-Our next guest is an Academy-Award nominated actress
you know from films such as "Boys Don't Cry"
and "Queen and Slim" and shows like
"Big Love" and "American Horror Story".
She is starring in the second isn't of Netflix's
"Russian Doll" and "The Girl from Plainville,"
which is available now on Hulu.
Let's take a look.
-I have a great mom, a great dad.
For the most part.
Great parents.
I have all my grandparents.
But I'm still depressed,
and one of them is gonna pass away.
I don't know when, but...
when they do, I'm going to have to be there for my parents,
to be there for my mom and dad
whenever their parents pass away.
-Please welcome to the show, Chloe Sevigny.
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
I'm so happy to have you here.
-Thank you. I'm pleased to be here.
-This has been sort of a theme for us this week,
but you also are one of these people who were lucky enough
to have a pandemic baby.
-I do. I have a pandemic baby, yes.
-Congratulations.
-Did you get him one of those t-shirts, like,
"the pandemic ruined my birthday?"
-Oh, no, but is he about to turn two?
-He's about to turn two.
We're going to have his christening.
-Oh, christening, okay.
-Because May is jam-packed for us.
-Yeah. -I'm getting married
at the end of May. -Oh, congratulations.
-So I have, you know, his birthday, bachelorette, wedding.
I was like, how many things can I invite my friends to?
How many things will they actually come out for us?
-That's true. You got to kind of consolidate.
-Yes. -Is he old enough --
is aware that he sort of maybe missed some more parties than
he would have had at this point?
-Not yet, thank goodness, no.
Yes, I'm more like, you know, everyone is like,
"Can you see that I'm smiling?"
He doesn't know anything else but masks.
Masks have been his whole life.
-It's going to be amazing.
I think that people, you know, obviously,
we're not gonna know for years how it's actually affected kids,
but I think it's going to be so exciting
when they're like, "Wait, people have had this lower
half of their face the whole time?"
Now, I associate you so much with New York City,
and you've lived here for over two decades, but yet,
you did not grow up in the city,
and now you're going to have a New York kid.
This is what I think about all the time, having New York kids.
How do you feel about it so far?
What is it you want them to discover about the city?
-I just love the neighborhoods in the city.
And people always come to New York
and they stay in Times Square, which is fine.
But I'm like, you should go and stay in little pockets.
-Yeah. -And like, discover those
pockets and what's around.
Like, we go to local bakery every day,
the local juice place.
Pepe Rosso is his favorite restaurant.
He's like, "Pepe, Pepe, Pepe."
All he wants to do is go to Pepe.
Everybody knows him there and they pick him up.
And like, yes, we let them pick him up.
-Yeah. Perhaps we shouldn't.
Maybe we're not the best parents, but...
-I think if you go to a place like Pepe Rosso,
the expectation is someone's going to pick up your kid.
[ Laughter ]
Have you had any of those -- you know, again,
because New York can also be, I think just
parenting in general can be stressful.
Have you had any of the moments where you bring your kid out
in the world and you almost hit a breaking point?
-Yes, actually, one of the first times we brought him out,
I brought him to our local playground, Vesuvio,
and there was a little kid there who I could tell,
like, I already had a little bit of a problem with this kid.
-Yeah. -I was not so into this kid.
He was, like, maybe three,
and I was like, this kid's got attitude.
There is something about this kid.
And I had Vanja, my son, on my lap like this,
and the kid throws something at us.
It was like, this part of a lock, like, a metal thing.
I was like [ Gasps ].
I didn't know what I was going to do.
I was like, do I yell at the kid?
Do I yell at the mom? Do I yell at both of them?
I was losing my mind.
So I had to get up, walk out, calm down, breathe,
and like call my sister-in-law like, "What do I do?"
She was like, "you're gonna have to see this woman
all the time at the playground.
You better not pick a fight with her."
And I was like, "What about the kid?
Can I pick a fight with the kid?"
And now I see this kid walking around on Prince Street.
And I'm like, this kid.
I got it out for this kid.
-Yeah. So, your son is over it, but you're not?
-No. -Every time you pass him,
you're like, "I know you.
I remember what you did."
So you have two amazing shows out right now.
I want to talk about "Girl from Plainville" real quick.
You're getting incredible reviews, well deserved.
We're watching the show, my wife and I.
It's very intense.
Based on a true story.
Was it an exciting role to take on?
Because obviously, there is a lot behind it.
-I mean, "exciting," I'm not sure that's the right word.
But it's challenging, and I watched the documentary
that our show is kind of based on, "I Love You, Now Die."
I was very struck by the woman they asked me to play.
Just her strength of character, her resolve,
how soulful she was and how she spoke about her son,
and how she really wanted people to hear her son's story,
and that really propelled me to get on board with the project.
And Elle Fanning is in it, who I love and adore.
-Yeah, she's really wonderful in it.
-I think she's got great taste and she's an amazing actress,
and I think it's great for all of her young fans to tune in
and really think about the way they communicate via text.
It's so easy to read something and just write
a flippant response, but, you know,
we really have to consider.
-Yeah. You also to to --
I feel like, less challenging, certainly, emotionally,
but you did have to do a New England accident.
I will say, as a New Englander,
I thought you did a very nice job.
-Thank you. -Yeah.
I mean, it's one of those ones that sticks out
like a sore thumb when it's not.
-I would think I'm pretty bad at it, but, yes.
Yeah, I tried. I tried.
There is different levels of it in the show,
so I think I kind of get away with my minimal version.
-You did very nice job.
This is also very exciting.
"Russian Doll" with Natasha Lyonne,
which is a show, the first season I loved,
I was not alone in loving.
You've known Natasha forever.
Did you jump at the chance to do season 2 with her?
-Yeah, of course. I mean, I was in season 1.
One small, pivotal episode, and she asked me to come back,
and I said, of course, I want to hang out my my friends.
Who doesn't want to go to work with their friends?
You know, you're my best friend. You're hilarious.
You're fun to be around. You're passionate.
I love your -- I love your show.
There was a lot of pressure for the sophomoric effort.
-Yes, of course. -You know, for the second
season, everybody's like, is this going to be as good?
So it was very, like, high stakes.
-And she also directed a lot.
As a friend, does she direct well, knowing that you're
also her friend and not just an actor in her show?
-Yeah, I mean -- yeah.
[ Laughter ]
You know, she can probably get away with a few more things.
-Yeah. -That I let slide.
I want to try and help her relax into it, enjoy it,
and so maybe some of the snapping was directed at me,
because I could take it.
-Yeah, that's true.
At the end of the day, you guys had
the infrastructure in place that she could maybe
be a little bit harder on you.
-That's right. Just let it all out on me.
-I'm so excited to see that,
and congratulations again on "Girl from Plainville."
It's really wonderful, and it's so nice to have you here.
-Thank you so much. -You guys, that's Chloe Sevigny.
Second season of "Russian Doll" is streaming now on Netflix,
and new episodes of "The Girl from Plainville"
air Tuesdays on Hulu.