July 9, 2023 • 14 mins
Original Air Date: July 9, 2023
Margot Josefsohn stars in Ed Asner’s final movie “The Tiger Within”, as a homeless Holocaust denier, who ends up ONLY trusting a Holocaust survivor. You can stream or see it in theaters. You won’t be disappointed.
Margot Josefsohn stars in Ed Asner’s final movie “The Tiger Within”, as a homeless Holocaust denier, who ends up ONLY trusting a Holocaust survivor. You can stream or see it in theaters. You won’t be disappointed.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio,conversations about issues that matter. Here's your
host, three times Gracie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein. I want to introduce
you to the marvelous Margot Josephson.She stars in the movie The Tiger Within,
which happens to be the very lastmovie made by the wonderful Ed Asner.
(00:26):
And let me give you a littlebackground. It's basically a story of
two people who really need each otherbecause Margot plays Casey, who is homeless
even though she has a father anda mother. They basically both didn't want
anything to do with this teenage daughter. And ed Asner plays a Holocaust survivor
(00:51):
who lost both twins in the Holocaustbut also lost his wife later in life.
So we're talking about two very lonelypeople who don't necessarily trust people.
Margot, First of all, howdid you get the role? I mean
this, listen. If you weren'tgood in this as Casey, this movie
(01:15):
wouldn't work. Thank you. II do appreciate that it was honestly a
fluke. I was with my momat another Auditionum I had only done,
like, you know, smaller things. This was my first big thing ever,
and man came up to me hisson was also auditioning for the same
thing I was, and he toldme that I had piercing blue eyes and
(01:40):
that he wanted me to do somepromotional photos for the film. He didn't
really know that I acted, andlong story short, he ended up,
you know, allowing me to dothe audition as well. And I was
auditioning against like twenty one year olds, twenty two year olds, and I
was fourteen at the time, soyou know, in the beginning, he
told me, you're probably I'm notgoing to get this, you know,
it's a long shot. But theyended up casting me. Were you tested
(02:07):
with Ed Asner before you got therole? I was yes. And Ed
is very blunt and he didn't initiallyinitially think that I would be good for
the role for Casey, just becausehe, you know, saw how young
I was. But when we met, it was it was instant chemistry.
I mean, he felt like,you know, a father figure to me.
(02:30):
We got really close on set.How old are you, Margo,
I'm nineteen now I'm about to turntwenty, okay. And how old were
you when you shot this? Iwas fourteen the last day was my fifteenth
birthday. How that he's quite aload for a fourteen year old. Now,
what did you know about ed Asnerbefore you? Well, that's the
(02:54):
thing is, I was fourteen,and I mean I knew him from you
know, the movie Up and SantaClaus from Elf, but I had no
idea about the Mary Tyler Moore Showor you know, any of his success.
So I went in really not toointimidated, because I mean if I
were working with him now, youknow, if I was like twenty going
(03:14):
in with it, I would becompletely flustered. But yeah, I really
had no idea who he was,and I think that really helped just keep
me grounded. What did you knowabout the Holocaust? Because Casey, your
character, she's at a club inher hometown when somebody paints a swastika on
(03:36):
the back of her leather jacket andshe doesn't really know what it is she
do. Your character thinks it's just, you know, we're going to go
do our own thing, just youknow, or rebel or whatever. You
didn't. So what did you knowas a fourteen year old about the Holocaust
when you got this role? Yeah, Well, personally, I had privilege
(04:00):
of being in more private schools growingup. So in eighth grade I was
at a school called Christian Academy,and this was really the first time that
i'd really been I guess the schoolthat I was in had really showcased truly
what the Holocaust was. We readand studied a book called The Hiding Place
(04:20):
by Corey ten Boom, and itwas about, you know, survivors of
the Holocaust. And my uncle Jeanactually he is or was he passed away
a French author, but he actuallyhas a famous book. I forget the
name. It's in French, um, I don't speak French anymore. But
he was also involved with the Holocausthis book. I guess he would pass
(04:46):
messages from like the nuns to thepeople in hiding on a little bike and
he has a whole book about it. I don't exactly know what it's called,
but I grew up pretty familiar.Like my adoptive family is also Jewish,
so I definitely was around it morethan I would say probably the average
person, like just around the Jewishculture. And did you and ed Asner
(05:11):
discuss the Holocaust? I say wedid, especially when referring to you know,
his role as Samuel and Casey.I think we talked a lot about
just the ignorance of you know,young people now and how he really wanted
to do this film because you know, he wanted to bring awareness to just
the struggles in life, and heloved the message of the film. What
(05:39):
so, what do you think ofHolocaust deniers. I think it's preposterous.
I think it's absolutely terrible. There'sso much evidence, and there's so many
people still grieving and still mourning ofall of the lives lost in the Holocaust,
And I think this film is agreat indicator of what a lot of
young people in the world right noware just raised around. I mean Casey,
(06:02):
it wasn't initially her fault. Shedidn't know because of the fact her
mother her mother, her mother exactly. But I think it's to show,
you know, how bad parenting canlead to crazy thoughts. And yeah,
well not only crazy thoughts, Imean bad parenting. Look look what happened
(06:23):
to your character. She ended uphomeless and prostituting herself, although not in
the worst way possible. She basically, you know, gave hand jobs to
God for money. I'm speaking withMargot Josephson, she plays Casey in the
movie The Tiger Within, which youcan see now in theaters, but it's
(06:46):
also streaming and it is ed Asner'sfinal movie. What was his health like
then? Um, it was verysurprising. Ed was very much like excited,
like every day to come to set, and um, he'd come in
my trailer and we'd have like lemonpopsicles. Um. And I mean he
just loved like being around. Andum, he had a little nickname for
(07:10):
me on set. He called mehis tramp just because of why just the
way I was dressed. Um.You know, he was very his humor
was very old timey and um.No, he was always in really good
spirits. And um, I meanwe loved working together and it was it
was a lot of fun. Butbut was he healthy. Yeah, he
(07:30):
was pretty healthy. Um. Imean they gave him breaks and you know
he'd sit in like air condition roomsand things like that when we were shooting
and like other houses. Um,but yeah, he was very healthy.
How did you learn about his passing? Um, so, I a few
years ago was living in Las Vegaswith my aunt, and um, I
(07:57):
think I was scrolling through Instagram oror no, actually no, I that
was after I had gotten a textfrom Gina I'm pretty sure, and she
said, hey, you know,give me a call when you can.
And then I heard about it fromGina, and then ginas the writer of
the film. Okay, okay,god, And you know, she's always
(08:20):
also a very close personal friend.We got really close during and after the
filming. But yes, so Iheard about it from her, and then
afterwards, you know, I'm seeingit on the news and on the TV,
and it kind of just brought meback because my father passed away when
I was sixteen, and I'm sorry, it's okay. I mean, you
know, I've I've done the workI need to do to grieve um.
(08:43):
But yeah, it was kind ofa very big shock for I think me
as well as a lot of otherpeople, because I hadn't seen him for
like a year prior to his passing. Were you in touch with him though
after the film? Yes, yeah, we'd go to dinners and you know,
catch up like with his daughter andmy mom. Um. Yeah,
(09:07):
So, what are your hopes forthe movie The Tiger Within? Oh gosh,
I mean I didn't even know ifwe would get to this point,
just because you know, we filmedit such a long time ago. And
I know there were issues with youknow, the director and um Gina and
you know, the director not reallylistening. But I mean my hopes are
(09:30):
just you know, Gina said shewants to show it in schools. Um,
you know, maybe not the youngergreats. Um, but I think
going in ut Yeah, I thinkit's that would be a really cool place.
I mean, anywhere really that wouldjust teach people. And um,
I mean I think also the moralof the story is that Samuel taught Casey
(09:52):
had a love. I mean,he was the first person I think she
ever truly loved and the power ofthat and it changed her whole life afterwards.
Um, I think is very verybeautiful. Yeah, and it was
just so well done. Why wasit held so long? You know,
I don't even know. I waskept not in the dark. But after
(10:16):
filming, you know, after thepassing of my dad, that's why I
quit acting, and I was justyou know, focusing on school and um,
you know, figuring out what Iwant to do in life. So
honestly, you'd probably have to talkto Gina about that. I'm not really
sure everything that went down, um, but I'm just glad that it's it's
(10:37):
finally finally coming around. Now,Oh, any feelings on the writer's strike
because we're you know, it's likealmost two months long. I personally had
no idea. I h yeah,like yeah, they and it's like,
here are all my big issues.Margot streaming but more so the use of
(10:58):
AI. Those are the two bigissues. And if they're not settled now,
because AI is just it's exploding,but we don't know in what form
it's exploding, so unless rules areset now in that industry, in so
many industries, you know, yeah, you can run them up sharing a
(11:22):
lot of people, including myself.Like there's this app we have called Snapchat,
and now they have like this thingon Snapchat you cannot remove, and
it's called my AI and it's thislike AI creature that you can talk to
if you have no one else totalk to. But nobody have you done
that? Well for fun? Youknow, you ask it like weird questions
(11:43):
and it'll be like, um,I don't know, it's just really weird
and like it could easily get yourpersonal information. So I like to stay
away from all of that. Butthat's absolutely terrible and I don't blame you
guys for doing that or break thewriter's skilled. So what what what does
Margot Josephson want to do with herlife? I don't know. I guess
(12:07):
I don't have to know. Butwhat are you thinking? Um? I
mean I love traveling, you know, growing up my dad always told me
that it's the best form of education, which I wholeheartedly agree. Um,
and you know I have dual citizenship, so I was kind of raised in
France as well. Um, SoI don't know, maybe something to do
(12:28):
with traveling and writing. Maybe Ilove writing. Um, I don't know.
I don't know yet. But you'reso what are you doing now?
I'm a parista, you're a baristawhere where I work at Starbucks? Very
very temporarily. But um, yesI have another job offer coming up,
(12:52):
which I don't know. I'll see. Um, everything's up in the air
right now. Also maybe moving.So figuring it out? And are you
done with acting or do you stillhave an open mind to that? You
were so good, Margo, you'rea good actress. Thank you. I
appreciate that. I mean, it'sdefinitely something I think about all the time.
(13:16):
I mean, if I had theright team around me again, then
maybe, But I think it alsodoes take a lot out of me,
like because when I, you know, with Casey, I pretty much was
in a in a funk for monthsafter, just because I really became her
for the role. And when Ido act, I tend to just put
(13:39):
everything I have into my project,into my role. And I don't know
if I could do that right now, just because like again, I'm good
thinking, I'm moving and you know, trying to figure out exactly what i
want to do. But hopefully maybewhen I'm older, I'll come back to
it. Okay, I want tothank you so much. It was wonderful
(14:01):
talking to you. And again,I look, I watched I watch films
with my husband. Now, theseare films that are not yet open,
and most of the time, Ihave to be honest, he hates them.
He just hates them. He lovedthis movie. So I'm telling you,
if my husband loves a movie,it's a good movie. I mean,
we have different kind of ways oflooking at movies, but he loved
(14:26):
The Tiger Within. You could seeit in theaters. You can also stream
it. You've been listening to Sunsteensessions on iHeartRadio, a production of New
York's classic rock Q one O fourpoint three
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio,conversations about issues that matter. Here's your
host, three times Gracie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein. I want to introduce
you to the marvelous Margot Josephson.She stars in the movie The Tiger Within,
which happens to be the very lastmovie made by the wonderful Ed Asner.
(00:26):
And let me give you a littlebackground. It's basically a story of
two people who really need each otherbecause Margot plays Casey, who is homeless
even though she has a father anda mother. They basically both didn't want
anything to do with this teenage daughter. And ed Asner plays a Holocaust survivor
(00:51):
who lost both twins in the Holocaustbut also lost his wife later in life.
So we're talking about two very lonelypeople who don't necessarily trust people.
Margot, First of all, howdid you get the role? I mean
this, listen. If you weren'tgood in this as Casey, this movie
(01:15):
wouldn't work. Thank you. II do appreciate that it was honestly a
fluke. I was with my momat another Auditionum I had only done,
like, you know, smaller things. This was my first big thing ever,
and man came up to me hisson was also auditioning for the same
thing I was, and he toldme that I had piercing blue eyes and
(01:40):
that he wanted me to do somepromotional photos for the film. He didn't
really know that I acted, andlong story short, he ended up,
you know, allowing me to dothe audition as well. And I was
auditioning against like twenty one year olds, twenty two year olds, and I
was fourteen at the time, soyou know, in the beginning, he
told me, you're probably I'm notgoing to get this, you know,
it's a long shot. But theyended up casting me. Were you tested
(02:07):
with Ed Asner before you got therole? I was yes. And Ed
is very blunt and he didn't initiallyinitially think that I would be good for
the role for Casey, just becausehe, you know, saw how young
I was. But when we met, it was it was instant chemistry.
I mean, he felt like,you know, a father figure to me.
(02:30):
We got really close on set.How old are you, Margo,
I'm nineteen now I'm about to turntwenty, okay. And how old were
you when you shot this? Iwas fourteen the last day was my fifteenth
birthday. How that he's quite aload for a fourteen year old. Now,
what did you know about ed Asnerbefore you? Well, that's the
(02:54):
thing is, I was fourteen,and I mean I knew him from you
know, the movie Up and SantaClaus from Elf, but I had no
idea about the Mary Tyler Moore Showor you know, any of his success.
So I went in really not toointimidated, because I mean if I
were working with him now, youknow, if I was like twenty going
(03:14):
in with it, I would becompletely flustered. But yeah, I really
had no idea who he was,and I think that really helped just keep
me grounded. What did you knowabout the Holocaust? Because Casey, your
character, she's at a club inher hometown when somebody paints a swastika on
(03:36):
the back of her leather jacket andshe doesn't really know what it is she
do. Your character thinks it's just, you know, we're going to go
do our own thing, just youknow, or rebel or whatever. You
didn't. So what did you knowas a fourteen year old about the Holocaust
when you got this role? Yeah, Well, personally, I had privilege
(04:00):
of being in more private schools growingup. So in eighth grade I was
at a school called Christian Academy,and this was really the first time that
i'd really been I guess the schoolthat I was in had really showcased truly
what the Holocaust was. We readand studied a book called The Hiding Place
(04:20):
by Corey ten Boom, and itwas about, you know, survivors of
the Holocaust. And my uncle Jeanactually he is or was he passed away
a French author, but he actuallyhas a famous book. I forget the
name. It's in French, um, I don't speak French anymore. But
he was also involved with the Holocausthis book. I guess he would pass
(04:46):
messages from like the nuns to thepeople in hiding on a little bike and
he has a whole book about it. I don't exactly know what it's called,
but I grew up pretty familiar.Like my adoptive family is also Jewish,
so I definitely was around it morethan I would say probably the average
person, like just around the Jewishculture. And did you and ed Asner
(05:11):
discuss the Holocaust? I say wedid, especially when referring to you know,
his role as Samuel and Casey.I think we talked a lot about
just the ignorance of you know,young people now and how he really wanted
to do this film because you know, he wanted to bring awareness to just
the struggles in life, and heloved the message of the film. What
(05:39):
so, what do you think ofHolocaust deniers. I think it's preposterous.
I think it's absolutely terrible. There'sso much evidence, and there's so many
people still grieving and still mourning ofall of the lives lost in the Holocaust,
And I think this film is agreat indicator of what a lot of
young people in the world right noware just raised around. I mean Casey,
(06:02):
it wasn't initially her fault. Shedidn't know because of the fact her
mother her mother, her mother exactly. But I think it's to show,
you know, how bad parenting canlead to crazy thoughts. And yeah,
well not only crazy thoughts, Imean bad parenting. Look look what happened
(06:23):
to your character. She ended uphomeless and prostituting herself, although not in
the worst way possible. She basically, you know, gave hand jobs to
God for money. I'm speaking withMargot Josephson, she plays Casey in the
movie The Tiger Within, which youcan see now in theaters, but it's
(06:46):
also streaming and it is ed Asner'sfinal movie. What was his health like
then? Um, it was verysurprising. Ed was very much like excited,
like every day to come to set, and um, he'd come in
my trailer and we'd have like lemonpopsicles. Um. And I mean he
just loved like being around. Andum, he had a little nickname for
(07:10):
me on set. He called mehis tramp just because of why just the
way I was dressed. Um.You know, he was very his humor
was very old timey and um.No, he was always in really good
spirits. And um, I meanwe loved working together and it was it
was a lot of fun. Butbut was he healthy. Yeah, he
(07:30):
was pretty healthy. Um. Imean they gave him breaks and you know
he'd sit in like air condition roomsand things like that when we were shooting
and like other houses. Um,but yeah, he was very healthy.
How did you learn about his passing? Um, so, I a few
years ago was living in Las Vegaswith my aunt, and um, I
(07:57):
think I was scrolling through Instagram oror no, actually no, I that
was after I had gotten a textfrom Gina I'm pretty sure, and she
said, hey, you know,give me a call when you can.
And then I heard about it fromGina, and then ginas the writer of
the film. Okay, okay,god, And you know, she's always
(08:20):
also a very close personal friend.We got really close during and after the
filming. But yes, so Iheard about it from her, and then
afterwards, you know, I'm seeingit on the news and on the TV,
and it kind of just brought meback because my father passed away when
I was sixteen, and I'm sorry, it's okay. I mean, you
know, I've I've done the workI need to do to grieve um.
(08:43):
But yeah, it was kind ofa very big shock for I think me
as well as a lot of otherpeople, because I hadn't seen him for
like a year prior to his passing. Were you in touch with him though
after the film? Yes, yeah, we'd go to dinners and you know,
catch up like with his daughter andmy mom. Um. Yeah,
(09:07):
So, what are your hopes forthe movie The Tiger Within? Oh gosh,
I mean I didn't even know ifwe would get to this point,
just because you know, we filmedit such a long time ago. And
I know there were issues with youknow, the director and um Gina and
you know, the director not reallylistening. But I mean my hopes are
(09:30):
just you know, Gina said shewants to show it in schools. Um,
you know, maybe not the youngergreats. Um, but I think
going in ut Yeah, I thinkit's that would be a really cool place.
I mean, anywhere really that wouldjust teach people. And um,
I mean I think also the moralof the story is that Samuel taught Casey
(09:52):
had a love. I mean,he was the first person I think she
ever truly loved and the power ofthat and it changed her whole life afterwards.
Um, I think is very verybeautiful. Yeah, and it was
just so well done. Why wasit held so long? You know,
I don't even know. I waskept not in the dark. But after
(10:16):
filming, you know, after thepassing of my dad, that's why I
quit acting, and I was justyou know, focusing on school and um,
you know, figuring out what Iwant to do in life. So
honestly, you'd probably have to talkto Gina about that. I'm not really
sure everything that went down, um, but I'm just glad that it's it's
(10:37):
finally finally coming around. Now,Oh, any feelings on the writer's strike
because we're you know, it's likealmost two months long. I personally had
no idea. I h yeah,like yeah, they and it's like,
here are all my big issues.Margot streaming but more so the use of
(10:58):
AI. Those are the two bigissues. And if they're not settled now,
because AI is just it's exploding,but we don't know in what form
it's exploding, so unless rules areset now in that industry, in so
many industries, you know, yeah, you can run them up sharing a
(11:22):
lot of people, including myself.Like there's this app we have called Snapchat,
and now they have like this thingon Snapchat you cannot remove, and
it's called my AI and it's thislike AI creature that you can talk to
if you have no one else totalk to. But nobody have you done
that? Well for fun? Youknow, you ask it like weird questions
(11:43):
and it'll be like, um,I don't know, it's just really weird
and like it could easily get yourpersonal information. So I like to stay
away from all of that. Butthat's absolutely terrible and I don't blame you
guys for doing that or break thewriter's skilled. So what what what does
Margot Josephson want to do with herlife? I don't know. I guess
(12:07):
I don't have to know. Butwhat are you thinking? Um? I
mean I love traveling, you know, growing up my dad always told me
that it's the best form of education, which I wholeheartedly agree. Um,
and you know I have dual citizenship, so I was kind of raised in
France as well. Um, SoI don't know, maybe something to do
(12:28):
with traveling and writing. Maybe Ilove writing. Um, I don't know.
I don't know yet. But you'reso what are you doing now?
I'm a parista, you're a baristawhere where I work at Starbucks? Very
very temporarily. But um, yesI have another job offer coming up,
(12:52):
which I don't know. I'll see. Um, everything's up in the air
right now. Also maybe moving.So figuring it out? And are you
done with acting or do you stillhave an open mind to that? You
were so good, Margo, you'rea good actress. Thank you. I
appreciate that. I mean, it'sdefinitely something I think about all the time.
(13:16):
I mean, if I had theright team around me again, then
maybe, But I think it alsodoes take a lot out of me,
like because when I, you know, with Casey, I pretty much was
in a in a funk for monthsafter, just because I really became her
for the role. And when Ido act, I tend to just put
(13:39):
everything I have into my project,into my role. And I don't know
if I could do that right now, just because like again, I'm good
thinking, I'm moving and you know, trying to figure out exactly what i
want to do. But hopefully maybewhen I'm older, I'll come back to
it. Okay, I want tothank you so much. It was wonderful
(14:01):
talking to you. And again,I look, I watched I watch films
with my husband. Now, theseare films that are not yet open,
and most of the time, Ihave to be honest, he hates them.
He just hates them. He lovedthis movie. So I'm telling you,
if my husband loves a movie,it's a good movie. I mean,
we have different kind of ways oflooking at movies, but he loved
(14:26):
The Tiger Within. You could seeit in theaters. You can also stream
it. You've been listening to Sunsteensessions on iHeartRadio, a production of New
York's classic rock Q one O fourpoint three
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