Blade w. Kasai Richardson and Samuel James

Alex Steed (0:07)

Hello, you and welcome to You Are Good, a feelings podcast about movies. Today, we are talking about Blade. We're talking about it with my great friends, Samuel James and Kasai Richardson. I'm your host, Alex Steed. Welcome. You Are Good, a feelings podcast about movies is exactly what it sounds like. We are a show where we talk about movies and feelings about them. We talk about how the movies make us feel about who and how we are in the world. We are not film critics. We are here to talk about movies and feelings. Just a quick note before we begin, if you are in Los Angeles on October 7th, 2026, that's when this episode comes out. Please check out Siri Doll's First Thirst Live at the Elysian Theater. I'll be producing that event. And if you're around on October 29th, also in Los Angeles, I'm hosting a photo show in Los Angeles in Highland Park. You can find a link to that into Siri's show in the show notes. There'll be photos by my great friend Gustavo Turner and photos by me.

I'd love to see you there. It's going to be a great opening. Again, October 29th, link in the show notes, photos by Gustavo Turner and me. All right, let's talk about Blade, shall we, with Samuel James and Kasai Richardson.

Hello, Sam. Hello, Kasai.

Kasai Richardson (1:47)

Hello, Alex.

Alex Steed (1:48)

Hi, Lenny. My screen name is Lenny Blacula.

Samuel James (1:51)

Please try to explain that.

Alex Steed (1:53)

I, yesterday, in becoming suddenly fascinated by the history of Blade, texted you two, and I said, Blade, the quote, half-breed, mixed-race British vampire hunter from the 1970s, was created by a Jewish man named Marv Wolfman? And Sam, you responded, wait until you hear about the failed black werewolf character created by Lenny Blacula.

Samuel James (2:23)

That was pretty succinct. That was succinct.

Kasai Richardson (2:24)

You did it. That's about the size of it.

Alex Steed (2:26)

I like how you two are now just a unit on the show. Doesn't exist with anybody else.

There's no other pair of hosts.

Samuel James (2:35)

Is that right?

Alex Steed (2:37)

Yeah, it's because we started to come together around the Fast and Furious movies.

And I think people in particular enjoy very specifically this trio of chemistries. I feel like we should come together and talk about other movies. And I put it to you all to come back and said it's, you know, you could if you wanted to do a movie that's not in the Fast and Furious universe. And Kasai, you picked Blade.

Kasai Richardson (3:05)

Yeah, and I specifically said that as much as I love my family, with a capital F, after about five, five is the last one where they're on planet Earth, I think, even that one is really wild. There's a couple of shots in five where you can see crew members, like boom operators and cameramen in reflections or the edges of shots. So that was kind of when the money was like printing itself and they stopped giving a fuck. So yeah, the sixth through, what are we at? We're about to have 11 next year, two years from now. Yeah. So six through 10, like pretty much all blend together.

Samuel James (3:42)

I think 10, there's actually a scene where a boom operator gets in his own car and joins the squad.

Alex Steed (3:49)

I don't think since us talking about the last time we talked about one of the titles that we have revealed that like a good part of the group chat that we have is just sharing Vin Diesel Instagram posts and reels. Can one of you describe or both of you describe just what Vin Diesel's Instagram persona is for people who are unfamiliar with it?

Samuel James (4:14)

To my mind, he is somebody who, on Instagram, he gets to be unrestrained by Hollywood. His singing career is very important on Instagram.

Kasai Richardson (4:29)

Absolutely.

Alex Steed (4:30)

Dolly Died recently. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Samuel James (4:34)

I'm not laughing at Dolly Dying, first of all.

Kasai Richardson (4:37)

It's just the dulcet tones of Vin Diesel's a cappella cover of I Will Always Love You. Just reverberating in your mind. That's why you laugh.

Samuel James (4:48)

Yeah.

Yeah. You described them as dulcet tones.

Kasai Richardson (4:51)

Yeah.

Samuel James (4:51)

That is not what was going through my mind, but I would agree with you for the sake of this podcast.

Alex Steed (4:59)

What do you think that Vin Diesel's impression of Vin Diesel is? How does he imagine he looms in people's minds?