August 2009 | blackfilm.com | JULIE AND JULIA

August 2009

JULIE AND JULIA |
Press Conference Interview with Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci

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JULIE AND JULIA
Press Conference Interview with Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci
By Wilson Morales

August 3, 2009

Meryl, how important was it to you that this film include McCarthyism at that time and the impact of that on this couple?

MS: Well, I think it's really hard for us now to imagine the kind of terror that a lot of people lived under where your entire livelihood could be taken away. I just saw a documentary that's going to be aired next year for American masses about Joseph Papp. It's about the early days that he actually went to Los Angeles and worked in a school there. He was in the same class with Marilyn Monroe and these other really, really wonderful actors. And he was a socialist. I actually think he was a member of the Communist Party at some time or another, but people lives were ruined within a year. Within one year that black list was a done deal and it was over. It was over. Betsy Rice. Carroll Rice's wife. They had to move to England and never worked in this country again. So, so many people. I don't think that we have any sense of it now, how an association in a so called free country prevent you from making a movie ever. That happened that.

ST: Particularly I think in a business where it was also very hard to make a living a lot of the time. So you had everything going against you in a way.

MS: There are so many mysteries in Julia and Paul Child's story, really, now that we know what we know about the OSS and their involvement in some kind of espionage or the CIA, or the early precursor to the CIA, to know really what it was. If you want to know what the question was that I'd like to know, that's what I'd like to know. What did they do? And how did she write this seven hundred page cookbook in between smuggling secrets from the soviets.

ST: She didn't. J. Edgar Hoover actually wrote the book.

What were some of the best bonding experiences you had over food either on this movie or elsewhere, and if you could hangout with any character you've ever played who it would be and why?

MS: Well, we bonded. I mean, I knew Stanley, but I thought, 'Well, I might as well invite him over for dinner.' So he came and I decided I'd make [?] and it was not quite done when he arrived and so he came in and completely took over in the kitchen.

ST: It's untrue.

MS: It's totally true.

ST: We tried to do it together, but we'd had too much wine. 'Why are you doing that way?'

MS: 'Is that what you're going to do? Seriously, I'm just asking.' [laughs]

ST: 'Why do you hold it that way?'

MS: 'Can I just…it's okay. I can show you an easier way.' Boom. It was out of my hands. He's just a great chef and I'm a cook.

ST: You're very kind. It was a fun night, but we didn't eat until about eleven or so. My wife Kate came and said, 'What time are we eating?' I said, 'I think we'll be done cooking about eight.' She goes, 'We're not going to make that.'

Stanley, what character have you played that you'd hangout with?

ST: I would've been curious to spend some time with Walter Winchell. Not because he was the nicest guy in the world but because he was so fascinating.

How hard or easy has it been, Meryl, to stay focused with all the success you've had in recent years? Also, can you talk about how challenging it was sustaining Julia's voice?

MS: You know what, I didn't think about it. I really didn't think about either sustaining my career or my voice. I haven't really thought about it. I'm like every other actor; I've been unemployed more than I've been working because of the nature of what we do. We just have a lot of downtime even though it seems like you're working, working, working. So I've never gotten used to either being working or being out of work. So it's a very uncertain life and there are only a few people that would sign up to be married to someone else doing that. My husband is an artist and he understands that, the vagaries of the job. I just take it as everyday is a miracle and I'm really glad that I'm still working and that people are not sick of me. Even I'm sick of me a little bit.

And how doyou deal with all the accolades?

MS: Well, fortunately, the blogosphere supplies you with the other side of all the accolades [laughs]. Just sign on and get humble.

You mentioned earlier that you had a hard time committing to acting. What were some of the other things you were taking seriously at that time?

MS: Well, when I was in drama school I was obsessed with Jonathan Schell's book 'Fate of the Earth'. I've always been interested in environmental issues and I still am. That seems to me be worthwhile work, but over time I understood, just what I think from other people's work, we need art as much as we need good works. You need it like food. You need it for inspiration to keep going on the days that your low. We need each other in that way. So, yeah. I've reconciled myself to the fact that you can make a contribution. I've even reconciled myself to the fact that even my children might choose this profession. They seem to be, and now that's okay. Really I was pushing the sciences but it's just not going to happen.

What were your favorite food memories, chefs and restaurants, from New Jersey?

MS: Great, great tomatoes, but my mother was the 'I Hate to Cook' cookbook. Peg Bracken. Do you remember that? No. Not in your family. I remember when I was ten going up to a little girl's house up the street and she and her mother were sitting at the table and they were doing something to tennis balls and I said, 'What are you doing?' They said, 'Making mash potatoes.' I said, 'What do you mean? Mash potatoes come in a box.' They were potatoes. They were peeling potatoes and I had never seen a real potato. So my mother's motto was, 'If it's not done in twenty minutes it's not dinner.' She had a lot that she wanted to do and cooking wasn't one of those things. My food memories, I mean I think Julia Child really did change the whole. I recently found my knitting book at the bottom of knitting bag from 1967. It wasn't a knitting book. It was a magazine that had some knitting patterns in it and it was called 'Women's Day' from 1967. It's filled with recipes and food ads and it's all Delmonte canned peas, Delmonte canned corn, Delmonte peas and corn, green beans and all the recipes are, like, take ground meat and put artificial mashed potatoes, layer it, top it off with tomato sauce out of a jar, put it in the oven and presto it's dinner. This is how we ate. People forget. Julia changed the way that people thought about cooking. It was great.

What’s your greatest passion?

MS: Oh, gosh. This week? I don't have one.

You mentioned Julia's tallness at six foot two affected her.

MS: Yes.

How did you do that for the movie?

MS: I just wore high heels.

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