Speaker 1: Loud and Quiet Presents Midnight Chats.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Loud and Quiet Interview podcast. Thank you
Speaker 2: for downloading this episode. This week, my guest is the
Speaker 2: actor and singer Charlotte Gainsburg, the daughter, of course, of
Speaker 2: Serge Gainsburg and Jane Berkin. Now. Charlotte made her very
Speaker 2: first album when she was just sixteen years old with
Speaker 2: her father. It took her another twenty years to follow
Speaker 2: it up when she finally made five point fifty five
Speaker 2: with French duo Air and Jarvis Cocker. Since then, she's
Speaker 2: made a record called Irm with Beck and she's just
Speaker 2: about to release a new album with Sebastian called Rest.
Speaker 2: In terms of movie work, Charlotte's being the complete opposite
Speaker 2: and well made a shit ton of films. Basically, most
Speaker 2: of them are independent and a lot of them are
Speaker 2: really quite dark. The ones I'm thinking about particularly there
Speaker 2: are a trio of film she made with Danish director
Speaker 2: Lars von Trier Antichrist, Melancholia and Nymphomaniac. Some of those scenes.
Speaker 2: If you've not seen those movies yet, I would recommend
Speaker 2: watching them, but you know, maybe not near some kids.
Speaker 2: Don't get kids involved in that one. She's also recently
Speaker 2: starred in The Snowman with Michael Fassbender, and that film
Speaker 2: actually opened here in the UK the week that we
Speaker 2: recorded this interview, which we did by pure coincidence, in
Speaker 2: the same hotel that I did last week's Billy Corgan
Speaker 2: won in. Now, with that, I do have for just
Speaker 2: one note on this particular episode, there was a moment
Speaker 2: when somebody started hoovering very loudly just outside Charlotte's room
Speaker 2: where we were sat. Now, I've tried to clean up
Speaker 2: the audio as much as I can on that, and
Speaker 2: it's only for a very small section, but I thought
Speaker 2: I should mention it here. So with that in mind,
Speaker 2: here is my late night conversation with Charlotte Gainsburg, in
Speaker 2: which we talk about music and film and Paul McCartney
Speaker 2: and her father and mother and everything in between. Thank
Speaker 2: you very much to Charlotte. Here we go. Is this the
Speaker 2: first podcast you've done? Have you done the podcast before?
Speaker 3: I'm not sure. I think it might be the first one.
Speaker 2: That's good. That's good because I know that you're a
Speaker 2: fan of firsts.
Speaker 3: Yes, first thing, Yes, yes I am, I am, but
Speaker 3: I tend to pretend that it's always you know first
Speaker 3: time because I forget everything. Do you so a podcast?
Speaker 3: Maybe I've done one before, but I've forgot so it
Speaker 3: is my first.
Speaker 2: Okay, everything's your first. Yeah, I completely agree with you
Speaker 2: on first time things.
Speaker 3: There's a sort of a there's a magic of not
Speaker 3: making too much of an effort and the fact that
Speaker 3: things are maybe accidental on a first time, that you
Speaker 3: can be lucky on a first time less on a second.
Speaker 3: So it's something of I'm a bit superstitious about those
Speaker 3: first moments.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you only get beginner's luck once, don't you Exactly?
Speaker 2: You're only given that once. Has there ever been anything
Speaker 2: you've done and it's been so good on the first
Speaker 2: time that you've kind of resisted doing it again. Because
Speaker 2: I do this with gigs. If I go and see
Speaker 2: a band or if I see someone and it's almost
Speaker 2: perfect in my mind at least, I'm really reluctant to
Speaker 2: ever go and see them again. And I've done it once.
Speaker 2: I've resisted it once before, and years later I said,
Speaker 2: oh no, I go and see it because it was
Speaker 2: so great and it has kind of tainted the first time.
Speaker 3: Yes, I guess I'm I'm like that all the time,
Speaker 3: but Also, I think that's why I tend to my
Speaker 3: childhood is something that I want to remember as perfect,
Speaker 3: and it wasn't. But because they were, it was made
Speaker 3: of a lot of first times. There's something that I've
Speaker 3: put on a pedestal, but things that I don't want
Speaker 3: to do a second time. Well, I guess that this
Speaker 3: idea of a second album was something that was very
Speaker 3: difficult for me and that I pushed and for twenty years.
Speaker 3: So I waited until I was from sixteen to thirty six.
Speaker 3: I did nothing. Maybe that was it had to do
Speaker 3: with that, of course, but it was mostly to do
Speaker 3: with the fact that my father wasn't here anymore. But
Speaker 3: of course that that first time I couldn't replicate, and
Speaker 3: it was it.
Speaker 2: Was the guys from Air who you collaborate with on
Speaker 2: what became five fifty five exactly, and they kind of
Speaker 2: they got to a point in there where they said, look,
Speaker 2: we've got to stop talking about this and we've just
Speaker 2: got to go and do it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I was, I was so nervous. It could
Speaker 3: have taken me a few more years of discussions and
Speaker 3: you know, trying to plan things out. And the lyrics
Speaker 3: were always a big problem. Because I didn't know at
Speaker 3: that point, I didn't know I was going to be
Speaker 3: able to sing in English. So lyrics in French were
Speaker 3: such a such a big deal and such a problem that, yeah,
Speaker 3: I needed to to figure things out. And they were
Speaker 3: the ones who said, just let's try, even if it
Speaker 3: doesn't work, but just let's try.
Speaker 2: Stop talking. Well, why did you find that lyrics in
Speaker 2: French were particularly such a big deal?
Speaker 3: Really because of my father, because I was brought up
Speaker 3: with his lyrics and his poetry and his genius, and
Speaker 3: I didn't realize he was a genius when I was
Speaker 3: a child. But he died when I was nineteen, and
Speaker 3: I think I was in full understanding of who he was.
Speaker 3: And it was impossible for me to imagine going back
Speaker 3: to music without him, first of all, but then this
Speaker 3: possibility of going back with musicians that I admired, Yes,
Speaker 3: that was possible. But lyrics in French would have to
Speaker 3: be not as good as his. So it made the
Speaker 3: excitement I don't know, I was.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 3: I was scared. I was scared of being a failure,
Speaker 3: of being of not you know, not not liking what,
Speaker 3: not liking it enough. He was It was too hard
Speaker 3: to to compare myself to him. I didn't want any comparison,
Speaker 3: so so that's why the English was a good solution
Speaker 3: for me. And then, of course admiring Jervis Cocker meant
Speaker 3: that I could, you know, I could it. It started
Speaker 3: to be another dream, and then Beck was again escaping
Speaker 3: from the French, but also admiring his way of writing.
Speaker 2: Can you remember that at the moment when you did
Speaker 2: realize kind of who your parents were and that your
Speaker 2: your dad was this superstar? Can you and that he
Speaker 2: was a genius? Can you remember that moment?
Speaker 3: No, well, I guess when he died, because before I
Speaker 3: had him more to myself. Of course, he was very
Speaker 3: well known and I knew all his work, his songs,
Speaker 3: but not as if I was listening to my father.
Speaker 3: I was already listening to an artist, and same thing
Speaker 3: for my mother. I was listening to her voice and
Speaker 3: being attracted to her as an artist, but it was
Speaker 3: so familiar that I couldn't I didn't analyze who they were.
Speaker 3: I didn't try and understand what a big deal they were.
Speaker 3: And when he died he became such a hero for
Speaker 3: France such I don't know they were mourning everybody was mourning.
Speaker 2: I think people, I think it's I mean, it is
Speaker 2: impossible to kind of overstate how much your father is
Speaker 2: still adored in France. I mean, he is just so love.
Speaker 3: But when he was alive, he wasn't. He was loved
Speaker 3: towards the the his last years. Of course, he had
Speaker 3: a lot of success, but he went through so many
Speaker 3: years of not struggling because he was it was okay.
Speaker 3: He had a lot of successes through other female artists,
Speaker 3: but it was never his success. Also, he was he
Speaker 3: was attacked quite often because he was such a provocov getter.
Speaker 3: He was used to being banged on, and you know.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 2: Was he okay with that?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 3: He was the Yes, he he loved. He loved the scandal,
Speaker 3: he loved yeah, the reaction, making noise, He loved the folk.
Speaker 3: So he was always on about being in on a
Speaker 3: cover of a magazine or talked about in newspapers, but
Speaker 3: at the same time very very vulnerable about what people
Speaker 3: would say. So it was a mixture of provocation and
Speaker 3: listening to the comments.
Speaker 2: I mean that first record that you made with him,
Speaker 2: you were fifteen around that time, No, I was twelve twelve.
Speaker 3: Well, my first album. I was sixteen, but that first
Speaker 3: song was called Lemon Incest and it was on one
Speaker 3: of his albums, So it was just just this one
Speaker 3: song that I didn't I didn't realize the scandal it
Speaker 3: was at the time. I understood what I sang. Of course,
Speaker 3: at twelve, I knew what also, I knew what what
Speaker 3: his provocations were about, and and I was fine with that.
Speaker 3: I wasn't shocked at all. And then the scandal afterwards
Speaker 3: when it when the song was released, I didn't realize
Speaker 3: because I was in a boarding school completely far away
Speaker 3: in Switzerland and not you know, not not anything. Nothing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, in terms of when you kind of were making
Speaker 2: that out the album in particular with your father, what
Speaker 2: what can you remember of that of that experience that
Speaker 2: first time.
Speaker 3: I loved the experience of being directed by him because
Speaker 3: he had he was very much in command of whatever
Speaker 3: he wanted of you. So he was in the booth
Speaker 3: with you, gesturing and emphasizing and trying to get to
Speaker 3: get you where he wanted. Then when I listened to
Speaker 3: the record again, first of all, I didn't do any
Speaker 3: premiere at the time because I just I didn't want to,
Speaker 3: and he accepted that but it meant that I didn't
Speaker 3: do any TVs. Nothing. I hated. I hated that part
Speaker 3: of the job and I didn't feel that I had
Speaker 3: to do it, which was a bit stupid. But so
Speaker 3: now when I listen to it again, I wish I
Speaker 3: had had more humor, more distance, more I don't know,
Speaker 3: I feel like a nice student, you know, it's a
Speaker 3: little too well behaved.
Speaker 2: Sure.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: One thing that I think is quite kind of strangely
Speaker 2: rare in your instances having such famous parents and having
Speaker 2: your own career, your own career in music, and you've
Speaker 2: never kind of tried to like push against it or
Speaker 2: kind of reject that kind of that legacy that you
Speaker 2: come from. Whereas, like I think like maybe a lot
Speaker 2: of people when they've got a really famous parent who's doing,
Speaker 2: who's done what they are now doing, the thing they
Speaker 2: really want to do is kind of like, oh, I
Speaker 2: don't want to talk about you know, I don't want
Speaker 2: to talk about her. But you've always been very proud
Speaker 2: of I've always.
Speaker 3: Been very proud, But I'm much more open to talking
Speaker 3: about them in other countries. In France now, I'm sort
Speaker 3: of more at peace with with people's curiosity, but for
Speaker 3: ages in France, I would just I didn't want to.
Speaker 3: It's as if I wanted to keep my own secrets,
Speaker 3: you know, of my private life of and my own
Speaker 3: my childhood was private. He was so well known and
Speaker 3: everybody knew everything about both of them. I didn't want
Speaker 3: to share anything. But today it's easier because I I
Speaker 3: don't know. I'm more mature, of course, and I don't
Speaker 3: I don't feel that I have that many secrets anymore.
Speaker 2: So sure, and when you say that you felt this
Speaker 2: pressure of just because of your father's lyrics and loving
Speaker 2: them so much and kind of respecting the genius of
Speaker 2: him and his words. As you've kind of gone on
Speaker 2: and made three albums since that kind of that pressure,
Speaker 2: is that only like an internal pressure that you've put
Speaker 2: on yourself. Have you found that people have projected on
Speaker 2: you as well? Or is it just your own kind
Speaker 2: of it's my criticism of yourself.
Speaker 3: Yeh, yes, I tend to be hard on myself, but
Speaker 3: that's I think that's a good thing. I haven't heard
Speaker 3: criticism and hard things to hear and the comparisons that
Speaker 3: would that would crush me, I guess, but no, I
Speaker 3: haven't heard that it's my own judgment that I fear.
Speaker 3: And so for this app for this new album Yes,
Speaker 3: that that's different.
Speaker 2: So I mean, this is the first record that you've
Speaker 2: contributed to the lyrics to Yes, And what was it
Speaker 2: that kind of was there a catalyst that basically made
Speaker 2: you think, right, I'm ready, now, I'm gonna I'm going
Speaker 2: to do this. I'm going to write these words myself
Speaker 2: because I know in the past you've really kind of
Speaker 2: you've tried it and it's just not happened for you.
Speaker 2: Why now? Why on this run?
Speaker 3: I think I didn't care anymore. Okay, whether it was
Speaker 3: good enough or not good enough, it just came out
Speaker 3: that way. And I tried to write in English mostly
Speaker 3: and it came out in French, so I couldn't do
Speaker 3: much about that.
Speaker 4: But it did take.
Speaker 3: Many steps and a long long time, because the whole
Speaker 3: process was I did write since I was I don't know, fourteen,
Speaker 3: writing a diary, but so being being very in love
Speaker 3: with a style and words and having my own taste,
Speaker 3: but well, anyway, just for myself, and then working with Beck,
Speaker 3: I tried each time to come up with lyrics that
Speaker 3: would end up being just subjects or a word here
Speaker 3: and there, because I was too ashamed of whatever I
Speaker 3: would come up with. This time, I started touring with
Speaker 3: Conn and Moccasin and he really he was such a
Speaker 3: great help because he said, let's let's do a real
Speaker 3: session of work. I'll be with my guitar, I'll come
Speaker 3: up with melodies and try and in French. Just do
Speaker 3: whatever you know. I won't be judging because I don't
Speaker 3: understand French. Right So, and that's what we did and
Speaker 3: it worked out that way. A few melodies are still
Speaker 3: in the album, and it was I realized that I
Speaker 3: had a lot of pleasure doing that and that it
Speaker 3: would be possible. It was just a first step. And
Speaker 3: then the idea of collaborating on the album with Sebastian
Speaker 3: and going into more of an electronic vibe meant that
Speaker 3: I needed Sebastian to to like what I was writing.
Speaker 2: So does Beck speak French?
Speaker 3: Bet doesn't speak French, but he's very He also was saying,
Speaker 3: why don't you He loves to hear French, so he
Speaker 3: tried to push me while we were working together. He
Speaker 3: really said, you should. You're making too much of a
Speaker 3: big deal of this writing thing. It's it's easy try.
Speaker 2: But there.
Speaker 3: It was so easy. He would he would come into
Speaker 3: we were working in his place, and he would come in,
Speaker 3: start a piece of music, start a beat, put a guitar,
Speaker 3: and then wander off with his little notepad and come
Speaker 3: back really seven minutes later with a whole song written
Speaker 3: with wonderful imagery and words and poetry. It was just incredible.
Speaker 3: So I, of course I didn't dare show him what
Speaker 3: I had come up with.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's quite a pressure, it is.
Speaker 3: And then he would say, no, but try and write
Speaker 3: the crappiest song you could ever think of. That's the
Speaker 3: first thing. That's that that'll be your you know, your
Speaker 3: first step into lyric writing. And I guess it's a
Speaker 3: way of not caring. Yes, is it the first step?
Speaker 2: Was it? Is it different working with because he's the
Speaker 2: he's the American you've worked with the one American and
Speaker 2: everyone else has been friends or Jarvis? Is it different
Speaker 2: working with somebody like like Beck? Is there like a
Speaker 2: different cultural thing?
Speaker 3: Of course, very much, because he he also it was
Speaker 3: done in Los Angeles so very much in his environment
Speaker 3: that I felt completely foreign to. And that's what I wanted.
Speaker 3: I wanted to be far away from home and to experience. Also,
Speaker 3: you know, his his folk writing, his his story, and
Speaker 3: and he was always talking about Los Angeles and how
Speaker 3: he had this love relationship to American not American culture,
Speaker 3: but Los Angeles culture. So it was very, very interesting
Speaker 3: and completely different.
Speaker 2: Do you still live in Paris now?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: What, I moved to New York. So three years ago
Speaker 3: I moved to New York and I'm I'm going to
Speaker 3: live there a fourth year and then we'll see.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're enjoying it at the moment, I love it. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Is it similar to Paris in any way?
Speaker 3: Not at all. That's what I was. That's what I was. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I was trying to escape all my references and all
Speaker 3: my memories. So it's a it's a great It made
Speaker 3: me curious again. It's such a beautiful, very photogenic city
Speaker 3: with quite simple in a way, because London scares me.
Speaker 3: I don't I was born here, and yet I don't
Speaker 3: know anything about these walls. And I used to know
Speaker 3: this posh area I grew up. Well, my grandparents used
Speaker 3: to live in Chelsea. But apart from the Kings Road.
Speaker 2: It's literally just over there. I know that way, is it?
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm bad in this area, to be honest,
Speaker 2: I'm out of my comfort zone. But what I do.
Speaker 3: I feel like a stranger, whereas in New York everybody's
Speaker 3: a stranger and it's all right, and everybody's welcome. It's
Speaker 3: it's a very easy welcoming when you when you have money,
Speaker 3: of course, and I live downtown, so I wouldn't be
Speaker 3: able to live uptown in that more stressful business like the.
Speaker 2: Upper west Side near the park. So are you? I mean,
Speaker 2: I know New York a little bit, not much better
Speaker 2: than I know Kensington, to be honest.
Speaker 3: But it was going to Chelsea because I moved from
Speaker 3: Saint Germain. I've I've always been in very nice, chic places.
Speaker 3: So I went from Saint Germain to the West Village.
Speaker 2: Right okay, which just slumming it in the West.
Speaker 3: Village, very London like. And then I went to Tribeca.
Speaker 3: That was a big change because the architecture is completely
Speaker 3: different and the feel is different. And then I just
Speaker 3: moved back to the West Village.
Speaker 2: So when you're here, you kind of do you feel
Speaker 2: kind of like a tourist coming completely.
Speaker 3: I used to go to my grandmother's house and feel
Speaker 3: at home there and that was the only reason to
Speaker 3: come to London. I hadn't started doing music again, so
Speaker 3: there was no and films never came to England, so
Speaker 3: I was never doing publicity here. There was only family
Speaker 3: and my uncle used to live here also so with
Speaker 3: his children, so it was very Yes, it was only
Speaker 3: seeing cousins and and going to people's houses, but never
Speaker 3: really never being a young adult discovering the city. Never.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it's got kind of a nostalgic.
Speaker 3: Completely, very nostalgic. And well today especially yeah, very people
Speaker 3: are gone. So now I go to see my uncle
Speaker 3: in Wales, and my aunt's lives outside of London, so
Speaker 3: in Bushy Park, so it's it's never London.
Speaker 2: So in terms of you're becoming a musician, did you
Speaker 2: always see yourself doing that or did it almost feel inevitable?
Speaker 3: When I did it with my father, it was I
Speaker 3: didn't even ask myself a question of whether I could
Speaker 3: or not, whether it was a good idea or not.
Speaker 3: It was just normal. He made people sing, Yeah, that
Speaker 3: was his thing, and especially he made actresses sing. But
Speaker 3: I at that time I wasn't yet an actress. But
Speaker 3: so for Lemon And says, no consciousness of what is
Speaker 3: a singer if you know talent or no talent. It
Speaker 3: didn't really matter then when I when I did it
Speaker 3: when I was sixteen, maybe a bit more pressure, but
Speaker 3: I didn't. It wasn't a dream. I wasn't dreaming of
Speaker 3: of singing.
Speaker 2: And you never thought to not do it. No, You're
Speaker 2: just like, yeah, I'll do that, because that's quite a
Speaker 2: confident thing in a way, because especially when you're a child,
Speaker 2: to like get up and sing in front of people
Speaker 2: be told.
Speaker 3: But it wasn't in front of people. That's why. It
Speaker 3: was just me my father in a studio with his
Speaker 3: smile on his face, being happy about what I had
Speaker 3: just done. Little accidents that he was looking for, you know,
Speaker 3: not a very imperfect voice. That's all he liked. So
Speaker 3: pleasing him was the was the thing. And then refusing
Speaker 3: to do promotion and going on television shows was exactly
Speaker 3: that I hadn't. I didn't feel any obligation, so I
Speaker 3: wasn't shy about it, but it I was a very
Speaker 3: shy person. And yet at the same time I began
Speaker 3: doing films and loving it and still being shy, but still,
Speaker 3: you know, it was It's a weird.
Speaker 2: Contradiction do you feel at home on the film set?
Speaker 3: I do, I think, I think I do. I don't
Speaker 3: feel professional in the sense that again, it wasn't a
Speaker 3: dream of being becoming an actress or not a spoken
Speaker 3: out dream. It happened too soon for me to to
Speaker 3: have this aspiration, so I just had pleasure doing it
Speaker 3: and learning and getting different experiences. But I do feel
Speaker 3: comfortable now on a set. I think I still have.
Speaker 3: I'm still very nervous. I still doubt myself. I criticize
Speaker 3: everything I do, and I like being that way, but
Speaker 3: it's it's become less traumatic. I used to do it
Speaker 3: and it was and I would get so nervous. It
Speaker 3: should have been a question of why am I.
Speaker 2: Doing myself through? What made you? What made you push
Speaker 2: on and not kind of just give into that and
Speaker 2: think this is just too stressful for me to actually
Speaker 2: do this.
Speaker 3: I think once a few weeks had gone by, I
Speaker 3: felt more comfortable. Some scenes I adored doing, and that
Speaker 3: was enough pleasure for me. But also I kept forgetting,
Speaker 3: like these first times, every film was the first time,
Speaker 3: so I kept forgetting if I would be able to
Speaker 3: do it or not. It was all very vague and
Speaker 3: the fact that I didn't know if I had the
Speaker 3: skill because I didn't go to an acting school, I
Speaker 3: didn't have a method.
Speaker 4: It was always.
Speaker 3: Win or loose for every scene, every moment. It's only
Speaker 3: when I started working with Last von Trier that I
Speaker 3: understood that this doubting place that I was always in,
Speaker 3: that that was the starting point for his kind of work.
Speaker 3: And I understood that that's what I loved, was to
Speaker 3: be in this uncomfortable place of not knowing if it
Speaker 3: would if I would be able to do a scene
Speaker 3: or not, if I would be able to be truthful
Speaker 3: in a moment or not, and just working on it.
Speaker 3: It's it's very I'm very passionate about it now.
Speaker 2: Sure those the films that we've done with Blast, have
Speaker 2: you done the three?
Speaker 3: I've done three yet three?
Speaker 2: And I mean they're obviously very in terms of like
Speaker 2: being nervous on film sets or just being you know,
Speaker 2: being nervous I think can I do this or not?
Speaker 2: You've in a way you've made it very hard for
Speaker 2: yoursel You're not like like you've not done kind of
Speaker 2: I don't know if any film choice is an easy
Speaker 2: film to make, but you know you're not making kind
Speaker 2: of daft rom coms, they're all quite very challenging as.
Speaker 3: It's on the contrary, those are easy to make. I
Speaker 3: think making a comedy of I don't know, a character
Speaker 3: that would be very sure of herself and outspoken. I
Speaker 3: don't know, I'm talking just like that, but that would
Speaker 3: be difficult. To put myself in a position of uncomfortable
Speaker 3: suffering is easier because it's because it's something you don't
Speaker 3: really question. And he put me in positions that I
Speaker 3: didn't have the time to to think. Well, I was
Speaker 3: miserable on some some days because I didn't know what
Speaker 3: I was doing really. On Antichrist specially, he would direct
Speaker 3: me in all kinds of directions and by the end
Speaker 3: of the day you didn't know what you had done,
Speaker 3: so it was very puzzling. And but then when I
Speaker 3: understood that this state of mind was exactly what he wanted,
Speaker 3: then you just had to go along with that. And
Speaker 3: I don't know, I find it easier than pretending to
Speaker 3: be easy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, is there a type of a type of film,
Speaker 2: a genre of film? Then in that case that you
Speaker 2: would be offered and be like, there's no way, that's
Speaker 2: my idea of that. The work job the worst acting job.
Speaker 2: I'm not comfort I wouldn't do that, but that would
Speaker 2: be a challenge.
Speaker 3: So I would love to do that.
Speaker 2: What if, say someone, what if it was a romantic comedy.
Speaker 3: You you fixed exactly?
Speaker 2: You and Hugh Grant. He's a foppish, awkward English guy
Speaker 2: in Paris and he meets a French lady who works
Speaker 2: in a bookshop. That's that's the offer you get given?
Speaker 2: Is that the kind of thing that like just intuitively
Speaker 2: like you just think that's just not for me.
Speaker 3: No, I think i'd be I'd be taking it as
Speaker 3: a discovery, and even if I would resent the style,
Speaker 3: it's still no. No, I'm quite excited by.
Speaker 2: Experience, by this job off.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, exactly, I'd love that film.
Speaker 2: I think you'd be good opposite Hugrant. I love a
Speaker 2: Hugh Grant film. I do too. I like her. I've
Speaker 2: become quite a wimp when it comes to films. I
Speaker 2: think I've always been a whimp, to be honest. But
Speaker 2: I the darker the film, they really stay with me
Speaker 2: and they haunt me, which is I know that kind
Speaker 2: of meant to. But I'm too much of a wimp
Speaker 2: and I just can't do that. Anymore. I need I
Speaker 2: need to be watching things like La La Land.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, no, I I've come to a point where I'm
Speaker 3: I'm into different things now. I like documentaries, So it's
Speaker 3: not it's not I'm not that curious about films anymore.
Speaker 2: You're do you do you watch many films?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: I like old films and and I like documentaries, and
Speaker 3: I don't have a lot of time. So yeah, the.
Speaker 2: Snowma and your new film that opens this Friday here, right,
Speaker 2: were you aware of that? No?
Speaker 3: No, And I haven't seen the film.
Speaker 2: Yet, have you not?
Speaker 4: How?
Speaker 2: How off? How when should you have seen the film
Speaker 2: right now? Maybe if was there a screening that you
Speaker 2: missed or No, No, there just hasn't been one.
Speaker 3: It's been a little hectic on the film. It's it's
Speaker 3: been a little last minute editing, and so no, it's
Speaker 3: it's normal that I haven't seen it. I'll see it.
Speaker 2: Soon, Okay, you'll just see it in the cinema. Oh no,
Speaker 2: wha that sends you a that sends you a link
Speaker 2: to see it. Maybe maybe when a film is about
Speaker 2: to come out that you're in the fact that you
Speaker 2: didn't know it was opening. So we can probably answer
Speaker 2: this question, but I was going to say, what's that
Speaker 2: What is that process? Like, how does that compare to
Speaker 2: releasing an album and knowing that your album If your
Speaker 2: album was coming out on Friday, you're definitely yes, know
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 3: An album is so personal. It's been on my mind
Speaker 3: for I don't know five years now, you know, from
Speaker 3: the first moment of trying with Connon to now when
Speaker 3: it's done and I can talk about it. It's a
Speaker 3: very very for me, always a very long process, and
Speaker 3: I've put very intimate things in it. In a film,
Speaker 3: you put intimate things but that are hidden, so and
Speaker 3: it's not your work. The director does everything. He edits
Speaker 3: you can be good or you can be bad. It's
Speaker 3: in his hands.
Speaker 2: And there's lots of other people, I guess, to a
Speaker 2: lot of.
Speaker 3: Other peoples in America. In England, the producers have a
Speaker 3: lot of importance. So I can't have the same relation
Speaker 3: to a film. But a French film that I did
Speaker 3: called Le Promes delb that's I don't know when it
Speaker 3: all come out or if it will come out here,
Speaker 3: but it's it's it's a very important film for me,
Speaker 3: and it'll come out in December and France. I will
Speaker 3: do as much as I can for that film because
Speaker 3: it means a lot. So some films sometimes, you you know,
Speaker 3: you've Last's films were very important. I didn't care that
Speaker 3: much if they were a success or not, because I
Speaker 3: knew that they were not meant to be huge successes,
Speaker 3: you know. But so it depends on the films.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what is it about this? So what was the
Speaker 2: name of the le De?
Speaker 3: It's the Promise of Dawn. It's an adaptation of Roma
Speaker 3: Gari and I got to play this wonderful mother character,
Speaker 3: wonderful and awful at the same time she's she's a monster.
Speaker 3: And I was able to to put on another body
Speaker 3: another you know, it's a different me. And at the
Speaker 3: same time, it's so close to my father and my
Speaker 3: grandmother on my father's side. Because I play this Russian
Speaker 3: Polish woman so with a very strong accent, I had
Speaker 3: to speak Polish. It was a big piece of work. Sure,
Speaker 3: that's why it means so much.
Speaker 2: Okay, great, it doesn't sound like it's your Hugh Grant films.
Speaker 2: Slightly different vibe.
Speaker 3: Well, yes, no, the romantic strike is not there, but
Speaker 3: there's a lot of humor.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, that's it. I'm waiting for the drum com
Speaker 2: I'm going to once I leave him, I'm going to
Speaker 2: try and make some calls. I'm saying that as if
Speaker 2: I know anyone in film. I don't, but I feel
Speaker 2: we can maybe someone will hear this. That off, Well,
Speaker 2: we'll turn up back to your album, back to rest.
Speaker 2: Another person you collaborated with on this one was Paul
Speaker 2: McCartney song that song you can You can hear Paul
Speaker 2: McCartney in that song like in the in the melody
Speaker 2: of the song. I feel yes, How did that come about?
Speaker 2: Is it right that you met him years before? It
Speaker 2: the years before?
Speaker 3: It was maybe six and a half, Well, I know
Speaker 3: it was exactly six and a half years ago because
Speaker 3: I was very pregnant with my little girl, and and
Speaker 3: so we I asked if I could meet him. Of course,
Speaker 3: there was this idea of work. But I was very
Speaker 3: impressed and very intimate, intimidated by this encounter in a
Speaker 3: restaurant in London. So I made the trip from Paris,
Speaker 3: and it was a little surreal, and I I just
Speaker 3: by the end of the lunch we had talked about
Speaker 3: family and children. Of course, because I was in that
Speaker 3: state but then I dared ask if, in any case,
Speaker 3: if he had a song that he could share, did you.
Speaker 2: Throughout the meal that you're having, were you thinking I
Speaker 2: need to get this question in And when am I
Speaker 2: going to say it? Did you say you were running
Speaker 2: out the door?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was close to close to standing, But no,
Speaker 3: I wasn't that nervous, and that I didn't feel pushy
Speaker 3: in any way.
Speaker 2: It was it just.
Speaker 3: It was embarrassing. But at the same time I knew
Speaker 3: that he was understanding where you know, where I was.
Speaker 2: He gets it.
Speaker 3: I think he's not so, but I didn't think he
Speaker 3: would respond. He was very sweet, really, as so simple
Speaker 3: and welcoming, and but I didn't think he would he
Speaker 3: would send me anything. And a few weeks later he did.
Speaker 3: He sent this demo with the lyrics attached. And I
Speaker 3: had this song by Paul McCartney, and I didn't know
Speaker 3: what to do with it because I hadn't started on
Speaker 3: the album yet, so I didn't want to do just
Speaker 3: so one song. So it was only when I when
Speaker 3: I was really into the album with Sebastian, that I
Speaker 3: made him listen to this song that I had on
Speaker 3: my computer, this secret treasure I had and he thought
Speaker 3: he yeah, he thought he could try and maybe mess
Speaker 3: the song up a little bit to make it our own. Also,
Speaker 3: we had to we had to put it in the
Speaker 3: vibe of the album that was already being sort of
Speaker 3: becoming more and more clear. And on that song, maybe
Speaker 3: because it wasn't my lyrics and it wasn't Sebastian's music,
Speaker 3: we tried things. It was like an exercise of trying
Speaker 3: to speak the words and scream them and sing them
Speaker 3: and I don't know, getting to know each other. Also
Speaker 3: because it was one of the first ones we we
Speaker 3: really recorded, and then we sent it to Paul McCartney
Speaker 3: and he liked what we had done and were.
Speaker 2: Nervous about that. We're kind of thinking, I've changed a
Speaker 2: lot of this. Yeah, I don't want him.
Speaker 3: To be I didn't want him to be offended exactly,
Speaker 3: and especially you know, five years later, it had taken
Speaker 3: such a long time. I wanted him to, I don't know,
Speaker 3: to feel that he had been respected. And anyway, he liked,
Speaker 3: liked it and came and joined us in New York
Speaker 3: in a studio and recorded instruments on the track and
Speaker 3: it was wonderful, just a wonderful experience.
Speaker 2: Yeah, your meal with him must have gone very well.
Speaker 3: Because I don't know if you remember.
Speaker 2: Because he would have because it's one thing for him
Speaker 2: to like follow up and actually do the song and
Speaker 2: send it to you, That's that's one thing. But for
Speaker 2: them for him to come and then play, Yeah, that's
Speaker 2: quite huge, isn't it. It was because I'm sure there's
Speaker 2: must be loads of people where he kind of writes
Speaker 2: the song and then that maybe you'd never hear from
Speaker 2: him again. Maybe.
Speaker 3: But I didn't even dare ask him where this song
Speaker 3: came from. Was it an old song? Was it something
Speaker 3: he sought about after we met. I don't know what,
Speaker 3: And I was too shy to ask him because when
Speaker 3: we when he came in the studio and stayed with
Speaker 3: us for a few hours, we all pretend it is
Speaker 3: if it was.
Speaker 2: So normal, soul, could you make me a tea? Paul?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I felt I felt very lucky.
Speaker 2: He probably likes that. The last thing he probably wants
Speaker 2: is for people to be kind of, you know, worshiping
Speaker 2: him or being super fantic towards him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, But also like many geniuses.
Speaker 4: He he he's very simple, very I don't know, very normal,
Speaker 4: and it's always surprising when you know, of course what
Speaker 4: he's done, you expect, I don't know, you expect some
Speaker 4: some mass.
Speaker 3: Another diva, yes, maybe maybe a big superstar or you
Speaker 3: fear for that. And I know he was perfectly sweet.
Speaker 2: He gets like a bit of a bad rap over here.
Speaker 3: Really, I don't.
Speaker 2: We're like because he's too nice, Like it's very it's
Speaker 2: a very British. Oh yes, And we don't like the
Speaker 2: fact that he's like happy and nice. He's not gone mad.
Speaker 2: It's like he's kind of two together. I'm I'm grew
Speaker 2: up with the Beatles. I'm a really big Beatles fan,
Speaker 2: and I spent a lot of time sticking up form.
Speaker 2: I've done it on this podcast before. I'm sure i'll
Speaker 2: do it again. Just that idea of, as you say,
Speaker 2: someone that famous and who's done that much and made
Speaker 2: that much music and contributed that much to pop music,
Speaker 2: for him to not be a completely awful person, I
Speaker 2: think is such an achievement. But a lot of people
Speaker 2: don't get a lot of people just you know, they're
Speaker 2: all about John because John was like that, you know,
Speaker 2: he's the cool one, and Paul's just not cool. He's
Speaker 2: a bit like an embarrassing dad. But I like that.
Speaker 3: Oh god, no, no, no, that's too too nasty.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's a British thing. I think in
Speaker 2: France he's probably loved.
Speaker 3: Well. Maybe I've become a little bit American in that
Speaker 3: because they're french.
Speaker 2: Shire sort of.
Speaker 3: No, they're very respectful but sort of stubborn and grumpy,
Speaker 3: and so talking about Paul McCartney, maybe in a French
Speaker 3: way you could, you could not be in total awe,
Speaker 3: but so I feel very American.
Speaker 2: You've been living there too, that's it. Do you think
Speaker 2: your tool this album because you've only done the one
Speaker 2: tour so far? Right?
Speaker 3: I did too. I did one with with Beck, I
Speaker 3: mean not with Beck, but with his band, and so
Speaker 3: it was touring IRRM. But then we released a live
Speaker 3: for irma Cool Stage Whispers, and then on that album
Speaker 3: we did new songs, so it meant it was nearly
Speaker 3: a new album. And I toured again with Connin Moccason,
Speaker 3: this time doing those new songs and the old ones too.
Speaker 3: So I did two tours, but this time, if Sebastian
Speaker 3: agrees to come with me, I'll do it, okay, his presence, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I need.
Speaker 2: So if he's listening, yeah to this podcast now. We
Speaker 2: need to get you a film with you Grant and
Speaker 2: a tour with Sebastian. And it's been worthwhile, completely worth while.
Speaker 1: Midnight Chats is a Loud and Quiet podcast. Music courtesy
Speaker 1: of gold Panda. Search Midnight Chats on iTunes for more
Speaker 1: episodes and to subscribe. For more information, visit Loud and
Speaker 1: Quiet dot com