00:25It's funny, you're talking about the aspects of almost acceptance.
00:29And then pushing it past to perspective.
00:32And then by extension, perception.
00:34Because the thing is, is that how Harry sees Teddy and how, you know, Sue sees Teddy in terms of
00:42certain ideas about wanting to be versus wanting to be with.
00:46Could you talk about that?
01:16It doesn't matter what your gender is, what your identity is.
01:19These people are, they're screen idols for a reason.
01:22And they personify something that is ephemeral and untouchable.
01:28And so, you know, when you create a screen idol or a screen icon, you're looking for a kind of
01:35sex appeal that has the range that would appeal to the majority, right?
01:40You don't just want a short skirt or a handsome face.
01:44It has to be oozing a sort of certain sexuality and sensuality.
01:49And I really think that Carl Glusman, who plays Teddy, can embody all of that.
01:55But I also think to a certain extent that Harry and Andrea are attempting their version of it.
02:01These are not realistic people.
02:03These are meant to be the creations of 50s filmmaking, which I think we can all say now is fake,
02:09very fake.
02:10I mean, it's still fake, right?
02:12But it's the beginning of a depth of fakeness that is almost frightening.
02:18At least now we're attempting some reality, whether we're succeeding or not.
02:22But back then it was rock Hudson, you know, a very fake life, a very handsome man, something that you
02:29could project onto.
02:30And I did tell the actors, like, please try for that.
02:34Something that makes you feel like an object and look like an object that can be projected onto by an
02:39audience member.
02:42You know, it might sound corny to you, but Arthur refuses to be a man.
02:49Well, Arthur, if you're not a man, what are you?
02:51I am a man.
02:53I just don't feel the need to act male.
02:56Were you able to let them go off in their own directions and how far did you have to go
03:01and pull them back?
03:02Because, I mean, obviously the scene that you did with her, and this isn't giving too much away with Andrea,
03:07and to me, is sort of that same thing.
03:10Because it's using the dialogue, but it's using the inference and how the body reaction goes.
03:16Because that's a whole different thing.
03:17Could you talk about that?
03:18Because the dialogue in its sort of beat rhythm sort of talks to that.
03:22Yeah, I mean, I tell them to go as far as they can possibly go.
03:27I want everyone to go the furthest that they can go.
03:31You know, there's so much that Andrea does specifically, and Harry as well, that is not, I would say, improvised.
03:42But it's just sensation.
03:43You know, they read the script, they understand what's needed for them in the scene, but they know that working
03:48with me means that if they want to crawl into the scene on all fours, I'm going to say go
03:55for it.
03:55And if they want to twirl in like a ballerina, I'm going to say go for it.
03:59I think that there's a lot to be gained there because so often actors are stifled by being, like I
04:08said, having to seem realistic.
04:10And having to seem like what a person might be like.
04:14And even when I met Demi, I said, you know, this is like a dream.
04:19You're like a dream figure.
04:21You don't have to represent a real woman.
04:23You can represent something that would, an image that would come to someone in a dream.
04:29And I think that that's freeing.
04:30I'd like to think that that's freeing for an actor to go a very strange place.
04:35It's hard to believe I was even born male.
04:39I've never been enough of a genuine man to suggest I am one.
04:43So maybe I'm not.
04:47Boy, what a kick.
04:49You being able to see that in them, because I think the last time I talked to Demi was a
04:54movie she made with Ellen Barkin, you know,
04:56and even that or even the one she made with Emilio about God, what was it about the assassination of
05:04Robert Kennedy, you know,
05:05even those it's about taking expectations and turning it on their heads, you know.
05:10But it's also, you know, in doing it, you know, the context of what you want to write about.
05:16It's finding those moments.
05:18One scene I the one scene I thought was really interesting is the two women, Andrea and her friend, with
05:23the trans, the trans or I'm not sure, you know,
05:28if he was just cross-dressing or whatever in the actual what's called phone booth.
05:33And I thought that really gave a sense of heart, but also showed the trinity of the feminine, the male,
05:39the in-between, the queer, everything.
05:41Could you sort of talk about that a little bit in terms of creating the concept of Please, Baby, Please
05:46in that way?
05:47Yes, that's a great scene, a pinnacle scene.
05:50That's Andrea and an actress named Elisa Torres, and she plays Ida, Andrea's best friend in the film.
05:57And, you know, this is a conversation between the two of them where they're discussing being a woman.
06:03And how to keep a man, and why you should want to keep a man, and, you know, what female
06:09friendship feels like.
06:10It's a very pointed conversation that ends in front of a fun booth where they overhear a drag performer speaking
06:19on the phone to his lover.
06:23And so begins a fantasy sequence in which the drag queen sings a song to his lover.
06:29And this is a moment in the film where, to me, I think I'm able to discuss everything I want
06:39to say in the film.
06:40I want to talk about identity, and I want to talk about even straight identity, which I think now is
06:48a good time to pull that apart.
06:50I want to see what's going on there.
06:53In a moment where you see this ultra-feminine man who, you know, personifies, again, romance and idealized love,
07:06as these two women are talking about having to be sexy and how irritating it is that you have to
07:14keep a man's affections,
07:15and one of them wants to buy a leather jacket, you know, it's a good way to show that we're
07:20always interacting with this feminine and masculine,
07:23and we're always somewhat oppressed by it, whether it's coming from an internal place or an external place.
07:30I want to see what's going on there.
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