00:00Hi this is Mariah Gullo from The Hollywood Reporter and I'm in studio
00:07today with Sarah Paxton. Hey, how's it going? I'm well, how are you? Good! I'm here to
00:13talk about The Front Runner with you, your new movie. So tell me a little bit
00:18about how you got involved in this project because it is a based on real
00:22true events movie. So how did how did you get involved? Yeah well it's
00:30interesting you know the movie takes place it's a it's a true story and it
00:34takes place during the 1988 presidential campaign and I was born in 1988 so I
00:40don't have any actual right you don't have any memories or reference yeah like
00:44recollections of this time but it's funny a couple years ago I was in my car
00:49driving and I was listening to this podcast called Radiolab mm-hmm and the
00:54episode was about Gary Hart and Donna Rice and everything that happened and I'm
01:00driving and I must have been like going to an audition or something I had like 10
01:03outfits in my backseat and I'm like you know driving my car listening to this
01:07thing and I thought it was so fascinating it's such an interesting story and I
01:12remember wondering to myself you know why I didn't know about this beforehand and
01:18why this wasn't talked about more and then I you know went about you know my
01:23day and I didn't think about it again until a year after that I got the script
01:27sent to me for the frontrunner and I was so excited because I was familiar with
01:31the story because of the podcast and then I auditioned I went in and I read with
01:38Jason and I was I was just so excited to go read for him that I didn't even
01:43think you know I wasn't even like oh I I was like I I wasn't thinking hope I
01:48get it I was just like this would be a dream come true but it's it's really
01:52exciting just to even go and read for somebody like him right this material you
01:58know it's like it's good practice I was just like whatever happens like this if
02:03this is the end of the line then that's great this is also a wonderful thing you
02:07know for me and a dream come true and then I got a call they wanted me to do a
02:13chemistry test a screen test with JK Simmons and Molly Efrain who plays Irene
02:19Kelly yes and so I was like that's that's also wonderful that's great I'll go do
02:24that and that was amazing and then a little while later like that same day I
02:29was like ah you know whatever happens happens and I'm as long as I did my best
02:34like I'm proud of myself and then the phone rang when I was home and I got
02:38the part and I was like holding my dog like jumping and crying so that's my
02:43long-winded story but amazing when did you know that Hugh Jackman was going to
02:47play Gary Hart I knew when they sent me the script okay so you had known that
02:51ahead of time yes yeah yeah okay so I wanted to ask you about the
02:57responsibility that you have to play a real-life character so you play Donna Rice
03:01right and she's a real-life character she's still alive and she has seen this
03:05movie so what was it like kind of going in creating a character knowing that this
03:11person actually existed or did you actually meet her beforehand well right
03:17after I finished jumping up and down celebrating with my dog the reality set in
03:23that I was going to be playing a real person this woman who is alive and well and
03:29can watch my performance and you know see what I'm saying about the film and I got
03:35really nervous you know it's so intimidating it feels like a really big
03:39responsibility especially when I'm my part in the film is the darkest moment of
03:44her life and I felt like I had to do it justice I did as much research as I
03:51could there's not a whole lot out there about Donna from that time I think
03:57because it was you know just pre-internet and so there's just there's not really a
04:01lot right and what exists is very tabloidy exactly it's not what's in this the
04:07version of Donna that we are portraying you know what's in the script so I did
04:12what I could but really I just used the script as my roadmap and what I cared the
04:20most about was just capturing the empathy of this woman in this situation and I
04:28didn't actually I haven't met Don I haven't spoken to her when I before we
04:34started filming I talked to Jason about it and he we decided that if I was going
04:39to meet her it didn't really it didn't it wasn't gonna help me because I wasn't
04:45looking to like mimic her or like do an impersonation of her you know I was just
04:50you know like I said I just kind of wanted to capture the empathy and you
04:54know what was happening with Donna in that moment so I didn't meet her but I I
05:00heard that Jason called me and he told me that she has seen the film and that
05:05she loved it and that she was happy really happy with my portrayal of her and so
05:10that's like that's that's all I could ask for that made it so gratifying you
05:15know knowing that she was happy because she was the she's a critic that I was most
05:19worried about right yeah yeah what Jason Reitman has said is that she was happy
05:25that she was portrayed compassionately what does that mean to you portrayed
05:30compassionately you know I think that at the time when all this happened I think
05:35that she was portrayed as kind of like a caricature you know like a one
05:39dimensional person she was kind of like this villain this is like yeah she was
05:45like this bimbo who like brought down the campaign and I I was so when I first
05:50read the script knowing what I knew about the story I was so happy reading how she
05:55was portrayed you know she was written with dignity and respect and and she was a
06:02person who was so much more than what she was portrayed as you know she was a
06:09smart highly educated ambitious woman a woman with agency who had you know
06:17dreams of advancing herself and potentially getting involved in politics
06:23and I I think what's what I'm so excited about about this film is a I feel like
06:32she's finally getting the voice that she didn't have 30 years ago yeah yeah you
06:37finally kind of get to see her side of the story yeah there's a scene where you
06:42are being interrogated basically by JK Simmons and that's kind of the most
06:49dramatic point can you tell me a little bit about how you had to like dig into
06:57your character in order to do that scene honestly I didn't I didn't feel like I
07:03had to dig very far I mean when I when I read the script I felt like I
07:08connected with Donna you could relate it Lee yeah I get to what she's saying
07:13totally I could totally relate to her and it just like boom it hit me and so I
07:20didn't feel like I needed to dig very deep I mean it also helps that like JK Simmons is
07:26the actor that I'm acting opposite this you know incredible Academy Award
07:31winning powerhouse man you know so that helps but yeah I really I related to her
07:38a lot I mean I think I think that a lot of women can relate to Donna and her
07:42situation and I could and but also the actor in me relates to her because I've
07:49been doing this for a really long time I mean I started acting when I was six so I
07:53was a yes most of my whole life as I've been doing this and and when you're an
08:01actor people are always wanting to put you in a box you know and pigeonhole you
08:07and and kind of like tell you who you are what you're good at and and you know
08:12that kind of thing and Donna was a person who was trying to avoid being
08:17pigeonholed and being placed in a box her whole life I mean I have in that scene I
08:21have a line where I say I did everything that I could do to avoid having men look
08:28at you the way that you're looking at me right now so it's just so tragic she
08:31spent her whole life trying to not be placed in a box and then she gets trapped
08:36in that box for the rest of her life yeah yeah you know both parties Gary Hart and
08:43Donna Rice have to this day denied that they had a sexual relationship but the
08:49thing that was really like the evidence and I say that in quotes that people you
08:54know took just yeah what was the photo of them on the boat together because she's
09:00sitting on his lap that wasn't filmed in for the movie is there a reason why they
09:07didn't do that yeah yeah the reason is that this movie takes place in just a
09:14three week span of time three weeks before the primary election right and in
09:22that three weeks you know he's the front runner he's on top the scandal breaks the
09:28campaign is completely derailed and in in real life the photo didn't come out
09:34until several weeks after this time so that's why right came out months later
09:39yeah but you do have a boat scene with Hugh Jackman word together what is that
09:45like you know what I love about Jason Reitman as a director is his his style is
09:51to just create so much activity and movement around the main characters so
09:55you're seeing this whole tableau of people just buzzing and talking and
09:59walking and action around the characters and then you just kind of you know frame
10:04into the character so what was it like
10:09dynamic it's interesting because the way we filmed it was actually not it
10:17wasn't planned to be like that as far as as far as I knew I mean we you know we
10:24shot coverage of me on the boat that is not in the film and I think it's a good
10:30thing I love the way it ends up where you just you see this woman and you're
10:36like oh gosh it's her and we just zoom in on Hugh's face and nothing is said but
10:45you know exactly what's going on and I think it makes a much stronger impact
10:51that you meet Donna right in the middle of the interrogation it you just really
11:00really feel for her yeah yeah you know there's so many different opinions
11:05represented in this movie it's about privacy it's about how the press deals
11:10with celebrities or politicians it's how politicians deal with the press what did
11:18you learn from making this movie that did did you have any questions that popped
11:22up or totally answered I learned so much and I still have so many questions but
11:27I think that's the I think that you know I think and Jason would say himself that
11:32this that's the point of this film is that it doesn't answer any of these
11:35questions and if there is no classic hero or classic villain it merely asks the
11:40questions and then puts them up for debate for the audience so yes I mean my head I
11:45saw the movie for the first time and my head was spinning I have so many questions
11:49but I learned a lot I mean I learned I guess because I was born in 88 I mean at
11:57that time the 24-hour news cycle was it by the time I was cognizant of the news the
12:0224-hour news cycle was already like in effect so I had it just didn't even occur to
12:08me that there had been a time when it wasn't what it is now I mean obviously
12:15you know people used to get their information their news from the newspaper
12:18hitting the stand and you have to wait for and that was how you got it but you
12:22know things like CNN were just in their infancy when I was a baby so I I learned a
12:29lot about that and now things have taken off even further with social media yeah just
12:37keeps changing yes it just keeps getting more and more precise or instant instant
12:42yeah it's just getting more and more instant I know yeah everyone from
12:46newspaper to you know now it's like every hour there seems to be a new a new
12:51story before I let you go I just want to ask you a few questions for your career
12:56yeah first job that made you think I've made it uh that's a good question I guess I
13:06I I that's hard because I've been doing this for such a long time that I think
13:10that you kind of train yourself as an actor to not really have that thought
13:16because I the only thing that I've ever cared about was having like a long career
13:22and just to consistently be working and I have been so lucky to have that I've I've
13:27always just I've cared more about like okay my career is like a ladder and every
13:32step is kind of this rung that I'm that I'm climbing and so I I kind of try to
13:38think about it more like that but I I do remember the first time I thought to
13:44myself like oh I think I could do this as a career I because I when I was younger
13:49I started acting because I'm an only child and I spent my childhood with the
13:57television and watching the same VHS tapes over and over and over again and just
14:01like rewinding them and putting them back in and so I just love movies uh anything
14:07come to mind what I used to watch well I think my taste was a little different when
14:10I was younger I mean being a kid I went from you know I went from watching like
14:15Ace Ventura Pet Detective 2 to like no but when I was I was raised on sort of like
14:20old Hollywood I loved like Judy Garland and Grace Kelly and um John Wayne and the
14:28Quiet Man like so and Gone with the Wind like those were the things that I was
14:32watching and I just loved watching these like starlets these actresses and um so
14:37that's sort of like where my dream sort of sort of began um and then I I started I just
14:44kind of like fell into it because I mean I don't know if this is like dumb story but um my aunt owns a
14:51children's clothing store in LA and um when me and my cousins were really little kids we did like a print ad for
14:57the newspaper ah so we were just like you know like modeling the clothes and the
15:02photographer gave my cousin his card to do like um acting classes or something and I
15:09got really jealous I didn't know that was possible I didn't know like you could do
15:13that so then I started doing it because of that and um yeah so when I wasn't until I
15:20got a little bit older I did this movie called Aquamarine where I was a mermaid um that I
15:25started thinking I was like 16 and I was like oh like I think I want to this could be a career
15:30like I want to I love this I want to do this forever
15:32uh best day on the set of the frontrunner what was your best day on set
15:37that's a tough question because my character spends the whole time crying in a corner
15:44yeah everyone else is like having fun like shucking and jiving like you know
15:50and you're getting continual makeup touch-ups for your smeared makeup
15:54yeah um probably being on the boat the doing all the boat stuff was really fun we filmed in
16:02savannah and it was really fun doing scenes with Hugh he's such a nice guy he's he's like a fun
16:08positive awesome guy and uh yeah and Jason really like cultivates this um intimate family environment
16:19on set so yeah it was nice to be on the boat and be having a good time with everyone and
16:25not be you know sad and crying
16:27um last movie that made you cry speaking of crying
16:33oh my gosh that's a good question okay okay when you're on a plane
16:38yes you get emotional I'll cry no matter what on the plane
16:41I know I know so but that being said I watched Coco the animated movie
16:47yep that that got me too also on a plane
16:50I was crying like crazy I mean I was sitting in the middle seat with two like big dudes like
16:58big like tough looking guys next to me and we both all three of us started watching Coco at the exact same
17:05time and I was like crying I was like oh my god and then I look over and this guy's crying too
17:11and I look over and this guy's crying too we're all crying for Coco
17:15yeah yeah that's a that's a good one yeah uh worst audition story
17:20so many
17:23um gosh there really are so many um the first one that comes to mind is I was a little kid and um
17:34um I had lost like all my front teeth at the same time which looks really creepy so I can't go into
17:40like a Barbie commercial audition with all my teeth missing so my my mom is a dentist
17:46so she made me like this little like flipper like this little fake
17:50in my mouth for my audition and I was like oh great and I was like doing my audition I was like
17:55there are packed and blah blah and then my flipper went and like flew out and hit the camera
18:01and I was like I just throw myself out
18:06so that was that was pretty bad that's amazing you know that's something when you're maybe when
18:16you're in your 80s you could have that same audition story you're right
18:19I have something to look forward to
18:22Sarah Paxton thank you so much for being here thank you the movie is the frontrunner see it it's out in
18:29theaters bye
18:31you
18:33you
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