Alison Stewart (3:01)

It's true, though. It's a really beautiful, beautiful film. But what do you take from people responding to the film and responding to your performance, which is dark and sometimes unattractive?

Rose Byrne (3:17)

I'm very emotional about it. You know, I feel simultaneously really protective of the character and also want everybody to share this experience. So it's like a. It's a study in contrast, I suppose, at the moment. But I've been. It's been so extraordinary to talk to people about the film because it is such an experience, the movie. And that's been just. The gift is to talk to people from all walks of life. Some of my best friends don't have. Are not parents, but they're caregivers or they have other stresses in their life. Obviously mothers and parents, you know, men. You know, it's a. It's a. It's a female protagonist that can be. People can struggle with that. And it's been just so, like, beyond my wildest dreams having people to share their experiences with me. And it's. It's a little bit undefinable, the film with genre. And that's been really wild to see the response in terms of it's a. It's a comedy. No, it's a horror. No, it's a straight, dark drama. And I kind of love how no one can pin it down. It asks more questions than it answers. And I'm still discovering things about the movie, and I kind of living for the ambiguity of it and watching people try to pin it down and it's kind of defined. Defies that in many ways, I. I think. Which is exciting. It's very original.

Alison Stewart (4:38)

Why did you say yes to the part of Linda?

Rose Byrne (4:40)

Oh, gosh, Because I just couldn't say no. I was like, oh, goodness me, this is what an opportunity. And I was terrified and also thought, oh, I have to. I have to do this. This is extraordinary. This is a tightrope. And where to begin? You know, how do we begin to peel back the onion of this character?

Alison Stewart (5:01)

You know, Bobby Cannavale, your partner, was here two days ago. He's here.

Rose Byrne (5:05)

I know.

Alison Stewart (5:06)

And you had described him as a really, a good creative source for you when you're deciding about parts. So I asked him why he liked this part for you. So let's listen.

Bobby Cannavale (5:17)

You know, I just Thought that that script was so.

Rose Byrne (5:22)

So.

Bobby Cannavale (5:24)

So specifically a voice that I hadn't heard before. I'd never heard a voice like that, particularly about the subject matter, motherhood. And it's. I've never seen anything like that before. It read like a dark horror movie, and it jumped off the page in that way. And I just thought, hey, this is something where you can use. You can use tools you haven't really got the show. You can use everything. Put it all together in a way that I hadn't read before. Certain. You know, there have been things that Rose has done that. Where she's elevated material many times that we've read together. And I've gone, you know, you can really score with this part and do well, I don't know, like, if all the other elements come together, maybe it can be good. But oftentimes, you know, that's out of your hands. This one's pretty much Rose, right? She's just in every frame of the movie. And I just thought, I think you're ready. And I think it's a good match. I think you should meet this woman. And they got on like a house on fire. And thank God the whole thing scored because it's an impressive feat, I think.

Rose Byrne (6:32)

Oh, I've never had that experience of hearing. He is. My husband is such an extraordinary sounding board. He really is. He has such intuition around art and character, and he's my biggest cheerleader, you know, and I am for him, too. I hope he feels that. But. And he got it straight away, as you can. As you can see, he loved it. And he got the movie. He got the movie in a very cellular sense, too.

Alison Stewart (7:01)

It was interesting that he used the word tools that you would get to use, tools that you didn't get to use before. What tools do you think you got to use?

Rose Byrne (7:09)

You know, the film is a tight. That. Well, the character is a tightrope. You know, she's. She's wound so tight, she's. She's sort of profoundly disassociated, too. And the challenge of playing a character who is disassociated yet being, like, trying to be vitally present for the scene is a tightrope. It was such a challenge. And using absolutely everything I feel like has almost led to this. And there's a lot of comedy in the film, which I obviously love and have done a lot of. And. But it's very, very dark, the comedy which I. I rose and gravitate toward as a viewer. And so. And then there are. There are horror tropes so sort of. I guess the tools he means is. Is all of those. I've done a lot of different genres. In a way, it was exciting to. To try to put them all behind this. This character and really understand her perspective on it.

Alison Stewart (8:03)

You shot this in 27 days, is that right?

Rose Byrne (8:06)

Yeah.

Alison Stewart (8:07)

What does shooting on a short schedule like that do for you, for you creatively?

Rose Byrne (8:12)

You know, Mary Bronstein puts it. Well, she sort of. She says, like, you know, limitations on art can be such a gift because you have to pivot and you have to be creative, and you don't have all the time in the world and all the money in the world and all the people saying yes to you in the world. Can we retake? Exactly. And you have to be creative, and that can be so revealing and wonderful about choices you can make and places you can go with the performance. So I. I never felt constrained by it, to be honest. It was. And we had a great preparation time, Mary Bronstein and I. And I. That was definitely a huge key to being able to shoot it in that amount of time.

Alison Stewart (8:52)

Yeah. You and Mary had a lot of discussions beforehand. What did you talk about?

Rose Byrne (8:56)

We sat down at her kitchen table for, like, three days a week, for five weeks. And we just went through every page of the script. Every page, every beat, Ellie. Every syllable. I, like, ask a lot of questions. I ask a lot of questions on a slow day. So this was, like, question central. And I just. She was very candid with me. This is a personal story. It's inspired by something she went through. It's obviously very, like, abstracted version of that. And she didn't respond to this situation like Linda does. But what if. What if you did behave like this? What. What person is in this state that these are the choices they're making and the choices she kind of has to make at that for where she is right now. So. And yeah, we would share personal stories. I'm a mother. She's a. She's a mother, obviously. So we. We. We had this great time. It was like preparing for a play. It was really extraordinary. You don't get that with cinema usually, or. Or tv, for that matter. So I felt Mary was very determined. She comes from performance. She started at NYU as an actress, and so she was. She did it with. With Conan O', Brien, who's in the film with A.S.A.P Rocky, with Daniel McDonald. So I felt. So I just loved it. It was very, like, without that, I would have felt untethered.

Alison Stewart (10:07)

Yeah. My guest is actor Rose Byrne. We're Discussing her new film, if I had legs, I'd kick you. It's about a mom unraveling as she's dealing with a series of escalating crises. It's in theaters, select theaters tomorrow. You capture Linda's life over these few days. How much did you talk to Mary about what Linda's life looked like before? Before we drop in on this moment?

Rose Byrne (10:32)

We. I was obsessed with that was my biggest question was, who was Linda before this? Who was she before she had a child? You know, like, that's what is going to inform all these choices and this response, because we spoke to a lot of women, mothers with children with special needs.

Alison Stewart (10:49)

You did.

Rose Byrne (10:50)

And it was fascinating to see how it affected them and their marriages. And it was very different from. From conversation to conversation. And then we meet Linda, and, you know, at her core, I think Linda doesn't trust authority, and she doesn't like being told what to do. And that, for me, was a big key to the character and how she's responding. I think she's had a past. I think she likes to have a good time. I think she doesn't like being put into a role necessarily and really bucks at any sort of tradition in that sense. And there's something about her. There's a little punk. So I. She's a little punk.

Alison Stewart (11:29)

Yeah.

Rose Byrne (11:29)

And that, for me, was something we really discovered in rehearsals.

Alison Stewart (11:33)

We got a text here that says, I saw. If I had legs, I would kick you at the New York Film Festival. Rose has to be nominated for every actor award. I've never wanted to hug yet shake the crap out of a character in a movie before, like Linda. Chef's kiss to Rose. That's a super fan from Harlem.

Rose Byrne (11:55)

Oh, my gosh. That's so incredible. Thank you. I'm so moved. It's very emotional. That's very sweet. Yeah, it is. It is a challenging character. And look, the audience doesn't. Mary and I always had this conversation. The audience doesn't have to love her, but we have to love her, and we have to love Linda for sure. And obviously, you want people to root for her, even as she's making these terrible kind of decisions along the way.

Alison Stewart (12:21)

Can we talk about how close up the camera got to you?

Rose Byrne (12:24)

Yes.

Alison Stewart (12:25)

Did you know that was going to be the case?

Rose Byrne (12:27)

I didn't, Allison. And the first day, it got closer and closer and closer, and I was like, are you getting that close? That's. How close are you going to get? Okay. Okay. And I had to adjust a little bit, but then I understood the language she was using and the sort of cinematic tools she was really employing. But I didn't fully grasp it until I. I saw the film as well, because I was doing my job with taking care of the performance. And Mary, obviously was directing the film. So it was very revealing to me, even when I saw it. The language she's using and the kind of the. What am I trying to say? The pure perspective of this character and what she sees and what she can't see is almost is as important that, you know, she can't really see her daughter is like the audience can't see the daughter.

Alison Stewart (13:18)

I was interested because I think last time you were here, it was Medea.

Rose Byrne (13:21)

Oh, yeah, that's right.

Alison Stewart (13:23)

So you're used to doing theater, and theater, you have to be a little bit bigger, of course.

Rose Byrne (13:26)

Yeah.

Alison Stewart (13:27)

And right now, with the camera so close to you, how does that change the way you do your job?

Rose Byrne (13:34)

It's obviously so technique. There's obviously this huge technical aspect to making a film and to performing on film. And I would just have a constant dialogue with Mary and with the camera. I became very close with the camera department, and I like more information rather than less. So we would always just talk through the day, talk through the scenes and. And yes, it's a wild relationship to have with the camera. You really do have to assess it and do internal work and just recalibrate constantly. Because it can be as simple as not breathing, you know, holding yourself. Like it's something that can be that simple. Like, that's what is needed, like a physicality or a stillness and that. I had never done that before, and it was really fun and creative in a technical way, I suppose. Yeah.

Alison Stewart (14:21)

As you mentioned, we don't see your daughter in the film. We see her torso, we see her feet, and the director did that. What I understand is to kind of keep the focus on Linda. Right. Because you bring this cute little kid who's sick onto camera, and everybody pays attention to that.

Rose Byrne (14:37)

Of course, your sympathies, as they should, will go to the child, unless you don't have a soul.

Alison Stewart (14:44)

How first, just logistically, was she there when you were performing? Yes.

Rose Byrne (14:48)

Oh, absolutely. We have this wonderful actress, Delaney Quinn, who came in and just brought. Blew us away when we met with her. And she was my scene partner. Absolutely. All my choices are informed by her. You know, she was extraordinary, and she, like brilliant actors, could just access her emotional life in seconds and was so present and then could be so funny. Delaney is a lover of horror films, so she loved more of the extreme, like set pieces. And she had a terrific sense of humor and is a really, like a gift. A gifted and wonderful child. Yeah.

Alison Stewart (15:24)

We're talking to actor Rose Byrne. We're discussing her new film, if I had legs, I'd kick you. We'll have more after a quick break. This is all of it. You're listening to all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. My guest is actor Rose Byrne. We're discussing her new film, if I had legs, I'd kick you. It's about a mom who's unraveling. She's dealing with a series of escalating crises, including her daughter's mysterious illness. It's in theaters now. It says everything I've read said her mysterious illness. Does it say that in the script?

Rose Byrne (16:06)

That's a really good question. No, it doesn't.

Alison Stewart (16:10)

Yeah.

Rose Byrne (16:11)

It just is very. Almost technical about what Linda has to do in the script. It's like very much mirrors the film. There's very little information. Get information given, but a lot of emotional information and technical information about what she has to do, what she's doing, where. Where they're going. But you don't. The script doesn't give you any more clues in terms of how long have they been doing this program? How. How long have they lived here? How long has she been a therapist? How long has she been seeing her therapist? How long has her husband, et cetera, et cetera? So there was fun to. To fill in those gaps behind the.

Alison Stewart (16:44)

Scenes in the film. Your character, Linda, she's kind of. She's exhausted. She is exhausted. What's your approach to physicality when you're playing a role that is clearly someone who is sort of at her end?

Rose Byrne (17:01)

The trap is that it becomes one note, you know, and that you are just. She's just. Just exhausted or just hysterical. And so that was always. The thing is trying to find all the. The. It's corny, but the colors, you know, of, like, all the different, you know, musical qualities that she performed, you know, for one of a better expression. Expression. But that was something we were really focused on. And, you know, I'm always trying to find the joke because I'm goofy, but. But I love the physicality of it. And a lot of the film, she's. She's drunk or she's stoned. And the key always with that is if someone is drunk, they're acting as sober as they can. So that was always the key, is trying to act as normal as one can is always a helpful thing. I think to start from.

Alison Stewart (17:49)

Everything gets kicked off, at least in this part of her life, we should say, by this hole and the ceiling. It just, like, falls through her apartment. She keeps coming back to the apartment to sort of visit the hole. What do you think in your mind, what does the whole represent to Linda?

Rose Byrne (18:07)

Well, I. It's so interesting because it's. I don't think she knows. I don't think she knows, but she knows that it's, again, some sort of existential threat to her. And I don't think she can see. I don't think she can see the parallels in her life. And in the script, there was this beautiful symmetry with things that are happening in her life, in her home, that are happening to her daughter, things that are happening to her patients that are happening to her, things that her therapist is telling her that then she's telling to her. Her. Her own patients. So this sort of. There's. There's a. There's a sort of cyclical nature to the. To the character and to the film. And I think that. I think she's. I think she thinks if she can figure out how to fix this or what's happening with the hole, then she can fix her daughter. But she's not quite putting the two together yet. Until the end.

Alison Stewart (19:05)

I think I kept thinking about the hole because we live in New York City apartments and, you know, you've had a neighbor. It's been a slow drip, a slow drip, a slow drip, and then a giant hole comes through your apartment. And I keep thinking about Linda is. We keep seeing these drips that are happening with her with each crisis. It's another drip, it's another drip, it's another drip. How close do you think Linda is to caving in?

Rose Byrne (19:30)

I think she does cave in. I think it's a study of caving. I recently, something got stuck in the sink at home in our bathroom. And I ended up pulling out some stuff from that sink that was disgusting. And I thought about the film and I thought. And I. But I. In the moment, I was so transfixed. What was in this hole? What was, you know, coming out? How did it get in there? And it was so mesmerizing in the most kind of gory way. But there's an element to that, too, of, like, what, you know. And I. Another person said to me, it's like an existential birth canal, so you really can go anywhere.

Alison Stewart (20:15)

I'll think about that as well. Yes, it's interesting. The cast around you is. Really. Is great. What does it do for you when the cast around you. A$AP Rocky's great, really good in it, wonderful, is stable, and they can do their job. What does that allow you to do?

Rose Byrne (20:38)

It allows me to. I mean, in the kind of most simple sense, to have fun and to be able to reveal the scene and explore a scene and, you know, my performance, you. You can prepare as much as you want, and you never want to see an actor's homework, but, you know, you can't make any sort of decision until you're in front of the other actor and you're reacting off what they're, you know, giving you. So it's all informed by those performances. Conan, Rocky, Danielle McDonald, Delaney, Quinn, and I. I was. Mary is very. She was so unconventional with her casting in the best possible way, because none of these actors are. It's. It's not a stunt. You know, Conan is very much risking his, you know, he's such a national treasure. He didn't have to do this. And he's playing such an uptight, very tense, by the book, limited sort of therapist who is very disinterested in his patient when we meet him. And he's actively kind of has a little contempt for her. So he, he worked very, very hard. And Rocky, again, his character is. Is the kindest character in the film, has the most curiosity, maybe hasn't. Maybe doesn't always have the best outcome with his intentions, but he had to have a natural charisma that you cannot teach.

Alison Stewart (21:54)

You cannot teach it.

Rose Byrne (21:56)

I said that to somebody about.

Alison Stewart (21:57)

After seeing highest to lowest, I was like, that kid has charisma.

Rose Byrne (22:01)

Yeah. And you can't. You. That's just a genetic lottery on a cellular kind of level. So he just, he just fills the screen with his smile and his warmth, you know, and again, it's a really nuanced performance that's very gentle and lovely.

Alison Stewart (22:16)

It was interesting watching Conan, you and Conan together, because we're known. He's known for his comedic roles. You're known for some of your comedic roles. What was it like acting against someone, against type, in a way, against him being like this funny, funny guy?

Rose Byrne (22:35)

We, it was. Look, in between, we would have a lot of laughs. I am not. I, I like to break the tension. I. I would laugh and he would laugh, but it was so fun. It was so fun. I was so intrigued about what he would bring to that part, how hard he had worked. I, you know, and then as soon as we got into the room, became so clear to me what, you know, how this was, how how hard he had worked and how he was gonna be completely different from the. From the talk show host who listens to people all day. He's gonna be sitting there, and he is not listening to this character.

Alison Stewart (23:10)

No, not at all. I actually slightly gasped when I realized that she was a therapist, that Linda was a therapist.

Rose Byrne (23:16)

Isn't it a great. I did. When I read the script, I had to reread that page several times. I was like, wait, what?

Alison Stewart (23:22)

What?

Rose Byrne (23:22)

And I did. I remember going, hold on, hold on, hold on. What? What? What? Where is she? Is she a therapist? It was a fantastic reveal. Yeah.

Alison Stewart (23:31)

What did it reveal to you that the therapist was having so much trouble at home?

Rose Byrne (23:38)

Oh, it was just a gift. I thought.

Alison Stewart (23:41)

You think they're, like, at therapist school.

Rose Byrne (23:43)

And they sit on this little high.

Alison Stewart (23:44)

Pedestal, and then you realize a therapist.

Rose Byrne (23:47)

Is a person, of course. And a therapist has a therapist, who has a therapist, who has a therapist. You know, till it's like the wizard of Oz, I don't know. And it's a person behind a screen with smoke. But the role of a therapist is so specific in. In one's life. I've had therapists before, and you don't know anything about them, or some you know more. A little bit more than others. But it's that after a while, if you're curious, you want to start to chip away. Why? You know, who is this person? What is. It's like seeing the teacher out of school when you're a little kid, and you're like, you cannot believe they exist. Like, at the shopping center. And you're like, oh, my God, I thought you were just a cardboard cutout that lived at school. There's this awkwardness and unease, and she captures that when they run into each other in the little vessel to be all in the kitchen. Whereas that very awkward exchange. But it's, like, brilliant kind of comedy there, too. That is very fun. But I loved the kind of exploration of those roles that we play.

Alison Stewart (24:39)

The men in this movie are not helpful to Linda. Her husband is away. Her therapist is unhelpful. The men hired to fix the hole in the ceiling disappear. What was interesting to you about the role that men play in the movie?

Rose Byrne (24:54)

Very interesting. I mean, she is. She's abandoned by all of them. And then not only abandoned, but sort of, you know, her husband on the phone is very aggressive. And then the. I think the peak of that is when she's on the phone to her patient's husband telling him that his wife has left their child there and he's unaware. And it's this wonderful again, a great, very dramatic reveal, but you feel her constantly embattled with men who aren't helping her and aren't listening to her and don't believe her. And but then there's Rocky, you know, who's this sort of wonderful, gentle soul who's actually kind of trying to help her. So I feel Mary again, it was like a study in contrasts and something that she was, you know, provoking some ideas with.

Alison Stewart (25:38)

The name of the movie is if I Had Legs, I'd Kick youk. It is starring actor Rose Byrne. It opens in theaters tomorrow. Thank you for making time for us. Thank you, Jason.

Rose Byrne (25:48)

I really appreciate it. Thank you. For 140 years, MultiCare has been in Washington prioritizing long term solutions, partnering with local communities and expanding access to care. Together, we're building a healthier future.

Ira Flato (26:03)

Learn more@mycare.org this is Ira Flato, host of Science Friday. For over 30 years, the science Friday team has been reporting high quality science and technology news, making science fun for curious people by covering everything from the outer reaches of space to the rapidly changing world of AI to the tiniest microbes in our bodies. Audiences trust our show because they know we're driven by a mission to inform and serve listeners first and foremost with important news they won't get anywhere else. And our sponsors benefit from that halo effect. For more information on becoming a sponsor, visit sponsorship.wnyc.org.