- My name is Carice Van Houten,
and you're in studio with the Hollywood Reporter.
(upbeat music)
- I'd be remiss to not speak about
the fact that you're in the middle of
the Emmy festivities as a cast member of Game of Thrones.
- [Carice] Yes, I am.
- How does it feel to be kind of
doing this final send-off of, you know,
once the season's over, everything's been said and done,
and now it's the final hurrah with the cast.
Does it feel good be be amongst them again?
- Yes, I mean even though we've had
many reunions along the way, and we've had many parties,
and we have a group app,
so it's not like we never see each other,
we never speak to each other, but I would've been
sad if I wouldn't have been there for the last celebration.
Because it is a really unique job that we had.
- Melisandre got to have a wonderful redemption arc
for the last season.
Do you feel satisfied that you were one of those characters
that kind of had a very complete story?
- Oh, I was extremely happy,
because when I read it, it gave me goosebumps.
I was like, "Oh, maybe it's a bit weird because it's just me
being an actor and the character died."
But when I saw it, it was like a really bombastic symphony,
and I was sort of the last piano notes of the final coda.
It was beautiful.
I think that last scene where I take my necklace off,
and she walks off, and Liam is standing there.
I think Liam makes that exit the way it was.
The music as well.
The strings were fucking great,
but Liam's expression, it's so ambiguous.
It's like you can see him being
frustrated by not killing her.
He's also, I think he's probably
admiring her in a way.
And he's completely confused about both feelings.
And he just doesn't know what to do with himself,
and there's almost like an emotional reaction to his face,
which makes that scene.
- One of the things that you got to do throughout
is to speak in Old Valyrian.
Am I correct that you spoke in Old Valyrian?
- Was it High Valyrian?
I think it was High Valyrian. - [Marya] High Valyrian?
- I don't know what the difference is.
(Marya laughs)
- Do you still remember what you said?
- I just remember valar morghulis.
- [Marya] Yeah.
- Valar Dohaeris or whatever.
It was so hard.
I mean, Emilia had it way worse than me of course, but
I remember learning those lines.
(groans)
There's no reference whatsoever.
It's like, "Am I talking Hebrew? Greek?
What is this language? I can't..."
(Marya murmurs her understanding)
It doesn't look like anything.
- [Marya] Yeah.
- But it was fun, because I also felt like
if I make a mistake, nobody will notice.
- [Marya] Yeah. (laughs)
- The whole revival, the resurrection of Jon Snow,
I improvised the shit out of it.
- [Marya] Really?
- Nobody saw it.
(laughs)
I mean I'm sure there's a few people that said,
"I knew what you were saying was wrong."
- There was somebody out there, yeah.
- I'm sure. I'm sorry.
But, you know, it was a tricky time.
It was a long day, and I just didn't know my lines.
- So many people were so invested in
the characters that they wanted to see
sit on the Iron Throne.
Did you have any people that you were...
Were you interested in any characters winning the day?
- I mean, I was a different fan, I guess,
because I was so committed to everyone,
and I know how much love and work is in the show.
And I knew of course, I knew a little bit about the ending,
so I knew what was coming a little bit.
- [Marya] You knew what was coming, okay.
- But I just love the fact
that the whole throne was blown away.
(Marya laughs) - Yeah
That whole thing was gone.
I really loved it, and also the randomness
of talking about who's gonna be king.
It's like that sort of...
The silliness of it I thought was very smart.
I thought that was like, this is what life is.
Some dumbo can become a president, you know?
- Yeah.
- That's the world we live in.
We just sort of,
"Uh, that guy. We think that guy."
(Marya laughs)
You know, I thought that was so good.
It was smart that it was just sort of silly.
I really liked it, to be honest.
- Yeah, I love your take on it.
I really like that too.
(Carice laughs)
I definitely see it with a different perspective
now that you explain it that way.
- Thank God.
- I so wanted Khaleesi on the throne!
- Oh, did you?
- I did. - Yeah, but I mean...
(Marya giggles)
She became a little nuts.
- I think she had every reason to get that upset.
- Yes, no, you're right.
It wasn't an easy ride for her.
(Marya laughing)
True.
But we all had our things, you know.
- Right.
- But... - Yeah.
- I can see where you're coming from.
(laughs)
I can totally feel for people that invested like that.
I mean, I wanted Samwell Tarly on the throne.
That didn't happen either.
(Marya laughs)
There was a very small chance it was gonna happen.
- I thought it might go that way too, yeah.
I could see that happening.
Well, one of the things that's pretty cool
about your character, the red witch, is how old she is.
The fact that she is so old means
she legitimately has a chance to come back in the prequel.
- It would be fun to see Melisandre as a kid.
I mean, that I would find interesting.
I would've liked to see a bit more of her background.
'Cause she was a slave, and you know.
That would be interesting to see, a little mini witch.
(Marya chuckles)
Yeah, I don't think it's...
- You don't think she's going to come back in some way.
- No, I think that was it, and she's tired, man.
I mean, let her alone, leave her alone.
(laughing)
She's tired.
- [Marya] Let her disappear into the snow.
- Yeah, she's done.
- I wanted to talk to you about Instinct.
This movie's getting a lot of buzz.
It tackles some taboo subjects.
- Definitely.
- So of course it's getting some really good reviews.
And having a moment,
I'd like to talk a little bit about the plot.
So, this takes place in a correctional facility
in the Netherlands.
One of the things that I noticed, the first thing I noticed
is that this correctional facility is very different
than anything we have in the US.
The prisoners are not treated as much
as prisoners but as patients.
- Exactly. Yep.
- So, it is some sort of a hybrid
between a correctional facility
and a mental rehabilitation facility.
And it's especially for criminals that have
been mentally ill at the time of committing the crime,
and have the possibility of getting out,
if they can be rehabilitated.
- Exactly.
(exhales. - We did it.
- Yes, well done. - [Marya] We did it.
- I did thank God that I don't have to say that.
(Marya laughing)
Thanks.
- But yes I noticed that, you know...
The first thing I notice is this isn't like a jail at all.
There are, you know, men and women mixing together.
There's a lot of openness.
The prisoners are allowed to pretty much walk free,
be alone with people.
So it kind of creates an environment
that is perfect for the plot of this movie,
which is a
romantic-slash-psychological
game of cat and mouse between your character
and Marwan Kenzari.
- [Carice] Yes.
Sexy Jafar.
- [Marya] Yeah, sexy Jafar. - He's always so friendly.
I haven't seen it yet, but--
- From Aladdin.
So tell me a little bit about Nicoline,
because I assume this is a character that
you were excited to play.
- Oh yes.
I mean, anything that's difficult I am excited about.
She is...
What really drew me in was that she's not per say
immediately a very sympathetic character.
She's not like a happy-go-lucky girl next door fun,
tongue and cheek kind of character that I've played
in Holland a lot in fact.
Like that sort of lighter genre.
But enough people know me from Game of Thrones,
but the stuff that I've done before
is much more light, I'd say.
She's not very likable immediately.
She has a certain distance about her.
She's very ambitious, she's very serious about her job,
and makes decisions that are not always easy to follow.
- Yes, and there is, like I said, very taboo.
Because there is a sort of
romantic undertone to the relationship between this
person who works in a correctional facility
who is psychologically
evaluating a rapist.
And there's, you know...
It's a lot of levels.
It's a lot of levels, but it also has...
There's a lot that's not being said.
(Carice murmurs in agreement)
When you play a character who has not much of a backstory,
do you have a backstory for Nicoline?
- I do, but it's not like I've written it down.
It's very intuitive.
So it's hard to explain it,
because it sometimes is just a feeling,
and I know where to tap from,
from what sort of part in myself to tap from.
But basically for this film I had to
connect with my inner junkie.
Because the film, in the end, to us...
I mean, it's a very dramatic arena,
and it's of course a very extreme affair
between a rapist and a psychologist.
I mean, it's like...
But it actually is based on true events,
so it comes from,
it was based on a documentary that the director,
who is my best friend, saw,
and it was called Love in Prison.
And in fact it happens quite a lot.
- [Marya] Right.
- And she was like, "How is this possible?"
She said that she wanted to make this film,
start the film with a question.
How is it possible that someone who went to school for this,
who should know what the dangers are of someone like that,
still falls into the trap?
It's about self-destruction.
It's about why do we keep ignoring red flags?
I just was speaking to this lady in the car
about someone that I met,
and I knew there were so many red flags.
And I just knew it.
I was conscious about it.
I knew that was wrong, and I still went for it.
(Marya laughs) - [Marya] Yeah, yeah.
- I mean, we all know that.
We know we shouldn't be looking at our phones 24/7.
We know we shouldn't be eating chocolate all day.
But we still do it.
- Right, right.
- So what is that in us that we
have that self-destructive behavior?
That's what this movie is about for me.
- One of the last scenes...
The last scene actually
involves a close up shot of your face.
Which kind of tells so much about...
I mean, it's the end.
It's the tie up to the movie.
And without spoiling it, I wanted to know how
you kind of went into filming of that day
knowing that there was so much meaning in that last shot.
Or did you even know?
- Well, the director, Jules, makes jokes about that.
She's always like, "Just act the whole film in that...
Just, you know, do that.
We're just gonna shoot you,
and just think of what you've been going through."
And that's basically...
- [Marya] Think about everything.
- Yeah, just the whole film in three seconds,
or whatever, how long it is.
But I cannot remember that subconsciously.
I just remember that it came from a scene,
from the last scene and I just...
I had great chemistry with the DOP,
because we're both very intuitive, so
whenever someone would say cut,
we just went on filming, because we were not finished yet.
So I felt like there was still
something had to come out of me,
and he felt the same way, so he sort of followed me.
And it just sort of organically
happened.
And I think that last thing organically happened,
and then we sort of redid it
and then made it into the last shot.
- [Marya] Oh wow. If I can remember correctly.
It's all a bit of a blur.
But, funny enough, that scene might be my favorite scene,
or shot, because
I so love non-verbal acting.
Just because of my background.
I was raised with silent films and I...
My dad didn't watch anything else.
He was like an expert on it,
so I was raised with films from the 20's
with orchestras and I just was
always fascinated by how much you can
tell a story with just a physical...
Just your body language.
So, don't give me lines.
(Marya chuckles)
You know, I love to do just eyebrow acting.
- Just one more thing, if the call were to come
for you to make an appearance in the prequels,
would you be willing to do it? - An appearance, or a cameo,
yes definitely, but I don't think I could do another...
- [Marya] The commitment.
- No.
- After seven seasons. (laughs)
- No, because it's just I think
all good things have to come to an end.
And I think that's also the beauty of it that
it will always hurt a little bit, that it's over.
But that's also good.
It's good and there's space for new things,
and Instinct is a complete passion project,
and I have so many other ideas.
With our company Man Up we wanna do loads of other
female-driven stories, so we have a lot of work.
There's a lot of work to be done.
- There's a lot of work to be done.
Carice, thank you so much.
Check out Instinct, it's an amazing film,
and we're looking forward to all the female-focused films
that are coming from you in the future.
- Thank you.
(air whooshing)