Julianne Moore and Maggie Gyllenhaal - Summer Staff Picks

It’s summer, and every other week, members of the Here’s The Thing staff are selecting favorite interviews from the archives. This week, we revisit Alec’s interviews with two award-winning, dynamic actresses who happen to have a lot in common, Julianne Moore and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Alec and Julianne Moore worked together on Still Alice (Julianne won an Academy Award for Best Actress) and 30 Rock. She spoke with Alec in 2014 about the chops she developed doing soap operas early on, her work on a string of independent movies in the 1990s, and why it’s always important to give even the most minor roles your best. Alec talked with Maggie Gyllenhaal before a live audience in 2018 at the Hamptons International Film Festival. Maggie talked about her early experiences in theater, what she’s learned about trust, and the ways her confidence has grown over her remarkable career. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
I'm Alec Baldwin and this is Here's the Thing from
My Heart Radio. I'm Carrie Donohue and this is Here's
the thing from my Heart Radio. Carrie, what are you doing, Alec?
Don't you remember the staff of the show is going
to be hosting episodes from the archives every other week
for the rest of the summer. I completely forgot that.

(00:22):
Well it's happening. Oh okay, well, best of luck, carry
thanks Alec. It happens pretty often on the show, but
I'm a sucker for when Alec talks with other actors.
Two of my favorite interviews he's done, we're with Julianne
Moore and Maggie Jillen Hall. They are both so talented

(00:43):
and often take on surprising, challenging projects. Alec talked with
Maggie Jillen Hallanden just after the release of The Kindergarten Teacher.
We'll get into that conversation shortly. Alex's conversation with Julianne
Moore took place in Julianne Moore has been nominated for
five Academy Awards Boogie Nights, The End of the Affair,

(01:05):
Far from Heaven, The Hours, and she won Best actress
for her work in Still Alice. She played a linguistics
professor diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease soon after her fiftieth birthday.
Alec Baldwin played her husband. They worked together again on
Thirty Rock. Julianne Moore was very funny as Jack donnegheese

(01:26):
high school crush Nancy Donovan. They share something else in
common to Alec and Julianne Moore both started on daytime soaps,
which came up when they talked about going to drama school.
It was for some reason, thinking about a friend of
mine who didn't go to drama school in the car
on the way here, and I wonder what it was
like for her, because she hasn't seemed to need it,

(01:48):
And there are a lot of things that I didn't
drama school that I think I didn't need either. But
then in retrospect, I'm like, no, it's helpful. Did you
go drama school? Where'd you go? Okay? Did you go
straight onto search for tomorrow? Then the doctors, I don't
believe you just said that. I can't believe why, because
I have in front of me. I wasn't going to
go there. Right off that window, you were Fanny and

(02:11):
Sabrina Hughes. That's right, Franny, not Fanny, Franny and Sabrina.
Someone else was Fannie Hughes. You were Franny, Yeah, exactly,
I know. I mean, couldn't have been Fancy for was
Fanny's you were? You were Fanny and Sabrini used on
World Turns and before that you did EDGE. I did Edge.
Well you want to edge? See if you're on soaps?

(02:32):
Only when you're on soap? Can you say Edged? Search
World Turns days days? That's so funny because I was
on Edge when they were on East forty Iron Street
and that really really tiny studio. Remember now Rachel Ray
shoots there and really, you're gone. I know they're gone.
They're gone, so gone. This is a couple of his
four soaps left, and I worked with people. The guy

(02:54):
that played my dad, Don Hastings, he started on that
show two months before I was born, so he had
been on that show my entire lifetime when I got on,
and he when the show was gone, he was still
on it too. He was the most wonderful guy. So funny.
But do you feel in some ways, I mean, in
some ways I don't want to be exaggerate, But wasn't
doing a soap like some of the most honest work
you've everard? Absolutely, because you have nothing to help you. No, No,

(03:19):
there's no dialogue. I mean the dialogue is so rough,
so basic. All you're doing is is establishing story. I
used to do what they called emotional I called it
and any emotional applicate where if I had to say
something that was really just plot oriented, I try to
like cry on top of it or laugh on top
of it or anything just to make it mean something. Right, Yeah,

(03:41):
because it's all exposition. Well, I read somewhere where you
said that doing the soap gave you experience and confidence discipline.
It was discipline and confidence because I loved that. Yeah.
Because no one, no one has time to help you.
You know, the directors are working really fast, the writers
are working fast, the other actors are working really quickly.
You're just on your own. Remember Marissa tom May, she

(04:03):
played my best friend Marcy. She said, we got into
the we got into the elevator and she looked at
me and she goes, remember l is for lunch because
that was where the lobby was, and so in that
cafeteria and that was like the best piece of rice
because it was remember hell is for lunch. And then
we did a scene together and it went by so quickly,

(04:24):
you know, we did one wanted to have takes and
because you feel terrible, don't you? I said, Oh, she goes.
It happens all the time. You'll get used to it.
You're gonna wok at her from the crappy two out
of five days of the week. I just remember when
I did that show. You had to show up on time.
I didn't know your dialogue, and no matter how excruciating
it was, if you didn't, they fired you. You had

(04:45):
to be there at seven o'clock in the morning and
rehearse you were on camera. I would have sometimes thirty
pages of dialogue a day for three it was like,
you know, for three years. So it was like a
boom boom boom boom boom and then you finished maybe
seven thirty eight nine if you go late. You know,
it was crazy. A long did you do this? So?
For the World Turns was your contracts? My contract? It
was a three year contract for three years. CBS they
gave they would do three years, the ABC once would

(05:08):
do two years and stuff, but they never gave me
an option, although they had the option to fire me
at any time. And when you finished What You Do?
I went to the Guthrie Theater actually, and I did
Hamlet with Hamlet. I saw you, you did not. I
saw you come on to something. Yeah, I can tell

(05:29):
you right now. I did Loot with him on Broadway
in six You did it with Jelco. You did the
show the following year and eighty seven. I flew to
Minneapolis to see I saw you do. I saw you
do Hamlet at the at the Gut three Well. I
was in the Hamlet. I was a feeling Hamlet. I
saw you. What did you think? I thought it was fantastic.

(05:51):
You don't remember me? Do you want to know something?
I do? And Shelkovanick, you were very young, you were child.
And Shelvonick he was probably one of the best Hamlets
I've ever seen because he didn't have to push. He
seems like a very dark, kind of complicted, just seemed
like a very young man. You know. I think that
was interesting that both Jolco and I are very very small,

(06:11):
very slender and tiny, and we looked like teenagers kind of,
you know. So who directed Garland Wright? Who I adored.
He passed away, but why I loved Garland. He was great.
It was a really interesting production, ching that people strained
for when they play Hammot that he has and she
did the Gut three and then and I went to
the I Wing to Actor's Theater of Louisville and did

(06:32):
some plays there and Arthur Coppit play and and then
there wasn't an idea that you want to kind of
strap yourself into the rocket sled here and get going
l A TV movies now now, I mean I just
did also worked. I worked at the Public, I did
some place, and then I met Andre Gregory and I
did Vanya and all along though I was I was
auditioning for stuff, and I got TV movies and things,
and but it wasn't until I was twenty nine that

(06:56):
I got my first movie, which was an HBO movie
called Cassidadly Spell. And then I did and the Rocks
a Cradle, and then I did Shortcuts and I did
Safe and then and then my movie career didn't really
start happening till I was thirty. So for fruit was
just theater Shortcuts was the biggest break you out at
that time? Well, what happened was. I did shortcuts Bonnie
and Street and Safe. So it's kind of the beginning

(07:18):
of the independent theater movement, if you will. And they
all came out within the same year, and I went
from being an actress who had no profile at all
in film, none because I couldn't. I couldn't get arrested
doing movies. I mean, I would never get cast I
don't know, you know, honestly, I wouldn't. Just didn't get him.
I didn't get him. And in the eighties I can remember,

(07:40):
I mean I just for a ton of things. Remember
audition for the lists of merch and ivory movies. I
always wanted to get one of those because those were
such a big deal. I would action for big comedies.
I just didn't get them. And I was like, you know,
I remember the same thing. You'd be sitting there going, man,
I want to give me one of them John Sales movies.
That's why to be one of those. Auditioned for him constantly.
Ever bought them. I actually got really close to a

(08:02):
few things, but I never got anything where I did
really well. Wasn't television. I kept like booking TV things,
but they would put you on hold and then they
do pilots for them, and that's the other thing. To
my pilots holding deals, they would wouldn't get picked up.
Whenever anybody says, how do you plan your career? You know,
I mean you left because we don't have any control.
There's the thing about it. You seem like somebody who's

(08:25):
had a plan. Once you started making films with the
things you just didn't do anymore. Did you try to say,
I'm going to put all my eggs in this basket. No.
Most of the time we just do with what you're offered.
You do the best of what's you're what you're offered,
you know. I think after I was on the soap,
I did you know, I didn't spend a lot of money.
I kept my money in the bank. So then I

(08:45):
spent some time doing theater because I really felt like
I wanted to do that, you know yourself. Yeah, I
wanted to do that kind of stuff. And then I
would do some TV movies and try to get you know,
and then the holding deals to that. You make money
doing that, But in between short cuts, yeah, and playing
Sarah A Palin. There's not a lot of TV in
between there. Once you start the movies, big time you're
making movies. Yes, that's you don't go back to TVA

(09:06):
very much at all. No, No, because also it's kind
of it changed, you know, because there was a period
to where because now now it's sort of like called
you know, now it's the Golden Age for television. Now,
there there was such kind of interesting quality stuff until
you know, great writing, great acting, and you know, so
I think things have changed, But there was a period
when TV was very basic. Network stuff was not terribly interesting.

(09:27):
What was it like when you met Altman? Oh Man,
he came to see Vanya, you know, we were doing
Uncle Vanya and he sat there and I couldn't believe
he was there. I don't even know if I said
anything to him that day, because he was. He's the
reason that I feel like I'm a film actor. Because
when I would school in Boston, they were all the
revival houses. To remember revival houses. This is like Grandpa,

(09:47):
Grandma shame remember that. Remember take your walk? Would I
want you to brittle Theodore in Harvard Square? Harvard Square,
So the brittle was revival house and used to have
all these different weird double bills and stuff. And I
saw three women Altman's Three Women, and somehow I made

(10:09):
it through the seventies without seeing Nashville or or Bruster
McCloud or Became Mrs Miller any of those movies. So
I'm watching mash and I was like, who made this movie?
This movie is incredible. And it was the first time,
as a young person that I noticed directorial hand you
know where. I was like, this is a specific kind
of storytelling and it's eliciting, specific kind of act thing.

(10:31):
I kind of walked out of there and I thought
I want to do that, and of course it wasn't
in the realm of possibility for me the first ten
years of my career. So he's Alvania and then he
met me on the player, which I desperately wanted. I
remember sitting there talking to him. He said, I'm not
going to give this to you. It's like, okay, and
that was it. I was devastated. And then I got

(10:52):
this phone call out of the blue for shortcuts. Hi,
it's Bob Altman. Do you remember me? You know who
I am? I was I thought was somebody playing a
trick on me? I really did. I didn't think it
was possible that he you know, that's when we had
hard lines to pick up your phone and he said,
I have this movie that I want you to do,
and I said, I'll do it. I'll do it because

(11:12):
no one want you to read it first and then
you can tell me if you want to do it,
you know. But it was really, really, really a dream
come true to work with him. What an amazing man.
It's no secret I think when you're in the business
that we're out of it, but especially when you're in
the business that casting and effective casting is or more
of a director's job. They want to just bring people

(11:34):
to the party who know how to hit the ball.
And he was someone who I'll never forget. Someone said
to me. They were all gathered there and this air
sets rehearsals. Some of them were able to attend it somewhere,
and Bob just turned everybody and said, uh, nooka May
was in it, Australiani and Field and he would looked
at them and he was like, now a nook, you
just go ahead and speak French. You speak French and

(11:55):
to or English or Italian. Marcello, say whatever you want
to say. Y'all, just say anything you want to say,
and speak in whatever language. You want to speak in
and I'll fix it in the edit, subtitler or whatever.
He seems so uncontrolling. He was. The thing about Bob
was that you couldn't do anything wrong, so it made

(12:16):
you feel like you could do anything, and you would
do anything for him. You'd be like, oh, what can
I do? What can I do? He's like, whatever you
want to do. But it wasn't like it was chaos.
You know, he's set up. It was like there was
a corral that all the actors were in was his
corral and something. Even with an improv he'd say, okay,
you know, improv this. He said, I let's do it again,
but this time you just say that part. So he

(12:38):
was in complete control of it. But he really made
you feel so free and so love non judgmental. Yeah,
there's a quote I read about you where someone says
they cast you in Shortcuts and you were total unknown. Right,
She's a total unknown, they said, casting thought, and I
think you've been working for most ten years. Ten years. However,
within that cast, I was the only person with thirty

(13:00):
people and who wasn't famous. So it wasn't amazing. How
in the movie business if you haven't a movie that
any of us have seen. Exactly what changed if you
did that film? Did you change personally? Did I change?
I'm ugly and I have no talents right and now
i'm and then I got and then I was and

(13:23):
then I became yeah, talented, and I know everything. You know.
It was interesting and I think this is and it's
actually very similar to what I felt growing up as
a kid. You would be in one situation. You'd be
at a school and maybe you would be a kid
who wasn't very popular and no one thought you were
very interesting or something, and then you'd moved to another
school that's cool. Everybody would think you were interesting for

(13:44):
some reason. It would just happen, and you think, like, well,
I was the same person. I haven't changed that much.
So it's deception. Perception has changed. The perception was changed
after all, so well, and so that's what happened to
me too. So after ten years of doing television and theater,
although people don't e the theater, so they don't think
you really exist. Is she TV? People thought, oh, she's

(14:04):
a TV actress. And then I do work with Andre
Gregory and Louis Mall and I work with you Robert Altman,
and I work with Todd Haynes, and suddenly I'm a
huge film discovery. I'm in this amazing every Yeah, and
then I'm like, I'm the same, the same thing. So
I think, oddly what happens is that you don't change
a perception of yourself. You're like, well, clearly, it's just

(14:24):
other people's perception. It solidified my own work ethic that
it doesn't matter where I'm working. Did you feel that
the way you grew up fed this in terms of
you being because because you had to reinvent yourself. Yeah,
well you were seen by a fresh set of again
and again and again. You just you have to discover
a core self and a corpse. Of course, that's the values.

(14:45):
And people kind of poo poo and say like oh
TV or oh this or that. I'm like, you know, uh,
it's all valuable, all of it, you know. Yeah, when
I do radio announcing, it's work work, it works working,
and it's also it's it's valuable for you to do
your bus no matter where you are too. I really
really believe that you know in everything you do. And

(15:06):
I also resent it when people say that they can't
do something like they can't. They were terrible waitress, And
I'm like, why because you weren't paying attention you're supposed
to write down. Yeah, so it's it's important, no matter
what you're doing, to put effort into it. I think
Julianne Moore, did you know that? There are two d

(15:28):
and fifty episodes and the Here's the Thing Archive. If
you like these kinds of in depth conversations between Alec
and other actors, policymakers, and musicians, go to Here's the
Thing dot org and take a look around. After the break,
we'll hear more of Alex's conversation with Julianne Moore. I'm

(15:57):
Carrie Donohue, still in for Alec Baldwin on Here's the Thing,
revisiting his conversation with actor Julianne Moore. Alec was surprised
to learn that Julianne Moore's career didn't really take off
until she did a string of independent films in the nineties.
In the nineties in particular, there are a lot of
people who were working who are who were writer directors,

(16:19):
and they were kind of, I'm sort of a really
great great period for independent film. I think people were
looking to tell these really unusual stories, and there wasn't
an economic expectation on them either. That's changed. So it
was about being involved in that narrative and that in
that vision and stuff. You know, it really was bringing

(16:39):
that story to life. I think you made every kind
of movie. I've made every kind of You've made every
kind of movie. Yeah. Yeah, you've done movies with Steven
Spielberg dinosaurs that you've done sequels or Anthony Hopkins chops
his own hand off because he's so in love with you. Right,
I've done independent drawing person Yeah, scary movies. Bad? Did

(17:04):
you do? Right? I don't know what I have. They
didn't remake Psycho in black and white. They did it
in color. They did it in color. Yeah, but that
was a remake. That was a shot by shot that
I know you know, so which which in an interview
I read you thought that was something you should not
have done. I think it failed. I don't think that
I shouldn't have done it, but I do think that
when you're doing the film, that is a shot by shot.

(17:24):
I mean not just saying this fascinating psychologically when you
do a film. I mean, I'm not just saying this
for your benefit. You are a very very very very
talented woman, and Van's aunt is a good director director.
What does van Zant when he's remaking a shot by
shot one of the greatest thrillers in history? Did Van
Zant have to say anything to bolster you to get
through that experience? But he's like trying to know, and

(17:45):
it wasn't like it wasn't like we had to be
bolster to get through it. I think we're all very
specifically trying to recreate, recreate it, but in a month
and now, I wish if if we're do it again,
I would like to do it in black and white.
I'd like to do it in the same costume. I'd
like to do it with the exact same information. Let's
do the better remake of Psycho like that? That to me,

(18:06):
I think that would have been that we sort of
modernized it but then kept the old pacing and it
was Yeah. She who's great? Oh um. Vince Vaughan was
nan as a director. He was great. He's such a
lovely person, very very soft spoken, you know, just incredibly
incredibly soft spoken. I liked him a lot. I'd like

(18:27):
to work with him on something that he you know,
that I loved Elephant Elephant. I always tell people see Elephant,
which is his Columbine films. Oh my, what an amazing film.
It's been amazing film. It's like the most hypnotic film
that has a Columbine type of theme to it. And
I love Gus. I think Us is incredible. I think
my favorite kind of acting to do though. I saw

(18:48):
Todd Haynes, my friend Todd Haynes I made Far from
Heaven and Safe with and we had dinner together and
we were talking about our experience and he said, why
did you understand? How did you understand how minimal the
acting was going to be? And I said, I felt
like I saw it in the language. His language was
so spare and so specific, and then I would say,
let me see the frame, and his frames were also
I felt like he was communicating so much just in

(19:11):
the frame. So my favorite thing is an actor is
to know what the director's vision is, to be communicated
that way through the language and in the shot, and
then I'm like, now I know what I'm doing. Give
me an example. Well, like when Todd Todd at a
shot of a very wide living room, you know, and
at a baby shower, and there were a bunch of

(19:31):
women all the way at the right side of the frame.
I had crossed all the way across and was standing
up on the left side of frame, and I just
asked where the lady's room? And my only line is
can you tell me where the lady's room is? Please?
Or something that? And I could see it was all
about this movement of her kind of trying to reach
over these people. So so once I looked at that,
I was like, okay, well I can see if I

(19:52):
hunched my shoulders forward, then my then this little figure
is kind of bowed in this big wide frame, you know.
So he's telling the story realienation. You know, you don't
have to talk about anything, you just do it. It's great.
When I was saying before, how I think, you know,
I know what it is. People hire you for what
they expect from you. I think that the ingredient in

(20:15):
the meal that you are is a tremendous amount of
emotional truth. You have a kind of emotional residence. But
you turn on and off, you know, like I always
I want to talk to about pet Anderson for a minute,
Like when you do Boogie Nights and that character you
played you played someone who was so cut off that
then that's what I from her reality. What I perceived
was was did you make a choice with this woman

(20:37):
That famous scene you have with him where he's going
to have sex with you when you tell him you
can do this to me, and you're very do this,
do this, do this, you can do this to me,
go ahead, go ahead, and you're kind of holding it.
It's like his first day at school. Or she's a
complete denial about what's going on. And she's someone who's
made an economic choice. Really, she's given up her family,
has given up her child. She probably was in a
position where this was the only kind of work she

(20:58):
could get. She's a right after any of those people. Yeah,
she's a drug addict. My favorite scene in the movie
is when she goes to court to get custody of
her son. We're talking about who are listening, And she's
all dressed up and she's trying to be kind of
a straight arrow and stuff, and she feels very self
righteous about getting her child back, and the judge looks
at her and says, Maggie, have you ever been arrested?

(21:20):
And that's the end, and you go, oh my god,
this you know, she's she's of course, she's been arrested,
you know, and she's just SOPs and stops and stops,
and you go. So, this is a woman who in
her head thinks that she can be a parent, but
she's she can't. She's not living a life is going
to allow herself to parent a child, but she won't.
It's a huge space between what she feels about herself
and what the actual what was actually happened. That's the

(21:42):
first time you worked with Anderson. Yeah, what have you
been doing before that? What did he see you? Win Safe?
I don't know. I think he saw me, and but
I think he's awa Shortcuts and Safe and Vannie and
all that stuff. You know. Paul was very young. He
was twenty six when we met. We met at a
party and a friend of mine is produced me to
him and said, this guy wrote this script and he
wants you to do it. And I was like, I

(22:03):
would love to read it. And he said, you're going
to be in my movie. Man. I got the script
and I read it and I was like, holy cow, yes,
I am. This is fantastic. He has such an original voice,
was so exciting. It was such an amazing story and
so emotional and wonderful and rich, and yeah, I was
lucky to get it, you know what you were saying.
I was thinking about how let me talk about emotion

(22:26):
you know on camera and stuff. You have that too,
You have this, You have this tremendous vitality, like a
real sense of being alive and a lot, a lot
contained inside you. And it's wonderful to work with you
because it just permeates the scene, like you know, you
feel that. That's the trick. The trick is how do
you live on camera? How do you become alive on camera?

(22:48):
So there's all this stuff about acting, you know, you
can kind of create all this kind of stuff you
know about you, Yeah, be alive, be alive. You did
that great thing when we had that scene in Still Alice.
You know, we had to say, remember Santorini, which is
always really hard to start a scene with that kind
of thing, and and you said, and then you made

(23:10):
you started laughing so hard, and then I started laughing,
and then suddenly it's a scene about two people laughing
because but you know, it's it's like that's what you want,
you know. That's why I like to talk when I
work what do people expect from you or think of
you when they meet you. I think they think that

(23:30):
I'm going to be more serious than I am. I
guess because all the dramas and the crying and stuff,
they think that I'm going to be really dramatic and
Sam of the film, Yeah, but I'm not. As you know,
I'm not a very serious person, and I'm not a
very I'm not a terribly sad person. Sure, yeah, I
can be serious, but I like to I'm very chatty.
I like to talk all the way up to action.

(23:52):
I do. I do, And if you can't talk to me,
I'm really disappointed. Then I get lonely, and I want
to be lonely. When I won, I want to be
with my buddy. I'm going to talk to me. You
talk to me, friendlebody, talk to you. What did you
do this morning? What do you have for dinner last night?
What are you doing later today? Are you cold? You
like that sweater? Don't you like my sweater? What are
you doing? Action acting? I love it. That's my favorite part.
Then you get this great connection with another human being,

(24:14):
and then the scenes like comes Alive. You know, you
think that that emotion is so available to you. Why
it's inside, It's inside everybody everyone. So it's like, how
do you access that? You know, your own story, everybody
else's story. You know, what you're getting on top is
just like the tiniest little like shell. Other than that,
there's all this stuff. But then, but then, like I said,

(24:36):
it's easier for me to get into it when i'm
when i'm you know, talking to you about you know
how much I like your sweater? And you know where
you live? And are you going to rent or are
you going to buy? Or you know all that kind
of stuff. You know, how are your kids? You know?
How was seventh grade for so and so? I mean,
I I love all that stuff. I remember when I

(24:56):
was younger, I think it was even unconsciousness. I would
see people acting films and the predominant examples would be
like Brando or Gina or something like that, where them
breaking down wasn't a big deal. These are like notes
you played in music, like that's just what people do.

(25:17):
I didn't think about it like like it was separate
because I went to Strasbourg where they really they put
you in the frying pan and they really made you
get to that. And I went to act to school
for a year where we basically cried for like they will,
they try to get you used to being able to do.
But the funny thing is is that that's just a
technique to get you to tap into it because people
don't really behave that way, but you have to find

(25:37):
it once again. It's all about what's true, what's real.
It's like guns in movies and guns going off and
people hitting people. Sometimes, especially early on in my career,
people be like and then someone gets slapped and I thought, wait,
people don't slap each other, and if somebody does, it's shocking.
So remember that when when there's a physical altercation, you're

(25:57):
shocked by it. When people cry, it's upsetting. You're not
trying to cry. You're trying not to cry because you
don't want to be embarrassed, you know. So it's like
so all that acting school stuff is about learning how
to locate all those feelings. But then over time, with experience,
you learn, like the greats like Brando, to modulate them.
When you worked with pt with Paul Thomas Anderson, Boogie

(26:18):
Knights was the first film was he helpful to you?
Was a director who did it all basically take care
of itself. Because it was take care of itself. I
have to say a great directors, all the greatest directors
say very very little. Magnolia was harder because it was
so emotional, and I was really trying to plot it,
you know, because I had to literally cry in every scene,
and so I had to I'm like, all right, Paul, Paul,

(26:38):
this is this is like the smaller crying into the bigger,
crying at the biggest, crying to the big, big, big,
you know. So it's like I had to find a
way to not be It wasn't like the level of
hystaria had to change, you know. I had to be modulated.
I couldn't be at ten. I had to be at
two and you know, get to ten and all that
kind of There are times when I'll say, the director,
I want you to watch my vocal hatter, and I

(27:00):
want you to watch my level of hysteria, I want
you to whatever. But basically I want them to direct
the movie. Do you know. I feel like I feel
like there's a it's a misnomer that the director is
an acting coach. The director is there to direct the
audiences I through a film. The actor is doing the acting.
They shouldn't have to say. You know, I think a

(27:22):
time with the director, how it was it tough without
naming names. What was tough when they talk to me
too much? Well, because I always say to everybody, please
don't speak to me before I've done any acting, I said,
because I'm just trying to hang onto this. Yeah, see
what I come up with. And if I'm way off base,
and please, by all means, come up and say like, wow,
that wasn't what I expected. But if I hear too much,
I mean, this is gonna sound really silly and precious.

(27:43):
But I always say that acting. So it's like this
little flame and you've got this little thing and you're thinking, Okay,
I wanted to this to work, but you don't want
to blow it out. If somebody comes along and says
this is what I think, they might just blow it out.
And then you have nowhere you know, then you can't
reach it anymore. No emotional as you are, and you
have this remarkable emotional residence in your work. What do

(28:07):
you like privately, to the extent that you want to say,
you're a mother, Yes, you were married before before married,
I'm married now, but I've been with my husband for
eighteen years. We have two children, they're sixteen and twelve.
I have a fantastic, fantastic family. I have two dogs.
They're black, one is small and one is big, a

(28:27):
Chihuahua and a lab and uh. We live in New
York City. I have a really nice life. I'm really
really lucky. You try to keep it simple, oh man, Yeah,
I really do. I try to keep it when he
tag team work wise because he makes films. He makes
films and television too. You know, we've been very fortunate.
I mean, it's interesting because the work life balance thing
is always an issue for everybody when they're little. When

(28:49):
they were babies, it was super super easy because babies
don't know where they are and you can bring them everywhere.
And also we have an incredibly tolerant business toward women
with children. I have to say thank goodness for the
movie business. I remember my son was when I was
doing Psycho. As a matter of fact, my son was
nine months old and I was still getting used to
having a baby, and he was always with me and stuff,

(29:11):
and he was hysterical in the trailer one day and
I was nursing him and trying to get him to
calm down. They knocked the trailer door and they said,
you know, we need you, and I was like, I
can't come, and this adorable p A said, no worries, man,
take your time, and I was like, holy cow, I'm
the luckiest woman in the world, you know. I mean

(29:33):
so so our business is very tolerant. We're lucky and
I have no complaints as an actress. Did you turn
down a lot of work with your family? So you do?
You do? I shut? You turn things down because you
can't travel. You know, You're like, once the kids are
in school, I can't go. I can't go in Australia
in a few days, and I feel terrible. Yeah, it's tough,

(29:54):
and it's tougher on women because when you have infants,
you know, I mean, it's it's easier for you because
you can go and come back or it doesn't make
it me it's emotionally easy for you. But yeah, so
I work. I try to work. If I have to travel,
I do it in the summertime when everybody can come.
I work in the city when they're in school, and
you know, try to alight a bunch of things. If
I have to travel a bunch of together. And you know,

(30:14):
and I have a partner who's an equal parent, and
we alternate. Michael Fox said that year ago, he said,
they send you a script. Into the script said open
on the skyline of Manhattan. He closed the script and say,
I'm in. That's it. Absolutely, I have no idea. This
tax break in New York City has been a godsend.

(30:35):
It's amazing because I've been able to do so many
movies at home. I mean it really and yeah, I'm like,
she's in New York. Alright, Fine, it's great, Dear Alex.
Complete conversation with Julianne Moore go to Here's the Thing
dot Org. Maggie Gillen Hall has embraced a wide range

(30:57):
of work in her career, from big budget films like
The Dark Night and Nanny McPhee to off Broadway theater.
She was nominated for an Academy Award for her work
in Crazy Heart, and she won a Golden Globe for
her performance on the TV series The Honorable Woman. Alec
talked with Maggie Dillen Hall before a live audience at
the Hampton's International Film Festival in Maggie Dillen Hall majored

(31:21):
in English literature at Columbia, and Alec wondered whether she
started performing in plays there as well. I did a
lot first. I mean I I had one teacher there
who I learned a lot from, this woman, Joan rosen Fells.
But I don't know. I guess that was a Columbian
and I sort of felt like I'm a Columbia, like
I should study Columbia does best acting. Yeah. I tell

(31:46):
people that now, who are students who go to degree
granting universities for drama? And I say, don't just take
drama acting, Take something where you're going to read a
lot of books, philosophy and the nature history, but you're
there gonna do. What's the first production to do in
New York? Do you remember? Like my first you had
to Columbia? You did play What would you do? What

(32:08):
did I do at Columbia was the first one? Oh?
I did a student production of No Exit with this
guy who became my boyfriend named Dante, who was actually
twenty five and it already graduated from college. It was
in a student's production talk yeah in prison? Now that correctly?

(32:34):
So I did that. I also did Um the Tempest,
and I played prosper that. No, no, he didn't make
it in that one. Um, but yeah, that was the
first one. Was no exit when you when you graduated
with a degree in literature, was was acting the goals
or what you wanted to do? Yeah, I did. I
always wanted to be an actress. And I feel I

(32:56):
feel like, yeah, yeah, okay, yes, in college you can read.
Although there's so much you're supposed to read, I feel
like I never had read all of it. But I
feel like I really learned to write in college. And
I don't know about you, but I feel like there's
been so many times where I've had, you know, lines
I wanted changed, or a cut that I wanted shifted,

(33:18):
or something I had to sort out on a set
that I had to write an email or even have
a conversation where I had to organize my thoughts before
I had it, where I think, thank god I went
to college because I was able to say what I
meant to say. You know what helps if you have
that background, because the did you feel there was a

(33:40):
progression for you In the beginning, you were timid and shot,
you know, less assertive, and I want to find out
when did that begin to change. Was there a moment
you sat there and you said, yeah, I need to
defend my position, and I think I know what's best
for me. I think, you know, I don't know that

(34:01):
it was. I think basically it was progressive, right, Like
basically you're right. I was younger and newer, and it
was harder for me to say what I wanted, and
it's gotten easier as I've had more experience. But I
also think that different sets give way to a different
way of working. So first, I'm a jobbing actress and

(34:21):
I'm trying to get jobs and I come in for
two days or one afternoon or whatever, and you're like, oh, okay,
you want me to do it like that? Um, I know,
I don't know. It didn't sound really very good to me,
but I'm afraid to say, let's say, or maybe I
do try to say and I get shut down and

(34:42):
I accepted and whatever. That's like, you know, it's very
hard to do when you're coming in for one second.
It's like going to a new school where everybody knows
each other and you're there for an afternoon. But then
like when I worked on Secretary, which was really early on,
I mean I was twenty two, I had a real

(35:03):
point of view about what I wanted to say, and
and Steve Schenberg, who directed it, was really interested in that.
And I also think he knew that things were happening
that I didn't have any idea were happening. Um. And
also my twenty two I think I'm being very intellectual
and I've come from college and I studied feminist theory

(35:26):
and everything, you know, and I think I'm saying this,
and I think he was twenty years older than me
that he was able to see. I know she thinks
she's saying this, but this whole other thing is also happening,
and um, and he put all that in the film.
But so that was a space where I felt I
was totally able to yes. And then I went to

(35:46):
work on a movie after that, which I won't name,
where I was totally shut down and I was shocked
by it. I always remember, like you go to a
movie and this is just you know, my opinion, but
like you do a film and you want to be
told what to do. Basically, my whole thing is you're
making the movie. What movie are you making? What? How
do I fit in? I do one of the first

(36:07):
movies I did. I was lucky. I did this movie
Working Girl with Mike Nichols, and Nichols says, you're gonna
have sex. He goes, You're gonna have sex with this
woman and she catches you having sex? How would you
have sex that are being caught? And I go, well,
and I try to think of like, what's the most comical,
you know thing, and he goes, he goes, he was

(36:28):
very gratious. She's like, He's like, that's not a bad idea.
That's not a bad idea. But what I think it
really sells it if she's just completely naked and you're
completely naked, and she's just sitting right on top of you,
just writing you and me and they actually were like, oh,
but we had a much more chaste and kind of
like silly version of that, and me and the girl

(36:49):
were like, he was like, Okay, come come now, close off.
Let's go with the idea of that clarity time saving
somebody who comes in as this, well, I always use
my fantasy movie I would have made with Mike Nichols
as like the example of if Mike Nichols is directing this, yes,
I want to be told exactly what to do please.

(37:11):
Like I watched his movies and I'm like, he's directing everybody.
He's like pushing everybody further and deeper and funnier and
wilder than they ever would go. In fact, the one
time I worked with Mike Nichols was on this reading.
It's not a not a movie or even a play
that was ever produced. It was just a a few

(37:33):
day long reading of a play that Alan Alda wrote.
Bob Balaban directed the reading, but Mike was sort of
producing it. I guess he came up to me after
a day of rehearsal and he just said, she's feral
the character, and I've I've often thought that was the

(37:56):
best direction I've ever gotten, because it doesn't say like,
you know, I don't know. Directors have come up to
you and say like, I'm worried that we're not gonna
be able to tell that you're mad because you're acting
so nice, and I'm worried that it's not going to communicate,
you know, Or I'm afraid that you're going too far
in this direction, or I'm afraid that you're, you know,
gonna confuse people by something that you're doing. I have

(38:20):
been told that before Um. But Mike Nichols is basically
going like, go further, like in any direction you could
possibly go, like what he said to you, you know,
go all the way. She's feral. I was playing Murrie
Curie and he's saying like she's a wild animals the
wild cat because the other parts taken care of. She's

(38:42):
Mrie Curie. You know, all the French radiologists knew that
back she was wild, that Marie Curie. But so I
want to be told what to do. Yes, I wish
for that kind of collaboration, but I don't I don't
go in expecting that it's going to happen. I wanted
who was the director you worked with, because I I

(39:03):
think you and I may be sharing this from what
you said where we're not out to uh offend anyone,
But you don't think of somebody who it was really
just great? You loved working with UM. Other than your
current collaboration. We're gonna get to that, but which I
did love my current collaboration. I have a few that
I've really loved, Um Martin Scorsese on Banya right that

(39:25):
Martin Scorsese directed, Supposedly according to Wikipedia, me and my
husband and Uncle Vanna at csc take, a tiny black
box theater in New York. Says Martin Scorsese directed the
check out, and I'm going, oh my god, this is
like the seismic thing that got by me. It's like

(39:46):
it's like someone welcome to you, going, you know, the
Lindbergh baby was kidnapped, rightly. I didn't know that. And
then in this Wikipedia entry that Alec just showed me
it then goes on to quote a terrible review of
me in the play that's not a good but Austin
Pendleton did and he is one of the most incredible

(40:08):
directors I've ever worked with in my life. Austin, Um,
it's funny Austin asked me to do uh Uncle Vanya
and he when when they offered it to me, they
sent me this interview with Austin and it basically talks
about this sort of incredible way that he likes to

(40:28):
work with actors, you know, where everyone's free to respond
to each other in the moment on stage. You know,
all the fantasies that actors have of a way that
you could actually really work together, which rarely happens. And
I was like, Austin I'd love to do this. I'd
love to work this way, you know, where it's all
just reacting to the reality of the moment with the

(40:48):
other person on stage, and how everybody says that's what
they want to do. How are you actually going to
do it? And he's like, well, you got to come
and work with me to find out. And the truth is,
I don't know how he created this situation where everybody
on stage had deep respect for each other, even though

(41:12):
it was clear to me that there were actors who
were stronger than others that there were, but it made
no difference, you know. I know one way he did it.
I remember the first day of rehearsal, he said, however,
you imagined, uh, Sonia, whatever fantasy you had of who
Sonia was going to be when you read this play,
Sonja is her. Sonia is this person. And all the

(41:35):
feelings you have about this person, about the way that
that ricochets off what you anticipated when you read the play,
that's all useful. But Sonja is her. And so we
did create this little black box theater situation where and
I did it with my husband and he's a brilliant actor,
so that was cool. Um, and we got to pretend

(41:57):
we were having an affair. Both check offs we did,
we were playing people who were having affairs, which was
really hot and great, you know. But I loved working
with Austin. I also loved UM. I loved Hugo Blick,
who directed The Honorable Woman. I got a Golden Club
for that. Yeah, that was that you mentioned me. That

(42:17):
was one of the longest times you were overseason away
from home. Yeah, and it's funny. I really admire what
you said about how for you, Um, your your trust
is a director's to lose. I wish I could be
like that, but I'm not, and I go in with

(42:39):
my guard up and secretly I want the deepest, most intense,
artistic collaboration possible, but I don't. It's not easy for me.
And with Hugo, I think we were both like that.
And you know, it was eight hours of television. I'd

(43:02):
only ever done a two hour movie before. I didn't
know how to do that, and I'm in every minute
of every scene, and it's super intense and it could
have been terrible, you know. But I remember about two
thirds of the way through, somebody I came over to
him and I just sort of said something in his
ear about the scene. I think we need to shift
this and actually can we move this here? And could

(43:23):
this happen over here just almost shorthand at this point,
and he was like, yeah, absolutely, and someone staying next
to him said, do you just do whatever she says?
And he said he's English. Also he said I trust
her completely like that, and I took it in like, whoa,
Actually he was kidding, but I kind of think he does.

(43:45):
And then at the very end, on the very very
last day, I had this voice over to record which
plays at the beginning of every episode, and it's basically
about trust, and it basically, I think it says something
like you have to just I mean not in these words,
but what it meant was you either trust nobody or

(44:09):
you just jump off the cliff and you trust. And
I was like, um, he put me in this little
room to record it because we'd forgotten to record it,
and I was like, here you go, do you mind
if I say it to you? And so he came
in the room with me, and I basically the subtext
I guess of what I was saying to him was
I trust you, you know, Maggie Jillen Hall. If you're

(44:35):
enjoying this conversation, be sure to follow Here's the Thing
on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever
you get your podcasts. When we come back. Maggie gillen
Hall talks about working with the children in the movie
The Kindergarten Teacher. I'm carried to you and this is

(45:01):
Here's the Thing. In film The Kindergarten Teacher, Maggie Gillenhall
plays a dissatisfied forty something teacher from Staten Island who
becomes fixated on the talent of one of her students.
She heard about the project at a holiday party. Two
people at the party said, have you heard about this
script The Kindergarten Teacher. It's coming to you and it's great.

(45:24):
And for me, I think it's really really rare to
read a great script, and also to have two people
in one night out of nowhere to say like, there's
this great script and it's coming to you. I was like, okay, okay.
I was waiting every day after that for the script come,
and it took a while, and when it came, I
read it and I won't give anything away. The ending

(45:45):
is pretty great. And I closed the last page of
the script, and I was like, I want this movie,
you know, and it wasn't clear to me that it
was offered to me, which actually just increased my appetite
for it more. Of course, they say how it always was,
but I didn't know that, and one of the producers mothers,
was having an operation in the hospital, and like, nobody

(46:06):
got back to me for a few days after. I
really energetically raised my hand and was like, yes, please,
what do I gotta do? And again, just waiting just
made me want it more. And then then they came
back and they were like, oh, yes, we always meant. Yeah.
It's based on Israeli movie which I haven't seen. Um, yeah, yeah,
I mean I probably should see it now. I've heard

(46:28):
wonderful things about it, and I've heard that narratively it's
very similar, and yet it tells an almost entirely different stories.
So our movie, I think, is really about the consequences
of what happens when you starve a vibrant woman's mind,

(46:53):
told from the point of view of a group of
women filmmakers. And our conclusion is that it's fucking dire,
you know. That's and I think there is Reel, a
movie which has a very similar narrative, is Um is
much more about masculinity in Israel and art in a

(47:14):
country at war, and very different things, even though the
story itself is very similar. Um. So yeah, so I
got the script and then and I signed up and
then you know, um, it was not easy to get
our money. In fact, at Sundance when we first premiered,
I shook the hands of fifty executive producers who had,
you know, all together somehow helped us cobble together the

(47:37):
money to make it. So we spent a while, um
doing that, and then we made it in twenty three
days in New York. In New York. Now, when you
work with uh, this sounds like a silly thing, But
I always think about this in terms of the brevity
of schedules now and the pressure to shoot efficiently now

(47:59):
but with children, and I find is very a specific
and in the movie and from my money, the the
young boy what's his name, Jimmy park Parker, the boy
who's we We had the funniest moment yesterday because I said,
this kid's fantastic after the movie, and somebody from the
festival said, well, he loves boss Baby. He's like, how

(48:21):
old is he like five six? So we go backstage
and I'm like, this is amazing. You're doing like this
really hypnotic, creepy drama, which is great, And I'm in
boss baby. I mean, you and I we have so
much in common, you and I, you know, both in
the business, different wings of the business. Maybe Parker, but

(48:42):
we had a lot of fun with him. But when
you're working with somebody like a lot of times kids
are performing and the kids that that climbed the ladder
a little bit in that division, they're very you know,
they're ready to come, you know, sing tomorrow on Broadway,
and uh, he's not. He's very real. Yeah, and was
that a decision? You and she talked about you? And yeah,

(49:05):
I mean I felt a couple of things very strongly.
I have a child who's six and who was five
when we made it, just like Parker's five. So it's
hard to remember what it's like to be five. I mean,
how different the world is unless you're five. You have
a five year old, I know, right, or unless you're
living unless you're living with a five year old, and
then you're in that mind kind of. So I felt

(49:28):
two things. I felt I almost didn't do the movie
at one point because I thought, no movie, no matter
how much I love it or think it's important or whatever,
is worth disturbing a child, even for a few minutes.
So I was like, how are we going to do this?

(49:49):
And I also don't think, um, five six year olds
are actors. I just don't believe that, and I don't
think it's fair to ask them to be actors. So
so I felt like so basically we worked in a
couple of ways. I learned this from m Thompson actually
who um I'm in love with and who who did
Nanny McPhee. We did Animal Fee together, and we had
tons of kids, and so often, especially with the very

(50:09):
littlest one, UM, we would just be like, stand on
the X now, look at that big black X on
the on the wall, and turn your head when I
say so, when I clap, turn your head and say
I don't want to go. And he would we would clap,
he'd turn his head, he'd say I don't want to go,
and I would say no, no, no, sing it like me,
I don't want to go, I want to go. No,

(50:32):
and then he would just sort of repeat. I would
be like, you have just sing it like to Parker
sing it, and so then he kind of just imitate
my inflections. That was one way we worked with him
so that it was just a song. It wasn't like
he Actually, you can't say to a five year old,
I want to get in touch with away, in which
you were like, um. But the other thing you can

(50:53):
do with five year olds is that they will forget
that the cameras on them sort of, so we ran
all the kindergarten stuff as if it were a kindergarten.
I mean, you see them singing those songs with me,
or painting or you're not going to say, okay, we're
gonna pretend to paint, or we're gonna pretend to write
excess on a piece of paper. We're just going to
do it. And we choreographed the camera. I would sort

(51:15):
of see where the camera was going, almost like a documentary,
and then I would just like scoot over to wherever
the camera wasn't begin the scene with whoever I needed
to be talking to in that scene. And then the
other funny thing about kids and the like short schedule
is um, there were quite a few times where I
did scenes with our first a d or our gaffer

(51:37):
who would read off camera for me because the little
boy had to go, and I'd be like, this is
really weird, but huh, you know, like the way you
can trip yourself out as an actor kind of and
you can be like, oh, there's helicopters going over all
the time, we have to keep stopping the middle. I'm
really frustrated, and then all of a sudden, the frustration
just goes back into the scene. So this one, I

(51:59):
was like, oh, this is like a hairy fifty year
old guy with like this scrubby you know, beard no No,
our first a, your first city, and he's lying on
the ground slating also, and I'd be like, oh, but
I'm okay. So I'm basically talking to this child as
if he's a man. You know, you just figure out
the way to throw it back in because what else

(52:21):
are you gonna do? Well? I love it if on
my next film you would come and do that ex
acting with me. Would you be there for me? You
will be my mirror Rostova, you know, like off the
set like okay, and turned to me, do you want
to go to prison? I want to go to prison
for tex and I want to go to prison for

(52:41):
tax evasion. You know we could do that. You'd be
my acting car um. The Uh, that's amazing, you know,
exacting there. I need to work with you, man, I'm
dying to get a script with you. It was Emma
Thompson really and she's pretty too. What about Sarah? How

(53:03):
many films have she made before she made this film?
I loved working with Sarah and it was totally different
kind of experience than I had ever had before. And
in some ways I like to think it's it was
a very feminine set, right. Sarah wrote and directed it.
Our financiers were women, our producers were women. It's all
about a woman. Um. But I had worked with a

(53:28):
lot of other women and had very different kinds of
I have. I've worked with many. I mean even on
The Deuce last season, seven out of eight directors were women.
You know difference, Well, there is a difference, Yeah, there is,
but that's not necessarily what made I think my collaboration
with Sarah and are set on the kindergarten teacher. So

(53:50):
I don't know, unusual, Yeah, feminine, but I don't even
totally know what that means. Even when I watched the movie,
I'm like, this is feminine, like what does that mean
and why? And my husband after he saw it last night,
he was like, I wish someone would send this to
Senator Flake, but but I don't really know totally why. Right,

(54:15):
it's not political movie, but it's it's like, somehow it's
really kind of straight, purely feminine thing. I don't you know.
It makes me think of the Piano, not this movie.
I would never compare it to that, but the experience
I had when I saw the Piano and I was
like sixteen or something and I had never seen anything

(54:36):
like it, I was like, what, Like, I I guess
I think in some ways, um, girls, women my age,
we get so used to having to relate to a
male character or even let's just say like a sort
of masculine point of view on something. We're like, yeah, yeah,

(54:56):
that's not exactly my experience, but I could twist it
around and make it relatable to me, and that muscle
is very exercised. I think in most women were like, yeah,
I get I know it's not exactly my way through
the world, but I could. I could just twist a
little and it's cool. I get it, and thank god
because otherwise we have very little to relate to. But

(55:16):
then like when I saw the piano, I was like, whoa,
I feel so relaxed. I don't have to twist anything.
And I felt that way when I read Sarah script,
I just like went straight in and when I when
I saw this last night, what I love is it?
It's not a bad I don't give it away, but
the dynamic of the home is not all bad. But

(55:38):
there's things that maybe in my mind you know, are
missing as you want you're gone and connections and feelings
are exactly It's a much easier movie if her home
life is like horrible, if everything's just awful. Instead she's
see I'm not gonna give away the scene on the
phone and your husband's like he's ready to you know,

(56:00):
people will dance with you, and then the phone rings,
Oh my god, Oh my god. Crazy, yeah, really upsetting
you see Yeah, sou up. Yeah, it's true. A couple
of really fucked up scenes in this movie. It's incredible.
It's true. You're doing the deuce, You're on HBO. How
did that happen? Meaning how did they reel you? When

(56:21):
I mean, I'm not just saying this for your benefit.
You're one of the most admired movie actresses in the business.
So when you go to do the TV thing, how
did they hook you? Well? Huh. I just it's so
funny though, because like in the first three episodes, which
was all I read of The Deuce, Candy didn't really
have all that much to do and that's why you
took the job. Um No. But it's weird because I

(56:43):
was just talking with Peter about this, and when we
were walking on the beach here today, I was like, Yeah,
when I first there, wasn't she turned so amazing. I mean,
I love blank Andy, I really do. Um but I
just had like a feeling. I don't know, I was
it was David Simon and George Pelicanos. I mean, they
made some pretty damn good TV. And I had done

(57:04):
The Honorable Woman with Hugo, who I told you I
loved so much. So it wasn't my first time in TV.
I wasn't like snobby about TV. I wanted it, you know,
I wanted a good job, you know that that I
could count on, but also yes, and to be home.
But also I was like, I don't know, I just
had a good feeling. I was like, I just want
to play this woman. I want to I want to

(57:25):
try it. I want to see I want to see
if I can do this. It was so far outside
of my experience to play a sex worker in UM.
I just like liked her. I just had a I
just had like this feeling about it. Three seasons and

(57:47):
I guess I will. And you know, there was this
whole thing where I was like, guys, I've only read three,
there's going to be twenty four. How do I know?
I mean, I think you guys are all right, but
what if this becomes something? I mean I never had
signed onto something like that before. Well that's true, but again,
like I said, I don't trust that. Well, so I

(58:10):
asked him if I could be a producer and and
the thing is is when and everyone said to me,
you are never going to get that on a big
HBO show. You've never produced television before, you didn't develop it,
like good luck, Maggie. But then they were like, okay,
let's be partners. Good for you, And I was like,
oh wow, good for you. Well that's question is a

(58:32):
quick two partter. I had a very fleeting role in
Looming Tawer with your husband Peter stars Guard and my
first question which is a silly question. Is your husband
really as sweet as he seems life? Is it? Damn
good husband? I'm thrilled with him? And what's that like
for you? Being two people who are working all the time,
very successful movie actors. That's uh? Is it wonderful to

(58:54):
be with somebody who understands what you're going through? I'm
out of the business and sometimes yes, like some I'll
be like, when are you coming home? I don't understand
when are you coming home? Like we had planned such
and such, and he's like, Maggie, you know, I don't
know the answer to you know, I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
My wife was like like like, why are you so dramatic? Duh? Anyway,

(59:19):
now you tell all thanks to actors Julianne Moore and
Maggie Jyllen Hall, and of course to Alec Baldwin, who
you know normally hosts this show. Here's the Thing is
produced by Kathleen Rousseau, Me, Carrie Donahue and Zach McNeice,

(59:39):
our engineers Frank Imperial, Carrie, Am I coming back next week? Yes, Alec,
You're back next week and you're talking to Jackson Brown.
But every other week for the rest of the summer,
members of our team will be popping into the feed
to showcase terrific interviews from the archives. Thanks Carrie, Thanks Alec.

(01:00:00):
Make the many knot to make a time