Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 35

Who Does Billie Piper Play in WEDNESDAY Season 2?

It seems like 2025 is the year of Billie Piper. The British pop star turned nerd icon captured many fans’ hearts as Rose Tyler, the first companion of the modern era of Doctor Who who has returned in different forms over the years. Most recently, her face popped up after the Fifteenth Doctor’s regeneration. We don’t know what’s going on with Billie Piper and how she will play into the next season of Doctor Who. But, for now, we can delight in the fact that she’s hanging out at Nevermore Academy. Who is Billie Piper playing in Wednesday season two? We get the answer to that question pretty early on. 

Helen Sloan/Netflix

In Wednesday season two’s first episode, our favorite Addams family member is blowing off some steam and aggressively playing her cello in a darkened music room. Billie Piper’s character Isadora Capri walks in and introduces herself as the new head of music. Wednesday recognizes Capri as a famous child prodigy who released her first classical album at ten years old. Capri says she came to Nevermore after hearing about the events of last season. She then begins to dig in on Wednesday a bit, saying her performance was only interesting because it is driven by pain. She tells her to feel the notes and stop trying to control music. Of course, Wednesday rejects this helpful piece of advice. 

We do see Billie Piper’s character Isadora Capri a handful of times in the first four episodes. And, to our delight, we get to hear her actually sing. Many people don’t know (or have forgotten) that she was the UK’s version of Britney Spears before hopping in the TARDIS. She sings the school spirit song at the Founder’s Pyre and another tune later on in episode 3 at Camp Jericho.

Capri doesn’t play a direct role in Wednesday’s shenanigans like Christina Ricci’s Thornhill, which is kind of a shame. Wednesday does take a ride in her trunk to sneak into the asylum in episode 4, but she’s just trying to teach music and mind her business.

She’s an interesting and kinda weird lady who would be a fun villain. But maybe the second half of the season will insert her more into Wednesday’s path and perhaps reveal something dark about her, too. Either way, it’s a delight to see Billie Piper in another weird and nerdy universe.

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Why Is Wednesday Crying Black Tears? This Season 2 Psychic Mystery, Explained

Wednesday season two Part 1 is here and there are many new mysteries to uncover at Nevermore Academy. In the first episode, Wednesday discovers that she’s having problems with her psychic powers, specifically black tears streaming from her eyes. Yikes. Why is Wednesday crying black tears and how will this affect her? It didn’t take long to get answers to this inquiry.

In the opening sequence, Wednesday tracks down the Kansas City Scalper, a famed serial killer, using her powers. She rightfully tortures him but, while at his house, she has a psychic episode and cries black tears. Thing points this out but she dismisses it as a psychic glitch and continues with her life. That means returning back to “the scene of the crime” a.k.a. Nevermore Academy.

Netflix

She’s a certified celebrity there now and no longer the only Addams on campus. Her brother Pugsley is there and her mother Morticia is staying on campus in a gardener’s cottage (the former home of Mrs. Thornhill) at the request of Principal Dort, who wants her to be the gala’s new chair. Once settled in her abode and alone, Morticia thumbs through a book that belonged to her sister Ophelia, whom she says is a lot like Wednesday. It includes some disturbing drawings, including of a young woman who is screaming with black tears coming from her eyes. 

At the end of the episode, Enid touches Wednesday on the shoulder and sends her into an involuntary psychic episode. She sees a vision about Enid dying because of her. Meanwhile, she’s convulsing and draining black tears from her eyes on the ground as Enid and Morticia watch. In episode two, she wakes up to Morticia sitting nearby. Her mother tells her that the black tears are psychic exhaustion, which happens when you abuse your gift. Wednesday asks how to get them to go away and Morticia responds that she needs to give up Goody’s book of spells because it is dangerous.

Morticia warns her to just wait for her new guide and not to use her gift as a weapon, which rubs Wednesday the wrong way. This sets up some major tension between the mother and daughter with the former trying to save the latter from her own tunnel vision and stubbornness. Wednesday also discovers that she’s having problems using her psychic powers at all, which only makes her want to dig into Goody’s book more. She wants her gift back to possibly save Enid’s life and solve the recent murders. Naturally, Morticia takes the book and holds it hostage, believing it will lead her daughter down a treacherous path. She believes that Wednesday will end up like Ophelia, who was driven to madness and disappeared 20 years ago.

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The Best WEDNESDAY Quotes From the Supreme Addams Family Member

Wednesday finally tells Morticia her vision about Enid in episode three, and their arguments about Goody’s book and Wednesday’s lack of control of her powers comes to a head. They have a very cool duel and Morticia wins, taking the book and eventually burning it. Things end rather terribly with the Hyde back on the loose and Wednesday seriously injured after being thrown from a window. We will have to wait and see what happens in Wednesday season two Part 2 with her powers and whether those black tears will return again.

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How Fred Armisen’s Uncle Fester Returns in WEDNESDAY Season 2

One of the best parts of Wednesday’s first season was the pitch-perfect casting of Fred Armisen as iconic Addams Family character Uncle Fester. Netflix announced he’d be returning for season two, but he didn’t appear in the first three episodes. He finally pops up in episode four, “If These Woes Could Talk.” In this chapter, Wednesday summons her uncle to Nevermore Academy, asking for his help investigating her case. She’s trying to find the answer about someone named Lois, who she believes is tied to Willow Hill psychiatric hospital. Lois is somehow important to finding answers about her vision of her friend Enid’s death. She knows the answers are in Willow Hill, and she “Knows just the lunatic who can help her.” Enter, Uncle Fester.

Vlad Cioplea/Netflix

Fester arrives promptly to help his favorite niece, as he calls her. Although as far as we know, she’s his only niece. Wednesday needs him to infiltrate Willow Hill, which he told her he did once before. He tells Wednesday he did so at the behest of her mother, Morticia, who asked Fester to go there to check on her sister Ophelia many years before. He couldn’t find her, but he stuck around to enjoy the shock therapy for a few weeks. Those Addams men just love their psychological torture.

Netflix

Fester then goes to a local hotel, the Apple Hollow Inn, and pays with stolen money. After causing a ruckus at the hotel and trashing his room (and signing Foreigner songs in the bathtub) he gets committed to Willow Hill after eating a cactus. He recounts his childhood spent in psychiatric hospitals, which he recalls fondly. After getting shock therapy, he makes a romantic connection with the lunch lady, Louise. He eventually convinces a patient’s pet parrot on the premises to tell him the number 51971 regarding Lois. After a little electric shock to his feathers, that is.

Vlad Cioplea/Netflix

In the sublevels of Willow Hill, Fester gets caught snooping around. His true identity revealed, they put him in a straitjacket. Luckily, Wednesday and Thing rescue him, and as they try to escape, they find a locked maintenance room. Fester used the code 5971 to enter it, and found a secret compartment which leads to a tunnel. In the secret tunnel, they find the words painted on the wall that say “Long-term Outcast Integration Study.” So “Lois” isn’t a person, it’s a secret program where they run experiments on outcasts, many who disappeared years earlier.

Fester and Wednesday learn that the person running LOIS is Dr. Judi, and thanks to Fester, he causes a breakout among the inmates. Wednesday saves a mysterious patient, who is likely her long-lost Aunt Ophelia. As Fester escapes, he finds Louise and tells her “Of all the women I’ve ever used, you were my favorite.” The two share a passionate kiss in the rain, and Fester Addams leaves for parts unknown. Although we imagine it won’t be long before his bald head returns to help his niece get out of a predicament once again. And maybe, even into his own spin-off series.

Part 1 of Wednesday season two is now streaming on Netflix.

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Matt Smith Joins STAR WARS: STARFIGHTER in a Villain Role

It took quite a few years, but Matt Smith is finally going to be in a Star Wars movie. According to a report from Deadline, Lucasfilm has cast the Doctor Who and House of the Dragon actor as the villain in Shawn Levy’s Star Wars: Starfighter, alongside Ryan Gosling, who is presumably playing the hero. We have no details on the role yet, so we don’t know if he will be wielding a menacing red lightsaber or not. Mia Goth is also in the film, supposedly in a villainous role as well. We’ll see if this means we’ll get a Matt Smith/Mia Goth Sith duo? Because we’re definitely here for that.HBO

Back in 2018, Lucasfilm cast Smith for an unknown role in The Rise of Skywalker. He described the role as “transformative,” but he ultimately never filmed any scenes. Some fans have speculated that when Palpatine was reenergized by Rey and Ben Solo’s Force bond, he was going to be rejuvenated to a pre-prequel state. Smith would have played that younger Palpatine role. Obviously, by the time of filming, Abrams and company had gone in a different direction. Say what you want about Episode XI, but if you’re going to bring back Ian McDiarmid to play the Emperor, best to use him the whole time. We can’t blame them for not using Matt Smith there.

Star Wars: Starfighter will start principal photography this fall, and will arrive in theaters on May 28, 2027. That year is the 50th anniversary of the release of George Lucas’ original film that started it all. In fact, A New Hope will also get a major re-release theatrically that year. And just a few weeks before Starfighter hits theaters. From the looks of it, 2027 is looking to be a great year for Star Wars on the big screen.

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WEAPONS Is a Wild, Wicked Ride (Review)

Since the very first, super mysterious teaser, Zach Cregger’s Weapons has been high atop my most anticipated list. I was a huge fan of Barbarian, a fresh and tonally varied horror movie with deep comedy veins. The full Weapons trailer showed more but continued to be impenetrable from a “what exactly is going on” perspective. The trailers set the mood nicely, but they don’t tell you two very important things. First, that the movie, like Barbarian, is just as funny as it is scary (which Danielle Radford noted in our interviews with the cast). Second, the movie’s even more bizarre than you might guess. Needless to say, I loved it, loved it, loved it.

In two films, Cregger has solidified his brand of horror. Full of relatable, situational humor (his comedy sensibilities never far away) and intense, grisly horror sequences. Both Barbarian and Weapons feature WTF moments that build upon each other, giving viewers more of the “what” and “why,” but never the full picture. He also brings weird, occult shenanigans to the suburbs, creating suburban myths. This comes through especially in Weapons which features an unseen schoolgirl as the narrator relaying the “real” story the news won’t tell you. We’re never sure, therefore, if what we’re watching is the actual truth, a fabrication from an imaginative child, or some mixture of the two.

Part of the fun of this movie is watching the story unfold, so I won’t get into plot too much. As you know from the trailers, it concerns a town in which one night, at 2:17am, 17 of the 18 children from one particular class at the elementary school mysteriously get up and run into the night, their arms outstretched like an airplane. No one knows where they went, no one can figure out why only these kids, and everyone, especially father Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), blames the teacher, Justine Gandy (Julia Garner).

The story unfolds through following one character at a time as they intersect and fill in gaps in the action. Aside from Justine and Archer, we also follow local police officer Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), school principal Marcus (Benedict Wong), local scumbag James (Austin Abrams), and, eventually, Alex (Cary Christopher), the only little boy in the class who didn’t disappear.

Warner Bros.

Weapons has a few quick scares early on in the proceedings to keep you on edge, but it mostly allows you to get to know the characters and live in the aftermath of this strange occurrence until the pieces begin to fit and the carnage really starts. And boy, it’s some carnagey carnage. Sustained, brutal violence and some ghastly visuals really punctuate the scare scenes, but only really in service of the consistent, creeping dread. Cregger plays with the uncanniness of a distorted or exaggerated human face to great effect. It culminates in one of the most audacious and horrifyingly hilarious scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie.

Because I don’t want to spoil too much about the movie’s surprises, I sort of can’t talk about what ends up being my favorite performance in the movie. It’s the kind of character you’d only find in a horror movie and done in a way that you’d only find in horror movies like this. Polite society makes it so we try not to stare or snicker or cringe, but you think “That person looks like a ____,” and this movie tells us we’d be right to think so. I think this performance will go down as modern horror perfection.

Warner Bros.

As with Barbarian, the title Weapons leaves the interpretation to the individual audience member. I have a few ideas of what I think it means, and I look forward to the discussions about what it could mean and who/what it could refer to. And that’s really the best thing about Weapons. It tells a full, terrifying, funny story that continues to baffle even after you know more about what’s going on. You find out why without ever really knowing why. Ambiguous horror at its finest. Can’t wait to see it again.

Weapons hits theaters August 8.

⭐ (4.5 of 5)

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.

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Only Finn Wolfhard Figured Out STRANGER THINGS Spinoff

Stranger Things is finally coming to an end, a mere 37 years after it debuted. But while our favorite kids from Hawkins are bidding farewell to Netflix’s ’80s homage, the show’s creators are not. The Duffer Brothers are developing a spinoff series for the streamer. We know almost nothing about it, and with so much mystery there’s plenty of room for speculation. Only, it sounds like we shouldn’t bother guessing, because only one single person has successfully figured out the premise. Turns out it helps to know the Upside Down inside and out. Finn Wolfhard is the only one who managed to guess what the Duffers have planned.Netflix

Wolfhard spoke to Variety‘s Tatiana Siegel about his last days on the Stranger Things set, but the interview also touched on the future of the franchise. Ross Duffer revealed Hawkins’ Mike successfully pegged what the brothers are doing with their spinoff. It’s something no one else saw coming. Duffer said, “Nobody—not Netflix, not any of the producers, not any of the directors, not any of the actors—nobody else has figured out what the spinoff is. Finn figured out, which is pretty remarkable.”

Duffer said they’ve clearly “mind-melded with this kid.” So what did Wolfhard have to say about the next installment of Stranger Things? His answer actually gives us plenty new fodder to speculate ourselves. It also gave us our best reason yet to be excited about the spinoff. From Variety:

Like David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. Sort of an anthology and different tones but similar universe or same universe. I think set in different places and all tied together through this mythology of the Upside Down. Don’t even talk about Hawkins. Don’t have any mention of our characters. They were toying around with ideas in case Netflix wanted them. I’m sure they do, and I’m sure it will happen, but there’s nothing official. I think the coolest way, the way that I would do it, there has to be labs everywhere. If there was one in Hawkins, there’s one in Russia. Where else could they be?

Netflix

We don’t even need any specifics about this spinoff. “David Lynch and Stranger Things” is really all we needed to hear. Kudos to Finn Wolfhard for being the only one who could tell us.

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SPIDER-PUNK Movie in Development at Sony, Daniel Kaluuya to Co-Write

Spider-Punk absolutely stole the show in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. He was 100% the coolest character to ever strum a guitar as he slung his webs and fought the establishment. And it didn’t hurt that Spider-Punk was voiced by Daniel Kaluuya, who adds a natural cool element to any character he inhabits. So it only makes sense that a Spider-Punk animated movie is now reportedly in the works at Sony. And even better, Daniel Kaluuya and Ajon Singh are attached as writers on the Spider-Punk film. The movie is still only in early development at Sony, out all our webs and toes are crossed that this one makes it to the finish line.Sony

In 2023’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Spider-Punk was a quick fan-favorite. And he had Miles Morales’ back when he needed him most. We’re hoping Spider-Punk has a major presence in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, but it would be super neat if he could have his own movie too. Marvel Comics’ Spider-Punk, also known as Hobie Brown, was created by Dan Slott and artist Olivier Coipel. He’s a more bad a** version of Spider-Man than Peter Parker, one might say. And has way less time for corrupt governments and systems—our kind of guy. Spider-Punk first appeared as part of 2015’s The Amazing Spider-Man #10.

Sony

If you want to get to know Spider-Punk for yourself, in anticipation of this movie, of Beyond the Spider-Verse, or just because he’s awesome, you can check out our explainer here. We’ll give you a taste of it below.

Unlike Peter Parker, Hobart Brown was living on the street as an unhoused youth on Earth-138. But as was often the case for his multiversal spider brethren, a spider bit him. This one mutated as part of President Norman Osborn’s toxic waste dumping. He gained powers that were identical to the 616 universe’s Peter Parker. A punk kid or not, Hobart was still a gifted scientist and invented his web shooters. But none of this stopped him from playing the guitar and being in a punk band. Thereby making him officially cooler than 616 teenage Peter Parker.

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Who Is Spider-Punk? The SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE Hero, Explained

It might be a while before we hear more about the Spider-Punk movie. But we’ll be first in line for tickets whenever it finally makes it to theaters. In the meantime, we can’t wait to see Spider-Punk again when Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse hits theaters (hopefully) on June 25, 2027.

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Disney Almost Used an AI Deepfake Dwayne Johnson in Live-Action MOANA

Disney’s live-action The Lion King featured only one single real shot. Every other part of Jon Favreau’s movie used CGI. The Mouse House’s most recent live-action remakes, Snow White, for reasons that will also baffle historians someday, also opted for CGI dwarves instead of casting actual humans. Both films really stretched the concept of “live-action” and not in good ways. And yet, we almost got something even worse. Disney planned to use an AI deepfake of Dwayne Johnson’s face superimposed on a body double for the upcoming live-action Moana.

No, seriously, the studio and Johnson both thought that it was a good idea to use AI in this way and tried to make it happen.

Disney

The Wall Street Journal reports Disney came up with a way to have Johnson reprise his role as Maui the demigod in the upcoming Moana remake without having to be on set every day. The studio was going to shoot some scenes with his frequent body double, his 6’3”, 250-pound cousin Tanoai Reed. The AI company Metaphysic was then going to create deepfakes of Johnson’s face it would layer over Reed’s body for Moana. The concept was to make a “digital double” so it could double the Dwayne.

Johnson :deepest sigh ever recorded: agreed with the plan. He was totally on board with the executives. But after 18 months of legal questions and negotiations, including the issue of whether or not Disney would even own all of its own movie, the idea collapsed. As a result, none of that AI Dwayne Johnson footage will appear in the live-action Moana film.

Disney

It’s bad that Disney seriously considered this idea. It’s bad that it didn’t follow through because of legal matters rather than creative and ethical ones. But it’s good that it won’t actually happen and AI Dwayne Johnson will haunt only our dreams. (As is the fact, Disney also abandoned plans to use artificial intelligence in Tron: Ares.) It’s frustrating enough when live-action remakes don’t use live actors. Using AI versions of them would be so much worse.

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FREAKIER FRIDAY Is an Effervescent Sequel For All Generations (Review)

Lately, it seems like every day, another nostalgia sequel is emerging into the world. While there are many obvious draws to this kind of movie, a ready-made audience, a starting place of love, and a world that already exists, nostalgia sequels can also be some of the hardest needles to thread. Firstly, they have the tall order of proving they need to exist. Secondly, the audience that initially loved them is probably in a much different place in their lives than when they first became attached. And lastly, the movie needs to appeal to both old audiences and new. But happily, Disney’s latest nostalgia sequel venture, Freakier Friday, managed to be a rare nostalgia sequel that was, in a word, effervescent. Both delightful and sweet, the Freaky Friday sequel smartly used its starting point of nostalgia to bubble up into a movie that shines on its own.Disney

In Freakier Friday, what was once a story of a mother and daughter has added a generation + two. Anna Coleman, played by Lindsay Lohan, is now all grown up and a mother to a teenager of her own, Harper. But her mother, the delightful Tess Coleman played by Jamie Lee Curtis, can’t stop interfering in her life and family, not truly allowing her to grow all the way up. If that weren’t enough, after a meet-cute in Harper’s school involving an altercation between Harper and her high-school arch-nemesis, Lily, Anna is all set to marry the father of her daughter’s rival.

But when that father is Eric Reyes, played by Manny Jacinto, who is also an award-winning chef, a svelte dancer, and a silly, sensitive man, we truly can’t blame her. The girls don’t see it that way, though, of course; their dislike of one another leaves them determined to break up the forming family. But, at Anna’s bachelorette party, a run-in with a multi-hyphenate psychic forces them into one another’s shoes… Literally… As a Freaky Friday, nay, a Freakier Friday strikes them all.

Four body swaps might seem like too much for one movie, but Freakier Friday handles the convoluted exchanges with grace, never verging on feeling confusing or rushed. Everyone has their time in the sun, and their own hilarious moments in one another’s bodies. Importantly, the movie also does not go to any places that would “make it weird,” as the kids say. Do the kids still say that? And the body swap functions as a hilarious and emotional conceit that never brushes horrifying.

Disney

What ultimately struck me about Freakier Friday is the earnestness and authenticity of the characters. In the movie, Gen Z teen Harper is horrified by some headlines her mother has written that read like millennial cringe, but the movie never does. It seems to know what age group it’s speaking to and when, and never goes overboard trying to pander to any one of them. Instead, it seems to aim for an earnestness that likely will leave all ages satisfied. Sometimes boomers are clueless. Sometimes millennials are cringe. And sometimes Gen Z is annoying. But regardless of the label, everyone, at their hearts, just yearns to find a place to belong and a family to hold onto.

The generational conceit of Freakier Friday also seems to know how to handle the idea that the audience that commiserated with Tess in Freaky Friday is now more advanced in age, and the teen audience that loved teen Anna is now middle-aged themselves. In many cases, this might be where a nostalgia sequel would falter. But Freakier Friday takes pains to show that just because Anna and Tess have gotten older doesn’t mean they are any less cool.

Disney

Although Lindsay Lohan’s Anna has stopped performing by the time of the movie, her job still rocks, and she’s still living a powerful version of her dreams. Meanwhile, Tess is thriving in her later life, with a podcast, a book tour, and a loving husband. Could they use a little spruce? Yes. But so often, when we revisit our heroes and they have aged, the narrative seems to punish them for it, making their lives boring and terrible, pale shades of what they once were. The adventures, fiction so often exclaims, are for the young. But not Freakier Friday—and it’s to be commended for that.

Freakier Friday is also authentic in some more intense ways. I was personally surprised by just how mean the girls are to one another in front of their parents. But, hey, it turns out, kids can be terrible to one another, and the authenticity of Harper and Lily’s dislike makes the slowly warming friendship and sisterhood between them that much more fulfilling.

Disney

Ultimately, the true genius of Freakier Friday lies in its exceptional performances. Lindsay Lohan’s Anna is a likeable and warm mother, a great example of a new generation of moms that exist in our world—ones who know that respect and compassion are key to good parenting. Lohan, of course, also creates a hilarious teen version of herself. Lily, played by Sophia Hammons, and Harper, played by Julia Butters, make for excellent foils to one another and skillfully manage playing their age and playing much older. And Manny Jacinto, who plays Eric, the leading man in the film, is literally everything we could want out of a fictional husband. He’s charming, sweet, understanding, and an exceptional father; the other shoe does not drop with him—and that’s always nice to see. Plus, he dances. Enough said.

Disney

The side-characters in Freakier Friday also magically fill out the world. Chad Michael Murray’s Jake is a total hoot, playing his absurd hottie with a thing for older women to perfection. X Mayo’s Principal Waldman steals the show in every scene she is in, and Stephen Tobolowsky’s returning Mr. Bates never fails to make the audience laugh. Multi-hyphenate and hustler psychic Madame Jen, played by Vanessa Bayer, who is also a financial advisor, Starbucks barista, and more, is a genius character who really reflects a specific sort of person that we all know (and love, mostly).

Disney

And, of course, it was nostalgic in the most wonderful way to hear Pink Slip perform once again in Freakier Friday.

Then, of course, there’s Jamie Lee Curtis. Curtis’ acting in Freakier Friday is unparalleled, and she reminds us of what we already know: that she’s an actress who has mastered her craft and can employ it to be by turns hilarious, devastating, annoying, infuriating, enchanting, and silly without breaking a sweat. Curtis always shines, but in such a purely character-focused narrative, she glows extra hard.

Disney

Freaky Friday was born in the age of the Teen Girl Movie. And sadly, fewer and fewer of these YA narratives have come to exist over time. These days, kids grow up too fast, and teens get served options for adults instead of cinematic fare crafted just for them. Freakier Friday truly harkens back to that era of movies, appealing, of course, not just to the literal teen girl, but also to the spiritual teen girl in any person who has ever had a teen girl inside of them. In the most complimentary of ways, I say that it felt like a Disney Channel Original Movie. And while it borrowed from its original film, this sequel movie worked to create a world that one could come to without any prior knowledge and still find themselves falling in love.

Disney

At the end of the day, I laughed hard while watching Freakier Friday. The younger children to my left laughed. And my mom, to my right, laughed so hard she cried. And what better testament can there be to a generational movie about motherhood than that?

Freakier Friday releases in theaters on Friday, August 8.

Freakier Friday ⭐ (4 of 5)

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Liam Neeson Does Amazing Impression of STAR WARS’ Watto

Liam Neeson played Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg’s seminal film Schindler’s List. He also starred as Brian Mills, one of the greatest actions stars ever, in the Taken franchise. His IMDb page is full of memorable roles spanning almost every genre. And if that’s not enough, he’s a no-doubt pop culture Hall of Famer. How can he not be when he has played both a Jedi Master and a legendary Batman villain? Now he’s added Frank Drebin Jr. to his list of famous characters. With his Naked Gun reboot now in theaters, he sat down with GQ to discuss all of those roles and more. And while there’s plenty of great nuggets in this interview for movie nerds to geek out over, the unquestioned best moment came when Neeson did an amazing impression of Star Wars’ Watto.

Especially because he has no idea who or what Watto is.

The star of the new Naked Gun film sat down with GQ to breakdown his most iconic characters. As you can image, we here at Nerdist took great interest in his reflections on The Phantom Menace and Batman Begins. He didn’t disappoint with his insights on the galaxy far, far away. Neeson mentioned how George Lucas told him he doesn’t like directing actors. He also talked about training for lightsaber battles, why his character’s death was a letdown, returning to play Qui-Gon Jinn on Obi-Wan Kenobi, and more. He also shared how Christopher Nolan recruited him to play Ra’s al Gul and why he didn’t expect Batman Begins to be a hit.

GQ

But forget reflecting on his character. The highlight came when he did his impression of Watto and his little wings. Not that he knows who Watt is. He just knew he was dealing with a flying creature that he had to interact with a lot.

Forget the wings, he nailed the face.

Will we ever be able to watch Qui-Gon talk to Watto again without thinking of this impression? Zero chance. When a pop culture Hall of Famer does a hall-of-fame impression how can you?

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