Latest / Kyle Meredith With... / Erika Christensen & Penelope Ann Miller on After All, Will Trent, and the Power of Quiet Stories

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Erika Christensen & Penelope Ann Miller on After All, Will Trent, and the Power of Quiet Stories · Kyle Meredith With...

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's easy to hear your favorite artist on WFPK from wherever you are.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Consequence podcast network.
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[SPEAKER_02]: and welcome to another edition of Kyle Meredith Whiff.
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[SPEAKER_02]: It's the interview series presented by WFPK, a WFPK.org consequence and the consequence podcast network.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Kyle Meredith with and please do leave a rating and a review wherever you're listing from those always help out so much.
1:00
[SPEAKER_02]: We've had some great guests.
1:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's see, I was just talking with Florence Welch, Florence and the machine.
1:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Funky Jensen was just here to discuss her new Netflix series, Amsterdam Empire.
1:11
[SPEAKER_02]: We hung out with the Kaiser Chiefs and Teenage fan club, Moby.
1:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, Michaela J. Rodriguez and Ron Funches dropped by to talk about the third season of loot on Apple TV+, broken social scene, Mary Chapin, Carbender, Marty Stewart, Ian asked very of the cults, they've all been here recently as well, just an example of what you get when you subscribe to the Kyle Meredith with podcast.
1:33
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's me Kyle Merritt.
1:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Today talking with two incredible actresses, Erica Christianson and Penelope and Miller.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Of course, Erica broke out in movies like Traffic and Swimfan in the early 2000s, then became network TV's face of emotionally complex women.
1:51
[SPEAKER_02]: with parenthood, and more recently, Will Trent, which is currently in as well.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And then Penelope and Miller, Hollywood royalty of the early 90s from Carlitos' way to the artist, she has worked to opposite Puccino, De Nero, and Brando, and even the invisible man.
2:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And today we get to talk about an indie movie that they've done together called After All.
2:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, the synopsis when Ellen returns home to care for her ailing mother and a strange teenage daughter, the three generations of women are confronted by buried secrets and the path toward love and forgiveness.
2:28
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's what we get to talk about.
2:29
[SPEAKER_02]: We get to talk about this movie after all.
2:32
[SPEAKER_02]: The three generation story about family, about forgiveness, specifically, really about generational trauma.
2:39
[SPEAKER_02]: We're going to start with Erica first.
2:42
[SPEAKER_02]: She also executive produced the whole thing and we get to dig into why she was drawn to this character.
2:47
[SPEAKER_02]: This character Ellen, a woman finally forced to grow up and how the film stillness and honesty set it apart from today's flashier fair.
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[SPEAKER_02]: So let's jump into it, talking about all that and some will trend as well.
3:01
[SPEAKER_02]: But mostly after all, it's Kyle Meredith with Erica Christianson.
3:06
[SPEAKER_03]: I like your records.
3:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Prince Bowie, REM, what's the big ones for you?
3:10
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, Prince, what is the red stripe shirt?
3:13
[SPEAKER_03]: Who's that?
3:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, it's my a hawk.
3:16
[SPEAKER_03]: What, Julie's an album?
3:18
[SPEAKER_02]: She released three albums.
3:19
[SPEAKER_03]: What?
3:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, she's one of the most incredible lyricists.
3:23
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm telling you right now.
3:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Wow.
3:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, like, turns out she can do the both of the things.
3:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
3:30
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's really well, too.
3:31
[SPEAKER_03]: That's incredible.
3:32
[SPEAKER_03]: I better listen to them.
3:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Go check it out.
3:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Recommended.
3:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Now I'm going to need an album from you.
3:39
[SPEAKER_02]: That's so.
3:40
[SPEAKER_04]: I'll think on that.
3:42
[SPEAKER_04]: I'll give you one.
3:43
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, although I also feel like there's probably nothing that you haven't heard.
3:46
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, like if you're, if you're like a real music guy.
3:50
[SPEAKER_02]: It surprised me.
3:50
[SPEAKER_02]: That's all me.
3:51
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, I'll try it.
3:53
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll try it.
3:53
[SPEAKER_02]: Hey, uh, after all, what a beautiful movie.
3:55
[SPEAKER_02]: What a beautiful movie.
3:57
[SPEAKER_03]: This is, thanks.
3:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Seriously.
3:59
[SPEAKER_02]: It's, um, you're so starring, but also executive producing.
4:04
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, that must have meant something like this must have meant something for you to jump in on on both sides.
4:09
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's funny, you know, by the time I came on board, I didn't develop, well, I did something.
4:16
[SPEAKER_04]: There was already a script and the finest thing was coming together.
4:20
[SPEAKER_04]: And so I definitely had a hand in continuing to develop it from when I came on board because that was November 2021, right?
4:33
[SPEAKER_04]: And then also in just putting it together as far as, you know, I called Zach Gilford to see if he would play Bobby and Michael Malay to see if he would play Ellen's boss.
4:51
[SPEAKER_04]: I could get this team right now.
4:53
[SPEAKER_04]: But they both brought so much.
4:55
[SPEAKER_04]: And then it takes, it takes a lot to just keep the show on the road.
5:02
[SPEAKER_04]: When you're making a movie like this that has a small budget and a small crew, and that's the passion, right?
5:10
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, there's got to be a reason.
5:14
[SPEAKER_02]: What's the line, right?
5:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Movies are impossible to make.
5:17
[SPEAKER_02]: They get it made, and to take a story like this.
5:21
[SPEAKER_02]: This is a heavy story, and this is a story that's not afraid of silence.
5:27
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, to be a little movie and for you to figure out a way to make it happen.
5:32
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, again, I guess that's what I'm asking is like, it's like, what did you see in it that made you know the road ahead is not going to be the easy one.
5:41
[SPEAKER_02]: And still say, let's do it.
5:42
[SPEAKER_04]: and still say let's go.
5:44
[SPEAKER_04]: I love this character.
5:48
[SPEAKER_04]: I loved Ellen.
5:49
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean the the whole story is really poignant, but I found her really interesting that she was sort of living like she was still 21 and at this point when we meet her is when life forces her to finally grow up.
6:12
[SPEAKER_04]: I think it's part of my dog that's Ronnie in the background.
6:19
[SPEAKER_04]: I feel like there's something also that that grabbed me about her and about this story where when we meet her, she's not ready, you know, she would just keep on going exactly the way she has been if she could.
6:35
[SPEAKER_04]: And she knows she's not doing great.
6:39
[SPEAKER_04]: She knows she's a mess, but she would just be having to be like, hey, I am who I am, you know, take it or leave it.
6:47
[SPEAKER_04]: So that little piece of her is interesting to me.
6:50
[SPEAKER_04]: And then also, you know, the whole family and their story and the way that unravels is it just so interesting.
6:57
[SPEAKER_04]: And then ultimately, you know, the hope that we find at the end is not sapy.
7:05
[SPEAKER_04]: It's sweet, but it's very grounded, the sort of open-ended, let's see how things go.
7:12
[SPEAKER_04]: And I really appreciate that, too.
7:15
[SPEAKER_02]: because of all those things that you're saying, as I was mentioning, you know, not being afraid of the silence, it like it does feel like a movie, not of this era, almost.
7:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Like it feels like a movie's, a lot of people wouldn't take a chance on, or it would be afraid to make, you know, and that's why it works, that's not why it works, it works for a lot of reasons, but it does work.
7:36
[SPEAKER_02]: In a time when a lot of people say this will work.
7:39
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's funny how they're always,
7:44
[SPEAKER_04]: the trends in filmmaking of, you know, what's working, let's do more of that.
7:49
[SPEAKER_04]: And, but human stories about relationships, and about people doing their best and encountering challenges that never expected and all of that, like, that's just life.
8:04
[SPEAKER_04]: And that will always have a place.
8:07
[SPEAKER_04]: in movie making, I'm sure of it.
8:12
[SPEAKER_04]: I was gonna say I hope, but no, I'm sure, I'm sure.
8:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, has to, it has to.
8:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'm gonna keep saying that.
8:20
[SPEAKER_04]: Not make movies about ourselves.
8:24
[SPEAKER_04]: I love like, you know, supernatural horror movies also, but there will always be a place for human conversation.
8:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And we'll be right back right after this.
8:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome back, it's Kyle Meredith with Erica Christensen.
8:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And for the stuff you all are tackling, I mean, there's generational trauma that was so much at the base of this.
8:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And to see you playing the way you're talking about, like she knows she's a mess, we don't exactly know if she's an alcoholic, but it feels like she might be an even thinking of on Will Trends with Angie, like, you know how to do that?
9:02
[SPEAKER_02]: without overplaying it like what's what is that how do you what is that come from and how did you end up playing two characters that sort of have a little bit of a similarity.
9:12
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah it's interesting because they did they do have that in common the we had just shot the pilot will trend when we made after all and I was I was in Austin Texas for after all when I got the call that we were going to
9:28
[SPEAKER_04]: that we got picked up when we were going to go to series.
9:30
[SPEAKER_04]: And it's funny, I feel like I have, I mean, I've been acting my whole life.
9:39
[SPEAKER_04]: And it's a visual medium mostly.
9:46
[SPEAKER_04]: So of course, what's represented visually matters, but from an acting standpoint,
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[SPEAKER_04]: rather than a filmmaker standpoint from an acting standpoint.
9:59
[SPEAKER_04]: If something is true, you don't have to prove it.
10:05
[SPEAKER_04]: It's just true.
10:06
[SPEAKER_04]: And so I think that's kind of how I've walked that line that you're talking about of, I don't need to...
10:18
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't need to do anything to prove to anyone, anything that's true about myself.
10:22
[SPEAKER_04]: Either you can sense it or not, but it's true, and that's all there is to that, you know?
10:28
[SPEAKER_02]: But that's it, you know, for you not to be stumbling around, you know, is, uh, I noticed that anyway.
10:34
[SPEAKER_02]: I noticed how well that was done, you know, in those moments.
10:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And, and I don't know, to be, like, I don't know how long this shoot was, but to be
10:48
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, there are different schools of acting and I'm sure there could be, but the one that I subscribed to is really that the most freedom for the character is in a strict demarcation so that
11:18
[SPEAKER_04]: And I don't take it home, I, you know, little things like she has an accent, like little things might have popped up where like, oh, that's a physicality and that's something that I'm kind of practicing or something and I was like, oh, wow, okay, there's that, but, but emotionally, um, a.
11:39
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't take it home, and it's being a creative endeavor, it's inherently fun, even though and it's an odd thing, but sometimes some of the heaviest
12:03
[SPEAKER_04]: scariest, most evil, most traumatic, you know, all of the things, those scenes are sometimes the most fun because they require even more creation to get away from the reality of, you know, like, just our day that we're having or, like, dang, it's hot outside or, you know,
12:33
[SPEAKER_04]: is so far from that circumstance and I think that's what makes it really fun is kind of a cheat word, you know, it's oversimplified, but it scratches an inch, you know.
12:50
[SPEAKER_04]: Which is why somebody was asking me the other day, you know, how do you choose these roles?
12:53
[SPEAKER_04]: Why do you choose these roles?
12:55
[SPEAKER_04]: Your whole life, like all these characters that are messed up in various ways.
12:59
[SPEAKER_04]: And I was like, I mean, now I don't know.
13:02
[SPEAKER_04]: Now I'm just looking for something that I think is cool.
13:06
[SPEAKER_04]: But when I started, I definitely wanted to get as far away from myself as I could because then I was really acting.
13:13
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, like, and I don't have that
13:20
[SPEAKER_04]: That's a valid thing to be like, it requires that much more creativity just creation of this other world that doesn't exist if it's very different.
13:33
[SPEAKER_02]: And then we're old, you said it's a minute ago, because you said it's a hot outside and I was talking to an LLP2 and she said it was hot inside.
13:40
[SPEAKER_02]: By the way, that was, that house, that house, the moment the very first scene, right?
13:45
[SPEAKER_02]: We see that house.
13:46
[SPEAKER_02]: And I thought, I hope we're in this house for this home and we because I want to be in, and you were.
13:52
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and it's such a great little house.
13:54
[SPEAKER_04]: It looks like a horror movie.
13:56
[SPEAKER_04]: It looks like, you know, I didn't have been a horror movie.
13:58
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it could have been.
14:00
[SPEAKER_04]: If we had been, you know, at earlier points and in these people's lives, yes, it was a horror movie.
14:07
[SPEAKER_04]: And the house looks so beautiful.
14:09
[SPEAKER_04]: The way that's super like wide lens.
14:10
[SPEAKER_04]: You can see everything.
14:12
[SPEAKER_04]: That whole environment is really, yeah.
14:14
[SPEAKER_04]: That house was great, but too hot.
14:17
[SPEAKER_04]: And no central air, of course.
14:19
[SPEAKER_02]: No central air.
14:19
[SPEAKER_02]: One, that's what she's saying.
14:20
[SPEAKER_02]: One, and I remember that, like, I grew up, I mean, Kentucky, but I grew up in the middle of nowhere.
14:25
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, Louisville now, it's a nice city.
14:27
[SPEAKER_02]: But you know, growing up in the 80s and 90s in the middle of nowhere, like everything about those surroundings are like, yeah, no, I lived that.
14:36
[SPEAKER_02]: How was there?
14:37
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, that's, you can feel it, too.
14:40
[SPEAKER_04]: I, you can feel the weight of the air.
14:43
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's what I'm saying like, like for this to be an indie film, you know, in some all movie as they say, it feels so big the way it's done and the photography, of course, is beautiful on this thing and just the way that you all pull this off because that, again, you know, I will say this for a beautiful story but if it's not done the right way,
15:07
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it could have been boring, right?
15:08
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's not, it's not even a little bit boring, but you can, like, choices are made and you go the wrong way and that's what happens.
15:14
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
15:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
15:16
[SPEAKER_04]: It could have been boring or it could have been ultimately like a downer and it's not that either, without being saccharine, it's not a downer, not like we're all so we're all screwed.
15:31
[SPEAKER_04]: I'll just doom to repeat the sins of our fathers
15:37
[SPEAKER_02]: I was the accent work by the way, did have you done Southern accent before?
15:41
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, no, not, I had it not work, I've done it's funny.
15:45
[SPEAKER_04]: There's like various, I have friends that do a German accent like that's the default for some reason that the default accent like you know when you're just being silly is German.
15:58
[SPEAKER_04]: So like, I have a bunch of friends that do German accents, including my brother who, I know this is not the answer of your question, I'll get to it.
16:05
[SPEAKER_04]: I did a film called All It Once.
16:10
[SPEAKER_04]: That's a great little indie movie too about an artist with a versioning career in New York in September of 2001.
16:18
[SPEAKER_04]: And he's the godfather of his close friends to Little Girls.
16:26
[SPEAKER_04]: then they perish and then I love an attacks and he's a guy now that has two young girls and then the story kicks up ten years later and it's their life the three of them and it's fantastic but my brother auditioned for this character who's an art critic and then he got this job and then
16:52
[SPEAKER_04]: Do you think I'm gonna do this with a German accent?
16:54
[SPEAKER_04]: And I was like, watch this.
16:57
[SPEAKER_04]: Because, of course, he pulls it out of his hat.
17:00
[SPEAKER_04]: And that's the take that made the film, too.
17:03
[SPEAKER_04]: It was incredibly satisfying.
17:05
[SPEAKER_04]: However, I have a bunch of family and Tennessee.
17:11
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, my in-laws and that whole side of the family, and it's interesting, like, studying the similarities and differences, because this is my hands, this is the map.
17:21
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm like, oh, this is East Texas, and the funny thing is just, um, as with any sort of character thing, you just have to go there and once you're there, then it's fine.
17:38
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, it's just, if you look at it from over here, you're like, oh, I don't want to go there, but then you go there and like, oh, yeah.
17:43
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's fine.
17:46
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, and and trying to make those decisions about well, she's been in Austin this long and so she doesn't really have an accent, but then she gets pissed off all the time so then the accent comes back and you know, and then she goes home so of course the accent's back and all that definitely how that works.
18:00
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, of course.
18:01
[SPEAKER_02]: I call my parents the accent comes on.
18:04
[SPEAKER_02]: That's yeah, is the whole thing.
18:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, no, but now I'm entertained.
18:08
[SPEAKER_02]: I would love to see her with a German accent on top of that so I think that scene.
18:14
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll hit the cutting room floor.
18:16
[SPEAKER_04]: That would be fascinating.
18:17
[SPEAKER_04]: No, yeah.
18:19
[SPEAKER_04]: If you get the chance, what is it?
18:20
[SPEAKER_04]: What is it streaming?
18:22
[SPEAKER_04]: This great little film called All It Once.
18:25
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll look for it.
18:26
[SPEAKER_02]: I will.
18:26
[SPEAKER_02]: It's being released.
18:27
[SPEAKER_04]: I already watched after all.
18:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
18:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
18:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I'm so great to see Will Trent and the continued success of that as well.
18:35
[SPEAKER_02]: And just returning to characters always seems so interesting to me how do you have to tap back into something kind of a thing, you know, affectations at all that like remembering is it muscle memory?
18:45
[SPEAKER_04]: It is, but it's also the same little, whatever the same little thing is that formed my first sense of her going back and grabbing that.
18:59
[SPEAKER_04]: The first scenes that ever where I ever inhabited Angie on my phone, and I have a couple times throughout the years gone and been like, who is she again?
19:12
[SPEAKER_04]: And just like checked in, Liz Helden's who is one of our showrunners, and you know, adapted the books to the degree that they are adapted for our show.
19:24
[SPEAKER_04]: She wrote the pilot is what I'm getting at.
19:27
[SPEAKER_04]: She and Dan
19:29
[SPEAKER_04]: one of the first things that she said about Angie is she thinks you're an idiot and I was like oh that's what a great jumping off point yeah it's so clear and so like you know you just go little the little touchstones of like all right and then and at this point for coming on four years into a show what's great is that these characters relationships
19:58
[SPEAKER_04]: Now we've lived them, you know, now we don't have to read about their backstory or imagine it.
20:04
[SPEAKER_04]: We've lived all of it together.
20:06
[SPEAKER_04]: So all of that is right there.
20:09
[SPEAKER_04]: It's like I was saying before, you don't have to prove it if it's true.
20:12
[SPEAKER_04]: It's just right there.
20:14
[SPEAKER_02]: I love seeing what you guys do.
20:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Congratulations on that.
20:16
[SPEAKER_02]: But seriously, getting after all out into the world.
20:20
[SPEAKER_02]: I know it's small, no small feat.
20:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's such a beautiful movie.
20:24
[SPEAKER_02]: And the story in the acting and everything.
20:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Congratulations on it.
20:26
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you.
20:27
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you.
20:28
[SPEAKER_04]: We're going to do it.
20:29
[SPEAKER_02]: We're going to commit out there and thanks so much for taking the time to talk.
20:34
[SPEAKER_04]: It's been a pleasure.
20:35
[SPEAKER_04]: Absolutely.
20:35
[SPEAKER_02]: And we'll be right back right after this.
20:38
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, welcome back.
20:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Now we're going to move on to Penelope and Miller who, of course, also stars in this film.
20:44
[SPEAKER_02]: We get to discuss playing a mother facing dementia, channeling her Texas roots, embracing the discomfort of shooting in a sweltering, Austin House to create something authentic.
20:56
[SPEAKER_02]: So part two, right here, as we talk about the movie after all, it's Kyle and Meredith with Penelope and Miller.
21:02
[SPEAKER_05]: All right.
21:03
[SPEAKER_02]: What a beautiful movie.
21:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Honestly.
21:05
[SPEAKER_05]: You.
21:06
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you.
21:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Didn't know what I was getting into.
21:08
[SPEAKER_02]: You get the trailer, you know, and it's, it's a little bit of that, like, what is this going to be and to get into it?
21:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's a heavy movie.
21:15
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a very heavy movie, but it's beautifully acted and, and, and got this cinematography is incredible on it.
21:28
[SPEAKER_06]: Like, such high quality, how they shot it, and our DP cinematographer, Pascal, I just was fantastic.
21:41
[SPEAKER_06]: And I know that Kirsten really had a vision and the way they filmed it, you know, made it look, just didn't make it look cheap.
21:49
[SPEAKER_06]: Like you said, made it feel so cinematic.
21:52
[SPEAKER_06]: And, um,
21:53
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, so it's nice to hear you say that because I know they would really appreciate hearing that and, you know, and the thing is it's very heavy and dramatic, but there's a lot of humor in it, which I think is important, like some of my favorite films like, you know, terms of indierment, what I love about that movie is that, you know, there's, there's all the, the, the pathos and the depth and the tragedy, but then there's also so much humor, which comes with life, you know, not purposefully, but
22:23
[SPEAKER_02]: and especially the release when you do get to those moments in a movie like this, I mean they just hit so much art.
22:28
[SPEAKER_02]: But that's what, so when you, when you get a script like this, you know, where you kind of understand what the project's going to mean, emotionally speaking.
22:38
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you hear people like, oh, I read it and I was so excited to get into it.
22:42
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think when you get it, like that's not the word I would use if I saw like excitement isn't exactly it.
22:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Like what is it for you?
22:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Is it excitement?
22:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Is it worry?
22:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Is it the challenge?
22:51
[SPEAKER_06]: Um, you know, it changes depending on the project.
22:55
[SPEAKER_06]: I knew getting into this because of the kind of role I was playing.
22:59
[SPEAKER_06]: It was definitely a departure from what people are used to seeing me do.
23:02
[SPEAKER_06]: Um, I was excited because
23:07
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, but I was also challenging at the same time.
23:09
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm playing this older woman and certainly not a glamour role.
23:13
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, vanity just had to go right out the window.
23:16
[SPEAKER_06]: Um, but I thought she was such a rich character.
23:19
[SPEAKER_06]: And she had so much so many layers to her.
23:23
[SPEAKER_06]: And it reminded me of a lot of relatives.
23:25
[SPEAKER_06]: I sort of incorporated a lot of relatives that I had throughout Texas.
23:28
[SPEAKER_06]: My dad grew up in Texas, so it just reminded me of various, you know,
23:34
[SPEAKER_06]: uh, relatives that I've had, um, and so I sort of was channeling them and, um, and I just thought, I just thought she was a great character.
23:44
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, what was I a little was a bit daunting at times to to pull it off because I didn't want to play a caricature.
23:52
[SPEAKER_06]: I just wanted to play a real person, but a character.
23:55
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, she's, there are people out there that are true characters.
23:58
[SPEAKER_06]: So,
24:00
[SPEAKER_06]: I just thought it was such a well-rounded, well-written role as all the female roles are in this movie, and I loved that it was about these relationships.
24:09
[SPEAKER_06]: with these, this family that have been estranged and have gone through a lot and have a very dark past and are trying to sort of figure out how to come together because of this tragic event.
24:23
[SPEAKER_06]: And it just, I think there's so much to relate to with family, you know, whether you have issues, you know, a strangement with your mom or dad or, you know, a daughter or a sister or brother or whatever, at the case might be, and we've all gone through those,
24:37
[SPEAKER_06]: experiences in different ways.
24:40
[SPEAKER_06]: And so, you know, how to forgive, how to let go of the past, how to love again, how to come together, how to make it work, like all that stuff.
24:48
[SPEAKER_06]: And for instance, Eric and I are such different people.
24:53
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, not this personally, yes, but like even in these roles.
24:58
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, we're so
25:00
[SPEAKER_06]: vastly apart in who we are as people, even though she's my daughter, and I thought that was so interesting.
25:06
[SPEAKER_06]: And then our granddaughter, you know, played by Kiara, who gave a beautiful performance.
25:10
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, everybody was so different and how we learned how to get along.
25:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
25:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and especially it did hit home for me.
25:18
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I'm not in Texas.
25:19
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm in Kentucky, which still, I mean, there's so much internalizing in the south.
25:25
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that comes a lot.
25:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Even you were talking about being told to go outside and get a switch.
25:34
[SPEAKER_02]: I was told that so many times when I was a kid, but that's not a phrase you hear in a movie a lot of the time.
25:40
[SPEAKER_06]: No, no, no.
25:41
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, my dad definitely had him on that would say that.
25:45
[SPEAKER_06]: In fact, he had a paddle with his name on it.
25:48
[SPEAKER_06]: So he said, you go get your paddle.
25:50
[SPEAKER_06]: Go get your paddle.
25:51
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, and it was like, uh, uh, I'm in trouble, but they knew they were going to get paddled.
25:55
[SPEAKER_06]: And that was normal.
25:57
[SPEAKER_06]: It wasn't considered child abuse or anything like that.
25:59
[SPEAKER_06]: It's like, you're going to get spanked.
26:02
[SPEAKER_06]: And so, I mean, that was just the way of life then.
26:06
[SPEAKER_06]: And they knew that was part of it.
26:08
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, now we look at it so differently as parents than or, yeah, I don't know if you're a parent.
26:12
[SPEAKER_02]: But I am a parent and I have never asked my kid to go get a switch into that.
26:17
[SPEAKER_06]: It does seem a bit barbaric.
26:19
[SPEAKER_02]: You're right.
26:21
[SPEAKER_06]: She was now at the time it was not to them, but, yeah, it does.
26:26
[SPEAKER_06]: For sure.
26:26
[SPEAKER_06]: It's like, remember in school you heard not that this happened to me when I was in school They get their hands swatted.
26:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely yes.
26:34
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.
26:34
[SPEAKER_06]: And you couldn't be left handed, which I am.
26:36
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm left handed as well.
26:38
[SPEAKER_06]: You are.
26:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
26:39
[SPEAKER_06]: It's okay.
26:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
26:43
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, uh, pencil markings on the hand uh, uh, for my totally.
26:47
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, but I don't go like this.
26:48
[SPEAKER_02]: I do the hook.
26:49
[SPEAKER_06]: You're like that.
26:50
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, I do all my sports right handed.
26:53
[SPEAKER_02]: Same here.
26:54
[SPEAKER_06]: Really, we're the same, we're the same, you've all, but it's funny because they would teach it like, you know, I'm sure I could learn how to play sports left handed and might have wanted to, but that it was just, I don't know, I don't know, but it is funny left handed and I cut right, yeah, it and right left handed right side of our brain, so we're well rounded.
27:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I'm going to latch on to just not none of that except for the brain part, too, because here you are playing this character who's slowly losing the use of her brain.
27:31
[SPEAKER_02]: And she's losing her memories, she's losing her mind with dementia.
27:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And to play a character like that that kind of slowly goes in that direction, I was thinking like so much of that feels like it would have to be done with your eyes and you do incredible work.
27:47
[SPEAKER_02]: just with, you know, the way you're looking through this.
27:50
[SPEAKER_02]: But how do you put, like, what's the process, I guess, is what we would ask here when you're playing a character who's going through something like that and not overplaying it, not being a character.
27:59
[SPEAKER_06]: Right, well, I do a lot of research on people who've had strokes and obviously dementia and forms of those issues.
28:10
[SPEAKER_06]: and have known people that have gone through that as well, or Alzheimer's, or something, and, you know, just different forms.
28:19
[SPEAKER_06]: And it was interesting because I had one of my very good girlfriends, Julie, not Julie Fisher is, but her sister, Trisha Fisher, Julie, Julie wasn't there, but their mom went through a stroke and Connie Stevens,
28:34
[SPEAKER_06]: And she had been to the premiere in LA and watched it.
28:38
[SPEAKER_06]: And she said, oh my gosh, I just can't even tell you how much you reminded me of my mom, just with the hair even and the way you go in and out of like these different personalities and sometimes you're like saying things that you
28:50
[SPEAKER_06]: You're reacting like, what are you saying?
28:53
[SPEAKER_06]: That doesn't make sense and you're going into your past and you're kind of like now Remember she just she told me which was such a huge compliment because she's really living directly with it with her mom and And just said it was just to me, you know right on and I was just such a huge compliment because I didn't want it to seem like oh, I'm trying to be
29:17
[SPEAKER_06]: weird or characterier over, overplay it.
29:21
[SPEAKER_06]: And of course, it's in the writing.
29:23
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, I have to give a lot of credit to the writing, but it's in the way in which I play it.
29:28
[SPEAKER_06]: So that it doesn't come off like, I'm trying to be kooky or weird or funny.
29:34
[SPEAKER_06]: It just, she really believes it at the moment, like what her circumstances are in that moment.
29:40
[SPEAKER_06]: I think she's just all in.
29:42
[SPEAKER_06]: And so I couldn't think, I couldn't think of it,
29:45
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, I couldn't look outside myself and say, oh, I'm acting weird because she doesn't think she's acting weird.
29:52
[SPEAKER_06]: So I really had to not be self-conscious about it, but just kind of go for it.
29:58
[SPEAKER_06]: But find that fine line, you know, that so it's nuanced, of course, and not overacted.
30:04
[SPEAKER_02]: As it turns out, you're really good at your craft, you know?
30:08
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, it's good.
30:08
[SPEAKER_05]: What they do.
30:10
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's, you were talking about the writing because, for I remember, right, like it's, it's actually based on a true story, which, you know, you played real people in the past, even recently, of course, with Nancy Reagan and Jeffrey Downer's mom.
30:23
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
30:23
[SPEAKER_02]: But this would be, I'm guessing something, like with someone with no profile, is it similar do you get, I guess in a way, you're still getting that type of research in the way you're doing it.
30:34
[SPEAKER_06]: about his circumstances as a child and obviously it's loosely based because it was really about him as a child and he made the character a woman which was very kind of him.
30:47
[SPEAKER_06]: So
30:49
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, he really made it about women's relationships and the three generations of women, which, but all of that, you know, at the brother and the walk going to war and being an abusive relationship and all that was real and had happened to him.
31:04
[SPEAKER_06]: So obviously he was garnering all of that wealth of, of, you know, experience into port into the script.
31:14
[SPEAKER_06]: He just, you know, made it
31:16
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, you know, slanted it toward a female version of the story, but the grandma was the grandma and and you know, but the daughter was the boy.
31:27
[SPEAKER_06]: So it was just it was just a little bit, you know, changed in that regard, but I think the fact that it's a true story.
31:34
[SPEAKER_06]: I think it makes it all that more authentic in its feelings.
31:39
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, the way I think the audience perceives it from my experience of having seen an audience now for the, you know, really seeing an audience watched the film on the big screen, which was ideal, frankly.
31:51
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't know if you got that opportunity, but, um,
31:55
[SPEAKER_06]: right here on my computer it's yeah you know and that's that's the way you know it has to go these days sometimes but um but i'm glad that you got the reaction that you did in the feelings that you did about it regardless of not seeing it in a big movie theater with an audience is reaction but for me to see it because it's hard for me to be objective it was nice to hear the laughs and
32:16
[SPEAKER_06]: to see people cry, to feel, you can feel the audience is emotion and really in the story.
32:27
[SPEAKER_06]: And so that was gratifying for sure.
32:30
[SPEAKER_02]: And especially that writing, it was this this week, I don't remember who it was, I'm quoting someone, but I don't remember who it was.
32:35
[SPEAKER_02]: But they're talking about how so many, especially TV writers, and I know we're talking film versus TV here, but are now told right for cell phone attention, right knowing that someone's going to be what looking at their phone while the TV's on, so they can still follow it easily.
32:52
[SPEAKER_02]: It's, I mean, to dumb it down, right?
32:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, it almost makes this feel, this movie feel classic in a way, because it's not that, you know, this is, this is the movie you pay attention to, it's a movie you look at, it's a movie that carries
33:05
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, that's so true because the thing about the movie that I personally really love is the fact that there's so many quiet moments.
33:15
[SPEAKER_06]: There's so many moments that people aren't talking and are listening and reacting and I mean, like, you know, with with Erica.
33:25
[SPEAKER_06]: A lot of her stuff is observing and watching and feeling and you see it all going through her, but she's not saying anything and, you know, my character's a bit chatty.
33:39
[SPEAKER_06]: But I also feel that there's so much of those silent movies, which is, I mean, silent moments, which I love about old movies, is that they allowed room to breathe, they allowed you to actually be in the moment with those people.
33:52
[SPEAKER_06]: You didn't have to be all being hit constantly with, you know, action and dialogue and drama.
34:01
[SPEAKER_06]: I just think sometimes the drama is in the silences.
34:04
[SPEAKER_02]: be able to just be able to, I mean, that's where we get classic movies from, that's where we get classic moments from.
34:09
[SPEAKER_06]: It's becoming a loft art unfortunately, it seems like a moment here, you know, and maybe it's just, and I know people are saying, you know, that this does harken when back to the old days of filmmaking and movies that we did grow up with or
34:32
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, now those silences, oh my, I think there are young people who probably wouldn't have the attention spans because they did take a lot of time, you know, they didn't, they weren't constantly hitting you with stuff all the time and a lot of the, the older films, the black and white, and all of them, but they've gotten us for little indie movies that can, you know, that actually somebody, somebody believed in this movie, right?
34:57
[SPEAKER_06]: i know i know and i really am so glad that i hope you know more people will get to watch this movie after all because i do feel like i do feel like um it just it is not a silly like what you call a feel good movie but it's a very
35:15
[SPEAKER_06]: fulfilling gratifying movie.
35:17
[SPEAKER_06]: I think you walk out of it feeling like something good can happen in your life in spite of you know whatever tragedy or whatever strife that you're going through is that something can come out of dark, like can come out of dark.
35:34
[SPEAKER_06]: And that to me I think that message is so important.
35:38
[SPEAKER_02]: and i will tell you without obviously saying why or whatever but the movie is is going through and it's getting close to the end is like i'm gonna end up i'm gonna end up misty i don't know there's in you know it's coming and there it is
35:52
[SPEAKER_05]: And you're all by yourself.
35:54
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, my office is where I'm at and going, and you're going, why don't you go in here?
35:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Let me come away, you know what I'm going to do?
36:01
[SPEAKER_02]: It is beautifully told, and like I said, in that house that we see, I don't know if you guys actually shot in the house or like that house, and it was a lot.
36:11
[SPEAKER_06]: It was, we had a record heat wave in Austin, and we were out in the Boondocks.
36:16
[SPEAKER_06]: that house was real, real, and real hot.
36:19
[SPEAKER_06]: And it was near a conditioning, except in one room and it was on one of those built in window, you know?
36:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I know what you're talking about, yeah.
36:26
[SPEAKER_06]: And we all like sort of clamoring to that room.
36:29
[SPEAKER_06]: And the poor crew at the time were still being masked and everybody was sweating bullets and it was it was challenging on many levels and now to give a lot
36:42
[SPEAKER_06]: especially because it's low budget and it wasn't a cushy environment and the house was great looking for the purposes that it served.
36:51
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, it was an amazing house for the story.
36:54
[SPEAKER_06]: It was really perfect.
36:56
[SPEAKER_06]: But it wasn't, I would call it, you know, comfortable.
37:00
[SPEAKER_02]: But don't you take the job?
37:02
[SPEAKER_02]: What does that say?
37:03
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't mean that's supposed to sound positive.
37:05
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it was sound negative, but what, you know, that's like you do take the job, knowing that it's not gonna be, you know, big budget catered and everything.
37:14
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, and that's the thing is I like those kind of films.
37:16
[SPEAKER_06]: I like smaller films, I like character driven films, I like relationships stories, I like old movies.
37:23
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, that's why I became an actress who's from watching all of movies.
37:27
[SPEAKER_06]: I just, I wanted to be in those.
37:29
[SPEAKER_06]: And so because of that, I welcomed the discomfort because I knew it was going to pay off, hopefully.
37:38
[SPEAKER_06]: And there were just so many things I loved about these characters and these relationships and what they go through.
37:47
[SPEAKER_06]: There was so much to play as an artist, you know, you don't necessarily always have a lot to work with and we had a wealth to work with.
37:55
[SPEAKER_06]: We had so much work with, like it's you're peeling away the onions on these people and so for me as an actress like I I relish that I welcome it.
38:05
[SPEAKER_06]: I crave it and I don't always get that, you know, you just get very sort of one note type of character and and she absolutely was not and neither were they
38:15
[SPEAKER_06]: you know, the other women in the movie or men for that matter.
38:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, thank goodness you all did it.
38:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I said, I just, uh, I've got another bit compliments about this film.
38:24
[SPEAKER_02]: And, and, and, and, and the words and the writing the words and, um, and I'm looking forward to the stuff next.
38:29
[SPEAKER_02]: So, I just saw the news come out about never again and reading about that, um, you know, to see what's coming up with that.
38:35
[SPEAKER_02]: So, congratulations on this one and getting it out into the world, uh, for you all sticking with it.
38:42
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, yeah, I really hope it has a life and and it and people get the opportunity to watch it and I think everybody's going to get something from it and it's very relatable, I think all ages and it's not just because it's a female relationships, I think
39:00
[SPEAKER_06]: men also really enjoyed as well because of their relationships with their moms or their grandma's or their sisters or their daughters or sons or whatever.
39:10
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean said there's just I think really something for everybody.
39:14
[SPEAKER_06]: And you think man as well.
39:15
[SPEAKER_02]: That's right.
39:16
[SPEAKER_02]: So there you go.
39:17
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
39:18
[SPEAKER_02]: But now let me thank you so much for taking the time.
39:20
[SPEAKER_02]: It was such a pleasure to get to talk to you about it.
39:21
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, you as well.
39:22
[SPEAKER_06]: Thanks for your support.
39:23
[SPEAKER_06]: I really appreciate it.
39:24
[SPEAKER_02]: And my thanks to Erica Christensen and Penelope Ann Miller.
39:30
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39:35
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39:42
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39:50
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40:49
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40:51
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40:52
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