♪ Somewhere over the rainbow ♪
♪ Way up high ♪
♪ There's a land that I heard of ♪
♪ Once in a lullaby ♪
- I know at one point, Judy was called
the greatest performer of her generation,
greatest performer alive,
and Judy has this great sense of humor in the film.
And you say, "Why, is Frank Sinatra here?"
Who do you think is the greatest performer now?
- Oh, that's good!
That's a really good question.
- Thanks! (laughs)
- Well there's Beyonce, yeah.
- That's so funny, that's what Finn said.
- Yeah, she just, she's, in full...
Fully access her power, at every turn.
Unapologetically.
Creatively.
She's in charge.
It's a wonderful thing to see.
- So I'm wondering for you, what I loved
is that there was live performances in this movie.
I was wondering for you, how old you were the first time
you sang a Judy song out loud,
and compare it to singing live in this film,
sort of juxtapose for me.
Was it in your bedroom with a hairbrush or?
- I'm sure that Rainbow was in the repertoire
(laughing)
- from a very early age, because you know,
I'm of the generation where you had to be home to see it,
and every year it was on TV.
"Hurry, it's on!"
You know, you run in.
"Come back, the commercial's over!"
And my brother, "Shut up!" (laughs)
So, I was always singing,
and he was always asking me not to.
I can't remember a specific time,
but it's always been in there, yeah.
- And then versus singing, what was it like for you?
You appear, to me, to be possessed by this character.
There were so many beautiful close-up shots,
and it was really, the singing was amazing,
but it was in the eyes that really got me.
So, what was that moment like for you?
- Oh, gosh, I don't know.
I don't know.
Just collecting information all the time,
and listening to audio of her voice,
and looking at videos when I was going to sleep at night,
and never being away from it, ever.
- Yeah. - It just, you know, yeah.
I don't know, just felt like a celebration,
and I wanted to, you know.
- Knowing that, and knowing that you studied her
for two years, and watched things before you went to bed,
and tried to extract every nugget, I was wondering for you,
'cause when I was watching your performance,
I was thinking to myself,
"That looks like it was exhausting."
What was it like for you when you shot your last scene,
you woke up the next day,
and you weren't gonna play her anymore?
What was that sort of period like?
- Do you know what's funny, we didn't have that,
because we finished, and it was on to the next thing.
"Okay, now we're gonna record the orchestra live,"
and so "Come on, we're gonna do the recordings
"with the orchestra live for soundtrack."
And then, "Okay, we're gonna do this other thing now,"
and it just kept going until like, last month. (laughs)
- Wow!
And now you're gonna be talking about it
for several months. - Right.
- Do you have any Judy memorabilia?
- Yes, I do, I do.
I have a couple of the playbooks from her shows,
which are (exhales), very special, and some photographs.
- Did you have it before signing on to this project,
or was it as a result of doing the film?
- As a result. - Yeah.
- I'm not a big collector of anything, actually.
So, yeah, these were treats.
- I know everybody's talking about this performance.
How do you feel when you watch it?
- I haven't seen it.
I saw a really early cut.
I haven't seen it finished yet.
I might watch it this week, I don't know.
I kinda love how I remember it, the experience of making it.
- Is that in general for you, you just--
- Usually, yeah. - Yeah.
- Yes.
Because that's real.
That's your shared collaborations
with a group of people who've become your friends,
and that's what it is to me in my life,
and we all had the same motivation for wanting to make it.
We all feel affection and a connection to her in some way,
and an appreciation for her,
and everybody wanted to celebrate her,
and that's what it felt like.
- That's what it feels watching it.
- Oh, thank you, I'm glad.
- I know you're for kids, you didn't talk to her kids,
but you said if there was something you could've asked them,
you would've asked what they wanted to see on screen.
- Yeah.
- What do you hope people will get and see on screen?
I'm turning the question on you.
- Context, because it's impossible to look at her life
and this period of her life, as tragic,
when you better understand what lead to the circumstances,
and when you see what it is that she was able to overcome
in order to continue to deliver and connect
with her audiences, and the way that just moved people
for generations, it sets her apart.
I mean, you can really see how extraordinary she was.
What?
- Room service.
- I didn't order anything.
- There's a man under the trolley.
(gasps)
- Surprise!
- Mickey! (laughs)
(big band music)
♪ You're gonna love me ♪
- The kids miss you, and they also wanna stay put.
- I'm coming back for them.
- You're not listening.
- I have someone I can rely on now.
♪ I'm gonna love you ♪
(screaming)
- Do you have to be home for you mommy to put you to bed?
- There's been so much talk about, on set, sort of like,
watching Renee, she was like possessed by Judy.
So, being there in that moment when she was singing live,
because that was one of the beautiful things about this film
is she was singing live.
Can you sort of describe it?
Because when they'd pan to a close-up,
you'd see it in her eyes,
but being there amongst the audience.
- I'll tell you that the extras that were there
playing the audience, all stood up every take,
stood up and applauded.
They weren't supposed to. (laughs)
The sound guy was like, "Quiet please.
"We need to capture this.
"Quiet."
- (laughs) That's would've been me.
- It was genuinely riveting.
It's rare to see someone who can, like Judy did,
be that subtle and can fill a close-up,
but can also fill a big theater,
and be riveting, in a live theater experience,
which Renee can do.
- What was, for you, you played her last husband
in her life, and I can't really figure him out,
and you kinda can't figure him out in the movie.
What is his motive?--
- No one could figure him out.
- No one can figure him out.
Did you figure him out?
How much were you able to delve into,
and was there like a fun little nugget that you found,
sort of digging through?
- I found that he wrote a book,
which was really interesting, and in it,
they would have big blowout fights, but at the end,
after this movie ends, they got a house in London,
and they kinda lived there until she died.
- And he found her, right, when she?
- Yeah, he did actually find her.
He says he found her overdosed in the bathroom.
Knowing that it ended happier than we ended,
was good for my mind, that like he wasn't in it
just for himself, he was maybe complicated and--
- That's a good word for it. (laughs)
- a bit self-involved in points, but he was genuinely,
I think, devoted to her, and was kind of a caretaker
at a time when she was really needing that,
and was kind of flailing,
and had been kind of chewed up by the system.
I think the fact that he was not a movie star,
that he was kinda outside of it,
but was kind of a pretty reliable person,
and was also like youthful and fun, and you know,
I think that they had a good time together.
- You got to jump out of a room service tray,
how cool was that? - Yeah, I mean, come on.
(laughing)
Who else does that, you know?
No other husbands could do that.
- Judy Garland was once called,
I think it was by Mickey Rooney,
"The greatest performer alive."
- Yeah.
- In your opinion, today,
who's the greatest performer alive.
- Oh! That's tough.
Ah, that's tough.
I don't know.
I think the difference is,
I can point to like great musical performers--
- Go for it. - that I've seen.
- What popped in your head?
- Beyonce I saw live once, - Yes!!
- which is like, pretty frickin' cool.
(laughing)
That Judy could do that,
'cause she could like basically be Beyonce live,
but then she could like also be like
Kate Blanchett on screen.
You know, that she was able to do both things,
is pretty rare, you know?
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- What about an actor?
- You know, I saw Bryan Cranston onstage
in the show, Network, and he was able to.
There was a lot of the show that was like a projection
of a close-up of his face,
as he was talking to the audience,
so he was able to act for a close-up
and for Broadway theater, and I don't know how you do that.
That was pretty cool.
(orchestra instrumental music)
(laser)