Tuesday, September 16, 2025 |
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Esquire has a long-running interview series called What I've Learned, in which a notable figure—often an icon—shares anecdotes and wisdom from his or her life. We present them to readers in the subject's own words. In 2011, Esquire published a What I've Learned with Robert Redford, whose death at the age of 89 was announced on Tuesday. "Speak out for what you believe and what you feel," he said. "Or don't. You have to live with yourself." You can read Redford in his own words below. – Michael Sebastian, editor-in-chief Plus: |
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"Life is essentially sad. Happiness is sporadic. It comes in moments and that's it. Extract the blood from every moment." |
When I was a kid, nobody told me I was good-looking. I wish they had. I would've had a better time.
You'd have to be inhuman not to be flattered. But it was so obsessive so quick that some part of me didn't trust it.
The way you really find out about the performer's seriousness about the cause is how long they stay with it when the spotlight gets turned off. You see a lot of celebrities switch gears. They go from the environment to animal rights to obesity or whatever. That I don't have a lot of respect for.
I have a lot of land. I bought it because I had a very strong feeling. I was in my early twenties, and I had grown up in Los Angeles and had seen that city slide off into the sea from the city I knew as a little kid. It lost its identity—suddenly there was cement everywhere and the green was gone and the air was bad—and I wanted out. I went to Utah because I didn't know anybody there. |
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We climbed towards Camp One on Mount Everest, moving single-file on a fixed line connected to our harnesses. It was around 5:00 a.m. First light had just appeared when we heard the crash to our left. Avalanche.
There were 12 of us: four ex–UK Special Forces, including me, and eight Sherpas. Our goal was ambitious: Fly from London to Nepal, climb to the summit of Everest and back, then arrive back home in seven days. We knew high-altitude mountaineering was dangerous. You hear avalanches happening all over the mountain but cross your fingers it doesn't affect you. But how you react to situations is down to experience. We'd been in hairy situations before, from gunfights to being blown up. We're not risk averse. We're risk aware. |
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The mother parks by a bureaucratic brick building in downtown Houston on a January day in 2024. She takes the elevator to the third floor. She is dressed for the cameras, her long braids gathered in a tidy bun and a neat jacket snug over her black shirt. It is the day of the press conference, the day when, finally, after four months of pain, she will tell the world what she has been saying to anyone who would listen about what she saw inside her son's casket.
The mother, Pamela Busby, stands with eight others behind a uniformed constable, four gold stars on each epaulet, a firearm holstered at his hip, his eyes solemn. He is one of eight constables in the county, an elected position whose deputies hold the same arrest and investigative powers as city police officers. He steps up to a lectern that bears his name—Alan Rosen—in superhero-sized letters on a vibrant blue background. |
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 Was TV's Biggest Night a Flop? |
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Sometimes, the only way to solve a problem is to fail repeatedly until you figure out exactly where you went wrong. That was me this morning. I struggled to not only find a way to reach my ceiling's annoyingly chirpy smoke detector and change the battery, but also to find out how a tiny, mysterious piece of plastic fell out in the process. Luckily, I was able to accomplish both of my goals without a scratch on me. I can't say the same for last night's Emmys broadcast. If audiences learned anything from the 2025 Emmy Awards on Sunday night, it's that no one in charge of these awards shows actually knows how to fix the problem with awards shows. Namely, why do their broadcasts feel overlong, tedious, and a bit too much like we're simply watching the industry pat themselves on the back? Emmys host Nate Bargatze even led an entire sketch at the beginning of the ceremony dedicated to the audience's complaints. In a bit reminiscent of his Saturday Night Live sketch on George Washington, he mocked how streaming services' rising price hikes and ad-supported tiers were "unfair to the consumer." And yet, the Emmys broadcast didn't end with Paramount's new management stepping out on stage to declare that they were offering audiences a better way to watch their product. Instead, the Emmys placed the onus on the actors. Bargatze pledged at the start of the show that he would donate $100,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and add another $1,000 for every second that the winners' acceptance speeches remained under their 45-second time limit. But the money came with a catch. For every second an actor spoke over their time allotment, he would take away $1,000. Naturally, the counter was in the red by the time that the show wrapped up three hours later. So, the bit backfired and Bargatze revealed that he and CBS planned to donate $350,000 regardless of the final tally—which was far below negative $60,000. Like I said, sometimes you need to fail first. In Esquire's recap of the night's highs and lows the following morning, veteran entertainment journalist Anthony Breznican wrote that the gimmick, "did raise the stakes for an award-show format that can easily succumb to tedium, but it came at the cost of somewhat upstaging the honorees." "It also unintentionally spoofed the innate narcissism at the heart of all awards ceremonies," Brenican continued. "Had the Boys & Girls been stuck in a pit with an ever-lowering blade swinging over them instead, would Cristin Milioti have still taken the time to say she wanted to 'freebase' the brain of The Penguin show runner Lauren LeFranc? Maybe. How many feet above them was that pendulum at the time?" Still, speeches from Milioti and several other first-time winners including Tramell Tillman, Noah Wyle, Hannah Einbinder, and the fifteen-year-old Owen Cooper reminded viewers why we allow actors this platform to share their inspirational stories in the first place. (And if you ask me, it's all those long bits from the host and the presenters that draw out the show, not the winners—a.k.a. the people we actually want to hear from.) As Breznican wrote, Milioti's speech after winning best actress in a limited series was actually one of the night's most entertaining moments. "She alluded to the off-the-charts antagonism and grief that has overtaken the country, making virtually everything else seem frivolous," he observed. And as Milioti stated, "It's very hard to make sense of being alive right now in this world, so I am deeply grateful for the bright spots." You can read the rest of Breznican's thoughts on Emmys night here. He's officially joining the Esquire entertainment desk as a regular contributor this week, and we're overjoyed to have him on board. I'll end this edition of The Cliff-Hanger with just one suggestion for the Emmys moving forward. Instead of shaming winners for taking their time to soak in the fact that they just became the first Black actor to win Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Tramell Tillman), or thank our country's unsung healthcare workers (Noah Wyle), or try to not be silenced by the same television station that just canceled their show (Stephen Colbert), how about we try our best to highlight the bright spots? |
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The Late Show with Stephen Colbert finally won its first Emmy—even though the host network cancelled the show earlier this year. |
What did you think of the Emmys? Let me know if you agreed or disagreed with the winners–or just couldn't stand the Boys & Girls Club bit—at josh.rosenberg@hearst.com. Did someone forward you this email? Sign up here. |
The Continuing Adventures of the Esquire Entertainment Desk |
For Esquire, Keanu Reeves, Seth Rogen, Keke Palmer, and Aziz Ansari had a roundtable discussion about their new film, Good Fortune. My favorite part? When Palmer asked Reeves about filming his iconic bullet-time lean in The Matrix. Watch the full video here. Tom Holland spoke with me about Spider-Man: Brand New Day, his new fragrance campaign, and coming up on four years of sobriety. In his fourth Spider-Man entry, he's helping to shape the story for the first time in his career. "I love standing up for the character, being in the room, and making sure that the decisions we make are what's best for Peter Parker, because he really does feel like one of my best friends," he said. You can read my interview with Holland here. The Long Walk's Garrett Wareing and Charlie Plummer documented their time on set in a striking photo gallery, which they opened up about for a story by Esquire's Eric Francisco. "I kind of became obsessed with Dennis Hopper's photojournalist in Apocalypse Now, and that's what drew me to cameras with this specific project," said Plummer. Check out all the amazing photos here. |
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Tramell Tillman (Severance) became the first Black performer to win Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series at the Emmy Awards |
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The Cliff-Hanger's Winners and Losers of the Week (Emmys Edition) |
Winner: Kathyrn Hahn The Studio star had the joke of the night at the Emmys, when she poked fun at actors not needing writers to get their facts straight. When the show "turned the teleprompters off," she singled out The Pitt star Noah Wyle and stated, "I loved you in Scrubs." Loser: The Bear (Temporarily) The Bear season 3 didn't live up to a lot of fans' expectations. So, it wasn't a surprise that it lost every Emmy award that it was nominated for last night, even after damn near sweeping for season 2. Don't fear, though. I have a feeling that the culinary drama will be back with a vengeance next year following its much stronger fourth season. Winner: Seth Rogen The Studio creator pulled off the Emmys hat trick by winning Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, Outstanding Directing, and Outstanding Writing. The Studio even won Outstanding Comedy Series. (How could you not, after all that?) If we're lucky, season 2 might just break the celebrity cameo per minute record. Loser: The White Lotus Despite sharing the third-most nominations of the night with The Studio, The White Lotus only took home the award for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music. It's funny, because most fans thought this year's music was underwhelming compared to last year's banger of a title track. Winner: Britt Lower The Severance actress continued the Apple TV+ drama's bit about being trapped at work by writing "LET ME OUT" on the back of the paper she used to write her acceptance speech. I'll let the fervorous Reddit commenters figure out if that was actually Lower or Helly R. on stage. |
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