Happy Sad Confused - Rose Bryne

Episode Date: October 6, 2025

Rose Byrne is a secret weapon no longer. She's proven herself in television (DAMAGES), in genre films (SUNSHINE), in comedy after comedy (BRIDESMAIDS, SPY), and now she reminds us again what a brilliant dramatic lead she can be in the new film, IF I HAD LEGS I'D KICK YOU. Rose is earning justified raves for the film and joins Josh to discuss her journey to this point. UPCOMING EVENTS 10/8-10/12 - New York Comic Con -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠tickets here⁠⁠⁠⁠ 10/14 -- Aziz Ansari in NY -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠tickets here⁠⁠⁠⁠ 10/22 -- Nobody Wants This cast in NY -- ⁠⁠tickets here⁠⁠ Check out the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Happy Sad Confused patreon here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! We've got discount codes to live events, merch, early access, exclusive episodes, video versions of the podcast, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What a run! This champ is picking up speed! But they found a lane. Phenomenal launches into the air! Absolutely incredible Air Transat! Fly the seven-time world's best leisure airline champions, Air Transat. I feel like in my conversations with folks over the last few years, it's like when you ask them about comfort movies or great comedies,

it's like it's stepbrothers and bridesmaids. Oh, really? I love stepbrothers too. So to be part of in the same, like that is, again, a film I'll turn on. and be like, this is it. I love this bit. I love this bit. Oh, my God, it's so funny. Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now. Hey, guys, it's Josh. Welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. Today's main event, first-time guest on the pod, Rose Byrne. How is that possible? One of our great actors,

she can do it all. Comedy, drama, and a little bit of both in her current film. If I had legs, I'd kick you. It is justifiably getting a lot of awards attention for Rose. That is the main event on today's edition of Happy, Say I Confused. Keeping busy, as always, over here, can you guys, if you're watching on video on YouTube, can you see how adorable my Lucy is behind us? There's a lot going on. As always, check out our Patreon. That's where you're going to get all the information.

Patreon.com slash Happy Say I Confused. Support us over there if you can. If you like what I do, surely it helps me make more of what I do. But in terms of events, I'm going to be all over New York Comic Con as I usually am. Hosting, among other things, get a little to this, a 10th anniversary panel for Mr. Robot. We are reuniting Sam Esmail, the creator, with Rami Malick and Christian Slater. I should say also tickets for near Comic-Con, I believe are still available, the links in the show notes. Reserve your seating at these panels, if you can, because they are going to be packed.

I'm doing stuff with Sigourney Weaver, with James McAvoy, with Lawrence Fishburn, a Star Trek panel. Lots of cool stuff. I'm so stoked. It's going to be a wild weekend in New York City. So look forward to that. Also doing my thing at the 9 2nd Street, Y. Aziz Ansari, October 12th for his new film. Good fortune.

It's great. We're going to screen the movie. Check that out. And October 24th, there might be a few tickets available. There might not. I don't know. For nobody wants this. The Netflix show is back.

We're getting the entire cast together. That's going to sell out if it's not sold out already. So get in on that if you can. All right. Back to Rose. I'm going to throw this conversation. I got a chance to catch up with her in New York City. She's a delight.

She's just a very sweet, cool person. I'm totally obsessed with her and Bobby Conabali, one of those, like, New York actor couples that I think is just like too cool. Not too cool for school. They're just cool enough. I actually got a chance to see Bobby in art, which is currently on Broadway. A little plug for that. And, yeah, Rose has been killing it for so long. She's one of those actors I think we take for granted because she,

can do drama. She can do franchise stuff, whether it's X-Men, et cetera, Sunshine, one of the classics. And she's also, I don't think it's like, you know, a secret anymore. She's one of our great comedy stars, neighbors, bridesmaids, platonic. So many great projects. And this film, actually, if I had legs, I'd kick you, has a little bit of everything. It is very darkly comedic. I say darkly because it is. It's an intense movie. But it is a wild ride. I highly recommend it. It's out October 10th from May 24. It's from director Mary Bronstein. And it really gives Rose a front and center leading performance that she deserves. And she absolutely aces it.

She plays a mom dealing with a lot, dealing with a kid that's doing with some health issues, and just hanging on by a thread like we all are in different ways. It also co-stars, I should say, A sap Rocky and Conan O'Brien. I know, the most eclectic, odd cast in cinema, maybe going today. But they're all great, honestly. This is a really impressive piece of work by everybody. So I highly recommend it. And, yeah, without any further ado, let's go to my first podcast conversation. I've interviewed Rose over the years, but this is her first deep dive on the podcast.

And I'm so glad it happened for this one. Enjoy me and Rose, burn. Hi, Josh. Nice to see you. Hi, Rose. How's it going? I'm great. It's good to see you.

Nice to see you. You've never done the podcast for us. I know, and I was just chatting about that, and now I'm very excited and you're lovely, and I know you, so I'm very happy to be here and that you saw the move. This is for a very good cause. Yes, that's incredible.

You are amazing in this film, congratulations. Thank you, thank you so much. Would you say, do you put this above your character in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mutant Mayhem, or below? I, equal footing. That was, Leatherhead? Leatherhead. A mutant alligator.

Pivotal role. Was it an Australian mutant alligator? Australian mutant alligator, loosely based on some of like Paul Hogan's early work, Eric Barner's early work, so, you know, there's a lot of subtle references in there. Okay. Is that a favor for... It was basically a favor for set. They'll say it for you and also him just exploiting my Australian accent and making me sound,

you know, making me sound as ridiculous as possible. But he, you know... You're a willing participant in that kind of thing. We are a, we're a finely oiled machine, Seth and I, so I, it was very funny, and the whole, you know, the whole vision of that thing was so, was so original and punk, but, um, but we digress. Anyway, another pivotal role in my career. Um, this is a, this is a big moment. You've had a lot of big moments. You're one of those, like, actors who I feel like, if you go back, there are like seven different points where it's like, Roseburn has finally arrived. Oh, God. It's all happening for Rose. Thank you. Well, look, that's why it's important to never take it too seriously because you're like, I think I've heard this conversation before. But I, this movie is so singular. So I'm so excited. People are finally seeing it. It's really exciting to just hear people's take away from it. And it's really special. So it's a little context on this. I would imagine the experience of this is very singular for a number of reasons. You're working, you know, there's no substitute for working with like a writer, director. you know, a relatively short time span.

So it's a 27-day shoot, it's shot on film. It's intense in many ways. And you've been doing like a lot of TV, probably longer stuff recently. So was this like a nice pallet cleanser makes it sound like an easy gig? It's probably not that. But it is a different kind of thing

than you've been doing lately. It really was to, although to your point, it was I had been doing a lot of long-form storytelling with TV, with physical and platonic. And this was, it was fantastic to return to this medium. And, you know, when you go into a movie with A24, who was such a fantastic, who really support artists and visionaries and they're always pushing for that. And I knew it would be special and then meeting Mary Bronstein, the writer-director, and reading the script,

which was just like fire. You know, it was so incredible and very much a reflection of the film you see. It's very visually descriptive. So I knew it was special and a really opportunity, an opportunity for just a creative experience that I hadn't had had before. So this is a woman who's barely hanging on. Linda, Linda. Or Linda. I mean, look, I know you're talking to a lot of journalists, and I'm sure people that have kids, don't have kids,

and I don't have kids myself, but it resonates, I think, to anybody living on the planet Earth in 2025. I think so, too. We're all hanging on by a thread. Yes, I think I do. I agree, yeah. So, I mean, does the, I guess, does the style of making it mirror the content. I mean, it feels, it has such a visceral feel. It really does feel like this couldn't have been a cozy shoot by its nature. I don't know, give me a sense of sort of

like what the environment, what the palpable feel is of digging into this character in the shoot. You know, the, like, that's, I mentioned, like, the script really did read like fire, like it, and it had such visual language in the script. Like, for instance, the hamster sequence is described as Jack Nicholson trying to get through the wall in the shining. Like, that's the sort of references that were there. Got it, got it, got it. And there's such humor in those references, too. Obviously, it's a hamster.

It's not, you know, a person. But that's the state that Linda is in and the tension that Mary is creating with her, this singular POV of this character, which was so specific. And in a way, you know, the cinematic language she uses us and you don't see a lot of these people in her life. You don't see her husband.

You don't see her daughter. Like, it's arresting. And a lot of those choices that are taken away from the audience. You know, it's a little bit punk. And so that I found, I knew was happening. Obviously, I knew we weren't gonna see Delaney Quinn, who is the actress who plays Linda's daughter. But when I saw the film as an audience member,

I was so taken, drawn in, and sort of just on a roller coaster with this language Mary uses. She's such a singular director, it's really wild. Does the way your shot, like, affect your performance significantly? In terms of, like, where the camera is. Do you like to know where the camera is? camera is. I mean, I would imagine the nature of these shots, you definitely know where the camera is because it's pretty damn close. I mean, I could hear it. I could hear the like the film,

which was kind of both like fantastic and glorious. What a, you know, treat to be working on film and not on digital. But yeah, and I've mentioned this, but the first day the camera got closer and closer and then it was like here. And I said, oh, are you going to be that close? Is that how And Mary was like, yes. And then after that, it became, I just would, I like more information rather than less. I want to know what the day is. I want to know how long we've got for each shot, take,

how we're going to move in. So I just wanted as much information as I could because the performance is the film. You know, it's very much like this is her perspective and the responsibility was not lost on me of nothing. You always have responsibility. There are no small parts and all that stuff. But it truly was, and it's a personal story to Mary.

Bronstein as well. So the point of the nature of the way it's shot, I mean, I've talked to actors like, I'm talking about Killing Murphy, like for Oppenheimer, like those IMAX cameras there right in his face. I feel like so much of acting is just shutting out the noise of just like silencing that part of your brain that's like there's this whole apparatus around me. Do you find that's the case? That's something that you've just learned over the years.

Totally agree. I think it's a tightrope of being technically proficient and aware and then absolutely not being aware and trying to do your task, which is perform the scene and acting truthful in, you know, made up circumstances and that's what you, it's that balance and that tight rope and that's where it's such a director's medium in that sense of how they choose to do that. But I, you know, you can bring all your homework to it and everything and still it's, you don't know what the finished product is going to be. But like I say, even though I knew the camera was obviously very close, I didn't, I would like to, I tried to give a range of

things. You know, the trick with this performance, or the trap, rather, is that she's at one note, and I was so aware of that as soon as I read it and started talking to Mary as like, how do we, we have to, we have to, like, bring in nuance and, and, and all those sorts of things, yeah. So how are you, like, friends and family seeing something like this? Like, are you, are you, do you warn them on something like this? I mean, they've seen you, you probably, they've seen me, they've seen me in so many compromising positions at this point. At this point, whatever. I've given up. I think they've given up. No, they're excited. My family are very supportive and they're excited. And we have the New York Film Festival in a couple of nights, so that'll be fun.

I'll have some friends there in town. That'll be fun. How are you generally taking compliments? Because you're getting a lot of justified praise. Oh, that's so nice. I'm not great. Like I'm an Australian, I'm sure, you know, I'm an Irish stock. It's like anathema to us to be able to do those things.

But I'm proud of the film. I'm proud of the film. I'm very, I think it's, I'm still discovering things about the film myself and really now through other people's eyes and that's like, it's wonderful. And it's none of my business how people feel about it, but I'm obsessed with it.

I'm like, oh my gosh, tell me what you think. And it's been great because it's so varied from men and women, people with children, people without families, so it's really interesting. Do you find there was, like, is there a meta quality when you're making a film like this? Like, you're making a film about someone who's trying to back?

balance everything and just surviving. And then you're going through this exhaustive day and then you have to come home to two kids, husband, and make it all somehow work and stay sane. I know, it's, I mean, gosh, it's boring, but any working parent is doing that, it's absolutely. And what's so fun about this is that it is so far removed from my life.

So it's such an escape and it's got nothing to do with me, the person which is far more dull. I'm not very interesting, but this character is sort of acting out behaviors perhaps we've all thought about, or perhaps we've all imagined in our darkest hours, but hopefully haven't acted upon, but what a gift to sort of be able to do that

in a creative sense is very rewarding. Is there something cathartic about getting to yell at Conan O'Rourke for money, for your job? Finally, my dream has come true. There's something surreal about it, I must say. And they're both so lovely, So it was a harder thing to, like, particularly with Rocky, because that character is so charismatic and he's very sweet.

And I kept having to be so dismissive of him and so, and obviously I knew why she was doing that, but I did say to Mary, why is she being so mean to him? He's just trying to be nice. He's just trying to, he's just trying to get a high. Is that a problem? Have you ever yelled at a therapist in your life? No, no.

Linda does not trust authority. I am the opposite. I could use a bit of that. And she is, she's like all about bucking the system. She's so sort of contrary and anti-establishment, I think, is her core. Right. Her kind of punk rock core. Hi, I'm Brian Lucci, a former Chicago cop.

Now I'm a producer on Chicago PD. And I'd like to introduce you to the official one Chicago podcast. The first ever behind-the-scenes. Look at the iconic TV shows. We're talking Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, and Chicago MED. Join me each week for an exclusive conversation with the writers, the crew members, and the stars. Void's doing the right thing for Void. Check out the One Chicago Podcasts from Wolf Entertainment and USG Audio.

Available now, wherever you get your podcast. Hey, Michael. Hey, Tom. Big news to share it, right? Yes, huge, monumental, earthshaking. Heartbeat sound effect, big. Mink is back. That's right. After a brief snack nap, we're coming back, we're picking snacks, we're eating snacks, we're raiding snacks.

Like the snackologist we were born to be. Mates is back. Mike and Tom, eat snacks. Wherever you get your podcasts. Unless you get them from a snack machine, in which case, call us. We call us. So you mentioned this is going to be at New York Film Festival in a couple of couple days. Yeah. I was looking back to like your history, film and festivals, correct if I'm wrong, maybe one

of the pivot points early on, did you go to Sundance pretty early on in your career with the movie you did with Heath? Yes, with Heath and I went and I was really young, like 18 or 19, yeah, I was a kid. So what was that like to, you know, you've been acting for a minute because you were a child actor, but to come to the States, to come to Sundance, no less, with that, that must have been a moment. It was a moment, and it was obviously so memorable because it was a tiny little odd movie you know and it was right before Heath became Heath Ledger he was really at

the precipice of this wildly extraordinary career to tragically short but packed so much into and of course no it's like a core seminal time in my life in memory and the festival then was quaint yeah and it didn't have the swag bags and it didn't have wasn't overrun with the trappings of this success of a festival can become and it was quite magical yeah yeah the first time I went I think we like 2008. And it was right at the pivot point. It was just when like the swag suites were starting to come in and Redford was starting to speak out on it. So we were there, I think we were there. You're like 99, I think. It was 99. I mean, that was truly, yeah, it was truly a different time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So give me a sense. You are, I was saying before, I caught up with your partner Bobby the other day who's going on Broadway right now. Yes, isn't he? Yes. You're kind of like celebrity, New York couple goals. You really are. You guys are awesome. respective ways. I feel like it's like a battle to the death you guys between Matthew Reese and Kerry Russell. That's my other like talk to your couple. That's amazing. We're neighbors, actually. I figured. They're awesome. I've seen that they're in the neighborhood. Yep. So, but you're a New Yorker. You've been a New Yorker for quite some time. Nearly 20 years, which is terrifying. Was that through damages? Yeah, through damages.

Yeah, I moved here at 27, 28. Yeah, I'm 46. So it's nearly been 20 years. So I think that's, is that when you can say you're a New Yorker after 20 years? As a life I grew up in the city, Oh, oh, wow, okay, you're a true lifer, yeah. Congrats. Yes, which has just gone so quickly. It's bizarre, but yes, I've loved being in the city. We're raising our kids in the city, you know, and it's still, it is not for the faint of heart, particularly since the pandemic.

Oh, my God, what a... Yeah, to ride that out. That was a ride, that was a ride. But I've continued to love it here and be inspired by it, and I like the, you know, most of my friends really aren't in the business here, and that's great. you know, it's very diverse, whereas, you know, other places, well, L.A. in particular, can be more of a one-horse town, yeah. Yeah, I would say, and I know you've talked about, like, growing up as, like, a shy kid. Like, I was a shy kid, too, and I feel like I need to collide with things, or else I will cocoon.

Yeah, that's a good. And New York makes you collide with the city, and you face it all, with all its beauty and all its ugliness. And I think that that is something I'm attracted to, and I love being able to walk around, and I love, I'm still in a love affair with New York. I am. So the first, I don't know if it was the very first time you came here, but your first time you spent some time here significantly, it was probably Atlantic Theatre Company. Yes, yes, Atlantic and that was so, like, again, seminal, living in the new NYC dorms, like the new, you know, NYU dorms, rather, and studying in Atlantic for a summer in 2000 or

99. It was like the same year as Sundance, I think it turned to the 2000, the year off. So I think it was 99. It was so good, yes. So for those of no, no, I'm Atlantic steeped in the work of Mamet. Yes, of David Mamet and with alumni like Felicity Huffman and Macy and, yeah, many others, yeah. And you've talked before about kind of the practical aesthetics approach. Yes, I was a disciple, a disciple of practical aesthetics.

It was brought to Australia by a couple of fantastic acting teachers and they were Melissa Bruder and she kind of championed it in Australia and it became very popular and sort of like a cult status. And I had friends who did it and in any case on my goal was I wanted to go do this summer program and I'd heard so much about it. And I went and it was so fun and fantastic. And again, made lifelong friends and yeah. I mean, so I don't know,

mammots probably not directly involved. You don't work with him when you were there. No, he wasn't there, but they started this school. Yeah, they started this kind of, again, as a reactionary thing, I think, well, from my recollection, you know, they were very much, it's very much about the writer. It's sort of a reaction to the Stanislavski method,

like, well, not the pure Stanislavski, but sort of the later actor studio type model. This is very, a far more cerebral approach, I suppose, in one way, but one could look at it, but I loved it, yeah. I mean, when I've heard him talk about, with Mamet himself talk about, very, just like, say the words, essentially.

It's awesome, right? I had a friend once who was in a film of his, and he asked him, he had a small part, And he'd just ask him a question, like, oh, so does my character know X before, they met before? And Mamet was like, I don't know, have you? Right. That's kind of it, in a nutshell. But I died.

I was like, oh, I love it. I love it. I mean, you probably have worked with all types, literally every acting approach. You know, who was I talking to you the other day? Sean Bean the other day I was talking to you're Troy Costa. Oh, yeah. What did he say? Well, he was just talking a little bit about how, you know, obviously he just worked with Daniel Day Lewis,

famously one very extreme end of the technique and how it doesn't really matter how you get there. It's just like everyone's got their technique. I have total respect and agree. I think it's such a personal thing. I think it's wildly, I've worked with all types of people who don't want to rehearse. I worked with Dennis Hopper early on in Australia in this tiny Australian movie and he didn't want to rehearse. He didn't want to read through. We did like barely did a read through. It was sort of like a comical effort but he had disdain for that and then I've had, you know, other actors who want to, you know, become best friends and want to, like, live out the relationship that is on the page or whatever, you know, people, it just varies

the gamut. So I've sort of seen it all at this point. And I, I agree with Sean. I think it's whatever, it's the result is what you see. And hopefully you don't see the home. It's to see the homework. Right. It's fun to talk about for these kind of things. Exactly. But you see the homework. Then you're, like, then you're done. Where on the spectrum is Nick Cage in the He's more, he's in his own method. He's the Nick Cage. He's more an intuitive, sort of unpredictable, yeah, truly, truly the Nick Cage, yeah. What's the Nick Cage-yest thing you saw Nick Cage do?

I think I've told this story, but we did a press conference, like sort of some typical early-on press conference for this movie, knowing. And he was always very professional, very nice, but he turned to me before the press conference and said, I'm going to try to do this whole thing without saying I or me. And he did. Of course he did. He kept going, when one approaches one's wife. And I was, that's all I remember is going, how's he going to do it? Oh, my God.

I got to get home to my Komodo dragon and think about this. It was, what a man. It was fantastic. It was fantastic. Yeah. And I mean, what a, you know, what I. I do admire his bravery as an actor. he will do anything he's completely and make a fool of himself and sometimes it works and

sometimes it doesn't but god and he's and you forget he's from this this like this family of such legacy yeah and unconventional like thinkers and you know that's a huge part of the story that you sort of forget as well so part of your story and coming into your own i feel like there's like the one-two punch like around 2004 it's it's it's wicker park which is a big deal probably the time yeah for me because you're a female lead opposite i think josh George Hartnett at the time. Troy, of course, which for those I don't remember, was like a ginormous movie at the time. A huge film at the time, yeah, like swords and sandals, epic. Well, obviously based on the Iliad, yeah. But also made, obviously, in the old

school way, like Wolfgang Peterson, like thousands of extras, I would imagine. Yes, people being shipped in from Bulgaria. Like it was not, it was a lot of stuff going on and I was like, what? But yeah. Did you spend any quality time with Peter O'Toole? That's what I'm most interested in. Oh, Peter, God bless. I did. I did. He was as entertaining and as, you know, he did not suffer fools. He was incredibly quick-witted, and he had an extraordinary memory and taste. And he was in the seminal film of this genre. You know, he had a legacy, but he could not have been kinder to me and more welcoming

and would secretly tell me you've got the best part in the movie. This part's fantastic. I'd play this part, like, you know, things like that. He was, and we had these, you know, great scenes together. I actually went on, I did a BBC telemovie with him a couple of years later, so I got to work with him, not once but twice. Talking about that reminds me something in relation to the current film, which is that you've been a lead in many films and TV shows, obviously. Mostly in film, though, it's been a co-lead, frankly, with a male co-star. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Is that, like, meaningful for you that you are truly the lead? This is your film? Yes, absolutely meaningful. No, and no one's asked me that, and I've done, small roles in big movies, big roles in small movies, like really a gamut. And this is truly, absolutely, a very singular experience for me creatively. Yeah, it's true. No one's asked me that, but that's, yeah.

More on television, I've had that opportunity. So this, again, was really new, yeah. Okay, so back to small parts in big movies. Yes, yes. I'm contractually obligated as a big old nerd to ask you about Star Wars. I apologize, Rose. Are you of the Star Wars culture, the cult?

So I feel like you're the only Star Wars. character that probably doesn't have an action figure at this point. That's a tragedy. Justice for Dorme, right? Let's start the hashtag today. I mean, to be even a microscopic piece of that universe is so sweet how you just resonate and you still are part of this dialogue, this chain of characters in this film, this universe that resonates with people.

It's so wonderful. I've grown to love it. I mean, I worked with the great James Earl Jones, and he, oh my goodness, the people who... It's him on stage with him. Yes, we did play together. And the people who would appear out of the woodwork to get his autograph and photo and so on and so forth. But yes, I had a small part as Natalie Portman's Handmaiden, Dormay. I had about one or two lines.

Two lines. I was going to ask you, which do you remember stressing about more? Was it, I'm worried about you? the situation is dangerous, or, my lady, you're still in danger here. Oh, I think the first one. The first one I feel is more resonant. There's a lot going on there. I'm worried about you.

The situation is dangerous. It's a fraught situation. It's a fraught situation I'm establishing. There's a situation, and it's fraught. And my feelings about it. And her feelings about it, rather. Right. Yes.

I do think, well, Joel Edgerton came back. Oh, yeah. So you could still come back. I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready. No one's called. Maybe after this.

I'm just trying to make some work. Yes, I appreciate it. You also, again, you've done some really interesting work in genre films. I want to mention, like, you know, 28 weeks later and sunshine in a second. But before we get to that, like, a smaller kind of odder thing is the X-Men role. Yes, yeah, the X-Men roles. So is that a fond memory? I mean, you don't get, like, you know, maybe the juiciest stuff to do there.

But, like, is that, I don't know, what's the indelible memory of making first class in particular? Is there a day or a moment in that? That was, it was fun. I mean, it's such a genre, you know, so you just have to lean into the tropes of it and how fun that is and the scale of it is very fun. And it was the, it was exciting because it was the freshest, it was the reboot. It was like they had done that, all the Brian Singer version, and then now it was Matthew Vaughan. So that's exciting. There was a new voice.

There was all these incredible young actors. I mean, I was working with Jen Lawrence and Zoe Kravitz and Nick Holt, like all these people who I've now gone on to see. who I was sort of the, definitely older than those guys, the elder statesman at that point probably. And to see like these wonderful young, you know, they were 20, 19 kids. And to now see, obviously, all their extraordinary things that they have done, yeah, it was very meaningful, yeah.

Sunshine I love. Yeah, isn't it great? Isn't it great? Yeah, people really resonate with that. It's such a great, again, a great genre, a weird sci-fi, Danny Boyle, Alex Garland, this incredible duo, yeah. I've talked to Danny over the years about it.

It feels like it almost broke him in a way. It was a tough, it was a tough. It was tough, yeah, and that was tough on them, I think, on Alex and him, which I think they've spoken about. So I, and I, yeah, I know it was a hard one, but I think it really holds up. And I think it's in the kind of canon of that genre in a really cool way.

Do you remember, like, was the end stuff in that? Was that re-shot on the fly or reworked on the fly? Do you have memories of that being kind of a work in progress? Yeah, it was, I remember doing a lot of the stunts, like Killian and I are doing a lot of the stunts together. Michelle Yo, I mean, I got to work with Michelle Yo, which was all Benny Wong, like Chris Evans, Troy Garrity, like, again, it was a fantastic cast.

And I do, yeah, I remember this, Mark Strong had a very hard, tough, tough deal because he had a lot of prosthetics and prosthetics, and that's always hard, that's draining, tiring, and but he's such a good actor, you know, and it was really about his performance more than, you know, a prosthetic could do, you know. Yeah.

The one franchise that got away, seemingly, is Bond. Is that true that you were pretty much, you were in the mix, that almost happened? I believe I was in the mix, but who knows if I was ever really in the mix, but I met. Was it Martin Campbell back then or Barber Broccoli? It was those guys, yeah. I met them, but I don't know if I was ever really a serious contender. Did you do a screen test with Daniel Craig back? I can't.

Did I do read with Daniel? I think I did read with Daniel, yeah. I mean, I was so, it was so long ago, so I can't. Yes, I don't know how serious if I was ever a real contender. But again, that was a very cool reboot. That was the first Daniel Craig, you know, won. And he obviously went on to have such an incredible run with that, you know. Were you a good auditioner back in the day when you had to do a lot of that?

Or did you stress? I mean, what was your... I mean, obviously not that good because I didn't get the part. So let's go back through the... No, I think I was hitting... hit and miss. I remember a great acting teacher telling me you've got to start the audition as soon as you, like walk into the office to check in to go to the audition. Like that's when you start the performance and you cannot. And that, that's it, that's that. So I don't

think I have fully achieved that, but it's good advice. Luckily, you kind of got your bond thing in thanks to spy, which. I know, which was, which was supposed to have sort of more films. Every time I see Paul, I mentioned, it needs to do the following. I know. It's such a bummer. It didn't, because people have been, honestly, recently, people seem to be discovering that. It must be on a streamer or something or on like the page of it because people are always, right now seem to be coming up to me about spot. And it's so funny.

So funny. It's so funny. And it's, I love it when people mention it because I think it's great. When you're at a party, does anybody ever come up to you the drink and say, like, what a stupid fucking toad? Yes, I do. I've had that before. I've had that before. It's so dumb.

Or your mother looked like a clown or something. Hideous insult that I'm saying to Melissa McCarthy. Oh my God. I could listen to you talk about your sad mom, Bulgarian clown for hours on it. Again, so fun. And he just sort of felt exactly like the Bond genre and made it like a comedic master, you know, comedic tour de force.

It's so fun. It felt like in the first few comedic films you did, there was this kind of narrative that it was like so surprising. Like, how could she have this in her? And now it's like you have stealthily, you're not so stealthily. A very consistently amazing comic performer. I mean, to look at just the body of work and what you've done. It sounds like this wasn't necessarily like a stretch.

This was what you wanted. Like this is like an aspect of you that you really wanted to explore actively from the start. You know, it's funny. I had a really small part in Marie Antoinette, Sophia Coppola's movie. And that role was like a reverent sort of indulgent, um, duchess, to Polignac who sort of corrupts Marie Antoinette and takes her out drink, but it's a role full of comedy and full of, you know, frivolous behaviour and it's very much a spontaneous way that Sophia works. And I think that also was a real catalyst for me for wanting to

explore things after, particularly after doing damages for four, three seasons and like any actor, you're trying to constantly, you know that you're going to get off at every serious lawyer part after that and you have to be a little bit smart about trying to have some agency in charting a course that you hope will work out. So I guess the turning point even before bridesmaids though is actually get them to the Greek. Yes, get them to the Greek, yeah. So did that feel like, again, any actor just needs someone to see something else in them

and give you a shot because otherwise you're acting in your home. Yes. Yes, yeah. Friends and family. You're back home, yeah. But does that feel like, I mean, do you have palpable memories or indelible memories of being on that set? and just sort of like, oh, this is an opportunity.

It was, it felt similar to reinternet in that sense of like, oh, this is so far from what I have done, what I've been doing on other jobs. And this was, again, such a wildly unconventional character and totally irreverent and self-absorbed. And this pop star who is kind of like the female version of Russell Brand's character and how fun that was, the potential of that.

Yeah, it wasn't lost on me, no, for sure. I feel like in my conversations with folks over the last few years, it's like when you asked them about comfort movies or great comedies, it's like it's stepbrothers and bridesmaids. Oh, really? I love stepbrothers too. So to be part of in the same, like that is, again, a film I'll turn on and be like, this scene, I love this bit, I love this bit, oh, my God, it's so funny.

I was going to ask you, what are your go-toes, like, what is your bridesmaids for you? Oh my gosh, look, definitely stepbrothers. That's one that we definitely return to. What have I, we've been watching with the, you know, I've two little boys. So there's a couple of comfort movies we definitely return to that for that, a school of rock. Yeah. We love School of Rock.

And that is. Never underestimate the power of Jack Black to this generation. No, do not. Rue the day that you would do that. And Richard Linklater, for that matter, one of the greats, who is also just constantly reinventing and doing a different job. with his body of work. Yeah.

So School of Rock is definitely up there. So Bridesmaids, I mean it was a phenomenon at the time, but again, the staying power of it is actually almost more remarkable than what it was even in the moment. It always is, right? Who knows what's going to be sticky, right? Yeah. Yeah. It must be gratifying because I would imagine it's, if it's not a daily occurrence, it's pretty close to it that young people come up to you and mention it.

I love it. It just speaks to the movie and, I mean, talk about, to your performance. to your point of people being surprised about a certain performance or this, but that I was so naive about how people would think that a group of women could be funny. I didn't realize we would be talking about it, the whole press tour. I was like, wow. How could you all possibly be so funny? It was bizarre.

I was like, I was unprepared for this, and it was like we're a pot of dolphins all of a sudden doing a performance. But, no, I cherish that. I mean, I cherish the film, and Paul Feig and the incredible women I got to work with, And I have not had an experience like that since because I've never been with five other actresses since then where we're all doing big sequences together. And I hope I do, but... You're stuck with Seth instead of. I'm just me and Seth, or me and Conan, for that matter. They're all right, but women in the mix would be all right, too.

It's fascinating to me that that's, but it's been, it's so, I love that. I cherish the film, I cherish the experience, yeah. Is there a line that's quoted to you, whether it's from bridesmaids or anything most to you? What tickles you? You're in a Starbucks. You get a random... So, I mean, I had a friend the other day trying on some dresses or showing me a dress, and they were like, it's a Fritz-Brennaise. So dumb. So silly. I love it.

That's so good. With Amex Platinum, access to exclusive Amex pre-sale tickets can score you a spot track side. The being a fan for life turns into the trip of a lifetime. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Pre-sale tickets for future events subject to availability and varied by race. Turns and conditions apply. Learn more at Amex.ca.com. From the darkest corners of our imagination

comes a game show that's more ridiculous than terrifying. Welcome to Tickled to Death. I'm your host, Roz Hernandez, and I'll be guiding guests through the creepy, questions and chaotic games, all to win the ultimate title of horror movie champion. Listen to Tickle to Death, wherever you get your podcasts, and hit follow, unless you want the show to follow you. I was going to ask you what you're watching.

You mentioned just comfort film. Generally, what do you, like, do you watch a lot of film TV? I mean... We go through stages. We're always late. We're late to the game. That's okay. And that's, like, shameful, but we are a little bit late.

We've watched a lot of sports documentaries. I do. I love watching the football. I find it very relaxing. I love watching the basketball. I love... We just... If you're saying the basketball makes it less...

Your cred is... Oh, that's so daggy. That's so daggy. Oh, my gosh. I'm trying to help you. So, thank you, Josh. Oh, good Lord. But we're kind of theater nerds.

Like, you know, I do. We love going out to see a show. But we've started. I started watching adolescence. So good. Yeah. And it's hard. I'm a mother of boys.

It is hard. And I have beautiful nephews in Australia who are at that age. But I love Stephen Graham and, you know, he's so good. It's one of these guys that I feel like everybody, like actors knew, critics. Yeah. Oh, Bobby always loved it. Bobby's like the one with the taste. He's like the most discerning of people's performance.

He just can smell a great actor and a bad one too at that. He's so good. He's always been a fan of Stephen, yeah. You guys haven't been shy about working together, which I find fascinating. I love collaborating with him. I think initially I was always nervous to do that with a partner, but we just dove in

and it's been really rewarding and really fun. And like on a boring level, like you're on the same schedule. So I kind of, that is taken care of. So we've had good luck with it. Do you come at acting in the same way, like we were talking about technique earlier? Yeah.

Do you have much different processes? I mean, you've seen him up close, like in the workplace and at home, So you know what he does. Yeah, I ask way more questions. I'm like, why am I doing this? My name, me, me, me, me, me, me, you know, and he's way more just all sort of id.

And he's like, comes at it, as you can imagine. And he has just incredible intuition. And he can tell the temperature of a room and a person in like five seconds. He'll have your number. He's very, and I think that's how he approaches the work. He can, he, and but he's also really creative. He has ideas. He would, yeah, he's, yeah.

But I think that's what he would say. Or have what he said in the past anyway, like. Some, some random stuff. You look at a script. What's a deal breaker for you? What's a turn off or turn on? What do you see in a script that gives you? Maybe she's going to take her clothes off by the second.

I'm like, oh my God. I'm like, really? Okay. That's tough. That's a tough one. Is that for you personally or generally, why does the woman need to take it? Yeah, why? And maybe there's a great reason.

Like, God, I, you know, who cares? It's just a human body, blah, blah, blah. I am just sensitive to that, and I'm like, I've had so many bad scripts where it's just like for absolutely no reason. And I'm like, and it's not, it can absolutely make sense. I will say that. But, yeah, I'm always like, really? Okay, why is this, you know, for what reason? Can you tell me?

So that's probably one. Or if they describe, you know, yeah, she's a really complicated woman or some wildly generic sort of description like that. Is it? Like, really, is she? Oh, my God. letting me know. Well, I mean, you did kind of... But she's not...

Wouldn't it be amazing? She's not a complicated woman. Very... She's a really not a complicated woman. She likes to take off her clothes. Yeah. Yeah. She just walks around nude.

She loves it. She's very European. But I mean, again, kind of connecting it to this film, like... Yeah. In the complexity of a role like this. I mean, like, you had to kind of weather the storm of like an actor in their... An actress specifically in their... their 20s, 30s, the shit that you probably saw.

Absolutely. The wife roles, the girlfriend roles, the sex bot roles. Of course, particularly in comedy, you know, there's so many tropes with the woman being the nag and the woman being like, you know, when I have fun, you know, and I was so lucky because I had these sort of North Stars of Paul Feig and, and, you know, even Sophia, back when I did Marie Antoinette, like really giving opportunities to women in ways that was not the usual sort of source material, yeah. Speaking of filmmakers that you admire,

have worked with or wanted to work with, I mean, there's some great Australian filmmakers that have, I guess, alluded to you. I don't know if you've ever come close, but like, I think of like the Baz Luhrmans, the George Millers. Oh my gosh, the George Millers, I know, yeah. Have you ever talked to other?

I haven't, no, but I am such a huge admirer. And yeah, they're, gosh, they're such both, you know, I mean, Peter Weir, he's extraordinary, obviously, he's, in the, you know, that different part of his career now. But no, there's incredible Australian luminaries. And for that matter, great Australian cinematographers that have like gone on and had wildly successful careers.

But I've been, yeah, a fan from afar, for sure. Is it true, you grew up, not an Australian, but the late great David Lynch was somebody that you had a lot of reference for? So when I first got to LA, my agent made me write a list of directors and he was the top. And I got to meet him and I went to his house and he was a lovely gentleman, just as you would imagine,

buttoned up high hair, smoking a cigarette, kind of pitching me this incredible story. And we saw a short film with Naomi Watts, with rabbit ears on, and Laura Elena here, it was fantastic, and he was just so, such a beautiful man. Even this brief meeting I had, but didn't get the part. So I didn't, I'm not sure, I think it might have been the early sort of,

the early, um, seeds of that film, I guess. perhaps but he was I mean I was a nobody you know I came into town like young Aussie chick and he he was very yeah it was lovely what was it for you growing up then it was like Twin Peaks or Blue Velvet or just all of it was twin Peaks yeah Twin Peaks was the my introduction and then I just went down the whole obviously canon of his movies and yeah they're all in my they're all my top my favorite films I love them yeah I had a conversation with him over zoom a few years ago oh you did and it was like well the highlights of my life of

just hearing him say Hey, buddy. I mean, and who, who, what directors have then become a, like to become a, how do you put it, a, like a descriptor, he's, it will, lynchian. Yes, lynchian. Who can have coined a phrase where your name immediately generates an atmosphere and a, and a style, I don't know, not many, you know, Hitchcock, Hitchcockian. But, yeah, he's that, he's that, and he's, he'll stay forever, yeah.

How is your Seth Rogen impression at this point? Terrible. I can't. I'm not good at guys. I'm not that good at guys. But he, I should be able to do him better because we've said so much time together. Yeah. Yeah.

Do you have a go-to? I won't put you on the spot unless I want to. But female impressions, it sounds like you have a few. At a party, I get a couple drinks in you. What do you do? No. Oh my gosh. I wish.

No. I don't. I don't. I'm more like stranger in the street, I could do. But not so much, do you, your best, you know, Jennifer Gouldage or something. I'm not that good at that. It does feel like that Platonic in its second season currently going is like hitting its stride in terms of the audience has really found it. It's been lovely.

It's so nice. It's the thing with TV, right? You have to give it time and you've got to let it breathe and it just becomes, it finds its place, finds its audience. And this season, I think, is stronger than the first. They were so good at really writing for the strengths of the first season. and the opportunity you get, you know, to have another go at it. So it's been lovely. It's been really lovely.

And people have genuinely, yeah, a lot more people have discovered it, which has been great. And it's a great hang show, you know. It's nice. Is there anything that we need to secret into the universe for you? Are you wanting for any kind of work that I can help you? Why do you have some kind of hotline to a... Strangely things have happened on the podcast.

What have you got? Oh, really? Oh, my gosh. Gosh. But as soon as you say it, then it's not going to come true. I'm too superstitious. Okay. I'm way too superstitious.

Too Australian. Do you do the kind of thing still, like just like the general meeting with a filmmaker you admire? Is that ever foreign fruit? Oh, of course. No, I absolutely. No. Gosh, if there's someone, no, you have to seek out.

You've got to seek out. You have to reach out. You cannot rest on your, like you say, there's so many moments. Yep. How do you use them? You know, you have to seek, for sure. Constantly be curious. Constantly seek out.

You have to try to have your own agency for sure. Totally. We're going to end with this. It's a tradition for happy, say I confuse. are profoundly random questions, Rose. You're ready? Oh, no, I'm not. You're ready.

I'm not. You got this. Oh no, the eyes go cross-eyed. Yikes. Oh, Lord. Okay. Dogs. Do you guys have some?

No. God, no. But I grew up with a border collie called Emma, and she was my North Star. I loved her. Yeah. Do you collect anything? I kind of collect, like, this is so girly,

like baskets, like sort of those beautiful, like, beautiful like Raffia baskets sure yeah I could I have a lot of those to the point where I'm like I think I'm just I think I'm unofficially collecting things I'm now a hoarder apparently I love a basket yeah um favorite video game of all time from your youth did you ever play a game I only ever really played Mario brothers but I was never it's never not really it's never not been it's never been my thing really yeah this is the Dakota Johnson Memorial question she asked me this would you rather have a mouthful of bees or one B in

your butt a mouthful of Bs or one B in your butt a mouthful of Bs or one be in my butt? Oh, good Lord. Well, I guess, I don't know. I'm looking at this gentleman here. That's a pass. I don't want either of those things. Waym Dakota. What's the wallpaper on your phone? Oh, is my mom and dad? It's Jane and Rob. Yeah, Jane and Rob. What's the biggest moment for them seeing you in your career? Was there a premiere? Was there an actor that you introduced them to? Oh, they're, sort of, they're so low-key that they, they're funny, they're like, so Australian and low-key, but they're like the best people because they're so curious, so they just ask a lot of questions. They're so interested in things outside of their own world. They're very open-minded, yeah.

Nice. Last actor you were mistaken for? Oh, someone came up to me and said, I loved you and Jackie. I said, thank you very much. Just take the compliment. Thank you. Always. Oh yeah, I'm going to take that compliment.

What's the worst note of director has ever given you? Oh, good Lord. Well, a director once gave me a note from their trailer in bed. Wasn't so much the note, but how it was delivered. I was like, mm-hmm, okay, with their, yeah, with several, like, there was a lot of assistance around the bed, but I was summoned in, and that was pretty weird. What? Yeah.

They will remain nameless, but yes. I think I can make a guess off camera. Yes. Okay. In the spirit of happy, second view is an actor who always makes you happy. You see them on screen you're instantly in a better mood. Oh, who makes me happy? Julia Louis-Dreyfus makes me happy.

Albert Finney makes me happy. Yeah. Yeah. A movie that makes you sad? Oh, a movie that makes me sad? The Black Stallion. Yeah. I mean, happy sad.

A little bit happy sad because of the ending. It's beautiful. Yeah, the Black Stallion, I love, yeah. And finally, most importantly, a food that makes you confused. You don't get it. Why do people eat that? Slimy mushrooms. Oh, I hate mushrooms generally.

It's a slimy kind. And also, this is going to be controversial, but raw fish. Not a sushi lady. No, I can't do the texture. Okay. It's very unsophisticated. No, no. We were...

Deeply unsophisticated. So don't give me slimy mushrooms and raw fish. No, you're a classy lady, don't worry. Congratulations. Thank you. On the movie. Thank you. so much. If I had legs, I'd kick you. Everybody check it out. It's an amazing collaboration.

Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Josh. Thank you. I'm glad it gave us on an occasion to catch up today. Thank you. You're indulging me. Oh, no, you're such a much. Thank you. I'll see you next time. I'll see you soon. 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 pressure to do this by Josh. It's ticklish business anyway.

You look at it. Come on. We'll stick together. Love movies? Love classic movies? So do we. Ticklish Business is the podcast where classic film is discussed in modern times. Hosted by me, film curing is Kristen Lopez, and my co-host, author Emily Edwards. We dive into the golden age of cinema with fun, heart, and serious expertise. As published film historians and lifelong classic movie buffs, we bring insider insights, deep research, and lively debates with a variety of special guests, ranging from celebrities like Holly Madison, to TCM luminaries Dave Carger and Eddie Muller, and even family members of Old Hollywood Legends. Subscribe now to ticklish business on your favorite podcast app, and let's talk about Old Hollywood today.