Rachel Weisz Career Retrospective | SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations

hi everyone thank you for braving a polar vortex to come hang out with us tonight my name is Maura Webster I'm the program manager for conversations here in New York at SAC foundation I'm super excited to be having one of our career retros this evening with Rachel vice who has over 50 credits on-screen which was kind of incredible a really impressive background in theater as well from the prestigious Donmar Theatre in London to Broadway she's also a producer who's working to tell excitingly complex stories on-screen which are driving female storytelling forward and is currently nominated for an Academy Award for the favorite for which she was also nominated for a Golden Globe and a SAG Award and many more please welcome Rachel Weisz so I wanted to start by traveling back in your career a little bit from when you were studying at Cambridge and I was interested that you were actually originally studying and got a degree in English literature so I was curious if you had a different original profession in mind for yourself at that point in life I knew that I wanted to act when I went to college and Cambridge has got a tradition of a lot you know there's no teaching of acting there's a lot lots of extracurricular theater groups and plays being put on so I knew that that was gonna happen there so I was I didn't actually tell anyone but secretly I knew that's what I wanted to do and was it through putting together your theater group talking tongues that made you realize it was something you're interested in professionally beyond then yeah I mean I I wanted to do it professionally I after the first year started my own theater company with to to my best friends and it was just myself and another girl and the director and producer four of us and we used to write plays through improvisation so we used to get we used to go to the Edinburgh Festival and you had to enter the the name of the play in the catalog like a few months before we didn't have a play yet so we said we think up a title send the title and then start improvising a play yeah it would really worked out I mean I know it's funny but it's an okay way to do something get the title and then figure out what the words are gonna be was the experience of trying to hustle in an audience in Edinburgh cause it's quite mad up there if anyone has been to the Edinburgh Festival yeah I don't what the equivalent would be here Theatre Festival here but that we were me and the other performer Sascha Hales we would run around the streets of Edinburgh like from 8:00 in the morning with flyers with pictures of our of our the title of our play and we used to run up to people and like give them flies they come to our show come to our show and for me it was it's one of the most exciting moments of my of my life actually because we were so proud of this piece of theatre and the first year we went we put it on a little church hall and if we got and the show was at 10:45 a.m. which is not the prime prime slot but if we got four or five people to come it was a coup it was just amazing it was really it was so exciting there's nothing nothing it's hard to beat that feeling actually outside of performing and learning about the craft of acting through that early theatre work what did you learn about kind of the backend of what it takes to put on a production and the business side of everything you mean that they had professed for like three or fear two great trees agree I would say I learnt almost nothing about business we didn't I mean we know we didn't ever there was no there was very little business but props like the first well for the second year Edinburgh first for the second year we went it was a play called slight possession and it was myself Sascha Hales and and the only other character and prop was a stepladder a big step ladder on the stage so it was very cheap to mount the play all we needed was we each had a little floral dress bare feet the stepladder and we could perform that anywhere so we actually did we ended up performing at the small stage at the National Theatre in London which was incredible we just showed up enough floral dresses with our ladder and we did it so what am I saying I'm saying yeah there was not very little business it was very it was like high imagination low very low tech and low low business so I learned yeah nothing practical just fantasy storytelling imagination stuff I'm also curious about your growing up with parents from Hungary and Austria and the perspective that that gave you did it teach you something about assimilating within different cultures within a household that has kind of helped you in acting through observation and falling in line into different spaces that's a brilliant question I I can't know for sure that it comes from just the fact that my father's Hungarian my mum was Austrian Italian and they were both very not English in culturally strong strong accents different food different cultural way of behaving just very not English so but I'm first-generation and so I I am English but going home was another kind of foreign country so I it's hard for me to know if it's because of that because there were no any parents I have so to have any other experience but definitely the idea of fitting in inside I'm sure I'm sure anyone could relate to that if they have parents from different cultures you need you hang out with all your relations and it's just a totally different way of behaving and different things are acceptable you can speak a different volume and say different things and yeah so I think learning to fit in was something probably that came from being first generation yeah I was reading some interviews where you were talking about when you first started working on TV shows like Inspector Morse and they're actually because of your theatre background you've done a lot more avant-garde acting and playing a student actually felt like a struggle so it's curious how you kind of Ava overcame that hurdle early on that's really yeah so the theatre company with the the step ladder it was it was very avant-garde it was kind of physical theatre it was non-naturalistic we called it it's very pompous what we called it we called it fraught naturalism serious about it and yeah so when I got my first job on TV in a series and I had to play a student as you just mentioned I just I couldn't I didn't and all I'd been was a student I was 20 well I hadn't it was my first job all I done was be a student and being a theatre company yeah naturalism whatever naturalism is cuz it's it is a style there isn't I don't really think there's such a thing as naturalism but just playing something very close to who I was at that moment in time yeah I couldn't do I think I was very bad I was terrible how did I overcome that I just just by I don't I don't know I have an answer yeah and then when you first kind of came over to the states did that feel like a big difference because you'd started managing to get somewhat steady work in England was it a little bit like starting over I mean you didn't really feel it I mean I was doing television lots of you know small role supporting roles in television in England and TV shows then do more theater and doing kind of like not my theatre company but more mainstream I did a play that ended up in the West End which I did for a year as a no cow play designed for living which was a really big big deal for me because it was a big role leading role and I was 24 so I don't know if America seemed like starting again learning an American accent I hadn't been to drama school where you get you get coaching on learning accents so that was the starting and I had to get a teacher and learn to do an American accent which is a challenge for a Brit what was your early process in terms of finding representation and making sure that you were finding people that wanted to represent you that you felt we're going to represent the core values and the storytelling that you wanted to express I mean my 20s I don't think I knew even what that would mean what you just said to me my core values and the stories I want you to I just wanted to work I just wanted you know I just now I completely relate to that but when I started out just and anyone who would represent me who seemed really wonderful you know anyone that could tell you which jobs to go for and any yeah so III guess that became I'm actually was still with the same English a having said that and still with the same agent in England that I was back then in my twenties so that we've been on a long journey and we kind of grew up together she was maybe a year older than me I was my age essentially so we've grown up together but yeah I mean that's that's a luxury question the question of you know what are the stories I wanted to tell and for an actor I think it takes a minute yeah I think you're very lucky if you get you get to that point otherwise it's just any work is is it's hard it's hard to get a job you know it can be really tough do you feel like you're at the point now where you can say no to things and be more thoughtful and if so what point do you feel like you reach that transition in your career I I am lucky now and that I can be more I can I don't have to do every single job I get offered I don't know exactly when I don't can't think of the moment when when that happened but definitely that didn't happen my 20s or even maybe my thirties it's more this decade I also read that early on you had someone trying to convince you that you should consider changing your last name to sound less Jewish was that an easy decision to push back on and say no to and were there any other pressures that were thrown at you early on as well yeah it was I think it was a it was it was an American agent I don't remember his name but I think he said because in England I mean I'm hot yeah in England it just was never really an issue but yeah it was an American I think Jewish agent said you know you ever thought about changing your name because it looks a little Jewish and yeah I then I one time I changed my name because I pronounce advice my dad pronounces advice and there's a W and in England there just aren't any people with my name it just I just wears in America Weiss is a really common name so I we have this thing in England called spotlight which is a kind of catalog we're all actors put there 10 by 8 photo and their height and their agent and stuff like that so I had my app it wasn't like I was 25 or something so had my spotlight application and I sent in the picture to my agent and they changed the spelling to the yce to spelled phonetically vise and my agent it wasn't this the woman the woman I'm with now is his assistant at the time and she he called me up and he was he just screamed at me so it looks like we call them number plates on cars you play since play yeah he said it looks like a license plate yeah so he was okay I guess all right but I wish I changed it to byz because then people would pronounce it right I've given up and it doesn't really matter I feel like people have learned how to say it now I'm interested in your craft and the way that you have talked about wanting to stay drop your character between cut and action so between scenes you're not holding on to your character you're not holding on to it when you go home at night or on the weekends was that something that has always been the case did you ever experiment with a different style and approach at any point yes I mean having not being trained I only had my own method I didn't I didn't have anything imposed upon me but definitely if you're using your imagination to for your job which all of us as actors are I when I started out I used to stay in the imaginative space and like even when I went home or after Yaak director said car I would carry on imagining that I was Miss X or missus well whoever is meant to be amazed to hold on to it and hold under a whole yeah and yeah over time maybe becoming a mother in part and the impossibility of going home is not your child's mother dawned on me that I learnt that actually to to dive in and then jump how a suit as soon as the director says cut it's no longer true actually helped me dive deeper during action in car or during the time you leave the wings and go onto the stage for to do a part of the play it made it more I became more lost in the make-belief then when I tried to hold on to it all the time so does that yeah yes I think so absolutely does um I wanted to ask about the audition process because it's something that everyone as an actor goes through everyone has a lot of stories to tell is there anything that you found that made it feel like a more comfortable and manageable experience along the way it's just it's the worst it's the worst thing and I'm not a good audition I've never have been some people are I think some people come and do the brilliant audition and I'm just more messy as an actor I don't know how to do like a part I just I've never been good at it and under pressure to come up with the goods I just I I it's not my strong point but I don't know someone once said to me you know I suppose if you go in and show as much of yourself whilst being whoever the character is and make a strong choice you know whatever it is that this is there if they don't want you I mean it's always hard but there's I used to say to if they don't want you then they don't want you and then you don't want them but it's tough you know as I say it now it doesn't really console you it doesn't work but it's the only yeah audition I don't have any I don't have any tips it's so so hard but I think trying don't hide because sometimes I I know that I've become so shy or so so no just don't hide but I think I think Americans are much better or dish much bolder auditions when I've been in auditions with Americans they're much bolder than Brit I think we're shy and less shy nature I think so I was interested in talking a little bit about the shape of things which he did with no abuse since that was your first producing credit and I was curious what made you take that leap and want to take on additional creative agency in your career I mean that makes it sound very grand I mean I I did the display with Neela Butte we did it in London and we transferred here to New York and I said to him don't you think this should be a film he said yeah I sure do you want to produce it with me and I said okay so it was very and I I really did with Neill was cuz the script was completely written was I went round to meet producers with him who had some money to say would you like to make this film with Neill and myself in the original car so it was a it was a very small step into production I didn't find the material I didn't find the director I didn't it was just an idea that Neel facilitated very kindly was there a difference in working with him on the play in the film and how he approached you as a director in some of the way that he would give you notes in scenes at all in a way I would say no and and that film is is very it's pretty much the film of the play in a sense and it's quite theatrical and I think Neela beaut is okay that's what he wanted it to be so no it was it was actually a struggle in that we've done the play for so long for a nearly a year that I knew that for me anyway I knew the lines so well that to find the kind of spontaneity that you need on film when you've got a camera right up in your face and you can't just you can't repeat something it has to be something new and spontaneous it was actually really challenging yeah and then I was also watching the short film that you made the thief which you wrote directed and had an amazing cast in what made you interested in that type of storytelling and wanting to tell something in short form you know I was something that I was offered and it just seemed like a a wonderful opportunity it was it was it was paid for by it was Glamour magazine that women's magazine and they they had money to give probably some much more deserving than me but there were there were various people who they asked and I said yes and the readers had sent in true stories and so I read about a hundred stories from readers and this one really struck me it was about a woman who a thief came into her home and stole her wedding engagement ring and her wallet and anyway he ended up talk they he ended up kind of breaking down in tears in front of her and she ended up driving him to the ATM getting out money for him and offering him a job and it was just such an extraordinary you know he seemed like a really evil nasty cruel you know what he's the bad guy and actually he was desperate to get money for his wife and they had a baby and he was just desperate so I love this story and very luckily joel edgerton agreed to be my thief he's such a fantastic actor yeah I really loved I loved working with the actors what was your process of casting max you just mentioned Joel and then you all said Rosemarie DeWitt and Daniel McDonald and was it kind of strange being on the other side of of casting well Joel and Rosemarie didn't audition they just offered them the job and so I mean for me just watching actor watching them both work I'm gonna I don't idea I was so bowled over by what actors do just watching Joel MO and Rosemarie get lost in the role I yeah I probably I was a very wasn't strict enough probably as a director but uh yeah it's just be it was beautiful talk to be able to sit back and watch actors do what they do yeah and I liked seeing that your dad ended up producing a film called Regina that was about the first female rabbi and you ended up doing the narration for it was there any advice that you gave him from from your own career my doesn't gonna be 90 this year he's very competitive with me so when I started producing not not the nearly Bute film but when I started producing kind of in earnest he he's a mechanical engineer by training so read enough to do with the film world but yeah he just got very competitive with me but he found this very beautiful story about a woman who became a rabbi in Germany and before the well before and during the Second World War yeah and asked me to do the voice-over so it was it was it was a lovely thing to do for him what is some of the key skills that you've learned through reading so many scripts as an actor that's come into play through development that you're doing because you're optioning books as well as looking at scripts all the time now what what have I learned as an actor that helps you understand when I read a script yeah yeah I think I think it's about finding the even if it's a small part or a supporting role it's about the characters agency and it could be that the character is self-destructive or you know emotionally weak or emotionally crippled it doesn't have to be agency where she is powerful and strong and you know we're doing good for herself in the world you know it could it could be a mixture of all those things some some negative some positive you know all shake it shaken up and and I think more the more contradictions there can be within a character and the more she has that she's in charge of what she's doing even if it's to the detriment of her happiness or the happiness of those around her or if it is making people huh you know what it as long as she's in charge of it it's just I think characters that just have things done to them or the writer I don't know somehow makes them into just one thing or just two things they just need to be lots of things with many contradictions I don't know if I've necessarily learned that from yeah I have learnt that from playing them why not yes and do you find that there's kind of a natural assumption that because you've had a successful career as an actor that it's super easy to get your films greenlit that it doesn't take that much time whereas in actual fact the process of development and producing a film is incredibly long and involved it's in crisis incredibly long and involved and and I would say out of there were I was just looking at a board that I'd made and there was there was there was I think six project seven projects and one of them has been made and the other six of all for various different reasons fallen by the wayside and won't get made but I put just as much time in all of those other ones for the last three or four years so that's just I think the nature of you know storytelling when when you're what was really when you're asking people to spend a lot of money for you to tell the story not like in Edinburgh with it's just the ladder and the two dresses you know so yeah so is there anything that you have found really interesting learning more about post-production through producing and being part of that with foam like disobedience I mean post-production I mean editing I knew this before producing I mean editing can really make or break a performance I think and I'm not speaking of the film that I produce I think in general editing is an incredible skill but it's not something that I I know anything about or wouldn't know how to I in the film that I produced I wasn't involved in any way but I saw different edits and I gave notes but I wasn't I wasn't in charge of it in any way it's incredible skill and are you staying involved in the producing day-to-day while you're shooting or do you find you have to step away at that point absolutely not even at all yeah and I'm not involved at all yeah so what once the production begins I just become an actor playing that character for me that's it's you know I think acting is a lot as challenging it's consumes all of your energy and concentration and imagination I would I wouldn't be able to say I would have no practical skills with any use to anyone yeah I wanted to talk about theater a little bit since you've done so much of it do you find that you're approaching your craft in a different way when you're on stage at this point versus when you're doing something on screen or does is it all just very much the same for you I mean I think at its purest level it really is the same it's you saying the words that have been written and in those moments on stage or between action and car what you're saying is true I mean and that's the challenge is how how does it become true the words and I'm saying they're not words that I I wrote someone else wrote them and how do I make them true so I think it's it's really always the same challenge and sometimes to on stage or or in front of a camera to veer off to always not if you have an idea of how you think the way you think it should go don't do that that would be my my only method yeah it just has to go somewhere where you just don't know where it's going because it's like me talking to you now this is reality I have don't know I don't know what's about to have I don't know how I'm gonna say what I'm saying and that's what life is like and that's what I think when you're trying to be truthful it should be like that and theater that's challenging has you've done it you've done it so many times so many times is how do you keep going off-piste into into staying truthful when you're taking on a role like when you're in streetcar named desire how did you figure out what was going to be your new and unique take for a character that's so well revered that's so well known at that point um I had never seen the play and I'd never seen the film when I I've since seen the film so I didn't I didn't have any versions in my head which probably really helped I know it's incredible that got to this ripe age and had never seen streetcar but it's true I never had so I didn't have any I have any role model or any I didn't see little bits of it Vivian Lee but I hadn't watched the film so yeah for me it was just those words those incredible words that Williams wrote I mean like for me it's the greatest character for a woman that I've ever come across I don't think it gets any better and talk about contradictions you know she's you know infuriating charming intelligent brilliant and alcoholic likes having sex with young boys impossible kind cruel I mean she's just she's ever she's a human she's everything yeah so that was an incredible experience are there any fundamental differences between being on stage in London and on Broadway in New York yes any elaboration it's completely different experience I mean on Broadway for instance III did streetcar at the Donmar which is a kind of more like the Atlantic it's a smaller smaller like a st. Ann's warehouse is same as warehouse exactly yeah exactly yeah I would say it's really close to that mixed with a with a small house at BAM or something yeah for instance on Broadway if someone famous walks on stage to a during a play the audience clap which I get in America isn't completely normal in England that's just I I I mean that doesn't happen it's so yeah yeah and I guess it's a really small difference but it's a it's a small but big difference yeah so I don't know we could culturally deconstruct that I don't know but that's the difference yeah I've also noticed a difference with standing ovations that they're much more common here as well yes much more yeah yeah bridge takes a lot to get Brit to their feet yeah and you had the chance to work with Mike Nichols when you did the play betrayal which turned out to be his last play that he did is there anything that you remember really vividly about the way that he directed you in that production yes he such a very unique person very privileged to have got to meet him and work with him he used to just say to everyone he just used to so it's just got a bit what I was saying before about audition he just kept saying it's got to be you it's got to be you which is impossible to know exactly what that means but I think he means just show show yourself keep showing yourself it was a very really special man and kind of moving back to the film world a little bit obviously the the first role that really kind of made you your name universally known was the mummy and when I was actually re watching it what I found really interesting about your character is that there's actually a lot of feminist elements to her she speaks Egyptian she can decipher hieroglyphics she's a librarian she's interested in discovering an ancient book that will tell more about history so she's not just a side piece to the film she is autonomous in the story as well was that something that you kind of keyed into and noticed about that character when you were looking at it back in the day I was in my 20s so I was in that phase of just any any job was a really great job but that that script was I loved it as soon as I read it I loved it it reminded me it was self-consciously b-movie it was making a joke out of its b-movie nurse and I used to watch with my mum in England on Saturday mornings they used to have like Saturday morning kind of adventure black and white like half hour they like Zorro and I can't remember the names of all of them but it was just that you know swashbuckling stuff you know and I'd watched so many of those kinds of things as a child when I read it I felt like I knew the tone of it that I knew the tone that this heroine would have yeah and I love the fact she's yeah she's a feisty oh I sort of felt like she was a stuck in the wrong genre because she was a librarian in an action movie it just seemed like kind of very brilliant and wild but yeah she was she was feisty and had you know she definitely she was a she tried to be in charge but she was often ridiculous which I found very funny could you talk a little bit about some of the scenes that you had to shoot with real rats and real locusts and the challenges that came with doing that you know I have it's like my psychologies I always forget things that are unpleasant like as you said that I was thinking did that and I went oh yeah that did yeah by being Thai I think tied to a a tomb of some sort and there were rats that crawled across me I don't know you I just you have to search I don't I have no tips for how to do that I don't know you just do it you just got to do it I think that the locusts I think they were plastic on CGI but I could be wrong like there would be within locusts oh yeah yeah I think they were mainly CGI yeah so yeah but the rats were real I experienced them yeah and then when you made about a boy you had the pleasure of working with Chris Weitz who was an old friend of yours from Cambridge was there something really nice about walking onto a set with someone that you had such a history with that built an immediate trust knowing that you were gonna feel really safe in his hands I really didn't know him that well so yeah but in that life yeah yeah I knew I knew him a bit but but it was him and his brother Paul and they direct together I don't know how my siblings managed that but they do their route they're really good together they were they were a real pleasure to work with as was as was Hugh Grant they were hugely enjoyable experience so parent actor Hugh who makes it look really effortless because he's just so funny and easygoing and light and irreverent but he's he works really hard he really does his homework he's one of the most prepared actors and it's very hard to do what he does I think I mean he makes it look so easy that sort of English kind of funny thing but it's really hard to do I'm also interested in the film that you shot with terrence malick to the wonder which ultimately they ended up cutting a lot of your scenes but what all of them all of them but what do you feel that you still got out of the process even though it wasn't what your work wasn't ultimately seen by audiences yeah I I knew going into it that it was it was a possibility if not a probability because he often cuts actors from the final film and I was I was only there for a week in Oklahoma there we go it was Oklahoma I couldn't remember the state it was Oklahoma yes so um I got I had the experience of working with terrence malick which i think everybody can say that so I I was really I felt quite privileged to see how he works Jordan Oh Jordan oh yeah okay he he he feels like he has to surprise the actor all the time so that that could the thing that I was talking about about stays truthful and don't do what you don't plan what you're going to do like stay fresh and truthful and off-piste he kind of pushes you in that he pushes you in that way so he'll not tell you what's happening there's no script that you get an advance so you're constantly in a state of surprise and then when you got to do the Constant Gardener you got to work with the incredible Fernando Morales who at that point had just done City of God and I was interested in the parallels between shooting that in the favorite because they're both him and year ago sin those films very much relied on available light you're not really worrying about camera placement is that something that's really freeing for you and getting to just think about the performance more specifically working with Fernando Maurice and constant guard was was much more like being with the documentary crew in that it was such a small crew just one yeah similar in that there was us uses only natural daylight or candlelight but it's much more kind of aestheticized and controlled the environment I would say was fernando it was sort of like i was married to ray Fiennes and we were living in Kenya and someone was making a documentary I know that sounds really mad but that's kind of what it felt like because it just the the the the the the amount of technical crew around you was not we the actors outnumbered the crew so there's such a point where you felt like what was happening was just happening and someone was just recording it does that sound nuts or yeah okay good and how is your experience working with a lot of with some of the non actors in the Constant Gardener as well and actually your ghost lanthum was in the favorite there are some non actors who they they're just better than any actor in a way because the particularly the people that your ghosts well in in in the constant gardener my character is walking through the slums of Nairobi and I was in character and we were only actually was a kind of documentary it was like faction because my character was interacting with people who lived in the slum and they weren't acting they were living their life and interacting with me so they had just no self-consciousness and or if there were moments of self-consciousness that maybe they didn't make it into the film I I don't know and then it were in the favorite Jurgis used non actors who just had lines in a way that was I which kind of Jean I I found it I could never do I can never be as good as them I don't know if that makes sense but sometimes if you really don't know how to act it can be so pure it's just completely authentic reactions exactly those moments say maybe is completely authentic reactions yes son yeah you strive to be that good and how much responsibility are you feeling and how much research you doing on the real people when you're playing someone we're actually very little is known about their public persona whether it's your character in The Constant Gardener Lady Marber in the favorite Deborah Lipstadt from denial like how much responsibility do you feel to them because general audiences don't really have a preconceived notion of of who they are already the Costigan I had the John Kerry novel and he had based my character on Iran Iran a real person and activist who had died or been murdered he would say so I had the novel I had fiction I could fill up my imagination with the incredible prose that he wrote and I wanted to honor her because I knew that he he cared very deep you know he was for someone very important in his life and John the carries life but of course no one in the pin in the world she's not a famous figure so no one could say you didn't get her right similarly I mean Deborah Lipstadt is is a public figure I mean it was very different because she she was present a lot and so I ended up really speaking as she speaks yeah with the character with Deborah in denial what's really interesting fascinating and quite scary is how she you know if you haven't seen the film Rachael's playing a woman who was sued by a Holocaust denier and it's quite scary to realize how wholeheartedly some people believe that and I think we read the news a lot today and see some of the things that people believe that and was it kind of interesting to see how just like these little micro aggressions can build into something that is quite so serious what David Hare who wrote the screenplay wrote I think not because he was particularly interested in Holocaust denial per se although I'm sure it's an important thing to consider and think about but that it was it was before Trump was running for president but he was in the ether I guess and and David David hey I want you to write it because he wanted to express a story about the idea that that a fact is not an opinion there are facts there are unequivocal facts and just because you have an opinion doesn't make it so so I think it was pretty you know he had his finger on the pulse shall we say about you know alternative truths determinate of facts and the kind of world that we're living in now three three years later did you scut did you discover anything when you were researching for that about that was quite shocking about why some people would believe that the Holocaust never happened I kind of knew I mean I think a lot of people hold that belief in different parts of the world I I just think it's something I mean but personally I do I do believe that I do believe there are some things that are true and some things that are not true so yeah I mean you know Debra's was she's also an incredibly colorful personality and the director wanted it to be a kind of a recreation of her trial so he you know I wore the exact same clothes that she'd worn like Eve seller or scarf and her big you know ethnic ring and I just wore he wanted to completely recreate documentary-like everything that had happened so he wants my hair to be red he wanted my accent to be Queens or she says it's a very Upper West Side I don't what she means by that but Queens yeah so it was it was a really interesting character to to inhabit when you were doing a film like my cousin Rachel what's really fun about watching as an audience member is just the whole mystery of that character did you find that it was easier to just compartmentalize that and put that away and really just focus on your character or were you playing into the audiences trying to figure out what's happening um so the story of my cousin Rachel is a woman who has she or has she not issue is she not poisoning this young boy and did she or did she not kill his uncle question mark sort of thriller I guess um she's like a this plane with the idea of a femme fatale is she really an evil you know evil scheming or she victim of this man who was I'm terrible at pictures but that's the idea so the whole idea of the film is was to play it so that the audience you just that you don't know for sure but people interpret it different ways so I guess she's mysterious but you can't play mystery I well I don't I don't know how I wouldn't know how to do that so I made a choice as to whether she was innocent or guilty and I played it one of the and then it was fascinating leader different people who saw it some people came out to me they say you absolutely did it and so people said like oh no no you were so it I don't know if it was a personality test for the audience or what but people interpreted it differently yeah is it kind of similar to people telling you which animal they'd be if they were in the lobster exactly yes when you were producing disobedience obviously you found the incredible Sebastian leleo to direct it what was your what was that journey of the search to find the right director and what was it about him that made you feel like he would so specifically tell this story in the right way there there was a film he made call Gloria which is being remade now it has been remade will come out and this year March Oh in March would she lamb more but he's from Chile and it was a film that he made and I saw it and it was about there's a producer in New York or Frieda Tarasenko who introduced me to his work so I have to give her the credit and it's this film Gloria and it's about a woman and her I guess mid 50s whose kids have left home and so she's got an empty nest and she's hanging out with her girlfriends a similar age late 50s maybe early 60s and they're talking about you know dating and loneliness and she falls in love and tonally it was just exquisite because it was very funny very moving very absurd but what it I I personally hadn't seen a film where a woman of that age was put front and center and her sexuality and her sexual needs were the whole body of the story normally most most often in films she would be auntie or granny or you know she just wouldn't be her sexuality wouldn't be front and center and of course if you're 60 or 50 whatever age you are you your life is front and center but stories often make women of that age peripheral so I fell in love with this filmmaker I assumed he was a gay man he turns out not to be as straight and I just didn't think I just didn't think a straight man would would have made a film like that but he did he's very straight very latin-american and yeah so I we just sent him the book of disobedience wish I'd optioned and it's very strangely enough he immediately said yes I want to make it so the search was very short I mean it was extraordinary that first director we send it to said yes and you had a very short short search and finding Rachel McAdams and that she was the first actress that you offered the role to as well what was it that made you feel immediately that that was going to be someone you wanted to play this part across from on screen because it's such an intimate relationship between those two characters I knew I knew how skilled she was from all the roles that I've seen her do and I think most recently she just done spotlight and she really she really disappeared and inside that role because she's so glamorous and beautiful but she really disappeared and the character was at the forefront I it was mainly her passion apart from her incredible talent that I'd seen in all the films that she's done it was her passion for the story so when she read the script I spoke to her on the phone and she just she just had a clear understanding of who this character was and a great passion for the story and that you can't ask for more than that and I've heard you say that the two of you had very similar styles in the way that you like to prepare in advance the way that you like to discuss or not discuss a role was that something that by the time you were on set you you were already aware of and what did that bring to the overall process for you both no I didn't know how what she would be like to actually work with but it just transpired that we both don't unless the director's demanding it of us don't choose to sit around and talk about the scene that's coming up or the scene it just happened or how are you gonna do this just we don't talk we talk about something else like what do you have breakfast and you know where you going on hot you know just chatting but there was no analysis of what we were doing so we just just dove in which just suit yeah she's kind of like a trooper [Laughter] the sex scene between the two of you is one of the most beautifully filmed sex scenes in that it's all about the emotion it's not about the physicality which is very rare and it really feels like it's moving the story forward whether any kind of specific conversations that you had about ensuring that it kind of still had that sense of a female gaze no matter who was directing it beforehand well as I mentioned it was a it was a heterosexual man's gaze but but by totally totally you're saying yeah so the in the script it just said I think they make love so Sebastian leleo he storyboarded the scene he said look this is a really important scene these two characters have been waiting you know 15 20 years for this moment it's very important that was all he really said but then he showed us a storyboard and all the the frames were of our faces so one character was in the frame the other character was outside the frame and so it was clear that the audience has to imagine what the other characters doing to this characters that's producing the emotion in her face which immediately struck me as I don't know if I managed to analyze any of this before making the film at having seen it I think it's more actually more erotic not to see body parts but just to see the emotion on the face so yeah I mean it was it was very emotional to shoot the scene it was very emotional because it was about Rachel McAdams character coming out as who she really was and a gay woman and it was about having waited for 20 years it was there were the stakes were very very high wasn't just you know any old sex you know it was very it was incredibly emotional so I thought the way Sebastian chose to shoot it was you know elegant powerful you know sometimes yeah you know you that exact as you might there might be a sex scene in something and you think is this really necessary for the plot and personally in my experience I would say almost always the answer is no you easily take it out and it wouldn't make any difference really but in this instance it was essential to the story and kind of and the heart and soul of the film in a strange way was there a difference in the level of safety and comfort that you knew you were going to experience because you were on this project as a producer compared to forming sex scenes in other films in the past I really trusted Sebastian the director and I I think we need a Rachel noir I felt in any war any way that anything exploitative was happening it just wasn't on the it wasn't on our radar yeah you knew that before you even walked onto set because you've been working with Sebastian so closely yes there was a lot of trust yes and then I'm interested in how your relationship with your ghost lamp themost came about when you were filming the lobster because you actually had seen dogtooth and written to him and it sounds like that's something that you've done earlier in your career as well I believe with Fernando Meirelles prior to the constant gardener at what point did you start reaching out and writing these sorts of letters to directors to try and have more autonomy in the people that you were working with maybe I've done it for quite a long time and and and sometimes it will end up that you end up working with the person but mostly not but it just I think people don't seem to mind receiving letters of admiration so I think it's kind of wait you know when when when it doesn't I've expressed admiration for directors and ended up never meeting them or never working with them but your glass I saw dogtooth and then yes I ended up meeting him he was living in London and we went out for a coffee and I said how much I wanted to work with him and he said well I'm writing something at the moment I'll send it to you and that was lobster so that's how it started so yeah I think it's lovely to reach out to people that you admire yeah what was it that had really struck you about dogtooth gosh it was it was has anyone seen dogtooth yeah it's hi hi concept so it was it's basically sci-fi it's about a family a father who keeps his children away from the world in a kind of it's a cult I guess and really about how all families are cults in a way and these children have never been to the outside world so it'll teach them he'll pick this up and go hairbrush go hair brush they've been taught the wrong words for things for starters so but but there's no spaceships there's no special effects there's no prosthetics but it it's one of the most scary sci-fi films I've ever seen just from the conceit that he imagined of what would happen if you lived this life as a family away from the real world one of the things I love about the lobster is the communication system that your character and Colin's character come up with like we put our hands behind our back we're gonna hold our left hand up what was the process of coming up with what the different hand signals were gonna be did you workshop different ones because they're quite funny as well yes there's no was no workshopping cuz there was zero rehearsal and lobster because it was really low budget so we just so my character in Colin Farrell's character communicate to each other through a kind of sign language that's private that no one else can understand and we just made it up because because it was private to our I mean it wasn't meant to be any official sign language so we made it up and then the voice-over decided what it all meant later and you mentioned that lobster didn't have a rehearsal period but the favorite you guys had about three weeks of prep time and and you've all talked very publicly in interviews about how your ghost likes to make everyone do very strange exercises but what did that kind of harken you back to your theater days where it's not necessarily about work shopping a specific scene but it's more about just becoming comfortable with the material at hand yeah I think anyone in this room anyone who was an actor wouldn't find it strange what we did it was just like being part of a theater troupe and playing trust games or games with the dialogue or the script to get relaxed with it and throw the words about and one person says one line another person says another line while you do something physical so that you get to the point where you act and react a bit like spontaneously a bit like you said about the non actors in the favorite so he's trying to get people to that point where you're not thinking you're not trying to act and say it in a certain way you just because you because your brains concentrating on too many too many things which are the games that he's given you to play whilst you say the line since he very infamously doesn't want to sit down and talk about story and talk about character when you're shooting a scene and you're doing several takes and there's something different that he's trying to get out of your performance how does he communicate that to you is it even describable I really don't know I'm not I don't know if he's trying to get you to do I mean okay so how it happens is you got into the set in your costume and he says do the scene you do it once he'll see something or other and then he'll set up the camera so he hasn't storyboarded it in advance he's actually not that controlling in a certain way and then he'll put the camera somewhere and you'll start doing it and he just he'll just say say it faster say it faster faster faster often faster or a bit slower or he says very very little but he's sort of I don't know his directing is kind of an art form in a verb itself that I don't know how I not sure how to explain it because it's very minimal but he creates an atmosphere his level of concentration is so intense that he kind of I don't know maybe he hypnotizes you I don't know something happens but it's it's not through language it's not through him saying I would like you to do it like this I think sometimes if I if I I can recall doing something too emotionally and he just go he just laughs like he finds it funny if you do something you think that well that was really good take he just thinks it's ridiculous one of the scenes I found very impressive is the one where your character lady Barbara has been poisoned and you're riding a horse through the woods and then you're kind of gradually falling off of it could you talk a little bit about the mechanics and the logistics of how that scene actually came together yes I know how to ride as a child so that was helpful so I had I've been poisoned by Emma Stone's character so I had oatmeal in my mouth and I can't it up to a certain spot and then I started to feel I've been poisoned you know and then I vomited the oatmeal over the side of that is this what you mean yeah I vomited it was very mechanical huh yeah I vomited oatmeal over and then I had to kind of double over and then fall out of the shot but there was something to catch me and then it cut to me being dragged dragged along the ground I mean that was it was was mechanical we had to do it over and over again because yeah mechanics yeah I know when you you're geison Emma came here to talk about the film specifically that you were all saying that every interview you were doing everyone was like what's it like to do a film with three strong women in it and you also kind of cooled that out when you accepted the cast award that you all shared at the Gotham awards have you found that since you called it out people have stopped asking you as much I haven't been doing that many interviews maybe so I don't know I might listen I I think I get why journalists were asking what's it like to work with two other women because there are very few films where there are not one not two but three very complicated female roles so III maybe phrased it in elegantly I should have said I wish it were not the case but I understand why we'll keep asking what it's like working with other women cuz sadly it's it's it's very rare has there been something really unique about going through award season in this way that all three of you have been nominated for so many of the same awards which is superb and so I'll deserve to all of you but that you've had this support system around you the whole time as opposed to when you were going through it or with the Constant Gardener and it's really you're they're a little bit more about yourself I mean the favorite is a true I think ensemble with the whole cast of course because it's everybody telling the story but with the three women I mean each each role depends upon the other two roles and I would I'll speak for myself but I think that's true for all three women so it has been pretty extraordinary yeah that we that people have liked like the ensemble and as you mentioned that the Gotham awards we got an award as an ensemble they weren't there so I had like cutouts which was very funny they were working though that's why they were filming or they would have loved to have come but yeah and it's an extraordinary it's an extraordinary threesome three kind of very wacky eccentric unusual complicated females who are in a you know these power struggles with very juicy roles I also loved that you got the chance to work with Nicholas Hoult again in that film who you'd worked with previously and about a boy what did you see in the difference in the way that he was unset in the way that he approached character from when he was younger to this point well I should say that most people wouldn't know Nicholas Hoult I think was 12 was he 11 I think somewhere around yeah he was a very small boy when I worked with him in a film called about a boy I don't know how many years ago 20 I don't know a long time ago so he was a child and he was kind of like like like a nerdy kid in the sweetest possible way and except quite except like an eccentric kid he wasn't he wasn't like cute he was kind of an oddball and in the best way and so was his character and and he's grown up into this really incredibly gifted versatile actor but I suppose what was lovely for me is he's very funny in the favor extremely extremely funny but I whenever I look at him I guess if you known someone as a child I just saw their I kept seeing the nerdy child so he sort of look he looks like a donut now but I still see the nerdy child one of the things I've really admired a lot about your career is that you use the platform that you've had to speak out about things like you know feminist issues and all that sort of thing do you think that in the climate that we're in there's kind of a responsibility to use your platform to speak out about politics and other social causes and issues I I was nowhere I don't feel like I had I have spoken about things a lot but I suppose in terms of being a woman which I just and finding stories for women if that's what yeah I think a lot of it's like the type of storytelling that you're championing especially through your producing and it seems like it's a very clear and conscious choice and decision yeah I mean yes I I think that's something that [Music] matters to me a bit like what I was saying about stories about older women making you know story the bet everyone is the center of their own life but stories and films have made certain people peripheral and so I think it's you know putting women into the center of stories I mean I always find it really not that we getting that feeling of like why are we talking about this it's not like we're unicorns or you know a population yeah we're not the outlying you know I mean endangered species or something it's so it's so nuts isn't it that we talking about that just in relation to just women but but it is important so it is something that I am happy to that I care about deeply yeah yeah and did you ever have a point where you were debating whether you wanted to outwardly say what your beliefs on politics were whether it was brexit or something like Trump because there's difference in opinion as to who decides to say something publicly it not I mean when I'm in England I get off you know you just get asked about brexit and it's just inevitable I mean it's you know my job is I'm a storyteller I'm about fiction and make belief in the imagination so I don't want to get too I don't know if my personal political beliefs should matter to to anyone but myself and my family I guess my close friends and my conscience yeah so I am yeah I'm not sure I'm not I'm not sure how helpful it can be to the world of politics or the world of fiction to yeah everyone's different everyone should do whatever they want I'm not do tasting but I haven't been particularly vocal have you noticed any difference in the types of conversations that directors and producers are having about the environment on set since we've been having all these conversations about sexual allegations and people who've worked in the industry for several years who haven't treated people in the right way and I think that is something we're particularly more for women it's more of an issue have you noticed any gradual shifts and changes on any of the sets you've been on in the last couple of years I haven't personally but I've heard about actually I thought that's what you're going to ask me about intimacy coaches but I haven't met one yet so people who are there to help facilitate sex scenes to guide people through it I mean I think the industry is changing a lot I see it more in terms of storytelling but the more women are being offered jobs to direct and so there'll be more female points of view but yeah I mean look it's it's very moving that it's it's such a big subject it's hard to answer in an in a nutshell but you know I've got very moved by you know if I think well what is the me to movement it's actually one woman standing up and saying this happened to me and then another woman can say this and to me - and me - and me - and that that's what those two words mean that women are you know there's a strength in numbers but it's so sad that such a thing is true that it had to happen but it's very moving if you stop to think about him yeah and also the safety that comes in transparency and the conversations even happening to begin with I wanted to move on to you some questions that we have from the audience so the first one is from Edith who said I first saw you when I was 13 in a film called swept from the sea as Amy Foster and could you talk a little about your process creating such a strong character who has very little dialogue a woman who doesn't have to be loud to be heard where's Edith oh that was my mom's name Edith it's such an unusual name ah sorry I was getting lost thinking about my mom there sorry a strong character doesn't say very much in sweat for this from the sea how yeah she is a misfit a very much a misfit and an outsider and I you know I think a lot of actors probably feel like they're misfits so I'm gonna go out on a limb and limb and say I I thought I identified with her very strongly it was it was interesting that yeah that she was very silent and didn't speak but was very watchful and completely misunderstood yeah I really enjoyed it was very very very early on in my career not sure quite how well I did with it but it was I really enjoyed the role right I enjoyed the aspects that you're mentioning the the silence and the odd outside Irishness that she had yeah I loved it and the next one is from Lisa he was asking what's the most what's one of the most helpful notes our director has ever given you well gosh if finally enough in in the Constant Gardener there was a scene where my character had to go and seduce Danny Houston's character she was trying to get something out of him actually she wants she's cheap she was going to sing she was going to him to say you can have he was really sorry I'm still looking Edith and she didn't ask this question it's like what I care about there's heavy I don't know who asked this question Lisa Lisa no oh thank you yeah I know I need someone to connect with yeah so my character was going to Danny Houston's character to the line was was something like you can have me if you give me the letter and the letter was some very important plot point she had to get I had to get the letter and so I was offering to have sex with him and to get the letter that's how important it was and I kept going in and like the scene was written in a way that I interrupted it as she was being like I found Fatah in seducing him being seductive and it just wasn't working I kept doing it it was just kind of hammy and all for just and the director Fernando came up to me and he said he said to me it's just sex and I went okay and he went she's like you know hippy and I was like oh okay and I don't know if this makes any sense but it just took the edge off the whole idea of like I am being seductive and I am trying to do I was trying to play the idea of being seductive and it was awful thank God never in the film and what he was just saying was just like just so you can you know you can have me if you give me the letter just say it and be bright you sort of be brazed though it's X is just whatever don't there's no big deal and I guess that's it that's an example he said I'm very simple that unlocked the scene for me but it took me away from the idea there was the kind of sometimes scene can be written in a way that it's asking you to play it in a certain way and often that's no the best way to player if that makes ya sense but also the idea that you don't need to necessarily overthink and overanalyze every single scene I was just doing what was obvious and I was playing something obvious rather than I wasn't even analyzing it I was just being I was going through the cliche the next one's from Hadrian who's asking about how you prepare for roles and whether that changes from role to role with your process and if so what stays consistent for you I would say reading the script over and over and over and over and over again out loud so take taking the lines off the page so looking at the line and taking taking them off the page and you know saying it alone walking around your bedroom and every time you say it let it play on you and every time you say it might mean something different never try and do it again the same way or think I found the way to do it so it's just like a constant process process so that when you begin to when I begin to film or do it I really don't have any idea how I'm gonna do it because I've done it so many ways that I'm I'm confused in a good way the next one is from Lauren who was asking is there any specific type of role that terrifies you but that you would be thrilled to play I mean all roles that I've ever played have terrified me in a way isn't it terrifying I mean it's always terrifying to go out there on a stage or in front of a cameras pretending to be someone that isn't you so I'm not really answering the question but I think without the terror and the fear I think the terror in the fear is important the fear is kind of the the the steam for the engine that that makes you I mean you want to be relaxed as well so it's kind of a contradiction but that's always the the problem isn't it you want to be relaxed but you're frightened so yeah I mean it's all it's all frightening yeah I'm also curious what was the first time in your career that you felt comfortable enough to say to a director when they felt like they really had the scene that you actually wanted to do another take um for a while I've done that until I'm laughing because you're cops I tried that with your Gus in the favorite and he just he said he gave me one words he did it and he went that was just no yeah yeah he was like you think you're doing something no so here's I'm not wasting film because it was film it wasn't digital but yeah there have been there have been times when I I feel like I've asked when I I think that it's been really important as I'm not sure which takes make it into the film like I don't know but I do I think it's I think it's completely reasonable right so I just need one more because otherwise you go home and you torture yourself you know it's worth it for like one minute to be given another take the next one is from Dan which is what's the most useful thing you would never talk but that's helped you most throughout your career so something that you just learned on your own accord I would say you know Kiki definitely keep going through it if it's on film what on the stage you have to which is one of the extraordinary things about stage you can't you know I'd like to do that again just just keep going and even if it feels like I tell you the simplest way to say is there's no such thing as a perfect take this is film and there's no such thing as a perfect show on stage it's just moment it keeps moving moments emotes to keep moving from moment to moment to moment and don't hang on to anything that's been and yeah if it's on film don't don't so I need to start get just keep going because something extraordinary you know film gold because it's something so real and spontaneous like those non actors because it's completely real the next question we have is from Dave who is saying I have a six month old and I'm tired all the time with just the basic day of work in life so he's curious for you how you've been holding up with having an infant and getting through award season with exhaustion everyone knows I have a six month old baby yeah well I'm not film I'm not working I've just been been a it's very hard I'm tired but it's it's also extremely joyful so yeah I mean it's amazing I have a little girl so it's a wonderful thing but um I don't have any tips for okay for getting through / - I'd nurse but um it's you know I'm not I'm not filming anything so yeah I'm also curious about in terms of advice everyone always likes to be like what's the best piece of advice you've ever gotten I'm actually more curious what's what's advice that you've either been given or you've seen other people be given that you actually think is terrible and not very helpful at all I mean yeah I mean I don't know everyone's so different but for me definitely the the idea of trying to stay in character the whole but you know I'm speaking to there may be people who are incredible method actors here who have different it's that's a really hard question to answer because it's just so it's so personal to me I wouldn't say the way I work would work for anyone else so I can't answer that sorry yeah no that's totally fine I also just wanted to finish off by asking you a little bit about becoming more comfortable with uncertainty throughout your career because I think it's really difficult to go between jobs and feel confident that another job will come because you never know in this profession in this industry and what have you kind of done early on to stay creatively fulfilled between jobs and then how have you reached that level of just trusting in your own career I think I think every actor really do even if they're getting a lot of work and having successes so what seems to you know constitute success I I think every actor feels like you know have I lost it and I still got it can I still do it is it gonna get gonna go away am I gonna I've got this you know I make I think everyone has that that that doubt cause it's not like a you know a maths problem that you know the answer to it's just it's creativity it's the imagination it's so always two separate things is anyone gonna want to hire me again that's the one question and the other question is and then if I get the job am I going to be able to do do anything good with this and I think those two questions and really never go away but there's a fragile ice or fragile creativity's a fragile thing and I think actors a have a lot of fragility and they need we need to stay fragile to do what we do so it's inevitable we're going to answer ask those questions it's weird then you also have to be kind of tough because you have to deal with rejections you have to get it like a tough skin and yeah we're yeah I think really complex characters actors cuz you've got to be so strong and so fragile and sensitive and open and yet deal with people saying no I don't want you and and not try not to say that personally so yeah I think actors are I think the psychologically very just very really sophisticated people and I don't know I have a lot of huge amount of respect for for what everything where the actors do trying to just using their imaginations to to see life through someone else's point of view it's an extraordinary thing it really is and I want to say thank you so much for taking the time to come out this evening and speak with everyone

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 103,450

Keywords: SAG Foundation, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Acting, Actors, The Mercy, My Cousin Rachel, Denial, Complete Unknown, The Light Between the Oceans, Youth, The Lobster, Agora, The Brothers Bloom, My Blueberry Nights, The Lovely Bones, Definitely Maybe, The Whistleblower, The Bourne Legacy, Oz: The Great and Powerful, The Shape of Things, The Fountain, Runaway Jury, About a Boy, Enemy at the Gates, Constantine, Stealing Beauty, The Mummy, THE FAVOURITE, Q&A, Career, Interview

Id: lsCKkV5m3hc

Length: 76min 9sec (4569 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 07 2019