Betty, welcome to The Daily Show.
Thanks, for having me, Jordan.
Of course.
Now, there's a lot of buzz around this Mrs. Davis show.
- Is there? - There is buzz.
- Great. - You're part of it, right?
This is what you want, right?
Yeah, I think so.
JORDAN KLEPPER: No, you're doing great!
She's doing great! Betty's doing great, right?
[cheering]
It's funny.
I watch a clip like that.
There's a lot going on, and there's
a lot going on in the show.
So much going on, yeah.
In fact, they've told us-- they're like,
there's a lot of spoilers.
Yeah.
You can't talk about certain things.
BETTY GILPIN: So many things you can't talk
about, impossible to promote.
I'm not used to doing something so plot heavy.
Usually, the plot of things I do are,
like, when is she going to sob or have sex?
And that's kind of like the plot twists for that episode.
Screenwriting 101, right?
Yeah, exactly.
And this plot is like a Rubik's cube had
sex with a haunted calculator.
[laughter]
It's the best.
JORDAN KLEPPER: I feel like there's
a bunch of different genres going on in this.
Yes, like a hundred different gen--
I keep saying, it's like no country for old Looney Tunes
is the genre.
That's about right, right?
Yeah.
In a nutshell, a spoiler-free nutshell, essentially,
you are a nun who's part of the resistance,
fighting an all-knowing AI.
Yes.
Yeah, so the show kind of--
JORDAN KLEPPER: It almost sounded like a joke
as I called that premise.
Yeah.
It's like, oh, Hollywood and these old cliches, right?
Right, or like ChatGPT wrote that synopsis.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's a society not unlike our own, but one
where an AI or an algorithm like Siri or Alexa
called Mrs. Davis has kind of taken over,
is in everyone's ear, purports to be benevolent.
And there's a small faction of society, myself, a nun,
included that thinks she or it is evil and not to be trusted.
Now, how do you train?
Because there's a lot of fighting.
How do you train to be a fighting nun?
Is it-- is it-- - Yeah.
Is it Kung Fu?
Is it Bible?
You know, it's more--
yeah, after GLOW, it's--
that felt like falling down a cement staircase every day.
So this was like, yeah, I guess I fall on my butt, like,
three times in the show.
It's not as comparable.
But I Zoomed with nuns to prepare.
Is that sacrilegious?
Can you do that?
Yeah, no, they love to Zoom.
They're Zoomers. Yeah.
They're like, breaks the monotony.
Thank you. What do you want to know?
Typically, yeah.
Did you ask them at all about fighting?
Like, if you had to fight, I know
it's not your first go to.
But if you had to, what would you do?
Yeah.
I mean, I think on screen, we're
used to seeing either, like, one-dimensional, climb
every mountain, pious nuns, or horror movie nuns
with, like, blood coming out of their eyes.
And the nuns I spoke to were three very different,
multifaceted women.
And while I don't hold the same belief system that they hold,
I was very impressed and had to kind of check
the cliche of them that I had in my head,
which was very wrong.
So none of them had blood coming from their eyes?
- No, not one. - Really?
Maybe the second they de-Zoomed, they're like,
OK, we can-- we can cry blood.
Yeah.
Water turned to blood, it's part
of the whole religious thing.
Yeah, I haven't read up on it.
But I think that's how it goes down in the Bible.
I think that's what happens.
Yeah, chapter 3 of the Bible.
Now, what is your relationship with AI?
Are you fearful of it?
You're a wonderful writer as well as an actress.
Thanks.
Do you look at something like even ChatGPT?
Do you fear that it's coming for your jobs?
Yeah, it's really scary.
I mean, the internet in general, it's weird.
I have a two and a half year old.
We were talking backstage. So do I.
He has peers.
They're going to be betrothed to each other.
We arrange their marriage. - Yes.
Oh, sorry. We should-- yeah, yeah.
Yeah, Whit, FYI, we've been doing-- you're fine.
It's actually-- yeah.
Everything's great.
But, you know, I try to limit her screen time.
And I snatch phones away from her like it's poison.
And then I myself can't pee without watching
Millie Bobby Brown take a lie detector
test because I'm so addicted.
I'm addicted to the thing that I'm
telling my daughter is poison.
So I don't know.
I have to get right with that before she's
on the grid of understanding.
But in terms of AI, I think our show,
Mrs. Davis on Peacock, April 20,
is kind of asking the same question that we are asking
now, which is, are you our savior, or are you
our downfall, to AI.
And even when we were filming, ChatGPT
six months ago wasn't as much a part
of the headlines as it is now.
And I don't know.
It's really scary. JORDAN KLEPPER: It is scary.
- Yeah. - I feel like this show--
it kind of asks that question, or it looks to ask--
when you look at guidance, do you turn to technology,
or do you turn to God?
Yeah.
Like, are you a God believer or an Elon Musk believer?
- Right. - Sort of--
Right.
Where do you fall in that line?
Have you have you picked a side yet?
I mean--
JORDAN KLEPPER: One's got rockets.
Right. Yeah.
[laughter]
Yeah.
I mean, I myself am not a person of faith.
But I do think this show has made me think a lot
about church and the internet being these two
sort of institutional responses to the same human question
sort of, of asking why and wandering
and wanting to-- wondering and wandering and wanting
to connect with each other.
And I think we often use church and the internet
to do the opposite of what they were probably built for,
which is to connect and wonder.
And we use it to disconnect and to provide all of the answers
in your echo chamber.
And I think--
I look at my daughter, and I hope
that we're just the generation driving
without seatbelts, using this to disconnect and get dumber.
Maybe they can use it to connect and get smarter.
But I don't know.
Probably not.
[applause]
What is your daughter obsessed with?
My son loves Gabby's Dollhouse and Bluey.
That's going nonstop in our house.
Yeah, I mean, she pooped her pants on Easter.
So I don't know if she's, like, the future of AI.
Yeah.
But-- oh, sorry, Mary.
[laughter]
She's like, are you kidding?
Yeah, she's into-- she's like a fluffy Thor Lebowski
as a two-year-old girl.
She's awesome.
A Thor Lebowski?
Yeah, finally.
Now, part of what's exciting about Mrs. Davis,
Damon Lindelof is one of the creators of this
from the Watchmen, Lost days.
I feel like Watchmen was such a compelling storyline
that came at big topics from a different angle.
Yeah.
And, also, it had the story unfold
in a way that feels both mature and like it's cutting ground.
You've worked with him before.
Yes.
I wonder like what drew you to working with him again
and what it was about this project
that you found interesting in its storytelling technique.
Yeah.
So he-- Damon Lindelof and Tara Hernandez
created this show together.
And they are both geniuses at (SOFTLY)
what I believe you're genius at, too,
Jordan Klepper, which is--
[laughter]
Go on.
You don't have to say it like a robot.
I mean, that's--
[laughter]
Well, I think you're a genius at this as well.
Thank you. Did we get that?
We got that clean? - Yeah, to camera.
Sorry. - Perfect.
[applause]
They hide a thesis statement in farce, which I think
oftentimes, when we're sitting down
to decide what to watch on TV every night,
we often are faced with either joyful and mindless
or important and depressing.
And I think finding joyful and important
is hard to do but possible.
And I think Damon and Tara both do it really beautifully.
And I think our show is an example of that.
And this show is an example of that for sure.
Joyful and-- and what?
- Important. - Oh, right, right.
Yeah.
Joyful and important, yes.
Yes.
The first four episodes of Mrs. Davis
will premiere on Peacock on April 20.