Conversations with Sarah Jessica Parker of DIVORCE

welcome and congratulations thanks very much a great season by the way do you remember the last time I interviewed you yes yes I do we tell these people where it was she wants me to name-drop well it might never happen again so you might as well drop it when you came it was in the white house and and it was in my previous life as editor of Glamour we were privileged to have Sarah Jessica on the cover three times but the most recent time was alongside than first lady Michelle Obama so I had the opportunity to interview both of them Kerry Kerry Washington Kerry Washington yeah that was a day one shall never forget one might long for that day again anyway anyway in an equally wonderful establish we're on institutional house of entertainment and good company gravitas yes I want to start off since the audience has just seen that wonderful last episode and I was I was just saying as we were walking up how happy I was at the way it ended and the amount of sort of joy there was there there Francis but I'm curious about what it's like to prepare for a season 2 of a show like that versus a season 1 how do you get into character do you think consciously about how am I gonna evolve there now or is it more organic than that I think we thought a lot about story circumstances were a bit unusual in that we had one writing team and then it changed and so time was collapsed and we had a really short period in which to put together an entire season of television and that just means the perfunctory stuff like putting together a writing room and getting scripts so we spent a lot of time you know Jenni Bicks came on board which was a huge treat for us wasn't even my idea I can't take any credit but the studio said you know what about Jenni and I just would assume that I assumed that she would be spoken for but she graciously stepped in with a lot of energy and skill and put together a writing room which included some of our former writers from Sex in the City also and then we just spent a lot of time talking about what we felt was important from the season before you know you can't shoot a season of television and dismiss what happened it's meaningful not just to me and to Thomas and Molly and Talia and Tracy but also you know audiences there's a lot to choose from and if they invest time and money um in a relationship you really owe it to them to to honor the details that everybody worked really hard to create so those are big interesting complicated conversations you're putting together a season of television with people who are new to the characters and so we worked a lot on that and then it's at a certain point I think when you've if you're fortunate enough to get to play a character for a while once the stories start surfacing you're really there you know you just need the words to remind you you know what fragrance she wore and if she likes oatmeal hair oh she wears this weird fragrance it's really true she does yeah it's from what's that great Italian company anyway um but you know like all the little things that make people human and interesting and so the story was obviously the most important thing but once that starts peaking its head up you can start you start recalling it pretty quickly it's muscle memory in some ways as someone who doesn't work in TV or acting in any way I know nothing about the television process and I'm curious about what it's actually like when you're working on a series like when do you once you're you know not in your sort of producer role but in your in your role as an actor when do you get a script for the next episode how long do you have with it if there are notes you want to give back to write the writers are you texting them or your items they're a meeting how does it work um well it's the I think you know you can look at if you've seen one television series in the way it functions that living organism you've seen one because all of them are different I mean typically in an ideal world the actors have the script at least you know there's a table read you guys are probably familiar with this process there's a typically there's a table read ideally it's about a week before you start shooting that gives all production the time they need you know location and production design and all the people who need who are sort of the advanced team right to make sure everything's there when you show up on a set and that also gives the writers the showrunner and the writer of that episode time to hear notes from the studio here are some notes from actors producers and go back and make those adjustments most actors like to have a script at least two or three days before the scene they're shooting it's nice if you can have a whole script that you feel is fairly reliable because even if you have scenes if there's a lot of changes and you guys know this if you've already shot scenes and then scenes come in and they contradict sort of how you're playing a scene or the information you have when you're talking to somebody it's a big deal you know so you want to feel pretty confident in a story and usually I mean sometimes it's the night before because you're you start getting jammed you know you're halfway through a season and scripts aren't you know that's when you really it gets pretty crazy because you naturally get behind it's not unusual it doesn't mean people are professional it's just sort of the build-up the accumulation of what needs to be done and in your case you can't be like someone's got to talk to the producer but you are you have to be flexible you have to be nimble I think the more you learn lines the more able your you are it's it comes more easily to absorb lines quickly but I spent a lot of last season in the season before and even on other television shows and movies you get a scene late the night before and it's your job to not be tired and to learn those lines or be tired and when the camera rolls you got it so you know there are other people that do things that ask a lot of them and they're tired and their jobs that require you know all sorts of things that are really hard it's their worse that you do it anything yeah you know we're joking about your role as producer and your role as an actor but how do you decide which hat you're wearing when and is that ever strange um it it it always is clear where you know who I'm supposed to be when I just think it's it's still I still I think there is still sort of some old-fashioned conventions about a woman and an actor and and ideas that sort of are projected on you even from the most evolved or what though but they might consider themselves the most evolved I think that the hardest part is not knowing when I'm supposed to be who or what discipline I'm supposed to be a kind of carrying out but more I think it's it it even still it feels a little bit hard for some people to accept an actor in a position where they get to be part of the conversation and part of the production side and sometimes it's more difficult than others and sometimes it can even be difficult with your female colleagues which is always surprising to me but you know we can feel this I I know no I mean I mean female colleagues that that are producers you know that who are who are singularly that and it's not out of malice or an like a desire to diminish I feel like it's still old-fashioned ideas that are just hard work everybody's having a hard time shaking some stuff right now this just is the period that we are all in and I think that that's just that is on the fringes of it yeah but it's my job to not be intimidated by that or to apologize like be meek you know in my contributions because I want to be liked I won't don't want someone to think I'm difficult or a diva or down like you you know it's how many lasting it can be exhausting no really it sounds yeah it can be but um but this is the show I care about a lot and I'm not gonna retreat so I have to you have to find a way all of us in all of our jobs whether they're in this industry or anyplace else and I tell I talked to my son about this all the time you have to read rooms you have to understand people you have to know Kenny you guys know Kenny Lonnegan the great screenwriter right he's been my husband's best friend since they were little boys and Kenny is such an interesting person and he is just a bitter ender this guy does not give up on anything and years ago before he was a big famous screenwriter he was reading this book called getting to yes and I just thought it was so funny we thought it was such a funny title but the truth is we're all trying to get to yes but it but in doing so you have to recognize that you're dealing with human beings you know and everybody needs to arrive at yes you want people to happily arrive at yes is my point and so yes maybe my approach is more exhausting but I'm just not a hammer do you mean right and I want to maintain relationships and friendships and so sometimes it's a little bit more complicated than just laying it down mm-hmm no I think I mean I think that makes sense it sounds like you're you know you're saying there are people who still have a hard time accepting a certain kind of direction or opinion potentially from an actor and it does sound like you're saying that that is probably more difficult for an actor who happens to be female correct than me I do believe that and it's not I'm not bitter about it I just recognize that that has been my experience it's it's I think it's generational mm-hmm I think it's cultural and um and I I suspect that this will not be the case for much longer well from your mouth to God's ears and I see a lot of women in the audience and I'm sure you have I'm sure you have questions about that um I want to take it back a little bit to earlier in your career very early I think you made your Broadway debut when you were 11 so I suppose the the sort of typical question would be when did you first know you wanted to act but I'm actually more curious about whether there were ever times when you didn't want to act yeah I I think up until I was well I grew even I grew up in Cincinnati from five years old to 11 years old Cincinnati Ohio and it just was a very fertile artistic time in that city and remained that way for a number of years after we left the city but I was lucky in that we had a very well thought of regional theatre company regional theatre called the Cincinnati Playhouse in the park we had a ballet company the Cincinnati ballet company which was renowned across the country we had a very famous Philharmonic led by a very famous conductor Thomas shippers so this was a really exciting time creatively and artistically in our city and as a result we were my parents took us to the theater all the time to the ballet to the symphony I mean a beautiful still do museum and by the way for free because in those days the government subsidized families and children being exposed to the Arts so I was like the minute that I saw people on stage I I was just transported you know much in the same way books were for me yeah and I didn't know that it was a vocation I didn't consider Oh someday I just knew that I was happy and occupied and in school I didn't feel that I wasn't a great student so the first opportunity that came my way to try to be part of that let that imaginary life was like the gateway to everything I wanted so I it was just fortuitous so it was around eight years old so I guess I spent the first eight years not knowing what I wanted to be except that I liked I liked stories other than my own mm-hmm well there's something very healing about being in someone else's story right yeah and it also takes you to other places you know you you can be perfectly happy living your own life it doesn't it's not a it doesn't characterize you as miserable but in your own existence I think it's a sort of particular curiosity that lets you travel elsewhere you know and if you have a sort of wonder lust for the world like that in ways you can't express especially when you're little and you get to be somebody else and imagine somebody else's story and their challenges or their disappoint you know their whatever it's just it's it's healing but I think it's also like it's like nourishment mm-hmm and it sounds like for you so much if it goes back to curiosity rightly about other people's lives and other paths yeah definitely um so many women my age feel like they grew up with your characters and I could do an entire panel on square pegs if anyone would ever like to come to that yes please and then of course sex in the city and but I think you know one of the things I thought was interesting in hearing about your choice to return to TV with divorce was that you said that it was actually doing a stage play the Amanda Peet play yeah yeah you loved it and you immersed yourself in it and it kind of reminded you of something you wanted to experience again yeah I mean uh yeah Amanda Peet the actress is a great great writer and she has written a number of plays actually and she just had one last year um that I didn't get to see but she's a very gifted writer and she wrote this play called the Commons of Pensacola and Lynn meadow who is has been the artistic director of Manhattan Theatre Club for I don't know forty some years I think asked me to you know did I want to do it and I love this play and I hadn't been on stage in so many years um and I was terrified terrified but but yeah it just it really reminded me of what I love about act it really reminded me of what I love about acting and and and theatre I think has that it can do that in its a very specific way because it's it is such an actor's medium it's you know there's a process before it is yours but when it is yours if you once you get past opening night and you're in Iran and even if it's a short run it is it is only yours it's the most extraordinary time to be the period to be an actor is when you're on stage because not because you're being like delinquent and doing something you're not supposed to do but really it's the time that you really start discovering it's such a perfect experience as an actor when you say because it's yours meaning like you know the performance is all yours there's no judges God and erect yeah the director has done their job and they typically move on to their next play the right or is no more no longer they're checking in you have a production stage manager who's keeping track and watching over the show and making sure you're you know behaving and the show's not getting too long or too short and yeah and they call the cues and they're sort of the the godmother or godparent of a show but yeah it's all yours there's nobody editing for better or worse it is your performance every single night and it is a very living organism because it's not you can't count on it you can have a great show one night and I think I don't know if it was Blythe Danner or somebody else that said you know you're really lucky if you come out of eight performances a week and one that you feel really good about because they're so like amorphous they're like beyond you know because you're reliant upon all these other human it's just so fantastic and then when you do have that when you're like oh yeah Tuesday it was all about Tuesday everybody your finger on what that look why it went right and how to recreate it or everything feels satisfied everything feels touched on everything feels couldn't you feel such contentment I'd imagine that like for a baseball player it's like that sound when you know you've hit the ball exactly how you want to it doesn't mean that anybody else knows about it because what inevitably will come off stage will be like I had a horrible show and then someone come backstage will be like oh my god that was great and you're like God what I'm you know or the or the opposite which is terribly disappointing it happens and that happens too but it's such a I think it's it's it's feeling that you've really done right by this character and these people and this writer and the reason you wanted to do the play is cuz you loved it and you imagined what it could be and every now and then it feels like what you imagined that's such a nice way of putting it um you said that before you did that you were terrified what what specifically were you terrified of oh gosh everything I mean really um [Music] people's criticisms you know I critics first of all just let me just be honest the New York Times I mean what does any actor on stage worried about getting through which is critics week it's just for some reason it's just it's awful and it changes the tone it's like sort of an alternate universe exists where you're doing your best version of your best self but you're sort of removed from the process because you know and particularly in a small house you're really aware you you know you would like to be above it and beyond it and pretend you don't care and you don't need them and none of it matters but you but you'd like the work to be recognized warmly and um I think just anybody who's willing to be honest that particular week is really harrowing and it's just not pleasant it's actually not pleasant and it's weird because up until that point if you're given enough time to preview that's when you're just starting to feel good and then this week happens and no one talks about it but we all know and it's it's just terrifying yeah um but it's the it's the gauntlet I mean that's unfortunate that's if that's our cross to bear so be it you know it's you know the beauty is surviving it and and that you do survive it even when you're disappointed and even when they're wrong which happened you know you're you're mentioning you this idea that people say like oh we're not gonna think about the critics um but with social media I think it's become much more difficult to tune out if you're starting out in any profession but certainly in acting you know and you're cultivating a social media presence as everybody is generally advised do for better or worse it's become much more difficult to tune out other people's ideas of you and you have a great Instagram presence and you seem very much yourself there how have you learned to negotiate you know being present there and being real well not letting it make you mental I'm not sure I have I mean I have I I try I mean I I don't think I come naturally to it at all I think I don't know some people I really do think they enjoy it mostly I think what I am comfortable with is when I can get into a real exchange like anytime I post a picture of a book I feel really in in safe territory because that is a conversation that there are no rights there's no wrong it's not political it's not and I'm not avoiding politics and controversy I just don't want to have everything be turned into that because it just is really it's I don't have the Constitution for it frankly so I guess what I try to do is I don't engage in it a lot like I'm not I don't check it a lot but when I post something I I kind of like getting like I like answering comments and I like when I can learn something from somebody else or convey my gratitude or be happy that that was a book that they liked or or or or but I still think that it is the potential for unpleasant the potential for cruelty is stunning like it it's as though there are there is still dislike like kind of villainous delight in like finding a way to be mean you know like I said honestly anonymously I I did something so like so it's felt so benign it was nothing and I don't even know why I did it I even like me I never post like selfies or pictures or I don't like to do that stuff but you know what you know so do it's okay to post a selfie but no I'm not good at it but then I was getting a haircut and I just like posted some pictures of like some old hair that I'd caught off my hat like it was like people like oh what makes you think that that is interesting meaningless like who cares about your hair and ice like nobody like I but I see everybody else do it so I'm like I thought like it felt like oh this is actually the most like so you're agreeing with your mean commenter no I was like no but I was like it didn't seem it seemed nothing when they did it to like I wasn't trying to say like everybody pay attention to my hair I just got or that like they were like um what did they use and I think I liked that picture of yours by the way oh you're so self-important and I was like no in fact no it's like not I like if self-important would have been like a whole thing on it like you know I don't know it just didn't feel it felt like nothing it felt like me actually trying to be like everybody else like I was like yeah I've seen that people do like hey I'm getting a haircut and I can't even explain it it was just like I I was just like what of all things just dead dead hair like it was nothing anyway you can see I have I'm I have a relationship and I'm work in allocated but I do like talking other people and I do like when we talk about things that are about life that like that I really do like I've gotten some great book titles recipes people share lives their stories and their children and I like that yeah well yes and I think I think it's perfectly valid to post hair pictures that's all kids and it's great haircut again and then I'm certainly never gonna panic getting back to divorce for a second one of the things that I really enjoy about the show is the relationship between Francis and her not one female friend okay the case in most TV shows but - I almost had three really oh yeah well I'm gonna try to get her back um and I'm curious whether that just sort of came naturally you know you got a lot of women in the in the you know in the writers room and female producers obviously or whether it was something that you actually talked about I think from the beginning Sharon was interested in that she wrote our pilot script and and I think she really liked that and wanted I think for Francis to have female friendships that weren't typical also that were based on some surprising ways of connecting and um and we all loved it and you know obviously Molly joining us was such a COO that you wanted you know if there's any sort of shortcoming I think it's that we weren't we could have I wish we had had more time together I wish there had been better deeper I don't mean better but just simply more stories with you know with Diane and Dallas and Francis and that would be the thing that I would really push more for in a third season is because because the relationships would change you know they're all single potentially now and what what does that mean they're all very different there's no reason in some ways sometimes I look at those friendships they don't really make any sense to me Diane and Francis don't really make sense do you know what I mean so I would like to figure out what they are and how how they can be better friends to one another and what is it like for the three of them to now be single and Hastings you know what I mean I because I think that's real and I think that was one of the things that I was most interested out about originally it was what is it what does it mean to be signal a single at this point in your life when you've spent your entire adult life being a partner to somebody and a parent so that's very different and the world looks different and with New York City sitting just south beckoning what is that so I I hope that there's if if we if we end up doing a third season I really hope that a lot of that time is spent with those women and I love them I would watch an entire show just about that oh I would happily I would love them yeah yeah um you know you talked a little bit about about you know New York City and the idea of Westchester you know versus that's a good song that minute work I like it bring you back to the eighties yeah when forget the New York City we'll get to that if there's time later one of the things that it's okay you're a popular man don't worry about it so we're gonna be now do you want to take it take us take a second okay don't worry don't worry it's okay okay um one of the things I think I heard you cite when you first started talking about divorce as an inspiration was Jill Clayburgh role in an unmarried woman what was it specifically you and I might be the only two people in this room who had seen that movie otherwise okay good I love that my good what what was it specifically um that you liked while uh I loved everything about that movie I loved her performance and I did see that movie originally when it came out my parents took me and I was extremely young Wow I know it's very I wouldn't take me and Mike we used to go see movies um in January it was like a big deal we would go see I guess now I'm realizing what we're probably the Oscar movies even in Cincinnati we had a great theatre her first run theater so the family would go whether it was appropriate or not and that was one of the movies and um I think it was very important in my mind and in my mind's eye because cinema I just loved the way that movie looked and I think it was you know a seminal movie about being single at a particular age and especially when you don't expect it you know Jill Clayburgh discovers this that her marriage is falling apart in a most unexpected way as you guys all recall I mean it's that great scene on the East River with her vomiting near him which way does he vomit no she does she does and it's just and and and what she goes through and and the there's this change that comes over her I really think she you know she really does start off in that movie as somebody's wife and what she becomes is very much an independent woman the great performance by Lisa Lucas who played her daughter the production design which was divine the clothing that great shrinking is amazing and that amazing image of her carrying that painting down those canyons of Soho how many times have you seen this movie alive but that 70 cinema was a huge inspiration when we were you know when I was thinking about this show originally and even as the script came in from Sharon um I really wanted to push for music for real source music from the 70s and to try to shoot in the way that they used to but Jill Clayburgh performance I think was I I hadn't seen anything like that on television since there's lots of ways of talking about marriage and family and divorce and lots of people do it and do it well but HBO hadn't really told this story this way and I knew that they they would allow us to do that and it seemed like a really nice opportunity it's actually curious that it was missing from television given that it is such an incredibly common female experience in the 21st century yeah more and more so and women more and more are making the choice to divorce you know and especially in their 50s like it's very interesting to me how many women are choosing and a lot of it has to do with the time in which they had children earlier than I did so there they're at a certain point in their life and they've invested a really nice amount into their families and and into their off into their husbands and their children and they have often been maybe even the breadwinner so this choice is so interesting to me and though Jill Clayburgh wasn't in that position cuz I just we were not ready as a country to flip it that way there is a huge thing that happens to her in that movie mmm when you played Carrie on Sex in the City people were constantly getting Carrie Bradshaw and Sarah Jessica Parker mixed up right they thought you were just sort of playing yourself yes with your own great fabulous wardrobe sure which is great but has that started to happen at all with Frances no but one more thing on Instagram I will say people have been so great about the costume designer on our show and they really loved so that's a nice comfortable that's like a safe area the dress the dresses are amazing they're amazing as is our music our music supervisor is equally amazing so we have this great costume designer named our zombies I never said pronounce his name correctly he was our costume designer on the first season and then he started off I and then we also have another gentleman just the court who came in and we all just saw it the same way I mean it was so wonderful because when we were meeting with designers I didn't want to kind of like lead the witness but Arjun came in and he immediately was like it should be seventies dresses but we shouldn't do seventies because it's not a period piece it would look odd you know so we'll just comb thrift stores so everything I wear is removed from the thrift store I vintage shop everything Wow everything most of the coats there's a couple of coats that he found at UM century 21 but those shoes are used what about the little vintage there coach bags right all right those are all a fancy there yeah and he would go in his van up and down the eastern seaboard there's great thrift shops in Philadelphia that we have great shops in our city but they're they tend to get picked over a lot and they tend to be more costly but I would just go on Etsy and just like pull dresses Wow yeah I mean that's how I shop anyway yeah it's true you wear a lot of vintage yeah so so that idea though of you know people confuse that yeah they don't yeah they don't as much and I think I think they don't as much anymore even about Kari I think well maybe divorce got rid of that for them maybe a little bit but I think also you know I'm around still I'm alive so I think the longer I'm alive you are alive as me she gets as much equal time as carry me but we I know we look alike Kari and I I get that and I look like Frances and I get that too but but I do think also that it's it's kind of an association that's that is a not burdensome so if that were the only way people identified with me I would be at the privilege of my life but also I think there's a kind of sentimental thing that in the nostalgia that I that I to feel so it doesn't feel misunderstood if that makes sense it says I see a lot of people here who are you know probably at a relatively early point in their career and you know I'm curious if you could go back and give some words of counsel to yourself at an earlier age what they would be I mean think of sort of you know pre Sex in the City Sarah Jessica Parker um I guess the thing that I've settled on an answer to this question because I so long they didn't have any I didn't know what to say but I guess I would just say to not let anyone else's opinion of you be your opinion of yourself and that I think is a very hard thing to do when you're young like you're most vulnerable when you're young too because there's so much good that comes from listening to other people and also their counsel from people who have more experience who are older who have been living in a profession longer it makes good sense I think to try to get as much information but there is a difference between kind of words of mentorship and words that have nothing to do with sort of fundamentally like if I had listened to everybody's ideas about who I should be I think I I wouldn't have had the experiences that I've enjoyed professionally that have been meaningful to me and the things people might have advised me to do that for some reason I had enough I don't know I wouldn't call it confidence but I had enough gumption to to simply not agree with in some way you know weird things some of its superficial and some of it's more meaningful than that what are there any that you want to share things that you remember oh god like dress differently pluck your eyebrows I have a nose job you know go appear different like in in auditions you know but I I I couldn't I couldn't do that actually it's not that I wasn't vain or am NOT stuff I am all that's real but I ultimately couldn't make that choice like there's I had to have some belief that the things that I wanted for myself that things that I imagined were possible were possible without I don't know without compromising in ways that I didn't have a hundred percent confidence in you know like I had more confidence in my cockeyed optimism about what could be then I ultimately had and someone else's idea of what I should be in order to be successful yes but it wasn't that clear at the time do you know what I mean it wasn't like wait a minute that's this and this is this and so if I do that that 2 + 2 will equal it wasn't that I just ultimately wasn't willing to make those choices right well good for you thank God um it worked out we're gonna go to a second go to a few audience questions for a second I could keep asking you my own questions all afternoon but um well I think we may have just covered this was a question from Martina Jeff oh I actually think we may just have answered your question which was what act well know what acting advice would you like would you like to give to aspiring actors focusing on acting itself um I would say um oh there's so much but part of me thinks that there's it's it's a hard thing to be an actor when you don't get to be hired as an actor I think it's really hard and it's really frustrating real frustration and can be um it feels lousy frankly when you're not working but what I used to do that felt kind of good was I would um I would just try to read plays all the time out loud to myself I would just read books out loud so that I felt like I was working on something and it made me feel useful it made me feel like I was well I was in the pursuit of I was working on whatever skills I had I didn't take acting classes because I think I'd started working too young so then I was scared to take acting classes I was like oh they'll figure me out and then they'll be like what but I I think you know trying to see as much theatre as you can I think is really good for actors you know it's even offering to usher anytime you can get into a into a space where people are doing work that you admire I think is great but I also think you can find scene partners and work with friends and do stuff like create work because I think it's the hardest thing a writer can always write you know but an actor really wants to feel you want to be hired you want to be called upon and I just think there are ways that you can fill that time and and just know that all that auditioning that's good too like that really adds up you know the next question is from Stephen Lin oh hi we're just gonna work on whether the entire house um uh we worked together on to dub queens oh you were the brunch guy oh my gosh well you forgive me I was so nervous I wouldn't there was so much food it was yes oh my god nice to see ya oh nice to see you so brunch guy has a question at what point did you feel like a professional actor I think probably when I probably when I really like when I was living on my own I was about just 18 and and I was doing a play I'd actually come home from I had finished square pegs and I did Footloose but I had been a minor in the state of California I had yet to turn 18 and on the very last part of the season of square pegs I turned 18 then I went off and I did Footloose but when I came home to New York City I was still living at home with my parents and I just never unpacked my suitcase I came home from Utah where we shot Footloose and I was just like nope mm-hmm not doing it and I found an apartment in New York and then I got a play this beautiful play called to Gillian on her 37th birthday and we was it was this original play was before it was a movie we were gonna do it at est which is over on 52nd Street that's a great thing to do they're the one acts there and it was part of their kind of season and I was coming home on the subway after after a performance one night and I got off on the 1:00 train at 72nd and um and Columbus or 72nd and Broadway and um I actually saw Elizabeth McGovern um she was an actress just slightly like slightly my senior and no I'm just really genuinely coughing up she's like barely my senior but in my head she was like you know moving she was like just experiencing things that I was working toward I for some reason I was like wow I'm an actor I'm I am actually doing what she's doing I'm hired I'm on my own and paying my own Con Ed bills you know and I'm and I'm working really hard and I'm proud of the work that I'm doing even if nobody else knows about it I don't care cuz this is exactly what I this is it this is complete in some way our next question is from Lisa thorn bloom Lisa oh hi yeah you have beautiful handwriting by the way what was the most helpful note you ever received from a director oh boy or at least helpful if you want to UM I've gotten some good notes um well Lisa had two questions I could ask the other I think the best thing is for someone to just probably tell you to said don't don't don't don't there's nothing like there they're not expecting some things that you know that there is nothing wrong there's no wrong that can happen you know I think it's really hard when a director when you feel a director's presence and you're yours there you can feel that they are waiting for something that they have you're trying to live up to some idea that they had versus I think a director is at their best when they're really championing the people and they I think at the the best the best work from actors often it's a chance to slow down you know if someone says don't worry about time do you guys take all the time you want just talk to each other play the scene because a lot a lot of time what people want is like can you get to this faster can you move the scene faster and television really suffers from that because it's this limited you know and I think that's why actors like being on stage cuz no one ever tells them to rush hurry up hurry up hurry up so I think the best no really is when someone says take your time you know if we need to we'll figure it out later um this is a question from Cherise Matthews oh hi we really are working our way back we're in the room here you've been acting for years and portrayed many characters what do you enjoy more film TV or theater and Cherise wants you to know that she enjoyed comments of Pensacola which is the amenities like we were talking um I kind of like I like I like doing all of it because it's very it's different it's different enough for me that it feels I like this working in the theatre for the reasons you know I um itemized earlier I like television because I think you have an opportunity to play a life like a whole life you live if you're fortunate enough to be around for a while you really are living a life it's bizarre and wonderful and television uniquely gives you that opportunity because it's episode after episode and the character grows and changes and and film because it still is this sort of crown jewel in your brain it doesn't exist in maybe that way anymore because there's so much that's cinematic happening on television and now the screen size is kind of whatever you want to have in your home um but I think there's still this idea about making a movie you know and what does that mean and I think movies are really important still even though there's so much good work happening on television and there's so many platforms to tell stories I think there is still something pretty extraordinary about leaving your house I'm sitting in a space with other people and having a really big screen a beautiful sound and um having things visually really be important enough to get you out of your house and keep you seated there so I like all of it we were talking a little bit about gender and female directors before and minoo the statistics on female directors in film are pretty dismal there was a big study that came out last month ed found that of the top 1,100 films with the last decade only 4% were selected directed by women and the numbers are better not fantastic no but significantly better in TV one of the things that I thought was interesting is that when women do direct a project it's 37 percent more likely to have a female lead and that female lead is much more likely or female characters in general are more likely to have jobs make jokes stay alive not get killed in the first 20 minutes right right you know I was I would think if I were a woman trying to get into the business of being an actor I would want to look in television versus film is that is that fair we just I think no I think it's fair I don't think we're giving up but I think it's I don't think there's ever any giving up on anything anymore I think that you know the conversation began and there's just no retreating from making those changes in all mediums but I just think there's simply more being produced television there's just a huge amount I mean there are platforms of distribution now that I don't even know their names like people are producing content and they're sending it out into the world and as a result there's just more opportunities for women just be the sheer numbers you know I think when you have the success of Greta Gerwig I mean like that kind of story and having it recognized and lots of other women that came before her and you know filmmakers in documentaries it's not just in the long-form either that people are paying attention to I just think it's everything is going to change and I we just have to allow it to take its time properly so that we aren't what we really want I think is to make sure we have you know the idea of 50 50 by 2020 is admirable it's fantastic it's inspired but where's the pipeline where is the recruitment happening so what we really want is we want that and everyone every we can all work toward that but we also want to make sure that when women are given those opportunities that they are prepared so that means they have to have the experiences that up to being ready to being qualified and if they're not that's our fault because we haven't reached out we haven't recruited you know I kind of and I mean this in the best possible way you know the Yankees have a farm system and it works because they reach out and they recruit and they get you know we need to do that and we you are doing that I mean there are a lot of female directors on we are we have and we would have had more but actually one of them took another job so so I'm but that's good she's into it oh yeah it's great but we all you know we want that but we want it not just directors we want we want mixers and production designers and onset decorators in Green's Minh and Dali grips we want everything on hair and makeup and wardrobe we want people up in production we want production coordinators and location people we'd there's a whole host of opportunity that exists that is exciting and lucrative and you can move up and we need to find we need to reach out into schools and technical colleges and two-year programs and like we got to do it yeah I'm afraid we have to stop there we are out of time Sarah Jessica Parker Thank You Sydney thank you so much thanks you guys thank you thank you [Applause]

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 7,048

Keywords: SAG Foundation, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Acting, Actors

Id: MMLI0aTWicI

Length: 50min 14sec (3014 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 07 2018