00:00You know, I have one selfish question I have to ask about this movie.
00:03You kiss Timmy Chalamet in Central Park.
00:07Yes.
00:08Did you shoot it in Central Park?
00:09Yes.
00:10Did you kiss him in the same place he kissed me?
00:15No, honey, never.
00:17I think it's the same damn location.
00:20I think it is.
00:21I never would have done that.
00:22I would never have desecrated our make-out spot like that.
00:26Hi.
00:30I'm wearing white and I'm in black.
00:32No.
00:33It's perfect.
00:34I just did an interview where somebody asked me about the greatest kisses in screen history.
00:41And I said, you know what?
00:43I say that goes to us.
00:46Well, unfortunately, to talk about when Gwyneth and I first met, I'm embarrassed to be old enough to have to say that it's actually hard.
00:54And I remember that I met you through Robert Sean Leonard, who was my co-star in Dead Poets Society.
01:00Yes.
01:01And you guys were friends.
01:04We were dating, right?
01:05I didn't want to say it.
01:06That's okay.
01:07Yeah, yeah.
01:07You know.
01:08Ethan was very famous, you know, from Dead Poets Society.
01:10So we were all like a little intimidated.
01:13Like he had made it, you know.
01:14I thought I'd made it too.
01:15I acted like it.
01:19You know, we grew up in this time in New York City in the early 90s.
01:23It was so fun and specific.
01:25And there was like a whole big bunch of us.
01:28And we all just kind of fell in with each other.
01:31And it was all the kids.
01:33So many.
01:34It's the thing that I'm, for young people right now, the thing that I most would like to give them is community.
01:40There was about a six-month period where I would run into you at six or seven different places.
01:45At somebody's house, at a party, at a play opening, at the corner bistro, or this other bar.
01:50It was so much fun.
01:52Oh, my God.
01:53There were no phones.
01:54I mean, all these ridiculous.
01:55That's the first time we made out.
01:57Remember?
01:58At Truth or Dare, in my apartment on Prince Street?
02:00Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:01What a highlight.
02:03It was.
02:04I was very dis...
02:04I didn't want that to happen in that stupid game.
02:07I had different plans.
02:10After that moment.
02:11You're drooling.
02:15So, Bim Bell in New York.
02:19That's right.
02:21So, Ethan was already cast.
02:22He was the star.
02:23And I remember meeting with Alfonso and very excited.
02:27And then there was a little blip where someone at the studio thought I wasn't pretty enough to do it.
02:32Remember?
02:33That's the kind of shit that happens all the time.
02:35Yeah.
02:35And then I think he was convinced otherwise.
02:38And then I finally got the part.
02:40But it was cool because we were already friends.
02:42Yeah.
02:43And that was...
02:44It was strange for both of us, to be honest.
02:47And I'm kind of proud of us.
02:49We really believed in Alfonso.
02:50He was a lunatic.
02:52He is a lunatic.
02:53I'll say that on record.
02:54A wonderful lunatic.
02:55But we did recognize a major talent.
02:58Oh, I remember when I went to do my costume fitting for the movie.
03:02And I was like, wow.
03:05Everything is green.
03:06Green.
03:07And Juliana, the costum, I said, oh, right.
03:10He always leaves it to me to tell everybody.
03:12To explain this.
03:13Everything you're going to wear is green in the entire movie.
03:16I know.
03:17Even to the point where I was like, I think my character smokes Marlboros.
03:20And he was like, no, he doesn't.
03:21What do you mean?
03:22He smokes menthols.
03:23I'm like, I don't like menthols.
03:24Like, no, forget that.
03:25He's like, no, I can't have a red package.
03:27It's got to be a green package.
03:29Do you remember Alfonso pitching you the love scene?
03:32Oh, my God.
03:33He's like, and then he's going to go down on you.
03:35And I was like, oh, my God.
03:37My father's going to have a heart.
03:38He's going to go down on you.
03:39The camera is going to go down on your belly.
03:41And then it's going to go up your breasts.
03:43And then it's going to go on your face as you reach ecstasy.
03:46And when you reach ecstasy, the lights will explode like to the sun.
03:50And I remember going into the psyche.
03:53Alfonso, I'm never going to do that.
03:57But, you know, I had in my early career, I was really self-conscious about my dad and grandfather.
04:04I know you are.
04:05Seeing this kind of stuff, like, it really bothered me.
04:08Now I wouldn't care.
04:10I think that you had, in regards to, like, that scene, you had an awareness of how the business worked
04:16and the ways in which those kind of images could be manipulated and what it meant to your dad.
04:21Yeah.
04:22And you were amazing the way you handled that, which was that you weren't petulant.
04:25You were just saying, like, look, I'm not going to do this.
04:28Maybe I was too prudish in the moment.
04:30I don't think you are.
04:32I was definitely worried about it.
04:34But, you know, Ethan was always so interesting because you really never sold out.
04:39Like, a lot of us did for whatever reason.
04:43You know, I mean, it's sort of an ugly word.
04:45But, like, I always admired so much how you never did that.
04:48And, you know, you were so ruled by your artistic integrity and you were brave in your choices and as a writer, as a director.
04:58Like, he never compromised.
05:00Do you regret turning down some of those, like, big movies that you turned down?
05:04He turned down a lot of really big movies.
05:07There are days in my past that I regretted it.
05:13I thought those offers would always be there.
05:15And there's been many years where they were not.
05:20Right.
05:20Where I was like, damn it, I didn't know that that door closed.
05:24Right, right.
05:25You know?
05:26And there were some hard days in there.
05:28And then I found out that they weren't closed.
05:31Yeah.
05:32They weren't closed.
05:33You just keep putting one foot in front of the other.
05:36You know, you find a way.
05:38Yeah.
05:39I don't regret.
05:39I mean, I guess there are a couple of movies that I did that I'm not particularly proud of.
05:45Yeah.
05:45Definitely some things that I don't feel like, oh, that was just great.
05:50But when you look back, even at some, like, great, amazing careers of, you know, stars from the 40s and 50s.
05:58Like, I was looking at this the other day and some of them have been in, like, three, like, classic, amazing.
06:05And that's enough.
06:06And I feel like I was in at least three, maybe four, maybe, you know, where it's, like, these movies that were kind of indelible somehow.
06:16It's so hard to make one great movie.
06:21Yeah.
06:21If that happens, you start to be really grateful for that.
06:25And, yeah, you chase it again.
06:26And I thought you had a very unique challenge in your life.
06:31When we were young, your relaxation and your depth and your intelligence were available to you at a very young age.
06:41It has a lot to do with who you are and has a lot to do with an education that I think that your mother and father gave you non-verbally, perhaps.
06:50So that's kind of the, I think, the really underrated benefit of being a NEPO baby, if you will, which I am, you know, in a certain respect.
07:01And, you know, that term is quite ugly.
07:03But at the same time, it's like you're learning these lessons from your parents who are approaching a career with so much integrity and seriousness and such an incredible work ethic.
07:16People think it's about doors being opened for them.
07:18That doesn't matter.
07:21Doors get open and closed for people and they either blow it or they don't.
07:24But everybody has a deck given a hand of cards.
07:27How do you play it?
07:28Yeah.
07:28You know, and that's up to you and that's very difficult to do because there's a lot of disadvantages that come with being Bly Daner's daughter, you know, and you have to handle those well.
07:39And the thing about celebrity that people don't really understand is how isolating it is.
07:46And it's kind of punishment.
07:49And you're getting lots of things that people imagine that they want.
07:53And that is nice, but you're getting them behind a glass wall.
07:57What I felt so excited about seeing Marty Supreme in regards to our characters, I think both of our characters are people who are on the back nine of their celebrity.
08:08We write together for a quarter of a century.
08:10And the first show he writes with someone else is going to be the biggest hit he ever had.
08:15Am I bitter, Larry?
08:17Yes.
08:17There's a line that Linklater uses about our movie, which he wanted to be the tagline on the poster, which is forgotten but not gone.
08:25You know?
08:26Which is when you're still in the room and you still think you're fabulous, but everybody else has moved on.
08:32Yeah, and I think my character in the film, she walked away.
08:36You know, but her fame is what makes this young kid interested in her.
08:41You know, it's not her.
08:42You know, it's fame.
08:44I bet you can't name one film I've done.
08:47Let me show it.
08:48Because I stopped acting before you were born.
08:50You know, I have one selfish question I have to ask about this movie, which is that you kiss Timmy Chalamet in Central Park.
09:01Yes.
09:02Did you shoot it in Central Park?
09:03Yes.
09:04Did you kiss him in the same place he kissed me?
09:06No.
09:06Honey, never.
09:07I think it's the same damn location.
09:09Never.
09:10Never.
09:10I think it is.
09:11I never would have done that.
09:12I would never have desecrated our make-out spot like that.
09:16Okay.
09:16To change the subject, this director is so talented.
09:21He is.
09:22And I have to admit, when the movie started, like I'm watching 10 minutes of it, and it feels good to be in the hands of somebody who knows how to cut a movie.
09:34Yeah.
09:34How do you live?
09:35Well, I live with the confidence that if I believe in myself, the money will follow.
09:40And what do you plan to do if this whole dream of yours doesn't work out?
09:43That doesn't even enter my consciousness.
09:45If there was a biopic about me, I don't know.
09:47I think I sort of exist in these tropes, you know, in the culture in a lot of ways.
09:52Like, it would probably get a lot of things wrong.
09:55Like, I think very few people understand who I am unless they really know me and have known me for a long time and have, you know, known my insane sense of humor and have seen me, you know, in all kinds of scenarios.
10:09I feel like so much gets projected on me.
10:11I also think the idea that a biopic, the biopic would say so much more about the people who made it.
10:17Yes.
10:17What about me?
10:18So brilliant.
10:19They would be using me to some end that they found.
10:22I feel like when I've done some, like, if Larry Hart were to see this movie, I would think he would say, well, I just learned a lot about Richard Linkletter.
10:29Right.
10:30You know, I don't think he'd think he'd learn a damn thing about himself.
10:33Right.
10:34Right.
10:34That's so true.
10:36Do you still eat Taco Bell?
10:39All right, that's really funny.
10:41My idea when Gwyneth and I met of a special night, like, I got a part in a Broadway play, we're going to Taco Bell.
10:51I remember when I finished The Hot Estate, my first novel, when it's like, well, what'd you do when you finish?
10:56It's like, went to Taco Bell.
10:59It's a sickness.
11:00I mean, I think it's remarkable how we haven't changed.
11:03And I think that they're, like I was just saying to you, that I'm proud of that.
11:07Yeah.
11:08We were two extremely idealistic young people who had a great vision for what we wanted to do and how we wanted to contribute.
11:19And you were never ordinary.
11:22You've always been you.
11:24I think we are fundamentally very much the same people.
11:28I think, you know, we have had these lives that have taken all kinds of twists and turns.
11:34But I think we've both remained true to ourselves and who we are.
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