John Woo: An Empire Podcast Interview Special

John Woo: An Empire Podcast Interview Special

Author: Bauer Media July 16, 2026 Duration: 1:16:59

Here's a hard boiled treat that will feel like a bullet in the head initially. It may even make you want to take your face off. But hold tight, for there will always be a better tomorrow. Yes, it's a very special interview with the legendary action director, John Woo, who invited our Chris Hewitt, a lifelong fan of Woo's movies, into his LA offices last week for an hour-long talk, principally about Woo's groundbreaking, exhilarating work in Hong Kong on the likes of Hard Boiled, The Killer, Bullet In The Head, and A Better Tomorrow and its sequel. The two of them talk about Woo's humble beginnings, his discovery of action as an outlet and Chow Yun-Fat as his alter ego/leading man, his approach to staging action, his travails on Hard Boiled's greatest action sequence, and much, much more. We hope you enjoy.


Every Friday, the team from the world's biggest movie magazine gets together to talk about the one thing they love most. The Empire Film Podcast, from Bauer Media, is your weekly, spoiler-free dispatch from the front lines of cinema. It feels less like a formal broadcast and more like pulling up a chair in a lively pub where the conversation just happens to be about this week's biggest releases, the oddest film news, and the sheer joy of the movies. You'll hear thoughtful, often passionate reviews of the latest films hitting screens, cutting through the hype to tell you what's truly worth your time. Alongside that, the chat ranges from the insightful to the gloriously silly, with interviews that get real conversations out of Hollywood's most interesting creators rather than just promotional soundbites. This podcast captures the essence of what makes Empire magazine so enduring: a deep knowledge and an irreverent sense of fun, all in one place. For those who finish an episode and immediately want to dissect every plot twist, they point you towards their dedicated spoiler show. But for your regular fix of film culture, news, and honest opinion, this is the Friday ritual for anyone who cares about what's playing in the dark.
Author: Language: en-gb Episodes: 50

The Empire Film Podcast
Podcast Episodes
Middle-Aged Sex And Death At Camp Empire [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:31:48
This week's episode of the Empire Podcast sees Jane Schoenbrun, director of Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma, chat to Harry Stainer on Zoom about their new movie, creating a new horror icon, and their own filmmaking…
Jurassic Street: Cull De Sac (ft. guest, Matt Johnson) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:29:59
This week's episode of the Empire Podcast sees director Matt Johnson return, just a few weeks after he was talking up Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie. This time, he's talking to Amon Warmann about his new movie, Ton…
The Greig Fraser Key Light Challenge (ft. guest, Taika Waititi) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:24:47
This week's episode of the Empire Podcast sees Taika Waititi, director of Hunt For The Wilderpeople, Zoom in for a cracking chat with Chris Hewitt about that movie's tenth anniversary re-release, his feelings about the l…
No Sex Scenes! (ft. guest, Destin Daniel Cretton) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:34:54
This week's episode of the Empire Podcast sees Chris Hewitt — freshly returned from Comic-Con and San Diego — sit down for a lovely chat with Spider-Man: Brand New Day director, Destin Daniel Cretton. Either side of that…
Comic-Con 2026: The Reaction Pod (recorded in San Diego) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:14:33
And so Empire has said goodbye to Comic-Con 2026, after an absolutely jam-packed few days that saw our Chris Hewitt race around the San Diego Convention Centre, taking in panels and press lines galore, speaking to some o…
Dogg Day Afternoon (ft. Mary Steenburgen; and Tom Hiddleston) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:37:43
On this week's Empire Podcast, Helen O'Hara slides into the host's chair in the Comic-Con-related absence of Chris Hewitt, and together, she, James Dyer and Amon Warmann come up with some of the greatest dog movies, sugg…
The Shameless Plug: Another Odyssey Odyssey [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:37
With Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey finally in cinemas, and the current issue of Empire (with The Odyssey on the cover!) still on sale for just over a week or so, now is the perfect time for Chris Hewitt and Nick de Sem…
Do You See? (ft. Christopher Nolan) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:37:23
This week's episode of The Empire Podcast sees one of the most revered Chrises in the movie business finally sit down with the director of The Dark Knight, Inception, Interstellar, Oppenheimer and now The Odyssey. Yes, o…