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Director: Gabrielle ReichDirector of Photography: Brandon YoonEditor: Michael SuyedaProducer: Michelle BrunoPodcast Producer: Chelsea DanielAssociate Producer: Lea DonenbergGaffer: David DjacoAssistant Camera: Carlos AraujoAudio: Mariya ChulichkovaMakeup Artist: Yevgene Wright-MasonProduction Assistants: Quinton Johnson, Yirssi BergmanProduction Coordinator: Tanía JonesProduction Manager: Anakha ArikaraLine Producer: Natasha Soto-AlborsAssistant Editor: Billy WardPost Production Coordinator: Holly FrewSupervising Editor: Kameron KeyPost Production Supervisor: Alexa DeutschTalent Manager: Phoebe DishnerExecutive Producer: Rahel GebreyesSenior Director, Digital Video: Romy van den BroekeSenior Director, Programming: Linda GittlesonVP, Video Programming: Thespena Guatieri

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Transcript
00:00I could be wrong on this before Cheeky Chaps.
00:03But I'm your Cheeky Chaps.
00:04Oh, you're my Cheeky Chaps.
00:06Hi Vogue, I'm Chloe Mal.
00:08I'm Marley Marius.
00:09And we are filming a very special episode of The Run-Through.
00:12We are here with the stars of the new film, The History of Sound.
00:16Welcome, gentlemen.
00:17I'm Paul Maskell.
00:19My name's Joshua Connor.
00:20And together, together we have weird hands.
00:25Well, I have to say, Marley and I went to a screening of the film last week,
00:28and it was one of those sort of midtown screening rooms
00:30where it's all sort of grumpy film critics.
00:34And we were both sort of sobbing at the end,
00:36and it was not really the vibe of the rest of the room.
00:40We're kind of like you guys going.
00:41When did you two meet?
00:43Because I heard there was a nice meet-cute
00:45about when you first met each other over Zoom.
00:49During lockdown, I watched as we all did, normal people, and loved it.
00:55So Paul and I share an agent in America,
00:59and I reached out to him, reached out to my agent,
01:02and said, can I...
01:04There's this kid.
01:05There's this kid.
01:06Actually, I did.
01:08Did you say this kid?
01:09Have I told you this?
01:10I think this did happen.
01:11This may be...
01:12I've imagined...
01:13It's just you smoking a cigarette in the back.
01:14There's this kid.
01:15There's this kid.
01:15I'm real excited.
01:16No, but I think...
01:17You've got to get him in the picture.
01:18I do think I messaged...
01:20I think that's how I found out we had the same agent.
01:22I wrote to my agent to say,
01:24I've just watched this thing, normal people,
01:26and this guy is incredible.
01:28And he was like, yeah, we know.
01:31Anyway, but I said I'd love to talk to him.
01:33And so then we had a Zoom.
01:34Yeah.
01:35And it was...
01:36What did you think when you were told that...
01:37Well, it's...
01:38This elder actor who's calling you a kid...
01:40This elderly actor.
01:42This elderly actor.
01:43You know, I'd watched...
01:44My father had watched him on stage for many...
01:47No, it's just for many movies.
01:49What's Olivier wants to do?
01:51Yeah, yeah.
01:52He's Olivier knows Josh.
01:54He's my great-grandfather's favourite actor.
01:56It's crazy.
01:57I was a long admirer of Josh.
02:00Long, long, long.
02:02I'm not that old, Josh.
02:05No, I'd seen...
02:06It was either in second year or third year of drama school.
02:08I saw God's Own Country.
02:09I was blown away by it.
02:13And still am whenever...
02:14I've seen that film three times.
02:15And I think it's like such staggering work.
02:18So when he reached out...
02:19I think it's also like...
02:20It's a testament to who he is.
02:23And I think we share this feeling where it's like...
02:27It's an industry that can be typically quite competitive.
02:31But I've always felt that like...
02:33I'm highly competitive.
02:34But it's always felt redundant to me in this industry.
02:36And because it's totally subjective.
02:40It makes it all a lot more palatable
02:43if you can admire somebody else's work
02:45and not feel like in competition.
02:47And I felt that off Josh straight away.
02:50You know, we have a friendship outside of this industry.
02:53But when it comes to the...
02:56You know, a lot of what we talk about
02:57is we both have very similar tastes in filmmakers
03:00and movies and performances and actors.
03:03One of the exciting things about working with any actor
03:06truthfully is like just witnessing how someone else works.
03:10And I just remember saying like,
03:11I'm so excited to see how Paul does it.
03:14You know, with Paul specifically,
03:16like something of Paul is left behind in that character.
03:19And that was interesting to me.
03:20But I think because of that
03:22and because of the subject matter of this film
03:24and how moving and how moving the film is,
03:28but how deep those feelings of love and grief are,
03:33we actually found ourselves being very light with it.
03:37And by light, I mean cheeky chaps.
03:40Cheeky chaps.
03:41A couple of cheeky chaps.
03:42In terms of like fun and levity,
03:45that three weeks that we were together
03:46was the height of that for me
03:49across like my entire career.
03:50And it's weird because the film is so painful
03:53and or to me that relationship is like
03:56the centre point of like somebody's life.
03:58But the truth is...
03:59It's also elegiac.
04:00Yeah.
04:00It's not a cheeky...
04:02It's not a cheeky...
04:03It's not a couple of cheeky chaps.
04:05Those who are not famous are not cheeky chaps.
04:09But I guess the reason it's so painful
04:11is because the time they have together is so joyful.
04:14Yeah, totally.
04:15So it was okay.
04:16I was wondering what it was like
04:18preparing for these roles
04:20and how you even began that process.
04:22We came across this film at the same time in 2020.
04:27So it's been like five years.
04:29Wow.
04:29Preparation is always kind of varies for me
04:31from project to project with this.
04:32It's just kind of like a lot of time spent
04:34in a hotel room looking at the script
04:37and trying to...
04:38This wasn't one where there was like a specific skill.
04:40Like it wasn't like horse riding
04:42or sword fighting or learning how to...
04:44Like obviously the dialect and the singing is one thing,
04:46but it was a lot of time kind of just spent
04:48on your own thinking about this man's life
04:52and what David meant to him.
04:53You know, in normal circumstances,
04:55maybe there's a year of like this,
04:58you know, this time next year,
04:59I'm going to be making that movie.
05:00And so it's kind of percolating oftentimes
05:02like while you're doing other projects.
05:05And then as it comes closer,
05:06there's really a sort of...
05:08For me anyway, there's in an ideal world,
05:10like a two to three month period
05:12before the film where you're like sole focus
05:14is on prepping this character.
05:16By the time we got to November, December,
05:19just before we started filming in January,
05:21I just remember being like,
05:23I was looking at the script,
05:24sitting down with the script
05:24and feeling like it was all there already.
05:27Yeah, similarly, you'd sit and be like,
05:29oh, I know these people.
05:31Like, I'm not worried about getting onto set
05:32and kind of being confronted with questions
05:33and not having answers.
05:35What was your relationship to folk music
05:36like before this film?
05:38Is that something...
05:39I mean, obviously,
05:40neither of you are from Northeastern America,
05:43but how did you approach that?
05:45And was that something that felt familiar?
05:46There's lots of similarities to my ear
05:49to Irish music
05:49and the kind of Shanna singing
05:51that you hear in Irish pubs
05:53is there's a lot of that kind of tone
05:55that I feel.
05:55So I love that kind of music.
05:58I was a big fan of folk music
05:59for a long time.
06:00So I guess
06:00it wasn't that much of a stretch.
06:04Did you already know the piano?
06:05Because you play the piano a bit.
06:06I did not know how to play the piano.
06:08I knew you had to play one Adele song.
06:10Sapphire to the Rain.
06:12Must be Sapphire to the Rain.
06:14I said fast.
06:16I think it is that one.
06:19It's Angst-y Josh.
06:21To the rain.
06:23To the rain.
06:24What?
06:24On my own.
06:26It's the one that goes...
06:28No, that's not Sapphire to the Rain.
06:32It's someone like you.
06:35All that I had.
06:36That's not an Adele song, is it?
06:37Is that Adele?
06:38It's Turning Tables, I think.
06:39Turning Tables.
06:40I knew you had to play that song.
06:41Actually, a section of that song.
06:44Of course.
06:45And so then, I learned for this.
06:47What's on your Spotify right now?
06:49What's on my Spotify?
06:50An artist called Jake Minch.
06:52Do you know?
06:52What genre is this?
06:53It's like folkie, singer-songwriter-y style.
06:58He's amazing.
06:59He's like 21 from LA.
07:02An amazing lyricist.
07:05Yeah.
07:06What about you?
07:07Adele.
07:09Adele?
07:09I've been revisiting a lot of, like, my teenage indie years.
07:21Say more.
07:22And, like, diving in.
07:23Diving back into, like, Beirut.
07:25Oh.
07:26And Laura Marling.
07:29We were just talking about Laura Marling because I wrote her a love letter when I was 16.
07:32Two from two.
07:33Did she reply?
07:34She did not.
07:35What did you say in your love letter?
07:36I can't remember what I said, but I, I, I, I, I, I, I put it all, I, it's so, like, teenage
07:43angst.
07:43The last two interviews brought this up.
07:46And also, like, happy to talk about it.
07:49Yeah, like, clearly.
07:50So delighted.
07:51I'm just, like, just give me that chance.
07:53You don't even, you don't even need to say, say more to Josh.
07:56You were just, like.
07:57Yeah, yeah.
07:57Well, they pressed me.
07:59They pressed me.
07:59They pressed me.
08:00They'd twist it along.
08:01Yeah.
08:02I think it was along the lines of, like, your music means a lot to me.
08:06And here's a leaf.
08:08And I pushed, uh, pressed a, um, a sort of an autumnal leaf.
08:12Oh, my God.
08:13Oh, wow.
08:14That's all kind of children.
08:14That was not the reaction.
08:16Hopefully, Laura didn't have the same reaction.
08:17I thought, oh, my God.
08:19I thought, like, that's so tender.
08:20I think it's sweet.
08:21Yeah, it's so tender.
08:22That's so tender.
08:22Shockingly tender, almost.
08:24That's what it was.
08:25Yeah, that's what the gesture was.
08:27Guys, can I just say, I was 16.
08:28Yeah, I was 16.
08:30Okay, that actually is better.
08:32That was better.
08:33It was, like, last year.
08:36But honestly, Laura.
08:37Well, they could have been, but Laura, if you want to.
08:41Paul, do you play any instruments?
08:43He does now.
08:43I do now.
08:44No, I played a little bit of piano, but I'm obviously learning music for the Beatles.
08:47Beatles.
08:48Hell yeah.
08:48Hell yeah.
08:50How is that music learning process going?
08:52It's great.
08:53Like, Paul McCartney's famously left-handed.
08:55I'm not left-handed.
08:56So, that's a challenge.
08:59I assume it's healthy for my brain to be learning something left-handed.
09:02Is there a Beatles group chat already?
09:04There is a Beatles group chat, yeah.
09:05Is it named after, like, a Beatles album?
09:09Is it a really boring title?
09:10Yeah.
09:11Beatles chat.
09:12I'm pretty sure it's called Four Cheeky Chaps.
09:16I'd feel so betrayed if it was.
09:19I'd be so betrayed.
09:20I'm pretty sure.
09:21What?
09:22I could be wrong on this, but Four Cheeky Chaps.
09:25But I'm your Cheeky Chaps.
09:26You're my Cheeky Chaps.
09:28What is your number one Paul McCartney song?
09:30Oh, it changes.
09:31Okay.
09:32All the time.
09:32At the moment, I'm, like, obsessed with Michelle.
09:35Josh, what's your Beatles song of choice?
09:37Turning Tables.
09:40It's Turning Tables.
09:41That's theirs, right?
09:43No, my guitar.
09:44While my guitar gently.
09:45That's a great one.
09:46Yes.
09:48You're quite creative in other ways.
09:50A ceramicist, yes?
09:52Well.
09:53He is a ceramicist.
09:54Potter.
09:54Potter?
09:55Harry.
09:56I would say Harry Potter.
09:58The boy.
09:58Potter.
09:58The boy.
09:59The boy.
09:59The boy.
10:01So revealing.
10:02You're a ceramicist.
10:03Just a Harry Potter fan.
10:05No, no.
10:06Just I like the films.
10:07No, no, no.
10:07I'll let me connect you all up.
10:08It's been a huge misunderstanding.
10:11I don't know where the boy is.
10:12All these years.
10:13I like making pots.
10:16But I'm certainly not a ceramicist.
10:18I was very charmed in Gabby Wood's lovely profile she wrote for Vogue that you described
10:25your background as being an inherited hippie and that now you're gardening a lot and beekeeping.
10:31What are you growing at the moment at home?
10:33Okay.
10:34Good question.
10:35At the moment, well, I've just had a good crop of courgettes.
10:39What do you call courgettes?
10:40Zucchini.
10:40Oh, what is it?
10:41Zucchini.
10:42Rhubarb.
10:43I've got two very brilliant fig trees.
10:47Oh.
10:48Really produced this year because we had mad heatwaves.
10:52Oh, good.
10:53They really produced this year.
10:55They really showed up the show.
10:57They came in with 200% over the globe.
11:00Yeah, too many.
11:01Yeah, that's what I've got.
11:04And flowers.
11:05Josh is the oldest soul that I know, actually.
11:09We've already discussed that.
11:11Yeah.
11:12Long, long time ago.
11:14It is true.
11:15No, but it's so gorgeous.
11:16The privilege of being in Josh's home, like in the countryside last year.
11:19And I was like, it's just like Josh in a nutshell.
11:22It's just like in the garden, gorgeous pots and little ceramics.
11:27And yeah, you're a happy boy when you're in that environment.
11:29We went swimming in a lake.
11:31Oh, so nice.
11:32It was so lovely.
11:33Paul, I feel like there's been a lot of discussion on the internet about how Josh loves Ratatouille and sort of has a great sensibility of Ratatouille.
11:44I mean, if you were an animated character, Josh was looking at me like this.
11:51First of all, I didn't know this.
11:52You didn't even react in a way.
11:53Because it was weird.
11:55Talk about Ratatouille and I didn't know Josh was looking at me like this.
11:59They got that, right?
12:01First of all, I didn't know this.
12:02I'm curious about Ratatouille.
12:03I'm so glad to share this.
12:04Does it make sense to you, though?
12:05Is it connected to you?
12:06Yeah, does that make sense to you?
12:07What am I missing you?
12:10There's sort of a, I mean, Remy has a great joie de vivre about him and he's, you know, he would make rhubarb pie.
12:17It's sort of, Paul, what Disney character would you be?
12:21I feel like it's hard.
12:21I can't prescribe a character to myself like that.
12:25Josh?
12:26Oh, I have one for him.
12:27Okay, go.
12:29This is niche, but you know the dog in Up.
12:33Yes, I love that dog.
12:35Oh, that's cute.
12:36I like that.
12:36I'll take that.
12:38Thank you very much.
12:39So, jolly, smart, perfect.
12:41I want to ask about the red carpet mastery that both of you seem to enjoy.
12:48You both, I mean, I do feel like it's nice when people seem like they're having fun getting dressed up because not everyone does.
12:54Is this something that's evolved over time or have you always loved dressing up?
12:59If you had seen the clothes I would wear in secondary school, it's definitely evolved.
13:04I think we're not to speak on your behalf.
13:07I feel very lucky to work with, I work with Felicity Kay and I talk to other actors who are friends and sometimes they feel an obligation or that they are put in clothes.
13:18And I feel very much the opposite.
13:21It's a really important thing because then you just end up feeling like you're on some sort of parade the whole time.
13:29It's also, it's like a balance because those events are sort of like, they're really tricky because ultimately I think people think that actors are like, that they enjoy that spotlight at those events and those things.
13:42A lot of the time we're hiding behind these characters and so you can feel quite exposing being yourself in a weird way.
13:50And so the advantage of having, whilst it's also creatively kind of fun and interesting to sort of like put something together with Harry or Felicity.
14:00It's also about like curating a character that isn't necessarily you and that can be quite like, quite a lifeline actually in these, in those situations.
14:13Oh, a hundred percent.
14:13Yeah.
14:14Do you guys feel like you have like an alter ego on the red carpet?
14:17Yeah.
14:20Yeah.
14:21Linky and dog from up.
14:23No, because it's like, I always cringe.
14:27Sorry.
14:27Yeah.
14:28When you see the videos of the photographs being taken, some people are so good at having their picture taken.
14:34I don't think I'm great at having my picture taken.
14:37So when I see a video of the picture, it's shocking.
14:41It's so, and you see them, you see the actors like lock in and they're like, do you know when they do that like mini two step?
14:47Can I stand up and do it?
14:48Yeah, yeah.
14:48This thing that people do, do you know when they're like standing up and they start just like moving like.
14:53Do you know that like shuffle?
14:55It's the little shuffle.
14:55Whenever you watch on an award show and it's being filmed, I feel so bad.
15:01Oh.
15:01Because you're seeing it.
15:02And then you see it back so much.
15:03I'm supposed to see how the sausage is made.
15:05When we were doing, we had the Challengers premiere in London and it's the first time I'd had like one of those big premieres, Leicester Square, big billboards and all this stuff.
15:17And then my family, I invited my family to come.
15:19Oh boy.
15:20So I'm getting out the car and there's that bit where there's like a wall of photographers.
15:23Yeah, it's insane.
15:24And I was stood in front of the wall of photographers doing that, trying to do like.
15:29They're trying to get into like positions, like trying to like get comfy.
15:32And they're like, can you give us something else?
15:33And you're like, no, not really.
15:35Like a little smile.
15:37And it was like awful.
15:39Fingerdumps.
15:39Yeah.
15:40And there's just like all this noise and flashing photography and everything.
15:43And then I caught sight of my parents and my brothers.
15:48And something about seeing my family in this environment, which felt like a threat.
15:55And then seeing my beautiful, gorgeous family who are like beautiful, kind, soulful people.
16:01I was like, and then they're photographing me as like weeping.
16:06I was like this.
16:07And there's photographs of me just like with tears in my eyes.
16:12It's very shouty.
16:13It's very shouty.
16:14It's more shouty in America than it is.
16:16Oh, in America it's worse?
16:17Oh, America's way shouty.
16:18Way shouty.
16:19Yeah.
16:19First and only time I went to the mass, you're in that famous queue before you go out and you're just watching it.
16:24I was like, I think I'm going to die.
16:27Like, I think I'm going to die.
16:28And you're getting close and like you zigzag your way up the carpet.
16:32Paul, you're up.
16:32And I was like, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle.
16:36The first time I went to the Met, you know, obviously like people work so hard to make these outfits that are like,
16:46and the whole point of the people making these outfits is to get that photograph on the stairs.
16:51I'm waiting.
16:52I'm waiting.
16:52You know this.
16:53I'm waiting in the line.
16:55FYI, it is good.
16:56It is good.
16:56I'm waiting in the line.
16:57I'm just standing there, standing there.
16:59I see like an entrance and steps and they go, okay, Josh, off you go.
17:03And I went, thanks very much.
17:04Straight up the stairs.
17:06Straight in.
17:07In I go.
17:08I'm like, this is brilliant.
17:09So I'm walking around looking at the exhibition.
17:11I've checked my phone, like 15 missed calls being like, what happened?
17:17I didn't get a single photograph.
17:20And then it was a disaster.
17:22And then I left early and it was just awful.
17:24It's my first, that was my first time.
17:26And all that, like months of work.
17:28And I just didn't realize.
17:28What did they do?
17:29They got photos in the end.
17:31Well, they said, go back out.
17:33And I was like, I couldn't.
17:33Oh my God.
17:35So then they, they managed to get someone to come in and take a poke.
17:38And you're like.
17:39Yeah.
17:40Shuffle, shuffle.
17:40Shuffle, shuffle.
17:41Yeah.
17:42Oh, I do want to ask Paul about your shorts.
17:45Is this something you've always worn?
17:47Thank you for that question.
17:48Thank God.
17:50Seriously, thank God.
17:51I was waiting.
17:52I don't consider them.
17:56Like they are shorts that I wore from the age of, not the same shorts, but the Gaelic football
18:02shorts or like, that's just what Irish boys tend to wear.
18:06They're always the shorts that I just want to wear.
18:08All right.
18:08Great.
18:09Not a beer.
18:09All right.
18:10We are going to play a game of Would You Rather.
18:13If you had the choice to never listen to music ever again, or only listen to one song over
18:18and over, what would it be?
18:20One song over and over.
18:22Never listen to music ever again.
18:24Oh, yeah.
18:24One song.
18:24Yeah, one song.
18:25What song?
18:26That's where it gets tough.
18:28You've got to choose a long one, haven't you?
18:30Yeah.
18:30You're going to Rhapsody.
18:32Oh, yeah.
18:33Imagine that one over and over.
18:36I see a little shit over and over.
18:38You're going mad.
18:40I'm just going to, because it's in my head, and she's featured heavily today in Laura Marling,
18:43I'm going to go For You by Laura Marling.
18:46Mine would be Galleon Shit by Nick Cave.
18:50Or Turning Tables.
18:51Why would I need that?
18:55Minimalism or maximalism?
18:58Minimalism.
18:59Or maximalism.
19:01I find like minimalism in like interior design a little bit like snooze.
19:07Is there like a medium-alism?
19:10There you go.
19:11Custom tailoring or off the rack?
19:14Off the rack.
19:15If you find like an old vintage suit.
19:17True.
19:17Oh, my goodness.
19:19I'm going to say custom tailoring.
19:20Yeah.
19:21That's fair.
19:21Yeah.
19:22Sweet or salty?
19:24Salty.
19:24Salty.
19:25Oh, that's interesting.
19:26No, why did I say that?
19:27That's not true.
19:28Jolly Ranchers.
19:28Jolly Ranchers.
19:29I'm going to go sweet.
19:30Yeah.
19:31For me, salty.
19:32The ideal is, what was that Nature Valley?
19:35Oh.
19:36Oh, that's a good one.
19:36Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
19:37Very good.
19:39Cinnamon Almond Butter.
19:40Yeah.
19:40That one.
19:41Oh, okay, yeah.
19:42That would convert me to sweet.
19:43Mouth-watering.
19:44Right now.
19:44Right now, yeah.
19:46Red carpet or after-party?
19:48After-party.
19:49Who wants to be on a red carpet?
19:51Red carpets are stressful.
19:52Yeah, definitely.
19:53As we've just heard.
19:55Imagine we were like, after shitting on red carpets, we're like, yeah, red carpet.
20:00I love a red carpet.
20:02Would you rather have your sock falling off inside your shoe or your pants falling down because they're too big?
20:09This is a crazy question.
20:10That is an insane question.
20:13I would not want my trousers falling.
20:16No, thank you.
20:18I don't want my socks.
20:19Socks, yeah, socks.
20:20Sucks.
20:20100%.
20:21Pants that are slightly too short or sleeves that are slightly too long?
20:24Oh, I've got a real, it's a real bugbear for me, this cropped trouser thing.
20:29I like a cropped trouser depending on the crop and what else you're wearing it with.
20:33It's just like, I, okay, so I actually like a cropped trouser on other people.
20:38It's just that, for me, it's like everywhere, it doesn't matter where you look now.
20:42They're everywhere.
20:43They're everywhere.
20:44There's an epidermal.
20:44What happened to like a pair of jeans that reach your shoe?
20:48The old reach the shoe days.
20:51What happened to that?
20:52See what I mean about the old soul thing?
20:54I remember the days when people wore trousers.
20:58Right down to your ankles.
20:59I just wanted to get to the shoe and leave it.
21:02Thank you so much.
21:05This was such a treat.
21:06Thanks for having us.
21:06Good luck on your epic day and thank you for visiting the run-through.
21:11Thank you very much.
21:11Thank you, guys.
21:13Yeah, I actually want to see how you do a red carpet.
21:15Okay.
21:16I'm going to...
21:16Now, I think it's like, I like to like just pop a back.
21:21You pop a one of...
21:22It's the one...
21:23Yeah, that's crazy.
21:26That's mad.
21:27Normal.
21:27Uh-huh.
21:28Red carpet.
21:30Incredible.
21:31Men have to be so little.
21:32Do you ever do a hands in your pocket?
21:33Yeah.
21:35Josh, Josh, Josh.
21:36Yeah.
21:39I always go hands in pockets.
21:41So you walk up to the mark and then you step back on the mark.
21:45Oh.
21:46And I do it every time.
21:47So bad.
21:48Wait, wait, wait.
21:48Can you show the feet?
21:50So this is my mark, I go up, you go past the mark, and then you kind of just laugh.
21:55Same product.
21:56In the end, it's the same.
21:57It's a different process.
21:59Yeah, different process.
22:00Yeah.
22:01Yeah.
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