Happy Sad Confused - Riley Keough

Episode Date: July 7, 2021

You never know which Riley Keough you'll see on screen. A true chameleon and an actor never afraid to take a risk, Riley joins Josh on the podcast to talk about her latest film, "Zola", plus her experience making "Mad Max: Fury Road", and why she's obsessed with Harry Potter. Don't forget to check out the Happy Sad Confused patreon here! We've got exclusive episodes of GAME NIGHT, video versions of the podcast, and more! For all of your media headlines remember to subscribe to The Wakeup newsletter here! And listen to THE WAKEUP podcast here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Eligibility restrictions apply. See Golden Nuggett Casino.com for details. Please play responsibly. Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now. Today on Happy, Said Confused, Riley Keough on her new film, Zola, and her love of all things, Harry Potter. Hey, guys, I'm Josh Harowitz. Welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused.

Yes, after a couple weeks of returning champions, of returning filmmakers that we know and love, like Edgar Wright and Steven Soderberg, we segue into a new. guest on the pod, though an actor that has very much been on my radar, at least for a number of years, and in fact has a connection to last week's guest, Stephen Soderberg, Riley Keough, who is always delivering unique and daring performances in film after film and TV project after TV project. And yes, Stephen Soderberg and her go back away. She appeared in Magic Mike and Logan Lucky and the girlfriend experience on television. So he is clearly a key influence. on her career, and that's not a bad one to have. But also, you know, a lot of varied works for Riley

and always working with great filmmakers. The film, it comes at night a few years back, American Honey from Andrea Arnold, Mad Max Fury Road. I never know what to expect from Riley, and I love that about her. Her new film certainly fits that category. You do not know what you're getting in for with Zola, but here's just a little taste of it. This was the, maybe the most buzzed about film at Sundance a year plus ago when I was there. And it is based on, in fact, a very infamous Twitter thread. And as I describe it, like Riley kind of plays this like agent of chaos. She's a sex worker who embroils Zola, like the main character, into just a wild kind of adventure over a couple days, a bit of a road trip.

It takes many unexpected turns. and it is brilliantly shot and photographed and features a host of great performances from top to bottom. And that's really all you need or should need to know going in. I highly recommend Zola. I've seen it a couple times, and it definitely makes an impact. And Riley's performance is just like electric. She jumps off the screen. So really thrilling to get a chance to get to know Riley a bit more.

I saw her just a few weeks back at the MTV Movie and TV. awards in the flesh and human. That was weird, but it was good to see her there. And now on my, on the Zoom box on my screen. And not to mention, she's a big Harry Potter geek. And that was her comfort movie she wanted to talk about were the Harry Potter films. So points for that. You got to respect that. Other things to mention, lots of stuff going on, been cranking out a bunch of game night episodes, Happy Say I Confused Game Night, which is, of course, our spin-off video show we've been doing on the Happy Say I Confused Patreon. By the time you listen to this, you'll be able to watch the delightful episode with a fantastic Chris Pratt. You know him, you'll love him, star of the

Tomorrow War on Amazon Prime. Such a fun adventure with Chris playing a bunch of games and geeking out about Tomorrow War and Jurassic World and Guardians and all the fun stuff. So if you want to check that out, go over to the Happy SAC Infuse Patreon. And by the way, you can also watch this Riley Keough conversation if you want to over there. Again, it's patreon.com slash happy, sad, confused. And by the way, one more tease over there. I did, I had to mention it because we just taped it the other day and it was too fun not to not to tease out. We did another game night with the one and only. Sam Hewin. Yes, Sam is back alongside some other lovely guests from Happy Sad Confused past. So if you're waiting, itching for

another dose of Sam Hewin in your life. Look forward to that in the coming days or week or ish. So it's coming soon. It's coming soon. Trust me. I won't make what make you wait too much longer. Other things to mention. Oh, still coming up soon. My conversation with Farns Pugh and Scarlett Johansson for MTV. That's going to pop up before the movie releases next week. It's also now been announced. I can say it officially that I'm going to be talking to Henry Cavill for Witcher Con. The Witcher, this phenomenally successful show on Netflix, is entering its second season. And of course, Henry Cavill is the aforementioned Witcher. And not always the star of the show, he lives and breathes the stuff. He loves the game it's based on

and the books. It's a big, big IP for Netflix and a phenomenal success. And so much so that they have launched WitcherCon, the first ever WitcherCon. So July 9th, there are a series of panels. They're all free. You can watch them, I believe, on YouTube, but go to witchercon.com for all the info. And why am I mentioning this? Well, I got a chance to be invited to interview Henry for it. So that conversation with Henry Cavill will be kind of the main event, the climactic event of WitcherCon July 9th, coming up very soon. So again, for all the details, just go to witchercon.com. All right, that's all the stuff I think I'm going to tease for today. Let's get to the main event. Zola is the film, the much-talked-about film, well worth checking out.

Seek it out if you can. And in the meantime, enjoy this chat with, oh, by the way, if you don't know already, because we don't, I don't like go out of my way to mention it in the conversation. Ralekew happens to be the granddaughter of Elvis. That's something worth mentioning. It's a fun fact. Luckily, she's established herself enough in her career that it's not necessarily the lead story. But yes, Lisa Marie Presley's her mom. Elvis Presley was her grandfather. So, you know, if you didn't know, now you know. Let's get into this conversation with the very talented Riley Keogh.

Riley Keogh, welcome to the happy, say, I'm confused podcast at Long Last. I'm so happy to be here. Are you in the middle of a working, obviously not literally at this moment, but are you terminal listing? That's my best guess. I am terminal listing. I'm Zola pressing and criminal listing at the same time

I feel like I'm doing early press for terminal list because I just did Constance on the podcast a couple weeks ago I'm talking to the monster that is Chris Pratt in a couple days so if we wanted we can just start the press tour early on that one sounds good

Chris Pratt might be the most annoyingly good human being on the planet have you enjoyed your time thus far with him I really have he's incredible he's he's one of the nicest people i've ever met and it's so inspiring truly i know do you want to rattle him i have i have a gift for you if you want to try to like throw him off his game okay so try so next time you see him and maybe he's divulged us to you but i don't think he says this he's told

this to many call him christo or say have you ever considered going by christo the backstory is apparently when he worked at the bubba gump shrimp company before he hit it big he um he um seriously considered going by Christo, and that was on his name tag. And it, it amuses me to no end that we almost had Christo as the... I wonder why Christo. I wonder where that came through. I will ask him. But let me know how it goes, because I want you to, you know, I want you to have the upper hand. I will. I will do it. Um, so congratulations on Zola. We're going to get into that. We obviously have some time so we can talk about just a great many things. But, um, first off, again, it's good to talk to you at length today because I've only

talked to you in these kind of brief kind of weird circumstances. Most recently, I saw you at the MTV Movie and TV Awards, which was surreal for me. How was that night for you? It was very surreal and very cool. I, you know, there's something very, it's a childhood dream to be on, you know, the MTV Movie Awards, MTV Music Awards, it's you grow up watching it. So it was it was my first time at the MTV Movie Awards. And so it was definitely a sort of epic moment. How are you generally with those sorts of events, the award show, the big press events, the premieres?

Is that your wheelhouse? Or do you feel like it takes a lot to kind of get you into the zone for those kinds of things? I do my best. I think it's, you know, MTV, it really depends on what it is. You know, like MTV, there's a, it's, it's fun. It's not, you don't take yourself too seriously. You know, it's not the Oscars.

You can't not mess up, you know, there's not as much pressure. So I think I definitely would be more nervous if it was something that was more serious or, you know, like some, a very sort of, you know, when you're in a room of just film critics or, you know, those kind of. I don't know what you're talking about. the MTV Movie and TV Awards is the most prestigious show. Are there other more prestigious shows? I don't know what you're even talking about right now. I love it. I feel like I can do myself at MTV.

Totally, totally. What about just like general comfort levels? I mean, like, I'm such a fan of your work and all the stuff you've popped in mostly in the last decade. And like, you know, you seem like an actor that's willing to go for broke that's not shy about sort of like taking big chances. Do you feel like most yourself, we're most comfortable on a set or in front of a camera.

It seems like you, for whatever reason, when the light turns on, you're able to kind of go to places that maybe you're not able to otherwise. Absolutely. I think that that's the sort of the thing you keep going back for is that I feel the most comfortable, the most, the least limitations and the most free when I'm performing. And, you know, I think that's how you know that that's sort of your thing. I, of course, there's moments from nervous and, you know, all of that. I don't, I'm never, you know, I get nervous more with probably like public speaking,

that kind of a thing. I, when it's me, when it's Riley, you know, like that, but in terms of acting, I find it's so liberating, so freeing, so fun, like, you know, being a child playing in your backyard, like that kind of a feeling. Right. Well, yeah, it's funny. you say that because like when I was even like and I wanted to talk to you on the podcast for a bit and just finding the kind of the right film and the right project. But like when I went back to kind of look at, you know, other conversations you've done like I can't find much that you've done like long form like solo chats. Is that something that has taken you kind of a while and even now hopefully you're not nervous right now? But like is it feel like it's it took you a while to kind of to get comfortable with this side of the of the job? You know, I love. I love intimate conversation. I love that. I love when you're able to connect and have a real, authentic conversation. A lot of the time when you're doing press, you have like three minutes and it's four questions and you don't really have a moment to connect. And, you know, I've definitely, you kind of end up learning how to do that. And I appreciate all of it. You know, I really appreciate the whole, the whole thing. And I think. that gratitude makes you know even the moments of press when you're like okay another one and another one and another one I think if you try and stop and be present and be thankful you know that our reason we're doing press is our movie is people are excited about it

and it's this beautiful piece and the world's going to watch it and I'm just you know I just try and stay grateful honestly well and probably a lot of it also like it seems like you've probably done so many different film festivals and different kind of environments like that and those are kind of its own thing. You can have fun with that. Like, I think I talk to you in Alexander Scarsguard once in Toronto. You must have done Sundance like every year, the last 10 years, looking at your have. And you know what? I love it. I love, I love, I love being, I love festivals. I love being amongst people who love film. I love talking about film. I love, I feel so at home at Sundance at Toronto festivals, you know, it's sort of like film nerds.

Like I, you know, I could have those conversations all day. Yeah, I think I've done Sundance, I think like 15 years in a row. And like I've done Toronto probably 10 years. And yeah, those are my two. Like, that's my happy place. There's this energy and this. Everyone's so excited to be there and, and loves film as much as I do. And, you know, so you're amongst your kind of people.

Totally, totally. So to give me a sense like going back as a kid, you know, your family obviously a part of pop culture in many different ways, but like I guess music was probably more significant to your parents than necessarily acting. Were the arts kind of prominent in your childhood? And did it take a while for you to kind of fall in love with acting and film versus music? Give me a sense of sort of your arc there. Yeah. Yeah, well, I grew up around, you know, only musicians. So my father was a bass play. my mother was a singer, they hung out with musicians. There were musicians everywhere. There was lots of music in my house. I would go to bed at night listening to, you know, my parents and their friends up on the piano singing and going to live shows.

And there's definitely a lot of music and I love music. And I love, you know, I played a bit of piano when I was younger and, you know, I definitely have an appreciation for it. it um i always always wanted to do film like from you know as early as i can remember i was videoing everybody and on my camera and you know making movies and directing my friends and um you know i'd make like horror films and you know put ketchup on my friends and you know what i mean like just constantly i have hours and hours of home movies that i was making so i think that loved music. I think film was something that I, very early on, was sort of called to do.

Did you, did you have much experience as a kid, like, were you ever on film sets through any of your family members, your grandmother, et cetera? Like, did you have experiences on sets? So I didn't, and I wanted to act. And I did, you know, theater in school. I did some theater classes and growing up in LA. They're kind of everywhere. And the first time I was on set was my mother was married to Nicholas Cage and he was directing his first film and we were in New Orleans and that was my first time on the set. And I remember I had this moment of, you know, they were shooting the scene in a room next to us in very close proximity. And I, you know, couldn't hear what the actors were saying. And I sort of had this aha moment where I was like,

oh, in movie acting and in acting, you can be naturalistic and you can exist in the space. And then they gave me headphones and I could hear. And I was like, oh my gosh, like this is crazy. They're so close, but I can't hear them and they're having this intimate conversation. And I kind of realized like, oh, like I had this moment realizing that there's types of acting you can do that are, you don't, that are, you know, natural you don't have to always be theatrical like there's there's different types of acting there's different styles there's theater acting and there's you know film acting and there's a combination of the two and I sort of remember having this moment of like oh interesting like because I'd only ever seen theater acting right I was a kid and in schools and in my theater classes

and stuff you know well there's theater acting that's film acting and there's nick cage acting that's it's totally I mean I'm obsessed with do you have like a different relationship to his work. I mean, obviously, I know that wasn't like a very long relationship in your, probably in your life, but like watching a Nick Cage film, is that different for you then for like, and it is for me? Probably. Probably. I mean, for me, he was just this wild character that entered into my life that, you know, was hilarious and captivating. And I just remember every time he was around, it was like, it was just, everything was fun and big. And he's so, he's just such a big person. And I think, you know, not, not dissimilar,

to the characters you play. Courageous as an actor. Like, again, willing to, like, go to places and just trush it out. And sometimes it's worked for our audiences. Sometimes it hasn't. But I appreciate the effort always. Yeah, I think you have to, I think you have to have that mindset, you know. I think you can't hold back.

And I think you have to really get to that place where you're not limiting yourself and you can just go for it and be willing to fall on your face. And for me, when I've done that, I've, you know, of course, there's some pain, you know, because you're putting your whole heart into it. And it's a vulnerable position to be in, but I do find that when you commit and really, you know, don't hold yourself back, your work is better. So you talk about sort of kind of that realization that there are different paths to acting different ways of doing it. Did that start to set you on a path of kind of like trying different things out or like early in your career? Did you kind of have to figure out how you were going to approach the work?

Like has it changed over the last 15, 20 years in terms of how you. approach what you do. Well, I always, I always had this instinct that I could do it. You know, I, I felt this thing in me that I felt like I could transform myself. And I, you know, I remember looking at myself in the mirror when I was little, or, you know, just these weird looking back on these moments where if I was, like, crying and I was upset, I would kind of analyze it and be like, what is this? You know, like I was, you know, like, looking at yourself in the mirror, crying.

and just and really really interested in human emotion really interested in people really interested in nuances of people the way they move their head the way they move their hands like little things i still am i'm obsessed with it like i just you know so that was that was where my love for acting came i think i was obsessed with people and obsessed with i still am like i film everything i film everybody i find I'm in love with, like, human beings, you know? And so I think that's just evolved as I've gotten older, and, you know, I, yeah. It does strike me that, like, for an actor, like, in your age bracket, and especially for female actors, not a lot of them are like you in that, like, you seem to go after really

transformative performances. It's, is it, do you resonate, does that resonate when you get a script and you see, like, oh, this is an opportunity to really kind of like push myself in a different way. Absolutely. And I really love doing things that are challenging. I love completely transforming myself. I, the combination of the challenge and then being able to just feel like a different person is the most fun for me. You know, I love that challenge.

I love, you know, and making it authentic, not making it silly, not making it, you know, a caricature of somebody you know and so that combination I love and that's what I loved about Zola is I think I like I always loved characters you know I loved

fantasy growing up like that like that was something I like the you know I mean I think we're going to talk about this but like fantasy and and sci-fi like those are the things that I actually like loved watching people playing these weird, bizarre creatures and the way that a human being could totally transform into like

a witch or, you know what I mean? Like, Harry Potter was everything to me. Like that was like, you know, if I could have had the career, my dream career, I would have been in like all the Harry Potter's, you know, like I love, um, and theatrical performance. And I love, um, and I also love nuanced performance. So I really love trying to combine the two is like ultimate. Well, you're speaking my language. I mean, like, yeah, I feel like, for instance, like, Gary Oldman's Dracula is like my favorite performance like ever, like unbelievable. But yes, okay, you give me the perfect segue because in the last year, especially when we've needed comfort, I've been asking folks for comfort movies. And you kind of cheated a little bit wryly because you went with a whole

franchise, but maybe I'll pin you down there. But you went with Harry Potter, which, no surprise, it's a comfort movie series for many, many people. Let's just first tell me, like, did you encounter Harry Potter through the books first or through the movies? How did you become obsessed? So I was in school when the first book came out and I think I was around the same age as Harry. And so that was, of course, like this, you know, exciting thing I got to go up with Harry Potter. And the first film came out. And I was in Oregon with my dad on a road trip. And it was in this little theater in this little town in Oregon. And it was raining. And it was like there were, it was, it felt like we were in at Hogwarts, kind of. There were these, like,

like, you know, amazing greenery and trees everywhere in this sort of small old town. And he took me to see the first film. And I just like, I don't know. I think it was the right age and the right time. And I just was such a fan. And I read all the books. And I love, love the films. And I, you know, I always loved magic.

I loved the idea of opening up our minds to, you know, more than the reality we live in. and so let's talk some favorites a favorite character oh my gosh this is so hard i i they won't be offended the ones you don't mention it's okay i know i i love serious black of course you know how could you not i love belatrix i love um i love her minding i love oh my gosh um Who else? I love Luna. I loved her father. I love... Did you ever dress up as any of the Harry Potter characters for a... I never did. Really? I never dressed up. I didn't dress up. Have you been sorted? I've been sorted. I was in Gryffindor once and I was in Slytherin once. And so I think I'm a Gemini. I've got two sides to me and I can totally see how the hat would get confused with, you know,

in Slytherin or Gryffindore. Have you, have you been to Wizarding World? Have you seen cursed child oh yeah i've been to wizarding world i haven't seen cross child i went to the um to the sets in england which is amazing but also it's funny like as an actor actress you some of the magic's already gone because you know how things are working i was recently watching a movie with my little sisters and they're 12 and they were like i was like oh you know how they do that and they were like i don't want to hear it i don't want to know how they do that and i was like i should be telling you explaining how they're doing all the VFX and you know how all the um and i realized like with harry potter i sort of still had this um sort of there was still this sort of uh

disconnect for me and it felt like because i grew up with it i it was kind of one of the only films that i still had this there was a deacon and and going to the the sets kind of ruined it a a little bit for me, you know? And I kind of wish I didn't, but also it was amazing to see, like, you know, how epic they were and how deep. The, what about the films? What's your favorite of the films? This is hard. I'm always, I'm always, I kind of go through phases where I'll watch one, two, three, four, go all the way up and then I'll start over and I'll just keep revisiting, you know, all of them. I love the first one just because of the childhood nostalgia. The third one was for a long time my favorite um that's the coron one of course yeah of course and then as i got

older i loved the um the half blood half blood prints um that one was really emotional um i love god prisoner of ascaband that was was probably that was probably the first one that i was like whoa yeah i'm like this is this is cool it certainly yes they i mean the world building that Chris Columbus was able to do in the first two, and the casting, like, major props for those two. But clearly the third one kind of like elevated the filmmaking, the craft. It's kind of like another level. Totally. Totally.

Yeah, and they hold up, and they're perennials now. They're classics. Have you ever worked with any of the principal actors? Have you crossed past with them? Okay. Fun fact. I did. And, um, uh, oh my God.

And devil all the time Sorry, I've been up Oh, devil all the time I worked with the actor that plays Dudley Oh, is it Is that Matthew Luz? No, is that Mattie Luce? No, it's, um

Don't put this part in that's all good Thingy because I can't betray you As a poser of Harry Potter Um Let me look at Harry His name's Harry so is that a moment did you confess your harry potter obsession i didn't recognize him at first i didn't

recognize him because he's much older and he looks very different and i didn't he's like a very serious actor and he was very much in character and i didn't like i didn't want to geek out you know because i want to ruin his you know you're like you know he obviously i'm sure they get that so often you know and we're on this very serious film set playing these very serious characters and i would But I definitely was having this moment of like when I realized it was him. I was like, oh my God. I told my husband, he was on set. And he was like, that's crazy.

I totally get starstruck by them. I saw Emma Watson once at an event. And I think she came up to me. And I think she said hi. And I think I just froze. I was going to say, it sounds like the way you're recounting this. It sounds like you blacked out. You don't even remember.

I think I kind of knew who I was or something. I don't know. She said hi. Maybe she didn't know who I was. But I was like, uh, I just like couldn't, I couldn't handle it. It is bizarre how well adjusted those, I don't know, what lottery they hit with those actors, but those key actors, they're all like great human beings too, and amazing to see how they've grown up.

Did the timing of Fantastic Beasts work for you? Did you ever go up for a role? Did you say to Team Keo get me in there? I actually did audition for Fantastic Beasts. I did. I was shooting the girlfriend experience at the time, and I probably didn't prep enough because I remember they called me in and I was shooting girlfriend experience and I think I had like a night and had to go fly there the next day and fly back for the audition and then I didn't get

it obviously. But I, you know, I wish in hindsight I had more time to prepare because I was kind of like, I got to go do it, even though I have no time. I need to just do it. It's funny that like, you know, you talk about kind of growing up with fantasy and sci-fi and all this kind of escapist stuff. Again, and I look at the resume and I love so much what you've done, but like when you look at genre stuff, it's like, I mean, you've done one, a very significant note, Fury Road, which is the movie that comes up on this podcast more than any other movie because, as it should. I mean, come on, like stone cold genius. Yeah, I did a thing with actually George just a few months ago for the fifth anniversary. Yeah, it was pretty, I mean, as you know, he's just a special, special man.

I love him so much. So can we dive into that a bit because I'm just endlessly fascinated by that whole experience. so unique in every respect of what he was able to do. Just from the audition process, did you know immediately like, oh, this guy's, this guy's at a different, operating at a different frequency than the rest of us, George Miller. I mean, so my very first audition was just with a casting director, and you had to choose from four monologues, and one was kind of, I can't remember what they were, but they were all epic monologues from, you know, epic films. And it was like network. And, you know, it was like,

It wasn't, it wasn't like silly stuff. And, and you kind of could choose. And at the time, I didn't really understand what they were doing. I didn't know there were five wives. I didn't know any of that. But I chose the one, you know, there was one that was kind of comedic. There was one that was emotional. There was one that was, you know, there was different options.

And they let you choose. And the one that I chose, I can't remember the monologue, but it was like a very, it was for a male. It was for a man. and I it was a very sort of like strong uh male piece you know and I was like I'm just gonna go for this one because I just feel like nobody else is that's kind of was my tactic um one of them was like Aaron Brockovich I think and um yeah and so I did the audition and then I got a call back with the casting director and then they said they're going to fly you to Australia to do like this sort of mix and match because there's five characters and they don't they need to see

whatever um so they put you know five girls they did rounds and rounds of this where like five girls would be kind of going through this acting workshop with um george's friend nico and so we would you know they mixed me up with five girls um and we had this whole week of kind of drama school essentially and and the last day george came in and would watch us and a lot of it was improv and a lot of it was it was nonscripted it was you know giving us scenarios giving us things to get into arguments about and improvisational stuff yeah and we kind of went home not knowing if any of us would get it you know it wasn't it wasn't like a done deal kind of a thing and then I think about a week later they said okay um you're going to officially get the offer and you're playing capable

and I was like okay I didn't know what that meant at all you know and I was like okay Enjoy the next year in Namibia. This is going to be great. I know. And then slowly, you know, I think Zoe was already cast. And then Rosie was cast after me, I believe. And then lastly was they continued those sort of workshops. And then Abby and Courtney were the last two.

And, you know, he's so thoughtful. It's not, there's no mistake. Everything, you know, once we started. He would just send these long voice notes. If I just send him a message saying, what do you think about this, something that so quickly could be answered with a short email? He would respond about a day later

and send me like a 45 minute voice note about answering this question and giving me like, you know, so much information. And once we got there, you know, it was very apparent that it was a different experience to your general sort of studio film. We landed. We had extensive acting workshops, extensive, you know, working with Eve Ensler, movement coach. So much, so much prep. And, you know, you'd kind of be like,

oh, these like five girls are in the back of the van and the back of the van, the back of the truck. And, you know, you wouldn't assume like how much work we'd done on our characters and on just every single detail that my goggles, my hair color, my outfit, my shoes, my everything, like George, there's not one detail inside the rig. There's, you know, if you're in there, which we wear for six months, there's every little, there's everything, every detail in the truck George knows about and George put there for a reason, you know? You're like, a dagger and you're like, what?

You know, and then he's like, oh, yeah, that's because of this. And so it was an incredible experience also being able to, there was a lot of us that were the same age, you know, all of us, girls. And then you had Nick and you had Josh and we were all the same age. You were all living next to each other in this little neighborhood. All of our houses were next to each other. So we had this like really incredible once in a lifetime kind of experience bonding as friends and making this epic tale. It's amazing because, yeah, by the way, Nick is one of my favorite human beings. as well. I've known him forever. And, and, um, but I mean, invariably it comes up with filmmakers too. I mean, your buddy, Steven Soderberg has like one of my favorite quotes about the film, which is something to the effect of like, I can't understand how like dozens of people didn't die while making it. Like as a filmmaker, and this is Steven Soderberg talking. Totally. I can't either. And my husband was on the stunt team. And, and, you know,

people got injured, but nothing, nothing crazy. And it's, it's actually wild for how long we shot for the stunts they were doing for it all being real. I think I saw a green screen once the whole six months. You know what I mean? It was incredible that nobody died. It's an inspiring movie to watch just as like a film fantasy, like what he was able to do. We should get into Zola because I'm such a fan of this one and before time it runs out. I got a chance to watch it again.

I told you, I think when I saw it movie awards, I saw it way back when and Sundance over a year ago, I refreshed recently. It still holds up as this wild, very unique, uniquely told story. So this is, for those that don't know, this is maybe the first movie based on a series of tweets. It is a wild ride. Talk to me about sort of how it's presented to you. Like, were you at all aware of the backstory of this? Like, what intrigued you did when you heard about it? So I was able to read the Twitter thread in real time in 2015. Somebody sent it to me. And so I got that sort of viral experience, which I'm thankful for. Somebody sent it to me. I was in my apartment.

You kind of start the Twitter thread. You just can't stop, which is why it went viral. Her voice is so compelling. She's an incredible writer. She really paints this picture and these characters jump out of the, I would say, off the page, but off of the thread. And you're just in this wild world. And so a few years later, I was actually at Toronto at the, at the,

festival and my agent said, you know, there's this film. They're making it about that Twitter thread. I don't know if you've heard of it. And, you know, 824 is doing it and the director really wants you to read it. And if you respond, you know, meet with her. And I was initially just like, wow, how would one adapt a Twitter thread into a screenplay? So that was, you know, got my attention. and then they sent me the script, and it was incredibly, you know, apparent reading the script that these were people who came from a real theater background, that they were kind of genius, you know, not kind of, they were genius. And so I was, and, you know, and Janixa had a writing credit, and Jeremy had the writing credit, and I'm going, well, if this is, you know, the way they're

writing, surely she's an incredible, you know, artists. So I then went and met with her, And she just blew my mind. She's so, she's a genius. And, you know, the only, I've, I've been so lucky to work with incredible filmmakers, but Janixa is one of definitely my top, top five or three or two, you know, feeling geniuses that I've kind of been so lucky to work with. And so it was a combination between this like wild script and Janixa and then of course um the character was just nuts and I'm always you know down you're down for that yeah no I mean she is she's an agent of chaos she is just the friend you do not want to be in the bunker way she's going to lead you down the wrong path every single time absolutely and somebody said to me in the very beginning like hey isn't this

american honey you've already played this and I was like this is absolutely not American honey this is a very different, you know, I think that's why I needed to speak to her. Like, I think this is much more theatrical. I think this is bigger. I think this is, I had an idea of what it was. And luckily, that was sort of what Janixen wanted as well. We can tell a lot by the opening line of a character. And I don't know if it was in the script, but in the movie, it's y'all got jalapeno

poppers. That says all you need to know. Right. I know. I know. Yes, we do. So per like kind of our conversation earlier, I mean, do you ever, do you feel like you're out on a limb like out on the ledge on this performance like do you feel like you're

totally in safe hands or do you feel like this could come across the wrong way give me a sense of like once you're in it it absolutely could come across the wrong way and in anybody else's hands and that was that was kind of you know once I met her I was like I trusted her I felt safe in her in her um with this film in her hands I just I had so much trust in her that I was able to not have to think about those things, you know, and just really go for it. And, you know, she really wanted to push it. She wanted, on the page, this character is, like, extremely offensive.

And, you know, our conversation was just about how far to push that. And Janixa just wanted to push it as far as possible in Janixa fashion, you know. And so I, you know, I just kind of was like, all right, I trust you. And, yeah. I would imagine in a much different way, but I'm going to compare it in a bizarre way to Mad Max, like it's one thing to read a script and then it's another thing to like see the finished product. I can only imagine what it was like to see the first cut or whatever you saw of Mad Max Fury Road because you can't see what that's going to be, even on the page.

And in a similar way, though, like to this, there's something intangible about what she does with the direction here. It has a very dreamlike, beautiful kind of quality to do those two experiences, jump out at you at like when you saw these films in particular and the finished product those two films jump out at me um in that both of them mad max and zola i made some of my closest lifelong friendships um so the experience personally was as fulfilling as the experience artistically yeah um and the first time i saw the mad max trailer i cried because we all put so much into it we put a year of our more than a year we a lot the film pushed so we put you know we were we had two years of our lives into it and that's similar with zola and that we put all this time into it and then the

pandemic hit and we're all going through these personal things together same with mad max we've gone through heartache you know um love you know people having kids like all of these things by the time the movie's coming out and zola's the same thing we've been through heartache love grief all of these things together as friends and then the movies sort of coming out. So both of them totally parallel for me in that sense. So going back a bit and I apologize, my podcast is the only consistency is that I go back and forth a lot because my brain just rambles. But we mentioned Soderberg. He has to be kind of the pivotal or a pivotal filmmaker in your career. Of course. He, Stephen changed my life. Stephen gave me, you know, he gave me a shot. He kind of put

me in the girlfriend experience, which, you know, really helped me in my career in a lot of ways getting a lot of other roles. He gave me my first sort of like big lead in a television series. And he's extremely supportive in so many other ways, you know, like he came and watched, you know, I directed a film with my partner and he came to the edit and watched a cut. Like, he's very supportive. He's so supportive of young filmmakers. new filmmakers um just he's amazing that way isn't he he did the podcast pretty recently and if you look at his res like the resume it's all the most eclectic filmmaking resume first of all but then you see things like wait he was like the second unit director on hunger games just cause like what he spent he spent

like four hours and five hours with us while he's cutting something else you know what i mean and i'm like wow he's just incredibly supportive and loves films so much It's, it's, and it's, yeah, it's, I feel very blessed to have cross paths with Stephen and kind of had him supporting my career. So it's a pretty good guardian angel to have. So looking ahead, we mentioned Terminalist. You're producing something with your buddy, I think Dakota, right? Dakota Johnson, one of my favorite human beings. Yes.

Dakota and I, we've been friends since we were 15. and you know we both started acting the same year I think we went on our additions our very first auditions I think months apart I think we booked our very first movies like a month apart or something and so it was always like a no brainer like eventually we're going to find something together to do and so we're developing this TV show that I'm so excited about the older I get the more the more I just love working with people I love you know what's all about in the end yeah she's one of my favorite human beings she she's I she's uh i don't know her dark twisted sense of humor does she play would you rather uh with you ever because i i i had her on my comedy central talk show she knows everything i've done oh would you rather sorry i thought you meant never have i ever oh not never have ever would you rather because i so i played a game of would you rather with her and she was like one up to me i had a bunch of would you rather questions and she threw about 10 at me one of which i've asked every guest on my show since i'm going to pose it to you because she asked me

would you rather have a mouthful of bees or one B in your butt? Oh my gosh, Dakota. One B in my butt. Are you kidding? Yeah, no, that's the right answer. It's obvious, I think. Yeah, no, you're correct. You're correct.

That is the objective, correct answer. Okay, great. And then finally, okay, so like what we mentioned Mad Max, I'm just curious, again, just going back to, like, childhood of being interested in fantasy and genre and stuff. Again, I'm kind of surprised you haven't ended up in this pop culture that is dominated by superheroes and sci-fi and fantasy like what's going on are you pursuing that stuff is there is there one of those properties that really speaks to you today i absolutely would

do that would um venture into the the the uh superhero world i for me it's just it's timing it's is this what i want to do right now it's always a kind of spiritual thing it's something in me that i want to for and if the right you know role ended up coming to me i absolutely would do that um i think you know it's i've played a lot of you know i think in the beginning of my career i definitely got sort of put in this like very extreme art house you know a box and i and i love art films of course i i love all films i love i love i love broad comedy i love you know harry potter you know but i definitely, I think from the exterior world, have this sort of art house thing where, you know, people can't, you know, I don't know. I think people assume that I kind of only would ever want

to do can films or something, you know, but I, you know, I definitely don't feel that way. We're putting it out into the universe. Okay. She's open to everything because, yeah, it's, it's, I mean, I love talking to someone whose work I admire, but also someone who's obviously just loves what they do and is a cinephile themselves. So I'm glad. Zola gave us an excuse to connect in this way. Congratulations on it. Congratulations on finally getting to the finish line. The pandemic couldn't put this one down.

We're finally getting it. And hopefully we'll talk a bunch more about your zillions of other projects soon. Thank you, Josh. Nice to see you. 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. I'm Daisy Ridley, and I definitely wasn't.

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