(upbeat pop instrumental) - What went into the decision for the role to play Megan Kelly in Bombshell? - To play Megan? I mean, I, I, when I read the, when the script was sent to me, Charles Randolph wrote
it, who did The Big Short, and I think he's just
a very talented writer and I think for wanting
to tell that story, like it was a no brainer for me, that I wanted to be a part of the film. And for a second I thought
maybe that would just entail being a producer on it. Because it, you know, it wasn't
the kind of character that made me go, oh, yeah, like, I was scared, I was like,
it was the first time that I was given a real life
person who was so well known. I mean just everybody
knows who Megan Kelly is. - Right. - And that felt like
a lot of pressure and. - And, so, strange, because
watching it seems obvious, it seems obvious that you
would want to do it but, but obviously there was a
point where it seems like, it doesn't seem like a good idea. - Yes, and I don't know about you but I'm always thinking it's a bad idea. I'm always thinking
there's somebody else out there that can do this so
much better than I can, and I'm gonna-- - Including this. - Yes, exactly. So, I mean we're actors right, so we're just walking insecurities, but I, I think I, when I have the right filmmaker, I, I can move away from the fear and Jay Roach was that guy for me. - Did you guys know each other before? - We were strangely, working,
developing a television show to do together, just me as a producer, and him as a director, and I had been seeing him every single
day because we were kind of getting close to making the show. And as a friend I asked him to read it and to just tell me what he thought about the idea of me playing Megan Kelly and he called me back four
hours later and he was like, you have to do this, you have to do this, and I mean I understand the
importance of the story, I understood where he was
coming from but as a filmmaker and as somebody who I really trusted, he was basically allowing me to kind of cross over that end line, and I, and I think I respond to
filmmakers who kind of, this is going to say so
much about me as a person and that I should probably be in therapy and I can't believe I'm
about to say this, but, I love when a filmmaker
almost believes more in me than I believe in myself, like there's something, when
somebody does that for me, I will drag my body over
broken glass for them, and Jay instantly put me in
that place where I felt like, all right, if he believes
that I can do this, then I'm going to do this
and then on that phone call I asked him to join us
in making the movie. And so it was, it all just kind of like came together in one day. - So you guys knew each
other kind of socially and were working on something and then you actually started working on it. Did you notice that it
changed your friendship when you started working? Have you had that before
where you're working with someone that you
kind of feel like you know and then when you start
actually working on it you're like oh I actually
don't like this person. - Yeah, I do not like him now, no. He's a terrible guy. No Jay is one of the most
transparent human beings I've ever been around in my entire life. And I think a huge part
of my safety with him initially when he brought up
the idea that I should do it was because I think of
him as one of the kindest human beings I've ever been close to. I do, I do not know how
he's capable of being so consistent with it. But he is really just an
incredibly empathetic human being. And when he started diving into the story, I think he was hyper
aware of the fact that he was a man telling the story and that people would probably look
at that as like a negative, and so for him it became
incredibly important to just always be emotionally tapped in to what the story was
and what we were doing, and that included that
you know he was surrounded by a lot of women, and he was the most unbelievable listener. So no, in a strange way working with him, all of his attributes
just shined brighter. And I don't know whether
people like that, by the way. I know a lot of assholes. No I'm joking.
- Right, right. - Mr. Trump, one of the things
people love about you is you speak your mind and you don't
use a politician's filter, however, that is not
without its downsides, and particularly when it comes to women. You've called women you
don't like fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals. - You were great in that. And is there a certain point where, because you were around when you first started developing it, is there a certain point,
because it's such a departure, I won't say departure
necessarily, but it's like you are invisible, in that do you remember there was a moment, a costume fitting, or finding a voice, or a hair color that everything dropped in, you're like okay actually
have ownership over this now. - Yeah. - Where you kind of did take
it away from Jay, I guess. - Yes, because, it's, I mean, you know, this stuff
doesn't happen overnight. You know, it's a process and especially when you're working with prosthetics and trying to kind of figure out how far you can go before it's distracting or before people, or
before you just can't even, like, use your face anymore, right? So how long was that? The prosthetic part, just that part. - So-- - Not the like getting
in the makeup trailer, like figuring out was too much. - So I got to work with Kazuhiro,
who is like the rock star, he's just, he is, he's
like the only person who plays at this level when
it comes to prosthetics. He's also always threatening to retire, so you're always kind of
pulling him out of retirement. But he was strangely working
on Season Two of Mind Hunter which is a show that I'm a
producer on with David Fincher and, and he was doing a
bunch of serial killers on that show and so when
I reached out to him I knew he was not in retirement because he was working on that. - Sure. - And I basically begged him to come on and the reason is
because he's just so good and I knew that he would
be amazing at doing it but he would also be a really good gauge in kind of looking to
somebody else and saying like, how do we find that balance, like I need your help with that. So we did the first test and I looked like a young Glenn Close
it was very strange. I never thought I had
those features but I ended up looking like a beautiful
young Glenn Close, not like Megan Kelly at all. - Right. - And I remember Jay,
kind of like hovering in the background and he was, I could see just panic coming out of him. He was like this is never gonna work. And Kazu who's this like
gentle Japanese genius was just like kind of deep humming while staring at my face. - Humming? - Yeah he was like.
(thoughtful humming) You knwo the way artists hum, they're, (humming) like just staring at me. And, and he said, he just had this look he was like, don't worry, he's like, we're gonna figure this out. And I met with him three weeks later and he had changed the prosthetics to just work differently on
my face and it was in that, so it was the second time
that I sat down with him that I realized that this
was maybe going to work. - So that was the moment, I guess? The second time the
prosthetics was the thing? - Yeah, which is crazy
when you think about it, that was only, He only had, you know, I
think less than two months, kind of looking at my face
and figuring that out. But then he was so good at
what he did that I kept going, oh God now, now I have to
bring like that same level of what he's giving me, and so it really, I mean I think in many ways when you work with people who are that
good they, they push you to have to be better. - Right, and your other
actors, Margot Robbie. - Yeah.
- Nicole Kidman. You know, John Lithgow, were
they from the beginning or? Well I mean I don't
necessarily wanna say that. Have you worked with them
before, did you know them before? How did they? - No, pretty much every actor
that we got on this film were all people that I've
just been dying to work with. Nicole and I have been
trying to work together for over two decades. And nothing ever kind of came from it, which is just so crazy to me, but, it was, it was really
exciting to call her with this because I knew, I just knew that this was going to be a great opportunity
for us to do something, and then Margo, I didn't
know but we had met briefly, you know, just kind of like around town, but I have just been so impressed by her, just on every level, not just as an actor, but just how she's kind
of taking charge of what she wants her career to be, and I don't know there's something about her personality that
I'm very attracted to. And, I mean there's so
many amazing women in this, that was the other thing
when I read this, I, in 25 years I've never had
an opportunity like this to work with so many women. - Right. - And they're all smaller parts, but they're all incredibly
important in the story because all of the women really represent something so uniquely
different in their experience, that that to me is always missing when we're telling women's stories, this idea that we're, for some reason, if, if you tell a story where
there's a circumstance and all these women are experiencing, somehow they're all
experiencing it in the same way. And this was such a great
opportunity to show a crisis, and women responding
in such different ways. - Right, right, right. - And some of them not
doing the right thing, and some of them being
completely culpable, like they were opening that door. His secretary played
played by Holland Taylor is a character that's so conflicting. Um, but yeah it was fun. Like Connie Britton is a friend of mine to just call her up and be like hey do you want to come and work
for a couple of weeks on this and, and everybody really jumped to it because I think Jay is
that kind of filmmaker and Charles' script was so impressive. - What I like about the script, actually, is with moments where it
is, there are silence, obviously there was a moment
in the trailer of like, of you guys in the elevator, which I think is a great moment in the, of when, when the writing
actually trusts the actors to let the, and all these
peripheral characters and that help tell the world that you have that great moment with,
not to give things, but with a camera crew
before you start your broadcasts or that kind
of give you support, or the scenes with your husband, or when you go and see
the local affiliate, I don't know her name,
that's also like a great way of just setting, you
know, the scene in a way, and the guy, and, I
don't know who wrote it. - Charles.
- Charles. - Charles Randolph.
- Charles Randolph. Knowing when to trust his
actors and then when actually, when to use dialogue and when not. - Yeah, yeah. - That's not really a question, I guess it's more of a statement. - No, no, but I love,
listen, we're actors, this is what we do, I think we all, we appreciate when you can have a writer who then kind of marries a filmmaker, and you get these amazing
actors kind of like, come to the wedding. And the two, between the two of them I felt like it was trust,
because a lot of that is written in a non
specific way, but it really is the filmmaker who ultimately decides whether it's through
editorial or in the moment. This is breathing, like we're
going to breathe with this, we're going to sit with this, and some of it is uncomfortable. I mean there's a scene with
Margot Robbie and John, and John Lithgow in this, that is, you know, I give Jay so much credit, it's where she's being
harassed by Roger Ailes, and Jay just stays in it, Jay, he just doesn't excuse it,
he doesn't make it easier for you, he doesn't cut out of it. He doesn't leave. And he talks about this
openly, that he wanted, if anything, he knew that
his strengths would be to try and put men into the rooms of where these women were being harassed. - Right. - And I thought that,
you know, I think like all of us need to know our strengths and bring that to the table
and I think that's what sets a lot of those moments apart because he was brave enough to say
let's just stay in that, let's just, let's just
be in here for a second, no matter how uncomfortable this is or, or finding something in
while he was editing, just playing it longer, things like that. - They have a contractual right to monitor our communications. A hotline in this building
is like a complaint box in occupied Paris. It's like we're telling women,
go on speak up for yourself, just know the entire
network is with Roger. No one will believe you. They'll call you a liar. - I am always so interested because I've had this experience myself but when working with the
director for the second time, and what that was like for you. I mean, obviously, you
guys wouldn't have done it the second time around if you didn't feel like you had chemistry right? But does it, did anything change for you? - Change working the second time? - Yeah with him. - I mean, it's kind of
listening to your answer about, I feel like when you work with friends or when you work with people anywhere, you're seeing your most
vulnerable, most anxious, because there's a lot
of pressure as you know, and you have to kind of get
it right the first time, so people kind of can behave erratically cause you know, they're under it, but when you suddenly are with someone who kind of lets you know
that they're in support of the thing overall and
you in particular, then, then you kind of naturally
bond over that, I think. - Yeah. - Because you are so you know,
it's under a lot of pressure, and I never feel like
the difference between life and work and those relationships are always very blurred, I can't, it's hard for me to be friends with people I don't like working
with it and the opposite. So we worked the first
thing called Francis Ha and we just found that
we had a similar way of seeing how we make something, that we're both really
excited to, you know, make a movie, what an
amazing opportunity that is to like we're gonna make this thing that's going to live on
forever, it better be worth it, it better be interesting
enough and we better drop everything to make
this thing, you know, for the time we're making it, you know. Cause movies are, you know, I don't know how powerful they are, but
they can be very democratic in finding, you know, an audience. - Yeah, and I don't know how long, like, his writing process, but is something, like I feel like I'm informed in some way that he has ideas in his head and they're there kind of
permeating for a long period. But this is literally
me fantasizing about it. - No it's exactly right, yeah. - And I'm wondering, did he bring up the idea of Marriage Story to you? - We had been talking about.
- For a while. - What we were gonna do next for a while. - Yeah. - And then he had already
been taking notes on, on the, he's like, I
think I have this thing. And we talked about making a company, a movie, like would that work? Cause it is kind of an abstract musical that maybe you could
make it very cinematic and then the more we just
start talking about it, the more this, I'm like
well we should do that, that's the thing we should do. And then he started meeting with me, we would just have
dinners and then Scarlett and then Laura who we kind
of had in mind for people, then it turned into a very
organic thing but, you know, I think the good thing
about working with friends is it kind of, you get that, you get things out of
the way faster, you know, there's no, there's less. - And you also don't have
to say everything, right? - Yeah. - It's like an unspoken
understanding that it's just there. - Yeah, there's no worry about
does this person like me, am I giving them what they want? I know exactly what he's
not exactly what he's, not exactly what he's going for, but I know what the boundaries are so it just lets us work faster, I think. - You know, I had Donna build
him this whole Frankenstein thing with plugs, and. - Oh the cousins are ninjas,
so he wanted to do that. - D and I decided together. - Oh well I can't make
him be Frankenstein. - I'm asked you to, but maybe
you can help me out a little. I'll leave the Frankenstein here, maybe you could nudge
him in that direction. - I'm assuming, but it feels like this is a very personal
story for Noah Baumbach. - It is, but it's kind of a
personal thing for everybody. - No, of course it's very universal. - Yeah, well yeah, but everybody kind of in this one in particular
brought their history to it. So that's, I think that's
where it kind of started and evolved into this
thing where it was easy for everyone to make it
as personal as possible, and kind of Noah is very, I
mean the script is the script when we're, it's very much like theater, there's no, there's no
real playing with it, so it does change in
degrees, but we had talked about it for so much
leading up to it that. - Yeah. - That it felt very personal to everybody. - Yeah. And so how, I mean what is your, is your process always the same? Is the is the material informing you? Or do you just rely
fully on your director? Like what was that process
like to find this character. - Well for this, there's
so much in the script and again because we have been
talking about it for so long, you know, I always feel like sometimes you start a movie and it's
not till you put on a costume or you're a week into shooting already, and you're like okay, now
I know what I want to do, but I always let the director kind of set the tone a little bit of how I kind of work on it actually, I never, or because I
already know with Noah it is very much like theater
that the script isn't changing but he has designed the
schedule to give us a lot of takes in a lot of different ways because I know there's no
right way to do a scene. - So you do a lot of takes? Like he loves to do a lot of takes? - Yeah I see why, I love it, because it's like a whole theater run condensed into a day. - And the scenes are incredibly long. - Mhm, yeah. - I mean, I'm so
impressed by, and, I mean. - And very, you know choreographed
and staged obviously, or maybe not obviously. - No, no I feel like physically it is, but emotionally didn't
feel that to me at all. - Oh good. - And I, I was just so impressed
by anything that lengthy that obviously is, I mean, to me, a lot of those really long scenes were very emotional, incredibly
and, and to such heights, like I mean, you guys go from just when you think you're
at the max of the scene you guys go even further
with it, but it's like, I want to say like it feels like three, three minutee scenes,
like they're really long. - Yeah. - So how, like, do you
feel like every take just a part of it changes, or do you feel like the whole
thing changes after a while? - I mean it's hard to say. I always think that like, I am not always the best judge of that, because I think I have changed something, it's been like tectonic
shifts, so then you, Noah is like, it is but it's in degrees, you know it's actually not that. But I think because he's
organized the schedule to give us so many times of
doing it, it does shift a lot and then we think of other options, and then sometimes we just
do one because we, you know, we know this is not right
but just to kind of maybe it'll open something else up that we hadn't thought about and, and I think you can only really
do that with good writing too because good writing is so rich and it does open your imagination. If it's bad writing it's that way. - That's when we're acting, somebody said the other
day, that's when actors act. When the writing is bad,
that's when actors act. But good writing can also inspire other things to kind of come out, right? Does that happen, is that allowed? Like did stuff? - Oh of course, yeah, yeah, yeah. But he's, you know, we're militant with what the lines are
but intention is totally, is totally open. - Cause these amazing
moments where I felt like you and Scarlet were finding
thoughts in arguments, and I could see you guys
finding it which is like, crazy to think because I'm like, they've had this material,
they've studied it, they've worked with this, and yet you guys are doing it in a way where
it feels like I can see you coming to the
conclusion, or the argument, or the point, which is so impressive. - Oh good. - Yeah, it's really good. - No, it's good, and I
think you know, what, I mean it's like, it's with Scarlet, so there was, you lucked
out on a scene partner and Noah has, is giving us a note or he'll give her a note that doesn't, that he doesn't tell me,
or the opposite that we, you know, we get to do that when you're, when you really trust the people that you are working with and
the the day is organized to help you because as you know nothing is really set you on a film set. Nothing's in place to
help you do your job. - You have a, we were just
talking about this earlier, just like things breathing, you have a moment in the
lawyers office where you cover, you, you just kind of like stop yourself and you're covering your mouth, and you take this uncomfortably long beat, it's, it literally is so uncomfortable to watch you in that moment
before you say something like, you should have never let her
come to LA with Harry, Henry? - Henry.
- Henry. And I was just so impressed
by your commitment to stay in that moment for that long cause I think sometimes we kind of second guess ourselves, right? And you, you're just completely in it, and again, it feels to me
like you're finding that in, in your body, in your
brain, in your heart, and in your soul, like it's
happening for you in the moment, which to me is just unbelievable
to watch as an actor. - Oh, wow, thank you, thank you. - You know, just finding
those moments where it feels like it's happening, right? It's not manipulated,
we're not manufacturing it, and you're not watching the wheels turn. - Yeah. - And it's so beautiful. - Well I guess, I mean I come from, like, I know this in theater where you do a play, it's the set play, you don't, you're not changing the,
you're not improvising, I mean you can, but you do a
run of eight shows a week for, you know, four months
and always by the end of last performance I just had this, I just did a play, and the
last, the last performance was, was by far our best one, and we had done it I
think 140 something times at that point, not including
things in rehearsal, and I knew that, and it's
also really well written, and the regret that I often feel in films is that you don't really get
that many times to do it, often you're not rehearsing
and then you go home and imagine all the other ideas. - Yeah. - And I know that in,
just by sheer repetition, and with good writing it opens
up your imagination so it's, I've learned that there's no
right way a scene should work, and that's not my
responsibility, it's Noah's and the editor to find,
you know, zero in on one, and because Noah has
given us again, room to explore what they could all mean, when you get so many opportunities, we get that four month
period into one day, where there's no right answer. So if we feel like we got
that then, then we can, I think he makes everyone
feel comfortable enough that we throw it away and
ask a different question and I think when we play the scenes it just keeps it fresh for me, and more alive, but also, you
know, I leave with less regret that there wasn't a
question that I didn't ask, you know, that when we're
shooting that, you know, now is, I'll never
forget that moment again. Did you dye your hair again? Was that for your show? - No, this is me. It was this way when I saw you before. - I know but I didn't say anything then. - You don't like it? - No, I guess it's fine. Is it shorter? I prefer longer, but.
(chuckling) - I'm sorry, it's just absurd. - You have a moment with Scarlett, where you say some of the, it's, it's, it's the gut wrenching,
you say some of the, the ugliest emotional punch, where you say that you've imagined her get an illness and then she dies. - Right. - And in that moment, which is so raw, because I, it's completely relatable like we can all relate to that right? And the shame after we say that. But in that moment, I literally
in seconds experienced hating you, like loathing you. And by the time you're down
on your knees crying, like, like so connected to you. Is there a part of you as an actor when you see those things
that worry you sometimes? When you go, is this a
moment where somebody is going to emotionally
tap out if I say this, or do you look at that as a moment of that there's a challenge behind that. And you know that's a human truth, you know that that is, it's
something that's familiar to you but it's not
necessarily something that we want to put out in
the forefront of like the human condition right? But it exists, but the challenge is like how do you do that and have people relate
to it and not emotionally tap out like, do you ever
think about those things? I don't think about if it's,
again, if it's well written, I think it is truthful
so I don't worry about. - Whether they're going
to like you or not? - Yeah if the character is
going to be liked or not. And actually, loyalty
and switching allegiance as an audience is something
that Noah and I had talked about that he had, he had brought up of like I really always wanted to make
a movie where your audience, your loyalty really switches, you know, where you're with Scarlett
for the first half and you hate that character then suddenly you actually start to meet
Charlie and then have it, a different, so that that overall was something that Noah wanted to do. He loves the idea of
playing with the, you know, audiences' allegiances. - That's amazing. - And I think that's hard to do, and as an actor I don't think of like, oh, I'm worried that people
won't like me, you know, it's either if it's truthful,
then, then that's not, it's not for me to say, you know, and if it's not, then it was unsuccessful, but being liked is something
I don't, I don't think about. Or I try not to. As far as what their character choices, is it true, is it real, or is it designed? Did you feel that that
character is something that you could just, do
you put characters away while you're making them? While you're making them or immediately after it's over do you put it away, or does it still live
in you for a while or? - Yeah, I do, I mean, it was hard. It definitely took discipline
for me to get to that place but I feel like now I've
kind of perfected it. And I, and I do it for many reasons, I do it because if I
stay in it for too long I become incredibly exhausted,
emotionally exhausted. - While you're shooting or after? - No after. If I, you know, so my process
was one that, you know, I didn't quite know what my process was and then I worked with a
director who felt very strongly that we should be very method about how we went about this film. And so I was very open
I'd never done it before. This was when I was much younger. And so I did it and I was really unhappy, I would just, I hated my life, I was exhausted all the time, and when I was working I didn't
feel like I had that battery that kicked in for me, that made me go into the places that I
knew I had to go into and when I was tired
I just couldn't do it. And so, you know, then you worry well shit, this work from Marlon Brando. And now I can't even do this, but I really want to
be good at doing this, I want to be fucking great. So how do I do that? And it took me a while to
really kind of experiment. But I learned pretty early
on, the more I switch, the more I let go. You know, which, in the
beginning was harder for me, but now I'm very disciplined about it, like I go to my trailer,
I take my makeup off, and I, it's easier now I, go home, I have two kids to raise I have dog shit to pick up in the backyard. Like, it's much easier for me now to just kind of like walk into my door. The thing for me, that I can't stop is the thinking process of it. So I go to bed and my
brain won't switch off, and I'm thinking about
everything that we've shot, what's coming up, and I'm
trying to kind of like, I want to see the chart right? And that process is very hard for me. So falling asleep, but I
don't, I'm not in character, I'm not walking around being
Megan Kelly or, you know, Aileen Wuornos or any of the characters that I played before. I can switch that off pretty, and I can do it in between too, like I don't speak in the
voice the whole time, I don't, it's some, it's for me personally, it's just very exhausting,
but I think this is, you know, it's great, like
I know so many other actors who thrive on that, you know,
the more they're in it, the more they discover things and
things are coming for them. But I know I'm emotionally much braver when I don't overthink it, and I come from a place
that's a little bit more raw. - Yeah. And speaking of likeability does that come into your thought at all? - I mean, I've built a career on playing people that you don't like. I mean I. - That's not even an idea
that makes sense to me. - No, it's fascinating how people are fascinated by it though. But, again, for me it's a
very personal connection that I have to find with
the person that I'm playing, that has to make sense. I mean, there has to be. I have to get to a place
where I can actually say to myself this makes sense to me, like this person this
emotional human in front of me, I, I, I relate, I understand, like I struggle with the decisions and the things that they choose, but it's part of the human experience, like I, yeah, I mean I, I remember so vividly
working with George Miller on Fury Road, Mad Max Fury Road, and we didn't really have a script, we had all these storyboards, but there was this concept of like a woman saving five young women
like through a desert, like, was like an idea that
was like floating around, and like, just that on its own I was like, I was just like so, like, I was like no I don't like, who wants to play the
woman who's like saving all the other young, like, there's has to be some kind
of a human experience there that is faulty, that is self serving, that is angry, that is aggressive, that is not all the right reasons. We don't always do good
things for the right reasons. And this discovery process was
this man had really hurt her, and she was stealing what
was the most precious to him. It wasn't to save them, she
didn't want to be a hero, she was trying to hurt him. He had hurt her and she was
trying to hurt him back. And it's always when I can
come from the back like that into a character, who might
end up doing heroic things but I don't think they set
out to do those things. And Megan Kelly, of course,
is very conflicting, I mean, she can be incredibly polarizing, there are things about her
there that live in the extreme, people either love her or they hate her. And she makes no excuses for that. And so, those are the rules
that are handed to me, I have to obey by those rules, you know, even if I'm going to go and tell a story, I can't manipulate those
things, you know, I have to, I have to listen to what she's saying, she's telling me who she is, and I'm not saying like I
know who Megan Kelly is, but there's a part of
her that is so amplified in the fact that she comes
across really abrasive sometimes and, and somewhat aggressive and cold, and all of these things that are not necessarily qualities that, you know, makes you want to hug a person. But I would be lying if I didn't say that I can relate to being a
woman on a different degree, experiencing those same thoughts about me. You know ,I've heard
people describe me as cold, or hard, or a bitch. You know what I mean? like those are things to a degree that I, even though we think we're
incredibly different people, I can always find that thing
that might not be so attractive and bring it back to
just human circumstance, like a human, that's a human that I know, like the perfect stuff is hard
for me to kind of relate to. Yeah, I also think that's
one of my favorite things about other actors or being an actor is it forces you to be empathetic, it forces you to exercise
that muscle in a way that I think most jobs don't ask you to, and you are so constantly the
people that are around you are, is in constant rotation, whether it be something
like this or on a film set, so you always have to find a new way, it's a new cast of characters you have to figure out
a way to diplomatically argue your point, and like
get your point across, but also be respectful of, so not only just the technical
part of making a film, you have to be empathetic, but then finding your
way into someone that you on the surface have nothing in common, it forces you to not, to not make a judgment
and I feel like that's, you know, again now I'm repeating myself, but it works its way into life I think. - It does. - I always feel like I try
to approach things where, cause you're so used
to the muscle of okay, maybe I'm, I'm the missing link in what's making this not work. - No completely, and just when you think you have it down, the universal kind of remind you that you need to work harder at that, because I have always
thought of myself as an actor like that and then when
I got this material there was definitely a part
of me that really struggled with my own opinions about her and then through research
I know, you know, like we always do, I'm like I
didn't know this woman at all. I was living my life
hearing things, snippets. And I had labeled her, and
we think we all do that, and then I just kind of like carried that as a preconceived idea,
notion, of who she was. And this was, it was challenging for me to get to that place where I
could put all of that aside, because I agree with you,
I don't think you can do this job if you had some
kind of agenda at hand, like that you were
going to like, you know, try and tell the story that
somehow carried your beliefs or like, what you want the
world to kind of see like, there's that authentic
experience for an actor is gone when you do that. And so this was definitely
a reminder for me at this part of my
career of just going like that muscle needs to be worked
a little harder, you have to, you can never forget that, you can never forget it because Megan Kelly, made it really challenging in that sense for me. So, what does Star Wars mean to you? (laughing) - What's up? - I mean, I think, I think that we have similar
opinion on this, just, I mean, and again I'm totally assuming because I want to pretend
like I know you really well. But, um, you know, you've worked on-- - Do we do a right length together. - Yeah, exactly, yeah. We've done, big giant franchise movies, and then a lot of like smaller films. And, I mean, I know that for me the difference is just
the logistics of it, and outside of that
storytelling remains the same it just does. You just, either you have
like a little bit more cushion on the chair or it's
still it's a wooden chair, like, but you're still going to sit in it, it's still made for sitting. - Right, right, right. - I don't know, I mean do
you still feel that way? Has it changed for you? I mean, no, I mean, I
feel the exact same way, an audience watching a
movie isn't gonna think that they had really
great trailers or really, you know, good catering. It does make it easier to make it a movie and then you can't help
do the math of like, why is it so difficult
for all those other, but it really makes no difference, it, it, and it doesn't matter to me at all. It's just a matter of, for me
it's pace of a shooting day, I just know that a bigger movie, there's going to be more moving pieces. - Yeah. - So, you know the turnarounds
are going to be more, the you know. - That's why you need the nicer trailer. - Yeah, right. - A lot of time in that trailer. Even the thing I'm doing now actually, I'm doing this movie that
is director Leos Carax, and it's a musical and it's very surreal and his movies are very
physical and choreographed and, and that feels a lot like Star Wars even the budget doesn't even compare but I've also lucked
out with the directors that I've worked with
on big budget movies, so I've never really had
the experience of it, like a, it's been JJ and
Ryan Johnson on those, so it feels like, you know, intimate director driven filmmakers
which is what I, you know like. It feels like an intimate
conversation that starts, You know, however before
you start shooting it doesn't end until till
it's over, there's no, I haven't had that experience
so much of, you know, movie making by committee. - Yeah. - And I don't think I would, well I just haven't had the experience, so it has felt like small, even though it's a big budget is still
felt like small in filmmaking, to me, in a way. You feel the same way? - Yeah, I do, I mean I really do, I feel like again like at the core what you're trying to
do is be a storyteller. And so, some stories
are just a little harder to kind of like, get through a page. And that's really how I see it, I mean ultimately the
experience, like, what might, what I know my job is,
is that never changes. - But I like both, I mean
that's what cinema is, or films are to me, it's
Jaws and it's, you know, Eraserhead. (energetic pop instrumental)
It is his birthday! Nov 19! Happy birthday Adam! Love this pairing. Hope they have a movie together
Adam Driver is having a spectacular year!
These pairings have been amazing.