“Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Talking About Ferris Bueller’s Day Off with our guest, dialect coach William Conacher
In this episode of Movies We Like, Andy Nelson and Pete Wright are joined by renowned dialect coach William Conacher to discuss his fascinating career and the beloved classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Conacher shares his journey from actor to dialect coach, working on projects like The Crown, Spencer, and No Time to Die, and the intricate process of teaching actors to master various accents and dialects.
Conacher delves into the art of breaking down accents into teachable components, the importance of finding authentic speech samples, and the challenges well-known actors face when taking on accents, noting that they often receive more scrutiny and criticism compared to lesser-known actors, even when their accents are executed perfectly. He also shares insights on his role as a dialogue supervisor and the nuances of coaching actors in different languages and time periods.
The discussion touches on Conacher's experience working with actors like Kristen Stewart, Rami Malek, and members of the cast of The Crown, as well as his approach to coaching made-up dialects in films like The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Conacher also explores the diversity of London accents and the influence of ethnicity and culture on speech patterns.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off remains a timeless classic that continues to captivate audiences with its wit, charm, and unforgettable performances. William Conacher's expertise and insights into the world of dialect coaching add a fascinating layer to the appreciation of this beloved film. Join Andy, Pete, and William as they celebrate the enduring appeal of Ferris Bueller's Day Off and explore the art of bringing authentic voices to the screen.
Welcome to Movies We Like • Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Meet Dialect Coach William Conacher
About Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Talking About Ferris Bueller’s Day Off with our guest, dialect coach William Conacher
In this episode of Movies We Like, Andy Nelson and Pete Wright are joined by renowned dialect coach William Conacher to discuss his fascinating career and the beloved classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Conacher shares his journey from actor to dialect coach, working on projects like The Crown, Spencer, and No Time to Die, and the intricate process of teaching actors to master various accents and dialects.
Conacher delves into the art of breaking down accents into teachable components, the importance of finding authentic speech samples, and the challenges well-known actors face when taking on accents, noting that they often receive more scrutiny and criticism compared to lesser-known actors, even when their accents are executed perfectly. He also shares insights on his role as a dialogue supervisor and the nuances of coaching actors in different languages and time periods.
The discussion touches on Conacher's experience working with actors like Kristen Stewart, Rami Malek, and members of the cast of The Crown, as well as his approach to coaching made-up dialects in films like The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Conacher also explores the diversity of London accents and the influence of ethnicity and culture on speech patterns.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off remains a timeless classic that continues to captivate audiences with its wit, charm, and unforgettable performances. William Conacher's expertise and insights into the world of dialect coaching add a fascinating layer to the appreciation of this beloved film. Join Andy, Pete, and William as they celebrate the enduring appeal of Ferris Bueller's Day Off and explore the art of bringing authentic voices to the screen.
Welcome to Movies We Like. Each episode, Andy Nelson and Pete Wright invite a film industry veteran to discuss one of their favorite films. What makes a movie inspirational to a cinematographer or a costume designer? Listen in to hear how these pros watch their favorite films. Part of The Next Reel family of film podcasts.
Andy Nelson:
Welcome to movies we like, part of the True Story FM Entertainment podcast network. I'm Andy Nelson and that over there is Pete Wright.
Pete Wright:
I'm Pete Wright.
Andy Nelson:
Today's episode, we've invited dialect coach William Conacher to talk about Ferris Bueller's Day Off, a movie he likes. William, how are you today?
William Conacher:
Excellent. Thank you.
Andy Nelson:
Well, we are thrilled to have you, here on the show with us to talk about 1st Bueller's Day Off, which is a great, great movie. I can't wait to chat about it with you. Before we jump into that, though, I wanna talk a little bit about you and, being a dialect coach. Like, that whole idea of, like, that path in the industry and in life. Can you talk a little bit about, kind of how you got started?
Andy Nelson:
I it sounds like you studied you went to the school of speech and drama. What was it that said this is an area that I wanna move into?
William Conacher:
So I was an actor originally. Most dialect coaches I know have been, although there are some who've been speech and language therapists or drama teachers, but most I know have been actors. And then that course at Central School of Speech and Drama, you don't train as a dialect coach specifically. You train in voice more generally. And just when I was there, I met another dialect coach who was teaching us who just really inspired me, and I didn't even know what that job was particularly.
William Conacher:
I just thought, oh, right. I didn't know that was a thing, and I can do that. And then really, really soon after I graduated, I was teaching at RADA, or an academy in London, and I stayed there for 8 years, and met some amazing people who kind of took me with them along the way, and, you know, that's how it all got started, really.
Pete Wright:
I look at your IMDB, and it's just littered with some of my favorite properties. And and I'm wondering, Al, how you go about learning the the the dialects that you're teaching others. How does what are the mechanics that go into to that relationship?
William Conacher:
Well, you know, it's really changed. So when I started, which was in 18/76, there was no internet. And I literally used to have to get on like, I once got a bus around the west coast of Ireland just taping people with my minidisc recording as it was then.
Pete Wright:
Oh, sure. You know, just
William Conacher:
going into pubs and just recording people and breaking it down. I did in fact, one of the very first jobs I ever did was called the Rocket Post, and it was set in the Outer Hebrides, which is a, a little group of islands off the west coast of Scotland, where they speak in a very extraordinary way that nobody really knows. And, you know, you just go around trying to meet people recording them. Now it's all on YouTube.
Pete Wright:
Sure. Yeah.
William Conacher:
You can
William Conacher:
get and you can pretty much get any clip you want right on the internet. But, you know, the process, once you've got the sample, is still the same. You break it down into component parts because what you don't want an actor to do is just listen to something and try and copy the whole thing. It's one step at a time. You know, if you're listening for for example, this morning, I was helping an Australian actor with a British accent.
William Conacher:
There was one diphthong, as we call it. That's a vowel made up of 2 different parts. O. O. He hadn't quite heard that right because he was listening to something, and they've got a little overwhelmed and was trying to fix everything and had missed the detail.
William Conacher:
When you get somebody to just go through and just concentrate on one thing, then gradually it falls into place. Once they fix one thing, it tends to be like dominoes, and then it triggers the muscle memory and they go, oh, okay. It feels like this. So it's about breaking it down into very, very small teachable components.
Andy Nelson:
And I imagine, I mean, you know, actors are obviously, hopefully, a a a good group to be working with because they're very used to training themselves, their bodies to to move certain ways, like, the little moments that they they can move and everything, and then I suppose with their mouth as well. But, I mean, I imagine that, like, there is a huge difference. Like, when somebody says, okay, southern accent, for example, we'll just use. But even in the scope of that, there's going to be a big difference between somebody with a Texan accent versus a a Georgian accent versus an Arkansas accent, you know? And so I imagine trying to figure out for you, but then also how to separate that into into each of those.
Andy Nelson:
You know, it is probably quite, quite a trick, especially when they have an idea as to what, okay, a southern accent sounds like.
William Conacher:
Well and and also, there are some it's not just the different regions. It's also the time period.
William Conacher:
So
Andy Nelson:
Sure. Yeah.
William Conacher:
I don't claim to be an
William Conacher:
expert on American accents. There are American coaches who do that much better than me, but it does it does come up.
William Conacher:
I just I accents. There are American coaches who do that much better than me, but it does it does come up. I just did a Kentucky accent with Paul Meskell for, a a project that's gonna come out later this year. I don't really know the Kentucky accent, so I'm absolutely relying reliant on getting the authentic sample and the story set in 1912. So Wow.
William Conacher:
Wow. You know, again, you go you can go on university oral history websites, and there's a whole load of stuff there. So you just have to trust that you've got the right sample and make that your make that your rock, you know, because because if I I personally would get overwhelmed if I was sort of thinking, well, how can I tell the difference between Texas and Kentucky? You know, I just have to find the right the right person to listen to.
Pete Wright:
It's fascinating, though. I mean, you so you say you're not an expert in American accents, but but I I look at your I I look at your catalog, and I'm I'm bouncing around from, you know, Mank to Spencer to no time to die to the peripheral to Oppenheimer. Right? You I wouldn't know from your catalog what your expertise is if there is a regional sort of dialectical expertise. How do you classify yourself?
William Conacher:
Such a good question, which I've never been asked before. I mean, I suppose I try my best not to, is the truth. I I I'd like to think that given access to the most authentic sample, I can teach it regardless of what it is. That's what I'd like to believe. There is a reasonable expectation, especially from people interviewing me in the US, that you might say, well, you must you must know the difference between all the southern accents.
William Conacher:
I just wanna be clear. I don't and don't claim to. Yeah.
Pete Wright:
I neither do we.
Andy Nelson:
The the worst the worst example for me to pull is
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Right?
William Conacher:
But, you know, I I I knew the Oppenheimer voice because there's, a lot of Oppenheimer that you can listen to in making speeches, and we based it on the real one. Mank Ioni did the awesome Wells character, and, you know, there's a lot of awesome Wells you can listen to.
Andy Nelson:
Sure.
William Conacher:
Peripheral that was, we had Chloe Chloe Grace Moretz in that, whose family come from that region. And so there was a lot of access we had to, to to real people to listen to to help Jack Rayner with that accent.
Pete Wright:
And they sounded great.
William Conacher:
It's all about getting the real people.
Andy Nelson:
Well, and it's it's interesting because I I think sometimes people go to films and don't actually know what it is they're hearing or that they they assume that they're hearing something without realizing it's intended to be something else. And I just remember, just as an example, and I don't think this is something that that you worked on, but, Blood Diamond, with Leonardo DiCaprio, I remember people saying, oh, his South African accent is terrible. And then people came out later and said, well, he's not actually even South African. He's, Rhodesian, which I think is now Zimbabwe. So it's like a totally different tone and and, like, that's but I think in people's heads, like, that's the thing that they latch onto is they think that it's something without realizing that, you know, there's there's a whole world of accents out there.
William Conacher:
No. That that happens. And, also, I I think that really well known actors get a bad deal, the things like that. If that hadn't been Leonardo DiCaprio, people wouldn't have been saying that.
Andy Nelson:
Sure. Probably,
William Conacher:
yeah. There's there's a people are waiting to catch people out all the way, so used to somebody's real voice that they're you're going, nah. That can't be it. You know? Yeah.
William Conacher:
She's particularly amazing
William Conacher:
Yeah.
William Conacher:
With accents, I think.
Andy Nelson:
Are there others that, I I've heard Nicole Kidman is somebody who's great at accents. I know you've worked with her in the past. Are there are there particular people that you would say this person just really can latch onto the the fine pieces of an accent?
William Conacher:
The further you go down this road, you tend to work with the people who are really good at accents. Cate Blanchett's amazing in accents. Naomi Watts is amazing in accents. Rami Malek is amazing. I mean, I'm just so lucky with the people that I work with.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Rami Malek was, that was no time to die that you worked on, with And
William Conacher:
Bohemian Rhapsody.
Andy Nelson:
And Bohemian Rhapsody. What what like, what was the accent in no time to die? It you know, it was just kind of for me, it was just like a villain, but it's just like I didn't know that it was a particular accent.
Pete Wright:
Well Yeah. He does sound like a native villain, though.
William Conacher:
At the time at the time, we chose not to talk about it. So I'm not I think I'm allowed to talk about it now. We we actually based it on, Azerbaijan. We didn't wanna we didn't wanna go Russian.
Andy Nelson:
Mhmm. Right.
William Conacher:
And so we we listened to people from Georgia and Azerbaijan and that kind of Caucus region.
Andy Nelson:
Okay.
William Conacher:
And it is a little amorphous. You know, there's Yeah. Right. Not a huge amount to hang your hat on there, but that was a deliberate choice on our
Andy Nelson:
part.
William Conacher:
We we did want to do villain. We were specific, but without really saying to the audience, we are this is from a specific Sure. Nation state. Yeah. So Yeah.
William Conacher:
It sounds like we won there because you didn't know where he was.
Andy Nelson:
No. Yeah. Right.
Pete Wright:
Not a clue. He was terrific.
Andy Nelson:
Oh, that's that's so interesting. Sometimes you also work as a as a dialogue supervisor. And I I know, like, you've worked with Stephen Daldry a number of times, but I noticed, like, on Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, you're credited as having been a dialogue supervisor with Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, and Thomas Horn. It's, you know, American speaking kind of an American accent. What's the job of a dialogue supervisor in something like that?
William Conacher:
Yeah. So I've gotta be honest. That's a slightly made up title, that that that Steven made up for me because it's what we to me as when I'm working on the postproduction as well. I mean, you always do the ADR with the actors, but when there are certain relationships you have with certain directors where you're by their side through the mix
William Conacher:
Mhmm.
William Conacher:
And that's when we refer to me as a dialogue supervisor because he likes me to give an opinion on things that are not just about accents, but about the even the levels of the dialogue and the loop groups. And, the reader was where we really first came up with it because there's a whole apartment just doing the German accents. I I did all the post, and there's a whole level of real German that you can't hear because it's mixed so low. We just did it with the with the crowd.
Andy Nelson:
I see. Okay. You would
William Conacher:
never, as an audience, be able to identify that there's actual German being spoken in a movie where everybody else is speaking English, but it gives a layer of authenticity that you couldn't say why, but it just didn't.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. So you coach you coach did do you coach in other languages besides
William Conacher:
No.
William Conacher:
English? No. Okay. No. You should the the great thing, my age and of my experience is is that you kind of arrive at a point where people are paying you for your taste.
William Conacher:
You know, and I'm not saying that that's that's not a boast, of saying that I have great taste. It's just that I've been around so long that I think, you know, by process of elimination, people trust your taste.
Andy Nelson:
So I and, you know, I suppose that speaks to when you're working on somebody with, like, made up dialects. Like, you know, you also worked with, Peter Dinklage and Ben Barnes in, the Chronicles of Narnia, prince Caspian, and which isn't you know, it's Narnia. Like like, when you're like, is that just, like, we're just gonna come up with something that sounds a little different.
William Conacher:
Funny that that that was I I must be honest. I'm not sure that if if I was doing that movie now, I think I would probably try and be a bit stronger about imposing my supposedly great taste. The the at the time, it was very much Andrew Addison's concept that they, I can't remember the the tribe. I think they're called the Telmarines. Oh, God.
William Conacher:
I might be getting that wrong. But the the the tribe that Ben Barnes is the is the prince of should all have had a kind of Spanish ish accent. And, we spent about 8 weeks getting that ready in New Zealand. Then Andrew, called me one day and said, listen. The all of the, other guys that I'm casting alongside him are gonna be Italian.
William Conacher:
So can we switch to an Italian accent? I said, you know what? I really don't think you can ask him to do that. I've been doing this for so long. Anyway, okay.
William Conacher:
Well, no no one would really know the difference. So we did end up, I must be honest, with a bit of a mishmash of kind of, like, Latin s, accents in the Narnia tribe. And then what really amuses me is that when Michael Apted then directed the next one, which is called Voyage of the Dawn Treader, he hated the accent so much, he said, Just don't do it.
Pete Wright:
You have worked on Spencer, extraordinary
William Conacher:
Yes.
Pete Wright:
Film, and so much work on the crown. I'm curious how you see your work on those properties in terms of sort of the dialects of the royals? Is there additional weight on on the the process because of who they are?
William Conacher:
Definitely. I mean, the crown is a really are? Definitely. I mean, The Crown is a really interesting one because none of us really knew what it was going to be. We knew we wanted to do 6 seasons.
William Conacher:
We knew there was a scope for telling decades' worth of story. But we didn't really know the how to calibrate the voice work, how much of a barrier it might be if they sounded very much like the real people. I was quite keen that they did sound as close to the real people as possible because I thought that it helped with the period. If they sounded like they, if you believed that they were in the 19 fifties, it gave you much more leeway to then tell the rest of the story going forward, because the current Prince William, Prince Curran, Prince of Wales does not have the same accent as the late queen. So, you know, I wanted those differences to be heard.
William Conacher:
But nevertheless, it was a risk, you know, to go quite as far as we did with, especially with Claire Foy and Vanessa Kirby. You know, it's quite, when you look back on it now, you think that's, it was quite bold, what we did, I think, to go that far. But what got easier was that everybody loved it. And so by the time you're doing season 2, 3, and the actors coming into it then went, Oh, good. It's my chance to sound like that.
William Conacher:
The but Spencer, yeah, that's a different thing because that was an American playing Princess Diana. Obviously, there's hurdles there that are different to get over. The fact that the crown already existed, the I mean, I have to say this one. I have done 4 Princess Dianas. I did the Naomi Watts one, the 2 girls who played her in the crown, and the Kristen Stewart one.
William Conacher:
Wow. That's it. There'll be no more
Pete Wright:
So many Dianas. You really cornered the market.
William Conacher:
No no more Dianas. I'd say Spencer probably there was the most riding on that just because there was already such a body of work of people playing Diana. And in fact, it was the Vicky was about
William Conacher:
to
William Conacher:
start right then as well at the same time. So, you know, there was a lot riding. Personally, I think Spencer's a very successful film because it doesn't really try and be as true to life. It's a little bit more of a kind of gothic allegory. Fantastical.
William Conacher:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love that element of that. I have to say it's one of my favorite projects I've ever worked on.
Pete Wright:
She well, I mean, she's transformative in in the role. Like, there's nothing unbelievable, not even that sort of uncanny valley of dialect. Like, I just I'm in the process so much with her in that movie, But what a a screaming success.
William Conacher:
One of the most extraordinary people I've ever worked with. It was a delight from the first day of preps to last day of ADR. She's absolutely wonderful. Anyone anyone who gets a chance to work with Kristen Stewart do it.
Pete Wright:
We'll we'll put the we'll put her on our list. Yeah.
Andy Nelson:
That's right. We do. That's an interesting example because you're also working with a a, Chilean director on that film. And having that as, an additional element in all of that because, you know, Pablo is coming into the film not necessarily having the ear for the accent as much. So, like, in a project like that, I guess, you know, I'd be curious, like, walking through the process.
Andy Nelson:
I'm assuming there's probably quite a period during preproduction where you're working with the actor helping them with the accent. Do you come on to set also, and are you there on set to make sure that that everything's coming out right? And is the director constantly looking to you? Like, did that sound okay? Or
William Conacher:
Yes to all of that. Yeah. Kristen and I started, well, I don't know, at least 3 months before maybe, but I can't remember now, maybe 6 months. And I was with Pablo all the time. We got on so well.
William Conacher:
I mean, I wouldn't say that he was nervous in any way about the way she sounded, but, yeah, he had he'd he would always I mean, not just to me. He's just very, very collaborative director and would look around to anyone who needed to really to say, oh, are we all happy to move on?
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Right. Right. Right. And then and then from that, you're also then potentially involved in post, as you said, with the ADR process coming in to help them.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah.
William Conacher:
That's my favorite part.
Andy Nelson:
Oh, really? Is it is it because it's, just a little more confined and they have time to just kind of focus on just the voice?
William Conacher:
Exactly. There's so much less pressure, and we can have some there's a it's quite fashionable, I think, for directors and actors to say, oh, I hate ADR, but they don't really. It's it's I've seen so many performances improved by ADR. I've seen the actual dialogue improve.
Pete Wright:
They get to show up in sweats and hang out in a nice cozy space for 12 hours.
William Conacher:
Exactly. Yeah. And they don't have to worry about the way they look.
Pete Wright:
Give us a swing, the the most challenging, dialects that you've had to to teach.
William Conacher:
Well, that I mean, nobody's really saw that movie, The Rocket Ghost, but an Outer Hebridean accent is something you can't even believe is English. So that's challenging. I did a film about football hooliganism called Green Street, where all of the cast were authentically London. And Elijah Wood was in it, and he's playing an American, and there's Charlie Hunnam was in it, who was the only non London actor. And, you know, he did a great job, but it's hard when you're amongst a lot of people who are authentic.
William Conacher:
You know, that that was a challenge to to make him, meld with the rest of the rest of the cast.
Pete Wright:
I oh, okay. This brings up something that I I constantly stymied by in when you say they're authentically London. What is authentically London? I to to my ear, there are 1500 unique dialects in and around the London major metropolitan area. How do you even begin to isolate?
Pete Wright:
Because they all seem to have a deep love of their own speech.
William Conacher:
Correct. Correct. I mean, I don't know how many there are. I mean, it certainly it certainly isn't by region.
Pete Wright:
Right.
William Conacher:
It's it's I mean, I think that's that's probably somewhat true in the US as well, isn't it? That that it's not necessarily down regional lines. It's still around cultural lines. Young people tend to speak like other young people who listen to the same kind of music. Or I think
Pete Wright:
Okay. I so I I the only the only sort of parallel that I have is is sort of New York, and a a young New Yorker is going to sound like a New Yorker first. Right?
William Conacher:
Uh-huh.
Pete Wright:
And and you can start to tell the difference between New York and New Jersey. Right? Yeah. I grew up there, but I moved to the city. Right?
Pete Wright:
That kind of a thing. And but but I I don't, like, I don't I don't hear borough level accents when I'm in New York. Right? I don't hear Queens versus Brooklyn versus the Bronx, and I'm not from there. I only did time.
Pete Wright:
But it but, you know, my my ear tends to be fairly flexible. And when I, look at London sort of accents, there it the variety is astounding to me.
William Conacher:
Well, that's true because we have I mean, it's mainly because we have so many different ethnicities and languages that influence it. That's that's mainly what makes everybody sound so so different.
Pete Wright:
What's what is your like, you're speaking in your native accent. Would you call this your birth accent?
William Conacher:
Probably not my birth accent. I was I was raised in the suburbs of London to the south, but because of my job and because I've traveled such a lot, and, you know, it's been a long time since I've been a child. I'm sorry, I probably don't really sound that way anymore. Whenever I go to America, people ask me if I'm Australian.
Andy Nelson:
Really? Interesting. Interesting.
William Conacher:
I think it's not because they actually think I'm Australian. It's just that I don't have the accent that people expect, whatever that is. Yeah. Whatever that is. I don't know.
William Conacher:
I don't know. But say, it's it's pretty pretty regular that I'm asked if I'm Australian.
Andy Nelson:
Well, it is interesting because, like, my my mom is Australian, and she's been here in the states since, I don't know, 1970 or something. But she still has retained a small bit of accent. And and it's it is at a point where oftentimes people can't tell what it is. And I I I feel like a lot of people just throw out Australian as an option when they just don't they it's it's British ish, but I'm not exactly sure what, so we'll just call it Australian.
William Conacher:
I suspect you're right. If if you don't quite fit the bill of the of of what they're expecting, help Right. Yeah. Australian Americans. Yeah.
William Conacher:
Right. Right.
Andy Nelson:
You know, I'm just curious, like, what is the how do you start? Like, when okay. Say say, Pete and I, you're you're gonna be working with us to let's just say, like, Cockney, for example. Where would you start in saying, okay, let's work on helping you work with your Cockney accent? I mean, is it just strict strictly script based?
Andy Nelson:
Do you look at the words on the script? Are you saying, okay, but you need to understand the core essence of how you say certain things first?
William Conacher:
Slightly depends on your level of experience. You know, like if I was starting with literally you from the get go, then no, I wouldn't start with the script. We'd spend, you know, a good half an hour listening to a variety of different Londoners and trying to work out what the common denominators are. There are there are processes that I have with everybody that I find useful for myself. For example, I like to watch.
William Conacher:
And that's the great thing about YouTube. You can watch these people speaking as well. I like to watch and listen. And then I like to just watch with the volume muted. Mhmm.
William Conacher:
See if there's anything physical you can identify about the about the oral posture, the the way they use the lips and the cheeks. Is is there something in that? Probably if we were watching cockneys, Mhmm. You'd you'd notice that compared to an American accent, there's a lot more movement in the jaw. Like, it's a lot more you use your mouth a lot more than the American would.
William Conacher:
So that that would probably be where we start, the physicality of it.
Andy Nelson:
Okay.
William Conacher:
And how that might affect in the cockney accent, particularly the diphthongs. It's o, ow, a, I. That's a great one, actually. Oi.
Pete Wright:
Oi.
William Conacher:
Fly. Fly. Get in the train. No. I'm gonna fly.
Pete Wright:
I'm gonna fly.
William Conacher:
Oh, that's
Andy Nelson:
So this starts sounding Australian in my head, though.
Pete Wright:
I'll be
Andy Nelson:
all goes to Australia.
William Conacher:
I'll just bore you with that because you said fly. Your l is luh, so you're saying fly. But this London l is fly. Fly.
Andy Nelson:
Fly. Fly. Fly. Fly.
William Conacher:
But but in terms of the Fly. It's the same. Like,
Andy Nelson:
that's just fly.
William Conacher:
Australian, fly.
Pete Wright:
Fly. It is The
William Conacher:
only difference is the l.
Andy Nelson:
I I can't do the the fly. That's really hard.
William Conacher:
I know. It's hard. It takes It's hard. It takes a lot of time.
Andy Nelson:
Well, yeah. Because I feel like with the longer jaw, then it's it's more of a full I I feel like it's turning into the Australian. Face
Pete Wright:
it, Andy. You're capable of 2. You're capable of 2 accidents. This one and your mother's Australian.
Andy Nelson:
I've got the Monty Python.
Pete Wright:
Oh, right. We do also
Andy Nelson:
have My British accent is like the Monty Python.
William Conacher:
Hey. There's nothing wrong with that.
Andy Nelson:
Beau British. Right.
William Conacher:
There's nothing wrong with that. I always say when when when I'm working on the dialogue with the actors and they said, do you mind reading the other the other people? I went, I will, but you just need to know that I make separate things, aren't I, Monty Python? So as long as you're as long as you're prepared to play your scenes with Monty Python, that's fine.
William Conacher:
Oh, that's
Andy Nelson:
so funny. It's fantastic.
Pete Wright:
This is just gonna be a question about how your brain works because I'm so interested in sort of neuronal development, about how you keep these things straight. I actually as we're talking, I found a map of British English dialects, and I am surprised to see how small Cockney is just like Black Country and Brummy and Coventry and and Korbi Korbiite. These these tiny little isolated islands I don't
William Conacher:
even know what that one is.
Pete Wright:
It is in the middle of the north end dialect between Cambridge's and West Midlands, north of London. This is it it is
William Conacher:
Wow. Okay. There you go. You see, this is what I mean. I'm not an expert until I'm an expert.
William Conacher:
You know?
Pete Wright:
Until somebody's asked me
William Conacher:
to coach that, and I've gone to find it.
William Conacher:
Right. Right. Right.
Pete Wright:
Who I I understand that. When you think about when you think about accents, particularly when you're working in properties that have, accents that are adjacent to one another but distinctly different, let's just say Australian and Kiwi. Right? How are you able do you have any tricks to be able to get yourself in get get it in your ear from one to the other?
William Conacher:
It isn't really tricks. I mean, the Australian once you know what the difference is between an Australian and a New Zealand accent, you you can never really, you can never really unhear it. Finch, New Zealanders say fush. It's once you know you're listening for vowel sounds. It's like it's like map references.
William Conacher:
Once you've walked north in New York a couple of times, you won't ever go wrong.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Right. You get it.
William Conacher:
Right.
William Conacher:
It's it's
Pete Wright:
it's a grid. Preferences.
William Conacher:
Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.
Pete Wright:
Oh, credit this to Kristen Wiig. I think it was Kristen Wiig who who said she has, whenever she needs to do an Australian accent, she just says, Reese Witherspoon, and that always immediately gets her in into the accent.
William Conacher:
Great. I worked with her I worked with her on, A Boy Called Christmas.
Pete Wright:
What was her what was her accent?
William Conacher:
Kind of comedy British.
Andy Nelson:
Comedy British. Now that's a whole other level of is that kind of moving into the Monty Python realm?
William Conacher:
Oh, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
William Conacher:
Yeah. That's It's a very it's a very, underrated cute movie that I think. A Boy Called Christmas is very good. Have not seen it.
Andy Nelson:
Okay. What is the, you know, the the trick in, I can't remember the movie, but where they're talking about Michael Caine and how you say his name is you say my cocaine, Michael Caine, and that's, like, how he says his name. But, like, that's that little
William Conacher:
I don't know if you've ever seen that.
Andy Nelson:
Okay. Well, it's a but it's funny because, like, that's how I get my head, like, Michael Caine's accent into my head, Michael Caine.
William Conacher:
You you wouldn't say the l? Yeah. Michael Caine. Yeah. Oh my god.
William Conacher:
It works.
Pete Wright:
You didn't know this was a learning podcast, did Jamal?
William Conacher:
Oh, I'm so glad it is. I'm always happy to learn new things.
Andy Nelson:
So funny. It's so funny.
Pete Wright:
One more. I I yeah. As much as I want this not to be, we'll turn to Ferris Bueller and and not make this just a litany of your credits. But one of the things that we we have done on this show or on one of the other shows we do, the next reel is, a an entire series on the movies of Robin Hood. And you worked on the 2018 Robin Hood, and I am so curious Okay.
Pete Wright:
Your take. Okay. I'll I'll stop. I'll stop and let you go.
William Conacher:
Well, no. No. No. No. To be fair to myself, I I I worked for a week, movie.
William Conacher:
Not a
Andy Nelson:
lot of time.
William Conacher:
To no. Not a lot of time. I was this is the honest truth. I was asked by Jamie Dornan, who I've worked with a number of times, to help him. And then when I got there, he he pretty much decided with the director to just do his own voice.
Andy Nelson:
Oh, okay.
William Conacher:
And then I met Taryn for about 2 and a half minutes, and we both agreed that he was marvelous and didn't need any help. And, but I think there were other people I met who I had a really lovely time. Like, I spent the afternoon mucking around with Jamie Fox and his and his accent. He is one of the most delightful people I've ever met as well. So playful and fun.
William Conacher:
And that is also where I met Ben Mendelsohn and also for about 3 minutes. And I also met Eve Hewson, who I have gone on to do an awful lot of work with. Actually, Eve Hewson, is, Bono's daughter, a great actor. And she has this very successful show, Bad Sisters, on Apple, in which she's tremendous. And, a beautiful movie called Flora and Her Son.
William Conacher:
What's she been doing now?
Andy Nelson:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. The, John Carney. Yeah. John Carney's movies?
Andy Nelson:
Yeah.
William Conacher:
Yeah. So, I had a lovely time, working at Robin Hood. But in terms of, like In terms
Pete Wright:
of it was because it was more of a tourist visa to the set. Yeah.
William Conacher:
To be honest, yeah. I mean, it was quite ill fated, that movie. I can't remember all the things that happened, but I think at one point their set burned burned down.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. It was trouble.
William Conacher:
I think all sorts of things Yeah. Went wrong for them from that movie.
Pete Wright:
Well, everything,
William Conacher:
the best Robin Hood movie is unquestionably the Disney cartoon waiting for.
Andy Nelson:
1970. Yeah.
William Conacher:
That's that's easily the best Robin.
Pete Wright:
The canonical truth. Although Perry
Andy Nelson:
always does have the line, you know, I'm the only one who get who can speak British, which I always thought was very funny in, Robin hood men in tights. So well, yeah, this has been, such an interesting journey into, language and the and the way that you work with people with dialect. But let's shift our attention to the movie that brought us here and brought us together. Ferris Bueller's Day Off, directed by John Hughes.
Trailer:
I said it before and I'll say it again. Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while. You could miss it.
William Conacher:
What is so dangerous about like Ferris Bueller is he gives good kids bad ideas.
Trailer:
Why should he get to skip school when everybody else has to go? Sympheletic meningitis.
Pete Wright:
He never gets caught.
Trailer:
This guy in my biology class said that if Ferris dies, dies, he's giving his eyes to Stevie Wonder. Well, he's very popular, Ed.
Pete Wright:
I recall a central park in fall. Ferris Bueller,
William Conacher:
do you know? Yeah. He's getting me out of summer school.
Trailer:
They think he's a righteous dude. Think he'll be alive this weekend? I can see him denying popular belief, setting off on some impossible mission.
William Conacher:
Jeopardizes my ability to effectively govern this student body.
Trailer:
He does whatever he wants.
Pete Wright:
You know, as long as I've known him, everything works
William Conacher:
for him.
Trailer:
Whatever he wants. He's very cool, and he never gets nailed.
Pete Wright:
Ferris can do anything.
Trailer:
Oh, he's such a sweetie.
William Conacher:
Wake up and smell the coffee, missus Bueller. It's a fool's paradise. He is just leading you down the firm roast path. Matthew Broderick. Bueller.
William Conacher:
Ferris Bueller. Ferris Bueller's day off because life is too beautiful a thing to waste.
Andy Nelson:
This is a a fantastic film. 1986, this film came out. Do you remember your first time, like, coming to this film and, like, and why it stuck with you?
William Conacher:
Not really. I feel like I've seen it so many times. It's been part of my life. Let's see, how old was I in 1986, 18? I honestly can't remember the first time I saw it, but I just feel like it was part of that era, Breakfast Club, and it was, those 1980s movies that were so funny.
William Conacher:
I can't remember the
William Conacher:
first time I saw it. No. But, yeah, it's part it's absolutely part of the infrastructure of my movie life.
Pete Wright:
Is there anything in here related to dialect work that sparks interest in you in this movie?
William Conacher:
Absolutely none. Okay.
Pete Wright:
I was worried a little bit that we were gonna come in here and get ready for a dissertation, a treatise on the variant dialects in and around Chicago.
William Conacher:
I'm afraid not. I just love those. Although, actually, I was a bit geeky because, I can in a way that I absolutely didn't do in 1986. But when I was watching it again, to get ready to speak to you today, I thought, oh, Alan Ruck really has a has an accent. And, he's from Ohio, I saw.
William Conacher:
So I can I can hear that now in a way that I didn't in 1986? What I I think that I love there's so many things I love about that movie, but I just love characters speaking directly to the audience. It's one of my it's just one of my favorite things. I just don't I don't think you see it often enough. And I love it that it's he's so disciplined because it's, it's very important that it's only Ferris who does it.
William Conacher:
Lots of those characters speak to themselves, like principal forgot his name.
Pete Wright:
Rooney. Yeah.
William Conacher:
Rooney, thank you. And Cameron speaks to himself. But they but they're genuinely speaking to themselves for real, kind of musing, whereas Ferris directly addresses us, and I just love that.
Pete Wright:
And and the the fact that he does it in a way throughout the movie, not just to to talk to us, but to use us as a witness to bear witness to the things that he's doing. The the the sequence around the hot tub is is perfect, you know, when when he is he he's having the argument with Cameron and and, you know, did you did you see what did you see today? Nothing good. He looks at the camera and doesn't even say anything. He's like, can you believe what you're hearing right now is
William Conacher:
Yeah.
Pete Wright:
Just such precision character work.
William Conacher:
And and Roderick's genius at it.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Because, you know, for some people, like, looking into the lens is not an easy thing. Like, it is it is a strange thing to have to look into that eye that is just staring at you. And it it can be a little uncomfortable. And being the one who's constantly interacting with it and looking at it and it's like, it's your, you know, compatriot, your your, as you said, your witness, it is like so natural for him to do often throughout the film.
Andy Nelson:
Like, from the get go, he's doing it all the way to after the credits.
William Conacher:
And and I love it that I don't know. It just makes the character so you know, like in voice over, it's used in opera. There's a the the sort of accepted wisdom of voice over is ever since Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven film is that voice over should be distanced. It's a non emotional, uninvolved voice, which I which I think is right. But the great thing is it the the speaking directly in the second circle to the camera is both voice over and character and emotional.
William Conacher:
You it has so much scope. It it's a great tool. Shouldn't do more.
Andy Nelson:
I think a lot of that also speaks to how, effortlessly it feels that John Hughes actually directs comedy. Like, with the camera throughout this, like, I really was noticing on this watch just how funny the way that his camera work is. Like, whether it's a perfectly timed close-up or or just the right pan to a particular thing happening. Like, John Hughes gets it into the right place at the right time.
William Conacher:
There there there's so many funny push ins and things that maybe we're used to seeing now, but my favorite camerawork is where that you don't see Rooney until they they linger for ages just on his nameplate on the desk. And you hear him on the phone, but you just you just know what's coming just because of that nameplate.
William Conacher:
Yeah.
William Conacher:
Yeah. It's a very, very clever film.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Really is. You know, it's funny. When I first saw this, I was a little bit of the person who looked at, like, ditching school as, like, such a you know, you shouldn't do that. Like, I was I like, I had a hard time getting into this movie when I was younger, and it wasn't until I was older that I really was, like, I I could get it, and I could appreciate what the film is doing.
Andy Nelson:
But now, like, watching it, I also really was feeling like there is this element to this story about Farris also being fairly intuitive with his friend. Alan Ruck's character is going through a lot of hard times right now. His his parents are fighting in divorce. He clearly is having issues with his his dad. He seems, especially as we kind of get toward the end, like, is there this element of suicidal nature to him?
Andy Nelson:
And there's this part of the story that I really found just really touching in the way that Farris almost, like, recognizes that and and decides to take this day off. I I know he doesn't come out and say it ever, but it's really like, I wanna be there for Cameron and give him this day to really show what joy there is in life. And there is something there's this element to that that I guess I really hadn't clicked with before, but I found it this time. And it's just like I don't know. It just I found it so much more of an important message on this watch.
William Conacher:
And don't you think it's a real it's a running theme in John Hughes' work in the writing and the films that it it it leads you into thinking that it's about children outwitting adults, that, ultimately, it's about children learning something about their relationship with each other.
William Conacher:
Right. I mean, it's
William Conacher:
kind of the same as Verlo, isn't it? You know? Look.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Certainly. Congratulations.
William Conacher:
Speaks to it all the time. He speaks to the camera all the time, and you think it's about him getting one over on Joe Pesci and those guys, but, actually, ultimately, it's about him learning about his own relationship to his family. Yeah. It's the same thing in Ferris.
Pete Wright:
And his individuation. Right? What he's capable of. And in Ferris Bueller, you know, he's he already knows what he's capable of as a person. Like, he initiates all of these things because he has such supreme confidence.
Pete Wright:
But Cameron and Sloan don't yet. Right? They're dragged along and realize as a result of this wonderful day what they are capable of seeing in the world of the joy of the independence of the in Cameron's case, confrontation and ownership of his identity with his father that we never see play out, you know, which is, I guess, great, but there's a little insidious part of me that wants that movie too. Like, I'd love to see Cameron individuate properly from his dad and but this I mean, so much of this movie is about them coming to terms with who they are as young adults.
William Conacher:
And you don't see that coming. I don't
Andy Nelson:
think No.
William Conacher:
You you
William Conacher:
that that it's it's really quite dark, that same with Cameron kicking the car. And and Yeah. In a way that I'd forgotten how yeah. It's it's really quite upsetting in a way that I could never guess was coming.
Pete Wright:
There's a there that's another, sort of sleight of hand trick that John Hughes is capable of doing, unlike so many other writer directors, which is to take something, tell a very true dark story, and have us all remember it as a comedy. Reference the breakfast club. The breakfast club is an is an incredibly dark movie.
William Conacher:
It's very dark.
Pete Wright:
And yet we remember it from our youth as like, oh, it was funny. It was about kids in detention. Same thing with this movie. Oh, it's about Ferris Bueller, and he's in the parade, and he's doing funny things, and there's a great montage. And and, oh, also, it's about a a suicidal kid who doesn't understand how to relate to his dad.
William Conacher:
Yeah. Very, very genius filmmaker. Break Breakfast Hub is is dark, though. Like
Pete Wright:
Right. It's proper dark. Right.
William Conacher:
Yeah. Yeah.
Andy Nelson:
That one yeah. It definitely goes down a much darker road.
William Conacher:
Yeah. Yeah.
Andy Nelson:
But, you know, what I what I really enjoy just about the the the craftsmanship of this is, like, we're given Ferris and his story as he's like, I'm gonna take this day off. I'm gonna get Cameron involved. We're gonna hang out. I wanna get, my my girlfriend over here so that Sloan is hanging out with us too. But then we also have, like, these these other elements of the story that I enjoy so much, and particularly his sister.
Andy Nelson:
I really love Jennifer Gray, as Jeanie, who's her quest is to bring her brother down. And she's, like, so mad that he always gets away with everything and, like, she's gonna, like, what can I do to do that? And it builds, like because you got that story, and then you also have, principal Rooney or the dean of students, I should say, as the one who's like, I'm gonna finally get this kid. And I love how it all builds to that final moment, at the back of the house when when he, you know, he catches Ferris finally, and then his sister, like, that's that final moment where his sister is able to, like, be there for her brother. And it's just like, what a moment.
Andy Nelson:
Like, she had been so ready to get him caught by the parents. And then that final moment, she And
William Conacher:
she realizes why. Why? What what would it be for her?
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Right. And it's just, like, what a touching moment between the brother and sister. And that's like, that's it. That was the final moment that we have between the 2 of them, but it's just like, it was such a perfect moment as she, like, lets him go back into the house to to get into bed.
Pete Wright:
Well, lest we forget the lead into that, which I think is is possibly one of the best lessons of this movie, which is in the police department where she's having that conversation with the drug addled,
Trailer:
Camelot Sheen.
Pete Wright:
Charlie Sheen, right, which is him playing the ghost of Christmas future. So, this this line, everybody else has to go to school. Well, you could ditch. I'd get caught. Yes.
Pete Wright:
You're pissed because he ditches and doesn't get cost caught. Is that it? Basically, your problem is you worry about yourself, not about what your brother does. That's just an opinion. Right?
Pete Wright:
That lesson right there is a central lesson to the movie, which is, like, your I you get a to own your own identity. You don't have to make your identity slavishly tied to your brother just because he's, what, more popular than you. Why do you have to do that? That allows so much of the family rebuilding at the end of this movie between siblings that I I mean, I just find it as an only child, I find it incredibly moving and aspirational that I'm sure all of my siblings would be like that.
William Conacher:
Well, that's what it's about. The movie's about individuality. Yeah. And I I I have to say, I was also struck on this rewatch by how genius the costume is. The costume design is so clever, just from that, you know, that robe he's in at the beginning and the way he puts his hair in the hotel who's coming down the corridor and the fact that he's wearing that sweater vest all the way through, and then suddenly you realize that when he gets on the carnival flight with the German girls, their costume colors are the same.
William Conacher:
You think, oh
Pete Wright:
my god.
William Conacher:
It's so clever. Yeah.
Pete Wright:
For sure. And and Jeannie too is like is like a a staple of the nineties. Right? She's she's got her Nikes and her kind of, like, puffy socks or leg warmer y type things and the tights and the colors and everything just feels so, embodied in nineties pop culture.
Andy Nelson:
Eighties, I would say. Eighties. Yeah. Right.
William Conacher:
What am I
William Conacher:
talking about?
Andy Nelson:
They they all they they each definitely have that. Right? Like, they all feel they're wearing elements that just feel kind of of that era. And it just feels it feels like the things that youth would be wearing. And but it also feels so casual, but you're right.
Andy Nelson:
When Ferris ends up on the on the float and everything, he ends up feeling, like, naturally a part of it. And that's it's it's kind of perfect.
William Conacher:
So clever.
Andy Nelson:
And weirdly, you can also buy him as the sausage king of Chicago. Like, it's like there's something about that attitude that is with the the outfit that is the sort of thing that you would say, sure. Okay. Yeah.
William Conacher:
That that's probably his boldest moment, isn't it, when he doesn't back down there?
Andy Nelson:
Well, yeah, clearly, it's a it's a shock to Sloan and Cameron because they're like, no. No. No. Let's just go. What you're you're pushing it too far.
Andy Nelson:
But, yeah, really interesting. And it's one of those moments where you're kind of like, okay, this scene is going to end with the actual sausage king of Chicago coming in at some point, and it doesn't happen. And I found that so interesting that that John Hughes didn't feel he needed to give that to us. Like, we actually, like, they obviously have lunch and leave. Like, I guess the sausage king never actually showed up for his lunch.
Andy Nelson:
And is it the and the scene
William Conacher:
for that meal.
Andy Nelson:
Well, I was wondering that we don't get to see that, but, but at the end, the the whole scene ends with him trying to hide from his dad who's, you know, as we find out is also his favorite restaurant, but which was a shift. So I enjoyed the way that that plays.
Pete Wright:
Those those, that's another awesome bit of sleight of hand, the number of times that they duck out from under seeing dad and mom around town. Right? The in the cab and and at the restaurant, it's all it's all perfect.
Andy Nelson:
And when he's racing home. And racing home.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Classic.
William Conacher:
Home 1 is a bit of a stretch.
Pete Wright:
You think? Yeah. That she never looks up?
William Conacher:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Well, and, also, when he's running right next
William Conacher:
to dad and and is like, dad's that one. That one. Yeah. Yeah.
William Conacher:
But by then, you're so in love with the movie. You just you know, nothing you can do no wrong.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Exactly.
Pete Wright:
In love with with mom and dad. They're just sort of daffy, addled, kind of like, that that's the John Hughes adult. Right? It's they're just they're not completely present, but they're present enough to be loving.
William Conacher:
And it's really helped by the music. They have their own theme every time. There's sort of
Trailer:
a
William Conacher:
book kind of
Andy Nelson:
It's it's exactly. It's that loving love.
William Conacher:
It's so clever.
Andy Nelson:
Right. But, you know, what I love about John Hughes, like, the parents in John Hughes films, well, not maybe not all of them. I think Breakfast Club, we don't really get to see them, but they're not necessarily this type of parent. But when you think of the parents here or something like 16 Candles, the parents do kind of have that daffy sense about them, but there is this sense of truly loving their kid and wanting to do what's best for their kid. And even home alone.
Andy Nelson:
Right? It's like we we have this sense of mom and dad here as, okay. Sure. Ferris is kind of pulling one over on them in a very elaborate way when you get to see it when mom comes home. But it's clear how much they actually love their kids, you know, and and there is this sense of a a real relationship with them, you know, just wanting to kind of create a good life for them.
Andy Nelson:
And I I do enjoy that of of how what John Hughes does with the parents when they do pop up in the films.
William Conacher:
Yes. Because if they were, you wouldn't enjoy the child's cleverness and wailiness if they'd come from from a bad home.
William Conacher:
Right.
William Conacher:
So much, would you? I don't I don't I don't know.
Pete Wright:
It would just be sad.
William Conacher:
Isn't it just he's just saying have not yet accepted that there is a way to do things. They're still asking questions. They're still saying, but why does it have to be like this? Why do I have to do that? That that isn't that that's what it's about.
William Conacher:
I think all these, all of the children in his movies are just not accepting that there has to be a way to do things, and they're gonna find their own way.
Andy Nelson:
I think finding their yeah. That's a that's a a good way of looking at it. Because, like, Ferris has that bit about school, and he's just like, you know, European history is like, I'm not even European. Like like, he's got, like, this view of, like, why he shouldn't have to do that test. And, you know, sure, some people will actually latch onto that and want to become a historian and really kind of go down that path.
Andy Nelson:
But it is interesting how there are so many different things that that you, end up kind of having classes for over all the years of school that you do that, most of it, you're not going to really be using at any point. And it's you're right. It's there is this level of kids figuring themselves out. And, like, what is it that I want to really be, using out of all of this in my life?
William Conacher:
I mean, I suppose it is worth saying, you know, in the context of today, it is, rather privileged middle class kids.
Andy Nelson:
Rather. Yes. Well, that's very true.
William Conacher:
If you come from that kind of money, you know, maybe your test doesn't matter quite so much. Yeah. I think Ferris's future was fairly assured, and, you know, that house in Home Alone is something else.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Oh, yeah. That that's that's John Hughes' money. Right? Like, that's John Hughes' identity is is writing things.
Pete Wright:
Pretty in pink, same thing. Like, that's
William Conacher:
Yeah. Yeah.
Pete Wright:
That's just who these things are. You kinda sorta have to accept that even National Lampoon's Vacation, right, is a a fake Christmas Vacation is a is a a classic of the, like, rich suburbanite who, you know, oof.
William Conacher:
Yeah. Just making it less enjoyable, but, you know
Pete Wright:
No. But it's good to be aware.
William Conacher:
Of today, it is worth worth, not feeling too worried about Ferris' future.
Pete Wright:
Right. He's going to be fine. Yeah. Right.
Andy Nelson:
Well, I suppose that also, that's one of those elements that, you don't see tackled often enough in his films, but Breakfast Club really does stand out in that regard as the one where he's he's really looking at all of these different groups in high school from different backgrounds. And yet at the at the core, they all are, you know, teenagers trying to figure life out.
William Conacher:
Absolutely.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. I don't have the the list of names right off the top of my head, but the the economics classroom, Ben Stein's classroom, is a who's who of faces that have gone on to other things, like not the least of which is Simone Christie Swanson, who plays, I think one of the iconic bit roles in this movie just because she gets some, great line and, you know, ends up as Buffy. Weird.
William Conacher:
And and how well cast are those teachers? Like, the good groaning. It's so genius.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Yeah. It it was really funny to, you know, eventually have Ben Stein have his own game show, like, win Ben Stein's money because, like, I was like, god. He he he was this character. Like, I didn't think of him as anything else other than Bueller Bueller.
Andy Nelson:
Like, that's just and and that became iconic. Like, you could just like, in class, you would just like, teachers would be calling names and somebody would go Bueller. Like, it's
Pete Wright:
My understanding, is that is that Ben Stein, he was such a wonk in the sixties. Right? I mean, and and worked for Nixon and was a classmate with Carl Bernstein. And, like, he was a speech writer, right, a Republican, conservative speech writer. And my understanding was so much of his economics, like, he just did that.
Pete Wright:
I think he was that was, like, what he would be teaching if he were teaching that high school class, and that's one of the things that makes it so funny. Yeah. No. He graduated from Columbia, with honors in economics and, was valedictorian of the 19 of his class in in Yale Law School. So he's he's right brilliant in in in his own right and also ends up being one of the most entertaining, you know, sort of comic straight men actors that you know, of the era.
William Conacher:
That's gotta be one of the most unusual journeys.
William Conacher:
Yeah. Yeah.
Andy Nelson:
Right? Yeah. Truly. Another regular that we have, with John Hughes is, Edie McClurg, who is the, is the secretary for, for Dean Rooney, who is, like, she is just like, generally, my brain goes to Planes, Trains, and Automobiles with her and her whole scene that she does with Steve Martin. But this movie, like, I I forgot how much I enjoyed the relationship between, her and Rooney as far as, like, the way that he would just have these little, like, nasty cuts toward her for being such an idiot and a and a dingbat sometimes, and the way that she just so casually plays it.
Andy Nelson:
Like, she plays that kind of dingy secretary stereotype to a tee.
William Conacher:
Except she's not. That that I mean, that that's one of the fun things about that character is that it lulls you into thinking she's gonna be an idiot. Yeah. She's not at all.
Pete Wright:
Right. Right. She sees around every corner.
William Conacher:
Yeah.
Andy Nelson:
Well, that's what's so interesting. He's the dean of students, but she is so in tune with everything that's actually going on. Like, that's what is really interesting with her character. It's like she knows who's hanging out with who and it's got the whole lay of the land.
William Conacher:
Absolutely.
Andy Nelson:
Let's see. We've talked about, a wide array of the cast. Jeffrey Jones, is an interesting certainly a troubled person at this point in time, but he was kind of that face of Rooney that that, I don't know. His role in a lot of these types of films, I think just kind of like this film became so iconic for him. But just like he's one of those people that I always think of in a lot of these eighties properties like this and Beetlejuice.
Andy Nelson:
And, I don't know. There's it's, even going into, like, not so great movies like Howard the Duck, but it's like there's something about the way that he would perform and just like he it's he it's clear he revels in being the antagonist in this film.
William Conacher:
Absolutely. But he he he plays it so beautifully. He doesn't ever cross into that kind of mustache twirling element. It's the the dilemma feels very, very real for him, always.
Pete Wright:
The the parallel story for Jeanne and and principal Rooney is the the fascinating one because she's the child, and yet she learns the lesson of, like, being able to focus on herself that he never learns because of adulting. Right? He's in a position where he has to be a, you know, a a completely zealous kind of authoritarian in his own mind. Right? And he can't Mhmm.
Pete Wright:
He can't get over the fact that this one student has just gotten under his skin, just like Jeannie has to get over the fact that her brother got under her skin. And I, you know, I I think that's that's really fascinating. Another John Hughes that we're talking about. Right? Giving the the child the chance to outgrow the adult on screen.
Pete Wright:
I think that's, you know, this is the too
William Conacher:
late for Rooney. Right?
Pete Wright:
It's too late for Rooney.
William Conacher:
No. He doesn't he doesn't learn.
Pete Wright:
He doesn't get to. He doesn't get to. So this movie is like a testament to, you know, we are who they grow beyond. Right? Like, that's that's John Hughes' stock and trade and
Andy Nelson:
That's a great
William Conacher:
way of putting it. Yeah.
Pete Wright:
Rooney is the is the testament to that.
William Conacher:
Say that again.
Pete Wright:
I stole it. It's from Star Wars. It's a Yoda line who who he says it to Luke in in the, in the last star wars movie. He's they're looking at the tree burning, and he says, we are who they grow beyond. Right?
Pete Wright:
Like and and that is, like, that's an anthem line. Right? That's that's why that's what parents do and and, such a great way to find peace. Yeah.
William Conacher:
Let's revisit that Star Wars movie. It's obviously better than I thought.
Pete Wright:
Well, there's a scene that you could revisit. Let's be let's be honest. I'm sure it's on YouTube. I'll send
William Conacher:
it to you.
William Conacher:
Right. Yes.
Pete Wright:
Ferris Bueller, Andy, tell me it won all the awards.
Andy Nelson:
This was not one of those movies that, you think of as an awards winner, like, when it comes time to the award circles. Granted, it's 1986, not nearly as many awards categories. It had 3 wins with one other nomination. At the Golden Globes, this was the, only award at the time of its release, Was the best performance by an actor in a comedy or musical for Matthew Broderick, but he lost to Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee.
Pete Wright:
No. I no. Flag on the field. Sweet holy Jesus, Andy.
Andy Nelson:
It is what it is. What can I say?
Pete Wright:
Paul Hogan.
Andy Nelson:
You know,
William Conacher:
that's not enough.
Pete Wright:
It was a funny it was a funny movie. Who's talking about Crocodile Dundee today? Who is it?
William Conacher:
I don't know.
Pete Wright:
Besides your mother.
Andy Nelson:
At the National, Film Preservation Board. See, that was the only one at the time of its release. So these other ones, like 2014, the National Film Preservation Board listed it on its registry of films. And then in 2021, the Online Film and Television Association, put it in their film hall of fame. And, likewise, in 2024, they put, Ferris Bueller in their character hall of fame.
Andy Nelson:
So, so but that's it. That's it for awards.
Pete Wright:
One of the no. There's one more award that you missed, and it is it it's really important. It is the award of best pop punk ska band based on a film, and that is the the classic Save Farris, which I listened to a lot. Save Farris, the band. Were you a Save Farris fan?
Pete Wright:
That's funny.
Andy Nelson:
No. I wasn't.
Pete Wright:
Oh, tote you totally should've been. This was back when it was cool to like ska, and I was that I was that guy. So I loved Save Farris, and they're back now. They they're back. They took a they they broke up, and in 2017, 16, 17, they came back, and and we're all better for it.
Andy Nelson:
I think that's the truth. Interesting. I didn't know they came back.
Pete Wright:
They came back, Andy. Wow.
William Conacher:
How'd it
Pete Wright:
do at the, at the box office? So it didn't win the awards. Did it win all the money?
Andy Nelson:
Well, it did. For Ferris, John Hughes had a budget of 5,000,000 or almost 14a half million in today's dollars. The movie premiered June 11, 1986 opposite Back to School, The Manhattan Project, and the limited release of Mona Lisa. Ferris couldn't quite push ahead of Rodney Dangerfield and landed in the number 2 spot for its opening weekend, and it never got higher than that. Still, it was a hit at the box office, earning 70,100,000 domestically and 576,000 internationally for a total gross of 204,400,000 in today's dollars.
Andy Nelson:
That landed the film in the number 10 spot in the highest grossing films domestically of 1986. All told, it ended up with an adjusted profit per finished minute of $1,800,000.
Pete Wright:
I love back to school, but not talking about that one today either.
Andy Nelson:
Sorry, Rodney.
Pete Wright:
Just saying crocodile done.
Andy Nelson:
You know, I mean, so much of this movie has become iconic. I think hearing yellow's oh, yeah, is another of those iconic bits. That that became like an almost like an anthem through the eighties and even into the nineties. Like, it's so defining of, like, when you hear it starting up, you know?
Pete Wright:
Yeah. It's it's amazing. The entire soundtrack is amazing. Right? Like it, this was, it's one of those movies that used the soundtrack of the music I was listening to at the time.
Pete Wright:
So that we get yellow, we get Ziggy Ziggy Sputnik. We get big audio dynamite. We get a bunch of dream academy, which is fantastic. We get the Smiths. We get, like, those were the with the exception of Wayne Newton, those were the songs I was listening to.
Pete Wright:
And, so it it felt like, oh, they made this movie for me. Right? How much how much, you know, credibility this movie has because it was speaking the musical language of of me, a kid who was kind of at that point.
William Conacher:
He's a little Brit, isn't he? Yeah.
Andy Nelson:
Right. And you have to admit, even if you weren't if Wayne Newton wasn't in your musical library at the time, at least after this film, you were probably singing Donker Ching.
William Conacher:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Andy Nelson:
No. It is it's fantastic. It's a great soundtrack. And that's, I think, another element that John Hughes really taps into with his films is finding the music that like, I don't know. Is John Hughes I mean, how old was he when he was making this?
Andy Nelson:
Because I feel like John Hughes tapped into his teenage brain and just stayed there. Right? Yeah. I mean I
William Conacher:
believe that he died at the end of the nineties, and I think he was around 60.
Pete Wright:
So Yeah. He was born in 1950.
Andy Nelson:
Oh, okay.
William Conacher:
30. 35,
Andy Nelson:
6. 30 35, 36 making this. Yeah. Yeah. He died in 09.
Andy Nelson:
That was a I I thought he died much earlier. When did he die? 2009.
William Conacher:
Oh, really? I thought it was earlier than that.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, interesting. But just like I mean, 36 years old making this film, but he is, like, really, like, the music, as Pete said, it just feels so much what you are listening to.
Andy Nelson:
You know? And I'm sure he had a great music site supervisor helping him with that, but I just feel like just how he taps into the teenage psyche through all of these films that he ends up tapping into. It just like I feel like there was something in John Hughes that really was able to find that that element that was in a teenager of somebody who is trying to figure themselves out. And and maybe that was just John Hughes. Like, he was maybe trying to figure himself out, but he he recognizes that and creates this this honesty in all of the teenagers that he ends up no matter how far down the the the road of comedy the film goes, there's just this honesty in those characters that he really taps into.
William Conacher:
Were you with Donnie Darko?
Andy Nelson:
Oh, was that o
William Conacher:
Donnie Darko owes a lot to
Pete Wright:
That's interesting.
William Conacher:
Not not not as a genre in its actual content, but the but the vibe of the school Yeah. Yeah. And the and the the way the authenticity of the teenagers and the way they're written. I I sort of I I feel those echoes of junkies.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Yeah. Even tapping into, like, the music. I mean, Tears for Fear is definitely, like, a little a little older, but still, it just that music just kind of still felt like he was tapping into something with that youthful spirit in the in Donnie Darko.
Pete Wright:
It's it's one of the the sad transitions, right, that we end up with I I think the spiritual, successor to John Hughes ends up being somebody like Joss Whedon, who has, you know, such a vibe of you know, such an ability to create a high school vibe, and and also the inability to say I'm sorry, which is really sad. Right? Like like that I think there was there's a lot of promise in making great comedy and authentic telling stories of authentic youth that we we've sort of lost. I don't know who's doing that right now.
Andy Nelson:
Like, who's taken on the mantle of telling those stories?
Pete Wright:
Yeah. I mean, maybe Greta Gerwig in in some way, you know, has sort of a voice of of contemporary youth. But, again, like, Barbie wasn't high school.
Andy Nelson:
Well, yeah, I was gonna say, I don't feel like they're teenagers in her her stories. You know?
William Conacher:
Did you see that Australian movie last year that I've, of course, forgotten the name of where they're doing the Ouija board?
Andy Nelson:
Oh, talk to me.
William Conacher:
It's that was that was very good about Yeah. Youth, I thought. I really believed all those.
William Conacher:
Okay.
Andy Nelson:
Very true. Yeah. Very true. Although my brain says that they're more college age, but still, like, there's still something that's very authentic about that group of people. And just like the way they hang out.
Andy Nelson:
Right?
William Conacher:
Yeah.
William Conacher:
Yeah. Exactly. And a mix of ages. Younger brothers and Yeah. There are there are a a range of ages in it.
William Conacher:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Pete Wright:
I I think the, 8th grade is is one that was was extraordinary, but not as funny as I kind of needed it to be. Like, it was it was not John Hughes funny. It was more Yeah. Oh, goodness.
William Conacher:
That's quite upsetting.
Pete Wright:
It's really very upsetting. Yeah. Yeah. Right? Yeah.
Pete Wright:
Very much. Book smart. Book smart. There you go.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Okay. In that one, they they really do speak to a lot of the authentic voice of the teenage characters as they're hitting that point of graduating and and going separate ways and everything.
William Conacher:
These are individual films, though, aren't they? So maybe Gretchen Goebbic is the yeah. Ladybug maybe is the
Pete Wright:
Right.
William Conacher:
Yeah. Maybe you're right. Maybe she is the is the is the one who's sort of, like, consistently.
Pete Wright:
I'm I might put Tina Fey on that list, but really Tina Fey just keeps making mean girls. I don't know if that counts.
William Conacher:
Yeah. Mean girls. That's another great one.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Right. It's a great one.
Andy Nelson:
But you're right about, you know, Greta Gerwig with Lady Bird and then even I mean, Little Women is a period piece, but still, like, speaking to the voice of young people, I still think that she was capturing it pretty well in that film. So Yeah. Yeah. Maybe there is something there.
William Conacher:
That that we are. We've decided gents Greta Gerwig is
Pete Wright:
I think we just won movies. Yeah. It's her. Greta Gerwig is the next John Hughes. Yeah.
Pete Wright:
You're welcome, Internet. Oh
Andy Nelson:
my gosh. Did either of you ever watch any of the Ferris Bueller TV show that was a spin off of this, in the, in 1990?
William Conacher:
Mercifully, no.
Pete Wright:
No. But I did watch Parker Lewis can't lose, which was kind of a spin off of a spin off, unrelated, like, spiritual cousin.
Andy Nelson:
That's funny because Parker I I didn't see the Ferris Bueller TV show. It only lasted, a season or, like, 13 episodes, so not even wasn't received very well. But it's funny that you mentioned Parker Lewis can't lose because, weirdly, that actually feels like something that would be a spiritual sequel because that one was very it had a very kind of, like, active camera, very, alive sort of storytelling that they used in that.
Pete Wright:
Absolutely did. And Corin Nemec went on to to better stuff, and, Abe Benrubi Yeah. Was the inaugural guest on this very show Right. Few years back. Yes.
Pete Wright:
And so Yeah. You know, I I have a fondness for Parker Lewis.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. That was a fun
William Conacher:
Why has Ferris Bueller never been a Broadway musical, or has it?
Pete Wright:
That's a great question.
Andy Nelson:
I don't believe it has, but, you know, frighteningly, they are actually talking about a spin off of this called, what is it called? Sam and Victor's day off, focusing on the 2 valets who took Cameron's, father's car on a joyride. It's currently in development, and I just don't know a design about it.
William Conacher:
Oh, no. Please don't, my fault.
Pete Wright:
No. You guys
Andy Nelson:
Why? Why? Like, why can't you yeah. Why can't they just let a property be just its own thing? Yeah.
William Conacher:
They're great, those guys, that you only see them for, like, 2 minutes. Yeah. We don't clear story and
Pete Wright:
It's perfect. Yeah. Yeah. I'm actually surprised that our viewers is like yeah. That, you know, Genie decides to take a day off too, the sequel.
Pete Wright:
Like like, it's kind of
William Conacher:
that level of Exposition. Yeah.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. I know John Hughes talked about doing a sequel at some point about, like, maybe it's in their college years, and we'd see what they're up to in college. But I don't know. I just feel like the right right the right heads prevailed in not actually making a sequel. It's like it it shouldn't have a sequel.
Andy Nelson:
This is one of those things that just like, it shouldn't even had a TV spin off. Like, it should just be its own thing. You know?
William Conacher:
Yeah. I think that's why it stood the test of time precisely because of that.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Nobody ever figured that out.
Andy Nelson:
Right. Yeah.
Pete Wright:
Great film. Well Great, great film.
Andy Nelson:
William, it has been so fun talking to you about this film.
William Conacher:
It's been excellent. You you guys are amazing. You've got such greater knowledge than I do about all the people that were in it.
Pete Wright:
Well well, we're fans. You picked an easy hitter. Right? Like Yeah.
William Conacher:
It's it's not a hard one to talk about.
William Conacher:
No. It's not a hard one to talk about, but, though, you you definitely have superior knowledge to me.
Andy Nelson:
Well, it's it was really fun. Thank you so much. Do you have, any places online where like, any socials or any place you direct people to, like, interact with you? Or you are you kind of like, no. I am
William Conacher:
You can interact with me on Instagram. It's easy to find me. It's a public account. It's just William Conacher. There's not very many interesting things on there, but people are welcome to contact me on there if they want.
William Conacher:
DM me. Yeah.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Right. It. Well, fantastic. Well, I mean, keep up the great work.
Andy Nelson:
I mean, what projects do you have that that are coming out soon for people to keep an eye out?
William Conacher:
On Christmas day this year is Robert Eggers' Nosferatu, which is, an epic, epic labor of love. It's gonna be amazing. It's properly scary in a very old fashioned way.
Andy Nelson:
And and who are you working with on that, and what are the accents that that we should be listening for?
William Conacher:
They're both just regular, you know, it's it's a silly thing for dialect. I would say regular British. You know, like, a nonregional British accents with Lily Rose Depp and William Defoe.
Pete Wright:
Oh, okay.
Andy Nelson:
Oh, okay. So we're not getting into, like, I don't know, Transylvanian sort of things or Romanian?
William Conacher:
There there there is one there is one, Transylvanian accent. Yes. But that's yes. That was not me. That was done before.
William Conacher:
Oh, okay. That that my
William Conacher:
work in the SRP with those 2. And what else?
Andy Nelson:
You did the the the, Angelina Jolie project that's coming out.
William Conacher:
Alas. Yes. Maria? No. Wait.
William Conacher:
What does it say to Claudia? It's gonna be cool.
Andy Nelson:
Just Maria.
William Conacher:
I
William Conacher:
actually don't know the release date for that, but that's another Pablo film.
Andy Nelson:
He has moved into directing some incredible stories about incredible women, so I cannot wait to
William Conacher:
to This is the the final one. This is the Is it? Final part is trilogy of iconic women.
Andy Nelson:
So so from Jackie to Spencer to Marie. Yes. Gotcha. Okay.
Pete Wright:
They're so good.
William Conacher:
I'm sure there's something else I've done. Oh, yeah. I just did, a film version of Hedda Gabler. Oh. Gibson play with Tessa Thompson and Nina Haas that Nina Costa directed.
William Conacher:
I think that's gonna be very interesting. That's early days. We only wrapped it at the end of February, so I haven't seen anything better.
Andy Nelson:
And what was you were working with Tessa on that one?
William Conacher:
I was.
Andy Nelson:
And what in what accent would that be? Kind of a
William Conacher:
Kind of kind of 19 fifties British. Yeah. They they they they updated the story and put it in England.
Pete Wright:
Kind of a British hipster retelling of Edda Gabler.
William Conacher:
Well, I wouldn't know. Not hipster. No. It's a it it it's the claustrophobia of of Ibsen's play relocated to an English country house in 50.
Pete Wright:
Oh, you got that? That's not hipster. No. No. No.
Andy Nelson:
Interesting. And then you said there was a Paul, Paul Mascall, project that you just worked on as well. Right?
William Conacher:
That's called the History of Sound. That's directed by Oliver Hermanus. It's, Josh O'Connor and Paul Mascall. It's a it's a kind of road movie about 2 guys, who are passionate about music, collecting folk songs
William Conacher:
Wow.
William Conacher:
In the in in the rural northeast.
Pete Wright:
Awesome. Well,
Andy Nelson:
it's fair to say you're keeping busy. There are a lot of projects that you're, gonna be attached to, which is gonna be exciting to see. So everybody check for those when they release near you. Again, William, thank you. Thank you so much for joining us.
Andy Nelson:
We really appreciate it. Such a treat.
William Conacher:
Thank you very much for
Andy Nelson:
having me. And for everybody else out there, we hope you like the show and certainly hope you
William Conacher:
like the movie like we do here on Movies We Like.
Andy Nelson:
Movies we like is a part of the True Story FM Entertainment podcast network and the next real family of film podcasts. The music is chomp clap by out of flux. Find the show at true story dot f m and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, threads, and letterboxed at the next reel. Learn about becoming a member at the next reel.com/membership. And if your podcast app allows ratings and reviews, we always appreciate it if you drop 1 in there for us.