good evening from los angeles, tonight a conversation with holly hunter, the actress portrayed powerful characters throughout her career. she joins us discussing her role of the project, the project is based on the real life comedian and a student who falls in love but struggled. our conversations with holly hunter is coming up in just a moment. we are glad you are joining us. ♪

and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. >> thank you. ♪ please welcome holly hunter back. the oscar in wither is back of the ran i can comedy "big six." before our conversation with holly hunter you are seeing from the "big six."

>> you guys broke up. i am not sure why you are here. you don't have to worry about being committed. you did not want to when she was awake and there is no need to do it when she's unconscious. >> well, it is more complicated than that. >> you have already done -- >> just give a second. >> um, this is i guess romantic comedy. >> yes. i mean -- yeah. [ laughter ] >> no awkward there. >> i only say it to holly because there is, special true story number one, and there is some serious issues in this thing and you guys have to find the funny around those things.

well, you know the interesting thing is a great way to put it except that i don't think we have to find what's funny. it is a rom com by definition. they firmly wanted to be in that jo genre and that really is and that gives us permission to discuss stuff that's much more serious but always in that conta conta conte context. >> you like comedy as an actor in. >> yes, it is really fun. >> i have been away from it in movies for a while. it is really fun. >> i ask that -- what was about this script that pulls you back?

>> the pedigree of this movie is fabulous starting with camel and patel and mike showalter it is fill filled with incredible comedy stand up who understands what's funny. >> there is something about the movie that there were experiences that i don't know about, that i wanted to know about. and the movies is a bit of an expert because it is an inside track. it is told from the inside. >> uh-huh. >> from kamil and emily's point of views. i was very attracted to that. >> a quick comment and a question. the comic, i read in a number of place, i know you will never say this because you are too modest.

i am told it was terribly excited whexcit excited when you sign on to have someone of a stature on the set with him. the question though, when you situate yourself in a space where you are surrounded by this experts expe exper expert about the subject matter, are there any intimidations? >> yes, they got a totally different process than mine. at the same time, i have been doing this for a few decades. i do have a way of work ing andi do have a way to identify things by myself, is it going to work or not work on the pay? i do trust that. i was a group with people because they are so good at what they do because they got good instinct themselves. there was a tremendous amount of

conne conferen confidence. >> yeah. that tropical storm hermine gave me a lot of room to comment and participate and that was key. this was a true collaboration and that starts with judd and mike showalter and goes down from there. you have a process that impa pi. does it change based on the project. >> it changes based on the project. totally. each project, i can feel like i am a different person. yea >> yeah. it is a little schizophrenia. >> yeah, that's the fun part, is it? i play the same boring guy every

night. >> yeah, but your audience does not feel that way, they are tuning in. >> because of you. >> they're tuning in for you. that's the fun part to be able to be the social kmcamillion, y know? >> an emotional camillion or partially describing what i do but the aspect comes with trust and of course, we were talking, do you know what you want? sometimes i don't know what i want. do i trust myself? sometimes i don't even know but i can throw my hat in the ring and hope for the best. >> depending on how much i trust the other people is how much freedom i can allow myself to have. >> yeah. on that particular set.

we were talking about do you know what you want? >> do you know what you really want? >> i think you both confessed that it was easier for us. it is easier for us that we both agree to know what we want professionally versiing personally. >> totally. why is it easier for you on a personal level? >> a professional thing, it really is singular. it is a community experience. >> sure. >> what you have here is a community experience. >> this is a committunity for y. when i sat down, if you are not happy, we are not happy. >> you have that philosophy with your crew and team here. a movie is much easier for me to part out. well, what do i want?

if you are a family and your life, the bounders are a little more blurred, i mean -- it is other people's happiness or absolutely that can be equal to your own or maybe even more in the subject of children. it gets a little more blurred. >> i agree. >> would you say amen and keep on moving past that, let me go back to this. yeah, you said something a moment ago, a few minutes ago that i want to dig into it if i can to get you unpack for me. that's the statement ta you made about the script in part turning you on because there is something that you wanted to learn and experience. you did not really know this. has it always been a requirement for you when you accept a role and you look for something to learn and you look for something that's going to allow you to grow as opposed to -- >> no, i got to make money.

>> did you say doubt or debt? >> dough. >> it is about dough. >> sometimes it is about the dough. >> i got you, just making sure that i heard you correctly. >> pure and simple. >> i need some cash. and sometimes i go wow, that is director that i want to really work with. david cronenburg, i hunted him for years. my agent harassed him with phone calls. is there anything for holly? i would have done it no matter what because i wanted the experience. i felt that way with director danny boyle who i thought was just brilliant and original and

frightening until i did danny's next movie because i really wanted to work with him and there are times when characters really calls out. it changes with my mood. >> yeah. >> impressing this issue only because i want to see where you go with this. i think i maybe entertained, i don't know. we'll see. >> should an artist make decisions just purely based on dough, holly hunter? >> i am not that artist. [ laughter ] >> that's mott not me. listen, i am almost 60, i have been doing this for a while. in order to do this for that long, you have to make decisions based on a lot of different criteria. the criteria has to shift and especially if you an actress or a woman wanting to carve out a living and acting, you got to shift with with the tide.

>> do you -- >> you cannot be unmoveable. >> you have to be fluid. >> you love following you. i am going to follow you again. let me ask whether or not as a woman, specifically, as a woman, you end up resenting that you have to make those shifts that you have to make those adjustments and make those compromises o f the word that i use, did that offend you in this business as a woman? >> well, -- that's an interesting question, because yes, of course, i offends me. that cannot be first for me. i cannot leave with that and i cannot do my work. it is weird where the political makes friends with the personals

in acting. you know that's why i am really happy to have an agent that does my contracts because all my stuff, you bump in hollywood with politics and dealing with negotiations and enough, particularly if you are an actre actress, you know like a few years ago of the whole thing that came up where -- >> who made more movie of what? >> exactly. that stuff kind of run on the ground with communications. this stuff is not going to be kept secret anymore. >> yeah, there could be rage with stuff like that and but i cannot leave with that, tav, i have to leave with something else that's positive in order to for me to feel creative and be creative and feel collaborative. >> let me -- okay, this is

getting good. there is a litany of reasons why i respect women. one of those reasons is because of this business specifically, d i do not know as a woman that i can focus and concentrate on doing my job if i knew that i was being dramatically under paid as a woman, standing next to a costar whose pedigree is similar to mine. i just want to confess, i have a hard time tolerating that. i don't know if you get the best out of me onset if i knew that home boy is being paid a few

million dollars than i was and our pedigree the is the same. >> i turned jobs down because i was not getting paid of what i thought the market would bear. that's not what i thought the market would bear. the market would bear that and i had lost jobs because of that. and once again, you know, anger can be creative and bitterness, no. >> bitterness -- you cannot fly with that. so i have learned to kind of get on with it. that you know, that certainly happened in my career but like i said, i got to keep moving and keep moving through. but, you know there are all these things like that guy or the guy who said, you know i am so tired of teeiseeing women weg yoga pants and there was yoga

pants parade in his hometown and all women got together and marched past his apartment. i thought that was so fun. [ laughter ] there are so many ways i feel like women need to step up on the play and they are discriminated against. i think there are a certain kind of cognizant and awareness now with the internet, you know and of social media that there was not before. >> yeah. c that's a good thing. >> let me ask you this. it did not occur to me initially when i checked out the film of the new project of kamil. but it occurs to me -- >> do you know kamil? >> i don't know him. >> i love the story though. >> the story that you guys tell me are beautiful. i did not think about this initially when i first saw this. let me just ask, there maybe

nothing here but let me ask anyway. this film as i said moment ago is about a man and a woman who he more than she trying to navigate this cultural difference of relationship. he knows what's expected from him and his parents is in an arranged marriage and his mom and dad would not be feeding this white girl that he's dating so he's trying to figure it out. that's the story. that story can be sit waituated this moment politically and certainly, there is push back by the president on muslims. when you are reading this and filming this, did any of this feel like -- >> no. >> this was before trump. >> yeah >> none of that was in play.

of course, there is prejudice in this country that you know over and over again are going to continue to experience and hopefully, you know, i am hopeful but prejudice is a difficult thing for people to confront to be honest about. there is yes, this feels urgent and also kamil and emily did not write the story in any way was that on their agenda. >> of course not. but it seems relevant in this moment. >> which is the reason why i think it is so cool in the movie because that was not in their top ten things. i was talki to kamil yesterday and it was reviewed in a pakistan, a big packistanian

newspaper, the review was good because it portrayed packistanians as normal people. >> if he was here, i would ask him did the expect that kind of review in pakistan and given that he's married and dating outside of his own >> you have to ask kamil that because that's a complicated question. >> yeah. >> i do think that's the harder thing that kamil encounters. >> yeah. >> with the movie. >> you said a moment ago of something i found fascinating. i want to share your hopefulness and optimism. why is it holly hunter is so hopeful that prejudice may be

diminished? >> i don't know, you know, like the universe the details and the universe liver universe lives in the detail and sometimes i feel like just interactions and i love living in new york city because i love the interactions with people. i like the -- my life and momentary, tiny pieces of connection with people. even if it is from the streets or from the subway or walking up a set of stairs and i pass someone and you couple that with what trump has inspired which is a tremendous amount of conversations and uprising and resistance and in a way of what was i was reading in the "times" where people are not fully

awaken yet but now they are awoken in my life and at the same time prejudice is just ripped in the body of human beings, i think. i mean there is a desire to shut off what is not known. there is a desire to put up a wall of what is unknown to us and we have to rise to our better nature and just scale the wall or tear it down. lets say tear it down is the best. >> uh-huh. >> um, in the clip, you are the mother of this daughter. i don't want to give the whole movie away, you are pushing back pretty hard on her muslim boyfriend. >> oh yeah. >> because you know i am, you know -- i am the lion at the

door, i am protecting my daughter. it had nothing to do with prejudice, it had to do with him, not treating her well. he did not treat her the way she deserved to be treated. it is full on protection. >> mama grisly. forgot th forget that i said that. >> yeah, lets forget that. >> yeah. [ laughter ] what i don't want to fefrorget the two-minutes i have left. i was looking at all the stuff, you are busy. >> you are like really busy. >> yeah, you are working like you are 25 at 60 years old. we have strange weathehehehe tell me about that. >> stran"strange weather" is a about a mother whose son

committed suicide of seven years before. you are picking her up and where is she and what's the ripple effect of that event in her life and how much has he moved on and how easy it is to not move on? >> it is easy to just not move on from a catastrophic event. you know you can just stay there. >> yeah. >> you don't close on the death of a loved one on a house, it is a different process. >> what else did i read? >> hbo's "here now." i am working the great allen bald and tim robbins. allen was the creator of "true blue." he's fantastic. he inspires confidence and freedom on a set >> did i miss something? >> let me double check here.

you got a lot of stuff going on. >> right now is the "big sick." it is a good project. it is a lot of fun. >> i am honored to have you on the program. the "big sick" starring holly hunter and a wonderful cast. it is a great romcom that you will enjoy. >> holly, it is good to have you on >> thank you. >> total pressure. >> all mine. >> that's our show for tonight, thanks for watching and as always, keep the faith. ♪ for more information on today's show, visit tavissmile tavissmiley @pbs.com. >> hi, joining me next time. ♪

and contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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