Rewinding it back to our top 10 film and TV interviews

Each month in 2025 we’re picking a topic and sharing a list of staff favorites.

Saturday happens to be Global Movie Day, so we thought it was the perfect time to reveal our top 10 list of film and TV interviews.

Before we get started, keep in mind this list is SUPER unscientific. The whole Texas Standard staff weighed in, but this was HARD to narrow down.

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10. The new film, ‘The River and the Wall,’ shows the border as few people have ever seen it

Texans like Ben Masters know the border in a way many others across the country do not. 

In this 2019 interview, he opened up to us about, yes, some of the politics of building a wall along the border – but Masters is especially fascinated by nature and our conversation also included the impacts on wildlife and on the area’s beauty.

9. Robert Rodriguez made his first film For $7K, and just did it again with ‘Red 11’

At number 9 on our list, another 2019 interview and another director: icon Robert Rodriguez. 

We talked to Rodriguez at a time of continued play and experimentation – when he had just challenged himself and a group of young filmmakers to make a feature film for $7,000, like he did in the ’90s with “El Mariachi.”

8. What making ‘Red Rocket’ in Texas taught Sean Baker. And what audiences might take away.

Number 8 on our list is not a Texas-based filmmaker – but it was about his Texas-based film. 

We spoke with Sean Baker, who is now nominated for four Oscars for his film “Anora,”about his 2021 film “Red Rocket” in which he settled on Texas and Texas City as a location. As is his style, he chose some locals, like first-time actress Brittney Rodriguez to fill out the cast.

Brittney Rodriguez has continued to act, by the way – and has a part in “Anora.”

7. Texas director Jeff Nichols on ‘gaining the courage to tell the story’ of ‘The Bikeriders’

At number 7 on the list is our most recent interview with Austin-based director Jeff Nichols. 

This isn’t the first time we’ve interviewed Nichols, and we’ve always appreciated his vulnerability in our conversations. It’s the same heart that shows up in his movies – like “The Bikeriders.” 

6. New documentary dives into the world of high school mariachi competitions

Number 6 on our list was chosen, in part, by our audience. The web post about the documentary “Going Varsity in Mariachi” was one of the most-read stories on our site in 2023.

The film features a couple of schools in the Rio Grande Valley, but especially follows Edinburg North High School – where Abby Garcia, who joined co-directors Alejandra Vasquez and Sam Osborn for the interview, was a student.

3. ‘One thing we all have in common is we all have bodies’: New film celebrates people who are intersex

Halfway through our list! At number five is another documentary from 2023: “Every Body.”

Alicia Roth Weigel lives in Austin, and managing producer Laura Rice says this is one of the most personal interviews she’s ever done.

4. Talking filmmaking and ‘Everybody Wants Some’ with Richard Linklater

At number four on our list is another iconic director – Richard Linklater.

We’ve enjoyed talking to Linklater multiple times over the years, but for the purpose of this list we had to choose just one. So we went with this one about his 2016 film “Everybody Wants Some” – when he was also generous enough to hang around with us and talk about film and filmmaking in general.

3. Dan Rather’s CRISPR documentary will debut at South By Southwest Film Festival

At number three is storied newsman and Texan, Dan Rather.

We’ve also had him on the show a few times over the decade, but this interview with him about a documentary he helped produce about the gene-editing tool CRISPR sticks out. There’s something so compelling about someone like Rather, whose seen so much, being so passionate about a topic.

2. Houston oozes through the screen in Mo Amer’s new Netflix series

At number two on our list is Houston’s Mo Amer. We were thrilled to get to talk to him back in 2022 right at the start of his Netflix series “Mo.”

“Mo” won a Peabody in 2023 and just released its second season. Amer told us making a TV program is a different challenge than the standup comedy he also does. 

1. Matthew McConaughey talks about his love for Austin

We’ve made it to the number one on our list and it had to be this one.

Matthew McConaughey grew up in Uvalde and went to high school in Longview, but he is through and through an Austinite. In 2018, he shared his thoughts with us on how its changed.

Honorable mentions

Narrowing this list down to just 10 was difficult. Here are a few that didn’t make the cut, but are certainly worth mentioning.

– We asked Pee-Wee Herman about the Alamo. Here’s what he said.

– Edward James Olmos on his iconic roles, his filmmaker son and youth in film

– How the Texas star of ‘Moonlight’ made it to the big screen

– Johnny Cash’s first wife was Vivian Liberto. A documentary finally tells her story

– Austin-based journalist’s new TV series ‘Never Say Never’ aims to show travel is for everyone

– On ‘Brainchild,’ Sahana Srinivasan teaches kids about science in an ‘older sister’ kind of way

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