[OPENING CREDITS]
WILDE: But he just was so humble. He’s like, oh, well, you know. And I was like, tell me! I want to learn from you.
Oh, wow. Look at that Dr. Thirteen House. Five years of my life. I loved it, and I love everything about it, particularly Hugh Laurie, who is one of the greatest to ever do it.
This is so cool.
…
WILDE: Hi, I’m Olivia Wilde, I’m here with BAFTA.
We are gonna watch some clips from films that mean different things to me, that I love very, very much and I’m excited to jump in.
First, we’re gonna check out a clip from The Invite.
[CLIP OF THE INVITE PLAYS]
WILDE: It’s terrible to laugh at your own performance.
My favourite whisper fight… I love when people argue as though they can’t be heard but they’re obviously heard…
Oh Seth.
[CLIP ENDS]
WILDE: Oh, man. I have lots to say about that clip. That clip is a prime example of the collaboration that went into this film, because there’s so many ideas that came from different members of our team that all fold together into the choices that make up a scene. So, for instance, when I take the souffle in one fell swoop from the oven into the trash. That was Adam Newport-Berra, our cinematographer’s idea. He said, ‘wouldn’t it be funny,’ and he was kind of sheepish about it. He said ‘it would be funny if she just, like, did it in one, without looking at it, like a no look pass into the trash.’ And I thought that was such a hilarious concept. I was like, of course, because in her mind, she thinks if she does that, then maybe no one will notice. Even though the audience is aware of how much work she’s put into this souffle. So that was such a great idea and then I got to perform it, and to do justice to an idea that was entirely his and yet felt so right. And it was an example of the cinematographer being so clued-in to the plot and to the characters. And I think you’re not always so lucky to have a DP who knows the characters as well as Adam really did, and it makes a huge difference. Everyone in every department was a storyteller.
That’s one thing. Another thing that I love so much is the relationship dynamic that, that Seth and I created for those characters. You can feel the contentious nature of it, but there’s also the sense of real partnership. Like, I’m going to ask you with my eyes to do this thing that I need you to do in a way that shows to her it is like existentially essential that he gets the wine, that of course they should not be drinking on this occasion, and he knows that she’s in a state of mind that he must help her through this.
A sad version of the story would be someone who dismissed that and kind of left her out, you know, to drown in that feeling and refused the wine. And that would be a very tragic story about contempt. But to me, even a moment of contentious awkwardness is actually an example of their love for each other. That was something that we just tried as an improvisation that ended up feeling so funny to both of us. The idea of the tense, whispered fight that you do, almost thinking the other people sort of hoping that the others aren’t watching. And of course we cut to them, watching very closely, and also the threatening nature that is like something people really recognise I think when they watch it, you hear the very specific laughter of recognition from the crowd. They’re like, ‘ahahaha I have been in that conversation’ when it’s like, ‘Get it, get the wine!’
She really looks like she’s going to die unless he gets the wine and he’s aware. He’s aware that she might actually crack. The way he sips from that cup tells a whole story of a marriage, and I love it.
…
WILDE: Now we’re going to watch a clip from The Birdcage, directed by Mike Nichols, based on La Cage Aux Folles.
It is a film that inspires me for so many reasons. Had a lot to do with The Invite in many ways, but it’s also just a movie that I rewatch all the time.
Here we go. No matter how many shirts I send that boy, he only wears this one. You look awful. What’s wrong?
[CLIP OF THE BIRDCAGE PLAYS]
WILDE: Ah! I don’t even know where to start, I mean. Mike Nichols obviously started in theatre, and one of the many ways you see that in his films is through blocking and the way that he trusts his actors to hold the frame together without, making it seem overly precious, but where they are in the frame and how they’re behaving is it’s like a painting. It’s like you can look at any part of it and learn a different part of the story, but it’s all the information is available to you and it’s theatrical, but it works because the characters are so well tuned and the story is so well written that you are not forced to do a close-up of someone to see that they’ve had a thought or a reaction, and do a close-up of someone’s hand to see that they’re putting sugar in the coffee do a close… You trust that the audience is noticing the necessary information, because you trust that you have given them enough interesting things to look at and the right information to pick up on. It seems simple. It’s deceptively simple. It’s actually very courageous because you are allowing the performers to be in charge of the rhythm of the scene. It’s very restrained.
One reason I love Mike Nichols is that sometimes he’s very bold visually. Think of something like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. He’s incredibly bold with the cinematography. You know, Haskell Wexler shot that film, and they were really experimental with the way they were creating this visceral, emotional language with the camera. The Birdcage has so much exciting movement to its visual style. But this scene, I love it because the information he’s given the audience up to this point is enough to let us enjoy these specific moments without him winking and drawing our attention to anything. It’s like, you know why that’s an important moment. You know what’s happening in his head and his head and his head. It’s also just an example of like three of the finest actors of all time playing together.
…
WILDE: Now we’re gonna watch a clip from Fargo by the Coen Brothers, shot by Roger Deakins, and really celebrate the visual masterpiece that is this entire film.
[CLIP OF FARGO PLAYS]
I could take any clip from this movie and be just as excited about it.
The iconic visual from this film is the shot from above, when Carl is walking in the parking lot and of course, there’s this high, high and wide shot of the snow. And it’s unbelievable because it almost looks they look like pebbles or at the very most like toys in the snow. And it’s this incredible wide shot. And it is the bleak nature of the landscape and the white, white, white, kind of visual palette that makes that shot so evocative. But literally any shot from this movie can do the same thing. And this one specifically.
What’s amazing is that Deakins shoots all the Coen’s movies with this incredible sense of humour to the way the camera is placed and the framing of everything. It’s so specific, the way that he just understands exactly the information. They all understand the information you need at that moment to build the kind of tension. It’s cinematography working in partnership with performance in a way that is really, really thrilling to see. I mean, everything about this film is a masterpiece.
The red scraper that he’s using is the same one we saw Carl scraping the car with earlier. Everything about the colours, the blood red on his face, on his hands, in the snow. I had an opportunity to talk to Roger Deakins recently, and he’s just so British and self-effacing and so humble that I couldn’t get him to really flex and explain to me how he approaches these decisions, and how comedy can be so perfectly laced into the way a shot is framed without it being self-conscious. But he just was so humble. He’s like, ‘oh, well, you know.’ And I was like, ‘tell me! I want to learn from you.’ One of the great masters.
…
Now we are going to watch a clip from Booksmart. And I haven’t seen this in a very long time. It’s gonna make me really emotional now.
[CLIP OF BOOKSMART PLAYS]
WILDE: Oh, Kaitlyn.
There are so many moments, that I could choose from that movie. It was an experience of trusting the process of what you discover in the edit in some ways. I had an idea of that scene and I didn’t know what song would play, and we were in the edit and I was playing Perfume Genius in the edit room, sometimes just playing music while we look through footage, and it happened to hit right the moment that she jumped in the pool. It happened to hit, and suddenly I was aware of exactly what the tone of this moment should be and should feel like. The music just clicking everything together and I, I knew that we would need this song and we would, it would end up kind of driving the rest of the cut of this moment.
I loved watching Kaitlyn’s performance in that, and it felt to me like adolescence, like the excitement and the potential when you’ve hit liberation and suddenly the future is very exciting and anything is possible and everything that was once terrifying is suddenly electrifying, and you feel like you have jumped into the deep end, but you are capable of swimming. The metaphor is very much on the nose. But then, of course, what happens right after is she’s devastated and that’s, that’s life.
Full body chills, at my own movie, which is sort of obnoxious, but I think it’s because I haven’t seen in so long and I just remember the magic that was happening with these performances from these actors bringing such empathy to every moment, even a moment without words.
We obviously packed this movie with a lot of really clever words, a screenplay that I absolutely loved by Katie Silberman, BAFTA nominated. Pretty exciting. It was very, very, cerebral in many ways. And then there were moments of incredibly emotional, visceral storytelling that had nothing to do with what they were saying. But they were such good actors, you could feel it, even the way they move their bodies. To know now, with the power of hindsight, that it resonated with people and that I’m still approached daily by people who say that this movie really spoke to them, and sometimes from really unexpected places. But I just I look at that moment, and I realise like, wow.
When anyone looks at their first film, what you see is that you were breaking the rules because you hadn’t yet learned them. And that’s a very valuable state of mind to be in. If it doesn’t work, you’ve tried it, but you’re not holding yourself up against any standard you’ve set with your own work. You are liberated by the fact that you are forging something new.
That film was such an eruption of enthusiasm that I had been building up for so long of wanting to make a movie, wanting to make a movie, and learning from all these great directors and cinematographers and actors. And then this movie was like, ‘Ah, this is all the stuff that I love, and I’m so excited about it.’ I can feel that energy from it. Just even being reminded of it is interesting because you never want to lose that.
…
[CAMERA PANS AROUND AT DIFFERENT MEMORIBILIA]
WILDE: Oh wow. We have our jamon. I want to take a picture. Cowboys & Aliens. A masterpiece! Harrison Ford, poor guy, peppered with questions from me all day long about Blade Runner and everything else. And then Jon Favreau, our director, who really inspired me to start directing because of the way he would contextualise each scene for everyone, even the background actors, he would stand in front of a crowd of like 200 extras and give them their moment before, you know, and, like, really give people a sense of being a part of the storytelling. So that’s a very happy memory.
Oh my God, this is the volcano house from Don’t Worry Darling. Unbelievable location out in Barstow, a real house.
We have Flynn’s Arcade from Tron. My kids just discovered this movie and they watched 20 minutes of it before recognising that it was me. Oh wait, I forgot Rush. No one in the States knew anything about F1 when we made this movie, so the whole press tour was us basically explaining about F1 we’re like, okay, so it’s like NASCAR, but like 1000 times cooler. And now, thanks to Drive to Survive, everybody’s obsessed with F1 and people are rediscovering this movie and telling the story of Niki Lauda and James Hunt.
Okay, I’m done, I promise.
PRODUCER: That’s a wrap on Olivia Wilde.
WILDE: Thank you.