Mailbag for July 24, 2026
Christopher Nolan hates chairs, do actors supply press junket interviewers with questions, The Rock and flops, Timothée Chalamet's recent nosedives, Netflix’s problems, and processing BTS in concert
Dear Gossips,
One of the best things to come out of the popularity of The Odyssey is how obsessed people are with the details, like the filmmaking details. Because this is not an A.I. movie. Practical effects were mostly used, with minimal CGI. Including Circe’s scene…which I call body horror. That shit was so fucked up it will haunt me forever.
But back to Christopher Nolan and the way he continues to make his movies – and what that has meant, even though it might be temporary, to the conversation about letting real people with real skills make real movies. Here’s my favourite tweet about the way Nolan works, I’m still laughing about it.
He probably would. Better to curse the world with evil spirits than with computers, I guess.
But here’s a thing about Nolan that’s much more divisive. And it’s to do with his now increasingly infamous on-set rules. We already heard about how he supposedly bans chairs on his sets and it was Anne Hathaway who started it a few years ago when she said in an interview that he “doesn’t allow chairs, and his reasoning is, if you have chairs, people will sit, and if they’re sitting, they’re not working”. That was subsequently clarified with Nolan’s rep saying that chairs are allowed for resting but they’re not allowed close to the monitors, something like that.
Still, Anne and Matt Damon joked about the chair thing and the other “Nolan Commandments” during The Odyssey press tour just last week, and in addition to chairs, we now have Uggs that are allegedly not welcome on Nolan’s sets. According to Matt, “He hates Uggs! I think they just symbolize leisure in a way he’s not comfortable with.”
So, Gayle King asked Nolan to clarify – what’s his beef with Uggs? This was his response:
I rolled my eyes at the chair thing and I’m rolling my eyes here at the Uggs – and remember, I LOVE this film. But he exclusively works with the most world class actors in the west – are we seriously saying that their performances wouldn’t be the same if their feet were warm in the moments before “action!”? Thank fuck Jared Leto has never been cast in a Christopher Nolan movie because he would take those commandments so far into absurdity we’d have to hear about his broken feet from all the self-inflicted torture he put himself through to stay in character.
If you’re looking for a better Nolan soundbite, I prefer what he has to say about comedy: that in comparison to what he does, he thinks it’s infinitely more challenging.
No lies there. People equate making people laugh with easy – and that applies not only to direction but also acting. The Academy has historically overlooked comedic films, in every applicable category, when it’s definitely just as high of a degree of difficulty, if not more. Take Will Ferrell, for example, since Nolan loves Talladega Nights so much. Will can do drama and comedy. Will can also perform in live sketch and improv and he works in documentary. Therefore, Will Ferrell is better than Leonardo DiCaprio, I said what I said! And Christopher Nolan might agree.
Time for the mailbag…
Question from Christy:
Question re: the questions asked at press junkets. I saw an Odyssey interview where Tom Holland was asked what was Matt Damon’s favorite movie wrap gift. The answer was a shirt from Brad Pitt’s company that Holland gave Damon and then Damon indicated the shirts were “the best” and mentioned the name of the company. Seemed like more of a planned plug than a random question. Do actors supply press junket interviewers with questions?
Lainey’s Answer:
This, I think, is the interview that Christy is referring to.
I have never, at a press junket, been supplied questions. I’ve been told what topics to avoid but I’ve never been given a question to ask. On certain occasions, but not at junkets, I’ve been asked to submit questions in advance for approval, although that hasn’t happened often and most of the time it’s related to a language difference or someone who is not an actor and is doing interviews for the first time and might have some nerves.
That’s not to say that it doesn’t happen on talk shows, and especially with certain celebrities who have a point they want to make. Here’s an example – last year when Taylor Swift was promoting The Life of a Showgirl she was on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. I think he was doing some kind of fact checking segment with her and asked her about the Super Bowl and whether or not it was true that she turned down the invitation over performance copyright.
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In my opinion, that was agreed to in advance, that he would put that to her and she’d have the opportunity to address the speculation over why she’s yet to do the halftime show. In my opinion, Taylor isn’t so great of an actor that she could have sold that like it was spontaneous.
Anyway, to go back to that Tom Holland and Matt Damon moment where they did Brad Pitt a solid – if you’re playing a game during a junket, that has to be cleared in advance. Oftentimes there’s a “no games allowed” policy so there is no way that Tom and Matt would have gone into that room cold and not have known in advance that they’d be asked to guess each other’s answers. In a situation like this, I’ve seen it go both ways – sometimes the publicist does share the questions with the talent and other times, as long as they’re happy that there are no offensive or problematic questions, they’ll let the game play out without tipping off the stars.
So, was it a planned plug? I don’t think so. I don’t think Tom and Matt conspired to promote Brad Pitt’s clothing or were asked by Brad Pitt to promote his clothing. I might actually respect it if Brad went to the trouble to get his friend Matt to do this because it would go against his carefully cultivated “I’m so fucking cool” image.
For me, the takeaway here is that Brad has gifted those at the elite levels of Hollywood with his clothing brand, maintaining his popularity status among the most popular people in Hollywood to protect his reputation, so that we don’t pay too much attention to the fact that his kids want nothing to do with him and one by one are removing his name from theirs.
Question from Chris:
I’m curious about the live action Moana and The Rock. Was that movie a flop? I’ve read both that it was and wasn’t. The Rock seems to not do well with movies, right? Or at least lately? I follow him on insta and the presence is definitely toned down vs what it once was, is that sheepishness or strategic? I’m curious about how someone who could be categorized as one of the biggest stars on the planet keeps not making great choices/doing good work. Or (and?) is it that audiences just don’t like the live action remakes? Maybe this is just an overall “WTF, The Rock, what’s going on?” type of question.
Sarah’s answer:
Yes, live-action Moana flopped. It’s currently sitting at $186 million against a rumored $250 million budget, and it is not showing signs of good legs to bail it out. Anyone saying it’s not a bad result is carrying water for Disney and/or The Rock.
I think The Rock just overextended himself. He became too ubiquitous in too many corners, constantly shilling some product—not all of which are bad! Some of them are good, actually! But he looks like a giant shill who will sell literally anything!—and releasing a string of increasingly bad movies. He was trying for the kind of market domination that people will eventually buck against. No one likes a shill, and when you’re not even entertaining anymore, then it’s a two-prong problem.
But not unfixable, and I do think Dwayne Johnson is taking steps to fix it. He has pulled back his online presence, and Moana is the only live-action film he’s released since The Smashing Machine in 2025. He’s got a new Jumanji movie expected later this year, which should help as people actually LIKE those movies and he is good and funny in them, and there is the potentially final Fast/Furious movie, Fast Forever, which is currently slated for 2028. He’s got some other stuff in development, but for now, he’s just got those two movies on his slate for sure.
I think slowing down might go against who Dwayne Johnson is as a person, but professionally, he does need to back off a bit and let the audience breathe. He can be a huge star without choking the pipeline with a new movie every six months, and he can be a businessman without looking like a shill. I’m not sure exactly where the line is, but I do have a sense that people naturally turn away from someone who simply does too much selling, so he just needs to sell a little less and let people remember why we like him.
It also won’t hurt for the movies to be good. A well-received Jumanji movie should go a long way in that department. The Rock’s public persona is not unsalvageable; he just overextended and needs a break to reset. Someone else in that boat is Glen Powell, who has been largely silent recently. Letting people miss you is always a good publicity strategy.
Question from Monika:
What’s the pulse on Timmy after all those nosedive results he’s been hit with ? Yenno France losing in world cup now, and then Marty Supreme losing at the academy awards? It’s just flop after flop for the kid. Should we include him in our “thoughts and prayers” at this point 🤡😂🤡We are worried.
Lainey’s Answer:
Timothée Chalamet is in his villain era right now, so I get it that everyone wants to dunk on him but as much fun as it is to dunk on him, calling it a flop after flop isn’t accurate, I’m sorry. He was in the Knicks locker room like a month ago when they won the NBA championship, and the new trailer for Dune 3 that was released two weeks ago was pretty huge. Trust me when I tell you this, because nobody needs to go into those toxic spaces if they don’t have to, but the film bros have been petting their giant erections over Dune 3 for months. And Sarah has noted that it’s not a given that Avengers: Doomsday will crush Dune 3 when both movies open on the same day in December (Sarah: “Dunesday” is stupid and Marvel is asking for trouble by insisting on it). It’s actually looking pretty close – and it’s an interesting Avengers vs avengers of Hollywood cage match happening here. On one side it’s the ensemble superhero cast but on the other there’s Timmy, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Anya Taylor-Joy, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, and Florence Pugh, who’s actually in both.
So, the pulse on Timmy is that in the business, at least, he’s fine. More than fine. When you have a movie like Dune 3 in your back pocket, it’s definitely “fine” over flop. In the public, obviously a different story. He’s certainly not the internet’s boyfriend anymore, social media is still clowning him in some corners. But as I’ve been saying at LaineyGossip for a few months now, I’m not sure that hurts him creatively since his characters lately aren’t meant to be embraced. Paul Atreides in Dune 3 becomes a monster, high on his own supply. It’s more complicated than that but my point is that there may not be much of a disconnect between Timmy’s public reputation and the huge role he has coming up in one of the hugest movies of the year. And that might actually work in his favour.
Question from Margaret:
Sarah - great piece about Netflix’s sudden drop in stock value and the strategy of “audience capture” and milking the customer by making fewer shows but charging more (read here). This really resonated with me. Your thoughts?
Sarah’s answer:
This seems related to Netflix’s “second season problem”, their audience capture kind of sucks, which is what Margaret’s linked article by Ted Gioia is getting at—Netflix’s latest earnings report was “weaker than expected” and the stock market dipped over 10% on that news alone. Hey! Here’s an idea! Let’s not base our entire economy on corporate gambling!
Anyway, my thoughts continue to be that I am not a Business Genius, but the problem facing Netflix, and any subscription-based model including cable TV, was always obvious even to non-geniuses, and that is that there are 1) only so many people interested in your product and 2) only so many people who can afford your product. On balance, you want group 1 to be bigger than group 2. HBO mastered massaging interest vs affordability for decades.
HBO built its reputation on “it’s not TV, it’s HBO”, by delivering a premium entertainment experience for a higher cost, but one so tastefully curated and with such great quality control that people felt the splurge of HBO was worth it. Then, they could capture people from group 2 with limited discount drives and hope they convinced those group 2 folks to stay on board when their rates went up because of the quality of their shows.
The problem with the “line go up” mentality, a stock-oriented philosophy we have seen out of Netflix, and basically every other streamer except Apple TV+ which is operating on that old premium HBO model, is that you will eventually tip the scales in the direction of group 2—your subscription becomes too expensive and too many people cannot afford it. For the record, I am like a decade deep into telling people I don’t see how Netflix doesn’t end up costing $50+ per month, because they clearly tapped out their subscription market years ago and the only way for “line go up” to continue is through price hikes.
With subscriptions slowing as group 2 is tapped out, Netflix and other streamers introduced limited ads, tiered pricing, yadda yadda, and at the same time Netflix, specifically, went on a slashing spree, cancelling shows and destroying audience trust. That means you’re pricing out group 2 while also winnowing away group 1, and now Netflix is in a position to ding everyone’s retirement funds because they can’t retain subscribers that they don’t seem to value in any meaningful way.
My thought is the obvious solution is to look at the old HBO model and balance quality with cost, raising interest while trying to keep group 2 from becoming too large. That might mean producing fewer shows and movies, yes, because part of that equation will be keeping operating costs down, but it will also mean allowing shows to grow audiences over time, and not making subscribers feel like a wet towel to be squeezed dry.
Question from JPH:
Lainey, how was the [BTS] concert?? Tell us all about it!
Lainey’s Answer:
I want to tell you all about it but I’m still processing it, I don’t think I can coherently talk about it yet! It’s been a week and I’m still overstimulated. So, my plan is to write more about the experience after the Toronto shows that are happening the third week of August. Hope that’s OK.
What I can share here, though, is a bit about being with ARMY on that kind of scale in one space with OT7. It was probably the most diverse show I’ve ever been to – and I knew it, intellectually, that BTS’s fans aren’t just one demographic but seeing it in person, all genders, all ethnicities, seeing children and seniors, and not just one or two here and there but so many seemingly disparate groups populating Stade de France, united by love for these seven artists, was the purest most euphoric experience. And then hearing all of them singing in Korean, screaming in Korean, every word to every song, was a fucking trip.
My other takeaway is…what’s the opposite of lonely? A BTS concert is the most UNLONELY space. There were SO many people there who came with a single ticket – we met them on the subway, in the queue for the bathroom, for food, everywhere we went there were people who were there on their own (my friend Hannah is a journalist who can never stop the journalism so she was out here just talking to everyone, that’s how I know this) and who didn’t feel a way about it. They were there without fear, without insecurity, just excitement, and…I know this sounds corny but…the knowledge that they won’t truly be alone, that they aren’t walking in alone. Because BTS will be with them. Sob!
But this is what I saw that night from the stage to the crowd – somehow in that huge stadium, filled with 88,000 people (92,000 on night two), BTS fulfilled a promise that if you come to see them, they will find a way to connect to each and every person there. Jacek is probably either rolling his eyes or screaming with laughter reading this because he is endlessly amused by my obsession with RM, Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook but for me, their magic is real (Jacek: I am not, in fact, but I did call them ‘40+ teenagers’ when Lainey was sending me giddy updates from France). I saw it! I felt it! It’s still vibrating through me. And I’m sorry I’m not capable of putting together more thoughts but I’m still working through this extraordinary thing that I was a part of that, right now, feels bigger than words.
That’s a great thing to aspire to: to build a community that is so welcoming and kind and unlonely. Hopefully we can do this here at The Squawk, and we thank those of you who put in the effort every day in the chats.
Keep squawking and keep gossiping,
Lainey and Sarah
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PS…one more admin note. Substack has been acting up over the last few days when accessing it via web. Chat threads are producing errors and someone just emailed about crashes while trying to log in. If you’ve had any issues and tend to use the web to access chats or the Squawk home page, please try clearing your cache and restart your browser. The app seems fine. In the meantime I have an open ticket with Substack. - Jacek
What a great mailbag! Love that you ended on the question about your BTS experience in Paris. While I do not know their music well or consider myself part of their fan base, it sounds like an inclusive, beautiful thing. 💖
It is similar to how I describe Harry Styles shows. I am going to two in Mexico City next weekend by myself. His fan base is a bit more toxic as a whole, but I have gone by myself to HSLOT shows, and have found them to be super happy, open and welcoming (not as inclusive as I’d hope them to be). As a crazy live music fan, I always makes me happy to hear when women decide to go by themselves! 🤘
Lainey, thank you for sharing your BTS joy. It’s infectious and I can feel it coming through the screen! I cannot wait for the upcoming piece - I fully expect Celine Dion FEELINGS to emerge and I’m here for it.