Octavia Spencer on First Leading Role in 'Ma': "The Preparation and Level of Commitment - It's All the Same" | In Studio - video Dailymotion

Hollywood Journal

"Even our villain is super, super layered and Octavia, as you saw, did such a fantastic job portraying that," Silvers said of 'Ma.'

Transcript

00:00I'm Octavia Spencer and I'm Diana Silvers and we are in studio with The

00:05Hollywood Reporter. Thank you so much for joining us you guys. Thank you for

00:12welcoming us into your home. This is Ma's home right now. Creepy home. Are you renovating anytime soon?

00:21Probably. This is Creepy Corner right here. It's like Stalker Central. Welcome to our Creepy Corner.

00:32Octavia you've had an incredible career so far and this is being touted as your first

00:37leading role which it's about time. Oh thank you. Let's talk about that. Does it feel different?

00:42Um the responsibility is different um yeah um but the preparation and level of commitment it's all

00:52the same but the responsibility definitely feels much greater. Yeah. How would you guys classify this

00:59film? Horror? Thriller? Don't sleep at night? All of the above. All of the above yeah. All of the above.

01:07Yeah I saw it last night and um I had trouble sleeping but that's okay. See? We did it. Good.

01:14Very good. And many people in the theater were jumping. Really? Yes. I love that. I almost

01:21wish you guys could have been a fly on the wall. That's my plan. I'm going to like go incognito

01:26into like Union Square, opening weekend, sneak in and then sneak out because I want to see with an

01:31audience. It's the best way to see a movie like this is with an audience. Have you ever done that?

01:36I do it all the time. I do it all the time. Okay. When I when I want to like well I won't say

01:44that I do it all the time. Just into people. Is that a debut? No! It's Sherry Shepard.

01:52There's a mezzanine so you can like really sneak in and sneak in. Yeah exactly. I'd love to hear both your

01:57initial thoughts when you got the script. You know what what did you think? I know Taylor approached you

02:03about it. Why was this a yes? It was a yes for me because I'm a huge genre fan. I love psycho horror

02:13psycho thrillers, horror drama, all of the above. And I wanted to do something that was completely

02:18different. And if Sue Ann doesn't check all those boxes I don't know. She definitely does. What about

02:24you? I just love that there was like a complex teenage girl. You know I feel like so often you're

02:29a script and there's like the females are just one trope of a person. And I love that Maggie is

02:36she's all the things that you experience when you are a teenage girl and in a new town. And there's

02:40such a great mother-daughter aspect. And I too am a huge fan of of the horror genre. And I like that

02:46this is a psychological horror drama. It's not like oh she's running after us with a knife. But you know

02:52like a little bit. But it's it's so much more about this. And and even even our villain is super super

03:00layered. And you know Octavia as you saw did such a fantastic job. Thank you for trying that. So do you.

03:06Brilliant. How did you go about preparing for the role? Diana let's start with you. Well my younger

03:13sister I have a younger sister and I kind of just uh observed her and my mom. I was like I was like

03:19all right angsty comment there um like be nice there to get what you want there. Okay cool cool.

03:25Um no but really I just kind of like listened to a lot of Taylor Swift and uh some like old cold play

03:30to like remind myself what it was like to be 15. Um and spend a lot of time with Juliet and um yeah I

03:37mean yeah it's pretty much it for me. For me I there are uh personality traits that uh CYN exhibits

03:47and they're specific and when you know what they are because I I really exist in the true crime uh genre.

03:56I I watch a lot of true crime and I read a lot of true crime and so when I started to realize oh she has

04:04this and possibly this so I researched those disorders. Then it made it you know easy to

04:11connect the dots. There's a reason she goes from type A or from point A to point Z so rapidly and

04:18the reason why it's believable is because this is how her brain works. So um I spent time you know

04:24watching those type of documentaries about people who exhibit those personality traits. Let's talk about

04:31the atmosphere on set. How did you guys keep it light when you're filming such a kind of scary and

04:36dark film? Well we didn't do the dark stuff until the last week. Yeah that was all saved the last

04:43like 10 days of filming we were at Ma's house where things got real but I mean for me everyone was just

04:48so nice and easy to get along with and you know Tate is such a wonderful like loving person and I think

04:55when you have a director that embodies everything positive everything love it just trickles down

05:01to everyone else you know and it was when we were all laughing even during the heavy stuff when they

05:05called cut. It was great. Yeah. Now this isn't just you know a scary movie there is a lot of humor to it

05:12so you guys got to exercise your comedic chops a little bit around the timing. That was great. Diana you

05:19gotta be honest was it intimidating being on set with Octavia and Juliette Lewis? It would have been

05:26if they weren't so nice to me. Yeah. You know like I didn't feel intimidated or afraid just because

05:33everyone was very encouraging and like patient with me. I was such a rookie still a rookie um but

05:37everyone was so patient and and no one no one was annoyed with me when I didn't get something

05:42immediately. Everyone was just kind of walking me through and guiding me through everything which

05:46like and Octavia has been a mentor to me since day one um and I couldn't have asked for anything

05:51better. Well I tested with her. I tested with all the kids except for Dante and they came in and they

05:58won those parts. She might have been it might have been her first role but she was rocky when she was

06:04in the ring. It was wonderful. It was wonderful to play opposite you and all the kids to be honest. What

06:10would you say there was something that you was there something that you learned being on set?

06:15Um just be present. Be extremely extremely present. Put your phone in your trailer. Exactly. You know

06:22you're just there to you're there to work. You're there to to bring truth to these characters um and I

06:28mean I know for me like I wasn't thinking about what was going to do next what's going to happen after

06:31this. I was just like no no I need to I want to know my lines. I want to be here with these with an

06:35Oscar winner. You know I think like hello and Juliet who's been nominated. Yeah you know and yeah

06:41I mean it's like you're in such great company or why would you want to be doing anything else.

06:45Octavia what other roles are you choosing to play because this is quite a departure from some

06:49of your past roles. You know what I uh the one role that I've um I've always felt destined to play was

06:57that of a producer. As a producer I I don't have to want uh uh to play anything. I can create

07:05those roles for myself at this point. Um so uh that's the role that I'm I'm happy happiest about.

07:13Um and you know with friends like Tate who who brought me this I I think I don't think I'm gonna

07:20have to really search. I think you know people will be looking out but just in case they don't

07:25I'll be creating those for myself. Now you just started a production company. That's very exciting.

07:31Yeah. With Brian. With Brian. Brian was both of our agents at WMA. Oh okay. Mine because of Octavia.

07:40So this is this this partnership's gonna happen more in the future it looks like. Absolutely.

07:44Yeah absolutely. What kind of stories are you looking to tell? I'm I'm looking to tell the same

07:50types of stories um just uh perhaps from different storytellers uh people who haven't had their scripts

07:57spot who have original stories that no one's heard and um uh entertain. I want to entertain people.

08:04I want you to learn something in some capacity but more importantly I want you to be able to escape

08:09whatever's going on in your life for that two hours that you commit to being with us. So yeah that's it.

08:15Great. And now uh Diane I have to ask you how often do you get compared to Julia Roberts?

08:20Every day since I was this year. What did I say? I said Julia Roberts. I mean that's a very large and

08:29lovely comparison. Yeah. And if I have any sort of trajectory as her career I will be an extremely

08:34lucky human being. She's a lovely lady. She is so cool. Have you ever met her? No I there was this

08:39one moment I think when I was like 15 I saw her in the palisades and like I looked at her she looked

08:44at me. That was it. She'd probably be like I don't recall. I recall. I bet she's the one person

08:52who would recall. Yeah she'd be like I remember that. I was like that girl reminds me of someone

08:56I know. No but um no I mean she's oh she's one of my favorite actresses. I bet. So likable.

09:02What were you guys afraid of as a kid? I don't want to say that because you know there's some creepy

09:09people in the world and then you tell them and they're like hi I'm here at your house with this

09:14creepiness that you were afraid of. I'm like do I say spiders? No. No don't tell anybody what you're

09:21afraid of. Some crazy person might think it's a good idea. There's this moment I'm gonna quote

09:26The Office right now because it's the perfect time but um they're like asking uh Dwight's like

09:31what is Michael afraid of and then Ryan the temp goes uh loneliness or something and then Dwight goes

09:39wrong. He's not afraid of anything. Also I would have accepted snakes. You are nuts!

09:46Favorite show ever. It was a good show. It was a good show. All right well what are you guys obsessed

09:51with? So you're obsessed with The Office. Anything else that you're obsessed with these days? Music.

09:56Like I'm just music. Anything from the 70s I'm probably obsessed with it.

10:01Yeah I know well I'm obsessed. We bonded over it. We did because you like our music. Yeah.

10:07Um which is sad because we felt so old. I know. I was like let's listen to the eagles. I'm like

10:13you know the eagles this is terrifying. New Kid and Child would go on and we're like. Yeah.

10:19I'm obsessed with Game of Thrones and Avengers. Okay. Okay. So you can imagine I have a broken heart.

10:28What? Lots ending for you. Lots of endings. But then there's going to be like prequels and sequels

10:33and et cetera et cetera. So it's okay. Yeah. Maybe you can even make some of them.

10:38I don't know. I don't know guys. Thank you so much you guys for joining us and be sure to catch Ma

10:45in theaters now.

Octavia Spencer on First Leading Role in 'Ma': "The Preparation and Level of Commitment - It's All the Same" | In Studio

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