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  • 9 months ago
It's been twenty years since Keira Knightley & Rosamund Pike starred in the movie 'Pride & Prejudice.' Keira and Rosamund reunite to discuss everything from their first audition and Keira's Oscar nomination for her role as Elizabeth Bennet to their latest projects 'Black Doves' and 'The Wheel of Time.'

Director: Jack Bowden
Director of Photography: James Fox
Editor: Alex Mechanik; Matthew Colby
Talent: Keira Knightley, Rosamund Pike
Producer: Anisa Kennar, Madison Coffey, Rashida Josiah
Line Producer: Natasha Soto-Albors
Associate Producer: Zayna Allen
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi
Production Coordinator: Elizabeth Hymes
Camera Operator: Stephen Ley
Gaffer: Remmi E. Valja
Audio Engineer: Jimmy Lobe
Production Assistant: Andrea Ratti
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Supervising Editor: Erica DeLeo
Assistant Editor: Fynn Lithgow; Justin Symonds
With Special Thanks to the Dorchester Hotel
Transcript
00:00When you did the dawn scene, you know, where he's coming across the door, and we all got up with you.
00:04You all got up with us?
00:05Yes.
00:06Everyone got up at 3am.
00:07Yes, we did.
00:08And everybody was there for the scene.
00:10Yeah.
00:10People that are doing this for the new one for Netflix, if they're not all doing that, then they're missing out.
00:14Hello.
00:15Hello.
00:16I feel like we're reunited for a game of sardines.
00:19Well, that's a good idea. Shall we do that?
00:27What do we remember about the first time we met?
00:29Were you there for my audition?
00:30I was there for your audition. I just got the part.
00:32You did a really good job.
00:35I remember what I was wearing for my audition.
00:39I don't remember. What were you wearing?
00:40Well, because then Jacqueline Durran, the raising costume designer, had to take it because she had to match that shade of pink for the pink that Jane wore in the first ball before the Netherfield one.
00:51Where was the town that they lived? Where was the village?
00:57Oh, no, nothing.
00:58Nothing. It's not there.
00:59No, don't remember. God, do you know what? I haven't seen her in 20 years.
01:02Love every man in the room. Does not end the evening in love with you. That I am no judge of beauty.
01:07All men.
01:08No, they are far too easy to judge.
01:10Was that the one where it's all very sweaty and kind of like country?
01:13Yeah. And it was filmed on long lenses so nobody knew when you were on camera.
01:17You were wearing green.
01:18And you must have been wearing pink.
01:20The pink.
01:20The pink.
01:21Ah.
01:22Audition.
01:23What were my first impressions of you? I mean, just sophisticated and gorgeous.
01:26I mean, what's funny is that I don't remember what you were wearing then, but I do remember so many of your other clothes because you've always had the most amazing clothes.
01:36Oh, that's very nice.
01:38Yeah, because I was like a real scruff and I always remember looking at you.
01:41No, you weren't.
01:41I remember you being unbelievably cool.
01:44And I remember staying in a hotel and going for a walk one evening and you were in the gym because you were also simultaneously playing Elizabeth Bennet, preparing for your role as domino, practicing with nunchucks.
01:57So I was like, oh, my goodness, this girl is badass.
02:00Yeah, no, it was.
02:01I do actually remember.
02:02She's in a bonnet by day and she's wielding nunchucks by night.
02:04Nunchucks by night.
02:06Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:06And I think I had to get up at like 5 a.m. to do like knife practice or something and then I'd go and be Elizabeth Bennet.
02:13I enjoyed that.
02:14But no, it's your cloak because, no, but you know what I really remember?
02:18I remember you and this must have been later.
02:20You had the most amazing hat in Venice and you were sat by a swimming pool.
02:24We were at the Venice Film Festival.
02:27And you were wearing this amazing hat by the pool.
02:31It was enormous.
02:32It was really enormous.
02:33It was really enormous.
02:35And I just remember thinking, yeah, like if you're going to be in Venice, like that's the way to be in Venice.
02:39Like do it with the hat.
02:41I do remember that hat.
02:42And then it becomes a totally impractical as you get older and have children.
02:45I mean, it becomes one thing.
02:46You can never have the hat.
02:47You just there's no room in the family luggage for a hat like that.
02:50You'd get both the children in the hat, though, which would be quite handy, I suppose.
02:54Oh, my gosh.
02:54I learned a lot from you because you had this unbelievable work ethic.
02:59I mean, I, you know, what was on your shoulders age 19 was just, I mean, I don't know if you look back and think, give your 19 year old self a pat on the back.
03:09I do, actually.
03:10I mean, because the experience of playing Lizzie is totally different from the experience of playing Jane.
03:15With Jane, you know, you might be in one scene a day or you might have a day off.
03:19With Lizzie, you don't have any days off.
03:21You're in from morning till night.
03:24And so it's, it's, and playing a lead is, is, is very, very, it's a totally different ballgame.
03:29It is a totally different ballgame.
03:31I think it's, in a funny way, it's sort of, you're so immersed in it, though, that in a, quite a nice way is you're just sort of in this tunnel vision and you kind of just go through it.
03:40There were probably things that we did socially that you had to miss out on.
03:45There were things that you did socially that I had to miss out on.
03:47And I remember looking at you all thinking, oh, I wish I had a bit of that.
03:51Yeah.
03:52Because you were all having such an amazing, it looked like.
03:55Yeah.
03:55Maybe you weren't.
03:56We could have things like even just having a dinner all together.
03:59Yeah.
03:59Which, because you're up and you've got these major scenes the next day, you can't do it.
04:04But I was also just really shy, so I didn't quite know how to, I didn't know how to do it.
04:07But I, I, I remember it being like the first time that I'd worked with a group of people that were sort of the same age.
04:13Yeah.
04:13As opposed to working with a bunch of guys who were infinitely older, which is all I'd done up to then.
04:19But, you know, working with all of you guys and, and being, and yeah.
04:23And, but I did, I, I remember managing at some points to come down and be a part of it, but it did look like you were like this amazing kind of group of.
04:31Oh, that makes.
04:32Well, I think it was just that you, you were so cool and you were so sophisticated.
04:37You were, you seemed very worldly and you seemed very together and you seemed, I don't know, just like you, you knew what you were doing in like this amazing way.
04:48You had confidence.
04:49I think that, I mean, probably you didn't because you were in your twenties and who has confidence in the twenties.
04:54But what it looked like was that you had this amazing confidence about yourself, which I think I sort of thought that's a wonderful trait.
05:03At least even if you don't have it, to be able to exude that.
05:07Well, that is good.
05:07That's a good actress we're supposed to be.
05:09A good actress.
05:10Well, exactly.
05:10Even when feeling like you don't have it, you know, you totally did.
05:16You were like, you were, you were the sort of consummate older sister, you, you know, you were playing the older sister.
05:21Well, I think that was a nice role for me because I don't have siblings.
05:24So I think it was a great treat for me to suddenly get to play the older sister of this amazing family of girls.
05:31Yeah.
05:31And I, and I loved it.
05:33I loved the feeling of being close to you all.
05:36And I loved the fact, I don't know if you remember, but sometimes between takes, you and I would go up to our bedroom.
05:40Yes, you do.
05:41To Lizzie and Jane's bedroom.
05:42Yeah, yeah, yeah.
05:42And just, you know, instead of going off, we'd sit on our bed and chat.
05:47Can you die of happiness?
05:50Do you know he was totally ignorant of my being in town in the spring?
05:53How did he account for it?
05:54He thought me indifferent.
05:57Unfathomable.
05:58Things that we did when we weren't shooting, Roz, that we can share or that we would like to share.
06:04Now, come on, there was the party that Donald Sutherland came to because the whole thing was that you weren't allowed to.
06:10Smoke.
06:11Oh, yes.
06:12And he had, so he had it in his contract that nobody on the set was allowed to smoke anywhere near and you couldn't smell of smoke.
06:19But of course, everyone smoked back then anyway.
06:22Everyone smoked.
06:23And so we'd be running off and everybody would be smoking.
06:25And then you'd be sort of spraying yourself with everything.
06:28But the party he came to, he came in the center of it in a gas mask.
06:32And he stood in the party, in the middle of the party.
06:36Because he knew that everybody would be smoking.
06:37Because he knew and he was like, I want you to all be able to smoke and I wanted to come to the party.
06:40So we were there smoking and him in the gas mask.
06:43He was amazing.
06:44And he also remembered halfway through shooting that he had a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow that he bought while making Don't Look Now or something.
06:52And completely forgotten about and remembered was garaged somewhere up near Manchester and had it delivered to set.
06:59And there was this day when this Rolls Royce Silver Shadow glided into, you know, of course, no one wanted car tire marks on the, you know, or, you know, only chicken feet and, you know, silver slippers.
07:14I have to say, most actors have been a disappointment since then.
07:17Most actors.
07:18Yes, well, Donald is pretty legendary.
07:20We did have dinners with him sometimes.
07:22I mean, he told us some pretty wild stories which cannot be shared.
07:25No, no.
07:26Amazing stories but mustn't be shared.
07:28I will give my hearty consent to his marrying whichever of the girls he chooses.
07:32So will he come to the ball tomorrow, Papa?
07:36I believe so.
07:38How did the success of Pride and Bridgetous affect your career?
07:42My career.
07:44You were nominated for an Oscar.
07:45I was nominated for an Oscar.
07:46I mean, that's, that you're forever an Oscar nominee after that.
07:50Yes, yes.
07:51So it did.
07:52I mean, I think, yeah, I mean, it, yeah, it was pretty big for my career, I think.
07:56I mean, it's still sort of, I think, probably the main one that if people will come up to me, it'll be about that one, which is kind of, you know, pretty, it was pretty big.
08:07And it was, and it was incredibly well reviewed and popular.
08:11I think that was, for me, it was because I'd had, Pirates of the Caribbean had already come out.
08:16But I think in the public consciousness, I was seen as a terrible actress.
08:20But I had this phenomenally big success with Pirates.
08:23And I think this was the first one that was a phenomenally big success, but was also critically acclaimed.
08:28And so I remember it coming out maybe the same year, maybe around the same time as, as Pirates 2.
08:34And I got the worst reviews ever for that.
08:37And then also being nominated for an Oscar at the same time.
08:40So it was in my 20, 21 year old head.
08:44Quite a confusing time.
08:46You only found it like Beckham.
08:48I was 16.
08:49So I was 17 when it came out.
08:51That had great reviews.
08:52I got terrible reviews for it, or at least the ones I remember, or the ones that in your 17 year old brain actually sink in, of course, are only the ones that are negative.
09:00So I think it was like the first time that it had been unequivocally positive.
09:05Yes.
09:06And, and so that was, that was amazing.
09:09And to take a character that's loved by so many and the world feel like you've nailed it.
09:14Yes, that's a nice, that's a nice feeling.
09:17Yes.
09:18How about you?
09:18Well, I mean, I just remember being part of something that felt magical.
09:23And I remember being in New York on the night that it actually opened to the public and kind of scooting around New York with our director and the assistant director, the second unit director, Thomas Napper.
09:36And sort of just watching secretly these cues that were assembling to go into the screens.
09:41And that was very, very exciting moment.
09:44But it is funny because I think a lot, I do remember a feeling when we were making it that it was going to work.
09:50And I don't know whether that was because we were so young that we didn't know the feeling of it not, or whether it just felt all the way through that we were like, oh, this feels really like it's happening.
10:01I do think the story has a magic in it that carries you through.
10:05It does.
10:05And I think it being one of those stories that has magic in it.
10:08Yes.
10:08That everybody who's ever is associated with that story.
10:11Yeah.
10:12Has quite a magical time.
10:13I think you're probably right.
10:14But I mean, what about the chemistry with you and Matthew?
10:16You know, that was, you must have met a few Darcy's.
10:19Not that you're going to discuss that now.
10:21I wouldn't dream of discussing that.
10:23But yes, there were a few Darcy's and it was very clear that it was Matthew from the get-go.
10:28And it was just, he was, it was, you know, he's just such a nice man.
10:32Yeah.
10:32I think that helps, doesn't it?
10:34It does.
10:34If you kind of meet somebody and you're just like, well, you're just lovely.
10:37And can also do.
10:38And can also, such an amazing actor.
10:41So what fun.
10:42It kind of becomes sort of.
10:44And when he can completely mask the niceness and put it under the arrogance and standoffishness that Darcy appears to have.
10:53And then melt.
10:54Oh, it's so good.
10:56I fought against my better judgment, my family's expectation, the inferiority of your birth, my rank and circumstance, all these things.
11:01And I'm willing to put them aside and ask you to end my agony.
11:04I don't understand.
11:05I love you.
11:06When you did the dawn scene, you know, where he's coming across the dawn, we all got up with you.
11:11You all got up with us.
11:12Yes.
11:12Everyone got up at 3am.
11:14Yes, we did.
11:14And everybody was there for the scene.
11:16Yes.
11:17It was very, very.
11:18See, the people that are doing this for the new one for Netflix, if they're not all doing that, then they're missing out.
11:22Exactly.
11:22It's like you've all got to be there for all of the scenes, guys.
11:26So, Kira, what was it that tempted you into TV?
11:29Because you, I mean, most of your career has been spent making films.
11:32Most of it had.
11:34I mean, I had been looking for a TV series.
11:36I mean, from the point where everything seemed to be going on to streaming and suddenly there were these amazing budgets for television and it was this epic.
11:44I had actually been looking for them for years.
11:45And just for one reason or another, COVID or a baby, it hadn't happened.
11:49And so, yeah, this was the one that I was fortunate all came together.
11:52It is strange, isn't it?
11:53How big screen and small screen are sort of merging and that very likely someone who's seen your film now will have seen it in the palm of their hand.
12:01In the palm of their hand.
12:02Yeah.
12:02Or you promised me that you will keep my family safe and you will keep me alive so that I can find out who killed him and why.
12:12And I can take my revenge.
12:15Kira, do you relate to your character in Black Dots?
12:18Well, I've already told you that, you know, I've already told everyone here that you're a...
12:22Vaguely psychotic.
12:23Badass who kind of...
12:24Oh, yeah, that you saw me at 19 with my nunchucks.
12:26Yeah, with your nunchucks.
12:27Yeah.
12:28That knife fighting, it really came out.
12:30Do I...
12:32I mean, yeah, but I think it's easy.
12:33She is a bit of a psychopath, but I think it's easier to, you know, she's not quite as epically kind of...
12:40You know, you're well in fantasy, whereas mine is...
12:44Reality.
12:44Sort of reality.
12:45Hovering, hovering.
12:46Hovering just above, yeah, reality.
12:49As a mother, as a mother, what do you think?
12:51How are your parenting styles?
12:53Well, I mean, I'm not an undercover spy who's constantly betraying their father, which I think just as parenting goes means that I'm better than she is.
13:04So, you know, that's good.
13:05I think I probably lose it at my kids more than she does, because she's pretending to be the perfect mother.
13:11Yeah.
13:11And maybe if she lost it at her kids, then actually it would all be a lot healthier.
13:15But she doesn't.
13:16I think what I liked about her was the idea of multiple personalities in one person, which I think we do, hopefully not to a massive degree, but do to some degree have.
13:26And you realise it even more when you become a mother, because, you know, the face that you've got to your kids is not necessarily the face that you've got when you go out and you have a nice time with your mate.
13:37Did you get to go undercover?
13:39No, I didn't.
13:39I didn't do...
13:40I didn't go undercover.
13:42I'd done...
13:42I'd spoken to spies before, because I played a spy before, so I'd already done some...
13:47And this one is...
13:47Do you get to speak to spies face to face, or do you have to speak to them on the phone?
13:50You do.
13:50No, you speak...
13:51With a voice changer.
13:52I can't say, obviously.
13:53But I felt like this was quite, again, not really...
13:57I mean, on the closer to the James Bond...
14:00In fact, I was doing reality and you were doing fantasy.
14:02I was doing fantasy, yeah.
14:04Yeah.
14:04So, did I do any research?
14:06No, but I did learn all the fight scenes.
14:11That's research, isn't it?
14:13Yes, that's training.
14:14That was training.
14:14Large core training.
14:15I mean, the whole thing's silly, and that's what I enjoyed.
14:18I mean, in the best way.
14:19I mean, it's pretty griffy.
14:20If you're watching it, you don't know what's happening.
14:22It's really enjoyable and entertaining, but it's also...
14:25I mean, I strangle somebody with a necklace.
14:28It was great.
14:28I loved that.
14:29I was so happy.
14:30It was like, oh, and then the necklace breaks.
14:32This is so fun.
14:34And again, the previous question of, are you similar to your character?
14:37Little bit psychotic, obviously, because I'm going, yay, I get to strangle him with a necklace.
14:42And I remember I kept saying to Jo, the writer, can't I kill her?
14:45Because she's trying to sleep with my husband.
14:47I should kill her.
14:47He's like, you can't kill her.
14:48I'm like, I think I'd kill her.
14:50I'll clutch her pearls.
14:50Don't you think you should kill her?
14:51Yeah.
14:52I'll clutch her pearls and garot her with her pearls.
14:55My lady, can I help you?
15:01We'll need stables for our horses and a room for the night.
15:04Two beds and fresh linen.
15:05That's all we need.
15:07Of course, Moraine Sedai.
15:09Go on.
15:09Are there any parts of Moraine that are like you?
15:15Yeah, I think the single-mindedness.
15:17I think if you get my loyalty, you get it 100%.
15:21Yeah.
15:21I think that is similar.
15:23You do get, once I commit to something, I'm all in.
15:27Yeah.
15:27But she has no humour.
15:30No.
15:31No, she doesn't.
15:32Which is why I've made a mental note that in the next few years, I must play characters
15:36who get to have a laugh.
15:37She gets about one laugh a season, I think.
15:40Did you make sure?
15:41Did you, like, beat it out?
15:43Here it is.
15:44No, I tried to wait for it.
15:46There was one where she got to have a drink.
15:47I was like, oh, God, can she just get a bit...
15:50Let loose.
15:50Let her get a bit pissed and let loose.
15:52Yeah.
15:52It's very brief.
15:53Very brief.
15:54She doesn't in the books, does she?
15:55Haven't.
15:56No, she's very serious.
15:56Very serious.
15:57Not many...
15:57You haven't read the books.
15:58No, but I didn't know.
16:00I haven't.
16:00But I know that you've done the audio book.
16:02Oh.
16:02And I thought, actually, I might listen to those at some point, because that might be
16:06quite fun, because I bet you're good at an audio book.
16:07I did the audio book of Pride and Prejudice, too.
16:09Did you?
16:10That's very good.
16:12So, Kira, of all the amazing directors that you've worked with, who do you think, is there
16:16any particular one who you think, you know, this person taught me?
16:19Yes, I think I'd have to say Jo Wright, because we worked together three times, and I was
16:23a teenager the first time, and then sort of in my late 20s, by the end of our sort of
16:27working relationship.
16:28So, I think confidence, I learnt, and just the fact that at that point, somebody was
16:33believing in my ability was a major thing for me at that point in my life, I think,
16:37and that he really stuck up for me.
16:39And working title, too.
16:40And working title, yeah.
16:42Having a studio.
16:43It was a kind of studio system, in a way, isn't it, for you?
16:46Yeah.
16:46And it was absolutely amazing.
16:49It was amazing.
16:49And a joy to...
16:51I mean, I always dream of working with the same person again.
16:53It doesn't seem to always happen.
16:54But it is...
16:55You no doubt, you have a shorthand if you get to do it again.
16:58You definitely get to have a shorthand.
17:00Same question for you, Roz.
17:02Yes.
17:03For me, David Fincher was the absolute...
17:05I feel my whole career is before and after that film, because I probably had more hours
17:10on camera during that film alone than the whole rest of my career combined.
17:15I genuinely still believe that.
17:16We shot for 106 days, because he spends all the budget on time.
17:20Wow.
17:21And he doesn't mess around.
17:23And he does these, you know, famously large number of takes.
17:27So you get an awful lot of time.
17:29And he taught me so much.
17:31And I just sort of cringe now sometimes.
17:33Not Pride and Prejudice, not the stuff that I did that was sort of close to me.
17:36But some of the things I did in America, I almost cringe at, because I think about what
17:40he would be saying about them, which I suppose is sort of...
17:42Does he give you notes as well?
17:43Oh, yes.
17:44Hundreds of notes, interesting notes.
17:46But sometimes they're left of field ideas that are so random that you're, you know,
17:51you're doing a scene that's, you know, you have an agenda to go through.
17:55I don't know what it was.
17:56You know, you're looking for receipts in a bin or something.
17:58And he says, think about who's wondering if your hair looks nice.
18:02But it's those are the things that actually you think now I'll think, what have I missed
18:07or what other thought could be coming in that's completely left of field?
18:10Just anything random, you know, you're out in the street at night thinking, who's watching
18:16me?
18:16Or instead of just focusing on your mission.
18:18What you're actually doing.
18:19Yeah.
18:20And he's just very cool and very clever.
18:22And I always felt I wasn't good enough for him, which probably suggests that, you know,
18:27you always thought I'm never going to be at the level.
18:30But that is also exciting because you think there's always more to find.
18:34But you also, in the midst of that, think I get to play everything with this part because
18:38she's also a performer and she's putting on so many different selves.
18:41But sometimes he'd say to me, OK, I want you to play disgust, remorse, despair, indignation,
18:48and then just think they're all so beneath you.
18:51I don't know, something like that.
18:52And you'd think, oh, God, OK, OK, I'll do it.
18:55And then you'd say, OK, did I do it?
18:56And he'd say, yeah, but that took you 12 seconds.
18:59I need it in three.
19:00Jesus.
19:01And you think, OK, and then you sort of think, I can't, I can't.
19:06And then and then eventually after you're on take 99.
19:09Oh, I did.
19:09I did.
19:09Maybe I just did it.
19:11Yeah.
19:12It's rehearsal.
19:13It's rehearsal.
19:14That's all it is.
19:14It's rehearsal.
19:15It's rehearsal.
19:16Yeah.
19:16My favorite performance of yours is I Care A Lot.
19:19Who do you work for?
19:20Jennifer Peters.
19:21Liar.
19:22Excuse me?
19:23Liar.
19:23Jennifer did not call you from the facility.
19:26You think I'm stupid enough to let new awards anywhere near a working phone?
19:29And I know from her paperwork, her lawyer is a local guy who deals in family law.
19:34And that's not you.
19:35You're a shark, which intrigues me.
19:38And I want to know who hired you.
19:40Gone Girl is up there.
19:41But I loved I Care A Lot so much.
19:44I think I phoned you afterwards or I saw you.
19:46I remember seeing you afterwards.
19:46Oh, yes, you did.
19:47Yes, you did.
19:47I loved it so much.
19:49You're so psychotic and weird and awful and wonderful.
19:52And I was like, that is it's one of my favorite.
19:56It's actually just flat out just one of my favorite performances.
20:00It's a wonderful, weird thing that you created.
20:04I love it.
20:04Oh, that's well.
20:05Now you say that you like playing psychotic.
20:07Well, that's just.
20:08Yeah, I was thinking.
20:09I was thinking of that performance when I was playing Helen Webb.
20:11I was like, oh, what would you want to do?
20:13Well, I mean, I loved Anna Karenina.
20:16I thought Anna Karenina was the most.
20:18I thought that was just a blinding film.
20:21I loved the whole conceit of it.
20:23I think I rang you after that one.
20:24I thought it was just absolutely stunning because it was so layered.
20:28And so it was it was so unexpected.
20:30And the whole thing of the theater just worked really, really well for me.
20:33I thought it was phenomenal.
20:35But then, you know, Lizzie, I mean, my sister, I still think I still think it's one of the greatest
20:41performances ever.
20:42Oh.
20:43And I and I think I can't believe that they're daring, daring to do another one for Netflix
20:49because I, you know, and even now when I see it, you know, even when you when you see
20:53something, even a clip of it, I marvel at what you did.
20:56I really do.
20:57But I was obviously there for all of it.
20:59So Anna Karenina, I didn't see any of.
21:00So I just was able to just watch it as a something I knew nothing about with with Pride
21:05and Prejudice.
21:06I feel I know every sort of breath of it.
21:08I mean, I can't say I'm someone who watches it over and over, but which I'd like to be able
21:11to do if I wasn't in it.
21:12Really?
21:13I mean...
21:14What kind of a fan are you?
21:15Yes, we've had a whole conversation, courtesy of Vanity Fair, and we haven't even had a
21:18cup of tea or a glass of water or anything.
21:20I know.
21:21A glass of water.
21:22Glass of champagne.
21:23They could have been here drinking champagne.
21:24Then they could have got some really good stories.
21:26Should we go and have some champagne now?
21:27Come on.
21:28Bye bye.
21:29Bye bye.
21:31Bye bye.
21:35You
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