- Saoirse,
it's good to see you, buddy. How you doing?
- I'm good, how are you?
- I'm doing well.
Are you still clinging to the fake Irish accent thing?
Is that still a thing?
- People seem to be really charmed by it.
So I'm just gonna hold onto it for a bit.
- You focus-grouped it years ago,
and you decided this was the way to make it.
- I mean, I've done a whole, like,
'SNL' episode out of it now, basically.
So if I drop it,
I won't have any material left.
- Congratulations on your new film.
'Ammonite' is the new one.
It's the first time we've seen you
in a film since 'Little Women,'
and this is a bit of a
a bit of a different character to say the least from Jo.
I don't know, is it more of your comfort zone to play
an introvert or an extrovert?
- Interesting question.
I would say at the minute it feels more natural
for me to play an extrovert.
But I think when I was younger, up until
maybe like three years ago,
I would've been more interested in playing introverts.
There's a lot that you can contain,
and then I think you get
to a certain point where you just wanna
mess it up a little bit.
- Right.
- So that’s where I feel I’m at now.
- So it was really interested in playing Jo
and having a lot of fun, being very, kind of, loud
and messy and gesticulating a lot
And just, like, physically being able to do whatever I wanted.
And then going to play Charlotte,
who had to be incredibly sort of restrained in every way,
what I realized as well, is that like
I've really never played, like, the girl in the film
in the pretty dress, or the girl in the corset really.
I'm always like Jo March where it's like,
I'm not wearing a corset! Screw you!
You know?
- Right.
- So this was very frustrating for me
because we'd be on these beautiful beaches
or Kate [Winslet] would have these, like, big jumpers
on her and she'd be able to lift things
and move wherever she wanted.
And I physically couldn't move.
[laughing]
- You mentioned Kate.
I mean, this is the first time you've worked
with the great Kate Winslet.
I mean, this is, you know, you guys, you know,
without making your head explode,
you are two of the most
celebrated actors on the planet.
This is like De Niro and Pacino when they did 'Heat.'
You wanna see the two of you on screen together.
I'm curious what Kate meant to you growing up as an actor.
Was she a big influence?
Was she somebody that just meant a lot to you?
- Yeah, I mean, she was both.
I grew up watching her literally every day for a long time
because 'Titanic' was, I don't know
why I was allowed to watch it when I was so young,
to be honest, but I was
And same with 'Dirty Dancing,'
like, I don't know what mom and dad were thinking.
But anyway, Titanic from when I was very young
was the film that I would watch,
like every single night before I would go to sleep.
So I spent a long time just sort of imitating her, really,
and, you know, the way
not necessarily Kate, but that character
and any other character I would see her play as I grew up,
I would try and sort of emulate that in some way
and just completely disappear into, into that character.
And I do feel like Kate has this effect on people
in the way that almost like, you know, like a musician
or a TV personality does, compared to, like, a lot
of film actors, maybe.
Like, she’s unbelievably relatable
as a person.
and, I think, in a lot of her roles,
very, kind of, approachable, weirdly.
Like, she feels very open as a person.
And so people adore her because of that.
And I think they can really feel that from the performances
that she plays, and that’s how she is in real life.
So, you know, it was weird because
when I did finally get to work with her,
it made total sense that we would get
on and that I would feel as comfortable as I do with her,
you know?
- So how much time on set is embracing that little kid
that watched 'Titanic' day after day?
Like, how much time is spent arguing with her
about whether Jack could have actually fit on the door?
Do you have those kinds of conversations with her on set?
No, but you know who did was James,
James McArdle, who plays my husband,
‘cause he’s, like, obsessed with ‘Titanic.’
[laughing]
Jimmy was over at my house one night,
and we were having dinner, and ‘Titanic’ came on,
and we were, like, sending her selfies
as we were watching her, like,
you know, freeze to death on a door.
We’re like, "Kate, look!
[laughing]
But I definitely think maybe the first couple of days
I was like, "Oh god, it’s Kate." But we had also
had this weird introduction
to one another because we had met quite a few times
in previous years at like events and parties and premieres.
And we interviewed each other for ‘Actors on Actors,’
and did, like, a little photo shoot together
and like we didn't know each other.
So we had to actually spent like quite a bit of
you know, industry time together before we got to work together.
- Which probably helps especially you know,
in a film like this, every bit of connection
emotional connection, connectivity helps
especially, you know, when you have to establish an intimacy
and there are some really intimate scenes
between you and Kate in this.
And, you know, I think of Kate's body of work
and she's done her fair share
of these kinds of scenes throughout her career.
And you, not so much. Do you lean on her when it comes
to those scenes to kind of make things as comfortable
as possible given that it's just
an inherently uncomfortable situation?
- I've done like a couple.
I haven’t done any that were as explicit
as that, but I have weirdly always felt fine doing them
because sex scenes unlike kissing scenes
which are out and out a kiss,
like if you have to kiss an actor, you're kissing an actor.
- Right.
- I get a bit nervous doing that sometimes,
but with a sex scene, it's like the furthest thing from sex
you can get. It's so technical and it's so, like, "Alright,
"why don't you just put your leg there, and put
I'll put my hand on this bum cheek,
or like, whatever. [laughing]
So it's very unsexy.
So I've never felt like overly nervous
about doing those kinds of scenes.
And she's obviously done a lot
of them, very explicit ones as well.
So I think we were good at like taking care of one another
but we also were kind of like given the reins
by [director Francis Lee] in terms of the choreography
in the sex scenes that we had together.
So we came up with the movements ourselves
and he sort of stepped back and let us do that
which was great.
So we knew exactly what was gonna happen.
I knew what she was gonna do next.
She knew what I was gonna do next.
So there was nothing that was unplanned.
- Right.
- There weren't gonna be any surprises.
And I think that can be the most nerve-wracking thing
is when you don't know what the other actor is gonna do.
Or the director says like, just go with it.
That's nerve wracking.
But we were really lucky that we had a plan, so.
- Have you been going through a Timmy Chalamet withdrawal?
You've obviously done a bunch of movies
in recent years with him.
We still have 'French Dispatch,' I don't know
if you guys actually share any scenes in that one.
- No.
- No you don't?
- It's hard. It's hard not seeing that hair every day.
[laughing]
That floppy French hair.
- Luxurious locks of Chalamet.
- Yeah.
[laughing]
- Are you intrigued as, as everybody is
I mean, I've followed his career so closely
and I've gotten to know him a bit.
I'm so excited to see him
in like the hands of like a Denis Villeneuve
on that scale in a movie like 'Dune.'
Do you guys like talk about career trajectory and choices?
Do you have those kinds of conversations
with each other?
- Yeah, we do.
And we did actually speak
about 'Dune,' and that was a really new venture for him.
And I've certainly never done anything close to that scale.
And, you know, I think it's, it's really important
for him to, to keep the integrity of the work,
regardless of how big or small a movie is.
Like, he has an awful lot of respect for the craft, I think.
Like, I know he really looked up
to a lot of the older actors on
and it is really wonderful for him to get to work with them.
So he's really great at sort of being like, I want to learn
from you, you know. He doesn't have any ego on that way.
Like, he really wants to soak up
everything he can from the people around him.
And I obviously, I feel very kind of protective
over him and, and I talked to him as well.
Like, I think it was before 'Ammonite' came up
when we were maybe rehearsing for 'Little Women,' and
I was like, "I feel like
I wanna go do something really, really
small and kind of intimate
and something that is just stripped back a little bit now,
you know, and we would chat about that.
And then with that, 'Ammonite' came up
and you know, it was perfect. But yeah, it's great.
It's great to have people that are going through similar.
I mean, Jesus, I'm not going through what,
the kind of stratospheric fame Timmy's had,
but I think it's really good
for us to all have people to speak
these experiences, you know?
- But you referenced it,
it is intriguing to me, looking at your career,
and you know, we've talked a bunch over the years.
Like, you've somehow charted this path
where you've gotten all this acclaim,
all these Oscar nominations,
and everything, and you've really
never done the big, ginormous franchise thing,
even though I know there's been talk at times.
There was like,
Oh, is she gonna play Scarlet Witch
In 'The Avengers' and 'Fantastic Four,' whatever.
Like, do you think about it like,
it all works out for a reason?
Like, your career would be a lot different right now.
- Yeah.
- Maybe not better or worse,
but different, if you were, say, Scarlet Witch
in 'The Avengers' and doing all those movies year after year.
- Yeah, like, it absolutely would
because I've gone up for big things
and I just like, haven't gotten them as well.
[laughing] So there's that.
I feel like people can sense, like, "She's not, not the
not the studio stuff we’ll get, you know.
If it's something that I would love to do
like, I would love to do a big - I’d love to do a Bond.
Or I really wanna do is like, I want to play
like, a villain in a Bond film, or something like that.
That would be incredible, - Come on.
[laughing]
But I’d love to do something really (beep) big.
But I think its, yeah, I think it’s worked out fine.
I'm very happy with the stuff that I've gotten to do.
And, I think because, you know, I started off
indie, indie, indie land, and that’s what I really love
in terms of like, the kind of atmosphere and the sort
of creative control that you have
when you're on those types of films.
So, that’s what I was saying to Timmy that day.
Although ‘Little Women’ had that as well,
but, you know, I wanted to go back
to like, some very small - but yeah, I think it's, it's worked out great.
And you know, if something like that came up then,
then brilliant.
But yeah, it hasn’t really - it just hasn’t.
They just haven’t given me anything, so.
I think it’s working out so far. So far, so good.
You also obviously have this amazing collaboration
going with Greta Gerwig.
Do you guys stay in touch?
Have you talked about what the next collaboration would be?
- No, we haven't, like I sort of,
[laughing]
When we - it was the day after the Oscars
and I, I said to her, I was like, "You know,
I know you're going to have to do something without me.
[laughing]
I was like, "And I just want to let you know, when that day comes, I’ll be OK."
[laughing]
- It's like you're talking to an ex.
Be like, "It’s OK, you can move on without me.
We’ll still have each other, but.
- Yeah, "You can do one film that I'm not in.
And I want you to know you have my blessing.
And she was like, "OK." [laughing]
- "I just want you to be happy, yeah.
- "I just want you to be happy,
but I then want you to put me in the next one, obviously.
But no, I mean, I think we'll just keep working together.
Like, we’re so lucky
with the relationship that we have.
Like, we'll text each other every kind of few weeks
but when we really come together, it's when we're working,
and I think all of our energy kind of goes into each other.
And I think we're both the same
in that like when we’re not working
we're very much like going back to our family
and our mates and stuff. But yeah,
we just have this very special relationship
where, like, kind of like, you know,
with your best friend that you've grown up with,
where you could go, like, a month or two months
without speaking to each other,
and it's always the same when you come back together.
So yeah.
- You tend to work a fair amount.
This obviously has been a big kind of red light
pause year for, for most of us, many of us
for a variety of unexpected reasons.
You have 'French Dispatch' coming.
But as far as I know you haven't shot anything else.
Like, what has this year been for you?
Has it been just sort of getting back
to real life and connect, reconnecting with people,
or are you finding ways to work
and express yourself creatively?
- There's been a lot of stuff in development now,
a lot of projects that have the time to go
into development properly.
There’s a lot of scripts coming up, like only recently,
I feel like, that are like really good and really interesting
and very different and stuff that I've never seen before.
And I think that that's in light of
you know, Me Too, Black Lives Matter,
the Trump era, like the whole thing, you know,
when, when all this started to happen
over the last few years, and people would say, like,
Oh, have you started to see a difference
in the sort of female roles that are starting to come in?
And I didn't for a while, but now I'm starting to see it.
And that's quite exciting to see like properly, you know
well-written, well-rounded characters in really cool films.
So that's been really exciting
to just read the stuff that's out there
that's kind of floating about.
- I remember way back when you briefly did
the Twitter thing, and clearly
for whatever reason, it didn't feel right for you.
I'm curious, you know, social media is obviously a big part
of most people's lives.
Are you out there? Are you lurking?
Do you have the secret TikTok account?
What are you doing?
- Oh, no, I'm not on anything.
I had an Instagram made, like years ago,
and I got locked out of it and I just
haven't bothered to remember my passwords.
So, I think that's been deleted.
I haven't been on anything in years.
And for me, I didn't like, for me personally,
the distraction of it. I'm also just not good
with my phone, where - as my publicist would know,
if I get too many work texts or emails
I'll just turn my phone off, because it's stressing me out.
So I think social media is just -
which is very irresponsible, and it's
definitely not something that grown-ups should do,
but there you go.
But yeah, so I think social media just takes that on
to a whole new level of like stress.
And also I think what it's allowed me to do instead is
like have little group chats with like my actual friends
and, you know, they'll share things with me,
they'll share memes or photographs or videos or whatever.
And that's kind of how I keep in touch with -
- Speaking of memes, are you aware of how popular
the, you jumping out of the car
in the beginning of 'Lady Bird' GIF is?
It's like one of my favorites, it's one of my go-tos.
Do you use it?
- I don't know if I've ever used a meme that I'm in,
you know. But you know the one I really love is,
people have used it for everything, and everyone keeps sending it
to me, like when lockdown happened, and its like, I’m not
I'm not gonna have a drink this week or whatever.
And then it's the meme of jokes
saying, "I tried and I failed.
"I just - I can't, I can't."
[laughing]
That's the one I get the most. - Perfect.