Speaker 1: Welcome to Playback, a weekly Variety podcast. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Chris Tapley, Awards editor at Variety, and on today's show,
Speaker 1: we're reporting from the Tell Your Right Film Festival, where
Speaker 1: some of the falls most anticipated new films have screened.
Speaker 1: A little bit later, I'll be talking to the star
Speaker 1: of one of those films, arrivals, Amy Adams, So stick around.
Speaker 1: Welcome everyone. We are until you're right. And I am
Speaker 1: here today with Variety's chief film critic Peter de Bruges,
Speaker 1: and we've been watching movies all weekend. How are you
Speaker 1: doing great? This is the film fast of all as
Speaker 1: far as I'm concerned. I missed the last two because
Speaker 1: I was living in Paris working from there for a
Speaker 1: Variety when I come back in Paris, you know, seriously,
Speaker 1: it's the thing I missed most about the States. I'm
Speaker 1: so glad that I'm at Tell Your Ride Venice happens
Speaker 1: at the same time. It's a great film festival. But
Speaker 1: the thing that makes this festival so special is that
Speaker 1: it's small. It happens over Labor Day weekend. It's really
Speaker 1: uh closely curated. It's a very uh you know, small
Speaker 1: crop of films, all of them excellent. It doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that I'm going to love all of them, but compared
Speaker 1: to any other film festival with there are a lot
Speaker 1: of just you know, stinkers mixed in Toronto next week,
Speaker 1: which is going to be garbage. You know. It's like
Speaker 1: that's what happens when you have that volume. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: Tell Your Right is the cream of the crop. It
Speaker 1: shows here early and uh so we've kind of gotten
Speaker 1: a headstart on the best movies of the rest of
Speaker 1: the year. Absolutely, and you mentioned Venice. A couple of
Speaker 1: movies came from Venice to Tell Your Ride this year.
Speaker 1: It's an incredible trip to make. I mean those people,
Speaker 1: Damien Chazelle with La La End and then a Stone,
Speaker 1: they're just tired as you would be. Um a few
Speaker 1: filmmakers do it. This is the first year that I've
Speaker 1: driven out here, so it's like, I feel it's like
Speaker 1: the tired, jet lagged or whatever is they must but
Speaker 1: but it's worth the trip for them for you know
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons. And this film festival insists that
Speaker 1: every film they show have someone representing it, so you
Speaker 1: know that can be challenging for movies that are at
Speaker 1: both festivals. It's a La La Land. It's arrival this year.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think, is try to understand he's very
Speaker 1: just crushed that he couldn't be here because he's filming
Speaker 1: Blade Runner, which is why Ryan Gosling isn't here as well.
Speaker 1: And uh, Danny loves coming here and he couldn't make
Speaker 1: it this time. But let's talk about La La Land. Though.
Speaker 1: Sure we're on the subject of these movies. That movie
Speaker 1: kind of kicked off the festival, you could say, And
Speaker 1: it's the first time been the four years I've been
Speaker 1: coming here that uh, you know a kickoff film is
Speaker 1: not one that I had to rush back to review
Speaker 1: because it had just opened Venice a couple of days earlier.
Speaker 1: But you know what a fun, lively, really energetic, you know,
Speaker 1: swoony kind of or just swoon of a movie, I
Speaker 1: guess you could say, to energize everybody who's here. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like this festival, any film festival, can be full
Speaker 1: of these kind of heavy, kind of downer movies, and
Speaker 1: this is just you know, it's a love letter to
Speaker 1: l A. But it's also, you know, just a really
Speaker 1: great contemporary romance with just brilliant themes. I find because
Speaker 1: I've said this and what I've written about the film,
Speaker 1: but it really kind of grabs a hold of you
Speaker 1: and says, hey, you can shake off pragmatism, you can
Speaker 1: shake off stability, and you can still dream. And I
Speaker 1: think that's a really, uh, for me, potent theme and
Speaker 1: in one that just plays itself out in kind of
Speaker 1: expressionistic ways in the film. People have compared it to
Speaker 1: the New York New York a lot. They're both kind
Speaker 1: of expressionistic, you know, displays. But La La Lends is
Speaker 1: so much its own thing. You know, it's it's uh,
Speaker 1: Damien Chisel, as we say, director of Whiplash, and you know,
Speaker 1: ambitious as hell. Yeah, yeah, I mean that's one of
Speaker 1: the things that's It reminded me a little bit of Birdman,
Speaker 1: which is another movie that played here went on to
Speaker 1: win Best Picture, you know, in in terms of this sense,
Speaker 1: not just that you have these kind of you know,
Speaker 1: long sequence shots, but it's like the the idea that
Speaker 1: you just have this kind of ambition going into the
Speaker 1: conception of it. But I like what you say about
Speaker 1: it's kind of like being a movie about about dreamers
Speaker 1: and what because that's what Los Angeles is. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like where the people who you know, kind of
Speaker 1: believe in luck and their own chance and you know,
Speaker 1: kind of of expressing themselves creatively, whether that's as an actress,
Speaker 1: as a musician, as a writer, uh, you know, as
Speaker 1: film critics are journalists. You know, it's like the end uh,
Speaker 1: and it can be a very unforgiving place to just
Speaker 1: the volume of people who come in, you know, searching
Speaker 1: those things. So it's like you can anyone who has
Speaker 1: lived in Los Angeles can identify with what these two
Speaker 1: characters are going through and the balancing act that sort
Speaker 1: of um, trying to decide between the progress you're making
Speaker 1: towards your dreams and investing in a kind of a
Speaker 1: personal life of relationship anything like that, and the degree
Speaker 1: to which the latter can can actually give you the
Speaker 1: confidence to achieve your dreams, and how that plays out
Speaker 1: ultimately on whether the couple can stay together. I mean,
Speaker 1: all of these things I think are so intrinsic to
Speaker 1: you know, the l a experience. Let's jump into Moonlight,
Speaker 1: which you just before we started here said you felt
Speaker 1: was the film of the festival. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: absolutely my feeling in the sense that, uh, the reason
Speaker 1: I feel like, you know, Moonlight is such a discovery
Speaker 1: here is because I tell you, right, as a festival,
Speaker 1: when you arrive here, you don't know what the lineup
Speaker 1: is going to be. You trust the programmers here and
Speaker 1: Julie Hunt singer, you know, is the leads a team
Speaker 1: that really go out of their way to find, you know,
Speaker 1: things kind of in the weeds, you know, and the
Speaker 1: so yes, we're hoping for you know, the next Argo,
Speaker 1: the next you know, a Birdman Best Picture winner. But
Speaker 1: it's these things that maybe may not be on any
Speaker 1: other festivals lineup or or may not have been on
Speaker 1: our radar that are the best surprises. And so Moonlight
Speaker 1: is that here in the sense of you know, it's
Speaker 1: like I'd admired Barry jenkins first movie, Medicine for Melancholy
Speaker 1: UH as a movie that takes black characters and uh
Speaker 1: and looks at them and in a in a sense
Speaker 1: that's very realistic. It's not you know, it's not a
Speaker 1: it's not a genre film, it's not kind of a sitcom,
Speaker 1: it's not phony. I mean, he's dealing with kind of
Speaker 1: like the intellectual side of the black experience in that movie,
Speaker 1: and here it's present as well. This is the portrait
Speaker 1: of a young man over three stages in his life,
Speaker 1: who who's grappling with his sexuality, grappling with his relationship
Speaker 1: to his community. To uh, the broken homie comes from. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think that it's every bit as intellectual, but
Speaker 1: all of that is put into subtext, informs the characters
Speaker 1: instead of kind of like kind of spilling from their mouths,
Speaker 1: you know, medicine for melancoun colleges almost too talkative, you know,
Speaker 1: to Gabby. Uh. And here it's uh, you can tell
Speaker 1: that Jenkins is thought about all these things, thought about
Speaker 1: what it means in the black community to sort of
Speaker 1: have absentee fathers, what it means for the community to
Speaker 1: kind of rise up and supply kind of a surrogate
Speaker 1: family around someone. The way that he's kind of half
Speaker 1: adopted by the man who's selling crack to his mom,
Speaker 1: it's I mean a powerful kind of irony there, you know. Um.
Speaker 1: And of course you know the D. L. Downbow experience
Speaker 1: of trying to come out or or identify whether that's
Speaker 1: what you are in a in an environment that you
Speaker 1: know is so macho and so intolerant of that, you know,
Speaker 1: and all of the things are there without, you know,
Speaker 1: with the substance of the movie is just this this
Speaker 1: kid's story, you know. And I thought it was incredible
Speaker 1: the way that it was um, you know, to me,
Speaker 1: it's uh, it's what I admired about Boyhood done better
Speaker 1: in the sense of it. It's not that it's the
Speaker 1: same actor over these number of years. In fact, I
Speaker 1: think the three actors almost don't resemble. Well, I want
Speaker 1: to jump in here because regarding the three actors, I
Speaker 1: think one of the most amazing things that Barry Jenkins
Speaker 1: is able to accomplish here is that you feel the
Speaker 1: spirit of that character in every single one each of
Speaker 1: those three actors. Like that's that's hard to do because
Speaker 1: they're they're obviously look different, they're they're completely different actors,
Speaker 1: but they exhibit the same quietude that the character has
Speaker 1: from from stage to stage. And it's just palpable and
Speaker 1: and and each actor is amazing. Do you have a favorite? Gosh,
Speaker 1: I don't know them. I think that I so connected
Speaker 1: with the film from the beginning that in a way
Speaker 1: that I was looking into the other two to kind
Speaker 1: of be that you know, that that good you know
Speaker 1: or that kid you know grown up, but you're right.
Speaker 1: I mean, to me, this is a movie about a
Speaker 1: character who feels profoundly alone in you know, in his
Speaker 1: own life, you know, and he's reaching out for any
Speaker 1: sort of connection to parents who are that are not
Speaker 1: they're distracted, uh, you know, to friends who bully him,
Speaker 1: to potentially any sort of you know, lover or sexual partner.
Speaker 1: You know. It's like the and that carries across the
Speaker 1: three chapters. And I think the third chapter, which I
Speaker 1: don't want to say too much about, you know, where
Speaker 1: he's roughly twenty six years old. Um, he's Uh, it's
Speaker 1: a real surprise to see what's kind of transpired in
Speaker 1: the ten years since the second one. And uh, and
Speaker 1: yet you recognize that, you know, even though he kind
Speaker 1: of wears almost as a mask, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: this new identity that he's created for himself, he's still
Speaker 1: this lonely little boy looking for I don't know, looking
Speaker 1: for some other person in this world that you know,
Speaker 1: that connects with him, which is which is why I
Speaker 1: think that closing shot is pretty phenomenal. But you know,
Speaker 1: well let's move on from there, though, because we could,
Speaker 1: we could talk about each of these movies for so
Speaker 1: long Sully was a big coming out here with Tom
Speaker 1: Hanks and Clint Eastwood. Here you had a chance to
Speaker 1: see that. Yeah, Sully is great. Silly opens in a week.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like so it's it's almost funny for anyone,
Speaker 1: you know, I tell your right to be running out
Speaker 1: to see it. And yet it's, you know, a really
Speaker 1: terrific film. I mean it's like Tom Hanks just makes
Speaker 1: it look easy. You know, it's like he's so good
Speaker 1: and yet it like he slips into these roles so
Speaker 1: naturally that I mean like I would, I would fly
Speaker 1: a plane with Tom Hanks, you know as the pilot. Um,
Speaker 1: it's it. It's like, you know, he inspires that kind
Speaker 1: of confidence and that's what you know Sully did in
Speaker 1: real life, you know, as as someone who doesn't fly
Speaker 1: too well lately. That it was a gripping movie for me. Uh,
Speaker 1: in fact, it gave me back to back nightmares. Well,
Speaker 1: like I joked that it's like six plane crashes for
Speaker 1: the price of one, because they like it's like a
Speaker 1: two eight second kind of incident that you know, they
Speaker 1: but they find a kind of creative way to by
Speaker 1: beginning after the incident has happened you know, to feature
Speaker 1: the flashbacks and replays all this kind of the structure
Speaker 1: of the film is is very interesting for that Bleed
Speaker 1: for this with Miles Teller as Vinnie Pozzians of the Boxer,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think Miles is a great actor. Whiplash
Speaker 1: was for me so far the role of his career.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is one where he gives everything. But
Speaker 1: for me, it's actually Aaron Eckhart, who has not a
Speaker 1: lot to do in Sully, who is the you know,
Speaker 1: the actor who really you know, surprised me and bleed
Speaker 1: for this. He plays the manager and he's almost unrecognizable.
Speaker 1: He's like, you know, he's made himself look as though
Speaker 1: he's balding, he's put on a ton of weight, and
Speaker 1: he's like, you know, playing this alcoholic schlub who you
Speaker 1: know trained Tyson and is now you know, they're trying
Speaker 1: to resuscitate the Pacienza's career. Um and uh and he's terrific.
Speaker 1: You know. It's like um and Ben Younger, who I
Speaker 1: think is is a director who you know we all
Speaker 1: thought had a ton of promise back at Boiler Room.
Speaker 1: It's like, is this is kind of a comeback for
Speaker 1: him too. I think you know, yeah, it's a movie
Speaker 1: that's I think it's has familiar narrative strokes. It's it's
Speaker 1: it has conventions, but I think he he works hard
Speaker 1: to break it from convention. I think the editing in
Speaker 1: particular was really interesting to me. It's the way it
Speaker 1: kind of propels the story forward in interesting ways. What
Speaker 1: surprised me maybe about this movie is that, like, even
Speaker 1: though Martin Scorsese is a producer on it, it owes
Speaker 1: less to Raging Bold than it does to The Fighter.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is like a post David O. Russell,
Speaker 1: you know, the kind of weird, quirky portrait of family,
Speaker 1: you know, and everybody's kind of talking on top of
Speaker 1: each other and crazy. You know. It's like reminds me
Speaker 1: of all those weird sisters in The Fighter. You know.
Speaker 1: It's like and uh, the and I like that liveliness
Speaker 1: of the movie. But in a way, it's just another
Speaker 1: boxing movie with some great performances in it. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: Uh you got to interview Isabelle Hupera up here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that's thanks for mentioning it, because like who
Speaker 1: buries for me, the you know, best actress living. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like she she just is fearless, and it takes
Speaker 1: on these incredible roles and has a couple of movies
Speaker 1: coming out this fall, Things to Come, which is here
Speaker 1: in the festival, and L, which I think it's kind
Speaker 1: of a crime that they haven't, you know, they didn't
Speaker 1: decide to invite you, especially since she's here, and because
Speaker 1: they brought this movie Una, which you know, it's not
Speaker 1: that they're afraid of prickly material. In L she plays
Speaker 1: a woman who's raped and who has a really unexpected
Speaker 1: reaction to the situation and uh, and it really engages
Speaker 1: with that subject in a way that I was kind
Speaker 1: of afraid of before i'd seen it in the movie
Speaker 1: Smart but but who bears amazing and UH. And getting
Speaker 1: to talk with her here, which you know I'll get
Speaker 1: to to write up for a variety down the road,
Speaker 1: was great because I've just admired the fact that she
Speaker 1: doesn't you know, she's not skittish about going there in movies.
Speaker 1: And I think maybe what I learned talking with her
Speaker 1: is that for her, the important thing in movies about
Speaker 1: like the Michael Hanaka movie, she's made like the Piano Teacher,
Speaker 1: a ceremony where you know she's a murderous you know.
Speaker 1: It's like, uh, she can go to these really darker, jagged,
Speaker 1: edgy places by kind of keeping this measure of irony
Speaker 1: in it, by keeping it a little funny, by keeping
Speaker 1: you know, it's like and it makes me want to
Speaker 1: go back, and because I just don't think of her
Speaker 1: performances as being that way. But as we talked about it,
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, I could almost have a little
Speaker 1: mini Isabel Rey pair of film festival now where i'mlike
Speaker 1: analyzing how she's um injecting humor into these roles and
Speaker 1: things to come, which is here Mia Hansen loves kind
Speaker 1: of tribute to her mother, who is basically you know,
Speaker 1: abandoned by her father late in their marriage and had
Speaker 1: to kind of pick herself, pick herself up off the ground,
Speaker 1: rebuild and move on. I mean, it's it's another incredibly strong,
Speaker 1: you know, female performance from upert and in this case,
Speaker 1: one where um, she finds humor in it, but it's
Speaker 1: not you know, kind of a sexually transgressive, you know
Speaker 1: woman like we've seen in so many other of her movies.
Speaker 1: And this is a this is an academic intellectual and
Speaker 1: she's great in that role as well, you know. And
Speaker 1: speaking of strong female performances, we have Amy Adams and Arrival,
Speaker 1: which I'll be speaking with Amy shortly after this. Uh,
Speaker 1: you weren't able to see the film, but I'll just
Speaker 1: comment briefly about it. I I it's thoughtful sci fi.
Speaker 1: But what's what's amazing to me about the nieve Villeneuve
Speaker 1: is he elevates material off the page and in ways
Speaker 1: I think few filmmakers do lately because the scripts he's
Speaker 1: worked from, in my opinion, have been lacking. But what
Speaker 1: he does as an atmosphere with atmosphere as a filmmaker
Speaker 1: is something to behold. And what he does with the
Speaker 1: score with Johan Johansen's score and Arrival, just as they
Speaker 1: did in Cicario, which was a score that scared the
Speaker 1: crap out of me, just the foreboding of it. What
Speaker 1: they do together and Arrival is really fascinating. An Amy
Speaker 1: is really interesting in the movie because there are themes
Speaker 1: of parenting and it hits you in an emotional place
Speaker 1: and as a new father, it's it's I'm seeing things
Speaker 1: through that lens a lot lately, so it's uh, for that,
Speaker 1: it's it's fascinating. And then she's also in Nocturnal Animals,
Speaker 1: which is not at the festival, but is that played
Speaker 1: Venice and will be in Toronto, so she's got a
Speaker 1: busy fall going on. I'd be curious to know if
Speaker 1: with the arrival it's a case like Cicario where the
Speaker 1: role wasn't necessarily you know, nor intended, or I haven't
Speaker 1: read the short story, you know, for a woman. And
Speaker 1: yet I love that we just have so many great
Speaker 1: actresses out there. I love that there are more movies
Speaker 1: being seen where they're leading them. You know, there are
Speaker 1: a couple of its just really great performances. I want
Speaker 1: to go into great detail, but it's worth mentioning Richard
Speaker 1: Gear in this movie Norman, the Moderate Rise and Tragic
Speaker 1: Fall of a New York Fixer. I just think Richard
Speaker 1: Gear is giving some of the best work in the
Speaker 1: last few years, at the tail end of a career
Speaker 1: that started out kind of a matinee idol almost kind
Speaker 1: of you know, and it's like, this is another tourific performance.
Speaker 1: And then uh, and then Brian Cranston, who we all
Speaker 1: love for good reasons, is finally kind of like getting
Speaker 1: the acclaim thanks to Breaking Bad that you know he
Speaker 1: deserves is it basically pulls off a one man show
Speaker 1: in Wakefield, this movie where you know, he basically holds
Speaker 1: up in the attic of his garage outside his own
Speaker 1: home and spies on his family for a year. Um,
Speaker 1: I mean he's he's narrating the whole thing. The whole
Speaker 1: thing is seen through his eyes. It's if And I
Speaker 1: realized watching the movie, it's like this character is a
Speaker 1: reprehensible human being. Who if it weren't Brian Cranston playing it,
Speaker 1: you know, it's like the it just it would be
Speaker 1: a totally different experience. You know, we're gonna have to
Speaker 1: wrap it up right there. Man. Unfortunately, there's obviously so
Speaker 1: much we can discuss beyond, like the tributes. Amy Adams
Speaker 1: had a tribute, Casey Affleck had a tribute, and we's
Speaker 1: here with Manchester by the Sea, which is an amazing film.
Speaker 1: Pablo Lorraine, the filmmaker had a tribute. But you did
Speaker 1: a good job of explaining what tell You Right is
Speaker 1: to everyone. And I think if anyone's thinking about coming here,
Speaker 1: they should just pull the trigger because it's the best
Speaker 1: film film festival I've ever been to. Agreed, I mean,
Speaker 1: this is the film festival if if I lost my
Speaker 1: job tomorrow, I'd still be coming to this one. All
Speaker 1: the other ones are, you know, industry overrun and here
Speaker 1: it's film lovers, the best films you can find. You know,
Speaker 1: absolutely we'll stick around for Amy Adams. Everyone, We'll be
Speaker 1: back with that in just a moment. There are days
Speaker 1: that define your story beyond your life, like the day
Speaker 1: they arrived. What happens to now? My god? How do
Speaker 1: we clarify their intentions? I go back in. Well, I
Speaker 1: guess I don't need to tell you you put yourself
Speaker 1: a risk. And now that's a proper introduction. I need
Speaker 1: everybody working on us. I feel like everything that happens
Speaker 1: comes down to the two of us. I know what
Speaker 1: it is. What does this say for a weapon? Welcome
Speaker 1: back everyone. We are still in til you Ride and
Speaker 1: I am now with Amy Adams. Thank you for being
Speaker 1: with me today. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: We're here to talk about You have two films hitting
Speaker 1: uh the festivals this fall. One is Nocturnal Animals. The
Speaker 1: other is a Rival, which is playing Till You're Ride
Speaker 1: and you're fresh from Venice where Nocturnal premiered. Yes, I
Speaker 1: guess I shouldn't say fresh because wait, what are you saying? Well,
Speaker 1: that's quite, that's quite the trip. I mean it is. Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't. I wouldn't call me fresh this morning either.
Speaker 1: I think everyone can agree on that you had been
Speaker 1: there before the right for the festival. I hadn't. Oh,
Speaker 1: I didn't go with the Master. Okay, I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I didn't go with the Master. I was doing um
Speaker 1: musical in New York at the time. What did you think?
Speaker 1: It was so much fun? It was sort of like
Speaker 1: everything that you fantasize about, like on on the like
Speaker 1: sort of glamour side of things as an actress um
Speaker 1: when you're growing up. But but it was also their
Speaker 1: celebration of film and and the audiences were amazing. But
Speaker 1: it was it was kind of surreal, to be honest. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and especially probably to go from like the red carpet
Speaker 1: of the Lido to the Patagonia aware of of tell
Speaker 1: you right, strikingly different environments. Is this This feels like
Speaker 1: coming home, though this is closer to my actual personality
Speaker 1: and the sort of the way I think it is
Speaker 1: coming home because I'm from Colorado, So this feels very
Speaker 1: very welcoming and Homie, which part of Colorado, Castle Rock. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's a beautiful state. It's probably my favorite state actually,
Speaker 1: that I could live here. You can we just move
Speaker 1: everything to Colorado, Like if we all just started going,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe we could like maybe we get everybody over here. Exactly,
Speaker 1: there's enough land, I think to go around. Yeah, well
Speaker 1: you're here. Also receiving a tribute, which is uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I think Tell Your Right is interesting because they don't
Speaker 1: really necessarily cling to like a lifetime achievement vibe. And
Speaker 1: that's very evident in especially this year's three You and
Speaker 1: Casey Affleck and Pablo Lorraine. They will often go for
Speaker 1: people who might be in their prime. But nevertheless, was
Speaker 1: the idea of a tribute kind of daunting to you
Speaker 1: at the stage in your career? Um it is, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's always an honor and it's always um it's
Speaker 1: it's one of those things. To look at your work
Speaker 1: as a collection is very odd and I don't do
Speaker 1: that very often. Were don't unless there is a tribute
Speaker 1: or something like that. So it's interesting to sort of
Speaker 1: see a collection of your work put together in that
Speaker 1: way and and uh kind of see the evolution kind
Speaker 1: of be a life play out in front of you
Speaker 1: in a strange way. Did you have any epiphanies watching
Speaker 1: that happen? Um that I'm really excited to be kind
Speaker 1: of where I am in my career and and kind
Speaker 1: of with the roles that are becoming available to me
Speaker 1: as I age. It's it's been. It's been really really
Speaker 1: exciting actually, and I love the roles that I did,
Speaker 1: but granted I'm not gonna be able to it's it
Speaker 1: was wonderful to do those that at that time, like
Speaker 1: playing the Innocence and playing some of these things were
Speaker 1: but now getting to play people who are you know,
Speaker 1: just to evolve with the characters that I'm getting offered
Speaker 1: is really fun. Yeah, that's kind of. That kind of
Speaker 1: leads into my next question, which is, I think many
Speaker 1: people were introduced to you through June Bug, which was
Speaker 1: eleven years ago. Now. I don't know if you can
Speaker 1: believe that or if it feels like longer or shorter
Speaker 1: or what. Oh gosh, it looks it looks like a
Speaker 1: lot longer when you look at the right now and kidding, wow,
Speaker 1: eleven years is really no, it's a no, it's it's
Speaker 1: a lot. It's been. It's been really a lot has
Speaker 1: happened in eleven years now that I that's amazing. Well,
Speaker 1: I was going to ask you, how do you think
Speaker 1: you've changed just as a person, specifically as an artist
Speaker 1: since that stage in your career and now and I'm
Speaker 1: a lot less self conscious? Yeah, I'm so much. I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm not as UM. I think I as self conscious
Speaker 1: as a human being, and now it's still more comfortable,
Speaker 1: and I'm I'm less interested. I still care what people
Speaker 1: think about me. I always going to be a part
Speaker 1: of my personality, but UM, my journey is not. I
Speaker 1: feel like I've gotten to a place where my journey
Speaker 1: can't be about sort of trying to meet expectations, and
Speaker 1: that has really helped in my work. I feel like
Speaker 1: I get to um explore in a totally different way
Speaker 1: because I'm not UM. I don't feel tied or bound
Speaker 1: by expectations like I used to, and it's really freeing
Speaker 1: and makes work really a lot of fun. Cool. I
Speaker 1: just want to let everyone know in case they think
Speaker 1: they're losing their mind. The droning you might hear in
Speaker 1: the background is the gondola, which Amy has a view
Speaker 1: of right now. I do going across into tel you right, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I was just taking note of the filmmakers
Speaker 1: you've worked with in that stretch. There's some towering names, really,
Speaker 1: Mike Nichols, Nor Fron, Paul Thomas Anderson, Spike Jones, Tim Burton,
Speaker 1: David O. Russell h who do you What kind of
Speaker 1: a filmmaker do you seek out or is it just
Speaker 1: if the script speaks to you, that's like the main thing.
Speaker 1: Well it starts with the script absolutely, but um, but
Speaker 1: the filmmaker is key, and a filmmaker can definitely help
Speaker 1: me define a role that maybe, um, you know, isn't
Speaker 1: the protagonist. Um. And so it's it's been. I always
Speaker 1: feel like my job as an actress is to execute
Speaker 1: the vision of the director. Of course, I want to
Speaker 1: honor my character, but you know, I if the character
Speaker 1: belongs to both of us, you know, and belongs to
Speaker 1: the story, So I always want to honor that. And
Speaker 1: so for me, the directors, um, it's key, you know.
Speaker 1: And and but kind of what I've looked for is
Speaker 1: also changed over the years. And a director, you know, well,
Speaker 1: I hate to put you on the spot, but I
Speaker 1: would just love to hear I would just love to
Speaker 1: hear a story like a like a Mike Nichols is
Speaker 1: an amazing director. Story like some did he dial with
Speaker 1: the U N in some way that really just amazed
Speaker 1: you or anything come to mind about that, because obviously
Speaker 1: he's such an amazing talent. He was just amazing. He
Speaker 1: was really amazing. Um yeah, oh gosh, he he was awesome.
Speaker 1: I Mean, it's funny because I can't think of an
Speaker 1: anecdote because really the experience of Mike Nichols wasn't It
Speaker 1: can't be boiled down to like one thing he told me.
Speaker 1: He was sort of just watching him work, watching the
Speaker 1: way he perceived with his intelligence and his humor, and ah,
Speaker 1: the joy he got watching actors. I remember him sitting
Speaker 1: behind the monitor and watching um, Tom and Philip do
Speaker 1: some scenes and just seeing the light in his eyes.
Speaker 1: And that was so inspiring to me that somebody can
Speaker 1: have this really full and very um celebrated career and
Speaker 1: just never lose that. That was a huge thing I
Speaker 1: learned from from Mike. And yeah, that was Charlie Wilson's
Speaker 1: war with Tom Hanks and Tom around town. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: have seen him, have you seen now? I'm I'm very excited.
Speaker 1: I do love this time of year when when we
Speaker 1: get to see all these films that people hold for
Speaker 1: for sort of this festival time, and it's it's a
Speaker 1: it's a really fun time for cinema and there's so
Speaker 1: many I want to see and so many I'm hearing
Speaker 1: great things about. So are you scared of flying it all? Yes,
Speaker 1: don't see the film. Yeah, this is one of the
Speaker 1: reason I am very scared of flying it It's pretty gripping,
Speaker 1: gave me back to back nightmares. It doesn't well, but
Speaker 1: it's still got me. Yeah, I believe uh, these two films. Actually,
Speaker 1: before I get into that, I did make a note here.
Speaker 1: I'm always curious about actors who work with Steven Spielberg
Speaker 1: early in their career and if because you know, he
Speaker 1: often works with character actors who might go on to
Speaker 1: you know, their own level of stardom, and a lot
Speaker 1: of people have worked with him early in their in
Speaker 1: their early stages basically, and I'm always curious if there's
Speaker 1: anything that they recall that specifically they retained that was
Speaker 1: just like they've they've managed to maintain throughout their career
Speaker 1: because of working with him. Is there anything that comes
Speaker 1: to mind. Yeah, it's Actually it's funny because when you
Speaker 1: said the thing about Mike Nichols, I do have one
Speaker 1: thing that happened with Stephen that has stayed with me.
Speaker 1: I was doing a scene that ultimately didn't end up
Speaker 1: in the movie, but it was a scene UM where
Speaker 1: I was meant to, like, you know, it's written like
Speaker 1: tears spring to eyes, and whenever I read that like
Speaker 1: it's always, especially at that time and in that film
Speaker 1: with those actors, I was like, what if I can't
Speaker 1: spring tears to my eyes? So I got really heavy
Speaker 1: about it and we were doing it and it felt
Speaker 1: really good, but it just wasn't I wasn't connecting without
Speaker 1: again because I had expectations and I was worried about that.
Speaker 1: It was blocking sort of my emotional connection and I
Speaker 1: Stephen could see that, and he came up to me
Speaker 1: and he just looked at me very gently and touched
Speaker 1: my head and he said, you're using this, and then
Speaker 1: he touched my chest and he says, use this. And
Speaker 1: so he got me out of my head and into
Speaker 1: my heart. And that's something whenever I'm tired of emotional
Speaker 1: and arrival always rects me when I present it. UM
Speaker 1: but that's something I've kept with me whenever I'm struggling
Speaker 1: and I just try to work from the heart, and
Speaker 1: then you have to work from your head. It's a
Speaker 1: technical craft, but sometimes working from my head is cotten
Speaker 1: in my way, especially when I'm in my head about
Speaker 1: how I'm feeling and how the character is meant to feel. Well,
Speaker 1: the hardest key, you gotta put human emotion into the part.
Speaker 1: I think he's underrated for how he works with the actors. Frankly,
Speaker 1: he's so great with actors. He kept me right in
Speaker 1: there um with with Leonardo and Tom at a very
Speaker 1: early point in my career where I really didn't have
Speaker 1: the confidence. Yeah, you know, and the time after that
Speaker 1: when I didn't work was because of that crisis of confidence.
Speaker 1: So working with him built my confidence up during that
Speaker 1: period of time to be able to to be Brenda
Speaker 1: in that film. So kind of surprising, honestly, that that
Speaker 1: daniel LEA. Lewis was the first actor to win an
Speaker 1: Oscar for Spielberg movie and Lincoln. Are you serious? It
Speaker 1: took that long, plenty of nominations along the years, but
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I hadn't really put that together. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's interesting. It's amazing. Yeah, he's he's very special. Well,
Speaker 1: you're working with two filmmakers here, with Tom Ford and
Speaker 1: Deny Villeneuve, who are I think masters at building atmosphere
Speaker 1: in their films, and given that similarity in their work,
Speaker 1: I guess, uh, I'm curious if there's anything that was
Speaker 1: similar about the filmmakers to you, because they seem like
Speaker 1: strikingly different people. They are strikingly different people and both
Speaker 1: really value have a have a really different way of working. Um.
Speaker 1: With with Deny, the aesthetic sort of happens around you,
Speaker 1: do you know what I mean? Like the tone and
Speaker 1: stuff he creates is through uh, an emotional connection, like
Speaker 1: it really is, and that way, I guess it's similar.
Speaker 1: In watching the two films, I was struck that they
Speaker 1: both have this sense of tension and melancholy that's sort
Speaker 1: of run through them. And and yet they're very different films,
Speaker 1: very different directors. Um but I think that the kind
Speaker 1: of what they had in common, at least in the
Speaker 1: making of these two films was the emotional connection with
Speaker 1: the characters, and it both the films felt very personal
Speaker 1: to them. Um but um, so funny, I'm so like
Speaker 1: in my characters. When I work, then it's hard for
Speaker 1: me to think about what what was what is their style?
Speaker 1: Um Denia is like he's basically it's like it's like
Speaker 1: a self esteem boot camp. Like it's so great working
Speaker 1: with him because he thinks you deeply. He's like a
Speaker 1: deeply thank you for that take. I love your work
Speaker 1: so much, Like he's so sweet. Oh my gosh. It's like, well,
Speaker 1: the problem is that then you get greedy and then
Speaker 1: like he'll do something and he was like, we have
Speaker 1: what we need and you're like, no, no, we have
Speaker 1: to go back. You need to deeply love it, you
Speaker 1: need to thank me and spoils you. It spoils you,
Speaker 1: and then you do You're like, wait, wait, we've always
Speaker 1: the deeply love. Yeah, it's fun. And then tom um Tom.
Speaker 1: It was interesting because a lot of what I did
Speaker 1: in the film was very I did it alone, because
Speaker 1: a lot of what's happening is happening in her mind
Speaker 1: as she's reading the book. It's it's her imagination of
Speaker 1: what's happening in the book, and then it's happening also
Speaker 1: in flashback while she's remembering her relationship. So it was
Speaker 1: really important for me that the director. Um, well that
Speaker 1: the director did let me breathe. You know, I never
Speaker 1: felt like he was in a hurry to get to
Speaker 1: a moment um and tom allowed. He was so patient
Speaker 1: and he just let the camera roll on what you know.
Speaker 1: Some directors would be like, oh, she's just thinking and reading,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like, but he trusted that
Speaker 1: I had done the work and then I had, you know,
Speaker 1: and I had a connection with this character. And he
Speaker 1: was fantastic because sometimes he would read the story to
Speaker 1: me as he was going and his tom Ford voice
Speaker 1: Tony approaches the car and I'm like, tom Ford could
Speaker 1: just read me anything and it would just sound like
Speaker 1: it was like the phone, voluntual and glamorous and um.
Speaker 1: But he was really wonderful to work with. Yeah. He
Speaker 1: then he loves it here. I always expect him to
Speaker 1: come here with his film. He is heartbroken. Was he
Speaker 1: not able to come? He's not here. I didn't realize that. No,
Speaker 1: he's not here. Um, he's he's directing Blade Runner. So
Speaker 1: he is in Budapest. I think I bet he is
Speaker 1: heartbroken because he loves it here. He loves it and
Speaker 1: he kept saying, please have such a good time, my
Speaker 1: friend acts and is bad. So I hope no one's offended.
Speaker 1: Sorry to our friend listeners. Yeah, so Marianne is safe.
Speaker 1: Well let's talk about arrival. Um. You know, I have
Speaker 1: a feeling I will be uh saying this to my
Speaker 1: guests on this show a lot this year because I'm
Speaker 1: a new other and so I see everything now through
Speaker 1: that lens and it's It's a difficult movie to talk
Speaker 1: about without spoiling, so just to be light about it,
Speaker 1: it is. It is a movie that deals very emotionally,
Speaker 1: emotionally with parenting and I just imagine that when you
Speaker 1: read the script as a mother yourself, that leapt out
Speaker 1: at you. Yeah, so could you talk about a little
Speaker 1: bit about that? That That was the thing that first
Speaker 1: got me into the script because in the first fifteen pages, uh,
Speaker 1: is this mother's journey and the way it was presented, Um,
Speaker 1: it was really devastating. And then to sort of put
Speaker 1: that as the lead into a sci fi film was
Speaker 1: kind of different and daring. And I know it was
Speaker 1: based on a short story. At that time, I knew
Speaker 1: have you read that? By the way I did? I
Speaker 1: read it like so long ago. Someone was talking about
Speaker 1: the details and I thought that my brain is so
Speaker 1: feeble after having my daughter, Like information just falls out
Speaker 1: as it it's like there's only so much information. Um
Speaker 1: and and there are some differences, but the core, the
Speaker 1: core of the story is there, and that it is
Speaker 1: a woman's journey and a mother's journey. Yeah, when I
Speaker 1: read that short story of a few weeks back and
Speaker 1: I was like, how did they make this into a movie?
Speaker 1: I know, because it's it's very heavy stuff and it
Speaker 1: gives you a lot of room to obviously go in
Speaker 1: different directions, which the movie does. But yeah, you're right,
Speaker 1: I mean that that very key element of of we're
Speaker 1: dancing around it is what we're doing, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Because it's very difficult talking about a movie
Speaker 1: that you can't actually talk about has been challenging. But
Speaker 1: but but it's it's a good experiment and like how
Speaker 1: we communicate speaking like I think Louise would be interested
Speaker 1: in our choice of words when discussing um. But but
Speaker 1: but Tony, even with all the the sort of scientific
Speaker 1: and political tones that the film takes on, always would say,
Speaker 1: like any time there would be discussions about this or that,
Speaker 1: he would always just say, look, whatever happens with that,
Speaker 1: this is a mother's journey. This is louise Is story.
Speaker 1: So he never lost sight of that. He never lost
Speaker 1: sight of it. I should probably start stop doing imitations
Speaker 1: mean him. I can't help it because it was so
Speaker 1: much fun and there was so much miscommunication and a
Speaker 1: film about communication. There was a lot of miscommunication as
Speaker 1: I talk really fast sometimes, especially if I'm trying to
Speaker 1: figure something out, because normally I'm trying to figure it
Speaker 1: out myself, so I just do it a loud and
Speaker 1: then he would be like, um, Amy, I'm going to
Speaker 1: ask you to stop because I have not been listening
Speaker 1: to now for about a minute. I can't understand you.
Speaker 1: It's it's which I loved so much. Instead of just
Speaker 1: pretending to me, Amy, I'm going to tell you to
Speaker 1: stop talking. It's a fun impression. I think you should
Speaker 1: work with her song next so you can sorry on that.
Speaker 1: That was not the name drop, but Kenneth Lanagan has
Speaker 1: an amazing for herd Sog name drop. That's awesome. It's
Speaker 1: an amazing h impression. I want to talk a little bit.
Speaker 1: You know. One of the filmmakers I mentioned there was
Speaker 1: David oh Russell, and you're on the record about the
Speaker 1: difficulty of working on American Hustle and working with David.
Speaker 1: I'm just curious if that means you're not interested in
Speaker 1: working with David again. I'm I'm kind of a never
Speaker 1: saying never kind of person, but not currently. It's just
Speaker 1: what it requires of me. It just it's hard for
Speaker 1: me to then, um, kind of be the mom I
Speaker 1: want to be because I can't give that much energy
Speaker 1: and emotion too. And I'm really invested on sets, so
Speaker 1: it's not as though it's not something I'm interested in
Speaker 1: doing on other sets. But but the way he works
Speaker 1: just requires a different um part of me that I
Speaker 1: just don't have to give right now. But that's not
Speaker 1: to say never. You can keep an eye on that too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I mean maybe I don't know, maybe since I've
Speaker 1: come out on record, he's not gonna want to work
Speaker 1: with me, So maybe it's maybe it's sort of a
Speaker 1: non issue. He seems to have had his TIFFs with
Speaker 1: actors that he's worked with. You. I don't think that.
Speaker 1: I don't think I'm the first person and probably not
Speaker 1: the last. But but he does create wonderful characters for women,
Speaker 1: and I really value that, and he's given me a
Speaker 1: lot of opportunity to sort of change people's expectations of
Speaker 1: me this that word, um, but to change people's perception
Speaker 1: and expectations of me. And I really appreciate that, So
Speaker 1: I don't in any way. Um, you know that what
Speaker 1: happened doesn't take away from how much I value what
Speaker 1: he provided for me, an opportunity not only to work
Speaker 1: with him, but to work with Christian twice and to
Speaker 1: work with the amazing cast that I got to work with.
Speaker 1: So gratitude overrides any sort of other thing. Well, you
Speaker 1: know what's interesting about that is it just got me
Speaker 1: thinking about the way we perceive difficult male directors and
Speaker 1: the way we perceive difficult female directors. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: Mean you know, in some ways with with male directors
Speaker 1: that are difficult, that's considered part of the charm of
Speaker 1: their genius. Yeah, but it's not just indirecting, it's not
Speaker 1: just enacting that. It's not just in Hollywood, like just
Speaker 1: in humanity. The way we view difficult males versus the
Speaker 1: way we view different If it's difficult, complicated, let's go
Speaker 1: with complicated, challenging. Yeah, the way we perceive women and men,
Speaker 1: that's that type of personality it's it's not just a
Speaker 1: Hollywood issue. So but yeah, I mean, it wouldn't. I
Speaker 1: don't think it would be accepted that kind of behavior accepted.
Speaker 1: How would Uh yeah, I think there would be, it
Speaker 1: would be different. But that's not just as that happens. Indeed,
Speaker 1: it's just interesting in the in the realm of art
Speaker 1: because that quote difficulty becomes a part of the fabric
Speaker 1: of what makes a great male director's film great, and
Speaker 1: then maybe an exact ding or difficult female director might
Speaker 1: not get hired as much. And it's just unfortunate. It is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's very unfortunate. I wanted to talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about the this giant d C movie university or a
Speaker 1: part of these movies are such a huge part of
Speaker 1: the business. They really have become, right, Yeah, And you know,
Speaker 1: earlier this year Batman versus Superman, it took you know,
Speaker 1: critical thrashing. I think it's fair to h yeah, well
Speaker 1: come back up. You know I was gonna ask. I
Speaker 1: mean when I saw that, I was like, you guys
Speaker 1: were going back to shoot like the next month or
Speaker 1: the next couple of weeks. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: were there from the from the beginning on Justice League.
Speaker 1: But no, I wasn't when you were there? How was morale?
Speaker 1: Was everything? Everybody and everyone's really excited. It's it's a
Speaker 1: totally different film. They're introducing a lot of different characters
Speaker 1: and um. You know it's funny because my husband went
Speaker 1: back and watched the Ultimate edition and he was like, ah,
Speaker 1: he was so mad. He's like, why didn't they we
Speaker 1: do some? But it was a longer version. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you've gone back and watched that. I have.
Speaker 1: I haven't yet, but I've talked to Chris Terrio about
Speaker 1: that actually, the screenwriter, and there's a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot more information in that version of the story. Yeah,
Speaker 1: sure is. But I know it's one of It's one
Speaker 1: of those things. I mean, you want everybody, you want
Speaker 1: there to be sort of this mutual respect and for
Speaker 1: the films you do. And when that doesn't hit, you know,
Speaker 1: I I it does, you know, hit A hit a
Speaker 1: soft spot for everybody involved, and you know, I I've
Speaker 1: just felt for Zach. I mean, I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: acts like the nicest person ever, and I just to
Speaker 1: see him kind of talked about like that. It was
Speaker 1: really hard for me because he's really such a respectful director.
Speaker 1: You know, how does he work with you as an actor?
Speaker 1: Because he's an interesting director. He's he's very great with iconography,
Speaker 1: especially and just getting an amazing image, but working with actors,
Speaker 1: and especially working with actors when you got well not you,
Speaker 1: but you know they're all wearing these suits, these super
Speaker 1: hero suits and stuff. But just talk about how he
Speaker 1: works with you as an actor, because we've talked about
Speaker 1: completely different filmmakers, and well, it's interesting because it's it's
Speaker 1: hard to any good director is going to change the
Speaker 1: way they direct to some degree to work with different
Speaker 1: actors because every actor has a different way of working.
Speaker 1: And so I found, you know, my my favorite directors
Speaker 1: to work with kind of can They definitely have their
Speaker 1: style and their way of working with actors, but they
Speaker 1: respect an actor's process. And Zack's one of those people.
Speaker 1: So depending on what an actor needs, UM, Zach kind
Speaker 1: of adjusts for me. I need very technical notes, like
Speaker 1: the emotion of what's happening with Lois Is, Like I
Speaker 1: love doing that, but sometimes I'm so internal, like which
Speaker 1: is what I love about doing like a rival is
Speaker 1: because it's so internal, um that sometimes that doesn't really
Speaker 1: play when you've got like explosions behind you. And so
Speaker 1: he's really kind of like kind of, Um, we've got
Speaker 1: kind of a dialogue now where he'll go I do
Speaker 1: it again, but like, um, I really want to see it. Okay,
Speaker 1: got it, Okay, got it. I know what I'm doing.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking it instead of living at um. But he's
Speaker 1: really fun to work with. And and again he's he's
Speaker 1: he's like everybody's biggest cheerleader on set, and you know,
Speaker 1: I want for him to, you know, sort of I
Speaker 1: would love for him to, uh, I don't know, just
Speaker 1: to kind of get you know, for people to to
Speaker 1: see how special he is, you know. And then the
Speaker 1: last thing I have for you, I'm just curious where
Speaker 1: you want to go from here. I mean this having
Speaker 1: this tribute now, you know again, like I said, it's
Speaker 1: not like it's lifetime achievement or something like. It's not
Speaker 1: like you're wrapping things up here. But are you are
Speaker 1: you curious about directing it all? Or do you want
Speaker 1: to produce more? Or do you are you content to
Speaker 1: just remain in front of the camera, I mean directing
Speaker 1: right now. I like idea of directing because I really
Speaker 1: love story and I love character and but um, I
Speaker 1: think that again the time requirement. UM. For for how
Speaker 1: I want to a parent, I just can't. Oh, I
Speaker 1: can't parent the way I want to. Not to say
Speaker 1: other people can't, because there are a lot of people
Speaker 1: who can do it and do it very successfully. But UM,
Speaker 1: for me, I'm I'm sort of all or nothing kind
Speaker 1: of thing. So I think directing would take a little
Speaker 1: too much at this current time. But I'm definitely I'm
Speaker 1: starting to work on producing and finding projects. UM. And
Speaker 1: it's been really fun to be a part of sort
Speaker 1: of the development process and to see, um, you know,
Speaker 1: how how things work. I mean, as an actor, you're
Speaker 1: only given so much information you know, probably not all
Speaker 1: of the information ever, which is frustrating. So as I've
Speaker 1: sort of become more of a grown up, I want
Speaker 1: to be involved. UM. I want to understand the creative
Speaker 1: decisions behind the editing, like why did you choose? And
Speaker 1: now I just watched something, I'm like, oh that was cut.
Speaker 1: That's strange. UM. But I would love to understand the wise.
Speaker 1: I'd love to see sort of the creative process from
Speaker 1: the beginning to the end UM and be involved. And
Speaker 1: as as sort of I become more confident in my
Speaker 1: voice as a storyteller. I'd i'd like I'd like to
Speaker 1: um contribute a little bit more. Yeah, well, I wish
Speaker 1: you luck in that. Thank you, and enjoy your time
Speaker 1: here and tell your aut I hope you get to
Speaker 1: see some movies. I will. I don't think my family
Speaker 1: is up here because I'm from Colorado, so I kind
Speaker 1: of want to spend time with them, but this is
Speaker 1: I'll get. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Well, thank you, Thank you,
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. Everyone. Remember to subscribe and check
Speaker 1: back next week when I'll be talking to American pastoral
Speaker 1: star and director you and McGregor Again. I'm Chris Tapley,
Speaker 1: and you've been listening to playback at Variety, Seen Fair
Speaker 1: Seen