Jennifer Aniston ('The Morning Show'), Jodie Foster ('True Detective: Night Country'), Nicole Kidman ('Expats' & 'Lioness'), Brie Larson ('Lessons In Chemistry'), Anna Sawai ('Shogun'), Sofia Vergara ('Griselda'), Naomi Watts (Feud) join THR in Off Script With The Hollywood Reporter. The stars have an honest and revealing conversation discussing everything from mentorship to menopause, the tolls of dramatic roles, fighting stereotypes and taking ownership and navigating their careers in this updated roundtable format hosted by Yvonne Orji.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00:00Jen's career. Let's talk about it. I wasn't a baby baby. No, but you have sustained an
00:00:06enormous like career
00:00:14Here my I was nervous, I mean these are
00:00:18I'll start to cry but
00:00:21I get a motivated. I'm still here. We're still here. Yeah
00:00:25Hello and welcome to off script with a Hollywood reporter
00:00:28I'm your host Betty Boop or better known as Yvonne orgy and I am here at the beautiful Georgian Hotel in sunny
00:00:36Santa Monica, California
00:00:37Guys today's roundtable is back in so much heat. You are gonna need that good SPF
00:00:42I'm talking about 50 not 30 between their numerous Oscars Emmys and decades in Hollywood
00:00:47This is undeniably an iconic panel
00:00:51You are about to hear from seven women who lead today's hottest drama series
00:00:56I am talking about none other than Jennifer Aniston of the morning show
00:01:01Jodie Foster of true detective night country
00:01:04Nicole Kidman of expats and special ops lioness
00:01:09Brie Larson of lessons in chemistry and a so why of shoga?
00:01:14Sofia Vergara of Griselda and Naomi Watts a few Capote versus the swans
00:01:21I
00:01:24They are on the record, but just a little off script with the Hollywood reporter take it away Lacey
00:01:32Thanks Yvonne and thank you all for being here
00:01:35I'm gonna start with a question for everybody with a show of hands who's ever lied to land a job
00:01:42I
00:02:01Didn't like to get a job
00:02:02But I like to my agent so that they would take me when I moved to LA
00:02:06I said that I could sing and dance and everything why not and then they sent me to an audition for Chicago
00:02:12in Broadway
00:02:14And I said I'm like no I can't I can't do it
00:02:17I mean like I never thought they were gonna send me for something like that, but I said yes, yes, yes
00:02:22Yes, yes, and I went and I got the part
00:02:30I might have not been fully. I'm not full disclosure about I said I couldn't ride a horse just because I didn't want to
00:02:37I
00:02:42Think I've like definitely added special skills to resume multiple languages and
00:02:50Definitely probably lots of weird sports
00:02:55But I am quite sporty I can learn a sport
00:02:58I mean, I did learn to ride a tricycle for a movie once on a pier, but I'd never do it again
00:03:07A tricycle ride a tricycle. No wait
00:03:24Jodi I'm gonna start with you you have reached out to a lot of young actresses
00:03:30I keep hearing what prompts the outreach and what do you typically say?
00:03:34Oh, it kind of depends right sometimes you'll
00:03:37really
00:03:38It's it's such a difficult process and especially now
00:03:41I don't even know how a young actor can come up with all the social media and all that so
00:03:46Yeah, I guess I I fancy myself as some kind of mother figure where I if I see somebody drunken on their face for example
00:03:53Yeah at an event. I might be like so what's going on?
00:03:57You really will you'll call and yeah, I feel for them. You know I I really am grateful for my mom when I was young
00:04:03Getting me through all of that and somehow I managed to have a series of roles that allowed me
00:04:09Allowed me to survive. I think what are the things you all sort of wish somebody had called and told you?
00:04:16Whether it's sort of right now in your career or at the beginning of your careers
00:04:22Just allow yourself to be you and not compare yourself to other people the whole time
00:04:27I remember I lived very much under the radar for about 10 years and
00:04:32Was auditioning, you know
00:04:35and
00:04:36you only get the scenes and so you're trying to imagine who this character is and
00:04:40It's like always they need a funny person. I'll be funny. I'll be too intense. I'll be sexy
00:04:46I'll be but it's like just bring some of you into the room. That's what they're looking for and so I was always
00:04:53Doing that and then finding myself, you know in a room waiting room with 10 12 people who is sitting there learning and I'm going
00:05:00God she looks sexy. I should be sexier. I wore the wrong outfit or she looks intelligent
00:05:06Let me put some glasses on or you know, you're always trying to sort of fabricate this person. That's so removed from you
00:05:13Yeah
00:05:14So I think you can say no was good was important for me for whatever reason
00:05:19I didn't know that when I was young that I guess yeah, and and maybe I think this new generation
00:05:25that's what's good about this new generation is
00:05:27They're very comfortable with saying no
00:05:29They're very very good at like setting boundaries and going like I don't like that and I want to do this and I
00:05:34didn't know that was possible when I was and
00:05:37Need the support from us or you need the support when you do say no from the others to go
00:05:43Yeah, that's fine. That's let's what do we do here? And that's the great thing when you're in a position of
00:05:49Producing power or something where you go? Well, no, we need to listen to this
00:05:52we need to honor it and we need to change the way we're doing something and
00:05:56I that is an incredible position to be able to operate from yeah, because there's always a solution to this
00:06:03Yes, just that they were gonna just yeah here the no. Well, yeah
00:06:09You had this sort of the confidence the gumption to say even I mean you're 13 14 years old to say wait a second
00:06:15This doesn't feel right. This doesn't feel like me. I guess I'm curious where that comes from. But also how it's received
00:06:21Oh, not well
00:06:23No, I'm just more comfortable with how uncomfortable it makes people that I'm very clear about what a yes and a no is for me
00:06:29And I think I've learned that if I can understand what a no is and be able to say it before I'm upset about it
00:06:36It's a much better conversation
00:06:39Some people are surprised I think by how quick and concise I can be about things
00:06:42But I think it actually just avoids a lot of drama in the end
00:06:46Sure, because the thing I like to remind myself is that no matter what like you all can have what you want with me on
00:06:52Set but I have to go home and live with myself
00:06:54and
00:06:54it's a lot of the time you learn what your nose are from saying yes to it or being in the heat of the moment and
00:07:00Then you go home and you're like, why do I feel bad?
00:07:02Yeah, and sometimes they're a little sneaky thing. Sometimes it's clear. Sometimes you're like, oh, yeah
00:07:07I was those little tiny things that actually added up and made me feel not good and I have a whole job to do
00:07:12you know, so
00:07:13I've just become very confident with that part of it about like that
00:07:17I'm in charge of myself, which I know is like such a small thing
00:07:21But it's tough if you haven't been on a set
00:07:23It's hard to understand
00:07:24I think like how quick the pace of everything and that you feel like there's this pressure and you're gonna let people down and instead
00:07:30You learn that you're letting yourself down not to let everybody else down and that just doesn't work
00:07:34Not to say that I have a perfect track record, of course
00:07:36There were times where I was like, please someone love me. That's just like part of it, too. But I will say that
00:07:43Yeah, I'm I'm good with no. No, I've got handled I think and your team was very supportive of that. Mm-hmm
00:07:49Yeah, they were they were because I was working in Japan for a while and
00:07:54They were like to say yes is the most mature thing that you can do always say yes
00:07:59Don't really tell us what you want. We've been doing this for the longest time
00:08:03so just trust us and so it's only been recent years that I've been starting to get used to saying what I want and it's
00:08:11So refreshing because my team will be like, what do you want to do? And I'm like
00:08:15me
00:08:18Yeah, it's been a slow process, but it was difficult in Japan I still have trouble with it
00:08:24I would know yeah, I do which pieces of still what aspects of
00:08:31No, because it's sometimes blurry for me because sometimes my I can bristle and be like no and then when I kind of feel
00:08:39It out and do something. I'm like, oh this wasn't so bad. So it's kind of trying to find my own inner
00:08:46Voice that I'm like, is this me just reacting?
00:08:51Or is it me?
00:08:53Really needing to protect myself now because part of what we do you you dive into things that are deeply uncomfortable
00:09:01So the idea of like and I've had to teach myself to not always go. I can't do that. Oh, yeah
00:09:08Like my initial reaction can actually be that instead of okay ease into it because I sort of need to be coached
00:09:15Sometimes so it's finding that I'm still finding that compass. There's times when you think oh, I can't do it
00:09:21I can't do it and then you need the support of you actually can
00:09:23Mm-hmm, you actually can because it'll just be a more of a fear based. Yes. No, yeah
00:09:29Then a legitimate like this is dangerous or this is gonna you're gonna feel terrible about this, which I've also had
00:09:36Yes, but there's times when I've gone gosh, I'm glad I didn't give into that and yeah
00:09:41And I feel like as you get older, I mean I I say yes more easily because I
00:09:48just feel like I want to be open to as many experiences as possible and and
00:09:53Yes go into the discomfort zone as as much as I can and grow and I mean
00:09:59I think you said it beautifully the Andy Warhol quote and like just say yes make art and
00:10:06Get what you can out of it fall into it grow and then and let others decide what it is or not
00:10:13And but you just keep going
00:10:15I think what I'm hearing and all this because I'm kind of defining it now for myself is like
00:10:19It's not like anything that's getting in the way of doing the best work that I possibly can
00:10:25That's where my yeses and no's come in
00:10:27But I feel like there's something whether it's a yes or a no that's like ooh, that's gonna make me so uncomfortable
00:10:32I can't focus and do what I need to do or like
00:10:36This is a yes and like the fear stuff is like the best part
00:10:39I think yeah, like when you're like, oh, I'm no I'm supposed to do this and I'm so scared
00:10:44That's different. But when it's like things that are toggling so that you can actually just do work that feels responsible and safe
00:10:52That's where those yeses and no's come in for me
00:10:54There's another piece of outreach that that I think I've heard you say you do which is if you read someone's gonna play a
00:11:00Superhero character, you'll reach out. Oh, yeah, you need to know what the superhero tips are
00:11:13Person to email everybody but yeah, because it's very specific and very strange people like I don't know how to do this
00:11:19I'm like, yeah, no one does why would you say what do you say?
00:11:22What are give us give us some wisdom?
00:11:24I mean the simple things are as I say like be as prepared in your body as you possibly can so that you feel
00:11:30Like you can take it on because it only gets harder as the job goes on
00:11:33Really understand how to be able to go the bathroom in your suit
00:11:38Yeah, I mean it was like the first Captain Marvel, yeah, don't drink don't do anything to make it harder for yourself the next day
00:11:44I mean the first Captain Marvel
00:11:46It was like a 45 minute thing to get me in and out of that costume to go the bathroom
00:11:50And it's just like someone helping even a little like that secret
00:12:00When people have to wait for me to go to the bathroom
00:12:02So I would always have to time it out. I have to be like, okay, we have a long break
00:12:05I'm in the anxiety. Yeah
00:12:08Water is a whole thing and it can feel it's a lot of pressure
00:12:13And yeah
00:12:14I think it's a strange thing especially when you're a newcomer and you're tasked with being the most powerful blah blah blah of blah blah blah
00:12:21and
00:12:22You feel scared like it's so hard to be like the cool confident one when you're like, uh, do I know what I'm supposed to?
00:12:28be doing
00:12:29and so it's just the initial conversation and then it's also like please just call me or text me if you're like
00:12:35I don't understand like and a lot of people are like, how do you do it with just like a tape marker a blue wall?
00:12:40And oh, yeah, you know, there's things like that. But more than anything. It's just I remember feeling so petrified and
00:12:47I felt very lucky that I came into
00:12:50Marvel at a time when it was this 10-year anniversary
00:12:52So I was around everybody on Avengers and I was like, will you help me?
00:12:57And they're like you got it kid and like but people gave me like actual tangible pieces of advice and felt like they were an
00:13:03Open sounding board and just having that made me feel like I was okay that I was there. Sure. Yeah
00:13:09For everyone what if we were sort of going to describe the current era of your careers in terms of what's coming at you?
00:13:17Projects that you're approached with are there some through lines? I feel like the last time I sat with you Jen
00:13:23It was a lot of really dark material that was coming your way
00:13:25I don't know if it's still if you're still in in that chapter or if we move to a new one
00:13:30I think could they go for they've kind of thought it falls in between because living in living in that dark space
00:13:36I as a comedian, you know, ultimately when I started it's not easy
00:13:41It's really hard and that's why you know going home
00:13:44I would listen to smartless on my way to work and home from work just to laugh and get out of that
00:13:50I don't I don't go home and live in my character, which I know some people do and that's really
00:13:55Awesome for there. That's how their their method is. Wonderful. I choose to just get rid of it as fast as I can but
00:14:03It's it's a I'm I usually say I need I need a comedy right now. I need to I need some levity
00:14:08so that's usually I it's it's not
00:14:12Yeah, yeah
00:14:15well, it's interesting because I
00:14:18feel very awkward now here because
00:14:21You know, this is like my favorite group of actresses and I realized I don't know anything about that
00:14:31Nobody it's not in a bad way. It's like it's just a reality, you know
00:14:35And if I have to say no or yes on all those things
00:14:38Maybe because I started so late in my life to want it to be in this career
00:14:44it's
00:14:46To me it was more like a lucky thing. Let's see if I can fool everyone, you know
00:14:51I feel like the worst that could happen if I say no or yes to something is that you know
00:14:57It's gonna be bad and whatever. We're not doing a brain surgery to anyone. We're not ruining their lives
00:15:04So I take it as a gift the opportunity or I or I invent the opportunity
00:15:11Thinking what is the worst of it could happen if they don't like me they don't like me if they like me they like me
00:15:17and for example as a
00:15:20Comedic actress I cannot even I don't even I'm not comfortable even saying that I did do 11 years of modern family
00:15:27But it was almost playing myself in a way what you were saying at the beginning
00:15:32It was like how am I gonna do this this I had never went to a night to class in my life
00:15:37I just went to an audition and this thing
00:15:40So I'm like, oh, that's why I'm always it's like a gift. It's like oh, yes. Okay. Let's do it
00:15:46So I created this character from more of like my family mate. I knew this character
00:15:52So I was like I'm gonna do it and then when I started to decide to do something different
00:15:56It's hard because this accent is beautiful and you know, it's like I cannot be a scientist
00:16:03Obviously, I cannot be an astronaut
00:16:05Yeah, if I produce the movie and it's gonna be a not great
00:16:27But no, but that's why for example when I decided to do Griselda I was like it was never thinking
00:16:33Oh, I want to not people not to think that I'm only you know, Gloria or this thing. No, it was that character
00:16:40It's like I know that character. I live there. I live in Colombia in that era and I'm like, can I do it?
00:16:46I think I can because I I mean my brother was a drug dealer and
00:16:50Unfortunately, he got killed at that era. Like I knew that person the same way I knew Gloria
00:16:56But I've never seen it as a as a woman. I knew it as a man many many million. I live there in Colombia and
00:17:04Then I said maybe I cannot do it and I said I'm gonna find out who Jennifer Aniston work with
00:17:11I was just gonna say
00:17:13Oh because by the way, every time I go to work even in two months when I start the next season of morning show
00:17:20I don't know. I'm like, I don't know what I don't know how to do this
00:17:22I don't know what I'm doing
00:17:24Absolutely zero memory of how to be an actor or any rules or it's like starting again. It starts all over every
00:17:30But I found a person I saw I found a person that I'm like, who did she go to sometimes to prepare and I found that
00:17:38And I said, can you maybe help me with this thing I've never
00:17:43Done, but I don't care if it's bad or good or something, but I want to do it. Let me do it
00:17:47Help me do it
00:17:52I try not to think too much of yes or nos or yes, and because I started old
00:17:56I'm 52 years old and I started when I was 37. So I already knew how to say no
00:18:09What is presented to you what what do yeah what comes across your inbox comedy, which I loved I don't want to be Gloria again
00:18:16Yeah, maybe because I don't know if I can I don't know yet if I can do more different comedy
00:18:22That is not I cannot take this accent away. No matter what I tried like at the beginning of my career
00:18:28I'm like, I cannot be when I moved to LA like I cannot believe what Penelope Cruz or Santa
00:18:33How you don't change their accent? They're gonna have so much more opportunities. I'm gonna do it
00:18:38Of course, it's like I spent so much money time with fucking
00:18:46People
00:18:48Waste of my time I would go to the auditions and all I could think was like, where do I put the tongue to do that?
00:18:55I'm like, I'm listen. I can't do this
00:18:57I can't I'm gonna go back here to Miami or I'm just gonna start going with this
00:19:02But then this of course limits you to this limit
00:19:05But there you know how to do every accent in the world
00:19:08Oh with hell
00:19:16There is no I've tried it's like no so
00:19:20So I I think now I'm more into the what I want to create for me and because we saw that it's a world
00:19:26No, a lot of people are like, yeah, what what else do you have?
00:19:30People is changing is the tide changing now, will you be more interested in that kind of yes?
00:19:35Yeah, but you know what? I I don't know if I want to do something like that exactly because yeah that I didn't know what
00:19:41I was going to do. I don't know what he meant
00:19:43I don't know how you guys do it because what it is the pleasure of going to a set to laugh all day
00:19:49The lines the people the friend you crack out. Yeah, I mean but drama is a
00:19:55You crack out yeah, I mean but drama is a complete crazy thing
00:20:02I had never acted and this sounds ridiculous, but I had never acted in Spanish only in this perfect. Oh, oh, wow
00:20:10No kidding. Oh, you need to make a Spanish in my language. No, I
00:20:14Have Spanish have English but that way it was so hard because it was like, yeah
00:20:19I didn't know to only this perfect English was what I
00:20:25Do you find something if you play Australian, hmm, you have to get coached
00:20:40Some British in there and I can you hear that?
00:20:48Australian and changing my accent in so many different
00:20:52Shows characters or whatever. I forget where my own voice is sometimes because you've worked so hard to be understood
00:20:59You know like in a restaurant. I don't ask for
00:21:03Water, I asked for water
00:21:05Butter, you know because people like what? Oh, wait, where are you come? You know, like oh forget it
00:21:10My
00:21:17And I've heard you initially feared with with Shogun
00:21:21That it would be another sort of depiction of Japanese women being sexualized by white men. I guess I'm curious how many other projects had
00:21:29Crossed your desk where that was precisely what was happening. Um, it wasn't just Japanese women being sexualized
00:21:36it was always that they were
00:21:38Defined by the relationship that they had with the male character or they weren't
00:21:44We didn't really understand their story enough. Like they were always just like the sub character
00:21:49And oftentimes when you hear Japanese woman you think oh they're obedient
00:21:54They're sexy or they can do just you know action somehow and for me
00:22:00It's like that's not who we are. We're so much more complex. And even if we do appear obedient
00:22:06It's because society has made us that way and there's so much that's bottled inside and I'd never seen
00:22:13in
00:22:14Western media a complex
00:22:17woman with depth who had their own story who wasn't just with the
00:22:23male character and so
00:22:26when I read the
00:22:27when I read the sides it was
00:22:30My character going into a bath with the white pilot and I was like, okay
00:22:36this is gonna be the same thing and I played it in that way and they didn't call me back and
00:22:42Then I had a conversation with our showrunner and he explained that it wasn't that kind of scene like he wanted it to be the
00:22:48connection that they have with their
00:22:51background their history and their just conversation and so I taped again and
00:22:57I played it like she wasn't really taking off her kimono and like it was just that equals
00:23:04Yeah, yeah, and they liked me. And so once that happened I was like, okay
00:23:09This is the type of women that we haven't been able to see that. I'm sure
00:23:14Japanese women when they watch it will see
00:23:18Themselves reflected in so it was really important to me and in the end with that bath scene
00:23:24We actually had blackthorn in the bath in the hot spring
00:23:29but my character just walking in and sitting down and gazing outwards and
00:23:34It's even more intimate because you know that there's nothing physical about it
00:23:39So yeah, I'm just very lucky that we're finally being able to give a portrayal of
00:23:45real
00:23:46Japanese women
00:23:49Brilliant, what are our the roles or perhaps it's terms
00:23:55Triggering terms and character descriptions that that make you all say like I'm not gonna do this broken, but beautiful
00:24:00Mmm, we're beautiful, but she doesn't know it
00:24:05That one came so easily
00:24:10Beautiful but doesn't know it like how but you're telling me
00:24:15They do know it I cross everything out. Anyway, do you yeah stage directions? Yeah
00:24:22Like early I was just like
00:24:24Because it's very result. Yeah. Yeah
00:24:27You it may be a nice guide, but you don't want to be
00:24:32Confined and I think and you may have a better idea or the director might or you know
00:24:38so and that's there to fall back on but if you
00:24:42Want to really find it then you kind of have to go. Mm-hmm
00:24:46Maybe doesn't walk out of the room right now. I mean sort of similar to what you were talking about
00:24:50Hmm, maybe it doesn't take. Yeah, the kimono maybe doesn't do you know, because then sometimes that can map out
00:24:59It's magic. I don't know that this is as true now as it was, you know for most of my career, but I
00:25:05I
00:25:06Was always just shocked and amazed that so many of the scripts that I read the entire motivation for the female character was that?
00:25:13She had she'd been traumatized by rape
00:25:18That it seemed to be the only motivation that male screenwriters could come up with or why women did things
00:25:25It's like that we're like she's having a bad mood. Yeah. Yeah, she there's definitely some rape in her past
00:25:31You know rape or molestation seemed to be the one
00:25:35The one kind of
00:25:39Lurid big
00:25:41emotional backstory that they could understand in women that they couldn't really find complexity or
00:25:46They couldn't really understand that we have conflict. There's parts of us that are ambivalent and you know, we may show one way
00:25:52They'd be lying. And so I don't I didn't take it personally. I
00:25:57I think when I once I was able to be old enough to be able to say like let's look at this differently
00:26:02I think he I did have a responsibility to come in and say
00:26:06You're not always gonna get the most perfectly fleshed out female character
00:26:10But maybe there's an opportunity for us to work together and create something that way. Yeah
00:26:15yeah, and which is why also I think now we're all working hard to put women at the helm because
00:26:21That's a really, you know
00:26:23The the viewpoint suddenly becomes very different and there's a conversation that happens
00:26:29Off camera before camera about the project that then you go. Oh, right. Okay good. So you're gonna help create the path
00:26:36for this which was
00:26:39Like when when Lula one came on to do expat
00:26:42She was like this is what's gonna happen because I know this and this is how it's gonna happen because I know this and
00:26:49there's something incredibly
00:26:51freeing when
00:26:53There's a woman going the trust these are these are the characters this is how I'm gonna cut and
00:27:00Incredible authority, you know, and then you go. Yeah, I'm gonna step into line with that because you've got my back
00:27:08Yeah, you feel protected in that
00:27:10Anne Hathaway said something recently that I found both surprising and quite disturbing back in the 2000
00:27:17She said it was considered normal to ask an actor to make out with other actors to test for chemistry
00:27:21I was told we have ten guys coming in today and you're already cast. Aren't you excited to make out with them?
00:27:28She wasn't excited, of course
00:27:31Just so perhaps you are surprised
00:27:34That ever said to me. I'm curious if there are other very excited to make out with someone I've been like
00:27:47I haven't been told like no, you're gonna have to you know chemistry
00:27:51Down and yeah simulate. Yes. No, no
00:27:56And I would never
00:28:02Just once yeah, and what it was all quick
00:28:08Yeah, exactly I didn't get the job so I clearly did not oh you make out yeah
00:28:17No, I was being auditioned
00:28:20Yeah, you were being yeah, yeah with yeah a very well-known actor and I didn't know I didn't get it
00:28:27and it was mortifying because
00:28:31We didn't hear
00:28:33Cut and it just kept going
00:28:36yeah, that is and
00:28:38And then he was like, okay, okay, and I'm we all we both were like, oh
00:28:44Sorry, we didn't and it was just like
00:28:50But
00:28:52I did feel a bit restful. Yeah, I bet
00:28:57And the whole idea of a chemistry reading is it is in itself an
00:29:01Uncomfortable thing because if you don't have chemistry that that is a comfortable and presumably you see these people again. Also chemistry is
00:29:08Like you cannot have chemistry. Yeah, I mean on screen. It's mate. Yes
00:29:14honestly
00:29:17I mean, that's a fallacy. There's a way you can shoot things as a well
00:29:22I mean, that's I think just relying on chemistry. That's lazy. Yeah, you know, there's the writing
00:29:30there's the
00:29:32interaction and then there's the director stepping in and going this is actually gonna work better and I think here and
00:29:38You can literally be directed through and when you look at the films that have great love scenes
00:29:45They were very directed a lot of the times when you talk about them, they're like, oh no, it was complete
00:29:54It was construct was choreographed a lot of times and people underestimate the power of acting. Yeah
00:30:02So, yeah. Yeah. Also, it's there it feels not right because when you're in an audition room
00:30:08You're already just at a disadvantage
00:30:10Because it how do you even if you probably maybe might have chemistry with this person if you weren't in an environment
00:30:24For me, I'm a terrible auditioner always one same horrible and I'm
00:30:29Waitress forever before I could finally get something like a really Bob's Big Boy commercial
00:30:34So it was but that's always so then if you're a nervous auditioner to begin with to then say now
00:30:40Let's have you make out with a complete stranger. Yeah
00:30:47Very unrealistic to expect you're gonna get a beautiful chemistry read in that
00:30:58Some people I don't know if you guys remember like who has done a lot of auditioning or not
00:31:03But some people are really good at it, but I was a shocking
00:31:09Auditioner like literally I could feel the energy in the room where people are like hurry this along
00:31:15And I would even go. Yeah, don't worry. I'm getting I'm out of your way
00:31:19Literally, you don't even have to look me in the eye
00:31:22No, no, it's fine. I'll just get out of here
00:31:25Yeah, I was horrible and that's why I was basically unhirable for ten years and it took meeting David Lynch
00:31:33who's a master of filmmaking and he just sat and looked at me and talked and said
00:31:40Tell me about yourself and I fell into it this conversation was like wait
00:31:44he really we want to take time with me you want to know shit about me and how I
00:31:49Was raised and you know all of that and he's sitting there smoking isn't tell me more nail me
00:31:54Tell me that sounds fascinating and and then I just I got the job. I didn't even have to audition
00:32:01He just wanted to talk. It was a incredible. Yeah, so you reference this idea of what it takes to do a drama
00:32:08I feel like you've talked about this idea of
00:32:11Playing Griselda and you'd come home with with her rage
00:32:15Mad as hell I think is how you've described. I'm curious of what that's looked like for for whoever has felt that
00:32:23Yeah, how did it matter? Well for me it was very
00:32:26Very difficult and different and the first three weeks mainly I didn't know what was happening to me because okay
00:32:33I had those three things that were weird for me that I was acting first in Spanish. I had never used
00:32:39prosthetics ever
00:32:41And I it was my first drama. I've only done really modern family. So I thought it was I didn't know what I was
00:32:48Walking into and when I arrived I realized this is this is different
00:32:54This is hard when you have to cry and kill and choke and do snort cocaine and drink alcohol
00:33:00And you know
00:33:01I had never even in my life touch a cigarette
00:33:05Never and I had to learn and to learn at 50 years old to smoke and you're gonna be in every single scene
00:33:12Smoking. I was like, huh?
00:33:15It's like how am I gonna make that? How and
00:33:19So, okay, I'll just do whatever and I let the director, you know do help me help me with everything and
00:33:26But then the first three weeks I would go home and I didn't know what was wrong with me
00:33:30What would it feel like? What would it look like? I?
00:33:33It was like I couldn't fall asleep, but because I was screaming I was like mad
00:33:38I
00:33:39Didn't I had never cried on
00:33:42On anything, I don't cry on modern family
00:33:45So then I was crying on a set then you go home and I do know what was happening to me
00:33:50so I decided I'm gonna take Xanax to go to sleep because I then I had do you know the
00:33:55To wake up the next day to go again, you know super early
00:33:59So I said it's like it's either I start sleeping or I'm gonna die
00:34:02You know, it's like so I started taking a little bit of science and then
00:34:07Understanding and talk it to nothing like nothing. I don't know if I'm gonna survive this
00:34:14But it's so interesting because what the way she works is, you know, you're unlocking some stuff that you have been
00:34:21Yeah, very wonderfully in a down into the well and for me my whole life. I come from Colombia, you know, I've had a
00:34:31Lot of crazy stories why I knew I could do
00:34:35Griselda I had it all but those were the things that my whole life to keep my sanity
00:34:42Yeah, and then here it comes this woman and tells me okay
00:34:50Be able to cry no matter what I only laugh I can only cry when I'm laughing like I don't know how to cry
00:35:00And then I did it the first time it's like I think I'm gonna cry in every scene
00:35:05Like the director is like, do you want me to cry in this one?
00:35:09Like no, why would you be crying? You're opening the refrigerator and telling the guy that they need to leave
00:35:17So it was it was very it was a very crazy experience for me sure it was everything new but
00:35:24But I did it it was six months. I thought it changes you a little bit
00:35:29I don't know how you guys do it all the time those dramas
00:35:32It's like it's comedy so much
00:35:36Yeah, it's a dream. Have you guys presumably you you've done almost no comedies
00:35:41Yeah, and what I know I do. I do enjoy them for the first two weeks and then after two weeks, I'm like I
00:35:48Can't do this
00:35:51I think it's that energy sort of enforced energy that you have to find. I find dramas much easier
00:35:59I do too
00:36:00But is it because it's your wheelhouse like that?
00:36:03You've been doing that like I feel nervous and that I'm gonna screw up the joke
00:36:08I'd like the joke is coming. Oh god. Oh god panic panic and I think it's an introvert thing
00:36:13I think I'm genuinely an introverted person. So I think in order to keep the energy of a
00:36:19On the set you need to be a more extroverted person. It's just not natural to me at all. It's after two weeks. I'm exhausted
00:36:26Yeah, right, but are you bringing home the dramas like when you are
00:36:32No, I don't you know, no, first of all, none of us know what we're doing, I don't know
00:36:40And that's really the beauty of it
00:36:42I think is to have that freshness of doubting yourself of walking and going
00:36:45I don't know if I'm gonna be able to that's what performance is like they say action and it may come and it may not
00:36:52the real meditation is
00:36:55Accepting that and being able to relax
00:36:57so, you know
00:36:59now at 60, I have to say I feel so blessed at 60 because
00:37:03My role now is to come in and be like don't worry about it
00:37:10Yeah, because that's the only thing you really do have to learn over time is just how to relax and allow
00:37:17And young people have a hard time with that. Sure in our 20s. Yeah, Nicole
00:37:21I remember the last time you you did a roundtable you were talking it was for Big Little Lies and you were
00:37:26Coming home from a day at work and throwing a rock through a door
00:37:30Are those still I mean and you haven't seen you continue to play you did
00:37:35You did and you because it was locked and I couldn't get in so I threw the rock
00:37:41Yeah, and you have not like you've never done that in my life I was so
00:37:47Yeah, obviously pent up I broke the whole thing it cost a fortune
00:37:52And then I went back the next day and I said to Alexander and Jean-Marc. I threw a rock through the window and they were like
00:38:01Watch out. I said I was kind of pissed off
00:38:07Because I think there's a there's a way in which we operate where
00:38:12The show must go on and you just keep going. That's part of
00:38:17You you show up and you do it and you do it and you do it and you do it and a lot of times
00:38:22Yeah, they're six months
00:38:24It's 12 14 hour days and there really isn't the time to go and I need to take care of myself
00:38:31It's quick get home get to bed to get back there. Yeah, and you're
00:38:35No, I don't
00:38:40Expats I went and did a comedy because I was like I kind of went crazy with my own
00:38:46Psychology and I went this is unhealthy and it's something that I think we need to talk about as actors because
00:38:55Protecting your body so you can live to be at for as long as you're going to be given on this earth
00:39:01There is an amount of protection that you need to learn because I always
00:39:05Very tough on the psyche. It's like how does the body doesn't know that you're going through that, you know
00:39:11That doesn't
00:39:13Yeah, thing is like how do you how does it not know it's like putting the body into a stress the whole time
00:39:20I mean, it's it's but the idea of being able to go and get a massage or some sort of thing that you go
00:39:27Okay, have a hot bath and just go it's okay
00:39:31And so much of probably everyone sitting at this table is like that pad on the back
00:39:37Just someone touching you and going it's okay
00:39:41And when you're not getting the same up when you just said that
00:39:47Like the the reach out for each other is so important and then also that thing of what you were saying
00:39:54Which is relax because you can show up no matter what work you've done and be shocking really bad
00:40:01And everyone's going yikes. This is not what we thought
00:40:06and the scene isn't working and you have this director looking at you with eyes like
00:40:12But the the relaxation and the ability to know it's gonna happen. It will happen is one of the greatest
00:40:19Yeah, no
00:40:21And that is not the way to go. It's okay. We're gonna get there no matter how stressful
00:40:28No matter how tough the role is. I'll shut up now
00:40:32No
00:40:37In in lessons in chemistry you you play a character
00:40:40That men inherently distrust and just like for no reason other than the fact that she is a woman. Uh-huh. Is that right?
00:40:51I guess I couldn't help but see the correlation between how okay. Is this where you think it's going? I'm scared. Let's keep going
00:40:59Okay
00:41:00Good now to the question between what your character
00:41:03Experiences and and what you as you sort of navigate the sort of superhero Marvel world has experienced
00:41:10Well, I don't know if it's specific to Marvel
00:41:12I think that's just I only know my experience and my experience is being underestimated at times
00:41:19Yeah, so you draw from that in a day. Yeah. Yeah, of course
00:41:23I think the best I've been able to find with characters. I play is that they're all me
00:41:28It's just like a mixing board
00:41:30Mm-hmm. It's like if you've ever watched like, I don't know a musician and they're mixing their music and it's like, oh, that's that lover
00:41:37And I'm just messing with those there's things that are living inside of you
00:41:41That I don't know if you would have given a life to without it
00:41:44And sometimes they're really beautiful and sometimes they're sad. Sometimes they're scary. Sometimes they make you stay up at night
00:41:50But all of those things I feel like my life is so
00:41:54It's so enriched
00:41:56Yeah, it's been so enriched by it and I think the hardest part for me has not been committing to the characters
00:42:02It's getting out of them. Do you have tricks? Like do you have a yeah, I've been I
00:42:08basically haven't done anything as dark as room sense room because it
00:42:13It took me like a year to get out of it and I didn't go to school for acting
00:42:17I don't have I don't know how to do this job either
00:42:19and so I
00:42:21Spent a lot of time
00:42:22I spent nine months creating that character and living that character and then I was back at home and I didn't know how to exist
00:42:28In the world anymore and it was really scary
00:42:31and and so it took me a long time to be able to just do basic things that I used to enjoy in my
00:42:36life and so
00:42:38After that, it was like five years of purposely picking jobs where I felt like
00:42:42It was safe for me to try out new techniques. It was safe for me to try and figure out
00:42:47Okay, how can I do things so that I go home and feel just a little bit better and slowly start edging myself
00:42:52I'm feeling like you. Yeah. Yeah, because it doesn't stop it
00:42:56It doesn't stop and you hope that you have the grace of a line producer who has scheduled it to where there's moments
00:43:03Where you can offload?
00:43:04like lessons in chemistry
00:43:06I didn't have that so much especially with the character that like won't let anybody see her emotions
00:43:11So I eventually just was like you have to put a pop-up tent on set and that's like where I'm gonna go cry
00:43:16Because sometimes it feels so intense and you have everyone going like don't cry still don't cry and you're like I can't I you know
00:43:23Whatever you see on camera, which is like could be a 60-second scene. I've been doing for three days, you know
00:43:28I can't do it anymore. And so you have to find ways to learn how to
00:43:33Offload you have to find what works for you. But to me that's always been the biggest the challenge and what?
00:43:39But that's always been the thing I'd say for myself that has kept me from doing like dramatic
00:43:48Roles in that way and I feel like I'm just at the point
00:43:52Where I feel like I could do it where I feel like I have enough
00:43:54I trust myself with the technique that I have now that I could do it. Mm-hmm
00:43:58How do you decide sort of what pieces of you the real you to share?
00:44:02I'm gonna turn to you because I feel like we're in this moment where I hear as much
00:44:06Of you talking about your acting career as I do
00:44:10Hearing you talk about your sort of struggles with with menopause and you do it with grace and and humor
00:44:17And I think I've heard you say that was something that you were nervous about initially
00:44:21Talking about publicly. How do you decide when so much of you you want to keep private you want to keep guarded?
00:44:29That you decide this is gonna be the thing I share and I think a lot of you have done this in different ways
00:44:35Yeah, I mean, you know, I started late also
00:44:39By Hollywood standards, I would say I didn't
00:44:43Try to start late. I just wasn't hired for a long time
00:44:47but I started
00:44:49Getting work in my late
00:44:51well
00:44:51my Holland Drive was 29 and then it's that on a shelf and then it was like 31 when I
00:44:56Finally launched so and I was told also it's gonna be over by 40. So work work work
00:45:04and
00:45:06and then
00:45:08Unfortunately for me when I was at the precipice of wanting to start a family I was 36
00:45:12I was told I was close to menopause. And so I went into this frantic panic
00:45:17a lot of shame and fear and
00:45:23Mostly for whatever reason I'm skipping through a lot. I was able to have children and
00:45:28But then went straight into menopause hardcore symptoms in my early 40s after my second child and
00:45:35Still felt very ashamed and felt like if I ever dared to mention that word, I would be branded as you know
00:45:42redundant
00:45:44Finished off to pasture
00:45:46Go to the sidelines. You're not sexy. There's no way you can act anymore
00:45:49That's you know, it'd be career suicide to bring that into the room
00:45:55But then I was like this makes no sense
00:45:57We're half the population. Everybody's going to go into menopause at some point or another
00:46:04Why shouldn't we be talking about it? And and when you learn about the symptoms and how long they can go on for
00:46:10Why can't we find the support? Why can't and it's not just the physiological support you need
00:46:16It's the emotional support like families break down the workplace stuff happens, you know
00:46:21Like people get afraid they're gonna get phased out or you know, you and you've got your aging family members
00:46:28you've got a lot of things that are making you vulnerable at that point and then have that to collide with you know a
00:46:36Self that you no longer know anymore. I'm not sure that is gonna ever return
00:46:41Was just fascinating to me that it was it wasn't an available discussion. So I just went fuck this
00:46:48Like let's just talk about it and in terms of my career. I felt like well if it spooks everyone
00:46:56That's a bummer
00:46:58but you know, hopefully it actually does the opposite and elongates the career because you know
00:47:05Someone's got to play the old lady and I I think you know
00:47:09The longer the life the richer the stories and and there's lots to examine
00:47:13We need to you know
00:47:14Do whatever we can to expand the the female story and at every point that goes back to your earlier question
00:47:22What would you have loved your earlier self for someone to prepare you for?
00:47:25Yeah, that would be have been a nice bit of information
00:47:28Yeah, because it's like you go to into it sort of blindly like yeah, what some aliens taking over your body?
00:47:34Yes. Yeah, and it doesn't make sense. Yeah, and it and it affects you and your life and in your work
00:47:41That would have been a good piece of it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah sure. So for your generation
00:47:53Just the cranky old scary ladies anymore we
00:48:03I'll play them too. But like we can also do other things, you know without that sort of
00:48:09But it is I mean you you just sort of decide what it is
00:48:11You're going to let people in on and and in your case. It was there was
00:48:15Something for all to gain from that but whether it is, you know challenges with with fertility whether it is, you know
00:48:23Why you got a divorce?
00:48:25I mean, these are things that that I feel like some of you are talking about in a way that
00:48:30Perhaps you weren't before. Mm-hmm. Cuz that's the older you get the more fuck it
00:48:38Yeah
00:48:40Boundaries are important. I mean that is one of the things that I talk about
00:48:45Younger actors is how to survive intact, you know, and not just not just your career intact
00:48:50but emotionally and psychologically how to be how to be a
00:48:54strong
00:48:56person and
00:48:57To care about yourself enough to set boundaries
00:49:01Sustainable. Yeah, it's a lot
00:49:03They asked of you
00:49:04Yeah
00:49:04Who were the people in this industry who have sort of helped you guide you in some of those lonelier moments of this life?
00:49:11Tony Collette was like my first like hero
00:49:14Mentor I did she was I was just completely obsessed with her
00:49:21When I was in when I was homeschooling myself like dreaming of being an actress
00:49:26And then like my first like I'd say like true job
00:49:29I was 18 and it was to play her daughter and it felt like
00:49:33Destiny, huh? And so scary like the mix of all the good things like I'm gonna be so challenged
00:49:39I'm so scared and luckily I had auditioned for like 10 years at that point
00:49:44I was like a professional auditioner, but like didn't really have a chance. I was prepared
00:49:48I was as prepared as I could be and I got to have three years with her. And so that became like
00:49:54massively important and then over the years like going out of my way to make friends with other women in the industry because it started
00:50:01Hey, there's always usually just like one woman on a job
00:50:04I was always the only one and you go like, oh, yeah
00:50:08I don't even know like there's things that make me uncomfortable or things that I'd like to change or things
00:50:12I'd like to laugh about and connecting with other women in the industry has been like a game changer for me
00:50:18because you get to swap stories and understand and connect and
00:50:23It's just the greatest. It's the best. Yeah true relying on your on your female
00:50:28Co-stars and being able to reach out and just say and not having to do it the work but just like life
00:50:33I mean, I mean we did that movie in Hawaii. You helped me out on a lot of really hard things
00:50:38I was going through, you know, and just to have that community. It's very helpful
00:50:42Do you feel like you've you found that yet? Are there people who were or have are guiding you along?
00:50:48Or can we just found them?
00:50:51Found them
00:50:54I've not had enough experience to be like my journey and like this person has helped me so much
00:51:01It's it's like little bits of advice from a lot of my co-stars and a lot of people behind the scene
00:51:10But I actually have a question because now you do meet so many female people on set
00:51:18But growing up in the industry like how was that for you?
00:51:22I never saw another female face except for the lady who played my mom and possibly the makeup or hair
00:51:28But in the old days, those were also men, but then how do you right? How do you navigate?
00:51:34well, you know how these wonderful brothers and fathers and I I always stop and I'm always grateful for them because they
00:51:42They taught me the lessons of film sets, you know, they were like, you know, you write thank-you notes or this is
00:51:47This is how we do the focus that somehow I felt like those brothers and fathers and where they were family
00:51:53And then a little by little as women came on to movie sets
00:51:56it was just this fantastic thing that there would be in one other female person on set and then there would be two and then maybe
00:52:02Three and I think that that kept growing except there were never female directors
00:52:08See, I will I met Jane Campion. Yeah, you're lucky
00:52:12So I was like wow and she was some the star of films her film school, yeah, so we'd all go and go
00:52:20did you see you'd go and see their student films because
00:52:24they would show their their films at the end of the year or halfway through the year and you
00:52:29She was the one you see her amazing
00:52:32Yeah, she did be like girls on story and then and then going and auditioning for her and she was rigorous
00:52:39I mean, so it was a powerful woman to her. It wasn't a wallflower woman. It was that
00:52:45She was she was right there and everyone was would do what she said
00:52:50So it was a great role model and there is this sort of misconception that somehow female actresses are like
00:52:57They're at each other. They don't like each other or whatever
00:53:00I mean
00:53:00I've even this year of going to the various events and things it always just feels so nice because the women really feel like
00:53:07They want each other to succeed
00:53:09I've never had one moment where I ever felt that there was a woman who didn't want me to succeed and we all
00:53:14Interface with each other. So Nicole I took over from a movie that you had to leave. Yeah. Thank you
00:53:20Really bad way. I mean I was like we I'm having a breakdown. We are all and Jodi took
00:53:30We all care about each other in a way and
00:53:34so that
00:53:37Almost feel like it's some guy's guy had this idea that women just want to break each other down and
00:53:43That just hasn't been my experience
00:53:45the energy that you set because if you go in and go it's okay if if if you're told
00:53:53You're safe. It's okay. And whatever emotions you're feeling and you can feel jealous. You can feel these things. That's normal
00:54:01We'll work through it together. I grew up with sisters and a very strong
00:54:05Feminine energy in the house
00:54:07so
00:54:09It was always like yeah, there's a gamut of emotions here
00:54:12But you're allowed to feel them and we're gonna work through them together, but reach out because we're here
00:54:18Yeah, that's a gift. That is truly a gift to be able to have that
00:54:21I mean definitely Nick has been a guiding force and this is a
00:54:2940 year friendship. Yeah. Yeah
00:54:32You know
00:54:35No down at the park
00:54:44Everything
00:54:45but and if the mentors aren't they're available on the set or you know, I
00:54:51Watching our mentors and I if I can gush a little bit. Yeah, I mean
00:54:56Watching you I mean there were lots before you and we're only a few years apart
00:55:01but just your career was obviously so underway for such a long time and
00:55:07you changed my life for that your performances like there's the I still remember like a cues that
00:55:14I oh, I mean, I'm gonna how you
00:55:17Yeah
00:55:20You are as a human being today
00:55:24Yes, yeah the generation before us kept telling us that things were just gonna get worse for us and he hit 40 and it's over
00:55:30and I have to say I have never been as happy as an actor as
00:55:34when I turned 60 that there's just some kind of contentedness about it not being all about me and
00:55:40Walking onto a set and saying how may I serve you?
00:55:43How can my experience or my whatever my wisdom is, you know, how can I serve you?
00:55:47And and bringing that to the table. Not only is it more fun and more freeing but it's also
00:55:55easy
00:55:56It's super easy because you're not
00:55:59Filled with anxiety about the things that maybe younger people are filled with anxiety, but and you have a lot to learn from them
00:56:05Did I read that you are done with doing leads or like you just
00:56:13Stop for a while. I never stopped when I went to school. I did do say I did six movies while I was in college
00:56:24But um
00:56:25Yeah, I think that I learned so much also from this from new voices, you know from seeing your character
00:56:31for example in Shogun
00:56:32but you know seeing new characters with different voices that have now finally been given the freedom to air themselves and and
00:56:39I want to hear them and I want to
00:56:41Support them and whatever wisdom I have about helping those voices then I feel like it's just so much more fun
00:56:47Yes
00:56:47Then being the one person who's you know
00:56:50Number one of the call sheet from beginning to end that has to carry the burden of the narrative
00:56:54But also meaning that there's there are rules about how how much you can give
00:57:00Then you can change their narrative to and not Jen's career, let's talk about it. I wasn't a baby, baby
00:57:06No, but you have sustained an enormous
00:57:09Like
00:57:17My I was nervous, I mean these are
00:57:21I'll start to cry, but I get excited. I'm motivated. I'm still here. We're still here. Yeah
00:57:27Yeah, yeah, Sophia too, you know, don't be terrorized by the English language
00:57:32Who said the English language is the most important language?
00:57:38Stories told
00:57:41It's a little bit more work though
00:57:42You do have to go more after and not be scared and yeah
00:57:47You know you you have to have a certain personality for that not to affect you though, right?
00:57:51Because it's it's it can be you know, ridiculous, you know that I will you have to make it your superpower
00:57:58Yeah
00:58:06This is going to sound silly, but I promise you it is actually going to be revealing about to who you are
00:58:15What is the most used emoji on your phone I can go first mine is an eye roll art what color heart red
00:58:23Yeah, and not not the little one the big one. That's the from the
00:58:27Plane
00:58:36What about the rest of you what do you do
00:58:39You do a kiss one
00:58:42Kiss with a heart I do. I love the bozo. What's the buzz?
00:58:47crazy clown
00:58:49Don't really know what it means, but I put it on things. Anyway, I don't really know
00:58:57The I roll back it's just a like
00:59:00Yeah, or I forgot and the other one the eek one. Oh, yeah
00:59:19Like the sideways guy, yeah. Yeah. Should we cheers and
00:59:23Thank you all for being here. I wish it could go on
00:59:39On about you, but I just love seeing woman give each other their flowers
00:59:43I mean you get a rose you get a rose you everybody gets a rose. I'm with you Jen
00:59:48This has been a motivating and inspiring conversation until next time
00:59:52I am Yvonne orgy, and this is off script with the Hollywood Reporter