Speaker 1: I'm Alec Baldwin and this is Here's the Thing from
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. I'm Carrie Donohue and this is Here's
Speaker 1: the thing from my Heart Radio. Carrie, what are you doing, Alec?
Speaker 1: Don't you remember the staff of the show is going
Speaker 1: to be hosting episodes from the archives every other week
Speaker 1: for the rest of the summer. I completely forgot that.
Speaker 1: Well it's happening. Oh okay, well, best of luck, carry
Speaker 1: thanks Alec. It happens pretty often on the show, but
Speaker 1: I'm a sucker for when Alec talks with other actors.
Speaker 1: Two of my favorite interviews he's done, we're with Julianne
Speaker 1: Moore and Maggie Jillen Hall. They are both so talented
Speaker 1: and often take on surprising, challenging projects. Alec talked with
Speaker 1: Maggie Jillen Hallanden just after the release of The Kindergarten Teacher.
Speaker 1: We'll get into that conversation shortly. Alex's conversation with Julianne
Speaker 1: Moore took place in Julianne Moore has been nominated for
Speaker 1: five Academy Awards Boogie Nights, The End of the Affair,
Speaker 1: Far from Heaven, The Hours, and she won Best actress
Speaker 1: for her work in Still Alice. She played a linguistics
Speaker 1: professor diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease soon after her fiftieth birthday.
Speaker 1: Alec Baldwin played her husband. They worked together again on
Speaker 1: Thirty Rock. Julianne Moore was very funny as Jack donnegheese
Speaker 1: high school crush Nancy Donovan. They share something else in
Speaker 1: common to Alec and Julianne Moore both started on daytime soaps,
Speaker 1: which came up when they talked about going to drama school.
Speaker 1: It was for some reason, thinking about a friend of
Speaker 1: mine who didn't go to drama school in the car
Speaker 1: on the way here, and I wonder what it was
Speaker 1: like for her, because she hasn't seemed to need it,
Speaker 1: And there are a lot of things that I didn't
Speaker 1: drama school that I think I didn't need either. But
Speaker 1: then in retrospect, I'm like, no, it's helpful. Did you
Speaker 1: go drama school? Where'd you go? Okay? Did you go
Speaker 1: straight onto search for tomorrow? Then the doctors, I don't
Speaker 1: believe you just said that. I can't believe why, because
Speaker 1: I have in front of me. I wasn't going to
Speaker 1: go there. Right off that window, you were Fanny and
Speaker 1: Sabrina Hughes. That's right, Franny, not Fanny, Franny and Sabrina.
Speaker 1: Someone else was Fannie Hughes. You were Franny, Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: I know. I mean, couldn't have been Fancy for was
Speaker 1: Fanny's you were? You were Fanny and Sabrini used on
Speaker 1: World Turns and before that you did EDGE. I did Edge.
Speaker 1: Well you want to edge? See if you're on soaps?
Speaker 1: Only when you're on soap? Can you say Edged? Search
Speaker 1: World Turns days days? That's so funny because I was
Speaker 1: on Edge when they were on East forty Iron Street
Speaker 1: and that really really tiny studio. Remember now Rachel Ray
Speaker 1: shoots there and really, you're gone. I know they're gone.
Speaker 1: They're gone, so gone. This is a couple of his
Speaker 1: four soaps left, and I worked with people. The guy
Speaker 1: that played my dad, Don Hastings, he started on that
Speaker 1: show two months before I was born, so he had
Speaker 1: been on that show my entire lifetime when I got on,
Speaker 1: and he when the show was gone, he was still
Speaker 1: on it too. He was the most wonderful guy. So funny.
Speaker 1: But do you feel in some ways, I mean, in
Speaker 1: some ways I don't want to be exaggerate, But wasn't
Speaker 1: doing a soap like some of the most honest work
Speaker 1: you've everard? Absolutely, because you have nothing to help you. No, No,
Speaker 1: there's no dialogue. I mean the dialogue is so rough,
Speaker 1: so basic. All you're doing is is establishing story. I
Speaker 1: used to do what they called emotional I called it
Speaker 1: and any emotional applicate where if I had to say
Speaker 1: something that was really just plot oriented, I try to
Speaker 1: like cry on top of it or laugh on top
Speaker 1: of it or anything just to make it mean something. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because it's all exposition. Well, I read somewhere where you
Speaker 1: said that doing the soap gave you experience and confidence discipline.
Speaker 1: It was discipline and confidence because I loved that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Because no one, no one has time to help you.
Speaker 1: You know, the directors are working really fast, the writers
Speaker 1: are working fast, the other actors are working really quickly.
Speaker 1: You're just on your own. Remember Marissa tom May, she
Speaker 1: played my best friend Marcy. She said, we got into
Speaker 1: the we got into the elevator and she looked at
Speaker 1: me and she goes, remember l is for lunch because
Speaker 1: that was where the lobby was, and so in that
Speaker 1: cafeteria and that was like the best piece of rice
Speaker 1: because it was remember hell is for lunch. And then
Speaker 1: we did a scene together and it went by so quickly,
Speaker 1: you know, we did one wanted to have takes and
Speaker 1: because you feel terrible, don't you? I said, Oh, she goes.
Speaker 1: It happens all the time. You'll get used to it.
Speaker 1: You're gonna wok at her from the crappy two out
Speaker 1: of five days of the week. I just remember when
Speaker 1: I did that show. You had to show up on time.
Speaker 1: I didn't know your dialogue, and no matter how excruciating
Speaker 1: it was, if you didn't, they fired you. You had
Speaker 1: to be there at seven o'clock in the morning and
Speaker 1: rehearse you were on camera. I would have sometimes thirty
Speaker 1: pages of dialogue a day for three it was like,
Speaker 1: you know, for three years. So it was like a
Speaker 1: boom boom boom boom boom and then you finished maybe
Speaker 1: seven thirty eight nine if you go late. You know,
Speaker 1: it was crazy. A long did you do this? So?
Speaker 1: For the World Turns was your contracts? My contract? It
Speaker 1: was a three year contract for three years. CBS they
Speaker 1: gave they would do three years, the ABC once would
Speaker 1: do two years and stuff, but they never gave me
Speaker 1: an option, although they had the option to fire me
Speaker 1: at any time. And when you finished What You Do?
Speaker 1: I went to the Guthrie Theater actually, and I did
Speaker 1: Hamlet with Hamlet. I saw you, you did not. I
Speaker 1: saw you come on to something. Yeah, I can tell
Speaker 1: you right now. I did Loot with him on Broadway
Speaker 1: in six You did it with Jelco. You did the
Speaker 1: show the following year and eighty seven. I flew to
Speaker 1: Minneapolis to see I saw you do. I saw you
Speaker 1: do Hamlet at the at the Gut three Well. I
Speaker 1: was in the Hamlet. I was a feeling Hamlet. I
Speaker 1: saw you. What did you think? I thought it was fantastic.
Speaker 1: You don't remember me? Do you want to know something?
Speaker 1: I do? And Shelkovanick, you were very young, you were child.
Speaker 1: And Shelvonick he was probably one of the best Hamlets
Speaker 1: I've ever seen because he didn't have to push. He
Speaker 1: seems like a very dark, kind of complicted, just seemed
Speaker 1: like a very young man. You know. I think that
Speaker 1: was interesting that both Jolco and I are very very small,
Speaker 1: very slender and tiny, and we looked like teenagers kind of,
Speaker 1: you know. So who directed Garland Wright? Who I adored.
Speaker 1: He passed away, but why I loved Garland. He was great.
Speaker 1: It was a really interesting production, ching that people strained
Speaker 1: for when they play Hammot that he has and she
Speaker 1: did the Gut three and then and I went to
Speaker 1: the I Wing to Actor's Theater of Louisville and did
Speaker 1: some plays there and Arthur Coppit play and and then
Speaker 1: there wasn't an idea that you want to kind of
Speaker 1: strap yourself into the rocket sled here and get going
Speaker 1: l A TV movies now now, I mean I just
Speaker 1: did also worked. I worked at the Public, I did
Speaker 1: some place, and then I met Andre Gregory and I
Speaker 1: did Vanya and all along though I was I was
Speaker 1: auditioning for stuff, and I got TV movies and things,
Speaker 1: and but it wasn't until I was twenty nine that
Speaker 1: I got my first movie, which was an HBO movie
Speaker 1: called Cassidadly Spell. And then I did and the Rocks
Speaker 1: a Cradle, and then I did Shortcuts and I did
Speaker 1: Safe and then and then my movie career didn't really
Speaker 1: start happening till I was thirty. So for fruit was
Speaker 1: just theater Shortcuts was the biggest break you out at
Speaker 1: that time? Well, what happened was. I did shortcuts Bonnie
Speaker 1: and Street and Safe. So it's kind of the beginning
Speaker 1: of the independent theater movement, if you will. And they
Speaker 1: all came out within the same year, and I went
Speaker 1: from being an actress who had no profile at all
Speaker 1: in film, none because I couldn't. I couldn't get arrested
Speaker 1: doing movies. I mean, I would never get cast I
Speaker 1: don't know, you know, honestly, I wouldn't. Just didn't get him.
Speaker 1: I didn't get him. And in the eighties I can remember,
Speaker 1: I mean I just for a ton of things. Remember
Speaker 1: audition for the lists of merch and ivory movies. I
Speaker 1: always wanted to get one of those because those were
Speaker 1: such a big deal. I would action for big comedies.
Speaker 1: I just didn't get them. And I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: I remember the same thing. You'd be sitting there going, man,
Speaker 1: I want to give me one of them John Sales movies.
Speaker 1: That's why to be one of those. Auditioned for him constantly.
Speaker 1: Ever bought them. I actually got really close to a
Speaker 1: few things, but I never got anything where I did
Speaker 1: really well. Wasn't television. I kept like booking TV things,
Speaker 1: but they would put you on hold and then they
Speaker 1: do pilots for them, and that's the other thing. To
Speaker 1: my pilots holding deals, they would wouldn't get picked up.
Speaker 1: Whenever anybody says, how do you plan your career? You know,
Speaker 1: I mean you left because we don't have any control.
Speaker 1: There's the thing about it. You seem like somebody who's
Speaker 1: had a plan. Once you started making films with the
Speaker 1: things you just didn't do anymore. Did you try to say,
Speaker 1: I'm going to put all my eggs in this basket. No.
Speaker 1: Most of the time we just do with what you're offered.
Speaker 1: You do the best of what's you're what you're offered,
Speaker 1: you know. I think after I was on the soap,
Speaker 1: I did you know, I didn't spend a lot of money.
Speaker 1: I kept my money in the bank. So then I
Speaker 1: spent some time doing theater because I really felt like
Speaker 1: I wanted to do that, you know yourself. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: wanted to do that kind of stuff. And then I
Speaker 1: would do some TV movies and try to get you know,
Speaker 1: and then the holding deals to that. You make money
Speaker 1: doing that, But in between short cuts, yeah, and playing
Speaker 1: Sarah A Palin. There's not a lot of TV in
Speaker 1: between there. Once you start the movies, big time you're
Speaker 1: making movies. Yes, that's you don't go back to TVA
Speaker 1: very much at all. No, No, because also it's kind
Speaker 1: of it changed, you know, because there was a period
Speaker 1: to where because now now it's sort of like called
Speaker 1: you know, now it's the Golden Age for television. Now,
Speaker 1: there there was such kind of interesting quality stuff until
Speaker 1: you know, great writing, great acting, and you know, so
Speaker 1: I think things have changed, But there was a period
Speaker 1: when TV was very basic. Network stuff was not terribly interesting.
Speaker 1: What was it like when you met Altman? Oh Man,
Speaker 1: he came to see Vanya, you know, we were doing
Speaker 1: Uncle Vanya and he sat there and I couldn't believe
Speaker 1: he was there. I don't even know if I said
Speaker 1: anything to him that day, because he was. He's the
Speaker 1: reason that I feel like I'm a film actor. Because
Speaker 1: when I would school in Boston, they were all the
Speaker 1: revival houses. To remember revival houses. This is like Grandpa,
Speaker 1: Grandma shame remember that. Remember take your walk? Would I
Speaker 1: want you to brittle Theodore in Harvard Square? Harvard Square,
Speaker 1: So the brittle was revival house and used to have
Speaker 1: all these different weird double bills and stuff. And I
Speaker 1: saw three women Altman's Three Women, and somehow I made
Speaker 1: it through the seventies without seeing Nashville or or Bruster
Speaker 1: McCloud or Became Mrs Miller any of those movies. So
Speaker 1: I'm watching mash and I was like, who made this movie?
Speaker 1: This movie is incredible. And it was the first time,
Speaker 1: as a young person that I noticed directorial hand you
Speaker 1: know where. I was like, this is a specific kind
Speaker 1: of storytelling and it's eliciting, specific kind of act thing.
Speaker 1: I kind of walked out of there and I thought
Speaker 1: I want to do that, and of course it wasn't
Speaker 1: in the realm of possibility for me the first ten
Speaker 1: years of my career. So he's Alvania and then he
Speaker 1: met me on the player, which I desperately wanted. I
Speaker 1: remember sitting there talking to him. He said, I'm not
Speaker 1: going to give this to you. It's like, okay, and
Speaker 1: that was it. I was devastated. And then I got
Speaker 1: this phone call out of the blue for shortcuts. Hi,
Speaker 1: it's Bob Altman. Do you remember me? You know who
Speaker 1: I am? I was I thought was somebody playing a
Speaker 1: trick on me? I really did. I didn't think it
Speaker 1: was possible that he you know, that's when we had
Speaker 1: hard lines to pick up your phone and he said,
Speaker 1: I have this movie that I want you to do,
Speaker 1: and I said, I'll do it. I'll do it because
Speaker 1: no one want you to read it first and then
Speaker 1: you can tell me if you want to do it,
Speaker 1: you know. But it was really, really, really a dream
Speaker 1: come true to work with him. What an amazing man.
Speaker 1: It's no secret I think when you're in the business
Speaker 1: that we're out of it, but especially when you're in
Speaker 1: the business that casting and effective casting is or more
Speaker 1: of a director's job. They want to just bring people
Speaker 1: to the party who know how to hit the ball.
Speaker 1: And he was someone who I'll never forget. Someone said
Speaker 1: to me. They were all gathered there and this air
Speaker 1: sets rehearsals. Some of them were able to attend it somewhere,
Speaker 1: and Bob just turned everybody and said, uh, nooka May
Speaker 1: was in it, Australiani and Field and he would looked
Speaker 1: at them and he was like, now a nook, you
Speaker 1: just go ahead and speak French. You speak French and
Speaker 1: to or English or Italian. Marcello, say whatever you want
Speaker 1: to say. Y'all, just say anything you want to say,
Speaker 1: and speak in whatever language. You want to speak in
Speaker 1: and I'll fix it in the edit, subtitler or whatever.
Speaker 1: He seems so uncontrolling. He was. The thing about Bob
Speaker 1: was that you couldn't do anything wrong, so it made
Speaker 1: you feel like you could do anything, and you would
Speaker 1: do anything for him. You'd be like, oh, what can
Speaker 1: I do? What can I do? He's like, whatever you
Speaker 1: want to do. But it wasn't like it was chaos.
Speaker 1: You know, he's set up. It was like there was
Speaker 1: a corral that all the actors were in was his
Speaker 1: corral and something. Even with an improv he'd say, okay,
Speaker 1: you know, improv this. He said, I let's do it again,
Speaker 1: but this time you just say that part. So he
Speaker 1: was in complete control of it. But he really made
Speaker 1: you feel so free and so love non judgmental. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a quote I read about you where someone says
Speaker 1: they cast you in Shortcuts and you were total unknown. Right,
Speaker 1: She's a total unknown, they said, casting thought, and I
Speaker 1: think you've been working for most ten years. Ten years. However,
Speaker 1: within that cast, I was the only person with thirty
Speaker 1: people and who wasn't famous. So it wasn't amazing. How
Speaker 1: in the movie business if you haven't a movie that
Speaker 1: any of us have seen. Exactly what changed if you
Speaker 1: did that film? Did you change personally? Did I change?
Speaker 1: I'm ugly and I have no talents right and now
Speaker 1: i'm and then I got and then I was and
Speaker 1: then I became yeah, talented, and I know everything. You know.
Speaker 1: It was interesting and I think this is and it's
Speaker 1: actually very similar to what I felt growing up as
Speaker 1: a kid. You would be in one situation. You'd be
Speaker 1: at a school and maybe you would be a kid
Speaker 1: who wasn't very popular and no one thought you were
Speaker 1: very interesting or something, and then you'd moved to another
Speaker 1: school that's cool. Everybody would think you were interesting for
Speaker 1: some reason. It would just happen, and you think, like, well,
Speaker 1: I was the same person. I haven't changed that much.
Speaker 1: So it's deception. Perception has changed. The perception was changed
Speaker 1: after all, so well, and so that's what happened to
Speaker 1: me too. So after ten years of doing television and theater,
Speaker 1: although people don't e the theater, so they don't think
Speaker 1: you really exist. Is she TV? People thought, oh, she's
Speaker 1: a TV actress. And then I do work with Andre
Speaker 1: Gregory and Louis Mall and I work with you Robert Altman,
Speaker 1: and I work with Todd Haynes, and suddenly I'm a
Speaker 1: huge film discovery. I'm in this amazing every Yeah, and
Speaker 1: then I'm like, I'm the same, the same thing. So
Speaker 1: I think, oddly what happens is that you don't change
Speaker 1: a perception of yourself. You're like, well, clearly, it's just
Speaker 1: other people's perception. It solidified my own work ethic that
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter where I'm working. Did you feel that
Speaker 1: the way you grew up fed this in terms of
Speaker 1: you being because because you had to reinvent yourself. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well you were seen by a fresh set of again
Speaker 1: and again and again. You just you have to discover
Speaker 1: a core self and a corpse. Of course, that's the values.
Speaker 1: And people kind of poo poo and say like oh
Speaker 1: TV or oh this or that. I'm like, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: it's all valuable, all of it, you know. Yeah, when
Speaker 1: I do radio announcing, it's work work, it works working,
Speaker 1: and it's also it's it's valuable for you to do
Speaker 1: your bus no matter where you are too. I really
Speaker 1: really believe that you know in everything you do. And
Speaker 1: I also resent it when people say that they can't
Speaker 1: do something like they can't. They were terrible waitress, And
Speaker 1: I'm like, why because you weren't paying attention you're supposed
Speaker 1: to write down. Yeah, so it's it's important, no matter
Speaker 1: what you're doing, to put effort into it. I think
Speaker 1: Julianne Moore, did you know that? There are two d
Speaker 1: and fifty episodes and the Here's the Thing Archive. If
Speaker 1: you like these kinds of in depth conversations between Alec
Speaker 1: and other actors, policymakers, and musicians, go to Here's the
Speaker 1: Thing dot org and take a look around. After the break,
Speaker 1: we'll hear more of Alex's conversation with Julianne Moore. I'm
Speaker 1: Carrie Donohue, still in for Alec Baldwin on Here's the Thing,
Speaker 1: revisiting his conversation with actor Julianne Moore. Alec was surprised
Speaker 1: to learn that Julianne Moore's career didn't really take off
Speaker 1: until she did a string of independent films in the nineties.
Speaker 1: In the nineties in particular, there are a lot of
Speaker 1: people who were working who are who were writer directors,
Speaker 1: and they were kind of, I'm sort of a really
Speaker 1: great great period for independent film. I think people were
Speaker 1: looking to tell these really unusual stories, and there wasn't
Speaker 1: an economic expectation on them either. That's changed. So it
Speaker 1: was about being involved in that narrative and that in
Speaker 1: that vision and stuff. You know, it really was bringing
Speaker 1: that story to life. I think you made every kind
Speaker 1: of movie. I've made every kind of You've made every
Speaker 1: kind of movie. Yeah. Yeah, you've done movies with Steven
Speaker 1: Spielberg dinosaurs that you've done sequels or Anthony Hopkins chops
Speaker 1: his own hand off because he's so in love with you. Right,
Speaker 1: I've done independent drawing person Yeah, scary movies. Bad? Did
Speaker 1: you do? Right? I don't know what I have. They
Speaker 1: didn't remake Psycho in black and white. They did it
Speaker 1: in color. They did it in color. Yeah, but that
Speaker 1: was a remake. That was a shot by shot that
Speaker 1: I know you know, so which which in an interview
Speaker 1: I read you thought that was something you should not
Speaker 1: have done. I think it failed. I don't think that
Speaker 1: I shouldn't have done it, but I do think that
Speaker 1: when you're doing the film, that is a shot by shot.
Speaker 1: I mean not just saying this fascinating psychologically when you
Speaker 1: do a film. I mean, I'm not just saying this
Speaker 1: for your benefit. You are a very very very very
Speaker 1: talented woman, and Van's aunt is a good director director.
Speaker 1: What does van Zant when he's remaking a shot by
Speaker 1: shot one of the greatest thrillers in history? Did Van
Speaker 1: Zant have to say anything to bolster you to get
Speaker 1: through that experience? But he's like trying to know, and
Speaker 1: it wasn't like it wasn't like we had to be
Speaker 1: bolster to get through it. I think we're all very
Speaker 1: specifically trying to recreate, recreate it, but in a month
Speaker 1: and now, I wish if if we're do it again,
Speaker 1: I would like to do it in black and white.
Speaker 1: I'd like to do it in the same costume. I'd
Speaker 1: like to do it with the exact same information. Let's
Speaker 1: do the better remake of Psycho like that? That to me,
Speaker 1: I think that would have been that we sort of
Speaker 1: modernized it but then kept the old pacing and it
Speaker 1: was Yeah. She who's great? Oh um. Vince Vaughan was
Speaker 1: nan as a director. He was great. He's such a
Speaker 1: lovely person, very very soft spoken, you know, just incredibly
Speaker 1: incredibly soft spoken. I liked him a lot. I'd like
Speaker 1: to work with him on something that he you know,
Speaker 1: that I loved Elephant Elephant. I always tell people see Elephant,
Speaker 1: which is his Columbine films. Oh my, what an amazing film.
Speaker 1: It's been amazing film. It's like the most hypnotic film
Speaker 1: that has a Columbine type of theme to it. And
Speaker 1: I love Gus. I think Us is incredible. I think
Speaker 1: my favorite kind of acting to do though. I saw
Speaker 1: Todd Haynes, my friend Todd Haynes I made Far from
Speaker 1: Heaven and Safe with and we had dinner together and
Speaker 1: we were talking about our experience and he said, why
Speaker 1: did you understand? How did you understand how minimal the
Speaker 1: acting was going to be? And I said, I felt
Speaker 1: like I saw it in the language. His language was
Speaker 1: so spare and so specific, and then I would say,
Speaker 1: let me see the frame, and his frames were also
Speaker 1: I felt like he was communicating so much just in
Speaker 1: the frame. So my favorite thing is an actor is
Speaker 1: to know what the director's vision is, to be communicated
Speaker 1: that way through the language and in the shot, and
Speaker 1: then I'm like, now I know what I'm doing. Give
Speaker 1: me an example. Well, like when Todd Todd at a
Speaker 1: shot of a very wide living room, you know, and
Speaker 1: at a baby shower, and there were a bunch of
Speaker 1: women all the way at the right side of the frame.
Speaker 1: I had crossed all the way across and was standing
Speaker 1: up on the left side of frame, and I just
Speaker 1: asked where the lady's room? And my only line is
Speaker 1: can you tell me where the lady's room is? Please?
Speaker 1: Or something that? And I could see it was all
Speaker 1: about this movement of her kind of trying to reach
Speaker 1: over these people. So so once I looked at that,
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, well I can see if I
Speaker 1: hunched my shoulders forward, then my then this little figure
Speaker 1: is kind of bowed in this big wide frame, you know.
Speaker 1: So he's telling the story realienation. You know, you don't
Speaker 1: have to talk about anything, you just do it. It's great.
Speaker 1: When I was saying before, how I think, you know,
Speaker 1: I know what it is. People hire you for what
Speaker 1: they expect from you. I think that the ingredient in
Speaker 1: the meal that you are is a tremendous amount of
Speaker 1: emotional truth. You have a kind of emotional residence. But
Speaker 1: you turn on and off, you know, like I always
Speaker 1: I want to talk to about pet Anderson for a minute,
Speaker 1: Like when you do Boogie Nights and that character you
Speaker 1: played you played someone who was so cut off that
Speaker 1: then that's what I from her reality. What I perceived
Speaker 1: was was did you make a choice with this woman
Speaker 1: That famous scene you have with him where he's going
Speaker 1: to have sex with you when you tell him you
Speaker 1: can do this to me, and you're very do this,
Speaker 1: do this, do this, you can do this to me,
Speaker 1: go ahead, go ahead, and you're kind of holding it.
Speaker 1: It's like his first day at school. Or she's a
Speaker 1: complete denial about what's going on. And she's someone who's
Speaker 1: made an economic choice. Really, she's given up her family,
Speaker 1: has given up her child. She probably was in a
Speaker 1: position where this was the only kind of work she
Speaker 1: could get. She's a right after any of those people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's a drug addict. My favorite scene in the movie
Speaker 1: is when she goes to court to get custody of
Speaker 1: her son. We're talking about who are listening, And she's
Speaker 1: all dressed up and she's trying to be kind of
Speaker 1: a straight arrow and stuff, and she feels very self
Speaker 1: righteous about getting her child back, and the judge looks
Speaker 1: at her and says, Maggie, have you ever been arrested?
Speaker 1: And that's the end, and you go, oh my god,
Speaker 1: this you know, she's she's of course, she's been arrested,
Speaker 1: you know, and she's just SOPs and stops and stops,
Speaker 1: and you go. So, this is a woman who in
Speaker 1: her head thinks that she can be a parent, but
Speaker 1: she's she can't. She's not living a life is going
Speaker 1: to allow herself to parent a child, but she won't.
Speaker 1: It's a huge space between what she feels about herself
Speaker 1: and what the actual what was actually happened. That's the
Speaker 1: first time you worked with Anderson. Yeah, what have you
Speaker 1: been doing before that? What did he see you? Win Safe?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think he saw me, and but
Speaker 1: I think he's awa Shortcuts and Safe and Vannie and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. You know. Paul was very young. He
Speaker 1: was twenty six when we met. We met at a
Speaker 1: party and a friend of mine is produced me to
Speaker 1: him and said, this guy wrote this script and he
Speaker 1: wants you to do it. And I was like, I
Speaker 1: would love to read it. And he said, you're going
Speaker 1: to be in my movie. Man. I got the script
Speaker 1: and I read it and I was like, holy cow, yes,
Speaker 1: I am. This is fantastic. He has such an original voice,
Speaker 1: was so exciting. It was such an amazing story and
Speaker 1: so emotional and wonderful and rich, and yeah, I was
Speaker 1: lucky to get it, you know what you were saying.
Speaker 1: I was thinking about how let me talk about emotion
Speaker 1: you know on camera and stuff. You have that too,
Speaker 1: You have this, You have this tremendous vitality, like a
Speaker 1: real sense of being alive and a lot, a lot
Speaker 1: contained inside you. And it's wonderful to work with you
Speaker 1: because it just permeates the scene, like you know, you
Speaker 1: feel that. That's the trick. The trick is how do
Speaker 1: you live on camera? How do you become alive on camera?
Speaker 1: So there's all this stuff about acting, you know, you
Speaker 1: can kind of create all this kind of stuff you
Speaker 1: know about you, Yeah, be alive, be alive. You did
Speaker 1: that great thing when we had that scene in Still Alice.
Speaker 1: You know, we had to say, remember Santorini, which is
Speaker 1: always really hard to start a scene with that kind
Speaker 1: of thing, and and you said, and then you made
Speaker 1: you started laughing so hard, and then I started laughing,
Speaker 1: and then suddenly it's a scene about two people laughing
Speaker 1: because but you know, it's it's like that's what you want,
Speaker 1: you know. That's why I like to talk when I
Speaker 1: work what do people expect from you or think of
Speaker 1: you when they meet you. I think they think that
Speaker 1: I'm going to be more serious than I am. I
Speaker 1: guess because all the dramas and the crying and stuff,
Speaker 1: they think that I'm going to be really dramatic and
Speaker 1: Sam of the film, Yeah, but I'm not. As you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not a very serious person, and I'm not a
Speaker 1: very I'm not a terribly sad person. Sure, yeah, I
Speaker 1: can be serious, but I like to I'm very chatty.
Speaker 1: I like to talk all the way up to action.
Speaker 1: I do. I do, And if you can't talk to me,
Speaker 1: I'm really disappointed. Then I get lonely, and I want
Speaker 1: to be lonely. When I won, I want to be
Speaker 1: with my buddy. I'm going to talk to me. You
Speaker 1: talk to me, friendlebody, talk to you. What did you
Speaker 1: do this morning? What do you have for dinner last night?
Speaker 1: What are you doing later today? Are you cold? You
Speaker 1: like that sweater? Don't you like my sweater? What are
Speaker 1: you doing? Action acting? I love it. That's my favorite part.
Speaker 1: Then you get this great connection with another human being,
Speaker 1: and then the scenes like comes Alive. You know, you
Speaker 1: think that that emotion is so available to you. Why
Speaker 1: it's inside, It's inside everybody everyone. So it's like, how
Speaker 1: do you access that? You know, your own story, everybody
Speaker 1: else's story. You know, what you're getting on top is
Speaker 1: just like the tiniest little like shell. Other than that,
Speaker 1: there's all this stuff. But then, but then, like I said,
Speaker 1: it's easier for me to get into it when i'm
Speaker 1: when i'm you know, talking to you about you know
Speaker 1: how much I like your sweater? And you know where
Speaker 1: you live? And are you going to rent or are
Speaker 1: you going to buy? Or you know all that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. You know, how are your kids? You know?
Speaker 1: How was seventh grade for so and so? I mean,
Speaker 1: I I love all that stuff. I remember when I
Speaker 1: was younger, I think it was even unconsciousness. I would
Speaker 1: see people acting films and the predominant examples would be
Speaker 1: like Brando or Gina or something like that, where them
Speaker 1: breaking down wasn't a big deal. These are like notes
Speaker 1: you played in music, like that's just what people do.
Speaker 1: I didn't think about it like like it was separate
Speaker 1: because I went to Strasbourg where they really they put
Speaker 1: you in the frying pan and they really made you
Speaker 1: get to that. And I went to act to school
Speaker 1: for a year where we basically cried for like they will,
Speaker 1: they try to get you used to being able to do.
Speaker 1: But the funny thing is is that that's just a
Speaker 1: technique to get you to tap into it because people
Speaker 1: don't really behave that way, but you have to find
Speaker 1: it once again. It's all about what's true, what's real.
Speaker 1: It's like guns in movies and guns going off and
Speaker 1: people hitting people. Sometimes, especially early on in my career,
Speaker 1: people be like and then someone gets slapped and I thought, wait,
Speaker 1: people don't slap each other, and if somebody does, it's shocking.
Speaker 1: So remember that when when there's a physical altercation, you're
Speaker 1: shocked by it. When people cry, it's upsetting. You're not
Speaker 1: trying to cry. You're trying not to cry because you
Speaker 1: don't want to be embarrassed, you know. So it's like
Speaker 1: so all that acting school stuff is about learning how
Speaker 1: to locate all those feelings. But then over time, with experience,
Speaker 1: you learn, like the greats like Brando, to modulate them.
Speaker 1: When you worked with pt with Paul Thomas Anderson, Boogie
Speaker 1: Knights was the first film was he helpful to you?
Speaker 1: Was a director who did it all basically take care
Speaker 1: of itself. Because it was take care of itself. I
Speaker 1: have to say a great directors, all the greatest directors
Speaker 1: say very very little. Magnolia was harder because it was
Speaker 1: so emotional, and I was really trying to plot it,
Speaker 1: you know, because I had to literally cry in every scene,
Speaker 1: and so I had to I'm like, all right, Paul, Paul,
Speaker 1: this is this is like the smaller crying into the bigger,
Speaker 1: crying at the biggest, crying to the big, big, big,
Speaker 1: you know. So it's like I had to find a
Speaker 1: way to not be It wasn't like the level of
Speaker 1: hystaria had to change, you know. I had to be modulated.
Speaker 1: I couldn't be at ten. I had to be at
Speaker 1: two and you know, get to ten and all that
Speaker 1: kind of There are times when I'll say, the director,
Speaker 1: I want you to watch my vocal hatter, and I
Speaker 1: want you to watch my level of hysteria, I want
Speaker 1: you to whatever. But basically I want them to direct
Speaker 1: the movie. Do you know. I feel like I feel
Speaker 1: like there's a it's a misnomer that the director is
Speaker 1: an acting coach. The director is there to direct the
Speaker 1: audiences I through a film. The actor is doing the acting.
Speaker 1: They shouldn't have to say. You know, I think a
Speaker 1: time with the director, how it was it tough without
Speaker 1: naming names. What was tough when they talk to me
Speaker 1: too much? Well, because I always say to everybody, please
Speaker 1: don't speak to me before I've done any acting, I said,
Speaker 1: because I'm just trying to hang onto this. Yeah, see
Speaker 1: what I come up with. And if I'm way off base,
Speaker 1: and please, by all means, come up and say like, wow,
Speaker 1: that wasn't what I expected. But if I hear too much,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is gonna sound really silly and precious.
Speaker 1: But I always say that acting. So it's like this
Speaker 1: little flame and you've got this little thing and you're thinking, Okay,
Speaker 1: I wanted to this to work, but you don't want
Speaker 1: to blow it out. If somebody comes along and says
Speaker 1: this is what I think, they might just blow it out.
Speaker 1: And then you have nowhere you know, then you can't
Speaker 1: reach it anymore. No emotional as you are, and you
Speaker 1: have this remarkable emotional residence in your work. What do
Speaker 1: you like privately, to the extent that you want to say,
Speaker 1: you're a mother, Yes, you were married before before married,
Speaker 1: I'm married now, but I've been with my husband for
Speaker 1: eighteen years. We have two children, they're sixteen and twelve.
Speaker 1: I have a fantastic, fantastic family. I have two dogs.
Speaker 1: They're black, one is small and one is big, a
Speaker 1: Chihuahua and a lab and uh. We live in New
Speaker 1: York City. I have a really nice life. I'm really
Speaker 1: really lucky. You try to keep it simple, oh man, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I really do. I try to keep it when he
Speaker 1: tag team work wise because he makes films. He makes
Speaker 1: films and television too. You know, we've been very fortunate.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's interesting because the work life balance thing
Speaker 1: is always an issue for everybody when they're little. When
Speaker 1: they were babies, it was super super easy because babies
Speaker 1: don't know where they are and you can bring them everywhere.
Speaker 1: And also we have an incredibly tolerant business toward women
Speaker 1: with children. I have to say thank goodness for the
Speaker 1: movie business. I remember my son was when I was
Speaker 1: doing Psycho. As a matter of fact, my son was
Speaker 1: nine months old and I was still getting used to
Speaker 1: having a baby, and he was always with me and stuff,
Speaker 1: and he was hysterical in the trailer one day and
Speaker 1: I was nursing him and trying to get him to
Speaker 1: calm down. They knocked the trailer door and they said,
Speaker 1: you know, we need you, and I was like, I
Speaker 1: can't come, and this adorable p A said, no worries, man,
Speaker 1: take your time, and I was like, holy cow, I'm
Speaker 1: the luckiest woman in the world, you know. I mean
Speaker 1: so so our business is very tolerant. We're lucky and
Speaker 1: I have no complaints as an actress. Did you turn
Speaker 1: down a lot of work with your family? So you do?
Speaker 1: You do? I shut? You turn things down because you
Speaker 1: can't travel. You know, You're like, once the kids are
Speaker 1: in school, I can't go. I can't go in Australia
Speaker 1: in a few days, and I feel terrible. Yeah, it's tough,
Speaker 1: and it's tougher on women because when you have infants,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, it's it's easier for you because
Speaker 1: you can go and come back or it doesn't make
Speaker 1: it me it's emotionally easy for you. But yeah, so
Speaker 1: I work. I try to work. If I have to travel,
Speaker 1: I do it in the summertime when everybody can come.
Speaker 1: I work in the city when they're in school, and
Speaker 1: you know, try to alight a bunch of things. If
Speaker 1: I have to travel a bunch of together. And you know,
Speaker 1: and I have a partner who's an equal parent, and
Speaker 1: we alternate. Michael Fox said that year ago, he said,
Speaker 1: they send you a script. Into the script said open
Speaker 1: on the skyline of Manhattan. He closed the script and say,
Speaker 1: I'm in. That's it. Absolutely, I have no idea. This
Speaker 1: tax break in New York City has been a godsend.
Speaker 1: It's amazing because I've been able to do so many
Speaker 1: movies at home. I mean it really and yeah, I'm like,
Speaker 1: she's in New York. Alright, Fine, it's great, Dear Alex.
Speaker 1: Complete conversation with Julianne Moore go to Here's the Thing
Speaker 1: dot Org. Maggie Gillen Hall has embraced a wide range
Speaker 1: of work in her career, from big budget films like
Speaker 1: The Dark Night and Nanny McPhee to off Broadway theater.
Speaker 1: She was nominated for an Academy Award for her work
Speaker 1: in Crazy Heart, and she won a Golden Globe for
Speaker 1: her performance on the TV series The Honorable Woman. Alec
Speaker 1: talked with Maggie Dillen Hall before a live audience at
Speaker 1: the Hampton's International Film Festival in Maggie Dillen Hall majored
Speaker 1: in English literature at Columbia, and Alec wondered whether she
Speaker 1: started performing in plays there as well. I did a
Speaker 1: lot first. I mean I I had one teacher there
Speaker 1: who I learned a lot from, this woman, Joan rosen Fells.
Speaker 1: But I don't know. I guess that was a Columbian
Speaker 1: and I sort of felt like I'm a Columbia, like
Speaker 1: I should study Columbia does best acting. Yeah. I tell
Speaker 1: people that now, who are students who go to degree
Speaker 1: granting universities for drama? And I say, don't just take
Speaker 1: drama acting, Take something where you're going to read a
Speaker 1: lot of books, philosophy and the nature history, but you're
Speaker 1: there gonna do. What's the first production to do in
Speaker 1: New York? Do you remember? Like my first you had
Speaker 1: to Columbia? You did play What would you do? What
Speaker 1: did I do at Columbia was the first one? Oh?
Speaker 1: I did a student production of No Exit with this
Speaker 1: guy who became my boyfriend named Dante, who was actually
Speaker 1: twenty five and it already graduated from college. It was
Speaker 1: in a student's production talk yeah in prison? Now that correctly?
Speaker 1: So I did that. I also did Um the Tempest,
Speaker 1: and I played prosper that. No, no, he didn't make
Speaker 1: it in that one. Um, but yeah, that was the
Speaker 1: first one. Was no exit when you when you graduated
Speaker 1: with a degree in literature, was was acting the goals
Speaker 1: or what you wanted to do? Yeah, I did. I
Speaker 1: always wanted to be an actress. And I feel I
Speaker 1: feel like, yeah, yeah, okay, yes, in college you can read.
Speaker 1: Although there's so much you're supposed to read, I feel
Speaker 1: like I never had read all of it. But I
Speaker 1: feel like I really learned to write in college. And
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I feel like there's
Speaker 1: been so many times where I've had, you know, lines
Speaker 1: I wanted changed, or a cut that I wanted shifted,
Speaker 1: or something I had to sort out on a set
Speaker 1: that I had to write an email or even have
Speaker 1: a conversation where I had to organize my thoughts before
Speaker 1: I had it, where I think, thank god I went
Speaker 1: to college because I was able to say what I
Speaker 1: meant to say. You know what helps if you have
Speaker 1: that background, because the did you feel there was a
Speaker 1: progression for you In the beginning, you were timid and shot,
Speaker 1: you know, less assertive, and I want to find out
Speaker 1: when did that begin to change. Was there a moment
Speaker 1: you sat there and you said, yeah, I need to
Speaker 1: defend my position, and I think I know what's best
Speaker 1: for me. I think, you know, I don't know that
Speaker 1: it was. I think basically it was progressive, right, Like
Speaker 1: basically you're right. I was younger and newer, and it
Speaker 1: was harder for me to say what I wanted, and
Speaker 1: it's gotten easier as I've had more experience. But I
Speaker 1: also think that different sets give way to a different
Speaker 1: way of working. So first, I'm a jobbing actress and
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get jobs and I come in for
Speaker 1: two days or one afternoon or whatever, and you're like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: you want me to do it like that? Um, I know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. It didn't sound really very good to me,
Speaker 1: but I'm afraid to say, let's say, or maybe I
Speaker 1: do try to say and I get shut down and
Speaker 1: I accepted and whatever. That's like, you know, it's very
Speaker 1: hard to do when you're coming in for one second.
Speaker 1: It's like going to a new school where everybody knows
Speaker 1: each other and you're there for an afternoon. But then
Speaker 1: like when I worked on Secretary, which was really early on,
Speaker 1: I mean I was twenty two, I had a real
Speaker 1: point of view about what I wanted to say, and
Speaker 1: and Steve Schenberg, who directed it, was really interested in that.
Speaker 1: And I also think he knew that things were happening
Speaker 1: that I didn't have any idea were happening. Um. And
Speaker 1: also my twenty two I think I'm being very intellectual
Speaker 1: and I've come from college and I studied feminist theory
Speaker 1: and everything, you know, and I think I'm saying this,
Speaker 1: and I think he was twenty years older than me
Speaker 1: that he was able to see. I know she thinks
Speaker 1: she's saying this, but this whole other thing is also happening,
Speaker 1: and um, and he put all that in the film.
Speaker 1: But so that was a space where I felt I
Speaker 1: was totally able to yes. And then I went to
Speaker 1: work on a movie after that, which I won't name,
Speaker 1: where I was totally shut down and I was shocked
Speaker 1: by it. I always remember, like you go to a
Speaker 1: movie and this is just you know, my opinion, but
Speaker 1: like you do a film and you want to be
Speaker 1: told what to do. Basically, my whole thing is you're
Speaker 1: making the movie. What movie are you making? What? How
Speaker 1: do I fit in? I do one of the first
Speaker 1: movies I did. I was lucky. I did this movie
Speaker 1: Working Girl with Mike Nichols, and Nichols says, you're gonna
Speaker 1: have sex. He goes, You're gonna have sex with this
Speaker 1: woman and she catches you having sex? How would you
Speaker 1: have sex that are being caught? And I go, well,
Speaker 1: and I try to think of like, what's the most comical,
Speaker 1: you know thing, and he goes, he goes, he was
Speaker 1: very gratious. She's like, He's like, that's not a bad idea.
Speaker 1: That's not a bad idea. But what I think it
Speaker 1: really sells it if she's just completely naked and you're
Speaker 1: completely naked, and she's just sitting right on top of you,
Speaker 1: just writing you and me and they actually were like, oh,
Speaker 1: but we had a much more chaste and kind of
Speaker 1: like silly version of that, and me and the girl
Speaker 1: were like, he was like, Okay, come come now, close off.
Speaker 1: Let's go with the idea of that clarity time saving
Speaker 1: somebody who comes in as this, well, I always use
Speaker 1: my fantasy movie I would have made with Mike Nichols
Speaker 1: as like the example of if Mike Nichols is directing this, yes,
Speaker 1: I want to be told exactly what to do please.
Speaker 1: Like I watched his movies and I'm like, he's directing everybody.
Speaker 1: He's like pushing everybody further and deeper and funnier and
Speaker 1: wilder than they ever would go. In fact, the one
Speaker 1: time I worked with Mike Nichols was on this reading.
Speaker 1: It's not a not a movie or even a play
Speaker 1: that was ever produced. It was just a a few
Speaker 1: day long reading of a play that Alan Alda wrote.
Speaker 1: Bob Balaban directed the reading, but Mike was sort of
Speaker 1: producing it. I guess he came up to me after
Speaker 1: a day of rehearsal and he just said, she's feral
Speaker 1: the character, and I've I've often thought that was the
Speaker 1: best direction I've ever gotten, because it doesn't say like,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know. Directors have come up to
Speaker 1: you and say like, I'm worried that we're not gonna
Speaker 1: be able to tell that you're mad because you're acting
Speaker 1: so nice, and I'm worried that it's not going to communicate,
Speaker 1: you know, Or I'm afraid that you're going too far
Speaker 1: in this direction, or I'm afraid that you're, you know,
Speaker 1: gonna confuse people by something that you're doing. I have
Speaker 1: been told that before Um. But Mike Nichols is basically
Speaker 1: going like, go further, like in any direction you could
Speaker 1: possibly go, like what he said to you, you know,
Speaker 1: go all the way. She's feral. I was playing Murrie
Speaker 1: Curie and he's saying like she's a wild animals the
Speaker 1: wild cat because the other parts taken care of. She's
Speaker 1: Mrie Curie. You know, all the French radiologists knew that
Speaker 1: back she was wild, that Marie Curie. But so I
Speaker 1: want to be told what to do. Yes, I wish
Speaker 1: for that kind of collaboration, but I don't I don't
Speaker 1: go in expecting that it's going to happen. I wanted
Speaker 1: who was the director you worked with, because I I
Speaker 1: think you and I may be sharing this from what
Speaker 1: you said where we're not out to uh offend anyone,
Speaker 1: But you don't think of somebody who it was really
Speaker 1: just great? You loved working with UM. Other than your
Speaker 1: current collaboration. We're gonna get to that, but which I
Speaker 1: did love my current collaboration. I have a few that
Speaker 1: I've really loved, Um Martin Scorsese on Banya right that
Speaker 1: Martin Scorsese directed, Supposedly according to Wikipedia, me and my
Speaker 1: husband and Uncle Vanna at csc take, a tiny black
Speaker 1: box theater in New York. Says Martin Scorsese directed the
Speaker 1: check out, and I'm going, oh my god, this is
Speaker 1: like the seismic thing that got by me. It's like
Speaker 1: it's like someone welcome to you, going, you know, the
Speaker 1: Lindbergh baby was kidnapped, rightly. I didn't know that. And
Speaker 1: then in this Wikipedia entry that Alec just showed me
Speaker 1: it then goes on to quote a terrible review of
Speaker 1: me in the play that's not a good but Austin
Speaker 1: Pendleton did and he is one of the most incredible
Speaker 1: directors I've ever worked with in my life. Austin, Um,
Speaker 1: it's funny Austin asked me to do uh Uncle Vanya
Speaker 1: and he when when they offered it to me, they
Speaker 1: sent me this interview with Austin and it basically talks
Speaker 1: about this sort of incredible way that he likes to
Speaker 1: work with actors, you know, where everyone's free to respond
Speaker 1: to each other in the moment on stage. You know,
Speaker 1: all the fantasies that actors have of a way that
Speaker 1: you could actually really work together, which rarely happens. And
Speaker 1: I was like, Austin I'd love to do this. I'd
Speaker 1: love to work this way, you know, where it's all
Speaker 1: just reacting to the reality of the moment with the
Speaker 1: other person on stage, and how everybody says that's what
Speaker 1: they want to do. How are you actually going to
Speaker 1: do it? And he's like, well, you got to come
Speaker 1: and work with me to find out. And the truth is,
Speaker 1: I don't know how he created this situation where everybody
Speaker 1: on stage had deep respect for each other, even though
Speaker 1: it was clear to me that there were actors who
Speaker 1: were stronger than others that there were, but it made
Speaker 1: no difference, you know. I know one way he did it.
Speaker 1: I remember the first day of rehearsal, he said, however,
Speaker 1: you imagined, uh, Sonia, whatever fantasy you had of who
Speaker 1: Sonia was going to be when you read this play,
Speaker 1: Sonja is her. Sonia is this person. And all the
Speaker 1: feelings you have about this person, about the way that
Speaker 1: that ricochets off what you anticipated when you read the play,
Speaker 1: that's all useful. But Sonja is her. And so we
Speaker 1: did create this little black box theater situation where and
Speaker 1: I did it with my husband and he's a brilliant actor,
Speaker 1: so that was cool. Um, and we got to pretend
Speaker 1: we were having an affair. Both check offs we did,
Speaker 1: we were playing people who were having affairs, which was
Speaker 1: really hot and great, you know. But I loved working
Speaker 1: with Austin. I also loved UM. I loved Hugo Blick,
Speaker 1: who directed The Honorable Woman. I got a Golden Club
Speaker 1: for that. Yeah, that was that you mentioned me. That
Speaker 1: was one of the longest times you were overseason away
Speaker 1: from home. Yeah, and it's funny. I really admire what
Speaker 1: you said about how for you, Um, your your trust
Speaker 1: is a director's to lose. I wish I could be
Speaker 1: like that, but I'm not, and I go in with
Speaker 1: my guard up and secretly I want the deepest, most intense,
Speaker 1: artistic collaboration possible, but I don't. It's not easy for me.
Speaker 1: And with Hugo, I think we were both like that.
Speaker 1: And you know, it was eight hours of television. I'd
Speaker 1: only ever done a two hour movie before. I didn't
Speaker 1: know how to do that, and I'm in every minute
Speaker 1: of every scene, and it's super intense and it could
Speaker 1: have been terrible, you know. But I remember about two
Speaker 1: thirds of the way through, somebody I came over to
Speaker 1: him and I just sort of said something in his
Speaker 1: ear about the scene. I think we need to shift
Speaker 1: this and actually can we move this here? And could
Speaker 1: this happen over here just almost shorthand at this point,
Speaker 1: and he was like, yeah, absolutely, and someone staying next
Speaker 1: to him said, do you just do whatever she says?
Speaker 1: And he said he's English. Also he said I trust
Speaker 1: her completely like that, and I took it in like, whoa,
Speaker 1: Actually he was kidding, but I kind of think he does.
Speaker 1: And then at the very end, on the very very
Speaker 1: last day, I had this voice over to record which
Speaker 1: plays at the beginning of every episode, and it's basically
Speaker 1: about trust, and it basically, I think it says something
Speaker 1: like you have to just I mean not in these words,
Speaker 1: but what it meant was you either trust nobody or
Speaker 1: you just jump off the cliff and you trust. And
Speaker 1: I was like, um, he put me in this little
Speaker 1: room to record it because we'd forgotten to record it,
Speaker 1: and I was like, here you go, do you mind
Speaker 1: if I say it to you? And so he came
Speaker 1: in the room with me, and I basically the subtext
Speaker 1: I guess of what I was saying to him was
Speaker 1: I trust you, you know, Maggie Jillen Hall. If you're
Speaker 1: enjoying this conversation, be sure to follow Here's the Thing
Speaker 1: on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. When we come back. Maggie gillen
Speaker 1: Hall talks about working with the children in the movie
Speaker 1: The Kindergarten Teacher. I'm carried to you and this is
Speaker 1: Here's the Thing. In film The Kindergarten Teacher, Maggie Gillenhall
Speaker 1: plays a dissatisfied forty something teacher from Staten Island who
Speaker 1: becomes fixated on the talent of one of her students.
Speaker 1: She heard about the project at a holiday party. Two
Speaker 1: people at the party said, have you heard about this
Speaker 1: script The Kindergarten Teacher. It's coming to you and it's great.
Speaker 1: And for me, I think it's really really rare to
Speaker 1: read a great script, and also to have two people
Speaker 1: in one night out of nowhere to say like, there's
Speaker 1: this great script and it's coming to you. I was like, okay, okay.
Speaker 1: I was waiting every day after that for the script come,
Speaker 1: and it took a while, and when it came, I
Speaker 1: read it and I won't give anything away. The ending
Speaker 1: is pretty great. And I closed the last page of
Speaker 1: the script, and I was like, I want this movie,
Speaker 1: you know, and it wasn't clear to me that it
Speaker 1: was offered to me, which actually just increased my appetite
Speaker 1: for it more. Of course, they say how it always was,
Speaker 1: but I didn't know that, and one of the producers mothers,
Speaker 1: was having an operation in the hospital, and like, nobody
Speaker 1: got back to me for a few days after. I
Speaker 1: really energetically raised my hand and was like, yes, please,
Speaker 1: what do I gotta do? And again, just waiting just
Speaker 1: made me want it more. And then then they came
Speaker 1: back and they were like, oh, yes, we always meant. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's based on Israeli movie which I haven't seen. Um, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I probably should see it now. I've heard
Speaker 1: wonderful things about it, and I've heard that narratively it's
Speaker 1: very similar, and yet it tells an almost entirely different stories.
Speaker 1: So our movie, I think, is really about the consequences
Speaker 1: of what happens when you starve a vibrant woman's mind,
Speaker 1: told from the point of view of a group of
Speaker 1: women filmmakers. And our conclusion is that it's fucking dire,
Speaker 1: you know. That's and I think there is Reel, a
Speaker 1: movie which has a very similar narrative, is Um is
Speaker 1: much more about masculinity in Israel and art in a
Speaker 1: country at war, and very different things, even though the
Speaker 1: story itself is very similar. Um. So yeah, so I
Speaker 1: got the script and then and I signed up and
Speaker 1: then you know, um, it was not easy to get
Speaker 1: our money. In fact, at Sundance when we first premiered,
Speaker 1: I shook the hands of fifty executive producers who had,
Speaker 1: you know, all together somehow helped us cobble together the
Speaker 1: money to make it. So we spent a while, um
Speaker 1: doing that, and then we made it in twenty three
Speaker 1: days in New York. In New York. Now, when you
Speaker 1: work with uh, this sounds like a silly thing, But
Speaker 1: I always think about this in terms of the brevity
Speaker 1: of schedules now and the pressure to shoot efficiently now
Speaker 1: but with children, and I find is very a specific
Speaker 1: and in the movie and from my money, the the
Speaker 1: young boy what's his name, Jimmy park Parker, the boy
Speaker 1: who's we We had the funniest moment yesterday because I said,
Speaker 1: this kid's fantastic after the movie, and somebody from the
Speaker 1: festival said, well, he loves boss Baby. He's like, how
Speaker 1: old is he like five six? So we go backstage
Speaker 1: and I'm like, this is amazing. You're doing like this
Speaker 1: really hypnotic, creepy drama, which is great, And I'm in
Speaker 1: boss baby. I mean, you and I we have so
Speaker 1: much in common, you and I, you know, both in
Speaker 1: the business, different wings of the business. Maybe Parker, but
Speaker 1: we had a lot of fun with him. But when
Speaker 1: you're working with somebody like a lot of times kids
Speaker 1: are performing and the kids that that climbed the ladder
Speaker 1: a little bit in that division, they're very you know,
Speaker 1: they're ready to come, you know, sing tomorrow on Broadway,
Speaker 1: and uh, he's not. He's very real. Yeah, and was
Speaker 1: that a decision? You and she talked about you? And yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I felt a couple of things very strongly.
Speaker 1: I have a child who's six and who was five
Speaker 1: when we made it, just like Parker's five. So it's
Speaker 1: hard to remember what it's like to be five. I mean,
Speaker 1: how different the world is unless you're five. You have
Speaker 1: a five year old, I know, right, or unless you're
Speaker 1: living unless you're living with a five year old, and
Speaker 1: then you're in that mind kind of. So I felt
Speaker 1: two things. I felt I almost didn't do the movie
Speaker 1: at one point because I thought, no movie, no matter
Speaker 1: how much I love it or think it's important or whatever,
Speaker 1: is worth disturbing a child, even for a few minutes.
Speaker 1: So I was like, how are we going to do this?
Speaker 1: And I also don't think, um, five six year olds
Speaker 1: are actors. I just don't believe that, and I don't
Speaker 1: think it's fair to ask them to be actors. So
Speaker 1: so I felt like so basically we worked in a
Speaker 1: couple of ways. I learned this from m Thompson actually
Speaker 1: who um I'm in love with and who who did
Speaker 1: Nanny McPhee. We did Animal Fee together, and we had
Speaker 1: tons of kids, and so often, especially with the very
Speaker 1: littlest one, UM, we would just be like, stand on
Speaker 1: the X now, look at that big black X on
Speaker 1: the on the wall, and turn your head when I
Speaker 1: say so, when I clap, turn your head and say
Speaker 1: I don't want to go. And he would we would clap,
Speaker 1: he'd turn his head, he'd say I don't want to go,
Speaker 1: and I would say no, no, no, sing it like me,
Speaker 1: I don't want to go, I want to go. No,
Speaker 1: and then he would just sort of repeat. I would
Speaker 1: be like, you have just sing it like to Parker
Speaker 1: sing it, and so then he kind of just imitate
Speaker 1: my inflections. That was one way we worked with him
Speaker 1: so that it was just a song. It wasn't like
Speaker 1: he Actually, you can't say to a five year old,
Speaker 1: I want to get in touch with away, in which
Speaker 1: you were like, um. But the other thing you can
Speaker 1: do with five year olds is that they will forget
Speaker 1: that the cameras on them sort of, so we ran
Speaker 1: all the kindergarten stuff as if it were a kindergarten.
Speaker 1: I mean, you see them singing those songs with me,
Speaker 1: or painting or you're not going to say, okay, we're
Speaker 1: gonna pretend to paint, or we're gonna pretend to write
Speaker 1: excess on a piece of paper. We're just going to
Speaker 1: do it. And we choreographed the camera. I would sort
Speaker 1: of see where the camera was going, almost like a documentary,
Speaker 1: and then I would just like scoot over to wherever
Speaker 1: the camera wasn't begin the scene with whoever I needed
Speaker 1: to be talking to in that scene. And then the
Speaker 1: other funny thing about kids and the like short schedule
Speaker 1: is um, there were quite a few times where I
Speaker 1: did scenes with our first a d or our gaffer
Speaker 1: who would read off camera for me because the little
Speaker 1: boy had to go, and I'd be like, this is
Speaker 1: really weird, but huh, you know, like the way you
Speaker 1: can trip yourself out as an actor kind of and
Speaker 1: you can be like, oh, there's helicopters going over all
Speaker 1: the time, we have to keep stopping the middle. I'm
Speaker 1: really frustrated, and then all of a sudden, the frustration
Speaker 1: just goes back into the scene. So this one, I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, this is like a hairy fifty year
Speaker 1: old guy with like this scrubby you know, beard no No,
Speaker 1: our first a, your first city, and he's lying on
Speaker 1: the ground slating also, and I'd be like, oh, but
Speaker 1: I'm okay. So I'm basically talking to this child as
Speaker 1: if he's a man. You know, you just figure out
Speaker 1: the way to throw it back in because what else
Speaker 1: are you gonna do? Well? I love it if on
Speaker 1: my next film you would come and do that ex
Speaker 1: acting with me. Would you be there for me? You
Speaker 1: will be my mirror Rostova, you know, like off the
Speaker 1: set like okay, and turned to me, do you want
Speaker 1: to go to prison? I want to go to prison
Speaker 1: for tex and I want to go to prison for
Speaker 1: tax evasion. You know we could do that. You'd be
Speaker 1: my acting car um. The Uh, that's amazing, you know,
Speaker 1: exacting there. I need to work with you, man, I'm
Speaker 1: dying to get a script with you. It was Emma
Speaker 1: Thompson really and she's pretty too. What about Sarah? How
Speaker 1: many films have she made before she made this film?
Speaker 1: I loved working with Sarah and it was totally different
Speaker 1: kind of experience than I had ever had before. And
Speaker 1: in some ways I like to think it's it was
Speaker 1: a very feminine set, right. Sarah wrote and directed it.
Speaker 1: Our financiers were women, our producers were women. It's all
Speaker 1: about a woman. Um. But I had worked with a
Speaker 1: lot of other women and had very different kinds of
Speaker 1: I have. I've worked with many. I mean even on
Speaker 1: The Deuce last season, seven out of eight directors were women.
Speaker 1: You know difference, Well, there is a difference, Yeah, there is,
Speaker 1: but that's not necessarily what made I think my collaboration
Speaker 1: with Sarah and are set on the kindergarten teacher. So
Speaker 1: I don't know, unusual, Yeah, feminine, but I don't even
Speaker 1: totally know what that means. Even when I watched the movie,
Speaker 1: I'm like, this is feminine, like what does that mean
Speaker 1: and why? And my husband after he saw it last night,
Speaker 1: he was like, I wish someone would send this to
Speaker 1: Senator Flake, but but I don't really know totally why. Right,
Speaker 1: it's not political movie, but it's it's like, somehow it's
Speaker 1: really kind of straight, purely feminine thing. I don't you know.
Speaker 1: It makes me think of the Piano, not this movie.
Speaker 1: I would never compare it to that, but the experience
Speaker 1: I had when I saw the Piano and I was
Speaker 1: like sixteen or something and I had never seen anything
Speaker 1: like it, I was like, what, Like, I I guess
Speaker 1: I think in some ways, um, girls, women my age,
Speaker 1: we get so used to having to relate to a
Speaker 1: male character or even let's just say like a sort
Speaker 1: of masculine point of view on something. We're like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's not exactly my experience, but I could twist it
Speaker 1: around and make it relatable to me, and that muscle
Speaker 1: is very exercised. I think in most women were like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I get I know it's not exactly my way through
Speaker 1: the world, but I could. I could just twist a
Speaker 1: little and it's cool. I get it, and thank god
Speaker 1: because otherwise we have very little to relate to. But
Speaker 1: then like when I saw the piano, I was like, whoa,
Speaker 1: I feel so relaxed. I don't have to twist anything.
Speaker 1: And I felt that way when I read Sarah script,
Speaker 1: I just like went straight in and when I when
Speaker 1: I saw this last night, what I love is it?
Speaker 1: It's not a bad I don't give it away, but
Speaker 1: the dynamic of the home is not all bad. But
Speaker 1: there's things that maybe in my mind you know, are
Speaker 1: missing as you want you're gone and connections and feelings
Speaker 1: are exactly It's a much easier movie if her home
Speaker 1: life is like horrible, if everything's just awful. Instead she's
Speaker 1: see I'm not gonna give away the scene on the
Speaker 1: phone and your husband's like he's ready to you know,
Speaker 1: people will dance with you, and then the phone rings,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, Oh my god. Crazy, yeah, really upsetting
Speaker 1: you see Yeah, sou up. Yeah, it's true. A couple
Speaker 1: of really fucked up scenes in this movie. It's incredible.
Speaker 1: It's true. You're doing the deuce, You're on HBO. How
Speaker 1: did that happen? Meaning how did they reel you? When
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not just saying this for your benefit.
Speaker 1: You're one of the most admired movie actresses in the business.
Speaker 1: So when you go to do the TV thing, how
Speaker 1: did they hook you? Well? Huh. I just it's so
Speaker 1: funny though, because like in the first three episodes, which
Speaker 1: was all I read of The Deuce, Candy didn't really
Speaker 1: have all that much to do and that's why you
Speaker 1: took the job. Um No. But it's weird because I
Speaker 1: was just talking with Peter about this, and when we
Speaker 1: were walking on the beach here today, I was like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: when I first there, wasn't she turned so amazing. I mean,
Speaker 1: I love blank Andy, I really do. Um but I
Speaker 1: just had like a feeling. I don't know, I was
Speaker 1: it was David Simon and George Pelicanos. I mean, they
Speaker 1: made some pretty damn good TV. And I had done
Speaker 1: The Honorable Woman with Hugo, who I told you I
Speaker 1: loved so much. So it wasn't my first time in TV.
Speaker 1: I wasn't like snobby about TV. I wanted it, you know,
Speaker 1: I wanted a good job, you know that that I
Speaker 1: could count on, but also yes, and to be home.
Speaker 1: But also I was like, I don't know, I just
Speaker 1: had a good feeling. I was like, I just want
Speaker 1: to play this woman. I want to I want to
Speaker 1: try it. I want to see I want to see
Speaker 1: if I can do this. It was so far outside
Speaker 1: of my experience to play a sex worker in UM.
Speaker 1: I just like liked her. I just had a I
Speaker 1: just had like this feeling about it. Three seasons and
Speaker 1: I guess I will. And you know, there was this
Speaker 1: whole thing where I was like, guys, I've only read three,
Speaker 1: there's going to be twenty four. How do I know?
Speaker 1: I mean, I think you guys are all right, but
Speaker 1: what if this becomes something? I mean I never had
Speaker 1: signed onto something like that before. Well that's true, but again,
Speaker 1: like I said, I don't trust that. Well, so I
Speaker 1: asked him if I could be a producer and and
Speaker 1: the thing is is when and everyone said to me,
Speaker 1: you are never going to get that on a big
Speaker 1: HBO show. You've never produced television before, you didn't develop it,
Speaker 1: like good luck, Maggie. But then they were like, okay,
Speaker 1: let's be partners. Good for you, And I was like,
Speaker 1: oh wow, good for you. Well that's question is a
Speaker 1: quick two partter. I had a very fleeting role in
Speaker 1: Looming Tawer with your husband Peter stars Guard and my
Speaker 1: first question which is a silly question. Is your husband
Speaker 1: really as sweet as he seems life? Is it? Damn
Speaker 1: good husband? I'm thrilled with him? And what's that like
Speaker 1: for you? Being two people who are working all the time,
Speaker 1: very successful movie actors. That's uh? Is it wonderful to
Speaker 1: be with somebody who understands what you're going through? I'm
Speaker 1: out of the business and sometimes yes, like some I'll
Speaker 1: be like, when are you coming home? I don't understand
Speaker 1: when are you coming home? Like we had planned such
Speaker 1: and such, and he's like, Maggie, you know, I don't
Speaker 1: know the answer to you know, I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: My wife was like like like, why are you so dramatic? Duh? Anyway,
Speaker 1: now you tell all thanks to actors Julianne Moore and
Speaker 1: Maggie Jyllen Hall, and of course to Alec Baldwin, who
Speaker 1: you know normally hosts this show. Here's the Thing is
Speaker 1: produced by Kathleen Rousseau, Me, Carrie Donahue and Zach McNeice,
Speaker 1: our engineers Frank Imperial, Carrie, Am I coming back next week? Yes, Alec,
Speaker 1: You're back next week and you're talking to Jackson Brown.
Speaker 1: But every other week for the rest of the summer,
Speaker 1: members of our team will be popping into the feed
Speaker 1: to showcase terrific interviews from the archives. Thanks Carrie, Thanks Alec.
Speaker 1: Make the many knot to make a time