Sweetbitter Interview -- Jasmine Mathews & Eden Epstein

Hollywood Journal

15 minutes ago

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Transcript

00:00How are you guys doing today?

00:02Pretty good. How are you?

00:03I'm good, thank you. Better now than having me here with you guys.

00:06You guys are two of my favorite characters in Sweet Bitter.

00:09Aw, thank you.

00:10I think that every character is flawlessly portrayed in this,

00:15although we're still trying to figure out everything about everyone.

00:18So, going off of that, can you guys relate to your characters?

00:22Or was this a challenge for you?

00:24No, I think Heather for me is totally relatable.

00:27I mean, on the surface level, with her being the only person of color

00:30working in the front of house, that's my own story.

00:33But also, there's something about her that I think I'm hoping we can,

00:37you know, get into on season two.

00:39But she comes across as very confident and very sure of herself.

00:44But underneath that, there's a woman who's seeking for approval

00:47and is trying to figure it out.

00:48What am I here for? What's my purpose?

00:50And that really resonated with me.

00:52Yeah, I knew Ari when I read her.

00:55I mean, I know this person.

00:57And I know her in lots of different people that I know in my life.

01:00Okay.

01:01So, as far as how to play her,

01:06it was really fun to kind of take from my personal experiences.

01:10I waited tables for six years and I had my last shift

01:13the night before my callback for this, actually.

01:16Oh, that's great.

01:17Yeah, so it was, it was, I went from working in one restaurant

01:21to working in another restaurant, which was wonderful.

01:23It paid much better.

01:24It paid much better.

01:25And, no, it wasn't a stretch.

01:28I mean, it's fun to get to kind of touch on your darkness

01:32and say the things that everybody wants to say

01:35but doesn't have the audacity to say because it's mean or, you know, impolite.

01:39And, yeah, I really enjoyed, I enjoyed the fun and the, she's sort of mischievous.

01:45Oh, absolutely.

01:46Yeah.

01:47And speaking of mischievous, every character we're instantly drawn to

01:52because you're not given everything.

01:53We're given like little breadcrumbs that we have to follow along the way

01:56and figure out everybody's story.

01:58But what would you guys say or kind of speak on is the central theme

02:03of at least the first season?

02:05Everybody seems to be coming into their own.

02:08I think that everyone, and this is, this is what it's like, I think,

02:12when you work in a restaurant, it is often people's side hustles.

02:15You don't think you're going to stay there.

02:17You think it's temporary.

02:18And so people have lives outside of the restaurant.

02:21And also, though, in tandem with that, your life becomes the restaurant

02:26because you're spending so much time there and it's incestuous

02:29and you hang out with the people, they become your friends,

02:32they become your lovers.

02:33It's really, really all-encompassing.

02:36And so I think all of the characters, the thread between all of them

02:39is that they're all waiting for their lives to happen.

02:42And what they maybe don't realize is that it's happening right now.

02:45Yeah, and who am I in between the waiting?

02:47Like, who am I?

02:48Identity.

02:49It was really huge for me, I think, and for all the characters.

02:51We're all trying to figure it out.

02:53And I love this story especially because I don't know if it's because

02:56I feel like I can relate a little bit, being, coming to New York from,

03:01you know, a small town and everything, like, tested.

03:04But it depicts New York, in my opinion, in the perfect way.

03:09Yes, I agree.

03:10As opposed to other stories that are like, oh, I came to New York,

03:12I got a job, everything worked.

03:14But this actually tells you about the nitty-gritty of everything.

03:18Yeah.

03:19You really resonate with it.

03:20Yeah.

03:21Now, it's obviously based off the book.

03:23Does it follow a lot of that or are we going to go off path a little bit?

03:30It's a prologue.

03:31Yeah.

03:32Like, the first season, it's a slice of it.

03:34Right.

03:35I mean, the book is so rich and I think that the way that Stu and Stephanie

03:40constructed the first season was the idea to be able to stay true to the book

03:45as much as they wanted to and then to be able to grow with the cast.

03:50Because now the characters, there's the characters in the book and then there's the characters, there's us.

03:55Right.

03:56And I love that.

03:57Steph and Stu really allowed us to bring, you know, what we could as actors and what we found on set.

04:03And Stephanie was very adamant about this isn't the book.

04:07This is you.

04:08You are the character.

04:09So bring what you have.

04:10And I love that.

04:11There's freedom in it.

04:12It was so fun.

04:13Yeah, it was very relaxing and safe.

04:14I love that.

04:15And it sounds like you guys are truly so passionate about this.

04:20It just, it resonates in your faces.

04:22The energy in the room right now is amazing.

04:24It really is.

04:25I think it's you too.

04:26It really is.

04:27And I could feel it as well.

04:29And going off of that, lastly, how is the camaraderie on screen?

04:34You guys are a family, but off screen, I can only imagine it's the same.

04:38I mean, just watching the both of you.

04:39We love each other.

04:40Yeah, we do.

04:41I think.

04:42I mean, I think it's a really, like, it's a really solid group.

04:45Yeah.

04:46There's a certain alchemy that just works and there's, it's a lot of play.

04:49Nobody takes themselves too seriously.

04:51It was a wonderful set.

04:52Yeah.

04:53And we figured that out.

04:54The first scene was family meal.

04:55That's the first thing we ever shot and it took all day.

04:58But at the end of that day, we were all like, oh, this is going to be fun.

05:01We know each other.

05:02Yeah.

05:03It was great.

05:04I love it.

05:05Thank you so, so much.

Sweetbitter Interview -- Jasmine Mathews & Eden Epstein

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