Elizabeth Olsen, Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne and Azazel Jacobs | His Three Daughters interview Q&A

more about it I I definitely was writing for a certain Rhythm and it's not that I like of course I was fans of all their works but I I think I knew enough of their works or their rhythm of their voices that I started really hearing a Tempo that was like very very important for me in terms of just the writing the thinking about how I was going to shoot it how I was going to cut it and then all the way through you know just the idea of having this kind of metronome heartbeat monitor throughout the film was always going to be was going to be based on I think the first things that I may have grabed you know gone to is like hearing their individual rhythms and when a script drops on your mailbox and and somebody says oh I've written this with you in mind is that is that a good thing or is that a dting thing that's always nice to be thought of we're actors we want we want jobs and if it's somebody as gifted as Aza then you're really excited about it and um I know for me personally personally I have played motor mouth highr controlling women before I wasn't surprised that you saw me like that but then the script itself was so specifically was the relationships were so specific and it was and the form of the movie really follows the function in that the sisters are the sisters are revealed to each other as they're revealed to the audience and the relationships are complicated as the film unfolds and it was just so deftly written and I've said this before TV has become a little bit arbitrary just because the nature of the the machine and so to have something that's that's so considered was was thrilling yeah I um I've known OA for I guess little by the time we made this almost five years or something like that and um he and I talked about other projects and so I wasn't um I was I've never had someone um write me WR for me before and so that was nice uh that feels nice like like like Carrie said it's nice to be thought of um and I think it was really about the how he wanted to put it together that was um I would have done any I would have done anything with OA and these two women because of uh the Integrity of how he was trying to put it together he knew exactly what the financial circumstances were going to be regardless of anyone's Financial place in the market uh it was just this is what he was going to have this is what he was going to use he was going to shoot on film he was going to edit it himself and he knew exactly how to balance the budget he had for what he needed and we never made an announcement we never like it was it was just this the Tasha has said before not to you guys but she has said before um it felt like we were almost making a whole movie for Aza in a really fun way that we got to we were lucky enough to participate in and this like creative Winter Camp of actors getting to play without any expect a or pressure from any other thing whether it was like even just pleasing a financier or something and so um so it just the experience felt so uh so incredible and creative and and it felt like this time vacuum where we actually had more time than we did in hindsight in my like brain I'm like well we did that for months but it was really just three fast weeks um and so I think the Integrity of getting to shoot like this was so much a part of the DNA of of the script even itself did you three know each other before we've never met before and still not today they weren't there when I did that monologue we're looking forward to it so tell Usha tell us about day one like day one when you all met oh sure I remember it perfectly well out my mother's wom I shot there they were I said krie CL Lizzie olon Isaac Jacobs gosh let's do this um I uh I um yes I have a mind that unfortunately cannot recall was sufficient for uh what that day was like but I do remember it going well and I think uh Tamara Jenkins I um yeah she wrote and directed sons of Bly Hills she's a friend of ours and she also uh uh wrote and director the Savages which is you know they're very personal movies I got I got to play her as a whatever I don't know what that was 15-year-old kid anyway it was a long time ago uh I'm 22 now um and anyone casting who wants to write something for me uh and um but she told me about making the Savages which is really about putting her father at in all home uh with uh with Phil with ph Hoffman and Laura Linny that it's like they were so when kri is talking about this thing of television and I I remember Tamara saying to me that they were just like such like Olympians like just they were just so ready to rumble that uh it wasn't really like they were like crying on Q is more just that they knew I I just I think about a lot because Tamara is a friend of ours and uh um she's always sort of a North star for me because I played her as a youth and so she's okay maybe I'll be okay we don't know uh but I think we kind of mutually made this agreement of we got get there quick like we need to be Allin nowhere to hide laid be uh sort of no artifice we've got to strip it away very quickly and I remember being incredibly struck by how rare it is uh to make a decision you know like in the Arts it's kind of ether and you're kind of we all jumped in I feel like that very first day it was weird stuff like um a hair and makeup test and it was like we start touching each other like siblings would inapo rately for a firstday meeting um little things like that you had a sense of what they would all be like because obviously you've seen all their previous work and you've met them all but when they all got in the same room what was what was that experience I mean did they live up to the kind of family roles you'd given them all yeah I mean whatever I think what happened from the first second on was whatever was in my mind suddenly was this like that was it like any any kind of IDE just disappeared and then this felt completely concrete from the from the moment on and that's just how it def it defined itself for me which I was like oh yeah these are the sisters and uh like Natasha said like they just like the energy that was coming you know all they all show up they're all off book like they all are just completely prepared and we had an agreement that we were happy with the script so there wasn't kind of conversation of so much like why would I say that or why say that it was really how where would I be or how would I how do I get to this place and it was even it just felt the only way to say is like they just felt like there was an engine and that I remember that when we started shooting day one that whatever I saw there which was just completely magical and just emotional and also just so encouraging I saw it kind of wave off the table where we were shooting them onto the crew and I could just feel the crew suddenly feeling like oh this is something else and they really stepped up in a way that you know like it just was a great experience yeah I should clarify that I think what I'm talking about is fear um it's like that Terror kind of where you know you have to Stand and Deliver otherwise you're screwed because of the timeline and you you've done you you the the film takes place over three days and it's essentially one location is that is that a constraint or is that liberating to do something with those sort of guards I mean for me that was a constraint that I was looking for it definitely meant that for you know shooting in film was essential because it would make me make choices and have to deal with light and kind of force us into shooting in as much order as possible those type of constraints I've always really like looked for um because I I find that it helps the story and it's not like I needed I I never felt like we needed more d we need more people if anything it felt like we needed to move at the clip that we wore because of all the things that were happening and we could always track where somebody was in the scene before scene early because we're as much as possible in order so I didn't there was like I mean I think we've all been working long enough that like that type of limitation is not something that ever felt it felt freeing in the way that oh we're here and like it was so important to me that we're shooting in a real apartment and to use to have these walls and not to be able to put lights in certain places and just Embrace what we had and how that was going to force these sisters together her p and you said you shot on film is was that a new experience for you have you shot on film before yeah does it make you does it make you perform differently I've been doing this since 1983 I I thought that was in my day um I remember when we switched over to Takis I was like there's no way anyway I love a Q&A it's so nice to be here it's very it's fun Sam Leia is our sraer you said that that was uh you edited this picture you never worked with Sam before right who's so extraordinary yeah it it was like have have you sh no I hadn't worked with Sam I loved what he done on Wendy and Lucy and ladybird and there was a lot of work that I had already like we had a you know and he lived in a neighborhood and we had a I could feel that we had some a relationship have you shot other movies on fil um but you must have right have I shot yeah yeah Sam has but that was our first conversation when I went to Sam which was just like um that I knew that I needed I wanted this to be in relationship with older films but also kind of since it's talking so much about depicting death on film that it felt important to kind of underline that this is you know that this is staged in a certain way and to be precise in that way rather than I feel like my experience with video is that I can figure out how to cut it later like I can cover the scene and go okay I know that we have a covered I'll figure out in the edit room where in this case I I wanted to cut I wanted to move at a specific Rhythm and so then I could map out these shots with Sam way beforehand and Sam was probably the person I met with the most besides the other producer my partner Diaz who I would work with from you know the first draft of the script on would you describe that as a poly plat Peter book donovich relationship but in a good way in a great way a much I'd hope a much better way a healthy verion with a happy ending did you want to talk about other did you want to talk about other films as references as you were going along did you how did you sort of set what did you say about the tone what you were what you going for different conversations But Lizzy I think Lizzy and I had the most conversation about other films yeah I mean you came over and for like I think a couple days in a row and we just watched uh some scenes from films and then and then I watch some entire fils well we watch The Long Island Experience some scenes from the hell heartley Trilogy um we I watched Fatso uh don deloise all three of US based our performances on him and's like only only directed film and uh we I watched inters for the first time which which was Woody Allen's Kind of Love song to Bergman yes and we're and we're leading with that leing with that because that's that that is a good thing to lead with these days picture that we've all forgotten about back to Burg quick um what else I mean these AR I would I should say that these aren't even oh there's some um ROM films that uh I had watch but not even because of them being direct references or influences on the film but because it almost felt like I I wanted to understand what was uh what is your ET of sketch in your brain from like uh from what what it what makes an impression on you Without You realizing it and I think that's what we realized along the way was more about just like the layers it's true like I I showed film we talked about films that I felt like just swung with everything they had and that's what I wanted I just wanted to go out there like I knew we were going to open up with these shots that were going to be people looking almost to the camera and that that's like abrasive and that there was going to be this kind of auditioning sense especially in the first 15 minutes which was the idea which is like these are people that are presenting themselves as characters and we can see them as the characters that we're traying and then hopefully by the end of the film like all this is Fray and this things that we try to you know to appear as changes into something else but it still is an abrasive and way to start especially film and I felt that all the work that I saw was like okay it was just fully committed to doing this um and that's yeah the language and the Rhythm for all of those were so specific and so in your face within the first scene and the first shot yeah but and uh Carrie who I just want to say like I'll be honest I think I did my homework because of Carrie and it's I was so uh afraid just because you know it opens with you doing that and you know uh these two are very they're very serious people um you can tell because they really are not it's not an outside job it's almost as if they're doing everything in their power to avoid anything but the work um and so knowing that you were going to be opening that so tight it's like I think that for Lizzie and I we're just like oh like your posture gets straight and and I was so scared that you guys would be like that was disappointing well I only bring it up because it's interesting I think it's interesting to talking about oh yes you know we 7 oh my God it's so great and uh but also I do think there is like this theater aspect I don't have in my bones the way that you have in your DNA that I think we were trying to kind of Osmosis of like I mean plays I'm just mentioning thatno because she's a Treasure's treasure but I but I do think it really it set it sort of I guess what I'm saying is like Aza set the bar and kind of it kept raising and I think that we were just sort of like okay I guess it's serious cuz then it's like you're in a rehearsal but you're in a rehearsal with somebody who really moves through um text like you know um for theater not for you know editing like later like we'll fix it in post yeah also back to the the because it was on I don't even think it was just because it was on phone but because of the intention of how you wanted to unfold this story we didn't have coverage we had we knew that often we were work we couldn't edit our way out of anything we were you know trapped in one shot whether it was medium shot a wide shot closeup whatever the choice was and so that that makes you yeah that makes you have to rise to the challenge for that knowing that there's nothing that's going to help you later but tell us what it's like playing a character like your Katie I mean you know and you have to kind of lead off with I mean abrasive is the word you used and boy is she abrasive like what's it like I like playing people people don't like because there's a lot of people we don't like it's very real and I the number of people who come and be like oh gosh I'm such a Katie you know they recognize it in themselves or they recognize it in their sibling I'm the middle of five but I'm really kind of an older and I'm telling you just this week I've given so much advice kids and I'm very successful and I think they would do well to listen to what I have to say oh K Co I'd let you run this life Lizzy but um but you know it's so lovely the way they talk about it but for me what was actually happening was a lot of impostor syndrome because I have two children and no time to prepare for these jobs anymore and I felt really not ready for this job and I was because I so respect um Aza but also these two women so much I me you as a filmmaker I knew what I was getting into um I I was I was really afraid of not being good enough for the film because because of these constraints you're speaking about and that you didn't have a lot of crack at it it's a crazy thing I was so scared for the say I know it's so weird well that's why we you know why we all wanted to do it but I just and every day like you say the bar gets raised because you know Natasha is someone who who who cannot stand if she feels any level of I know it's you know you feel like it's a lot of you know you're like you're doing your interviews and it's a lot of fun but you are relentlessly in pursuit of the truth when you're doing it and and Lizzie I always feel I can't really help it it's just like well that was truthful I couldn't have done that monologue like that at all you know like I found your character kind of really elusive when I read it I was really grateful that I was Katie and not Christina so it's the bar gets raised every day and it was just yeah your integrity really set the tone for that every and the crew did sign on for it and everybody felt like it was but by the way it helps that there was only like 12 of them I me statistically you know you have 500 person crew you know I mean it was just it was so like the space was so CL and the states it's like the days are so tight the budget so tight it's film we're running out of film on the mag it's like there's so everybody does have to kind of be on high alert and I think the way we coped was the New York Times spelling yes really focused on the most important thing yeah like we you had to find a way to sort of not over Focus because it was so um and yes like you're saying this metronome like death is just hanging out and OA was so good at reminding us of that when we forgot we forget you know that the scene is always actually about that waiting for that and you sort of get into the weeds be like oh right no there's somebody dying back there and remember the heart monitor and like you just remember what's hanging over the room and it was good to be reminded and it strikes me in this moment as someone writing a thesis I dropped I'm so sorry we're so hard it's really I think we were doing that thing where we were trying to be like those right I mean we we're very much in a state of I I don't know anything about anything but um like they are we're sort of like seeing each other in this sort of high stakes moment and sort of being like well we'll all be on our best behavior in the hopes that you like me and you like me and you like me and like sort of ended up going on that Journey Of You Know the Way oo Stacks the edit of these uh you know combined shots and finding each other and Lizzy and the little Ducky song or whatever my little chick a d tune at the end and it's like found ourselves there on accident because of the high stakes of a ticking clock sort of um whatever that was a PO let's see questions um right here one