00:00Hi, this is Mariah Goe from The Hollywood Reporter, and I'm in studio today with Carrie Mulligan.
00:08Hi. Hi. How are you? I'm good, thank you. How are you? I'm good. I'm good, and we're here to talk
00:15about wildlife. This movie is getting a lot of attention, and a lot of it is because of our
00:20first-time director, Paul Dano. Yes. What was it like? Did you know Paul before? Had you worked
00:27with him before? So we haven't ever worked together, but Paul, Zoe, and I, and Jake, actually,
00:32we'd all known each other for about 10 years. So Zoe and I did a production of The Seagull
00:37together on Broadway, and so Zoe and I shared a dressing room, became friends, and then I met
00:42Paul through Zoe, and then I think maybe the same year, I did a two-second role in Brothers
00:48that Jake was in, so I met Jake there. So we've all kind of been friends since then. Right, and Jake
00:53is the producer of the movie, Paul, writer, director, Zoe, writer. And producer, yeah. So
00:58it's a very close-knit cast. Yeah, and aside from Jake, there's really only Warren Miller,
01:05played by Bill Camp, and our son, played by Ed Oxenbold, so it's a nice little tight-knit
01:11thing. Yeah, and what was it like filming together, having like a tight-knit crew like that? You
01:17know, I think initially I was kind of intimidated by acting in front of Paul, because I've always
01:22thought he's like this incredible actor, and so honest, and so I think I was a little
01:29bit sort of frightened, and I felt this responsibility that he and Zoe had entrusted me with this part,
01:34and so it was kind of high stakes for me, and then kind of weirdly not with Jake. I think
01:39we'd kind of talked about working together so much, and we'd even like read a few plays
01:44together, and so that kind of felt easy and comfortable, but sort of the first day of filming
01:48in front of Paul, I don't know, kind of freaked me out, even though he did everything to sort
01:52of make me feel comfortable, but then when we were in it, it was kind of magical, because
01:55we were, you know, then that sort of, all of the fear stuff went away, and then it just
01:59became like going to work with your mates every day and making something that we all really
02:03loved. Does filming seem different with a first-time director? Do you notice a difference?
02:09Not with Paul. No. I think it can do. He was born ready, wasn't he?
02:14For everything. For everything. Yeah. He's kind of, you just, he's, you can't shake him
02:19really, like, you know, and like, this is 28-day shoot, you know, period film, tiny budget,
02:28you know, everything was up against him, and he just, you just couldn't see him panicking,
02:34there was just, no, he was just the model of calm and assured, and he had thought out the
02:39film in such detail, and he and Diego had worked together so closely, so it felt like he just
02:46came in every day ready to work, and so, you know, now being a close friend and everything
02:50in retrospect, I can, I know all the stories of what was going on, and the, you know, the
02:54kind of real struggles of indie filmmaking, but we never saw any of that. It was just calm
02:58and like creative and fun. And you shot on location in Oklahoma? So we did a week in Montana
03:05first, and then we went to Oklahoma. This town that, you know, so much of which looked like
03:11we were still in the 60s, so it was great for the production side of things. It was also a town
03:16that was sort of unjaded by film, so they were, like, happy to have us and welcoming, and the
03:21community was nice, and so, you know, they didn't mind if we stopped the traffic for a minute, and
03:25stuff like that, you know, where you can kind of feel like you're an inconvenience. They were just
03:28lovely. So it was great, and I think it's so nice to get to go on location somewhere. I think it
03:34creates a kind of community in the crew that you don't have if you all go back to
03:38your own house, like your real life house. When you and Paul and Zoe started talking
03:43about the script, what were your first impressions of Jeanette? I think the first
03:48thing that kind of struck me about her was this, this kind of nostalgia, you know. I
03:54think she's, she's having a really kind of freaky nostalgic moment where everything
04:01reminds her that time is passing, and that she may not necessarily have done the best
04:07with what she had. So I think she's sort of woken up in the body of a 34-year-old woman
04:11who has a son and a husband, but can't quite figure out how she got there. And, and she's
04:16got this sort of unspoken contract with her husband that as long as he keeps up his side
04:20of the bargain, which is, like, getting a good job, and, you know, and if he loses his job,
04:24you know, getting another one and keeping a smile on his face, all of these things that are
04:27required of him, then she'll keep up hers, which is wearing an apron and being a good
04:31mother and a good wife, and, you know, that veneer of, like, what it is to be a perfect
04:34woman. But when he reneges on his side of the deal, something just breaks where she can't
04:39keep up pretending anymore. So I think, and she's being sort of triggered by things that
04:43she, that remind her of the past, and remind her of all of this opportunity that lay before
04:49her before she met him. So I think this week is like, if I'm not a wife, and I'm failing as a
04:54mother, who am I? And she can't figure it out, so she's trying to answer that question.
05:00You have this scene, the dinner scene, with Joe and Warren. You display every emotion on the books
05:08in that scene. What was filming that scene like?
05:11Well, first of all, the scene was over two nights, so it was a night shoot, and we shot it
05:16over two days. Yeah, I mean, that was probably the scene that I was kind of most concerned about,
05:21because that's kind of, kind of the climax of her whole week. And then the next day,
05:26she sort of, you know, changes. So, and the thing about that scene is that she's trying so
05:31many different strategies the whole way through. She's kind of got this misguided idea that if she
05:35brings her son and presents him to Warren Miller, that, you know, perhaps he'll recognize him as
05:40part of the package, and he'll take both of them on. And in the same dinner, she's also trying to
05:45sort of disillusion Joe of a lot of things, and she's trying to align herself with Warren Miller,
05:50and that's not really working. So she's kind of constantly shifting and also getting more drunk.
05:56So it was kind of a minefield to shoot, but it was, it was one of the scenes where Paul just really
06:01became, you know, just stepped up in such an amazing way, because he, he could recognize that
06:06I was kind of questioning what I was doing. And I was trying to, it was such a difficult thing to
06:10calibrate. And he came in midway through filming that scene, just said like, just do like the worst
06:14take you've ever done. Just do something awful, just completely fuck it up. And, and, and I'll,
06:18and let's just see what happens. And then it, there was sort of, it was just sort of liberating.
06:23And then I didn't, I wasn't so kind of reflective and I could just sort of do whatever. She's not
06:29really thinking at all. And she's, you know, so it was, yeah, it was kind of interesting,
06:34but also such a joy to try and navigate, you know, so tricky to like figure out the corners and figure
06:38out where she's going with things and what's going through her mind and, and how she feels when she
06:43sees her son and sees her husband in him. And, you know, is suddenly reminded of the life that she
06:49actually does have, you know, so I think there's a lot going on in there, but it was, it was fun to do.
06:55The relationship between Jeanette and Joe, I was trying to find a word to describe it,
07:01but I would say that, like you said before, she's presenting a level of honesty to him,
07:07where she's like, welcome to the real world kid. You're, you're growing up. Is there somebody out
07:13there who is that level of like brutally honest that you, you could pull from?
07:17Yeah, there's quite a few.
07:20But I don't know if I was thinking of anyone specific, but what I think,
07:23she's got such a small circle. There are so few people in her life.
07:27So a huge part of that, of trying to erase former Jeanette is erasing who Joe thinks of when he
07:33thinks of his mother. And, and so part of it, I think is like burning down any idea of who she
07:38was. I'm not her. I'm not this perfect mom. I'm not this perfect housewife. And neither is your dad,
07:43by the way. This is who we really are. The problem with that is that she doesn't have the answer. So
07:48she can't say this is who we really are because she doesn't know. So she kind of gets halfway through
07:51that process of just like, forget everything you knew about us. None of it was true. And now you can
07:57get to know the real me and I'm going to try and figure it out at the same time. So, you know,
08:01there's a kind of twisted logic in there and it's totally misguided. And I don't think she's
08:05enjoying herself, but I think it is an effort to be at least honest and an effort to be,
08:11to have integrity. And I think she feels like such a fraud having kept up this kind of
08:16mask for so long.
08:18Is it hard to have to kind of defend a character? It seems like a lot of people are calling the
08:26characters, you know, unsympathetic or unlikable. Has that been difficult to?
08:31No, I mean, I kind of like it, you know, I feel like, you know, I, I think it's,
08:38she's just having a really rough week and people are so hard on women, you know,
08:42we're so tough on women. And I think there's, we have such crazy expectations of what is possible
08:47and what people can be capable of. And I think women are capable of extraordinary things.
08:50Um, but I do think we're fallible and I think we make mistakes. And I think, you know, I think
08:55we're just not used to seeing that reflected on screen because we are brought up with,
08:59you know, fairy tale princess stories and stories of mothers, you know, battling through
09:04being saints, but it's just not, we can't all be perfect all the time. So I enjoy portraying someone
09:10who's just human, but trying, and hopefully you still have empathy, you know.
09:14Um, so I don't feel, I feel kind of protective. I don't feel defensive. I feel like let me explain
09:20to you why this is a person who's just a real person, you know, and not, um, and not someone
09:26who's kind of setting out to cause harm. The final scene wraps up the evolution of Joe,
09:33Joe getting to a place where he's become an adult. Um, and he is able to kind of look at his
09:39parents with like a true lens. Jeanette's ending, it feels like there's a bit of humility there.
09:46Yeah. Do you feel like that she's come full circle?
09:50Yeah, I mean, I think it's, you know, when she says to him towards the end,
09:53I won't blame you if you hate me, I think she means that, you know. I think she recognizes that
09:57what she's put him through isn't fair and wasn't right and wasn't the right thing to do. Um, so I think
10:03when she says that, that's true, that, you know, she's expecting him. And part of her leaving is
10:08recognizing that she, if she can't even figure out who she is, she's not going to serve him that
10:14well as a mother. So, and having put him through everything he's been through, maybe he needs time
10:19to heal. So I think, you know, she has created distance and, and boundaries and tried to reinstate
10:25boundaries that got kind of skewed in that time. You know, she's getting closer to sort of finding
10:31some peace. Um, but she's not quite there yet. So I kind of like that that's left open and you don't
10:37know quite, but you know that Joe's going to be all right. You know, Joe's going to be all right.
10:42You don't know what's going to happen to Jeanette. Yeah. You've said before that you would only take
10:46roles that scare you a little bit because if you already know how to do them, it's probably not
10:52worth doing. So what's left to scare you? Um, I don't know, comedy probably. I did that. I did a play this
11:00year. I did a monologue. Um, and it was like 90 minutes and probably the first like 45 minutes of the play
11:06are just pretty much like funny anecdotals, you know, uh, storytelling and, and it was terrifying,
11:14you know, trying the onus, the onus on you to make an audience laugh on your own. It's like,
11:19you know, sitting in a dinner party and telling a joke and nobody finds it funny is one of the most
11:23crushing things, you know, on the planet. And so doing that on stage in front of people was just,
11:28oh, it was, but it was great. I loved it. And, you know, certainly opened my eyes and gave me an
11:32even bigger respect for, for comedy in general. Um, so I don't know. I know what it isn't. I know
11:38what I don't want to do. Um, I don't want to tread over old ground. When I read it, I just called
11:42Paul immediately and was like, yes, thank you. Well, I thank you for letting me do this. I want to,
11:47to fight, read something that makes me feel like that. When you look at the movie, what's the most
11:53stunning visual effect of it? I think, I personally think the movie is very beautiful. Is there something
11:58that kind of haunts you in your head when you see it? I think there's a great shot of Jake on the
12:03lawn smoking a cigarette and there's sort of a funny montage where you see him kind of going
12:08downhill a little bit, but probably my favorite part of the whole film, it might not be the visual
12:12of it, but the whole, the entire experience of it is the scene at Warren Miller's house where
12:18Bill Camp is telling the story of going flying in his airplane and this music starts to play in the
12:24background and he's, uh, and he's just telling this story to Joe and you zero in on his voice and the
12:30story that he's telling about like losing grip on his own humanity and it floors me every time I see
12:39it. Um, that's probably my favorite part of the film. Amazing. Carrie Mulligan, thank you so much for
12:43being here. The movie is wildlife. Thank you. Bye.
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