"Huge Fornicators" (w/ Cate Blanchett)

Summary

Las Culturistas Episode Summary: "Huge Fornicators" featuring Cate Blanchett

Podcast Information:

• Title: Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
• Host/Authors: Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
• Produced by: Big Money Players Network and iHeartPodcasts
• Episode: "Huge Fornicators" (with Cate Blanchett)
• Release Date: March 19, 2025

---

1. Culture Catch-Up and Pre-Conversation Banter

The episode begins with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang engaging in their typical lively banter, setting the stage for a deep dive into contemporary culture. Skipping past the initial advertisements and sponsorship mentions, the hosts transition into discussing Cate Blanchett's latest film, "Black Bag".

• Matt Rogers [01:24]: "Cate Blanchett got a new movie, Black Bag. It's great."
• Bowen Yang [02:01]: "Notes on a Scandal, which is ultimately what I went with. Cause I know that's what you went with."

They humorously speculate about a hypothetical sequel featuring themselves, showcasing their chemistry and comedic rapport.

2. Reflections on Recent Cultural Events

Matt and Bowen reflect on their recent experiences at the Oscars and their involvement with SNL50, sharing anecdotes that highlight their engagement with the entertainment industry.

• Bowen Yang [08:00]: "At the Oscars. At the Oscars. No."
• Matt Rogers [09:03]: "They are not."

Their conversation touches on the challenges of maintaining composure in high-pressure environments, such as attending the Oscars, and the emotional aftermath of not meeting personal expectations.

• Matt Rogers [15:44]: "Guys, happy accessory this past month. I feel like the most beautiful purse in the world."

3. Welcoming Cate Blanchett to the Podcast

As the preamble concludes, Matt and Bowen enthusiastically welcome Cate Blanchett to the show, sharing humorous insights about their preparations and initial interactions.

• Matt Rogers [38:21]: "Well, we're sitting here with one of the greatest ever."
• Cate Blanchett [39:21]: "Thank you. Thanks for having me."
• Bowen Yang [38:21]: "Wouldn't you believe it? We're so excited to talk to Cate Blanchett."

4. In-Depth Conversation with Cate Blanchett

The heart of the episode features a candid and insightful conversation with Cate Blanchett, covering a wide range of topics from her acting process to cultural phenomena.

4.1. Decoding Cultural Symbols

Cate discusses the quirky assertion that wearing white sneakers signals non-fornication, leading to a humorous exploration of societal signals and personal style.

• Cate Blanchett [39:29]: "While I was wearing white sneakers, that if you wear white sneakers, it means you're not getting any."
• Matt Rogers [40:25]: "Everything I do is shouting that I'm available."

4.2. Insights into Filmmaking and Collaboration

Cate delves into her collaboration with director Steven Soderbergh on "Black Bag", emphasizing the importance of director-actor synergy and efficient filmmaking.

• Cate Blanchett [60:21]: "So, you have to risk. I'm sure you both feel this too. You have to."
• Matt Rogers [60:44]: "It's a culmination."

4.3. Cultural Impact of Nightlife and Technology

The discussion shifts to the cultural implications of nightlife hubs like Berghain in Berlin, the role of budget travel in shaping modern nightlife, and the preservation of cultural sites.

• Bowen Yang [71:02]: "The groundwork has been laid. This is the year for Chapel on Las Coast."
• Cate Blanchett [72:30]: "But you know, they have to be really careful having."

4.4. Personal Growth and Artistic Process

Cate shares her philosophy on acting and artistic creation, highlighting the balance between preparation and spontaneity.

• Cate Blanchett [74:12]: "I'm constantly becoming. I don't know. Like, I'm transitioning constantly."
• Matt Rogers [78:36]: "But I do have a process."

4.5. Addressing Industry Pressures and Authenticity

Further into the conversation, Cate addresses the pressures of the film industry, the saturation of award ceremonies, and the importance of maintaining authenticity in one's work.

• Cate Blanchett [57:08]: "It's amazing. Someone in it is amazing, full stop."
• Bowen Yang [82:08]: "It's a post trauma. You haven't recovered from your waiting time as a waiter."

5. "I Don't Think So, Honey" – Pop Culture Critique Segment

In this recurring segment, Matt and Bowen critique aspects of pop culture, using humor and personal anecdotes to underline their points.

• Matt Rogers [85:05]: "I don't think so, honey. Buddy, One of my buddies..."
• Bowen Yang [87:00]: "It's the same kind of weird. We haven't found the right word yet."

They debate the nuanced use of terms like "buddy," "mate," and "friend," exploring how language shapes interpersonal dynamics.

• Matt Rogers [86:19]: "It feels like something. And it's been used sexually a couple times with me amongst gay men when my white sneakers were really popping off."
• Cate Blanchett [91:04]: "I don't think so, honey. This is the thing about living alone."

6. Closing Remarks and Awards

As the episode nears its end, Matt and Bowen introduce the Cate Blanchett Award for Good Acting, celebrating her contributions to the arts.

• Matt Rogers [38:58]: "We named an award after you forgot. You got the Cate Blanchett Award for good acting."
• Cate Blanchett [96:49]: "You are the undisputed best."

The hosts conclude with playful banter, reinforcing their camaraderie and mutual respect.

• Bowen Yang [97:15]: "This is an educational podcast, Friend."
• Matt Rogers [97:45]: "You're one of the best."

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Matt Rogers [02:35]: "This is my favorite film in her filmography. We'll tell you."
• Cate Blanchett [39:30]: "And I just went, hang on a minute. And I've been sending out really bad signals for quite a long time."
• Cate Blanchett [60:21]: "There's a lot of egos and complications. And they would all come up and start talking to me."
• Matt Rogers [77:41]: "What am I looking for?"
• Bowen Yang [87:14]: "This is an educational podcast, Friend."

---

Conclusion

"Huge Fornicators" stands out as an engaging episode that seamlessly blends humor, cultural critique, and in-depth discussions with one of Hollywood's most esteemed actresses, Cate Blanchett. Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang effectively navigate a wide array of topics, providing listeners both entertainment and insightful commentary on the intersections of culture, art, and personal experiences.

Transcript

[Matt Rogers]

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[Bowen Yang]

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[Matt Rogers]

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[Bowen Yang]

See guarantee [e-mail] guarantees.

[Matt Rogers]

Look, man, there. Oh, I see my eye. Oh, my. Bowen, look over there.

[Bowen Yang]

Wow.

[Matt Rogers]

Is that the culture?

[Bowen Yang]

Yes. Goodness.

[Matt Rogers]

Wow.

[Bowen Yang]

Las Culturistas Ding dong. Las culturistas toy Just for a warning, you're going to hear that twice. We're going to ding dong again because we are not currently with our guest of this episode, which you can probably see now based on the title is with the one and only Cate Blanchett.

[Matt Rogers]

Cate Blanchett got a new movie, Black Bag. It's great.

[Bowen Yang]

It's great.

[Matt Rogers]

I was actually like, I was watching Black Bag and then I was gonna choose another thing from her filmography to watch again before this. There's so much. I got overwhelmed.

[Bowen Yang]

You got antsy. It's like I got antsy when you're at the bookstore. Yeah. So many options.

[Matt Rogers]

Not even just little options where it's like, oh, could be that. Could be that. Big, delicious options. It's like a Cheesecake Factory. Her filmography.

[Bowen Yang]

It's a menu with a spot viral spine.

[Matt Rogers]

This is a rule of culture if I've ever heard one. This is a rule of culture number 94.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah, 94.

[Matt Rogers]

Cave Flecchette's filmography is like the menu at a Cheesecake Factory.

[Bowen Yang]

The options. What were you, Were you juggling? Did you whittle it down to a final selection?

[Matt Rogers]

I mean, there's always tar. Yep, there's always tar. But the thing about tar is it is the, let's just call it the big steak of options because it's so. It's long. It's a big old film.

[Bowen Yang]

It's the most Kate you're gonna get. It's the most bang for your buck. Cate Blanchett, you're gon.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes. But having already seen that several times and then I thought, why don't we do Carol? And I thought, mm. I was like, this could be good. But I've also seen that a couple times. And then I thought Notes on a Scandal, which is ultimately what I went with. Cause I know that's what you went with.

[Bowen Yang]

That's what I went with.

[Matt Rogers]

This is my favorite film in her filmography. We'll tell you.

[Bowen Yang]

Notes on a Scandal, I think it.

[Matt Rogers]

Is because I love melodrama. We are off track. So the reason why we're doing this is because we want to give you a little bit of a culture catch up. We know that people have been sort.

[Bowen Yang]

Of desiring this because a lot has happened. Wow. In the last month. Where do we start in our lives? And of course in the grand scheme of things. But we just thought we'd give you like a little sort of hybrid episode. And I feel like someone like Cate Blanchett deserves a sort of like little preamble because it's just gonna be a lot.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah. I also thought to myself, I'm like, what if Cate Blanchett came in here and we did like a traditional intro and Cate Blanchett, the legendary Cate Blanchett was just sitting here. So we'll probably do like a 30 second intro for her and just get into it. Because I actually can't bear the thought of her sitting here listening to us while we're like, so what the thing about like my favorite soup is, or whatever dumb shit we would say, what's your favorite New England clam? Thank you for asking. I was just wanted to say New England clam. But it's hard to pick a favorite soup.

[Bowen Yang]

It's so hard.

[Matt Rogers]

I don't think so, honey. Having to pick a favorite soup. And it feels like the pressure is always on to choose a favorite soup nowadays.

[Bowen Yang]

Well, I feel like that's a self invented pressure because you just brought that up as like an example.

[Matt Rogers]

You don't feel that pressure day in and day out.

[Bowen Yang]

Ever since Halen Hardy has disappeared from New York City.

[Matt Rogers]

I can't even tell you.

[Bowen Yang]

I now I'm no longer making the decision of what soup do I want today. It is nosedived. And it makes me sick because it used to be like the only thing that gave me joy was to like Pick a new soup. And now I just don't encounter soup as much as I would like.

[Matt Rogers]

Excuse me. First of all, let me tell you something. Hale and Hardy, that was a great American institution. And I'm so disappointed in all the consumers of America and everyone that eats food out there. What you did, what you allowed to happen to Hale and Hardy is unacceptable. Because where else are you going to get. I'm sorry. 12, 13, sometimes 14 options of soup. When you see Moroccan lentils on a.

[Bowen Yang]

Menu, add to cart.

[Matt Rogers]

Add to cart. Because you're lucky to have that opportunity. And now. Unbelievable.

[Bowen Yang]

I'm sorry. There have been rumors for, I want to say decades now. Sick of rumors starting rumors starting that it's coming back.

[Matt Rogers]

No, it's not.

[Bowen Yang]

No, it's not.

[Matt Rogers]

Shut up.

[Bowen Yang]

I've heard this for years.

[Matt Rogers]

No, it's 2025. We don't have optimistic thoughts anymore.

[Bowen Yang]

Who are you? Who are you? The one that got away and picked up and moved to a different town, and you're like, I'm thinking of moving back into New York.

[Matt Rogers]

Lose my.

[Bowen Yang]

Lose my number.

[Matt Rogers]

That's who you are. Vie Halen Hardy coming back.

[Bowen Yang]

Vie. Ooh. You know, Viv vis a vis. So in French, if it's.

[Matt Rogers]

You don't think that Viv is more fun.

[Bowen Yang]

It's very fun. It's not the French way to say it, but you can say. You can say Vie.

[Matt Rogers]

You better. You have to understand, nowadays, Bowen has to be helping me with this because we're going to Europe.

[Bowen Yang]

We're going to.

[Matt Rogers]

We're going to Europe.

[Bowen Yang]

Very tar coded. She would fly back and forth, you know?

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah. A cultured woman. A cultured woman with secrets. Can't wait to ask Cate Blanchett if she has secrets, too. We were talking about soup.

[Bowen Yang]

We were talking about soup. We were talking about preamble culture. Ketchup.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

Favorite rules. Notes on a scandal.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, this is what I was gonna say. Rkpfks. Whatever.

[Matt Rogers]

Rkpfks.

[Bowen Yang]

We're missing a K. What? Rkbfk. Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's getting unwieldy. I was gonna say, hold me to account. I want to ask her if she thinks. Well, I guess. What is there any use to this? I wanna be like, do you think they would make notes on a scandal now? Like, you would not be able to have, like, Cate Blanchett make out with a teenager.

[Matt Rogers]

Not just make out. Fuck in a train yard. Can I tell you something? She fucks that kid.

[Bowen Yang]

Shit.

[Matt Rogers]

I mean, and listen, it's.

[Bowen Yang]

That's, that's. That's the whole crux of the film. That's the scandal.

[Matt Rogers]

I didn't write it.

[Bowen Yang]

Podcast on a scandal.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, my God. That's the sequel. That's the sequel starring us. Wait, who's Kate and who's Judi Dennis?

[Bowen Yang]

I'm Judy.

[Matt Rogers]

I love that.

[Bowen Yang]

You really? You're Sheba. I am here.

[Cate Blanchett]

I am.

[Bowen Yang]

I do think what we should do, and it will be embarrassing, but we should say the iconic line to Kate.

[Matt Rogers]

You think this is a love affair.

[Bowen Yang]

You want to fuck me, Barbara?

[Matt Rogers]

You want to fuck me, Barbara? How come I thought you think this.

[Bowen Yang]

Is a love affair.

[Matt Rogers]

Clearly. You wanna fuck. You know what? I have a you wanna fuck me, Barbara T shirt that I had made as a rap gift for game show and I. It's in la. I didn't wear it today.

[Bowen Yang]

Where's your Lydia Tar Innocent T shirt?

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, my God, we should have worn that.

[Bowen Yang]

It's okay.

[Matt Rogers]

I'm literally thinking, can we make it home?

[Bowen Yang]

No, this sucks. It's okay. We'll just tell her. We'll show her the photo.

[Matt Rogers]

We should both have been wearing our Lydia Tartt is Innocent T shirts. What if she had been like, you know, she's not.

[Bowen Yang]

She's not.

[Matt Rogers]

She was an awful woman. She drops in, she's like, this is. I don't like this at all.

[Bowen Yang]

I don't agree with this. This is our culture catch up portion of the episode.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes.

[Bowen Yang]

So let's just make the list now. Let's just make the programming.

[Matt Rogers]

Okay. Lady Gaga was on Lost. Coach Bowen sang with Lady Gaga in two sketches and became best friends.

[Bowen Yang]

Matt was front row at the Oscars. Don't do this.

[Matt Rogers]

No. Bowen presented at the Oscars. It's not. Matt was front row.

[Bowen Yang]

At the Oscars. At the Oscars. No.

[Matt Rogers]

I have been such a happy accessory this past month. You have no idea. I feel like the most beautiful purse in the world.

[Bowen Yang]

Stop it.

[Matt Rogers]

No, stop.

[Cate Blanchett]

I love it. You.

[Matt Rogers]

I feel like I'm your emotional support animal and I'm so happy about it.

[Bowen Yang]

But, you know, it's like when a movie star. It's like when an actress, like, brings her dog to a red carpet. Let's say like someone like Demi Moore brings. Oh, that dog. I forget the name.

[Matt Rogers]

We're gonna call him Pip.

[Bowen Yang]

Pip. It's like, well, everyone's obsessed with Pip. You know what I mean?

[Matt Rogers]

I mean, you know, what's really happened is we've fulfilled the prophecy. I'm busy.

[Bowen Yang]

I'm busy.

[Matt Rogers]

Phillips you are, Michelle. I'm busy. The prophecy has been fulfilled. There's officially a gay Michelle Williamson busy. Phillips.

[Bowen Yang]

No, no, no, I am not. Michelle. You are not busy. And that is both. Like, that would be a disservice to both of them and us.

[Matt Rogers]

Excuse me. I'm saying this with all the love in the world for both of those legends, and I'm saying it with a lot of love for us.

[Bowen Yang]

For us. But I'm saying there's something about. Listen, I'm walking onto the red carpet of the Oscars and it's people, everyone being like, Matt Bowen. Matt Bowen.

[Matt Rogers]

They are not.

[Bowen Yang]

In a way, that was like. That filled me with such profound joy. I was like, yes, we slayed the glambot. We slayed the glambot. And we're just like.

[Matt Rogers]

And they're talking about it.

[Bowen Yang]

I can't believe I'm here with my best friend at the Oscars. And we're like, putcha, putcha, putcha, put your hearts up. And it's. It's really. I still have to Journal about SNL50. I feel like RKPfKAF's JK were not totally satisfied with their SNL50 recap.

[Matt Rogers]

No, they weren't.

[Bowen Yang]

We're happy to go into more detail with that.

[Matt Rogers]

Let's just say. Let's say top highlights.

[Bowen Yang]

Let's start there.

[Matt Rogers]

SNL50, top highlights for you.

[Bowen Yang]

Waving a chair backstage, doing the pre tape with Andy Samberg, which was so much fun. Just loving the moments that we shared together with everybody. It felt like this wonderful family reunion. It felt like we were all sort of giving each other. It was like a Dickensian experience of, like, everyone was being visited by the ghosts of snl. Past, present, future, in a way that was actually not. Like we were all Scrooge and we all were waking up on Christmas morning, like, God bless us, everyone. And that was the highlight for me. Yeah. I mean, everyone was obsessed with Matt working the carpet.

[Matt Rogers]

That was fun. I will say one of the highlights after it for me was when. So you've been on it before. But I made my icky cbell debut on TikTok.

[Bowen Yang]

We love Nikki.

[Matt Rogers]

Obsessed, deeply obsessed. And I was so. I'm of course, watching it bedrotting, like watching the TikTok in. And then like, Nikki is like, yeah, exactly. We were very much simpatico there. I was like, I want to lay down too and be lazy looking at my TikTok. And then I see myself and he goes, not the right color. And I. So then. Then I Wasn't following him. So I followed him, which was a mistake on my part. And he sends me a message and he goes. He revealed himself as a reader. I don't know how he identifies God.

[Bowen Yang]

But he's a finalist.

[Matt Rogers]

I go, just so you know, it wasn't as bright in person.

[Bowen Yang]

Great.

[Matt Rogers]

What do you do that? Okay, I get it. Yeah, totally. But I loved it.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, my God.

[Matt Rogers]

Because it's a celebration to even be on there.

[Bowen Yang]

Of course. Loved that he had to press save on a photo of you. You know what I mean?

[Matt Rogers]

It didn't look that bright in person. Like, I absolutely loved what I wore.

[Bowen Yang]

The blue. Oh, so good. Thank you. Wasn't even like a. It was not like a jewel tone. It was not even. But it was not.

[Matt Rogers]

Certainly not.

[Bowen Yang]

But it was still.

[Matt Rogers]

Can you imagine me in a jewel tone at the SNL50?

[Bowen Yang]

But it was just a deep, sumptuous blue.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, it was great, by the way. I don't know why I pictured me in a jewel tone at SNL50. And this was the pose.

[Bowen Yang]

Like, wait, like Lea Michele?

[Matt Rogers]

Like. Yeah, like taking your two hands.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, me.

[Matt Rogers]

And putting. Pushing like your hips forward and like this clavicle.

[Bowen Yang]

No, you're clavicle first.

[Matt Rogers]

And you just hear. You just hear.

[Bowen Yang]

Matt, Matt, Matt.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, my Matt. And you know what they always say to me? Big smile, Matt, big smile.

[Bowen Yang]

Big smile. Chin up, chin up, chin up, chin up. No, down. Chin down.

[Matt Rogers]

That's too much chin down.

[Bowen Yang]

Little bit of a smile over here.

[Matt Rogers]

And they're always over. You know what we should do? Even when our backs of our outfits are really bad over the shoulder.

[Bowen Yang]

I love an old. I love that.

[Matt Rogers]

Like you're fucking gwyneth.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh.

[Matt Rogers]

Anyway, SN50 was amazing. Oscars.

[Bowen Yang]

Oscars.

[Matt Rogers]

You really did crush that present thing. And there was bts. It was back and forth whether or not that bit was gonna happen.

[Bowen Yang]

Yes.

[Matt Rogers]

And you stuck to your guns.

[Bowen Yang]

I stuck to my guns. The producers pitched the idea. The producers and the writers, wonderful team there. They're just like for working the Oscars. They are a cool, chill bunch. They're like, yeah, whatever. It's like these people do it. This is their thing, year in, year out. You know what I mean? They know how this all works. They're at the Dolby, they know where the bathrooms are. And it was so much fun. I stayed up after snl, got on a plane, took a little gummy, conked out, woke up, went straight to the Dolby, felt great, did the bit, had lovely stand ins. Saw the rehearsal for the Oz medley with the stand ins. And I was still gagged. I was like, it's not even Cynthia and Ari doing it and I'm still like in tears.

[Matt Rogers]

You actually just saw that, like, stand insight.

[Bowen Yang]

It was these stand ins who like, were slaying. Yeah. Who were not. I would say, like, maybe they were professional vocalists and singers, but they were just like. But I even saw the shot of like Ari in the background.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah. Oh, that was a great shot.

[Bowen Yang]

And it was just like Miss Thing, a blonde girl in the back. Just kind of like watching this other woman on the raised platform. And I was like, this is gonna.

[Matt Rogers]

Fucking stand ins for them. Just like seeing the staging and like.

[Bowen Yang]

And me and all the. And all of Conan's background dancers for the opening bit were all just dying backstage being like this. This is so fun.

[Matt Rogers]

I also want to say in terms of stand ins, shout out to whoever was sitting next to me for 90 minutes. So first of all, Bowen says to me beforehand, we are sitting in the front row. I said, you better shut the fuck up. And he goes, also, I can't be with you for like. He goes the first 40 minutes because I'm presenting the fourth award and I have to get into the costume. Cause we are doing that bit. Like, it went back and forth about whether that was gonna happen. Cause it was gonna be a big costume change.

[Bowen Yang]

It was gonna be a big costume change. And they weren't sure they were gonna have the proper rehearsal time with me. Cause I was flying in the day of. Yeah. So might not have happened. And so I told Matt I budgeted 40 minutes. It was the full.

[Matt Rogers]

It was 90.

[Bowen Yang]

90 minutes of the show.

[Matt Rogers]

It was 90. And literally I'm with this seat filler the whole time. And she probably 70 minutes in, turns to me and goes, where is Bowen? I go, am I not fun or are you not enjoying being at the Oscars? She was in great vibe, but I.

[Bowen Yang]

Wasn'T afraid to go to the bathroom, probably.

[Matt Rogers]

But also I think she was just like. There was a little bit of, like. There was a little bit of like. I feel bad that Bowen isn't in his front row seat at the Oscars. And I was like, I mean, I hope he comes soon. I am. I'm enjoying you.

[Bowen Yang]

Yes.

[Matt Rogers]

But like, I do want. Cause I knew you wanted to be out there watching it because you missed, obviously Cynthia and Ariana, which was amazing in the room.

[Bowen Yang]

The Bond tribute. The Bond tribute of Lisa and Doja and Rhea and Margot Qualley and Margaret. Oh, my God, Margaret.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah. I mean, and it was, I will say, sitting there for 90 minutes and looking to my left and just seeing all those people.

[Bowen Yang]

I was like, what the fuck?

[Matt Rogers]

You know what I was really proud about? I was like, wow, I've really managed my anxiety. Cause I was sitting there chilling.

[Bowen Yang]

Wow, I'm so proud of you.

[Matt Rogers]

And I think a year ago, I wouldn't have been like that. I think I would have been like. But I was like, okay, it's okay.

[Bowen Yang]

It's okay. I'm okay. I'm okay.

[Matt Rogers]

I was channeling Tate.

[Bowen Yang]

You were channeling Tate? Tate would be cool as a cucumber front run at the Oscars.

[Matt Rogers]

I think so.

[Bowen Yang]

She'd be like, this is fun.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah. I think she'd be like, this is cool, man.

[Bowen Yang]

This is cool.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah. Why would that be the impression.

[Bowen Yang]

Cool, man.

[Matt Rogers]

But you did finally come out, and we got to see the last half.

[Bowen Yang]

Of the Oscars together, which was just as fun.

[Matt Rogers]

It was great. I mean, the wins went as expected until that was a sad moment when Demi lost. But Mikey's so fucking great in that movie.

[Bowen Yang]

It's like, that's what's. It's not like an out and out scene, but it is just a thing of, like, God, there's just something about the expectation being sort of slowly downloaded into you.

[Matt Rogers]

Correct.

[Bowen Yang]

Like, as. Just as on a human level, like, if you are told, like, over several months that, like, it's yours, it's yours, it's yours, something's gonna happen to you, something great. And it doesn't. That is very. Just, for lack of a better word, devastating.

[Matt Rogers]

And with a camera in your face. The moment it doesn't happen. Here's what I'll say after that. And you know, I love Enora. I think Mikey Madison is incredible. I actually think it was even better on the second time I watched it. I think that that performance is great, especially when you see how dissimilar she is to that character. I think she deserved to win, but it's just tough when there's so many of these award shows. It makes you feel like, is it a little too much?

[Bowen Yang]

I would say, sure, absolutely.

[Matt Rogers]

Like, right after another, after another, it feels like a job that can't possibly have any reward outside of, like, ultimately, if you do win and only one person can, and if you happen to, like, you make yourself, like, a fashion moment, which by, I'll say again, Brad Goreski absolutely crushed it. Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

Brad.

[Matt Rogers]

With Demi all season, I hope she feels good. I'm sure she feels good.

[Bowen Yang]

I'm sure she does. And it makes me go. To answer your question, like, is this too much? Like, kill me for saying this. It makes me go like, well, for Culture Awards, I think we should build out precursors.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, no, the Culture awards, we'll have.

[Bowen Yang]

20 made up precursors.

[Matt Rogers]

No, there's going to be a brunch. There's going to be. There's going to be a lot. A lot of precursors. Like, we're actually going to create many other small awards with guilds that we create. Actually, there's going to be a Reader Awards, a Publicist Awards, a Katie Awards, a Finalist Awards, and the Kyle Awards. And you are going to get to sign up for the guild. This actually is happening in real time. We've not discussed this.

[Bowen Yang]

We've not discussed this, but. And we don't think we have the. We're looking at producer Becca. We're like, this is a nightmare in terms of execution.

[Matt Rogers]

It's also kind of officially not really up to us anymore. I don't know what we can say, what we can, but it is. We are nearing the time of really being able to say something very big and cool. But I don't know if it's now. We were told it might be around now, but I don't know.

[Bowen Yang]

I don't.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, let's.

[Bowen Yang]

For now, watch the space.

[Matt Rogers]

For now, we're gonna pretend we can say anything we want and we'll be told later if we can't.

[Bowen Yang]

If we're. In brief, that's actually a great way to approach. Ask for forgiveness, not permission.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes, ask for forgiveness.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

You know, I'm watching the UK season three Traitors right now, and there's an Anglican priest on the show, and her defense of not being able to be a traitor is, I can't lie. I'm not able to be deceitful. I'm not able to do it. I can't be traitorous.

[Bowen Yang]

And was she a traitor? Is she a traitor? No.

[Matt Rogers]

But it's interesting because half the people are like, I mean, she's a priest. Like, she can't do this. And then other people are like, no, she can lie. She just has to confess.

[Cate Blanchett]

Which she will.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah, which she will.

[Matt Rogers]

But it's unclear, like, whether or not she feels that way. So just know that you can't trust priests.

[Bowen Yang]

Are there fun Northern accents on UK Trader Season 3? Because I miss Amanda from Season 1 iconic Northern accent.

[Matt Rogers]

So, yeah, there's a really good. Do a northern accent.

[Bowen Yang]

Are you talking about this Northern? It's like, it's very Scouse.

[Matt Rogers]

She goes I really like Alexander. I love being around him. It's Sheryl Cole.

[Bowen Yang]

Compliments. I can't believe I had the murder.

[Matt Rogers]

Of course. The murder again.

[Bowen Yang]

I got the murder again. In the turret. It's like.

[Matt Rogers]

In the turret.

[Bowen Yang]

In the turret.

[Matt Rogers]

The turret is a very scary place to be.

[Bowen Yang]

It's like Liverpool. It's like. It's that.

[Matt Rogers]

I love it.

[Bowen Yang]

I love it.

[Matt Rogers]

My streets. That's famously what Cheryl Cole said to Cher Lloyd.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, when Sherlord was on X Factor.

[Matt Rogers]

Correct.

[Bowen Yang]

I'll.

[Matt Rogers]

You'd write up my.

[Cate Blanchett]

You right Set.

[Matt Rogers]

My streets.

[Bowen Yang]

This is the most gay millennial shit ever.

[Matt Rogers]

Pretty much is.

[Bowen Yang]

Knowing what Cheryl Cole said to Cher Lloyd on the stage of X Factor.

[Matt Rogers]

From being obsessed with X Factor UK on YouTube in 2000. Who knows?

[Bowen Yang]

Wait a minute.

[Matt Rogers]

Call from an 800 number.

[Bowen Yang]

No, don't pick up.

[Matt Rogers]

No. Well, now it's in the voicemail, and that means it's in God's hands.

[Bowen Yang]

It's in God's hands.

[Matt Rogers]

It's actually roller coaster number eight.

[Bowen Yang]

When it goes to voicemail, that means.

[Matt Rogers]

It'S in God's hands.

[Bowen Yang]

That is kind of how voicemail feels now. You're just kind of. It's a message in a bottle and you're in a terrible, stormy ocean.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

Like, who knows if it'll get there? Okay, so Oscars. And then we went to the Vanity Fair party.

[Matt Rogers]

Went to the Vanity Fair party. That was so fun.

[Bowen Yang]

So fun.

[Matt Rogers]

Can I tell you my favorite sentence that's ever come out of my mouth?

[Bowen Yang]

White bestie Summer.

[Matt Rogers]

No, not white bestie Summer. That was fun.

[Bowen Yang]

That was fun.

[Matt Rogers]

This is my favorite sentence I've ever said out loud.

[Bowen Yang]

Okay.

[Matt Rogers]

Madison beer. Do you know Alison Brie? Wow. And they hadn't met, but they did.

[Bowen Yang]

They did. And you introduced them.

[Matt Rogers]

Well, our friend Michael brought over Madison Beer, who I was so thrilled to meet.

[Bowen Yang]

And I said to her I was obsessed with him.

[Matt Rogers]

I said to her, madison Beer. Whenever anyone does the Glambot, I say, why are you doing the glambot?

[Bowen Yang]

You're not Madison Beer. We told. And then she died.

[Matt Rogers]

She loved that.

[Bowen Yang]

I was trying to play it cool around her because Michael, our friend.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes, Hoffman. Hello.

[Bowen Yang]

Hi. Michael somehow became besties with Madison Beer within seconds.

[Matt Rogers]

I get it.

[Bowen Yang]

But just like. But minutes before.

[Matt Rogers]

Sometimes you have chemistry with people like us.

[Bowen Yang]

But Madison was following Michael into the crowd. And then we saw Michael and said, hi. And then I look over and there was Madison Beer in her full glory. And I was like, hey, how are you? I'm Bowen. It's So nice to meet you. Trying to play it cool. How's your night going? And then finally I was like, finally you came over and you were like, you're Madison Beer. And I dropped the whole thing. I was like, I mean, we're upset. You're Madison.

[Matt Rogers]

And we invited her on the pod.

[Bowen Yang]

Feel, feel, feel.

[Matt Rogers]

If you're not listening to Madison Beer's Becca, are you a Stan? Yes, Period. Like, Madison Beer's music is really good.

[Bowen Yang]

And can I say, as a boob gay, period, she is top tier.

[Matt Rogers]

And then I was looking to my right at the glory that was Alison Brie. And I said, well, I have to make this happen. I was like, madison Beard, do you know Alison Brie? And they hadn't met. They hu. Can only assume. Traded numbers and became best friends. We'll find out what was the.

[Bowen Yang]

The vibe because we were with Mr. Hamm.

[Matt Rogers]

Love him.

[Bowen Yang]

For Jon Hamm to be in close proximity to Alison Brigg made me truly thrilled. Me.

[Matt Rogers]

Well, oh, my God. You know what's funny? I didn't realize it until right after. I'm like, oh, my God. Fucking Don and Trudy.

[Bowen Yang]

Don and Trudy.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, that was good. Renee Rapp.

[Bowen Yang]

Renee Rapp.

[Matt Rogers]

You really stay a legend.

[Bowen Yang]

This is my life now. This is actually like a perfect microcosm for, like, what the last month has been. And it is my peak. And, like, it's all downhill from here. We're at the Vanity Fair party. We're talking. We're talking for this person to come up and tap me on the shoulder and be like, oh, my God, thank God you're here for this. To be the person. I'm about to say three words.

[Matt Rogers]

This was good.

[Bowen Yang]

We've all been this person at any party where it's like, oh, thank God you're here. Yeah, like, I have someone to talk to. Megan, Thee stallion comes up to me. She goes, oh, my God, thank God you're here. I'm like, hi.

[Matt Rogers]

Hey, Megan. Thee stallion.

[Bowen Yang]

Someone I've, like, fully, like, been on a professional, have been lucky enough to be on a professional level with and, like, worked with before. But, like, several times. It's still shocking to me. Whenever she's like, hi. I'm like, hi, it's bitch. It's Tina Snow.

[Matt Rogers]

Let's go. That whole party was just like. And I say this in the most revel. Revel. I say this in the most. How do I say that?

[Bowen Yang]

I revere this in the most reverence.

[Matt Rogers]

Reverence. I say this in the most reverent way, the most random Group of people.

[Bowen Yang]

Ever, random as fuck, all talking to each other.

[Matt Rogers]

And I was like, woo. And then I don't think we can say where we went next.

[Bowen Yang]

We can't say where we went next. But I think we can say this because this is actually a huge moment that I want to share with people. And it's like the perfect karmic. Mwah. We went to a party.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes.

[Bowen Yang]

And we were the Megan Thee Stallion in this situation where we look around, everyone's way too cool for us. And then we. This is the person that we zeroed in on. And we were like, oh, we can talk to this person. Chapel Roan.

[Matt Rogers]

Chapel Roan. And guess what? The groundwork has been laid.

[Bowen Yang]

The groundwork.

[Matt Rogers]

This is the year for Chapel on Las Coast.

[Bowen Yang]

We're just putting it out there, but incredibly cool. I mean, like, did I help facilitate that introduction between you and her?

[Cate Blanchett]

Yes, you did.

[Matt Rogers]

And that was so kind and, like, she was so sweet and like.

[Bowen Yang]

But I got to tell her. And I told her, like, when I first met her, I was like. Or when I first talked to her for interview, I was just like. My best friend Matt Rogers was years ahead of the curve. And I was just like, look, I was like, chapel, this is my friend Matt. Like, we're best friends. And. And you two hit it off.

[Matt Rogers]

She's cool as hell.

[Bowen Yang]

She really liked you.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah. I mean, listen, we love Chapel, Ron. And I'm excited about. I guess. Oh, by the time this comes out. I guess by the time comes out, Slash, tomorrow, the giver. We're headed for a really fun Chapel era. Definitely.

[Bowen Yang]

You ain't gotta tell me. Cause, baby, I did.

[Matt Rogers]

I'm excited.

[Bowen Yang]

Hey, we have a gather. I love it. Na na na na na na na na. It's really nuh nuh na na na na. Great bridge. God, she's a bridge queen.

[Matt Rogers]

Thank God, too. You know what I love about mayhem? Not a song under three minutes on that goddamn album.

[Bowen Yang]

And thank God for Gaga for bringing back the breakdown. Outro, please. The outros are. It helps you live in the song. I think you can apply this across the board, especially in terms of a pop structure. It's like, outthrow us. Show off the production, highlight the production. This is just as key in the song as the vocals.

[Matt Rogers]

Not to give them too much credit, but her highest pitchfork ever.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah, sure. 8.0, Mr. Rich.

[Cate Blanchett]

Mm.

[Bowen Yang]

Great. Great.

[Matt Rogers]

And I think it's deserved. And also, it's so great to see it get the critical acclaim, but.

[Bowen Yang]

Okay, so are we moving on to Gaga now?

[Matt Rogers]

Yes.

[Bowen Yang]

Okay.

[Matt Rogers]

I mean, now you know she was on the podcast, which we had to keep a secret for a long time.

[Bowen Yang]

Yes. And you love her. I'm still not. So we're recording this on Monday, two days after the show, and I. God, just like that is a consummate entertainer in every way. Killa. I got to see the soundtrack for it on Thursday and I lost my mind.

[Matt Rogers]

So good. One of the most memorable both of her performances, some of the most memorable in recent memory. We got to go on the floor to watch Abracadabra and you had been saying, abracadabra goes crazy, crazy. And it did. And we were also just gagged before we started on the podcast. We were like, gaga performed where Ally once performed.

[Bowen Yang]

Gaga performed where Ally once performed. I was honored to introduce her for Abracadabra. Yes. So I brought my friends, my dressing room guests, which included Matt, to the floor. We were waiting in the tunnel steps away from the host quick change booth, where she was getting into her red encrusted Loire bodysuit.

[Matt Rogers]

Vocally warming up.

[Bowen Yang]

Vocally warming up.

[Matt Rogers]

Unbelievable to be able to be there while she was like in the zone getting her voice ready and then just watching her walk on stage and just.

[Bowen Yang]

Destroy that performance at dress rehearsal. And I think this did happen on air too, but like on the walkout when she was walking on stage, when everyone, everyone in the audience could see her, I've never heard a gasp like that. Everyone's like, oh, looks all night too.

[Matt Rogers]

Like, even when she was going over to the after party. Yeah, that was amazing. And just you see the shots that they got of her coming out of the limo, her one eye.

[Bowen Yang]

The one eye poking out the eye.

[Matt Rogers]

Truly good.

[Bowen Yang]

Holding Pip the mouse.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, yeah. Oh, holding Pip the mouse. The sketches were so good too. Just like on fire this week.

[Bowen Yang]

And I told Bobby, like, her manager was like, I feel like this is reflective of, like, who she is and, you know, maybe even on the nose, what the album is. I'm seeing on the nose. Like, my analysis of it. It's like all ten to one sketches. Weird.

[Matt Rogers]

It was weird. From the top. I was like, I remember the first sketch being that scooter sketch.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

We were all turning to each other and you're dressing room and being like, that was the first sketch was like.

[Bowen Yang]

A huge swing, which I loved. I loved. And I'm like, wait. I'm like so invested in this romance now between Marcelo and Guy.

[Matt Rogers]

No.

[Bowen Yang]

So sweet. That little pug.

[Matt Rogers]

That was good.

[Bowen Yang]

I'm getting a dog tomorrow.

[Matt Rogers]

It Is time for you, isn't it?

[Bowen Yang]

I have, like. I have, like, dog fever.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, I need one.

[Bowen Yang]

And you're burning up and I'm burning.

[Matt Rogers]

Up Burning up for you, baby A Jonas Brothers shout.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah, why not? Love them Jersey Kings.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, I never really think about it like that. I never think about the Jonas Brothers as Jersey Kings, but I guess it's a rule of culture. Number 30. The Jonas Brothers are Jersey Kings.

[Bowen Yang]

And then. Can't believe I got to sing with her twice. That was never the plan, Bowen.

[Matt Rogers]

That was amazing.

[Bowen Yang]

The plan was always just, let's have fun. I'm going to try to write, you know, a couple things. And then I just lucked out in every possible way.

[Matt Rogers]

Like, this past week, you sounded so good. And I said. I was like. I was like, did you actually do some sort of little vocal training? Cause your placement and, like, the ease with which you were getting up there, you do sing very high, but, like, you were very, like.

[Bowen Yang]

Something about being next to her.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, like, I was listening to her.

[Bowen Yang]

I know that sounds crazy, but I would say at Chromatica Ball, yeah, I was the best singer.

[Matt Rogers]

Well, we were on a lot of mushrooms that way.

[Bowen Yang]

We were on a lot of mushrooms, but there's something about the chemical shit that happens. Your brain chemistry giving you singing ability. Singing ability.

[Matt Rogers]

Y'all just hit 35 minutes, by the way.

[Bowen Yang]

Thank you, Becca. Oh, no, That's a great way to communicate with us because we're just in it.

[Matt Rogers]

Do you know that's how producers talk to housewives on set? Yeah. So they have, like. So what you don't know is what.

[Bowen Yang]

Are you on right now? Google Docs. What do you want? It was a Google Slide. That was a Google Slide.

[Matt Rogers]

Becca put up a Google Slide just on a white background that said, y'all just hit 35 minutes, BTW. So I, @ one point in my life, was hanging out with someone who produces for the Housewives, and they were telling me that the way that they get them to ask certain questions is they'll put up, like, a tablet, they'll show it to Meredith Marks, and they'll be like, ask Angie about this at the restaurant. And that's how they get reminded to answer certain questions or ask certain things, et cetera.

[Bowen Yang]

Wow.

[Matt Rogers]

It's just a producer. Like, our very own producer, Becca, was producing us just now.

[Bowen Yang]

Yes.

[Matt Rogers]

This is how it works.

[Bowen Yang]

It's kind of like some person at a club, like, holding up their phone, being like, play Mayhem Stream. Mayhem Play Biophilia.

[Matt Rogers]

Exactly.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

That's you.

[Bowen Yang]

That's me play Beophilia. Okay. What are we talking about? Gaga. Gaga.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

I just.

[Matt Rogers]

Amazing.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, yeah. Vocally, no. We just. We did, like, extreme, extensive music rehearsals with her in a way that, like, made me really appreciate, like. Cause she just kept turning to me and going, it'll just be so much funnier if we sound great. And I was, like, 100%. 100%. And she was just so exact about the way things were phrased and the way things scanned on the melody. And so we found the right key. Cause, like, it was in, like. It was, like, in G. And then we got it all the way up or down. I don't know, girl, you were up there. We were. I think it was a B. A B sharp or a B. Whatever. It was just, like, we tried it out all these different ways.

[Matt Rogers]

You got in your pocket.

[Bowen Yang]

But, like, to find the right key with a duet with Gaga, I didn't realize until literally just now what that sort of would, like, what that means to me.

[Matt Rogers]

Yep.

[Bowen Yang]

And it was so fun. I mean, I can't believe it.

[Matt Rogers]

And then it's crazy.

[Bowen Yang]

And then, I don't know, like, what she said to us, what she said to me and Celeste. Newsflash loves Celeste. Everyone loves.

[Matt Rogers]

Everyone loves Celeste.

[Bowen Yang]

Any person who you would think, like, seems distant or, I don't know, like, unassailable in a way, is obsessed with Celestium, and I get it.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

Who would it be? Christopher Vega.

[Matt Rogers]

The Christopher Vega.

[Bowen Yang]

Matt's nickname for Celeste, for some reason.

[Matt Rogers]

And it makes sense when you're there.

[Bowen Yang]

It makes sense when you're there.

[Matt Rogers]

It's like being next to Gaga singing.

[Bowen Yang]

Exactly.

[Matt Rogers]

It's like, you know, But Gaga was.

[Bowen Yang]

Just, like, telling me and Celeste, and this is what she brought up on our episode, like, Community. She's really been revisiting this idea. This thing that she misses a lot about coming up in New York is that she was, like, every night doing shows at the Slipper Room, like, having comedians on or doing, like. You know what I mean? Like, she was, like.

[Matt Rogers]

She was a New York artist.

[Bowen Yang]

She was a New York artist.

[Matt Rogers]

The community is so important.

[Bowen Yang]

Doing her very different version of, like, what you and I were doing. Not to, like, compare things, but it's like, you and I would, like, bring our fucking props to, like, shows and, like, be on lineups with people, and that's how we got to meet people, and that's why we still keep in touch with these people and still have these relationships that we cultivate. Like, I completely. I love that this is the thing that she's, like, really returning to because she is, like, grounded and happy and, like, really insane in a way that, like, we haven't seen in a long time, not since Chromatica. But that was, like, during COVID when, like, we couldn't really see it. She wasn't really out there doing too much press for it. And it feels like in the last five years, she's really been in that place. And I just love that she. That we got to intersect at all with her, that you and I did that the show that SNL did.

[Matt Rogers]

She's on, like, a mission of joy, too. I feel like the, like, emotional landscape of Chromatica was different because it came from a different place. Like, she's on record saying, I came from a place of real pain. And so she. She's so clearly joyful right now. And there was something about, like, even with watching her bounce from sketch to sketch at snl, et cetera, like, watching her do the press that she's doing surrounding mayhem and that she involved us in, that was so lovely. And, you know, it's just. It feels like it's a really good moment. I also think, you know, I'm obviously sitting here gagged at your singing in that sketch, but I don't think she's sounded better in years. And we were saying to her, like, obviously on the album, the way that she sings is just so mind blowing. But, you know, I think it's the best singing that she's done in a real. Which is obviously saying something. She's one of the greats, but perfect celebrity.

[Bowen Yang]

You kidding me?

[Matt Rogers]

Even at the end of How Bad do youo Want Me? It is happening again. Where I listen to an album and I do get. I love everything on the album, but.

[Bowen Yang]

I get stuck on one song that's totally normal.

[Matt Rogers]

It happens every time something comes out. I get stuck on one song and just can't get over it.

[Bowen Yang]

It's so big.

[Matt Rogers]

I love it. It's so interesting watching the fans discuss that song.

[Bowen Yang]

Well, you know, but Bobby Campbell was saying, like, the day of the album coming out, he goes, it's just so interesting because, like, so much of what the fans are saying are just echoes of what you and Matt were saying in the headlines.

[Matt Rogers]

As we listened to it.

[Bowen Yang]

As we listened to it, and it never crossed their minds. They were like, oh, I guess it does sound like a Taylor song.

[Matt Rogers]

Because I did say, 45 seconds into listening to How Bad do youo Want Me, I did say, this is giving Taylor and Bobby was like, really?

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

And I was like, but is it not like. It's sort of. And that has. I will drag myself now. And I will also drag everyone who's kind of saying that. And here's why. Don't get upset yet. What I'm gonna say is Taylor didn't invent that kind of pop music. Go back to the fame. Before Taylor was doing pop, Lady Gaga had big emotional pop songs like Paparazzi. You know what I mean? That's a big emotional pop song. And Gaga also has roots in this kind of thing. She hasn't done it in a while.

[Bowen Yang]

Right, right, right.

[Matt Rogers]

But I feel like to give this entire genre to Taylor speaks a little bit to like, Taylor's omnipresence, which I guess is understandable. But let's not say this isn't a Gaga song, because it's very much a Gaga song if you give it some thought.

[Bowen Yang]

I think I just love that I'm in this. I like that I'm able to radiate out from this album and connect it to other Gaga things where I'm like, this is the same woman who sang Fucking Edge of Glory, which is basically like a Springsteen song, who sang Shallow, obviously, and everything off of Joanne and everything. And Rick Rubin. Shit on artpop. It's like she's so expansive as an artist.

[Matt Rogers]

It's a culmination.

[Bowen Yang]

It's like, she's my favorite. She's my favorite name.

[Matt Rogers]

Another legend.

[Bowen Yang]

Anyway.

[Matt Rogers]

All right, now, did we feel like we did a culture catch up? Is there anything that we missed that people are gonna be saying, well, they missed it. Which doesn't feel good.

[Bowen Yang]

Doesn't feel good.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, God.

[Bowen Yang]

We don't like that. No. I think we covered our bases and now we present to you our very, very. We don't know what the conversation is yet because we haven't had it.

[Matt Rogers]

I have some thoughts about things to ask her.

[Bowen Yang]

Me too.

[Matt Rogers]

Wouldn't you believe it?

[Bowen Yang]

Wouldn't you believe it? We're so excited to talk to Cate Blanchett. Here it is, our conversation with two time Academy Award winnerista's calling.

[Matt Rogers]

Well, we're sitting here with one of the greatest ever.

[Bowen Yang]

Truly, truly, truly. One of the greatest ever. Okay. I mean, we're not gonna waste any time. She's here. We've done a whole preamble already. Two time Oscar winner, countless baftas, and.

[Matt Rogers]

The winner of the Cate Blanchett Award for good acting at the Las Culturistas Culture Awards, which I believe gagged the audience harder than anything that happened.

[Bowen Yang]

That night, it was a harder gag than even when, like, I'm gonna say Taylor sent in two videos and that was a gag. But when Cate Blanchett sent a. I was gonna say wordless. But no, you did say the words. I won. Yes. You know, confetti went up in that area.

[Matt Rogers]

It was a huge acceptance moment.

[Bowen Yang]

I think your dog got.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah, it was a big moment for everybody.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes, well, it deserved it. I mean, this is the star of Black Bag, which is out this Friday, which we saw. We love Soderbergh's new one. I mean, so exciting. And let's waste no more time. Everyone, please welcome into your ears Cate Blanchett.

[Cate Blanchett]

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

[Bowen Yang]

Okay, we just discussed a shoe theory.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah. Tell us this.

[Cate Blanchett]

No, I was told today.

[Matt Rogers]

What?

[Cate Blanchett]

While I was wearing white sneakers, that if you wear white sneakers, it means you're not getting any. You are not a fornicator. And I just went, hang on a minute. And I've been sending out really bad signals for quite a long time. I have three pairs which I wear. I alternate. So I'm basically in. Well, I'm not today. I'm wearing heels.

[Bowen Yang]

You're wearing heels.

[Cate Blanchett]

But a lot of the time I'm sending out non fornications. And you know, did this person seem.

[Matt Rogers]

Like an authority on this or were.

[Cate Blanchett]

You like, okay, he said it with great authority, but I was. And I was very alarmed. You know, you think you get dressed, you're getting dressed for yourself, right? You don't over. Well, I mean, I didn't overthink the sequence at all.

[Matt Rogers]

You're in the right place.

[Cate Blanchett]

But, you know, you don't, you don't think that's a signal you're sending out, right?

[Matt Rogers]

Never.

[Cate Blanchett]

Maybe if you wore a nun's habit or. And gloves. You think maybe.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, so is that what this person was saying? Like it's a, it's a chastity signal? Like.

[Cate Blanchett]

Well, I don't know. It was. Seemed to be a little bit like wearing your keys on whichever.

[Bowen Yang]

Is that.

[Cate Blanchett]

Is that really 80s?

[Bowen Yang]

Wait, what's that about, like visible keychains? I am so.

[Matt Rogers]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

[Cate Blanchett]

We know 70s and 80s.

[Matt Rogers]

I think this.

[Cate Blanchett]

I'm not even gay. And I know that like, as, like.

[Matt Rogers]

A, as like a way to like say you just did that.

[Cate Blanchett]

So if you do that, does that mean I'm available?

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, I'm available. Everything I do is shouting that I'm available. And I also want to say I wear white sneakers a lot.

[Bowen Yang]

And you were saying.

[Matt Rogers]

And I don't have problems.

[Bowen Yang]

Before we rolled it, Matt was what?

[Cate Blanchett]

Sex problems. You don't have problems getting it?

[Matt Rogers]

No. I'm saying my sluttiest times were when I was in a white Converse. I used to wear a white leather Converse to, like, weddings when I was single.

[Cate Blanchett]

But were you wearing anything else?

[Matt Rogers]

I was wearing, like a blue suit or a red suit. My wedding sort of drag.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

And then a white leather Converse because I think I'm gay and can get away with it. You go to a straight wedding and you can kind of take a swing with the shoe.

[Cate Blanchett]

Okay.

[Matt Rogers]

You know what I mean?

[Cate Blanchett]

But not with a white Converse, apparently. Did you get. Did you get any that easily? I did.

[Matt Rogers]

I hooked up with the bride's cousin.

[Cate Blanchett]

Okay. So it's rubbish.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes.

[Cate Blanchett]

I'm telling you, I don't need to be worried. I can put them back on. My bunion will be so happy.

[Bowen Yang]

There you go. Buy another pair.

[Cate Blanchett]

I'm gonna buy another pair.

[Matt Rogers]

Honestly, though. Cause they're white. They get a little. You need a backup and a backup.

[Bowen Yang]

Backup.

[Cate Blanchett]

But that's what I said. I said in a very apologetic way. I said, well, they're a little bit scuffy and dirty. So does that mean you've been out in the streets? Maybe. That looks desperate. That's like I'm trying to pretend that I'm not wearing them anyway. I was freaked out.

[Matt Rogers]

No.

[Cate Blanchett]

By a message that I didn't know that I was sending.

[Matt Rogers]

I don't believe anyone believes that. You don't?

[Cate Blanchett]

That I'm not getting any?

[Matt Rogers]

No. You don't give celibate.

[Cate Blanchett]

Okay. I don't give celibate.

[Bowen Yang]

No.

[Cate Blanchett]

Thank you so much. I came into the restroom.

[Matt Rogers]

Could you play celibate?

[Bowen Yang]

Could you play celibate?

[Matt Rogers]

I think it's played celibate.

[Bowen Yang]

Have you played a nun?

[Cate Blanchett]

Not intentionally. I have played a nun. An alcoholic nun? Yes.

[Matt Rogers]

An alcoholic nun? Yes. What film was that?

[Cate Blanchett]

Who then prostrated herself on the grave of a priest. But I don't think that that was sexual.

[Bowen Yang]

Okay.

[Cate Blanchett]

At least intentionally. But then. Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

I see. And did it feel right in the body? Did it feel good in the spirit like you would do it again?

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah. I didn't wear underwear.

[Matt Rogers]

Okay.

[Cate Blanchett]

But it was set back in time. You know the worst. Now, speaking of not wearing underwear, where I played Queen of the Elves, they gave the. I don't know, the toy manufacturing thing to some company. And a lot of the hobbits were very upset because they didn't feel that those toys were gonna be made properly. And my. I had a little. And then I had one child, and I now have four. So clearly, I fornicate.

[Matt Rogers]

There's no issue here.

[Cate Blanchett]

But I gave the elf toy of me, of Galadriel, to my son. And he was really upset because he said, elves don't wear underwear. And they hadn't bothered to put underwear on the elf toy, but they did for the hobbit.

[Bowen Yang]

Hobbits, you said.

[Cate Blanchett]

No, no. But the hobbits were upset because they didn't feel the toys would be gonna be made properly. And they weren't because I wore underwear as an elf. I think elves do wear underwear.

[Bowen Yang]

Elves do wear underwear.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, I think so.

[Bowen Yang]

When you say the hobbits were upset, do you mean the actors who play the hobbits?

[Cate Blanchett]

Or are you talking about the hobbit? My hobbit friends.

[Matt Rogers]

The hobbit community.

[Cate Blanchett]

Oh, I meant the hobbit. The actor. Hobbits.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah.

[Cate Blanchett]

They're not really hobbits.

[Bowen Yang]

Right, right, right.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah. Elijah Woods.

[Matt Rogers]

They weren't really hobbits.

[Bowen Yang]

No. I guess I have not ever had the experience of having a toy made of me in my.

[Cate Blanchett]

Oh, you will.

[Bowen Yang]

I don't think so.

[Matt Rogers]

That injustice will be corrected.

[Bowen Yang]

Do you have input in that process?

[Cate Blanchett]

Well, no, clearly I didn't. Because if they had asked me, I would have said they had knitted underwear.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, knitted underwear.

[Cate Blanchett]

I think Galantriel, out of elf kind of web.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah, sure.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

But if you're immortal, if you're an elf in Tolkien's world in Middle Earth, it's like, you don't need to wash.

[Cate Blanchett]

Your underwear, but you need to wear it.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes.

[Bowen Yang]

Okay.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

All right.

[Matt Rogers]

Wow. I never thought about their process in terms of, like, their sartorial nature.

[Bowen Yang]

I know.

[Cate Blanchett]

You should see this toy. It was really disgusting. It's like Barbie not having genitals. Do you think after the Barbie movie that the Barbies are now gonna have genitals? I mean, that's where kids learn about stuff.

[Matt Rogers]

You know what's funny? One time I remember seeing, when I was a kid, there was a Ken with, like, more of a lump there. And I was being. It did weird me out. And I was like, if people thought this was something that needed to be corrected, I can now tell you, as someone who's seen a Ken with a penis, we didn't need this.

[Cate Blanchett]

But a lump is not a penis.

[Bowen Yang]

A lump is a.

[Matt Rogers]

But it was a suggestion.

[Cate Blanchett]

A lump is something you need to get checked.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, right. He needed help with that.

[Cate Blanchett]

But I know that's a firm Ken. I know I didn't learn a lot from Barbies growing up or Kens.

[Matt Rogers]

What did you play with?

[Cate Blanchett]

What did I play with as a kid? I had a ballerina Barbie. And so the crown. You could turn her around. I had. One of. Which I loved is I had one of those dolls, which was a Red Riding Hood wolf doll. And when you turned it upside down, it was the wolf. And the other way around. So you don't.

[Bowen Yang]

You can do the world with the voices. Yes.

[Cate Blanchett]

I love that.

[Bowen Yang]

And the wolf had a skirt.

[Cate Blanchett]

Well, yes. When it was the wolf.

[Bowen Yang]

Right. Oh, but the wolf was dressed as the grandmother.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, wait, was it Red Riding Hood and the wolf? Because that changes the story in a way. That was.

[Cate Blanchett]

It wasn't the grandmother.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, wow.

[Bowen Yang]

But the wolf was dressed as the grandmother.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah, but the skirt was kind of brown. It was a bit Amish. It was an Amish wolf.

[Bowen Yang]

I got it. Of course.

[Matt Rogers]

God, what a performance they were giving.

[Cate Blanchett]

What did you guys play with?

[Bowen Yang]

I had an Aladdin Ken doll, and he had the suggestion of a lump as well.

[Cate Blanchett]

Okay. Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

And kind of a queer awakening for me. I went, well, he's really handsome. I'd like to see him naked.

[Cate Blanchett]

Right.

[Bowen Yang]

You know, I think. Okay, so you're saying children learn from these dolls?

[Cate Blanchett]

Well, they could, Right? They could learn from the dolls.

[Bowen Yang]

I just. I'm not learning as much as I am just, like, intrigued by my own, like, fascination. You know what I mean? Like, I'm.

[Cate Blanchett]

Well, you definitely. With those dolls, they're made to be dressed and undressed, right?

[Bowen Yang]

Yes.

[Cate Blanchett]

So it could be. I mean, then when your body starts to change and you go, oh, okay.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah. I think one of my favorites.

[Cate Blanchett]

It's no longer a lump. It's something. This lump does something.

[Matt Rogers]

It's meaning something else. One of my favorite parts of the Barbie movie was the depiction of, like, the fucked Barbie that Kate McKinnon played, the one that was just rode hard and put away wet. Because I really was the king of the Barbies. My sister had dozens of them for some reason. And.

[Cate Blanchett]

And you were never given any, so.

[Matt Rogers]

No, but I kind of was. I remember, actually, one of my earliest memories. I'm from Long Island. Was sitting on Santa's lap and asking for a Barbie, and his reaction being really negative. And so I could never ask for one because it was really explicit in that moment. Like, don't ask for that. Like, this sort of Long island man playing Santa really instilled in me.

[Cate Blanchett]

Which is creepy anyway.

[Bowen Yang]

Exactly.

[Matt Rogers]

I mean, it's really. That's all a lot.

[Cate Blanchett]

We did the visit to the grotto with our kids one time when they were little and they were like, this is wrong.

[Matt Rogers]

And you're sort of watching it as a parent, like seeing the pageantry a little differently, I would imagine.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I was quite traumatized by the Santa Claus grotto growing up.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Cate Blanchett]

All the photos were like, get me out of here. Kids can smell the booze.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Cate Blanchett]

Parents taking the photo is slightly removed, so they can't smell it as well.

[Bowen Yang]

They're not within an inch of. Yeah, yeah.

[Cate Blanchett]

But I'm sure that was before they did the safety checks.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes. I mean it's. It is like, like allowing your children to go over there, have like a private conversation with this, like with a dude who's wearing.

[Cate Blanchett]

Who you cannot recognize.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

Who's just trapped her ensconced in like all this like fun friendly stuff. And it's just, it's dark. It belies something very dark.

[Cate Blanchett]

It does. Very dark indeed.

[Matt Rogers]

The Barbie thing I remember for us, me and my sister was a lot about survival. We would play Titanic with the Barbies and like, they would.

[Cate Blanchett]

They would slowly, one by one, pass.

[Matt Rogers]

Away to the devastation that was caused by the Titanic hitting that iceberg in 1912.

[Cate Blanchett]

And the one that remained got to be undressed. It was. She surely was all about undressing.

[Matt Rogers]

It was always like, this is me as a kid. It was always like the blonde, prettiest Barbie. Yeah. She wore like a blue, very shiny mini dress and it was always her. She was always the sole survivor of the Rose, as it were.

[Bowen Yang]

Uh huh.

[Matt Rogers]

Of course. But yeah, no, I do remember, like really loving that group of that community of women. That was the Barbies, the ensemble cast.

[Cate Blanchett]

I know. And you never had your own. But I only had the one. I found them boring in the end.

[Bowen Yang]

Right.

[Cate Blanchett]

I love the movie, but I found. Yeah. The actual. So my kids have never had Barbies.

[Matt Rogers]

Probably good.

[Bowen Yang]

Would you, besides Galadriel, would you want other characters that you portray to be dolls? I feel like a Sheba Heart. A Sheba Heart doll would be very fun. Notes on a Scandal doll set would be very fun.

[Cate Blanchett]

That would be interesting. That would be interesting. There were some really good games you could play with those dolls.

[Matt Rogers]

You know what's funny? Separately of each other, we were like, we obviously watched Black Bag. Phenomenal. And then we each picked one of your other movies. Watching last night didn't tell each other it was Notes on a Scandal. It is one of our favorite films. It is fun every time Judy Stench.

[Bowen Yang]

Judy.

[Cate Blanchett]

Oh, my God. She turns 90 something. She's just had her birthday.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah. She's a young girl.

[Bowen Yang]

Juno Temple. A young Juno Temple.

[Cate Blanchett]

She was my daughter. That's how old I. Yeah, but she was fabulous.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, she was. She's amazing. I wanted to ask, like, the really just pronounced queerness of your filmography, is that, like. It's really something? I mean, I was thinking about it and there's elements of this in a lot of what you do.

[Cate Blanchett]

Really?

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah. I mean, tar. Obviously.

[Cate Blanchett]

I guess it's growing up in Sydney.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah. You think so?

[Cate Blanchett]

You know, I spent so much time at gay and lesbian Mardi Gras, which was wild. I think it's been a bit. Oh, and s. Now. But the parties were so fabulous.

[Matt Rogers]

I went a couple years ago for World Pride and I was really blown away by how Sydney really committed to and embraced the fact that they were hosting Pride. It was really lovely, especially now with everything going on. Looking back at that, I was like, I wonder if an American city would go for it this hard because Sydney was. It really felt beautiful to be there because it felt like a very queer city.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah, it totally is.

[Bowen Yang]

What is.

[Cate Blanchett]

Oh, and s. It's occupational health and safety.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, I see. I see, I see.

[Cate Blanchett]

Did I. Did I. Her name right?

[Bowen Yang]

Wait, so. And then. So you're saying Australian Mardi Gras.

[Cate Blanchett]

Do you know the things that went on in those bathrooms, in those fire traps I see. In the clubs. But, you know, you were probably too young to go to. You know that they've all been kind of cordoned off.

[Bowen Yang]

Sure.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

I feel like you would have a fun experience going to. I think those events are still happening the world over.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

I would encourage you to seek him.

[Cate Blanchett]

Out in my white sneakers and your white sneakers. Hey, dude, back off.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, listen, leave me alone. I'm not interested. Don't you see my feet?

[Cate Blanchett]

I'm a non fornicator.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

Hello. Look at the shoes. We're going to Berlin in a couple of weeks. We're going to go to Berghain.

[Cate Blanchett]

Oh, my God.

[Matt Rogers]

Have you been?

[Cate Blanchett]

Yes, yes, yes. Once. It's pretty wild.

[Matt Rogers]

Did you wait in line and like, you do the whole thing of being.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah, I knew someone who knew someone who knew someone.

[Matt Rogers]

Okay, I gotcha. Was this recent?

[Cate Blanchett]

I can't remember. Maybe five, six years ago.

[Matt Rogers]

Okay.

[Cate Blanchett]

It was pre Covid.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, sure. Just pre Covid. I guess this will be our first time.

[Cate Blanchett]

You don't. You don't need to keep your eyes open. Things just happen.

[Bowen Yang]

Things.

[Matt Rogers]

Sure.

[Cate Blanchett]

Oh, yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

You can. You can close your eyes and things happen.

[Cate Blanchett]

And things happen. Oh, depends. Well, it depends where you are. It's a bit of a labyrinth.

[Bowen Yang]

Sure.

[Cate Blanchett]

I mean, and look, there were things in places that I did not go into.

[Matt Rogers]

Sure.

[Cate Blanchett]

They're a bit too Genet for me.

[Matt Rogers]

A bit too Genet is title of apple.

[Bowen Yang]

A bit to Genet. I just want to go to the. Did you go to the gelato stand?

[Cate Blanchett]

Yes.

[Bowen Yang]

Okay.

[Matt Rogers]

Is this a famous thing?

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah, there's a gelato stand that people like. Everyone's just serving gelato.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, I love it.

[Bowen Yang]

At all hours.

[Cate Blanchett]

A palate cleanser.

[Matt Rogers]

Cooling off, as it were.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, that's fun.

[Bowen Yang]

From the delights. From the carnal pleasures. Yeah.

[Cate Blanchett]

Oh, wow. So is this a research trip?

[Matt Rogers]

It is. How did you know? How did you know?

[Cate Blanchett]

I didn't know. I just assumed. Always working.

[Matt Rogers]

There was a glimmer in our eye. Oh, wow. No, we're excited. We're excited.

[Cate Blanchett]

Okay. I don't want to prize it out again.

[Bowen Yang]

No, no, no. You can prize it out. I was just gonna say we. I can't tell if we want to go down the friend of a friend of a friend route or if we. I think it would be informative for us to wait in the line and.

[Cate Blanchett]

Either way, that's being rejected.

[Bowen Yang]

Yes.

[Cate Blanchett]

They won't reject you.

[Matt Rogers]

I don't know.

[Bowen Yang]

I think they might.

[Matt Rogers]

I think I. I don't think you.

[Cate Blanchett]

Look gay at all. Is that.

[Matt Rogers]

Would that count against us?

[Cate Blanchett]

I know.

[Matt Rogers]

What am I looking for?

[Cate Blanchett]

I don't know.

[Bowen Yang]

You're too gay.

[Matt Rogers]

Well, we won't wear white shoes because what if they feel that way?

[Bowen Yang]

What if they feel. This week. I was telling Gaga this when she was at snl. I was like. She was like, what are you doing for Kriegers?

[Cate Blanchett]

Oh, how amazing.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, she was phenomenal.

[Cate Blanchett]

God, phenomenal. Anyway.

[Bowen Yang]

Anyway.

[Cate Blanchett]

But the only thing more exciting was you introducing.

[Bowen Yang]

I was so thrilled.

[Cate Blanchett]

I'm not excited. I'm not excited.

[Bowen Yang]

I was.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah, it was amazing.

[Matt Rogers]

It was volcanic.

[Bowen Yang]

Volcanic. No, I did erupt. She was saying that she has been turned away. She has been turned away from that line because they were like. I think the implication was she was like. I think it was because I was a woman and it was a bit too sexy of a night, a bit too fornicaty of a night in a way that was exclusive to phalluses. You know what I mean?

[Cate Blanchett]

Oh, okay.

[Bowen Yang]

So I think maybe that's a thing that happens depending on. If you're going to labor in through.

[Cate Blanchett]

She could have Bought one.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, totally. We can all buy corn.

[Cate Blanchett]

We can all buy a phallus.

[Matt Rogers]

Hell yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

You can't buy a whole. You can't buy an orifice. Wouldn't you agree?

[Cate Blanchett]

Well, you have many of them.

[Matt Rogers]

So many.

[Bowen Yang]

But don't you want to, like. I think buying a phallus gives you like a degree of removal in a way that you're like, oh, I'm purely using this.

[Cate Blanchett]

I can put this away.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah, I can put this away. A hole's a hole and you're stuck with it.

[Cate Blanchett]

I don't mind being stuck with mine. I'm great. I'm happy. I don't want to.

[Matt Rogers]

I'm pleased to have all the holes I have.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yes.

[Bowen Yang]

But I'm there. This.

[Cate Blanchett]

Talk to me after you've been to Bergheim. Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, my God.

[Cate Blanchett]

Wow, that's a great point.

[Matt Rogers]

This is a family show. This is for family communities. I don't think anyone's. They're not going to be shook by anything we say on this episode.

[Cate Blanchett]

But are you, Are you taking in a microphone? You, you won't be allowed to take it in unless you.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, no, we're not taking, we're not taking anything. But it's, it's, it's research where the phone, the phone's being put away.

[Cate Blanchett]

Right. But there's so. Actually there's so few spaces that you can go now where you are private like that, where people can really. That's what I loved about the late 80s, going to all of the dance parties in Sydney for the Mardi Gras, is because people were just there, they were so present, you know, they were just together collectively having a great time. That was non aggressive. No one was being recorded. No one cared what anyone did.

[Matt Rogers]

The other night we went to a place like that. There's a place called Basement.

[Bowen Yang]

Yes.

[Matt Rogers]

And they put the tag on the phone. It was.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

It celebrated the idea of.

[Cate Blanchett]

And it's such a relief. I think people are profoundly relieved and they feel, I don't need to record this.

[Bowen Yang]

Right.

[Cate Blanchett]

I can just tell people or not.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

But now it feels like that chasm between that kind of event, that ideal is widening from the thing that's very common now at, like an award show, let's say, where you've got lip readers. You're being photographed in lip readers.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, yeah. On TikTok, there'll be people that are, you know, looking at a video of two celebrities talking to each other. And at an award show they'll lip read. And it looks like it's. It Looks like it could be exactly what they're saying in a way that's a little bit odd.

[Cate Blanchett]

That's really what I mean. Do something. Learn ikebana or something. I mean, it's like the skill that's.

[Matt Rogers]

There are so many trains to pick up. Yeah.

[Cate Blanchett]

Wow.

[Bowen Yang]

But that makes it feel even kind of more treacherous.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah, it is treacherous.

[Matt Rogers]

You know, you do see celebrities nowadays on the carpet going like this a lot because, you know, those are the ones on TikTok and know they're at risk of being lip read.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah, yeah. But I mean, I say. I mean, it's blasphemy. Go back to the day when it wasn't televised, you know, bring that back and just have a great party where people can just let go. I mean, the industry is so scattered in such a point of. Which I think could potentially be exciting, or it could be really depressing, but it's at a pivot point. And so we need to gather together and celebrate what it is that we do without having to have any public facing. I mean, the fashion's great and all of that stuff. We will find out in the end who won or who didn't win. But it would be so nice that that happened behind closed doors.

[Bowen Yang]

Absolutely.

[Cate Blanchett]

It would be a very different evening.

[Matt Rogers]

We were saying that especially after, you know, the Oscars just happened and there's. It just feels like the march to that evening is so long. Do you feel there's maybe too many ceremonies?

[Cate Blanchett]

Yes.

[Bowen Yang]

Well, that's what you're saying. Like untelevise. Some of them. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Cate Blanchett]

Still have them. It's so great. It's so great that people's work is celebrated and we. In that way, I think there's a kind of a sense that. Cause this is the thing is you. All these films are amazing and so many amazing films are performances and all of the craft, awards, cinematography, and, you know, you want to celebrate them, of course. But you can get sick of those films by the time because they all get whittled down as they must. And then. I don't want to get sick of any of those films because they're brilliant.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah. It's like on face value. There doesn't need to be an over conversation about Honora, the way that it's happening online and stuff like that, to the point where we really lose the forest film.

[Cate Blanchett]

It's amazing. Someone in it is amazing, full stop. And Sean Baker is a genius. Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes, he is. I've been such a fan of his work for such a long time. He's Brilliant.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah. Red Rocket was Red rock.

[Matt Rogers]

It was really incredible when she got.

[Cate Blanchett]

Off the bed with him and then sang like an Angel.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes.

[Cate Blanchett]

At the. At the synth. It was just breathtaking.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

Just his earliest stuff has the same DNA of, like, the realism to it. It's all pretty consistent. What was the most Soderbergh thing that he did on Black Bag? I feel like he's such a. An expansive filmmaker. He can do pretty much anything. Like, I. I think it's crazy that he's, like, under budget so many times when he.

[Cate Blanchett]

When he makes films undertime, he's got this. He's. He made the Presence. If you haven't seen that recently, Lucy Liu was in it, and then with the casting. And it was set in a house where a family moved in, and it was haunted by Presence. And so the whole narrative unfolds according to what the presence in the house learns. So it's amazing. But he shot that, I think, in nine or 11 days.

[Bowen Yang]

What.

[Cate Blanchett]

So it's like, oh, man, how quickly are we gonna shoot Black Bag? But the thing with Soderbergh is he's so economical. He's so. He always gets into work early. He knows how he's gonna shoot it. But the reason why he started to operate. I asked him finally. I'd worked with him before, but I'd forgotten to ask him. He edits, he lights, he shoots, he directs. He doesn't write anymore. But he said the reason why he operates is because he wants it to keep moving and flowing, and he doesn't want the actors to go off the boil waiting around between takes and setups. And so what he does is you start at the normal time, but you're done by three, which is great if you're huge. You want to pick up your kids from school or, I don't know, get on a plane and go to Berghain, Whatever Jag is, maybe able to fit it in. But then what he does, he's such a workhorse as he goes and he edits. And so where he spends the money is keeping the sets open. So if he needs to pick something up, he can. And so he assembles the thing, but then he's really forensic. He goes, no, that's too long. No, that piece of information needs to be revealed there. And so it's a really fluid thing with him. So you've got to dance with him. But he did say, typical Soderbergh was. I said, we did one take and he wanted to move on. And I said to him. I said, Are we moving on because you're bored or because you've got it? And he went, yes, and yes.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh.

[Cate Blanchett]

And so he was bored with me and he got it. But he's great. He's really blunt, but he really, really loves actors. And the cast in Black Bag is a great ensemble.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, it's really. I was surprised that it was such an ensemble. And then it really is like. It's like watching a very thrilling, stylish play.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

And I say that in obviously the.

[Bowen Yang]

Most, you know, reverent way, not to spoil it. There's, there's like. There's like a fun, like, almost like Poirot, Agatha Christie esque ending to it that I love.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah. Well, it's basically about Fassbinder, Michael Fassbinder and I play husband and wife and they're espionage, you know, MI5, MI6. But it's all with technology, so it's a real. It's like, oh, my God, I can't even open my phone. So that was the acting bit that I had to do. But they're devoted to each other. They're married. And then he suspects her of being involved in this, releasing this cyber worm, which sounds pretty icky. I wouldn't want to hear the noise that a cyberworm.

[Matt Rogers]

It's probably. Yeah, I was going to say.

[Cate Blanchett]

Did you ever see that Chromebooks and Bops. You know, the Chromebook film existends existence.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, sure.

[Bowen Yang]

Where's Squeen is the noise.

[Cate Blanchett]

The noise that it made when Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Lob put the portal into their body made me. It made me want to throw.

[Matt Rogers]

It was like, how did you feel about the substance?

[Cate Blanchett]

The substance? What, the noises and the sounds?

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, the noises. I thought the sound was unreal.

[Cate Blanchett]

Unbelievable. I had a similar kind of thing. Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

Misophonia.

[Cate Blanchett]

Misophonia, yes, misophonia and keenophobia, which is what TAR had.

[Bowen Yang]

Yes.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, right. So speaking of tar, because this was truly our favorite movie. I remember we watched it or we didn't see it together.

[Bowen Yang]

We didn't see it together, but we both had the same exact check in with each other. We were like, wow, wow, wow.

[Matt Rogers]

Well, I remember leaving the movie the first time and feeling really confused after the first five and 10 minutes, walking out of the movie, being like, what? And then I realized, like, as I thought of it, I was like, that was phenomenal. And it just wasn't ultimately the genre. I thought it was gonna be at the top.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

I thought it ended up being this, like, incredibly Funny satire in a way, but also like presenting as this like very stark drama from the whole time. And it is both of those things. But the question I wanted to ask you was, and I find this with several of your movies, are you ever really surprised when you see the end result of something in terms of the tone and genre from when you read it the first time?

[Cate Blanchett]

There was so much, I mean, time made in first setting. Cause it asks a lot of the audience. Right. Made a lot of people really angry. And, you know, I was really grateful to the critics and the people who had seen it, who kept alive all of the other balls that Todd Field had had written. Because people said, oh, it's about cancel culture or it's about abuses of power. But it wasn't. I always thought it was about. About what happens in the art, for me personally, anyway, when we create something, we forget that we have to destroy something, you know, and so it's the destructive urge in the creative force. You don't have to be an artist to have a creative force. But we all want to make something. Something in the world. But you often have to be very brutal with yourself when you. When you make that. So. And there was quite a lot of. There was kind of a ghost story in there.

[Bowen Yang]

Absolutely.

[Cate Blanchett]

And so we, you know, and there were elements in there. I guess it's far enough away. I didn't want to talk about it when it was coming out because you don't want to tell an audience too much with a movie like that.

[Matt Rogers]

No, definitely not.

[Cate Blanchett]

But, you know, we shot things or talked about things that we decided not to shoot in the end, you know, that the gift. And I've got friends who are conductors who have perfect pitch. You probably have perfect pitch. I do not. I apparently have a three octave range, though.

[Bowen Yang]

Wow.

[Cate Blanchett]

Apparently I just wanted to throw that in there.

[Matt Rogers]

There we go.

[Cate Blanchett]

No, but that she had perfect pitch and incredible music ability that her parents were. She was raised by deaf parents. So when I thought about the. It was an early sequence and these are very, very minor things that I used. There was a shot, I think, from memory of her conducting as a student, which I think it ended up in the movie. And I used sign language to how I conducted then. But that was just fun. I mean, you know, they're not even Easter eggs because you're not ever thinking that the audience will pick those things up. But there was so much in there. And he's such a great writer. I have to get him out of the barn. Todd Field. So he makes another film before 10 years pass, the barn.

[Matt Rogers]

Come out of there.

[Bowen Yang]

But it's hard. Hard to price someone out of a barn. They're cozy. No, I'm just. I'm just saying, like, do you have a barn?

[Cate Blanchett]

God, you want a barn?

[Bowen Yang]

I want a barn.

[Cate Blanchett]

But you want someone to price you out of it. I'm going into the barn.

[Matt Rogers]

I'm going.

[Bowen Yang]

I would love a barn. Are you kidding me?

[Matt Rogers]

I think you'd be great in a barn. I really do.

[Bowen Yang]

Thank you. I think you would love a barn.

[Matt Rogers]

Personally, not very good with hay and all that.

[Bowen Yang]

No, it doesn't have to be hay.

[Matt Rogers]

No, it's just. I like my little creature comforts, but so do you. Now I'm thinking you wouldn't love a barn.

[Cate Blanchett]

No, you get a cashmere barn. Cashmere barn. A little barn.

[Matt Rogers]

A barn.

[Bowen Yang]

By wayfair, I don't mean a barn functionally. I mean a barn. Just in terms of a metaphorical barn.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah. Somewhere to go.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah. He has a literal and a metaphorical barn.

[Bowen Yang]

There you go. It's a two for job. It's like you gotta bring him out of the headspace and the actual physical space.

[Cate Blanchett]

True. Well, true.

[Bowen Yang]

I mean, tar is just for me. Do you consider it a comedy? Because I feel like it's one of the great comedy.

[Cate Blanchett]

The time of this year was really funny.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Cate Blanchett]

You know, I mean, how seriously she took herself.

[Matt Rogers]

The second time I watched it, I couldn't stop laughing at the first conversation.

[Bowen Yang]

She was talking about the New Yorker.

[Matt Rogers]

Talk back. Just how seriously she takes herself and like the performance that is happening. And really the amount of ego. Cause that was. That's really. Ultimately, I think it's this like crazy meditation on ego.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah, well, it is, but you have to. Having stepped onto the podium in front of the. The Dresden Philharmonie as a woman, you know, but. But as a conductor, anyway, is they sense fear. So you have to. As a conductor, you have to have a lot of chutzpah.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Cate Blanchett]

And that you have to say, this is where we're going.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Cate Blanchett]

And because I. I realize it's a bit like boarding school. Like a lot of the members, they're all soloists. Right. But the conductor has to bring them to make one unified sound.

[Matt Rogers]

Right.

[Cate Blanchett]

So there's a lot of egos and complications. And they would all come up and start talking to me and telling me things about. You know, I know I'm acting as the. The first cello, but I'm really only the second cello, so I'm really concerned about. And it was like you have to hold all of this stuff together. But I. I got up there, and they hadn't played together because of COVID They had. The orchestra hadn't played together for quite a long, many, many months. Right. And so when I said, look in my bad German, I said, when I'm, you know, I'm not an actor. I mean, I'm not a conductor. You're not actors. And we're gonna have to swap roles, so let's be patient with one another. And I gave the downbeat at the rehearsal, and they didn't follow me, and I went, let's start again. And they all went, oh. And they realized, in fact, that I didn't. I mean, I was winging it. I did a lot of, you know, preparation, and I examined a score and everything, and I had the music in my. Those bits of music in my head. But it was such a gift because then they had to lean in and realize that we did have to do it together. But it's not a film about conducting, so it's not.

[Bowen Yang]

Well, I feel like you telling that story filtered through the character of Lydia Tarr makes me think of, like, I am Petra's father. It's like, that is. That's the same person in a completely different context. Of, like. No, like, she thinks of herself as she is that person that, like, is being, like, called for at the school or something. You know what I mean?

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah. And I think she was probably mercilessly bullied herself.

[Bowen Yang]

You think?

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah. And it's also, I think when you have an exceptional gift like that. And I always imagined her having parents who were made fun of and who couldn't hear the thing that she loved. It's a really complicating thing. And I. And I. It's all these little things that, because he's. Todd is an amazing director, but also an amazing writer, is he put all these little clues in that she went. And she'd obviously spent a lot of time with the Shipibo Kinibo people taking Ayahuasca.

[Matt Rogers]

Right.

[Cate Blanchett]

And if I'd had enough time, I would have done a little bit more research into that part of it. But, you know, like, she was really adventurous, and so she, you know, she did. She was running away from something herself. And also coming out of COVID I don't know what you guys. You probably were able to continue the podcast, right?

[Bowen Yang]

Yes.

[Cate Blanchett]

But if you couldn't do what you do, if you couldn't make music and you were Lydia Tarr for two years, what happens? Your creative herd Turns destructive.

[Bowen Yang]

Yes.

[Cate Blanchett]

So, you know, I thought about all of that stuff.

[Matt Rogers]

We're talking about so many elements of a movie like this. You know, obviously, like huge respect for the director and like real interest in incredibly dynamic character and this story that you can read in so many different ways. I wonder when you are embarking on something or you're sent to script, is there one of those elements? Whether it's like the people you get to work with or the story itself or the specific character, is there something that you feel is what pulls you each and every time or is it different? I would imagine it's a combination. But for you, if you could speak to that.

[Cate Blanchett]

You know, it's the couple of times early on when I accepted to do a script based on the role, it's always been slightly disappointing because it's like a theater script is called a play because you have to play with it. It's not a work of literature. And so it's always now for me about the director, it's never the role.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Cate Blanchett]

So. Cause it doesn't matter. You could be acting your socks off, but if the camera's in the wrong position or, you know, you haven't all been cast in the right way, or you haven't been brought together by the director into an ensemble, the thing won't lift off. And so it won't mean anything to an audience. And so, for example, with Black Bag working, I'd worked with Stephen, and when my husband and I were running the Sydney Theater Company, he came in our first season and he wanted to do an all male production of All About Eve, but we couldn't get the right.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, wow.

[Cate Blanchett]

So he got obsessed with Nancy Grace and the Casey Anthony story and he concocted this bizarre, fascinating. But when he called me and said he had a slot and David had written this great ensemble piece, it was to work with him.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, totally.

[Cate Blanchett]

And then of course it was Fassbender and Tom Burke, who's an amazing. Who I'm on stage with, and the Seagull at the Barbican in London. And so it is the director. And then I'm fascinated with who they want to cast then.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, yeah. You've realized that more and more it is about the people.

[Bowen Yang]

Yes. And not necessarily about. Which feels counterintuitive, but it's not necessarily about the content in the primary way.

[Cate Blanchett]

Like it's not about the role, you know, because sometimes it's like, wow, you know, that's a piece of action. Or I haven't spoken to that audience before. Or, you know, that's a chamber piece. Or, you know, in fact, that that character's really. Still. I've been moving around too much.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

Here.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Cate Blanchett]

So sometimes. Yeah. I don't know. But I don't want. I don't know whether I necessarily want to do it anymore anyway. I think I want to spend time with my. My chickens in my gardens. Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

You need a barn period.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

With an occasional Berghain trip.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yes.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yes. I will venture out to Berghain from the barn. That I would do.

[Matt Rogers]

Let's go.

[Bowen Yang]

We're reading a book now in the research. It's called Lost and Sound, the Beginnings of berghain and the EasyJet set. So this writer. Oh, okay.

[Cate Blanchett]

I haven't read it.

[Bowen Yang]

Is kind of putting out this theory that, like, with the introduction of EasyJet in Europe, with budget travel within Europe.

[Cate Blanchett]

That it eroded the integrity.

[Bowen Yang]

Not the integrity. It just brought people to Berlin and it created a nightlife capital in Berlin. After the Wall went down with techno coming out of Detroit, it's like, it all kind of aligned in a way that, like, made it this magical, still magical thing that must be preserved because it's a cultural site now. It's considered a concert venue and not necessarily a club.

[Cate Blanchett]

But, you know, they have to be really careful having. Thomas Ostermaier, who runs the Schauner in Berlin, has directed this production of the Seagull. He's such an amazing person and an amazing director, but they are, you know, so many Australians are in Berlin because you get to. You don't have to apologize for, you know, being a musician or an actor or a painter or a writer or whatever, where you kind of do in Australia. But he was saying, like, cultural funding is really going down, and they don't. It's such a. It's a stupidity from an economic point of view, let alone a cultural point of view. You know, you talk about culture on your podcast, but because of the multiplier effect, it's the restaurants, it's the bars, it's the taxi drivers, it's cyclos. It's all of those other things that actually suffer when you remove culture from a place apart from. And, you know, that's why, as you say, that's why tourists go to Berlin.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Bowen Yang]

I feel like you have that in America, too, of like. That apology of like, hey, yeah, I'm an actor. Huh? I'm cloying.

[Matt Rogers]

People think it's cool to shy away from. There's a certain sect of people, I think, that don't stand in pride for being an artist. I don't know. Maybe it's a self consciousness.

[Bowen Yang]

Sure.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah. Or there's a sense that somehow if you are in a creative profession, there's an indulgence. Or it's elite. And you go, no. It's like you're a member of a circus family. It's not. It's true. You do it for an audience. And that's where Soderbergh's so great is. He kept saying with Black Bag, he's like, we're making a movie.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, yeah.

[Cate Blanchett]

We're not making a film. I want people to go see this in the cinema and eat their popcorn and have fun. And it's witty and it's stylish. It's like, you know, and then. And then. And, you know, you don't have to. Not every piece of cinema has to have the same function or reach the same audience. They're multifarious audiences. But it's for an audience. It's like, I'm not doing it for myself.

[Matt Rogers]

Right.

[Cate Blanchett]

You know, just to speak.

[Matt Rogers]

Cause you mentioned that we talk about culture. We're gonna ask you the question. That's a thing.

[Bowen Yang]

That's a little bit of. A.

[Matt Rogers]

Little bit of a, you know, unifier on this podcast alongside this question, which is, what was the culture that made you say culture was for you? Talking about, like, how you. Cate Blanchett became Cate Blanchett. If you could think about.

[Cate Blanchett]

I'm constantly becoming.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes. Maybe something you found yesterday.

[Cate Blanchett]

I'm transitioning constantly. I don't know. Like, I'm so eclectic in. You know, I read Eden Blyton books. I spend all the time on my bicycle thinking I was Nancy Drew or Trixie Belden. You're looking at me blankly. Because you're wet.

[Bowen Yang]

Trixie Belden.

[Cate Blanchett]

Trixie was a girl detective. Yeah. As was Nancy Drew, of course. But I think there was a kind of an intersection for me of the royal wedding, Princess Diana and Charles, which was in 1980. At the moment, my grandmother was having a double bypass surgery. So death was meeting sort of life and pageantry at the same time. The Moscow Olympics was on, and I was obsessed. I did calisthenics, you know, like, I'm. I'm not very strong, but I'm bending. Like, I put my legs behind my heads. I have no skills, but I can do that and do this.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah, you have no skills, but that.

[Cate Blanchett]

And I. I got really obsessed with. I don't know if this is culture. I got very obsessed with ribbon dancing.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, that's my culture.

[Cate Blanchett]

And then the dancing they do with the ball.

[Matt Rogers]

Wow.

[Cate Blanchett]

So maybe it was that.

[Matt Rogers]

So would we file this under, like, the bending of it all? Like rhythmic gymnastics?

[Cate Blanchett]

Rhythmic gymnastics, Yeah. I think that that was my high culture expression. And then later on, you saw Picasso painting with light, and so that reminded me of my ribbon dancing obsession. So, yeah, maybe it was ribbon dancing.

[Matt Rogers]

I'm thinking of your performance in the Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

[Cate Blanchett]

It wasn't ribbon dancing.

[Matt Rogers]

I know, but a dancer. You know what I mean?

[Cate Blanchett]

Like, I've never forgiven Fincher. He mean, we were doing. There was a dance sequence, which I did. He cut it for ages. No, no, no. It's in there. But he decided to shoot it at 5 o'clock in the morning, having been called, you know, because he shoots forever having been called at, like, you know, 9:00 the previous morning. It's like, you asshole.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Cate Blanchett]

So I don't know how much is me and how much is my body, but I didn't get to ribbon dance in that.

[Matt Rogers]

No, not ribbon dancing. But I just.

[Cate Blanchett]

My age. There's not a lot of call. They don't ask you to ribbon dancing in your 50s.

[Matt Rogers]

That's actually going into. Yeah, we'll get your ribbon dancing.

[Cate Blanchett]

But the ball.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, it's the ball.

[Cate Blanchett]

It's so beautiful.

[Bowen Yang]

What does the ball represent?

[Cate Blanchett]

The. You know, the girls in the Olympics who work with the ball and they move it around.

[Matt Rogers]

It's incredible.

[Cate Blanchett]

So magnificent.

[Matt Rogers]

I don't even understand how you represent it.

[Cate Blanchett]

How do you do that? It's like magic. If you were to do magic tricks, like pull the ace of spades out of a lemon, that, I mean, I would literally pee my pants.

[Bowen Yang]

Right.

[Matt Rogers]

What's crazy about that is the answers are so simple, but they're done with such.

[Cate Blanchett]

What do you mean?

[Matt Rogers]

The answers are simple because the answer to how the card comes out of the lemon or whatever the hell is.

[Cate Blanchett]

That, I don't wanna know.

[Matt Rogers]

But what I'm saying is we don't know. And for us, it seems so crazy, but their answers to that are so simple. The sleight of hand is so second nature.

[Cate Blanchett]

I know, but I'm still. Where do you put a lemon? Up? I mean, that's. I mean, I don't.

[Matt Rogers]

Which hole.

[Cate Blanchett]

Which hole did that lemon come out of? Don't touch the lemon.

[Bowen Yang]

Don't touch the lemon. But would you agree that, like, have you ever applied this to your own sort of craft where you're like, I don't want to tell you too much about how I do things.

[Cate Blanchett]

I never want to talk about it because I don't know how I do it.

[Matt Rogers]

Do you not know?

[Cate Blanchett]

I don't have a process, really? No. Like people say, oh, you know, I do my. Or Elise Drezner, or I do, you know, UTA Hagen is my. Whoever it is, I, I read it all. I'm, I'm a bowerbird. If someone has done something great, I will steal it and use it.

[Matt Rogers]

Got it.

[Cate Blanchett]

Because, you know, it's always going to be reinterpreted through your lens.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Cate Blanchett]

So I, Yeah, I don't know. I, I, every night before I, you know, I start a new job, it's always the first day of school. I'm always terrified. And I say to my husband, who so bored with me asking the same questions over and over and over, I said, what do I do? What's my process really? Just show up. And so you have to go into a room and go, I do not know how to do this. You humble yourself to the task and the material and the other actors and the directors and circumstances reveal what research you need to do, if you need to do any. Sometimes you don't need to. Sometimes you just have to be present.

[Matt Rogers]

I feel like that's so comforting as an actor to hear even you say that, because there's like a freedom. Terror that is a freedom you can have to give yourself. When you realize this thing I have about my anxieties about being good enough. Right. For it. I was gonna ask you how you are about moving on. Cause it sounds like every actor has a different relationship to that. But to hear you speak to. Not insecurity, but like, any apprehension or nerves about doing something, I think for even you to say that, you know, it's freezing and it gets freezing. It gets worse.

[Cate Blanchett]

I think it gets worse. Yeah. Because then there's a sense that maybe people have preconceptions or expectations. If you have some kind of a track record, and I think it's. You have to risk. I'm sure you both feel this too. You have to. And particularly with standup, it's like you have to risk falling flat on your face. And so if you're not, if you're not on that knife edge, you're not going to keep growing, you know, and so it is confronting, but you have to get yourself in the zone where you go, fuck it. Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

Well, my thing with a lot of comedians, and I'm going to say excuse male, but like a lot of male comedians seem to have this allergy to like anything that is theatrical about comedy.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes.

[Bowen Yang]

And they have to understand that standup is just theater. The scheme of it of like one person being on stage talking to a crowd of people. Yeah. Doesn't matter how big the crowd is or small. It's theater. And they are performing. The fact that these thoughts are coming to them off the cuff when they've been refining this routine for a long time over many experimental contexts, that it's like, let's just embrace that this is all kind of artificial. And I don't know what my point is. I'm just saying, like, there's.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah. And there's a structure to it. It's like if you're telling a story and you forget the pivot point in the story, it's not gonna work. But I've always found it really such an education to go and watch standup at the beginning when they're building the material. Because in the end, I think the process is the most exciting thing. And sometimes when you get to the end point, the hard thing is to keep it fresh.

[Matt Rogers]

But you know, and of course, then there's the thing of, you know, I've now done. I find this with a lot of standups. It's like, you see people start to get insecure about having done things for several years.

[Bowen Yang]

Right.

[Matt Rogers]

It's like, you know what I mean?

[Bowen Yang]

It's.

[Matt Rogers]

Cause then it's less even about how do I keep this fresh? And you're like, did I get too comfortable with, Am I too good at keeping it fresh? Am I not moving on and pushing myself to do something else?

[Bowen Yang]

Right.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah. Well, I got great advice from a Hungarian director who directed us as a company and a production of Uncle Vanya. And we'd had previews and they were all great and it was a really lovely company. And he came in and he rehearsed through an interpreter. And so he said, through his interpreter, he said all of those amazing things that you did last night, they were wonderful. Tonight, opening night, don't do any of them.

[Matt Rogers]

Love it.

[Cate Blanchett]

And it was such great advice. When you go, okay, this is. I think it's because they come from a culture where things sit in rep, Right. And so he's interested in the long term health of the show, not getting good reviews, you know? Cause often the good reviews are actually harder to deal with. Because certainly if you read them, you go, oh, that's a good bit. And then it dies.

[Matt Rogers]

Right.

[Cate Blanchett]

You know, so you can't. You can't think about the good or bad bit. You just have to think it's all a process.

[Matt Rogers]

Right.

[Bowen Yang]

Or you just can't stay with it. In any case, because in comedy, they say, like, your act becomes your enemy. It's like what you're talking about where.

[Cate Blanchett]

Like, when you say your act, you.

[Bowen Yang]

Mean you shtick or stick and, like, you've given. It's like, I kind of feel that way now with, like, snl. I'm like, oh, I'm playing another inanimate object. And sometimes. And I just want to say, because sometimes in the biz at it, sometimes, it's not always up to the cast members. You're being handed material. Like, okay, I guess you need me to play, you know, the spy balloon that got shot down. Okay. Like, fine. You know, it's. And then it becomes this thing that you're trying to pull away anyway. This is not. This is microcosmically compared to, like, anything that.

[Cate Blanchett]

No, because I mean, this is. The thing is, you don't want to be thinking about yourself. You want to be thinking about the energy that it's going out in your audience. And I think when you start to feel uncomfortable about that or habitual about that, then you become self conscious and the thing's gonna die anyway.

[Bowen Yang]

Which is why it's refreshing and also sort of speaks to your skill, besides putting your legs behind your head is that, like, you have this. You have this. You amalgamate all these things in your process to the point where you don't have one, which is perfect.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah. I mean, look, I do like having a task that I feel is impossible to say for something like tar. I thought, I don't know how to read a score. I learned piano as a girl. But I have to break this score apart and choose the bits that we're gonna play. And I really have to learn how to do this. And so, in a way, the part was so overwhelming. It's not a film about conducting, as I said, but it gave me something to do to stave off the anxiety. Cause I had so much to prepare.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah. Lots of homework.

[Cate Blanchett]

So it's just. I think in the end, process is a way of staving off anxiety, which can make you clam.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah. This is a little bit of a left turn, but have you seen O Mary on Broadway?

[Cate Blanchett]

No, I haven't.

[Matt Rogers]

I have to tell you, in getting to know you a little bit now, I think that, like, you are going to. Absolutely.

[Cate Blanchett]

I've heard it's amazing.

[Matt Rogers]

Love it.

[Bowen Yang]

Yes.

[Cate Blanchett]

Everyone I know who's seen it's loved.

[Bowen Yang]

It because you're In New York, I've.

[Matt Rogers]

Now seen it with three different Marys. I've seen it with Cola School. I've seen Hannah Solo, the understudy, and we saw Betty Gilpin, who is fantastic. And it's just.

[Cate Blanchett]

And different every time.

[Matt Rogers]

Different every time. And it's just really interesting to see something start as that Off Broadway moment and then know Cole was doing it. And to now see an actress like Betty doing it. It's just. It's. The interpretation is like it's ever evolving. I just think you have such an amazing sense of humor. You would absolutely love this.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah. Oh, no.

[Matt Rogers]

I don't know how long you're in time.

[Cate Blanchett]

It's such a no.

[Matt Rogers]

Well, yeah, right. You're doing your thing.

[Cate Blanchett]

I was coming to see you guys.

[Matt Rogers]

And we're so happy.

[Cate Blanchett]

It was worth it. We canceled a show at the Barbican in London, but I'm so happy.

[Matt Rogers]

Okay, so it might be time to do I don't think so, Honey, which is our 62nd segment where we take something in pop culture that really needs to get pummeled into the ground.

[Bowen Yang]

Yes.

[Matt Rogers]

You know, and I have something.

[Bowen Yang]

Okay.

[Matt Rogers]

It's sort of been popping up for years now, and I would like to.

[Cate Blanchett]

It's disturbing you. I can see you rubbing afar.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, that was my tell.

[Bowen Yang]

That's your white sneaker.

[Matt Rogers]

Let's go.

[Bowen Yang]

All right. This is Matt Rogers. I don't Think so Honey's time starts now.

[Matt Rogers]

I don't think so, honey. Buddy, One of my buddies. I got a buddy who. Let me tell you something, buddy. Like, maybe it's the consonants, the B and the D. I don't think fricative or.

[Bowen Yang]

I don't know, it's too fricative.

[Matt Rogers]

And I was gonna use the word fricative.

[Bowen Yang]

Or maybe it's not even fricative.

[Cate Blanchett]

A buddy, if you're not a buddy. Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

My thing is just like, it feels like something. And it's been used sexually a couple times with me amongst gay men when my white sneakers were really popping off. And I don't like it there. I don't know what it is.

[Bowen Yang]

30 seconds.

[Matt Rogers]

It feels like when you use the word buddy, you're not saying friend. It feels like something. We're, like, backing off or like, trying to.

[Cate Blanchett]

It's an act of aggression.

[Bowen Yang]

Yes.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, it's an act of aggression, the use of the word buddy or it's just not committing to what it is. It's my close friend. It's my. You know, I think some people, especially the gay guys, I've been having sex With I'm your lover. Okay. Call me something else. Not buddy. It's like when someone calls you dude five seconds. And that's very fricketive as well. We think maybe dd dude and buddy. I'm just not feeling it. I think we should say, like. I think we should just use our words with more intention. Cause buddy, it's existing in a gray area. I don't think so, honey.

[Bowen Yang]

And that's one minute, you know?

[Matt Rogers]

Do you use buddy?

[Cate Blanchett]

I do say dude a bit. I'm trying to. It's okay for you instead of for a straight white woman to say dude.

[Matt Rogers]

I think dude is fine. I have less of a problem with it. It's not my fit. I guess what I'm saying is when gay guys.

[Cate Blanchett]

My same. I'm going out with my buddy.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, yeah.

[Cate Blanchett]

He's like, what am I to you?

[Bowen Yang]

Right?

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah. Where do I exist? Because buddy isn't like, it's existing in an area between acquaintance and family.

[Cate Blanchett]

I've never thought about it.

[Matt Rogers]

I don't like it.

[Cate Blanchett]

This is an educational.

[Bowen Yang]

This is an educational podcast, Friend. I'm gonna put a theory out there. The English language is sort of limited in the kind of words we have for friend. Buddy. I don't like when someone's like, five times out of ten, I'm gonna say half the time. Half the time when someone says, hey, friend, I go, huh? Like, I shudder a bit.

[Matt Rogers]

Well, hey, no, here's what I'm saying.

[Bowen Yang]

It's not.

[Cate Blanchett]

It's anything.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Cate Blanchett]

Hey, you. Hey, buddy. Hey, friend. It's like, hello.

[Bowen Yang]

Hello.

[Cate Blanchett]

Ex. Squeeze me. Yeah, it's just like, I'd rather you say exqueze me.

[Matt Rogers]

Exqueeze me is back now as a result of you saying it.

[Bowen Yang]

It's the same kind of weird. We haven't found the right word yet. That feels right on the tongue.

[Cate Blanchett]

For what?

[Bowen Yang]

For friend. In the same way that we don't have the good words for marijuana. Weed, pot.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, but I like reading Delicious. Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah.

[Cate Blanchett]

I don't know, but what would you say? In what context are you calling someone a friend or a buddy or a mate or a pal?

[Matt Rogers]

I think I got triggered.

[Cate Blanchett]

I like pal.

[Bowen Yang]

I like mate, too.

[Matt Rogers]

Mate is fun.

[Bowen Yang]

Mate is just.

[Cate Blanchett]

It's not in Australia. It's just so overused. Is it really, really mate, get out of mate? I don't know, but maybe the way you say it, it's probably not so bad.

[Bowen Yang]

I've got some mates. I mean, it doesn't sound right, but.

[Cate Blanchett]

You know, don't you Think lover is such a kind of.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, I don't like it.

[Cate Blanchett]

I feel like it's taking your shirt off in an inappropriate way. It's too intimate at a dinner. But sweetheart, I think my sweetheart is really nice.

[Matt Rogers]

And my friends make fun of me. I say, thank you, my love. I love that at restaurants I say my love. I call a lot of people my love. And our friend Jared is always like, I want to tie when you say it. And I'm like, well, that's how I feel about Buddy.

[Bowen Yang]

I love my love.

[Cate Blanchett]

But you wouldn't call away to buddy.

[Matt Rogers]

Or if you did. So. I was in the service industry for 10 years. I've done hard yards getting called buddy. It feels degrading right now. Maybe that's what I'm picking up on.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yes. It's a post trauma. You haven't recovered from your waiting time as a waiter.

[Matt Rogers]

We stumbled upon it. It's that it feels like a little bit of a put down or like. Or it feels like that's maybe what I'm getting at with it, that it feels non committal. You know what I mean? It's just. There's something. It's patched down about it.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

It's pat.

[Bowen Yang]

Maybe it's simply pat. Simply pat. Okay. So interesting. Fascinating.

[Matt Rogers]

I don't know. Yeah, I just needed to walk that through and I'm happy we did here today. Okay. So this is Bowen Yang's. I don't think it's funny. Did you come prepared today?

[Bowen Yang]

I did. And this has been brewing for several years as well.

[Matt Rogers]

For several years. We're really unearthing a lot.

[Cate Blanchett]

Oh, wow. Okay.

[Matt Rogers]

This ended up being therapy.

[Cate Blanchett]

I'm here.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

So this is Bowen Yang's. I don't think so, honey. His time starts now.

[Bowen Yang]

I don't think so, honey. Hakuna matata. No worries. For the rest of your days.

[Matt Rogers]

Privilege.

[Bowen Yang]

I'm worried it's not even a privilege thing. It's a detachment from the human condition, which is to experience experience. Stake experience. Some kind of investment in the future. And how can you be invested in the future if you're not worried a little bit about losing the thing that you want, about letting go of desire.

[Matt Rogers]

30 seconds.

[Bowen Yang]

Feel too Buddhist. Too aggressively Buddhist, which is not what Buddhism is, which is anathema to Buddhism in the first place. You can't be an aggressive Buddhist to say no worries for the rest of your days. To be that absolute about not Worrying Something's off.

[Matt Rogers]

15 seconds.

[Bowen Yang]

You're numbing yourself too much to circumstance. To what life throws at you. You're gonna be worried. Cause guess what? Everyone in this room, I'm looking at you, Vahid. Matt, behind the camera. We're all worried.

[Matt Rogers]

You all have something to worry about.

[Bowen Yang]

You all have something to worry about.

[Matt Rogers]

And that's one minute.

[Bowen Yang]

They're pretending not to be, but they're worried also.

[Matt Rogers]

Not or nothing. They were a warthog and a groundhog.

[Bowen Yang]

A meerkat.

[Matt Rogers]

A meerkat. Thank you. In Africa, you have worries.

[Bowen Yang]

You've got worries.

[Matt Rogers]

There are predators all around you. Be worried. Stay vigilant in these streets. And by these streets, I do mean the prairie lands.

[Bowen Yang]

The prairie lands in jungles.

[Cate Blanchett]

This red room.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes. This red room. Stay on your toes.

[Cate Blanchett]

Be very afraid.

[Matt Rogers]

Hakuna matata. I think not. It's roller Coulter, number 14.

[Bowen Yang]

Hakuna matata. I. I think not.

[Matt Rogers]

I love that Bowen.

[Cate Blanchett]

Thank you.

[Bowen Yang]

It's from the heart.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

We were told that you came prepared as well.

[Cate Blanchett]

I meant to have one. I'm not gonna be as eloquent as you are.

[Matt Rogers]

That's okay.

[Cate Blanchett]

But I have something. I have a lot of things that really, you know. What's the first bit I have to say?

[Matt Rogers]

I don't think so, honey.

[Bowen Yang]

Blank.

[Matt Rogers]

I don't think so, honey. This thing.

[Bowen Yang]

And we're gonna put the timer up, but I think you should feel unbounded by this.

[Cate Blanchett]

Okay.

[Matt Rogers]

Lord.

[Cate Blanchett]

I don't think so, honey. Timing. I don't think so, honey.

[Matt Rogers]

Hakuna matata. In terms of this. In terms of this.

[Cate Blanchett]

No, my blood pressure just gone up.

[Bowen Yang]

Okay, we're just gonna put it up just for ceremony.

[Cate Blanchett]

Okay?

[Bowen Yang]

This is Cate Blanchett's. I don't think so, honey. Her time starts now.

[Cate Blanchett]

I don't think so, honey. Leaving the toilet seat up. I am not talking about the lid. I am talking about the thing that you sit on. Of course, in a domestic setting, men may think, or people with penises may think that their aim is good. No, but it is all over the seat. And I have to put that thing down because in the end, everyone sits down more than they stand up 100%. And when you are at, you know, somebody else's house, and it's not only the pee that goes onto the seat, it's little bits of hair. And you think I want to touch that. You think I want to smell that. And so I have to put it down. And then I put the seat. And then the whole thing comes up and it starts all over again. And if you are in a public bathroom, it's like I am going to invest in a she wee because do you know what a shewee is? Oh my God. It's a cup with a little tube on it that women use for going for a bushwee when they're camping. I don't want to have to spend money just because people who need to put the. Should be putting the seat down. Can't peeve straight, right? Oh my. Yeah, so it's my whole thing is the toilet seat thing. And I live in a household with three boys and my husband and each of them say I always put it down. Which is almost more in rate. They lie, lies, lies, lies.

[Bowen Yang]

That's the plot of Black Bag and that's one minute. Who's a traitor? There's a traitor in your midst. Yeah, but this is.

[Cate Blanchett]

You gonna defend yourself?

[Matt Rogers]

Don't make an excuse.

[Bowen Yang]

I'm not defending myself.

[Cate Blanchett]

I don't wanna hear your defense because it is not true.

[Bowen Yang]

I'm not defending myself. I'm actually, I'm sort of self owning when I say it's always so jarring. This is the thing about living alone. I'm going, well, that's my hair. I gotta get mad at myself. No. Yeah, but do you find yourself getting mad at yourself if you go, woah, I don't shed. Yeah, but you can't control that, can you?

[Matt Rogers]

Oh yeah, no, yeah. Years of work.

[Cate Blanchett]

I am Taurus, Taurus, Taurus. I told you that before I came in. I'm very controlling hair. Stay in there, stay in there.

[Matt Rogers]

I can't stand going to someone else's bathroom and when they're okay with hair being all over the toilet.

[Cate Blanchett]

Exactly.

[Matt Rogers]

I am essentially a top level cleaner. Whenever I have anyone coming over, I make sure I put muscle into it.

[Cate Blanchett]

I know, but do you put the lid down always?

[Matt Rogers]

Yes, the lid, Yes.

[Cate Blanchett]

I want photographic evidence. That's what my husband said. And he said, come on, just leave me alone. It's six in the morning, I do put it down and I go to the toilet seat and it's like, do I take a. We've been married 27 years and we are still married because I just had to let it go. And I tried to teach my boys, but I realized they're even imprinted on my husband. So I failed as a parent. No, no, I have, I have no, no, my sons in a way that I, I probably shouldn't be.

[Bowen Yang]

We don't know which of the sons.

[Cate Blanchett]

Yeah, all of them.

[Matt Rogers]

Well, you've now specified. Yeah, so there we go.

[Bowen Yang]

You can ask us for photographic evidence. You as a mother, this is your. Your success as a mother is that you're not asking photographic evidence of them. You would never make them change.

[Cate Blanchett]

That's true. I don't shame them, but they do get the passive aggressive. Ugh. Every time I go to the bathroom.

[Matt Rogers]

My thing is. And I'll reveal this, and I bet you'll agree, the older I get, I'm sitting down to pee more anyway.

[Cate Blanchett]

Well, no, it's not.

[Bowen Yang]

This is.

[Cate Blanchett]

The thing is, I do have male friends who sit down out of deference to their friends of all sexual persuasions and orientations. I'm going to sit down because I'm not going to miss. If I sit down.

[Matt Rogers]

Exactly. The risk becomes exponentially less when you are. When, quite frankly, your dick is already in the bowl.

[Cate Blanchett]

Exactly. And if you don't have a dick, you know, your hole's in the bowl.

[Matt Rogers]

Your hole's in the bowl.

[Cate Blanchett]

Honestly, it's a win. Win all round.

[Matt Rogers]

This is huge.

[Cate Blanchett]

And with that, you can cut that out. My mother's gonna listen. I'm sorry, Mom.

[Bowen Yang]

Sorry, Mom. No. And this is good for us, for Berghain, because there's the piss goblin there.

[Cate Blanchett]

There's probably a hole in the bowl room.

[Bowen Yang]

There's a hole in the bowl room. You know, we're all gonna be sitting. I'm sitting on the piss goblin.

[Cate Blanchett]

Okay. And I wonder, you'll not get photographic evidence of that. No, I can't, but I'll get the descriptor.

[Bowen Yang]

Absolutely.

[Matt Rogers]

We'll fill you in.

[Cate Blanchett]

Have fun.

[Bowen Yang]

Thank you.

[Matt Rogers]

We're gonna have the best time, just like we did today. This was so amazing to have you. It's such an honor. It's so great to meet you. And you really are just one of the best. And this has just been so much fun.

[Cate Blanchett]

One of the best.

[Matt Rogers]

Well, would you.

[Cate Blanchett]

Is that like calling me your friend?

[Matt Rogers]

Would you.

[Cate Blanchett]

Hey, buddy.

[Bowen Yang]

Listen, buddy.

[Cate Blanchett]

You're one of the best.

[Matt Rogers]

Listen, Betty, you're one of the best.

[Cate Blanchett]

No. You're meant to say to every guest, you're the best.

[Matt Rogers]

You are the greatest.

[Cate Blanchett]

And they leave feeling good about themselves.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, my God.

[Cate Blanchett]

And the next one comes in. You are the best.

[Matt Rogers]

You are the best.

[Cate Blanchett]

You, too.

[Matt Rogers]

Undisputed.

[Bowen Yang]

You're the undisputed best. We named an award after you forgot.

[Matt Rogers]

You got the Cate Blanchett Award for good acting. It was named after you.

[Cate Blanchett]

I'm so chuffed.

[Matt Rogers]

Listen.

[Cate Blanchett]

And confused.

[Matt Rogers]

I can understand. When we said those last time, we're like, are they gonna have any reference for this? And then the fact that you went out and did it. We were like, thank you you for the commitment last year.

[Bowen Yang]

Well, we end every episode with a song.

[Matt Rogers]

We sure do. I wish we only had. We're an orchestra right now. We can play and be conducted.

[Bowen Yang]

Cello. Let's see. Boy, you got my heartbeat Running away.

[Matt Rogers]

Feeling like a drum that is coming your way?

[Bowen Yang]

Like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

[Matt Rogers]

I think I have a harmony there. And it didn't work.

[Bowen Yang]

It's okay. We'll get it next time. Thanks. Bye. Las Colturistas is a production by Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and iHeartRadio podcasts.

[Matt Rogers]

Created and hosted by Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, executive produced by Anna Hazmier.

[Bowen Yang]

Produced by Becca Ramos, edited and mixed by Doug Behme and Monique Laborde.

[Matt Rogers]

And our music is by Henry Kabirski.