John Wilson. Photo courtesy of HBO.
John Wilson is this week’s guest on The FADER Interview podcast. The documentary maker spoke with The FADER’s David Renshaw in advance of the third season premiere of his HBO series, How To with John Wilson, which begins this Friday (July 28). Over the course of the interview, Wilson talked about his decision to make this season the show’s last, as well as his wider thoughts on New York and the balance between documenting a city and respecting the privacy of its citizens.
Early on in the conversation, Wilson spoke about working with Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh on an upcoming episode of How To. While he kept tight lipped on the details of the episode, he revealed that he’d reached out to the director of Ocean’s Eleven and Erin Brockovich after hearing he was a fan of his work. “You might be able to tell which episode it is when you watch it,” Wilson hinted. “That was a really cool collaboration. We sent him a rough script for one episode and got on the phone with him and talked with him about it, and he gave us some advice about how to do some of the more ambitious stuff within it.
“We had a nice time talking,” he continued. “He was wearing a Cheesecake Factory hat during one Zoom. I was saying I’d never been there and he was talking about how much he likes that place because of how well-oiled the operation is and how big the menu is — he really likes watching people do big jobs efficiently. We also bonded over our love of Below Deck, which we both watch a lot. I didn’t realize he was a fan, but I guess he has dinner with Captain Lee sometimes, which is cool.”
Listen to John and David’s full conversation via this link, embedded below, or wherever you get your podcasts.