Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Four months rehearsal?
Yeah.
That's heaven.
Before I come on stage, I ask for, whatever I'm doing, to connect with whoever it needs to connect with.
And anyone who's studying acting, listen to this.
This is the key.
Hi.
Hello.
Cynthia Reba.
Hello, Hugh Jackman.
How are you?
I'm good.
How are you?
I'm good.
You're in the middle of... In the middle of the things, yeah.
Are you exhausted?
You know what?
Today I feel quite floaty.
Not exhausted.
I think I've been doing things to make sure that I'm still able to function in the right way.
You know, like, I still feel human, yeah.
I just went backstage at Jonathan Groff's show, who I know you love, and we both love.
Who I love, yeah.
And he's just so phenomenal in that show playing Bobby Darin.
I don't know how many songs he sings, 25?
I didn't even try to count.
From the beginning to the end, he's just going.
It's incredible.
At full whack.
It's insane.
And a sweater and a spitter.
Yes, very much so.
You know, I know this, but I I went backstage I said how you doing, he goes great yeah.
I said how?
And he said I just made this decision.
Yeah, that I would.
I was going to finish stronger than when I started.
Right, and I'm doing anything I have to do to make sure that I finish stronger.
Yeah, and that's the thing I think.
That's, that is the key.
I don't even know that I made that particular promise to myself, but I know that I have consciously put things in place for myself to keep myself strong.
So I know when I get to a- Can you tell me what they are?
So when I get to a venue I have asked before we begun to make sure there's a treadmill close by, like in the room, so I can get up in the morning.
There's no excuse, I can just get on and run.
I take every kind of tea that I need with me.
I take all the protein bars with me.
I take all the things to keep a constant, you know, things that I always have.
I have them.
My vitamins, I always have them.
It's all of those things that sort of help me stay well and stay strong and also stay like bright, happy.
That's awesome.
I'm stealing that.
It's stupid things like bringing a mug that I know will keep everything hot all the time.
I carry that with me.
We could totally have done this on the treadmill.
I would have been up for that.
We absolutely could have.
We could have.
That's awesome.
I'm a meditator.
Yes.
So I make sure that I get that time.
Yes.
And I'm sure people are like, dude, I'm like.
No, no, no.
If it has to be done, it has to be done.
You're not going to like me in three hours time.
That's good though.
I'm still learning to meditate.
I feel like my running is where I meditate the most.
That's where I sort of like lock in.
But I haven't learned that practice yet.
But I think it will be good for me if I implement it.
You'll do it when you want to.
Yeah.
It'll come.
Yeah.
So I'm so thrilled.
I know, I've been in some big anticipated movies.
And I know what that's like.
It's exciting.
It is.
Are you able to take it in?
Sometimes.
Yeah.
There are times when my blinkers are on and it's just about moving from one thing to the other, like working and getting everything done.
But then there are moments where my blinkers come off and I realise things are happening around me and it's really special.
I just wanted to come and see you.
That means a lot to me, Alfie.
But if anyone discoverates you... I know.
You shot it all.
At once.
At once.
And that was how long?
How long was the shoot?
Rehearsal started in August.
We started shooting in December of 2020.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Four months rehearsal?
Yeah.
That's heaven.
It was delightful.
That's why all those numbers are so seamless and amazing.
It was delightful.
We really like, it was like being back at theater camp.
Yeah.
It's like doing a show for a stage.
We had nine weeks for Les Mis and I thought that was a lot.
You guys had 16 weeks.
Yeah, we started, it was costumes, it was rehearsal, it was choreography, songs, the whole lot.
And we really had time to sort of like dig in and find out what the arc was, because we knew we were shooting all of them at once.
So we just had to find the time to make sure that we understood what we were doing.
And then December we started shooting, it was 2022?
And then we shot from December through to 2023.
We had that massive break because of the strikes.
And then we came back top of 2024, finished it then.
That's right.
Because I remember being at a hotel coming back for Deadpool Wolverine.
And Jonathan Bailey was in there training, who I knew a little bit, who was phenomenal.
Phenomenal.
What a voice.
He's wonderful.
And a fantastic actor.
A lovely human being as well.
Really?
Yeah.
Now I get that.
All of those things together.
I love working with him.
Love working with him.
And this movie, it's really at the core, that relationship with Jonathan.
Yeah.
And you can tell... how connected you are and how much you love working together.
I love it.
I feel very lucky to have been placed between some extremely wonderful, special people.
Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey are two of the most wonderful people I have ever met.
Not just their talent, but them as people.
They're really, really kind and generous.
And so we spend a lot of time working on what these relationships would be, how they would show up for each other.
With Jonathan Bailey.
It was interesting because that relationship, Fiyero and Alva, it doesn't have much time on stage to sort of expand on it.
You don't have much time to find out how they even get where they are.
But with this, we had time to just breathe into it a little bit more.
That's what I loved.
Yeah.
I loved when I saw it.
I was like, oh, that's great.
And I was trying to, because I saw it 23 years ago.
So that was my memory.
My memory was like, oh, I remember there being a little bit, but I was like, oh, this is so great.
It really helps you understand Alphabet a lot.
And for you to show sides of that character.
Yes.
You get to sort of see a side of her that you don't necessarily even know.
Is there that sort of vulnerable central side, that just sort of Belonging?
Yeah.
Like the want that she has, all of that sort of gets to be on show, which I'm so pleased about.
Yeah.
Because often characters like that, that side of them sort of escapes everyone.
But now we get to have this beautiful sort of softer, less defence side on show.
I... like you have done a lot of stage yes and i've done musicals and so i don't know how you feel when you go to see a musical but i go in with this please be great please be great please be great yeah yeah yeah i wanted to be great you do you will it you're willing it to be great i have movie musicals yes as thankfully they're back yeah and any expectation i had you just Sale, you and the entire thing.
I mean as an entirety.
This film included, it just really is a phenomenal piece of work.
It's a really, really difficult, I think it's the Mount Everest of movie making musicals.
I really think it's the hardest thing to pull off.
I think so too.
And this is all testament to John Chu.
It's a very hard thing to pull off because you have to convince people that it makes sense for each of these characters to burst into song.
But that's in the, it's the moment between.
It's between the speaking and the singing.
There's that influx, moments of influx, where you're sort of like, what's gonna happen there?
It's the silence.
How do you get from speaking to singing?
Does it make sense for them to go from speaking to singing?
And every time he would find a way for us to find that sort of invisible thread that puts the two things together.
No good deed goes unpunished.
There is no other choice but for these characters to start to sing.
That the music is actually just part of the narrative.
That the music is actually part of who they are on the inside.
And that's all down to John Chu.
We can do the singing, we can do the acting, but if we don't have the space to do that...
There's very few people who know how to do it.
It's just not done.
Rob Marsh was another.
Let them know how for the form to work.
Yeah.
Bill Condon is another.
Yeah.
But I'm an actor.
Yes.
And I'm talking to an actor.
Yes.
It's not easy to pull off.
Yeah.
And I always think of Travolta in Grease.
Yeah.
I'm like, if you can make Stranded at the drive-in work, like.
Yeah.
So he gets dumped by Olivia Newton-John and he's walking a strand at the drive-in and I'm like watch his commitment to it.
There's not one part of him that feels awkward breaking into song.
You guys all have that.
And I'm sure for John too.
Yes, you need to find the language and the impulse and the purpose for singing.
Yeah.
But I mean, you know this more than I do.
That's for sure.
You've been doing it longer than I am.
That's for sure.
The first musical idea.
Well, not the first, but when I worked with Trevor Nunn, who you of course know, great English director, when we did Oklahoma, he wouldn't let us sing for the first three weeks.
We would all sneak off with the musical director, unbeknownst to him, and learn it.
He was like, oh, no, no, no.
You need to make the lyrics work as if they're thought, as if it's Shakespeare.
He said, it's no different to Shakespeare.
That's not the way you speak, but you have to make it feel like that's the way you speak.
Like prose.
And so I said, okay, that sounds great.
Now, Curly has the first song.
And every verse, he repeats the first line.
So I said all right Trevor, but come on, what a beautiful morning.
I repeat every line like there's a bright golden haze on the meadow.
There's a bright golden haze on the meadow and he goes.
You better find a reason to say it.
So, anyway.
I think it was today is when I found out that your first time on stage.
On Broadway.
On Broadway.
Yeah.
Is the same time that Wicked started.
Mm-hmm.
When was that, 2003?
Wow.
Yeah, you were a baby.
I was a baby.
You were a baby.
Yeah, as a kid.
Yeah.
Just a little kid.
But I remember we were in the same season.
And Wicked was a massive hit.
And I remember being at the Tonys with everyone.
It was such an exciting time.
And Wicked was an out and out smash from the jump.
We were not.
And then we became a smash.
But we were all at the Tonys and all those award shows together.
And it was just so.
Actually I remember there was a.
Now I'm remembering Wicked didn't win the Tony.
It didn't.
No.
But when they announced it.
Yeah.
Do you know this little bit of.
I don't.
Give me this trivia.
So Mark Platt.
Yes.
Who we love.
Produced the movie.
Yes.
Produced that.
Yes.
And they said, and the winner of the Tony for best musical is, and they put up Wicked on the screen.
Avenue Q. Are you joking?
It took five seconds.
So there's photographs of Wicked being, and the winner is.
So obviously whoever, everyone assumed.
Assumed that it would be, yeah.
Wicked.
So it was a massive cut to.
Yes.
I hope I'm okay to say this, but I think it was kind of a cool thing.
Mark Platt being the producer of La La Land.
And then.
Cut to the Oscars.
I don't know.
Where they give him the Oscar and when they're on the stage, they take it away from him.
And I think he's like, Like literally, is everything going to be taken from me?
Anyway, I think that's kind of a cool little thing.
It's a strange thing that keeps happening, but I don't want it to happen for him again.
I will say that Mark so cares about the work that he puts on stage and the people in it.
What's been actually really wonderful working with Mark and John Chu is that they both really show up.
I can't tell you how many times Mark was on set in the morning at the break of dawn and he's there.
He's a real producer.
Until the end of the day, and he would pop into my trailer and we would have a conversation about something and we'd talk about a decision that we want to make, and he was always there.
And it's very... I feel like it's rare for a producer to show up in that way.
I agree.
And he really did.
It was like...
No, I hope Mark Platt gets his recognition here too because he's one of the great producers.
Yes, he is.
Look at what he's done.
Yeah.
It's extraordinary.
And little known fact, Mark Platt was a great friend to us during The Greatest Showman.
Oh, wow.
Because he had a relationship with Justin Benz.
Yes, that's right.
He wrote all the music because of Dear Evan Hansen.
Very well.
Again, which he produced.
Yeah.
And so he would help us out.
He would call me and say, hey, how about this, how about that?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He wasn't on the movie.
No.
The art for him is just as special as the piece itself.
So it's the making that I think drives him.
I've got loads of questions.
You can tell I actually graduated as a journalism major.
But I'll let you ask me a question.
If it doesn't veer off too far, I watched Song Song Blue and my heart was broken.
It's so heartbreaking.
But what was really beautiful is to see you return to music again in that way, see singing again.
I wonder how it felt to be able to come back to it in this way.
There was something about playing mike sardina yeah, aka lightning yeah, whose manager was his dentist, so he put a lightning bolt on his tooth.
I love the story so much.
I love this character.
He's a tunnel rat in Vietnam.
I can't even begin to imagine what that's like.
Of course, came back from Vietnam addicted.
At this point in the story, you find him in 20 years sober, but it's a battle.
Life is a battle and what's holding it is this dream.
So somehow for me, I've been able to live my dream pretty much from the jump.
But somehow I always believe and I open myself up and I ask this in my dreams and in everything.
Let Mike teach me.
We've come together for some reason for a period of time and we're gonna learn something from each other.
And what Mike allowed me to do is to just entertain.
To not be fussy about how I sounded.
He was trying to, he didn't even care if he sounded particularly like Neil Diamond.
He just wanted to entertain people.
And he wanted to get up and it didn't matter if it was here or there or the pub or down the road.
And that is in my DNA.
But it's something I forget sometimes.
Sometimes I get a bit shy or a bit perfectionist-y.
That didn't sound good, i gotta.
And just to be able to get up sing live and we recorded and not be all vocally warmed up, but just like ah, get up and go, it was a thrill.
And to get up in bars and entertain extras, other actors, you know, but everyone was having a great time.
And what he taught me?
Because mike's character sorry, mike had a heart condition.
Yeah, I think he had 20 or 30 heart attacks.
Since coming back from NAMM, he always struggled with it.
He had no idea how long he was going to live.
He's in Milwaukee.
He's doing oil changes to make ends meet.
He's playing at a Thai restaurant doing karaoke, tip jar musician.
And he's got this dream of just being able to sing, but he has no idea how long.
And almost everyone was saying to him, give it up.
Come on.
Come on, man.
Come on, you're dreaming too big.
This is naive.
It's not going to happen.
And he just refused to say no.
And that was a great reminder to me.
Trusty gut and refused to say no.
And this movie, you and I, look how blessed we are. but we'd still be doing it.
We'd be at a community theater or we'd be teaching or we'd be doing it because we love it.
And this is a love letter to those people.
It's a love letter to the thousand musicians at the bar in the lobby at the hotel who just love it.
I think the special thing about your movie that I really loved is the everydayness of it.
The people who live and work from one day to another and just have a simple dream of being in front of people and being able to sing.
That it connects us to the humanity that we sometimes forget about.
I just thought it was very special to watch this family.
Just try to live, try to survive and also try to dream, find joy in those moments.
Right.
Thanks.
I thought Craig Brewer, who is the writer and director who I first saw and kind of was gobsmacked by when I saw Hustle and Flow.
You were a baby when they came out.
So I don't know if you saw it.
I know my history.
But he lives in Memphis.
He's surrounded by musicians.
And he says, most of my friends are really amazing musicians.
Some of them do session work.
A lot of them have other jobs.
And he said, it's a love letter to them.
But he said, what I need people to feel is that we're really in the Midwest.
We're not parodying it.
We're not overdoing it.
But it feels real.
It really is.
That house really is next door to the airport.
Those planes almost do hit the roof.
And I thought he did a really great job of that.
It was beautiful.
It was right there.
Can I ask you another question?
Go on.
Stephen Schwartz.
Yes.
The new song.
Yeah.
How cool is that?
Very cool.
Was it written before you started?
So in that rehearsal period were the new songs written?
Yes.
Oh.
So he'd written them for the movie.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And that was the first time we heard them.
Did you know it was going to happen that night?
I did not know it was going to happen that night.
And so what happened?
Stephen Schwartz?
Well, there's a piano there.
Stephen Schwartz gets on the piano.
He starts playing it.
He said, this is your song and this is your song.
And sang them?
Yes.
Come on.
Yeah.
It was insane.
Talking through it.
How was that?
It was really, really special.
I think both of us were really overwhelmed because I don't think we expected it to happen.
First of all, that was also the first time we had sung together.
So on that night, we sang for good together.
And we had never sung before.
We did not do our test together.
We didn't audition together.
Nothing.
Did you know that was going to happen that night?
That you were going to sing?
We had no idea.
We had no idea.
And John Chu, I think maybe had orchestrated to just see if we could get us to sing, but we had no idea that it was gonna happen.
And like there's a little video of us doing it, but we both have our.
I have my phone and she has lyrics and we had no idea.
It was unprepared.
Yeah, it was such a wonderful moment of, Knowing that this was the right partner.
Knowing that these were the right people to be doing this with.
But to break the ice the day before the first rehearsal.
This was like a week or so before we were all leaving.
And I'm sure everyone just had the chills.
I'm sure you did too.
We had chills.
There were tears.
The whole lot.
But your voices blend so beautifully together.
But we had no idea they would.
That's the first time we found out.
Huh.
Yeah.
Did you have a suspicion?
Did you suspect that?
No, because our voices are so different.
They are.
They're very, very different instruments.
But that's why they blend so beautifully.
It's a lovely thing because when we would record the comp tracks for rehearsal purposes, you could see the vocal lines on the screen.
And our vocal lines were the same.
Right.
Which never happens.
You can't orchestrate that.
It just sort of is what it is.
Yeah.
It's such an odd thing to know that this person, who I'd never sung with before, who I met for the first time, because of this we matched.
We were right for each other.
I've got so many things swimming in my head.
The first thing that came to my mind is Ryan Reynolds, who just did the John Candy doc.
Yes.
He came over.
He goes, dude, do you know Cynthia Reeve?
I said, what?
Yes, I know.
He didn't say that, actually.
But he was like I've got this thing from Cynthia because I asked her if she would sing on the John Candy Dog sing this song.
And he played me all like, hey, Ryan, Cynthia, I think I know the one.
Is this the one you mean?
And then you just start singing.
It's like, Cynthia, that little, is this the one?
That was like one of the best things.
And I actually did a Q&A with him on stage and he had the mic and he says, this is Cynthia Riva.
It was so cool.
And I remember when you were doing Color Purple and the director of The Greatest Showman, Michael Gracie, who you know very well.
Michael probably saw it 30 times because he had to bring people.
And I was doing something I couldn't go and I finally said, I'm going.
And I wasn't there.
I remember this.
And you were off.
And I was off.
I was off sick.
It was still an amazing production.
I'm so sorry.
To this day, I'm so upset about that.
But I did get to be in a room with you during a workshop for Greatest Showman.
And that video of Keala Settle or there's one of me from now on that's been seen I don't know a hundred million times.
If you pan left, people are always like, is that Cynthia Erivo?
Is that Aaron Tveit?
Is that like you know anyway?
Yeah, because you show up, you're part of the community and you just show up and uh, people like how did you get those people?
And said you asked.
And people say yeah sure, but i want to make mention yeah, i left you a message.
Yeah, first of all, the performance.
I think your performance is so extraordinary.
Thank you, and i know how hard it is to pull this stuff off.
Yeah, i know You're as good as it gets.
You and Arianna, the two of you and Jonathan Bailey, just such deep respect.
And it made me so inspired.
It made me like, I'm gonna do more.
And that's what you do.
And then you got up at the Oscars cold saying, defying gravity, like you'd been on that stage for an hour before you just walked out there, owned it.
I'm like whoa.
Like before you started singing, I felt that your energy was going a million miles into the earth and then it just out of came.
Thank you, I've hosted the Oscars, so I kind of know that moment.
Yes, I would love to hear from you yeah, how that felt.
I was really nervous.
No.
Yes.
I was really nervous.
Right before I started singing, I was really, really nervous.
But that, for me, tells me that I care.
That's always a good sign.
Then I have to center, take a breath, and then it just sort of like dropped in.
I felt really dropped in.
This was all happening on stage?
This was all happening on stage.
It all happens in real time.
I always have nerves before I go on stage.
What is that breath?
Before I come on stage, I ask for, whatever I'm doing, to connect with whoever it needs to connect with.
So that it's not just for me.
Because it's not just for me.
Then I can focus outward, then I can send the energy outward and it isn't just self-contained.
Because I'm able to do that, I can then focus on, I can actually see people.
Something about being able to see people's eyes.
No, you can see that.
Watch it.
Go back and watch it.
You can see all of this.
And anyone who's studying acting...
Listen to this.
This is the key.
To focus that energy, to focus whatever the reason is on whoever is out there.
And at some point you'll find a set of eyes that just settles everything.
And then I can just keep going.
You can see me breathing as well on the stage.
I'll take a deep breath and then sing.
We have something in common.
I take a minute before I go out.
And I say a little phrase which, if I paraphrased it is allow this moment to be in service of consciousness of God, of the absolute, of whatever it is.
Beyond Hugh Jackman or the Oscars or what this is going to do for me.
I kind of need that as well.
I need it.
You need it.
Because it makes the moment, the reason for what you're doing, so much bigger than just standing and performing and having a great moment.
It makes it about someone who's far, far away, who just needs to see this, someone who's in pain, someone who needs release, someone who needs joy, someone who is hurting, someone who is frustrated.
Maybe this thing that they see today will help in some way.
I have to believe that that's what this is all really for.
You know?
Does that include you?
Yeah, I think so.
I think in the service of it, it ends up helping me endlessly.
Of course.
Yeah.
Do you have any ritual?
So the movie comes out.
Yeah.
Obviously, it's with you for the rest of your life.
Yeah.
You may not know that yet.
But I can tell you after eight years, after Greatest Showman, and you will have more and more gratitude for it.
And it will mean different things to you as it goes on.
Yeah.
Do you have any rituals at the end of either a performance or a movie or on November 22?
Is there a way you reset?
Sleep.
Sleep.
Sleep and then a therapy session.
Yeah, that's what happens usually.
Through the process, I'm often holding on to emotions, I find.
And I think, once I'm able to get past all of the things, once the thing is released or once something is finished, I really allow myself to just let it all go.
Mm-hmm.
So, like the last time, I think the end of the road really was the Oscars.
I was on a plane to South Africa to start a new movie and I just cried the whole way and just let myself be.
And that's not Well, explain it to me.
What are the tears?
If they had words, what are they saying?
I think it's just release of all of the things that I've like, the things I've seen, the things I've experienced happy, but all of the things.
It's just all emotions that sort of crystallize and you hold onto them because there's no time.
And then when you do, when you're alone for a second, you can let them go.
Yeah.
It's been a pretty massive, I don't know, if I could, four or five years, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Is it settling in for you?
I went through a bit of it with X-Men.
Tell me about... Well, I was 29.
Okay.
And I got my first job at 26.
So I did a degree.
Then I did acting class for four years.
So I was 26, my first job.
I was in Australia, but it was quite a lot.
But X-Men was another whole thing.
Yes.
And that's when everything went... And my friends said to me, what's it like?
I said...
It's like you've got the leash of a Great Dane and a horse all in one and it's dragging you down the street.
It's part exhilarating and part frightening because you're a little out of control.
And I think luckily for me, no one recognized me as Wolverine on the street.
So I had this grace period of about 18 months where I was famous in the world, but no one stopped me.
I remember two guys arguing in front of me.
That's not him.
I pulled out my license to settle the argument.
So I had that, but I would say it took me a few years just to feel grounded.
And I was 29 when that happened.
So what about for you?
I think if I had been 29 when this was happening, I think I would be a little bit out of control.
But because I'm legitimately 10 years older than when you first started, I think I've found the ground.
I have really good people around me who are helping to make sure that I'm still connecting with the floor.
Same people that were there before?
Some new?
Some new, but most the same.
Most the same.
I'm a creature of habit.
I keep those around me who feed good energy and aren't yes people.
So if I'm not sure of something and they don't agree, then they will disagree.
I still need people.
I don't want to be the smartest person in the room.
Were you a fan of Neil Diamond?
Before you begun, this was a fan.
I knew neil diamond like when i grew up.
Hot august night was the album everyone played, so i heard it a lot.
I knew of his music.
I had been lucky enough i have a very good friend who promotes him and also would promote me, so i'd met him.
He was someone i looked up to as a great songwriter.
Yeah, he had so many great songs.
Luckily for me, like mike, He would say I'm not an interpreter.
I'm not sounding like Neil.
I don't look like him.
I'm an interpreter.
I want to interpret his songs.
Yeah, you don't want to be a Neil Diamond impersonator.
You want to be a Neil Diamond interpreter.
I was looking for the right way to say it and you just came right out and said it.
A Neil Diamond interpreter.
But I would listen to the songs a lot.
I would try to listen to the way he phrased things.
Yeah.
To Neil, he was a cantor.
Yeah, oh wow.
When he was younger.
He and Barbra Streisand went to the same school.
They were in the choir together.
Oh my goodness.
Yeah.
Can you explain what a cantor is?
Because we as music geeks know what a cantor is.
So when you...
When you go to synagogue, the scriptures are being sung by a cantor.
Yes.
And so, which then gets repeated, I think, by the, I call it congregation.
I don't know if that.
Yes.
Yeah.
And so it's the leader gets up and sings and they often have beautiful voices.
Yes.
And it's a beautiful thing.
If you have an experience, go to a synagogue and a good cantor.
It's so amazing.
And so that's what he did growing up in Brooklyn.
Wonderful.
I didn't know this.
And we have the same range.
Now, after my last musical with Justin and Benj, everything's living like In the ceiling.
But also, Justin and Benj love that, though.
They love that.
They love it.
Yeah.
And I'm like, I don't mind going up there, but do we have to live there?
I have to tell them off for it sometimes.
They love hearing me wail and scream and shout.
They do.
They came to my show.
Yes.
And I sang about five or six songs from Showman.
And Justin comes up and goes, you dropped it a tone.
I said, absolutely.
Yes.
Well done.
Screw you.
So Kate Hudson, oh man.
Yeah.
I don't know if you've heard her album.
No.
She's a phenomenal, she's really a muso.
But I do know that she's a phenomenal singer though.
Yeah.
That is something I know off the bat.
So she's as much a muso singer as she is an actor.
Yeah.
It's all the same thing.
Music is in her and, you know, in her life and...
She tells.
I hope she doesn't mind me telling you, but she told me a story of her mom, Goldie Hawn, making a sing at a party that Quincy Jones was at.
I mean.
And so, right.
So, yeah.
So she was 15.
And as she left, as Quincy was leaving, and Quincy rolls down the window of the car.
Yeah.
Comes over and goes you need to be recording record and i'm telling you record and she said i didn't.
I said quincy jones, and she should have listened.
But she did.
Now she's doing it now.
And so when we started our rehearsal yeah, we started in the recording studio.
So craig was like after hustle and flow, he was like we're gonna record everything, as much as a rehearsal than anything.
Find the voices, find youtube blending together.
Just the two of us.
It was just the two of us for days in a recording studio.
And then we're going to sing everything live.
You can feel that.
You have such beautiful chemistry with each other.
You feel really lived in.
It's like the two of you have known each other forever.
It's lovely.
It's so special.
And part of that was lucky in that, you know what it's like.
You don't know until you turn up.
But on day one when we read, Kate turned to me and she said, this movie only works if we work.
And I said, I know.
So we both knew we had to kind of connect.
But we sang everything live.
We also had it recorded.
So there was no pressure.
The only one we knew would be live is that scene when we first rehearsed together.
We sing Play Me together.
And we knew we had to do that live.
We had to capture something in the minute.
And Kate was just so at home in the recording studio.
What was the moment that you were like, oh, this will work?
This is something.
There's a spark in the air because of.
We were in the recording studio singing Holly Holly, which is such a beautiful song.
It's beautiful.
And the two of us were in harmony and we were sitting on a couch and they just put the mics down and we we didn't think we were gonna record it that way.
We were just sort of going through it.
And I just got chills.
And you know that moment where you look up in the booth and you can hear everyone going.
And Craig came out and was like, yeah.
And that was the moment where I was like, oh yeah.
This is so gonna work.
Kate was in a happy place in the recording studio.
She was so happy.
And every day, I'm so blown away by her and her performance.
It was one of those things where day one, scene one, just came out and there was Claire.
And she has no, she's not a vain person at all.
And there's parts of the story, without giving it away, where it's just raw.
There's no makeup.
The camera's here.
It's just daylight and she was like, oh no, this is it.
I can't thank neil, because every thank you i got belongs to you doll, but i can say the same for you because i mean you're, you're so generous with giving compliments to others and your performers and producers and everyone who is around you and working.
But, if i may, i want to take the time to say how brilliant it is to watch you do your work.
And I've been witness to it not just on screen but like live in the room that you will throw caution to the wind if it means that you can be in the room and give your all to a piece.
And I believe that's what's happening here because you don't have any vanity in this. you're you're so committed to it and i said at the beginning that it's really wonderful to see you come back to music and to see you sing on screen like this but i think more than anything it's not just the singing it's the storytelling of it or the i you feel for this man and you want so much for his dreams to come true you want so much for for him to see Neil at the end you see you want him to meet and so it's so heartbreaking yeah you know yeah how do you because you asked me but how do you um oh truth that's all how do you um let go of those characters.
Because I also, because I'm a geek, I went back to Prestige and I went back to The Prisoner.
And I thought that they're such full, deep, grit-filled roles.
They are full.
How do you find the space away from those characters?
Because this one included has that.
I really, it's a great question.
It's changed over the years.
Yeah.
Because I think if I go back to Prestige or Prisoners, I didn't know how to finish something.
I somehow, honestly, I thought, well, you're an actor, you play it and then you move on.
But I can look back now and see that that's not enough.
Like if you're really gonna open yourself.
And so with Mike, in this experience, I really trusted more.
I think in the past I've been a little more controlled.
Okay.
A little more planned.
Yeah.
I was like, just trust.
Trust.
And I can see it in the performance and I can see it on screen and I go, good on you.
Yeah.
Is that a recent thing?
I think so.
Yeah.
I think it's been building.
Yeah.
I think it's a recent thing.
Do you know why it's taken this time to just get to the place where you can just let go?
I think it's connected to worrying what other people think.
You, you still worry.
I think a lot less.
Yeah.
Okay.
But I think that's the turning point.
Okay.
It's almost like, okay, you've done okay.
You've done okay.
It's all right.
I think you've done more than okay.
And, you know, so trust your instinct.
Yeah.
You know what you're doing.
Yeah, you do.
And it can sometimes be easier than you think.
It doesn't always have to be torturous.
Or like, you can just be.
And just show up and trust.
And I see it in this.
And I think it's important to really mark the ending of something as it is the beginning.
I think as a performer, I concentrate so much on how do I...
Show up, give everything, relax.
How do I turn up?
Like, oh, we're done.
We walked off stage.
Oh, it's done.
And it can be a big cavalier with the ending.
I learned a bit from Mark Rylance, who will spend an hour after a show closing it down, giving thanks, whatever that is.
And so I now do a kind of ritual, which is a gratitude.
And Mike and I are forever linked in some way.
Yeah.
In the same way an audience you're with, you're linked.
But you also have to take back yourself.
And so I'm very conscious about it now.
And that's really helped me.
Is it the end for you when it comes to Wolverine?
Or how does it feel if it is the end?
I don't know, it doesn't feel like the end.
It really felt like the end after Logan.
If I look back, I needed to claim it as the end.
Truth, because I really believed in some things that I wanted that movie to be, and I had to fight for them.
And I think I had to say, this is the last time I'm doing it, and I don't mind not doing it.
And we did it.
There were parts of my brain, particularly when I saw Deadpool, I was like, oh, oh, I see 48 hours.
I see Eddie Murphy, Nick Nolte.
It's so good.
It's so great.
I would shove it down.
No.
Because this is a little bit about.
Yes.
Hugh 1.0.
But I've told everyone that I'm done.
I'm not one of those guys who says, ah.
And I went, you know what?
I changed my mind.
Yes.
It's not that big a deal.
I'm sorry.
I don't even have to say I'm sorry.
And it was so awesome.
And I had more fun even playing that.
I felt a difference.
I've done it 10 times.
So I have all this evidence of how I felt.
And I'm like this character.
Yeah yeah, i know and like and just be with ryan yeah, and sean, it was so fabulous, i loved it.
I loved it too and i think in many ways.
I mean I know people love Logan, as do I, but I was like oh, I see sides of Wolverine I haven't seen before.
That we haven't seen before, yeah.
And I think that's the thing that keeps it going.
When you uncover something new about a character that you thought you knew completely.
There's still room.
There's still room to play.
You have to.
The last thing I would ever do or want to do is I'm doing it because I don't want anyone else to do it, or I'm doing it.
Only because I really feel I have to or want to.
That's my guiding principle.
Well, I'm excited to see what's next.
I'm excited about what's next with you.
Do you have any idea?
It's probably a weird...
Well, I've shot a couple things.
I just did a film called Prima... Everyone pronounces it differently.
I say Prima Fasci.
Some people say Prima Facey.
But it's based on a show that was on Broadway and on the West End.
Jodie Comer did.
Yeah, that's right.
And we just made the film.
So I'm very, very excited about that.
Fantastic.
I can't wait to see that.
So I've done a couple of things, yeah.
I have a book coming out.
You have a book?
I do, yeah.
Tell me about that.
It's not an autobiography.
It's kind of a collection of stories from my life that have taught me some lessons.
Awesome.
And so it's sort of how I did, if you're interested, and how you might, if you're interested.
And it asks a couple questions of the reader and of myself.
That just sort of helped to process a few things.
Yeah.
When did you know you wanted to do that?
What was the... I kept putting it off for a really long time.
And my literary agent kept hounding me.
He kept asking me to write something because he'd seen me do a few podcasts, a few talks, the speeches I give, because when I do speeches I write them from the point of view of the people in the room.
Even if it's me receiving the award.
I'm not interested in talking about mean What I've done and how I'm here.
I'm more interested in talking about the point in the room.
Like, give me an example.
So When I got the award for glad For me, the point in the room was to shine light on people who don't get the that kind of recognition on a stage, who are young and queer and trying to figure it out.
And so you turn the mirror around and you go, well, this is really wonderful.
However, there are so many other people who don't get this chance.
And so everyone who gets up here today, please make sure that you're shining a light in that direction for those who are a little bit lost, who need a little bit of guidance.
That's the sort of thing.
When I received an award from Essence Black Women in Hollywood, Instead of talking about me, I turned it around to say there are women in here whose dreams are deferred, and why don't we make sure that we can take hold of those dreams and see them through?
For me.
I'm more interested in how do I make sure that the people in the room looking at the stage also come away with something?
And so he had seen all of those and he said you need to write a book.
I put it off for a long time and he said you need to write.
He kept repeating it and finally i just said okay, we'll see how, what comes of it.
And and this little 200 and something page book, can i wait to read it?
I'll give or listen to it.
Did you do the audible?
I did.
I did the audio.
Of course you did yeah.
So there's a theme here, obvious theme which i love and i want to highlight because i'm reminding it for myself and maybe any other performers is that your purpose of getting up there is to empower parts or open the hearts of the people who you're performing for or who go to see Wicked or who read your book or are at that award ceremony.
That's so powerful.
Thank you.
So there's a humility in it.
But I don't say humility in a false like, you know, there's a power in it.
It's loving and it's someone who is comfortable in themselves.
Yes.
Yeah.
Because I know what I have.
And so I'm okay with sharing.
That's the turning point for me.
Okay.
I know what I have.
You know what you have.
Okay.
That's it.
When did you know?
Just after I was 50.
Okay.
But you know what?
Everyone comes to it when they come to it.
But what a wonderful thing at the turning of 50 that you're like, actually, I know what I have.
I could feel it when it happened.
I could be on stage and go, oh.
But I wasn't, I was like, I wonder if that will happen today.
I wonder if that'll turn up today.
Will I be able to?
Or maybe I weren't in this role.
I could in that.
Or maybe last night I could, but what about today?
And then there's a The turning point is a, I know what I have.
And if it doesn't feel like that, it's okay.
Not today, it's okay.
But I think also knowing that is part of the ownership.
You know that it might not happen every day, but that's okay.
It might happen tomorrow or the day after that.
I'm so glad for you that you know.
Because I feel like...
You're going to have so much more.
It's like so much fun.
So much more fun.
In this next part of your life where you can just be and experience and let whatever happened happens.
But in this moment with this film, you've done something really, really special.
Shone a light on people who don't get a light shine.
Made music where people don't know music exists the way it exists.
Thank you.
And made sure that the memory of someone goes on, which is also really, really special.
It's a hard thing to do, and you've done something really extraordinary.
Thank you.
And right back at you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
