>> rose: welcome to the program. we begin this evening with jim parsons, the actor who's now on braidbroadway in "an act of god." >> i always wanted to do theater. there's many other things i enjoy doing and i find are wise and feel good to do, whether mediums, movie maybe another tv show, but in the back of my -- i have a dormant, anytime there's a space nothing happening in theater to fit in. >> rose: some people say they go back to broadway because it's necessary to reset them. >> it does. there is a very going home aspect to it which i started doing. >> rose: we conclude with carey mulligan. her play is called "skylight" on broad way now and her new film is "far from the madding crowd."

>> she's a mistress of her own property, owns her own land, she's not interested in being married. all the things you imagine when you read a great piece of victorian literature is a girl looking for a husband and that's where the story -- with our story, we start with the character who turns down a proposal of marriage from an eligible man and that her journey, that's not what she's looking for in her life in the beginning, and i was so joined to that and the idea of working with her. >> rose: carey mulligan when we continue. >> and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and information services worldwide. captioning sponsored by rose communications

from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. >> rose: the great jim parsons is here. he is a four-time emmy award-winning actor. he is star of cbs's hit comedy "the big bang theory," the highest rated comedy on television and one to have moths successful series in syndication. he now returns to broadway and stars in a new play as none other than the almighty himself. it is called "an act of god." i am pleased to have jim parsons at this table for the first time. welcome. >> thank you good to be here. >> rose: so when you have this huge hit, did you long to go to broadway or did this happen some other way, somebody else longed hoffyou on broadway? >> i longed to go to broadway and do theater in general. i always longed to do theater. there are many other things i enjoy doing and i find are wise to do and feel good to do, other

mediums, whether it be a movie or maybe another tv show but in the back of my -- i have a dormant, anytime there's a space that nothing else is happening in theater to fit in. >> rose: some people go back and forth and say it's necessary because it resets them. >> it does. there's a very going home aspect to it, if that's what you started doing, which i started doing. there's a very going home aspect to it and there really is no other medium. even though we tape the tv show live, still you can have several takes to do things, and there is a separation between you and the audience with the camera. they're there but there's four cameras between you. this is the only medium where the audience plays such a critical role, more than i think that they understand about theater. i think -- >> rose: how do they do that? just by being there. if they sit in stoney silence they're making a huge impact on you. this play, especially, i'm talking to them the whole time. but in any play, and i think that's why you always hear about

the death of theater. for all my life i have been saying theater is dying, theater is dying. i don't believe that will ever happen because nothing else replicates -- a live sporting event, i guess is the only other thing i'm thinking of where the live audience has such an impact. >> rose: clearly in sporting events. >> clearly in sporting events burks live theater whether drama, comedy, doesn't matter. >> rose: and sometimes i think live political conventions and things like that. >> absolutely. >> rose: if the enthusiasm is so great it can rev up the speaker. >> it changes what you're hearing. it puts a tone to it, this is very successful -- or not. >> rose: you're playing god here. >> god's playing me is really the premise. he has some things he wanted to tell the people. >> he wants you -- puts it i have a winning likable personality and feels his profound message will be easier to take given my off beat

charm. one thing i definitely am is a brand. okay. i am an established well-respected brand, okay? and when i see some backup wide receiver from dip (bleep) university on sport center point to me after scoring a touchdown that cheapens the brand! this is very simple -- i'm not with you when your team wins. i'm not against you when your team loses. i'm not with or against you when you win or lose. i am not a laker or a cowboy or a red wing or -- and please listen carefully to this -- i am not a yankee, okay? i don't guide the ball between the uprights or into the basket or out of the stadium or into your opponent's crotch. you won the game, congratulations. you're a super bowl m.v.p., mosul tomozltoff.

whether you're an athlete or not is meaningless to me. i do not influence the outcome of sporting events to affect the winner. i only on extremely rare occasions influence the outcome of sporting events to affect the spread. (laughter) >> rose: how did you come to this? >> my agent. he said while i didn't know it i spoke to this writer david javerbaum, and said i have a client always itching to do theater and might be a good match for the material, what do you think? he was on board with it. they had the conversation without my knowing it and he sent me the play. he said, what do you think? there is a lot of things up in the air and he's always trying to keep our hands in several pots to make sure something happens, bless him. and i loved it. i'll tell you something weird, though, is what i loved about it

is i had never done a show where i was on stage the whole time. i had never done a show where i talked to the audience the whole time. and -- and i thought it was very funny and well-written. but these were the qualities i liked much more than considering the god aspect. it was really after committing -- >> rose: you're on every moment. >> every moment. now, i'm sitting which is really nice. i sit on a couch for 90 minutes. >> rose: david javerbaum, as you said said the grand idea wasn't to undercut religion. what was it to do? >> oh, god, i don't know what his ultimate goal is. i tell you what i feel, and it's that for tall the fun he's -- for all the fun he's having at religion's expense, at god's expense, and then fun with religion, with god and our beliefs and the things we to in the name -- we do in the name of religion, with all that fun he's having, there is something so thoughtful about what he's done.

i don't know david's -- i don't even know what religion david is. i don't know his feelings about religion, he could be an atheist, but he has given this topic such serious thought and for as much fun as he has, i don't feel he plays fast and loose with it. he has his own version of the serious discussion about it about the commandments, about what is this kind of being that created this. >> rose: is it satire? i guess to a degree. well, let me ask you if this is satirical, i'm sacksly not sure. it's god's come down and is having this -- as human type discussion as he's capable of. he's trying to relate to the people and only mildly successful because he's god. so i don't know if that's satire or not, but it is an interesting concede, you know, what if god

were one of us. in this case, if he wanted to come own do and host his own charlie rose segment i'll ask myself questions. that kind of thing. >> i understand celebrities. that's why i said i had some ambivalence. you see celebrities are my chosen people. (laughter) i know the jews are also my chosen people, there is a lot of overlap. (laughter) celebrities are like me -- they are adored, worshiped, tantrum-prone, we live in our own universe, our public appearances are limited and for promotional purposes only. (laughter) i get celebrities -- i mean, not when they die, but before. (laughter) i get why they take my name in vain. i get they wye they take all kinds of things in their veins. (laughter) and since i'm omnipresent i'm always with them. hmm? yeah, i have been there with them through the good times and the bad, the laughter and the

tears, the joy and the pain. in fact, i have seen celebrities at their lowest moments doing and thinking things no one else knows about. not that i would violate their privacy by telling you about them because i don't engage in god-sip. >> rose: how different is it for you? the primary different is you're on the whole time. there's no time to re-think. >> there's no rebooting. we're in the middle of previews as you and i talk, and i have found so far that it's a big joy to be out there the whole time, but i feel a different recall brace of energy happening -- recallhappening recalibration happening of me throughout the show.

there's no going back and getting your tires changed like in nascar. you do it yourself and on the fly. i sit the whole time, so physically it's not demanding at all. but i feel a certain sense of scintillation and exhaustion when i get off. >> rose: is sheldon a nerd? yeah, he's a genius. >> rose: what would you say. pompous but well meaning persnickety, particular, he has his own ways of doing things and most other ways are wrong. but he's not entirely without reason because he is a genius and has a scientific mind and when push comes to shove he typically will bend to the fact if that's what it takes. and the relationship of riders on big bang have made him between the character of amy is

so organic to the quirkiness of those two that it comes off to me very, very honest and it's an example of he's willing to admit to himself that she is important to him and so, he's willing to concede certain things to her that he would never concede to anyone else. i don't know. >> rose: how would you change him? >> how would i or did i? >> rose: how will you. how will i change him... i won't, consciously whatever they write, i'll do. i have a very -- i was going to say odd approach -- it's my approach to any role, but him i have been with for eight years now and it's always remained the same. i always feel like what i'm doing is what they've written and i'm not naive enough to believe that i have no particular way in which i'm bending it because it's me who's doing it but i really try to

take all my cues from what they've written and i try and let him be what he says he is. >> rose: did you feel how good it was at the beginning or did it become for you -- >> yes and no. i didn't feel it wasn't good. i felt that it was good. i did feel the oddities of doing a tv show immediately. we went and did the presentations and stuff where you talk to the press and you could tell, not everybody thought it sounded like a good idea. but what i knew -- you know, we were taping by then, already, even though it hadn't aired yet and i knew we were doing good work. i just didn't know if anybody would care. >> rose: did the language have a certain rhythm to it? >> always from the pilot, from the audition. i drilled the hell out of that audition for that very reason because i just -- you could see what they had done. it was so -- for a half-hour sitcom, it was so dense and so many words strung together and i

was just like, you know what's not funny? struggling with this. the only chance for this to be funny is -- >> rose: to have fun with it? yeah, it just falls out of your mouth. let the acting happen almost separate from it. the words are the words. to a degree it stayed that we. we have more characters on now the two women we've added and it's made sometimes less dialogue to memorize, which is nice. but it still rears its ugly head. >> rose: what's your price for memorizing dialogue? >> i do note cards as if i'm some sort of school student memorizing a public table. i write the last bit of a cue on the front and my whole line on the bag and just drill just drill, just drill. and it is for me a very muscular rehearsal process in that way. just right here. but again, my goal -- it's harder with tv when you only have five days, but in general

my goal is to have it where -- as if you've learned to dance and the feet know what to do. you can smile and whatever. and in this case, it's the mouth. that's the goal. >> rose: is it easier to do now with all the experience you've had as an actor or is it the same process? >> i think it's the same. i'm on the treadmill, as it were. like when i memorize this play, i was doing it while i was working on big bang and promoting the movie and all this stuff and in that way it's easier to fall into it and do it but doesn't make it faster. >> rose: what's it about "the big bang theory"? >> "the big bang theory"... well, in it's simplest form, it was originally about four really smart guys who are not so good in the real world who meet this one girl who is good in the real world but perhaps not as bright -- to put it mildly -- no... (laughter) but in the process it's revealed its truer heart which

i think is the tale of outsiders and who find each other. >> rose: yeah. and who make a family. and i think a lot of good tv, especially a lot of good comedies, are very much that, an odd group of maybe outliers who come together and make a family. i mean, i was just back there with something about seinfeld. it never fails seinfeld comes up in every conversation, it seems. what are they? they're kind of oddballs, right? >> rose: yeah. but they're family. and this, while obviously very different, is the same in that same way, you know. >> rose: roll tape. this is sheldon talking to amy who eats played by my i am bialik. >> sheldon, this is silly. i'm not missing another prom. i'm going upstairs now. goodbye. >> i really did think you looked

pretty. >> you did? es. so much so that i started to panic. >> well, you can relax. just because you think i look pretty, it doesn't mean we have to spend the night together. >> were you hoping we would because it's prom? >> i'm always hoping. but tonight i just wanted to have a nice time with you. maybe dance with someone who has arms. (laughter) >> thank you for understanding. of course, i understand. sheldon... there is something else i have been wanting to say, but before i do, i just -- i want you to know that you don't have to say it back. i know you're not ready and i don't want you to say it just because social conventions dictate -- >> i love you, too. (audience reacts) (applause) >> you said it.

there's no denying i have feelings for you that can't be explained in any other way. i briefly considered that i had a brain parasite. (laughter) but that seems even more farfetched. (laughter) the only conclusion is love. i know what's happening! this is a panic attack! my mom says to lie down with your feet elevated. >> okay. whoa, whoa whoa! just because i love you doesn't mean girls are allowed in my room! (laughter) >> rose: good scene. yes, and oddly a very easy screen which i give all credit to the writers. it was unlikely eight years ago

i thought those characters would tell another human being they loved them much less in a romantic way. the writers kept everybody so true to the original characters they were and grown very smallly, inc. mentally from there, so everything is a pleasure to do. >> rose: why was he fearful of commitment? >> i don't know -- i mean we've never gotten into any -- too many past issues that would say well, his father -- >> rose: i know that, but -- i know, but i think it has to do as much with the fact that he wants to be solely glorified himself as a scientist. he doesn't want to team with other people and share the glory, and i think that bleeds over to all other aspects. he's singularly focused on what he's doing and i think a lot of it is not wanting to share credit. >> rose: here's another scene with the two of you. >> leonard is as much a part of this paper as you are and he was overlooked. he's going to feel bad.

>> but it wasn't my fault. i didn't exclude him and i didn't write the article. >> remember that time you didn't get picked to pull the sword out at disneyland and they let the other kid do it? >> oh, that kid! poor leonard... >> exactly. for the record, that kid was a terrible choice. if you cry when you drop your cherub, you don't have what it takes to rule england (laughter) >> rose: was the laughter all studio audience lafayetteer? >> yeah, we've had laughter they've had to cut down and whatever. so who knows. >> rose: but you feed on that in the studio? >> oh, my god... with everything. and most importantly, the writers feed on it. if something's not working, they work on it right then and there. it really is the greatest gift we have. you know we're not taping in a vacuum where it's, like, well we know it's good and funny --

>> rose: how many times do you shoot the episode. >> we shoot the episode once and chronologically. some hot scenes may only go twice. sometimes we have been stuck for an hour in one little scene like that. >> rose: how will it work. something works all week, and then you get there and there's a disconnect and the audience doesn't like what the character's choices are, who knows what the reasoning is. i don't think they are -- the writers are never sellouts, well whatever pleases the audience but it is keeping it in line with the show and the greatest reminder we have of home base is that audience every week. they're the ones who at many levels, know what we're doing more than we do, you know. we're the forest for the trees you know. they have the view and go -- >> rose: they have the rhythm, too. they're so tuned into it. >> completely. >> rose: so tell me where you think you are now. you're on broadway, you have the hottest sitcom you've come off

of that. what is it you want to do, other than what you're doing? >> no, i know. when we were in school, i went to grad school, undergrad. it was always the more specific you can be the better off you are, as far as acting, or anything, probably. and i believe that to be true. >> rose: what does that mean, the more specific? >> like the example i had was like, if uh you could aim at something like i want to be the neighbor to jack and whoever on this sitcom or whatever, you know, you may not hit that, but you have a real road to go down. >> rose: absolutely. i always had a little bit of trouble with it. i don't know if i'm having more or less trouble with it right now. my biggest thing always is to keep working, to keep working. and in that regard i just try and keep my ears open and my heart open to things that i read

and go this feels like the next right thing. i mean look, any business, as you know but it's definitely a tricky business as far as trying to dictate anything, you know. i mean, the success of our tv show is a good example of that. there's no way to dictate that you know. >> rose: or tomb duplicate it. no, because you do what you feel is right or funny and true and authentic, and hopefully someone will want to watch. the same goes for every audition and everything you want to do, whether acting or producing or whatever. you can only go for whatever you want when you see it and you're like, yep and hopefully they will have you, whoever "they" is in that case. >> rose: great to have you. wonderful to be here. thank you very much. >> rose: he and i were sitting in a restaurant and i saw him over there and i thought, my god, i said, that's jim parsons and amanda said, really, it is!

so we made a date. >> made a date. >> rose: thank you for coming. thank you very, very much. >> rose: back in a moment. stay with us. >> rose: carey mulligan is here. she is currently on broadway in david hare's "skylight." her co-star said she's dead on, immaculate and impeccable. it led to a tony nomination with six others for the play. she also stars as bathsheba in the film "far from the madding crowd." here's the trailer. >> he's asked you everything! oh, my god! ♪ >> from now on you have a mistress and a master. it is my intention to astonish you all. (laughter) >> ms. everdene is here now!

you don't think i would. no, you wouldn't! hey, hey! ow much in. 5 pounds a quarter. very well. miss everdene, would you marry me? >> i don't want a husband. if i had a husband i would want them to pay me and you would never be able to do it. >> ms. everdene, your neighbor. i want very much to have you as my wife. >> i don't think i've ever seen a face as beautiful as yours.

>> you should have nothing to do with her. >> don't listen to him. don't believe it. >> why? it is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in a language cheefl made by men to express theirs. >> i'm so foolish to think i might stand a chance. one day i will leave here. you can be sure of that. >> ms. everdene will never marry you. >> rose: i am pleased to have carey mulligan back at this table. welcome. >> thank you. >> rose: so much to talk about. that film but also look at this, everywhere i look, there you are -- vogue magazine, ravishing

carey mulligan is the season's most romantic movie and then the "wall street journal." but mostly on broadway "skylight." david hare said about you if i was starting a national theater with an acting company like olivier had i'd start around her. that would be a nice adventure, wouldn't it? >> that would be such a good adventure. i'd do it with david if he asked. >> rose: what is it about david that would want would make you want to do it with him? >> he's just an extraordinary writer and just a wonderful person. we've had the privilege of getting to spend a lot of time with him on the plane. he was down during rehearsals and previews. he's brilliant. he's very much the writer on the project. we're working with stephen, too. he's just so gifted. >> rose: what i love about him is the curiosity he has for the

things that he wants the to do whether politics in the middle east or whether it's male-female relationships or all of that. >> yes. >> rose: curiosity seems very contemporary to me. >> yeah, and he's an observer. i think that's why he and stephen work together so well. they're both curious and observing over time, even trivial conversation they're like that. >> rose: until he got stephen to do this one? >> yeah, and hasn't been done well since bill did it, i don't think. >> rose: when was that? 15 years ago. london with michael and william in london, then 15 years later we did nit london. >> rose: is this an instant yes when they called you? >> yes. the script is just so -- i wanted to do a play. i did a play a couple of years ago which was a bergman movie

with david and very dark and difficult. and i was just looking for the next play and i always wanted to work with stephen dougherty. i never read "skylight," i started reading it and i read ten pages and i thought i hope it doesn't get bad! it got better and better and by the end i was completely in heaven. >> rose: it was a character you loved. you have to like her. >> completely. >> rose: yeah. it's truly great writing and not the kind of writing you can do for 12 weeks in london and 12 weeks on broadway and never tire of it because there is so much to it. >> rose: is it different in london versus new york? >> it is. it's a british play with a lot of different british references and the audience react

differently. >> rose: tell me about it? tom and kyra worked together. after a couple of years he came back based on the relationship which lasted for six years which his wife didn't know about. and after about six years his wife discovered and she left. so you're meeting them now three years after that happened. >> kyra left? and the wife and he stayed together and she died. >> rose: and he ends up at your doorstep. >> yes, on a cold night. >> rose: the kind of drafty apartment. >> yes. he's sort of living a mo monastic lifestyle. >> rose: is she on the rebound or just found something she can engage? >> i think she found what she wants to do with her life. i think initially it was probably a reaction to the lifestyle she had with him which

was very affluent and privileged and in the chelsea world in london and she went the other direction. actually in that, i think she found what she really wanted to do with her life. >> rose: then he shows up? then he shows up and questions every single time laboriously. >> rose: and what are the possibilities for her when he shows up? >> i think initially there's a possibility of them being together. >> rose: back. yeah. >> rose: he spends the night. yeah, he spends the night. and there's a possibility of a reunion. but i think he's always held at arms length through the play. then as the play develops you see ultimately what it is that keeps them and will keep them apart. >> rose: the interesting thing to me -- i love him as he knows and you know and everybody who watches this show knows. i think he's a wonderful actor and so beguiling, his personality, the reticence of it all for me. >> yeah, totally. >> rose: and when he comes in

the room, she's in this flat. he's dancing all the time. he's constantly in motion. he'll take a chair move it out and move it back. it's like choreography. >> it is. >> rose: did he or stephen create that? >> it was kind of a collaboration between the two of them. stephen's a very straightforward director. he doesn't mess around. we were running the play by the second afternoon. >> rose: you were running the play for two days. >> yeah, first when we read it in the afternoon we saw it and the second day we did a run-through. we had a huge script. bill obviously knew all of it. >> rose: well, he'd done it before (laughter) >> so, yeah, we just started doing it. it's a combination of bill and who he is. he's fascinating to watch all the time anyway. >> rose: what's fascinating about him? >> he's like no one i ever met before. he's sort of me mecurial.

there's a point in the play where he hops and leaps up that he didn't do in london. it was brilliant. i didn't know any of my lines because i came straight off the job and had to learn to cook the meals. i would look up and see bill doing this incredible dance but it was between the two of them they came up with that. >> rose: he's a very interesting actor. tell me your sense of him. i mean he's a man who never wanted to do shakespeare. >> no. he doesn't believe the airy fairy school of acting -- the wishy-washy. when he met stephen on "skylight," he said to stephen

i hope we're not going to be figuring out what our animals are. he didn't want to do anything fluffy and lie around and talk about our feelings. >> rose: why did she not want to reignite the relationship? >> because she ultimately -- because ultimately i think he broke her trust and broke it in such a significant way that she had her heart completely broken and she would never be able to trust him again and she fundamentally knows that's true. >> rose: she found out the fact that when he broke her trust the last time he still had that in him. >> that he was still capable of that and there was no significant change in him. what's great about the play, you see so much of the history and nostalgia and they still have it, but he hasn't really changed and to a degree she hasn't either and she can't compromise, so there's a mix between lovely memories and being in the exact same place as they used to be

sphoo do i remember, he left the show for downstairs, that was the first sign. he came to the apartment but didn't tell the chauffeur to go. >> yeah, he leaves frank downstairs. that's the first argument they have that he left the driver outside. how dare he leave the driver outside, knowing -- >> rose: kind of like a visit. yeah. that's one of many that sort of escalated. >> rose: you have a wonderful speech about equality. >> yeah, it's a great piece of writing. >> rose: but seemed to me like you're so into that. >> yeah. i do love that. >> rose: what do you call that? just a speech? >> yeah, you know, it's one of those -- it reminds me a lot of my friend mabel who she's a -- she campaigns for the labor party in london and i can always picture her having this moment and having this speech and yeah, it's a great piece of writing and it's the first time that you really see and take him

on in a real way in the play. >> rose: the act of doing theater in new york, you are in west end or wherever, is that something you have to do? you have to keep that sort of as close to you and not do all these movies without revisiting the theater? >> it's more just where the roles are and this is where this great opportunity came up. i mean, i do miss this in the way i don't films. i don't watch a film and wish i was in it. but if i go to the theater and see a great play i get that feeling i'd like to get back on stage. so i have had that a little bit. but it's mainly the part that's so brilliant and less interesting film roles around. >> rose: is it the text that makes it interesting? >> yeah, the text and the people. the play is brilliant tbowrks get to do it with bill is just, you know, i couldn't imagine it.

i've always wanted to work with him. i've always wanted to work with him on stage and to get to do this play with him where it's matthew beard is with us at the end of the play. he plays his son. but it's me and bill for the majority of the play. >> rose: as combatants. exactly, and it's so exciting. no more exciting to be on stage for anything than that. >> rose: you also said if you look at a role if you can't bear so see somebody else in that role you have to have it? >> yeah, that's been my little policy for the last couple of years. when i did an education and then i worked for never let me go which i loved the book. and my agent who looked after me since i was 18 she said you're in a privileged position and this may not last forever, it's a transient business, but whilst it does, you should take the role if you can't bear anyone else do it. >> rose: what about the the character in "far from the madding crowd"? >> that was the feeling i had

from that. >> rose: she's independent spirited. >> it's a complete anomaly in a victorian novel. she's unlike any other character that you -- >> rose: because of her strength? >> because of her strength because of the fact she's completely bucking social convention. she's a mistress of her own property, she's not interested in being married all the things that you imagine when you read a great piece of victorian literature is a girl looking for a husband and with our story we start with a character who turns down a proposal of marriage from an eligible man and that her journey, that's not what she's looking for in her life in the beginning. i was so drawn to that and so drawn to working with thomas vinterberg. >> rose: you also choose roles because to have the director. >> yes. i read it for this film and

then i read the script, but i don't know if i would have done it without working with thomas because i was not that interested in doing costume dramas, felt a little nervous about them, because english people think that's just what we do so i had been staying away from that kind of victorian drama for a while but the opportunity to work with thomas was just too great sphoo what did you learn from him? >> a real freedom in that genre you know. that he didn't have any sort of real rules. that he was sort of a -- you know, that in his sort of -- his desire to make the story feel relevant, there were no kind of but upped up rules of how people behaved at that time or how people spoke and that doesn't lead to a lot of anachronisms, it just leads to people feeling like people rather than people in a costume drama.

>> oh... bathsheba everdene, i've brought you a lamb. >> oh... how cute! >> he's come too soon last winter so i thought you would like to rear it instead. >> thank you. that's very kind. >> the lamb is not why i came. go on. well, miss everdene, i wanted to ask, would you like to marry me? i've never asked anyone before. >> no, i should hope not. well...

perhaps i -- um -- i should -- i should leave. >> there are some things to consider. >> is someone waiting for you? no, but that doesn't mean i'll marry you. >> good day to you, then. >> rose: you said it's shocking how real bathsheba is. what is it about her realness that's so -- is it this strength, is it the toughness the independence the intelligence? >> i think she feels real to -- she feels real to me and to a modern-day audience. i think at the time the book and the characters are widely criticized because that was so against the grain and how women weren't meant to behave or feel, and so every critic that wrote the book said the only real

character was the sheep but if you real it now it's amazing and there are whole passages where he dives into her mind and it's authentic. >> rose: how do you translate that to the screen diving into her mind? >> it's difficult. it's a two-hour adaptation of an epic novel and that's a great challenge of thing lke that. we started with a good script with david nichols. we felt very strongly about the book. i was a real stickler for the book and i'd bring it on set with me every day and we would argue. if it was up to me, i would have had the entire book word by word on the screen and you can't do that for an adaptation. >> rose: you can do that on television. >> exactly. but, you know, you just dry and infuse it with as much -- if you love the book and you're really wanting to be faithful to the book, you hope that gets on the screen.

>> rose: what's her relationship with each of the suiters. >> they represent part of her life. michael is the social norm. that's what people expect from her if she was going to do the right thing, the smart choice, he would marry him. but oak is love and integrity and honestly. and sergeant troy is a dastardly soldier. >> rose: is that the one she automatically likes because he's a bad boy? >> she's an unconventional girl and he speaks in an unconventional way. when she meets gabriel oak he's incredibly inarticulate and bumbling and his proposal is a disaster and that's not very appealing and she wants somebody who will grab her. and he doesn't.

and troy says all the things you don't say to women and she finds that dazzling. >> rose: like? like you're the most beautiful woman i've ever seen and meet me in the forest. >> rose: before you found mr. perfect, you didn't have men say to you, oh, you're the most beautiful woman i've ever seen? >> yeah, and i fell for it! that's why it's so real! (laughter) she makes all the ridiculous mistakes you make. >> rose: she falls for it. yeah. >> rose: this is part of what he's trying to do is convince her to marry him as well. >> i'm offering you shelter. , a safe harbor as my wife. >> you must at least admire my persistence. >> i do.

and like me? yes. and respect me? yes. very much. >> which is it like or respect? it is difficult for a woman to define her feels in a language chiefly made by men to express theirs. >> rose: and then comes sergeant troy. >> he says those things but doesn't mean them. >> rose: he's a bad boy. he's a bad boy, left his poor pregnant almost wife somewhere else. >> rose: she's attracted to him. >> yeah. >> rose: she's strong, though! yeah, it's a great line where it says if -- she fell in love with troy the only way a self-reliant woman can do when she loses her self-reliance. >> rose: that's a good line. she falls for him as only a self-reliant woman can do when she lose hers self-reliance.

>> yes. >> rose: she's lost. she can no longer rely on herself, she's gone. >> yeah. >> rose: hook, line and sinker. >> until she wakes up and realizes what's happened and she's gone to a point where, in those times there's nothing to do with you to get married. >> rose: you've talked with your agent and she said you have to live this because it's not going to be there forever. >> yeah. >> rose: is it because to be there where you are is only for young women? >> i think there is definitely a period of your career and age -- >> rose: 20 to 40? yeah, i think so. >> rose: not 25 to 35. i think, maybe yeah, sort of mid 20s. it depends. some actresses who play much older and much younger. >> rose: like merle and people like that. >> yeah, but there is also a lack of great roles. so, you know in whatever age you're in, that's what it's going to be. there's not going to be a lot of

brilliant parts around. but, yeah, i suppose that's deafnlt restriction in a way. >> rose: is there a common denominator to the women you've played? >> i mean, i have been looking to play real people. >> rose: real, authentic. yeah, feel like regardless of the size of the role, they feel like they have their own story, they're not just an accessory to somebody else's story and are three-dimensional, believable women whether good people or bad people but real. >> rose: i want to take a look at the last scene since we talked about sergeant troy, take a look at this. this is again talking to him. so we saw all here. roll tape. >> what angers you exactly? what i said or the way i said it? you must know. there must be some man who tells you that you're beautiful. >> not to my face, no. but there is someone who kisses you. >> i've never been kissed.

do you forgive me? i do not. why? because! the things you say. >> i said that you are beautiful. >> do you fight as well as you speak? >> better. >> rose: how lucky were you to play nina in segal? >> very lucky. sort of spiled in a way -- spoiled in a way because it was a great stage role for a young actor. >> rose: it has everything. it has everything. i felt so much affinity with her and also to be able to play in that cast and with that

director. >> rose: who else? christopher. we played in london. and going in and out with peter. >> rose: you were 21. 21 in london and 22 in new york. >> rose: what's great about the role? >> it's just so -- i mean the whole script is the most beautiful script but just an incredible study of a young mind and of a young actress and it just perfectly captures that kind of burning desire that you have when you're young. >> rose: to be as good as you can be, do you simply have to live and experience or do you do something else that makes you a better actor? >> i think living and being in the world and not getting -- >> rose: there's no skill you neat to get other than living. >> no. you don't just live in a bubble. you engage in the world -- i think if you go from job to job to job and all you know is a

film fir and inside of a dressing room, maybe you can suffer a bit but sent just living. >> rose: what are your passions outside of this? >> mainly being at home with my family, but i work with two brilliant charities in the u.k. for children in conflict. in london i went to the democratic republic's congo with them and it's the first time i have been able to do something with my job to talk about useful things. >> rose: did you see the film that won the academy award? >> yes, i did. brilliant. yeah. and, so, yeah, i mean, it's that other part of life that's important to keep involved with because it's so easy to get stuck in the bub of the world that we're in and i think that

makes you suffer. >> rose: you're in sufferragette. >> yes. >> rose: who's in that. meryl streep. >> rose: and your character. set in 1912 in london and about the women's rights movement in london. it's a story fictional -- >> rose: of women in power. yeah, and around the militant sufferragettes. these were the ones who were chaining themselves to buildings and blowing up churches and emily who threw herself in front of horses. i think i had a very kind of school girl idea of what a suffragette was. she walked through the streets and were on hunger strike and police brutality and imprisoned

for years and the real struggle they went through. >> rose: you mentioned a bit about the time you were cooking in "skylight." here's a scene with you and bill cooking chili. here it is. >> there's no problem. it's all in the hand. (laughter) what? >> no, really, what are you thinking? >> are you putting the chili in front of us (laughter) usually, i try the chili so that it infuses the oil. (laughter) >> ah-ha. i see. i don't do that. i'm doing it the way i prefer.

>> ehhh... (laughter) >> the noise he makes brings the house down. >> rose: i know it does. this is when she's explaining her choice of apartment. >> i have to tell you, this place is really quite reasonable. >> oh, really... as it happens, i get it at a very cheap rent. >> i should hope so! you've lost all sense of reality. this place isn't special! it's not specially horrible. this is how everyone lives. please! this is interesting. it wasn't until i left your restaurant, the ricotta-stuffed restaurant of yours, it wasn't until i deserted that chelsea -- >> i seem to remember you liked it pretty well. >> i do like it. that's not something i denied but when i got out of your limousine and left that warm buckle of money where you exist

and most people live in a very different way. >> of course. and you have no right to look down on that. >> of course. thank you. in one thing you're different from i've with one else in this part of town. >> how is that? you're the only person who's fought so hard to get into it while i've everyone else is fighting to get out! (laughter) >> it's so funny watching it in front of an audience. when we're on stage we're meant to be in a shared moment but when you watch it from out there -- >> rose: when you go back tonight, watch it. other than suffragettes, that's done. >> yeah, it's out in october. >> rose: what's next? i don't know. i have "skylight" until the end of june and i'll see what comes up. >> rose: what is this? that's a se sea gull and that's from the sufferrettes that says love overcometh. when emily davis died they

printed the suffragette and there was a cartoon that said love overcometh. >> rose: thank you for joining us. see you next time. for more about this show and other episodes, visit us online at pbs.org and charlierose.com. captioning sponsored by rose communications captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> rose: funding for "charlie rose" has been provided by: >> rose: additional funding provided by: >> and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and information services worldwide.

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