(upbeat percussion music)
- Hi, this is Marya Gullo, from the Hollywood Reporter,
and I'm in studio with Vicky Krieps today.
Hi Vicky, how are you?
- Hello, good.
- We're here to talk about the the "Phantom Thread,"
which is getting a lot of attention.
I just wanted to say that I've seen it three times.
I feel like, the first time, you see it for the plot twists,
which there always will be with a P.T. Anderson movie.
The second time, you get to really get into
the performances, because now you know
what's going to happen.
And then the third time, it's just, like, taking in
the set pieces and all the beautiful camera angles.
- Yeah, and I would say, the eighth time, you'll understand.
- (laughs) Yeah, right, by the eighth time, you understand.
Yeah, I mean, it's so amazing to try to get into
the head of your character, Alma.
Like, she's so interesting.
Like, you go into this movie, and you're like,
"Oh, there's another very powerful man and his new muse,"
and you just think,
"Oh, I know the way this is gonna go,"
and it doesn't, it doesn't.
This is a character who really kind of
commands a lot of attention in the movie.
- Yeah, she's, even for me, and I know Alma,
but even for me, Alma is so,
I realize now when I talk about her, you know,
what she actually is as a whole.
She's so out of the box, really,
like out of any kind of way that you would think
you could define a woman, you know?
It's almost as if she exists in between being a woman and a,
not a man, but a not-woman, you know?
It's like, I don't know, she's, yeah, she's just, free.
- If we get to talk to her, talk about
her character as a whole, right?
Just knowing that we have both seen the movie
and know what happens, is there, like, a mission statement?
Is there, like, a core definition of who she is
that you really feel you tapped into?
Did you have, like, you know, a definition for that?
- No, I think what I just said is closest,
that she's, she doesn't need a definition to be.
And because she doesn't need a definition,
she can be so strong.
If I ever understood her as some kind of figure,
then it was only due to the time she lives in, you know?
Or the social upbringing she had.
- Right, okay, so like, her backstory, basically.
- And who she is according to, yeah.
'Cause it was different back then than nowadays, you know?
As a woman, you, when you were a woman in the '50s,
that meant many things.
You couldn't just be who you wanted to be,
in a way, you know?
You had to apply to very, many rules and, you know,
expectations, and so what's interesting is that
she does apply to all of this, or, like,
not apply, I always look for words, I'm sorry.
- Oh yeah, she fits into the mold of a '50s woman.
- Yes, and, exactly, and even very,
she's good at it, you know?
She's like a good school girl, like, I mean,
she's not questioning to be this '50s woman.
That's what she is.
She's a waitress.
She's learned to be a waitress and to serve other people
and to, you know, as a working-class woman,
to have her position, she's not questioning this position,
but she doesn't need to because
she doesn't need this definition,
so it makes her free, and this makes her strong.
Not her background, or her money, or whatever.
- Right, right, and a lot of, a lot of her backstory
was kind of stripped away by editing.
- Yeah. - Which kind of gives her
even more of a very present character.
- Yeah. - And then also,
with P.T. Anderson's filmmaking style,
you didn't meet Daniel Day-Lewis until the first day
that you filmed with him, is that correct?
- Yeah.
Well, I met him in London.
We met to read the script once.
- Oh, okay, right, but you didn't rehearse.
- We didn't rehearse at all.
I just had to trust Paul, that's what I did.
I really don't feel like I did anything, really.
I just trusted Paul, I listened what was happening
around me, and I tried to answer
as honest as I could, in a way.
And everything, what I knew, was what I gave
Alma as a backstory, in a way.
She came from, and for this, I really took it
from my grandmother, you know.
I tried to understand what it means to be a young woman
in the war, you know, and then seeing people die around you,
close family members, and having to leave your country,
go to a new country, be an immigrant, you know.
All of this explains why she's how she is.
- How adaptable she is.
- Yes, and ready to be submissive, in a way.
'Cause in the beginning, she is submissive, as you say.
You know, you watch the movie and you think,
"Oh, another one like this, poor, poor girl,
and she's going to be lost.
What is he going to do to her?"
But keeps her own strength, like a secret almost.
- And you said before that when you were
creating her character or trying to get into her,
that you filled her with emptiness.
- Yeah.
- What did that entail?
- I did it intuitively on one hand.
I did it because I knew I would meet someone
who's a method actor and didn't know much
about method acting, and I didn't want to know much,
because I knew Alma has to be very free,
so I tried to become empty.
And it's like meditation, almost.
You know, when you try to forget who you are,
but more who you want to be.
So, I had to try and forget what I want to be as an actress
or who I want to be as an actress,
what kind of movie I would like to do,
or, you know, what it means being an actress
in a Paul Thomas Anderson movie.
All these ideas, I tried to get rid of
and create, like, a silence.
- Did that work more on certain days than others?
Did you have your good days and your bad days?
'Cause it feels like the idea of kind of emptying out
all of your expectations-- - Well, the emptying out--
- Could be tough from day to day.
- Yes.
The emptying out was for the beginning really.
And then, as soon as Alma enters the world,
you know, it was filling up, and, you know.
And then it was, very soon, it was very full.
And then it meant more trying to
move around all of the stuff.
So what I mean by what she was filled up with,
his life, his, you know, his house,
his clothes, his art, you know, his everything,
like the world he was living in as this creator.
And she had to live in this world,
and so she had to move around all these little,
like on a checkboard, you know?
Do you say "chess"?
Chess. - Yeah.
- Just little chess figurines.
And then it was more being someone in a room that's so full
that you cannot breathe, you know?
It was, it took, most of my energy went into
being so submissive and, you know, restrained.
You know, really almost holding my breath.
And just telling the story in my eyes, you know,
because there's no way I could move or go
being with Reynolds Woodcock.
So, that's interesting that I made her empty
in the beginning, and then it was so full.
- Yeah, and that way, the tension is
kind of showing in the later scenes.
- Yeah. - That's so interesting.
So, I saw, like, a parallel between your character
and, like, what was actually going on for you as an actress.
Your character is, like, an ingenue,
the new muse, the new person, and the House of Woodcock
is this brother, sister who work
really closely and tightly together.
And I felt like there was kind of a parallel between that
and P.T. Anderson and Daniel Day-Lewis,
and their partnership is so interconnected.
How did it feel to kind of start working with a team
that's so interconnected already?
- Hmm.
Look, when I first met them, the great thing that happened
between the three of us, I would say, is we met
and it didn't feel like getting to know someone new,
but more like seeing someone again,
you know, haven't seen for a long time.
I don't know why that was like this.
So, this helped me to try and trust
that it's going to be fine.
But then going to the set, because we didn't rehearse,
and then being at the set, it was very,
like for Alma, it was very
hard also to work in a place where people are so,
you know, I don't know how,
I wouldn't say they are sure of what they do,
because I think Paul and Daniel are both open to defect
that as an actor or as a creator,
you never really know what you're doing.
You're always in a quest for something.
You're always searching.
But still, you know, only by the fact
that they've been doing it for such a long time,
it gives them a whole different approach
and, you know, that's something I could feel
and, I don't know, I just pretended that I wasn't scared.
(both laugh) - That's good.
It's funny that Daniel Day-Lewis has such a reputation.
But then every time you see him in interviews,
he seems so warm and nice.
What experience did you have with him?
- Well, as Reynolds Woodcock, he was, you know,
very intense, because Reynolds is very intense.
But I didn't have a,
I didn't have the experience everyone expected to.
I mean, it's not like he didn't break character.
I mean, of course, that's what he does,
he doesn't break character, so he is Reynolds Woodcock,
but once you find your way with Reynolds Woodcock,
it's fine, and in between the takes, it's not like,
you know, he's going to be mean to me
as he would be mean in the scene to Alma.
See what I mean?
- And you, a couple of times, you went
and asked Reynolds, off camera, questions.
There was one story about a costume
that you wanted to wear, or?
- Yeah, I, you know, I started to realize that
Reynolds Woodcock had, because he was very intense,
people were, you know, behaving around him, you know?
Like this, "Ooh, he said this," or "We cannot,"
and very early on, I wasn't ready to accept, you know?
I was like, "What?"
You know, I have to know it by myself, you know?
I'm not going to accept just knowing it like this.
So, there was one thing, was that he was always in his room
and people were always whispering,
"He's there," or "He's coming," or "He's..."
And I was like, what?
What are they all whispering, you know?
Why, is he sick or what?
And, "No, but he's in his green room."
Yeah, but I want to ask a question.
"No, but you cannot go."
What?
So, I just went over the grass and went to the house,
up the stairs, knocked at the door, and asked my question.
So, you see, everything, a lot of it was rounded.
So the same thing was, one day I asked the costume designer,
why do we not have strapless dresses in the whole movie?
It's so '50s, it's so nice.
"No, Reynolds Woodcock wouldn't do that
because he would find it vulgar."
I wasn't ready to accept it, so I went to Reynolds Woodcock
and I asked, "So, you find that vulgar?"
And then he said, "No, I didn't say,"
or, I don't remember what he exactly said,
but what came out was that he said,
he didn't mean it for Alma.
He said, "It would be different for you."
So, I went back to the costume designer and I said,
"Yeah, we can do strapless."
- Yes, Reynolds says it's okay.
- Yeah, exactly. - Yeah, it's okay for Alma,
she's a true lady. - Yeah.
- (laughs) That's so great. - It's funny, yeah.
- What was it like getting costumed
for all of those dresses?
I assume it must have been
a very intense period of costuming.
I mean, have you ever worn that many changes
of clothes for a job? - No.
No, not nearly.
I mean, I have done period drama,
but there was never a movie that
only had the possibility to do this, you know.
And all my characters, I think many of them were poor,
so when you're poor, you only have one dress.
- Right. - You know?
- So, no, that was the first time.
And it was a job on it's own to learn
how to wear the dresses and to behave like I should
and, you know, like in the '50s and (sighs).
It was very tiring.
I couldn't really, like (groans).
- Did you pick up any good tips for how to present yourself
when you're wearing something like a strapless gown?
Is there a certain--
- No, I think it was the dress itself that was always
telling very strongly how you should wear it.
- [Marya] Ah, I see.
- 'Cause, you know, some dresses--
- [Marya] They're so structured.
- Yeah, exactly, you have, like, a corset
or you have a suspender belt or,
how does it feel to wear lace or silk?
It gives you different feeling, you know?
Like, if you have a bodice like this
and you're going to do like this,
then everything's going to be--
- It's gonna spill out the top. (laughs)
- You know? - Yeah.
- Yeah, or the same with shoes.
You know, you cannot just walk like you walk in trainers,
or it will just, it won't look very good.
(both laugh)
Yeah, so I think the clothes themselves,
they were telling me what to do.
- Amazing.
So, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the reveal.
I know, we don't wanna ruin anything for the viewers.
They should go out and see the movie themselves.
But there's, a lot of people, I don't think, will,
when they see this movie, they're gonna think,
"Oh, it's a period piece."
But there is a, (sighs) how would you call this?
I wanna say it's, like, metaphorically kinky twist. (laughs)
- Yeah.
- I mean, how did you feel to, like,
take on a roll like that?
I mean, this is, like, unique experience to kind of
go into the world of, like, I don't know, like,
twisted minds, or a...
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - You know?
- Well, I didn't know how--
- [Marya] But there's nothing vulgar about it.
- No.
- [Marya] As Reynolds Woodcock would say. (laughs)
- Yeah, so I think I was just trusting Paul, again,
and that it would be right for some reason.
And it was difficult to understand
how you could come to such a twist.
Why would someone come up with this?
Why would someone go this way and actually do this?
You know, I really had to understand,
because I would never do it, you know, myself.
And then I just accepted that I wouldn't understand.
And then I just accepted that I don't have to understand.
Okay.
And I just went with my intuition,
trying to feel why someone would do this,
and I found that, you know, if you love someone,
I think, you do the weirdest things.
- (laughs) Yeah, that's true. - Alone or together, you know?
And I think that's only what it's portraying.
It's just saying, you know, how weird it can become
when you're in love, but also how beautiful it can become,
but also how difficult it can be.
And, you know, there's no rule, there's no,
there's nothing that doesn't happen
at home when people are alone.
- Yeah, that's true, that's true.
And it does allow people to
kind of draw their own conclusions.
- Yeah, and I think this is just
a playful way of telling this.
- (laughs) That's very lovely.
So, I have four more questions for you before I let you go.
This is our "First, Best, Last, Worst" questions.
So, the first job that made you think,
"I've made it, now I've finally made it."
And it doesn't necessarily have to be
the job where you actually made it.
- It hasn't happened yet.
- [Marya] (laughs) Always looking forward.
- This is the first movie I did where people tell me
that this is, "How does it feel that now you are..."
Well, it doesn't feel anything
except that you keep asking me.
So, I haven't had this, no.
- You haven't had the moment.
Best costume you've had to wear for a job.
Is there a particular costume, or maybe a dress,
from this movie, that really...
- In this movie, there were many beautiful dresses and,
I don't know, what, best costume I ever wore?
Maybe, I think, the clothes Alma's wearing
when she goes on the mountain.
- Ah. - The mountaineer clothes.
I think that was the best costume.
- Nice.
The last time you made a mistake, and how did you fix it.
- Oh God.
Probably two minutes ago, sitting like this on the chair.
How did I fix it?
Like this.
- (laughs) Good.
Worst audition experience.
- Worst audition experience.
Oh, ah, oh yeah, once I went to an audition,
I will not tell you what it was, but I honestly realized,
while I was there, that I didn't read the script.
- [Marya] Oh no.
- I'd honestly sit down and realized,
"Oh, fuck, I didn't read the script."
But I think it wasn't meant to be, so maybe that's why.
- Definitely.
Vicky Krieps, thank you so much.
- That was good way of saying my name.
- Oh really? - Yeah, Krieps, yeah.
Krieps, Krieps, yeah. - Thank you so much.
Well, the movie is "Phantom Thread,"
and thank you so much for joining us,
and we will see you during award season.
- Thank you.
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