and you are watching Instudio

with The Hollywood Reporter.

(dramatic music)

- Okay. So, let's start with "The Way Back."

which is really seen in theaters today.

- Wow. Okay. (laughs)

That's wild. Yeah.

- Has it been a while?

Have you been waiting for the theatrical release?

- Yeah.

We started shooting this in October of 2018

and we did re-shoots in the middle of this last year.

And,

wants to see how the real thing just,

(laughs)

- Well, this is a very impressive movie.

It's about loss,

it's about grief,

it's about redemption,

it's about basketball,

(laughs) - Yeah. - It's about so many things.

How do you feel about the overall message of the movie?

- I think it's a really important movie

if we did everything that we were supposed to.

And, I gotta say

this whole experience is felt

more like doing an indie movie

than a studio movie ever could.

I mean, I've done a ton of indie projects

and I did not think it was gonna feel the way that it did.

It was a really intimate experience

and that just chalked that up to Gavin.

- Most of your scenes with Ben Affleck,

you play exes.

What I noticed,

first and foremost,

was his character, Jack

was trying to bring your character, Angela

into his grief.

He was trying to bring her down

to his level.

And if he saw that you were coming out of your grief,

he was gonna bring you back down.

And that took, - it's so interesting

that you feel that way.

- Yeah, that was my impression of that.

I felt it so I was

watching the man that I still love

perform okayness

and try to prove that everything was fine

and that he was doing great.

And if anybody knows that that's a lie,

it's the woman that knows him best.

- Yeah.

- I mean, he's also,

I think when you are at your worst you really,

most people have a hard time accepting any help

for their own mental health

and part of that is like a feeling of unworthiness and,

I think all those things are also happening

so that's like the level underneath

really even what she is seeing.

So I love that that is what you felt.

And all of these things are true simultaneously.

- There's a duality to

when somebody is struggling with addiction

especially alcoholism.

The family dynamic can be

that they are pushing you away,

they are you that everything is great

and at the same time

they are trying to manipulate or reach out.

Like there's just so many things happening.

So, you are playing these scenes with Ben

and I noticed you have to kind of physically change,

like diminish yourself in certain places.

There was just like all of the emotions

that you had to show were extremely settled.

But I saw it in your body language.

Was that something that you were thinking about at the time

or is that something that - Yes or no.

I mean that's just sort of training and instinct

at some point.

You know, if you really

just commit yourself to understanding the situation

and every moment that's come before it

this is like theater one on one stuff.

You know, if you just go in with an action

and a motivation

and just are hyper aware of

everything that's come before,

all of those things will happen naturally

if you are in a safe space

with other actors and artists

who are willing to do the same thing.

- Great. And tell me about the space

that you share with Ben Affleck.

- Yeah. Sure. - Because you are,

I read an article in The Hollywood Reporter.

- No, it's fine (laughs)

What is that publication?

Are they in authority in the space?

- I think so.

I think you might know them.

But Peter, wonderful,

- Peter.

- Was talking to you about

you and Ben being able to have discussions

about not only what was happening

in the movie you were currently at

but the movie that you were writing and directing,

"Missing Time" - Yeah.

I was prepping my short film simultaneously

which deals with mental health

and suppressing anxiety

and I told Ben the whole entire thing.

I pitched him the whole story.

I pitched him the tongue sequence

which is a sort of like

a pretty intense moment.

We love magical realism,

like my creative partner and I.

So, but that means that we really have to pitch ideas

to as many people as we can

to make sure that what we're actually trying to do

is not lost behind the gag.

So,

yeah, I pitched the tongue sequence to Ben

and he just twisted up his little face like,

- You got the appropriate reaction?

- I was like, "Yeah. I got him."

(laughs)

Kinda like, "We really got something now. Yeah."

- It's wonderful.

I mean, what is it like,

as a first-time director.

- Yeah. I've directed a bunch of

sort of like other little pieces

and like music videos and these kinds of things

but this is my first narrative short film, yeah.

- So, let's talk a little bit about Stucco.

- Sure.

- Because it is going to be premiering

at the South by Southwest.

- Yeah. It's not a premiere

but we're in competition at South by.

- Okay. Great.

Fantastic.

- But we did just premiere online

at thehollywoodreporter.com. (laughing)

- That's right.

You can see it on The Hollywood Reporter.

- You can. - You can see the entire

short film.

- Yeah, which is really really cool to us.

It means a lot to us to have

the support of a trade.

You know, I've been doing this a long time

and I've been doing a lot of other things

besides acting for a long time.

But most people don't know that

and I don't feel like

just because a tree falls in the forest

and nobody's around that it doesn't make a sound.

Like I feel all the sounds of the trees

that I've made in the pa-

I don't know.

This is now unto the falling part.

But the point is that

this is the first very public offering

especially from Reso and I.

And to have the support

that you guys have given us.

And primarily, it actually means a lot to us.

So, it's true The Hollywood Reporter does write a lot

about female filmmakers

especially in the festival space.

I heard recently about a report

that they've been keeping track of female filmmakers,

producers, cinematographers

and finding a huge leap in a festival representation.

But still major feature films

incrementally women are taking

those jobs, positions. - And sometimes,

moving backwards,

the data shows it's not always a move forward.

- Yeah. So, what can we do about that?

How can we translate the festival representation into jobs?

- Well the things that you're talking

about the studio system.

Right? - Yeah.

- And all of those things are just based on data

but if you have a data-driven top 10 list

of the top 10 whoever the heck,

it's immediately a hidden default.

Because that list will never change.

If the big studios

who have the money to call the shots say,

"Well we're only gonna work with an A-list XYZ",

they're gonna look at that top 10 list

which is based on

everything that's come before it.

It will never change.

So, unless they decide that the metric

that's most important is not

that they're getting somebody from that A-list

and that they're actually changing representation

and that that list matters more,

It's not gonna change.

If you want to exist in any spaces,

it's not just Hollywood,

as a woman,

as a leader,

you have to do it courageously.

And you have to just start calling shots on your own

in the way that men have

for a really long time.

- So you have presented a social thriller to the world

but what would you like to be doing next?

Are you diving into the horror genre,

are you wanting to go in different directions?

- Well, I would say that

all of our projects are pretty left-of-center.

(laughs)

- Keeping it weird?

- Keeping it weird, yeah.

But they span the gamut of Art-house Horror

which works in analogy

and also just like comedy snob level.

Snobbery. (both laughing)

But we have our million dollar indie script

that we're polishing right now

which is this spiritual successor to Stucco.

We don't feel like we need to make the future version.

We've already told the story.

So, yeah.

I mean, we love this genre

because you know, you can really

examine the parts of ourselves

that we're not proud of in horror.

- Okay. So I have one more project

'cause you have many many projects.

- Yeah. I mean, you know when this is like you have

to have 15 going simultaneous.

I was literally negotiating a contract in the car

on the way here

for something that nobody knows about.

Hopefully won't fall apart.

It's literally what it is.

You just have to keep doing it

over and over and over until one thing sticks.

My last question is actually about

you play Aniston in The Morning Show.

- I do. - And we wanna know

more about Aniston.

Well, next time you see research

and you let 'em know

or carry her in this brilliant showrunner.

Yeah.

You know, she's a very interesting person.

Again these are the things

that I discuss with the writers and that

it's just there's not enough real estate on the show

for you to be able to do.

But yeah,

Aniston is not a real name.

(laughs) And,

she is sort of a former pageant girl.

She's not like a pageant queen

but she's just sort of always found ways to win publicly