RS: I’m sorry, can I just say I was gagged when I saw them for the first time. Then my boyfriend had never seen them and I was like, “You’ve gotta see these movies, they are so good.” We watched it, and I was like, “This is even better than I remember.” They’re so emotional, intense, and beautifully shot.
JH: Thanks. It’s always a little scary when you’re adapting something that has such a beloved fanbase already through the books – there’s a lot of pressure. The amount of conversations that were had about the colour of my hair was insane. That level of expectation and pressure. But it’s not dissimilar to what we made with I Love LA, there was pressure in this as well. It’s Rachel’s fucking thing! It’s HBO, and it’s the next this and that. With Hunger Games and with what you’re making, they’re very similar. [both laugh]
RS: We go into the arena.
JH: The arena of Silverlake. But you feel protected with great creators and great directors, the pressure is there, but you have a great team around you to try and build that into something cool. The Kids Are All Right and Hunger Games are probably the two biggest turning points. Then Future Man with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, that was my first time doing TV, and it was so fucking fun. I fell in love with it, I fell in love with comedy too, because I’d never really knowingly done much comedy. [Rachel laughs] Getting the chance to go big, it’s slapstick-y, it’s over the top. It’s so fun to stretch that side of yourself.
RS: You’re so good at comedy because you lean into the truth, you know it’s a comedy and you know how to do comedy, but you’re playing it very honestly, which I think is a rare balance to have.
JH: Thank you.
RS: I want to bang out some fun questions. You’re super not online. What convinced you to be more online?
JH: You guys. [laughs]
RS: Us!
JH: I didn’t have an Instagram for years and then when I did Future Man, Hulu was like, “We’d really like him to have Instagram,” and I was like, “Cool, he would really like to not have Instagram.” I’m such a curmudgeon sometimes, I am so stuck in my ways and stubborn, my Taurus side really is on full display sometimes. I am also very cynical in many ways, and I see a lot of the negatives that come along with social media and how it’s shaping society, young people and the idea of what you need to try and prove that you are to the world. That gives me a lot of resistance to it, but I’m learning through you guys how you can use it to find the fun and the joy. You guys bring a lot of joy.
RS: Josh, your TikToks are bringing people joy. They’re bringing me joy.
JH: Oh, good. [laughs]
RS: How do you unwind after a long day at work?
JH: Spotify is really getting to know me well, my algorithm is finely tuned right now. After a long day, I get home and I like the Spotify Daylist. I got home last night after the long shoot and it was like ‘Evening Saxophone Funk Brazilian’ and I was like, “Yes, please.” A little groove, I was packing, doing some laundry. I’m very music-oriented, so for sure, getting home, music and then when my dogs are here, just taking them for walks and spending time with my girlfriend, obviously. That’s number one.
RS: Love. OK, hidden talents? Secret skills? I know one.
JH: Which one?
RS: Motorcycling.
JH: Oh yeah, motorcycling. I would classify that as an ability that anyone can do if you just learn it, but I grew up in Kentucky riding dirt bikes, and a motorcycle was the natural progression. I make a lot of sound effects, you’ve heard my cricket sounds. I can blow bubbles with my spit.
RS: Love.
JH: As a kid on set, I didn’t go to school. I went to ‘set school,’ but I was isolated a lot, so I had to find ways to entertain myself.
RS: So, blowing spit bubbles. “I got really into spit bubbles and dirt biking, and it’s incredible.” [both laugh] Last question, first piece of art that inspired you? It could be anything: a play, a show, a movie, a song.
JH: It’s a typical fucking straight guy answer and it sucks but it’s true…
RS: That’s OK, Josh. It’s OK to be straight.
JH: I’m fine being a straight white dude, but the basic answer is annoying. When I was nine, my parents let me watch Fight Club, which is kind of wild, but when I saw that, it broke my brain as a nine-year-old in so many ways. As a little kid, I was like existential crises left and right, “What does this all mean? What is life? What is existence?” Then when I saw Fight Club, it was speaking to that, a person that had a bifurcated existence, and I was like, “Holy shit.” That and Donnie Darko, those are two movies that really blew my mind. My dad always had a really interesting taste in music. I grew up listening to Sade, Rob Zombie, The Prodigy, Björk, these crazy mixes of genre, stuff that was very weird and quasi-avant-garde in ways that made me fall in love with musical expression and creativity.
RS: I love it.
JH: That was a damn good interview, Rachel.
