Happy Sad Confused - Kate Mara

Episode Date: February 24, 2014

Kate Mara chats with Josh about “House of Cards,” “Fantastic Four,” why they both love Mark Wahlberg, and whether Kate should visit Africa. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During the Volvo Fall Experience event, discover exceptional offers and thoughtful design that leaves plenty of room for autumn adventures. And see for yourself how Volvo's legendary safety brings peace of mind to every crisp morning commute. This September, leased a 26 XE90 plug-in hybrid from $599 bi-weekly at 3.99% during the Volvo Fall Experience event. Conditions supply, visit your local Volvo retailer or go to explorevolvo.com. This episode is brought to you by Square. You're not just running a restaurant, you're building something big, and Square's there for all of it, giving your customers more ways to order,

whether that's in-person with Square kiosk or online. Instant access to your sales, plus the funding you need to go even bigger. And real-time insights so you know what's working, what's not, and what's next. Because when you're doing big things, your tools should to. Visit square.ca to get started. Hey guys, welcome to my very first podcast. I'm Josh Horowitz, and this is Happy, Sad, Confused. That's the name I'm going with. I hope you like it. I confess, names are not my strong suit. I don't know how to title things. So we went with this, Happy Sad Confused, which is something that I've been doing a lot on Instagram lately, where I do silly photos with celebrities, and we thought, hey, why not just extend that brand, that name to this podcast, because that's, after all, what I'm going to go for. in these interviews. These are long-form interviews. These are interviews that are going to be at least 30 minutes or more, something that I don't have the luxury often of doing at my day job at MTV.

So in the course of 30 minutes with a celebrity, hopefully we'll get them happy. Hopefully not too sad and hopefully a little bit confused. I hope you guys enjoyed this first one. We shot right out of the gate with a really fun interview. I chatted with the lovely Kate Mara. Kate is, of course, the star of many films, including Brokeback Mountain and Shooter, and she's also on House of Cards, which is basically the equivalent of television crack. I went through the season two, all 13 episodes, in about three days. And I should mention that in the course of this conversation,

there are some spoilers, but don't worry, I give ample spoiler warnings. I'm not going to hang you out to dry. So listen to this interview. Enjoy Kate. She's super sweet, super fun, has lots of great stories. And for God's sake, she was just cast. in Fantastic Four. How cool is that?

We talk about that and a lot of other things. On this very first edition of Happy, Sad, Confused, please let me know what you think of it. Make suggestions on future guests. Tell me what you think over at my Twitter handle, Joshua Horowitz. But for now, enjoy this little chat with the lovely Kate Mara.

Kate Mara has invaded my office along. You said my last name right. Mara. No, you just said, you said it right the first time. Okay, so for context, because we were just talking, Kate Mara and Josh Horowitz were talking in Josh Harowitz's office. Yes. And I screwed up your name the second time, but not the first time. The first time you got it right, and then you got nervous and said it wrong. And that's, it's Caddy or Kittay? You could call me Katie, but that's a little, it feels like we don't know each other well enough. So do friends call you Katie? My family calls me Katie.

Okay. And my really close friends, which I only have a couple of those, so. Okay. We'll see if we get there by the end of 30 minutes talking. This is exciting because whether you know it or not, you're on a maiden voyage with the good ship, Josh Harrowitz. This is my first podcast interview. Did you know that? No. Now I'm nervous. So don't screw this up for me. What if we mess it up? Then we're in it together, at least. Now I'm thinking about what my voice sounds like, because that's all anyone's going to, they're not going to be able.

Oh, it's horrible now. All I hear is just this, like, monotone, awful sound. At least I'm not, you don't have like the headphones on. Yeah. The cans, as they say. Yeah, that'd be worse. That would be worse. Have you done podcast before? Is this your maiden voyage as well?

This is, yeah, yeah. This is, I was a virgin until just now. No, let's not. Okay. Congratulations. I'm a big fan of yours and we were just talking about this is a big, like, day, a big moment because it's House of Card season two has been out there for a bit. We're going to get into some spoiler stuff in a little bit,

but we'll build to that. I don't want to, like, scare everybody all. At the start, right? Yeah, let's ease them into it. Ease them in. So, first, for context, okay, so when I was reading up on your illustrious career, Kate, Mara, Mara. Now I don't even know. You can't remember.

Just say it how a New Yorker would say it. Mara. Yeah, exactly. Mara is very English, and my family is not from England. You're from New York, obviously. Do you feel you have any kind of New York accent? I'm from New York. I don't think I have an accent, do I?

I don't think we do. but some people some people think I do yeah when obviously it's not that thick right right do you kind of sometimes wish you had like a no no I'm good sometimes I wish I had an Irish accent because that would be really cool but are you good with accents um I don't know I love to do them if I have if I have a role where I have to do an accent I get really excited about it so I hope I'm good at them what's the coolest accent you've done for a role I had to do Scottish, which is really hard. But I loved doing it, and I did English, which is not that hard compared to Scottish.

That's level one. Scottish is level three, as we know. Yeah, exactly. So you just came this morning from, I called it Regis because, again, I was born in New York, and I grew up with Regis, and he's gone now. He's with us, but he's not there. Do you enjoy doing those kind of like talk shows? I have a harder time with the morning talk shows, because I wake up. early, but it takes me a few hours to actually, like, start using my brain. So I probably just

seemed like a total idiot on that show. So the second half of this interview is going to, like, we're going to kick into it a whole other gear. Well, the coffee's now sort of settling in, I'm okay. I'm almost okay. Right. Because I watched your, I watched your Letterman appearance this week, which was great. Was it? See, here's the problem. Okay. Morning shows are too early, and then the night shows, I get really nervous and I need to have at least, like, a glass of champagne or maybe a shot of something just to sort of calm my nerves a little bit. And then I just forget everything that's happened. Well, you also kind of, and again, not to spoil anything yet, you kind of let the cat out

of the bag to a degree on Letterman, I felt. To a degree. Okay. But I was, they sort of told me to. Oh, did they? We're pulling the veil back. Well, not Letterman didn't tell me to, but I was told that it was that it was okay to talk about it if I wanted.

So I don't know. I didn't really alluded to it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so let's talk. So this part, I mean, I've seen you in a bunch of films obviously, but this is like one of those parts that that the show has obviously resonated and the character really has. It's a special, I mean, you would agree, right?

Like when you heard about, you hear about a project with David Fincher and Kevin Spacey attached, it's like... It's automatically cool. Yeah, I mean, they've never done TV. Fincher, for my money is like literally top five filmmakers working today and Spacey's top five actors working so you're in a good place yeah um so in a sense that did the success and did the fact that everybody was binging whatever surprise you or was it sort of like yeah that's what we

hoped and we assumed would be the case given the material well I from before we ever started shooting I thought even if I'm not in this I assume this is going to be a big hit and it'll be amazing just from just having Fincher sort of create it and with the cast involved already and then of course being a part of it and and I had seen a lot of the episodes before they ever came out I thought well how are people not going to respond to it in some sort of positive way but you never know the most surprising thing was definitely and still is the crazy binge watching it's it's very I do that kind of thing but I thought I was a weirdo it's literally the way of life now yeah i i did it with house of cards over the weekend i did it i saw super busy people

find time to do but yes i wasn't referring to you i was referring to real jobs um like Obama right he watches that was amazing so yeah Obama tweeted it that was that blew that blew my mind so i can only imagine what it did all i could think when i heard that the very first thought was oh Jesus, I told everybody last season about how on election day to make Spacey laugh, I printed out pictures of Obama's face and used them as my pasties in like this nude scene. And that's all I could think of when I saw Obama tweeted about our show. I thought, oh, this is horrible. I shouldn't have said that. Now he probably thinks I'm a joke. And that was inappropriate. It's as if my dad. Yeah. But it's very cool.

It's really cool. Yeah. So did, do you sense that, do people react to you? I mean, you know, people are, I would hope, able to separate character from human being. But your character is, I would think, would elicit some interesting responses from people. Yeah. I mean, I haven't gotten any really weird comments about Zoe. There's no heckling.

No. Oh, you, Zoe Barnes on the street. There's none of that kind of thing. No. Thank God. No. People don't seem to. I mean, yeah, no.

People don't seem to say anything weird. me. So can we talk about Fincher a little bit because I'm like just obsessed with him. I've interviewed him a few times and I know he's he seems to me having my limited experience like the smartest guy in the room. Yeah. And also like a wicked kind of sense of humor, like super acerbic, which like I respond to and I think you can see in his films. I mean how would you surprise you or what give me a sense of what? Every time we have a conversation or a text message exchange, I have to look up a word. that he's used.

Right. And maybe that's just because I'm an idiot, but I like to think I'm not. He's very, very smart and he always gets you thinking, and he's hilarious. He's one of the driest sense of humor. Yeah. His sense of humor is amazing. But working with him was just sort of, it was everything I kind of hoped it would be, but was really, really hard work, which is what I crave that, and he makes you work your ass off.

Again, though, I would, every day on set, I just made sure I always have my phone on me because he would give me references that I just had no clue. One second, David, hold on, just check my phone. Yeah, I had one point I had to get, I asked him to send me a list of movies that he thought I should watch so that we could have a conversation. Just like a regular dinner, like without me being. So you're on the same level as opposed to feeling like you're catching up

with, again, the smartest guy in the room. What do you recommend? This is going to make me seem like such... No, no, I haven't seen plenty of classics. It's all good. Really? I don't believe you. It's true. Go ahead. I'll be honest. Well, I had never seen broadcast news.

I know. No, I'm not saying that that literally is. That's like top ten movies of all time. I'm obsessed with it. It's a perfect movie. And yeah, so he thought that was ridiculous. She's like, how are you doing this show? and you haven't even seen that.

That's the first one that comes to mind. And now I'm like, now it's one of my favorite movies ever. I mean, that was where Bill of Affair with Albert Brooks began. Then you go down to Albert Brooks rabbit hole and see all the films he directed and wrote. I mean, William Hurt, amazing. Everyone's amazing. Should I admit this to you? Yes, you should.

The most embarrassing movie, I don't want to say it now. We're not cutting it out. So now we've gone down. Just guess. If you could guess. That you haven't seen? The one movie that I haven't seen that I didn't. Definitely, as an actor, or just as a person.

Is this Albert Brooks thing? No. Oh. I don't know. Really? Of all the movies on the planet, like in history, what's the one movie you should have seen? Gone to the Wind, Casablanca, Citizen Kane. I haven't seen Citizen Kane.

It's worth checking out. No, I was going to say the Godfather. Wow. Right, that's embarrassing. But now it's become a thing. Seriously, you have seen Godfather 2 and 3. I've not seen any of them. That's weird.

And neither has my sister. So it's sort of, now it's become such a big deal that I am nervous about seeing it, and I want to, like, wait for the perfect moment in my life to watch it. Godfather, honestly, is one of those movies where, like, you have, you know, the certain movies that you remember where you were when you watched it. And, like, I saw it in high school, and it was, like, one of those, like, double cassettes you got, you know? Yeah. And you were just, like, who's been hiding this from me?

Because this is, like, so rich and amazing. you're going to love it. I'm not concerned about that at all. And two is amazing. A three is all right. Okay, so we were talking about Fincher. Obviously, Rudy had worked with David, and that's how you had first met David, I assume.

Yeah. Yeah. I really didn't know him well at all, but I had met him a few times, a couple, you know, family dinners with Fincher and my sister. And when I went to visit her in Sweden during Dragon Tattoo. but yeah I really didn't know him well at all so so when I worked with him on house of cards that's when I became obviously friends with him and stuff but

so you mentioned that you visited Rune while she was making that film which is like such I can only imagine again from your unique perspective on that of watching your sister your kid sister yeah go through this and like you know first land like the most coveted yeah yeah at the time working with the top filmmaker and then seeing what she did to herself and seeing how intense a performance that was. Was it unnerving to see sort of like what she was doing in her headspace at the time?

Well, I didn't actually watch her shoot anything. I was just there sort of hanging out with her on her date. She had a long weekend off in Sweden, so I went and saw her there. But yeah, the whole thing, being with her from before she even knew she was going to screen test for it, to that moment of being there. It's very surreal.

It's, yeah, it's really hard to describe. So you're a couple years older. Yeah, two years, yeah. So you had obviously been acting for a bit and you had a head start on her and a lot of stuff. In terms of the filmography, yours is much longer than her, so you win that battle, definitely. Thank God it wins something.

No, no, but I mean, did, were you surprised when she followed you into acting where you guys was, I mean, because you have two brothers, I think, and they're not actors as far as I know. You know, I was, I guess I wasn't that surprised because as kids, you know, we had very similar interests. We both really loved seeing the theater, going to the theater and watching movies and, you know, we were really good at playing house. I, being the older, I should take this professional, because we're good at playing house.

We should do this. We should make money for this. But, so of course, I knew, I knew that it was a passion of hers in a way, but it just took her longer to, you know, she tried other things and, like, went to school for a minute. I did not. I was just, I just knew from the time I was nine, I think, that that's what I was going to do with my life. And she sort of, whether she knew it or not from that age, I don't know, but it wasn't, you know, it wasn't shocking to me. Right. You, and your career trajectory, I mean, everybody obviously takes their own path and it's hard to land where you are. You never know, like, what strange avenues are going to go down. But, like, I feel like the first part of your career was very much TV, a lot of TV. Was that kind of like, was that a frustrating, exciting time? Was it like, I need to do this to pay my dues to get into movies? Yeah, there was definitely that. The first couple jobs I had in New York, one of my first jobs was this movie called Random Heart. hearts yeah which i think i was 14 or i was fifth maybe 15 when i did it um so were you i don't i confess i saw the film i don't remember you in it well kate i apologize my god it's harrison ford though it's a city of sydney poplar movie right yeah i played um well as christ and scott

thomas right i played her daughter so no why would you remember me but Yeah. For those listening to the podcast, she just flashed me the dirtiest look ever. Yeah. It's not my finest work, but... If it were, that would be troublesome. Yeah, right. I piqued on my first job.

Yeah. But that was sort of my first thing. And then after that, I did a lot of, you know, the New York shows, Law & Order, all that stuff. And that's kind of how I learned how to act. I mean, it's... When you've been doing it for such a long time, all of those jobs, because I didn't go to school or have a coach or anything like that, which now I sort of think, well, maybe I should have because all, if I just look at the things that I did as a 15, 16, 17 year old, I can sort of watch, oh, I still didn't really know how to do that thing very well. You know, little things that obviously maybe not everyone would notice, but I certainly notice it. But TV was a really easy way of, you know, helping me figure. things out. Well, it lets you also accumulate a bunch of work where in film you can work two days

on a set of a four-month period and you're just not doing that much work in the end, right? No, and I wasn't in a place at all where I cared what I was doing. I was happy doing community theater, you know, independent films or TV. It didn't make any difference to me. I was just happy to be a working actor. So there was kind of like a spate of, I feel like, you know, I don't know if you look at your career like this in terms of like okay this was one section and this is another and now like house of cards gets me to another interesting cool level but there was kind of like a like a period of time where you were in a bunch of interesting cool films and I don't know like if they were honestly rewarding how reward the parts were or not

because sometimes you know women especially can get saddled with the girl in a film you know the whatever the appendage like films like you know I think of my best friend in the world Mark Wahlberg you guys besties you have him all over this office Mark Wahlberg is the strangest relationship in my life. I have nothing in common with Mark. That's amazing. But we get along really well. So you guys are really friends?

Well, I don't know. It's like showbiz friends. Like, could you text him right now? I might have some digits. Wow. No, I'm not going to. So it's real. No, but what was your Mark Wahlberg experience like?

Oh, he's hilarious and so easy to work with. And the most prepared actor. Yeah. He knows everyone's lines on set. he does the work and it's really, really clear. I loved working with him and with Antoine Fouqua. The whole, it was just, it was all men and me. And it certainly wasn't my first job at all.

I've been working for a long time. But it was a fun, you know, it was a fun thing to be a part of. We were shooting a lot of it on a glacier. It was just, it was nuts. Yeah, you're like, this is a movie. This is a movie. This is a real movie. I got Mark Wahlberg, I'm on a glacier.

Yeah. Got the training days over there. Yeah. This is real. It was a really fun experience. I loved doing that movie. So it sounds like you were, I mean... I wasn't mad that I was the girl in any way.

It was still an opportunity. It's still a... Yeah, and I got to work with... Mark is an amazing actor. I loved... I got to work with him. And Antoine was a fantastic director and challenging. And he definitely...

He definitely wanted... to bring more to my character than just, you know, some eye candy. Sure. And so he helped me a lot to try and figure that out and make it more challenging and, you know, more fulfilling experience for me. Do you, I can't imagine if I were an actual actor,

the audition process feels like the worst kind of hell on earth. But some actors actually enjoy it. Do you... I like it. I was just, I thought of the audition for that, the so-called screen test. I had to like smack Mark across the face. And Antoine was like, really hit him hard. And I thought, oh, I don't want to hit him too hard.

I want to get the part. And so the first smack was just like, and they were like, that is pathetic. You need to be able to really hit him. Right. So the next smack I really did hit him. Maybe that's what got me the part. How did he seem to take it pretty well?

Yeah, he was like, can you not hit my ear that really hurt? Like hit my cheek. That's interesting. I don't know if this was the case back there, but the last few times I've interviewed him and been around him, his handshake is very soft. Oh, no. I hate a soft handshake. But I think it's a medical thing.

I think he's like done damage to his hands over the years. Oh, well, then that's a good excuse. Yeah, I was trying to lull you and so you could make fun of people with their handshakes. So I got that. That's a pet peeve I have. I hate it when people don't give all the strong. The dainty. And if you're going to hug someone, give them a hug.

Right. Don't get in there. Don't do that thing. The arm's just kind of hanging off of another bottle. Embrace the human moment, this connection. and let's just live our lives. Yeah. I think one of my greatest qualities is my hug. Really? Yeah.

Okay, we're going to test it out at the end. If you're lucky, Josh. So, speaking of which, okay, as we sat down on the tape this this morning, speaking of auditions, one went really well for you, apparently, because you're Sue Storm in the Fantastic Four movie. According to Twitter, I am.

I literally, I have not heard a thing, which is alarming. But, yeah, last night in bed, I was sort of just sort of, I was scrolling through, you know, movie news and I was a, what? I got the part. I still haven't heard. Okay, wait, no, let's just part stuff for a second. I want L.A. to wake up so I can make some phone calls and figure this out. So do you, are you telling me, seriously, you actually don't know if you have the part or you don't know if you can talk about it? I literally don't know 100% that I have the part. Wow.

According to variety and all these other, you know, usually I. Yeah. Yes. I think you have it. I think you got it. Well, I... Congratulations. I don't like to celebrate before something's real.

Okay. Fair enough. Because how embarrassing would that be? That would be bad. If they were like... We'll destroy this tape if you didn't in fact get it. But I'm feeling you got it. Thanks. I hope so.

Was that audition nerve-wracking, exciting? Josh Trank's a cool filmmaker. He's such a good film. I love Josh Trank. Yeah. I loved Chronicle so much. When I went to see it having no idea. idea. I didn't, hadn't even seen the trailer. Yeah, it's one of those, definitely. So I was

kind of not that excited to see it because I didn't know what it was about and I just was going along. And my mind was blown. I loved it. I think he's so talented. So I think it makes so much sense that he's directing fan for. Yeah. Did it, you don't have to like put on like a spandex thing in the audition or anything like that, do you? It felt like a real thing. Like there's not like weird superhero audition versus regular audition. It just felt like Oh, but I've auditioned for other superhero things before where I've definitely put on some spandex. So, you know, that's not anything special to me. Right.

Are you ready to do your research? Have you read, were you a comic book kid growing up? Oh, I know. If it's true and I am playing Sue Storm, then I will have to get some comic books because I know nothing about it. You're like, I'm not going to pretend. I never even saw the, you know, most recent. Jessica Alba. Yeah, I never saw that either.

Yeah. this fair to say this is a much different take yes i think that this is a very different version i mean one last thing that i think i just want to mention again assuming this happens that i think is really cool honestly another person that we've got a chance to talk to a lot is like michael b jordan and the fact that it's it's colorblind casting which like it's now i mean whatever we're in 2014 it shouldn't be a big deal at all yeah but that it's not a consideration in that it is just sort of like get the best actors for the job and like who cares in the comic books if he was white or black just get the best guy i again i credit josh trink for that because i i

think he's really he thinks outside the box and and i who know i actually don't know whose idea that was yeah but um it just makes me trust that he's going to make an awesome movie given the potential casting regardless of myself regardless of myself the other actors i'm such a massive fan of all those guys. Individually, all of them. I love them all. So. Yeah, I saw, I got a chance to be at a, were you at Sundance this year from here? I got a chance to see Miles had Whiplash.

So this is the opening night film and it's, it's like amazing. He's been amazing in everything lately, but yeah. He's so good. I went to see the Spectacular Now. Again, wasn't excited to see it because I didn't really know much about it. And we went to the Arklight and I had no idea that there was this Q&A right after.

with the actors and I thought oh gosh I definitely don't want to stay for a Q&A and then I watched the movie and was like weeping yeah and I was like I'm staying for the Q&A I want to hear everything they have to say and Miles is just so good man he's like also the most charismatic human being on the planet yeah yeah yeah having met Michael Michael B Jordan yeah he's great okay so enough about enough about Fantastic for that little silly project no but congratulations okay so can we get into some spoiler territory we've given people enough warning on House of Cards. Okay, so if you haven't seen

Change the channel. Yes, exactly. House of Cards, season two, especially the first episode. If you haven't seen that, let's just... Well, if you've seen any of season two, but not the first episode, you should probably... Yeah, reassess how you're watching things. Check yourself. Okay, so

that is one of those, like, WTF, like, amazing moments. Like, you can count on, like, one hand. That's cute that you said WTF. Well, I look at MTV, I have to say. No, I can say it. I'm a big boy. Are you questioning whether I can say a curse word? I don't know.

What the fuck? Whoa, you didn't. I feel like I should be fired right now. I don't feel like they're going to eject me for the building. I got so many hashtag WTF tweets. Did you? That was sort of the most popular thing that people were saying. Which I appreciate because it's not a spoiler to say WTF.

No, it's just that's an interesting twist that I did not see coming. Yeah. So you knew going in, even from what I gather, you knew this. the whole time that Zoe Barnes was not long for this. Yeah, I love that people even a few of my family members have said to me, what did you do? Like, what did you

say to the writers that they did this to you? What were you a bitch or something? Hold off. It was then sure. No. Yeah, no, I knew, before I even read for the role, Fincher said to me the great news

is that I really would like you to play her. you know if you can audition and win the role the bad news is you're only going to last till um you know episode one in season two right which to me is awesome news um not because i didn't want to be on the show for longer but because i just i know myself and i get a little bit um antsy the reason i've never done i've never been a regular on a tv show before is because i I just will get bored, I'd get bored, even if the show is amazing. I know, I know that I would want to change my character, it's something.

It's one of the best things about being an actor is you get to, every six months, move to the next thing and try the hat on. Yeah, I love a change. I don't, I don't really, the safety of doing many seasons on a show, it doesn't sound like safety to me, it sounds, makes me very nervous. So I was really excited about that. I was also excited that it was such a crazy thing. to start the season off with. And we hoped that it would be a big deal. So I've just been lying to people for two years about it. I was going to say, has that been difficult?

Have you, have you? Difficult is maybe a strong word, but it has been, it's been, I've had to remind myself because people keep saying, or friends of mine keep saying to me, or they had, oh, you must be so exhausted. You're shooting a movie and doing House of Cards for the past, you know, seven months. Like, how are you standing?

And I would just, I was like, well, I might as well just milk it. You know, I'm so tired. It's been so hard. So that, you know, now they're texting me going, you asshole. You were napping every day. Remember that time I said you seemed tired? You were just being a bitch for no reason. So that's been funny.

But it's a rare thing for an actor that gets to be a part of like literally the cultural conversation for any period of time, let alone like, you know, it's silly to, like, trending topics on Twitter or whatever, but it is a good gauge of sort of like what, yeah, what the populace is talking about. And that's like amazing. No, it's still surprises me. Even on the plane coming here the other day,

on my way off the airplane, this random dude was like, I am so pissed off that you're dead. And the other people around us were like, what is this being saying to this poor girl? Is he threatened? My response was, thank you so much. That is so sweet. Yeah, to the uninitiated that didn't know who you were,

That's the most bizarre conversation they've ever overheard. Yeah, yeah. It's, and also the amount of, people who keep texting me and calling me to say how upset they are, it's kind of nice to, it's so flattering. I'm so happy you're upset and depressed right now. It's one of the only times I can actually be happy somebody is sad.

Shaden Freud is actually a good thing. Yeah. So, oh yeah, one other, I definitely want to ask you about another very cool film that's coming out pretty soon. It looks really cool, transcendence. I know, I haven't seen it yet. So this is, like, an amazing ensemble. And what's interesting for, like, film geeks like myself, is also it's Wally Fister's first directing effort.

This is the cinematographer that's done, like, the Batman films, and it's, like, clearly insanely talented as well. I actually first met Wally a couple years. Now, I can't remember when it was, like two or three years ago for the Dark Night Screen Test because he was shooting it. Right. And he's one of the most, he's got the best energy and I just loved him. I remembered him from it and then I met him. We just sort of talked about transcendence and because there was, of course, it was top secret. I couldn't read a script.

But no one school of things where, yeah. But I knew immediately, even before reading the script, I knew I wanted to work with him. Yeah. Because it was just so obvious to me that he was going to be a good director. Well, you can, I mean, it's hard to get at a first film, and it's disingenuous to call him like a first-time filmmaker, I feel like, because he's the body of work is insane, but the cast that he's assembled for his first directing effort that speaks volumes right there. Yeah, well, thanks. Yeah, I agree. And that Johnny does do you, whatever. Um, yeah. Who's most of your stuff with in that one?

Uh, almost all of my stuff is with Paul Bettany. Oh, cool. Yeah, who's so good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Was the dark night screen test a spandex one? Was that what you're saying? Was that the one you were referring to? I wonder if I, now that the movie's out, I'm sure I can say I wore spandex.

They made me sign my life away with it. Kate Mera wore black spandex during her test. Yes, there were spandex involved. A happy memory or a disturbing one. Amazing. Yeah, I mean, you get to be in the room with Chris Nolan and. I love that kind of. I, of course, if you get offered a part without auditioning, that is rad.

Sure. But I like to feel like I've earned something. Right. Even a day's work, one of the reasons I love working with Fincher is because he exhausts you as an actor. And so by the end of the day, I felt like I really earned my, I earned that scene or whatever. And the same for me, the same sort of goes for a role, especially one that already has a lot of pressure on it, like a superhero, for example. you want to, you definitely don't want to get on set if they haven't seen you do anything and then they see you do it

and they're like, oh, we chose wrong. So at least if you're auditioning, then they know what they're... They're getting, what it's not up for. Well, that's the thing. I've heard Finchler say this before, because people always ask him about the many takes, and I know he gets a little prickly about that, and justifiably so.

But in his defense, he's talked about how, like, look, this film is going to be, I want this to be here long after I'm gone. We might as well stay until we get it. it right like yeah I learned that at three in the morning doing the same line a hundred times and going I don't know what I'm doing but then but he says also that he kind of wants to like break you down a little bit so you take like yeah fences are down and you just are it's a more pure acting experience right yeah that's what he says and it's impossible to know if he's doing

that to you or if he's doing that to someone else or if that's just bullshit but that's what's amazing about working with him you really it's pretty much much impossible to know what his game is and it doesn't matter you just you can trust that it's going to work welcome to the first david fincher appreciation podcast oh god can we talk shit about him now because his head's going to explode go off because i want to talk to him again no i want another job we both want to be around david fincher again um i've got a silly uh fedora uh indiana jones fedora filled with random questions kate cool do you want to pick one just for shits and giggles See, I cursed again.

Aren't you allowed to curse? I don't know. You made me feel weird about it. When I get really comfortable, I start cursing. Okay. We'll get you there. Okay. What do you got?

Oh, I'm nervous. Karaoke. Oh, that's easy. All right. What? What's the question? Do I like karaoke? I used to hate it.

And then a few years ago, I discovered that you don't have to put so much pressure on karaoke. And you can sing, you know, Disney songs, and it's fine. And so now I love it. So what's your, do you have a go-to karaoke jam, as they say? I love to sing a part of your world, or maybe One Direction. It depends on my mood. Do you have a favorite member of OneD? Yeah.

Who do you think? The obvious. Harry? Yeah. Is it that obvious? Harry? Is it most people team Harry? I'm not the core demo, but I'm just saying.

Clearly you are. You knew what I was talking about. I work at MTV, for God's sakes. I have a free pass on this one. I love One Direction. But I guess it feels like when, like, InSync was around, like, everybody, it was justified. Like, if you liked Joey, you had some. But to be fair to the rest of One Direction, I love them all. I've seen the movie.

I saw the movie. It's pretty good. I loved it. I really like that movie. Have you met One D yet? No. But they're playing a giant stadium. They're playing a giant stadium over the summer.

So you know I'll fly in for it. Yeah, that's a favor you're going to call. Oh, yes. I will call the owners, for sure. Amazing. I'll pick another one. Oh, okay. You know, I've never karaokeed, literally.

Why? No, no, I'm not, not to make this about me, but. Are you scared of it? Yeah. I don't sing. I can tell. I'm not, despite my job, I don't enjoy being in, like, public situations like that. I don't know.

No, but you get, I don't do public. Did you just ask, do I rap? Look at me. You should get a private room karaoke situation. That's what I do. Yeah, exactly. I love karaoke by myself. Yeah, the sketchiest guy in the world walks into a karaoke place,

one room for one. Oh, that'd be amazing. That'd be so sweet. All right, what's next? Who's your favorite Batman? You already admitted that you're not a comic book. Affleck. Oh, wow, controversial.

That says that you're looking forward. That was easy. Go for it. Next. Okay. You're enjoying this more than my actual question. Have you ever jumped at? This is so much more fun.

I'm sorry. Because these are fun. This is no pressure. Have you ever jumped out of a plane? Is that that one? Absolutely not. Have you? Again, I would never karaoke.

I would never ever do that on purpose. Have you ever, um, I found she jumped once, but it was like, it was like a theme park thing. It wasn't like crazy? That's the same thing to me. I would never. You would never do it? No. You're not a thrill seeker, Kate?

No, I don't like roller coasters. I don't like any of that. I'm such a boring person. If I go to like a, you know, Disneyland or whatever, I won't go on the rides. I just like to experience other people going on the rides. You're just there for the giant turkey leg. You're just there for, you see those disgusting things? Oh, those fake, like plastic.

My wife loves no, it's not fake. She's going to kill me for talking about this. It's not a toy. It's like a giant turkey drumstick. That wouldn't go well with my vegan diet. No, that's not the way to jump into, back into it. to meet. No, no.

I find this interesting, okay, so this is totally off topic, but, like, we talked a little bit about, like, talk shows and stuff like that, and I've interviewed your sister a few times, too. Like, have you guys talked about sort of, like, the nature of this side of it? Because I get the sense that, like, really seems super sweet, and obviously she is, if she's your sister, but I feel like she doesn't enjoy that part as well. Wait, do you think I enjoy it? I don't know.

We've been having a good time. God, I'm a good actor. I'm kidding. Well, I don't know, look, not that I don't enjoy it, but it depends on this situation, it depends on who's interviewing you, this is much more relaxed and fun and easy than going on a talk show and having to think of a funny story and, like, perform. When I'm not a comedian, nor do I want to be, I have a lot of respect for comedians. Yeah, it's a more skill set.

It's a totally different, and, you know, luckily. Luckily or not luckily for me, not that many funny things happen to me. So anytime I'm going on a show, I feel all this pressure to say something funny. I'm like, but I'm just an actor. I've been binge watching. Yeah, I don't have anything funny that happens, really. So that sort of feels silly and, like, a lot of pressure. So I understand that not being that much fun all the time.

It is weird that we kind of expect, like, our actors to just sort of, like, be able to do all of that. Like, okay, you also have to be Steve Martin on a talk show. Right. Like, yeah. There's only one Steve Martin, and it's a tough job. Yeah, it's, it's, you have to sort of figure out how to be relaxed, but not too relaxed, and look like you're sort of not miserable to be there even if you are. You're doing a great job.

That's why I have a little shot of, like, tequila beforehand. Trick myself. Good tip for the kids. When you're on your first talk show, right before it, just take one shot. But wait, can I just say, I'm actually not, that's why it works so well for me. I don't, I don't drink much. So, you know, half a glass of champagne, just like, boom, done. Yeah, so happy.

Also, by the way, in my research, I realized that we have a family connection. You've kind of worked with my brother. My brother created the Tron Uprising cartoon. I worked with your brother. Did I not? Well, I think so. I don't know. I haven't talked to him about it, but...

Does he look like you? Yeah. I'm seeing him now in my mind. Are you? Four years older. So you've done some voiceover work. Yeah, I don't know how many episodes I did. I think I only did two or three or something.

He said you're very difficult. Very... Really am difficult. Yeah, very... No, that is one of those things that I geek out about. I just want to do voiceovers always. Do you? Oh my gosh.

It's so much fun. Would you want to... love it and you were like a kind of a musical theater geek growing up right yeah it comes from that like when I was younger before I ever had an agent a real agent I would do um I was on a children's album called the Sugar Beats we made I think four albums and um and Carol King's daughter made them and it's her Sherry and she was my neighbor when I was nine and I think I was maybe a little bit older nine or ten and I auditioned for this album right and we over the years from the time I was about 10 to maybe 14 I we made four albums were

you like the biggest sensation in Korea that I don't know I was really famous in Bedford but that was so recording anything and what kind of music is that I would do jingles every once in a while it was my favorite thing to do do you do you write music as well oh no No, I don't have that skill at all. So have you done a musical and film yet or no? No. I would really like to.

Yeah. Yeah, I would really like to. But I haven't done that yet. Let's finish up with a couple more. Come on, finish strong. Okay. Pressure. This one, describe your childhood room.

Okay, describe, yeah. So what was on the, what was, as the sirens blur in the background? I don't remember. Well, come on. My sister and I shared a room for a while. but I don't remember. Did you have, you didn't have, like, posters on the wall? Oh, God.

I mean, as, like, a teenager, I had some posters on the wall. Okay, that's still childhood to a degree. There's a lot of, there was a lot of pictures of, like, oh, this is embarrassing. I don't know if I want to. That's the point of this, if you haven't gathered already. I know, but I only want to embarrass myself to a certain degree. Nope, go all in. Oh, I had a Titanic poster.

A great movie. What's to be embarrassed about? I don't know. It's not that creative. Well, no. I mean, you don't have like a Jim Jarmish poster up, but like, but you were a kid. It's okay. Yeah, I had that, like Shakespeare in love I was really into.

Anything romantic was on my wall. Were you, did you have a little Leo fixation at the time? Yeah, Romeo Juliet was on my wall and my sister's wall. We both had the same, you know. One mind, always. You're putting that picture of Leo up, so am I. Well, yeah, I found this one at Tiger Bean. It's even harder.

I've never actually read Tiger Beat. I'm proud to say. Wow. Okay. Again, Kate, better than me. Oh, favorite reality show. We were just talking about this. Yeah, so.

Well, wait, let me see. Because you were saying, was that even, when we started or not, you were talking about the housewives of Beverly Hills? Yeah, off camera. We were discussing. I watched the last episode of the real housewives of Beverly Hills.

I watched them. So, but is this a habitual thing? It sounds, the way you couched that story, just for context, You made it sound like, oh, I just flipped by it. Oh, no. I, like, downloaded it on iTunes. I paid a dollar.

You made an effort. You said, when it said, confirm this purchase, you said, yes, please. I was like, download now. Download later or download now? And I did it immediately. Yeah, I watched that show. Do you watch all the housewives? Rank the housewives shows for me, please.

I, okay. New York. This I can do. I would go Jersey for sure. New York, Beverly Hills, Atlanta. Right. Oh, and then I don't watch Miami, so I can't really put that in the running.

Right. Not applicable, okay. No. But obviously, I like the New York shows because those are our people. Right, you got to support. Where haven't you been that you want to go? I want to go on a safari.

That's good. Yeah. I went on a safari for my honeymoon. Did you? Tanzania and Zanzibar. Yeah, I want to go there. amazing. Tanzania. Yeah. Again, like, Josh does not, like, do well in, like, extreme environments. You survived. I survived. I loved it, but it was kind of a weird. It was your wife's

idea, right? Oh, my God. Yes. Are you kidding me? No, but I totally went along with it, but, like, I don't know what you feel about your vacations. Like, I like my vacations generally to be relaxing. And a safari and, and Tanzania, it's like there are a lot of mugs. They're A lot of creatures. Yeah, but I just, out of Africa, haven't you seen it? It just makes me want to do that. But when you watch it, there are no bugs on you in the theater. Like, when you're there, there are going to be bugs everywhere.

I'm not saying, it was an amazing experience. I would recommend it to anybody. Yeah. Like a once in a lifetime thing. Yeah. But like, like, in the bliss of like having just gotten married, like, let's relax. It's more of like, oh dear God, what is that thing outside the town? So I just want that to be in your head before you embark on this journey and know what you're getting into.

Well, unlike you, I'm not afraid. of a few bug bites, Josh. Okay. One last question for the road. Okay. Finish wrong. Oh, and this thing? This looks like that Pharrell hat that he was wearing.

Someone else just said that. No, that's like an Indiana Jones fedora. Sorry, Farrell is much more current. Yeah. What's your favorite article of clothing? Oh, this is really, no. Let's do a different one. Yeah, yeah.

Who wrote that? No. Beard or mustache, definitely beard. Yeah. I mean, scruff. A beard. Are there any bearded? Okay.

Just making sure I wasn't going to. Beards are cool, but I like a little, I'd rather just like a light scruff. Good to know. I think that's a really good place to end this on these things. Because that's an important thing to know about me. Nothing else we've done in the rankings of all the Housewives shows. Miami, not applicable. Beards good, scruff even better. She's pro-Africa. I'm anti-Africa.

No, I loved Africa. It was amazing. It's just wear bug repellent and get your shots. That's all I'm saying. I think we've wrapped up our. a first official podcast. Was it good for you? It was pretty good. It was okay for me.

Thanks so much. Thanks Kate Mara. We'll hug it out and you can test my really, really... Your strength? Yeah, my strong... I'll let you guys know in the next podcast, how Kate did. Or if I survived her hug of strength. Yeah.

Thanks for stopping die. You make me want to... American history is full of infamous tales that continue to captivate audiences, decades or even hundreds of years after they happened. On the infamous America podcast, you'll hear the true stories of the Salem Witch Trials and the escape attempts from Alcatraz, of bank robbers like John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd, of killers like Lizzie Borden and Charles Starkweather, of mysteries like the Black Dahlia and D.B. Cooper,

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