Robin Wright: Style & Talent

0:00He's like this, and Rob, we're going to go. He's got these hands that fly all over the place. They're like baseball mitts, you know? I really think I like that take. I like that take. Hey, everybody. the lovely and amazingly talented and storied long career Robin Wright is with us I vividly remember laying eyes on her as Buttercup and I also literally remember her insane stellar work directing House of Cards and And our new series, The Girlfriend, which he executive produced is coming out. So we have a lot to go over.

1:05And you're in the studio. So you're like there. Are you in the middle of a day of talking and pressing? Talking and pressing. Talking and pressing. Talking and pressing. Oh, my God. I call it the dog and pony show. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. It's just been, you know, the full 48 hours back to back to back. But thanks for having me. I'm so, you know, it's so funny. We have so many people in common in our lives. And I feel like you and I have never had our proper FaceTime. So we're doing it now. We're doing it now. I mean, we go from Carrie Elwes to Sean to my brother who loves you. Chad Loewen loves you.

1:48I'm sure Chad. He loves you. He just says you're the greatest. He is so funny. Have you had him on your show? Oh, yeah. He's hysterical. Isn't he funny? And he's such a love. I know. I think Chad Lowe and Henry Winkler are the nicest people in show business. I mean, really, I just don't know how. You got to tell him that. Right? I mean, it's a great mantle, don't you think? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, who wouldn't want to be compared to the Fonz? No, the nicest man ever. You've got to tell me about, I want to hear about your directing, because I'm so fascinated with your, I remember the season finales.

2:33It was the last two episodes of Ozark, right? One. I did one of the two. Jason Bateman did the final final. Okay, yeah, but it was the panel, it was right there. Yeah, it was weird. They put two together as the finale. That's right. And he closed out the bookend. So great. Was that the first, the highest profile at that point in your directorial career? I mean, that was, you know, I directed 10 episodes of House of Cards. Right. And that gave me a little foundation of, you know, knowledge and getting over that deep-seated fear and shaking at the knees. You know, come on. You have so much experience.

3:19You've, I mean, from Bob Zemeckis on up and down. And still you're like, oh, boy. Well, it's also, you know, it's being a woman and being a novice. and you can only get better by doing, right? Do more, do more. And that was a fantastic opportunity because it was such a safe environment because it was a family of six years. So the crew became your uncles, you know? And they're like, we'll teach you everything you want to know. But yeah, you do. You act most of your life and you're observing and you're asking a lot of questions and then those questions become a different kind of inquisitiveness, right?

4:07Oh, yeah. Do you remember the first time the light went on where you go, oh, I know the difference between a 50 millimeter and 135, like all of that. I just remember so vividly, even though it's been years, like that thing where the DP and the director get on the set and go, so we're gonna here, here, here, a couple of pops here, we're gonna come over here and then we're gonna go to lunch. I was like, what did they just say? What the hell are they talking about? What are those numbers? Yeah, what are these pops? We're going to be here. And then all of a sudden, you just know it. It's so true. A light does go on, doesn't it?

4:45It took me forever because it's opposites. It's still confusing to me. That's why I go, if I want this look, show a picture from a magazine, what lens are you going to use? DP, right? And then they just pull it out, show you. And then you say, okay, I'd like to back up a little bit. Okay, let's put the 85 on, things like that. And that's how I like to learn. I like the visual, don't you? It's like, I want to see the options. All you ever want from a director is a vision. You just want a vision, right? And everybody else can take care of the other stuff, the technical stuff. Oh, yeah. You're only as good as your team to bring that to fruition that you explained as your vision.

5:30It's, does the team, and it's a small team if you really think about it, right? It's the DP, it's the producer, it's, and of course the actors, but are we all speaking the same language? We are good check, and you go down that list. I'm so envious and what a great way to cut your teeth on such amazing television properties, particularly with your role in House of Cards, where, you know, it starts off as one thing becomes another thing. And then you get to parlay that into really taking more control of your whole destiny on that show. It's super, super cool. So fortunate to have had that. Because it was cinema school.

6:21How much was Fincher around in the beginning at all? He left after season one. Because you've never done a Fincher movie, unless I'm mistaken, I don't believe. I did do one, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Oh my God, I forgot about that. Oh my God, I loved that movie. I thought he did a great job as the redo. I do too. It made me want to go buy a motorcycle. That's what I took away from that movie was I want to be as badass on a motorcycle. That's how vacuous and shallow I am. That was my takeaway from Girl in the Dragon Tattoo. So, Rob, what did you think of the movie? I wanted Ducati, okay?

7:04Literally, I hate to say it, but sometimes I go to movies. I remember watching Crimson Tide with Denzel and Gene Hackman. And my takeaway was I'm going to buy some Monte Cristo cigars and smoke them like Gene Hackman. Go strong or go home, bud. I'm just like, I'm a very simple man at heart. I'm still a movie fan. I can go deep, right, and just go, I just want the motorcycle like Rooney Mara. That was sick. It was. It was pretty sick. And, you know, people forget that House of Cards is the show that made Netflix. As far as I can tell. I mean, that's it. I mean, you guys made Netflix, what Netflix is.

7:48Yeah. I mean, it launched a streaming platform that has now become the world. And Fincher said, because I just was like, ooh, not sure if I want to be tied down, all that kind of stuff. And he said, no, Robin, this is going to be the medium. It's going to take over. So do you want to be a part of the inception of that idea? And I was like, sure, you know, with him, just his talent. And I learned so much from just observing him because his style of that show was very specific. He's my favorite, one of my favorite filmmakers, but directorially, he's one of my favorite to watch. I mean, no one shoots people across a table talking to each other like David Fincher.

8:41It's so true. It's like, how do you do that? It's insane. It's Mindhunter, one of my favorite shows ever. Great. People listening haven't seen Mindhunter. And I keep begging for season three and there are rumors there will be a season three. But I don't know. There might be a Mindhunter movie, I'm heard, I'm told. But literally, it's two detectives talking to serial killers in their cell. That's really the fucking show. That's it. And it's, I mean, first of all, they have great actors. But like what he does with the camera to make it all interesting is it's a masterclass. So on that note, somebody asked doing this press tour, how do you find your style as a director?

9:27Yeah. And I really was mulling that over going, did I even answer the question? Do you feel this way? I'm like, you don't find it. It finds you. I think. Yeah. Right? Because we are looking through the lens or, like you say, showing a picture to the other creative and saying, I want it to look exactly like this. Yep. Why do you want it to feel? Because I want to feel the way the blue and the green is contrary. And then you can start peeling back the onion. Yep. But I'd look at these iconic directors like a Fincher or Greengrass or. Yeah. You know, yes, the greats of Scorsese and Copeland, but they all have their style, even though the variety is very spread out.

10:20Look at Rob Reiner. I was just talking about him. Look at the variation in the projects. Oh, it's unbelievable. The themes, the stories. From misery to spinal tap, like, and everything in between. Yeah, everything in between being your classic Princess Bride. I mean, I just interviewed Rob, but it wasn't Rob. It was Marty DeBerge. I got to interview the Spinal Tap. Why do I know that name? It was Rob as Marty DeBerge. It was with the viewfinder, still using the viewfinder and hanging on his neck with the Spinal Tap. So good. It was unbelievable. And I said to Rob, as Marty DeBerge, talking about directing, it was like meta upon meta upon meta.

11:12I said, you invented the walk and talk. You invented it. Hello, Cleveland. That's the walk and talk right there. And Marty DeBerge was like, and I never get enough credit for it. Nobody ever mentions. Oh, my God. It was amazing. That's pretty great. It was pretty amazing. It was, and Chris Guest and Harry, they were, but yeah, Marty, I mean, Rob. And the other thing about Rob Reiner as a director is I don't think anybody had a better run for longer with more diverse projects than Rob did when he was on that insane hot streak. Insane. Insane. But we're talking about style, which is a talent. to be able to basically portray the very style that you've been imbued with, right?

12:10It's your thing. Like, how do I get it out there and make sure it looks like it was in my head? I would like to have more talent, Rob, in that department. I wish I could order it from Amazon. I want more talent in every department. So you only want it in one department? I want it everywhere. No, no, I want it in many, many. but if I had to pick one, it would be directing. Can I just have some more? Well, where do you feel that you would like more in? Where do you feel that you are lacking? I want more of my style. And I'm not there yet. I think I just need more diversity. I think that will help doing a different kind of movie, different kind of show.

13:07But let me be devil's advocate here. So you've got people like, and it's interesting as I say this, I realize they came from television and they're actors. You have Ron Howard. You have a guy like Ron Howard. You have a guy like Rob Reiner who their style is they have no style. There's nothing signature visually across the body of their work that you go, oh, that's Ron Howard. Oh, that's Rob Reiner. Like Princess Bride looks nothing like A Few Good Men. They kind of let the piece deliver the style. Whatever the piece is, you find the style in the piece. Fincher, I always know I'm watching Fincher.

13:52Right? Always. There's things he does. There's certain things he doesn't do. I mean, one of the things he does that I love, you're going to love this, and it's probably out of self-protection. I think some of our best things that we do, we learn out of self-protection, whether it's as an actor, as a, you know, I know you know, right? So there's some great stuff in Mindhunter where two people are at a restaurant and the waiter or waitress, I forget if it was a man or a woman, but the server comes up and has like, what would you like? This is that. They don't even cover them. No coverage. None. Zero.

14:38Yeah. How amazing. And I'm like, I wonder if that's just like how many like day players have you had that come up and you're like, oh God, the air goes like, but I just love like the balls to know that no one cares. Everybody knows what a server does. They come up, they take the, the story is about these two people in the booth. Just because it's happening doesn't mean you need to show it. Nobody cares. And so many directors, particularly bad ones, would be like, well, that person has lines, that person's in it, so we're shooting the scene, so we're going to shoot it. No, you don't. No, you don't.

15:14I did a movie with Steven Soderbergh where Michael Douglas and I were talking at a door. He didn't even film Michael. didn't film him didn't turn around that's great it was my first first day on the set and i was like holy shit but you know he knew what he wanted and it's in the movie the door opens it's me with a big plastic surgery face and and i say something and michael says i mean we move on to the next scene he knew that the what the story was there was the reveal of what my character looked like And sure, Michael's in the scene, he's the star of the movie. But, you know, in that scene, you didn't need to shoot it.

15:54But that stuff is so next level. So next level. Completely next level. It's like the reveal of the Elephant Man. Oh, I got to re-look at that. Yeah, I saw it again recently. You know, it's like the three-quadres. He's hiding, obviously, from society, the world. And that's how it was shot. David Lynch. Yeah. Another one. Incredible. Yeah, genius. Just genius. Come on. And by the way, what a great sort of parting memory that sort of the last thing that people will remember him for is the most unbelievable one-scene throwdown cameo in The Fablements, where he's playing John Ford. I've never seen it.

16:51Oh my God, Robin. Just Google. And we all love Steven Spielberg. He's great. That movie's not my favorite of his, but the last scene in the movie is the Spielberg kid character breaking into the office of the great John Ford. And it played by David Lynch. And it's one scene. and it's the very end of the movie and it's one of those things that you can just pull up on Google and have the full experience. You don't need to watch the whole movie and it is, it is, and he's talking about composition. He's talking about directing. So as a direct, as somebody who loves directing like we do, it's, this is my gift to you today.

17:39You will thank me later. As your next break on your phone, you're pulling that up. Yes, I am. Now, did you ever have any Robert Redford experience? He passed away as we're recording this yesterday. Any Redford contact? Yes. I acted in a film with him and then he directed me in a film. You would think I would have done my research. How did I not know any of this? I'm feeling like a complete fraud. Why would you? I'm a fraud. You know what? I was in a traffic jam and I would have, this would have been the time where I would have been, oh, yes, Robin was in Quiz Show. No? Nope. God damn it. River runs through it.

18:25Nope. Jesus Christ. What is it? What is it? There's only one? What are the two? What are your red fruits? Red fruits. Yeah. you probably have never heard of it. It's called The Conspirator. Oh, no. Me, James McAvoy. Yes. He directed that. Oh, my God. And he's, listen, he is an icon, was an icon. And another of variation. You know, it's like the Oscar Mayer meets. It's like, oh, you're going to go from salami to bologna to, I can do all of those things and everything that he did with Sundance and the environment and I mean just putting his passion in many many different shoes you know but he will be greatly missed and he I think was the quintessential movie star in his day oh I mean like who are movie stars today who's a movie star who would you call a movie star today I not only can I not think of them, it's just like.

19:40Is it you? No. I'm kidding. No, it's there's no Redford. There's none of for so many. For so many. Paul Newman was one. Oh, go. Oh, listen. Paul Newman, Warren. Yeah. Well, I can only imagine Warren's screen here. I just I just created what here's where my mind goes. Here's my just my Hollywood fantasy. I just created that probably isn't a fantasy and you don't have to comment. I can just see Warren sitting up in Mulholland. It's 1980 fucking eight, whatever it is. And he's screening the new Rob Reiner movie. And he sees Princess Buttercup. And boy, your phone is fucking ringing off the hook from Warren.

20:19I've got a project I want to talk to you about. Have you ever thought of playing Marilyn Monroe? You really have. I mean, I can kind of almost imagine that one. You know what? You just pricked up my ears about fantasy. God, I would have loved to play in Reds. Come on. Such a great film. How about that that was a big studio Christmas release? No way. It was. I remember it vividly. That's how different. Now it's Jumanji 3. Yeah. Literally, I'm not even trying to be funny. Yeah, exactly. It's really disheartening, isn't it? The business we grew up in, it's no longer. I'm not crazy, right? It is no longer.

21:17I think it's no longer. And yet, and yet, do we want to be the two vaudevillians going, I remember. No, God no. Yeah, the misanthropes, you know, hit 60s going wah, wah. Listen, but it has shifted so severely. You know, yes, COVID and then the strike. And I miss the communal feel of cinema. That's all. The energy, the collective energy of a packed cinema. I'll tell you what's really depressing, too, is I drove through Westwood. the other day? Oh, no. Don't tell me that they've closed down. Oh, the Bruin is gone. No. So, of the three big ones, the big ones, the man, the big brown one, the man where I saw Heaven Can Wait on opening day.

22:15Opening day, in line, Heaven Can Wait. The Bruin, where I saw Marathon Man. Yes. Where I saw Flashdance opening weekend, where I just, You'd never seen anything like it. Gone. The Fox still exists. The Avco, gone. I saw Alien opening weekend. It's all, they're all gone. And it hurts in the heart. But even what you just said, we would wait in lines that were around the block. Yeah. Well, the other thing is, there's so many reasons. And this is like, duh, no kidding. but it occurred to me because we knew if we didn't see it then and by then I don't mean that day but like that week or the next week or the next by the way maybe that week maybe it's out of the theater in a week we never knew never knew and if it was out of the theater we didn't see it again nope it wasn't gonna show up it might it didn't even show up on network TV until the VHS was invented that's right and And even then, it was like nobody wanted to watch it on their shitty little TV.

23:32No. We didn't have the big TVs. So it's a lot of things contributed. It's like the Titanic. If they'd had the binoculars, it wasn't just the iceberg. If they hadn't had the binoculars, if there wasn't a coal fire in the thing, if they weren't trying to beat a speed record, if they'd had more lifeboats, everybody thinks it hit an iceberg. It did. But there was a lot of other shit that sank the Titanic. And I feel like it's the same with what we grew up with in our industry. Without question. Of course. And we're not poo-pooing the current state. It's just different. I feel my age. Yeah, well, listen.

24:21That melancholic sort of, I miss the tradition of dot, dot, dot. The community, the people. Do you know the kids today? Do you know the kids today? Listen, speaking as somebody who is on the cover of AARP this year, I can say as an official old man things that I, you know, I can say it now. I'm on, you know, I'm fucking going to be a grandpa at some point, hopefully. Kids today have no, two things in a row. They don't give a shit about their driver's license. Dude, when I was 15 and a half and I could get my learner's permit. We were waiting in line at the DMV for two days. For two days. We were camped out.

25:12Camped out. When the clock starts 12. and they don't care about going to a movie. A movie means nothing to them. There's no significance whatsoever to them. Well, and you're talking about little TV screens way back when that we couldn't even access that movie that left the theater. Now, I think it's actually blasphemous to watch a movie on a cell phone. How about watching Reds? Please don't do that to the filmmaker. How about watch Reds or a Terrence Malick movie or 2001? I mean, you know, we know which ones you wouldn't ever, right? Yeah, no, those should be forbidden to watch on a small screen.

25:59Here's my thesis. I don't know what kind of shopper you are. I don't know what kind of aesthetic you have. But my guess is you will understand this analogy. movies aren't going to go away, but they will just become the Hermes Birkin bag. Yep. You got me? Yep, totally. There'll always be a market. The market may be on fire, but it's going to be super luxe, super hard to find, pricey. Well, I wonder about the pricey. I think it's only... Unlike the Louis Vuitton or the Birkenberg. Yeah, I think it's going to be pricey. I think you're going to go and have an experience. You're going to have... Well, unless that movie, yeah, becomes obsolete.

26:57Like, you know, the Criterion Channel. Yeah. Love it, because those movies that we're talking about that went away in the ether, can some of them only be found on that platform? Yeah. but is that the only place like a Criterion channel where you're gonna have to pay out the ass to see that great movie called The Paper Chase Paper Chase Remember the Paper Chase

27:38Speaking of paper, you know what I watched the other day? Paper Moon. Have you seen that one recently? Oh, love it. Destroyed that little girl, but okay. Destroyed. I worked with Peter Bogdanovich. and I was like, how did you get that performance out of Tatum O 'Neill? And he said, and I realized because he did it to me too, he just gave line readings. Peter Bogdan directed by giving line readings. And I'm not kidding. Like what, give me one. By the way, now, directors today on tele, okay, here we go. We're really going to start fucking dishing. So Peter was the first director I ever worked with.

28:22And listen, And Peter directed Last Picture Show and What's Up, Doc? And Paper Moon and Mask. And, you know, he's a genius. And, you know, had his missus, as all geniuses do. But he would show up and, you know, he had this way of talking. It was like Lorne Michaels meets John Ford and Robber. He always called me Robber. so you're going to come in here and you're going to sit here and then you're going to go to the window and you're like and then you say and then he would do the character he would act out my part I was like why don't you just play it and that's what he did with Tatum you know who's like that is Bob Zemeckis and Tom Hanks and I love it because he literally will act out all of our characters and do the line reading as the character.

29:24Does he talk like Bob does? Does he do? Does he do? Bob's more like that. You know, he's like, listen, Rob, he calls me Rob. He's like, listen, Rob, we're going to go. He's got these hands that fly all over the place. They're like baseball mitts. You know, I really think I like that take. But I said, you should play all of the characters in the movie. Yes. Right. I once, I did a cameo in Contact, which is, I love that movie. I remember, and I just saw that recently. You are such a little baby. I was a baby. I had a little baby. And like, it was great because it was a conference room scene. Yeah.

30:02And now, look, they're hard. It's a bunch of people sitting around. Look, their dinner table, we know. They take, it took Bob three days. Three days. At one point, he sawed the table in half. I love it. Do you know what I mean? And it was just fucking bananas. I also then, do you ever have memories where you go, wait, did I, wait, that happened? Like, why was I there? Who did I even know? Like, I don't know to this day why I was on the set of Death Becomes Her. I have no idea why, but I was. And I watched Bob. Bob, not a second AD, not a splinter unit. Bob shoot an insert of a hand opening a potion for at least three hours.

30:55Okay, I got one for you. Yeah. Terry Malick. We're in Australia. Lunchtime, we're shooting. It's not my movie. Sean was doing a movie, Thin Red Line. Yeah, yeah. And you know how they set up the catering tables just on the side of a grassy hill, wherever they can put him, right? Yeah. Everybody could be like, where'd Terry go? And he would just slowly disappear from the table, just retreat. And I followed where I thought maybe he was down at the creek that was at the bottom of this grassy knoll and held the camera for the full lunch hour in the same position, watching the water flow and the leaf not going with the water because it was kind of stuck under a rock and it was just flittering and had life in it.

31:47And for an hour. Because you never know what that leaf's going to do. It's like, okay, I'm in. I'm in. That's patience and hope and faith and curiosity. Like something magical might happen. And things magical always happen with Terry Malick. I'm so envious. Another one. There's another one. I'm so envious that you got to spend. Just be around him. Here's another one in the bank of did this happen to me and why was I there? I remember going to see, I think, Emilio Estevez, or it might have been Charlie, but one of the Sheen boys. And there's this, what I thought was a homeless man, asleep on the couch.

32:38and we had to be really quiet around him. And it was Terrence Malick.