Speaker 1: Hey everybody, it's me Matt Rogers, letting you know. Tickets
Speaker 1: are on sale now to see me on tour, the
Speaker 1: Prince of Christmas Tour, that is, I'm doing my whole
Speaker 1: album have you Heard of Christmas? Plus a lot more
Speaker 1: with the whole band all throughout December. Go to www
Speaker 1: dot Matt Rodgersofficial dot com. See me in a city
Speaker 1: near you and now Lost Culture drums.
Speaker 2: Look, oh, I see you my own and look over
Speaker 2: there is that the culture, Yes, lost Culture, Dan, Lost.
Speaker 1: Culture calling and our green as it were.
Speaker 3: You know, it is a very present color in all
Speaker 3: of our lives. And yet for someone to I don't know,
Speaker 3: like really not gonna say own it, but.
Speaker 1: That's my color now vibes.
Speaker 3: And I'm not talking about us, No, I'm alty.
Speaker 1: Talking about someone else. So you'll hear about an assass you'll.
Speaker 3: Hear from an asak. I I'm already sort of basking
Speaker 3: in the glow of this person because I'm fresh off
Speaker 3: here not how could you know? I mean, this is
Speaker 3: the first time I'm seeing her in person in a
Speaker 3: long time, and I'm fresh off of seeing the film
Speaker 3: Wicked Part one again last.
Speaker 4: Night, there was a screening talk.
Speaker 1: About this because this was a really this was not
Speaker 1: just any.
Speaker 3: Screen No, no, this was so sublime. It was Broadway
Speaker 3: friends and families. So it was so many of the
Speaker 3: original cast of Wicked, but also all the casts since
Speaker 3: over the twenty one years that the twenty one years
Speaker 3: the show has been on around the world. Kristin was there,
Speaker 3: Norbert was there. Wow, so many wonderful, wonderful people. I'm
Speaker 3: missing so many people. Carrie Saint Louis was there. I
Speaker 3: saw that one of our famed Glinda's and it was
Speaker 3: just the warmest crowd. I couldn't believe it. You know
Speaker 3: what was also crazy children of the original cast.
Speaker 1: Oh so now it's truly generational. And see that's the
Speaker 1: great thing about this, and I think that it's like
Speaker 1: hitting everyone right now. I was like, this is meaningful
Speaker 1: on me because I've also seen the film. It was
Speaker 1: a little bit of a different situation. It was a
Speaker 1: very small screening room and I was just telling our
Speaker 1: guests when I saw it, I was like, are people
Speaker 1: going to turn up the way I'm going to turn.
Speaker 3: Up because it was a smaller theater, Yes, smaller screen,
Speaker 3: and I.
Speaker 1: Can say that they did. But it's so when you're
Speaker 1: watching the movie. What's so incredible about it? And I
Speaker 1: don't know why I had to realize this, but I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, we're also honoring the Wizard of Oz.
Speaker 1: This is generations of cinema. This is the Wizard of Oz.
Speaker 1: Is the story and so wicked is the story and
Speaker 1: it's just to watch it land on people like that must.
Speaker 3: Have been really really really monumental, so monumental. Oh my god,
Speaker 3: I can't believe you're here. I love you so much.
Speaker 1: I mean just to speak on you know. Oh the way,
Speaker 1: what a huge year for Green, big Green. You did
Speaker 1: that this year. You really you really got your right
Speaker 1: And I'm sorry, can remind us what well Brack Green?
Speaker 1: Oh Brad Green? Of course, well there was famously Bratt
Speaker 1: Green and now there's Alpha ba Green.
Speaker 3: Green was very present at the various tennis opens of
Speaker 3: the world one hundred you know.
Speaker 1: Golf because of the color of the grass, of the
Speaker 1: grass Green forever. It's actually real culture number six. Green
Speaker 1: is forever our guest today. Is one of the most
Speaker 1: brilliant artists of any generation and Emmy, Grammy and Tony winner,
Speaker 1: an Oscar nominated actress and songwriter, just a truly brilliant
Speaker 1: star who we're here to announce is Alpha. But you
Speaker 1: heard it here first, ringing Alpha butt in Wicked. I mean,
Speaker 1: when you see this, you are going to be truly lifted.
Speaker 1: I mean, and I don't even say that as a
Speaker 1: pun because of the famous lifting that happens, not a spoiler.
Speaker 3: It's also the patron saint of the Kennedy Center.
Speaker 1: At this point, I have If you don't think I'm
Speaker 1: going to bring up Alfie, oh you didn't think.
Speaker 3: If you didn't think, you don't talk to me. Don't
Speaker 3: talk to me until I've had my since. Okay, everyone,
Speaker 3: and welcome into your ears significent the area.
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: How are you feeling since last night?
Speaker 5: I'm feeling very, very like floaty. Last night was crazy
Speaker 5: and amazing. Many many things are happening around town. I
Speaker 5: was bouncing around all over town. So I started the
Speaker 5: cfdas went back to the screening. I was hanging out
Speaker 5: at the screening for a little bit, which was so surreal.
Speaker 5: I had like an outer body experience. So I was
Speaker 5: standing at the back of the first of all, I
Speaker 5: walk in and there's all the alphabe as standing there,
Speaker 5: all the Glinds standing there, and then there's Kristen right
Speaker 5: in the middle and she welcomes me. We have this
Speaker 5: massive hug Christmas amazing, and I'd already spoken to it, Dina,
Speaker 5: so that was like already sort of like a metaphysical thing.
Speaker 4: That was going on.
Speaker 5: So I felt like, Oh, I'm part of this incredible sisterhood,
Speaker 5: which you know you are, but when you see it
Speaker 5: in like real life, that sort of becomes an actual
Speaker 5: core memory.
Speaker 4: Yeah. And then we move.
Speaker 5: Upstairs and then we speak and we start talking about
Speaker 5: what it means to us. And as I'm waiting for
Speaker 5: us to go up, I realized that I'm standing in
Speaker 5: front of a Broadway family, one of which I've belonged
Speaker 5: to because of my history and the things I've been
Speaker 5: through and color purple and all of that. And I'm like, oh,
Speaker 5: two things are happening at once, So I'm getting to
Speaker 5: show this film that is from Broadway to a Broadway
Speaker 5: family from which I belong. I just had like a
Speaker 5: massive not even a meltdown, but like a real realization
Speaker 5: of the journey that I've been on and what it
Speaker 5: might mean to them and what it might mean to me.
Speaker 4: And it just was it became.
Speaker 5: So it was already a big moment, but that became
Speaker 5: a really huge moment to be a part of.
Speaker 4: You were enveloped in it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I had to be like, I've got to breathe.
Speaker 5: I can't even. I feel like I'm so out of body.
Speaker 5: It was so insane. And then because I had to
Speaker 5: rush back, I really didn't want to leave immediately. So
Speaker 5: I hung out at the back and watched just like
Speaker 5: the first twenty minutes of the film with everyone and
Speaker 5: just to see, like hear it that the laughs and
Speaker 5: the tears that happened immediately, the applause, and it's just
Speaker 5: it was working.
Speaker 4: You know, you're like, oh, it's playing.
Speaker 5: My makeup artist was saying, there's this piece in Madonna's
Speaker 5: Truth or Dare and when she they're standing in a
Speaker 5: circle and they're about to go on show and it's
Speaker 5: in her hometown and she's shaking, she goes, it shouldn't matter,
Speaker 5: but it does matter what they think, of course, and
Speaker 5: I was like, that's that's the case. It does matter
Speaker 5: what this legacy, what this room thinks of this piece.
Speaker 5: And to be in the room whilst they were accepting
Speaker 5: it and open armed for it was beyond beyond my
Speaker 5: wildest dreams.
Speaker 1: How are you managing over all your emotions around this moment?
Speaker 1: Because I'm not, That's what I mean. Could you do
Speaker 1: you have like time to yourself in the mornings where
Speaker 1: you like actually let things out like or do your
Speaker 1: emotions like surprise you in moments?
Speaker 4: They surprise me.
Speaker 5: Sometimes I feel like I'm really like I'm in control
Speaker 5: of what's going on, and I you know, I could
Speaker 5: manage everything. And then the other times they just like
Speaker 5: spill out, you know, unexpectedly, a little thing will happen,
Speaker 5: and I go, oh my god.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: We were talking about this before with like John and
Speaker 3: with Ari. It's like it's because we kind of put
Speaker 3: it to the side. We can permentalize that we put
Speaker 3: it in the door, and now it's all coming back
Speaker 3: and there are these things are popping out of not nowhere,
Speaker 3: but like intermittently. Because it was something that you sat
Speaker 3: with for years, yes, yes, And was that your first
Speaker 3: time watching in a bigger room last night.
Speaker 5: With an audience on a bigger screen with many people. Yes,
Speaker 5: that is a very different experience to sent the correct
Speaker 5: very different even to because we I watched that movie
Speaker 5: basically with two other people, me and like my publicist
Speaker 5: or something.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and we just sat and watched and that was it.
Speaker 5: And I'd been craving to watch it in a theater
Speaker 5: with other people who had never seen it before, who
Speaker 5: were just coming to it for the first time. So
Speaker 5: to sit like to watch people react just off the
Speaker 5: cuff insane. It's completely different energy. It's the wildest, most
Speaker 5: energy filled, most electric feeling you could imagine. I can't
Speaker 5: wait to do it again. Yes, I can't wait to
Speaker 5: do it again and again. Do it as much as
Speaker 5: you can. Because we're talking to you.
Speaker 3: Is like to you as someone who's obviously been in
Speaker 3: films before with theatrical releases, but like, I don't know, different,
Speaker 3: it's just different. And also, of course, of course it's different.
Speaker 3: But also the thing that I missed about, you know,
Speaker 3: Matt and I were in a movie once that didn't
Speaker 3: come out in theaters, but we went to like the
Speaker 3: premieres and stuff and the screenings, and it was like, oh,
Speaker 3: I'll miss this so much, just sharing the space with
Speaker 3: people watching this at the same time and.
Speaker 1: To give it the cinematic opportunity that it deserves. Because
Speaker 1: we were talking to Ariana last week the pod. And
Speaker 1: one thing that struck me was when you're shooting it,
Speaker 1: it is you're at work and you're shooting it. So
Speaker 1: there's the tape, you know what I mean, there's your mark,
Speaker 1: there's the guy with the camera. So then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, it can feel easy to slip into, Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm at work, I'm doing the scene, and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm talking to my friend, I'm on my phone when
Speaker 1: I'm not like here, and then all of a sudden
Speaker 1: you see oz.
Speaker 5: Yes, and it's all together and everything like all of
Speaker 5: those miniature things that make it happen, all the stuff
Speaker 5: that like, oh, semantics go away. Yeah, and now it's
Speaker 5: like the thread is there. Yeah, and then you're ling together. Wow,
Speaker 5: we made a big yeah movie.
Speaker 4: It's insane. The thing is huge.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And like I keep going back, even I was in it,
Speaker 5: go back and I watched and I go I didn't
Speaker 5: see that last time. Oh my gosh, I didn't notice
Speaker 5: that the person did that. I didn't know that I
Speaker 5: was Why did I roll my eyes at that point
Speaker 5: when you catch that?
Speaker 4: When did I do that?
Speaker 3: I don't remember.
Speaker 5: So you're catching up on all the things that you
Speaker 5: may have done in the moment that you didn't remember
Speaker 5: you even did, or you didn't remember was there, and
Speaker 5: now all of a sudden you're like, oh my god,
Speaker 5: that was That is.
Speaker 4: Where I was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's alphabet and right. That is another thing
Speaker 1: is it's just like you've contributed such a beautiful, strong, funny,
Speaker 1: powerful alpha bat And I wanted to ask specifically about
Speaker 1: one choice in the film because this, to me was
Speaker 1: this really is what blew people back in their t
Speaker 1: so so much said about defying gravity and in that
Speaker 1: the last note, right, the gut that you put in
Speaker 1: that note, that battle cry, that roar is so different
Speaker 1: than the way you've approached vocally the rest of the
Speaker 1: performance the whole time. Can you talk about that choice?
Speaker 1: And like the collaboration with John on deciding how to
Speaker 1: make that note that alpha but two point zero that
Speaker 1: launches us into Wicked Part two, we.
Speaker 5: Knew that for her this was the beginning of her journey,
Speaker 5: almost like the beginning of what we know will become
Speaker 5: the wicked wicked word. But it had to be for
Speaker 5: both of us, the release of everything. It had to
Speaker 5: be a raw, so I didn't necessarily want to make
Speaker 5: it pretty. So there has to be like a gutta rule.
Speaker 5: It has to come from that place that's the beginning
Speaker 5: of like the rage and all of that grit. So
Speaker 5: we just were like, how what do we want it
Speaker 5: to sound like for me? And each alphabet has their
Speaker 5: own battle cry, each alphaba has their own raw and
Speaker 5: I spent some time searching for what that felt like,
Speaker 5: what that could be, And the moment I did it
Speaker 5: and tried it, everyone was like, that's that's it.
Speaker 3: That's it because the rest of alphabet and this in
Speaker 3: part one, the vocal sort of the quality and the
Speaker 3: timber is so clean and so and in a lot
Speaker 3: of ways what we know to be Like Cynthia Rivo's
Speaker 3: voice is like it's just.
Speaker 1: So purely pure and there is like a like it's
Speaker 1: it's almost like it's always intimate you singing I'm not
Speaker 1: that girl who is such a beautiful and you're not
Speaker 1: really understand when you watch on stage. Obviously we enjoy
Speaker 1: the song, but when we can be really with you
Speaker 1: and you're singing it, it actually makes define gravity even more.
Speaker 1: Hartbring like, that's why it's going to be amazing to
Speaker 1: watch on a second, third, fourth, eighth, ninth, millionth time
Speaker 1: is because the arc is it really lands and in
Speaker 1: that last note like I just can't wait for everyone
Speaker 1: to see it, that said it should have been one movie.
Speaker 6: It's like, please, there's no way, Like I love.
Speaker 5: That people are so passionate and the like, it should
Speaker 5: have been one movie. And I understand, but because we
Speaker 5: were there and we shot the second movie, there's not
Speaker 5: a chance. No, there's no way. There's no way it
Speaker 5: could be one movie. There's no there's too much. Yeah,
Speaker 5: there's too much.
Speaker 3: And even you know, there's something to be said about
Speaker 3: part one running in at a certain time, it's like
Speaker 3: it moves even and even then. I think even last night,
Speaker 3: I was like, things can breathe even more if we
Speaker 3: let them, Like a lot was cut out, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean, Like a lot was like, Oh, I
Speaker 3: guess we're trying to service the audience experience by like
Speaker 3: not making them sit there for too long. And yet
Speaker 3: it still came in like two hours, minutes or.
Speaker 4: Whatever, and we still never felt do you see what
Speaker 4: I'm saying?
Speaker 5: Like, can you imagine we went on to the second
Speaker 5: No way?
Speaker 1: I was like, because you couldn't move on to Thank
Speaker 1: goodness that No, it's impossible without define gravity suffering, and
Speaker 1: the rest of the movie after that suffering.
Speaker 5: Yeah, literally everyone has to be like to go away.
Speaker 5: We have to all go away, right, yeah, let we process,
Speaker 5: let me come back, we see it again me, you know,
Speaker 5: we'll see this.
Speaker 4: We'll get back. And also what's.
Speaker 5: Lovely about waiting for the second is that there is
Speaker 5: growth happening in that time.
Speaker 4: So what happens in a year is.
Speaker 5: Like the growth that happens totally everyone that comes back
Speaker 5: the second time around.
Speaker 4: Exactly.
Speaker 1: And to just to speak about like how you don't
Speaker 1: want to let any moment not have its it's true expanse.
Speaker 1: I think one of the most unforgettable moments I've seen
Speaker 1: in a film in a really long time to speak
Speaker 1: on just this one segment is dancing through life when
Speaker 1: you come in and it's the hope and the you know,
Speaker 1: this chance to have a real social moment, any disappointment
Speaker 1: and the realization that you've been tricked. I just think
Speaker 1: that that entire sequence I could get chills. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't think there was a dry eye, and.
Speaker 3: That just if you had stayed for that last night,
Speaker 3: you would have crumbled. Not that you're not a strong person,
Speaker 3: it's just peep. It was a cacophony of sniffles and
Speaker 3: like everyone, it is a beautiful moment. And I wanted
Speaker 3: to ask about shooting that like that MU have been
Speaker 3: so vulnerable and exposing and tough.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was that was a hard That was a
Speaker 4: hard day.
Speaker 1: And I thought when you when when I was watching
Speaker 1: and I was like, I wonder where she's at.
Speaker 5: It was hard, Yeah, because you have to process. I
Speaker 5: really understand Alphaber's ownership of loneliness and like knowing she
Speaker 5: feels different, knowing she's not one of the one of
Speaker 5: everybody else and deeply wanting to you know, there's a
Speaker 5: part of us that all wants to be We all
Speaker 5: want to be accepted, even when we know that we
Speaker 5: can't or we're different and we're on the outside. I
Speaker 5: think that because I understood that, that's where I'm in
Speaker 5: my head. So it's just you know, funneling all the things,
Speaker 5: all the times when I feel alone, all the times
Speaker 5: when you want to be accepted all the time, is
Speaker 5: when you feel like you're on the outside, all the
Speaker 5: times when it just you just can't connect with every
Speaker 5: with everybody, and it's just that that replays in your
Speaker 5: head and in your body as well. And when you're
Speaker 5: doing something like that, something like that, well you are
Speaker 5: really on your own. The loneliness really loud, so you
Speaker 5: just have to process all of that. And that's what happened.
Speaker 5: And every time I could, it was like the more
Speaker 5: you do it, the deeper you go. The deeper you go,
Speaker 5: the deeper you go. So but by the time I
Speaker 5: think you got that show, it was like there was
Speaker 5: like nothing left. It was just I couldn't hold anything.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, my memory of it is that every single setup,
Speaker 3: every single take, you gave it a perfectly calibrated, vulnerable,
Speaker 3: raw thing and it was really beautiful to watch and
Speaker 3: also very difficult. And I can't so if it was
Speaker 3: difficult for me to just even stand by the wayside,
Speaker 3: like I can't imagine the sort of buckling and all
Speaker 3: that that you were giving in service to this project,
Speaker 3: and like that is that is I think like the
Speaker 3: takeaway for everybody for this movie is that, like this
Speaker 3: film is telling this huge universal story, but then for
Speaker 3: the performer, for Cynthia to be the vessel of alphabet,
Speaker 3: this character, like you gave it so so much, You
Speaker 3: gave so much of yourself and I remember you at
Speaker 3: the end of that sort of segment of shooting that
Speaker 3: you turned to everybody and thanked them. Yeah, and it
Speaker 3: was and we just all applauded, and it was just
Speaker 3: such a beautiful, loving moment of sort of communion because
Speaker 3: we'd all sort of been through it in a way.
Speaker 4: It with me. Yeah, I felt really supported and held like.
Speaker 1: It felt like genuine and care.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: It felt like there was the most amazing energy in
Speaker 5: the room. It felt like, you know, there's like a
Speaker 5: circle of like, yeah, strength everyone, we will have to
Speaker 5: do what we have to do. But actually in the
Speaker 5: core of everyone's heart, I could feel like energy, hold
Speaker 5: the circle, keep the energy, keep the space. And there
Speaker 5: was such respect for what was going on and what
Speaker 5: needed to happen. No one was too loud, No, it
Speaker 5: was all like quiet when it needs to be quiet,
Speaker 5: and space whine it needed to be space. And I
Speaker 5: felt so loved, so taken care of during that that
Speaker 5: to have finished without saying thank you would have been impossible,
Speaker 5: because I knew that It's hard enough for me to
Speaker 5: play the person who is alone and going through that,
Speaker 5: but I think it's just as hard to play anyone
Speaker 5: who has to reject someone who is that as well,
Speaker 5: because also I was aware that so many people on
Speaker 5: that set are versions of.
Speaker 4: Elbabet uh huh, you know.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we're all the quick kids who are out, you know,
Speaker 5: and who are pushed on the outside. So everyone in
Speaker 5: that room is sort of watching a version of themselves
Speaker 5: in this moment. I just like, that's something that came
Speaker 5: to me when I had finished and I looked around,
Speaker 5: I was like, we all understand this, yeah, And so
Speaker 5: to have to play the people who are rejecting it
Speaker 5: must also be deeply difficult to do, a.
Speaker 1: Very hard thing to also sit in that emotion and
Speaker 1: guilt and shame that you have allowed someone to feel
Speaker 1: this way, which is why it's such a moment for
Speaker 1: Glinda as well. You know what I mean. It's like
Speaker 1: that is the scene that solidifies the relationship because it
Speaker 1: is both of you confronting the way you really feel.
Speaker 1: And then it launches into popular which is so joyful
Speaker 1: and so expressive and colorful. But it's just so successful
Speaker 1: two things.
Speaker 3: Yes, thank you for acknowledging, even though it's a fraction
Speaker 3: of what you had to go through on a performance level,
Speaker 3: Like there was something I remember, like in the circle
Speaker 3: where between takes, like we would just turn each other
Speaker 3: and be like, it feels really bad for us to
Speaker 3: like snicker and laugh at this person, and we had
Speaker 3: to do that take after take, and then I remember
Speaker 3: coming up to you a bunch of being like, how
Speaker 3: are you doing? I'm so sorry.
Speaker 4: I was like, it feels so.
Speaker 3: Unnatural for me, a gay man, a bully in the
Speaker 3: airy about I'm like, this is so wrong. And then
Speaker 3: the second thing with which which is what Matt saying,
Speaker 3: like launching into Popular. I remember John turned to me
Speaker 3: last night and was just like, it's so great how
Speaker 3: the audience is immediately in love with Glinda for their
Speaker 3: as friends. The second dancing wife is done, and that's
Speaker 3: just it just comes from that moment.
Speaker 4: You know, Lovely.
Speaker 5: I love my favorite part of that, that scene in
Speaker 5: between dancing through Life, the oz Dust and Popular, the
Speaker 5: scene that we have in the bedroom. I think it's
Speaker 5: it's just such a tender, sweet scene. Arian and I
Speaker 5: were saying that the two of them are so awkward,
Speaker 5: they're like figuring it out, Yeah, out, how do we
Speaker 5: hang out? Has never been at a sleepover before, so
Speaker 5: she's like kind of awkward and not really like I
Speaker 5: doesn't really know what to do, and Glinda's I think
Speaker 5: also equally awkward, like how do I hang out with
Speaker 5: this person? And how do I share the space? And
Speaker 5: they're sort of figuring it out the way they like
Speaker 5: undulate and figure it out together, and then finally like
Speaker 5: land on the floor and then it's you know, it's tomorrow, tomorrow.
Speaker 5: I just love how they find their way to that
Speaker 5: popular happens. I think it's that's the journey for them.
Speaker 5: They find each other and you know, but to give
Speaker 5: that sort of she confides in it's sort of like
Speaker 5: I trust you if I'm going to trust you with
Speaker 5: this thing that I don't think. I don't think Alphabe
Speaker 5: has told anyone that story, to be honest. I think
Speaker 5: it's the first time she's voiced it, and I think
Speaker 5: there's just a really wonderful moment of them deciding to
Speaker 5: trust each other.
Speaker 1: Yeah, to speak on the collaboration between you and Arianna,
Speaker 1: So I would imagine you get this part, and do
Speaker 1: you find out pretty immediately that the role will be
Speaker 1: played by Rin and Grande.
Speaker 4: Or soon after?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 5: I don't think I found out on the call, but
Speaker 5: I think I found out soon after maybe, like a
Speaker 5: day after and they let me know what was going on,
Speaker 5: and I was like, oh, that makes sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so is it that, like, you know you're up
Speaker 1: for it, and do you hear who's up for the
Speaker 1: other thing?
Speaker 5: Don't tell me a damn, don't tell me. Don't tell
Speaker 5: me anything. I don't want to know. I don't want
Speaker 5: to know who was going up for it. I didn't
Speaker 5: want to even know until they needed me to come in.
Speaker 5: I said, give me no information, give me nothing. I
Speaker 5: don't want to know. Tell me if they actually want
Speaker 5: me to come in. That's all I want to know.
Speaker 5: And they didn't. I said, I don't care who's going in.
Speaker 5: I don't want to know when, and if they want me,
Speaker 5: then I will know. Yes, that's all I wanted. Meaning
Speaker 5: the audition are actually playing the role the audition. So
Speaker 5: this is wild to me that Cynthia or Eva would
Speaker 5: have to audition for anything.
Speaker 1: Just because it's like, well, clearly we know this is
Speaker 1: going to be brilliant, but you do have to audition.
Speaker 1: And when you do, do you sing defying gravity?
Speaker 5: Yes, wow, you sing defying gravity. You sing the Wizard
Speaker 5: and I you sing for Good. You do a bunch
Speaker 5: of scenes, but they were really really respectful. I actually
Speaker 5: think what happened was because I think I was the
Speaker 5: last to come in. John and I had had a
Speaker 5: couple of conversations, and then I waited a couple of
Speaker 5: weeks and then they came back with we want you
Speaker 5: to come in, and it was a camera test essentially,
Speaker 5: So I was there for three hours my audition, and
Speaker 5: that was the one and only thing I came in
Speaker 5: to do. I think they were deeply, deeply respectful. I
Speaker 5: think John had teed it up for me. It was
Speaker 5: mine to lose.
Speaker 7: God.
Speaker 5: I felt like he gave me the most amazing platform
Speaker 5: to come in and do my work and then let
Speaker 5: it be. And I think that's probably why. But I
Speaker 5: loved that I got the chance to come in and
Speaker 5: show how much I wanted it and show how much
Speaker 5: it meant to me. And I was prepared to come
Speaker 5: in a couple of times if they needed me to,
Speaker 5: because I think the role deserves.
Speaker 1: That, right.
Speaker 5: I think the role needs it. It's not enough to
Speaker 5: want to come in because you can sing. It's not
Speaker 5: enough to come in because you can act. I think
Speaker 5: there are layers that he was looking for, and I
Speaker 5: remember when he said the thing that swung it for
Speaker 5: him was the way I did the Wizard and I
Speaker 5: he said, there was like a vulnerability that I hadn't
Speaker 5: seen in the other roles, like a youthful, hopeful energy
Speaker 5: that the other roles don't permit, don't give you the
Speaker 5: chance to do, Harriet, does not give you the chance
Speaker 5: to do. And because it's there's so much more depth.
Speaker 5: It's like deep and hard and you know, resilient, and Bell,
Speaker 5: who is in Widows doesn't. It's not that, you know
Speaker 5: what I mean, fantastic, but it's a different energy in
Speaker 5: the way this is really side of you. And so
Speaker 5: I think he was he wanted to see like the
Speaker 5: wide eyed openness that I have, but I don't necessarily
Speaker 5: get the chance to share and the Wizard and I
Speaker 5: gave that energy to him. So I was just I
Speaker 5: think I was lucky that he allowed me to express
Speaker 5: that and show it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and also what it takes to hold the responsibility
Speaker 1: of playing something so iconic. It's something that you've done
Speaker 1: several times. I was thinking about you know, your like
Speaker 1: you know, Harry, like Aretha Franklin silly, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: like these come with ye scrutiny. Yes, but also responsibility
Speaker 1: and history. And so I was wondering, because this seems
Speaker 1: like a like a pattern, does that excite you or
Speaker 1: is this like happenstance that these happen to be like
Speaker 1: these iconic things, or do you find that You're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that thing that everyone's gonna watch examine, I'm not afraid
Speaker 1: of that. I want to run to that. Are you
Speaker 1: running to these things?
Speaker 5: I think by accident, I'm running to them because I'm
Speaker 5: not necessarily running to them because I know that people
Speaker 5: are watching or inspecting them. I think I'm running to
Speaker 5: them because they're the most interesting people to play. Yeah,
Speaker 5: the ones who have like depth and history and there's
Speaker 5: complexity in it all the way around.
Speaker 4: I just think they're interesting characters first first and foremost.
Speaker 5: They're people who have once in needs and maybe there
Speaker 5: are parts of them that maybe haven't been discovered, and
Speaker 5: I want to like open them up even more and
Speaker 5: play and learn them even more.
Speaker 4: I think I'm intrigued by that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and then then the layer of like, oh, but
Speaker 5: also so many people know about this person, and so
Speaker 5: many people are invested in this person and projecting yeah.
Speaker 3: Real or fictional, yes, yes, how much of I would say,
Speaker 3: like the initial gut level alphabet in the audition, do
Speaker 3: you think was retained by the final product.
Speaker 5: I think maybe about sixty percent. And I learned a
Speaker 5: lot when I was there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, because you know what I love. I've heard
Speaker 3: you talk about how a lot of roles you approach.
Speaker 3: You start with the walk, yeah, and I love how
Speaker 3: you how you kind of the opening shots of Alphabet
Speaker 3: are of her walk.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: You literally start on the close up of the shoes, yeah,
Speaker 3: the feet, yeah, as she sets fed on ches. And
Speaker 3: I think from those immediately you understand that your take
Speaker 3: on Alphaba is really new and beautiful. It's like she's
Speaker 3: not like drab or like awkward or uncomfortable. She's very
Speaker 3: self assured. She's there to like support her sister. And
Speaker 3: then that first monolog where we're all like gawking at
Speaker 3: and you're like, oh my god, who's she? You're like okay,
Speaker 3: like in a way like and I love and celebrate,
Speaker 3: Like as we're talking about the alphabets of yours, it's
Speaker 3: like there's such a wonderful blueprint of how this has
Speaker 3: been and for you to like honor that and also
Speaker 3: sort of divert is really special, and I feel like
Speaker 3: that must have come from like your experience with playing
Speaker 3: all these.
Speaker 5: Very different women. Yeah, and it was. You know, It's
Speaker 5: like it's not on purpose to be like I'm going
Speaker 5: to change everything now. No, I just once I put
Speaker 5: her shoes on, and I think because of my own understanding,
Speaker 5: and everyone has a different understanding of what it is
Speaker 5: to be different in what it feels like to be
Speaker 5: sort of like on the outside. I just thought to myself,
Speaker 5: She's been in the skin.
Speaker 4: For her her whole life.
Speaker 5: It's not new for her. People staring at her, it's
Speaker 5: not new for her. People having a weird like reaction
Speaker 5: to her.
Speaker 4: Not new.
Speaker 5: Her needing to be the support for her sister, not new.
Speaker 5: Her getting yelled at by her father not new. It's
Speaker 5: like this is all stuff that she's been through already
Speaker 5: and has like it's in her skin, in her DNA.
Speaker 1: The assignment, That's what it is.
Speaker 5: So like, the choice is I'm either gonna be mad
Speaker 5: my whole life or I'm gonna get to the joke
Speaker 5: before everybody else does, right, And if I can get
Speaker 5: to the joke before everyone else does, and it is
Speaker 5: a form of defense if I get there before everybody else,
Speaker 5: then I can't be her.
Speaker 4: They're already behind.
Speaker 5: So Okay, yeah, I'm not this, I'm not that if
Speaker 5: I already say it myself exactly, I know, I know
Speaker 5: what I'm in, I know what I look like, I
Speaker 5: know what I'm where I've been, and I know what
Speaker 5: you're thinking. Like my one of my favorite lines when
Speaker 5: you first meet her is, here's my sister, necessarily, and
Speaker 5: she's a perfectly acceptable color, Like because no one else says,
Speaker 5: oh this is we don't she already knows, she knows what.
Speaker 5: That's what everyone's thinking, right, And it's like she said it,
Speaker 5: like here we go, you know, And I think that's
Speaker 5: how she functions.
Speaker 1: Is that a defense mechanism that you relate to, Ye get.
Speaker 4: Their first and.
Speaker 3: It's a queer thing, and like it works on some
Speaker 3: level until it doesn't until you're at the osdask right, it's.
Speaker 1: Just self defense until you're building a weapon.
Speaker 4: Oh my goshlie.
Speaker 3: Lord lord, I'm not going to spoil something, but like
Speaker 3: there's a moment at a very critical juncture of this
Speaker 3: film where there's like an inner child healing moment. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and it is executed. So every emotional beat of this
Speaker 3: movie lands, which is not to say that the rest
Speaker 3: of the movie like doesn't work on any It's just
Speaker 3: the underpinnings of this movie are purely emotional and that's
Speaker 3: like a testament to you. And this moment of the
Speaker 3: inner child. Yes, for a long time, I kind of
Speaker 3: rolled my eyes at that. Oh you have to like
Speaker 3: what is like like right, talk to like the young
Speaker 3: version of myself. I roll something about this movie really
Speaker 3: like cracked me the fuck open with that, except you
Speaker 3: know what I mean, And it's like what you're saying
Speaker 3: with like, oh, alphabet, we all kind of grew grow
Speaker 3: up with these.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's because you don't think that because throughout the movie,
Speaker 5: she the inner child is not on the outside. And
Speaker 5: I think that's actually how most of us function, Like
Speaker 5: we don't realize that we're all healing like deep seated
Speaker 5: wounds that are on the children that we were. Yes,
Speaker 5: but it's never usually it's not obvious.
Speaker 4: We don't know.
Speaker 5: And I don't even think she knows until she knows.
Speaker 5: You know, she remembers certain things and there are things
Speaker 5: that we like that she keeps to herself, and it
Speaker 5: shows up in like flickers and when she gets yelled
Speaker 5: at by her father. It's like an immediate sort of
Speaker 5: like call to what has been, but she doesn't. There's
Speaker 5: no real acknowledgment until she has to acknowledge. But that's
Speaker 5: what she's running away from, and that that's what she
Speaker 5: has to move towards.
Speaker 4: Oh oh my god, you were sitting here.
Speaker 1: It's just so funny because I had a moment where
Speaker 1: I started to get a little emotional because I'm remembering
Speaker 1: and this is a little bit of a left turn.
Speaker 1: But when you performed I'm here on the Tony Awards.
Speaker 1: That was I believe it was a couple of days
Speaker 1: or maybe the day after Pulse, and I just remember
Speaker 1: how much that meant to me and to so many
Speaker 1: people that felt like you were putting a warm blanket
Speaker 1: over everyone. So I guess just like thank you for
Speaker 1: the gift of that performance, like retroactively now years later,
Speaker 1: but also in terms of like being given these opportunities
Speaker 1: to give these live performances, because we mentioned ALFI earlier,
Speaker 1: you know, nothing compares. It's another opportunity that is very
Speaker 1: high stress that you seem to be running towards, and.
Speaker 8: I would runs we saw windows. But like again, those
Speaker 8: opportunities which will probably come forever. Do they excite you?
Speaker 1: How are you feeling in the moments of receiving offers
Speaker 1: to do things like that, receiving calls to do things
Speaker 1: like that, in the moment of doing.
Speaker 5: Things When it comes to as a singer, I do
Speaker 5: go towards them because I feel like if I wasn't
Speaker 5: meant to, they wouldn't come my way. And I think
Speaker 5: there are moments of great responsibility to connect with people.
Speaker 5: People say that actors, we're not saving lives, but I
Speaker 5: think that there is an aspect of.
Speaker 4: Maybe we can heal a couple of people.
Speaker 1: Singing music is different, you know.
Speaker 5: Sing crapt people open, We can connect. We can help
Speaker 5: you connect with things that you might not have thought of.
Speaker 5: We can help you heal a little thing and think
Speaker 5: of something. And I feel like that's my duty, that's
Speaker 5: my work. That's the grander design of the gift that
Speaker 5: I've been given to sing. So when opportunities like that
Speaker 5: come singing at the Kennedy Center, of course, I'm going
Speaker 5: to stand there and give deal Morik her flowers. Of
Speaker 5: Course I'm going to share with her the moment that
Speaker 5: I really fell in love with her, the fact that
Speaker 5: her voice is the seminal voice for Alfie for me,
Speaker 5: you know, I want to connect with her on that.
Speaker 5: You know, of course I'm gonna sing. I think there
Speaker 5: was a performance of I'm Here that I had to
Speaker 5: do after like the last crazy election that we had
Speaker 5: to do and people were like in tears. I knew
Speaker 5: that I had to go to work to be like, hey,
Speaker 5: we're okay. And I was asked to sing Imagine at
Speaker 5: the Glad Awards after Pulse in dedication to of course
Speaker 5: I'm going to come in and sing that because we're
Speaker 5: going to be okay.
Speaker 1: Do you feel that way? I do?
Speaker 4: I do.
Speaker 5: I really believe that that is my work and to
Speaker 5: validate people's feelings, the feelings that we have through music.
Speaker 5: I really think that there is a bigger purpose at
Speaker 5: hand when you have a voice, when you can use
Speaker 5: music to connect with people. Not enough to just sing
Speaker 5: a song, what is the point? Yeah, but if you
Speaker 5: can use music and tune and notes and lyric to
Speaker 5: connect to validate a person's feelings, to send them off
Speaker 5: and feeling better, to tell them that we move through this,
Speaker 5: it's going to be okay, that this is a gateway
Speaker 5: to healing. I'm happy to do that.
Speaker 4: I'll do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It's funny because your performance of Alfhie, like I
Speaker 1: always knew the song, yeah, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: but it was like I was hearing it for the
Speaker 1: first time and it was so funny because like I
Speaker 1: had gone through a situation with someone and didn't realize
Speaker 1: that that song was speaking to that experience until I was,
Speaker 1: and it actually empowered me because it's like, I know
Speaker 1: what love is really is, right, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: And it's twofold. It's you expressing and telling that story
Speaker 1: but also honoring her. Yeah, and I wonder like, did
Speaker 1: you have a conversation with this Warwick afterwards?
Speaker 5: Yeah, she's very happy because she's very happy.
Speaker 4: She's tough, but she was happy. She was happy.
Speaker 5: She said, no, you didn't need to sing it like that,
Speaker 5: so be careful now.
Speaker 4: Thank you, thank you very.
Speaker 1: Much, major moment.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 5: Yeah, she was happy and they can see her up
Speaker 5: in the box and she was like for Clempton, you know, tearful,
Speaker 5: and I was like, okay, I'm doing.
Speaker 1: The thing of them watching you and that type of
Speaker 1: too is so wise.
Speaker 4: It's insane.
Speaker 1: Yea.
Speaker 4: The Kennedy Center is something that is so grand.
Speaker 5: It's it's one of those you have to figure out
Speaker 5: how to fill the room. Yeah, And for me, I
Speaker 5: have to fill the room standing in the spot. That's
Speaker 5: what I do. I stand and sing. And so every
Speaker 5: detail for me is like, what's the dress that's not
Speaker 5: the right one. We need this, and what's the orchestration?
Speaker 5: We need this orchestration. No, one're not going to if
Speaker 5: we rush this and we make this two beats too fast,
Speaker 5: it's not gonna it won't land the way. We need breath,
Speaker 5: We need space. And I had spoken to the orchestrator, Lenny,
Speaker 5: who is amazing. I said, do not do not start
Speaker 5: this until I am set at the mic and I
Speaker 5: take a breath. We have to reset. I need to
Speaker 5: reset before we begin. And he didn't because the production
Speaker 5: wanted me to. They wanted the music to start before I.
Speaker 1: Because they wanted to move there.
Speaker 4: You can you dare wait.
Speaker 3: It's a hospitality principle. It's like you have to be
Speaker 3: unreasonable about the way you make people feel. Yes, and
Speaker 3: that is that is what you are doing. And I
Speaker 3: loved this interview that you and Renee Rap had at
Speaker 3: Electrically that you guys are related by being Capricorns, Like
Speaker 3: this is I think, is this part of Capricorn identity,
Speaker 3: like having this sort of vision, having the conviction I
Speaker 3: think to tell yourself, like this is what this charge was.
Speaker 5: Yes, this is the charge, this is the job, this
Speaker 5: is how I'm going to do it.
Speaker 4: Very clear about that. Yeah, because this.
Speaker 3: Thing of you guys talking about how like you need
Speaker 3: to believe it sounds and I'm just saying wrong in
Speaker 3: my it myself at this It's like I always didn't
Speaker 3: really quite believe the idea of like you got to
Speaker 3: believe in yourself or else nobody else will. It's like,
Speaker 3: but then like it doesn't make any sense any other way. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. That has to be the
Speaker 3: sequence of things in order for you to like do
Speaker 3: what you guys do.
Speaker 5: Yeah, because there are literally times where only you believe
Speaker 5: the thing that is going to happen, uh huh, and
Speaker 5: there's no one else. But why should anyone else believe
Speaker 5: if you don't, like why there's no reason to. But
Speaker 5: if you know and you have a clarity about what
Speaker 5: it is you're meant to do and what you're and
Speaker 5: how you're meant to do it, then it's easy for
Speaker 5: someone else to.
Speaker 4: See it right, because you can you can see it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you talk about getting involved with the color purple
Speaker 1: and a sort of not low fi but like not
Speaker 1: necessarily a production in England that seemed like it was
Speaker 1: going to do what it is Now, would you consider
Speaker 1: that to be the biggest risk you've taken? Is like
Speaker 1: really going for that role on that scale?
Speaker 4: I don't think it was a risk at all.
Speaker 5: I was so sure that it was meant to be
Speaker 5: doing it. I was so sure, And it could have
Speaker 5: been in I don't know someone's front room and it
Speaker 5: did not matter. I just knew if it was coming,
Speaker 5: I was meant to do it. I was so clear
Speaker 5: about it. There was not one part of me that
Speaker 5: was like, well, this is risky. I don't know what
Speaker 5: I'm going to do.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 4: I was so sure about it.
Speaker 3: You were on towards Distract, you heard that it was.
Speaker 3: It was like they were seeing people for it.
Speaker 4: Yes, and they said I want to play the role. Dang, yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm going to be doing that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And everyone else was like, but are you sure,
Speaker 5: Like what if they ask you to do like the
Speaker 5: first cover? I was like no, no, no, I want
Speaker 5: to play the role. I know that the role is
Speaker 5: what I'm supposed to be doing. And the first cover
Speaker 5: is amazing, But this is a role the role I want.
Speaker 5: I know, I'm so sure about it. This is what
Speaker 5: I want?
Speaker 1: Yeah, what what is that?
Speaker 4: Is that? Intellectual? Emotional?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 3: Where does that?
Speaker 4: I think it's both.
Speaker 5: I think it's like in the first instant, it was
Speaker 5: like a guttural emotional knowledge.
Speaker 4: Yes, then it became how am I going to do?
Speaker 4: How am I going to do it? Yes? Yeah? I
Speaker 4: love that so much? How much my life is like this? No,
Speaker 4: but this is but like look where it's gotten, you know, you.
Speaker 5: Know, like the emotion is there, and like the feeling
Speaker 5: is there, and then task this.
Speaker 3: It's not holding you back in any way. So like
Speaker 3: what's wrong with that?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 1: How do you unwind? What? What do you do to?
Speaker 5: I need a sleepy time tea? And I love a tea.
Speaker 5: I will carry a tea with me everywhere I go.
Speaker 5: But it's bedtime, I you know, I get myself in
Speaker 5: my pjs. I like a particular PJ. Like I will
Speaker 5: wear an outfit to bed.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 4: I love to dress. It's a look European thing. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I have to dress my perfume.
Speaker 5: I get ready, my routine full, get the whole thing.
Speaker 5: Then I will like get cozy. I'll put on a
Speaker 5: movie or a TV show they feel bad, and then
Speaker 5: I'll journal and then seek.
Speaker 4: That's my thing.
Speaker 1: Do you watch comedies or do you like to comedies
Speaker 1: or like like dramas? Nothing crazy, nothing crazy.
Speaker 5: I can't you know people who watched like sixty minutes
Speaker 5: before bed or like the first twenty four hours.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, I was. I don't know how you do it.
Speaker 5: No, it's too much for me. I don't want to
Speaker 5: watch that. Of course, daytime for me watching those things,
Speaker 5: But for me it's nighttime, like something light, fair, right, fun,
Speaker 5: something that lifts, and then.
Speaker 4: To bed and then up at what five am.
Speaker 5: Sometimes doing five and seven, to run, to walk, to
Speaker 5: pilates whatever.
Speaker 4: I have to do something.
Speaker 3: You and Michelle Yoh every day on set on production
Speaker 3: of Wicked, just the most godly people, both of you,
Speaker 3: getting up, doing your runs, doing your workouts. I'm like,
Speaker 3: I need to get my shit together.
Speaker 4: I was so an r but there was no other
Speaker 4: way to do this role. You think, so I just
Speaker 4: I couldn't. I needed I needed the.
Speaker 5: Physical movement, not just for like the actual physicality of it,
Speaker 5: but for the emotion of it all I needed to
Speaker 5: be physical because I needed to make sure my body
Speaker 5: was ready for like the flight work. Harness work doesn't
Speaker 5: work if you haven't got your call together, if you
Speaker 5: haven't got your body together. It really does have to
Speaker 5: get ready for what kind of onslaught you get when
Speaker 5: you're in a harness and flights and singing?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I have a question, and I think we can
Speaker 3: talk about this. So we basically had twelve days left
Speaker 3: of shooting and then sack strike happened. And I will
Speaker 3: say that the way things were segmented define gravity was
Speaker 3: the last was the last thing that was So I'm thinking, Wow,
Speaker 3: Cynthia is holding on to this and considering this, and
Speaker 3: it's all leading up to like this thing that is
Speaker 3: going to be talked about and will be very difficult
Speaker 3: to pull up. And it's a collaborative thing with you
Speaker 3: and with John and with everybody. And then the strike happens. Yes, wild, wild,
Speaker 3: sort of like stoppage. You're not just dropped.
Speaker 4: Out the bridge and then you don't cross.
Speaker 3: Exactly What was that like for you? What was it
Speaker 3: like to go back to it?
Speaker 4: At first?
Speaker 5: It started off like torture, like because I was I
Speaker 5: felt like I was ready, yeah, because we had gotten
Speaker 5: right there and I was like, okay, we're ready. I'm ready,
Speaker 5: like I'm game fit, I'm good to do this. And
Speaker 5: then I had to accept we weren't coming back quickly.
Speaker 5: But you don't let go of. They don't go anywhere.
Speaker 5: The character is sort of like sitting in you sort
Speaker 5: of like so I'm still like getting my body ready,
Speaker 5: working out, working like I'm still on set but not
Speaker 5: on site on so I'm like doing all those things,
Speaker 5: trying to like feed my body, making sure that I'm
Speaker 5: working out the way you need to work out, making
Speaker 5: sure that I'm keeping my voice the way I need
Speaker 5: it to be, and like checking in and but also
Speaker 5: having to let it go just a little bit so
Speaker 5: that I don't drive myself insane because it's still there
Speaker 5: and I'm still waiting. And also there's like the anticipation
Speaker 5: of having to do it. It never really left until
Speaker 5: we get until we come back. And when I come back,
Speaker 5: I was like ready, yeah, ready to do it, and
Speaker 5: then I get ill.
Speaker 3: Oh, I forgot about this.
Speaker 1: What happened?
Speaker 4: Just the worst kind of you? I mean, my skin
Speaker 4: was hurting. It was horrible.
Speaker 5: The day after my birthday, I was in on my
Speaker 5: birthday rehearsing and training for flying the next day total.
Speaker 3: Total, I remember I had wrapped and then I came
Speaker 3: back to New York and then they were like Cynthia.
Speaker 3: I was like, God, this let this woman live, Let
Speaker 3: this woman know.
Speaker 4: I was.
Speaker 5: I was, And when I say you, I was. I
Speaker 5: was so sick, like running a fever. The fever would break,
Speaker 5: then the fever would come back again. Concerning sick, yeah,
Speaker 5: I was like, when is this going to stop? It
Speaker 5: just went on for like a week. The whole week,
Speaker 5: week and a half. I was done down. So I
Speaker 5: was like, Okay, what are we going to do this right?
Speaker 5: Because at this point I'm annoyed with myself. I'm like,
Speaker 5: why is this happening now?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I mean, is there something in retrospect now where you're like, God,
Speaker 3: it was like one last mountain to scale?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I think so. I think it's weird.
Speaker 5: I think the universe was forcing me to earn it,
Speaker 5: really earn it. Wow.
Speaker 4: So when I really got there.
Speaker 1: Used to relax.
Speaker 4: She always doing the.
Speaker 5: Most, always doing the most, was making me earn ship.
Speaker 5: Leave me alone for a second, please, because I'm always
Speaker 5: working bitchy, but like, it really was that last sort
Speaker 5: of like let's see, do you really want to do this?
Speaker 5: It really felt like that, And so when we got here,
Speaker 5: I was like, right, right, let's go, let's do this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you fucking earned it. That's that's all we can say.
Speaker 3: Thank you, but god it is. This is what I'm
Speaker 3: telling people. This is my little press quote, my favorite
Speaker 3: last ten minutes of a film in cinema history. It's
Speaker 3: epic than and I will say, and people know the story,
Speaker 3: like I think I was watching again last night. I
Speaker 3: was like, oh my god, Cynthia, it is so dialed
Speaker 3: in every single frame of the levels of betrayal that
Speaker 3: I was setting in in that moment when you find
Speaker 3: out what you were brought to do. I was like,
Speaker 3: every moment of this, when you walk to the Grimmary,
Speaker 3: and when you take it with you, when you run away,
Speaker 3: I'm like, it's all perfect, it's all perfect, Cynthia.
Speaker 4: And John just let me go. He just was like,
Speaker 4: here's where you're moving to. Yep, just go, we'll follow you.
Speaker 4: We'll follow you. What did it feel and asked what
Speaker 4: it felt like when it was a picture.
Speaker 5: App I crumbled because it was the last one, and
Speaker 5: I can't even describe the feeling because it was, you
Speaker 5: know when the only time I felt similar was the
Speaker 5: last show for the Color Purple, where you're carrying something
Speaker 5: for a really long time and like happy to carry it,
Speaker 5: like it's the best possible weight you could you can hold,
Speaker 5: and you're like, this is I'm carrying, It's part of me. Yeah,
Speaker 5: and then that you hear it's closed or that wrap,
Speaker 5: and it's like someone takes the weight from you and
Speaker 5: puts it down. Yeah, it was like putting a piece
Speaker 5: of myself down for a bit. And it was so
Speaker 5: quiet that last shot because we'd finished shooting Defying Gravity
Speaker 5: and they had like just one little incidental to shoot
Speaker 5: left and it was just like me lifting flowers in
Speaker 5: a hole or something. And I just was like, it
Speaker 5: was so quiet.
Speaker 4: And it felt right for it to be quiet. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Do you think in those moments because it's alphabet, because
Speaker 1: it's silly, the reason why it means so much is
Speaker 1: because you're genuinely saying goodbye to that character. I would
Speaker 1: imagine that silly is not something you'll revisit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and literally not like probably not alphabe unless it's
Speaker 3: for like a Universal Studios riety not to bring that up,
Speaker 3: but it's like, and that will be that.
Speaker 5: It's saying bye to really close friends. Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: So I would imagine like these things that they have impact,
Speaker 1: but really it's like because it's personal, that's what it is.
Speaker 4: It's like, it's great taking care of a person for
Speaker 4: a real long time. Yeah yeah, yeah, it's great. I
Speaker 4: cried for like hours after that. Yeah.
Speaker 5: I couldn't like get rid of the feeling. And the
Speaker 5: day after was so weird. I just didn't even know
Speaker 5: what to do with myself.
Speaker 4: Yeah, how could you not?
Speaker 1: And it has probably nothing to do with oh this moment,
Speaker 1: maybe I could have done this that it's genuinely it's
Speaker 1: like a human relationship.
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, yeah, Like taking the green off for the
Speaker 5: first time was wow, yeah, I'm not doing this again.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: And you probably get used to that in some regard
Speaker 1: with theater, you know, because you that's the thing about
Speaker 1: being in this business that I think is one of
Speaker 1: the things that takes at least me by surprise. And
Speaker 1: I would imagine everyone is, oh, I come in here
Speaker 1: and I make really great relationships, and then they do end,
Speaker 1: you know, you you've maintain those people in your life,
Speaker 1: like you'll always be friends with so and so, and
Speaker 1: you'll always have that memory. But you don't go to
Speaker 1: work again when everyone else does. And so it's not
Speaker 1: just those people, it's that person you play when you
Speaker 1: put so much into it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I guess for Alphabet, particularly because she's such a transformation,
Speaker 5: because I do spend like three hours getting her together
Speaker 5: in the morning, right, you know, she doesn't like you
Speaker 5: have to care to put her together, and then she appears.
Speaker 5: You know, it really was like, oh, I'm letting someone go,
Speaker 5: Like I'm never going to see this person again. It's
Speaker 5: not like, you know, Celi's wonderful, but she had my face.
Speaker 5: You know, I don't have to really her on. You
Speaker 5: put her on, but it's like a wig and an outfit.
Speaker 5: Alphabet was a complete transformation. I disappeared when Alfabet came
Speaker 5: into the room.
Speaker 3: It was a beautiful construction, like a craft's like a
Speaker 3: work of crafts.
Speaker 5: Yeah, person, everyone, the amount of work that went to
Speaker 5: putting her together, the people that you know, the relationships
Speaker 5: you make with those people who are with you for
Speaker 5: two and a half hours before anyone else sees you
Speaker 5: in the morning, at the crack of dawn, and then
Speaker 5: at the end of the night they helped sweetly take
Speaker 5: her off again and you put to bed.
Speaker 4: But this last time, that was the last time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because she existed for a while, yes, and now
Speaker 1: she does exist, but like in that way. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I understand what you're saying. Fascinating. We have to ask
Speaker 1: you the central question of our podcast. Yes, so do
Speaker 1: you want to pose the question, yes, Cynthia Riva. What
Speaker 1: is the culture that made you say a cultureist? For me,
Speaker 1: the formative kind of cultural thing that made you who
Speaker 1: you are?
Speaker 5: The cultural thing who made that made me who I?
Speaker 5: I guess music, Huh, the culture of music, because there
Speaker 5: is a culture of it. I think that's the thing
Speaker 5: that I actually think. It's the first language I learned.
Speaker 5: I think it's the first thing I understood. My mum
Speaker 5: says that I was singing when I was two, Wow,
Speaker 5: and I was putting words together. But like you're still
Speaker 5: figuring out sentence structure when you're two, But I.
Speaker 1: Knew communicating in music in you tune Oh interesting?
Speaker 4: Yeah, wow, that I think made me very much who
Speaker 4: I am.
Speaker 3: And then would you say there was like a moment
Speaker 3: of understanding on a technique or a technical level what
Speaker 3: it was.
Speaker 5: I think when I was about eleven, I really understood it.
Speaker 5: I knew I could make the sound. When I was
Speaker 5: about five and between five and the age of like ten,
Speaker 5: I was sort of playing around with singing a little bit,
Speaker 5: singing with friends. But when I was eleven, I realized, oh,
Speaker 5: there's something I can do with this. This is there's
Speaker 5: a way I can you use my voice and change
Speaker 5: the way things sound and mess around with things like
Speaker 5: That's when I start to have a real technical understanding
Speaker 5: of what it was.
Speaker 1: Yes, So I think that's something that becomes really obvious,
Speaker 1: like as you get older as an artist, is that
Speaker 1: there's singing and there's performance, and then there's being a
Speaker 1: recording artist, and those two things are so different. But
Speaker 1: what you just said about like creating sound and using
Speaker 1: your voice in different ways is something that there is
Speaker 1: so much opportunity and with recorded Ye. Nick, So I
Speaker 1: know that you are working on a new project and
Speaker 1: that you worked with Arianna to do that.
Speaker 5: Yes, So basically what happened was I've recorded an album before,
Speaker 5: and the experience was not necessarily experienced that I wanted
Speaker 5: for myself, and it just was checkered with a whole
Speaker 5: bunch of stuff that wasn't right for me. And she
Speaker 5: and I had like a really sweetheart to heart. I
Speaker 5: sat down and I talked to her about my experiences
Speaker 5: and what's going on. She was like, well, it's because
Speaker 5: I had really interesting relationships with managers that just didn't
Speaker 5: really understand and it got a little toxic from time
Speaker 5: to time. And she was like, well, that's because she
Speaker 5: don't need a manager, cyntheas, because you already know what
Speaker 5: you want. What you need is a good label. What
Speaker 5: you need is a good team producer and yeah, and
Speaker 5: you need people who understand your idea and can help
Speaker 5: you execute the idea. And so we started talking and
Speaker 5: it just so happens that we're under the same label,
Speaker 5: but it's a different conglomerate, different imprint. So she introduced
Speaker 5: me to her imprint and I started having conversations, and
Speaker 5: now I'm under a joint venture. So it meant that
Speaker 5: I had the care from the people that I wanted
Speaker 5: the care from before, and then new care from a
Speaker 5: team that was ready and raring to go and that
Speaker 5: really understood the story I wanted to tell, and so
Speaker 5: I've been I've finished writing now the songs are written
Speaker 5: like five seconds away from being fully ready. And whilst
Speaker 5: I was writing it was sending it to her and
Speaker 5: having her listen to it, sending back and forth, getting
Speaker 5: her opinion, and she said, the whole.
Speaker 1: Thing incredible resource in terms of it's been amazing.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's been like to be able to get her
Speaker 5: ear on things because I trust her ear implicitly has
Speaker 5: been really really monumental.
Speaker 4: And now I'm kind of ready.
Speaker 5: So we're putting it, finishing touches and getting it all
Speaker 5: done and by hopefully next year you'll have it.
Speaker 4: Wow. What is it?
Speaker 8: Giving cool way to ask that people always ask, like,
Speaker 8: what's the genre?
Speaker 5: I think there are several genres just because of who
Speaker 5: I am and my upbringing in music. My inspirations can
Speaker 5: come from anywhere from Anya to Aretha Franklin, so there's
Speaker 5: a lot of different mixes in between. So there's things
Speaker 5: that ended up being country, but I didn't mean them
Speaker 5: to sound like country. And they are pieces that are
Speaker 5: very R and B because that's what I've raised on.
Speaker 5: And there are pieces that feel sort of like a
Speaker 5: little left field. It's a very eclectic album, but the
Speaker 5: through line is vocal padding. So I've used my vocal,
Speaker 5: my voice as an instrument. So you'll each song has
Speaker 5: its own vocal pattern, vocal rhythm, very specific to the song.
Speaker 4: But that's just what happened.
Speaker 5: And so each song starts with the voice first, and
Speaker 5: then we had instruments afterwards. A lot of what we
Speaker 5: compose and what we made started with the voice.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 5: And it's because my A and R who is now
Speaker 5: the President of Republic, Wendy, who is amazing, and she
Speaker 5: said do you know about Enya? And I knew exactly
Speaker 5: what she meant immediately. And there is a song on
Speaker 5: Enya's album that is the basis for Ready or Not
Speaker 5: Fuji's Ready or Not.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, And at the moment that yeah.
Speaker 4: Exactly, and I was like, oh yeah, I understand.
Speaker 5: Wow, Yeah, that the idea that you can put two
Speaker 5: different things together, make them collide and they make this
Speaker 5: one special thing. I just loved that idea because both
Speaker 5: those pieces, both the Any piece and the fujispiece are
Speaker 5: vocal forward.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 1: Yes, So I was like, unforgettable.
Speaker 4: That I can do that. I understand. She's like, your
Speaker 4: voice is an instrument, so just use it that way
Speaker 4: because it's.
Speaker 3: Really cool if you don't mind me saying, like, you
Speaker 3: can do like the Ena Panning on let's say ready
Speaker 3: or not and then also give the Lauren Hill exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really exciting for you to find that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's also really interesting because Arianna has her thing with
Speaker 1: image and heat and so that's like almost like another
Speaker 1: way that you.
Speaker 4: Can connect speak to each other.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love the Vanity Fair piece that
Speaker 3: Chris Murphy our friend.
Speaker 5: The best sweetheart wonderful and I read how he wrote that.
Speaker 5: It just it was I was so touched and moved
Speaker 5: that that's what he really got us.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he got you guys. I read it.
Speaker 3: I just felt you guys through the piece and I
Speaker 3: mean it ends on you in this really beautiful way
Speaker 3: and it just and I texted you read out. I
Speaker 3: was like, this is so I'm crying, this is so perfect.
Speaker 1: Oh, very proud of So the album will be next,
Speaker 1: albums next, yeah, and then is there It's crazy to
Speaker 1: even think like after you do something like Alpha, but
Speaker 1: obviously there's going to be years and decades more, but
Speaker 1: what do you want to do next? Like what's the next?
Speaker 4: What are you.
Speaker 5: Exactly what I want to do next, But I don't
Speaker 5: know if I can say, because I don't want to
Speaker 5: like jinx myself and get myself into trouble.
Speaker 4: You can tell us after, I'll tell you.
Speaker 5: But I know what I want to do next. But
Speaker 5: on top of which, my production company is working on
Speaker 5: a series right now and that seems to be going
Speaker 5: quite well. It looks like it might be greenlit very soon,
Speaker 5: where like in the final processes of doing that, so
Speaker 5: that would be it would be my project, and that
Speaker 5: might come to TV soon. But I want to just
Speaker 5: I want to I loved how big and explorative this
Speaker 5: particular piece was.
Speaker 4: I want to do that more. I want to just
Speaker 4: be adventurous with it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and there's a play called Prima fasci Oh course
Speaker 5: it happened, and we're turning it into a movie, and.
Speaker 1: You're doing the film. Oh I saw it with Jody.
Speaker 1: I'm in and it's just it's it's a great piece
Speaker 1: of work.
Speaker 5: And we've been we've been through the mill with it
Speaker 5: because we're supposed to have it. We're supposed to have
Speaker 5: shot it last year the strike and then we lost
Speaker 5: some of the funding. But I think we're okay, everything,
Speaker 5: we're coming back together and think we're getting a funding.
Speaker 4: It's a preproduction. I don't know. The funding is still coming.
Speaker 5: Funny, still coming up. But what I think we've found it.
Speaker 5: So I think that that.
Speaker 1: Is a tour de force. That is a tall order.
Speaker 5: That is you're running to run, running into the fire.
Speaker 5: But I think the more these characters turn up that
Speaker 5: desires something, that need their voices to be heard, that
Speaker 5: like feel powerful and not in the stereotypical sense of
Speaker 5: the world, but like have a power in them, I'm there.
Speaker 4: That's what I want to do. Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, one final thing. Yes, I was reading Middle March
Speaker 3: on set. Oh yeah, and I remember you got a copy?
Speaker 4: Do you have a copy? I haven't ready. I haven't.
Speaker 4: I haven't finished it either. I was going to ask
Speaker 4: you if you finished it. Haven't ready yet.
Speaker 3: It's a big one, yeah, Jelly, a huge book. But
Speaker 3: it's supposed to be amazing.
Speaker 4: Okay, well I'm going into it. I'm gonna get yeah.
Speaker 5: Actually, well, actually what I want to do is take
Speaker 5: like a couple of series on tour with me.
Speaker 4: We can move through. So Middle March I make take
Speaker 4: with me as well. Could be good. I still have
Speaker 4: to finish a little life. I have to.
Speaker 5: Oh my god, it's hard. I know it's hard, and
Speaker 5: I've put it off for a really long time. But
Speaker 5: I know it's going to be good, and I have
Speaker 5: to just suck it up and pick it up and
Speaker 5: just read.
Speaker 1: I have to have to be in the right environment.
Speaker 1: And I tried to read it on a plane and
Speaker 1: I started to have an anxiety. I can't do this
Speaker 1: on a No. No, it was because it's kind of
Speaker 1: rough and tumble, like from the jump, oh like and
Speaker 1: then it gets way worse.
Speaker 4: But like, yeah, Hanya, she doesn't mess No, no, no, no.
Speaker 4: Are you ready for the tour?
Speaker 5: Yes, very much. I think it's absolutely manic and crazy
Speaker 5: and wild. But I'm okay, but so fun. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Are the looks picked out?
Speaker 4: The looks are picked out. Okay, that would be such
Speaker 4: a fun.
Speaker 5: At least topics the premiers have definitely picked out, like
Speaker 5: fine tuning things, but we're picking all the like the
Speaker 5: things in between.
Speaker 4: We're trying to make sure that we're considered for everything. Sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so like the green of it all, Yes,
Speaker 1: did you have a good relationship with that color before that?
Speaker 5: Actually, my favorite color, perfect, which is the strangest, craziest thing.
Speaker 5: That is my favorite color and now people think I'm
Speaker 5: just wearing it for this and I'm not. I had
Speaker 5: a lot of green and my this is just an
Speaker 5: opportunity to get more.
Speaker 4: Thank you for.
Speaker 1: This is this is a beautiful I'm.
Speaker 4: Really proud of this.
Speaker 5: I found this in a Paris vintage shop and it
Speaker 5: is an original.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that is just hard to find. Yeah, really special.
Speaker 1: Last night at the c FDA, you did black though
Speaker 1: right the hood. It was beautiful, you were giving thank
Speaker 1: you kind of nice to like step out of it
Speaker 1: for us second and just have your isolated c FDA fashion.
Speaker 4: It was nice.
Speaker 5: Ye yes, yes, yes, it was my little such of
Speaker 5: green on my neck and that was just the touch touch.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that dress. I loved. It made me feel so dress.
Speaker 5: Well, it's like Gaps by zac pos And he'll say
Speaker 5: Gap Studios, but he has now he is an Ataalie
Speaker 5: with Gap now and that's what.
Speaker 1: You have a great relationship with zac Posen.
Speaker 5: When I when I came to New York, I like
Speaker 5: nobody knew who I was and I have a stylist.
Speaker 5: But this thing color purple was really taking off and
Speaker 5: I was like well, I have all these events to
Speaker 5: go to and I have nothing with me. I have
Speaker 5: my clothes, but they're not it's not right for these
Speaker 5: very special events. So I went to his studio and
Speaker 5: he I fit for like a dress, but he sent
Speaker 5: me away with like nine yeah, and separates and things
Speaker 5: that I could throw on if I needed, if you know.
Speaker 5: He just really took care of me and has done
Speaker 5: ever since. Yeah, it's just a sweetheart.
Speaker 1: It's an incredibly fun part of it for an artist too,
Speaker 1: like because it's more storytelling, which I don't think people
Speaker 1: realize on the outside. It's like this is another opportunity.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm just.
Speaker 3: Saying like you and Ari are such perfect people for
Speaker 3: the scale of this kind of thing, because to me,
Speaker 3: it kind of all began with the Metal or with
Speaker 3: the Oscars and then the mec Gala. But just like
Speaker 3: all the footage out of the Meccal, even though it's
Speaker 3: really supposed to film any that's like all of it
Speaker 3: that came out. I was just like, holy ship, this
Speaker 3: is this is going to be major works.
Speaker 4: It works together.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you're both such good fashion music.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we love I mean, it's terrible the two of
Speaker 5: us are like, so did you see this? As I
Speaker 5: saw this? What do you think of that?
Speaker 1: For her?
Speaker 4: Just sent me something, Hey, I saw this, and I
Speaker 4: think it's very used.
Speaker 5: It's the worst influences for each other because we sort
Speaker 5: of like get what we need and what we want
Speaker 5: and she'll send it to me and she knows I'm.
Speaker 4: Going to be like good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5: It's it's lovely. It's lovely that someone gets you that way.
Speaker 5: It's nice to share in that way. Yeah, it's another
Speaker 5: way we can share creatively. Of course, working with my besties,
Speaker 5: I did, I have to say this, and I say it.
Speaker 5: I never say when you're there because like always talking
Speaker 5: and passing. But boone has to be one of the
Speaker 5: most astute and intelligent performers I've ever privilege of being
Speaker 5: on a set with no no no no no no
Speaker 5: no no no no, I mean it.
Speaker 4: No, I mean it.
Speaker 5: And you know you have to understand, I'm a capron.
Speaker 5: I don't like anybody. I don't say anything to anyone
Speaker 5: unless I mean it. And I really do like your
Speaker 5: ability to pick up on the surroundings and riff on
Speaker 5: what you see is second to none. Is so fucking
Speaker 5: fast it's amazing. It is amazing to what you work.
Speaker 5: Just like picking on the surroundings, on a detail on
Speaker 5: someone's clothing. I'm just like, it's just Some of my
Speaker 5: favorite moments in the film are things you just say
Speaker 5: off the car.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, I see color.
Speaker 1: En roll here often.
Speaker 4: Anything anything. I mean, Cynthia, thank you so much.
Speaker 5: I just the details. It's the details. She needs a pastry.
Speaker 1: And I'm just telling you like I.
Speaker 3: Was because John God blessed him, like gave me a
Speaker 3: lot of latitude, let's say, And I was gladly going
Speaker 3: to do it. But then at the back of my mind,
Speaker 3: I was always like, this is a bajillion dollar two
Speaker 3: movies and he's gonna let me ad lib and like
Speaker 3: step on Winnie Holtzman's perfect words. I was like, no way,
Speaker 3: is this gonna make it into the movie. This isn't
Speaker 3: going to work. And then I will say, and I'm
Speaker 3: so quick to judge myself and be like, oh no,
Speaker 3: that that didn't work on a comedy level.
Speaker 4: Whatever.
Speaker 3: I'm like, John am Che the director, you are like.
Speaker 4: It all kind of fits fit it, truly.
Speaker 3: Somehow he made my nonsense like work in the in
Speaker 3: the world.
Speaker 5: Because it wasn't nonsense because it was observation. That is
Speaker 5: the difference, Cynthia. You know what I'm saying. It's like
Speaker 5: really detailed observations. Every time something comes out of your mouth,
Speaker 5: it is an observation, which I love, Like, yes, she
Speaker 5: needs a pastry, is funny on that, but you're like
Speaker 5: in the situation, it's like please when a pastry she's
Speaker 5: you know, it's it's so brilliant.
Speaker 4: You're just spectacular.
Speaker 5: I had the best time, and you're so kind as well,
Speaker 5: so like, thank you makes me so happy.
Speaker 1: Okay, So this is our sixty second segment. Okay, where
Speaker 1: we rant and rail against something in culture that I'm
Speaker 1: bothering us. We're gonna do it, and I understand their pointing,
Speaker 1: but this is happening. So I have something and it's
Speaker 1: a musical observation I'm making about the people.
Speaker 3: Okay, great, Okay, this is Matt Rodgers. I don't think
Speaker 3: so many time strets now, I don't think so, honey,
Speaker 3: people who don't listen to lyrics and music.
Speaker 1: You're a friend of ours just said, huh, what's this
Speaker 1: song about? About Sabrina Carpenter's juno. So here's what Sabrina
Speaker 1: Carpenter's Juno is about it's about being so into someone
Speaker 1: that you would like them to make you Juno. This
Speaker 1: is referencing the Elliott Page, the low Cody team up Juno. Yes,
Speaker 1: this is about being so sexually interested in someone you
Speaker 1: wouldn't mind if you got pregnant.
Speaker 3: Right, I'm gonna let you make me Juno.
Speaker 1: You know, I was like, she's even being tongue in
Speaker 1: cheek after listen to words. If you want to listen
Speaker 1: to beautiful orchestrations, I think so, honey, But the words
Speaker 1: it all comes together. You're gonna just listen to.
Speaker 8: The tunes of when Cynthia says Alfie, listen to the
Speaker 8: words you know.
Speaker 1: The story, especially to Rennicover to Juno, I'm like, this
Speaker 1: is a lyrical masterpiece. I was like, let's give it
Speaker 1: it's due. Second, you can't just listen to music, listen
Speaker 1: to words, understand, feel, then emote. You can to listen
Speaker 1: to words or right words, explore words, be words. And
Speaker 1: that's one man I could never say who. A friend
Speaker 1: of ours was like, what is this song about?
Speaker 5: I was like, if you? But it's also maybe like
Speaker 5: a thing about not knowing references like not.
Speaker 1: Maybe it was that, but I was like, this movie
Speaker 1: was famous.
Speaker 4: It was, it was, it was, it was.
Speaker 1: It is, okay, all right, So this is Bowen Yang's
Speaker 1: I don't think so, honey, his time starts now.
Speaker 4: I don't think so, honey.
Speaker 3: Walker's chips not being available in the United States, Oh
Speaker 3: it is. It is a British staple. Walkers are not Lais.
Speaker 5: It's not.
Speaker 3: They have the same logos, but it's not the same.
Speaker 3: Different textures, different things. This is different flavors. I need more.
Speaker 3: Why is there such a weird barrier between British snacks
Speaker 3: and American snacks? True, they need to come together where
Speaker 3: we basically have the same palettes and the same tastes.
Speaker 3: I think we would appreciate more of a crossover. I'm
Speaker 3: not saying like one should replace the other. I'm saying
Speaker 3: they can coexist in the same markets, which is the
Speaker 3: American market, which you know I am biased towards because
Speaker 3: I happen to live here. So I just think Walkers
Speaker 3: you can find them in your specialty shops. But I
Speaker 3: think we need more access to just the wider gamut
Speaker 3: of Walker's chips and favorite flavors.
Speaker 4: I'm I love a straight of ready salted.
Speaker 3: Yes, salted Walkers. It's simple, but it's good.
Speaker 4: And the Sultan vinegar is not the same as the
Speaker 4: salt vinegar. It's just not. It's just not.
Speaker 3: And we need we just need seconds. There is I've
Speaker 3: rendered about persty pigs. They need to be more available
Speaker 3: as well. And Walker's chips is included.
Speaker 1: And that's one minute. One of the joys of my
Speaker 1: life was coming back from London and I was able
Speaker 1: to gift Bow and his persy pigs because it's his
Speaker 1: great distress.
Speaker 4: My sister got well, now I know whenever I go,
Speaker 4: I'll pick it up. Thank you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, all right, we get it in the out
Speaker 3: of here synthory. But I don't think so any time
Speaker 3: starts now.
Speaker 4: I don't think so.
Speaker 5: Honey is onion and garlic in everything. I can't take it.
Speaker 5: I fucking hate it. I can't steal with the idea
Speaker 5: that the way you cook is only with onion and garlic.
Speaker 5: Every time I see someone a cooking thing, they cut
Speaker 5: up onions and garlic so much and neglect to use
Speaker 5: any other flavoring in food. As a person who's actually
Speaker 5: allergic to garlic, and my body just does not process
Speaker 5: it at all. I've had to find out ways to
Speaker 5: cook food using other herbs and spices, and it works.
Speaker 5: You can get just as much taste out of an
Speaker 5: old bay and a bay leaf and an acidphatida, which
Speaker 5: is actually tastes a little bit like garlic, but doesn't
Speaker 5: give you the same horrible feeling that garlic does. If
Speaker 5: you just use your imagination and cook. I think people
Speaker 5: have stopped using your imagination about how they cook, and
Speaker 5: they use the basic, basic herbs, and they always go
Speaker 5: for onion garlic, and I cannot take it because the
Speaker 5: worst thing is when someone comes in and they just
Speaker 5: reeking of garlic. When you can avoid that and still
Speaker 5: have flavorful food if you decide.
Speaker 4: To use your imagination. And that is my minute.
Speaker 1: Oh oh so, like thank god you're allergic to something
Speaker 1: that sucks like it sucks, you smell awful, you feel awful,
Speaker 1: Different different aromatics, different favor basis.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't understand. And everyone's I the amount of
Speaker 4: people who are like, well, how do you eat? What
Speaker 4: do you mean?
Speaker 1: Just stunningly talent.
Speaker 4: And you know when I walk into a room, you
Speaker 4: can't smell.
Speaker 3: Fas can't clock me.
Speaker 1: You can't clock my sen What do you think of ginger?
Speaker 1: He did, I don't think money on ginger.
Speaker 4: Pickle ginger is better. Thank you. Try pickle ginger. It's
Speaker 4: a different flavor. I love it becomes sweeter, become sweeter,
Speaker 4: and it's just a nice little.
Speaker 1: This has been so it's so amazing to get to
Speaker 1: know you and to have you here, and you are Alpha,
Speaker 1: bra It's it's and thank god that you are. Thank
Speaker 1: you so brilliant. We usually end every episode with a song,
Speaker 1: but I just want to if you have two lines
Speaker 1: of anything on your spirit right now that you could sing,
Speaker 1: what is it to end this episode?
Speaker 4: Or it could be one.
Speaker 5: This is not to do with anything, but I've been
Speaker 5: listening to this lately and it's one of my favorite songs.
Speaker 4: Why by Annie Lennox.
Speaker 5: Oh I may be mad, I'm maybe blind, I'm maybe viciously,
Speaker 5: I'm kind, but I can still read what you're thinking.
Speaker 4: I've heard it said too many times. You'd be better off.
Speaker 5: Besides, why can't you see that this book is sinking?
Speaker 5: This boat is sinking this boat.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, it is the most beautiful song.
Speaker 7: You're a brilliant last culture racist is the production by
Speaker 7: Will Ferrell's Big Money Players in the Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Podcasts created and hosted by Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.
Speaker 1: Executive produced by Anna Hasnier and Hans.
Speaker 3: Sani, Produced by Beck Ramos, edited mixed by Doug Bamim
Speaker 3: and Niklaboord.
Speaker 1: And our music is by Henrykbersky. Hey everybody, it's me
Speaker 1: Matt Rogers, letting you know. Tickets are on sale now
Speaker 1: to see me on tour, the Prince of Christmas Tour,
Speaker 1: that is, I'm doing my whole album Have You Heard
Speaker 1: of Christmas? Plus a lot more with the whole band
Speaker 1: all throughout December. Go to www dot Matt Rodgers Official
Speaker 1: dot com See me in a city near you