Cristin Milioti ('The Penguin' & 'Black Mirror'), Helen Mirren ('1923' & 'MobLand'), Kathy Bates ('Matlock'), Keri Russell ('The Diplomat'), Niecy Nash-Betts ('Grotesquerie') and Parker Posey ('The White Lotus') join THR in Off Script With The Hollywood Reporter.
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00:00I was never the ingenue in my entire career until I turned, I don't know, 45.
00:08And then it was like, and now we want you to be naked.
00:12And I'm like, y'all waited till now?
00:16Baby, when I was 20, these girls were sitting out here.
00:23If you're looking for drama, it's here at our table, but in a good way.
00:28Today, we've gathered six of the biggest actresses on TV to talk about their standout roles and just about everything else.
00:36Kathy Bates.
00:39Kristen Milioti.
00:42Helen Mirren.
00:45Niecy Nash-Betz.
00:48Parker Posey.
00:51Keri Russell.
00:52And they are all on the record, but maybe just a little off script with The Hollywood Reporter.
01:00Hi, I'm Mikey O'Connell with The Hollywood Reporter, and welcome to the Drama Actress Roundtable.
01:06Let's get into it.
01:08While we're laughing.
01:10This drama actress.
01:11If you were to see a Niecy Nash-Betz type, or a Keri Russell type, or any of your names type on a casting breakdown, do you have a decent idea of what that would be?
01:26Well, I would never want to have that on a casting thing.
01:29Because that means that they want a type.
01:33That you're...
01:33You've become a commodity.
01:34You've become a commodity.
01:36But they may want you and just not afford you.
01:38Well, then they're going to go for AI, aren't they?
01:41I know what you're saying.
01:42I get what you're asking.
01:43So, I'm going to say, yeah, like, I went through a phase where it was just, like, a nice pregnant mom.
01:49Now that was like a Keri Russell type.
01:50They're like, well, let's get her.
01:52Like a nice pregnant young mom.
01:54How many times were you a pregnant mom?
01:55A lot of times.
01:56A lot.
01:57Yes, I was a queen for quite a long time.
01:59Yes.
02:01I managed to wriggle out of that, essentially.
02:03You have to wriggle to get out.
02:04Yes, you do.
02:05And you do get out.
02:06And you get out.
02:07Yeah, important to get out.
02:09I don't know what it will say about me because I've lived a lot of lives when it comes to being an actor, you know?
02:15So, from doing something as loud as Reno 911.
02:22So good.
02:22And then you slide all the way over and that pendulum hits Jeffrey Diamond.
02:26Oh, that's great.
02:27You know, I don't know what it will say because it depends on which version of me they're looking for.
02:33There you go.
02:34What version of you are they looking for right now?
02:37That's sexy.
02:38You knew I was going there.
02:40I knew you were going there.
02:42You know what?
02:43I don't know.
02:44I don't know.
02:45But I love the fact that in this one being, I can make people laugh and make them cry.
02:53And I do not take it lightly.
02:56I feel like it's one of my favorite gifts that the Most High has given me.
03:00It's that duality.
03:01Parker, what about you?
03:03Did you ever feel like you were cast as the type?
03:06I actually saw, and I think it was, I remember Polly or a movie like that, that described a Parker Posey type that I did.
03:14And I was not offered.
03:17Isn't that great?
03:18Oh, I read something where you said a Parker Posey type.
03:23I was like, oh, okay.
03:26But yeah, I agree with you.
03:28I love that nuance and that depth of playing it all.
03:32As women, we get to do it all.
03:34I was watching, I watched all of you.
03:36It was so fun.
03:38You're still a queen with that gun and that opening shot.
03:41Yeah, you're a queen of the land now.
03:43It's a whole, it's a whole thing.
03:46It just, yeah, we're all queens.
03:48Helen, you are a woman of many, many talents, as she's mentioned, but you delivered.
03:53Carlton Singh.
03:54Well, can't do it all.
03:56Did you shoot that gun?
03:57Did you learn how to shoot that?
03:59Oh, yeah, yeah.
03:59Did you enjoy it?
04:01It's visceral, isn't it?
04:03Guns are very dangerous.
04:04I hate guns, but it's kind of incredible fun to have one in your hands.
04:08It's just a terrible thing.
04:09Yeah, but you deliver an F-bomb with more panache than about anyone in the business.
04:16And I'm wondering if you have a-
04:17And a C-bomb.
04:18Yeah.
04:19Do you have a favorite cursing scene?
04:21Like, what is it?
04:23Oh, that I've been in?
04:24Yes.
04:26Well, actually, probably in the series I'm doing now, Mobland, which is, I just curse all
04:31the time.
04:31It's great.
04:33Sometimes I'm very satisfying about it.
04:35I don't know why, but it's, yeah.
04:39But apart from that, I haven't had the option.
04:42I didn't swear as Catherine the Great of Russia.
04:48Kristen, have you ever gotten a really good cursing?
04:50I feel like I have a distant memory of, I had some pretty good runs in Palm Springs of
04:57being able to just, like, let it rip.
04:59Yeah.
05:00Fuck face is a good scene.
05:05Yeah.
05:06I don't know.
05:07Your memoir- Oh, no.
05:08This is another question.
05:09Okay, good.
05:10Because I'm like, I can't-
05:11But you can swear.
05:12Well, Parker, I'm going to paraphrase this, but in your memoir, you write that talented
05:18is what people in Hollywood call actors when they want to say crazy.
05:24Oh, that's a good line.
05:25That is a good line.
05:26Yeah.
05:26Congratulations on it.
05:27That is good.
05:28When was the first time you heard talented attributed to yourself and interpreted that
05:34way?
05:35Oh, well, everyone around always said I'd do something different.
05:39I remember being, like, nine years old and being a dancer, and the teacher, Miss Linda,
05:49in Monroe, Louisiana, said, she has talent.
05:51She has charisma.
05:53And, yeah, but I didn't feel the kind of, like, crazy part.
05:59I guess in the, I guess in the aughts, like, I think, I think in the 90s, there was, it
06:06felt really creative, and you could be different without, it just felt heroes and villains and
06:13black and white and more, I think, conservative.
06:18Interpreting something as crazy, that is like a backhanded compliment.
06:22Right.
06:22Have any of you ever been given flattery that was, like, a euphemism, maybe, in your
06:28interpretation of it, or a backhanded compliment in a performance or an audition?
06:34I don't know about backhanded, but I had, I mean, right to my face.
06:40Yeah.
06:40I mean, I auditioned for something early in my career, and the two people, the producers
06:45looked at each other and said, she's got a cute face.
06:48You think she can lose weight?
06:49And I was like, guys, she can hear you.
06:53I am she.
06:54I'm right here.
06:56You know what I mean?
06:57And I was like, and no, she can't.
06:58How about that?
06:59You know what I mean?
07:00So, no, it was just, like, right to my face.
07:03But with any eye contact afterwards?
07:06Or just completely?
07:07Well, I looked at them, and I said, I can hear you.
07:10I'm standing right here.
07:11And no, I can't.
07:12And now what?
07:13Are y'all going to give me the job, or?
07:15Did they?
07:16Yeah.
07:17For sure.
07:18They were like, they're totally fine.
07:19They probably felt so shamed.
07:22I don't even know if I was the best one, but they probably felt so embarrassed.
07:26You got to have people.
07:29I mean, I feel like this has been spoken about before, but I feel like I've seen, actually,
07:34like, there, and maybe this is just, like, in the culture at large, like, such a celebration
07:38of men who are, like, really go for it.
07:40Yeah.
07:41And, like, are, like, they, like, did a crazy thing to everyone, and everyone's, like, wow,
07:46they must take this so seriously.
07:48And I've, like, witnessed some of that, but more just, like, heard about it more and have
07:52thought that, like, if I ever did that, it would not end well.
07:57Yeah.
07:57And, like, that's, that still happens.
08:00Yeah.
08:00That definitely.
08:01But I don't know if that's, like, a backhanded compliment.
08:02That's just more of, like, the reality.
08:04The reality.
08:05Sexism.
08:06Yeah.
08:06And just...
08:06Misogyny.
08:07Yeah.
08:07It's very real.
08:08When you asked that question, I felt myself just kind of, like, deflate, because I think
08:13the misogyny is so rampant.
08:17Yeah.
08:17And to be a dynamic character or a dynamic woman or even a dynamic person, I think, is
08:24kind of outrageous right now.
08:26I feel like...
08:27For a woman to be that.
08:28For anyone, like, it's, like, there's something very provincial, I think, that's happened with
08:33the social media and the Instagram and people being judged by how they look.
08:38And I feel, like, just, like, a need to be really entertaining.
08:43You know?
08:44And make people laugh and all that.
08:47But this double standard of women being in there, this misogyny, it's sad.
08:55It's like, it's a, you know, it's a downer.
08:58I remember years ago, I went up for a...
09:02It was a...
09:02I think it was Paradise Alley.
09:05And I went in and there was a whole list of, you know, everyone in the cast or all the
09:10characters.
09:10And I kid you not, before every one of them, it was beautiful.
09:15Yes.
09:15Beautiful.
09:16Absolutely.
09:16Beautiful.
09:17Beautiful, but she doesn't know it.
09:19That's the worst one.
09:19Kathy, such a big part of your press campaign for the launch of Matlock was that this was
09:25it.
09:25You called it your last ride.
09:27And very quickly, there was a 180.
09:30And outside of being credited with just saving broadcast television, what inspired the switch?
09:38What sparked you?
09:40The script.
09:41You know, it's always a script for me.
09:43And when I started reading it, it was all episodic, episodic.
09:47And then there's this amazing twist at the end, which gives the character so much substance
09:51because she's, you know, trying to fight a huge corporation.
09:54And she regards them as preventing her daughter from getting help being on opioids 10 or 12
10:03years previous.
10:04And so when I saw that, I thought, okay, great, you know, because this is something I can really
10:09believe in, that it's, it means something.
10:13I want it to mean something.
10:15And I just felt that up until that point, things that were starting to wind down for me, I was
10:20getting roles that I really cared about in films that then no one would see, you know, and there's
10:27just the disappointment or the, um, the way things were edited, you know, suddenly just
10:34really started to, to hurt too much.
10:37And I just thought maybe I ought to think about, you know, put my house on the market and move
10:44into France or something because I just wanted some, some real stimulation.
10:48You know, you, I think all of us here, you do because you really need to do it and you want
10:54to do it and it makes you happy.
10:55And anyway, I guess it's in my piece.
10:58Yeah.
10:59That show is such a gift.
11:00Like that was so, cause you're, I was so touched and surprised by that where it's that
11:06it was, it's intelligent and that, and it, I was like, wow.
11:12And then I'm hearing my friends are like, I'm watching Matlock and they're like, am I 95
11:16years old?
11:17Like, wow, this is like, it's so comforting because they get it.
11:21You know, the network gets it and it has substance.
11:24Whose idea was it to do Matlock as a woman?
11:29Well, our producer, Erica Christian Olson had the rights and then they gave, uh, gave
11:34it to Jenny Snyder Ehrman.
11:36And she says she was, she always walks, you know, to get ideas about, so she says she
11:41was walking and walking and she was thinking in her own life about how invisible she felt
11:46because she's, I guess, in her fifties.
11:49And she was thinking about that a lot.
11:51And then I don't know what got her on the opioid track.
11:54I don't know whether it was someone she knew or a child or whatever.
11:58And, uh, so then, cause they originally wanted to make it a great, great granddaughter of
12:03the original Matlock.
12:04Matlock, you know, so she would be 25.
12:07Yeah.
12:08So beautiful and she doesn't know it.
12:11But luckily they may not, you know, it was, she can be in her seventies and I, I'm, I'm
12:18stunned that all of this has happened.
12:21I really am.
12:21I'm just like, here I am with you guys and, you know, all these cameras and everything.
12:26And, and I just feel every day is such a gift and, and it was after also the strikes.
12:32So everybody's so happy to be back at work.
12:35Kathy, I'm glad you brought up the edit because you made news recently for talking about a scene
12:43that you really were hurt was, um, cut from misery.
12:48And I'm wondering for the rest of you, like, what is a scene or, or a line in a, in a, in
12:55a work that you've done that you were just like, can I interrupt you about that?
13:00Because we were just talking about that earlier.
13:02I just did this thing with Rob Reiner was 20 minute thing for TCM.
13:06And what, what I was saying, it was there were in the novel, there was a very, I thought
13:11a very funny scene where she runs over the sheriff with a lawnmower.
13:14So I was making a joke about it.
13:16And suddenly I see in the press, she wants more violence, you know, and that was not a
13:22scene that I was so, so let me disabuse you of that.
13:25But yeah.
13:26Have at it, ladies.
13:28Yeah.
13:28I know it's funny the way this all goes now.
13:31Yeah.
13:31Now, what do they call that?
13:32The headline?
13:33Clickbait.
13:34Clickbait.
13:34Yeah.
13:35It's clickbait.
13:37I knew it, all that stuff.
13:37Yeah.
13:38It just loves me.
13:38Anyway, but talk about what you wanted to talk about.
13:41Oh, no, I did not read the Kathy Bates loves violence version of this.
13:45Mine was the thing she was sad to see cut.
13:48We all have our darlings that don't make it.
13:51Yes.
13:51Tamara, what have been some of yours?
13:53Well, I would say I did a series and I was never the ingenue in my entire career until
14:02I turned, I don't know, 45.
14:05And then it was like, and now we want you to be naked.
14:08And so the thing in which I was fine to play the part because I did want women of a certain
14:26age who were not married, who did not have children to see themselves as full beings,
14:31as sexual creatures and sexual beings.
14:36And so the days that you have to film intimate scenes, it's already stressful enough.
14:43You know what I'm saying?
14:45You just, you, you, and I don't know.
14:46And I think it's men who do these call sheets and they put the sex at night on the call sheet
14:51because they think it's sexy.
14:53It's like, no, let's do it first.
14:56And this man just got out the tub and he not smelling like a field mouse.
15:01Let's get to it.
15:03Get it out the way.
15:05But then what would upset me is that you go through all of the heart palpitations,
15:09the clothes set, the this, the that.
15:11Did it, did, did, did, was my side meat a little too jiggly?
15:14Yeah, yeah.
15:15Was this, was that, all my kibbles and bits covered?
15:17And then they don't use it.
15:19I'm like, well, why was I going through all of this?
15:22And you're not, I wasn't crazy about it in the first place, but I'm willing.
15:27And so when I put myself out there to be that vulnerable, to be literally that exposed,
15:33and then you don't use it, now I got an attitude.
15:37Run it back, stuff it back in there somewhere, you know?
15:42Yeah.
15:43Anyone else?
15:45Nothing specific.
15:46It's just always an odd experience to be so inside.
15:49I mean, because editing is like the third draft of the film.
15:52And like arguably maybe the most important, like lives and dies in the edit, as you know,
15:57and whatever.
15:57And I've certainly had experiences, well, from an ego standpoint where I watch it and I'm like,
16:02that's not what I was trying to do.
16:03And which is like always very strange.
16:05But also sometimes you, I know I can get a little myopic about it and I get like defensive
16:10of the character.
16:11And I'm like, why did they cut that thing that she says that explains this, this, and
16:14this?
16:15And I forget to zoom out and think about the story as a larger piece.
16:19But when you do ADR, someone I know once called that actor's dreams ruined.
16:24Yes.
16:25When you see yourself for the first time and it's not done and you're just doing these
16:28little clips and you want to quit and you, yeah, you can't believe like the level of
16:33shame.
16:34But I think that like that's always maybe an element of it where you're like, well, but
16:37I, but I, you get, I don't know, I get protective of certain things, even though much later I can
16:42be like, well, I get why that was cut.
16:44It was too long.
16:45But in the moment.
16:45I think you, I think, I don't know if you guys agree with this, but working on the character
16:50is sort of like a period of gestation.
16:52Yeah.
16:53I don't know if you feel that way.
16:55Yeah.
16:55So that, that you do get very protective of it.
16:58So then when it's shifted or worse than that, when it's diametric to what you thought was
17:03going to end up, it's so painful.
17:06Yeah.
17:06I don't know.
17:07I don't know if you've all had that same experience.
17:10For sure.
17:10Because you have no control over it and suddenly it's out of your hands and it's just.
17:14Yeah, definitely.
17:15Yeah.
17:16Feel very exposed.
17:17That's one of the reasons I really love working with Ryan Murphy because he is such a
17:21collaborative partner.
17:23So we got down to the end of the series and there were some options with the way we
17:29thought it was going to go, but then we got a rewrite.
17:32So when you have a good collaborative partner, you can then go back and say, you know, can
17:38we talk about it?
17:38How can we, you know, move the pieces on the chessboard around so that we're all satiated,
17:44you know?
17:46Carrie, you and I were talking before this about your, not even sure if you want to be an
17:51actress still or ever.
17:53And your partner, Matthew Rees, he has said this of your career.
17:58It's rare that she's enthusiastic about acting.
18:01It's not so much a dislike.
18:03It's a discomfort.
18:06First of all, this is your partner and co-star of six seasons of television.
18:10How accurate is that statement?
18:14And if it is accurate, like what gets you to set?
18:17What gets you to go to London and film The Diplomat when you're feeling this way?
18:21Oh my goodness.
18:22I'm sweating.
18:22Talk to us, Carrie.
18:23You've got to hear this.
18:25It is true.
18:26I came to this, I didn't grow up desperate to be an actress.
18:32I'm still not sure I want to be.
18:35But I really love my job right now.
18:37I love my job right now.
18:39But yeah, there's a lot of things that are still embarrassing to me.
18:43Like you're doing that, it's embarrassing.
18:44I get it.
18:45I think I'm naturally kind of a shy, I'm not a performer, like at ease.
18:53There are people that are, Matthew, for instance, will say, I go, oh, what are you doing this
18:59week?
18:59And he goes, oh, I'm just going to do this play reading for whatever.
19:03And I go, oh, you're just going to do it?
19:05He goes, yeah, I just haven't done like a German and Russian accent in a while.
19:08And I just want to like try it out.
19:10I'm like, that's my nightmare.
19:11I would fucking die.
19:12I'm like, I don't want to just fucking do that with strangers.
19:16But he, you know, so I think that for me, there's like a real push pull.
19:22I, the things I love about it, I, like my job right now, which I love so much, it was
19:29the writing.
19:30The writing is so good and that I couldn't say no.
19:33So that's what it usually takes.
19:35It takes writing that's really, that I think is special and that I just have to do, that
19:41I think is really funny or smart or, and, and I think I, I still have to overcome the
19:49obstacle of being nervous, but I think for me, getting to do this version that we're
19:53in of TV, that's really like elevated to me right now.
19:58Um, it works for me because we have the same crew for usually, you know, six months or whatever.
20:07And it helps me get less nervous.
20:10I go, oh, I know who the boom operator is.
20:12I know who the, and it, I can absorb them into my, I can be less nervous and just like showing
20:17up.
20:18And, but so it, yes, I, that is a part of it.
20:21And I think that tension for me of being nervous and is part of the energy of it all, you know?
20:29For all of you, can you describe to me the current chapter of your careers in terms of
20:34the opportunities that are presented to you right now and maybe how it differed from five,
20:3910 years ago?
20:40I'm finding it to be a huge relief.
20:41I think for a while, if I look back 10 years ago, I was often playing, and this is not
20:49to like, I, you know, these opportunities were all so great, but I often felt like I was
20:53playing a version of a, like a, like a girl of someone's dreams or something that like
20:58there was, and there were things that didn't feel necessarily like my life experience, which
21:03is fine.
21:03But I feel like the older I get, the more it's, I feel like I'm like taking off a pair
21:09of tight pants.
21:10And I'm just like, oh, thank God.
21:12I don't, like, I just feel so much freer, and I feel like my own depth of humanity is
21:20like meeting things that it weren't, not necessarily that it like wasn't welcome or anything, it
21:25just like wasn't part of it.
21:26And, you know, that's like not a dig at any of those things.
21:30I think some of that's aging, too.
21:31It's like how you're perceived at 25.
21:33You know, there's, I think there's even less roles that are complicated for a 25-year-old.
21:38You know, I was auditioning to play like sorority girls and like a dead body in a trunk, you
21:42know, or like someone who was like in love with a 40-year-old and being like, I don't
21:45know, like, have you ever tried dancing in the rain?
21:48Like, do you know what I mean?
21:49So like I, to leave that behind has felt really good.
21:53Like, and I also think that's cultural as well.
21:55That was like a whole, that was like a big moment in time, too.
21:58And didn't you find when you're, yeah, I was talking to a young actress the other day.
22:01She said, I have to cry in everything that I do.
22:04I have to cry.
22:06Why do I have to cry all the time?
22:08Yeah.
22:08She's like in her early 20s.
22:09Yes.
22:10I said, don't worry.
22:11Yeah.
22:11You know, you'll come to an age where you don't have to cry anymore.
22:14But you know, it's the writing, isn't it?
22:16Yeah, it is.
22:17But I think also the writing for women has improved, in my experience, so enormously.
22:23Enormously.
22:24In the last 10 years.
22:26Yeah.
22:26Maybe only in the last 10 years.
22:28Yeah.
22:28I mean, it's extraordinary, the trajectory.
22:31Yeah.
22:31I'm terrified that it's going to be all shoved back in the, in the back down again.
22:35Shut up, you women.
22:37We don't want you talking anymore.
22:39Or having character or having, you know, agency in this world.
22:43Yeah.
22:44And I think there's a real danger of that abroad at the moment.
22:47But, you know, I see the writing in all of your characters that you've all played and the kind of material that I'm getting.
22:57It's so, so much better.
22:59Yeah.
23:00I feel like it's like the ball on the roulette wheel that just kind of lands.
23:05And you don't know how the script gets to you, what director has been thinking about you.
23:09I feel just incredibly lucky.
23:11And it's more of like a path as a, you know, as an artist.
23:17So I'm not comfortable with the business side of it.
23:20I don't really understand it.
23:22It makes me very nervous.
23:23I think the screen and television and film are very powerful medium.
23:31And the more integrity we can have and the more characters, then the more we can relate to each other.
23:39And it just feels so important right now.
23:42So, yeah, but this kind of luck.
23:46Like, I think people have this idea that there's just a lot of scripts that you'll get around to reading when you have time.
23:53Because you're just busy eating bonbons.
23:55You're like, hmm, I kind of like that one.
23:57Didn't really like this one.
23:58But this director, I really want to work with you.
24:00And it's just not like that.
24:02Like, I feel like there's just a whole cosmology that's happening with stories at play.
24:07Because it ends up being like, oh, my God, how did I get this lovely part?
24:13And now I just went through this.
24:15And I'm out, like, sponging everything around me and having these conversations that I can bring to this.
24:21Because it feels very rare.
24:24It's felt rare for me from, like, 35 to 55 to fit in.
24:29And I think with, you know, long-form television and the serial work has been just such a blessing.
24:37I wonder if also the long-form is what actually has thrown up the great women's roles.
24:46Because if you've got a two-hour story, usually it's the women who get, you know.
24:51And you're selling to 13-year-old boys, basically.
24:53Unless it's about the woman's character, which it rarely is in a two-hour movie.
24:59So the women's role gets cut down.
25:01But in a long form, you've got the time to develop the complications of the characters.
25:07That's exactly what I was thinking.
25:08I was going to say, like, for me, I feel like I entered the business as a comedian.
25:14So people knew me to be funny.
25:17I did all the sitcoms.
25:19I played Cedric the Entertainer's wife on the sitcom.
25:21And Reno 911 and all of those things.
25:24But I feel like once I did this tiny series on HBO called Getting On, it was about a hospital myself, Alex Borstein, Laurie Metcalf.
25:34Thank you so much.
25:35Once I did that, after people realized that I could do something else, I stayed in the drama lane.
25:43It was just like, you know, and I literally just called my team and said, I think people forgot I'm funny.
25:48Because that's another gift and skill set that I have that I have.
25:58Well, I use it every day at home.
26:00But I haven't used it on the screen in a long time.
26:03And I just think that for me, that's the difference is that every role I get, I'm crying.
26:09I'm falling out.
26:10You know what I mean?
26:11I'm perturbed.
26:13Back of my hands on my forehead.
26:15All of those things.
26:16But I was like, I'm a funny girl, too.
26:19Yeah.
26:19So now I'm back in the streets trying to remind the folks.
26:24Don't worry, you just disappeared.
26:26I mean, it wasn't anything like I'm saying right now.
26:29Don't worry, you just disappeared.
26:30Yes, ma'am.
26:30Which I think is the goal for all of us.
26:33Yes.
26:33You know, somebody was saying, I studied years ago, I did a script interview with Jose Cantero.
26:39And he said, the line disappears and a human being takes its place.
26:44And that's what you did.
26:46She's saying, like, in the series, you just stopped seeing me.
26:49You didn't see this.
26:50That's right.
26:50This foolishness.
26:52No.
26:52No.
26:53This beauty.
26:53This sexiness.
26:54I buckled down.
26:55You were without your sexiness.
26:56Honey, I'll put them away in a minute.
27:00Yeah.
27:00But you know, that's very hard.
27:02To move from comedy to serious tragedy or, you know, serious material is a very hard thing
27:09to do.
27:10And to have the audience come along with you.
27:12Yeah.
27:13And then to be able to go back.
27:14You're a very rare creature in that sense.
27:17Very rare.
27:17And I thank you and I thank God for it every day.
27:22Thank you so much, though.
27:23That's a great, great talent.
27:25You very famously, like, reintroduced yourself to your team, your agents and your managers
27:31in terms of, like, what you wanted to do.
27:33Was that before getting on or did that come out of the experience of getting on?
27:38That was before.
27:38Okay.
27:39That was because all I was ever doing was comedy.
27:42And then I called all the folk together and said, they're like, well, what are we doing here?
27:46And I said, I want to reintroduce myself because I think you think you know me.
27:50But I done changed, you know?
27:53And I said, and here is how I see myself.
27:55And if you don't see me like I see myself, then we're not aligned.
27:59It doesn't mean you're not great.
28:00You're just not great for me.
28:02And I'm not great for you.
28:03So some people left the team.
28:05Some people joined the team.
28:06Then I was able to start doing the work, like getting on the movie Selma, When They See Us,
28:14that Ava DuVernay directed.
28:15You know, all of these pieces that I knew I could do.
28:19I knew in my soul I could do it.
28:21But once you start getting nominated for that work, you only get more of it.
28:27And so the latter kind of fell off.
28:31So now I'm going to have another meet and remind them that I'm funny.
28:35Do you ever feel like, I mean, our whole business is about imagination.
28:40And yet there's such a lack of it in terms of how they see us.
28:44Oh, yeah.
28:45What is that?
28:47Well, it's always been a very upsetting dichotomy to me.
28:51What we have to do, like the softness we need to do what we do, the sort of like laying everything down.
28:56The vulnerability, you mean, yeah.
28:57The vulnerability mixed with like the shark tank business and noise that comes hand in hand with it.
29:04I think it's like a constant sort of reckoning with like, how do you continue to like open yourself while also being like,
29:12I'm trying to ignore this and that's crazy and this is crazy.
29:14Like it is very odd.
29:16That's what you were just saying.
29:18You love the craft but don't like the business.
29:20I just don't understand it.
29:22I don't understand how it works.
29:25I get really confused by it.
29:27I don't because there is imagination here and there are great writers.
29:32So why aren't the decisions being made for more humor and humanity and story?
29:38And I think it's business.
29:40I think it is business.
29:42You probably know what they call it but they have to make the same of something they did well before.
29:47With White Lotus, people were like, oh my God, we watch it every week.
29:52And they were just so excited for the cooler, water cooler talk.
29:57They were just like, hmm.
29:58Absolutely.
29:59And Matlock.
30:00Matlock is like that.
30:01I'm misnounded.
30:03Do you get people coming up at the grocery store and just like, oh my God, I'm so excited to see you?
30:09Yeah, it comes from left field so often.
30:11Yeah.
30:12And the ones you think, oh, this is going to be great.
30:15Right?
30:15Yes.
30:15I mean, Parker, you talk about the White Lotus.
30:21It is known to be this like massive career launch pad and relaunch pad.
30:27What have the last two months been like for you?
30:30I mean, you booked a Gap campaign before the show even came out.
30:33Like what have the incoming calls been like and the offers?
30:37It's, um, that Gap commercial was so great.
30:41I mean, I got to dance, like I danced in college and it was kind of referencing a movie I did called Party Girl 30 years ago.
30:50It was a cult movie.
30:52And then it literally, the film was lost.
30:54People watched it on videotape and like would dance before they go out.
30:58You know, a fun movie for young, fun people.
31:01And it disappeared and then it got rediscovered to a whole other generation.
31:06So the Gap came.
31:07Yeah, I've been doing this for a while.
31:11It's just that roulette wheel thing.
31:12Like I have no controller.
31:13And it suddenly, it's just like, okay, here you go this way, this way.
31:17But I haven't, I haven't read anything.
31:21You think, again, I'm not like, this is incredible.
31:25They're sending me all this.
31:26Like I've yet to read something.
31:28The next thing.
31:29Yeah, the next thing.
31:30But the memes and what it's done for my, like, the excitement of my friends and family around me.
31:41It's been so lovely.
31:43I'm sure you feel that too.
31:44They're friends coming like, we were so worried or like, we've been stressed for you, you know?
31:50Because they hear the stories and they, they're glad to see you happy.
31:54They're glad to see you happy and appreciated and like getting work that's like fulfilling and funny.
31:59Yeah.
31:59And my mom, you know, I'm just like so happy.
32:02She can feel fabulous with her friends.
32:04You know, years ago when my mother, God rest her, she went on a cruise and, and, and she was with my sister.
32:12And the captures at the captain's table, you know how they do that for people every now and then.
32:16And she, he said, well, what does your daughter do?
32:19She's an actress.
32:20And she started going through all these parts and they were these horrible characters.
32:24And finally, she just got really quiet and she said to my sister, why does she play all these afflicted people?
32:33You know?
32:34So it's too bad that my mother isn't here now.
32:36She is a lovedist.
32:39She is here in spirit.
32:41Afflicted is so good.
32:42Carrie, you've never really engaged in the celebrity part of the job.
32:47You left L.A. as soon as Felicity wrapped.
32:50You've been in New York.
32:51You choose the projects you want to do.
32:53But in that removal from that part of like the job, what, what have been the perks and, and what have maybe been the things that you've lost in that decision?
33:03What have been the, um, oh, I don't know.
33:06I just, I like my, I like my regular life.
33:09I like, you know, my friends mostly do non, our business kind of jobs.
33:16But I, I like all the real life stuff.
33:18And I, when I don't have it, I'm not happy.
33:21And I, and I don't want to talk shit too much about acting.
33:25Like I do, I love it.
33:26You know, I, I am completely married to like the adventure of it.
33:31And that's what I meant it for.
33:32Like I love to go to some strange city.
33:35I don't care.
33:36It could be like Paris or it could be some tiny, tiny little like Southern town.
33:40And I like to learn the city and I like to meet new people and find my little thing.
33:45I, I like the adventure of it, you know, and that's, I think what I'm in it more for than some of the other stuff.
33:51Kristen, uh, the last time I believe you were at one of these round tables and I'm going to read this verbatim because it's a very good quote.
33:57No.
33:58You said, you said, you said, you're, um, you're going to be canceled now.
34:04Um, no, you said that your dream was to play Beetlejuice as a child or moving forward to just a psychotic demon or a villain who's gross and like evil, maybe a ghost vampire or just a psychopath.
34:18What?
34:19Yes.
34:20Okay.
34:20But I kind of want to say, yeah.
34:23Penguin is kind of.
34:24Yeah.
34:24Yes.
34:24I think.
34:25I think too.
34:26I know.
34:27I love you.
34:27I've been watching that.
34:28I love you in that.
34:29It's so great.
34:30And it's like the, where it's going.
34:32There's so good in it.
34:33Thanks, Carrie.
34:34I really, really love you in that.
34:36It's so fun to watch and all the, like the nuance of what you're doing.
34:39I love it so much.
34:40I think you're so good in it.
34:41Thank you so much.
34:42It's incredible.
34:42And did it scratch that itch for you?
34:44Yeah, it did.
34:45It kind of does.
34:45It did scratch that itch.
34:47Like Peyton's.
34:48It scratched that itch.
34:49I've, I've been, um, I mean, that role has been such a gift.
34:52A gift is an understatement.
34:53Like I've been dreaming of a role like that for, since I was a kid, you know, and like I, yeah, it, it really did.
35:01I, I, I've been wanting to like, uh, show different colors and that role has allowed me to show like a multitude of colors.
35:11Well, that episode, wasn't it the fourth episode, you know, in the Arkham Asylum?
35:15Yeah.
35:15Yeah.
35:16I mean, there you go.
35:17It's devastating.
35:18It's devastating.
35:19It's devastating.
35:19Yeah.
35:19And you get to see like this, you know, a person.
35:22Why she becomes what she becomes.
35:24Driven mad.
35:25And it felt like, it felt like Shakespeare.
35:28It felt like an opera.
35:28Like Colin and I would talk about that a lot.
35:30Like we would compare the show to sort of like an extremely dark and demented opera just in terms of its like bigness and its arias.
35:38You know, like that whole Arkham sequence felt like an aria.
35:41Not, not to sound like lofty and like, but, you know, like, I don't know.
35:45Just, it's very rare that you get to work on things that scratch those, that itch, you know?
35:50Um, and so, yeah, I, I, I, I, it's been profound.
35:54I loved it so much.
35:56Um, Helen, I'm going to go a little left field, but in preparing for today, I, I read like countless interviews with all of you.
36:03You listen to a bunch of podcasts and a recurring theme with you, Helen, is with remarkable consistency.
36:11You mentioned Kurt Cobain and how you're bummed that he died before GPS.
36:18Yes, indeed.
36:19I am.
36:19What is the, what is the fixation with Kurt Cobain?
36:23Well, it's not, it's not Kurt Cobain.
36:25It's dying young.
36:26Oh.
36:27It's dying young.
36:28And I'm old.
36:30You know, I didn't die young.
36:32Um, and, and the terrible tragedy of, and, and the reason that I want to live as long as I possibly can and continue working as long as I possibly can.
36:41Exactly what Carrie says, the adventure of it.
36:44Yeah.
36:44The amazing, wonderful revelations and adventure of life and, and, and indeed of work.
36:51Anyway, the adventure is, um, in life and work is, is the unknown and, and what is coming, you know, it's fantastic.
37:00And sticking around until you get there.
37:01And sticking around until you get there.
37:03That's right.
37:03Yeah.
37:04And the, the people too, like the communion you get when like something bigger comes through with someone who you don't really know that well.
37:10And you're like, your eyes are locked and you're like in this thing.
37:13And it's, it's like, it's incredible.
37:16It's like kind of worth all the other crap that we're talking about.
37:20And it's so great when you have a male co-actor who is supportive.
37:26Yeah.
37:26And, um, what's the word?
37:29Well, supportive, I guess, is the word really ultimately.
37:33Yeah.
37:33But, but he's not there to try and put you down or shut you up or take over.
37:39But a genuine relationship.
37:42And, and you were telling me about your relationship with Colin.
37:45Just, and I had that with Bob Hoskins in Longwood Friday many, many years ago.
37:49Yeah.
37:49With Pierce Brosnan in this.
37:52Um, yeah.
37:53You know, it, it's great to have that, that support.
37:56Yeah.
37:57Of, of, you can't really do it, in my experience, without the support.
38:01Well, it's certainly harder.
38:02Of, of male actor.
38:02It's certainly, yeah.
38:03It's certainly harder.
38:04You can't do it to your full abilities without the support of your co-actors.
38:10Yeah.
38:11I guess male or female.
38:12Yes, that's, that's correct.
38:13Yeah, I feel, I feel that very much with Skye, Skye P. Marshall, um, plays Olympia in Matlock.
38:19And, I mean, it was another miracle when she walked in the door.
38:23Yeah.
38:23And, the, the, the intensity and the working off of each other and the, just in the eyes,
38:29as you were saying.
38:30It was, it's in the eyes.
38:32And, and it's only grown more and more and more.
38:35And, it's almost like, I don't want to get to know each other too well.
38:40Yeah.
38:41Yeah.
38:41In real life.
38:42Yeah.
38:42Yeah.
38:43Yeah.
38:43Does anybody else feel that way?
38:46Yes, of course.
38:47Because that's a relationship.
38:48And it's, it should be a mysterious relationship.
38:50Yes.
38:50It is there in a way.
38:52It should be mysterious.
38:52Yeah, absolutely.
38:53And you're continuing to find out.
38:55Yeah.
38:56You know, although I adore her and, you know, it's, we laugh and everything, but, um, went
39:01to her wedding and, and, and all that, but I, it's the intensity of the relationship
39:06that we have on screen is just gangbusters.
39:09And I don't think I've experienced that with, I don't want to dish anybody.
39:13Or whatever, but right now, I'm just like all about this and working with her.
39:17She's so fantastic.
39:18And it comes in a surprising way, doesn't it?
39:21I have the same with Harrison.
39:22You know, I mean, Harrison to me is a humongous movie star who really basically intimidates
39:28the hell out of me because he's a huge movie star.
39:30But there's a, a, um, chemistry.
39:33Yeah.
39:34I mean, it's wonderful when you hit that chemistry.
39:37It's the best.
39:37It's just, just lovely.
39:39And you do nothing for it, really.
39:41It just kind of magically happens.
39:44It makes me glad to be a person.
39:46Yeah.
39:46Or something.
39:47Yeah.
39:47Like, not that I'm not, but just like, there's a lot that's like very, uh, vexing about humanity.
39:52And then when you're like sitting on a strange set somewhere and you're like, eyes are locked
39:56and you're just like up to something, it makes me be like, oh yeah.
39:59Yeah.
39:59We're all okay.
40:00Like, it's all okay.
40:01I don't know.
40:01And you have the story that is bringing you closer together.
40:06You're serving the story.
40:08She's serving her relationship and you're serving your relationship to the story.
40:12So you're keeping it sacred.
40:14And that's, what's just so delicious about these connections that you can have with Colin
40:18and, and have that, that mystery and that chemistry and not, and just share it.
40:23It's so beautiful.
40:24Yeah.
40:25Nisi, I read that, um, when you told people that you wanted to marry, uh, Jessica, you're,
40:32you're now a spouse, um, that you shouldn't do it, that it would derail opportunities for
40:37you.
40:38And I mean, and this is not long ago.
40:41Um, the opposite happened.
40:42Like your career has flourished.
40:44Look at your hand.
40:45Yay.
40:46Good.
40:47Tell us how you received something like that in this day and age.
40:51And like, are those people still a part of your life, a part of your team?
40:57Um, you know, everybody has an opinion and everybody has a thought about it, you know?
41:04And there were people who were like, you know, you have to keep, you know, we've, the public,
41:10the, your fan base has known you to be a certain way and you need to stay right there because
41:16otherwise you'll never eat lunch in this town again.
41:19You know what I mean?
41:20You can't, you know what I mean?
41:21And some of that comes from, you know, older generations, family members who that's the
41:29generation that they were raised in and how they think.
41:32But I've always been a person who does one thing, what I want to do and I'm going to do
41:40it all the way.
41:41I'm not going to halfway do nothing.
41:43You understand me?
41:44So if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it.
41:47And I give very little thought, if any, to what somebody else thinks about it.
41:53You know what I mean?
41:54I cannot even imagine my life without Jessica.
41:58I can't, I can't even, I don't even know.
42:01You know what I mean?
42:02This is the greatest love of my entire life.
42:04Not because of her gender, but because of her soul and the look in the eyes and the connection
42:10is the tether.
42:13You know what I mean?
42:14And, you know, and all of you have experienced being in the situation at one point where you
42:19have to go out into this world.
42:21You have to make people feel on the set.
42:23If you, if you're leading the charge or if you're providing provision for the vision
42:28and that thing at home is not right.
42:30The whole car ride over there, you off, you don't, you don't, you don't feel right.
42:35Or somebody texting you or calling you while you at work, giving you a fever and you like,
42:39wait a minute.
42:40And I am in a prime spot because regardless of the work, whatever I have to get up and
42:46go do, Jessica is the one that puts a battery in my back every day.
42:50Reminds me of who I am.
42:52You know what I mean?
42:53It reminds me to go get it and, and, you know, and encourages me to the, to the max.
43:00So I would not even be able to enjoy my work as much as I do without that kind of support.
43:07So I did what I wanted to do.
43:10I don't regret it.
43:12Um, I would do it again.
43:14Um, as a matter of fact, we're about to celebrate five years.
43:18So thank you about to do another vow renewal, a big party, just so I could say in your face,
43:24whoever told me not to get married in your face.
43:28Um, I mean, I would love some in your face.
43:32Uh, we've all gotten bad advice in our careers over the years.
43:36I, maybe not to that extreme, but like, can you recall any time, uh, where you were given
43:42just like deeply bad or problematic guidance in your careers?
43:47Yep.
43:47Yeah.
43:48Hmm.
43:49Well, I know, let me just say one time I did a, a, a dancing show.
43:54I'm going to talk, I'm going to look at you because I know you're a dancer.
43:56And a lot of people that were on my team said, don't do this show.
44:01They were like, we don't think you should do it.
44:03And I wanted to do it so bad because, because let me tell you something.
44:08I was in a dance program.
44:11I fell in love with this boy and I stayed up and talked to him all night.
44:15So the day of the big show, I flopped, I flopped on the stage.
44:18And I'll never forget Vivian, uh, Gandy, my dance teacher, Miss Gandy, told me to get
44:24off that stage.
44:25And I have been wanting to be back in, in, in tap shoes ever since.
44:30Write that wrong.
44:30So I went out there, baby, let me tell you something.
44:33Three pairs of eyelashes, sequins, um, over the place.
44:37I tipped, I tapped, I told, when I tell you I had a time and I, I, they told me not to
44:44do it, but it was one of the most, the greatest joys I've ever had.
44:49So everything is not always about the prestige and who's going to be there and what's the
44:54label you're wearing.
44:55Sometimes I just put it on cause I want to, I show up cause I want to.
44:58And that was bad advice.
45:00And I took my own advice and had the best time of my life.
45:05Yes.
45:05Had the best time.
45:06Kathy, what was the bad advice you were thinking of?
45:09Well, I'd rather just stay happy.
45:11Cause you're, you're, you just told a happy thing.
45:13You know, my, mine was, I had ovarian cancer in 2003 and my agent said, don't tell him my.
45:20Wow.
45:21And I said, what?
45:22He said, no, don't tell anybody.
45:23You don't want to be the poster child for ovarian cancer, you know, because I guess back
45:27there and then in the, in the, in the early aughts, uh, you know, there was an, I don't
45:34know if it was like terrible advice, but I think if I had come out again, you know, at
45:41that point, um, maybe it would have helped some people because when I had breast cancer
45:48in 12, that helped people.
45:49And I talked about lymphedema and all of that stuff, which I didn't know anything about.
45:53And the last 10 years we've made so much progress and letting people know what it is.
45:58And, and so I regret not doing that earlier, you know, cause what I, what it made me do
46:06was I hid.
46:08Yeah.
46:09Right.
46:09I went underground.
46:10I was on the board at the Academy and I called him.
46:13I said, I can't come to any of the meetings I'm, I'm doing.
46:16And I noticed I was on chemo and everything, so I wasn't feeling great, but I just, I just
46:20hid for like nine months, 10, like a whole year.
46:25And I don't know that that was so great when I look back on it.
46:30I mean, and you know, your family's expecting you, not family, but some friends are expecting
46:35you, well, aren't you supposed to be better by now, you know, so we can quit coming around.
46:41And, um, so it, it, it, it was bad advice.
46:44I think on a lot of levels, career and personal, I just brought everybody down.
46:50I told y'all I didn't tell them that you're still there.
46:53No, because you brought it back up because you were open the second time around.
46:56It's all the country.
46:57It's all that it's to do is being authentic, isn't it?
46:59Yes.
46:59Authentic to yourself.
47:00Yeah.
47:01And for good or bad, authentic to yourself is the thing that counts.
47:05Yeah.
47:06Yeah.
47:06And, um, and I think we are better about that now.
47:08I think people, and speaking back to like the, the parts that are around now, I think
47:14people in the last 10 years are better about accepting people where they're at or, you know,
47:21whoever you are or whatever, you know, like I think we're a little bit better than we used
47:26to be about meeting people where they are.
47:29Yeah.
47:30Yeah.
47:30I was told to have a nose job in my 20s when I was in my 20s.
47:35So I'm saying you never get work if you don't have a nose job.
47:38Wow.
47:39You have a lovely nose.
47:40Thank you, darling.
47:41I didn't have the nose job.
47:43But, um, yeah, so silly, isn't it?
47:45What was your response?
47:47I said, no, I'm not having a nose job.
47:48I didn't want to be a pretty actress anyway, you know?
47:52So, you know, I elected to be not so pretty.
47:56Kristen, you, you said you had a story as well.
47:58Oh, my, just, just, I think when, um, I don't know, when people tell you, it's, it's
48:04kind of just vague of like what you should be doing.
48:07Of like, I think the business part of it, of just being like, you should be this, you
48:10should try to be this, you should try to be this.
48:12Just because they're doing their best to like advise you based on what they've been
48:16fed.
48:16And I think that like, that can get tricky.
48:19Mine isn't nearly as profound.
48:20It's just kind of general.
48:22But all, that's all advice is.
48:24It's either people looking at their own life, what didn't work for them, did work or, you
48:29know, or their own fears.
48:31Yeah.
48:32And then they cast them upon you.
48:34Yeah.
48:34Upon you.
48:35Yeah.
48:35You know what I mean?
48:36My mother now is my biggest fan.
48:38But when I was a little girl and said, I want to be an actress, she said, you should go into
48:43nursing because you're kind hearted.
48:44And I'm like, yeah, but no.
48:47Yeah.
48:48You know what I mean?
48:48Yeah.
48:48So now I got to clean bed pants because you, you know, but she was only saying like,
48:55I can't help you with that, but I know this path, I know that if you do this, it will
49:01work.
49:01But what you do, what you want to, what if it doesn't work?
49:05And I'm like, what if it does?
49:07You know, so it's just sometimes people saying to you what their own fears are.
49:11Totally.
49:12Right.
49:12She's protecting you from heartbreak.
49:13Yeah.
49:14You know.
49:14And why would you go into this unstable thing?
49:16Why would you do it?
49:17I have to, this is a happy story.
49:19Give me your happy story.
49:20So this reminds me when I was in school at SMU and I landed in Clover because they just
49:25had a great program there.
49:26And my parents were quite old and, and they came down to see me in a play.
49:32And, um, this kind of feeds into appearance too.
49:35I didn't find out till many years later that my father had gone to talk to the acting teacher
49:39and say, well, you know, she's not conventionally attractive.
49:43Should she go to New York?
49:44I'm glad I didn't know that for years, but in, in defense of my father.
49:48So after the play, I went to their motel where they were staying.
49:52And he told me that when he was a young man, he was a baseball pitcher.
49:57He was a left, uh, uh, uh, what do you call it?
50:00A left paw.
50:00Yeah.
50:01No, southpaw.
50:02I'll get that wrong.
50:04Southpaw.
50:04And he said that he had had an opportunity.
50:07There was like a triple A team or double A team that came through Memphis and he had
50:10an opportunity to be on the team.
50:13Um, and he turned it down because he was, I don't know, wanted to be more responsible
50:18in his life and that was risky and, you know, and he said, I never had the chance to find
50:24out if I could have done it.
50:25And I want you to have that chance.
50:28Yeah.
50:28Yeah.
50:29So he said, here's $500, which was a lot of money in those days.
50:32It was 70, 1970 to go to New York and I had friends there and stuff.
50:37So.
50:38That's a nice story.
50:40That's a lovely story.
50:42That's a lovely story.
50:43And I just wanted to say something about what you just said about when you said, I didn't
50:47want to be a beautiful actress.
50:49First of all, too late.
50:50Cause you are, but second of all, I will tell you something.
50:55I understand what you mean in theory, because I love being shiny in my real life, but on
51:01camera, I don't care.
51:04I wouldn't, I want to look like a dog.
51:05I like, it doesn't bother me to disappear.
51:09Like you were talking about in some of those other roles that I did where you're like unrecognizable
51:14because I feel like it's such a gift that you, you know, you don't have to live up.
51:20I feel sorry for people who've been beautiful their whole life because let me tell you something.
51:24It's tough when that's what you're known for.
51:26And then you got to keep it up for your whole life.
51:29Yeah.
51:30The whole thing.
51:31Exactly.
51:31Oh my God.
51:32I don't know what I would do.
51:33Yes.
51:34But can I interject something here though?
51:35I don't know if y'all have the same experience, but when you see an amazing performance and
51:39it doesn't matter what that person looks like, they're beautiful.
51:43They're beautiful.
51:43That's true.
51:44That's true.
51:45Yeah.
51:46And beautiful.
51:46You find the beauty.
51:47You light up.
51:53It's like, once again, the performance in Dahmer.
51:55I mean, it just.
51:56And what are those things, what is it, the GCI or whatever, or the AG, chat, BT, whatever
52:01you can do.
52:01Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
52:02They did that to me when I was doing a movie and they showed it to me and went, oh, wow,
52:06I look really good.
52:07And they didn't tell me that they put some of a thing in there.
52:11That was mechanical.
52:13And I thought, wow, my makeup looks really good.
52:16I like it.
52:16Yeah.
52:16Great.
52:17What do you feel like when you have to play a role that is not so dolled up, it takes a
52:21lot of the pressure off you?
52:23Yes.
52:23To me.
52:23All of it.
52:24It's the best.
52:25I mean, like, because the role that I'm doing on Grotesquerie, I play a detective, but she's
52:30an alcoholic.
52:31And in her alcoholism, in any place in it, she could be hammered.
52:35She could be hungover.
52:38She could be tipsy.
52:39You know, but in her addiction, she's not always together.
52:44No, right.
52:45And I just feel like it's such a freedom of coming to set and not having to be so polished.
52:54Yeah.
52:54Yeah.
52:54You know what I mean?
52:55And I enjoyed living in her skin, you know, for that while because I don't have to have
53:03on a spank.
53:04I don't have to have on, you know what I mean?
53:06Yeah.
53:06I don't have to be squeezed in and pushed together and all of those things.
53:10And I just felt like, wow, this is such a gift.
53:15Yeah.
53:15Who knew to look terrible was a gift?
53:18You know?
53:18Yes.
53:19Yeah.
53:20As we get ready to land this plane, I'm wondering, what do you think is your most underrated role
53:25in your career and why?
53:28Oh.
53:28Oh.
53:30Underrated.
53:31Parker, you've got one.
53:33Come on, Parker.
53:33You tell me what it is.
53:34I will forever argue for the quality of the satire in the Josie and the Pussycats movie.
53:45Oh.
53:47Yeah.
53:48It was great.
53:49Yeah.
53:50That has, that was a, how old are you?
53:54How old were you when it came out?
53:57Were you?
53:57It's not about me.
53:58Okay.
54:00Almost made it about him.
54:02Yeah.
54:03I had a good time working on that.
54:04You know, there's this really campy movie called The Apple that made me really laugh.
54:10It was made in the early 80s from Germany.
54:12And I had, I had fun, I had fun with it.
54:17I think I put stickers on my face and I felt like I was in a dream.
54:21Dolores Claver.
54:22I love that movie.
54:23I love Dolores Claver so much.
54:26Helen's husband, Taylor Hackford, directed it.
54:29Oh my God.
54:30I love that movie.
54:31I love that movie.
54:32So gross.
54:32Start to finish because it was the only time I think I've had an actor's director.
54:38We had like two months, three months to prepare.
54:41What do you need to do this part?
54:43Because I'm going to be cutting back and forth between 35 and 65.
54:46You know, and having all that at hand and just the focus and they didn't, they didn't publicize it.
54:55Oh, I love that movie too.
54:56I love that movie too.
54:58I've seen it a couple of times.
55:00Me too.
55:00Me too.
55:01You were so good at that.
55:03What year was that?
55:03I remember, huh?
55:04What year was that?
55:05It was a, um, 94.
55:07You were so good at that.
55:08And I remember after it came out, I was walking down the street in this little village near my house
55:13and a woman came flying out of a barber, no, no beauty salon with her bed, you know, her thing on her and her daughter running after her to grab her.
55:23And she said, I just have to tell you, your movie got me out of an abusive relationship.
55:31And I just was, I was, I didn't know what to say, you know, cause I didn't do it.
55:36You know, Tony wrote it, Taylor directed it, everybody.
55:40And, and it's, it's the character that Steven wrote and everything.
55:43But I was tremendously disappointed that that didn't get a wider audience.
55:48I mean, it was such a great experience.
55:50I loved it.
55:50Not just the shooting of it, but you know, I mean, not the movie itself, but it was just the best.
55:56All right.
55:57We're going to end with a ostensibly silly, but subtly deep and telling question.
56:03Oh, okay.
56:04What is the most used emoji on your phone?
56:10Heart emoji and prayer hands.
56:12Me too.
56:12Me too.
56:13Most used on my.
56:14And you know what I found out?
56:16I found out that the prayer hands really aren't prayer hands.
56:19They're a high five.
56:20What?
56:20That's what it's supposed to be.
56:22No, but.
56:23I thought it was a prayer.
56:24No, the ones that are like this is not prayer hands.
56:27It's high five, but I use it as prayer hands.
56:29Yeah.
56:30I use the melted smiley face as sort of like.
56:32That's really funny.
56:32Like to respond.
56:35Yeah.
56:36Yeah.
56:37I, I am a big fan of the, just the eyes and no face.
56:40Yeah.
56:41Oh, I use the bite.
56:42I use that today.
56:44Yeah.
56:45I use that today.
56:46Yeah.
56:47I like.
56:48Yeah.
56:48I like the drool.
56:51Yeah.
56:52The drool is funny too.
56:53Sometimes I'll just use a little slide or as if I'm like sliding into hell.
56:59Same thing with the little ballet slippers too.
57:00It can be like, hi.
57:01I'm going to hell.
57:04I'm stealing that.
57:05Yeah.
57:06It's good.
57:06Yeah.
57:07Helen, you got an emoji?
57:09I don't like emojis.
57:10Good for you.
57:11Fair enough.
57:11Good for you, Helen.
57:12Why?
57:13Tell me.
57:14Tell me.
57:14Because.
57:15I don't know why I don't like.
57:17Stay strong.
57:17You like words better.
57:18I like words better.
57:19Oh, for sure.
57:20Thank God.
57:20I do.
57:21Although words can, as you said, you know, emojis can say things you need a whole page
57:28to explain.
57:29Yeah.
57:29And so I guess they're very, very clever like that.
57:32Yeah.
57:32But there's so many things about the whole internet-y thing that I'm just like.
57:37Oh, you need to.
57:38Oh, God.
57:39But not GPS.
57:40But not GPS, no.
57:42Lenies, this has been such a treat.
57:44Thank you so much.
57:45Thank you, Mikey.
57:46This has been a good experience.
57:49Cheers.
57:49Thank you so much.
57:51Cheers.
57:52Cheers.
57:52Cheers.
57:53Cheers.
57:53Cheers.
57:55Oh, my gosh.
57:57Oh, my gosh.
57:58That's okay.
57:58Delicious.
57:59Delicious.
57:59Transcription by CastingWords
58:29CastingWords