Steve Hayes reviews movies online with a consistent approach: “I don’t want to criticize, I just get excited, and if I like it, I want other people to like it. And if you don’t enjoy it, that’s okay, but just try it,” he told me during the 117th interview, then winked at me. “I apply that approach to cake.”
He’s the host of the YouTube series “Tired Old Queen at the Movies,” where every month he riffs for five to 10 minutes on a classic film – no script, just decades of Hollywood trivia and a genuine love for the genre.
I met Steve for brunch at Elmo in New York in March 2019, where he recreated entire scenes from “Laura” at the table, told me about doing three years of Shakespeare after a stripping audition went sideways, and explained why he’d rather champion Bette Davis in “Jezebel” than a movie everyone already knows. He’d also just met his childhood hero, Robert Osborne, at TCM’s 20th anniversary, a full-circle moment for a kid who slept with Osborne’s Oscar history book by his bed since 1969.
Read the full interview here and come back Monday for the 147th dinner with a stranger.