Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - S16 Ep 29: Minnie Driver

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

This week we have award winning actress and podcaster Minnie Driver with us for brunch. British born Minnie has lived in Malibu, California for many years, so we swapped all of our tips of the best places to visit after our adventures last week. We found out all about the caravan park Minnie lives in, her love of surfing and being in nature, her struggles with hiding from fame and paparazzi, releasing music and touring, the school pet pig Clodvig, teaching Americans what custard is(!), and how the wonderful dog Riley saved her life in the water! Minnie your life sounds like an absolute dream, grab us a couple of surfboards, we’ll see you in Malibu soon. Minnie’s podcast ‘Minnie Questions with Minnie Driver’ is currently in its third series and 'The Serpent Queen' will be released on Starz this summer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to Table Manners. I'm Jessie Ware and I am here in Clapham. Looking relaxed. I am relaxed, Lenny. We've had much feedback on our wine tasting. Oh yeah. Can I just say that Matt was really delightful. Poor sweet Matt. And I don't think those little clips do him justice because he was the sweetest, nicest man. So you really need to listen to the episode because he's so knowledgeable and so nice and so tolerant.

I can't really remember anything he said, but he was brilliant and I love Cornell Wine Company. Me too. And just if you are going to be in California, it's such a spot. Now, speaking of another California gal, we have Minnie Driver on today. I wanted to talk about something first.

Oh, sorry. I think I've got podcast neck. What do you mean? I've got a pain in that side of my neck and someone said, do you twist your neck a lot to the right? And of course I do when we're doing the podcast. I always sit in one place and I'm looking like that.

Mum, I hate to break it to you. it's like twice a week and for two hours. Podcast next. So why don't you swivel today? I'm going to swivel. No, with your swivel chair. I've been recommended a wobble cushion. What's a wobble cushion? You sit on it and it keeps your back from being quite mobile.

It helps your back be mobile. Mrs. Wobble the waitress.. Mrs Wobble the waitress. Mrs Wobble the waitress. I guess I can't really do anything about that really, unless we were in a round table like the traitors. Yeah. Sorry. It doesn't matter.

I'll cope. So we have a Brit that does live in California, I believe. She's now American. Oh, she's American. She gave up nationality, British nationality. Oh, interesting. Took on American. We shall ask her all about it.

We've got Minnie Driver joining us for a spot of brunch. You've been on Cooking Duty, Mum. Yeah. So, Minnie Driver has her own podcast called Minnie Questions with Minnie Driver. She gets massive names. She's going to be in a TV show called Serpent Queen. She's playing Queen Elizabeth. I'm really looking forward to having Minnie Driver on.

Loved her in Starstruck, which we love. We've had both Rose and Nick Esh on. But she played the RC agent of Tom, the character in it. And she was so good in it. Yeah, I miss that. I miss that too. Maybe it's coming back. No, it won't.

Maybe she can tell us. Rose said, I bumped into Rose at the theatre. Did you? And I said, Rose, should I know what you're going to say, Lenny? Not happy about the ending. And I said, should I know what you're going to say Lenny not happy about the ending and I said is it coming back oh she kind of didn't commit but I didn't feel she was what's on the menu mum um so is brunch yeah my face luckily we didn't get the memo that she is a vegetarian we just were told she doesn't eat red meat.

Oh, she's a veggie. She's a veggie. Luckily, I've cooked... Don't put any parmesan in there today. Luckily, I've cooked a veggie meal. That's very unusual for you. It is very unusual. Sarah Pascoe's rubbed off well on you.

So I did... Well, asparagus is here at the minute. So I've made an asparagus frittata. Delish. I've made... I had lots of Greek yoghurt, so I made labneh. Look at you, sustainable, Sue. Labneh. You've made, I had lots of Greek yoghurt so I made labneh. You're sustainable Sue. Labneh. You've been straining with a muslin. Yeah last night and I didn't have any zata so I looked it up and I've made it. I've done a kind of deconstructed peperonata so it's kind of

roasted peppers with roasted tomatoes. Celebrity master chef. Here we come. Well, I've been watching a lot of it. So I put some capers on and I was going to put anchovies on. But she won't. Does she not eat them? I'd love a bit of anchovy on there. Me too.

I'll ask her if she wants to have anchovy on. If she does, then I can put anchovy on. And then I've done, I know you wanted me to make aioli, but it is 11 in the morning and I don't know about if she's got other people to see today raw garlic might not be the thing fair enough so I've made a Dijon mayonnaise dressing and I'll see if she likes parmesan I'll put parmesan on little gem lettuces um so I've got that's it and then that's loads i made an almond cake jesus which is looks delicious and i'm going to give you a secret when i took it out it split in half so i shoved it back

together again so it looks all in one piece i was trying to get the paper off the bottom yeah and it split just like because it's quite a gooey it looks a bit like it's going to taste a bit like the inside of an almond croissant which is my favourite, like quite gooey so when I picked it up to try it kind of split but I shoved it back together

and it's going to have icing sugar on and it'll be fine and I've got some cream to go with that. Oh and Alice because it's Passover I didn't have any bread in the house so lovely Alice brought some bread my over a fiver uh mini driver coming up on take them on this Mini Driver. Hello. Hello.

Welcome. You look fantastic. Yeah. Really gorgeous. Thank you. I'm old. No. You're not old.

Why do you look younger than me? This is really like, you need to tell me what you're doing because you look fabulous. Thank you. You have come in with Lily of the Valley, which smells delish. You said it means something. Yeah, I didn't know I didn't Google it. We've got to Google it. I thought lilies meant death, so I'm like...

No, not those are the big white lilies. The big white ones. Yeah, those big... Not Lily of the Valley. Can someone Google what Lily of the Valley means? Lily of the Valley means... Yeah, it means something. It's something nice.

And I feel like they were the original flower that you held when you got married. Like the beginning. And I think there's fertility and there's something in it. But maybe we'll Google it. What are you trying to say? I mean, I'm done with kids. And Lenny, I think you're done with kids. But you could marry Minnie.

No, but there's always like, you know, we could be fertile in other areas. Creatively fertile. Symbol of purity, joy, love, sincerity. Oh God, good luck. You've come to the wrong house, Minnie. There we go. That's why I brought it. we could be fertile in other areas creatively fertile purity joy love sincerity oh god good luck you come to the wrong house there we go that's why i brought it i brought it as an encouragement it's like sage yeah mom are you pure are you joyful are you that's me darling are you happy mom pure and joy yeah um how are you minnie i'm all right i am all i am all right actually yeah i'm in a weird um in between work period which i'm now learning to really enjoy as opposed to feel this huge pressure and threat that i'm not working which i realized just the engine of my whole life, it's around work. So I'm now waking up every day going, brilliant, I have nothing to do.

What am I going to do? So what have you been doing as new hobbies that have been taken up? Or not even that, are you just watching telly in bed? Actually, no. If I did that and it was the daytime I I wouldn't I would feel sad oh I because I've lived in Los Angeles for like 27 years I so you get up at six and have your dinner at five exactly yeah I walk everywhere in London I walk or I cycle everywhere and I've have I've had a whole lifetime of not doing that and that is absolutely amazing and I often do what my mum

did which she did during Covid where she just had a big um map and she would look for where green spaces were and then she would either put her bike in her car and take it to the green space or she'd cycle there um because she was in her 80s during Covid. But I now do that. I look for green spaces that I haven't cycled before and I go there. Do you look for green spaces that have good little cafes and coffee shops that are not that bust? Do you know what? I sort of trust in London that I'll find that. Like, you just do. You come across bakeries and coffee shops and places.

You sound like you're on holiday. I like it. I think that's the way of looking at being in between why are you here exactly i know it's a really good question i mean why do you mean that like do you mean that like in the larger sense because i could go down that road well you live in you live in la i live between i live between here okay i live between the Pacific Ocean and London, I've got to tell you Los Angeles is just a suburb of the Pacific that is how I've always seen it I live by the sea

in what a lot of people would consider a sort of holiday caravan but it's my I live right on the beach where I surf and live and that's how I've stayed In Malibu? We've just been there Have you? Yeah. We came back two weeks ago.

It's heaven in Malibu. It's my favourite place on earth. It's heaven. If I was a wealthy woman, I'd buy one of those houses. Well, by the way, you have to be more wealthy than... It's ridiculous now. I bought my place 22 years ago when it wasn't as popular. Well, I also live in a mobile home.

Like, it's not a... I don't live in one of those good child-friendly houses. So how far are you near Reel Inn? Or are you near the country mart? I basically keep going north. I'm, like, in North Malibu. So you go past the little Malibu Seafood, which is on your right.

You go past the 76 station. You go up to a place called Point Doom, and that's where I live. I heard Point Doom's got a good food spot. Yeah's got a good burrito yes lilies lilies lilies is the best is the best burrito in fact an actress who shall remain nameless uh drove her car into lilies managed not to kill anybody but lilies was shut for the longest time and we it was really, really, really terrible. It was really good that no one got hurt. And yeah, she ruined the local burrito joint for a really long time.

Shit. Yeah. So lucky no one was hurt. Do you like burritos? Yeah, I love them because I surf. And when you've surfed, when you've been in the water for like four hours, what you want is something... You are so hungry when you get

out and what you want is something big immediate and delicious and that is a burrito and a really well-made burrito i still need to talk about the mobile home bit so well that was all i could afford in malibu okay so 20 to 20 this is my 23rd year there there's all i couldn't afford one of the 60 million dollar then now there are 120 million dollar the the houses there in Malibu and I used to surf I lived in Hollywood and I used to get up really early drive out to Malibu surf and then it's very it's it's very different now the little country mart it used to be what they would call mom and pop stores and restaurants and now it's yeah it's properly sort of for the for expensive shops for tourists which even the tourists don't

want to buy long van out in malibu it's absurd but anyway i went into this coffee shop and there was a girl working there and i was saying she was like where do you live i was like i live in hollywood so you surf i was like yeah i was like how does anyone how does anyone like afford to live out here like if I could like I could I could afford something little but you can't even do that here and she said oh my parents live in this mobile home park it's amazing do you want me to call my dad and I was like yeah go on and like her dad came down and we went back and I'll never forget driving in it was like the community that I'd grown up with where there were kids on bikes and skateboards in the street there were older people there were people chatting doors were open it was like the complete apotheosis of

Hollywood and Los Angeles and I went and I immediately knew like I have to live here I have to find a way I have to find a way and then I went to the bluff which is where everybody sort of meets and drinks their coffee to check the waves in the morning and it was just these this perfect right hand break and then there were breaks all the way as far as I could see and I I just knew I had to do anything I could to live there and I obviously so you do you go there you visit there and then you live in Hollywood I used to and then I sold my house in Hollywood during Covid so that we could move here and get a place okay and now that place is our home in Malibu so does your son go to school in Malibu?

He goes to school in England now. Okay. So when we moved here, we meant to do it for a term, like September to Christmas, and then let's see if the schools open back in California again, and they didn't. So we were like, okay, well, let's finish out the school year. And then my mother died very unexpectedly in that time I know it was

it wasn't COVID actually it was completely unrelated very sudden in retrospect exactly how she would have liked to go she was she wrote she wrote she she rode her bike to to Chelsea Westminster you know to the emergency room and she was gone 10 days later but that that was right for my mum who was the most uh adventurous engaged um fantastically spirited person um but our whole life changed when she died. And I took Henry down to the school that I'd gone to, where my mum had also gone. We went to plant her a tree in memoriam. And Henry just took one look at the school and, like,

you know, there's, like, there's a soundboard and you can book time in the studio. There's a full, like, recording studio and, like, this incredible library and this beautiful theatre and it's all built around this apple orchard with kids sitting out sort of chatting in between lessons and it was it's called Bidale's yeah yeah and then and then Henwen he was like could you afford to send me here and I was like you know yeah we will see how it goes for sure let's if you want to I was like I can't believe you want to go to a boarding school like you really want to go to a boarding

school this is my kid who's doesn't even really like sleepovers and and he loves it and he and he does but BDales is quite special it's a special special place and it's not it's so funny um there are people who kind of curl their lip up uh when or look blankly and they're like oh yeah bee dales when I say that he goes there or I go there and then there are people who smile and go oh that's a that's an interesting environment or but it's it's a it is it's a special it's a special place. It's very independent thinking. So then you spend holidays in... So now I go back because I go back whenever I just can't bear the grey. November is really brutal.

It is brutal. I don't... I think January and February kills you. It is. It's very, very, very hard. And it's not for the faint of heart. I'm not built that way. I don't think I ever was. Who got you into surfing?

It was a function of that I've always been in the water my whole life. And I'd done it a bit when I was a kid but then really in my late 20s my early 30s I think when I was 30 so it started quite late but I'd already been up on a surfboard but I started properly surfing when I was like 29 30 and it was how I managed to stay that was also like uh coincided with being really really famous and realizing how impossible that is for a human to like maintain their humanity and and be famous and I didn't know how you did that was that post Goodwill Hunter yeah and it was like post post that and like vicious vicious press and vicious kind of cycle of um like this idea that you should be grateful you should be grateful you should be grateful and yet you're sort of dying inside a bit and yet everyone's telling you how ungrateful you are and that you should get

your shit together but you ungrateful for what? For feeling... For not wanting it. For not knowing how to deal with the attention and for not understanding how to navigate, whether it's standing up for yourself on a set or standing up for yourself in the... Like, there was just... There was no recourse. There was no accountability.

And you weren't allowed to say, I'm finding this really difficult. Is that the same in the states as it is here yeah I think because here I think they are very critical of people who become famous and we like to take people down yeah definitely people who do well we somehow don't really want people to do well I think also because I went to the states yeah that was also seen as how dare you leave you jumped up and they wanted me to get a nose job and have had a boob job and I I didn't so then it had to be well you've got to be some sort of shallow

imbecile to want to go and be in Los Angeles and Los Angeles is actually just a it's a it's a lovely place that is a one-horse. Like it is, it is an industry town. Like it is about that, but it's not, it's not fake. In actual fact, it's extraordinarily sort of clear about what it is. And it's not for everyone,

but I always found there was something very honest about LA. It doesn't, it doesn't pretend to be anything else. Whereas the people maybe do, but LA is a place yeah LA LA itself and California itself like the the wonder of like the mountains and the ocean it's gorgeous I love it can I ask you about your dinner table when you were younger who was sitting around it and what was a really memorable dish that you were eating well we it was it was funny because when my parents split up it was a very two very very different households my mum by absolutely her choice she wouldn't take a penny from my dad and so she we really had no money living with mum and then my dad who was by himself

um was very wealthy so it was a strange there were two very different tables and the table with my dad was in restaurants where which became extremely familial because we'd always go to the same place and then with mum it was the food that she grew in the garden and what was at the butchers and what was at the farm. So there it was very, very delicious. Where did you grow up? So with mum in Hampshire and then my dad was in Barbados or in London. Oh, wow. Yeah.

Yeah, it was quite different. Is that where you got your love of the water from Barbados? I think also from my mum. And that was in like your love of the water? Yeah. I think also from my mum and that was in like the sea at West Wittering and so any water I don't mind if it's cold or warm. Is there an east and a west because they call them the Witterings don't they? So we were in West Wittering. Okay and there was an east? And there is an east Wittering yeah. Okay. Yeah and I think I think West Wittering is quite fancy now I think with a whole the Wittering is quite. But then it was, you know, it's grey sand and you have to walk for about a quarter of a mile

to actually get to the beginning of the water when the tide's out. And freezing and lovely. And she, mum cooked, like mum cooked everything. And it was very fun pulling up vegetables that she would then cook I always remember there was never quite enough food she cooked delicious food but she was you know if there were two little tiny lamb chops because that's when I still ate meat it was never quite enough but it was delicious which is probably where I get my I have quite a big appetite where was your memorable restaurants your dad used to take

so my dad used to take us to a place called the Mirabelle which was um on Curzon Street in Mayfair and I think I remember it it was fancy it was very fancy but it what was so funny was my dad, because he would only go to the same places, they became like a diner for him. And I don't mean that to sound... It was quite expensive. Yes, it was. But I think he was like a... What was your order? Oh my God.

Sorry. No, no, he was by himself and I think they offered, like he knew all the waiters by, he knew their wives, he knew the busboys, he knew the maitre d', he knew the barman. They were all his friends and I think he would go and sit in there and he would make lunch last through the afternoon and into dinner so as not to be by himself. So there was this very familiar and it was funny, you know, there weren't little children at the Mirabal. It was fancy people eating their

lunch and they made us they made us you know they made they would make like a a chicken milanese with like a pomodoro sauce and then they'd make these big steak chips that they'd stack up like jenga which we would then play Jenga with which was really fun with my sister and then creamed spinach you know it was very kind of in a way which is basically a chicken nugget with cream with chips and creamed spinach like it is it was traditional Italian food yeah yeah it was delicious but I think I can't remember if the if i'd actually have no idea what kind of food they served because that was what you always always ate and i never went there as an adult it was only as a little child are you hungry yeah i'm hungry okay should we should we should we

um have you you you you have a podcast i do have a podcast how I do have a podcast. How do you choose your guests? So there's two things. There's people that I'm interested in, and there's people I'm interested in hearing how they will answer my questions. And I love now, what I love is, because I started out doing it in COVID,

so it was essentially for me and then the people who were stuck at home. But now, whether it's people that I don't know or whether it's my friends texting or DM going, ooh, that was a bit uphill, wasn't it? Or, oh my God, I loved that one. And who was that neuroscientist? I can't believe that you had a neuroscientist.

Oh my God, I had no idea that Lucy Boynton was the most considered, lovely, intellectually spirited person. I thought she was just a beautiful actress. I like what it seems to inspire in the people that listen. Or I always listen to your podcast when I'm on my run. It makes me go running because I know I'll listen to your podcast and I'll be out for 40 minutes or whatever. I don't know.

It just is like a nice... Right, help yourself. This is asparagus frittata. Delicious. That's labneh. Lovely. Lenny strained with her own muslin. Yeah, with my own muslin. Did you really? Yeah, it's easy. Len Lovely. But Lenny strained with her own muslin. Yeah, with my own muslin.

Did you really? Yeah. That's easy. Lenny. So easy. I feel like your mum would have done that. By the way, she had the old cheesecloth going. She put a hook in above the kitchen table for her cheesecloth over to make cheese, to make ricotta, to make nut milk,

which back in the 70s was just like the most... Oh, wow, she was doing it back then. Yeah, yeah. Oh, I've got your oat milk if you need it. She... Oh. That's so nice. Right here.

That's so nice. Do help yourself. So that's labniff. Jess, can you cut some bread? Yeah, bread. Delicious. Tomato and caper's my favorite thing yeah in the world um now mini we ask everybody so just start thinking about this yeah we ask everybody

what their last supper is yeah no i know okay i got hurt i knew that question in advance so i i presume you've prepped i did but it's so funny i did it last night when I was making the saddest dinner of all dinners. What were you making? My dinner last night was, I'm not joking, yogurt and granola and blueberries because I didn't have anything and that was it. I'd been out all day and I came back starving and that was that. So I was thinking about what my last meal would be.

And it would be, and again, it is a bit proustian but it's it would be the roast chicken that my mother made every sunday and that i make as every as much every sunday as i can and she taught me to make the most important part of any roast meal, I think, is the gravy. Right. And she did teach me to make the most delicious gravy and how to properly roast potatoes. And that celeriac pureed with butter and salt and pepper is unmatched in its deliciousness and any kind of greens that you've got from a farmer's market that are fresh and still sort of crispy and juicy dark greens will be delicious in with under gravy what is your secret for your gravy then well what i've realized over the years and what's so funny

is that chickens used to make so much more water because you realized they were they were just they were pumped with water but even the ones from down the road it's funny they they i guess they did they never made that much juice so the trick is you have to have made a bone broth from a chicken to then have that as a really really really heavily reduced delicious stock to then add to the all the pan juices of the chicken i take the chicken out have the big baking tray take out all my veg but then all the onion and garlic is still in it pour in some of my homemade stock, then put my flour in and cook the flour, really boil it, whisk it, then taste it, chuck in some wine, burn off the wine. Yeah.

And then it's really sort of salt and pepper, and as long as I've reduced it and as long as I've kind of seasoned the chicken really really really well and seasoned the vegetables it's the most delicious gravy on earth god that lapper by the way is delicious it's really good mom absolutely delicious so easy is it yeah it's just greek yogurt bit of salt you hang it up in the muslin for how long it comes out mine was up for about three hours yesterday and then mint i put mint on it she made her she made her own zata because i didn't have any and i looked it up and it seemed quite easy this this the the roasted peppers with capers and tomatoes it so

reminds me of the 90s why it's like i swear delia smith had a recipe you used to do it all the time but i feel like it was like a 90s staple for like when you were bringing something to a party do you know what i mean i like this the anchovies and the capers that's my favorite pizza in the whole world is a napoletana you know black olives anchovies capers where'd you go for your pizza i don't know in london i don't know i know in california okay where's your california spot well my mate has a pizza night on a friday night her husband makes the dough in the morning and they did they they got this oven and they literally had it shipped from Italy. It is the most incredible oven

and we sit outside and she makes these very, very thin with hot honey. My God, the hot honey. Hot honey? Hot honey. So chili honey. Goat's cheese.

Yeah, all different. So there's like, I don't do the Parma ham one, but they do one with prosciutto and hot honey. But she does one with a white pizza with shrimp. That is the most delicious thing. That sounds like it shouldn't work. So it's kind of like pesto, white, so it's sharp.

Yum. It's incredible. Yum. Absolutely incredible. Is this an actress or is it a surfer? No, she is a surfer. She's a big studio executive who surfs, and I know her from the water,

which is the best place to forge friendships for me in Hollywood. I love that. Because if you meet someone in the water, they know that you are a particular kind of person and you know that they are a particular kind of person, and nobody talks about Hollywood in the water. Have you ever seen other Hollywood actors in the water? Yeah, I have.

And also, do you know who I'm going to name and shame right now? Do it. Because I could give a fucking shit. Name them. Do you know who... Okay, first of all, I need to tell you what dropping in on someone is. In the water, there is an etiquette... This is the fucking hot tea.

There is an etiquette when you surf that people follow and it is largely for safety it's also because of respect and it's just how shit works and what happens when you paddle out first of all you don't take the first wave that comes because you've just paddled out you let it cycle through the people that are already there oh so it's like a kind of queuing system. 100%. Because it's dangerous otherwise. So here's the deal. If you're sitting and if there's someone ahead of you, so basically someone, if you're going right on a wave,

if there is someone to your left, they have priority. And you have to wait. If they start having for the wave. It's like a roundabout. Exactly. It's like a roundabout so it's a really shitty thing to do to drop in on

somebody and there are all kinds of fights and bad things happen in the water when people do that and it's shitty so people try not to do that anyway Diplo doesn't Diplo doesn't not try to do that. Diplo dropped in on me last summer

that I, so many times, on his stupid phone board, with, I couldn't, and he was out with a mate of mine, so I wasn't allowed to say, would you fucking stop it and have some respect? Also, you can't surf. i was so annoyed i'm gonna get

i'm gonna get class oh my god i love i'm so i'm so sorry but like it really no i'm gonna get in trouble for saying that but no he needs to learn but it's also like if you're gonna come to malibu and like buy your big house and suddenly consider yourself a surfer and paddle out and piss off the people that have lived there for years you're gonna get outed on a podcast so anyway diplo i'm coming for you this summer look out will you will you what's it drop in on him ever just as and flip the bird um do you know what this is going to sound so sanctimonious. I would really try not to do that. I would really rather go over and go, look, mate, not sure if you're aware of the rules,

but, like, don't be a dick out here. I'd rather shame him rather than go and do what he did. But, yeah, if I come across him again and he does it again, then I would. It's also... I was going to ask do you know Dip though because I remember him talking about living in Malibu because he loved surfing you know what and stealing her waves but by the way and not just me it was anybody it's that you know what it is it's the level of entitlement I didn't get waves for years I literally would paddle out

I would try and get waves I wouldn't get waves and a bunch of old guys took pity on me and eventually after like six or seven months of paddling out and not wait having to wait till everybody got out until I would get waves these old guys were like I'll give you a set wave which is like the big waves that come through but if you don't make it you're not going to get another one have you ever had any kind of terrifying moments no definitely I mean but it didn't put you off no I mean yeah definitely I've bust I've got I've got busted ribs and that was probably the scariest thing that ever happened was like busting my rib I hit my board really I got clamshelled in a wave. So basically if you're on a wave and it, it kicked up, I was already on it. It looked fine, but it kicked up a couple of feet and then it just shut like that.

So it sort of shot on my head and it slammed me down on my board and I bust my ribbon. The only thing about that is you can't get a breath in. And my neighbor's dog actually jumped my neighbor's amazing dog jumped in the water and basically came and like started trying to get me out of the water and alerted him that i was in trouble because i was out by myself it was really wow it taught me to never i will never actually it's not true i surf alone all the time but i i would not go out when it was big by myself ever again what was the dog's name riley he's still alive yeah yeah he's a shepherd lab mix what an amazing he was amazing he was trying to sort of grab me and like nose me back onto my board does your son surf he does henry surfs how did he take instruction? Was he, like, quite good with it? By the way, he just figured it out for himself. I used to try, and then he completely resisted

and was like, I'm never going to surf, I'm not going to do it. And then he just started... One day, he just picked up a board and he went out, and I couldn't believe it, he just jumped right up. And I was like okay you mentioned you had a pet pig well there was a pig at my school and she was beloved. What was her name? Clodvig. Wow. Yeah.

Clodvig. She was... Was she Welsh? She wasn't Welsh. It sounds like a Welsh name. Clodvig's a Celtic... Clodvig was a king. Clodvig was actually a male.

And my friend Polly had a... Did she have a cat called Clodvig? Anyway, I think that's where I got the name from. And that's what I called her. And I loved her. And I've never been able to eat... I've really never been able to eat pigs because I loved her so much. But so now it's just a bit...

Pigs are clever, aren't they? They're very clever. Yeah. Very, very, very clever indeed. Of all of them, they're clever. Do you have a sweet tooth? Yeah. Would you like a little bit of almond,

gluten-free almond cake? I don't. I just want it. Would you like... I want lab nut on the cake. But that's true, right? You can take that home if you want. But can't I put some lab nut on the almond cake?

It's got salt in it. Well, that might be quite nice. If you want it. Has it got like ground... I mean, yeah, if you just ignore the herbs on the top, like, yeah, sod it. I quite like that.

You do. That sort of medicinally herby... Do you like a Jagerbomb? No, that is cough medicine. That's disgusting. I know they are disgusting. Jager. What is your tipple?

Jessie, are you going to have some? Well, it's tequila, isn't it? It really is. It's a Reposado tequila on the rocks with lime and I can make it last a really long time because I let the ice melt. What brand? Look, I know there's

everyone in there, everyone in their girlfriend has got a tequila out but I'm an old school casamigos casamigos reposado and they've also got this new um thanks god what's it called they've got a new one that's white but it's not a blanco it's like somewhere between a naniejo and a reposado and it's delicious it's my favorite that and a beer i want the i want both those things in my hand i want a pacifico beer and I want a tequila

on the rocks and I want to be on the beach and I want to have just surfed Does anybody want Basta Perni? Yeah I will, it was something I'm kind of falling in love with you I would like want to marry you Minnie the way that you live your life No one's wanted to marry me

except one person wanted to marry me and we didn't end up getting married but no one has wanted to marry me except one person wanted to marry me. And we didn't end up getting married. But no one has wanted to marry me. But I do have a boyfriend who is the great love of my life. And even though he doesn't want to get married, for lots of very hilarious reasons, my favorite being, and I quote, he said, why would I want to be in a thruple with the state of California? So we live, uh, he said something so beautiful the other day when I was sad about not getting married. And he said, he said, is it because you think that I would, I would leave you that if, because we're not married. And I was like, I don't know, maybe it's something like that. And he said, don't you know that if we were ever not together if you ever left me there's just

a mini and henry shaped hole that would just close up behind you and there wouldn't be anything else and then the ring who nearly kept he's definitely not marrying you can i tell you what i said is please can we just have a party because Because I want the dancing and the speeches. Yeah. That's all I want. And the food. I just want an outdoor. I want a barbecue and lanterns in the trees

and big long tables and floorboards and the grass with the sea right there and everybody dancing and my band playing and us playing music all night and people in tents. Your band? Which band is that? I mean, I've played music. I mean, I feel weird saying that to you, but I've played music, like, my whole life.

And we did used to tour and do stuff. What was the name of the band? Well, it was just me. And we, I put some records out, and we opened for Crowded House, well, for the Finn Brothers, around England and Ireland and we toured North America and they're all they're all my great friends who are now in I mean they were always the most brilliant musicians and they're all in other bands but we get together and we play still sometimes would you but that's who would play would be they would all i would insist

they all came off tour and came to my wedding my not wedding i think you should do it i think it's good idea i think it is what would be your first dance non-dance first non-dance non-first dance uh jesus etc by Wilco it's one of the most beautiful songs ever Wilco are they like the DJ lot no Jeff Tweedy yeah who's that

Jeff Tweedy is an amazing musician who started this band he used to be in a band called Uncle Tupelo then he started the band Wilco and Nels Klein who is the guitarist, for me, the greatest guitarist in the whole world. So worth listening to. You'll be very happy when you put your headphones in

and you listen to Jesus, etc. There's something distant and romantic and lovely about that song. Are you a hippie? Yes. Do you think everyone should be hippies Minnie Driver? no I think everybody should do whatever the fuck they want which is probably the most hippie-ish thing I really do think

whatever makes you happy if it doesn't hurt somebody you've done better in Topanga Canyon it's too far away you get stuck you get stuck by rock falls and landslides in Topanga. That's why I never lived there. There's all landslides all the way along that bloody Pacific Coast Highway.

And it's been a nightmare because it's been down to one lane. I know, it's been, it was awful. I love that you were just there. I know, it was hellish. I didn't move. Can I ask, we didn't get your sweet. Oh, so again, you know, forgive the whole Proustian. Can I use your spoon to put this on?

This is yummy, Mum. It really is delicious. It doesn't taste as almondy as I thought it would. It tastes great. And it's just almonds. Love it. It's absolutely delicious. I love it.

We used to have this fruit cage that my mum, obviously to stop the birds getting all the fruit, and we had every known fruit in there, currants and blackberries and black currants, raspberries, strawberries. And so to stop the birds, she built this big fruit cage and we get sent out to go and pick. And I remember just being little in amongst all of those bushes picking fruit and then she'd make with the juice running down your face and then she'd make a crumble oh she made crumble

I think crumble's great all the fruit and she would make a crumble out of all she'd never go you should have only got the red currants or you should have only got the thing she just put everything. That is so incredibly delicious.

A crumble with homemade custard. That is so extraordinarily delicious. I make that in America and people are like, what is this sauce? Is this creme anglaise? Like, what is this? And I'm like, no, it's custard. They don't know what custard is that a custard custard in america is like a frozen like a frozen sort of dessert a custard it's really

weird like frozen custard but custard is a pouring thing doesn't exist except it does because they call it creme anglaise in fancy restaurants but you can't get gravy powder or stock cubes. That's really hard to find. No, but they have like broth. They have the broth in the pot. But you have to buy the broth. I'm not anti that. Well, I am because you don't use it all. And then you've got half thing open of broth. By the way, that's a really good point.

I use half of it and then I freeze the rest. And I know you're not supposed to, but try I put it in when I get a big thing of broth. Like put it in ice cubes I decant it into smaller bags like alright that's a little hack for everyone. Where's your favourite shopping? I mean. Do you go to

Whole Foods all the time? You are going to hate this whole thing but I do sometimes go to the whole foods but there's a farm up the road in malibu and it's up the hill it's down the hill and then up into the canyon and it's a farm and you go and you like you get in line there's a man who sells coffee and you stand in line for your bread and you're in amongst the flower fields so they sell flowers and they all these different vegetables.

And we go on a Saturday morning and there are little dirty kids scrabbling around in the dirt and sometimes there's like an accordion and a guitar player. I mean, it's mad hippie. It sounds great. It's lovely. And you get your bread and you get your veg and your fruit. It sounds like it's near Cornell, the old place. It sounds like it's near the old place or something like that.

Oh, do you know that sup canin? It's down it's actually you carry along along the pch and then you go out okay this place called bush drive um or is it bonsall i can't remember um and so i do tend to do particularly in the summer i'll do that shop on a saturday and then the other stuff i like going to like our our old supermarket that's been there. I like sort of giving them my money. Like who? Not Whole Foods. It's called Pavilions.

It's just like a sort of... Oh, I love Pavilions. I love Pavilions. Can I ask you, what would be a really nostalgic taste from your childhood? Perhaps you've already given me... Oh my God. Coronation chicken. Mmm.

Yeah. Mum used to make that for a picnic. We haven't picnic she would make the coronation chicken did you like it if someone was coming over it's one of those things i'm not sure that i like it i would just eat it because it is what's really not to like it's kind of curry it's creamy it curry, it's creamy, it's chicken, it's sweet. I don't really have an opinion about it. It's just, it is hardwired into my food history. It's kind of, it was celebratory as well. You did it for a party. And deviled eggs, the same thing. When was the last time you had Coronation chicken?

Oh my God, it's going to make me cry. It was when my mum was alive. Oh, Minnie, I'm sorry. She's still there, Minnie. That's so weird. You speak so fondly of her and she seems so vivid. And yeah, I'm so sorry.

She is. I think it's also like being here where it's so lovely. Like you, you guys, it's so nice to, it's so nice hearing you talk to each other oh i'm super like even you telling me to fuck off i bet you didn't tell your mum to fuck off do you know what um i probably i probably didn't i don't know i did i don't know isn't that weird that coronation chicken would

have such a proustian effect i'm sorry where was the last one silly it's totally right like it we should cry over coronation chicken if it reminds us of people that we love like i think everything should be everything should be allowed like when you if you feel it truthfully it should all be allowed i don't think we let ourselves feel deeply enough and end up stuffing it away somewhere and then it comes out at the wrong moment this is you know it sounds like your childhood was so rich in kind of like it sounds like your mum got great memories like amazing memories particularly around food and like discovery and like you were foraging you were I don't know like it sounds like you have so much respect for your mum yeah and you have so many amazing memories and we're really lucky to

have some of them on here so thank you oh you're so welcome god and thank you for that delicious food and it was such a pleasure yummy um i need to ask one little thing yeah you probably don't do karaoke because you're a musician but if you had to do a karaoke song which song would you sing can i tell you that is it is the most brilliant question. And I have with one particular friend of mine, it will be an entire morning going, okay, it's karaoke. What are we going to sing? And then we'll go, okay, now remember that whenever you sing that song,

you're always transposing it and you're singing it lower than the key that it will be in. When you get to karaoke and there is nothing worse than standing up in karaoke and starting to sing a song and then you're like oh no i can start there but i know it's gonna go up to the scene i'm going to be fucked um i really like doing um songs that you can actually sing really well but that are also joyfully entertaining because i think karaoke standing up and wanting everyone to think what an amazing voice you have at karaoke

is a bit weird I'm not for that unless you're like Beyonce I suppose Hank Williams to answer your question John Beliah Goodbye Joe, me gotta go me on my own me gotta go hard for you on the bio oh i like it

no but i like hearing you sing minnie so carry on son of a gun gonna have big fun on the bio it's such a good song it's such a good karaoke song and because it starts with a fiddle and everyone's like oh hello oh it's a bit of oh it's some country what's happening and then everyone feels really jolly right from the get-go and then you can and then it's got a massive chorus that you can go mad on everybody knows the chorus do you see yourself more as a kind of americana gal or like a brit can i tell you this is one of the things that was making last night when i was eating my yogurt and granola like staring out going what is my life i was it was light at like eight o'clock at night and i was staring and i was going what like what am i like where do i belong because i know that i am from here i know

my mother lived here my sister is in my brother their children like what but I sit there just dreaming of the pacific ocean like she's my lover like I dream about her at night like I think of being I think of diving into her like and that that feels like home to me but where you are from is a different kind of of feeling of home you know so I just I just don't think it's one place and it may I feel sad that I don't feel that because I love that people go I am a Londoner I am from here this is my place I will always return like there's something really there's something really tethered about that and i have always felt a bit untethered not in a mental way do you have you're moana you're moana do you have both passports i do yeah i do only because they honestly during the trump administration i started getting threatening uh threatening

correspondence around my green card i was very vocal about how awful he is and how awful he would be. And it was really interesting. And I realized I had, I had an American kid and my life was there. And I was like, I better become a citizen. Which, as my mother said, she was like, God, it's like, it's like you think it's like you're walking into the fire instead of away from it. What are you, some sort of American fireman? I was like, yeah, I suppose. So you say you're out of jobs, but you actually are about to be on telly again. Yes.

Serpent Queen. The Serpent Queen. You're Queen Elizabeth. I'm Queen Elizabeth. No big deal. No big deal at all. Queen Elizabeth I or II? The first.

Okay. Yeah. So did you... Oh, yeah. Queen Elizabeth I or II? The first. The first. Yeah. So did you... Oh, yeah. Was the look... It was absolutely incredible. There was a... The hair and makeup designer is called Jenny Rhodes-McLean

and what she and her extraordinary team created... I had prosthetic eyebrows because I wouldn't... I couldn't bleach my eyebrows. They would all fall out i it just it's just not a good thing to do and then they don't grow back so we did these prosthetic eyebrows and he had the full glassy white face and the clothes and the wigs and it was extraordinary and it's the most amazing show samantha morton plays Catherine de' Medici all these fantastic English actors um where's it going to be on it'll be on so okay so here's the first season no this is the second season

so here's the absolute bastard of how it is released in the UK essentially you can find it through your Amazon Prime that's the easiest way to say it because in America it's just on a channel called stars which is just like part of i've got stars stars isn't that on disney as well it's on amazon exactly so you basically can find it through amazon prime but you i think you have to add it you won't you have to you have to know to look for it which is why it's frustrating for people in the uk but i think season one was worth watching and then season two I know for absolute certain will be worth watching because it's um it is my honestly I think my favorite my favorite character

the serpent queen is Catherine de' Medici who was essentially the sort of de facto queen of France even though her children were the kings um and she's played by Samantha Morton with great vigour and awfulness, you know, in a good way. It's brilliant. It's absolutely brilliant. I highly recommend it. If you like the favourite and you like the great, it's very much in that style, except Justin Hayes, who wrote it. He is an exquisite writer. He was a novelist who then became a screenwriter. He wrote a movie called Revolutionary Road. I've seen that. Yeah, with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. It's a brilliant, brilliant programme.

I urge people to try and find it because it is a bit of a hike to find it, but you will. Can we also talk about the fact that probably Starstruck isn't coming back? No, I know. We loved it. Wasn't it brilliant? You were such a bitch. God, I know, I loved Starstruck isn't coming back. No, I know. I really loved it. Wasn't it brilliant? You were such a bitch.

God, I know, I loved it. It was so good. But she's right to do like a perfect three. We've had them both on. I mean, are they just? Rose is so talented. And Nick Ash is such a lovely man. Oh my God.

He just had a baby. Was he? So Nick Ash, how brilliant to be the sort of, the romantic lead in when Rose had, and all the sort of funny was around, in a way, around her and her flatmate and the whole. Yeah, and taking the piss out of him, really. And he was so graceful.

Yeah. Because it, totally, he kind of had to sit back and let the jokes kind of fly. And he was so generous with it. So generous about doing that. It was wicked. He clever and brilliant and yeah i bet rose was a good girl she's funny she's just very dry very dry she's brilliant she is she's amazing mini driver thank you for being here thank you for educating us thank you for being so open and beautifully honest and um and and loving your food it's been such a pleasure to meet you thank you so much i'm in love thank you such a pleasure darling thank you for making us delicious

food I love mini driver. I think that there should be, like, the mini driver way of life. Jessie, you're going to have to become a surfer to have your way of life. I know, that's the problemo. I'm not willing to. I'm not sure you're a surfer, darling. Jessie, I can't get over her skin. Her skin?

It is smooth like porcelain. And she is gorgeous. And she does not... She looks 10 years younger than she is. Wear sunscreen, kids, and wear a hat. That's what I'm learning. Does she wear a hat when she's surfing? She wears everything when she's surfing. Oh, so she looks like Nicole Kidman when she's out there?

Yes, I think so. I just, what I find fascinating about Minnie Driver is that, you know, you think of her as this big film star from the, what, the 90s that kind of made big splashes excuse the pun and then decides to kind of shun the hollywood life for being a beach bum not a beach bum but you know like i just i find that really fascinating lives in a trailer park didn't have that on my bingo card for mini driver i'm googling if i can afford to buy a mobile home in malibu that's quite quite a good idea, isn't it? Jessica.

Mum. I'll go home. We're moving to Malibu. I wonder how much it would be. Going back to our Abbasok roots, Mum. She asked my number. We're going to be friends. I love it when that happens on this podcast.

Jessie, you're always friends. Love it. Love Minnie Driver. Loved her authenticity. And just she enjoyed being here so much. And I loved hearing about her mum. Me too. She really loved her authenticity and just she i loved her enjoyed being and i loved hearing about her mom she really loved her mom yeah i'm gonna try and be a bit more mini driver today i'll take it slow take it slow gonna catch a wave it was nice today wasn't it it was so yum the food mom was it it was great it was your best brunch yet loved the cake that was easy

Lenny you smacked it today yeah you caught a wave caught a set whatever it is thank you hang five

rip curl hang five I didn't realise there was all that etiquette about queuing for your wave I know it was fascinating and she didn't catch a wave for six months

I'd be like fuck this fuck off I'm in I'm you I'm ready for when my kids are slightly older for us to be

that surfing family anyway thank you for listening and thank you to Mini Driver and we'll see you next week podcast neck

podcast neck how's the podcast neck I think I need to sit the other way should I just go like this I think I'm going to sit on the other side let's mix it up

to kind of balance yeah get it the other way thanks so's mix it up. To kind of support the idea. Thanks so much and we'll see you next week.