WEBVTT - The Oscars Series Day 3: Julianne Moore 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:03.720 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.280 It's award season and we're listening back to some of 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:11.920 our favorite interviews with Oscar winners. Julianne Moore won an 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:15.720 Oscar in two thousand fifteen for Still Alice. She'd been 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:22.640 nominated four times before. This is Alec Baldwin and you're 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:27.080 listening to Here's the Thing. My chance to talk with artists, policymakers, 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:31.320 and performers, to hear their stories. What inspired their creations, 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:35.840 what decisions change their careers, what relationships influenced their work. 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:42.400 My guest today is Julianne Moore. She's been nominated for 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:45.919 an Academy Award four times for Boogie Nights, The End 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:50.600 of the Affair, Far From Heaven, and the Hours. David Cronenberg, 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:53.840 who directed her recently and Maps to the Stars, said, 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:58.280 more is on her sweet, approachable self up until the 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:01.920 moment the camera starts rolling. Then she becomes quote this 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:05.280 character that you wouldn't want to spend any time with unquote. 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:10.880 I have a flu I need cigarettes American spirit and 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:16.600 I needed to pick up some prescriptions Avian Facon and 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:24.319 san X It's soft more plays troubled women with a 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:31.160 complicated mix of fierceness and vulnerability. I've had the pleasure 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:35.120 of working with her on two different projects, recently Instill, 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:39.720 Alice More plays a linguistics professor diagnosed with Alzheimer's have 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:45.360 good days, bad days, and on my good days, I can, 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:49.760 you know, almost pass for a normal person. On thirty Rock, 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:54.400 More was my character's high school crush, Boston native Nancy Donovan. 0:01:54.840 --> 0:02:03.000 I'll give you two words, full final offer. I'll wait, 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:12.480 not forever, I'll try wicked hard. Julianne Moore's resume is 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:18.079 an actor's wish list, with films in every genre horror, suspense, romance, 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:21.799 and comedy. Her acting range more than demonstrates that she's 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:26.680 comfortable with change. That flexibility springs in part from her childhood. 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:31.600 You'd be somewhere a year, maybe two, sometimes three, but Germany, 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:35.240 we were in Panama, we were in Alabama. When you 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:39.400 look back on it now, you know, yeah, it's weirdness, 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:42.160 so good, but not so bad either, you know, I 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:44.799 mean you can't at least your father had a job exactly. 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:47.320 It's looking on the bird side, but it's true. Yeah, 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:49.160 you know. So we're all kind of a collection of 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:51.880 our experiences, and in the sense it really gave me 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:54.000 a something. I had an understanding of where I wanted 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:56.919 to be in terms of what you do for a living. 0:02:57.120 --> 0:02:59.000 I think, so you were never there long enough to 0:02:59.000 --> 0:03:00.880 connect to people. Did you get into some kind of 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:02.919 I didn't get into any trouble. I was very I'm 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:06.960 a very good girl, like very good you only played. 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:11.360 That's how you get real if you're very sweet, good girl. 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:13.639 But no, I think I think it's pretty common that 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:16.880 actors come from an itinerant background, you know, creatures kids 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:21.040 and IBM kids and military kids and um. For some reason, 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:23.600 I think it teaches you that behavior is mutable, the 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:26.119 behavior is not character and once you figure that out, 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:28.400 you're like, well, that means that I can behave anyway 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:31.040 I want. That people are choosing to behave certain ways. 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:33.400 Its speech is a choice, and movement is a choice, 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:36.560 and accents are all choices. So it's an interesting thing 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:39.120 to understand. I think at a very young age, I 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:41.920 lived in the same town my entire life. Why are 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:45.000 you an enctor them? That's interesting. It just had to 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:46.920 do with having to entertain yourself. I grew up in 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:50.280 an era where there was no iPads, and there was 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:53.680 no HBO, and there was no storytelling, and no one 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:56.160 would let you watch television. We had a television, but 0:03:56.160 --> 0:03:57.720 it was when I grew up with the age of 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:01.280 like Fantasy Island and Love Bow Show. They were okay. 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:05.440 But my point being is that that idea of storytelling, 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:09.560 playing voices, dialects, watching movies and remembering every line in 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:11.280 the movie and acting out the movies. That kind of 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:13.400 think that was really a big part of my That's interesting, 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:15.160 but we didn't know. I lived in the same time 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:16.880 my whole life. But you know, it's interesting what you 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:19.119 say about narrative, because that's what it is for me too. 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:20.960 I was a big reader, you know, and that's what 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:22.520 I did from a really early age. And I was 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:25.159 that kid who won the library contest every summer. You know, 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:27.360 how many books can you read the library? And would 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:29.559 say to me, you know, you can't take out twelve 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:33.520 books at a time. I was like, why not, why not? 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:35.839 I'll read them. I probably known so I would do. 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:37.440 I just read them, read and read and read. And 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:39.880 so with that sense of narrative, did you know then 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:41.440 you were going to end up doing what you're doing no, 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:45.000 I thought it'd be a librarian. Yeah, well, I thought, 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:46.880 when did that start to change? You know? I thought 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:49.440 I would be a doctor, a lawyer. I thought I 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:51.560 would go to graduate school because my parents wanted that 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:55.359 for us. Um. I started doing plays after school in 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:57.320 the sixth grade because I couldn't do anything else. I 0:04:57.440 --> 0:04:59.280 tried out for drill team. I didn't make it. I 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:02.320 didn't ever make cheerleading. I couldn't do sorts. I just 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:08.040 wasn't you're too good. And I couldn't dance. I couldn't 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:10.200 do any of that stuff. So I went out for 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:13.680 the play and I got parts in the place, and 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:15.440 I was like, oh, this is fun, you know, And 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:18.080 and that was my after school thing. And then I 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:20.240 had a teacher when we moved to Germany, some named 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:22.400 Roby Taylor, who said, you know, you can do this 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:24.839 for a living. And I was like, oh, well, I 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:26.719 didn't know anybody who did. I've never been to a 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:30.080 play except for high school players or community theater. The 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:32.279 people in the movies and on TV didn't seem real. 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:34.520 So she had to me a copy of Dramatics magazine 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:36.280 and said, you can choose a school. And I came 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:38.520 home to my parents, and you know, it was seventeen, 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:42.840 and said, I'm going to be an actor. Who would 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:44.640 you tell? My mom and my dad at dinner, and 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:48.200 my brother and sister were there too. My mother said, oh, Julie, 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:50.520 did everybody in the family look at you like that? 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:55.039 Was like, yeah, oh no. Well, my sister was so supportive. 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:57.360 She she's a year and three days younger than I am, 0:05:57.400 --> 0:05:59.719 and she what does she do. She's a lawyer, but 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:02.760 she atually works in real estate. And my brother is 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:05.440 in advertising. Yeah, he's a writer. He's a novelist and 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:07.680 he works in advertising. But you know, my sister used 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:09.680 to help me with all my lines and stuff. She'd 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:11.760 run lines with me, and so she kind of always knew. 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:13.520 I think that it was a possibility. One of your 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:17.359 parents more supportive than the other. They were equally aghast 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:24.080 and and yet equally supportive because we lived in Phase 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:28.560 and then they were like a couple of Golden globes. Well, 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:30.760 you know, they were living in Germany. And I've filled 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:32.680 out all these applications. These are days too when you 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:35.560 failed out your own college application. So I applied to 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:40.039 the pen Yeah, Carnegie Melon Boston University, and by accident 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:42.400 the graduate program at n y U because I didn't 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:44.960 read the paper, I guess. So my mother and I 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:47.280 flew to New York City where I auditioned for those schools. 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:49.200 When I went to in my U one, they were like, 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:52.440 how old are you? Eighteen? And they said, you know, 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:56.040 this is a graduate program. We don't accept people out 0:06:56.080 --> 0:07:00.320 of high school. So days try and then oh, I 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:01.800 you know, I just for the other two schools and 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:04.960 got into both of them and chose Boston because I 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:06.840 wanted to go to Boston rather than had you lived 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:10.680 there before, So you don't have roots. And anyway, no, 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:14.520 even though people think you think, yeah, yeah, because I 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:16.760 looked to be Up and Up Lounge and Keimla Square, 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:18.960 that's where you worked with you with school, you went 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:23.160 to be you did four years for solid years. Yeah, 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:25.880 that was the program. It was good. You know, it 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:29.080 was an undergraduate theater program. When you were done with it, 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:31.480 did you feel that you that it helped you that 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:34.400 you need or could you have bypassed those four years, 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:36.480 you know, and still ended up where you are. That's 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:38.800 a very interesting question because I was for some reason 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:40.440 thinking about a friend of mine who didn't go to 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:42.400 drama school in the car and the way here, and 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:45.000 I wonder what it was like for her, because she, 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:47.480 you know, it hasn't seemed to need it. And there 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:50.040 are a lot of things that I didn't drama school 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:52.240 that I think I didn't need either. But then in retrospect, 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:54.800 I'm like, you know, it's helpful. Did you go drama school? 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:58.920 Where'd you go? Okay? Did you go straight on to 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:01.920 search for tomorrow? The doctors? I can't believe you just 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:04.960 said that. I can't believe why, because I have in 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:06.440 front of me. I wasn't going to go there right 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:11.840 off that window. You were Fanny and Sabrini Hughes. That's right, Franny, 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:15.680 not Fanny, Franny and Sabrina. Someone else was Fanny Hughes. 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:19.720 You were Franny, Yeah, I know, I mean, couldn't have 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:25.040 been Francy. Was Fanny's Hugh? You were? You were Fanny 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:27.920 and Sabrini used on World Turns And before that you 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:30.160 did Edge? I did Edge? Were you on Edge? See? 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:32.000 If you're on soaps? Only when you're on soap, can 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:38.200 you say egg search World Turns days days? That's so 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:40.360 funny because I was on Edge when they were on 0:08:41.080 --> 0:08:44.320 East forty Street and that really really tiny studio. Remember 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:48.120 now Rachel Ray shoots there. Really you're gone. I know 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:50.320 they're gone. They're gone. Soaps are gone. This is a 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:52.839 couple of his four soaps left, and I worked with people. 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:55.720 The guy that played my dad, um Don Hastings, was 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:58.760 that he was from there. He started that show. He 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:02.199 started on that show two months before I was born, 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:04.720 so he had been on that show my entire lifetime 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:06.960 when I got on, and he when the show was gone, 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:08.360 he was still on it too. He was the most 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:11.400 wonderful guy, so funny. But do you feel in some ways, 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:13.280 I mean, in some ways, I don't want to be exaggerated, 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:15.360 but he wasn't doing a soap like some of the 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:18.440 most honest work you've ever done. Absolutely because you have 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:22.520 nothing to help you there. No, no, there's no dialogue. 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:26.760 I mean the dialogue is so rough, so basic. All 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:30.280 you're doing is is establishing story. I used to do 0:09:30.320 --> 0:09:32.840 what they called emotional I called it in any emotional applicate, 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:36.400 where if I had to say something that was really 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:39.320 just plot oriented, I try to like cry on top 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:41.240 of it or laugh on top of it or anything 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:44.200 just to make it mean something right, Yeah, because it's 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:47.959 all exposition. Well I read somewhere where you said that 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:52.320 doing the soap gave you experience and confidence, absolute discipline. 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:55.040 It was discipline and confidence because I loved that. Yeah. 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:57.560 Because no one, no one has time to help you. 0:09:57.559 --> 0:09:59.640 You know, the directors are working really fast, the writers 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:01.960 are working fast, the other actors are working really quickly. 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:05.080 You're just on your own. Remember Marissa tom May, she 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:08.480 played my best friend Marcy. She said, we got into 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:11.160 the we got into the elevator and she looked at 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:14.520 me and she goes, remember l is for lunch because 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:16.599 that was where the lobby was, and so in that 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:19.360 cafeteria and that was like the best piece of vice 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:23.000 because it was my own. Remember ell is for lunch. 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:25.240 And then we did a scene together and it went 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:27.640 by so quickly. You know, we didn't want wanted to 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:30.560 have takes or something. And because you feel terrible, don't you, 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:33.080 I said, ah, she goes, It happens all the time. 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:36.000 You'll get used to it. You're gonna work out from 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:38.480 the crappy two out of five days of the week. 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:41.000 I just remember when I did that show, you had 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:43.760 to show up on time. I didn't know your dialogue, 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:46.920 and no matter how excruciating it was, if you didn't, 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:48.400 they fired you. You had to be there at seven 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:50.319 o'clock in the morning and rehearse you were on camera. 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:52.400 I would have sometimes thirty pages of dialogue a day 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:54.160 for three it was like, you know, for three years. 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:56.240 So it was like a boom boom boom, boom boom, 0:10:56.360 --> 0:10:59.600 and then you finished maybe seven thirty eight nine if 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:02.280 you go late. You know, it was how long did 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:04.640 you do this? So for the World turns was your contracts? 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:06.640 My contract? It was a three year contract for three 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:10.080 years CBS they gave they would do three years, the 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:12.400 ABC once we do two years and stuff. But they 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:14.280 never gave me an option, although they had the option 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:18.440 to fire me at any time. Right and when you 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:21.720 finished What You Do? I went to the Guthrie Theater 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:27.000 actually and I did Hamlet with Hamlet. I saw you 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:30.600 you did not I saw you come on something. Yeah, 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:33.320 I can tell you right now. I did Loot with 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:37.320 him on Broadway in you did it with Shelco. You 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:41.840 did the show the following year, in eight seven, I 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:45.760 flew to Minneapolis to see I saw you do. I 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:48.080 saw you do Hamlet at the at the Gut three. Well, 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:50.560 I was in the hamlet. I was a feeling hamlet. 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:52.400 I saw you. What did you think? I thought it 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:55.200 was fantastic. You don't remember me? Do you want to 0:11:55.200 --> 0:11:58.680 know something I do? And Shelkovani, you were very young, 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:03.400 you were child. He was probably one of the best 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:05.520 Hamlets I've ever seen because he didn't have to push. 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:08.160 He seems like a very dark, kind of conflicted and 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:10.200 he also seemed like a very young man. You know. 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:12.160 I think that was interesting that both Jelko and I 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.480 are very very small, very slender and tiny, and we 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:18.199 looked like teenagers kind of, you know. So who directed 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:21.280 Garland Wright, who I adored. He passed away, but boy, 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:23.440 I loved Garland. He was great. It was a really 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:27.760 interesting production. People strained for when they play hammot that 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:31.199 he has and she did the Gut three and then 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:33.360 and I went to the Wing to Actors Theater of 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:36.600 Louisville and did some plays there, and Arthur Coppet play 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:38.880 and and then there wasn't an idea that you want 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:40.960 to kind of strap yourself into the rocket sled here 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:44.320 and get going l A TV movies now now, I 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:46.600 mean I just did also worked, I worked at the public, 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:48.400 I did some place, and then I met Andre Gregory 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:50.640 and I did Vanya and all along though I was 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:53.160 I was auditioning for stuff, and I got TV movies 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:57.240 and things, and but it wasn't until I was twenty 0:12:57.320 --> 0:13:00.160 nine that I got my first movie, which was an 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:02.640 HBO movie called Cast a Deadly Spell. And then I 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:05.080 did and the Rucks at Cradle, and then I did Shortcuts, 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:06.960 and I did Safe and then and then my movie 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:09.120 career didn't really start happening till I was twenty thirty. 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:11.880 So for it was just theater. Shortcuts was the biggest 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:14.400 break you out at that time. Well what happened was 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:20.240 I did Shortcuts, Bonnet Street and Safe. So it's kind 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:24.320 of the beginning of the independent theater movement, if you will. 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:27.200 And they all came out within the same year. And 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:29.560 I went from being an actress who had no profile 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:32.160 at all in film, none because I couldn't I couldn't 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:35.600 get arrested doing movies. I mean, I would never get cast. 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:39.319 I don't know, you know, honestly, I would just didn't 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:41.280 get him. I didn't get him. And in the eighties 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:43.400 I can remember, I mean, I just for a ton 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:45.800 of things remember addition for the lists of merchant Ivory movies. 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:47.360 I always wanted to get one of those because those 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:50.240 were such a big deal. I would act for big comedies. 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:54.280 I just didn't get them. And I was like, you know, 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:56.439 I remember the same thing. You'd be sitting there going, man, 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:58.559 I want to give me one of them John Sales movies. 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:00.160 That's why I liked to be one of the I 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:04.000 auditioned for him constantly. I never bought them. I actually 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:06.199 got really close to a few things, but I never 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:09.480 got anything where I did really well. Wasn't television. I 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:12.400 kept like booking TV things, but they would put you 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:14.920 on hold, and then they do pilots for them, and 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:17.640 that's the other thing to my pilots holding deals. They 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:21.320 would wouldn't get picked up. Whenever anybody says how do 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:23.560 you plan your career? You know, I mean, you laugh 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:26.760 because we don't have any control. There's about it. You 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:30.520 seem like somebody who's had a plan. Once you started 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:32.520 making films where the things you just didn't do anymore. 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:34.080 Did you try to say, I'm going to put all 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:36.720 my eggs in this basket. No. Most of the time 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:40.000 we just do with what you're offered. You know, you 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:42.160 do the best of what you're what you're offered, you know. 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:45.280 I think after I was on the soap, I did 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:46.840 you know, I didn't spend a lot of money. I 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:48.160 kept my money in the bank. So then I spent 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:50.040 some time doing theater because I really felt like I 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:52.760 wanted to do that, you know, Yeah, I wanted to 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:54.760 do that kind of stuff. And then I would do 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:56.560 some TV movies and try to get you know, and 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:58.800 then the holding deals to that. You make money doing that, 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:02.720 but in between short cuts, yeah, and playing Sarah Palin. 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:04.920 It's not a lot of TV in between there. Once 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:07.520 you start movies big time, you're making movies. Yes, that's 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:10.320 you don't go back to TVA very much at all. No, No, 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:13.200 because also it's kind of it changed, you know, because 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:15.360 there was a period to where because now now it's 0:15:15.360 --> 0:15:16.720 sort of the called you know, now it's the Golden 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:19.120 Age or television now. There there was such kind of 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:22.800 interesting quality stuff until you know, great writing, great acting, 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:25.080 and you know, so I think things have changed, But 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:27.760 there was a period when TV was very basic. Network 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:30.200 stuff was not terribly interesting. What was it like when 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:34.080 you met Altman? Oh Man, he came to see Vanya. 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:36.040 You know, we were doing Uncle Vanya and he sat 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:37.880 there and I couldn't believe he was there. I don't 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:40.680 even know if I said anything to him that day, 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:42.720 because he was He's the reason that I feel like 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:45.760 I'm a film actor, because when I would school in Boston, 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:48.240 they were all the revival houses. To remember revival houses. 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:55.800 This is like Grandpa, Grandma Sha remember that, remember take 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:57.760 your walk? Where would you be? I went to the 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:02.000 Bridle Theodore in Harvard Square Haad Square. So the Brittle 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:03.720 was the revival house and used to have all these 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:08.120 different weird double bills and stuff. And I saw Three 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:12.000 Women Altman's Three Women, And somehow I made it through 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:16.000 the seventies without seeing Nashville or or Bruster McCloud or 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:19.440 Became Mrs Miller, any of those movies. So I'm watching 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:21.920 mash So I'm watching this movie and I was like, 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:25.760 who's this? Who made this movie? This movie is incredible. 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:27.640 And it was the first time, as a young person 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:30.120 that I noticed directorial hand, you know, where I was like, 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:33.440 this is a specific kind of storytelling, and it's eliciting 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:36.800 specific kind of acting. I kind of walked out of 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:38.920 there and I thought, I want to do that, and 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:41.120 of course it wasn't in the realm of possibility for 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:44.040 me the first ten years of my career. So he's 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:46.600 Alvania and then he met me on the player, which 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:49.400 I desperately wanted. I remember sitting there talking to him. 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:51.000 He said, I'm not going to give this to you. 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:56.440 It's like okay, and that was it. I was devastated. 0:16:56.600 --> 0:16:58.120 And then I got this phone call out of the 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:03.280 blue for shortcuts. Hi, It's Bob Altman. Do you remember me? 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:05.360 You know who I am? And I was. I thought 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:07.080 was somebody playing a trick on me? I really did. 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:08.679 I didn't think it was possible that he you know. 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:11.919 That's when we had hard lines to pick up your 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:14.080 phone and he said, I have this movie that I 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:16.520 want you to do, and I said, I'll do it. 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:18.520 I'll do it because no one want you to read 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:20.320 it first, and then you can tell me if you 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:23.720 want to do it. You know. But it was really, really, 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:27.000 really a dream come true to work with him. What 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:29.840 an amazing man. Did you make a movie with him? No? 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:32.440 You know, from what I could see, he was someone 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:35.879 who listen. It's no secret I think when you're in 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:37.560 the business who were out of it, but especially when 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:40.959 you're in the business that casting and effective casting is 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:44.240 six or more of a director's job. They want to 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:46.359 bring people to the party who know how to hit 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:50.119 the ball. And he was someone who I'll never forget. 0:17:50.119 --> 0:17:52.720 Someone said to me. They were all gathered there in 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:54.919 this air sence rehearsals. Some of them were able to 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:58.000 attend it somewhere, and Bob just turned everybody and said, uh, 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:02.280 nooka may was in its Yanni and field. And he 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:03.840 would looked at them and he was like, now a nook, 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:06.200 you just go ahead and speak French. You speak French 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:10.800 and tou or English or Italian. Marcello, say whatever you 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:13.600 want to say, y'all. Just say anything you want to say, 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:15.520 and speak in whatever language you want to speak in, 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:18.720 and I'll fix it in the edit, subtitler or whatever. 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:24.080 He seems so uncontrolling he he was. The thing about 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:26.720 Bob was that you couldn't do anything wrong, so it 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:29.040 made you feel like you could do anything, and you 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:31.560 would do anything for him. You'd be like, oh, what 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:33.119 can I do? What can I do? It's like whatever 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:35.680 you want to do. But it wasn't like it was chaos. 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:38.960 You know, he's set up. It was like there was 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:41.240 a corral that all the actors were in was his 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.760 corral and something. Even with an improv he'd say, okay, 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:46.359 you know improv this. He said that a let's do 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:48.200 it again, but this time you just say that part. 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:50.399 So he was in complete control of it. But he 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:55.680 really made you feel so free and so love non judgmental. Yeah, 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:57.640 there's a quote I read about you where someone says 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:00.359 they cast you in shortcuts and you were total known. 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:04.640 That's right, She's a total unknown, they said. I thought, 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:06.280 and I think you've been working for most ten years. 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:09.919 Ten years. However, within that cast, I was the only 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:14.200 person with thirty people who wasn't famous. So it isn't 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:17.520 amazing how in the movie business if you haven't a 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:21.080 movie any of us have seen exactly what changed if 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:26.000 you did that film? Did you change personally? Did I change? 0:19:28.359 --> 0:19:30.760 I'm ugly and I have no talents, right, and now 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:33.879 i'm and then I thought, and then I was, and 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:38.760 then I became yeah, talented and I know everything. You know. 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:41.200 It was interesting and I think this is it's actually 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:43.600 very similar to what I felt growing up as a kid. 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:46.840 You would be In one situation, you'd be at a 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:48.480 school and maybe you would be a kid who wasn't 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:51.040 very popular and no one thought you were very interesting 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:53.120 or something. And then you'd moved to another school that's cool, 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:55.480 everybody would think you were interesting for some reason. It 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:57.800