July 10, 2023 • 40 mins
Emily Blunt relishes a challenge. Her career, from early stardom in The Devil Wears Prada to later roles in Marry Poppins, A Quiet Place, and, this summer, Oppenheimer, reflects a self-imposed desire for all things difficult, different, and daring. Not to mention that the British actress—who, despite living in Brooklyn, maintains her Englishness—is also a mother, raising two daughters alongside her husband, actor and director John Krasinski. On this week’s episode of Table for Two, Blunt sits down with host Bruce Bozzi to discuss family life, being neighbors with the Damons (Matt and Lucy), and Christopher Nolan's directorial style. Hear a preview of the episode below, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Thank you for pulling up a share on my podcast
Table for Two. We're back in New York at Via Carota,
and we're having lunch with a vivacious, super fit and
wildly talented actress.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I hear, my beautiful friend.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
If you missed my Table for two lunch with Anna Winter,
I bring it up because her breakout role was in
the devil Wares product. She's done so much more since then,
including playing Mary Poppins and starring in the breakout hit
A Quiet Place with her husband John Krasinski. Her new film,
Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, comes out next week. It's really good, delicious,
(00:55):
funny and charming. Don't do her justice. And I know
we're going to have a great time. So I have
a glass of rose because today we're having lunch. You
guessed it with Emily Blunt. I'm Bruce Bosi and this
is my podcast Table for two.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
This is the deal. Everybody who's listening.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
They pulled up for sure to have like sort of
like a brunch lunch with us. You Emily is schlunked
it in from Brooklyn.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Throw up, it's a new It's you schlunked it in.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah, when you get home and you say to John,
I schlocked he's going.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
To be flunked across Brooklyn to get to him. And
he sends you so much love, so much, I love
your husband.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
When we met, everybody, it was an instant love fest. Yeah,
with the three of us, you do something, you and John.
You did it in la and you've done it in Brooklyn.
When you lived in l A, you have like your
community you lived with, you know, on the same block
with Jimmy and Molly Kim, you know, Lucy and mad Damon.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
They're in our building.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
You're in your building here.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
There, we're like some weird commune.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I know, what is that about?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Like I don't ever see Matt Damon not in his
slippers anymore, you know, it's just always in his slippers.
I haven't seen him in regular shoes in a long time. Really. Yeah,
that's because we live in the same buildings. We just
pop down to see each other.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
And I love that.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
It's the best.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
What made that happen?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Like?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
How did that?
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Well? I mean we I've been close with Matt since
I worked with him years ago. I did this film
called Adjustment Bureau, and the four of us all hung
out a lot you know, Lucy and Matt and me
and John and and we just it's quite rare when
you really take someone away from a movie. You know,
you can love someone on a film, but it's whether
it's whether it's lasting or not is another thing. You know,
(02:44):
whether it extends past this insular experience on a film
is a whole other level of friendship, right, because you
have such accelerated friendships with people on a movie.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
It's absurd how much the amount of time you're spending.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Tea in the intensity of what you're creating. And it's
just it's a world that is that everyone else is
shut out of, including your partner, including everyone. It's just
it's just a strange experience for three months to work
on something like that and build something together. But then
Matt is just the most easygoing, beautiful person. Lucy is
(03:20):
even more beautiful. Sorry, Matt, but we all became friends.
And then they moved to Brooklyn. They said, we found
that there's this amazing building, and of course we were like,
we'll live in the same building. But there's really lovely,
cool people living in Brooklyn and we have Sunday night
dinners and it's.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, just throwback, yeah, and I think it's great because
so often, like we go into these corners and like
we've lost the sort of community of family and friends
as a result of the easiness of that. So it
reminds me of Lucy Etho, Ricky and Fred, you know,
the island of Lucy. So if you had a sort
(04:02):
of cast in this foursome, Yeah, who's sort of like
the Lucy.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
I mean, I'm Lucy, righty.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
I always like somehow getting people in trouble, always.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Like something goes wrong, always up to something.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
But that's kind of great just to come down and
be like Lucy, come on down and the kids.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
The kids love each other. And Brooklyn's a funny sort
of like certainly where we live is like a Sesame
Street sort of Norman Rockwell thing. I mean, it sounds
so idyllic and but it really is. And for me,
it's one of the only places I could really live
in America because I do miss London, I do miss home,
(04:44):
and yet this community is so intoxicating that I just
can't picture leaving it. London has beckoned to me many
times over the last fourteen years. I've sort of been
living in America and I miss it. I missed the attitude,
I the irreverence. I miss the vibe of the Brits.
(05:04):
I love them. And even though I had got an
American passport and I'm married to America, my children American,
I feel so English still.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
So we've been at several weddings. I was at your wedding.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
That was the best. By the way, my mother still
talks about my mother. You spun her around the dance
floor like a spinning top. And she literally said to me,
she still talks about it, how sexy you made her feel.
Not just that she thought you were sexy, but she did.
But she went and you know what, he made me
(05:47):
feel so sexy, And I went, that's great, mom, Like
if I cringe out.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
She loved it was that was great.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
You're the best person to have on a dance floor
because you're so delighted by the whole You can see
you are delighted by it. You spin everyone into a frenzy.
Everyone wants to be Oh, you lean in, you full
throttle the dance floor.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Do you find that now? I mean, your body work
is incredible.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
And then you know, I just watched the Curry again,
which wow, man, you were just moving that was a
tough movie. Yes, tough character, super hard physically and really
intense as far as you know obviously the subject matter
and everything.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Yeah, we're amazing, Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Do you find two things? One is like having to
stay in like the top form that you're in, which
you are so it seems part of the business you're in.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
And then also sort of making sure everything because.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
You know, being a mother, being a professional personall.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
It does and it doesn't well, not always well, you know.
It's one of those things when people like, how do
you balance it? I never feel I'm doing it right,
you know, but I'm this year, I'm not working. I
just need to be. Yeah, I just need to. I
worked quite a bit last year, and my oldest baby
(07:12):
is nine. I were in the last year of single digits,
and I just feel there's cornerstones to their day that
are so important when they're little, and it's will you
wake me up? Will you take me to school? Will
you pick me up? Will you put me to bed?
And I just need to be there for all of
them for a good stretch, and I just felt that
(07:34):
in my bones. I had a beautiful time on the
projects I did last year. Some were more intense than others,
some were harder than others, someone more time consuming than others,
and the ones that are time consuming, I think for
me are becoming few and further between because of just
the emotional cost on me, on the kids. On balance,
(07:59):
and I'm very prone to guilt, and I think maybe
all mothers are. You're just prone to feeling bad for
God forbid, wanting something outside of being a mother. I
am a huge advocate for it. I'm a huge advocate
for women being ambitious. I love the word ambition. It's
just dreams with purpose. That's all it is. It's not
another world it is, That's what it is.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
That's what it means.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
And it's just and I want my kids to grow
up and find something that they adore doing.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
And your kids watching you do something that you adore, Yeah,
so important.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
It's so important. And of course they're just horrified by
the fact that I'm an actress, which is sort of
so embarrassed by and I have no desire to watching
me in anything, which is very healthy because they just
want me to be their mom. So the balance is
usually it sways in extremes, like I'll work too much
and then I'll have like a complete reaction against it
(08:53):
and an aversion to being on a film set for
a long time, and then I'll want to desperately work again.
So I don't know if I do it moderately. I
think I just have these pulls towards it and against it.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Well, that's so beautiful that you now, and we're going
to talk about because you do. You have a number
of projects that are about to be reallyasing exactly.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
This sort of gives you an idea of what last
year was, you know, and that's why I need to Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
So the idea that you've made a sort of formal
decision in your life that you make it is very
empowering to say, I'm going to take a break here
where you wake up just peaceful, peaceful.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
I sleep great because when I work, I which I
also love about it. I find it a heart racing experience.
When I work, I love it. There's clearly this fire
in me that I need to give room to. But
I race with it for months leading up and then
(09:53):
during and so when I finish a project and once
it sort of expelled from me, I sleep again. So
I don't know if I sleep great or I think
straight when I'm working, and it's funny.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
I understand that completely. And I also think just being.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
A parent in and of itself, yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Not even having a job and a career like yours,
which is so big, and that is part of the
just the gig is you have to leave to do it. Sure,
Guilt is just a part of being a parent. It's
like a minute the kid pops out, You're.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Like, guilty, doing righty guilty. I'm like, wow, I'm not
doing facilating. The moment they come out.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Of your body, it's just like, oh my god, Yes,
what are like the little things?
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:47):
That you really if it's not too personal for me
to ask, like which on like little? Like the little
is it a walk in the park? Is it like
a couple of coffee in the morning.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
It's usually the morning. We got a puppy who's absolutely beautiful.
Because we got this puppy like idiots, even though I'm
completely obsessed with her.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
This was a year to get it because and I knew.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
This was the time, because you know, it always falls
on mom less burial, that's burial. And I wasn't wanting
to get a dog, but the kids were pushing for it.
And he and John was up for it. So we
rescued this beautiful little She's not little, like she's going
to be vast. We're realizing she's part massive, realizing, oh
my god, she's already like a horse. She's five months.
(11:32):
She's absolutely vast. I was like, I fell in love
with her, fell in love there, couldn't care less. She
had diarrheal last week. Imagine that in an apartment, no
outdoor space. That's fun to wake up too, just Jackson
pollocked all over the walls, just the little things that
I do. So that was a rough week, that is,
(11:57):
aside from our usual peaceful morning. But I like that
quiet moment. I don't mind getting up early with this
puppy because it means that John and I can kind
of talk in the morning and catch up and really
talk before the kids are awake and everything. Because the
day gets away from you so quickly once once the
tornadoes are up, it's just sort of game over. So
(12:19):
I love those moments. I love watching movies. I love
going for dinner with friends, love all of that. I
love watching things like The Voice.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
I mean we love The Voice.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Only the blind auditions. After that, I get a lot
I agree.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
The blind auditions are showing really good. Thanks for joining
(12:55):
us on Table for two. Emily has started in many
films and has had an amazing career, and I'm wondering
what really grabs her as an actress when she's considering
a role. I mean, I don't think one looking at
your career would So you've stayed in a lane. I
mean from the movie that sort of launched you to
(13:16):
the Mary Poppins to being in Siargan blowing people up,
killing you know, and girl on a train, it's like you're.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Hitting it at all.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
I do try to. It's sort of a conscious effort
to keep experimenting. Really, I do have the desire still,
I know in me I don't want to play it safe.
I do continue to want to rip the face off stuff.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
I do.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Oh I love you.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
I just love how you speak. That is like a visceral.
That's kindly blunt visceral.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
You want to rip the face off. And I want
to keep sort of challenging myself and not discovering the
bag of tricks. I would love not to stay in
a lane. So I do find it scary every time,
you know, you kind of put your feet to the
fire and do something new or something I've done before.
I remember Marlon Brando said, you only have so many faces, really,
(14:11):
and it's interesting, and I think that's the encouragement to
be selective about what you choose to do, you know,
And I am aware of that of like, well, what
have I done before? What's new? What's scary? What do
I when I read it? Do I have no idea
how to play it? I like that.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Okay, yeah, that's very interesting.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
I like it when it doesn't strike me immediately.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Are there people actresses or actors from the past that
you that inspired you growing up, or that you or
that you look at and say that's the kind of
or work you know someone that's it's such.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
A range of people, really. I mean it's one of
my first experiences, rather inappropriately watching a film I shouldn't
have done, was watching Pretty Women, and I remember just thinking,
I can't remember how old I was too young to
be watching it.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
You were young, because I could tell you the movie
theater I was sitting in, and it was nineteen ninety
ninety one.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yeah, you're born in the eighties, which is okay.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
I was about to graduate high school, so you were Yeah,
you were quite young to see that.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
You were basically theater. I'm sure I saw it. I
know I saw it when it came out on like
video cassettes, so I'm not that young, like there were
DVD's guys. I remember when I remember when she pulls
out the condoms and she fans them, yes, yes, which
again I said, what are those?
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Dad?
Speaker 3 (15:43):
And he goes, they're sweet? Yeah, candy, candy.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Shock, thank you.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
That's I just couldn't don't know what they were, right, So,
but I remember watching her and then in every movie
I saw afterwards, just being completely bewitched by her because
she was so free and charming and yet brilliant, and
when she would cry, it was this emotional force of
(16:14):
reality and truth. And I just felt like she could
do anything and she was. She just lit things up,
and I thought, that's a movie stuff. Wow. But she's
also just an incredible actress. So she was sort of
my first experience with like really being inspired by an
actor totally completely. And then of course the Meryl Streeps
(16:37):
and the Diane Weese and like all those incredible actresses
who I've loved in so many different things. I remember
Edward Sissahans just being just in love with Diane. We
just wanted her to adopt me.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
She was always just lit up the screen, which she incredible. Yeah,
but that's interesting. I always wonder like who inspires Street?
Speaker 1 (16:58):
So just to touch upon it you've talked about a
million times, but it's like, what was that like for
you as such a young girl to work with this
woman and not only sort of have to like live
up to something but hit it out of the park.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Was that?
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Like?
Speaker 2 (17:11):
How'd you walk on that set? The first thing?
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I mean, the table read itself was sort of goose bumpy,
stomach churning, exciting. Found it very nerve wracking, you know,
listening to it's like in a table read, which are
the worst things on earth? Just terrifying because everyone's sort
of marking it. But then you feel if you mark it,
(17:33):
people are going to kind of judge you for it
and be like, is that all she's going to do?
You know, and like, but yeah, you kind of don't
want to go all out because then you don't want
to look keen. So it's just that it's a terrible
balance to try and stride and the best things you
were probably just to kind of mutter your way through
it and.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Not really do it.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
But I felt, you know, no one knew who I was,
and this was kind of a big part for me
to get and it was just a big opportunity. So
not to say I went full throttle, but I didn't
mutter my way through it, you know, so consciously. But
I remember listening to them reading the scenes leading up
to my first line and just bricking it just I
(18:07):
don't know if you know what that means. It's a
British term shitting bricks. So when you're bricking it, you're bricks.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
So I was waiting for each person going around, you're
just getting more.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
So then it came up to my first line and
I said my first line, which I can't remember what
it was, something about human resources certainly have an odd
sense of humor, or something about poor Annie hath the
Way's character. And Meryll did this sort of low, rumbly
laugh to herself, and I was like, and I was
(18:42):
so thrilled. And whether or not she found it funny
is besides the point. It's just the fact that I
think she she can read the room. She knows when
people need a little bolster or a little lean or
some little catch. And she's a master of reading the
room and reading people, which is why she soaks people
up and she probably puts them into all of her characters.
(19:04):
But she's also dealing with And we talked about it afterwards,
you know, we've done three films together now, and she said,
you know, she's basically a lot of the time, I
realized dealing with doing two jobs, which is one of
which is the scene and the other one is dealing
with the other actor going oh my god, I'm in
a scene with Meryl Street. So it's sort of a
two prong job. I think someone of her stature and
(19:26):
I think she just wants to be treated like everybody else.
She wants the notes, she wants, she wants the screws
tightened on he like everybody else.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah, I would imagine. I've never even thought about that.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Yeah, if you're revered that much, you know, how do
you know?
Speaker 1 (19:40):
How do you how do you separate the two when
you know that there's so much pressure because the person's
looking at you, they can never really actually lose himself
potentially completely the character.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Because you're like, oh my god, what she thinking? Living
up to it?
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Yes, that's very interesting. I think about that with quite
a lot of people who are either supremely revered or
supremely famous, or the double whammy of both, and that's
a lot of energy coming at you. Like I remember
there was that thing where Brad Pitt was at the
Golden Globes and everyone was up there going, oh my god,
(20:21):
remember that, freaking out that they were in front of him,
And I thought, what's that like? If you're on the
receiving end of that kind of energy all the time,
that must be rough.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
When you say yes to a part and you're excited,
do you ever wake up going like.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Why would I do it? All the time? All the time?
I mean constantly, I've riddled with self doubt leading up
to it. The whole first week. I'm like, this is terrible.
I'm terrible. You know, it's just that's fine. You kind
of go with the flow with that. I've learned to
kind of ride those times out, but most of the
time now because I'm probably much more selective about what
(21:10):
I choose to do and who I want to work with, Like,
there's obviously people who will hit your life's too shortlist
where you're like, oh god, never again, or no, that
doesn't sound fun. But yes, I'm usually frozen with fear
leading up to it and and then you get taken
over by it.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Yeah you have, so we talked about it earlier, so
the next year you.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Have a lot of stuff coming out. Yeah. Fog Guy
with Ryan Gosling.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Yes, Oh my god, it was such I can't eat.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
To start with the Fog because Far Guy. I grew
up watching The Fun Intelligence What drew you that? And
working with Ryan who's so incredible.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
He's an incredible guy and such a talent. And I think,
you know, I love David Leech's work, and he's just
a He's caught this like pop culture kinetic visual stride
that is just so exciting and rare, and it's really modern.
I think I felt I hadn't done something contemporary for
(22:11):
a little bit, and I've been I mean, I love
I love a period drama. I'm like all about it.
But I think I wanted to do something funny and
big and sort of lights out really and I love
that TV series too and the movie. When I signed on,
they were still developing the script and I love that
(22:32):
open armed thing of come into the fold, let's build
this together. It was very open armed and very collaborative,
and I think because Ryan is so free you know,
he's so free spirited as an actor and is always
trying to search for something more interesting in the scene.
(22:53):
So it means the scenes have this completely singular life
where you don't kind of know where the scene's going
to go. And I loved it improv and he loves
to improve, and so it was it was about every
day was about this kind of chase and we would
laugh saying on this movie it was like the escape
from everything. We get out because the film is a
(23:13):
really big idea and it's all about, you know, the
stunt world and the fact that we were also celebrating
stunt men who do not get enough accolades in this industry.
The fact that there is no award at the Oscars
for a stunt team is terrible when every other department,
Mad Max doesn't happen without a stunt team, Like none
of these big Best Picture nominally nominees, they don't happen
(23:36):
without a stunt team.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Never thought about that.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
They don't like the mission Impossible is the Top Guns, Like,
where does that happen without your stunt team? And they
put their lives at risk for all of us to
kind of mosey in and do a couple of chops
in the air and a punch and they make us
look amazing while they're getting dragged across gravel and you
do the close up on a green screen. I mean,
it's like ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
That's so true.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
And they just they literally put themselves out there every day.
And Dave Leech, who was a stunt man and was
one of their best stunt men in the industry. He
stunt double Brad Pitt and Matt Damon and all those boys.
And you know, he wanted to do all the stunts practically,
which means without cgi and anything like that. And we
were trying to break really big records in the stunt
(24:20):
well for what we were able to do, and it
was just thrilling. I loved it. It's so funny this movie.
It's so romantic and so funny.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
So and you're so physical and so that's I can't
wait to see that.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Yeah, you'll love it. You'll love it.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Then Pain Hustlers.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yes, Yes, that's Netflix.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Yes, talk to me about that.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
So that one. That's July, No, that's October. So Pain
Hustlers was a project that came to me, which was
sort of the first time I think I veered in
to do something political, contemporary, hard hitting. It's really an exploration,
(25:03):
I felt, deep down of the shadiness in all of us.
And isn't that interesting to have a character at the
center of it who is a good person but does
some really fucked up things and gets she gets caught
up in the intoxicating world of selling pharmaceuticals and knows
it's corrupt, can't get out for a variety of reasons,
(25:24):
some out of her control. And it's about accountability, it's
about guilt, it's about all of these things, like what
keeps you up at night when you're staring at the ceiling,
questioning whether you're a good person or that. And I
just thought that exploration of the shadiness in a character,
and you don't often see it in a female character,
because I feel strongly that most female characters in Hollywood
(25:46):
are usually held up to some sort of feminine ideal.
And I'm always hearing this, like is she likable? I'm
I don't give a fuck if she's likable, you know,
And no man is ever asked that, Like none of
those guys in the Big Short or Wolf of Wall Street,
where we're never concerned if they were likable and they
were doing terrible corrupt things. So I really was inspired
by this idea and very much supported by David Yates
(26:07):
who directed it. It was real. We were sort of
trying to build this case for a woman who does
some bad things and how does she cope with that?
And it's done in this very dynamic visual way the
whole movie.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah, that's great, that's great that you should have look
at it through that lens and you're sort of an
advocate for how women are perceived perceived in your industry
and like, is bullshit.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
It is bullshit, and how women are sort of perceived
in society as well, and like the different rules that
women are more held to than men, And so yeah,
I just thought this intoxicating world of selling pharmaceuticals and
this hard hitting, fast paced, corrupt world was an interesting
(26:57):
exploration because it's very prominent right now. There are so
there's so many deaths from opioid abuse and this has
been completely put this a crisis is born out of
natural events, and this is really the colossal crime behind
the crisis, and that's through the pharmaceutical companies and the
(27:19):
governments that support them completely.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
I just watched that documentary as Sacler documentary.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Yeah, so this is what it's based on. This is
what the movie is based on.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Welcome Back to Table for two. One of this summer's
biggest films is Oppenheimer by famed director Christopher Nolan. Emily
Star says Kitty j Robert Oppenheimer's wife, it's an unorthodox blockbuster,
a movie with a message for humanity. Let's talk about Oppenheim. Okay,
(28:07):
let's talk about Kitty. Let's talk about Nolan. Let's talk
about that cast.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
What was that like it?
Speaker 3 (28:16):
That was a true master class like that you kind
of run to work every day to just see what
he's going to dream up Chris, because he is he's
an extraordinary force. He is talk about someone who has
an authority to them, and he's got his own intimidation
(28:39):
factor that is there. But it's partly I mean to me,
I didn't find him intimidating. I adored him. He's so English,
he's most British person. He's like my family. So when
he's happy with the take, he goes yeah, good, happy, yeah,
and I'll go yeah, and he goes okay, good, moving on,
(29:00):
moving okay, And to me, I'm like, dad, you know, yeah,
So I loved it and the whole experience of working
on it that yes, it's a biopic. But when I
first read it at his house, you know, you go
over to meet him, and I didn't care if it
(29:21):
was a scene I would be wanting to do this movie.
I didn't care. I just wanted to work with him.
And I read it and I thought, yes, it's a biopic.
But it was so emotional. It moved like this Chase thriller.
And when you watch it, it grabs you by the throat
in the beginning, and it's like a horror movie. It's
like a horror movie. Trojan Horse is a biopic. I mean,
(29:43):
it's just Killian Murphy, my dear friend, is so extraordinary,
and he's absolutely mesmerizing and holds the whole thing together
so delicately.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Will you tell the people that pulled up a chair what?
Speaker 3 (30:00):
So the story is about? So the story is about Oppenheimer,
who created the atomic bomb, and it follows his whole
life story from a brilliant child physicist in college up
until when he was enlisted to create the bomb. Bill
Los Alamus and then goes into another time period when
he was kind of dragged through the calls in his
(30:23):
security hearing during the McCarthy era, where he was accused
of communism because of his relationships with his wife who
dabbled in communism who I play, his girlfriend who was
a communist, his brother who was a communist. So it's
just the rise and fall of a brilliant brain. The
trauma of a brain like that of living with that
(30:46):
kind of genius brain is depicted so visually and so
frighteningly in the movie. It's about him, but it's about
these themes of ambition and male ego during war and
that pursuit of something that would change the world forever,
the pursuit of something that's bigger than all of us,
(31:08):
that will have ramifications for the rest of time. It's
just it's really incredible. What is the restlessness in us
that even hearing this could be potentially bad, that you
could unleash something that would have a negative effect psychologically,
emotionally on the earth, on us as humans, on the environment.
(31:30):
Is what is the pursuit that still restlessly lives in us?
You know, it's just terrifying when.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
You work in an ensemble like that and there's such
brilliant actors.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Yes, is it harder? Is it more uplifting for you? Like?
How do you find your sort of place in that? Oh?
Speaker 3 (31:48):
It's so easy, you know, because there is simply one
voice on set, and it will be Chris's. You know,
there's no there's one lead dog and it's very clear,
and we're all just there to to just try and
deliver something to him.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
And when you have Matt.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Matt Damon's in it, Killian Murphy's in it, Robert Downey
Junior is in it, Florence Pugh's in it, like there's
just wonderful people. Male Yeah, Romie Maleck's in it. I mean,
Ksey Affleck said it. Just the list goes on and
on and on of people. Kenneth Branna is in it.
The people who showed up to do one day on
(32:26):
this film and they raise their hands willingly and immediately
for Chris. And then you know why, when you're on set,
you go, that makes sense. Of course they do? They run?
Speaker 1 (32:35):
You know, you think so when we see this movie,
I haven't obviously seen it without giving anything away, do
you leave thinking hope?
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Do you leave thinking Wow, this was really bad.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
I think it's just the most thought provoking film. It
will kidnap you and you're going to think about it
for a long time afterwards.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Yeah, it's like one of those.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
It's one of those. It's not a film, it's an experience.
It's away try.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
You know when you guys did the A Quiet Place
and and this is just funny. I don't know if
this will actually read if you've pulled up a chair today,
But like Eva and I, that movie was we just
loved it. We watched it over the summer and we
were like, in bed at night, it's scary as fox.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
And so then we played the game.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
So like we'd be like in the kitchen and like
there's at my parents' house and there was a garbage but.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
You pull out from a drawer.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Yeah, and we'd be like okay now, and I'd be
like I'm like, like I point like she had to
throw it out, and she'd look at me and she'd
knowing that the thing was about to go, and then
I would just wave goodbye to her like that was
like that's oh why that was really? Was that an
(34:03):
unexpected sort of very success?
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Yes, I mean the first one was made for sixteen
million dollars and we shot it in six weeks, and
it was very pressured, and I think John was just
trying to make an art movie. And of course when
you do these sort of lower budget horror movies, the
studios always talk about, you know, this is our model
for like you know, and he said, well, I don't
(34:27):
want to make a slasher movie I'm making. I want
to make an art movie. And they're like, fine, you
still have six weeks. So it's just it was pressured,
and I thought the concept was so brilliant. It's so simple, right.
I love ideas in movies where you can wrap your
arms around it like that. Right, if you make noise,
you die? Right? So simple? And how has no one died?
It's so simple that you're like, how has no one
(34:48):
done this? True? And then you're like, has anyone done
this before? And no, they really haven't. So he fell
in love with this specscript that he got sent. He
pitched it to me. I said, you should direct. You've
got a whole world that you're building in your head
and you should do it. He was terrified to do it,
but did it again? Support Sport, Yeah, come on, like
you can do it, and of course he made a
(35:10):
beautiful movie. I think as it goes with every director
and even myself in the editing process in a film,
I can't see a film anymore after you see fifteen
cuts of it. I'm like, I don't know if it's good,
Like I have no idea anymore, lose perspective. So I
remember us driving to south By Southwest, which is this
great film festival, very supportive sort of movie crowd. No
(35:33):
one had seen the film, ten people had seen it,
and he was bricking it, you know, in the car
on the waves, just bricks left all around our Texas
And I said, I think it's incredible. I don't know
what anyone else will think, but I think it's incredible.
He was like, couldn't even speak by catatonic was fear.
And then it started to play in the movie theater,
(35:54):
and it probably that moment will probably go down as
one of the most unforgettable experiences, not just in my
career but my life. And people stopped eating during it,
and it was so silent it was it added to
the trauma of the movie, as if people felt a
(36:14):
part of trying to keep this family alive exactly it
went deathly quiet, and then people started to laugh a bit,
and John went, Oh my god, why they're laughing, And
I said, because they're shitting it. They're so scared. And
I remember when the film ended and my character cocks
the big rifle and everything, and people jumped up like
(36:35):
it was a Beatles concert. It was like they blew
the doors off the place. And I instantly cried because
it was just so beautiful and such a relief. And
because of that film festival, and I will give south
By all the credit for why the movie then went
on to do so well. And as much as I
have such an aversion to social media and don't do it,
I saw the benefit of that because it just spread
(36:57):
like quick fire. You gotta see this movie, got to
see this, got to see this, gotta se this movie.
And so by the time the film came out, it
had some colossal opening weekend that we have never anticipated ever.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
It was truly captivating.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Yeah, it's a beautifulrifying, and your performance was great and
John's and you get so scared.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
I could talk to Emily all day, but sadly, all
lunches must come to an end. And as we wind down,
I wonder what's next if you sort of had to
do a trajectory of the next piece of your professional life,
which has been so rich, Emily, and you're so talented,
(37:47):
were is there is there something like burning in you
to sort of do or you just sort.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Of like open.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
I continue to want to see things through more if
they've come to me in their early stages and I've
helped build them, and then you can release your baby
out there to the world, see that something come to
fruition that way that I would like to do much
more of. I find it terrifying and exciting all at once,
you know, I see more of that. I don't know
(38:17):
about directing, because I've also seen what it does to them.
It's so consuming, but I think at some point, yes,
I would. I'd like to try that.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
You definitely should be cool. I mean, you're a baby,
you are.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
This has been one of the most enjoyable launch I'm
really honored.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
An amazing interview.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
I am. Yes, thank you.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
It's so natural and it's like butter it's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Exactly. But it's very easy.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
To sit with someone you love but you admire or
you and whether I knew you before, like we do
or no.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Thank you, Thank you, and I hope that everyone enjoyed today.
Thank you, it was wonderful.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Thank you so much for this highly Carl, I love you.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Can deserve every car.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
We're going to get dessert now, all right, well, thank
you for joining me today.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
I love you, I love you. Table for two with
Bruce Bosi is produced by iHeart Radio seven three seven
Park and Airmail. Our executive producers are Bruce Bosi and
Nathan King. Table for two is researched and written by
Bridget arsenalt. Our sound engineers are Paul Bowman and Alyssa Midcalf.
(39:52):
Table for two's la production team is Danielle Romo and
Lorraine Verrez. Our music supervisor is Randall poster. Our Ellent
booking is by Jane Harkin. Special thanks to Amy Sugarman,
Uni Cher, Kevin Yuvane, Bobby Bauer, Alison Kantor Graber, Jody Williams,
Rita Sodi, and the team at Via Carota in Manhattan's
(40:12):
West Village. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thank you for pulling up a share on my podcast
Table for Two. We're back in New York at Via Carota,
and we're having lunch with a vivacious, super fit and
wildly talented actress.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I hear, my beautiful friend.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
If you missed my Table for two lunch with Anna Winter,
I bring it up because her breakout role was in
the devil Wares product. She's done so much more since then,
including playing Mary Poppins and starring in the breakout hit
A Quiet Place with her husband John Krasinski. Her new film,
Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, comes out next week. It's really good, delicious,
(00:55):
funny and charming. Don't do her justice. And I know
we're going to have a great time. So I have
a glass of rose because today we're having lunch. You
guessed it with Emily Blunt. I'm Bruce Bosi and this
is my podcast Table for two.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
This is the deal. Everybody who's listening.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
They pulled up for sure to have like sort of
like a brunch lunch with us. You Emily is schlunked
it in from Brooklyn.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Throw up, it's a new It's you schlunked it in.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah, when you get home and you say to John,
I schlocked he's going.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
To be flunked across Brooklyn to get to him. And
he sends you so much love, so much, I love
your husband.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
When we met, everybody, it was an instant love fest. Yeah,
with the three of us, you do something, you and John.
You did it in la and you've done it in Brooklyn.
When you lived in l A, you have like your
community you lived with, you know, on the same block
with Jimmy and Molly Kim, you know, Lucy and mad Damon.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
They're in our building.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
You're in your building here.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
There, we're like some weird commune.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I know, what is that about?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Like I don't ever see Matt Damon not in his
slippers anymore, you know, it's just always in his slippers.
I haven't seen him in regular shoes in a long time. Really. Yeah,
that's because we live in the same buildings. We just
pop down to see each other.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
And I love that.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
It's the best.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
What made that happen?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Like?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
How did that?
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Well? I mean we I've been close with Matt since
I worked with him years ago. I did this film
called Adjustment Bureau, and the four of us all hung
out a lot you know, Lucy and Matt and me
and John and and we just it's quite rare when
you really take someone away from a movie. You know,
you can love someone on a film, but it's whether
it's whether it's lasting or not is another thing. You know,
(02:44):
whether it extends past this insular experience on a film
is a whole other level of friendship, right, because you
have such accelerated friendships with people on a movie.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
It's absurd how much the amount of time you're spending.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Tea in the intensity of what you're creating. And it's
just it's a world that is that everyone else is
shut out of, including your partner, including everyone. It's just
it's just a strange experience for three months to work
on something like that and build something together. But then
Matt is just the most easygoing, beautiful person. Lucy is
(03:20):
even more beautiful. Sorry, Matt, but we all became friends.
And then they moved to Brooklyn. They said, we found
that there's this amazing building, and of course we were like,
we'll live in the same building. But there's really lovely,
cool people living in Brooklyn and we have Sunday night
dinners and it's.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, just throwback, yeah, and I think it's great because
so often, like we go into these corners and like
we've lost the sort of community of family and friends
as a result of the easiness of that. So it
reminds me of Lucy Etho, Ricky and Fred, you know,
the island of Lucy. So if you had a sort
(04:02):
of cast in this foursome, Yeah, who's sort of like
the Lucy.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
I mean, I'm Lucy, righty.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
I always like somehow getting people in trouble, always.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Like something goes wrong, always up to something.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
But that's kind of great just to come down and
be like Lucy, come on down and the kids.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
The kids love each other. And Brooklyn's a funny sort
of like certainly where we live is like a Sesame
Street sort of Norman Rockwell thing. I mean, it sounds
so idyllic and but it really is. And for me,
it's one of the only places I could really live
in America because I do miss London, I do miss home,
(04:44):
and yet this community is so intoxicating that I just
can't picture leaving it. London has beckoned to me many
times over the last fourteen years. I've sort of been
living in America and I miss it. I missed the attitude,
I the irreverence. I miss the vibe of the Brits.
(05:04):
I love them. And even though I had got an
American passport and I'm married to America, my children American,
I feel so English still.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
So we've been at several weddings. I was at your wedding.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
That was the best. By the way, my mother still
talks about my mother. You spun her around the dance
floor like a spinning top. And she literally said to me,
she still talks about it, how sexy you made her feel.
Not just that she thought you were sexy, but she did.
But she went and you know what, he made me
(05:47):
feel so sexy, And I went, that's great, mom, Like
if I cringe out.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
She loved it was that was great.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
You're the best person to have on a dance floor
because you're so delighted by the whole You can see
you are delighted by it. You spin everyone into a frenzy.
Everyone wants to be Oh, you lean in, you full
throttle the dance floor.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Do you find that now? I mean, your body work
is incredible.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
And then you know, I just watched the Curry again,
which wow, man, you were just moving that was a
tough movie. Yes, tough character, super hard physically and really
intense as far as you know obviously the subject matter
and everything.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Yeah, we're amazing, Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Do you find two things? One is like having to
stay in like the top form that you're in, which
you are so it seems part of the business you're in.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
And then also sort of making sure everything because.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
You know, being a mother, being a professional personall.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
It does and it doesn't well, not always well, you know.
It's one of those things when people like, how do
you balance it? I never feel I'm doing it right,
you know, but I'm this year, I'm not working. I
just need to be. Yeah, I just need to. I
worked quite a bit last year, and my oldest baby
(07:12):
is nine. I were in the last year of single digits,
and I just feel there's cornerstones to their day that
are so important when they're little, and it's will you
wake me up? Will you take me to school? Will
you pick me up? Will you put me to bed?
And I just need to be there for all of
them for a good stretch, and I just felt that
(07:34):
in my bones. I had a beautiful time on the
projects I did last year. Some were more intense than others,
some were harder than others, someone more time consuming than others,
and the ones that are time consuming, I think for
me are becoming few and further between because of just
the emotional cost on me, on the kids. On balance,
(07:59):
and I'm very prone to guilt, and I think maybe
all mothers are. You're just prone to feeling bad for
God forbid, wanting something outside of being a mother. I
am a huge advocate for it. I'm a huge advocate
for women being ambitious. I love the word ambition. It's
just dreams with purpose. That's all it is. It's not
another world it is, That's what it is.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
That's what it means.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
And it's just and I want my kids to grow
up and find something that they adore doing.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
And your kids watching you do something that you adore, Yeah,
so important.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
It's so important. And of course they're just horrified by
the fact that I'm an actress, which is sort of
so embarrassed by and I have no desire to watching
me in anything, which is very healthy because they just
want me to be their mom. So the balance is
usually it sways in extremes, like I'll work too much
and then I'll have like a complete reaction against it
(08:53):
and an aversion to being on a film set for
a long time, and then I'll want to desperately work again.
So I don't know if I do it moderately. I
think I just have these pulls towards it and against it.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Well, that's so beautiful that you now, and we're going
to talk about because you do. You have a number
of projects that are about to be reallyasing exactly.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
This sort of gives you an idea of what last
year was, you know, and that's why I need to Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
So the idea that you've made a sort of formal
decision in your life that you make it is very
empowering to say, I'm going to take a break here
where you wake up just peaceful, peaceful.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
I sleep great because when I work, I which I
also love about it. I find it a heart racing experience.
When I work, I love it. There's clearly this fire
in me that I need to give room to. But
I race with it for months leading up and then
(09:53):
during and so when I finish a project and once
it sort of expelled from me, I sleep again. So
I don't know if I sleep great or I think
straight when I'm working, and it's funny.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
I understand that completely. And I also think just being.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
A parent in and of itself, yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Not even having a job and a career like yours,
which is so big, and that is part of the
just the gig is you have to leave to do it. Sure,
Guilt is just a part of being a parent. It's
like a minute the kid pops out, You're.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Like, guilty, doing righty guilty. I'm like, wow, I'm not
doing facilating. The moment they come out.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Of your body, it's just like, oh my god, Yes,
what are like the little things?
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:47):
That you really if it's not too personal for me
to ask, like which on like little? Like the little
is it a walk in the park? Is it like
a couple of coffee in the morning.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
It's usually the morning. We got a puppy who's absolutely beautiful.
Because we got this puppy like idiots, even though I'm
completely obsessed with her.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
This was a year to get it because and I knew.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
This was the time, because you know, it always falls
on mom less burial, that's burial. And I wasn't wanting
to get a dog, but the kids were pushing for it.
And he and John was up for it. So we
rescued this beautiful little She's not little, like she's going
to be vast. We're realizing she's part massive, realizing, oh
my god, she's already like a horse. She's five months.
(11:32):
She's absolutely vast. I was like, I fell in love
with her, fell in love there, couldn't care less. She
had diarrheal last week. Imagine that in an apartment, no
outdoor space. That's fun to wake up too, just Jackson
pollocked all over the walls, just the little things that
I do. So that was a rough week, that is,
(11:57):
aside from our usual peaceful morning. But I like that
quiet moment. I don't mind getting up early with this
puppy because it means that John and I can kind
of talk in the morning and catch up and really
talk before the kids are awake and everything. Because the
day gets away from you so quickly once once the
tornadoes are up, it's just sort of game over. So
(12:19):
I love those moments. I love watching movies. I love
going for dinner with friends, love all of that. I
love watching things like The Voice.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
I mean we love The Voice.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Only the blind auditions. After that, I get a lot
I agree.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
The blind auditions are showing really good. Thanks for joining
(12:55):
us on Table for two. Emily has started in many
films and has had an amazing career, and I'm wondering
what really grabs her as an actress when she's considering
a role. I mean, I don't think one looking at
your career would So you've stayed in a lane. I
mean from the movie that sort of launched you to
(13:16):
the Mary Poppins to being in Siargan blowing people up,
killing you know, and girl on a train, it's like you're.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Hitting it at all.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
I do try to. It's sort of a conscious effort
to keep experimenting. Really, I do have the desire still,
I know in me I don't want to play it safe.
I do continue to want to rip the face off stuff.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
I do.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Oh I love you.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
I just love how you speak. That is like a visceral.
That's kindly blunt visceral.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
You want to rip the face off. And I want
to keep sort of challenging myself and not discovering the
bag of tricks. I would love not to stay in
a lane. So I do find it scary every time,
you know, you kind of put your feet to the
fire and do something new or something I've done before.
I remember Marlon Brando said, you only have so many faces, really,
(14:11):
and it's interesting, and I think that's the encouragement to
be selective about what you choose to do, you know,
And I am aware of that of like, well, what
have I done before? What's new? What's scary? What do
I when I read it? Do I have no idea
how to play it? I like that.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Okay, yeah, that's very interesting.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
I like it when it doesn't strike me immediately.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Are there people actresses or actors from the past that
you that inspired you growing up, or that you or
that you look at and say that's the kind of
or work you know someone that's it's such.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
A range of people, really. I mean it's one of
my first experiences, rather inappropriately watching a film I shouldn't
have done, was watching Pretty Women, and I remember just thinking,
I can't remember how old I was too young to
be watching it.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
You were young, because I could tell you the movie
theater I was sitting in, and it was nineteen ninety
ninety one.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yeah, you're born in the eighties, which is okay.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
I was about to graduate high school, so you were Yeah,
you were quite young to see that.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
You were basically theater. I'm sure I saw it. I
know I saw it when it came out on like
video cassettes, so I'm not that young, like there were
DVD's guys. I remember when I remember when she pulls
out the condoms and she fans them, yes, yes, which
again I said, what are those?
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Dad?
Speaker 3 (15:43):
And he goes, they're sweet? Yeah, candy, candy.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Shock, thank you.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
That's I just couldn't don't know what they were, right, So,
but I remember watching her and then in every movie
I saw afterwards, just being completely bewitched by her because
she was so free and charming and yet brilliant, and
when she would cry, it was this emotional force of
(16:14):
reality and truth. And I just felt like she could
do anything and she was. She just lit things up,
and I thought, that's a movie stuff. Wow. But she's
also just an incredible actress. So she was sort of
my first experience with like really being inspired by an
actor totally completely. And then of course the Meryl Streeps
(16:37):
and the Diane Weese and like all those incredible actresses
who I've loved in so many different things. I remember
Edward Sissahans just being just in love with Diane. We
just wanted her to adopt me.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
She was always just lit up the screen, which she incredible. Yeah,
but that's interesting. I always wonder like who inspires Street?
Speaker 1 (16:58):
So just to touch upon it you've talked about a
million times, but it's like, what was that like for
you as such a young girl to work with this
woman and not only sort of have to like live
up to something but hit it out of the park.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Was that?
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Like?
Speaker 2 (17:11):
How'd you walk on that set? The first thing?
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I mean, the table read itself was sort of goose bumpy,
stomach churning, exciting. Found it very nerve wracking, you know,
listening to it's like in a table read, which are
the worst things on earth? Just terrifying because everyone's sort
of marking it. But then you feel if you mark it,
(17:33):
people are going to kind of judge you for it
and be like, is that all she's going to do?
You know, and like, but yeah, you kind of don't
want to go all out because then you don't want
to look keen. So it's just that it's a terrible
balance to try and stride and the best things you
were probably just to kind of mutter your way through
it and.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Not really do it.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
But I felt, you know, no one knew who I was,
and this was kind of a big part for me
to get and it was just a big opportunity. So
not to say I went full throttle, but I didn't
mutter my way through it, you know, so consciously. But
I remember listening to them reading the scenes leading up
to my first line and just bricking it just I
(18:07):
don't know if you know what that means. It's a
British term shitting bricks. So when you're bricking it, you're bricks.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
So I was waiting for each person going around, you're
just getting more.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
So then it came up to my first line and
I said my first line, which I can't remember what
it was, something about human resources certainly have an odd
sense of humor, or something about poor Annie hath the
Way's character. And Meryll did this sort of low, rumbly
laugh to herself, and I was like, and I was
(18:42):
so thrilled. And whether or not she found it funny
is besides the point. It's just the fact that I
think she she can read the room. She knows when
people need a little bolster or a little lean or
some little catch. And she's a master of reading the
room and reading people, which is why she soaks people
up and she probably puts them into all of her characters.
(19:04):
But she's also dealing with And we talked about it afterwards,
you know, we've done three films together now, and she said,
you know, she's basically a lot of the time, I
realized dealing with doing two jobs, which is one of
which is the scene and the other one is dealing
with the other actor going oh my god, I'm in
a scene with Meryl Street. So it's sort of a
two prong job. I think someone of her stature and
(19:26):
I think she just wants to be treated like everybody else.
She wants the notes, she wants, she wants the screws
tightened on he like everybody else.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah, I would imagine. I've never even thought about that.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Yeah, if you're revered that much, you know, how do
you know?
Speaker 1 (19:40):
How do you how do you separate the two when
you know that there's so much pressure because the person's
looking at you, they can never really actually lose himself
potentially completely the character.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Because you're like, oh my god, what she thinking? Living
up to it?
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Yes, that's very interesting. I think about that with quite
a lot of people who are either supremely revered or
supremely famous, or the double whammy of both, and that's
a lot of energy coming at you. Like I remember
there was that thing where Brad Pitt was at the
Golden Globes and everyone was up there going, oh my god,
(20:21):
remember that, freaking out that they were in front of him,
And I thought, what's that like? If you're on the
receiving end of that kind of energy all the time,
that must be rough.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
When you say yes to a part and you're excited,
do you ever wake up going like.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Why would I do it? All the time? All the time?
I mean constantly, I've riddled with self doubt leading up
to it. The whole first week. I'm like, this is terrible.
I'm terrible. You know, it's just that's fine. You kind
of go with the flow with that. I've learned to
kind of ride those times out, but most of the
time now because I'm probably much more selective about what
(21:10):
I choose to do and who I want to work with, Like,
there's obviously people who will hit your life's too shortlist
where you're like, oh god, never again, or no, that
doesn't sound fun. But yes, I'm usually frozen with fear
leading up to it and and then you get taken
over by it.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Yeah you have, so we talked about it earlier, so
the next year you.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Have a lot of stuff coming out. Yeah. Fog Guy
with Ryan Gosling.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Yes, Oh my god, it was such I can't eat.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
To start with the Fog because Far Guy. I grew
up watching The Fun Intelligence What drew you that? And
working with Ryan who's so incredible.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
He's an incredible guy and such a talent. And I think,
you know, I love David Leech's work, and he's just
a He's caught this like pop culture kinetic visual stride
that is just so exciting and rare, and it's really modern.
I think I felt I hadn't done something contemporary for
(22:11):
a little bit, and I've been I mean, I love
I love a period drama. I'm like all about it.
But I think I wanted to do something funny and
big and sort of lights out really and I love
that TV series too and the movie. When I signed on,
they were still developing the script and I love that
(22:32):
open armed thing of come into the fold, let's build
this together. It was very open armed and very collaborative,
and I think because Ryan is so free you know,
he's so free spirited as an actor and is always
trying to search for something more interesting in the scene.
(22:53):
So it means the scenes have this completely singular life
where you don't kind of know where the scene's going
to go. And I loved it improv and he loves
to improve, and so it was it was about every
day was about this kind of chase and we would
laugh saying on this movie it was like the escape
from everything. We get out because the film is a
(23:13):
really big idea and it's all about, you know, the
stunt world and the fact that we were also celebrating
stunt men who do not get enough accolades in this industry.
The fact that there is no award at the Oscars
for a stunt team is terrible when every other department,
Mad Max doesn't happen without a stunt team, Like none
of these big Best Picture nominally nominees, they don't happen
(23:36):
without a stunt team.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Never thought about that.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
They don't like the mission Impossible is the Top Guns, Like,
where does that happen without your stunt team? And they
put their lives at risk for all of us to
kind of mosey in and do a couple of chops
in the air and a punch and they make us
look amazing while they're getting dragged across gravel and you
do the close up on a green screen. I mean,
it's like ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
That's so true.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
And they just they literally put themselves out there every day.
And Dave Leech, who was a stunt man and was
one of their best stunt men in the industry. He
stunt double Brad Pitt and Matt Damon and all those boys.
And you know, he wanted to do all the stunts practically,
which means without cgi and anything like that. And we
were trying to break really big records in the stunt
(24:20):
well for what we were able to do, and it
was just thrilling. I loved it. It's so funny this movie.
It's so romantic and so funny.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
So and you're so physical and so that's I can't
wait to see that.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Yeah, you'll love it. You'll love it.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Then Pain Hustlers.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yes, Yes, that's Netflix.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Yes, talk to me about that.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
So that one. That's July, No, that's October. So Pain
Hustlers was a project that came to me, which was
sort of the first time I think I veered in
to do something political, contemporary, hard hitting. It's really an exploration,
(25:03):
I felt, deep down of the shadiness in all of us.
And isn't that interesting to have a character at the
center of it who is a good person but does
some really fucked up things and gets she gets caught
up in the intoxicating world of selling pharmaceuticals and knows
it's corrupt, can't get out for a variety of reasons,
(25:24):
some out of her control. And it's about accountability, it's
about guilt, it's about all of these things, like what
keeps you up at night when you're staring at the ceiling,
questioning whether you're a good person or that. And I
just thought that exploration of the shadiness in a character,
and you don't often see it in a female character,
because I feel strongly that most female characters in Hollywood
(25:46):
are usually held up to some sort of feminine ideal.
And I'm always hearing this, like is she likable? I'm
I don't give a fuck if she's likable, you know,
And no man is ever asked that, Like none of
those guys in the Big Short or Wolf of Wall Street,
where we're never concerned if they were likable and they
were doing terrible corrupt things. So I really was inspired
by this idea and very much supported by David Yates
(26:07):
who directed it. It was real. We were sort of
trying to build this case for a woman who does
some bad things and how does she cope with that?
And it's done in this very dynamic visual way the
whole movie.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah, that's great, that's great that you should have look
at it through that lens and you're sort of an
advocate for how women are perceived perceived in your industry
and like, is bullshit.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
It is bullshit, and how women are sort of perceived
in society as well, and like the different rules that
women are more held to than men, And so yeah,
I just thought this intoxicating world of selling pharmaceuticals and
this hard hitting, fast paced, corrupt world was an interesting
(26:57):
exploration because it's very prominent right now. There are so
there's so many deaths from opioid abuse and this has
been completely put this a crisis is born out of
natural events, and this is really the colossal crime behind
the crisis, and that's through the pharmaceutical companies and the
(27:19):
governments that support them completely.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
I just watched that documentary as Sacler documentary.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Yeah, so this is what it's based on. This is
what the movie is based on.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Welcome Back to Table for two. One of this summer's
biggest films is Oppenheimer by famed director Christopher Nolan. Emily
Star says Kitty j Robert Oppenheimer's wife, it's an unorthodox blockbuster,
a movie with a message for humanity. Let's talk about Oppenheim. Okay,
(28:07):
let's talk about Kitty. Let's talk about Nolan. Let's talk
about that cast.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
What was that like it?
Speaker 3 (28:16):
That was a true master class like that you kind
of run to work every day to just see what
he's going to dream up Chris, because he is he's
an extraordinary force. He is talk about someone who has
an authority to them, and he's got his own intimidation
(28:39):
factor that is there. But it's partly I mean to me,
I didn't find him intimidating. I adored him. He's so English,
he's most British person. He's like my family. So when
he's happy with the take, he goes yeah, good, happy, yeah,
and I'll go yeah, and he goes okay, good, moving on,
(29:00):
moving okay, And to me, I'm like, dad, you know, yeah,
So I loved it and the whole experience of working
on it that yes, it's a biopic. But when I
first read it at his house, you know, you go
over to meet him, and I didn't care if it
(29:21):
was a scene I would be wanting to do this movie.
I didn't care. I just wanted to work with him.
And I read it and I thought, yes, it's a biopic.
But it was so emotional. It moved like this Chase thriller.
And when you watch it, it grabs you by the throat
in the beginning, and it's like a horror movie. It's
like a horror movie. Trojan Horse is a biopic. I mean,
(29:43):
it's just Killian Murphy, my dear friend, is so extraordinary,
and he's absolutely mesmerizing and holds the whole thing together
so delicately.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Will you tell the people that pulled up a chair what?
Speaker 3 (30:00):
So the story is about? So the story is about Oppenheimer,
who created the atomic bomb, and it follows his whole
life story from a brilliant child physicist in college up
until when he was enlisted to create the bomb. Bill
Los Alamus and then goes into another time period when
he was kind of dragged through the calls in his
(30:23):
security hearing during the McCarthy era, where he was accused
of communism because of his relationships with his wife who
dabbled in communism who I play, his girlfriend who was
a communist, his brother who was a communist. So it's
just the rise and fall of a brilliant brain. The
trauma of a brain like that of living with that
(30:46):
kind of genius brain is depicted so visually and so
frighteningly in the movie. It's about him, but it's about
these themes of ambition and male ego during war and
that pursuit of something that would change the world forever,
the pursuit of something that's bigger than all of us,
(31:08):
that will have ramifications for the rest of time. It's
just it's really incredible. What is the restlessness in us
that even hearing this could be potentially bad, that you
could unleash something that would have a negative effect psychologically,
emotionally on the earth, on us as humans, on the environment.
(31:30):
Is what is the pursuit that still restlessly lives in us?
You know, it's just terrifying when.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
You work in an ensemble like that and there's such
brilliant actors.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Yes, is it harder? Is it more uplifting for you? Like?
How do you find your sort of place in that? Oh?
Speaker 3 (31:48):
It's so easy, you know, because there is simply one
voice on set, and it will be Chris's. You know,
there's no there's one lead dog and it's very clear,
and we're all just there to to just try and
deliver something to him.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
And when you have Matt.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Matt Damon's in it, Killian Murphy's in it, Robert Downey
Junior is in it, Florence Pugh's in it, like there's
just wonderful people. Male Yeah, Romie Maleck's in it. I mean,
Ksey Affleck said it. Just the list goes on and
on and on of people. Kenneth Branna is in it.
The people who showed up to do one day on
(32:26):
this film and they raise their hands willingly and immediately
for Chris. And then you know why, when you're on set,
you go, that makes sense. Of course they do? They run?
Speaker 1 (32:35):
You know, you think so when we see this movie,
I haven't obviously seen it without giving anything away, do
you leave thinking hope?
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Do you leave thinking Wow, this was really bad.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
I think it's just the most thought provoking film. It
will kidnap you and you're going to think about it
for a long time afterwards.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Yeah, it's like one of those.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
It's one of those. It's not a film, it's an experience.
It's away try.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
You know when you guys did the A Quiet Place
and and this is just funny. I don't know if
this will actually read if you've pulled up a chair today,
But like Eva and I, that movie was we just
loved it. We watched it over the summer and we
were like, in bed at night, it's scary as fox.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
And so then we played the game.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
So like we'd be like in the kitchen and like
there's at my parents' house and there was a garbage but.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
You pull out from a drawer.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Yeah, and we'd be like okay now, and I'd be
like I'm like, like I point like she had to
throw it out, and she'd look at me and she'd
knowing that the thing was about to go, and then
I would just wave goodbye to her like that was
like that's oh why that was really? Was that an
(34:03):
unexpected sort of very success?
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Yes, I mean the first one was made for sixteen
million dollars and we shot it in six weeks, and
it was very pressured, and I think John was just
trying to make an art movie. And of course when
you do these sort of lower budget horror movies, the
studios always talk about, you know, this is our model
for like you know, and he said, well, I don't
(34:27):
want to make a slasher movie I'm making. I want
to make an art movie. And they're like, fine, you
still have six weeks. So it's just it was pressured,
and I thought the concept was so brilliant. It's so simple, right.
I love ideas in movies where you can wrap your
arms around it like that. Right, if you make noise,
you die? Right? So simple? And how has no one died?
It's so simple that you're like, how has no one
(34:48):
done this? True? And then you're like, has anyone done
this before? And no, they really haven't. So he fell
in love with this specscript that he got sent. He
pitched it to me. I said, you should direct. You've
got a whole world that you're building in your head
and you should do it. He was terrified to do it,
but did it again? Support Sport, Yeah, come on, like
you can do it, and of course he made a
(35:10):
beautiful movie. I think as it goes with every director
and even myself in the editing process in a film,
I can't see a film anymore after you see fifteen
cuts of it. I'm like, I don't know if it's good,
Like I have no idea anymore, lose perspective. So I
remember us driving to south By Southwest, which is this
great film festival, very supportive sort of movie crowd. No
(35:33):
one had seen the film, ten people had seen it,
and he was bricking it, you know, in the car
on the waves, just bricks left all around our Texas
And I said, I think it's incredible. I don't know
what anyone else will think, but I think it's incredible.
He was like, couldn't even speak by catatonic was fear.
And then it started to play in the movie theater,
(35:54):
and it probably that moment will probably go down as
one of the most unforgettable experiences, not just in my
career but my life. And people stopped eating during it,
and it was so silent it was it added to
the trauma of the movie, as if people felt a
(36:14):
part of trying to keep this family alive exactly it
went deathly quiet, and then people started to laugh a bit,
and John went, Oh my god, why they're laughing, And
I said, because they're shitting it. They're so scared. And
I remember when the film ended and my character cocks
the big rifle and everything, and people jumped up like
(36:35):
it was a Beatles concert. It was like they blew
the doors off the place. And I instantly cried because
it was just so beautiful and such a relief. And
because of that film festival, and I will give south
By all the credit for why the movie then went
on to do so well. And as much as I
have such an aversion to social media and don't do it,
I saw the benefit of that because it just spread
(36:57):
like quick fire. You gotta see this movie, got to
see this, got to see this, gotta se this movie.
And so by the time the film came out, it
had some colossal opening weekend that we have never anticipated ever.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
It was truly captivating.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Yeah, it's a beautifulrifying, and your performance was great and
John's and you get so scared.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
I could talk to Emily all day, but sadly, all
lunches must come to an end. And as we wind down,
I wonder what's next if you sort of had to
do a trajectory of the next piece of your professional life,
which has been so rich, Emily, and you're so talented,
(37:47):
were is there is there something like burning in you
to sort of do or you just sort.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Of like open.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
I continue to want to see things through more if
they've come to me in their early stages and I've
helped build them, and then you can release your baby
out there to the world, see that something come to
fruition that way that I would like to do much
more of. I find it terrifying and exciting all at once,
you know, I see more of that. I don't know
(38:17):
about directing, because I've also seen what it does to them.
It's so consuming, but I think at some point, yes,
I would. I'd like to try that.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
You definitely should be cool. I mean, you're a baby,
you are.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
This has been one of the most enjoyable launch I'm
really honored.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
An amazing interview.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
I am. Yes, thank you.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
It's so natural and it's like butter it's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Exactly. But it's very easy.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
To sit with someone you love but you admire or
you and whether I knew you before, like we do
or no.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Thank you, Thank you, and I hope that everyone enjoyed today.
Thank you, it was wonderful.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Thank you so much for this highly Carl, I love you.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Can deserve every car.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
We're going to get dessert now, all right, well, thank
you for joining me today.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
I love you, I love you. Table for two with
Bruce Bosi is produced by iHeart Radio seven three seven
Park and Airmail. Our executive producers are Bruce Bosi and
Nathan King. Table for two is researched and written by
Bridget arsenalt. Our sound engineers are Paul Bowman and Alyssa Midcalf.
(39:52):
Table for two's la production team is Danielle Romo and
Lorraine Verrez. Our music supervisor is Randall poster. Our Ellent
booking is by Jane Harkin. Special thanks to Amy Sugarman,
Uni Cher, Kevin Yuvane, Bobby Bauer, Alison Kantor Graber, Jody Williams,
Rita Sodi, and the team at Via Carota in Manhattan's
(40:12):
West Village. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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