00:00At first, when I read the script, I said, oh, I can't do this.
00:03There's too many similarities.
00:05I could, you know, it could be problematic.
00:09There was a certain sense of fear.
00:12And I started to really think about what I was afraid of.
00:19Was it the similarities?
00:21Was it the singing?
00:22Was it the, obviously, what was going on in the period?
00:27And, you know, the fear was, I knew I had to address the fear.
00:32If there's anything Freddie taught me, it was address the fear.
00:35But if there's anything I learned from Ira as well is that he makes unique cinema unlike any other.
00:45And I knew I was in extraordinary hands.
00:49And that if he was choosing me, I could rely on him not only, you know, to depend on him
00:58throughout the film,
00:59but to elevate it, to push myself, to force myself to race into that fire.
01:04And when I raced into it, I started to discover that these were men that were similar,
01:09but they were also worlds apart.
01:12I mean, you have an icon, a legend in Freddie who was really, had a, you know, destination.
01:22Whereas Jimmy is just searching for, you know, creativity and love and intimacy and joy and pleasure in every moment.
01:33And, you know, he can sing.
01:35Does he sing as well as Freddie? No.
01:37Is he, you know, if he needs to learn kabuki, he's going to throw himself into it and into onagata.
01:45And I did.
01:46Was it ever going to be perfect?
01:48Didn't have to be.
01:49It was just about this element of creating and living and joy.
01:55And New York in that period was a very different time.
01:59I mean, I could see Jimmy just going to, you know, these downtown shows, seeing, you know, Frank Maya at
02:06the time.
02:09An entirely different experience of a man in that period.
02:15And so you can draw similarities, but I see them as two radically different figures altogether.
02:23Um, especially as I have some more distance from it.
02:28I've just been an admirer of Iris for so many years and have asked my agent to put me in
02:33touch.
02:34And we finally did.
02:36And I think we hit it off straight away.
02:40I'll be honest.
02:41I didn't, I mean, people often say, oh, after the Oscar, you just kind of get offered things.
02:46It's, it's just, it's not the case.
02:47We were having a meeting.
02:49We were having a discussion.
02:50And kind of just, I think, getting a feel for one another to see if this could actually work.
02:57And I just had my fingers crossed that it would and that he would appreciate me.
03:01Well, I think, I think for me, I knew that with a film like this, you needed someone in the
03:06middle who had, um, a certain kind of mystery.
03:11A certain kind of, um, potential for the unexpected, but also truly a star quality, because there is a whole
03:18universe which revolves around Jimmy and Rami in the film.
03:22A cozy star.
03:24No, but a star is someone who emits light and also, and also asks to be seen.
03:30And I think that is really something that is truly cinematic, um, and it's a quality that Rami has.
03:36I've been thinking a lot about Cassavetes' actors, um, because I think in some ways, all three of you, I
03:42never was certain in any moment, which is the one thing I ask, that I don't know what you're going
03:46to do.
03:47And I think that's a quality, um, that you all kind of trusted, um, in the situation and, and, and,
03:54and that, and that there is the suspense of what's going to happen within a second.
03:58And, and I think Rami, I don't know, I've been thinking about Peter Falk for some reason, because I think
04:04with Peter Falk, you never know if he's going to jump over the counter as he does in Mikey and
04:08Nicky.
04:09You know, he's, you don't know what kinds of, there's a danger there that I think is really important for
04:13acting.
04:14The cozy detective.
04:16Sorry, I'll stop now.
04:19We're talking about these performers, every time I was on set and I had an interaction with any, any one
04:26of these lovely human beings sitting next to me was, I, I honestly had to take a beat because I,
04:33there was a naturalism and a beauty that they all exuded in the moment that it just, it removed this
04:41kind of edifice of, uh, artifice of, of acting from anything.
04:45We were doing.
04:46There was a moment when we first met Tom and I, we met at a, we'd known each other for
04:50quite some time, but in the middle of, uh, we were in a pub in London, in the middle of,
04:55uh, our evening, he put his hand on top of mine and I eventually, I immediately felt nurtured.
05:01I, I thought, uh, that's it, this man will take care of me.
05:05And in that moment, it was moments like that, these delicate moments of intimacy, eye contact, just, you know, these,
05:13these small idiosyncrasies that these tremendous actors give.
05:19And Jose captures, I mean, your eye behind that lens, you know, almost anticipate before we're doing something, how, where
05:29it's going and it's, it's just a beautiful thing to watch.
05:32And, you know, it was, uh, we had the, I think the grounding of, of Tommy and Megan's work that
05:40was, you know, just put us in, in a place where we could be that truthful.
05:45We could take all those risks.
05:48And I thank the producers as well for giving us these, this opportunity.
05:52And, you know, Rebecca's not here, but the intimacy or Eben, but Rebecca, you just fall in love with as
06:00a sister, as a human being.
06:02I mean, you feel we don't have that much time together, but the relationship there exists, uh, in every way.
06:08And, uh, if ever there was, you know, this role came for me with a, quite a bit of insecurity
06:15at times.
06:16And so I was leaning on everyone and I would ask you for every reference in the world.
06:20And it was, it would be delivered in the middle of the night, a lot, sorry, but, but Miriam Schroeder
06:29and our producer as well, would, you know, was building those calls in the middle of the night as well.
06:34And so I have to thank you tremendously as well.
06:38Um, and yeah, we're also here to, to celebrate women in film.
06:43So thank you.
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