Laurence Fishburne & James Hawes on The Amateur

Apr 10, 2025 · 1h 05m

Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you. We have a real treat for you in the guest slot this week—director of ‘The Amateur’ James Hawes, and one of its stars Laurence Fishburne—AKA actual Morpheus from The Matrix. We are not worthy. Laurence plays Colonel Henderson, the grizzled CIA man tasked with training Rami Malek’s geeky decoder Charlie for the fieldwork he insists on undertaking in order to track down his wife’s terrorist killers. Simon chats to the actor and director about this smart action thriller, and its influences from Hawes’ Brit spy series ‘Slow Horses’ to Jason Bourne. We’ll hear stories from the set plus the pair’s thoughts on the theatre, The Matrix and Adolescence. Don’t miss this one. Mark reviews ‘The Amateur’, as well as ‘Drop’--a psycho-thriller wherein a widowed mother’s (Meghann Fahy) first date interr…

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