Conversations with GREEN BOOK

[Applause] [Applause] thank you thank you for giving us your Wednesday night to view this film as it should be in a theater and I have some special guests here to hang out with you guys and chitchat a little bit first up and I'm gonna butcher his last name Sebastian Matic cows go mad at cow cow where are you Sebastian I'm like I thought I had it and they gave it to me and I said it brung next up we have Maher Saleh Ali thank you baby yes yes our next treat for you tonight mr. Viggo Mortensen and last but certainly not least director Peter Farrelly now I should tell all of you Linda was going to be with us tonight but she had a family emergency so our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family send them up hi we're gonna get started right away because I know we have a lot of questions and I mean how often do you get to have this in your living room so this is a question oh this chair does not feel secure oh Jesus okay I'm in it okay I think we're okay she just felt kind of weird so this is a question for all of you actually even you Peter I think this is such a unique and beautiful story and it's crazy that it's so relevant now starting with you Pete how did this story come to you and why did you say yes well before I get into that I just want to say this is awesome being here because of all the movies I've done you know whenever you do a movie you try to get to you hope that the actors can bring it to the where you saw in the script and that's what you're aiming for but this one of all the movies went so far beyond the script because of these guys and everybody in this movie showing it here before the SAG audience means the world to me because it's really that this movie became something else and these guys hands but anyway thank you it it came to me when I ran into a friend of mine about three years ago Brian Hayes curry who say actor and he said he was writing a screenplay and he gave me this the one line he said you know black concert pianist 1962 had to go on a concert tour the south and was nervous about going so he went and hired the toughest bouncer at the Copacabana nightclub in New York an Italian guy with the 6th grade education who was racist and somehow after two months in the car they ended up becoming lifelong friends I was like are you kidding me that's such a homerun he said is it I said it's a huge home run and I kept thinking about it and a month or two later I called him and said Brian how's that thing coming that you told me buddy good what is it the screenplay which one I said that bouncer in the concert pianist he said well we haven't done anything women started I said can I please write it with you I just think it's so good and the following Monday we started what about you Sebastian I'm just shocked that I'm here I I I read the script I auditioned for Peter I'm a comedian a stand-up comedian so I am I am so new to acting and the fact that this guy took a shot at me I'm just so grateful and to be up here with such talented people I'm very humbled I didn't have it you know I just I went in an audition and and I got it and I'm here and that's really I've just I'm just just grateful to be here and there's such a great movie and to be around such talented people I really learned a lot being on this film with with all the with all these talented young young young days and maybe I just met and it's it's great I'm just thank you well thank you what about you Viggo well Pete sent me he sent me an email he said I'm gonna send you a script it's a little different than what I've done before and and I want you to play this guy named Tony lip and called me after you read it and I've started reading it and I was like yeah this is different than then his other movies and it's really good it's really good and the further I got along the more I was hoping it wouldn't fall apart that all the characters would keep having great dialogue that it would be you know it's just with every page you got to be more entertaining more thought provoking a really great take on what in in part is a civics lesson a history lesson I mean it's so many things and they just got better and better and then never fell apart it just went upward all the way and outward you know it just had so many layers to it but you know I called him I said it's one of the best original screenplay I've ever read but I think you're kind of nuts I mean you know you're doing you're taking this gamble doing that kind of story and then you want me to play this guy cuz I was nervous about it you know I'm gonna have a lot of respect for Italian American actors there's a lot of good ones there's a lot of great italian-american characters we've seen on the TV and the movies and and that was nervous about it but I mean I mean let's say he talked me into it and I'm I'm really glad and I I had I had a really good time on this movie I mean I I and and whatever whatever I needed to do whatever help I needed to get I mean it's always there if you just open your eyes open your ears and starting with the with Pete and his the crew he put together in the cast but the Bell along a family helped me a lot to feel comfortable so because I didn't want to do a caricature I want to do something you know a real character there was accurate and the spirit of the real Tony lip Vallelunga and would that help and with with these guys I mean wouldn't Herschel in particular I have to say you know his generosity as an actor and his I'm just talent that we all know about I mean without him this would not the story would not work at all it just wouldn't any other combination I can't imagine it working like this and it was just it was fun you know the first day of work Pete gather everybody around and he said I don't know everything I get one shot to make this movie I want everybody and I mean he's talking to the catering people he's talking to everybody and he says I want the idea is to keep coming from anybody you never know where a good idea can come from we're gonna make this together and that's the way it was and as an actor you know how it is when you're working and if you're off your game at any give and take you kind of notice all of a sudden the people that are beyond the camera and often there are on the phone or they're eating or they're just elsewhere you know I mean they're just they're doing a job and you know things are being handled they put the lights where they had to be and so forth and whatever but they weren't like that on this everyday they were there watching and the producers were and the three writers were there every day and it was just it was like a team effort in the best sense it was like doing a play and you feel like the audience is there really with you with the story every day and it was great it was great experience so I'm glad I did it [Applause] there's a lot thank you for coming out we really appreciate you taking the time and and really appreciate your response a couple things I just want to address first first Pete said that we like elevated this script and did all this I think we did a solid job but that was a great script I'm telling you it was phenomenal it really was it really was and I think if anything our job was to not get in the way and and I think we really helped each other get out of the way of the story and and really just challenged each other to fill the shoes of these characters as best as we could and honor them these two men who are unfortunately deceased and can't see this but we just really wanted to respect them as individuals and their families second sebastian you're so good in the movie man like really you you really you really helped hold that first quarter of the film together and it's so key because that's a world where there's just it's you Pete has is challenged with building the Bronx and you you are such a key character in the early part of the film and then you come back and book in the movie the way that you do and and when I really first saw that thought with our audience that really stood out to me and so really appreciate you man and your contraband that very sweet thank you thank you and lastly I'll be quick because I wanna be long-winded but I I the this part came to me after I just had an extraordinary experience with moonlight and you know we all know how that ended and its really strangely actually but it's all good but yeah I was just looking for something that just spoke to me like something that was felt unique cuz you're gonna get those 100 million dollar budget and you're like oh I can get a payday too but I never that's not my relationship with the work has never been that and it's always been like what houses character speaking to me how did the story speak to me so those things which I'm really grateful to have come my way those things weren't really speaking to me and then when this film when we had this you know somebody who was gonna chalk up the money out of his pocket and pay for that virtue yeah we had a believer and that's how we started moving with it and then you know participant in NW / tissa pant jumped in yeah anything over so it turned into something else but initially for me it was the opportunity to work with with Pete who for me was and I mean this in the most positive sense was a first-time filmmaker with 25 years of experience because as he pitched it to me like I'm doing my first drum and so here it is you have someone who has all this world of experience but it's doing something that they've never done before and then second as an actor and one who just absolutely loves and adores actors I was getting work opposite of Viggo Mortensen and so that was just a dream you know so it wasn't too hard to sell me on it what was on the page of the character dr. Lee their dynamic the entire arc it all just fit together so beautifully and again I think our job was to show up and really work together support each other and not get in the way of what was a really good I have to jump in here that's he's being so modest because I promise you this movie I tried not to be funny I didn't want this to turn into all the laughs that we just had I was literally fighting it because I didn't want to go there that's my instinct is to go that way but I didn't want to do it I knew it was a different thing a different tone and on paper on the page this was had some laughs the chicken thing and you know you have an arrow assess and assessment of me told he got good you know that kind of stuff there were a couple but the things they brought to it and the thing the scene I always think of is the the orphans he says I I saw your album yeah I'm about two orphans and he says orphans because ya know the kids were on the campfire and he says Orpheus and as written you know he's just supposed to say what but he goes yeah like somehow you know that makes sense to him he doesn't know what Orpheus is and he just goes with ya like what did I said oh yeah and it's and then it's rehearsal is reaction to that yeah well he says Jesus God what am I doing with this guy and we're howling back there but these guys just turned something very yang into something hilarious and throughout the whole thing they dis and this guy at the end we have a great moment at the end where you know that door when the knock at the door everybody in the room thinks here comes dr. Shirley right when you hear the knock and that's how it was written actually and it was about two days before we thought you know it's so obvious when we heard this knock that's gonna be dr. Shirley we got to have a head-fake so I thought what could we do and I thought oh he just mentioned the watch what if we had that guy come in so the you know you'd get it out of your mind that dr. Shirley's coming back but on the day we get there and we don't have any dialogue I just have the guy showing up we haven't planned anything and he shows up and I basically said Sebastian you got to just wing it here and Sebastian says Charlie I was joking you know kidding and with the wife like this is all new to us we're standing in there he like just he's this going off free free form here killing us he goes ain't Charlie showed up but he didn't bring a present you know this is all just letting actors be actors and that's what we did in this movie and that's why it turned out this way I have some questions from some of you and I thought I would just started peppering them in well this is from Scotty to Sebastian and guys I must warn you I've reached an age where my eyes aren't that great big fan of your stand-up what's your dream role to play I mean I'm I never got into this business to do acting it was always stand-up comedy and and the movie thing is totally new to me so I'm not sitting here choosing my roles so I didn't get this script email to be honest you know but I have no dreams of a perfect role I just really enjoy doing this because it's very new to me and every time I go on these sets I'm just really learning from all these great actors so my bread-and-butter stand-up comedy but if these opportunities come my way I'm definitely gonna take advantage of them and and yeah so there is no real dream role this is it I mean I'm up I mean this is this is fantastic [Music] indeed it is one of the things that I as an actor I found recently that I always learned something after playing a character what did you learn well something I learned was actually from working off of Vigo and I took it with me on my next job God which was so I get on a lot of people's nerves like my wife or like some of my representatives because I'm like annoyingly meticulous about things and and I try to like hold that back a little bit because I know it gets on peoples nerves but but Vigo is worse swear to God SP so so I think if anything Biko gave me permission to go further so on my next job and in what I found is what I love about their gonna hate you man you were among friends and hearts man I know what's gonna happen to you know in all seriousness when what I mean by that is I'll give you an example I gave the example so we show up on it's a couple of days before we start shooting in like we're both fortunately I'm happy to find out that he was nervous too so but we we go to this place that Pete had in New Orleans and we go in there and this is like me and Vigo really kind of like hanging out and going over the script for the first time even though I met him like a year earlier Vigo comes in he's like it Pete man let you see some of these songs find some crucifixes that's break it out like all these different options for like different kind of crucifixes that could be in the movie it's not his job not his job we got a props department so then he started breaking out different jade rocks it's like Peter found a perfect jade rock got some perfect Jade rock and I was like wow he's really like specific and and that was kind of the journey but for him you always have to respect the psychology of an actor and how things are gonna have something relates to them and understand that you don't understand that like you don't know it and and respect people's space to relate to objects and space and other people and time however whatever their process is and so what I took from that is the things that I tried to cover or or protect so I don't infringe on anyone else's space like some of that is is you've got a little bit more space than that you have a little bit more more space and you should have as much ownership over your work without offending other people of course but you you it's okay to - I think acting and this work is the perfect place for somebody with a meticulous somewhat obsessive compulsive nature actually to work to have a place for those things to play and and and that I took with me on to my next job what about TV go I'm afraid to talk Matt I have to say Pete's really smart about working with actors he said you know all those crucifixes are nice yeah all those stones are beautiful let's open up the script and you know we'll talk and we did use the stone though that you brought that day that was the stone in the movie I think one of the crucifixes is over the pair let him pick it it's great pick thank you like that one that's the one I saw you looking at Marsh light okay no I you know it's something that you can never stop learning which is to trust other people it's one thing to do your work and I think you should you got to do everything I like that process of gathering information it could be anything you have there's no limit to it and then once you start shooting it's like you you have to trust what you've prepared and just get rid of all that stuff and just look at the other people look at the director keep your ears open your eyes open and and trust people and on this movie I really from trusting Pete that yeah you can do this part and and and and trusting and just us trusting each other in this the whole I don't think you've done this kind of stuff either whether it's I mean it's not a comedy where you're telling jokes but it's there's some stuff that's funny you know comedy as a result of the dynamics of the character right and the contrast and just trusting what it was that we were playing and realizing it's not that different I thought it was like some other genre like another art form and I admire it you know like stand-up from stand-up comedy to just comedic situational comedy acting it's like how do you get did the people that can do that I'm like wow but it's kind of it's really about the same thing that other kinds of acting is it's just listening you know I mean foundation of good acting is always reacting and and its timing rhythm it's like the music of it and it's like we we could feel it and Pete was guiding us really well with all the scenes with the family stuff with our stuff in the car I mean two guys in a car for a long time that could be deadly if you don't get that rhythm right you get that music right and it was just like yeah you could just feel if you waited a little too long it wasn't quite as funny and if you went too quick it wasn't you kind of killed it and just count on the other guy it's not all up to you at all on the contrary it's like you're expecting the other person you're hoping you're enjoying it and I was just learning to trust many things in a way that I hadn't maybe I hadn't done as much before I was more worried I had better just taking on my stuff I'll do my best to help them do their thing and we'll see what happens on this one everybody was working in that way so it was relatively easy to do it it was a it was a it was a relief and it was a pleasure to trust the people I was working with I loved it wonderful Hey did you learn anything in this new genre I learned so much at making this movie it it was you know I learned a lot about about really letting people do what they do and I knew I had no question that you know both these guys could do it I feel like there's no movie this year that has two better actors in it just it just aren't is it and and I knew when I had them that you know to let them go so it was it was just a pleasure to you know they were completely complimentary performances and I didn't tell him how to do it you know I didn't say hey I want you be this way and you to be that way I'll let them find their characters they read the script they thought about it they talked to the family they did what they could do and then they became this these people and there were two different performances he was very outwardly Viggo you know he was all like you know just movement and everything and trying stuff and not that's not the way Viggo is that's not I said but he became this bigger than life guy because that's who Tony lip was with the eating and the drinking and the smoking and the nonstop and rehearsal it did the exact opposite it was an inner performance and it was so nuanced and so tiny and yet if they complemented each other perfectly and it I didn't tell them how to do that you know I'd tweak here and there but they found those characters I guess what I guess what I found here is do you know and because it was my first drama I let people do more what I would normally push people more in certain directions that I want them to go and I didn't let this one I didn't have to and so and it's beautiful on screen I I have to know Vigo when you were getting ready for Tony you had to put on some weight what was your go-to meal I was Italian food really it was a lot a lot of peace a lot of pasta but it was mainly just never saying no to a second or a third helping never never not trying all the desserts and I'm preferably eating the biggest meal with full complement of desserts and appetizers nothing just before lying down to go to sleep the worst thing the worst thing you can let me add let me add go ahead he had to eat so much on camera and I would always be on the vegetable thing and like pacing out my bites so he would be like stuffing himself because he had to and then in you know six hours in it's like okay we got to go to lunch and he goes like oh I'm going to the trailer and he couldn't tell you what the catering was catering was great I never I just would go like that through my belt and be like the 8:15 hot dogs on the hot dog eating team seriously because we had to do it from so many angles and the pizza he ate he almost choked to death on that Pizza he fold it in half and I'm talent he had like a chest cold for about a week after that I think it got into his lungs and then it was constantly there were the milk when he drank that milk you know he comes home because you know how I said okay cut let's go you know I said what he said I don't like the way I was holding the bottle I say are you serious he goes yeah I really want to do it again and then he did that and they did it again thank your mom he's good with it yeah I'm good let's move on you know this question is from Murray for the entire cast from the first moment you receive a script what do you do to prepare for a role and fill the white space in between Sebastian well I go get my crucifix and now what I do I read the script and I have an acting coach and we go and we work on the script together I don't really have a lot of people that I could work with I don't have like a lot of actor friends so I work with a coach and we kind of get it down and and and that's kind of my process like Vigo was saying that you know you prepare you prepare prepare and when you get to the set you know as long as you've prepared hopefully you could adjust and when I got for the set the first day I was scared out of my mind I mean I'm glad to know that people were nervous because I was I was and when he came out I was frightened I was just frightened but everything was I was operating out of a coma we just say hi anyways what do you want complete fear at all times but that's kind of how I operate but yeah that's that's there's that's I'm new to this guys so that's my process for nothing well I in a similar fashion first thing I do is I am processing my anxiety around the script so everything so when you read a script you at least for me I can hear the character when I can hear the character in some way I know that that's a good sign and then what comes so how I know it's right for me is usually I get to a few points in the script that scare me like can I do that or what's that gonna require or how do we pull that off or like oh man I've never gone there before and and so then there becomes this process of arming myself for just finding ways to chip at that anxiety throughout the process and use the the really positive moments the moments of discovery to like like water the flowers opposed to water the weeds so I began to like try to find ways to water the flowers and so that your confidence in connection with the character deepens and grows throughout the process and then that anxiety begins to dissipate or just become something that is as a healthy thing that it's in my periphery that I'm aware of so that it keeps me honest throughout the process you know and I don't know if that answers the question but that's kind of how I like man did me yeah I'm well whether the character is really existed like this carrot like our characters or whether it's just something made up or a complete fantasy you know I always ask myself it's a basic question but it has endless amounts of answers to it which is what happened before page one you know where was he born where was the person born what was that environment like how did they grow up you know excited I'm from there you can just go and go and go when you have a character in my case I went right to the Valen long the family went to Nick Bell longer who brought the story that to Brian and to Pete who would he'd been trying to make this story for what like 20 25 25 years and and he also kept his promise I think he said it to you right off the bat he said you know I talk I have lots of recordings fortunately with my father talking about many things including a lot of it talking about this trip and the friendship with with dr. Lee and he also talked to Don Shurley and who said yeah it's true what Tony said there and I can add a few other things and so forth and he said just ask you one favor please don't make the movie until I'm gone you know it was a obviously a very private person and you know that's the way he wanted and you guys respected that I'll be sitting in that that was great but in this case there was a wealth of information and being busy I guess especially being busy in the right way like flowers instead of weeds you know in that gathering keeps the fear at bay because if you just sit there and go how am I gonna do it why did I say yes oh my god it's like every time you know you never I really want even when you really want it and then they go you can have and you go are you sure okay no but in this case it was I went to Nick and then he said well come and meet my family and and I did and it was the first thing was a giant crazy meal I went to New Jersey to where his brother Frank Frank's the one that as a little kid I carry into the hot dog shop you know he's the one that's got kind of an attitude and he's very sure of himself and he has a restaurant in Franklin Lakes New Jersey called Tony lips and the recipes a lot of stuff is Dolores is recipes you know the first thing they do and I walk in there and it's Nick and Frank and their uncle Rudy Tony's brother and and then the first thing is like going the kitchen tried to lorises meatballs which were like softballs I mean they were incredible so I had I had one and they sue if you like it oh yeah yeah so I had another one just to make sure they knew I liked it and they said and I thought okay we're wait now we can talk about the script because now we're gonna eat and so we sit down and then it's like this giant seafood thing and it was huge and I hadn't begun my process of you know expanding my my inner self boo bit early and and so I ate all his food but it was like it was hard to get through because it was a lot as delicious and they're watching they're talking and fortunately were talking in between bites you know and they're telling me stuff and I showing me pictures and it was already was it was great this is exactly what I need to go but the food thing rapidly became a problem there they brought a second thing it was tremendous it was even taller and bigger and wider incredible and I really limped to the finish on that one and you like you really like you like yeah he likes it look at him he's evening and and so then they but then they brought a third plate and I really couldn't eat it I just couldn't eat it I got like halfway through and I was like kind of like I ain't did my belt like quietly like I couldn't see and I was just kind of like spread my legs and I would just got comfortable as I could I got up I went to the bathroom and just kept talking and then and then they go yeah we didn't take your plate away you seem like you like this so you know and so so I kept eating it and I but I didn't quite finish it and they go it was you don't like you don't like it as much as together that's all right I told you overcooked it you left it on the counter too long and plus he let it sitting you know you went to the bathroom for a god knows how long and now and I was like I do like it it's really good I'm just really full and not used to eating this much you know I probably and I'm thinking I shouldn't have breakfast or lunch or breakfast or dinner the last three days you know and and but they're gonna that's cool I mean it's not everybody's you know I don't know it's really good psych just like I finished I'm like I'm finishing this I mean I'm not gonna like my first meeting with the Bella long guys and come off like a guy who doesn't like their food so I finished it and the problem is that every time I finish the plate they brought another one it was like it was like six hours of eating and fortunately quite a bit of talking but it was so that's that's that's how I prepared for this petition for Pete you are not Italian no but I grew up in Rhode Island which is an Italian state it's I I grew up with all Italian kids and Providence is a very Italian city it's much like The Sopranos you know that kind of thing and great Italian restaurants I like I my favorite food is a stripe with a Leo Oh Leo on the side so and and they have the same kind of you know New Jersey kind of talking what no good you know a lot of that stuff so I I was you know I was I guess I'm Irish but I always felt more Italian than than Irish pianist well I have to say and I think Sebastian can help me with this those dinners with a family the Italian family just felt so real and lived in and how I know you said you just left the actors do their thing but how did you because you can't manufacture that type of chemistry the chemistry throughout this project is just mind-blowing but I was blown away by the family well the family word Vala longus you know the two old guys that one was Tony lips brother and one was Tony lips brother-in-law and then one and then you know the guy who says you know we're an audio that guy he's that's Frank Bello Unga Tony lips son and then we had Sebastian Maniscalco and he felt like a vowel longa and so we had and you know Linda in the and so it really the only problem with those guys they were great and they weren't actors but they could do their thing because they're just freeform just get going the only problem was that they never stopped eating between takes so just the props people yeah we are serious what do you call it use continuity issues like he'd be just fighting into a piece of lasagna and then there'd be none there I'm like he didn't have lasagna the super the script super was losing her mind running around like no no don't that like what you doing you know and that food we had it just so happened that our props guy was married to a James Beard award-winner chef and she did all our cooking so it was world class and we're in New Orleans where it's you know they don't cut corners there so m'yeah they think we just got him in the groove made him you know half the time I don't think they knew the camera was running we just you know did our stuff what about the casting process of how did all those van longer you had called them up after that lunch because at the lunch they go this you know uncle Rudy's gonna be playing your dad and Frank's gonna be your brother and and I'm gonna be doing this and I'm not gonna magic that's on you I'm thinking oh yes Pete's like he's doing the first drama he's decided I'm gonna play the italian-american guy and now he's cast all these people who are not actors it's bold you know and and so I called up Pete and I said you know you got some big ones on your you know we didn't realize lead acid Rudy's my dad yeah I go where you go Rudy who Nick tricked us Nick who I wrote it with told him that those guys were all in the movie and he got to like them and he called me so I think to be good in the movie you know you thought good I wanted them I thought he wanted them and we ended up hiring them and of course you know Nick's like don't worry about it you know it's gonna be good they'll do their thing you know they believe me I could get him Nick you know and and it wasn't until about two weeks ago that I thought I was like you're the one who hired him he said no you hired about I didn't I only hired him cause you said they were in it okay this question is from Micah Howard for Mahalo how extensive and exhaustive is your preparation for a period piece especially compared to a modern film it's probably easier I think it's harder I think the contemporary pieces are a little bit more difficult because you don't have perspective on the time because you're so immersed in the time but I think when you look back in periods when you can you know I love to watch documentary film I think that's the best place to watch work because as soon as someone's being pictured or whatnot or film they're still you can watch any documentary with Talking Heads and there's a there's a consciousness there of being filmed and so I always love watching documentaries but if you go back and you watch anything from the remember watching this great Coltrane documentary chasing train during the time we were shooting this and just just getting a sense of how they were dressed and how they moved and talked and haircuts and styles and I think that it's a little bit easier because it's further away from you so you kind of there's a there's a greater separation between yourself and character and I always try to find character in anything I do but I think the immersing yourself in in pictures and music of the time is a big help for me and just kind of being like I was aware of like the I hadn't heard of the lavender scare and so wasn't really aware that you know the gay community was targeted in that way like of course you can imagine that but I wasn't I just like McCarthyism and things of that era things at that time there's a I kind of got to do a little bit of homework on that to give context to why Don Shurley was the way he was and so I just think you can sort of arm yourself with things of the period that allow you to throw that homework away in it and just hope Yuma Taba lized it in some way shape or form that's beautiful I just want to make sure we have time for one more question okay and I have it right here it's for Rigo from David and you sort of touched on this with a question before he wrote I'm always blown away and inspired by how varied and specific your characters are could you talk about your approach to building characters the voice mannerisms physicality etc well sometimes there are things that just land in your lap that you just see on the set on that day somebody does something or there's a turn of phrase or there's a piece of business or I know this is not a necessarily but I've those immediate like last-minute things you know the thing with the with Charlie the shop guy that was something that I was so good in that and and that the way that worked and the way you went with that sometimes those things happen and it's great you know or the you know Nick's telling us a story you know yeah my dad used to go into a pizza place and you say don't cut it I get my own pie don't cut it and then he boom boom like that like it was a slice and and things like that can happen and they can work you know I like it we didn't promise it's just TV in the background and have it just oh yeah in that case yeah that way is ringing his question boy thank you thank you we need directors now he's some prior I had the whatever else I did I always had the the Russian tv-channel on all the time you know day night in my room you know I was hearing it all time in when I was sleeping so it was kind of like even if I'm not speaking I don't speak the language completely I mean just whatever I'm just just a rhythm to speech and I don't know something the music of it but I think that these last-minute things that can happen that can come to your help these accidents that sometimes happen that you take advantage of you can only fully take advantage of them if you've done all the stuff before you really work and like I said you know what happened before page one and it's an encyclopedia if you you know whatever time you have you keep filling it with more gathering more and more stuff and then you sort of leave it to one side and you know it's there and then back your head and it's just a it's a way to feel comfortable to I think and then when somebody comes up with something it could be mispronouncing a word it could be just a hesitation it could be just a bird flies by something and you're not so like trying to remember your lines or like Who am I you know who you are until you react to the bird they look a bird you know like whatever you do that because because you you like you say you've met em there's some stuff that did make the movie unfortunate what do you thinking I'm in particular oh mama dog he hasn't been in the country and there was a go he jumped he was like reading his book I was always trying to get him to crack him up or something it was like impossible because he was like still awake you know and he was reading like this I don't know what you mean like a serious novel yeah like this thick I'm like looking and I'm like trying it I'm thinking of stuff to do but it's not nothing's phase in a mine I go I go oh dear like Jesus look he's like the book of swine and Aika oh maybe it was a farm dog I don't you know like because he doesn't know what a deer a fun what is the farm dog you know after the take it goes what is a farmer I know but best good thing that didn't make it into the main yeah it was pretty money but now he went on to compliment the behind of the deer it's true a lot of those things happen you can use those things and have fun because you're relaxed because you already done your your work you know and then you can listen to people I just want to say before we get out of here you know I really am so proud to be here because this movie you know first of all it's this movie doesn't made without these two guys actors but you know it doesn't if I went a half a notch lower for the in the acting world nobody would have even listened to me but I had the two best actors going and even then it was hard but we got it made because of these guys and then they elevated it to a place that I never could believe this movie could go so it doesn't have without them but I have to say to have Octavia Spencer in my corner in my corner and to get her approval that during the making of this movie was so important to me personally as a filmmaker and I honestly had so many questions and doubts throughout and before and just knowing that she was in the corner just that made it possible for this to happen and she's hugely important in the making of this movie thank you all so much for being here tonight thanks Isaac

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 23,034

Rating: 4.8703704 out of 5

Keywords: SAG Foundation, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Acting, Actors, Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Sebastian Maniscalco, Peter Farrelly, Octavia Spencer, Green Book, 2019 Emmy nominee, Q&A

Id: jyT6GWNK6oI

Length: 46min 59sec (2819 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 15 2018