Rebecca Ferguson, Vol. II

25:21Right. And we were inside. and said, don't worry, I've got the button. I went, where the fuck are you? And he went, I'm outside. And I was like, well, what if the button breaks? And he was like, well, we've got mechanics. We can drill you out. Right. And I was like. I don't want to rely on being drilled out of something. So they filled a whole set. So we had the ornithopter, and the whole one side was black felt. So I could just walk out. You've ruined Dune for me now. Every time I'm going to watch it, I'm going to sit. There's the ornithopter. I know. My space suit, the fremen suit, the still suit.

25:50They all had buckles and being, mine was Velcro, so I could just go. That was yours only? It was the custom Velcro version? It's good to be you. I don't know. I mean, to be honest, it's quite hindering in the world. It's fun, but it's also. It's fun to talk about in a podcast. You said close the door. I've already checked that the windows go. I'm sorry. I just set you off. I triggered you. It's okay. We're all right. Yeah. Are we, though? Okay. So you kind of manifested this. you were a casual Peaky fan, a big Killian fan. Can we manifest anything else? Is there a TV show, a film franchise that just as a fan would be nice to get that phone call?

26:30I mean, yes. I mean, I am inspired and in awe watching what Jesse Buckley's doing right now. And there's nothing of me saying I'd like to take it away. It's more looking and going, there is phenomenal filmmakers out there. and there are possibilities out there and something I'd love to get into. I guess it's the drama. You know, I hate the word character-driven because it's such a bland, boring comment. Well, you would hope everything is character-driven. Yeah, exactly. That's like the baseline. I mean, I know. It's like you play powerful women, you know, or... I play a woman. And hopefully there's power and weakness in all of it.

27:10All of it. But I think for me, it's maybe sort of the two-hander. It's the stillness. It's everyday stuff. I'd love to get into that, the dark, gritty feelings that we don't express. Yeah. And just to tether into them and feel them and strain them and pull them and cut them. That's what I want to do. Does Rebecca Ferguson still have to audition? Are those days behind you? You shouldn't have to audition. I'm going to say it out loud. I don't audition. No. I remember when there was a moment when it was like you've been offered this and I thought, is that happening now? But we still do sometimes, you know, generals when you just want to, it's for the director to feel you.

27:51Danny and I did it for June. Yeah. Danny called and he wanted to have a meeting and I think he wanted to feel me out. Yeah. As a human. Yeah. And how we would work together. Yeah. You know, it's not all about what's going to be displayed in front of camera. It's how are you going to receive me and my ideas and equally to me. You know, it's not always a one-way streak. Right, because you're spending months and months and months, and it's not just the role, it is the lifestyle. And looking back now, two films later, I regret it. I shouldn't have done it. It's three films, isn't it? Couldn't you do three of them?

28:28Yeah, it hasn't come out yet.

28:32Are co-stars now afraid to fuck around on set with you since your infamous comments a couple years back? You outed a celebrity without saying who it was. That's probably a nice byproduct. It's like, fuck around and find out. Rebecca Ferguson is watching. I think my intention going into that podcast, he was great. And I wasn't, again, thinking that I was doing something. I think the conversation we had was about what have you learned through your years of filming. Yeah. And sort of working with other people. And the memory came up. And it was nothing preempted. And I don't want to out anyone. And I know it becomes interesting and exciting and everyone goes down the street, but I could care fuck all for people to find out.

29:17The whole journey was, why is it so hard sometimes in environments to speak up? Why is it that some people, whether it is insecurities, get the autonomy to be dicks or whatever they are, what gives them the right? But then I take the responsibility in my own hands and say, why do I give them the right? Right. And that's maturity. And that is also in hierarchical settings. People talk about number ones on call sheets, et cetera. But it's a really difficult balance. And I think it's in any job. It doesn't matter which one it is. There will always be people where you feel lesser than, and they make you feel lesser than.

29:58And it's who has the power, whether it's on a set or anything. And to be able to go, oh, from the moment you've walked in, I don't feel safe. And what's happening is this dynamic now is making me feel that I can't be my best. And I'm only doing everything to please you because you're so unstable for me. And that is not me blaming the other person. That is me going, how do I gain that power back? And I can still find that hard. So I don't know if people are scared. I think everyone is so different, and I would never want everyone across the board to be just generally nice people that know. I like creative crazy, but...

30:43There's a difference between creative discussion, even arguments at the time, and creating an environment that closes you, closes others off. And I would like people in the beginning of their career to know that you have a voice and you have a right, but it's hard when you don't have the backup of other people once you voice it. So have you put a clause in the will 75 years from now, this person shall be named upon my death? No. No. I'm not eager to run towards the script where they might be, but everyone changes. And also to that, even me. So who knows what that would be like now. We'll be right back with more Happy, Sad, Confused.

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32:25So backtracking a bit. I've heard you talk about like growing up, like this wasn't the goal. You were kind of a bit of a late bloomer in kind of like discovering this as a passion. Is that fair to say? Yeah, yeah. It kind of came to me. Like what were you like as a teenager? Were you kind of just seeking like who you were? I mean, I got my first role when I was 15. So I was young. You were thrust into it or through happenstance it happened. And the casting process probably happened late 14, going into 15. Yeah. But I went to a very good music school in Sweden. Our choir sang at the Nobel dinners, and it was a really, really prestigious, good school.

33:05And the expectation of our school, the grades, we were much, took longer for us to get higher grades. So if you left the school and went to another one, all of your grades went up one bump. So a lot of people did that, leaving very smart of them. Stupid people like myself stayed and got mediocre grades. But I think I was always quite, I had a very eccentric mother and a father who was sort of very much of a sweet, comfortable sort of lawyer. Yeah. And I was in two different worlds. Yes. And chameleon through a divorce. And I think I wanted to just be normal. And whatever that was, I didn't know.

33:45But I didn't want to stand out. This is not unique to you. any young person, generally speaking, at least for a phase of their life, it's like just, I don't want to. I just don't want, and yet the eagerness, there was the eccentricness kind of came out, but once it came and people watched you, I would blush and I didn't know what to do with it. So I was very lost finding myself as a kid, because I also didn't really have that freedom and the safe space to find it. You know, divorces are hard, and I love my dad, I love my mom. We have a great relationship. But growing up, if you don't have your shit sorted when you're divorced, it usually hands goes on to the kid.

34:26Well, luckily you found your voice with Ocean Avenue. That's where you really came into your own. For those that don't know, and I know you talked about this. For those that don't know, let's go into it, shall we? A Swedish American soap opera. Megan Fox was in that. I know. A Swedish American soap opera filmed in Miami Beach. You, Megan Fox. I think there are 130 hours that you guys made. Yeah, and I think they aired two episodes and then they canceled it. I don't even... I don't even... There needs to be a documentary about this. I mean, there should be, and thank God there isn't. But it was a funny one.

34:59The creators, I think, had made Dawson's Creek, which is so weird because I met Joshua. Sure. Today for the first time. Joshua Jackson. And I was weirdly awestruck and a bit starstruck. You were colleagues before. Because... You were basically working in the same field. Well, not really. So I think they said this is going to become like a Dawson's Creek. And I was like, that's amazing. But it turned into pre-bad soap opera to like one of those really bad porn films. Right. You know, bad lighting, bad writing. Yeah. Without the fun sex stuff. But none of it. I mean, absolutely none. But I was 17.

35:36Oh, my God. And I lived on Miami Beach. And it was a hoot. You know, it's one of those moments that you don't regret. So did you overlap with Megan? Did you know Megan Fox at the time? No, but we were different circles. I was a bit older, she was younger, she was in another crew, I was with the Swedes, and she wasn't Megan Fox. We also had one of the singers from Pussycat Dolls. It was a weird ensemble. This needs to be rebooted. It's time to do a sequel. Absolutely not. We had really famous stage actors from Sweden in the show. Really? It's a job. Yeah, it's a job. Also a job. How about this as a segue?

36:16Mission Impossible. We've talked many times about this one. Which one? It's okay. Okay. Did you ever find out who the actor was that they were going to cast? Nope. Did you? No, I'm sure it's... Oh, okay. Oh, I thought you did. Oh, one of us. For a second there I went, Jesse Buckley? No, I'm kidding.

36:34How did you... Did you watch Final Reckoning? Did you ever see it? The last one? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Did you? Of course. Yeah. So how did you feel about Ilse's passing in Dead Reckoning Part One? Can we have a little bit of a post-mortem on that? Yeah, I think she was so brilliantly written and it was so well executed. And I think there's just sort of that much you can do with a character until she starts feeling like a team player. And I think we had these conversations, me and Chris and Tom, and my contract was a three-picture deal. So you can renegotiate to move on or you can sit down and go, I'm not sure there is enough room.

37:22It's Ethan. It's his story. And there's a lot of other people in. We have incredible Vanessa Kirby, Haley Apple, Pom Klementieff. So I think a hard exit is a cooler ending. than kind of lukewarmly diluting into a team. Because she was always supposed to be unpredictable. She was always supposed to be an equal, and was, to Ethan. Did you, were you happy enough with the actual, that exit was chosen in terms of the death scene, that sequence? I don't write it. Okay, okay. What did you make of the fan response of like, everybody was like, she's coming back, she's not really dead. No. And you didn't want to, you know, right on their parade, but you knew the truth.

38:07Yeah. Was that odd to kind of like be on the outside looking in? And I mean, it must be lovely to see the fans that just had such a connection with that character. Yeah, and it's sad because she was so well executed. Chris wrote an incredible character, and it was also so much fun to be a part of. Like, it was such an extreme, I will never experience anything like it. What comes with traveling and the training and the camaraderie, it's just, it's phenomenal. And I think there's nothing more to be said. There was an ending, it needed to happen. There are different versions to how it happens and why it happens.

38:45And I think people were sad because she was so well executed. And it's a big risk to kill someone off like that. Did Ethan and Elsa ever sleep together? No. Okay, I'm just checking. You would know? Absolutely not. I saw them more as, I don't, it sounds incestuous to say siblings because there was clear moments of infatuation. But again, I didn't direct it. I can offer up ideas or I can question why she would look longingly at Ethan in a gondola, but if your director wants something, then that's what your director gets. And they added it together and you're stuck with that outcome. But what I loved about her was the unpredictability and her strength.

39:34Yes. One scene I do want to mention before moving on, because it's an all-timer, and it's your first appearance in the series, Rogue Nation, the opera house sequence. It's an all-timer. It is a perfect marriage of editing, music, action, suspense. Do you remember the first time you saw it all put together? I mean, do you hold that in the high estimation? that everybody else does. Mission, you only get to see. Many films you do, you get pre-screenings. Right. But you're there at the premiere with us. Mission, you see on the first day with the audience at the premiere. Yeah. And it was a huge screen that they set up in the Opera House.

40:11Yeah. Was it an IMAX? I think they set up there. All I remember is it started about two and a half hours later and I was hungry, but I was still happy. I know, but Tom does, you know. He does everybody. He did a wardrobe change in the middle of that carpet. Did he? Yes, he disappeared for half an hour. We're all going, Tom, mate. I appreciate it, I love it. He will rock in going, what are we waiting for? And I go, you. Always you, when he bursts out laughing. He's like, come on. But the point is that when you saw that, you saw what McHugh had done, and you were impressed by that sequence. It was great, yeah.

40:44It's a good sequence. It's amazing. All right, so you touched a little bit on Dune. I'm always astounded by folks like Denis. Nolan, they talk about like this too, of like these folks that work at the biggest scale possible and are yet very actor friendly seemingly, by all accounts. What is he, how is he accomplishing that on set? Can you pinpoint for me a little bit what he does? There's no one like Denis. He is actually Tom Harper, Vicky. He also has, there's a genuine kindness and it's a very fine balance to be able to maintain a generosity, a softness. He leans back, he listens, but he has authority.

41:28You have enormous respect for him. If you're going to come in with an idea, come with it. He might take it, he might not. He might walk away halfway through your sentence because he's thinking and you stand there and sometimes he comes back. We laugh so much. It's so Danny. He goes, wait two seconds. And he goes, and he comes back and he goes, I was thinking about it. but he comes back two hours later and you go, okay, you process. But he's just intelligent, creative, he's a master and he works with people that he makes better and they make him better. It's a symbiosis and there are far and few in between.

42:08Can you compare and contrast your experience on the third part? I mean, by all counts, you could not have been in the third part. I've just dipped my toe in. I have literally no comments on it. The script is great. I've read it. I think it's going to be fantastic. But my journey was number one and two. I don't even think she was supposed to be in three. Exactly, that's what I'm saying. And then Danny was like, I need to have one scene. Okay. And I get one scene. But that was a weird feeling, walking onto a set that you know so well and knowing that you don't have a part of it. Yeah. It's sort of, there's a lot of FOMO.

42:46Yeah. And the acceptance of this is just what it is. Right, serving the story at the end of the day. And you just have to serve, yeah, just serve. So you read the entire script though, it's not one of those things where you get your three pages. Oh no, no, no, but I always read an entire script. I would never go into anything blind. Yeah, it could be burned that way. Awesome, no, why would I? We do it for the film, for the viewing of it. Where is Dr. Sleep in your rankings? Rose is such a special character. He's a good one, isn't she? Yeah. Yeah. Delicious to play, an enjoyable one to play. Animated, over the top.

43:18Yeah. Good wardrobe. Quirky. Good hats. Good hat, barefoot. Yeah. Yeah. And I love, we worked with a guy called Terry Notary, who's, do you know? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He did many of the apes and planets. He's unbelievable. If you haven't watched on YouTube, there's a moment where he goes through four different monkeys in his body movement, using crutches for the gorilla. Right. It's so good. But we talked about this animalistic group of people who suck steam. We didn't go far enough into it. I wish we had. But nearly like cockroaches and creatures and how they crawl on top. It became more sensual and sexual.

43:57But I think what we were trying to do is more animalistic. But it's hard to move a whole group. Are you interested in, have you done performance capture? Have you done that? No. Does that intrigue you at all? No. Well, performance art. Performance capture. Oh, performance capture, sorry. Sorry, meaning like the ape thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought you meant like Marina Abramovich or stuff. That too. You'd be amazing. Get in a museum and just stand there for 12 days. Wow. Wow. Who knows? No, but performance capture, the avatar, the ape thing. I did. I've done, when I played Morgana in The Kid Who'd Be King.

44:29Oh, yes. I got to have the onesie and the dots, and I had a huge, long fishing pole with a tennis ball hanging on it. The dream of the actor. I grew. Did you find that? I'd jump around, absolutely, I felt ridiculous. And I loved it. You've said that you've never done theater. Does that not intrigue you? It does, and I've never done it. It's come to me a couple of times. I'm sure. But I've either been too busy filming, or it's been something too grand. I remember John Hertz saying to me when we worked on Hercules, he said, if you ever get roles, or if you get a role to be on stage, you work yourselves from the smaller theaters up to the big you never start big.

45:12And I had an offer once to go on to one of the big stages or theaters and I heard his voice mantra in my head and I thought no it's just a no. Stop asking me it's just a no. He's one of those that's come up. Gary Oldman talks about him a lot. Like he was like kind of his mentor. Isn't Gary incredible? He gave me a hug once and I nearly, my legs nearly just gave away. I'm gonna like tear up thinking about all in all my conversations with him, he's the best. He's phenomenal. And he's so bloody earthy. And yet also still has like all the anxieties and self, you know, like he doesn't think he's the most brilliant actor.

45:48Yeah, which is so endearing. I don't trust the actors that think they're God's gift. No, and you shouldn't. Have you ever met any of those? Yeah. Have you? I'm sure probably the actor you're not talking about is one of them. No. No. No. Okay. I think a lot of bad behavior comes from insecurity. True. And I think people who are secure, I don't really know what. I haven't really met an actor who walks onto stage completely full of themselves and woe is me. Right, right. No, I trust the ones that doubt. Yeah. And also curious. Curiosity is so important. It keeps you sharp too if you think the next job could go one of two ways.

46:27No, and like Kelly said, you're only as good as your next job. That's all you have. You know? Okay, so you've finished Silo. We have three and four coming up in the next couple years. Where's your head at? I mean, would you do another series right now? Do you need a different kind of experience? I mean... I am treading very carefully with my choices right now. I do not want to lock myself into a long show. With that said, I had this conversation with Killian, and I was like, would you ever, you know, do another limited or a show? And he was like, for me, it's not the format. It is just down to the writing.

47:06If the writing is there, other things can be acceptable. And I've always read scripts and kind of gone, yeah, there's a story here. I like the story. The writing isn't great. The dialogue isn't great. But we can work on that. And now I'm at a stage where I go, zero tolerance for bad dialogue writing. And it's so unique to get something where you feel it come to life. And do you know just from experience that even with the best of intentions, like, yeah, we're going to work on it. It's never going to get there. It's so hard though, isn't it? You know, I was talking to someone about TV shows and I was like, well, I wonder what Succession was like.

47:42You know, I think Succession was amazing and so well written. And I thought, oh, I'll read the first episode. So I read it and I was like, it's obviously the acting is sublime. But the writing was there. It's just, it just exudes out of the script. Yes. So I feel like I'm at a point where I can hold out and not have to jump into anything. I'm not in between two seasons of Silo and wanting to do something else just to fill the gap right now. You're good. You've earned a... I can just stay a bit cool and see what comes. Well, it's kind of like where Killian was coming off of Oppenheimer. He didn't jump into like five things.

48:23He like... I love that he went back to his close collaborators. He did Steve. I believe he did this. Although I did say to him, if you are doing The Bone Temple 2, fuck I wanna be, that's phenomenal. Oh my god. I know. He was like, there's nothing for you. No. No he didn't. He could be a zombie, he could just run around. Yeah exactly, again, bloody teacup. Okay we're gonna end with this. Happy, sad, confused, profoundly random questions for you. Don't kill your career like Jesse Buckley did. Dogs or cats? I wish I could say dogs, but I have cats. No apologies. Good. What do you collect? What I collect?

49:02Yeah, do you collect anything? Stolen items from set. That's just called being a thief. That's just... Oh, just borrowing a long term. Are you ever going to return? Not much, maybe. I do collect. I have so much stuff from films. Yeah, you're right. One of my favorite ones is a skull from Hercules. And it is so good, the skull. and it's got the teeth and the hair. And my daughter, when she was five, had show and tell at school. And I was like, I know what, you could do the skull. And being my daughter, she was like, that's amazing. She walked in with a little Sainsbury's plastic bag and apparently was told to put it straight back in because she was creating a very uneasy environment for the other children.

49:41Yeah, you got a phone call from the school. I'm glad the Rebecca Ferguson vibes are being passed on to them. Probably the Ferguson kid. Real video gamer, favorite video game of all time? Mario, any form of Mario, Mario Kart and Crash Bandicoot. I am simple and old school. Perfect. The Dakota Johnson Memorial Collection, she asked me this, would you rather have a mouthful of bees or one bee in your butt? A mouthful of bees or a pee in my butt? Not pee, bee, I'm sorry, it's not that easy. Bee. A bees in my mouth or one bee in my butt? Ooh. Both. Okay, that's a new one. New territory. Sorry, I thought we are supposed to enjoy it, right?

50:22Yeah. What's the wallpaper on your phone, Rebecca? I have a picture of my son and myself. It's a Polaroid picture. Sweet. Yeah. What's the worst note a director has ever given you?

50:42What is my agenda? Think about your cash, you're getting paid. which wasn't much by the way is this the same infamous set no different experience no different experience okay last thing for you in the spirit of happy second fuse an actor who always makes you happy

51:01oh Steve Zahn great love it movie that makes you sad

51:10what was the last thing adolescence was the last thing I watched that really made me sad I can't watch Hamnet Yeah. Syrat. Oh, amazing. Amazing, but also heavy. Intense, yeah. And a food that makes you confused. You don't get it. Oh, that's such a good question. Fries on a pizza. Yeah, why? They're both great on their own. Why? Or sausage in the pizza dough. In the pizza dough. So where you hold. Yeah. Then in America, they put sausage. So once you're done with a pizza, you turn it and you've got a fucking hot dog. Don't blame me. This is not an American. This is not like all of the Americans are doing this.

51:48All the Americans do this across the board. We have a lot of bad things. That's not something. Daylight saving and sausage in the pizza crust. Pizza Hut has been doing this for decades, just inserting things into the crust. Why are we doing it? No. Minimalism. Peaky Blinders. Yeah. The Immortal Man. Yeah. It's fantastic. Everybody should check it out. They should. And if they know what's good for them. And we're going to talk Silo, I'm sure, later this year, next year. Yeah, let's do it. A lot of work to discuss. Thanks for doing this. Thank you. Thank you for dooning this. That's the next film.

52:20Not yet. No, no, no. That is a Killian joke. Yeah, I heard you said he's a dad joke guy. He's a dad joke guy. Who would have thunk it? Not me. It was confusing once it happened. Are you a mom joke person? Are there mom jokes? Well, in a sexist world, there should be. In a sex, equal sex. Right. There should be. Both guys. I don't know. We don't really say mom jokes, do we? No, I've never heard of it. What would that be? That's just jokes. Just brilliant, intelligent jokes. There you go. Yeah. Good to see you. And so ends another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.

52:58I'm a big podcast person. I'm Daisy Ridley, and I definitely wasn't pressured to do this by Josh.

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