Episode 1046 - Patricia Clarkson
Guest:Lock the gates!
Marc:Alright, let's do this.
Marc:How are you, what the fuckers?
Marc:What the fuck, buddies?
Marc:What the fuck, Nicks?
Marc:What's happening?
Marc:I'm Mark Maron.
Marc:This is my podcast, WTF.
Marc:Welcome to it.
Marc:How's it going?
Marc:Who's on the show?
Marc:I'll tell you.
Marc:Patricia Clarkson is here.
Marc:She's actually nominated for an Emmy for her work in HBO's Sharp Objects.
Marc:She's nominated for the Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie Category.
Marc:And she's out making the rounds.
Marc:And I nabbed her.
Marc:I didn't grab her.
Marc:I got her to come over to my house and talk to me.
Marc:So that's going to happen.
Marc:How's that?
Marc:Sound exciting?
Marc:It was pretty exciting.
Marc:She's a very charming, smart, brilliant actress.
Marc:And you know her from a lot of things.
Marc:She's one of those people.
Marc:I know her from that thing.
Marc:Just bonk the table at your knee, Mark.
Marc:It's all right.
Marc:Noises don't matter anymore.
Marc:It's the new age.
Marc:It's the new age.
Marc:Noises don't, they're not a problem.
Marc:Hey, so Peter Fonda died, man.
Marc:Yeah, man.
Marc:Peter Fonda has passed away, and it's a sad thing.
Marc:He was an American original, that's for sure.
Marc:Nobody like Peter Fonda.
Marc:He passed a few days ago, and I just wanted to tell you that I've reposted the conversation I had with him last year.
Marc:You can get that in the...
Marc:Free podcast feed wherever you listen to WTF.
Marc:Also, if you want to know more about the Fonda family, episode 1014 with Jane is still available in the feed if you want to get some more talk about their relationship and their family.
Marc:Rest in peace if that's possible, Peter Fonda.
Marc:You were an angry fighting fucker.
Marc:So hopefully you'll get a little rest, Mr. Fonda.
Marc:Thank you for your work.
Marc:I just talked to the dead as if I'm talking, you know, this podcast enters the ether.
Marc:And I'm assuming that if there is a possibility that the dead are lingering, they will be in the ether somewhere.
Marc:As soon as it hits the cloud, I don't know what the distance is between the cloud.
Marc:It's all out there, all right?
Marc:Just as long as it's not mixed in with the juggernaut of hateful bullshit that is our daily existence.
Marc:The juggernaut of hateful bullshit.
Marc:How's it going?
Marc:Everybody all right?
Marc:Friday night, I went and took a cake.
Marc:That's what they say here in the secret society racket of the greater Los Angeles area.
Marc:When you celebrate a number of years in the sober life and you're in the game, in the racket, in the society, you take a cake.
Marc:So and somebody presents you the cake.
Marc:So my buddy Jerry Stahl went with me to a thing.
Marc:Why am I being cagey now?
Marc:And I announced my my years and I said a few words and I blew out some candles and we had dinner.
Marc:Nice to catch up with Jerry.
Marc:What else?
Marc:Saturday night did a did a spot of comedy at 825.
Marc:Did pretty well.
Marc:Pretty funny at the comedy store.
Marc:And then I went to Sarah Silverman does a yearly rooftop party.
Marc:And I haven't gone in like three years, probably.
Marc:I just have I don't know what it is with me and parties, but I think I'm starting to figure it out.
Marc:That party is like kind of a big deal.
Marc:It's a big scene.
Marc:You know, Sarah's got a lot of friends.
Marc:It's a show business community party.
Marc:It's on a rooftop.
Marc:And it's a little overwhelming.
Marc:You know, we got there and there was a sign that says you can't, podcasters can't ask people to be on the podcast.
Marc:That's the world we live in now.
Marc:As you go to a fancy, not even a fancy, just a casual rooftop party in Hollywood, there has to be a note, a handwritten sign that says, no asking people to be on your podcast at this shindig.
Marc:And you know what's sad about that?
Marc:It's a reasonable request.
Marc:It's appropriate, and I wouldn't have done it anyways.
Marc:I might have.
Marc:And I think one of the reasons that I can't go to these kind of parties that are full of the celebrity types is I get very excited to see people.
Marc:And I assume that I have a relationship with them that I may not.
Marc:You know, I'm sort of a fan and there are people.
Marc:Sure, there's people I've talked to here in this room that I can say hi to and feel comfortable with.
Marc:There's people I've known in the comedy world for years.
Marc:But, you know, I just assume a familiarity that I don't know if it really exists.
Marc:And I get very excited and my boundaries become porous and I'm touching people, you know, not in an inappropriate way, but I'm giving hugs and happy.
Marc:I'm holding people like I saw Conan O'Brien there.
Marc:It gave him a big hug and we chatted a bit.
Marc:I saw there was some people from the old days from me and from when me and Sarah and we're back in New York way back.
Marc:Todd Berry was there.
Marc:The Todd Berry.
Marc:Ouch, apologize.
Marc:Todd Berry.
Marc:Mike Ivey was there.
Marc:These are the big names, folks.
Marc:Dave Juskow.
Marc:You know Dave Juskow?
Marc:You probably don't, but he was there.
Marc:Some old-timers.
Marc:Fitzsimmons was there.
Marc:But I'm just talking about the comedian tier, and that tier even goes up.
Marc:I'm standing there.
Marc:Manzoukas is there.
Marc:I know him.
Marc:I can touch his beard.
Marc:I don't know if I can.
Marc:I did.
Marc:I said, how are you?
Marc:I touched his beard.
Marc:I know I can touch Brett Gelman's beard because, you know, Brett is...
Marc:Brett, you know, and he's a boundaryless person like myself.
Marc:So I can give him a hug and touch his beard.
Marc:I don't know if it was appropriate with Manzoukas.
Marc:I think this is the second time that I've questioned my behavior in relation to Jason Manzoukas.
Marc:But I gave him a hug, I think, and I touched his beard, saw Sacha Baron Cohen.
Marc:I shook his hand.
Marc:He's intimidating.
Marc:I don't feel that comfortable around him, but he was there.
Marc:So I'm overwhelmed.
Marc:And there's all these people that I kind of know.
Marc:But do I know him?
Marc:I saw Larry David there.
Marc:I don't know Larry David.
Marc:I've met him twice.
Marc:He was very sociable.
Marc:He's talking to Jeff Ross.
Marc:By the way,
Marc:This monologue is called Name Drop.
Marc:I'm doing a power name drop here because I was at this party trying to explain to you that I have a sort of fanage.
Marc:It's different because I am within the community.
Marc:I wasn't always, but I do assume a familiarity and a comfort level.
Marc:Maybe it's okay.
Marc:Maybe I'm just being social.
Marc:Maybe I'm being too hard on myself.
Marc:Don't know.
Marc:But I saw Larry David, I talked to him, had a couple laughs.
Marc:Jeff Ross was there.
Marc:So Albert Brooks.
Marc:Now, see, this is the thing with Albert.
Marc:He was there and anytime I see him, and it's only been twice, I've only met him twice.
Marc:You know, I want to talk to him.
Marc:I love Albert Brooks.
Marc:I love his work.
Marc:I think he's one of the funniest people that ever lived.
Marc:And I'd like to talk to him because I think it would be a very interesting conversation.
Marc:But he's resistant.
Marc:I've reached out to his manager.
Marc:Nope.
Marc:Doesn't want to.
Marc:He's focusing on acting.
Marc:Fine.
Marc:I got my buddy Mike Binder that's sort of trying to get Albert to come on.
Marc:They talk occasionally.
Marc:OK, fine.
Marc:I've seen him twice in public and both times he says, you bring your microphone.
Marc:And I go, OK, I can't.
Marc:I'm not going to ask him.
Marc:But we had a nice talk about some other stuff for a few minutes.
Marc:And that was exciting.
Marc:Tig was there.
Marc:Diane Keaton was there.
Marc:Did not say hello.
Marc:I've said hello to her once before.
Marc:That was hard.
Marc:But it's awkward because I don't want to be rude.
Marc:And I go to these parties and I'm just looking around while I'm talking to people.
Marc:Saget.
Marc:Saget was there.
Marc:A lot of Saget.
Marc:Jonah Ray.
Marc:Julia Sweeney was there.
Marc:And I just get very excited and very exhausted.
Marc:jazelnik was there aisha tyler steven weber who else i see uh there's some people i didn't even see but there was yeah it was pretty pretty fucking exciting folks because there's still some part of me that doesn't think we're all in the same game i'm just like i can't believe i got into this place i can't believe it i'm gonna but there's some people i love you know certainly the conan
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yep.
Marc:And I think I'm gonna be on his show tomorrow.
Marc:I'm gonna be on the Conan O'Brien show tomorrow.
Marc:I know I am.
Marc:I know I'm going to be.
Marc:So was that a name dropping extravaganza?
Marc:I feel like I'm missing a couple.
Marc:I guess what I'm saying is very exciting to me to to see these people that I've admired my entire life and be able to kind of talk to them and be in the same community with them.
Marc:Is that OK?
Marc:Can I just feel good on this Monday?
Marc:I'm going to did some hiking, hiked up the hill in hot weather, almost felt like felt a little heart palpies, but nothing happened.
Marc:Didn't go down.
Marc:Got the palps.
Marc:Didn't go down.
Marc:I know some of you are like, you shouldn't be getting palps.
Marc:I know, but I've always gotten them.
Marc:I don't know if it's all the caffeine.
Marc:A lot of tea.
Marc:A lot of Assam tea.
Marc:They can't all be fucking riveting, folks.
Marc:They can't all be riveting.
Marc:I'm a little out of it.
Marc:I'm a little tired.
Marc:We're starting the week here.
Marc:We're getting through it.
Marc:I hope.
Marc:The juggernaut of hateful bullshit continues.
Marc:But I just hope that, you know, I fucking hope people have had enough.
Marc:I really do.
Marc:Cooking keeps me sane.
Marc:You know, I was away for a while in New York and I was a little out of sorts.
Marc:Last Monday, all week, it kind of took me a while to reconfigure, but like, man, I got to lock down on the weekend and just cook stuff for the week, ground myself, do the grocery shopping, clean the litter boxes.
Marc:My cats are getting so old.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:Just reflecting, folks.
Marc:Having an okay day.
Marc:I hope your morning is good, too.
Marc:I hope your week is good.
Marc:uh patricia clarkson is nominated for an emmy for her work on hbo sharp objects and she's uh she's nominated in the best supporting actress in a limited series or movie category she's lovely she's a great actress and she's here now with me in my house
Marc:Yeah, so it's hard to maintain a passion for the industry when you're running around doing this, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:When you feel yourself, all right, I'm going to go tell these stories.
Marc:And then you build the story as you move along.
Marc:And then you're happy you have something to say about the thing you're selling by about three or four days in.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:That's my life.
Marc:So that's where you're at right now.
Marc:Right now.
Marc:Is this the dream?
Marc:Am I living the dream?
Marc:Yes.
Guest:Oh, sure.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But you don't live here?
Guest:No, I live in New York.
Guest:I live in the West Village.
Guest:Really?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:For years?
Guest:Long, since 1991, yeah.
Guest:Where were you before that?
Guest:I was still in New York, but I was living in Chelsea, and then I lived in Hell's Kitchen, and I lived in Brooklyn Heights.
Guest:Brooklyn Heights, Midtown.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:Hell's Kitchen, though.
Guest:Yeah, I lived in Hell's Kitchen.
Marc:Yeah, like what, in the 40s?
Guest:On like 9th, 8th and 8th?
Guest:I'm 47th and 10th.
Guest:Oh, over there.
Guest:And it was very hard to get a cab because I don't know if it's flattering or not, but cab drivers, I think like late at night when I was going out, I thought, do they think I'm a hooker?
Yeah.
Guest:Did they?
Marc:Maybe.
Marc:You certainly weren't.
Guest:They sometimes wouldn't stop.
Marc:You couldn't be a menace.
Marc:They're like, that one's trouble.
Guest:You know, if I was dressed up, I thought, why are they not stopping?
Guest:But there were many, many, many hookers in the area.
Marc:I remember.
Marc:Yeah, on 9th.
Marc:Many, many.
Marc:All the way up from the Port Authority.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:It's kind of rough to walk through that every day, right?
Guest:It was a colorful neighborhood.
Guest:But there were very nice people in the neighborhood, great people, and a lot of artists.
Guest:I liked living there.
Marc:So now you're out pushing the Sharp Objects thing.
Marc:And you're nominated for a thing.
Guest:For a thing.
Guest:For a thing called a thing.
Marc:Yeah, you're nominated for the Emmy.
Marc:Now wait, but this is not your first nomination or it is?
Marc:No.
Marc:What was the last one?
Marc:I won two for Six Feet Under.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, I should know that in my research, but I want you to say it.
Marc:Now, was that exciting?
Marc:See, I try not to value those things because I have won nothing ever for anything I've ever done.
Marc:Zero.
Marc:But when you get those, it does matter.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Yes.
Guest:No, there's no false modesty here.
Guest:There's no humbleness.
Guest:No, no.
Guest:It's really, it's nice to win.
Guest:It's beautiful to win.
Guest:And they're really beautiful statues.
Guest:They look nice in my apartment.
Guest:And that's the important thing.
Guest:Well, yes.
Guest:They're not chintzy.
Marc:They're the real deal.
Guest:They gussy up my apartment.
Guest:They got some weight to them.
Marc:They do.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And they'll poke your eye out.
Guest:You have to be careful.
Guest:They're pointy and heavy.
Marc:And when people come over, you don't have to point them out.
Marc:No.
Marc:They just kind of gravitate towards them.
Guest:They just kind of look.
Marc:Oh.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I have them up high on a shelf.
Marc:Oh, that's good.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But it does, it validates you in the community and in the eyes of people.
Marc:And you feel like you've accomplished something.
Guest:Well, it also acknowledges, you know, the many people, you know, you don't get there alone.
Guest:You get there because somebody wrote really great books.
Guest:stuff for you yeah and some great director directed you well and your fellow actors were really good too right you know you never get there because oh my god i was amazing it was all me and everybody else was like you know hi riding my coattails yeah yeah yeah i drove this thing no you get there because a lot of great things were around you yeah
Marc:So, because I've been, you know, I've been a little more involved in acting than I used to be.
Marc:Do you find it like, well, you're really great at it.
Marc:Thank you.
Guest:At 9.42 in the morning.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Thank you.
Guest:Could have been 10.
Guest:It was supposed to be 10.
Guest:Well, we drove.
Guest:We got here early.
Marc:I know.
Marc:You always give yourself an hour.
Guest:We were like Glendale.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But where did you grow up?
Guest:I grew up in New Orleans.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I'm saying that like I didn't know that, but I kind of knew that, but I didn't want to, you know, just project that.
Marc:I'm like, I know you.
Marc:I don't like questions like that where people tell you what.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You know, where they're like, you grew up in New Orleans.
Marc:So you go, yes, I did.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Surprise.
Marc:But so it was a different city back then, wasn't it?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yes and no.
Guest:Every city has evolutions and every city has money.
Guest:But that city was destroyed.
Guest:Well, yes, very much so.
Guest:But what came back and there's still strife, there's still struggles in New Orleans.
Guest:But it is the city I've always known.
Guest:And I was born there and I have most of my family there.
Guest:My mother ran the city.
Guest:She was president of the city council.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Under two mayors.
Guest:Sadly, one's in jail and the other is Mitch Landrieu.
Marc:Who's the one in jail?
Guest:Ray Nagin.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:And anyway, but I love my hometown.
Guest:So I feel that it is.
Guest:It's not back and better.
Guest:It's just still New Orleans.
Guest:It's still the city that is ruled by music and food and colorful people.
Marc:And corruption.
Marc:And corruption.
Guest:Corruption is still there.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:But I mean, like when I go there, when I've gone to New Orleans, you get there and there's no place like it.
Marc:And right away, you know that.
Marc:You know it.
Marc:And you don't know quite why.
Marc:It has something to do with the structure of the city, the water line.
Marc:Well, you're underwater.
Marc:Well, that'll do it, right?
Marc:But there's sort of a murky charm to it.
Marc:So when you grew up there, like your mother is involved in politics.
Marc:I mean, like...
Marc:Were you aware of the – because there's a lot of different factions jockeying there.
Guest:I grew up in the suburbs.
Guest:I grew up in Algiers.
Guest:My mother was born and raised in Algiers, which is a – when Bienville came down to Mississippi, he was really smart, and he settled in the two highest places in the city, the French Quarter and Algiers.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But Algiers is really the suburbs now.
Guest:But it has a beautiful old section where my mother grew up.
Guest:But Algiers is – I grew up in an all-American middle class.
Guest:I went to public high school.
Guest:I was a cheerleader.
Guest:I went to public – I went to –
Guest:Elementary school there.
Guest:And I didn't grow up like uptown or a French Quarter.
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:But that was still a part of my life.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Because we're right across the Mississippi River Bridge.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We're still all Orleans Parish.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So to me, the difference is it is a melting pot, this city, a true one.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it all just merged.
Guest:It's all one to me.
Guest:Algiers, French Quarter, Uptown.
Guest:And I have friends who live in all of those places.
Marc:But in New Orleans, do you come from some interesting French weirdness?
Marc:No.
Marc:No.
Marc:I know there's a world down there.
Marc:I'm not Cajun.
Marc:I'm not Cajun.
Guest:No.
Marc:Did you have Cajun friends?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:I dated a Cajun in high school, yeah.
Guest:But I'm not of Cajun descent.
Guest:I'm from a great mixture of things.
Guest:My mother is...
Guest:you know lithuanian jew spanish and really lithuanian jew yeah spanish irish and german yeah my father's english and scottish but uh but they're they're quite a combo yeah and father english and scott so how long how many generations of your family were in new orleans three so going way back yes do you know how they got there or why
Guest:Yes, of course.
Guest:I know their history.
Guest:The whole story?
Guest:Well, pretty much.
Guest:I mean, my great-grandmother, my Bubby, fled from Lithuania.
Guest:The Jewish one.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Because she's a Bubby.
Guest:On a pickle boat.
Guest:She's my Bubby, yeah.
Guest:A pickle boat?
Guest:I swear on it.
Guest:And she was a seamstress, but she came through Ellis Island.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:My niece found her in the records.
Guest:A pickle boat.
Guest:Yep.
Guest:And she was a seamstress, and she made a living sewing, and then she met my great-grandfather, Joseph Benenguer, who was Spanish aristocracy.
Marc:Wow.
Guest:And he was teaching English and taught her English in New York, and they met, married, and moved to New Orleans.
Guest:He was an importer.
Guest:He imported a garbanzo bean to New York.
Yeah.
Guest:He made a fortune.
Marc:Your grandmother came over on a pickle boat, and your great-great, what is it, great-great?
Marc:Great.
Marc:No, just great.
Marc:Just great-grandfather was a garbanzo importer.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:He introduced garbanzo beans to this culture?
Marc:That's the story, yes.
Marc:Wow.
Marc:From Spain?
Guest:From Mexico.
Guest:Mexico.
Guest:He imported it in from Mexico.
Marc:Because they used to grow, there was a place called Garvanza, and I just found out that was all garbanzo bean farms.
Yeah.
Guest:So that's my mother's.
Guest:My mother has a great history.
Guest:And my father's family is more just, you know, very white.
Guest:Scottish.
Guest:That's a Scottish.
Guest:Scottish English.
Guest:And they, you know.
Guest:Everyone knows that story.
Guest:But my father's father is more of a Yankee.
Guest:He's part of the Yankee family.
Guest:My grandmother on my father's side was Southern.
Marc:Uh-huh.
Marc:So that's a great mix.
Marc:Yeah, it's a great.
Marc:So you've got a little bit of everything.
Guest:Yeah, but where I grew up in the, you know, I grew up.
Guest:in the suburbs.
Guest:I didn't grow up in some exotic place.
Guest:I grew up like, we live, you know.
Guest:I want it to be exotic.
Guest:I know, it's not.
Guest:I'm so sorry.
Marc:But it was right over there, the exotic part.
Guest:But we were in, I think, a very, you know, New Orleans, even the suburbs feel European in some extent.
Marc:Now, when everything happened there,
Marc:Do you go back often?
Marc:Do you still have family?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:I'm going home soon, actually.
Guest:I was supposed to go home, and then Bowery hit, you know, the storm that really wasn't.
Guest:So everything got canceled.
Guest:We were kind of having a family reunion, but it all fell apart, unfortunately.
Marc:Now, when Katrina hit, did you go back and help and do things?
Guest:I was in New Orleans four days after Katrina because my mother was still there.
Guest:So General Honoré got me into New Orleans.
Guest:I flew into Baton Rouge and saw my mother.
Guest:My father was still there, my mother.
Guest:And I helped with the first responders.
Guest:I came in.
Guest:My mother said, I think, I was at Venice.
Guest:I was at Venice Film Festival with Good Night, Good Luck with George and Davis with Aaron.
Guest:And it was brutal.
Guest:And I called my mother.
Guest:Only her phone worked and George's phones worked.
Guest:And I said, you know, Mom, do you want me to come home now?
Guest:And she said, hell no, I want to come see George Clooney.
Guest:What happened?
Guest:I got home.
Guest:It was tough.
Guest:It was a really tough time.
Guest:But the city is back.
Guest:It's been back for a long time.
Guest:It recuperated quickly.
Marc:Let me just get it straight.
Marc:So your mom ran the city.
Guest:Right, but when we were older, not when we were younger.
Guest:She raised us when we were younger.
Guest:How many are there of you?
Guest:There's five girls.
Guest:I'm the baby of five girls.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:My father grew up in a house with six women and two female dogs, and he's still alive.
Guest:A lot of red wine later, he's still alive.
Marc:Was that just because they wanted a lot of kids, or was it a Catholic thing where you brought up with religion?
Marc:No.
Guest:Well, my mother was raised Catholic, but my father was raised Episcopalian.
Uh-huh.
Guest:They were just, they married very young.
Guest:They were high school sweethearts.
Guest:They were homecoming king and queen in high school.
Guest:They were very sweet.
Guest:They've been together for 66 years.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:I mean, come on.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:And they're both still around.
Guest:Yes, they're both still around.
Guest:They're both 83.
Guest:Well, 84.
Guest:84 and 83.
Guest:Wow, that is young.
Guest:Yeah, I'm knocking one.
Guest:They're very... And all your sibs?
Guest:We're all a year apart.
Guest:I'm 59.
Guest:My oldest sister is 65.
Marc:And are you the only one in show business?
Marc:Yes.
Yes.
Guest:My sisters all have real jobs.
Guest:They're very accomplished women.
Guest:Very, very, very.
Guest:And they have raised beautiful children.
Guest:I have 10 nieces and nephews that I wish I had given birth to.
Guest:But I never really wanted children.
Guest:You didn't?
Guest:No.
Guest:Me neither.
Guest:You see?
Guest:You don't have children?
Guest:I don't.
Marc:I don't have children.
Marc:I've been through two wives, no children.
Guest:That takes a certain type of... I almost had two husbands.
Marc:You almost did.
Marc:But you avoided that, too.
Marc:I did.
Yeah.
Marc:And don't you feel great about it?
Guest:I'm a free spirit.
Guest:I am, and I knew it then.
Marc:So you just accepted that?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:I mean, I've had extraordinary men in my life.
Guest:I've had some incredible relationships in my life, and I value them.
Guest:And that time I was with them.
Guest:But I'm a working girl.
Guest:I love my career.
Guest:I love just the life I have now.
Marc:Well, that's amazing.
Marc:I appreciate hearing that because...
Marc:Did you ever go through a period of like, you know, why don't I want?
Guest:I started to question it.
Guest:I dated a young artist and I just wondered, oh.
Guest:Painter?
Guest:What kind of artist?
Guest:A painter, yeah.
Guest:A beautiful painter.
Guest:And I wondered, oh, you know.
Guest:I was 38 and I thought, okay, this is the marker is, you know, the wall is going to go up soon.
Guest:But then I realized it just wasn't.
Guest:It wasn't something that – I knew it at a very young age that I didn't want children.
Guest:I knew it at 14 or 15.
Guest:So what was my – I just – I kind of knew who I was.
Guest:And maybe because I was the baby of five girls, I saw everything.
Guest:I saw – I kind of got to see my sisters emerge ahead of me.
Marc:I guess you were pretty young when the oldest one probably had a kid, no?
Marc:No.
Guest:My oldest sister never had children, so it's the three middle ones.
Guest:But yes, my other sisters had children young.
Guest:So yes, I started.
Guest:I had nieces and nephews by the time I was 20 or something.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:Well, that'll help.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And then I thought, oh, yes, these are like my children, but I can give them back.
Marc:And I can leave.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Bye.
Marc:Auntie's going.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I don't.
Marc:For me, I don't know that I realized it until I realized it.
Marc:Like there's a there's a certain amount of societal pressure and then sometimes pressure from people you're with.
Marc:But I realized somewhere not long ago that I never really thought about it.
Marc:It was never a priority.
Marc:It was never a priority.
Marc:It was never like, I'm working towards that.
Marc:People who want them, they don't even think twice.
Marc:No, it's just- We're doing this.
Guest:It's in their DNA, and it's not in mine.
Guest:But I have great admiration for people who can do it.
Marc:Do it well.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:I think it's the hardest thing you'll ever do is to raise a kid that loves you.
Marc:But don't like you're, you know, we're almost the same age now.
Marc:Don't you like when you talk to people in our generation who have kids, it's never a totally great story.
Yeah.
Marc:It's always fraught.
Marc:There is a lot of strife.
Guest:And at this age, I'm sort of like... And I don't have that strife.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I think I dodged a bullet somehow.
Guest:I mean, you have a cat.
Guest:I have a dog.
Guest:I have three cats.
Guest:Oh my God.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:I have one dog.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And I'm very happy.
Marc:They're fine.
Marc:They're very consistent.
Yes.
Marc:The problems are either manageable or they're not, but a whole life is not going to be ruined?
Marc:No.
Marc:That's good.
Marc:So do you think that your compulsion, or I don't know why would I call it that, that your desire to be an actress early on was because being the last kid that you required a certain amount of attention that might have been not as forthcoming with the other four, or there's five of you?
Guest:Well, I don't know.
Guest:My grandfather that I never knew, sadly, he died young.
Guest:My mother's father was an actor.
Guest:By advocation, he was a high school English teacher and football coach.
Guest:But he was an actor.
Guest:He started Nord Little Theater.
Guest:Where's that?
Guest:In New Orleans, in Algiers.
Guest:Beautiful old theater.
Guest:Okay, yeah.
Guest:So I think somehow he came, somehow his blood filtered down, and I think I got the desire and the want and some amount of talent, I hope, from him.
Marc:Did you used to go see productions?
Guest:No, he died young.
Guest:I didn't know him.
Guest:He died when I wasn't, he died when my sister, my oldest sister, was just a year old.
Guest:But you knew about the theater?
Guest:I knew of him.
Guest:Oh, goodness.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:John Patrick Brechtel, he's a beautiful man, and there's a park named after him.
Guest:He was a wonderful man.
Marc:So your family's like sort of really dug into the fabric.
Guest:Well, into Algiers, yes.
Guest:In Algiers, yes.
Guest:My grandfather was, he started Nord, which was the first, he was the first who allowed like blacks and whites to play on the same field in the city in the 40s.
Guest:He was a really remarkable man.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:Didn't you do a movie?
Guest:Did you do the Huey Long movie?
Guest:Were you in that?
Guest:I did the Huey Long movie.
Guest:And that was the Sean Penn one?
Guest:The Sean Penn, yes.
Guest:Nobody ever talks about that movie.
Guest:I like that movie.
Guest:Steve's Alien.
Guest:It's a beautiful film, and Sean's amazing.
Marc:Is that based on the Robert Penn Warren book?
Marc:Yes, it is.
Marc:And yeah, Sean's always pretty amazing.
Marc:He's amazing.
Marc:Now, when you do that movie...
Marc:digging into that history of Louisiana.
Marc:Was it familiar to you?
Guest:The legacy of it?
Guest:My mother's family, they were politically connected.
Guest:They knew a generation of the Longs.
Guest:They did.
Guest:It's familiar to me.
Guest:We were shooting in
Guest:A little in New Orleans, but in parts out, you know, Napoleonville, beautiful place, you know, places just outside New Orleans.
Guest:But it's a great story.
Marc:He was a populist.
Guest:Very much so, yes.
Marc:And he had both, you know, good and bad.
Marc:Yes.
Guest:Which is quite Louisianian.
Guest:Yeah.
Yeah.
Marc:Right, right.
Guest:People who do good and bad.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, like Ray Nagin, who's sadly in jail, did some very good things for the city.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then, sadly, things went wrong.
Guest:Why is he in jail?
Guest:Took funds, Katrina funds, yeah.
Marc:Oh, hmm.
Marc:Yeah.
Yeah.
Guest:Corruption.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, I mean, like he was in the wrong era, I guess, because we're living in the most shamelessly corrupt era where it's just sort of like, yeah, do it.
Marc:Don't hide it.
Marc:No.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:See what happens?
Marc:Just small time grifters abound.
Guest:No one's ever going to jail again.
Marc:I guess not.
Marc:Forever.
Guest:I'm robbing a bank on my way home.
Marc:There you go.
Marc:Just say like, hey, Trump said it's OK.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Only poor people go to jail in Trump's world.
No.
Marc:But so how does the acting start for you then?
Guest:I just started in high school.
Guest:I had a great high school teacher, Mrs. East.
Guest:And I just started acting in high school.
Marc:Then I went to LSU and I... What did you learn in high school that you still use?
Oh...
Marc:Is there anything?
Marc:Because I find that teachers are kind of amazing.
Marc:I learned to dance in high school.
Guest:I was a chargaret.
Guest:I was like a rockette in high school.
Guest:You were?
Guest:I can still kick.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:I swear to God, I still have a high kick.
Marc:So that was for musicals or was it for the games?
Guest:No, yeah.
Guest:We used to perform it.
Guest:The drill team.
Guest:Yeah, but we didn't do drills.
Guest:We weren't a drill team.
Guest:We were a dance team.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And we'd come out in our little, with our hair swinging.
Guest:Oh, boy.
Guest:And we'd hook up and we'd do high kick routines.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And you could only dance if your legs hit your shoulders.
Marc:Wow.
Guest:It was tough.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And you still got it.
Guest:Well, no way.
Marc:Now everyone knows.
Marc:I want to think.
Guest:I want to think I still.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And then from there you go.
Guest:I went to LSU, but then I left LSU and went to Fordham and graduated ultimately from Fordham.
Guest:And that that's really undergraduate.
Guest:I went to Fordham and it was extraordinary.
Guest:I had a remarkable mentor named Joe Jazefsky at Fordham.
Marc:That's in the Bronx, right?
Guest:Well, I went to the Lincoln Center branch.
Guest:That's where the theater program is.
Marc:Oh, so you're right in the middle of it.
Guest:You're right there.
Guest:That's why I wanted to go.
Guest:And then I went off to Yale School of Drama.
Marc:You got into Yale?
Guest:Well, it's the Yale School of Drama, yeah.
Guest:No, I know, but that's hard.
Guest:Well, it's hard because they take, think about, you know, hashtag me too.
Guest:Back then, they took 10 men and 6 women.
Guest:Now it's equal, of course.
Guest:10 and 10, I think.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But, yes.
Marc:What was the audition?
Marc:Do you remember your audition?
Guest:Yes.
Marc:I did.
Marc:I do.
Guest:I'm never going to forget it.
Guest:I did Julia ripping up the letter from Gentleman of Verona.
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:And I did a scene from The Woolgatherers, a play written in like the 80s.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Who wrote that?
Marc:I can't remember.
Marc:That's sad.
Marc:The Woolgatherer.
Marc:W-O-O-L.
Marc:How did you find that play?
Guest:Well, because it was a popular play or it had just been done on Broadway or off Broadway.
Guest:And it had this beautiful monologue.
Guest:So I remember this.
Guest:I worked my ass off on them.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And I got in, you know, I don't know.
Guest:Everyone said, oh, you need connections.
Guest:You need connections.
Guest:I said, oh, OK, but I'm going to just try and maybe I don't need connections.
Marc:You just worked and worked.
Guest:I just worked very hard.
Marc:You knew exactly what you're doing when you went in there.
Guest:Well, yeah, sort of.
Guest:You know, you take the train to New Haven, and I had these shoes on that were too big, and I... Because I'd borrowed some dance shoes.
Guest:I mean, like, you know, like, character shoes.
Guest:Like, blacks, they were too big.
Guest:For the actual character?
Guest:Well, no, just to walk in kind of looking, you know, like an actress.
Guest:Wrap black skirt.
Marc:You're acting like an actress.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:I have my hair.
Guest:You did it.
Guest:It worked.
Guest:Yeah, yes.
Guest:Earl Gister, they let me in.
Marc:Well, I mean, I realize that when you audition for that place, you really have to have your shit together.
Marc:Because I actually auditioned for it, and I was sort of half drunk, half high.
Guest:Oh, that's not... Well, you never know.
Marc:And I took some chances that I was not prepared to take, really, and I got very nervous.
Marc:It's very nerve-wracking.
Marc:Well, I knew going in that whoever was going on before me, this woman, was doing this work.
Marc:I saw her doing face work and moving her hands.
Marc:Jazz hands.
Guest:I don't know what it was.
Marc:It wasn't quite jazz hands.
Marc:It was scary hands.
Marc:She was getting into something, and I'm like, I'm not...
Marc:Don't you hate when your spirit gets crushed before you go into the room from the other guy standing there?
Guest:I know.
Guest:I remember I actually didn't stay in a bubble.
Guest:I kind of did take in everybody and thought, okay, I'm here.
Guest:But it's very nerve wracking.
Marc:And what does it mean to get in there?
Marc:Who was the guy that was in charge then?
Marc:Earl Gister ran the acting program then.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And Lloyd Richards was the dean.
Guest:Lloyd Richards, right.
Guest:I remember that name.
Guest:Was the dean at that time, yeah.
Guest:But they were great.
Guest:They were great teachers.
Guest:Who was in your class.
Guest:Well, Mr. Big, Chris Noth, Dylan Baker, Jane Atkinson, great playwright, you know, Richard Greenberg, who's still one of my dearest best friends.
Guest:Evan Anoulis, great, who now runs Juilliard.
Guest:Michael Engler, great director.
Guest:There was a really remarkable collection of people and great costume designers and artists.
Guest:you know, people have gone on to do Catherine Zuber, you know, who's won like 14 Tonys now or something.
Marc:So that was the full education.
Guest:It was amazing.
Guest:It was brutal, 18-hour days, but I soaked it all in.
Guest:I was young.
Guest:Sometimes people would wait a year or two to go to Yale, but I graduated Fordham in May and started Yale in September, and I think that was helpful.
Guest:Because I was ready.
Guest:I was already in a very scheduled and regulated environment and I didn't have too much time to kind of fatten up.
Marc:Right.
Guest:Or get lazy.
Marc:Yes.
Guest:I just started, you know, I had two months off and went right in.
Marc:And you felt kind of... Well, I mean, how was the training of Fordham?
Marc:I mean, was it pretty intense?
Guest:Oh, Fordham was remarkable in that I had this incredible man named Joe Gazzescu who took me under his wing.
Guest:And remember, I entered as a junior, and he took me under his wing, and I was able to do remarkable things.
Guest:I had a gabbler and betrayal.
Guest:But Yale made me into just...
Guest:Earl said to you, I'm going to take all of you out of your comfort zones and you're going to play a young leading lady or an ingenue or whatever.
Guest:You're going to play this or the pretty girl.
Guest:But then I'm going to put you, I'm going to let you play like the bod in Pericles.
Guest:I'm going to make you play a 300 pound Cajun mama.
Guest:You're going to play an eight year old murderer.
Guest:You're going to play, you're going to sing.
Guest:I don't sing.
Guest:you're going to do everything that is going to shake you and shift you.
Guest:And I thought I was a very dramatic, serious actress, and I found a sense of humor at Yale, like a wild spirit.
Guest:And we had this crazy Romanian third-year Andre Belgrader, brilliant, brilliant man.
Guest:And we did like Ionesco and Sartre and just this wild, crazy shit, and it was amazing.
Marc:So that whole process, it forces you to transcend all these weird fears and insecurities and you have to sort of show up for it even if it's horrible and scary.
Marc:Yes.
Guest:And there was no film training at the time.
Guest:It was all theater.
Guest:It was all about.
Guest:But the training was so remarkable that it prepared you for any medium.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:I mean, acting is acting.
Guest:And I think if you know, it's about confidence and it's about knowing who, Yale taught me who I was, who I am.
Marc:Deeply.
Guest:Deeply.
Guest:To have confidence and believe in myself and my abilities so that I can go any which way.
Guest:I can go to the darkness or the lightness.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And know that you've navigated the territory before a little bit.
Marc:That you have a foundation that's not going to let you get lost.
Guest:No.
Marc:No.
Marc:Yeah, that's interesting because I don't think I ever thought about it that way because a lot of sort of religious systems, the idea is to sort of, you know, annihilate the ego somehow.
Marc:And it seems like that by taking all those risks and inhabiting all those different possibilities that you do at least push your ego aside.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And you kind of got to show up with your true self.
Marc:Yes.
Guest:Which is what is most important in acting is often that is the foundation.
Guest:We can shift physically and externally, but I think at the core we have to have the emotional life always present, and that emotional life being present comes from really knowing your own emotional life.
Marc:Having some handle on it.
Guest:Yes, and having access to it.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And I guess it's not great to have a lot of unresolved chaos, but maybe it is.
Guest:Well, if you can access it at the right time.
Marc:As long as it's not all permeating all the time.
Guest:Yeah, as long as it's not always on top of your fellow actors and directors and crew.
Marc:Which you've seen.
Guest:Oh, yes.
Marc:But what about accents and stuff?
Marc:Because I was high art.
Marc:How do you do that?
Guest:That was a big movie for you, right?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Well, it shifted.
Guest:I was fortunate at 38 to have your whole life shifted by this great character named Greta.
Guest:And Lisa Cholenenko.
Guest:The director.
Guest:The great director, yes.
Marc:You say shifted, but how did it begin?
Marc:Did you start on stage?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Well, I started on stage.
Guest:Like Broadway?
Guest:I did have a Broadway gig pretty early out.
Guest:I did replace Julie Haggerty in House of Blue Leaves, but then I got cast in The Untouchables, like in 1986.
Guest:I met Brian De Palma, and I adored him.
Guest:In New York?
Guest:I still do.
Guest:Yeah, I auditioned.
Guest:I went and auditioned for Mrs. Ness, you know, Catherine Ness.
Guest:I remember, yeah.
Guest:So I, you know, I began in theater and started doing some films.
Marc:How old were you when you did Untouchables?
Guest:26, I think, or 25 or 26 when I shot it.
Okay.
Marc:I haven't talked to too many people about De Palma.
Marc:I've talked to some actors about other people, but you've actually worked with De Palma early on and then like Scorsese later.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:They were of that crew.
Marc:Oh, yes.
Marc:And that in The Untouchables was sort of a later, almost kind of resurgence movie for him in a way, right?
Marc:I remember it was, you know, it was sort of, I remember it was kind of interesting that, you know, he had decided to remake that and that, you know, let's see.
Marc:The Untouchables, yes.
Guest:It was 87.
Guest:It came out in 87.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Well, I mean, Body Double was 84.
Marc:Blowout was 81.
Marc:Dressed to Kill was 80.
Marc:80, yeah.
Marc:Carrie was 78.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So, like, he was sort of way into the career.
Marc:And, like, what was – how did that work?
Marc:You auditioned for a casting director and then you went in for him?
Guest:I auditioned for the great Lynn Stallmaster.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:One of the, you know, the great –
Guest:gentleman of the casting world.
Guest:He's gone now.
Guest:I came in, and I had my hair done and some makeup on and a dress, and he said, just come back and meet Brian, but don't wear any makeup.
Guest:And I'm Southern.
Guest:I was like, ah, and don't do anything to your hair.
Guest:I was like, ah.
Guest:And he said, wear like a simple girl dress.
Guest:I said, oh, God.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I did.
Guest:And I walked in the room and Brian, there was a reader there, but Brian De Palma actually read the scene with me.
Marc:That's always a good sign.
Marc:He played Elliot Ness.
Marc:It's comforting.
Guest:And he was so sweet.
Guest:I think he liked the juxtaposition of the way I looked and the way I sounded.
Guest:I think he liked that I had this kind of deep voice, but I looked kind of like a mom.
Guest:Yeah, right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So, I don't know.
Guest:I then had to fly to Chicago to meet Kevin Costner and they cast me in the room and they said, you've got the part.
Guest:And as I walked out, they ran and got me and Kevin said, congratulations.
Guest:And I called my agent, and they were like, no, no, no, no, they never do that.
Guest:They never do that.
Guest:I said, no, no, no, they did.
Marc:What, did they think you were lying that you had a hallucination?
Marc:That can't be.
Guest:No, I think they just told me I got the part.
Guest:And I'm flying home, and I had to go back.
Guest:I missed the matinee, and I flew back to do the evening performance of House of Blue Leaves.
Marc:But you're all excited.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:That must have reinvigorated everything.
Guest:It was exciting.
Marc:Now, was Cosner a nice guy?
Guest:Yeah, oh.
Guest:Yes, and handsome and crazy and sexy.
Guest:He's lovely.
Guest:I still know him.
Guest:He's had a lot to do with New Orleans after the BP oil spill.
Guest:My nephew has worked with him, and so he's a good man.
Marc:Who's your nephew?
Guest:My nephew is Mac Ausfeld, and he's just to die for.
Guest:He's a comedy writer.
Guest:He writes for Melissa McCarthy sometimes.
Guest:But he's just a one-man band.
Guest:He writes, acts, and directs, and he's trying to get his movies made.
Guest:That's exciting.
Guest:He's like a lot of people in this industry.
Guest:He needs a break.
Guest:Has he casted you?
Guest:Well, he hasn't got anything quite...
Guest:up on his feet yet but i'll be in as one of his movies i'd someday i hope please god so the untouchables is the first movie and then you go from that right to clint eastwood yes i go to dead to deadpool yeah and i you know clint doesn't cast in the room you you go on tape and i got a call that you're cast i said oh my
Marc:Yeah, I hear he's sort of like, kind of like a very efficient.
Marc:Efficient.
Marc:And he expects you to show up.
Marc:Oh, no one way here.
Guest:I was the female lead of that show.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I'm playing a reporter, a journalist.
Guest:I had big scenes, big monologues.
Guest:I mean, big dialogue.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I do one take and he goes, hmm, that was good for me.
Guest:Was it good for you?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I'd be like, okay, some of what is in that movie is one day.
Guest:Really?
Guest:And I remember that was my second movie.
Guest:Like I wasn't like some cinema actress.
Guest:I was like far from it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, I was still quite green.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Still struggling a little bit.
Guest:Oh my God.
Guest:But I, it, it.
Guest:Did you watch it?
Guest:The Deadpool?
Guest:I have seen the film, yes.
Marc:No, but I mean, did you like, you know, were you able to separate that experience and see that it was the right take?
Marc:I mean, were there moments where you're like, I could have done that?
Guest:There were moments, yes.
Guest:Some of it was shocking that it was, I got it right on that one take.
Guest:And then some of it I was like, oh.
Guest:Oh.
Guest:It could have done that.
Guest:You know, really big hair and some really bad acting.
It doesn't matter.
Guest:It's amazing I have any kind of career now.
Marc:People don't know who are watching it, though.
Marc:It's an odd thing sometimes.
Marc:You can get really hung up on one little scene, but people are involved in the movie.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Guest:They're not like, no, no.
Guest:This was Dirty Harry.
Guest:It was Liam Neeson's first film.
Guest:It was Jim Carrey's first film.
Guest:And then you did TV, too?
Guest:I did some TV.
Guest:I did some cable movies.
Guest:Episodic stuff?
Guest:No, I didn't really.
Guest:I did Spencer for Hire, which was the first.
Guest:Spencer.
Marc:What was that guy's name?
Marc:The actor, Ulrich?
Marc:Robert Urich.
Marc:Robert Urich.
Guest:The nicest man.
Guest:And I did another movie with him.
Guest:And then he unfortunately passed away shortly after that.
Marc:It's funny when people talk about these TV actors, a lot of times...
Marc:They're always nice, and some of them, like I was talking to somebody about Frank, William Conrad, about Cannon.
Marc:And these guys, at a certain point in their career, they show up, they're barely there.
Guest:Robert York was very, he was very, he just was kind, but he...
Guest:And he probably had a slight element of phoning in, but he was very drawn to the actors in the scene and what was happening.
Guest:And he couldn't believe that I'd never acted.
Guest:That was the first thing I did before.
Guest:The Untouchable was my first movie.
Guest:I did Spencer for Hire.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That was the first thing you ever did.
Guest:And he couldn't believe it.
Guest:He thought the crew was pulling his leg when they said she's never been in front of a camera.
Guest:He was like, come on.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:So I'd be like, okay.
Guest:I'd be like, wait, wait, where are you going?
Guest:Just stand right here and then you're going to move there.
Guest:Okay, okay.
Marc:But you did have all that.
Marc:Certainly in TV, that's where theater training helps.
Marc:Well, it was.
Guest:Hitting your fucking mark and stuff.
Guest:But also I had a certain kind of confidence that I could, okay, I can do this.
Marc:It's all about the pretend.
Marc:Yeah, it's the pretend.
Marc:I know.
Guest:It's all about just entering another world.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And existing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:As best as you can in that world.
Marc:Do you do things when, like, because I talk to actors now and I started talking to them more and it's hit or miss, but like I, you know, because when I started doing more acting, I was like, give me a lesson.
Marc:What do I got to do?
Marc:But really it comes down to that.
Marc:It's like, just be present and pretend.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:PP.
PP.
Marc:That's it.
Marc:That's the system.
Guest:The PP.
Marc:I wish it was a third P. Maybe I'll have to find a third P. The three Ps.
Marc:It always seems to come in three, the letters.
Marc:But PP is different.
Marc:But are there things that you make sure you do when you enter a set or a scene?
Marc:Like, you know, I mean, like, we'll get back to the accent thing, because that to me is like, that seems like, how do you, I don't know how to do that.
Marc:How would you, it's a confidence thing, I guess.
Guest:Well, it's more technical, but then you have to make it less technical.
Guest:But anyway, but is there anything I do?
Marc:Well, like, do you, like, say, like, okay, here I am, those are that guy's shoes, you know, there's the camera guy.
Guest:Right, yes.
Guest:But I work in a, I think someone's told me a French way.
Guest:I think everybody in the crew and in the scene is in the scene.
Guest:I don't think of it as, you know, of course I don't want excess people in my.
Guest:Distracting you.
Guest:You know, in my sight lines.
Guest:But everybody is a part of the scene, especially in emotional scenes.
Guest:I think it's important.
Marc:Everybody, you mean the crew?
Guest:The crew, the cameraman, everybody's in there with you.
Guest:Everybody's in it and part of it.
Guest:So you don't get self-conscious and start to break down the emotional life you've built for this character.
Guest:It's all kind of one.
Guest:And I usually, when I'm doing an emotional scene, I usually stay in the scene even while they relight it or adjust the camera.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You just hold the emotion, hold the focus.
Marc:I stay in the world.
Guest:I stay in the world that I've pretended myself to get into or whatever I've entered.
Guest:But I stay on the set as much as I can.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I think that aids me.
Guest:It's just what aids me.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Some people it's best with dinner.
Marc:Like when they go to lunch.
Guest:No, I go to lunch.
Yeah.
Marc:I'm just going to be here on the couch.
Guest:Yeah, I'm just going to stay here.
Marc:In character.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:So how was the shift into high art?
Marc:Because that character is pretty great, kind of loopy, strung out.
Marc:That's a great character.
Marc:You know, aristocratic German weird hip.
Marc:It's not even a hipster, is it?
Marc:No, no.
Guest:She was just a, yeah.
Marc:Oh, you think she was a hanger-on, washed up?
Marc:How did you kind of put her together?
Guest:Just failing.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And a heroin addict and losing her life, her career, her love of her life.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, you know, as an actor, I think we always think everything has to be close to us.
Guest:I'm none of those things.
Guest:You know, I'm sadly not lesbian.
Guest:I'm not German.
Guest:I've never even smoked pot.
Guest:I've never done any drug.
Guest:And yet, here I am playing a heroine.
Guest:Well.
Guest:Well.
Guest:But I understood her.
Guest:I understood her.
Guest:Greta, emotionally.
Guest:I understood that life.
Guest:I was 38 at the time.
Guest:I had struggled in this industry for the first time through some of my 30s.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Why?
Marc:What happened?
Guest:I just couldn't get a great job.
Marc:After The Untouchables and The Deadpool?
Guest:Well, The Deadpool, and then I did a couple of other things, and then I was on Broadway, and great plays from Standard.
Guest:And I suddenly found myself really struggling.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I think it's important.
Guest:To get work.
Guest:For people to know.
Guest:I think people are like, oh, my God, you worked all your life.
Guest:I didn't.
Guest:I had struggles in my 30s.
Guest:Some really big struggles to get a job that I really, to get a good job.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And what was the existential, like, what, because, you know, I've been,
Guest:been through that in the career you've chosen and you don't really have a backup plan when you were in the darkness what was the thought well fortunately i had made some money right and and i had some money to live on yeah while i and i did a couple of cable movies that we won't talk about um but
Marc:It's so funny.
Marc:Actors have these shameful things they've done that are completely available to watch.
Marc:I don't even know what happened there.
Guest:I struggle, but I had the support of my family and my sisters and my friends.
Guest:And I had great friends.
Guest:And it is...
Guest:And so I struggled for about I think it was like three years.
Guest:And then so finally, when I got to high art, I did this small independent film that I still is one of the greatest things I've ever done called Pharaoh's Army with Chris Cooper, which if you ever like Chris Cooper is kind of a genius.
Guest:I haven't seen him lately.
Guest:It was his first like big break.
Marc:Really?
Marc:I got to watch it.
Guest:It's called Pharaoh's Army.
Guest:It's directed by Robbie Henson.
Guest:And it is a beautiful, beautiful film.
Guest:What's it about?
Guest:It's about the Civil War.
Guest:And it's this small, tiny.
Guest:He took the Civil War and distilled it to one farm.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:southern woman yeah it's kentucky so it's brother against brother but it's a union soldiers come in my father's my husband is all fighting i have a son a young son and a union five union soldiers come in to my yeah and take my farm from me yeah and chris is the leader and he is breathtaking in this he's breathtaking and
Guest:And it's a beautiful, tiny, quiet, extraordinary little film.
Guest:Robert Joy is in it.
Guest:It's this really remarkable film.
Guest:And Robbie Henson shot it in Kentucky, in Danville, Kentucky.
Guest:He and his father built the cabin that I live in, the farm.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:Hand built all of it.
Guest:It's really, one night if you remember, it's called Pharaoh's Army.
Marc:And that was sort of, creatively that was a turning point for you?
Guest:So I did that right.
Guest:I got Pharaoh's Army and it brought me back to life.
Guest:It saved me.
Guest:Isn't it weird how one thing can do that?
Guest:It was this extraordinary time.
Guest:I met Chris Cooper.
Guest:I got to act with Chris Cooper and Robert Joy and these other great actors in this piece.
Guest:It was as though I had been on life support and I was taken off and lived.
Marc:It's so wild.
Guest:And then after that I got high art because that was like when I was 36 or 37 and then I got high art.
Marc:Isn't that wild, though, Cal, that as an actor, you're kind of at the behest of the job, right?
Marc:And you need to take jobs.
Marc:Oh, you do.
Marc:And you can only find so much satisfaction or creative passion that the job is going to enable you to do without being completely delusional.
Marc:So once you start doing things that don't satisfy you, it's so horrible because it spins you out into kind of like a...
Guest:Well, it puts you in a place, a less than place, and it starts to, everything starts to deteriorate.
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:All the things, the foundations you had, all start to crumble.
Guest:Buckle, yeah.
Guest:You know, and you find yourself in this almost gothic situation, like every, you know, forces are working against me and my, you know.
Guest:Show business is horrible.
Yeah.
Guest:But the facade, and it is important in this industry that we have a facade.
Guest:We have to have an exterior.
Guest:But we have to have a very strong interior, of course.
Guest:But when everything starts to crumble...
Guest:But then the beauty of our industry is that great art does save us.
Marc:Right.
Guest:It takes that one thing to just sort of re... It takes one great director, one great actor, one great writer.
Guest:It takes great people around you and suddenly the world is a different color.
Marc:And then you got to just hit it again.
Marc:You got high art.
Guest:I got high art and I...
Marc:So you were saying that you related to her on some level.
Guest:Yes, I understood Greta.
Guest:I understood her pain, as corny as that sounds.
Guest:I did.
Guest:I just understood her wry slides.
Marc:Yeah, the sort of romantic nihilism.
Marc:Yes, absolutely.
Marc:And what did you do to research heroin?
Guest:I met with a heroin addict, a former heroin addict.
Marc:Were they brought in as a consultant?
Marc:Or as a friend?
Guest:I found someone that I happened to know someone, tangentially.
Guest:And I also, this is as an actor, I used what was happening.
Guest:We were in the biggest, it was 98 years.
Guest:And it was one of the biggest heat waves in the history of New York.
Guest:And we were in Brooklyn with no money.
Guest:And I had on pleather pants.
Marc:So you were naturally woozy?
Guest:I just used all of what was happening.
Guest:Just the heat, the exhaustion.
Guest:We were shooting 15, 16-hour days and coming back, going home and coming back.
Guest:And we were just...
Guest:And just the actual, the externals became my internals.
Marc:Right, yeah, yeah.
Guest:And that's what I used to find and form Greta.
Guest:Every day I'd get on the set and...
Marc:Start to tip.
Marc:And that's what you're talking about before, that it's all present.
Guest:It's all part of the scene.
Guest:Everything that surrounds us is in the scene with us.
Marc:And then all of a sudden you were different.
Marc:You were like in the game again.
Marc:I was in the game.
Marc:Doing a Tom Hanks movie.
Marc:Yeah, I did Green Mile.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, I did.
Guest:I did so many things.
Marc:The Pledge.
Marc:That movie is like sort of, it's a bizarre movie.
Marc:It's like it's a real art movie.
Marc:It is, but it's beautiful.
Marc:Yeah, and you work with Sean as a director.
Guest:I worked with Sean as a director.
Guest:I had to fly to, all the way to outside of Vancouver.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And like cry and weep for three days.
Yeah.
Guest:And get back in a plane, I swear to God.
Guest:I had to fly in because my child is murdered.
Guest:I had to fly in, have a murdered child for three days.
Guest:I had, what, two scenes or something, and then fly back home.
Guest:I remember flying home, there wasn't enough free wine.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:On the plane.
Guest:On the plane.
Guest:They were like, would you like dinner?
Guest:I was like, no.
Guest:Just keep the Chardonnay near.
Marc:So, like, it's been pretty satisfying.
Guest:So I kept going.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, that's, you know, but it doesn't mean that I haven't had struggle or... No, no, I'm not assuming that.
Guest:...that I haven't had heartbreak.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Personally and emotionally and, you know, professionally and personally.
Guest:I mean, it's what keeps us going.
Guest:It's always... But don't you get to a point, man, where you just, like...
Guest:Do I have to go through that again?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:That's what we think.
Guest:And we say, oh, here I am again.
Marc:With relationships or work or whatever.
Guest:Yes, with relationships and work.
Guest:I'm like, oh my God, I'm just too old for this.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then you're sort of like, you know what?
Guest:And I'm weeping every night, like broken hearted.
Guest:And I'm like, I'm too old for this.
Marc:But it doesn't stop.
Marc:But it doesn't.
Marc:And you can't protect yourself because when you try to protect yourself, it's like, is there a way I can just go halfway and just ride that up?
Marc:I've done a lot of halfway.
Marc:It's worse because then you're not heartbroken, but you're full of resentment.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And you start to die inside.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And you're like, I can't do this either.
Guest:Yeah, I can't.
Guest:You can't do either.
Marc:You got to put yourself out there and just get your heart stepped on.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Good.
Marc:Well, that's great.
Marc:Good for you out there with your heart.
Marc:How are you now?
Marc:Are you in the middle of a heartbreak?
Guest:No, I'm not in the middle of a heartbreak.
Guest:I'm feeling very good.
Guest:I'm feeling very 59.
Guest:And I'm happy.
Marc:Good.
Guest:You seem happy.
Guest:I have lovely people in my life, plural.
Good.
Guest:That's good.
Marc:Many of them.
Marc:Surround yourself with lovely people.
Guest:Yes, 14.
Marc:Very exciting life.
Guest:What time is it?
Guest:I've got lovely people to hook up with.
Guest:I'm in Glendale.
Guest:Actually, you know, one is in Glendale.
Guest:Good.
Guest:What are you near?
Guest:A thousand?
Guest:No.
Marc:You want to text them or whoever?
Marc:But like far from heaven though, like when you were presented with that project, what was your reaction to his vision?
Marc:Because it's like a very specific thing.
Guest:Well, I loved his other films, but I could see that it was almost a painting, almost a... A technicolor painting.
Guest:Do you know they actually painted the leaves?
Guest:I mean, the artistry that went into just the physical production of that movie was astonishing.
Yeah.
Guest:They painted the leaves outside.
Marc:He wanted that Douglas Cirque thing.
Guest:That Douglas Cirque, and he achieved it.
Guest:He did.
Guest:He did.
Marc:And Julianne Moore, who I have not talked to, who I fucking love.
Guest:Amazing.
Guest:And she's everything you think she is.
Marc:Really?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Like a gal, just a true, real, beautiful person.
Marc:But as an actress, you know, deeply well-trained and deeply in control of her trip.
Guest:And a real consummate professional.
Guest:I loved working with her.
Guest:We were two gals who, you know, two broads who were like, let's just shoot.
Guest:Let's go.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And in that environment.
Marc:He's like, as a director, like when I talked to him, he was one of those people where, you know, I've talked to these directors who create things that are,
Marc:you know, dense and take risks and not immediately understandable.
Marc:And just to sort of like, and I end up just sort of like, just explain.
Marc:And they don't.
Marc:They follow their vision.
Guest:Well, the vision didn't impact, I don't think, the actual acting.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Well, that was one of the most controlled things he did.
Guest:It was a very controlled.
Guest:Our marks, I remember, were very precise.
Guest:Right.
Guest:The great cinematographer, Edward.
Guest:It was very crafted, but within the scenes themselves, we still had to be present and emotional and connected.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, the last thing he wanted was us to be lifted in some way.
Marc:Yeah, I thought that was like, up to that point, it was really the most kind of controlled film he'd made.
Marc:Because he made some movies that were sort of like, like Safe, you watch Safe, and I'm like, what is this?
Guest:What's happening?
I know.
Guest:I liked that film.
Marc:I loved it.
Marc:I loved it.
Marc:It took me for some reason longer to realize that art is not going to make sense all the time, and you just have to let it hit you and do what you will with it.
Marc:It's a memorable movie, but I couldn't really exactly tell you what it's about.
Marc:I know she had problems.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:What was Juarez Van Trier?
Marc:What was that working with that guy?
Guest:Well, that was crazy because... What was it called?
Guest:Dogville.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, you know, he's a true eccentric.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:And, you know, that movie.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Remember, we had just chalk outlines of our houses and everything was mimed.
Guest:But, you know, my father went to see it.
Guest:And my father is, you know, my father... This is going to be good.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And you know how we had to pretend opening the doors and pretend we had like a kitchen or a bedroom or pretend.
Guest:That's so hard.
Guest:But my father saw it and he was like, pet him.
Guest:I think you needed doors.
Guest:That was his only note?
Guest:But I think it's perfect.
Guest:So you had to mime a whole movie?
Guest:We had to mime everything, yeah.
Guest:We had to mime our actions and our things.
Guest:We had certain things that were real, like remember when I break the little creatures of her?
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:But we had to mime going in and going out.
Guest:Did you have any experience with mime?
Guest:Some at Yale, but we were kind of like, oh, sure.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:I got it.
Marc:I got it.
Guest:It was an elective.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:I've got it.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:Okay, we're going to lunch.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Well, that's one of those risks.
Marc:Like, you know, heading into a movie like that, we realize, like, this is crazy.
Marc:But because of the work you put in place, it's like, I've done crazy things before.
Yeah, yeah.
Marc:But this character, this sharp object thing, it's almost like a modern gothic thing.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Yeah?
Marc:Now, when you play a monster who's charming, how much do you ... Is it all in the script for you?
Marc:Do you start there?
Guest:It has to begin there.
Guest:And I had exquisite writing.
Guest:I did.
Guest:And from there, I...
Guest:I've spoken about Adora often, and she is one of the most complicated characters I've ever played.
Guest:And of course, I've played Blanche Dubois and the two are kindred spirits in very different ways.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But Gillian is her own voice, and Marty Knox, and there was a team of exquisite writers, and so I benefited from having this remarkable character in Dialogues.
Guest:Gillian Flynn created this character.
Yeah.
Guest:And yet I think it became more expansive from the book, and she let it go to those, the darkness and the lightness kind of melding, and she
Guest:struggles of a woman who, it's a cyclical violence.
Guest:It's generational violence.
Guest:It's the abuse of my mother wrought on me and that I, moving forward, my own children.
Guest:But I, you can't really, if you're in a gothic world, you can't think of it as gothic.
Guest:And Jean-Marc Vallée is the most on the ground, feet on the ground director.
Guest:One of the
Guest:most visceral, emotional directors I've ever worked with and improvisational and loose and free.
Guest:And I think, and I loved that because this character could have been almost statuesque and almost, but he kept my feet slightly off the ground.
Marc:It gives it like, you know, you believe that you live in the house and you like, it's not, yeah, it's interesting.
Guest:First of all, the production designer was, he should win an Emmy.
Guest:That house, it was all built.
Guest:It wasn't anything that was all built.
Guest:But that house was, I think it was haunted, truly.
Guest:And it had a life of its own.
Guest:And every time I entered, something would come through me.
Guest:And it was my house.
Guest:It was hard to leave it, actually.
Guest:But it did help inform me and help carry me through just the nature of it.
Guest:But it was, you know, a door is to be at the age I am and to still have people demanding such an expansive range from you is exactly what you want.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Because what else, you know, I've done so much work at this point and I'm, I want, I hate the word, but I want the challenge.
Guest:I want, I just didn't know if I could do this.
Marc:Really?
Guest:I wasn't sure.
Guest:I thought, my goodness.
Guest:But I never judged her.
Guest:Never, never, never.
Marc:I guess you really can't.
Guest:You cannot.
Marc:Anybody you play.
Guest:I couldn't.
Marc:Because then you diminish the possibility for her humanity.
Guest:Yes, and that's what I thought was important.
Guest:This is a woman who has monstrous deeds, who does monstrous deeds, but...
Guest:In the end, she's probably just as screwed up as everybody else.
Marc:Yeah, it has to be empathetic somehow.
Guest:I mean, she's mentally ill, and there was no one really to save her, sadly, because there was no one really to take care of her, because her husband is complicit.
Marc:Aren't they always?
Marc:That's why I don't have one.
Marc:Either way, everyone's complicit.
Marc:If shit is bad, takes two to tango, man.
Marc:That's what they say.
Marc:But after playing somebody like Blanche, was that a resource?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:I found the lack of oxygen at times very Blanche-like.
Marc:Now, when you do something like Blanche Dubois, I mean, this is a role that has been played by many people.
Marc:So when you approach something like that, how do you find the mechanics of a character like Blanche has been played a million times?
Guest:Well, again, you have to come at it for what you know.
Guest:I had to come at it from my life, from my existence, my Southern upbringing, my...
Guest:I had to bring to bear the life I had lived.
Guest:And Blanche required every molecule of you.
Guest:And I honestly believe that Tennessee William wrote the part as such that the actress playing it somewhat does really have a nervous breakdown.
Guest:I could barely function while I did it.
Guest:All I could do was lie in bed all day.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then go to the theater.
Guest:And then I'd go out at night and maybe have some bourbon and then go home and go to bed.
Guest:And I would be in bed all day with my dog.
Guest:I had an assistant who would walk my dog.
Guest:And then I'd go to the theater.
Guest:That's all I did.
Marc:So it's a role you have to survive.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And you loved it?
Yes.
Guest:I don't know that love is the word.
Guest:I lived it.
Guest:And I'm thankful I had that experience.
Marc:It's one of those things.
Marc:It's like, I guess, as an actor, to be in a real production of that play, it's kind of like an Olympiad.
Marc:You're like an Olympic athlete.
Marc:It's like I've trained.
Guest:And I had to remain.
Guest:I had to keep blinders on because if I, for a second thought, every night,
Guest:When I would start, you know, I was told to take a streetcar named Desire, travel.
Guest:I used to remember the open line.
Guest:I was told to take a streetcar named Desire, ride six blocks, and get off at a legion field.
Guest:And so I remembered...
Guest:I just had to get myself there.
Guest:I couldn't think about where I had to go.
Guest:And similar with Adora, I didn't think about where Adora was going.
Guest:I took her one day at a time, one moment at a time, and had to just...
Guest:keep her as buoyant as possible yeah yeah um in order before the darkness descended but same with blanche you know but with blanche you had to do it every night well six it was we did we did we had a brutal schedule it was you know it's the kennedy center it was eight shows a week and so we did a
Guest:an off-Broadway schedule.
Guest:We did Friday to Saturday to Sunday.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:So they basically had a stretcher for me every Sunday night.
Guest:That's crazy.
Guest:And an IV of bourbon.
Guest:And I was somewhat carried out of the theater.
Guest:It was tough, but it was amazing.
Guest:Is it recorded?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I don't think.
Guest:Oh, God, please don't look at it.
Guest:They might have recorded it.
Guest:It might be somewhere in the archives of the Kennedy Center.
Guest:But it was never put together as a... No, it was never on PBS or something.
Marc:Now, are you able to do these more fun TV shows, like Broad City and Parks and Rec and stuff?
Guest:Oh, Broad City was divine.
Guest:I mean, there's girls.
Marc:But you're able to kind of like, well, that's going to be fun.
Guest:Yeah, no.
Guest:I mean, I played this like angry alcohol, like just I had to show up for two hours and play this just, you know, just this raging, horrible, like drunken hostess.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:No, I love doing comedy and doing SNL, doing Mother Lover.
Guest:I mean, I love doing comedy.
Yeah.
Marc:The other thing I forgot to ask you about was the Shutter Island business.
Guest:Oh, yes.
Guest:Well, that was what a moment.
Guest:Again, getting to work with Leo and Marty.
Marc:Leo's pretty good, huh?
Guest:Oh, yes.
Guest:He's intense, and yet he has a great sense of humor.
Guest:Did you see that once upon a time in Hollywood?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Marc:He was like, I don't care what anyone says about anything about that movie.
Marc:It's just like, he's like, what is that?
Marc:I know.
Marc:There's like the levels of the thing.
Guest:But all of them are great.
Guest:I thought Brad did that.
Marc:Oh, yeah, definitely.
Marc:But even like that last scene at the gate, it was like I couldn't believe it.
Guest:I know.
Guest:I don't even know how.
Guest:He's a shapeshifter.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Leo really can he's a very handsome man and he can he thankfully he wasn't trapped in that you know he's played he's done he's been able to really be a character like a leading man but that's the best part of our industry is when we are no longer trapped by the externals we become we're better actors when our
Guest:And then what we look like fades and we become, because I think then our real spirits emerge.
Guest:I think our real, you know, our joie de vivre comes roaring out of us.
Marc:Right, because like there's a couple things.
Marc:It's like, you know, time is getting shorter and you don't give us a fuck about as much.
Guest:No, you don't.
Marc:So there's a freedom in that.
Guest:There's a freedom, a real freedom.
Guest:But he also gets to work with great directors.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:And Scorsese was great?
Guest:Yes, of course.
Guest:He's an actor, actor, actor, director a million times over.
Guest:He loves actors and he's so remarkable with them.
Guest:create such a conducive environment to be free and crazy and loose and you never want to leave the set.
Guest:You just don't because it's just, you know, just try it again, do this.
Guest:You know, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Marc:He's excitable.
Marc:Go over there.
Guest:No, no, come in.
Guest:What are you?
Guest:Take out your canteen.
Guest:You got a canteen?
Guest:I was like, yeah, I got a canteen.
Guest:I have a wound on my leg.
Guest:I was like, I can't walk yet.
Guest:He was like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Here I am, just this woman in a cave.
Guest:It was wild.
Guest:It was wild, but exhilarating.
Guest:Exhilarating.
Marc:Are you a shapeshifter?
Guest:I hope so.
Guest:I hope I can be at times.
Marc:It seems like you are.
Guest:I want to become other people but still have a part of me in there.
Marc:Yeah, I think that's a unique, I think you are one, but certainly it's not all actors are, and it's a rare thing that people who can really inhabit
Guest:But I think more people in this industry are wanting to be them.
Guest:I think more people are fighting against what they look like and what a studio might want to preserve in them.
Marc:Well, there's no studio anymore.
Marc:Everything's breaking apart.
Guest:Well, in a way, independent film, big, is really on the rise.
Guest:It is taking over.
Marc:I mean, The Station Agent was an independent movie, wasn't it?
Marc:Oh, yes.
Marc:Very.
Guest:We shot it for $500,000.
Guest:Are you kidding me?
Marc:It's huge.
Guest:It was huge.
Guest:It was that little film, a little film that could.
Guest:Beautiful.
Marc:So what's going on now?
Marc:What are you working on other than promotion?
Guest:I'm attached to this beautiful film that we're hoping we get the financing together.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:directed by Andrea Paloro.
Guest:He did Hannah with Charlotte Rampling, a beautiful Italian director, and it's a remarkable movie.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Remarkable.
Guest:He's a stunning director.
Guest:So I'm in the process of hoping to get that made.
Guest:I've got another beautiful film called Light on Broken Glass that I'm trying to get made.
Guest:And I'm attached to a few things.
Guest:I'm not working right now.
Marc:You're busy, though.
Guest:But I'm not busy.
Guest:Well, no, not really.
Guest:Well, you're doing great things.
Guest:But I'm campaigning.
Marc:I think what I'm trying to say is there's no dread.
Marc:There seems to be projects you want to be involved with, excited about, and could happen.
Guest:But I think I'm one of many women who are in their late 40s, 50s, 60s.
Guest:We're having a little bit of a heyday now.
Guest:We have jobs.
Guest:We have work.
Guest:We have people who really want to hire us and hire us often.
Guest:So I'm riding the wave.
Guest:I saw Alice and Janney the other night.
Guest:God, she's remarkable.
Guest:And I'm just going to ride the wave.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You should do a movie with her.
Guest:I'd be in heaven.
Guest:It'd be great.
Guest:I'd be in heaven.
Marc:Well, it was great talking to you.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Thank you.
Guest:Thank you so much.
Marc:That was Patricia Clarkson.
Marc:I love her.
Marc:I love, I seriously love her again.
Marc:HBO sharp objects.
Marc:She's great in it.
Marc:Nominated for the best supporting actress in a limited series or movie category.
Marc:And, uh, go look at her resume.
Marc:Go see some of the movies we discussed.
Marc:I rewatched high art.
Marc:She's fucking great in it.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Are you okay?
Marc:Go to WTF pod.com slash tour for all the upcoming tour dates and
Marc:Now I'm going to play some guitar.
Marc:Some Nick Cavey chords maybe.
Marc:No echo.
Marc:Just a little bit of crunch.
Marc:Natural crunch.
Marc:Natural tube crunch.
Thank you.
Marc:Boomer lives!