- Hi, I'm Krista Smith
and welcome to the Corner Booth.
Today, I have joining me,
Noah Baumbach and Adam Driver,
as the writer and director of "Marriage Story"
and one of the lead actors in "Marriage Story."
Great to see you guys.
- This is the thing,
he needs to know that I fought for him.
He wanted it until you didn't!
You used me so you could get out of LA.
(jazz music)
Oh, thank you, missus.
What is?
What's this?
- It's a Manila envelope, love.
Ooh, can I start over? - With my name on it.
- Ooh.
Oh.
Jesus.
Sorry.
You're served.
- The scene in the kitchen when you get served
is one of the best scenes on film.
I love that scene.
I wanna know about directing that and acting in that.
How much rehearsal, 'cause it's so physical.
It's actually almost mad-capped in a way.
- Yeah.
- How much rehearsal went into that
before you actually shot it?
- It's all extensively rehearsed and blocked so that we,
so everybody knows exactly where they're going.
I mean, and we-- - We actually rehearsed it
in a different house first. - Yeah, yeah.
Actually we originally had a different house
as Sandra's house and a different kitchen.
And we rehearsed it and walked the whole thing
and then while we were shooting that house fell through
so we had to then transpose the blocking into a new kitchen
in a new house.
I mean, it was difficult but it was,
I think I justified it as we were all where Charlie was.
He was both in a familiar place and a not familiar place.
So that's sort of how I justified,
"Oh, this will be good for the movie."
(Adam laughing)
But it's all very blocked out
and like you say,
I thought of that scene
on one level like a screwball comedy,
like something from the '30s and '40s
where people, like "His Girl Friday"
where people are gonna come in and out.
So on one level, it does have this sort of madcap
but then also there's this very serious envelope.
The other way of looking at it is almost like a thriller
that there's like a bomb hidden
under the table. - Yeah!
- And the audience knows and I love that,
if you can find that in a scene
where you have these very conflicting
genres or emotional content,
but then I think
when they work together,
it could be thrilling and it is,
it becomes a high-wire act of sorts
that takes these kind of actors to pull off.
- I don't know, I'm sorry.
- I was gonna warn you so it didn't become a thing.
Sorry.
- I feel like I'm in a dream.
- I hate to use the word bromance
but you've worked together four times.
- Right. Yeah. - I just used it,
I went for it. - It's a bromance.
It's a bromance. - Because it is
a unique situation
when a director and an actor work together over time.
And I wanna just talk about
what is your collaboration like?
What is it like to work with each other?
- Like Adam will call me about a movie we,
three movies ago,
he'll call me and say like,
"I think I know now how to do that scene,"
even though as far as I know
we can't go back into "Frances Ha."
(Adam laughing)
I guess you can.
But I find he's always thinking about it,
and he's thinking about things that are long over.
He's thinking about what we could do in the future.
He's thinking about what we're doing at the moment.
It's my favorite way to work
'cause it's so alive
and the characters start to feel that much more real
and that's why,
I only knew three things about this movie.
I had some notes, some ideas,
and I just, I brought them to Adam.
Just even to hear what he would have to say,
his immediate reactions,
so that when I'm writing it
and thinking of him doing these things,
in a way it's like another way
to get deeper into the material.
I have what I'm drawing from the world
but them I'm also thinking of Adam and Adam's physicality.
I don't think I would have written these scenes,
I know I wouldn't have,
had I not had him as a guide
both on the phone and sort of in my mind.
- Noah as a director is kind of the whole thing.
He's someone that works on something,
how I like to work on something.
There's no detail that is unimportant.
I'm not being very specific
but it's 'cause it's kind of more of a feeling
when you meet someone or you're,
wanna have a bromance with.
(Adam chuckling)
It just feels familiar in a way that,
you kind of dream that that's what it's gonna be like
with working with Noah, it is.
It would not be a career wasted
if we just,
if I just found a way to work on his movies until I die.
♪ Someone to hold you too close ♪
♪ Someone to hurt you too deep ♪
♪ Someone to sit in your chair ♪
♪ To ruin your sleep ♪
♪ It's true ♪
- Adam, when you read the script
and you got about 3/4 of the way through
and you realize you're gonna have to sing,
what were you thinking at that point?
- I knew that we were talking about "Being Alive"
being the song for a while,
but I didn't--
- The whole movie is just me reverse-engineering
Adam singing "Being Alive."
(laughing)
- I was gonna ask,
'cause it was like Noah figures out a way--
- I concocted this whole this divorce
so that Adam could sing "Being Alive"
at some point in the movie.
- And that's not not true.
- I felt like one of my tasks
was you have to arrive at this moment
and make it satisfying and great,
and give it a real reason to be,
because when he does it, it's gonna be amazing.
- What's great about Noah's a writer and director
is knowing when to have people say the thing
and then when a song
is maybe a better way for these performers to express that.
So I thought it was just a really great moment
in the script.
And then separately obviously
it's terrifying 'cause it's "Being Alive."
It's Sondheim, it's one of the great songs.
- What did you learn from being part of this film,
like acting it, doing it, the course of it?
Have you learned anything yourself?
And for you, I know it's deeply personal.
Do you come out the other side with any kind of,
I think differently today than I did a year ago?
- Well I see it,
I say, what's gratifying about showing it to people
is I see it reflected back in a way.
In talking to people about it,
I do feel like kind of
more of a shared experience of the movie
than maybe I have in the past.
- To echo what Noah was saying, it's just how,
it almost feels like I'm outside of it at this point.
So it almost,
it's beyond any ownership of any one person
to create something that's bigger than any one of us,
have those conversations
that we've been having with people afterwards,
it's like,
I don't know what you can ask for better than that.
Noah created this thing,
create space for a dialogue
and that's been really exciting.
I guess I've learned that that's rare.
(jazz music)