Fresh Air - Best Of: ‘Boroughs’ Actor Alfre Woodard / Rose Byrne

Episode Date: May 30, 2026

Alfre Woodard stars in a new Netflix sci-fi mystery series ‘The Boroughs,’ from the creators of ‘Stranger Things.’ She plays a retired journalist living in a senior community where the residents are being preyed on by something otherworldly. She spoke with Tonya Molsey. Rose Byrne is now on Broadway in the comedy play ‘Fallen Angels.’ She spoke with Fresh Air producer Ann Marie Baldonado about her Tony-nominated performance, as well as her starring role in ‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.’ In it she plays a woman trying to care for her sick daughter, while her life is unraveling. Byrne says the movie taps into the fear and horror of being a parent. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

From W. H.Y.Y. In Philadelphia, this is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Tanya Mosley. Today, actor Alfrey Woodard. She stars in a new Netflix sci-fi series, The Burroughs, from the creators of Stranger Things. She plays a retired journalist living in a senior community, where the residents are being preyed on by something otherworldly. The Duffer brothers have said, the show exists because they couldn't understand why no one had made another cocoon. Plus, TV critic David Vien Cooney, has a redfer brothers who said, the show exists because they couldn't understand because they couldn't understand why no one had made another cocoon. has a review of the series.

Also, we hear from Rose Byrne, who starred in bridesmaids, neighbors, and if I had legs, I'd kick you, about a woman who's spiraling, trying to care for her sick daughter while her life is unraveling. She really plays with the edge of consciousness, I think, in many ways,

and tapped into the monster within and the fear of being a parent and the horror of being a parent. That's coming up on Fresh Air Weekend. This is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Tanya Mosley. The Duffer Brothers, the team behind the Netflix series Stranger Things, are back as executive producers of a new Netflix series. This eight-part series is called The Burrows, and it too is a show about sinister forces, mysterious creatures, and a group of neighborhood misfits

who emerge as heroes. This new series was created by Jeffrey Addis and Will Matthews. Our TV critic David B. and Cooley has seen the entire series and says, It's well worth seeing, but as much for the cast as the story. Here's his review. Part of the appeal of Stranger Things was that its protagonists were quirky outsiders. Unpopular teens, for the most part, who found themselves and one another while battling monsters and bad guys in their isolated small town. The Burroughs plays with that same theme, but on the other end of the age spectrum.

Its quirky misfits are all elderly, living in neighboring homes on a cul-de-sac in an exclusive retirement community. The newest resident is Sam, a reluctant arrival played with deadpan gruffness by Alfred Molina. He's recently widowed and doesn't want to be there, but there he is. It's a seemingly sparkly and welcoming place, but there may be strange creatures crawling behind the walls, and there definitely are odd and nosy neighbors living next door. Like Art and Judy, a long-time married couple played by Clark Peters from the Wire and the wonderful Alphrey Wood. As Sam is moving in, Judy is on her laptop checking out Sam's past, which Art doesn't like. You gotta stop stalking people.

Not stalking. Investigating. You're not a reporter anymore. Journalist. And that makes it stalking. His wife died of a stroke five months ago. Oh gosh, she was young, not even 70. He worked for Northrop Grumman 35 years as an area.

Aeronautical engineer. So we know he's smart. Education is not the learning of the facts, but the training of the mind to think. Who said that? Einstein. No, maybe Mr. Peabody. One or the other, I don't remember. All the neighbors in this particular hood have their own defiantly individual personalities,

and are played by veteran actors who fill them with depth and sadness and humor. It's great to see Peters and Woodard strut their stuff. here, and that's just for starters. Other talented veteran cast members include Bill Pullman, Ed Begley Jr., Jane Casmeric, and Gina Davis, playing a spirited woman named Renee. She meets Sam when unsuccessfully trying to start her loud car engine early in the morning. He comes out with his toolkit, throws open her hood, and fixes it, after which he begins to retreat on foot while she pursues him in her car. I'm Renee. Sam. Sam. New guy on the block.

I guess. Try the engine. Just like that? Just like that. Huh. I don't want it. I just want to get some sleep. Well, they say you're welcome.

Excuse me? Here's a tip. When somebody says, thank you. You just say, you're welcome. The other person will happily go on their way, and you can go back to doing what all grumpy old men love to do. Be alone. You're welcome.

That a boy, Sam. And one of my favorite characters and actors here is Dennis O'Hare. He plays a retired doctor, Wally, who has a brazenly outgoing and unfiltered personality. He demonstrates this when first meeting Sam, who has been invited to a party welcoming him to the neighborhood. Sam is reluctant to enter, so he's just standing outside the door, when Wally shows up with a startling opening line. I have stage four prostate cancer. Oh. I probably don't have much time left.

It seems a waste to spend a standing outside a party. Not that I'd call six people in the backyard much of a party, but sadly, it's as close as I get since they banned me from the community center. Cowards. I'm Sam. Wally. You're going to stand out here all night, Sam? I'm not very good at parties.

My wife was the sociable one. People only liked me when I was with her. Well, I'm beloved. So stick close. I predict you'll warm to all these characters immediately. Sam takes a little longer to warm to them. At first, he's like Bob Newhart reacting warily to all his therapy patients on the Bob Newhart show.

But eventually, Sam embraces and confides in them all. He has to, as it turns out, if they're going to get out of the burrows alive. The plot thickens in an intriguing but predictable way, especially if you're familiar with stranger things. And cocoon and ghostbusters and even jaws. But it's all good fun, even when it scores some serious points and has some serious scenes about death and dementia and loneliness. The cast is more than up to it all,

and there are younger cast members contributing to, including Jenna Malone and Carlos Miranda. And because it's central to the plot, the Burroughs doesn't skimp on the music soundtrack, especially from the catalog of Bruce Springsteen. The plot of the Burroughs is good. The music is better, and the acting from this team of old prose is the best.

David B. Incouli is Fresh Year's TV critic. He reviewed The Burroughs. Screen door salams, Mary's dressways, like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays. Oh, Overson singing for the lonely Hey, that's me and I want you only Don't turn me home again

I just can't face myself Back inside, darling, you know Just what I'm here So you're scared of neck young Now we're going to hear from one of the stars of the series Alphrey Woodard We've been watching her on television, film, and the stage for decades.

She's played wives, mothers, nurses, friends, lovers, and prison wartons, women carrying their families through the ordinary and the unimaginable. Her work, in a very real way, has become a record of American life. Woodard earned an Oscar nomination in 1983 for Cross Creek. Over the decades since, she's been nominated for 18 Emmys winning four and won a Golden Globe with roles in classics like Passion Fish, Crooklyn, 12 years a slave, and clemency. Alfred Woodard, welcome to Fresh Air. It is such an honor to have you.

I am happy to be present with you, Tanya. Okay, so let's get into it. I have a story that I have to ask you about regarding the set of the burrows. So the story goes, there was an HR meeting on Zoom. And you and the other actors were behaving so badly, like middle schoolers that's been kicked out of class. And that just made me think, what is this set? What was it like? It is, you know, just think about all the people that are in the back of the room and constantly

being told, pipe down, sit down, sit down. That's not what we're, we're not doing that now. And, you know, maybe there was HR when we were, you know, in our first decade or two in the business, but we didn't know about it or what they did. But now we have learned how to take care of environments, make them safe. back in the day you just had to like partner up and you know clan up and go like okay don't mess with my friend again don't tell you heard her feelings come over here we need to talk that kind of stuff but so we had this HR meeting and you know I think it's more like over 65 all of you yeah the cast and we had about like four who did just turn 40 and our showrunners Jeff Addis and Will Matthews they're like in their early to mid- 40s. But, you know, most of us were people, people were saying, and he's like, can you hear, I can't hear. And then somebody said, hello, no one, none of us can hear you. We can't hear.

And just being that. Right. Rally in the class back together. When we're hearing things like, you know, no, you can't call people, honey. What about baby? No, you can't call people. What if you really like them? And somebody said, how, can I say, you know, your butt looks really good, in those jeans? No, definitely not. How will I know if my butt looks good? If nobody tells me. So it was that kind of very irreverick kind of stuff going on, but just, you know, giggling and laughing. But that's, you know, that's our generation. And that's one of the things that I think we bring to the burrows in that Will and Jeff wrote in, but we expanded on it because, you know, They still haven't really shaved yet themselves at only mid-40s.

What were some of the things you had them changed for sure, that you said this is not what a 65-plus-year-old woman or group of friends would be doing living in a retirement community? Well, I believe you haven't seen these seniors on camera before. Maybe you saw one, but they were sort of an outlier in a script and used as comic relief as something. but how we live, how we relax together, what we say to each other, and the fact that your chemistry, your sexual chemistry only gets more particular and refined as it goes on. So, you know, there'll be some people like, oh, if my mom or my grandmom, a granddad was flirting, then it would make me go, ew, it's like, no, how do you think you got here? And flirting is love. It's a way of reaching out. It's what humans do. And when you have people that don't have to answer to anybody and they don't have to answer to society saying, what does that lady think she's doing showing her thighs at this age? Well, yeah, there's nobody to tell you no. And if they do, you can tell them where to go because you can't tell somebody it was 60 nothing. Well, that's the truth.

Your character, Judy, is also in an open marriage with one rule, don't fall in love. And of course, she does with Jack, who is Bill Pullman, played by Bill Pullman. But when Jack turns up dead, I'm not spoiling it here, but when he turns up dead, Judy is the one asking what really happened. And I want to play a clip where she's in the kitchen table with her neighbor Sam, played by Alfred Molina, telling him about her relationship with Jack for the first. time. Let's listen. Only rule was don't fall in love. But you fell in love with Jack? I'm not deluded.

I see the years etched across my face. I feel the weight of my body. But Jack, Jack saw a girl in me. He could see it. And he respected the woman. Jack could He could Jack saw us

the way we wish we were He was good Now he's gone Everybody loved Jack And Jack certainly did love everybody I was just One in the line That's not the way Jack described you

What did he say He was seeing someone special That's Alfrie Woodard and Alfred Molina in the new Netflix series The Burroughs. That line, Jack saw the girl in me, but also the woman, too. The way you land that line, it's just, it hits it. And days after I watched it, I was kind of thinking about what the significance of that. Because I think it's very rare to never where women are seen at a certain point in their lives for the totality of who they are. That's one of the things that the guys heard me when I talked about it, this affair that she was having.

And the relationship that Art and Judy have. And at first it seemed kind of suburban and early 60s, if not. late 50s. Why? In what way? What do you mean because of that whole idea of an affair

within a neighbor? Yeah, like you, it's judgmental and within the strictures of a very strict, actually paternalistic kind of life that Americans led then.

But I said, you know, the thing is, again, we are that generation. We do backstory. Any actor that's really going to work

that will bring a character to life as a human being, you do your backstory. So you know where the history, you don't just say your lines, but you have to create a history for yourself from the time you were born all the way up to be able to say even one line if you're going to have people believe it. And so, you know, I decided that we went to Berkeley, the two of us. You and your husband. Yeah. Art, who Clark Peters plays. We are at, you know, we're educated, we're black, we're in California.

It's of that age. What would have been happening? All of San Francisco was lit up. Free love. So, and also the vanguard, the Panthers were in the Bay Area. So just know this is where we're coming from. But the thing is, what is? what is it? And I said, yes, I might be 70, but Judy the girl is still there. And some people, you're sitting on the train or the bus or just in traffic, L.A. And people look at white hair and all they see is a two-dimensional lady stoop there. It's like if you talk to that woman and look at the pictures from her and her 20s or 30s with her heels all over.

over her head and her doing, you know, tango, bouncing, whatever. But you wouldn't know that if you look at her and just look at her hair. And so that's the thing about accumulating years is people take away your humanity when they look at you, when they just observe you. But whatever you were doing or you are doing at 20 or 30 or 40, you think you discovered it? Oh, darling. It's been done. Just like anybody playing music, anybody painting,

the longer you do it, the more fine-tuned you are at it. We're constantly in the process of becoming more of our true selves. So look to your elders. Our guest today is award-winning actor Alfry Woodard. She's starring in the new Netflix series The Burroughs. We'll hear more after a break. I'm Tanya Mosley, and this is. fresh air weekend. You know, I was so excited to talk with you because you're one of those rare

actors that span generations. I can talk to my mother about your work in the 70s and 80s. I sit squarely in the 90s, 2000s. My kids are like, oh, a series of unfortunate events, you know? Yes, yes, yes. Okay, and we all ask the same question. Like, tell me about her life. So let's talk about that for a minute. And I want to go to the moment where you realize, you want it to be an actor. You're 14, Catholic school in Tulsa. Once a month, your film studies teacher, is it Brother Patrick?

Brother Patrick O'Brien. Yeah. He would bust the class to art cinema, and you saw this film, this French film, about a middle-aged man, and you said what? Okay, it was, he didn't teach us that film. Brother Pat taught me creative writing,

and he, along with Sister Sylvia, taught us marriage. marriage and creative writing. Now this is funny. But wait, a Christian brother and a nun, daughter's marriage. And of course, we had a field day with that, and they were good sports and loved it.

But I was at Bishop Kelly High, and they would bust the whole school, 750 kids. And it was to watch whatever Brother Pat was on about. So that's where we saw Citizen Kane, Sundays and Sybeau, loneliness of the long distance runner. Oh, Incident at Al Creek Bridge, all of those sorts of films that then you got, when you got to college in film studies, you know, you had already spoken about that. And so I remember we were excited like, oh, we're going to the movies, going to the movies.

And you get there and there are subtitles. We're like, there's not a movie. This is a lesson. We have to read. And, you know, just sitting there sucking on a twisler. and before you know it, your heart is gripped. You're identifying with a middle-aged French man. He goes to see Sundays and Cibel.

Oh, Sundays and Cibel. Your eyes are filling up with water, and I'm reading the subtitles. And I realized then, and with the other things we were seeing, how emotionally they made me. And I immediately saw film, how powerful, moving image was. And I wanted to be involved in it. You wanted to be involved in it.

But did you see yourself as a showman? How did you come to that moment to say, I want to be on the screen and I want to be, I want to be these actors I'm watching? I didn't think of them as actors until I started watching De Niro, they Dono Way, Pacino. those actors on screen, that's when I said, okay, that direction. But there's a nun, Sister Rachel Ann Graham, who should have been an actor, but she went into the convent. And what she knew, because I was in public schools, in elementary school, and what she knew and she fought me on all the time was, I always felt, I can remember stuff out of the book. I remember stuff I read, so you can't mark this wrong. She'd mark my paper up.

You were good at memorizing. And she said, I know what Mr. Hawthorne thought. I read the book. I asked what you thought. And so it was a different way of learning then. So somebody was dropping out, had to drop out, was sick. A week to learn the script of the play. She says, you need to, I need you to do this.

And I said, oh, no, sister, I couldn't possibly pretend to be, stand up in front of other people pretending to be somebody else. And how old were you about this? I was 14. 14 about this time. Maybe 15 at that point. But I was, you know, a student leader. I was loud and bodacious.

But there's something about it's like, what? Pretending to be something else. She says, it's not for you, Alphrey. It's for God. And how did you interpret that at the time when someone tells you, you being up on stage, it's not for you. It's for God. Well, it made sense.

And I thought, okay, you know, I had a lot of love and support and creature comfort in my life. I had a good life. And I just went, okay, I honestly said to God, we are even after this. And so I got in the play. And so I got on stage. So you're on stage at this moment, yes. And it was as if I had been walking around. on dry land my whole life

during the breaststroke. And yeah, Witter does that. She's weird, but she got some good ideas about stuff. And then just somebody came behind me and tipped me in the water. And that same oddity

propelled me into just the most open freedom I've ever felt in my life is being in the middle of between action and cut. It's like, okay, that's it.

That's what I want to do. Well, because she calls my parents and said, you have to see Alfred. You know, she's an actor. She's an artist. And my father, who I'll tell you about him, they both went, oh, oh, everybody was so like, thank God.

Relieved. Is there a place for her finally? We're not going crazy. So, yeah. I mean, I think that's such a. a powerful metaphor to say you felt like you were on land doing the breaststroke and that feeling of hitting the water. I mean, that's more powerful than anything I've heard. You come from a family of storytellers, though, right? Like, you tell this story of your mom making big pots of

food and people coming from all over, including your family. You'd sit down and tell stories. But what I love about this story, and I want to know where your place is in it, is you all were really like listening and discerning on the story. So if someone's story didn't add up, you'd be like, uh-uh, y'all lying. You lie. Yes, yes. And black people love to jump up and holl, oh, that's a lot. That's a lie. Everybody jumps around and goes crazy and it's a good time. But also, a lot of the stories, it's family gathering and chosen family. So a lot of the stories are being retold, but you want to hear it again. And you could be four years old and somebody would give you the floor, but nobody was saying, come on, baby, tell the story.

It's like, okay, all right, come on, come on, Abby. So you realize acting is your path. You go to Boston University. Boston University in the early 70s was kind of a strange but important place, it sounds like. Oh, yes, it was. You were there with Paul Rubens and Gina Davis, who was a co-star in the Burroughs. Yes, and we did a sitcom together years ago called Sarah. Right.

With Bill Maher and Bronson Pinchot and Rine. Was Bill Poulman also in it? No, Bill Maher. Oh, Bill Maher. Okay. I'm just curious, did you and these folks who would go on to be very successful actors, did you ever talk about your dreams with each other, or what you want it to do or anything like that? I didn't.

Maybe people did, but I've never shared my goals, allowed. with anybody until I got to, I was backstage at the taper. We were doing for colored girls. It was the L.A. You were back in. After Boston University, right, you moved to L.A. where everybody else went to New York, but you chose L.A. Because my whole orientation into what would be my purpose was film.

So I came to L.A. and I was saying, oh, I'm going to L.A. to be in films. and people were going, would have sold out already. She's going to Hollywood to be in the movies. Because at the time, was theater considered where actors would go? Is that kind of the thought? Well, if you're in a conservatory and the work that you're doing is classic plays in theater,

but they didn't even give you the reality of it. We all thought we could go off to the Open Gate Theater and do Brecht for the rest of our lives. But again, I'm sitting there going, Mm-mm. We're in L.A. And so I did tell a couple of friends, I said, I'm going to L.A. And then a guy, Gary Bass, who was from Tulsa as well, he said, I'm going to go with you.

And then Brenda, who was from Lakeland, Florida, and Noreen. Did they continue on being actors? No. Gary had more skills. I had no marketable skills. I still don't. I can cook. But don't tell me what to cook, I know.

The number of actresses like you, black actresses, your age, working at your level, has never been large. I'm thinking about CCH-H-pounder, Felicia Rashad, Cicely Tyson, Angela Bassett. You all know each other. I can imagine you at one point or another have gone for the same roles. And how do you work through that? How do you all continue to stay and keep each other grounded, knowing that there are just a few of you? And just by virtue of the way the industry is, you're kind of going to have to be pit against each other. Well, we don't pit ourselves against each other. I don't.

I started a thing called Sisters Sway. Yes. And the reason I did. And let's talk about what the sister's swale is. It's a pre-Oscar party. Yes. Right? With black and Latina actresses. Yes.

Okay. And the reason I started it was, you know, people would say things like, oh, you're so great. too bad there's not any roles for black women. It was like, no, I have to answer you. If it's the Queen of England, yeah, let all the Cates be Queen Elizabeth. But if there's 99 other roles, then shame on you, but not seeing all these women who are not only prolific but profound, they have a track record and they have made bank for people. And so I said, okay, this is what we're going to do. And I got tired of hearing, you know, fans and we love our fans going like, they want to put, you against each other. You know who would have been better in that.

You know what? You don't do that to the Cates. Don't do that to us. And the thing is, we have more in common with each other than we do with anybody else. The sisters. And so I said, we have to get together. I started having this while we're eight. The first people I honored was Taraji and Viola were nominated in the first year. Taraji K. Henson and, yeah, Viola Davis. And I said, we're going to lift y'all up before y'all go on that red carpet because we don't care what happens there. We celebrate people.

We don't put prizes on them. Alfrie Woodard, this has been an honor and a pleasure. Thank you so much. You are so welcome. Alfrey Woodard stars on the new Netflix series, The Burroughs. Coming up, actor Rose Byrne. She'll talk about her return. to theater in the revival of the Noel Coward play Fallen Angels

and her role in the Oscar-nominated film, If I had legs, I'd kick you. This is Fresh Air Weekend. Our guest today is actor Rose Byrne. Known for both drama and comedy, she is now one of the few actresses to receive both an Oscar and a Tony nomination in the same year.

She's currently on Broadway and the revival of the play Fallen Angels. She spoke with Fresh Airs and Marie Baldinado. When Rose Byrne appeared on American TV in 2007 in the show Damages, it was clear she was a dramatic force. Playing opposite Glenn Close, she was nominated for two Emmys and two Golden Globe Awards. Then she starred in a series of comedies, get them to the Greek, bridesmaids, and neighbors, and it became apparent that she's also one of our most gifted comedic actors.

Her work in the last year alone shows that she's so good at playing complex character, in any genre. She stars opposite Seth Rogan in the Apple TV comedy Platonic, and she received an Oscar nomination for her raw performance in the film, If I Had Legs, I Kick You. Now Rose Bern is on Broadway in the play Fallen Angels. It's a revival of the 1925 Noel Coward play, a farce about two wealthy women married, English, who go a bit crazy when they hear that the man they had both been involved with before they were married is coming to town. Both Byrne and her co-star, Kelly O'Hara, have been nominated for Tony's for Best Actress in a Play. Rose Byrne, welcome to Fresh Air. Hi, thanks so much. Now, this play is from the 1920s. It was scandalous back then because

it was about two women talking about having affairs with the same man before they were married. had you known this play or had you performed Noel Coward before? And I'll say that Coward is a British playwright known for writing sophisticated, witty comedies about the upper class, you know, funny with a lot going on underneath. I wasn't familiar with the play. Scott Ellis, who's the artistic director of the Roundabout Theatre, brought it to me and Kelly O'Hara for a benefit reading for The Roundabout. So that's how I discovered the play. Obviously, but I was familiar with Noel Coward, I'd seen productions of his more popular plays, I guess, that had done sort of very frequently. Like, I'd seen private lives. I'd seen hay fever. Like, I've seen

productions of his other plays. But Fallen Angels was, no, I didn't know it. It's a lesser done play. So it was a really interesting discovery. I want to play a scene from the play. Here, you and your co-star, Kelly O'Hara, are discussing your ex-lover Maurice, who's French, who you haven't seen in years, you're both excited about the possibility of him visiting. Kelly O'Hara speaks first. I say, wouldn't it be too wonderful if he arrived suddenly now? Oh, I should choke. You're sure you left a thoroughly clear message at your flat in case he went there first?

Of course. We're bound to get a frightful shock when we do see him. Oh, I don't see why. He's bound to have gotten bald or gone fat or something. No, no, he wouldn't have changed it. He wouldn't come if he had because he's far too conceited. Not conceited, a little vain perhaps naturally. With those eyes, who can blame him?

And those hands? And those teeth. Those legs. Oh, jeer! That's a scene from the play Fallen Angels. Rose Byrne, you're Australian. You live in the U.S. now. Can you talk about your accent in this play?

I would think that some of this dialogue is fun to say. And some of the words, the syllables get drawn out, like the way you say eyes, blame, even teeth in this clip. I mean, yeah, it is the language you use, the sort of linguistic gymnastics and the extraordinary vocabulary of Noel Coward is a delight. Yeah, we work with Kate Wilson, who's the head of voice at Juilliard, and I've been working with her now for nearly 10 years. And she's extraordinary because she's just like consonants, consonants, consonants, you've got to hit the consonant stick the landing, like it's sort of the language that sort of is everything in a way. It is this brilliant sort of use of language that he had at the age of 25, I believe, when he wrote this play. It's all in the delivery and the kind of the pacing of it and just staying

very lightly on all of the language. It's a real tightrope. Yeah, I've never tire of sitting backstage and I'm constantly rediscovering the words that, and he peppers throughout, like the word callous is throughout, which I just love. It's so delicious and just brilliant and bitterly is used a lot. It was a bitter time, bitterly, and it's just these brilliant words that he uses that I've started to use in my day today as I walk around in my life now. You're doing everything bitterly now. Exactly.

It was a bitter time, I say, in the morning to my jewelry. And they're like, what? For a lot of the show, you and your co-star, Kelly O'Hara, are playing drunk. Like an hour. She's getting drunk. Yes, slowly, but surely you're getting drunk over the course of the evening. And so much of the comedy comes from that. How do you prepare to act drunk?

And how do you actually do it? It's interesting. Well, he's writing is so brilliant with the drunkenness. Like, he's, you know, the switching of words and the slow. decline and the volume, it's very specific in the stage directions. My character gets louder continually throughout this sequence of them drinking, which is very funny and very true about drunk people. They often get louder and louder and louder and that's what happens to Jane.

And then it's referred to in the third act that she was much worse than Julia. And she really is. She sort of unravels. And then there's a violence that comes out in the character too that is very dark. and can also happen. I've seen with people when they get to inebriated, sometimes it can really, you know, it can not reveal the best part of them.

Yeah, there's a lot of physical comedy in this play. It reminds me, actually, of kind of Lucy and Ethel, and I love Lucy as far as the physicality of it. Or maybe you're both Lucy as far as how over the top. I mean, that, you know, we stand on the shoulders of those women, you know, of those extraordinary, and like Carol Burnett, Like they're just on a pedestal. Kristen Whig, you know, the physical comedy of those performances.

Julie Louis Dreyfuss, I mean, John Cleese, these are the people I put on pedestals. Maya, Rudolph, you know, are just brilliant physical comedians. So we've definitely pushed that side of things, which has been very fun. How does performing in a Broadway show, eight shows a week, how does it compare to shooting a movie? You know, even like something so kind of adrenaline pumped as your last film, had legs. I'd kick you. I was just wondering how it feels differently those different kinds of performance. No, it's a great question. It's something I'm sort of wrestling with because it's kind of a little bit hard to describe in any area diet fashion, but it feels we are trying to reach the

back row, you know, so it's a physically, it's just bigger. It is a bigger experience and then to sort of to perform in a bigger arena like that and to still remain truthful in that sense of like I felt like I was screaming when I first got up, because we're not wearing mics either. There's mics on the stage, but we get up there and I'm like, what? You know, scrap, hello, Jane, you know, starting to yell. How do I translate that in a way that still feels authentic?

But the theatricality of that, leaning into that, too. So it's been a learning curve again to do that. But I had long wanted to do a true comedic piece on stage. Like, it's been one of my dreams, so this has been extraordinary to have this experience. Now, I want to ask about the film, if I had legs, I'd kick you. How would you describe the film and your character, Linda?

I've loved speaking to other people about the film because it really is, it sort of defies generalization or description because it's sort of like a fever dream in a way. It has Gallo's humor in there. It's also horror kind of tropes in the film, too. I think Mary Bronstain really kind of broke. the mould with the tone of the film in many ways. And she really sort of plays with the edge of consciousness, I think, in many ways, and tapped into sort of like the monster within and the fear of being apparent and the horror of being a parent and some of the joy too, but obviously she's in a really difficult

situation, this woman. But I still can't believe the film kind of got as far as it did just because it was, you know, it's a small independent film, so it was just extraordinary. Yes, the film is written and directed by Mary Bronstine, and it's based on some of her own experiences. Her daughter had become ill when she was younger, and she had that similar experience about trying to get her well and feeling trapped or the weight while doing it. And I read that you both did a lot to prepare for the role, that the two of you would meet after dropping off your kids at school and just talk about the script, about motherhood. Did any of the stories that you shared make it into the movie? Yeah, we were really lucky.

We had a period of really like five or six weeks where I would, yeah, go to her apartment. And we just started from page one and just went through every single, you know, comma and syllable and dialogue and everything. Just carving through and sharing stories. And as to your point, yeah, Mary Bronstein has shared that too. It was based on a, you know, something she went through with her own child. And obviously she didn't behave like my character does in the film, but the fears behind that and what went into it. And she shared her journals from that time.

And yeah, and I shared my own personal experience of being a parent and how that feels and struggles. And it was really an incredible period we had there. So then when we got to set, obviously it was a short shoot. It was only 25 or six days or something. We sort of had every conversation. So we could really leap off and play the scene and discover stuff.

And as an actress, I can't make any sort of decision until the other actors in front of me. And I'm, you know, responding to what's happening. So I'm so grateful we had that period. Mary Browdstein has said that, you know, she wanted to capture that visceral feeling of, you know, desperation, that mental state where you feel everything is falling apart. Because all these things, she has a child who's ill. And then there are all these other things that are happening to. and as these things feel like they're falling apart, you feel like it's your fault. Like it's the state of where you're so stressed that all these problems become equal.

And that felt real to me. And I was wondering how you and Mary Bronson wanted to convey that. And if you've ever had that kind of feeling before yourself. What Linda's going through of having a seriously critically ill child, you know, knock on wood, most parents won't have to go through that. you know, 99% of it. Isn't it so very extremely specific illness that she has too?

But I was sort of obsessed with like how do, what happened before this? Like what led to this moment? Who was she before? Like what, you know, because very little information is given and I was like I wanted to like discover this sort of, because she's got such a sort of streak of distrust of authority.

You know, she's very defiant and like prickly and why. Like where did that come? So that was sort of our boring like actor homework that, you know, I was really interested in as a point of entry for the story. And Mary was, she's come from her acting background. She loves character and the details of that. So that was something we discussed a lot of. And just also tracking the downfall because the trap would be she's hysterical from the start,

you know, and how do we, you know, and sort of track that sort of slow decline. And also the isolation the character has put upon herself because she does not want anyone reflecting back her choices, which are becoming increasingly unhinged and irresponsible. She just has her therapist, really, and he is telling her, you need to get a good night's sleep, don't smoke pot, you know, these basic things. And she's ignoring that.

She just completely goes off the rails. She has no guard rails anymore. So that sort of sense of isolation that I've seen with people in my life, if they're in a situation they don't want commented on or they don't want to acknowledge, they slowly remove from your life because they can't have that reflected back. I want to play a scene from the film, and Mary Bronsstein, the writer-director, is actually in it. She plays the daughter's doctor who's really hard on your character, Linda, in this scene.

Here the doctor is trying to talk to Linda about how treatment isn't working, and she doesn't think Linda is doing enough to help. You've missed the last few weeks of family sessions. Yeah. I told you what happened. Our entire ceiling fell down and with all that chaos and we're living out of the hotel. So we need to schedule something as soon as possible to talk about our goals and the treatment process. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Oh, you meant now? Okay. All right. Um, well, uh, let me look at my schedule.

I should probably do that. I know that you already know this, but you can't start letting feelings of guilt and control about this illness and treatment affect you. It's no one's fault. That's right. That's what I keep hearing. Also, I really need you to start taking care of yourself.

Right. You can... Yes. No, put my oxygen mask on. First. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. I'm just going to have to get blunt here. So she needs to reach her weight goal in the next week.

If she does that, then we can put tube removal and discharge dates on the books. But if she doesn't do that, I'm going to have to reassess the level of care because obviously something is not working here, and this is what I need to talk to you about. When can we sit down properly? Yeah, fine. September 7th. It's September 15th. September 20. I mean, September 20.

September 20. That's a scene from the film. If I had legs, I'd kick you. I think it's hilarious. I'm like, that's funny. Well, you know, it's funny because, yes, there's a lot in the movie that's funny. But, you know, when you were nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, people were like, that was supposed to be a comedy who feels like hard to me. Yeah, totally.

It's not bridesmaids. No, it's a different sort of comedy, totally. But that seems so funny hearing it, especially because Mary's so serious. And she's my friend, and I'm like just dying because she's and she also looks like she's 12 years old, Mary, and she's playing the doctor. But that's what happens.

All of a sudden you get to a certain age, and then there's all these younger people telling you what to do, and you're like, oh, my God. I think something that the film does so well is convey that pressure of what it's like to be a caretaker, like the darkness of it. Because it feels relentless, like you never stop worrying. And, you know, there are these decisions that the director makes.

For example, there's this constant beeping of the machine that happens through the film. And, you know, it's the machine that feeds the daughter through the feeding tube. And you can hear that throughout the movie and that adds to the anxiety. And I think that's also what happens when you're a caregiver. Like there's that constant beeping in the background. Yeah, these noises get magnified. and actually Mary Bronstien made those louder, just a bit, like the clock on the wall, the beeping of the machine, all those things were louder because they are in her point of view. And it is as a parent, those things become overstimulating.

It's relentless. And she wanted to capture that claustrophobia. And the sound design was really extraordinary in that sense, too, really captured that. One thing I should add is that we never fully know as viewers what kind of illness. the daughter has, nor do we see the daughter's face through most of the movie. Yes. Again, she sort of provides more questions and answers. And the conceit of not seeing the daughter, and she's Mary spoken to this many times,

but sort of a two-prong thing in that, you know, I don't think Linda, my character, can see her daughter at this point. She's so drowning and beginning this sort of real dissoning. sent into her crisis, her mental health crisis, that she can't even see this little, she's sort of lost her shape, which can happen with your family or, you know, when you're in and a day in and day out and day, you just, they lose their physical shape in front of you, your kids or your husband or wife or whomever. And I feel like that's Linda's perspective. And also for the audience to have that choice taken away, to not see the daughter, you're forced

to reckon with the mother. Because as soon as you put a child on screen, your empathy, as it should, goes to the child. they're so vulnerable and it's, you know, immediately your concern will go to them. And so she takes that choice away from the viewer. So you're, you know, you're forced to be in the perspective of the mother. Rose Byrne, congrats on the Tony nomination. And thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you, Emery. Thank you so much. Rose Byrne spoke with Fresh Air producer Anne-Marie Baldinado. Fresh Air Weekend is produced by Teresa Madden. Our shares executive producer is Sam Brigger. With Terry Gross, I'm Tanya Mosley.