Drama Roundtable: Bella Ramsey, Diego Luna, Patrick Stewart, Helen Mirren & more

[Music] me and Pedro would listen to well I'd be forced to listen to Xanadu um this one Olivia Newton-John's things that right yeah I'd be I'd be forced it since designer do over and over and over to like in the mood when we were on Seventh [Music] thank you hi everybody thanks for tuning in to the envelope drama Roundtable I'm Michael Jordan of the Los Angeles Times I'm your host we have Oscar winners Emmy winners Tony winners and that's just Helen Mirren um so let's welcome our panel today hey guys we were talking right before this about how um you two have known each other for 55 years well we you know we've worked together 55 years ago let's put it that way and we obviously but you know in the meantime we've gone off and worked and or many different spaces and um countries and it's just so great to be with Patrick again after all this time yeah tell them what you just told me about what it was you wanted to be because it coincided exactly with my feelings yes and we both were saying earlier on how strange it is to find ourselves here in this situation in Los Angeles you know and being a Screen Actors because both of our Ambitions when we started was to be theater actors and very specifically to be classical theater actors just to do Shakespeare and and to learn how to become a great classical actor and and both of us dedicated of Patrick longer than I but I uh Patrick Ten Years first 10 years of his career to that I dedicated I guess about first seven years of my career to that we were not interested in film we didn't want to do TV we didn't want to do West End theater or musicals we just wanted to be great classical actors and we we shared that and here we are so how are we doing pretty well thank you I wanted to bring up the topic of fandom for your shows which all have very active and devoted fans especially of course Star Wars and Star Trek but Bella The Last of Us of course is one of the most popular video games ever I was wondering if the fandoms surrounding that game affected your portrayal on the show at all yeah there was a big following everyone everyone who played the game The Last of Us like becomes instantly part of the fandom because it's so like people get so attached to and I can see why and um yeah I think I've tried to would sometimes not successfully like create a healthy perspective on it um the pressure is real for sure um but yeah like you should mentioned social media like I think it's such a gorgeous it's just learning how to balance it like I've now like gone on Twitter and I've like basically not on Instagram because I if I if I can't see it it doesn't exist that's sort of I know where I'm at now so I'm in like denial basically um but it was uh when I first got cash in the last of us a lot of people weren't happy because I didn't I don't look like the video game character whenever you're casting something it's not like I don't know you there's always like an imposter syndrome that happens so it's put interest in the creators and just as soon as you got on set and do it it's fine I think it's the thinking about it that's the problem I find even that even in acting like the more I think about any of it the more I think about what I'm doing like the worst it's gonna be yeah I have to not think about it if I the worst scene I ever have done is the one that I analyzed and tried to prepare it was the worst thing I've ever done it I found it so difficult like any like instinct was just like it gone it was canceled so I had to like work together Institute back so yeah generally like the less I think the better um what about your connections with other characters and other actors either on camera or on stage what impact does that have what people are actually pushing at you and giving to you of themselves oh it makes such a difference um me and Pedro Pascal would play Still we've worked like very closely together in every scene together and we we like learned each other we started without having any like we didn't have any bonding time you know any of that we just like straight in and Ellie and Joe don't know each other to begin with me and Pedro didn't really know each other so we we like learn who each other are like throughout the process and like there were times where I knew what I needed the camera wasn't on me right but you have to give truthful performance in order for like to evoke a truth or truthful response right so it's like I think there's so much it's such a dance I think it's like an emotional interplay an emotional dance between you and your scene partner and like you really feel what they're feeling I think you look into someone's eyes and you you feel it so yeah I think it makes such a difference is there anything that you like better than looking into a fellow actor's eyes and seeing and knowing there's connection and then they're just absorbing you as much as you are absorbing them and this even though they may be thinking ahead like some of your colleagues they've got plans their own plans for the future it's it's so invigorating I find it is those moments when you're face to face with another actor on stage and it's like nothing else exists but also because there's nothing I mean one thing is would you believe her and yes we can talk about the end result and how cool or not it is and how many people watched it and felt for it or not but but at the end what you take is the journey right and uh and when it's around all the reactors when it's not a lonely Journey there's nothing like that you know there's nothing like that because things happen and and uh and when you go back home I mean the learning curve of being in front of someone that cares it's it's something that you keep forever yeah I actually do have a Comfort TV show it's the only TV show I'll like re-watch and it's feel good created by May Martin who I also think is phenomenal yeah it's pretty great I look for for for humor this world we live in pushes me to to hide in my room and try to laugh a little bit and relax and shake shake reality you know I would say Flight of the Concords I love dodgeball I can't stop what if I if it's on I took today but then still are really bad oh yeah dodgeball yeah of course apparently they're doing dodgeball too it cannot be as good as dodgeball 1 ever Jeremy this major thing this earthquake happens in the show about a third of the way through when Logan Roy the the patriarch dies and you and your succession siblings Kieran and Sarah you played the whole thing getting the news figuring it out on this in this long sequence on a boat on the on a ferry please correct me if I'm wrong my understanding is after he shot all the necessary coverage you got to shoot it straight through like a 28 minute unbroken take is that right yeah it it it it it um well it's just a it was a brilliant piece of writing first and foremost and I'm sure we all feel you know there but for the grace of the writing ultimately and and also the cumulative force of 30 however many episodes up to then of just living with these you know with these people in these circumstances and relationships so a lot of that does the work for you but the way they wrote something about the suddenness of grief and the sort of mundane way that it plays out and and and then I I don't know about you guys but when you get a scene or a when you get something that you just think oh me because you know this is a moment that requires something in you cracking open and being overtaken by something and will will that will or won't that um yeah is he gone I don't okay [Music] uh thank you Frank thank you did everybody did people see Maverick oh yeah yeah you know we're like a bunch of Miracles had to happen it was like 17 Miracles had to happen everyone had to do this double black diamond in concert with each other from every person on the crew and the actors and it was a it was a beautiful I felt like the end of that scene like somebody texted me the other day an actor said you should probably just move to the desert and died a bit like that like this is as this is as good as getting to be an actor yeah it's working on material like this and when things when the Alchemy happens and the way you hope for Jesse Armstrong the writer had written this stage direction there's a moment where I'm up on the top of the boat Kendall's up on the top of the boat talking on the phone and sort of finds out definitively that his father is gone and then Jesse wrote this paragraph essentially about the about that moment and and and he wrote that he was on sort of the sharp tip of Manhattan but also of History American history and that something awful the UN the unimaginable had happened but he was also liberated and the world was both off its axis but still solid and he felt like he could be a wraith or a super being and it was I mean and that was in the states God how beautiful did you guys in your various Seasons feel like your characters had hinge moments I mean for Misty there's a huge hinge moment that happens to Young Misty but how about for uh current Misty you know um I would say I think well my the character can be such a uh you know there are there are ways you can take her where she she's so extreme and she could be a caricature you know she doesn't show a lot of emotions the whole sort of way she operates and for much of season one uh there was just no emotion you know all this passive aggressive hard smile and Vernier veneer and everything and then um there's one scene where um she finally breaks and is emotional for it's like five seconds and she gets it right back together but for me I thought that was uh for the character a real moment because then from there we've she has become more emotional we've gotten to see more of her and I think it's helped to make her more of a well-rounded you know you can't just have a character that's always living in that artifice without seeing beneath it a little bit well I don't want to be joshed about it not like you okay I don't think of killing as a joke hey news flash I am the only person who took your killing with the seriousness that it required I fixed that for you and you're never even grateful Helen do you have any feelings about a scene in in 1923 that I don't know maybe put your character on the past that that she should be on or Define the character for you probably the scene when she she takes on um her husband uh who's who she's nursed back to health and you know he's back he's not fully strong but he's back in his patriarchal sort of attitude and and uh she she argues with him about you know that the next step to take but she takes him on in the sense of saying you know you know you're only alive because I kept you alive and what do you think's been happening since you've been lying on your back I've been burying people you think it's you who suffered the most how would you know you would sleep half the time well I bathed you on spoon fed you like an infant I wiped her ass like an infant well I shoveled Graves so you you get the I hope get a sense of of her sort of burgeoning power um within that you know pretty pretty patriarchal sort of um uh environment social environment I've done some music stuff on camera before like I've sung on camera for various things but I've never played the guitar on screen which I will have to do maybe in the last of a season two but um for my audition myself tape and actually the zoom that I had with Craig and Neil they've created the show I positioned my guitar just a little bit in the background of the zoom shot just so they knew and um I can only really do chords and like a bit of picking so I'm gonna have to like get better at Guitar but I'm looking forward to that Diego same question to you about these hinge moments about these moments you felt like defined the character or or were clear turns for you did you feel like there was one in in season one for Cassie Andor definitely I mean it's it's all about the writing and and uh I I I said there's people like Tony Gilroy the the writer of our show that uh just he never ends sending like beautiful scenes for you to to to portray you know and and and you understand what what was written before you know when you get them you go like okay even though we already shot all of that it it gets re-signified you know in a way when these scenes arrive and for me it's a relation with the mother the laws of the mother of Marva the the character played by if you're not sure um because it's it's like she has every answer he needs you know it's just that he's not ready when she's around and uh and it's when he gets that yeah and it's it's a scene I I I did with her without having her on set yeah because you're hearing the voice and uh and he's just listening to a message he she left you know but uh it was everything like I had to stop myself from just like crying Non-Stop and and and not being able to do it because it was so strong you know it was like suddenly certain only uh everything everything that connects me with the character was there exposed you know it's like it was so simple that uh it was it became so much my moment that it was difficult to say like no I have to I have to do the same I have to stop being myself I'll talk to my mom later you know because there was no way to to to yeah to not connect like that so yeah that was very strong who else knows about what that you were born in qunari you don't want to hear what happened we'll get to that but who knows who have we told I don't know I we have always said first every doc I've ever submitted has always said you were born on Fest have you ever said anything other than this officially no I don't think so but people yes and told me how many I don't know it's not something I've been keeping track of what everyone I've told is dead I heard you say something that Tony Gilroy said to you that I thought about when we were working find the reference find the reference yes like always something I've never heard it articulated that way it's just that way because we do science fiction right and it's so easy to get lost and like oh the the the you know the lasers and the flying and the hyperspace and but but then it was all all about yeah finding the reference that connects with you with you know your environment your life your context you know yeah meaning Diego the actor meaning the the designer the the photographer everyone you know it's like we are we have to forget we're doing Star Wars and and it works it works you know because there is a moment where you actually you know interact with those elements as if they were real real as if you belong to this galaxy far far away you know that's the sort of the essence of acting yeah it is it is defining the right yes that's what we do you know um playing um Elizabeth Elizabeth the first Laura horand or Bella we're talking about these hinge moments these key moments to Define your character or or change the path around did you feel like there were some of those clear moments for you for Ellie and Last of Us I think um at the end of episode eight when she um she's just had this experience with David she's been kept captive um by him and then she kills him with the ax I think that moment for her is like a catharsis again it's a release of like all the pain in the feel and that she's been uh experiencing them like the loss and I think actually that moment is so pivotal because um there's a line that David says to her when she's in the cage where he's like you have a violent heart and I think she re she resists that instantly because she knows that deep down that she does and then this moment at the end of the episode you see like that violence she does have a violent heart David was right and it's and I think what you guys her the most in that moment isn't what David did to her it's what she in the end did to him okay it's okay baby girl he was dead after like the second hit I think I've encountered there was like 28 28 um hits to the face with this ax and she she could have stopped but she didn't she kept going and she enjoyed it and I think that that's what scared her and then that's like sets up for what's to come I think I think that's the moment where like this is a shift in her as a character that like informs the rest of well there's only one more episode in that season but I think we'll inform Seasons to come you're incredible in that scene yeah thank you yeah yeah at the very beginning I was doubtful if I wanted to sign a six-year contract I didn't I didn't know anything about Hollywood so I didn't know six-year Contracting system and I said I can't do that commitments sir to work and uh my agent told me look it's not going to work you cannot revive an iconic series like Star Trek is that you've been lucky to get halfway through the first season so sign up for it and then go home and I did and seven years later [Music] I was in an iconic show of my own my own and my colleagues Patrick you've been playing Jean-Luc Picard for more than 35 years it debuted 35 years ago uh in season three did you feel like there was anything that happened that blew the character open in a new way one of the problems as well as one of the pleasures of Shooting Star Trek being genre Picard has been that the longer I worked on it the more he became me and inside me and by me I don't mean Patrick Stewart was you know flying the Enterprise but it there was a blurring of the connection between actor and character and that felt good and it felt authentic and and honest and honesty was always one of the most important elements for my character that he would speak the truth always in a sensitive way until in Picard in in season three when he learns that he has a son and where all his life here said stop reach is my family that's my family I don't need anything else and then we realize when the impact of that news hits him that he wanted that all his life and just built up this pretension of of being okay and it wasn't okay so that was a great Revelation your son is the command suit org must be amplifying it from somewhere on that Cube the only way to save the fleet save Earth to sit with that connection no matter the cost it made him vulnerable weak um you know I was shouting at Beverly Crusher it's it's it was it was things that had never happened before yet they were authentic and well for you guys it's it's a bit short of a duration because you're going you know Season to season to season you don't have this long break but do you feel like each season you're you're finding more I mean you're talking about how Missy opened up little T when you saw that emotional break uh do you guys feel like you're bringing more of yourself your your personal experiences and your perspectives I do you know I was interesting what you said when you said you realized how much you and and John and John Picard were melding you know um I I really have an issue with that I I always like you know I realized when I did the first season you know Misty is sort of this outrageous character and is supposed to be funny but I never played her funny I I'm sorry I should never have pushed you away like that and and I miss you and your grandmother sounds really cool uh so okay well I'm gonna hang up oh no you hang up first no you hang up first no you hang up so I play her in the most truthful way I can and she ends up being funny and it makes me so uncomfortable when people tell me that they think it's funny everyone was like why don't you want to be funny and I'll be on set and like I'm friends with the other actresses and they'll be like oh you were so funny in that one and I'm like and they're always like you have to figure this out why you hate be that she's funny and I think it really is because it's like me being I think I have my ego has melted with hers and I'm just like it feels like I'm you know what I mean like you don't want to she she wouldn't want to be laughed at well so yeah your job yeah and even when people talk about like seeing the vulnerability every conscious of being funny it would destroy the whole thing yeah wouldn't it yeah her very seriousness that is is so important you have to hold on to that absolutely and she always feels like she's being made fun of too and like even in the scene when they're laughing at her I feel made fun of and it's just like it's a whole thing I have to find I mean I've been doing this for 35 years but eventually I'll learn how to separate myself the investment is real yeah yeah well it's always like a question I get asked in interviews it's like how do you come home and chill and like disconnect from the character at the end of the day I'm like I don't it's so difficult like you really absolutely you really do become enmeshed but we've have we all thought of that of how hard it is for a partner who has to live with at least two people three people three people or four people that you bring them home at the end of the day and and I I I've stopped apologizing for it because it's necessary you never quite let something go it's got to be there so you can tap into it but but I I feel you know people often talk about this character and they say oh this was so pathetic or cringe-worthy or something yeah that's me it is it happens all the time yeah are you finding Kendall or did you find Kendall unfolding to you over four seasons well just I think I feel the same way sometimes I couldn't tell where where I end and he begins and and but that's also where I think then you're maybe in a good place and and and um so much of it is writing and Imagination and and and I don't know it's hard to dissect I heard you talk once about just like finding the core compulsions and the core drive and the core need and I feel like in a way that's the only way to work on long-form television because then you have your then you have a motor because you don't know where it's going but if you know if you're if you if you have the need and commit to what they need yeah and that kind of takes you through it with Misty she always seemed like [Music] person and character that I have read about heard about um the one scene that she had in the pilot to me was um so realistic and so communicative and so concise she is a nurse in um an elder care facility and she abuses this old lady and um I've always been fascinated by people who do that it's the pettiness the smallness seems so human to me so I've never really felt that I had to find the humanity with Misty for me it's more about the proactive nature of somebody who is guarding against everything coping and just moving ahead you said some really interesting things about being interested in exploring that period of American history in a kind of let's say less clean way than we usually see it have you felt that it's hard for any country we're all still in the process I've been Britain hugely you know they're suddenly recognizing the fact that yes they were involved in the slave trade you know and they've been avoiding that oh no no we're against slavery all along yeah but excuse me the the the the um economic power of them of Britain in the 18th century was dependent upon building boats for the slave trade and and indeed having plantations in Jamaica and you know and certainly now we're coming we're recognizing that fact so it's not surprising that America you know will take it takes many centuries maybe to come to terms with really what your true history is I find it so terrifying here in America the the whole idea of not really teaching American history in schools this move against teaching the real history of America it's terrifying in any country but um but anyway you know coming to terms with what real American history is it'll be the thing that ends us greed will be the thing that kills us all sure you're right now would you really want to talk about I do see what Taylor is doing um as an investigation of American history as much as anything yes how much latitude do you guys have like is that the Primal scream in the woods is that a scripted moment yeah [Music] dude [Music] the scripts arrive it's incredible isn't it they arrive and they're like perfect yeah you don't want to change a word you don't cut anything you don't want to add anything and then when you start it's sort of I don't know how they do it Taylor does it um when you start investigating it looks like one thing on the surface and then you start a little bit rehearsal and then you discover and let you know you find layers in it they're amazing these writers you're really held by good writing yeah I thought that was the scripture The Last of Us that Queen Mason wrote like the detail and he writes like thoughts sort of like really saying he writes like character thoughts in the stage directions and it's amazing yeah you just feel like so it's like a net like you you can't fall because the scripts told you so much um I think that's really cool like the detail of them and if it's good it's great yes if it's bad it's awful it's true it's true if the stage all right doesn't say she goes pale and then blushes out [Music] I don't decompress that well or easily um no the truth is I'm more of a reader um and I love watching I love watching films and television but I I don't have like a I don't have a show [Music] um I did love watching Bella who was just in here and and Pedro on on The Last of Us I loved watching that I thought they were both tremendous we have been watching succession from the very beginning and of course this season I think it's fourth season and uh I I think it's remarkable I enjoy it I just wish I like one or two of the characters more but they're intriguing and compelling and I it's a compulsive show I'm afraid we're starting to run out of time but I want to revisit that idea of chemistry among actors uh Christina is there someone you worked with who um who with whom you felt that strong immediate chemistry somebody you'd love to reunite with I did a movie with Samuel Jackson and we just had the most incredible time working together and we didn't talk too much about anything but we both just seem to feel what the other one needed and he and it was just it was a really incredible experience for me um and uh you know sometimes you work with certain actors and you're just like oh my God so this is this is it you know we this is the thing we're doing it and that was one of the one of those experiences for me Jeremy I don't know uh you know I will say that working with Brian Cox has been one of the Great experiences of my life uh just just the sheer force of that man and and and what it's like to be in a in a scene with him um just a very a primal actor and a dangerous actor and and a wonderful man uh and a and a and but I you know I in the scenes they felt dangerously alive and I loved I loved every moment I had with him doing this show I would like to work with Helen Mirren Helen you probably have a few oh gosh it's that's that's I was just trying to think gosh who Julie Walters I loved working with you know just made me laugh all the time for me laughter is incredibly important like someone who makes me laugh while just I don't care what they act like as long as they make me laugh off the set you know that's great um but I you know because I'm working with Harrison and because I worked with Harrison before many years ago and it's not like we've ever worked together in between but it was amazing to come back and and you know no no none of you are really old enough to except for maybe you Patrick but to have that experience of working with someone and then not working with them at all at all for like 20 30 years and then suddenly finding yourself back in in the pocket with them and um realizing that it's a weirdest thing that all of that time just telescopes and disappears and you become the people and the actors and the relationship just recreates so quickly um and I do feel a sort of connection with Harrison that is natural and easy and doesn't have to be talked about it doesn't have to be worked on we don't have to discuss anything backstory or anything we just walk on the set look at it in each other's eyes and off you go it it might be just the Brilliance of Harrison I don't know or it might be you know I don't know what it is but it's cool saying that the you know picking up with somebody 20 or 30 years later is rare but you did that with your whole cast yes we did to 25 years um almost 25. um they are a group of individuals with whom their connection has never been broken no matter how far apart we've been no matter how many years it was since we worked something especially the bridge crew something was established and one of the important elements of all of that from what she was saying is humor and I remember quite late on in the first season because I had from the very beginning always rejected the idea well you you are the captain you have the leading role no no we are an ensemble we are absolutely equal when we're when we're doing our work and um it it also meant this we came up with this idea that every single one of us had to be responsible for one big laugh every day no pressure pressure oh the laughter and yeah I've seen this is a little embarrassing and I will probably be criticized financially but I have seen a director go down on his knees and say please just say the line oh okay roll the cameras if we broke him again doing that uh Bella I worked with Jesse Eisenberg on a film called resistance yeah um quite a few years ago and it uh we just had the best time um we didn't we didn't have that many scenes together particularly but we just chatted all the time it was just like we just like I think we just instantly understood each other's brains and could and was so fascinated by each other's brains that we were just like taught for hours about everything um and when we we emailed for a long time after that and whenever I'm in New York I try we try and meet up and it's just the same we just he speaks so fast anyway when I'm around him I speak I like match his speed and his tone and we just like it's just yeah it's a really special relationship that I had with Jesse and I would I would love to work with him again there you go it's very unfair I mean no one has complained but it's very unfair gladly for me at least there's more than one yeah but the natural answer would be yeah for me we were born in the same theater we grew up together uh our parents were family and uh and it's just we we break every like 10 years every time we do it but we have a company also and we work in other things together we produce but acting is just it's just like there's something happening there that you you can't control also you know it's difficult to control but it is like there's a connection and it's laughter is obviously involved and and uh I I I I I guess I am the the yeah the most unrespectful actor to to set when I'm around here to behave uh but it's also because I love him and I admire him and there's so much going on there you know but but it's unfair because that's a very I I know stellen Skarsgard for this show and one thing we did before and I I would like sign with my eyes closed if he's around to do whatever uh and and he's from such a different context like mine that's the beauty of this job you know yeah you you you do a film where you have two or three scenes with someone and suddenly you find your rather happy you know yeah it's it's it can be as strong as that uh I'm afraid we have to wrap up I really wonderful panel guys I I have sincerely enjoyed this conversation hearing from all of you about uh the work you've been doing and and the questions you had for each other were great so really thank you so much for being here I I don't think I've met a misty in real life real eye contact what you did green grape stage the purple grape you idiot I think it's really funny I love the characters all of my colleagues on this show but I love the colleagues more than I do the characters [Music]

Channel: Los Angeles Times

Views: 158,551

Keywords: Los Angeles Times, LA Times, L. A. Times, bella ramsey, pedro pascal, the last of us, diego luna, andor, star wars, disney, helen mirren, 1923, harrison ford, christina ricci, yellowjackets, yellowjackets s3, patrick stewart, star trek, picard, jeremy strong, succession, hbo, brian cox, paramount plus, showtime

Id: 83T9cuE42Pw

Length: 40min 57sec (2457 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 18 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/DisneyDreams7]

LA Times is really coming for the Hollywood Reporters money

[u/MarvelAlex]

Loved seeing Bella Ramsey respected and listened to by their peers. Seeing Jeremy Strong praise their work for Episode 8 of The Last of Us and Patrick Stewart listening intently to them was lovely to see. Great roundtable from all involved.

[u/Daydream_Sunscreen]

(Jeremy Strong enters room) “Hey. What up fuggers?! We good? Ah shiz Ricci is here, I guess that’s cool.”

[u/DisneyDreams7]

Helen Mirren low key looks like Jeremy Strong’s mother

[u/Super-Ad-3260]

Looks like Bella Ramsey has a bright future ahead of them. Maybe one day they'll star in a show with Patrick Stewart as their grandpa.