Director, producer and occasional actor, Roger Corman, has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is celebrated as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. He is known for his cycle of low-budget cult films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe and many other horror classics, including Little Shop of Horrors and The Man With the X Ray Eyes. In Hollywood, Corman is equally celebrated for mentoring and giving a start to many young film directors and actors, from Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard and Martin Scorsese to William Shatner, Bruce Dern, Jack Nicholson and many more.

In 1964, Corman became the youngest filmmaker to have a retrospective at the Cinematheque Francaise as well as in the British Film Institute and the Museum of Modern Art. In 2009, he was awarded an Honorary Academy Award for “his rich engendering of films and filmmakers.”

We recorded the following conversation in Roger’s L.A. office in March 2020, right before lockdown. At the time, Roger was 94 and just as motivated as ever and just as busy. We didn’t know everything was going to stop a few days later so he had trips and a new film planned. An inspiration on every level.

Roger passed away May 9, 2024.