WEBVTT - 39 - Julie Taymor (The Glorias) 0:00:00.900 --> 0:00:03.630 From CurtCo Media there's no place like Hollywood. 0:00:15.070 --> 0:00:18.099 Welcome to another very special episode of Hollywood Unscripted: Stuck 0:00:18.100 --> 0:00:21.489 at Home. I'm Jenny Curtis and today I am incredibly 0:00:21.489 --> 0:00:26.029 excited to be virtually sitting down with visionary director Julie Taymor. 0:00:26.350 --> 0:00:29.830 Julie creates thrilling explorations across a wide variety of mediums. 0:00:29.830 --> 0:00:32.710 She's the force behind the groundbreaking Broadway adaptation of The 0:00:32.710 --> 0:00:36.010 Lion King which debuted in 1997 and has achieved the 0:00:36.010 --> 0:00:41.519 largest worldwide box office gross ever across any entertainment form. 0:00:41.530 --> 0:00:44.989 It's amazing. Her films include Across The Universe, Frida, the 0:00:45.070 --> 0:00:48.370 Shakespeare films Titus and The Tempest and now the Gloria 0:00:48.370 --> 0:00:52.600 Steinem biopic The Glorias. Welcome Julie. Thank you so much 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:55.600 for joining me today. Happy to be here. Thank you. 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:58.780 Our specials of our show are called Hollywood Unscripted: Stuck 0:00:58.780 --> 0:01:02.260 at Home, because we're all obviously stuck at home and 0:01:02.620 --> 0:01:05.680 as an artist who thrives on connection, What has the 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:07.390 pandemic been like for you? 0:01:07.390 --> 0:01:09.760 I left New York City in March and haven't been 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:13.300 back and I've been in the country and being in 0:01:13.300 --> 0:01:16.000 the country allows me to be isolated with Elliott. My 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:19.030 other half was the composer who I lived with for 0:01:19.030 --> 0:01:23.980 thirty five years and we take enormously long walks with 0:01:23.980 --> 0:01:27.369 our dog and have fresh air and he just finished 0:01:27.370 --> 0:01:30.880 the glorious soundtrack last night and I'm working on two 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:33.670 other scripts both for film and one for film and 0:01:33.670 --> 0:01:36.460 theater so that I can do you know I don't 0:01:36.459 --> 0:01:38.950 have to be in rehearsal or on set. So a 0:01:38.950 --> 0:01:41.650 lot of it is doing press for the glorious and 0:01:41.650 --> 0:01:43.539 working on future projects. 0:01:43.540 --> 0:01:46.210 The Glorias is based on the Gloria Steinem autobiography My 0:01:46.209 --> 0:01:48.010 Life on the road. Can you take us through the 0:01:48.010 --> 0:01:49.960 genesis of the project. I know it took some time 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:51.240 to get off the ground. 0:01:51.250 --> 0:01:52.900 I was given the book by one of my best 0:01:52.900 --> 0:01:55.540 friends when I was in to loom in Mexico on 0:01:55.540 --> 0:01:58.000 the beach. So she just said oh you have to 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:01.240 read this now OK. And I got the book I 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:05.170 knew Gloria Steinem but not well and I was just 0:02:05.170 --> 0:02:09.850 totally taken with her writing the stories. I had no 0:02:09.850 --> 0:02:12.820 idea what her early life was like. There are things 0:02:12.820 --> 0:02:14.920 in her life that are similar to mine go on 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:17.950 20 years younger so I could identify with what she 0:02:17.950 --> 0:02:20.980 went through. But she is going through my mother is 0:02:20.980 --> 0:02:25.840 very political. She was chairwoman and ran for state representative 0:02:25.930 --> 0:02:29.020 and started programs in Massachusetts to get women involved in 0:02:29.020 --> 0:02:33.540 politics and she wrote a book called Running against the wind. 0:02:33.550 --> 0:02:37.750 So I've dedicated Scooby Doo cheese ninety nine point nine. 0:02:37.750 --> 0:02:41.049 She's seen the film five times and loves it says 0:02:41.070 --> 0:02:42.210 is my best film. 0:02:42.220 --> 0:02:44.619 So there were things about it that I was familiar 0:02:44.620 --> 0:02:48.340 with but I didn't think it was cinematic. Her book 0:02:49.180 --> 0:02:51.790 I thought it was all over the map in a 0:02:51.790 --> 0:02:55.600 good way a road book and I thought well you 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:57.190 know what I can't get it out of my mind 0:02:57.340 --> 0:03:00.370 and it's probably because her early life with her father 0:03:00.490 --> 0:03:03.820 and her mother that felt cinematic that felt like these 0:03:03.820 --> 0:03:06.790 relationships the emotional through line of that. And then the 0:03:06.790 --> 0:03:09.380 whole idea that travel is the best education. I love 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:12.829 that notion of her journeys of a life on the road. 0:03:13.180 --> 0:03:16.630 So I thought about it. I asked Gloria if I 0:03:16.630 --> 0:03:18.250 could have the rights and she thought I was out 0:03:18.250 --> 0:03:21.640 of my mind because it's so not a movie. It's 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:23.770 you know it doesn't have any dramatic through line it's 0:03:23.889 --> 0:03:27.130 journeys all over the place. It's taxi rides it's canvassing 0:03:27.130 --> 0:03:31.690 for this senator or starting a magazine. But no linear story. 0:03:31.690 --> 0:03:33.300 And I said Well let me just go to it. 0:03:33.340 --> 0:03:35.620 Let me try. So I had the rights and then 0:03:35.620 --> 0:03:38.170 I tried to think of how to do this. 0:03:38.230 --> 0:03:40.330 And I came up with the notion first of all 0:03:40.330 --> 0:03:43.510 that there would be for Gloria's at least a six 0:03:43.510 --> 0:03:46.570 year old or 12 year old Elise to kind of 0:03:46.570 --> 0:03:49.810 place 20 to 40. Julianne Moore plays 40 to 80 0:03:50.100 --> 0:03:53.240 and that instead of having it move along you know 0:03:53.380 --> 0:03:56.559 from young to old 80 years of this woman's life 0:03:56.710 --> 0:04:00.400 I would have them all gathered together on this bus 0:04:00.430 --> 0:04:03.040 that I call a bus out of time. And the 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:08.050 Greyhound bus in America is such an archetypal image of 0:04:08.050 --> 0:04:11.800 journey of travel across the country. So this was the 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:15.490 structure upon which I hung all these disparate stories these 0:04:15.490 --> 0:04:19.510 disparate events of her life somehow getting on that bus 0:04:19.510 --> 0:04:23.320 it's black and white and moving through the landscapes even 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:27.040 abstract landscapes keeps the through line going that it's forever 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:29.849 travelling to the next march on Washington. How many did 0:04:29.850 --> 0:04:32.950 you go to to the next conference in a city 0:04:32.950 --> 0:04:35.950 on women's rights to the next speech she might be 0:04:35.950 --> 0:04:39.040 giving to a university to the next talking circle and 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:43.060 a women's group in San Francisco. So this bus was 0:04:43.060 --> 0:04:47.080 the glue. It was the in musical terms the leitmotif. 0:04:47.230 --> 0:04:48.909 I like to call it the bus out of time 0:04:48.910 --> 0:04:50.589 I have it written down as the bus of life. 0:04:50.589 --> 0:04:53.979 Yours is better when you landed upon that idea. How 0:04:53.980 --> 0:04:56.110 did you find it. Is it like a light bulb 0:04:56.110 --> 0:04:59.330 where suddenly everything clicks or did it develop slowly. 0:04:59.350 --> 0:05:02.860 Well I do this in theater and film as a designer. 0:05:02.860 --> 0:05:05.320 You're trained to do this and as a director I 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:07.660 also do it with actors and I'll give the Lion 0:05:07.660 --> 0:05:09.730 King as an example because have you ever seen it 0:05:09.730 --> 0:05:11.979 on Broadway. Did you ever see the light. OK. So 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:15.700 a lot of people out there have and when I 0:05:15.700 --> 0:05:18.489 was working on that and knowing that I didn't want 0:05:18.490 --> 0:05:20.920 to put up a carbon copy of the movie I 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:24.549 thought about what is the main idea graph. It's like 0:05:24.550 --> 0:05:27.279 in Chinese brush paintings or Japanese brush paintings they have 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:32.830 three strokes to represent an entire bamboo forest just it's 0:05:32.830 --> 0:05:38.430 an abstraction that culling down to an essential concept or image. 0:05:38.970 --> 0:05:41.710 And in the Lion King It's the circle. It's obvious 0:05:41.740 --> 0:05:44.180 the circle of life is the first song the sun 0:05:44.180 --> 0:05:48.160 rises which is round with forces head mask has this 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:53.290 circular bamboo framing around it the wheels of the gazelle 0:05:53.290 --> 0:05:57.280 will move in circles the way that pride rocks circles 0:05:57.279 --> 0:05:59.950 up out the set designer. He took that idea of 0:05:59.950 --> 0:06:02.500 the circle and that's how the mountain comes out of 0:06:02.500 --> 0:06:06.340 the hole in the ground. So that's easy. Midsummer Night's 0:06:06.339 --> 0:06:08.920 Dream in my film and theater piece. It was the 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:12.520 bed the sheets they kept becoming various things in the 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:16.599 play because that's where we dream the glorious. It became 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:19.659 the bus the bus on a road a highway with 0:06:19.660 --> 0:06:21.590 the yellow slash lines. 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:23.510 That's the recurring image. 0:06:23.620 --> 0:06:28.210 And so it's symbolic but it's also real at the 0:06:28.210 --> 0:06:32.920 same time the motion the movement that sometimes there's one 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:36.430 Gloria by herself sometimes two or four and sometimes there's 0:06:36.430 --> 0:06:39.370 a whole bus filled with women who hate. 0:06:39.370 --> 0:06:42.490 Gloria Steinem I want to say that this film is 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:46.210 so desperately needed right now but in truth it's desperately 0:06:46.210 --> 0:06:48.849 needed always and that's kind of the point of the 0:06:48.850 --> 0:06:51.430 movie and the point that Gloria is always making that 0:06:51.430 --> 0:06:54.640 the challenges she tackles persist and come back to them 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:56.590 over and over and over again. But what does it 0:06:56.589 --> 0:06:59.710 mean to have this film coming out at this time 0:06:59.710 --> 0:07:00.589 of turmoil. 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:03.280 When we started the movie which was before the election 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:06.580 four years ago it was going to be a celebration 0:07:06.580 --> 0:07:10.420 of the first female president. Of course even shot Election 0:07:10.420 --> 0:07:15.010 Night at Samantha Powers apartment with Madeleine Albright Gloria Steinem 0:07:15.010 --> 0:07:18.820 and 40 female ambassadors. But it was such depressing footage 0:07:18.820 --> 0:07:23.270 that I didn't use it was just awful. The room sagged. 0:07:23.980 --> 0:07:28.179 Now right before this election I mean we had our 0:07:28.180 --> 0:07:31.090 premiere at Sundance. That was thrilling a thousand people got 0:07:31.090 --> 0:07:34.450 to see it CHEERING standing ovations all of that were 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:37.450 desperately sad that it's not in movie theaters but we 0:07:37.450 --> 0:07:41.380 had a choice to postpone the wide opening or stream 0:07:41.770 --> 0:07:45.790 and we chose streaming because it's necessary before the election 0:07:45.790 --> 0:07:48.520 at least a month before we said that people before 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:52.230 they vote. And also to inspire people to register and vote. 0:07:52.270 --> 0:07:54.850 We had planned to be on a Greyhound bus travelling 0:07:54.850 --> 0:07:57.550 through the swing states. Now Gloria and myself and a 0:07:57.550 --> 0:08:00.100 lot of the actors and other women presenting the film 0:08:00.100 --> 0:08:03.880 to groups and having talking circles and really talking about 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:06.850 what choice means like a big part of the film 0:08:06.850 --> 0:08:10.900 and feels more relevant since the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 0:08:10.900 --> 0:08:13.210 We know that Roe v. Wade is on the chopping block. 0:08:13.420 --> 0:08:17.140 If the Supreme Court is more conservative and young men 0:08:17.140 --> 0:08:20.140 and women really have to know how hard that law 0:08:20.140 --> 0:08:23.530 was fought for choice as you see in the movie 0:08:23.770 --> 0:08:26.500 in that scene between Dolores Huerta and Gloria at the 0:08:26.500 --> 0:08:30.190 Women's Conference doors where there was totally a right to 0:08:30.190 --> 0:08:33.400 life for an anti abortion she's Catholic she had 10 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:36.220 kids but she comes to a point where she realizes 0:08:36.220 --> 0:08:39.460 that if the government isn't responsible to helping these women 0:08:39.550 --> 0:08:41.920 who have birth after birth who's going to take care 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:43.510 of them who's taking care of the woman and the 0:08:43.510 --> 0:08:46.180 child and if the government is forcing women who do 0:08:46.179 --> 0:08:48.729 not want to give birth at that time there has 0:08:48.730 --> 0:08:51.040 to be a law where a woman carries a baby 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:53.859 for nine months OK. The father of the baby takes 0:08:53.860 --> 0:08:56.080 care of the baby for the next nine months. That 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:59.110 has to be some equality there. A woman shouldn't be 0:08:59.110 --> 0:09:01.929 punished if she doesn't want to stop her life at 0:09:01.929 --> 0:09:06.309 that moment because other people are governing her body and 0:09:06.309 --> 0:09:09.950 her choice. That's just one aspect it's the Equal Rights Amendment. 0:09:09.970 --> 0:09:12.610 We haven't passed that yet. We have to realize that 0:09:12.820 --> 0:09:16.990 more than the presidency the Supreme Court has ultimate rule 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:20.440 over the future of people's lives. But I would say 0:09:20.650 --> 0:09:23.890 I'm really concerned about young people who really have a 0:09:23.890 --> 0:09:26.950 future and they haven't voted yet a No vote is 0:09:26.950 --> 0:09:29.320 a vote that's just it. And they have to realize 0:09:29.590 --> 0:09:32.470 because you don't think Biden is all that Hoxie tortilla 0:09:32.500 --> 0:09:35.839 or whatever vote against Trump everything Obama put in it 0:09:35.850 --> 0:09:40.699 is now gone. We've gone backwards as far as racial equality. 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:44.950 Female equality and a proper future for this country the 0:09:44.950 --> 0:09:48.579 United States. Well now it's not it's the divided states 0:09:48.610 --> 0:09:51.850 and that's the way he's playing it. So yeah I 0:09:51.850 --> 0:09:55.960 think unfortunately the movie is more important now than it 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:58.140 would have been if we were just out there celebrating 0:09:58.150 --> 0:10:02.860 Hillary Clinton. It's historical but it's fun. Did you find 0:10:02.860 --> 0:10:04.780 it entertaining. I mean I hope it is. 0:10:04.870 --> 0:10:07.000 Oh I loved it. Yeah. By the end I was 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:07.720 full sobbing. 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:10.180 So I've been surprised at all the men I know 0:10:10.179 --> 0:10:13.270 who are more emotionally move than women I know because 0:10:13.540 --> 0:10:16.940 this is about women working together. This is important to me. 0:10:16.940 --> 0:10:20.870 Women supporting women on television on ethics. All these stations 0:10:20.870 --> 0:10:23.809 there's way too many feuds as we call them there's 0:10:23.809 --> 0:10:26.480 too much cat fights there's too much drama made out 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:30.699 of women competing with each other for attention jobs men. 0:10:30.830 --> 0:10:33.410 This is not about that. Phyllis Schlafly is in our 0:10:33.410 --> 0:10:36.710 movie but is the real woman. We have documentary footage. 0:10:36.710 --> 0:10:38.479 I didn't want to make it about that because the 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:42.260 best part of Gloria Steinem and all those great women 0:10:42.710 --> 0:10:45.470 is that they love being together back to the love 0:10:45.470 --> 0:10:49.300 story they love what they were trying to do they succeeded. 0:10:49.309 --> 0:10:52.640 They had fun. They have humor. And that's a big 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:53.390 part of it. 0:10:53.450 --> 0:10:55.459 At the time of this recording we are less than 0:10:55.460 --> 0:10:58.010 a week after Ruth Bader Ginsburg passing and there is 0:10:58.070 --> 0:11:01.280 a universal mourning but I think this is so powerful 0:11:01.309 --> 0:11:04.400 because it reminds not only all women but young people 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:07.730 especially that there are still amazing women to look up 0:11:07.730 --> 0:11:10.670 to and follow their lead. But like you said they 0:11:10.670 --> 0:11:13.309 have to be paying attention. How do you think this 0:11:13.309 --> 0:11:15.739 film will get to the younger audience and do you 0:11:15.740 --> 0:11:18.819 think it will inspire them to change or act. 0:11:18.830 --> 0:11:21.890 Well it gets to it by people like you. Programs 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:25.090 like this you know we don't have gobs of money 0:11:25.100 --> 0:11:27.470 we're not a big Hollywood film. So it's not going 0:11:27.470 --> 0:11:29.900 to be through that kind of marketing it's going to 0:11:29.900 --> 0:11:33.559 be through social media and our full out trailer came 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:36.089 out yesterday. So we had a teaser for a couple 0:11:36.110 --> 0:11:38.660 weeks and now there's a trailer and hopefully you see 0:11:38.660 --> 0:11:41.449 actors that you love. You know whether it's Julianne Moore 0:11:41.450 --> 0:11:45.030 and Alicia Vikander Janelle Monae Bette Midler Lorraine to song 0:11:45.050 --> 0:11:48.800 you know they're fantastic actors. I'm so proud of them 0:11:48.860 --> 0:11:52.250 in this film. But it's an entertaining film and you 0:11:52.250 --> 0:11:54.800 can see that from the trailer. I hope so. I 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:57.500 don't find a whole lot out there to see I 0:11:57.500 --> 0:12:00.020 like to watch television streaming but I don't see a 0:12:00.020 --> 0:12:02.689 whole lot of stuff that's gripping me right now except 0:12:02.690 --> 0:12:06.290 documentaries frankly. And so as a drama I want to 0:12:06.290 --> 0:12:09.020 be moved and I want to be inspired. You talk 0:12:09.020 --> 0:12:12.620 about Ruth Bader Ginsburg without people like the women in 0:12:12.620 --> 0:12:15.650 my movie. And it's not just Gloria it's what's called 0:12:15.650 --> 0:12:20.630 Gloria's without them making their voices loud for all the 0:12:20.630 --> 0:12:24.740 voiceless people. Ruth wouldn't have heard the call I shouldn't 0:12:24.740 --> 0:12:28.730 say Ruth I should really say Justice Ginsburg for respect. 0:12:28.730 --> 0:12:33.410 But she heard it and then the laws were changed 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:36.559 so the power is in the voice that's out there 0:12:36.980 --> 0:12:42.260 marching writing calling and we have to be so careful 0:12:42.260 --> 0:12:45.620 that it's not perverted by Trump and his team to 0:12:45.620 --> 0:12:51.110 say oh it's angry and socialistic and violent. 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:54.679 The violence is not coming from the peaceful Black Lives 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:57.380 Matter movement. Not at all. 0:12:57.380 --> 0:13:00.590 So don't get suckered in to becoming violent because it 0:13:00.590 --> 0:13:03.100 will be used. It's what happened with the Black Panthers. 0:13:03.260 --> 0:13:05.900 They couldn't last as soon as they had the guns. 0:13:06.110 --> 0:13:09.650 William Barr the period of that time the Justice Department 0:13:09.980 --> 0:13:13.370 closed it down. And that will happen now. I mean 0:13:13.580 --> 0:13:16.699 when Trump said I didn't want to scare people about 0:13:16.700 --> 0:13:19.830 Kobe 19 I didn't want to cause a panic. I 0:13:19.830 --> 0:13:23.000 has no problem trying to cause a panic by saying 0:13:23.300 --> 0:13:25.430 they're going to come up and come into your neighborhoods 0:13:25.429 --> 0:13:28.240 and take your. He has no problem causing a panic. 0:13:28.250 --> 0:13:30.920 So I don't hear people saying that but that is 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:34.670 his method of using terror to try and sway people 0:13:34.670 --> 0:13:38.540 to vote for him and using hatred is the playbook 0:13:38.540 --> 0:13:41.330 of all the dictators. And people are falling for it. 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:44.360 So we really do need young people in particular to 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:46.790 get out there and vote and to really make their 0:13:46.790 --> 0:13:47.689 voices heard. 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:02.470 A moment of your time. 0:14:02.620 --> 0:14:06.400 A new podcast from Kurt tell media currently 21 years 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:10.179 old and today like magic Reed extended from her fingertips 0:14:10.179 --> 0:14:12.609 down to the blood to take care of yourself because 0:14:12.610 --> 0:14:15.070 the world needs you and just me every do gooder 0:14:15.100 --> 0:14:16.740 that asked about me was ready to spit on my 0:14:16.740 --> 0:14:20.170 dream fingers her face you can feel like your purpose 0:14:20.170 --> 0:14:22.540 and your worth is really being kind of to stop 0:14:22.540 --> 0:14:25.990 me from playing the piano she buys walkie talkies wonders 0:14:25.990 --> 0:14:28.730 to whom she should give the second I don't love humans. 0:14:28.780 --> 0:14:31.170 We never did. We never will. We just find what 0:14:31.180 --> 0:14:31.630 you do. 0:14:31.630 --> 0:14:34.990 Rock climbing is that you can only focus on what's right. 0:14:35.620 --> 0:14:39.550 And so are American life begins. We may need to 0:14:39.550 --> 0:14:44.920 stay apart but let's create together available on all podcast platforms. 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:48.460 Submit your piece at Kirkham slash a moment of your time. 0:14:58.090 --> 0:15:01.280 And jump into the production side of the film. This 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:04.250 was co-written by Sarah rule an amazing playwright. But she 0:15:04.250 --> 0:15:06.830 hasn't had much experience in film. So how did that 0:15:06.830 --> 0:15:08.510 collaboration come to be. 0:15:08.510 --> 0:15:11.960 Well I wanted someone who was good at emotional scenes 0:15:11.990 --> 0:15:15.890 and dialogue scenes. I had already started and I already 0:15:15.890 --> 0:15:18.410 had the concept of the bus out of time and 0:15:18.420 --> 0:15:21.650 knew that the sort of real flights of fancy I 0:15:21.650 --> 0:15:24.500 would read in there later because those are cinematic and 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:28.190 that isn't really her bailiwick. But she read the book 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:30.020 deeply like I did. 0:15:30.020 --> 0:15:33.260 We looked at all the documentary footage together and we 0:15:33.260 --> 0:15:36.200 pulled out the scenes that we thought were really worth 0:15:36.260 --> 0:15:40.300 elaborating on and writing. So it was a back and forth. 0:15:40.670 --> 0:15:43.430 And then at a certain point I needed to make 0:15:43.430 --> 0:15:47.270 it more cinematic. So I took over the last part 0:15:47.450 --> 0:15:50.720 and really put in my visual ideas and my crazy 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:52.640 ideas into the script. 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:55.609 What was the collaboration like with the real Gloria in 0:15:55.610 --> 0:15:56.690 this process. 0:15:56.690 --> 0:15:59.120 Well as she'll say if you ask. She just is 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:03.020 like I trust you. Go ahead. She loved the idea 0:16:03.020 --> 0:16:05.390 of before Gloria. She said to me I don't understand. 0:16:05.390 --> 0:16:06.920 How did you come up with that idea. How did 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:10.270 you know. And I said no. How did I know what. 0:16:10.270 --> 0:16:12.650 And she said that I often see my younger self 0:16:12.650 --> 0:16:15.590 or other self on a street corner or across the 0:16:15.590 --> 0:16:17.630 room and I think well what would they think if 0:16:17.630 --> 0:16:19.990 they knew what I know now. What would they have done. 0:16:20.110 --> 0:16:22.730 Well I feel empathy for them because later in other 0:16:22.730 --> 0:16:25.130 books she wrote something like that how she sees her 0:16:25.130 --> 0:16:27.650 other selves. I never read that book. So this was 0:16:27.650 --> 0:16:31.760 a wavelength that must have been on together. And she 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:33.670 was always there when I would call her up. You 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:36.500 know like the barbershop scene. That's not in any book. 0:16:36.500 --> 0:16:38.660 She told us that story because she always wanted to 0:16:38.660 --> 0:16:40.970 be a dancer. So she talked about how when she 0:16:40.970 --> 0:16:45.200 was twelve and her mother was really mentally unbalanced she 0:16:45.380 --> 0:16:48.150 had tap dance shoes I mean chiefs tap dancing anything 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:50.450 she had the shoes and a mother couldn't stand the 0:16:50.450 --> 0:16:53.210 sound so she'd do it outside and a little girl 0:16:53.210 --> 0:16:55.580 came and invited her to a barbershop and gave her 0:16:55.580 --> 0:16:59.090 tap shoes and it's where you first see Gloria crossing 0:16:59.090 --> 0:17:03.560 the racial boundaries where she immediately very easily became friends 0:17:03.650 --> 0:17:07.070 with this young little girl. And Gloria was there to 0:17:07.070 --> 0:17:10.220 tell me stories that weren't in the books. And she 0:17:10.220 --> 0:17:13.490 also helped get Bette Midler. You know she thought it 0:17:13.490 --> 0:17:15.590 was a great idea to have bet she wrote the 0:17:15.590 --> 0:17:18.560 letter to janelle. She was an executive producer from a 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:21.500 distance but she helped in those major points. And she 0:17:21.500 --> 0:17:23.869 also helped get the money for the film because we 0:17:23.869 --> 0:17:26.270 couldn't get it from Hollywood so she went to a 0:17:26.270 --> 0:17:29.870 not for profit organization who had the money and loved 0:17:29.869 --> 0:17:32.300 her and knew that if there was any money ever 0:17:32.300 --> 0:17:35.360 made from the sales of this film the recoupment would 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:39.410 go to women's causes. Now that will not probably happen 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:43.220 because we're streaming sadly but it's more important for them 0:17:43.250 --> 0:17:45.830 and for us that people are moved by the movie 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:49.520 that they're really inspired so that's OK. And the other 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:51.950 thing is she met with Julianne and Alisha in my 0:17:51.950 --> 0:17:54.800 apartment and answered their questions and they listen to her 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:57.480 speech patterns and she was accessible. 0:17:57.590 --> 0:18:00.260 So Helen Mirren once talked about how you use all 0:18:00.260 --> 0:18:03.890 kind of elements to encourage a performance. And so I'm 0:18:03.890 --> 0:18:06.870 really wondering what did you use with Elise and Julianne 0:18:06.890 --> 0:18:09.890 to create Gloria with them and how did they connect 0:18:09.890 --> 0:18:10.720 over it. 0:18:10.730 --> 0:18:14.660 They're both formidable actresses who did their research listened to 0:18:14.660 --> 0:18:18.200 the tapes saw the documentaries we talked about the moments 0:18:18.230 --> 0:18:20.600 I think that most surreal moments where I had to 0:18:20.660 --> 0:18:23.359 coerce them basically I mean I had to explain to 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:26.150 them that no this isn't real because these are actors 0:18:26.150 --> 0:18:29.180 who really are grounded and they like reality. And that 0:18:29.180 --> 0:18:32.450 sequence where we go into a tornado and the women 0:18:32.450 --> 0:18:34.790 or the three witches and all of that. I kept 0:18:34.790 --> 0:18:37.520 saying No I understand this isn't reality. This is an 0:18:37.609 --> 0:18:41.869 inner thought that I'm putting out there dimensionally. And that's 0:18:41.869 --> 0:18:44.209 one of these things that's very hard for anybody to 0:18:44.210 --> 0:18:46.250 know until they see it at the end because they 0:18:46.250 --> 0:18:48.470 don't see the tornado. They don't know when they're on 0:18:48.470 --> 0:18:50.990 a wire being a witch being thrown around in the 0:18:50.990 --> 0:18:53.929 studio that it's actually going to look okay or a 0:18:53.980 --> 0:18:56.600 Julianne Moore for instance had to run on a conveyor 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:59.270 belt on a running machine. She had no image of 0:18:59.270 --> 0:19:02.810 the highways and the multiple Gloria's. So that's hard when 0:19:02.810 --> 0:19:05.930 you're a director and some of the work is actually 0:19:06.109 --> 0:19:11.330 not understood until the final product. They have to trust 0:19:11.330 --> 0:19:14.030 me so I can show them pictures and I can 0:19:14.030 --> 0:19:16.970 show them ideas but they need to feel grounded. It's 0:19:16.970 --> 0:19:20.300 giving them confidence that I know what I'm doing. 0:19:20.330 --> 0:19:22.040 Did they work together. 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:24.830 No. They met with Gloria all at the same time 0:19:24.859 --> 0:19:27.109 but except for the scenes where they were on the 0:19:27.109 --> 0:19:30.740 bus together they never had scenes together and they had 0:19:30.740 --> 0:19:34.340 their own dialect coaches. So they really were concentrating on 0:19:34.340 --> 0:19:38.300 their part of being Gloria and I felt no reason 0:19:38.570 --> 0:19:41.840 to have them try to be similar. The unifying person 0:19:41.869 --> 0:19:45.080 is Gloria. That's the thing that connects them. So Alicia 0:19:45.100 --> 0:19:48.109 is different just like her younger self is different. Our 0:19:48.109 --> 0:19:50.660 six year old self is different. You have to see 0:19:50.660 --> 0:19:53.770 that you're not full blown Gloria Steinem with the streaks 0:19:53.770 --> 0:19:56.300 in the glasses and this magazine when you're six or 0:19:56.300 --> 0:19:58.980 when you're 22. That's why I love the scene where 0:19:58.980 --> 0:20:02.100 Alicia sits next to her on the bus later on 0:20:02.100 --> 0:20:05.040 and says Didn't you ever want to have children. And 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:07.919 the older Gloria says no. And the young one says 0:20:08.010 --> 0:20:10.530 Oh yes I did. You know you may not remember 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:13.020 but there was a point where maybe she didn't want 0:20:13.020 --> 0:20:15.209 and she just thought she'd have them because even the 0:20:15.300 --> 0:20:17.160 12 year old says I'm going to have a house 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:19.830 and three kids and a golden retriever and a ping 0:20:19.830 --> 0:20:22.950 pong table in my basement because that's what at that 0:20:22.950 --> 0:20:25.830 age in her life women were supposed to expect and 0:20:25.830 --> 0:20:30.090 nothing more. It's good enough. So I didn't feel the 0:20:30.090 --> 0:20:32.430 need that they should match each other and there was 0:20:32.430 --> 0:20:35.669 enough matching because the two women can look like the 0:20:35.670 --> 0:20:38.189 younger Gloria and the older Gloria. And then of course 0:20:38.250 --> 0:20:39.470 the hair. 0:20:39.990 --> 0:20:44.040 OK so if you were on the Julie's bus out 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:44.610 of time. 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:47.730 Oh God. What's the conversation you would be having with yourself. 0:20:48.020 --> 0:20:50.590 Well I've never thought of that such a good question. 0:20:50.700 --> 0:20:51.280 Which age. 0:20:51.310 --> 0:20:55.680 So there's the 20s Julie and the 40s Julie and 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:56.670 then the now. 0:20:56.670 --> 0:20:58.859 JULIE Well I know what the eight year old Julie 0:20:58.859 --> 0:21:02.490