00:00No one's brought out the word gross yet.
00:01Yeah.
00:02But you're also gross, you are gross.
00:04Gross is correct.
00:05Accent!
00:11I think what we have here in Hollywood is high art.
00:15It's...
00:15Party time! Smuggle time!
00:22This movie obviously does go to some extreme and very gross places.
00:25And actually, I wanted to ask the two of you specifically about two scenes.
00:29Namely, the elephant and also the fancy dinnerware, Nelly.
00:33No one's brought out the word gross yet.
00:34Yeah.
00:35But you're also gross.
00:36You are correct.
00:37Gross is correct.
00:38Tell us.
00:39Yeah, Diego, you were in there.
00:40The elephant.
00:41Well, with the elephant, I would love to have, like, here Linus, the DP,
00:46because I remember the shot when everything is coming into you,
00:50when it was coming into him.
00:52He was wearing a plunk shirt.
00:52Luckily, I was a little, like, you know, aside.
00:55But I think it's one of the greatest opening scenes ever, no?
00:58So let's start a movie with an elephant doing that.
01:02Damage yourself's mind.
01:04Yeah.
01:05Yeah, that was insane.
01:06And the projectile vomiting was...
01:08Oh, impressive.
01:09Was...
01:09So impressive.
01:11It just, you know, it was...
01:13You just had to go for it.
01:14Yeah, yeah.
01:16Yeah, it was disgusting and hilarious, like a lot of things in this movie.
01:22Yeah, I mean, by all reports, it was a rock and roll time.
01:25You know, it was unregulated, it was new, they were figuring out who they were,
01:29what the community is, and it was the wild, wild west.
01:33It's the most magical place in the world.
01:37Does it enhance the experience making a movie about making movies?
01:41Like, do you feel an extra level of passion just having that part of the experience?
01:45I don't know if I thought of it that way.
01:47Yeah, because it kind of made it funny just to be like,
01:49yeah, we're making a movie about movies.
01:50And then you would see, like, the mics or whatever,
01:53and then you see the actual mics above it.
01:54And I'm like, yo, this is super crazy.
01:58It's a little tricky.
01:59There's cameras on cameras.
02:00I remember there was a couple of times where you'd be performing and you'd be like,
02:02looking at the camera.
02:03Which camera is it?
02:04No, that's the camera that's in this.
02:05Oh, I knew that.
02:07It's a little like Inception, you know?
02:09A dream of a dream.
02:10What you don't know is that this is still the movie.
02:13It's still going.
02:14What do you say we come in for my close-up now?
02:17One thing that struck me watching this movie is that there was a lot of glamour shown in the life
02:22of being an actor,
02:23but there's also quite a lot of tragedy and nightmare.
02:26Yes.
02:26Action!
02:27I'm here!
02:28Being actors, like, to what degree do you, like, internalize that and just think about it in relationship with your
02:33own careers?
02:34Wow.
02:35Yeah.
02:35Oh, that's a really, really good question.
02:38Well, I mean, we were just talking about it.
02:41I mean, we humans, we're just, we're messy.
02:44We're wonderful and we're awful and it gets complicated and, you know, we're all over the place.
02:50So, I think, you know, it's just the same in any kind of environment you land.
02:56I haven't quite run into the dysfunction of some, to the extent of some of this.
03:01To the level, yeah.
03:01Except maybe in the younger years, people starting out were a little more reckless.
03:04Yeah.
03:04I think maybe.
03:05Yeah, I think, I mean, definitely the, you start researching some of the people that Damien pointed us towards and
03:11you start racking up how many people died really young at this time.
03:15And how young everyone was just in general.
03:17People were running the studios at 35 and start, people were going from being dirt poor to being the biggest
03:23movie stars in the country, like, so quickly.
03:28And they were 20, if that, and then they were dead by that time.
03:32They were 25, 30, 20.
03:33You know, like, it was just, it was kind of, kind of insane.
03:36And, and it felt like at this time, everyone was just like live fast, die young sort of vibes.
03:42Listen up!
03:43All you big dicks, Mr. Mad!
03:45Who wants to see me fight a fucking snake?
03:49I don't think it's quite like that now.
03:52Um, for a number of reasons, the industry has evolved, but yeah, it was a, it was a crazy time.
03:58I don't think it feels quite the same.
04:02I haven't thought about it that way.
04:04I think I was so focused on just portraying my character correctly that I didn't really think about, you know,
04:09what's going to happen before, what happened before, now and the future.
04:15I, I, you could say I was in the moment.
04:17Seeing the things that, that they had to deal with back then and noting it as it still kind of
04:22exists now, especially like with like the, the sound, the issue with sound and like the issue with like trying
04:26to get the lighting right.
04:27And you know, like the, the red light and coming into this.
04:30Oh my gosh.
04:30Yeah.
04:31Cause that's the, I've gotten yelled at before by walking into, uh, what do you call it?
04:34The stages and ignoring the red light.
04:36This is early in my already early career, but still.
04:39Yeah.
04:39Cause you're not stealthy.
04:41Yeah.
04:41I'm not stealthy.
04:42I'm not stealthy.
04:43He's coming in here and making all this noise.
04:48Tell me you miss the silence.
04:52Oh.
04:55Sound is how we redefine the form.
04:58Sound.
04:59I like the idea that they were all pioneers, you know, like, uh, like pirates, like finding what to do
05:05and taking risks all the time.
05:08Because there wasn't like a book to go to like movie making 101.
05:11No, there was a, so they were like literally the first ones, like building something.
05:16And I like that for about Babylon also.
05:18And we built something, no?
05:20Yeah.
05:21You can feel it.
05:22It's something bigger than life.
05:24You are playing fictional people in fictional stories, but I know that Damien Giselle, there's just so much research.
05:30I'm curious just how you both engaged with real history.
05:33And if there were any just real people whose stories you found connections with.
05:37Yeah.
05:37Uh, my character was based on anime Wong.
05:39So there was a lot of research on hers, um, on her.
05:42I read her biography.
05:44I watched a lot of her films.
05:46Um, and then of course the opening number, the tuxedo number was, um, inspired by Marlene Dietrich in Morocco.
05:53Uh, yeah, a bunch of, um, research done.
05:57Damien and I met together for a very intensive three-day masterclass where he and I just chatted about how
06:04we want Lady Faye to go.
06:07Anywhere from how she walked or how she carried herself or what octave she spoke at, how much breath is
06:15in it, all the words.
06:16Sure did.
06:17I like, I like how you said that.
06:18Damien really, it was interesting getting those earlier conversations with him once we all came on board because it was
06:24just kind of like an open forum.
06:26I mean, we've read the scenes obviously and went through each of the scenes, but then he's kind of like,
06:29what do you think about this?
06:30And, you know, in my opinion, I feel like Sidney was sounding like, you know, he has like a melodic
06:34to his speech.
06:35What do you think?
06:35And then we would compare to like actual artists like Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, which I kind of wanted to
06:40drift away from because that's like the easy choice.
06:43But, um, Curtis Mosby was someone that Damien brought to my attention.
06:46Um, and then obviously being knowledgeable of like the earlier, like Duke Ellington, all the people of that era that
06:52I wasn't really familiar with outside of just listening to the music like once or twice.
06:56It was really cool to get to explore that with him and the way he presents all the information that
07:00he has, but he'll like give you everything.
07:02And then he'll like let you pick and choose like what's going to be most beneficial to you as you're
07:06translating the, uh, the character from script to screen.
07:09It's going to be what it's going to be.
07:11Just as far as like this, the structure of these, of this narrative goes and these characters, I mean, you're
07:15dealing with a lot of time jumps and spaces in between these stories.
07:19I'm curious just to what degree each of you kind of basically dug into this parts of the stories that
07:24we're not hearing just to fill out your characters.
07:26Um, well, yeah, sure.
07:29I mean, it's always the case.
07:31We, I mean, again, what Margo was saying, we, we have a, we had a lot of, um, um, silent
07:36stars to, to go back to, to study and to help us fill in.
07:40Kind of that, that story.
07:41It is.
07:42I, I, I know what you're saying because there's so many characters, you know, um, what Damien focuses on as
07:48far as their, their, uh, their arc is, is, um, interesting.
07:52You don't see the same.
07:53So yeah, we, we, I, I think it was just, I, I, I think it's just inherent to what we
07:59do.
07:59Yeah.
08:00Yeah.
08:00Can you guys explain this better?
08:02Surely.
08:02Surely you can.
08:03I, I kind of do it with every character, like come up with all the stuff that you're not going
08:08to see on screen, but it helps me deliver what you do see on the screen.
08:11So Nellie was definitely no different.
08:13Like in my mind, I'd plot it out, but childhood, her teen years.
08:19Honey, you don't become a star.
08:20You either are one or you ain't.
08:22I am.
08:23One thing that both of you share in common is these really just key scenes for both of your characters
08:27with Diego Calva, where you are both pressured to change who you are to fit a certain standard of the
08:34industry.
08:35And it obviously is such an impactful moment for both of your characters.
08:38I'm curious just how you approached it just personally with Damien Chazelle and with Diego Calva.
08:44I think, I think what's interesting about, about you bringing that up is because we're sharing, both of us are
08:49sharing that scene with Diego and he's also a person of color.
08:51Kind of forcing somebody who is of his, you know, of a general group and kind of, you know, charging
08:58us to change.
08:58And that makes it all the more heartbreaking.
09:00Because he's someone who has moved up in this world and now he's in a place where he has to,
09:06you know, to keep himself up there.
09:08He has to.
09:09Knock somebody else down or challenge somebody else.
09:11And as far as approaching how to, how to play it, I mean, it's, I really enjoyed doing my scene
09:16with Diego just because he has like an organic excitement,
09:19just about, about acting.
09:22And I think if you work with, I've been really lucky so far to work with some artists that are
09:26really great and always committed.
09:27But, you know, you could be in a situation where you're working with an actor who's like, just tired of
09:32like, I've been doing this for 80 years.
09:33I'm tired.
09:34But Diego has this freshness to him that I found in all of my castmates for this.
09:38So it was going into work every day and having a couple scenes with everybody.
09:42It was really exciting and just really made you appreciate filmmaking.
09:45And Damien only, you know, adds to it.
09:47Yeah.
09:47I mean, that kind of energy and commitment is really infectious.
09:50Yeah.
09:51So to be around this group of people who are here doing their passion project and really loving it was
09:57just very fulfilling and crucial to making something as big as this.
10:03We've got to innovate.
10:05We've got to inspire.
10:06What happens up on that screen means something.
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