00:07Hi, I'm Alden Ehrenreich, and I'm here with the cast and director of A Talent for Murder,
00:12and we're here with The Hollywood Reporter.
00:22Hi, I'm Sayah Rankin with The Hollywood Reporter, and I'm here with the group from A Talent
00:26for Murder. Thanks for joining. I'm going to have you first all go introduce yourselves.
00:32The first three of you can tell us a little bit about your character in the movie, and
00:35then Anton, you can tell everyone you're the director. But you want to start with you.
00:42With me.
00:43Yes, please.
00:44I'm Alden Ehrenreich. I play Edward in the movie, and I also play...
00:51Ah.
00:51Right.
00:52Well, now here we are running out of the guns at how much we're allowed to say about the movie.
00:56Yes, exactly.
00:57Okay.
00:58I'll leave it at that.
00:59Perfect.
01:00Well, then what are you going to say? Okay.
01:02I'm Olivia Cooke, and I play Clementine, a woman that Edward meets on a train.
01:10Oh, and I'm Helen Mirren, and I play a version of Patricia Highsmith. The story is about Patricia
01:16Highsmith towards the end of her life. Not a documentary, a drama. So just to...
01:22FYI.
01:23Yes, FYI, exactly. But that's who I play.
01:27And I'm Anton, and I play the director.
01:30You do play the director.
01:31Brilliantly. Your performance was amazing.
01:34I had my moments.
01:34Yes. Oscar winning, but as an actor.
01:39Oh, thank you.
01:40So what was it about... This started as a play, I suppose we can say, a two-hander. So maybe,
01:47I guess, no, I'll stick with your guys' version of what the spoilers are, and I'll keep to those
01:52conversation.
01:53Yeah, no, I mean, we... I don't think we have to... I mean, we... My character is an editor
02:00for the publishing company that represents Patricia Highsmith, and I go up to try to talk
02:07her into doing another Ripley novel, and then as we start working on a thing, the reality
02:14of the novel that we're working on, which is kind of a Ripley novel, and our reality starts
02:18to blend.
02:20Perfect.
02:21What is the hardest negotiation that you guys have ever had professionally? Anything... I'm
02:27assuming nothing similar. There's been no weapons involved.
02:33Oh.
02:33The Tet, similar to what we see in the movie.
02:36Well, with producers or directors or...
02:38The police.
02:39Yeah, the police, yes. Do you have a criminal history? Now is the time to expose your personal
02:44criminal history.
02:45I'm not a very good negotiator. I just say a yes to everything.
02:49I'm in one right now.
02:51Ooh.
02:52In a way.
02:53Okay, this is the perfect place to get some leverage.
02:56Right, exactly. No.
02:56Yeah.
02:57But, yeah, I'm opening a theater, and we're dealing with some negotiations with that.
03:01I think probably firing people. You've fired people, I'm sure.
03:05I've never fired anyone.
03:06Never?
03:06I would not be able to fire anyone.
03:08Okay, never mind.
03:09Do I fire people for you?
03:10I guess I do.
03:12No, I've never fired anyone. I've never fired an agent or anything.
03:16Oh, that's great.
03:17I just wait until they sort of retire.
03:22I'm incapable of any of that sort of thing.
03:24Right.
03:25I'm so non-confrontational. If someone takes the space that I've been waiting for in the
03:30supermarket, I say, oh, yes, no, of course. Go ahead.
03:34I'm sorry.
03:35Don't, don't, don't worry. I'm sorry. I'll find someone else.
03:38So, no, I'm completely un-confrontational.
03:40Good to know.
03:42He's like, man, we should un-bag it.
03:44You're not confrontational, are you? No, I can tell.
03:47This is difficult. When you direct a film, you have to.
03:49You know, then, I think, quite direct.
03:52Yes.
03:52That's not my strength.
03:53No, no. I would concur with that.
03:57Thank God, I have to say, a fellow spirit, yes.
04:01Helen, who's the trickiest real person that you've portrayed in your career?
04:06Oh, goodness. I would say Patricia might be one of them, honestly, because she is so different
04:13from how I am. I could sort of identify with Her Majesty, the Queen, to a certain extent.
04:20Golda Mayer, you know, on the realm of sort of difficulty, I would say Queen, Golda, Patricia
04:27Highsmith, probably the most difficult, because she was, the way she's portrayed in the film,
04:33and I suspect the way she maybe was at the end of her life, you know, she was very, very
04:41abrasive, very reclusive, you know, basically very fucked up.
04:46Yes, yes. Alden, did you go back and watch any on-screen portrayals of other Highsmith
04:55characters before this, or did you have to forget those people's versions of it, or kind
05:00of?
05:01Yeah, I watched, well, I watched Strangers on a Train, and I watched Purple Noon, is that
05:07the name of the?
05:08Yeah.
05:09Yeah.
05:09Yes, that's the long version.
05:11Yeah, I watched that. The Minghella film, which is very, which is a great film, is very different.
05:18Like, Purple Noon was the one that Highsmith really loved, so I wanted to see what she loved
05:22about it in that way. You know, she loved Elaine Delon in it, so I wanted to see that.
05:28I didn't want to watch Ripley, because I'm a big, big fan of Andrew Scott. I didn't want
05:32to have that. And then the Minghella, Matt Damon is, like, quite intentionally different than
05:36really what the book was. It makes him a little bit more of a, like, empathetic, human, less
05:47sociopathic kind of person, so I didn't watch that one, but yeah.
05:50Yeah, that's fair. Olivia, your character, dare we say she's a bit, is snooty too mean?
05:56Or what's the, what would be the, um, she's gotten a lot in life.
06:01Yeah, she's affluent. And I think she's had a very, sort of, um, hermetically sealed life,
06:12and it's been very, very comfortable. Although she's, she's playing at being poor in Rome as
06:20well, but she's got, you know, inheritance, a lot of it.
06:22Did you guys film this in Rome itself? It was not, it wasn't something standing in for
06:27Rome. Okay. What are, what was, what were the best things to do while you guys were there?
06:32Having coffee in the morning. Yeah, eating.
06:34I would go with Robbie Ryan, who's not here, who's the, um, director of photography.
06:39I would meet him in the, in a coffee place in the morning. We have a cappuccino and a croissant,
06:45and then we start working. I thought it was just a beautiful start of the day.
06:49So natural, it felt so natural there.
06:51Yeah. It was amazing. We, we managed to, like, we closed down the Spanish steps for
06:57a morning, and a shot there. It was amazing.
07:00Yeah. I mean, part of the, like, part of the wonder of these novels is that you get to go
07:07to all these different places. And so because we were writing a novel where the Ripley characters
07:11in Rome, uh, it was like we were filming in almost, you know, all, like, the best of all
07:18these incredible locations in Rome. So that was very exciting to have that kind of access
07:22to these gorgeous sites.
07:24I was going to ask you about your theater, um, but since you mentioned your tricky negotiations.
07:29Oh, that's right. We're figuring out.
07:31Yeah, it's still coming. It's still.
07:33It's still very much happening.
07:34No regrets.
07:35No regrets at all.
07:36Okay, perfect. We need it.
07:37Yeah, yeah, yeah.
07:38What, what did you get more, like, what made your phone blow up more, winning a Tony or being
07:44in the Carly Rae Jepsen music video?
07:47I lost my phone, um, the night of the, uh, the opening, and then I tried to do, like,
07:54a flip phone again. And so my phone didn't work very well when I won the Tony, so I didn't
07:59get a lot of messages.
08:00Is that what people told you?
08:02That's why, yeah.
08:02That's what people told me. Really, no one cared. But, yeah.
08:05I wondered why my texts were coming up green. I was like, has he blocked my number?
08:09No, I had a phone that didn't work very well.
08:11I see. And you've directed a fair amount of successful music videos as well. Did you
08:17watch his and give him any critiques?
08:19No, I was unaware of that one.
08:21What is it? Which, which?
08:22It's a Carly Rae Jepsen, um, music video that Jeremy O'Harris directed, who's a playwright.
08:28You don't know those people.
08:29Okay. Carly Rae Jepsen is, like, a pop star.
08:31Oh, yeah?
08:32And he's doing a fair amount of dancing.
08:33And Jeremy O'Harris is a playwright, and sort of.
08:35But why are you in it? What do you do?
08:36Why am I in it? That's a great question.
08:38You have an a pinky.
08:39Have you seen it?
08:40Yeah, it's great.
08:41Okay.
08:42I, um.
08:42You're wonderful.
08:43No, you're wonderful.
08:44Yeah, yeah, yeah.
08:46I need to see it.
08:47I know you're great.
08:47Right.
08:49I'm a guy, and I'm sad, and my girlfriend broke up with me, and then there's a dream sort
08:54of sequence, and I do a bunch of dancing, and I'd never really danced before, so it was
08:58that.
08:59I'm going to go right now and Google it, have a look at it.
09:02Yeah.
09:02I'll call it dream sequences.
09:04Yeah, yeah.
09:04Yeah.
09:05Yeah.
09:05And music videos, that's the most.
09:09Last night, the Chris Rock movie premiered, and he has a kind of a montage at the beginning
09:13of, like, special moments that happened in Hollywood, and you're, did you know that your
09:17Oscar, this picture of you holding your Oscar?
09:19No, I didn't know that.
09:19In the beginning of the, yes.
09:21Oh, what an honor.
09:22Fantastic.
09:23Chris Rock.
09:23Wow, that's cool.
09:24Yeah.
09:25Yeah.
09:25It was a flash.
09:26Chris Rocks.
09:28Yeah, it was good.
09:28Chris Rocks.
09:29Chris, oh, good one.
09:32Terrible.
09:33Good one.
09:33Terrible.
09:34It's not my first language in English.
09:35You got to slip the dad joke in there.
09:38Okay, we have a couple questions.
09:39We ask everyone, oh, did you have a hard time keeping the secret that you were coming back
09:44to Slow Horses?
09:45We had, we had the gang.
09:46Yes.
09:47Um, a couple days ago.
09:48I did have a hard time keeping it a secret.
09:50I didn't really keep it a secret.
09:51I did tell a lot of people, and then they were really cross with me.
09:54They're like, oh, you're going to spoil it.
09:55Um, and I thought that they were going to keep it a secret, but then they showed me in the
09:59trailer, and then I had to do press for it.
10:01So I was really looking forward to not having to do any press.
10:04Yeah.
10:05I had to.
10:06You thought you'd be keeping the secret all the way until premiere day?
10:09Yeah.
10:09Uh, a note for Apple for next time.
10:11And then lastly, what do you, when you do go on location or when you're on set, what
10:16luxury do you bring from home?
10:18What can't you live without when you're traveling?
10:23Oh, it's so basic, but teabags.
10:26My wife.
10:26Teabags.
10:27Teabags.
10:27Your wife.
10:29Your wife.
10:30Can't live without.
10:31Can't live without.
10:32Yeah.
10:32Yeah.
10:33Yes, I would do teabags too.
10:36Definitely.
10:36Always teabags.
10:38Yeah.
10:38So English.
10:38The two Brits.
10:40Yeah.
10:41Yeah.
10:42Bring us home with something American.
10:44What are you, Diet Coke?
10:45Hershey's.
10:46No, I, yeah, Hershey's is the huge.
10:48Yeah.
10:49I don't know.
10:50Do you actually eat Hershey's or that's, okay.
10:52Well, I don't know.
10:53I don't not.
10:54Yeah, yeah, yeah.
10:54Um, books, I guess.
10:59That's the only thing.
10:59I usually have a bag that's just books.
11:01Okay.
11:02Well, let's bring it home with a plug for the movie.
11:04Does anyone have a favorite Highsmith book?
11:07I think Talents of Mr. Ripley is the best one that I've read.
11:10I haven't read all of them, but I think of the series, that's the masterpiece.
11:15Yeah.
11:15Deep, deep water?
11:17Is that?
11:17That's a Patricia Highsmith, isn't it?
11:19I don't know.
11:20I think so.
11:21I think it's great.
11:22Yeah.
11:22Yeah.
11:24If it's not, cut it out.
11:25I will.
11:28We'll dub you and say what the actual title is later.
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