Elizabeth Wagmeister: Have you ever wondered what really goes on behind the scenes of your favorite films?

Kate Hudson: Everyone was just having a blast.

Elizabeth: Variety Studio invites you to listen in as today's top actors discuss their craft.

Michelle Yeoh: I feel like I've been in rehearsal for the last 40 years for this role.

Elizabeth: With Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh, Kate Hudson and Glen Powell, and Laura Dern and Michelle Williams.

♪♪♪ Elizabeth: Welcome to Variety Studio, "Actors on Actors."

I'm Elizabeth Wagmeister.

Clayton Davis: And I'm Clayton Davis.

And we're bringing you exclusive access to some of the most talked about film performances of the season.

Clayton: First up, two of Hollywood's most beloved and respected actors, Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh, are huge fans of one another and now they get to sit down to talk about their work.

In "Tár," Oscar winner Cate Blanchett is a fictional composer, preparing her latest musical piece when she loses her grip on power and reality.

Lydia Tár: See, I start the clock.

My left hand shapes, but my right hand, the second hand, marks time and moves it forward.

However, unlike a clock, sometimes my second hand stops, which means the time stops.

Clayton: Michelle Yeoh jumps into the multiverse as Laundromat owner, Evelyn, who has to fight her own demons, both physically and psychologically, in the dramedy, "Everything Everywhere All at Once."

Evelyn Wang: No matter what, I still want to be here with you.

I will always, always want to be here with you.

Cate Blanchett: Hello, Michelle Yeoh.

Michelle: Hello, Cate Blanchett.

Cate: We met, I can't remember what it was, but we met and I felt you before I saw you.

You just had this aura and I turned around and there was Michelle Yeoh.

I was quite overwhelmed.

Michelle: Oh my God.

I mean, I have loved you from your first film and followed you all the way across in awe with deep respect and, okay, envy.

Cate: Envy's a good motivator.

Michelle: Yes, it is because you know, it's true.

I aspire to have a career like yours.

Cate: Oh no, no, no.

Michelle: Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Cate: No, but you've just done something which seems to be like a synthesis of everything that you've done over the years which is-- Michelle: I know what you mean.

Cate: Which is one of the greatest movies of all time.

Michelle: "Everything Everywhere All at Once."

I feel like I've been in rehearsal for the last 40 years for this role.

Cate: Did it feel like you were bringing to bear, like, decades' worth of work on to that experience?

Michelle: I think, I think, it started with these two crazy guys.

The Daniels, they had the courage, the audacity, to say, "We love movies.

Let's do this and throw everything that we wanted to do but was not allowed to do," and they initially wrote it for men.

And I think it's the "norm" because it would be easier to finance but then they came back and they realized it didn't work.

And so they changed into a mother role, which actually suits the Daniels so much more because they're surrounded by very strong, smart women, and the two of them are kind of dopey, adorable, and, but-- Cate: In a genius kind of way.

Michelle: --in a genius kind of way.

I always want to work with younger directors.

I think, you know, it's a great opportunity to discover because they throw challenges at you where, you know, that doesn't come your way often.

But I think I was very gratified that finally I was getting a script where a very nondescript woman, immigrant woman, trying to live the American dream and, you know-- Cate: Often invisibly.

Michelle: --but totally invisible, with no voice.

And to make such an ordinary woman be extraordinary is very fulfilling because I think that is all of us.

There's so many of us out there who are very quiet and think that they'll just go along their way and maybe nobody will notice them and they're not successful enough and they're not well to do enough, you know, all the negative things about themselves.

And it was such a joy to say, "No, look at what we can do for her, with her, and give her that loud, strong voice."

But it was a little overwhelming 'cause I've been in the business for a while now, and the opportunities get a little narrower and narrower with time, you know, because you're getting past your "prime time" and it's been a while since I was offered, like, the lead role.

I have amazing, you know, supporting roles and things like--in "Crazy Rich Asians" and Shang-Chi.

Cate: I mean, and also, you know, made some of the most memorable scenes in cinema, sometimes with no words at all.

Michelle: I think that's really important, right?

And I mean, it's like your performance in "Tár."

It's like the energy, so dynamic and so real that it--you feel that it has to come from all the way inside.

There's not a word that says, "I'm angry."

It's like, uhh-- and it's coming from here and that's what you do in all your performances.

You're like a chameleon that goes from this to that, you know?

You're an elf and then you're a queen and then you're this.

And with this performance, it's like, it takes your breath away.

But I think what is, for me, what is very bold 'cause "Tár," she's not the most perfect likable character.

Cate: Well, Todd didn't--Todd Field didn't want, who directed the film and wrote the film, he didn't want an audience to have too much access to her.

As conductors, as maestros, your persona often cements your reputation, but I realized that the character of Lydia, even though there's a very clear understanding in the community in which she moves in the world at large, of who she is and how she thinks and what she's achieved, she's someone who has become estranged from herself.

That being at the head of a major institution and therefore being in a position of being able to and expected to wield a certain level of authority, that that has separated herself from not only her craft and her creative instinct, but also from who she is.

Michelle: Ahh, okay.

Cate: And so I think in terms of what drove her, I think she's running from a lot of stuff and some music-- Michelle: It looks like she was constantly running.

Cate: Yeah.

Michelle: Even from herself.

Cate: Yeah, and then she physically runs as well.

Michelle: Yeah.

Cate: For me, it gave an access to her complex humanity and her fragility.

So I mean, Evelyn presents herself in so many different ways.

And you've got so many silhouettes and images and personas to inhabit, how did you develop those different looks?

Were they prescribed in the script or-- Michelle: You know, she--the script very basically, a Chinese aging woman, but the costumes is an extension of your character and it helps me when I go into--step into my costumes, my whole mindset changed.

She is this woman who goes to the market all the time, she runs her laundromat, so her whole body posture would be a little bent over because she's carrying and lugging heavy things all around.

I think it's the nuances that makes the character-- Cate: --complete.

Michelle: So--but once you're in that costume, it's like your mask is on, you know?

Your armor, your shield is on.

And so you are prepared to go into that role.

'Verse-jumpingá* gave me the opportunity to--it's worse, like, for Evelyn having a look at every decision that you made in life.

If I had done that, this is--would have been the great life I'm having.

And I think it was very sad for when she came back to the real universe, to turn around to the husband and say, "I could have been this if I didn't go with you."

And that's heartbreak-- Cate: It is heartbreaking.

There are so many moments of heartbreak, so many moments.

Michelle: But then there's so many moments of realization, especially with the husband.

It doesn't matter because in whatever universe I would prefer to be doing the laundromat and doing the taxes with you because at the end of the day, it is about love.

It is about our super-power, kindness.

Elizabeth: Next up, Kate Hudson and Glen Powell are two of Hollywood's most buzziest stars and with their latest roles, they prove that there really is something to talk about.

Elizabeth: Oscar nominee Kate Hudson sets the screen ablaze as the faux influencer, Bernie Jay, stealing scenes and hearts in the whodunnit sequel to "Knives Out," "Glass Onion."

female: Birdie, you have to tell 'em.

You gotta tell 'em.

Birdie Jay: Listen to me.

female: I'm serious, you gotta-- Birdie: I will.

I will.

female: You just--you just gotta go beg, okay?

Birdie: Oh God.

female: When he goes to his room, just follow him and then just do it.

Birdie: I will take care of him.

Don't worry.

Elizabeth: Glen Powell soars in two critically acclaimed films this year.

One, opposite Tom Cruise, as the smart-mouthed Hangman in "Top Gun: Maverick."

Hangman: Our mission's a mission.

They don't confront me.

What I wanna know, who's gonna be team leader?

Which one of y'all has what it takes to follow me?

Elizabeth: And the other as a Navy wingman in the inspirational "Devotion."

Jesse Brown: Do you know how tired I am of people trying to help me while looking down on me?

Tom Hudner: I am not looking down on you.

What do you want me to do?

Kate: We've known each other a while now, and because you did "Everybody Wants Some" with my brother Wyatt.

And then you went and did "Top Gun" which we talked about when you got that movie because I am such a--I mean, that movie, for me, is like the first one was everything.

It, like, defined so much of how I see boys.

Glen Powell: Oh, now it all makes sense, yeah.

Kate: That whole volleyball scene, I was like, "Oh, my God."

But we talked about how exciting that was, but then we also--it was like, "When is it coming out?

Like, when is it coming out?"

Glen: When COVID happened, like, I'd seen the movie and then COVID happened, because they showed us the final cut.

When I watched that movie and I was like, "I think--I think we did it.

You know, I think we did it."

So that was a great experience, and Tom called it out.

He like, Babe Ruthed it.

He was like, "This movie's good enough where we have to just wait for this pandemic to be over."

And I was like, "Oh man, we're just sitting on this awesome thing."

You get this amazing opportunity, this amazing movie, and then everybody's like, "Movie business has gone."

Kate: It's over.

No one's ever going to a theater ever again.

But that's not what happened.

In true Tom Cruise form, you know, the perfectionist that he is, he always wins, man.

And he sure did with this.

I mean, I know that, for me that experience in the theater, I went to see it on the big screen with an audience, and it was like, "Thank God.

These are the movies we need in the movie theater."

I feel the same about "Glass Onion," actually, the "Knives Out" movie that I'm in.

I was like, "Oh, this is so fun."

I feel like we both this year are in movies that we need in the theater to build the theater experience back up again.

Glen: Yeah, you guys also incorporated masks into your movie which was such an interesting--your mask in this movie was-- Kate: Well, I always say that the masks in this movie are like a Easter egg as to who all these people are, or the lack of mask, you know?

It's like each person in the way they wear their mask is really who they are.

And Rian's so specific, as a writer, Rian Johnson, writer, director.

He's such a great writer.

For me, it was more like what he wrote, I could see her body language.

I could see how she moved.

I just, like, needed to be in Birdie, you know?

Glen: Well, and also your character Birdie is like iconic.

It's such a fun character.

It's a Halloween costume, I mean, it's like-- Kate: I kind of was like, "Oh wow, I can't--" Next year I hope that I get to see a bunch of, like, "Knives Out" characters.

Glen: You're gonna see it with the mask.

Kate: The challenge with Birdie was, really, grounding her 'cause she's so big, you know?

It's like, she's so flamboyant, and I think if you ground characters like that, you figure out how to do that, you become a little more empathetic with them.

She's so deeply in search of validation and love and desire to be seen, right?

And she's just really not that smart.

And so her ways of trying to be seen or validated just always, you know, ricochet back at her.

So, okay, I wanna talk about "Devotion" to you but with "Top Gun" you weren't a very likable character.

I mean, you were, you ended up being, you know, but like, on set, like, was that one of those things that was, like, a total juxtaposition?

Like the camera would go off and then you were, you know?

Glen: Oh, I'm not like--yeah, I'm not like method.

I'm not like just spitting on people the whole movie.

I will say that was something that, you know, as you and I know over the course of this thing, sometimes you can fall into the trap of wanting to be liked on camera and so, in a movie like this where you know there's gonna be a lot of eyes on it, you don't wanna be just Draco Malfoy, for lack of a better word.

Like, I love Draco Malfoy, big "Harry Potter" fan, but there's a opportunity that you see and you don't want to fall into a trope.

But Tom gave me this advice and he was, like, "For the ending to work, you have to completely lean in to that."

Everybody else in the movie is questioning their own ability, questioning if they're ready for this mission.

You're the only guy in this whole thing that's not questioning it.

And that also makes you a necessary Top Gun element so if there's any sort of likability or any sort of apology in anything you say, the movie doesn't work.

So right, he's like, "You've gotta just lean in to the--of it all."

Kate: Let's just go.

Let's--I wanna move on to "Devotion."

And I know this is one of those things that happen all the time, like, you know, you do a movie and then you do another movie that's another plane movie and then all anybody wants to talk about is, like, "Are you only gonna do a plane movies," you know?

And you're like, "No."

Jonathan Majors is major.

Glen: Yeah.

Kate: What, I mean, first of all, your performance was wonderful.

He really was special in this film and I loved your guys' chemistry.

What was that like?

I mean, did that come easy for you guys?

Glen: It's so fun, as you know, like, you've--you and I have been doing this for a bit and, like, when you square up against someone who is bringing it, there's no better feeling.

He's just a guy that's just absolute focus and I remember our first conversation that we had, leading up to "Devotion," 'cause I knew he was method.

Like, I knew Jonathan Majors was not gonna be walking on that set.

So I said, "Hey, no matter what happens," I was like, "we just have to look--be able to look each other in the eyes and understand what's real and what's not real.

I'm always down for method stuff, as long as no one else is getting bullied.

Like, I'm here.

Like, as long as it's between you and me," but sometimes people can be brought into that vortex or, as we know with certain actors, they can use it as an excuse to misbehave.

Kate: Right.

Glen: And with Majors, he just--he's just such a pro and just brought it and just cracks himself open in this movie, like-- Kate: You can feel it.

And what I've learned through working with all kinds of different actors, is that we just all have different processes.

And what was interesting about "Knives Out" for "Glass Onion" is we had all these, like, heavyweights and there was no ego on this.

It was really like everyone was just having a blast.

Glen: It looks like the greatest experience of all time.

And also, I've heard every one of those actors has a great reputation.

Kate: Yeah, Rian was, like, "I'm gonna cast this movie like I'm putting a dinner party together, 'cause we're gonna spend a lot of time together."

Glen: Not only were you guys shooting in Greece, while Linklater and I just finished writing a movie together and-- Kate: --and I love him.

Glen: He's the best, he's the best.

But we were sitting there and it's like, we're exploring, like, the seedy parts of strip clubs in Houston and things like that, which is great.

But we-- Kate: Interesting.

Glen: Interesting.

It's not Greece.

But that's what we were sitting there doing when we're literally looking at your shots on the Internet, going viral.

Everybody looks great.

You're in these cabanas in Greece.

Kate: That's next, that's next-- Glen: Okay, we're gonna--we'll do that next time.

Kate: You and I will do a romcom, a very much well-written needed romcom in Italy.

Glen: I think that's the move.

I'm accepting open submissions now for our Italian romcom.

Clayton: These actors have each worked under the direction of Steven Spielberg, but that's not all they have in common.

Both Laura Dern and Michelle Williams portray loving mothers in their latest roles.

In "The Son" Oscar winner Laura Dern captures the anguish and heartache of a mother and divorced wife who is trying to understand the pain of her depressed teenage son.

Kate: He just looked at me with so much hatred.

I thought he was gonna-- Peter: What?

Kate: He scares me, okay?

Clayton: Four-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams effortlessly portrays Mitzi, the encouraging mother of one of cinema's most revered figures in the coming of age story, "The Fabelmans."

Mitzi Fabelman: One more thing, darling.

Let's not tell your father.

It'll be our secret movie, just yours and mine, okay?

Sammy Fabelman: Okay.

Laura Dern: Hello.

Michelle Williams: I'm so happy to talk to you, I wanna pull the chair closer.

Laura: I know, I know.

We need to get closer.

I just have so many questions about "Fabelmans" and I wanna hear from you what it was like, both not only working with Steven Spielberg who we both get to share and love him so much, but playing Steven's mother, Mitzi, in the film.

Michelle: You know, it came as such a shock to me, really, and when we first zoomed, I didn't know what was happening.

I didn't know why he wanted to speak to me.

I didn't know that there was a project, I didn't know anything, and so it was all sort of happening in real time on this Zoom.

He's explaining his life, his, like, story, who his mother was, what she meant to him.

And then it dawned on me what he was asking and I said, "If I'm hearing you correctly, you want me to play your mom?"

And he said, "Oh, yes, yes, that's exactly what I'm asking."

And I said, "Okay," and I kept listening and I thought, "I have waited my whole life, I have worked my whole life, to feel able to say Yes and ready when that request is made."

Laura: I had the privilege of knowing his mom and she was such an incredible person, and the light-- Michelle: What a light.

Laura: --that she carried, the way she entered every room, and the way she championed everyone in the room at all times, is held so profoundly by you.

So I just love that he found someone to take on, like, his soul healer mama person, you know, like, what an intimate--what an intimate thing.

It's so interesting to me what she was dealing with on a mental health level, because of her heartbreak.

Michelle: Right, because it's so delicate because in telling the story truthfully, he never wanted to expose the person that he loved to judgment and I know, like, for me when I read it, I never judged her.

I never saw--I didn't see the possibility for that.

I just say, "Wow, they really let this person breathe."

When you live a liberated life, you give that to your children passively.

It's not even a lesson that you have to teach them.

Laura: That's so beautiful.

Michelle: Right?

Laura: How was working with Gabe who is playing young Steven Spielberg?

Had he made films before?

Michelle: It's so wild.

I said, like, "This has taken me my entire life to be prepared for," and he was 18 and he walked on that set with no insecurity.

He was just--like, he was so confident and Spielberg's giving him direction and he's challenging it at times.

And I'm like, "Just say Yes.

Just say Yes, sir.

Just--just say you're gonna go in and give it a--" He was like, "Well, I don't know if I would--" I said, "Wow, that is a--there's a bold--" And Steven loved it too.

He goes like, "Okay, yeah, now that you've made me think--" So how do you feel when you work with young performers?

What do you feel like your responsibility is to them or how do you feel?

Laura: I do feel responsible, don't you?

I mean, if a bit maternal, probably because we were there at that age.

And in the film that I'm promoting, "The Son," this boy also, Zen McGrath, also 18, had never made a movie.

Our director, Florian Zeller, found him on Zoom.

He'd seen a tape of his and just knew he was right but he's playing a boy in a severe mental health crisis and had to be completely broken in despair and to watch him go through that, I kind of when working with a young actor hope they have enough training that they know how it doesn't just wound them deeply, to be in the pain of it-- But I worried, particularly, in the case of "The Son."

I worried for him because he was having to go there.

So I felt so protective.

Michelle: And all without rehearsal too because the--right?

Is that right, that he-- Laura: Yeah, there's one scene in our movie which is Hugh Jackman and I are divorced and we meet at a restaurant and he didn't wanna rehearse that.

It was a ten-page scene and such a incredibly written scene.

And I really felt so grateful that nothing was rehearsed, just allowing him to even find me in the restaurant and figure out how to sit and the discomfort of ordering drinks because it's your ex.

Michelle: When you see that scene, it is--it hits me as a surprise, wow.

Laura: I wondered for you, too, did you all rehearse a lot?

I mean, I know he does both.

Michelle: We didn't do--we didn't do anything.

Laura: Amazing.

Michelle: We didn't do anything.

So that first day that you show up, you just sort of cross your fingers and you hope that your preparation has, like, led you down the right path and that you're gonna hold hands and walk through it together, but you just don't know.

But it's all so exciting, you know, that feeling, and I think that's probably what keeps it exciting after how many years have we been doing this?

What's gonna happen today and that nervousness is-- Laura: And his--how elated he gets when he has what he needs, Steven.

Michelle: Has he always been like that?

Laura: Always.

He loves it, you know, and he, I mean, he loves the specific.

He's the most prepared person.

He's already cut his movie in his head and gives you all the room.

And I have to say one moment I just worshiped.

I mean, there will be all these memories, not memories, these gifts to cinema in the movie like you dancing.

I mean, there are visual moments that we'll never forget.

So then to, yeah, get a call saying, "I want David Lynch to play John Ford," it's so wild because when I worked with Steven on "Jurassic Park," I said to him, "You remind me of David Lynch," and he was like, "Okay, that is crazy.

How is that possible?"

Then I luckily became a bit of a mediator, promising David he could do it and he worships John Ford like Steven does, so I haven't told Steven this story yet but it made me laugh so hard so I'm gonna tell you and now I realize I'm telling more people too.

But he goes, "You know what?

We have this thing in common.

It's so incredible.

We have a vision and we have to make our vision.

Steven goes out there and he has an idea and he makes it and a million people have that same love of that vision."

And he goes, "It's the same with me.

I have a vision and I make it."

And he goes, "And hundreds of people have that same vision."

♪♪♪ Clayton: We hope you've enjoyed our look inside Variety Studio "Actors on Actors."

Elizabeth: Please join us again next time.

♪♪♪ Cate: Sit back and relax.

Kate: If this isn't "Actors on Actors," I wanna ask you about how annoying that question is.

Michelle: Give me the chills.

That gives me the chills.

Laura: Can we start with me begging her to have dinner with me?

Michelle: Yeah, and I got the chills.

Cate: It's not that kind of interview, Michelle.

Michelle Yeoh: I'm getting a little too excited.

Kate: Oh, okay, are we-- Glen: You can just turn off the camera.

We'll just keep going, yeah.

Michelle Williams: That's so beautiful.

♪♪♪