Podcrushed - Felicity Jones

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

Fresh off a historic run of Golden Globe wins for her new film The Brutalist, actor Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything, On The Basis of Sex, Rogue One) drops in to share stories of her early life -- from her days as a child actor, to her canon moments in college losing out on roles in student films to other students (despite being a decade into her professional acting career), to how The Brutalist beautified her relationship to the architecture of her hometown.   Follow Podcrushed on socials: Instagram TikTok XSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lemonada I went to Oxford and in going to that university, I was able to still do drama and keep that side of things going. Although when I got there, I would audition and I just didn't seem to get anything. So I suddenly was, you know, having acted professionally, I suddenly sort of felt like I was starting again in some way. They were pretty tough. You know, the student directors, they were pretty tough.

Welcome to Pod Crushed. We're hosts. I'm Penn. I'm Sophie. And I'm Nava. And I think we would have been your middle school besties. Dreaming about skater boys. See you later, boys.

Welcome to Pod Crushed. You know what we're not going to do today? What are we not going to do? Which everyone else is doing and which I refuse. Make money. That too. is A, make money. B, talk about effing New Year's resolutions.

We want to stay the same. We don't want to change. No change. No change. No change. Things are great. We are perfect. Oh, it's so good.

Okay, wait, instead of a resolution can, like, in five seconds, Penn, I already know you can't do it. Can you share, like, your favorite thing that happened in 2024? I'm going to be 2024. I wrapped you. Oh my God. That's amazing. Congratulations. Although it's not come out yet, so whatever.

Wait, Penn, is this going to be the banter where you tell everyone a release date? Everyone's asking. No, I can't do that. I can't do that. Netflix. What are they going to do? The show's done. Favorite moment of 2024.

Oh, I went to Morocco with my sister and her whole family, my parents. and seeing our babies together. Our babies are three months apart. That was just the best. I think about it. I've been thinking about it since it happened. Oh my God, I actually can't think of anything. What a failure.

I'm such a failure. Let's just end on that note. Yeah, no, that's pretty good. Starting off the New Year, right. It was a weird year. I'm looking forward to 2025. Yeah. Going to New York with Pod Crush.

That couldn't be it. Going to New York to direct. I mean, this is so, maybe this is sad that this is my favorite moment. It was probably meeting Ariana Grande. It was probably doing that episode. Oh, that was my favorite moment. That was huge. That's right.

Yeah. Yeah. Huge for you. Today's guest is the phenomenal, the talented Felicity Jones, the actor you might know and already love from massive films like the theory of everything. With friend of the pod,

Eddie Redmayne, friend of the pod. Love to say friend of the pod. My friend too. Friend of Sophie. You know, these are acquaintances, really, at best. In my dream. There's the Star Wars friend. Your Eyes. Friend of the pod, Daisy Ridley, although I'm not sure if they were in the same one, were they?

Friend of Only Penn, Sophie and I. That's right. Oh, I was the only one. No idea we are. And now we've got the new 824 film of hers, the brutalist about a Hungarian architect who emigrates to America post Holocaust while his wife is trapped in Eastern Europe. This film, although we could not see it looks truly incredible. For Felicity, like many other actors in this show, her career began when she was smack dab 12, just about. that focus we have, if you've listened before, of our show, middle school. Or I think there it's called secondary school. Is 11 to 12 secondary school in the UK? Who can confirm? Who can confirm? Our British guests know. None of us.

It's a mystery. We'll have this and other scintillating questions when we're back. Does anyone else ever get that nagging feeling that their dog might be bored? And do you also feel like super guilty about it? well. One way that I combat that feeling is by making meal time everything it can be for my little Louis. Nom-Num does this with food that actually engages your pup senses with a mix of tantalizing smells, textures, and ingredients. Nom-nom offers six recipes bursting with premium proteins, vibrant veggies and tempting textures designed to add excitement to your dog's day.

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You, though when, I guess you when you were 11, you, I mean, if our, if the internet is correct, which it isn't always, but I guess around the age of 11, did you start some kind of formal training or a drama club? Yeah, I initially the first ever kind of group, the club that I did was this thing called Academy One, which was the leaflet. They handed them out in my primary school in Bourneville, where I grew up. And my best friend and I kind of grabbed these leaflets.

And when went home to our mothers and said, please, will you sign us up for this? It was on Saturday mornings. And it was a place called the Custod Factory, which was like an art center. And we did an hour. I think it was three hours. So it was quite a commitment. It was an hour of drama, an hour of dance, and an hour of music. And then I dropped the singing because I was not particularly, I'm not a particularly good singer.

But that was the first. And that was, yes, that would have been, I think that was a little bit earlier. It's sort of 9-10-ish. So that was the first kind of free into it. And then through that, I started at a group called Central Junior Television Workshop, which was my dad with a TV producer, and it was part of, it was when these companies had, you know, they're a bit more altruistic. And they ran a drama group for all the kids in the city where you could do plays.

and then through that we would have auditions for the TV and radio and film, but primarily TV and radio. So by the time you were 12, which we call middle school here, I suppose you must know that by now, having spent so much time in America. Yeah, yeah. I mean, so you were auditioning a lot because you were, you did, you were in the BBC, or well, I mean, not in BBC, but it was, you were in this, this television film, the treasure seekers, I believe, when you were 12?

Yes. The treasure seekers was the first, I guess, the first job that I got from this drama group. And that was, yeah, that was the start of it, really, I guess. And we were playing this family. Our father was an inventor, and they were really struggling. and his inventions weren't taking off so the children all got together to work out ways of getting money

so that they could survive and that was shot just outside of London and I think it was about, it was in my summer holidays and it was about two months, two months shoot and when I was, I think I was 11, yeah, 1112. So I'm curious, like how you were seeing the world then because there's that, there's that like

that history, that track record you now have on the surface, like, okay, you started working at 12. I also started working at 12. I know what that's like. I'm curious what the little budding artist of Felicity, like how she was seeing the world. You know, like was it really exciting to be a part of that job? Did you have frustrations with it?

You know, what was it like being on set? You know, I'm just curious about all that, all the kind of like for your interior, your emotional reality and mental reality. Yeah, it's strange because when you, you know, when you're a child, you just kind of take it for granted. And then it's only as you get older and you look back and you go, well, actually, not everyone was doing that. You know, that's quite, it's quite unusual in many ways. I think at the time, I remember they had this, like, giant swing attached to a tree that was in the location that we were shooting at.

Because it was set, the drama was set in the Victorian Age and it was in this old country house. And then there was this, they were quite amazing kind of grounds. And there was this big swing that we used to just run to when they called cut. We'd all, because it was a family of children. And I remember being more excited about that, probably the playtime than, you know, the actual shooting. But I think, I think it was one of the aspects I quite like to play. about it was the, you know, was I guess earning a little bit of pocket money and having almost feeling at quite a young age of quite a lot of independence. And I remember using the money that

I'd made on that TV to buy, you know, to buy albums. I think I'd bought Alanis Morissette's jagged little pill. It was amazing and pulp. It was, you know, it was a it was that that I was quite excited about that I, you know, that I had my, my own little business, so to speak. And I guess that's quite a young age to feel that sense of financial independence, really. Yeah. You mentioned buying some albums. I read that your family didn't have a VHS player at home. Is that true?

Yeah, my, yeah, growing up, we would always watch videos, would always watch them and my cousins house and my cousins were like had all the like fun naughty things but i thought that was really endearing and i actually had a similar situation at home like one of the few families that didn't have tv or um but i'm curious what was the first thing that you watched film or television that that kind of maybe moved you or that you really loved well that my mother used to she was you know she's the very much the cinephile my father is you know, the real, like, obsessed with music and my mother was obsessed with film. So it's sort of ironic that we didn't have a VHS player, but I think she was quite committed

to the theatrical experience. So she would drive me and my brother, there was a big multiplex called UGC, and it was that time, it was the 90s, the height of the blockbuster. So she'd take us to, you know, it was quite a long drive, I think it was about an hour to get there, and we'd be in her tiny car driving. driving out and we'd go and see all these like honey i shrunk the kids um the i think it was the adam's family those all those big popcorn films and it was just you know it was a real highlight for us going to going to see those those films so very much my first experience of

cinema was was in a theater you know that kind of overwhelming experience Felicity you started so young I don't know if you'll have an answer to this but I'm curious outside of the performing arts what your sense of identity was or like what you were gravitating towards or was it just always in that view of like developing yourself as a performer no just I mean such an indie kid I guess just really into pop culture and music I remember my best friend and I we were at primary school together and and we were obsessed with Mariah Carey's album fantasy which we would listen to religiously and then make up these dances in my sitting room at home and just completely obsessed with getting the choreography right for these made-up dancers. So it was, I guess, all the way through,

I guess I was quite academic as well, So it was, it was, you know, it was trying to get a balance between that and, and, and working. My experience was that there was not a balance. And I actually, the joke is that I, like, dropped out of middle school and I didn't go to high school. I'm curious, what for you, what was the balance? Like, did you, did you, it seems like you kept going to school because you also went to university as well, right? Yeah, I think that, I think that came from, from my parents in a way. I think they

I remember there was a moment of I was quite keen to go to drama school you know at sort of 1718 and I definitely felt they were kind of anxious for me to continue and go to university but I yeah it's it's funny

it's definitely I think going I went to Oxford and In going to that university, I was able to still do drama and keep that side of things going, although when I got there, I would audition and I just didn't seem to get anything. So I suddenly was, you know, having acted professionally, I suddenly sort of felt like I was starting again in some ways. They were, they were pretty tough. You know, the student directors, they were pretty tough. Did you ever have any sense that you might do something else, or was it always going to be acting? Well, I had, I went through a moment of thinking I was going to study law, and I did like a course, a week's course at a university. And then I actually had a teacher who I was quite close to and discussing it with her. It felt like English was probably a better route to take.

which, you know, who knows, you make these decisions and life takes you in certain direction. You know, who knows it may have been very different if I'd studied law. Did you value, again, like the sense of identity, did you think of yourself as an artist? You know, I'm curious like that, just the essence of it, you know?

Because in those teen years is when I think we can be our most idealistic, you know, and you have, you know, you have these kind of aspirations and dreams about what you'll end up doing that are connected to that idealism. Yeah, interestingly, do you know, I think because I started doing it so young, as you probably found, I just, it was so, it was just part of my life, and it was just, that's what you do, and, you know, that's just, that's totally normal. And it's, I don't mean now that I've started to, to, this idea of being an artist, that I,

I've started to think, oh, no, we are as actors. is we are artists and going, we're actually, you know, looking around at my friends' jobs from university, which are very different, and going, this is a crazy job. Like, this is an insane job. So there's definitely, you have to be an artist to do this. But it's interesting you say, you use that time because it's only recently that I've, which seems very late on considering I'm 14. I have to say, I'm surprised to hear you say it because you've been nominated for multiple Oscars, I

think. So I'm just, I'm, I'm curious, like, as you were, I mean, we're going to kind of jump around, because I think we have some more questions that are more about, you know, the earlier stages of life will get into the career and stuff. But I guess, like, so I, what I, what I'm interested in is then that arc from like, you know, this, this age where you do, as you say, you just kind of, it's what you do, even though it's not what people do at all. You're just like, that's what you do. It's what you do. But then this arc through those teen years where you're sort of like, yeah, it's what you do. But then you realize, well, is it what I'm going? to do but then you you know by your early 20s mid 20s you you know you were you were pursuing it

really I mean I guess by like say the time um I want to say like like crazy for instance seems like your serious entrance into American film yeah yeah about right it's like 2011 sundance all that stuff I mean so yeah I'm wondering about that arc from from I guess those years you know but it's interesting because thinking about it as an outsider I would have thought that at some point you were like I'm an artist you know to do to do that thing well I think I was quite practical about it

when I finished university I remember thinking you know I'm going to give this a go and I will if if you know I needed to make a living and if I can make a living from it, I'll give it two years. I said two years, but, you know, two years. And then if it works, I'll keep going. So, and then I was lucky enough to get, I did a Jane Austen adaptation,

and then, like, I kind of took it sort of job by job from that point. But I was quite, you know, I needed to pay the bills, so it had to, it definitely had to it had to work can you tell us about your first love and your first heartbreak um my so my first love when i was uh probably was around this age hence why you've chosen it um about uh 12ish i was obsessed with skating like skating skateboarding It was skateboarding, inline skating.

My brother was into skateboarding and inline skating, so we would get all the magazines, we would go to the shops. I think I was probably into it because my brother was into it. But there was, and you know the fashion that came with it, the T-shirts, I just love that. They're like baggy trousers. I remember I had these Adidas corduroy camels. sneakers of you guys trainers that I was at

they were like camel and navy blue and I was absolutely obsessed with them and then I had a stuice I can't even remember how you pronounce Stozy I think it's Susey

Stozy I had this Stozy t-shirt and then I had this like little I had my like whole look my hair in these like weird pink tails

and and there was this data boy who I went to the I went to a girl school and he went to the boys school and I would see him on my walk home from school and it wasn't that far from school to my house was about a 20 minute walk and I'd walk back with a bit of friend and she lived just around the corner and I would just pray that I would see this eye and and and I would be if I missed if the time if I'd miss the timing or something I was doing club after school then I wouldn't see him. But he was just the classic skating boy.

He had spiky hair, black, spiky hair with glitter gel, which I just was amazing. And he'd be carrying his skateboard. But he was at school, so he obviously like ran back home after school, even school uniform, as we all were. And he'd obviously run back home and then get changed, grab his skateboard, and then be walking the streets of where we were. walking back because he didn't even the route that we took wasn't really near his house but

so it was a little suspicious but he yeah did you have any interactions with him like any proper interaction yes i had an interaction and i remember i had this stripy hat that i would wear after school to walk back and he said it looked like a tea cozy which i don't know do you like you know like prig and i just remember being so just it just ruined my year I was just scared, but he's done my hat with like a T-Covey. It sounds like he was into you, though. But I mean, to me. I mean, he was running back and changing and finding put his in his hair.

Classic male nag thing. I don't know if you guys had anything like this in the UK, but in the US, there was this mail to order catalog for like skater girls called Delia's. And I just, it was like really cute. Yeah. And I remember I would like sit at home with it and I was only allowed to buy. like one thing a year and I would like choose like what's the thing but yeah yeah you know you know it's such a classic middle school thing or that just adolescent thing where you it sounds like

you only had like a moment potentially not even every day where you would see him but it was built up to to so much it's like the small the particular becomes massive every interaction and we But we never, I never, we never, we never got together or anything. He will just remain in my deep, positive subconscious past. But, yeah, that was, yeah, that was my first crush, I guess. You went to a girl's school. Can you just tell us a little bit about that? Because that's, that's specific.

Yeah, I know, it tends, it's not as popular over here. I guess it tends to be more, generally more mixed. mixed schools but um but yeah i went to a girl's school all the way from 11 to 18 um which i there's this idea that um i guess academically it's meant to be that you perform better in single sex schools Did you like it? I did like it, yeah, I did. I think I had a nice group of friends and I guess I like learning things. I still do.

So I did. I did enjoy it. I went, I moved, I went to a local state school, which is where you obviously don't pay fees for the, first until I was 16 and then I moved to a grammar school which is where you take an exam to get in so it's much more academic and I actually found that much harder those two years because I was 16 and I moved to a school where again it was all girls and they all knew each other and I was new and you know 16 17 is quite an intense time in your life anyway so then suddenly being a new girl at this new, very, kind of quite intense academic school.

It was, that was quite a tough couple of years. Stick around. We'll be right there. All right. So, let's just, let's just real talk, as they say for a second. That's a little bit of an aged thing to say now. That dates me, doesn't it? But no, real talk. How important is your health to you? You know, on like a one to ten? I don't mean the, in the sense of vanity, I mean in the sense of like, you want your day to go well, right? You want to be less stressed. You don't want it as sick.

When you have responsibilities, I know myself, I'm a householder. I have two children and two more on the way, a spouse, a pet, you know, a job that sometimes has its demands. So I really want to feel like when I'm not getting the sleep and I'm not getting nutrition, when my eating's down, I want to know that I'm being held down. some other way physically. My family holds me down emotionally, spiritually, but I need something to hold me down physically, right? And so honestly, I turned to symbiotica, these vitamins and these beautiful little packets that they taste delicious. And I'm telling you, even before I started doing ads for these guys, it was a product that I really, really liked and enjoyed and could see the differences with. The three that I use, I use the, what is it called, liposomal vitamin C,

and it tastes delicious, like really, really good. Comes out in a packet, you put it right in your mouth. Some people don't do that. I do it. I think it tastes great. I use the liposomal glutathione as well in the morning. Really good for gut health, and although I don't need it, you know, anti-aging. And then I also use the magnesium L3 and 8, which is really good for, I think, mood and stress.

I sometimes use it in the morning, sometimes use it at night. All three of these things taste incredible. Honestly, you don't even need to mix it with what. water. And yeah, I just couldn't recommend them highly enough. If you want to try them out, go to symbiotica.com slash podcrushed for 20% off plus free shipping. That's symbiotica.com slash podcrushed for 20% off plus free shipping. As the seasons change, it's the perfect time to learn something new. Whether you're getting back into a routine after summer or looking for a new challenge before the year ends, Rosetta Stone makes it easy to turn a few minutes a day into

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when I was a teenager I mean I feel like you're pet to me like embarrassed and and I guess I was quite shy but I had very I had very bad acne and so that I remember that being quite a big

feature particularly that age and yeah I think that's where they're wearing the hats came from yeah the teacos to try and the deep go see to try and cover the the bad skin yeah the first movie I ever saw you in was chalet girl and I loved it I was obsessed with that movie and you were so adorable and lovable in that movie and I'm curious you had to do like I mean I assume you had a stunt double but you were like a skateboarder and a snowboarder did you have to learn any of those things for the movie was that intimidating sort of what was that like having to do stunts yeah I mean it was I definitely I definitely I definitely had to learn enough to make it look like it could actually do it, which was quite a challenge.

I'd skied a little bit when I was younger and then... And skated. And skated. Yeah, let us not forget. So, yeah, weirdly, often people who are really good at snowboarding have started skating. And actually, in Shaly Girl, she starts off as a champion skater, so you know her. the champion skater. You know that she's got the ability to be able to snowboard.

And then I just went out, I think I had three weeks before, and I went to a, there wasn't a massive budget for the film, and I went to this tiny ski resort in Bavaria, in Germany, and learned to snowboard for three weeks. Wow. That seems unimaginable to me, but. But it was pretty cool. It was pretty fun film.

It's such a sweet film. It's so sweet. You know, and we, there was a good Thameson, Edgerton, he's a good friend of mine, and we just had a laugh and hung out and had some good time. And Penn's co-star from Gossip Girl, Ed Westwick. And Ed Westwick, of course, yeah. Yeah, we spent a lot of time partying,

and then, you know, pour that to the scream. Yeah. Did you ever continue snowboarding? Did you ever do it again? No. No, I, in recent years, as I've got older, I've gone back to skiing. Just because you fall over so much. And it's too painful.

So I feel like with skiing, you're a little more, you know, in control. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Felicity, you've played so many incredible characters and so varied. I feel like your, your resume is vast. and I'm curious if you think back on the characters and not just characters but also real women that you've played is there one that stands out as as the most maybe like transformative?

I think gosh I think they all, it's so funny, the time that you're, the time that you're doing it, you become completely obsessed with them. that person and that character. I think definitely playing with Bader Ginsburg was pretty, it's pretty amazing to meet, to meet someone like that and just felt like she's such a unique character,

such a unique person in the world. and she had such, she was interesting because she's actually very shy. She really, you know, to have such power and such effect in the world. But in person, she was very quite quiet and quite reserved and so careful with what she said and how she said it, which I guess was part of her impact. She was so careful with her words in some ways. She knew the power of words. So that was a pretty, she was a pretty extraordinary person to play.

And then I loved, I loved being in style and I loved playing Ginoso, who was, you know, completely different in many ways and was such an, you know, I was learning martial arts and was such a kind of, I just spent loads of time running around. So that was fun, you know, that was fun in a different way. I just, I literally, we spent hours and hours running along beaches in footage that never made the film. That sounds exhausting. Can you tell us a little bit about that whatever you're allowed to say? Because I know there is some secrecy around it and it's deliberate, but about the casting or auditioning, sort of the process of how you got invited to Rogue One?

Well, that very much came off the back of it's interesting, you know, doing theory of everything and that going to the Golden Globes and the Oscars. It's interesting that it gives you a certain amount. of you've become quite well known in that moment and then rogue one seemed to come out of that that period and I'd often kind of you know come across these kind of blockbuster films and the parts have never really been that good and they were often pretty lame actually so to then for this one to come along with such a great part at the center of the film it was it was a pretty Yeah, I just wanted to do it. I was, yeah, game one. Let's do it. What do I have to do?

And then I had a couple of auditions with Gareth, Edwards, who directed it. And it, yeah, it went from there. Should we talk about the brutalish? Yeah. For our listeners who aren't familiar with the film, can you just give us like a brief sort of synopsis? Yeah, the brutalist is about two immigrants to America coming. from Hungary. Adrian Brodie plays Leslo Toth, who is a brutalist architect, and it's about their struggle for survival from coming out of the war into America. You had to master a Hungarian accent,

and I'm curious how really spending time with a language, with a culture, which it seems like this film was really deliberate to incorporate like actual, you know, lines in Hungarian and really bring that culture in, how it impacted your relationship with the character you were playing and sort of the moment in time that you were bringing into life.

Yeah, with this character, it's strange. I feel as though I couldn't have done it before having my own family. I feel that I needed to be at a place of mature.

to take on a role like this and somehow I think going through that experience of having my own family and it weirdly gave me the confidence to take on the role and as you say there were so many technical aspects to it the accent the speaking Hungarian physically the character is suffering from malnutrition but I think the key for me with all of that was to make it all seem as effortless as possible. And to make something effortless, I know that I just have to put in hours and hours and hours and hours of practice. And we have this in our garden, we have a little shed office.

And I always know how hard a role is by how much time I spend in there. And I was in there a lot. I spent a lot of time prepping for this role so that it would, you know, it felt like it was such um it was so ambitious what everyone was trying to achieve that that it needed a lot of focus the brutalist is about brutalist architecture and in part and i i heard i once heard a ted talk of a very successful architect talk about the moment that he fell in love with architecture and it was when he was at university in toronto and he remembered looking across the street at i think it was an art gallery, a concrete building, and he was watching the security guard who was just

pacing on his shift. And he noticed that he was, like, tracing his fingers along the concrete. And he felt, he was an architecture student at the time, and he felt that he could tell in his eyes that the building in some way moved that security guard. And that was the first time he kind of realized that architecture had the capacity to do that. And I was thinking about working on this film, acting and architecture feel like so far apart in my head as art forms. But we're going to connect them. Well, I was wondering, just working on this film,

did it change your perspective on architecture at all or make you think about it in a new way? Definitely. It changed, because I was looking, I grew up in the Midlands, in Birmingham, which I didn't realize, I didn't connect, that it had a lot of brutalist architecture. And so there was an amazing theater there

that I spent a lot of time going to, would go and see plays there. And then there was a library there that has actually been knocked down, but was actually an incredible piece of brutalist architecture. And now it's, having done this film, I was looking back at all these buildings

and I was completely unconscious that they were part of, of this brutalist movement. So it's been really weird, re-kind of processing my early years through these buildings, which obviously brutalism is, it's quite extreme in some ways.

But what's so beautiful about it is its honesty, you know, it's so unpretentious. You know, you mentioned earlier that you have felt just maybe in this, recent era of your life, the current era of your life, that you're coming to think of yourself and what you do as art and an artist. I wonder what role this film has played in that, given how profoundly introspective it seems to be, even watching the trailer, thinking a little bit about what Sophie mentioned, that architecture, it reflects,

reflects something about what a society thinks of its people, in a sense. And I guess from what I can tell, you know, the protagonist you are playing alongside Adrian Brody, there seems to be a great deal of, like, suffering and perseverance. Hopefully, I think, as actors, when we, every role brings some new sort of reflection, personal reflection. I'm curious, you know, what this role has done for you, what she gave to you, if anything. I think that's so true. I mean, they are two people who are incredibly ideological. And talking about artists, they, the characters Adrian and I play are two artists.

And they are, you know, they want to survive and they want to succeed, but they want to want to succeed on their terms, which comes with complications, as you see in the film. But I think this film definitely feels like, you know, the kind of work that I want to keep doing, really. I think, you know, when you have young children and your time becomes so, so precious. And so you, you know, if you're fortunate enough, you want to spend that time wisely. And so it was interesting with this film. It was just such a no-brainer, you know, no matter what they'd have asked. If I had to go anywhere, I would have done it because it felt it felt like it was a story that was worth telling.

You have been part of so many artful and impactful. project, it seems to me. And I'm curious if there are any types of roles or types of characters that you haven't played yet that you have your eye on. Well, it's been really nice that I just did an ensemble Christmas comedy over the summer. Fun. Just, you know, the little antidote to the brutalist. And that, that was, it was Michelle Pfeiffer plays that. It's three children and Michelle Feicer plays our mother and I'm the eldest daughter and it's home alone but we leave our mom at home. Right. So it was really so I do I just like to I do like to tape it up and make it up and find something new and that was actually that was it was it was a tough that was

differently from the Breached List, you know, doing comedy and getting that to work is sometimes as hard as tragedy. Right. I did want to double back to the Brutalist. I had one maybe unconventional question for you, but just, you know, the movie I think deals with obviously religious persecution and this family that's affected kind of in the wake of everything that's happened. And I was thinking about how we continue to tell stories of this period of time that was like so brutal and harsh and you were also talking about kind of this like artistic sensibility you've always been an artist but having an awareness of it and I I don't know why but I'm just curious if this film stirred any kind of like spiritual awakening or sort of how

you're grappling with like spirituality at this time in your life as well well well it's I mean without sounding too heavy you know if you get older you get a little but you never quite know but you do get a little closer to the grave so closer to death that was Yeah, let's go there, please. Every day. This is the vein of our show, actually. This is what we do the best. Oh, I love talking about death.

This is my favorite one thing. Another hour just opened up. I know, I know, let's not get started. Or let's. Yeah, I mean, it's all, well, it's interesting. We're just talking, I was just talking about, to someone about the pandemic. And, you know, and in a way, that collective experience, well, everyone, on a sense of death that's so much more present.

And I think it's had a fundamental shift on how people navigate, you know, navigate things and life. But I think, I don't know, I think, I mean, it sounds pretty boring, but for me it's, it is trying to have a bit of, it sounds such a cliche as well. It is a work-life balance.

I mean, that, that, that, this, that's what I hope for, you know, that's ideal. It's spending time, you know, it's spending time in your family and is so, so important and also, you know, being creative and how do you find, how do you navigate that? This weekend I was at my dad's, and I do spend a lot of time with him. A lot. A lot. But we were watching, we were watching like a standout, like Fortune Feemster.

I think she has a stand-up special. Anyway, we were watching the stand-up special. he was in a chair I was like on the couch and we have these two little dogs that we share and the dogs were like draped all over me and I just had this moment where I was like oh I feel like this is a sacred moment and I just like closed my eyes and I like held on to it and yeah it was like that moment and family and home it just felt really sacred oh yeah it's so funny you say the moment that's what you realize that's all it is it is life is a series of moments and some are better than others but but that And that's, it's so funny you say that, I've had a similar experience of actually registering the moment and going, oh, wow, this, but presumably because we're becoming more aware of death. Oh, for sure. And my father's death. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And we just want to record that somehow because that's what it's going to be in the end, a collection of moments. I have a friend who's a filmmaker, Kyle McCarthy, and he has done this project the last two years where when he has a moment like that and he thinks to himself like, I don't want this moment to end. He decided to start recording,

take out his phone and record just that moment and that line. I don't want this moment to end. And then it's just a collection over the year of those things. And I noticed I was watching his from this year. And I noticed it's pretty much every single one of them. Like it starts on his face and then he pans to whatever he's doing. And everyone, it's his wife and his kids. I thought that was cute.

I was going to say sunset. I was like just thinking it's a lot of sunsets. And he's in a cemetery. Yeah, it's never when he's, like, sitting in the office. Yeah, looking at his computer screen. Exactly. It's not that moment. Of course, we now live in an age where every time you think that, you're like, let me get up my phone.

It's a piece of art. Hey, family, making sure we got this. Don't be a downer. Yeah, exactly. You thought you had me totally present, but no. They have my mother. some the cloud's going to love this one anyway um can you can you share a little bit about brady corbett i actually you know grew up with him we were like you know teen years together like early

teens and was that was that here in new york yeah that would have been in l a yeah so yeah i'm in oh in l a oh yeah i grew up partly in l a um and you know i mean the the the turn he's had as a as a director with his um i mean he's got such a specific vision clearly and to me i mean because we're at the same age he's like he's quite young i think to have a film of this nature to you know to come out from him i'm just kind of curious what you know if there's anything anything you're willing to share what what what was uh um i don't know What was the vibe like on set? Or what was that experience you guys all had?

Well, actually, I met Brady when we, I must have been in my, maybe I was my late 20s. And we met just out, like, in a bar with some other friends. And I remember thinking it was so interesting then because he only ever worked with these amazing otters. His acting TV was like just like, Panicay, you know, You could see even at that, you know, from the very beginning, he seemed to have this, this curation, but that he just obviously had such a strong sense, I think, of what he wanted to do.

And he's, you know, he's, he's, he's an intelligent, yeah, he's just so intelligent. It's quite interesting, both you feel emotionally and academically in some ways, you know, and that's quite a special combination. But he and Mona, his wife, they wrote the script together. So it's a very, you know, actors always say this. And it was like, it was like a family? And you think, well, is it? But it really, actually, it was quite familiar.

You know, no one was, no one was there because they were making lots of money. It was there because everyone was wanting to tell that story. So it was, he just is, he's very, he's vulnerable. himself, and he's, but he's a good leader. He, you know, where you're going, but he lets everyone be part of that process. Felicity, do you have your eye on directing at all? No. It's not a no.

Oh, no. Okay. All right. It seemed like the pause was long enough. I know. But I, do you know, I would have, maybe, you know, back in the day, when I was a bit younger, I would have thought, yes, I would have direct one day. And then now I'm just like, it's so hard just trying to focus on,

one thing and do that well, but I'm pretty just focused on acting and family. That makes sense. Nice. Yeah. But maybe my fantasy life. Yeah. Brilliant director as well.

Direct your kids plays. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, or maybe once the kids are in college. So you can have like a second life then. Yeah, they can start it again. And, We'll be right back. In the late 90s and early 2000s, Asian women were often reduced to overtly sexual and submissive caricatures.

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which you might be aware of. If you could go back to 12-year-old Felicity, what would you say or do? 12 year old finicity I would say it's all gonna be okay is that what everyone says

actually yes it is most people I know I know I know what it is don't plug your eyebrows so thin you know exactly it's the essence of what everybody says and so we're so you just

didn't feel at all. It's like it's, it's so true. Yeah. It's a beautiful thing to say. Yeah, exactly. I think there's just so much when you're, when you're that age, there's so much kind of ahead of you that, I don't know, you can worry, I guess, and you're kind of worried about what everyone's thinking and all of that stuff. And I guess you go back and see, who cares what people think. Yeah. Something for now as well. Felicity, you are a delight. Thank you so much for, Yeah, thank you for being a part of this. Yeah, thanks.

I was really nervous, actually, but you guys, it was really cool. You bring out interesting things and people. Oh, thank you. Thank you. You can see the Brutalus in theaters, or you can catch one of Felicity's many other projects on streaming. We are so excited that you can now listen to Podcrush, ad free on Amazon Music.

In fact, you can listen to any episode of Podcrushed ad free right now on Amazon Music with an Amazon Prime membership. You know, I'm going to be able to You know, Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. You know, I'm going to be able to Thank you.