Martha Plimpton: Pub Food

0:00Hey, everybody. It's Rob Lowe, and this is Literally. I spoke with the great actress Martha Plimpton recently, and I'm going to share our conversation a little earlier than expected because we just learned last week of the passing of the great Tom Stoppard. He was, of course, the genius playwright and screenwriter responsible for classics like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Jumpers, Arcadia, The Real Thing, and so much more. And in our interview, Martha and I spoke about him at length because she was nominated for a Tony, working with him in his classic, The Coast of Utopia. So if you're a lover of theater, as Martha and I are, I highly, highly recommend seeking out Stoppard's work and enjoying this conversation, which I hope is a tribute.

0:51Rest in peace, you brilliant writer.

1:00Hey, everybody. Welcome to Literally. Today we have Martha Plimpton, who is starring in the amazing new HBO show called Task. Also had a legendary run with Tom Stoppard's amazing trilogy, The Coast of Utopia. This is going to be a great conversation for anybody who loves theater, loves acting, loves process. And I'm looking forward to getting going. Let's get Martha in here.

1:34Martha Plimpton, how are you? I'm great. How are you, Rob? I'm so good. I was so excited to talk to you. I feel like we kind of have been around in the orbit of mutual friends, but we've never properly had our one-on-one time, and today is the day it happens. That is correct, and I'm very excited. Today is the day we are going to chop it up. Yes. You and me. First of all, where are you? Where in the world are you today? Today I'm in Los Angeles. I'm in this beautiful, rainy, overcast, cloudy day and getting ready this coming week to go to London. So I'm grateful for the rain. Not only do we need it, but it's preparing me for winter in London.

2:22Winter in London, I've done it a bunch. I kind of actually like, I like it in the run up to Christmas. I don't love it so much post Christmas, but boy, isn't it great there. Here's my thing though. Other than like, like with the big shoppings, they're very low key in their Christmas decorations. Have you noticed that? Yes, I have. Unless you go to like Fortnum and Mason, in which case it's like completely over the top. But yes, they're very tasteful in their Christmas decor. It's very sort of, especially when you go to a nice, you know, a lovely warm pub with the fire blazing. And, you know, they've got the garlands around and it's very sort of Dickensian and romantic.

3:07I love it. It's great. It's not garish at all. Exactly. I love it. They're not doing like LED lights. Yeah. And like, you know, it's like, it really is a throwback. I love it there so much. what's taking you to London? Well, I live there. No way. I live there, yes. I split my time between London and Los Angeles. I did live in New York, but I'm selling my place there in Brooklyn. I've decided to just do Los Angeles and London. I think London is gonna sort of take care of my urban Jones. Yeah, and then Los Angeles is where most of my family is. I've got a new nephew here. My mom is on the West Coast.

3:50So it makes perfect sense for me to sort of divide my time that way. And I just love London. I just love, I love the culture. I love the people. I love the work. I love everything about it. I love Sunday roasts at the pub at three o 'clock and coming home completely full and falling asleep on the sofa, you know, in front of, you know, I don't know, some TV show like Coronation Street or something like that. I'm with you. It's like the sun is down at 3.30. Yeah. And you've been to the pub. I'm with you. I love working there. I love any time. I got to do a play for a pretty long run at the Haymarket.

4:39And that was, it was heaven. It was actual heaven on earth. It was heaven. What was the play? So it was right after West Wing, Aaron Sorkin and I sort of reunited and he did a revival of A Few Good Men. Oh, wow. Oh, yeah. Fantastic. And I was the only American in the cast, which is super interesting because it's such an Americana thing. And I just I have so many great memories, but not the least of which was the actors would say, come up to me and go, how do you say fuck again? And they go, fuck. They go, fuck. fuck yes I know that feeling of being the only American in an American play in London it's really wild but it's so fun I love the actors there I love the vibe there and the way the work happens the feeling of ensemble and company is very strong there and I don't know if it's because of you know they all go to school for it or what, but they're just, there's such a, there's such a sense of fun and the professionalism just is automatic.

5:50You know, something I like to say is that actors there take the work seriously so they don't take themselves seriously. Do you know what I mean? Yes. And that's kind of, I mean, that's how I feel. I mean, I feel like everyone comes in raring to go. There's joyful rigor about everything, you know. And it's just, it feels rigorous and yet relaxed. And I just love it. I just love working on the stage there. Same. The Stofford trilogy. Yes. Was there or in New York? New York. That was at Lincoln Center. In the, yes, in the main big theater. In the Beaumont. Yeah, in the Vivian Beaumont. Yeah, that's great.

6:36That was an incredible experience. Totally life-changing. Unbelievable. I mean, what a dream. What a fucking dream. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. It changed my life. That's one of those jobs that really did actually change my life. I mean, I already knew a lot of the people that were in the cast, but we became so incredibly close. We did for nine months, three plays. We'd open one play and start rehearsing the next. And we were doing them in repertory, these three plays. And so that, you know, and then on certain Saturdays, we would do all three in one day, starting at 11 a.m., finishing at 11 p.m.

7:21I mean, my mouth is hanging open because, I mean, that is a legendary, legendary production. Yeah. And one that I unfortunately never got to go to. But I just, you've got to like break it down for me. Because I'm so, first of all, one of the great honors was he came to see Few Good Men. So I met him very briefly. And again, it's what you're saying. It's fucking Tom Stoppard. And he's lovely and chill and not intimidating other than the fact that he's a genius. Yes. You know what I mean? It's just that thing that you were talking about. It must have been heaven. It was absolute heaven. Absolute heaven.

8:10Having him in rehearsal every day, smoking, smoking cigarettes in the rehearsal room. Maybe I shouldn't say that. No, you wouldn't want it any other way. That's what you want. Don't you want him just huffing away? Yeah. And seemingly effortlessly sort of, you know, uttering these gems of brilliance and eloquence, you know, while also being extremely, as you say, very approachable, very friendly, you know, and very funny, you know. Really funny. And of course, Jack O 'Brien directed it, which was an absolute dream. And we couldn't have asked for a better person to be our sort of shepherd through this process.

9:01I mean, you know, he as well was just everything that came out of his mouth was beautiful or hilarious or made you think. You know, I remember, I'll never forget, we were starting, it was the first day of rehearsals for the third play, which was Salvage. Give me the names of the three plays. Voyage is the first, Shipwreck is the second, and Salvage is the third. And it's basically, it's a play about, for anyone who doesn't know, it's basically about the sort of Russian intellectual revolutionaries of the late 19th century, you know, late 19th century. Right. Alexander Hertz and Mikhail Bakunin, you know, Karl Marx, all of these guys and the women in their lives.

9:54And so anyway, we were starting the third play, Salvage, and Jack O 'Brien said something so brilliant that stuck with me ever since. He says, people don't actually change. they either become more and more glorious or more and more insupportable, but they are essentially themselves. Wow. And it was just such a wonderful way of putting, you know, that thing that we all wonder, like, can people change? You know what? Probably not. But they just become more and more themselves. And, you know, I just loved that. But, you know, it was things like that that would just get said, you know, that would just get plucked out of the air by these two.

10:48And, you know, we all kept notes and, you know, scrawled in our scripts and, you know. Yeah, it was. And we became very close. I mean, on those marathon days, we barely left the theater. We'd have our meals in the theater. We'd take naps in between shows. And like, they'd set up cots in a room for us. It was like, we basically lived together for nine months. It was a dream. So you've done a whole week of shows. And now it's Saturday, three nights. So you end your week with a three-nighter, three shows, right? Yes. Or if we didn't have a marathon Saturday, we would have a Sunday matinee. So... I've never been more exhilarated and exhausted than I was.

11:38And I lost, they had to take my wardrobe in three times. Yeah. I ate like a pig. Yeah. I ate late. Yeah. It was not uncommon to be eating at 2 a.m. Yeah. Never worked out. I lost more weight. I was like emaciated by the time. Yeah. Because of the adrenaline that you burn. I can't, what were you, what, I just can't imagine, were you a zombie at the end of it? You know what's funny? Actually, John Lithgow said the same thing. He said, I always, we always lose doing theater and we always gain doing television. Oh, that's a great one. Get skinnier and skinnier doing plays and get fatter and fatter doing TV.

12:21I don't know what it is, but it is true. And it wasn't, yes, I mean, you know, days off were not terribly productive, you know, I mean, for me anyway. I spent most of them laying down or, you know, watching TV. But by the end of it, it was so, you were so exhilarated by the work. there was so much excitement and joy and camaraderie and closeness. I mean, we were like a family by the end of it. Well, the other thing is, is there's nothing better. I have not had it in New York of being that, that play. Like, yeah, like there's always every season. Well, not maybe there is. Maybe there are seasons where there isn't that play, but we all know when they arrive.

13:14Yeah. And, you know, the parade of backstage. Right? That's also one of my favorite things is sort of that kabuki ritual of the backstage meeting, greeting. It's such an amazing moment. And then, of course, having done it as long as you have and as long as I have, you replay, oh, I remember meeting John Malkovich during Burn This or Al during, you know, whatever the fuck, you know? Yeah. And then you go and you steal ideas like, oh, they had a little sitting room out in front of there. Oh, these are like, was it did you feel like you're just receiving people was half the job? It had to have been.

13:56Yeah. I mean, it's funny because I know that. I mean, it was an event, you know, and everybody, everybody wanted to come and wanted to see it. But I in a strange way, those aren't the those aren't the memories that I have of that particular production, because I feel like we were so insular, you know, like at five minutes every before every show, we gather in a circle and hold hands and recite some crazy thing, you know, or somebody would recite some Shakespeare or something and we sort of all get sort of together and, you know, in a kind of mutual let's go, you know, kind of like a huddle, you know what I mean?

14:42For sure. And then I just remember us being together. We'd go out after the show together. You know what I mean? And that was really, I mean, when it, and that's when, when it closed, it was like, it was like you lose a, you're like losing a limb, you know, you're, you're, you know, it's been nine months of doing this thing with these people every single day. And it was like, you know, it's almost like a little death. Yeah. It's a very intense experience.

15:27Yeah. Do you ever have that thing where you go, it's funny, 2001 was on my TV the other day, and it was the scene where Hal, the computer, starts losing his abilities, right? because he's deprogramming. Yeah. I used to get really sad knowing, oh, I'm forgetting. Yeah. When it's over, you're like, oh, I'm forgetting each day. It's very funny because I don't remember lines from plays that I was in. I don't either. When it's over, it all just... I know. And it's sad. It is. And it's funny because there are actors who can remember. and, you know, who, like Richard Easton probably could recite every line of Shakespeare he ever uttered.

16:16The great Richard Easton, rest his soul. But I, for some reason, it just, it's poof. It's gone. I don't know why. I wish I could. I wish I had that retention. You know what I mean? Did you ever have this thing? I was always, I was fascinated with the stories of like Brando on stage or he'd do something different every night. It was crazy. And I worked with Christopher Walken once on stage. Oh, God. And he literally, and I mean literally, would do whatever came into his mind. Yeah, yeah. And we were doing Chekhov. So it's not like, so, but when I tried that, I think the dialogue was so connected to my body and the blocking, that if I decided, you know, in this scene where it's at a table, it's always been at a table, I'm going to just walk around.

17:16Then you go blank. Yes. Okay. So it's not just me, right? No, you dry. I'm the same way. I'm the same way. And I think it's because, and I have nothing but love and adoration for Christopher Walken. There's no question. Sure, of course. But I think that takes a certain kind of mind that I just don't have. Right. You know, I just I need to rehearse a change. If we're going to make a change, I want to rehearse it. I want to know, you know what I mean? And yes, there is a certain element of freedom and play that is possible once you're familiar and once you rehearse something. Right. No question about it.

17:59And you've got to. That's what keeps it alive. But to literally change all the blocking or change, like, that I can't do. I'm not, I don't have that ability. So you're not going to go downstage center one night and decide you're going to do the monologue with your back turned to the audience. No, I'm not good at that sort of thing now. Malkovich does that too. Yes, he does. He definitely does. I don't know how. He's famous for it. Chris. And still the audience can't take their eyes off him. No, sometimes they can't hear them. Like I literally, I had, we did one performance where the audience was literally screaming and we walked off and Chris was like, I love it when the audience gets involved like a ball game.

18:48Yeah. And I said, I said, Chris, they couldn't hear you. He goes, those motherfuckers. So, but like, there's just nothing better than theater stories. It's like, we go on sets, we go on TV, we do a movie, it's great. I mean, every once in a while there's a story, but it has nothing like no theater stories. No, it's nothing like it because you're in them. There's something about it. I don't know how to really articulate it, but it's like you're in, you're in a bubble that is, that is so much more ephemeral, you know, it's like butterfly wings. It's like gossamer, you know, and the illusion is so fragile.

19:31It's so easily broken and yet everyone agrees on it. That's right. You know, and it's very difficult or rather it's ideal if everyone is on the same page. Whereas in film and TV, it's more possible for people to not be on the same page and let it be the editor's problem. You know what I mean? Oh, for sure. Yeah. It's impossible on a production. There's, there's, there is, there is no way. Oh, how about this? Am I crazy or is it now everybody used to be, it started with musicals. I remember when it started with musicals and I was like, oh, okay. But that kind of makes sense to me. The fuck are people wearing microphones now.

20:21Oh, yeah. What? What? What? I mean, bro, that's part of the tech. Do you know how big the hay market is? Yeah. Yeah. No microphones. Yep. No microphones. We didn't wear microphones in Coast of Utopia either. What? So is this just, by the way, it's just over. It's gone by the wayside. Now everybody wears a microphone. Am I being an old man yelling at the sky right now? Well, I don't know if it's completely ubiquitous because, you know, the only time I've worn a microphone on stage in London was for Here We Are, was for the musical. That's a musical. Yeah, yeah. But, yeah, I don't like it for stuff that's just, you know, like a regular play with no music.

21:11I think, I don't know what it is or if it's about the sound designer wanting to be able to use the voice in a way that makes it less presentational, you know? Well, for sure, it's definitely less presentational. Like, I don't know, you know, every once in a while you'd get together and do like a fast line read. Yep. And I would always go, God, I wish we could do the show like this. Yeah. Yeah. We're just talking like... Because inevitably, the show, you end up adding like 10 fucking minutes to the goddamn thing. And it's like, come on, guys. Quit taking so many moments. Yeah. Cut the moments. Yeah.

21:54Get rid of it. Kill your babies. Kill your darlings. I had a director come in and go, okay, so now it's time to cut all the improvements. Yeah. Isn't that a great one? That's great. That's really great. But yeah, I don't know what it is about the mics. I mean, in certain gigantic, ginormous spaces like the Olivier at the National, which is truly, I mean, it's a massive, massive space. And, you know, there is an element that one could go, hmm, okay, you know, if you're going on with such a long run, then you might end up losing your voice. and I think particularly since and they're bringing it back now but since at the National they used to do plays in rep so you'd only do say three or four shows a week and then you'd be off for the rest of the week so you know you'd have time to recover your voice or what have you then they got rid of the rep thing so then it was eight shows a week again and in a space that size eight shows a week doing something like Coriolanus or something, that's going to be really exhausting on the voice.

23:07So in that sense, I can understand a little bit. Yeah. I know that this season they're returning to rep, which is so exciting because there's going to, you know, it's just such a wonderful way to work. I've never, aside from Coast of Utopia, I've never worked in repertory and I would love to. Well, this will be your, this is the, this is the moment. I mean, you'll be over there and your pub and your, I mean, there's, it's, it's, it's, it's the absolute, it's the absolute greatest. Although my wife is the most practical of, of, of us was like, cause you know, I, we had two kids, we lived in California and we moved all the way.

23:45And of course, you know, I wanted to live like, like, like I was in a, uh, uh, a Richard Curtis movie. So like I had of a little flat in Belgravia. And Cheryl was like, you know what you should have done at your curtain call every night? I said, what? You should have burned money. You should have taken money out on the stage and just said - Belgravia's posh, baby, posh. I am burning money, but it was, I do not regret it.

24:29We got to talk about Task. Tell me everything about it. It's now on HBO. I think the full series is streaming now. They did the old-fashioned thing. You know, they rolled it out one episode a week originally, but now it's available, the whole show, if people want to binge it. I know some people prefer that. So when it premiered, when this season, this is season two or is it still season one? This is season one. Why do it? But we're getting a season two. Oh, congratulations. Yeah. It's exciting. That is. It's very exciting. Where do you guys shoot? Philly. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. That's a, that, I, Philly has got such great character to it.

25:12I love that town. I absolutely love it. Have you been, I love, I loved staying in a, we were, you know, we were staying in like these sort of like corporate apartments, you know, how they have, you know, these efficiency kind of places. But it was fine. You know, they had a pool and a gym and yeah, but it was right around the corner from Redding Terminal Market. You know that it's like an incredible, it used to be the Redding Terminal, the train station where they brought all this stuff in from all over the world. And now it's like this big market, like butchers and fishmongers and cheesemongers and local crafts and craft beer and sushi.

25:52And I mean, it's just, I love that place. I just love it. Did you get into any of the Philly sports mania? Any of the teams? How did you manage to not do that? Like to be co-opted into being like an Eagles fan or whatever it was? Right. Well, I wasn't there for the whole, they weren't, they, I wasn't there for like the whole eight months or whatever they were. I was only there. I mean, I'm in, I want to say four or five episodes out of seven. So, and I'm not in like, I wasn't like a main character. So I just went for like the last two months and I was kind of in and out. You know what I mean? So yeah, I didn't get, you know, my, my big thing was, you know, where am I going to have dinner?

26:40Cause it's a great food town. Mm-hmm. Yep. And going to see the history. It's pretty amazing. Independence Hall and all that stuff. It's fascinating. How about a shockingly small? It's tiny. It's like a dollhouse. I know. It's teeny tiny. It looks like a two-thirds replica in a special effects house. I know. It's like Disney. It's like Disney Independence Hall. You just can't believe it. Yeah, you can't believe it. But I think there's something sort of wonderful about it. It's just a wonderful sort of reminder or evocation of a sort of humble beginning. Yeah, right. I just love it. Now, I know you're a foodie like me.

27:28So the Philadelphia cheesesteaks. You know what? I was there in summer and you were not going to get me to eat a cheesesteak when it was 98 degrees outside. Oh, you're missing out. I didn't want to do it. I think next season when we're there in late summer, early fall, I'll do the cheesesteak. But 98 degrees and a cheesesteak? No, no. Forget it. I don't know, man. No way. I don't know. I might do it. I might do two of them. I might go to Geno's and walk right across the street and have the competitor. I might. You know what I was all about? Crab. Oh, yeah. Sure. I love the crab, baby. Love. Okay.

28:09Okay, back to London. What's your number one London? I'm back in London. Tonight, we're going to go to what restaurant and have what? Okay, this is tough because there are a couple. Because I'm going to the Wolseley for brunch. Right, you're going to the Wolseley for brunch. I would go to Boca di Lupo. It's in Covent Garden. It's the best Italian food I've ever had. Wow. The food in London's great. Yeah. It's great. Yeah. Or I'd go to Giovanni's, which is also like a red sauce joint in Covent Garden. It's down an alley. This is all Italian stuff. You can go to Italy. Like, what's the London of it all?

28:52Like, where's the rump roast to the fucking? Well, that's Sunday. That's Sunday roast. Okay. And then I would go to my local, which is the Anglesey Arms on Wingate Road, and have a really, really delicious roast. or if I was taking a friend, I would take them to the Grenadier in Belgravia. Did you ever go to the Grenadier? Yeah, sure. It's one of the oldest and it's the home of Beef Wellington. They're the ones who made the first Beef Wellington. Oh, I did not know that. Yes, for Admiral Wellington. I mean, so good. Yeah, so if I had a friend who was coming into town, that's where I'd take them for Sunday roast or my other favorite is the Prince Alfred in Maida Vale.

29:36See, this is okay. I hope everybody's taking notes if they ever get to London. Prince Alfred has the best Yorkshire pudding. It's like the size of your head and they make them fresh all day. And you just sit, see, watch them, you know, putting the trays out on the counters of the Yorkshire pudding. And they got the gravy and oh. Oh, so good. I haven't eaten yet today. And this is driving me crazy. Like, oh, here's the other thing. So I'm angry about microphones in dramas And I'm angry at that you don't get your fish and chips wrapped in an actual newspaper. It depends on where you go. There's a place in Covent Garden.

30:13I forget the name of it, but it's like around the corner from the Donmar Warehouse. And they still do fish and chips in paper. No way. Yes. I mean, if you don't have like poisonous, cancerous. Yeah. Like, what is the point? It's like my Philly cheesesteak. I want the Cheez Whiz. I want the chemicals. I like if there are chemicals to be had, let's face it. There's a reason that chemicals exist. They're kind of yummy sometimes. Yeah. You know? Exactly. Exactly. When do you go back to next summer, late summer for TASC? TASC, we start shooting, I think late summer because, you know, Brad Inglesby, our brilliant, incredible writer and creator has got to write it.