Carrie Coon & Elizabeth Olsen on acting in latest drama His Three Daughters

marvelous side I'd love to talk to you about his three daughters great um you're both incredible in the film thank you um I mean your character has got so much dialogue but you find so much in her life it's absolutely fascinating and you got such a great flip your character is just so incredibly believable and I think that's one of your like real credits as a as an actress is whether you are doing Marvel or whether you're doing indie films or dramas you always are just completely believable on screen um so I'd love to just talk about how you first came across the script how you got into this project and what was that moment when you when you thought I've got to do this this film is is this is this is a drama of calmness uh well Carrie and I both and thank you for saying those things um K and I both know OA pretty well um separately we hadn't met before and so it oza wrote these parts for the two of us and for Natasha and I think that was a big part of why I wanted to be a part of it he could have kind of put anything in front of me and I would have wanted he and I have been friends and have been trying to figure out how to collaborate again with one another um for years and so when I got to open the first page and I saw Katie and then I flipped and Katie kept going I actually thought how how incredible like I just I've there's no I've never read a script that opens like that um that isn't a play and um and so I I I thought that the what he was trying to do with the language and the Rhythm and the musicality of this script was so specific and clear and how he was going to shoot it was so clear on the page as well these isolated shots where we were not really sure our orientation as the as we're watching but also the orientation of the character within the space that they're inhabiting and I just I I loved that that the way he had written it um really showed the Journey he wanted the audience to go on with him and yeah so I think there are many reasons and then also to to just make something as uh as with so much Integrity as what he had built he knew exactly how much money he had there was no big announce not big small announcement doesn't matter it all gets lost and then you go to a festival and you try and sell it there's none of that it was just I have I have these three people I've worked with in the past who are able to give me this amount of money it doesn't matter who I work with these are the three actresses I want to work with on this project and uh he wanted Final Cut and he wanted to edit it and I wanted to be a part of um that that project sorry that's a lot of res sounds like he really included you both in in the process like you know not just I'm I'm an actor to be part of this you know machine of of film making like you come on board and work with me on this and Natasha and you have said too it's like it was like we were making a home movie for Aza to process the possibility of the loss of his parents yeah was like a project we were doing and it didn't matter who was going to see it we didn't know if anybody would ever see it and so here we are you know Netflix I think a few people have seen it yeah made it made it so and we're very grateful because we didn't we didn't have that expectation and so therefore it was very pure experience for us so let's talk a little bit about building your characters because um I talked a bit with Azel earlier about um how he's very specific about the shots and how he's planning things sounds like the dialogue didn't change tremendously so it's very much about the subtext I'm guessing so you know what were maybe some of the things when you came on board that you looked at the script and you thought okay I'd like to bring a little bit of personalization into here or uh this is some some direction I'd like to go maybe those discussions with him as well well I mean I think with watching your process if I'm if I may please I'm very curious there is no uh specific language besides Christina just saying uh you know well Katie's been drinking whatever to her husband I I when I read it and this might too much reflection of of of the way I look at the world but um I never read it thinking oh Katie has a drinking problem and you approached it with that kind of realization of well this woman I don't you should speak you can speak to that but I I just I that wasn't something that to me screamed off the page and it was something that but I think that's one of the strengths of the script too is that it doesn't overe explain any of the backstory so yes we did have discussions with oza about the timeline about two of Natasha's our half sister in the film so there were two step sister there were two mothers and so we had a discussion about like how when were we in in the space at the same time growing up and when were we apart and um just when those women died so very brass tax and I had a discussion with about like what kind of job Katie had because I wanted to know about her education but otherwise everything was on the page and I love that he's not giving too much information to the audience and that's what to me makes it feel like a movie from the 70s or 80s when we didn't we dig ified The Audience by not overe explaining things and I think that's what o is doing really well and it reminds me of like shab or something like it's just you don't need to know their backstories to relate to the story that's unfolding in front of your face and how is it working together and that collaboration and of building your your sisterly because you're you're all such clearly defined very different characters and yet you glue in this like well glue you're kind of you are the glue keeping everyone together I guess and you you know your character controlling everyone controlling everyone and then but then there's there's the flip at the end so I mean it's it's a really interesting Dynamic be um I think it I think how we started working with each other is just knowing that we we all showed up with a similar intention which is we have a very short period of time and a lot of constraints to make this project I'm going to be as open and vulnerable and honest with you as possible of who I am and and I think sometimes when we start that Pro not everyone has to do that right not every actor cares to share in that way and that's fine and totally doable um but I think we all signed up for something thinking let's let's get let's get messy with this and I I think for me without meaning to I actually took a bit of a a backseat in a way as Christina would without really thinking about how I was interacting with you guys based on how Christina does but I do think there's always like a bit of that that happens but you and Natasha are so highly intelligent and both incredibly verbal and funny and I kind of love just watching the two of you just play you know has nothing to do with the script even and so it started I already started to feel myself it's so funny that you speak of yourself that way because that's not how you occur in a room at all fun your presence is so you're just very present and that's kind kind what I was saying earlier like you you're so down to Earth but yet you're also completely captivating it's never like showy but it's alsoa gravitational from within and just like sort of always just like just there you know it's just like what happened in my head when you said L from within oh interesting um you ever seen a gloworm Charming I had a little gloworm as a child a little baby gloworm I cared saying s so so what were what were some of the hardest bits um you know of of of the shoot for you shooting the fight was hard just from a physical just like cuz the because we're in this tiny apartment and figuring out how to like make sure the camera could see into the room while we're doing that so you had to like artificially position to make sure they could see in so there was some stuff like that that was just language changed the there's so many interruptions so we were really drilling yeah when those interruptions were happening yeah it wasn't improvised at all it was very speciic very specific and we so we were drilling that as well and then also I think the thing that was thing for me is it like Carrie's a very strong woman [Music] I was holding her back and the only other person that happened that I'm realizing is with Lily Rave and both both both have crazy theatrical careers so there's something about the the confidence in the physicality I I I mean I can't I'm very grateful you say that you do in the stage there's literally nowhere to hide your body so if you're not acting with your whole body it's pretty Bor yeah I mean it was it was tough watch out for car yeah watch out watch out um any any last like bits of advice um maybe for like I don't know actors trying to sort of Break In make make good drama um I don't know like when you're maybe sort of putting your minds back into earlier parts of your career when you're don't try to guess what other people want don't try to make yourself into the thing you think other people want the most authentic work is going going to come from who you are so you would do well to do the work to find out who that is and that's where the best art will come from that's good I'd leave it at that anything to raise that no I'd leave it at that that's good okay fantastic and a very nice rendition of five little duckies I have to say oh yeah that was it's been actually stuck in my head like last few days every just pops in and out yeah we were singing it too after yeah yeah and Rodrigo's music is so beautiful as well the yeah incredible music well thank you so been amazing chat and um yeah very well done it's great to watch this sort of caliber of drama and such real lived in performances thank you thank you very much