Happy Sad Confused - Mackenzie Davis

Episode Date: November 25, 2020

Josh welcomes a fellow April fool in actress Mackenzie Davis on this episode of "Happy Sad Confused"! It seems Mackenzie is a cinephile cut from the same cloth as Josh as the two discuss their mutual love of "Death Becomes Her". Plus Mackenzie talks about her new film, "Happiest Season", what the plan was for her "Terminator" films, and why "Blade Runner 2049" was a dream come true. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

D.C. high volume, Batman. The Dark Nights definitive DC comic stories adapted directly for audio for the very first time. Fear, I have to make them afraid. He's got a motorcycle. Get after him or have you shot. What do you mean blow up the building? From this moment on,

none of you are safe. New episodes every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, Sad, Confused begins now. Today on Happy, Say, Confused, Mackenzie Davis on Happiest Season, a look back at Terminator and her comfort movie, Death Becomes Her. Hey guys, I'm Josh Horowitz.

Welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. I realized as I was reading that introduction, that to try to say death becomes her in a happy voice is a little bit odd but um i am happy to say that mackenzie davis chose death becomes her because that is a great kick-ass movie but we'll get to that in a second mackenzie davis my guest today on the podcast first-time guest on happy said confused delighted to have her on she's somebody that i've wanted to talk to in this format for quite a while she's another one that i've chatted with in these brief little red carpet silliness back when we were able to do such silly things, but never really got a chance to sit down with her for an

extended chat. You probably know her from a variety of things in recent years. She was in Wade Render 2049. She was on Halt and Catch Fire. She was in that great Black Mirror episode, San Junipero. And now she is starring in Happiest Season, which if you don't know, is this delightful new holiday rom-com on Hulu. By the time you listen to this, it is there for your viewing pleasure. if you subscribe to Hulu, and I guess the wrinkle to this, the twist on this, which sounds absurd to say, is, I mean, it's a very traditional holiday rom-com, it just so happens that Gasp the two leads are both women? What? Well, it is 2020. So it took a while to get a kind of like mainstream holiday rom-com that had a gay love story in the center of it, but we made it. We're here.

So hopefully, you know, the novelty of this becomes an afterthought very quickly. Frankly, this movie just works for what it is, which is a very traditional fun holiday rom-com. And we need it like one or two of those a year, right? So this one definitely fits the bill. It stars McKenzie Davis alongside Kristen Stewart, you know her, we love her, and a really fun group. Dan Levy's in this, Allison Breeze in this, Aubrey Plaza's in this, Victor Garber, Mary Steenberg. It's got a great, great ensemble. If you're looking for a fun diversion this holiday weekend, definitely recommend happiest season.

And definitely recommend this conversation with McKenzie about her life and career, about her movie-going tastes, which I found out were awesome. Like, I mean, she sought out Blade Runner. She was a big Blade Runner fan, Point in my book. She named Checks Mad Max Fury Road. Point in my book. And she chose, and I say this often, like, oh, this is, this company movie really works for me. This one really, this is, if I had to name one of my top 10 Josh Harrowitz comfort movies,

it's safe to say Death Becomes Her would be on the top 10. This, of course, is the dark comedy from Robert Zemeckis, written by David Kep. I think came out in the early 90s, maybe 1990s, something around there. We mentioned it in the actual conversation, but it starred Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep and Bruce Willis. And it is a weird, dark take on beauty. and vanity, and it's also part of, like, as I mentioned with McKenzie, this weird spate of, like, rivalry, antagonistic stories, things like to throw them out from the train or dirty Ron scoundrels.

I loved those kinds of movies growing up, and Death Becomes Her was one. I always delighted in, so that was a fun treat to have an excuse to geek out with McKenzie about that one. Other things to mention in the Josh Harwoods universe that you may want to check out, I mentioned Kristen Stewart, starring in Happiest Season. I am delighted to say Kristen Stewart is the latest guest on Stir Crazy, my series for Comedy Central. Lots of fun with Kristen.

If you know my work, if you've heard me on the podcast before or seen my MTV stuff, you know that I go way back with Kristen all the way to the Twilight Days. So a lot of fun having kind of a silly conversation filled with games and stupid questions and, you know, fun to mix it up with Kristen in a different kind of format. and I know if you appreciate her as much as I do, you will have a blast with that one. On the more straight and narrow path, some really fun conversations I had in recent days with Letitia Wright, who is just, I was going to say, poised for success, but she's already killing it, you know, thanks most in part, you've all seen her in, in Black Panther as sherry,

but I had a great chat with her for MTV News. Also had a great chat with Kelly Marie Tran for MTV News. She's in the new Crudes movie. She's also in the Lego Star Wars holiday special. Also check that out. That's really fun. That's on Disney Plus. So, yeah, so two fun interviews that are not as crazy as stir crazy, but still fun in their own right.

And those chats are available on MTV News's, YouTube channels, and Facebook, et cetera. Look at my social media. You'll see me tout those for all your viewing pleasure. Before we get to the main event, I just want to wish you all, if Thanksgiving is coming up, If you're listening to this on Wednesday or Thursday, I hope you guys have a safe and happy Thanksgiving. This is obviously a crazy year. If you're lucky enough to be with your loved ones in a safe way, great. If not, I'm sorry.

We're all sorry. This year sucks. Let's be honest. But the finish line is in sight. The vaccines are on the way, guys. Let's be safe. Let's be smart in these next few months and get through it and make 2021 a return to normal C. I know I could use it, and I think we all could.

So, again, I hope you guys have a really great Thanksgiving. And, you know, if you're looking for some distractions, that's what the podcast is for, that's what stir crazy is for, that's what all the stuff I do is for. It's for you guys. Here it is my main event of the day, my chat with McKenzie Davis. to the happy sad, confused podcast. How are you doing? I'm great. I'm so excited to have a long conversation. We were just chatting and we were saying that, yeah, I feel like I've had

probably a total of like four and a half minutes of conversation with you on like four different press lines. I know. The thing I hate about press lines is not just that you just get those short snippets of conversation, but also the whole environment. Like I get really in a way that I hate quite drunk on the energy of urgency and moving forward and all these people in a room. So you end up just presenting like the most sort of intense, horrific version of yourself for like 30 seconds. And yeah, I always feel so embarrassed afterwards. Well, if it's any consolation, it's the same on the other side of the carpet too for me.

It's like, I'm a generally chill, like subdued guy. And I'm shocked at the tone of your voice right now. You're like, why aren't you like screaming a crazy question at me? I was trying I think the last time I saw you was at was at Comic Con for Terminator Darkfeet I think I was trying to will into existence you getting cast as Catwoman

thanks to the fan casting that was going on Oh my God, yeah I guess I failed you That's what I'm saying Although as an outsider I'm like no Zoe Kravitz That's the correct choice Sure you would have been great as well

But yeah Zoe will kill it very beautiful and feline though I'm like no no no that's that's carrying on the sort of Michelle Piper tradition of a yeah you didn't get the call after after our important conversation you didn't get the audition the call anything call after you and I spoke for those 30 seconds and I gave you a bad version of myself no one rang it's confirmed I have zero power in Hollywood I'm sorry but I am curious like because I've talked to many actors over the years and sometimes actually that stuff does work frankly where you kind of of like put out into the ether or something and then it kind of comes back around do you like what's

your attitude about kind of going after jobs are you kind of do you like way back and sort of like let them come to you do you kind of like when you hear about a project say yeah throw my name into the mix what's what's the general approach well i always feel like such a bad business woman where i never i don't find out about things early enough like i would have just killed to be in any version of Mad Max and I never heard about it ever and always just found out too late where I was like, but I would like to

wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, yeah, exactly. The only thing I ever felt like I had a sort of modicum of control or like cosmic contribution to I remember when I first joined my agency when I was like 24 years old and we were talking about you know what's like what are dream jobs what would you want to do and one of the things i said i was like if they ever make a reboot blade runner please like i would kill somebody to be in it i

want to be priths 2.0 and i i just will but i will be anything in it um and it works wow okay that's that's that's there's a lesson there you're also by the way the movies you're dropping are the right movies we can be friends because and we're going to get to your comfort movie in a little bit, but frankly, not to ruin the reveal. But when I heard it, like, I basically, like, screamed ecstasy, joy. Like, I was just so happy to hear what your... Oh, I thought you were like, I hate that movie. And only now that I've heard the other movies. Are you allowed to do? No, no, no. We'll get to it. We'll get to it. But here's the other connection, McKenzie, I discovered in my copious research of you. We, you and I belong to a very important rare club. You and I are

April Fool's. Oh, my God. Do you know who else shows our birthday? I know one other actor. Who are you going to say? Who? David O'Yellow. Oh, I knew that. I met him once and I knew that.

And I think that's the only thing I said to him, and I'm sure he remembers me. Who are you going to say? Alfred E. Newman. Mad magazine? Yeah, the mascot of Mad Magazine. Proudest data point growing up, and still, haven't grown out of it. I think the only other one I remember growing up was the guy, that wrote, Sir or no, admin Rostan.

Wow. It means nothing to me, but that's all I remember. Would abject silence be the right way to respond? Yes, that was the right response. Here's my question. Were you, is April Fool's a global holiday in Canada, were you laughed at, mocked, were there jokes at our expense? No, never.

Did you have that? Because I always feel, like, whenever somebody asked me that, I was like, no, but was I not loved? Did people not care enough to do something? Yeah. No, I don't know. There's not that many people that do April Fool's on a global scale, even if they're aware of the day that it falls on. It's a lot of effort to prank people. Yeah, I don't think I've ever actually been pranked, as it were. It's more of just like silly asides. Like, you must have been a joke to your parents. That kind of thing. And that's it. And that makes me feel sad for the people saying. Like, it's such a lazy contribution where it's like, why wouldn't you just? not speak at all. Exactly. Instead of making jokes, it's not funny.

Thank you for turning it around and making it about them instead of our sad. It is about them, yeah. So, so you ended up, you, though you were born and raised in Vancouver as far as I know, yes? You did end up in, you ended up in New York City at what age? When did you end up in my time? At 22, I went to university in Montreal, and then I went to, I started doing this, like, nighttime Meisner class in Montreal and really fell in love with it. it. And then my teacher sort of suggested that I go to the neighborhood playout. So I got my

degree in Montreal and then I went to New York for theater school. And back in Canada, was like Vancouver, the production hotspot it was, that it is now back when you were a kid? I think so. I mean, the X-Files film there. I don't think it was as hot as it is now. And, you know, anybody, any sort of grown-ups I knew growing up who were actors had been, on every sort of local show but there's always sort of a bar for entry that you can't pass if you're a local actor and i found that in montreal as well when i was trying to audition for things that it would be like ashton kutcher's producing a new cw show and you're auditioning to be the lead and they're like oh no baby this is just an exercise you will be cast as like a waitress

right um so yeah there it wasn't uh it wasn't like a highway to success but i really didn't I think I had like a kid's agent when I was in in Vancouver, but I never went on auditions. I never, I just loved being in place at school. I wasn't, you know, chomping at the bit to get some like professional credentials. Oh my God, it's snowing. It's a miracle. It's suddenly the end of a Christmas carol.

McKenzie runs out of the screen. Or somebody's rowing garbage outside my window. No, that's New York. Something's falling. Yeah. So what was New York for you when you moved, you said, at 22, what do you remember about your first days here? Was it a struggle? Was it early success?

What was it like? Well, I mean, socially it was fine. I went to this theater school that was really lovely. I liked my teachers. It was a bit strange to go kind of after you'd already gone through university because I felt that for a lot of people. it was their university so i'd already gone through this this sort of i don't know feeling of being away from home or or you know that that sort of thrill of articulating your identity for the first time away from your parents um and i don't know i never felt like i really fit into that school

but but i i love going there and i really liked my my teachers a lot um and then but i wasn't a allowed to work when I was in theater school. So it was really two years of just, you know, studying all the time, which was amazing. I never thought that I would have that much time to devote to acting. It was always sort of a, you know, thing I did at night by myself, with other people, not just staring at the mirror, just doing your one-acways. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, I sort of, I just moved to London and it really felt like the first time I moved to New York

or started spending a lot of time in New York before I moved there where you find yourself in Little Italy and do sort of an arms out spin and look at the sky and be like, I can't believe I live here. Life has finally started. Well, it's an opportunity for it to reinvent again. Like, okay, this is the new. This is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is the next one. Yeah, I like that. I like that stuff a lot. I, I've moved so much in my life and started over a lot. And sometimes it feels maybe not healthy, but I do, I would like to find a place to stop moving. I just haven't found it yet. And I, but I do like kind of burning everything down and starting fresh. And going backwards then in terms of, so I'm falling in love with

acting, doing stuff in school. What about just sort of like your love of pop culture? Like, where was your, if I'd met you as a teenager, what was your, what were your obsessions? What were you into? Were you like an acting snob? Were you into like cool highbrow acting? Were you into like big mass and, you know, pop culture franchises, a little bit of everything or what? I don't know. I don't know why I, so I was just speaking about it was just somebody the other day. I've never been like a real fan. So I, I especially when I was younger, I wouldn't, you know, find a director or a writer and then read or watch everything that they'd ever done i um watched movies all the time my family watched movies all the time but i don't think i really developed a taste for it until i was older

um i just loved watching people act and then talking about my opinion on it afterwards um i don't know i i have this memory of seeing and i say this very self-deprecatingly of seeing Mulan Rouge when I was like 15 years old and leaving the theater and being like that's art ladies and gentlemen we've finally seen it it cracked the code really funny to look back on

but no it wasn't really until I was older and in university that I feel like I started articulating my tastes a little bit more and seeking things out for myself I don't even remember what music I was listening to in high school I really feel I don't know like I'm still defining your taste that sounds like.

Kind of, yeah. Like, yeah, I, I, I wasn't, yeah, I would like to read a lot. But even that, it was always, like, a different book and whatever made me cry. I wasn't, like, fully in one author's canon, you know? Right. So this might be a good time to mention the comfort movie, because I'm curious when and where you interacted with it and when it became an obsession. Why don't you tell the audience, Mackenzie? Well, my comfort movie is, is Death Becumst Earth.

Or death becomes her, which is something I also love to just save her when I was younger. It's both. You see. That's art. And when did you see it? When did I see it when I was like 11, maybe younger? When did it come out? So you would have only been about five by my math.

Oh, wow. So you must have seen it on TV or something. Yeah, I must have seen it on TV when I was older. I mean, my family, as every family did. took the, you know, biweekly trips to Blockbuster to choose the movies for the week and, uh, or every few days. And so a lot of stuff just came from what the front of the VHS cases look like on the shelves. Um, but I feel like that movie as with the best comfort movies operates on one level when you're younger and then the more you watch it and the older

you get, it keeps sort of like moving and changing. And, uh, I know we're talking about I've become sort of like deepening in this way. I mean, when I was younger, it was funny in a way I didn't understand. And it was like broad and colorful in a way I did understand. And I knew that women wanted to be beautiful. And that trapped for me without being critical of it at all. And then when I was older, I understood what the critique was a bit more. And now at my age, watching it, I watched it like a year ago.

And just somebody like Meryl Streep and Goldstein. Han taking roles like this and having so much fun in their career and going like huge and campy and finding these like really like scenery chewing moments and these crazy parts I would kill for something like that and it's like shifted into this other dynamic of like a type of bravery that I want to possess you know what I mean like not not being precious about your career but being sort of broad and huge and going in all directions, because it's really fun to be an actor and to act, and it's not always just cultivating the perfect resume. Well, yeah, I mean, these three ginormous movie stars at the time, Merrill, Goldie Hawn, Bruce Willis,

they're playing, like, especially Goldie and Merrill are playing despicable human beings, like monsters that have almost no value. Meryl in particular is just fantastic. She is clearly having an amazing time in this. Amazing. It's funny because I just had Sarah Paulson did the podcast and she just chose Merrill in Postcards from the Edge. And this was like... I've never seen that.

You should check that one out. That's Mike Nichols and that's a great one. But Merrill was in this amazing run where I think in three consecutive years, she was in postcards, which is awesome. This and defending your life, which I don't know if you've seen is also... Oh, McKenzie. Trust me on this. Defending Your Life is genius.

It's Albert Brooks, and she is amazing in it. And just, like, proves that. I was just watching a string of Albert Brooks movies, and I didn't watch Depending Your Life. Yeah. Depending Your Life has kind of gotten a second life in recent years. It wasn't, I think, at the time, considered one of his best ones. But what did you see, like, Lost in America, perhaps? No, I was watching.

What was the documentary, with a documentary about building the... Yes, the reality show. They're like, oh, my God, real life. Oh, no. Yeah, whatever it's called. Yeah. Something else, like, yeah. Yes.

I knew I want to watch a movie about life. But anyway, yes, I agree with you that these are clearly actors that are enjoying, kind of taking the piss out of their own occupation a bit. And you're right, like, I watched it again last night, and I've probably seen it 20 times in my life at least. I do like that it is like, especially as a kid, and I saw it as a kid too. Yeah, they're kind of act, it's like heightened. Like Bruce Willis is like in a Looney Tunes cartoon.

Like, he's doing, like, triple takes. Yeah, yeah. It's just, like, I guess the material and the approach kind of lent itself to kind of being big and broad, and that's a rare thing for an actor in a, in a legitimately smart movie. It's often in, like, a shitty movies, like, you can be big and broad. It's like a kids movie, but this is, like, actually a smart satire. Yeah, yeah. And, I mean, there was, you know, yeah, I really want that.

I feel sometimes, like, a little too serious about the whole thing. And maybe it's because there isn't this, you know, sort of well of money that's going towards making these, like, big, broad, like, who framed Roger Rabbit? And I know it's not probably financed in the same way, but, like, Romeo and Michelle's high school reunion, these, like, juicy, crazy movies that have, like, a very singular aesthetic and point of view and characters that you haven't seen before. and that are well-funded. They're not you, you know, taking time off from, I don't know, not that I, that sort of sounds other than I mean, but just, I don't find a lot of space for that right now, and that's probably on me, but I, like, feel very inspired by those performances

as the sort of ideal way to approach a career. Like, work, work, and then have so much fun with the thing that you built and dismantle it and then build it up again and then like I don't know it just seems so um noble in a weird way so so for for the sad audience member that hasn't seen this movie i'm going to give some basics this came out july 31st 1992 it's written by david cap who if you don't know is like actually one of the most successful screenwriters ever he wrote Jurassic bark and a ton of like highly successful films directed by the amazing roberts and mechis and this this was interesting this came right after the back-to-the-future trilogy and

right before Forrest Gump, it felt like he had the juice at the time to kind of like make his like really dark twisted comedy at a decent budget level. And I love that. We mentioned it's also kind of cool. Like yeah, from an acting perspective, as much as it's like a big special effects movie, there's really only like four significant roles in the film. It's that trio. And then Isabella Rossellini, who by the way, like kills it. Incredible. Seared into my, my mind in my memory. I was just working on something and she's the inspiration for this type of woman in this thing. But she's just, oh my God, walking into that like dripping cavern and she's wearing a loin cloth and then has that vile knife on her leg and pulls it out. I mean, the interesting thing

about this as well, as I was saying, like not being aware of any of the critiques or satire within the movie and watching it as a child, God, movies are impression. or you are impressionable when you watch movies as a child because you only pick up on the sort of worst parts of it like I only picked up on it's it's bad to grow old but it's worse to push back against it and then being sexy is the best and that's this moment but that's like to watch movies like you know 15 times and then you can change those perceptions but it's uh yeah do you have any um do any scenes jump out at you as your favorite moments or wines or uh sequences uh no i mean i have more like really intense visual recollections of it

isabella varsolini thing i was just saying and then i think that the the funeral at the end of the movie where their skin is just peeling off and they have to use spray paint and like spray adhesive to keep readheasing their skin to their necks and their bodies um and meryl's still like I think backwards? Or has her head twisted around again? I think, well, by the end, their heads are removed from their bodies. But when they're sitting at the funeral, they're still, their heads are facing. At the funeral.

Yeah, I just, their whole, like, who's on for a sort of routine that they do at the funeral. I just, yeah, and they're just falling apart. I also like that, yeah, I mean, like, as much as I like Bruce Willis as a badass, I might like him more as like a like pathetic weasily sad sack that's what's so nice about him he really plays only or he's most famous for playing only those two versions even moonlighting a little bit he's like he's not a badass he's not like totally pathetic but he like subverts this this masculinity that he's built up which is so cool um i'm trying to think of another movie where he's like really dripping. Adam Scott's like that as well, where he's either like the nicest or the absolute

worst person. Have you worked with any of these leading performers? Have you met any of them interacted? No. No, I haven't. I went to school in Vancouver and at a certain point Wyatt, her son was going, who's also an actor and great, but came to join my school and he was in the year ahead of us. And there was just, I mean, Vancouver's not a small city, but you, you know, you always feel like you're a small town, especially in Canada, so you don't have like movie stars coming around. And I just remember like, whispers of Goldie Hawn being on campus when I was in a school play. And I was like, it's happening, McKenzie. She's going to see you. She's going to take you away from here. I'm with me, kid. Yeah. Never really happened like that. So no, I haven't

met her to answer your question in a much more direct way. You know, it's interesting. The, I was looking up sort of like the casting what ifs Bruce Willis replaced another I mean this actor would have done an amazing job too Kevin Klein was going to play Ernest Melville and he oh wow but you know you don't get that same texture that you get with Bruce Willis like it's you're you're not undoing a thing exactly it's not playing against type which is rewarding in its own way I also like that like when I think about it there was almost like a weird like subgenre at the time in like the late 80s early 90s that doesn't really exist anymore and you were kind of alluding to it it's partially just because like there's the 200 million dollar movies and there's Netflix making everything else but um there were like these kind of like weird competitive revenge movies there was like and dark comedies there was dirty ron scoundrels there was through a mama from the train there was ruthless people there was uh war of the roses and when I think about it I don't know what it says about me but these are like I'm listening like my favorite movies all time basically so what I'm saying is

is that genre needs to come back. You have a vendetta, yeah. Oh, yeah, no, no, sorry, Jonah. Yeah. I guess it's fun to watch people be mean. I mean, sadly, one of the lessons. Yeah. Mean and, like, they're like the Hulk, the women in that movie.

Like, they're energized by their vitriol. They, well, they're falling apart, but they also, like, they're so, like, engorged with envy or something that they become powerful and beautiful while being like just pursuing this sort of awful thing I really yeah having now done something like Terminator that was so had so many visual effects when you watch something like this in recent times do you have a different kind of appreciation this was this was the beginning of digital technology but zakis is always at the forefront for whatever he's doing um do you watch it differently now knowing And they obviously had some hardships to go through

to make it look as great as it did. Maybe. I was just sort of to go back way further than that. I was just watching Sisters, the De Palma movie, which is so great. The special effects in that movie. And then I was watching something else that was like four years later and the effects were so much better. But the practical effects

on sisters are so bad that it's hard like the the first reveal of the separation scar is is so creepy and like kind of looks like a loose temporary tattoo and the progress between that and then five years later kind of blows me away more than death becomes her determinator no that makes sense I mean like why did you this couldn't have looked good on the day I understand like there's certain things that we simply could not do without, you know, the advent of computers and animation and all of these things. But to just make a scar look real, I mean, we must have looked at this and everyone was like, you have eyes. No, it's fine. We'll, we'll pen. We won't hold on it. We'll just

pin. And the funny thing is I do think of like some of my favorite films like in the horror or thriller genre that used prosthetics back then do actually hold up. I think of early Cronenberg films I think of John Carpenter's The Thing Those films Because there was real artistry I mean yeah I mean Domham was an artist too

But maybe his The person that did that scar Wasn't the artist who knows But I guess my point is if it's done right Yeah Have you ever seen Possession? I just watched that I haven't seen that

Oh it's amazing Who did Possession? Who directed that? Zalowski that Polish director It's incredible It's with god what's her name that beautiful italian actress she was married to daniel lewis um it's from the 70s anyways special effects in that incredible really gorgeous doesn't feel cheesy there are there are

daggers drawn across necks there's lots of blood there's there's demons and it still feels like i don't know maybe it's a lighting thing um but anyways not to rail on da pama i really like that movie Oh, Tom is one of my favorite filmmakers of all times, so don't worry, it's all good. So it seems like you have made up for lost time. You were talking about, like, yeah, I was just kind of trying things out in high school, watching different things. Like, you seem to know your shit when it comes to movies now. Was there, did you feel like in your 20s in the last few years, like you're,

you kind of just redevoted yourself to kind of like, I'm going to go through the AFI top 100. Like, where did the film knowledge come from? You know, I really felt like I got to college and felt like on day one. the friends that I met and the people that then were my friends for years or are my friends I somehow felt like I'd never gone to school before that

like I somehow had learned nothing in 18 years and that I just felt like I now needed to become an autodidact because my high school didn't do it for me. I don't know what that's saying I just wasn't smart in high school, wasn't studious, didn't obviously develop any very strong taste but I

got to university and just felt like I needed to read every book that I never read and and like educate myself about music and about film and and it became I ended up living with these people and so there was just this really nice culture of us all sort of it's exactly what it sounds like I went to college and I met kids that I liked and thought were smart and cool and I wanted to be smart and cool like them and then yeah I I mean I I I loved movies when I was younger, just didn't have the, sort of, that key that you find in a lot of people that are reading Dostoyevsky when they're 14 and, you know, obsessed of French New Wave. Like, I didn't have that, that adolescence, but I always loved movies. I just took longer to develop my taste. Did you, so segueing into your new film, happiest season, you're working with some people that I know for a fact are some cine.

files. I've talked to Kristen a lot over the years and she loves her movies. Did you bond with Kristen over shared tastes, exposing each other to different movies? Yeah, a ton. I mean, hot topic while we were shooting was the two popes, which I hadn't seen and she watched them with like, this movie is so under-marketed. It is such a like punk, cool, incredible. Have you seen it? Yeah. I can't tell you from your reaction, but I loved it. I thought it was shocking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and, just was marketed as the most boring. I just don't know. They just so underserved that movie and didn't publicize it at all, but it was really, I don't know, felt so unusual. But yeah, Kristen's got an amazing taste of movies. She watches a ton of movies, and she's a huge reader.

I really like talking about books with her. I mean, she's adapting a Lydia Yukovic book, and I'd never read anything about. her and she shared a lot of her books with me and it was uh it's great same thing it's going to college you just want to find friends that have that are smarter than you and have um information that you don't so you can look smarter yeah exactly so do you find that the career you know again i have at these endless conversations with actors and like i think a lot of people just assume that they can steer their own ship and the reality is a lot of it's just sort of like taking the best material

at the right time right like this is the best thing offered to me etc but like looking from the outside in, this comes after Terminator, and you can't get further from Terminator to happiest season. Did it feel like a bit of a pallet cleanser? Like, I've just put my body through hell. I just went to war. Let me have some fun in a nice holiday rom-com. Yeah, like, completely. I loved me. I, Terminator was so fun to make, but it was so hard, not just, like, I worked out for six months, but we just shot night shoots for, over like two months we shot six day weeks by the time we were done with it getting in at you know four in the morning for a workout leaving at 11 at night and then having five hours

to yourself before you start again it was so intense and I think I got home in November and around that time I that's when I read happiest season and I was like the only way I will be able to work in the next few months is if I'm like entering this beautiful nest of warmth and lightness and like lovely women to work with and humor and because I just couldn't see myself like I needed to really heal after after that output. So did you shoot it before the film actually came out or just after you shot it after you shot Terminator but before the actual press store and all that? No no no we shot it we shot it this year so we got delayed a year So when I decided to do it, I thought I was doing it in three months, and then it got pushed.

So we shot it January, February while the pandemic was approaching. And we, like, everybody else, just were like, well, it can't cross borders. It'll never get here. Such a weird little time capsule now to think of all the makeup trailer conversations every day coming in and being like, seems like a big deal. No, totally. Like, I was like, okay, I've got my bags packed for South by Southwest. I'll be there in a couple weeks. And it's like, oh, I wonder if I'll get to this next event in Comic-Con.

And it's like, what the fuck was I thinking? So insane. No, I was in New York after I finished happy season. I was going to move there for a few months. And anyways, I went there and the city was shutting down. I mean, the day before the whole city shut down, I saw two plays in a day and was like, wow, there's no one here. and then I decided to go home to get my stuff on like the 13th of March and then the whole country sort of ceased on the 17th and it's just this sort of willful ignorance and this

pushing forward of our own agenda despite all evidence to the contrary God we're so unbelievably stubborn it's insane this whole this whole time has been such a weird reflection on like what information will allow into our lives and what we think we can deny through sheer force of will. Sadly, apparently we're capable of denying quite a bit. I'm curious, the post-mortem on Terminator Dark Fate, which I honestly did really enjoy.

I'm a big fan of that. I know, like, box office-wise, it didn't perform the way the studio everybody wanted. You know, Tim's been very upfront about, like, there were struggles with James Cameron, et cetera, in the edit room. Did you feel like there was, like, you were pushing a boulder up a hill like did it feel like this was a quote unquote troubled production

like what did it feel like to you no no I wouldn't classify it like that at all I mean I there's creative conflict sure there are always going to be if you really give a shit about what you're making or else you just have somebody who's sort of parroting you know the corporate interests instead of trying to make some type of art within this very corporate machine yeah but I No, not at all. I love the experience to make in that movie. It was hard and rigorous, as I've already said, but the people were amazing.

Tim was an incredible director, and just so dedicated and devoted to making it the best thing it could be. As far as the box office and stuff, you know, it's Terminator 6. Like, nobody saw the last three. I get it. It's okay. I don't think that means what we made was bad, but I understand that we, you know, the audience appetite had been exhausted.

How much you attribute that to there being three women in the lead? I don't know. I never really wanting to engage with that stuff because I can't control it. I am a woman and I really like the part and I felt proud of what I did. So I couldn't be like, no one's seeing it because they're sexist. It's like much, it seems like an easier answer for me to be. be like, all right, six is too much. Now we know. Right. Did, um, was your character ever, I mean, your character obviously didn't make it through the, uh, end of the movie. Was that

it? Was there any resurrection plan? Was there any plan if there were sequels that you were going to come back? When does an NBA does expire? You're not making it again. I don't think so. Yeah, I don't think so either. Yeah. I don't know. I'm scared of everybody all the time. yeah yeah i think there was a like it was going to be sort of a timeline thing sort of where there'd be another timeline that you'd explore like she would there's no resurrection but um you know she came from the future so we go to the future we get to see you in the future yeah okay okay okay look how they've drilled it into you you're so i'm scared sorry i hate this part of myself.

I'm very old beginning. I like, no, I don't like. Let's talk about Blade Runner 2050 now. No, that's definitely expired. I can say whatever I want. With the Deney experience as amazing as it seems that, I mean, that guy is just the best. The best.

Just, I mean, dream come true kind of, you know, when you hear a phrase too many times, it loses its impact. So, but let me tell you. a dream come true in every respect i mean i would have been in any version of a blade runner sequel because i just love that movie so goddamn much um but i i'm such a fan of denies and then you know meeting somebody who's operating at that level of genius in terms of just holding a movie edited inside his head and is able to access it at any given moment um but to work with somebody like that who's also so kind and just aware that every single person on set is helping to make

his moving. That like the person that comes in and plays, you know, the waitress or the whoever in this scene is as important to the scene that's a part of the movie that's the final product as is Ryan Gosling and he just made everybody feel so thanked. I respected him, respect him so much. I think he's very special. Yeah, that movie is a miracle, but it's as amazing as it is.

I mean, as you know, obviously as a fan of the original Blade Runner, you know what a high bard is to reach that and somehow he did it. It's kind of crazy. Yeah, I can't wait to see Dune. Oh, don't even get me started on Dune, please. Mackenzie, we don't have that kind of time. Are you, so are you in London shooting right now?

Like, what's your wife right now? I'm not. I decided to move here. And as you said, you did the twirl, the Mary Tyler Moore twirl when you got to town. I did, I did. The camera craned up and I was the star of London. Did anybody else know it? Any city I go to, no, no, no.

Is acting, are acting gigs on the agenda? Are you ready to go back to work? You haven't worked in this last few months, I take it? No, I haven't worked since we wrapped past the happiest. I was supposed to shoot Station 11, which is this show about a pandemic that started shooting before it was shooting in January, February, and then we took a hiatus because we needed for the weather to start again in May. So I was supposed to start shooting that in May in Chicago, and it got pushed, and now I'm going to go do it in January. Well, that'll be a nice pallet cleanser to do a fictional story of a pandemic while we're getting over a pandemic. Oh, yeah, palette cleanser is the perfect, the perfect expression.

Yeah, it'll be great to just clean my palate with the thing my palate is made of. No, it's really interesting. There was a while where I was like, are they still going to make this? Is there an appetite for this? But I think it's really cool and great. And I just went for a walk with one of the actors who's in the show who lives here, and he had been shooting the first two episodes in January and February. Chicago. And when it's all knit together, it's this very strange document of a show that started

shooting before the pandemic was interrupted by a pandemic. We will shoot the rest of the show during and then hopefully after the pandemic. But when it's all knit together, it'll be one storyline, but so, or one timeline, but so much has happened, especially in his life, you know, going from episode three to four in this show and having the whole world having changed in between those two points but I guess it's only interesting if you're aware of the production schedule

which everybody is but I'm like what a cool thing this one show occupies so much history accidentally there are sadly no pandemics in happiest season but maybe I think that's probably a good thing don't you think for the holiday season maybe it's good to have a few

nice 90, 100 minute escapes from the sad reality we've been all dealing with, and that's exactly what this movie is. Yeah, I think a pandemic escape room. That's exactly what it is. It's definitely a pandemic escape room. This was much better than our silly little chats on red carpets, but part of me hopes, though, we will see each other on silly red carpets again, because that means the world is back to its weird normal self. Thanks for taking the time today, and it's always a pleasure to meet a fellow April Fool. I know. I'm so happy to know that. Well, thank you so much. It's just so fun. And so ends another edition of happy, sad, confused. Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person.

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