(upbeat music) - Hi and welcome to Close Up
with the Hollywood Reporter Drama Actresses. I'm Lacey Rose, and I'd like
to welcome Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Rose
Byrne, Helena Bonham-Carter, Janelle Monae, Zendaya. Let's get started. We are living through a unique, powerful, charged and complicated moment in history, both with the pandemic and more
recently, the social unrest. What have you all learned about
yourselves during this time? - A lot I've learned a lot
and I'm continuing to learn. I think being an awake,
aware, conscious, empathetic, thoughtful, human being,
it's, it's pretty exhausting and it's been a time to like
really dig deep and examine, you know, what are you doing in your life and what are you doing in
your business and in your work and really look at those
things with new eyes. - I think also having the time to be alone and not distracted has
been almost divine timing in terms of how everything is unfolded. And that I think is kind of a blessing. This, this COVID pandemic. There isn't, there wasn't any chance for people to distract going back to work or going out to dinners or whatever you, we were all pulled together. It feels extremely unifying
and oddly beautiful what I've been witnessing in human beings. It's, it's extraordinary. The resilience, whether
it was the pandemic or the social unrest, how
everyone pulls together has been stunning to, to watch. - It's very funny over here. I'm in London and the rest
of you are in America, but it's extraordinary
that there's one thing that is unified us all. And yet we're all having very different, depending on your privilege, pretending, depending on, you know,
your situation in life and economically, and also health. I haven't been directly affected or known anyone who's been
directly badly affected by COVID. As Reece and Jennifer have
said, it's the luxury of time which we don't have, but it's kind of fascinating that we have to rely on
the whole world stopping for us to stop. And I feel like it's a time for realizing that so much of my life I spent with, you know, superfluous things, and then what's been happening
in the Black Lives Movement. I feel like because it's happening now, we have now the time
to properly consider it and seriously have the time to see what everyone can do about it. People have said like, "Do you think it would have happened if, if COVID hadn't happened?" And I feel, unfortunately not.
- No, I agree with you. - I think the tipping
point is something to do with the fact that everyone
has the time and the space to actually change the
society on a profound level. It's extraordinary living through history. We are very privileged. And I know that this time for
me has been utterly precious and I think I'll come away with things that have profoundly changed. For one, also as an actor,
it's just such a nice thing 'cause everybody is as unemployed as I am and I don't have to worry about it. - Do you typically worry about that? Are you looking over your shoulder? - You're always looking over the shoulder and you always will in this profession. I know, I knew Peggy Ashcroft, who was this amazing, and Judy Dench. I mean every single actor, we're all insecure and we all never know if we're going to be employed again and you'll never have
that sense of complacency. It's exciting, it's also, the flip side is that we have no idea what's going to happen next year. We have no idea what's going
to, unless we're in a long, you know, really great movie series. You know with The Crown, for
me, that was a great thing because I knew what I was
doing for once for two years. - That's so true, it's like
gratitude and solitude. I was referring to it. And to also to realize, like you said, that there's so much
unnecessary stuff we have but we really need so little. Yeah, just clutter. We, we've cluttered. I think we've taken such
advantage of our planet. We've, we've, our brains are,
have had too much information. Our children aren't
connecting with each other, everyone's into these phones. And now all of a sudden,
everyone just got to stop. Our, I mean, just the
planet is so grateful for just letting it breathe. - I mean, you guys have
these giant platforms. How much obligation do
you feel to speak out, speak up in this moment? Janelle, what's the sort
of weight of, of that? - Well, I think this is the, an interesting time and an important time for all of us to check our perspectives and where we're coming from. For me and my people,
for the black community, this is not an exciting time for us. And this isn't a time that
we get to really reflect. We're dealing with a lot of trauma. Not only COVID-19, which affects us in, in a disproportionate amount, like, you know, if America sneezes, the black community gets pneumonia. And our healthcare systems haven't worked for us historically and now we're having to deal
with the very color of our skin making us a target. We lost a lot of lives. We've been losing lives
for decades, for centuries. And I think for me, I am trying to figure out
how to channel my anger. Being angry, to say the least is, is my emotion. Also, when you're thinking
about the essential workers, black women, black people
make up the essential workers who are making sure that we
have our packages, our food, making sure that, you know, that we're taken care of that
are, that things are clean. And that is not a time for them
to even reflect in the ways that I think we as artists
have that privilege to do. So I think is a time that
I'm checking my privilege and I'm also mourning with my people. And I'm also, one of the
things that I learned about me is that I'm not settling for, for those who say they are allies. The work that they have to do, I'm not settling for lip service. My love language and
if you want to show me that you are an ally, it is going to have to
be rooted in service, acts of service. We have been marching. We have been screaming
that Black Lives Matter. I'm asking of my white friends or those who consider
themselves supporters of me and us during this time, I'm asking that you
have those conversations around white supremacy. You have conversations
around why your ancestors started chattel slavery. You have those questions,
those tough conversations of why we're even saying
Black Lives Matter as though black people are objects and not subjects to study
into the end of time. Have those conversations
around how you dismantle systemic racism. And that's where I am now. I think this is a moment for black people to stand our ground and
ask more of our systems. In Hollywood, ask more because it can't just be, "Okay, we're going to march with you and we're going to do a hashtag." It has to be rooted in justice as well. It has, systemic change has to be made. The way that you're hiring
folks, who's on your board? Like how many black
people do you have there? What kind of films are we green-lighting? What kind of depictions of
police are we green-lighting? I'm team defund the
police, abolish the police. I've realized that. That's very clear for me and I want to put that money into more our education and to
our healthcare systems. I want to redistribute that money and to put it into places that have oppressed us for far too long. - Boom. - Do you guys feel like
you'll make different choices at the other side of this whether it's the stories
you choose to tell or the characters you choose to inhabit? - I've made it a point in my music career to make sure that the world
knows that we're not monolithic. You know, we can, we can do the math that get men into orbit and into space. We can also be in the ghettos, in Moonlight and support
the Shyrones, you know. It was super important that
those were the first roles that I took. Even in music, I've tried
my best to walk my truth as a queer black woman, you know, growing up in America and what that means. Like I grew up to a
essential working parents. You know, my mother, her last
occupation, she was a janitor. My father is a trashman so I've seen them wear their
uniforms every single day. I've seen how my family has, has helped build this country and keep our communities clean. I know my ancestors helped
build this country, right? And so for me, I have a deeper, I feel a deeper responsibility
especially through art to make sure we are represented. You know, representation
is super important. Our voices on screen,
our presence on screen, it's all super important. And I think I, I'm also at a point where
I want that freedom. I want the freedom, like,
like all of my favorite, you know, actors who get an
opportunity to do fantasy, do sci-fi, do drama, do all these things. You know, I want to see more
scripts where, you know, you're writing for the human. You're not pushing me to be a stereotype of what you think blackness is. You know, I want that freedom. And, and that's what I, I'm focusing on right
now in my career is how, how we can put forward more
films and television shows that show our range. That show, you know, our
brilliance in many areas and show us as human beings,
complete human beings. - You know, examining
privilege as Janelle said, I think I went through a reckoning probably four or five years ago with the Time's Up movement. Realizing that we, we work in
and exist inside of systems that are really broken, really broken. So, trying to get strategic
about what my influence or power or my platform can help
inform or create change, I think it started with
having conversations. Every time I took a job, I would call whoever was
the head of the studio and you know, talk about, you know, "Is there, what does
your board look like?" "Well, where are your female executives?" "Where are the people of color?" Like, I'm starting to ask more questions about how does the money
flow through companies. What kind of representation at my agency? - Were you, was there
fear with those questions? Were you nervous to ask
those kinds of questions? - Absolutely, 'cause I'd never
questioned anybody before! Like I'd never spoken up
or asked anything before. I just accepted systems. The time I think I was 40 years old or 41 and I was like, "What am I doing?" "If, if I don't use this one walk on earth to create a better reality for the women that are coming after
me, you know, what are, what are we doing? And I've been very privileged. I've been, I've been the
beneficiary of a system that valued people who look like me. I've made a lot of movies, but I want to make
things that matter and I, and I want to work in partnership and real partnership with people
who are committed to change within our industry, within the world, within their communities
and their families and I think that means empowering women and getting women paid, that's something I like
to talk about a lot. (laughing) Pay equity and that means for
black women, Latinx women, LGBTQ women, differently abled women. That's a life commitment because
you can make great shows. We could have made a great show and it said a lot of things
about white privilege and class and race and how we treat
immigrants in this country. But it was how we made it
is really valuable to me. Our writer's room was made up of the most diverse writer's
room I've ever seen. And, you know, people
with immigrant parents, LGBTQ representation, adopted
children, black women, and there was a man in
there, there was one man (laughing) but, after I worked with Ava
DuVernay on Wrinkle in Time, it just became a really paramount, important thing in my
career to really focus on how things are made in our business. So we are part of those systems and we can ask a lot of
questions and we should and we need to. It's okay to make people
feel uncomfortable. The people who own these companies, because they make money off of us and they get the best of us, right? - Zendaya, I want to talk
about the choice you made with Euphoria. I've heard you talk about sort of the, the pressure you felt and and the sort of near paralysis you felt about making that next move you know, after a career, a Disney career for a
much younger audience. Can you elaborate on that
sort of pressure that you felt and how much of it was
internal versus external? - I think like a lot of artists, I think are my biggest critic. Some of it was internal. It was not wanting to
make a mistake or not, or worried that maybe
I didn't have the room to make a mistake and wanting to make the
right next move and I, I felt like, I felt that
pressure within myself, but I also, you know, I wanted to prove myself, you know, it was, it was one of those things. It was like, I mean, I didn't know what that
next thing was going to be, but I know that, that there was something
that I was capable of, that I just hadn't had a project I guess, to pour that into, or that scared me or
challenged me in that way and I think when Euphoria
came along, I was, I was just very grateful. The only way to really
describe it as like, when you know, you know kinda
thing and all those fears just kind of melted away and I just felt like it was something that I had to be a part
of and that I had to do. And I felt very connected to Rue. She's a human and she has flaws and she has beautiful
characteristics about her and she's, and I care about her so much, you know, as if she were my little sister
as if she were, you know, a part of me in some kind of way and I didn't have those
fears while I was doing it. The fear kind of then became
just like, "Push yourself." Can you, if you go to
work and you're scared, that's a good thing. You should be worried about
whether you can do it or not, you know, but I was very
grateful to be put in a, in a safe, in a safe space where I
could, I could go there and, and have those moments and, and feel safe and feel
like I could be open. And again, just like gratitude I think is, is for that whole experience, for Rue, for the storytelling. It's just kind of the overwhelming feeling that kind of drowned out, the fear. - I just want to say you were
brilliant, you were brilliant. - I appreciate that so much.
- I agree, I agree. You were amazing. - You had us all on the edge of our seats. - And I would be scared to
play that character too. That was a hard character to play. I appreciate it coming from, from you, from all of you. That means the world to me so thank you very much. - Zendaya, you just said something that I want to sort of touch back on, which is that you didn't feel like you had the same space to mess up. Hoping you can sort of elaborate on that. And what's the burden of that? And, and how does that
impact the decisions that you make or the
choices that you make? - Yeah, I mean it definitely, it's a, a constant thing. I think, you know, also
being a young Disney actor, that's one level. Being a young black woman's one level. And then also just being
very, very hard on myself is another level. I just wanna, you know, make sure I'm always
doing the best that I can and I think sometimes that, you know, it can cause you to be
fearful of things but I, but I will say that there's
something that happens when a special character or
a special script comes along for me at least, where everything, the stars just feel like
they align and it feels right and those fears melt away. They don't come back
until it starts airing, which is when I start to get a little, a little scared again, when
Euphoria started to air, but the motivation is
sheerly just prove to myself, just to work harder on myself and, and on the craft and become better. That's the fight now. I'm not trying to prove
myself to anyone else, which is, which is a
good feeling, you know? And I just, I just want to get better. It's more of an internal thing. - I like that. Helena I want to talk to you
about taking on this role of Prince Margaret and
if I have this right, it wasn't an easy yes for you. You sort of had to be talked into it. What was that about? And how did you ultimately get to yes? - Well, it might not be a
relief to Zendaya to know that, you know, 30 years later you'll
still be carrying the onus of having to prove you can do it to yourself and that doesn't go away. I mean, maybe, maybe
other people are relieved and they're fancy free and they're like, "Fuck it, I got it down." And you know, maybe I
shouldn't say, "Fuck it" but you never do the same part. You never know if you can do something. With Margaret, I was very
conscious that it was a hit. I was very conscious that
Vanessa just won a BAFTA. So at the beginning it was terrifying. Everyone was terrified
on the first two weeks, then you relax. The other thing was, I
have to see a script. I have to respond to the words so, they were kind of shocked
that I wouldn't just take it. Morgan thought I was sort of
insulting them and I wasn't, it wasn't to do with the
fact that I didn't believe it was, it wasn't gonna be a great script, but I just needed to know
whether I could do it. He sent me the last episode, which is, which was a, is a really
good Margaret episode. And I knew instantly, "Yeah,
I know how to do this." So, as soon as you begin to
trust yourself, you think, "Oh yeah," that was why I took so long. It wasn't a lack of faith in them. it was a lack of faith in myself. - Sure. And once you did, you threw yourself in? - Yeah. - I mean I've heard you,
you bought the perfume. That she wears assuming that
the, you worked with the- - I will do everything. I, I do, I stop at nothing and hope that something will stick. I'm a big person on prep. I mean, it's just insane how
the lengths to which I go. And I think it's just, it comes
from insecurity and anxiety. And also I enjoy that bit. So it's always for me, the best bit of the job
is when I get the job. And then there's that, that time when there
are always possibilities and opportunities and dreams really of "I'm going to do this,
I'm going to do that." "I'm going to look like
this and I'm going to," and I painted it and it stuck. And there was much
detail that I can glean. I feel like sometimes I would have liked to have been a detective because
I want to just sift through absolutely a bit of, you know, of every single bit of
information that I can get. And then also if you are playing somebody like Princess Margaret or
somebody who's well known, you get to meet all these people and then have these
conversations with them. So it was a process that
I really love, but yeah, no, I went to ridiculous
lengths, but you know, I don't know if it pays off because like Olivia Colman plays the Queen. She does nothing. I mean and and she's free to admit it. I mean, she literally learns
the lines and turns up and puts on an accent
and it's kind of galling 'cause you know, you've
gone to huge steps. It's like somebody who does
no work and gets an A plus, you know, she didn't even
know when she was born! I said like, "You do know
her birthday at least." She said, "What?" I mean, honestly she's, she's like a sort of, she has this genius of
just being a medium, but I'm always fascinated
because people don't really talk about it, about like how actors prepare. Do you girls, women, humans? Do you all, what do you guys do? - Yeah. Playing Gloria Steinem
was a lot of preparation. I felt like that too Helena. Like I was trying like a detective, like trying to find stuff
and reading everything and footage and you know and my trailer was covered
with pictures of her and I was immersed and obsessed
and dreaming about her. But I don't know either, like, I don't, you don't know what's going
to pay off or what isn't and yeah, I was deeply paranoid,
you know, during the shoot, I would always be like
calling up Davhi Waller like, you know, "Am I terrible?" "What am I doing?" "Is it bad?" "Is it too much?" "Is it too little?"
(laughing) You know, "Don't fire me!" you know, like that kind
of thing, like just, you know, deeply paranoid, particularly when you're playing someone that everyone already
has a projection on to of what they are and you know, if someone is iconic is Margaret
or Gloria or you know that, so it's yeah. I'd never, I'd never done that before, playing someone that's so well known. - Walk me through the
decision not to reach out to this woman who's every
move you're studying. At any point in the
process did you want to? Even if it was after the fact? - Yes I mean, of course I do. I just sort of know
that I can't, you know. - Why? - It's a tough show to, for I think women of that time
of the movement, you know, Phyllis Schlafly's an
incredibly polarizing character and it's told through, through
Phyllis's eyes, this story. So that's, I think, I think that would be
really incredibly hard if you were Gloria or Brenda Fagan Festeau or whomever to try to revisit their time from that perspective. I mean I'm assuming, I don't know, and I don't want to speak
for them, but as an artist, the project as a whole
was just so incredible to be a part of, the tapestry
of all of these women, learning about the legacy of
someone like Shirley Chisholm and Bella Abzug. And, you know, there
would be no "Time's Up" without these women. That would be no "Me Too"
without these women, you know, they, they really did have
such a, and it's, you know, I thought I knew about
second wave feminism. I was like, "Yeah, I kinda." And then I quickly realized,
"Oh, I don't know anything." It's sort of a largely
forgotten part of history, a lot of it. You know, the Women's
Conference in Houston, you know, and they had so much influence in, in government at that point. And it's not sort of reached
that level of influence I don't think since then. It's a great project too cause
it really reverse engineer's historically where we are. Why we, why we are where we are today and the divisiveness of politics and the cult of sort of
the right wing personality and alternative facts
and so on and so forth. So it's, it's yeah. I quickly realized that too
whilst we were doing it. - It's relevant in all the ways
you wish it wasn't relevant. I think that's what you're seeing with a lot of these projects. With Morning Show, Jen, Reese, this show sort of delves
into the gray areas of the Me Too Movement
and that experience. You guys were both these very
hands on executive producers. What kinds of conversations did you have about sort of exploring the complexity of the various emotions and the responses to sexual misconduct? - Mainly, for each of us was
just to go into the heart of it and to really just pull every
curtain on how dark and messy and unforgiving the world was and is, and have each and every character just have all of these
wonderful different dimensions. And Kerry Ehrin is kind
of, she's brilliant. She's also psychic. I don't know how she, she seems to have written with our fires. I mean, I don't even know
how she kind of tapped into what she tapped into. And to also say, say all of the things that are said behind closed doors that no one has the guts to say out loud. And that's what was so refreshing about it and talk about it, characters
to build and create, and just, just feel like you're
just dumping, you know, manhole covers off your
back in terms of, you know, what you get to release. And I, I mean, it was, it was extraordinary for me. And then I had Reese as a
partner, which was also having, you know, felt like
having the Grade A student next to you all the time. - No babe, but I mean
your prep and everything. She came in just like ready
with that journalist voice. And I was like, "Where did you
get that journalist's voice?" She's like, "I've been
preparing it for eight weeks!" - It was so much fun! The jewelry and the clothes
and the tailored this and it was just fun,
you just kinda get lost. - Reese, what were the parts
of the conversation that, that weren't sort of
being had out in the open that you wanted to have
in the show itself? - I mean, when we talk about systems, it shows you from the top
down to the very bottom exactly how people are
treated and who is listened to and who is believed and who is not and who is important in an
organization and who's not. And media is its own mixed bag, you know. I think it's a bizarre world we live in that we don't even know where
to get the truth anymore, right? And then Twitter's going
a million miles an hour with all kind of false
sources and information. And it was really
interesting to dig into that, that journalistic integrity piece too. Where, where is the moral
integrity in that business? That was kind of an interesting
question to dig into. - Janelle, I want to turn to you. Your role in Homecoming was written without an ethnicity attached, and you've said, and I'm quoting you here. "I love the fact that I am black and that I get to bring
that to the table." I'm hoping you can expand on that idea and how your own identity
helped shape the character. - Yeah, this was the first script where it didn't specify,
"Urban" or "Black." And I obviously am very proud of, of who I am and where I come from. I will say in addition to
that, I felt free in that role and what I loved about
this character is that Jackie is such a chameleon. She wakes up in the middle
of this boat with no memory. She doesn't know who she
is, what happened to her and so you go on this
journey of self discovery. She's trying to uncover her identity. I had fun doing a lot of backstory for her and researching. I got an opportunity to rewatch
some of my favorite films like "Memento," you know, where
that deals with memory loss. I did the Jason Bourne Identity films. I also watched this
film with Nicole Kidman, "Before I Go To Sleep," where
she wakes up and doesn't know, you know, who she is and her husband has to put these posted
notes to remind her. I studied a lot of short term, longterm memory loss and amnesia. You know, I didn't want
to play her one note. You know, I didn't want
to play her disoriented the entire time, you know, wakes up, doesn't
know, "Oh my God, Oh my God." It was like "No, how can I really
deal with the frustration of one not even being able to remember?" And people are asking her, you know, "What happened?" How frustrated, you know, would we be if we could not remember? Also she couldn't trust everybody 'cause she doesn't know who did it to her. So there's like a certain
level of a guard that she, that she puts up and this
shield and this armor, but she has to get the answers, right? I personally would not
have made the choices that that Jackie made, but that
was what was intriguing. You know, you learn a lot about yourself and you learn a lot about the "Why," why people do the things
that they're doing and in creating her backstory, I had to create that world
that would make this person want to do that. Was she told that she wasn't good enough and she was obsessed with winning? You know, was that the thing? - For sure. - And when you're
thinking about, you know, living in a patriarchal society, right? This character who is, you know, in a relationship with another woman, we both have to come home and deal with a system that was not built for us. It didn't have us in mind. We're fighting against
it every day, right? It was great though. Being able to mastermind
with another woman on screen, to take down the patriarchy, to buck that system and to be
in those positions of power. But then it's like, how much are we willing
to risk to gain power? What does that actually
feel like when you use the same logic as those men
to get to where you are? You know and I found
myself asking myself those, those philosophical questions, like, "Am I becoming the enemy?" "Is my character becoming, or
should even in my real life ever use that playbook?" It's old so, I'm, I'm even more for
burning down the whole system, you know, burn it down, build it. It wasn't, it wasn't meant for us. It wasn't meant it wasn't
meant with us in mind. - No, I think, I think that's powerful. Helena, you recently said, and
I'm going to quote you here, "You're always at the mercy
of what others see you as, or don't see you as and you have to fight for
what you really want." What's that look like in your career and what was worth really fighting for? - Put it this way, you
are at the mercy of, because we can't give ourselves
jobs and that's where, you know, dynamic like Reese
and Jennifer and people like, who honestly produce the
things and have the energy and you know, actually do it. And I often think I'm going to do it and then I just lose momentum. (laughing) To get a job, you always are
at the mercy of somebody else thinking whether you're appropriate. - How did the industry see you? - Well I was completely, you know, way back a hundred years ago
when I started the profession, I was very much and as you knew and I appeared in a lot of costume drama. So that was my, my type casting. I remember I came to LA,
this was in my early twenties and I just felt such
a freak because I knew I didn't have the legs to
survive in LA, you know. And then the parts that were
available for women then were just so bad. The only dimension was about your body. That was how it was, you know. And it was always like you
with the girlfriend or the, it was an appendage to the main, you know, it was always a supporting part, but it was very little dimension. And the only thing that defined you was kind of what you look like. And I was very small and I'm
still small, I haven't grown. My legs weren't particularly thin, and I just thought, "Jesus!" I was so apologetic on myself
that I didn't look like, you know, what I thought
I was meant to look like. So I think when Tim, who I ended up having two children with, he phoned me up and wanted
me to be a chimpanzee. I thought, "Thank Christ. Somebody is casting me for
not what, my envelope is." We've talked about freedom. That was a set, it was a sort of like, I felt like, liberated. So even though the script was terrible, I thought I've got to play a chimpanzee (muffled words) (laughing) It's not, I'm getting out of my skin, which is all I want to do. And it's all I've ever
wanted to do and I'm sure it's that I want to get rid of myself. I want to crawl out of this
envelope and be somebody else. And, and I always think I'm doing it. And then I watch five minutes
and then I give up quickly 'cause I realize, "Damn, I'm still me." My impulse to act is to escape myself and then also escape my
own perception of myself. So I think, I think very
early on, when I could, I started just doing
everything that was different. Not for the sake of being different, but I always knew that I was,
at heart, a character actor. I didn't want to be the lead. I didn't want, I was in A Room With a View when I was an embryo and I didn't know what
the hell I was doing. But I was learning on the job.
- Amazing. - But I was just found, everybody else heard the funny lines. It was like, "This was so boring!" (laughing) You know, I spent my twenties being bored and being ashamed of what I looked like. I had no idea that, you know,
30 years later I'd be like, "Why don't I have plumped skin?" You know, I was so, I spent my whole youth denigrating myself having no idea that in fact
that was something that other, that's what it is, you know that was probably me and a lot of other women, frankly. And now it's like, it
doesn't matter that much. I mean, the relief of getting
older people that, you know, it's been said before, but it's such a, you get off your own back. - It's so true, youth
is wasted on the young. - Has anyone else in this
group struggled at any point with wanting to be seen in ways that the industry
perhaps want to see them? And yeah, Jen, so what do you do? - You just exhaust yourself! I mean, I could not get
Rachel Green off of my back for the life of me. I could not escape, just
Rachel from Friends, just Rachel, from Friends. And I'd be like, and it's on all the time! And you're just like, "Stop
playing this fucking show!" And also, getting older, there is such a freedom in the work 'cause you just stop giving a crap after a certain amount of time. I guess it was The Good Girl that was the first time I got
to just sort of really shed whatever this little like
Rachel character was. To be able to disappear into someone who was walking in those
shoes, was such a relief to me. And I just remember the panic
that set over me thinking, "Oh God, I don't know if I can do this. I don't know, maybe they're all right. Maybe everybody else is seeing
something I'm not seeing." Which is, "You are only that
girl in the New York apartment with the purple walls." You know? And so I was almost doing it for myself to just see if I could do
something other than that. And it was terrifying because
you're doing it in front of, you know, the world and
it's very vulnerable. And, and then something
happens where you just get to, especially with Alex Levy, I
get to play a woman that I, she's way smarter than I am! And it's so fun to play
someone who's so smart. (laughing) And anyway, I, I completely
just fought with myself and, and who I was in this industry for forever because it was just constantly
about trying to prove that I was more than, than that. - Can anyone else relate? - I found a lot more freedom once I'd started doing more comedy 'cause I'd been doing serious things, but then once you start doing comedy, then people don't think
you can do serious, it's just this ongoing
reinvention that you're trying to, you know, and like Helen
has said, you know, people having preconceived ideas about you and trying to shake that up, or like Janelle's
speaking about stereotypes that you really have to run
your own race in a way and, and always be checking in
with yourself and you know, and I find too though, as I get older, is that I'm less concerned
about all the noise and just trying to figure
out what is the project as a whole, either saying
something or exceptional or has something about it that, that could potentially be exceptional. And I think, yeah, getting older is, does, it's given me a little more freedom. - And Rose too, what you said about the, once you get you play comedy, then they don't think
you can do the drama. And once you're, if you're only
seen as a dramatic actress, then they don't think you can do comedy and they forget that we're actors and we actually have it all in there. You know, it's just about
finding it and accessing it and getting the material. - Well, I think also like, I think something that's
really shifted in our business is streaming too because, and the, the influence of data over our business. So it used to be, we were just
reliant on a bunch of people who worked at a studio to
tell us what movies worked and we just become, you
know, blindly accepted it or they'd say, you know,
"Comedies don't travel overseas" or black films don't play
well in other country. It's just not true! Now we have empirical
data that other stories need to be heard and there
is a huge audience for them! I mean if you see that like, I mean you just see that with, Zendaya has 400 billion million followers. (laughing) She has her own data stream! Like she knows more what her
audience wants to see her do than any head of any studio. So in a way we, we have a
sense of control and authorship and the ability to steer our careers that we never had before. I couldn't connect to my audience. I didn't know where they live. Now I know exactly where they live. I know if they like me on Apple, I know if they like me on Hulu, I know if they like Amazon better like, it was greatly empowering. This information age has, you know, brought on a lot of yucky stuff, but it's also brought on this liberation that we are able to connect
and we know we matter. - I think that's absolutely right. Zendaya, I want to turn to
you because one of the things that you did just ahead of
the premiere of Euphoria is you took to your social media to sort of warn your followers about what they were about
to see and sort of suggesting that it could be triggering and my guess is it's a younger audience. How much do you sort of grapple with what your fan base can handle and how does that play into
the decisions you make? - I think a lot of my fans
have grown up with me. So some of them are my own age, but obviously I still have young ones still that watch Disney
channel or still that watch, you know, The Greatest
Showman or Spiderman and things like that. Going back to, you know,
influence and you know, I do take a heavy responsibility. But I'm appreciative for that because I think there's a
lot of good that I can do. We have the data we have,
I have control of that. And I know who's watching
and now more than ever specifically with Black Lives Matter and everything like that, I feel an obligation to
make sure that I'm aware and putting out the right things and and in line with organizers and people who are on
the ground and you know, so I do try to always take
that into consideration. - Can I ask Zendaya, how old are you? (clearing throat) - I'm 23. - I mean, I can't believe you're 23. That is extraordinary and
you have all this pressure! I mean, I would, I couldn't string, I was like a depressive weirdo. You're so composed and like (indistinct) and you know, you have all this social media stuff. I, I can't even imagine and look at you. You're like, honestly, it's really and you're a woman of color. Like, you know, you've just
so many things going on. And under this microscope,
I just admire so much, I could never do that at your age. 23!
- Thank you. I'm just figuring it out as I go. I'm, like I said, try
and do the best I can. And when it came to Euphoria, you know, I just wanted to make
sure that my fans knew, even the ones who were
my age or older than me, that I still felt their support, even if they felt that the material or things were too triggering for them or something that maybe
they don't feel ready or comfortable to watch
yet if they, you know, maybe experienced addiction or whatever their stories may be. And so I definitely wanted
to put that out there, but that was my thing
is I definitely want, I didn't want to limit
myself as an artist. I wanted to be able to do
the things that I want to do and play the roles that I want to play, but also still remember
that responsibility and take that into consideration as well. - One of the things I've
heard you say in the past is that you've, you've told
your representatives, you know, "Even if the part calls for a
white girl, put me up for it, get me in the room." - Yeah, being, you know,
a light skin woman, you know, to recognize my
privilege in that sense as well. But yeah, I mean, when roles came through, I mean Rue had no description either. Our writer and creator, he wrote Rue based off a lot
of his own personal experiences with addiction and he is
a white man, you know, so Rue could have been that. So I'm very grateful that it, I was able to bring the character to life. She is who she is, but I was just great, like grateful to tell the story. - You guys are all playing
very complicated characters, messy characters. Are you able to sort of leave them at work or do they come home with you
and what does that look like? - I'm pretty sure church and state. I like leave it. I don't know. I'm pretty like leave it
at the thing and then, that's it, it's done, it's done. Like I, I just leave it. I mean, I regret things and I'm
hard on myself and you know, I'm all that, but I don't, I
don't so much drag at home. I think particularly with little kids, they couldn't care less, you know, they couldn't give a shit
if I'm having a hard day or you know. - I think that's a good
point Rose 'cause like, I remember sitting with
a big male movie star, like probably four years ago and I was prepping for that movie "Wild." It's a movie that a woman
walks through the wilderness for a thousand miles. She loses her mom and
she has to, you know, she's a drug addict and all this stuff. And this guy said, "Well are you, what are
you doing to prepare? Like, are you going to go into the woods?" And, and I was like, "I have a 12 year old, a nine year old, and I just had a baby, no." I basically got off the airplane and like put on some shorts and went to work because the, you know, being a mom is like a whole, it's my, I call it my other full time job. - Yeah, it's really true
- I don't get to like, bring it home. And when I do bring it home, my, my whole family lets me know. - Yeah, yeah me too, me too. Bobby's like, "Snap out of it. Where are you? You're totally spazzed
out, what's wrong with you? Baby, come on!" And I'm like," Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry." - Janelle, your next project
is Antebellum, which is, which is another tough one
and I know it was one that, that wasn't an easy yes for you, but you've talked about
sort of the emotional toll that takes, what did that look like? What do you sort of bring home with you from a project like that? - Oh, I, I brought all of
my ancestors home with me. This is a project that
deals with the past, the present and the future
and connects those things. And it is so of the times today. It was very heavy and it was
not going to be a yes for me because I knew that I was
going to have to dig deep. I knew the responsibility,
I knew the weight. I knew what this character was going to have to
go through physically, you know and emotionally, and I couldn't even talk
to my family sometimes. Like they would call me on the weekends 'cause we were doing lots of night shoots. And I know you guys know
about those night shoots. And we were filming, we were filming most of the stuff at night on a plantation. The same plantation that
they shot Django on actually. And you know, I felt everything, you know, and there were just certain conversations that even in craft
services, if I, if I heard, it would just be triggering for me and I would tell my
family and friends, like, "I'll talk to you guys later." 'cause once I'm in character, I'm in. Like, it's kind of unhealthy. When I think back, I was
also going through merc, this last year, I filmed
Antebellum May through June, went on tour July through August to Europe for an album and went to Japan, you know,
it was a wonderful experience and then started filming
Homecoming for two months. So I didn't have a break mentally. On top of that, I was dealing
with mercury poisoning. I got diagnosed with high
levels of mercury in my system. And I used it for Homecoming. I didn't know I had it
in an, in an Antebellum. - How'd you get mercury poisoning? - I decided that I wanted
to become a pescatarian. I was like, "I want to just
see if I can be disciplined." So I ended up having a lot
of tuna, a lot of sushi, a lot of fish that had high
levels of mercury in it and I luckily went in, I went in for what I
thought was a strep throat and my doctor was like, "Let me test your, are you still pescatarian? Let me test your mercury level." And I was like, "Okay." And onset doing like all
of the screen testing for Homecoming, I get a call and he said, "You need to stop eating fish
and seafood immediately." You have triple the amounts
of acute mercury poisoning in your system right now. And I mean, this messes
with your nervous system. It messes with your coordination. I talk about it because I
want people to just know that it's a real thing
- Yeah. that what we're doing to our
environment is, is killing us. - Can I just ask, what the symptoms were? What were you feeling? - Helena, are you okay? - Well, yeah might be, she might have just solved my problem, but what, what were you feeling? - It might not be the same for everybody, but online when I was looking it up, most of the symptoms, and I
had them, was like memory loss. I lost a lot of hair because
I had wore my hair in plats for Antebellum and I was like, "Oh, my hair is going to grow." And you know, "I'm taking care of it." And then I took them out and like it was coming out in the shower. In shyness, I didn't want
to talk to people a lot. I was, I was very recluse. Like people would reach
out and want to talk. And I apologize now if
you are one of those, those people last year
who reached out to me and wanted to talk or engage
in business or whatever, I just didn't have it in me. I was always having to meditate and like, I wasn't working from my normal reality, (laughing) but you know, looking
back at, at the footage and looking back at
things, I really used it. I used that disorientation. I used, you know, the unraveling in my
personal life on screen. - If we were to barge into your trailers, what would we hear? What would we see as you prepare? - I have a load of drinks
and I have a lot of snacks. My thing is staying awake
and keeping myself interested and excited to act when I need to. So I have this thing and
I have nuts and chocolate and water and some apple cider vinegar. And I have caffeine, tons of caffeine. And I just medicate with my snacks. - I love it! - And I have a hot water bottle, so always, I snooze, I
have an ability to sleep. Even if lunch break is only 20 minutes, I'll just quickly eat and then
I'll always get unconscious. - Wow. - I have my paraphernalia, it's
uppers and downers basically but legal ones. (laughing)
Hot water bottle downer. And then you were just going, that is basically what
you're doing isn't it? I mean-
- Oh God, that's hysterical. - That's pretty much it!
(laughter muffling words) - How do you do it? - I love listening to film scores. Like I don't want to hear
music with lyrics or singing. Like for instance, with Homecoming, it has such a Hitchcockian vibe, right? So Bernard Herman and
the score for Homecoming is incredible and that's
what made me want to do it. Do it this season. And also Julia Roberts, you know, I'm thankful for women like her, you know, she executive produced
Homecoming and for her to say, "Yes, Janelle Monae, you
come and lead this show when not a lot of black
women are leading shows." I felt pressure in that
way, but I also felt relaxed in knowing that you had the
support of somebody like her and I want to make it so that
the nervousness that I felt like, "Oh my God," you know, "Julia Roberts was the first season. What are people gonna
think second season?" You know, "I'm this young
black girl never led TV before. What are people gonna
think?" So I freaked out. I don't want another person like myself to think like that again. I want the same freedom
that Julia probably felt. She had other pressures, but there are different
pressures when you know that you are that minority showing up. So one of the things that
helps alleviate that for me is music. When I'm going into a character, because I'm able to tap
into my imagination. I'm able to tap into where the
music takes me, the strings, all of that, like you start
thinking about the art. You're not thinking about doing a good job or whatever you're thinking about. This is the art, this
is my childlike self. This is a moment to reconnect
with "Why", the "Why", "Why are we doing this anyway?" You know, if it's not fun, if it's not going to
take you on a journey, what, what's, what's the why and how and score really does help
me tap back into my "Why." - I love that. When was the last time you
were genuinely star struck? Jen, I think I got to
watch you be star struck on the Graham Norton Show. - Oh my God, Julie Andrews? - Yeah. - That was, I, I mean, I just, I did that. I was star struck there 100%. - I met Julia Roberts
on the set of Homecoming 'cause my husband Bobby was in it and and I had a baby, my
baby strapped to my chest and I've never met her before. And I had her pretty woman
poster on my wall, you know, in Sydney, Australia. And there she was. I just was like, "Yeah, yeah!" Like
(laughing) Couldn't talk, couldn't talk! - The same, she showed up second season. I didn't know she was going to be on set. And we did a scene and
all of a sudden we heard a (screaming) and we were like, "Who is that?" And then one of the guys from
production leaned in and said, "I think she loves it,
that's Julia Roberts." And so I got an
opportunity to just hug her and that also made me relax. I was like, "Okay, Julia's, you know, she's, she's loving what she sees." And I think that was a big moment. - This is exciting. I, I'm, I'm proud of
myself for speaking at all 'cause I was very nervous. (laughing) But I think when I met Beyonce, I mean, that was, I think lost my cool. I just was like, my dad
even said it 'cause I was, I was with my dad at the
time and he was like, "Dude, you nerded out just then" I was like, "I know, she
probably thinks I'm weird!" - What about you Reese? - I get starstruck all the time! I'm such a fan, I watch so many people and I think that's one of the fun
things about being an actor is like, I can just be
as an audience member. So I watch all of y'all, each one of you and I'm blown by your work. And I, you know, just like
Zendaya, I was a kid actor and you know, the fact
that I'm still around and I'm still - And still looking like a kid. - Oh, you're sweet.
(laughing) And I have to say, I get star struck around authors 'cause they do that deep emotional work. And they dig into trauma. And I feel the same way about musicians. Janelle I'm just in awe of you
having all of these talents, writing beautiful music,
composing with people, creating visual art with your music but then also doing these
incredible intimate performances where you're really revealing
so much of yourself. It's, that's astounding. And I just, I never
want to lose that wonder that I have about human beings. Like I feel that they're all
and everybody has a story. It's so interesting to me. - Well and in your position, now you, when you're interested, you,
you call them up and say, "Let's do something together." (laughing)
- I've called a few of you! No, I think there's great
power in female partnership. I think we all have to stick together. The guys have been
sticking together forever and they've all been working
with each other forever and they've all made
seven, 10 movies together. And we haven't done
enough with each other. It's a new landscape for
all of us to collaborate and amplify each other and
just celebrate each other. - Helena, is there a moment
where you found yourself sort of pinching yourself? - Many, many moments. Many, many moments. It is a privilege in this
business that we meet our heroes. So many, many, many, Meryl Streep, she was amazing. And then I did this film Oceans Eight and it was just like every
single person was remarkable. Like there was Cate Blanchett,
that was Sandra Bullock. There was, it was just
like one after the other. And then Rihanna came in and
she just out-starred everybody because everyone was just like, and she's extraordinary. I mean, she just is
extraordinary in her, in her, in her magnetism. And she looks, she's a goddess. So many, many, many, many times. And as you know, like Reese, I don't want to ever lose that wonder, that part of me, she's absolutely right. And I, I hope she asked for my number and gives me a part or something. But it's, it's never been better for us. It never has been better for
us as women, as older women. I mean, we would have been long extinct. I would have been long put
out to pasture, you know, when I started. So it's just never been better for us, so we can do amazing
stories and just employ us and ourselves and just do
it and there's and everyone, we now know that everybody
is interested in all these, on, on humans of all
different shapes and sizes. And we have all these stories
and we don't have to be, they don't have to be
boring and stereotypical and very small. The world is huge and there's
so many stories to be told. - Thank you all for being part of what really was a
powerful conversation. I know we were all physically distant, but I hope that you felt
as I did, connected. Thank you.
