Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you were listening to Here's
Speaker 1: the thing, I admit. I looked at Maggie Chillen Hall's
Speaker 1: Wikipedia page and it does get some things right. She
Speaker 1: was nominated for an Academy Award for her work in
Speaker 1: Crazy Heart. She did get a Golden Globe Award for
Speaker 1: her performance in the British TV show The Honorable Woman. Maggie.
Speaker 1: Jillen Hall has worked in big budget films like The
Speaker 1: Dark Night and Nanny McPhee, but still finds time for
Speaker 1: off Broadway plays. She did graduate from Columbia University and
Speaker 1: she is married to the actor Peter Sarsgard, but she
Speaker 1: did not appear in a production of Uncle Vania, directed
Speaker 1: by Martin Scorsese. Her new movie is The Kindergarten Teacher,
Speaker 1: and it comes out this Friday from Netflix. I spoke
Speaker 1: with Jillen Hall last Friday at the Hampton's International Film
Speaker 1: Festival Live at the Bay Street Theater in sag Harbor.
Speaker 1: You were born in New York and raised in l
Speaker 1: A And what was your childhood like in terms of
Speaker 1: um film culture, theater. Were you like a big mavin
Speaker 1: and you watched everything? Were you home watching Gilligan's Island
Speaker 1: like the rest of us. Well, my parents were from
Speaker 1: New York. Well, my dad was from Pennsylvania. My mom
Speaker 1: was from New York, from Brooklyn, and they were kind
Speaker 1: of new to l A. You know. They were filmmakers
Speaker 1: and they drove across the country with me when I
Speaker 1: was I think ten months old. They were not movies, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and so they were lovers of movies. Um, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I feel like I wasn't really allowed to watch like
Speaker 1: Gilligan's Island, to be honest, it's kind that's good range.
Speaker 1: But I was allowed to watch Sesame Street. My mom
Speaker 1: actually was one of the people who she was like
Speaker 1: a p a on Sesame Street. She was one of
Speaker 1: the people who started the electric company. So I was
Speaker 1: allowed to watch those and the Cosby Show. Um, that
Speaker 1: was what I was allowed to watch, and and a
Speaker 1: little bit of um Little House on the Prairie. And
Speaker 1: after a Little House in the Prairie came on Chips
Speaker 1: and I was like, I kind of like snuck in
Speaker 1: a little chips. What what Okay? So what was it
Speaker 1: that drew you two chips? What do you like about chips?
Speaker 1: I was really, can I be honest with you. That
Speaker 1: was like one of the first kind of like whoa,
Speaker 1: what is this feeling? I'm feeling type of moments, likeycles
Speaker 1: and yeah, just the beginning, just the credits. That was like,
Speaker 1: That's why I like Gilligan's Island, Remote Island, Women There
Speaker 1: marrying Ginger was the the first time I had some of
Speaker 1: those feelings you have. Yeah, But then my parents, It's funny,
Speaker 1: they were they loved movies and every weekend we would
Speaker 1: go see a movie for a long time, and they
Speaker 1: took us to a lot of things that I would
Speaker 1: never have taken my kids to, like really appropriate. So
Speaker 1: your parents are like they didn't want you to watch
Speaker 1: a certain kind of TV. But then when you don't,
Speaker 1: look now, you know what I mean? They when to
Speaker 1: go see really eclectic films. And but it was really
Speaker 1: my husband who was like, oh, you haven't seen this,
Speaker 1: you haven't seen Cassavetti's, you haven't seen this, you haven't
Speaker 1: seen that, and like really include me into and also
Speaker 1: to to you know, cool seventies movies but also like
Speaker 1: really amazing actresses. I feel like he has well, like
Speaker 1: he showed me all the General Roland's movies. He was
Speaker 1: he used to tell me. I feel as were embarrassing
Speaker 1: saying this, because it was like, it's sort of a
Speaker 1: I think he was just flirting with me, but he's
Speaker 1: saying he thought I reminded him of Diane Keaton, like
Speaker 1: only in my wildest dreams. I mean, she's amazing. But
Speaker 1: he showed me some of her great movies, and um,
Speaker 1: I wanted to dinner with Peter once with another girlfriend
Speaker 1: of his, and he said the same thing to her,
Speaker 1: you remind me of Diane Keaton. It totally works. It
Speaker 1: totally works. It works like a charm. Young guys out there,
Speaker 1: keep that in your pocket. But he's a movie nut. Well,
Speaker 1: he he really taught me like here's some here's some
Speaker 1: things that that you should see. And then still, um,
Speaker 1: we were actually joking that someone was telling us we
Speaker 1: had to see the Watergate documentary and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's like a Peter date night movie. Like he's like,
Speaker 1: we have a moment together. Actually, oh do you know
Speaker 1: that movie Goma. It's an amazing movie, but it is brutal.
Speaker 1: And he's like, Oh, we're just about to get married
Speaker 1: right near here. I heard this movie is great. Let's
Speaker 1: go see Goma. You know or white ribbon. He took
Speaker 1: me on down than let's watch straw dokst you guys
Speaker 1: should go. Thanks again. So when you you grew up
Speaker 1: in l A and your parents were making films and
Speaker 1: you start acting when you're there when you're very young,
Speaker 1: I mean not really, it's funny. I um, I think
Speaker 1: it's in my Wikipedia page, like some of the other
Speaker 1: very untrue things we were. Your Wikipedia page is a mess.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get to that. Um. That that I that
Speaker 1: my debut was in Waterland, you know, which was a
Speaker 1: movie that my dad made it. In fact, I saw
Speaker 1: water Land just the other day because they did a
Speaker 1: screening of it at Columbia and invited my dad, and
Speaker 1: so I went up to see it. I am in
Speaker 1: water Land for five seconds. And my dad had been
Speaker 1: making the movie in London and they had maybe four
Speaker 1: weeks in Pittsburgh, and I was in school in l A.
Speaker 1: And it was like a way I could go see
Speaker 1: my dad. It wasn't really my film debut. Now, when
Speaker 1: you when you went to Columbia, where'd you go study?
Speaker 1: I studied English literature. You don't want to sell theater
Speaker 1: or drama. I started doing plays there. Um, I did.
Speaker 1: I did a lot first. I mean I I had
Speaker 1: one teacher there who I learned a lot from, this woman,
Speaker 1: Joan rosen Fells. But I don't know. I guess that
Speaker 1: was a Columbian. I sort of felt like I'm Columbia,
Speaker 1: like I should study Columbia does best? Were not acting? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I tell people that now. Who are students who go
Speaker 1: to degree granting universities for drama? And I say, don't
Speaker 1: just take drama and acting. Take something where you're going
Speaker 1: to read a lot of books, philosophy and the nature history,
Speaker 1: but you're there gonna do. What's the first production to
Speaker 1: do in New York? Do you remember? Like my first?
Speaker 1: You had to Columbia? You did play What would you do?
Speaker 1: What did I do with Columbia was the first one? Oh?
Speaker 1: I did a student production of No Exit with this
Speaker 1: guy who became my boyfriend named Dante, who was actually
Speaker 1: twenty five and it already graduated from college. It was
Speaker 1: in a student's production talk ye be in prison Now
Speaker 1: that happens correctly. So I did that. I also did
Speaker 1: Um the Tempest and I played prosper and that too. No, No,
Speaker 1: he didn't make it in that one. Um, but yeah,
Speaker 1: that was the first one. Was no exit when you
Speaker 1: when you graduated with a degree in literature. Was was
Speaker 1: acting the goals or what you wanted to do? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I did. I always wanted to be an actress. And
Speaker 1: I feel I feel like, yeah, yeah, okay, yes, in
Speaker 1: college you can read. Although there's so much you're supposed
Speaker 1: to read, I feel like I never had read all
Speaker 1: of it. But I feel like I really learned to
Speaker 1: write in college. And I don't know about you, but
Speaker 1: I feel like there's been so many times where I've had,
Speaker 1: you know, lines I wanted changed, or a cut that
Speaker 1: I wanted shifted, or something I had to sort out
Speaker 1: on a set that I had to write an email
Speaker 1: or even have a conversation where I had to organize
Speaker 1: my thoughts before I had it. Where I think, thank
Speaker 1: God I went to college because I was able to
Speaker 1: say what I meant to say. You know what helps
Speaker 1: if you have that background, Because you do, you feel
Speaker 1: there was progression for you. In the beginning. You were
Speaker 1: timid and shot, you know, less assertive, and I want
Speaker 1: to find out when did that begin to change. Was
Speaker 1: there a moment you sat there and you said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I need to defend my position, and I think I
Speaker 1: know what's best for me. I think, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know that it was. I think basically it was progressive, right,
Speaker 1: like basically right. I was younger and newer, and it
Speaker 1: was harder for me to say what I wanted, and
Speaker 1: it's gotten easier as I've had more experience. But I
Speaker 1: also think that different sets give way to a different
Speaker 1: way of working. So first, I'm a jobbing actress and
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get jobs and I come in for
Speaker 1: two days or one afternoon or whatever, and you're like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: you want me to do it like that? Um, I know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. It didn't sound really very good to me,
Speaker 1: but I'm afraid to say, let's say, or maybe I
Speaker 1: do try to say and I get shut down and
Speaker 1: I accepted and whatever. That's like, you know, it's very
Speaker 1: hard to do when you're coming in for one second.
Speaker 1: It's like going to a new school where everybody knows
Speaker 1: each other and you're there for an afternoon. But then,
Speaker 1: like when I worked on Secretary, which was really early on,
Speaker 1: I mean I was twenty two, I had a real
Speaker 1: point of view about what I wanted to say, and
Speaker 1: and Steve Schenberg, who directed it, was really interested in that.
Speaker 1: And I also think he knew that things were happening
Speaker 1: that I didn't have any idea were happening. And also
Speaker 1: my twenty two I think I'm being very intellectual and
Speaker 1: I've come from college and I studied feminist theory and everything,
Speaker 1: you know, and I think I'm saying this, and I
Speaker 1: think he was twenty years older than me that he
Speaker 1: was able to see. I know she thinks she's saying this,
Speaker 1: but this whole other thing is also happening, and um,
Speaker 1: and he put all that in the film. But so
Speaker 1: that was a space where I felt I was totally
Speaker 1: able to collaborative. Yes, And then I went to work
Speaker 1: on a movie after that, which I won't name, where
Speaker 1: I was totally shut down and I was shocked by it.
Speaker 1: I always remember, like you go to a movie and
Speaker 1: this is just you know, my opinion, but like you
Speaker 1: do a film and you want to be told what
Speaker 1: to do. Basically, my whole thing is you're making the movie.
Speaker 1: What movie are you making? What? What? How do I
Speaker 1: fit in? I do. One of the first movies I did,
Speaker 1: I was lucky. I did this movie Working Girl with
Speaker 1: Mike Nichols, and Nichols says, you're gonna have sex. He goes,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have sex with this woman and she catches
Speaker 1: you having sex? How would you have sex that are
Speaker 1: being caught? And I go, well, and I try to
Speaker 1: think of like, what's the most comical, you know thing,
Speaker 1: and he goes, He goes, it was very graatious. She's like,
Speaker 1: He's like, that's not a bad idea. That's not a
Speaker 1: bad idea. But what I think it really sells it
Speaker 1: if she's just completely naked and you're completely naked, and
Speaker 1: she's just sitting right on top of you, just writing
Speaker 1: you and me and they actually were like, oh, we
Speaker 1: had a much more chaste and kind of like silly
Speaker 1: version of that. And me and the girl were like,
Speaker 1: he was like, Okay, come come now, close off, let's go.
Speaker 1: But the idea of that clarity time saving somebody who
Speaker 1: comes as this, Yeah, but the thing is, well, I
Speaker 1: always use my fantasy movie I would have made with
Speaker 1: Mike Nichols as like the example of if Mike Nichols
Speaker 1: is directing this, yes, I want to be told exactly
Speaker 1: what to do, please, Like I watched his movies and
Speaker 1: I'm like he's directing everybody. He's like pushing everybody further
Speaker 1: and deeper and funnier and wilder than they ever would go.
Speaker 1: In fact, the one time I worked with Mike Nichols
Speaker 1: was on this reading. It's not a not a movie
Speaker 1: or even a play that was ever produced. It was
Speaker 1: just a a few day long reading of a play
Speaker 1: that Alan Alda wrote. Bob Balaban directed the reading, but
Speaker 1: Mike was sort of producing it. I guess he came
Speaker 1: up to me after a day of rehearsal and he
Speaker 1: just said, she's feral the character. And I've I've often
Speaker 1: thought that was the best direction I've ever gotten, because
Speaker 1: it doesn't say like, you know, I don't know directors
Speaker 1: ever come up to you and say like, I'm worried
Speaker 1: that we're not gonna be able to tell that you're
Speaker 1: mad because you're acting so nice, and I'm worried that
Speaker 1: it's not going to communicate, you know, Or I'm afraid
Speaker 1: that you're going too far in this direction, or I'm
Speaker 1: afraid that you're, you know, gonna confuse people by something
Speaker 1: that you're doing. I have been told that before. Um,
Speaker 1: but Mike Nichols is basically going like, go further, like
Speaker 1: in any direction you could possibly go like what he
Speaker 1: said to you, you know, go all the way she's feral.
Speaker 1: I was playing Murray Curie and he's saying like she's
Speaker 1: a wild animal, the wild cat because the other parts
Speaker 1: taken care of. She's Marie Curie. You know, all the
Speaker 1: French radiologists knew that back she was wild, that Marie Curry.
Speaker 1: So I want to be told what to do. Yes,
Speaker 1: I wish for that kind of collaboration, but I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't go in expecting that it's going to happen.
Speaker 1: I wanted who was the director you worked with, because
Speaker 1: I think you and I may be sharing this from
Speaker 1: what you said where we're not out to uh offend anyone,
Speaker 1: but you don't think of somebody who it was really
Speaker 1: just great. You loved working with Um other than your
Speaker 1: current collaboration. We're gonna get to that. But I did
Speaker 1: love my current collaboration. I have a few that I've
Speaker 1: really loved, Um, Martin Scorsese on Banya right that Martin
Speaker 1: Scorsese directed, supposedly according to Wikipedia, me and my husband
Speaker 1: uncle v at csc take a tiny black box stater
Speaker 1: in New York. Is is Martin Scorsese directed the check Out,
Speaker 1: and I'm going, oh my god, this is like the
Speaker 1: seismic thing that got by me. It's like it's like
Speaker 1: someone welcome to you, going, you know, the Lindbergh baby
Speaker 1: was kidnapped, right. And then in this Wikipedia entry that
Speaker 1: Alec just showed me, it then goes on to quote
Speaker 1: a terrible review of me in the play that's not
Speaker 1: a good section that I'm not a skimpedia. But Austin
Speaker 1: Pendleton did, and he is one of the most incredible
Speaker 1: directors I've ever worked with. My wife Austin Um, It's
Speaker 1: funny Austin asked me to do uh Uncle Vanya and
Speaker 1: he when when they offered it to me, they sent
Speaker 1: me this interview with Austin and it basically talks about
Speaker 1: this sort of incredible way that he likes to work
Speaker 1: with actors, you know, where everyone's free to respond to
Speaker 1: each other in the moment on stage. You know, all
Speaker 1: the fantasies that actors have of a way that you
Speaker 1: could actually really work together, which rarely happens. And I
Speaker 1: was like, Austin, I'd love to do this, I'd love
Speaker 1: to work this way, you know, where it's all just
Speaker 1: reacting to the reality of the moment with the other
Speaker 1: person on stage, and how everybody says that's what they
Speaker 1: want to do, how are you actually going to do it?
Speaker 1: And he's like, well, you got to come and work
Speaker 1: with me to find out. And the truth is, I
Speaker 1: don't know how he created this situation where everybody on
Speaker 1: stage had deep respect for each other, even though it
Speaker 1: was clear to me that there were actors who were
Speaker 1: stronger than others that there were, but it made no difference,
Speaker 1: you know, I know one way he did it. I
Speaker 1: remember the first day of rehearsal. He said, however, you imagined, uh, Sonja,
Speaker 1: whatever fantasy you had of who Sonia was going to
Speaker 1: be when you read this play, Sonja is her. Sonia
Speaker 1: is this person, And all the feelings you have about
Speaker 1: this person, about the way that that ricochets off what
Speaker 1: you anticipated when you read the play, that's all useful.
Speaker 1: But Sonja is her. And so we did create this
Speaker 1: little black box theater situation where and I did it
Speaker 1: with my husband and he's a brilliant actor, so that
Speaker 1: was cool. Um, And we got to pretend we were
Speaker 1: having an affair. Both check offs we did, we were
Speaker 1: playing people who were having affairs, which was really hot
Speaker 1: and great, you know. But I loved working with Austin.
Speaker 1: I also loved UM. I loved Hugo Blick, who directed
Speaker 1: The Honorable Woman got a Golden Globe for that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was that you mentioned me. That was one of
Speaker 1: the longest times you were overseason away from home. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's funny. I really admire what you said about
Speaker 1: how for you, Um, your your trust is a director's
Speaker 1: to lose. I wish I could be like that, but
Speaker 1: I'm not, and I go in with my guard up
Speaker 1: h and secretly I want the deepest, most intense artistic
Speaker 1: collaboration possible, but I don't. It's not easy for me.
Speaker 1: And with Hugo, I think we were both like that.
Speaker 1: And you know, it was eight hours of television. I'd
Speaker 1: only ever done a two hour movie before. I didn't
Speaker 1: know how to do that. And I'm in every minute
Speaker 1: of every scene, and it's super intense and it could
Speaker 1: have been terrible, you know. But I remember about two
Speaker 1: thirds of the way through, somebody I came over to
Speaker 1: him and I just sort of said something in his
Speaker 1: ear about the scene. I think we need to shift this,
Speaker 1: and actually, can we move this here and could this
Speaker 1: happen over here, which is almost shorthand at this point,
Speaker 1: and he was like, yeah, absolutely, and someone saying next
Speaker 1: to him said, do you just do whatever she says?
Speaker 1: And he said he's English. Also he said I trust
Speaker 1: her completely like that, and I took it in like, yeah, whoa,
Speaker 1: Actually he was kidding, but I kind of think he does.
Speaker 1: And then at the very end, on the very very
Speaker 1: last day, I had this voice over to record which
Speaker 1: plays at the beginning of every episode, and it's basically
Speaker 1: about trust, and it basically, I think it says something
Speaker 1: like you have to just I mean not in these words,
Speaker 1: but what it meant was you either trust nobody or
Speaker 1: you just jump off the cliff and you trust. And
Speaker 1: I was like, um, he put me in this little
Speaker 1: room to record it because we'd forgotten to record it,
Speaker 1: and I was like, h you go, do you mind
Speaker 1: if I say it to you? And so he came
Speaker 1: in the room with me, and I basically the subtext
Speaker 1: I guess of what I was saying to him was
Speaker 1: I trust you. You know. Maggie gillen Hall, she said
Speaker 1: in an interview that she would probably be a different
Speaker 1: person by the end of her work on The Honorable Woman.
Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing.
Speaker 1: Sarah Colangelo directed Maggie gillen Hole's new movie, The Kindergarten Teacher.
Speaker 1: Gillen Hole told me she heard about the project at
Speaker 1: a holiday party. Two people at the party said, have
Speaker 1: you heard about this script The Kindergarten Teacher? It's coming
Speaker 1: to you And I don't know about you, but for me,
Speaker 1: and it's great, And for me, I think it's really
Speaker 1: really rare to read a great script, and also to
Speaker 1: have two people in one night, out of nowhere to
Speaker 1: say like, there's this great script and it's coming to you.
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, okay. I was waiting every day
Speaker 1: after that for the script to come and it took
Speaker 1: a while, and when it came, I read it and
Speaker 1: I um, I had that feeling like you just I've
Speaker 1: had it like three times, you know where I was like,
Speaker 1: and also if you if you have seen the movie,
Speaker 1: and I won't give anything away, the ending is pretty great.
Speaker 1: And I closed the last page of the script and
Speaker 1: I was like, I want this movie, you know. And
Speaker 1: it wasn't clear to me that it was offered to me,
Speaker 1: which actually just increased my appetite for it more. Of course,
Speaker 1: they say, now it always was, but I didn't know that,
Speaker 1: and one of the producers mothers, was having an operation
Speaker 1: in the hospital, and like, nobody got back to me
Speaker 1: for a few days after I really energetically raised my
Speaker 1: hand and was like, yes, please, what do I gotta do?
Speaker 1: And again, just waiting just made me want it more.
Speaker 1: And then then they came back and they were like, oh, yes,
Speaker 1: we always meant yeah, it's based on it is really
Speaker 1: movie UM, which I haven't seen UM deliberately. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I probably should see it now. I've heard
Speaker 1: wonderful things about it, and I've heard that narratively it's
Speaker 1: very similar, and yet it tells an almost entirely different stories.
Speaker 1: So our movie, I think, is really about the consequences
Speaker 1: of what happens when you starve a vibrant woman's mind,
Speaker 1: told from the point of view of a group of
Speaker 1: women filmmakers. And our conclusion is that it's fucking dire.
Speaker 1: You know. That's and I think there's really a movie
Speaker 1: which has a very similar narrative. Is Um is much
Speaker 1: more about masculinity in Israel and art in a country
Speaker 1: at war and very different things, even though the story
Speaker 1: itself is very similar. Um. So yeah, so I got
Speaker 1: the script and then and I signed up and then
Speaker 1: you know, um, it was not easy to get our money.
Speaker 1: In fact, at Sundance when we first premiered, I shook
Speaker 1: the hands of fifty executive producers who had, you know,
Speaker 1: all together somehow helped us cobble together the money to
Speaker 1: make it. So we spent a while, um doing that,
Speaker 1: and then we made it in twenty three days in
Speaker 1: New York. In New York. Now, when you work with uh,
Speaker 1: this sounds like a silly thing, but I always think
Speaker 1: about this in terms of the brevity of schedules now
Speaker 1: and the pressure to shoot efficiently now. But with children,
Speaker 1: I find it's very a specific And in the movie
Speaker 1: From My Money, the the young boy what's his name,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Parker Parker, the boy who's We had the funniest
Speaker 1: moment yesterday because I said, this gets fantastic after the movie,
Speaker 1: and somebody from the festival said, well, he loves boss baby.
Speaker 1: He's like, how old is he? Like? Five six six?
Speaker 1: So we go backstage and I'm like, this is amazing.
Speaker 1: You're doing like this really hypnotic, creepy drama, which is great,
Speaker 1: and I'm in boss baby. I mean, you and I
Speaker 1: have so much in common. You and I, you know,
Speaker 1: were both in the business, different wings of the business,
Speaker 1: maybe Parker, but we had a lot of fun with him.
Speaker 1: But when you're working with somebody, like a lot of
Speaker 1: times kids are performing and the kids that that climbed
Speaker 1: the ladder a little bit in that division, they're very
Speaker 1: you know, they're ready to come, you know, sing tomorrow
Speaker 1: on Broadway, and uh, he's not. He's very real. And
Speaker 1: was that a decision? You and she talked about you,
Speaker 1: and I mean I felt a couple of things very strongly.
Speaker 1: I have a child who's six and who was five
Speaker 1: when we made it, just like Parker's five. So it's
Speaker 1: hard to remember what it's like to be five. I mean,
Speaker 1: how different the world is unless you're five. Are you
Speaker 1: have a five year old? I know, right, or unless
Speaker 1: you're living unless you're living with a five year old,
Speaker 1: and then you're in that mind kind of So I
Speaker 1: felt two things. I felt. I almost didn't do the
Speaker 1: movie at one point because I thought, no movie, no
Speaker 1: matter how much I love it or think it's important
Speaker 1: or whatever is worth disturbing a child even for a
Speaker 1: few minutes. So I was like, how are we going
Speaker 1: to do this? And I also don't think, um, five
Speaker 1: six year olds are actors. I just don't believe that,
Speaker 1: and I don't think it's fair to ask them to
Speaker 1: be actors. So so I felt like so basically we
Speaker 1: worked in a couple of ways. I learned this from
Speaker 1: Emma Thompson. Actually who um I'm in love with? And
Speaker 1: who who did Nanny McPhee. We did an enimy fee
Speaker 1: together and we had tons of kids, and so often,
Speaker 1: especially with the very little list one UM, we would
Speaker 1: just be like, stand on the X now, look at
Speaker 1: that big black X on the on the wall and
Speaker 1: turn your head when I say so when I clap,
Speaker 1: turn your head and say I don't want to go,
Speaker 1: and he would we would clap, he turned his head,
Speaker 1: he'd say I don't want to go, and I would
Speaker 1: say no, no, no, sing it like me, I don't
Speaker 1: want to go, I want to go No, and then
Speaker 1: he would just sort of repeat. I would be like,
Speaker 1: you have just sing it like to Parker sing it,
Speaker 1: and so then he kind of just imitate my inflections.
Speaker 1: That was one way, we worked with him so that
Speaker 1: it was just a song. It wasn't like he Actually,
Speaker 1: you can't say to a five year old, I want
Speaker 1: to get in touch with the way in which you're
Speaker 1: like um. But the other thing you can do with
Speaker 1: five year olds is that they will forget that the
Speaker 1: cameras on them sort of, So we ran all the
Speaker 1: kindergarten stuff as if it were a kindergarten. I mean,
Speaker 1: you see them singing those songs with me, or painting
Speaker 1: or you're not going to say, Okay, we're gonna pretend
Speaker 1: to paint, or we're gonna pretend to write exs on
Speaker 1: a piece of paper. We're just going to do it.
Speaker 1: And we choreographed the camera. I would sort of see
Speaker 1: where the camera was going, almost like a documentary, and
Speaker 1: then I would just like scoot over to wherever the
Speaker 1: camera wasn't begin the scene with whoever I needed to
Speaker 1: be talking to in that scene. And then the other
Speaker 1: funny thing about kids and the like short schedule is um.
Speaker 1: There were quite a few times where I did scenes
Speaker 1: with our first a d or our gaffer who would
Speaker 1: read off camera for me because the little boy had
Speaker 1: to go. And I'd be like this is really weird,
Speaker 1: but huh. You know, like the way you can trip
Speaker 1: yourself out as an actor kind of and you can
Speaker 1: be like, oh, there's helicopters going over all the time,
Speaker 1: we have to keep stopping the middle. I'm really frustrated,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, the frustration just goes
Speaker 1: back into the scene. So this one, I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is like a hairy fifty year old guy with
Speaker 1: like this scrubby you know beard. Oh no, our first
Speaker 1: a d our first CD and and he's lying on
Speaker 1: the ground slating also, and I'd be like, oh, but
Speaker 1: I'm okay. So I'm basically talking to this child as
Speaker 1: if he's a man. You know, you just figure out
Speaker 1: the way to throw it back in because what else
Speaker 1: are you gonna do? Well? I love it if on
Speaker 1: my next film you would come and do that exacting
Speaker 1: with me. Would you be there for me? It will
Speaker 1: be my mirror Rostova, you know, like off the set
Speaker 1: like okay and turned to me, do you want to
Speaker 1: go to prison? I want to go to prison for
Speaker 1: tex I don't want to go to prison for tax evasion.
Speaker 1: You know we could do that. You'd be my acting
Speaker 1: crest um. The Uh, that's amazing, you know, exacting there.
Speaker 1: I need to work with you, man, I'm dying to
Speaker 1: get a script with you. It was Emma Thompson. Really Now,
Speaker 1: what about Sarah? How many films have she made before
Speaker 1: she made this film. I loved working with Sarah and
Speaker 1: it was totally different kind of experience than I had
Speaker 1: ever had before. And in some ways I like to
Speaker 1: think it's it was a very feminine set, right. Sarah
Speaker 1: wrote and directed it, our financiers were women, our producers
Speaker 1: were women. It's all about a woman. Um. But I
Speaker 1: had worked with a lot of other women and had
Speaker 1: very different kinds of I have. I've worked with many.
Speaker 1: I mean even on The Deuce last season, seven out
Speaker 1: of eight directors were women. You know, well there is
Speaker 1: a difference, Yeah, there is, but that's not necessarily what
Speaker 1: made I think my collaboration with Sarah and are set
Speaker 1: on the kindergarten teacher. So I don't know, unusual, Yeah, feminine,
Speaker 1: But I don't even totally know what that means. Even
Speaker 1: when I watched the movie, I'm like, this is feminine,
Speaker 1: Like what does that mean? And why? And my husband,
Speaker 1: after he saw it last night, he was like, I
Speaker 1: wish someone would send this to Senator Flake. But but
Speaker 1: I don't really know totally why. Right, it's not political movie,
Speaker 1: but it's it's like somehow it's really kind of straight,
Speaker 1: purely feminine thing. I don't you know. It makes me
Speaker 1: think of the piano, not this movie. I would never
Speaker 1: compare it to that, but the experience I had when
Speaker 1: I saw the Piano and I was like sixteen or
Speaker 1: something and I had never seen anything like it, I
Speaker 1: was like, what, like I I guess I think in
Speaker 1: some ways, um, girls, women my age, we get so
Speaker 1: used to having to relate to a male character or
Speaker 1: even let's just say like a sort of masculine point
Speaker 1: of view on something. We're like, yeah, yeah, that's not
Speaker 1: exactly my experience, but I could twist it around and
Speaker 1: make it relatable to me, and that muscle is very exercised.
Speaker 1: I think in most women were like, yeah, I get
Speaker 1: I know it's not exactly my way through the world,
Speaker 1: but I could. I could just twist a little, and
Speaker 1: it's cool. I get it, and thank god because otherwise
Speaker 1: we have very little to relate to. But then, like
Speaker 1: when I saw the piano, I was like, whoa, I
Speaker 1: feel so relaxed. I don't have to twist anything. And
Speaker 1: I felt that way when I read Sarah script, I
Speaker 1: just like went straight in and when I when I
Speaker 1: saw this last night, what I love is it? It's
Speaker 1: not a bad I don't we give it away, but
Speaker 1: the dynamic of the home is not all bad. But
Speaker 1: there's things that maybe in my mind you know, are missing.
Speaker 1: As soon as you want, you gone, yeah, and connections
Speaker 1: and feelings are exactly It's a much easier movie if
Speaker 1: her home life is like horrible, if everything's just awful. Instead,
Speaker 1: you see, I'm gonna give away the scene on the
Speaker 1: phone and your husband's like he's ready to you know,
Speaker 1: people will dance with you and then the phone rings.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, Oh my god, crazy really upset you see, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so fuck up. Yeah, it's true. A couple of really
Speaker 1: fucked up scenes in this movie. It's incredible, it's true.
Speaker 1: One more thing before we take some questions, do we
Speaker 1: have the Mike's poised for the questions we do? Okay,
Speaker 1: one last question I have for you, which is she
Speaker 1: you're doing the deuce you're on HBO? How did that happen? Meaning?
Speaker 1: How did they reel you? When I mean I'm not
Speaker 1: just saying this for your benefit. You're one of the
Speaker 1: most admired movie actresses in the business. Everybody says this. Everybody.
Speaker 1: You're you're you're gorgeous, and you're talented, and you're all
Speaker 1: these things. So when you go to do the TV thing,
Speaker 1: how did they hook you? Well? Huh. I just it's
Speaker 1: so funny though, because like in the first three episodes,
Speaker 1: which was all I read of The Deuce, Candy didn't
Speaker 1: really have all that much to do and that's why
Speaker 1: you took the job. Um No. But it's weird because
Speaker 1: I was just talking with Peter about this, and when
Speaker 1: we were walking on the beach here today, I was like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: when I first there, wasn't she turned so amazing. I mean,
Speaker 1: I love blank Andy, I really do. Um but I
Speaker 1: just had like a feeling. I don't know I was.
Speaker 1: It was David Simon and George Pelicanos. I mean, they
Speaker 1: made some pretty damn good TV and I had done
Speaker 1: The Honorable Woman with Hugo, who I told you I
Speaker 1: loved so much. So it wasn't my first time in TV.
Speaker 1: I wasn't like snobby about TV. I wanted it, you know,
Speaker 1: I wanted a good job, you know that that I
Speaker 1: could count on, but also yes, and to be home.
Speaker 1: But also I was like, I don't know. I just
Speaker 1: had a good feeling. I was like, I just want
Speaker 1: to play this woman. I want to I want to
Speaker 1: try it. I want to see I want to see
Speaker 1: if I can do this. It was so far outside
Speaker 1: of my experience to play a sex worker in UM.
Speaker 1: I just like liked her. I just had a I
Speaker 1: just had like this feeling about it for three seasons
Speaker 1: and I guess I will. And you know, there was
Speaker 1: this whole thing where I was like, guys, I've only
Speaker 1: read three there's going to be twenty four. How do
Speaker 1: I know? I mean, I think you guys are all right,
Speaker 1: but what if this becomes something I mean I never
Speaker 1: had signed on something like that before. Well that's true,
Speaker 1: but again, like I said, I don't trust that. Well,
Speaker 1: so I asked them if I could be a producer,
Speaker 1: and and the thing is is when and everyone said
Speaker 1: to me, you are never going to get that on
Speaker 1: a big HBO show. You've never produced television before, you
Speaker 1: didn't develop it, like good luck, Maggie. But then they
Speaker 1: were like, okay, let's be partners. Good for you, and um,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh wow for you, um do
Speaker 1: we have who do we have over here? How did
Speaker 1: you prepare for your role as a teacher? Did you
Speaker 1: interview teachers? Did you shadow teachers? Um? Well, I yeah,
Speaker 1: I felt in this movie where this woman ends up
Speaker 1: doing a lot of really problematic things, the movie only
Speaker 1: really works if you are on her side for a
Speaker 1: really really long time. You're on her side, even when
Speaker 1: she's crossing lines. You would never imagine you would be
Speaker 1: on anyone side while they were crossing um. And so
Speaker 1: you know, it was important to me that she'd be
Speaker 1: a great teacher, like a really extraordinary teacher. So yeah,
Speaker 1: my daughter was. I had one older daughter that I
Speaker 1: had a daughter who was in preschool, and I asked
Speaker 1: her preschool teacher, do you know like a great kindergarten
Speaker 1: teacher who's not at this school because I didn't really
Speaker 1: want to mix it with my kids school. And she
Speaker 1: recommended this woman on the Upper West Side. And I
Speaker 1: went up there all the time, sat in in our classroom.
Speaker 1: I got so much from her. She had dinner with
Speaker 1: Sarah and I once and gave us like some more tips.
Speaker 1: But I said, I I yeah, shadowed her I sat
Speaker 1: there for hours. I learned a ton from her. She
Speaker 1: was great. Um. Um, somebody up there in the back,
Speaker 1: we saw your film last night and your performance was stunning,
Speaker 1: and I did want to thank you for that. I'm wondering, Um,
Speaker 1: you picked such unconventional roles. I can't help but wonder
Speaker 1: if the role that you felt you executed the best,
Speaker 1: was it the same role that your critics thought you
Speaker 1: executed the best? You know from inside out? Does you
Speaker 1: know those Do those two things match up for you?
Speaker 1: Do you and your critics think the same. Well, one
Speaker 1: thing I think is interesting you say that that they're
Speaker 1: unconventional roles. But I just when you said that word,
Speaker 1: I thought, Actually, the thing I love about the few
Speaker 1: roles that I've done that I feel the most proud of.
Speaker 1: Um that I think I executed the best. As you
Speaker 1: put it, Um, I think are actually sort of the
Speaker 1: most human people, so maybe the most conventional in terms
Speaker 1: of being like we actually are. And I know the
Speaker 1: woman in the movie does things that many of us
Speaker 1: would never ever do, but in so many other ways,
Speaker 1: she's like I relate to her so much, you know,
Speaker 1: she's she totally could be a friend of mine and
Speaker 1: even the ways she's confused or the fact that she's confused.
Speaker 1: I understand, I have compassion for UM. I don't know
Speaker 1: in terms of I don't know about about whether I
Speaker 1: guess I would say this recently, I would say since
Speaker 1: the honorable woman, I think I've had this feeling where
Speaker 1: I'm most proud of the last thing I've done, which UM,
Speaker 1: I feel really grateful for. Like I feel like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm making the choices that are right for me
Speaker 1: right now because I'm I feel like I keep I
Speaker 1: don't know, learning about what I'm doing. As time goes on.
Speaker 1: I'm sure I'll take a dip and take a wrong
Speaker 1: route for a while, But at the moment it's been like,
Speaker 1: I feel, yeah, the most proud of the of the
Speaker 1: most recent work. And an actor won't say to me
Speaker 1: it was this very funny guy, older guy. When it
Speaker 1: was very good. He said, remember one thing about reviews.
Speaker 1: He said, when they say you're bad, you're never as
Speaker 1: bad as they say you are. I mean, if it's
Speaker 1: not great, you're never as bad. And when they say
Speaker 1: you're really good, you're great, You're always even better them.
Speaker 1: They're even better than that. They never get it right.
Speaker 1: They don't know how. I know. That's so funny that
Speaker 1: like I gotta take that little piece of that Wikipedia
Speaker 1: thing and like put it up somewhere. This is so mean.
Speaker 1: With the Daily News they hated my Elena. We are
Speaker 1: right there here, sir, who's straining out of your chair?
Speaker 1: The restroom is down to the right. So how do
Speaker 1: you find feminist and masculine? Nosy, I can't, That's what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I don't want to be reductive about it,
Speaker 1: and I can't define feminine and masculine. I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to say there's like something and it doesn't okay. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't want to get like super There's just things
Speaker 1: that are on my mind right now, Like what does
Speaker 1: it mean to make a feminine movie? I don't know
Speaker 1: the answer to that. I just know that if you're
Speaker 1: living in a masculine world fundamentally, which I'd say, it's
Speaker 1: pretty clear we are even a misogynistic world, right. It's
Speaker 1: it doesn't just because you're a woman who directs a
Speaker 1: vie or just because you're a woman who writes a
Speaker 1: movie doesn't mean it's feminine. Right. You have to twist
Speaker 1: yourself and fit yourself all your life, like like Virginia
Speaker 1: Wolf in the Room of One's Own has this whole
Speaker 1: thing about how like even even Charlotte Bronte, she said
Speaker 1: she's not really making purely feminine work because she's like
Speaker 1: hiding her paper under her sewing or whatever. And so
Speaker 1: that's what I mean when I say I saw the
Speaker 1: piano and it had some like like an effect on me.
Speaker 1: When I was sixteen, there I did this interview with M.
Speaker 1: Trevor Noah, you know, it was about the Deuce. Actually
Speaker 1: it wasn't about the kindergarten teacher, but he'd seen the
Speaker 1: preview for the kindergarten Teacher and he was like, I
Speaker 1: saw the preview. He said, is it a thriller or
Speaker 1: is it like an intimate movie about a woman's mind?
Speaker 1: Or is it like a horror movie? And I loved that,
Speaker 1: and I keep coming back to it because I think
Speaker 1: it's not any of those. It's new, and I think
Speaker 1: it might be new because it's feminine. It doesn't tick
Speaker 1: the boxes we're used to. But again, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm a little confused about this. Uh, we have just
Speaker 1: time for a couple more quick ones. Uh. The lady
Speaker 1: right there on the amble to two more two more
Speaker 1: quick ones. I have a very quick question. If you
Speaker 1: weren't an actor, what would you do or what would
Speaker 1: you want to do? Oh? Man, I'm really I'm not
Speaker 1: good at very many other things. I mean, I'm like
Speaker 1: an okay cook, I have a friend as a professor,
Speaker 1: which I'd love to think like maybe I would like
Speaker 1: be an English teacher or something, but I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: any good at it. I mean, were you good at
Speaker 1: other things better? I'm so good and I'm might really
Speaker 1: that bad? Are you really you've never any thoughts about
Speaker 1: maybe professional ice skating? Wow? Yes, okay, considering what you've
Speaker 1: said about literature and being an English major and you're
Speaker 1: probably a great reader. If you've got option a book
Speaker 1: and do your movie but not be in it, what
Speaker 1: would you do? Well? I did actually just option a
Speaker 1: book and I'm not going to be in it. I'm
Speaker 1: adapting it and I'm going to direct it. And it's
Speaker 1: called The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante. Al Right, so
Speaker 1: my last question is a two partner, because we're gonna
Speaker 1: be out of time. My last question is a quick
Speaker 1: two partner. I had a very fleeting role in looming
Speaker 1: tower with your husband. Got to work with your husband
Speaker 1: for the first time. Peter stars guard And my first question,
Speaker 1: which is a silly question, is your husband really as
Speaker 1: sweet as he seems ever met? My life? A damn
Speaker 1: good husband. I'm thrilled with him. And what's that like
Speaker 1: for you? Being two people who are working all the time,
Speaker 1: very successful movie actors. That's Is it wonderful to be
Speaker 1: with somebody who understands what you're going through? I'm married
Speaker 1: of the business, and sometimes yes, it's like somethime I'll
Speaker 1: be like, when are you coming home? I don't understand
Speaker 1: when are you coming home? Like we have planned such
Speaker 1: and such, and he's like, Maggie, you know, I don't
Speaker 1: know the answer to me, you know, I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: My wife was like my wife. Sometimes it's like like,
Speaker 1: why are you so dramatic? Duh? Anyway, now you telling
Speaker 1: all everybody? And now an update after a newspaper story
Speaker 1: appeared about this conversation, Jillen Hall's Wikipedia page has been revised.
Speaker 1: Maggie Jillen Hall's new movie That Kindergarten Teacher comes out
Speaker 1: on Netflix October twelve. This is Alec Baldwin, and you're
Speaker 1: listening to Here's the Thing. Oh,