← All Of It with Alison Stewart
All Of It with Alison Stewart
'His Three Daughters' Follows Estranged Sisters in NYC
00:23:02
In the new film, "His Three Daughters," three estranged sisters come together to care for their sick father in his New York City apartment.
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- [00:02]
Bic Soleil Advertiser
Surprise beach day.
- [00:04]
Elizabeth Olsen
No excuses. I'm in.
- [00:06]
Bic Soleil Advertiser
Gimme five. With Bix Soleil Glide Razor, you'll have hydrated, smooth skin that's ready to go on the fly. No shave cream needed. You can prep, shave and hydrate all in one step thanks to moisture bars that hydrate your skin during and after shaving. 5 flexible blades hug your skin for a close shave. Glide into smooth. It's your time to shine with bixsolil. Buy now at Amazon and Walmart. Ready? Your skin looks amazing. So smooth and beach ready. Let's go.
- [00:33]
Marshall's Advertiser
Oh my gosh. Have you been to Marshall's lately? They have all the brand name and designer pieces you love, but without the jaw dropping price tags. Alright, so here's the you should never have to compromise between quality and price. And at Marshall's, you don't have to. Marshall's believes everyone deserves access to the good stuff and that's why their buyers hustle around the clock. To make it happen for you, visit a Marshalls store near you or shop online at marshalls.com.
- [01:04]
Bic Soleil Advertiser
Listener support at WNYC Studios.
- [01:18]
Alison Stewart
This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. Three sisters reconvene to care for their sick father in New York City. However, they aren't on the best terms. There's Katie Pretty, played by Carrie Coon, a mom from Brooklyn who has a lot of strong opinions about her siblings and the way things should be done. Rachel, played by Natasha Lyonne, sort of a stoner stepsister who is also the sibling who stayed home and took care of their dad, played by J. O Saunders. And Christina, played by our next guest, Elizabeth Olsen, who is known as a free spirit and from the west coast who settled down to start a family and kind of avoids conflict. As each of them come to terms with their dad's hospice and they're crammed into a small Lower east side department, hidden feelings rise to the surface. The three of them attempt to truly understand each other for the first time and maybe build a new kind of relationship. A Vanity Fair article said His Three Daughters gradually blooms into one of the most stirring dramas of the year, a sad little family story that concerns a vast universal human experience. The film His Three Daughters is streaming now on Netflix. Elizabeth Olsen joins me now. Hi, Elizabeth.
- [02:29]
Bic Soleil Advertiser
Hi.
- [02:30]
Alison Stewart
And also writer and director Azazel Jacobs. Hi, Azazel.
- [02:34]
Azazel Jacobs
Hello. Hi.
- [02:35]
Alison Stewart
So, so much of this film, a big part of this film is about grief. Azazel, what did you want to, what did you want to explore about grief?
- [02:46]
Azazel Jacobs
I, I really wanted it to Take going through this experience in my own way. I really wanted to take something that I love doing filmmaking and the joy and the control that comes with that, or at least the aim of control and towards something that there's been no control on. The joy has been fleeting and strange and odd. So it was. It was really me just trying to find refuge and then reaching out to actors and people that I love and asking them to kind of help me grieve together.
- [03:15]
Alison Stewart
You were going through something like this personally?
- [03:18]
Azazel Jacobs
Yeah, I've been going through this and, you know, just in. In my own life and also with. I'm also just hit an age where I'm. It's kind of hitting all my friends all around. And so it just feels like a collective thing, like in the way that marriage is in birth. Sore that suddenly our parents are. And this is the best case scenario. You know, I understand that, like, us outliving our parents is fantastic, but it doesn't feel natural or very good.
- [03:47]
Alison Stewart
That's a weird feeling when people you've gone to school with or college with suddenly aren't there anymore.
- [03:54]
Azazel Jacobs
That. Yeah, I mean. Well, yeah, that's true. I mean, that it's. Yeah, that's. That's been happening for a while, I think. Just part of growing up, New York City. I feel like that's been a thing that's built. But it's the parent thing that we're suddenly just maybe because with so many of our memories has to do with sleepovers or whatever it is. It's just like. It's a very. It's a very new terrain suddenly of trying to understand who we are and who we are to each other.
- [04:22]
Alison Stewart
Christina, what's going on with your character? When we very, very first meet her.
- [04:27]
Elizabeth Olsen
When we meet Christina, she is in a place of avoidance. And I think the way that she's learned how to survive with her family is by kind of muting her own opinions and letting the two of them battle it out in a way knowing that she doesn't really want to participate in the conflict. And so she's definitely tries in some ways to be a peacekeeper, but also just tries mostly to be there for their father off camera, who we don't see throughout the film.
- [05:02]
Alison Stewart
Why is she trying to avoid conflict? The other two are pretty good at it.
- [05:07]
Elizabeth Olsen (as Christina in film clip)
Yeah.
- [05:08]
Elizabeth Olsen
I think it's a survival mechanism if you're around it a lot and you're the youngest and that's what you see, a way that people behave and you get to choose if you want to participate in it or not, when you're an observer. And she literally removed herself from New York State so that she didn't have to be near it. And so this is. She's the one who's traveled the furthest to be with their dying father.
- [05:33]
Alison Stewart
Azel, this film could have been about brothers. It could have been about a mother and a child. Why did you decide to go with three daughters?
- [05:43]
Azazel Jacobs
Decide would be the wrong word. I really just started writing and this is who emerged. And then quickly into writing, I realized I was writing for these three actors as well. So it was a lot of this film was not, not second guessing my instincts and just feeling like. And maybe there's part of it that I could say in retrospect, maybe there's, you know, there's a chance of being a bit more honest when you're not writing thinking of yourself so much and like directly. I also try to address that in a lot of ways this is coming from at least the perspective of the father in the way that they, they feel like the father, they're seeing things through their father or the father is kind of has this view over everything. And so his three daughters addresses that point of view. Besides being like coming from a man's point of view of my own, but also that this, this, this, this view of the father really is overwhelming. And over all that's happening.
- [06:43]
Alison Stewart
You know what's unique about these three sisters relationship? Elizabeth. You like Elizabeth or Liz, which do you like?
- [06:53]
Elizabeth Olsen
It doesn't matter to me. Elizabeth, Lizzie, Liz. I get called many things. I think what's unique about these women, I mean, it's the specificity of this story and who these characters are is what I think allows it to be very universal. And this is an example of a blended family. They're not all, you know, related by the same parents. I think what's also unique about them is it's three different New Yorkers that chose totally different paths and have to return back to their home. And we know that. I think what's so beautiful about what Aza, one of the choices he made was to find a real downtown New York City apartment. One that would be representative of this family socio, environmental, economic upbringing. And so we actually had the confines of this space and I think that created, you know, a pressure cooker in many ways.
- [08:00]
Alison Stewart
I wanted to ask you about shooting in a New York City apartment. When you started, was that the plan?
- [08:09]
Azazel Jacobs
Yeah, I thought of a certain type of apartment. Not this specific place, but a lot of the apartments that I would go to just Growing up, and it made me reach out to a lot of kids that I grew up to see if they were still there, if parents were still there. And that ultimately led me to the. The Hillman Co Op on Lower east side. And it was. I just. It was extremely important to me that the place was real for a lot of reasons, besides just knowing that the effect that would have on us. But as a. As a crew, just going to a place, being able to go over there and just kind of feel like what. What walking through the streets are and making sure that we're dealing with the actual lights and dealing with neighbors and just trying to, you know, tell this story that's about a family, one of many in a. In a. In a complex like the Hillman. But it also was important for me to feel like. To I. The history of those apartments that you can feel the kind of the. The fights and the laughter and the long family, the generations. I feel them so deeply. They feel haunted in the. In kind of the most best ways. For me, when I walk in there, I can get such a sense of those walls. So that's something that really can't happen on a set.
- [09:24]
Alison Stewart
Yeah. That's so interesting. Yeah. When you. When you go by one of those buildings, you look in every window and you think there's a story in every window. Every time I look by, look at them.
- [09:34]
Azazel Jacobs
Yeah. And it was important for me to. You could see that those buildings outside the window throughout the film, that you could. You could have the idea in the back of your head that this story is probably happening below the next floor over and next door, and that I really wanted this to be a collective story, even though it's so individual.
- [09:54]
Alison Stewart
Something I want to swing back to. You said that when you sat down to write, just came to you. Writers talk about, novelists on this show, talk about that all the time. They sit down and it just speaks to them. It comes out of them. The story comes out of them. But then you said you knew the actors who could portray the parts, so. Describe that.
- [10:13]
Azazel Jacobs
Yeah. You know, I think when we say that, though, it's kind of misleading because then there's like the 25 years of making. Making films beforehand and all the random stories that you're dropping and the things that you write that you don't. That don't go anywhere, and then they find their way into something. So it's like they're always there. These stories are kind of going in the back. And at some point, which was truly like a fever dream where I Realized, oh, I was thinking about multiple stories and I realized that they're actually different characters, different people, siblings in the same family. And then that was the kind of like, oh, suddenly I had a path and I was able to sit down. And then the story poured out. And then, yeah, I think I was like 10 or 15 pages into it when I started really hearing each of their voices and getting a sense of the. The. What they could bring and what this. The sense of, like, the things that I don't know that they would bring. Just knowing that they're incredible actors and that they always bring something beyond whatever I could picture. And it was exciting to write with their. Them in mind. It really was like an incentive without knowing whether they would respond to or not. It just gave me something very like so much of this was again, like trying to find control in a place at a time when it has not felt. It's been very elusive, that type of control. So even having that as an aim was exciting to sit down and think like, okay, I'm picturing this person. I hope that they'll respond to this and hope we get to make this together.
- [11:45]
Alison Stewart
We're talking about his three Daughters, which is streaming now on Netflix. My guests are actor Elizabeth Olsen and writer director Azazel Jacob. Let's listen to a clip from the film. This is Christina having a conversation with Rachel about staying in the city for their father's care at the beginning of the film. This is from his three daughters.
- [12:04]
Elizabeth Olsen (as Christina in film clip)
He opened his eyes for a bit. That was nice. He knows we're here. I could tell that made him happy. I know. I promise I'm not gonna be like this the whole time. I'm not going to just cry through it all, just for now. It's weird to be away, you know, from Mirabella and David. That's part of it. It's really my first time. Oh, you could have brought them. No, no, it's good they're not here. They're fine. I'd rather the memory be from our last visit. He was better. That's what hurts about this more. He was still sick, of course, but he was still so there, so able. I just didn't think things would get to this. Not so suddenly. I've seen too many movies, probably. Especially the ones made for children with Mirabella these past couple years. Everything's so nice, bright. Even if they get heavy. There's a beauty and clarity to it all. This feels so real. I'm rambling.
- [13:02]
Elizabeth Olsen
I'm sorry. It's a jet lag. I Get even more emotional when I fly.
- [13:08]
Elizabeth Olsen (as Christina in film clip)
Anyway, it's nice that it's us, just us. This is the way it should be, the way he would want it.
- [13:15]
Alison Stewart
When you listen to that, that's so interesting, Elizabeth, because you're so out of breath. Why is she so out of breath? It's really interesting.
- [13:25]
Elizabeth Olsen
Well, it's the day she got there and had seen her father for the first time, as she says. And, you know, we come into this film, that's the very big. That's the first opening scene of the movie. And we just meet Carrie Coon's character, Katie, right before and Natasha Lyonne's quiet character, Rachel. And we all are wrestling with not just the fact that our father is dying and has had a significant change in his health, but that also we navigate our relationships with one another. And we. We almost present what. What our siblings want us to present. In a way, we immediately assume the role that is asked of us in a family. When you first come back home, it's almost like whatever growth you've had as a person, you immediately just go right back to what they want you to be. And so I think there's quite a few things going on that. That lead to that overwhelming nature, as well as her being away from her daughter for the first time.
- [14:36]
Alison Stewart
That's the other part of it. You get to hear her as a mother in this situation, talking about her children.
- [14:42]
Elizabeth Olsen
Yes. And I. And I, you know, I think there's also an element of the more overwhelmed one is it could also be kind of funny. And so there's that element as well, that you're trying to play with the rang of. We know that the audience is settling into this story. That's language forward, which is already not something we're used to, I think, as audiences. And we're trying to quickly establish relationships and characters, but also let people know, yes, this is about grief, but we're also going to be playing with humor. And so I think that is something you're negotiating at the same time as an actor in that opening scene.
- [15:25]
Alison Stewart
We'll have more about his three daughters after a quick break. This is all of it. You're listening to all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. My guests are actor Elizabeth Olsen and writer and director Azelle Jacobs. We're talking about the film His Three Daughters. It's now streaming on Netflix. Elizabeth, A lot of times, Christina keeps her feelings close to the vest, but you can tell that she's got a lot going on. There's a lot happening you, as an actor, how do you go about playing someone whose face says one thing, but they're clearly thinking something else or feeling something else?
- [16:12]
Elizabeth Olsen
I think a lot of it is in the writing. I think it was clear to me the goals that Aza had from a tonal perspective. And it's also about creating a sense of pace. I think that was really important to us with something that is so language forward, to have this rhythm and this pace. And I think, how do you. There's different ways to motivate that pace. And sometimes it's a sense of anxiety, anxiousness, overwhelming emotions. And that contrasted with what's on the page, I think allows and justifies for the sense of pace, even when you're trying to keep it together. And again, that could create a sense of tension and humor or. Or a sense of tension between the relationships that she has with her sisters.
- [17:03]
Alison Stewart
It's funny. You've mentioned humor a couple of times. Where's the script? Funny? Where's a funny moment for you? I think what makes you laugh, I.
- [17:11]
Elizabeth Olsen
Think what we listen to is funny. I think there's a lot of funny moments in the film. There's. Oh, gosh, there's so much humor. I mean, a lot of it is done in between looks that Natasha has is almost the audience's point of view looking at the sisters. And so I think there's humor as an audience member that you get to. You get to feel like there's someone else who's reacting in the way that you are as an audience member. But then I also think there's this strange moment about halfway through the film when Christina's trying to take up her. Try to create her own space. And she doesn't really know where to go to do that, but she finds this stair or this chair and this weird half wall that protrudes into the. Into the living room, and she just sits there. And so there's this revolving door almost of the sisters worrying about why she is sitting so awkwardly in a chair against a wall, looking at nothing, doing nothing. And so I think those are moments that are supposed to be there to create this sense of humor. Yeah, that's kind of funny.
- [18:20]
Alison Stewart
Money. Azaza, when you were writing the script, you know, most movies get filmed out of order. Did this actually get filmed in order? Did I read that?
- [18:33]
Azazel Jacobs
It truly did. I mean, this is one of the things that you could take advantage of when a film is small enough and, like, really just small enough. This is like, there's certain things that, of course, there are Limitations that are hard when you're working on it in a smaller way. But there's these huge things that big films just can't do, which is the fact that so much of it takes place in this one place that there's no reason to really not shoot in order. It just meant kind of shaping things according to how light was working. And just really, just understanding like this is. This will add something that rarely can happen on films, which was. Meant that every time we were shooting a scene, we could talk about a previous scene that actually had been shot. It wasn't something that we're gonna go, okay, where would you have been emotionally before this? We can just build on top of something. We had a history. And also it meant that we all got closer and we all got to understand each other. We're all cramped. It's not just myself and the actors there. It's this whole crew that are ducking behind walls and trying to figure out how to, you know, live together during these, these 17 days of being in a place together. And something kind of amazing happens that you know, as your, as your rhythms and you just start to kind of feel each other. And I can feel, I can feel them in the film. You know, I can feel those days. I can feel each of those people and what they brought to. Brought to the story.
- [20:02]
Alison Stewart
What do you like about working on an independent film, Elizabeth?
- [20:07]
Elizabeth Olsen
There's a lot of. I guess the word would be arbitrariness. Sometimes when you're working on something that's larger, a lot of cooks, a lot of things that you do. Just because people are making choices out of fear and wanting to cover up something in post production the way you cover even a scene. We had very little coverage because it was. We got to shoot on film, which makes everything incredibly intentional of how you shoot it. But we also. Azah had such a clear vision of how he wanted to frame the film from the. And how it would change throughout and how we were almost in isolated shots for the majority of the film until we're not and we're starting to share frames with our sisters. And so that's. That's all very specific. But it also, let's say someone, some producer somewhere on a bigger movie would say, well, where do you have the close up so we can cut out of this shot? It's too long on this one shot. You don't have that in this situation because there's such clarity and intention behind everything you're doing from the get go that you don't owe anything to Anyone. And there's no working from fear to cover yourself later. It's just like what Oz was saying. There's no second guessing and just following guts. And your gut instinct, I think, is it's an important creative part of the process to listen to that.
- [21:31]
Alison Stewart
Azil, you met Elizabeth on Sorry for your loss. Is that right? In 2018?
- [21:37]
Azazel Jacobs
Yeah.
- [21:38]
Alison Stewart
Yeah. What has changed about her as an actor? What has grown about her? Don't listen.
- [21:47]
Azazel Jacobs
I mean, look, I got to meet her. I'm sorry for your loss. And from, like, the first second where we started discussing a scene, I realized that there was asymmetry the way that we are approaching and saw. And we said. We started building on whatever the scene was. I just remember we started building on it. Oh, these are my ideas. And she had ideas. And not only did they work together, but they built on. They started taking us some other place that we got excited about. I think the only thing that I could say that's changed is just like, my. The marvel that she is to me, I just can't. I still am astounded. I look at the work, I look at this film, and this idea of, you know, presenting yourself as a character, right. Which is, like, definitely something that we do as families, but definitely in these situations, right. Which we're trying to. I'm gonna be the. I'm gonna be the cook. I'm gonna be the dishwasher. Like, we're all looking for a job as we are surrounding somebody that we know is going to pass. Like, we just trying to try to make ourselves useful, to go from that place to where Christina ultimately goes, which is, like, you can dismiss her in the beginning as soft and flighty, and then there's just this. This amazing strength and resilience that I think that she reveals is. It's purely, like, just watching somebody so. So good at their craft and just on, like, it's seamlessly. She's taking off layer after layer until we realize, okay, this Christina who we're suddenly with is very different than the person we. We supposed her to be and that we met in the beginning and that it's not that she's changed so much. It's just that she's relaxed and she's revealing herself. And that's. That's purely Elizabeth Olsen. Like, I just.
- [23:38]
Elizabeth Olsen
So.
- [23:38]
Azazel Jacobs
I don't. I couldn't tell you.
- [23:40]
Alison Stewart
That's okay. It's all good.
- [23:42]
Azazel Jacobs
But all I could tell you is, like, my admiration is just growing through these years.
- [23:48]
Alison Stewart
The name of the film is His Three daughters. It is streaming now on Netflix. My guests have been Elizabeth Olsen and Azel Jacobs. Thanks so much for making the film.
- [23:59]
Azazel Jacobs
Thank you so much for having us.
- [24:01]
Alison Stewart
And that's all of it. I'm Alison Stewart. I appreciate you listening. I appreciate you and I will meet you back here next time.
- [24:14]
Bic Soleil Advertiser
Surprise Beach Day. No excuses.
- [24:17]
Elizabeth Olsen
I'm in.
- [24:17]
Bic Soleil Advertiser
Give me five. With Bic Soleil Glide Razor, you'll have hydrated, smooth skin that's ready to go on the fly. No. No shave cream needed. You can prep, shave and hydrate all in one step thanks to moisture bars that hydrate your skin during and after shaving. 5 flexible blades hug your skin for a close shave. Glide into smooth. It's your time to shine with Bixsol A buy now at Amazon and Walmart. Ready? Your skin looks amazing. So smooth and beach ready. Let's go.
- [24:44]
Marshall's Advertiser
Oh my gosh. Have you been to Marshall's lately? They have all the brand name and designer pieces you love, but without the jaw dropping price tags. Alright, so here's the you should never have to compromise between quality and price. And at Marshall's, you don't have to. Marshalls believes everyone deserves access to the good stuff and that's why their buyers hustle around the clock. To make it happen for you, visit a Marshalls store near you or shop online@marshalls.com.