Honestly, I was mortified.
I’ve done more phoners than I can recall. There have been times where I spoke with three well known actors, directors or producers for back to back-to-back interviews within less than 90 minutes. I’ve taken phoner interview calls at 7 AM (not my favorite) and at 1 AM (handy for those London based folks). I’ve had UPS and delivery men interrupt calls with Oscar winners. I’ve made it through interviews where I could barely hear the subject on the other line, yet still found a way to pull out a coherent quote or two. All that being said, I have never, ever, ever had my computer freeze up on me when I needed to record an interview. That changed Saturday afternoon when none other than Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman called in to discuss Yorgos Lanthimos‘ latest masterwork, “The Killing of a Sacred Deer.”
For context, it should be noted that despite her long “Big Little Lies” Emmy campaign, the release of “The Beguiled” in June and “Killing’s” debut at Cannes, Kidman has been very selective about who and when she has conducted print interviews over the past 10 months (not so much for on camera). So, in effect, I’d been waiting for this chance to chat with her since Cannes even if it was a paired interview with Farrell (who, honestly, has always been a frank and compelling interview subject), it was worth it. Beyond “Killing”, I’d hoped to get a question in on her incredible year (Colin wouldn’t care, right?), or even her thoughts on the huge online following that was rooting for her to win for “BLL” (a fanbase she hasn’t always had in her career). But, no, that simply wasn’t in the cards.
READ MORE: ‘The Killing Of A Sacred Deer Is Absolutely F**king Brilliant [Review]
The call came through and like hundreds of times I answered, put the call on speaker and then moved my laptop cursor to press record and…
Nope.
My entire laptop froze. I immediately tried to hide my panic as I frantically looked for a paper and pen and explain to Farrell and Kidman what just happened. The two stars could have cared less telling me to just paraphrase them the best I could and it would be fine (honestly, that was a nice compliment). And while I rebooted my computer, I did my best to start the interview. We discussed how their previous pairing, Sofia Coppola’s “The Beguiled,” shot after “Killing” and Kidman thought that it made the former much easier, because they had come from such tackling such a dark subject matter to something actually lighter in tone (it goes without saying that anyone who has seen Coppola’s film knows it’s far from a slapstick comedy).
(Oh, did I mention I have terrible handwriting I often can’t read myself? Yeah, that turned out to be a slight problem. It was a good thing the computer booted back up because I caught this right before I started recording.)
Farrell, who earned a Golden Globe nomination for Lanthimos’ “The Lobster” last year, said he’d say yes to working on any of the filmmaker’s endeavors 99.9% of the time but…
Colin Farrell: …I’d have a bloody good fit, to not having a script would have to be obviously part of the excitement, and that would have to be made pretty clear to me, you know. So this is as close to a no brainer as I could get, is my long winded way of saying that.
The Playlist: Nicole would you do that? If there’s a director who came to you and said, “Listen we’re still working on this script but would you commit?”
Nicole Kidman: I have. I have many times. Sometimes to massive success, sometimes disastrous, but I never regret it.
Colin Farrell: Yeah.
Nicole Kidman: I’m a leap of faith kind of girl.
The Playlist: And, Nicole, I’m assuming you’ve seen “The Lobster”…
Nicole Kidman: Oh yes, I’ve seen them all.
The Playlist: What about this project and this script in particular made you say, “O.K.” or was it also, one of those, “I just want to work with Yorgos, I am going to take a leap of faith.”
Nicole Kidman: Yes it was that, but I’d met him a long time prior. And we called each other and we had a meal together. We talked, we texted occasionally. So we already had a dialogue going, you know? And then he said, “I’ve got this script that I’ve written and maybe you’d be interested.” And then I said yes immediately. But I’m really quick in my impulses, I don’t overthink things. I try to stay like that, I try, I mean it’s hard sometimes, but I try not to overthink things and I try to make decisions quickly. And I try to be trusting. I actually approach things with trust, rather than with distrust.