WEBVTT - Kristen Bell Chooses Her Lane 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:05.640 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:10.400 Thing from My Heart Radio. My guest today is Kristen Bell, 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:14.520 a true force of nature. Kristen is a classically trained 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.759 actor who landed a role on Broadway and a revival 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:21.560 of the Crucible with Liam Neeson and Laura Lenny before 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:24.919 she even graduated college on a whim. She and a 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:27.920 friend moved to l A soon after, and she's been 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:32.600 starring in TV and movies ever since. From her breakout 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:36.880 role as the teenage private detective Veronica Mars, to Princess 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:40.040 Anna in the Frozen movies to the more recent Eleanor 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:43.960 Shellstrap on NBC's The Good Place, Kristen has made her 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:47.760 name by being plucky, relatable, and when the role calls 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:51.400 for it, very funny. I caught up with Kristen Bell 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:54.360 in Los Angeles, where she lives with her husband, the 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:59.960 actor and podcaster Dax Shepherd, and their two young daughters. Currently, 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:03.280 I'm in a motor home parked on our front lawn 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:06.800 at all times because I'm married to hill Billy. Actually 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:10.080 we just got it a couple of days ago over 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:14.280 um over quarantine. His main objective was to buy a 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:17.520 motor home because we do go camping and go to 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:19.679 this glamous sand dunes a couple of times a year, 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:22.760 so we we rent motor homes. But we found a 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:25.039 good deal and when in Texas he went down to 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:26.759 get it, he drove it back and it is now. 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:28.840 I'm not gonna I'm not joking with you right now. 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:31.320 Look at where it's sitting. So this is the motor home, 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:34.160 right and that's my house. That's my house, So that's 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:38.160 my front window. Were to the definition of hillbilly is 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:41.240 you have a house, you're both working, you're both doing well. 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:43.560 You buy a house worth millions of dollars in l A. 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:45.240 And your husband was like, I want to have a 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:48.280 motor home on the front law and baby, Um, I'm lucky. 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:51.120 This man has all his teeth. Honestly, I'm lucky he 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.080 has all his teeth. That's the truth. But I will 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:57.000 give him credit. She's gorgeous. Her name is big Brown. 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:00.680 She's absolutely ship brown color. And it's sitting right outside 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:03.240 my front window. And I don't hate it. I love it. 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:05.240 We we come out here and play in it, and 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:08.760 we're gonna plan on camping in it. A ton and 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:11.560 I'm not I'm not mad at it. How's the quarantine 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:15.320 going for you with your family? Shockingly okay? I mean, 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:19.320 you know, mainly because of our privilege. We don't live 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:22.120 in a one room apartment. We like have a backyard, 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:25.880 we can go outside and and uh, my my kids 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:28.919 can you know, run around the house again, because we've 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:30.840 got a house with a couple of bedrooms. So I'm 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:34.040 incredibly grateful for that. My my husband and I started 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:36.880 out quarantine like in the midst of a big fight, 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:39.480 like you know those sort of not fight but yes fight, 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:42.760 those like every three years, that sort of marriage house 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:45.239 cleaning that has to happen, where like the resentments have 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:47.680 been built and it's coming to a head and you're 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:49.760 both going to go back to the therapist. And we 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:53.080 were like right there, and then the doors closed on 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:56.600 the whole world and we were like, oh shit, Yeah, 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:58.919 you're hiking through a cave and the walls collapsed and 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:02.240 you're stuck inside the cave together. Yeah. It was intense 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:05.079 to say the least, but it did force us to 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:08.519 talk vulnerably in order to get over some of the 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:12.000 resentments in the sort of housekeeping that needed to happen. 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:16.480 About how we were not meeting each other's love languages, etcetera, etcetera, 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:18.960 and we did it pretty well. How does he not 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:22.480 meet your love language? Well? Or I don't meet his, 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:26.520 that's the question. So everybody has different ways that they 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:30.639 feel that they are loved. Right, for me, it's pre production. 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:32.720 If if I come home from work and you have 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:35.440 ordered me food, there's a burrito in the fridge. For me, 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:38.560 I'm like, damn, this guy loves me. He was thinking 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:41.160 she might be home from work and she might want 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:44.480 a burrito like he thought about me. For him, it's 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:46.240 meeting him at the door. He could give a ship 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:48.280 what's in the fridge. He doesn't care if I've ordered 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:51.200 him dinner. So if I'm sitting up in my bedroom 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:52.560 where I'm playing with the girls, or I'm on my 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:55.080 computer or watching TV and I don't sort of like 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:58.400 meet him with a hug, He's like, I could care 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:00.360 less what's in the fridge. I want to see you. 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:03.280 I want His is very much physical affection, as in 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:05.960 like eye contact, hand on the shoulder when we're on 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:08.800 the couch. He wants to be snuggling. Yes, I love you, 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:10.560 and which we do all the time. But you know, 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:13.640 after thirteen years, it does become a sort of passing phrase, 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:16.400 which we try not to make it. Whereas I'm less 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:19.479 um physical, I don't need anyone to jump up, I 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:22.240 want I'm like, everybody stay stated, I'm fine. I'm the mom, 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:24.400 and I'm you know, doing my own thing, and I 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:26.400 want to take care of everybody else. But it was 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:28.560 just stuff like that, and I would be like, but 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:30.520 I ordered you dinner. He's like, but I don't care 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:32.760 about dinner. I want you to get up off the 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:34.960 couch and give me a hug. And so it's those 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:38.359 little things love language wise, where we have to remember 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:42.080 that the other person needs something that we don't need. 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:44.400 So we have to think in the other person's love 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:48.760 language in order to properly show what we feel. One 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:51.880 time I was at a party and Seinfeld is at 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:54.799 another table. They cut up the couples so that Jessica 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:57.480 was at my table and I'm sitting there with Jessica 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:00.200 Seinfeld and we're talking, and I said to her, you 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:03.919 realize that if you look him in the eye every day, 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:06.360 and look him in the antica and really let it count, 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:09.080 let it breathe, and say, Jerry, I love you more 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:11.440 than anything in the world. He will do whatever you 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:13.279 ask him to do for the rest of your life. 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:15.760 And she started to cry. She had like tears from look, 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:18.520 I'm from that school, like I want you to still 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:21.479 be my girlfriend. I want the romance I want we have. 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:23.520 My wife and I are locked in a big house 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:26.240 with five kids. So as I tell people, it's like 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:29.280 the little rascals meets the shining every day here at 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:31.680 my house. But I said to my wife, you know, 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:34.240 if you just said that to me, took two seconds 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:35.960 to tell me that every day I could go on 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:38.679 that that's the oxygen that I need, you know. Yeah, 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:41.520 And it's it's really healthy to be able to communicate 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:43.480 that to your partner and not to make any no, 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:45.719 you know, no one can be generalized or I don't 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:47.920 want to make this broad and sweeping. But I've known 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:51.120 a lot of a group of men like that where 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:54.119 it actually is quite simple. It's just presence. It's being 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:59.360 uh present with them and communicative in the simplest way 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:02.359 of just a reminder that the foundation exists and that 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:05.200 you are still attracted to and love them. Whereas my 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:08.120 love language is like let's go I'm a human doing 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:10.560 and not a human being. I'm working on that in therapy, 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:13.279 becoming less of a human doing. Why now, what do 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:14.960 you think? What are the pitfalls of the one versus 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:17.880 the other? Why? Well, a human being exists more a 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:20.359 human doing, has a huge to do list and is 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:23.120 accomplishes a ton. But then maybe on your deathbed you're like, 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:25.440 did I even experience any of it? Because I've got 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:28.080 my fingers in a lot of different pots and I'm going, going, going, 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:30.440 all the time. And that's why I like, I think 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:32.640 of someone, order them dinner, scratch it off my list. 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:35.760 That proves I love them. That doesn't work for everyone. 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:39.400 That doesn't work for everyone, Alec, I'm learning for you. 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:42.920 Was show business in the blood in the family? Was 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:45.680 your show business people in your family? No? Well, my 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:49.279 father is a news director still is UM. So he 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:51.159 was the only person that was ever I mean, he 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:52.600 was on the radio for a while. He's got a 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:56.040 voice like yours is just smooth and wonderful. And I 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:59.600 was the only one that ever um showed any signs 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:03.920 of wanting to perform. And it wasn't really even wanting 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:06.480 an audience so much as I sang a lot when 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:09.479 I was little. I have a very musical brain and 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:13.400 a very I'm very auditorially sensitive, like I can't really 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:16.920 have a conversation when music is on. I feel almost 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:19.640 like I'm hearing voices inside my head because such a 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:22.120 big portion of my brain focuses on the music, which 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.440 is annoying and also great. But so I sang a 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:27.320 lot when I was little, and then my mom got 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:31.120 me into voice lessons and I studied like Operetta's for 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:35.480 a year or two, and then in my ninth grade year, 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:39.160 my teacher gave me after school homework of Green Finch 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:41.560 and linnet Bird from Sweeney Todd. And I had never 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:44.239 sang in English before, I was only singing in Italian, 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:46.560 and I was like, oh my god, what is this. 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:48.840 I can understand this character's perspective. So then I became 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:51.400 obsessed with musical theater. But again, no one else did it. 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:54.000 And my father was the only one that was hesitant, 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:56.560 not in a way that would ever hold me back, 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:59.680 but just like he hires and fires the journalists at 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:02.560 his station, and so he'll watch a new news reporter 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:05.160 and be like, I can't hire her, I can't hire him. 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:08.560 And he was scared of the rejection, but other than 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:12.080 that hesitation, everyone was like, sure, we don't know what 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:16.160 you're doing, but good luck. And they were pretty supportive. 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:19.680 But no one else was in performance of any kind. 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:26.720 Actor Kristen Bell, that early introduction to Sondheim took her 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:30.320 from the suburbs of Detroit to New York City. Another 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:33.920 actress with a flair for comedy, as Ellie Kemper, We 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:38.000 talked about her getting cast as the unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:41.160 They basically said, we're developing a new show. We don't 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:42.960 know what it is, but good do you have met you? 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:45.439 We met in May and then I met them again 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:47.840 in July and they pitched the actual idea to me. 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:51.079 I thought they were joking because the premise of the 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:54.760 show I know, and I was like, they were pranking me. 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.079 You can hear the rest of my conversation with Ellie 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:02.120 Kemper a Here's the thing dot org. After the break, 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:07.320 we talked about what advice Kristen offers to aspiring actors today. 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:16.920 I'm Alec Baldwin and this is here is the thing 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:21.280 we're talking today with Kristin Bell. She discovered her love 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:25.520 for acting in middle school. I started doing a lot 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:29.440 of like local theater in Detroit, and then it was 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:32.679 less of a like putting a stake in the ground 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:35.040 saying this is what I'm gonna do. And what happened 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:38.040 was I was sixteen and went into Mr Franklin's office 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.800 in my high school when he's like the guy who 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:42.800 helps you pick colleges in the high school, and he 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:45.680 was like, well, you want to pick you know, college, 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:48.280 that a career, that's something you love, So what do 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:50.319 you love? And I was like, well, I love doing 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:52.240 musical theater. He goes, well, you can study theater and 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:54.560 I was like, great, so much thanks by Like I 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:56.679 never it was, it just occurred to me. It never 0:09:56.720 --> 0:09:59.360 occurred to me to change what I loved. And I 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:01.280 was like, well, I guess just keep doing what I'm doing. 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:03.840 And where'd you go? N y U. I applied early 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:05.800 admission to n y U, and I told my parents 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:09.000 I sent in my Northwestern application that I didn't because 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:11.560 I wanted I put all my focus on early admission 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:13.960 in n y U. Thankfully I got in. Then I 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:17.200 moved to New York and I was in the Tish 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:18.920 School of the Arts for two and a half years 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:21.720 and then I left my middle of my third year 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:26.520 because I booked Tom Sawyer and then The Crucible with 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:30.040 Liam Neeson and Laura Lenny, and then Reefer Madness, and 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:32.160 then a couple of shows in New York, and then 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:34.839 moved to d C to do the Kennedy Center uh 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:37.440 Sondheim Rep. And then I moved to l A on 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:40.920 a whim. So it was all theater. You didn't finish you, No, 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:43.120 I did not. I do not have a degree in 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:46.440 anything I went there. I went to gw in Washington 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:49.320 for a pre law program, but finished in theater at 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:51.320 n y U. I left there in nineteen eighty but 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:55.520 went back in to graduate fourteen years later. Did you 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:57.240 have to take a class because so much of their 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:01.000 grades around attendance. They wig ave to all my acting 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:04.800 classes from my practical experience acting the last fourteen years. 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:06.880 And I had to write a paper. And I wrote 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:09.800 a sixty five page paper on the applicability of method 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:12.400 acting to the career of someone who was still active 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:15.199 in film and theater. And there was only one person 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:17.960 who met the criterion. I interviewed Pacino for nine hours 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:21.079 at his house up in West just Oh. I wonder 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:23.360 for you, I mean, you're obviously from a very different 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:26.040 generation than I am, and you're much younger than I am. 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:29.079 What's your advice to young actors, because I sometimes struggle 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:32.920 with that whether they should study acting in college. It's expensive, 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:35.720 Like I'll say to them if I had it to 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:38.040 do over again, get a degree in a subject where 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:41.560 you can just read a lot of great books, philosophy, literature, history, 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:43.800 because this is the great time for you to read, 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:46.440 because as I've gotten older, the thing I missed most 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:49.199 is time to read. And then I'll say to them, 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:51.320 you go take acting classes somewhere. How do you feel 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:55.480 about that? I think that's actually now, in my infinite wisdom, 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:59.440 after turning forty, I think that that's probably the right 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:02.280 thing to say a because previously my only critique of 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:06.079 n y U was that I didn't feel that they 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:12.240 gave um enough practical actors experience, Like we once in 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:14.280 a while had like a casting director come in, but 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:16.920 it was really like there was this you were so 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:21.080 built up because you were studying all these fancy plays 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:24.240 and performing them, but you didn't realize how small your 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:29.080 world was. And I remember sneaking out of classes to 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:32.360 go audition because I had gotten an agent right when 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:36.200 I moved to New York. And I also it was 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:39.000 in my favor that I looked a lot younger than 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:41.080 I was, So when I was eighteen, I was still 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:44.760 playing thirteen and I remember sneaking out and once I 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:47.479 was caught and they were like, you shouldn't be auditioning, 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:50.000 And I'm like, well, what the hell are you training 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:52.240 me for? Like if I'm not supposed to be auditioning, 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:55.880 because the nerves you feel when you audition can be 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:58.679 debilitating for the vast majority of us, Like even I 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:01.760 mean I still have them sometimes, but definitely had them 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:04.400 early on. And every actor I know that's working was like, 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:06.480 oh yeah, I used to get super nervous, so nervous 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:08.440 that I, you know, choke all my words, or that 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:10.160 I would burp, or that I would have the shakes 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:12.960 or whatever. I think you need to learn how to 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:15.520 handle that as much as you need to learn how 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:18.040 to study these classic plays. I think that's an incredib 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:21.960 like just getting ahold of your being is incredibly important. 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:23.560 And I didn't. I don't feel like there was enough 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:26.640 stress put on that about how do you manage your 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:31.800 cortisol levels when you really really want something, so I 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:35.840 think getting into scary situations. I was in this beautiful, 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:40.760 little like um bubble of studying Alexander technique. And when 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:43.000 I explained that to my husband and he was like, well, 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:44.600 what is that, I'm like, what's sort of like body 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:46.800 work and you're, you know, you're in like loose clothes 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:49.040 and you're touching each other. And he's like, you did 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:52.240 this in fucking college. And so now he always jokes, 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:55.120 he's like, let's just throw some sweatpants on, let's work 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:58.480 it out Alexander style. But I think that's very safe, 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:01.880 and I don't think acting safe or should be safe. 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:04.400 The first job I had, I got a job on 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:07.000 a soap opera in New York, and I thought to myself, 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:08.880 this is I mean, privately, I'm sitting there on the 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:10.920 set and I say the same thing every day I 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:14.160 commit here. I'm like, oh, Greta, I love you. Oh God, Greta, 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:16.520 if you only knew how much I love you, Greta, 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:19.600 please understand. And I'd be on the subway trying to 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:21.560 memorize my lines. It was all such a pain in 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:24.160 the acid, and then it hit me, this is hard 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:27.560 to do well. The udahg and respect for acting things 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:29.800 like the first thing you gotta get to is that 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:31.880 it's not easy even if you have a shitty part. 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:33.640 I tell people, just be One of the best things 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:35.560 in the movie, even if you you were walking and 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:38.120 go dinner, is serve and learning where you fit into 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:41.920 because I also find there's so much bringing people up 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:44.280 in a lot of like acting classes that I took of, 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:46.120 like well where are you coming from? Where are you 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:48.440 coming from? And to be honest, the thing that I've 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:51.240 learned mainly in film and television is when I read 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:52.880 a script, now I'm not looking at it from my 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:54.560 point of view, I'm looking at it from the director's 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:56.840 point of view because I'm going and and here's the 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:59.720 other thing is sometimes it doesn't give a hoot if 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:03.320 I feel it, it matters if the audience feels it. 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:05.080 So like I could say I want to do a 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:07.440 hundred more till I feel it, and I hope that 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:11.360 someone in the crew would go, no, no thanks. We 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:13.240 need to go home to our families because we are 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:16.120 also human beings employed in the same industry that you are. 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:18.400 It doesn't matter. You have to you have to trust 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:20.880 in the director that they're getting what they need to get. 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:22.480 But you really have to be thinking about is the 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:25.400 audience feeling this and whether you need to just trust 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:27.720 the director, you need to watch the take, whatever it is. 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:31.560 But it's about how you fit into a bigger story. 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:33.920 And I don't necessarily know that that was ever taught 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:38.960 to me until I started getting really good direction and saying, well, 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:41.400 I feel like my character would do this, and then like, 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:43.960 you know, I don't know someone like I was on 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:46.040 Deadwood in the in the very beginning of my career, 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:48.120 and David Milt would be like, well, I don't, but 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:50.560 but this is what I need to have happen. Oh 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:53.520 my god, the best has like eight rescue dogs following 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:56.400 him around on the set. I don't know how I 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:57.800 got this job un Dead when I only did a 0:15:57.800 --> 0:15:59.800 couple episodes, but it was a very cool role. It 0:15:59.880 --> 0:16:01.720 was like a young girl who came into town with 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:04.600 her brother and she starts working at the horehouse and 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:06.760 then she tries to like take everyone for a ride, 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:09.320 and she sleeps with Kim's character and she stabs powers 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:11.600 booth and it was and then I get beaten and 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:14.600 shot in the center of town, right, so I only 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:18.680 read the sweet scenes, and then when I got the role, 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:21.760 I read the sort of other side of her where 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:23.760 she goes crazy. And I said to him like, I 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:25.280 don't know if I can do this, and he goes, no, 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:27.200 I know you can. And then I went home and 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:29.320 I felt so insecure. I'm like, does he think I'm evil? 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:32.160 Because these scenes are really evil. So I had a 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:34.560 great time working with him, but I also found that 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:37.960 he was one of the kindest people I've ever worked with. 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:41.800 Every Friday on Deadwood, that was a difficult show to shoot. 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:44.080 It was in Santa Clarita. There were a ton of horses, 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:46.680 which means their ship smell everywhere. There was at the 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:49.600 atmosphere that they pump in, which means everyone's breathing in dust. 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:52.920 All of these things, tight corsets, blah blah blah. Wasn't 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:57.000 physically comfortable long hours. And every Friday at lunchtime, he 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:00.400 would gather everybody into the one of the saloons and 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:04.800 I would watch him give away ten dollars. He'd put 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:07.080 in a fish bowl, all these little tickets and he'd say, 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:11.280 okay for a sevent d prize. Joe Gripp and he'd 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:13.120 say thank you, so much for working here. I love 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:15.480 you guys. Okay for a two hundred dollar prize and 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:18.840 he would just give away a ton of his money 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:22.440 as he has created numerous shows, and you know, what, 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:24.800 can I tell you something? So I said to myself 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:26.600 when I saw him do it, I was like, I'm 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:28.440 gonna do that if I ever make it, I'm gonna 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:30.120 do that that. I'm going to do that one day. 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:32.440 This is going to be my example. And I've done 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:35.280 it on my last couple of shows and it feels 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:37.840 you can't imagine a better feeling. And I expect I 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:40.359 did it for I just finished a movie called Queen 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:43.320 Pins that was an indie that spent all of our 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:46.159 budget on COVID safety, and I mean COVID safety like 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:48.639 you have never seen. Because I was so hesitant to work. 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.560 We shot it. We had a huge COVID team. Everyone 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:55.119 got PCRs every day, not just rapids. You had to 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:56.520 have a K of ninety five. They had to bring 0:17:56.560 --> 0:17:59.920 an air scrubbers every hour to scrub the entire air 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:01.639 in the room. No more than twelve people. And I 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:04.239 knew it was stressful for people, and I was like, 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:06.720 I'm gonna milch it. I'm gonna milt it. And it 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:09.840 was so wonderful. But here's what I did, because I 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:12.480 also from you know, just reading freakonomics. You just have 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:16.440 to incentivize people. So I said to our COVID consultants, 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:17.639 who were from U C. L A. I was like, 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:20.000 what if we just incentivize them. What if I get 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:22.920 grub hub to give us everybody two fifty dollar gift 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:25.760 certificates so they're encouraged to eat at home, and then 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:27.359 the next week we get the in and out truck, 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:29.800 and then then and then the other week subsequent weeks, 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:32.040 I put five or ten grand in a bucket and 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:34.040 I say, this is the I did not get COVID 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:36.240 this week bucket, And you're only in here if you 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:39.199 didn't get COVID. And we pull a name, and I 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:41.439 gotta say nobody got COVID because everyone wanted to be 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:44.359 in the bucket. Oh well, I'm sure some people were 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:46.760 sitting there going, well, it's the least you can do it. 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:48.840 But five grants into the fish bolshop with all that 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:51.680 frozen money. She got to God, Oh, you'd think right. 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:55.119 I've been doing some animated films. I did the movie 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:57.800 Boss Baby and we're just finishing the sequel now. People 0:18:57.840 --> 0:18:59.520 say to me, how do you feel doing that? I'm like, 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:02.480 the is the greatest movie I've ever made. I love 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:06.560 doing those movies because the audience so receptive as kids, 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:08.960 you know, and here you are to have been part 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:14.439 of this, like unbelievably Titanic success. Was that fun for you? 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:18.520 So fun? It's been fantastic, And it's been the biggest 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:23.520