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00:00Are you all having a great morning and you're like, oh my god, I've got to go home and watch
00:03so much TV now.
00:06And yeah, Love Story is such a beautiful show, incredible.
00:12Can we just give it up for this panel as I introduce them?
00:14With us we have director Gillian Robespierre, writer Julie Weiner, music supervisor Jen Malone,
00:23costume designer Rudy Mance, and Constance Zimmer.
00:29Sorry, swapping.
00:30That is not Rudy Mance, that's Constance Zimmer.
00:33I mean, I'd love to be Rudy Mance.
00:37Okay.
00:38I mean, this is a true story, so we can spoil this.
00:44Collectively, you all pulled off one of the best episodes of television this year.
00:49The wedding episode.
00:52It begins with you, Gillian.
00:54And like, I mean, well, really, talk about how you pulled it off.
00:58Where does it begin?
00:59It actually begins with Julie and the writers.
01:04I, thank you so much, had the privilege of reading, you know, script by script and watching these characters fall
01:14in love each episode along with the viewer.
01:19But I was in script form.
01:21And finally, when I got to the wedding episode, and I knew it was mine, and I knew there was
01:25going to be a lot of pressure to make this great.
01:29I, from page one of Julie's writing, I just, it was the best episode I've ever read as a director
01:37of episodic television.
01:38And it was poetic, and it was poetic, and funny, and heartbreaking, and it was just a really exciting episode.
01:50And I was so thrilled to be chosen for this, this particular one.
01:55But it's really all starts with the writing.
01:57We also love a female director, too.
02:04Julie, this, you know, to Gillian's point, this was such a private moment.
02:09Talk about writing this and what, you know, what you wanted to do with this.
02:14Because it was everything, as Gillian just said.
02:17Yeah.
02:17Oh, thank you, Gillian.
02:19Also, that's so nice.
02:20But, yeah, I felt the same pressure and responsibility as you did at this point in the series.
02:28We've spent hours with these characters.
02:31They've fallen in love with each other.
02:32We've fallen in love with them.
02:35And despite the fact that this wedding was attended by 40 people and no press, it is one of the
02:43most iconic weddings of all time.
02:44I would say up there with Charles and Diana, and that was watched by a billion people all over the
02:51world.
02:51So, it was, yeah, a lot of pressure to try to get the romance right and the secretive aspects of
03:02it right.
03:02And then also, of course, like, just provide amazing material to our incredible actors.
03:08So, I felt all those pressures and more.
03:12Constance is phenomenal.
03:17And, you know, we were just talking about that.
03:20Like, you know, she's someone who, you know, clearly feels out of place in the, you know, in that Kennedy
03:24world.
03:25But also, she gives such a beautiful, she has beautiful moments with her daughter.
03:30Like, talk about getting that script.
03:33And also, like, embodying this woman who, you know, as we said, like, we knew nothing really about her till
03:38the wedding.
03:40Right.
03:41First of all, thank you.
03:42That's very kind.
03:43You know, I was fortunate enough to have that monologue as my audition.
03:50So, when I got this audition and I was given that monologue and the scene in the bedroom right before
04:02the wedding, I, it's one of those things that you dream of.
04:07I was like, oh, my God.
04:09Like, this is the most well-written, eloquent, layered, complicated, confusing pieces I've read in a long time.
04:21And so, knowing that I did that as my audition when I got on the set to do it, right?
04:29It was already so much in me because I had already lived it a couple times over.
04:37But adding the layer of that she was, I felt like an outsider as an actor as well.
04:46Because they had all worked together now for four episodes, five, six, five episodes already.
04:52And I had shown up for, like, one scene in episode four.
04:57And so, here I was being introduced to basically the rest of the cast as if I was being introduced
05:04as Anne.
05:05And so, I took all of that in, too.
05:09So, it was to be able to have it happening organically in the moment as well.
05:16And Gillian also gave me the freedom to do it at a pace that felt right.
05:25And you don't get that very often either.
05:29A lot of it is like, come on, we got to go, we got to go, we got to go.
05:31And it was a night shoot and, you know, people were exhausted and it was a lot that we had
05:36to shoot that day, too.
05:38But, you know, it was written in a way that I could do it that felt so natural to allow
05:47every emotion that was happening in every second to happen.
05:53The first take was a one-er and everybody was crying.
05:58Everybody in the audience, you know, it was, those were real reactions.
06:02And you did it 15 more times.
06:06But we did go home early that day, so.
06:11Was it written as a one-er or was that just decided on the day?
06:15No, no, no.
06:16It was never going to be a one-er.
06:18The speech was, like, five pages long.
06:21But the first take was a one-er and it was just a slow push-in down the long, you
06:27know, galley of guests at the table.
06:31And then we covered it properly and such.
06:34But, like, the first take was five minutes long and beautiful.
06:39And people behind the camera were weeping.
06:42Everyone at Video Village was weeping.
06:44And then she continued to make us cry until three in the morning.
06:49But it was, it was powerful.
06:51Still, still, I mean, that's, that monologue, as we've said, is very emotional.
06:56Rudy Mance, incredible costume designer.
07:01I've got to ask you, you know, creating, you know, the rehearsal dinner gown and also the iconic Narciso Rodriguez
07:11lit gown.
07:11Like, talk about how you pulled that off.
07:15No, no pressure.
07:18You know, you're only ever as good as your team.
07:21And so I had an incredible team on this.
07:24And so one of, one of my team members went, an assistant, went to all of the different fabric houses
07:33in New York.
07:34And then she came back and she's like, all right, I figured it out.
07:38But she found, just in her swatching, you know, we sort of knew what the fabric was, like, a little
07:45bit.
07:45But she actually went to the actual source who had the real fabric.
07:51And it was a, it was a place that Narciso had gone that's still around called B&J Fabrics in
07:58New York.
07:58And so they, they actually had, because it was such an iconic dress, they had a swatch, which was, you
08:05know, yellowed at this point, because it's 30, 30 plus years old.
08:08But they had the swatch still.
08:09And they said, well, Narciso got it from us.
08:11So they contacted the mill for us in, in Italy.
08:17They manufactured the, the same fabric in the same exact shade.
08:22So, you know, had it shipped over.
08:25And then again, through our research, we found the, the same company who, who made her, her gloves and made
08:31her veil.
08:32And so we actually saw, like, I got to go and visit them and we actually saw the hand tracings
08:37that they did.
08:38So every single thing that we could do to, you know, pay our respects to Narciso, we did.
08:45And then for the, for the rehearsal, I mean, obviously the wedding dress was so photographed and so, you know,
08:52throughout the world.
08:54But the, the rehearsal dress, we sort of, you know, were a little bit, it was a little bit trickier
08:58to find.
09:00And then about, I'd say about a month before we, we actually had to start cutting it.
09:06Because I always knew, you know, it was sort of like the, the big looming thing that we had to,
09:10to recreate was this wedding.
09:11Um, uh, uh, they had published, um, I think Vanity Fair had originally published the, uh, it was a sketch,
09:19a Narciso sketch of the, the rehearsal dress.
09:22But, um, but you, we really couldn't tell what it was.
09:25Um, but then, and there was only one photograph, I think, from like here up of her sitting down.
09:30But then through, you know, God bless again my team, through like the back channels of the web, we found
09:36a photograph of a model wearing it from behind.
09:39And Narciso was standing there and so through that, and then through, you know, a couple of grainy photographs, uh,
09:46we sort of pieced together, uh, what it looked like.
09:49Um, and then the actual dress that, that you see, it's actually too, um, because the, the fabric that we
09:55chose to make it out of was, uh, was sheer.
09:57So that it actually had to be two separate dresses, one, uh, a sort of shift within a layer.
10:01And then we, we stitched Sarah into it, like, about five minutes before we rolled.
10:07And Sarah is phenomenal in this too.
10:11Um, Jen Malone, one of the best music supervisors out there.
10:17She has so many great stories.
10:20Um, I've got to ask you, how did you clear pulp and common people?
10:25Cause I know there's a story behind that.
10:28So when I got the script and I saw that Julie scripted in common people, it was one of those
10:34things where first it was like, this is perfect.
10:37There's, this is perfect.
10:38Um, and so I went to the rights holders to his publisher, sent the request and they immediately got back
10:44to me, like, pick something else.
10:46He does not, Jarvis Cocker, the singer and the writer, uh, he does not clear this song.
10:50And I was kind of like, well, don't tell me I can't do something cause I'm going to figure out
10:55a way to do it.
10:56So, um, and I saw Julie in New York and I was like, yeah, it's going well.
11:02Uh, cause I never want to say no to, uh, to my directors or writers.
11:08So, um, you have to kind of think outside the box.
11:11And I have a, a friend who is a producer on another project I had just worked on who, uh,
11:18in passing had told me that he has a relationship with Jarvis.
11:21So I called him.
11:22I was like, Hey, can you help me out?
11:26And he did, he made the call.
11:28We got the approval in.
11:30And as soon as we got it, the publisher called me and was like, how the hell did you get
11:33this approved?
11:34I was like, well, you know, um, so, you know, and it was one of those, we didn't have any
11:40backups.
11:40It was just, you know, you got to manifest those approvals.
11:44And yeah, there was an email chain, I think with ideas for backups and none of them were in close.
11:51I mean, it was kind of one of those were like, Mr. Jones was that not my, that was not
11:56my, that was not my pitch.
11:58But it was, what you forget is it was so we were white knuckling and you came through at the
12:05literally last hour and cleared it.
12:09And we were all celebrating.
12:10I remember we were on a zoom when the email came in, it was all cleared.
12:13Yeah.
12:13Oh, amazing.
12:15That's why you don't have a plan B because otherwise the plan B will work.
12:19Just never have a plan B.
12:21I don't think Mr. Jones would ever have worked.
12:23But this one was, you know, we needed to have something for set.
12:27We could not just shoot this, you know, sometimes with party scenes.
12:31That's some track.
12:31Like you can't do, not with something like this that was also so personal with them.
12:37It was such a moment with John and Carolyn.
12:38You really saw the lighthearted love silliness aspect of this relationship.
12:45And that song was just, you know, again, it was just perfect.
12:48But I knew I'd pull it off somehow.
12:51Well, we didn't.
12:52And we were so thrilled.
12:54And we can't just like thank you enough.
12:56I just want to shout out you, Gillian, for like just nailing that scene, which I think
13:03could have so easily been goofy or cringy or felt untrue or false.
13:10And it was just so perfect the way you did it.
13:13It was sleepy and sexy and fun.
13:16And it just really felt very lived in.
13:19And I thought it's one of my favorite scenes in the show.
13:23It was my favorite scene when I was reading the script.
13:25But really, and I was just like, I got to do it.
13:27We have to nail this.
13:29And by doing, making them sort of dorky and not cool, the most beautiful actors, the most
13:37beautiful humans, and just having them dork out to the song.
13:41And also it's to show them connecting.
13:44You know, I feel like we often saw them in the press fighting.
13:48And we really had the freedom to show them as human beings being human and a little stoned.
13:55A little stoned.
13:56I like Paul pretending to be underwater.
14:01I love that little detail.
14:03What about the floating sequence with the circular dolly?
14:07It's the circular dolly shot, right?
14:08Like, how did you...
14:11I mean, that must have been...
14:12That was so beautiful.
14:13Like, talking about dorky, the opposite end is like the romantic, like sweet moment.
14:19Yeah, you know, I think because there were those iconic photos, and then we had to stay
14:25true to them, right?
14:26We knew that they were going to exit the chapel in this pose, and we were going to get that
14:31correct.
14:31But we had the freedom to really make up what we wanted the look and feel to be like during
14:37the reception.
14:39And again, it starts with a page.
14:41Julie wrote the couple, the newlyweds come out, and they're levitating.
14:46That's...
14:47You wrote it better than I said it.
14:49They almost feel like they're levitating.
14:51And credit goes to my cinematographer, Pepe, who's like, let's make them levitate.
14:57I'm like, what?
14:58And then we talked about it, and of course, let's make them levitate.
15:03They worked so hard for this moment through their relationship, through the secrecy of
15:09trying to, like, you know, not have the helicopters and publicity, and also through their families.
15:17You know, I think especially the moment where, I know you want to talk about levitating, but
15:22I love when Grace starts crying at the, during the wedding, you know, because she was so against
15:29this wedding from the start.
15:32And that moment, she had 103 fever.
15:35She was pretty sick, but she nailed it.
15:38So Julie wrote that this couple levitates, and we decided to build an actual platform that
15:46brought these two actors up about six feet high, and it was spinning, and we built a
15:53circular dolly track around them, and we dug a hole in this mansion's backyard on Long
15:59Island, and I don't know how they let us dig this hole, but we have an amazing crew.
16:04Everybody was just working at the highest of their abilities, and we dug a very deep hole
16:10and put this platform in that was on risers and levitated them right into the sky.
16:18And again, it was giving them the freedom in one take to just do their lines, act natural,
16:25and feel like that they are floating.
16:30So it's always about giving actors the freedom to, to be as natural as, as possible.
16:37So I just want to underscore, in case it's not clear, how, like, what Gillian brought to
16:44this, how creative she was, because I meant it as a metaphor.
16:48I did not mean it literally, yes.
16:52And so to just have the imagination and the creativity to just interpret that, you and
16:58Pepe interpret that literally, and then build this thing was just amazing and complete, it
17:03quite literally elevated the script and the whole episode in a way that was completely
17:08accidental on my part.
17:11And it was really fun to watch them do that and, and pray that they weren't going to throw
17:17up every time.
17:18Yeah.
17:19We all were like.
17:20It wasn't like a Gravitron, but it was moving pretty fast.
17:23That's right.
17:24It was pretty fast.
17:25Because when we were all there watching it, we were like, oh my God, this is so wild and
17:29crazy and amazing.
17:30And please don't throw up.
17:32Yeah.
17:33At least you didn't have to be on that platform.
17:35But Constance, I'd love to ask you, like, you know, what has it been like, you know,
17:39this show has been a huge success and it's like Camelot lives again for a new generation.
17:43What has that been like to see the reception and see like, you know, younger kids like
17:49go down a rabbit hole of John Kennedy, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn?
17:55Well, I mean, obviously this is every creative stream that their work is not only going to
18:02be seen, but that it's going to be embraced on such a level that you can't anticipate.
18:08Right?
18:09And I think that it is the fact that it not only meant something to those of us who lived
18:16through that time, but that it is giving this next generation a big eye into what the 90s
18:26were like and how far we have come from privacy and secrecy and simplicity.
18:36And it's given them this new realization and appreciation of what we've all been talking
18:43about.
18:44Like, you have no idea what it was like.
18:46We didn't have cell phones.
18:48You know, we had to find quarters to make phone calls.
18:51And, you know, it's like, nobody could find us.
18:54Nobody knew where we were ever.
18:56Right?
18:56And so I, there, I, I heard like the fact that we are, that the show alone, like outside of
19:03what it's even about has like given people this new excitement for simplicity.
19:11Right?
19:12When we are living in a time where it's not that, I mean, I wear 20 necklaces and 10 rings
19:17every time I leave my house and I was even looking at Carolyn and I'm like, oh, maybe
19:24just a white t-shirt and jeans and nothing.
19:27Okay.
19:28So it's wonderful.
19:30It's, it's, it's, it's a dream.
19:31It really is.
19:32I mean, for all of us up here and everyone that worked on this show, everybody poured their
19:37heart into this show.
19:39And I think you see that.
19:42And so we're all so grateful for it.
19:47Do you want to add to that, Julie?
19:49And grateful to Ryan Murphy for bringing it all to life and for just being able, just
19:57creating this entire universe that we're all so lucky to be a part of.
20:03Incredible.
20:04I want to say congratulations to you all in this incredible series.
20:07Thank you for unpacking that wedding.
20:09And it's like 20 minutes we could have gone on all day.
20:11But again, thank you so much and stay seated for the next conversation.
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