Does Ben Affleck Belong in Shakespeare in Love? with Dana Schwartz

i think it’s beautiful that i watched shakespeare in love tonight and then happened upon this episode for the first time

Dana describing looking for a book brought back memories of this classic advert. https://youtu.be/Zh8iXc2d71U?si=rY1Zv7Q-VkCJm27g

I realized while listening to this that I have absolutely no idea what The English Patient is about, except that it's a cultural moment people are familiar with. And now I feel like I want to just see how much longer I can go in my life (currently I am 31) without finding out. Kinda like seeing how long you can go without learning who won the Superbowl.

I am so late but I was so happy to hear the Slings and Arrows love!

very late to this but i feel like y’all would be happy to know that i took a Shakespeare class in highschool and the only movie adaptations of his plays that we watched were this movie, 10 things I hate about you, she’s the man, and all the Kenneth Branagh movies. we have been freed from the tyranny of the bbc!!!!!

so late to this but very into that go through every best picture idea

Upstart Crow (David Mitchell as Shakespeare) was HILARIOUS. Tim Downie as Marlowe is a real delight!

I'm very late to the conversation and I am still in the middle of the episode, BUT, I have to recommend the very silly series called Upstart Crow that I watched on PBS, but I'm pretty sure it was a BBC production. It's very silly and cute and unrealistic, but lots of fun. It's about Shakespeare in case that's not clear.

I can’t seem to find the part two episode of Go Ask Alice. Is that still coming?

This discussion was just what I needed today! TY both!

This was a fun episode for sure. My wife and I both studied Theatre in college and we saw Shakespeare In Love in the movie theater. There are so many fun easter eggs that had us laughing out loud in the theater even though no one else was laughing. So fun. The end of the film is a beautiful easter egg, too. The queen tells Will to write "something more cheerful next time... the Twelfth Night?" That final sequence is taken from Twelfth Night, which happens to be a play about a woman washing up on shore after a shipwreck and posing as a man for a time. Layers. So many wonderful layers from Mr. Stoppard.

There were two! There’s were two hot young Shakespeare shows that aired at around the same time and I cannot think of the other one! They were both positively terrible. Like I adore bad ridiculous tv and it was just awful. I’m now down the rabbit hole trying to find the other one.

I was a theatre student when Shakespeare in Love came out, assistant stage manager on our college production of Romeo & Juliet. We were tickled by this, all the more because our Mercutio was played by a guy named Ned.

I haven't watched this movie in nearly 25 years and didn't even like it much, and STILL enjoyed this conversation. Thank you!

Doing a 'why did this win best picture?' episode or episodes would be great, but you must ask Karina Longworth or Izzy from Be Kind, Rewind on because they have such amazing insights.

Loved this! As a teacher of Shakespeare I’ve always thought of him as Joseph Fiennes. And I agree 100 % that Shakespeare should be taught but not for the reasons the anti CRT people think but because he’s a force for social justice. Thanks so much

One thousand percent the lines from this movie that my spouse and I say to each other the most are all said by Ben Affleck’s Ned. (Second place to Rupert Everett’s Marlowe.)

Best Patreon episode yet. Thank you Sarah & Dana for another wonderful podcast.

As a Shakespeare nerd, I loved this discussion!!! It’s hard to discuss Shakespeare and all it’s historical baggage without falling into Bardolatry and Dana and Sarah totally do it perfectly. More Shakespeare content!

This was such a fun episode! I mean, they all are, but this one especially. I forgot how fun Shakespeare in Love was. When you mentioned Kip from the English Patient, I went immediately into hardcore nostalgia mode. I had such a crush on Naveen Andrews when I was about 17, after watching the English Patient on cable. I tried to watch all his movies, but it was the early 2000s in MT, so I did not get far. But now we have streaming! I'm off to watch The Dropout. My inner obsessive teen thanks you!

Yes to Oscar’s ep idea! Louis Virtel as a guest?

Ahhh, couldn’t love you, as well as Dana, more if I tried! You two together is in my Top 3 of the Sarah Marshall Plus Ones. Plus, paid-content-Dana Schwartz is suuuuch a good time!!!! (Totally adore free-content-Dana too, of course; and, paid or not: you are a fucking treasure, Sarah Marshall.)

I’ve been such a fan of this podcast for a long time, but the more and more you justify your out of touch opinions on the most arbitrary forms of rejection is so depressing to hear. It’s just insulting. It makes it so much clearer that you are extremely privileged. I relate when you talk about your own issues, despite the differences to my own, but having a guest bring up her connections to Hollywood and then complain about how people are soo mean. It’s so tone deaf.

I can’t believe you both are Slings & Arrows fans! I LOVE that show. I own all three seasons on DVD and it is the the only reason I still own a DVD player in 2022. I don’t know anyone who knows it except for the people that I have essentially forced to watch it with me.

I 1000% remember when the show Will came out because I will never forget the Hamilton-style poetry battle that took place in the advertisements and what I assume was the pilot episode of the show!

I didn't think I could love this episode anymore because this movie was such a favorite of mine that I had the poster in my college dorm room (and I crushed so hard on Joseph Finnes that I saw that awful movie he made playing Martin Luther!), but then Sarah mentioned Cradle Will Rock!! Such a great movie!!! I'm here for all the earnest Theater/Art love movies! Cried like a baby the last half an hour of Finding Neverland!

I loved the Something Rotten reference. And honestly the only reason I know the whole sentence of "now is the winter of our discontent" is from that show lol. I sang along to myself when Dana said "most people don't know the whole thing!". Shout out to musical theater teaching me more than my AP Lit class!

"Cradle Will Rock" lives forever in my mind for many things, but mostly the greatest line reading of Cary Elwes's career: "I'm the producer, I can fire anyone I want, and I am fucking fired."

I own a physical copy of The Artist, I have never watched it. There was a blockbuster equivalent closing down and I added it to my stack of incredibly discounted post-rental dvds and blu-rays thinking “this is high culture that I will consume at some point” and it has now been at least 5 years. I watched the copy of Point Break that I bought that day three times since then because I keep finding out that friends of mine don’t know Keanu did a surfing and bank robbery movie.

Dana is absolutely a vibe of “sorry I didn’t clean up but also at this point you know who I am” in podcast. Love the two of you each and every time! Also shout out to Dana’s TikTok’s, that I force my 12 year old to watch in an effort to seem “hip”.

On the ending: Queenie says he should write a Twelfth Night. The plot of woman called Viola gets ship wrecked, disguises self as man, falls in love with and wins the hand of a Duke, is Twelfth Night. Which implies a) Shakespeare writes himself in as Duke Orsino and b) Gwyneth/Viola lives on as a cool cross-dressing heroine who gets the guy in the end

The chemistry between Sarah and Dana in this episode is pure delight, I hope there will be a lot more “Don’t worry I’ll get myself a glass out of the sink,” episodes to come.

slings and arrows is so personal to me i think about it on a daily basis

Imelda Staunton, who plays the nurse, and Jim Carter, who plays the actor playing the nurse, are married in real life!

This was fabulous! Also I would love an episode where Sarah watches Downton Abbey and discusses with Dana. I so need to hear their thoughts on Thomas and Mary

I would also like to add - Ben Affleck was not bad in The Last Duel. You'll think he's out of place, but is he? No, he's playing it exactly right.

I'd definitely be interested in a movie podcast called "Best? Picture" that goes through each winner and looks at other films released that year/were nominated.

What is the play? And what is my part? My sisters and I quote this at each other all the time

Perfect topic. Perfect guest.

OK, haven't listened to this yet, but I'm going to lay it on the line before I do so, and say that this film contains Ben Affleck's two finest moments: 1. "You will see how genius creates a legend!" 2. "He dies?" (With, as a close third: "I will play!") So, having established what the correct answer is to this question, I shall now proceed to listen to the ep 😁