Actress Roundtable: Angelina Jolie, Demi Moore, Zendaya, Zoe Saldaña, Mikey Madison & Tilda Swinton

often I feel like I get too nervous to reach out and be like hey like can I get some advice you know and in truth it's a real gift if there's any kind of experience strength and hope that you have that you could actually impart to someone so Reach Out always I will get everybody's contact information after this and we'll help you set up the bakery yes you do baking and then you do pottery and then you you think I could help you with the pottery but unfortunately I cannot okay okay I just got that

yeah item that's what I was joking about that's what I was Jing [Music] [Music] Welcome to The Hollywood Reporter actress Roundtable we have a remarkable group of actresses with us here today let's dive in I guess show of hands who here has ever signed on for a role that you were really excited about and then gone home and thought what have I just done yeah Zoe yeah I think more more often times than not um the series that I'm doing right now lioness which was a show that was very um dialogue heavy and I wanted

to challenge myself and sort of like address my dyslexia and my anxiety by by taking on a character that really was um you know commanding with a lot of dialogue and the moment I said yes I went home and I looked at my partner and I was like I don't I don't think I can do this and then obviously the next day was just you know roll your sleeves up and and just you know create all the tools that you need to get there can what it was really nerve-wracking I don't think I've ever done

that but I do remember the first film I made when I was it was the second film that I made but I was in every shot of it I remember going home after one night's shooting and lying in the bath and trying to plan how I would break into the British Film Institute which was making the film to seize the dailies and Destroy them my love for you just really figuring it out I knew Rathburn place which is the street in London I was figuring out there'll be a night Watchman what could I do to

distract him I was really going down that line but why why I to see why I think to be honest I just didn't couldn't imagine that any film in which I was in every frame was going to be anything other than unbearable and I there was no you know and the first film I was in I wasn't in every frame and there were lots of other people and I was always interested in seeing their scenes play out I would go and watch them work but when you're in every shot uh yeah yeah it's it's it's

difficult to imagine I mean whenever I see a film that I'm in for the first few times I see it my face is kind of fuzzed out like on those police videos you know and then slowly like the third screening I'll go oh yeah it's you yeah does anybody relate to that I mean I I think the first few times watching it through it's always a little bit of the dicting of what you've done what you could have done to then step back and be able to then really take in the whole let let go

of your own ego attachment to what other people think where you can then really kind of embrace but even now can you watch yourself can you can myself I find it very hard hear myself I can't I can't watch I can't I don't like hearing myself I don't watch such a beautiful voice that's so interesting but do you feel that would you rather if you had a choice would you rather watch yourself silent or hear your voice I don't like either I really have trouble watching myself too I don't there's many films I've never seen

there's things I don't I can never watch dailies I don't I don't enjoy watching myself there's films you haven't seen yeah wow that must be very tantalizing aren't you tempted no because I I don't know I think like you you know we all probably have more discomfort with the presentation of self as much I love the work I love the process I don't want to think about what I look or sound like or else I don't know if I'd be as free yeah exactly and um and then I think once it's over I I do

want an audience to connect but I don't I I there's nothing I can do yeah so do you feel the same way over the films that you've directed versus the ones that you've performed in no I'm better when I'm not in it yeah yeah yeah you can sort of separate and watch watch your work objectively right when you when you directed versus yeah yes Zena what are you thinking as you're hearing this you've been quiet listening like I'm I just it's so interesting CU like I said it um I'm such a fan off of everyone

here so it's so I'm just like I'm just taking it in and sometimes it's hard to go oh I should speak too but cuz I want to ask a lot of questions but um but yeah you know I I find for me at least that I I'm a very uh self-conscious person like everything I do I'm very self-critical and I find that being on a set is one of the few places that I like just don't judge myself wow and I can just like be super free cuz I'm like wait it's not me like you

know what I mean I wouldn't make that decision I'm not that I'm not like I can just exist in this person and I feel almost like while still very attached to them also detached to them so like I feel like I love when a when a director's like hey come here and just point something out and I don't mind watching myself cuz I'm like it's not me you know what I mean it's like this weird thing and I don't actually ever get weird about it until I go oh people are going to see this that's

when like once it's like time to promote something and actually like I'm like oh oh now I'm self-conscious about the work that I just made but up until this point I was like just in my little bubble of like creative freedom and it's not until you realize like oh this won't belong to just me forever like the world will consume it at some point that you start kind that my head starts going so I like living in that little Creative Pocket beautiful that's a really beautiful way that you're that you're holding that I I think

it's a very um evolved place to be in actually thank yeah it is because I think it takes a lot to get past that part where we are able to not be self-conscious I think that that is a real gift I I just take that little gum too also but it's also what you're you're speaking to is when you look at yourself on a monitor or even in the film eventually it isn't it's not just not you it's not yours because it's the light it's the makeup it's the costume it's the design I remember once

years and years ago the second film when I was in every frame and I remember like in week 10 thinking I want a little bit of Praise where am I going to get it from but I was too proud to ask anybody for any so I thought I know what I'll do I'll ask the editor I'll ask him which is his favorite shot in the movie so far because I'm in 199% likely that I might get it and so I went to the editor and I said what's your favorite shot and he said oo that's

really hard M there's that short and close up of you and then I'm thinking I'm in with a chance he finally said yeah I think I think I got it it's this close-up of you in this moment I don't know how he did it wow and it was genus it like cured me in that moment I thought yeah he's right how did the cinematographer do that how did the cinematographer frame it and lighted correct not actually much to do with me at all so I never asked for any praise ever again like completely and that's

what you're speaking to you look in the Monitor and you go well done well done everybody and you're in there somewhere yeah but it's not just you so it's such a collective thing absolutely well you truly are like an amalgamation of like all these genius people's ideas I mean that's what we were just talking about with with directing because I I would love to Direct One Day and and and you've been able to do it and in a beautiful way and I and and something that makes me so nervous is that and she was like

but there's people to help you like there's these gorgeous team of people that we get to work with that create I think just as much as we do the characters that we play so yeah IE yeah Mikey when I think about having a lack of self-consciousness on set I think about the opening scenes in Anora where you're you're in this nightclub and as I understand it in the script there was not a lot of direction for you right you were just told to go up and approach customers potential customers can you talk a little bit

about what that was like yeah so all of that is improvised Sean created an entirely live set so there's music blasting a DJ's playing there's my co-workers all over the club men everywhere um and Sean shot it on a long lens so he was in the corner of the club and he would just follow me around picking up men talking to people talking to my co-workers uh trying to get guys to come to the back room and get a dance with me so um so we just thought shot 30 minutes straight of of that and

then whittel it down to a couple minutes of the film which is the introduction into Annie and who she is it's a great in Inc a wonderful and that's exactly what we get is that absolute you're so entrenched you're so embedded in the world of it you don't for a second not believe that it's really wonderful you're doing the ABS you should be very proud talking with the Consultants was was the most important part of the preparation I think it's just understanding how psychological of a job it is to be a sex worker it's not

only physically demanding but it's mentally demanding as well because you're having to walk up to someone and immediately try to connect with them try to in that moment understand what it is you can offer them what kind of connection you guys can have together and it's this instant like very intimate uh setting that you're in and so I think it can be quite draining mentally and then physically as well you're on your feet all day uh dancing in these really tall stilettos and so I think is just understanding the stamina that comes with that kind

of profession being able to get to know the sex work Community has been one of the most impactful things that's ever happened to me because these people are just incredible and I have so much respect for for what they do and I think that the film would be completely different and Annie would have been a completely different character if I hadn't have done any of that preparation did you have a different idea of who they were before you had a chance to really get to know them as people I think I went into my research

like very naively I honestly knew very little about sex work and what that was like and I had never been to a strip club before so I I knew I needed to dedicate a lot of time to that but I I was just able to get to know these women as people like just woman to woman and I I've made a lot of incredible friends yeah Zoe it was so fun to watch you dance and Million by the way thank you what was it like to get back to dance which is really how you began

in this industry it was I felt like it was a true gift I was given the opportunity to reconnect with parts of me that unconsciously I just left behind and um and I was yearning I was just yearning and missing them a lot as in New York or you know I've been saying this a couple of times you're born with jazz hands and and then you you you spent like your whole life un jazzing your hands because at any moment you're like but you when you grow up in New York um you know if your

grandmother saves some money then she'll buy some raffle tickets you know some tickets and then she'll take you to the theater or you you'll go to Lincoln Center and I remember being a child and walking by Lincoln Center and she would go look look look while she was like smoking her cigarette like one day one day you're going to be there and I remember thinking like what is she saying and then it's it's very beautiful when things come full circle but I do believe that you do have to find a way to manifest them H

do you think you manifested this some I did I did um by really wanting it I think that um after a certain while you at least for myself I I I just I fell into this pattern of going being an autopilot constantly and I was a part of really successful films that became franchises and I have no regrets they gave me so much I I worked with amazing people um but they're very time consuming and this is all happening wild stuff I'm starting a family so that desire to to grow to sort of shatter whatever

glass ceiling I felt like I was falling under um was growing more and more you know as the years went by and um and I just I wrote a list a couple of years before booking Amelia betes I wrote a list with my team and I said well these are the top five directors that I would love to work with and like I think that Jack was in the top three he was always somebody that I I loved and I love the fact that Jack challenges me to question whether or not you know I have

enough Humanity when I look at people you know who do who do we consider redeemable and Amelia B was this story with four women that are not perfect um they are damaged they're they're products and they victims of their environment but they're making their own decisions and they're on a quest for the most for their most most authentic freedom I loved the fact that in the end it's a very simple story and it's just peppered with all this complexity of their environment and their choices and you start out in the movie and you look at

you look at you know Rita you're like well if you're a lawyer you know you damn well what's the difference between right and wrong why are you defending this criminal and why are you going with Myas and why are you doing all these things and and but you can't really look at a woman or a person this way it's what what is what what does she want she deserves to want something she wants power she wants success she wants Beauty she wants money and and that's great so once I once I inhabited sort of that

that body of hers um there was nothing was going to stand in my way it was it was quite exciting to be in R's World knowing that the unthinkable was about to happen she was going to get this opportunity to break free from these chains and she was never going to look back and and sing and d and sing that was that was like the icing on the cake yes yes yes it was it was amazing and and um the rehearsals were grueling and I welcomed it every single day I wasn't dancing Rita wasn't dancing

Rita was exploring and R is thinking and feeling so those breaths of of song and dance were just her thoughts and her emotions so once I I I think about it from that sort of perspective um I just needed to know that all those moves were going to be in my body so that I would not be limited by them because they were not dance moves they were just Expressions Expressions exactly and be able to blend um so many parts of me Spanish is my first language and it's the it's the language that I was

sung to for the first time all the lullab that's how my mother healed me she made me she cooked for me loves me like in in her in my language and and as As I Grew Older I felt like an impostor living double like a double agent where and you know behind closed doors this is who I am and and outside this is this is this other person because I am American but I felt like my craft was really um not getting the best of me because I don't know there's something really beautiful about being

able to incorporate so many parts of you and what you do that um makes it a much more thrilling experience you know to go through and a much more passionate process for me so it was it was a great gift had you made other films in Spanish before I mean i' I've said a couple of lines here and there but never aladina you know must how was it also them working with the director who essentially speaks fren it was amazing there's something really beautiful about Jack this is not the first film that he does in

a different language of his own he's not limited by language and it wasn't you know this set wasn't only a Spanish and a French set there was there was a lot of English there was a lot of Italian there was a lot of any language that we needed to be able to communicate but you know when you're synced with people it's a language is just you know one more tool m so that uh it was it was a beautiful process Angelina when we talk about singing as a tool you spent 6 months learning to sing

like Maria callus what did you learn about yourself in that process oh so much I'm I'm so happy to be here at this table to to talk to all of you it's so nice she's she's an artist it was the first time I'd played an artist and so to have this discussion has been interesting because so much and your connection to your body to your music is so exciting to see you do so many things that you know hadn't yet seen you do on screen and very exciting as a fan to to see that um

I was really frightened because it's something I'd never done and I had someone in my life uh say that I couldn't sing you know and you have someone it could be anybody but just someone and it could be a passing and and somehow it had this effect I I I I didn't realize how much that had blocked me me and also I didn't realize how much and I think singing or not just as women and performers I'd lost my voice I didn't know my voice I think I didn't understand how much life changes your voice

whether it be childbirth or death or someone you love or sickness or whatever it may be but we hold things in our body we we we change the way we are and somewhere along the way 49 years old somewhere along the way I lost my voice so it was such a gift to have these seven months to have someone hold my hand and help me take a deep breath and try to make sound again and I didn't realize I could sing and I didn't know I was a soprano which made no sense to me cuz

I'm I don't think I have that voice um and to discover Opera which is such a beautiful art form and one that I felt somehow wasn't for me I don't know why I think it's there's certain things that maybe we think I didn't whether it's it's a language right that this is a a language that isn't for me it's people who are raised here or more familiar with this or it's very sophisticated or very you know and and so I felt like I was able to learn about this world and make sounds in a different

way and and use my body and my voice in a different way and if you haven't tried to sing opera I recommend it to everyone because it's the only thing I've ever done where you you have your full physical body your full vocal and your full emotion and we especially as women are very rarely allowed asked encouraged to give that to use our own voice with everything we well our full power all of it all of it all of it with everything we've got and not feel we are adjusting to the room to our children

to man to society to right something along the way forms us and we don't bust out with everything yes that we are especially so I felt like it was a gift as you said and and Maria Callis is one of us she's yes she was a woman and spent a lot of time in her process alone which is why this is so lovely sitting here and realizing thinking of her and being she didn't have this table right um a lot of women in the P didn't have this table right there weren't as many women doing

certain things and they didn't have community in this way and so important that you know I was also surprised I got here today so many of us have been aware of each other we've never met it's quite strange you know really we're we don't have many opportunities to just actually connect in the form of community and really you know just even reflect as artist or experience or process it is a bit of an it can be let's say a bit of an isolating experience can you are encouraged to be isolated right I feel I feel

like it used to be that that notion that you needed to always stay super hyperfocused on your journey and and um and not seek support right or not not lend support and I feel like it's it's the most important thing but it's such a mirage because exactly it's not real I mean we all know how important are women friends are to us it's it's everything and there's a sort of strange trapdoor in society that people kind of slip through and they're not aware of it I mean men so true give the impression that they're not

aware of it they also give the impression that they don't have the same kind of you know Collective feel together that's their Affair and they have to figure it out if it's true it's probably not true but at least there is a strange kind of myth around it but this is a beautiful table is a beautiful moment I mean you know the glamour at this table except for me is you are incredibly glamorous but let's imagine that seriously that this is you know this must be encouraged to just see it and shoot the breeze as

women and and and acknowledge and also this whole idea that women don't make movies I mean as we all know women have been making films as directors and I don't just mean as performers since the very beginning of Cinema editors Lois babber was the very first director in 1904 or something the the and it's that's the reality but there's a strange sort of mesmerism around it it's we're all supposed to forget it and also we're all supposed to be pitched against each other that's the thing is that it isn't a competition and that's been the

illusion that somehow that's been bought into versus this idea that when one Rises we all rise and that when we walk the path not alone we also expand exponentially yeah it's so important but I think it's something my sense is to generalize that it's the collective kind of view is something that comes so naturally to women more naturally the whole idea that there's only room for one may suit men better or the Society of men better but I don't think it suits women I think we know how to do this this is what we do

yes you know we sit around tables and we chat and we support each other and we witness each other absolutely to me the substance is so much about the way women's bodies are criticized the way we criticize our own bodies what was it that Drew you to that theme I mean first of all the script was such an interesting outof thebox read like something I'd never read before um and the way in which it was exploring the issue of aging and while the circum stances were said in Hollywood it was an actress which I think

just heightened and and kind of grounded it in something that everyone could identify with the thing that really grabbed me was the exploration of the violence we can have against ourselves it's that way in which we can dissect and criticize and that I have found at least in my own experience in life that it's really not what anyone else has ever done to me the the the impact is always has been on what I do to myself internalized there was that powerful scene the going out scene oh my Lord J it just it spoke it

it was such an intimate and and just raw transparent you know portrayal of what we can do to ourselves how we commit self harm on a daily basis sometimes without even touching our bodies we can just be so like you don't you're not worthy of going out and the removal of the makeup and and even the way that you were looking at yourself with so much you were so you were so self-critical you know and I just I felt it and it was so powerful thank you I'm so grateful she came to you I'm so

grateful that was a good idea I mean am I mean it was really definitely um I think the other thing as an actor that I've never explored is I didn't really have other people that all of my scenes were almost all alone and I had no dialogue so everything was in that kind of odd intimate moments we have with oursel where we are often naked looking dissecting thinking um and it was a really interesting challenge to step in and really create a full life for her at all times so that it was alive always because

I didn't have someone else to kind of feed off of so it was and and it was also very technical so there a lot of times the technical aspects which you've done a lot where there's the technical sometimes takes priority over the sensitivity of an actor's process right or that she sometimes like to start this close instead of a little wider to find it but it was um but that was really it I think that it was so relatable in a way that felt like it was an important message that needed to come across for

us to all start to re-evaluate how we're holding ourselves how that that need of Greater gentility um you know it's a um I've had obviously a lot of conversations having three daughters and one of the things that my middle daughter said at one point is she says I want to quit wasting time focusing on all that I'm not when I could be celebrating all that I am beautiful beautiful and that first of all I said maybe I've done a good job but also that that is it that is that is that is it that makes

me want to know so if we do this to ourselves how do we break out of it because it's ultimately about self-acceptance it's about really looking and appreciating who we are as we are right now where and that involves changing like how we change we evolve and it isn't the same reflection in the mirror and I think it's that idea is what I trade having you know as one woman said she's just more Loosely wrapped what I would I trade being more tightly wrapped for the wisdom that I've G gained and who I've become as

a woman today right I don't think I would and and at the same time appreciating all of the different parts of me that have brought me to where I am today it's like embracing the shadow sides the sides that you know when we can look at our triumphs that have come through our obstacles our challenges our failures we can see them not as a failure but as an opportunity for growth in a win mhh zanda we have become as an audience used to seeing you play a kid used to seeing you play a teenager um

and Challengers for a good portion of the movie you're a grown woman yeah what was that like um you know it's uh it was it's kind of like the scary step in a person's career where you go from like for so long I feel like I was playing a teenager pretty much way past where I when I was one and um I and I appreciated that so much I mean being able to play R has been one of the greatest Gifts of my life but um there comes a time where you got to start playing

your own age and Beyond and um you know it was a scary thing and also you know Challengers too it was kind of like my first time in like a a leading lady role and and and kind of taking that responsibility as well and um and and and being a part of the prod producing you know aspect as well it was all um very exciting and also very like daunting you know um but I think for me I think I think when you read certain characters you're like I just can't pass the opportunity to play

this woman like I she just was refreshing to me in her uh Unapologetic nature you know she doesn't apologize for you know her behavior which I I appreciate it in in this way and um her sense of control um or her need for control as her life is kind of falling apart and her vicariously to live through other people and I think it it spoke to me because I love my job so much I'm so grateful that I get to do this for a living and I think like what if it was all taken away

and for her her her true love was tennis that was like that's all she ever wanted and it and and there you know thankfully I get to do this for as long as I really want to um but an athlete you know you only have limited amount of time until your body doesn't do what it used to do and um I think an injury is like when it gets snatched you can't reverse that and it gets snatched from her so quickly and I um and she in her own way loses her voice you know it's

like she doesn't know who she is anymore without this thing and I think that's something that in my own life I was understanding as a young woman coming into the thing like I've been working since I was a kid and I was like wait who am I when I'm not working like do I have a life what what do I even like to do like what are my hobbies what what what are my interest like who is zindaa outside of this and so I just deeply related to that idea of like desperately wanting to hold

on to this love and this thing and um and in her it manifested in maybe some more toxic um actions I'll say but not to judge her because I know where it's coming from you know it's coming from a place of truly vulnerability like I remember one of our first conversation was like what kind of like cream does she use before bed you know what I mean like what what is her like what what is like being this this woman or this pres presentation is so important to her how people see her how people view

her um how she comes off to other people and so she's got to have the best stuff and it's you know it's silk to bed and it's you know all these things and then you see it kind of unraveling and falling apart and she's just trying to hold everything together like hold this this this uh this ideal um so yeah I just uh it was nice to explore a character who like I said is Unapologetic and while she makes very different decisions than I would personally um it it was it was there was a freedom

there um and being Guided by Luca in that way as well and again back to the amalgamation of everybody sayu who's incredible and made it look gorgeous and um our costume uh Jonathan Anderson did the costumes which was amazing to kind of see his Artistry come out through that and um felt very like supported um in this kind of becoming a woman on on camera you know and one thing that was really powerful in in your character that I resonated with me and and um it's emotions that we suppress that we never like to admit

that we feel your character felt so much jealousy that these men that in her in her mind were so undeserving of this gift of this talent and I I it was it was just amazing to see that to see a woman be equal to a man when it came when it comes to aptitude when it comes to talents when it comes to wit and all of these things and and her competition weren't other women it was the partners in her life it was it was quite interesting her her boys um yeah well I appreciate that

and I you know um again it was exploring parts of uh a life that I haven't lived yet having kids or being getting married and you know these kinds of things she's already had this part of her life so it it was I was strange to kind of embody that part of myself that hasn't quite existed yet you know um but I guess that that is my job but but it was you know it's a different touch point you know it's a different um part of yourself that hasn't quite been explored yet but yeah I

just I don't know I appreciated that she just said whatever the hell she wanted to say and I was like girl maybe we should stop slapping people you know what I mean and then getting a little crazy but um I mean she's entirely herself and and I and I appreciate that um both Justin who who who wrote wrote the uh screenplay and and Luca allowed her to be um exactly who she was it was never trying to like explain why she was like this she just likeed this she was like this when she was younger

you know it's like it it wasn't necessarily the injury that made her this way she just is this way um and I just appreciated being able to explore that it was Unapologetic Alo in her ambition and her drive which is what I loved me too and and that when there was that because what was so beautiful was the subtlety of the grief that I felt you held underneath and then just activating it into like chant you channeled it over into their success you're saying you said it beautifully but also I think to back to like

a bigger conversation of this idea of like not ever being able or allowing uh women in the space to like to grieve or to have a moment to yourself I think she's so conditioned to be like next like there's no time to like feel sorry for yourself there's no time to like too grieve too you know and she just immediately pivots and she's like okay new plan and I think that that is that thing of like allowing ourselves moments like be a person and we don't have to hold it all together we don't have to

like our humanness yeah be respons it's about a relationship with success the whole idea of success being the Holy Grail that you're going for whatever that means I mean for a for a sports person it means something very very clear yeah and that everything else takes second or third or fourth place and where does the living happen yeah well it's also that question of identity like who am I without because who what we do isn't actually who we are it's just what we do but I think that takes time to kind of find find within

yourself M you know it's like early part of life you're just striving to see what you can do and then if you find enough of it it's like than having to separate and live and have more of a of a of a balance in your existence zind did you feel like you figured out what your hobbies are and who you are when you aren't working stilling next question okay question um I think it it's just it's it's it's a thing that I'm figuring out and I'm learning as I go along I think having time off

accidentally really um was time for me to go okay we got to we have to have like a person outside of you know your job it's really all I know and I also think like because I'm so passionate I mean I'm lucky that like my hobby is the thing that I do for a living it is my thing that I would want to do if I wasn't going to work every day like it is everything to me um but but what other than that you know is is brings me joy and I think that um

for me it's been about just uh trying new things as stupid as it sounds like uh Pottery or you know anything with your hands just something learning new skills or crafts and even if it's like okay well I tried that for like a week you know but I tried it you know what I mean oh yeah um try making sourdough bread I I got into God what a humbling experience I got into baking I did I I can make a good scone now you know but wow that's impressive scone SC a good scone I got

you time but um but it's just trying to find other things that that can bring you Joy and and make you happy and and try to discover who um my life is outside of like the presentation of who I am you know and and not being so tough on yourself all the time you know well when you've worked from when you were a child which most of us have not had that experience when did you start working Mikey I was about 16 almost 16 that's pretty young still isn't it it's I mean it's I I

I take my hat off to both of you it's quite an achievement to work as young people I mean it's hard enough when you're older but to work as young people and but for you to have worked since you were so young to for that to have been part cuz the rest of us we were you know climbing trees and not making any money it it's it's an it's odd it's it's odd and I have a um complicated relationship with the idea of like child actors child acting in general um because I've seen it be

detrimental to people and and um I don't know I just uh I am grateful I'm so grateful that this is how it turned out I wouldn't change it but there are things that I like I'm like dang I I'm there are things I wish I kind of lived uh privately you know and tried to like cuz you figure out who you are uh in front of uh the world and you're like I'm trying to do this right and I want to make everyone happy but like I don't really know how I am yet you know

what I mean I'm still figuring it out I have no idea what I'm doing you know um which I guess that is true for all of us at any point in your life you know I I say my mom had like her butterfly moment at 50 when she got her first tattoo or I I pushed her to get her first tattoo and now she's covered she's got like sleeves basically um so I think you know you can reinvent yourself and Butterfly it any point in your life which I think is beautiful but um but yeah

it is odd to do it so young and I'm excited for you finding all your fabulous life ahe yeah thanks I apprciate being right and pottery and scones but I appreciate being able to have moments like this because I feel like at least now the connections are made like there people I can reach out to and and ask questions because all of you have such experience and um that's so valuable you know and and often I feel like I get too nervous to reach out and be like hey like can I get some advice you

know um because this kind of community is so important you know and like um it's and in truth it's a real gift to feel like if if there's any kind of experience strength and hope that you have that you could actually impart to someone like that actually is enriching to the other person absolutely like to be able like and we I I I certainly forget that forget because I want to not be vulnerable I want to not think that I don't have it figured out you know yeah so Reach Out always I think it's like

I'm texting you know getting everybody's contact information after this and we'll help you set up the bakery yes yes and it's it's like you do baking and then you do pottery and then you act as well you would think I could help you with the pottery but unfortunately I cannot okay okay I just got that yeah that's so funny we actually did that in Euphoria we did oh you did oh my God we did a of that in eia I just realized I was a disaster with the pottery you were oh my gosh I mean

mine literally looked like the pots I made look like kindergarten pots I feel like they're probably collector's items joking about oh my God got it to it took me a second I was like why can I imagine deise sitting there like that all kind flooding back beautiful tlda uh Pedro movar Works fast I hear like he's a one take two take kind of guy yeah um and in this film you have some long monologues were you doing this one takes two takes move on or did you ask him for more um both uh there was

begging but nope he seems to know what he wants and I was nervous about that I was nervous that he was going too fast for us to have an opportunity to squeeze the orange you know every which way which I love to do I love I've worked with David Fincher who everybody's you know the legend is that he'll go 100 takes and I happen to love that too really because then you know you've done it you know you've you know it's there it's all there and you know you figure it out it's very challenging I

find that the two take thing or even the one take sometimes especially with a lot of dialogue do you ever ask for another do you often ask for another yeah yeah yeah there have definitely I mean on Sean's films there would be times where we'd be stealing shots we'd bring this film camera into restaurants clubs uh into a pool hall once just filming on the street and like trying to steal things and sometimes I don't you don't feel like you got it and so it's like well let's maybe let's just go one more time but

you kind of can't and then obviously our film being such a small budget there were some days where we're just like jam-pack scenes in trying to get things done and I'm like wait like I just I just need something more but I think actually watching it back the things that we did end up getting was just right in the moment yeah because the film is so it's so hectic and phenetic and you're feeling that as an actress trying to make sure that you got it and it's not possible really there's no such thing it's not

possible and I actually believe that this is for me anyway this is possibly the most difficult part of the work is letting things go yes moving on and having the discipline to just go do you know what I didn't think I got it but you know what getting it is impossible and what do I know anyway yes because very often we think we got it and you can speak to this Angelina as a as a director that the performance performance thinks it's it it's been nailed but actually that's the overshot one that's the one where

it's first and the one that felt a little rickety and there was some kind of weird energy around it that's the golden thing but you can't necessarily feel that inside that's why a director can say trust me we got it we're moving on and you have to go okay I trust you I trust youed sometimes easier other time other times yeah it's it's a feut of Faith yeah Angeline do you feel that way coming into Maria having directed does that change the way you work as an actress I have more of an understanding I I

was always an actress that loved the crew and I was always an actress that understood I was a piece of a whole and and loved that um but I after being a director you you are much more aware of all the pieces and all the needs and you are very conscious that an actor is important but a piece and if you've I loved casting I found casting very interesting as an actor and I think if you any of you directed or will direct that that's as an actor you you maybe are looking for something else

because you know you know when you're in the pocket you know your authentic self and you know it's not uh it's not some perfect presentation or some idea of this or some perfect reading you know it's this like someone that has a something behind those eyes uh someone who's a little messy someone who's a little Brave there's all these other things you look for this a person I think a lot of what makes an interesting actor is an interesting person and um and then if you build a family which is very much the set and

so it's you know and you you kind of encourage everybody to bring their best then you have this space where everybody shows show up in different ways and and collaborates and I tend to I tend to find that I'm the actors know I I push them and I root for them but I try to I you know you communicate and every actor's different it's very interesting I have my process and learning about the other needs of other actors that are so different from me to make sure I you know I'm there for what they need

in their process to me in the third Act of the substance you're wearing tons of Prosthetics you become this creature and I just wonder what was the process like of of putting all that on and and figuring out how to act through it you know it's interesting it's so delicate and fragile it's not like you have practice time with everything on it's kind of you're finding it in some respects on the day I mean there was some preparation I mean the time for me in the chair was anywhere from 6 to 9 and 1 half

hours wow and which is which is lot it's a it's a lot and also because there's such a there's a surreal element to this trying to also figure out what's the logic like what's you know oh I'm degraded and um aged but I can also run like a bat out of hell I was like and you know so there's like kind of that that kind of practical logical part of my brain that was really wrestling with what it was and I will also say and you also must know this too Zoe but of it's a

much easier read on paper than the physical of like being in there and and at the same time I also think the time in the chair which it's helpful if you can get very still and and Zen also allows you to actually move into embodying and shifting like for me it was like a slow progression over that time and allowing it to kind of become part of me mhm yeahh it is a gring process yeah I was going to say 6 to 9 hours to half hours no when it was when we had to do

the whole body yes okay it makes sense the legs everything right and it's very delicate you can't really eat or drink because it's so delicate things will fall apart and I think probably the most challenging is having somebody touch you constantly that was that that was what required yeah but taking it off is the really long bit isn't it no it's actually much quicker you open up that bottle of wine you put your music on little say I'm C and you're like all that surp it's always a funny word the i'mot isole mirror state is

that it the stuff that you take is yeah where you're scraping away oh my God I mean I will say um Cory was one of those who loved to do many takes many many takes it's like wiping the makeup off my face with each section was 15 takes at least wow and that I could have used a few less perhaps on that one but I never like to give up if they feel like if they're saying the director says they need it like I want to keep going yeah I think it's it's it's important to

have that communication it's when they really tell you what's going on it's when you have no communication from video Village and and you just keep going over and over again because you just don't you it's it feels like you're you're just throwing spaghetti on the wall like give me something an adjective give me any kind of Direction one sentence five words and then they'll expl and then I can I can give you five more T it's actually not about you it's cuz the wind is not hitting the trees right I know and then you feel

like perect it's just so then you're not sitting there going what am I not doing right like what's wrong with this let's go again let's give that wind a chance Zena in in Dune 2 you're in the middle of the desert and it's this big epic sci-fi movie but it's sort of built upon this romance and I'm kind of curious how you figured out how you were going to flirt in space in space what was the trick I think it's really leading it's it's Denny he's such a I mean special filmmaker obviously but like just

very easy to work with in the sense he he always knows what he wants and it's very clear but also gives you room to play as well um where you feel kind of supported and I think for that it was like you know they're not it's not like you know a normal scene like what's up like you know you're cute like you've been here before you know this is like that would have worked too there there's a version of that you know that's more you and space um so or like how does this fit in

to the Dune Universe how do we you know um get these two people that are technically young people falling in love you know this Whirlwind romance also stealing shots in between because there is so much it's such a massive piece of work and we really are just like a little part of it also like being in the desert and you have limited time to shoot every day because the sun is right in this perfect place and you know so I think my thing was just like being as prepared as I could and then trying my

best like in those there was like one scene um that we could only really shoot for like an hour a day so we kind of like over the course of a few days shot like a scene because of the light because of the sun yeah um and so you're trying to like okay we're we were here yesterday but how do we get back into that the tenderness and finding these moments and uh Denny in the beginning he would say I'm going to do like a glances pass I'll ask you guys to like just look at

each other from across the room and I find that there's like so much you can do without words and without scenes just like a glance between the two of them really Built This Love Story um and and made you believe it because again there's so much going on so it's like how are we going to tell this story when there's like all this action and like so many story lines to to feel to to fill and build and make it make sense um so it was glances pass you know just these little little moments of

like oh I see you across the room and and it and it says so much for the characters so um yeah I I just felt very lucky to be a part of it you know like from the beginning I was just like I'll I'll play like a tree the sandworm like what do you need you know like this is just so cool like I just want to be there how much does what's going on in the outside world politically geopolitically affect your choice of projects and your choice of how you spend your time and your

work is that something that figures in at all I remember very early on in my career I I I felt a couple of times at my you know these self-made Crossroads where being a daughter of immigrants um and being Latina in America um you as you start to grow in your career you you carry on this responsibility to represent your community and um and I and I stopped that I I made I made that choice I and and it felt risky but I but I made it with all my heart and hopes that it was

the right decision that would help my community by following my heart mhm mhm but that's not to say that I may one day feel compelled to make a decision on a material that that has a very important conversation around a cause or an event that um that should be present in people's minds and in people's tables you know when they're having dinner that's not to say that I'll never ever you know consider that it's interesting to hear as always say that felt like a risk and I wonder when you reflect on your own careers what's

a moment that felt like a risk I think the things that I think when you look at something where you know you're being pushed out of your comfort zone that scares you um is are those moments that you are taking a risk in a certain way it's we take a risk every time we don't know there's no guarantees there's no formula um I I think at least and I think it's the risk that makes it exciting it's the risk that because you know if you step into something something that you know that you're you're going

to be better on the other side you know as you were talking zo I was just thinking about do you guys any of you feel like that in a way that roles find you as much as you find them Absolut right and that there are things that you gain from it not that you always know but that you get from the other side that there are parallels for sure well everybody has their own comfort zone and so as you say to go out of that comfort zone is always going to feel like a a growing

possibility my grow my comfort zone is to work in very close Collective uh communication with people I've always done that from the very beginning and for me a massive risk would be to go and work with people that I didn't know that would be the biggest risk but I know and this is one of the reasons I've always found it very difficult to name myself an actor cuz I know that in general actors don't work this way actors generally work alone and encounter a loneliness a lot of the time and are going with great my

admiration into these foreign territories with all their talent and all their inspiration kind of within their own arms and they'll go into these foreign lands and bring it to bear I'm incredibly impressed by that but I can't work that way and I don't know that I ever have really gone into a foreign territory I'm coward in that way I think a lot of people would disagree but it's your right um we are coming toward the end and I I wanted to wind down actually told I wanted to share something you had said in an interview

which was interesting it's good it's good you were talking about um your friendship with Pedro and how you had met you said you met at a Hollywood party where you bonded over feeling like Outsiders and you said you were quote both shy and tickled pink and pinching ourselves but not confident enough to step in and talk to say Angelina Jolie she was there she was one it was a South par moment and we had Liza Manelli over here and we had you know Sasha Baron Cohen over there and Angie was there and both Pedro and

I were like scorched with the glamour of it we just couldn't believe that we were present and I was probably cuz I never go out really alone and not sure anybody wanted to talk to me and probably would have I would have been so happy had they said hello this is the truth of human animals we're all shy right and I guess this is why we're here I mean how lovely to see you all connect like this um thank you so much for being here [Music] you e