Episode 1191 - Nicole Kidman
Marc:all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fuck nicks i'm mark maron this is my podcast wtf welcome uh if you're new here uh hang out just uh sit in the back uh you can share if you want but it's probably best to listen today
Marc:So you can get a sense of what's happening here.
Marc:How the regs doing?
Marc:How the regulars doing?
Marc:How my people, everybody all right?
Marc:Are you holding up?
Marc:Nicole Kidman is on the show today.
Marc:You know Nicole Kidman.
Marc:I guess the reason she was available and hanging out was the limited series on HBO, The Undoing, which you can watch on HBO Max.
Marc:Talk about that.
Marc:We'll talk about a lot of stuff.
Marc:I didn't know what to expect, but I found her completely charming and great.
Marc:I imagine that most of us would expect that.
Marc:It was a beautiful chat.
Marc:Beautiful chat.
Marc:It's hard, right, knowing the vaccines there and knowing that perhaps some semblance of, I don't know, normalcy, but a little more freedom of movement is possible if we could just get it.
Marc:But the entire infrastructure of the federal government has been destroyed and no one's really in charge.
Marc:And all the agencies and cabinet posts are occupied by...
Marc:amateurs and con people and fascists i don't want to be gender specific on the con people i find that in this last week or so week and a half week in a day of the uh king chaos pigs reign that every day is a fucking cliff people and all those cocky motherfuckers who thought there would be no punishment
Marc:they're getting picked up cuffed, put in the car charged with a number of different things.
Marc:That fellow who so arrogantly and proudly had his feet up on Nancy Pelosi's desk for his photo op with that smile on his face.
Marc:Apparently, uh, one of his primary concerns is the, uh,
Marc:The chips, you know, they're going to put chips in us, the vaccines.
Marc:They're going to chip us.
Marc:They're going to chip us like our pets.
Marc:So when we're lost, we can be returned to our owners.
Marc:But I got no owner, man.
Marc:No one owns me.
Marc:I'm free, man.
Marc:Don't you understand what Liberty is?
Marc:Me and Bobby, little Jimmy.
Marc:We're going to get the truck and we're going to take our country back.
Marc:I think his wife is, is Susie coming, Jimmy?
Marc:Did you pick up some dip?
Marc:We're going to need like three or four tins of Coke before we go.
Marc:I got all the other stuff.
Marc:I got the vest.
Marc:I got the zip ties.
Marc:And I got twist ties as well.
Marc:For, you know, sandwich bags, leftovers and whatnot.
Marc:Zip ties are for hog tying senators.
Marc:And the twist ties are for the trash, you know, in the car.
Marc:Did you get the dip?
Marc:We're going to take it back.
Marc:No one's putting a chip in my head.
Marc:Did you set the GPS?
Marc:Fuck the chip in my head, man.
Marc:Fuck that, man.
Marc:We're fighting against the chips.
Marc:We're fighting against the 5G.
Marc:What's the GPS say?
Marc:Did we just get on the interstate?
Marc:Man.
Marc:Remember what it was like without GPSs?
Marc:They're not putting a fucking chip in my head.
Marc:Give me that dip.
Marc:And scene.
Marc:This is an inflection point.
Marc:If something is not done today...
Marc:to punish and force responsibility onto those who refuse to take it, then it's over.
Marc:It's over.
Marc:It's only going to happen again and again and worse and worse.
Marc:They got to do whatever it takes.
Marc:25th Amendment, impeachment, whatever.
Marc:Something has to be done in a big way.
Marc:But we don't know what's going to fucking happen.
Marc:And that's I guess that's probably one of the reasons people are going more crazy.
Marc:It's been like that for four years.
Marc:But now in this final week in that day, it's pressing.
Marc:The anxiety is profound.
Marc:Fear is profound.
Marc:Sweep is difficult.
Marc:But God damn it.
Marc:They're not putting a chip in my head.
Marc:Here, I'm going to do an IG post.
Marc:Fuck that, man.
Marc:Fuck 5G towers and chips in my head.
Marc:Take a picture of me on my phone and post it on IG.
Marc:Make sure the location thing is switched so people knows we're here.
Marc:Give me that dip.
Marc:You got any dip?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:It's kind of interesting, man.
Marc:Twitter just shut them out.
Marc:Everything's a little late.
Marc:Dollar short, day late, but good.
Marc:If anyone's wondering who's really in charge, see how it feels to get your Twitter shut down, to be booted off Twitter.
Marc:Then who are you?
Marc:A person without a country.
Marc:A human without land.
Marc:Nowhere to get your little angry voice behind the veil of a fake name out into the world to cause pain.
Marc:Or you're the president.
Marc:People are screaming censorship.
Marc:It's censorship.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:Maybe you shouldn't have adjusted so efficiently.
Marc:Maybe you shouldn't have turned your brain over to the technological overlords.
Marc:Maybe these are privately held companies that can make privately held decisions.
Marc:Maybe you just got to pass it up the chain and ask their shareholders, do you mind?
Marc:Do you mind if we block the president because he's beginning to turn the country into a fascist shithole filled with very shallow, aggravated apes with guns and hats?
Marc:And dip, they brought the dip.
Marc:I got five tins of COPE.
Marc:You've turned your brain over.
Marc:Do we have a choice?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:Let me check my phone if I have a choice.
Marc:Do I have a choice?
Marc:What's trending?
Marc:Am I trending?
Marc:Is there something trending that I should be part of?
Marc:I think that's what it means, right?
Marc:Doesn't that mean that?
Marc:What does trending mean?
Marc:Trending.
Marc:See what everyone else is doing so you can do it too.
Marc:Lists.
Marc:Are the lists over?
Marc:Because I need to know what to think.
Marc:This or that.
Marc:Lists.
Marc:Content.
Marc:What is content?
Marc:Content.
Marc:Distraction profiteering.
Marc:Oh, right.
Marc:Personality.
Marc:What is personality?
Marc:Template that you apply to the goo, the psychic goo that is you.
Marc:A personality template.
Marc:Character.
Marc:What's character?
Marc:Character is your resume.
Marc:That's what you present yourself.
Marc:What is your brand?
Marc:What are your likes and dislikes?
Marc:Do you have a list?
Marc:Is there a list?
Marc:What's trending?
Marc:Are you trending?
Marc:The singularity has already happened.
Marc:Most of who you are was created by the internet somehow.
Marc:You are designed.
Marc:Your desires thoroughly mind.
Marc:Mind your mind.
Marc:Is it poetry day?
Marc:Holy shit.
Marc:The fuck is happening?
Marc:I did yoga yesterday for the first time.
Marc:I've had the mat in and around.
Marc:It's only taken me months and months.
Marc:What is it?
Marc:How many months are we into this?
Marc:I think I'm through most of the
Marc:daily ptsd of grief and now i reflect trying to make memories of my girlfriend who passed away blessings trying to keep my head above water mentally psychologically emotionally mornings are difficult i've been meditating and then i tried yoga i did the yoga i did some some sun salutations
Marc:And I don't know what I'm expecting from meditating and yoga in the morning right when I wake up.
Marc:But by the end of the day, I don't feel great.
Marc:My body's still beat up.
Marc:I'm still sore.
Marc:There's no going back.
Marc:There's no going back.
Marc:I'm just trying to stay engaged so my brain doesn't turn to mush.
Marc:Something needs to happen this week.
Marc:Something in the form...
Marc:of punitive action, justice, saving the system that we live under.
Marc:Something has to happen.
Marc:If it doesn't, we won't.
Marc:Right?
Marc:Can you dig it?
Marc:Nicole Kidman.
Marc:It was very exciting to get to talk to her.
Marc:And you can watch the most recent bit of business that she is involved with.
Marc:The Undoing on HBO Max.
Marc:Watch Hugh Grant be a monster.
Marc:A different kind of monster than he was before.
Marc:At the beginning of this, you will hear another voice.
Marc:It was Keith Urban.
Marc:Keith Urban, her husband, made an appearance getting her set up.
Marc:That was kind of exciting in a weird way.
Marc:I don't know one song that he's played.
Marc:I know he's good at what he does, but just seeing him, I'm like, oh, shit, that's Keith Urban.
Marc:This is me talking to Nicole Kidman and to Keith Urban briefly.
Marc:Wow.
Marc:A country music star and a movie star in the same frame.
Guest:You play guitar.
Marc:I do.
Marc:I got a lot of guitars right behind me.
Marc:What does Keith play?
Marc:What do you usually play?
Marc:What's your guitar?
Marc:Telecaster?
Guest:Everything.
Guest:Telestrats, Gibson's, Les Paul's.
Marc:What's your favorite one, though?
Guest:It changes.
Marc:You like that single coil sound?
Marc:I just got a 62 Les Paul Jr.
Marc:a few weeks ago.
Guest:Oh, 62.
Guest:Very nice.
Marc:Like with just the 1P90 on there?
Marc:It's great.
Guest:There's nothing like it.
Marc:I know.
Marc:It's a good rock guitar.
Guest:Great rock guitar.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Billy Armstrong agrees.
Guest:Bye.
Marc:Nice to talk to you.
Guest:That's who you should be talking to.
Marc:I don't know enough about guitars.
Marc:I always get lost with the guys who do it for a living.
Marc:They know a lot more.
Guest:You play good music, though.
Marc:Thank you.
Marc:Are you going to put some earbuds in?
Marc:oh no no do i need to because i don't know how to bluetooth my air well go get the guitar guy let's get it let's get yeah let me do it hi baby how's that is it happening
Marc:How's that?
Marc:Testing.
Marc:One, two.
Marc:Hello.
Marc:Hi.
Marc:Better?
Marc:Better?
Guest:I mean, look at this.
Guest:How's that?
Guest:I'm done.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I can't hear anything.
Guest:Is that better?
Marc:Good?
Marc:Is that good?
Guest:Thank you.
Guest:You're welcome.
Marc:Hi, Nicole.
Marc:Are we ready to go now?
Guest:It's a bit too loud.
Guest:Bit too loud, baby.
Marc:Oh, it's a bit too loud, baby.
Marc:Turn it down, baby.
Marc:turn it down baby turn it up turn me on turn it down okay this is the best interview i've ever done already see you later bye go practice don't go practice practice how does it like how does it do you i don't just before i i i'm just curious now does he ever get any flack from the country music community that he's australian
Guest:Or they just don't care?
Guest:He didn't make... No, no.
Guest:I don't know, actually.
Guest:I mean, there's another guy now, younger guy, who's also really big and married to...
Guest:Kelsey Ballerini, and he's Australian.
Guest:But Keith really is the only Australian that's ever been put into the country music, the Ryman.
Marc:Oh, he's already played the Ryman.
Guest:All of them to have won the awards.
Guest:I mean, Olivia Newton-John won the CMA, I think, once.
Guest:But, yeah, but he's like a jukebox, honestly.
Guest:I mean, his understanding of country music is –
Guest:We were sitting last night.
Guest:Here's the thing.
Guest:We were sitting in our porch and he's like, oh, this is a picking porch.
Guest:And he got his guitar because we had the sunroom with the fly screen and it's summer here.
Guest:And he just started playing Willie and Don Williams and all these old country songs.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:Reeling off stories about Charlie Pryde.
Guest:I mean, so he's grown up.
Guest:His father loved country music.
Guest:So since he was...
Guest:a baby he's been listening to country music and that's how his understanding yeah yeah and then he taught himself guitar yeah in his bedroom and all his all yeah he would go um to tamworth here the country music it sounds like you're talking to me like you just went on your first date with this guy and i love this guy
Marc:We're just on the porch and he knew all this stuff about country music.
Guest:Well, I mean, I was sitting there going because he was telling me a story about Charlie Pryde who just passed.
Guest:And he was telling me a story about how Chet Atkins had to put his first.
Guest:I think it was when he sent it out to be played on radio in brown paper bags.
Marc:So no one would know he was black.
Guest:They wouldn't know that he was black.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And Chet Atkins produced it probably.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And I'm like, how do you know that?
Guest:Because everybody knows that.
Guest:And I'm like, oh, I don't know that.
Marc:And now you do.
Guest:But, you know, that's just, he has so much knowledge.
Guest:And then he plays by ear.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So you can play him one song and he'll play.
Guest:He can play it.
Guest:And he can play drums and stuff.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:You know, he's just that.
Guest:Yes, you play it and he'll play piano, guitar, drums.
Marc:Well, that's exciting to have that in the house, right?
Marc:So anyway.
Marc:There's like, it must be nice.
Marc:Always entertaining.
Guest:My music man.
Marc:My music man.
Marc:Good for you.
Marc:So what, you just got back from shooting a movie?
Guest:Yeah, I was shooting in Belfast.
Guest:In Belfast?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:I love Belfast now.
Marc:I love Ireland.
Marc:I love Ireland.
Marc:I want to live there.
Marc:I want out.
Guest:Yes.
Yes.
Guest:The weirdest thing was I'm in Belfast and I'm like, and I have this sort of this way of going, oh, maybe we should move here.
Guest:I'm that person.
Guest:Me too.
Guest:So I'm in Belfast going, this place is really special.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:There's something about it.
Guest:I was just drawn.
Guest:I have Irish blood.
Guest:Part of my family came over to Australia in 1839 on the SS Susan.
Marc:Wow, you know the big history.
Marc:I have zero Irish blood.
Marc:I'm all Jew, and some part of me... I know you are.
Guest:I've been listening to some of your podcasts, and I now subscribe to you.
Marc:Oh, good.
Marc:Well, that's very nice.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:I'm flattered.
Guest:Yeah, because I was saying you're one with Glenn.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Guest:I learned about Glenn.
Guest:Fascinating.
Guest:And I've worked with Glenn years and years ago, but I didn't know that.
Guest:And then Carrie's one was so extraordinary because she went to India.
Guest:I mean, all of these things.
Guest:So I've been very excited to do this with you.
Marc:Yeah, I've been excited, too.
Marc:I wasn't I was I was nervous.
Marc:I'm nervous.
Marc:You've done a lot of things.
Marc:And I like I've been to Australia a few times.
Marc:And one thing I remember now, I don't know what this is, but I'm going to ask you because I'm curious.
Marc:Whenever you go to Australia, you're an American.
Marc:Australians talk about seven people, the Australians that everybody knows around the world, and you're one of them.
Marc:But then there was always this thing.
Marc:It's like, oh, her family owned the entire country once.
Guest:Yeah, no, no.
Guest:I'm not of that family.
Guest:That's the Adelaide Kidman.
Marc:Oh, you missed out, huh?
Guest:South Australia, yeah.
Guest:And he was a cattle king.
Guest:And I'm not related to him.
Marc:Do you get that a lot, though?
Marc:Do people assume that about you?
Guest:Yes.
Marc:They do?
Marc:They're like, oh, she's like a rich, old money Australian lady.
Marc:Nope.
Guest:Yeah, that's not the case.
Guest:I came from a working class father who built himself up and he got his degree and became a biochemist and then became a psychologist.
Marc:A psychologist?
Marc:Your dad was a psychologist?
Yeah.
Guest:He started as a biochemist, and then I remember in my teens, suddenly my father was a psychologist.
Guest:He'd gone and studied with Albert Ellis, and all of that was sort of so CBT-ish.
Guest:and um cognitive behavioral therapy oh yeah and um yeah did he have an office in the house he did oh wow so you were that kid how did you know that i would peep through the window and see people coming in and be like i wonder what's wrong with them um but as an actor that's a wonderful thing because
Guest:Just his understanding of behavior and the things he would share anonymously was interesting to me.
Guest:And also his real compassion and ability to view things through different perspectives and lenses, I think, had an enormous effect on how I view the world now.
Marc:I bet.
Marc:Well, I mean, cognitive behavioral therapy, I mean, that's the most practical one.
Marc:Like out of all of them, that seems to be the one that you can actually see working because it really relies on you going like, you know, I'm not going to do that.
Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Or don't catastrophize.
Guest:Give some tools as to how to.
Guest:Yeah, but of course, as a teenager, I was like, oh, so not going to apply any of that.
Guest:And that's all crap.
Guest:And I'm not interested.
Guest:And don't tell me how to be.
Marc:You pushed back pretty hard.
Guest:It's my nature.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You fought the good fight.
Guest:A little bit willful.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Were you born in Australia?
Marc:You weren't, right?
Guest:I was born in Hawaii.
Marc:How long did you live there, though?
Guest:For a bit over a year, and then we moved to... Oh, no, until it was about 18 months, I think, and then we moved to Washington, D.C., because my dad was studying at the Institute of Health.
Guest:D.C.?
Guest:They had no money, like no money, and they had to go and get... I even remember to get it.
Guest:They went and got a mattress and put... My dad's... Before my dad passed, I...
Guest:He was telling me all these stories, and I think it must have been because maybe he knew that his heart was weak, but we didn't.
Guest:But he told me a lot of stories about when I was little and things they did when they were in the States.
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:When did he pass?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:It feels like yesterday.
Guest:It was six years ago.
Marc:Oh, man.
Guest:I was very, very close to him.
Marc:That's sad.
Marc:I'm sorry to hear that.
Guest:Yeah.
Yeah.
Marc:But you were able to do that.
Marc:Did you feel like he wanted you to know all this stuff before he went?
Marc:Did it have that kind of feeling about your childhood and everything?
Guest:It felt like that now when I look back on it.
Marc:Do you have pictures and stuff?
Guest:I have loads of pictures because my mom took pictures.
Guest:And I have stories, but these stories were very particular and very specific.
Guest:And
Guest:Strangely enough, I remember the last time I saw him, I had this unbelievably strange sensation where I was like, wow, this is going to be the last time I see my dad.
Marc:Really?
Guest:And then a month later, he died very suddenly.
Marc:But he wasn't sick?
Guest:I hated having that.
Guest:No, not sick at all.
Marc:Oh, Jesus.
Guest:I mean, Malcolm Gladwell would say that's just...
Guest:Your mind saying, you know, you know, the sort of obvious thing is you're distanced from your family a lot and he's 75 and anything can happen.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So there is a or I can go into that other.
Guest:place and go i had a premonition so i i fluctuate between spiritual and science sure yeah he's a magic killer don't let him kill the magic okay i don't mind that i don't want to be someone that can have premonitions or feel things or no things no but you got to find some mid midway you know poetry is poetry and feelings are feelings doesn't mean that you you know you believe in an afterlife or you're talking to spirits i mean there's you know but i do believe in an afterlife
Marc:You do?
Marc:What happens?
Marc:Help me out.
Marc:Jews get kind of a... I don't know what happens.
Guest:I know a lot about Jewish men.
Guest:You do?
Guest:Why is that?
Guest:Because I know a lot of Jewish men and I've been very interested in...
Guest:um the religion and i have a lot of um yeah so i just know a lot you probably know more than most jews if you're fascinated with the religion most of us are just happy with the framework yeah you like the religion too i like sitting shiver and yeah what religion are you catholic raised catholic
Marc:Well, Catholic's one of those ones.
Marc:It's pretty ornate and complicated and mystical, and there's all kinds of magical books.
Marc:I mean, I went to Italy.
Marc:Every church has a few dead wizards in it.
Marc:There are dead wizards everywhere in Italy.
Marc:How many popes were there?
Marc:And everyone, there's pieces of bodies everywhere.
Marc:It's dark, man.
Guest:Yes, the catacombs in Rome and...
Marc:But every church has like a finger or a saint's ear or a head.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:That's how you were raised Catholic.
Marc:So you believe in the burning?
Mm-hmm.
Guest:I have.
Guest:I'm always grappling with what I believe and what I don't believe.
Guest:That's probably part of my nature, which is fine with where I stand with.
Guest:Science.
Guest:But I've been taught to question.
Guest:But ultimately, like when, say, when my father died, the first place I go is church.
Guest:When Stanley Kubrick died, the first place I went was church, kneeling.
Marc:praying so it's i but i was raised in it since i was a baby and what what do you get out of that i get peace yeah i do i actually do i get enormous peace i'm a jew and i walk you know i walked into those churches like in italy where they invented the uh the big the catholic the catholic stuff
Marc:Like those churches, like, I mean, you feel the weight, man.
Marc:I mean, they're designed to make you feel a certain spiritual weight that's really beautiful.
Marc:You know, I almost became Catholic.
Marc:Well, I think I was Catholic when I went in there.
Marc:Not really.
Marc:But I mean, when I went into the churches, I was like, I get it.
Marc:Yeah, I could sit here and do it, you know, just switch the God out for my more nebulous kind of unexplained God, you know, just switch out to Jesus.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So you were brought up with Catholic the whole time?
Marc:Your parents were?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Then my mother became agnostic.
Marc:Did something happen?
Guest:I was just suddenly, my mom wasn't coming to church on Sunday.
Marc:Oh, wow.
Guest:So I wasn't quite aware of what happened.
Guest:I remember there was sort of closed doors and tears for about a year and whispering.
Guest:And then, well, it took course over maybe a year or two where she just slowly...
Guest:She converted to Catholicism and then maybe when I was about eight, I think it was, that she just stopped coming and my dad would take us.
Guest:And we would go to folk mass where you would sing.
Marc:Oh, that's nice.
Guest:Let it be, let it be.
Guest:That was part of our, with the guitars.
Guest:I sound so daggy.
Marc:Were they singing nuns?
Marc:Were they nuns singing?
Guest:I went to a school with the nuns when I was little.
Guest:And I would be told the nuns are married to God.
Guest:And then I would go over into the convent where they lived and be like, oh, I hope I can see God.
Guest:And I want to see who they're married to.
Guest:And it was all very lifelong.
Guest:And then they'd give me biscuits and cookies and I'd sit there and wait to see how they were married to God.
Guest:And eat cookies.
Guest:All part of the reason I became an actor.
Guest:I think George Miller says that.
Guest:He says there's something to actors who were raised in Catholicism because they have all that relationship with.
Guest:I don't know, big sort of ideas.
Guest:Yeah, George Miller, who did the Mad Maxes.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, I know.
Marc:I'm familiar with him.
Marc:He's great.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, the acting thing, I guess I'm just trying to do it now.
Marc:You're very good at it.
Marc:You've been good at it a long time.
Marc:And I think it's like...
Marc:It's strange to me that like every year, anytime you do anything, it seems that they're writing like, oh, my God, Nicole Kidman's back or like she really is amazing.
Marc:How many I mean, like you've been here for years doing amazing work.
Marc:But every time you do anything, they're like, surprise, Nicole Kidman has read whatever.
Marc:They act like you're brand new every time.
Marc:What the hell is wrong with people?
Marc:Why can't they just say she's amazing again?
Guest:No, well, I think I've definitely not been amazing.
Guest:And I think I've probably... What do you mean?
Marc:When were you not amazing?
Marc:And I'm 100.
Marc:But what do you look back at and go like, well, that was terrible.
Marc:Do you actually have things that you think back at where you're like, I wish that movie didn't exist?
Guest:Wish it didn't exist.
Guest:It exists.
Guest:It's there.
Guest:Yeah, there's things I've done that I go, God, I wish...
Guest:I'd done better.
Guest:Yeah, right, sure.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, I look at every scene practically, and I'm like, God, that doesn't – I need a long time before I can watch the performance and have any sort of – I mean, I literally feel nauseous when I watch things and I have a physical response to things.
Marc:That you're in, yeah.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And very disappointed.
Guest:I feel very disappointed.
Guest:I think I'm way better than I am.
Guest:I watch, I go, that's terrible.
Guest:What?
Guest:So it's interesting.
Guest:So I tend not to watch unless I'm producing.
Guest:And then sometimes I look back and I go, oh, that was interesting.
Guest:Okay, then I see why that connected or didn't connect.
Guest:But I'm always trying not to have,
Guest:i suppose it's more putting it out into the world and seeing how because it shouldn't be about me and my response to it it should be that i have given blood hopefully yeah you're telling a story i try to give blood i try to yeah smash myself into a wall or give blood when i do a performance you do every time yeah yeah i want it to be that um
Marc:like i i really look to life or death almost like everything's relying yeah yeah yeah never cause so like sometimes you watch you watch like the nauseousness is probably like you'll see like a scene and you'll be like oh i could have made a different choice or maybe uh you know why they use that take kind of stuff
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I'm not a good judge of it.
Guest:And I shouldn't be a good judge of it.
Marc:You can't be.
Marc:No, no, just like, yeah, because like, whatever our feelings are, whatever your feelings are, I mean, you know, the object is to do good work.
Marc:But, you know, a lot of people aren't, they're not gonna be as critical as you are of yourself.
Right.
Guest:No, and they're my emotions.
Guest:They're my offerings.
Guest:And hopefully a lot of it is unconscious, if that makes sense, instead of conscious.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because I'm interested in acting that involves the unconscious.
Guest:We all know how to do something and hit beats and, you know, deliver.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:particular performance, but I'm interested in the performance I don't know how to deliver.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah, yeah, and where that's going to go.
Guest:So not planning huge amounts so that there's a –
Guest:Almost it's very fluid when you're in a take.
Guest:So there's very few.
Guest:And there's definitely some structure to the scene because of the dialogue or because of the way in which the scene is going to play out.
Guest:I rely heavily on the director for that structure, too.
Guest:But I'm here to bring...
Marc:um responses and and and truth so what do you put into place first i mean like if you're going to do a character like destroyer which was so clearly you know a shattered person and not you and somebody who you know was deeply uh you know troubled and kind of uh you know kind of her soul was kind of uh broken up like what do you put in place first to get to that person so you can have this experience you're talking about
Guest:Well, everything's different.
Guest:I mean, on that character, I found a walk, actually, which was more of I just started moving in a particular way, which was to do with pain in the abdomen and not being well and protecting the heart and sort of
Guest:beaten down by life right but also particular pain which is dying slowly dying so where does that pain exist it's in the abdomen and it's taking over slowly and that was the starting point yeah that's how i went into her and then just shame which is a huge emotion to carry and shame of
Guest:um in relationship to the things that have been done to my child to my partner to myself and that then creates a person yeah this is a heavy uh person and then the vocally yeah yeah it's like this like almost like a a haunting person haunted person
Guest:A person who knows they're going to die and has no problem with that ultimately, but wants some sort of salvation with her daughter and in her life, but is actually heading towards death.
Guest:And that was awful being in that place.
Guest:And I stayed in that character.
Guest:I actually would come home in the jeans and the jacket and not get changed.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Is that why?
Marc:Because you're afraid you lose it?
Guest:Yeah, I didn't want it to feel like acting.
Guest:You wanted to live in that skin for a while.
Guest:Well, I didn't want to walk on set and be, now I'm going to perform.
Guest:I actually needed to, because I would have felt silly.
Guest:I actually needed to just slowly go into her and become her.
Guest:And I would growl.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:And moan before.
Guest:I was not pleasant.
Guest:I was a very unpleasant person during that time.
Marc:Do all roles take that?
Marc:I mean, do you have to do that with all roles?
Marc:Do you have to live in them?
Marc:Not to that degree.
Marc:Right.
Guest:The Big Little Lies I did.
Guest:And even on Undoing, it kind of happened where I just was like suddenly...
Guest:I was in this place of, there was a sort of a disquietness to my personality where I was uneasy and there was duress on who I was.
Guest:I actually got really sick.
Guest:And I think this is a big thing that happens to actors.
Guest:With the undoing?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, I did.
Guest:I went down for a week with...
Guest:Because your immune system doesn't know the difference between acting and truth when you're doing that.
Guest:And I have not learned the technique to tell my brain and my body, oh, this is just acting.
Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I haven't learned how to clean that out.
Guest:You know, I've been told, oh, wipe, wipe it like this after each time.
Guest:It doesn't really work for me.
Guest:I don't think it's going to happen.
Guest:I don't sleep well and I'm not well.
Guest:And if it's that disturbing to me.
Marc:Well, those women, all three of them were kind of brutalized, you know, emotionally and psychologically and physically.
Marc:The three that seemed to be taxing that you're talking about.
Marc:I mean, to stay in that sort of gaslit zone or that abuse zone.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:That must take its toll.
Marc:I don't wonder why you felt like you had to live in those more than other ones.
Guest:um but then something like angie and the prom i just go great i get to dance and i get to love everybody and i get to go come here let me hug you yeah it's all gonna be all right do you understand um do you understand eyes wide shut does it make sense to you
Guest:Yeah, it does.
Guest:Well, because I spent two years with Stanley, like kind of woven into his psyche.
Guest:And yeah.
Guest:Yeah, it makes sense to me.
Guest:It's an unusual film, but it definitely makes sense to me.
Guest:Some of the most interesting parts to me are the marriage.
Guest:I mean, and the basis of it being, do you know your partner?
Guest:And in a sense, that's, you know, one minute they can be lying next to you.
Guest:And I love the line in it where...
Guest:There's a sword between and it was in the script.
Guest:I'm not sure if it's in the film, but there's a sword between us and you're lying there next to your partner in your bed and there's a sword between you.
Guest:And who's going to pick up the sword?
Guest:I mean, that's just fantastic.
Guest:Right.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Well, I mean, that's like that's also in the undoing like that.
Marc:You know, how well do you know your partner business?
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, but different because they're not in.
Guest:He leaves quickly in Eyes Wide Shut.
Guest:We're together and we're working through.
Guest:And I tell him something about myself that unleashes insane jealousy.
Guest:Yet nothing happened.
Guest:it was a thought yeah it wasn't even a it wasn't even um there was no action behind it but there was desire and a thought and that was enough yeah yeah men those things are fascinating to me because you know as i said i've said it before but i'm really interested in philosophy and
Guest:Kubrick is a great philosopher, and I'm interested in hunting down the modern-day philosophers who happen to be, I think, filmmakers and writers, but a lot of filmmakers, I think.
Marc:You spent a lot of time with Stanley then, like hands-on a lot?
Marc:And were you guys in contact until he passed?
Marc:I mean, did you remain friends type of thing?
Guest:The night before he passed?
Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:I mean, I was deeply attached to him and we would talk all the time and faxes were big then, so he would fax.
Guest:But he called the night before and said, I was in New York and I remember him saying,
Guest:He'd sent a fax saying, can we talk?
Guest:And I'd come home and I was like, I can't call him tonight.
Guest:I'll call him in the morning.
Guest:And I put it off and said, well, I'll call you in the morning.
Guest:What are you looking at?
Guest:What's wrong?
Marc:Nothing.
Marc:I just want to make sure I was recording loud enough.
Marc:Go ahead.
Marc:He say call in the morning.
Guest:I saw you hunking nervously over to the side.
Marc:Yeah, I went into a mild panic about my levels.
Marc:Nothing to do with you.
Marc:So what happened?
Guest:Yes, I didn't call him that night.
Guest:And then the next morning, Leon, his assistant, called and...
Guest:and he's just and I answered the phone it was still when there were hard lines and and the phone would ring in the apartment and it rang and I picked it up and I thought it was going to be Stanley and it was Leon and Leon just said Stanley Kubrick is dead like that oh my god that's how he said it yeah and I just started screaming
Guest:And I had young children at the time.
Guest:I mean, I have a very, very – I have a huge fear of phone calls in the night now because I've received a number of them with that sort of news.
Marc:They're never good.
Guest:My father included.
Guest:No.
Guest:So I actually have trauma attached to them.
Guest:But I just started screaming.
Guest:I collapsed on the ground.
Guest:But I was that close to him and that upset.
Guest:And then we – Tom and I had to get on the plane and get to –
Guest:To the funeral.
Guest:And I was just like, oh, my God.
Marc:But, yeah, what an amazing genius guy.
Marc:Oh, he could speak to everything.
Marc:I imagine that, like, you know, whatever range of conversation you wanted to have.
Marc:He had probably a wealth of ideas and experience and thoughts on it.
Guest:Yeah, knew about everything.
Guest:Big reader, would call people up and ask questions.
Guest:So you could ask him.
Guest:He would challenge everything as well.
Guest:Like I would say, and I was young, so I had a lot of ideas that I would throw down as truths.
Guest:And he would completely...
Guest:you know, pull them apart.
Marc:Comparatively, what was the process of, like, you know, working with a guy like that, you know, versus working with, like, say, like, because, like, I love that movie you did, that Sidney Pollack movie.
Marc:I really, I mean, I love his movies.
Marc:And, you know, he always struck me as a sophisticated intellectual guy, and his approach to filmmaking was very grown up.
Marc:Like, it's, you know what I mean?
Marc:He lets the, he's not nervous about stories being accessible.
Marc:I like, I just like what he does as an actor.
Guest:Great filmmaker.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Was in Eyes Wide Shut.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Came over.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Sydney came over.
Guest:So very good friends with Sydney, both Tom and I. Tom had done The Firm with him.
Marc:The Firm is a great movie.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And yeah, it was.
Guest:I was down there in Memphis while they were shooting it the whole time.
Guest:And we adopted Bella during that.
Guest:But it was fascinating because...
Guest:And he came over and Tom and I were like, oh, right.
Guest:And Sidney was like, oh, I'm going to be here for a week.
Guest:And we shot the scene and he was like, fantastic.
Guest:I don't know what you're all talking about.
Guest:And then he was here for six weeks.
Guest:Six weeks.
Guest:Doing one scene.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:But I remember Tom and I going, right, okay, Sydney, yeah, yeah.
Guest:And then we came in after we shot the scene and Stanley was like, no, no, I've actually looked at the scene terrible.
Guest:We're going to go back.
Guest:And then we just slowly started working it and working it and working it.
Guest:And, yeah, so he came over thinking he was going to be there for a week.
Guest:He ended up there for six weeks.
Guest:And we would cook pasta in the trailer.
Guest:He was a great cook, Sydney, great cook.
Guest:So we basically lived in our trailers because we were on the set, you know, or in the trailer with the kids.
Guest:Yeah, it was.
Guest:And people say, oh, that must have been so hard being there for that amount of time.
Guest:But I always have this response which is,
Guest:It is if you fight it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But if you go with it and go, I'm here, these people are fantastic people to be surrounded by.
Guest:I mean, we're with the greatest filmmaker in the world.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So it's like being in school and he comes in and eats the pasta at lunchtime that we cook or, you know, he has a little bite and we sit around and we talk about life and ideas and then we go back and we're on the set.
Guest:I mean, that's great.
Guest:Kind of why we do it, right?
Marc:And was Tom as engaged as you were intellectually with that stuff?
Guest:He was on every single day of the film.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So his workload was so much more than mine.
Guest:So he...
Guest:it was much harder for him in terms of the stamina that was required.
Guest:Cause that's a 12 hour a day, every single day for years.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:So that's a year and a half.
Guest:It was almost plus the rehearsal.
Marc:Oh my God.
Marc:A year and a half.
Marc:So what do you, when you're, when you're doing that kind of work with Kubrick, like, I mean, you know, after a certain point, are you like, what are you looking for?
Marc:What, what, what are we missing?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But you don't, that then creates this.
Yeah.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And you don't want that.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:No, you just have to flow.
Guest:And we've kind of got into that flow.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean...
Guest:But, yeah, my hat is off to Tom on it because it was like every single day, whereas I would be told, you can go home and wait at the house on standby.
Guest:I mean, I was naughty because after being on standby for two months and never being called in, but on standby from 7 a.m.
Guest:in the morning, waiting.
Yeah.
Guest:But I was allowed to be at home.
Guest:I decided, look, we're over here.
Guest:I'm going to go to Paris.
Guest:So I went to Paris for a few days.
Guest:And Tom would say to Stanley, we go, is she in the house?
Guest:And he'd be like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:But then he got hit to it.
Guest:And one time he said, I'm actually going to call her in.
Guest:And he called me in and I was in Australia.
Yeah.
Guest:I was in Australia.
Guest:And Tom's like, oh, we're screwed.
Guest:We're screwed.
Guest:And you're going to have to get on the phone with Stanley.
Guest:And so I'm like, Stanley, I mean, I'm sorry.
Guest:I'm so sorry.
Guest:I'm actually not in the house.
Guest:I mean, I'm in Sydney.
Guest:And he goes, unfaithful woman.
Marc:Oh, wow.
Guest:Yeah, but he was really kind of sweet about it.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And with Sidney Pollack, too, like he was also a great director.
Marc:But wait, let's go back even further.
Guest:Great performance director.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Why?
Marc:What makes it different?
Marc:Because he's an actor.
Guest:Yeah, and a great actor.
Guest:I mean, Sidney was a great actor.
Marc:A great actor.
Marc:I love him.
Marc:I love when he plays the morally compromised guy.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:He did so many of them.
Guest:Husbands and wives.
Guest:Oh, my gosh.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Marc:When he has to take that girl out of the party, the girlfriend, oh, my God.
Marc:It's crazy.
Guest:So good.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And Judy Davis in that as well.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Marc:Great.
Guest:That's some of the greatest film acting there in the world.
Marc:I haven't seen her in a while.
Marc:Yeah, no kidding.
Guest:She's a goddess.
Marc:It seems like you continue to kind of like push yourself into whatever, you know, you want to keep taking chances.
Marc:You can't stop.
Guest:Yeah, I want to be fierce in terms of my...
Guest:And I want to try and really, I just, I'm interested.
Guest:I'm curious and interested and hungry to explore and examine what life means.
Guest:what human beings are, who we are, how we exist.
Guest:I'm still completely enraptured with the examination of what this life is and who we are as human beings.
Guest:And I'm, I'm, it's, it,
Guest:The depth of that is so, I love it, you know, and I love the big themes.
Guest:And I live like that as a person or I'm, I mean, I connect deeply to the people I love.
Guest:I experience things deeply and I'm interested in exploring characters that way.
Guest:And I also love perspective.
Guest:Because I feel by viewing the world through different people's eyes and the motivations and the reasons and all of those things, I find that it brings me into living.
Marc:Well, I mean, it's like that scene.
Marc:There's a quote that actually Sidney Pollack said in Michael Clayton, which is a movie I watch over and over again.
Guest:Yeah, that's a great movie.
Marc:It's fucking great.
Marc:Where he says, you know, people are fucking incomprehensible.
Marc:And, you know, and it's so like there's so many things we think that are like, you know, simple, that there are patterns that we as people, you know, some people are predictable or whatever.
Marc:But I have no idea what the hell makes some people go and how people handle things.
Marc:Everybody's totally different.
Marc:And like recently, like and I know you've had to deal with this as well.
Marc:It's like contextualizing loss.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You know, what the hell is that about?
Marc:How do you go on living, you know, knowing that this is life?
Marc:I mean, this is what it is.
Marc:There's nothing unusual about dying.
Marc:So so how do I make this not a defeat of some kind or some sort of, you know, dark hole that you go in?
Marc:How do you sort of process it in that?
Marc:Like, well, this deepens my experience of life.
Marc:And I, you know, I see this as a blessing.
Guest:Yeah, no, I have trouble with that.
Guest:I mean, I think that I remember when my father died, the moment that it happened and
Guest:Everything became so unstable.
Guest:It was like, none of this is real.
Guest:Everything could go in any second.
Guest:And I had a very existential response to it.
Guest:I had a very visceral, but I also had that really existential response, which is, none of this now exists anymore.
Guest:Because the thing that was so solid in my life for so long and was actually probably, I knew he would leave at some point, he would die at some point, but it wasn't going to be now and it wasn't meant to be now and all of what happened and none of this is real.
Guest:So I went into that very existential place.
Guest:But at the same time,
Guest:I'm a mother, so I had two little, this was the scariest thing.
Guest:One of my daughters, because I was screaming, because my sister called me on the phone and said, Papa's gone.
Guest:He's gone.
Guest:He's not here anymore.
Guest:And I'm like, what?
Guest:What?
Guest:What is this?
Guest:What?
Guest:And started screaming.
Guest:And my littlest one, who was really little at the time, said, is mummy acting.
Guest:which was devastating to me because she'd heard me rehearsing in the bedroom sometimes where I'd practice and rehearse.
Guest:And she said that to Sunday, who's the older one.
Guest:And she said, Mommy, are you acting like that?
Guest:And I had to come out and go.
Guest:And Sunday told me, and I'm like, no, Mama's not.
Guest:Mama, this is real.
Guest:This is real.
Guest:And then she said, but you're not going to be sad tomorrow, right?
Yeah.
Guest:And I'm like, I'm going to be stabbed for a long time.
Guest:But I realized they don't want a sad house.
Guest:So I'm going to have to rally now and smart and push through for them because the thing a child doesn't want is a sad house where you get up in the morning day after day and it's a sad house.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So I had to,
Marc:pull myself out of all of that for them so how extraordinary to have to be something for somebody else and that's the basis of life really isn't it right well then that's like that's the natural sort of course of it isn't it that that you know countering that extreme loss and then having to parent with that the the almost polar opposite of loss
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So you live in that moment that, you know, you're going to share your heart that both things are happening simultaneously.
Marc:And that is the natural the natural course of things.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But the idea of I mean, I've always circled.
Guest:Loss, sorrow, I love that word.
Guest:I was listening to Fiona Shaw talking recently and I was like, oh, I so love you as an actress.
Guest:And she was talking about the word grief, but then she was talking about the word sorrow and what an extraordinary word that is because it's almost like sorrow is an ongoing story.
Guest:emotion and I thought yeah it so is and I've circled that a lot in films I've made birth is one of them where she's still so willing to believe that her husband is alive and a 10 year old child because she's still experiencing such grief and sorrow at the loss of her husband who she loves so much so when a 10 year old comes and says I'm actually him
Guest:I'm in this body, but I'm him.
Guest:She's so willing to believe it.
Marc:Right.
Marc:There's a lot of them where you're in a proximity to it.
Marc:If you're not in it yourself, it's nearby the sorrow.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I'm trying to move to some joy.
Guest:But lion to me is actually joy because it's love.
Guest:It's unconditional love, which is a beautiful thing to depict on screen.
Guest:And that was, I just love you.
Guest:And I will always love you.
Guest:And you can go and find other people who will love you just as much.
Guest:And that will make me happier.
Guest:Because you deserve love.
Guest:What a beautiful person to be giving that to to a child and watching him grow and saying, yeah, go find your birth mother, because I love her, too.
Guest:And I want you to have more love.
Guest:I'm not threatened by that.
Guest:I love her because she made you.
Marc:And that was a real person, right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Who I'm still very close to and really.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, that's nice.
Guest:I've been a mother in so many capacities because I'm a mother of adopted children.
Guest:I'm a mother of biological child who I gave birth to.
Guest:I'm a mother of a surrogate child who was given birth to by somebody else, but who is my genetic child.
Yeah.
Marc:A full range of motherhood experience.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, I love part of – I'm an oldest child, so probably that.
Marc:How many were there?
Guest:Just two, but I just think there's that oldest child personality sometimes, which is caretaker and mother.
Guest:And I wanted to – and I love –
Guest:I love that.
Guest:I love being able to... I actually love giving to other people and seeing them happy.
Marc:Oh, that's nice.
Marc:I'm the oldest child, but I went more of the self-centered look-at-me direction.
Marc:I'm the main one.
Guest:I got a lot of look-at-me.
Guest:My mother says I was hothoused.
Guest:So I had a lot of attention and a lot of... Yeah, just sort of directed at me.
Guest:So I never...
Guest:I crave the approval, but I'm not sure I crave the attention.
Guest:But I crave approval from her.
Marc:From your mother?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:She's still around, correct?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:That's nice.
Guest:Powerful.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:Both of mine are still around, both my parents.
Guest:Oh, you're very fortunate.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:They say you've got that's a wall between you, and when both parents are gone, it's like mortality really comes crashing towards you, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's, uh, that's all starting.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You start to really realize like, what is important?
Marc:Do you know, like what, what, what am I doing that is not necessary?
Marc:You know, but I like the idea that you, you know, you've gone through all these characters to sort of like get a deeper understanding of, of life.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Whether you want it to or not, that living in these characters.
Guest:And being with these filmmakers.
Guest:Cause part of my, um,
Guest:sort of journey has always been trying to seek out teachers and really smart people.
Guest:So working with the greatest writers and filmmakers in the world is, I mean, talk about how to be
Marc:um how to grow right and i love to learn on a day-to-day basis you know outside of stanley you know and we talked a little about about sydney pollack but i mean like who were like what were the most some of the most provocative sort of projects you were working on intellectually and and creatively satisfying because of who was driving it who was directing it oh yeah i mean jane campion changed my life
Guest:Von Trier came in.
Guest:I mean, I sought Von Trier out and went over there to try and... I saw Breaking the Waves and was in a fetal position after that movie, which I know has been, you know, they say it's misogynistic and there's probably parts of it that are, but it hit me partly because of the faith and the desire to...
Guest:give over this woman who would give and give and give partly because she felt that she had done something wrong and had to, that theme for some reason resonated so deeply with me I had to crawl out of, we saw it in a screening room in London, we were meant to go to dinner after and I just went home and got under the covers in a fetal position sobbing.
Really?
Guest:Oh, and that made you like precious.
Guest:I watched precious Lee Daniels precious.
Guest:And I, we were meant to go out and grab a bite after it.
Guest:I saw it in New York.
Guest:I was like, get in a cab, get home.
Guest:I mean, I could start weeping about it.
Guest:Now there's the scene with the father and the young child in the bed.
Guest:I was just, I couldn't even, I couldn't function.
Guest:I just, so I have these responses to movies.
Guest:So they go so deeply into me that I just, I have to,
Guest:oh yeah that always been is that what made you want to do it yeah yeah and even reading books i mean i read beloved tony morrison's why i was like i read beloved and i couldn't even move after i would just i was just like and i mean just so viscerally responding to something but yes have always been like that since i was a child
Marc:But that made you want to seek out Von Trier?
Marc:You're like, I need to go wherever that guy takes people.
Guest:I was fascinated as to who he was and how he got... I mean, the performances in that film are... I mean, Emily Watson is...
Guest:is like it's beyond it's from some other place so yeah i wanted to go and be in that world and i love traveling the world and going to um other places to exist with people from all over different nationalities different filmmaking techniques and which was the jane campion movie
Guest:portrait of a lady.
Marc:Oh yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then, I mean, but Baz, Baz came along and went and I wanted to make a love story.
Guest:I'd been wanting to make a love story.
Guest:I didn't know it was going to, I was like a tragic love story.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:I'd like to make a love story now where it's,
Guest:It ends beautifully.
Guest:But yes, Satine dies.
Guest:But hey, it's still a deep love story.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I like so many of the movies.
Marc:I was sort of amazed.
Marc:I feel like I've known you my whole life.
Guest:You have.
Marc:I kind of have, really.
Marc:From at least Dead Calm and then all the way up through all the other ones.
Marc:I'm just amazed at how many I've seen.
Marc:you know wow to die for was a like a life-changing movie yes gus oh my god i've talked to gus he's great but i mean but that whole story like that weird you know joaquin when he was like almost feral he's like just like you're also young he was so young
Guest:And, but what an, he was open.
Guest:I remember emotionally and he would just shake and some of those, I mean, the stuff we had to do together, the scenes we had to do and the sexuality of that.
Guest:It was so, I think the first day was the scene where I have to, you know,
Guest:be going down on him.
Guest:And Gus was shooting it with the cow.
Guest:And I just remember going, God, this is so weird.
Guest:But it was so well written by Buck Henry, right?
Guest:And then realized by Gus and that combination of Buck and Gus.
Guest:Because so many of these things are the combinations in which the way we're put together, which is why I feel it's incredibly important with casting when you do a film, who are you working with?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:All performances are about us, like how we're in the scene together.
Guest:So who is your partner?
Guest:Who are you working with?
Marc:I know I'm in a movie right now.
Guest:You can't be good by yourself.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And who are you working with?
Marc:Andrea Riceboro.
Guest:Oh, she's fantastic.
Marc:I feel like I'm a little outgunned here, and I'll just show up with all I got.
Guest:You're okay.
Marc:I'll just do everything I can to be this guy.
Marc:But we had a scene the other day.
Guest:It's great casting, the two of you.
Marc:Well, I'm trying to focus on what it is of who I am.
Marc:I have a lot to learn as an actor, but I'm focusing now because I talk to people like you.
Marc:I talk to other actors.
Marc:And we had a moment the other day that was just sort of like, oh, my God.
Marc:We were both...
Marc:Yeah, we had to sit down and we were all crying and like it was a nice scene.
Marc:It was that it was like a beautiful scene.
Marc:It wasn't a sad scene, but it just broke something open.
Marc:And like the entire everybody on set was sort of like, whoa.
Marc:And it was it was just a pleasant.
Marc:It was no it was I don't know.
Marc:It's really kind of fascinating to feel that.
Marc:But I never feel like I'm doing it right.
Marc:Do you always feel like, you know, when you're in it?
Guest:No, I know when I'm existing out of it, which is not good.
Guest:So when I can't actually remember what I did terribly well, that's when I know, oh, okay, we're in something else now.
Guest:But I need my director.
Guest:You know, I need my actors around me.
Guest:And I love the collaboration.
Guest:I love working together.
Marc:You've worked with everybody.
Guest:That's heaven for me.
Marc:You've worked with, like, everybody.
Guest:Oh, no, no.
Guest:There's so many people I want to work with still.
Guest:I mean, I've worked with some extraordinary actors.
Guest:I'd love to work with Denzel at some point.
Guest:I'd love to work with Denzel.
Marc:You know, it was so funny.
Marc:I interviewed Ethan Hawke about a while back.
Guest:Ethan, I just worked with Ethan.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And in the Viking movie?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:He played my king.
Guest:Really?
Guest:King Arvindel.
Marc:This is in the one he did in Ireland?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And I'm now crazy about Ethan.
Guest:I mean, he was always a great actor, but just personally, what a great guy.
Guest:And so much knowledge.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And such an artist, such an actor and director and writer and just a renaissance man, actually.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, for sure.
Marc:But he was funny because he was talking about training day, about, you know, getting ready to work with Denzel.
Marc:And he said he he watched Denzel's old movies like football players watch old game films like he wanted to know how Denzel was going to do it so he could not get eaten alive.
Marc:by denzel's acting so he had he had to study denzel so he could hold his own in scenes with him right so that he wasn't intimidated as well but they're great but they i mean he did it's great it's great they were fantastic together so is this movie this is by the guy who did the lighthouse yeah is it is it weird
Guest:Yeah, very weird.
Guest:How'd you guess?
Guest:I said to him, I'm terrified to come over and do this.
Guest:One, because it's a pandemic and flying into the middle of sort of
Marc:a lockdown to work on a film right i i know it's it's really it's it's scary you know i just know from doing it myself i'm in it now yeah it's really it's really because i thought it would be so horrible and sad and it is scary and it's you know it's not a hundred percent you know safe but you are taking a sort of risk but they're doing everything they can but it it
Marc:I thought it would be just diminishing without having the community out of scenes, you know, to be able to kind of hang out and do.
Marc:But it actually it's kind of intense.
Marc:It sort of helps the focus in a way.
Marc:And it's a little sad, but it makes the work feel all the more important in a way.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I don't know what your experience was.
Guest:Yeah, no, no.
Guest:And also just grateful to be doing the work because having gone, oh, this is so important.
Guest:And that's why I went, because I was like, I don't want to, one, let down a huge production.
Guest:And two, I want to work with these people.
Guest:And if we can do it with safety, how fantastic.
Guest:And we did.
Guest:And we did it.
Guest:And the film is finished.
Guest:And you're going to move to Ireland.
Guest:And they did it.
Guest:And it was fantastic.
Guest:And I'm moving to Belfast.
Guest:And it was crazy wild.
Guest:And I'm a supporting role in it.
Guest:So I got to sort of.
Guest:But he's really fascinating, I guess.
Guest:He's one of the new guard.
Guest:They're coming in.
Guest:They're going to take over.
Guest:That's good.
Guest:He's a great filmmaker.
Marc:Yeah, I like the lighthouse a lot.
Marc:How long have you been producing?
Marc:What was the first thing you produced?
Guest:Rabbit Hole.
Marc:So like what was the shift there?
Marc:I mean, was it your people said you should put together a production company or you were like, I want to have more control or what was the decision?
Marc:Because I know everybody puts together a production company, but you're doing very well with it and you're starring in a lot of it.
Marc:So why did you feel like you needed to do that?
Guest:Because I believed in the piece and no one else was going to do it.
Guest:So we bought the rights.
Guest:David Lindsay, a bear is a gorgeous, brilliant writer.
Guest:And I wanted to dark movie, that movie, a dog movie, but so nuanced and special.
Guest:And, and we had no money.
Guest:We had to really, you know, beg, steal and borrow for that because that was that subject matter.
Guest:And I was not sort of,
Guest:where I am now in terms of my career and being able to get things made.
Guest:And it was just like, please, please, please.
Guest:And John Cameron Mitchell came on and was so just brilliant at going, we're going to do this.
Guest:And then just beautifully directing the performances.
Guest:And it's a performance piece.
Guest:So I was just really proud we got it made.
Marc:And you liked all that part of it?
Marc:Do you like it as much as acting, putting it together, bringing people together, casting, pulling money together, all that?
Guest:I don't like – once I'm in the performance, I really try to delegate off a lot of those things.
Guest:But I like being able to go –
Guest:What can we do to get this actor?
Guest:Because let's think or give somebody a chance that they would never have been considered for the role.
Guest:Like in Undoing Noma.
Guest:Noma had not done.
Guest:She plays the lawyer and she'd not really done film or television, a little tiny bit, but this was her big role.
Guest:big thing and it was just great being able to go yeah we're gonna cast her yeah she plays your friend the lawyer no she plays hughes oh oh my god she was spectacular fabulous yeah yeah and just being able to you know at the same time make decisions artistic decisions that will help um propel and support the director i'm
Guest:deeply into going, what do you need so you can go and realize your vision as a producer?
Guest:And then trying to sort of corral it so that it's not blown out.
Marc:And you worked at both these last two big TV projects, The Undoing and Big Little Lies, you were actively producing.
Yeah.
Marc:But Big Little Lies, there must have been a lot of... Because Reese was part of producing that as well, or what?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:How'd you all get along?
Marc:Everybody get along good?
Guest:Yeah, I mean, we're all still very close to the point that we do want to do a season three if we could, you know, muster it all together.
Guest:But otherwise, we're just...
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, that was the first time and we've all said it.
Guest:One, you get to experience enormous success together.
Guest:So that's a lovely thing to share.
Guest:But we got to be on set.
Guest:We got to be up in Montecito with great characters and be together.
Guest:It doesn't happen.
Guest:Right.
Guest:As we said, we've never worked.
Guest:I mean, for Laura, Reese, Zoe, Shay, all of us to get to know each other and go out to dinner and be able to discuss and go, how do we change this?
Guest:And we've got to fix that.
Guest:And how did it go today?
Guest:And what do you need?
Guest:And even when we were doing the big scene at the end of BLL1 with Alex, where he's sort of, and it's really violent.
Guest:And Laura's going, are you okay?
Guest:After each scene where we're being thrown around and punched, kicked and
Guest:we're all going are you okay are you okay your head almost just hit the ground no no what about your arm you know just being able to advocate for each other as well was really um just just good it felt good oh it's so wild the three like like i just reese and laura and you having been working so long and i guess it's it's only the first time you've worked with either of them together yeah oh yeah
Guest:And subsequently of now, because it's been years that we've now been in each other's lives.
Guest:But we all started as around 14.
Guest:I think Reese even started younger.
Guest:She was maybe 12.
Guest:So we all have, we've shared all those stories.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:And that's a particular path having started now.
Guest:As a child actor.
Guest:And come all the way through.
Marc:And this whole thing you did with Hugh Grant.
Marc:Being like this filthy monster.
Marc:With the undoing.
Marc:He's definitely a different thing.
Marc:And you're watching it.
Marc:To see Hugh Grant.
Marc:And you're watching you.
Marc:And old Donald Sutherland.
Marc:Doing his thing.
Guest:Yeah Donald.
Guest:Donald has great stories.
Marc:He's like a weathered mountain.
Marc:Donald Sutherland.
Guest:Weathered mountain.
Guest:Yeah, and just the fan... I mean, talk about having great, great partners to work with.
Guest:I mean, Donald...
Guest:He's so, he's so on it.
Guest:He, all his dialogue, all his ideas as superb.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, and he's over 18 and he comes in and he's just extraordinary and a force.
Guest:And for me, looks a little like my dad has the essence of my father.
Guest:So I didn't have to, I just wanted to go and put my head on his shoulder, um, be held by him.
Guest:Which, you know, which is a fantastic thing as an actor because if that's there, that vibration exists just because that's a fantastic thing.
Guest:I don't have to work for that.
Guest:I don't have to find it.
Guest:I don't have to explore it because that's just there in the air.
Marc:Don't you have to look for that in almost any role you're playing?
Marc:Isn't it better when you can find that something that's just there or that you can connect with as yourself?
Guest:It just vibrates between you without... Yeah, something that's just... I guess you can't force it.
Guest:That you can't... No, that's what I mean by the unconscious.
Guest:It's so wonderful when...
Guest:That that feeling of everything you don't know comes flowing out of you and you didn't even know it was there.
Guest:That's and that's probably what Stanley was always interested in.
Guest:That's why he shot for so long.
Guest:He wasn't interested in what he could do.
Guest:He was interested in finding what he didn't know.
Guest:And that was suddenly there.
Guest:And it was a discovery.
Guest:And so a lot of his rehearsal, a lot of his time was spent experimenting.
Guest:And there's something to be said for that.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:It's great.
Marc:It's amazing that he took that time using film.
Marc:I mean, now it's easy.
Marc:Like, if you have time, you can just blow through takes all day long with digital.
Marc:But he was doing that with rolls of film.
Marc:It's crazy.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:The movie I'm shooting now, he's shooting on film.
Marc:And it's crazy because you actually have to check a gate and then you have to wait to reload.
Marc:Yeah, we just did that.
Marc:Oh, you did it up there?
Guest:Yeah, that was on Robert's movie, on Edgar's movie.
Guest:Yeah, it was like, check the gate.
Guest:And you stand around going, oh.
Guest:Because he was shooting a lot of things in one shot, and we would do a lot of takes, and then suddenly you have a take that's print.
Guest:Well, then you've got to check the gate.
Guest:So we all stand there holding our breath.
Marc:Right.
Marc:You don't want to direct?
Guest:Have you had a hair in the gate?
Marc:No, it hasn't happened yet, no.
Guest:No, no.
Marc:What about directing?
Marc:What's going on?
Marc:Have you tried directing?
Marc:Do I not know?
Guest:No, no.
Guest:I'm happy being an actor.
Marc:And a producer.
Guest:But I love the art form of acting.
Guest:I just do.
Guest:And I used to be embarrassed to say it was an art form, but it is.
Guest:And I embrace it and I love it.
Guest:And I'm deeply attached to what it is and I've given a huge amount of my life to it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And it's like, that's the amazing thing that we were talking about at the beginning, where it's sort of like every time you do something, it seems like people are like, you know, either like, you know, rediscovering you or like all of a sudden, like they're like, oh, my God, she's so amazing.
Marc:Like you've always been amazing.
Marc:Like the work you've done is so varied and interesting and, you know, different.
Marc:It's really a great weird.
Marc:Some of it's weird.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But you can tell that you're doing it because you love to do it and you want to take these chances within these characters to engage in what interests you about living, you know?
Guest:Yeah, and I want to, yeah, I do.
Guest:I want to support auteurs.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I want their voices out there.
Guest:That's what you're doing as a producer.
Guest:I want the ones to be supported.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, and as an actor.
Guest:It's why I went for Regas because I was like, okay,
Guest:this is one of the auteurs you know so yes let's you know well i mean i love financiers that are doing that arnold milchon he's putting the money up for that you know and so i have to contribute that's part of my um life's contribution is helping those voices they have to and there's yeah yeah they do they have to
Guest:And I've learned so much through it.
Marc:And it's like, it's so great to see movies.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Cause movies have changed my life.
Guest:They have.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And novels and art has changed.
Guest:I respond to it.
Marc:They do.
Marc:We just talked about so many movies that changed our life just now.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Crawling out of a cinema in a fetal position and then going, I want to go and work.
Guest:for women and help with with violence against women I mean those things that comes from my own so even just with the prom recently people going I got to go to a prom by watching that movie I got to and the ultimate message of that film being a parent saying to their child I love you
Guest:I just love you.
Guest:It's just you because of you.
Guest:I mean, one of the greatest parenting things is to say to your child, you don't have to do or be anything to get my love.
Guest:You just have it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And now when people are so isolated and and kind of alone, you know, these stories about life are very important.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I've been the most lonely in my life and I've picked up a book and read it and it's given me the chance to escape and be and feel and be.
Marc:probably at times saved my life and then um watched a movie and gone I have to change my life now I actually have to go and change the what my the direction of where I'm going are you at peace are you at peace with everything like you know in context of with no but like in your past have like you know have you have you gotten like you know your do you have like regrets and stuff or do you have a certain amount of peace
Guest:I grapple with all those things.
Guest:I grapple with all of them still.
Guest:Regrets, not so much regrets, more I can retread things and go back.
Guest:And then I have the sense of, oh, I wish some of that would come back.
Guest:I'd love, you know, all of those.
Guest:So I fluctuate and I'm very, I suppose.
Marc:But you like your life.
Guest:Oh, deeply down on my knees.
Guest:praying saying thank you for this life yes well good and also at the same time going um what can i do yeah what can i do to still be a part of it and to move forward and to give well you certainly do a lot so that's great it was it's nice talking to you
Guest:Yeah, nice talking to you.
Marc:You think we've covered everything?
Guest:No, we're near everything.
Guest:This is just the beginning.
Guest:But I love talking and thank you for asking me.
Marc:Yeah, it was very exciting.
Marc:I was nervous and it was great.
Marc:And I'm a big fan and you do great work.
Marc:And it's nice to talk to you.
Guest:Oh, thank you.
Guest:So nice to talk to you.
Guest:And as I say, I subscribe.
Guest:I'm listening.
Marc:Oh, good.
Marc:So keep them coming because they're good and I'm learning.
Marc:I just watched, I'm going to talk to, I just watched, speaking of movies that are sort of like, you know, auteur and unique.
Marc:I just watched Kate Winslet's new movie, the Ammonite movie.
Marc:I want to see it.
Marc:Oh my God.
Guest:Is it wonderful?
Marc:It is.
Marc:It's pretty intense.
Marc:Like there's some real stuff going on there.
Guest:And two, what actors both of those talk about combination.
Guest:I want to see how they vibrate together.
Marc:Yeah, I just watched it because I'm going to hopefully get to talk to her.
Marc:But I realized watching that movie that these are the kind of movies that...
Marc:We need that need to keep happening is these very specific, poetic, you know, artistic movies that take chances that don't abide by some sort of mainstream appeal or access that happened only because an auteur wrenched it into being.
Marc:It's important.
Guest:Well, for Saoirse and Kate to do that movie is so important.
Guest:And that character sounds really complicated in terms of just what she was holding within.
Guest:Hardly Talks.
Guest:I can't wait to see it.
Marc:Hardly Talks, yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But OK, great.
Marc:I've watched.
Marc:I just wanted to know that I watched all of The Undoing.
Marc:I watched all of Big Little Lies.
Marc:I've watched most of your movies.
Marc:I watched.
Marc:I don't have to do that, Nicole.
Marc:I don't have to.
Guest:No.
Marc:But I did.
Marc:Thank you.
Marc:Because I wanted to make sure you were OK in the end.
Guest:Oh, you're not.
Guest:I hope I'm okay in the end.
Marc:Yeah, you are.
Guest:Talk to me when I'm 80.
Guest:Can we talk again?
Guest:Yeah, anytime.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Take care of yourself.
Guest:Yeah, to be continued.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:You too.
Guest:Bye.
Bye.
Marc:All right.
Marc:That was exciting.
Marc:She was lovely.
Marc:It was good talking to her.
Marc:I feel like it was a good talk.
Marc:That was Nicole Kidman.
Marc:If you're just tuning in.
Marc:can see nicole if you're just joining us uh that was nicole kibben you can rewind it and listen to it rewind it fast forward backwards fast read what do you get you know it's behind us but you can get it why would you just be joining us now anyways i'm being silly you can watch uh the undoing on hbo max and you can watch any any one of her thousands of movies um
Marc:And yeah, something has to happen.
Marc:Something in the direction of punishment.
Marc:The process.
Marc:We've got to get back on some kind of track.
Marc:Anyway, that said, I'm going to play some Fender on Fender.
Marc:Here's some Fender on Fender action.
Marc:Being driven by a Jew.
.
.
.
Thank you.
Marc:Boomer lives.
Marc:Monkey.
Marc:La Fonda.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Cat angels everywhere, man.
Marc:Look out, they're gonna put a chip in you.