(upbeat music)
- Hi this is Mariah Gelo from the Hollywood Reporter
and I'm in studio today with Andie MacDowell.
- Hi there.
- Hi!
Thank you so much for coming.
- So happy to be here.
- Right off the bat,
your new movie is called Love After Love.
It's really beautiful.
- Thank you.
- It's really natural.
It's, stunning.
- Yeah.
I'm so glad you liked it.
I feel like that too, I really like this movie.
Russ had a very creative idea, really did his homework
and it's like a piece of art.
It really truly is beautiful and I'm surrounded by
so many great actors.
It was a very creative experience.
The process was amazing to participate in.
- Was there a lot of improv?
- There was improv, there was improv.
The script was gorgeous so it wasn't like.
He wanted to have that real feeling of conversation
and richness that, you know, is in the movie
and also the dialogue that he wrote for me is
I really liked it because my character I think she
comes across as super intelligent.
And I love the way it was written, I liked what I said,
I always thought it was kind of offbeat and interesting.
But at the same time, I managed to come up with some
good improv that's in the movie.
That whole first scene is all improv.
- That first scene is amazing.
- The first scene is great.
- It really is.
It's the bell that brings you in.
You see that first scene, and you're like okay
I'm gonna get a blanket and I'm gonna settle into
these people's lives.
You have really interesting chemistry with Chris O'Dowd,
who plays your son.
- Yes.
- [Mariah] It's really sparky.
It's a very sparky chemistry.
Can you tell me how that came about?
- Well, it was a lot, it was intentional that these
two characters had no boundaries, emotional boundaries.
It's not that we had any kind of
sexual attraction to each other at all.
But questionable as to what our relationship was,
it was more than mother and son.
It was I'm too much in his life
and he's too much in my life to be healthy.
So it was there, but then, Chris really got on my nerves.
(both laugh)
He did!
Chris is a very strong alpha man.
He is a very strong alpha man.
And I am somewhat of an alpha woman.
And I think actually that's
kind of what those characters were too.
Chris more or less set the tone for how we would
get the scenes together,
how we would rehearse a scene.
I had a hard time with it because
his process is extremely slow and very meticulous.
I really enjoy experimenting
just like let's go!
Let's do this!
I have that kind of like ooh I just wanna do it so bad.
I had to let go of that.
He won, he was gonna win.
I was not gonna be alpha.
I was not about to be alpha.
And so I think a lot of that energy,
it just kind of helped with these characters.
I was having these feelings.
Yeah, so it all worked.
(laughing)
- That's a real family dynamic.
- [Mariah] Yes! It is.
Okay guys, you can see my bra,
but I really like the interview
so all I'm gonna do if you don't mind
is take two seconds to put this jacket on.
(laughing)
Now you can not see the bra.
Okay, relief.
Here we go.
- Well let's talk a little bit about that,
because this is a role where you are
a little more undressed than you usually are.
- Yes, and I don't want anybody to get too
excited about the nudity.
(laughing)
I have to say, that Dree and Chris' scenes are super hot.
They are super hot.
Mine are very vulnerable,
there is interesting way that...
Nudity was very important to us.
There's the nudity with my husband as he's dying,
it's because it's the human body,
it's almost like we're revealing our souls to people.
My nudity is nothing to get too excited about,
it's really just a mature woman.
It's a way of seeing her pain as well and
it is truly revealing, her soul.
And also being with a man, and what that feels like
after her husband is gone,
and finally learning to enjoy being with a man.
So the nudity was very important
and I had not done it in the past.
This really called for it, it's not gratuitous,
it's not at all unnecessary it's very necessary.
- I mean it plays into the role of Suzanne that she is
a stunningly beautiful woman.
- Oh I'm so glad you said that, thank you so much.
I'm pretty hard on myself.
- It plays into the character because her and her son
are the same kind of person.
Somebody who is very shiny and very sexual and very outgoing
and needs an anchor in their life of somebody
who's the father figure that they lost.
- We lost our anchor, that is for sure.
And I think that, he provided a
certain stability to these very creative people.
I think that we have probably,
me, I was always probably this person
that just kept him excited, because you never knew
what it was, he was grounding,
and the kids too we're like that.
And when he was gone, we were adrift for awhile
we had to learn how to ground ourselves.
And that was a process.
- What is it like to play that very natural family role?
You've already spoken a little bit about
your relationship with Chris and how you had to
create this dynamic with him.
What was it like to film these scenes
these very subtle vignettes?
- It was interesting, 'cause that whole first scene
and Gareth Williams we got by accident.
My husband, and I think he did such a brilliant job
playing this character, I thought he was so good.
Anyway, with James; everybody was...
We got great actors.
That first scene, that first scene I was watching the camera
I couldn't help myself.
And I kept thinking they're not on me.
(laughing)
Because there were bits and pieces,
I could never tell.
I'd be doing really good stuff right?
But the camera is nowhere near me.
I was like man!
So I kind of didn't know what bit and piece for sure
they got cause they had so many people to take care of
and there was a lot to do.
I really like what they got in the end.
Yeah, I was pleased with what they got.
- You want to have more roles like this I assume?
- I would give anything, anything to play more
interesting characters like this.
Yeah, I would love that.
I really enjoy my job.
I find it very fulfilling.
- And in this past year, when you've seen
the world take notice that Hollywood needs to lead the way
for diversity and for equality.
- Yes, I wish it had happened sooner for me.
Because I really was tortured at 40.
I had so many crazy interviews,
and you know the funny thing is when someone says to you
because they said it to all women,
"So now you're not gonna work, how does that feel?"
It feels terrible,
but at the same time there was this little voice was like,
"Don't whine, you don't want to be a complainer."
I would think this, this is the truth,
because all the men are in control
I would think, you don't want those men to not want you
because they think you're a whiner.
But this year has been so brilliant
not just for the Me Too,
but Time's Up I think is so relevant.
It is past time for us to be treated
with a little bit of respect.
We've been so disrespected, and it's been okay.
It is fascinating.
I think power is very seductive,
I think it must feel so good.
They've been entitled for so long that they thought that
this was really the way it's suppose to be.
They really did.
- When I think about that I think about the 30s and the 40s
when there were so many Hollywood actresses
that were driving the box office.
- Yeah, and some people say that.
Yes.
And it is true, it is true, but they were still
demeaned in certain ways at that point too.
- Absolutely, they absolutely were.
But they were creating the box office straw
that people often say.
- Yeah like this kookoo thing.
How can they say, to be surprised that
a female lead can have success in a
movie that can draw people in, that's insane.
But they have been saying that for a good while.
And we have always said what about in the 40s?
We have said that, but in the 40s they did always put them
with men 20 years older than them.
And I have an issue with that too.
I don't mind it, just let women do the same thing.
I want to be seen as equally beautiful,
and what happens is, when you continue to put
older men and younger women, you send the message that
older men are still attractive.
Psychologically that's what goes on,
that's what the world takes in.
If we started doing the same, then women could finally
have the same privilege to be seen as sexy.
As they get older.
And that's what I'm hoping for,
that's what I would like to happen for my kids,
because it has also been very painful for me,
to not feel that I am, just because of my age
but yet my male counterparts are.
I'm sitting here, but there's no difference between us,
what's the difference?
Most of them have a lot more lines than me.
Because they don't do anything to take care of themselves.
- They don't wear sunblock.
- Well they don't have to.
(laughing)
They don't have to.
The more rugged and crinkly and messed up they get
the better we think they are.
What's that about, you know?
But we're suppose to stay looking like children.
- It's going to take some time,
but we'll see a change in how people look at
everyone once these movies become more realistic,
more written through the perspective of women.
- And also equals, socially equal.
It's gonna take time though.
- And playing with different ideas.
- But it's not gonna happen tomorrow
because it's really hard to get people to change.
Especially when they're spoiled
and they've had things their way for a long time.
They're like what are you talking about?
- Are there any characters from your past movies that you
would like to see revisited?
Somebody you think you could get a more in depth look of?
- I'm not that crazy about, people always say,
"Let's do Groundhog Day again."
First of all, Bill Murray is never gonna do it.
So you can forget that.
I know him, he's not doing it.
I would to rate the roles as far as
what's okay for women to do?
I wanna be as sexy as my male counterparts,
that's really what I want to do.
Because it has been such an issue for me,
I've been so completely frustrated with that whole
way of thinking.
Anytime a woman is with a younger man
they want to write it in that there's a reason for it.
And that really gets me, this really gets me.
Because what does that mean?
You're superior to me?
Because you're a man?
That really frustrates me.
So I would like to see a lot more of that start to happen,
because I want women to be able to get older and feel
as beautiful as men, I want them to realize
that we are human beings and we age just the same.
They get pot bellies, they get stuff going on back here,
they do, but we still think they're handsome.
And I want women to be able to do whatever happens to women.
And for us to be seen as super sexy.
You know?
To the end just like they get to be.
That's what I want.
- [Mariah] I look forward to new characters
and new movies from you.
- Oh thank you honey.
Thank you so much.
- Love After Love is in theaters on March 30th.
Thank you guys.