"Maggie Gyllenhaal"

okay real quick on the social media thing guys yeah every week every week you also want to post it you just hit accept cool we're gonna send it to you not via email anymore right and if you want to post it you just hit accept yeah and then it's just gonna post right there great and then is everybody like that incredible you're cool with that jb yeah that sounds really fun can we get to another smart list now yeah smart it's been a little bit how have you guys been what have you been up to we just saw each other on the weekend at sean's play yeah that's right that was fun sean congrats congrats you're just such a you're such a beauty you're so that's very nice you're such a talent it's really has it been uh what how many performances have you had since we saw you three three more than than when you saw but the um and by the way i have to say this okay go ahead first of all we were the fact that you guys are great the fact that you guys came out uh you flew out just to see the show sure meant the world to me i love you guys you're like you are my family we love you and and i love you too and it just was a huge deal to me that you guys did that so thank you very very much i mean thank you well was it not because you know we were some people in the group had to um evacuate their bowels before the start of the show and so they want to really use the restroom there and so uh well you what upstairs you mean oh yeah oh yeah and so we're sitting there in the little like evacuate their brother just say they wanted to use the restroom like why do they want to make babies um and uh so we're sitting there waiting for the people with the weak bladder and out walks sean to talk to i think the director or something yeah yeah and you you ran right into us and i saw on your face like oh you saw someone before the show kind of like a marriage that's right that's right and so did we screw things up no not at all rather not have people that you know in the audience no no i i love it you knew you knew we were all i knew i knew i knew i was there yeah um but but i i didn't i yeah i would have it was no big deal because i i saw you i wanted to talk to all of you obviously because i hadn't seen you in so long but then i was like oh you know what let's let's just leave the facade up for a second and then i'll talk to them after um now when you look out into the audience which you do a lot because listener it is a one-man show and he is telling the audience a story right can you not see any of our faces i can't see anybody i love it yeah because if i did it'd make me nervous but the lights are so bright you can't see a foot in front of you because you were looking right at me for a lot of the show and i thought oh really make make sure i don't make any funny faces or throw them off because i don't want you you know i gotta say that's classic you that he think you thought he was looking at right no they're just looking right at me he chose me to look at no yeah no i was i couldn't see anybody well like when you jason if you hear a song a new song in the radio do you are you thinking like how do they how do they know that about me they must be singing about me yeah exactly um and how were we as an audience well fantastic great show yeah really good show do we laugh in all the right spots you did and i told you the night before i'm glad you didn't come to opening night because the lights went out oh yeah you've got here sean yeah sean do you have any funny theater stories i mean yeah so the line that it went i don't think i told you the line that it went out on was i because i i play these characters but i also play the narrator so sometimes you just deliver straight lines that narrate and so one of the exposition lines that i narrated was we walked to the hudson river and then i walked down stage and every light went out like you couldn't see your hand in front of your face and i'm like hey give us a couple minutes i just said to the audience and i walked off stage and it was like 10 minutes which is a really long time a breaker they had a breaker that went on or something they fixed it and they go okay let's go back on they go back and of course the audience claps yay they got the fix the guy's back so i go we walked to the hudson river it was a really long walk good for you and and is there so now are you feeling i would feel the crush of the rest of the run in front of me now that like opening night is over and the reviews came in and they were incredible and like can you still as as as the kids say get it up for the rest of the show yeah for sure i think it's easier now i think it's yeah i think all that stuff for you it's tech and previews and rehearsal and press and opening night and then all that stuff it's so much pressure pressure and stress and anxiety and all that now it's just like oh i just have to do the show and come home which is nice and you've got today off and today is off yeah so what do you do today what have you what have you loaded into today that you couldn't do in the previous six i'm hanging with you guys that's it and you're hanging with us and and our special guest oh that was really nice our special guest yeah and you'll like because we can talk about all these things you can talk about theater i bet you she's got some theater stories because she's done quite a bit of theater oh and she's done quite a bit of film and uh and and some award-winning television triple threat she's the daughter of two writer directors uh academy award nominee her mom was nominated for academy award i believe uh her her uh both her parents are writer directors she's born in new york grew up in la her brother is an acclaimed actor she has a new film coming out march 6 is this maggie that has a new movie that has a new movie that has a new movie that has a new movie that has a new movie that has an amazing just called the bride starring jesse buckley it's maggie jillen yes shawnee shawnee got it we have to establish a gift or a prize for whoever gets it i know that's pretty good at it hi how about that hi guys well i gotta say that trailer the bride looks effing fantastic that looks i can't wait to see it cannot wait i can't wait either i mean this talk about a just an absolute star-studded cast it's unbelievable maggie well believable she's an incredible director why wouldn't they want to what you know i don't mean unbelievable in that way i don't mean unbelievable in that way i mean unbelievable how great it is that's what i mean truly yeah amazing actors amazing i know oh my god all right so when when did when did when do we get to see this movie and we're going to talk about the rest of your career but when do we get to see this movie when's it come out march 6th march 6th really soon so it's probably out now the bride yeah so uh all right maggie maggie this is so nice hi guys are you loving directing more than acting i am yeah yeah are you more more than acting tell me why i mean it's it's it's like really you are in charge of everything which then means that you can make space for everyone else to offer what they want express what they want you're not you know like when you're an actor and you're like okay i need to make sure that i just create the space for myself to get out the couple of things that are the most important things to me in case nobody lets me you know that feeling like you know you're trying to figure out like how to just protect your little thing which is the reason why you came to do it when you're the director you don't have to do that first of all and also you don't have to make other people do that you can just make it okay for them to feel free yeah i mean obviously as i pointed out that you you come you come by it quite honestly both your parents are directors and writers and so did you but then you you've had such an acclaimed uh acting career before you directed your first piece and did but did you know in the back of your mind because it was just so there that that was your ultimate destination like was acting a way of sort of getting there or i mean i first of all i was like i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know first of all my yes my dad was a director growing up my mom was a writer she did direct a film but it wasn't until i think she was 70 you know it was like a total wild departure that's cool for her i think she might be the one of the only people to direct their first film as a grandmother that's cool i told i told your i told your brother when he was on that um i had dinner with your mom once years and years and years ago and i was talking to her about writing and she was like and it's the first time i ever heard anybody say the hardest part is starting yeah about writing and i was like oh that blew my mind because i was like i tried to i was like i couldn't do it but it's like exercising like get just get your clothes on if you have your exercise clothes on and you don't exercise then you really fucked up you know all right sean so exercising is this thing that yeah so what do you break the sweat this is not for tracy this is for sean um but you were asking me if i always wanted to be a director i don't think so i think i be honest i don't even i didn't even allow myself to fantasize or imagine that it was a possibility really a long time i mean there weren't any other women doing it i mean there were but i wasn't cool enough to know about like agnes varda when i was in high school you know i mean i really the people who were really doing great stuff on film were actresses at least from my perspective and i had i looked up to so many people who were you know totally expressing themselves and being incredible but i didn't see a lot of directors and then um I played a director on TV. I mean, I played a porn director on The Deuce. Yes, right. But I think that was actually sort of part of just imagining, fantasizing. It, like, allowed me to imagine it. So what was the first, I'm trying to think, the first thing that you directed? The Lost Daughter. It was The Lost Daughter. Yeah. Yeah, which was super well received. And so then, but that was, that was only, what, that was like five years ago, maybe, The Lost Daughter, right? Four years ago. Four or five years ago. Four or five years ago, yeah. So, but was there any time before, was that really the first time that you allowed yourself to kind of contemplate doing it? You must have. I spent, I mean, you guys must know what I mean. Like, I sort of just was talking about this, like, that feeling of like, you know, it's almost like when you're a kid and you're like, if I had this job, I would never speak. Yeah. To someone like this. Or I would never make them twist themselves into a pretzel to get this tiny thing, like, cut this line or whatever. Right, right. And so I guess I imagined it in that level. Or even with writing, like, I would cut chunks of dialogue or just kind of sneakily move a line. But no, I think, I think really I just kind of went, all right, I'm going to try this. I'm going to, I did it, I wrote Lost Daughter also. And, and, and each step I thought, okay, I'm. I'm just going to take this step and we'll see how it feels. And then once I started doing it, I think I immediately just went, this is a way better job for me. Yeah, yeah. And what was that when, when, when you direct your first directing gig, what was the thing that you were overwhelmed with or scared about the most? Like. Before, before I did it? Yeah, like as you were, as you were prepping the film, like what was the first, what was the most thing you were scared about? It's funny. I was so much scarier about making The Bride. Than I ever was about making The Lost Daughter. I was scared. I was, but I think in some ways I didn't even know what I was walking into. I mean, that said, I'd been on so many sets. I, I think about directors who are really first time directors who don't know how to read a call sheet, you know, who don't know what the rhythm of a day feels like, who, um, that must be really, really scary. Yeah. Yeah. So when you're doing The Bride, like you, you kind of, now, you know, so you've had the experience, right? So then you have that anticipation of like, shit. Now. I know where some of the pitfalls are. How's that going to go? How's that emergency going to go? But even more than that, I think with The Bride, I actually was terrified before I started. I was like, I wrote the script. It came out very, not easily, obviously writing is so hard, but there wasn't ease to it. And then I was scared. I was really scared. The Bride, The Bride was number two, the second film. Yeah. Yeah. And it, it's a significant jump forward as far as. Yeah. Yeah. uh, budget and scope and, uh, just basic responsibility, uh, a big piece of, of, of, of Hollywood business too, and big, huge stars. And yeah, that must've been, um, yeah, sobering to say the least. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's interesting on set, even though it was, as you say, like the scope was just much bigger. It felt very similar to The Lost Daughter in terms of just working workflow, how we did it. Um, I, and I, and I didn't know that it would. And I think that's part of why I was scared. Um, but once we got working, it was the same. Um, and, and yet actually maybe even easier in some ways because the heads of every department were incredible. Yeah. You know, I mean, in Greece, longer schedule too, right? We had a longer schedule. I mean, like maybe even twice as long. I shot, um, not quite twice as long, but I shot The Lost Daughter in 26 days. Wow. That was really quick. Wow. That's fast. But there was so much story and there was so much to do. It wasn't like we were hanging out eating sushi. We were really working on the bride. We were like, you know, down to the minute every day. And, um, but I do think also like the, the bigger scope and the excellent, excellent crew, I mean, it had a great crew in Greece on The Lost Daughter, but, but they don't have a props master, for instance. They don't have someone who takes care of props. So I had a very important doll in that movie. I don't know if you guys saw it. Um, and we had one doll and it was like, you know, I mean, it's just, you know, it's sort of wrapping it together, like as best we can. And, um, and we were not doing that on the bride. We had, we had great people. How, as, as, as an, as an actor, as a great actor yourself, um, uh, how, I'm assuming that your knowledge, uh, uh, of being an actor, uh, affects the way in which you direct actors. Um, and are you, do you find yourself directing every actor as if that actor is you or, or are you intuitive and you figure out a different way to direct different actors based on what you assume their needs are? You know, that's, that's such an interesting question, actually. Thank you. Um, when I, when I started The Lost Daughter, I started with, I don't know, eight days with Jesse Buckley. Pretty much Jesse is the, the, the, the, the center of pretty much every scene. And I spoke to Jesse the way I would speak to myself, like the way I sort of wished someone would speak to me, you know? And with Jesse, it just went in like water. And then I tried to talk to Olivia Colman that way. And she was like, what the fuck are you talking about? You know, she was like, what? And, and I really quickly, like on the job had to realize, oh, right. No, of course. Like, I can't talk to my husband the way I talked to Jesse either. He's also like, fuck off. What? You know? So that, that was such a pleasure to me, actually. That was actually, I would say one of my absolute favorite things about The Lost Daughter was learning, oh, oh, what language is it with this person? Like, and then bringing it back to the to the bride. I mean, like how, what, how does Penelope Cruz want to be talked to versus Annette Bening? Like Annette, I realized I would get so excited by what she was doing. I would come to her with like three notes on top of each other and she just would not have it. She wanted one at a time. And like, and made that very clear to me. Whereas like, you know, Jesse just wants to sort of take it all in and whatever sticks, sticks. And, and yeah, Peter just like, well. But that's a, that's a process that you, you learn as you go, right? Like it's, it's something like you have to, like that first day, that first week you're, it's the personalities and you're trying to figure out what that rhythm was. Like Jay, what you were kind of saying, like how you have to, it's not that you're tailoring it, but it's, you have to have a certain amount of EQ if you, to be a really good director. I think the really good ones have that understanding as you pointed out to go, oh, this person, you have to kind of read the room, right? And I think you do tailor it to each person. Like, and that interaction is one of my favorite things. And sometimes there's friction too, like not, not, but it's only natural that there will be moments. We've all had them where somebody gives you a note or something, you go like, hey, you know, and, and you're just trying to, and then, and sometimes it's necessary. Or sometimes you need friction in order to do whatever it is you need to do. And the director just has to just deal with that. Like, I, I remember, um, I won't say who, just so that I, cause I love him, but there was an actor who, um, who yelled at me on The Lost Daughter and none of us had been yelling at each other. Like we were just, it was all, we were all in love. And, um, I was sort of stunned for a second. And then I was like, oh no, no, I've been him. I know. I get it. Okay. He just needs to like crack something a little bit. Just take it, just take the smack and just keep going. That's your job. Like a little taste of your own medicine. Just keep going. And it's kind of just in character. And like, and just trying to like break something, like just make something alive happen. You know, that's interesting you say that because it, and it is, it, when you're in such an extreme sort of creative environment and sometimes, as you say, sometimes that needs to happen. And I think that there are plenty of examples of people who are especially historically poorly behaved, who, who are really terrible to people and stuff, but there are, there also is an area where there, there has to be that sort of friction where people do, and people will say like, oh, that's just Hollywood and how people are badly behaved. Like, no, this is like a really intense, uh, creative environment that also you're dealing with where, where the currency is emotion and people and human beings. And there's going to be that. And sometimes that exists, right? Yeah. Yeah. I think acting, having done it, um, listen, I think directing is a harder job. No question. I think there's something about acting that is so, so precious, like beyond what anyone's doing. So vulnerable, so special. You know, I really do. I just think like, you know. You're putting yourself out there to be judged over and over and over again. Well, I was listening to them talking about your play, a one man play, man. I, that's hardcore. Yeah. Yeah. So that's exhausting. I was listening the whole time. Yeah, exactly. I tried not to blank, Shawnee. I'm so sorry. And we will be right back. and now back to the show so when you talk about like yeah part of part of the part of the actor's sort of uh high wire act and vulnerability is uh is is showing kind of what your version of this character is and oftentimes this is for tracy out there oftentimes an actor will get a part uh through an audition process and through that audition process you basically show the director well here's my version of the character and if you want this version go ahead and hire me and then when i show up on the set you'll you'll you'll know exactly what's coming uh when you're dealing with big stars like the kind maggie has in this film uh they're not auditioning so the first time maggie's getting to see their version of these characters is kind of through the through the rehearsal process which is kind of like a week or two out and just kind of around a table reading um but really mostly it's on set and it's kind of too late to make changes so my question maggie is especially since you've written this thing you've written this thing you've written this thing you've written this thing too how do you rate your ability to be flexible to be nimble to the the inevitably different version of this of these characters than you've always imagined in your head and how do you not assess like sort of a false negative on that performance just simply because it's different than what you've imagined because the audience hasn't hasn't read the script they don't have any preconceived notions so they're going to take what they get and the actor is kind of a part of it and they're going to take what they get and they're going to take what they get and they're going to take what they get and they're going to take what they get and they're going to approaching their performance with that assumption and they just hope the director slash writer will give the same level of of freedom and and acceptance to that version of the character did you do you find yourself comfortable with that because that's hard by the way that's a really good question the first 30 seconds of that was a good question the last four minutes yeah the last four minutes were we'll trim it i was actually i was actually riveted by everything i was too actually i was like yeah jason that is i was like i hate to admit it's a great question i was like i was like i was like yes that i always wanted to know that yeah well this is like one of the reasons why i became a director although we can talk about some of the other ones but i i i think i've so often been the person who came to set with a just a different take on something not just to be contrarian or be different but because it's me that's making it and i'm different than what the director imagined when they were alone in their room and i've so many times thought don't you want my money mind too like don't you want like my heart i don't want to be just a puppet like yeah isn't it going to be a better movie if like all of us actors and the dp and the designer you know all put ourselves into it and then yes as the director i mean i would say this i would say yes i feel very strongly that i'm trying not to push actors into doing something that i imagined when i was all by myself and i don't do that because it's just not my taste it's just not what i like from them you know which means that they surprise me all the time that said i think it's my job if we're trying to walk a tightrope across the two hours of this movie it's my job to both allow them sometimes okay look we did we did a take where the whole second half of that you were falling off the tightrope i mean i'm not going to say that to them but i'm not going to use it you know and yet like what it did was it got us to the next take where there was a laser beam focus or whatever you know i mean i think it's my job to then assess it and take care of it and really protect the things that are really special and beautiful i mean i think you can watch a movie you can and we we let me say this i think there's lots of really good actors and i think there's a handful of really brilliant ones and like you guys said a lot of them are in my movie and uh and so how do you make space for those really brilliant actors to not act like they're learning something or changing on film but actually learn something or make a change on film that's the most exciting thing for me to watch i think that that's a really great point that you bring up to this idea of like of of sort of walking that tightrope and maybe there's part of a take where they they don't and and you don't bring it up but it allows you to get to that other place and i i think that in that process if you don't bring it up you don't bring it up and you don't bring it up you can allow certainly for me i know if if you can feel safe enough that there are no wrong answers and that it's okay to do that then that's where you can really find that growth you can really find that other gear by allowing us because if you're worried that you're getting it you're gonna get it wrong or you're not doing it right you're fucked because in the other gear there aren't any wrong answers like when you get into that other gear it's all good yes what about how dumb dumb question how did you think of doing this movie the bride where did the idea come from why did you want to do it and isn't it kind of cool that frankenstein just came out and then on the bride i mean it's so cool that's right that was a dumb dumb question you're so right i just think that's so cool that that that's all happening at the same time yeah were you you must have been aware of that other movie guillermo's movie yeah and i i well uh i'll answer the first part of the question first which is i i was at a party i was thinking about what i wanted to do you know i was kind of knocking things around in my mind just sort of more just thinking about what what what was on the edges of my mind it's kind of hard to explain i guess but um even with acting i don't know if you guys relate to this at all but like the things that appeal to me are usually the things that are like right on the edge of what i've been thinking about and then the making of the movie can be a way of kind of getting into some dangerous territory about what you don't know you know so i was thinking about i don't know what i want to do next and i saw this guy with a tattoo of the bride of frankenstein on his entire forearm you know the elsa lanchester um electricity um hair yeah and i was like oh yeah wait what is that bride of frankenstein but who is she you know and i went back to my hotel i was in la at the time and i looked her up online and i was like yeah she's so like badass yeah so badass exactly then i watched the movie which i had never seen and she's in it for two minutes and she doesn't speak at all and um i started to think about this idea of the bride of frankenstein and you know well then i went and read the book which i had also never read and frankenstein is a book that's a book that's a book that's a book that's a book is so lovely in the book i mean he does murder people and you know there is an aspect of exactly that where you read it and you're like wait i also feel lots of rage and violence sometimes i don't murder people but he's um he's so human like he's so vulnerable he's so lonely in the book he's also super smart he literally hangs out in a barn next to some people speaking french and learns french in a couple days or like finds a suitcase of philosophy and like you know reads it and then is into philosophy he's really great guy um but he's so lonely so i thought okay fine a really lonely like unbearably lonely wonderful guy is trying to get another monster because no one else will be with him to be with wants someone to dig someone up from a grave and make someone like him in a way it's fair enough but what about her you know what about the person who was dead and didn't ask to be brought back to life and yeah maybe she didn't want to marry you you know she doesn't get a lot of say in the matter and i thought that puzzle which is not addressed in the movie although elsa lanchester definitely wakes up and says fuck no i mean she doesn't say that but without saying anything that's definitely what she communicates i thought that's a great puzzle like a dramatic puzzle to start from and how does that and then what if it's also an epic love story what if despite those very difficult beginnings they can't resist each other yeah really cool do you ever do you ever um you were saying that you like to sort of write about things that um i don't know what you said you sort of said not that scare you but things that interest you or things that might sort of push on the edge on the edge yeah are there are there ideas that you've had i'm curious that you've thought about writing but you're like nervous about writing about for certain reasons are there things you go like i don't know if i want to touch that i don't mean politically or anything but just because emotionally or something that you and you don't have to answer it if if it's too personal no i i do write about those things like that's the lost daughter and that's this like i sort of do like my my daughter my 19 year old was joking with me because i was saying that this one was sort of dedicated in a way to my younger daughter and that the first one was dedicated to her and she was like oh really i get to have the one where i'm like like like you know the mom like is having such a hard time being a mother and she gets to have the bride but i think that i i think that the way i get excited and wanna sit down and write and work is when I think it's a little too late. dangerous yeah the stuff that really that that really lives in your deepest parts yeah the scary stuff you got it you got to attack the scary stuff can fill the most pages with the stuff that that is a part of your deepest parts right and i remember actually in the lost daughter writing on an airplane because i used to write on airplanes locks my kids were little and so i would think and think and think and then i was i don't know what i was doing press for something and i would just write everything i'd been thinking about and i was writing one scene and i like looked over my shoulder because i thought oh this is dangerous and it was just a little thing where this woman was saying i hate talking to my kids on the phone i i both love talking to my kids on the phone but they were when they were little sometimes it was really hard you just don't hit the ball back to say that out loud or even write it out loud on an airplane that was dangerous so you're 19 you're a lot of pushback baggy so you're you're 19 year old does she have any interest in in what you do or she owes her a completely different path i i don't think that she at least at the moment she doesn't seem like she wants to be a filmmaker although she makes the greatest like iphone little videos that she edits on the phone yeah um they're so funny um but she's been such a great sounding board for me artistically on the movie like she's seen the movie so many times um she's been she's such a great mind that's great so wait so new york you're in new york right now yeah and new york or la and and i forgive me you're you're the rest of the family's in la right my brother's here and my mom is here actually but my dad is in la oh i thought your mom was in la too she used to be she used to be okay and and you much prefer new york yeah obviously you live there yeah i do i do i was just in la though and it was so nice in february like eating avocados and you know feeling the sun yeah yeah man i was like i get it why they all do this it is it is a whole i mean i've such a lust to live in new york but you know as i'm getting older and and crankier and more noise sensitive and and and everything else i i do find my little alarm going off after like i was just there for four days seeing shawnee and and it was like yeah just a little extra space in la allows for uh you know cranky sensitivities to be taken care of a little bit more i mean my goodness it was so compact there um but if you had your your home here right you know what i mean it would be different because you could even i live in brooklyn so it's a little more outside of the craziness but i was i think that's sometimes even about people who live in manhattan i go into manhattan and i'm like oh my god i need to get out of here yeah um but i think oh but if my apartment were in manhattan i could at least just get out of here you know your spots and your yeah how you could sidestep and and yeah it's so funny i feel and and i've been going and i'm sort of in the process of sort of halfway moving back to new york now and and so i'm there a lot and i find myself this is so weird i sleep better when i'm in new york i feel more at home there than i do here even though i've lived here full-time for just over 10 years basically i don't know there's something that's interesting willie yeah my my my um my blood pressure settles on everything i just feel more relaxed what is that about what because because the business is in la maybe no i mean i don't think business is everywhere it's not really anywhere anymore yeah that's true but i just that's true i feel like that's my i don't know my place and it's uh yeah i just feel better and so many of our friends are moving back to new york now too which is maggie where do you what do you do outside of work that you're like with you and the kids do you go to as will says the long island do you travel out there or wait is 19 is 19 year old still around uh is is she going to school in college she's in college not in new york not in new york no she isn't she's um uh so i just have my 13 year old here now um we have a house in vermont uh perfect way deep deep inside the grandfathered into the um national forest but i will be honest with you and say that is really because of my husband um who i the great peter sarsgaard yeah for tracy yeah um i um i love vermont but that's really peter's place and i'm kind of always wanting to you know i'll go for a bit but it's it's pretty hardcore it's it's isolating it's very really in the middle of nowhere we were stacking wood the other day and peter made me laugh he was like do you think this is what our friends imagine we do when we come here hey yeah yeah wait wait so you're out there are you chopping the wood and stacking it i wasn't chopping it but he chops it stacking it but he like raises bees and chickens and taps maple trees and has a beautiful garden and and i would love to pay people to do that for him i mean the raising bees part i would have to pay someone now what do you say is peter putting on the hood and everything with the bees yeah although peter peter sometimes is like i don't need the hood i don't even need the gloves i i listen to uh um i read this book and he did you know and listen to this thing and watch these videos uh about how to like be zen and do it so the bees that come to you and then he gets like 10 stings on his arms you know wow it's hot though it is such a good actor and now you're telling me he's got this move too yeah but i'll tell you this just so you don't feel bad all of his bees in brooklyn died and it was because he made it he made a mistake he made a beekeeping mistake and um and he was so upset about it and i was like peter you were in switzerland acting and then you went did another movie in london right away you were home for one week and your bees died like some people's only job is doing bees you know like give yourself a break you know so he was he was upset that he was were you did you shirk your response to that Disabilities in babysitting the bees? Yeah, I think I maybe did. I think you might, you've got to be able to shoulder some of that, right? Don't put this on her. You know she had something on a piece of paper. Don't forget to water the bees. Just water the bees for me. I picture you guys driving. Oh, he's not wrong. A little sticky. I picture you guys driving away just going, oh shit, the bees. Let's just bring them. Put them in the trunk. Just bring them. Like Home Alone, Kevin in Home Alone. So wait. I think I would go out of my mind if I lived in the middle of Vermont like that. Not that it's not beautiful and I appreciate it and I would like to go for a little bit. Yeah, because you're a city mouse. Yeah, I can't be alone with my thoughts too long. Oh boy. Uh-oh, hang on, why? You need to write something about them. We got to do a celebrity version. And just see how, I mean, do you think you could make it a week on your own? Period, no. You don't have to finish the sentence. So, well. Yes. If I knew it was a week, I could do it for a week. I think, but it would be hard. No shelter, no food. Oh, shit. I mean, you just have 10 items, right? For a week. I've only seen the last episode of Alone, which I watched last. So good. Two days ago. Two days ago. Yeah. With Peter and my daughter, who were so into it. Peter could win. Peter would win. It sounds like Peter could win. He'd start chopping wood day one. He'd start cultivating bees. He'd be eating honey. But he wouldn't kill a moose. He probably wouldn't kill a moose. He might not kill a moose, but I watched those videos. This is what I'm, I watched so many of the videos of the guys who, time lapse of building shelters out of nothing. Oh, I get those too. I get those too. I love. It's on your algorithm? Yes. It's on my algorithm. Send me one so you can infect my algorithm. It's on my stream. Do you also get like Eastern European grandmas making like huge vats of like stew? I just did. I just started getting these videos of these Roma people in Eastern European Romania and having these parties. And these guys are like arguing and then these women are making this insane food and they keep slapping each other's hands and then they have these huge feet. It's wild. There's also people in China dyeing fabric. If you want to get on my algorithm. I've seen those too. Yes. I'm fascinated by that. I'm still getting the guys in fist fights on golf courses. I need to flush my stream. No, I get a lot of. I'm Karen videos. I get just nonstop Karen videos. I get tons of Karen videos and cop videos where they argue with the cops. Oh yeah, about their rights, First Amendment right guys? Yeah. I'm just filming for who? I'm just exercising my right to film. Yeah, you're obviously asking for trouble. I'd love to see a mashup of Steve Sands arguing for his rights on the sidewalk. Sorry, Chase. Wait, go back. Go back to a live for a second because I remember this one episode where a guy cut open a salmon or some fish and he's like, I'll just eat that fish eggs like caviar. Yeah, whatever. And he took a whole hand. Do you remember the episode I'm talking about? Took a whole hand, and he washed them and everything. And he got so viral, so sick. I'm like, yeah, you can't just open a fish and eat their eggs. Jason does that before. Jason, three days before the award show, eats that. Yeah, I've got to drop the water weight somehow. Just a random fish. There was this one where the guy opened up a fish, and there was a little tiny fish inside of it that had been digested. And he was like, bonus, you know? Look at that. No way. I've got to go deep with alone. I've only seen one. We'll be right back. And back to the show. So if you're not in Vermont, if you're in the city, and you're not working, and you're not in post, and you're not acting, but what are you doing? What's the thing that you're doing that is your, like, not even guilty pleasure, your pleasure? How do you dumb it down? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so funny, though. I've been in post or shooting or prep for so long. Like, what have I been doing? I know you've got to do something. But even now, even now when you're in post and prep, where you have five minutes or ten minutes to do something that's for you that you like to do that's like a little mini break, what is it? Even Wordle counts. Oh, I love those. I love when they tell me I'm a genius, even if I cheat. You know, like you go look at the – Right. How smart are you? Or like the news quiz. I don't have that one. What's that one? How up-to-date are you with this week's news? You take one of those little quids? They have the history one on the New York Times, too, where you can – it gives you a bunch of events, and you have to place them on the timeline of when they occurred. Oh, that's cool. I want to do that. It's cool. What's a week? That's good on that. It's really good. I want to do that. It's really good. Maggie, do you do all the New York Times games, like the connections? Yes, when I was cutting, when I was cutting, I would basically be sitting behind my editor. For Tracy, you mean cutting the film. Cutting the film, yeah. Thank you. Editing the film. Sitting behind my – What an incredible editor you had. My incredible editor, Dylan Titchener, yeah. Cut Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood and Zero Dark Thirty. Amazing. And you had Larry Scher as a DP. I mean, god damn it. I love the way you said that, by the way, just as you were talking about all the filmmakers on the film, which is the props and the DP, and I don't think that people understand, and maybe for Tracy, too, that making a film, everybody on – everybody who has these great jobs, you see the actors, but there are all these filmmakers there who are part of the process, who all have such important jobs, who are so valuable to the filmmaking process. Well, and I just want to say, actually, because we were talking about the acting, and obviously I've been an actor, but what I haven't been is a cinematographer, and, you know, I learned a lot about aspect ratio and lensing on The Lost Daughter, but the truth is, and now I'm understanding, who Tracy is, you know, on a little movie, you have no money, and so you can't afford even to rent a lot of different lenses. So on The Lost Daughter, we maybe had five lenses, maybe. And so with those five lenses, I learned a lot. Then I go, as Jason Zee was saying, to this totally different scope, and I have cranes, techno cranes, shooting for IMAX, which is a very particular thing, which is not just a movie that will play in IMAX, but a movie that's designed to change aspect ratio, like to grow vertically for an IMAX audience. I didn't even know really what IMAX was when I started. And Larry Scher, who's my cinematographer, I felt like I came in to this movie with a really clear, you know, idea of what I wanted to say, and in a lot of ways also how I wanted to say it, even visually. I don't know. I felt like I took a master class with him, and I do feel like I finished the movie speaking a language that I didn't speak when I started the movie, which is maybe part of what was terrifying. Like if you have to learn, if you know, like I was saying about actually even watching good acting, like you'd rather watch someone learn something for real on screen instead of fake like they're learning it, even if they fake it very well. I was actually learning as I was working, which was incredible, like so exhilarating, but also. And did you guys jump on his shot deck? It's such an incredible asset for folks. You know, to like, he's cultivated all of these images from all these films that you, a quick reference point for you, as you guys were devising the look of the film, did you guys spend some time on shot deck? Well, like if we, say we're saying, okay, there's big, you know, the movie has almost like a Bonnie and Clyde aspect, a lover's on the run, you know? And so there's a lot of stuff in a car. And we were talking about different ways of shooting in the car. And we were, for example, say, talking about Thelma and Louise, Ridley Scott, lots of long lenses, totally different way of shooting than we were shooting because they were actually in that location shooting, you know, probably with an array of cameras, both far away on really long lenses and then close around the car, different than the way we did it. But I loved the aesthetic of that movie. I found I really loved, I really love long lensing. My editor was joking with me that I should be a bird watcher. And then what about designing just the overall world of it too with your production designer, Karen Murphy? What an incredible talent she is too. Like, was it, how did you, did you, did you, did you start at a, because world building, like, it's like filling a blank page as a writer, I would imagine. It can, it can be anything. And how did you, where did you start? What sort of aesthetic did you start in? Was it, was there like a book or photography or something? Or did she bring ideas or? The movie is set in 1936, which was somewhat random. Like I originally set it when I was writing just post-Civil War because so many people had died. This is a movie about people coming back from the dead. So I was kind of thinking like about like when were the times when the, you know, the veil between the living and the dead felt the thinnest. So I was thinking about a post-Civil War. So many people died. So many children died in childbirth. And there was this job then I had been learning about for something else of a spiritualist, which is, was almost always a woman. And it was like as ubiquitous as a therapist was someone who spoke to the dead for you. And I, so I started out setting it then because I thought that was kind of an interesting time to just, to be dealing with people brought back from the dead. And then I realized that Frankenstein, my Frank, I don't call him Frankenstein's monster because he would never call himself that, you know. So, so Frank was so lonely that maybe his only, like his primary relationship was with a movie star who didn't know about him, of course, but that he could go sit in a theater and watch this movie star. And also in a dark movie theater, his, his ugly face, you know, his scarred up face wouldn't be so, you know, scary to people. So then I thought, okay, I have to set it in a time when there are movies and it shifted to 1936. Also because the movies then are so much about fantasy. And my movie is actually a lot about kind of breaking down the fantasy. And what does a real love affair look like? And what does a real man look like? Woman look, you know, what is the reality versus the fantasy? Um, but. But still 1936, which I think is beautiful, but it was never really 1936. It was always 1936, sort of by way of 1981, downtown New York, really by way of like right now. So if that's the directive for Karen, you know, that's a tough one. It's, it's something that you haven't seen before. That's cool though. I love that idea. It's sort of blends, it blends today's aesthetic with 81's. It's kind of, I mean, it is technically 1936, but it's a different world as you say, world building, which is actually something I'm really interested in that term, which I had actually never heard before, uh, before I went to work on this movie, which, uh, at least in my mind really refers to VFX visual. And something, something usually completely non-existent, right? Like superhero. Like Lord of the Rings or whatever. This isn't, you're saying it's, there's, there's some, there's definite. There's definite, tangible, relatable, recognizable elements. Yes, but I mean, here's something I've been thinking a lot about. So few women have gotten a chance to get our hands on some of these tools, like shooting for IMAX with a changing aspect ratio, like world building. I mean, there are some, there are, but just not very many. And I somehow feel like the way that it's been. Done before is in a language that doesn't totally resonate with me. So, you know, world building could mean, uh, we're shooting underneath like that. What would it be? The West side highway up in New York, like has like an overpass. If you're up on 125th street with beautiful, beautiful, like arches, we shot there. But if you look to the right in reality, there's like a big ad for whatever, something from now. the rest of the highway and all this modern stuff. can create whatever you want in the rest of that frame right um and and it was interesting because when we first started working on that frame it was like it was like a celebration of vfx it was like we would sort of pan over to show the whole world and look what we did with our vfx and that's just not i don't like that right right i'm like i'm like i just want to be in the movie i want to be in the world i don't need to show you how expensive the vfx were how you know right i want to i have a different i'm really interested in world building i'm really interested in that idea i really think probably the next thing i do will incorporate that some kind of imaginary world that's great i love that but with all the things i've learned from this one sure isn't it kind of i would say this earlier isn't it kind of like designing a house like you got like the architect and the interior designer and the project manager and the contractor that's all i wanted to say next question no Um or a party or a party we used to think of it as a party like a great dinner party you know where where someone else is doing the flowers and the you know and i just invite people and maybe seat them and that kind of thing yeah everybody's got a placard oh sorry sean did you want to take a snack break i'm sorry i got i got yeah i got an apple slice i mean just sort of drop in as kind of a non-secretor and then just pop an apple in your mouth what are you doing what the fuck do you think is going on here man i didn't think we're taking up maggie's time we're taking up five more minutes you can go get your snack on yeah i didn't have anything else to follow up with so i thought it was safe to take i like that idea though maggie you said about like that it's never spoken to you before and nobody's ever done it this way and i do like that idea of like there's there's got to be sort of more to it than than just flexing a sort of a a muscle which does seem to probably be because it's been dominated by men and maybe i'm wrong about that but there's something cool about that like just bringing a new perspective to it that it's that it can be much deeper than that somehow do you know what i mean well like if you have again i'm being i'm just being simplistic about it but maybe i don't mean to be overly simplistic about it either i just i do think if you have a different experience in the world you're gonna make different movies you know and um obviously gender isn't um or race is a different thing but i think it's a different thing if you have a different race or ethnicity i mean those those aren't the only things that change your experience but they are one thing and um i guess i well well when when i actually started using imax and changing aspect ratios and doing it i so i learned about it i also my editor that we were just praising who's just incredible it was dylan titchener and larry share both were kind of in each ear really teaching me so much about those tools but when i imagined it what came out was different than how imax has been used before and i i think that's cool i think that's like like you know that i feel proud of that you know let me ask you this did did the film turn out the way you had imagined and hoped that it would because there's so many people that that contribute it inevitably is going and as you said you provide this environment of yes please contribute bring your uniqueness so did it end up and uh and jb but also she has a front row seat to watching it evolve and change right right and the unapologetic position of controlling the way that it comes out to the extent that you can and like how much did you let yourself allow it to be the film it was kind of becoming and like so like what's the i guess the question is sorry for the long one again but like what's the percentage that it maintained to be the film it was kind of becoming and like so like what's the i guess the question is sorry for the long one again but like what's the percentage that it maintained uh the version that you thought and hoped that it would be percentage in math is maybe like not my my language but i i let me think let me think i i i the movie has a very specific tone like a very i could always hear the very unusual tone of the movie in my head i could feel when um we fell off the tightrope for example always i could um we fell off the tightrope for example always i could um so that has remained so that has remained so that has remained i think really when we were shooting i think really when we were shooting i think really when we were shooting i was collecting all these beautiful things i was collecting all these beautiful things i was collecting all these beautiful things i definitely had in some ways the movie in my i definitely had in some ways the movie in my i definitely had in some ways the movie in my head um yeah and i i i was sort of building head um yeah and i i i was sort of building head um yeah and i i i was sort of building something as we were shooting but the something as we were shooting but the something as we were shooting but the cutting i would say um is where it cutting i would say um is where it cutting i would say um is where it really changed right um and i think in really changed right um and i think in really changed right um and i think in some ways i some ways i some ways i it was really about letting things fall it was really about letting things fall it was really about letting things fall away letting the movie be what i had away letting the movie be what i had away letting the movie be what i had always wanted it to be which was kind of always wanted it to be which was kind of always wanted it to be which was kind of like a roller coaster ride like strap in like a roller coaster ride like strap in like a roller coaster ride like strap in and you can't get off until it's over and you can't get off until it's over and you can't get off until it's over right there's not um right there's not um right there's not um i wanted it to be like a laser beam like i wanted it to be like a laser beam like i wanted it to be like a laser beam like um um um like fast and and hot right and like fast and and hot right and like fast and and hot right and um just realizing oh this is weighing me um just realizing oh this is weighing me um just realizing oh this is weighing me down or down or down or i love this and what this brings out but i love this and what this brings out but i love this and what this brings out but i gotta let it go and even my really i gotta let it go and even my really i gotta let it go and even my really wise wise wise you know collaborators like dylan you know collaborators like dylan you know collaborators like dylan um letting me take the time i needed um letting me take the time i needed um letting me take the time i needed to know to know to know i like i would say don't with i like i would say don't with i like i would say don't with that scene that scene that scene no i don't want to hear it i love that no i don't want to hear it i love that no i don't want to hear it i love that scene scene scene don't with it and then don't with it and then don't with it and then eventually all right letting it go eventually all right letting it go eventually all right letting it go because it wasn't probably for a bunch because it wasn't probably for a bunch because it wasn't probably for a bunch of different reasons with different of different reasons with different of different reasons with different different things you had to let go of different things you had to let go of different things you had to let go of but but but because ultimately it either was not as because ultimately it either was not as because ultimately it either was not as good as the rest good as the rest good as the rest of the stuff that you had or that it was of the stuff that you had or that it was of the stuff that you had or that it was sort of sort of sort of not serving the laser beam yeah no i not serving the laser beam yeah no i not serving the laser beam yeah no i think i pretty much just took out in think i pretty much just took out in think i pretty much just took out in both my movies when i cut them both my movies when i cut them both my movies when i cut them let's just take out everything that let's just take out everything that isn't really great like i just isn't really great like i just isn't really great like i just we you know and and most of the time we you know and and most of the time we you know and and most of the time i didn't stop shooting until we had i didn't stop shooting until we had i didn't stop shooting until we had something that was something that was something that was that was great i think um but let's that was great i think um but let's that was great i think um but let's just get rid of that stuff just get rid of that stuff just get rid of that stuff then the hard thing obviously is like then the hard thing obviously is like then the hard thing obviously is like getting rid of something that getting rid of something that getting rid of something that or like for instance the scene that i'm or like for instance the scene that i'm imagining which is no longer in the imagining which is no longer in the imagining which is no longer in the movie so movie so movie so it's hard to talk about it but i i felt it's hard to talk about it but i i felt it's hard to talk about it but i i felt it just deepened everything it just took it just deepened everything it just took it just deepened everything it just took things down to a com like another level things down to a com like another level things down to a com like another level and you know dylan's argument and and you know dylan's argument and and you know dylan's argument and actually actually actually dylan was not alone and um i remember dylan was not alone and um i remember dylan was not alone and um i remember hearing this great hearing this great hearing this great note from someone about uh about getting note from someone about uh about getting note from someone about uh about getting notes on a screenplay where she said if notes on a screenplay where she said if notes on a screenplay where she said if five people tell you you seem drunk five people tell you you seem drunk five people tell you you seem drunk maybe you should lie down you know when maybe you should lie down you know when maybe you should lie down you know when you just keep getting the same note over you just keep getting the same note over you just keep getting the same note over and over again you have to go like okay and over again you have to go like okay and over again you have to go like okay okay um but in fact dylan's argument was okay um but in fact dylan's argument was okay um but in fact dylan's argument was it's it's it's too complicated now it's it's it's it's it's made it made it made it too heavy like let it lift off and too heavy like let it lift off and too heavy like let it lift off and and um and um and um and so maybe that's for another movie and so maybe that's for another movie and so maybe that's for another movie yeah save it i love it this yeah save it i love it this yeah save it i love it this i've we've got a couple years on you but i've we've got a couple years on you but i've we've got a couple years on you but i but i do love at this age i but i do love at this age i but i do love at this age there's nothing better than constantly there's nothing better than constantly there's nothing better than constantly you're like i find more and more like you're like i find more and more like you're like i find more and more like that i'm learning stuff and i'm really that i'm learning stuff and i'm really that i'm learning stuff and i'm really enjoying learning stuff and also enjoying learning stuff and also enjoying learning stuff and also really really really sort of uh uh coming to peace with how sort of uh uh coming to peace with how sort of uh uh coming to peace with how little i do know or how little little i do know or how little little i do know or how little what i thought i knew yeah right and i what i thought i knew yeah right and i what i thought i knew yeah right and i find it so much more exciting now to go find it so much more exciting now to go find it so much more exciting now to go like yeah for sure well yeah you get like yeah for sure well yeah you get like yeah for sure well yeah you get smart enough to realize how smart enough to realize how smart enough to realize how we could get like a we could get a we could get like a we could get a we could get like a we could get a cupcake whatever you want to get yeah cupcake whatever you want to get yeah cupcake whatever you want to get yeah i want to go see weathering heights oh i want to go see weathering heights oh i want to go see weathering heights oh yeah yeah yeah i might go try to do that oh yeah i i might go try to do that oh yeah i i might go try to do that oh yeah i can't wait can't wait can't wait yeah i can't wait to see your movie yeah i can't wait to see your movie yeah i can't wait to see your movie film yeah i know i can't wait march 6 it film yeah i know i can't wait march 6 it It may be already out. We don't know how this works, but we are really excited to see the bride. Maggie, such a treat to have you on. And then I want to see the next one and the next one and the next one and the next one. Keep jamming. Yeah, you're just doing it. Very, very cool. It looks so good. Amazing stuff. Thanks, guys. Say hi to Peter. Say hi to Jake, please. I will. This was such a nice talk. Thank you, Maggie. Yeah, thank you for doing this. Great to see you. The great Maggie. I'll see you around town, Maggie. Uh-oh. Sean, we are on. I'm going to come see your play. Okay. Let's play. Let's play. Let's go. Come. Bye. Bye, Maggie. Bye, guys. Bye. Thanks, Maggie. Bye. Bye. Oh, that's very exciting. It is. That's a good guest. Great guest there, Willie. I'm so excited to see her film and truly all the rest that she's going to do. She seems to just really have it. I know. I mean, just so good in everything. I mean, what a massive acting career. I know. And then she's like, what? Sorry, what'd you say, Sean? Sorry. Why couldn't you take it? You were the one who was about to say something and you. You had the control to wait on taking the bite. You could have not put it in. I know. It must be good. What is it? It's just an apple. It's just an apple. He just discovered fruit. He's just discovered it. So I do want to give up. It keeps that darn scurvy away. I know. I mean, she's been in so many good movies as an actor. She's had this huge acting career. Yeah. She does this turn and this movie looks massive. She writes The Lost Daughter, nominated for an Academy Award for. the lost daughter yeah and this movie looks huge has worked with all these great directors think about all the ones that she's been able to to learn from to cherry pick from too i know we got to send her our headshots you know yeah i did i did a scene with her in a movie in a low budget movie years ago 20 years ago and she hasn't called you she didn't bring it up no i didn't want to i didn't want to bring it up either we had to see it together yeah uh she's such a talent i'm so excited for uh the bride and i'm so so excited for you guys oh you know you well i feel like you guys have a bright future thank you thank you thank you thanks for having us yeah it's been so much fun to have did you get any fans on if you have any questions you forgot to ask us you've got our email um yeah you can do follow-ups we'll do a follow-up and let you guys have a listen before we put it out oh great yeah there's a couple of things i'm a little nervous about that i'd love to get another listen too so of course yeah but you know what even if you say something right wrong i think that people are willing to let by god be beautiful oh incredible cue the music smart smart ,less is 100 organic and artisanally handcrafted by michael grant terry rob armjarv and bennett barbaco smart less