MTV’s Josh Horowitz has hosted countless interviews and screenings at 92NY with the biggest stars in the Hollywood firmament — the actors and filmmakers who define movies, TV, and comedy today — in live recordings of his hit podcast, Happy Sad Confused. As awards season heats up ahead of his conversation with 2024 Academy Award nominee Emily Blunt on Tuesday, February 6, we talked to Josh about how he got his start, the art of interviewing, his favorite films of the year, and more.
You started out as a red carpet reporter for MTV, eventually finding your way into longer form interviews. How did that trajectory occur?
I grew up in New York City obsessed with film, TV, and comedy. I knew I wanted to make my life in that world, whether creating it or being adjacent to it. I got into journalism and had a radio show in college, and then after a few years of working in magazines and TV I got what I thought was the best job of my life at MTV in 2006, as a digital content editor. One day out of the blue I was called in to sub for Kurt Loder and interview John Travolta on the air — I was petrified, but I got through it, and the rest is history. Over the last two decades I’ve covered everything about movies and TV for them, talking to every celebrity you can imagine. About 10 years ago I started my own podcast, Happy Sad Confused, as a labor of love — I loved doing the short interviews, but I wanted to have more in-depth conversations. Now 500 episodes in, it lives on, and thanks to this wonderful ongoing partnership with 92NY it also exists as a live event, which has made it all the more exciting.
You are a particularly beloved interviewer — many of the actors and directors who come to speak at 92NY specifically request you as an interlocutor. What makes a good interview?
I live and breathe movies and TV, and I love my job. It is not a chore for me to talk to Gary Oldman about his career — it’s the opposite. We could have a very long conversation about Gary Oldman right now, and I’d be thrilled. While I do an intense amount of research for every interview, the reality is that this stuff is in my bones. The key is to have a natural conversation. Anybody can write good questions and read them off a card, but it’s harder and more rewarding to sit with superstar performers and talk to them like human beings. That’s what I try to do — I talk to filmmakers and actors as if they’re family members or friends.
How do you pull that off? We’re in the thick of awards season, and you were recently spotted at the Critics Choice Awards sitting at the Oppenheimer table. You’ve interviewed Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, and Christopher Nolan on Happy Sad Confused, and you’ll be talking to Blunt at 92NY again soon. What is it like to hang out and casually talk with the people who make some of the biggest movies in Hollywood?
I’m obsessed with Oppenheimer. I’ve seen it in the theater five times, and I think that Christopher Nolan is at the absolute top of his game. So when I get to talk to him — and I’ve been around long enough to have a degree of familiarity, I’ve had him on the podcast three times now — it’s not lost on me that it’s a massive privilege. There’s a weird thing that happens, either onstage at 92NY, on a Zoom, or at an awards show — I’m fully aware of the magnitude of Emily Blunt’s talent, I understand that I’m eating dinner with one of the best filmmakers alive, I understand how insane that all is, but I am also able to just see them as human beings. There can be a tendency in entertainment journalism to treat celebrities like deities. That creates distance. I can acknowledge that Christopher Nolan is one of the greatest filmmakers of our time, but when we talk I don’t put him on a pedestal. That’s the dance.
What were some of your favorite films this year?
I’m not the first person to point it out, but 2023 was tremendous year for film. Barbie was a pop spectacle, a very special movie, and there’s a reason why it resonated so much with both audiences and critics. With Oppenheimer, Nolan took our notions of what a biopic was and completely turned it on its head. I thought Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things was absolutely audacious, and Emma Stone’s performance is revelatory. Dream Scenario, with that amazing performance by Nicholas Cage, was so funny and a very thoughtful commentary on celebrity culture and social media. Nicole Holofcener’s You Hurt My Feelings was excellent — as a city kid who grew up with conversation-forward dramadies about walking around New York, I was reminded of how great movies like that can be. I could go on.
Who’s on your interview bucket list?
My bucket list is getting shorter as the years go by, but there are some. George Clooney. David Fincher is more than welcome to come on Happy Sad Confused anytime, and it will happen one of these days. He’s one of the smartest directors going. I’m desperate to talk to Robert Downey Jr. — what a career, what an evolution. I did just see him at the Critics Choice Awards, and you’d be a fool if you didn’t think I pitched him right then and there [laughs]. In fact I enlisted John Krasinski and Emily Blunt to give him the hard sell. Stay tuned.
Many episodes of Happy Sad Confused are recorded at 92NY. What makes 92NY the right venue for a conversation with a live audience?
It has turned into such a great marriage. I can’t think of a better venue. The audiences there are passionate, intelligent, voracious lovers of culture in all forms. They bring enthusiasm, great questions, and life. I did this podcast for years with no audience but my dog. Being at 92NY really changes the energy. Sitting in front of a packet theater with the Star Trek: Picard cast, the Outlander cast — it has at times felt like being onstage at a rock concert. Those nights are embedded in my memory as celebrations of culture and art. As a New Yorker who went to high school just a few blocks from 92NY, it feels like I’ve come full circle every time I step on stage there. I just hope the audience comes away entertained. The goal of having great conversation onstage is not unlike the goal of making a movie — to move someone, either with laughter or tears, or to make them think. These conversations have enriched my life so much. I can only hope it does the same for the audience.
Josh Horowitz talks to Emily Blunt on Tue, Feb 6.