December 12, 2024 • 57 mins
TV fans got to see Megan Park shine in front of the cameras in the popular series The Secret Life of the American Teenager, but her work behind the camera is bringing her critical acclaim. First, with her film “The Fallout,” and now her latest “My Old Ass,” Park has taken Hollywood by storm.
The writer-director joins Sophia to talk about “My Old Ass,” her coming-of-age comedy that has film critics buzzing! She also shares her experience watching movie-goers react to her film at Sundance, Margot Robbie’s hands-on support as a producer, her transition from acting to directing, and an inside look at her writing process.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everyone, It's Sophia. Welcome to work in Progress. Hi
with smarties. I'm so so excited about the gal I'm
sitting down with today because not only is she, I think,
(00:23):
one of the voices of our generation as a writer
and a director, she happens to be a dear friend.
We have known each other for so long. Today's guest
is none other than writer and director of The Fallout
and her latest My Old Ass, Megan Park. You may
know Megan from her early days starring on the Secret
(00:46):
Life of the American Teenager. You also may know her
if you are a one Tree Health fan as Tyler
Hilton's incredible wife. She is truly one of the most earnest, passionate,
funny friends I have in my life, who happens to
write so openly that, even though every single one of
(01:06):
her stories is so unique and isn't something we've seen before,
every single person who watches her films feels reflected in them,
which is probably why they have such unbelievably high ratings
on Rotten Tomatoes. And Megan has made her latest film
with none other than producer extraordinary Margo Robbie. I can't
wait to ask her all about Sundance, all about writing,
(01:30):
how she finds each of these fascinating characters, and her
creative process in general. Let's dive in with Megan Park.
(01:50):
It is honestly, it's like so weird to talk about
work right now, but also kind of incredibly healing. Like
the week was really weird, and I had planned to
go to the Wicked premiere and I was like, I
don't know if I can. What do I We're going
to the movies, And then I was like, actually, the
(02:11):
movies are exactly where I want to be, and this
movie that's based or this movie that's based on a
play that was based on the movie that was written
in response to the Rise of Hitler actually feels like
exactly where I want to go. Like I got there
and I was like, we're here for like all the
musical theater people and all of the artists and all
(02:32):
of the gays and all of the witches that they
couldn't burn, Like this was the movie that I needed. Yeah,
and it really did. I felt like it really healed me.
And then I felt so good after having seen a
movie that the next night I watched your movie. I
was like, this is exactly what I needed again, So
(02:53):
I think I'm just going to become a film buff
for the next four years.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
It's like I have this whole mentality when I go
in Stad where I'm like, I think it's really important
to remember that we're not saving lives like I tried,
you know, in terms of like we're not Yes, there's
going to be fires and things that go wrong, but
there's nothing that can't be solved. But it is interesting
because I have been thinking like post selection and just
whatever the state of the world. I'm like, well we
are art does save lives, you know, and it really
(03:19):
there is that gravity to it. Yeah, you can still
have that mentality on set of not like you know,
putting out fires with that kind of yeah, like prenetic mentality.
But I do feel like now, more than ever, it's
reaffirmed my belief that I'm like, oh, yeah, it's so
important to work the shit out and make art that
feels makes people feel seen, especially people that are trying
(03:42):
to be you know, stomped out of existence in America.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah. What a weird what a weird time. Well, the
movie feels more important I think now than ever, and
for me, especially stories that you know, send her women
and are led by and feel so important. But before
we get into how you made this perfect film and
all of my questions about it, I actually want to
like rewind in a big way, which might be more
(04:10):
surreal for you than some people, because I wonder how
it'll make you think about your own family. We got
to know you as an actor so young. Ye, I'm
actually really curious if we go back even further, Like
if we could do what your movie does and you
could sit down with nine year old Megan, who would
(04:33):
she be? Was she a storyteller? Was she a performer?
Was she a bookworm?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Like?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Who's the little girl that you were? And do you
see how she turned into the adult.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
That you are. I thought a little bit about this
because everybody keeps asking, you know, like would you want
to go back and you know, talk to your younger self?
Would you want to talk to your older self? And
I feel like me and Amazing and Aubrey have all
been like we rejacked the idea of going forward because
it gets too scary because after your older self, but
it would be so therapeutic. It feels like a therapy
exercise to go back and talk to your childhood self.
(05:06):
I think it's interesting because when you're from a small
town and you don't have anybody in your family who's
in the industry, but you have a desire to be
in the arts in some capacity, you end up a
theater camp. And I think that's sort of what happened
to me, is like, my dad was a dentist, my
mom was a teacher. Nobody was I didn't know. We
(05:28):
didn't have a TV in our house. The first time
I saw a movie in the theater, I was twelve.
Although they took us to tons of theater and tons
of ballet and the opera and things like that in Toronto,
I just TV in film was not really at the
forefront of like how I absorbed the arts, I guess,
but I ended up in theater camp and that led
(05:49):
to like being a full year round theater program, and
that led to me being like, Okay, I really like this.
And then you know, there's so many things that film
in Toronto that like need to hire Canadian people, and
so I started getting jobs. And when you have some
six set it becomes like a bit of a like
a you know, like okay, this is working, like this
is I'm having fun doing this. And I got to
(06:11):
meet so many incredible people that felt like my people
for the first time. This is when I was older.
I mean, my parents didn't let me start acting professionally
until I was sixteen or seventeen, which is young now
in hindsight, but I certainly wasn't doing it on a
professional level at nine. But I think that performing was
like the pathway to finding what I was meant to do,
(06:34):
which was writing and directing. But even and you'll probably
relate to this, like, really, I was in TV for
most of my acting career, and I was on a
lot of shows where creativity wasn't necessarily always at the
forefront of what was the most important thing. And a
lot of times, you know, after six or seven seasons
of a show, the actors are really running the set,
(06:56):
and so the directors would sweet some directors that would
come in and and have really exciting ideas and stuff.
But I never really saw the director in a lot
of situations as somebody who was getting to really be
super creative. So I never I look back, and I'm like,
that's so crazy that I never really want I had
end no desire. I never would have expected that I
(07:18):
would end up directing or writing. The writers were just
like we were on the sound stage in the lot,
they were in another area. We never really saw them.
It wasn't that type of a set where it was
a super like the writers were constantly there, you know,
throwing out dialogue. So it was very separate. And then
but I just absorbed so much. I mean I spent
(07:38):
like seven years making you know, twenty seven episodes of
TV show, a TV and a season, and I feel
so comfortable on a set, like I know everybody's role
inside and out, and worked with so many different types
of actors. So it was like this weird you know education,
but I'm not like a cinophile. Nobody in my family
was like I just saw Forrest Gump for the first time,
(08:00):
catching up on the classics, and so I was always like,
I can't direct, like I don't know anything. But yeah,
I think that acting it had to go the way
that it went because I never would have just I
never would have been like I'm going to go to
film school and I'm going to study cameras and lenses.
I would have it just wouldn't have interested me. But
(08:21):
once I found it through acting, I was like, oh,
this makes sense. In a way that acting, truthfully never has.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Yeah, do you think that why do you think that is?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Like?
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Was was acting too small a project for you? Do
you think that directing gave you the full like the
full scope? This is going to sound so stupid. I
don't know why this just popped into my head, but
the image that I had when I did this, I
was like, I mactored like a piece of pizza and
(08:52):
then a whole pizza, Like you know, is directing just
more slices for you?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah, I think that there was. I thought a lot
about it because as I've been doing press, a big
press cycle for the first time because the Fallout came
out during the pandemic and I was able to not
have to really do any of that, I've been so
triggered again in the same way as an actor, which
is like getting my hair and makeup done, being in
fittings like that stuff is so it truly is like
(09:18):
it's not my favorite part of it. And I think that, Yeah,
I think that as an actor, I would watch my
peers be so driven to like get these roles. And
I remember shay Shane Woodley, who was on Secret Life
with me. She specifically that movie The Descendants that really
broke her out. She was so young, she was like
(09:38):
sixteen or seventeen, and she auditioned and like didn't even
get a call back, and she was like, no, like
I know, this is my part, and she went to
a new acting class and like fought to get a callback.
And I was kind of like just sort of there
for the ride, like I would be on side and
be like, this is fun, but there was nothing about
it was that felt like it was fulfilling to me creatively.
(10:01):
I was having a lot of fun doing it. I
was meeting really interesting people, I was having some success
doing it, but I really hated certain elements of it
as well, Like I really hated the hair and makeup trailer.
I hated fittings, Like I just didn't love that part
of it. And then truthfully, the first time I directed,
I was like, wait a second. I get to be
(10:21):
on set, which I love. I get to work with actors,
which I love. I get to work with other creatives
and be collaborative, which I love. And I don't have
to go through two hours of hair makeup in the
morning or ever do a fitting like I'm already this
is oh yeah, wait I love this so much. And
it's not that like, I don't know, shame on the
hair and makeup part of it. Maybe I'm just like
two insecure for that side of it. And I could
(10:42):
never ever put myself in one of my own projects.
You've always asked me, Yes, that's like my personal nightmare. God,
it's just something I'm I'm objective enough, you know.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
It's really interesting. I have a friend who's such a
talented right now and such an amazing comedian, and he's
doing a show right now that he's also writing on
and he was like, Oh, this is really hard and
to do all of it, yeah, and to do it
at the same time because he obviously writes his comedy,
(11:15):
He's written his specials, right he writes them and then
he performs them. And he was saying that having I'm
a huge fan the best and he was just saying
that having to do both is like so hard. Yeah,
So I get that. It really made me think. And
not to say that it's in any way, shape or
form the same as I think it would be now.
(11:37):
But one of the things I think they did really
well for us when we were making One Tree Hill
is that when we finally started directing. They really would
do their best to kind of stack our scenes so
that we could do two heavy days of acting and
then we'd have seven days of just directing on set.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Right, And yeah, I can't.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Imagine like having to perform in a scene and then.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Be like, hold on, was that funny?
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Let me rewrite my own lines right now on the fly,
like I would die.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
I know. I think people that can do it, I
feel like it's it's so admirable because you really do
have to like really be removed from yourself and take
a step back, and I so admire people that can
do it, and a lot of people can do it
really well. For me, it's like I also I find
the actors that I cast become such muses to me,
(12:25):
and I'm just like too insecure to be my own muse.
Like you know what I mean, I can enny good
one began.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
I don't know, you really nailed that, girl, pat yourself
on the back.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
And nailed it. But yeah, it does take the ability
to switch brains, and I think I just turned off
the acting side of my brain too. I don't miss
it yet. Maybe someday I will, but I just don't
miss it. I don't miss it yet.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Wow, you know what's funny.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
I I don't think I let myself miss it. I
think we did One Tree Hill for so long, and
I wonder if you felt this way it was secret life,
Like we did it for so so long that I
looking back, there's like certain projects I did on hiatus
that I never should have, but I was just so
desperate to like do anything else that I was like,
I don't even care if the script isn't that good.
(13:09):
It's the only movie that shoots in the days that
I'm off. And then it was like I jumped into
a show. Immediately I went onto Partners, and then immediately
I went onto PD. Like I did not take a
break for fifteen years, dangs, And now I've kind of
allowed myself to take time in between things, and like
(13:29):
the strike forced us all to take time.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
But even this year, I.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Had these two movies planned and then one had to
shift because you know what it's like with production and
locations and whatever. And the space I got in the
shift actually was such a gift to me. And now
I'm doing this fun thing on grays and like I
went to set.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
And I was like, oh my god, acting is so.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Fun, And it had only been three months in between
the movie wrapping and the show. But I find that
my bounce back into really enjoying what we do on
set is faster and faster than it used to be.
So I do wonder if you'll find that.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
I think so. And I think also, these projects take
so long that it feels like you get as I'm
you know, now, I'm already like I started a new
project this week, and I'm already, you know, fifty pages
into my next film. But you do have these I mean,
we shot this movie almost three years ago or three
years ago, and so it takes so long that and
(14:30):
so much of it for me is in the writing
of it, like in before you're ever even on set. Yeah,
so it feels like it's yeah, there's a sense of completion,
you know, and you do get to kind of breathe
through it and really see it, and once you put
it out in the world, it already feels like it's
in my brain. I've already moved on to the next
creative thing. And I spend so much time in that
quiet space. I'm not sitting in my computer writing every day.
(14:51):
I'm that's not at all my process, Like I spend
so much time just kind of living and thinking about
the characters and just figure out what the next story
I want to tell is. And I think that's why
I've been so like passionate about the things that I
have been able to work on, because it's I've had
that room to breathe in between.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
And now a word from our sponsors who make the
show possible.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
How did that start for you?
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Like?
Speaker 1 (15:25):
How did you go from TV? You know, set life,
actor life. Where did the writing come from? How did
you know that this is where you wanted to go?
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I didn't really, but truthfully I don't. I'm feeling I'm
figuring out my own brain, still in my writer brain.
But I worked with this actress writer director named Zoe
Kazan who's very talented, and we played sisters, and I
just was so obsessed with her and looked up to
her so much, and I thought she was like the
smartest person I'd ever met. She's very smart and very cool.
(16:00):
And I was just coming Secret Life had been canceled,
but we were still had to film like ten episodes
or whatever, and so for the first time I was
kind of thinking about what was next, and I had
this idea about a show that I want to write
about this child, this girl who was like, you know,
almost thirty, who was playing like a fourteen year old
on a Disney show, who was just always like high
out of her mind. It was called Calver Collins Is High.
(16:21):
And I was pitching it to Zoe as an idea
and she was like, you should write it, and it
was just literally I knew she was so smart and
so talented. Her even thinking that I could do it,
it was like a light bulb went off in my head.
Nobody had ever said to me before, like have you
ever thought about it? I don't know. I just had
never had anybody that I believed in so much believe
in me in that way. And I remember she kind
(16:44):
of read the first draft of it and thought it
was really great, and I ended up just sending it
to my agents and everybody, of course, was like, we
love how There's there's no structure to this show, like
it's just very and I was like, because I don't
know what I'm doing, I don't know how, I don't
know how to write act breaks or anything. But I
end up CBS ended up buying it and we actually
(17:04):
went through sort of like they hired a showrunner and
I learned a lot. It never got made, but it
was immediately I was like, oh, this is so therapeutic
for me to write. I didn't even think about directing
it at that point, but just the writing process was
so fun for me, and I knew then that I
was like, I'm going to write forever, whether people are
(17:24):
reader it or not, Like this is something that I
can't not do. This is for me, Like this is
just so personal. And then that didn't get made, and
the fallout was something that I'd been thinking about. I
was still acting and just like taking like whatever kind
of roles came my way. And I was in Vancouver
at the Sutton Place, like film something I just couldn't
(17:46):
stop thinking about. I mean, obviously, unfortunately there wasn't one
specific event, but I started thinking about just the reality
of being a teenager in an American and going to
school every day. And I grew up, of course, like
a millennial and going to school in Canada, and I
never ever felt scared. I never felt scared going to school,
not once, never even entered my mind. And I think
(18:07):
I was starting to think about having kids and I
was like, well, fuck, like this is just I can't
believe this is actually a reality. I would for sure
not be able to go to school every day if
I was sixteen right now, Like I just knowing who
I am, I couldn't do it. And I just kind
of started thinking about how can I talk about this
in a way that's palatable, because it was so triggering
to me, Like I have a really hard time, you know,
(18:29):
watching stories about gun violence and school shootings, but yet
I felt like there hadn't been this story about kind
of somebody who wasn't directly affected by it necessarily, but
was obviously, you know, greatly affected by it. And so
just this veda character was very much a part of me,
and it was just a story that I wanted to tell.
(18:50):
And maybe it was nice that I am a millennial
and I am Canadian and had the sort of like
a removed perspective on it in a sense that helped
me to kind of of tap into that in some way.
But I talked to a lot of people who had
been through Beta's experience. I talked to a lot of
people involved with every town and did a lot of
research and had a lot of people read it and
(19:11):
give me notes and feedback, and unfortunately, there's so many
people who who could give perspective into this story, and
it was important to me to make it, you know,
not triggering for people who had been through that experience.
But once I thought about it and talked about it
so much, I wrote it in like a week or
maybe two weeks. It came really, really really fast because
(19:33):
I knew who all the people were, and it was
the same with mild Ass. Soon as I figure out
the characters, then everything just kind of flows. I never
write an outline and never like do anything like that.
I'm just kind of like, Okay, I know the people,
and now I can just sit and write a scene
and their voices will kind of come to me. But yeah,
that was sort of like the prime and then I yeah,
two weeks and then somebody wanted to make it. We
(19:54):
made it for a million dollars, which I was like,
that's so much money to make a movie. And then
I was like, oh, that's not a lot of You're.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Like, actually, when there's a whole giant set and locations
and rentals and transfer and gas you have to buy
for the transfer cars and the.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
People and like a lot like The Office.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
It suddenly you realize when you employ that many people,
you're building a world goes fast.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Yeah. I mean we shot that movie in like fifteen days,
I think, and we edited it and not even thirty
And I thought that was normal because it's just the
first time I'd directed something, but you know, it was
it was also really special to have such a small,
yeah crew like we had. It made it like a
really intimate, cool experience.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Which I think you can feel and the movie feels
so intimate, and I think for the subject matter of
The Fallout, that probably enabled people to feel a little
like safer to be open. What what was it like then,
because that film was, I mean a such an amazing film,
be so critically acclaimed, like it brings all the attention
(20:57):
and all the things and puts you in front of
so many people. How was the process different with my
old ass?
Speaker 2 (21:07):
It was? It was so different because I mean, yeah,
we took The Fallout to south By and won, you know,
the Grand Jury Award, and we won the Audience Favorite,
and also I won the Directing Award and I was
at home and the festival director called me because it
was you know, twenty twenty one. Everything was virtual. She
was like congratulations, you know you won, and it was like,
(21:29):
thank you, and then I hung up the phone and
went back to doing whatever.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
I just like finished my laundry.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Yeah, like I yeah, Whennie had just been born, my daughter,
and so yeah, it was a very very removed. I
like still don't feel like I made that movie and
it went out into the world like it's still shocks
and we were like the Fall and I still have
never seen that movie on the big screen with the
cast or an audience, which is also so surreal. The
whole thing was really really removed, but also kind of
(21:56):
freeing because I got to just I really was like
just so not in my head about it because I
was like, no, no one's going to see this movie. And
then HBO Max bought it and people saw, which was
really exciting. And then this time I was definitely having
like sophomore album anxiety because I was like, oh, fuck,
like this feels it was out of sort of the
COVID of it all. The set experience was really different.
(22:17):
We had like big time producers. I felt like there
was more eyes on me to you know, succeed or fail.
But luckily again I've got so lucky with the group
of people we were making it with where like creativity
was I was so protected from the bullshit of everything.
And we got to film it like in this small
town in Canada on a lake and we were like
voting to the boating to base camp and it was
(22:40):
just it was very disarming, I think for everybody. So
it was a really like incredible experience on set, and
then it was so I think it really honestly all
hit me at Sunbance opening it, which Hillary was there
with job, which was so sweet. But to sit there
in an audience and it was like a packed theater.
It was the biggest theater. I don't even know how
many people it was. I think it was like close
(23:02):
to a thousand or something, insane. And to have the
movie start and then then being like you have to
like go out and introduce it and you know, go
on stage afterwards, it's like, oh my god, people are
going to see this, which felt so it was terrifying.
It was probably the most top five terrifying moments of
my life for sure, that that first thirty seconds of
the film starting and then we got a laugh and
(23:22):
like part of me relaxed. I was like, Okay, here
we go, and then the roller coaster since then has
just been it's like amazing, it's it's been surreal. And
everybody kept saying, you know, this is a sundance experience,
and people dream about having like soak it up, you know,
to be in the middle of a bidding war and
having it was just the whole thing was I mean,
it was insane. It's hard to metabolize moments like that.
(23:44):
You know, it's really crazy.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Oh my gosh, where do you do you now being
not exactly on the other side of the process, but
you're at the point where now it's out in the world. Yeah,
you know, And you talk about you filmed this movie
three years ago, you know, up on a tiny lake
in Canada, like it was so removed and now it's everywhere.
Do you feel like you have a different perspective on
(24:10):
where the idea for the movie even came from.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Yeah, it's I feel like I don't know what parts
of myself I'm figuring out while I'm writing until much
later in the process, or I'm seeing certain parts of
myself in different characters every step of the way, And
I think it's yeah, I mean, so much of my
life has changed too since I made the movie, Like
(24:35):
I had a second kid, I lost my dad really
tragically and unexpectedly. So the movie definitely has like a
whole new meaning to me in a way that I
never could have expected or you know whatever. But I
think that, yeah, it's interesting even it felt like such
a moment in time. And really that movie had nothing
(24:56):
to do with the idea initially of talking to your older,
younger self or doing the mushrooms. No, it was really like,
there's two moments in the film. One is the idea
that there was a last time you played pretend with
your friends and you didn't know it was the last
time you played pretend, And like, how sad that made me.
It was that idea, and also that led to me
(25:18):
thinking like I was home during the pandemic and I
was like, oh my god, there was one night when
my family as a nuclear family before like my sister
moved off uent University or this, and that change that
we all slept here under this roof for the last
time and we didn't know that it was god like
as that you know, before things changed. And that thought
made me so sad and I was like fuck like,
(25:41):
and then I started thinking, if you know it's the
last time for me, I would it would definitely ruin it,
like I am somebody. I would be like no, like
I wouldn't be able to enjoy it. Yeah, And that
sort of snowballed into this idea of like how much
do you want to know about the past and the
future and and is there some sort of full ignorance
and like not knowing this something is the last time?
(26:03):
Or or is it nice to be able to savor it?
And just that kind of thought had me spitballing on
just that conversation. But really I was writing the movie
very much from like old ass's perspective, and I had
just become a mom, and I think so much of
this movie was like me reflecting on my childhood and
like you start to think about what kind of world
(26:23):
do you want to curate for your own children? And
I started thinking about this beautiful place in Canada that
I grew up in that I was so excited to leave,
and then I came back and I was like, it's
so magical here. Why did I ever want to leave?
So it was it was those feelings really that set
the tone like for me wanting to explore this weirdly,
like that was really the core of the whole movie
(26:45):
for me, and then everything else was just like an
avenue to explore that again in a palatable way, like
it's kind of a heavy, heavy thought, but I was like,
how can I how can I make this not so dark?
Speaker 1 (27:00):
But the interesting thing is the idea of lasts and
you know, the stuff you can't wait to leave and
then how much you miss it, Like they're so universal,
you know that obviously what happens in the film is
very specific. This group of friends that decides on one
of their last weekends to you know, have a slumber
party and take mushrooms. Like maybe not everyone's had that experience,
(27:23):
but I think the themes of the film are so universal.
We've all felt that sort of longing to leave the
nest and then the craving for the nest. And I
don't know, there's so much I want to talk to
you about in the movie, but that I don't feel
like I can talk about on the podcast because I
don't want to give anything away. But what has it
(27:46):
been like for you to see audience reactions? Because I'm
imagining you get some pretty emotional feedback. The movie is
so funny, and the second the second sort of fantasy sequence.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
I was cackling.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
It's such an uplifting film, but it does deal with
like some really you know, raw emotional ideas. So what
does feedback look like for you.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
I've had a lot of people sob to my face,
you know, like it's a lot of people which is
so beautiful, and it's almost like it's a huge responsibility.
You know, people have been really moved by the film,
which you don't ever at least I don't ever think about,
Like you don't even want to put your hopes there.
(28:35):
I wasn't trying to write something. You know, it's almost
too scary to think that anyone's going to even have
any reaction to anything you make. That's like too scary
a hope to have to be let down by that.
I think you think about jokes working or not working
because that's easier to try to nail. But the emotional stuff,
like you really and in the edit too, you can
kind of get a feel for the comedy of what's
(28:56):
working and what's not. But you really are just so
insulated in that process that you do not know how
that's going to hit people until you're in your real
first big screening like Sun Dance, but to hear people
actually during the there's a moment at the end that
I don't want to spoil, but there's like quite an
emotional moment, and there was it was so quiet that
(29:19):
I started getting nervous as something wasn't working. And then
I looked around and I saw people going like this,
and I thought, oh my god, people are laughing, and
I started freaking because I was like, oh, oh no,
this is like the pinnacle of the movie and if
this moment doesn't hit like, we've failed, we fucked up.
And then I realized that people were crying so hard
(29:39):
that it looked like they were like laughing, like they
were were eaving sobbing. And then it started to really
hit me. I was like, oh my god, this is
not fake. This is not like, oh, you know, sniffle,
people are being so gutturally, not everybody, but you could see,
you know, a lot of people really really really moved,
and it was again quite shocking and hard to metabolize.
(30:02):
And one of the most interesting things is we keep
joking about this, but it is not you know, it's amazing,
it's beautiful. But old men have fucking been destroyed by
this movie. Like men over sixty, I swear to God,
have the most viscerally emotional reactions to this movie because
I think there's something about regret and time specifically for
(30:23):
old men that really hits them in this film. And
we would never in a billion years like even think
to target. I'm like, to me, I'm making a movie,
and I'm like, if men like it, cool, but who cares,
Like that's not who I'm making movies for, so whatever,
But old men have really been fucking moved by this movie,
which has been really interesting to see and it's also
(30:45):
cool to see. There's such different takeaways for people. Like
when we tested the movie, young people really related to
the younger characters and definitely understood the bigger feelings of
like nostalgia and time passing, but they definitely had a
different takeaway than people who are sort of the old
asses as we would call them, the people over you know,
(31:06):
thirty five. I think that feeling of time becoming sort
of your worst enemy, that's really your only enemy as
you get older is time in so many ways, and
that was I think a big, really interesting takeaway for
the older audiences. But it's been really beautiful. And when
people come up and say, you know, I called my mom,
(31:27):
I called my dad, you know, I apologize my parents
were being such an asshole when I was younger, things
like that. It's really it's really beautiful and so surreal,
so surreal to see somebody like move to tears. It's insane.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
I mean, yeah, I wept no shock there.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Now. I've had many friends send me these voice notes
after the movie and they're like, they can't even they
can't even breathe. Their crimes are and I never know
where there to be. It is like amazing. It's so
cool to hear people so moved. But you're also like,
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to like fuck you up.
So it's so hard, but it's I know, my bad.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
And now a word from our sponsors. When you talk
about how you wrote it, you know you relate so much,
obviously to Aubrey's character, to the older of these two women.
(32:28):
If you ever had the opportunity to go back and
talk to your seventeen year old self, what do you
think you would say.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
I would say some things that I couldn't say on
this podcast that I would say.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
To you, love it.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
You and I both can't wait to talk about it
in an hour.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
I think you could probably know all of them. I
think I would try to encourage myself to live more
consciously and to be more aware that life doesn't necessarily
have to happen to you, like you can make things happen.
(33:06):
I feel like I was almost late to kind of
become alert and become aware, and I was just sort
of following whatever kind of came to me. And I
wish that I could sort of like wake myself up
a little bit and be like, life, whatever you want
to have happened in life, you can make have happened.
(33:26):
Life isn't happening to you. And I was really inspired
by Mazie because she and a lot of younger people
that I've worked with, they are so alert and aware
and so conscious, and she and also so blissfully young
and naive in so many beautiful ways. I think the
movie touches on it's like this bravery that young people have,
(33:48):
but it was really cool to I was just not
like that at her age, Like it was amazing working
with her and she was already kind of like, oh,
you know, like my mom and really like connected with
those feelings of like, I don't want to be an
asshole my mom and time is going by so quickly
and really knows what she wants and is like going
after it. And it was really inspiring and beautiful to
work with so many young people who already have that,
(34:09):
and it made me wish I could go back, and
I wish like a seventeen year old we could hang
out with seventeen year old Mazy and be inspired by
that energy.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Yes, I totally get that, you know, even you saying
that you wish you could tell your younger self that
you can be a little more in control. I feel
like I've intellectually understood that that was true. I don't
think I've understood that that was true for me until
the last I don't know, twelve eighteen months. Maybe, Yeah,
(34:40):
like I realize that, and it's even a thing I
like about myself. I My reaction is often to serve,
to be in community, to gather, to want to, you know,
create goodness in the face of things that are. But
(35:02):
I've really thought a lot this year about, well, what
if it wasn't so reactive, and what if I shifted
into more proactivity, Like what if I cared about my
own life the way I care about everyone else's lives.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
You know, yes, no, it's exactly that I mean. And
you know it's so funny is everyone's notes to me
always in scripts, are your lead characters aren't active enough?
They're so reactive? They always tell me that, and I'm like, well,
that's part of the journey. But yeah, I feel the
same way, like I say, you don't say yeah, and
(35:37):
I think that's I don't know if it's like also
our generation. I hate to like say, are but there wasn't.
I don't know. I felt like, especially being an actor
and just being a young woman at the time that
we were, and I don't know, really like in that position,
I never felt like I could say anything like I
(35:57):
was just I was just there and people were telling
you what to do, and it was not the vibe
to even have an opinion. So maybe that's why I
didn't let myself go there.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Well, what I also think is sort of wild is
at least for me, I'm like, oh, I had plenty
of opinions, but it was.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Always a fight.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
It was always so hard to even be heard that
the idea that you could fight for more than just
being heard, not even necessarily being listened to, but the
idea that you could take control and write a narrative
for yourself. Like it never, it didn't cross my mind
for so long.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
No, I think it's just crossing my mind right now. Actually,
as we're having these conversations good morning, I just look up.
Yeah I know, No, it's I mean, and yeah, it's
it's it changes so much. I actually this thought as
I was driving the other day because I've realized, like
you were saying, sort of your go to is to serve,
and now my go to as I'm processing some many
(37:00):
crazy changes in my life and different things, is like I immediately,
instead of dealing with them myself, I like create a
character or multiple characters that are all pieces of me,
and I like come up with a story that is
not a direct reflection of what I'm trying to figure out,
and then I work out what I'm going through through
that story, which is what I've done in both of
(37:21):
my movies and when I look back on it, but
I was like, what is what do other people do?
Because I'm like, if I didn't have this, if I
didn't have this ability to write and create these characters
and have these conversations that I want to be having
with people secretly, you know, with two other people, or
about something else. But it's really about what I want
to talk about. Yeah, layered in, I don't know what
(37:43):
I would do because it's like the only coping mechanism
in so many ways, maybe the healthiest coping mechanism that
I have.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
I think yours is a really good one. Like I
have not known what to do with myself for a week,
and so yesterday I spent six hours that my storage
in it like cleaning out, making donation piles, organizing. Right,
I was like I needed a tactile, physical thing, and
(38:11):
I'm like, god, it would be so cool if instead
I just wrote myself a movie.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
I mean, let's do that. No, that's what I do.
It's it's but it's so yeah, it's a you could
totally do that. You could totally do that. I believe
that you could. We can do that together. But yeah,
it's really it's an interesting And I also like, literally
as I'm writing, I will put on one song on
(38:36):
repeat for like thousands of times, and it helps me
to just like literally go into another dimension and like
figure shit out, and then I like, what was your
song for my old best It's it's so so random
that I don't think anyone knows it besides Macie. I've
never said it. Okay, I'll tell you if you want.
(38:57):
It's not like that embarrassing. It's a good song.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
I mean, he's up to you. If you want it
out in the.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
World, I'll put it on in the world. Okay. So
I mad respect to this artist. I actually I think
it's the only song of hers I have on my playlist.
I don't know how it came into my stratosphere. I
don't know how it got on there. And I don't
even know why it was this song because there's nothing
to do with the movie at all. It was The
Bones by Maren Morris. Oh my god, love great song.
(39:23):
But just like how random is that I would put
on the Bones and I would write for I mean,
I listened that song thousands. There was also a few
like later on that came in like it was sometimes changed,
but I remember initially and I would always screenshot that
and send it to people, like a few people who
knew what and they'd be like, oh, you're writing you know,
and for the fallout. It was like something else, really random.
It was like some kind of rap song. I don't know,
(39:44):
it's so funny.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
But the Bones, I'm going to have to tell Maren.
She came on the show, and I just think she's
the best, absolutely the best We're all going to have
to have.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
She's the best, and I owe her so much. Thanks
for like helping me write the movie. The song should
have been in the movie, but we did an all
Canadian soundtracks, so that's the only reason why The Bones
was not in the movie. But great songs.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Sweet Okay, So Maren Morris influenced the film.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
We love that.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Also, we have to talk about the fact that Margot
Robbie produced this movie with you.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
What is it like.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
Working with her? Like, what how does she work as
a producer like tell us? Because obviously we know she
has an amazing track record from this incredible film to
you know, the biggest blockbuster of all time, Barbie. What
is she like as a collaborator.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
I wish I could say she sucks.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
Well, she clearly doesn't.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
She's the opposite of that. Like she is. She's so
amazing and I've known her now for three years and
there's not a fucking crack, you know what I mean,
Like it's very real. She's just like an amazing, amazing human.
She's really kind. She just just like she is such
like a nerdy cinophile, like she loves movies. She's such
(40:59):
a hard worker. She was on set with us up there,
you know, at the monitor. She was using my bunkie
as her office and literally cleaning it, making my bed,
cleaning my bathroom for me so that when I came
home it was like nice at the end of the day,
it brought me a present to set. Like every single
day it would be like, I, here's some gluten free,
dairy free banana bread I got you at the farms market.
(41:21):
I'd be like, thank you. But she's so so smart,
and she has really incredible notes and thoughts. But she's
also very hands off and very protective of, you know,
the creativity and like that sort of sacredness of a set.
She treats everybody the same. There's no hierarchy, which is
how I love sets to be and how I want
(41:42):
them to be. And she's a dream of her and
her husband Tom, who was up on set, and Bronte
Payne and Josie that the company they're all amazing, and
it's just really real. And they really protected me and
protected the process and the film and just believed in
me such an incredible way. Right on the heels of
(42:02):
the fall, they saw that film and just reached out
and we're like, what do you want to do next?
And I mean, I'm doing my TV show with them
and my next movie with them. So I think that's
like they're it's not a surprise to me that they
get so much repeat business because they just they are
like the real, the real fucking deal. They're so great, They're.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
So great, so happy. That's wonderful. You would love, Margo,
And that's exactly how it should be, you know. And
I love that we're in a moment, and I mean
the moment has been years in the making, but it
really does feel like so many great groups of creative
women are building teams. Yeah, and we all know what
(42:43):
it's like not to have that, So to not only
to see your people have it, but also to see
the work that is then created out of it is
so like relieving to me.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
It's incredible, like what their company set out to do
and what she set out to do and is doing
to such a high, you know level, and the amount
of multitasking that she does is truly inspiring and just
how much of her heart she puts in everything. And
then there's also so much support behind the scenes too,
(43:16):
Like it's not just she really is, like you know
when we're like supporting Maisie, you know, like helping her
now as an actress to get like the right team together,
and just so she's just she's doing so much, not
for herself. She really like walks the walk, you know,
she's really behind the scenes also doing so much incredible
(43:37):
work and support of female filmmakers and just trying to
like make good shit and and help people tell the
stories they want to tell. And she's not always in
everything that she's making. It's not about her, it's about
like helping other people have She's using her platform to
just like genuinely help as many people as she can
that she believes in. And it's like such it's there's
(43:59):
not that many people who are doing that in such
a real and authentic and like high caliber. She was
like taking production meetings for a movie in her Barbie trailer,
like in her wardrobe. Who are you like me? Just
never stops. It's really amazing.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
I love it. I love it. And what a cool
thing too, for Mazie to get to really dive in
with like in this stage. I can't imagine being, you know,
eighteen and like being with you and Margo, like it
would have been so cool.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
She is the sweetest and it's funny because she even
jokes about it now she's what almost almost twenty one now,
And yeah, she was like I thought I was so
like I was like Elliott, you know, I was like,
I haven't all figured out as a memehile she was
very much going through so many of the exact same
things that Elliott was experiencing at eighteen, and you know, yeah,
(44:55):
she's handled this with so much grace. And I remember
asking her, like, did you feel so nervous that you were,
like I'd never been number one on a call sheet
of like a major movie, Like I'd never had to
carry that. So I really tried to like not put
that pressure on her. Yeah, and she was like, yeah,
she was like I was so fucking scared every single day,
Like I really was so so nervous and wanted do
(45:15):
a good job. But you'd never have known, Like she
just really was cool, calm, collected and just so open
and joyous. But it's been really beautiful to kind of watch.
I mean I knew it from like the first day.
I was like, I can't wait to watch her when
the Golden Globe for like something at some point at
the Oscar like this, what she can do is is
so endless, and she reminded me so much of Jenna,
(45:39):
who obviously has just like gone on to do incredible,
incredible things. So I feel like I have become her
old ass and she is my young ass, and it's
really fun to like watch just all these amazing things
happened to such a talented, deserving person.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
How do you think because knowing what it's like to
be on a set from a young age as you do,
as I do, how do you think you wanted to
cultivate freedom and as little self consciousness as possible for Mazie,
knowing what the pressure can do in such an intimate way.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
I mean I had to have like some serious conversations
with like people before about like people don't take I
had very very strict guidelines on like how any kind
of scene that might make me see feel vulnerable would
be shot? Who would be there? And I got pushed
back from people sometimes, you know, people in certain department
heads like, no, this is my job, and I was like,
(46:37):
I don't care, Like this is how it's going to be,
and this is what's going to make her comfortable, and
this is what's important to me. And so it was
interesting that there was some pushback on that because there
is like a way things are done historically on sets,
and if you try to buck against that, a lot
of old school people just like, don't, don't vibe with it.
But again, that's when you have great producers who are always
(46:57):
there to back you up and protect that. But I
put it, like honestly top of my list because I
was in so many really icky, uncomfortable situations as a
young actor that have stayed with me forever, and I
never wanted to ever put anybody, any actor of any age,
but especially a young woman in that position. And so
(47:18):
it was a constant, constant check in with her to
make sure she was comfortable. And yeah, you just know,
as an actor there's even little things like if you
don't feel confident in a certain piece of wardrobe or
you feel self conscious, that will throw your whole fucking
vibe or your whole day, like if it's not you know,
part of the care and you're supposed to be feeling good.
You know. There's things like that that I think. And
(47:42):
also something that's so specific to me and how I
like to run things on set is I used to
find that like the small talk when they would put
all the actors' chairs together, you know, when trailers are
like too far away, base camps too far as I
have has to be on location, and so they're just like, Okay,
here's a small room. We're gonna put everyone's chair in here,
and like for the the ten hours that were not
actually shooting of the day, everyone's going to be stuck
(48:03):
in this room and making small talk. And I found
that to be so draining as an actor, especially when
I was making especially thinking about the fallout and the
energy on set. It was really heavy shit, you know,
and I wanted people to be able to preserve their
preserve themselves, and so I always make sure that every
actor has their own space if the trailers aren't around.
(48:27):
So and everybody gets so annoyed with me because it
is a hassle. You know, if you have a lot
of people there that day, it's like, well, we don't
have enough space. And it's like just put a pop
up tent somewhere over there in the trees and put
a chair, and if people want to hang out, they
can hang out, you know, and they can put their
chairs together, they can go to crafty. But give everybody,
all the actors some space, because like acting cannot be
(48:48):
not be on set, cannot be an introverts like favorite
place sometimes. So I try to like just do stuff
like that that I remember feeling really uncomfortable, you know
with as an actor or just very drained by and
some of it's like weird and quirky and little things
like that. But and I just always listen to them
and check in with them and talk to them, and
(49:10):
you know, if it's like I'm not going to put
them on the spot in front of them, it's like,
let's let's go over here and let's like talk away
from everybody, like how are you feeling? For real? What
do you need? Just constantly kind of having those conversations
and creating that sense of trust and safety from even
the pre production, you know, like amazing. And I just
sat in a boat house for three days and talked
to the script and there was moments of the character's
(49:34):
life that she could experience in moments that she hadn't
shared with anyone else. That's share with me. And there
are parts that she hadn't experienced and that you know,
she was asking me about that I could kind of
talk to her about. So we really created like a deep,
you know, trust and sense of understanding right away. And
I really like cherish that and take it very seriously,
and especially with young young people.
Speaker 1 (49:55):
I love that, and I think it's so important. It's
like this idea that you're always supposed to be on
and always supposed to have time for everyone and always
supposed to be perfect and conversing, and the amount of
mental gymnastics that it takes to do our job, for
some reason, is not often taken seriously, and if you
try to take it seriously, you'll often get a lot
(50:17):
of pushback. And so I think for someone in your position,
for a director to say, no, I'm gonna I'm going
to take that expected performance on this away so my
performers can do their job when the cameras are rolling,
and then the rest they have space to decide what
they need. That's really pretty profound. Hats off to you.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
My friend, thank you. I want to get on a
set with you and let's say no, okay to say
a space and make profound shit hopefully.
Speaker 1 (50:47):
Oh my god so much. Well, I mean, the idea
of that feels amazing to me. I realized I was
responding to you personally and starting to ask a question,
and was like, I just combined the two and in
one sentence.
Speaker 3 (50:59):
My brain is mad potatoes since last week I.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
Have two sick children. My veriest mashed potatoes.
Speaker 3 (51:04):
Great.
Speaker 1 (51:05):
By the way, I'm loving the Christmas cup. I saw
this woman out in public on Friday. It was my
first time leaving the house, and she had her Starbucks
cup and we looked at each other and we just nodded,
and I was like, your Christmas cup is my first
joy in four days, and I'm going to go home
and put up a Christmas tree because I need it.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
I ubered this Starbucks one Starbucks, which was pretty fucked up,
but I really needed it. You know. I've been up
since four thirty this morning with two six children, and
I was like, I'm going to treat myself. And when
it came in the Christmas bag with the Christmas it did,
it brought me a little bit of joy. I realized
that it's that time. Yeah, it's my first one of
the season, and it brought me a lot of joy.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
It's that time, and I'm like, I might need to
put up a tree like today and now a word
from our wonderful sponsors. We're sort of in this amazing
moment for you right where you're your creation. This film
(52:09):
Child is out in the world and you're, like you said,
fifty pages into the next and you're working on all
these things that are to come. And I think as
a as a creative, it's it's almost like a really
delicious limbo.
Speaker 2 (52:23):
That you're in right now.
Speaker 1 (52:25):
So when you think about this moment, this sort of suspension,
and you look out at what's to come, what feels
like you're work in progress.
Speaker 2 (52:36):
My work in progress is actually trying to not focus
on what's happening right now with the success of the
movie in any in any way besides supporting the movie,
because it is so important for me to you know,
maybe like there's been so much love put into this
(52:57):
movie by so many people, and this does feel like
a child to me, So I want to put everything
I can behind it to make sure that it gets
like seen by people who want to see it. But
I think it's really easy in this in this industry,
in this town to get caught up in sort of
what's not real and the stuff that is not serving
(53:18):
me as an artist or as like a human. And
I also think that I'm not really you know, I
don't think yet I don't have even had the skill
set to be like a writer and director for hire,
you know, Like, I think what is so exciting to
me is creating these worlds and people and it's so
(53:39):
personal and therapeutic that I have to kind of block
out all of the other stuff and just focus on
the stuff that I'm dealing with internally and channeling through
these characters in this new world that I'm creating. And yeah,
it might, it might take a little bit of time.
And I think there's always this like, you know, take
advantage of the moment and keep your foot on the gas,
(54:01):
and these opportunities only come around, you know, once in
a lifetime. And that may be true. And I've been
really enjoying the ride and it's been really beautiful and
I'm soaking in it as if it may never happen again.
But for me, the part that I love more than
anything is the writing. It's like the part where I'm
listening to the bones seven hundred times and I'm hearing
(54:24):
these voices and I'm figuring out things about myself and
I'm alone in a room with my computer. That is
like the most sacred of the process for me. And
it's not very glamorous, and nobody kind of sees it happen,
and so it feels like it never really happens. But
I'm trying to just focus on that. And maybe it'll
(54:44):
take me three years to write this next thing. Maybe
it'll finish it by December. I don't really know, but
that part of it has to be protected because then
I think that's when you lose like what you make
and what's what makes your stuff, I guess specific and
unique is knowing what you can do and knowing what
(55:07):
you can't do. And I know what I can do,
and what I can do is I can like open
my computer and figure out my shit through fake people
that I create. So I just have to keep doing
that and then hopefully when it's done, it's done and
people like it. But that's out of my control. But
what is in my control is that special sacred part
of it. So that is very much my work in
(55:30):
progress is to just turn off the noise and just
keep doing that because I need to do it. I
need to do it. It's not even like a want,
it's like a need for me.
Speaker 1 (55:39):
Yeah, I think that's very inspiring.
Speaker 2 (55:44):
Give it a try. Put on the boat, see what happens.
Speaker 1 (55:47):
Honestly done, I'm excited for what's next for you though.
I'm very very exciting.
Speaker 2 (55:53):
Thank you. We'll come play anytime.
Speaker 3 (55:57):
I'm coming. I'm ready to get on a boat. Let's
do it.
Speaker 2 (56:00):
I mean, there are some boats and the next thing
I'm writing, you think I would be smart enough to
be scared from filming on boats ever again, because that
shit is really annoying. But it just looks It just
looks so beautiful.
Speaker 3 (56:10):
It just looks so good.
Speaker 2 (56:12):
Though a mazy he had so much fun on that
piece of shit. Tenner. She was just having the time
of her life.
Speaker 1 (56:17):
Yeah, by the way, that's what I mean. I'm not
talking like I don't expect a yacht. I'm like, give
me that little pup pup boat.
Speaker 2 (56:23):
It was, so let's go. I don't need a yacht.
Yachts are boring. You get to drive or so boring.
Speaker 1 (56:31):
I think they should all be impounded for tax, but
that's a separate converse.
Speaker 2 (56:34):
One hundred percent, they should go.
Speaker 3 (56:38):
I love you, Thank you, I love you.
Speaker 2 (56:41):
It was so nice to see your beautiful face and
your famous to me background.
Speaker 1 (56:46):
Also, I would be remiss at the end of day's
episode not to say thank you all so much for
the fan feedback on Lego Masters.
Speaker 3 (56:54):
You guys know that Lego was my.
Speaker 1 (56:57):
Obsession as a child, is still such source of joy
for me as an adult, and getting to compete on
the show was honestly the most amazing fun adventure for me.
I can't believe I had to keep this a secret
from you all for a full year because we taped
this special last December. But I can't wait for you
all to see Episode Tuba air next week on Tuesday,
(57:19):
December seventeenth on Fox. You can also stream it on Hulu.
There are surprises coming, friends, So for my fellow Lego
fans out there, let's go
Hi everyone, It's Sophia. Welcome to work in Progress. Hi
with smarties. I'm so so excited about the gal I'm
sitting down with today because not only is she, I think,
(00:23):
one of the voices of our generation as a writer
and a director, she happens to be a dear friend.
We have known each other for so long. Today's guest
is none other than writer and director of The Fallout
and her latest My Old Ass, Megan Park. You may
know Megan from her early days starring on the Secret
(00:46):
Life of the American Teenager. You also may know her
if you are a one Tree Health fan as Tyler
Hilton's incredible wife. She is truly one of the most earnest, passionate,
funny friends I have in my life, who happens to
write so openly that, even though every single one of
(01:06):
her stories is so unique and isn't something we've seen before,
every single person who watches her films feels reflected in them,
which is probably why they have such unbelievably high ratings
on Rotten Tomatoes. And Megan has made her latest film
with none other than producer extraordinary Margo Robbie. I can't
wait to ask her all about Sundance, all about writing,
(01:30):
how she finds each of these fascinating characters, and her
creative process in general. Let's dive in with Megan Park.
(01:50):
It is honestly, it's like so weird to talk about
work right now, but also kind of incredibly healing. Like
the week was really weird, and I had planned to
go to the Wicked premiere and I was like, I
don't know if I can. What do I We're going
to the movies, And then I was like, actually, the
(02:11):
movies are exactly where I want to be, and this
movie that's based or this movie that's based on a
play that was based on the movie that was written
in response to the Rise of Hitler actually feels like
exactly where I want to go. Like I got there
and I was like, we're here for like all the
musical theater people and all of the artists and all
(02:32):
of the gays and all of the witches that they
couldn't burn, Like this was the movie that I needed. Yeah,
and it really did. I felt like it really healed me.
And then I felt so good after having seen a
movie that the next night I watched your movie. I
was like, this is exactly what I needed again, So
(02:53):
I think I'm just going to become a film buff
for the next four years.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
It's like I have this whole mentality when I go
in Stad where I'm like, I think it's really important
to remember that we're not saving lives like I tried,
you know, in terms of like we're not Yes, there's
going to be fires and things that go wrong, but
there's nothing that can't be solved. But it is interesting
because I have been thinking like post selection and just
whatever the state of the world. I'm like, well we
are art does save lives, you know, and it really
(03:19):
there is that gravity to it. Yeah, you can still
have that mentality on set of not like you know,
putting out fires with that kind of yeah, like prenetic mentality.
But I do feel like now, more than ever, it's
reaffirmed my belief that I'm like, oh, yeah, it's so
important to work the shit out and make art that
feels makes people feel seen, especially people that are trying
(03:42):
to be you know, stomped out of existence in America.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah. What a weird what a weird time. Well, the
movie feels more important I think now than ever, and
for me, especially stories that you know, send her women
and are led by and feel so important. But before
we get into how you made this perfect film and
all of my questions about it, I actually want to
like rewind in a big way, which might be more
(04:10):
surreal for you than some people, because I wonder how
it'll make you think about your own family. We got
to know you as an actor so young. Ye, I'm
actually really curious if we go back even further, Like
if we could do what your movie does and you
could sit down with nine year old Megan, who would
(04:33):
she be? Was she a storyteller? Was she a performer?
Was she a bookworm?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Like?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Who's the little girl that you were? And do you
see how she turned into the adult.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
That you are. I thought a little bit about this
because everybody keeps asking, you know, like would you want
to go back and you know, talk to your younger self?
Would you want to talk to your older self? And
I feel like me and Amazing and Aubrey have all
been like we rejacked the idea of going forward because
it gets too scary because after your older self, but
it would be so therapeutic. It feels like a therapy
exercise to go back and talk to your childhood self.
(05:06):
I think it's interesting because when you're from a small
town and you don't have anybody in your family who's
in the industry, but you have a desire to be
in the arts in some capacity, you end up a
theater camp. And I think that's sort of what happened
to me, is like, my dad was a dentist, my
mom was a teacher. Nobody was I didn't know. We
(05:28):
didn't have a TV in our house. The first time
I saw a movie in the theater, I was twelve.
Although they took us to tons of theater and tons
of ballet and the opera and things like that in Toronto,
I just TV in film was not really at the
forefront of like how I absorbed the arts, I guess,
but I ended up in theater camp and that led
(05:49):
to like being a full year round theater program, and
that led to me being like, Okay, I really like this.
And then you know, there's so many things that film
in Toronto that like need to hire Canadian people, and
so I started getting jobs. And when you have some
six set it becomes like a bit of a like
a you know, like okay, this is working, like this
is I'm having fun doing this. And I got to
(06:11):
meet so many incredible people that felt like my people
for the first time. This is when I was older.
I mean, my parents didn't let me start acting professionally
until I was sixteen or seventeen, which is young now
in hindsight, but I certainly wasn't doing it on a
professional level at nine. But I think that performing was
like the pathway to finding what I was meant to do,
(06:34):
which was writing and directing. But even and you'll probably
relate to this, like, really, I was in TV for
most of my acting career, and I was on a
lot of shows where creativity wasn't necessarily always at the
forefront of what was the most important thing. And a
lot of times, you know, after six or seven seasons
of a show, the actors are really running the set,
(06:56):
and so the directors would sweet some directors that would
come in and and have really exciting ideas and stuff.
But I never really saw the director in a lot
of situations as somebody who was getting to really be
super creative. So I never I look back, and I'm like,
that's so crazy that I never really want I had
end no desire. I never would have expected that I
(07:18):
would end up directing or writing. The writers were just
like we were on the sound stage in the lot,
they were in another area. We never really saw them.
It wasn't that type of a set where it was
a super like the writers were constantly there, you know,
throwing out dialogue. So it was very separate. And then
but I just absorbed so much. I mean I spent
(07:38):
like seven years making you know, twenty seven episodes of
TV show, a TV and a season, and I feel
so comfortable on a set, like I know everybody's role
inside and out, and worked with so many different types
of actors. So it was like this weird you know education,
but I'm not like a cinophile. Nobody in my family
was like I just saw Forrest Gump for the first time,
(08:00):
catching up on the classics, and so I was always like,
I can't direct, like I don't know anything. But yeah,
I think that acting it had to go the way
that it went because I never would have just I
never would have been like I'm going to go to
film school and I'm going to study cameras and lenses.
I would have it just wouldn't have interested me. But
(08:21):
once I found it through acting, I was like, oh,
this makes sense. In a way that acting, truthfully never has.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Yeah, do you think that why do you think that is?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Like?
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Was was acting too small a project for you? Do
you think that directing gave you the full like the
full scope? This is going to sound so stupid. I
don't know why this just popped into my head, but
the image that I had when I did this, I
was like, I mactored like a piece of pizza and
(08:52):
then a whole pizza, Like you know, is directing just
more slices for you?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah, I think that there was. I thought a lot
about it because as I've been doing press, a big
press cycle for the first time because the Fallout came
out during the pandemic and I was able to not
have to really do any of that, I've been so
triggered again in the same way as an actor, which
is like getting my hair and makeup done, being in
fittings like that stuff is so it truly is like
(09:18):
it's not my favorite part of it. And I think that, Yeah,
I think that as an actor, I would watch my
peers be so driven to like get these roles. And
I remember shay Shane Woodley, who was on Secret Life
with me. She specifically that movie The Descendants that really
broke her out. She was so young, she was like
(09:38):
sixteen or seventeen, and she auditioned and like didn't even
get a call back, and she was like, no, like
I know, this is my part, and she went to
a new acting class and like fought to get a callback.
And I was kind of like just sort of there
for the ride, like I would be on side and
be like, this is fun, but there was nothing about
it was that felt like it was fulfilling to me creatively.
(10:01):
I was having a lot of fun doing it. I
was meeting really interesting people, I was having some success
doing it, but I really hated certain elements of it
as well, Like I really hated the hair and makeup trailer.
I hated fittings, Like I just didn't love that part
of it. And then truthfully, the first time I directed,
I was like, wait a second. I get to be
(10:21):
on set, which I love. I get to work with actors,
which I love. I get to work with other creatives
and be collaborative, which I love. And I don't have
to go through two hours of hair makeup in the
morning or ever do a fitting like I'm already this
is oh yeah, wait I love this so much. And
it's not that like, I don't know, shame on the
hair and makeup part of it. Maybe I'm just like
two insecure for that side of it. And I could
(10:42):
never ever put myself in one of my own projects.
You've always asked me, Yes, that's like my personal nightmare. God,
it's just something I'm I'm objective enough, you know.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
It's really interesting. I have a friend who's such a
talented right now and such an amazing comedian, and he's
doing a show right now that he's also writing on
and he was like, Oh, this is really hard and
to do all of it, yeah, and to do it
at the same time because he obviously writes his comedy,
(11:15):
He's written his specials, right he writes them and then
he performs them. And he was saying that having I'm
a huge fan the best and he was just saying
that having to do both is like so hard. Yeah,
So I get that. It really made me think. And
not to say that it's in any way, shape or
form the same as I think it would be now.
(11:37):
But one of the things I think they did really
well for us when we were making One Tree Hill
is that when we finally started directing. They really would
do their best to kind of stack our scenes so
that we could do two heavy days of acting and
then we'd have seven days of just directing on set.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Right, And yeah, I can't.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Imagine like having to perform in a scene and then.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Be like, hold on, was that funny?
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Let me rewrite my own lines right now on the fly,
like I would die.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
I know. I think people that can do it, I
feel like it's it's so admirable because you really do
have to like really be removed from yourself and take
a step back, and I so admire people that can
do it, and a lot of people can do it
really well. For me, it's like I also I find
the actors that I cast become such muses to me,
(12:25):
and I'm just like too insecure to be my own muse.
Like you know what I mean, I can enny good
one began.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
I don't know, you really nailed that, girl, pat yourself
on the back.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
And nailed it. But yeah, it does take the ability
to switch brains, and I think I just turned off
the acting side of my brain too. I don't miss
it yet. Maybe someday I will, but I just don't
miss it. I don't miss it yet.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Wow, you know what's funny.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
I I don't think I let myself miss it. I
think we did One Tree Hill for so long, and
I wonder if you felt this way it was secret life,
Like we did it for so so long that I
looking back, there's like certain projects I did on hiatus
that I never should have, but I was just so
desperate to like do anything else that I was like,
I don't even care if the script isn't that good.
(13:09):
It's the only movie that shoots in the days that
I'm off. And then it was like I jumped into
a show. Immediately I went onto Partners, and then immediately
I went onto PD. Like I did not take a
break for fifteen years, dangs, And now I've kind of
allowed myself to take time in between things, and like
(13:29):
the strike forced us all to take time.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
But even this year, I.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Had these two movies planned and then one had to
shift because you know what it's like with production and
locations and whatever. And the space I got in the
shift actually was such a gift to me. And now
I'm doing this fun thing on grays and like I
went to set.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
And I was like, oh my god, acting is so.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Fun, And it had only been three months in between
the movie wrapping and the show. But I find that
my bounce back into really enjoying what we do on
set is faster and faster than it used to be.
So I do wonder if you'll find that.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
I think so. And I think also, these projects take
so long that it feels like you get as I'm
you know, now, I'm already like I started a new
project this week, and I'm already, you know, fifty pages
into my next film. But you do have these I mean,
we shot this movie almost three years ago or three
years ago, and so it takes so long that and
(14:30):
so much of it for me is in the writing
of it, like in before you're ever even on set. Yeah,
so it feels like it's yeah, there's a sense of completion,
you know, and you do get to kind of breathe
through it and really see it, and once you put
it out in the world, it already feels like it's
in my brain. I've already moved on to the next
creative thing. And I spend so much time in that
quiet space. I'm not sitting in my computer writing every day.
(14:51):
I'm that's not at all my process, Like I spend
so much time just kind of living and thinking about
the characters and just figure out what the next story
I want to tell is. And I think that's why
I've been so like passionate about the things that I
have been able to work on, because it's I've had
that room to breathe in between.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
And now a word from our sponsors who make the
show possible.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
How did that start for you?
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Like?
Speaker 1 (15:25):
How did you go from TV? You know, set life,
actor life. Where did the writing come from? How did
you know that this is where you wanted to go?
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I didn't really, but truthfully I don't. I'm feeling I'm
figuring out my own brain, still in my writer brain.
But I worked with this actress writer director named Zoe
Kazan who's very talented, and we played sisters, and I
just was so obsessed with her and looked up to
her so much, and I thought she was like the
smartest person I'd ever met. She's very smart and very cool.
(16:00):
And I was just coming Secret Life had been canceled,
but we were still had to film like ten episodes
or whatever, and so for the first time I was
kind of thinking about what was next, and I had
this idea about a show that I want to write
about this child, this girl who was like, you know,
almost thirty, who was playing like a fourteen year old
on a Disney show, who was just always like high
out of her mind. It was called Calver Collins Is High.
(16:21):
And I was pitching it to Zoe as an idea
and she was like, you should write it, and it
was just literally I knew she was so smart and
so talented. Her even thinking that I could do it,
it was like a light bulb went off in my head.
Nobody had ever said to me before, like have you
ever thought about it? I don't know. I just had
never had anybody that I believed in so much believe
in me in that way. And I remember she kind
(16:44):
of read the first draft of it and thought it
was really great, and I ended up just sending it
to my agents and everybody, of course, was like, we
love how There's there's no structure to this show, like
it's just very and I was like, because I don't
know what I'm doing, I don't know how, I don't
know how to write act breaks or anything. But I
end up CBS ended up buying it and we actually
(17:04):
went through sort of like they hired a showrunner and
I learned a lot. It never got made, but it
was immediately I was like, oh, this is so therapeutic
for me to write. I didn't even think about directing
it at that point, but just the writing process was
so fun for me, and I knew then that I
was like, I'm going to write forever, whether people are
(17:24):
reader it or not, Like this is something that I
can't not do. This is for me, Like this is
just so personal. And then that didn't get made, and
the fallout was something that I'd been thinking about. I
was still acting and just like taking like whatever kind
of roles came my way. And I was in Vancouver
at the Sutton Place, like film something I just couldn't
(17:46):
stop thinking about. I mean, obviously, unfortunately there wasn't one
specific event, but I started thinking about just the reality
of being a teenager in an American and going to
school every day. And I grew up, of course, like
a millennial and going to school in Canada, and I
never ever felt scared. I never felt scared going to school,
not once, never even entered my mind. And I think
(18:07):
I was starting to think about having kids and I
was like, well, fuck, like this is just I can't
believe this is actually a reality. I would for sure
not be able to go to school every day if
I was sixteen right now, Like I just knowing who
I am, I couldn't do it. And I just kind
of started thinking about how can I talk about this
in a way that's palatable, because it was so triggering
to me, Like I have a really hard time, you know,
(18:29):
watching stories about gun violence and school shootings, but yet
I felt like there hadn't been this story about kind
of somebody who wasn't directly affected by it necessarily, but
was obviously, you know, greatly affected by it. And so
just this veda character was very much a part of me,
and it was just a story that I wanted to tell.
(18:50):
And maybe it was nice that I am a millennial
and I am Canadian and had the sort of like
a removed perspective on it in a sense that helped
me to kind of of tap into that in some way.
But I talked to a lot of people who had
been through Beta's experience. I talked to a lot of
people involved with every town and did a lot of
research and had a lot of people read it and
(19:11):
give me notes and feedback, and unfortunately, there's so many
people who who could give perspective into this story, and
it was important to me to make it, you know,
not triggering for people who had been through that experience.
But once I thought about it and talked about it
so much, I wrote it in like a week or
maybe two weeks. It came really, really really fast because
(19:33):
I knew who all the people were, and it was
the same with mild Ass. Soon as I figure out
the characters, then everything just kind of flows. I never
write an outline and never like do anything like that.
I'm just kind of like, Okay, I know the people,
and now I can just sit and write a scene
and their voices will kind of come to me. But yeah,
that was sort of like the prime and then I yeah,
two weeks and then somebody wanted to make it. We
(19:54):
made it for a million dollars, which I was like,
that's so much money to make a movie. And then
I was like, oh, that's not a lot of You're.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Like, actually, when there's a whole giant set and locations
and rentals and transfer and gas you have to buy
for the transfer cars and the.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
People and like a lot like The Office.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
It suddenly you realize when you employ that many people,
you're building a world goes fast.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Yeah. I mean we shot that movie in like fifteen days,
I think, and we edited it and not even thirty
And I thought that was normal because it's just the
first time I'd directed something, but you know, it was
it was also really special to have such a small,
yeah crew like we had. It made it like a
really intimate, cool experience.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Which I think you can feel and the movie feels
so intimate, and I think for the subject matter of
The Fallout, that probably enabled people to feel a little
like safer to be open. What what was it like then,
because that film was, I mean a such an amazing film,
be so critically acclaimed, like it brings all the attention
(20:57):
and all the things and puts you in front of
so many people. How was the process different with my
old ass?
Speaker 2 (21:07):
It was? It was so different because I mean, yeah,
we took The Fallout to south By and won, you know,
the Grand Jury Award, and we won the Audience Favorite,
and also I won the Directing Award and I was
at home and the festival director called me because it
was you know, twenty twenty one. Everything was virtual. She
was like congratulations, you know you won, and it was like,
(21:29):
thank you, and then I hung up the phone and
went back to doing whatever.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
I just like finished my laundry.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Yeah, like I yeah, Whennie had just been born, my daughter,
and so yeah, it was a very very removed. I
like still don't feel like I made that movie and
it went out into the world like it's still shocks
and we were like the Fall and I still have
never seen that movie on the big screen with the
cast or an audience, which is also so surreal. The
whole thing was really really removed, but also kind of
(21:56):
freeing because I got to just I really was like
just so not in my head about it because I
was like, no, no one's going to see this movie. And
then HBO Max bought it and people saw, which was
really exciting. And then this time I was definitely having
like sophomore album anxiety because I was like, oh, fuck,
like this feels it was out of sort of the
COVID of it all. The set experience was really different.
(22:17):
We had like big time producers. I felt like there
was more eyes on me to you know, succeed or fail.
But luckily again I've got so lucky with the group
of people we were making it with where like creativity
was I was so protected from the bullshit of everything.
And we got to film it like in this small
town in Canada on a lake and we were like
voting to the boating to base camp and it was
(22:40):
just it was very disarming, I think for everybody. So
it was a really like incredible experience on set, and
then it was so I think it really honestly all
hit me at Sunbance opening it, which Hillary was there
with job, which was so sweet. But to sit there
in an audience and it was like a packed theater.
It was the biggest theater. I don't even know how
many people it was. I think it was like close
(23:02):
to a thousand or something, insane. And to have the
movie start and then then being like you have to
like go out and introduce it and you know, go
on stage afterwards, it's like, oh my god, people are
going to see this, which felt so it was terrifying.
It was probably the most top five terrifying moments of
my life for sure, that that first thirty seconds of
the film starting and then we got a laugh and
(23:22):
like part of me relaxed. I was like, Okay, here
we go, and then the roller coaster since then has
just been it's like amazing, it's it's been surreal. And
everybody kept saying, you know, this is a sundance experience,
and people dream about having like soak it up, you know,
to be in the middle of a bidding war and
having it was just the whole thing was I mean,
it was insane. It's hard to metabolize moments like that.
(23:44):
You know, it's really crazy.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Oh my gosh, where do you do you now being
not exactly on the other side of the process, but
you're at the point where now it's out in the world. Yeah,
you know, And you talk about you filmed this movie
three years ago, you know, up on a tiny lake
in Canada, like it was so removed and now it's everywhere.
Do you feel like you have a different perspective on
(24:10):
where the idea for the movie even came from.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Yeah, it's I feel like I don't know what parts
of myself I'm figuring out while I'm writing until much
later in the process, or I'm seeing certain parts of
myself in different characters every step of the way, And
I think it's yeah, I mean, so much of my
life has changed too since I made the movie, Like
(24:35):
I had a second kid, I lost my dad really
tragically and unexpectedly. So the movie definitely has like a
whole new meaning to me in a way that I
never could have expected or you know whatever. But I
think that, yeah, it's interesting even it felt like such
a moment in time. And really that movie had nothing
(24:56):
to do with the idea initially of talking to your older,
younger self or doing the mushrooms. No, it was really like,
there's two moments in the film. One is the idea
that there was a last time you played pretend with
your friends and you didn't know it was the last
time you played pretend, And like, how sad that made me.
It was that idea, and also that led to me
(25:18):
thinking like I was home during the pandemic and I
was like, oh my god, there was one night when
my family as a nuclear family before like my sister
moved off uent University or this, and that change that
we all slept here under this roof for the last
time and we didn't know that it was god like
as that you know, before things changed. And that thought
made me so sad and I was like fuck like,
(25:41):
and then I started thinking, if you know it's the
last time for me, I would it would definitely ruin it,
like I am somebody. I would be like no, like
I wouldn't be able to enjoy it. Yeah, And that
sort of snowballed into this idea of like how much
do you want to know about the past and the
future and and is there some sort of full ignorance
and like not knowing this something is the last time?
(26:03):
Or or is it nice to be able to savor it?
And just that kind of thought had me spitballing on
just that conversation. But really I was writing the movie
very much from like old ass's perspective, and I had
just become a mom, and I think so much of
this movie was like me reflecting on my childhood and
like you start to think about what kind of world
(26:23):
do you want to curate for your own children? And
I started thinking about this beautiful place in Canada that
I grew up in that I was so excited to leave,
and then I came back and I was like, it's
so magical here. Why did I ever want to leave?
So it was it was those feelings really that set
the tone like for me wanting to explore this weirdly,
like that was really the core of the whole movie
(26:45):
for me, and then everything else was just like an
avenue to explore that again in a palatable way, like
it's kind of a heavy, heavy thought, but I was like,
how can I how can I make this not so dark?
Speaker 1 (27:00):
But the interesting thing is the idea of lasts and
you know, the stuff you can't wait to leave and
then how much you miss it, Like they're so universal,
you know that obviously what happens in the film is
very specific. This group of friends that decides on one
of their last weekends to you know, have a slumber
party and take mushrooms. Like maybe not everyone's had that experience,
(27:23):
but I think the themes of the film are so universal.
We've all felt that sort of longing to leave the
nest and then the craving for the nest. And I
don't know, there's so much I want to talk to
you about in the movie, but that I don't feel
like I can talk about on the podcast because I
don't want to give anything away. But what has it
(27:46):
been like for you to see audience reactions? Because I'm
imagining you get some pretty emotional feedback. The movie is
so funny, and the second the second sort of fantasy sequence.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
I was cackling.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
It's such an uplifting film, but it does deal with
like some really you know, raw emotional ideas. So what
does feedback look like for you.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
I've had a lot of people sob to my face,
you know, like it's a lot of people which is
so beautiful, and it's almost like it's a huge responsibility.
You know, people have been really moved by the film,
which you don't ever at least I don't ever think about,
Like you don't even want to put your hopes there.
(28:35):
I wasn't trying to write something. You know, it's almost
too scary to think that anyone's going to even have
any reaction to anything you make. That's like too scary
a hope to have to be let down by that.
I think you think about jokes working or not working
because that's easier to try to nail. But the emotional stuff,
like you really and in the edit too, you can
kind of get a feel for the comedy of what's
(28:56):
working and what's not. But you really are just so
insulated in that process that you do not know how
that's going to hit people until you're in your real
first big screening like Sun Dance, but to hear people
actually during the there's a moment at the end that
I don't want to spoil, but there's like quite an
emotional moment, and there was it was so quiet that
(29:19):
I started getting nervous as something wasn't working. And then
I looked around and I saw people going like this,
and I thought, oh my god, people are laughing, and
I started freaking because I was like, oh, oh no,
this is like the pinnacle of the movie and if
this moment doesn't hit like, we've failed, we fucked up.
And then I realized that people were crying so hard
(29:39):
that it looked like they were like laughing, like they
were were eaving sobbing. And then it started to really
hit me. I was like, oh my god, this is
not fake. This is not like, oh, you know, sniffle,
people are being so gutturally, not everybody, but you could see,
you know, a lot of people really really really moved,
and it was again quite shocking and hard to metabolize.
(30:02):
And one of the most interesting things is we keep
joking about this, but it is not you know, it's amazing,
it's beautiful. But old men have fucking been destroyed by
this movie. Like men over sixty, I swear to God,
have the most viscerally emotional reactions to this movie because
I think there's something about regret and time specifically for
(30:23):
old men that really hits them in this film. And
we would never in a billion years like even think
to target. I'm like, to me, I'm making a movie,
and I'm like, if men like it, cool, but who cares,
Like that's not who I'm making movies for, so whatever,
But old men have really been fucking moved by this movie,
which has been really interesting to see and it's also
(30:45):
cool to see. There's such different takeaways for people. Like
when we tested the movie, young people really related to
the younger characters and definitely understood the bigger feelings of
like nostalgia and time passing, but they definitely had a
different takeaway than people who are sort of the old
asses as we would call them, the people over you know,
(31:06):
thirty five. I think that feeling of time becoming sort
of your worst enemy, that's really your only enemy as
you get older is time in so many ways, and
that was I think a big, really interesting takeaway for
the older audiences. But it's been really beautiful. And when
people come up and say, you know, I called my mom,
(31:27):
I called my dad, you know, I apologize my parents
were being such an asshole when I was younger, things
like that. It's really it's really beautiful and so surreal,
so surreal to see somebody like move to tears. It's insane.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
I mean, yeah, I wept no shock there.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Now. I've had many friends send me these voice notes
after the movie and they're like, they can't even they
can't even breathe. Their crimes are and I never know
where there to be. It is like amazing. It's so
cool to hear people so moved. But you're also like,
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to like fuck you up.
So it's so hard, but it's I know, my bad.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
And now a word from our sponsors. When you talk
about how you wrote it, you know you relate so much,
obviously to Aubrey's character, to the older of these two women.
(32:28):
If you ever had the opportunity to go back and
talk to your seventeen year old self, what do you
think you would say.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
I would say some things that I couldn't say on
this podcast that I would say.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
To you, love it.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
You and I both can't wait to talk about it
in an hour.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
I think you could probably know all of them. I
think I would try to encourage myself to live more
consciously and to be more aware that life doesn't necessarily
have to happen to you, like you can make things happen.
(33:06):
I feel like I was almost late to kind of
become alert and become aware, and I was just sort
of following whatever kind of came to me. And I
wish that I could sort of like wake myself up
a little bit and be like, life, whatever you want
to have happened in life, you can make have happened.
(33:26):
Life isn't happening to you. And I was really inspired
by Mazie because she and a lot of younger people
that I've worked with, they are so alert and aware
and so conscious, and she and also so blissfully young
and naive in so many beautiful ways. I think the
movie touches on it's like this bravery that young people have,
(33:48):
but it was really cool to I was just not
like that at her age, Like it was amazing working
with her and she was already kind of like, oh,
you know, like my mom and really like connected with
those feelings of like, I don't want to be an
asshole my mom and time is going by so quickly
and really knows what she wants and is like going
after it. And it was really inspiring and beautiful to
work with so many young people who already have that,
(34:09):
and it made me wish I could go back, and
I wish like a seventeen year old we could hang
out with seventeen year old Mazy and be inspired by
that energy.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Yes, I totally get that, you know, even you saying
that you wish you could tell your younger self that
you can be a little more in control. I feel
like I've intellectually understood that that was true. I don't
think I've understood that that was true for me until
the last I don't know, twelve eighteen months. Maybe, Yeah,
(34:40):
like I realize that, and it's even a thing I
like about myself. I My reaction is often to serve,
to be in community, to gather, to want to, you know,
create goodness in the face of things that are. But
(35:02):
I've really thought a lot this year about, well, what
if it wasn't so reactive, and what if I shifted
into more proactivity, Like what if I cared about my
own life the way I care about everyone else's lives.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
You know, yes, no, it's exactly that I mean. And
you know it's so funny is everyone's notes to me
always in scripts, are your lead characters aren't active enough?
They're so reactive? They always tell me that, and I'm like, well,
that's part of the journey. But yeah, I feel the
same way, like I say, you don't say yeah, and
(35:37):
I think that's I don't know if it's like also
our generation. I hate to like say, are but there wasn't.
I don't know. I felt like, especially being an actor
and just being a young woman at the time that
we were, and I don't know, really like in that position,
I never felt like I could say anything like I
(35:57):
was just I was just there and people were telling
you what to do, and it was not the vibe
to even have an opinion. So maybe that's why I
didn't let myself go there.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Well, what I also think is sort of wild is
at least for me, I'm like, oh, I had plenty
of opinions, but it was.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Always a fight.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
It was always so hard to even be heard that
the idea that you could fight for more than just
being heard, not even necessarily being listened to, but the
idea that you could take control and write a narrative
for yourself. Like it never, it didn't cross my mind
for so long.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
No, I think it's just crossing my mind right now. Actually,
as we're having these conversations good morning, I just look up.
Yeah I know, No, it's I mean, and yeah, it's
it's it changes so much. I actually this thought as
I was driving the other day because I've realized, like
you were saying, sort of your go to is to serve,
and now my go to as I'm processing some many
(37:00):
crazy changes in my life and different things, is like I immediately,
instead of dealing with them myself, I like create a
character or multiple characters that are all pieces of me,
and I like come up with a story that is
not a direct reflection of what I'm trying to figure out,
and then I work out what I'm going through through
that story, which is what I've done in both of
(37:21):
my movies and when I look back on it, but
I was like, what is what do other people do?
Because I'm like, if I didn't have this, if I
didn't have this ability to write and create these characters
and have these conversations that I want to be having
with people secretly, you know, with two other people, or
about something else. But it's really about what I want
to talk about. Yeah, layered in, I don't know what
(37:43):
I would do because it's like the only coping mechanism
in so many ways, maybe the healthiest coping mechanism that
I have.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
I think yours is a really good one. Like I
have not known what to do with myself for a week,
and so yesterday I spent six hours that my storage
in it like cleaning out, making donation piles, organizing. Right,
I was like I needed a tactile, physical thing, and
(38:11):
I'm like, god, it would be so cool if instead
I just wrote myself a movie.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
I mean, let's do that. No, that's what I do.
It's it's but it's so yeah, it's a you could
totally do that. You could totally do that. I believe
that you could. We can do that together. But yeah,
it's really it's an interesting And I also like, literally
as I'm writing, I will put on one song on
(38:36):
repeat for like thousands of times, and it helps me
to just like literally go into another dimension and like
figure shit out, and then I like, what was your
song for my old best It's it's so so random
that I don't think anyone knows it besides Macie. I've
never said it. Okay, I'll tell you if you want.
(38:57):
It's not like that embarrassing. It's a good song.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
I mean, he's up to you. If you want it
out in the.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
World, I'll put it on in the world. Okay. So
I mad respect to this artist. I actually I think
it's the only song of hers I have on my playlist.
I don't know how it came into my stratosphere. I
don't know how it got on there. And I don't
even know why it was this song because there's nothing
to do with the movie at all. It was The
Bones by Maren Morris. Oh my god, love great song.
(39:23):
But just like how random is that I would put
on the Bones and I would write for I mean,
I listened that song thousands. There was also a few
like later on that came in like it was sometimes changed,
but I remember initially and I would always screenshot that
and send it to people, like a few people who
knew what and they'd be like, oh, you're writing you know,
and for the fallout. It was like something else, really random.
It was like some kind of rap song. I don't know,
(39:44):
it's so funny.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
But the Bones, I'm going to have to tell Maren.
She came on the show, and I just think she's
the best, absolutely the best We're all going to have
to have.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
She's the best, and I owe her so much. Thanks
for like helping me write the movie. The song should
have been in the movie, but we did an all
Canadian soundtracks, so that's the only reason why The Bones
was not in the movie. But great songs.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Sweet Okay, So Maren Morris influenced the film.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
We love that.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Also, we have to talk about the fact that Margot
Robbie produced this movie with you.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
What is it like.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
Working with her? Like, what how does she work as
a producer like tell us? Because obviously we know she
has an amazing track record from this incredible film to
you know, the biggest blockbuster of all time, Barbie. What
is she like as a collaborator.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
I wish I could say she sucks.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
Well, she clearly doesn't.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
She's the opposite of that. Like she is. She's so
amazing and I've known her now for three years and
there's not a fucking crack, you know what I mean,
Like it's very real. She's just like an amazing, amazing human.
She's really kind. She just just like she is such
like a nerdy cinophile, like she loves movies. She's such
(40:59):
a hard worker. She was on set with us up there,
you know, at the monitor. She was using my bunkie
as her office and literally cleaning it, making my bed,
cleaning my bathroom for me so that when I came
home it was like nice at the end of the day,
it brought me a present to set. Like every single
day it would be like, I, here's some gluten free,
dairy free banana bread I got you at the farms market.
(41:21):
I'd be like, thank you. But she's so so smart,
and she has really incredible notes and thoughts. But she's
also very hands off and very protective of, you know,
the creativity and like that sort of sacredness of a set.
She treats everybody the same. There's no hierarchy, which is
how I love sets to be and how I want
(41:42):
them to be. And she's a dream of her and
her husband Tom, who was up on set, and Bronte
Payne and Josie that the company they're all amazing, and
it's just really real. And they really protected me and
protected the process and the film and just believed in
me such an incredible way. Right on the heels of
(42:02):
the fall, they saw that film and just reached out
and we're like, what do you want to do next?
And I mean, I'm doing my TV show with them
and my next movie with them. So I think that's
like they're it's not a surprise to me that they
get so much repeat business because they just they are
like the real, the real fucking deal. They're so great, They're.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
So great, so happy. That's wonderful. You would love, Margo,
And that's exactly how it should be, you know. And
I love that we're in a moment, and I mean
the moment has been years in the making, but it
really does feel like so many great groups of creative
women are building teams. Yeah, and we all know what
(42:43):
it's like not to have that, So to not only
to see your people have it, but also to see
the work that is then created out of it is
so like relieving to me.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
It's incredible, like what their company set out to do
and what she set out to do and is doing
to such a high, you know level, and the amount
of multitasking that she does is truly inspiring and just
how much of her heart she puts in everything. And
then there's also so much support behind the scenes too,
(43:16):
Like it's not just she really is, like you know
when we're like supporting Maisie, you know, like helping her
now as an actress to get like the right team together,
and just so she's just she's doing so much, not
for herself. She really like walks the walk, you know,
she's really behind the scenes also doing so much incredible
(43:37):
work and support of female filmmakers and just trying to
like make good shit and and help people tell the
stories they want to tell. And she's not always in
everything that she's making. It's not about her, it's about
like helping other people have She's using her platform to
just like genuinely help as many people as she can
that she believes in. And it's like such it's there's
(43:59):
not that many people who are doing that in such
a real and authentic and like high caliber. She was
like taking production meetings for a movie in her Barbie trailer,
like in her wardrobe. Who are you like me? Just
never stops. It's really amazing.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
I love it. I love it. And what a cool
thing too, for Mazie to get to really dive in
with like in this stage. I can't imagine being, you know,
eighteen and like being with you and Margo, like it
would have been so cool.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
She is the sweetest and it's funny because she even
jokes about it now she's what almost almost twenty one now,
And yeah, she was like I thought I was so
like I was like Elliott, you know, I was like,
I haven't all figured out as a memehile she was
very much going through so many of the exact same
things that Elliott was experiencing at eighteen, and you know, yeah,
(44:55):
she's handled this with so much grace. And I remember
asking her, like, did you feel so nervous that you were,
like I'd never been number one on a call sheet
of like a major movie, Like I'd never had to
carry that. So I really tried to like not put
that pressure on her. Yeah, and she was like, yeah,
she was like I was so fucking scared every single day,
Like I really was so so nervous and wanted do
(45:15):
a good job. But you'd never have known, Like she
just really was cool, calm, collected and just so open
and joyous. But it's been really beautiful to kind of watch.
I mean I knew it from like the first day.
I was like, I can't wait to watch her when
the Golden Globe for like something at some point at
the Oscar like this, what she can do is is
so endless, and she reminded me so much of Jenna,
(45:39):
who obviously has just like gone on to do incredible,
incredible things. So I feel like I have become her
old ass and she is my young ass, and it's
really fun to like watch just all these amazing things
happened to such a talented, deserving person.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
How do you think because knowing what it's like to
be on a set from a young age as you do,
as I do, how do you think you wanted to
cultivate freedom and as little self consciousness as possible for Mazie,
knowing what the pressure can do in such an intimate way.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
I mean I had to have like some serious conversations
with like people before about like people don't take I
had very very strict guidelines on like how any kind
of scene that might make me see feel vulnerable would
be shot? Who would be there? And I got pushed
back from people sometimes, you know, people in certain department
heads like, no, this is my job, and I was like,
(46:37):
I don't care, Like this is how it's going to be,
and this is what's going to make her comfortable, and
this is what's important to me. And so it was
interesting that there was some pushback on that because there
is like a way things are done historically on sets,
and if you try to buck against that, a lot
of old school people just like, don't, don't vibe with it.
But again, that's when you have great producers who are always
(46:57):
there to back you up and protect that. But I
put it, like honestly top of my list because I
was in so many really icky, uncomfortable situations as a
young actor that have stayed with me forever, and I
never wanted to ever put anybody, any actor of any age,
but especially a young woman in that position. And so
(47:18):
it was a constant, constant check in with her to
make sure she was comfortable. And yeah, you just know,
as an actor there's even little things like if you
don't feel confident in a certain piece of wardrobe or
you feel self conscious, that will throw your whole fucking
vibe or your whole day, like if it's not you know,
part of the care and you're supposed to be feeling good.
You know. There's things like that that I think. And
(47:42):
also something that's so specific to me and how I
like to run things on set is I used to
find that like the small talk when they would put
all the actors' chairs together, you know, when trailers are
like too far away, base camps too far as I
have has to be on location, and so they're just like, Okay,
here's a small room. We're gonna put everyone's chair in here,
and like for the the ten hours that were not
actually shooting of the day, everyone's going to be stuck
(48:03):
in this room and making small talk. And I found
that to be so draining as an actor, especially when
I was making especially thinking about the fallout and the
energy on set. It was really heavy shit, you know,
and I wanted people to be able to preserve their
preserve themselves, and so I always make sure that every
actor has their own space if the trailers aren't around.
(48:27):
So and everybody gets so annoyed with me because it
is a hassle. You know, if you have a lot
of people there that day, it's like, well, we don't
have enough space. And it's like just put a pop
up tent somewhere over there in the trees and put
a chair, and if people want to hang out, they
can hang out, you know, and they can put their
chairs together, they can go to crafty. But give everybody,
all the actors some space, because like acting cannot be
(48:48):
not be on set, cannot be an introverts like favorite
place sometimes. So I try to like just do stuff
like that that I remember feeling really uncomfortable, you know
with as an actor or just very drained by and
some of it's like weird and quirky and little things
like that. But and I just always listen to them
and check in with them and talk to them, and
(49:10):
you know, if it's like I'm not going to put
them on the spot in front of them, it's like,
let's let's go over here and let's like talk away
from everybody, like how are you feeling? For real? What
do you need? Just constantly kind of having those conversations
and creating that sense of trust and safety from even
the pre production, you know, like amazing. And I just
sat in a boat house for three days and talked
to the script and there was moments of the character's
(49:34):
life that she could experience in moments that she hadn't
shared with anyone else. That's share with me. And there
are parts that she hadn't experienced and that you know,
she was asking me about that I could kind of
talk to her about. So we really created like a deep,
you know, trust and sense of understanding right away. And
I really like cherish that and take it very seriously,
and especially with young young people.
Speaker 1 (49:55):
I love that, and I think it's so important. It's
like this idea that you're always supposed to be on
and always supposed to have time for everyone and always
supposed to be perfect and conversing, and the amount of
mental gymnastics that it takes to do our job, for
some reason, is not often taken seriously, and if you
try to take it seriously, you'll often get a lot
(50:17):
of pushback. And so I think for someone in your position,
for a director to say, no, I'm gonna I'm going
to take that expected performance on this away so my
performers can do their job when the cameras are rolling,
and then the rest they have space to decide what
they need. That's really pretty profound. Hats off to you.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
My friend, thank you. I want to get on a
set with you and let's say no, okay to say
a space and make profound shit hopefully.
Speaker 1 (50:47):
Oh my god so much. Well, I mean, the idea
of that feels amazing to me. I realized I was
responding to you personally and starting to ask a question,
and was like, I just combined the two and in
one sentence.
Speaker 3 (50:59):
My brain is mad potatoes since last week I.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
Have two sick children. My veriest mashed potatoes.
Speaker 3 (51:04):
Great.
Speaker 1 (51:05):
By the way, I'm loving the Christmas cup. I saw
this woman out in public on Friday. It was my
first time leaving the house, and she had her Starbucks
cup and we looked at each other and we just nodded,
and I was like, your Christmas cup is my first
joy in four days, and I'm going to go home
and put up a Christmas tree because I need it.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
I ubered this Starbucks one Starbucks, which was pretty fucked up,
but I really needed it. You know. I've been up
since four thirty this morning with two six children, and
I was like, I'm going to treat myself. And when
it came in the Christmas bag with the Christmas it did,
it brought me a little bit of joy. I realized
that it's that time. Yeah, it's my first one of
the season, and it brought me a lot of joy.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
It's that time, and I'm like, I might need to
put up a tree like today and now a word
from our wonderful sponsors. We're sort of in this amazing
moment for you right where you're your creation. This film
(52:09):
Child is out in the world and you're, like you said,
fifty pages into the next and you're working on all
these things that are to come. And I think as
a as a creative, it's it's almost like a really
delicious limbo.
Speaker 2 (52:23):
That you're in right now.
Speaker 1 (52:25):
So when you think about this moment, this sort of suspension,
and you look out at what's to come, what feels
like you're work in progress.
Speaker 2 (52:36):
My work in progress is actually trying to not focus
on what's happening right now with the success of the
movie in any in any way besides supporting the movie,
because it is so important for me to you know,
maybe like there's been so much love put into this
(52:57):
movie by so many people, and this does feel like
a child to me, So I want to put everything
I can behind it to make sure that it gets
like seen by people who want to see it. But
I think it's really easy in this in this industry,
in this town to get caught up in sort of
what's not real and the stuff that is not serving
(53:18):
me as an artist or as like a human. And
I also think that I'm not really you know, I
don't think yet I don't have even had the skill
set to be like a writer and director for hire,
you know, Like, I think what is so exciting to
me is creating these worlds and people and it's so
(53:39):
personal and therapeutic that I have to kind of block
out all of the other stuff and just focus on
the stuff that I'm dealing with internally and channeling through
these characters in this new world that I'm creating. And yeah,
it might, it might take a little bit of time.
And I think there's always this like, you know, take
advantage of the moment and keep your foot on the gas,
(54:01):
and these opportunities only come around, you know, once in
a lifetime. And that may be true. And I've been
really enjoying the ride and it's been really beautiful and
I'm soaking in it as if it may never happen again.
But for me, the part that I love more than
anything is the writing. It's like the part where I'm
listening to the bones seven hundred times and I'm hearing
(54:24):
these voices and I'm figuring out things about myself and
I'm alone in a room with my computer. That is
like the most sacred of the process for me. And
it's not very glamorous, and nobody kind of sees it happen,
and so it feels like it never really happens. But
I'm trying to just focus on that. And maybe it'll
(54:44):
take me three years to write this next thing. Maybe
it'll finish it by December. I don't really know, but
that part of it has to be protected because then
I think that's when you lose like what you make
and what's what makes your stuff, I guess specific and
unique is knowing what you can do and knowing what
(55:07):
you can't do. And I know what I can do,
and what I can do is I can like open
my computer and figure out my shit through fake people
that I create. So I just have to keep doing
that and then hopefully when it's done, it's done and
people like it. But that's out of my control. But
what is in my control is that special sacred part
of it. So that is very much my work in
(55:30):
progress is to just turn off the noise and just
keep doing that because I need to do it. I
need to do it. It's not even like a want,
it's like a need for me.
Speaker 1 (55:39):
Yeah, I think that's very inspiring.
Speaker 2 (55:44):
Give it a try. Put on the boat, see what happens.
Speaker 1 (55:47):
Honestly done, I'm excited for what's next for you though.
I'm very very exciting.
Speaker 2 (55:53):
Thank you. We'll come play anytime.
Speaker 3 (55:57):
I'm coming. I'm ready to get on a boat. Let's
do it.
Speaker 2 (56:00):
I mean, there are some boats and the next thing
I'm writing, you think I would be smart enough to
be scared from filming on boats ever again, because that
shit is really annoying. But it just looks It just
looks so beautiful.
Speaker 3 (56:10):
It just looks so good.
Speaker 2 (56:12):
Though a mazy he had so much fun on that
piece of shit. Tenner. She was just having the time
of her life.
Speaker 1 (56:17):
Yeah, by the way, that's what I mean. I'm not
talking like I don't expect a yacht. I'm like, give
me that little pup pup boat.
Speaker 2 (56:23):
It was, so let's go. I don't need a yacht.
Yachts are boring. You get to drive or so boring.
Speaker 1 (56:31):
I think they should all be impounded for tax, but
that's a separate converse.
Speaker 2 (56:34):
One hundred percent, they should go.
Speaker 3 (56:38):
I love you, Thank you, I love you.
Speaker 2 (56:41):
It was so nice to see your beautiful face and
your famous to me background.
Speaker 1 (56:46):
Also, I would be remiss at the end of day's
episode not to say thank you all so much for
the fan feedback on Lego Masters.
Speaker 3 (56:54):
You guys know that Lego was my.
Speaker 1 (56:57):
Obsession as a child, is still such source of joy
for me as an adult, and getting to compete on
the show was honestly the most amazing fun adventure for me.
I can't believe I had to keep this a secret
from you all for a full year because we taped
this special last December. But I can't wait for you
all to see Episode Tuba air next week on Tuesday,
(57:19):
December seventeenth on Fox. You can also stream it on Hulu.
There are surprises coming, friends, So for my fellow Lego
fans out there, let's go
Hosts And Creators
Bethany Joy Lenz
Sophia Bush
Robert Buckley
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