- Rami, you've had some interesting mustaches
over your career.
I feel like you are the go-to guy for cool facial hair.
Do you feel like this is a natural evolution for you?
- I like a 'tache.
It's a good look.
It's my mustache in the movie.
- Talk about it.
- I ended up keeping it for a couple months after.
Remember? - Yeah, I do.
- Went to Margo's house to just-
we play brother and sister in the film
so we wanted to work on a bunch of stuff,
and I auditioned it for Margot.
I go, "What do you think?"
And she goes, "If you can grow a 'tache"-
- You should. - "You should."
And I did.
- Congratulations on the new film, guys. 'Amsterdam.'
This cast is bonkers.
This is just like one-tenth of the amazing cast.
I would imagine the only people that get more excited
about an ensemble like this,
more than the audience even,
is probably you guys.
When you hear it all coming together
and you hear like, "Oh wait,
I'm gonna do scenes with Robert De Niro and Taylor Swift."
That must be pretty cool.
Talk to me a little bit about what it's like
as you see the ensemble come together
and who got you excited as you approached the filmmaking.
- Honestly, I just started to drop hints
to [director David O. Russell],
'cause at some point he just kept saying,
so-and-so just joined, and so-and-so just joined.
And I started thinking,
"I should just start telling him
the actors that I'm dying to work with
and see if it works his way to the back of his brain."
I'm like, "Oh, Michael Shannon."
You know, I mean, it was a dream come true.
It was like ticking off the bucket list of people
you wanna work with.
Everyone who joined is genuinely an actor
that I've admired for so, so long.
You know, the other thing is
people say don't meet your heroes,
but there was absolutely
not one moment where I regretted working with anyone.
I was like, "They're even better than I imagined."
- [John David] Yeah.
- David and I, we would be talking about,
well, he was like,
"I really want you to do this movie.
I don't know that you can play Margot's brother."
And I was like, "Yeah, who are you actually gonna find
to play Margot's brother?"
'Cause I mean, from an aesthetic point of view.
I'm like, "Yeah, fair enough."
He was like, "I need someone with blue eyes."
I'm like, "I have blue eyes, David."
It's gonna work." But-
- I know he said the same thing to me.
He's like, "Do you think Rami and you could be siblings?"
And I was like, "Do you know what?
We both have really wide jaws.
I think if you put a dark-haired wig on me,
I actually think we can do the sibling thing."
- And that's exactly what they did.
- Yeah, that's what we did.
And also, if you look at my siblings,
you'd be like, "You guys are related. What?"
So. - Exactly.
But same. I mean, David and I were talking,
he was like, "So here are the actresses
I'm considering to play your wife in the movie."
He's like, "Who do you like?"
And that's what was so special about it.
So really-
- Very collaborative. - Weigh in.
Let you weigh in on everything.
- I actually don't think I've worked with a director
as collaborative in the development processes as David.
He started talking to me about the script,
like, years before we even went into prep
and not just in a superficial way,
in a genuinely "Let's talk this through."
Yeah, pretty remarkable, the process.
- Are there special nerves on a day,
Margot and John David,
when you go to set
and know you're going to be singing alongside Taylor Swift
in a scene?
Are you secretly like, wait-
- Singing at all.
- If I sing well enough, will I be on the next album?
Is this my- [Laughs]
- That's why we signed up for this film.
We were really angling for-
- We knew what time it was.
Yeah, this was an audition the whole time.
Yeah, to get on that album.
- I know I'm always supposed to sing kinda well here,
but maybe if I really do well,
a whole new avenue. - Listen Taylor,
I got some tour ideas, some merch ideas,
you know what I'm saying?
I’m thinking me and you on the cover of the next album.
- I've wrote some lyrics. - Things like that.
Just spit-balling stuff like that
'cause I know everything. - We're workshopping here.
- Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
I mean, the thing is though about this film
it was about, well, what language are we speaking today?
Are we speaking or are we gonna sing?
And are we singing or speaking
in that particular language? So-
- Yeah, and that's not a metaphor.
Like literally- - Literally.
- What language- - What are we speaking
or singing? - Portuguese? French?
I mean, there's no time to prepare.
You just have to hope that you can suddenly
speak in a different language
or sing opera at the drop of a hat.
Sometimes David would hum something and then say,
"Did you hear what I just hummed?
Can you now harmonize that thing I just hummed?
Give me a three part harmony and in French,
but it can't be normal French.
It's gonna be, like, made up French."
And you'd be like,
"Is this what drama school is like
'cause I never went and I don't know that I can do that."
- Yeah.
- Taylor handled it so- - Oh my god.
She was like less intimidated by all the seasoned actors.
- She didn't seem bothered at anything.
- At all. I was like,
"JD, today we're gonna meet Bob De Niro.
We're gonna do a scene with Robert De Niro today."
I'd be freaking out.
Taylor walks into anything,
she'd be like, "Hey, guys."
- "Just yell action, I'm ready."
- "What are we doing?
"Are we doing singing?
"Yeah, OK, cool."
Not bothered.
She's so impressive.
- Speaking of singing,
who's the karaoke ringer in this group?
Is it the guy that won the Oscar
for playing Freddie Mercury?
Are you all singers in your day to day?
- Bale can sing. - It's Christian.
Out of everyone you would expect to be
an amazing singer, and a lot of people are,
Christian is an amazing singer.
- Shocking.
- Christmas album coming soon.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- You all have had fascinatingly interesting
different sorts of careers.
So I wanna talk to you all a little bit about
the diversity of your careers.
For instance, we've had one Bond villain in the group, Rami.
Who among your two co-stars sitting to your left
should be a Bond villain?
Who has the chops?
Who would make a better Bond villain?
- You would be the one they never see coming.
They'd get to it and be like, "He's the bad guy."
- I think-
- They'd see me coming.
They’d be like, “She’s the baddie.”
[Laughs]
- You got different accents and stuff.
You know what I'm saying.
- It could be like a Mr. and Mrs. Smith Bond villain.
- We're workshopping it. I like it.
Two of the three of you have worked with Christopher Nolan.
What is Margot doing wrong?
What does Margot need to do?
What's going on?
- What's Nolan got against me?
Does he not wanna work with me?
- Write him a letter.
- Yeah, I should.
- I loved working with that man.
I gotta say,
God, blessed to work with some phenomenal auteurs
and I-
- [Margot] Is it true he wears a suit every day?
- I find him so calm on set.
Maybe not with you.
- No, surprisingly funny, too.
- Yeah, very funny.
- He had a great sense of humor.
- Yeah.
- Does he wear a suit every day on set?
- Yep. - Yeah.
- I heard that. I love that.
- Very classy. - But he'll quote
'Wayne's World 2' or, that's what we were doing.
Stuff like that.
- He quoted 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' to me
when I talked to him and I was like,
wait, this is not Christopher Nolan I thought
I was getting. Amazing.
- It surprised me, his sense of humor.
- He loves 'MacGruber.'
- Oh, that's right.
- Wait, 'MacGruber,' that-?
- Yes. - Wow, OK.
- Margot's mind is blown.
Margot has done, of course,
the comic book thing once or twice.
Who among your co-stars here should don spandex
and battle evil doers?
Should it be Rami or John David?
- We're going around the block here, aren't we?
This is good. - Mm. I don't know.
You'd both crush it.
- I've worn spandex.
(John David laughs) - You've done spandex.
- I did that, so.
- I think JD has a very, like,
I think you've got hero quality.
I feel like you definitely should.
- Hero quality. - Thank you so much.
- Hero quality.
- That's a compliment or is that-
- Definitely. - [JD] Or is that critique?
- It's OK. It's OK, Rami.
- I see you saving the world is what I'm saying.
I can see that.
- Destroying the world, saving the world.
- I can see Rami destroying it.
I can see JD saving the world.
- Is there a music biopic for your two friends, Rami?
Should Margot or John David,
any musicians you guys have daydreamed about?
- This is good.
- They all know for a fact that I can't sing
'cause we had to sing all the time in 'Amsterdam.'
So, don't know.
- So no singing in 'Barbie' I take it, Margot.
- There actually is.
- It became a musical.
- Oh, really? - Wait, what?
- I will say no more, but you will hear me sing.
- You singing in there? - Oh, god.
- You seem so happy about it.
- No, no, no.
You are gonna die when you see.
'Cause you're gonna watch this one particular moment
and you're gonna go,
"I know for a fact that she was mortified."
I literally, like, you will know more than anyone
how embarrassed I was in this one particular moment.
- I did recently catch up with your buddy Ryan [Gosling],
who dropped the "Kenergy" line with me.
Do you approve of the Kenergy line?
Did you workshop that with him?
I feel like he's focus-grouped that.
- I don't wanna give anything away,
but I see some potential hashtags in the future
that will be super applicable
both to the movie and just, you know, the world.
- One thing I do wanna ask you about, Margot,
we're talking about superhero stuff.
Harley [Quinn] has been mentioned as potentially -
we don't know who [Lady] Gaga is playing
in this 'Joker' sequel,
but it's rumored that she could play Harley.
I don't know if you know anything,
but like, is that, I don't know,
does that feel weird to you that someone else like Gaga,
such a talent, would have a different interpretation
of a character that you love so much?
Or is that cool and exciting, or what?
- It makes me so happy
because I said from the very beginning,
it's all I want is for Harley Quinn
to be one of those characters,
the way, like, Macbeth or Batman,
always gets passed, you know,
from great actor to great actor.
And it's kind of like someone gets to do their Batman
or someone gets to do their Macbeth or someone, you know?
And I feel like in not so many cases
are they female characters. Queen Elizabeth I,
but like beyond that,
which I got to have a crack out as well,
which I was honored to do.
I was like, "Wow, Cate Blanchett did Queen Elizabeth I.
Now I get to."
It's such an honor to have built a foundation strong enough
that Harley can now be one of those characters
that other actors get to have a go at playing.
And I think she'll do something incredible with it.
- Talk to me a little bit about,
we were talking, full circle, at the beginning
about David O. Russell runs a set like nobody else,
the collaborative nature,
you talked about it.
What's the strangest, coolest,
weirdest direction you've gotten from David
or any filmmaker in your career?
Is there one that sticks out, like,
"Oh, that's an interesting thing to say to me
in this moment."
- I have a, if you'll allow me to name drop,
a [Martin] Scorsese.
He said to me, and I got no direction.
I mean, he would tell stories endlessly on set,
which I love.
I'd just sit by the monitors
and he'd just tell these amazing stories,
but he wouldn't actually, like, give direction.
He was kinda like, "That's your job."
But the one piece of direction I got
I think in the whole shooting of 'The Wolf of Wall Street,'
in one scene, he just goes, "Be on your toes more,
like a boxer, on your toes more."
And then he walked away
and I didn't know if he meant metaphorically,
like, jump on the lines a little quicker
or physically lean forward,
'cause maybe I wasn't in shot correctly.
So I was like did a bit of both, but you know,
being that 'Raging Bull' is an iconic film
and a favorite of mine,
I was like, "You just got a piece of direction
from Scorsese and it was a boxing reference."
- [Rami] That's cool.
- And I still not really sure what to make of it,
but I love it.
- What did you do?
- Yeah, but I was curious-
- I did both.
I did both.
- I was gonna say, yeah.
- As for David, you know what my favorite -
it wasn't a piece of direction.
He was giving JD and I a piece of direction,
but David on set of 'Amsterdam,'
you know, because it was so soon after COVID,
was extremely COVID conscious.
He would wear two masks, his glasses that he wears,
a face shield, and then a beekeeper's hat.
So getting direction from David sounds a little like this.
(Margot mumbles)
And you'd be like, what?
And he'd be like. (Margot mumbles)
And you're like, "I have no idea what you did just said,"
but do you remember the day where he came in?
He said something and he was finishing talking
as he was walking backwards
and he tripped over some chords.
That light almost came down.
Remember at the theater?
He, like, almost died in front of us.
And we were trying to listen to his direction
but also just trying to stop him from dying.
He tripped over, like, c-stands were flying down.
At the end of it,
I didn't hear what he actually said,
but I did think in my head, I was like,
"I'm about to watch David O. Russel be electrocuted
by so much lighting equipment."
- And because of his sound was muffled sometimes,
and he gets so passionate, he start like looking,
he would like squat down and be looking up
and give direction: "I need you to (indistinct)."
And he get these hands going.
He's very passionate about-
- [Josh] You're like, I don't even know-
- I don't remember that.
- How do I even know if this is
David O. Russell under that, right?
How do I even know under that beekeeper outfit?
That could be anybody.
- Oh, you know. - You know.
- You know. - Because no director
is ever closer to you while you're at -
if this is a scene in a David O. Russell film right now,
David would literally be sitting under this chair.
I'm not kidding.
- She's not kidding.
- Literally, be under this chair.
With his iPad monitor
and you can't understand him,
but he'll be right there.
It's hilarious.
- Yeah. There would be moments,
"Are you hiding under a table right now?"
- Or he'd just be under that.
- I know. - Yeah.
- There's a table in front of us here.
- Yeah. - And he would be.
- When I check in with you, Margot,
I like to just make sure that 'Star Wars'
has still not entered your -
what? - Uh-uh.
- Do you guys know this?
- Still in my back pocket.
Josh knows this.
I've never watched any 'Star Wars' film ever.
- You told me that on set, too.
- It really rattled you.
- I ain't gonna lie, I was a little disappointed.
- See, and this is why I don't watch it
because watching people's reactions
when I say that I've never seen a 'Star Wars'
is so entertaining and people get so mad.
But honestly, for me,
it's like I have this thing in my back pocket
that I can save for a rainy day.
And one day I'm gonna get to sit down
and watch 'Star Wars' for the first time ever,
all at once. - Just arrogant.
- No, you guys don't have that ahead of you.
I do. That's in my future.