Rosalie Craig and Emilia Clarke on Reading 'The Pod Generation' Script For The First Time, The Advancement of Technology & More

Rosalie Craig, Emilia Clarke, and Sophie Barthes discuss their film 'The Pod Generation' at Sundance 2023.

Transcript

00:00It was the first script I'd read in years that I just, I had to, I just, it was like a dog with a

00:06bone, I had to be in this film. It's a surreal satire about the commodification of everything

00:18and in particular the commodification of the womb, where a couple, a New York couple, is able to have

00:24a baby just dating in an external pod and so it's the journey to parenthood. Watching all of Sophie's

00:31work I was just like this is a mind I want to hang out with. I want to know how Sophie comes up with

00:38these brilliant ideas and there was just, it's just so layered as a film. It's just got so much in it.

00:46Every person that I know that has been to see the film, that are all incredibly different people with

00:52different setups and different ways of living their lives, have taken something from the film

00:57that they felt the film was about, completely different from each other. Fascinating and it's

01:02also really funny and really accessible and really, it's just really digestible. It's really easy to

01:13watch, which I think is wonderful to be talking about these huge ideas and these really important

01:19political arguments and present it in a form that's a joy to watch. I'm very passionate about this

01:26subject matter also. The script was absolutely extraordinary. Reading it, much like Amelia said,

01:31you got it on your lap and you thought, how do I get myself in this? Like I need to be in this.

01:38But furthermore to that, I think the way that Sophie's housed the subject matter in a satirical way,

01:45in this sort of futuristic endeavour, is just that it spoke to me because I really don't know what's

01:55going to happen to us as women, as a society. And I think it was such a wonderful, it felt like a

02:02really female-led project and story. And are we going to end up unnecessary? That we don't need women

02:10anymore. We don't need our wombs. They're outsourced like everything else. The biggest thing that I took

02:15away from just simply reading the script was that it was about a woman having autonomy over her body

02:23and over her choices and over her life, really. But simultaneously with that, I felt the huge argument

02:32of technology versus nature and where we're at with that, it just makes you question the way you live

02:38your life in a way that I think is quite good and helpful and illuminating and a little bit of like

02:44a splash of water on the face. The technology, we can't escape, but it is everywhere. It's ever,

02:50it's ever evolving. But our relationship to it is the thing that must change. I think we have a choice.

02:56But I think we're so adaptable. As human beings, we're so adaptable. You pop us in any situation and

03:00we will adapt. We will, I mean, look at COVID. We will adapt. We will change. It just happens. So I

03:06think that there is the times when I've given myself that strict rule of not using technology

03:12or not touching my phone or not going, turning something on or just scrolling mindlessly or

03:18whatever it is. And you stop doing that. You have a minute of, oh, I need something to do. I'm bored.

03:24And then within about 20 minutes, you're doing something else. You find another way because

03:32as human beings, that is what we are born to do. We are born to adapt. So I have a supreme

03:37amount of faith in the future.