Boy Movies #27

Nicholas Russell on Hot Ones

Today, famed Boy Movies contributor Nicholas Russell makes his triumphant return to the newsletter to go in on a subject that has vexed me since its inception: Hot Ones. When Nicholas pitched this idea to me, he was like, “I know it’s not about movies per se…” to which I said something to the effect of, “That does not bother me; I’m always playing it fast and loose with this concept.” Ultimately, he ended up sending in a piece that fits squarely within the Boy Movies ethos. Nicholas is a columnist at Defector, and it’s always a pleasure to read his thoughts on anything. I had a blast with this and I hope you do too.

Heywhat’sgoinoneverybody

Hot Ones is perhaps the only show capable of making Jake Gyllenhaal not seem like a complete psychopath. 

There are two things I want to highlight about that sentence. The first is the fact that Hot Ones is readily considered a show now. I remember first watching one of their earlier videos, with Key and Peele, and finding the format to be derivative of many other types of Youtube stunt interviews. In many ways, Hot Ones is of a piece with an insipid class of content, “Dad Smokes Blunt With Son and Talks About Their Relationship”, “Exes Play Drinking Game And Discuss Why It Ended”, and, of course, “_______ Reads Thirst Tweets.” Various underpaid workers at BuzzFeed and elsewhere tried to gamify the interview in lieu of doing any actual journalism. Which, like, fine. But you could tell the celebrities on the receiving end of such grasping, often intensely embarrassing antics were uncomfortable or, at the very least, impatient. The second fact is the exact reversal of that situational awkwardness. Hot Ones is famous for its host, Sean Evans, and his oft-remarked upon ability to put the most skeptical or checked-out guests at ease by dint of his supreme research skills. There are compilation videos of everyone from Guy Fieri to Idris Elba complimenting Evans on his thoughtful, sometimes incredibly obscure questions. The surprise these people perform is genuine most of the time and goes a long way toward humanizing otherwise astronomically unrelatable people. Which brings me back to Jake.

As time has gone on, and Hot Ones has gained notoriety and gone through its many “seasons” (please), the show has joined the mainstream press junket circuit for most high-profile actors promoting their latest. In Jake’s case, the new Guy Ritchie movie The Covenant, where, based solely on the trailer, it appears that Jake’s character makes a brown friend in the military. During his interview, Evans is sure to ask his subject about both the obvious stuff (The Covenant obviously, his career at large) and slightly more niche matters like the minutiae of stage acting and producing. Crucially, Evans gives Jake the chance to wax poetic about the philosophical pleasures of his work, how he chooses various projects depending on where he is in his life, and demonstrate that he too enjoys hot wings like the common man. Of course, this is the primary function of Hot Ones. It’s not simply to promote whatever its latest guest is there to promote (and, charmingly, a lot of them often forget to do so by the end). It’s to make these people relatable. The actual eating part of the show forces guests to open up. Theoretically, at least. I know that people love to witness celebrities breaking their cool facades and Hot Ones uniquely offers viewers the chance to see it happen, more or less in real time, but there’s no mistaking that the entire enterprise is heavily chaperoned and guided by agents, handlers, personal assistants, and studios to make sure nothing truly insane happens. Hot Ones can be a laugh, a place where actors flex their charm, or, in some cases (Sh*a LaBeouf), a place to lightly rehabilitate a public image.

Now, the reason why we’re talking about Hot Ones on Boy Movies today, the reason why Allison so kindly agreed to my frenzied DM, can perhaps be distilled down to the fact that, during their entire interview, Sean Evans does not ask Jake Gyllenhaal about Brokeback Mountain. Which is to say that, though Evans has interviewed many kinds of people, he seems to shine best with male subjects¹, bringing out an innate boyishness and endearing immaturity that audiences often don’t see, while dodging the subject of masculinity (toxic and not) itself. We can look at two case studies as examples. 

First, Pedro Pascal, who went on Hot Ones not long before Jake. If you’re a sicko like me, you’ve been seeking out interviews with Pedro for years and know that he’s been a silly boy from the beginning. He’s self-deprecating, smart, sweet, and hilarious, all qualities he exhibits in spades during his interview with Evans. In other words, nothing new. The ever-increasing literal spiciness as the two eat their way through the show’s proprietary gauntlet of hot sauces adds a level of looseness and spontaneity to the proceedings, but Pedro comes off pretty much the same as he always does: fun, interesting, a cool guy. Evans rides along with him, even bringing out some of his own latent boyishness, which can be difficult to spot under his relentlessly “laid-back” veneer. But the interview is a softball throw, a representation of the show cruising at its most generally appealing and professionally advantageous. 

(My girlfriend was the first to note that there’s something intensely unlikable about Sean Evans. He is, at first glance, the exact kind of millennial white dude that gets lampooned in just about every form of media these days: loud, hyper verbal, an understated gesticulating know-it-all who very clearly listens to a lot of, and has perhaps built his entire personality around, hip-hop, and dresses like a self-professed Hype Beast. I would also argue Evans is not wholly unaware of this external image. I’ve thought a lot more about Evans than I have about his many famous guests and part of that is because there is more to the Hot Ones format than simply a host who does a lot of deep background research. There has to be something about Evans himself! I think to myself. And Evans, when he wants to be, is sincere, engaged, and present in his work. But also, it’s hilarious that it’s this guy who has made the whole thing work.) 

Second is Josh Brolin, a legacy character actor-turned Actor actor who, despite my better intentions, has managed to file himself in my brain as “Problematic Fave.” Brolin has done a lot of work in the last decade to spruce up his image (Inherent Vice, Deadpool 2, The Avengers, Dune) and distance himself from a domestic battery charge when he was still married to Diane Lane, along with some queasy associations. Hopeful speculation (by me) points to a remorseful, hard-working dude who knows better than to try and act like a saint. At the very least, Brolin’s newfound notoriety has afforded him many opportunities to project this public image as a fact rather than something manufactured. So he uses his spot on Hot Ones wisely, buddying up to Sean Evans, sporting a big old trucker hat and t-shirt, speaking candidly about his work, his photography hobby, and how much of a dumbass he can sometimes be. Watching the interview, I’m often (because I have watched it multiple times) struck by how normal Brolin seems and constantly realizing that so much of it has to do with the questions Evans chooses to ask. 

“Is it true,” Evans begins, “that you blew the audition for The Fly 2 by overcommitting to the metamorphosis?” Brolin interrupts Evans to express his surprise (“How do you know this!”) before answering the question, which affords Brolin the opportunity to both expound upon his doldrum years post-Goonies trying to find work and lightly make fun of himself for his work ethic. The entire time, Brolin and Evans fire up the kind of sustained, bro-y banter you’d expect of good high school friends, if more obviously manicured and polite than it otherwise would be with the cameras off. And really, when one looks at the larger project of Hot Ones, a trend-chasing goof that outlasted its peers to become something legitimate and profitable, an idea born from a grade-school sleepover, what is it if not an excuse to “glimpse” the real people caught in the spotlight? The show weaponizes that ephemeral desire to “get a drink with that guy” precisely because, for a second, it seems like the people we’re watching retain something of their more humble and innocent selves. “We have to go back!” Jack shouts in Lost. Implicitly, Hot Ones believes that’s possible. 

1. Allison here: I’ve spent more hours than I care to admit thinking about the performance of femininity through the lens of Hot Ones. The inherent “not like other girls” of a woman eating hot wings; the way they all show up in full glam, often with their abs bared… a Kardashianified Millie Bobby Brown and her relatable milkshake, Elizabeth Olsen delicately holding a napkin in front of her face as she picks her teeth, Lorde’s legacy as one of the “tougher” guests for barely batting an eye at the heat levels…