" I conceive , like a mickle of distaff characters in a historical canyon , that there ’s so much more to dig under there than we realize because we ’re only now starting to understand the complexness and the intrigue of women ’s account and them being assure in a kind of unquestionable and truthful mode . I feel an unbelievable purity and exclusive right , and responsibility . "
🚨 warn : There are coddler ahead for One True Loves ! 🚨
1.What made you want to star inOne True Loves? Had you heard of the book before signing on to the project?
I had n’t read the book . Before understand the script , I was come near by the theater director , Andy Fickman . And was sent the handwriting , study it , and know it . Then , I read the book after that , and just really fall down in sexual love with this theatrical role , Emma , her world , and her mood . There ’s this really beautiful , sort of self - deprecating , but lovely liquid body substance throughout the rule book . And I really felt that in the hand , which is also pen byTaylor Jenkins Reidand her husband , Alex Jenkins Reid . So , it was really nerveless to set about that process and take those elements from the book , all of those character trait , and implement them into a different descriptor . Something that was like , a page in a record , how do we translate that to a second on screen ? And that was really the fun part about all of it .
BuzzFeed : Having since worked with Taylor , have you record or watched any of her other projects ?
I can not await to seeDaisy Jones & the Six . I’ve been a little busy , but when I have some free time , that is on my inclination .
2.What was it like meeting your onscreen love interestsSimu Liuand Luke Bracey for the first time?
Well , we first meet over Zoom , because when we started work together , it was still during the pandemic . It was groovy . I entail , we were in three different parts of the Earth . Luke had to get up super early in order of magnitude to connect us because he was in Australia at that clip . But it was awesome . I intend , it ’s such a luxury to have so much prep clip and so much table work clock time , so we really were able-bodied to give their relationships , the overall arc of the story , and the three of them together and how that all works . We were able-bodied to do that in a Zoom room on a call together so that by the fourth dimension we got to set , we could really just found off and fly and play and have beautiful bit together with each other . It was like sparks for both of them . Just in our own way that we developed these characters and their love for each other . It was really fun and shiny and sparkly , and veritable and playful .
3.One of the best parts ofOne True Lovesis that Emma gets to have these two equally beautiful, yet heartbreaking, love stories with Sam and Jesse. What was it like playing out the dynamics of these two very different relationships with Simu and Luke?
It was really fun , like a really good player challenge to get to play these unlike sides of Emma . Not only are you dealing with two different multitude and two different kinship , but two dissimilar points in her life — two unlike time periods , almost . One is before , and one is after a tragical loss . So , that was really my anchor throughout the physical process . Like , just prompt myself , Okay , so where are we today ? Because this morning , it was before Jesse impart , and this good afternoon , we ’re shooting something when Jesse has n’t come back yet . You sleep with ? So , tracking that for myself was a really fun challenge .
4.Yes, exactly! Now, Emma’s in this predicament where the husband she thought was dead, has suddenly come back into her life, but she’s about to marry someone else. Did you have a preference for who Emma ended up with?
I was , well , rooting for both of the men that she was in honey with . Every unmarried Sir Frederick Handley Page turn , it was like , Oh , gentleman , that would be so near for her , but this is just a small bit well . And she ’s a different individual now ! But oh , maybe she should follow her intestine inherent aptitude ?
I remember that feeling that I was having while reading it was really useful because I ’m sure she was asking herself a lot of the same interrogative , too . So , play that to spirit was really interesting and fun . And as an actor , I always enjoy explore those gray nuanced expanse .
5.The film takes place in New England, but you all shot in Wilmington, North Carolina. What was it like filming there as opposed to LA or NYC?
Oh my gosh . I decide to know by the beach . Which , I entail , it was a picayune further from where we were shooting , but I had a car there , and it was lovely . It was such a dream to be able-bodied to arouse up in the morning — if I was n’t shooting too early because I was [ working ] almost every twenty-four hours — and go down to the beach , look for dolphins , get a deep brown , and then , like , start my day . It was quite gross .
BuzzFeed : Were there any local spots you and the respite of the shape like to string up out at during your downtime ?
aboveboard , I ca n’t remember the name of any of the restaurants I went to off the top of my head , but there was a sushi place that was really awe-inspiring that we would frequent . And there was a seafood place downtown . That was really good . I care I could recall the names !
6.What was your first reaction when you found out you’d be playingCinderellainInto The Woods?
Oh my gosh , it was a dream . I mean , [ she ’s ] an iconic character from fancy canon , but also to be in a Sondheim musical . Just moment after turn a loss Sondheim and get to observe him and his work and what it did for me just growing up — hearing those songs and being so moved by his body of body of work , I feel like I was capable to honour him in getting to do it . We got to meet and speak with [ Into the Woodslibrettist ] James Lapine . And it was just such a ardent and inviting cast . Lear [ DeBessonet ] , our director , was just unagitated , nerveless , and collected the whole fourth dimension .
We put it up in 10 daylight , which was terrifying for me . It was one of those moments where you conceive you know the song because you ’ve sung it or sing along to it , but then you actually go to look at the music and you ’re like , Oh , wait , I have n’t look that . It ’s wholly dissimilar . Oh , and that ’s not what ’s pen on the page at all . Okay , let ’s unlearn that . But it was a pipe dream add up true . And I just felt like , what a beautiful gift , what a beautiful moment in the woods , to be able to have that summer with that unbelievable cast of characters . It just felt so , so extra .
7.You’re also currently in previews forCamelot, how has that experience been so far?
Just a rollercoaster in the good way . For an role player to be able to say that they get to go to employment and not only delight the depth and the complexity of the material , but to experience like they are supported , and in an enthusiastic elbow room with unbelievable leaders , an incredible writer , and an incredible hurl … and to get to blab out these beautiful beloved songs , and differentiate this age - old story find like the honest matter in the public . I mean , I could not be happier .
BuzzFeed : And this production ’s book has been update immensely , what ’s it like playing this version of Guenevere ?
It ’s exciting ! I cogitate , like a lot of distaff characters in a diachronic canon , that there ’s so much more to cut into under there than we realized because we ’re only now starting to sympathize the complexity and the machination of women ’s stories and them being told in a variety of authentic and truthful way . I feel an unbelievable honor and privilege and province . And also , I have confidence that my experience as a woman , as someone who feels like they want their living ’s work to have purpose and activism , in the sort of all-embracing popular sentience , I really colligate to her . I feel for her , and it ’s exciting to be in a piece that feels like it does two jobs at once , which is to be entertaining and beautiful , and sweep you off your foot with a 30 - piece orchestra , and at the same time , change multitude and hopefully change the agency that they think about the world and who we are as human existence .
8.What’s the most starstruck you’ve ever been?
Well , quite honestly , Julie Andrews .
BuzzFeed : Oh my god , were you capable to sing to her at all ?
I was like , " Oh , I learn how to sing by mind to your phonation , " she ’s just so lovely . To be free-spoken , it was kind of a long time ago at this tip , but I just think feeling so KO’d she was there . This was when we were doingHamilton .
9.Meeting Julie Andrews might be hard to one-up, but do you have any other favoriteHamiltonmemories?
Just the hang . The people . It was so big , and so much was happening . The things that I actually call back are seeing it through the eyes of my classmates , my acquaintance , my phratry . It was really about being a part of it with them and getting to see them experience it .
BuzzFeed : Hamiltonis still on Broadway , too , do you recall you ’d ever want to return , even for just a abbreviated stint ?
You recognize ? Not for me . I did that , and it was very fulfilling . People sometimes ask me like , " Do you think you could just , like , go justly back into it ? " I do n’t remember anything . You could call for me to . I would not know where to go or where the blocking would be . I would not know any of the stage dancing . I belike would n’t even bed all the words . Because there ’s something that happens , like , you sort of put other things out of your brain so you could put in newfangled thing .
10.What’s a TV show that you’ve been obsessed with lately?
Well , a lot of the great unwashed have been obsessed with this show , The Last of Us . I just finished it . beatify ! I had only roleplay the game once , and I catch ta tell ya , I ’m not a gamer . [ Laughs ] My play is like me shout at the screen door until thing take place . And then realizing that I have to use my hands to affect the buttons and move . [ Laughs ] But I loved the show . I call back the relationship between Bella [ Ramsey ] and Pedro [ Pascal ] was just so beautiful . It was so beautifully explored because it ’s not just this , like , zombie thriller or post - apocalyptic thing . It ’s so much deeper than that . Yes , it ’s electrifying and suspenseful , but it really cash in one’s chips into the character development of what happens to you when that happens . And I just loved it . I thought it was great .
11.What’s a role people would be surprised to hear you auditioned for?
One of my very first auditions ever , ever , ever — like , when I was , like , a minor — was forA Series of Unfortunate Events . For Violet .
12.Which fellow actor or celebrity have you been surprised to find out is a fan of you or one of your projects?
Oh my gosh , I am obsessed with Ali Wong . I consider she ’s so funny . And just through being in this mankind in this community , we ’ve connected . I ’ve get to see one of her shows and got to adjoin with her afterward and say hi , and just , like , fangirl out and be like , " The fandom is reciprocal . I am ghost with you . I think you ’re so funny . "
13.What’s the best thing a fan has ever given or made for you?
I have this porcelain shoe that I hang above my doorway for good luck . Someone from the audience fetch [ it ] up to me during one of the first shows I did in New York , which wasNatasha Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 . I did the Off - Broadway outpouring of that . And I remember somebody getting up and hand me something . And I was like , Whoa , whoa … Oh , it ’s a giving ! Okay , great . I opened it , [ and it ] was this horseshoe , and I still have it . I ’ve moved many time since then , and I ’ve kept it above my front door . So , thank you to whoever cave in me that .
14.What’s a movie, TV show, or theatre performance that made you want to become an actor?
I sense like very , very , very early on , my favorite moving-picture show were all those classic Disney movies . So , this approximation of , like , storytelling through Sung dynasty was intriguing to me . Then , as I got aged and I start watching film , Crouching Tiger , Hidden Dragonwas one of the first very serious , spectacular awarding - pull ahead films that I really got into at a very new years . I guess clearly it had something to do with feeling represent , and consider myself in the people that I was watching on screen and feeling excited by that . Knowing that it was conduct by [ Ang Lee ] , an Asian man , it made me palpate like there was a place somewhere for those narration and a place for me .
BuzzFeed : And speaking ofCrouching Tiger , Hidden Dragon , Michelle Yeoh just get ahead her Oscar forEverything Everywhere All at Once .
I know ! Michelle Yeoh . She is an icon to all .
15.And finally, what’s some advice you have for anyone trying to break into the industry?
I think my in effect advice would just be to experience that it ’s a recollective route and that you will have instant of feel success and feeling failure , and that ’s all a part of what it means to be an artist . I just saw something on my algorithm , on my social media , and someone said something like , " creative person should be permit to betray and to have ' dead moments . ' " Where like , you do n’t have fruitful work , maybe you ’re not really deliver the goods , you ’re not doing what you require to be doing . Because there ’s this first moment of needing to constantly be successful and put out work that is impactful and meaningful and skilful and beloved — it ’s a false outlook . I mean , we do n’t determine from that . You find out from those failure . You learn from the things that really put yourself out there to make and then realize , Oh , that did n’t quite work . You’ll take more from that than by making 10 thing that are successful . It ’s just a long journey , and it ’s never gon na be linear . I recollect that ’s the matter that I did n’t really sympathise [ when I was commence out ] . Like , I know it , but I did n’t translate it . And now , I ’m like , Oh , that ’s what masses mean .
And if you can’t get enough of Phillipa, be sure to check outOne True Loveswhich is in theaters now and available on digital April 14.
