Actors on Actors: Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor (Full Video)

take one we get a take - no sorry I tell me you and yes good to see you after all these years I know you - yeah when they asked me to do this I was actually very excited because we've never sat down like this in how long is it since we made 17 years or 18 years depending we started in 99 and we finished it until - that's enough I shouldn't have asked that question why did you decide to do Fargo and the world yeah well the tunes are he rolls yeah well they came about like that I was I was approached with another television idea with a friend of mine who had worked with as a director and it was a new idea but it was a more traditional like a five you know you would have to sign up for a five-year contract or something right and but it fascinated me I loved the story and I liked the character and so I was mulling it over and I was thinking about being a film actor and doing a television series and I think four or five or six years ago I made a pilot for HBO for the corrections Jonathan Franzen's level which they decided not to make and at that time I found it very difficult because I felt like it was a it was felt like a bit of a failure I thought it looked like my career's not going very well so I've decided to do telly you know anything yeah and this time I sort of I saw maybe I got over that hump then and I was skiing and with some friends of mine who introduced me at lunchtime to this producer from FX and I was talking to him about this television idea that I liked and he went well have you seen Fargo I said no I didn't think Fargo was a very good idea I thought they liked the idea of making a TV show based on a movie that we know in love was just silly really I didn't understand it yeah so I never watched them and there he said no you should see it have a look at it yeah because we're casting the third season and we need an actor to play two brothers who aren't twins and then I went home and I watched them and I watched them out of order by accident I watched season two first but I was incredibly impressed with it I think it's it's brilliant writing is what it is and it felt to me like a movie but over ten hours which I liked and then I asked to meet Noah and I read the first draft of the first script for Margo and I was just blown away by I just think it's brilliant brilliant writing and there's something about that Fargo tone which is really appealing it is it's such an interesting tone and it's yeah riveting I don't know how he did it I don't know how how would you capture the sense of something without the same characters without the same storyline it's set in the same place you've got that funny Minnesotan accent quite a bit difficult to do and but I think there's something about the humor that comes out of the darkness which is quite far go ask yes I think maybe that's what it is I don't know Derek you yeah black comedy yeah yeah but we didn't I mean Keith and I watched right yeah watch the first couldn't you're still shooting it so we haven't seen all of it and we did not recognize you as the other brother the with the blowing well works for other people we literally didn't recognize you because I didn't realize you were playing two roles so I was a perfect way to start watching it yeah it's just what she ain't seeing you and then going on who's that and then it kind of hit us and that I mean that must be a huge coup for you and a girl and in terms of not being recognized it was the child it was the exciting challenge of it for sure was to try and create two people yeah and who were related that aren't you know but are very different people and to see if I could do it if I could pull it off you know and you definitely pulled well I have a lot of help from my friends for sure because I've got this extraordinary makeup for Ray yes got a receding hairline and I wear three prosthetics I've got a kind of heavy neck and they get rid of my cleft chin and I've got a wider nose yeah they were sitting here really something because until yes I think Ray is so cool like Ray is it's a very interesting storyline and he's but what the lovely thing about Ray is that he'd he sort of love you know he's in love with Nikki Swango yes totally in love and it's that's what's really wonderful about playing him he's quite a downtrodden hard-nosed guy works with kriti looks after criminals he's a parole officer and he's a dick to them you know I like that about I mean he's a real dick to the people he works with and then when he's with Nikki he's communicating he's like can't believe his luck you know he's like a poly I like that so I love that about him and as opposed to the other brother who's much more in this sort of Trump era is much more represents capitalism and he's a businessman and his focus of his life has just been about success and money and he's got no soul really in a way and that although he's married and he loves his wife in a sort of organized way you know I've got my business I've got my wife and my daughter and everything should be in this place but he's got no soul really and Ray's got soul and that's that sort of I think is what differentiates the two of them in a way and then yeah it was fun really fun to do I love it an older boy taking advantage of a younger plan nobody took advantage it was a trade if I had a time machine you'd see I play back the tape Emmett come on I'm begging you take the stupid steps already give me the car that's not that was you tricking me and do you see it it's very different like doing film and television no I think it's the same I just think it's more it's more satisfying doing television now because because I've been doing films for 25 years or something and I find that the the the waiting to work is just intolerable nowadays and in television you don't wait very much because you have to do so much in a day yeah and I like that I like the pace of it very much how do you what do you think about it I don't find it different no I mean I actually feared is it almost exactly I do not see anything different when I'm working working on big little lives versus working on lion or sacred arrows or some sort of film I've done recently it's the same yeah how do creating directors but there seems to be the thing I love about television is that you are in people's lives regularly and the connection that way is is intense and and sort of fun and very it makes me feel very much a part of the world far more connected to the world yeah um then in a film yeah ah so how did you get involved in big little ice out of that summarize so funny giving you I think I know well it's quite funny I mean you ask me questions you were very good at it laughs I'm very interested I'm curious how do I get involved water I also produce it right you could just as well yeah with that which we sand bruna path and Roger you know Bruno no coming yeah and and pear sorry who's my producing partner and the four of us kind of jumped on this book that was written by an Australian author Lee Ann Marie ardian Bruna called me and said Reese has read this we've read this we think this will be a great thing to do together I read it overnight and I happen to be flying to Australia so I met with Leanne when that down had a coffee with LeAnn's yeah totally in in Sydney which is a little really great coffee I have to say yeah that always helps to seal the deal and and she and I said would you give us the rights because the one thing I'll promise you is that we'll get it made and she did is the book set in Australia no it was written it was the Booker set in Australia and the series was moved to Monterey yeah because for a number of reasons partly was HBO wanted to do it they wanted it to be sort of based in America because they thought then that would probably have a more global appeal I think it could have been based based in both places but you know to get the cast that we got you've got them um it was easier to shoot in yeah we have like between Laura Dern and your shailene woodley and zoe kravitz race I mean I mean and then over men as well Alexander all of the Unruh was so lucky amazing that sort of but and that we wouldn't have got that in terms of Australia because everyone would and it would have probably cost us a lot more money to it it's sort of a marker as well of how things have changed the film and television and that it really doesn't the delineation is gone in a way you'd never have got that cast in the TV show ten years ago I don't think no I'm not sure when it turned I think it was probably when Matthew on what he did true detectives right never what everyone went oh no that's right that's right but it's also awesome that now those I suppose it's just more opportunities yeah because there's so much talent out there and like there just wasn't I mean a decade ago there really wasn't enough work right because it was very much film and then you would go to television as sort of another resort but now it's all yeah it's all mixed in together and you have just exquisite performances and storytelling in many different media I love that yes I like it too there's so many there's so many so many platforms for it to be removed and because I have so many talented friends that now go oh wow there's hope I can get this I can do that I can I can produce this myself I have this I mean so much of it is just giving talented people a chance yeah so I'm a massive supporter of that yeah and if it or is it a 1 or 1 season deal usual or is it going to go on a book so yeah that's really fine I okay I mean we got the taste for it so we're like oh what a pity but um you know you never know you always hope but there's no story there's absolutely no you'll find another space right and we have this daddy tell me you what memories do I have some of them are a little blurry I can assure you yes Moulin Rouge no longer hey would you realize what we were making when we were making it I did I think I did yeah I've always been them I don't think you do work unless you think it's going to be great I've never approached anything thinking well this might be a bit crap but no III so I care awake though you've gone how'd you get oh I know I think I I think because that had just done Romeo and Juliet and then without the film he made before and you know just the way we the way we put it together you know I remember we went out and we did a two-week work probably six months before we started shooting I remember being in a dance studio with you and having to do all those different dances like salsa and tango I don't know Ellen we didn't have any hardly any time soon no I know we were in that workshop dancing for weeks on end yeah and I mean the discipline of that and then their singing I just remember you having this exquisite voice and me going I am never going to be able to hit these notes no and I was sort of being screwed get in the room practice Nicole come on and you would sort of come in and know that yeah we weren't sure we were all in the same boy they're so much better than me don't ruin ours like it was that that house what was it called his villa bad at that house that we did all the work in yeah and we would do acting what house was in one room Oh Marius the free set his studio and another raw wardrobe was upstairs it was like being in I'm gorgeous food and good food we'd have great great food very important and then we'd have great parties yeah remember those Friday nights or studying all of them no don't remember all of them cute yeah exactly anyway we had two pretty wild night I remember absence being passed out at one point me going is this safe yeah I was so sort of wave and then going okay no no it was in a minute mm-hmm and then workshopping I mean we so then we did that two week block and then we all went away and then we came back and then we worked for it was it felt like three months before we showed ya long it was very much we were literally I mean we gave about a year of our yeah for that film anyway that's right but hey I'm so glad me too I remember using the elephant scenes ah that was so funny and silly and AH you know all that stuff the poetry if you could wrapped up in the blanket yes yes what's so funny and I just came out of sort of it wasn't really a Lea described that but then everything was a bit like that one yeah like all those workshops we did with what we'd work on a scene and then a week later we'd come back and the work that we've done on it as actors would have been incorporated in the writing that never happens that's very rare that was astrologer yeah and that's such a great thing to share I always say this it's when you get to share something like that together it's yours forever it's something we all created together and it bonds you and all very particular way to do that no very true yeah yeah so it's nice to see you yeah how about you just give me back my step we'll call it square ring look you're lucky I don't sue I mean a legal document which delineates things but Cui's them to specific parties that a father dead in a driveway what would be the most challenging I know that's just a ridiculous question question because I think what people imagine are the challenging moments often aren't like if you have to cry or you've got a breakdown or those sort of take care of themselves in a way I find and I don't know I think the most challenging things about acting is if you don't if you've lost your faith in it you know when we discussed it a little earlier about you might maybe you start a film and you think it's gonna be great and then two or three weeks then you realize that you you either you're not in the same page as the director or you don't you don't feel that you've got the directors trust or they're not really seeing what you're doing or yeah that's diff that's the hardest thing of all I think because then you've got to suddenly you've got to somehow protect your own work and you've got to try and keep your enthusiasm going to get to work in the morning when a natural fact maybe you've lost faith in it I think those are the most the hardest moments when you're not happy I like to work being happy and just loving what I do so because I'm in a fortunate position to be able to do that I do a job that I can really enjoy you know yeah so if that's not the case I think those are the most challenging moments and it would be an impolite of me to see what those films are beep yes never right yeah but what about you is there something I don't know what coming of a scene particularly that I've done was difficult I mean I think it's just having the I really want to stay in a place of putting myself into discomfort does that make sense you're not feeling like oh I've done this I'm very safe I know how to do this that for me is not what I'm looking for so it's staying I suppose really really really brazen in the sense of going I'm going to jump in like I would do when I was a teenager or in my early twenties abandon everything and give it my all and hope for the best you've always done that usual that it gets harder as you get older because you know now when things don't work out but I go so what right what have you got to lose and you may have a lot to lose I'm be willing to lose it if that makes sense and that really is staying in that place and being willing then to take the pitfalls when they happen because that's going to happen and if you approach it like a like a high wire yeah yeah yeah it was true venom that I'm interested in or toes I'm interested always in filmmaking yeah I do the road yes what was yeah and that's probably the hardest thing is is having them be interested in working with you because I knew so much of being an actor is being on the receiving end of what you get considered for yeah and trying to break through those those walls and boundaries that are put upon you because they go oh she can only do that oh yeah that's what she is or she's there so she's that and always trying to break through that and say give me a chance I think you've totally managed to do that yeah but you have I mean you have because it's true I think and the business has got a very small amount isn't it totally puts people in boxes and yes and right it is and and and being able to say I want to play all different cultures people ideas and I but I need a visionary I need somebody who's going to lead that lead it because as an actor but you see you've directed I've never directed I put like 18 months of my life or longer but it's solid 18 months of my life into making a film that I think is a very good film and I'm very proud of oh yeah that to Mary competitor eighteen people went to see in the cinema and then that that's something that changed me in a way I really did it it's you have a sort of connection with the work I've always felt connected to my work and an ownership of it as an actor but but if our films not done very well in this box office or whatever I just go okay well I got something out of it and experience was rich for me and didn't really matter but in this case because it was a film that I've made well I found that that was very hard to deal with the fact that people didn't go and see it you know a lot in the cinema but that can be for so many reasons because you know as we all know now it's so much about the corporate sort of and the ability to promote things and get it right Darren or I mean and everything but I also Italy something to do with the kind of film it is I think a I'm not about a lot oh then I think it's it's the sort of movie that people go to see in the cinema less when people are going to see an event movies and horror films and films films that I think because now we've got such access to movies in our living rooms in our homes or wherever we are in our phones with our children's generation you know we put all this time and effort into making these beautiful movies that kids are just going to watch on the [ __ ] iPhone yeah you know and then hey they're watching at least they're watching them and that's the thing and so maybe that changed my thinking a little bit about it as well and about that it doesn't that maybe having it seen in the cinema with lots of people isn't the be-all and end-all anymore I do no hello Anna man I love going to see movies in the cinema but that as you say I mean certain films are going to be seen in the cinema we're going to shoot certain from still on film which yes I've just done two films on gonna film oh yeah but um but also ultimately for the stories to reach people and and somehow connect how they reach them does it really matter and we're lucky now because we've got things like Amazon weather where they're able to do theatrical releases and release on TV I mean is it ideal we're not living in an ideal world yeah no but is it a fantastic opportunity yeah so I suppose I'm always still the glass half-full girl yeah no no that's right no that's just because I always want to do that kind of work I don't I don't want to I don't what to do what God might what fires me in the kind of work that we do special about people and exploring human nature and how we deal with situations and it doesn't matter to me if I can like shoot fire out of my eyes or fly through there imagine how how do I deal with the situation in a in a human way you know so if that kind of work is going into the television realm I'll go with it you know what I mean I don't mind toll totally yeah I mean I just know when Reese and I were talking about doing this and we were like we really feel that there is a place in the world for these for this stories about women and I mean I think there was doubt from people because it was I mean I think it's going to be pretty niche and for it to then spread further than being niche is really gratifying because you go no we weren't crazy you're right it's funny that people imagine something about women is Miche I know it can be a little wipes away ah crazy but I think also in the terms of in terms of art films or television that is very very artistic and creative there's still going to there will still be a path for that I'll always be an advocate just because the last thing we need is is this world being homogenized and our storytelling being homogenized so you have to and up site be willing to take the falls every now and then because sometimes it's maybe won't be commercially viable but sometimes it will sometimes they'll hit such a raw nerve yeah I mean you look at something even like and I know this is TV but you look at Manchester by the sea such an exquisite piece of filmmaking very dark you're very upsetting but still reached a massive audience even something like Lyon which is you know would normally not reach that many people but it kind of just hit a place and that's what happens with TV now I mean that's where when you said about Fargo well how do you do that make a film into a TV series that suddenly is going to penetrate and I mean it's it's miraculous that it happens but I do think that audiences sniff out the things they're interested in there is now we're so lucky that there's a way that you can penetrate that is just kind of grassroots yeah shut up no that's brilliant no that's right what and now what do you think I think I think more or less just what you said the other I think you're right everybody just wants a chance yeah and we're all still in the place of being I suppose you know we love what we do we're passionate about what we do and critically to be discovered in whatever way shape or form gives us the chance to keep doing what we'd love to do yeah pretty blessed for six years I've been working honey Moses organising playdates doing everything to be a good mom you know and today I felt alive I felt good is that crazy what's the best or worst advice you ever got as an actor I thought I don't really remember of getting and I think the interesting thing about acting is it if you're I've thought about when you're working with a child or you can working with a five-year-old or something in the scene and your responsibilities are exactly the same it's you know I mean until of what we're doing so that five-year-old I did that film called with Naomi called they're the impossible and I had I had this little boy I've had three boys in that film and then well boy who was supposed to be my I think it must have been like five or six and I was a scene where I have Adam arms I walk up and I asked this man if I can use a cell phone and he says no and I I stumble off because we can't find out their mum I start crying I think is a very merry fella so when we did there we did the first take another's little boy when the shouted action he was just in the motive totally in the moment like just totally it was a proper actor like it was five and I don't know what his understanding of acting was or what you might have thought he was doing but he was doing amazing work and when the guy said when the guy said no he won't give me his phone he went give him the phone you bastard like that he just improvised in the moment and I felt God the sweet boys totally is doing exactly what I'm doing we're responsibilities the same so I think with actors it's very it's an odd thing you don't give a voice to each other I've never done it I mean unless I see somebody's concerned about something or technical or something if somebody's on their first day on set and they don't understand something I'll always be mindful of that and help people out because someone did that with me I remember the first thing I ever did of drama school was this TV series called lipstick on your collar in Britain and on day two I played this sort of musical fantasy stats set in the 50s and no in the war office room in them during the Suez Crisis and I was playing a Russian translator and I'm sitting there and I have there's a camera on a crane like this far from my nose and I had to be sitting there and had to look at the clock look back look around the room everybody and then look down and then they would played back Blueberry Hill and I had to look up into the lens and lip-sync exactly to Blueberry Hill and as I started singing this iPhone my thrill the camera swept up into the corner of the room to look at the whole room and we did it was my second day on set ever and so I did it and then I did again again and again there was kids asking for more and more and more takes and by about take 12 this man Doogie Henschel who was another actor sitting over to my right who became my best man at my wedding and oh dear friend of mine he walked over to me went in Scottish it's not you I said what he said it's not you you cannot turn all these takes because of you oh and I went he said it's the crane they're not getting the crane in the right place not you and I went oh my god because I of course sitting there thinking I'm [ __ ] this album yeah and he knew that and he saw it so I've always tried to be mindful of that and I am always aware of them you know day players I love working with day players who come in they've got our scene in a movie but they've got a variant inking hardest thing - yeah and I'm always very aware of those people and making sure they get their space and time and you know like because they're often just treated a bit like extras and they're not there are no and they've prepared in time you know I always say if you do that preparation you'll come in and you'll you will make your mark yeah but you're going to do the prep a little more with you you can't just come in and and go through it on anything big or small that's right but yeah I think our player is the hardest thing actually coming into a room full of strangers and having to bare your soul yeah or even just stand there with confidence yeah I mean talk about fake it til you make it you've got to kind of go okay I know what I'm doing yeah I know that I'm not already working I do that on pretty much every film I do I know what I'm doing not you [Music] you

Channel: Variety

Views: 1,029,986

Keywords: Variety, Variety Studio, Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, Moulin Rouge, Fargo, Big Little Lies, Actors on Actors

Id: Kk6ey5yBZ_g

Length: 28min 14sec (1694 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 06 2017