Rosamund Pike
Update: 2025-04-01
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Description
David Tennant catches up with Rosamund Pike, star of The Wheel of Time, Gone Girl, and James Bond. They dive into working with AI, filming with legendary comic Billy Connolly, the chaos of being thrown out of an Uber for littering, and the whirlwind of award season (all while juggling the challenges of new motherhood).
Rosamund also shares hilarious behind-the-scenes stories, including an awkward body tape mishap while working with Pierce Brosnan on James Bond: Die Another Day, and what David Fincher said to her on the set of Gone Girl…
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Transcript
00:00:00
8.
00:00:01
Georgia.
00:00:02
Hi, David.
00:00:03
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00:00:06
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00:00:14
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00:00:44
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00:01:20
You don't get the shock anymore of what your voice sounds like.
00:01:22
Do you?
00:01:23
It does go away at some point, doesn't it?
00:01:24
It does go away.
00:01:25
It's a peculiar thing, isn't it?
00:01:26
When you first hear it.
00:01:28
Well, I remember when I was a child and you'd hear, if I had left a message for my parents and I would come home and it would still be on the answering machine, it would be this, it would be so abrasive and unpleasant.
00:01:39
Yeah.
00:01:40
And at some point, that disconnect has gone away, but I don't know when it went.
00:01:45
One is subjected to one's own voice, doing what we do.
00:01:48
So I suppose after a while, you get battled into submission by it, didn't you?
00:01:52
Whether you like it or not.
00:01:54
On the back of your head too, you've also become aware of that.
00:01:57
That's a shock as well.
00:01:58
It is a shock.
00:01:59
There are still the odd angle, though.
00:02:01
There's still the odd angle that I'll see and go, "Whoa, what's that?"
00:02:06
Yes, somebody sent me a picture the other day asking if they could post it, you know, for some, you know, various make-up looks or costs, you know, because one picture, I was just like, "Who?
00:02:15
Who is that?"
00:02:16
It was a hard no, even though it's probably the only one that told the truth.
00:02:22
Well, yeah, that's the thing we are sort of slightly, we kind of age through sort of approved photograph, don't we?
00:02:29
And every night again, another approved one slips through and you realise what the terrible reality might be, whatever one else is seeing.
00:02:37
I love that.
00:02:38
We age through approved photos.
00:02:45
David Tennant does a podcast with Rosamond Pike.
00:02:59
Rosamond, thank you for being here today.
00:03:01
You're very welcome.
00:03:02
I'm preparing for this, obviously.
00:03:04
I've been doing my research.
00:03:05
I've been sniffing around your...
00:03:07
Do you have a team of research has been joining me, is it?
00:03:10
Just me.
00:03:11
It is just me.
00:03:12
It is.
00:03:13
Every night again, they'll send me some stuff through.
00:03:14
Are you using AI yet?
00:03:16
To do this?
00:03:17
I'm not.
00:03:18
Have you tried it?
00:03:19
The only thing I've tried...
00:03:20
Have you tried AI?
00:03:21
Yes.
00:03:22
For what?
00:03:23
Well, I've just been in New York doing a press tour on The Will of Time, and I thought I've got to get into this, so I wanted to ask Gemini Advance how she would do my answers for me,
00:03:35
how she would describe the experience of playing more in Damedred in The Will of Time.
00:03:39
And the interesting thing is, which it was completely astonished me, is that before you get the answer, you get the game plan.
00:03:50
So the AI says, "Here is how I'm going to approach the question."
00:03:53
I mean, my teachers would have been so proud of me had I been done the game plan that Gemini executes.
00:04:02
So she says, "I'm going to sift through a list of resources where Rosamond Pike has spoken about playing more in.
00:04:09
I'm also going to cross-refer that to fan reactions to The Will of Time, to fan lore on The Will of Time, and to the original source material."
00:04:18
Right.
00:04:19
Which of course she can do in...
00:04:20
Yes.
00:04:21
I'm calling her a "She Gemini."
00:04:23
In about, you know, not two seconds flat, but maybe 25 seconds.
00:04:28
She sources all this material, and then she comes up with something pretty plausible.
00:04:32
I have to say.
00:04:33
And the other thing, now this is why I'm really bringing this up, because there's a feature where you can put in an academic paper or a kind of a long interview or a long article, and it will turn it into a podcast for you.
00:04:46
So it will turn it into...
00:04:47
With AI voices.
00:04:48
With AI voices, a man and a woman, even so far as it will add the little sort of interstitial remarks, like, "Uh-huh."
00:04:54
Yep.
00:04:55
Yep.
00:04:56
Wow.
00:04:57
Except to a trained ear, you know that it's slightly wrong.
00:05:00
So you say something to me.
00:05:01
Yep.
00:05:02
Oh, I see.
00:05:03
Uh-huh.
00:05:04
To the timings a little bit old.
00:05:05
Yeah.
00:05:06
But that's presumably temporary, that's going to get better.
00:05:10
You've had that you're even having the conversation where you're discussing the timing of an aha, means that you're already at an astonishingly, disturbingly high level.
00:05:20
So this may be the final podcast as humanly you're required to record is what you've discovered.
00:05:25
Well, I don't know if you can do new material.
00:05:28
This is a pricey of something pre-existing, like, you know, a long, gritty New York Times article on Syria say that you want to turn it to a different way, but it must be making decisions on what it feels are the more salient points.
00:05:41
Uh-huh.
00:05:42
I'm presumably that's part of it's programming.
00:05:44
You're going to do this.
00:05:45
I hope you're going to say that.
00:05:46
Well, actually, I know.
00:05:47
I do worry slightly.
00:05:48
Doesn't it sort of burn down a corner of the rainforest every time you sort of ask it for directions?
00:05:51
Isn't it terribly environmentally damaging because of the amount of water that's required to run the, I know I'm at the extent of my knowledge.
00:06:02
So we ask it and it will lie.
00:06:06
When does it get the capacity to live?
00:06:08
Yes.
00:06:09
Yes.
00:06:10
We're accusing it of being environmentally calamitous.
00:06:11
Will it admit to the fact that's such a good question.
00:06:15
But dear, we ask it.
00:06:16
Well, we could do it.
00:06:17
We could do it while we talk.
00:06:18
Okay.
00:06:19
It could be thinking.
00:06:20
Yeah.
00:06:21
What are you going to ask it?
00:06:23
Good afternoon, Gemini.
00:06:26
Could you please research whether asking you a question is incredibly environmentally unfriendly?
00:06:34
Is any rainforest destroyed in the answering of a question?
00:06:39
Thank you.
00:06:40
Interesting.
00:06:41
We'll come back to that.
00:06:42
We'll come back to that.
00:06:43
We'll come back to that.
00:06:44
Yeah.
00:06:45
That would be an excellent finale.
00:06:46
So I've been preparing for this and we've known each other many years.
00:06:50
We have.
00:06:51
But what's interesting is there's not a great deal of biographical detail about you out there.
00:06:59
There's a bit.
00:07:00
Considering how long you've been doing this and the profile that you have established, Wikipedia, for instance, I don't know if you know this, is unsure how old you are, which is a great triumph.
00:07:09
Which is great.
00:07:10
Well done.
00:07:11
But I wonder if that's, have you, have you stage managed that or has it, have you just been lucky or have you, or I don't know if you regard that as lucky?
00:07:23
I do regard that as lucky because there's so much information out there, you know?
00:07:26
Your mother's made a name.
00:07:27
All the basic password protective, protecting questions are fully known about most actors.
00:07:34
The place you were born.
00:07:35
Your mother's made a name.
00:07:36
Your first school.
00:07:37
Yeah.
00:07:38
Maybe not.
00:07:39
Maybe your first pet is probably out there too, you know?
00:07:41
And, but have you, have you worked at trying to be discreet?
00:07:46
I'm going to look like I'm a sort of technological.
00:07:49
I'm not very technological, but I do feel that we have to pay attention.
00:07:53
And, and I, I remember at one stage trying to see if you can, you know, change some things like change the photo that comes up on Wikipedia and things and the answer is you can't.
00:08:05
Okay.
00:08:06
The Wikipedia can only be managed by somebody who is not you.
00:08:09
Right.
00:08:10
So it has to be managed by whoever feels that they're the guardian of your page, you know?
00:08:15
Whether that, and who that person is is also unknown, whether that person is a fan or a goodness or an enemy or an enemy.
00:08:22
Yes.
00:08:23
Or an enemy.
00:08:24
Yeah.
00:08:25
Probably an enemy.
00:08:26
Hmm.
00:08:27
Um, so anyway, so that, so depending on whether you're a picture, you know, sometimes you can go on the Wikipedia page and people having credibly nice photos.
00:08:34
Have you ever done that?
00:08:35
And you think, God, that's pretty nice, that looks all very artistic and like it's a magazine spread.
00:08:40
Yours is a lovely photograph with a rather uncharacteristic fringe.
00:08:44
Ah.
00:08:45
Yeah.
00:08:46
Yeah.
00:08:47
That was a brief, a brief, that was hairgate, actually.
00:08:48
It was a hairgate when my partner thought he couldn't really have sort of dinner opposite me during the whole time that I had the fringe.
00:08:55
Wow.
00:08:56
He found it so alienating.
00:08:57
So did you just, I thought it was fantastic because it did exactly what I wanted to do, which has completely hide my expression.
00:09:04
Right.
00:09:05
Right.
00:09:06
So did you take to each of your rooms or did you wear a beanie?
00:09:07
No.
00:09:08
Side by side, French style.
00:09:09
Oh.
00:09:10
Yeah.
00:09:11
That's good.
00:09:12
Yeah.
00:09:13
Well, it's good to have done that though, but it's not, I never had a hairgate, never had a hairgate in your relationship.
00:09:17
Never had a hairgate in your relationship.
00:09:18
Oh, look at this.
00:09:19
I mean, what color is my hair currently?
00:09:20
I seem to be blonde currently.
00:09:21
You are quite blonde, yeah, which is against the purple is it's, I don't know, what's against this here.
00:09:27
I, yeah, I don't know what's going on.
00:09:28
It's a, it's a, it's diet, a colliding diet, jobs that have left me.
00:09:32
Yeah.
00:09:33
Yeah.
00:09:34
Yeah.
00:09:35
No, no, which was choice.
00:09:36
All of which have been inflicted only by various jobs, and you're just left kind of when the Lord, Barnet, thatch on your head, but, um, I was explained to my son what a thatch roof was this morning.
00:09:45
Oh, yeah.
00:09:46
Are you doing a crossword?
00:09:47
No, the thatch came up.
00:09:48
Yeah.
00:09:49
So it's actually the that roof is a beautiful thing.
00:09:51
Yeah.
00:09:52
I don't hate it.
00:09:53
It just doesn't feel very me, and I've already got some quite extreme roots going on, although I've been, but George was telling me that's, that's a little quite enough.
00:10:00
Yeah.
00:10:01
Yeah.
00:10:02
I just, I can just lean into it and pretend that it was all very much.
00:10:04
Yes.
00:10:05
The anti-expensive highlights look, yeah.
00:10:07
Yeah.
00:10:08
And so hairgate not happened, but that was a, yeah, French, fringe time was hairgate.
00:10:13
Yeah.
00:10:14
But have you always been very guarded and yeah, I'm like guarded, yeah, it doesn't, I think it behooves us to be unmistirious.
00:10:22
There are definitely professions where anonymity is even more valuable, and I was obviously, yes, you know, not anonymity is not sort of requirement, requirement number one, but,
00:10:33
but you're right.
00:10:33
There's a conflict, isn't there?
00:10:34
I do want people to believe in my character.
00:10:36
Yes.
00:10:37
Quite, quite.
00:10:38
You know, so I'm lucky.
00:10:39
I've never dated an actor.
00:10:40
I suppose.
00:10:41
Right.
00:10:42
So I've never had a relationship that's garnered a lot of press curiosity.
00:10:45
So I see what you mean.
00:10:46
Yes.
00:10:47
I know.
00:10:48
I know.
00:10:49
We're all over the place.
00:10:50
It's interesting.
00:10:51
But I sort of commend you for it, but I wonder if that is that instinctive or are you in interview situations,
00:11:16
are you kind of thinking, I'm going to keep moving, or I'm going to go.
00:11:20
Well, also because the best stories of some sort of can't really be reported.
00:11:23
And I always sort of think, well, when I'm in my 80s or 90s, like when I'm duty dentures age, then I can tell all my naughty stories and what you are storing them out.
00:11:32
Oh, yeah.
00:11:33
Of course.
00:11:34
There is a book in you at some point.
00:11:35
Of course.
00:11:36
Yeah.
00:11:37
Yeah.
00:11:38
Yes.
00:11:39
It's interesting though that that side of figuring out how you're going to handle, well, this sort of stuff that we're doing now, I mean, hopefully this doesn't feel like a gauntlet that you have to run.
00:11:47
But interviews sort of are a bit, aren't they?
00:11:49
You have to find a version of yourself that you're comfortable with, that you feel safe with.
00:11:57
And nobody really teaches you that.
00:11:59
No.
00:12:00
But I also think there's a tremendous arrogance in actors assuming that because we act and because films are in popular culture or theatre or television, that somehow we've got a right to talk about our work.
00:12:12
You know, if we were investment bankers, we wouldn't go around someone's house probably and start talking about the markets.
00:12:17
Whereas we somehow feel that it's okay to start talking about our work because people are by and large, interesting,
00:12:27
interested, but I always feel that shouldn't be an excuse for doing it.
00:12:33
You know, that maybe a different conversation is more interesting.
00:12:36
You are very good at it though.
00:12:37
Talking about the issues where you talk, yeah, you're very good at sort of examining a character.
00:12:44
You can quite objectively look at what they are and why they are and that's all.
00:12:49
Yeah, but it's also so self-referential.
00:12:51
I do have a problem with the general thing of interviewing actors.
00:12:57
You know, that the beginning of a, you know, the beginning of any kind of long form profile piece, you know, I met David Tennant on a Sunday morning and, you know, the star arrived, you know,
00:13:07
who's been in his scarf, unraveled his scarf, he sat down and ordered himself a flat white.
00:13:12
I kind of can't stand it.
00:13:13
I can't.
00:13:14
Yes.
00:13:15
Are you very aware of that when you're entering the room?
00:13:17
Oh, yeah, I'd probably be there first or, you know, I have nothing to do.
00:13:21
You know, the thing is, if he's just a, you know, no sign of the movie star this morning, he's just, you know, wearing a jumper, which I found out later is from Emanus, you know, whatever it is.
00:13:32
And all of that is considered because maybe you knew you would be asked, so you didn't want to be wearing a jumper that sounded expensive.
00:13:40
Yeah.
00:13:41
And I just, then I get lost in the artifice of everything and I think, oh, God, you know, it's all, everything casual is planned and actually today nothing is planned because I,
00:13:51
I did that.
00:13:52
I think, well, actually, I, I had to cancel what I had to do before you because I lost my keys.
00:13:58
Oh, no.
00:13:59
But you know, Sun has a crisis can, can release you to not really give a, give a, give a, you can see what you like on this.
00:14:07
Not really give a, a damn flea.
00:14:10
There you go.
00:14:11
About, about everything you were hit that you were worrying about.
00:14:16
Hmm.
00:14:17
I, yeah, I got thrown out of an Uber.
00:14:20
Today?
00:14:21
Yesterday.
00:14:22
What for?
00:14:23
Lots of the keys, the key loss was not discovered till later, but, um, I, um, I, um, I hate littering.
00:14:30
Right?
00:14:31
One of my pets.
00:14:32
Of course.
00:14:33
Because you're a civilized human being.
00:14:34
I often pick up other people's litter.
00:14:36
Well done.
00:14:37
I often store it.
00:14:39
My children thinks it's gross.
00:14:41
And then I, you know, it's getting weird.
00:14:42
Yeah.
00:14:43
It is quite weird.
00:14:44
There are lots of things about me that are quite weird.
00:14:46
But there's a, there's a sort of paradoxical kind of, um, flouting of my own rules with apple cause.
00:14:53
So an apple, which I tend to eat, ate a lot of apples and I eat most of the apples.
00:14:58
Okay.
00:14:59
Very little apple is left, but not quite down to the seeds, but down to a sort of scrawny bit of apple, maybe with a couple of pips and a stalk is all that we left.
00:15:07
Sure.
00:15:08
And that, I'm comfortable releasing back to nature through a car window.
00:15:13
In the Uber, I did this and the driver was not happy and said that he might have his license revoked and cameras would catch him and I, and I, I could see that it was genuinely bothering him.
00:15:25
So I offered, as we was at a traffic lights to get out of the car and go back and pick up the fragment of that.
00:15:30
Wow.
00:15:31
So I did.
00:15:32
I, I left the car.
00:15:34
You can picture it.
00:15:35
You can picture how?
00:15:36
I love this.
00:15:37
I, I, the car was at traffic lights, so I walked back along.
00:15:41
I located the fragment of apple.
00:15:43
I felt pleased that it was still there.
00:15:45
I picked it up.
00:15:46
And by the time I got back to the car, he had kicked out my friend who I was travelling with.
00:15:52
So she was there with, um, our bags on the pavement because he was, he was incensed by the, the littering, which, you know, I mean, as a person who is incensed by littering, I, I understood.
00:16:02
It's a cruel irony that you were being punished for something that he would never, ever willingly undertake.
00:16:07
And I had the fragment of apple in my, in my hand, um, and she said, she said, no, because she said he was reporting us to Uber.
00:16:15
So he apparently has, but we have the evidence of the fragment of apple, which I may be able to show you later.
00:16:20
Um, but the irony is I must have left the keys in his car.
00:16:23
Oh, my God.
00:16:24
So then you have the crisis of thinking, he knows my address, he has my keys, he clearly hates me.
00:16:31
He's going to come in the dead of night and either try and torment me or just take everything and when you have to meet in court, enough of your mind's time to defend your Uber rating,
00:16:42
it's going to be a really ugly.
00:16:44
I've got a whole series of beef right here.
00:16:46
I think this could be the origin of season three of beef, right, starting right now over the apple.
00:16:53
I mean, my, do you never, I mean, these things, which are obviously to do with, it's not to do with the apple core, it's to do with whatever else was going on and whatever button I triggered in him.
00:17:03
Of course.
00:17:04
Of course.
00:17:05
Of course.
00:17:06
Those are the things that make human dramas.
00:17:07
So it's, it's pretty, you're right.
00:17:09
It's pretty, it's really delicious that you are so considerate about what you would throw out that window and that you would know that, you know, that a coffee cup or a, or a, never in a million years,
00:17:20
plastic you would hold on to for months sometimes until you could responsibly dispose of it.
00:17:27
My, my partner even found a bag on the stairs, he said, he sent me a picture saying, what, what is this?
00:17:33
Is this, of course, it was single-use plastic that I was waiting to deal with and I knew I had to deal with it myself, otherwise, it would definitely go in the wrong place.
00:17:41
I'm so pleased that the world has you.
00:17:45
Oh, dear.
00:17:46
But you may be reversing all the good what you're doing by using AI, of course.
00:17:50
This way.
00:17:51
Well, we'll, we'll find out.
00:17:52
Is that the key to check?
00:17:53
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
00:18:01
Hi, it's Jesse Tyler Ferguson, the host of the podcast, Dinner's On Me.
00:18:06
Bring us here and you know what that means longer days, backyard hangs and, of course, firing up the grill.
00:18:13
And when I'm planning to get together, Whole Foods Market is my secret weapon from making it both fresh and effortless.
00:18:20
Let's start with lighter fare because, you know, sometimes you want something crisp and bright after those rich winter meals.
00:18:26
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00:18:29
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00:18:35
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00:18:44
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00:18:57
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00:18:59
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00:19:05
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00:19:11
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00:19:15
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00:19:19
Hi, everyone.
00:19:20
I'm David DeCovney.
00:19:23
Join me on my podcast "Fail Better" where we use failure as a lens to reflect on the past and analyze the current moment.
00:19:30
I speak with makers and performers like Rob Low, Rosie O'Donnell and Kenya Barris, as well as thinkers like Cara Swisher and Nate Silver to understand how both personal setbacks and larger forces impact our world.
00:19:43
Listen to "Fail Better" wherever you get your podcasts.
00:19:47
Okay, so give me a little bit of background.
00:19:58
Fill in some of the bathroom.
00:19:59
I'm trying so hard here.
00:20:00
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:20:01
I want to know.
00:20:02
Tell me a little bit about "Little Rosamond," or give us a bit of background.
00:20:05
Let us understand where the person who...
00:20:08
Oh, it started picking up litter.
00:20:10
Picks up litter from what you like as a small person.
00:20:15
Quite boyish, not a very feminine little girl, quite sort of robust, not sort of fragile.
00:20:23
Right.
00:20:24
A kind of quite loud voice outspoken, not sort of demure or retiring, quite...
00:20:31
Sort of robust.
00:20:33
I went to school in London.
00:20:35
Yeah.
00:20:36
My parents are musicians.
00:20:37
So they...
00:20:38
Oh, I see.
00:20:39
So they went to...
00:20:40
They're classical singers.
00:20:41
They went to the Royal College of Music and they met their fell in love.
00:20:45
My dad used to kick my mom out of her practice room on a Friday and that's where they met.
00:20:52
And my dad was living in what was, became our flat with three guys and when he married my mom, the other two guys moved out.
00:20:59
My mom moved in and that's where they still live.
00:21:01
I was only a child.
00:21:05
So was childhood bathed in music?
00:21:09
Yes and no.
00:21:10
Weirdly, the house was often quite silent because when classical musicians listen to music, it's never background, it's got to be fully focused.
00:21:19
So they would listen under headphones and occasionally I'd enter these worlds where I'd see a set of headphones and I'd put them on and I'd sometimes listen mesmerised to a whole opera.
00:21:30
Wow.
00:21:31
I can't remember.
00:21:32
It must have been, I mean, I can't think what devices they were using.
00:21:36
I mean, I know my mom when she was learning operas would often rent the tapes of the full opera from the library.
00:21:42
Wow.
00:21:43
I think.
00:21:44
When you'd get sort of...
00:21:45
Yeah.
00:21:46
Six tapes or...
00:21:47
So maybe it was a walkman.
00:21:48
Right.
00:21:49
Yeah, probably.
00:21:50
But then there was always fun adults around which is something I've tried to foster with my own kids.
00:21:55
That was the joy was that although I didn't have siblings, the friends of my parents were very fun.
00:22:01
Right.
00:22:02
So when people came over, they'd come to play games or they'd come to, you know, they'd have in jokes that I didn't understand them all, but I felt that, you know, that thing that you have when you're in a company or,
00:22:14
you know, there's a teasing and there's also the sort of mismatch of ages, they never seem boring, you know, they seemed.
00:22:21
So did you miss having siblings or did that make up for it or did you not feel the lack?
00:22:27
I did.
00:22:28
And I've always thought, I've always wondered how I would be different if I'd had siblings.
00:22:32
Yeah.
00:22:33
I think that, I mean, I think, you know, that the kind of teasing and that there's a resilience you have to have with, when you have siblings is obviously totally different from being an only child.
00:22:45
But I also liked being an only child.
00:22:46
I've always liked being alone.
00:22:47
I like having time in my own head and I like not having to share my bedroom.
00:22:53
Right.
00:22:54
Sure.
00:22:55
You know.
00:22:56
Did you still don't like to share my bedroom?
00:22:57
Right.
00:22:58
Yeah.
00:22:59
I think I'd probably still live in my own flat.
00:23:00
I mean, that's the dream.
00:23:01
Sometimes, don't you think?
00:23:02
Have your own space.
00:23:03
Yeah.
00:23:04
Yeah.
00:23:05
You could visit your family.
00:23:06
Yes.
00:23:07
Exactly.
00:23:08
Definitely spend a lot of time there.
00:23:09
Yeah, yeah.
00:23:10
Have a little flat somewhere.
00:23:11
To retreat to.
00:23:12
We've been so nice.
00:23:13
That's interesting.
00:23:14
Yeah.
00:23:15
Do you know your wolf?
00:23:16
Because you were being brought up by artists, do you think you were inevitably were going to become one?
00:23:20
Did that feel always like a trajectory?
00:23:25
I knew very early on that I wanted to act.
00:23:27
I played the cello.
00:23:28
Act.
00:23:29
Not classical music wasn't something.
00:23:31
No, although I was given the opportunity.
00:23:33
I had cello lessons and I was quite a good cellist and actually during lockdown, I took it up again and felt so grateful to you, right?
00:23:40
To my parents for giving me that because had I wanted to learn the cello now as an adult from scratch, I would, it's as a losing battle you can't.
00:23:48
Yeah.
00:23:49
But I've got all this natural affinity with the instrument that just stays with you.
00:23:54
Yeah.
00:23:55
Yeah.
00:23:56
It's just in you.
00:23:57
Yeah.
00:23:58
It feels completely natural to play the cello.
00:23:59
Even though there's a humbling loss of skill.
00:24:02
Right.
00:24:03
And of course, there are battles like there are with any child practicing anything that's not there.
00:24:08
Did they, did they say no, you're not giving up?
00:24:10
Was that a bit of that pushing you on?
00:24:13
No.
00:24:14
Often the opposite.
00:24:15
They say, well, you can give up.
00:24:16
Which I think is an interesting.
00:24:17
Maybe it's a passive aggressive.
00:24:18
It's the same tactic.
00:24:19
Yes.
00:24:20
Yes.
00:24:21
And I think as an only child, you definitely want to please.
00:24:23
I think there's, I think that is a pressure on any children that there's nobody else.
00:24:26
Interesting.
00:24:27
So the whole responsibility for your parents happiness is on your shoulders?
00:24:30
You kind of can think that which of course is not true.
00:24:32
No.
00:24:33
As a little one.
00:24:34
Yeah.
00:24:35
You can feel a need to please, I think.
00:24:37
Yeah.
00:24:38
So, but at any time, I was supposed to perform on the cello.
00:24:44
If I could, I would learn a poem and do that instead.
00:24:47
A funny poem.
00:24:48
Oh.
00:24:49
Oh, right.
00:24:50
Could you like getting the laughs?
00:24:51
Yeah, I did.
00:24:52
Yeah.
00:24:53
So, a lot of musical gags.
00:24:57
I mean, and it's put with a brass section that are doing the musical gags, anyway, isn't it?
00:25:01
Absolutely.
00:25:02
Yeah.
00:25:03
It's funny, isn't it?
00:25:04
That response.
00:25:05
You get, obviously, you get the rapt attention, but you don't get the laugh.
00:25:09
I've never thought of it like that.
00:25:10
But yes, I liked that.
00:25:12
I liked, I liked the human language of communication as opposed to this other language of communication.
00:25:20
Yes.
00:25:21
And you went to boarding school?
00:25:23
When I was 11.
00:25:24
Yeah.
00:25:25
Okay.
00:25:26
Yeah.
00:25:27
I got a big scholarship to go to a school in Bristol, which was daunting and exciting.
00:25:30
And my, my mum, I don't know, rightly or wrongly, she, she really drilled into me, I think, to protect me and said, you know, everybody there will have more money than us.
00:25:42
Yes, because classical singers, presumably, not rich people.
00:25:45
No.
00:25:46
And, you know, very kind of the vicissitudes of a, of a performing life.
00:25:52
Yes.
00:25:53
I mean, that's what I, you know, sometimes there would be money sometimes, not at all.
00:25:56
There was the famous time my dad came back from Berlin, having done a concert and been paid in cash, and it was for our rent.
00:26:01
And he came back and, you know, went to sort of triumphantly produce the cash in the table and found out he'd been pickpocketed in Berlin station.
00:26:10
That was a, so I think there's always been a fear of that.
00:26:14
Whether or not I would have noticed at school, because we had a uniform and, you know, whether I would have noticed this discrepancy that my mum drilled into me, I don't know.
00:26:24
But it certainly made me very wary and vigilant.
00:26:28
And I, for ages, I didn't invite anyone to come home because I felt ashamed.
00:26:33
I thought, and of course, wrongly, because, you know, what I had at home was this wonderful creative vibrancy, but I just thought, oh, on a material level,
00:26:43
it's going to be embarrassing or whatever.
00:26:46
Did that, did that make you kind of guarded it?
00:26:49
Very guarded, I think.
00:26:50
Right.
00:26:51
Did you, but did you have a social circle or did you?
00:26:52
I had no friends.
00:26:53
David, no, no, no, I did have some friends.
00:26:56
Oh, you said that very convincingly.
00:26:58
No, I did have, I did have friends, but I knew I wanted to act, and as soon as I could, I joined, I found access to this place called Bristol Youth Theatre,
00:27:10
which was run by a phenomenal woman called Sally Noble, who any time I've ever met an adult in my childhood, who taught me with the kind of respect and seriousness with which an adult deals with something.
00:27:31
You know, if you have, if you play tennis and you have an instructor who's a proper coach who, you know, disciplines you and takes it fully seriously, that's a tremendous reward as a child, I think, rather than someone who just lets you sort of idly hit a ball.
00:27:42
And the same when you have a, a someone in theatre who dignifies you with the potential to understand, you know, big emotions, or, you know, this one teacher gave me sort of King Lear to do the bit for Cordelia when I was 11.
00:27:58
And I was, of course, I was too young, but I glimpsed something that I wanted to be able to feel.
00:28:04
And I glimpsed something that was within reach and the fact that she felt that it could be within reach, that was very rewarding and exciting to me.
00:28:12
So whenever I could be associated or feel that energy, it was the same thing that I saw with my parents.
00:28:18
I wanted it.
00:28:19
Right.
00:28:20
And then I joined the National Youth Theatre and that's where I really found my true friends.
00:28:26
Right.
00:28:27
And because the National Youth Theatre, for those who don't know, it's, it's for young people, but it's, it's run to quite a professional level, right?
00:28:33
I mean, it's quite, it's got a, it has aspirations that will often play the West End.
00:28:37
It will often play sort of runs in proper theatres and must feel, I imagine, as a young person, quite posh, quite let your, let your playing with the big boys.
00:28:46
Yeah.
00:28:47
And it's in London and they, you're not eligible to be in any production until you've done the course and done, you know, that, that wonderful thing where you're part of a company and you're playing silly games,
00:28:57
which all have a point, of course.
00:28:59
They're all to make you lose your inhibitions.
00:29:01
Yes.
00:29:02
You know, and I remember playing those games and thinking, my god, this is so brilliant because, you know, you do feel like an idiot, but it's okay to feel like an idiot.
00:29:10
Right.
00:29:11
And as a teenager, that's just such a good lesson when everyone's, and I remember trying to take them back to school, you know, and get people to help you think, you know?
00:29:19
And of course, no one wants, no one wants to sort of lose their cool and play those games.
00:29:24
No one.
00:29:25
Would you quite happy with losing your cool?
00:29:27
Yeah.
00:29:28
I didn't think I had any cool to start with, so the idea that you could legitimately do something that didn't require cool, that was ideal.
00:29:36
Yes, the less cool, the better.
00:29:37
No, I think cool was a sort of mystifying realm of, I just think I never had the right thing.
00:29:45
I mean, that was another thing of my job.
00:29:47
I'd never had the right thing, never had the right shoes, never had the right clothes, you know, did you?
00:29:56
Well, I had an older brother, so every uniform, no, no, the opposite, because every uniform I had, he was six years older than me, was six years out of date.
00:30:05
So the lapels and the blazer were always much wider than they currently would fashionably be.
00:30:11
You know, the sort of everything, nothing quite fitted me.
00:30:14
It was all a little bit secondhand.
00:30:16
What about with sneakers or thing?
00:30:18
What mattered?
00:30:19
When you were at school, what was some item that mattered?
00:30:23
I, maybe like you're describing on yourself, I never felt cool, so I was never, I never felt like in a way allowed me not to compete, because I thought I'm not one of the cool kids.
00:30:35
So you can never aspire to be.
00:30:37
So it's probably easier to just accept that I'm one of the sort of Dewey kids and that's okay.
00:30:42
But can you remember the feeling of being the one without, like when I had my first pro-trainers and the ones that we, you know, that we, my dad and I bought them and the ones that were on sale,
00:30:54
which were clearly the ones I was going to have, I don't, I had velcro instead of laces.
00:30:59
I mean, it was mortifying, but I'd never told my dad, he'll hear it now for the first time.
00:31:05
Oh, well, but Velcro, no one wanted Velcro at that point.
00:31:08
No.
00:31:09
Until, until maybe.
00:31:10
Six months later.
00:31:11
Yes.
00:31:12
I suppose I never really felt like I was competing anyway.
00:31:16
I felt like I'm sort of, I'm so far behind that particular thing that I'll just, I'll stick with my little gang of slightly odd-bord friends and we won't worry about being not one of the cool kids.
00:31:28
No.
00:31:29
And that was my way through it.
00:31:30
I don't know how healthy that is either, though, really, just feeling that I will always be second best.
00:31:35
No, you've got your strong gang, that's all you need, that's all you ever need.
00:31:41
And then you describe, with National Youth Theatre, one year they don't, no, correct me, forget the story wrong.
00:31:47
But one year they don't ask you back and then somebody drops out and then you get a phone call to come and play Julia.
00:31:53
Oh, that's right.
00:31:54
Yeah, that's right.
00:31:55
That's right.
00:31:56
I was, I'd finished my A-levels, I'd come back to London, I was temping and I'd audition for the...
00:32:03
It's a weighty joint unit.
00:32:04
You know, 18.
00:32:05
Right.
00:32:06
I'd joined a temping agency where you just go to, you know, you're called in by the day to either go and pack boxes or sit on a reception desk of somewhere or, you know,
00:32:16
maybe do a bit of typing and I hadn't got into the youth theatre company that year.
00:32:24
I'd done a play the year before and there I was in office angels in Victoria because they actual temp ironically was needed in their office, sending out other temps.
00:32:34
Oh, right.
00:32:35
And I got a call there from the National Youth Theatre, who obviously called my parents or called my home number and the girl who was playing Juliet, who was Kate Winslet's little sister,
00:32:46
had got a job on television and couldn't do it.
00:32:49
Right.
00:32:50
So I was offered Juliet, which was probably still the most exciting phone call I have ever got.
00:32:57
That is a lot.
00:32:58
It was a huge deal.
00:33:00
It was huge.
00:33:01
I mean, I, it was, it was a complete...
00:33:04
I didn't know it would change my life in terms of that being the time when I met my agent and all of that.
00:33:08
I couldn't believe I was going to get to spend a summer exploring Romeo and Juliet and living as Juliet.
00:33:16
Yeah.
00:33:17
And with there are other people in that production who also went on to be actors.
00:33:21
I mean...
00:33:22
Paul Ready was my...
00:33:23
Brilliant.
00:33:24
Romeo.
00:33:25
Was he?
00:33:26
Yeah.
00:33:27
Oh.
00:33:28
Brilliant.
00:33:29
Why is that?
00:33:30
Carly and Motherland.
00:33:31
Yes.
00:33:32
Being brilliant.
00:33:33
Yeah.
00:33:34
There's an act called Neil Nuban was tibbled.
00:33:37
Was it a good production?
00:33:38
Was it directed by Gwenda Hughes, who'd been the artistic director of Stoke on Trent?
00:33:43
So again, it was at a professional level.
00:33:45
I think my Juliet was described by the press as Julie Andrews, like, which I always wondered whether that wasn't...
00:33:50
It's like...
00:33:51
It was a deal for Juliet.
00:33:52
No, I thought it wasn't quite what I was going for.
00:33:56
She's had a very successful career.
00:34:01
Yeah, but you are in a show that's, that's reviewed and that's what agents come and do.
00:34:09
And so you got an agent from that?
00:34:10
From that?
00:34:11
I did.
00:34:12
Yeah.
00:34:13
But you didn't go to drama school?
00:34:14
No.
00:34:15
Was that...
00:34:16
I went to university.
00:34:17
I was always going to university.
00:34:18
You're always going to university.
00:34:19
Yeah.
00:34:20
And why?
00:34:21
Because you...
00:34:22
That's how you said it.
00:34:23
Because I thought I should be a bit older before I tried to go to drama school.
00:34:24
Okay.
00:34:25
I thought because I'd been at this girl's school and I hadn't been...
00:34:26
I thought I needed to kind of love a bit and live a bit.
00:34:28
Or did you feel a bit green?
00:34:30
I felt a bit green.
00:34:31
And where are you?
00:34:32
Were you quite an innocent still?
00:34:33
Yeah, I think so.
00:34:34
Right.
00:34:35
It's like, I've lived my wild years, you know, which I might or might not find at university, but I'd have a go.
00:34:40
And did you?
00:34:41
Yeah.
00:34:42
Okay.
00:34:43
Yeah, yeah.
00:34:44
I think university is a great playground.
00:34:46
And then I did try to go to drama school later and got rejected from everywhere.
00:34:54
Extraordinary.
00:34:55
Which is...
00:34:56
That was your cue.
00:34:57
You were a little slow on me.
00:34:58
I'm so sorry.
00:35:00
I was just letting the audience take that in.
00:35:04
But there's nothing like a fuck off to be galvanising.
00:35:08
I mean, I really still...
00:35:09
I believe that.
00:35:10
I think it...
00:35:11
I think it was a real turning point of being told, you know, you can't do this.
00:35:16
And some voice in you saying, yes, but this is what I am.
00:35:20
And that can't be taken away.
00:35:22
Hmm.
00:35:23
Because I don't think acting was ever something I wanted to do.
00:35:25
I don't know how you feel.
00:35:27
I think it was just a deep knowledge that it was what I was.
00:35:31
What I am.
00:35:32
Right.
00:35:33
But...
00:35:34
No.
00:35:35
It's not very...
00:35:36
It's quite an existential question, isn't it?
00:35:39
Sort of...
00:35:40
It's quite chicken in the egg, I guess.
00:35:41
I'm not...
00:35:42
I don't...
00:35:43
What do I think?
00:35:44
I certainly can't...
00:35:45
I could never imagine another version of what I was going to do.
00:35:49
But I suppose if it hadn't happened, maybe I would.
00:35:53
I mean, I don't know how long I'd have hung on.
00:35:56
Yeah.
00:35:57
That's...
00:35:58
That's the question.
00:35:59
Yeah.
00:36:00
But getting turned down to the drama schools didn't...
00:36:03
That didn't make you doubt yourself.
00:36:05
That just made you go, well, fuck you, here we go.
00:36:09
It didn't make me really say, fuck you, it was more...
00:36:14
It was more like I had a sort of secret that I thought, well, I'm going to just do it anyway and find my own way.
00:36:25
Because I didn't really have the confidence to be aggressive or feel that I'm angry because I thought they were probably right to not have me or whatever.
00:36:34
I didn't think, oh, well, you're wrong and you're fools.
00:36:36
I thought they were probably right and that, you know, whatever the thing that I was lacking, I must be lacking.
00:36:41
There was enough self-doubt to torture yourself.
00:36:44
Oh, yes.
00:36:45
Plenty of self-doubt to torture myself with, but still the knowledge that being an actor is what I am and there's a safety, I feel, you know, my worst nightmare, often people...
00:36:55
You see, what you do at the BAFTA is absolutely no way could I do that in a million years.
00:37:00
I don't believe that.
00:37:01
No way.
00:37:02
People assume I'd be quite good at that.
00:37:03
So, as long as I get asked to present, and now I never, ever, ever present, not I don't get asked to present like you do, but I'll get asked to present an award.
00:37:11
Yes.
00:37:12
And there was a wonderful thing happened about 2010 when Dominic Cooper and I were doing it and I, it's a simple job, you know, it's very hard to get it wrong and I got it wrong.
00:37:23
I opened the envelope before having read out the nominees and I remember coming off and Tom Ford, who was nominated that year and he's so exquisite, Tom Ford and very, very nice and sure.
00:37:34
But so pristine and I came off stage and that he gave me such a sort of, I can't really describe his look, but it was pitying,
00:37:44
I think, and I remember thinking, you know, what you don't understand is that this is actually brilliant because I'm never, ever going to be asked to do this again.
00:37:52
And I'm fine with that.
00:37:53
And I'm totally fine with that.
00:37:54
Right.
00:37:55
And what is it about that?
00:37:57
That?
00:37:58
Because being me, I can't, unless you, I can't bear it.
00:38:01
I can do it like this, but I can't bear it and I get stage fright and I get, I feel a fool and I don't want to be there.
00:38:10
And yet you give me a character and I feel, I'm totally free.
00:38:14
Yeah.
00:38:15
And I think I felt like that as soon as I, you know, if you can enter a room with a company of actors and you know who you're playing, you're fine.
00:38:23
Right.
00:38:24
You've got there.
00:38:25
You've got the other person with you all the time.
00:38:26
You've got your best friend.
00:38:27
Yeah.
00:38:28
Like the other person who's living it, but the person's inside you.
00:38:31
Yeah.
00:38:32
Interesting.
00:38:33
Here that spring is back.
00:38:45
And so was church of seafood with eight-piece shrimp, surf and surf, or fish sandwich, each starting at 3.99, offer valid and participating locations.
00:38:59
I mean, the thing that probably banished too many self-dose was quite early on.
00:39:05
If you were famously cast as a bond girl, why don't you?
00:39:08
Banished some self-dose.
00:39:09
Are you joking?
00:39:10
Well, I don't mean ban it, but, no, of course not because we self-dose our agency.
00:39:13
I had never seen going back to the childhood.
00:39:15
I was the child who was taken away from a sleepover because they were going to watch a bond film.
00:39:22
Why?
00:39:23
Because it was seen as too adult.
00:39:24
By your parents.
00:39:25
This is why I needed to have my wild years because I was incredibly protected.
00:39:29
So they were very bohemian and very, you know, they were very creative.
00:39:35
They were very, very protective and fearful.
00:39:38
So I had never seen a bond film at the time that I was...
00:39:41
Because ladies were kissing those...
00:39:42
Well, I mean, there was even a sort of inference of sex, I mean...
00:39:45
The one or two, yes.
00:39:46
The one?
00:39:47
Yes.
00:39:48
And some innuendo and all kinds of, I mean, once that kind of worms is open, I mean.
00:39:53
Right.
00:39:54
Where would a young, where would imagination go?
00:39:56
Yes.
00:39:57
And what was it like to suddenly be cast as a bond?
00:39:59
How did they feel about that?
00:40:01
Well, I took my mother's concert dress to the audition because, you know, that was our idea of an evening dress, a nice '80s, you know, roughly dress.
00:40:09
Beautiful.
00:40:10
Beautiful.
00:40:11
Right.
00:40:12
Silt taffeta, big roses on it, and Jacqueline Duran, who was Lindy Hemings, who was the costume designer, Jacqueline Duran now, you know, multiple Oscar-winning costumes on herself, was her assistant.
00:40:22
And she was very sweetly looked at me and she said, "Well, that is a very, very lovely dress."
00:40:28
But bond girls wear things more like this.
00:40:31
Right.
00:40:32
And she brought out three pieces of string.
00:40:35
This is for the audition, this is for the audition, you know, some shimmering sheath.
00:40:40
And I, you know, I mean, this is what I mean.
00:40:43
I was so unaware.
00:40:45
Right.
00:40:46
And then you're plundered onto a world stage and you're made to look like your incredibly sophisticated.
00:40:52
Sure.
00:40:53
And my character looked like she was 30 when I was 21.
00:40:56
Yes.
00:40:57
Well, you were 21, right?
00:40:58
22, maybe.
00:40:59
And your cast opposite.
00:41:00
I mean, Pierce Boson, who's...
00:41:01
You're 52.
00:41:02
Yes.
00:41:03
I mean, that's...
00:41:04
I mean, he was...
00:41:05
I mean, he couldn't be so...
00:41:06
He's still one of the best-looking men in the earth.
00:41:09
But it's...
00:41:10
That's a lot.
00:41:11
It's quite a gap, especially if you're a young innocent and you're having to play this kind of seductress.
00:41:18
Oh, God.
00:41:19
I mean, it's just, you know, you can laugh about it now, but it's...
00:41:25
Yeah.
00:41:26
The plunge is...
00:41:27
It's quite extreme.
00:41:28
I mean, that is a baptism of fire on us for the...
00:41:31
It is a bit reasonable.
00:41:32
A global scale.
00:41:33
I mean, if...
00:41:34
Yeah.
00:41:35
What was the ratio of exciting to "This is ghastly" and "I want to hide"? No.
00:41:41
I mean, it was incredibly exciting.
00:41:43
I mean, there was the time when we were doing the love scene and obviously I discovered things like, you know, nipple covers and...
00:41:49
Right.
00:41:50
You know, all the taping that you have and we were in the ice palace.
00:41:53
And our film was "Dine Other Day" set in...
00:41:56
Yeah, of course.
00:41:57
Yes.
00:41:58
The ice palace in Iceland.
00:41:59
It was actually set in Iceland, although we were in Pinewood, and there was a bed, a sculpture of a swan, which was the bed and it was covered in furs.
00:42:10
And we had this...
00:42:11
I had to sort of undress, drop the dress, and then...
00:42:14
It's beautiful.
00:42:15
All of them, your dad is on the outside of the room.
00:42:18
Exactly.
00:42:19
Exactly.
00:42:20
I didn't even think about that.
00:42:21
Right.
00:42:22
You're right.
00:42:23
Of course.
00:42:24
Yeah.
00:42:25
And...
00:42:26
And we...
00:42:27
Oh, though, an absolute gent.
00:42:29
I must say...
00:42:30
Oh, an absolute gent.
00:42:31
I mean, he's...
00:42:32
He's...
00:42:33
Couldn't have been...
00:42:34
Couldn't have been more sportive or kind.
00:42:35
But anyway, we have this clinch, and then I...
00:42:38
We separate, and I look at this body tape and the nipple covers, and they're covered in hair and I think, "Oh my God, I'm waxing pierces just."
00:42:47
And I was so mortified.
00:42:51
And I thought, "Oh my God, he's so brave," and I'm pulling off his chesthoe with every...
00:42:56
With every embrace.
00:42:58
And of course, it took a couple of takes to realize it was not him.
00:43:01
It was the fake fur of the rugs, adorning the swan bed, right?
00:43:06
I literally thought I was waxing the ballman's chest.
00:43:09
Just quite a hersute man, I guess, isn't he?
00:43:11
I guess Bond is.
00:43:12
Piers, who knows, but Bond, yeah.
00:43:15
Bond was hersute.
00:43:16
I don't think he was with Daniel Craig Clayton.
00:43:18
I don't know.
00:43:19
Maybe in general.
00:43:20
Yeah.
00:43:21
Not so much now.
00:43:22
Anyway, but it was definitely a magic carpet of an experience, but there's no introduction to film acting, or, you know, someone holding you by the hand and saying,
00:43:34
"Helping, no help to be better," or, you know, "I feel I didn't really get my masterclass in how to do it until I worked with David Fincher, probably."
00:43:45
I want to come on to him.
00:43:46
Which is right after we work.
00:43:47
Well, just to skip on a bit then, so, Diane, the day launches you, and you're then very quickly part of the sort of British film industry.
00:44:00
Well, I think you've got fame, but no respect.
00:44:03
But you get it pretty quickly.
00:44:04
I mean, you do a bunch of pretty classy stuff, don't you?
00:44:08
Do I?
00:44:09
Yeah.
00:44:10
Pride and Brexit is an education.
00:44:12
Johnny English.
00:44:13
You're good fun, you're with Tom Cruise and Richard, you do big, you know, so you're doing classy, indie, British films,
00:44:24
you're doing bag-old blockbusters, and then when we work together.
00:44:29
Yeah, just get the EVG because when you say all this, do you know that?
00:44:32
I've just said, "I just sort of feel," "Oh, it's all bollocks."
00:44:36
I just, I know it's not, but I just feel a bit squirmy.
00:44:39
But you just, well, it feels like it's happened to someone else, does it?
00:44:42
Yeah.
00:44:43
Right.
00:44:44
Or how it perceives, how it's perceived from the outside just sounds totally different from the feeling.
00:44:48
Anyway.
00:44:49
No, because what's the feeling?
00:44:52
Oh, the feeling is, well, when it's sort of coded in this idea that it somehow, I don't know, a kind of elegant process or a sort of,
00:45:04
you know, carefully crafted, it all just still feels like you're having a stab and, you know, yeah, failing again, failing better and,
00:45:15
and I can't describe it, I can't describe it.
00:45:20
Okay.
00:45:21
Now I make choices.
00:45:23
Now I do, I am thinking of a story in terms of what I do and what I want to put out there, but then you're just taking what you get.
00:45:34
Sure.
00:45:35
And what you are getting is quite posh stuff, that's because that's the objective view.
00:45:39
Yeah.
00:45:40
You're doing very well.
00:45:41
Then we work together and we're filming up in the Highlands of Scotland.
00:45:46
Yeah.
00:45:47
And we're having a very lovely time film called "What We Didn't Are Holidays".
00:45:51
With the great Billy Connelly.
00:45:52
With great Billy Connelly.
00:45:53
I just think I didn't talk to him enough while we were filming, did you?
00:45:57
I couldn't look him in the eye for a week.
00:45:58
I was so star struck.
00:46:00
But then once I did, he was just everything you hoped he would be.
00:46:04
He was kind, he was funny, he was his public persona, it feels very close to his private persona, which I suspect is the secret of his success,
00:46:14
maybe, because he just channels something magical, doesn't he?
00:46:18
It's so magical and it's so present and quiet and this sort of rye, humorous look at everything,
00:46:29
that nothing is going to be, well, I know they say that comedians are, you know, a lot of comedians are dark and troubled, but the feeling and whether so whether there's a persona that's existing while you're with them,
00:46:44
but it felt like you're just having someone gently tapping your arm, saying it's not all that serious.
00:46:49
Yes, yes, yes.
00:46:50
You know, just remember, we can look at the, yeah.
00:46:55
Look at the other side.
00:46:56
Yeah.
00:46:57
Flip it over.
00:46:58
So we're having a very lovely time making that film, but I remember one morning, over breakfast in a little island hotel, you say to me, you've just been on a top secret trip to St.
00:47:09
Louis, you don't, don't tell anyone, because there'd been something on the Monday morning about all Rosamond's going to be a bit late.
00:47:16
She's got a toothache or something.
00:47:18
I'm like, oh, okay, you'd been in Glasgow and you had to go to the emergency dentist.
00:47:22
Fine.
00:47:23
All right.
00:47:24
So you came to work slightly late that day.
00:47:25
I think we all just got on with it.
00:47:28
And then maybe the next day or the day after a member of a breakfast, you went, that's not, I didn't have a toothache.
00:47:33
I went to St.
00:47:34
Louis at the weekend, which of course, not something you could have admitted to a functioning film unit, because if you'd been stuck there, no, I mean, a canceling a day's filming,
00:47:46
it's no, to what happened?
00:47:49
A David Fincher had at the beginning of that film, he had asked a Skype with me about an unknown project.
00:47:56
And he, Skyping from the cottage I was renting outside Glasgow was incredibly difficult.
00:48:04
It was pixelated, kept freezing.
00:48:06
I look like a kind of Edward Monk painting used to do that all the time.
00:48:10
I mean, we are talking 11 years ago or something, aren't we?
00:48:13
Yeah, yeah, true.
00:48:16
But he wanted to talk to me about a project called Gone Girl and I had not read the book, but I had heard of it.
00:48:22
It was in the zeitgeist.
00:48:24
And he said, great, that's great.
00:48:27
Start reading it now and we'll check in in a few days.
00:48:30
So I started reading, I got through some of it and then we spoke again and he said, what are your thoughts?
00:48:34
What are you thinking?
00:48:35
And then we carried on talking.
00:48:36
And then I think he might have said, I want you to come to St.
00:48:39
Louis.
00:48:40
Right.
00:48:41
And you thought, and I need to meet you and I said, I'm filming.
00:48:46
And then I, I thought, I cannot tell my agents this because they're never going to get me out of the film.
00:48:53
They're not going to be able to do it and they get the worry of trying to do it.
00:48:57
The film is definitely going to say no, I thought I'm just going to have to do it.
00:49:03
There was one flight a day and it got in at 740 and my call time, my pick up was 730.
00:49:09
Right.
00:49:10
And I was checking, you know, the weekly reports on that flight and how often it was late, basically it was late once a week.
00:49:16
Oui.
00:49:17
But it was pretty much on time.
00:49:19
Yeah.
00:49:20
And I did it.
00:49:23
And I had a kind of whole elaborate thing that when the driver came to pick me up, the nanny who was looking after my child would say, Roby, that's my partner, has had to take her to the emergency room.
00:49:33
She's had a terrible explosion of a toothache.
00:49:35
I started to prep the toothache on the Thursday before, just by doing a bit of sort of, oh, I think, sorry, I think there's something, but maybe it's my wisdom, wisdom tooth coming.
00:49:47
So our nanny was ready to say to the driver that so he should go to the emergency room or he should just go to set and Roby would bring me from the emergency room to set.
00:49:56
Right.
00:49:57
Whereas meanwhile, Roby had driven hell for leather to Glasgow airport to meet the flight and get me to set.
00:50:02
Yeah.
00:50:03
And we were only about an hour late, I think.
00:50:04
Yeah, you were.
00:50:05
I mean, it all went like clockwork.
00:50:06
Oh, my God.
00:50:07
How tense were you about all that?
00:50:09
Or did you just think this is worth the risk?
00:50:12
It was worth the risk.
00:50:13
And I get very hit up on the, I sweat the small stuff.
00:50:15
Right.
00:50:16
The massive crisis.
00:50:17
I'm excellent.
00:50:18
Right.
00:50:19
Right.
00:50:20
I would sort of categorize this on the big crisis levels.
00:50:22
Had you worked your game?
00:50:23
Did you have a game plan for, if I miss a flight, you didn't know.
00:50:27
There was no plan B.
00:50:28
No, there was no plan B.
00:50:29
And that's how I am in life, though.
00:50:30
There's no plan B.
00:50:31
Right.
00:50:32
Right.
00:50:33
Well, we can now tell a story because it was all fine, but and it all worked out.
00:50:38
You were right to do it, because Gone Girl is a massive, massive thing.
00:50:42
David Fencher, well, you've already mentioned he's known to be quite tough, quite meticulous.
00:50:51
What was your experience working with him?
00:50:54
It's just working with a master filmmaker who leaves nothing to chance and doesn't even really trust an actor's instinct.
00:51:01
I asked him whether he ever uses take one.
00:51:04
He just said, never.
00:51:06
Wow.
00:51:07
You know, as if an actor could have an idea that would work for me.
00:51:12
But it's, it's the control and I had so much time on camera because he, he spends all the budget on days,
00:51:23
on days of filming.
00:51:24
We shot for 105 days.
00:51:26
So if you shoot a film like that with a small unit for 105 days and it's a character drama really, you spend a lot of time on camera and I, that's when I started to understand film acting.
00:51:37
Really?
00:51:38
Because of the direction he gave, the way he'd put left of field thoughts in your head, the way he'd sort of let you, he was very precise over certain things,
00:51:50
rhythm, movement, how smooth things were, they're getting in and out of a car and it's changed the way I think about physicality on screen now.
00:52:01
Right.
00:52:02
I can often hear his voice in my ear saying smoother.
00:52:07
Smoother is often a friend, you know, Amy was such a teacher because she was such a, obviously she was diabolical and manipulative and all that but she also,
00:52:17
she was an actress who acted so many versions of being a woman.
00:52:22
You could be sweet and seductive, you could be cold as ice, you could be girlish, you could be falsely sentimental, you could be grieving,
00:52:33
you could be charming, you could be, she was all of it and of course she was playing up to the press in a way that has now become, we see it all the time.
00:52:44
Now, you know, we now see people building their profile and, you know, editing their lives and but she was doing it before, you know, she worked out that the press loves pregnant women.
00:52:54
Right.
00:52:55
She was going to when she disappeared, she's going to orchestrate it that, you know, Amy Dunn not only has disappeared but she was pregnant.
00:53:02
You know, she knew she'd go right into the hearts of America and now, you know, look at all the baby showers and the opening of envelopes on social media and, you know, America still loves pregnant women.
00:53:16
So it was, it was astonishing, it was an astonishing thing to do.
00:53:24
And you met the moment of it and you were brilliant in it.
00:53:26
You get nominated for an Academy Award.
00:53:29
That is, that I've heard other people talk about that as a sort of an experience that's kind of out with anything else in our industry because it's a bit like running for president or something.
00:53:41
There's an expectation on you to kind of get involved in a world of campaigning.
00:53:48
I mean, what does that feel like and how comfortable with you, were you with all that?
00:53:52
You're right.
00:53:53
And I realized afterwards that it was a game that I could have played to win, but I didn't know that at the time.
00:54:00
Oh, right.
00:54:01
And I just had a baby.
00:54:02
So I did actually do any of the quote unquote campaigning to get the nominations, which I have done for other projects since and not got any nominees.
00:54:14
Right.
00:54:15
Right.
00:54:16
I know.
00:54:17
So there may be a lesson exactly.
00:54:24
So I know that it can be done without that whole jamboree because I didn't do it.
00:54:28
But if you're in a film that's hit the zeitgeist, it's a film that's hit the zeitgeist.
00:54:35
But the surreal nature of the whole thing anyway was amplified by having a nursing child who was four weeks old and every dress I chose had to accommodate breast milk pads.
00:54:48
Right.
00:54:49
And I would have to have these assignations with my son in a car or backstage at whatever event we were at.
00:54:55
I mean, I was at the baffters and I was in the office of the chairman of the Royal Opera House, you know, with dress completely down, two bottles on my nipples.
00:55:04
I mean, if I got a photo, one day if you, you know, they ever asked to see it, I can deliver the evidence.
00:55:09
But, you know, and so the backstage story was so funny, so funny, you know, and the thing is, you know, the Oscars and stuff are full of sentimental tales, people getting emotional.
00:55:20
And when you're a new mum, anytime you get someone who's in need or emotion, you know, your breasts start producing, no, it's a real problem.
00:55:27
Right.
00:55:28
So I'm sitting in the audience and saying, oh, God, oh, no, the person's getting emotional.
00:55:31
Oh, no.
00:55:32
I'm going to leak.
00:55:33
Oh, God.
00:55:34
You know, so this, and nobody talks about, I don't think I've ever talked about this.
00:55:38
I think that's a brilliant thing to show.
00:55:40
Nobody is thinking about that.
00:55:42
So not only do you have all the sort of stuff on you as a woman anyway that, you know, wearing these amazing dresses, yes, it's truly incredible to have the privilege to wear cuture and,
00:55:52
but it's also a hell of a responsibility.
00:55:54
You have to travel in a car when you get out.
00:55:56
It's creased.
00:55:57
And you think, oh, someone has spent thousands of pounds making this dress.
00:56:00
And now I've sat in a car for an hour and the whole thing's creased.
00:56:03
What do you do?
00:56:04
You know, there's all these little things.
00:56:06
At that time, I was like, I'm here.
00:56:08
I've shown up.
00:56:09
I've got a baby who's asleep.
00:56:11
I am killing it.
00:56:12
Yeah.
00:56:13
I'm killing it.
00:56:14
Yeah.
00:56:15
But also your breasts are changing size.
00:56:16
Sorry to be talking about breasts a lot.
00:56:18
I've never told my breasts.
00:56:19
You've got five kids and I know why I feel it's fine.
00:56:23
They're changing size.
00:56:25
You know, so making a dress is not easy.
00:56:28
Of course.
00:56:29
Not easy at all.
00:56:30
You need, yes.
00:56:31
Your lead timer has to be minutes.
00:56:32
Yeah.
00:56:33
Yeah.
00:56:34
You know, so sometimes, you know, you measure, it's measured and you have, you know, full of milk and then you're on the red carpet and you're empty of milk and the whole dress is sagging.
00:56:42
Right.
00:56:43
That's happened at the Golden Globes.
00:56:45
But that's another story.
00:56:46
So, but basically, I didn't really give a damn about any of that.
00:56:52
So I didn't give a damn about how I looked.
00:56:53
Right.
00:56:54
But I just thought it was a marvel that I was there.
00:56:58
Yeah.
00:56:59
And that my child was healthy.
00:57:00
Yeah.
00:57:01
And I had these backstage assignations with pumping machines and children and, you know, all the food that I could get into my body.
00:57:10
Yes.
00:57:11
To keep the production line going.
00:57:13
That's exactly as it should be, of course it is.
00:57:16
But after the whole thing was over, I realized, yes, I see this is a sort of political game.
00:57:21
But I've never been very comfortable with, I don't know, doesn't it make you squirm a bit?
00:57:29
And he says, that performance was amazing.
00:57:33
Yeah.
00:57:34
Well, can I tell you why it was so amazing because I had to, you know, really put myself through the ringer and, you know, the depths that I had to plum was just so,
00:57:44
you know, it was...
00:57:46
I can't really talk about it, I'm sorry.
00:57:47
You know, I can't.
00:57:48
Yeah.
00:57:49
And often it's the true, the weird thing is often it's also the truth.
00:57:52
Oh, sure.
00:57:53
You know, of course.
00:57:54
And to do something that turns out on screen to affect people, often you have had to put yourself through the ringer or whatever, but should you talk about it,
00:58:04
I still don't know the answer.
00:58:06
Yeah.
00:58:07
Well, an excellent perspective to have two little boys who actually were much more important than anything else through that time because it allows everything to be seen for what it is, doesn't it?
00:58:16
Yes.
00:58:17
It doesn't diminish how exciting it is and what I mean, how amazing these things are.
00:58:21
And that it probably will never happen again, and that was the glimpse into the thing.
00:58:25
You know, it's like anything that you've probably, you know, you probably lived through the whole Doctor Who experience.
00:58:30
And now, in retrospect, I'm sure now, right?
00:58:32
You probably look back and you think, oh, my God.
00:58:35
And yet when you're in it, you're doing it, you're living it, you're...
00:58:39
and then you think I've played this character that is indelible in the public imagination and will always be and means this and this and this to all these people.
00:58:49
You can't really ever get a perspective on it until it's gone.
00:58:53
Well, interestingly, or can you?
00:58:54
Well, let me ask you, because you are in the midst of playing one of those characters, aren't you?
00:59:00
Maureen Damarot.
00:59:01
I'm not, I say that right.
00:59:02
Not like Doctor Who.
00:59:03
Oh, listen, this, the Wheel of Time has a lot of fans.
00:59:07
It's a big show for a lot of people.
00:59:09
And you've just, the third season has just been released, right?
00:59:13
The third season has just been released finally to the sort of raised arms and love of the fandom.
00:59:23
Yeah.
00:59:24
The third season has hit it.
00:59:25
Yeah.
00:59:26
Yeah.
00:59:27
And our first two, they, they criticized us, you know, in a way that's healthy and you keep the dialogue open with fans.
00:59:33
They loved some things.
00:59:34
They hated others.
00:59:35
And this third season, they're like, this is our show.
00:59:37
Oh, interesting.
00:59:38
And it's very exciting.
00:59:39
That's...
00:59:40
You mean those should come from the books?
00:59:41
It's a 14 book series that has a huge readership.
00:59:47
Right.
00:59:48
Yes, yes.
00:59:49
Yeah.
00:59:50
This must be the longest time you've spent with a single character, is it?
00:59:53
Yes.
00:59:54
It is.
00:59:55
How are you enjoying that?
00:59:59
I've really, I've really enjoyed it because, of course, as you've probably found the character changes, what their concerns are, season to season are completely different.
01:00:10
So, and you're always searching to bring other dimensions.
01:00:14
And there are certain quintessential, you know, character tropes or whatever, the things that people love them for that is obviously a key part of who they are.
01:00:24
But there's...
01:00:25
I don't get bored of it if that's the question.
01:00:27
I do.
01:00:28
That's not...
01:00:29
No, it's just, it's interesting because it's, I think it's the first time you've done sort of multiple series of...
01:00:33
Yeah, yeah.
01:00:34
...of one character.
01:00:35
And it's a slightly different job, isn't it?
01:00:38
I was ready to enter the fantasy world because I had just played two real people in, I played a war correspondent for the Sunday Times, Marie Kolvin, and I played Marie Curie,
01:00:48
both of whom had, what were amazing, strong, clever forces of nature, but also quite troubled.
01:00:58
Yeah.
01:00:59
And I made the mistake of playing them back-to-back and that left me a bit troubled.
01:01:02
Right.
01:01:03
And a bit, it actually, my whole system shut down in a quite a scary way.
01:01:09
Right.
01:01:10
Which can happen because the body just thinks, I can't take any more of whatever the chemical cocktail you're asking it to...
01:01:18
You do trick it with trauma, and I'll trick it with trauma, then it begins to fuel the trauma, yeah.
01:01:23
And it shut down, and I thought, oh my god, I've got Emmy or something, and I thought I've something is really...
01:01:30
I'm never going to get my vitality back, and I did.
01:01:33
But I thought it's fantasy seemed like a nice invitation, you know, to step somewhere, the opposite of reality.
01:01:42
And I thought four years of playing a sorceress with magical powers, yes, I liked the sound of that very much.
01:01:49
Yeah.
01:01:50
Is that something you could imagine continuing with?
01:01:53
I would like...
01:01:54
I hope to goodness we get a pick-up for another season.
01:02:01
I think it's a huge commitment, it's eight months of the year, I moved my whole life to Prague for it.
01:02:09
Right.
01:02:10
We've had, as a family, a very exciting adventure in the middle of Europe, where you can drive to Italy, or drive to Germany, or drive to Poland.
01:02:19
You know, that's for people who live on an island, it's a nice feeling, and also meeting the Czech sense of humour, and, you know, artistically,
01:02:30
Czech probably is super interesting.
01:02:32
One for music, because I picked up the cello there again, two for cinema.
01:02:35
The Czech New Wave was a one of the cool new waves of cinema.
01:02:40
And knowing now the Czech humour, you can see where it comes from.
01:02:44
And the show is just...
01:02:46
We're a family now, you know, especially the young cast have been amazing role models for my children.
01:02:53
I suppose from the Wheel of Time cast, they've got a bit of what I got from my parents, friends, that sort of game playing, you know, coming round for a hang and a laugh and playing silly games.
01:03:05
That's nice.
01:03:06
Yeah.
01:03:07
Because interestingly, it hadn't stopped me from doing other things, and I recently got to see you working on set in another film, in a film called Ladies First.
01:03:14
Because my kid, Wilfred, please your kid in the movie.
01:03:18
And that, I didn't know if you were going to mention it, or if we were allowed to talk about that.
01:03:22
And we are allowed to mention it.
01:03:23
I checked with Netflix, and they're very happy for there to be a mention, which was lovely for me to be on the other side of, of course.
01:03:31
It was very surreal to see you sitting on the stairs, but trying to pretend you weren't there.
01:03:36
Trying to not.
01:03:37
Yes, just being the case.
01:03:38
Well, for needed anything.
01:03:39
Yeah, it's nice, isn't it?
01:03:40
Do you feel...
01:03:41
I would just feel...
01:03:42
A five.
01:03:43
Wilfred gave so much to that.
01:03:44
I mean, it was thanks to Wilfred, I told Martha, it was really thanks to Wilfred because I came onto the film pretty late without the prep time that I'd normally have, and it was the scenes with Wilfred that allowed me to find the character.
01:03:57
Right.
01:03:58
My character.
01:03:59
Because with Wilfred, we managed to create this mother child thing that made the whole thing come alive.
01:04:07
Well, it was a wonderful experience.
01:04:08
It was very exciting.
01:04:10
Yeah.
01:04:11
And I just spoke to, I just spoke to Thea, the other day, our director, and who's in the edit.
01:04:16
I haven't seen anything, and I said, "How's Wilfred?"
01:04:20
And Thea just said, "Magical."
01:04:21
She was very lovely with Wilfred, in particular, but it was a lovely set.
01:04:26
It was a lovely set to visit in a slightly different capacity.
01:04:28
And fun to do a comedy set in London, and be able to sort of...
01:04:36
You know, when you romanticize London, the city that I've grown up in, and Sasha Baron Cone's in it, and he was sort of very skeptical at the beginning.
01:04:46
He was saying, "How is London ever going to look romantic?"
01:04:49
And, you know, "Why are we doing this in winter when it gets dark, so early?"
01:04:52
And then about halfway through, he said, "Oh, my goodness, this wet down, you know, because they often wet the streets down to make them glistening."
01:04:59
This wet down is...
01:05:00
He said, "I reckon this is going to be California sunshine for kind of magic, and you know, and I was, I always think there's a magic to the cold."
01:05:17
I was never really a runner.
01:05:19
The way I see running is a gift, especially when you have stage 4 cancer.
01:05:24
I'm Ann.
01:05:25
I'm running the Boston Marathon, presented by Bank of America.
01:05:29
I run for Dana Farber Cancer Institute, to give people like me a chance to thrive in life, even with cancer.
01:05:36
Join Bank of America in helping ants cause, give if you can, at bav.com/supportan.
01:05:41
What would you like the power to do?
01:05:43
References to charitable organizations is not endorsed by Bank of America Corporation Copyright 2025.
01:05:52
How will you feel if your boys gravitate towards the arts?
01:05:58
My youngest son had a small part in the wheel of time under incredibly difficult conditions in shooting in South Africa where the temperature reached 111 Fahrenheit,
01:06:11
that's up in the 40s.
01:06:14
And it was hard on everybody, but he did say no offense, mum, but that's the last time I ever act.
01:06:21
Brilliant.
01:06:22
Brilliant.
01:06:23
But then recently has expressed some curiosity again, so I'm just watching the space.
01:06:29
I mean, I don't have any, I certainly would be thrilled if they did, because I think it's a wonderful life, but I also know parents of children who want to act,
01:06:40
who are the parents are successful and the children are less successful and that's painful, you know.
01:06:46
And I think that would, that is painful, what do you feel?
01:06:50
Well, if they want to do it, you can't get, you can't stop them, can you?
01:06:54
I mean, what you're going to see, I've done it, but you're not allowed.
01:06:57
No, I also think it's the best life.
01:07:00
I do think it's a no, if it's you on calling, it's, it's, it's, yeah, yeah, there's no calling greater.
01:07:06
I mean, there are callings greater, like being a, I'd love them to be, yes, I'd love them to be doctors and lawyers, but, you know, we are where we are.
01:07:14
Yeah, as long as it's for the right reason, as long as it's not for the trappings, because I think the surprising thing, you know, I would have done this whether or not I'd made any money at it.
01:07:25
That's the point.
01:07:26
Yes.
01:07:27
I mean, I, you know, I would have been, I would have been the struggling actor if I hadn't been the successful one.
01:07:33
I would have maintained, I would have carried on.
01:07:35
Yes.
01:07:36
Could you robotically back into theatre, right?
01:07:37
Yes.
01:07:38
Do you think I'm going to be struggling?
01:07:39
No, not at all.
01:07:40
I just mean there's, there's another version where you could have spent your life in red.
01:07:46
Exactly, exactly, no, I mean, I'm terrified of it.
01:07:49
I am going back into the theatre.
01:07:50
I'm doing, I've been invited to do a play at the national, which again, probably ranking with the call about Romeo and Juliet, was a call that I was surprisingly,
01:08:02
deeply, suddenly very emotional about.
01:08:05
Interesting, right.
01:08:06
Yeah.
01:08:07
And I got on the call to meet the people from the national and actually, from us of bursting as tears, because I said, actually, this is a huge, huge moment and I, I'm very, very, very emotional.
01:08:16
And then I lost it, excited, because my mother, my mother was actually in the little tin when her water is broke with me, and she's not where you're pleased going to be.
01:08:26
Yes.
01:08:27
Oh, that's a brilliant story.
01:08:29
Yes.
01:08:32
And, and funnily enough, there was a, there was a space in the Olivier, we lost the original space we had in the little tin and they said, oh, there's a space in the Olivier, do you want to come and see it?
01:08:43
So we went, I went with Justin Martin, I direct and we looked at the Olivier, but it was just, it was just, it's just, it's just, you need to have a massive show in there.
01:08:52
You need to feel that stage and I, I didn't feel that, we didn't feel it was right.
01:08:57
So, and then we went to see London tied at the little tin and that just felt right, right.
01:09:03
And maybe it's right because that's where it all began.
01:09:05
I think, I think it sounds, but I'm, absolutely perfect.
01:09:09
I'm frightened.
01:09:10
I am frightened.
01:09:11
And sometimes people talk about it, you know, because the national are making announcements, for instance, about the, you know, national theatre live and how it'll be in cinemas and it will be able to be seen around the world and my stomach drops into my feet.
01:09:25
I mean, no joke, it, it lurches, it's just on it now and it, it plummets.
01:09:32
And it's a big thing.
01:09:33
It's a, it's not because for years now I've been able to put, do my performances in small chunks.
01:09:38
Yes.
01:09:39
Yes.
01:09:40
Right.
01:09:41
I know.
01:09:42
It's got to join up.
01:09:43
Join up and be coherent.
01:09:45
And yeah, scared is good though, right?
01:09:49
A little bit scared.
01:09:50
Yes.
01:09:51
Yes.
01:09:52
It's, it's an interesting feeling.
01:09:53
Yeah.
01:09:54
And I'm playing a judge and it's a play about mothers and sons and so it's very close to my heart.
01:09:58
Yeah.
01:09:59
And I'm going to spend a week, next week in court at the Old Bailey and the Crown Court's Royal Watching Trials and seeing, trying to work out the, the difference between the judge in court and who the persona is when the robes are off.
01:10:13
Yeah.
01:10:14
Um, he's called Interali, all right?
01:10:16
Interali among, among other things, among, in the midst of it all.
01:10:21
Yeah.
01:10:22
A bit like a working parent feels, you know?
01:10:24
Yeah.
01:10:25
In the throws of motherhood work, wife, wifedom, um, you know, the dynamic between a husband and wife.
01:10:33
They're both baristas.
01:10:34
They both got gain silk and she's the one who's called to be a judge, which is actually a pay cut, but a, but a, but a, but a huge, not, and huge prestigious on it.
01:10:43
Yeah.
01:10:44
And what that does to a relationship when, yeah, all those kind of things, um, yes.
01:10:49
Rosemond, I can't wait to see it.
01:10:51
Will you be there?
01:10:52
I'll be there.
01:10:53
I won't tell you when.
01:10:54
Definitely.
01:10:55
Definitely comes to you there.
01:10:56
Listen, it's been so lovely to have you do this.
01:10:57
Thank you for being so open.
01:10:58
Do we want to see what's easy to talk to and let's find out if we're destroying the world by, uh, using AI.
01:11:06
Okay.
01:11:07
Here we go.
01:11:09
Every interaction with an LLM, the process known as inference necessitates computational resources to run the model and generate a response.
01:11:18
This computation requires electricity.
01:11:19
And while the energy consumed by a single query might appear minimal, the sheer volume of user interactions daily can lead to a substantial cumulative energy demand.
01:11:31
She's being, well, we assume she's being honest.
01:11:33
Maybe she's already minimizing the damage, do we believe her?
01:11:36
This is becoming one of the ethical queries of our modern times.
01:11:39
But she's not saying, no, she's saying it is does have an environmental impact.
01:11:46
Despite the seemingly small energy cost per query with hundreds of millions of weekly active users making multiple queries per week, the total annual energy consumption for a widely used LLM like chat GPT can be quite high reaching tens of thousands of megawatt hours.
01:12:03
Well, listen, I will leave you to make your own decision.
01:12:08
Roseman, thank you so much.
01:12:10
Thanks, David.
01:12:27
David Tennant does a podcast with is a Sony music entertainment and no mystery production.
01:12:33
Produced by Matt Smith, the assistant producer was Rani Prescott, the mix engineer was John Scott, the executive producers are Alex Lawless,
01:12:49
Sarah Kamlett and Georgia Tennant.
01:12:57
This is his podcast, which I am hijacking or rather temporarily borrowing so that we can find out a little bit more about him.
01:13:05
[BLANK_AUDIO]
01:13:15
