IR Interview: Eve Hewson For "Flora And Son" (Awards Track) [Apple]

The Inside Reel

Actress Eve Hewson talks to Awards Track about context, approach, humor and the power of music in regards to her new dramatic comedy from Apple Original Films: “Flora And Son”.

Transcript

00:00 (screaming)

00:02 (dramatic music)

00:05 - I was 17 with a screaming child on me, like.

00:17 - This can't be my story.

00:18 But without him I have nothing.

00:22 ♪ We're living the high life ♪

00:24 - How come the way things are are never enough for you?

00:27 ♪ We're living the high life ♪

00:28 - I never were.

00:30 ♪ We're living the high life ♪

00:33 ♪ And it's a fun life to be alive ♪

00:37 - Playing the guitar, it's so sexy.

00:40 - Okay.

00:41 - Is that why you took it off?

00:42 - Well, it's focused on you.

00:43 - Are you coming on to me?

00:46 (laughing)

00:48 - The first thing I wanted to ask you

00:50 in terms of like acting in music,

00:53 could you talk about instinct versus technique?

00:56 And the idea of that within the idea of flora?

01:00 - Yeah, well, that's a really, really thoughtful question.

01:04 Yeah, I think that's so true.

01:08 I mean, it's the same, I think, with music and with acting

01:11 is, you know, if you're learning to play the piano,

01:15 you have to know your scales,

01:16 you have to practice every day,

01:18 you have to sort of have some sort of form.

01:20 And then once you have that,

01:22 there's a freedom that you can sort of riff off of.

01:26 And I feel like with acting, once you know your character,

01:30 once you know the story and how you fit into it

01:33 and what you wanna say, then you can get to set

01:36 and you can try things

01:38 and you have that kind of structure to support you.

01:41 So, especially on this movie, it being a comedy,

01:46 there was a lot that we got to play with,

01:49 but then also because we were writing the songs,

01:51 we were really improvising as we went.

01:55 So it was very much like a back and forth with that.

01:58 - Young Max, one more offense and you'll be behind bars.

02:03 Flora, you're his mother.

02:05 Find him something to do.

02:06 - What are you doing right now?

02:09 - You don't want to know.

02:11 - You are a great mother, am I?

02:14 Happy birthday.

02:15 - What's that?

02:16 - It's yours.

02:17 - Don't want to play it.

02:18 Since when am I a guitarist?

02:20 - I can't go on like this,

02:21 living in a shoebox with a kid who hates me.

02:24 - I can't wait for the day I don't have to be here.

02:26 - Go on, go back to your dad.

02:28 - I might learn the guitar myself.

02:30 - That's just how funny.

02:31 - Takes years of practice, commitment.

02:33 - Are you really going to talk to me about commitment?

02:36 - She's talking about the,

02:38 'cause there's a physicality to her,

02:40 but it reflects where she is emotionally

02:43 at any given point.

02:44 If she's putting up a mask,

02:45 if she's trying to be strong,

02:46 if she's trying to be vulnerable,

02:47 she's trying to be flirty,

02:48 you know, all that kind of stuff.

02:49 Can you talk about physicality and forming emotionality

02:52 in terms of Flora?

02:53 Because it's such a big thing with her.

02:56 - Yeah, and that was something

02:57 I really wanted to get across.

02:58 And I just, I had,

03:01 sometimes I think about animals,

03:03 sometimes I don't.

03:04 A lot of actors use animal work,

03:06 but for this, I was like, she's an ostrich.

03:09 And I had to just, 'cause you know,

03:13 if you see an ostrich, they look really beautiful

03:16 and they've got, you know, their wings

03:18 and they're sort of flirty and fun,

03:20 but they'd also knock you out, you know?

03:22 They could also headbutt you.

03:23 And the way that they walk,

03:25 there's a purpose to them.

03:27 The way that they cock their head,

03:29 all of that stuff, I really brought into Flora.

03:32 And I think then once you sort of feel her open up

03:37 to the music, to her son,

03:39 all of that physicality, you can kind of let go

03:42 and sort of be more in the emotional world.

03:45 But establishing, this is who this person is on screen,

03:49 I think the ostrich really helped me.

03:52 (keyboard clicking)

03:53 - We're ready to teach you how to shred the knob on guitar.

03:57 - So you want to learn the guitar?

04:00 - This is a gift you can take to your grave.

04:02 - What's your problem?

04:03 - I didn't know I had a problem.

04:05 - You're teaching guitar online, love?

04:08 - What are you hoping to get out of this?

04:09 - I thought this guitar might make my son think I'm cool.

04:12 - I'll be back in an hour.

04:12 - I don't care.

04:13 - How annoying is he?

04:14 - Very annoying.

04:15 (keyboard clicking)

04:16 - What is that?

04:17 - Can you talk about the context of those questions?

04:19 'Cause you know, obviously Carney can talk

04:21 in those sort of musical intonations,

04:23 but there's also a primality

04:25 'cause you're dealing with family

04:26 and how do people protect versus, you know,

04:29 their goals or ambitions.

04:31 Can you talk about sort of those questions

04:33 in the psyche of her that you wanted to examine?

04:36 Because you know, what's important to her shifts?

04:39 - Absolutely, and at the beginning of the film,

04:43 it's like almost this relationship

04:46 has been the reason why she's not happy.

04:49 And this, you know, kid that she had when she was young

04:53 is holding her back from her life

04:55 and it's all the kid's fault.

04:57 But, you know, at the end of the day,

04:59 the kid's a lot like her.

05:01 And I think she recognizes all the things

05:04 she doesn't like in herself, she sees in her son.

05:07 And so the story is really about them realizing

05:11 that they're each other's answer.

05:13 And that, you know, that scene in the courtroom

05:17 when she looks at him and he looks at her

05:20 is one of my favorite, you know, moments.

05:22 And that was actually John just off the cuff

05:25 coming up with that idea.

05:27 But to me, that felt like Flora was sort of accepting

05:32 the job and going, "Okay, this is my life.

05:35 This is what I'm meant to do

05:37 and I'm ready to accept this now and take this on."

05:41 - Play it again.

05:42 - Please just make me a cheese toastie.

05:44 (upbeat music)

05:46 - Please.

05:49 - After.

05:50 Do you have a lyric?

05:59 - I have these, but they're not finished yet.

06:00 - Come on.

06:01 (upbeat music)

06:04 - Come on, girl, you know how much I want you.

06:08 Like a ghost, I'm going to haunt you.

06:10 Meet me at the crib, bring your friends.

06:13 Maybe we can drive a Mercedes Benz.

06:15 We'll hang out poolside, have a drink.

06:17 Swimming against the tide, not gonna sink.

06:19 Come on, girl, let's get in trouble.

06:21 Shake and not stir the James Bond from Dublin.

06:23 - What's it called?

06:27 - Dublin '07, like James Bond, but Dublin.

06:30 - Ah, you need a better title.

06:33 - I mean, you were talking about humor before.

06:35 Humor has to do with timing,

06:36 but it also has to do with understanding

06:39 the tone of what's going on, you know?

06:40 And that can be universal.

06:42 It can be, you know,

06:43 'cause when you're going back and forth with Joe,

06:45 it's, you know, it's an American

06:47 versus sort of an Irish context.

06:49 Could you sort of talk about finding the humor,

06:51 finding those moments, because obviously, you know,

06:54 with the actor who plays your husband, it's the same thing,

06:56 but it's a different dynamic.

06:57 Can you talk about transferring those energies

06:59 in certain scenes?

07:01 - Oh, absolutely.

07:01 I mean, that's what I love also,

07:04 is like marrying the American culture

07:06 with the Irish culture, with Joe and I and our characters,

07:10 I thought was done so well.

07:12 And Irish people have such a strong sense of humor,

07:16 but it's a specific sense of humor, you know?

07:19 Like some people might not like it,

07:21 and it's quite, you know, upfront.

07:23 And so, yeah, I think the relationship

07:27 between her and Ian is different

07:29 because they have that rapport.

07:31 They're both Irish.

07:31 They both can kind of go at each other

07:33 in a playful way, in a hurtful way,

07:35 but that's sort of how they communicate.

07:36 But with Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character,

07:40 it was like, he was like, "Whoa."

07:43 You know, he cancels out of the chat,

07:45 and it takes a while for them to get into a groove.

07:48 So yeah, humor's massively, massively important

07:53 to who she is, especially.

07:57 ♪ Maybe we could call it home ♪

08:02 (guitar music)

08:05 - So now it just needs a killer bridge.

08:11 - What's a bridge?

08:13 - Bridge is a change for eight bars after the second chorus.

08:19 - Okay.

08:21 Sounds amazing.

08:24 - That's better, right?

08:25 - Yeah, that actually works.

08:26 - I really struggled with that song.

08:29 - It's very intimate, isn't it?

08:33 - Singing together like that.

08:34 It's a bit like,

08:37 we just made love or something.

08:42 - No, it's not like that.

08:44 - In a way, though.

08:45 I do feel a little bit naked right now.

08:48 I think music is all about romance.

08:52 - And my last question, thank you very much.

08:53 It has to do, well, it's interesting,

08:55 'cause you look at her path, you know,

08:57 the expectation of what she'd like to be,

08:59 what she thought she could be,

09:01 versus the contentment of who she is.

09:03 You know, those are two specific paths,

09:05 but that has to do with mindset,

09:07 just the questions she asks herself,

09:10 the questions you, as the actress, ask yourself about her.

09:13 Could you talk about both those themes,

09:15 like expectation and contentment,

09:18 but also those questions that you had to ask yourself

09:21 to make her very, very real to you?

09:24 - Yeah, I mean, weirdly, you know,

09:26 I felt like I was going on my own little Flora journey

09:29 as an actor, playing Flora,

09:31 because I was doing something outside

09:33 of what I had expected of myself.

09:36 And yeah, I think Flora just watching her

09:42 be so sort of closed off and so stuck in her ways,

09:45 and then sort of open up to this new experience,

09:48 because she's just at a point in her life

09:50 where she needs something new,

09:52 and how that can completely transform

09:55 every little thing in her life,

09:56 that one guitar from the skip has transformed

10:00 her relationship with her child

10:01 and her relationship with herself,

10:03 and the possibilities,

10:05 not that she has to go off and be a superstar,

10:07 but the possibilities of who she could be

10:09 and finding her value, you know?

10:12 And I felt that a little bit too when I did the movie.

10:15 I felt like, wow, I can do things that I'm scared of,

10:18 and it's gonna be okay.

10:19 - Why don't you ask her out?

10:21 - Can I try that on?

10:22 - It's too big.

10:22 - That's the look.

10:23 - Yeah, for tortles.

10:26 ♪ Gucci, Gucci, Gucci, Gucci ♪

10:28 - She's totally out of my league.

10:29 - Let's write a song just to hear your passion.

10:31 - Express yourself.

10:33 (upbeat music)

10:35 (upbeat music)

10:39 (upbeat music)

10:41 ♪♪

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