Happy Sad Confused - Carey Mulligan

Episode Date: April 27, 2015

The super charming and one of the best actresses working today, Carey Mulligan joins Josh to talk about performing on Broadway in Skylight, how she learned how to drive until a few years ago, her choice not to do social media, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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or go to explorevolvo.com. Listen closely. That's not just paint rolling on a wall. It's artistry. A master painter, carefully applying Benjamin Moore-Regal-select eggshell with deftly executed strokes. The roller, lightly cradled in his hands,

applying just the right amount of paint. It's like hearing poetry in motion. Benjamin Moore, see the love. Hey guys, welcome to another edition of Happy Sad Confused. I'm Josh Horowitz, and you have made the brilliant choice to listen to another episode of my little old podcast. Welcome back. Welcome aboard. If you're new to the show, thanks for tuning in.

This week's guests coming up in just a little bit is the super charming. and really one of the best actors working today, one of the best, specifically actresses working today, Carrie Mulligan. She is currently on stage in New York, in a great play called Skylight, and she is in a film called Far from the Madding Crowd. Always one of our best and brightest.

Love talking to her. But first, let me catch you up on what's going on with me. It's Saturday as I record this, and yep, as you can tell from the sirens, I'm back home. I'm in super safe New York, despite the sirens that always seem to go by my apartment window. I've spent the last few days in Las Vegas.

Look at the sirens getting closer. I was in Las Vegas for work for MTV shenanigans covering something called CinemaCon, which was really fun. I've never been in Las Vegas for more than like two days. I feel like most people would agree with me that like Vegas is best for about 36 to 48 hours after that, it gets dangerous and depressing.

But surprisingly, this was a super fun trip, I think, primarily because I was really busy. I was busy with work. I didn't have time to gamble my life away and eat insanely, although we did have a few good meals. So CinemaCon, if you're a movie buff, if you're a movie fan, particularly if you're a fan of big blockbuster movies, this is, it's pretty much, it's a big treat because it's actually a convention for theater exhibitors. It's the guys that are, you know, regal cinemas and AMC, the guys that put on the movies in their, in their theaters. And it's also like, you know, people trying to hawk their new popcorn or nachos or milk duds or whatever. So it's all about that kind of side of the business. But what ends up happening is every big studio brings their really big blockbuster movies to show off sneak peaks of what's coming up in the next year.

so for people like me on the media side of things and people like me who are just big fans of movies you get a chance to see footage that no one seen before saw a ton of really cool looking stuff I saw they showed some new stuff from Specter that's what Sony brought out that was a big that was a big one um a lot of random things um like there was a teaser thing for joy which is the new david o russell jennifer lawrence movie which looks like a david o russell jennifer Lawrence movie. It looks great. There was no dialogue, but it looked fantastic. The new Alejandro Inorritu movie with Leonardo Caprio and Tom Hardy had the very first footage shown. It's called The Revenant, and it looks gorgeous. And yeah, the filmmaking alone,

again, no dialogue, but it just, you can tell that this one, same cinematographer as Birdman, so it's going to look gorgeous. I got a special thrill out of seeing Creed, which is like the new, I guess it's the new Rocky movie, kind of, but it's from Ryan Cougar. who did Vail Station, and he's re-teaming with Michael B. Jordan, who is playing Apollo Creed's son. Rocky's still in it, but he's kind of like the old mentor role this time. It looked really good. Back to basics kind of Rocky movie. I mean, there's too much. Saw new Jurassic World footage. They brought out a ton of talent. Chris Pratt was there for that one. Gierma Datoro was there, showed a new Crimson Peak trailer, which looks amazing.

And I got to interview a lot of the regulars that I've gotten to talk to over the years. Channing Tatum, Charlize Theron, who I hadn't seen for a while. I stepped on Shirley's Theron's foot during an interview. That was unfortunate. It really started well. Charlize is one of the coolest people on the planet and has been very kind to me over the years. And I hadn't seen her for a while. Gave me a big hug, which was amazing.

We have a little chat. It's all, all as well and good. And then about a minute later, I stepped on her foot. And she grabbed me and screamed Jesus. So that was unfortunate. So whatever. I also got a chance to talk to Tom Hardy about Mad Max. They're both in the new Mad Max movie, which looks, I mean, that's, I'm one of those that I'm

obsessed with Mad Max. And this new movie looks amazing. So that's kind of my week in a nutshell. There are a lot of really fun interviews if you go to MTV, specifically if you go to the MTV YouTube page. You can look at all the interviews with Charlize and Tom Hardy and Shannon Tatum and the whole Magic Mike cast. God, Dave, I don't even know. Paul Rudd I caught up with Amy Schumer, tons of people. So I am back though. Happy to be back. Happy to be in New York for a little bit. Some really fun interviews coming up this coming week. And also, frankly, just trying to get the

DVR back in shape because, I don't know, do you get stressed like me when it gets up to like 70, 80 percent? That's what it's up to for me. So I promised last week, I started this last week, answering some of your questions. Let's continue it, shall we? Reminder, here's how you do it. Very simple. Just send in your questions, silly, stupid, awesome, amazing, whatever question you want to me at Joshua Horowitz or really just hashtag happy, sad, confused.

So use the hashtag happy sat confused on Twitter. Ask anything you want of me about my career, about my thoughts on movies, food. really those are my two main passions in life or anything else you want. This week's question comes to us from David Darmony. David, what do you want to know? Okay, David, what's the most awkward thing that's happened during an interview or question you asked that you'd like to have back? That is a great question, David.

Thank you. And it opens up an insane can of worms. If you've seen my stuff, though, you probably know that almost every interview I do include something awkward in it. So it's almost an impossible question to answer. Um, I will answer it this way. Um, well, the Charlize thing was really awkward, stepping on a superstar's foot and getting her angry at you. Um, here was an awkward one this past week. Again, topical. Uh, I was interviewing Nat Wolf and, uh, Kara Delavine. Uh, they're starting in Paper Towns, the John Green movie. Uh, I've interviewed Nat many, many times. I had never met Kara Delavine. Um, we were chatting in the beginning of the interview. And I think, we'll put this online at some point because it's pretty funny um i said uh it's nice to meet you carra and at some point she just goes like by the way my name's carra you know she's got like a british

accent and uh it's she said it in such a way that that that that reduced me aunt man style to a tiny little human being um it was very it was very upsetting you don't want to get the name of the person you're talking to you wrong i didn't really get it wrong i just said it in my new york inflected tones. And frankly, I'm sorry, Kara Delavine. I'm not a big aficionado of your work yet. I'm just not. I haven't really, you know, you haven't acted that much yet. I'm not, I don't keep up on the modeling front that much. That being said, you were delightful. I know she's probably listening. You were delightful. And I promise from here and out to call you Kara. That is ingrained in my brain. Just like Rihanna is

ingrained in my brain. It's Rianaphos. It's not Rihanna. You can look it up. It's Rihanna. Just accept it. I know we want to say Rihanna here. It's Rihanna and Kara. That was a kind of crappy answer for you, David. But that's the most topical one I can think of. But literally, every interview ever done has something awkward in it. But that's what makes it unique and fun. Speaking of unique and fun, oh my God, I am the master of the segue. Carrie Mulligan is both of those things. I adore Carrie Mulgan, both as an actor and a human being. She really is honestly one of my favorite actors working today. Um, killed it all right off the bat in an education, which got an Oscar nomination. And since then, has been, you know, doing such great work. I mean, drive, just drive alone. Um, and now she's, as I said, I just saw her on Broadway. She's,

uh, in a play called Skylight, which she performed in London with Bill Nye and is again performing with him here in New York. If you have a chance to get a ticket, do so, because they are both amazing in it. And she's also in a film called Far From the Madding Crowd, which, you know, I'm sure, I'll confess, I haven't seen it yet. I haven't seen it yet, guys. This was booked primarily to talk about the play. So that's really what we talked about, as well as her rise to stardom and a whole bunch of other stuff. So she's a great, great, great interview. And I only wish we had a little more time. She was in the middle of one of those junkies. She was in the middle of one of those junket days. You know how it goes. So we only had about 30 minutes, even a little less.

So it's a little bit, you know, lighter in content than most happy sack infuseds. But cut me some slack guys. We're doing the best we can. That's about it. Hit me up on Twitter. Send me your amazing questions. And listen to this fantastic conversation with the awesome Carrie Mulligan. I'm the only barrier between you and lunch. So don't look at me like a giant like cheeseburger. Exactly. Don't worry, I won't.

I'm all right. I've actually eaten loads today, so I'm not starving. And that was fine, actually. It weren't really fast. I've got a quick guy making things go quickly. We're off and running if that's cool. Shall we just shove right in? Yeah, go for it.

It's good to see you. It's good to see you. Congratulations about the film and I got a chance to see the play, which is... Oh, did you? Awesome. Oh, cool. Yeah. Yeah, just to revel in the magic of you and Mr. Knight for one two hours.

It's fun. It was intense and amazing and a real treat. So the first important thing I want to talk to you about in the course of my exhaustive research. Now, is it true you didn't learn to drive until just a few years ago? Because I've never learned to drive. Didn't you? I don't drive. Okay, good.

I don't either have a license. I did learn to drive for Never Let Me Go. failed my test and then didn't get a license again and then when I lived in LA for a year I got a license because they just hand them out in my experience so you didn't feel prepared

you didn't feel equipped on the road no no I don't think no and so I drove in L.A. but got away with it and then got back to London and never got a license so I'm still in the same position as you but I feel better now right yeah I always feel like

if push came to shove I could get around I have nightmares where I'm suddenly driving and I'm like, oh shit, I can't. Oh, sorry. I can't, I can't drive. I'm not allowed and I'm not very good at it. Yeah. But I think I should get my, I've got to get my act together. No, I don't think so. I mean, this is the one thing we can cling to to not being fully functional adults. Like, I like that. This is our Peter Pan syndrome. I live in it. I live here. You live here. Well, then you don't need to. See, I live in England. Yeah. And you should. Well, you spend a lot of time in London and you can get away with it. But outside the environment, it's probably difficult. something. I've also decided, in addition to that, very important fact, that you've got exceptional taste in filmmakers. Thank you. You do. I mean, honestly, from Winterberg to, you know, Reffen, obviously, the Cohn brothers. I don't, I mean, how much of this is, feels haphazard, or are you one of these actors that had the list that they tried to, like, you know, just kind of go after the people that they love? Yes, to a degree. I mean, I guess it's sort of going off

to people, but it's also just a lot of waiting around because I sort of, yeah I take chunks of time off so before I did this I'd taken off 18 months where I didn't do anything after I wrapped the Coen Brothers film so it's sort of waiting for the right thing to come along and the right you know and Thomas Vinterberg was somebody

that I just really wanted to work with and I was so happy that I liked far from the manning crowd as much as I liked him because I wanted to be one of his films yeah I haven't seen uprightly enough of his I did see The Hunt which was... The Hunt is so good. Exceptional. I met him just after I saw The Hunt actually like half an hour afterwards

so I was still kind of slightly dazed and in awe yeah I mean do you tend to gravitate do you feel whether it's subconsciously or whatever to a type of filmmaker and just even the types of films they make or is it or the type of set that they create I mean are you

I don't well because I don't really know like with the Coen brothers I didn't know what kind of set they made until I was there we had no rehearsal we had like a bit of studio time recording singing but like I walked on that set and didn't know what they were going to be like really to work with

but they were just giggling in the corner half the time. They were just awesome in every respect. But yeah, so it's not really been that. It's been more that it's been filmmakers that I just really wanted, like Nicholas Weine Raffin, you know, who was such an extraordinary filmmaker, made such cool films, and I just loved them so much,

and I wanted to work with him. I'd met him before, and I didn't really like him because he was really rude. And then I met him again, and he was rude again. And then we hung out more, and he turned out to be the most awesome person. So, you know, it wasn't, it was more that his films were just so good that I just wanted to be in one of them. I mean, you have worked with a few filmmakers.

I mean, I haven't been on the sets of a lot of these filmmakers, but knowing what I do is just a cinephile and having interviewed them over the years, that they are, you know, there's some adjectives you could assign to a few of them in terms of provocateurs or, or, I mean, Oliver Stone. Yeah. One of my favorite memories ever was I somehow landed a seat next to Oliver on a plane. Oh, my God. And we ended up watching New Year's Eve, the. Barry Marshall film together. Wow. So surreal.

That's amazing. But he's, you know, he's an instigator. He pushes. He pros. That's like what he gets off on in a way. Was that something that,

for instance, for Oliver, was that someone that you felt worked for you in terms of the style of, you need? I mean, I feel kind of comfortable being with someone who's really straight up.

And Oliver's very kind of honest about what he wants. And I like that. I think it's why I like Danish directors. They're all really honest. They all kind of tell you, exactly what they think and, you know, you can get a lot of people who kind of mollycodled you or, you know, tell you, you know, or sort of try and encourage you by directing. And I, I kind of

prefer the style of just straight up honesty. Like, that didn't work. This did. Like, let's have another go. Yeah. Talk to me a little bit about, like, so growing up what the goal was. I mean, is this even comparable to sort of where you imagine when you're like a 15 year old girl, like where you want to be and the kinds of acting you want to you, the kinds of work you want to do, or is it just all night and day? It's all massively superseded all of that. I mean, my expectations were low. Why?

Well, no, I mean, they weren't low, actually. What I wanted to be was, well, first of all, I wanted to be a musical theater actress, but by the time I was about 15, I pretty much decided that wasn't going to happen. Wait, why? Well, because I couldn't sing well enough, and I couldn't, can't dance at all. And, you know, and it just sort of went out of the window. But I wanted to be a theatre actress. I knew I wanted to do that.

And film wasn't really something I thought. But I think, you know, I was surrounded by British TV. So I thought, like, maybe I'd be on TV shows. But I didn't really know. And it was really only just by working. And suddenly I started working. And I just got lucky and kept working. So there was never really kind of definite set plan for anything.

Do you still refuse to dance, period? No, I danced in far from the running crowd. So, yeah. So, but I'm saying in your personal life is that. Oh, my personal life. Oh, absolutely. No one wants to see me done. That's a non-starter.

You're talking to the guy that literally danced one song at his own wedding. Really? Yeah, yeah. I don't tend to get involved unless a large amount of alcohol is involved. And then all bets are off.

Is that a lack of coordination? A lack of, because you, I mean, you have to let go of all inhibition as an actress, so that can't be the factor. But I can do that when I'm playing somebody else,

but myself is sort of slightly more tricky. What about karaoke? I've never a karaoke. Oh, I can do karaoke, but again. Quite drunk. What's the go-to karaoke? Meatloaf.

I would do anything for love. It's a ballad. That's epic. Yeah. That's like 10 minutes of your parioki time right there. And they love it. Bring down the house. It's been a hit every time to my three friends in the room.

So, and you mentioned British TV. I mean, like, that was, you did a fair amount of that early on. I did all the classics. I did Miss Marple, Dr. Who, trial and retribution. Yeah, I did all the sort of rights of passage British things that you do. And then lots of course. dramas and bonnets. Right.

Was Dr. Hu a big deal for you? Were you a fan? I wasn't, I didn't grow up as a fan. I became a sort of fan after. I was a massive fan of David Tennant. So I watched all his stuff. And so, yeah, it was a big deal. It was a big deal because that was sort of a Doctor Light episode.

So it was a great thing and quite crushing to do an episode without the doctor in it very much because I kind of thought I'd be running around with him. But yeah, it was a really cool thing to do. It was like probably the most sci-fi thing I've. I've ever done we'll get close to. And as I understand it, and again, it may shock, judging by my appearance, I have not watched Doctor Who. Shocking.

It's on the list, but it's so intimidating. They're like 20 years, 40 years to watch. I mean, I grew up watching like the old episodes, you know, on like afternoon TV, but all the new stuff, it's a lot. But that episode, apparently, that's like one of the ones that in the modern era that they revere as like. I know. I know.

It's amazing. Well, Stephen Moffat, you know, great writers. Yeah. do you um so you um so you mentioned that's like the only bit of kind of like sci-fi thing where you did you have like because looking at the resume one might assume about you that you kind of have high art taste yeah i want to get to the low art okay because you must have some everyone's a mixture of everything yeah yeah and i love genre films and like i love watching them and i i just never found the role in any of those kind of films that i've been particularly

kind of interested in and also the last couple of years i have felt quite i felt really lucky to get to play the part of Madden Crowd and the night it did a film Suffragette about the women's Rights Movement and then sort of slightly yeah feel like there probably isn't enough

strong female roles and felt kind of quite kind of excited about doing more of that kind of stuff right the appeal of being the girl in a superhero movie to be like that guy's girlfriend is probably not high

on your list of like what's the need at the I mean I sort of don't kind of yeah the girlfriend roles I think are yeah sort of tragically underwritten most of the time and so therefore not that interesting. So does it tick any boxes

when like the Avengers is about to come out when Star Wars, the trailer, which I've seen 30 times? I mean, come on. I mean, Avengers looks awesome. But like Star Wars, I think, stands alone in its own right as being sort of, you know,

that's, I don't sort of, yeah, it's got them in a different box from everything else. It's like Star Wars. It's so cool. I got teary eyed watching the trailer. I'm not going to lie. I really did.

I think a lot of people have had that reaction though. That's okay. Yeah, you connect it with your childhood. It's like everybody has that thing. Yeah. And it's been done so authentic. and so kind of, oh, it's so good.

Yeah. Hey, guys, today's episode of Happy Second Fused is sponsored by one of our returning sponsors, our good friends at Pop Sugar. The Pop Sugar must have boxes a monthly subscription featuring the absolute best of products and fashion, beauty, home, fitness, food, and more. Each box is carried by Pop Sugar editor-in-chief Lisa Sugar and her amazing team and includes over $100 of hand-picked full-size products. It's the perfect gift to give yourself or someone special in your life, especially because every month's items are a complete surprise.

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That's code happy at must-have.popshugur.com. Hey, guys, today's sponsor of HappySick and Fused are our friends over at Casper Mattresses, obsessively engineered, American-made mattresses at a shockingly fair price. Listen, you guys spend about a third of your life sleeping. I probably spend about half of my life sleeping. So let's make sure we all do it on a good mattress. Kasser brings together two comfy technologies together for better nights and brighter days, latex foam and memory foam.

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And the prices are great. It's $500 for a twin-sized mattress and $950 for a king-sized mattress. Comparing that to industry averages, that's an outstanding price point. And now you can get $50 towards any mattress purchase by going to Casper. Sper.com slash happy and use the code, happy. So talk to me a little bit about the first time I ever interviewed you, probably like many people, I think it was in Toronto, it was for an education. And it felt from the outside looking in that this was like, overnight success story.

It's like from zero to 60. And from reading about it, in retrospect, in some of your comments, it was a lot to take in and it was maybe a little paralyzing. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but like what is in your retrospect? Like what, where was your head at in that? It was a long process too. Yeah, it was. Festival to release, etc. Yeah, we really did it for that film. We were everywhere. It was. It was like, you know, I went to Sundance sort of thinking, gosh, I wonder if people were like it. And then they did. And that was weird enough. And then suddenly we were doing all this stuff around the release. And I just felt sort of unqualified. I felt like I shouldn't,

you know, I felt like sort of accidentally invited to the party. And I think, you know, I just took it really seriously. Like, I, you know, I remember like I didn't drink at all. I didn't have any drinks. I'd be like super, super, super, super conscientious. And I was very worried about, you know, saying the wrong thing or, you know, I'm terrified of having my photo taken. And like, you know, I was 23 or 24.

And I think I just got, you know, it was just all scary and weird. And now you're walking in. You literally walked in for those who can see it with a bottle of tequila. which seems like a strange choice for... I know. I'm wasted. No, you know, it's just sort of... I think if any of that stuff ever happened again and I went through a big award season thing,

I would just relax a bit. Like, it's not that big. I mean, it's amazing and it's great. It's great for a film to... But like, I just got so freaked out by the scale of it and I didn't have any fun, really. And I just think, like, it's a lovely thing. People like your film, great.

Like, have a nice time and don't be so paranoid. Did the press part of it and the circuit, it like did people give you were you to you get media training at that time do you get like did you know how to handle that aspect of it was it yeah i think i mean i've always worked with with like great well since before that film i i started working with great people and and so i knew how to conduct myself and it was great because i came into it knowing that i didn't have to you know give any part of myself i didn't have to sort of talk extensively about my personal life to try and connect with anyone so i knew that there were stuff that i could not say

and stuff that I was ultimately there to talk about the work that I was proud of and that's been a great kind of way of in doing press but yeah I think you know the other side of it the sort of visual side the photos and the carpets and all that sort of stuff

was just like what the first time I had any fun was at the Oscars because it got to the point where it was such a foregone conclusion that Sandra Bullitt was going to win the award that I could relax and I was like there's nowhere I'm getting on a stage so you know we could all have a nice time, and we did.

So what clicks in your brain now when your photo is still clearly taken an awful lot? Are you compartmentalize? You just go to a weird happy Zen place? What's going on? I'm on a beach somewhere. Yeah, I guess. I do. I don't look at the things, so I don't see the photos.

So, you know, I think before I would sort of look for stuff and I would find negativity, you know, because if you Google yourself, it doesn't matter if people write nice things. You're just going to find the horrible things. And I think now I just don't. I don't look at anything. I avoid it as much. I just did an interview where this woman showed me red carpet shots from a couple days ago

and I wanted to punch her in the face because I'm so deliberate about not looking at that stuff because the minute you engage with it or think about it too much, you become enormously self-aware. And I assume that part of that applies to the decision not to do social media. Yeah, exactly.

Which it's got to be challenging in a way because as you know, 99.9% of the world is super engaged to a fault and is staring down at their devices all the time. And does it ever feel like you're, you know, you're gaining a lot, obviously, by not being hopefully a self-involved as the rest of us. But I would think you all suit, I don't know, are there times where you feel like you're missing something? No, the only times, I had an Instagram account for a couple of months and then I shut it down and came off it because, you know, I don't know, nothing's private. Everything gets out there eventually.

It doesn't matter if you have a private account, which I did. And so I just thought, why, what's the point? but then I think like oh it'd be nice to see my friend's baby in California that I don't see so that's the only point and the only other point with that is when you know I work with two great charities and War Child UK and the Alzheimer's Society and often you need support for things and you need people to sign petitions or you need you know to raise money and it's so easy to do that on social media and so I've been sort of the only times I've ever considered it is like God this would be a lot easier to get 5,000 signatures if I had Twitter account sure but I have friends who have Twitter account. It was very nice and let me use them So that works out So you're working out there Just like

You're no better than the rest of us Just watching always Pretty much Yeah I mentioned skylight And I want to bring it up Because it is an amazing piece And to see you and Bill

On stage is a real treat I know you guys did it in London Yeah Brought it here I'm just curious Like obviously it must be endlessly rewarding Day after day or else

You wouldn't For instance brought it here Is it's Does it change? Is it sort of like does it feel like it's rewarding in its own same way each day or is the fun that it changes in a way? Yeah the fun is that it changes. I mean it's funny because we did it in London for 12 weeks and we got to the end of it and I thought I pretty much know what this is all

about now like I've got this down and then we started doing it here and I started finding all these new things in the writing that I never thought about in London. So it is that it changes. It's also that you know it's a full on play and a lot of stuff happens and it's really emotional and there are some nights where I sit backstage and I think, why am I doing this? So sad. You know, I sort of have to gear my, I'm like, oh, okay. And then I get on stage and I start doing it and I love it every night and I have so much

fun, even though it's sort of a very complicated play. So it's a funny thing. It's sort of a bit of a test of endurance because to a degree when you do a really emotional play, you are asking a lot of yourself every night and you can't fake it because, you know, people can tell. So it's a funny thing, but I do love it and I've never been so happy on stage. So, but that's because of Bill, really. Do you find that, I mean, we're talking kind of about focus.

Like, when you're on stage, you have to be in it. Yeah. But you're a human being. Yeah. How far can the mind wander during something like that? Like, can you go down grocery list items? Can you decide, like, oh, I forgot to do this? Oh, yeah.

Yeah. On a bad night, your head is, it's the bad nights are when you can't get your head in the game, and that's the worst feeling. There are some nights who you come on effortlessly, it's easy. But there are some nights when, you know, particularly if you know this, I remember we did it. London one of the last shows and I knew that Paul Greengrass was in the audience and I'm a huge fan wanting to put me in a film you know all this stuff and I was just I spent the entire show thinking

I wonder what Paul Greengrass thinks about this and then I'd do something and I think oh Paul Greengrass won't like that because that was too melodramatic and he's a real realist and you know and it was like oh I wonder if Paul greengrass laughed at that joke like come on get over this one for you Paul yeah essentially I mean I literally it was ridiculous and so I try not to find out who's in the audience I tend to play the show for them, you know, instead of for the show. Hey, guys, time for a special message from one of our very special sponsors. Stone Reset by Gemvara. Stone Reset is a service that handcrafts new settings for your very unique and previous stones from your existing jewelry collection.

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paid and insured packaging, no questions asked. Get started at stone reset.com slash happy, and you'll get 15% off at stone reset.com slash happy. Have you met with Paul? Because, yeah, you've talked about the boring films. Yeah, he came backstage and I sort of. gushed and blushed and kind of held my neck and looked terrified

and, you know, he was very nice to me. I mean, it's a no-brainer again for a fellow film geek, but tell me about, like, what do you connect with in his work, which is so visceral and it's just, it's fantastic. Yeah, but it doesn't, you know, that everything feels authentic and real and, you know, that's, he's able to, you know,

he's got just an extraordinary way of making, you know, real stories and, and no matter how, you know, in the born films, particularly the situation, can be so extreme and so kind of extraordinary, but it feels like you're watching real human beings. You know, that's quite, it's such a difficult mix to take a film like that,

which is action and thrilling and to have humanity in it. Is, and you've talked about that's still, that's a bucketless kind of thing. I mean, as I'm sure, I know Baz was a huge moment for you. Baz's bucket list. Well, tell to me, I'm curious, because that was the last time I spoke to you was for Gatsby,

which was such a great piece of work. And, I mean, a testament to what all you guys achieved that it also made a lot of money, frankly, which for that kind of movie, that's amazing. Yeah. That's amazing that an F. Scott Fitzgerald. Yeah, yeah.

Adaptation makes $350 million. Yeah. It was such a crazy experience. It was also the most sort of hyped up casting process I'd ever been involved in. Like I'd never been sort of, you know, so kind of, the news around that and the sort of lists that were names that were flying around

and we were all, you know, it felt like a sort of X factor thing. It was like, going to, you know, and then obviously the expectation for that character because it's such a loved novel and such a huge novel. And, you know, frankly, America's bigger than England. You know, the expectation here is from millions and millions of people. And it was a lot. But we did feel, I felt like we got out there and just made the version that we wanted to and that Baz wanted to. And that obviously pleased some people and didn't please others. And I think that's a testament

to the fact that he just is a very distinct filmmaker. Yeah. It's kind of be such a guest. to see yourself on the screen and something like that. I mean, it's always probably fascinating, but to see the world that he creates and stylized kind of. And we're talking, it's kind of in a much different way than Paul. He's kind of at the other end of the spectrum in a way and kind of creating very composed,

still visceral and still really energetic filmmaking, but it's his world. Yeah. It's surreal, though, with Gatsby. Like, it is, you know, it is a surreal experience watching yourself in that because you see the world that's been constructed around you that you didn't, you know, on set you don't really think about.

but yeah it's surreal that whole experience feels very odd because it's probably the biggest well it's definitely the biggest film I've done but it's also the sort of I don't know I sometimes walk around and think gosh I was in a film with Leonardo DiCaprio and it was like what?

It's so weird I mean it is a testament to your choices maybe a little luck who the hell knows that you've had a few of these already in a relatively young career that I mean I count as some of my favorites drive as I'm sure you encounter every day I'm one of those

that it was my favorite movie that year. It's an amazing achievement. Do you have the soundtrack on your playlist? I've had, I had some songs, yeah, on my, but then it was sort of odd. It's a little too mad, because I would go home in the evening, because I lived with Nick when we were filming, so I'd go home in the evening and Matt and the editor, they'd be playing the songs, and so it's so, you know, it sort of reminds me of that time so much, in a great way, but it's also like, odd, you know.

One of the most crushing things about that for me on a personal level. was that, you know, they send some of this, like, silly kind of swag sometimes to journalists. Yeah. And they sent the jacket that he wears. Was it a good version of it, though? It was a great version. On my body, it didn't look exactly the same as it did on Ryan's. My wife was basically like, yeah, you can't pull that off.

We were all meant to get those jackets at the end. It was a whole, and we were going to wear them in can. It was a whole thing. Like, oh, man, it didn't work out. I recently had on the podcast, someone who, it sounds like we both had great reverence for. It was Kenneth Browno, which was a huge. moment for me. The fact that Kenne Brown knows who I am and is just mind-boggling to me. I mean, it's been written about a lot that you wrote a letter to him.

What was it, was it seeing him on stage or on screen that really? Stage, yeah. I saw him and Henry and he was a sort of, and on film, lots of film, much ado. And I grew up sort of idolizing him. And so, yeah, I wrote to him really to have, I think I thought maybe he'd let me come and sort of hang out with him and just watch him, you know, which Now, I think, like... My protege, Carrie, come along. Terrify. But, yeah, I guess, you know, it was just sort of

to try and be near him and soak up some of his genius. Have you soaked up some of his genius? You must have met him by now. I sat next to him in a read-through. And then, weirdly, I met him at Buckingham Palace. Oh, of course. As one does.

No, not Buckingham Palace. It Windsor Castle, and I met the Queen, and he was there. And he was so casual about it because he'd met the Queen loads. And this is the first time I was meeting it. And he got me some champagne. Amazing. It was good.

Life funny that way. Isn't life insane? Insert crazy adjective here. Ridiculous. You mentioned Suffergette, which I'm very excited to see. Merrill,

Helena. I mean, these probably are, I would guess, knowing what I know of you, those are probably two important people to get the show of it. And Annbury Duff as well,

who's someone I've always looked up to. Yeah, it's a crazy cast. And we've also got some good boys as well. Well, there are boys in there too. You let some boys in there. Only the good ones,

though. Yeah, we've got Sam West, Brendan Gleason, Ben Wershaw. So, yeah, it's a great cast. I'm so excited about it. I love it.

I think it's so, and it's so massively overdue. That's the crazy thing. It's like, you know, we're in an age where anything happens of any note and somebody's writing a film about it two minutes later and trying to cast, you know, whoever. And yet the story somehow escapes. Somehow 100 years later. Oh, I'm sorry. The struggle for equality in Britain.

Do you people really need to know about that, Carrie? That's that important? Yeah, shocking. Do you like the lifestyle of you say you're having a blast right now? Do you like the lifestyle of being here in New York, of the day-to-day? It's probably as close to a day job as an actor gets, like clocking in and out in a weird way. Yeah, it's nice. I like the routine of it.

And, yeah, it's great being in New York. I mean, I've done another couple of plays here on Broadway before. Well, one on Broadway and one off Broadway. And it takes about six weeks for you to have any kind of life because you have the previews and then you have press and you do press over press night. And it all gets a bit sort of knackering and you sleep a lot. So now I'm getting into the sort of potentially doing things during the day portion of my existence. Plus, I get to the theatre at 5.30 because I'm a lunatic and I have to be there two and a half hours early. So by the time I, you know, the day kind of gets sucked up quite easily.

So what happens in those two and a half hours? I eat dinner, go to sleep for half an hour, get up, have a shower, do my hair and makeup, go downstairs, warm up on stage for half an hour in my dressing room, and then I go on. and it's a thing don't get in the way of my process because it's very important Bill shows up six minutes before or what? No, Bill gets there early sometimes as well we tease him because he

in London he didn't always used to warm up with us and so we used to say that he was too fancy to warm up and then now in New York he warms up every day but when he comes on stage we pretend that it's like a revelation so we're like oh Bill deigning us with your president join us today. Oh, and he's like, oh, man, this joke's getting old, but it isn't.

We're great. We're waiting moments before I'm the barrier between you and lunch, so I'll make it quick. So you mentioned growing up as a musical theater geek. Is it still something that feels like you're ready to do it? It's overwhelming at the moment because we're next door to Phantom in the Opera. And so I come out off stage some nights and I can hear the main, the theme tune. What, the theme tune? The music of the night, the whole thing.

Yeah, I can hear that. And I can see them running on and off the music. stage and it's galling for me because I would like to be running onto their stage. And we're opposite Le Miserables, which of course was sort of my mecca when I was younger. So, yeah, it's a lot of

my inner child fighting, my current self. But yeah, I don't think the right thing. And I think I should stay away from singing for a while because I've been singing a lot in things. Right. So, so I don't want to be the singing actress. No, no. If you're going to do it, do it for the cones. Yeah, exactly. And by the way, you're withering.

insults through Oscar Isaac. Just, I could listen to them all day. It's easy to witheringly insult Oscar. Poor Oscar. He's doing all right. He's actually very difficult to be nasty to him. He's the best, right? Yeah, he is.

And do you know what you're doing next after? No, I don't. I know we've got Suffragette coming out in October. And other than that, I'm going to finish the play at the end of June, and then I'm going to sort of hang out. Could you imagine ever living here permanently? I mean, I would think you connect to New York as someone, because you grew up in London in and out of cities. Yeah, I love New York. I could definitely

have lived here. Now I'm pretty settled in London and my family's there, so I don't think so. But I like these little stints out here a couple months. It's great. Nice. Well, we like to have you. Thank you. Killing it in film and theater as always. It's good to see you, Karen. Thanks for sitting down on the eve of your, well, it's going to be a glorious lunch. It's going to be, I'm predicting big things. Okay, fingers crossed. I'm excited. You're going to kill it. It's going to be salad dressing. Oh my God. avocado.

Let's do it. Dare to dream. Good to see you. Thank you. That's the show, guys. I'm Josh Horowitz. This has been happy, sad, confused. Hope you've enjoyed the show.

Hit me up on Twitter. Joshua Harowitz. Go over to Wolfpop.com. Check out all the amazing shows over there. And most importantly, check back in next week for another edition of Happy Sad. Confused. Once again, we want to thank Pop Sugar for sponsoring today's episode of Happy Say I Confused. The Pop Sugar Must Have Box is a monthly subscription featuring the absolute best of products in fashion, beauty, home, fitness, food, and more.

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Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop is part of mid-roll media, executive produced by Adam Sacks, Matt Gorley, and Paul Shear. I'm Amy Nicholson, the film critic for the LA Times. And I'm Paul Shear, an actor, writer, and director. You might know me from The League, Veep, or my non-eligible for Academy Award role in Twisters. We love movies, and we come at them from different perspectives. Yeah, like, Amy thinks that, you know, Joe Pesci was miscast in Goodfellas, and I don't. He's too old.

Let's not forget that Paul thinks that Dude, too, is overrated. It is. Anyway, despite this, we come together to host Unspool. a podcast where you talk about good movies, critical hits. Fan favorites, musts season, and Casey Mistoms. We're talking Parasite the Home Alone. From Greece to the Dark Night. We've done deep dives on popcorn flicks.

We've talked about why Independence Day deserves a second look. And we've talked about horror movies, some that you've never even heard of like Ganges and Hess. So if you love movies like we do, come along on our cinematic adventure. Listen to Unspooled wherever you get your podcast. And don't forget to hit the follow button. Thank you.