00:03Hi, this is Mariah Goh 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
00:15talk
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
00:53Jake
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
01:05Miller, played by Bill Camp, and our son, played by Ed Oxenbold, so it's a nice little
01:10tight-knit thing. Yeah, and what was it like filming together, having like a tight-knit crew
01:16like that? You know, I think initially I was kind of intimidated by acting in front of Paul,
01:21because I've always thought he's like this incredible actor and so honest, and so I think
01:28I was a little bit sort of frightened. And I felt this responsibility that he and Zoe had
01:32entrusted me with this part, and so it was kind of high stakes for me. And then, kind
01:38of weirdly, not with Jake. I think we'd kind of talked about working together so much,
01:42and we'd even like read a few plays together, and so that kind of felt easy and comfortable,
01:47but sort of the first day of filming in front of Paul, I don't know, kind of freaked me out.
01:50Even though he did everything to sort of make me feel comfortable. But then when we were
01:54in it, it was kind of magical, because we were, you know, then that sort of, all of the fear
01:58stuff went away, and then it just became like going to work with your mates every day and
02:01making something that we all really loved.
02:04Does filming seem different with a first-time director? Do you notice a difference?
02:09Not with Paul.
02:10No.
02:11I think it can do.
02:12He was born ready, wasn't he?
02:14For everything.
02:16Yeah.
02:17Yeah, he's kind of, you just, you can't shake him really, like, you know, and like, this
02:21is a 28-day shoot, you know, period film, tiny budget, you know, everything was up against
02:30him. And he just, you just couldn't see him panicking. There was just no, he was just the
02:36model of calm and assured. And he had thought out the film in such detail. And he and Diego
02:42had worked together so closely. So it felt like he just came in every day ready to work.
02:47And so, you know, now being a close friend and everything in retrospect, I can, I know
02:52all the stories of what was going on and the, you know, the kind of real struggles of indie
02:56filmmaking, but we never saw any of that. It was just calm and like creative and fun.
03:01And you shot on location in Oklahoma?
03:03So we did a week in Montana first, and then we went to Oklahoma. This town that, you know,
03:09so much of which looked like we were still in the 60s, so it was great for the production side
03:15of things.
03:15It was also a town that was sort of unjaded by film. So they were like happy to have us
03:20and welcoming
03:21and the community was nice. And so, you know, they didn't mind if we stopped the traffic for a minute
03:25and stuff like that, you know, where you can kind of feel like you're an inconvenience.
03:28They were just lovely. So it was great. And I think it's so nice to get to go on location
03:33somewhere.
03:34I think it creates a kind of community in the crew that you don't have if you all go back
03:38to your own house,
03:39like your real life house.
03:40When you and Paul and Zoe started talking about the script, what were your first impressions of Jeanette?
03:48I think the first thing that kind of struck me about her was this kind of nostalgia.
03:53You know, I think she's having a really kind of freaky nostalgic moment where everything reminds her that time is
04:03passing
04:03and that she may not necessarily have done the best with what she had.
04:08So I think she's sort of woken up in the body of a 34-year-old woman who has a
04:12son and a husband
04:14but can't quite figure out how she got there.
04:16And she's got this sort of unspoken contract with her husband
04:19that as long as he keeps up his side of the bargain, which is like getting a good job
04:22and, you know, and if he loses his job, you know, getting another one and keeping a smile on his
04:26face,
04:26all of these things that are required of him, then she'll keep up hers,
04:29which is wearing an apron and being a good mother and a good wife
04:32and, you know, that veneer of like what it is to be a perfect woman.
04:36But when he reneges on his side of the deal, something just breaks where she can't keep up pretending anymore.
04:41So I think, and she's being sort of triggered by things that she, that remind her of the past
04:46and remind her of all of this opportunity that lay before her before she met him.
04:50So I think this week is like, if I'm not a wife and I'm failing as a mother, who am
04:56I?
04:57And 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.
05:05You display every emotion on the books in that scene.
05:10What was filming that scene like?
05:12Well, first of all, the scene was over two nights, so it was a night shoot.
05:15We shot it over two days.
05:18Yeah, I mean, that was probably the scene that I was kind of most concerned about
05:21because that's kind of the climax of her whole week and then the next day she sort of, you know,
05:28changes.
05:28So, and the thing about that scene is that she's trying so many different strategies the whole way through.
05:33She's kind of got this misguided idea that if she brings her son and presents him to Warren Miller
05:38that, you know, perhaps he'll recognize him as part of the package and he'll take both of them on.
05:43And in the same dinner she's also trying to sort of disillusion Joe of a lot of things and she's
05:48trying to align herself with Warren Miller
05:50and that's not really working.
05:51So she's kind of constantly shifting and also getting more drunk.
05:56So it was kind of a minefield to shoot but it was one of the scenes where Paul just really
06:01became, you know, just stepped up in such an amazing way
06:04because he could recognize that I was kind of questioning what I was doing and I was trying to, it
06:09was such a difficult thing to calibrate
06:10and he came in midway through filming that scene and just said like, just do like the worst take you've
06:15ever done.
06:15Just do something awful, just completely fuck it up and let's just see what happens.
06:20And then there was sort of, it was just sort of liberating and then I didn't, I wasn't so kind
06:25of reflective and I could just sort of do whatever.
06:28She's not really 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
06:38figure out where she's going with things
06:40and what's going through her mind and how she feels when she sees her son and sees her husband in
06:46him
06:46and, you know, is suddenly reminded of the life that she actually does have, you know, so I think there's
06:53a lot going on in there but it was fun to do.
06:55The relationship between Jeanette and Joe, I was trying to find a word to describe it but I would say
07:01that, like you said before,
07:05she's presenting a level of honesty to him where she's like, welcome to the real world kid, you're growing up.
07:12Is there somebody out there who is that level of like brutally honest that you could pull from?
07:18Yeah, there's quite a few.
07:20But I don't know if I was thinking of anyone specific but what I think, she's got such a small
07:24circle.
07:25There 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
07:34and so part of it I think is like burning down any idea of who she was.
07:38I'm not her, I'm not this perfect mum, I'm not this perfect housewife and neither is your dad, by the
07:43way.
07:44This is who we really are.
07:45The problem with that is that she doesn't have the answer so she can't say this is who we really
07:49are because she doesn't know.
07:50So she kind of gets halfway through that process of just like, forget everything you knew about us, none of
07:56it was true
07:57and now you can get to know the real me and I'm going to try and figure it out at
08:00the same time.
08:00So, you know, there's a kind of twisted logic in there and it's totally misguided and I don't think she's
08:05enjoying herself
08:06but I think it is an effort to be at least honest and an effort to be, to have integrity.
08:12And I think she feels like such a fraud having kept up this kind of mask for so long.
08:18Is it hard to have to kind of defend a character?
08:23It seems like a lot of people are calling the characters, you know, unsympathetic or unlikable.
08:30Has that been difficult to...
08:32No, I mean I kind of like it, you know, I feel like, you know, I think it's, she's just
08:39having a really rough week
08:40and people are so hard on women, you know, we're so tough on women and I think there's, we have
08:45such crazy expectations of what is possible
08:47and what people can be capable of and I think women are capable of extraordinary things.
08:52But I do think we're fallible and I think we make mistakes and I think, you know, I think we're
08:55just not used to seeing that reflected on screen
08:57because we are brought up with, you know, fairytale princess stories and stories of mothers, you know, battling through and
09:04being saints.
09:05But it's just not, we can't all be perfect all the time.
09:08So I enjoy portraying someone who's just human but trying and hopefully you still have empathy, you know.
09:15So I don't feel, I feel kind of protective, I don't feel defensive.
09:19I feel like, let me explain to you why this is a person who's just a real person, you know,
09:24and not someone who's kind of setting out to cause harm.
09:28The final scene wraps up the evolution of Joe, Joe getting to a place where he's become an adult.
09:37And he is able to kind of look at his parents with like a true lens.
09:43Jeanette's ending, it feels like there's a bit of humility there.
09:46Yeah.
09:47Do 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, I won't blame you
09:54if you hate me, I think she means that.
09:56You know, I think she recognizes that what she's put him through isn't fair and wasn't right and wasn't the
10:01right thing to do.
10:03So I think when she says that, that's true, that, you know, she's expecting him.
10:07And part of her leaving is recognizing that she, if she can't even figure out who she is, she's not
10:13going to serve him that well as a mother.
10:15So, and having put him through everything he's been through, maybe he needs time to heal.
10:19So I think, you know, she has created distance and boundaries and tried to reinstate boundaries that got kind of
10:26skewed in that time.
10:29You know, she's getting closer to sort of finding some peace, but she's not quite there yet.
10:34So I kind of like that that's left open and you don't know quite, but you know that Joe's going
10:40to be all right.
10:41You know Joe's going to be all right, you don't know what's going to happen to Jeanette.
10:44Yeah.
10:44You've said before that you would only take roles that scare you a little bit, because if you already know
10:49how to do them, it's probably not worth doing.
10:53So what's left to scare you?
10:56I don't know, comedy, probably.
10:58I did a play this year, I did a monologue and it was like 90 minutes and probably the first
11:04like 45 minutes of the play are just pretty much like funny anecdotals, you know, storytelling.
11:12And it was terrifying, you know, trying the onus, the onus on you to make an audience laugh on your
11:18own.
11:18And it's like, you know, sitting in a dinner party and telling a joke and nobody finds it funny is
11:22one of the most crushing things, you know, on the planet.
11:25And so doing that on stage in front of people was just, oh, it was, but it was great.
11:29I loved it.
11:30And, you know, certainly opened my eyes and gave me an even bigger respect for comedy in general.
11:36So I don't know.
11:37I know what it isn't.
11:38I know what I don't want to do.
11:39I don't want to tread over old ground.
11:41When I read it, I just called Paul immediately and was like, yes, thank you.
11:45I thank you for letting me do this.
11:47I want to read something that makes me feel like that.
11:50When you look at the movie, what's the most stunning visual effect of it?
11:55I think, I personally think the movie is very beautiful.
11:57Is there something that kind of haunts you in your head when you see it?
12:01I think there's a great shot of Jake on the lawn smoking a cigarette and there's sort of a funny
12:05montage where you see him kind of going downhill a little bit.
12:09But probably my favorite part of the whole film, it might not be the visual of it, but the whole,
12:13the entire experience of it is the scene at Warren Miller's house where Bill Camp is telling the story of
12:20going flying in his airplane.
12:22And this music starts to play in the background and he's, and he's just telling the story to Joe and
12:28you zero in on his voice and the story that he's telling about like losing grip on his own humanity.
12:36And it floors me every time I see it.
12:40That's probably my favorite part of the film.
12:41Amazing.
12:42Carrie Mulligan, thank you so much for being here.
12:44The movie is wildlife.
12:45Bye.
12:46Bye.
12:47Bye.
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