My Monday Morning: Lee Pace

0:07I'm Lee Pace and this is my Monday Morning.

0:16Hey, I'm Lane Florsheim and this is a show where I talk to people who are great at what they do about the routines and rituals that keep them going. Today, I'm talking with actor Lee Pace. You might know him from cult favorites like The Fall, or as a villain in the Marvel Universe, or even as an elven king in The Hobbit. This fall, he's starring alongside two beloved witches, Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, in Practical Magic 2. For his Monday morning, Lee told me about spotting witches in real life, tending to his garden, and of course, how he starts his week. We'll get into it right after the break.

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2:18Just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now and support the show by saying you heard about Indeed here. Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now? Then this is a job for Indeed-sponsored jobs. Your first credit, at least on IMDb, is Law & Order SVU. And you play a bad guy behind bars. We call it the New York City yearbook because all the actors in New York do Law & Order SVU at some point. No, it's like the quintessential first credit, right? Yeah, perfect. But I was wondering, like, do you remember when you got that call that you got the part, what it was like being on that set and being grilled by Benson and Stabler?

2:59I knew nothing. I mean, I actually knew nothing. I remember Mariska Hargitay, who's so sweet. I worked for half a day. You know, it was the first time I was really in front of a camera. I was so new to it. And she, you know, kind of crouched so that her eyeline was close to the lens. and I was like why is she standing like that why is she doing that crazy thing I realize now that it was just to kind of keep my eyes closer to the lens so I could so they could see you know what I was doing better but um yeah it was it was overwhelming and um yeah I remember it there's so many days on set that I don't remember but I remember that one yeah in general what's the best part of playing a bad guy or a villain i mean it's fun yeah it's just there's a kind of creative fun to it and i think the audience has a good time with a heel yeah right yeah definitely and the the worst that i am the more fun i think i end up having so um it's perverse but i'm into it And you're about to star in Practical Magic 2.

4:12And the first time that the audience sees your character, Ian Wright, he's unconscious and unclothed under a spell. What else can you share about him? I mean, the day I shot that, that was also the first thing that I shot on the movie. And it began with kind of laying there with my eyes closed. And I hear Sandra Bullock and the Kidman's, Nicole Kidman's voice kind of entering the room and talking. And they both have such, I mean, memorable voices, but beautiful. Like the sound of their voices are so, you know, hypnotic. So I was laying there just thinking, I cannot believe I'm about to have this experience.

4:58Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, like, doing a spell on me. Yeah, that is wild. Yeah, that is wild. They're so good. of what they do. And so, I mean, to watch Sandra Bullock put together these, the comedy of what a character is going to do is not something I understand really how to kind of construct, you know, the timing of a bit like that. So it was fun to watch her work, but I learned a lot. Yeah. Watching her, you know, be creative in this way and skilled. Being in a movie about witches, do you have any superstitions? I don't really have superstitions, but I suppose I'm, I guess, aware of, I mean, I can spot a witch.

5:48Oh, yeah? Yeah, definitely. Because, you know, when you just encounter someone who has a magic about them, and there's lots of different kinds of witches, obviously. Obviously, there's a witch that can put a spell on you and you find yourself doing things that they want you to do without, you know, making that choice for yourself. And then there are, you know, witches that I've known that just open up experiences for you that you wouldn't that are magical. You know, the timing of them works out in a way of like, like, how did this happen? Right. You know, how did this, I mean, both Sandra and Nicole both have very, like, good witch elements about them.

6:34So I suppose that that is, I guess, a magic that I'm, I feel lucky that I've encountered. But there are bad witches, too. Tell me about some of those encounters. I mean, you don't want to talk about them because you don't want to get their cue of a lie on you. Right. You know, that's a real thing. True. So even with the bad ones, they're definitely like, OK, I'm going to protect myself. Well, I was also going to ask, do you have any rituals in your own life, like either around acting or other elements of your life? I mean, as far as acting goes, every movie is different. Every director is different.

7:15Every character is different. So I don't have a very rigid way of approaching it. I went to a drama school that kind of teaches you a lot of tools that it's like sometimes, OK, well, that's a way to think about this and figure out a way into the character. And when I've done a play, the warm up is a ritual. You know, it's nice to go out on the stage and, you know, stretch, get your voice together. Think about, like, what the hell is going to happen tonight? Right. Because when you're when it's just you in the audience, it's I mean, George C. Wolfe, a director I worked with, who I, you know, I learned so much from.

7:57He's such a master. He said that theater is the actor's revenge because there's no director editing what you're doing. The timing is yours. The and, you know, those great stage actors talk about like casting a spell. they can get all of the people in that house um you know leaning forward and feeling the same thing at the same time um and that's those moments when you can kind of feel that happening from up on the stage i mean it's not to sound too corny but it's more like church than theater it really does feel like a magical thing that happens um so that's obviously the goal and you know the warm-up I think helps you think, okay, this is what is about to happen.

8:46I'm going to stand on that stage. I'm going to need to move in a way that they see my whole body. And I want my voice to be prepared to communicate what I need it to communicate. Do you have a dream role you haven't played yet? A dream role. Do you know, when I was in school, I did a scene where I played a dog. and I think about that from time to time and I think it would be because I played elves and vampires and alien warlords I do a lot of that kind of thing so one thing I have not done is an animal so I don't know if there's you know a role out there for me where I can play like really not a human yeah be fun after the break Lee gets into his Monday morning routine.

10:06answer just yet. There's hope in hard questions. Ask yours at claude.ai slash the journal. This episode of The Journal is brought to you by Harvey, an AI platform designed for legal and professional services. Built and tested by lawyers, Harvey is trusted by more than 75 % of the AMLA 100. The platform dramatically reduces time spent on research, drafting, and document review without sacrificing quality, all while meeting the highest industry standards for security and compliance. Harvey. AI. Tailored for law. Visit Harvey.ai to learn more and request a demo. So what time do you usually get up on a Monday and what's the first thing you do after getting up?

10:53Well, I guess I wake up at about 6.30, 7 and lay there for about 30 minutes and worry about things. And then I get up and start the day, make the coffee. Well, that was my next question. What do you do for coffee and breakfast? I make a mocha. So one of those stovetop violetti things. And I make kind of a big one. It's about, it says for like six people, six cups. So it's a pretty strong coffee. And I don't really do it for the caffeine because I don't notice the caffeine in coffee. It's just the ritual of it. It's like, I mean, I can't imagine starting my day without this big, strong coffee. Are you drinking all six cups?

11:37Yeah. Nice. Yeah, drink it. And we always ask about workout routine in this column. And I'm particularly excited to talk to you about this because I know that you just wrapped shooting the fourth season of Foundation. And in it, you play a different clone of the same emperor character. And not only that, but you give the character a different body each season working with your trainer. So I wanted to ask about that process and just, you know, what did that look like this time? And how does that compare to your normal workout routine? Well, Monday is chest day. So you kind of start the week with, you know, the bench press, all the chest exercises so you can get the pump.

12:17So I always look forward to chest day because I take Sundays off. And, well, Saturdays too mostly. So it's a fun way to start the workouts for the week. And during foundation, yeah, working on it is a big part of preparing the character. I love Ian Benson, who is the trainer that I work with on this show. We've been working together on foundation since day one. And not only is he just like a really good person, smart and knowledgeable about what we're trying to achieve and in it for the long haul, which, you know, it takes a lot of discipline and effort to change your body. And but we just laugh a lot and we can spend an hour and a half gossiping.

13:11Best kind of workout. And I like a relaxing workout. I don't want to lift a lot of weight, but I also don't want to get angry. I see guys in the gym just get so mad. No thanks. And I have to ask, what's the hair care routine? What's the secret? I don't really give a lot of thought to that. I only kind of cut my hair if I'm working. But I'm, you know, I've usually got a pretty messy head of hair. So that requires no maintenance. Easiest routine. I believe you live upstate on a farm part of the time. Do you have routines around that? Like are you feeding animals or spending a lot of time outside?

13:59Well, I mean, the only animals I keep are chickens because I don't have good fences. And they would get out. So, and a dog. But what are my routines? It's more yearly routines because you do different things with the garden at different times in the year. I have these paths that I maintain all through the farm. And, you know, you have to mow them. I've got a tractor with a brush hog because I don't mow it with like a finished mower. I just mow it so we can run around and get access to the property because I like the way the meadows look when they're wild. especially this time of year because um you know late august into september the golden rod kicks off and it's like i've got you know a big wild meadow you know it's probably about 10 acres this particular meadow and um when when i have nice paths mowed through it i mean it's like one of the coolest things that the farm does throughout the year it sounds magical yeah it's so nice and And then, you know, there's different chores during the winter, obviously.

15:08You can prune the trees and stuff. So it's more, I guess, the routines are that way. I like to plant trees. So I have a lot of trees on the property. And as the years have gone by, it's been incredibly rewarding watching them grow. I planted this big circle of maple trees, and it's about 20 trees. So it's really big. and they've almost tripled in size. So now the center of it is, you know, this great shady spot. It's one of my favorite places on the farm. Yeah. Do you read there or anything? We just kind of walk through it. Just kind of walk through the nights. How do you think about balancing work and life?

15:52Like what do you do to relax or find calm? I find a lot of calm swimming because it's really, I mean, if you swim for an hour, you're exhausted, which is a nice feeling. And it's quiet. So finding quiet, I think, is a calming thing. Do you doom scroll? Yeah, I have my moment. It's the worst, isn't it? Yeah. It's just the worst. It's the opposite of swimming for an hour. No, it's like getting yourself wound up about nothing, actually. It's like nothing that you have any control over. you're being bombarded with things that are going to agitate you like and you can't stop why do we do it it's the worst like that's one thing that happens on set that i really it's like i stopped bringing my phone to set because you end up having some downtime and you want to kind of knock you know knock your brain away from yeah and you get there and it's just a bunch of crap right it probably really takes you out of the focus of it all.

16:59Yeah. But, but, you know, I guess my algorithm just gives me absurd things. Like lately I get a lot of these AI, very dramatic AI cat videos or like absolutely like they're so dumb, but they're actually so funny. Yeah. And what's a piece of advice you've gotten that's guided you or been important to you in life? I forget who gave it to me, but not my pig, not my farm, which is basically to say that's not my business. Yeah. That's not my business. Good advice. Well, thank you so much for joining us for My Monday Morning. This was really fun having you. Thank you so much. I enjoyed talking to you.

17:48Thank you. Thank you for having me. My Monday Morning is part of The Journal, which is a co-production of Spotify Studios and The Wall Street Journal. I'm Lane Flersheim, and we'll be back next Sunday with another episode of My Monday Morning. Follow us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. And follow me on Instagram, at Lane Flersheim, for more behind-the-scenes stuff from My Monday Morning, and to let me know what you think of the show. This episode was produced by Jeevika Verma and edited by Catherine Brewer and Sarah Platt. Video production by Nathan Singapak. Original music by Nathan Singapak.

18:24Thanks so much for joining us.

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