"Carey Mulligan"

My back is sweating from drinking hot tea, my front is sweating, I have sweats on, I'm sweating.

Sean, your microphone is on. Oh, sorry. Sean, your microphone is on.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

Why do you think they call it sweats? You think they call it sweats because you're supposed to sweat in those clothes?

Yeah, probably.

Probably. But like, what, did they not invent shorts? No.

You look like I'm in the center of a genius sandwich.

Fucking hell. But like, why would you, if you're going to make sweats, why, did they not have shorts back then?

No, I know. They need like a, like a pull away sweat, so they could just switch them from sweats to shorts like in a second. Yeah.

You ever watch a basketball game, you'll see one of those.

Oh, I want some of those.

Yeah.

Well. Holy Christ.

Do it. after this record. We're going to do a quick, smart list, real quick.

Oh, it's an all new smart list. Smart. List.

Hey,

Hi, is the morning better? now? We're going to have a little less complain.

Who's complaining?

No, we had a few late night, well, one of them you called a late night. It was a four o'clock.

Yeah, I was already in my pajama.

Oh, well, that's pretty late.

I know.

That's a late night, unless you're in Hawaii.

I know.

You know, and it's lunch. Right now, it's lunch in New York City.

It's lunch in New York City, yeah.

But it's breakfast here in L.A.

It is. Look, I got my tea.

Morning, you guys. What did you guys have for breakfast this morning?

Nothing yet.

Really?

I actually had a piece of toast with some natural peanut butter and a couple slices of banana on top. Sounds fun. I wasn't feeling great this morning.

Oh, really?

What happened? I don't know. What's, what's, what's, what's, is it tummy? Is it back?

Yeah, a little tummy and, um, baby woke up in the night. Well, he's not a baby anymore, but a little throw up in the middle of the night.

Oh, my God. Ricky threw up last night.

Really?

Yeah.

Maybe Denny got into your trash.

Maybe.

Ricky.

Um, the, uh, I don't, I don't eat until noon.

Is that right?

Yeah.

And then it's, and then it's, and then it's fucking, watch out.

Is that what time the timer on the locks, uh, goes off on the cabinet?

That's what Scotty set all the timers for.

Um. Yeah. You can hear the tick, tick.

Are you doing a, uh, uh, let's not eat for 12 hours thing?

Yeah, sure. I've just never, ever, never have been hungry, ever in my whole life in the morning. I just, first time I eat is, but you are right about the. watch out. I'll, I eat everything.

And then you'll go late. Will you eat late?

No. And then I'll have a really little dinner.

That's it.

And then snack.

Let's check the tape on that. Um, Will, can we run the tape on that? Yeah.

I mean, just cause a little, little, what a little, little heavy on the cheese.

Like no, I, I eat just a little, but I do, I eat little portions, so I can eat big desserts.

Right. Yeah. You save the room for the dessert.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I met Jay yesterday. Will FaceTime me. I was in the middle of therapy and I was like, yeah, I'll pick it up.

Do you often take calls during therapy?

No, but my phone just happened to be like the flap open, you know, my, you call it my.

purse and uh, yeah.

And I saw that it was like your phone book, my phone book.

Huh?

Huh.

All right. Um, gosh, should we get into it?

This is fun.

Are we done? Is it too early to do a podcast?

No, it's not too early.

I was still in bed.

No, it's not too early. I'm just a little quiet today. Like I said, I wasn't, I'm feeling very, uh, maybe spookus.

What's the, what's the Yiddish term?

Because you didn't sleep. You're like, you're a little LGD, low grade depression.

Yeah. Maybe, maybe it is. I don't know. I wouldn't call it that, but maybe it is, but, but also just very sort of very kind of pensive.

Yeah. That's what it is. You didn't sleep.

Yeah. Well, that's all right. Cause you know, you know, it's going to put a nice wash of warmth and positivity over your day.

Our guest is like, great. I got to lift the hosts up.

Here she comes. Our guest is an actor so filled with taste, talent, and accomplishment. I feel classy just thinking about her, you guys. She's got the awards and nominations, sure. A long list of impressive films and a stack of big shot co-stars and directors, but most impressive, Will, is a particular kind of light that she sends out from the character she plays.

I like the way he personalizes it.

Does she enjoy it?

Hope we're going to find out.

What else does she do? Hobbies? What's it like being married to a rock star? Does she prefer coffee, tea, cake, pie, Beyonce, or Tay-Tay? Guys, let's figure it all out.

Hi, Carey.

Hi, guys. Go away!

Will, don't you feel warm and washed?

I do. I am a particular fan of Carey's.

I'm a huge fan of Carey. It's true.

Carey, it's true. I told you, I've had the pleasure. I've had the... Gift. Yeah, sure.

You're so sweet.

It's true.

I was so nervous when you were at... Hi, everyone, by the way. Hi.

Hi, Carey. Nice to meet you.

So nice to meet you. I was so nervous that you were at Radley's house when we had that screening, and all I wanted to say the whole night was, Marcus and I fall asleep to Arrested Development. Not in a falling asleep way, but that's our show.

No, you said it.

We just...

We've already said it.

We literally... I can quote the show, and I was too nervous to say anything, and afterwards, Marcus was like, why were you so cool? You should have just said it. And I was like, I can't. But I was so excited and so nervous for you to see it, and it meant the world that you liked it.

So, hooray.

Oh, God, please. Hooray.

I loved it. I can't wait to see it.

But, Carey, God, it is... Jason, you're right. Carey, you have done so many...

Look at how up Will is already. I know. I know. Carey, you've been listening so far.

I know.

He was down.

He was in his tummy. You had a bad night.

Right? And you just woke him up into love.

Well, you know what it's like with the little ones, right? Oh, yeah. So, little Denny woke up at one, and then he barfed in his bed, and then he came into our bed, then he barfed in our bed. Oh. Then we stripped all the sheets.

Oh, no.

Oh, God, no. I've done that.

So, you've been there.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm doing that now.

You know, why don't you just... You could treat him just like a dog, you know, and put him in a room locked up, where you don't hear if he starts crying or yelling, or yelping or barking. And the throw up, just you can deal with in the morning.

Yeah. See how that goes.

Where did you sleep, Will? Where did you end up sleeping?

Well, we ended... Oh, God, it was a real hodgepodge, that all night. I slept on one side of our bed, and then Alessandro took him back and was in with his bed. But one of the good things, and then we'll stop this and we'll get into Kerry, is that he learned... Now he knows how to throw up in a trash, like in a bucket.

Maybe get a pail. he can just kind of put over his head, you know? Like a little handle, and just kind of hangs around his head like a necklace.

I'm going to say your parenting tips are really... They're bordering on dangerous, a lot of them.

I'll get the bed next time.

So, Kerry Mulligan, where are we finding you right now? God, it's great to see you.

I'm in L.A.

Oh, right. Yeah. Fantastic.

Doing the stuff.

Oh, yeah. The press tour for the movie.

So, our film comes out very soon. So, it worked out that we just suddenly went from naught to 60 and jumped on flights. So, now we're here.

Right, because the strike went away and you could talk about this thing that I'm sure you and Bradley are excited to discuss. Because it is so damn good. I mean, I think we've all done projects where it's like, oh, now I've got to go talk about how great it is, in quotes. Yeah. But this one truly is.

I know. It's so nice to not have to lie. It's so nice to just...

Kerry, can I just say, and again, at the risk of embarrassing you. People will be able to go and see Maestro in theaters and then be able to watch it on Netflix.

Sean, you won't get it. I won't get it.

Sean definitely won't get it because it's not in space.

There's music, there's pianos and stuff in it.

It's not for him.

Sean, the music part, Sean, it's going to blow you away. The whole thing. But, Kerry, you do... And obviously, Bradley is incredible in every way. But, Kerry, there's something about what you've done in this film that I...

I hope he says storyteller.

I'm not going to say storyteller, but you truly are an artist. I really mean that.

That's a tight second. It is a tight second.

It is a tight second. Followed only by... Very closely by the physically doing pray hands. But truly. So I just want to say that.

I have a question about it, because I didn't get... Bradley showed me clips early on and he invited me to one screening and I couldn't go. But I can't wait to see it. I've heard only great things like Will saying. When you do a role like that, how much prep time do you give yourself?

I don't know. I don't think I've had a part like this. I mean, I've had parts... I sort of feel like I've had parts like this on stage. You know, like really, really rich, big, kind of sort of something epic about them parts.

Everyone's got different processes, different definitions of all in.

But then I was like, oh, I think I have to do Bradley's all in, which is, as you will know, like...

All in.

Yeah. Sounds so good when you say it.

Yeah. And with this one particularly, he had to be all in, because he not only plays the lead, but also, or co-lead, but also wrote it, directed it, produced it. It's a lot.

And Carrie, you have to play, you're a character, you, I mean, you, start, we meet you, you're just this sort of, your character's, this sort of budding young performer, actress, and then you fall into this sort of deep relationship with this other person. And really, the movie's about this relationship between these two people. And we go with you through your life, through this character's life, on this incredible journey, and we see all these different stages. And it's really impressive to watch some, you know, people have done things like that before, but that's no small feat, as an actor, to go through that, to track that, to be present in all those different stages of that person's life, is, I can imagine, is very difficult as an actor.

Yeah, you know, I think it was, it was like Bradley did all the work. You know, he did all the work on his character. I mean, he did, I mean, I don't know how he does, he's some sort of, like, genius. It's just so crazy, you know, like, the script, you know, everything is just mad. So he was, he was ringing me up.

Letterbird signs on the phone.

I'll call you back. But, you know, yeah, he's just, so I feel like, and so then I got into it really early as well, because I signed on in, like, 2018, and we didn't shoot until 2022.. So I had, you know, time, and I had an opportunity to, to sort of really kind of do lots of the work. We narrated an opera together, you know, in Philadelphia, one of his operas, you know. So we did so much that by the time we got on set, and we did this sort of mad dream workshop thing, I'm sure he told you about where we sort of spent a week together, you know, crying a lot.

One of the things that I love about your abilities is that you, every character you play, you're so sort of, it seems in touch with kind of their internal stuff, and you're really doing, you can really feel your character thinking and feeling before they're talking, before they're performing, before they're doing anything physical.

It's weird, because I kind of had to reverse engineer it, because I didn't, my first job was a film, but I had done lots, I mean, I was never going to be, like, theater, musical theater was what I wanted to do.

Oh, Sean just woke up. I know.

I'm pointing at his little box on the screen.

Which ones, and we'll go through them all.

Okay, cool. So we, so I didn't really, so I did Pride and Prejudice, and I played this little, you know, I played one of the Bennet sisters, and just ran around with Jenna Malone for the whole summer, like, you know, giggling. And then I went to the Royal Court Theater and did my first play straight afterwards, and that was like a real, you know, and I didn't train, I didn't go to drama school, so I felt completely unqualified to do any of it. So I sort of, I think I just sort of learned from the job, but I think I only ever found the difference being in reaching the back of the room with my voice, not with my anything else. So I don't really think I did modulate anything, and maybe that's not, but I've always, but I've also only played like maximum 1,000 feet.

But you definitely had a trust that people were getting it, were seeing it, you were communicating with the audience, and how did you get that trust, that confidence, that feeling, without having gone through any sort of training or any sort of practicing or education in it? What gave you the sense that you were good at acting, and that you knew what you were doing, that you were capable of it?

I don't know if I got, I mean, I just, I feel like I just got, I got a really great part. When I was 21,. I got to play Nina in The Seagull at the Royal Court in London, and I worked with an amazing cast on that, and that character is just the most, it's sort of what I mean about not getting to play a part like Felicia on screen. Nina is sort of that kind of role. She really goes from this innocent, young, kind of naive wannabe star to someone who is completely kind of destroyed by her experiences.

Yeah. We'll be right back.

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All right, back to the show.

But what, I like Jason's question was like, what gave you the guts to do this?

Well, I was trying to get to the place of light. She's too humble to say, but that it's natural for you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I know. I'm joking, because yeah, that's right. It is natural for you. And kind of like...

Sean.

Well, no, no. I was going to say kind of Jason, you touched on it, but in reference to what you had said, Kerry, that, you know, you said that you didn't go to drama school or anything, and yet you lived and worked in this environment, that very much there is a sort of a hierarchy in that way because in this sort of the English acting and, you know, performing community, if you didn't go to RADA or if you didn't go whatever, there's that kind of like, hmm, who are you a little bit? And you must have felt, tell me, I'm asking you, did you ever feel like an outsider in that way and that you had to work extra hard to prove that you were just as good as a lot of these sort of fops who came, people who came out of drama school?

Oh, yeah. I mean, the first play I did professionally was straight after Pride and Prejudice, and the director had to, it's the first preview, they were all, all the cast went into this room to go and warm up and I could hear it because they had the little speaker thing on and I could hear it in my dressing room and they were all going,

but it was funny, because by the time, Right, they're going to look at you and go like, what noises are you making? Yeah, that's not the correct noise. We're making these ridiculous noises.

Yeah, and they were all like, but they were all like rapid fire, doing Shakespeare monologues and, like, you know, it was just sort of, anyway, but somehow, by the time I got to New York, we did The Seagull in London and we did The Seagull in New York. and in New York, Zoe Kazan played Masha and we became best friends in the world and we used to go down stage on every night and we would just sing, do you hear the people sing from Les Miserables on stage? and that was our warm up. Yeah.

That was your warm up. Yeah, but that's good that you had at least a warm up.

That became like the thing that, you know, so that I made my own weird noise, but yeah, so I think by the time I did that, I felt like, oh, I kind of, not that I'm like, but I felt comfortable that I was an actor a bit more.

Did you feel part of the club? Sorry, Sean, just to follow up on that part, did you feel like, at that point, you know, you became, doing that, did you, and you were having success. Did you, did you kind of feel like, okay, like? I've now carved out my own sort of path and I don't have to worry about that other sort of stuff again.

To now have my own sound.

Sort of, I mean, sort of, I mean, sort of. I think I just, yeah, it all felt kind of fluky for a while and, but I still didn't feel, I mean, definitely, when in theater, I felt like completely, I loved just doing all the prep and all that and feeling like completely immersed in the whole thing. Film, I always felt like, hello, you know, just sort of.

Sorry, sorry,

don't mean to. Just passing through.

Quickly stand in front of the camera and just sort of.

What about, but an education, right, that was, was that the kind of the first thing that really kind of pushed you out into, I mean, it was an Academy Award nomination, right? Did it, it was, was the, was the change in climate, was it, was it palpable for you? Was it, was that an exciting thing or a nerve wracking thing? Because a bunch of really cool stuff followed that.

No, yeah, that was totally, I mean, that was, that was a five week shoot or something, and I thought maybe it would be on in a couple of cinemas, and, you know, I had no expectations for that at all. and then we went to Sundance and it kind of turned into this thing. So yeah, it was a big, it was a big shift and I think I just, I regret not having as much fun as I should have done. I think I took it all quite seriously and was quite, and had a real imposter syndrome. You know, I'd be in rooms just thinking like,

what the actual fuck do I? did that come from a sense of, oh my god, what I always hoped would happen? is, it seems like it's about to start, or was it, I had no plans whatsoever, this was kind of fun, and now this has happened and now I'm expected to kind of make a career of this and, and be some big fancy actor? No,

I think I definitely would have had. it was all I wanted to do, but I think there was, in my mind. I was thinking, okay, good, right, I can get another job. You know, it was that, it was like, this is great, because then, you know, the good part is that the directors are going to see this.

And I'll bet you still feel like that, right? Oh god, yeah, This profession, there's just no guarantees. Yeah. No idea whether you're going to be working 12 months from now.

Yeah,

I don't know, I just think, I think you always sort of, you know, you're always hoping that that one person sees it and then wants to hire you. Do you know what I mean? Like, you always feel or, or that it's to someone's taste. I don't think it ever does go away.

Do you watch your stuff? Do you watch your, Do you know,

the only thing I've watched is Maestro. It's funny, because I don't really. Really? No, no, no. I've never seen, like she said, that came out last year.

Yeah. You should check it out.

Is it because you get self-conscious? Like, like? do you watch playback on set?

No, no, no, no, no, no. Never. It fucks me up completely. No, I can't. I can't look at anything and I can't look at stills.

The progression of it is amazing. I mean, it was the first, first cut I saw was already incredible, but the way he shaped it, kept moving it, it was just, it never went backwards. It was always, and he's just, he's a great filmmaker.

Yeah, he is.

I feel very privileged that you never watched anything and I got to watch Maestro with you then.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That you never. And my husband watched it as well and he, um, he's watched it now twice and he's, he's done. He doesn't, like, you, know, the sad parts. He can't watch the sad parts.

Of course, it must be, it was so fun, um, meeting you guys and meeting, meeting Marcus, obviously. Tell us a little bit, I mean, how, you, you're married to, like Jason said, you're married to a rock star.

I always think it's so funny.

Marcus Mumford, Mumford and Sons. Yeah, Mumford and Sons.

I don't know, the rock star thing always sounds like, I'm like, well, it's true. Rock star. Yeah, it is. Um, well, you know, you must have, did you meet him, Jason, when you were doing the video? You did the video,

didn't you? Uh, I don't think we met that day, but I met, I met you guys at, um, uh, Austin City Limits, um, at one point. We went, I was there for a Radiohead show, I want to say, um, and that was really, really cool. Yeah, we had a blast doing it. That was a, we did a video, uh, you know, Sam Jones directed that.

Ed Helms, yeah, and they pretended to be,

we played the band,

yeah. They were the band.

In a very campy sort of, uh, uh, we're doing some, like we were the band shooting a video out in some barn, and we were playing our, our instruments, banjos, and, just like, yeah, playing a bunch of grab ass, yeah, it was, um, ridiculous and hilarious. Yeah, I loved it.

I loved it too.

I love it when Jay goes into that voice, you know what I mean? Well, that was,

that was, that was,

the comedic,

uh, uh, gist was that we're, you know, just, uh, just a bunch of hicks playing, playing guitar and having a good time. Yeah.

Were you, Carrie, were you as interested in music before you met him, or were you, like, or was it, did it heighten it after you met? Were you like, oh, play the guitar in front of me, I want to know how it works, like, or did you not care? Your guitar. Um,

I always loved, I mean, you know, I wanted to do musical theater. I loved musicals and all those sorts of things when I was growing up.

So you sing?

I can, I can, I'm like a choir, I can choir sing, you know, I can sing enough to hold a tune, but not good enough to do musical theater, so that's why I kind of swerved into just straight acting, but, um, I didn't, I remember seeing Marcus's band, well, we were friends when we were kids, so we went to camp together. Oh,

wow.

Wait, wait, wait, wait,

you were friends, right?

Yeah.

Wait, what?

Yeah.

You were pen pals?

We went to camp together, we met when, uh, he was 10 and I was 12, 11, yeah, yeah, we met when we were kids, and we were,

You guys hook up then?

We didn't, but I do, I wrote in my diary that he was, um, the nicest, the kindest person I'd ever met, and I gave him nine and a half out of 10..

Wow. What a score.

I know. But I said also,

What score would you give him today?

He's, he's, do you know what, he's getting up there, I'd give him a solid six, but he's,

That's so crazy that you knew each other as kids, and now you're married. That's amazing.

And you stayed, you stayed pen pals for a while?

We were pen pals for a couple years, then we lost touch, then the internet happened, and we, oh God, the internet happened. And we started, we were both on Facebook for like six months, then we both left, so we touched base there briefly, um, and then we met again, yeah, when I was like 24, and we,

And at that point you guys were like, this is, I mean, we keep running into each other, we are destined to be together.

Well, probably we should get married, yeah.

We should probably get married.

Did you guys ever have any conversations about, how, how crazy is it that we both ended up doing public jobs, and finding a really incredible level of success? Yeah.

what's weird is that we, we also, not long after we met again as adults, we both worked on the Coen Brothers movie, Inside Llewyn Davis, and both independently, were hired. Oh, hello, roomie. Sorry, someone's just come in, do you want to say hi?

Should we hold?

Is it a roommate? No, just say hi.

Just say hi. Hi, I can't hear you. Oh, oh, my God.

Hi guys. Hey roomie. Hi. Listener,

we live together.

We have yesterday's guest, sitting right next to today's guest,

Ms. Emma Stone. Emma Stone. Emma, how are you feeling?

I'm getting better. Okay,

good. Are you? Emma.

Gary's very sweet to let me be so close to her, when she knows I'm sick.

So we, so we are across the hall from each other.

Oh, that's hysterical.

Oh, my God. Emma,

did you get, did you get the chicken noodle soup?

I got the chicken noodle soup, Sean, I didn't know how to, how to reach out to you. Oh,

you don't have to, this is, we're doing it now.

I have to show you a picture of it, as it came up in the room. One second. Sorry, I'm not, I promise. I'm going away.

She was sick, so I sent her over some chicken noodle soup.

I knew you would. When you, when you said that you were going to, I knew you would.

That's so nice.

I don't know if you can see this,

but hold on. This is how it arrived.

Oh God. Looks like it was all over the place. Looks like you just threw it in a,

it was, Sean said,

and it showed up like this.

Oh, there's a note.

Oh, that is so sweet. It looks like a bowl of sick.

It does look like a bowl of sick. That's what it looks like. It was somebody barfed in a bowl.

I'm glad you didn't put our names on it, Sean.

Where was it from, Sean?

They're saying it looks like you barfed in a bowl.

It's like I barfed in a bowl,

but I loved it.

Thank you, Sean.

Sean, was it just from room service?

Yeah, I think so, yeah.

Check your bill, because he might have just put it on your bill.

All right.

Okay, bye, guys.

Bye. Bye.

Bye. I'll be back in 20 minutes. Okay,

I'll see you in a minute. I'll see you in a minute. Bye, bye, bye, bye,

That's so crazy.

She's my new nanny. She's nannying for me now.

She just talked to her two days ago.

I know,

I know.

I thought I was saying this, and I was like, I'm nervous.

You're not nervous anymore. No,

I'm fine. now. You know what? I wanted to know, because we haven't done this part of the interview process yet. How did, we talked about you doing Pride and Prejudice and doing all these things, but what was the thing that, how did you start?

Do you know what? It's so funny. I said this to Kevin Bacon the other night. I was in, I was at this, like, tastemaker-y, you know.

Yeah, sure.

In New York for Maestro, and he came with his lovely wife, and I, and they came over to say that they liked the film, and I said, you know, you're literally, it was seeing you do this one-man show in New York. that was the, was the trip that I, so when I was about 14, I went to New York with my mum to go and see, and we saw Cabaret, and we saw a play that he was in where it was a one-man show, and it was at the Walter Kerr Theatre, and I watched it, and I thought, that's it, that's like, this is, this is like a magic trick, you know, that he's doing this play for however long, 90 minutes, or just completely on his own, and then Cabaret as well, but that trip, that was when I thought, right, this is the, the thing, and I got to tell him, which is so cool, and then, when I went back to New York and did The Seagull, when I was about 22,, it was at the Walter Kerr. No. Wow. Yeah, and there's this amazing line in The Seagull when Nina, in the second act, she's talking to this writer, she's a budding actress, and she meets this famous writer, it was played by Chiwetel Ejiofor in London and Peter Sarsgaard in New York, and there's this, they, you know, they have this conversation, and she's just sort of completely overawed by what a genius he is and how he creates, and at the end of the, and she falls in love with him, and at the end of the scene, he walks off stage and she's on her own, and she sort of looks out over the lake, which is the audience, and she says, I'm dreaming, and I could never do it in London, for some reason, I just couldn't, I just always felt like such a knob, and I was just going, I'm dreaming, and then just walk off stage, and the director was always like, come on, and it was the first night of the Walter Kerr, and I looked out and I thought of this sort of 14-year-old me sitting in the stalls, and I said it, and it was the first time that I sort of really said it, you know, and it was just, it was just,

That's cool. Yeah,

it was cool.

I love that.

That literally just gave me goosebumps.

Yeah, it's mad.

Was it, what was the, again, in my crappy research, I stumbled upon something and I can't find it now, but was, what was the, what was the show where the curtain came down, and, tell me the story.

Was this a good theater story?

This is my, well, I was going to say, Sean, this is my good theater story. So, so I did this, I did this one-woman show called Girls and Boys.

On your head, the whole curtain,

like a pipe. Yeah,

well, it just sort of struck me, and then I shoved away from it, and it carried on going down, you know, because it just comes down.

Because that thing doesn't light, that thing weighs a ton.

No, no, no, I mean, it's like a sort of wooden structure thing, and it comes down quickly because it was a quick kind of change into the next scene, so my hair was kind of fucked up, and I sort of, it was unbelievably painful, but then the lights came up, and no one had seen it, so I, so it's not like someone had seen an accident, so therefore I could go like, ow, that hurts! So I just carried on, and did the rest, and with my haircut, I'm like, what? And then I, and then I got to the end of it, and, you know, finished the play, and walked off stage, and just burst into tears, and I was hysterical, and I was also convinced that I was going to die, because I thought, you know, head injuries, concussion, blah. Went back up to my room, and I was, you know, it was this tiny, tiny theatre. It didn't have a proper dressing room, it just had, like, a curtain, sort of one of those partitions, and a bit of a curtain, and I was sobbing on the floor, and, you know, various people were trying to calm me down, and I was going, oh, really?

And this was how many years ago?

This was 2018, so this was, yeah. And so, and then I said,

oh, bring him in!

And he, and he, and he came in and he just got down on the floor and, like, looked at my eyes and looked at my pupils and was like, right, we're going to the hospital. So we went.

Oh, you did? And he took you to the hospital?

Yeah, he took me to the hospital.

The first time you met Bradley, he took you to the hospital? No, no, no.

We had met a bunch of times before. He'd come to see me when I did a play with Bill Nighy, because he's good friends with Bill, and we had the same publicist. We'd, like, bumped into each other at stuff. Um, but yeah.

By the way, he's really good at taking people to the hospital.

This is what I hear. I know,

I thought I was special. He just took, he just took, he just took Brooke, you know, to the hospital last week. But I want to say, I don't know about you guys, Carrie, I love, when you talk and you're describing anything, you make anything, you could, you could describe anything to me. I just want to call you, can we be friends so that you can just describe? Yes.

Have you guys not met?

No, we've met. We met at Bradley's, yeah. At Bradley's.

But I just, I just love listening to you tell stories. I could just listen to you talk about your day.

Well, can I just quickly tell you, because I said at the beginning, that I, um, what a massive fan I was of both of you in Arrested Development, but, Sean...

Uh-oh.

Not so much.

Not so much.

Sorry, was that not what you were going to say?

That's exactly what I was going to say. No, um, big, big time fan. And in, and when I went, I went to Chile to meet the family.

The restaurant?

He goes, you go to Chile's once a week, right? Sean, you beat me to it.

I went to Chile, Chile, the country, um, to go meet the family of the woman I play in Maestro, um, in Santiago. And I went there before we started shooting what was meant to be a three-day trip. And I got COVID on my way out. So I was stuck there. So I had to stay another week and a half.

That's very sweet, Carrie, thank you. That's so nice. Um, guys, what was your favorite episode?

Sorry, tell, Carrie, what is this Will & Grace? Is that, was that a play? Yes, that is. Is it a film?

It was a one-woman show, yeah. Oh. One man, one woman, yeah.

I loved. That's sweet, honey, thank you so much.

No, really, I love it so much.

It's incredible. It truly is. No, I'm serious. I was a big dork fan of yours before I met you.

Jason, you came to like two or three shows too.

Yeah.

Then you came to the last, the very, very last show. Oh.

You went to the last one.

Yeah, Jay was at the very last show.

We'll be right back.

And now, back to the show.

Now, I'm imagining, Carrie, that with your, you're, you have a very exciting life, with all the fancy places you get to go for your work, but all the fancy places you get to go for Marcus's work too. Mm. What is the, have you, did you meet the most impressive person in your work, or, when you were with him for his work? Like, who got you most starstruck? Because, like, actors, always geek out around musicians and vice versa.

Springsteen was the coolest. Ah, that's good. By a long way. I mean, not by a long way. I've met lovely people, but Springsteen made me go, oh, I just, I just, and I don't think I could, I couldn't really function.

Yeah, but going back to like, the thing I asked you before, were you a fan of Marcus's music or that style or that genre? Or did he open you up to be like, oh, like, what did you listen to before, or was it the same then and now?

No, I was like, S Club 7, Backstreet Boys, Westlife. Yeah. There was a brand of music that they used to call, I went to boarding school and I used to, the girls at school used to, like, my genre was Carrie Trash, because I just listened to like, pure pop.

Wait, Backstreet Boys, was that Justin Timberlake or was that NSYNC?

that's NSYNC. That was NSYNC.

Backstreet Boys was, yeah, sort of contemporary.

But when you worked, didn't you work with Justin and Llewellyn?

Inside Llewellyn Davis, yeah, where I worked with Marcus, and that was the thing. I was going to say that if we had not met as adults in Nashville, which is how we did end up meeting, we would have met on that job, because we both got hired, you know, independent of one another to do it, because he did the music and I did the acting thing. Gotcha.

So you didn't really listen to Mumford & Sons before you,

wow. No, but I thought, so. I went to a Laura Marling gig when I was like 19,, a sort of, you know, church in London, and Mumford & Sons were the support act. It was one of their first ever gigs and when he came out, I remember thinking, oh God, I knew a guy called Mumford. I went to camp with her, you know, but he was so tall, and when I met him he was tiny, and then he started singing and I said to my best friend, Marfu, who was sitting next to me, I went, oh God, Mumford's so shouty.

because he was very shouty.

back then and I think he's less shouty now.

Oh, my God.

It was very shouty.

This is so funny.

I like that. you're like, in my defense, it was very shouty.

It was.

Kerry, be honest, how many Ace of Base concerts have you been to?

I never went to the concert, but I would have died to. Okay. I would have died to.

Same, I would have gone with you. Yeah,

yeah.

What can you tell us about, because, you know, I would imagine you've had some, um, some pretty low hanging fruit thrown your way because you're so successful, like, hey, why don't you be the star of this crappy film or be the, let's give you all the money to do this. You always pick these incredibly tasteful projects, whether it be the premise of it or the people that are involved with it. Tell us a little bit about what's the most attractive thing about a project for you. Is it the character? Is it the script?

Uh, yeah, I've been really lucky. Um, I think I also, um, yeah, I don't know, I think largely big time director, definitely, but, but within that, just, well, do you know, my agent, Tor, who's been my agent for almost 20 years, she's like, wonderful, um, and she, she's sort of family and she, when, when an education happens and, you know, suddenly, I was getting offered jobs a bit more, you know, um, she said, look, you're in this really rare part of an actor's career where you can, you can't, you don't have to say yes to everything. Right. And, and that's a real privilege, and whilst you're in that place, you really shouldn't take a part, unless you can't, you know, unless you can't bear the idea of someone else playing it, so. Mm.

And you've got this capital and it's yours until you.

and if you can imagine someone else, one of your contemporaries, playing the part and thinking like, well, that's okay, you know, going to see it in the cinema with someone else. Right. And being alright with it, then she was like, then don't do it.

Wow. But do you, do you, when you look at, when you look at stuff, do you think like, oh, this is gonna work? or do you think, no, I have to do this because I've, it really speaks to me and this is something where I can really, I feel like I can, there's something about it that I feel like I can express myself in a really way or whatever, or do you think about the success of it? Like, oh, this will be a cool thing and people will think this is cool.

Oh God, no, no, no, no. I mean, I generally have a bit of a kind of, if it doesn't scare me, it's not enormously attractive, which is, you know, they're kind of masochistic. I mean, when I did Girls and Boys, when I did that, the monologue, I couldn't get through, I couldn't get through the first page of a dress rehearsal until the first preview. I mean, I literally couldn't get on stage.

Really?

Oh, no. Like, there was something about talking, well, do you know what else it was? It was that the first sort of 45 minutes of the play was funny and that scared the shit out of me. Like, I was, when I read it, it made me laugh and the idea of having, being, having failed by not making the audience laugh just felt, I mean, I just couldn't. I mean, I could get out there and cry for England, but, but I think comedy is so hard.

And the idea, and the idea of going out and bombing in that way and people not laughing and you should.

Yeah, and also the play required that. It needed the first half to be funny, because the second half was just devastating. So, I couldn't just make it, it would just be misery porn if it was just, I couldn't do that, and that's just so annoying.

But you, you must feel more confident about your ability to be comedic inside your, your, your skill set and your taste. In other words, like, you're, you're not trying to be funny doing broad stuff. You're, you're, you're being successfully funny playing characters that are eccentric or broken, or, or flawed, or like a promising young woman. I mean, that's a, that's a dark comedy that, that, you know, you, it just seemed, you were very confident with your dark comedic sensibilities.

I think, I think, with the theatre thing, it was that, like, I, I just needed to figure out who I was talking to. You know, there was that part of me that thought, what is the, you know, is this a convention for grief, or what, you know, I just couldn't figure out who the audience was because I didn't have that other actor on stage with me to, to tell the, you know, to communicate with. So I was, the biggest block was like, who are these people that I'm telling this thing to? And then, when I kind of figured that out, and do you know what else? I took my shoes off and suddenly, when I was barefoot, I could do it.

Really relaxing.

Yeah. I just, the whole, it was just grounded and I was like, oh, okay. So now, now it makes, and then it became my favorite thing I've ever done on stage and I absolutely loved it and I sort of mourned it for a long time. It was so good.

Weren't you, weren't you blown away by the first play you did and then subsequently everything else? Weren't you blown away by the endurance that you have to figure out in order to do, especially a one woman show, where it's just you and the energy that you have to find every single day of your life to do that at that time?

Yeah, it's mad. It's mad. And it just gets impossible with kids because.

it's you also. So you find yourself barefoot and pregnant?

Yeah. Well, I was pregnant on Broadway when I did Skylight with Bill, and like almost seven months pregnant by the time I finished it, and I've never been so, and it was so funny because the baby would sort of respond to the applause, which I thought this was really setting us up for a problem. But yeah.

You know. you speak of, what for you. now, now that you've, I mean you've got three kids, you've got, as Jason said at the start, you've got all this, you know all the acclaim and respect that you could, you could ever want, doing what we do. What, for you, is, what does success mean to you now? Like, what is, what would you go like at the end of a day or a week or a month?

I don't know, I mean I feel increasingly just sort of unbelievably lucky. we've got three healthy kids and we both get to do jobs that we really love, you know, and that's so, I think that gives you a lot, you know, that makes, that takes away a lot of kind of regular life stress. You know, so many people have to work on jobs they hate and you know, and so many people, you know, you just see more and more of your friends and people around you, you know, sort of hearing stories of people's health issues or kids that have not, you know, and it's just, gosh. you think constantly like wow, we've managed to really swerve that stuff so far, touch wood, all that, like, you know, thank you, Lord, but it's, it just feels like that is in a happy, you know, healthy home life, and also like the ability to work, and, you know, whatever scale that is, whether it's giant films or whether it's theater, or whether it's just, you know, but to be able to work and actually go and earn money doing something that you really, really love, it doesn't really need, there doesn't need to be any kind of trajectory for me, it's just, you know, that hopefully next year I'll get to make another film at some point. that's good with all of us.

I think your chances are good, chances are pretty good on that.

Things are looking up.

How, had you worked with a, with a director that was also acting in the scene with you before Maestro? How did, how did you, how did you enjoy that or not, and what was Bradley's style with that? Would he, would he, would he direct you during a take, or would he wait until the end of it and be, and be a director, as opposed to giving you direction in character in during a scene?

I loved it, I loved it. He would do it, well, he wouldn't do it like, well, he was basically Lenny from the minute he walked on set. So, you know, he was in his, you know, whole thing, dialogue, his dialect, he was chain smoking by the camera, directing everyone.

Just so, just so my sister knows, he plays Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein, Bernstein people.

Bernstein.

Bernstein. Yeah,

I kept getting it wrong and Bradley was so annoyed with me.

And you play Leonard's wife.

Yeah, and I play his wife. Yeah, I loved it. It was, it was, you know, because he would direct me, not through sort of giving me verbal directions, as in do this, do that. He would sort of mold the scene or play his role in a way that would affect mine. You know, so it would be more in the way that he would play Lenny, that would affect my Felicia than actually sort of, but he also gave me like note notes.

did any part of that seem interesting or attractive to you to do one day?

Big no.

No? No. No. Really?

I can't figure out how he does it. I can't figure out how anyone does it. I think it's, I mean it's, I don't know how you do it. It's just,

yeah. But you've been on so many great sets with so many incredible directors. Like, I mean, I just, I don't know if I'd be able to say a word if I was performing for the Coen Brothers. Them alone would be, or Steve McQueen, I mean, these directors, you could cherry pick from so many great ones and probably do an incredible job as a director if you wanted to.

I just don't, yeah, I don't have the heart for it. I think you have to love it so much because it's such an incredible amount of work. I think you have to absolutely love it to be able to do it. Yeah. And I just don't have it.

don't stop the acting.

So, why are you here doing press for a movie?

Well, we've got you, yeah.

Yeah. Why we've got you. What are you going to do? Do you have time to go hang out while you're in LA, or do fun things, or is it all work?

this is a trap. Carrie, tell him, you're busy. Tell him, you're busy. Tell him, you're busy.

I'm free for lunch. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll go for a hike. We'll grab an early breakfast tomorrow.

No, do you know, it's actually, uh, it's quite nice. Like today, I'm having lunch with, so I'm doing this thing tonight, for, can I plug my charity?

Yes, please. Oh, yeah. Please do. Is this Alzheimer's or the War Kids? No, this is War Child.

Yeah, War Child. So this is not my charity. I didn't found this charity, but I'm an ambassador for this charity. So tonight, there's a dinner for like a variety dinner, and they're kind of giving people, you know, prizes for whatever. So I have to make a speech, but we get $10,000 for War Child, and War Child UK is a charity that I've worked with for about, uh, 10 years that looks after children in conflict zones.

So today,

I'm having lunch with Rob Williams, who's flown in for it. He's the CEO of the charity and he is my absolute hero and has been, you know, an NGO worker for 30 years and runs this organization and travels all over the world doing, you know, amazing work. I mean, recently got back from Afghanistan, where he was literally negotiating with the Taliban about women being able to go to work for War Child. Wow.

Like that, has to be negotiated. It's astonishing.

It's amazing. it's wild. But they, you know, obviously do incredible work and never more needed than now.

That's unbelievable, and it's unbelievable that there are people out there doing stuff like that. First of all, that you're involved with it is amazing, and there are people out there doing important stuff and obviously everybody's got their own thing. Sean was saying the other day he couldn't find parking on Crescent next to the Beverly Hills Hotel. Yeah. And so he had to end up having to use the valet.

Is there a website, Sean, that we can?

That you can donate to? Yeah. Yeah, Sean Hayes.

That people can click on?

And then, Carrie, hang on, we'll get to you. Go ahead, Sean.

Yeah.

Dot, dot. So, but, no, but Carrie, is there some sort of a website or if somebody wants to check out?

what's going on? Yeah, www.warchild.co.uk and they do.

an amazing War Child?

warchild.co.uk or actually Children in Conflict, is the American wing of the charity. Gotcha. But it's a lot of trauma therapy. so it's kids who are in the middle of war zones, helping them with art therapy and counseling to help them recover from what they see. Yeah, it's amazing, amazing work.

What do you guys do that dumbs it down after you're finished doing your incredible, smart work?

Oh, um, lots of television.

Lots of telly.

Lots of telly.

Now, is this reality television or is it like sitcoms? Do you know,

I do a bit of reality television, but he is passionate about Below Deck, which is.

Oh, I love that.

Which I can't go there, but he's,

that's his thing. I go there and then I feel like I need a shower afterwards.

Who's Deck?

Oh, Below. Below. Below Deck.

Sometimes Scotty and I play that. Got it.

And what do you, you guys? just, you know, change who plays Deck?

Yeah, that's it. Yeah.

So you'll watch some TV.

Watch a bit of TV. Yeah.

Are you guys foodies? Do you like restaurants? Do you go over to friends' houses?

We do friends' houses. We do, we live, you know, we do quite, not mega outdoorsy, but quite outdoorsy.

Wait, what do you mean like camping? You guys go camping?

Well, no, he goes camping with the, with the kiddles. I, I draw the line at camping.

Now, what does a camping look like? Is there like a fancy van that they sleep in? or they, or do they pitch a tent and do it for real?

Tent. Wow.

Does a tent, yeah. He's a real man.

Or like near where you live.

or like up to the light district? like outside our house,

you know. Oh, in the backyard.