Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden on Half Nelson

by Ambrose Heron on 19/04/2007

Half Nelson is out this week at UK cinemas and I recently interviewed the director Ryan Fleck and the co-writer and producer Anna Boden.

It tells the story of a talented Brooklyn school teacher (Ryan Gosling) who is caught smoking crack by one of his pupils (Shareeka Epps). But this is not a traditional classroom drama by any means. With two pitch perfect lead performances and a wise, heartfelt script, it is one of the finest films to come out of the US in the last year.

I spoke to Ryan and Anna about how they got the film made, what the title means, Ryan Gosling’s Oscar nomination and a whole lot more besides.

Have a listen to the interview below:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

You can also download the interview as an MP3 or subscribe to our interview podcast via iTunes

(Its a 20 minute interview so it might take 2 or 3 mins to download)

Half Nelson opens at UK cinemas on Friday

> Ryan Fleck at the IMDb
> Anna Boden at the IMDb
> TwitchFilm interview Anna and Ryan
> Check out the reviews for Half Nelson at Metacritic

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