- Oh my gosh, way to rub it in.

I don't even know what it is.

- You want it.

How's your daughter?

- She's good.

- How old is she?

- Five.

"How old is she now?"

(mumbling)

(giggling)

(upbeat music)

- And I did just see "Marriage Story,"

and it is phenomenal,

and I'll be shocked if you're not showered with awards,

but what made you want to tell that story?

I mean, it's heavy, it's dark.

- Yeah...

Probably 10 years ago,

Noah and I tried to work on something

else together that was, we kind of,

developed for a little bit,

and then just didn't end up being right,

and by the time it was ready to shoot,

I was kind of past it.

It wasn't the right fit.

- This project?

- No, this was a different project.

- Oh, it was another one.

- It was another project that Noah had never...

I don't think he ended up actually making it.

And I actually thought that he would

never call me again, I don't know.

I'm sure you probably have had that experience before,

where you feel like you...

maybe something didn't work out professionally

and you're like, "Well, there goes that relationship."

- No, no, no.

- That's never happened to you?

- No. - Yeah, right.

I was so surprised when he called me 10 years or more,

15 years later, to meet, and talk about something.

I just thought it totally came out of the blue.

I met with him in a place in New York,

and it was like no time had passed at all.

We just kind of shifted right into this moment where he

pitched me this story a little bit,

and I myself was actually in the middle

of going through a divorce.

It was such a strange coincidence actually.

But more than it being that it was about a divorce,

and I was going through it,

and felt that that was something that I should explore,

I felt it was the right time for Noah and I

to work together on something.

This project felt like it was something

that he wanted to collaborate on,

and you almost got the impression that

he needed to cast it before he actually wrote it,

and that to me was exciting.

I felt that he was writing for me,

and it was so different than the experience that I had

had with him a decade earlier.

And so that's how it--

- How much of the script was already

on the page prior to signing on?

- It was not.

It was not on the page at all.

- It was just a concept.

- It was a concept.

- Wow!

- I think he maybe had started...

It was totally an outline, I think.

- Did you have input in terms of how...

Because one of the things that is so

tragic about it is that it's,

I think when you think of a divorce story,

you imagine much more of a contentious, prickly,

almost enemies, but a lot of the movie,

there's two people trying to make it work.

There's still an amicable...

You're trying to make it work for your kids.

Was that part of...

Did you have input in that?

'Cause I'm assuming even in your experiences,

it hasn't been like, "Oh, I hate this person."

There's still a lot of love for the person.

It's just--

- Yeah.

I think it was sort of, it was Noah's intention to meet.

He was the one...

Actually, when I received the script, I was so...

We'd spoken so much about not just our relationships,

and what it was like to be single parents,

or how it was to co-parent.

But we also talked a lot about our parents,

and our families, and all of that

stuff kind of made it in there.

When I got the script, I was so surprised by how much love

remained between those two people,

and that there was this...

It was a love story told through divorce,

and as a relationship kind of...

Noah often says that,

"In order to fully understand something,

"you kind of have to pull it all apart."

The idea of starting from the end,

and building the story back up

was really interesting to him...

And I think it just, it really...

I think that's why the film has seemingly affected so many

audience members is that it is not one thing or another.

It's kind of multi-faceted,

and relationships are just complicated,

and you can not want to be with somebody,

but still find them attractive in other ways, and...

It's complicated, right?

- It's heartbreaking.

- Yeah.

I don't know.

It was exciting to work on it.

- Where do you want to live now, doll?

- Well, I'm here now, obviously.

I don't know if the show will get picked up,

but feels like home.

It is home.

It's the only home I've ever known without Charlie.

I think you probably feel this way too,

and I know even when we were doing all

the "Endgame" and "Infinity War" stuff,

you were prepping to do "Knives Out" already or not?

- Yeah, yeah, well, we were doing the

reshoots for those last couple bits.

I don't even know if you were there.

You were so in and out 'cause you died.

But I think, yeah.

- Spoiler alert!

- If you haven't seen it--

- If you haven't seen the movie, too bad.

- She didn't make it.

Yeah, it was towards the end of

filming that that Ryan reached out,

and sent the script for "Knives Out,"

and I love those movies.

- Because it must have been so exciting also.

Well I was thinking, 'cause I was doing...

Talking to Noah while we were doing the

"Infinity War" and "Endgame" stuff.

It was such a, something for me to hold on to

during those often just tedious days...

- Sure.

- Of whatever.

All that action storytelling that we have to do where you

have to be in it for these little segments of time.

- Well, there's a lot of things about

those movies where it's not just...

The actual film making process is very start,

stop, start, stop with little bits,

and pieces 'cause of the action,

that the nature of the movie,

plus it's roles that we've played

for a really long time, so really familiar with it.

So it is exciting.

No disrespect to those movies,

I love those movies, but to come off of them,

and have a completely different

approach to finding a character,

to collaborating with other artists, and ultimately just...

It's unchartered waters coming off of a Marvel movie.

It's just exciting to get a change of pace.

- How does it work with Ryan?

How is he on set?

- He's wonderful in a lot of ways, and it forces you...

He's very much a plain speaker.

He knows what he wants.

I love the idea of writer/director combos,

'cause you remove that kind of...

When a bunch of people read one piece of material,

we all have subjective opinions on what we interpret.

And when you have a writer/director,

they can say, "No, this is exactly what I meant."

So that eliminates one question right there.

But Ryan just has a very...

He's very taciturn.

He's very unapologetic.

Two takes and you're done.

- Really?

- Yeah, which as an actor, you're terrified,

'cause if you give me 50 takes, I'll take them.

- What do you think about that though?

Do you ask for more?

- I'd always like more, but--

- How come you don't ask for more?

- It takes me a couple of days to get

comfortable on set to do that.

You know what I mean, to feel--

- Why, because you feel like--

- 'Cause if you ask for more,

and they don't get better,

it's going to be harder to ask for

more in the future, 'cause you know--

- Really?

- If you can't prove that this is going to improve,

now you're just wasting time.

- That's just a funny way of looking at it.

- Yeah.

It's a really insecure, egoic way of looking at it.

- Do you look at the monitor?

Do you watch your takes, and stuff?

- If other people are going to, I will,

but I don't want to be the only one doing it.

- Why?

- 'Cause it's intimidating to watch yourself on playback.

But Ryan will tell you, "When we move on,

"we move on 'cause we got what we needed."

You know what I mean?

You trust Ryan.

If he says we're moving on, we're moving on.

- Stop, stop.

- You Drysdale?

- Call me Ransom, it's my middle name.

Only the help calls me Hugh.

- Okay, uh, this is Trooper Wagner, I'm Lieutenant Elliot.

We just wanna ask a few questions.

- You don't watch playback, do you?

- No, I don't.

It's funny how as an actor, you sometimes...

You know what, I feel if you have an idea,

and this is probably good advice

for actors that are kind of coming up,

or starting out in film,

if you have a good idea for something,

you should ask for another take.

Or you feel you maybe have something

else in you that you're curious about,

you should ask for another take

because it will haunt you forever.

- Sure.

- Even if I've done...

Noah in stark contrast to Ryan is just...

He's relentless, and you can do 45, 50 takes of one...

He only uses one camera,

and he's very specific about the words are the words,

that said, and every hesitation,

and every unfinished sentence,

and every one talking over one

another is all completely scripted,

and nothing is improvised and--

- Nothing is improvised in that movie?

- Not a single word.

- You guys both need Oscars, 'cause I was like,

"Oh, this is just improvised."

It's just not, is it?

- Oh my gosh!

You can't even add in a "but."

He'll remind you like--

- It's like theater.

- "You added a 'but' and," what?

- That's like theater.

- It is like theater.

It totally was like theater.