Sunday Sitdown With Willie Geist

In this week’s Sunday Sitdown, Willie Geist gets together with the Ed Sheeran to talk about his latest album, Equals, his new daughter, and his path from busking on the streets of London to the highest-grossing tour in the history of music. (Original broadcast date January 2, 2022)

Jane Krakowski has been working steadily on television, in the movies and on Broadway since she was a teenager, breaking out with a Golden Globe nominated performance on the series Ally McBeal. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist gets together with the actress to talk about a career that has taken her from that memorable role to 30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and a Tony Award on Broadway. (Original broadcast date: August 15, 2021)

Already a Tony-nominated triple-threat on Broadway and a member of the original cast of Hamilton, Ariana DeBose shot to Hollywood stardom with an electrifying performance as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. In this week’s Sunday Sitdown, Willie Geist gets together with the actress to talk about that role that won her a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. (Original broadcast date: February 27, 2022)

Machine Gun Kelly started his music career as a rapper, but it was his punk album Tickets to My Downfall that launched the hard-edged musician to superstardom. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist gets together with the artist to talk about that move to punk after four successful hip-hop albums and his discomfort with the spotlight at the top of the music world. (Original broadcast date: October 10, 2021)

In 1978, Kevin Bacon got cast in Animal House. And in the ensuing decades, he starred in iconic films including A Few Good Men, Apollo 13, Mystic River and, of course, Footloose. In this week's "Sunday Sitdown," Willie Geist gets together with the actor to talk about why he chose to stay in New York, how he incorporates the Six Degrees of himself in to his family life and why he decided to take on his latest role in the horror film They/Them.

The 1998 film Shakespeare in Love won Gwyneth Paltrow an Academy Award for Best Actress and made her one of Hollywood's most sought-after stars. But fame began to take its toll. In 2008, she sent out the first Goop newsletter, a collection of recommendations for food, clothes and places to visit. Since then Goop has grown in to a successful, wide-ranging lifestyle brand. In this week's "Sunday Sitdown," Willie Geist gets together with the actress turned entrepreneur on New York's Long Island.

If it feels like you haven't seen as much of Jessica Alba on screen in the last decade or so, that's because she's been busy growing a business. For 10 years now, "The Honest Company" she founded has been a pioneer for clean products for babies, beauty and the home. In this week's "Sunday Sitdown," Willie Geist gets together with the actor and entrepreneur to discuss how she found her confidence in Hollywood and the business world.

In the 29 years since Jurassic Park debuted, Jeff Goldblum has taken on many roles, leaving his mark as a beloved character actor. In this week's "Sunday Sitdown," Willie Geist gets together with the multi-talented star to talk about returning the role of Dr. Ian Malcolm in this summer's blockbuster Jurassic World: Dominion, as well the jazz ensemble he leads on the side. 

The 1996 movie Swingers set Jon Favreau on a path to becoming one of the most successful and sought-after filmmakers in Hollywood. His directing resume now includes massive hits like Elf, Iron Man, The Jungle Book and the 2019 version of The Lion King, which made more than $1.6 billion at the box office while introducing groundbreaking visual effects. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist gets together with the actor and director to talk about putting all of that experience behind his latest project, the docuseries Prehistoric Planet. 

In 1995, Emma Thompson took on the challenge of adapting Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility into a successful movie. She was rewarded with an Academy Award for her writing as well as a Best Actress nomination for her performance in that film, capping a run of five Oscar nominations and two wins in just four years. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist gets together with the British star to talk about cementing her place as one of Hollywood’s most beloved actors and her latest, most revealing role yet in the buzzed about film Good Luck to You, Leo Grande.

In the three decades since leaving the law for writing, John Grisham has become one of the most widely read authors in human history. He has sold an astounding 350 million books, including 47 consecutive #1 bestsellers printed in 50 different languages. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist gets together with Grisham to talk about his leap from small town Southern lawyer to star novelist and his latest work, the novella Sparring Partners. 

In 2008, Lin-Manuel Miranda read Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton while on vacation and began envisioning something no one else could have seen – a hip-hop musical about America’s Founding Fathers. In this week’s Sunday Sitdown, Willie Geist gets together with the Tony, Emmy and Pulitzer-winning star to talk about creating the Broadway phenomenon Hamilton and his latest act as a film director. (Original broadcast date: November 21, 2021)

Ray Liotta may be best known for his breakout performance as real-life gangster Henry Hill in the iconic movie Goodfellas, a role that had the former soap opera star sharing famous scenes with Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro and Lorraine Bracco. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist re-visits a favorite conversation with the actor, who died this week at the age of 67. In one of Liotta's last interviews, they talk about that indelible movie and a career that took him from Field of Dreams to the Sopranos prequel film, The Many Saints of Newark.  (Original broadcast date: September 26, 2021)

For seven seasons, Jon Hamm played the hard-drinking, womanizing, 1960’s-era advertising executive Don Draper on the hit series Mad Men, a role that earned him two Golden Globe awards and an Emmy. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist gets together with the actor to talk about the legacy of that show and his steady mix of comedy and drama since then, all leading up to his childhood fantasy of starring in the highly anticipated new Top Gun sequel alongside Tom Cruise. 

Mike Meyers is among the comedy greats who have walked the halls of Saturday Night Live, with his popular “Wayne’s World” sketch becoming an even more popular movie. After leaving SNL he introduced the world to the archenemies Austin Powers and Dr. Evil, and went on to voice a big green ogre named Shrek in a multi-billion dollar franchise. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist gets together with the actor to talk about returning to the spotlight after nearly a decade away with his new Netflix series, The Pentaverate.

Academy Award winner Sam Rockwell is getting rave reviews for his return to Broadway in the revival of American Buffalo, where he takes on a famed role played over the years by stars like Al Pacino and Robert Duvall. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist gets together with Rockwell to talk about the Tony Award buzz around his performance, as well as his prolific career of roles ranging from George W. Bush in Vice to Bob Fosse in the hit series Fosse/Verdon. 

Janelle Monae has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards over the years without ever chasing the pop charts. Instead, she has created her own genre-defying artistic universe, with mentors and musical collaborators like Prince and Stevie Wonder guiding her along the way. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist gets together with the music star turned author to talk about her latest project – writing a collection of science fiction short stories. 

Sienna Miller spent the early years of her career in the flashing bulbs and shouted questions of media outlets fascinated by her relationships and her style. But standout performances in movies like Factory Girl, Foxcatcher and American Woman have forced a change of subject. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist gets together with the star to talk about her new Netflix series, Anatomy of a Scandal, which has her tapping into those trying years in the spotlight. 

You may know Jane Lynch from the Christopher Guest mockumentaries like Best in Show, or as the unforgettable Sue Sylvester on the hit show Glee, or more recently in an Emmy-winning performance on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist gets together with the actress to talk about her latest role making people smile in the highly-anticipated Broadway revival of Funny Girl. 

In the three decades since scoring a platinum debut album as rapper Marky Mark, Mark Wahlberg has grown into a versatile superstar in Hollywood with a range that spans classic dramas like Boogie Nights, the comedy hits Ted and Daddy’s Home, and the blockbuster Transformers movies. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist gets together with the actor to talk about his latest role in the film Father Stu, the extraordinary true story of a boxer turned Catholic priest.