Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - S11 Ep 27: Emerald Fennell

Episode Date: July 14, 2021

This week we welcome actress, director and writer, the phenomenal Emerald Fennell round to Lennie’s for Tarragon Chicken and banana ice cream! We chat everything from her time in Call The Midwife, to writing & directing the absolute must - see Promising Young Woman and now her latest venture, writing Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical 'Cinderella’. She talks about meeting her husband in Paris, the art of getting a free Pret coffee and what she’s working on next. We loved having you Emerald and we’re inviting ourselves over for a Fennell Eurovision / karaoke night!! X Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to Table Manners. I'm Jessie Ware and I'm at mum's house which means only one thing, I'm going to get a good meal. You are darling today. How are you mum? I'm okay. What are we having for lunch actually? We're having tarragon chicken, or chicken with tarragon, which is almost like the recipe you love with chicken with vermouth and mustard, but you have creme fraiche in it. Hannah, your daughter, hates. Ridiculed on the podcast when she was on. Yeah, she's silly. But this has got tarragon rather than thyme.

Gorgeous. And it's tasting okay. I've had a go. Yeah. Delicious meat from Ginger Pig again. Oh, yeah. They always look after us. Yeah, thanks.

Steve wasn't there yesterday he's a bit upset and then i know you don't like this but i tasted it at someone's house and i loved it banana ice cream which was just i haven't done it yet because you do it at the last minute and i think this is where you're going wrong jesse so i put my bananas in the freezer last night and then all I do is whiz them up in the food processor and I promise you it is like Mr Whippy ice cream. Okay, so I have a bit of an issue with, listen, I've tried all the alternative things, but frozen banana as ice cream, I'll give it to my kids.

Yeah. But look, I'm ready to be proven wrong. You don't need to have it, darling. I'm ready to be proven wrong You don't need to have it darling You can just have strawberries and cream Now there's a reason why we're doing kind of less sugary Because you're off your sugar We've got another pregnant person here

who said please no sugar Even though bananas are like the most high sugar They're natural sugar Anything that grows on a tree is natural darling It's not anything that grows on a tree is natural darling okay it's not processed it's on a tree do you think do you think chimpanzees and monkeys eat bananas right because it's natural darling anything Daniel the osteopath told me that anything that's natural has to be good for your body okay Okay, cool. I'm really glad that we just did that lesson.

Anyway, well, you're always on your gluten-free and sugar-free shit. Whatever, enough about me. So who have we got on today? Right. This woman is, I've loved her from the first time I saw her. As? As Patsy on Call the Midwife. Oh.

Because I'm a Call the Midwife devotee and she was fabulous. She's got the best voice I think I've ever heard, which probably is what qualified her for Camilla. She was very good as Camilla, Parker Bowles in The Crown. But clearly she's so multi-talented and I watched A Promising Young Woman last night, which she wrote and directed and it was the most stunning film.

Just stunning. It is a phenomenal film. Phenomenal. Well, she's here. Oh, she's here. Outside. She's in a cab. Oh.

She's preggo. Oh, she's getting out of the cab. Come on, let's go then and meet her. Okay, fab. Wow. Emerald for now, coming up on Table Moments. You've come in, as I expected you to, with the most beautiful, brilliant energy,

goddess-like, ready to pop. Yeah, we're so thrilled. Thank you for being here. Thank you. We're going to race through this. We've got you for about here thank you we're gonna like we're gonna race through this yeah we've got you for about an hour and i know that we can and you've got to eat and you've got to eat i really do have to eat um are you starving i'm always starving you can well i'll give you in 20 minutes you can eat we'll just chat a bit it smells so delicious is it spaghetti

bolognese no is that what you really wanted no oh god I'm so sorry it's tarragon chicken it's very that sounds delicious no no that sounds amazing I was just I was just you thought you got

a whiff of spag bol I thought I got a whiff of spag bol and I was very excited but actually tarragon chicken sounds even better sorry I've never

given anyone spag bol spag bol was the thing that induced my I feel like it was a great induction tool I had it the night before I had Alex and you I'm telling you anybody who's a bit really yeah it's a bit weird that isn't it do a great induction tool. I had it the night before I had Alex, hadn't you? I'm telling you, anybody who's a bit

weird, that's a bit weird, that, isn't it? Do a little spag bol. A little spag bol. Well, maybe I'll have one a little bit closer to the time to bring it on. Yeah. So how are you? How is life post the most mental... Has this been the most mental year of your life? Yeah.

And throwing the mix of baby too and stuff. I think so I mean like I actually feel like the last three years have been a sort of and like people say a whirlwind but I don't really know how else to describe it because I feel like I've been just not you know living also especially because of Covid like living my normal life with my lovely husband we've been together forever you at home, but then all this other stuff, you know, the work stuff has all just been going mad all around it, so yeah, I feel like after this baby, which is due in a couple of weeks, I'm going to take a couple of months off, which I haven't, I didn't do for the last one,

and it's been, yeah, I'm'm just I'm just um I can feel it's that thing I was trying to explain it to someone it's a bit like when you've been on a really long car journey and you've needed the loo the whole time but you've held it in and then you can see your front door and you're like oh no it's happening it's that last moment and so I think I'm you know I'm a couple of weeks away and then I can just feel my whole body like sort of the opposite oh no like a sort of staggering kind of to the in the desert sort of in rags but so you're in rehearsals at the moment so we're in was that my phone no it's probably mum's no no it's mum's probably mine always goes

off uh so in rehearsals for cinderella so cinderella the longest wait you've ever had for yeah when was cinderella supposed to come out the musical so cinderella the musical was supposed to come out it oh my god probably like a year ago at least i can't remember because we've changed it so much now i feel so sorry for him it's been like I just do you know what it's everyone the thing is and it's the same for you and your industry like any live entertainment but live theatre and in particular comedy all that stuff like it's just a disaster and it's and for so many people as well they fall between two stools of like freelance or employed and so they weren't like, they weren't

able to get any help or it's just, yeah. And it's, and it's been, um, yeah, it's just, it's just, it's just been kind of dispiriting. Like, of course for everyone, everyone struggled really badly, of course. So nobody's in a different boat, but I think it has been the last few weeks have been quite tough because yeah because you just see so many other you know you see sports and things being everyone not being able to social distance and stuff like that and then and that's fair you know of course but and you want to be safe but it's really tough when it feels like there's there are different rules for different things yeah I think the rationale seems to be if it's outside, it seems to be OK. But if it's indoors, it seems not to be. And when we spoke to Andrew, he said it's all about ventilation.

He spent fortunes on the theatre to ventilate it. And also everyone's masked, everyone's facing forward, nobody's talking. There are lots and lots of safety... I mean, of course, we're in a pandemic so I do feel like I know I'm naturally like a real law abider so like whatever I'm told to do I will just do it um that's if the rules are clear um sometimes yes I suppose sometimes they haven't been as clear as they should be yeah it's just like it's just it's just really complicated isn't it and I just but it's just really complicated, isn't it? But I do feel really bad.

Every time it gets moved, we have to tell people that their tickets are no longer, you know, it's that stuff. It's like... So has it opened yet? No. So we start previews on this Friday and then we open, well, you know, TBC. And it's still half full. And then we open, well, you know, TBC. And it's still half full.

So it'll be at 50% for the next few weeks. And then hopefully if it does open up on July 19th, we will be opening at full capacity around that. But, you know, but I don't, yeah, I sort of, I've become quite, because also with Promising a Woman, that was supposed to come out in April of the COVID year in cinemas everywhere simultaneously. And so and then obviously everything changed. And so I kind of got used to that thing of everything getting pushed and pushed.

Obviously, a film is much easier, much, much easier to kind of contain. Promising Young Woman is one of the best films I've seen in so long. It's so important. I watched it yesterday. the best films I've seen in so long it's so important but for anybody who hasn't seen the film can you just kind of it's really hard to explain

quickly in a nutshell yeah it's a real, honestly because I have spent a year trying to explain it in a nutshell and I'm almost the worst at it but it is based it is a film, it's called Promising a Woman it's got wonderful Kerry Mulligan in it and it is about a woman who goes to nightclubs and bars

and pretends to be incredibly drunk and sees if anyone approaches her and takes her home. And the repercussions. And the kind of, yeah, and then the sort of fallout of what happens when they do. I was so disappointed when the boyfriend that I thought was... I know, Bo. I was so disappointed when the boyfriend that i thought was i know bo also like the most dreamy lovely perfect kind of person so it was sort of like extra it was extra cruel but that's that's what you did with a lot of the guys in it you know you had seth from the

oc first opening scene you're like oh seth you welcome him with open arms and he's a wrong one and you and that was that was an intention wasn't it that you used these kind of familiar warm funny funny men you would actually want to sleep with you know the thing is is that all of the whole thing about Pregnant Single Woman for me certainly was like it's just endemic the stuff in this film there's nothing in this film that wasn't in a comedy film, like, you know, to be laughed at, like five years ago,

or big like comedy TV series would have jokes about like drunk, taking drunk, all the same stuff. Yeah, the hangover. Something like that. It's just, but even more like mainstream kind of stuff,

it's when you look back, it's sort of, I don't need to look very far back and so it was really important for me to be like okay well what we're talking about here is something that feels really icky because it's very close to home and it is you know it is a lot of men and boys and and women who kind of know, cover up for it or sort of apologise for it. It's your friends, it's your friends, it's people at parties, it's your friends' boyfriends, it's people you were at school with who were really nice and who just like, you know, it was not treated seriously. If something happened to a girl at a party,

it was not, it was a whoopsie that they were expected to make a joke of. Otherwise, it was kind of on them. So, Emerald, you are pregnant. You are doing Cinderella the musical. You're going to rehearsals now. I want to know how you are fueling this pregnancy. And how has the pregnancy been?

And are you eating well? What are you enjoying? I'm eating so badly. I don't understand. The thing is, the worst thing that happened with my first pregnancy was I had a very wonderful and very sort of like chilled doctor. And she was like, the great thing is, is you can eat anything. The baby will just take the nutrients away from you. So you just, and so I was on a kind of diet of like solid milkshakes.

I was like nailing like four milkshakes a day by the end. Yeah, no, I'm really bad. I'm really bad. I'm bad at that stuff. Because for me, I mean, food at the best of times is just so wonderful. And you, as a woman, I still think, well, I mean, certainly for me, there's always quite a complicated relationship with the kind of food you want to eat, i.e. cake and ice cream and burgers.

And so being pregnant is sort of slightly naughty get out of jail free card so so yeah so I've just been I mean and also because so busy it's like it's Deliveroo on it's like don't look at the Deliveroo money that has been spent in the last two months who's doing the cooking in your house at the moment moment, my husband, completely. What does your husband do? He works in advertising. He doesn't have much time then. Well, but we're lucky, you know,

we have help with our toddler, a lovely nanny, and yeah, there's, I mean, weekends and stuff, we try and cook. And I love cooking, I just have completely lapsed. I just, it's just at the cook and I love cooking I just have completely lapsed I just it's just at the end of the day I just can't I mean I just I'm just like crawl I just will crawl into bed basically and just eat whatever's nearby and what was growing up who was around the dinner

table and who was doing the cooking what were you eating so growing up it was my mum and dad uh my sister Coco my younger sister Coco and mum I think mum's probably one of those 70s girls who just like she ran away from her home in rural Wales at 16 to go and kind of work in a clothes shop on the King's Road she was like get me to wear those like snakeskin boots are get me to wear the rock and rollers and so and she just was like uh very much hurt she always said her cookery style was pierce film lid so it was all it was just i the thing i remember most and i should say like my mother is a wonderful cook and she cooks a lot now but when we were little, it was absolutely chicken Kiev. M&S did a really great carbonara in a sort of thing that you pierce the film lid. And yeah, it was kind of all of that stuff.

But we were quite, we weren't... Did you live in London? We lived in London. On the King's Road? Half the time. Yeah, no, we lived in kind of Fulham Earl's Court area and um but but half the time we were in Herefordshire which is where I kind of think of mostly when I think of uh of growing up and and when we were there was it was always the best because on the way in on Friday

we'd stop at the fish and chip shop and get fish and chips in the car and on the way back on sunday if we were lucky and we'd been good we'd hit the mcdonald's drive through on the arlscourt road dad would go in and buy much too much too much and then and so it was always kind of framed by as you can tell very healthy the oat cuisine that we all grew up with so your dad was a jewelry designer uh so dad's a jewelry designer my mum was a um for a long time she was photographer's agent and now she's a writer she writes lots of very brilliant kind of dark sort of dark comedy books with quite a lot of sex in them oh crikey what's her nom de plume uh no her nom de plume is her is her is her nom de plume? Her nom de plume is her nom, which is Louise Fennell. And so she, yeah, so she's really amazing.

And so she, yeah, when we grew up, she started writing, you know, when she finally had the time. I think it's such a, there are so many female writers that you look at them and they started when their children had grown up. When did you start writing? Because I was acting, because I was doing Call the Midwife. And then we had a hiatus. So half the time it's called the Midwife and then half the time you have six months off and so I wrote books in the the hiatus because I loved it and I really always wanted to write films and telly and things but you know it's a very difficult thing to like get into and the first thing I wrote was a very long book that was truly

terrible like a real a real nonsense and it was like an epically long bajillion words and I and I took it to a few publishing houses and they were like this is just really really dire actually and they were right but but I'd written a sort of tv script for something called Shiverton Hall, which was a sort of Doctor Who type thing, because I love sci-fi and all of that. And so I pitched that as a book, and then Bloomsbury very kindly gave me a shot to write that. And then, yeah, it was just, it was lovely. I don't know that I could, weirdly, I don't know that I could write a book now. I think, I just don't know how, I honestly look back, I just don't know how it was possible.

I think maybe it's having a baby. But you wrote, did you, you wrote the script for Promising Young Woman or the screenplay? Is it, is this the screenplay and the script? Yeah. But was it based on a book? No.

It wasn't based on anything. So it's all from you. Yeah. Yeah. So I think, but now the idea of writing a book is because it's so hard. I think I just don't know. It's so crazy.

I've also got a very bad memory for my life. So I look at the books and it just feels like magic that they appeared somehow because I can't remember. I love that you're like, oh, it's so daunting. But yeah, you're doing everything now. Do you think you'll act some more? I don't know. I think, I mean, I love acting.

I really love it, and there are some things like, I mean, The Crown, I just couldn't resist. You were so good. Fabulous, yeah. Oh, thank you, oh God. Are you doing, are you in the next series of The Crown? It's a completely new cast for the next series of the crown it's completely new cast for the next series oh so don't know don't know yeah don't know yet who camilla will be really

interesting so how old is camilla in the next bit i don't know i don't even know the time period that they're doing because maybe you know maybe it's been announced there must be the death of diana i don't know you don't know because because well i know that elizabeth debicki they announced elizabeth debicki who's playing diana so yes so it must be there must be she's quite young isn't yeah she's pretty young yeah but i mean i just was looking it up the other day she was like 36 i know which of course when when we were so young when it happened she seemed like a grown-up, but 36, like, just nothing.

It's nothing. I know. It's so young. But I don't know. I don't know who the next people are. I'm fascinated. Also, like, I'm really excited because I was such a big fan of the show,

and then when you're in something, it's just much more frightening to watch it. Sometimes you just never know when you're going to come on, so you're just enjoying, like, Josh more frightening to watch it because sometimes you just never know when you're going to come on so you're just enjoying like josh o'connor's lovely performance and suddenly your like face looms into view and you're like no fast forward so it now it'll be it'll be very nice to be able to watch it without that kind of fear so so is when we had sir andrew lloyd weber on he kind of said that the way that Cinderella started was you were at a dinner party at his house or something, or around a dinner table, because you're family friends.

It makes my life sound very, very much more highfalutin than it is. It sounds fabulous. Yeah. And he, I don't know, the conversation went something like, I want to do this. And you said, give me a pop at it I'll do it and he said yeah yeah and it was a bit of on a whim was that the first thing oh I kind of you're like come on Andrew I had a already a deal with a no I think I think that again you're like talking to an

amnesiac this is the thing that's really like weird about that I always find terrible about kind of talking about stuff is I just have such bad memory that even remembering basic facts about my life is is very difficult but from what I remember Andrew has been obsessed with writing Cinderella for years because of the Rogers he's a big Rogers and Hammerstein fan and they did one and I think and he likes doing stuff when you think of you think there's like back catalogue it's such a rich and unusual we take things like cats or like Jesus Christ Superstar for granted but the idea of doing a rock musical based on like a bible story is quite out there

and then you know and then a kind of dance show about cats and you know I think he is like sort of naturally inclined to try things that seem if not impossible difficult. Or he was smoking the wacky backy I've never thought about it like that Maybe he doesn't I mean look

I don't know I don't know but definitely it is like kind of because I think when things become hugely successful and part of our culture, we forget that often they start as things that aren't very mainstream, that are kind of unusual. And so I think the thing with Cinderella that he was interested in is like, if something, and what interested me as well is like, can you what's what why I suppose why and so when he was talking about it and he was talking about kind of a way of doing it

the first conversation we had which was I think at that dinner as I said something like the problem with Cinderella is that it is it hinges on the idea that you have to the woman has to change herself to make herself appealing and so if you do it that needs to be interrogated that needs to be interrogated that needs to be the thing that okay you've got to keep it but you've got to like ask why and you know what that says about us and about fairy tales and it was always important to me that we as an audience are kind of complicit in, this makes it sound very dour. I should say it's a romp with a lot of male stripping.

You look great. Wow. Get your tickets, everyone get your tickets. It's family friendly, don't worry. But I think the thing is, is that we still, as an audience, want to see the makeover. No matter how much we love a character, no matter how much we love a character no matter how much we respect them there is something about us where we want to see women be sort of physically improved gorgeous yeah and so that kind of was the idea that it all kind of grew out of and and that was the conversation that we had really in the beginning I just said I kind of want to I'd want to see if it was possible to have all the pleasures of Cinderella have all those story beats the shoe and the ball and the midnight

and all that stuff but but also make it feel like something I would care about something that I would a character that I would identify with who wasn't just a kind of sad beautiful cypher in a sexy ragged dress yeah and were you involved at all with the music I mean in the sense of like did you get a say in the music no I mean I wouldn't I mean you just wouldn't I think well well um David Zippel who's the amazing lyricist and Andrew we do we did it all together so the thing that was really exciting for me having never collaborated on anything like this was that we sit in a room and we talk about stuff and then you know David and I'll have a big conversation about what we need what the song needs to say and then Andrew will you know just being in a room someone like Andrew and he's like oh yeah what if it's something like this? And he just starts playing the piano.

And you're just like, what? How? It's so completely, I mean, obviously it's like the thing that you do, but it's beyond. No, but I don't play piano. It's beyond my comprehension, the kind of musical ability. And also with Andrew, he's got a completely photographic, or maybe photographic, phonographic? I don't know what the right word would be. He can remember every piece of music he ever thought of.

Oh, wow. So, like, not just things that have been, not just things that are published. You know, he has, like, he has an orchestra in his head and he has a memory of a little piece of music that was nearly right for something, but, you know, from 35 years ago that then might it's just it's exciting to see somebody work like that whose brain works just in a completely

different way and David Zippel's the same way because like lyrics I suppose I've never really stupidly sort of thought about lyrics before in quite a stupid way like I know the ones that I really respond to do you think you take a song more on the basis of the melody before the lyrics I think so even though you're a writer I think so also because I well if the amount I get lyrics wrong like whenever I'm on karaoke and the words come up and like that is not what I thought the words to this song were well that leads nicely into mum's question for you. What was my question? Well it's usually what we ask at the end. Oh gosh do you like karaoke? Oh no is this

a trick question? No. No. I love it. I hate it. So if I was to have a birthday party this year which it seems unlikely but if I was I'd definitely have a karaoke corner I mean we have our own karaoke machine at home oh you do like me and my husband will off well before we had a child we would often just like have karaoke for two to cheer ourselves up would you do duets or would you do battles duets you know I think our poor friends we've whittled up we've not whittled them down and like the friends that love it we'll cut we will always like separate we would never like torment you i want to go to an emerald fennel karaoke do now is it a thing like no no because that makes it sound like it's more sort of fun that like I think probably

our poor friends just suffer it but we definitely do like usually every year before this year we would do Eurovision and karaoke and so everyone

would come to Eurovision we'd do the full thing the scoring has made Eurovision very difficult now because the scoring takes too long yes yeah

so I've got a lot of thoughts about the new you have to get very drunk and that's a hard year how was this year for you did you watch it this year was sensational it's one of the best years did you watch it yeah i didn't a bit but i do like um eurovision i i really it's one of the well and also because if you do the kind of eurovision drinking games every time there's key change every time there's

costume change uh every time somebody gets down on their knees, winks at the camera. You know, it's like all of those. People, you know, not anymore because we're all so old, but like people just crawl out of my life. Somebody once lost a tooth. They called the next day and said, has anyone found my tooth? I was so proud because honestly,

I'm really quite square. So just the idea that anyone would have lost a tooth. What were you drinking? I don't drink, but they were drinking Aftershock. Oh, jeez. What is that thing that people drink on park benches? Yes. Big time.

Well, because what happened was, is all the booze got finished. And you only had Aftershock. And then there was an offie over the road and my husband went over the road and was like, And came back with some classic 90s Sort of bench fare Bench fare

And then everyone just lost their minds And lost teeth And lost a couple of teeth Would you ever So which song would you sing? There's quite a wide category I definitely overreach every time so i'm not very talented at all it's it's selene dion so um so it would be body tyler total eclipse of the

heart oh yeah classic then it would be think twice do you don't wish to wash. I don't know. You know, Celine. You don't think I care for you. Yeah, it's a little bit. It's actually quite good, but there's a key change in there that I absolutely can't reach. I mean, not many people can. That's why she's Celine Dion. That is true.

And then what else? We always end as tradition with Danny Boy and Everyone Cries about five in the morning. Oh, wow. I should say that there are no neighbours. Have you got any Irish in your family? I don't even know where it came from.

This sounds so fun. No, it's not. It's really nightmarish. You'd hate it. You'd hate it. Even I acknowledge that it's unbearable, but I love it so much. I want to know because, you know,

I think we've got Graham Norton now for the voiceover for Eurovision and he's fantastic. Terry Wogan was amazing. Yeah. Maybe you're the next person that should be lined up. You've got such a beautiful voice. Thank you. It would be my dream job.

Really? I have, I think I've watched every single one since I can remember. Like I, I love, I love everything about it. I genuinely, and not ironically as well. It's not a sort of ironic like kitsch. I genuinely about it. And not ironically as well. It's not a sort of ironic, like, kitsch. I genuinely love it. I find it really heartening and fun and lovely. I mean, it's lovely.

How did you feel about GB this year? I felt, well, do you know, I feel sad for anyone who gets Nile Poire because it's not a nice place to be. No. But, you know, we've really... I feel sad for anyone who gets nilpoir. Because it's not a nice place to be. No. But, you know, we've really... We've really screwed the pooch. Yeah.

Euro-wise in the last few years. Do you think it was a punishment? I don't think it's a punishment. To be honest, we've got nilpoir quite a lot the last few years. Yeah, but they really went for poor James. And James, actually, I've written songs with him before. He's so brilliant. And he's so lovely. And he was so modest. And I loved his song. And James, actually, I've written songs with him before. He's so brilliant. And he's so lovely.

And he was so modest. And I loved his song. And he was great. I think... I think that we've just got to separate the judging from the show. That the show itself is just magical. And they're all winners. so have you been enjoying restaurants at all or is it strictly deliver at the moment because obviously you're in you know theater land at the moment are you in this theater at the moment

doing rehearsals yeah so have you been going out for dins or no sadly not because our schedule is is sort of two till ten oh yeah that's hard for a very pregnant it is quite hard for a pregnant person so actually really it's it's your pretz and your ritz's for lunch i'm afraid to say i love of course they're the best they're the best for a reason what's your order at prep oh okay well it it will depend on the time of day but obviously the posh cheddar and pickle so good the baguette so good and it's by far the most calories that's why it's so good what would you go for so i'm very i like the italian chicken salad oh it's very nice with the with the olives yeah yeah it's good it's great look it's because i'm constantly on a diet but i like the soups the soups are fine it depends which day yes absolutely

and i kind of wish i'd just lay off the tomato soup every day like percent yeah mushroom and rice oh yeah absolutely lovely chicken laxer was pretty good for a while. Very good. But nobody wants a tomato sauce. Have you ever got a free coffee at Pratt? Okay, this is the thing. Have you heard about this thing? Not any of I heard about it. My friend, Jess Knappett, who is an amazing comedian, and we worked together for many years, writing together. Every single time we go to a Pratt together, she gets free coffee.

What's she doing that you're not doing i mean i and is that a mask as well okay i have not seen it i've not i've not been witness to a masked free coffee but i i couldn't believe like it became a sort of like i actually was starting to get quite resentful because also also then I would become much, much needier. And these are like assorted prets over London. This isn't one guy who's got a crush. She just... But she's gorgeous. She's gorgeous.

Well, so is Emerald. Yeah. Well, but she's... What's she fucking doing? She's really... No, she is gorgeous. She's charismatic. She's...

There are a million reasons why I would give her a free coffee. But at the same time it's like it's like a magic trick and you say what's wrong with me and i'm there kind of like i'm pulling my top down i'm really kind of leaning in to get some action nothing they're repulsed by my my my sheer naked need to be ambition given a free free. They can smell it on me. I think the thing with Jess is, she's cool. She doesn't need it. So they just give it to her.

I haven't made the plates hot. It's okay, Mum. Before Mum plates up, what would be your last supper? Oh my god. Impossible. Oh, I get everything? Yeah.

Okay. Then for starter, to be really posh arsehole, I would have oysters. From where? Because many, Malvern Oyster Cart, which is, it's just like lots of food. They're just like, I think Essex oysters. And they're just amazing. Just with lots of shallots and red wine vinegar as many as I could cram in so how many is the most I'm just gonna put this over here

how many have you crammed in on a night I would say I'm a daytime a daytime oyster person okay fine only because I want to be near home in case something goes wrong. Never has, touch wood. But I still, I think part of what I like about it is the danger of it. Yeah, okay. Of food poisoning. It's so bad. Can I help you? Oh my God.

Would you have an oyster whilst you're pregnant? Thank you so much. No, I wouldn't. Do you know what? I'm pretty... Oh God. Do you want me to... I can do it if it's easier.

Can you? Yeah, yeah, of course. Sorry, I didn't want to. No, no, no. I think I can probably do it. That's just a bit slippery suck,, yeah, of course. Sorry, I didn't want to. No, no, no. No, I think I can probably do it. That's just a bit slippery suck, isn't it? Oh my goodness, this is so delicious. This is the kind of thing I wish I could cook.

Oh, this is... It's like proper cuisine. I'm saying, oh, this is really easy. No, not really. It is. Sort of. Thank you so much. Do you not want any more?

I might do some more. If you want some sauce on the potatoes, do that. Yeah, same thing. Right, so oysters are the stars oysters to start with yeah i'm gonna have a coke full fat coke pint yeah in a pint glass with lots of ice and then for a main course my mum's macaroni cheese oh what makes it so good just i think the mum factor She adds bacon And she adds tomatoes

So Yes my grandma used to do Sliced tomatoes on the top And they go really sweet And it's kind of like it's the best of all worlds Because it's sort of like a pizza as well as Not to bring it back to Pret Don't Pret put tomatoes on the top of theirs

Or am I making that up I don't Have put tomatoes on the top of theirs or am I making that up? I don't... Have you ever had the Pret? I've had the Pret one, but I have the depressing kale Pret one that... That's just... That's just like kidding myself. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, oh yeah.

We've all done it. They do one that's like slightly, like marginally 20 fewer calories that makes you feel like you're not... And you try and give it to your children and then you go, that's mac and cheese. Yeah, and they're like, that's mac and cheese. Yeah. And they're like, absolutely nice try, mum. So, um. Let's move that away.

So your mum's mac and cheese. Mum's mac and cheese. And then for pudding, oh my God. It's so hard. How can you, how can you choose one pudding? Yeah, of course.

Is that the thing? Yeah. That you love? I think I would go... Bread and butter pudding feels like a lot of carbs and custardy things. Lovely. It's gorgeous. Do you make a good one?

Ice cream sundae. I'm just going to go ice cream sundae with a variety of toppings that I can add to... Sounds great. I think that's... It's like a child's... Basically a child's dinner. I think that's good. I want to know, how did you meet your husband? Because you said you've been together for a long time.

Yeah, so we met, we met. It's just, I mean, it's just so cringe. There's no way around it. I was on my gap year in Paris learning French. Lovely. Because, yeah, I mean, it's very shaming. You weren't drinking buckets on, you know, Copan Yang, so. Because, yeah, I mean, it's very shaming. You weren't drinking buckets on, you know, Koh Phangan, so.

No, that's true. And then he was on his year abroad and he'd done French. And yeah, we just met and we were, yeah, we were kids. We were teenagers. And that was that. And so you must have had so many romantic, Paris, falling in love in Paris. I suppose it was romantic, but at the time we didn't

we didn't like each other it was like a bad rom-com we really didn't like each other we had mutual friends in common and we argued a lot a lot a lot but in quite an unpleasant way and I never argue with anyone ever, nor does he really

and it was, so again it literally was just like a D-list kind of wrong thought. Sounds like my kind of film. It was, yeah, I mean, it's definitely a film. Would you make this film? Oh, no, no, no. I don't think so. There's not, there are no stakes.

The characters are too unlikable. Where was Promising Young Woman shot? In LA. Oh, I love that little house. Not where her mother lived, but where Nina's mother... I love that little wooden house. Where was that? In LA? So that was all...

Because we had to shoot... We shot in LA because I was very pregnant and couldn't fly anywhere. So we shot in LA, but we had to shoot it for, like, any American town. Which is quite hard, because la is so idiosyncratic yeah it didn't seem like la good seemed like a small town yeah so that was in just a kind of weird desolate there was this kind of place outside la that's just an old um town that's sort of run down and we kind of yeah we shot a lot of the stuff there um yeah i mean it's have all of that stuff that american kind of so you were heavily pregnant

directing your that was your first direct yeah job yeah yeah of a yeah the feature i'd done like short films before but yeah and so and i gave birth three weeks later fuck off so it was quite full on did it change the way that you directed do you think at all that's a very masculine thing for me to say I wonder whether I don't know no no no it's a subject matter it's a fair question

I think honestly I don't have a frame of reference so if I'm allowed to do it again then I think I'll know better what I think it did do which I'm sure you feel and I'm sure lots of women will identify with is I didn't have time I felt I was on the clock so it gave me more I think confidence to be straightforward I'm naturally not very you know if I if I deal with anything that's difficult I'm quite passive-aggressive and British about it which is not helpful when you're on a clock and I think being so pregnant I could be a bit more like spicy a little bit decisive as well I think I think not

so much decisive but I hope that I am I hope that I'm decisive it's more about communicating things because I think you especially if you're a girl, especially if you're making your first film in a country you've never worked in before, my worry is that I would be too kind of like, oh, yes, okay, maybe that's all. I hadn't thought about it that way. I mean, sort of quite the opposite. I was sort of like a monstrous dictator, I think.

But partly because, yeah. Because I because yeah because i was get it done yeah and it was their 14 hour days it's like 35 degrees scorching heat you're so pregnant and it's so like it's the thing i've wanted to do my whole life like desperately i'd like to have the opportunity to get film made, financed and made, in the way you want to do it, with the cast you could only dream of. It's just so, you know... But Emeril, they must be knocking the doors down because it was so hugely acclaimed. You're nominated for Oscars.

They must be saying, Emeril, come and direct this, come and do that. Will you do this? Is that what happens? They're just... A little yes yes I mean yes that is but but but it's quite rightly but it's it's kind of funny because again like those conversations I've had with other people it's kind of like it's a bit like falling in

it's a bit like falling in love in theory it's lovely to have tinder and lots of sexy men or women at your fingertips. But the truth of it is, is there are very few people that you fall in love with. Or even like, you know, that happens once in a blue moon. And I think the thing is about work is actually I've been really lucky the last few years that I've fallen in love a few times with the project. times with the project but now I kind of know that even though things sound very appealing you kind of know that they're not you know I'm sure it's exactly the same for you like it's so I think yes there are lots of amazing opportunities I'm incredibly grateful for but I also think I know more now what I want to do next so I can be a bit more picky so do you know even to tell us what next

are you allowed to have you got anything in development well I've got well no because the way that I'm working now is I just I'm writing something that then will go out so I won't sell anything before it's done because I think that just makes it

a lot easier but I am what I am doing now which is like in the world is Zatanna, writing the script for Zatanna which is a DC Warner Brothers superhero film which is really fun oh that's fun, excuse me I'm going to make, Jessie, right

I'm going to make some banana ice cream which is only, it's only frozen bananas and I've had it and Jessie says oh it's going to make some banana ice cream, which is only... Oh my gosh. It's only frozen bananas, and I've had it, and Jessie says, oh, it's going to be terrible. What? I bet it's delicious. It's very easy. That sounds absolutely amazing. Thank you.

Well, I mean... Why do you just... I just, like, I did banana ice cream for my kids to try and trick them that that was ice cream, and I found it quite miserable. I'm willing to be, like, my mind to be changed. It's actually quite miserable. I'm willing to be, I'm willing to be, like my mind to be changed. But like, I... Are you picky about,

because you've obviously grown up with a very, very good cook for a mother. Yeah. Does that make you more, do you think you're more critical about food? No, no. I very much, when it comes to to food it's quantity versus quality every time me too like I think I don't have yeah I'm telling you anyway but I but I definitely feel like with

food I love it but I have very low standards like I am truly the happiest at McDonald's or, like, Pizza Express. What's your order at Pizza Express? Oh, Etna Romana. Used to be. They got rid of the Etna. It's absolutely devastating. What was the Etna? It was, like, a spicy...

It was like a diavola, but it had... I never know how to pronounce this. Ndusha. Yeah, yeah. On it, a little dollop. So it was really salty. Now, because I'm pregnant, it's a margarita oh really bleak yeah i had so much dominoes when i was at university i ordered dominoes so much that the man

on the phone asked me out on a date and all he knew about me was that I ordered like three to five large solo Hawaiians at like 2pm he really went for it mum turn the fucking thing off Jesus and I'm telling you banana ice cream is shit I'm telling you it's not gonna be

working but also can I just say this is the working. But this is the thing. If you let me do it, it would be fine. But also, can I just say, this is the poshest, this is the nicest pudding anyone has made me ever. You've got very, very high standards. Shush, Jessie. This is like, no one's ever made homemade ice cream for me. But the thing is, we're doing... What was this?

It's eaten into the whole time with emeralds the fucking bloody piece you could have just had a banana I'm gonna I think it's gonna be delicious

I think it's gonna be well I don't think you'd tell us even if it wasn't of course I wouldn't no exactly because you're lovely you know this is gonna be the most delicious thing

no it isn't I don't think it is because it should be much more whippy so I want to know did you go on the date with the Domino's guy? I wish. No. Did he sound like a kind of...

He sounded like a great guy. This is another rom-com in the Make It Emerald. I feel like we're just doing a bit of a brainstorm here today. I should say, it sounds like I'm boasting. Why? Because the Domino's pizza man asked me out on a date, but I must say... Oh, don't look at me. I should say, he never saw me.

We never saw each other in real life. We only spoke on the phone. Well, I mean, look, your order and your voice, I think that was it. No, I mean, the order of my voice made me rightly and a fair reflection of the facts at the time, but I was in absolute state. I was really hungover and miserable and sort of... Yeah, but...

No, I didn't go on... Well, no, because I was with my boyfriend. Slash now husband. Oh, sweet. So I've never been on a date with anyone, basically. Oh, Mum, you know what? It's quite good. Oh!

It's quite good, but I think it's maybe the double cream on top of it. Oh, my God. That works really nicely. But if you whipped it, if I... Oh, my God, it's so good. Oh, Mum, it is quite good. Oh, it's really good. It's not bad, is it? No not bad is it no so that's literally just bananas just bananas a bit of lemon no not even just from some bananas and then but i do think the double cream on top just is like hits it yeah

but double but double cream is basically medicine. It's good for you. I take it all back. I don't know what I'm talking about. It was worth it. I take it back. If you'd let me do it a bit longer, it would have been whippier. I actually quite like it this way. Because I'm getting a little kind of al dente. Yeah, it's got a bit of a...

It's quite chewy. Yeah. Mum, it's really good. All right, I apologise quite chewy. Yeah. Mum, I told you so much. It's really good. All right, I apologise. I apologise. Do you cook every day? All the time?

Yeah. Have you always? Even if I'm on my own. Really? Yeah. That is amazing. What would be the dish that you would cook if you did cook? I would make...

It's usually cakes. I'd make a cake, probably. Or anything by Nigel Slater. I love Nigel Slater. Love so much. Yeah, me too. I'd love to meet him. Me too.

The recipe book that he's got where it's not that many ingredients. Yeah. Really easy to eat. Is it eat? I really like it it i never remember what anything's called we've got the kind of seasonal one oh yeah it's just like it's just beautiful he writes so beautifully i love toast so much and i think really if it's got vegetables cheese and carbs i can do without i could be a vegetarian i think probably really well i say that i'm not so

probably not um emerald fennel i'm gonna answer this question for you but i'm gonna let you answer it's got great manners emerald fennel do you think you've got good table manners definitely not what okay i think i'm the most polite lovely that's very kind but elbows on the table. Oh, but I just don't think that's... Eating, I eat preferably with a spoon hunched over the food, and I will eat it, I won't look at anyone until it's done. Like, the way that I eat is not... You focus on the job in hand. Sexy, yeah. Like, a male friend once said that it was, like, distressing to have dinner with me.

And he's not wrong so I hope that I mean yeah I don't think they are very good I like food too much to be polite so okay when you're not going to Maccadie's or PrEP or it's so where when your schedule

is a little less mental will you be going for a lovely dinner out I will go Wait, Sue. Where, when your schedule is a little less mental, will you be going for a lovely dinner out? I will go to the Quality Chop House. Oh, yeah. My very, very good old friend, Will, it's his restaurant. So Will is one of the first people I ever met at university. And we became friends because this really dates, mean this dates our friendship very much i quoted the mighty boosh which at the time was a very underground underground comedy hit and he overheard it

and turned around said mighty boosh i was just like you know being at university what time what a time anyway it's cliffstone as well yeahipstone as well. Yeah, Clipstone in Portland. Yeah, in Portland. And there was one in the centre of town that I don't know if it's still there. No, no, no, not that one. Yeah, there was one near an auction house as well. It's the Italian place. Yeah, it's delicious.

It was really good. My brain's gone, this is... But you could get to Clipstone easily from the Palladium. Yeah, but I think for me, quality shop, there's something so... I mean mean I love all of them also because it's so it sounds so silly but whenever your friends do something like that you know it's just such an amazing achievement to have a restaurant and one that's like so good like so actively good and I'm so just like proud to know him um and so and not only do I

love the restaurants but I think quality chop has so like romantic and the food is they just bring you like a hunk of meat and sides and do it really well yeah it's just sort of it's like as close to going to somebody's house for dinner i think as a restaurant could be so that's where i'd like to go with all my friends I love that good luck with Cinderella thank you good luck with the birth good luck with

trying to have some some time off thank you and thank you for being here oh my god of course thank you for having me I love the podcast so much and

I'm just eating I'm still no I'm eating too I'm looking at the clock like shoveling this in. I could have had Emerald for now on stay. For a weekend. For my life.

I liked her so much such good fun do you want to be her best friend jess i do actually i'm going to see how that works is the most gorgeous voice it's so beautiful when you listen to her speak i don't know whether we got it but the story about the dominoes delivery man asking her out on a date because she used to order so many dominoes when she was at uni you're kidding amazing so cinderella's in previews next week yeah every rehearsal is now and then they don't know when actually official they are going to open half capacity and then they'll open full capacity hopefully on july 19th and if you haven't seen promising young on the moment to find a subscription service such as mum did and go and watch don't get 10 of them but yeah it is so worth watching it's fantastic she wrote it

i thought it was based on a book but she actually wrote thought up the whole thing absolutely love that she's now going off to the to um the west end must be quite exciting yes sit and watch everyone do their thing yeah absolutely and i also just want to take this moment to say hello to the pastry chef at the river cafe because those little pastries that you sent down were fabulous as good as my banana ice cream mom i i've been a fool it was really good it's good isn't it but i do think it needed the double cream on top maybe i would have put double cream in it because the problem was I froze them so hard,

I couldn't defrost them. So I should have let them defrost just slightly because when Sarah did it, it was like Mr. Whippy ice cream. It was absolutely amazing. I very much enjoyed it. Yeah, it was good, wasn't it? Especially with no calories. It's not like false calories in there.

It's like banana. I don't know, when you add half a bloody cup of double cream on it. Maybe, but whatever. It was really good. I am going to go home now. I'll see you in probably five, six days. Are you going to take your birthing pool with you? Yes, I'm going to take my birthing pool with me.

Good. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next week the music you've heard on table manners is by Peter Duffy and Pete Fraser table manners is produced by Alice Williams