Biopic: A Podcast Story

It’s Black History Month and we’re celebrating at Biopic: A Podcast Story. First up is HBO’s Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, which introduced us to the depth of Halle Berry’s capabilities as an actor back in 1999. (You see what we did there.)  

We couldn’t be happier to see the first Black woman nominated for a Best Actress Oscar get proper attention, however, this movie is also a product of its time and its HBO-in-the-late-1990s trappings. We’re in a cradle-to-grave race through Dorothy’s triumphant and tragic life in two hours or less, but everyone is doing a lot with those limitations so we’re trying not to be jerks about it. 

We welcome back a more nuanced Otto Preminger than the one we met in Trumbo (Rena loves him a little for spoiling the Bernsteins’ Black Panther Party, but Sara hates him for ruining Jean Seberg’s life), complain about how stupid racists are, discuss the agonies of tranquilizers and childbirth, meet a host of new recruits for the Bad Husband Hall of Fame, and, because William Atherton is here, take a side trip into the Aesthetic Realism movement and The Day of the Locust. 

Introducing Dorothy Dandridge was directed by Martha Coolidge and stars Halle Berry as Dorothy Dandridge, Klaus Maria Brandauer as Otto Preminger, Brett Spiner as Earl Mills, Obba Babbatunde as Harold Nicholas, Loretta Devine as Ruby Dandridge, Cynda Williams as Vivian Dandridge, Latanya Richardson Jackson as Auntie, Tamara Taylor as Geri Nicholas, William Atherton as Darryl Zanuck, and D.B. Sweeney as Jack Denison. 

 

Sources used in the episode include…

 

Dorothy Dandridge: A Biography by Donald Bogle

Hollywood Black: The Stars, the Films, the Filmmakers by Donald Bogle

You Must Remember This podcast episode on Dorothy Dandridge

https://frockflicks.com/tbt-introducing-dorothy-dandridge-1999/

Rena watched Carmen Jones.

Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.

Our theme music is by Ben Patch: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BB01QpPE7HBGacGAlullu?si=gp_6jbvsThWXg_sSLVcv6Q

 

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Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/

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Contact us: [email protected]

Sara would like to make it very clear that she doesn’t have experience in hiring a hitman in this episode about 2017’s amazing and revelatory I, Tonya, the story of Tonya Harding and 1994’s “the incident.” While it’s pretty difficult to turn Margot Robbie and Sebastian Stan into anything besides the most beautiful freaks walking God’s green earth, their outstanding performances go the distance to transform them into, respectively, one of the most polarizing and exciting figure skaters the U.S. has ever seen and one of our most hapless criminal masterminds. 

This episode is pretty freewheeling as we discuss how the 1990s was a hellacape of cruelty (we were kids; what’s your excuse again, Jay Leno?), our memories of watching these events unfold, the deep intricacies of figure skating scoring history, and the man who should be king, PAUL. WALTER. HAUSER. 

We also try to figure out: should we even say Derrick’s name? Did the Ukrainian skaters have access to a Zamboni (btw, Slava Ukraini!)? Does Rena know who Richard Marx is? 

I, Tonya was directed by Craig Gillespie and stars Margot Robbie as  Tonya Harding, Sebastian Stan as Jeff Gillooly, Allison Janney as LaVona, Julianne Nicholson as Diane Rawlinson, Paul Walter Hauser as Shawn Eckard, Bobby Cannavale as Martin Maddox, Bojana Novakovic as Dody Teachman, Caitlin Carver as Nancy Kerrigan, Maizie Smith  as Tonya Harding (3 1/2 Yrs), Mckenna Grace as Tonya Harding  (8-12 Yrs), Anthony Reynolds as Derrick Smith, and Ricky Russert as Shane Stant.

 

Sources used in the episode include…

Sharp Edges, directed by Sandra Lucknow, a documentary on Tonya Harding that was made in 1986, when she was just 15.

Tonya Harding Would Like Her Apology Now, by Taffy Brodesseur-Akner, New York Times, 2018

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/10/movies/tonya-harding-i-tonya-nancy-kerrigan-scandal.html

A Fact-checked Guide to I, Tonya
https://www.vulture.com/2017/12/a-fact-checked-guide-whats-true-and-whats-not-in-i-tonya.html

And many, many online videos.

 

And for the heck of it:

 

Chess for Girls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1YSQJXMbUI

 

Chris Farley skates with Nancy Kerrigan

https://www.wckg.com/chris-farleys-snl-figure-skating-sketch-turns-25-today-and-its-still-a-classic/

 

Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.

Our theme music is by Ben Patch: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BB01QpPE7HBGacGAlullu?si=gp_6jbvsThWXg_sSLVcv6Q

 

Follow us!

Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory

Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social

Threads: @biopicapodcaststory

Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory

Contact us: [email protected]

Do you like the movie Psycho? Have you ever thought yourself, I wonder what it was like to make that movie, and I hope that Ed Gein’s spirit was there to guide Alfred Hitchcock’s creative process? 

Look. No. Further. 

While 2012’s Hitchcock suffers from not being as good or interesting as the film it documents the making of, it’s still a mostly engaging ride through the creepy genius Alfred Hitchcock’s approach - and a look at the woman who served as his equally genius partner in creativity, Alma Reville. However, according to Sara, this is actually a movie about Lew Wasserman, a man she was once told, with conviction, that she looked like. 

We’re greeted by a record number of returning champions as we discuss: why do we, as a society, love Vertigo so much? Why on earth did Vera Miles want to pick up her own dry cleaning? What more fun than a place of business run by a man who likes pranks and spying on his female actors? How did we get so lucky to see Danny Huston two weeks in a row? Sources used in the episode include…

The You Must Remember This episode on Hitchcock.

Sara unfortunately could not find the paper she  wrote in 8th grade about Hitchcock but is sure it was insightful. 

Rena skimmed parts of several books about Hitchcock including the one by Stephen Rebello that the movie Hitchcock was based on. She also wrote two papers for her college film class.

Rena rewatched Psycho.

Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.

Our theme music is by Ben Patch: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BB01QpPE7HBGacGAlullu?si=gp_6jbvsThWXg_sSLVcv

Follow us!

Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory

Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social

Threads: @biopicapodcaststory

Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory

Contact us: [email protected]

Have you ever thought to yourself: “You know what my life is missing? A movie that looks sympathetically on the legal rights of the traitorous crew of Confederates who devised and executed the plan to kill Abraham Lincoln because they were butthurt over losing the war they started and thus, their rights to own people.” Look no further: We’ve got the movie for you, 2011’s The Conspirator, directed by Robert Redford and starring a veritable cavalcade of great actors who spend the film more or less throwing up their hands and saying, “A lawyer is duty bound to zealously represent their client.” 

Maybe it’s just the fun times of 2026, but O.G. Karen, Mary Surratt—played by Robin Wright—and the suspension of her habeas corpus rights at the end of a contentious civil war and immediately following her role in an assassination didn’t hit the right notes for us. THANKS OBAMA. 

Nevertheless, we’re joined again by the delightful Stephen Root. Some other questions: Is Sara a member of the Bar because of her participation in high school Mock Trial? Should these alleged murderers be able to have their mothers hand-deliver their meals while they’re in jail? Has our love of humanity been pushed too far by this movie? Where have you been all of our lives, Kevin Kline?

The Conspirator was directed by Robert Redford and stars James McAvoy as Frederick Aiken, Robin Wright as Mary Surratt, Kevin Kline as Edwin Stanton, Evan Rachel Wood as Anna Surratt, Tom Wilkinson as Reverdy Johnson, Justin Long as Nicholas Baker, Danny Huston as Joseph Holt, James Badge Dale as William Hamilton, Colm Meaney as General Hunter, Alexis Bledel as Sarah Weston, Johnny Simmons as John Surratt, Toby Kebbell as John Wilkes Booth, Jonathan Groff as Louis Weichmann, Stephen Root as John Lloyd, John Cullum as Justice Wylie, Norman Reedus as Lewis Payne, John Michael Weatherly as George Atzerodt, Marcus Hester as David Herold, Chris Bauer as Major Smith, and Shea Whigham as Captain Cottingham.

 

Sources used in the episode include…

 

American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies 

by Michael W. Kauffman

 

The Assassin's Accomplice : Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln

by Kate Clifford Larson

 

Hanged! Mary Surratt and the Plot to Assassinate Abraham Lincoln. 

by Sarah Miller

 

Manhunt: The Twelve-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer

by James L Swanson

 

Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.

Our theme music is by Ben Patch: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BB01QpPE7HBGacGAlullu?si=gp_6jbvsThWXg_sSLVcv6Q 

 

Follow us!

Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory

Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social

Threads: @biopicapodcaststory

Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory

Contact us: [email protected]

2026 sure looks like it’s going to be a year with movies in it. Rena and Sara break down what we know is coming—Michael, Jimmy, Young George Washington, Madden—and what we know will never come (give up the ghost, “Devil the White City directed by Martin Scorsese” shippers), and where the biopic stands as we leave the hellscape of 2025 and enter the hellscape of 2026. 

We don’t have all the answers, as we ask, what, exactly, is a KJ Apa and what is he doing here? How many new houses will the executive producers of Michael build on their altar of lies and bullshit? When you can write a verse of “We Didn’t Start the Fire” containing the insane number of producers on a project, does that mean that movie is going to be bad? Does Nicolas Cage in Madden look more like a sleep paralysis demon or Cabbage Patch Kid? What is more sinister: the presence of David Mamet or John Travolta on your film set?

This is far from complete (there’s a biopic of Stallone made by the Farrelly Brothers due out this year, people), so there’s more to mock as the year goes on. Buckle up, we’re in for another year. 

Sources used in the episode include…

https://www.salon.com/2021/12/30/its-a-wonderful-life-harmful-message-sacrifice/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/hollywood-winners-losers-2025-best-worst-movies-tv/lost-prestige-biopics/

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/04/21/remake

 

Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.

Our theme music is by Ben Patch: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BB01QpPE7HBGacGAlullu?si=gp_6jbvsThWXg_sSLVcv6Q

 

Follow us!

Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory

Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social

Threads: @biopicapodcaststory

Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory

Contact us: [email protected]