Sarah Jessica Parker and Michelle Pfeiffer - Actors on Actors (Full Video)

[Music] I'll be the bold one oh wait I retract with you I mean I would guess gear so why would they ask you because I just saw the Wizard of lies I can actually as an informed audience member who has been privileged enough to see the Wizard of Lies which is an extraordinary and very surprising two hours of a story you thought you knew and I I am actually genuinely interested not because someone told me to ask you and you know a little bit about the CIA because you did a play mm-hmm which I didn't see which was it was about this yeah similarly sort of based on these events up where the maid awful from New York are very familiar with this is worried it's such an interesting idea to take on a part that people think you know I think that let's be interesting for you because I think what I learned about Ruth Madoff was everybody thought they knew her and so it's it's another complexity to playing a real person and must have been wonderfully challenging I guess it was it was really daunting honestly and I was offered the part and it was very Levinson and it was Robert De Niro and it was of course disappointment horrible death we had one disappointment or another and it wasn't until after I committed to it that it occurred to me that I was playing a real person and it was the first time that I had ever done that and I and somebody who had already been through so much tragedy and I knew was somewhere in the world trying to heal and I knew this was probably the last thing in the world she would want and of course I thought can I can I felt horrible and I couldn't because I had made a commitment and so so what do you decide when you're when you are playing a character as as unique as we've made of who is alive I how do you I mean because there's lots of ways to approach it I mean I would assume your immediate intention was to she is a human being who did or did not was not was or was not complicit in this unthinkable thing right that her husband did and so your job is to were you wanting her to be as human for us when I matter to you do you don't I mean like we are trying to defend her will you try anything that right now you say was not complicit but was or was not with not okay complicit and I think that the consensus is that she was and almost everyone and and I think that that's what I hoped I that at the end of the day I could represent her story as honestly as possible and because I don't think that I mean look it's not the root up it's not the Ruth Madoff story but you know and so there's a limited amount of time but but it's I you know she's integral because he isn't Bernie Madoff without Ruth Madoff it's very possible if you removed her from his life that there would not be this narrative it's very possible that the partnership allowed for a Bernie Madoff I mean in every way the virtuous if you can find it as well as the Machiavellian you know what I mean so she's important is what I'm saying Wow I mean he was not called the Ruth Madoff here but I think she's very important in this story well I think you know in terms of the business side of it she really didn't having anything to do with it I mean in the beginning she did I think she did some bookkeeping for him I mean more emotionally like they were very reliant very bonded I mean he was her first and only love and he was she says her you know hit her life and it was him and those two boys who knows if I'm gonna come back why would you say that I'm not going to say oh sorry you said that you'd be able to forget I bet you you can't do that I'm not ready I'm not ready to be alone you're all I have what about you what about you about all after all of these years deciding to come back and do a television videos which can be really grueling yeah that's it like now because I did actually I did I did a television series I did too when I first started out I would say like how can I miss that really it's okay yes and I just remember never working harder in my life yeah and you have two young children three three yeah one is not as young as as I would wish sometimes I have a 14 year old and twin daughters 37 i binge watch your show divorce and I'll help I found the characters incredibly compelling and I was completely sucked in because especially with your character and I was just curious because you I mean you did Sex in the City for a lot of years right how many are you do that I guess the cumulative maybe about 10 12 over only did you feel like when that ended did you feel like okay that's it no more TV because it's really a grind yeah it is I mean I and what made you want to come back and do this at all time I guess I I mean when I finished Sex in the City and then the movies I mean I assumed that I you know I wouldn't do television for a while and I I think as I always say it requires it demand and it's deserving of everything and I personally really love the medium I like I loved I loved working in television I loved it when I about it I liked its limitations meaning in time I like the urgency I love working and working and working I don't like sitting around I don't like luxury really probably more ways than just what I'm describing but I like I like this idea of telling a lifetime of a story just it's possibility that we could go on and on if you're fortunate enough to maintain your home at HBO you know the idea of living an alternate life to your own and telling a complete story about somebody the possibility the potential I love that that television demands a sort of discipline when you're producing and I'm sort of bundling producing and with the acting because for me that is a part of the enormous joy and challenge and tears and I love how specific you have to be about every decision and and how it all adds up so quickly and that you have to have this machine that everybody understands that you have to develop a language and I have to say blue and when I say blue and you say blue are we both saying blue and and and do you have different directors for the different episodes or we do we I always find that I would find that really challenging it is theoretically but I think what I and you did it so you might have had that experience at only be nowadays I remember as being I think that there I didn't like it so much I understand that and I think in theory to me if I think about it it's terrifying when there are new people but I mean how do you how do you create that shorthand with them how do you write yet on the same page so after we have them start over it's an enormous concern of mine and I'm a real gatekeeper watchdog you know about these things we have now have a director that are Adam Bernstein's of directing our first two episodes that's sort of his job he is our director but he also is a producer he's a producing director so his job is to sort of take care of watch over is he sort of the showrunner he's not know it's different than a showrunner no no no no no this is a question his job is to impress teach if there's a new person like an interloper coming on he needs to teach the language so what I always said the first did you have that the first we did but I thought what was most helpful was showings dailies that I thought were the most successful attempt of what we were trying to do to make sure that every new director that came on I would say like show them show them scenes eleven from Episode three because that really is what we're trying to do and if they see okay so they really are working in masters and they really are overlapping and they're really doing this and that then they're understanding the language more quickly I want to save my life while I still care about it I don't love you anymore I want to divorce Oh God Robert the promise is kind of thrilling like somebody knew someone nude it like make proud or someone new who's excited and not tired yet you know I don't know but I love television it was a decision that came not because I was plotting it but I was this was an original idea of mine five years ago and I it was just an idea I was curious about marriage and you know like what is an American like what does a middle-class American marriage look like today and when there is um when there is a disappointment in a marriage when there is extra curricular activity how does the marriage survive it or not and I I just wanted to tell it like I love cheaver stories and you know I sort of stand a navy and filmmaking and so I was interested and then eventually it sort of became apparent that HBO was like well you for you and I whoa I hadn't considered it for me I was just wanting to tell a story I wasn't developing a new develop in it as a producer yeah yeah and then I had all these other people in mind that I wanted to play the poorest partner will never say because it will be like um but then when it was presented I was like well yeah I mean I love this woman I love she's so unfamiliar and I was so excited so I said yeah I mean I got the blessings of my family and my husband and knowing what it would ask and require it's it it's how many episodes this season we're only getting to do eight we did ten last season different than doing 22 yeah yeah no it's like total yes so much more civilized it is and we shoot in New York and and you don't burn people out right that words fresher the work is better I mean I were discussing earlier your children are at like new milestones in their life but as mine are still at high young adult which is so crazy I don't know if I've ever stopped calling man um but you know because I you know I've read a lot when you are willing to share in interviews about your life and this isn't you know the decisions you make as a parent as a wife as an actor how you have made other choices in the past when your children you're young were younger and so being able to shoot in New York allows for me to get to make a choice period you know if you have 14 year old and how old or your twin bite wins or seven almost they'll be eight in do being able to shoot in your hometown is completely different and durable yeah well I guess I am curious about and I'm basing this because I just read an interview of with an interview magazine did you and you talked a lot about making decisions sort of as a parent first and I'm just curious about that even how you arrived at that you know like like what is the balance and how you know what you want versus what your children need do you know what I mean you know there are no hard and fast rules and really with anything in our business which is one of the challenges you can't make it up as you go along and the rules sort of developed as they age and it changes and I think that when they were little when they were really little I could just take him anywhere and then once they started school I felt like I didn't want to take them out of school during the school year and so I sort of had these rules that all right well I guess I'll only go away for you know certain amount of time this time of year summer is did right and before you I knew it I just sort of I was impossible to hire because I I just had all of these demands and not that I meant to be demanding but I was just I was trying to keep yeah you know a foot in each world and you think it would become easier but I think that the older they get it felt it feels that you know things just come up and if in their lives in their lives and you're not and you just want to be there and them so I think that having children and doing television is really a wonderful option and television has changed so much since you know just even in the last 10 years especially for women yes such an amazing place to do great work yeah and I feel like the best work for women is happening on television there's a lot of great women doing I just want to do one more for the camera and yeah yeah all over and doing better by some of those areas that were I think legitimately criticized for lack of diversity and gender and television seems to not buy by force but really naturally go to female directors more writers and diversity more when you kept saying no to work most of the work because it would take you away I'm just wondering like were there times when the children were at school and you thought wow this is I made I have sacrificed and I miss on that other thing well the other thing I think that that sort of kept me from working is I paint I'm a painter so I would do that you were in that would sort of be my creative outlet when I wasn't acting because I did start to feel like what am I going to do with myself and also I think as the kids got older and you start looking at colleges you start with first you start looking at high schools and then the minute they get into high school you start thinking about college and then the reality of them leaving starts to hit you and then you look around and you say okay what and it starts to become real and I think at that point I thought I need to I need to start kind of getting my work going again I'm not entirely sure I don't have any numbers so I don't know but I mean just you know you mentioned um just opportunity for actors female actors on television being you know so rich and plentiful and I think that's true I'm not entirely sure I haven't perhaps neglected to pay more attention to like the disparity in film I don't really I know that it exists and I don't really I'm not sure why it should be I'm answering a question as I'm trying to give an answer which is is there just so much more supply in television that therefore there are more roles for women like I'm not sure I don't know how these this has the ball there are also just fewer movies being made in general I don't know the numbers either at the top the top of my head but there are fewer studios there are fewer films being made in general every year and there's more TV yeah and there's more digitized versions than your future nations allow more shows I can't write with all the show no no no I did still haven't seen the finale for Sopranos behind I am but don't tell us who don't tell me but would you ever I mean I've actually been in rooms I would say at least three or four times for someone we were thinking about like we have a thing and it's my company's with HP on there I know Michelle Michelle Pfeiffer would be great would she do this would she ever work on television do you I mean you must get endlessly offered in questioned and I would love to do something until because I actually at this stage in my life it actually fits really well because I also I like the idea of just being in one place for a while it was really nice to me yeah yeah and again you know you were all you're always just looking to do good work right with interesting people there's just a range of possibilities some Ballu nothing is automaticity screen I mean have you spoken to your boys no one speaks to me I look away do you feel like sex in the city was ahead of its time in terms of female empowerment I don't think that empowerment was a word that was ever used once on our set in a writers room among the female actors where I think it will be home meant about your show I am at least I remember when it came out it was definitely shocking for people it what I think that is called a language was I mean like the kind of the depiction of those intimate kind of that that kind of intimate relationship among female friends was brand-new I think a female character who spoke so candidly about sex and sexual politics and her curiosity about behavior her own and others and because she was a writer she could ask lots of provocative questions and observe and the other characters could as they were archetypes sort of make choices and it wasn't intentionally empowering I guess is my point like if you asked Michael Patrick who was our primary showrunner for most of our seasons and movies as well I don't know that he would have suggested that empowerment was an aim or goal or even our primarily female writing staff I think they liked telling stories about women through authentic that were authentic and often funny and but the real the real destination point for our show as I understood it and feel as strongly that there is this chalice and I get to walk around and like take care of the family heirloom heirloom the show was really about love it wasn't about empowerment it is it was always a journey of finding home you know where is that what does contentment mean how do you reconcile the things you want with what you're given how does Carrie and her female friendships how do they find love and it was a time and a place economically and politically and you know that allowed for us to tell those stories that way and I think it's more I hear in retrospect people talk about it being empowering but I think I miss laughing I Lana I promise but I think if you had tried to write a show that was empowering it would have been yucky and self-conscious and theater I would have been contrived and stiffed versus Michael Patrick and his extraordinary gifted and skilled writing room just delight in storytelling how many times did you have intercourse with his French penis Oh 30 32 what the 32 I just read you dead sex 32 times so I have my own ideas about this but if you were forced to share what you think is the role that you are most recognized for I have a few but what would you I guess the difference is what what do you think and what you think others might think those are two different things you think I don't think I assume to know what I should be thanks for what do you think people think is ah yeah well okay could be Scarface mm-hm could be a a cat woman who who could be Suzy diamond from bigger boys hmm but my guess is I don't know I don't know what this is what are you kind of not well uh you were me like our face okay yeah except that except that one of my most favorite favorite outside of Ladyhawke one of my most favorite favorite movies of yours and I've just forgotten that is the Jeff Goldblum is a bigger voice no Ogopogo boom into the night yes oh my god I love that movie I've been it was like six times don't you hear that from know from real cinephiles no no that movie is well it's about to be sold at a blockbuster well in just get I have to maybe that movie is fantastic okay you don't think so I haven't seen it in a hundred years oh you should okay no take a look you know Matthew was I only can see my movies once yeah and even that is know even from painful horrible experience but Scarface I mean that's exquisite I just thought James will be just watched it with Matthew mm he's mad he's mad for Matthew's like kind of walking them through movies of that dumb name I guess so although it's so like as a movie for an audience as a movie going experience is so complete you know I mean if everything it's physically so beautiful to look at thanks in large part to you and that dress and then the bathing suit but also because he's such a perfect filmmaker you know like he's such a he knows how to like gin the audience up you know he knows how to like pull you in and and then you care for all the wrong thinking but the wrong guy it's also he's such a great filmmaker so I I can see why that is such a completely satisfying you know experience what else can I see one other thing oh yeah you remind me you just said I what did you say about a Midnight Run Matthew was evening telling you noise into the night into the night sorry tonight same thing so yeah I'm just kidding that's a great movie too but you're not in that um but Matthew was telling this story about a Marlon Brando and and I and you know you said you haven't seen in tonight except for once and that was in what 80 I couldn't even begin to tell you what year was a great year and so he said something in Marlon Brando about like you know yeah I've never seen it or haven't seen years math he's like yeah you should you should see they're really good in it so I'm reminding you do you go back and look at your line no no yeah I don't even barely look at it the first yeah no I don't look at it if I'm a naughty sort of poor job actually even looking at finished movie so I don't always see everything me neither unless there's occasions they force you to welcomed yeah for press like a Pyrrhic well but I would be list Lee happy to not ever see you know a picture dailies the completed thing a rough cut none of it I find it just why is it so hard but you tell me no I I don't know I really mostly love the experience of acting I love it I love it when it's good when it feels good and you're feeling that inexplicable sweet spot when the ball hits the bat you know like that thing it's just the greatest the pleasure is not the seen it that way the pleasure was that what how much time do we spend 40 percent of time on the set actually the camera rolling right with a great person opposite the acting is for free that's the best I don't need to and I don't want to look at stuff it doesn't really matter on where to pay attention to stuff about vanity that's like foolish and it's not going to help anything and I love being an audience for other people that I would prefer not to be my own what about you what's your problem I think it's just being so self-critical and I think there's a perfectionist in me and acting is not perfect and I think I've always been at my that nature it's become worse as I've gotten older and I realized after you've been doing this for as long as I have that it's looking at bad takes it's not going to make it any better it's not going to change anything so why put myself through it and for some reason I've just become I think the experience has become more and more and important to me you know yeah obviously you you care about the finished product but you realize at a certain point you you only have so much control over yet yeah though and you ever have you ever been part of the editing process I have when I used to produce and and actually really loved editing I actually think that I would for who I love things that are tedious right and I love the exactness of it and that means you could look at yourself in the editing process more easily than you would actually be able to if you weren't involved on the side maybe that's it maybe when I was producing it made more sense writing to white things and to go to dailies and to be familiar with the footage because I had I had more to say about it now that's not to say usually directors are pretty generous and they actually a lot of directors will welcome you into the editing room I found this is now I just want to kind of go and act and and have and enjoy that experience as much as I can I was saying how great all the performances are in the Madoff piece like it's really it's a real great class for actors to watch every performance two sons and you're all oan and mr. Gennaro and you were talking about Barry Levinson what you were saying you know what a actors director he is and it's so great to hear that because you really see it in the work and I just I would love if you can kind of describe about what that means like when you say an actor's director like what is that really Barry it for me Barry Levinson is like a perfect director because you know we all have our strengths and and a lot of times you know directors and maybe their strength is more visual maybe it's more with camera and shots and effects and things like that and you know maybe they don't focus so much on performance and then you have the other side of it where they're more performance driven and maybe not so not so technical and he's both and I had always wanted to work with him and there were a couple of close calls earlier on in my career and so I I just had forgotten that he he is a performance and he could be just like you know what he does he doesn't also waste time and I think it's one of the things that you love about doing television is that he's economical and he's so clear and he's so confident and he has the vocabulary and so so like meaning would he just have small really smart adjustment to make that you could feel sometimes they would big sometimes they were small I mean they were just always very specific and they were always right yeah and when he moved to the camera it was because it made sense and so sometimes sometimes there's an amazing camera move that absolutely has nothing to do right really or they want some sort of staging because it's for some other reason other than it really makes sense for the characters yeah those are really challenging too to make those work yeah but it was always very cohesive and and helped whatever he asked you to do was good yeah [Music] you

Channel: Variety

Views: 656,069

Keywords: Variety, Variety Studio, Actors on Actors, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sex and the City, The Wizard of Lies, Divorce, sarah jessica parker inteview, sarah jessica park movies, sjp interview, michelle pfeiffer catwoman, michelle pfeiffer scarface, michelle pfeiffer movies, michelle pfeiffer interview, michelle pfieffer news, michelle pfieffer 2017, sjp 2017, sarah jessica parker 2017

Id: L25AXyaDJmo

Length: 31min 30sec (1890 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 07 2017