Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Sienna Miller

Episode Date: April 24, 2022

Sienna Miller spent the early years of her career in the flashing bulbs and shouted questions of media outlets fascinated by her relationships and her style. But standout performances in movies like Factory Girl, Foxcatcher and American Woman have forced a change of subject. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist gets together with the star to talk about her new Netflix series, Anatomy of a Scandal, which has her tapping into those trying years in the spotlight.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. I'm excited to bring you this week's conversation with actress Sienna Miller, who's been doing great work for almost 20 years now. She was in Layer Cake and Alfie and Factory Girl and all these sort of smaller independent movies where she established her credibility as a great dramatic actor and has done so much since then. You know her from American Sniper, where she played across from Bradley Cooper as his wife, American woman more recently. She's done West End Shakespeare as you like it. And she's also done big budget GI Joe blockbuster summer movies. And she's got strong opinions about both of those. And you'll hear them. But the truth is, you probably first got to know her as kind of an object of paparazzi fascination because of her relationship years ago with Jude Law. And there was some scandal around that.

she has fought back against the tabloids in the UK, suing them three times and winning all three, including a settlement that she won last year against one of them for allegedly hacking into her telephone. And what's fascinating about that is now her new series called Anatomy of a Scandal lives exactly in that space. It's a Netflix series where she plays the wife of a British politician who admits to having an affair, and it gets much worse from there. So it's all about her, sort of the victim of this crime, but having to deal with all the fallout from it, the cameras, the attention, the scrutiny of her private life and all of that. So bringing a lot of her real world experience into this new series. I should tell you, we are a get together at a beautiful, beautiful restaurant in New York and in Hudson Yards, which was the restaurant for a hotel.

So the funny part, I don't know if you'll hear it in the edit here, because we do tighten it up when things like this happen. people were walking in saying, is this the breakfast room? People like groups with lanyards around their neck, having a convention probably. It is generally yes, but not right now because I'm sitting at a small table, just the two of us, across from Sienna Miller, with many television lights and many cameras, but it kept happening. Is this the breakfast room? So sit back, relax, enjoy a conversation with a truly witty, funny, smart, and talented actress. Sienna Miller right now on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. It's so nice to see you, Sienna.

Lovely to see you too. You come highly recommended from our mutual friend who I just... Yes. Let's drop that name. Rave reviews. Oh, good. You drop it. Bradley Cooper.

Yes, that's your guy. Yeah, that's our guy. He's the best. He loves you. He is a huge fan, as you know. Yes. So let's talk about anatomy of a scandal. This is based on a best-selling book.

A lot of people have read the book. They're going to be excited to see the series. What was a story? it about the story that grabbed you when you read about Sophie and you started seeing these scripts come through? You know, I got sent the pile of scripts and I hadn't read the book and a pile of six scripts is quite a daunting sight. And I started reading it because it had David E. Kelly's name on the front and of course you're probably in for something great. But I then couldn't stop reading them and they're so propulsive and so many twists and turns and I

personally love that six-part format. Like I don't have the patience for seven seasons of anything. Much as I love them, I just, I never keep up. So I was excited to do something like that, which feels like a movie, enough space, you know, to make a long, long film, which is my passionist film. Yeah, I'm with you on that. When I see six, I go, I can do this. It can be daunting when it's more than that. Yeah, I'm way behind everybody on that. I mean, I'm trying, you know, I'm like just started succession, like I'm a few years behind. But, no, it was, it was really compelling and also dealing with subjects that are just really prevalent right now from consent to privilege and especially in the English government what we're seeing right now.

It just felt like it was right at the zeitgeist of what people are interested in. And what was it about Sophie herself, that character? Did you see something in her that you said, I've got to play this? You know, I've never, I'm never English in anything. And I was really ready to start, like, to actually be English. and I can get very swept up in wanting to hide behind an accent or a, you know, physicality or someone completely different. And I understood the world she was from. I liked how acerbic and contained she is, which I don't have that kind of English reserve, but she really does. And the circumstances

of her life unraveling were interesting. I've been in sort of somewhat similar situations of, you know, knowing that a story is going to break and the horror of that feeling and the media. that's definitely part of my past. But her responses to those somewhat familiar circumstances were so different. I also like that she begins as someone very, very different to who she ends up being. And so that arc was good. We don't want to give away too much. But for people who want to see this, you are the wife of a British MP who's found himself in some trouble.

Yep. And you suddenly have to go into this mode of a little bit of a stiff upper lip, protect the marriage, to protect the children. Yes. Is there anything else you can say about the storyline without giving it all away? It's such a difficult show to talk about.

I know, I know. Because there are so many twists. I mean, I think it's clear in the trailer so I can talk about that, that he has an affair and then is accused of rape by the person he's had a long affair with. And she is very initially, very supportive and convinced of his innocence

and stands by him for the sake of the family. I think she's someone, which makes her sound uninteresting and she's not, but I think she was that woman who wanted to get married and support the husband and raise the children and have the perfect family and the optics of them are really great and her life just gradually unravels. I sort of, I saw her as like a swamp. She's very elegant, but underneath the water, her feet are, you know, are going. And she, the knocks keep coming. I mean, she really, really unravels, but in a very British way is staggered by her emotional responses to things, which I'm just completely open and emotional and loud.

And so it felt like a big character, even though we sound similar, you know. There's an extraordinary scene where your husband is telling you about what's about to come and confessing to his affair. And you're sitting on a couch, this beautiful shot on the opposite ends of the couch. And your heart is beating so loudly that, in fact, it's picked up on the microphone. Yeah. and they included it in the show. Is that true?

That was actually your heartbeat? Actually, that scene gave me so much anxiety. And it was early on, I think it was like this third day or something that we shot that episode first. And actually, we were block shooting all over the place, but that was early on. And I think it was just a horrible, it was a horrible thing to, I think, because I've been there, you know, that feeling if you're somewhat well known of something coming out or about to come out that you can't bear.

And my heartbeat started to accelerate and get loud. And the producers then had their cans on by the monitor and came in and were like, your heart. And they kept it in and they kind of used it throughout the show. I was very proud of that because it was a physical response to something that. And those are the moments, however, unpleasant that you kind of look for, I think, in acting. And a moment that was real. You didn't have to conjure it.

No, it just came to you. Yeah. Yeah. I thought about you. You're saying you've had some experience in these places. I wondered if it was a difficult decision for you to sort of step, even fictionally, into the shoes of a woman who was going through that, given all you've been through yourself. Yeah, I thought it was weird as well that I was kind of drawn to it.

I think in a sort of psychological tourism way, it was an interesting thing to put myself back into a situation. It's very different, and it's a long time ago, but that did feel somewhat familiar and to respond in a very different way to that. I don't know, maybe reclaiming something or just re-exploring something that was intense. And I was extremely young. And, you know, Sophie's response to it is quite measured and contained. And it's very strange our job. I often ask myself why I want to do this things. But there is a sense of catharsis in doing that somehow.

Was there some feeling, as you say, of handling it differently as this character than you did 15 years ago or whenever that was? Or even just fictionalizing something that was, you know, I also, I feel bad kind of bringing it up, but there are so many, so many clear parallels between what I've experienced and what she goes through. So I guess it's inevitable that we would talk about it. I keep talking about it. It's happened. But no, I think it was probably, at first I was like, oh, I shouldn't do that. And then the more I sat with it, the more it percolated and it felt like an interesting thing to explore.

Did it feel good to handle it differently? It wasn't pleasant, but then in the aftermath, there's something that's shed. Right. I don't know, lighter. And I look at all the work I've done and somehow there is some kind of connection or something that I'm exploring in my own psychology or that I'm interested in that I kind of bash out and get paid for. So that's nice. You've been doing it pretty well for a long time now. Yeah, exactly.

You've been doing it very well. So if you go back to, I'm thinking we were talking outside about Europe, being born in New York, city, moving to London as a baby, coming back to New York as a teenager. Where along the way did sort of performance come into you? I know your mother ran the Strasbourg Theater here in New York, which is amazing. So at what point in your childhood maybe or later did you say, I think I want to be a performer? It's quite alarming because I actually don't remember ever wanting to do anything else. So from the age of three, I think that's what I said I wanted to do apparently. and love to put on plays and dress up and seed plays

and my mother was quite theatrical, is quite theatrical, and always took us to the theatre and ran the set up the Strasbourg School in London and maybe being around actors and that kind of creativity planted a seed. And she was also, I think she was someone that wanted to do it herself and probably encouraged that,

certainly supported it in me. But I don't remember ever saying I wanted to do anything else. Do you remember your first performance, school play, something like that? Oh, yeah. Breakout role. I mean, no, actually I was the angel Gabriel.

Oh. Yes, in Nativity. I later found out that was a man. I was quite heartbroken. Anyway, that was the first experience, like, on a stage. But I think I was too enthusiastic, so I never got the good parts. We did Joseph when I was eight, and I was Potiphar's helper. Okay.

They made up a part. And I sat there with a massive leaf, like, fanning Potipher and really, like, my backstory was, like, I'd come up with a whole thing. and it was just a useless part, but I gave it a lot. That's good. Well, that pretended well for your future. Yes. So then you're as a teenager, you leave London, I think 18 years old.

You come to New York City. And what was the idea there? What did you think was waiting for you in New York? Well, I went to Strasbourg. I basically, as soon as I was legally allowed to leave, I left. Not because I hated my parents at all, but I was just ready for adventure. And Mom obviously knew all the people at Strasbourg,

and I love the idea of that method, intensity. and it was an excuse to live in New York, which I'd always loved. So I moved back just 18. I slept on my aunt's sofa. Then I lived with a woman on the Upper East Side, and I got to live there for free if I babysat her daughter, and kind of like sofa surfed for a while. And the intensity of that school was amazing.

I loved it. It was so, it was everything I wanted. And Marlon Brando went there, and Marilyn Monroe went there, so there were like Marlon Brando types and Marilyn Monroe. You know, everyone's like a character of some sort. sort in all different ages and, you know, Arthur Miller-esque teachers. And it was just, it was like baptism by fire, but I really loved it.

An extraordinary training. I mean, you're really going to the best and sort of a cradle of greatness. Yes. So through your modeling, I think you were on the cover of 12 vogue's over the course of your modeling career, which is that it? That's quite a lot of votes. Kind of amazing. Yeah.

So you sort of went toward modeling at first. Well, that was once I was acting. So you were pursuing those in a parallel? I basically did, I mean, I was the shortest. I was like the personality that made the tall great models come out of their shell. So, like, people wanted me around, but like, she's fun. Pretty short. No, I did, like, I did the Pirelli calendar.

That was fun. But that was all pre-drama. Oh, no, actually, post-drama school. So while I was waiting to start acting, that's how I substituted my life. And, like, a German Coca-Cola advert and, you know, Abercrombie catalog. So you are eyes always on the stage and being an actor. And that was like a way to make money. And it was fun.

But it was, yeah, the vogue happened post-acting success. So then at what point do you say acting is a career? I can make it. I can do this because I'm sure it's daunting and it is for every actor at first. The auditions don't go well, whatever it is. At what point do you say, okay, this is what I'm going to be. This is what I'm going to do. So after my first film, that was it.

I never, I didn't model anymore. That was honestly just a way of subsidize. income and that film actually never came out, but it was a fun experience to make. And then I did a BBC drama. I knew that that was it. That was what I was focused on. And then I, yeah, I did a show on Fox that I did sign that seven-year contract of the shows that I would not watch, but it actually only went for one year. It was called Keen Eddy. And then I got my first two films sort of simultaneously, and that was it. Alfie and Factory Girl? Alfie and Layer Cake. Oh, in Lairke, right.

And yeah, and straight into Alfie. So that was sort of a very exciting year. And Factory Girl, to me anyway, feels like she's starring in this film. Yeah. Did that feel like a big moment for you? That was the third movie I made and that did feel like a big moment. And it was the first time I actually believed that I had ability. I think I was sort of posturing or I wasn't sort of sure that, you know, why am I doing this?

Is it for the right reasons? And then I played Edie Cedric in that movie and Guy Pearce was Warhol and we became so immersed. in quite a scary way, actually, in those people. I mean, we never came out of character. We'd call each other all night as Andy and E.D. We'd met all the people that were part of the Silver Factory with the stories, and they're all beautifully eccentric and slightly ravaged from all the drugs they took. It was just a very immersive experience, and I felt like I couldn't shake it at the end.

I'm so interested. So how long is a shoot where you stay in character the entire time? How do you even get your headspace there? You know, I was 22 or three, I think, when I did that. We'd researched it for about six months before. Or I'd read this book called Edy that was a kind of biography on her that was so interesting. And then started meeting the people before. So the whole experience, we shot for, I don't know, two months.

But the preamble was intense. And Guy Piers and I moved into the Chelsea Hotel where she'd lived. And we really did it, you know. And he kind of held my hands. hand through it and was, and as such an immersive act to himself that he set the tone for something I wanted to do. But we just got caught up because it was really fun being Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick. You know, it was a pretty, but then I remember when filming ended and I just, like, didn't want to take off the leotard or the tights. And like, I didn't know who I'd slightly took a little bit too far.

Lost yourself a bit. A little bit, which was great, but it got to a point where it was so intense. And I met Edie's brother. He came to set, and he sort of held my hands and said, I knew you'd come back. And, you know, everybody around me was kind of fueling this, what became like a little bit of a crazy experience in a really sating way. But, you know, everybody missed Eadie and her friends were there. And they're like, you're her, you're her. And I was like, I am.

I am. Maybe I am. And, you know, it's just, yeah, I've learned now to draw a little bit of a firmer line between me and them. But I love playing real people for that reason. You know, you feel a pressure to do them justice. And there's so much to research. And it was a pretty fascinating moment in culture.

Hey, guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Sienna Miller right after the break. Welcome back now more of my conversation with Sienna Miller. What I love about your career is you can do as you like it and G.I. Joe in the same career. I know. Everything in between. Everything in between. Yeah.

Those would be the two, yes. Is that about right? So I'm curious how you make choices, how you decide this project is worth the year, two years, or whatever it's going to take of your life and your time. Yeah. What do you look for? I mean, the G.I. Joe moment was something that I was encouraged to do because I'd made quite artistic choices in independent cinema and theater and, you know, at a certain point,

agents are encouraging you to kind of become, like, bankable. It was definitely not the right fit for me to be a villain in a kind of comic book. thing at that time. I think I'd probably have fun with it now, but By the way, I didn't even mean that as a criticism. I'm genuinely mean, big budget and, you know, the globe theater. I mean, it just, I just, I just

suddenly got lost in the memory of that, which you know, I couldn't fire a gun without blinking and I was a villain, so I had to have this, like, she wears glasses, the Baroness and they had to add this thing that every time I fired a weapon, I'd like touch the side and they'd become sunglasses, so I'd be like, you know, I'm like, dreadful. Now I like love firing guns. That's amazing.

for work. But yeah, I now am much more selective. I think before I was sort of so excited to do everything and work with everyone and now having a nine-year-old daughter and being slightly tied to school locations and I have to be a bit more selective. So it's the people involved and a great script and I'm not necessarily, I've never had the strongest commercial head on my shoulders. Like the experience was all that mattered. I think I need to start thinking about, you know, making things that people want to see, hence, you know, a David E. Kennedy limited series, which people love to watch. Well, it is impressive if you look down your filmography, what you've done.

You've never seen any of them. No one has seen them. No, I'm kidding. But I mean, like, the level of quality is so consistent. And there is no, like, Marvel movie that jumps out of. Like, you've been pretty committed to doing things you think are good. Yeah. Interesting characters. That's what I'm drawn to. And what about the Bradley years? The Bradley Year, I mean, we did back to back. right back to back. Yeah. Those was the American sniper

sort of phenomenon of that film that was something else? It was so exciting. Well, first of all, I had to audition for that film, which, and I was driving into the Warner Brothers lot

and that song Clint Eastwood by the Gorillas came on and I was like, okay, I've got this part. Like it was one of those, you know, it was just a perfect serendipitous moment.

And then our friend Bradley called me and said, we'd love you to do it. And it was, you know, being on the set with Clint Eastwood. There's dirty Harry every morning.

saying like, hey, sweetie. And I was like, it was such a dream come true and it was such a powerful story. Bradley was totally Chris Kyle. I actually met Chris Kyle and then I had to meet Bradley afterwards because he was enormous and only spoke in his voice. And then the success of that was just, it was so exciting. We were on a kind of group email with all the Warner Brothers execs and the numbers were coming in and I'd never, you know, I'd never experienced anything like it. but it was at the time the highest-grossing R-rated film ever. Yeah. And I was thrilled to be in that.

Hasn't happens in. You know, there's a long road ahead. Well, listen, American Woman. Yeah. That was an amazing performance. My passion project. Yeah. Tell me about that.

Was that one of your favorite performances? I'd say that was definitely, yeah, that was, I've peaked with that one. I loved that character. She was so, I loved how she was someone that you kind of condemned and judged. and by the end absolutely loved and respected. And just those kind of like shining a light on those people that you don't look at. Everybody has a story, you know. And the writing is Brad Ingallsby, who then went on to do Mara Vistown,

and he's just a brilliant writer. And Jake Scott, the director, was English and lovely. Everyone was English on the set. We were in Boston, like in the middle of nowhere. And very collegial. And Christina Hendricks is such a sweetheart. And we really had. a magical experience. It was just, I really didn't want that film to happen. I was dreading it

because I was in every scene and carrying it solely, which I, it was a lot. It was a lot. Yeah. But it was like, it was magical in terms of a creative experience. I was thinking, looking at how good so many of your movies are, and you've talked about this a little bit in the context of anatomy of a scandal, which is that some of those performances probably were overshadowed by the fact that people were looking at pictures of you on magazines and paparazzi shots and so obsessed with other parts of your life. Do you see it that way when you look back? Certainly in my 20s I do. I mean, I think I had a child and people were like, oh, she's a mother and she's actually a serious person.

But I was very frustrated when I was younger because I was making these films that I was proud of, but no one really was interested. Now I, A, don't care and B think that my life is so uninteresting, that it's not documented. But also the world was a, it was such a fever pitch for women at the time when I became well known, the early 2000s and Amy Winehouse and Lindsay Lohen and Britney Spears. And there was just this frenzy around young women and really perpetuates crazy behavior because you're living in an absolutely strange and almost a video game reality. It's just not, it's just you're in a perpetual state of anxiety. So I understand when I look back on what all of us went through that, That was a crazy time. But it was frustrating because I was working and turning in performances that I thought were valuable. And everyone would just be like, I love your clothes. What about my film? Oh, ho sheik.

Oh, God, I know. Which is now coming back into fashion, which means I'm really old. We have you to think for it. When you're like, when your clothes are suddenly vintage, you're like, wow, that happened. Okay. At least I'm still here, you know. There are a couple scenes, even in the first episode, when the scandal has just hit the press. Yeah.

And you go to see your husband at work in Parliament, and the press spots you, and you just barely get into that elevator. And I did think about you, having been in that scenario in your life. Oh, my God, the elevator. Do you know that there was an actual specific elevator? There was a specific elevator hounding moment. Is that what you don't know about that? No, but I just mean in general, the idea of being perceived. sued all the time.

Yeah. And did that... I did once have this moment, though. You reminded me, which I didn't think about in that scene, of being sort of surrounded at an elevator that wouldn't come and, like, banging on it. Yes, yeah, that wasn't... It was... The feeling of relief she has when she makes it into the elevator and has avoided the press

is slightly tempered by the fact that that's the lift that he had the affair in. Charming man. She sort of looks back in the corner and begins to imagine... Wait a minute. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think that culture has changed, not just for you, because you've grown and you have a daughter now, but that crazy paparazzi culture, has that changed to some extent because of social media and some of the thrill and the mystery is gone because I see everybody all the time online. Yes. Is it easier for a young woman now than it was for you?

I think a thousand percent. I also think we're in a moment where respect of women is at the forefront of conversation, as it should have been then, but really wasn't. I think if you were young and a woman and a woman, and famous, you were fair game. And it was so aggressive. And it was pre-internet. So not pre-internet, but pre-social media, where people, I think, have much more autonomy over their image and how they're presented. Really, we were in the hands of the tabloid media who were reckless. And also in England, hacking your phone. And, you know, there was all that going on. It's definitely different. I don't think that the paparazzi could behave in the physically aggressive way that they did. And that's great. No one should be exposed to that. have admirably fought back. I mean, you spent a lot of time. A lot of time. Fighting. Why was it

worth it to you to pursue those cases as hard as you did? I mean, I don't think of myself as a vengeful person, but it was such a, it was so, people were so wronged by them. And the information that was being published was gathered illegally. And I knew that I was being hacked at the time. I was certain of it because I trusted my family and friends and these stories would come out. it just felt like the right thing to do to kind of advocate for oneself and taking on the Murdoch Empire is a Goliath. I mean, it's terrifying. But the needs of the world no longer exists. And to have had a hand in that is something I'm very proud of. I used to go to sleep on a Saturday night and think whose life is going to be ruined tomorrow morning by that newspaper. You know,

they would print the most salacious, awful, devastating things about people's personal lives. And it's it just is a horrible part of culture that I feel the need to stand up to. That being said, I'm not sure that anyone's hacking phones anymore, but a lot of the people who are culpable are still running that corporation. And that's, I can try and fight it as much as I have done and continue to do. But there is a kind of impunity around that kind of power. Yeah, and we're not just talking about who you're dating, this deeply personal medical records and arrests beyond the pay.

That's beyond the pale. So with that phase, hopefully, of your life behind you, is that a relief? Do you say, okay, I'm in a good place right now. My career's going well, a great daughter. Do you feel good about where you are? I don't think I've ever felt better. I just turned 40. I don't know if everyone says, you know, life begins at 40 and that felt like a kind of platitude

for the fact that you're like getting over the hill. I actually have never felt more settled, content, almost nealistic in my lack of care for what anybody thinks of me, which is hugely relieving to not be attached to the outcome of of things. And with a pretty strong sense of who I am and an integrity and a moral code that I will hopefully live by, but just settled and grounded and fulfilled creatively and maternally and, you know. It's liberating, isn't it? Really liberating. Yeah. I don't care. Just not care. Nothing you can do about anyone else's opinions. I mean, I think as a young woman, I was so, I was really aware of what people thought,

and I was sort of dissociated from the persona that the media were creating, which was selling papers, but it just felt like I was like, I was a serious person in my mind, frivolous and, like, chaotic, for sure, but like not this sort of fluffy light person. And it was, I really felt the need to prove myself. I now am like, whatever, which is so nice. It's the best. The best. I think could be hit those 40s. I think that's it. Yeah. Yeah, I wouldn't change it for anything. If your daughter's happy, that's it. Yeah, you're good.

Healthy and happy, that's it. Exactly. Yes. So professionally, what else is still out there for you now? You've got a lot of road ahead of you. Got a lot of road. What else do you want to do? I mean, I want to do a play every two years.

The pandemic kind of put a kibosh into that, so I'm four years behind that. I love doing theater. I want to be in a Paul Thomas Sandsen movie before I die. And I say it in every interview, and I know him. And it's awkward, but I'm just like, there it is. PTA, come on. I'll literally make the tea. Or I'll like, you know, shadow him or something.

I want to do, you know, there's so much, there are so many people I want to work with and I want to produce, I want to maybe direct one day. These are sort of nascent things that I'm contemplating. But there is a vast expanse ahead. I think the 30s felt quite blinkered and, I don't know, quite claustrophobic. And suddenly I'm like, oh, there's a whole other, I've like come out of the woods and at a whole, to get into metaphor now field or expanse of space that I am excited to fill with all sorts of things.

I've got a pitch for you. Ready? Pitch. You, Bradley, G.I. Joe, too. Yes. If I can be Joe, he can be the Baroness. Was there already a two? Maybe there was.

I don't know. I think they just did one. Oh, they did? I don't know. I mean, maybe like a good Marvel. We should do something else. We have to think about it. We're both quite serious, though, now.

I know. I know. He's off doing his. I know. Yeah. Exciting. But I'm doing a film that I'm excited about. I'm starting in a few weeks with Kristen Scott Thomas has written and is directing her

first movie. So that's going to be fun in the English countryside for spring. And lots of other exciting things brewing. You're busy. Busy. You're busy. Yeah. With moments of lull and long sort of interludes of laziness.

Yes. Like mothering. To be with your daughter. Exactly. Stick around to hear more of my conversation with Siena, Miller right after a quick break. Welcome back now the rest of my conversation with Sienna Miller. You do a lot of film, you do a lot of stage.

I don't want to make you choose, but is there one that gratifies you more than the other? Stage. I'd have to say, because it's terrifying and, you know, it's indelible. Like, once you start a show, you are on that train, you have to finish it. There's such freedom in doing theater, and it's, and rehearsing something. Like if I had my way, and I've said this before, but I would only rehearse plays and not do them. Because that whole, like, rehearsal room is just dreamy for me. But the feeling of, it's almost, I mean, for me, it's like jumping out of a plane.

The anxiety before a first preview is, I'm almost, like, sick. And then achieving that really unimaginable, like, horror of a thing. Getting to the end is like, ah, and that's quite interesting psychology. Yeah. Like, the thing that I'm dreading and do not want to do, I then survive. And I'm like, yes. What is that about? But it's quite a...

You know, it's so difficult to talk about acting without sounding like an idiot, but there are these moments where you just don't exist or like of connectedness with an audience that I find very moving. I did cabaret here and was definitely the kind of neolithic sally balls that didn't have to be great at singing or dancing, which I think was the issue-wood version of her.

But there was a show and I was sick and I was really not feeling it And I got to this point where I knew I was supposed to remote and it just wasn't happening and I wasn't going to push it. But I sat down on this stool and like, and this woman in the audience went, oh. And it literally made me cry. You know, she gave me that moment. And I love that transaction. Those moments are really special. On a film, they're like, let's go again.

Come on. Right. Right. Go back to the trailer for two hours where they reset. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Now I've got another pitch.

G.I. Joe, the musical. done. Can you think of anything worse? Like me like, ooh. No, I actually can now. I did a cop movie and I can now fire a weapon without squinting. I was going to say that's going to be a prerequisite. Yeah, I don't want to like rule myself out of being a villain in anything. Yes, this was then.

It's so nice to see you. Thank you, Sienna. Thank you. That's great. My big thanks to Sienna for a great conversation. Be sure to check out her new series, Anatomy of a Scandal, streaming now on Netflix. And since I mentioned at the top, I should tell you, the name of that beautiful restaurant is Shea Zoo.

It's in Hudson Yards on the west side of Manhattan if you're ever in town. My big thanks to all of you for listening again this week. If you want to hear more of my conversations with my guests every week, be sure to click follow so you never miss an episode. And don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast.