannah, who also said, yes, please. [SPEAKER_05]: And so it never went to anybody else, it was just always for them and as much as possible over the writing process. [SPEAKER_05]: We tried to make that for their voice as much as possible and their strengths and what they naturally wanted to play.

13:10 [SPEAKER_05]: And they just, but they also, you write it on the page, it lives in your head and then you give it to the actors and then something so much more alive and different than what you're imagining comes to life. [SPEAKER_01]: It is still fantastic. [SPEAKER_01]: Seriously, I enjoyed every bit of it and thanks for taking the time to talk about it.

13:28 [SPEAKER_05]: Thank you so much. [SPEAKER_05]: Love you to me, you. [SPEAKER_01]: And my thanks to Tesaco's Matt Miller, Hannah Weddingham, and Octavia Spencer, Ryder Die on Prime Video. [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks to you for checking out the episode. [SPEAKER_01]: Hit that subscribe button if you're not already before you get out of here to keep up with all the interviews that we put out every single week you can grab as it's Spotify, Apple Podcast, NPR.

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