And when those moments strike, it's like religious, like it feels like, Oh, my God, Oh my God, I just got so lucky.

It's a really fortunate, really, really rare thing.

So "The Thirteenth Year" was a movie that my mom was a script supervisor on.

I initially as a little kid, kind of going to set and hang out with the crew.

And I would see other children on set and think like, well, what?

What are they doing?

I wanna hang out with you guys all the time.

Why do I have to back to school?

Why do I have to leave?

I wanted to be around that energy before I even knew why that energy was appealing to me.

I'm standing in line at a water fountain.

So, uh, I think I like lean.

That's some of my more challenging work, actually.

I really loved being there.

I loved not having to go home and whatever being a part of this circus of it always really fun.

But then when the movie came out and a couple of kids

at school notice that I was in it for a second.

It was like not not welcome.

I was like, no, I don't know my mom.

I don't know whatever like, but it was trippy.

I didn't like the conversations that happened afterwards at school, being like, why?

Who are you?

What?

Are you like an actor now?

No.

What if they get in here?

They can't.

No, they can't.

They can't get in here.

It's not a possibility.

Mom, I heard you.

"Panic Room"

Jodie Foster's threw me a birthday party when I turned 11 with, like a mariachi band.

I never wanted to leave every time I had to go home because it had been nine hours, I was like, why?

I'm fine.

I can kick it.

I can hang.

I'm not tired.

Then it was like, no, it's really, you know, for your welfare,

and I was like, I'm well, thank you. May I stay?

In terms of preparation, you know, you kind of acquire as much information as you possibly can,

and then you kind of hope that it becomes something physical.

But I can never get anything up on its feet until it's the word go,

until It feels like there's like an honor to the moment, and there's a reason why you're doing something is absurd, is pretending to be someone else.

I had to learn how to have a seizure.

I remember it scared everyone else so much, just thinking like, oh, this is very intense for a little kid to do.

And watching the videos might be traumatizing for someone that age.

And I like broke blood vessels in my eyes.

And like just, I remember being like, what, it's cool.

Now things affect me. I'm like, sensitive.

But when I was little, I was like, I know, no, no big deal.

Whatever.

It was a good first taste.

It was like, not an easy job.

I mean, we really had to, like, delve into some heavy stuff, and I've turned 11, and that was some formative time.

My room, definitely. My room.

"Catch That Kid"

It was a movie about a little kid who robs a bank to save her dad.

And I was like, gut-wrenchingly obsessed with this.

Who has the code to solve these?

Oh, they're different from room to room.

It was my first starring role. But, even with a tiny little part on a movie,

Everyone is holding this really precarious bowl of water, hoping that not one drop slips and I felt like I would have done anything for the film.

Sean Penn attracted me to "Into the Wild."

Actually, initially I went did table read for him, and I was really little.

Can't scared of that.

I remember thinking like I told him, you know, I'll do anything in a movie, I don't even need to play one of the parts, it's awesome that I got to meet you.

It's awesome that, like I was part of the read-through because that in itself felt like its own animal like it really stood up and was an experience that I remember.

And so he was like, well, which one would you want to play?

And I was like, probably the girl who plays guitar. And, I played for him.

I, like, auditioned for it after this read-through and like, couldn't even face him.

I was like facing a wall very badly,

playing Blackbird couldn't sing it. Just speaking of shooting that movie.

It was the first time working with anyone that felt so unstructured and so instinctive.

In terms of capturing the footage, we have like a splinter crew.

Almost everywhere we went, he threw a camera on his shoulder.

Eric Gautier, who's like one of my all-time favorite DPs, also, like, was just running, gunning, like like we didn't know what we're gonna do until we found it.

I've heard a lot about that.

People talk about that all the time, but it doesn't mean that they actually have the balls to, like, commit to not knowing before they know.

Sean is like a master at that.

Those few days with Emile and him and Eric made me wanna direct movies, straight up, seeing him in the way that he sort of led this charge, that was unbridled.

I was like, yep, absolutely.

That's why I would love to do that.

When we did "Twilight," I knew that the fan base was big for the book.

There was no way of preparing for the response that it had.

We went to Comic-Con, and there were so many people there like that knew more about the series that I did.

That was kind of the first indication that it was gonna be what it was.

And the idea of doing a sequel at that point for me was absurd.

It was weird for me to all of a sudden be asked the question like,

okay, well, now that we're here, how do we do this, right?

How do we capitalize on this basically?

Suddenly the chance is kind of like kick back and go. Well, the best experiences I've had on any project of any kind have been

when you are naturally, instinctively drawn to a person, and there's something that you're both thinking about or meditating on and becomes obsessive and compulsive,

you make a movie because that's all I know.

And so I was at that point, like allowed to pick weird things that nobody believed in because I made a big movie once.

So yeah, it definitely kind of blew my head off.

Wow, you are really trying to kill me.

I thought Em in "Adventure Land" was like just the coolest person, and I was so intimidated by her.

I mean, her name's Em. it's not even Emily.

It's like, okay, you don't even go by your whole name, like.

Even if I can't fully relate to a person that I'm playing, we can all understand each other.

Maybe I wouldn't do, say or act in a certain way or whatever, but I can always find it somewhere embedded.

I've never played something where I have not understood the person.

I grew up in Los Angeles, so I think like we're huge like radio culture.

I listen to Joan Jett a lot when I was younger, she's so quintessential.

When I met her to to make the movie, it was really crazy because she's like an animal.

She's got barbs and stuff because she's protecting something really precious.

Like she's, you know, leather-clad, really driven like, chaotically obsessed with music and cannot stop touring.

Even her body, her body is a muscle like it was so reflective of who she is as a person.

She's a real live wire.

At our first band rehearsal, we're playing Cherry Bomb, and I like, just wasn't committing to it at all because we weren't shooting.

Why would I fully, fully, fully, uh, lean into this when we're not actually here to capture it?

You know what I mean?

It just felt like almost like I was traipsing on something.

We're doing a lame impression just for the sake of it, I saw her face kind of go.

You know, what?

Like we'd spent all this time together and all of a sudden it was like dropping the ball or something.

And, you know, she doesn't make movies.

I don't make music.

We do different things.

I had to literally imploring, like, run over and, like, tackle her and be like, yo, trust me, I just don't work like that.

I just can't do it right now.

And she was like, okay. And then we shot it a couple days later,

and, she was fine, she was happy with what I did whatever.

And it was really cathartic and gnarly to see her watch, you know, really formative parts of her life come back to life, but yeah, very intimidated.

I was like, crying. I was like, trust me,

I swear to you, I can do this.

I think she's happy with it.

She still talks to me. So...

He's here just to see you.

The project doesn't interest me, okay?

He's a great director, just hear him out.

You don't have to do it.

It's probably the best regeneration.

I've always felt super allowed to be in environments with the Frenchies.

It's funny, like even in doing press, uh, having like meetings with French filmmakers and working with Olivier now a couple times.

Subverting material is their gain.

I mean, like making something feel alive in the moment, and unplanned and existential and weird,

but not holier than thou, like, there was just this thing where I felt like I could bash my head into a wall, trying to figure something out.

And that would be the moment rather than going like, why haven't you completed a perfect sentence?

It was like, no, of course this is beautiful.

You let her do what she's gonna do.

It's like, yes, that's what we're all trying to do.

I'm a huge fan of Olivier.

I'm gonna be honest and say I don't think I would have said no, really than anything.

It meant most for me to win that award for Olivier because he is, like just one of the most brilliant artists working and I love him.

You have your interpretation to play.

I think mine's just confusing you.

What are you waiting for?

So we made this oath.

Whoever died first would send the other a sign.

A sign from the afterlife.

You could call it that. You could call it a million things.

"Personal Shopper"

I play somebody who's lost her other half, basically a girl who has a twin loses her brother

and loses herself so completely that you know, black and white and hot and cold, and the words that you use to communicate to others just become shape and color and,

like literally nothing makes sense to you at all.

Going into the movie, I wasn't super obsessed with that part of it.

I kind of only realized in retrospect, having watched the movie, what a thing that was.

And my entire goal, as an actor, is to be as "prepared" or sort of knowledgeable as you can possibly be

in order to be so subject to something that you feel like the lack of control is really exhilarating.

I've had some experiences that rocked me to the point where I felt like I didn't know my name so I could bring that to it.

But at the same time, I don't really know what's going on all the time.

Like whenever I watch a film that I've acted in as much as I try and like control stuff or ask a million questions or like live in the director's front pocket.

If I've done my job correctly, I shouldn't really even know what the movie's about.

You don't need to feel guilty.

Laura deserves to be happy.

And you do, too.

I knew that I wanted to direct movies before I had anything to direct, and that was really frustrating for a long time cause, like, had this awareness of the desire but, like nowhere to put it.

I was just fixated on this, uh, image of like a chair on the bottom of the ocean, like a chair from a classroom,

and it was so like that chair didn't belong there, and it was really scary for that chair to be there.

I started thinking about capturing that image and why I was so fixated on it.

God, like with writing, with directing anything, it's like, I think I did grow up to realize that you don't need to be smarter than other people, that you don't need to know things that people don't know.

You're not like providing like a syllabus to life.

It's really more of just a personal experience to try and like, bridge this gap between us, where you go, gosh, I've had this idea.

I want to say it really loudly to see how many people feel that way so we can be less alone.

That's that's why you make movies, you know, and the directors that I've worked with that I couldn't even touch,

like just people that are scholars, people that have just spent their whole lives obsessing over film

and watching every single one of them and went to school, and did, you know, anything like that.

I could never I mean, look, I'm so not there, but then when they have a moment that's regular and ordinary with you,

the thing that they're absolutely best at is just making someone feel comfortable enough to like be themselves.

That's not something that you learn.

It's not something you can teach other people, and there are a million mistakes you can make.

It's not about making this perfect thing.

If you get to the end of an experience and you feel like everyone's kind of better because of it, I guarantee you that whatever footage you capture would be kind of interesting to watch.

So I want to kind of like, do that as much as I can.

You sound like a woman to me.

But you insist you are a man.