Drama Actresses Roundtable: Angela Bassett, Elisabeth Moss, Claire Foy, Thandie Newton | THR

[Music] hi and welcome to close-up Hollywood Reporter I'm Lacey Rose and I'm joined today by Claire Foy Sandra Oh Tandy Newton Maggie Gyllenhaal Elizabeth moss and Angela Bassett thank you guys all for being here so I'm gonna start with you Sandra oh boy this table sorry I just had to say that you so for years it was every pilot season we would hear Sandra's getting off for Sandra's getting offers and just not not doing projects how do you decide what an O is and how did when this came along you decided okay I'm ready I think it takes a while to eventually get to a point in your career where you can actually make a choice and after a decade of my life on a show I had enough economic power to be able to say no you know that those four years were really um I said this before it was like active waiting I was not not working on really here did it be able to figure out what the right thing is and how do what it is to say no and what it is to say yes so that time was active to be able to feel the right it's it's like it's like falling in love it's like okay now what I realize I I have I have a little bit more awareness a little more consciousness I want this out of a relationship and I'm just gonna wait till they show up because I feel like they'll show up and I think that's what it was for me and so when killing Eve came by it was not only his script it was Phoebe Waller bridge herself you know there's a lot of circumstances around it that that were I had to make a lot of shifts in my mind because it's shot in the UK but it was the character and Phoebe's voice that I thought this is the right thing for me this this feels right to say yes to mm-hmm for the rest of you the ability to say no the confidence to say no when in your careers did you find it and what are that sort of easy knows for you guys well 4 star it's how a character is described in a script mm-hmm I four years would be called up and said Tandy they want to go exotic with the role so get excited you know they want to go ethnic with the role and even just that would I would just have to brace myself because it was so deeply offensive but I wanted to work and then I would read the script and I would transform it out of this bizarre objectification and I would think how can I help this how can I help be you know make this more progressive and I would spend a lot of my time and I won't name projects specifically trying to give more dimension to these characters these women's roles and oftentimes they well they would always be written by men and I would find myself desperately trying to stop these characters from being demonized because I was four you know and that happens with manof lines you don't have enough screen time to actually try and humanize these characters because I am drawn to act I'm actually drawn to characters that do things which seem terrible or seem unkind and because I want to find out why is this poor human being done what they've done because for me that's that's the conversation is what has what has created the situation out of which a person can leave their children or and that's pain and that's the place that I live in when it comes to a role I'm sorry I'm going beyond your the question well it really is and so to start off I think we have to be and I found I've had to be I've had to rise above the initial hurt that I feel that a man has written a role that is objectifying this person straight away whether it's their ethnicity she turns up she's beautiful she's she's she's she's sexy without without giving too much away she's and it's just I mean even look I'm sorry a photoshoot let's say and it'll say you know the the idea behind this shoot is strong powerful sexy as soon as I read sexy I'm like really do we have to be sexy in order to be powerful what's that about and in no they didn't mean it when they write sexy they mean strong because sexy but let's start looking at the way these things are described and let's take out the incredibly offensive and and you know they have ramifications you know I have daughters I don't want her thinking that you have to be sexy to be powerful what does that mean so yeah it's it's tough it's tough but I think that the way things have changed and this excites me so much is to actually start writing you know so that I'm not gonna put out a request on the casting that says she's sexy but interesting and she doesn't really come forward and yet she's really you know just that this woman's role and you know and also she's she's ethnic it's so offensive man please stop doing so yeah it's about rather than sort of getting swallowed up with misery which I've been there and thinking you can't change it suddenly as Sandra was saying you should suddenly have this power whether its economic or actually just people listen to you people love you girls write in and say I'm so inspired by you and it's think he's suddenly realizing I'm gonna take hold of this pen myself and I'm gonna try and you know try and reckon you know try and and change things as opposed to getting angry yeah I mean if you've you laugh which which suggests that either you've been there or something else I've worked with them a lot of men have cool syrup but but no but but there are ways that are actually I'm interested in and curious about women even if of course I think it is impossible for a man to entirely understand a feminine experience I think that there are men who are interested yeah exploring it with you and in correcting it if you're like no just actually more like this it's scary though to be the one to say hang on a sec guys mm-hmm kill them can we try this because there's always so much going on it's always there's always a hundred things that they've got to do which are more important so he's trying to find that moment to do it trying to find the person I think my show is actually about this like um sex as a way into having an actually interesting conversation which I find actually in my when I look back with a little objectivity unlike the work I've done in my life I don't think I was conscious of this but I do think sex and like sex scenes and sexuality has been like a way to get people's attention and then go okay are you listening now here's what I actually really want to talk about which that's what was available to me so that's what I used and and I was really interested in sex like everybody else is in the world you know and I'm interested in sex scenes and but in my show like my character has access to filmmaking but only only and only important you know and only you know with her body that's how she can get in and start having the conversation where she's like what is that light do you know while she's got her clothes off but I don't know I kind of relate to that even as an actress does it based on any kind of true experience the character my characters I think based on like a you know combination of people and their there were people who were filmmakers and actresses in porn at the time which is you know who she is but I just think in like my experience I don't know if you guys feel this way but I feel like sex and sexuality for actresses because you're right I think it has felt like a prerequisite you know that yes you can be smart and powerful and all these things but you do also have to like throw a little sexiness in there I don't know if that's gonna stay that way but it has certainly been that way for most of my career and control when you're when you're empowered to be able to dial in you know up and down however much sexiness you want to use but what what really worries me and is when you're a young person and you come into this industry and you are encouraged to use your sexuality you don't we currently have no no really no yeah I've seen as you know it's a particular a particular yes looking a vibe an image you know and you know eating areas not experience I will say for me I don't think I've ever gotten any job based on beautiful first season of Grey's Anatomy to see that image cuz Yahoo's never across the cinema not the one they're checking for the sexuality mm-hm and that's also really it's it's complicated in lots of ways because if you are the actress who does not the person who does not necessarily that's what that the forefront of your toolbox that you that you get your work I mean we're all dealing with it either on a hundred percent like you're using it and more on it five percent that you're using and there's all a lot of different feelings that we have when people are not interested in your percentage of it sure right and so I've I've realized in in a lot of this awakening where there's a lot of times where I have felt left out let's say ignored not seeing or whatever but I have been protected you know protected yeah because those um people don't see you that way yeah but I guess the compromises I have not necessarily been in the situations where I've had to compromise in those ways other ways I've had but the I feel like my ability to continue the integrity have my work has not I don't think been as a weighted as I think a lot of other actresses that I known that is where it is oh wait wait I don't come in there's a different type of weight when you are not seen yeah you're not seen that way not given power that my hair right because it is power yes if if the greater community at large is is that we don't even need to tell we don't even want that from you something in that because also later on we can bring the element of race in it I don't want to take up too much time but but but but these are the these are the things that I just realized now the things that I thought that I think that have hurt me for a long time that I feel like oh I was practicing something else by really just doing my oh that work but it diminishes so much by saying that that's what really really pissed me off is that I find is that there is one idea of what is sexy mm-hmm and I just and I feel that now because you sort of I'm doing more and more photoshoots and more things I found they're required of me and I'm sort of expected to be a certain way and I saw what is that way what is what is it that you find and what are you were I don't have it in to me in me to be sexy as someone else uh-huh I don't know what why I would be sexy or in what way I'm sexy I don't know whether I can play up my sexiness I don't know what that is that people see as me and sexy but I can't be someone else I'm not talking about that kind of sexy I'm talking about my kind of sexy like yeah I'm yes many many times been told I'm not sexy enough for beautiful enough or whatever like it was so many more times than I can even remember from the time I was 22 years old like I yes but I'm talking about like what you're saying which is like I think I figured out at some point that one of the things in my toolbox was the way I feel that I'm sexy mhm and yeah I'm sure there is sexuality and yours it is a power there's a strength of course it is hmm and like look for I mean I don't know I've been thinking about a lot of this because of everything that's been going on in the world right now but like 100 years ago the only way you could actually support yourself let alone have the life you wanted to have is by connecting with a man and so what's in your toolbox of course your wit and your intelligence and your sexuality all of it so like for us as women we have to use whatever's in our toolbox I'm not interested in the pretend sexy thing and I'm not interested in seeing it in other people either nobody any possessed thing I think that's a fallacy or anything anybody really is that oh yeah well I mean change now that you're seeing more I mean male nudity is become I mean certainly on Westworld and i'm adduced you're seeing more of that does that change the sort of tone on set does that change the conversation we're seeing horse in what way what are the conversations that you've not previously had that you you are having now on your set on horses oh I've had like three prosthetic penises put in front of a group of people to figure out which one went best with which men have always been the one where you were the one stripping down I don't know how to compare that to anything I do I mean with the second season of westmore's Simon quarterman who was terrified and he was completely naked there was no prosthetic penis there he decided to go for it and just being aware of his vulnerability and how because that's the truth when we're naked we are vulnerable we did why we were walking around in clothes you know and yes it is a strength of course if it's you can we can use that strength but in reality and that's what I love about Westworld is that it's showing the vulnerability and the the objectification of a person and if you see a person naked not in a sexual context you're suddenly you don't want to look you know i maybe some people do want to jerk off to what i was doing in the season one I think that's really weird and they should check into a house you know it's and I thought that was it that's where took the show I've been objectified I've I've had directors lie to me when when I'm in a naked situation on um you know a movie and told they're cutting here when in fact they're shooting from here so you see everything you know and it's it is titillation I've had terrible things happen which I don't you know I've talked about them in the press and so it's it's a really tough place to come from when you've actually been abused for your sexy you know in a sexual way so to be able to say to do the showrunners of Westworld I am willing to stand for 75% of this season one totally naked because it wasn't a sexual context and it it was actually an environment where we're treated the robots are treated like animals in a factory farm bodies dumped on the ground and in that place of complete vulnerability she learns how to empower herself but what about me my dreams my thoughts are they not real and what if I took these uh Nouriel fingers decorate the walls with your outsized personality would that be real it was like she literally in that space of total dehumanization she learns to use their power against them and it's such a stark and brave and bold reality that they create that you know what it ends up doing in the you know in our society I think it's really it's really powerful the potential is huge sure you know but then just to get to your point you know to see this man terrified of being naked when Evan Rachel Wood night kind of grown accustomed to her sitting there having a shower glass of water you take me naked I mean that didn't actually happen just yep it was very touching uh-huh he was very touching and he has learned that it's really tough I think the more men would do it and then are also really worried about how their bodies look sure-sure much more worried than us nice guys on Westworld I had it's my bomb look I'm really scared can we do some shading here and there and we're like really and also welcome to my world yes sure no I think that makes a lot of sense some of you are producers on your shows how have you weighed in as it relates to the treatment of women when when have you weighed in when have used her septum and said this is this is how I would feel as a woman in this situation well luckily I mean I've worked in a really incredibly collaborative atmosphere on my show that I have never experienced I've been around for a while I'm in television for a while and it's not like this usually so I am very very lucky it's an there's no hierarchy there's no ego it's like we literally will take a good idea from the first ad if it's a great idea and it's in the show like this where it's kind of amazing as far as like the the nudity and the sex I was lucky in the sense of five years ago I worked with Jane Campion and she for the first time gay it was my first nude scene and she gave me a 100% approval hmm without me asking she says listening I don't know and shallow fat - yeah that's everyone should have it it's so I why don't you it means I have a hundred percent uh approval over all the footage and I can literally say you cannot use that scene and it means instead of having to negotiate but you people I'm comfortable with this but I'm not comfortable with that so just doing it on since I mean I've been doing a lot of nudity all my career and I had it you know for like 15 years yeah and I've I've actually never taken anything out of it I think every now and they like can't send it send out a cut that has something in it without me like approving it and it's just normal or next one - yeah yeah but it is it's a really really incredibly collaborative atmosphere over there and as these sort of one of the only female executive producers as well obviously there's a wait there you know I'm have a perspective that nobody else will have and that's so respected and it's so appreciated and that shouldn't be crazy that it's appreciated it should be appreciated it's totally normal but it's nice that it is yep one of the other conversations that I think unwittingly you got pulled into it about it is really how does that feel that all of a sudden the world is talking about a sort of a paper tea saga and you know whether it's Michele Williams or it's you your name is at the center of it how much do you know and what does that feel like and what what do you do who do you call I mean I mean in perspective no no my sister has always been very good at saying to me you know the whole world isn't really everyone else is getting on with their lives you know but but the implications of it could be you know I turned around and went and kept my mouth shut and said I have nothing to say I am a robot and you know I you know was part of a really incredible show I mean really proud of it I'm very very grateful yeah that shouldn't stop me having an opinion about something that I've been bought into the center of and that something actually you know it'd be very different if it was something that you know possibly don't have an opinion on I pretty much have an opinion on everything but it's something that I feel really strongly about and that I had a suspicion of but is that why I got talked about because you had a suspicion no no no it was it was purely that it came about because the producers brought it up as a way of saying you know this is a good thing because in the first two series this is what happened but we'll never do that again that's what's happened with HBO right now because of because of what you've done that the show they're now having all the men and women equal pay yeah yeah it's true I mean it's a place where honestly it's all so much talk and where is the action and I just get a call going over the bridge and going to Brooklyn saying that we're gonna my salary is way higher than I ever considered it would be and it's because of these conversations and at first I was like wait this is not fair and and I why do I get to like win the lottery and then I went hmm no it's been unfair to the blue tribe where I've digested it analyzed it yeah without ever considering that it could or should be equal like how strange what my mind did you know so how it works so much you know looking back now and looking back at the conversations you have at the beginning of doing a deal and blonde what all that were that I never you know and this may be a cultural thing especially but in the United Kingdom we don't talk about more we don't talk about money myself we feel with equal already will you now know but the point is the point is yeah and the thing is is that you know at the beginning of the deal where you're saying about whatever you know no this is gonna happen you're gonna get paid this and blah blah blah that I have never ever felt that I would ever be in a position where I could ask that or say ever ever ever ever and I would know what was happening and I would know what the decisions were being made but they use that to their favor sure they use to their favor that you don't know and that you can't and they will say but you're not worth that and you go you're right I'm not secretly that's what you say to yourself like someone tells you that I just this important that there's an important sort of to be specific about it's not just the production it's our representatives right and I think that our representatives need to be empowered to be able to fight for us right because they're the ones very often you make the deals they're the ones you know all this stuff they're the ones you know that men are being paid more than women and this is going to allow them to have you know that the confidence to go in and say it you know on our behalf because that's the reason why we have these people in our lives is to protect us so that we don't have to have conversations about money because nobody likes to do that but are you do you feel compelled and empowered to start having them on some level now I mean are those conversations you wear a directors hat often a producers hat an actor's hat I think I'm probably feeling a little bit more empowered to do so but I mean but for so long it's just been about wanting wanting to work and wanting to be paid fairly you no surely and not you know being not having a frame of reference of what someone else is is getting or the fear of if you overreach you're going to lose and then they suddenly say oh actually would you reconsider I think this question that we're talking about about like whatever hate but also there have been times where it's been more but it's not been the role so I've said I've left you know to chase that's what I'm to change that yeah but - it's always do you know yes yes so we don't we're not privy to financial I was just gonna say like you you were saying earlier how difficult it is sometimes to say we everybody just wait for five minutes because this isn't right the way this is setup this doesn't feel right to me this isn't an expression of my feminine experience or any feminine experience that I can that I've observed so to say to feel that you're entitled to say no hold on a minute as an artist I think is something that well in some ways it just comes with experience as an artist but I also think it is something that's shifting now for women maybe especially there's so many shows now that are led by women mm-hmm I mean it's just it's predominant now when I am you know it didn't used to be like that I mean it's a new thing so when you're leading the show and you're the face of the show and a lot of people are making a lot of money off of that face your work it does I like what you say it's not just financial it is about other ways of having ways of having a say when no one's used to you know you sort of start asking for something and they're like oh right I guess you could have that there's a you know like no one's ever asked I can't imagine being an executive on a show and someone on me saying something and them not just going but you're just an actor yeah like that I got fired that details like actually if you go oh yeah you if you say could we just pick up push my pickup time but at 25 minutes yeah they're like girls you're just going to hold the whole production I asked you me a producer on my show because I've never done this thing before I know you've done it for oh I've watched your beautiful work on television for many years but I've never done the thing before where you get three scripts and the season is 10 scripts again you might go on for three years and I'm playing sex worker and of course I've taken my clothes off all the time and I'm like wait I have to be able to know that I will be included in the conversation I want to learn how to make movies like one time if they can make and sell that in Europe how do you America right when do we ever leave a dollar for the other guy to pick my mom hello at least I learned somehow make it only is maybe I go as California go work for Disney was in our show there's lots of prostitution there's there's lots of transactional sex there's lots of fake orgasms they're not they're not called fake orgasms but you cut in on the end of a sex act between a sex worker and a John and you hear this loud orgasm and and I said to David Simon man running our show you know I'm I said I think you need to see a real feminine orgasm in order to show the contrast hmm and to show that these are performative because I'll see you see a lot of performative orgasms on TV that are supposed to be real anyway let's can we get down to the real because it will illuminate the misogyny and the performance in aw stuff and when I first said it to him he was like hee-hee like your son did to spit his water back in his cup you know he's like doing his little name David Simon but then he wrote a scene where my character is sleeping with somebody that she actually wants to sleep with he doesn't make her and she turns over and makes herself calm that's yeah and um and when I first saw the cut of that episode anyway the Oregon I have to say I was like this orgasm needs to be the realest orgasm ever needs to be like the one that takes 30 seconds it's very quiet there's your internal that's just about her and I thought about that and then I like went in and did that on TV and I think that's very vulnerable that's way more vulnerable than the orgasm that's the performance and but also powerful I mean that is a song yeah the empowering to be able to have an artistic say and what your character is going I hear then I see the cut and they cut the orgasm it was like I wrote like a dissertation like you know in the second I got to said I was like where's the Oregon and and I explained to them again why you need it and they put it in as you were saying before being in control and actually knowing your career actually exploring your identity and self through up through sexuality that's fantastic I got a great win great win preparation process how do you what what got you to yes on 9/11 how do you sort of get into an in inhabit that role as you're also inhabiting many others you're you're juggling many different roles how do you make that decision it's a broadcast show I mean you talk about signing up for I don't know how long it's a big decision was I mean part of it was easy I mean it's the first time I sort of fell into it by four years ago working with Ryan Ryan Murphy I signed up for one year to do American Horror Story so I thought that was going to be it you know that's about you know as long as I can take for just going back and just doing you know just various things which is you know what having enjoyed and what's been available and what I've chosen but that relationship sort of extended for four years so you know very comfortable like it was you know of repertory you know company company of wonderful actresses and actors and at that time male directors and just you know just the forward-thinking with being getting getting the opportunity to direct their you on America that's great which is not my favorite yeah but you know because I I really love you know actors in the process and the creative and collaboration but and and also you know being being mother you know and if I go away it really has to be something that I'm attracted to because when I go I am away you know it's consuming you know if it's theater or going to UK or whatever in case might be it's it's consuming sure me so now I'm so yeah yet and and the way that happened there was no script it was just an idea but it was the company you keep you know my family is everything to me and they no trouble from the inside or evil from the outside it's gonna tear it apart now we may be buried in it up to our necks right now and I mean what a slap you with my left hand but my right hand is holding you and the kids yeah dear yeah sometimes it's a script and you don't you know it's the script you don't know the director or it's the director you don't know the script of the project this one it was it was the company the entire company that uh I said yes - mm-hmm unfortunately turned out you talked recently about reading the initial the pilot script for killing Eve and sort of running through and I think you were several pages in before you realize okay which character would I be could would I be the the central oh yeah what is that what goes through your head how how do you and and what does that say that moment was like a real punch in the gut for myself to myself because the internalization was really deep in that moment so basically I get the script you know you're on the phone with your agent I remember exactly where I was I'm right by BAM in Brooklyn and I'm on the phone going scrolling and I'm just going and I'm just like I don't I don't know who-who am I playing with the part of Who am I playing if you're playing each I believe there is a female assassin operating internationally and she's targeted a number of influential people she doesn't have a signature but she certainly has style and I don't know who or what is behind her but I don't think she's slowing down and that just interested me I guess but also it apparently makes me a fantasy and a crackpot I completely on my own and you know frankly I don't have a anymore she is outsmarting the smartest of us and for that she deserves to do or kill whoever the hell she wants I mean if she's not killing me then frankly it's not my job to care anymore something happened to me in that moment where am I didn't even consider you know mainly when you realize you didn't yet you had yourself going you hadn't got yourself partition is also like when I came out at theater school everything was like yeah you know that kind of thing and then I've been here for a long time and so that's yes that's not right that's you realize that the perfect when you're born right there's stuff that happens and then you wake up you know you know forty years later and you realize that there has been wait you have been interned things have been internalized so that moment was a punching a cuttin the guts and myself to go it's like how many years of whatever yes yeah has has been internalized put up with it's it's more like have I internalized or I can't even say myself in this moment all right and sometimes you do need as also what we do it in our job we need to hold these things for other people to see right yeah so the fact that Phoebe BBC America Sally the producer said yes why not this it was like I felt like happy or not not those are more I thought slightly ashamed yeah I felt look ashamed of my own realization know what because it's also I know I'm in an extremely privileged position I've been doing this a long time and also just doing this so if all you have it right you know if I can't see it come on say magazine yes I can see it what about on the movie from that week as well so again the work of relieving myself of that weight the the work that I have done this whole time to get to that moment to go okay this is although one of the reasons why I want to take this I'm gonna leave my life here I'm gonna go away into everything to make this and you know what's so exciting Sandra is you have literally in that moment turned pain into power literally because all that energy all that you know the oppression the repressed desire longing which you've actually managed to completely store away and comes out in your art it is art that wrestling of no and yes is art and you have got you have put all that into that performance and it makes it electrifying and it makes sense of it all I think that's something we lose we are artists we really are we're creative beings and if you leave it aside it turns into this sad toxic energy it's just sitting there places to reduce it and that's your right yeah I want to ask you because the role you're picking on it's not just a big role and for you at a time in your life it's also you're taking on a real person then a lot of people have have thoughts on have read about know about have opinions about what's that process for you of of saying yes and then figuring out how am I gonna cut everybody else out and do this and it's weird it's sort of a similar ish kind of thing I think you know I've been working for kind of you know 10 years and I sort of thought I knew the actor I was I was like this is the sort of job I'm gonna get you know I got I did a job I was really proud to think a Wolf Hall I was really proud of it and I went oh that's it's alright you can die happy uh-huh because I've done the role I've always wanted to do this is absolute dream I'm done if I never work again or never do anything that's that standard again I'm fine uh-huh so I got pregnant I was like goodbye world you know that job and so was I that what they think I'm that sort of acted I think I can completely you know I'd always thought I could transform but beyond my age beyond my my class beyond my anything else and so I met them and they all seemed to have this huge night kind of right yeah yeah you know you can I was I can I and so I because also had had a child I had so little attachment to who I had been who I thought I was I had no concept of who I was anymore I was just a vessel of emotion or just nothing I was nothing and so I just went just get out of your own way and just just be and so it was a very odd experience where I I didn't allow myself to set myself any limits or say that I could or couldn't achieve anything I you know the believability of Mancunian small girl playing the Queen of England you know I've been queen barely 10 years and in that time I've had three Prime Minister's all of them ambitious men clever men brilliant men not one has lasted the course they've either been too old too ill or to wheat I just went all sharp you just get on with it and I just sort of did and I feel very lucky that I was given the opportunity to have people put trust in me but then also by that I go why do you have to have people put trust in you like why do you have to have people saying that they believe you can do it as opposed to just going out there and saying I can do it myself I think there's something really interesting about you know all the things you get either asked to do or sent to you whatever where you're like I've done this I've done this I've done this I've done this and then every once in a while there's someone who's like yes oh she should be the queen of England I should play like a street hooker now you have anyone and you're like yes what I'm doing and someone else like across the universe who sees you like sees you as an artist and a few things and goes like that I see what that person doesn't know they are yet and and I feel like that's a really intimate amazing kind of across the universe type of interaction how was it changed since now yeah I mean it was two seasons or series as you say what are they now what are you being approached for it has that changed no interview the way you see yourself changed yeah weirdly which is really I find slightly kind of I mean a bit I've noticed some sort of aspect of my character them like oh interesting like self-destructive where I'm like go on now genuinely I'm like what I'm gonna push myself the absolute edge of my ability or what I think I can do and what I think I'm able to do and I do I've never really been like when I've been sent things I feel like I've done before ever I kind of I feel so lucky to do this job that I don't really want to do it if I don't feel like I'm doing something that it's a lot of doing no no no no you know I mean I don't I feel so lucky that I'm like well so many people want to do this so many people I know and love and my best friends have one to do this in entire lives and they don't have that they haven't been as lucky as I have so I'm like so I'm just might as well grab it by the balls and do it but then I've noticed that I am just like I just sort of am running headlong into the fury and going and and trying to just balls it all up uh-huh but but not because I think I sort of have that sort of I don't want to play it safe I really don't I really don't it's a good thing it is a good thing but it's weird to know that about yourself I just suddenly go oh you're doing this anyway there's got you know I'm out so I'm very I feel very instinctual anyway as a person I just think then when you realize you are and then you purely run on instinct it's quite a terrifying thing to do but but really you know exciting to ask you because I know there is a particularly gruesome scene and I remember reading you say that you were excited to watch that with an audience and you were excited to watch people sort of squirm and but also I mean a lot of people don't like to watch themselves on screen not only did you were you okay with it you wanted to watch the reaction what would you get satisfaction that you were driving from that yeah I mean I've gotten over watching myself because I have to watch cuts and dailies all the time so I'm kind of over that but yeah there's a really gruesome scene at the end of the first episode it's like a really gross well necessarily but it's kind of that bad but yeah pretty high but we you know we worked really hard on and it was a big deal in like we worked really hard to make it work and make it look good [Music] I don't know it's just like a gleeful [Music] and just like people score me and I literally is sitting there like the devil you know just because you work so hard on something and you put so in our special-effects makeup people put so much into it and everybody worked on it so it's just you know I was we're proud of it so I wanted to I wanted to hear the screams surprised by the response that that an audience has or you often it's what you think it's going to be have there been taught you you look like you haven't I don't know how you could pause you can't predict it you can't predict you know you think they can really I mean don't I mean understand one of the things about I mean a lot of us come from film and it's actually it's an interesting transition to get into television because with a film if you get one shot at it you know that's that hour and a half and it's done but what's so extraordinary about television is that because it's ongoing you do build up this this kind of I don't know a tribe that follows you and whether you want to or not you can't help but start hearing what people are saying and this groundswell of feeling about the work that you're doing about the character that you're playing and certainly for playing mave it was very surprising because she's a she was a secondary character and I did it because I just wanted to be part of this this incredible show that was gonna subvert all these stereotypes in a really cool way it's cowboys and robots man I mean I didn't expect it to be you know an existential kind of phenomenon although I loved all the existential stuff for me personally so but to then get that feedback over time you suddenly feel this I mean I I do feel a responsibility when I'm playing all the roles I play because I don't want to influence young people in ways that I think are gonna damage them you know so I try and literally get away from roles that I think a gratuitous and it's hard in television because you get the first two episodes then you don't know what's going to happen so I think it is really with long-term performances we get a chance I mean you must have experienced this to saundra with years of Grey's Anatomy you get the wrist once that comes back his it's exciting it just makes you invest that much more makes you feel the sense of responsibility because there's genuine love for the characters that you play or hatred I mean depending what character you play but certainly for me if I could feel this desire from audiences to have her free and that's you know wasn't just women of color of forty five years old that loved in men younger people older people of deld ethnicities just went for this character I think it's because she's not human and it is the Wild West it took people out of well she's not like me you know I'm not it actually allowed you to connect more with her because she's not human Roenick glee you know so but that long-term that long-term experience is really valuable I think it is really bad I mean I don't come from film and actually come from television and it's so it's what I know and now I'm sort of doing more films but because of what I've done in television they're letting me to them now and you know snobbery around working in - yeah yeah but I've I've only known having like worked on a character for five six seven years and so for me I panic with a film because I'm like oh my god I only have six weeks so I have two months and that's it then it's gone I never get to work on the character again I'm like so it has to be white it has to be right this one time and then yeah yeah it's me out there's like a beginning a middle and an end and you know exactly what's gonna happen and it's a totally sort of different experience for me having come the opposite way that's really cool preferred television in a way because I love sitting with the character mm-hmm nine years or whatever is that how long and you said different other realm of acting yeah it really is you know it's like people say how do you do the same show and theater you know I was like if not the same and then it's also like you know on on network yeah it's like okay you have 22 episodes okay I have the 22 episodes available six maybe about kind of your character out of that right maybe three have like really good stories and out of that for me it would be a you you go today did I have an honest moment right right every day do I have one honest moment it's okay don't lay it all on you because you get you get to go up to bat again and again a lot of weight on that because I think it's uh I think you have to put more energy to continue being creative yes yes not easy question cuz I know it's like I go to class I have a group I have a teacher I have all that and and so that's just a whole thing for me my responsibility you know come you know after like the second or I should probably second season it I was just like I gotta I gotta go back in basically where I come from you know and theater is just like I gotta go I gotta go back in I don't know what it is I this is not the what how do I make sense of it and that for me honestly create I started my own just found my creative path I know which which so when it comes I won't go back to the point about how you start from your early on career to later and how you don't have as much choices what you can fill those tiny little moments where you don't have a lot of dialogue you don't have what whatever if you still want to work as an actor and be creative and empowered as an actor I swear you can still do it your new new mean cuz if there's gonna be one person who's gonna play this Korean prostitute it's gonna be me because I know I don't have I don't have don't have dialogue in English I don't I'll have this I would ended up being cut out but in the universe of it and then you got a pan across that and you're gonna pan across my face and I'm gonna be doing gonna be built but anyway you're gonna have that day of work exactly which is either still be a super drag yeah exam because all those things bring hopefully all of us to this moment you know I mean cuz because I think we've all had two along the way make our decisions of well this is crappy but I gotta eat yes yeah yeah no after then the point of going okay how do I want to influence the storyline and how do I let's say regarding other people who do not have as much power how do i influence the casting on the show how do i influence the people behind the camera on the chef yeah cuz now after all this time I'm able to you know something yeah yes when it comes to responses you obviously were just part of Black Panther which was the sort of biggest of them all you've done a lot of things you've done a lot of wonderful things in your career and what point did this one feel different it felt different immediately you know getting getting the call from Ryan and again that was one of those situations where it was you know a walk of faith because I had met him briefly before at a premier but I was a fan of his previous two films his only two films very small film and then a slightly bigger film but this one was a massive massive undertaking for this young man but you had faith that do you feel the weight of that you did and he federal responsibility to be in there with him but it was not just me you felt there's there's some there's some moments in some sets where everyone catches you know the fever up the heel of it and they're bringing their they're bringing the best to the moment they're giving the full measure of their devotion everyone and that's what you experienced and saw and felt on that set you know you knew it was gonna be special but how special you know stand there Warrior Falls and just see hundreds of extras on this mountaintop this note that look like something from Disney World and clearly drummers doing 10-hour days under the hot Sun with lights beating down giving us sunburned eyes or whatever we didn't know that was happening but drumming and the entire mountains just swaying and it was just magical and folks looking and we're just joy joy joy and you would continue and then with it you know folk were waiting but you didn't know the breadth of the full week that the eight year old and the 83 year old were waiting you know Hung's that every yeah and what it would do and that this could be the the black it is black black African is felt that ever was and it was it maybe being reached if I had been eight and watch that movie it would have changed my life it would have changed the course of my life because back then coming from a small town in England and there were no people of color around I mean I know I'm a unique exception because that's not often that that happens but what we see around us who there is out there that represents how we feel and who we are is of critical importance so you would just grab yeah whatever images that inspired you should do and do he was just Michael Jackson that was it and with the lightning round quickly I wish Hollywood would cast me as a oh you said alien so I'm going to say alien you said alien which I love Hollywood would cast me as a queen oh yeah I would always say that now say never you know until yeah make me up anyway you know so um and now that that's occurred like my daughter's she's 13 now she was 12 when she was cast in a really really big movie and it was not something I led her to I think I've actually tried to stop her from getting into the my world and it happened by accident and she's the lead in this huge movie which comes out next year and I know it's not exactly your question but I look at her and I think that's me mm-hm I have been cast that is exactly how I would like to be cast and it's happening in my girl and to see her just effortlessly on taking the light and and it's how she's been raised it's the stuff I've talked to her about its the empowerment of just being in a creative environment where we have struggled but we do now we don't wait the permission my husband and I and to see her just like whatever and I'll say things to her like maybe just be careful she's like mom I'm way cooler than you when you're 12 just a simple you know comment but it's real so I just feel like I'm trying to put my own traumer aside stuff that I've been through we've shared together because I look at the next generation because we have raised them to be strong whether they're girls or boys and to see them standing in their power and they don't want to hear about the I went through anymore they kind of they really - now it's like mum yeah yeah I got this and it's amazing so you know there is of course we'd like in our lifetimes for to be fully realized to be fully rewarded but you know what that's not life the reality is we've got to pass it forward and let them shine right and it's what we do for them it's how we inspire them by all the things that we've talked about today because they're the ones who are going to take over we're not gonna be here you know and I think that that kind of attitude to be it to be joyful that life carries on when we're we're gone movies carry on when we're gone and it's about truly truly think about what's life going to be for them was life gonna be like with him yeah what would you tell your younger self knowing what you know now what's the advice you'd give oh Jesus I'll be kinder to yourself oh he's gonna be nice to yourself Jesus Christ yeah yeah yeah they were so taught to be critical of ourselves we're so taught to measure ourselves against other people and it was something that Oprah said whoo I just I just I mean there are no words but she said I can only be the best version of me there's no point in me trying to be you know that woman over there right I have to and it seems so simple and I think I heard it a lot but I never really understood what that meant and about the fact that it's about focusing on what you can improve on yourself and focusing on what's really good about yourself like there's no point in just going on bad I'm bad I'm bad I'm bad I'm be guilty be good to be guilty you feel sad feel surfacer you should go I'm really good at this and this I can improve on and that I'll never be able to do but you know maybe I will do you know it's that thing of don't set yourself limits and don't try and be like anyone else it's just a waste of time yeah the same the same the best version of you is inspiring inspires me to be the best best version of myself you know and sometimes it doesn't feel like that and internally but I have more confidence I mean or even in the the oddity of the quirkiness or whatever just just what did you think that you'd be now doing now I wanted to be a news reader I would talk to nobody just deliver the news I just there was this woman of color who used to read the news Moira Stuart on TV oh my where's your man and the boys I have so much authority and you're literally telling people what's been going on in the world I'm like that's what I want am I'm kind of doing it what do you guys wanna be I know this is awful but I had so little belief in myself or you know as a child I used to look at the Argos curtain look at tails because I wanted to work on a tail I worked in Tesco no I've done it this is it you're a cashier at Tesco yeah I had so little I never thought about a year ahead two years ahead five years had twenty five years ahead I always thought I'd die young and so now I'm just like oh my god I still feel like I'm a dancer who's just acting you know what I mean I will say this for a long time and I remember I was in my early 20s and I saw Pina Bausch for the first I thought I saw her company's awesome mom I I thought for the first time when I saw her company just work I thought if I had seen Pina Bausch when I was eight when I was out in ten I would have never become an actor my daughter dancer my daughter's a dancer she's a dancer like for real I'm not a dancer but it's it's that's she is who knows what her job will be but she's a dancer and we took her to see did you know this year she's 11 see that is Tomatoes is that precious time that if you see something and you walk in - yes because just at that time where I was auditioning for professional schools I'm not getting in move my parents took me to Annie and then it was like they're dancing and singing on stage I think that there's a precious eight to 12 times where you can really lock in on what you want to do and you know we don't go too far for subject but she stretches and boundaries of what's possible and she expresses things not in words obviously but that I don't see expressed anywhere else and when when I took my daughter to see her company dance and they danced Cafe Muller which the second that the dancer walked on stage I started crying Oh but this it's like people who's seeing it's like it's something visceral Eliza's showing that something's funny and they just feel it and I just if I could answer that one actor it was they're connecting you know in those yeah I'm Elisabeth Moss I'm Sandra oh thanks for watching thanks for watching thank you for watching The Hollywood Reporter round a bony cheating watch it again and again

Channel: The Hollywood Reporter

Views: 727,158

Rating: 4.7155986 out of 5

Keywords: thr, sandra oh, the hollywood reporter, actresses roundtable, elisabeth moss, close up with the hollywood reporter, thr roundtable, roundtable, angela bassett, actresses, Claire foy, thr roundtables, hollywood reporter, entertainment, hollywood, close up, close up with thr, drama actresses roundtable, the crown, killing eve, thandie newton, westworld, maggie gyllenhaal, the deuce, the handmaid’s tale, 9-1-1, celebrity, celebrities, interview, emmy roundtable, drama actresses, 2018

Id: mvfzWFl5q9E

Length: 61min 54sec (3714 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 17 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/heart_on_my_sleeve]

I would watch 5 hours of these women talking if I could!

[u/wherestherice]

It always catches me by surprise whenever I remember Lizzie Moss is a Scientologist. It's like being told she has a tail.

[u/iBossk]

More like the Runners-up Roundtable.

Elizabeth Jennings Forever.