(upbeat music)
- I mean, I kind of see, it's like two separate things
that have become connected, so that there's,
we're speaking about women who've been sexually harassed
and finding their voice and having strength to say,
"Oh, well, me too."
And then, because one person did another woman
can go, "Yeah, me too."
And I think of it as like, all these women joining hands,
saying "Me too."
And in numbers we get strength.
And that's so moving and upsetting
that such a thing is happening.
But then, there's another thing which is what our jobs are,
which is fiction like, telling stories.
We're just storytellers.
And having stories where women are,
like, I have a real problem with the idea of,
that the strong women characters,
I always think of like, what does that mean
we have muscles or something? (panelist chuckles)
Like, no one ever says that to the man.
I think there's like, women have central roles
that are complex and drive the narrative rather than,
I don't know, no.
- Yeah. - I just think,
I would say to a man-- - And they're generic for--
- If you played a strong man, unless they're playing a,
this bodybuilder or something,
I don't know. (woman chuckles)
But that young girls growing up can see stories being told
where a woman takes a central role,
but she's not peripheral to the story.
She's driving the story, and so you as a kid can go,
"Oh, that's me."
You know, I can identify.
So it's like a funny thing that
they're coming together at the same time
because women have been speaking up about harassment.
I don't know if it's a coincidence that suddenly,
there are more, like, you could get your film in,
you could get your film in,
and The Favourite apparently took 20 years to make
because there's lesbianism
and three females at the center, I don't know.
I can't tell what happened. - We're primping people
with modesty there.
(panelists laugh)
- Me too! (laughs)
(upbeat music)
When you play a character, this is advice given to me, that,
if someone says to you,
"Well, your character wouldn't do that."
It's just like, that's just not true.
Whatever it is that happens-- - Right.
- In the take, and when it goes wrong and you want to say cut
and you don't-- - Yeah.
- That's what's, that is your character.
There isn't a character that you have to reach for.
It's just, whatever happens,
that's the character. - Yeah.
- And so yeah, I think, when I started out,
I was thinking, "Well, my character would do this,
"but not this and this."
And that just leads you down the very fruitless path.
- A frozen-- - Thank you for helping me
remember some advice-- - Oh, you're so welcome.
- That I've taken. (chuckles) (panelists laugh)
- Let's just cheers. - Exactly.
(upbeat music)
- Are there any specific choices you made in The Favorite
that apply there?
'Cause your character is very devious, and has, you know,
has a lot of nuance to it.
I'm wondering what you brought to that
that wasn't on the page.
- I think everything was on the page.
The writing was just so rich and complicated.
And for all characters, not just my character,
that through all three are female roles.
But yeah, on the page, I saw in the foreground,
strength and power and bossiness
and sadism and aggressiveness,
and then, all around that, I saw vulnerability and neediness
and need for love.
A reliance on a best friend and a lover.
Just everything was on the page, really, for me.
And then, it just sparks with your imagination.
And when you say the lines,
the lines plus your imagination take you somewhere,
so I don't ever think of it as a,
it's not like a conscious choice
made in advance of the moment,
between action and cut. - Yeah.
- I dive in-- - Yeah.
- And then I hear cut, I never say it myself.
Like, totally. (Nicole laughs)
Like, totally, I have done that, but it's, you're so right
it's so important not to,
and when I hear cut, it's gone.
- I just have to let go - I have that too sometimes.
It changes every, yeah.
- Just to make you feel,
it made it release.
I felt so much,
so less precious
since having kids like it just all feels like
now it's a faster, deeper dive, if that makes sense.
You just sense that they get - It does.
- It's just cause you have to.
- My son used to when I did a play
the last two plays, he's in the other room
and I'm learning lines
and I'm saying them out loud
he'll just shout from the other room,
true - wow
- False (Kathryn gasps)
- False - whoa
- Cuz he knows better than I guess anyone.
- Wow - When mum's being
a big ole fakey. - Oh my god that's amazing.
- I know, yeah.
- My kids have never seen
they've been able to see maybe one thing I've done.
- No, this is rehearsing back home.
This is not in the theater. - No that's in
(panel laughs)
(upbeat techno music)