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September 22, 2025 13 mins
Directed by Evan Matthews and written by Nicole Roewe née Swinford),Motherland focuseson an alternate present society where the state frees parents from the burden of raisingchildren, until a rule enforcer (Silverman) learns a shocking truth that sparks her rebellionHere's the trailer:Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSFeKXOubXs  

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning. How are you doing today?

Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm great, ero, how are you?

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Fantastic? And looking forward to sharing a conversation with you
because you know, this movie feels so real. It feels
like that it could happen, It could be happening, and
it's just it's so scary because it just feels so real.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree it's sad and scary that
I agree, But I completely agree with you on that.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
I mean, it instantly flashes back to back to my
day with my mom and dad where they would say, oh,
I wish I knew what the world would be like
if you kids weren't around. WHOA, you got to see Motherland, Mom,
you got to see this movie because it's a different vibe. Yes, absolutely,
the texture of this movie. I love the way that
it really comes to life in a way that gives

(00:46):
it that it just gives it its own place in
movie history, because there's something about this movie that makes
you say, you know, I just feel something.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
M oh, I love that. I mean, I think the
world building was done in such an exquisite way. It's
sort of everything feels familiar and feels very human. It
feels contemporary in a lot of ways. It feels American,
but there's also nothing specific locating it anywhere.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Right, Yeah, Yeah, interesting because I mean I felt like
that it could be anywhere. It could be Charlotte, it
could be Denver, it could be Seattle, it could be
you know, in the middle of a field somewhere in Wyoming.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely could be Upstate New York where we
shot it, even though you know, it wasn't meant to
be in Upstate New York, which just happened to film
it there.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
So would you like to be a part of that
set design, because I mean, the thing is is that
they have to be visionaries before they put things together,
you know, And it's just one of those things that
has always blown me away. It's like a roady at
a concert.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah. Yeah. I'm sort of in awe of everybody who
made our film and the sort of look the production design, art,
the set decoration, our cinematographer, the way she filmed the movie.
I thought everybody was so creative and also aligned and

(02:10):
it art, costume designer. They all built this world that
just looks It looks spectacular, just sort of the colors
of the lighting. And there's a scene in which I'm
in my quote. My character Core is in her bedroom
and sort of like looking through her files, but her
files don't look the way files normally do. There's just
like stunningly beautiful, kind of pink lit up glass wall,

(02:33):
and it's just like the reflection of that and the
sort of mood and ambiance of the whole film feel
so specific and like both familiar and also completely unique.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
What's really fascinating about being an actor or an actress
is the fact that when you get the scripts or
the manuscript, you have to envision what is going to
be happening. But what is it like for you when
you finally step onto that set and all of a sudden,
it's like wow, because your imagination versus actuality.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, I mean, it's this is always sort of a
part of the process that is the most exciting and
the part that I dread the most in any project,
stage or TV or film, because you sort of sometimes
find out or get informed about certain aspects of the
thing you're making. As you said, when you show up

(03:26):
on set, or when you show up at your first
costume fitting, or when you just sort of see some
images and you're sort of like, oh, that's not you know,
you have all these extensive conversations with the director, and
sometimes you see things in advance, but a lot of
times you're not as aware of every of all the
working pieces, and so sometimes it's kind of a surprise.

(03:46):
And for me, luckily, it's usually been a really pleasant surprise.
And this was one. I mean, Motherland came to me
on a Sunday afternoon, last minute, they had to replace
the lead of this movie. I got sent the script.
I got called by my age and offering this to
me out of the blue. I read it. I asked
to meet with the director before I agreed to do it,

(04:07):
just to kind of, you know, make sure we vibed
honestly and made sure we got along and to hear
what his sort of ideas and intentions were for the script.
And a day later I was traveling up to start filming.
So I yeah, yeah, I think I had. I had
a costume putting like the day before we started shooting.
I learned everything about the world we were making as

(04:28):
we went. So it was a really unique experience, I mean,
not that unique. Unfortunately, the film and TV business is
crazy and people step into things all the time without
the quote unquote normal amount of prep time, but it
made it really exciting, and on this I was so
pleasantly surprised every step of the way to see how
cool and interesting the choices that everybody had made were,

(04:52):
and it really just sort of helped kind of create
this really richly textured world.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Please do not move. There's more with Miriam Silverman coming
up next, the name of the movie Motherland, which is
going to be seen in theaters. Starring in that film,
Miriam Silverman, how do you deal with sudden change like
that to be on a movie set within about forty
eight hours? Because I lead a Google calendar lifestyle, I

(05:18):
know what I'm doing two weeks from now, and it's like,
if I get off this thing, it's going to freak
me out.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
Oh er, you should see my Google calendar. It's insane
because shared with my husband. It has all my kids'
schools things, that's all my pre I mean, it's nuts.
It would make anybody want to faint. It's so, you know,
a million conflicting things all the time. But I'm a planner,
so it's not easy. It's not my preferred mode of
operating to kind of step into something without any prep time.

(05:47):
Have your life up ended and have to kind of
I mean, just figuring out babysitting alone for my kids
when I'm only upstate all week. But it's also really
exciting and sometimes some of the best opportunities come in
these unexpected ways. And having the experience of you know,
a couple decades of professional acting work to remind me

(06:08):
to kind of remind me that I know what I'm
doing and that I have a process that can be flexible.
I think that's the most important thing. It's something I
try to teach my students, you know, I teach at
NYU and letting them know that you we will all
have a process that we prefer and that is familiar
and the way we like to work. And then part
of one of the great joys and challenges of being

(06:29):
an actor is that you need to be ready to
throw that out and be flexible and know that you
can make any any process work for you. And it's
your job to try to make to discover to discover
new ways. And so this was a great example. I
had never done anything so last minute.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
See, I like things like that that change immediately because
you didn't have time to write a story before it happened.
In other words, you didn't have to worry. You didn't
have to sit there and go, well, I gotta do this,
I gotta do this, I gotta do this. But man,
it's like all of a sudden you're shifting gears, you downshift,
and all of a sudden you're going up that mountain.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
Absolutely and you're just you're soaking in all the input
from everywhere. It's like, Okay, these are my costumes. That's
telling me a lot about who my character is going
to be. You know, this is what the set looks like.
This tells me a lot too. This is what the
other actors, This is what this person in this world?
Who is this you know? In this relationship? To me?

(07:20):
This is who they are and what they're bringing, And
that sort of just helps you build it all as
you go.

Speaker 1 (07:25):
Are you a silent wolf? And the reason why I
bring that up is because everything you just said, you
stand on the sidelines and you watch what's happening and
you build the story upon that without even stepping onto
that mat Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
Absolutely, Wow. I love the description.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah, the movie has a dark side to it. How
does that really get inside your mind, body, and soul?
Because when you go back and you watch what you're
doing and you experience the way that you're delivering those words.
It's almost like it happened right now. And that might
be the stage performer inside of you where it feels
like it's like right now. You didn't have time to
think about that line. It was exactly the way you
were feeling in that moment of now.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
Good, I'm so glad it came off that way. I mean, yeah,
that's I mean, that's one of the that's one of
the best arts of being an actor is it's your
job to kind of forget your lines right like you have.
You have to learn it, and you have to know them,
and you have to say it as written, but also
in the moment. They need to be occurring to you
as they come. And that's a lot easier to do

(08:22):
when you have gotten the script two days before you start.
Tell me, Wow, you definitely advantage.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
You speak about being that that teacher at NYU, Well,
what about were you the student when when Evan Matthews
was part of this set, Because I mean, all of
a sudden, you know, if I if I stand next
to somebody like that, I have to learn I have
to know what they're what they're thinking how they plan
it out, what they're going to do, and what the
execution is.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
You know. One of the things I loved about Evan
is that he he was a new student as well.
I mean, it's his first feature length film, and so
it was actually such a pleasure because it felt like
we were learning about the film and making choices together
as we went and really discovering. So it felt very
There's a really kind of equal footing kind of vibe

(09:07):
to it, which I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
So it does deal with children, and it does deal
with parents and children being away from each other. I
bet you were hugging your kids every night you came
home from the movie.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
Oh my god. Yeah, absolutely. I mean I missed them
whenever I'm away, and it was because of the schedule
I was working. I worked every day of production, and
I was on set usually for most of the day.
There were maybe a handful of days where I only
worked part of the day, so it was long hours,
and we shot up state New York in New Pault's,
so I was actually staying up there Monday through Friday,

(09:41):
and I would just come home on the weekends to
see them. On Saturdays, and Sundays and oh you bet.
But I'm nuts about my kids. So whenever I come
home from working out of town, I like it does
want to cuddle them. I won't leave alone.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
No, I'm totally with you. I mean, that's just one
of the things about life is that you know, that's
that's your security, that is that is your growth moving forward.
And to watch them grow as fast as they are,
my god. And then you're away from them to do
a movie.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
I know, I know, but they always come visit. I won't.
I won't do more than two weeks away from my
kids at a time. I can't. My heart can't bear it.
So luckily I have a very lovely, understanding and supportive
husband who will even take time off from work to
kind of travel to I shot this movie in Greece
last fall, and they all came to Athens for a

(10:30):
week in the middle of production so that I didn't
have to be away from them for too long. And
they've come up to Toronto this summer where I was
filming this new Netflix series and yeah, we may. We
make sure it never goes more than two weeks.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
Your character is described as being rebellious, and I have
to argue with that, because I see rebellious as being
somebody who goes against it. But I think you're an
activator and you're an influencer, and those are more powerful
words to me, because you're out to change where we are,
and that, to me, it really does go into our
walk of life today, because if we stand back here
just as rebellious people, we're not doing anything. We need

(11:04):
to change is what we need.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
I love that. I mean, yeah, I mean, I think
that sort of activator as I mean it is a
kind of rebellion. But you know, I think so often
you're right, the connotation of rebelliousness is, yeah, just sort
of almost it's almost associated with a kind of stubbornness
or sticking on the other side rather than trying to
affect real change. And I think one of the fun

(11:29):
things about the film is that my character starts off
as a rule enforcer. She's such a part of the
machine of this regime, of this very authoritarian regime, and
doesn't question anything. She just wants to do a good job.
She's a believer. She has drunk the kool aid, and suddenly,
you know, slowly and suddenly throughout the film, it discovers, uncovers,

(11:53):
and realizes that things are not what she thought they
were and that she's going to do something about it.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
Was it a role you could easily shake off once
the movie was shot?

Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yeah, I think so, I mean it was. I'm pretty
good about that in general, I think because I have
spent so much in my career doing theater, and sometimes
you do these incredibly emotionally demanding, haunting roles and you
have to actually get good at coming down off of
it every night and letting it go so that you

(12:24):
can be in your normal life the next day before
you then go back and do it at night. But yeah,
I mean, but it's there's always a sort of morning
process when you finish a project, because you, as an
actor are kind of bestowing it onto the director and
the editor and everyone else who's gonna make it what

(12:46):
it is in post. It's like very different from probably
the biggest difference to me than the stage, where I
as the actor, I'm the final frontier every night with
the audience, like we've built the thing together, but I
am the one who is interpreting it. I am the
one delivering the story to the audience every night. And
in film and TV. You build it, and you make
a lot of offers and you put a lot of

(13:07):
tape down, and then you actually have no control over
how it comes together. So every time I do something,
it's always a little like, you know, holding your broth
while you watch to see like, oh good, oh they
put that scene after that scene, Oh they used that Okay,
oh I remember, okay, oh that scene is cut or

(13:27):
you know me, there's always a little of that, And
so it's a big relief when it's something that you
feel like you can stand behind and that it's a
good compelling watch And I really feel like Motherland is
and so I'm very proud of it.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
Wow, you've got to come back to this show anytime
in the future. The door is always going to be
open for you.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Will you be brilliant today?

Speaker 2 (13:48):
Okay, all right, you two
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