Melissa McCarthy & Lupita Nyong'o - Actors on Actors - Full Conversation

[Music] so I watched can you ever forgive me and I thoroughly enjoyed your allowance what you know when I heard that you were doing a dramatic row I was like oh I wonder what that's gonna be like because I think often times we fall we were very territorial of our comedic actors especially you know and rigid with with them almost so to watch you do that role and for it to be actually very seamless you know I and what had occurred what occurred to me is that with all your roles that I've witnessed you take your character seriously and seem to really take their circumstances to heart and your role seemed to come from a very heart honest place I would say so I just wonder for you I'm sure you've been getting this a lot what the the difference is if at all in doing dramatic and comedic roles I think there's no difference to me at all that's like I did all the play yeah I spent years in New York doing plays and they were all very dramatic like the darker the better it never occurred to me to do anything comedic in a play it's like never what I was I was also always trying to do characters that were like you know 80 like I did tripped him I kept trying to do trip to bountiful but I wanted to play the like 90 year old woman and I was 20 it was like that's just weird and I'm like but I feel hurt like they were like no you're not doing that you haven't also I have a super old lady Solo in me but there's no there's no difference I feel like the preparing for it and and even how I kind of fall in love with them there there's no change and I think even when it is like a comedy I still always like I spend a lot of time which maybe this is weird like thinking about like even if they're super happy and bubbly I always think oh it's a defense mechanism like I think all these outer things even if it's super Pleasant or funny I still think it's kind of I guess I have a bit of a fascination with defense mechanisms I'm like what people do to kind of how they present themselves and even with comedies I always kind of think about what breaks their heart and what are they hiding and I think we all do that I think it's the yeah we all do it yeah we are all the thing in its opposite yeah for sure as well yeah I mean do you I mean yeah like do you do you see in like each character do you think you prepare the same way that's like a way to do it or is it kind of driven by the character itself I mean in my mind what I always am looking for I'm always trying to be more orderly than I am I was raised by a Capricorn my mom is she believes in like order and organizing and planning ahead and all that and and so do you have any of that I mean I have it because of her she's like the the thing on my shoulder I think I'm more drawn to chaos but I think it's like it's this negotiation between right the person wants me to be the person that I am you know and so I think that's the tension that I find in myself so I I set off to do things in an orderly manner but I don't think there's any real order in creating a life you know so it it never goes according to plan I mean I make lists you know I'm gonna do this and then I'm gonna do this and I never follow that list because at the end of the day I think what keeps me going is like just a curiosity and sometimes and curiosity doesn't have a plan really now I think hey ass is better for for creativity right not easier but probably better yeah you always like trying to seek order you know as you go along but it's never orderly hey do you agree it's never orderly and thank you I can say all the things I want to do and even preparing but I've never once done it according to any kind of plan it's always like a word or a phrase or something about that person that I kind of start to obsess over yeah and it kind of floods out and the different wei-yin at the end I always feel like I've done about all the same ish things but I kind of never know I did it until it's done and I'm like oh yeah I guess it all happened we're finished shooting yes I mean they have do you know what that was for the Israel the thing that was a kernel that open it up for you I think I think I was really drawn to her I kept thinking of her as an armadillo and then I also thought like I've played a lot of kind of aggressive women that really are like for like forward moving like I go forward first I say something before you say something I push first inle I just always got the feeling which is very opposite for me mm-hmm so I was fascinated with it then I always kind of felt like she was just like laying and wait and if she was still enough like an animal like maybe they'd go away because she would just in my head she had such little patience for people yeah that she certainly could bite verbally she was so witty and caustic mm-hmm but I felt a lot of times I could with her head set and just kind of always I was kind of driving people away and I thought for me that still I'm a more I'm kind of a spazzy energetic person so just playing that different weight of like I'm not moving or showing you that I'm alive it's kind of like when an animal plays dead I always thought leave is just like if I stare away from them and keep my headphones on that person who keeps trying to talk to me probably go away so it was such a nice different energy to play yeah what's your relationship for the how armadillos I don't know I guess something like curl up in a ball and like I'm so kind of like ah like I'm I don't have a lot of great probably protective shield so I just thought it was so interesting that you know kind of yeah guarded I find myself in a rather criminal position I can't fathom what criminal activity could possibly involve except a crime a fashion force I mean embellishing documents now I want to ask you when when you start something like Black Panther mm-hmm did you first of all did you have an immediate reaction to what that was going to mean for the world and what it would mean for everyone seeing it that it was a first of a first of a first and then I guess secondly I want to know like how insane do you find that that it's a first in so many ways hmm yeah right right well I recall getting the phone call from Ryan this was about I want to say mmm good eight months before we started shooting before it became an actual no it must been even longer than that a year perhaps and you know he walked me through his idea his pitch for the story and you know it was seemed very politically acute for sure and I was just I said to him like are you making a Marvel are you have they greenlit this are you just talking yeah you know and he was like no they have green green at this and I had never seen this kind of movie you know especially in the genre of this fantastical genre that was dealing with so much that was so rich and and and dangerous you know that's actually talking about some real issues and doing so with within the the world of these fantastical hero so you know having it be that relevant and current yes and still a fantasy I thought was such a smart and fascinating way to do that right exactly and it's exactly the place where such a thing should exist right and so it was the first sign and I'd known Ryan for a little bit I had met him as we were both promoting 12 years a slave and Fruitvale station and I felt from him that he was a man of deep integrity and a man who works from God you know real God and it was this was a story he wanted to tell to really unpack his relationship with a continent that he had never been to a continent that he belonged to somehow and historically and one that he had a very ambiguous and complex relationship with and he was gonna do that through this story so the how personal it was was a was the first sign that this was going to be different because there was a visceral nature to his attack of the the world of the black panther and then you know that I haven't seen a script and I didn't see a script until much later I mean we had six weeks of preparation before we started filming and that's when I saw this script really yes so I signed on blank Wow with the faith in in and Ryan right and so to read the script I mean I was like okay this is different this were the precipice of something very different the political climate had changed and he had had this idea in the Obama era and suddenly this thing was resonating in such a new and and just urgent way to the knee strangely maybe better when it came out yeah it's um it didn't feel like it was maybe for tragic reasons better it came out when it did that if it had come out four years three years earlier yeah yeah because yeah exactly and they say artists really speak to the future you know yeah and that's what he was doing so I had a sense of course none of us could tell what it was gonna do and what exactly how people were gonna take it and own it we could not have imagined or predicted the droves that would go to cinemas dressed to the nines you know in all their traditional garb around the world you know that it was gonna cross generations I went to Nigeria shortly after the film came out and nightly Africans are not moviegoers that's not where we are remain source of entertainment but it had been three months since the film came out and people were still going and they were going with their grandmothers and their granddad sarony you know it was incredible what now what do you think when when it was first before it became you know the unbelievable success it it became what were the predictions were you getting the insane things where I have a bit of a fascination with like when people try to dictate or predict of like this won't play well internationally this probably won't do that and I always think well that I always think you can't make any of those a statement see that was the fear and we all felt it no not the fear but the concern it was the pressure that was on us and we all felt it as a cast as a crew you know producers you know this was you know that it was predominantly black cast you know in a universe that has been quite Caucasian or as long as you know the Marvel Studios has existed we there was a concern you know of like will this will this you hear it often said oh that you know films with by people don't sell and it's been displaced out many times that's my real question exact when you hear that are like you can't have two women in a movie like the world's gonna dissolve or you can't have an all-white right that's right I mean did you ever just were you ever in the room where you're like based on what like you're talking crazy well that no you never I never really heard it sent to me straight you know so it's something that you hear in the ether and you hear it being said they say they say who's saying I want to see the paper with the numbers on it exactly and so you know so but that's why I feel like all of us committed to this film very personally yeah you know and it was not just the main cast of extras who were going through a whole lot there was a time when in one of the scenes we were tethered to the cliffs of it and basically meant that we had to spend hours upon hours there and people would bring us water and snacks and stuff but we could move and you know in certain circumstances you many people would leave then and not come back if they didn't have to and they came back you know they just kept coming back because it was like something things we'd never seen that you had this opportunity to go to her ship you know yeah total total on ownership and then and not just reverse the world first such a predominantly black cast also how women were portrayed in that movie was so incredibly strong and fierce I brought like we all went I think within the first my family mm-hmm I think the second day it opened yeah and I was so proud to have my girls I've an 11 and 8 year old to see to see that world to see the world in which I want to live in and then also for them to watch the women portrayed in that movie I just thought that doesn't happen like on two fronts that just kind of broke every every bad meeting where people say you can't really do this I was it just crushed Black Panther just crushed all right you can attend over our nation to a man who showed up here only hours ago he is of royal blood he killed some ritual and again you know because Ryan is a feminist himself and that was one of the first things he said you know he wants he wanted this film to to show the women women like the women he grew up with and the women he grew up with were are strong and multi-talented and multifaceted and and involved and so he was keen to have that happen and then he - he's what I love about him is that he's humble enough to - to seek the counsel and help of those around him and to hire artists and stuff whom he can trust to bring more to the table than he might have even imagined to be collaborative like that right oh I think you oh don't you think you always get a better product mm-hmm and a better experience and and you feel it when you watch it yeah like this is not just one person's idea of what is you get this whole world of like the I don't know the community right you and I feel like it comes through the screen yeah and I think like you you've done theater and stuff I think that's more the norm in theatrical experiences because everybody has to hold down their own live usually and like you really have to rely on people and in film I think sometimes that can be missed that you know the the the fact that this is actually a joint effort yeah that's a team for sure we always say you know best idea wins everybody like you know it doesn't matter where an idea comes from I'm like all still anyone's idea yeah like I'm so I'm such a fan of like is this not working and here that's me what's not working and it's like anybody can say like what about this and I think when you start working like that yeah that's kind of like that's how I want sets and I guess the world right I'm loyal to doctrine no matter who sits upon it what are you loyal to I loved him I loved my country too I would love to know about your experience with can you ever forgive me whether you had whether your experience was collaborative and you know how you worked with the director on that mari heller who directed can you ever forgive me was like every dreamy adjective that you could give someone she was incredibly she knew exactly what she wanted visually tonally we had talked about it quite extensively and I think it's always exciting when you talk to someone and you really know that you're seeing the same thing and like you're not you're not going to get there on set and then someone's like you're kind of wacky and really just even in how we were how we wanted to show New York City during the 90s and how we wanted those bookstores to look and everything we'd really talked about it and she has such a clear vision of what she wants but what's so amazing is that she's completely collaborative mm-hmm and if we want to try something or even if you're just like I'm not feeling that this is landing right it's it's like let's do what's right for this moment instead of like she did she didn't need to be right mm-hmm which i think is usually the case when people are really good at what they do right I don't think there's the fight for like I have to be right I have to prove I'm right she's like well let's let's figure out what feels good for everybody so it was this kind of great feeling of leadership and guidance with a really light touch and completely flexible to change at any moment and then I think you can just like I know it's it's nice too it's it's such a gift to work like that because I feel like I can turn off my kind of because I didn't produce that I can turn off my producer brain and just be like I don't have to do any of that right schedule stuff my problem I'm just gonna actually do the scene and I really really trusted her that she would come in and she would come in with like one or two words and it was always something that I I loved the calibration of it and I was like oh I do want to try that like that's that's good I always think it's exciting when because it just makes you relaxed right so much more when you don't you think when you really know like they're really watching I'll push in the directions that I'm feeling but right I actually love when someone comes in and is like what if you don't want them to know that you're upset or like I love a little note yeah it's like yeah it's not completely changing your performance it's a little like thing for you out of my brain I always love those yes but you're giving you that extra layer that extra spice in it yeah but like so you you now we we work both as a producer and actor in your work as well as just as an actor like you did with this what is your relationship with control oh no I like it I'm a big fan of it I think stress like for what we do I I think you I think I love every aspect of it so much I want the sets to be right I want this to be what I want to talk about where is that light where's this and not in a not in a maniacal my way the highway work but I really love it I think I will sit and talk about the rug that like the you know art director wants to get and I'm there like I've never had anyone truly is interested in like I just love it I love every I think it's maybe from building sets for plays that I think I've always been a part of all of it so it seems weird but I'm not and then I do you do that also when you're not a producer in a movie now yeah I do because it's fun though no because yeah not because I'm like you know mm-hmm listen to me or else it's it's just part of the fun I think it's also how I get into the character because I'll already be familiar with sets and I know the weird thing I put in a drawer or like pick that weird pillow and it's fun but also I think if you don't have a certain amount of control over the work you know you could find yourself doing I think what I always feared and I never got those parts I'm not skilled enough but it was all the parts that I used to read auditioning that I felt like I kept go back through scripts and I'm like I say Oh like Oh John Oh John Oh John Oh Karl I was like I don't know how to do that like I I need a part I don't know how to just stand behind like my husband and go mm-hmm and I was always bummed if like why is she always a bummer why can't if the guy's funny why can't isn't a funny guy usually have a funny wife fight I mean it's like I really find your husband yeah well let's hope but like I just always thought they don't match up I don't believe there are a couple and then check I feel like I needed to take the control because I wanted to finally put into the script what I kept asking for him just like how about she has an opinion mm-hmm as opposed to she's just vacuuming and irritated with her husband I'm like what if she like here's a crazy idea what she likes her husband yeah but much people were just like no so it's like I wanted the control because I wanted to put real women into movies yeah funny dramatic whatever it is and they I don't you feel that the less you take that control it is often presented to you of like this is a real woman right yet it's no one either one of us would recognize as a real human I think yes that happens surprised me quite a lot yeah and yeah when you when you're able to when you have a say in the creation of the thing then you can you can nip that in the bud and that's the attraction to producing you know because and then you can also have a say in in in the partners that you bring to the table that share your your vision share your outlook and your mission so yeah it's it feels really good I'm I'm in the early stages of doing that as well and developing adapting books for the screen and it is very rewarding I haven't yet been in the situation where I'm producing and acting yet I haven't yet done that and I'm curious to know what that's gonna be because for me at the moment one of the things that I do when I'm preparing for a role obviously I have jurisdiction of the character and yes like with black panther it matters and I was very very invested in the entire development of the script and you know Ryan really invited us to share our opinions about you know what should happen and stuff like that I enjoyed that process but the moment I said step on set you know I kind of need to reclaim my sovereignty as just the character and I wonder when I'm a producer what's that's good that's gonna be like when they're like oh we don't have enough dry ice for the scene that's like two weeks from ashy that while you're in the middle of a really challenging scene should maybe not be there but it does just split your brain yeah but then it's hard to go back from that because then you start to see the matrix and you are like yeah wait we can't that's never gonna get shot in time why don't we do it that like it does help and I think you're I think it will just split and also certain things I think you'll just and you'll know ahead of time I think because you will know it in such a every inch of it in a different way but do you do you find when people present you with oh this seems like it's great for you mm-hmm do you think it's ever is it like that has nothing to do with something that would interest me versus when you're going out and you're finding things that interest you and and kind of drive you to do that part over there yeah I mean I have a really great relationship with my agent and she's got extremely good taste that's great so I trust her so much it is alarming those when other people are pitching me you know directly they're often quite off and I think it comes from I think when when people approach you with an image of you from a specific movie or an image of you doing things like this you know right and I tend to none of which are real yeah in a way and I tend to gravitate towards things that surprised even me right so do you think for the challenge of it yeah yeah for the challenge of it I like to I like to play roles that pique my interest but also frighten me like how on earth am I gonna do that you know if this could go terribly wrong yeah and so yeah if I read a script and it's interesting and I love and I want to see that story and the character is interesting but not clear to me that I'm more likely to do it you know yeah if there's a both who Anna yeah right I know it's a weird it's a weird like I think it's a common strange itch that we all have to is like why we go for something that's like oh that seems super uncomfortable mm-hmm you should know we picked that one has anybody said no to something you wanted to do they're like no we don't think does that happen that can't happen anymore right I've definitely there's been rules that I'm dying to play and I've heard no you know for sure and it breaks my heart like that seems crazy now now even now yeah yeah that's not a bright person yeah but you get I I've gotten I've heard someone say yeah we're looking for an unknown for this have you ever gotten that oh I get no all the time sure yeah whatever whether the reasons you're given well my favorite that was quite a while I mean this was years and years ago I did get we don't think she reads like a neighbor which was amazing I was like I can't wait to tell to tell my neighbors that I couldn't it was like a one-line part in something they're like please say something else say like that seizures didn't like me but please don't say I'm not a neighbor that's like that but that was like my favorite Wow well yeah like not the right tie and also I think being known more for comedies I think around times that like scares people which I don't know when we started compartmentalizing people so mine oh right right and in in even genres I feel like I don't know I feel like all my favorite stories go like up and down and then there's levity and then there's heartbreak and at the worst moment then you start laughing like I always love those stories right there's come I don't know I feel like in the last like seven or eight years it's like if you put a more tricky challenging moment in a comedy people know if it's audiences or if it's our own business it's like that hit that shouldn't be in there it's a comedy is if you just have to be like joke joke joke all the time I'm like how about it's still just a story right right right yeah uh yeah I we are we are we tend to want to box things and it's hard to break those boxes you know I don't do it do you do you see things kind of in groupings or do you find it bizarre well I talking about producing that's where I'm really seeing how people think you know when you when you're trying to cast something oh you find a director for something and you know you have to create your short list of people and stuff like that and you know you're doing an action film and so you're looking at action directors and I'm aware of it because I've been a victim of it so much you know cuz I'm in the opposite spectrum where people don't trust me with comedy you know I'm not known for comedic roles right I did do my first comedy a year ago it hasn't come out yet but yeah and I was like but you're naturally funny like if people are meeting you like well I'm also naturally reserved so the thought that you know that I could let noose is not the first thing that people think about you know and that's interesting - yeah exactly I want to see someone that's not known for it do it because even if it's whatever version of that is is it gonna be more I think interesting to watch right right yeah and it terrifies me actually the comedies is not a joke it's actually very that's totally because it's so really how revealing I think right and subjective mm-hmm that's a it's so incredibly subjective I think you put a hundred people in a room 20 will think it's hilarious 20 won't get it 20 hate it for offended when you're like oh how does a dry cleaner joke offensive like people are offended by such strange things right and then it's like you can't hit a hundred mm-hmm like and no one can so it's this right maddening thing that I love so much but I'm just like you can ever please everyone it's not even about like that seems real right it's like it has to be real and then also you have to play this like numbers game of what percentage is that joke landing with people does it look just like and the result is in laughter like unlike drama where you know the impact of it can be is quite internal yeah they want to hear yeah you have to like prove it right what what is what's the one coming out that's a cop it's called the little monsters and it's a it's an Australian zombie romantic I'm gonna scramble thinking somehow also do an Australian zombie romantic comedy and come out next year I'll see you in my backyard like terrible IT projects I just need my agent to call me back I don't think the world is waiting for another Fanny Brice biography way and we may disagree on what is considered fascinating would you ever direct I'm not interested no no yeah I'm not I don't enjoy that level of control quite honestly and I'm very subjective to one person's point of view really I'm willing so to allow myself to think and be concerned with everybody and yeah I do enjoy directing documentary that's something that I'm interested in oh yeah and and and I definitely want I've done it before and I want to do it again that's do you know what your topic would be I don't know yeah yeah but the documentary I did previously was about people with albinism in Kenya and what it means to be what we you know white in a predominantly black society and just the complications of this condition that was really misunderstood so how long did you how long cuz that's I mean you work so long to to gather footage and just to prepare for a documentary what was the what was the prep and shooting of that well I also did it when I was I was in a film school and it took me I think it was about a six-month process yeah and it was a very first thing I'd done that nature it's a full-length documentary I was like totally outside of my element and I think that's what I enjoy I like being in totally new terrain and figuring it out yeah you know I want to be an eternal beginner yeah would you direct I have directed I like it quite a bit oh I haven't directed like television and I've directed a short and I'd like it I would prefer to not be in it I don't like the split uh yeah that split focus I don't like the split focus I want to do and there's some people that do it great I always found I was like I'm doing maybe possibly two things at half percent yeah like at 50% of yeah I think it was always okay but I was just was like I I really like just being there and watching and and working with the cameras and in the performances or or being on the side of it but I I would but I watch it's funny I watched my husband do it and sometimes I'm just like I don't know I don't know about a feature yeah that's like a I keep thinking at some point I will yeah but I have to really wait till I think a story really Owens me I can't let it go yeah because there's a long time it's a long time so with that one story it's like we're I'm done and like bye okay and you still like I begin the real work now in the editing room right I kind of go traipsing on to like who else do I want to play yeah I'm still cutting that one scene I'm like yeah I may not have the CFI at the attention span for it but right it'll be quite a challenge I think I'm scared yeah what we have we could provide aid and access to technology and refuge to those who need it other countries do it we could do it better another like these other country is not clear how are you feeling about being a woman in this industry right now you know I'll take I'll take a centimetre forward every so uh I'll take I feel like there's forward motion mm-hmm when people are like what a difference huh I'm like let's not let's not oversell it but I do like seeing more women behind the cameras and in front of it and I like seeing more real women being portrayed and I think we started going down a very slippery slope of every woman presented it seemed like for so long was so perfect and so quaffed and done and I love that I love a very overt I mean if it fits but when every character yeah is kind of dependent on their level of pleasantry and attractiveness I think oh yeah we're mate we're setting a bar that people think this is real mm-hmm like I think that's why I'm I love kind of exaggerated characters one I think I love those women I love the woman in a store that you're like well she's got two pounds of makeup on I'm in love with her her hair's I mean I always think like she's got no flies on her like I just love that woman that's like doing her own thing but I I like seeing more complicated challenging women for sure I think we're we're a step mm-hmm ahead yeah and I'll take I'll take the step I just want to keep the charge going right right do you think it feels any different I would have to agree I think what I appreciate is that there is a very robust conversation happening at the moment and that there are strides being made I just did a film this summer and the boom operator was female and I've never seen that I just never seen it isn't it weird and the undo and you realize how you pre-programmed you are in those moments that I never even considered that I'd never seen it yeah and and and that it should be such a such a moment you know bizarre yes and so I mean I feel like this conversation is really good that we're having that it is sustained and that we don't congratulate ourselves too much but we don't berate ourselves either it's about keeping well you know and and and and and keeping action just keeping put your money where your mouth is and continue to change voices exactly it's like demanding a better choice or like hey hey it's a sea of mad like let's just which I love men yeah love him but let's be analytic said I'll tell you exactly it's about the awareness and that it takes everybody to be aware you know that this is not just a battle for women it's the one for men as well and that they have a very very pivotal role to play to change those demographics [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Variety

Views: 354,897

Keywords: Variety, Variety Studio, Melissa McCarthy, Lupita Nyong'o, Marvel, Black Panther, Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Id: AOJQuJAmd-Y

Length: 38min 49sec (2329 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 28 2018