Elizabeth Olsen & Carrie Coon | Fade To Black podcast interview

before oh I do it all the time my agents are like stop doing that no but I do it to the person you're like you got to look this up and yeah I'll be like oh you know who would actually really yes me too like you know who you need yeah absolutely so you're always doing so don't think it changes it but the but the pleasure is when something is a written for you and B is actually so well written and I think the thing that was really special about this opportunity with oza is that you you try and create as much of a community within whatever you know industry or job you have and for that Community car and I separately without knowing each other both had our own relationships with oza and um to to and I and I was the only of the three of us who who had gotten to work with him directly because obviously Tracy worked with him but you hadn't and um and so I so I I um I feel grateful that there was a community that you are building of like-minded people and that hopefully this continues in a way that you're setting up like as you as we keep going if we choose to keep going that we continue to work with collaborators over and over again if it's likeminded and so I think that was a big Joy of of someone writing something for you in that way to that point uh you play a dead head uh in this is that a an actual thing for you that they brought into this film or is that far the closest I got to understanding it was watching Buck Henry do a documentary on the Grateful de that was like for PBS or or something and I don't know it was maybe the '90s it was something I found on YouTube uh where he interviews I'm glad you found a way in like I said I thought Christina was very elusive I was glad I wasn't playing yeah no that was my way in yeah amazing um obviously with this F you're playing with a lot of heavy emotions and I'm just curious when you're on set after a particularly heavy scene how long do you like to stay in it before you bring levity back into the room I don't think I ever stay in it very long I I don't I think you and I are similar in that no we just kind of you go in you go in and then and then there's a part of you it's like a ghost leaves you and you're like what did we just do what do we need to do better if you don't get a if like it would be helpful to have a note but if there's no note then what can I analyze and leave my body and then come back to and I know actors who have to sit inside of things I get and I understand it's just not the way I work yeah me neither and I just I've never felt I I actually feel that what we're asked to do is incredibly healthy I've always felt like actors are sort of more fully expressed than the average bear because we get to like Kiss people and break things and sit inside of heavy things before they actually happen in our lives we get a lot of rehearsal for living and and I think it's really healthy there's a line in the film that stood out to me uh about the Arts not always getting death wrong not always getting death right rather and I'm just wondering for you guys what was the first film that you watched that the notion of death really resonated with you let's go start with you I feel like there was a Shirley Temple movie when I was a little girl where she's like on a boat in a river I think it was called Bluebird or something like that and um and I believe there's a death involved and I couldn't tell you what it was about or what it was but I have these images and this feeling of being such a little girl and understanding that that she was that there's something that she was mourning as a child and I couldn't tell you what I've tried to look it up before actually and I know it's not called Bluebird because I've look tried to look it up before sh Temple bird but there is a sh Temple film that I grew up with that was absolutely about death and uh and I have no idea what it was but I remember how it made me feel I have I have mine's sort of adjacent to material because I was raised Catholic and I used to get up I was an insomniac when I was little or I didn't require much sleep when I was really little and I had a bunch of siblings so when they were all in bed I would get up and come downstairs while my parents were watching Johnny Carson and I'd be like so Jesus he's back I was like do you know when he's coming back and am I going to get married like am I going to have kids or are we all done are we going to die so my association with my first thoughts about death is Johnny Carson oh and Jesus for me it's it's The Lion King when you find yes yeah of course still physically hurts I think my son is probably going through that right now cuz he watched it recently yeah it's awful you're right a tray you the horse dying and never- Ending Story that was a big one I think for the 80s kids that's a big that was a big and then also Bambi's mom Bambi's mom yeah like can watch that was difficult and real I watched everything too soon that's animated movies Disney animated movies as well death to parents a lot of Darkness Nemo another one but again it just speaks to the idea that like everyone loses their parents in one way or another and so that's what's so Universal about a story like this but it's not quite been told this way I think yeah no I fully agree with that um there are elements of this movie that are quite play-like and I know that both of you have experience on the stage if there's any one scene from this film that you could perform on stage which one would the bmy for you well I suppose a monologue lends itself to Stage so funny say the opening yeah kind of the opening yeah because we have our two du dueling monologues there it's also so clear of what you're what the intention is and I think also the Stillness of it mhm yeah and the choice of who's entering and when and where are they coming from I think set something up well yeah that's good I think that's a good answer yeah and true I agree um Elizabeth watching this film one film or one line from another one of your projects came to mind which is now one of the most well-known lines from One Division what is grief if not love persevering and I'm just one for you when youve read that when you read that line for the first time did it feel special did it feel different because again it's one of those lines that I think is resonated with def find them in such a way um I I also I think I I think Paul betney um and Jack schaer together were trying to figure out what language to use and um and he's a they're both incredibly uh smart and lovely people um and I yeah and I I I do believe that that that that mean that it's accurate I mean I don't know what else to say have you heard that line before Carrie yeah how do you feel about sense yeah it makes sense to me yeah how could you yeah it's just like you can't just drop it that's why losing animals is so hard because the love for an animal is so pure it's not the way that we the way we love humans is so complicated like our relationships to other human beings are so complicated but animals it's like pretty straightforward so the grief is also so pure and painful and I think grief can be very complicated yes and angry yeah definitely yeah and there's a lot of stuff that you because the deathbed conversation doesn't happen usually yeah you know the fantasy of the deathbed conversation we put a lot of stock in it it doesn't usually happen like that and so it's never satisfying you never get that moment usually with a loved one I mean it's rare that you're fully expressed with a loved one before they die I don't know a single person who's had that experience I think it's it's the stuff of television and film and fantasy which is why in the film he says it's rarely depicted accurately because we we the fantasy we want is never what we actually get yeah um in prepping for this interview I was reading reviews of this film uh very Lely positive as they should be and I got I disagreed with well here's something I did disagree with because I saw and I've seen this as well with Robert Danny Jr and Oppenheimer they will say that you know finally they get away from the MCU to like do real acting and that it it tipped me off a little bit because I was very moved by your performance in one verion I was moved by B Jr in the MCU which I'm a big fan of for you when you read stuff like that does it irritate you to have your non MCU work pitted against your I don't think anyone's opinion of how they feel about me or my work could really irritate me that much I think um the the most hurtful thing is uh for work to be ignored yeah I had a teacher that said said you'll either hate me or love me but you won't you won't forget me uh and she was a Suzuki stage actress okay and um and I think that's I I think the most offensive thing someone could say is to ignore your work um and I and so I don't know I I don't really have I don't I don't find it to I I think people watch what they want to watch right so if I mean for critics it's different they they have assignments where they have to watch certain things that maybe they is in their wheelhouse or maybe it's not so I can understand maybe someone's perspective from from that place I don't know who am I to say well I'm going to talk to those people nonsense um final question for you I know that as actors a lot of the work you do especially when you're prepping is who who are these characters before we meet them on screen do you ever do a Flash Forward do you ever think about where your characters are months years from now and in this case what do you think are the relationships between the sisters sort of far away in the future do you know have you thought about it I didn't think about it while we were doing it but I somebody asked me this um very early when in like an early screening time and I remember thinking like I hope Katie's made a little space for her sisters I feel like Christina you know had another baby maybe and like has tried to keep us together and then I just imagine that Natasha's character that I just the most clear is that Rachel is just that old lady smoking on the bench you know like she's such she's just a New York character and that's what I really I love that oza wrote sort of like a proper New York character that we see all the time in New York and it's kind of the only one that mattered in that way um I I don't really what the first film I did I was doing press with for Marth Mars and Marlene I was doing press with Shawn Durkin and people kept asking him what do you think happens at the end of after after the end and he said I believe movies start an end um in the in the framing of a story that they're meant to and I think to me that kind of took that as a as a my own little lesson of I it doesn't matter because what matters is this structure of this start Mark and this end mark and only recently I would say I started to fill in the the things that maybe don't matter or aren't on camera about even this before that um I I think even the schooling I went to it was like you know that's all [ __ ] or whatever just like just like show up and do what's asked of you on the page and do that well and kind of recently I think because of working with so much Source material I started to miss having something to start from and so inventing it actually became a a way a way to connect or to to create and build from and so that's only been a recent thing to me but the future thing I never think about maybe I will one day cuz only that was recently introduced well the work speaks for itself and the work is spectacular so K thank you so much for your time thank you for your time appreciate it