-I know one thing you do in your down time,
which was very sweet of you.
Last time you were here, my son Axel had just been born,
and you knitted this wonderful hat for him.
-I did. -That is just incredible.
And it was -- His noggin is so big.
It, like, basically fit him for like a day and a half.
But he was so warm. But I am glad that you found
other people to make your beautiful hats for.
This is your cat, yeah? -That is my cat.
[ Laughter ]
Coco. She -- I forced the hat upon her.
-I'm very surprised -- I mean, Coco seems okay with it,
which I'm shocked that a cat would be okay with this.
-I mean, she's tolerant. -Uh-huh.
-But I feel like that's her general personality.
-Isn't that -- Yeah, that's the height of any cat.
That's the highest grade. -Yeah.
-That's five stars for a cat, is tolerance.
-You know, I'll take it.
-Last time you were here, you were doing "Deadpool."
And we were talking about the fact that being
in a comic-book movie was very --
A lot of credit, a lot of cachet, I should say, with --
You have German cousins. You have a younger brother.
And now you're in the "Joker" movie.
Is it helping again?
Is this even giving you more cred with them?
-Um, absolutely. I think --
I just recently saw my cousins in Germany,
and they wanted me to sign stuff and blah, blah, blah.
And I'm, like "I'm your family." -Yeah.
-Um, but, no. It's great.
I think the familial validation, you know, it matters most.
-Yeah, absolutely. -I'm glad to have it.
-It is funny. I'm realizing now not one of my cousins
has ever asked for my autograph.
-Really? -I'm kind of heartbroken.
I also thought it was weird. Nothing.
-Not your tears, your blood. Nothing?
-Nothing. You -- It's a beautifully acted film.
Obviously, you're fantastic in it.
Joaquin Phoenix is transformative.
His body is -- I'm happy you did not have to do that.
-Yeah.
-And I read he ate an apple a day.
-Yeah. -Was that then weird
when you had sort of a lunch break for everybody
that you were --
You guys were eating human meals and he was --
-He usually disappeared during lunch,
but on set we always have something called Crafty,
which is just food available for everyone else
because you're around for 12 hours a day.
And I was pretty unabashedly
kind of eating my way through the day.
But he would sometimes cheat, too,
and have like three pretzels.
-Yeah. -Then run off.
-There was a scene where he looked a little flabby,
and I thought that was probably pretzel day.
-That was pretzel day for sure.
-Then the Joker got real chubby in this one scene.
You also worked with Natalie Portman
in a film that's coming out called "Lucy in the Sky."
This is based on a true story about astronauts.
So you got to be an astronaut. -Yeah, I did. Yes.
-Did you enjoy putting on the astronaut costume?
Was that something that you found exciting?
-Yeah, I think what's nice about being an actor is, like,
I feel, like there are all these career doors that have closed
for me, like being an athlete or an astronaut.
And it's really fun to kind of put on something
and be, like "Oh, yeah. I have the cred
and, you know, the intelligence to be here."
But it is fun to play in that,
and that is something that, like, draws me to performing,
is I get to play all these other versions of myself.
-And it's true, because the other path
to wearing an astronaut outfit is like 20 years of training,
I feel like. -Yeah.
-And for you to just get cast, I mean, you really cut the line.
-I know. Yeah. -And then "Atlanta."
You guys are going back to work there.
Is that exciting?
-Yeah, I'm really looking forward to that.
I think that show, to me,
feels so much like a homecoming or like a family thing,
I think, in a way 'cause we all really
found footing in our careers on that show
and feel sort of like this safe place,
and so, you know, I'm really looking forward
to going back and doing that.
-How long of a break will it have been
between the last time you guys were on set together?
-My God. We were on set together end of 2017.
-Oh, wow. Really? -So almost -- almost two years.
-That's really great, and it's nice --
I mean, I feel, like that show is in such safe hands
based on the quality,
the level of quality and consistency of it,
so it's nice to know that it will come back.
And I think there are sometimes shows where you worry
about a layoff, and that's one where I have no worries at all.
-Ah, thank you. We have a lovely group chat going on, so...
I think, you know, the energy is still there
and everybody is excited to go back.
-That's great. Well, it's always so lovely to have you here.
Congratulations on everything. Zazie Beetz, everybody.