Rose Byrne - 'If I Had Legs I'd Kick You'

27:44I guess my question is just what did that how does does something like that affect how can it not affect the people that are working on the show when you don't know what where you know how much longer you have or whatever. But also well I'll come back to what you did in that interim between or the hiatus between season three the last one at FX and season four because there was a bit of a gap but and you made the most of it. But just I guess first of all, was that kind of a cloud hovering over you guys? It was. I still remember when we were all called down to the stage at Steiner Studios. It was this ominous thing of like this is going to – chapters coming to an end.

28:22And then these conversations started happening of like we might have a home somewhere else. And then it really became a creative conversation between me and Glenn Close and Todd and Glenn and Daniel about is there more to tell? Can we do this? And we all wanted to do more. We knew this was a real gift and that these characters had more and they had more. You know, they were always so – they're so smart, those guys. And they would always be inspired by the headlines and things that were really happening. And we had more to tell. And so we all went back with the best – you know, we're all on the same page.

28:54And if we hadn't been, we wouldn't have done it. Yeah, sure, sure. And then I did during that hiatus. That's right. It was a real – that was a real turning point in many other ways. I mean, it's amazing. So season three, the last at FX, at least in terms of airing, finished April 2010. And then season four, the first at Audience Network, didn't begin airing until July 2011, more than a year later. Even if the shooting dates were obviously a little ahead of that, still there was enough time somehow between the third and fourth seasons that you were in that period going off and doing Bridesmaids, X-Men, and Insidious.

29:32back to back to back. Like that's quite a, you didn't take a break. And this is after. Constantly wanting to escape. Don't want to deal with real, just want to, yeah. Escape the day to day. You'd had some other smaller, really good, but like smaller movies prior to that, right? Sunshine for Danny Boyle, so seven. Yeah, that's a great film. 28 Weeks Later, I don't know if I'd say small, but like also 2007. Yes, yeah. Adam, 2009. You and Hugh Dancer, I remember that one. And then get him to the Greek in 2010, which the way you've described your character, a super trashy, wasted pop star who was Russell Brand's ex-girlfriend, close quote.

30:14That all kind of sets the scene for Bridesmaids where, again, I don't know how many people actually need the reminder, but just Helen, who Kristen Wiig's character Annie sees as a threat for the affections of her best friend slash bride -to-be Lillian, right? Maya Rudolph's character, this is Paul Feig, comes out. Well, first script by Kristen and Annie Mamalo, Paul Feig directing, and then this cast, Kristen, Maya Rudolph, Ellie Kemper, Wendy McLennan-Covey, and Melissa McCarthy and yourself. Jon Hamm. Jon Hamm, of course. But, you know, it was the ladies' showcase. And I guess, so how did you come to be a part of that one?

30:56And when you read the script or even when you were working on it, would you have ever imagined that this could take on the life that it did? Of course not. No. I mean, how could we? No. I knew it was special in that I had never worked with so many actresses in one scene. It's a bit of a depressing statement. But I was like, this is so fun. I'm not the only girl in this job. And those scenes were the most fun to shoot. Like those long sequences, the big comedic set pieces. There was a delightful kind of energy as we all could like take off together and doing these wonderful sequences. And I got to see these extraordinary comedic actresses just fly from Wendy to Ellie to like Kristen Wiig and her extraordinary physical comedy to Melissa.

31:44Like this like comedic weapon, you know, and the great Maya Rudolph. Like I was – I knew I was amongst a special project, but of course you never know. And I was so naive too about how people would just be constantly commenting about women being funny and wasn't that amazing and like we were a bunch of dolphins or something. I was so naive about that. I did not realize that's what we would be talking about half the time. But no, I could never anticipate the love for that film and that continues on and how much I treasure it and yes. Do you remember seeing it for the first time? Yes, I do. No, I just remember the audience laughing so much, dying and laughing.

32:27And it's just a magic thing where things lined up and are forever just treasure being a part of it. The thing about where people are like, oh, women can be funny and all this silliness. I guess one aspect of that which really also got emphasized was that, and it seems completely unfair, but people were saying, well, if this movie doesn't do well, then it's going to be years before we get another. Which is so ridiculous because how many failures have there been with men at the center of the piece and they get shot after shot after shot. It's so insane. So it's a ridiculous thing to say. I know.

33:05And it's a fun, this weird thing of like, you know, Paul is so genius. You know, he had done Freaks and Geeks with Judd Apatow. And he has such a beautiful understanding of women. And he just knows these tropes in comedy that can be very tiresome of like a woman being a nag or this. And then he just broke them all, you know. And he had this wonderful, refreshing take and within, you know, a genre of like of Judd's tone, you know. but this, you know, really the voice of Christian Wig and Annie Mumolo there. So it was one of those things that just all lined up. The great Jill Clayberg was so extraordinary in that film.

33:43Yeah, I have such great memories and clear memories of shooting that and treasuring that. And my character really, you know, Helen was very much the straight man, really the straight woman rather. Yeah, yeah. You know, she was very tense and very, you know, So very much the straight role in sort of setting up certain jokes and stuff like that. But it was such a fun character to play. Was there a scene that you got the biggest kick out of your own in that one? Oh, my gosh. So many. I mean, there's so many fun sequences in the film. Oh, well, you go ahead. No, no, no. I mean, there was something.

34:19Just working with Kristen was so fun. I was such a fan of hers already. She was, you know, when she came on Saturday Night Live and I was just completely captivated with her performances. And then, you know, she was just one of those scene stealers in the true sense. So I have all those girls on such pedestals. I heard something, which I don't know if it's true. It's going to be silly if it wasn't true. But obviously you would go on with quite a few things to do with Seth Rogen. was the first time or one of the first times you met him during the scene with everybody vomiting. I think he was on set that day.

35:02Is that right? I think so. I think he was on set. It was a strange atmosphere that day. I'm not going to lie. We were all like, is this going to be funny or is this going to be – I mean, I got the – I had the easy part because I didn't – my character, of course, is way too snobby to eat any food beneath her. But yes, I think he did come on set that day and it was like a bit of a weird vibe. We were all like – but I remember seeing Seth in A 40-Year-Old Virgin and thinking, who is that guy? He is stealing every scene he is in. He is a comedic ninja. Yes. And just being so drawn to his presence and thinking.

35:40And then so when I, again, was lucky enough to work with him, I thought, oh, good Lord, am I going to be able to deliver to these legit comedic, you know, performances, which is such a different skill, you know. And that wasn't that long after that. So in between, I guess, Bridesmaids and Neighbors, the first, you have your first of two X-Men, right? Yes, yes, the Matthew Vaughn. Yep, X-Men first class. You have The Place Beyond the Pines, Derek C. France. Derek's movie, yep. And you have The Internship. But then 2014 is so the first of the two neighbors, two years later, the second couple who's home next door to them is suddenly occupied by a frat or then in the second one a sorority.

36:32But I guess that was – so now you're working with Seth for the first time there. Was it clear, I guess even probably before the casting or during the casting process, that you guys had some sort of funny chemistry or, you know, chemistry to be funny? You know, Nick Stoll is such a great director in that he can just – he's so good at knowing when that is there, you know. And it's something – I mean, I obviously loved reading with him and working with him. but it's almost something the director has to understand. We had absolute ease, Seth and I, and a similar approach to work in that we have a similar approach to it, I think, in terms of I think we're willing to really make fun of ourselves, go the distance, try different things, but offset.

37:20It's very professional. I feel like we've got a very similar temperament in that sense. And it's, again, like lightning in a bottle. It's so ephemeral. I mean, yeah, you look at something like Bridesmaids and that's also chemistry, right? It's chemistry of this huge ensemble or something like Spy, which is another great comedy that Paul Feig directed that I was in. And again, a sort of an ensemble and chemistry is just so easy to capture. Then every film would be a success, you know, and it's just not. It's like so also there's still searching for it, too, on my net. You know, it's like, where do you get it?

37:55You know, there's also an element of of just fate with these. things like you I guess with the setting aside whatever you know prior to you'd been funny in Marie Antoinette and other you know but then the studio comedy chapter I guess did go back to get into the Greek right which you which then may have consciously or subconsciously made somebody more open to you for neighbors and then other things but you have said that that may not have even happen were it not for like Emily Blunt? And I mean, these things like they have such rich history, you know, and you're like, I feel, you know, it's, it's, it's, there's, there's litanies of these things, right?

38:39Of people, you know, parts not coming their way or not working out and they have to, you know, they're committed to something else and they can't do it. And I feel like that character was so wild and such a departure from Ellen Parsons, which which is what I had been doing for Endless Seasons. And it was like this absolutely irreverent, self-absorbed, ridiculous, like such fun, capital F fun, the physicality, like, you know, all of it, the look of it, like it was such a big swing in many ways. And I feel forever grateful. Well, the other thing which I think, you know, only so many people are able to be in New York at any given time and see what's in New York at any given time.

39:22But in the same year that you're in Neighbors, 2014, I was lucky because that was just when I was beginning to cover Tonys and Broadway stuff for us. And you were in You Can't Take It With You with James Earl Jones. Yes, which is such a beautiful revival I did with James and my dear friend, Annalee Ashford, and Scott Ellis, my friend who directed it, and this classic American comedy, which I didn't grow up with, honestly, being in Australia. But what a brilliant learning curve to see this unfold. Like the original sitcom, in a way, those writers, Moss and Hutch, so, again, almost so similar watching.

39:58Like I know when I did my research on the play, they would stand at the back of the theater and count how many laughs there were. And that's what like Judd and Nick would do. They've been telling me about their process. Like it's absolutely parallel. And this was obviously, you know, a play that is, you know, decades and decades old. So it felt like a great return to understanding comedy on stage, which is something I would love to do more of. Yeah, no, that would be great. And just, you know, keeping the chronology going here for folks, 2014, busy year with neighbors. You can't take it with you.

40:29And then also Annie. Then 2015 is Spy, as you mentioned, where you, Paul, Melissa, back together again. If anyone needs to keep track at home, you're playing a Bulgarian arms dealer whose efforts to sell a nuclear weapon to a terrorist organization attract the attention of Melissa McCarthy's CIA desk agent. The Meddler was also 2015. You and Susan Sarandon as a pain in the ass mother and daughter situation. But it was also in 2015 that I believe is when you started your production company. Yes, yes. And I think that I'd be curious to just hear more about what that does for somebody whose career was gaining more and more traction.

41:15But also I think you've said that another fellow Aussie and person we've had on this podcast might have been a model for that, Joel Edgerton. Yes, Jolie and his brother Nash are my dear friends. And they have a company called Blue Tongue Films, which was always an inspiration. They would do shorts and they would develop stuff with other people. And they just had it under this umbrella. And I was so inspired. And I was like, why can't I do that with my friends? And so we put together Dollhouse. And it's been such a learning curve. and I'm still, you know, it's such a different side of the business, getting material, working with writers, pitching to people, and I love it.

41:51And it feels like having agency, obviously. And I'm so inspired by Joel and Nash and also, you know, all the incredible actresses who have done this as well, whether it's Reese or Nicole or my friend, a Bruna Papandre, she's not an actress, but, you know, these wonderful, inspiring people. And now what I'm loving seeing too is actresses now directing, which has always been a natural kind of transition for actors and a great tradition in that. And I'm just loving seeing. Does that have any appeal for you? Not for me. I mean, I love sourcing material and trying to piece things together, but I haven't got the directing bug yet, but I love seeing that with my contemporaries right now.

42:29I just think it's really inspiring. And, yeah, I could go on and on about that. That's great. So it's been really lovely. 2017 Mortal Life Henrietta Lacks with you and one Oprah Winfrey. Oh my gosh. Who is that? Oprah who? Oprah who? Wow, that was crazy working with Oprah. She was so wild to just see her process as an actress. And also I guess I just wonder, you'd seen Celebrity at a huge, huge level with Brad Pitt, right? But Oprah, who came on for that project on the podcast, I wonder from – I think her reservation about acting these days is most of all that people will not be able to not see Oprah.

43:13Like that it's – she's so well-known. She's part of the fabric of America. Yeah, exactly. She's like a brand, you know, almost in that sense. I mean, she's obviously done, you know, she's done so much in bringing, you know, quote unquote, you know, wellness in many ways through mental health, through all of her initiatives and organizations. And wellness seems like not articulated enough, but the thing she's brought to light and the stuff she's brought on her show. And I've always admired her wildly and as obviously starting out as a journalist. And, you know, her story is incredible, incredible.

43:52She's one of the – she's a national treasure. She's one of the greatest American stories, you know. That same year, I Love You Daddy, the Louis C.K. playing the kind of actress that his TV character hires. That was a strange experience. Oh, my God. Well, as I say, it didn't – I'm trying to remember. Like, it basically wasn't released, right? Yeah, it was a very strange thing to witness from the sidelines. I mean, creatively, I had a great experience. We had a great experience. The script was really great. And I loved my scenes with Louis and Charlie. I think I had, you know, one scene with him.

44:24But, you know, it was obviously a very strange thing to witness from the sidelines and it would all be unveiled. And, you know, it was – and then, yeah, it did not get released.

44:38Well, this decade that we now find ourselves in, the 2020s, these five years have been just really interesting. as an observer of yours because it feels like you have sort of portrayed a half century's worth of what it was like to be a woman at different times. I mean, and we start with the really excellent limited series, Mrs. America, in which you play Gloria Steinem. So we're talking at that point, I guess, 60s and 70s. and that leads into and I don't will come I'm not trying to in any way gloss over that but just that leads into physical where we have a woman who sort of had a career but now sets aside for her family and is a little adrift right and in the 80s finds a purpose in aerobics leading into I guess platonic would be after that time period of just this idea of can women, it's sort of the when Harry met Sally question, right?

45:46Can men and women be friends? Leading into if I had legs, I'd kick you where it's like we'll give that more. But like just do you see any kind of like am I imagining that this is or is it kind of? When you lay it out like that, Scott. No, and what I would take, honestly, the creative dialogue I've had with these female showrunners has been so wonderful. And a testament to television to talk about going all the way back looking to damages and how this being part of this boom of cable and having these female showrunners, Darvi Waller for Mrs. America, Annie Wiseman with Physical and Francesca Delbanco and Nick Stoller for Platonic.

46:29platonic and these great voices of these stories that wouldn't have been told, you know, in this sense, with this touch, with this perspective. And then obviously with If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You, which has a lot of traditions of its own really within the role and the performance, I think, that Mary reflects on and knows is all in her subconsciously. But having that dialogue with these creatives has just been such, it's so corny, but such a gift and something I hope to continue to have. So I've been very spoiled. Well, I think Zeroing in, and also I'll just quickly shout out, Ezra was in there.

47:03Yes. In 2023. A really nice movie. Tony Golden and my husband Bobby. Exactly. Yeah. Really nice one. Okay. So If I Had Legs I Kick, you premiered at Berlin and has since been kind of on the slow rollout festivals and everywhere. You're playing Linda. This is a therapist, wife and mother who it's hard. Stop me if I say it in a incorrect way, because I don't want to I don't know exactly what she's. What her how you would describe what she's dealing with, but kind of an existential crisis. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Husbands out of town, apartments, roofs caving in, child who has some sort of an illness where they are a affliction where cannot eat normally, like has to be fed through to like all of this crap is pouring on this poor woman.

48:03and I guess how was it explained or first broached with you? Because I think it was something where Mary, who had not made a film in 17 years since her first film, had a story that she really wanted to tell and thought of you, right? Like came to you. How was it broached? My agent, again, who's very discerning, and she's only written this a few times but sent me the script and said, I think you really need to take a look at this. And I immediately devoured it and it just was like fire. The script was like hot. It was so unbelievable and it had a great symmetry to it, the script. It was this wonderful symmetry that was sort of conscious and subconscious and the detail of what I read felt so realised and it really delivers in the finished product.

48:53But the script itself was really like a hot kind of hot thing to touch and I couldn't believe that it came to me. I was like, this is you sure? This is you sure? And I met with Mary. We hit it off. We're like a few months apart in age. We're of the same time. We're of the same, very similar cultures growing up in the 90s and we just hit it off immediately. And that was the beginning of the conversation. And she waited for me. I shot my final season of physical before we started. And then the strike came so we had to wait for our wait. It was a perilous journey at times, but Mary Bronstein is the most determined person.

49:33She is made of steel. She pushed this thing uphill. It is not an easy film to get made. It is a radical movie. It is challenging. Should we say just some of the ways? I think it's partly, first of all, based on her own experience with a sick child. It's a personal story to her and something she went through. and so inspired by that, which she speaks to. And so there was that, obviously, you know, a part of this story of bringing that to life. But it's a creative endeavor, the movie. It's a fever dream. It is a real cinematic kind of conversation. It's very unique. And it defies genre, which is really wild.

50:14People are like, it's a bit like a horror movie. It's like this. And it's like it's sort of all of those things. It's really punk rock. It's kind of like Mary. Well, I mean, you're basically always in tight close-up. Always. Very close. Very close to my face. Your daughter's character or the character of your daughter is not seen until, spoiler alert, very late. I guess, yeah, one of the things Mary had said that I'd seen is, quote, in terms of what she was looking for, quote, it had to be both a fabulous actor but also someone who could make these micro choices with the details of their face, close quote.

50:46So, I mean, and also your character never gets a moment to breathe, which means you, I mean, I think I read it was four weeks. It was 27 days. Yeah, 27 days. Not a big budget, small film. And it was ambitious. You know, there's some sequences in the movie that are very ambitious. And it was all practical. There was very little, if none, CGI, like the ceiling collapsing, the hamster sequence, the tube, the beach at the end. Oh, my God. But you're in, I think, every single scene. It's a lot of my face. Well, no, that's – hey, you know, so I guess – I mean it's truly the perspective of this character.

51:23It's a complete immersion in being somebody else. It's like wild, you know. I don't know. It's truly original, I think. Had you had anything that would have prepared you for this? I mean everything and nothing, you know, like all of it, all of the – looking back like you've reflected today, this big reflection we've had. I think it's all there, right, all of those things in you subconsciously, probably and consciously of genre, I think, especially having done different specific genres, horror, comedy, which I love and weirdly are similar with timing, you know, like a similar beats of timing. But Mary, again, it just sort of defies all of that.

51:59And she's really, really radical, asking the audience to go on a pretty wild experience with this character. I've heard people describe it. And I think these are people who admire the movie. So don't, not to be misunderstood, but like almost like a panic attack. And I wonder, was there something that in your conversations with Mary that she or you kind of maybe most wanted to open people's eyes to with this film? Is it something about like, it does seem like this mother's been kind of hung out to drive by a lot of people, including the husband who's not really helping and other things. And she's, we should say, you know, we see her at work alongside Conan O 'Brien as another therapist.

52:42but like what would you say and there doesn't have to be an answer but I guess like what would you hope people take away from the movie I'm still discovering the film I think the film has so many more questions than answers there's an ambiguity around it around the language and I've loved finally sharing it with audiences to hear and I'm sort of superstitious to talk about it too much because it's like it feels like it's still in the early stages of being discovered but I will say the tension she creates in this film is just undeniable and that is such a testament to her direction and the tension of that character the the tightrope of walking what she's walking through was very challenging and it's about motherhood and being a caretaker which you can I think expand the film in that sense of everyone's been a caretaker whether it's to a parent a sibling a friend a spouse and a pet like anything but that when you are carrying the weight of that on you and you don't have another role and how you just start to sink and she captures that tension in a way that is really wild.

53:47Totally. One just random question. When you're doing these scenes where, again, we're seeing you but not the child, was the child actually there? So we auditioned for all these gorgeous young actresses, these sweet kids, and worked really hard. And Delaney Quinn, who is playing the daughter, was so wonderful. We had a great chemistry. And she was there for every single scene. She was my scene partner. She was such an important part of the process of Mary and I discussing, okay, who we need, you know, finding the daughter. And she just came in and she had such great goodwill and she loves horror movies.

54:24And there's a great levity when a child is on set. Everybody rises to the occasion. It's protective and you have to keep a levity. And I really am grateful for that because it was heavy. and to have this wonderful, joyous child and then this conceit of this, you know, not seeing the child because I don't think Linda can see the child. She can't see her anymore because she's just, it's so in her crises that it's not till the end where she finally, I feel like, is one of my sort of interpretations of it. That's so interesting. I wonder, it sort of harkens back to what we were talking about with your 25 years ago.

55:03Sorry to mention that. To like slap in the face 25 years ago. But the goddess of 1967, you have your movie go to a film festival and walk away with an unexpected. But wasn't there. Weren't there. But a Best Actress Prize. Now you go to Berlin. Yeah. And won the Best Actress Prize there. And since then, I mean, the response, Obviously, it's a movie that challenges people, but I think even people who have qualms or whatever with, you know, or they don't get it or whatever, they're blown away by what you did. And so I just wonder what, you know, what you've made of the response. It's not like, again, it's not like you've not been highly praised for other things, but it does feel kind of special and greater than maybe the usual.

55:54Yeah, it's like those things of just, you know, of course it's lovely and all those sorts of things. And I feel the film, I feel so protective of the film and I want, obviously now we're trusting the audiences with it, but it's an emotional experience. It is truly. The character's very raw. It's a very raw kind of live wire character, what she's going through. So I feel protective of it and I feel sort of emotional about the whole experience. But it's been so great to finally get it in front of audiences. and to see how they're responding and to be challenged. It's a true female perspective on an experience, and that's exciting to share.

56:36Absolutely. Well, congratulations, and thank you so much for doing this. Thank you, Scott. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Oh, my gosh. That was so thorough. Oh, my gosh. I mean, I knew it would be, but that was like, I used to like go, okay, I've got to go back. I've got to go back and remember all this stuff. No, it's really, you packed it in. You've been busy. Gosh, it's like, good Lord.

57:22of the podcast that you can attend. Until next time, thanks again for tuning in.

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