Full TimesTalks; Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci & Nora Ephron

yes I know there's nowhere to go but down thank you very much for being here everybody and thank you guys for coming to talk have a conversation about Julie and Julia so let's start with Norah because it all started with Norah in terms of this movie tell us what you what happened you opened the New York Times and read the Julie Powell piece and said I see it all know that no you know I didn't know about Julie Pell till I read about her in the New York Times Amanda Hester did a very funny piece about her and I read it and I thought as I do about pretty much anything what is this a movie and and I thought no no it's not and and that was pretty much it for a few months and then I don't really remember the exact time thing but a couple of months later Amy Pascal who runs Columbia Pictures said to me we're going to take the Julie Powell thing and put it together with a Julia Child story and the minute she said that I thought oh my god that's brilliant that's great then the next thing she told me is that they already had a writer on it just really sit but they wanted me to direct it but but I thought oh this all just hang in and maybe maybe something will happen to this writer ha ha ha and it did Oh God she got a big television series and she didn't have time to write it and I said well we can't wait for to find out what's gonna happen with this so I got to write it and that's how that's how my part of it began I love that um so when you when you started to write it did you how did you figure how to split the emphasis between the two women because I think we all know what we're talking about here the Julie Powell is a younger woman who wrote a blog for one year where she decided she would make every single recipe in mastering the Art of French Cooking and she wrote a blog about it and we all know I think who Julia Child is and if you don't I can't help you with this so just to bring us all up to date um tell me that tell us how you sort of split it in your mind between the two window well I knew what the timeframe was with both of them when one was gonna be one year Julie Pell and the other was to sort of take Julia from before she was Julia Child to before she was Julia Child in other word and take her from the person she was when she came to Paris to the publication of the book which is about a 10-year period and I outlined it the way you do anything just went you know first this and then this and and it was it took forever it was a really long process rather me writing a script the outlining took at least I don't know two of us is sort of like mr. twenty-two movies yeah and I kept splitting them up and trying to figure out anyway the point was the point was it took a while but and it was really hard but it was really fun I just love doing it was I had thousands of pages of Julie's blog printed out it was endless because they printed out all the comments too and and and then I had a lot of biographical stuff about Julia Child because she wrote so many letters and her husband wrote so many letters and everyone they wrote letters to saved all their letters apparently because they're all up at this lesson sure library at Radcliffe in this sort of in the cookbook trove that they have up there so so there were you know the Julia Child section of the movie is I could practically footnote every ten lines of it it came right out of what we know about her and and it was mom it was really funny maril did you always want to play Julia Child um yeah I wasn't a lifelong dream I always did want to be able to cook better than I do and and like most people I thought I could do you know an imitation of her but everybody has their little bit too you but I never um yeah imagine that there would be that she would be a film subject she was so vividly in our frontal lobe from TV and just from how she transformed cooking in the country and everything tell us how you prepared did you really do watch read well I read I read quite a few things but I read them as I was going so I think the performance is enhanced as the film goes on I was researching I mean we have you didn't prepare before or a little bit but I mean Amy and I finished doubt two weeks before shooting started on this we did the first reading while we were shooting Wow down and and Meryl came to the first reading dressed as Julia she did she did which I thought who said she came dressed as sister aloysious no well that's that's how I dress sorry so you came to the first reading dressed as Julia yeah I well I just I thought oh god I was wearing a nun's habit 14 hours a day and it's the most wonderful thing to play nun because you don't have to worry about your hair ever ever ever clean or dirty curly or straight you know it just didn't matter and I hadn't really looked at my hair in a long time and I did and I thought oh my god so I went and I actually have a little short brown wig from oh man I think it was one of the things we tried for Manchurian Candidate oh and my friend Roy Helland curled it and made it you know because for me to walk in with long blonde hair and my own tragic clothes it just the illusion at that first reading is everything and I thought it was just going to be actors and it was of course studio people who yes there were there were people I didn't know which means yeah business no actually I think it was mostly just the production designer and we didn't have anywhere from the studio you didn't mm-hmm never let them come okay good well I was worried and I thought you know it's as much for me to feel like her as anything else yeah just helped so he started that way so you came that way then when you started work on the film you watched I read yes I'm there was an I think it's an American masters documentary on her I looked at all the cooking shows I had is it Laura Shapiro's book which is just Julia Child I had a big big thick book no Riley Fitch yes it's light for life which I sort of loved just for all the back stuff in Pasadena her mother the story of the the eastern because she had such a I remember being shocked that she was from California because she had such an East Coast Brahman Seven Sisters vibe I mean something that I was quite familiar with and but it's an oven all of another age you know of a time that's archaic that's me sorry um but yeah i and i read her own book my life in france and really it was the videos that were most valuable and the shoes right these well I don't these are about the height you know that I wore like because I mean you have to be taller than Stan Lee and Stan Lee's actually taller than I am a little bit and so we I'm 64 so we did that Nora lowered the counters of things and fitter and made all the extras in Paris you know pass a yardstick test then we're tired I'm sure it was like shooting The Wizard of Oz probably lawsuits now yeah yeah we're not considered but anyway so Stanley I can i I know why somebody might want the challenge of playing such a well-known figure as Julia Child but for you this really is she was madly in love with him and their marriage was incredibly important and very much a part of who she was but your role is much more of a quiet role in many ways and so what drew you to this what made you want to do this I needed a job no I well Meryl had but talked to me we were at a party a few years ago and she had done The Devil Wears Prada she said would you would you be interested in playing my husband in this movie I'm playing Julia Child Nora's gonna do it would you say something and of course I said no said yes of course I would and we of year later or so you called called me and I was in New Zealand making a movie and I had the script and read it and and thought it was beautiful and loved I just loved the idea of working with Meryl again and working with Norah for the first time and I also loved the idea of bringing this story to life I had read Julie Powell's book which I thought was incredibly funny and amazing tasks really when you think about if you ever really looked at you know mastering the Art of French Cooking it's not it's not something you really want dive into I mean to to make your life better if we were to me if you want to make your life a true horror yeah that's what you would do and you'll see in the movie sometimes that happens but the I think for me that the beauty was was Julia Child because as a kid my you know I'm food obsessed and I had my whole family's food obsessed and as a kid I remember my mother watching Julia Child show and I remember being so moved by those shows I think at the end of each show when she do her bone Appetit because she so loved what she did and you saw in every gesture and in every inflection and I and I'll never forget it there was a very specific instance where I was almost moved to tears because there was such joy in her and I think that you may be unconsciously at later of course you realize that that's the way I'd like to live my life whatever it is you know whatever it is you choose to do but that's what she did and that's what she did for everybody you know that's what was there I think that's why we're all still fascinated by her yeah it strikes me that this might be sort of a good moment for us to see the clip that somebody could maybe move that towards so we can get just a little sense but up simply listen you must hold then I first of all like this race is uniform here Allah the end in the knife have won and the end the other hand you must protect it yeah you must cut only the onion yes not me and then you put yourself here and the other fingers here we you're being a little over competitive don't you think well you should have seen the way those men looked at me as if I were some frivolous housewife just looking for a way to kill time Wow where're you going it's not here hungry did you cry was intense I really I can't I'm such a bad onion chopper because I really start to just go blind and when I saw that fear I'm not know he must've just been weeping the crew was weeping usually that's a sign that you know you're really really good in this case you know but she she one thing that was really hard for me to learn was it you know I've been cooking forever and not well as I said but I put the knife you know the tip of the knife and hold it sort of against the cutting board but the way that they teach you I guess at the core don't learn in the way that she teaches you in the on the videos is that she chops like this you know the the tip of the knife doesn't stay anchored to the cutting board and it's very dangerous much harder much harder it's a Wilder chop you know and she did it with such confidence that took some practice yeah nor did you cook from did you cook Julia Child while you were writing this yes I did and and the truth is that I didn't make a lot of book bourguignon when I was young because everybody did it was like such a cliche of New York life in the 60s and but I made it last year for the first time in years and it is fantastic it's really great and yeah but I had the illusion that I had cooked my way through Julia Child I wrote that once about myself and then I looked at the cookbook when figuring out what she was gonna cook what we were gonna cook you know on both sides of it and I realized I had cooked you know I never knew quiche I never made a spec to make that kidneys I mean they're they're trillion recipes that you would never never make so and that chicken that Julie Powell is making with the Oh with the stuff with the cream cheese I know horrible but but some things I still cook from there including the recipe that we cook in this some chicken breasts with mushrooms and cream and port which takes about 35 minutes and it is sublime it's unbelievably great so you know I mean I always think in the end you end up with about two things you cook from a cookbook if it has the staying power to stay on your shelf you know you don't I mean how much you you know I like to cook the same things over and over again anyways all right yeah no wait we tried something we cooked I insisted I insinuated myself into Meryl's house I said look before we do this we have to cook together because you know I don't mean to be to know was my message I invited you it wasn't your idea it was my idea and I heard you take credit for that the other day too you picked the blonde captive oh yeah that was a mistake yeah I did we cooked blonde captive oh and it's still cooking yes that's how that's how that was another thing that everyone cooked but I never understood it blonde captive oh yes just a lot of work for not really yeah result that's not but the Navarone done yo daddies attend yes I dress the Lance to is the greatest yeah so there's a recipe in that cookbook for veal oral off that takes about a year and and I remember someone making it and and this sort of you know are you going to appreciate me enough look on her face as we began to get in nineteen sixty three or four whenever it was I mean it was so it's such a burden on the guests when things I love well like that duck thing that oh and then we all bond yucks we all learn to buy duck and I was the worst at it I would like to say that I was really bad at it it's hard it was hard well it requires patience and practice he's so the two of you to get the married thing so you cooked together tell us more about you know did you just well where we have stood opposite each other at a very popular charades game every Christmas that's right we're usually adversaries my team his team right and so we had the marriage thing down and it was good because her husband was able to watch and see it every every every yeah so yes there was it with you know I think when you feel comfortable with somebody you're friends with somebody you trust them it makes it much easier to play husband and wife as opposed to those jobs were suddenly or just show up and hi my name is Stan it's just and if you share a cheap sense of humor it helps a lot as Nora what kind of desk tied can so um we were talking earlier and Stanley was saying that he was offered this movie and said ah Paris how great and it was shot in Queens but we went to Paris except you're in Paris for about two weeks but how long were you in Queens I mean it was you know they did half a movie yeah and it was six weeks and four of them were in in Queens and then we had two weeks in Paris that was that's not a bad deal true I guess you not do half a movie I didn't think of it that way you did the home I did the whole movie but I got many trips to Paris because we had to be sure of where we're gonna so tell us tell us about Paris did you shoot in any restaurants because it looked sort of like I know I know but you know the weird thing is we couldn't find a restaurant in Paris that looked like 1950 in Paris there are millions in New York we should we shot Park Slope yeah wishing that was one yes with you Dorothy there's a wondrous one which was just seen with you know the Merrill sister which restaurant to remember Muhtar Oh guitar shah zafar yeah people have been in parsecs the one on island yeah yeah yeah or her sex on bar 6013 acoustic fantastic see they practically did nothing to to the interior Wow exactly like you know the 50s well that's not quite true oh well right I didn't have my glasses on a number they did a number of things so subtle that you didn't know that these great I really did look great so what was the upside of Paris let's hear some of the meals some of the what was one of the fun art where did you shoot what did you well first of the really fun part is that they don't they stop working at 7:00 in Paris no matter what what time to this donkey oh not not that early I mean the point is that that there's no long day in Paris so you end up at dinner every single night yet it was great did you all go together at night sometimes sometimes yes normally it was a good restaurant yes but then we'd always end up in the lobby of the hotel this very interesting hotel we were assassinating this the lutessa on the which is on the left bank again down the bowl I recommend it if you don't care about phone service but it was the right it was the Gestapo headquarters but so does everyone every good hotel we can't hold it against them no no but I'm had a weird vibe but you know there's no way it would have the studio was great to let us know I mean we didn't this movie cost 40 million dollars and and that's really making it for a price and I couldn't they had about 24 hours where the word Montreal came out of someone's mouth and I sort of pretended I didn't hear it I thought I'm not gonna get into a fight with them about it I'll just they said it now they feel good that they said it and and then but one of the tricky things about Paris one of the things that is interesting when you're scouting well maybe it is not interesting who knows what but is that you want to make sure when you're shooting there that it could not be Montreal right so sometimes we would find a very charming street and just reject it because because it could have been any one of those sort of froggy places right but you see in the movie you have some really gorgeous I mean you really took advantage of Paris and absolutely the right way with the amount of time you had in other words you have really sort of beautiful wide shots where there is no doubt that you were in Paris it's very clear you're not shooting anyplace else is really beautifully composed that you know also it's a period film it's amazing that you could you could achieve that and make I mean I guess Paris is one of the few places in the world you can you can shoot in the center of the city and not have any sign of 21st century amazing what one of the things that I thought was so compelling about the character of Julia Child in this movie was that what most of us I don't think really understood about her until she sort of appeared full-blown on the television set was that she spent so much of the early to middle part of her life not really knowing what to do with herself and I think I'd love it if you guys could talk about this a little bit because we have this fantasy I think that you know you graduate from college now and you're 25 and you know exactly what you're going to do for the rest of your life and you do it brilliantly and that's it and so many people don't really ever connect to a passion they're not quite sure what they do well it takes them a while and you know we can talk about Julia Child but Noir I've read you saying that you've you know you've been in that reinvention stage a few times I mean let's talk about that because I think you know for where everybody is in their career right now you start one way you maybe go another and you have to do this over and over again so I Stanley I know you're gonna be you're gonna Eve directed before you know big night one of the all-time great time great but you know maybe maybe you can talk a little bit about it because you start doing one thing you try doing something else you know I think that part of it is I think that Julia Child didn't know necessarily that she was a creative person that she was in essence an artist right and a teacher because of the the way she grew up and once she was given the Liberty to even think that maybe that's was that's who she was she was then able to execute it and and choose whatever she wanted and she was gay I mean she really was I suppose in a sense allowed to do this or given this lip the liberty but by her husband who had already by the time they got married had lived a very full life and he was that he was this sort of you know Renaissance man he was a painter was a photographer he was a curator he was a judo expert he was a he had been a teacher he was listening he was a cultural liaison he had been in the OSS and he was a really extraordinary guy so I think maybe just by example you know he showed that they were possible there were endless possibilities but I think the key thing is to allow yourself to really imagine that you are a creative person and once you do that the reinvention can't help but keep happening I think I mean I find it all the time I want I just want to keep trying different things they want to say well let me try to write a movie like this for the week try I'd like to do a play that maybe would be you know I mean you know you can't you can't stop yourself in a way yeah to ask us this question is just ridiculous because we're someone means Stanley's playing the most lovely loving man in this film and also he plays the child killer in lovely bones that what you were doing in New Zealand okay so I mean I mean I this was more fun I've never quite alighted on what it is that I do but because I never had to I have to be all these different people and dip into all these different lives with with just intense focus and imagining that I really am these people I mean there's just my what I think is remarkable is that someone can sit at a desk the same desk for you know a couple of months a year a couple of years 20 years I don't know how people do that ah so you know yeah I would I would have to invent myself again but I did I really fell into something great this acting gig because when you do it and it works well what what do you feel what do you feel that you're actually doing as as an actress when it works chopping well why didn't you don't think about what you you don't think about anything you're just being you know you're you're doing what you're doing you're kissing chopping writing you're not you don't you don't think about anything it's a very wonderful doesn't losing yourself in Wow and what it is so but you don't want to be a director do you do you you me yes hello well only to the actor she's working oh he's gonna say most of the directors I've worked with feel I have directed you know I'm a pain in the butt because I have so many opinions about everything but I do have a lot of opinions Goodwin well I think I do I just thought it was great but but I Nora I mean you've mentioned more movies than any of us oh you know what you have you've made a huge number of movies and you know Allah well I don't really know a lot because as you as I said I zone out into my thing and I really don't pay attention to all the other departments although I do pay attention to many that aren't any of my business but the great thing about working with Nora is that she well you are you mean you are the doors open for all sorts of ideas and we we through have a lot of little widget nonsense and well like what give us some examples although I love improvising I was gonna ask you I love improvising and they're great at it and not all actors are great at it and not alright I'm not alright earliest drafts particular advice but this is something I really that I learned because because because the you know the first movie I did was Silkwood and it was sort of at the tail end of paddy Chayefsky and there was this rumor that that if you change one word and Paddy Chayefsky z' dialog he got paid triple or something I can't remember what happened but something and and we all thought that's what it was supposed to be and and and I remember the first day of so would share change the line not for the better and I was really upset about it and by the way wasn't wrong but but really you know I mean and it but but anyway that's what I thought for a while and then then when I did when Harry Met Sally I suddenly thought I suddenly saw oh when you do a comedy you can't be like that because because the whole a comedy has to be alive and wide open all the time to any joke that crosses anyone's mind and so I just totally changed you can always get rid of it in them yeah you can you know you shoot it as it's written and then you say let's try something else it's just the appetite for will you know the willingness to have it happen in front of you is something that even if it's just a strategy to make the actors think they're wonderful it works yeah and it's really good I mean we couldn't improvise on Silkwood too by the way because it was you know they were all watching us I think there was a lawsuit and all this stuff they were watching you know Howard's is that his name who you know the guy that wrote in The Village Voice all of them oh never mind it's so many years ago I was but yeah but there were things about it that we had to tread lightly in the legal department so if you insinuated something I think we would have gotten trouble anyway that's how Mike explained it to me so it is well in this film give us an example of where maybe you did some improv and used it oh well right which we had the scene to show you because there's a scene of the two of them Julia is given the Larousse gastronomique for her birthday for her 50th birthday in fact and it's what started her cooking and she and Stanley are in bed about to go to bed about to make love and she's reading aloud from the cookbook we did this in rehearsal and and Merrill found a chicken recipe in it and and she said and you know it was all arranged in the script that Julia I couldn't really speak French and that Paul tailed was much better at it and and I'm going to ruin this line but but she says I don't know what this thing is a crease beignet like wash the thighs Stanley said and and then Stanley said and then stuff the hen until she just can't take it you know when when we're happens when you are the writer it would be very stupid to say what have you done I just wrote it down and put it into the final draft you know such we were amusing ourselves wait what time that's the beauty you know when you walk away from a movie and you say oh my god that was so much fun you know that things like that were allowed to happen and there's there is it ultimately a trust with Ed that everyone has with each other so how did you prepare to play Nora in Harper which I watched again having a hard time not flout her right now do it do norm no no no but yeah and I didn't really you know I give you give yourself an out when you're playing someone who's real and which is that it's not real it's a movie and you know it's its own entity it has its own you know you have to be able to fit into the body yourself has to be you and so generally I like to think that everything you know I like to trust my instincts I don't like to think about things very long or much and so and I am I do have a little bit of a sponge thing you know I do pick up people's the video sync receipt and I have a hard time not doing that you know like if I get off the plane in London immediately I'm talking like this my children did she do that I don't know you know but I can't help but I really I really can't help it and there are some people they can't help it crazy people it was it was well answered no thank you did Judith Jones arrived on the set or have anything to do with the machine to jazz meeting I was the editor of mastering the Art of French Cooking and who she's a doctor with noon and she's a character in the Yeti but did she come did you get to meet her she came to the first reading and I met her there it is really terrifying because she was Julia's re-open her with the real thing and you knew her and and uh you know that's the it's in those moments that you do feel like you're treading on someone's grave I mean I really felt oh god please don't let me blow this you know no one knew Isak Dinesen but there were people who remembered Karen Silkwood and Emily and it's in those moments you just don't want to screw anything up but I wanted the freedom to to imagine all the lumps and bumps and things that were there and to do that you just can't worry too much right but she Judith Jones read my drift and gave me notes on it and she was fantastically helpful I loved her I've always loved her and she wrote a great cookbook I mean she end of her book yeah yeah and and she actually gave me a great note about there was a moment in the there's a moment in the movie when when Julie's cookbook is rejected and I had in an earlier draft had Julia Child cry and she said she just wasn't like that and and it's what makes that scene work and I think that no dude this is Oslo the Oslo yeah but you know the other thing is the more you do research the more contradictory but I've read another book that said she cried often and easily really yes you know so what do you do yeah I mean you have to sort of jump in and imagine this person probably it's not self she's not a self-pitying sort of person there comes up there comes a point there comes a point eventually where you have to just kind of let it go you can do all the research you can talk to all the people you can do the things but eventually you just kind of have to make it up after that okay and trust that you have that information that you otherwise you'll drive yourself completely right and you'll be second-guessing yourself at every moment and you'll never be in that place where you're not thinking because that's what you have to get yes where you have to get to right so so many people go to the movies or to the theater to see both of you guys who do you go to watch I'm just astounded by the in terms of actors act the range of talent and the the numbers of really really talented actors that are applying themselves wholeheartedly to material that just isn't worth it I mean it's true just incredibly wonderful inventive invested work but the stuff that gets made and this isn't a dish on writers the writers are out there they just can't get the the stuff bankrolled I guess and who knows if we would have been able to make this film in this economic climate we well and we got lucky because of Prada and Mamma Mia which which gave the studio a lot of confidence the people wanted to I'm not sure that four or five years ago I mean it's no I know it's so weird yeah Lukie yeah and every time you try to make a rule for it there isn't one yeah yeah talk about reinvention I mean it's the business is constantly trying to reinvent itself depending on you know what was just very successful at the box office and that's that's a hard thing for it can be like this timing was perfect maril stock had climbed because of those two movies and so you could make this movie about Joey child but you're right probably five years ago you wouldn't make I'll do it so crazy a really when you think about it yeah um earlier this week you went to the White House and we want to hear every detail we want a who's version version I want to hear what she was wearing I want to hear every version but you start you're not gonna tell me what she was wearing but I want to hear yeah and if if the kids there and if the president came and where it was and all okay we'll take a little peek I'll take a little piece then we'll go around so we all get to say some okay um okay first of all they were so excited to meet me I never thought they'd make it from the screen we were I mean luck we're lucky we were told this a couple days before the junket day before the junkie or something wish you'd in Westchester Sony was kind enough to fly us down on their nice jet from Westchester Airport we get to the White House we're all making jokes about you know do you have your photo ID and all that stuff cuz no one's gonna know who you are then we go in and it was I mean it couldn't have been really more relaxed and we were very tense of course but got a little tour and then she came down a tour of a tour kitchen the kitchen which is teeny yeah tiny really unbelievable and it's not even on the same floor as where they serve dinners there's a dumbwaiter with like a rope I'm kidding but you know there's lovely gentleman gave us a tour and and then she came down looking as radiant I mean just she's stunning let's face it she's stunning and she's very tall and very tall beautiful no not quite that not quite no but I had these shoes on all right some like them you know very fancy and I was wearing an American flag dress yes I was we were I did I made that choice and she had on little black pants and little black cardigan and sort of some very extremely hip beads cure hair straight back and flip-flops real yeah and we were eye to eye so she's tall she's still really beautiful and gracious my husband kissed her three after the second one I thought he's going in again he wasn't even in the movie yeah well you tell the story of the last time you're in the White House and no no oh my that was another administration oh oh come on come on oh I can't it'll take the whole day I learnt it all shorten this story it's okay we have time oh he'll kill me no I can't is he here no but he's waiting for me we won't tell him no one will tell him it's on the website he'll check ok I can't I know it's a great story but let's get him to tell us yeah ok but norsu when you met them yes you know well I mean we were we were beyond uncool yeah we were we were on a road trip just we were quivering all the way down and and and gonna crush you've got you have so little time for them to know how important you might be in their life if only you could connect to them anyway the point is that after after we all kissed Michelle and she is very affectionate she's unbelievably warm and lovely and hugged us all and then I met her mother and practically started to cry and and told her mother that she'd done a very good job yes yeah that's what she didn't like you need to be home you need to be don't you directed Michelle Obama's mother Ohio is she walked across the room and she said to me I love you and I peed that's what that's what's known as all the news that's metaphors but then you see after after we had all had our picture taken with Michelle and we were gonna go see the movie he turned up yeah so tell ya so we were basically we showed the movie to her and a lot of White House staff and all the ships in the White House so that was really good on screen but anyway he turned up to say hello and pretended he had to go past the health care thing an excuse but anyway we were very excited when he turned up cuz he is you know he's and he was beautifully briefed you must admit he knew everybody's credits and and and made us all feel that I mean you know we were so excited to be there I personally have been boycotting the White House for eight years no one has noticed this you know I was happy to be here because I just you know it was it's a it's a wild and amazing thing that those two people in a White House so and then we showed the movie and they all said they liked it but who knows and but they do need we need to take up a collection because that screening room I'm at work I know I got it I've already made the first Laurel why tell us what's the matter the screening room which it turns out was built during Reagan ah is a very long it's a very long narrow screening room I mean that the point is that that's how old it is and it's a museum you know shooting range shooting yeah way way far away in the distance and in the few screw small yes it's sort of like watching it in the sixth grade watching our friend the honey bee or something it's there and in 70 feet away and and all the speakers are there are there there are no speakers anywhere else I know all the words I couldn't understand the man name why did she say well you're fixing this yeah and you're doing I am fixing it yes you know the movie started and I I knew going in I thought this is something will be wrong and I'm just gonna be calm about it because no one will know that something's wrong then we started with sort of soft we focus with sort of sauce that Stan Lee will know that the focuses the timing was off to what that was is so I thought I found then the second we started and everyone was cut off here god I thought well I have to go speak to the projector so I climbed up to the I went back out of projection room and opened the door and the poor projections you can't there was a ladder to get into the projection room and there was no air conditioning and it was about a hundred and ten degrees and all everything is going around and around so then after I've had him readjusted I stood in the back to see what it was like in the back and are you couldn't hear in so so but we are going to get all the studios to make the MPAA fix it because we should have a good screening room in the way because they're gonna be like oh they're gonna be there for eight years well it is now time to let some of you ask questions of the people on this stage so what's gonna happen is they're gonna put mics on each of these aisles and the only way you can ask the question is to get up and stand at the mic oh so now you how to do you get up and stand there and can we just ask I know that you know it's very tempting let's have no soliloquies no long speeches let's have briefs and to-the-point questions in the spirit of the journalistic endeavor that is the new york times g in the street with the prelude from a street you said in 77 when you made julia that jane fonda when you because you were beginner was incredibly kind to you so what i have the question i have for both of you is with you being veterans many years later now when you have people who are starting their careers how do you give them support Oh so we're me at first yeah I'm very motherly and and protective of the young actors and I always feel that they're being exploited in some way and sort of this is another department I get into then I'm not supposed to really but I I do have that feeling I see especially with the young girls how how they feel some pressure to fit the 0-0 ideal of you know sort of models and they have to sort of fit a glamorous mold and I want to say to them beauty is as Beauty does you know that it that there's so many interesting women to portray and that it's actually sometimes limiting to enter the magazine cover horse race because everybody ends up looking alike so that's one little speech I give them it doesn't make a damn bit of difference it's just it's really just about ultimate I mean it's the way you should treat everyone but it's about being kind and you know helping them if they if they're nervous or they're whatever but I think I think one of the things that you did I always try to do is to kind of show them by example that they they should be serious about what they do but they mustn't take themselves seriously because if they do or too seriously because if they do it's it's all over I mean really you're you you'll be miserable and your career will never really be what it what it could be I mean I think that's there for maintenance yeah I always try to make one big whopper of a mistake the first day too so that they know wow you know she forgot her lines another they don't feel so bad I mean I'm not really actually trying to forget my life it happens and then everybody relaxes a little bit yes hi my name is Clarinda and I just wanted to say real quickly that stanley tucci ow I loved you and shall we dance with Richard Gere that was a great movie like her but my question is for a Meryl Streep and Nora Ephron I'm huge fan I grew up in a small town in Oregon and in 1973 and 74 when I was in high school they built a nuclear power plant just outside of my hometown and I remember all of the protests and fights and all of the whole things so we all know who Karen Silkwood was and I wanted to know MS Efron and of course Mara what drew you to do this story very important story about Karen Silkwood it's one of my favorite movies thank you well maril was interesting yourself on that is could you please turn it off if if they hear it we can be the only ones who hear thanks good third I'm typing it Meryl was interested in doing it and we had a mutual agent Sam come who died recently and was just a fantastic agent and he called me up and said that Meryl wanted to do it Mike wanted to do it no no no no can I trust this woman in any way no no no Michael until we got to me no no no first we met long before I even wrote anything okay yeah anyway Niro was Meryl with kindness she'd read an article something or other so I thought well this this will be interesting and it seemed like you know I had been a journalist so it it was um and I did it with Alice Arlen and you know I I still can't believe we got to make that movie because she was a you know she was a she was a very complicated young woman and and it was very helpful when we were writing it knowing that Meryl wanted to do it we felt we could really go and do what we wanted to do and that it would be alright so that was it's not a much of a political answer but it wasn't I you know I don't I think it was more than it was a great story I'm not a big believer that movies have much political effect impact on the way people see the world oh yeah humanize political events I then bring things thanks very much thank you I my question is - Nora Nora after Julia Child's passed away there were allegations about her being a spy I have just wondering if in your research that come up at all or is that something that didn't you choose not to put in a movie um no no it's very well known the this thing that came out last year that she was in the OSS was common knowledge and it was reported by all the newspapers as if it was something new it was it was absolutely it's in all the books about her she was very open about it but she was really a clerk she was not a spy as you might imagine I mean can you imagine and I don't think Paul child was either I mean but they she had access to classified material she was you know she was a file clerk in the OSS and so and we we have a scene where it's discussed in the movie because that's how they met we were both in the OSS right yes questions for Morrow first I love you you know like with Julia with the cooking do you have like some deep passion for besides acting acting do you have a passion like well I just had a birthday and my friend Joe Gavazzi gave me a concertina which I call Tina and I'm obsessed with this and everybody in my family is about ready to move out that's my new thing but no I know I know I'm not a really very good cook and I have serial obsessions in my in my work so at home I'm pretty boring actually I'd like to just try men here about not being a good cook I saw you interviewed recently about this movie saying that you learned how to get the smell of garlic did you try I haven't but tell tell everybody what I'm talking about because what is he's I've been going for 30 years she would you find out is what I want to know Julia Child in her show did by the way if you wonder if you want to get the smell of garlic and onion off your hands you can wash forever with warm water and soap and nothing will never come off you can rub lemons it doesn't come off if you take salt and rub the salt into your fingers and rinse under cold water it's sweet it really works I can't wait to try it yeah that was on one of her shows yeah yeah yeah I have a question for mystery you had such a long career and I want you to pick your favorite movie but if you could choose a movie that showed you craft for someone was not maybe followed all your movies and and if you pick one that showed you craft which one oh gosh well craft hmm there's a word there's a word that we're not supposed to talk about but you know what I think craft is is stamina and willingness and curiosity and stamina it's really the ability to when you don't feel like it do the 8 show in a week on stage it's something where that actors understand people and and people sometimes look down on it like it's a lesser thing when I say I lose myself in these parts that's sort of like when you learn to ride a bike and then you can take your hands off going downhill that's really fun but you have to learn how to ride the bike first and it's not that much fun while you're learning sometimes but yeah I don't know what shows that to me everything shows that the biggest like death becomes her shows my craft because I detested being against a green screen and talking to a light fixture you know for a computer I don't even know what I'm talking about grid I couldn't move outside the grid because my head was going to go around in the lab and I found this tedious in the extreme it was just the opposite of acting that's where my craft came in it and my good upbringing and my mother's voice saying you're so damn lucky just go to work and do it that's craft yes this is for Merrill also um this is a thrill so thank you very much but I just um this is a good follow-up I think um in terms of all the things that you've done you've had to learn so many things it seems you've had to learn how to row and learn these accents and learn how to cook and so as a follow-up what was the most was the thing that was the most fun to learn and what was the hardest for you the hardest was the violin and I thought it wasn't so hard until I realized that I was going to have to play onstage with Isaac Stern Itzhak Perlman Joshua Bell and just before we were going to do this I signed on to this movie music of the heart because they told me it would have a silent that have silent strings and I could just I thought I can do that you know I have four wigs I can learn how to do that and then they realized that even if you have a silent string it makes a noise so I had six weeks to learn the Bach double concerto which I did learn and I played and but before I played because I thought okay I'll be in front of all the kids the kids you know and the good musicians will drown out the bad thing and Isaac Stern motioned me into the maestro's room off of Carnegie Hall stage which is you know where Toscanini lived in everything I mean it was ridiculous and he sat in a chair in the corner like this and he said play it I said by myself he said yeah I want to know who I but I'm gonna be playing with and I just freaked out that was the absolute hardest thing I've ever done and were the most fun and the most fun was learning to scull learning that one person shell you know in the opening of the river wild she's in a skull you know one of those Ekans things yeah cuz one I'm a rower so that's wonderful for you to say it was great thank you very much hey did you I got asked a question did you play the violin at all ever prior to this now but Merrill how did you do I ran say something I had to play the violin in a movie once thank God a movie that no one's ever seen including myself and that's true and I was taking lessons with these students of Juilliard in preparation for this and I cried every lesson I was brought to tears until I finally said I finally got this one very simple piece that was written for the for the film that I could leak out that's extraordinary well but you have an extraordinary great teacher sandy Park who was on our film as well doing music I saw her around there and she's a great violinist and she came in she cried she cried every day she called she listened to what's amazing buzzy that's amazing yeah it was fun sorry good evening first of all I like to thank you mystery this past year helped me discover my passion film I was going down one path and finally found my love and I've question for Miss Efron a mystery what advice do you have for young woman going into film don't do anything you don't want to do um done don't take a note from someone who doesn't like your work how do you know how do you know but in your business you detail who do you believe you can run no no but I mean the point is that if someone's them that means if someone reads something you've done and they really have a lot of problems with it they're not going to help you mm-hmm if it may not be fixable but the last person is gonna be able to help you as someone who doesn't get what you mean what are you a yes from and doesn't care or something like that that's and by the way that's chemical sometimes people just can't they're never going to get you never never never and you have to as an actor give up you know the desire to reach everybody even you in the last seat you know sometimes it's just not it's not going to work because we all have these visceral reactions to each other and we have these you know instant likes and dislikes and sometimes it's just you're not going to be the vehicle for someone's revelation or something let me ask you something both of you have you ever had to play a character who just didn't really connect with that you didn't really like that it was hard that you were having bad chemistry with the person you were supposed to be well you um no no I can say that you can be I can be well maybe the lovely bones was the toughest was the toughest one for me I had it had fur there was the toughest one I mean even having played you know Adolph Eichmann I could find something and they were the real human I mean there were elements of him that when you read about him there was there were little anecdotes that humanized him and the fact they made anyway that was the hardest I had to dig dig dig dig deep and and then you could you could let it out just for little moments at a time and then you had to completely no because and also I mean I I altered myself physically like completely but that was the only other way I could do it too I didn't feel that he he would look like me given the story in the way it was you know constructed but that was the heart that was the hardest one did you have one like that Merrill um I liked everybody pretty much that I've played except it's true um except there was once I tried to be in a noir film um Robert Benton directed a film called God Oh still of the note bingo and that was one where my entire job was to be beautiful and I just I just didn't know how to do that you know to hit the light in the right place so that the glint would go off that blond pageboy I mean it just drove me nuts it was so boring and I found I found I tried to make an inner life for this character but there just didn't seem to be any and it was really that was hard that was really hard yes hi ma'am hi I'm a big fan and thank you I was just wondering um where is your favorite place to shoot a movie wow that's really hard the last favorite place I had was really on the island of skull poloz which was really great in Mamma Mia that was beautiful you should make your mom and dad take today because that little church that really exists up there a monk built it and he cut the stairs all the way up and it's it's really an amazing place of beautiful thank you yes Merrill um Bridges of Madison County is like my favorite movie of all time so I was just wondering I know you say you really get into your characters and I was just wondering on that one of the last scenes when you're holding that doorknob if in your head you really felt Francesca made the right decision not to go to the car I think she probably made the decision that for her made was the only one she could make you know given the woman that she was and yeah I think so hi hi my name is Jessie um I'm just really excited to be here love all three of you um my question is all three of you are amazing huge what what makes it you know um you guys aren't that hey I mean what what um no I love all three of you what you know what meet you humbles you what what makes you feel family live I really love it and yeah every day every day I mean I think that people have this idea often people have this idea that you have lots of people who do lots of things for you and you don't really do any of the mundane whatever and this is untrue in fact I have friends in the audience sitting here we have seen me do everything and still do it all I know I know you do it's remarkable to me that in my house I am the only one really apparently who's qualified to clean the kitty litter maybe you need 15 nominations I am the only one that does that Wow the best to clean it yeah thank you very much you're welcome hi thank you so much for this wonderful evening my question is really practical and it's for the street as an actor what do you do physically stay in shape you've had to dance you've been you know all these different things do the regimen you follow you're working or not working she comes into my dressing room and drinks martini I start out in good shape at the beginning I don't really stay in shape wait'll you see this movie I'm not in shape there's always a struggle you know to remain fit but you know I just feel better I guess when I do walk or swim or something but when I'm working it's really hard to have get any exercise the days are very long really long in some cases so you know you don't really you don't get to do that and it affects more your mental than everything else your mental state of mind when I'm when I do I have a plateau I have plans we'll see yes hi first of all death becomes her totally paid off oh do you ever worry about like playing Julia Child like not like messing up a total way not doing her she's Julia Child yeah but you know what I thought too I always find myself a little out I'm playing in this film someone's idea of her Julie Powell who wrote this book never met Julia Child and only knew her from the voice that came through the books and on television so she didn't really know the woman and I felt in a way that gave me some license to be Julie's idea or ideal idealized Julia yes yes I think you guys might be the last two cuz we're just about at 8:30 question is for Stanley Tucci I loved you and shall we dance did you do the dancing yes and I was very excited to do that movie because I like that I like the role Lots I was very funny extreme and bizarre and I also thought I'm so excited I'll actually learn how to ballroom dance I've always wanted to learn how to do it well I still can't because I had to learn various those very specific routines in the film you have oh my god sheekha coming you're gonna have to get out huge ballroom dance yeah yeah it's great and it's but I only learned those routines which were very extreme and bizarre while Richard was of course really learning to ballroom dance in an elegant tuxedo and so anyway but I did do the dancing for for better for worse yes hi see all of you I'm a big fan of all three of your work um thanks again and my question is actually for MS Efron miss Streep two separate questions though um is that front because - my favorite films are When Harry Met Sally and out of Africa so respectively When Harry Met Sally is I think the best romantic comedy that has been written and I just was curious if when you were creating this work if you were sort of aware that it becomes such a part of our you know culture and just sort of this film that I think where I imagine I'm not a writer actually but on that many writers have looked to you we're sort of tried to MU and a second question I'm low nervous I'll just get it out there um ministry also a tremendous fan and do love your work in out of Africa did you come across I guess my question is did that film find you or did you sort of find it did you come across as a Tennyson's work or did someone sort of present you with the material and you were um I really had no idea that when Harry Met Sally was going to be what it's become I mean it's still alive it's an amazing thing and absolutely not and I remember very clearly one day we were shooting the scene in cafe Luxembourg where they're trying to fix up Bruno Kirby and Meg and Billy Crystal with Cam Fisher and instead instead and and it really was a great day it was really fun and I walked home and thought oh you know maybe this movie is going to be good who knows and and at six o'clock seven o'clock I went to dailies to see what we had shot the day before it was the last scene in the movie it was the first time we shot the last scene in the movie we shot it many times and it was the worst thing I've ever seen and I went home and thought this is going to be a grotesque personal disaster that's what it is when you make a movie and that's just from the writers point of view then you know I mean it's a whole other thing when you're the director it's even more but but no absolutely not no but Sleepless in Seattle because it was about movies that last I did sort of thing to myself it would be nice if this movie became one of those movies that last I did think Out of Africa came to me from my great agent Sam Cohen who told me that Sydney did not think that he had submitted my name but Sydney didn't think I was sexy enough to play Isak Dinesen I may not be sexy enough to play Marilyn Monroe but I probably could you know so I went to my local Bradley's which is by couturier it's since bankrupt and I got a dress that was about 15 dollars set off the shoulders and I patted and this was the before they had power bras or what do they call those push-up he's like my sartorial yeah guru anyway Prada thing right um I just haven't worn one in a while and I patted the bra and I wore the low-cut the off-the-shoulder thing to meet Sydney when it worked

Channel: Lisa Wang

Views: 125,540

Rating: 4.8236661 out of 5

Keywords: Meryl Streep (Film Actor), Full, time, talks, interview, Stanley, Tucci, Nora, Ephron, Julie, Julia, child, Powell

Id: 5Oqo_fFCkps

Length: 85min 5sec (5105 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 10 2012