Stephen Merchant

1 sketch, 25 claims, and 13 fun items attributed to them. What was said about them.

Personality, episode by episode

The Big Picture: Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) (guest)

A former film critic with very broad taste, from Fellini and Antonioni to Predator and Die Hard, and loves Rocky (especially Rocky 2), musicals, and grittier-than-remembered classics like Saturday Night Fever. Admires craft and performance skill, and is wary of mocking subject matter.

Stances

  • Wrestling was a late conversion; he came to respect the performance craft
  • Make it work for non-fans, like Rocky or Billy Elliot
  • Simplify the source rather than serve every fan
  • Success in one thing does not open every door

Humor: Self-deprecating, deadpan British humor, such as the Giant Haystacks hay joke and his compulsion to mention Dwayne Johnson.

In their words

  • “my taste is very broad and and, and I sort of feel like I want to try all the different ice cream, you know, if they'll let me.” (0:52:16)
  • “I wasn't just blowing smoke up their ass the whole time” (0:32:19)
  • “And so I still feel like it's necessary to prove myself.” (0:50:53)
  • “Did I mention I'm friends with Dwayne Johnson?” (0:24:42)

Their shows' recurring bits

Running bits, not opinions; a critic read aloud is cited, not present.

The Big Picture

Their claims

Showing 1–25 of 25 claims.

  1. people (people): Dwayne Johnson → Fighting with My Family. Merchant says his friend Dwayne Johnson sent him the documentary that became the film.
    “my dear friend Dwayne The Rock Johnson sent me this documentary about a family of British wrestlers”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:22:34 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  2. career (career): Dwayne Johnson → Tooth Fairy. Merchant knew Johnson from the Tooth Fairy days.
    “He did a film called Tooth Fairy, and we'd stayed in touch over the years.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:23:27 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  3. career (career): Dwayne Johnson → Fast and Furious (franchise). Merchant says Johnson was shooting a Fast and Furious film in England when he saw the documentary.
    “He was filming one of his Fast and Furious films.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:23:33 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  4. lineage (lineage): Fighting with My Family → Rocky. Merchant says the documentary had a Rocky style underdog story at its core.
    “there was a sort of rocky style underdog story at the core of it”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:24:09 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  5. lineage (lineage): Fighting with My Family → 42nd Street. Merchant says he saw the film as about becoming a star and entertainer, like old backstage musicals such as 42nd Street.
    “those old kind of um, musical, like 42nd Street, right?”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:27:31 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  6. lineage (lineage): Fighting with My Family → A Star Is Born. Merchant says he thought about A Star Is Born, the rags to riches story, as much as the sports side.
    “I was thinking as much about films like, you know, like a Star is Born”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:27:47 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  7. theme (theme): The Office (TV series) → Fighting with My Family. Merchant says there is always a coming-of-age element in his work, whether the Office or this film.
    “whether it's the office or any of the other things are done, there's always a sort of coming of age element to it”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:29:44 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  8. theme (theme): Hello Ladies (TV series) → Fighting with My Family. Merchant says his Hello Ladies character, like Paige and Brent, finally stops trying so hard.
    “true of my Hello Lady's character”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:30:16 · Stephen Merchant (0.90 sure it was them)
  9. theme (theme): Fighting with My Family → Billy Elliot. Merchant wanted a film that works for non-fans, as Billy Elliot makes you root for a ballet dancer despite no interest in ballet.
    “I kept thinking about movies like Billy Elliott.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:33:50 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  10. craft (craft): Tim Burton → Batman (Tim Burton). Merchant recalls Burton making the Joker the killer of Batman's parents, which he first hated as a comics fan.
    “Burton makes the Joker, the person who killed Batman's parents”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:35:16 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  11. craft (craft): Fighting with My Family → Batman (Tim Burton). Merchant says his furious teenage reaction to Burton's Joker change taught him that a 90-minute movie must simplify its source, as he did with wrestling storylines.
    “the more that Tim Burton's decision to do that makes perfect sense to me as a 90 minute movie”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:35:54 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  12. career (career): Florence Pugh → Lady Macbeth. Merchant says he had only seen Pugh in Lady Macbeth, a contained performance, and needed someone who could let loose.
    “I'd only really seen her in this film called Lady Macbeth, which is a much more contained controlled performance”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:38:30 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  13. craft (craft): Fighting with My Family → The Fighter. Merchant borrowed The Fighter's low-budget trick of using HBO boxing cameramen so the wrestling would look like a real broadcast.
    “They used HBO boxing cameramen to shoot a lot of their fight scenes.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:41:16 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  14. industry (industry): Film4 → Fighting with My Family. Merchant says he developed the project from the ground up with Dwayne Johnson and Film4.
    “I developed it with Dwayne and with film 4”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:43:44 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  15. industry (industry): HBO → Hello Ladies (TV series). Merchant says Hello Ladies began as stand-up and HBO suggested making it a sitcom, so ideas can come from anywhere.
    “Hello, ladies, for instance, was a stand-up act and it was HBO who said if you thought about this as a sitcom”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:44:00 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  16. craft (craft): Fighting with My Family → Rocky. Merchant says you cannot make a sports movie without watching Rocky and all its sequels.
    “make any kind of sports a movie without watching Rocky or indeed all of the Rockies”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:45:46 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  17. craft (craft): Rocky → Fighting with My Family. Merchant calls Rocky a template because it beds in character so you root for him before the fight, a lesson he applied.
    “a template in the sense that it really beds in character”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:46:00 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  18. lineage (lineage): Creed → Rocky. Merchant says Creed repeated Rocky's trick of making you care about the character before the fighting.
    “when they rebooted it with Creed, I think they did the same thing”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:46:07 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  19. lineage (lineage): Fighting with My Family → 8 Mile. Merchant lists 8 Mile among films he thought about while making it.
    “The other things I thought about are 8 mile, the Eminem film.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:46:49 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  20. contrast (contrast): Saturday Night Fever → Grease. Merchant says people think of Saturday Night Fever as a Grease-like musical, but it is a much tougher, grittier film.
    “like a companion piece to Greece, but it's actually a much tougher, grittier film”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:47:32 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  21. craft (craft): Fighting with My Family → Saturday Night Fever. Merchant treats the wrestling matches like the dance numbers in Saturday Night Fever, each with different moves building to a big finale.
    “the way that the wrestling sequences are almost little dance numbers.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:47:51 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  22. career (career): Leave No Trace → Winter's Bone. Merchant notes Leave No Trace is from the director of Winter's Bone.
    “from the director of Wintersbone”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:52:48 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  23. people (people): Thomasin McKenzie → Leave No Trace. Merchant praises McKenzie's performance in Leave No Trace.
    “Great performance from Thomas and Mackenzie”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:52:52 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  24. people (people): Thomasin McKenzie → Jojo Rabbit. Merchant says McKenzie is also in Jojo Rabbit, in which he had a part.
    “I did a part in, in a movie called Jojo Rabbit with Taiko Waititi, and she's in there”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:52:52 · Stephen Merchant (0.90 sure it was them)
  25. contrast (contrast): Fighting with My Family → Leave No Trace. Merchant says Leave No Trace is heavy and Fighting with My Family could be the antidote or sorbet.
    “There's a heaviness to leave no trace that perhaps we could be an antidote.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:53:41 · Stephen Merchant (0.90 sure it was them)

Their fun items

Showing 1–13 of 13 fun items.

  1. fun, about Fighting with My Family: Merchant's only wrestling exposure growing up was fat British wrestlers like Giant Haystacks.
    “There was a guy called Giant Haystacks.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:22:19 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about Fighting with My Family / Dwayne Johnson: Merchant's running gag about opening with his friendship with Johnson.
    “Did I mention I'm friends with Dwayne Johnson?”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:24:42 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about Fighting with My Family: Wrestling summed up as soap opera in spandex, the line that made it click for Merchant.
    “Someone described it as soap opera in spandex.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:25:10 · Stephen Merchant (0.90 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about Fighting with My Family: Merchant says WWE let him in like magicians: you have to win their trust.
    “It was a little bit like I imagine if you spend time with magicians.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:26:22 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  5. fun, about Fighting with My Family: WWE rule Merchant learned: say WWE, not the WWE.
    “you should refer to it as WWE and not the WWE.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:26:37 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  6. fun, about Batman (Tim Burton): Teen Merchant was furious that Burton made the Joker the killer of Batman's parents.
    “Anyone who's read the comics knows it was Joe Chilli.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:35:23 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  7. fun, about Dwayne Johnson: At WrestleMania the Rock lit a nine-foot sign of his name with a flamethrower and held the crowd for minutes without a word.
    “he managed to string that out for about 7 or 8 minutes without saying a word”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:37:32 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  8. fun, about Fighting with My Family: The Staples Center scene was shot on day four with 20,000 fans after a Raw taping, with one hour allowed by WWE.
    “The WWE had allowed us one hour to shoot a scene.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:39:15 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  9. fun, about Florence Pugh: A nervous Merchant was asked by Pugh to leave the room before the Staples Center scene.
    “can you just leave the room because you're making me nervous”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:42:02 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  10. fun, about Rocky II: Merchant's pick of the Rockys.
    “I'm I'm very partial to Rocky 2.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:45:54 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  11. fun, about Saturday Night Fever: Merchant says the original cut is a brutal working-class story, not the pop touchstone people remember.
    “is a very brutal, tough working class story of a guy who's sort of going nowhere and just living for the weekends”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:46:59 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  12. fun, about Stephen Merchant's 500 movies list: Merchant made a chronological list of 500 favorite movies after seeing one by Edgar Wright.
    “I made a list recently of my favorite 500 movies because, you know, I got time on my hands.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:51:29 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  13. fun, about Leave No Trace: Merchant's last great thing seen: Leave No Trace, cruelly overlooked this awards season.
    “an excellent movie I saw called Leave No Trace”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:52:38 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)