- 6 weeks ago
Cristin Milioti ('The Penguin' & 'Black Mirror'), Helen Mirren ('1923' & 'MobLand'), Kathy Bates ('Matlock'), Keri Russell ('The Diplomat'), Niecy Nash-Betts ('Grotesquerie') and Parker Posey ('The White Lotus') join THR in Off Script With The Hollywood Reporter.
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00:00I was never the ingenue in my entire career until I turned, I don't know, 45.
00:08And then it was like, and now we want you to be naked.
00:12And I'm like, y'all waited till now?
00:16Baby, when I was 20, these girls were sitting up here.
00:23If you're looking for drama, it's here at our table, but in a good way.
00:28Today, we've gathered six of the biggest actresses on TV to talk about their standout roles and just about everything else.
00:36Kathy Bates.
00:39Kristen Milioti.
00:42Helen Mirren.
00:45Niecy Nash-Betz.
00:48Parker Posey.
00:51Keri Russell.
00:52And they are all on the record, but maybe just a little off script with The Hollywood Reporter.
01:00Hi, I'm Mikey O'Connell with The Hollywood Reporter, and welcome to the Drama Actress Roundtable.
01:06Let's get into it.
01:08While we're laughing.
01:10This drama actress.
01:11If you were to see a Niecy Nash-Betz type, or a Keri Russell type, or any of your names type on a casting breakdown, do you have a decent idea of what that would be?
01:26Well, I would never want to have that on a casting thing, because that means that they want to type.
01:33That you're...
01:33You've become a commodity.
01:35You've become a commodity.
01:36But they may want you and just not afford you.
01:38Well, then they're going to go for AI, aren't they?
01:41I know what you're saying.
01:42I get what you're asking.
01:43So, I'm going to say, yeah, like, I went through a phase where it was just, like, a nice pregnant mom.
01:49Now that was like a Keri Russell type.
01:50They're like, well, let's get her.
01:52Like a nice pregnant young mom.
01:54How many times were you a pregnant mom?
01:55A lot of times.
01:56A lot.
01:57Yes, I was a queen for quite a long time.
01:59Yes.
02:01I managed to wriggle out of that, essentially.
02:03You have to wriggle to get out.
02:05Yes, you do.
02:05And you do get out.
02:06And you get out.
02:07Yeah, important to get out.
02:09I don't know what it will say about me because I've lived a lot of lives when it comes to being an actor, you know.
02:15So, from doing something as loud as Reno 911.
02:22It was so good.
02:22And then you slide all the way over and that pendulum hits Jeffrey Dahmer.
02:26Oh, that's great.
02:27You know, I don't know what it will say because it depends on which version of me they're looking for.
02:33There you go.
02:34What version of you are they looking for right now?
02:37That's sexy.
02:38You knew I was going there.
02:41I knew you were going there.
02:42You know what?
02:43I don't know.
02:44I don't know.
02:45But I love the fact that in this one being, I can make people laugh and make them cry.
02:53And I do not take it lightly.
02:56I feel like it's one of my favorite gifts that the Most High has given me.
03:00It's that duality.
03:01Parker, what about you?
03:03Did you ever feel like you were cast as the type?
03:05I actually saw, and I think it was, I remember Polly or a movie like that, that described a Parker Posey type that I did.
03:15I was not offered.
03:17Isn't that great?
03:18Oh, I read something where you said a Parker Posey type.
03:23I was like, oh, okay.
03:26But yeah, I agree with you.
03:28I love that nuance and that depth of playing it all.
03:32As women, we get to do it all.
03:34I was watching, I watched all of you.
03:36It was so fun.
03:38You're still a queen with that gun and that opening shot.
03:41Yeah, you're a queen of the land now.
03:43It's a whole, it's a whole thing.
03:46It just, yeah, we're all queens.
03:48Helen, you are a woman of many, many talents, as she's mentioned, but you delivered.
03:53Carlton Singh.
03:54Well, Carlton Singh.
03:56Did you shoot that gun?
03:57Did you learn how to shoot that?
03:59Oh, yeah, yeah.
03:59Did you enjoy it?
04:01It's visceral, isn't it?
04:03Guns are very dangerous.
04:04I hate guns, but it's kind of incredible fun to have one in your hands.
04:08It's just a terrible thing.
04:09Yeah, but, yeah.
04:11You deliver an F-bomb with more panache than about anyone in the business, and I'm wondering
04:17if you have a...
04:17And a C-bomb.
04:18Oh, yeah.
04:19Do you have a favorite cursing scene?
04:21Like, what is it?
04:23Oh, that I've been in?
04:24Yes.
04:26Well, actually, probably in the series I'm doing now, Mobland, which is, I just curse all
04:31the time.
04:31It's great.
04:33Sometimes I'm very satisfying about it.
04:35I don't know why, but it's, yeah.
04:39Yeah, but apart from that, I haven't had the option.
04:42I didn't swear as Catherine the Great of Russia.
04:47Kristen, have you ever gotten a really good cursing?
04:50I feel like I have a distant memory of, I had some pretty good runs in Palm Springs of
04:57being able to just, like, let it rip.
04:59Yeah.
05:01Yeah.
05:02I mean, come on.
05:03Anytime you get to say fuck face is a good scene.
05:05Yeah.
05:06I don't know.
05:07Your memoir...
05:08Oh, no, this is another question.
05:09Okay, good.
05:10Because I'm like, I can't...
05:11But you can swear.
05:12Well, Parker, I'm going to paraphrase this, but in your memoir, you write that talented is
05:19what people in Hollywood call actors when they want to say crazy.
05:24Oh, that's a good line.
05:25That is a good line.
05:26Yeah.
05:26Congratulations on it.
05:27That is good.
05:28When was the first time you heard talented attributed to yourself and interpreted that
05:34way?
05:35Oh, well, everyone around always said I'd do something different.
05:39I remember being, like, nine years old and being a dancer, and the teacher, Miss Linda,
05:49in Monroe, Louisiana, said, she has talent, she has charisma.
05:53And, yeah, but I didn't feel the kind of, like, crazy part, I guess in the aughts.
06:03Like, I think, I think in the 90s, there was, it felt really creative, and you could be different
06:09without, it just felt heroes and villains and black and white, and more, I think, conservative.
06:18Interpreting something as crazy, that is like a backhanded compliment.
06:22Right.
06:22Have any of you ever been given flattery that was like a euphemism, maybe, in your interpretation
06:28of it, or a backhanded compliment in a performance or an audition?
06:34I don't know about backhanded, but I had, I mean, right to my face.
06:39Yeah.
06:40I mean, I auditioned for something early in my career, and the two people, the producers
06:45looked at each other and said, she's got a cute face.
06:48You think she can lose weight?
06:50And I was like, guys, she can hear you.
06:53I am she.
06:54I'm right here.
06:56You know what I mean?
06:57And I was like, and no, she can't.
06:58How about that?
06:59You know what I mean?
07:00So, no, it was just like right to my face.
07:03But with any eye contact afterwards, or just completely?
07:07Well, I looked at them, and I said, I can hear you.
07:10I'm standing right here, and no, I can't.
07:12And now what?
07:13Are y'all going to give me the job, or?
07:15Did they?
07:16Yeah.
07:17For sure.
07:18They were like, they were terrified.
07:20After that, they felt, they probably felt so shamed.
07:22I don't even know if I was the best one, but they probably felt so embarrassed.
07:27You got to have people.
07:28I mean, I feel like this has been spoken about before, but I feel like I've seen actually like,
07:35and maybe this is just like in the culture at large, like such a celebration of men who are like, really go for it.
07:40Yeah.
07:41And like, are like, they like did a crazy thing to everyone, and everyone's like, wow, they must take this so seriously.
07:48And I've like, witnessed some of that, but more just like heard about it more and have thought that like, if I ever did that, it would not end well.
07:57Yeah.
07:57And like, that's, that still happens.
08:00Yeah.
08:00That definitely.
08:01But I don't know if that's like a backhanded compliment.
08:02That's just more of like.
08:03The reality.
08:04The reality.
08:05Sexism.
08:06Yeah.
08:06And just.
08:06Misogyny.
08:07Yeah.
08:07It's very real.
08:08When you asked that question, I felt myself just kind of like deflate, because I think the misogyny is so rampant.
08:17And to be a dynamic character, or a dynamic woman, or even a dynamic person, I think is kind of outrageous right now.
08:26I feel like.
08:27For a woman to be.
08:28For anyone.
08:29Like, it's like, there's something very provincial, I think, that's happened with the social media and Instagram and people being judged by how they look.
08:38And I feel like, just like a need to be.
08:41Yeah.
08:42Really entertaining, you know?
08:44Mm-hmm.
08:44And make people laugh and all that.
08:47But this double standard of women being in there, this misogyny, it's sad.
08:55It's like, it's a, you know, it's a downer.
08:58I remember years ago, I went up for a, it was a, I think it was Paradise Alley.
09:05And I went in and there was a whole list of, you know, everyone in the cast or all the characters.
09:11And I kid you not, before every one of them, it was beautiful.
09:15Yes.
09:16Beautiful.
09:16Absolutely.
09:16Beautiful.
09:17Beautiful, but she doesn't know it.
09:19That's the worst one.
09:19Kathy, such a big part of your press campaign for the launch of Matlock was that this was it.
09:25You called it your last ride.
09:27And very quickly, there was a 180.
09:30And outside of being credited with just saving broadcast television, what, what, what, what inspired the switch?
09:38What, what sparked you?
09:40The script.
09:41You know, it's always a script for me.
09:43And when I started reading it, it was all episodic, episodic.
09:47And then there's this amazing twist at the end, which gives the character so much substance because she's, you know, trying to fight a huge corporation.
09:54And she regards them as preventing her daughter from getting help being on opioids 10 or 12 years previous.
10:04And so when I saw that, I thought, okay, great.
10:07You know, because this is something I can really believe in, that it means something.
10:13I want it to mean something.
10:15And I just felt that up until that point, things that were starting to wind down for me, I was getting roles that I really cared about in films that then no one would see.
10:26You know, and there's just the disappointment or the, the way things were edited, you know, suddenly just really started to, to hurt too much.
10:37And I just thought maybe I ought to think about, you know, put my house on the market and move into France or something because I just wanted some, some real stimulation.
10:49You know, you, you, I think all of us here, you do because you really need to do it and you want to do it and it makes you happy.
10:55And anyway, I guess I said my piece.
10:58Yeah, that show is such a gift.
11:00Like that was so, cause you're, I was so touched and surprised by that, where it's, that it was, it's intelligent and it, I was like, wow.
11:12And then I'm hearing my friends are like, I'm watching Matlock.
11:15And they're like, am I 95 years old?
11:17Like, wow, this is like, it's so comforting because they get it.
11:21You know, the network gets it and it has substance.
11:25Whose idea was it to do Matlock as a woman?
11:28Well, our producer, Erica, Christian Olson had the rights and then they gave, uh, gave it to Jenny Snyder Ehrman.
11:36And she says she was watching, she always walks, you know, to get ideas about stuff.
11:41She says she was walking and walking and she was thinking in her own life about how invisible she felt because she's, I guess, in her fifties.
11:49And she was thinking about that a lot.
11:51And then I don't know what got her on the opioid track.
11:54I don't know whether it was someone she knew or a child or whatever.
11:58And, uh, so then, cause they originally wanted to make it a great, great granddaughter of the original Matlock.
12:05So she'd be 25.
12:09Beautiful and she doesn't know it.
12:10But luckily they thought, you know, she can be in her seventies and I, I'm, I'm stunned that all of this has happened.
12:21I really am.
12:21I'm just like, here I am with you guys and, you know, all these cameras and everything.
12:26And, and I just feel every day is such a gift.
12:29And, and it was after also the strikes.
12:32So everybody's so happy to be back at work.
12:34Yeah.
12:35Kathy, I'm glad you brought up the edit because you made news recently for talking about a scene that you really were hurt was, um, cut from misery.
12:47And I'm wondering for the rest of you, like, what is a scene or, or a line in a, in a, in a work that you've done that you were just like.
12:57Can I interrupt you about that though?
13:00Because we were just talking about that earlier.
13:02I just did this thing with Rob Reiner.
13:03It was 20 minute thing for TCM.
13:05Um, and what, what I was saying, it was, there were in the novel, there was a very, I thought a very funny scene where she runs over the sheriff with a lawnmower.
13:14So I was making a joke about it.
13:16And suddenly I see in the press, she wants more violence, you know, and that was not a scene that I was, so let me disabuse you of that, but have at it, ladies.
13:28Yeah.
13:28I know it's funny the way this all goes now.
13:31Yeah.
13:31Now, what do they call that?
13:32The headline?
13:33Clickbait.
13:34Clickbait.
13:34Mm-hmm.
13:35Yeah.
13:35It's clickbait.
13:36I knew it, all that stuff.
13:37Yeah.
13:38It just bugs me.
13:38Anyway, but talk about what you wanted to talk about.
13:41Oh, no, I did not read the Kathy Bates loves violence version of this.
13:45Mine was the things she was sad to see cut.
13:48We all have our darlings that don't make it.
13:51Yes.
13:51Camera, what have been some of yours?
13:53Well, I would say I did a series and I was never the ingenue in my entire career until I turned, I don't know,
14:0445, and then it was like, and now we want you to be naked.
14:08And I'm like, y'all waiting till now?
14:12Oh, that's right.
14:13Baby, when I was 20, these girls were sitting up here.
14:17You're waiting till now.
14:19And so the thing in which I was fine to play the part because I did want women of a certain age who were not married, who did not have children to see themselves as full beings, as sexual creatures and sexual beings.
14:36And so the days that you have to film intimate scenes, it's already stressful enough.
14:43You know what I'm saying?
14:45You just you and I don't know.
14:46And I think it's men who do these call sheets and they put the sex at night on the call sheet because they think it's sexy.
14:53It's like, no, this man just got out the tub and he's not smelling like a field mouse.
15:01Let's get it out the way.
15:05But then what would upset me is that you go through all of the heart palpitations, the clothes set, the this, the that.
15:12Was my side meat a little too jiggly?
15:14Was this, was that, all my kibbles and bits covered?
15:17And then they don't use it.
15:19I'm like, well, why was I going through all of this?
15:22And you're not.
15:24I wasn't crazy about it in the first place, but I'm willing.
15:27And so when I put myself out there to be that vulnerable, to be literally that exposed and then you don't use it.
15:36Now I got an attitude.
15:38Run it back.
15:39Stuff it back in there somewhere.
15:42You know?
15:42Yeah.
15:43Anyone else?
15:45Nothing specific.
15:46It's just always an odd experience to be so inside.
15:49I mean, because editing is like the third draft of the film.
15:52And like arguably maybe the most important, like lives and dies in the edit, as you know, whatever.
15:57And I've certainly had experiences, well, from an ego standpoint where I watch it and I'm like, that's not what I was trying to do.
16:03Which is like always very strange.
16:05But also sometimes you, I know I can get a little myopic about it and I get like defensive of the character.
16:11And I'm like, why did they cut that thing that she says that explains this, this, and this.
16:15Yes.
16:15And I forget to zoom out and think about the story as a larger piece.
16:19But when you do ADR, someone I know once called that actor's dreams ruined.
16:24Yes.
16:25When you see yourself for the first time and it's not done and you're just doing these little clips and you want to quit.
16:30And you, yeah, you can't believe like the level of shame.
16:33But I think that like that's always maybe an element of it where you're like, well, but I, but I, you get, I don't know, I get protective of certain things.
16:41Even though much later I can be like, well, I get why that was cut.
16:44It was too long.
16:45But in the moment.
16:45I think you, I think, I don't know if you guys agree with this, but working on the character is sort of a period of gestation.
16:52Yeah.
16:53I don't know if you feel that way.
16:55So that, that you do get very protective of it.
16:58So then when it's shifted or worse than that, when it's diametric to what you thought was going to end up, it's so painful.
17:06Yeah.
17:06I don't know.
17:07I don't know if you've all had that same experience.
17:10For sure.
17:10Because you have no control over it.
17:11And suddenly it's out of your hands and it's just.
17:14Yeah, definitely.
17:15Yeah.
17:16Feel very exposed.
17:17That's one of the reasons I really love working with Ryan Murphy because he is such a collaborative partner.
17:23So we got down to the end of the series and there were some options with the way we thought it was going to go, but then we got a rewrite.
17:32So when you have a good collaborative partner, you can then go back and say, you know, can we talk about it?
17:38How can we, you know, move the pieces on the chessboard around so that we're all satiated, you know?
17:46Carrie, you and I were talking before this about your, not even sure if you want to be an actress still or ever.
17:53And your partner, Matthew Rees, he has said this of your career.
17:58It's rare that she's enthusiastic about acting.
18:01It's not so much a dislike.
18:03It's a discomfort.
18:05First of all, this is your partner and co-star of six seasons of television.
18:11How accurate is that statement?
18:14And if it is accurate, like what gets you to set?
18:16What gets you to go to London and film The Diplomat when you're feeling this way?
18:21Oh my goodness, I'm sweating.
18:22Talk to us, Carrie.
18:23You've got to hear this.
18:25It is true.
18:26I came to this, I didn't grow up desperate to be an actress.
18:32I'm still not sure I want to be.
18:35But I really love my job right now.
18:37I love my job right now.
18:39But yeah, there's a lot of things that are still embarrassing to me.
18:43Like you're doing that, it's embarrassing.
18:44I get it.
18:45I think I'm naturally kind of a shy, I'm not a performer, like at ease.
18:53There are people that are, Matthew, for instance, will say, I go, oh, what are you doing this week?
18:59And he goes, oh, I'm just going to do this play reading for whatever.
19:03And I go, oh, you're just going to do it?
19:05He goes, yeah, I just haven't done like a German and Russian accent in a while.
19:08And I just want to like try it out.
19:10I'm like, that's my nightmare.
19:11I would fucking die.
19:12I'm like, I don't want to just fucking do that with strangers.
19:16But he, you know, so I think that for me, there's like a real push-pull.
19:22I, the things I love about it, I, like my job right now, which I love so much, it was the writing.
19:30The writing is so good and that I couldn't say no.
19:33So that's what it usually takes.
19:35It takes writing that's really, that I think is special and that I just have to do, that I think is really funny or smart or, and, and I think I still have to overcome the obstacle of being nervous.
19:50But I think for me, getting to do this version that we're in of TV that's really like elevated to me right now, it works for me because we have the same crew for usually, you know, six months or whatever.
20:07And it helps me get less nervous.
20:10I go, oh, I know who the boom operator is.
20:12I know who the, and it, I can absorb them into my, I can be less nervous and just like showing up.
20:18And, but so it, yes, I, that is a part of it.
20:21And I think that tension for me of being nervous and is part of the energy of it all, you know.
20:29For all of you, can you describe to me the current chapter of your careers in terms of the opportunities that are presented to you right now and maybe how it differed from five, 10 years ago?
20:40I'm finding it to be a huge relief.
20:41I think for a while, if I look back 10 years ago, I was often playing, and this is not to like, you know, these opportunities were all so great, but I often felt like I was playing a version of a, like a, like a girl of someone's dreams or something.
20:58That like, there was, and there were things that didn't feel necessarily like my life experience, which is fine, but I feel like the older I get, the more it's, I feel like I'm like taking off a pair of tight pants.
21:10And I'm just like, oh, thank God.
21:12Like, like, I just feel so much freer, and I feel like my own depth of humanity is like meeting things that it weren't, not necessarily that it like wasn't welcome or anything, it just like wasn't part of it.
21:26And, you know, that's like not a dig at any of those things.
21:30I think some of that's aging, too.
21:31It's like how you're perceived at 25.
21:33You know, there's, I think there's even less roles that are complicated for a 25-year-old.
21:38You know, I was auditioning to play like sorority girls and like a dead body in a trunk, you know, or like someone who was like in love with a 40-year-old and being like, I don't know, like, have you ever tried dancing in the rain?
21:48Like, do you know what I mean?
21:49So like I, to leave that behind has felt really good.
21:53Like, and I also think that's cultural as well.
21:55That was like a whole, that was like a big moment in time, too.
21:58And didn't you find when you're, yeah, I was talking to a young actress the other day.
22:01She said, I have to cry in everything that I do.
22:04I have to cry.
22:06Why do I have to cry all the time?
22:08Yeah.
22:08She's like in her early 20s.
22:09Yes.
22:10I said, don't worry.
22:11Yeah.
22:11You know, you'll come to an age where you don't have to cry anymore.
22:14But, you know, it's the writing, isn't it?
22:16Yeah, it is.
22:17But I think also the writing for women has improved, in my experience, so enormously.
22:23Enormously.
22:24In the last 10 years, maybe only in the last 10 years.
22:28I mean, it's extraordinary, the trajectory.
22:31I'm terrified that it's going to be all shoved back in the back down again.
22:35Shut up, you women.
22:37We don't want you talking anymore.
22:39Or having character or having, you know, agency in this world.
22:43Yeah.
22:44And I think there's a real danger of that abroad at the moment.
22:48But, you know, I see the writing in all of your characters that you've all played.
22:54And the kind of material that I'm getting, it's so, so much better.
22:59Yeah.
23:00I feel like it's like the ball on the roulette wheel that just kind of lands.
23:05And you don't know how the script gets to you, what director has been thinking about you.
23:09I feel just incredibly lucky.
23:11And it's more of like a path as a, you know, as an artist.
23:17So I'm not comfortable with the business side of it.
23:20I don't really understand it.
23:22It makes me very nervous.
23:23I think the screen and television and film are a very powerful medium.
23:31And the more integrity we can have and the more characters, then the more we can relate to each other.
23:39And it just feels so important right now.
23:42So, yeah, but this kind of luck.
23:46Like, I think people have this idea that there's just a lot of scripts that you'll get around to reading when you have time.
23:53Because you're just busy eating bomb-bombs.
23:55You're like, hmm, they're kind of like that one.
23:57Didn't really like this one.
23:58But this director, I really want to work with you.
24:00And it's just not like that.
24:02Like, I feel like there's just a whole cosmology that's happening with stories at play.
24:07Because it ends up being like, oh, my God, how did I get this lovely part?
24:13And now I just went through this.
24:15And I'm out, like, sponging everything around me and having these conversations that I can bring to this.
24:21Because it feels very rare.
24:24It's felt rare for me from, like, 35 to 55 to fit in.
24:29And I think with, you know, long-form television and the serial work has been just such a blessing.
24:38I wonder if also the long form is what actually has thrown up the great women's roles.
24:46Because if you've got a two-hour story, usually it's the women who get, you know.
24:51And you're selling to 13-year-old boys, basically.
24:53Unless it's about the woman's character, which it rarely is in a two-hour movie.
24:59So the women's role gets cut down.
25:01But in the long form, you've got the time to develop the complications of the characters.
25:07That's exactly what I was thinking.
25:08I was going to say, like, for me, I feel like I entered the business as a comedian.
25:14So people knew me to be funny.
25:17I did all the sitcoms.
25:19I played Cedric the Entertainer's wife on the sitcom.
25:21And Reno 911 and all of those things.
25:24But I feel like once I did this tiny series on HBO called Getting On, it was about a hospital.
25:31Myself, Alex Borstein, Laurie Metcalf.
25:34Thank you so much.
25:35Once I did that, after people realized that I could do something else, I stayed in the drama lane.
25:43It was just like, you know, and I literally just called my team and said, I think people forgot I'm funny.
25:48You need to be a comedy set.
25:52You know, because that's another gift and skill set that I have that I haven't, well, I use it every day at home.
26:00But I haven't used it on the screen in a long time.
26:03And I just think that for me, that's the difference is that every role I get, I'm crying.
26:09I'm falling out.
26:10You know what I mean?
26:11I'm perturbed.
26:12Back of my head to my forehead, all of those things.
26:16But I was like, I'm a funny girl, too.
26:19Yeah.
26:19So now I'm back in the streets trying to remind the folks.
26:24At Donner, you just disappeared.
26:26I mean, it wasn't anything like I'm saying right now.
26:29No, ma'am.
26:29At Donner, you just disappeared.
26:30Yes, ma'am.
26:30Which I think is the goal for all of us.
26:33Yes.
26:33You know, somebody was saying, I studied years ago, I did a script interview with Jose Quintero.
26:38And he said, the line disappears and a human being takes its place.
26:44And that's what you did.
26:46She's saying, like, in the series, you just stopped seeing me.
26:49You didn't see this.
26:50That's right.
26:50This foolishness.
26:52No.
26:52No.
26:53This beauty.
26:53This sexiness.
26:54I buckled down.
26:55You were without your sexiness.
26:56Honey, I put them away in a minute.
27:00You know, that's very hard to move from comedy to serious tragedy or, you know, serious material.
27:07It's a very hard thing to do and to have the audience come along with you.
27:12Yeah.
27:13And then to be able to go back.
27:14You're a very rare creature in that sense.
27:17Very rare.
27:18And I thank you and I thank God for it every day.
27:22Thank you so much, though.
27:23That's a great, great talent.
27:25You very famously, like, reintroduced yourself to your team, your agents and your managers in terms of, like, what you wanted to do.
27:33Was that before getting on or did that come out of the experience of getting on?
27:38That was before.
27:38Okay.
27:39That was because all I was ever doing was comedy.
27:42And then I called all the folk together and said, they're like, well, what are we doing here?
27:46And I said, I want to reintroduce myself because I think you think you know me.
27:50But I done changed, you know, and I said, and here is how I see myself.
27:56And if you don't see me like I see myself, then we're not aligned.
27:59It doesn't mean you're not great.
28:00You're just not great for me and I'm not great for you.
28:03So some people left the team.
28:05Some people joined the team.
28:06And then I was able to start doing the work, like getting on the movie Selma, When They See Us, that Ava DuVernay directed.
28:15You know, all of these pieces that I knew I could do.
28:19I knew in my soul I could do it.
28:21And but once you start getting nominated for that work, you only get more of it.
28:27And so the latter kind of fell off.
28:31So now I'm going to have another meet and remind them that I'm funny.
28:35Do you ever feel like, I mean, our whole business is about imagination and yet there's such a lack of it in terms of how they see us.
28:44Oh, yeah.
28:45What is that?
28:47Well, it's always been a very upsetting dichotomy to me.
28:51What we have to do, like the softness we need to do what we do, the sort of like laying everything down.
28:56The vulnerability mixed with like the shark tank business and noise that comes hand in hand with it.
29:04I think it's like a constant sort of reckoning with like, how do you how do you continue to like open yourself while also being like, I'm trying to ignore this.
29:13And that's crazy.
29:14And this is like it's it is very odd.
29:16That's what you were just saying.
29:18You know the craft, but don't like the business.
29:20Yeah.
29:20Yeah.
29:21I just don't understand it.
29:22Yeah.
29:22I don't understand how how it works.
29:24I get really confused by it.
29:27I don't because there is imagination here and there are great writers.
29:32So why aren't the decisions being made for more humor and humanity and story?
29:38And I think it's business.
29:40I think it is like.
29:41Yeah.
29:42Yeah.
29:42You probably know what they call it, but they have to make the same of something that did well before.
29:48Right.
29:48With White Lotus, people were like, oh, my God, we watch it every week.
29:51And they were just so excited for the the cooler water cooler talk.
29:57They were just like.
29:58Absolutely.
29:59And Matlock.
30:00Matlock is like that.
30:01I'm misnounded.
30:03They do.
30:03You get people coming up at the grocery store and just like, oh, my God, I'm so excited to see you.
30:09Yeah.
30:09It comes from left field so often.
30:11Yeah.
30:12And the ones you think, oh, this is going to be great.
30:15Right.
30:15I mean, Parker, you talk about the White Lotus.
30:21It is known to be this like massive career launch pad and relaunch pad.
30:27What have the last two months been like for you?
30:30I mean, you booked a Gap campaign before the show even came out.
30:33Like, what have the incoming calls been like and the offers?
30:36Um, it's, um, that Gap commercial was so great.
30:41Oh.
30:41I mean, I got to dance.
30:42That's cool.
30:43Like, I danced in college.
30:44And it was kind of referencing a movie I did called Party Girl 30 years ago.
30:50I love Party Girl.
30:50It was a cult movie.
30:52And then it literally the film was lost.
30:54People watched it on videotape and like danced before they go out.
30:58You know, a fun movie for young, fun people.
31:01And it disappeared and then it got rediscovered to a whole other generation.
31:06So the Gap, yeah, I've, I've been doing this for a while.
31:10It's just that roulette wheel thing.
31:12Like, I have no controller.
31:13And it's suddenly, it's just like, okay, here you go this way, this way.
31:17But I haven't, I haven't read anything.
31:21You think, again, I'm not like, this is incredible.
31:25They're sending me all this.
31:26Like, I've yet to read something.
31:28The next thing.
31:29Yeah, the next thing.
31:30Um, but, uh, the, the memes and what it's done for my, like, the excitement of my friends
31:39and family around me, it's been so lovely.
31:43I'm sure you feel that too.
31:44If there are friends coming like, we were so worried or like, we've been stressed for
31:49you, you know, because they hear the stories and they, they're glad to see you happy.
31:54They're glad to see you happy and appreciated and like getting work that's like fulfilling
31:58and funny.
31:59Yeah.
31:59And my mom, you know, I'm just like, so happy.
32:02She can feel fabulous with her friends.
32:04Yeah.
32:05Do you know what I mean?
32:06Years ago, when my mother got arrested, she went on a cruise and, and, and she was with
32:11my sister and the captures at the captain's table, you know how they do that for people
32:16every now and then, and she, he said, well, what does your daughter do?
32:19She's an actress.
32:20And she started going through all these parts and they were these horrible characters.
32:24And finally, she just got really quiet and she said to my sister, why does she play all
32:30these afflicted people?
32:33You know?
32:34So it's too bad that my mother isn't here now because she's a lovedist.
32:39She is here in spirit.
32:41Afflicted is so good.
32:43Carrie, you've never really engaged in the celebrity part of the job.
32:47You left LA as soon as Felicity wrapped.
32:50You've been in New York, you choose the projects you want to do, but in that removal from that
32:55part of like the job, um, what, what have been the perks and, and what have maybe been
33:01the things that you've lost in that decision?
33:03What have been the, um, oh, I don't know.
33:06I, I just, I like my life.
33:08I like my regular life.
33:09I like, you know, my friends mostly do non our business kind of jobs, but I, I like all
33:17the real life stuff and I, when I don't have it, I'm not happy.
33:21And I, and I don't want to talk shit too much about acting.
33:25Like I do.
33:25I love it.
33:26You know, I, I am completely married to like the adventure of it.
33:31And that's what I meant it for.
33:32Like, I love to go to some strange city.
33:35I don't care.
33:36It could be like Paris or it could be some tiny, tiny little like Southern town.
33:40And I like to learn the city and I like to meet new people and find my little thing.
33:45I, I like the adventure of it, you know, and that's, I think what I'm in it more for
33:49than some of the other stuff.
33:51Kristen, uh, the last time I believe you were at one of these round tables and I'm going
33:55to read this verbatim because it's a very good quote.
33:57No, you said you're nervous.
33:59You said that you're, um, you're going to be canceled now.
34:04Um, no, you said that your dream was to play Beetlejuice as a child or moving forward
34:11to just a psychotic demon or a villain who's gross and like evil, maybe a ghost vampire
34:17or just a psychopath.
34:18What?
34:19Yes.
34:20Okay.
34:20But I kind of want to say, yeah, I think I love you.
34:27I've been watching that.
34:28I love you in that.
34:29It's so great.
34:30And it's like the, where it's going.
34:32There's so good in it.
34:33I really, really love you in that.
34:36It's so fun to watch and all the, like the nuance of what you're doing.
34:39I love it so much.
34:40I think you're so good.
34:41Thank you so much.
34:42It's incredible.
34:42And did it scratch that itch for you?
34:44Yeah, it did.
34:45It does.
34:45It did scratch that itch.
34:47Like Peyton's.
34:48It scratched that itch.
34:49I've, I've been, um, I mean, that role has been such a gift.
34:52A gift is an understatement.
34:53Like I've been dreaming of a role like that for, since I was a kid, you know, and like I,
34:59yeah, it, it really did.
35:01I, I, I've been wanting to like, uh, show different colors.
35:07And that role has allowed me to show like a multitude of colors.
35:11Well, that episode, wasn't it the fourth episode when you were in the Arkham Asylum?
35:15Yeah.
35:15Yeah.
35:16I mean, there you go.
35:17It's devastating.
35:18Everything she said.
35:18It's devastating.
35:19It's devastating.
35:19Yeah.
35:19And you get to see like this, you know, a person.
35:22Why she becomes what she becomes.
35:24Driven mad.
35:25And it felt like, it felt like Shakespeare.
35:28It felt like an opera.
35:28Like Colin and I would talk about that a lot.
35:30Like we would compare the show to sort of like an extremely dark and demented opera just
35:35in terms of its like bigness and its arias, you know, like that whole Arkham sequence
35:39felt like an aria.
35:41Not, not to sound like lofty and like, but you know, like, I don't know.
35:45Just, it's very rare that you get to work on things that scratch those, that itch, you
35:49know?
35:49So, um, and so, yeah, I, I, I, I, it's been profound.
35:54I loved it so much.
35:56Um, Helen, I'm going to go a little left field, but in preparing for today, I, I read like countless
36:02interviews with all of you, listened to a bunch of podcasts and a recurring theme with
36:07you, Helen, is with remarkable consistency.
36:10You mentioned Kurt Cobain and how you're bummed that he died before GPS.
36:17Yes, yes, indeed, I am.
36:19What is the, what is the fixation with Kurt Cobain?
36:23Well, it's not, it's not Kurt Cobain, it's dying young.
36:26Oh.
36:27It's dying young and I'm old, you know, I didn't die young.
36:32Um, and, and the terrible tragedy of, and, and the reason that I want to live as long as
36:37I possibly can and continue working as long as I possibly can, exactly what Kerry says,
36:42the adventure of it.
36:44Yeah.
36:44The amazing, wonderful revelations and adventure of life and, and indeed of work.
36:51Anyway, the adventure is, um, in life and work is, is the unknown and, and what is coming,
36:58you know, it's fantastic.
37:00And sticking around until you get there.
37:01And sticking around until you get there.
37:03That's right.
37:03Yeah.
37:04And the, the people too, like the communion you get when like something bigger comes through
37:08with someone who you don't really know that well.
37:10And you're like, your eyes are locked and you're like in this thing.
37:13And it's, it's like, it's incredible.
37:16It's like kind of worth all the other crap that we're talking about.
37:20And it's so great when you have a male co-actor who is supportive and, um, what's the word?
37:29I, well, supportive, I guess is the word really ultimately, but, but he's not there to try and
37:35put you down or shut you up or take over, but a genuine relationship.
37:42And, and you were telling me about your relationship with Colin and I had that with Bob Hoskins in
37:47Longwood Friday many, many years ago with Pierce Brosnan in this, um, you know, it's, it's great
37:54to have that, that support of, of, you can't really do it in my experience without the support
38:01of, of, of male actors.
38:02It's certainly, yeah.
38:03It's certainly harder.
38:04It's certainly harder.
38:04Yeah.
38:04You can't do it to your full abilities without the support of your co-actors.
38:10Yeah.
38:10Yeah.
38:11I guess male or female.
38:12Yes.
38:13That's, that's right.
38:14Yeah.
38:15Yeah.
38:16I feel that very much with Skye, Skye P. Marshall, um, plays Olympia and Matlock and it, I mean,
38:21it was another miracle when she walked in the door and the, the, the intensity and the working
38:26off of each other and the, just in the eyes, as you were saying, it was, it's in the eyes
38:32and, and it's only grown more and more and more and it's almost like, I don't want to get
38:38to know each other too well.
38:40Yeah.
38:41Yeah.
38:42In real life.
38:43Yeah.
38:44Yeah.
38:45Yeah.
38:46Yeah.
38:47Yeah.
38:48Yeah.
38:49Yeah.
38:50Yeah.
38:51Yeah.
38:52Yeah.
38:53Yeah.
38:54It should be mysterious.
38:55Yeah.
38:56Absolutely.
38:57Yeah.
38:58Yeah.
38:59Yeah.
39:00Yeah.
39:01Yeah.
39:02and all that but it's the intensity of the relationship that we have on screen is just
39:08gangbusters and i don't think i've experienced that with i don't want to dish anybody ever
39:14whatever but right now i'm just like all about this and working with her she's so fantastic and
39:19it comes in a surprising way doesn't it i have the same with harrison you know i mean harrison
39:23to me is a humongous movie star who really basically intimidates the hell out of me because
39:28he's a huge movie star but there's a a um chemistry yeah i mean it's wonderful when you hit that
39:36chemistry isn't it just lovely and you do nothing for it really it just it kind of magically happens
39:44it makes me glad to be a person yeah or something yeah like not that i'm not but just like there's a
39:49lot that's like very uh vexing about humanity and then when you're like sitting on a strange set
39:54somewhere and your like eyes are locked and you're just like up to something it makes me be like oh
39:58yeah yeah we're all okay like it's all okay the world works yeah and you have the story that is
40:05bringing you closer together you're serving the story she's serving her relationship and you're
40:09serving your relationship to the story so you're keeping it sacred and that's what's just so delicious
40:16about these connections that you can have with colin and and have that that mystery and that chemistry
40:22and not and just share it it's so beautiful yeah nisi i read that um when you told people that you
40:29wanted to marry uh jessica you're you're now a spouse um that you shouldn't do it that it would
40:36derail opportunities for you and i mean and this is not long ago um the opposite happened like your
40:42career has flourished good tell us how you received something like that in this day and age and like
40:51are those people still a part of your life a part of your team um you know everybody has an opinion
41:01and everybody has a thought about it you know and there were people who were like you know you have to
41:07keep you know we've the the public the your fan base has known you to be a certain way and you need
41:14to stay right there because otherwise you'll never eat lunch in this town again you know what i mean you
41:20can't you know what i mean and some of that comes from you know older generations family members who
41:28that's the generation that they were raised in and how they think but i've always been a person who does one
41:36thing what i want to do and i'm gonna do it all the way i'm not gonna halfway do nothing you understand
41:44so if i'm gonna do it i'm gonna do it and i give very little thought if any to what somebody else
41:52thinks about it you know what i mean i cannot even imagine my life without jessica i can't i i can't even
42:00i i don't even know you know what i mean this is the greatest love of my entire life not because
42:05of her gender but because of her soul and the look in the eyes and the connection is the tether you
42:13know what i mean and you know and all of you have experienced being in the situation at one point well
42:19you have to go out into this world you have to make people feel on the set if you if you're leading the
42:24charge or if you're providing provision for the vision and that thing at home is not right
42:31the whole car ride over there you off you don't you don't you don't feel right or somebody texting
42:36you or calling you while you were giving you a fever and you like wait a minute and i am in a prime
42:42spot because regardless of the work whatever i have to get up and go do jessica is the one that puts a
42:48battery in my back every day reminds me of who i am you know what i mean it reminds me to go get it and
42:55and and you know and encourages me to the to the max so i would not even be able to enjoy my work as
43:04much as i do without that kind of support so i did what i wanted to do i don't regret it
43:11um i would do it again um as a matter of fact we're about to celebrate five years oh my gosh
43:18that's thank you about to do another vow renewal a big party just so i could say in your face
43:26whoever told me not to get married in your face i mean i would love some in your face
43:31uh we've all gotten bad advice in our careers over the years i maybe not to that extreme but like can
43:39you recall any time uh where you were given just like deeply bad or problematic guidance in your
43:46careers yep yeah well i know let me just say one time i did a a a dancing show i'm gonna talk i'm
43:54gonna look at you because i know you're a dancer and a lot of people that were on my team said don't
44:00do this show they were like we don't think you should do it and i wanted to do it so bad because
44:06because let me tell you something i was in a dance program i fell in love with this boy and i
44:13stayed up and talked to him all night so the day of the big show i flopped i flopped on the stage and
44:18i never forget vivian uh gandy my dance teacher miss gandy told me to get off that stage and i have
44:26been wanting to be back in in tap shoes ever since write that wrong so i went out there baby let me tell
44:33you something three pairs of eyelashes sequence all over yes the place i tipped i tapped i told
44:39when i tell you i had a time love it and i i they told me not to do it but it was one of the most the
44:46greatest joys i've ever had so everything is not always about the prestige and who's gonna be there
44:53and what's the label you're wearing sometimes i just put it on because i want to i show up because i
44:57want to and that was bad advice and i took my own advice and had the best time of my life yes
45:05the best time kathy what was the bad advice you were thinking well i'd rather just stay happy
45:11because you're you just told a happy thing you know my mine was i had ovarian cancer in 2003 and
45:17my agent said don't tell him my wow and i said what he said no don't tell anybody you don't want to be
45:23the poster child for ovarian cancer you know because i guess back there and then in the in the early
45:29aughts uh you know there was in i don't know if it was like terrible advice but i think if i had come
45:38out again you know at that point um maybe it would have helped some people yeah because when i had breast
45:47cancer in 12 that helped people and i talked about lymphedema and all of that stuff which i didn't know
45:52anything about and the last 10 years we've made so much progress and letting people know what it
45:58is and and so i regret not doing that earlier you know because what i what it made me do was
46:07i hid yeah right i went underground i was on the board at the academy and i called him i said i can't
46:13come to any of the meetings i'm i'm doing and i noticed i was on chemo and everything so i wasn't
46:18feeling great but i just i just hid for like nine months that like yet a whole year and i don't know
46:26that that was so great when i look back on it i mean and you know your family's expecting you not
46:33family but some friends are expecting you well aren't you supposed to be better by now you know
46:38you know so we can quit coming around yeah and um so it it it was bad advice i think on a lot of
46:45levels career and personal i just brought everybody down i told y'all i didn't tell them that you're
46:54because you were open the second time around it's all the country it's to do is being authentic
46:58isn't it authentic to yourself yeah and for good about bad authentic to yourself is the thing that
47:05counts yeah and and i think we are better about that now i think yeah well and speaking back to
47:11like the parts that are around now i i think people in the last 10 years are better about accepting
47:18people where they're at or you know whoever you are or whatever you know like i think we're a little
47:25bit better than we used to be about i think so too meeting people where they are yeah yeah i was
47:30told to have a nose job in my 20s when i was in my 20s so i said you never get work if you don't
47:37have a nose job wow you have a lovely nose thank you darling i didn't have the nose job but um yeah so
47:44silly isn't it what was your response i said no i'm not having a nose job i didn't want to be
47:49a pretty actress anyway you know so you know i elect it to be not so pretty christine you you said you
47:57had a story as well oh my just just i think when um i don't know when people tell you it's it's kind
48:04of just vague of like what you should be doing of like i think the business part of it of just being
48:09like you should be this you should try to be this you should try to be this just because they're doing
48:13their best to like advise you based on what they've been fed and i think that like that can get tricky
48:19mine isn't nearly as profound it's just kind of general but all that's all advice is is either people
48:25looking at their own life what didn't work for them didn't work or you know or their own fears
48:31yeah and then they cast them upon yeah upon you yeah you know what i mean my mother now is my biggest
48:38fan but when i was a little girl i said i want to be an actress she said you should go into nursing
48:43because you're kind-hearted and i'm like yeah but no yeah you know what i mean so now i got to clean
48:50bad pants because you you know but she was only saying like i can't help you with that but i know
48:57this path right i know that if you do this yeah it will work but what you're doing what you wanted
49:03what if it doesn't work and i'm like what if it does right you know so it's just sometimes people
49:09saying to you what their own totally oh she's protecting you from heartbreak yeah you know why
49:14would you go into this unstable thing why would you do it i have to this is a happy story give me your
49:19help you so this reminds me when i was in school at smu and i landed in clover because they just had
49:25a great program there and my parents were quite old and and they came down to see me in a play
49:32and um this kind of feeds into appearance too i didn't find out till many years later that my father
49:37had gone to talk to the acting teacher and say well you know she's not conventionally attractive
49:43should she go to new york i'm glad i didn't know that for years but in in defense of my father
49:48so after the play i went to their motel where they were staying and he told me that when he was a
49:54young man he was a baseball pitcher he was a left uh what do you call it a left yeah no southpaw
50:02so i'll get that wrong his southpaw and he said that he had had an opportunity there was like a
50:07triple a team or double a team that came through memphis and he had an opportunity to be on the team
50:12and he turned it down because he was i don't know wanted to be more responsible in his life and that
50:19was risky and you know and he said i never had the chance to find out if i could have done it
50:25mm-hmm and i want you to have that chance yeah yeah so he said here's 500 which was a lot of money
50:32in those days it was 70 1970 to go to new york and i had friends there and stuff so
50:39that's a nice story that's a lovely story and i just wanted to say something about what you just
50:45said about when you said i didn't want to be a a beautiful actress first of all too late because you
50:50are but but second of all i would i would tell you something i understand what you mean in theory
50:57because i love being shiny in my real life but on camera i don't care i would i want to look like a
51:05dog i like it doesn't bother me to disappear like you were talking about in some of those other roles
51:11that i did where you're like unrecognizable because i feel like it's such a gift that you
51:18you know you don't have to live up i feel sorry for people who've been beautiful their whole life
51:22because let me tell you something it's tough when that's what you're known for and then you gotta
51:28keep it up for your whole life yeah yeah the whole thing exactly oh my god i don't know what i would do
51:33yes but can i interject something here though i don't know if you'll have the same experience when
51:37you see an amazing performance and it doesn't matter what that person looks like they're beautiful
51:43they're beautiful that's true that's true yeah and beautiful you find the beauty
51:51because you they it you light up it's like you know once again the performance of dahmer i mean
51:56it's just and what are those things you know what is it the gei or whatever the ag chat bt whatever
52:01yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah they did that to me when i was doing a movie and then they showed it to me
52:05my mind went oh wow i look really good and they didn't put something big in there
52:13i thought wow my makeup looks really good
52:17would you feel like when you have to play a role that is not so dolled up it takes a lot
52:21of the pressure off you yes all of it it's the best i mean like because the role that i'm doing on
52:27grotesquerie i play a detective but she's an alcoholic and in her alcoholism in any place
52:34in it she could be hammered she could be hungover she could be tipsy you know but in her addiction
52:42she's not always together and i just feel like it's such a freedom of coming to set and not having
52:50to be so polished yeah yeah you know what i mean and i enjoyed living in her skin
52:59yeah you know for that while because i don't have to have on a spank i don't have to have
53:05one you know what i mean yeah i don't have to be squeezed in and pushed together and all of those
53:10things and i just felt like wow this is such a gift yeah who knew to look terrible was a gift
53:18you know yes yeah as we get ready to land this plane i'm wondering what do you think is your most
53:24underrated role in your career and why oh oh underrated parker you've got one oh come on you
53:33tell me what it is i will forever i will forever uh argue for the quality of the satire in the josie
53:44in the pussycats movie oh yeah it was great yeah that has um that was a how old are you how old were
53:55you when it came out uh were you it's not about me almost made it about him yeah i had a good time
54:03working on that you know there's this really campy movie called the apple that made me really laugh it
54:10was made in the early 80s from germany and i had i i had fun i had fun with it i think i put stickers
54:18on my face and i felt like i was in the laura's flavor i love that i love the laura's flavor so much
54:26helen's husband taylor hackford directed it oh my god i love it start to finish because it was the
54:35only time i think i've had an actor's director we had like two months three months to prepare
54:41what do you need to do this part because i'm going to be cutting back and forth between 35 and 65
54:47you know and having all that at hand and just the focus and they didn't they didn't publicize it
54:55oh i love that i love that movie too i've seen it a couple of times me too me too
55:01you were so good what year was that i remember huh what year was that 94. you were so good and i
55:08remember after it came out i was walking down the street in this little village near my house
55:13and a woman came flying out of a barber no no beauty salon with her bed you know her thing on her
55:20and her and her daughter running after her to grab her and she said i just have to tell you your movie
55:27got me out of an abusive relationship yeah and i just was i was i didn't know what to say you know
55:34because i didn't do it you know tony wrote it taylor directed it everybody and and it's it's the
55:41character that steven wrote and everything but i was tremendously disappointed that that didn't get
55:46a wider audience i mean it was such a great experience i loved it not just the shooting of
55:52it but you know i mean not the movie itself but it was just the best all right we're going to end with
55:57a ostensibly silly but subtly deep and telling question oh okay what is the most used emoji on your phone
56:07heart emoji and prayer hands me too most used on my and you know what i found out i found out that
56:17the prayer hands really aren't prayer hands they're a high five what that's what it's supposed to be
56:22no but i thought it was a prayer no the ones that are like yes it's not prayer hands it's high five but
56:27i use it as prayer hands yeah i use the melted smiley face as sort of like to respond yeah yeah
56:37i i am a big fan of just the eyes and no face yeah oh i use it but i use that today
56:45i use that today yeah i like yeah i like the drool yeah the drool is funny sometimes i'll just use a
56:54little slide or um as if i'm like sliding into hell same thing with the little ballet slippers too
57:00you can be like going to hell yeah i'm stealing that yeah it's good yeah helen you got an emoji
57:09i don't like emojis good for you fair enough good for you helen noise
57:14because i don't know why i don't like you like words better i like words better yeah i do
57:21although words can as you said you know yeah emojis can say things you need a whole send you
57:27know page to explain and yeah and and so i guess they're very very clever like that yeah but there's
57:33so many things about the whole internety thing that i'm just like oh you need to but not gps but not
57:41gps no leanies this has been such a treat thank you so much thank you thank you this has been a good
57:47experience thank you
57:55oh my god
58:11so
58:23you
58:25you
58:31you
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