British Food and Countryside

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This episode of Smartless is sponsored by Ashley, the brand that just helped us turn a live event stage into a fully styled living space. Ashley is all about helping you create a home that reflects who you are with styles that balance timeless design and modern trends, and pieces built to handle everyday life with durable materials and easy to maintain fabrics For our live show, we were sitting on their modular MMax sofa setup that you can configure to however works best for your space. Plus we had oversized accent chairs and coffee and accent tables that really tied everything together. Let me tell you about the M Max sofa. We used it for our live show. It was so comfortable. I felt like I was sitting on a cloud. The worst part about it getting out of it. Ashley is all about style that's made for real life with white glove delivery right to your room of choice. Visit your local Ashley store or head to Ashley. com to find your style So hello everyone, darling listeners. It is Emma Thompson here calling you from Blighty the shhores of Great Britain. My microphone is propped up on, well actually one of the boxes has got my posh cards in that I recently invested in which have my name in tiny little really sort of Dellicate letters and I felt it was sort of quite I just thought it was classy. Anyway, I may be wrong, of course, I often am. So the books are Truth and Repair by a woman called Judith L. Hermman. author of Tuma and Recovery. you may be getting a sense here. Then there's Getting Over yourour Parents, which is a very important book for anyone who is human And then there's on being nice Which of course is a very important thing, but don't take it too far. That's what I always say Oh There was one other thing. Welcome to Smartless to be on camera today. Oh Here, have been have you been working on your faces in the mirror all morning? Yes, Let's see, surprise. surprise, let's see surprise. W, God that so good. Now one with the mouth closed. One with the mouth closed, still rolling Um So Sean, you shoot That's not me direct. Yeah I do right after this actually. Bbe is that how you direct actors? Still rolling? St rolling, And what with the mouths? Okay? Good, good. G the way Don't look right at the camera. Don't at the camera. So'slling by the way, I just got that note, I'm not even kidding. Sean, can you close your mouth in this scene? No, swear. No. Was it a dial sc? D they just want you to stop? No, No, I was just like no, it was just like my character is like, I can't believe what you're saying. Like I was just like Are you serious like kind of I serious? I was like And she's like, canan you do with your mouth closed? you could you do it with your mouth closed? I tried, I tried really. You're like, I have dialogues. They're like, Yeah, we know just mou just prepping my mou my mouth to talk. And you're gonna go on background that's gonna be your cue. And just try sinking your lines on this day. Here we go, everybody Wait, know I was I was doing this scene once years ago and Eli was there. We were in France And I had to this long shot, I'm walking the thing and I get to the end and E like goes, bro, your leg's really wide apart. Okaykay, your gait's really wide. I go, Oh, okay. then And I had to do it like five more times the whole time I'm just thinking about how was walking. your leg which is That's the way you walk. I could do your walk in two seconds. I know. I know I walk. Yeah ye Yeah, you're lip bll legged ye Yeah. Like you just got out off a hardart. hang on, this is not an excuse to just d long I'm very vulnerable this. I think I'm actually bowlegged. I don't think Will, you're bowlegged, You just happen to swing your legs around one another when you walk for It's going long. I have long legs You do have long legs. I was thinking about you watching all the hockey this weekend with you filling up that goal crease. Yeah. You know, you need a tall guy in there, right? Get that shoulder up into the into the high corners. Well, back in the day when I played, it was much more about getting on the ground stack in the pads. Oh sure sh the ps instead of a butterfly. So Will, with you being a Toronto fan, are you keeping it with Canada and rooting for w. I sure am. Yeahah. all the way. Yeah. And Sean, who's your pick to win this betweenween the two between Canada and over there at the Well, it looks like it's going be Vegas. O course air ir afterwards, but It's pretty exciting. Will used to a couple of years ago, three years ago, Will had me record my picks Do you remember that? Oh yeah, for the Stanley Cup. Yeah. Yeah. And so every week I would record the picks and why they would. I'm going to give you three guesses what the name of the team in Las Vegas is called The hockey team. Is okay? Let me ask you this, Do this have something to do with the city itself? It does not Yeah, it really doesn't Yeah, they're not called the chips or or tble downs. Yeah, no. What about Elizabethan? I'll give you a hand. It's Elizabethan or it's like Well, I mean, it could kings the kings' close. That's close. I mean, it could be any of those The Glden Kightsas. Golden the golden Kight. Golden Kightsldenight. I tell you who's golden Oh, here he comes. Will's got a lunch guys like you like a segue Yeah U Well mean she's golden in that I mean, you know, she's obviously won two Golden Globe Awards and been nominated for like like eleven or something Yeahah and won two Academy Awards of the five that she's been nominated for. Wait a second. five nominations. That's am. And in fact, she's the sole artle thus far to be to be to have received an Academy awward for both acting and screenwriting Acting for Howard Zan. screenwriting for Sense since about Emma Thompson. G guysys it's Em Thompson. I can't even get into credits. It's Emm Thomps. Emm Thpson Hello. Incredible. Hello Hello. Nice to see you. I literally didn't understand a word of any of that. Yeah. I love theats. guys talking about hockey I love your refugees on the floor in the background Yeah. Oh, can you see them? Yeah. my daughter and her boyfriend. they can't hear you, which is just tragic because all they can hear is me and they're used to me. so why Why don't you give them a check go and sit outside? Why say think you can Okay, they're going U Now where are you? Are you are you at their house or your house No, I'm in my office extraly. I was looking behind Sean. He's got a very posh kind of . there's awards, there's like loads of statues and portraits and photos and m. And Jason's got like some sky Which is good and will in deep darkness, which given the fact that he's giving us this kind of vampire voice. It also works, you know? It's all all it's all making more and more sense. Yeah. Now we were making fun of Sean the other day because he had one of his awards behind him as as mo do for some weird reason on their their Zoom frame usually includes any awards that one may have won. You don't have any awards behind you and you've won tons. Where are they all? ye, whereere are they Oscars are in the Lavat because that just keeps them in their place. The globes and the bs and all that are on a very high shelf somewhere where I can't see them I don't know. I think that's very British. We have a friend that has an award and she keeps it in the bathroom as well and puts the toilet roll on one of the extended. It's a holder. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. ye That's taking it even further than me. You know what? I think that maybe you ought to go the other way, which is a have a table right in your right in your foyer as you walk into your place with a spotlight. Yeah and and just lean like lean into it. You know what I mean? So they know what they're dealing with. That's it. Or you just put them in the doorway, like just so that when people come in, they trip over. You guys are so sorry, this is my Oscars. Sorry. I'll just move right this way. Yeah. Yeah fine come through. Do come through. Would you like to freshen up? Yeah. Yeah. And then have copies of them in the toilet so they can't get away ever. And then another, you know, just have them everywhere Yeah people just go Wh not lean into it? I think that that's a good idea. Where is your office? Are you in England or New York or Los Angeles? I'm so in England, but it doesn't feel like it today. actually everyone is experiencing a trauma, a London trauma So I'm in London, North London, where I've lived all my life. I've lived on the street since I was six years old. so six. Yeah, weird. Qite weird. Anyway, suddenly we got a heat wave, which obviously has nothing to do with climate change. No. Why would we even suggest that? But it's thirty five degrees in London. and which is you know what is dying in front of you pets. household appliances Flour, everything is just wilting. it's like You know, Draculus walked into the town If there's not a lot of airir cond. Well we don't know we don't have air conditioning here. Ridiculous. Or ice. We have three hot days a year. O but they're thirty six degrees. O iceight Yeah. although that's coming Emma, why is that? now that's coming. Why is it that work? Why is it that Europe on the whole somehow sort of all made a consensus takeake on Europe up on this. That carbonated drinks don't taste better with ice cubes I mean, it seems pretty clear that they do that it's just objectively true, right? that But yet they still you have to ask for ice with a I sound like an ugly American here. I apologize. No, you're just obsessed with ice. Americans have always been obsessed with ice. When I used to' obsessed with it. I'm so sure it you are. When I first arrived in America and ice was it was just brought, you were practically put in a fucking ice bathroom excited Get in the ice Get in the ice, you're gonna love it. You're gonna love it. Everything came with ice. You know, chicken Parmesanan came with ice. What's going on here? This is mad. I'm obsessed with it. And we don't have that obsession because we don't have probably as much money and our refrigerators are not as big and they don't produce ice. We all get refidges that say they produce ice and within a week, they've broken down. So what do you do to beat the heat You just lie face down on the pavement panting st hoping that some dog will come and whiddle on you and cool you down. I mean, we don't have. But here's the thing. just you just kind of, you just take it, don' we don't need to always be in our perfect comfort zones at all times.. That's the whole point of life. There are things that happen, there are days where you're hot and you do and there are days that are cold It is true that in this country, I'm Canadian, by the way, Emma. so I know you're Canadian, well, darling. But I think you guys are used to extreme temperatures and we live in a temperate zonees. And we're really not used to it. And now because of climate change, look at my face. I mean, I'm the same color as one of the stripes in my shirt is tragic. But, you know, it's like we're just not we're just not used to it and it's it's quite It's really weird. Yeah, actually. because it's happening It's happened How was it last summer? Last summer it was super hot there too, right? Europe had huge hot so hot. was happening on the tube Were you there? I was there last summer. I was doing his play. He was doing his play. Oh man. It was so hot. and like to everybody's point, there's no air conditioning. We were staying in a place that had air conditioning, but there was and we were rehearsing in a place that was like a greenhouse . Now, what about the theater, Sean, would did theater have a No No air conditioning in the theater? No What? No, there's no of air conditioning in our theaters. Come on. Because we've never needed it before and we haven't adapted yet to climate change. I want to Emma, you're talking about taking the tube. What's your experience like when you take the tube? Are you as in London? you I'm approached constantly and mobed by people asking you, No Questions and no, no No, not at all. Nobody takes any notice on the tube. They're all looking at their phones. Yeah. But my guess is that when they when they do recognize you, it's something veryer charming and respectful and they they say which movie that they love like She's a respected actor as opposed to like a celebrity. Like you see a celebrity out,'s like it's like a giraffe is escape the zoo. and you got to get picture of children thing. Yeah You're right I'm very lucky, I think, because it's the same in Europe. People have a relationship with what it's like for you guys, but you know, you must have this, Jason, that people have a relationship with a particular role that you might have played or maybe a couple and We've done lots and lots of different things. So I think if for instance, you're sort of an action hero, I can imagine that for somebody like I don't know, Schwarzeneggerustallone or Bruce Bruce Willis, you know, then there's a very specific response every single time. But for me, you know, I can pass Not necessarily unnoticed, but certainly It's never been an issue actually. What's what's your what's your least favorite kind of of of interaction with with a with the family. like like when you're with your family or I mean, because It's like there's somet I always get embarrassed if it ever causes like a scene. In other words, grabs the attention of others that might not otherwise know who I am or notice you know, 's it's great one's just sort of mellow and quiet and passive, right Yes, I mean it's lovely and people will just pass you and still keep walking. Yeah. They love your work. I Yeah lovely. But when you're sort of buying sausages with your daughter You don't really want them to come up and go, canan I have a Sree Sfies are interesting, aren't they? How do you guys feel about those? Right, about the Do you feel that they're intrusive at all? What do you think? Well, no, but what I have noticed is that in the old days, it used to be autographs and if you didn't have a piece of paper or a pen, then it was just, hey,ice nice to meet you and like your work and was nice But now everybody's got a phone. So even if you don't want an autograph, right slash picture, you still sort of feel obligated, Well, I' better take this, you know And so people kind of line up a little bit Anyway. it's not don't mean sound like I'm complaining. Do you ever say no never and I've been with P people and I don't I mean, never is probably I might I'm sure I have, but I don't I do when I'm with the kids sometimes when when I'm with if I'm with the kids or with the little kids and if and if it's an adult. asking I'll say nohing. I've never said no to a kid. I have said that. I have. but I say sometimes I'm the same, willill. I wouldn't ever say no to a child, but sometimes if I'm with the family, I'll say, would you mind awfully I just I'm with my family. And what's so interesting to me is that every time I have said no and it's quite rare peopleeople have taken it so well because they seem completely to understand. So in a way, I feel like they know what they're asking for, that what they're asking for is a little bit And of it's a lot to take a photograph with somebody. I have some famous friends that they say no all the time. They never say yes, and it makes me so uncomfortable. That they're like I just feel like becausecause it's such an easy give in a way. It's an easy give. Have you ever gotten, hey, can I get a picture really quick? and then they hand you the camera? 'causeuse that's happening to me. They want you to take a picture of a of them and their're family friends. Yeah. Many times I've also, many times got, oh my God, you're and then they say the name of a completely different actress. So I have the choice I either say yes, I am so and so. I would love to give you a photograph or I say I'm twenty years younger orr I say, Oh I'm twenty years old or I say no she's dead actually. but Then I just kind of move gently on through. You know what's funny? I had the other day I had I was sitting in a restaurant and two interactions in a row back to back. First of all, I had a woman come over and say When I was sitting with my sister and my brother in law and our buddy Eli Um Canadian like And he said, this woman said, u so sorry to bother you and I know that you're eating and then proceeded to sit down on the bench next to me. and begin the conversation. at which point I was like, well, you're not that bothered Didt grab a frry? Then she left. She leftgh. And then this other woman came over and she said My friend is a fan, but I'm sorry, what's your name and Elies? Jason Bateman. She said thank you so much. She want to away. JB ever gotot to tell you that. It was so good. I had a really wonderful one. I was in Harry's Bar in Venice, which is o yeah. know the original Harry's bar and it was very nice. It was years and years ago And a woman came up to She was in the other room and she kept on peeling off these massive smiles and grins at me and waving. And I thought, Okaykay, so my work out it? That seems fair enough. I'm in Venice, it's Festiv allal blah. Anyway, she came over as she was leaving and said, I'm so happy to see you in here. I said, Oh, thank you. thinking, why? And then she said You know, I still wear those shoes. I wear them all the time. I love them. You were so right. I was wrong and you were right. I'm thinking, shoes. And then she said, you remember I'm staring at her. thinking, I don't I just I can't work this one out. I haven't made a film about shoes. haveave I?be, She said You remember the fifth floor and barnys So she thought that I'd sold her a pair of shoes. sh department at Barney's. And she was thrilled to see me in Harry's bar because clearly that meant I was doing quite well for myself.. You you know what I mean? that I was like in the same I was in the same arena as a woman who buys shoes on the fifth floor at Barney's and that that gave her pleasure. And she needed to convey that to me. Which was very kind, I thought actually. I said I'm so glad they still fit. you don them.. Now Emma, do you miss Barneyyss like I miss Barneyys? I do. I miss Barnorry, I really do. We were just talking about the other day. I miss it so we're admitting to terrible shallownness, but I do I really by the way, both New York and LA. sad. I miss both. Yeah, both places I love ose place I love. What happened to it? What happened? How would it go belly up? It's because people shop online now, right? Is that right? Yeah everything. I have to go to the shoe right direct to the shoe department the right. Oh no, just wal in that men walk in the back way there on like what is that? like fifteen ninth Street? You can walk in that back door. I was talking about Lost. And there was one downtown too. Well, the original in seventeenth Un Yeah Oh guys, keep saying numbers, S numbers more. And we will be right back Tilamac Iice cream is real, unbelievably creamy ice cream made with quality ingredients, and it's now available in extra options, familyily size, pints, and bars. But no matter the size or shape, Tilamac Iice cream is made the extremely creamy way you deserve. With the forty eight ounce family size option, there's enough to share, but the name familyily size is just a suggestion And you can enjoy their unbelievably creamy flavors in family size pints or bars, including rich vanilla bean and tillamac mudslides You really can't go wrong. You know, you're in good hands too because Tillamc Dairy has been around since nineteen oh nine. 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LinkedIn has a word for that Bowl spnd Instead, you can get the highest Roaz of major ad networks with LinkedIn ads. Cut the bowll spend, advertise on LinkedIn. spepend two hundred and fifty dollars and get a two hundred fifty dollars credit. Go to LinkedIn dot com slash smartlist terms apppply So you're saying with Hillton honors, I can use points for a free nights stay anywhere? Anywhere. fancy places like Canopy in Paris. Yeah. Hilton honors, baby. Or relaxing sanctuaries, like the Conrad in Tulum. Hilton honors, baby. What about the five star Waldorf astoria in the Maldives? Are you gonna do this for all nine thousand properties? When you want points that can take you anywhere anytime, it matters where you stay. Hilton, for the stay And now back to the show Emma, so listen, let's go back, let's go back. let's go back. I love Let's start the interview. Let's the question. This question for our gu. guys Emma's here. Hi E We're the worst interviewers of all time. I'm so sorry And you're realizing that in real time. And your regret is evident. U So I didn't know that you were that you started at well I started, but you were in the aimed Footlight Setch group at Cambridge, which has seen a lot of great performers. So you have a history of sketch comedy, which is so amazing. I didn't know that. That's cool. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I did that for you. Would that be like the British lampoon type of thing? Sort of, yeah, it's an equivalent to sort of the lampoon in a way but it's more of a You know, it's like SNL. SNL's basically what I would think of as review So back in the day, in the early part of the twentieth century, review was huge in our country and it was Basically a collection of sketches, songs You know, it just a kind of review. a variety show. And a variety show, yes And that's what we did. It's completely dead now. we don't We don't have review anymore, but SNL is a form of review. It really is. It's sketches and songs and music and you know, it's little bites And I started doing that absolutely with Hugh Laorie and Stephen Fry Frery? Yeah.. Did it for years. In fact, I was going be a comedian, that was what I wanted to be because I admired Lily Tomlin. I never knew that. So greatly. She's my gos. And Jane Wagner, you know signigns of intelligent life. all of her beautiful characters Yeah, incredible. I love that. That's what I wanted to do for a living. But you are still doing it because anytim there's a character that lends itself even slightly to comedy, you take that and you expand that and you're always freaking hilarious whenever you choose excellent timing. beautiful British dryness. just. Well, I mean, I was gonna to ask you these guys are gonna make fun of me, but I'm a massive Harry Potter fan And no kidding. And you Show you show it a wand I don't I'm looking at. but I really do have one But professor, but you as professors civil, right Profess ye. Yeah. That was fatigued. Speaking about like characters and like Lily Tomlin and Jane W and those all those things that Lily Tomin, when I saw that it was such a and this is a compliment, such a big character in a world that has big characters with the you guys, if you haven't seen it, she has like Coke bottle glasses like that literally this th they make her eyeballs this big and she's neurotic and she gets possessed and it's It's such an incredible character. How did you trust that that was That your choice to come in on the first day we talk about this a with a huge swing. whichich a huge swing was going to be. How did you trust that? You know what I mean don't really do. How did you come up with a character? Well, it's written in the books. That she has those glasses. books. Yeahah, they. I think she's definitely nearly blind, can't see anything and obviously deeply neurotic because you can see sometimes whether people are, you know have the grim or not. So I mean honestly in my quite long career given the fact that I'm good ten years older than all of you guys. I have done many, many parts and I've spent about thirty days on Harry Potter my whole life, you know So it's kind of a strange thing to talk about because it's become such this huge phenomenon And that's a lot of the time that's what people are very sort of drawn to that that Yeah I mean, I'm also I've also seen saving mister Banks like twenty times and I've seen instanceibility. good. I No, I wasn't getting at you. Yeah, yeah. It's just that sure You know what it's like guys when you when you decide to play someone. you just have to fling yourself into it, don't you first and hope that your instincts are right. Yeah. Well, there's always that thing we because we talk about that idea, you know, I always say it's like When you first arrive and you're doing something, you've made a sort of a choice and you want to make sure that you're not at a different volume than everybody else, especially if you gr in the middle. That's what I'm You know, you know what I mean? And you're like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's Is this, you know Am I in a different movie? Yeah, amm I in a different movie? I came in I did something this winter and I sort of came in. they'd been working for a while and I'm thought like Oh boy, and I had a I had a real look going And I thought had a real What was the look what was the look? He was sort of he sort of like a retired rocker and he and he's sort of down on his luck And and Pedro Pascal comes in and he's my brother and I just like And I sort of worked on it with the director with Tony Gilroy. And I thought, o o, this is it. But at the same time, I thought like, You know, that first moment like here we go guys and we're rolling my boy, this better work. know what? Yeah. It's so But at least Tony had seen it. Yeah had talked about it, but still you hadn't we hadn't done it. You didn't drive m. We don't get to rehearse like us. It's quite rare, isn't it in film that you get to rehearse Whereas in theatre? you do. It's all about rehearsal. Yeah. All about rehearsal I love it So sometimes I think it's a shame don' and we don't get enough rehearsal in here. But you know, again, it's a very mysterious business filming It is. You never know what's going to come out and the camera's so odd, don't you think? bit of a sort of witchy presence I find. Well, you also have that thing when you you know, when you finish something and you go and people say, how was in and you're like, I don't know Yeah., you know, that that's sort of in that period of sort of waiting and JB obviously when you're in post and you're putting a film together. You're living with it and it's breathing with you all the time. And so like you have a sense of it, but everybody else kind of goes away Yeah, there really is always Emmily, you've done some directing,? Yes? No? No. No never directed How you not No, why I feel like you had a couple of times, but there is Wh why I haven't, you? let's press. Can Emma, can you check that you haven't? Y Wh wait, Wh wait. I've interfered massive. That's not directing though. That's just taking part in a slightly upsetting way I especially with I suppose with the films with children in, I've spent a lot of time with the children because that's important. U films I've made for young people I always considered children to be the sacred audience Yeah They're the people we need to make the best of our work for because they don't like It's the first time that they see something it needs to be so, so good You've done so many things over so many genres. when you speaking of like the children's films and stuff, So many things and I was just I was just I watched within the last year, U A film that you did a few years ago. God ten years ago but it's based on one of my favorite books of all time which is alone in Berlin Oh my God, you saw that. You were like one of Of course I love that book was incredible to me. and then I love that book. It's one it's just such an amazing b. It's one of the best second halves of a book I've ever read is just mesmerizing So then and then I realized they made a film. And so I just I didn't know that you had made that film. I watched it. It was beautiful. It was lovely. It's such a great story Um Is it a World WarI story? Mhm. It is. It's almost a piece of like resistance art in a way is in the film and in How because you do these things across so many different jobs, how do you decide to do like a film like alone in Berlin, let's say, but just for instance, is it always just material based or how you're feeling like at a certain time in your life and you're like, I want to do something that's kind of moodi or How do you go about that process I think you're right. I think it's a little bit like Meeting the right person at the right time or reading the right book at the right time thingsings come to you at moments when perhaps you need them. I think as artists, sometimes we need to play certain things, it's just coming at us. I mean I think it's all sort of out there moving around us all the time. And then things pass us by and we think, Oh, I wish I could have, oh, well, actually no that was wrong. And then someone something comes in and hits us right in the center. of us. and you go, I really want to tell that story now. And sometimes you don't know why But I always know if there's if it's something I want to do, I always know, and it's not even It's not something I could Qantify, quantify in any useful way. It literally something will come across my bows and I'll go, Oh, oh, that's a wonderful story. I mean, alone in Berlin is I mean, I kind of slightly obsessed with both wars actually, because I think they left traumas in our country, in the UK that have never really been healed or addressed And And so alone in Berlin for me is Just this beautiful I mean the book is incredible. If you haven't read it, do It's Hafner, isn't it? It's it's his pseudonym, isn't it? Will U Sebastian Hafner. Han Vilada Hans Hansz Vilada. Yeah and his actual name. is perhaps the I get that that way San, you couldree stooges, right? Sean when that came. Yeah. Ema, haveave you ever take have you ever taken a part? a character said yes to it because that character has sort of a personality trait that you are thinking seriously about expanding in your own life and this might be a fun way to kind of playay a little bit with that and try it on and maybe incorporate some of it at the end if it goes well. kindind of because ' I've done that a couple of times. That's really interesting. Really? L you're like I want to be like I'm gonna play this by pants because I'd like to be a little bit more like like like how I'm kind of reading this character in this in this script and this would be a kind of an easy little Is that DTF? Is that DTF? Yeah. Um But like, yeah, sometimes it's for the for the director or the story or the other cast or whatever. But then sometimes it' it's it's, oh, I kind of always wanted to be kind of like that. and Maybe I'll try a little bit here. You ever done that I think I did that with Down Cemetery Road. I did a tey recently. It's a series called Down Cemetery Road, which is a quote from a Philip Larkin poem And it's the Mc Herren book. It's the Slow Horses group. and I think I I mean, not only do I love the author, The character Shes s of my age probably grew up in London during This slightly See me sixties I mean, as a child in the sixties, you know, I think about my childhood in London, How Really close to the end of the war that was. I was born in nineteen fifty nine. so that's fourteen years after the end of the war Second World War, It's nothing really. It's like a blink of an eye and therefore you're still rebuilding. Yeah. Oh gorgeous, absolutely. and still to a certain extent a little bit of you know, not having quite enough to eat and it was, I think quite dark probably, which is, you know, one of the reasons why Lonning Berlin was interesting for me as well But I think that this character, Zoe is not a good girl brought up to be very good, very obedient, very, not in a bad way But in a way that I think that many, many girls in my culture are brought up to be Always lovely and kind and loving and emollient and accepting and tolerant. and U I think that whilst there is a place for that in both sexes It is not appropriate for it to be just women who do that, and nor is it sometimes appropriate for them to do it at all So, you know, u Actually, this woman doesn't do it. In any way, she just She's a very u Releasing of her because she's unapologetic. and Certainly not polite Right And whilst she has kindness, certainly and empathy inside her, she uses it very judiciously. and not As it were, just as a kind of scatter gun technique to avoid conflict, M. being judged for not being, you know, a nice woman. Sure. Does she weaponize it? Um What do you mean L uses it like it's calculated the way it's used or No, it's quite natural. It's quite natural. It's not really a it's just an instinct. she's just L I always feel when Sean's being kind to me he's just manipulating me. You know what I mean? Well, that's true, I think. Yeah I mean, I think you're right about that clearly Wait, Emm, you grew up, I was just thinking so both your as you talk about this Both your parents have correct me if I'm wrong we're actors. Is that right? That's. Yeah, so you grew up like this is a sort of a You grew up in the family businessiz in a way, is that right? Yes, I did, but it was the family business of there. Yeah. So my parents grew up at a time when there really was no television. So they expected, naturally as actors. My father was working class from a southern town in our Guilford Um very much education was very self taught, decided to become an actor, and leave. I mean, he was a proper lever of everything that he came from. You know, his mother, my grandmother was a servant. She went into service when she was sixteen years old and And indeed one of her children, born out of Wedlock because she was raped by one of her employers. So her journey as a mother with these four children was really Um quite dramatic and Dad got out and went into the theatre and met my mother who's from Scotland, very different culture and background Presbyterian, Scottish Presbyterian, so very Um, Pureitanical actually Yeah A one can't really avoid that, even though sheo's never been U able to resist good wine which is excellent. But you know there was I did grow up in this very interesting sort of combination, But they did theater and they expected to do Shakespeare in the provinces. and just and then radio And then television arrived. We didn't have a television until I was, I don't know, eight and it was black and white You know, we didn't do that, we didn't have that. And now It's so different. Yeah. It's kind of indescribably strange Yeah. You mean the amount of content that's out there to distract you by? The breadth of it all sort of in a way Yeah And the amount that must be produced. Right. What was your policy with your kids? Did you Were you were you someone that was, um Screens are okay, teelevision's okay, iPads are okay. orr were you like, no it's reading or it's piano lessons or because I grew up in one of those households very, very disciplined. Although there was plenty of TV too. It was kind of a combo It was a good combo, I think. We told my daughter the television was broken, which she believed were at least Eight years. A R It's still broken. And then she danced in at the age of about nine and said, I've mended it. She just found the sodding remote. Anyway. And we didn't allow her to have a phone until she was secondary school at the age of thirteen. Yeah So iPads God, sometimes when we were driving we live in Scotland as well, we were driving to Scotland, and iPad was a wonderful thing.il. And then feel guilty. It's a film whichich actually I don't feel guilty about. If it's a good film,. It's a lovely way to spend two hours because I used to be stuck in the car for eight hours as we were driving to Scotland with nothing to do but stare at the lamp post going by And do terrible sort. But it's good for the imagination though. It's really good. Think about all those. Boredom's good for the imagination.. am friend We've lost our relationship. friend Bored. Managing boredom is a talent everybody. Okay, here's my question to all of you. When was the last time you were actually bored This this weekend. Really? Wh How? Well just because I was inside the whole time. It was raining and I ran out a good TV, I had done all my homework. and but then guess what happens You get truly relaxed I really feel like True relaxation lives somewhere next door to boredom And that's when naps happen and clarity of mind and all your priorities get in the right order and you can think about what's kind like it's a great managing boredom, embracing boredom, seeing the virtues of boredom is something that I just don't think my kids, their generation is is understands or is friends with. they can't even write an elevator without looking at their phone. Yeah I said it a red light. Constant stimulation. Yeah.ve I've actually said to my bothoth my sons at various points cannot walk down the stairs looking at your phone. That has to be something that that is independent of your phone. This is absurd. But I will say, you know what? I was talking about this with a friend recently I'm never bored Like even if I'm just sitting there, I don't know why. I never feel Right. I don't mean it as a pejorative. I just feel like it's like there's you're not we're all so I think most people in the world today are Highly functioning, we're just like trained to manage fifty different things at the same time, just be just sort of global productivity There is a great God you're always talking about productivity. It's unreelated you want shy never shy away from productivity. Se, I was just thinking Sean, I wonder When youar Emma talk about growing up Se theaterre her pares, Hi Seawn, by the way, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. This is I'm such fans. Do you wish in a way, when you hear about people who grew up like in the theater and stuff, do you feel Knowing your, you know, how much you enjoy that, do you ever feel like, oh, I wish I'd grown up in that kind of environment? Yeah all the time. Do you like Well, even Jason, likeing to me Gring up around Hollywood and in it or Emma growing up in it, you know, like When did it start for you, Seaan? It was high school, right? Yeah, yeah, high school Well, junior high. I was I worked backstage. I worked at the light The light It was just one light and it was switch Yeah, it was one switch. Seriously it was on and off. and it was got our got our guy. We got our guy. I was like, I think I can do that. And it was calamity Jane, the musical Calamity Jane.. And yeah, that was junior high and then high school. And then I was nervous about telling my family I was in theater because it wasn't associated with sports. And I thought, what were they going to think? My oldest brother was like, Hey, dude, it's okay, bro. Like I play football. I have makeup on underneath my eyes, the black marks underneath my eyes, just like you wear makeup. And I was like, Ohh, that's really sweet. And then And then other things happen. but Well, let's not get into of that. But yeah, I was, you know, I was I don't know that I love to do it anymore. I mean, the grind of theater is something, right, Emma, that you just have to The repetition on your body and your brain is something you kind of have no choice but to outgrow because of the endurance. 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You can also feel confident knowing better health therapists work according to a strict code of conduct and are fully qualified Take a pause with therapy. Better Help can help life feel manageable again Sign up and get ten percent off at betterterhelp dot com slash smartless. That's betterhELp dot com slash smartless Back to the show. What was the last theater production you were part of Ema? ' you've done so many Well, I haven't actually, I've mostly done film, but The last thing I did was something I again, you we were talking earlier about things that you just can't say no to. They asked me to do Sweeny Todd M um Steve Sondheim, Sweeny Todd with Bryn Turfel and I did it, we did it with the New York Pharmonic at the Lincoln Center. Wow. We did five performances there and then we did two weeks at the Dominion here. And when was this how cool? It was ten years ago, maybe. Oh wow ye Yeah, and you'd be great. I'm sure you were f my comment. It was the perfect part for you. So You mean the psychotic wom kills people let San finish Ea The comedy of it, I'm sure you nailed it. No, I'm sure I was did way too went way too far. But anyway, the point was we were on stage with the New York Philharmonic and one of the things that really I loved about it. It was the sort of cross pollination of different art forms that you had a whole orchestra on stage that you could act with. So you know, you were acting while the Tempanist was behind you making these amazing noises. And they loved it as well. The orchestra adored it because you were in amongst them. And I think that we silo music, classical music in particular and acting in the there, you know, which sometimes can just people feel a little bit superior, which is not the case. It's just act looking right at. And then there's then television acting, which is television acting. you've got to be really clever with the cam. If you're a good actor, you're a good act, you're a good actor, whatever you're doing.ight. I can't bear that all that snobbery, which was very much alive when my parents were coming up. So yeah, I that was the last thing I did and I I mean, it was an amazing feeling like I don't know whether you guys have ever had this, but when you do something that uses every single cell of you, nothing is left behind. You know how you can come on particularly to do a job that's a short job and you're doing a small part or a cameo role and you're using a tiny little bit of your palette And you have to be careful not to overdo it. That's very much to your point, Sean, about Professor Trelawny. It had to be a very specific small thing and had to be right, but it had to be big as well. But this had to be right, it had to be enormous, and it used absolutely everything I had. Right And I had such a wonderful time doing it, but my God, it was That' exhausting. Nine months to lear. Yeah. And then I did it for like thirty performances Yeah, your Sondhein is almost as difficult as Shakespeare ometimes you've got the music part of it as well. Well finding those notes and those chords is really hard I would say harder, yeah, harder than Shakespeare. Shakespeare makes it easy for us. He's like a wonderful old sailing boat you can get into and just sail into the sun. Really Be he's so reliable. Well, speaking of writing, you I mentioned that that you're the only I know I don't know your own performer to have won for acting and writing and you wrote sense and sensibility and how did that I know that Be I didn't know that either. And so it's did. Jane Aust writ it Yeah, yeah, yeah. I your ees No,ly. Yeah Oh, it's not rid. don't know. how but How did that happen with the Great Angy, right? Directed With the Great Angleee Actually, it happened kind of interestingly because Like I used to do comedy, that was my thing. That was what I wanted to do. And I was very lucky because I worked with a wonderful comedy producer. He produced the first all black comedy series in the UK Desmond And then he worked with an awful lot of black and Asian and female comedians. he was I suppose quite revolutionary in that sense and I made it comedy series with him. And one of the sketches I wrote was about a young woman coming back from her Honeymoon to see her mother with a bit with something on her mind and she starts to talk to her mother about a small littleittle woodland hairy creature that lives in her husband's lap that he's drawn attention to on several occasions that appears to be attached and also changes shape sometimes that she just doesn't want to touch or have anything to do with. So the sketch is about sexual ignorance, so it's a feminist sketch, about the fact that women weren't allowed to know about sex, but then they were just sent off into the wild, they were married off without any kind of help whatsoever. And can you imagine coming across a penis for the first time and then seeing it become erect in front of your very eyes and not know what it was? That's what we put through Anyway, so the sketch was about that. I think it was quite funny. And our producer, Lindsey Duran, the extraordinary Hollywood producer who actually started her work with Sinal Tap, excuse me, literally one of my favorite films ever. Sure So she wrote to me and said, I've seen your sketch about the Victorian penis, I wonder if you would fancy adapting a Jane Austen novel. I thought interestnteresting Interesting segue. Yeah Wow. I said, well, I'll give it a go So I gave it a go. amazing go. Amazing. what about other screenplays afterwards? Forgive my ignorance? Is that something that No, not at all. I I You've been foriving your ignorance blloes that haven't been made actually. But wrote I've written a couple of kids films, one called Nanny McPhee, who's a. Sure. That was you. sort of warty witchy woman And And actually we've spent ten years writing the musical of that, which is coming into the West End next year. No way. Nice wow Who wrote the music for that Gary Clark, who wrote the music for Sing Street which was a lovely sort of beautiful Irish film. So he's he's one of those people who just write songs he spent years and years in Nashville, and you just think about the music industry it's just amazingly full these people who He was in a band and it was kind of going, but he didn't like the fame, he didn't like the glare So he retreated and started to write songs And he's written songs with And in so many of the greats, he's just a wonderful songwriter. And we have written about a billion songs, cut a billion songs. We've been writing it for so long. I gave him a couple of touchstones. I said, think I think Tom Wait's swordfish trombone And also, do you know a a gang called the Tiger Llies . Yeah. Yeah. that was the kind of thing. I was like a Victorian steam punk slightly dark, you know, a little bit on the circus side, but not you know, like dark. That sounds great So that's what we've been doing. That's really cool. Yeahah, I can' wait for that I would be remiss if we didn't mention your new project, the Sheep detective a sheep detective. What is that about? No, that's Craig Mason wrote that Craig The great Craig Mason. Oh yeah. ye. I love Craigay be your old buddy. Directnoby He's such a wonderful, wonderful man. And then he he wrote he adapted A book where, yeah it's about a shepherd who gets murdered and his sheep solve the crime. I mean That That's the log line. You just go, yes, I'll be in it. I'll playay a sheep. I'll play anything, I'll play a bom. I'll play anything. Yeah It's such a good premise. And this is isaring huge Its like a great yarn Guys, sorry, sorry., sorry. as good I noticed that. No. Thank you. No. I hear this I hear this is a really, really good film that parents would like as well Beacause it is made for the kids, right? It's you and the delightful Hugh Aackman. Is that right? Am I right about that? Yeah. Did you have to work with you have to have to work with some photore realalistic animals or some or is it phhotore realalistic actins No I No we actually I was only on it for about three weeks. I'd just done a thriller In Finland And And then I was going ono the telly. so I sort of kind of dropped in for three weeks with this lovely bunch of folk and that It was a Gorgeous. Yeah, it sounds like a gorgeous type of location, right? Where Where did you shoot that now you're asking me. I mean, it was in England. It was And actually we shot the second nany Mc Fe in the same village because it's kind of picture perfect.ight. Village. And I can't remember what it's called Most importantly It's called Hambledton, actually. I think I've actually remembered that, which is a wow, fucking miracle. W it? Given that I'm literally one hundred seventy five degrees here.