Angelique Jackson: Variety Studio brings you the actors you want to know more about.

Andrew Scott: You never acted in Korean before?

Greta Lee: Never.

Andrew Scott: That blows my mind.

Greta Lee: Never.

Angelique Jackson: As they dish on their latest roles in blockbuster movies.

Michael Fassbender: And I was so happy, I was like, "Oh, I don't have to learn lines."

Angelique Jackson: With Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan, Greta Lee and Andrew Scott, and Hallie Bailey and Rachel Zegler.

Angelique Jackson: Welcome to "Variety Studio, Actors on Actors."

I'm Angelique Jackson.

Clayton Davis: And I'm Clayton Davis.

On this episode, we're taking a look back at some of the best movie characters from the past year.

Angelique Jackson: And the talented actors who brought them to life.

Clayton Davis: It's been more than a decade since Carey Mulligan and Michael Fassbender shared the screen in Shame.

In numerous defining roles since, the two-time Oscar nominees have solidified their place among the most accomplished actors of their generation.

As "The Killer," Michael Fassbender stuns as a steely professional assassin who runs up against his employers when a job goes sideways.

Fassbender's stoic internal monologue makes this thriller one to watch.

Michael Fassbender: No one who can afford me needs to waste time winning me to some cause.

[How Soon is Now by The Smiths playing] Michael Fassbender: I serve no God or country, I fly no flag.

♪ I go about things the wrong way ♪ If I'm effective, it's because of one simple fact, I don't give a-- Clayton Davis: In "Maestro," Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan delivers a gut-wrenching performance as Felicia, the wife of the legendary conductor-composer Leonard Bernstein.

The film follows their complex relationship over the course of 30 years.

Carey Mulligan: Oh, life is not that serious.

-- isn't it?

What age are we living in where one can be as free as one likes without guilt or confession?

Please, what's the harm?

I know exactly who you are.

Let's give it a whirl.

Michael Fassbender: So I guess the first time we met was 2012.

Carey Mulligan: '11.

Michael Fassbender: Was it '11?

Carey Mulligan: Yeah, it was 11.

We had those couple of days rehearsals in the apartment for "Shame."

Probably not before that, though I'd spent time with Steve McQueen in New York a bit, but you had been doing stuff separately with him and then we had that couple of days.

I loved acting with you.

Michael Fassbender: Yeah, no, likewise.

I was was just thinking back on it and I was thinking, "God, every scene we had was quite fraught."

It was such, you know, the history of the two characters.

And for me, I definitely find that that film was like the darkest.

Carey Mulligan: Oh yeah.

Michael Fassbender: And like the one that actually sort of stuck around perhaps the longest.

Carey Mulligan: Yeah.

Michael Fassbender: So I just saw "Maestro," and blew me away.

Carey Mulligan: Oh.

Michael Fassbender: Yeah, tell me about being directed by Bradley Cooper.

It's been amazing to watch him just evolve, like, you know, phenomenal.

I thought, "How do you go into prosthetics for four hours?"

Carey Mulligan: Oh man.

Michael Fassbender: Or imagine it took four hours.

Carey Mulligan: Yeah, at least, it was crazy.

Michael Fassbender: And then have the energy to direct as well as sort of, you know, be in it.

What was it like?

Carey Mulligan: Yeah, I mean, he did so much prep, you know?

He prepped to the point where he walked on set and didn't have to think.

You know, he and I started talking about it in 2018, and I just loved her, I just think she was just an amazing woman.

So it was, you know?

It was also the responsibility of sort of paying tribute to her properly.

Michael Fassbender: Yeah, having played sort of real characters as well, when you're distilling the stories, creating, I suppose, your own essence in the end of what other people would sort of, you know, paint of a picture of a person.

Carey Mulligan: Yeah.

Michael Fassbender: And you jump between theatre and film quite a bit?

Carey Mulligan: It's harder when the kids get older because now the idea of missing bedtime and doing all that kind of stuff makes it, it makes it trickier.

But I do love theatre, and I particularly, weirdly love doing this one-woman show, which I thought I would be, I was terrified of, but I kind of loved it.

And actually, you know, acting on your own, I remember, who is it?

I think someone told me.

Michael Fassbender: It's a dream.

Carey Mulligan: It kind of is-- Michael Fassbender: You're like, "After I have to deal with the rest of them."

Carey Mulligan: But I was like, I thought I would be really lonely in the end, I sort of loved it, but I do love acting alongside others, you know?

It's amazing to have that other person that you, particularly on stage.

But watching "The Killer," you're alone so much.

How did you find that?

You know, that the whole thing rests on you, and the camera?

Michael Fassbender: It felt good because after a couple of days you start to find the rhythm with the camera, operator, the dolly grip, you're trying to do things as smoothly and efficiently as possible because everything is movement, and it's all physical in terms of whatever story you can tell about this person who's super obsessed with process.

And then it just also helped all the time to inform the character.

I was like, "Well, this is a guy that spends a lot of time in his own, he's talking, you know, he is cracking up."

Carey Mulligan: Such an extraordinary performance, because you have these encounters where there's these enormous scenes with incredible actors.

Michael Fassbender: Yeah-yeah.

Carey Mulligan: And there's so little dialogue.

I mean, everything, most things we hear from you are from an internal monologue.

Michael Fassbender: Yeah.

Carey Mulligan: But I just can't imagine how you, you know, if you think about breaking down a scene before you're doing something and you're looking at your dialogue, and you're thinking about, like, "How do you do that with just silence?"

Michael Fassbender: I think it's like, I was so happy, I was like, "Oh, I don't have to learn lines."

I was like, "I'm such a slow learner of lines."

I was like, "Brilliant."

I know, for me, I just try to get into a space of not thinking.

And I find, with a character that's not doing much like that, and has a sort of very sort of economy of movement and whatever's happening in facial expressions, the audience can then start to project whatever they're thinking on the character, which is fun, then, because the audience are coming in there doing some work and they're getting involved.

That's always kind of a fun thing to play with, I think.

You know, actually going back to when we were doing "Shame," I remember Steve used to always say, "It's like a mirror," you know, the screen, and if you can sort of get people at some points, in flashes, obviously it's not all the time, but you just get those moments of looking in the mirror, that's kind of you know the goal.

Carey Mulligan: Yeah.

Michael Fassbender: But your character Felicia ends up getting cancer, and just that detail of the way you folded the toilet roll.

You took that from somebody in real life, right?

Carey Mulligan: Well, yeah, I mean, so we did a Q&A about this the other night, well, about the film, and someone mentioned that.

So I threw the question to Bradley Cooper because obviously he wrote the script with Josh Singer.

And so, that specific action, that was something that his dad did, who died of cancer.

So, heartbreaking detail, and it really did tie in so well with her as a character because she was, by all reports, just immaculate, you know?

There was something kind of immaculate about this, but she wouldn't allow herself to fall into a sort of messy illness, you know?

And through her whole life, even before her illness, just someone who was absolutely determined to not be a victim in their experience.

And so, but yeah, it was really, I thought, so moving for him to put that detail in and it felt so personal, and doing it felt so personal, but it was very kind of sweet and quiet for those couple of days, for these little kind of details.

Michael Fassbender: The details of it was what really got me sort of emotional, and then, it was almost like the film found another realm, you know?

There's a scene when Bradley Cooper's conducting towards the end and Felicia's standing in the wings, it was very powerful.

Carey Mulligan: Yeah, shooting that scene was one of the most extraordinary experiences I've had on set because it really was the London Symphony Orchestra, and it was in this beautiful cathedral, and it was it was replicating exactly what happened.

So, in '76, Leonard Bernstein conducted "Mahler's 2nd" in Ely Cathedral with the LSO.

So we were just making it again, it was wild, and then Bradley conducted them, he conducted that take that's in the film.

Michael Fassbender: Wow.

Carey Mulligan: It was remarkable.

Michael Fassbender: What I've learned is the director is the artist, the architect, and we come, I feel like, and just do our bit in the house to put it together.

And I felt like the films that I felt have really gone to a new level, it's always down to the director.

Carey Mulligan: Yeah-yeah-yeah.

♪♪♪ Angelique Jackson: Love can be complicated, as Greta Lee and Andrew Scott prove in two heartbreaking romantic dramas.

Angelique Jackson: In "Past Lives," Greta Lee delivers an exceptional performance as Nora, a writer who confronts the complicated relationship with the childhood friend she left behind in South Korea 24 years ago.

♪♪♪ Teo Yoo: [Speaking in foreign language] Greta Lee: [Speaking in foreign language] Angelique Jackson: In "All of Us Strangers," Andrew Scott plays a screenwriter who discovers ghosts in his childhood home.

This performance showcases his full range, nearly eclipsing his memorable turn as the hot priest on "Fleabag."

Claire Foy: A writer, our son.

Jaime Bell: We're very bloody pleased to see you doing so well then.

Andrew Scott: Yeah.

Jaime Bell: Look at that puffy --, our boy's back home.

Andrew Scott: I'm so happy to meet you.

Greta Lee: Me too, it's our first time.

Andrew Scott: Our first time ever meeting, yeah.

Congratulations on "Past Lives," it is such a beautiful-beautiful film, oh my God, it makes me emotional just even thinking about it.

Are you knocked over by the response?

Greta Lee: I am, I can't believe it, I can't believe you've seen it, I mean, that's the level of my shock.

Andrew Scott: Yeah, isn't it amazing that people get to see your work?

Greta Lee: It's wild.

And your movie, "All of Us Strangers," I've seen, and was completely gutted and destroyed by.

I feel like our movies are.

Andrew Scott: They have a sort of, they're intermingled, aren't they?

They definitely are.

Greta Lee: We could do like a double feature, like we're the new Barbi-enheimer.

Andrew Scott: So, where did you first come across the movie?

Did you like audition for it or did you?

Greta Lee: Oh yes, very much so.

Andrew Scott: Okay.

Greta Lee: So, Celine Song, the incredible writer and director of this movie, if you can believe, it's her first time, I mean, she's lying, I'm waiting for her to come out and just tell the truth now.

Andrew Scott: It's extraordinary that it's her first film.

Greta Lee: It is.

That script, though, I mean, that was my first introduction to her, and it was one of those scripts, it just made me furious with how good it was and how much I desperately wanted to be a part of it.

A year later, I got a call out of the blue asking if I could meet with Celine Song that day, because the casting had opened up and they were looking for older actors.

No, and I jumped on a "Zoom" with her, we read some scenes, and she played Hae Sung and Arthur, and we read opposite each other.

Andrew Scott: And did you feel, by the end of that call, did you feel okay?

Greta Lee: Well, I felt like I had nothing to lose, so I'm just gonna do exactly what I could do in my dreams, and I did it.

And then she said, "It's your job."

Andrew Scott: She didn't, that's so wonderful.

Greta Lee: In the moment, it's wild.

But what about you, how did you get involved with Andrew Haigh's movie?

Andrew Scott: Well, I was filming something and I was working really-really hard.

So, if I'm honest, I wasn't particularly inclined to start working again, and then I got the script and I knew Andrew Haigh's work.

Greta Lee: Yes.

Andrew Scott: From before, it's so extraordinary.

Greta Lee: Yeah, I just have to interject and say that, in order to prepare for "Past Lives," I saw his movie "45 years" I think 45 times.

Andrew Scott: Oh God, isn't it so extraordinary?

Greta Lee: Really, it is one of my favorite-favorite films.

Andrew Scott: Yeah, it's just something, there's just something about all his work has just got an extraordinary sort of autograph in it.

Greta Lee: Yes.

Andrew Scott: So I was so excited just to be even talking to him, and then I read the script, and I don't know, a little bit like you, it's very similar where you think, "I have to do that."

Greta Lee: Did you feel that with the script?

Andrew Scott: I absolutely did, yeah, absolutely, because there's something about the sort of vulnerability of the story, and I just thought I really would love to work with him.

So I finished this year-long job, and I had two weeks and I started on this one.

Greta Lee: Oh my goodness.

Andrew Scott: But it was such a sort of palate cleanser, it was absolutely wonderful.

I got to shoot it in London where I live.

Greta Lee: I kind of feel like that first initial conversation with the director, it feels a little bit like falling in love.

Andrew Scott: Absolutely.

Greta Lee: And I think about Celine like she is my wife now.

Andrew Scott: Right, of course.

Greta Lee: Whether she wants to be or not.

But when it is like that, it's such a tremendous leap of faith, right?

And then, once you experience it, I now feel like, "Well, I'm effed, because I want to find that again."

Is it true that this, "All of the Strangers," is it your first leading role?

Could that possibly be true?

Andrew Scott: Well, I've played a lot of leading roles in the theatre.

Greta Lee: Oh, yes, of course.

Andrew Scott: And I've played some leading roles in films that nobody have seen, nobody has seen.

Greta Lee: Okay.

Andrew Scott: Yeah, so I have in little small films, but no, it is really a proper first leading role.

Greta Lee: Yeah.

Andrew Scott: And same for you, right?

Greta Lee: Yes.

I don't want to say that I have struggled for 20 long years, but I've been doing mostly supporting roles, small parts, and I've loved them.

Andrew Scott: Yeah, me too.

Greta Lee: And I can tell you do too.

Andrew Scott: Yeah, sometimes I think it's really interesting to play the protagonist, I think, because I feel like you're never worried that the beats of the performance are ever going to be ignored because it's seen so much through the eyes of the protagonist.

So I think there's some times where I feel like in playing a supporting character where you think, "Oh, that's a really heartbreaking moment for this character."

Because you don't play a character as a supporting character, you play it as much as if it's the center of the story.

Greta Lee: It's all about me.

Andrew Scott: Yeah.

Greta Lee: No one else may see it that way.

Andrew Scott: Exactly, but I do.

Greta Lee: But I think that's kind of essential, right?

Just honoring the spirit of even the smallest role.

Andrew Scott: Yeah.

Greta Lee: It's that Stanislavski thing, like, "There's no small part."

Andrew Scott: Right, I think that's really true, I think that's so true.

And so the actual filming of the movie, you'd never acted in Korean before?

Greta Lee: Never.

Andrew Scott: That blows my mind.

Greta Lee: Never.

Even my parents were telling me, "Is that such a good idea?

I don't know."

Yeah, that was, there really was a lot of firsts.

Andrew Scott: I think what's really extraordinary in your film is it just feels incredibly authentic.

Did you guys have a lot of time to be free with each other?

It felt just so incredibly natural.

Greta Lee: Well, thank you, I guess this is the question about chemistry, right?

How to sometimes rapidly and instantly create that kind of a specific chemistry too, I mean, for us, it was this childhood connection that potentially exists over several lifetimes.

And for you and Paul Mescal, I don't know, I also heard that you'd never met before, is that right?

Andrew Scott: We had met before.

It's a really interesting thing about chemistry, isn't it?

And you know, like whatever chemistry Paul and I might have in real life, actually, that's neither here nor there because we have to create a kind of chemistry that's completely different.

I felt like I just needed to be as sort of boyish as possible and go back to those kind of fragile feelings that I had.

It sounds like a silly thing to say, but I didn't really want to act because it seems so extraordinary to me that I would ever get to play a part like this.

Greta Lee: It's surreal.

Andrew Scott: It's magical, I find that so extraordinary, that something can be conceived in somebody's mind and then they can have the courage to sort of write it down, and then this courage to make something happen, you know?

In independent films, you don't know, with these strange stories.

Greta Lee: Yes.

Andrew Scott: And then that touches people eventually and makes them feel better.

I just think it's a wonderful thing to do with your life.

Greta Lee: It is.

♪♪♪ Clayton Davis: Can you name two actors who have the voices of angels and the distinct honor to be crowned real-life Disney princesses?

Try Halle Bailey and Rachel Zegler.

Clayton Davis: Halle Bailey, a Grammy-nominated singer, stars as Ariel in Disney's "The Little Mermaid," becoming the first black woman to play a live-action Disney princess.

Then, after wrapping up her time under the sea, Halle joined the musical reimagining of "The Color Purple."

Halle Bailey: You keep your head held high, just like mom taught us.

I'll come visit you when I can.

Even if we have to part, you and me, us have one heart.

♪♪♪ Clayton Davis: After a star-making debut in "West Side Story," Rachel Zegler landed roles in two major franchises, entering "The Hunger Games" for the prequel movie "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes," and soon to headline, Disney's "Snow White."

female announcer: Three.

Rachel Zegler: Jessup.

female announcer: Two, one.

Tom Blyth: Run.

Rachel Zegler: Jessup, Jessup.

Tom Blyth: What are you doing?

Run.

male: Ah, ah.

Rachel Zegler: Yah.

male: Ah.

Rachel Zegler: Jessup.

Rachel Zegler: For me, this is a crazy thing, because I did something very similar on "Hunger Games," where "Little Mermaid" wrapped, and then you went right on to "The Color Purple" set.

Halle Bailey: Yes.

Rachel Zegler: How do you do that?

Because I had a really tough time when I did it.

Halle Bailey: Really, this is like a new world for me, honestly, because I've lived so much in the musician land, the singer land, all my life.

This whole acting stuff, I was like, "Whoa, like this is a whole new world, it's exciting, it's cool."

But "Mermaid" was really my first big film, and it was really interesting because going into something that means so much to so many people and that massive first, my first project, was like very overwhelming, but overwhelmingly beautiful.

And so when I had wrapped it, I had just felt like such freedom and I was so proud of myself for doing something like that that I'd never known before, and stumbled a bit along the way, but in the end I felt like I came out way stronger.

So, coming out of that energy into "Color Purple" was something that was so beautiful for me, because I felt way more comfortable in my skin.

And then, to get to be on a set, like an all-Black set, where you just feel like you're at a family reunion every day was like the best thing ever.

Rachel Zegler: It's really remarkable that your first two film projects are gigantic films like that.

Halle Bailey: Thanks, Rachel.

Rachel Zegler: Does that feel like, do you have it, like all of us have imposter syndrome, do you feel that?

Halle Bailey: Oh yeah, all the time, I'm like, "I don't know how this is happening, I'm gonna just keep praying to God, I'm going along."

But yeah, same for you, I mean, I know you must feel the same because, well, first of all, fellow Disney princess girls, Ms.

Snow White, is so amazing.

And first of all, I'm so excited to see that, I'm like counting down the days.

Rachel Zegler: Thank you.

Halle Bailey: And I saw "Hunger Games," whoo, which was so amazing.

Rachel Zegler: Thank you.

Halle Bailey: Oh my God, I was so excited to see it.

But I was wondering, how were you able to navigate going into a film like that and off of, I think, "Snow White," because you filmed "Snow White" first, right?

Rachel Zegler: Yeah, and it was very similar to what you had with "Mermaid," where it was like we wrapped on a Tuesday, and then I moved to Poland on the Wednesday and started shooting.

So it was it was a hard goodbye that I feel like I mourned the wrap of "Snow White" while I was in the middle of kind of getting my bearings on "The Hunger Games" set.

Halle Bailey: Oh my gosh, the songs in "Hunger Games."

Did you sing, what, eight songs?

Rachel Zegler: Yeah.

Halle Bailey: That was so beautiful.

Rachel Zegler: Thank you.

Halle Bailey: But to me it was like, it was something so striking about like, they felt like gospel hymns that they were making you sing in a way.

Rachel Zegler: Yeah, it was amazing, I was really nervous when I signed on because I really wanted the fans to be able to subscribe to the fact that music fit into the pot somewhere.

Coming from the world of musical theater, there's a lot of difficulty in trying to sell that to an audience, as I'm sure you can understand, where you want to make sure that it feels as organic as possible.

For songs to fit into a plot line like "The Hunger Games," it doesn't sound right when you say it out loud.

And then Francis Lawrence, our director, and Suzanne Collins, who obviously wrote the books, they had a very clear vision for what they wanted it all to sound like.

And then we worked with the country music producer, Dave Cobb, and really collaborated with Suzanne and tried to figure out that sound that she wanted, which was this like Appalachian, 30s and 40s country folk.

I really do agree, there is some gospel in there, and then I sang live on set, which was crazy, and everybody keeps asking me why I did that.

I mean, you get it, there's nothing like it, you can't really capture that sound and that feeling any other way.

And then that makes it tricky when you step onto sets like "Little Mermaid" or "Snow White" where it's all soundstage, and so live vocal doesn't always really exist in that world.

So you spent 13 hours a day in a pool.

Did that have an effect on you, like a strain on you, or did you feel like you were on it?

Halle Bailey: So, I think there was a lot of things that combined to, I think just my body feeling tired a lot of the time, because it was a lot.

Like you said, like as singers, we're trained to take care of our vocal cords, so sometimes the chlorine and then your sinus-y the next day, and then you have to sing.

And I love what you mentioned about singing live on set because that was something that I really wanted to do on "Mermaid," 'cause I feel like I'm able to evoke feeling and emotion more, like in a live take, so that was something that I was having to navigate.

Whereas on days where I would be like straight out of the water, I'd be like, "Okay, I'm not going to do this lot, I'm not even gonna attempt to blow out my vocals."

And then the days where I felt confident in my muscles, I'm like, "You know what?

I really just wanna get this delivery of me singing live 'cause I feel like it'll turn out better."

Rachel Zegler: So, on the subject of Disney, one of the most iconic "I want" songs, which almost didn't even make it into the original cartoon, "Part of Your World."

So you have to sing that, so you're Halle Bailey, and you're sitting there and you're like, "I have to sing this iconic Disney song."

Recording it, shooting it, and when you got to watch it.

Halle Bailey: "Part of Your World," that sequence was a really-really hard three days.

I was like so overstimulated, I'm like, "What is going on?"

There's such a desperate plea and like a cry for help that she has in that song, and just trying to channel all those emotions and stuff while having to swim around in circles and everything, it was a lot.

But I remember I broke down crying like three times at the ending crescendo.

It's like this one scene where I have to kind of, I threw myself back and swam into the tunnel.

And every moment I would just burst out kind of crying, and Rob Marshall is so wonderful, he's like, "Yeah, that's what we want, it's okay," cause I was getting overwhelmed that I was getting so emotional.

Rachel Zegler: Yeah.

Halle Bailey: But yeah, it was a beautiful-beautiful time.

Rachel Zegler: What a year you've had, though.

I'm so excited for everyone to, it's like the Halle Bailey takeover of the world, it's all going to plan.

I feel like I planned this, it's my plan.

Halle Bailey: That's so sweet.

As are Rachel, hello?

Rachel Zegler: No-no.

Halle Bailey: Oh my gosh, literally.

♪♪♪ Clayton Davis: We hope you've enjoyed this episode of "Variety Studio, Actors on Actors."

Angelique Jackson: Please join us again next time.

Carey Mulligan: I auditioned for David Fincher for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," and I think I even like almost dyed my hair black or something, I definitely wore a nose ring.

Greta Lee: But now you're doing TV?

Andrew Scott: Well, yeah, I don't know, I'm gonna take a little, sometimes you can act too much I think.

Greta Lee: No you can't.

Halle Bailey: So we just stay graceful and ignore the hate.

Hello?

Rachel Zegler: Exactly, exactly that.

♪♪♪