Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - Second Helpings - Emerald Fennell

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

Back in summer 2021 we welcomed 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 her latest venture at the time, 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 still inviting ourselves over for a Fennell Eurovision / karaoke night!!Listen & watch Table Manners here - https://tablemanners.komi.io/Follow Table Manners on:Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tablemannerspodcast/TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@tablemannerspodcastFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/tablemannerspodcastYouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TableMannersPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, Mum. Where are you? Darling, I'm on your favourite beach. Oh, lovely. You're in Greece. Mum, I have news for you. What, darling? We are down to the last 20 in the British Podcast Awards Listeners Choice Award. Wow.

If you want to vote for us to win Best Podcast for the Listeners Choice Award at the British Podcast Awards this year, you vote on Spotify. Thank you so much to everyone that has voted already. You've got us very, very far and we're really thrilled. And I will let you get back to your holiday now, Mom. Thank you. having a lovely time just about to go in the sea, darling, with my rubber ring. Amazing.

Hi darling. Bye. See you soon. Hello and welcome to Second Helpings. This week we have director and writer, the phenomenal Emerald Fennell, coming around to Lenny's for Tarragon chicken and banana ice cream. It was when Promising Young Woman, which starred Carrie Mulligan, it just come out and it's such a great film. She is such an interesting director and people love working with her. Of course, she directed Wuthering Heights.

And salt burn. She's a fantastic female director. She talked about her time in Call the Midwife, playing Patsy. She was pregnant at the time. Were you pregnant at that time as well? Yeah, we must have both been pregnant because I was, it's July 2021 and that's when my son was born. It's a classic me working till the edge. No maternity leave them me here.

is Emerald Fennell on Second Helps. You've come in, as I expected you to, with the most beautiful, brilliant energy, goddess life, ready to pop. Thank you for being here. Thank you. We're going to race through this. We've got you for about an hour. And I know that we can go longer.

And you've got to eat. I really do have to eat. 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 bowl and eggs? No. Is that what you really wanted? Oh, God, I'm so sorry. It's very, that, yeah. That sounds delicious. No, no, that sounds amazing.

I was just, I was just, um... You thought you got a whiff of spag ball? I thought I got a whiff of spag ball, and I was very excited, but actually, Tarragon chicken sounds even better. Sorry, I've never given anyone a faddle. Spag bowl 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 weird.

Really? Yeah, it's a bit weird that, isn't it? A little spag bowl. A little spag bowl. Well, maybe I'll have one a little. 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.

Yeah. 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, like living... my normal life with my lovely husband, we've been together forever, you know, 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 just, I'm just, 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 fill my whole body like relaxing sort of the opposite like a sort of staggering kind of to the in the desert sort of in rags The sort of sunburned. But so you're in rehearsals at the moment.

So we're in... Was that my phone? No, it's so sorry if it was. No, no, no, it's mum's probably. I might always go off. So we're in rehearsals for Cinderella. So Cinderella... The longest wait you've ever had for...

Remember Cinderella's 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 particularly in 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, yeah, it's just, it's just, it's been kind of disparate.

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 able, 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. I do. Yeah. I think the rationale seems. to be if it's outside it seems to be okay but if it's in 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 and also everyone's masked everyone's facing forward nobody's talking you know there are lots and lots of safety I mean of course like we're in a pandemic so I do feel like I know I'm naturally like a real law of I do 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 so. 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 I do feel really bad. Every time it gets moved, we have to tell people that their tickets are no longer. It's that stuff. It's like.

So has it opened yet? No. So we start previews on Friday and then we open, well, you know, TBC, but it's still, and it's still half full. so it'll be 50% for the next few weeks and then hopefully if it does open up on July 19th we will be opening a full capacity around that but you know but I don't yeah I sort of

I've become quite because also with my 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 Obviously a film is much easier, much easier to kind of contain. Promising on Woman is one of the best films I've seen in so long.

It's so important. I watched it yesterday. 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 a film. It's called Promising a Woman.

It's got a 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 off. 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. Also, like, Bo Burnham, the most dreamy, lovely, perfect kind of person. So it was sort of like extra. It was extra cruel. But 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 wrongen. And 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 that all of the whole thing about pregnancy or women, for me, certainly was like, it's just endemic. The stuff in this film, there's nothing. 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 that stuff was just, like, the hangover. Something like that. Just, but even more, like, mainstream kind of stuff, it's, when you look back, it's sort of

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 you know cover up for it or sort of apologize for it it's your friends it's your friends it's people at parties it's your friends' boyfriends it's people you're at school with who are 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 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 nearly 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 yeah so I've just been I mean and also because so busy it's like it's delivery on it's like don't look at the delivery money that has been spent in the last two months who's doing the cooking in your house at the moment my husband

completely what does your husband do he works in advertising okay yeah so he doesn't have much time then well but we're lucky you know we have help with our 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 end of the day.

I just can't. I mean, 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 and what were you eating? So, growing up, it was my mum and dad. 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 Kings 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 very much. She always said her coquerque style was Pierce Film lid. So it was all, it was just, the thing I remember most, and I should say my mother is a wonderful cook, and she cooks a lot now, but when we were little, it was absolutely

chicken Kiev. Eminest 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 Row? Half the time. Yeah, no, we lived in, like, we lived in kind of

Fulham, Earl's Courty area. and but half the time we were in Herefordshire which is where I kind of think of mostly when I think of of growing up and and when we were there 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 and Sunday if we were lucky and we'd been good we'd hit the McDonald's

drive through on the aisles court road dad would go in and buy much too 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 mom 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 nond de plume uh no her nom de plume is her is her is her is her non which is Louise Fonnell.

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 have grown up. When did you start writing? Because I was acting, because I was doing called 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 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 took it to a few publishing houses, and they were like, if it's just really, really dire, actually.

And they were right. But I'd written a sort of TV script for something called. Shiverton Hall, which was the 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, I was just, weirdly, I don't know that I could write a book now. I think, I just don't know how it was possible. But you wrote, did you, you wrote the script for promising young woman or the screenplay? Is it, it, is 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 think I just, I just don't know. It's so crazy. It's, I've got also got a very bad memory for my life. So I look at the books and I just, it feels like, 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 are, 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. 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 completely new cast for the next series. Oh, who's. 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 series? I don't know. I don't even know the time period that they're doing.

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. Oh, yes. So it must be, there must be some.

She's quite young, isn't she? Yeah, she's pretty young. Yeah. But I mean, Diana was very young. I just was looking it up the other day. She was like 36. I know. Mm-hmm.

Which, of course, when we were so young, when it happened, she seemed like a grown-up. But 36, I just nothing. It's nothing. I know. 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. 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 you're, like, face looms into you're like, no! Fast forward. So it now will be very nice to be able to watch it without that kind of fear. So when we had Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber on, he kind of said that the way that Cinderella started was you were a dinner party at his house or something.

Or around a dinner table because you're a family friend. It makes my life sound very, very much more highfaluting 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 it on a whim was that the first thing kind of hell you're like come on Andrew I had already a deal with a no I think I think that again you're like talking to an annesiac this is a thing that's really like weird 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, when you think of it'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 just like I think he is like sort of naturally inclined to try things that seem if not impossible difficult or he was smoking the wacky-bucky I've never thought about it no I didn't think he doesn't

I mean I look I don't know I don't know anyway but but definitely it is like kind of because I think when things become hugely successful and part of our cult 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 how 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 that It hinges on the idea that 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 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, it makes it sound very dour.

I should say it's a romp with a lot of male stripping. They look great. Wow. Yes. Get your ticket. Everyone get your tickets. It's family friendly, don't we? But I think the thing 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 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 that was the conversation that we had really in the beginning. I just said I'd 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 bull and the midnight and all that stuff,

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 cipher 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, David Seppel, who's the amazing lyricist and Andrew, 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 an 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 Zipples the same way, because, like, lyrics,

I suppose I've never really stupidly sort of thought about lyrics before in quite a stupid way. 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, fair enough? I think so. Even though you're a writer. I think so. Also because I, well, if the amount I get lyrics wrong. Whenever I'm on karaoke and the words come up and 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? 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 karaoke. Me and my husband will off, well, before we had a child, would often just like have

karaoke for two. to cheer ourselves up. Jesse! Wow! Would you do duets? Occasionally. Battles, duets. You know, I think our poor friends, we've whittled up, we've not whittled them down.

Like, the friends that love it, 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? Is it like a party? No, no, because that makes it sound like it's more sort of fun that it. So, 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 will come to Eurovision. We do the full thing. The scoring has made Eurovision very difficult now because the scoring takes too long. Yes. So I've got a lot of thoughts about the news. 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 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, 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 life. Somebody once lost a tooth. They called the next day and said, if 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 toothed. What were you drinking? They, I don't drink, but they were drinking aftershock. Oh, geez. What is that thing that people drink on part benches? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Well, because what happened was, is all the booze got finished. Got finished. And then there was, there's an offy over the road. And my husband went over the road and was like, and came back with like some classic 90s sort of bench fare. Bench fair.

And then everyone just lost their mind. and lost teeth and lost a couple of teeth would you ever like I feel like So which song would you sing There's quite a wide category I definitely overreach

Every time So I'm not very Are you a rock chick It's Celine Dion So it would be Body Tyler Totoil Eclips at the heart Oh yeah Classic

Then it would be Think twice Do you don't wish You know Selyne Yeah, don't think I feel 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 Celinda. 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's no neighbors. 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 a really nightmare. You tated. it you taste 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. 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 think I've watched every single one since I can remember. Like I love everything about it. And not ironically as well. It's not.

a sort of ironic like kitsch that I genuinely love it I find it really heartening and fun and and lovely I mean how did how did you feel about G.B this year I felt I felt well do you know I feel sad for anyone who gets Nel Poir because it's not a nice place to be no but you know we've really we've really screwed the pooch euro wise in the last few years. I don't think it was a punishment. I do think it's a punishment. To be honest, we've got Nilpaix 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 such... 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 just got to separate the judging from the show. But the show itself is just magical, and they're all winners. So, have you been...

enjoying restaurants at all or is it strictly deliverer at the moment? Because obviously you're in you know theatre land at the moment. Are you in this theatre at the moment doing rehearsals? So have you been going out for dins or no? Sadly not because our schedule is sort of two till ten. Oh yeah very. That's hard for a very pregnant person. It is quite hard for a pregnant person. So actually really it's it's your prets and your ritzues 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 Pratt?

Oh, okay. Well, it will depend on the time of day, but obviously the posh cheddar and pickle. It's 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, lauddy-da, with the olives, pitched 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 they'd just lay off the tomato soup every day. A thousand percent. Yeah. Chicken rice was pretty good for a while. Very good. But nobody wants a tomato soup. 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 pre-t together, she gets free coffee. What's she doing that you're not doing?

I mean, I... And is that a vexed mask as well? Okay, I have not seen it. I've not been witnessed to a masked free coffee. But I couldn't believe, like it became a sort of like... I actually was starting to get quite resentful. Because 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. Yeah. she just... She's gorgeous. Well, so is emerald. Well, she's... What's she fucking doing? She's really...

No, she is gorgeous. She's charismatic. There are a million reasons why I would give her a free coffee. But at the same time, 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 sheer naked need to be... Ambition. ...given a free copy. They can smell it on me. I think the thing with Jess is... She's cool. She doesn't need it. No.

She doesn't need it. So they just give it to her. I haven't made the plates hot. It's okay, Mom. Jesse, thank you. Before mum plates up, what would be your last supper? Oh my God.

Impossible. Sater, Maine, put, drink. Oh, I get everything? Yeah. Okay. Then for starter, to be, really posh asshole, I would have oysters. From where? Many

Molvin oyster cart which is, it's just like lots of food. They're just like, I think Essex oysters and it's 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 going to put this over here. Okay, Mom. How many have you crammed in on a night? I would say, I'm a day. I'm a day.

time, a daytime oyster person. Okay, fine. Only because I want to be near home in case something goes well. Never has, touch wood, but I still, I think part of what I like about it is a danger of it. A big food food poisoning. 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 do. Do you want me to? I can do it if it's easier. Can you? Yeah, of course. Sorry, I didn't want to. No, no. I think I can probably do it. That's just a bit slippery sucker, isn't it? Oh my goodness. This is it's so delicious. This is a kind of thing I wish I could

cook. It's like proper cuisine. I'm going, oh, this is really easy. No, my... I don't have off. Thank you so much. Do you not want it anymore? I might do some off. If you want some sauce, full on the potatoes, do that.

Right, so oysters are the stars. Oysters to start with. Yeah. I mean, have a Coke. Full fat Coke. A pint 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. Yeah. She's got bacon, she adds bacon and she adds tomatoes. Oh, yes, my grandma used to do sliced tomatoes and they come on the top and they go really sweet. Yes, 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 Pratt. Don't Pratt put tomatoes on the top of theirs, or am I making that up? I don't... Have you ever had the Pratt? I've had the pre-one, but I have the depressing kale prep one that... That's just... That's just... Like, kidding myself.

Yeah. I'm like, oh, yeah. We've all done it. They do, they do one that's like slightly, like, marginally 20 fewer calories that makes you feel like you're not... And you try and then you go, oh, that's mac and cheese. Yeah. And they're like, absolutely nice try, Mom. So, um...

So, um... So your mum's mac and cheese. Mom'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 that you love I think I would go bread and butter pudding feels like a lot of carbs and custody things lovely do you make a good one ice cream sunday

I'm just going to go ice cream sundae with a like 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 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 nowhere around it. I was on my gap, yeah, in Paris, learning French. Lovely. Because, yeah, I mean, it's very shaming. You weren't drinking buckets on, you know, Copan Yang, so. No, that's true. And then he was on his ear 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, Paris, falling in love in Paris. I suppose it was romantic, but at the time we didn't, we didn't like each other. We met, it was like a bad rom-com. We really didn't like each other. We argued, we had mutual friends in common and we argued a lot, a lot, a lot.

But like, in quite an unpleasant way. And I never argue with anyone ever, nor does he really. And it was, you know, so. again it literally was just like a D-list kind of wrongful sounds like my kind of film it was yeah I mean it's definitely would watch

oh no 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 L.A oh I love that little house that her not where her mother lived

but where Nina's mother I love that little wooden house where was that in L.A 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. It's quite hard because LA is so idiosyncratic. Yeah, it didn't seem like L.A. Good.

Seemed like a small town. Yeah, so that was in just a kind of weird, desolate. There was this kind of place outside L.A. That's just an old 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 heavy, all of that stuff, that American kind of... So you were heavily pregnant, directing your... That was your first direct-in job?

Yeah, 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. Wow. Yeah, so it was quite, it was quite full-on. But it was fine. 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. That's an awful thing to do you know. No, no, no, no, no, because it's like, it's not. 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 deal with anything that's difficult, I'm quite powerful. of 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. More decisive as well.

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 sort of monstrous dictator I think but partly because yeah because I was get it done yeah and it's it's 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 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, Emerald, 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 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 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 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 that 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, 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 Zatana, writing the script for Zatana, which is a DC, uh, Warner Brothers superhero film, which is really fun. Oh, that's fun. Yeah. Excuse me, I'm going to make... Jesse, right, I'm going to make some banana ice cream, which is only... Oh my gosh. It's only frozen bananas, and I've had it,

and Jesse says, oh, it's going to be terrible. What? I bet it's delicious. It's very easy. That sounds absolutely amazing. Thank you. Why do you just... 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... 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. I very much... When it comes to food, it's quantity versus quality every time. Me too. Like, I think I don't have...

I don't know the juice is worth the... Yeah, I'm telling you, anyway. 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 a Pizza Express. What's your order at Pizza Express? Oh, Etna Romana. Used to be. They've got rid of the Etna.

It's absolutely devastating. What was the Etna? It was like a spicy, it was like a Diavala, but it had enduce, I'd never know how to pronounce this. Unducha, yeah, yeah. On it, in a little dollop. So it was really salty. Now, 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. Mom, turn the fucking thing off. Jesus, and I'm telling you, banana ice.

ice cream is shit. It's not going to be working. But this is the thing is that... 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. Oh my God. 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 emerald for a fucking bloody piece. You could have just had a banana. I think it's going to be delicious. I think it's going to be delicious. I don't think you'd tell us even if it wasn't. Of course I wouldn't.

No, exactly. You'd be able to tell. You know this is going to be the most delicious thing you want. No, it isn't. I don't think it is because it should be much more wippy. 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 making 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 how to date But I must say he never saw me We never saw each other in real life

I mean, look, 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 Well, I was an absolute state I'm really hung over and miserable And sort of, yeah, but No, I didn't go on it, well no, because I was with my boyfriend

Slash now husband I'm sweet. So I've never, 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 mum.

That works really nicely. But if you whipped it, if I... Oh my God, it's so good. Oh, it's not bad, is it? Oh, it's not bad, is it? No. So that's literally just banana. Is that just bananas?

A bit of lemon? No. Not even lemon? Just frame for some bananas. And then, I do think the double cream on top. top just hits it. Yeah. 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 let me do it a bit longer, it would have been whippier.

I actually quite like it this because it's saucy. I'm getting a little kind of al dente something rather. It's like quite chewy. Yeah. Mum. It's really good. All right.

I apologize. I apologize. Do you cook every day all the time? Yeah. Have you always? Even if I'm on my own. Really, proper cooking. 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. I love so much.

Yeah, me too. And actually... I'd love to meet him. Oh, me too. That, um... 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. I never remember what anything's called. We've got the kind of seasonal one. Oh yeah. It's just like it's just. He writes so beautiful. He writes a beautiful food food food.

And I love toast so much. And I think really if it's got vegetables, cheese and carbs, I can do without me. I could be a vegetarian, I think probably. Really? Well, I say that. I'm not. probably not Emerald Fennell

I'm going to answer this question for you I'm going to let you answer it I just got great manners Emerald do you think you've got good table manners Definitely not What? Okay I think I'm like the most polite lovely

That's very kind But elbows on the table Oh but I just don't think that's I eat I eat preferably with a spoon hunched over the food And I will eat it I won't look at anyone until it's stuck

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 maccadies or prep or it's 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 is his restaurant. So Will is one of the first people I ever met at university. And we became friends because this really dates, I mean this dates our friendship very much.

I quoted the Mighty Boosh, which at the time was a really underground comedy hit. and he overheard it and turned around and said, Mighty Boosh. I was just like, you know, being at university, what time. What a time. He named Clipstone as well. Yeah, Clipstone in Portland. Yeah, and Portland.

And there was one in the centre of town that I don't have 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 a 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, I think there's something so... I 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. 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, like, 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 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 at the clock, like shoveling this The brilliant Amelphanau Who just enchanted us and enthralled us With all her work and her stories

And she's just the most engaging person to have met I still want to be invited To one of her Eurovision karaoke parties Thank you so much for listening And we'll see you next week for more Suck and Helpings