my guest tonight is an award-winning
actor known most for her roles in hbo's
west world across the universe
and is the voice of queen oduna in
frozen
it should be seen in the upcoming film
cajillionaire
which opens in select theaters this
friday i'm thrilled she's here i love
talking to her please welcome evan
rachel wood how
are you i'm good i'm really good how are
you doing
i'm good where are you right now
i'm at my house um i'm i'm still kind of
quarantining
in my home doing homeschool and trying
to
work and be a single mom all at once oh
my god that's
right i don't know anything i don't know
any basic math beyond say third grade
level
i honestly couldn't help my kids so i
give it i give it up for you
because that's tough to be a single
parent right now during covid to be
tough
yeah you should have seen me this
morning trying to zoom call uh
and work while he was supposed to be
doing school and i'm having this serious
conversation
he comes up behind me and he puts a
fireman hat on me and i
just i just looked at my meeting and
shrugged and you know at least
everyone's very compassionate with each
other right now so i think it's
it's fine but yeah it's it's pretty wild
it's pretty wild
well it sounds like you handled it well
in the 1970s when i was
a young man that age when we did stuff
like that to our parents
they lost it on us they sc you know
that's that's what happened that's what
used to happen in the good old days
yeah you just get a backhand like
there was no physical hitting but there
was that's good emotional scoring
emotional scarring
i love what you're wearing i love again
you have done such a cool thing
you are known for bringing uh very
classy cool pantsuit sort of looks
back into the public eye and i commend
you because you look amazing thank you
thank you very much just keeping up with
tradition yeah it's do you have a
what's your collection like is it
incredible at this point your collection
you know it's funny um i actually had a
friend call and ask me if she could
borrow
a suit the other day and i said i i
actually i don't have any
and she said what are you talking about
i was like i borrow all my clothes
really i don't i don't i don't actually
get to keep any of these suits
okay but um so you're literally
borrowing stuff like you'll
you'll find out that you have to zoom
with conan o'brien in 10 minutes and
you're running out the door
asking neighbors can i borrow a pant
suit
i have a very lovely stylist who helps
me out but but i don't actually get to
keep any of this you know i basically
model it and get
it back so it's all an illusion
we found this photo of you when you were
a little kid and you're still wearing a
suit
that's true actually i mean
yes i have i have been rocking the suits
for quite some time
yeah look at me look at my little look
at my little business haircut i have
no i love this it looks like you're
there to uh sue somebody
looks like you're a lawyer there
um you know all i was going for all of
us are trying to get through this the
best that we can
and we're finding ourselves making
decisions we might not make otherwise i
understand that you've been
fostering a dog you've been taking care
of a dog
temporarily is that true oh my god
what's his name yes this is tommy this
is tommy
he's a little old man
but he's like the sweetest dog ever yeah
um
you know i'm home all the time now
usually i'm working and traveling and i
can't take care of a dog but um
yeah i had a friend reach out i was not
planning on having a dog that day
and then the next thing i know i got i
got this guy so if you go to uh at
wagmore um if anybody's interested in
adopting little tommy i'm gonna have him
until he finds a forever home
okay i mean look at this look at his
face oh look at that guy
you know what i have to say he doesn't
look thrilled to be seeing me uh
his face kind of fell like oh that one
that
that hop that host huh all right okay
so uh i want to get the word out because
if someone's out there who would love a
sweet
uh older i would let's just say mature
a mature dog he's mature yes and and
it's at wagmore
yeah um and he's yeah he's a sweetie and
he's
very low maintenance you know he's he
doesn't he doesn't do a whole lot now
except just want to be cuddled and fed
and yeah so if anybody wants a little
tommy he's here
yeah i'm telling you as someone who's
quite a bit older than you that happens
later on
i want to be cuddled i want to be held
uh
occasionally dragged onto the porch to
take care of whatever i have to take
care of
and then drag back in again that's
exactly right
that's pretty much my life let's talk
about cajillionaire
um this is a very uh unusual and i mean
that in a good way movie
it's very uh distinctive
your character is i mean maybe you could
why don't you describe your character's
old dolio
well first of all the hair over i can
almost do it now because i've grown out
my hair
i see that but you have hair over your
face a lot of the time
and then your movements um
i mean you're a very gifted actor so i'm
not surprised that you can do this but
your movements are very distinctive and
almost look like
you you had to really think about how
this character moves
100 uh miranda july
the director and i would get together
and uh
do strange exercises and improvs to try
to find the physicality
we end up actually drawing a lot from
animals weirdly
um and and and so when people say what
did you base this character on i say a
proud lion
who became our our our sort of blueprint
for her
that's so interesting because um though
i'm not an actor when i started doing
uh the talk show many many years ago i
was thinking about
what who is who what do i want to embody
and i came up
with scared lemur you know just like
this is just just kind of like wide-eyed
nervous uh somewhat bird-like
so i i'm familiar with nailing it
[Laughter]
only i've been doing it for 27 years and
everyone's like
enough enough you know there's your
your um really impressive moment
in the film where you're sort of your
character is very sneaky has to be
because you really have to live by your
wits and your ability to
get around situations there's this scene
where you bend backwards and i thought
is that cgi
was that cgi when your character old
yo bends backwards no in fact this
happens to me a lot in my career
um like i i on the show i do westworld
yeah uh tiny show that i do um
yeah never heard it never heard of it um
like i had to ride a horse
at full speed with while shooting a
rifle so riding riding on a running
horse with no hands
holding this like heavy rifle and i and
i really did it
and everyone thought it was cgi or
thought i was strapped to the horse and
i was like no
and now with kajillionaire they think
that this is cgi or that i was on a wire
and i'm like no i'm
look i am actually doing doing these
things with my body
i'm actually doing this um it's not cgi
um
so how do you that was a weird skill is
that is that
yoga years of yoga do you did you have
no did you have like your spinal column
like a few vertebrae removes how do you
do that
okay i don't know why but i've weirdly
been somewhat of like a limbo
uh champion as as a child and growing up
i was i was always the one at
bar mitzvahs that won whatever weird
hat or prize you know if you could do
the limbo challenge and so i don't know
why it's just a strange skill that i
have that
okay now has become immortalized in this
film
i love yeah you brought up all my life
i've been a limbo champ
when never in my life have i been asked
to do limbo
it's never come true where where in the
world are you living that
you go to events and people like well
it's limbo time
well growing up as a kid it's like birth
in the 90s i don't know birthday parties
bar mitzvahs weddings just
weird weird things like that yeah limbo
you know last time that we were talking
you mentioned
that uh you're really into karaoke
and during covent i'm wondering is that
something you're able to do at home
do you do a lot of karaoke at home so
it's kind of gotten a bit out of hand i
i uh i have i i've managed to have homes
that have basements in them
and uh i it started
with like one little karaoke machine and
like a string of lights and it's evolved
into
uh the next house that i moved into had
a giant basement and i
i basically spent this year turning it
into
a 1960s tiki karaoke lounge
like with vintage furniture and like i
painted all the walls and i hung like
disco
lights and it's very elaborate like
somebody walked down there the other day
and
looked at me like i was crazy they were
like what is this
you know you know what it sounds like to
me evan it sounds like a code violation
it sounds like you are running a
legitimate polynesian restaurant
in your basement it i could
yes i could probably i need a permit for
this
um yeah so yes i have been able to carry
a few i actually just celebrated my 33rd
birthday and um
safely had you know people tested like
three
people who came over and we actually
reenacted like every broadway show in
the basement
complete with a version of it's a hard
knock life
with my friends with mops and brooms
doing a whole choreographed
number and it was it was wonderful yeah
it was very needed in such a
gloomy time it's just pure silliness
you're you're i know that you love
music and uh anyone who loves music or
even doing stand-up or working in front
of a live crowd
that's what we're all jonesing for
during covet i mean i miss i really miss
restaurants and i miss audiences
um and i'd love to eat
a really good meal in front of an
audience that would be my dream
to you know in covid fantastic yes
but i would like to just blow up blow
out my birthday candles you know you
can't even like people can't even blow
out their birthday candles on their
cakes
right that's right well you're banned uh
but it's evident zayn what was the last
um performance that you did what was the
last
could you remember because i can
remember my last live performance i
think was in this theater
like and then two days later everything
was shut down
so i have this fond memory do you
remember the last time that you
guys performed live yes the last time we
performed live every year we do
um an anti-valentine's day show we've
kind of
turned february 15th into the polar
opposite of valentine's day because our
band started with this idea i had of you
know
singles and broken-hearted people have
nowhere to go during this
holiday so i was like let's cram a bunch
of people into a bar and sing
just the saddest most depressing songs
about heartbreak
and misery and it turned out to be this
very cathartic amazing night so now
we've made it an annual thing um and so
yeah february 15th i believe was our
last show live
um and we just performed our first
streaming show
and you must be able to relate to this
how no one claps after anything that you
do like no one laughs at jokes
no one you mean are you talking about
during
during zoom or in my entire career
[Laughter]
uh i don't know during zoom i just
served that one at breakfast
um but i know what you mean because uh
we're just weird we're used to feedback
yeah
feeding off of the audience is energy we
have none of that and so you don't know
whether or not you're bombing or what um
we did a rage against the machine song
uh killing in the name
and man i think that's the first time
that song has ever been played to just a
room full of no one
and the song ends with me just screaming
at you i won't do what they tell me like
over and over and i really went for it
just
don't you tell me and then trash
like i'm like dripping sweat yeah it's
it's it's a very strange experience
yeah and then then the doorbell rings
and it's your postmates delivery
exactly exactly exactly or like somebody
interrupts the streaming with like a
text message or zoom call or something
sorry sorry my son
my son runs on a stage puts a fireman
hat on me you know
he's like that's how it works yeah
yeah maybe maybe you just have to shelve
rage against the machine
during you know until you get an
audience back or just lean in maybe we
should just only do crazy loud songs and
just just go for it
you know what i should start doing is
telling jokes and when i don't get a
response
lose my temper and yell as if
what the f's your problem yeah
man you know this is a pretty good joke
what's wrong with you and just
completely
escalate until i'm taken away that would
be great
there you go we're we're getting close
we're getting close uh let me make sure
i get this out
because cajillionaire uh really
a beautifully done it opens in select
theaters this friday
september 25th and uh also i want to
give another plug
for uh this dog that you're fostering
uh where is he let's get a home for this
guy
you know what yeah
what's the website again wagmore
wagmore w-a-g-m-o-r
great all right let's get him a home um
evan thank you so much for talking to me
thank you it's always so good to see you
i hope next time it's in person
yes next time i hope it's in person and
uh i'm going to get you more guitars for
your back wall because just one can look
sad
it is it is it is a little sad here i
agree you you got a whole setup
stuff everywhere junk it's not even mine
but um
thank you so much and stay safe and uh
belated happy birthday
thank you so much yeah you too