Speaker 1: I'm Alec Baldwin. And here's the thing. Stephen Daldry grew
Speaker 1: up in the theater. He began directing plays at age sixteen.
Speaker 1: He went on to run several theaters before spending most
Speaker 1: of the nineteen nineties at the Royal Court in London.
Speaker 1: The New York Times has described the Court as the
Speaker 1: most important theater in Europe. Over ten years ago, a
Speaker 1: friend brought him a film script, which he decided to direct.
Speaker 1: That film, Billy Elliott, earned him a Best Director nomination,
Speaker 1: so did his next two films, The Hours and The Reader.
Speaker 1: His fourth movie, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, opens on Christmas.
Speaker 1: It's a Christmas movie about nine eleven. It's a story
Speaker 1: about family trying to somehow not get over it and
Speaker 1: nor heal because you can't heal from that, but trying
Speaker 1: to come together again. This movie has all the trappings
Speaker 1: of Hollywood movie making, an infamous producer Scott Rudin, and
Speaker 1: a list stars Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, but none
Speaker 1: of this seems to distract Stephen Dawdry. It never feels
Speaker 1: like a big movie. It doesn't know, it never feels
Speaker 1: like it always feels like something you made and something
Speaker 1: you did, you know, homemade, something you did in your workshop.
Speaker 1: And I don't know what you who you make stuff for.
Speaker 1: I always make stuff for myself and my you know,
Speaker 1: you make stuff for your friends, yourself, and see whether
Speaker 1: it makes any sense to you. Your first film was
Speaker 1: Billy Elliott. Correct. Yeah, but that was a that was
Speaker 1: a really weeny one. Yeah, that's what I mean. So
Speaker 1: obviously you see where like that was. That was a
Speaker 1: small film and then you we we we made that
Speaker 1: literally we made it for next to nothing. And so
Speaker 1: what's the difference. How's it changed for your since it
Speaker 1: hasn't had no pressure on this. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers were so unbelievably supportive. It was rubbing off
Speaker 1: your robbin off. He runs the studio and I took
Speaker 1: the film to him and I said, you know, this
Speaker 1: is what I made with your money. So I showed
Speaker 1: it to him in Pasadena with a crowd about six
Speaker 1: other people, and at the end of he said, thanks
Speaker 1: very much. I said, what was the genesis of the
Speaker 1: film for you? In terms of it? Did someone come
Speaker 1: to you with a script or you had written Rowden
Speaker 1: had the script written, had brought the book from Jonathan's
Speaker 1: Hafing Fro who written this book called Extreme That and
Speaker 1: Qutty Close, and he had asked Eric Ralph to write
Speaker 1: a couple of drafts, which he had done, written both
Speaker 1: in a day, and ring back and said, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean, is there a difference for you in making
Speaker 1: films and producing shows and directing shows in the theater?
Speaker 1: The difference between the two A big difference. One is
Speaker 1: in the theater, everybody's in the same room, so everybody
Speaker 1: can see what the beast is. Everyone you can see
Speaker 1: what it's made. And you start at the beginning, and
Speaker 1: you finish the people you start with, the people you
Speaker 1: finish with, and the movie the people you prep with,
Speaker 1: the people you shoot with, and the people you shoot
Speaker 1: with at the people you finish with. The people think
Speaker 1: it's more like a relay base making a movie. To me,
Speaker 1: it's more like cooking, you know, like there's a guy
Speaker 1: that makes the lettuce out in California, there's a guy
Speaker 1: that grew the tomatoes and Georgia, and none of them
Speaker 1: ever meet each other or know each other, they ship
Speaker 1: at all, and you cut it up into a salad
Speaker 1: and mix it all together. And that's why it's it's
Speaker 1: more lonely because it's so compartmental wise that word yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know when you're actually it's different. You know,
Speaker 1: this movie is different. And it's really interesting because on
Speaker 1: the other movies I've done, the moment of creation, the
Speaker 1: moment that you're actually making something. In the in the past,
Speaker 1: it was only the cameraman could really see what actually
Speaker 1: you're making. The digital revolution means that on set on
Speaker 1: this movie, for example, we had a screen. You're looking
Speaker 1: at what it's going to be seen in the movies
Speaker 1: as you're shooting it, and everyone can see it. It's
Speaker 1: not like everyone's looking around a little videomolitor is digital.
Speaker 1: So was this your first digital film? First digital film?
Speaker 1: And you preferred it? I preferred it, And you don't
Speaker 1: buy into the nothing is richer than film films for
Speaker 1: nostalgia film, the romanism, I felt, I don't you just
Speaker 1: carry and you shoot forever? Literally you don't have to
Speaker 1: say you know action or cart or you just you
Speaker 1: keep rolling. I mean I remember the first day that
Speaker 1: I ever shot anything on film, and you know, suddenly
Speaker 1: around the camera people are saying these extraordinary things to me,
Speaker 1: like you know rolling, you know, all these things. When
Speaker 1: was that billy it? And people are getting They're saying
Speaker 1: all these strange words, you know, and then everyone's looking
Speaker 1: at me and I'm going, what are they doing? What?
Speaker 1: And you go, oh, I'm meant to say action? People
Speaker 1: really say that do thing? I thought it was some
Speaker 1: sort of light joke. And since then, I've never really
Speaker 1: liked saying action, which is why I prefer just to
Speaker 1: keep rehearsing and roll the camera while we're rehearsing, and
Speaker 1: then eventually he's into Some people don't want to say
Speaker 1: the word action. I find a bizarre on myself, and
Speaker 1: when it freaks the actors out, actually do it now
Speaker 1: now it is not very intimate, it's not and it's
Speaker 1: a it's a it's like an assault on the I'm
Speaker 1: in bed with a woman. I like when she says
Speaker 1: action that that vibes Yeah, that gets you going. I
Speaker 1: directed a film once and I couldn't stand it. I
Speaker 1: really didn't care for it. But I wonder. I've always
Speaker 1: wondered if I had the inclination to absorb more about
Speaker 1: lighting and cutting and editing, and has that been a
Speaker 1: big thing for you? There's that journey of learning more
Speaker 1: and about how films are put together. And I love
Speaker 1: editing you do. It's my favorite bit of the pressure.
Speaker 1: It is a film is written three times. You write
Speaker 1: it to start it, then you rewrite it as you
Speaker 1: make it, and then you do the final and proper
Speaker 1: right as you put it all together. And it's like
Speaker 1: a jigsaw puzzle if you like jigsaw puzzles, if you
Speaker 1: love making movies. But it's actually putting the pieces together,
Speaker 1: finding out the rhythms. And I would imagine that the
Speaker 1: experience of editing makes anyone a better filmmaker in terms
Speaker 1: of teaching you what you need to have in the
Speaker 1: can people say to me, you know, what should I
Speaker 1: do to learn how to make a film? Just getting
Speaker 1: by a final club prom and just start shooting stuff
Speaker 1: and then just start editing and you'll learn everything you
Speaker 1: need to know about making a movie from editing it.
Speaker 1: Did you feel that you had learned everything that you
Speaker 1: needed to learn about directing actors from your years in
Speaker 1: the theater in England in terms of directing actress for film,
Speaker 1: was there a difference? It was the same. I think
Speaker 1: it's the same. Well, let it rip. Most of my life,
Speaker 1: you know, all my life has been in the theater,
Speaker 1: you know, and yes, all you need to work out
Speaker 1: with an actor is how to talk to them. And
Speaker 1: actors come with their own method like you. You know,
Speaker 1: you've come with your own method oology of where you've
Speaker 1: picked up and usually actor as a lot of actors,
Speaker 1: particularly American actors, if I may dare to say this,
Speaker 1: let it come from some notion, some they've picked up
Speaker 1: some ideas of what acting might be or what what
Speaker 1: a methodology might be. It's easier in Europe. It's easier
Speaker 1: in England because usually people have got a shared methodology.
Speaker 1: In other words, there's a language that people sort of
Speaker 1: understand that you can actually have a conversation about what
Speaker 1: what literally you're meant to be doing at any one
Speaker 1: particular time. A lot of American actors got lost in
Speaker 1: this idea of the method or some sort of notion
Speaker 1: of character. They keep going on about where my character
Speaker 1: this or and even what are you talking about? Where
Speaker 1: did you get this idea of character from. It's easier
Speaker 1: in Europe because people tend to be more strictly come
Speaker 1: from a training whereby a common training, a common training,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of training going on here, but that
Speaker 1: training is a different kind of training. It's a different
Speaker 1: sort of training. So the difficulty is just finding a
Speaker 1: language to talk to actors so you can be honest.
Speaker 1: You know, one time I was watching a concert and
Speaker 1: I was watching some famous musician like Tom Petty. He
Speaker 1: was performing at a benefit and I turned to a
Speaker 1: friend of mine and I had this chill run up
Speaker 1: my spine and I said, do you see what these
Speaker 1: people are doing. They're all doing the same thing at
Speaker 1: the same time, and they're all of one at the
Speaker 1: same time. It doesn't happen in the theater and enacting
Speaker 1: a lot of times it does in England. No, No,
Speaker 1: it's really hard. It's the only people. Sometimes people are
Speaker 1: doing their own thing. What is the job of the doctor?
Speaker 1: The job of the doctors. You've got one job is
Speaker 1: to make sure everybody's in the same show. And you
Speaker 1: can have fantastic films, fantastic fantastic theater. There in one show,
Speaker 1: he's in another show, she's doing something else. They're all
Speaker 1: being brilliant in their own way, but they're on the
Speaker 1: same space. Getting everybody in the same space. It's the
Speaker 1: hardest thing. But what's your methodology? Do you define your
Speaker 1: acting in a particular way. Well, it depends. I mean
Speaker 1: I try to think of it in terms of a style.
Speaker 1: If I do, especially this television show now for six
Speaker 1: years or two, you hit a kind of a a
Speaker 1: style that's similar to some of the theater I've done,
Speaker 1: like Orton or Hector MacArthur, where there's a kind of
Speaker 1: a farcical rhythm, there's a key you play and don't
Speaker 1: put a lot of unearned policies and they're really paces
Speaker 1: a big part of it. But did you train? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I went to n y U. And as I get older,
Speaker 1: everything is technical. I mean I literally mark my lines
Speaker 1: in the scripts that I do now lack of musical score,
Speaker 1: stop hard, constant, here, move, dip rise, all these things. Emphasis.
Speaker 1: Before that, though, it was all about authenticity. I would
Speaker 1: say that method acting was about like if you said
Speaker 1: to me, which I want you to do this, I'd say, well,
Speaker 1: I've got to go meet a bunch of surgeons. Let's
Speaker 1: go find out how hard surgeons really behave in the
Speaker 1: operating room, because I don't want to do anything as
Speaker 1: an authentic And then of course there's that famous Walter
Speaker 1: MATHO line where they said to Walter math how do
Speaker 1: you want to go observe some surgery. And he said, no,
Speaker 1: I'm a movie actor. No one expects me to know
Speaker 1: anything about surgery. So we're just gonna think it and
Speaker 1: indicate it. You're right about the technicle. I mean in
Speaker 1: England we do tend to be more technical. But a
Speaker 1: matter you know even remember you know I work with
Speaker 1: Mail Streep on a movie, and you know a Mail
Speaker 1: has this extraordinary emotional ability. But she does pause before
Speaker 1: the verb. And I know why you're doing it because
Speaker 1: you think I can't cut away. I can absolutely show
Speaker 1: you I can cut away from you even if you
Speaker 1: pause before the verb. And she knew she was pausing
Speaker 1: before the verb. Well, she she definitely is a maestro.
Speaker 1: She is. She's then her and Nicholson that they know
Speaker 1: every trick there is to force that cut in the
Speaker 1: film or to deny the cut in the film. It
Speaker 1: is thrilling when you go and you have a director
Speaker 1: who can help you. I've had to do what the
Speaker 1: modern actress had to do, which is to come prepared
Speaker 1: to be self directing in case you didn't have anything
Speaker 1: for me. Baganized, because I'd rather come and have you
Speaker 1: say to me. Well, of course it's this, and I
Speaker 1: would don't you realize it's this and you have got
Speaker 1: all font of information, but I would go crazy. But
Speaker 1: I find it really crazy when it is come in
Speaker 1: self prepared because they've done some journey that they get
Speaker 1: and you, well, well this is and again you get
Speaker 1: there showing your photographs of a trip they went on
Speaker 1: without you. Yeah, and then they again this comment my
Speaker 1: character and you're gonna look, it's not your character. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's ours, and we're going to make it up. Now,
Speaker 1: you're interesting. I've never heard that every before, that it's ours,
Speaker 1: it's ours, it's not your character. I'm going to remember
Speaker 1: that it's ours. Well, my character wouldn't do that. Well,
Speaker 1: let's change the character then, because we're going to do that.
Speaker 1: You know what is let's talk about a character they
Speaker 1: would do that. That's right, let's change it. What do
Speaker 1: you miss about running up by side the court which
Speaker 1: everybody just adores the work there and loves the chord?
Speaker 1: You miss it? I miss it, and I suspect I'm
Speaker 1: going to run another theater. I mean, it's too much fun.
Speaker 1: It's about community. It's about having a community of people
Speaker 1: that you're staying with for a period of time, the
Speaker 1: number of years you commit yourself to and trying to
Speaker 1: do something. You know, I don't know why you make work.
Speaker 1: I mean I make work to change the world. I
Speaker 1: think that's any reason to do anything. And getting a
Speaker 1: group of people in to start a conversation with the
Speaker 1: community and with a society you live in is going
Speaker 1: to be the greatest thing you can do. Can you
Speaker 1: do both right now or now? You certainly can't make
Speaker 1: movies in mouth theater and you can't movies are too obsessive. Ye,
Speaker 1: It's it's like it's it's two years of your life.
Speaker 1: Just whatever you do, it's two years too. The Billy
Speaker 1: Elliott is closing on Broadway. Billy, It's closing on Broadway
Speaker 1: generally eight. Well, what was the genesis of the film?
Speaker 1: How did you decide you were going to make the film?
Speaker 1: And then talk a little bit, if you would, about
Speaker 1: how the journey from film to Broadway and this enormously
Speaker 1: successful show on broad It's a very simple tale. An
Speaker 1: old friend of mine, Lee Hall, wrote a script. I
Speaker 1: read his script and said, oh, yeah, that's this is great.
Speaker 1: This is and you've been wanting to direct a film? No,
Speaker 1: no interest in films at all. But I read this
Speaker 1: and I went, this is greatly, this is really good.
Speaker 1: You should do this. Would you want to do it?
Speaker 1: I said, well, I don't know. I'm running a theater,
Speaker 1: you know that. Well, okay, let's have a go. And
Speaker 1: so we made it. Nobody was interested, by the way,
Speaker 1: you know, a kid who wants to be a dancer, please,
Speaker 1: But we took it to Can and the first showing
Speaker 1: in Can, for some unknown reason, Elton John was there
Speaker 1: and the party afterwards out and said, you know this
Speaker 1: is going to be better on stay. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: a great movie, but I want to write the music
Speaker 1: for this on stage and we went it's out on
Speaker 1: John and have been him before, you know, it's like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, you know, no, thanks but now And
Speaker 1: then he kept on going for what say, because we
Speaker 1: just finished the film and you just weren't ready to
Speaker 1: think about it, not even ready for it. He was
Speaker 1: persistent and carried on, and he would literally start writing
Speaker 1: stuff and write songs, and he'd ring me up in
Speaker 1: my kitchen and I put him on speaker phone and
Speaker 1: he said, look how about this one? You know, be
Speaker 1: cooking in my kitchen, and then speaker phone and he
Speaker 1: really didn't fall into a kind of a Lewis Carroll
Speaker 1: hole there. I think the stage show is better than
Speaker 1: the movie. It's found its natural home, Isn't it amazing?
Speaker 1: How that is a big part of this business. How
Speaker 1: you do fall into a hole one day you weren't
Speaker 1: sitting there. I would imagine at the court saying I've
Speaker 1: got to get out of here and make films. You know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't happen to you every day, though, that life
Speaker 1: changes in the second, like things just happen. You know,
Speaker 1: you're sitting on American airlines and something happens. I mean,
Speaker 1: just yes, somedays some flights are different than others. I
Speaker 1: can honestly say there's been some that are more eventful
Speaker 1: than others. One such turning point for you, I think
Speaker 1: from what I could gather from reading, was that you
Speaker 1: were a clown's apprentice. Correct. Yes, I was interested in
Speaker 1: circus when I was finishing university, So I I suppose
Speaker 1: I sought out this guy called Elder Milette. He was
Speaker 1: in a great Italian clown and then I went to
Speaker 1: work with him in Italy. I worked in a year
Speaker 1: I credo or fe. It was a hard circus. I
Speaker 1: mean it wasn't What does that mean? I love that.
Speaker 1: What does it mean A hard circus? A hard circus
Speaker 1: is it's three shows daily, hard schedule, a hard schedule.
Speaker 1: I was in charge of the giraffes as well. I
Speaker 1: had to look after the giraffes, and then we would
Speaker 1: travel by train and then I would take the giraffes
Speaker 1: off the train and put them into their little drive
Speaker 1: the giraffes. So it really is like you see in
Speaker 1: these period movies where it's like like Greatest Show on
Speaker 1: Earth everything, where it's there's everyone's multitasking everyone. You're the
Speaker 1: clown and you're claiming the giraffe pen driving the draft
Speaker 1: through these Pompeii me the draft from Pompeii. And people
Speaker 1: talk about, you know, the animals being mistreated, which I
Speaker 1: you know, people have different opinions about, but the people
Speaker 1: being so mistreated, the people who were they mistreated by management,
Speaker 1: management themselves, the hierarchy of drinking, love of very very
Speaker 1: tough living. It was a hard life. We were basically
Speaker 1: going to be training in Italy for a year and
Speaker 1: then we were going to go off to Moscow State Circus.
Speaker 1: When the call, you know, Okay, we're going off to Moscow. Now,
Speaker 1: I just went, you know what, I've done this for
Speaker 1: a year. I'm off. You're filmmaking experiences. It sounded a
Speaker 1: moment ago when we were talking like they've been relatively
Speaker 1: emotionally secure experiences for you as a filmmaker, and you've
Speaker 1: been very content and happy making films. Filmmaking hasn't been
Speaker 1: another hard circus for you people. I do understand a
Speaker 1: lot of filmmakers have a very hard time making films,
Speaker 1: and I've been blessed. I mean, I've got friends of
Speaker 1: mine who have had experience of sitting in the trailer
Speaker 1: and spending your whole time trying to defend what you're
Speaker 1: doing and fighting and cutting and and I haven't had
Speaker 1: that experience. But a lot of that is because of
Speaker 1: Scott Rotten, who, for me, has always been a huge
Speaker 1: filmmaker support fighting for me in the right way. Where
Speaker 1: were you, I mean this is obviously a nauseating cliche,
Speaker 1: but where were you when nine eleven went down? With
Speaker 1: Scott written on the actual nine eleven. Yeah, Scott and
Speaker 1: I were finishing a movie we made called The Hours,
Speaker 1: finishing in London. We're in the editing room and in London,
Speaker 1: and Scott got the first call, which must have been
Speaker 1: about like nine, just saying the plane just gone into
Speaker 1: the South Tower. And then we went downstairs to the
Speaker 1: common room, the green room as it were, and the
Speaker 1: TV already switched in UK, the TV switched straight away
Speaker 1: to live coveration and we basically sat there all day
Speaker 1: making phone calls as it unfolded. And then Scott and
Speaker 1: I was stuck in London trying to get back to
Speaker 1: New York for five days. And I think that's one
Speaker 1: of the reasons why Scott sent me this book, because
Speaker 1: it was such a powerful experience for the two of
Speaker 1: us to go through that together saying, you know, do
Speaker 1: you want to make a movie about about that time?
Speaker 1: And so for me with Scott to tell not our story,
Speaker 1: but to tell a story about one family on that
Speaker 1: day felt I felt like it was something we were
Speaker 1: both wanted to do. The age of the boy is
Speaker 1: how old in the film eleven and the age of
Speaker 1: the actor who portrayed him. Did you have like a
Speaker 1: huge nationwide talent hunter, worldwide talent hunt? You did? We did?
Speaker 1: You saw how many people for the role? Did you?
Speaker 1: Isn't amazing see people don't realize that they were, like,
Speaker 1: it really is kind of amazing. I think when you
Speaker 1: say to people, you saw three thousand people for the
Speaker 1: role of this child in this film, what was it
Speaker 1: about him that made you choose him? Scott rud And
Speaker 1: the producer had seen him win Kid Jeopardy and he
Speaker 1: remembered there was a kid that one Kid Jeopardy. Actually,
Speaker 1: by this point we were at the eleventh hour, and
Speaker 1: you know, I'm still going I don't think we can
Speaker 1: make thee because you just hadn't felt that I haven't
Speaker 1: really family kid and Warner Brothers again, I said to
Speaker 1: them all the way through, you know, if we can't
Speaker 1: find the kid, you're gonna spend a lot of money
Speaker 1: up front here pre production casting. But if we don't
Speaker 1: find the kid, we should really just call it a day.
Speaker 1: Again Wallners, Yeah, we agree, that's fine, you know, but
Speaker 1: we should go through this process. So and then eleventh
Speaker 1: Scott remember the kid and Kid Jeopardy, and we brought
Speaker 1: him in and Thomas had totally different to the character.
Speaker 1: There's no loss in Thomas's life. Is a very happy
Speaker 1: kid with great family, very smartly one Kid Jeopardy. For
Speaker 1: that I had this extraordinary emotional life. The long audition
Speaker 1: process inevitably, and I took his final tape to warners
Speaker 1: and I said, you know, well, I think that's the kid.
Speaker 1: If you don't agree when we let's stop it now.
Speaker 1: And Jeff we watched the tape together and he said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's the Kid's gonna make your movie. You're
Speaker 1: listening to here's the thing. More from my conversation with
Speaker 1: Stephen Dowdry. In a minute. This is Alec Baldwin and
Speaker 1: you're listening to here's the thing. I'm talking with director
Speaker 1: Stephen Daldry. Do you find something out about yourself every
Speaker 1: film you make? Is there a part of you that
Speaker 1: you lay there that you weren't aware of? When you
Speaker 1: make a film, everything's therapy, don't you find? Yes? It
Speaker 1: is every piece of work you make. You you have
Speaker 1: to explore yourself the reader? What was the therapy for
Speaker 1: which I love that film? By the way, I was
Speaker 1: just I was completely spend with him. I worship her, Okay,
Speaker 1: I worship her. I can't go I'm unabashed about it.
Speaker 1: I am completely immune to all the charms of all
Speaker 1: movie actresses except her. I saw her an Award show
Speaker 1: and I gradually swallowed my turn. She's fantastic, um the reader.
Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time in Germany as a kid.
Speaker 1: I spent you know, learned German and spent a lot
Speaker 1: of time there. And the idea of a country crippled
Speaker 1: for many generations by something that happened, and how it
Speaker 1: was still coming to terms with what it went through
Speaker 1: and where I went through it and collective guilt. So
Speaker 1: for me it was an expiration of my school days
Speaker 1: in Germany. And what about The Hours, Well, The Hours
Speaker 1: is a complicated film about the one thing that they
Speaker 1: all the films that I may tend to have in common,
Speaker 1: is they're all about loss in one way or another.
Speaker 1: And what the nature of loss is. Everybody has it
Speaker 1: at some point in their lives. And that was a
Speaker 1: study and three women who are going through a profound
Speaker 1: sense of loss. Loss is really my subject. Your two
Speaker 1: women when the oscar coming out of your how did
Speaker 1: you feel about that? It's been enormously gratified enormously I mean,
Speaker 1: it's always fantastic when your actors do well, isn't Did
Speaker 1: you find that Kate and Nicole Kidman in the Hours
Speaker 1: who won the Oscar for that film. Did you find
Speaker 1: that they came to the party with that British sense
Speaker 1: of working in the shared experience with you? Were they
Speaker 1: more in line with that? They are? They were and
Speaker 1: up for rehearsal. I love rehearsing, and Nicole rehearse forever.
Speaker 1: Kate rehearse forever. On this film, we rehearse forever. You know,
Speaker 1: it's part of the process. And do you rehearse well.
Speaker 1: I've done films where we did some rehearsal, and I
Speaker 1: remember one time they had a very formalized rehearsal process,
Speaker 1: but it was constantly interrupted by the department heads coming
Speaker 1: in and summoning the director to go and look at something,
Speaker 1: and he run out, So we know we had his attention,
Speaker 1: you know, fleetingly. I would crave that. I'd love that.
Speaker 1: So you're married, when you have a child and you
Speaker 1: live in a I've read about you live in a
Speaker 1: communal home. How would you describe that and what do
Speaker 1: you like about that? What do you prefer? Love? Communal
Speaker 1: living extended families is the way that we've always lived.
Speaker 1: When I say extended family, I don't mean blood family,
Speaker 1: I mean just living in a basically a commune situation.
Speaker 1: I think it's better for the kids. You know, the
Speaker 1: kids have bought up. You know, it's the old adage,
Speaker 1: but you know, a village is better than anything else.
Speaker 1: And so it's and how that's how we live in
Speaker 1: New York and that's how we live in London. I
Speaker 1: find that very appealing. Honestly, revolutionari your life. I watch
Speaker 1: Big Love. I think guys spent with that. Are you
Speaker 1: gonna be involved in the Olympics? Yeah you are? Are
Speaker 1: you really? Yeah? I'm the executive producer of the London Olympics.
Speaker 1: Why the funk would you want to do that? Because
Speaker 1: it's the greatest collective experience I think a country can
Speaker 1: have and a city can have about sharing and welcoming
Speaker 1: the world to its home. Where do you live? I
Speaker 1: live in Meatpaking District? You live here, live here, kids
Speaker 1: go to kids go to school? Ps? Three? And why
Speaker 1: do you live here? Where we live here? And we
Speaker 1: live in London. When you talk about it, I get
Speaker 1: a sense of London is really home in your heart.
Speaker 1: The kids get to school here, but in your heart,
Speaker 1: I mean, you do prefer London if you could. Doesn't
Speaker 1: work like that, It doesn't know, it's totally shared, but
Speaker 1: there's there a sense that of some real pride you have,
Speaker 1: you want to be a part of helping London put
Speaker 1: its best foot forward in terms of the others for
Speaker 1: the world. I love doing anything that's not to do
Speaker 1: with making movies or making theater, and say, the idea
Speaker 1: of getting involved in the Olympics just felt like a
Speaker 1: no brainer to me. I mean, of course, now, why
Speaker 1: do you say anything that doesn't have to do with
Speaker 1: film and theater you're in I mean, are you someone
Speaker 1: who you hold back and hold back and hold back
Speaker 1: and only make a film or do a play on
Speaker 1: an as needed basis? You just can't help yourself in
Speaker 1: your cave and you do it. I've tried to resist
Speaker 1: it for as much as I can, and I would
Speaker 1: love to do something else. I came up with my
Speaker 1: ideal job the other day. It's taking me some time.
Speaker 1: I'm fifty three years old, and I finally came up
Speaker 1: and I think I nailed it, and it may work
Speaker 1: for you too as well. I thought about opening a
Speaker 1: bookstore where we actually never sell any books. Everybody comes
Speaker 1: in and I say, oh, I'll order that for you,
Speaker 1: probably somewhere remote, so they would anticipate some kind of
Speaker 1: lag time, get espressos and smoke cigars and have some
Speaker 1: nice olives and and crewded tee and so forth. And
Speaker 1: I get to meet people to be social. They'll say,
Speaker 1: when in the book comming and I go about five
Speaker 1: or six weeks, I'll call you. We never sell one book,
Speaker 1: but we have a day. I love that idea. What
Speaker 1: is your idea? What do you what's your bookstore on Spain? Idea?
Speaker 1: What do you want to do? Talent? Country planning, traffic lights?
Speaker 1: Really interested in traffic lights, subway system an engineer, mass
Speaker 1: transit systems. Love to get into all that stuff. Are
Speaker 1: you gonna run from Mayor of London? Really love to run?
Speaker 1: I'll run from Afflon. But are you running for president?
Speaker 1: I thought this radio show was the beginning of your
Speaker 1: Is that what it is? I thought it was? Should
Speaker 1: start to rethink that, man, I never really thought of
Speaker 1: it that way. To use the radio show as a
Speaker 1: as a launch pad for my political career. I never
Speaker 1: thought of that. Are you going to have a political career?
Speaker 1: I doubt it now, Really I doubt it now. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The older I get, the more I feel that that
Speaker 1: that all of it has changed, I think you should
Speaker 1: run from Mayor. Well I don't. I've lost my appetite.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think and pus the people that are
Speaker 1: running from Mayor. I know this is terrible. I look
Speaker 1: at them and I said, I don't see myself in
Speaker 1: that crowd. Feel like a guy on a date that
Speaker 1: can't You can just tell he just can't wait to
Speaker 1: get his hand up your blouse, you know, before the
Speaker 1: even the lights go out in the theater. They're all
Speaker 1: just so horny for it morning, for their own ascension.
Speaker 1: Whereas for me, I've got a job now, which I
Speaker 1: got a good job, and it is the most creative
Speaker 1: thing in the world. Am I doing The Insider with
Speaker 1: Michael Mann? Am I doing some edgy like finely chiseled
Speaker 1: social drama. No? Am I doing to kill a mockingboard?
Speaker 1: I'm doing a sitcom. But we have fun and it's
Speaker 1: a family and I live in New York. I've got
Speaker 1: a life. It's been a great harbor for me in
Speaker 1: my life. Give this up for what I give up
Speaker 1: money and fame and position, and six I give up
Speaker 1: this wonderful life I have now in exchange for the
Speaker 1: chance to really change things. I'm not quite sure you
Speaker 1: can anymore. You can't believe me, Well, maybe I'll move Ton.
Speaker 1: Can Can I work for you if your mayor of London?
Speaker 1: I'll work for you if you run from mayor. I
Speaker 1: don't think you're understanding what I'm saying. I think you're
Speaker 1: directing me. Okay, Oh, this is a character we're creating. Oh,
Speaker 1: I see, I think you should run for mayor of London.
Speaker 1: I think you should run for mayor of New York.
Speaker 1: And I think you should get pessimistic about it. You
Speaker 1: can change the will You don't have to answer this
Speaker 1: question because they's going to embarrass you. But I'll just
Speaker 1: see up this ball. You're very charismatic man, You're very charming,
Speaker 1: and you're very seductive. You have a kind of a
Speaker 1: very seductive veneer to you. And I'm wondering, do you
Speaker 1: think that that helps you with what you do? Because
Speaker 1: when the guy walks in the room or the woman,
Speaker 1: because I work with some woman directors, but there's mostly men,
Speaker 1: let's face it. And when that guy walks in the
Speaker 1: room and he looks like a high school shop teacher
Speaker 1: with a bunch of pens sticking out of his park,
Speaker 1: you know what, I maybe if it doesn't have any
Speaker 1: kind of cheat to him at all. You're a very
Speaker 1: seductive guy, and you're a very very kind of appealing guy.
Speaker 1: Do you find that that works for you? Do you
Speaker 1: use that to your advantage when you're directing? Don't smirk
Speaker 1: at me, do you? I don't know. I don't do
Speaker 1: it consciously. You don't consciously try to seduce the people
Speaker 1: you work with. It's always going to be a love
Speaker 1: affair with your actors. If you're not in love with him,
Speaker 1: it's not going to pan out. You literally have to
Speaker 1: fall in love and they with you, and they with you,
Speaker 1: and then you can do. Your actors fall in love
Speaker 1: with you. I try to make them, you do, don't you?
Speaker 1: I bet you they do, because it's so intimate. It's
Speaker 1: such a private and such a and it requires such honesty. Yeh.
Speaker 1: I never met Stephen Daldry before, and in that spirit
Speaker 1: of honesty, I figured this was my chance, even as
Speaker 1: his publicist was looking at her watch and pulling him away. Well,
Speaker 1: one day, I'd love to talk to you about a play.
Speaker 1: Should we do one? I'd love to do play, but
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know if you're gonna have time
Speaker 1: you're not gonna be time to do a play with me.
Speaker 1: Good God, No, come, we're gonna do one of the
Speaker 1: public I'm sure they'll love it. Let's see, uh the
Speaker 1: hours the reader, extremely close with Tom Hanks and sound
Speaker 1: a book, and you're gonna stop all that to go
Speaker 1: to a play with me? I don't think so. I
Speaker 1: think I can hear your publicist really screaming now she's
Speaker 1: calling your agent right now. Stephen Daldry's new film, Extremely
Speaker 1: Loud and Incredibly Close, opens on Christmas. Thank you for coming.
Speaker 1: I'm very happy to spend the time. Thank you. This
Speaker 1: is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing
Speaker 1: to the the fun joining