So it made me wanna know, when you were growing up first dreaming of becoming an actor, what did making it look like, and how does that compare to what you are doing now?

Oh, I d- I really, I don't know.

I remember, like, getting, um, an agent in America was huge.

Like, that was the dream.

And then it was like, "Oh, I hope I can be on a CW show," you know? And then, like, I really didn't have, like, a plan or a, a real dream.

I think I just really wanted to act.

And I think, you know, my parents were so supportive and so great, but they were also realists, you know, and going, "Are you sure you don't wanna go to university just to have a backup plan?" And, you know, so I was trying to, like, be a realist about it.

So I'm curious, can you tell me a little bit about finding the right people to have in your corner, people who aren't necessarily just, like, doing their jobs to get it done, but they're doing it in a way that really serves who you are and the goals- Yeah ... you have for yourself?

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Before I tell the story, you must know my husband is a picky eater, and there's no real logic to it.

Like, he likes cheese on pizza but doesn't like cheese on pasta.

And, like, will have nuts in a candy bar, but then, like, no nuts on the salad.

Like, it's just a bit illogical, [laughs] um, which drives me a bit nuts.

Um, also, if you were, like, gonna invite me to a soiree of some kind, and then you hear this story and you go, "Actually, never mind," I went mad.

Oh, my God

What does it feel like on a day your movie's out to the world?

Gosh, I don't know.

I think I just feel really proud of this one, so I'm genuinely excited for people to go and see it.

I think, uh, we made something really special, and I hope people, I hope people are lining up in the theaters and hustling their ways [laughs] in, but yeah.

I mean, it's funny, isn't it? 'Cause the experience of filmmaking is what I love the most.

I think if I put too much pressure on the outcome, I'm in it for the wrong-

Hmm.

And it opened up a lot of questions of like, um, plastic surgery and women's bodies and, um, what society dictates is like beautiful and just the amount of pressure women have.

So when was it or what was it about embodying this character that really helped you lock into who she is?

Uh, the accent was sort of the key to her.

Um, Tom Dean wrote her so well.

And you could hear that Southern voice in the writing.

So as soon as Liz Himelstein, my dialect coach, and I, like, figured out that voice, you can get away with anything if you sound American.

Yeah.

You know? That, like, it made me, it informed how I, like, uh, carried myself, and then the costume designers were just incredible.

That, that with the accent, I, and an incredible script, I really didn't have to do that much.

You've-

It's been pretty wild.

I mean, do you know what, though? I couldn't have planned it better, I don't think, because I, I think a lot of women, it's, it's tough in this industry when you want to have a child and take time off.

Hollywood's pretty brutal.

They might be going, "Sorry, who are you? Like, you're not working for two years, we've forgotten about you, bye." So it was quite amazing that, and just for my anxiety, that during pregnancy I had three films to promote, and then [laughs]

Yeah.

You know? I was like, "That looks like the most fun." I just left my body and had the best theatrical experience.

And then I, uh, I think that was when I realized like, oh, you could do that for a living.

Yes, yeah.

So Lee really opened up, um, like m- a, a skill set and gave me sort of a toolbox, and she's just been...

After I started working with, with her, I was like, started actually booking jobs.

But she really helped me with this.

But that scene you were talking about, Kyle and I, like, had talked about it.

But we hadn't rehearsed it, and we just told the director.

He trusted us so much.

... a very intense scene?

What do you admire most about Caroline?

Oh gosh, what I admire about her.

I think just the fact that she is, you know, willing to take risks.

They might not necessarily be very good or smart, but she does.

And I think even in the like darkest times, she really does have this like weirdly moral compass.

Like even when the when she's delusional and living in a fantasy land, the fact that she questions if she's a good person makes her a good person.

I don't know what I admire about her, but she is admirable.

see that's that's interesting you say that and and we've sort of talked about it here but you your character does caroline does say wonder the line between good people pretending to be bad and bad people pretending to be good how do you know you've crossed that line i

Yeah

... where it's just, um, this beautiful, like, fun, entertaining story, and I hadn't played a character like that before.

So there was a lot of fear around, "Okay, can I pull this off? I've always wanted to.

Let's see if I can." Um, and then I watched Adam's movie Dinner in America and fell in love with Adam and Kyle.

So it just felt like all the incre- like, all the pieces came together in such an incredible, um, way.

And to Adam's point, what I find fascinating about this shoot that I'd never experienced before was, um, Adam and Tom being so collaborative, um, as writers, not only with themselves but with m- Kyle and I, because as we were shooting, and Adam is genius shooting in chronological order.

Tell me about building that out.

Um, I, I mean, really it's just credit to Tom's writing.

like if you just don't get along with somebody, it's hard to fake getting along with

somebody.

Yeah.

There's something underneath, you know? And I just felt very lucky because...

I'm a big fan of doing chemistry tests.

I think that is really important to find out if you've got that thing that the camera can pick up that you can't really.

But I just felt so lucky that that first scene that we shot, I was going, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is good.

Want to

W- what's it like just collaborating with him in general, like, putting a scene together? It sounds like you have a different relationship than you would with most, you know, autoristic directors.

Yeah.

Every director's, you know, got their own approach.

And I think what makes Adam so special is that he can adapt to the actors he works with, because I know he's been, um, you know, he's worked with, like, kids before, and he's worked with Adam befo- uh, with, uh, Kyle before.

And with this one, he really just instinctively let us play, and he didn't really give a lot of notes.

I think he really trusted us to, to play our instincts of the scene, which I th- think is what brought that sort of magic to it, that there wasn't a lot ofI mean, Kyle and I work very similarly in that we prep really well and we rehearse a lot.

But then on the day, Adam kind of stayed out of our way in a sense, and just was like, "Keep the cameras rolling.

You, we get a candid reaction from you based on what they decide to do in the moment.

That's why I said it.

Can you, like, spin it and be a little manipulative and go, "Do you guys want any family time?" And, like, just you guys hang.

You know? Like-

Yep.

It's the hanging over the door, the tits if you will.

Um, and they'll reach, like, not to the floor, right? So the cat can, like, be annoying and decide that it wants to go outside, and then decide that it wants to be back in the room-

Okay, gotcha.

My sister's really adventurous, like way more extroverted and um carefree and so she would be taking full force and be putting herself into whatever it was we were doing i was a big scaredy cat shy kid and i didn't want to leave my little house so it took a lot of like convincing for me to um get out but my dad i think very cleverly clever clever it was clever and uh would sort of uh because he knew i liked to act and play make-believe so he'd interview me at you know, a certain ruin or in a gallery and ask me what my sort of, we'd do like a pseudo David Attenborough style, you know.

Would he

your experience, what's Florence like?

It's so nostalgic now because it was such a, it was, I was like 12 and a half, like nearly, I was like looking down the barrel at puberty, you know? So it was like, I still had this like whimsical, childish wonder.

Um, and we hadn't started high school yet.

And it was, we, my parents thought, oh, let's just homeschool them for six months in Florence.

So yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Um, it's really great.

I, I, I think it's one of the few genres where a woman gets to be the lead.

Not only the lead, but gets to, like, be a hero-

Yeah.

I get to do, I wanna make that movie.

I wanna, like, be running from the guns and s- s- you know, like, trying to dodge mines and stuff.

But no one's making that.

Was that a challenge?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes and no.

I think Claire Danes talks about this, about Homeland, that she feels like she hasn't prepared enough, but it's actually, no, you've already established the character.

You don't have to prepare that much.

So I had this weird fear of...

Am I just being lazy? Am I doing enough? Like, I feel like