Speaker 1: Hey everyone, it's Sophia. Welcome to Work in Progress. Hello friends,
Speaker 1: welcome back to Work in Progress. Today we are joined
Speaker 1: by someone who has been on the podcast before, who
Speaker 1: I absolutely adore, who you know from enormous films like
Speaker 1: Thor and Black Swan and Jackie. She has won an
Speaker 1: Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award
Speaker 1: at bathto Ward.
Speaker 2: She just won the Critics' Choice Award.
Speaker 1: This woman literally has done it all and now she
Speaker 1: is conquering television. Today's guest is none other than the
Speaker 1: inimitable Natalie Portman, and she is here today to talk
Speaker 1: with us about her new Apple TV Plus series Lady
Speaker 1: in the Lake. She helped to produce it with her
Speaker 1: company Mountain A and today.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to talk.
Speaker 1: About what made her decide to jump into television, about
Speaker 1: some of the incredible films she's made recently, including May December,
Speaker 1: directed by Todd Haynes, which I'm sure you all saw
Speaker 1: Natalie Starr's opposite Julianne Moore and it is a wild ride.
Speaker 1: And of course we have to talk about our very
Speaker 1: favorite Angel City FC. Natalie and I have a lot
Speaker 1: to get into so with no further ado, let's get
Speaker 1: to it. Hi, Rand, I'm so happy to have you
Speaker 1: backed on the podcast today.
Speaker 3: Hi, I am so glad to talk to you again.
Speaker 3: As always, I am.
Speaker 1: I'm laughing too because for our friends listening when we
Speaker 1: were tech checking, we realize that we're actually both in
Speaker 1: the same city today, which never happens, so we could
Speaker 1: have absolutely on this not on zoom.
Speaker 3: I know it's very ridiculous. I've not been hanging out
Speaker 3: in person, but you know that's the same.
Speaker 2: I know this isn't so bad though.
Speaker 1: I'm just so excited to talk all the things normally.
Speaker 1: I like to ask, you know, people who come on
Speaker 1: if they see like a through line to their career
Speaker 1: today and their childhood. But I feel like you've answered
Speaker 1: that question already. Uh, since you've been on the show before,
Speaker 1: I guess I would ask for a tweak in that
Speaker 1: since we last spoke. Do you feel any sort of
Speaker 1: different connection to that question, or like a different connection
Speaker 1: to your younger self from the place we sit today.
Speaker 4: I think I don't know.
Speaker 3: I always feel like there's repeating themes that I know,
Speaker 3: not necessarily conscious of that.
Speaker 4: I go back a lot, but I feel like the big.
Speaker 3: You know thing that I'm always trying to get toward
Speaker 3: is finding like my own pleasure and my own joy
Speaker 3: as opposed to pleasing others. I think that starting out
Speaker 3: as a kid, a kid actor, was very much like,
Speaker 3: you know, looking to the grown ups and being like,
Speaker 3: did I do a good job?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 3: And now the goal is always be like, you know,
Speaker 3: is this making me happy? Not just you know, is
Speaker 3: this making everyone else happy?
Speaker 2: Yeah? There, God, that's so interesting.
Speaker 1: I I was just out in Utah in the spring
Speaker 1: working on a movie, and I set a challenge for
Speaker 1: myself to sure be in with all the departments and
Speaker 1: see what the department heads need and do the technical
Speaker 1: stuff I like at work, but to act for me,
Speaker 1: like to actually just go to work and see if
Speaker 1: I could remember what it felt like as a kid
Speaker 1: doing theater, to feel like it was my after school thing,
Speaker 1: like I was playing, yes, instead of it being so serious.
Speaker 1: And nobody tells you that you might wake up one
Speaker 1: day working and go, wait, have I how long has
Speaker 1: it been since I did something for me?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 3: And also like you're saying, I mean, as a kid,
Speaker 3: it's such play and we're so lucky to have jobs
Speaker 3: that are essentially play, and so to not treat.
Speaker 4: It like that is crazy.
Speaker 3: I mean it's just like the most extreme form of
Speaker 3: play you can have.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if I think if you tap into it and
Speaker 1: you don't let the pressure get to you and the
Speaker 1: desire to be good for everyone and the you know
Speaker 1: the privilege of it and whatever, it's I realized I
Speaker 1: sort of got so in the weeds on making sure
Speaker 1: it was running smoothly that I was forgetting to have
Speaker 1: a good time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's good to center joy.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, to find joy at work is so cool.
Speaker 2: And yeah, the joy and the play I like that.
Speaker 1: Did the desire to cultivate that kind of play, to
Speaker 1: find that sort of joy for yourself? Do you think
Speaker 1: there's a nugget of that even in that little seedling
Speaker 1: when you decided we needed a soccer team in La
Speaker 1: when when you helped create and and and you know,
Speaker 1: brew this idea for Angel City, Like, do you think
Speaker 1: maybe as a mom looking at your family or you
Speaker 1: wanted more play?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I mean, well it is of course, uh you know,
Speaker 3: emblematic that it's literally a game like it's yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: it's supporting. Again, what other profession do people play at
Speaker 3: their work. It's athletes, you know, as alongside actors, and
Speaker 3: of course it's such a joyful fun thing for spectators
Speaker 3: as well. And I definitely also just loved gathering with
Speaker 3: other women in Times Up, and I feel like it
Speaker 3: was kind of an unconscious way to continue that gathering.
Speaker 3: You know, we are again a group of women, you know,
Speaker 3: in our investor group alongside the team.
Speaker 4: Even though I could never.
Speaker 3: Be an athlete, this is a way to be part
Speaker 3: of a group with a bunch of athletes. And so yes,
Speaker 3: it's absolutely again celebrating joy and celebrating play.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: I got asked about it recently and I was laughing
Speaker 1: thinking about growing up in La playing ayso soccer and
Speaker 1: very quickly realizing, you know, oh yeah, for an asthmatic,
Speaker 1: soccer might not be my best sport.
Speaker 4: We figured it out.
Speaker 1: Like the theater kids who couldn't keep up with the
Speaker 1: ones that run, we still figured it out, and we
Speaker 1: did we essentially created Yeah. Yeah, it's like it's a
Speaker 1: grown up clubhouse of all the most fun humans we know.
Speaker 4: Totally, I really loved that was.
Speaker 1: Do you think there's something interesting too harnessing that energy
Speaker 1: of Times Up? Like you were talking about being able
Speaker 1: to gather as women, to have safe spaces to talk
Speaker 1: about our experience is good and bad, you know, to
Speaker 1: not just have to perform and smile all the time,
Speaker 1: I think is so healing and clearly created such a
Speaker 1: salient point that you see these groups happening, you know,
Speaker 1: around the country, around the world, you see people getting
Speaker 1: more frank about what it means to live in community
Speaker 1: and have better community, and to build a sports team
Speaker 1: feels like some of the best aspects of community. I
Speaker 1: love that that there was a flip from gathering to
Speaker 1: figure out what to do with pain to sort of
Speaker 1: like flipping the pancake over and saying, Okay, if this
Speaker 1: is the gathering, how do we move forward in pleasure,
Speaker 1: in play, in pay equity, in all of these things
Speaker 1: that you know, we know our industry agnostic, but that
Speaker 1: we could certainly relate to. Do you ever sort of
Speaker 1: sit back and go, holy shit, we really did it.
Speaker 1: We really flipped the whole script on this.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 3: I really think that the athletes led the way, you know,
Speaker 3: they the athletes showed us where to go, and I
Speaker 3: wouldn't want to, you know, take any of that credit
Speaker 3: away from them. You know, watching Megan Rapino and Alex
Speaker 3: Morgan and all of their teammates, you know, lead the
Speaker 3: way for the pay equity conversation for the US women's
Speaker 3: soccer team, and Becca Rue, who was their incredible representative
Speaker 3: who got them pay equity. I mean, they were the
Speaker 3: ones who showed us like this is both joyful and
Speaker 3: virtuosic and changing, you know, changing the game for women
Speaker 3: and really inspired everything. And it's also just so great.
Speaker 3: I think with times up it, I realized how rarely
Speaker 3: we celebrate each other. Women in our group who said,
Speaker 3: you know, I remember like winning an award and it
Speaker 3: feeling so lonely walking into the room after that. No
Speaker 3: one said congrats or gave me a hug. And so
Speaker 3: we started this. We started this ritual of celebrating someone
Speaker 3: every time we met, that we would like celebrate someone's achievement.
Speaker 3: And soccer is inherently that, Like you celebrate when one
Speaker 3: person scores, the whole team scores, so you know, we
Speaker 3: all jump on top of each other when that happens.
Speaker 3: You know, it's such a great model for how we
Speaker 3: should be all the time as women.
Speaker 1: Totally, and I love the that analogy because it's it
Speaker 1: requires the entire team to make that goal, it requires
Speaker 1: the entire team to win a match. And I think
Speaker 1: it's so cool, you know, loving that sport, loving the WNBA,
Speaker 1: like even seeing the professional women's hockey leagues start to
Speaker 1: take off.
Speaker 2: And knowing that.
Speaker 1: I think the stat I can't remember if it's eighty
Speaker 1: four or ninety four percent of women in the C
Speaker 1: suite in their adult professional careers played either through high
Speaker 1: school or into collegiate sports.
Speaker 4: And it's like, well, of course it tracks.
Speaker 1: You can be a team leader. You can go and
Speaker 1: run a movie studio or a you know, massive corporation
Speaker 1: because you know how to manage teams and support people,
Speaker 1: demand better of them certainly, but also celebrate their wins
Speaker 1: as a as a unit.
Speaker 2: And it's so cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a good reminder always now, I'm always like
Speaker 3: like it's it has to be conscious a little bit,
Speaker 3: because I don't think it's been socialized into me. But
Speaker 3: like when I see someone do something great, to like
Speaker 3: reach out and be like that was amazing, I am
Speaker 3: so like inspired by you. Thank you for thank you
Speaker 3: for doing what you're doing, you know, And I think
Speaker 3: it's we all should be conscious of a little bit
Speaker 3: more celebrating each other's wins.
Speaker 1: I totally agree. I heard a good thing the other day.
Speaker 1: Someone was saying that I was meeting with this lovely
Speaker 1: guy who helps run a family restaurant, and he was like,
Speaker 1: if you guys like the food, it would really mean
Speaker 1: a lot to us, you know, if you'd go on
Speaker 1: and leave a review. And I was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess I don't really think about that too often.
Speaker 1: He's like, well, yeah, most of the time when people
Speaker 1: are giving you feedback, it's a critique or a criticism.
Speaker 1: And I thought about that, and we do, like even
Speaker 1: on social media, we hear from all these negative voices,
Speaker 1: and to just go out and be verbally and publicly
Speaker 1: supportive and kind to people feels so.
Speaker 3: Congract that nice tendency towards bitching. Yeah, I mean I
Speaker 3: don't say it about other people. I feel like I'm
Speaker 3: a subject to it myself. Like it's important to say
Speaker 3: when you love something as much as when you're like
Speaker 3: annoyed by.
Speaker 1: Something totally totally, and to be like loud and out
Speaker 1: front about it.
Speaker 2: Feels so special.
Speaker 4: Yeah, rare.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And now for our sponsors, how do you start to
Speaker 1: practice those things? As you're finding you know, more either
Speaker 1: capacity or regularity for your own joy, how do you
Speaker 1: start to make more of it?
Speaker 4: How to make more joy or more Yeah.
Speaker 2: Like any of it.
Speaker 1: I think all of it feels sort of generative to me.
Speaker 1: And the way you're talking about it, I sort of
Speaker 1: like the vision I'm having in my head is of
Speaker 1: this you know, snowball gaining size. So if you're trying
Speaker 1: to shift a practice like that to be more vocal
Speaker 1: about what's great or to lean more into the things
Speaker 1: that make you feel great, like, how how do you
Speaker 1: do that? How do you grab those things out of
Speaker 1: the air around you?
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think it's been very meaningful absolutely to be
Speaker 3: more conscious about telling people when I think that they're
Speaker 3: doing something amazing talking about it publicly. I think, you know,
Speaker 3: like in a friend group, to like call out someone's
Speaker 3: achievement to the friend group and be like, let's all
Speaker 3: celebrate this person's achievement today or this person's like greatness
Speaker 3: today is so wonderful, And I think is such a
Speaker 3: great way to cultivate that appreciation and also for me,
Speaker 3: just giving myself the permission to do something because it's
Speaker 3: fun and not necessarily you know, some of the other
Speaker 3: things that we put on ourselves, like for me, doing
Speaker 3: things that I love doing that I'm not very good
Speaker 3: at because I think so much of my life has
Speaker 3: been about like being good and achieving and all this stuff.
Speaker 4: And you know.
Speaker 3: Like painting, for me, I'm not very good at it,
Speaker 3: but i' really enjoy it, and like that's become a
Speaker 3: really important practice to like do something just because I
Speaker 3: like it, not because anyone would be like, wow, that's amazing, Natalie.
Speaker 4: You know, like you, no one will say.
Speaker 3: That to me about my painting, but it brings me happiness,
Speaker 3: and so, you know, following those lines has been important
Speaker 3: for me.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: And I think it's tricky too, when, particularly when your
Speaker 1: job is to make an art form, because then any
Speaker 1: art can be work. So to sort of separate these,
Speaker 1: you know, buckets, if you will, to give yourself a space, yeah,
Speaker 1: to be not great at something, or to just do
Speaker 1: it for fun and purposefully not try to judge the
Speaker 1: quality of its art feels it feels like something you
Speaker 1: have to cultivate, but probably something that makes you feel
Speaker 1: more free, I would imagine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it free yourself from again having to
Speaker 3: like please others, or perform for others, or get accolades
Speaker 3: from others. Yeah, is you know, is definitely freeing. Yeah.
Speaker 1: How does it apply then when you decide to go
Speaker 1: from this stage in your career and make a movie.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it's funny when I look back
Speaker 1: over like the first FIO from your first visit, and
Speaker 1: I think about, you know, how young you were. You
Speaker 1: were twelve when Leon the Professional happened and you took
Speaker 1: a break from acting to go through Harvard and talked.
Speaker 1: I remember then about what you felt like you had
Speaker 1: to prove because people love to give us those those
Speaker 1: joyful monikers as actresses in the world, you know, to
Speaker 1: go on and win at the Academy and to have
Speaker 1: these you know, enormous career moments. Again, it's so amazing.
Speaker 1: You're a wonderkind at what you know you do at
Speaker 1: the art we all get to participate in, and yet
Speaker 1: it's always measured. So now to find that balance in
Speaker 1: your life, how does that balance maybe shift the way
Speaker 1: you go to work, Like when you go to make
Speaker 1: a project like Lady in the Lake, do you do
Speaker 1: you intentionally try to carry more play space with you?
Speaker 2: Or is work for work and like play for painting
Speaker 2: at home.
Speaker 3: No, I mean my work is all play and it's
Speaker 3: actually I think what people remark to me most when
Speaker 3: I'm working is that they're shocked by, like how unseerious
Speaker 3: I am. Like really, it's like I'm very serious and
Speaker 3: like being prepared and being professional, Like I do my research,
Speaker 3: I do my prep, I show up.
Speaker 4: Knowing my lines.
Speaker 3: I'm like on time, but like all I want to
Speaker 3: do between takes of like joke around, Like I don't.
Speaker 4: I'm not one of those people.
Speaker 3: It's like everyone needs to be quiet so I can focus,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm like laughing and joking and you know,
Speaker 3: messing around because for me, that's how everything stays loose
Speaker 3: and stays in that spirit of play that I think
Speaker 3: it's so important to acting for me. But yeah, it
Speaker 3: is something that I think people don't necessarily expect for me.
Speaker 4: Uh when before that, before they work with me.
Speaker 2: I love that. I absolutely love that.
Speaker 3: I think it's I think it's definitely related to starting
Speaker 3: as a kid because people really actively tried to make
Speaker 3: work like a play space for me as a kid,
Speaker 3: which was great, and I think it's like, uh, you know,
Speaker 3: for me, that's that's what acting is is, you know,
Speaker 3: playing pretend.
Speaker 2: That's so cool. I wouldn't have thought about that.
Speaker 1: I guess the sort of motivation for the grown ups
Speaker 1: around you when you were young to gamify work because
Speaker 1: of course they want to make it fun for you,
Speaker 1: because you're just a little thing running around the set.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And also like my first movie had things like my
Speaker 3: parents dying in front of me and things that could
Speaker 3: be quite scary if you weren't conscious of it being
Speaker 3: like pretend. So I think everyone was constantly just like,
Speaker 3: it's make believe, we're playing. We're just playing this game,
Speaker 3: you know, so that it's not as dramatic. I guess, yeah,
Speaker 3: such how I felt it was serious?
Speaker 1: Such an insane thing that, you know, this job sort
Speaker 1: of asks you to do is suspend disbelief and basically
Speaker 1: just psychologically torture yourself for the hours that you're at work.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 1: What drew you to the project? You know, to make
Speaker 1: your debut in a leading television role. You're you know,
Speaker 1: it's out now on Apple TV. It's so good for
Speaker 1: the friends at home. Oh my god, Like, how how
Speaker 1: did you decide you wanted to lean into a series?
Speaker 1: Was it the team was it the script was it
Speaker 1: kind of a mix of both.
Speaker 3: Well, I've been so impressed by how series have been
Speaker 3: kind of like the leading art form in exploring characters.
Speaker 3: It's such an incredible luxury to have that kind of
Speaker 3: time to go into the detail and nuance of a character.
Speaker 4: And Alma as an artist I really.
Speaker 3: Admire and adore, and it was incredible to get to
Speaker 3: be led by her. She's a true visionary and also
Speaker 3: an incredible human And it was just extraordinary to be
Speaker 3: led by some when so strong, so inspiring, so creative
Speaker 3: every day with positivity and real inspiration. And then these
Speaker 3: characters are just to have these two women who are
Speaker 3: so complex, who are so interesting and beautifully drawn, and
Speaker 3: have them have such similar obstacles, but yet to have
Speaker 3: my character kind of be blind to this woman's obstacles
Speaker 3: beside her, they're in these kind of parallel worlds is
Speaker 3: maybe one of my greatest fears. You know, that you
Speaker 3: can be so caught up in your own struggle that
Speaker 3: you don't see someone else's right next to you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, to have to sit with that, I would imagine
Speaker 1: prepping it. You know, you have to create that dissonance
Speaker 1: for this character. But how painful to essentially just not
Speaker 1: see someone else at work every day. Was it a
Speaker 1: surreal thing, you know, to to film the series? Was
Speaker 1: it much longer than you know, a movie is normally for.
Speaker 3: You, Yeah, it was. It was really intense. I think
Speaker 3: that was the shock of it. Was the kind of
Speaker 3: stamina both physically and emotionally to make something that's seven
Speaker 3: hours long instead of two hours. And it was, you know,
Speaker 3: so extreme what we went through every day scene wise,
Speaker 3: I mean, incredibly fulfilling and interesting. But yes, it was
Speaker 3: very sad too that I didn't get to work with
Speaker 3: Moses Ingram that much, who I think is just so brilliant.
Speaker 3: She's really like, just the most jaw dropping talent. And
Speaker 3: because our characters have this kind of tragedy of you know,
Speaker 3: not seeing each other though they're so close physically, you know,
Speaker 3: we didn't get that much together.
Speaker 4: But I got to see her work.
Speaker 3: In the series, and it's just one of the best
Speaker 3: performances I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's just so it's the whole thing
Speaker 1: is quite breathtaking.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 2: How how did it feel, you know when you talk
Speaker 2: about that in the edit?
Speaker 1: Winding up with seven hours versus two how did you
Speaker 1: have to prepare for this show differently than you might
Speaker 1: prepare for a film.
Speaker 3: It was very similar to how I would prepare for
Speaker 3: a film, although there was something that was my first
Speaker 3: time doing that Alma introduced me to which is so
Speaker 3: interesting and now I've taken it into every project I've
Speaker 3: done since, which is dream work, where she put me
Speaker 3: together with the coach who you talk.
Speaker 4: To her about your dreams.
Speaker 3: You start, you know, writing down your dream and you
Speaker 3: talked to her about your dreams, and she takes you
Speaker 3: through like how it's connected to your character and how
Speaker 3: it's connected to you and brings you and your character
Speaker 3: together and really gets you into kind of subconscious really
Speaker 3: interesting stuff. So that was something new for me. That
Speaker 3: was a complete revelation. I had never really paid attention
Speaker 3: to my dreams at all. And then you start going like,
Speaker 3: I can't believe I'm ignoring half of my life. You know,
Speaker 3: I spent half dreaming and I'm just not even paying
Speaker 3: attention to what's going on most of the time.
Speaker 1: Wow, So how long did you do that before starting
Speaker 1: to work?
Speaker 4: I did it throughout, like I did it.
Speaker 3: I did it before we started, and then also while
Speaker 3: we were while we were working, and.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's incredible.
Speaker 3: I think Alma also really welcomed our dreams into the story.
Speaker 3: So she really incorporated all of our subconscious subconsciousness, subconsciousnesses,
Speaker 3: I don't know what that conshy subconshi into the story
Speaker 3: where she was just kind of it was a beautiful
Speaker 3: thing to like kind of welcome everyone's dreams.
Speaker 1: That is so special. I've never heard of anyone doing that.
Speaker 1: And now I'm going to go down a rabbit hole.
Speaker 3: It's it's pretty. It's a pretty revelatory tool.
Speaker 2: I bet.
Speaker 1: So will you tell our friends at home, who you know,
Speaker 1: didn't get lucky enough to get an advanced screening link
Speaker 1: about the show and what yeah, maybe a little bit
Speaker 1: about it and what drew you to it?
Speaker 3: So, Lady in a Lake is a series that centers
Speaker 3: on two women. One is Cleo played by Moses Ingram,
Speaker 3: who is a young mother in Baltimore, trying to make
Speaker 3: ends meet for her children and working in many, many
Speaker 3: different jobs, including some that are you know, uh dubious
Speaker 3: to make ends meet, and she ends up the subject
Speaker 3: of a murder unfortunately, that my character Maddie investigates. Maddie
Speaker 3: is also a wife and mother in Baltimore during the
Speaker 3: nineteen sixties and kind of breaks out of her life,
Speaker 3: tries to go back to her early love of journalism,
Speaker 3: and ends up investigating this murder and looking into Cleo's
Speaker 3: life to kind of understand what led her to be
Speaker 3: the Lady in the Lake.
Speaker 2: And I love that well, A.
Speaker 1: I love an amazing story that's based on a book
Speaker 1: because I feel like it's such a rich world to
Speaker 1: mine for details and as you said, character complexity for
Speaker 1: two women like this. And Laura Littman, the author, has
Speaker 1: this quote that I can't stop thinking about. She said
Speaker 1: that she set out to write a novel about a
Speaker 1: woman who wanted to matter. Oh and it just it
Speaker 1: like sucker punched me in the best way in my
Speaker 1: emotional core, because I thought, generationally, we have had so
Speaker 1: many of these stories pass down. You know, this is
Speaker 1: set in the sixties, but it feels incredibly modern in
Speaker 1: that way. And when we talk about where we all
Speaker 1: come from, when we talk about these you know, reckonings
Speaker 1: like we were discussing with times up where people say
Speaker 1: this has gone on for so long, it has to change.
Speaker 1: We are sitting in a moment today where because of
Speaker 1: what's happening in the world, and the rollback of our rights,
Speaker 1: and you know, people saying me too, went too far,
Speaker 1: all of these things that feel so insane. I know,
Speaker 1: the feeling of being in rooms like the ones we
Speaker 1: were referencing before, where women are looking around going but
Speaker 1: we matter, don't we get to matter? And so it
Speaker 1: feels so modern to be exploring that desire to be
Speaker 1: a full human with permission to live a full life.
Speaker 1: Did it feel really resonant for you today to look
Speaker 1: back in on this in the sixties and say, oh,
Speaker 1: the times are different, but I know the struggle.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you know, that's the joy of historical
Speaker 3: pieces is that with the distance, you have a little
Speaker 3: bit more clarity. Like you can't see the cloud when
Speaker 3: you're in the cloud, you know, you can.
Speaker 4: Have more perspective on it.
Speaker 3: And yeah, so many things have changed, like, you know,
Speaker 3: my character in the show can't sell her car without
Speaker 3: her husband's permission, and that's you know, only what fifty
Speaker 3: fifty years ago, sixty years ago, and so so much
Speaker 3: has changed, but also so much has not changed. And
Speaker 3: I think it's really beautiful what Alma does. There's a
Speaker 3: kind of gambling ring in the show where they bet.
Speaker 4: On their dreams.
Speaker 3: They have these dream books again, the dreams, and they
Speaker 3: have a dream and depending on what dream they have,
Speaker 3: there's a number and then they bet on that number.
Speaker 3: And they're literally betting on their dreams. And I think
Speaker 3: two women and are betting on their dreams, and it's
Speaker 3: something beautiful and something we can recognize. Now you know
Speaker 3: how much courage it takes to bet on your dream?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean at any sort of stage. I
Speaker 1: think about it now, you know, even when you're talking
Speaker 1: about that, I think, well, yeah, for you as a
Speaker 1: young woman, you know, to say I want to do this,
Speaker 1: I'm going to pick a career, you know, before junior
Speaker 1: high and from again this vantage point I think about.
Speaker 1: You know, you and your producing partner, Sophie, you founded
Speaker 1: Mountain A in twenty twenty one, right, So why did
Speaker 1: you decide to bet on that dream? Why did you
Speaker 1: decide to start a production company? How has that changed
Speaker 1: your experience at this stage in your career.
Speaker 3: I felt very ready to kind of step into my adulthood,
Speaker 3: which maybe is a little late, but I think that
Speaker 3: as an actor you're often infantilized as in a way
Speaker 3: where everyone takes care of everything for you and makes
Speaker 3: all the problems go away. And there's a big moment
Speaker 3: when you're like, I want to take care of the
Speaker 3: problems myself, Like I am ready to be the person
Speaker 3: people look to when something goes wrong and I'll fix it.
Speaker 4: You know, that's when you're a grown up.
Speaker 3: And I was ready to do that, and especially because
Speaker 3: I Sophie, who had been my friend for many, many years,
Speaker 3: was ready to start her own company at the same time.
Speaker 4: So we joined forces.
Speaker 3: And it's been so incredible to get to work with
Speaker 3: someone I love and respect so much and who's so
Speaker 3: good at what she does. And it's been incredible to
Speaker 3: get to tell the stories we want to tell and
Speaker 3: work with the artists we admire and you know, help
Speaker 3: realize their visions that they have.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll be back in just a minute after a
Speaker 1: few words from our favorite sponsors. Well, so for anyone
Speaker 1: at home who wants to work, you know, perhaps in
Speaker 1: form or television, but is looking around going but what
Speaker 1: is a production company? Can you give some folks a
Speaker 1: little inside baseball on what a production company like yours does,
Speaker 1: how you get off the ground, how you even begin
Speaker 1: finding as you said, the projects you're excited to make.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a great question because producers can do a
Speaker 3: lot of different things I mean material and then develop
Speaker 3: the material, meaning like maybe you find an article from
Speaker 3: the news, or maybe you find a book that you
Speaker 3: think is interesting, and then developing it might be finding
Speaker 3: a writer or director who will then turn the book
Speaker 3: or the article into a script. And then you help
Speaker 3: find financing for it so that the project can get made,
Speaker 3: or you know, talk to studios or networks about about
Speaker 3: making it.
Speaker 4: That's another way.
Speaker 3: And then once something starts, then you are involved in
Speaker 3: every aspect of you know, hiring people, finding locations, supporting
Speaker 3: the director, and figuring out how to make the vision
Speaker 3: they have for the project. Then after it's filmed, you
Speaker 3: work on the edits and you give feedback, you find
Speaker 3: distribution if you don't have it already, get it into festivals.
Speaker 3: I mean it's really like you have you have a
Speaker 3: lot to do at every aspect on the way, and
Speaker 3: then if anything goes wrong, you're also like the fixer
Speaker 3: of the problems.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a really all encompassing job and I'm used
Speaker 1: to right, Yeah, and I really enjoy it. And I
Speaker 1: also think to myself like there's just not enough time
Speaker 1: in the day for all of the things that I
Speaker 1: want to do and have a hand in and see and.
Speaker 2: You know, I want to go down.
Speaker 1: To wardrobe and pick the right blue sweater for that character.
Speaker 1: And it's hard sometimes to you know, make it to
Speaker 1: whatever your version of the sort of mountaintop is on
Speaker 1: the project and then realize like, oh, I still can't
Speaker 1: quite do it all.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's I mean, it's incredible, and it's incredible to
Speaker 3: have partners to share it with.
Speaker 4: Also.
Speaker 3: I think that that's been something really lucky with Sophie
Speaker 3: and Mikaela who also works with us, to you know,
Speaker 3: be able to share those kinds.
Speaker 4: Of responsibilities because it is it is a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think I don't know, I think maybe
Speaker 1: for me, because I enjoy learning, I want to see
Speaker 1: all of it, see everything to make sure I really
Speaker 1: know what I'm doing and it Yeah, it only gets
Speaker 1: done because there's the ability to sort of run it
Speaker 1: as a relay race. It's it's definitely not an individual sport.
Speaker 4: Yes, absolutely again.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and yeah, and that I think is.
Speaker 1: Why you know, artists and athletes have always had such
Speaker 1: an interesting overlap, is because these are either metaphorically or
Speaker 1: literally team sports that were a.
Speaker 2: Part of.
Speaker 1: I'm curious, you know, for the production company, your first
Speaker 1: project was May December, which I just thought was so incredible.
Speaker 1: I mean, you and Julian Moore and Todd Haynes. It's
Speaker 1: such a world that.
Speaker 2: You gave to us.
Speaker 1: And it was fascinating to me seeing the movie based
Speaker 1: on that Mary Kayla Tarno case, because I remember the
Speaker 1: case and the way in having an actor come to
Speaker 1: meet the family.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh my god, oh my god, oh
Speaker 2: my god.
Speaker 1: It because it allowed for such inspection through your eyes
Speaker 1: for us as the audience that you would normally never
Speaker 1: get with a national case like that. What stage did
Speaker 1: you see the script? Was it an idea? Was it
Speaker 1: fully fleshed out?
Speaker 4: It was fully fleshed out.
Speaker 3: And Sammy Burt was who wrote it, and it's her
Speaker 3: first produced screenplay, which is unbelievable. I mean, she's just
Speaker 3: such an incredible writer. But she also, I mean her
Speaker 3: kernel of the idea, she said, came thinking like what
Speaker 3: happens to that couple twenty years after the scandal when
Speaker 3: the spotlight has kind of gone away and then they
Speaker 3: have adult kids who go away and they're like empty nesters,
Speaker 3: and she just imagined them like alone in their house
Speaker 3: in a kind of like haunted way. And I thought
Speaker 3: that was such an interesting starting, you know, launching pad
Speaker 3: for all of this complicated human stuff that happened.
Speaker 2: What an absolute trip.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm just thinking about it, even thinking about
Speaker 1: the music.
Speaker 4: Oh, the music.
Speaker 3: Todd was so brilliant in his choice, I mean in
Speaker 3: every choice he made, But the music just gave it
Speaker 3: such like specific tone that I don't think anything else
Speaker 3: would have signified. You know that it was like okay
Speaker 3: to laugh, it was okay to feel sad, it was
Speaker 3: okay to feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 4: That like, yeah, all of those things could coexist.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it just added. It made my skin crawl
Speaker 1: every time the chords would hit, and I was like,
Speaker 1: they've done it.
Speaker 2: They've really done it. What do you want to do next?
Speaker 1: You know, having that come out be such an incredible film.
Speaker 1: People are loving Lady in the Lake. You know, now
Speaker 1: you've got a series ticked off the list. What motivates
Speaker 1: you makes you feel excited, whether it's with Mountaine or
Speaker 1: even in your life, you know, moving forward from today, Yeah, there's.
Speaker 3: A lot more at Mountainee that we're working on. We're
Speaker 3: working on an animated film, We're working on a musical,
Speaker 3: We're working on lots more films and series. So I
Speaker 3: think that there's, yeah, we have a lot of exciting
Speaker 3: projects coming up.
Speaker 4: And then personally, I think that it's really.
Speaker 3: Yeah, a moment of finding purpose and you know, uh
Speaker 3: and service, like trying to to really focus on on
Speaker 3: that and how I can can do that more in
Speaker 3: my community with my loved ones, you know, really being
Speaker 3: present for that.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: I think there's such a shift after forty of like,
Speaker 3: you know, doing all this stuff for yourself and then
Speaker 3: realizing what you can do for others.
Speaker 4: I don't know, it feels like the main focus.
Speaker 2: Yeah, does that sort of.
Speaker 1: Central focus on service and on community? Do you think
Speaker 1: that's something that helps you feel like that helps you
Speaker 1: feel grounded and sort of rooted. In our industry, that
Speaker 1: often means you have to move somewhere at the drop
Speaker 1: of a hat, relocate for six months. It's very uprooting.
Speaker 1: So do you think the community gives you that?
Speaker 3: Yes, I mean there's absolutely like the selfish aspect to service,
Speaker 3: which is, you know, how grounding purpose is and how
Speaker 3: grounding community is so absolutely like I completely cop to that,
Speaker 3: you know, it's not just purely altruistic, like I get
Speaker 3: so much out of out of that.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's I hear you, but I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think you need to say that that's, you know,
Speaker 1: a selfish.
Speaker 3: Thing, Like it's okay, Like it's a way great that
Speaker 3: I get something out of it.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: That would be my flip for you, is like, hey,
Speaker 1: what a cool thing that you're getting so much out
Speaker 1: of community and out of giving rather than just out
Speaker 1: of taking. Like, I don't know, I think to your point,
Speaker 1: whether it's forty or or what aha moment, I think
Speaker 1: such a big life hack, such a beautiful revelation as oh,
Speaker 1: I'm always going to have more joy if I'm outward
Speaker 1: with others than I will be if I'm insular with myself.
Speaker 2: I think I think that's deeply chic. Ma'am.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Yes, I think you deserve that. When we
Speaker 1: think about this really sort of yummy space to be
Speaker 1: where you're making incredible work, you have incredible purpose in
Speaker 1: your life, you have incredible kids. You're looking ahead at
Speaker 1: what brings you joy. You're finding play. It sounds like
Speaker 1: such a well deserved, nice place to have your feet
Speaker 1: in the ground.
Speaker 2: What feels like you're work in progress?
Speaker 4: Oh so much, so much.
Speaker 3: I think, I think to cultivate that service, to cultivate joy.
Speaker 4: I don't think those are like well.
Speaker 3: Practiced enough for me, like there, I'm to be conscious
Speaker 3: of them, and so yes, those are you know, my
Speaker 3: conscious like what I'm working at.
Speaker 4: What about you me?
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, you know, I think similarly to what you
Speaker 1: were saying earlier, figuring out how to how to live
Speaker 1: at my core for myself. It might sound so silly
Speaker 1: to people listening, but it really was a shock going
Speaker 1: from being raised, you know, to be like a good
Speaker 1: daughter of immigrants and a good girl and a good
Speaker 1: girl on set and a good soldier at work, and
Speaker 1: someone who could smile through anything that was happening to
Speaker 1: keep the ship moving for everyone on it. You know,
Speaker 1: to actually ask yourself, what do I want? Where do
Speaker 1: I find joy? And wait long enough until your inner
Speaker 1: self can talk back to you is pretty It's a
Speaker 1: seismic kind of shift. And so for me, figuring out
Speaker 1: how to maintain that relationship with myself, with my highest self,
Speaker 1: my you know in er knowing how you're calling whatever
Speaker 1: you want to call it, to maintain that sort of
Speaker 1: communication while being the person who does like to you know,
Speaker 1: research nerdy data science and wants to know what's going
Speaker 1: on and wants to figure out what we're going to
Speaker 1: do about, you know, fighting for women and fighting for
Speaker 1: disadvantaged peoples and et cetera, et cetera. Like I think
Speaker 1: my work in progress is really beginning to sort of
Speaker 1: toddler stomp my way into learning to show up for
Speaker 1: myself in the way that I tend to show up
Speaker 1: just for other people.
Speaker 4: Mmmm.
Speaker 3: That is very very eloquently put. That is beautiful.
Speaker 2: Thanks.
Speaker 1: It's it's a word in progress for sure, but we're
Speaker 1: getting there. We're getting there, and certainly more to come
Speaker 1: on that. Well, thank you for today. You are always
Speaker 1: such a joy.
Speaker 2: I like a part.
Speaker 1: I like a follow up interview so I can just
Speaker 1: really get in the weeds of what's in the moment
Speaker 1: with you and we don't have to do the full
Speaker 1: overview despite it being a lovely overview.
Speaker 3: You.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for taking the time and for
Speaker 4: having me back. Yeah, and I'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 4: That's y.
Speaker 2: I would love it.