Elizabeth Olsen and Carrie Coon for BBC Woman's Hour

death is one thing we all have in common we're all going one way we all have to deal with it in one way or another and I feel that it's particularly in western civilization death has become very far from us we don't deal with the bodies anymore we don't stand them up in the Parlor and keep vigil for three days we pay somebody to take care of all of the details the messy details exactly and I feel like um for that reason we we're we're wul underprepared maybe in a way we never have been in an earlier time and so art a lot of art forces us to reckon with it we're talking about these you know preemptive grief and grief and loss but it's also very funny yes because life is absurd whenever I see something that's that's humorless it doesn't feel real to me because I know how my family deals with things you know when my grandma was in hospice they we all hid alcohol in the bushes because you weren't supposed to have it in there and we would always be laughing and the nurses did she did she go we're like no no we're fine and like we laughed so much when she was dying my brother used to bring her Martini in a pickle jar and we dump out her water and we' pour her Martini in there we're like when they come to give you a sedative what do you say no like the whole thing we had going on but it was so much in keeping with the character of our family and the way we dealt with everything and so of course that stuff comes out in death as well