-Welcome back.
-Thank you for having me.
-I am so happy to have you. And congratulations.
You were nominated for three Golden Globe awards,
a couple for "Sharp Objects" -- [ Cheers and applause ]
-Thank you.
-And one for "Vice."
On a morning like that, do you celebrate?
Are you good at celebrating?
-I'm really bad at celebrating.
-Gotcha.
-Or at appropriate times.
Like, I'll just like celebrate a Tuesday night.
But -- no, I always get a little uncomfortable
having self celebrations, me parties.
-Yeah. I guess that makes sense.
-It's a Muppet reference for you guys.
[ Laughter ]
-But that's very honest of you to say.
-Yeah. I mean, I'm really grateful and thrilled.
I just -- yeah. -Yeah.
I feel like -- yeah.
A celebration for the nomination,
that's just Jinx City, you know, once you do that.
This is -- Congratulations. Such a fantastic portrayal.
Obviously you're playing a real person, Lynne Cheney.
But I heard you also based it,
not only on her, but on your grandmother.
-On my grandmother.
-How did you come to that?
-Well, as I started researching her,
there was something in her voice and something that sort of
started to remind me of my grandmother.
And the more I did research -- my grandma is from Utah.
I understand we have some Utah folks here today.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Yeah.
There was just something in the way she was raised.
My grandmother was raised on a farm.
There was a pioneering spirit. So, yeah.
My grandma was -- she was tough.
Like, she told it how it was.
There was no sugar-coating it.
-This is probably why you don't celebrate.
[ Laughter ]
Golden Globe nominations.
-No, I mean, when we would go over to her house,
and it was the idea that the kids would help out, you know?
So we would, like, clean cans in the --
There was no, like, Grandma spoiling you.
-Wow! -Which I was used to.
So I didn't know that --
-After you cleaned a can, what would you use it for?
[ Laughter ]
-You would put it back up
with all the other cans in the cupboard.
But, no. She was great, but tough.
Yeah. We did a lot of -- -A lot of chores?
-A lot of chores. -You got worked hard?
-We got worked hard at Grandma's house, yeah.
So I guess something about the work ethic
that was instilled reminded me of Lynne Cheney.
-And obviously a lot's being talked about
Christian Bale's transformation into Dick Cheney.
But you also had to spend a ton of time
in hair and makeup for this role.
How do you pass time when you have one of these parts
where you spend so much time doing that element?
-I found different ways.
I mean, we would -- Christian often had headphones on.
I would often sing as Lynne Cheney, which was fun.
-What sort of songs would your Lynne Cheney sing?
-Mostly hits from the '80s.
-Okay.
-Like "Pour Some Sugar on Me."
-Gotcha. Now, this sounds like a song
maybe Lynne Cheney wouldn't be a fan of.
[ Laughter ]
-I don't think she would. -Yeah.
-But it was fun. I would --
♪ Pour some sugar on me ♪
[ Laughter ] You know --
♪ In the name of love ♪
♪ Oh, pour some ♪
You know, that kind of -- [ Laughter ]
And I have a big regret that I didn't actually record this
for Adam McKay, because I would often torture him with
Lynne Cheney sings hits from the '80s.
-Yeah.
Adam McKay, of course, is the director of this film.
Director of, among other films, "The Big Short."
-Yes.
-This is a case where he is making a movie about someone
whose politics are divergent from his.
-Yes.
-Were there times -- I have heard that you would actually
argue with Adam on set as Lynne Cheney.
-As Lynne Cheney. Adam --
[ Light laughter ]
I had a good -- I had a fun time playing Lynne Cheney.
[ Laughter ]
But she -- Adam likes to do a lot of improv at times.
And so to stay loose I would kind of come and just then
argue with him and criticize him as Lynne Cheney.
[ Laughter ]
Which is so not my personality, but I would be like,
"You're wearing shorts and you want me to take you seriously
as an authority figure."
And that sort of thing.
I accused him of being a socialist.
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah. -That sort of thing.
-It seems like -- -You know, light-hearted banter.
Like "how can I respect you" kind of thing.
-Yes, exactly.
It seemed like light-hearted banter
might have been an even more important thing
to bring to "Sharp Objects." -Yeah.
-This is a very -- I mean, it's a wonderful series.
But it's very dark subject matter.
-Yeah.
-You weren't just the star of it.
You were a producer of it.
Did you feel as though it was your responsibility
to try to bring levity to set?
-I did. You know, it's something
that's really important to me on set anyway.
Not at the wrong time,
like someone's trying to do something serious
and I'm, like, tap dancing, you know, on their coverage.
But when we have time and to lighten it, I'd like to do that.
I got an ice cream truck for people on "Sharp Objects."
And then I also brought a fart machine onto set.
[ Laughter ]
I didn't make anybody else look like they were doing it.
It was always me. -Gotcha. Yeah.
-I didn't -- That would be fun though.
-Yeah. -Next time.
-Yeah, like a ventriloquist fart machine that can throw it.
-Exactly. That would be amazing. [ Laughter ]
But like a remote control so it comes from across the room.
-Put a laser pointer on someone else's butt
and then it knows exactly where to throw it.
-Where you want it to go. That would be great.
-Oh, we got to invent this. -This could be so fun.
-We're going to make so much money.
-So much money.