So it only made sense for EW to do the same albeit over Zoom, rather than at sea.
As it happens, that also describes EW’s roundtable with the actresses.
“You’re trying to get things started here,” she says with a chuckle.
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And so we do.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did all of you come on board this movie, so to speak?
Meryl, you were just coming off of another Soderbergh project, correct?
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MERYL STREEP:Yes, which wasThe Laundromat.
I had wanted to work with him for a really long time.
He called me up about this, and I thought, “Yeah, this sounds great.”
But I said, “I’m just off to have a reunion with my college roommates.”
And then I told my friends, and they were all terrified.
I thanked her so much.
I’m dying to, yes, yes."
I think he’s the most fearless filmmaker, and his intellect is so piercing.
It was really interesting.
We barely shot two weeks, I think.
Then it was made in two weeks, and it was a free ride on the boat.
BERGEN:Which was heaven.
WIEST:And no equipment.
The only equipment was sound equipment.
Steven held the camera in a wheelchair and just rolled along.
There was Steven and this new camera.
WIEST:Well, I wasn’t gonna mention that.
I was going to ask about the script, because the dialogue has such an improvised feel.
Are you saying there wasn’t a script?
STREEP:Improvised feel?
Well, yeah, it does, because it is.
But they didn’t tell us how to get there.
BERGEN:They gave us the scenes and the synopses of the scenes.
And then we filled them in, if we could.
STREEP:With talking.
BERGEN:A lot of talking.
How much were you all interacting with Deborah Eisenberg, then?
WIEST:She was always there.
She was there all the time, and she was so generous, and you could ask her anything.
But Debbie was there all the time, and she was wonderful.
And there was no lecture in the script!
I said, “Well, what is she gonna say about this author from another century?”
And so overnight, [Eisenberg] produced this enormous bunch of ideas, and a biography.
It was a very rich kind of Bible from which to draw.
So did the three of you spend much time talking about your characters' backstories and relationships?
WIEST:I don’t remember us doing that.
BERGEN:Which was terrifying.
WIEST:It was absolutely terrifying.
If you didn’t pay attention, then you should keep your mouth shut.
[Laughs]
STREEP:That would have been judicious, but we just kept talking.
WIEST:We kept talking.
After all, what’s the film called?
He wanted there to be mysteries surrounding everybody’s interior quest.
That’s the feeling I got.
And so we didn’t even discuss it amongst ourselves.
We kept our cards close, so that it would be something that would unfold over time.
BERGEN:Debbie did write, for us, a character description.
It was a few paragraphs, but it was so original and so rich.
And the way she described the characters was so unusual, and sort of oblique.
STREEP:Yes, like a little novel itself.
It was a very rich vein to draw from.
Candice and Meryl, your characters have this sort of fraught relationship throughout the movie.
How did you go about developing and depicting that?
I thought she didn’t like me.
I thought, “What did I do?
What did I say to her?”
I would say to Dianne, “What’d I say to her?”
So I think there was a little of Method in there.
BERGEN:[Laughs] I mean, there was, but no.
BERGEN:When it was over, I thought for a while that I had dreamt doing the movie.
It was over so quickly.
WIEST:Ooooh, that jewelry.
STREEP:Great earrings, not belonging to me.
But we’d get up and then start shooting it.
That’s the way it was.
What was it like to shoot a movie while on an actual cruise?
And it was wonderful.
You never saw such a good-looking director and crew.
BERGEN:The boat is very much a character in the movie.
It was a magnificent ship.
Truly, the most beautiful ship I’ve ever seen.
We’d come in late at night, and they were polishing the railings.
Not a stone unturned.
STREEP:Well, I didn’t explore the casino, if that’s what you mean.
I know he went scurrying around, he knew everything about the ship.
WIEST:Candy and I played games.
I didn’t want to do that, ‘cause I’m so bad at games in real life.
It didn’t matter.
I could just say I won, or you won.
And we had some very private discussions in those corners.
I’d like to talk about your characters a little bit more.
Candice, this is a different character and a different mode for you than we’ve typically seen.
How did it feel to take on material like this?
BERGEN:I loved the character.
I thought that the character of Roberta was just larger than life.
Her whole engine is about getting back at Meryl for ruining her life, and she wants remuneration.
Debbie had written that she grew up dirt poor, and the only pet she had was a snake.
I thought that was the best detail for Roberta.
Dianne, what was the background of your character like?
I remember you saying that you loved animals.
I said, “Well, I have a great vet.
You could get an apprenticeship with the vet.”
STREEP:Oh yeah, that’ll happen.
[Laughs]
BERGEN:She had a threesome in college.
WIEST:Oh yeah, in college I was wild.
I don’t know whether that’s in the movie.
STREEP:It’s all in there.
WIEST:I was very quiet about it.
Until I admitted it to Candy.
STREEP:I didn’t think she was so regular.
I mean, to me, she was arara avis.
She’s a really weird bird.
A real intellectual, which I am not.
People that don’t have kids and concerns that pull them into the real world.
That’s her, and at this particular moment of her life, especially so.
Steven has a reputation for getting out of his actors’ way.
What was your interaction with him like during the shoot?
STREEP:A T-shirt he wore all the time onLaundromatsaid, “What would Mike do?”
And he works a lot like [Nichols].
I knew that Mike was his maestro, and his hero.
I was so moved to see that.
But you asked how he related to us as actors.
I mean, we were on our own.
WIEST:Complete freedom.
I think because he is not beholden to any studio or any money people, he has complete freedom.
And he generously gives the actor the same complete freedom, which is so wonderful.
It’s just like being able to breathe.
STREEP:Yes, it’s another word for respect.
And that is like the way Mike worked.
Sometimes I get frustrated when they don’t say anything.
But I figure, well, they’d say something if it was bad.
BERGEN:And then you’re you, so there’s that.
The guy never sleeps.
STREEP:While we were making it, I really felt like, “Poor Steven.”
BERGEN:But he seemed undaunted during the shooting.
[Laughs] It really does all pull together to a theme.
It’s like a very thick novel that moves very fast.
How do you all feel about returning to the conventional way of making projects now?
BERGEN:I think it’ll be cumbersome.
And you know what, we made up the dialogue.
So I guess I don’t feel too kindly about going back to anything.
It’s just not good enough.
WIEST:The great stuff that we had is very hard to come by.
