Ann Dowd. I Have A Question.
As we head into Season 3, we know Aunt Lydia is going to be transformed in some sort of a way.
That's very interesting, yes.
Yes. So what was something surprising you learned about her this season?
Well there's a backstory, which is Episode 8, so that was a phenomenal experience
and we get some kind of understanding of why she is the woman she is.
It was a bit of a heartbreak just to experience it as someone I've known for three years now.
God, gives us blessing and he gives us challenges. The price of his love is sometimes high but it must be paid.
What's it like on set on those days where Aunt Lydia has to be a real b-i-t-c-h? Like, where do you go?
I hate to admit you but it's not a far stretch. I mean to say, I don't live in that arena necessarily but I don't
have to go in a room for an hour to figure it out. Do you know what I mean? I am the mother of three,
let's just throw that in there. And I'm one of seven growing up. So I get the drill. Go there quickly get the job done and move on.
And what is it like when you know, you've finished your day at work and you come home, you turn on the news
and there's people dressed as handmaids all over the world.
and to the fact that we can be part of this and that they took something that was on television, entertainment
and put it into the real world, which is in trouble. I think it's brilliant.
What would you like to say to those women protestors, who have been marching for women's reproductive rights?
And what I ought to do is join them, is the point.
The comparisons between Gilliard and America today are so strong. - It's terrifying.
So you are scared by it? - Oh, deeply.
I do try to keep up with the news I can't watch him because... I can't
because he's an idiot and he's a narcissist and he's a criminal.
But when I saw what was going through the Senate in Alabama... I thought, wait no, no, no that was from the 60s, right?
I'm not watching this in present day? I'd literally, for a minute there, I thought this cannot be happening.
It's surreal. - It is surreal and it's dangerous.
And someone said, 'Well why? Why are they doing it now?”
Well Kavanagh, that's why. They have a way to the Supreme Court.
Oh you are so lucky, so privileged!
As an actor, you just have this incredible body of work. And when I think of–
Thank you.
Ann Dowd, I think of
You really are my favorite super villain. But listening to you, you're so sweet and kind and humble
so what is this attraction for you? - Give it a minute, I'll get there.
First of all when I read 'Hereditary' I thought, oh I play a nice person in this literally, because it's sweet, she's nice in the beginning.
And then to come to find out she goes to the devil! Not just mean, she goes straight down into hell.
You were amazing in it. - My husband said to me,
‘Do you think you will ever play maybe a surgeon or a lawyer?’
I say no well, let me think. I love them. These creatures of strength and loneliness and despair
who decide to make meaning in their lives possible, you know. I mean I'm definitely drawn to them the loners, love them.
You have spoken at length about your gratitude to even be a working actor, knowing how tough it is.
So were there ever moments in your career where you doubted like, ugh maybe this isn't for me? And how did you get over that?
I was 35 and pregnant with my first child and working in a pet shop, where there was no air conditioning.
I was lolling over the aquarium, thinking 'God help me.' I didn't know when I was going to have the money to pay for a baby,
it never worried me because I had a strong sense of denial, do you know what I'm saying?
And I recommend it. I don't mean stupidity. But I know I'm going to stick with this and if I have to work in a pet shop
or have to go wait on tables, which I did for a billion years, hen that's the way it is.
I was on the way to wait on tables one day. Wearing the black pants and the black tie in the white shirt,
I mean, can it get uglier than that? and I look over and I see limousines and a big, big opening of a theater, of a movie.
And it said, "About Last Night.' And my classmate, Elizabeth Perkins, stars in it so she's on the way to her premiere
and I'm on the way to wait on tables. So I literally went home, I promise you this is true. And the weeping and wailing
and I'm sitting on the porch and there was a sudden calm, very strong, and a voice. Whether it was inside or outside
that I can't answer to, that said ‘all will be well.' It was very, very strong.
'You will be in your 50s. You will be 56.’ Swear on a Bible.
I just got real chills everywhere. - Well I have chills here too 'cause it's the honest truth.
So get this. I had a fit. I said, 'I am not waiting 'till I'm in my 50s... I am 30 years old.'
I was in rage, instead of listening to the wisdom of it all–
Well, 'Compliance,' at 56. And that's when things changed.