IR Interview: Eve Hewson For "Flora And Son" (Awards Track) [Apple]
Actress Eve Hewson talks to Awards Track about context, approach, humor and the power of music in regards to her new dramatic comedy from Apple Original Films: “Flora And Son”.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 (screaming)
00:02 (dramatic music)
00:05 - I was 17 with a screaming child on me, like.
00:17 - This can't be my story.
00:18 But without him I have nothing.
00:22 ♪ We're living the high life ♪
00:24 - How come the way things are are never enough for you?
00:27 ♪ We're living the high life ♪
00:28 - I never were.
00:30 ♪ We're living the high life ♪
00:33 ♪ And it's a fun life to be alive ♪
00:37 - Playing the guitar, it's so sexy.
00:40 - Okay.
00:41 - Is that why you took it off?
00:42 - Well, it's focused on you.
00:43 - Are you coming on to me?
00:46 (laughing)
00:48 - The first thing I wanted to ask you
00:50 in terms of like acting in music,
00:53 could you talk about instinct versus technique?
00:56 And the idea of that within the idea of flora?
01:00 - Yeah, well, that's a really, really thoughtful question.
01:04 Yeah, I think that's so true.
01:08 I mean, it's the same, I think, with music and with acting
01:11 is, you know, if you're learning to play the piano,
01:15 you have to know your scales,
01:16 you have to practice every day,
01:18 you have to sort of have some sort of form.
01:20 And then once you have that,
01:22 there's a freedom that you can sort of riff off of.
01:26 And I feel like with acting, once you know your character,
01:30 once you know the story and how you fit into it
01:33 and what you wanna say, then you can get to set
01:36 and you can try things
01:38 and you have that kind of structure to support you.
01:41 So, especially on this movie, it being a comedy,
01:46 there was a lot that we got to play with,
01:49 but then also because we were writing the songs,
01:51 we were really improvising as we went.
01:55 So it was very much like a back and forth with that.
01:58 - Young Max, one more offense and you'll be behind bars.
02:03 Flora, you're his mother.
02:05 Find him something to do.
02:06 - What are you doing right now?
02:09 - You don't want to know.
02:11 - You are a great mother, am I?
02:14 Happy birthday.
02:15 - What's that?
02:16 - It's yours.
02:17 - Don't want to play it.
02:18 Since when am I a guitarist?
02:20 - I can't go on like this,
02:21 living in a shoebox with a kid who hates me.
02:24 - I can't wait for the day I don't have to be here.
02:26 - Go on, go back to your dad.
02:28 - I might learn the guitar myself.
02:30 - That's just how funny.
02:31 - Takes years of practice, commitment.
02:33 - Are you really going to talk to me about commitment?
02:36 - She's talking about the,
02:38 'cause there's a physicality to her,
02:40 but it reflects where she is emotionally
02:43 at any given point.
02:44 If she's putting up a mask,
02:45 if she's trying to be strong,
02:46 if she's trying to be vulnerable,
02:47 she's trying to be flirty,
02:48 you know, all that kind of stuff.
02:49 Can you talk about physicality and forming emotionality
02:52 in terms of Flora?
02:53 Because it's such a big thing with her.
02:56 - Yeah, and that was something
02:57 I really wanted to get across.
02:58 And I just, I had,
03:01 sometimes I think about animals,
03:03 sometimes I don't.
03:04 A lot of actors use animal work,
03:06 but for this, I was like, she's an ostrich.
03:09 And I had to just, 'cause you know,
03:13 if you see an ostrich, they look really beautiful
03:16 and they've got, you know, their wings
03:18 and they're sort of flirty and fun,
03:20 but they'd also knock you out, you know?
03:22 They could also headbutt you.
03:23 And the way that they walk,
03:25 there's a purpose to them.
03:27 The way that they cock their head,
03:29 all of that stuff, I really brought into Flora.
03:32 And I think then once you sort of feel her open up
03:37 to the music, to her son,
03:39 all of that physicality, you can kind of let go
03:42 and sort of be more in the emotional world.
03:45 But establishing, this is who this person is on screen,
03:49 I think the ostrich really helped me.
03:52 (keyboard clicking)
03:53 - We're ready to teach you how to shred the knob on guitar.
03:57 - So you want to learn the guitar?
04:00 - This is a gift you can take to your grave.
04:02 - What's your problem?
04:03 - I didn't know I had a problem.
04:05 - You're teaching guitar online, love?
04:08 - What are you hoping to get out of this?
04:09 - I thought this guitar might make my son think I'm cool.
04:12 - I'll be back in an hour.
04:12 - I don't care.
04:13 - How annoying is he?
04:14 - Very annoying.
04:15 (keyboard clicking)
04:16 - What is that?
04:17 - Can you talk about the context of those questions?
04:19 'Cause you know, obviously Carney can talk
04:21 in those sort of musical intonations,
04:23 but there's also a primality
04:25 'cause you're dealing with family
04:26 and how do people protect versus, you know,
04:29 their goals or ambitions.
04:31 Can you talk about sort of those questions
04:33 in the psyche of her that you wanted to examine?
04:36 Because you know, what's important to her shifts?
04:39 - Absolutely, and at the beginning of the film,
04:43 it's like almost this relationship
04:46 has been the reason why she's not happy.
04:49 And this, you know, kid that she had when she was young
04:53 is holding her back from her life
04:55 and it's all the kid's fault.
04:57 But, you know, at the end of the day,
04:59 the kid's a lot like her.
05:01 And I think she recognizes all the things
05:04 she doesn't like in herself, she sees in her son.
05:07 And so the story is really about them realizing
05:11 that they're each other's answer.
05:13 And that, you know, that scene in the courtroom
05:17 when she looks at him and he looks at her
05:20 is one of my favorite, you know, moments.
05:22 And that was actually John just off the cuff
05:25 coming up with that idea.
05:27 But to me, that felt like Flora was sort of accepting
05:32 the job and going, "Okay, this is my life.
05:35 This is what I'm meant to do
05:37 and I'm ready to accept this now and take this on."
05:41 - Play it again.
05:42 - Please just make me a cheese toastie.
05:44 (upbeat music)
05:46 - Please.
05:49 - After.
05:50 Do you have a lyric?
05:59 - I have these, but they're not finished yet.
06:00 - Come on.
06:01 (upbeat music)
06:04 - Come on, girl, you know how much I want you.
06:08 Like a ghost, I'm going to haunt you.
06:10 Meet me at the crib, bring your friends.
06:13 Maybe we can drive a Mercedes Benz.
06:15 We'll hang out poolside, have a drink.
06:17 Swimming against the tide, not gonna sink.
06:19 Come on, girl, let's get in trouble.
06:21 Shake and not stir the James Bond from Dublin.
06:23 - What's it called?
06:27 - Dublin '07, like James Bond, but Dublin.
06:30 - Ah, you need a better title.
06:33 - I mean, you were talking about humor before.
06:35 Humor has to do with timing,
06:36 but it also has to do with understanding
06:39 the tone of what's going on, you know?
06:40 And that can be universal.
06:42 It can be, you know,
06:43 'cause when you're going back and forth with Joe,
06:45 it's, you know, it's an American
06:47 versus sort of an Irish context.
06:49 Could you sort of talk about finding the humor,
06:51 finding those moments, because obviously, you know,
06:54 with the actor who plays your husband, it's the same thing,
06:56 but it's a different dynamic.
06:57 Can you talk about transferring those energies
06:59 in certain scenes?
07:01 - Oh, absolutely.
07:01 I mean, that's what I love also,
07:04 is like marrying the American culture
07:06 with the Irish culture, with Joe and I and our characters,
07:10 I thought was done so well.
07:12 And Irish people have such a strong sense of humor,
07:16 but it's a specific sense of humor, you know?
07:19 Like some people might not like it,
07:21 and it's quite, you know, upfront.
07:23 And so, yeah, I think the relationship
07:27 between her and Ian is different
07:29 because they have that rapport.
07:31 They're both Irish.
07:31 They both can kind of go at each other
07:33 in a playful way, in a hurtful way,
07:35 but that's sort of how they communicate.
07:36 But with Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character,
07:40 it was like, he was like, "Whoa."
07:43 You know, he cancels out of the chat,
07:45 and it takes a while for them to get into a groove.
07:48 So yeah, humor's massively, massively important
07:53 to who she is, especially.
07:57 ♪ Maybe we could call it home ♪
08:02 (guitar music)
08:05 - So now it just needs a killer bridge.
08:11 - What's a bridge?
08:13 - Bridge is a change for eight bars after the second chorus.
08:19 - Okay.
08:21 Sounds amazing.
08:24 - That's better, right?
08:25 - Yeah, that actually works.
08:26 - I really struggled with that song.
08:29 - It's very intimate, isn't it?
08:33 - Singing together like that.
08:34 It's a bit like,
08:37 we just made love or something.
08:42 - No, it's not like that.
08:44 - In a way, though.
08:45 I do feel a little bit naked right now.
08:48 I think music is all about romance.
08:52 - And my last question, thank you very much.
08:53 It has to do, well, it's interesting,
08:55 'cause you look at her path, you know,
08:57 the expectation of what she'd like to be,
08:59 what she thought she could be,
09:01 versus the contentment of who she is.
09:03 You know, those are two specific paths,
09:05 but that has to do with mindset,
09:07 just the questions she asks herself,
09:10 the questions you, as the actress, ask yourself about her.
09:13 Could you talk about both those themes,
09:15 like expectation and contentment,
09:18 but also those questions that you had to ask yourself
09:21 to make her very, very real to you?
09:24 - Yeah, I mean, weirdly, you know,
09:26 I felt like I was going on my own little Flora journey
09:29 as an actor, playing Flora,
09:31 because I was doing something outside
09:33 of what I had expected of myself.
09:36 And yeah, I think Flora just watching her
09:42 be so sort of closed off and so stuck in her ways,
09:45 and then sort of open up to this new experience,
09:48 because she's just at a point in her life
09:50 where she needs something new,
09:52 and how that can completely transform
09:55 every little thing in her life,
09:56 that one guitar from the skip has transformed
10:00 her relationship with her child
10:01 and her relationship with herself,
10:03 and the possibilities,
10:05 not that she has to go off and be a superstar,
10:07 but the possibilities of who she could be
10:09 and finding her value, you know?
10:12 And I felt that a little bit too when I did the movie.
10:15 I felt like, wow, I can do things that I'm scared of,
10:18 and it's gonna be okay.
10:19 - Why don't you ask her out?
10:21 - Can I try that on?
10:22 - It's too big.
10:22 - That's the look.
10:23 - Yeah, for tortles.
10:26 ♪ Gucci, Gucci, Gucci, Gucci ♪
10:28 - She's totally out of my league.
10:29 - Let's write a song just to hear your passion.
10:31 - Express yourself.
10:33 (upbeat music)
10:35 (upbeat music)
10:39 (upbeat music)
10:41 ♪♪