Nicole Kidman Career Retrospective | SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations

hi welcome to the foundations conversations at home i'm janelle reilly from variety before we speak to our guest today i want to let you know that the foundation has set up a covid relief fund in order to support thousands of union performers who are going through tough times since march thanks to your donations the foundation has given over 6.1 million dollars in emergency aid to more than 6 600 performers and their families if you are a sag after member and you need help please ask and if you can help please give information can be found in the description of this video thank you for your support and now without further ado it's my pleasure to introduce an actor singer and producer she can play any role in any genre she is also on the sag after foundation actors council and has actively been working with us on our copa relief effort please welcome nicole kidman hi hi thank you so glad you made that introduction because it's so important to keep um you know reiterating how much it's still um the support is so needed and the fundraising efforts are really important and the donations are so appreciated and so constantly keeping that in the conversation so that people know um there's still so much work to be done and so many people in need so many actors so anyway i mean that's that's good that's got to be the nightmare for an actor right that you literally can't work when this shutdown started i was just terrified for so many of my friends yeah and i mean when you look at the the the way in which this industry is structured we're in the position where when we go to work we don't get to wear masks because we have to be we start with the mask on but when you shoot the scene you have to take your mask off and you're exposed you're in a you're one of those workers who is in jeopardy you know so it's a very frightening thing and having worked that way um as as stepping into my producer role going we have to make these actors feel safe we have to one give them work and do everything we can to rally and make sure we can give them work and that means pushing you know things up a mountain but at the same time going but when we when we do create work we then have to go it's going to be safe for you too and um and that's you know that's something that's so important and i think people sometimes go oh my gosh it's over the top all these sort of protocols and things but they're so the environment so the work environment for all of the actors um can come to work and go you're taking care of me you know you're not putting me in jeopardy for you for your own for your own cause and i love being able to do that so i'm actually so excited to talk to you about your work as a producer um which is a nice you know nice fallback career the acting thing doesn't work out but i actually want to go back to the beginning and because this is a sag after audience but actually when you say that that was part of the reason i became a producer is because it was i'd i was 40 i was pregnant i was in a position where my career was on a sort of a downward um a downward trend and i was like this feels awful you know literally where you'd go will they consider me for the job or can i get a look in for it and they'd be like no no no they don't like you whatever you and i was like oh gosh and i um and i went so how do i somehow you know make this in find things that i can um take some sort of control of where i'm going now particularly as a woman at at that stage of my life where you're told well this is kind of you know there is this trajectory there's a few you know anointed few who get to surpass that um and you look at meryl and you look at those people and jessica tandy i used to hold her like going jessica tandy worked um all the way through but you know there really wasn't there isn't there still isn't enough um but there wasn't that path so so that was sort of the reason i became a producer wow ultimately to try and take control of our destiny which i think any actor would say is probably one of the hardest things is we don't have a lot of control right right and i believe you founded blossom films your production company 10 years ago i'm so bad with numbers i've turned into that person it might be more than 10 years ago um yeah yes more than 10 years ago and really we're a lean and mean as much as it sounds like some massive production company it's not i think you've met my producing partner we have two other people who work for us who are young um wonderful really smart um um young people in the industry and and that's it so it's not some massive thing and we've always you know we pride ourselves on being workers and and passionate and supporters of um all sorts of stories and ideas and um and very very committed to um putting female directors into the equation in a really balanced way so i really want to talk about that because you made a vocal pledge back in 2017 that you would work with a female director every 18 months you've actually surpassed that you work with a lot of directors you have since the start of your career yeah i don't know if even when you were starting out if that was something you were doing consciously or you were just sort of drawn to those stories probably um drawn to women and drawn to that the nurturing aspect of that as a as a young actress and you know knew jane campion when i was in a little tiny drama school and she sort of discovered me i was 14. i was on the stage doing sweet bird of youth um what role no i i would have been 13 and i was playing a princess and sweet bird of youth um hey it's called stretch stretching i can do it um i didn't understand even the what i was doing you know um but she saw my swagger as she said and and responded to that so but it's just so interesting how things happen but i would take myself if i'd catch a bus and a train i'd travel for an hour and a half on a saturday morning i'd get up at 6 a.m and i'd i'd spent you know get myself organized pack my little thing because my parents wouldn't be able to drive me because they would have had a party the night before and i'd be like at my class by 9am on a saturday morning and i loved it it wasn't like oh i've got to do this it was i couldn't wait for saturdays and i would do history of drama i would do movement we would do um tap dancing we would do um um plays where we would study the text so it was just you know at that age of 13 14 kind of my salvation and and the thing that rescued me in a way because i was you know a tall skinny redheaded girl who couldn't go to the beach and wanted to get lost in my creative world and imagination were you just having fun or did you know even then that you wanted to do this for a career i mean the idea of doing it as a career was so far-fetched it was more like that was the dream but by gosh you better have a back-up plan you know because the dream is probably not going to happen i mean i in the australian film industry it wasn't like there was a there was an industry big enough to sustain a career you would work intermittently as what we were sort of you know what what we knew to be true and so it was always like okay well this is kind of something that's off in the future and wow and then you know make sure you get good grades and i would go well i'll probably have to and i worked as an usher i worked as um um i worked in a store i worked you know did all sorts of little jobs to to get money to pay for my to pay for my tuition like every other actor out there pretty much right and then and then i was so lucky to get a job um and i was in a thing called bush christmas and then i was in a thing called bmx bandits yeah um yeah and i was like oh my gosh i got a paycheck and um and i was just a worker i was the worker bee i was the one that was like okay i i will learn on the job i'm gonna make my mistakes on the job i'll try out for everything i'll be out there and just trying trying trying um but i loved it and i still love it i think for a lot of us we we first saw you in 1989's dead calm which wasn't a movie but it was i'm glad you didn't say the bmx bandits then no i i love them i genuinely do it's part of my childhood it's a movie but i just feel very difficult acting very very difficult but i have to imagine dead calm was a major turning point in your career i i feel like correct me if i'm wrong but is that sort of what caught hollywood's eye well strangely enough it was a limited series called vietnam which was the thing i did and it was about the vietnam war it spanned a 10-year period it was an australian miniseries what we called a mini-series at the time and that was when i first started working for kennedy miller um and that was george miller's company and um and it was a fantastic role i get got to age from 14 to 24 in it and i played a girl who was um an activist during the vietnam war and whose brother was a conscientious objector and all of the way in which that family was affected by the war so it was a great great piece of drama australian drama and then um dead calm kind of came along and they they actually rewrote the role and made it younger so because they want because of my age and i was just incredibly fortunate to have the support of um that whole company of kennedy miller and there was a group of directors there who were philip noyce and john dygan and george miller and terry hayes and they all gave me you know these these wonderful this wonderful chance to work and then i'd go back to school really yeah yeah and i'd be so far behind and i'd be like oh my gosh i'm gonna fail my exams and i actually i you know reluctantly say this to people but i left school when i was um just before i turned 17. really i did because i wanted to get out there in the world in the industry and i just i wanted to work and i figured i'd gotten my education i'm not saying this is for other actors out there um this was a strange path but yeah and i still would do correspondence courses and i would study i'm still a huge study studyer i i'm big in i i research things i read all the time i'm i'm deeply into um history and and and the way i'm preparing for a character with all of that i'm you know information so and i'll also do acting classes still when i study accents really yeah yeah i'm as i say i'm always a student i will always be a student and i pride myself on that because i just am not the person that sits back and goes yeah ask me a question i know how to do it i'm always like i have no idea what i'm doing hopefully i have a little bit now but i'm always i i'm willing to change i'm willing to learn and i'm willing to mold myself and and adapt do you uh do private lessons or do you actually go to a class and like other students are there with nicole kidman in their acting class i don't i don't so much go to a class now i would love to do a master class at some point or do some of those things where i'm engaging with students i do private lessons like right now i'm doing movement classes because i'm going to play lucille ball so i i have a particular stance and a particular way of working so i um i have to adjust myself now physically so that's a really i'm putting in you know time with that having the time to do it i'm also working um on the dialect really intensely an hour and a half two hours a day right now so it's that it's the hard yakka right now which i just go okay show up and do it show up and do it show up and do it show up and do it wow hopefully it'll it pays off i mean but it won't i always say i don't want to look back and go i wish i'd worked harder or i wish i'd just kind of not coasted along the thing i can do is do the prep and show up and then a lot of the other thing is is really you know with the acting gods where you go this will either work or it won't it'll connect or it won't but it won't be because i didn't show up grateful and willing i was gonna say i have you ever coasted i don't think i can cite a single performance of yours where i felt like you were going through the motions i hope not i hope not i think i mean i've definitely not achieved what i hoped or i've you know i always say if it didn't work it's it's it's because i couldn't make it work i'll take the blame absolutely i'm happy to not happy to but i will shoulder that um because i'm like okay well it just didn't work i just didn't make it work and that's heavy you know at times that can be really a blow and it can hit my hit me really hard and i can it can take a while to recover the confidence and those things um but i'm absolutely willing to be responsible and be accountable if something didn't work because for whatever reason i wasn't good enough in it coasting no i haven't i i haven't coasted i've been ashamed if i coasted partly because and this is a group of actors we're talking to partly because everyone knows it's a job is a job it's thank you i think there's a there's an amount of ingratitude if you if you're not going thank you okay thanks for this chance and it's very touching to me watching actors show up no matter how big their role is prepared and willing i mean it honestly makes me cry because i see that it's i don't know what it does it touches me because it's a very very pure beautiful thing when people show up offering their talent and their heart and their um and their willingness to work on a set and expose themselves it's extremely vulnerable as any actor will tell you yeah you're vulnerable deeply vulnerable and it's personal so and but oftentimes you're not in control of the final product so you can't always blame yourself if something doesn't work no i'm working on that yeah no that's true but um but you know that it's still it hurts it it's like oh gosh or and it's very frustrating if you're on a set and you can't make a scene work and trying to and i'm like you know and there's times when i've i've the one thing i've really learned is that sensation of relaxing and going it will come it will come if it's not working the first the worst thing is when you see terror on a director's face because they're really worried because it's not working and they're looking at you going that's it that's a really i mean that's like that's a knife to the gut but to then relax into that and go okay i can bring my experience i can bring what i know to be my talent and go if you help me we can get there you know and it's i i say that to actors that it's so so much of it is yes you that you work but then you relax and there's a flow that happens and a trust and the ability to look at your partner and go we're going to do this together and i i've had that so many times and leaning in leaning in to the other actor is so important working with absolutely when you have a great scene partner too like obviously most recently you did the undoing with hugh grant and i was so pleased to see the two paddington buildings come together and you just you felt like a married couple and i i think i read somewhere that you'd kind of been badgering him for years to do something with you um oh i wanted to work with you for a long time you and i have a very similar sense of humor but um we've known each other for a long time which always helps because there's a um you're not creating a chemistry there's a chemistry there um but i remember on the undoing when edgar ramirez showed up and he was like um he hadn't been able to rehearse because he was on another another job and he'd flown in and he came in and we had a huge scene and he was so good and i was like struggling going oh i'm i was tired i'd been shooting every day and i was carrying the weight of that role and i just remember looking at him and going great i can this energy from this actor right now is everything that i need and it's and i've just got to allow that that vibration and that energy between us to exist and trust it and go with it and he carried me um and then in the interrogation scenes with him as well there was some weird some days where it was just like we shot you know 12 14 hours well with all of that dialogue and me being interrogated and the really tight shots and all the things and both those actors one of them was actually a real policeman um and he was an actor yeah and so i just had to really trust them that they would get me there and that the energy that they were giving to me i would then um really ignite my performance and a depth so i love talking about that and then the the relationship between donald and i was so father-daughter yeah amazing oh i was so convinced to get it for so long why because he went and threatened the headmaster he's donald sutherland you know he's up to no good i just would like see donald and be like oh he was so soothing to me he reminds me of my dad who's not here anymore and i was just soothed by him he's also wise he just carries all this wisdom and these extraordinary stories and he's a fantastic actor i mean we were so blessed to have all those actors noma who came in lily rabe i mean you're talking all of them um matilda i mean it's just like we were inundated with talent in that show uh and that is an ensemble you know that's what an ensemble does i was pretty convinced lilly did it for a while too actually come on here's a story so we're standing in the courtroom and the first assistant director we've been in that courtroom for a long time those sequences are long and and intense and suddenly the first day dee just sets screams out to all of the um people who are sitting there all of the other actors and the extras who are in the scene who do you think did it and i'm like sitting there as good and everyone pointed at me and i was like oh thanks a lot throw the woman under the bus um it's always the woman um and we couldn't answer you know because we don't want to give the ending away but literally everyone i'd not said a word i sit in that courtroom for most of that courtroom responding and everyone thought it was me i i had a friend who was convinced it was you because of the late night walks and yeah she just coming back to that and i was like she's like she knows new york really well and she's like nobody just happens to walk past that area right but i did because sometimes yeah and that's what i love about the show is that it's actually it didn't take the cheap um thrill where it is truly about um what's right in front of you and how we convince ourselves and it's happening now um convince ourselves that it's not real that what we know with all of the facts and still so much of the audience and we're talking like 80 of them go no no no no i don't want to believe that no you can't be true i find that a really interesting study on human beings and that's why it's so beautifully written by david e kelly i can't remember the last time that i really saw a show where people wanted to watch the moment it was on and waited for each week like i remember texting with a friend the one who thought you were guilty and it was always like the night before it'd be like undoing tomorrow like that hasn't happened in years no it's sort of it was it's a wonderful part of still that that the system that hbo has which is not sort of dropping everything and allowing people to binge it immediately it is there is something to be said for that i've always said that the state of yearning and desire is not a bad state to exist in it's really not though it's so underestimated right right the actual getting of something sometimes isn't as as satisfying as the as the yearning and the waiting it's a different experience but we underestimate the power of that sensation and that emotion it can be fun in life and not just waiting for a tv show i i actually want to come back to the undoing when uh we get to your producing career but i want to go back to the start of your american film career because right out of the gate i mean you started with days of thunder then you took on you know you were starring opposite dustin hoffman and billy backgates you were working with the best of the best from the beginning and was was it challenging to sort of navigate this new life in a new country in a spotlight um yeah it was really challenging it was it was sort of like going in and auditioning with dustin hoffman i was like are you kidding me i'm i'm auditioning with dustin hoffman i mean we grew up i grew up watching all of his work and so then to be in the room with him i was completely overwhelmed but at the same time i'm like okay just do what you do and try the scenes and he's very you know he's obviously incredibly spontaneous and and um his the meisner technique is probably i would say a lot of what dustin does i'm speaking for him but so a lot of it was just playing in the scenes when i was auditioning it was when i got the role i couldn't believe it you know i was just like are you joking so it was more like trying to be cool and stay calm through through those periods and then you know i would go and audition for things and not get them and i was just like but this is such a great time to just have the chance to audition i remember going and auditioning down at the public theater with kevin kline for the role of ophelia in his hamlet and i didn't get it i was like oh i got the audition i got to audition with kevin klein and all of that is that's that's great that's experience right every audition you learn something and you're in there trying something i remember auditioning um with robert de niro for the roland casino and i was too young and i went in i was all dressed up i know here's a story for you and i dressed up totally as the character and i walked down and i'd done so much prep and i walked in and there's martin scorsese and de niro and i did it and i was completely like inside i was dying and then my agent got a call with some feedback saying it was really good i was just too young and um but that feedback was everything which is another thing that i really try to do um when people audition is give feedback because those tidbits you're like so hungry for them even if you and i'm sure other actors relate to this you don't get the role but the feedback is like oh i was close or i should have done this or maybe you know those things can really help you um it's yeah so i'm jabbering on no no we're here um i am curious though um it's it must be years since you've auditioned do you remember even the last time you auditioned i see almost every role as an audition because you never know what the what the next job's going to be right so some and also sometimes just a meeting or a chance meeting or the way in which you interact can lead to something else so always this is the other wonderful thing to tell actors is you may not get that job but that may lead to something else you never know and that is the gorgeous part of our industry is it can change on a dime and you never know what is around the corner and that where something leads so that's why don't phone an audition in always do the best you can with that try to learn try to be off off page so that you can connect because so much of it is there wanting to read your the way you think and the way you respond and those things are really important and don't ever just phone in an audition because that could really that that isn't good you just never know where it's going to lead and you may not get that role but you may get that role you know did you ever have any of those like disastrous auditions you know whether it was you know due to circumstances out of your control oh really what was your worst yeah and i had i think just where i'm just totally wrong for it or i got really nervous or um kept treading on on the lines or you know had some stage fright and couldn't remember um had only got the the pages late late late the night before and it sort of crammed and tried to get in there and so hadn't quite gotten a grasp of what the character was or the accent all of those things um so another thing is a lot of times i would say because you know being australian you're going well i only got the pages at 11 pm they sent them through to me and i've got to be here and it's now 9 30. um and i've i've tried i've tried to prepare but i'm not going to do the accent i'm just going to do the performance and that can sometimes work because you know doing a bad access i mean an accent you can learn um and work on and if you have the time but trying to sort of do it and do it badly it's much better to do do the performance and the and show the actual what what your your understanding of the scenes and what you're bringing to the scenes then try to have a perfect accent in an audition at this point now i don't know i mean some people may disagree with that but that was always my my sort of way of of thinking about it it's worked for you so i'd say it works um we all know now that you can do comedy but i feel like another big turning point was when you did gus van zant's 1995 film to die for uh for which you win your first golden globe award um i knew you could do comedy because i saw you on saturday night live in 1993 and you were brilliant and mike myers and chris foley and adam sandler that's when i met adam sandler that's right you you had a new girlfriend in a sketch oh my gosh i i remember being so impressed i remember that was a turning point at least for me going she's funny someone put her in a comedy i remember the mike myers skit and i was like oh my gosh this is so fun well it felt like drama school i'm like yeah yeah this is what we did you know so to have that opportunity to work with him and he'd written the skit you know everyone would pitch their their ideas and and their skits and some of them would get through i mean that is a hair raising week that saturday night live week that's like live wire stuff but you know it was really fun for me because i was able to just go that that's part of the just give it a go just try it admittedly there's millions of people watching but at the same time because i'd had that kind of rigorous drama school background where you're just you know going okay you try this playing the princess in in um sweet boat of youth all of those things they kind of help with that i'd also done um in my drama school the the mime work and i say this repeatedly in the mime classes you know where you're doing um all of the mine work and pretending you're patting a dog and you know you you spent hours creating the the tea cup that you're about to drink from and the sensation of what the china feel every single little bit which when you're doing it you're like i just want to give me a scene i want to do okay we'll put two hours in on this this mime class every week that has been one of the most important things i learned so to all actors out there do your mime classes because now with green screen you so many times you're pretending so i'm in a movie golden compass they're like so you've got the monkey on your shoulder and there's no monkey it's there's nothing there and you've got i was like oh lucky i've done this mime class i can feel the fur i can feel the fur of the monkey you know all of those feed the monkey um all of those things became so necessary and then i did a film dogville where there literally was no walls and it's like okay there's the wall here's the the doorknob i can see it i can feel it i can turn it all of those things suddenly were the most it would became like one of the most important classes i've done i love that you mentioned dogville uh because you worked with georgetown career um yeah and i mentioned uh gus van zandt earlier and obviously you've worked with so many auteurs from boz lerman to jane campion stanley kubrick i mean that's insane i know that all directors are so different and you probably have to sort of adjust your style per director but dream scenario what do you hope for from a director when you show up to set um belief in me the ability to direct me to um to sort of rigorously get in there and go i know you can do this and let's try this and and um knowing when they've got it you know going got it and i can go really and they can go yeah and that that feeling is such relief because when a director looks to you and also i think obsession i love obsession so kubernetes i like i like artists who are obsessed i just do it requires that i mean i'm not a nonchalant kind of whatever i love the um just the i love the passion and the obsession and the commitment and the going back home and thinking about it and coming back in with more ideas and it's just a beautiful thing to work with to work like that with other actors to work with a director that way to work with any sort of writer that way it just it's so it's it's wonderful i'm really curious um in dogville you know i mean obviously you know you were there but like you said no i think i was there's just lines on the floor on a stage yes did you know in advance that that's how it would be shot because i heard a rumor you didn't know and i just think it would be strange to sign on to that and then no no i knew you didn't no i i mean i was when i signed i wanted to work with lars von trier because i'd seen um breaking the waves i'd seen all this work but i'd seen breaking the waves i i was stunned i was stunned at those performances and what he achieved with that film and emily watson and stellen i was just like i couldn't believe it and i wanted to work with him and it was sort of you know i i think i i'd done mulan rouge i was in a you know in terms of just my own space and my own life i was i was lost and so a lot of my life whenever i'm lost i get lost in my work artistically i was in pain um you know just in terms of my emotional um state and i was like i want to go off to this place in sweden trollharton and and work with this director and and i was very very interested in the style which was bricked in and i was willing you know we all lived together that's when i met patty clarkson and lauren mccall we were all living together there in sweden my idea of heaven and it would get dark at 3 p.m and we were on a sound stage and at about 2 p.m lars would go let's have some peach schnapps we're done and um and that was it you know we'd shoot sort of seven to two and then we'd go back and prepare for the rest of the day and it was it was really difficult the role was really difficult the state of being of that character was difficult and lars is unusual um um but all of the actors paul bettany all of them were just fantastic and and it was an odd odd odd existence right up my alley it was snow outside it's everything that you go oh wow this is why i'm an actor yeah i love this i'm with other actors we're kind of an uh we're in this bubble a creative bubble and this weird thing and this will be etched in my memory forever and we're working with this really avant-garde director with on this really avant-garde film how fantastic it it sounds like really like almost like a little theater troupe that he put together yeah yeah and he's unusual because he shoots he's he operates the camera he's the steadicam operator so he has the whole apparatus on him and he's got the camera and i'll always remember this about lars is he would be shooting you go go again no this is no start again but when you were really sort of panicking or not getting it or he would put his hand out under the camera and hold your hand wow so i forgave lars everything because of that how wonderful was that so and he would hold your hand and you would do the scene and he would hold your hand and it was a sort of so that was really fascinating to me and then he would you know you'd go we'll be go again and he would say uh you go all this and he go i just want you to do a whole whole thing laughing now and i'd be like well no but i meant to beat her do it again and just laugh all the way through it so it's that kind of experimentation which i love was there much room and then you would edit it together really together and i look at some of those images and there was one time though when i had to put the collar on my neck and this is was a really weird and it was a big metal collar and they've got to lock it and it literally would lock and i'm like meant to be carrying this huge metal thing around my neck with the lock on which takes a lot of trust as an actor and i'm meant to start to choke so they put the lock on me and they lock it and i'm like going like that and i'm literally choking because it's like pushing on my pipe and i'm like and then he says cut and i'm like then they undo it i'm like i was really choking i was really choking and that was yeah that was frightening wow i know i learned i learned my lesson there like always have a signal that says help i'm in trouble this is i need help wow that's good and he said i think even when you're known there isn't a a dangerous stunt just have a signal saying i need help i mean yeah yeah well because the other thing and i always say this to actors is never cut a take really i was taught it really young yeah i've never uttered cut really you've never have you ever broken during a take and you just let it go i've laughed or things have gone wrong yeah totally but i've never said the word cut wow um i was just i was i think i was about 14 when i was taught that i can't remember who came up and i think i did say card cut and they were like you are never ever allowed to say cut wow and that interesting yeah so that's etched in my in my brain and so i never cut a tape even if everything goes wrong in the take i still keep going i mean obviously if i was in real physical danger i probably wouldn't say cut i'd just be like help help you know but i would not um i just can't say the word cut could you can you it feels like you're cutting the magic i'm not the best the judge of that you know what i mean i'm not a good per a lot of times what i think when i think it's not good is actually the magic you know so it's sort of almost like a discipline a good discipline to have but obviously if you're in physical danger or something absolutely you know life-threatening is going to happen then psychotic but dogville was such an interesting choice too because you were coming off this amazing trio of films that you released in the space of two years back in 2001 2002 i mean it could be more different you talk about range moulin rouge the others and the hours um and looking at that trio all made during that time i'm curious how you choose your roles maybe it's changed over time but you know they're so different in such different parts and i i just you just seem to have a really good instinct for what's going to work no i don't i just um i don't really have uh it's just kind of i go with the flow on that in a weird way like if i feel like i want to work with someone or if i just even like the dream i like the character or i feel the um you know i went and did um a film with verna herzog i wanted to work with vona and i wanted to go to the desert and um you know so for all different reasons i'll do things and that was probably one of my greatest experiences was being in the desert with verna herzog that that sounds like a movie in and of itself i just want to see you guys hanging out in the desert riding camels and ride up on the algerian border and was pretty extraordinary you know so there's just different reasons for doing different things but it's um yeah i don't know i wish i could i wish there was some sort of incredible no i'm deeply committed to to independent filmmaking in the sense of just giving the opportunity to auteurs and allowing them to be born so to speak and helping if i have any anything to to contribute in terms of power or financing to help those people get there get their films made that's a wonderful thing to be able to do i've been in the position where i haven't had that opportunity so to now be able to go because i grew up watching art films i grew up watching going to the cinema and watching films from all over the world about all different things and i'm that's probably my deepest love and deepest commitment and i love international films yeah i love being transported into cultures and places and people's minds that i would never ever get to enter i mean that's just glorious you've played such a while and it's so important yeah right i agree i've just been so important because that's how i built my compassion that's how i built my empathy that's how i build my understanding and continuing to build it um my appearance at things my when you have when you see something that's so like terrifyingly violent and and there's reason to it and you go ah this is an exhibit i've entered into this world i now ah those things lead you to making changes for me i will get out there and go i gotta get involved now i gotta chat i gotta do and i'll look at somebody across the street and feel so much more for them because i've just seen a film about their culture or their life or you know i can imbue them with things that brings me closer so one of the most recent films honestly that had that effect on me was lion where you played sue briar i remember like seeing that movie in a much nicer person for the next week because it was it was a kind inspiring movie and and you have played so many real people but is soon the only person you've been able to meet that you played uh no i've met i've met other people um sue i i i connected with sue's got a such a big heart you know that that film is obviously about love it's about wherever you find your mother you can have more than one mother and if you know the idea of loving um a child just being given love and the love that they're given taking them and never saying well you have to love me because i'm your mother always saying yes we can have two three mothers there's different ways in which people mother mother a child but the power of good love um on a child is just exquisite and sue gave those children and is still giving those now adult men good love along with their birth mothers and the and the connection between those two women i thought was a really beautiful story too and then also just the power of over overcoming enormous odds what he did to rue in finding his birth mother through that google earth and i mean it's it's an astounding story and it's true so yeah when you're playing a real person like virginia woolf or you know even someone current like gretchen carlson uh you obviously played grace kelly as well um i imagine it has to be intimidating knowing that you know this was a real person who might have family out there people can compare you to the real person but do you also like that way of working because there must be so much research to draw on um yeah yeah i mean i suppose i don't look at it any differently i just try to um be true to who the person is and and sometimes you're only depicting them depends how big the role is you know with gretchen with with sue we i was playing a supporting role with a limited amount of time to give and it's not their story so it's giving a party to their story and trying to honor that in their for them but also be truthful you know and i think what's wonderful and someone like virginia was more um trying to connect to her through her writings with the help of all of those you know when you're given david when david hare gives you that speech about we have the right i have the right to choose what i want to do with my life that there penetrated every cell of my body i was like yes we do as human beings we get the right to choose what we want to do with our lives and how we want to live and how we want to conduct ourselves we do have that right and i deeply believe it so that that worked for me you know but i'm given words by david hare and direction from stephen daldry and then the magnificence of virginia in all her complexity and somehow you just go i hope that this will thread through but i believe what i'm saying and what i'm doing and in the weirdest way i sort of i think when you when someone's gone and you're playing them maybe there's some wonderful thing happening where they're where you're you know somehow the conduit for them still and especially if they've been an author and they've written that's one of the beauties of you know having great their great literature still and i love that that you can still exist your existence is still here and really helping people and and they're still living and feeling you that's with music art writing performance when people see you on the street not that we're really out and about amongst people right now but you've played so many different roles in so many different genres what do people want to talk about the most i know there's a there's a huge group of practical magic fans who are like hardcore fanatics of that movie obviously alone rouge has a big following what what's what's the one that people keep bringing up to you the most i celeste in big little lies and actually i'm doing right now probably because it's current and and so many people have watched it um so they're always talking to me about that and um and celeste was you know from big little eyes was probably because of the story um in terms of the abuse and that the relationship and a lot of people come to me and say i either have lived that or i know somebody that's lived that or i know somebody that's living there now um and want to tell me their stories and that was sort of a very um and then yeah something like moulin rouge is more like i love sateen and i go i loved sateen um so yeah but it's lovely to still be working where there's roles that are connecting currently you know it's not yesteryear things it's things that are of now that's a real um pleasure and a blessing and you know i always cite jessica tandy's career so hopefully i can be on stage in my 80s remembering my lines you know i saw you on stage in the blue room and it was wonderful yeah and have you wanted to get back into theater again i did i did a play on the west end um a few five years ago which was about rosalind franklin who was a female scientist that discovered dna she was not attributed to discovering it um and she died um at 35 of ovarian cancer and i just my father was a scientist and it was really and just in terms of heralding female scientists and their stories it just was a was such a great thing to do i loved doing it was called photograph 51 because that was the image the photograph 51 was the one that helped crack dna to that we know of today obviously watson and crick were awarded the nobel prize but rosalind really deserved to be acknowledged in that and wasn't so that was part of the reason i wanted to do that wow it's a great yeah it was a really great experience to do on stage i didn't get to bring it to broadway i i hope somebody does but i didn't because i have young children and i think any actor will tell you it's very difficult with the two my children are a little bit older now so it's slightly easier but juggling you know one of them was three at the time and missing bedtime and all of those things that's that's a big thing as an actor and when you're doing it for three four five months and where's mommy mommy's at the theater so yeah but it was a great great thing to do and the rigorous sort of exploration of being on stage and that technique and and the need to do um theater work i just you know it's so important for an actor mm-hmm so talking about the films you're recognized for i'm wondering on the flip side of that you know quite often you do these labors of love and they don't get the love nobody's like them to at the time is there a movie from your filmography that you know people might not be familiar with that you would want them to check out i mean i've i did things you know smaller films rabbit hole was a labor of love for me um destroyer was something i really wanted to you know put my put myself on the line for i i love curry and kasama's work and supporting her and um you know didn't find the audience we hoped it would but it was just great to be able to be trusted to go and do something like that i had this wonderful makeup artist bill corso and um you know i did a film fur with downey jr which was a crazy thing about diana i do weird films at times and i love that small odd films paperboy with lee daniels where it was just like wow um down there in um louisiana doing this crazy sort of noir role and being trusted to play that character i loved that character um and actually sag was wonderful they acknowledged that the actors acknowledged me in that role and i was yeah that was so so gratifying because to be you know the film itself was kind of we we really tried to get it get it out there and it just didn't catch on but for the actors to acknowledge the performance that way i remember that when i got that news i was like oh thank you um because she was a great role and we had no money i remember sort of doing my own hair and makeup with the wig and sending it into lee on an iphone going see i can play this that was an audition for me i was like see i can play her um you know so there's always a story behind everything but yeah that was that was lovely and lovely to be acknowledged for the undoing because that was um a big big um kind of role in in in terms of just it's not physically bold but it's mentally was this crazy um labyrinth you know rollercoaster um maze in a way of emotions and ideas and and having to keep things hidden and quiet and um and having that acknowledge was really like wow there's still a lot of wows wow he didn't know there's still a wow beyond you have no idea yeah i have a i have a mother who's 81 about to be 81 in march and um she's you know struck you know has some some massive health issues and things going on so in the weirdest way right now um just her seeing that and going she goes go nikki and it's really nice so i'm i share i'm very much sharing that with her and i have a 12 year old who wants to be a director so she's like yeah yeah she's deeply she's obsessed and she's she's she's she's on the path she's editing she's writing she's directing so all those actors out there get ready sunday urban's coming your way good enough you may she may not have any money to pay you on her first few films but hey she's got talent uh i am curious about the undoing because uh you're both the star and producer did it come to you first you know were you looking for projects as a producer is is it always the package deal because obviously big little lies you were also a producer oh no yeah i mean david kelly gave me episode one and two and said would you have a look at this i think you'd be a great grace and that never happens you know you get given some great scripts and and we were able then to get the money and and make it you know a lot of times you'll read a script and you'll go okay and then you can't get the financing you can't get it made i've had that happen many times and then so you know every everything is different and right now we just got told we've we've got a green light on a new series that we're going to be doing an anthology actually which is going to be all female directors um for uh for apple which is really really exciting because there are unusual little stories but we're able to amplify the voice of the female these you know female directors right now and that was a that's a big we're very happy about that oh that's fantastic yeah i'm i'm in one of them and then there'll be some great roles for a lot of other women so this is you know written by women directed by women starring women as a producer how involved do you get in choosing the director in the cast team specifically on the undoing but also on this new show um you know it depends depends on what's needed and what the directors different directors want and how much they want i mean a lot of times as an actor when you're producing i go okay i'll step into that role now because i don't want to be blurring the lines i'll step up when you need me um susanna beer and i talk about this a lot in jean-marc vale and you know when you need me to step into there or you need me to go to bat for an actor or you need me to say we have to have this location i can help with that but a lot of it is just i'm i pledge to stay in the space of the performance and not be sort of um blurring that or or making the director uncomfortable and then you know i'm also a hired i'm a hired actor where i'll just go and i don't have anything to do with the production i'm just there along with everybody else which is what i just did with robert eggers and um in belfast i was i didn't have any chance you know that wasn't my my show i was just there as an actor part of the part of the group yeah he's an amazing it was a great great thing yes so good and so and i got to work with anya taylor joy on that and i go to work with alex skarsgard again and klaus bang and bjork's in it and i didn't get any scenes with her but it was a really interesting um fabulous ethan hawk who i've never gotten to work with who i love yeah yeah so it was a real that was a joy really i mean it was tough really tough really hard but um a privilege a privilege to be asked to do it and that was part of my thing of going you know get on a plane and go over there and they promised me i'd be safe and that there'd be protocols in place but i was pretty frightened i have to say but they kept their pledge and they kept us safe and nobody got covert and we were able to make the film fantastic yeah such an amazing filmmaker and cast yeah yeah an auteur right did speaking of auteurs uh you mentioned the undoing director suzanna beer um she directed all six episodes which is she did pretty unusual did you just have any say in in choosing her or the fact that she would do all of them oh really wow yeah i um you know i wanted to work with her for such a long time and part of my um desire to do the project was was to you know to be able to bring it to life david e kelly's script but also to work with a woman who was going to really make this her own and bring so much and so she was the first person we went out to and she said yes wow yeah and i sat with her and we talked it through and it was was fantastic i heard is this correct that was a five month shoot yeah wow yeah every day i was on every day on that yeah i think it was five and a half actually oh my god long days and long scenes and a lot of just it was a it was it was a um it was physically and mentally taxing but hey what a fantastic chance right but yeah i was like we were we were running a marathon on that and it was susanna and i together because you know obviously the director's there every day um but a lot of times as an actor you'll have time off and i just really didn't have almo i mean i think i had a few days here and there but you know i had the support of hugh and and and all of those incredible actors i mean you come and you sit opposite lily rabe and you watch her do her thing and you're just like oh my god thank god we've got lily you know noah is fantastic too no young actor wow yeah he's a man now young man yeah you're right you're wrong yeah he was a boy then and he's gone from boy to man yeah when you're doing a role that's challenging like that especially for a long time are you able to leave it behind at the end of the day do you sort of carry characters with you or do you have sort of a method of getting rid of them or maybe you're just one of those people who can step in and out of them pretty easily not me no no um i'm not that actor i'm the actor that comes home and it penetrates my dreams and it has a massive effect on my life so i have to be careful what i say yes to and how many things i say yes they carry dark themes and i've just learned that i have to balance those things because yeah i'm not i'm not the actor that just walks away from it and shrugs and doesn't think about it at night i wish i was i would like to have that ability but um i just that's not my past so i carry it and that's that and i've tried and i try all the you know the meditation and the wiping the light from the thing and trying to all those things i've tried them um and i it just it's not me it penetrates my psyche it's who i am and that's that so i'm actually very careful now where i go and how often i tread into those into that territory and all of those things because it's if it affects me well i'm i'm really happy that you then went and did the prom because i think yes would be a fun place to live for a while yeah yeah yeah yeah she's just a delight yeah and just a love bug a love bug is what i call her my kids love that movie so yeah watch that over the christmas break with them and they were like oh mom this is cool it's so cool so that was nice yeah what do you think has been your most challenging role or the role that was hardest to shape no i can't answer that that's the favorite that's the favorite child you can't answer that question i i mean i'm just it's a journey who knows there's different roles that i go back and look at and i'm like but i the journey continues so i don't know i'm lucky to have all these um [Music] all these different sort of people that are part of me that are part of my um lifetime journey and what a wonderful thing to sort of have had the chance to embody them onward hopefully not backward onward [Laughter] i have well i can't wait to see what you do next it's always something interesting and exciting um you just like i said i've never seen you phone it in um and i know you're working with david kelly again on nine perfect strangers yes yeah melissa mccarthy and michael shannon and i mean regina i just saw bobby i mean we have a cast that's incredible tiffany boone this extraordinary cast so i'm very excited for you to see them in this show again i'm happy to be in it alongside these people because i was going wow this is a cast yeah and yeah really you've sort of become in part of his repertory theater company as well oh please i would i hope i want to thank you so much for being here thank you for sharing your insight and your craft with your fellow artists and thank you really for all the work you've done both on screen and off it's so appreciated well more to be done and thank you and thank you for the opportunity to talk about it it makes me sentimental but it also kind of fires me up too so um yeah much love and to all of the actors out there and all of the people that are really struggling right now we're here we've got your back and as i said onward onward for all of us so thank you so much

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 73,720

Keywords: SAG Foundation, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Acting, Actors, Q&A, Interview, Nicole Kidman, Conversations at Home, Career Retrospective, Jenelle Riley

Id: g4_40YHiKzw

Length: 66min 23sec (3983 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 17 2021