Monday, Nov 22, 2021 • 1h, 21min

House of Gucci: Interview Special | with Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Sir Ridley Scott & more

House of Gucci: Interview Special

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Welcome to the House of Gucci Interview Special, a deep-dive into the luxurious world of one of 2021’s biggest movies, featuring conversations with stars Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Jared Leto, Salma Hayek, Camille Cottin and Jeremy Irons, as well as acclaimed costume designer Janty Yates and the movie’s legendary director Sir Ridley Scott. House of Gucci is inspired by the shocking true story of the family behind the Italian fashion empire. When Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga), an outsider from humble beginnings, marries into the Gucci family, her unbridled ambition begins to unravel the family legacy and triggers a reckless spiral of betrayal, decadence, revenge, and ultimately…murder. House of Gucci is released globally from November 24th and in the UK November 26th Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Talking about

Speakers

(10)

Rhianna Dhillon

Teo Van Den Broeke

Lady Gaga

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Transcript

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Rhianna Dhillon

00:05

Welcome to the official

House of Gucci

interview special with me, film journalist Rhianna Dhillon

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Teo Van Den Broeke

00:11

And me fashion journalist Teo van den Broeke.

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Rhianna Dhillon

00:14

This is your window into the elegantly styled world of

House of Gucci

, the superb new film from

Ridley Scott.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

00:21

Starring

Lady Gaga

,

Adam Driver

,

Jared Leto,

Jeremy Irons

,

Salma Hayek

,

Al Pacino

, and many, many more.

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Lady Gaga

00:28

He sets a very high bar and I don't like walking over low bars.

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Salma Hayek

00:33

She sold that this woman had a big destiny and that she was going to be surrounded by glamour and possibilities.

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Adam Driver

00:40

He trusts the process and that a costume piece can do what a line can do.

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Rhianna Dhillon

00:46

House of Gucci

is a sensational story and also has a sensational cast and we were very lucky to sit down and have a little chat with all of them.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

00:55

So stay tuned. I still can't quite believe we've spoken with

Lady Gaga

.

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Rhianna Dhillon

00:59

I know I've been trying to tell people that and it's just such a wild thing to be able to say and to one of my absolute favorite actors of all time

Adam Driver

as well as

Ridley Scott

who have just been a huge fan of for years.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

01:13

Likewise, so for anyone who doesn't know

House of Gucci

is inspired by the shocking true story of the family empire behind the Italian fashion house

Gucci

and it spans three decades of love, betrayal, decadence, revenge, and ultimately murder.

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01:28

Lady gaga plays the Milanese socialite

Patrizia Reggiani

who hit the big time when she married into this incredible wealth and incredible family

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Rhianna Dhillon

01:35

They had it all she wanted more.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

01:38

As you'd expect. It looks amazing. It's very fashion.

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01:41

So I'm right in it setting this extremely glamorous world, but it's also got this kind of dark side, there's corruption and Rhianna said there's murder...

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Rhianna Dhillon

01:50

And the members of the

Gucci

family are played by

Adam Driver

,

Jared Leto

,

Jeremy Irons

,

Al Pacino

with a little help from

Camille Cottin

and the always fabulous

Salma Hayek

.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

02:02

So to repeat this is an event of a film. It's got crime, it's got glamour and it's got

Gaga

.

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Adam Driver

02:07

He's always kind of play acting, he's not at ease until he gets distance from being a

Gucci

.

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Ridley Scott

02:12

She's such a star, she runs the show.

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Lady Gaga

02:16

I feel super relaxed, you know, this movie is my heart and soul.

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Jeremy Irons

02:20

It's one of a kind.

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Jared Leto

02:23

It's chic.

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Rhianna Dhillon

02:25

So we both spoke to

Lady Gaga

and it was just a really exciting thing to have somebody who is so fabulous and so well known to really kind of sit down, take the time. She was very good, just engaging and gave these really wonderful, eloquent deep answers, which I really appreciate it.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

02:45

Totally, she was so thoughtful and she, as you'd expect with

Gaga

, she turned up, you know, she gets the assignment totally. She lived up to every single expectation I had and I love that she gave a shout out to Giannina Scott, the producer of the film, we should probably say at this point that we're going to go into quite a lot of detail about the film in the podcast. So if you want to watch it, knowing nothing, go and see it at the cinema first and then come back to us. But should we stop teasing and let people have a listen.

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Rhianna Dhillon

03:11

Let's do it.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

03:12

Here she is. The one and only

Lady Gaga

for the official house of

Gucci

podcast.

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Rhianna Dhillon

03:21

Lady Gaga

. So lovely to speak to you. Thank you for joining us on the podcast today.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

03:25

Thank you so much.

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Lady Gaga

03:26

Thank you. I'm so honored to be here. I feel such gratitude. This is an amazing experience and I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me about our film.

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Rhianna Dhillon

03:37

So tell us about your very first thoughts on taking on the role of

Patrizia Gucci

and why were you so drawn to her?

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Lady Gaga

03:44

Actually my very initial thoughts about this role uh were complicated. I started reading the script and before I read the script, I heard it was about the black widow, the woman that had

Maurizio

Gucci

killed.

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04:01

And I thought to myself, oh you know, maybe this is another movie about a sexy murderous and she's, you know, chaotic and risky and hot. And I thought that's not interesting.

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04:13

And then I read the script and then I met with

Ridley Scott

and first of all, meeting with the legendary

Ridley Scott

and his wife Giannina Scott, the producer on this film that in and of itself was a beautiful experience. But I said to

Ridley

. I said, you know, I I read the script, I'm wondering if she ever loved him at all?

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04:33

And he goes, oh yes, yes, she did. They were deeply in love.

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04:37

And I took that with me and I went home and I thought I I knew I wanted to make this movie because of the passion that him and Giannina had. And then now my newfound fascination with a character that I knew I could bleed humanity from.

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04:55

And so I then began a journey of being a journalist and being a detective and embarking on an investigation, meaning that I felt strongly that the way she was portrayed in the media was not indicative of what this movie was supposed to be, but rather how did a young woman, I mean, we know very little about

Patrizia

Gucci

when she was younger.

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05:21

How did this young woman fall in love and fall apart to me? That was fascinating.

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05:28

I thought to myself what if I could transform the narrative even into something that the real

Patrizia

Gucci

would not want you to see.

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05:39

And I think that's because she if you've seen her in interviews, she is very much trying to control the narrative of who she is.

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05:46

And I think that's because she's hiding the pain because I think she thinks that's weak, but I think that that's what makes us strong.

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Rhianna Dhillon

05:55

You mentioned working with

Ridley Scott

and how much of a pool that must have been. I mean, he is one of the most celebrated directors of all time. What is his style on set? How is he different from other directors that you've worked with?

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Lady Gaga

06:07

I mean

Ridley

is different from anyone that I've ever worked with and he has a very specific way of working.

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06:14

He never shoots with less than four cameras at once. He's got cameras surrounding you. So basically every actor is covered during the scene. So at any given moment, what will end up in the edit will most likely be what happened in that moment.

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06:33

It's not spliced separately, meaning if people are listening and don't know about movie making or film making or television, a lot of times the camera might be on one of the actors and you'll do the scene several times and then uh, then the other actor will be their turn and the cameras turn around and they get the performance of the other actor and then edit it together.

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06:55

Really doesn't believe in that he wants to get the scene almost like a play, right? So you're, you're experiencing it the way you would experience theater. So that's one thing that makes really different and, and this, this creates a lot of room for magic and spontaneity on set because we know everything's happening at once and it's empowering.

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07:15

And also I have to say, I felt very empowered by him as a woman on set after about three weeks of working together, he started to come up to me before we would, you know, all meet for rehearsal and he'd say things like, so what's the scene about dude?

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07:31

And yeah, that's the way he is, but he, it wasn't because he didn't know what the scene was about, it was because he was interested to understand what I thought the scene was about and what I found intriguing about the scene, what I felt it meant to this story, what I thought thought it would do in terms of propelling of us all forward. What was my intuition?

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Speaker 9

07:52

What was my perspective? Really believes that art is intuition and for him to empower me that way on a set of mostly men all the time, uh was hugely important and he really took care of me. He, and you know, I, I worked really hard and prepared for him because he deserves that, he sets a very high bar and I don't like walking over low bars, so...

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Teo Van Den Broeke

08:21

You say in the film that

Gucci

is synonymous with wealth and power and I'm kind of intrigued to know what your relationship with the brand has been over the years, obviously I'm sure you have plenty of it in your wardrobe now and fashion is a big part of who you are, didn't have that magical pull over you as a kind of younger person, what was your relationship with it before the film?

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Lady Gaga

08:41

You know, actually I, I don't, I don't and haven't had a strong relationship with

Gucci

uh for my whole career, I like to think of myself in a lot of ways is like

Switzerland

and fashion. There are clearly some designers that I am more drawn to than others.

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08:59

Uh but my relationship with

Gucci

mostly has grown through this film and I've grown to admire what

Gucci

or

Gucci

built, you know, the early 19th hundreds because he essentially was, you know, a leather maker and there were they had their sacred cows that and they were a family business.

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09:22

So I found this to have like a very handmade, beautiful quality, something that reminded me of my Italian grandfather, something that reminded me of my ancestors and so the heart and soul of

Gucci

is something that's very like salt of the earth, you know. But what it becomes in the film, something that you will see is its Italian crime, it is Italian uh feuding.

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09:49

And when I say crime, I what I mean is uh you know, one of the relationships that I had with

Gucci

growing up and I'm sure this will be, you know, a risky thing to say, but I'm going to say that's in the film anyway, is when I would go to

Chinatown

in

New York City

, they had these counterfeit

Gucci

bags uh and they were really, really good, you know replicas and everybody loved buying

Gucci

bags in Chinatown because they looked like real bags and you discover in the movie that they were real bags and uh,

Gucci

knew about it and they were profiting off of it.

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10:24

So, uh this is a major turning point in the film as well, because

Patrizia

brings it to the attention of, you know, uncle

Aldo

,

Al Pacino's

character, and she brings it to

Maurizio's

attention and she realizes that, you know, everybody knows about this, but her and he says to her, this is not a girl's game.

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10:44

And then so this illusion of power that she thinks she has in the family gets totally shattered in an instant, in a way that I think a lot of women can relate to where we all can feel powerful in our own right. And then the second a man says no to us, you know, the house of cards falls all around us. Uh so, uh what I would say is, is my relationship with

Gucci

is much more a part of my soul now.

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Speaker 9

11:10

And I'm not talking about the brand or the fashion house as it is today, but the idea of

Gucci

and the

Gucci

family, this, this feels like one of the greatest times in my artistic life. And I think that that's because it was the greatest time in

Patrizia's

life. So as an actress, I'm sort of having symptomatic admiration for the brand.

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Lady Gaga

11:32

Uh, and there's no more

Gucci's

at,

Gucci

anymore.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

11:36

You just touched a little bit on your heritage and your ancestry as a child of Italian parents. Were there any kind of particular personal experience is which helped kind of inform your performance as

Patrizia

.

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Lady Gaga

11:48

You know, if I could speak openly, you know, I'm Italian American. So that's a very different thing. My father is from

Jersey

, my mother is from

West Virginia

. My family is all Italian.

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11:59

We grew up in a culture of plenty, there was food on the table all the time, but it was not fashionable to teach your kids how to speak italian because everybody was trying to assimilate what I would say I brought with me was the memory of my, you know, grandfather being a shoemaker.

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12:18

And uh, the way that my father talks about his father and talks about his family in

Italy

and wells up with tears just even thinking about it because our family worked hard so that we could have a better life.

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12:38

And I think what people don't always talk about in terms of, um, in terms of a simulation is this idea that there, there was a real like, like true breed ethnicity that came before me that was not american and it was so important to me playing this role that I understood that being italian american is not the same as being italian and to really nail the ethnicity of

Patricia

, which meant also that I had to acknowledge her class and where she sat in society, which means that she was never as shiny as the

Guccis

, no matter even after she married

Maurizio

, she never looks in the film as prestigious or privileged or wealthy.

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13:23

There's always something slightly off and she's she's actually embarrassing. Uh a lot of the beginning of the film, there's something about her that just feels weird and even her like intense sexual energy is slightly off putting and it's designed to be because for me it was about truly being in the culture and I think that in being in that culture, it helped me to find that part of her that was trying to survive.

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13:54

That was trying to matter. And I think that what I mean by uncomfortable with

Patrizia

or embarrassing was that she was always looking for an entry point for herself.

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14:06

Of how am I going to get ahead, where is the next opportunity? And also there's nothing wrong with that meaning I wish to like proclaim here that that that's not being a gold digger, that's the way people survive. It's the way women survive.

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14:20

It's the way women have survived for thousands of years and I chose to play her this way because this was the this was the human that I believed her to be because when I see her talk and line now I still see behind her eyes, she's looking for that entry point. So that was such a deep part of my character that that was that was that was her bottom, That's what was always there.

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14:42

How do I matter? And specifically, I created a backstory for myself, learning about her mother Silvana used to uh tell her to to date all the rich men in uh in

Italy

and and

Patrizia

didn't want to and so imagine being 12 years old and having your mother telling you to marry rich.

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15:05

I mean, to me, that's that's like it's emotionally abusive to a child to do that. To sexualize your child at that age. So, I felt strongly that this woman's this woman's energy was created by a life of survival. And what does that look like against meaning adjacent to power and privilege?

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15:31

And I think why this murder happens is because there's that blind spot in between

Patrizia

and the family. So while they're all fighting about business and money and power and who's going to keep what they're totally blind to her because they think she's beneath them, they dispose of her, but she's who they should be paying attention to because she's plotting a murder.

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Rhianna Dhillon

15:51

I just want to ask about

Patrizia

and

Maurizio

. Their relationship is key to the entire film, from their early romance to their marriage to their demise. What was it like to work with

Adam Driver

who plays

Maurizio

on that relationship.

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Lady Gaga

16:06

I love working with

Adam

. I adore him as a human being. He's just a really intelligent, smart, also goofy, funny guy. I became friends with him.

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16:21

I think he's just a wonderful person and he's a beautiful actor and I think having that shared respect and camaraderie is so important and also he, he opened himself up to me so we were able to explore chemistry on set together and with the way the cameras were set up, there was so much room for us to be spontaneous and to build their love.

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16:49

I mean, one of my favorite scenes in the whole film between them is yes, I love the beginning, but when they're in the boat at lake como together and he falls back into the boat and like there's this real strong, physical acting component between the two of us, there's something so sweet about it, it's so charming and he allowed

Maurizio

to be a real person that was alive and that was nerdy and it filled in all the gaps for why they fell in love.

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17:24

And I felt that, you know, what was so amazing about this was that you saw a love that made sense. That was not purely transactional.

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17:32

And I think the way that like I said before, the way that she was portrayed in the media, the way this whole thing was portrayed in the media, I felt like there was a real gunning for everybody to think that there was this transactional gold digging relationship, but what was really there, or two people that fell in love and then a woman that tried to infiltrate italian business, which in and of itself is intimidating and when they disposed of her it was a disaster for everybody.

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Rhianna Dhillon

18:04

Lady Gaga thank you so much.

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18:04

Thank you so much pleasure.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

18:07

Fantastic.

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Lady Gaga

18:08

Thank you.

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Rhianna Dhillon

18:11

So obviously apart from looking phenomenal as she always does actually, it was lovely to hear about

lady gaga's

experience filming with

Ridley Scott

because he has got such a specific way of working and I loved hearing about how that impacts an actor's performance and what that means for them

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Teo Van Den Broeke

18:29

Totally. And it showed how seriously she was taking the process of acting. In addition to all the glamour you'd expect from

lady gaga

. She's a true perfectionist, perfectionist. I love also what she said about

Patrizia

not being a gold digger and more of a woman who just did what she had to do.

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18:45

Yeah, and there's a truth in that I think.

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Rhianna Dhillon

18:47

Actually so many people did perceive her that way, including the character played by a gentleman that I was lucky enough to have a little chat with

Mr Jeremy Irons

.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

18:56

Yeah, I was quite jealous of that one. I'm not going to lie. Yes, he plays

Adam Driver's

father

Rodolfo Gucci

who was very worried about his son being spirited away by this glamorous woman who might have just been after his money.

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Rhianna Dhillon

19:08

It's a lovely performance from an acting right and it was such a pleasure to talk to him.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

19:13

And everyone else really so do stay tuned because after

Jeremy

, we have

Salma Hayek

,

Adam Driver

,

Camille Cottin

,

Jared Leto

costume designer,

Janty Yates

and of course director

Ridley Scott

.

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Rhianna Dhillon

19:26

But first the one and only

Jeremy Irons

.

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19:33

Hi

Jeremy

, so lovely to speak to you.

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Jeremy Irons

19:35

Hello Rhianna.

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Rhianna Dhillon

19:35

And I have to say this is such a thrill. My first ever interview was with your son Max. So this is a special moment.

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Jeremy Irons

19:42

That's nice.

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Rhianna Dhillon

19:43

Right, let's get stuck in. So,

Rodolfo Gucci

is an intriguing, elegant role. You are kind of very much the standard bearer for the traditional Tuscan fine goods iteration of the

Gucci

story, the patriarch of the family. Why was this project so attractive to you?

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Jeremy Irons

20:01

We talked about doing this about 10 years ago originally Giannina,

Ridley's

wife has been trying to get the film off the ground for around 20 years and one iteration had me 10 years ago, had me playing I think

Aldo

. And so I've been aware of this story.

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20:24

I didn't actually read the book upon which the film is based until about two years ago when

Ridley

asked me to to be part of the film that he got up and running and it was, you know, I didn't know at that point, I knew

Lady Gaga

would be playing

Patrizia

.

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20:42

I thought it's a great story, He'll make something of it. And great cast. What more can you ask for as an actor?

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Rhianna Dhillon

20:50

I would love to hear more about you working with

Ridley Scott

. Why is he one of our great directors?

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Jeremy Irons

20:56

It's very difficult to say, really, really has been doing it for so long because he's a painter, you know, he has a wonderful eye for what is a good shot. He knows human nature so that he can, he can make a set which is really comfortable and free and easy. And he shoots very quickly because he shoots with multiple cameras. So you don't waste all your energy and your "vivace" on repeating and repeating and repeating. He makes it very easy to do good work and that's an immeasurable talent. He's also, since I worked with him on

Kingdom of Heaven

mellowed a little bit. So he's sort of because he's quite a bristly man, but that has mellowed as he's got older, which is very nice.

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Rhianna Dhillon

21:46

I'm yet to speak to

Ridley

. So it's good to know that he's mellowed a little bit.

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21:50

Were people improvising on set as well, or is it kind of very much about bringing the script to the screen unchanged?

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Jeremy Irons

21:57

We tend to improvise and I tend to improvise all of us really, you know what the thrust of the scene is and you try to bring it to life and often, I mean

Jared

for instance, you know, improvise throws lots of ideas in more than most.

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22:15

What you're trying to do is to create the atmosphere that is in the scene and to get these story points across and give it a reality and excitement.

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Rhianna Dhillon

22:26

I mean you're right, that excitement is so there because of the true-crime strand, I suppose, and there's that blend with glamour as well and

Rodolfo

just encompasses all of that and he's so much more sophisticated than

Aldo

, his brother who is maybe a bit seedier.

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22:40

So how much fun did you have exploring that contrast with

Al Pacino

?

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Jeremy Irons

22:44

Well, it was great when I when I came to the south and I saw how he was going to play it. You know, I thought that's a great contrast with the man who the man who riddle for a very conventional conservative withdrawn. Now, still looking after the italian half of the firm.

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23:03

Well,

Aldo

has gone to new york where he's progressive and trying to push it forward and got great ideas and I thought it was a an interesting balance actually between the two of them. I don't know whether it was as much as that in life, Who knows? But it works well for the film.

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Rhianna Dhillon

23:23

It really does when you say that you turn up on set, you don't yet know how someone like

Al Pacino

is going to play this character. So how do you figure that out between you two? What if it doesn't work? How do you figure out?

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Jeremy Irons

23:35

Well it normally does because filming and acting, it's always about compromise. You know, you're working with something, it's like, it's like saying you walk onto the onto the court at

Wimbledon

and you've never played the play, you're going to play.

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23:48

But you just, you hope that you have the technique and the reach and the speed to keep up and to maybe outwit but you don't know what's going to happen as indeed when you get up in the morning, you may think, you know what's going to happen, maybe you have no idea playing a scene is no different to them.

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Rhianna Dhillon

24:05

And in some ways the film is kind of about the relatable tensions that all families have right, albeit kind of taking it to extremes in this case

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Jeremy Irons

24:13

Yeah because it's Italian, you know big and ah!

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Rhianna Dhillon

24:18

Rodolfo Gucci

himself was obviously an actor and a very successful one. And...

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Jeremy Irons

24:22

No, he wasn't, he was quite successful. He wasn't very good.

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Rhianna Dhillon

24:26

Ah ah ah! Did you go back and watch all of his movies?

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Jeremy Irons

24:29

I didn't watch all of them, but I watched enough. Yeah, I thought he was right. He recognized it. I mean his wife who he married German actress and she was really quite talented and I think in comparison he realized that he'd be much better just to look after

Gucci

and look after his wife and let her do the acting.

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Rhianna Dhillon

24:49

Was there any appeal in the fact that you are bringing to life a star of the 1930s, but in his later years?

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Jeremy Irons

24:56

Strange enough, I did see a photograph of him as a young man and he looked incredibly like my son, which is interesting

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Rhianna Dhillon

25:05

So very very handsome then.

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Jeremy Irons

25:07

He was, he was good looking dudes.

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Rhianna Dhillon

25:09

Are there any reference points in your own mind whether from film or theater or literature or art? Or is your focus just purely on building what's on the page in front of you?

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Jeremy Irons

25:18

Really? What's on the page in front of me? I mean of course italian films of that sort of period.

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25:25

The look, the feel, you know that you're aware of that this is an epic story in the way that many Shakespearean plays are epic and many greek tragedies are epic and

Ridley

who's made a lot of epics I think gives the story that sort of largeness and allows the performances to be quite large.

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25:50

The music, it's a big part of it often very amusingly sort of contrary to the scene that's happening, you know, the wedding, the lovemaking, whatever music you choose, I think really helps to give the story wit and because yes, it's a tragedy, but it was extraordinary watching it and hearing the audience laughing.

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26:12

They got all the in the end as the satire. It has a lot of bumps the movie.

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Rhianna Dhillon

26:17

It absolutely does. I think people are going in expecting the glamour and the crime side and not expecting the U. S. So that is such a pleasant surprise when you're in the audience.

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26:25

Tell me about when you you're not in the kind of like every scene, for example, like

Lady Gaga

is so taking a step back and watching the film months after you've completed it. How was that for you? Did it come together in the way that you were expecting?

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Jeremy Irons

26:39

I didn't know what to expect, but I was delighted to find the energy in the film and the humor and the d sumptuousness of it, I could feel its power.

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26:52

I thought this is great after lockdown to have this sort of movie for an audience to watch, you know?

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Rhianna Dhillon

26:57

Absolutely. Can you tell me about the dynamic with working opposite

Lady Gaga

? I mean everyone is so excited to see her performance as well.

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Jeremy Irons

27:08

She was so nervous with the first scene we had together, but actually that was also partly it is quite a method actress, I think that was partly the way the character was in the scene very nervous meeting the father and when we had a later scene where she's much tougher, she was tougher and not nervous.

Share

27:29

So I suspect she does what a lot of us do, which is to take the position of the character into the moment surrounding you, doing the sea. But consummate professional and absolutely delightful as a person.

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Rhianna Dhillon

27:45

Jeremy

irons also delightful as a person. Thank you so much for talking to us.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

27:52

What a man and what a voice.

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Rhianna Dhillon

27:55

I know I can listen to him all day, but while I was off chatting to

Jeremy

, You were the lucky guy that got to speak to the incredible

Salma Hayek

about her role as the clairvoyant who becomes best buds with

Patrizia Gucci

, what did you talk about?

Share

Teo Van Den Broeke

28:11

Well, naturally, among other things, we spoke about taking a mud bath with

Lady Gaga

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Rhianna Dhillon

28:15

As you do.

Share

Teo Van Den Broeke

28:16

As you do in the world of

House of Gucci

.

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28:22

Salma is so lovely to meet you such an honor. I really, really thoroughly enjoyed the film.

Share

28:28

You play Pina the clairvoyant who is

Patrizia

, his connection to the underworld. It's a pivotal role in the movie.

Share

28:34

What was it that attracted you to it in the first instance?

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Salma Hayek

28:37

Well, the first things that

Ridley Scott

, you know, I would do anything with him.

Share

28:42

Giannina is his wife and the producer of the film and she's been trying to get this film done for 20 years and she's a brilliant producer and she really believed in it and she never settled for a different combination or a script that was not ready.

Share

28:58

Even if I didn't know them, I would work with

Ridley Scott

at any chance.

Share

29:03

And then I really liked the role. I liked the relationship. I liked her relationship with

Patrizia

a lot.

Share

29:10

And it's an unusual relationship because a lot of people might think that you go to a psychic and then you step away, you have a reading on the phone. But in the old days it was sometimes I call dependency with these people.

Share

29:27

I mean you you there's in history, you know, some people cannot operate without somebody telling them what they're supposed to do according to the spirits or the stars or whatever. And so

Patrizia

, she gets lonely and she gets deeper into this relationship.

Share

29:43

And I think that Pina at the beginning she saw that this woman had a big destiny in that she was going to be surrounded by glamour and possibilities and she saw a business opportunity.

Share

29:55

But I do believe that in that process they became really friends and really cared for each other and she probably became more co-dependent to

Patrizia

. That

Patrizia

was to her, to the point that she ended up doing something that she was gonna regret for the rest of her life. And that's how much she cared for her.

Share

30:17

So I think it's an interesting relationship that really attracted me about the film.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

30:21

I mean you shot all of your scenes, I think I'm not mistaken with

Lady Gaga

and you seem to have a really incredible chemistry on screen. Was that the same on the set?

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Salma Hayek

30:31

It really was excited to come to work every day and be guided by

Ridley Scott

and just be present and ready to support this amazing performance of these artists. That is such an original.

Share

30:48

So her choices for every line, every word, every scene, every take. We're always interesting and never the same.

Share

30:58

So when you're playing, you know, navigating those waters and adjusting. That was delicious. I love it. I mean maybe some actors are not, it's not their cup of tea, but in my case, I mean, I mean I was in heaven. I was in heaven. I really enjoyed working with them.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

31:13

There's quite a lot of comedy in your scenes together, particularly the kind of mud bath scene. I mean, is it quite tempting to kind of push it almost too far? And what's that a fun scene to film?

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Salma Hayek

31:26

Number one, this was an important scene for

Patricia

and for

Lady Gaga

, it's an important moment and I'm ashamed because in that moment that it's so important, I did not know how to do the mud bath because I didn't know that you need to know. I thought you just like getting it sink down and that's, it turns out the mud pushes you up. Now, she knew how to do it because she had done it before. But I've never done it before.

Share

31:55

And frankly I was naked, I didn't want to be naked on the surface of the thing. So some of the takes, I'm desperate like peddling underneath my butt to try to get out the mud out of my way so I can go to the ground. But the more I did it, the less it happened I am then the money is moving me around because I am moving the thing and I'm struggling and doing my lines and he wouldn't cut. Really?

Share

32:20

He's probably, I haven't so much fun laughing behind the monitor, me struggling in the month and she stayed in character trying not to get distracted. She was like staring at a candle so that she wouldn't lose that everybody else was laughing at me and with it again and I struggled again. I was so mortified and uncomfortable. I didn't know that the biggest challenge in this movie for me, it was gonna be that mud bath.

Share

32:47

But of course she was always in character. So I guess that's how Pina and

Patricia

would have been.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

32:53

Were you guys friends before filming?

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Salma Hayek

32:56

Kind of because we started talking on the phone to talk about the characters and we kind of got into the characters as we were on the phone.

Share

33:05

So that friendship happened easily. She was way ahead of me because she like her research was really, really serious. I mean she had done so much on my character to and in her character. So she kind of did homework for me. I did some research already before.

Share

33:20

But I mean she knew so much about the two of them and she was imperfect accent or months before we started shooting. But yeah, I I think that working relationship started it immediately went into a friendship.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

33:33

I love that it started on the phone in the same way that Pina and

Patricia

has started

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Salma Hayek

33:37

It's so true, oh my God. Yeah.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

33:39

I mean in terms of I guess we should talk about about how you prepared for the role of peanut, did you have to kind of do anything specific?

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Salma Hayek

33:46

Yeah, I had, I did learn a little bit how to do the cards, I forgot already, but it did take a class and I did a little bit of try to understand the cards from the period from

Napoli

because she Pina was Napolitan, so I went and try to get some instruction from what did they use to see the future and stuff. And the other thing I did, I gain a lot of weight because I really didn't want me to look good in the part.

Share

34:20

And so they did the hair and stuff. They put some makeup under my eye, but he saw me without makeup on so many sets, still too pretty.

Share

34:29

So I said, oh, I know how to care, take care of this. I started eating, eating, eating, eating was so much fun, I loved it, I love pasta, uh I mean it was incredible. And then of course, after the movie was over, I really saw for getting it off, I'm still struggling with the, Because after 50, it's a whole different story and I was thinking I should have just done like

Jared

, I should have just like done some prosthetics.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

34:52

I'm quite interested to know what you feel about the kind of idea of psychics and clairvoyants. Is that something that you've engaged in the past, would you do it now? I mean, I guess it didn't end that well for either of them engaging in that world.

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Salma Hayek

35:06

I do think that within that realm there are some amazing people and I have had some in the past that were really impressive, but I've not got dependent, it's not part of my everyday life, I am spiritual, but I don't call someone to make all my decisions now.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

35:24

Horoscopes?

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Salma Hayek

35:24

You know, I'm fascinated by it, but I don't keep up and I don't know that they're actually, I still don't understand how so many people that are born the same day can have the same thing happening at the same time, but it does fascinate me that the stars must... we are connected to space and it must affect us in some way.

Share

35:46

The concept the science of it fascinated by. I don't I don't read my horoscope every day, but there must be something my my daughter is really into it lately. So that's brought me back to that idea.

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Speaker 10

36:01

I think again, it has to be somebody really good that understands the science of it more than something you would read in a magazine.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

36:09

As a child of the 90s, that iconic

Gucci

revamp that was headed up famously by

Tom Ford

was a massive moment for me personally, you know, you've got that song with the G and it's all very, very sexed up. Was it exciting for you to see that major part of modern history play out?

Share

Salma Hayek

36:25

Yes, and also because in the tom ford era, I was able to afford

Gucci

are, you know, my own hard work and I used to buy it, I used to go to the store and by my sexy

Gucci

stuff and so I was part of that era. It's very cool. I think it's very cool that part, there's an aspect of this story that is incredibly tragic, incredibly sad sam hike.

Share

Teo Van Den Broeke

36:53

Salma

, thank you so much for taking the time to speak to me.

Share

Rhianna Dhillon

36:58

Teo I'm so jealous. That was like a lovely warm, conversational mud bath that I just relaxed right into.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

37:05

Wow, thank you. Is that good?

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Rhianna Dhillon

37:09

Yes, that's good. And gazing into my own crystal ball, I can see that we've got a very special guest coming up next.

Share

37:17

This is his second time making a movie with

Ridley Scott

. He plays

Jeremy

irons son,

Al Pacino's

nephew,

Jared Leto's

cousin and

Lady Gaga's

husband but is undeniably his own man and the heart of the film, it's

Maurizio Gucci

himself,

Adam Driver

.

Share

37:39

Hi

Adam

, It's so lovely to speak to you.

Share

37:41

Thank you.

Share

37:42

So when you were reading the script for the first time, could you see the film developing, was it immediately very vivid or did you speak more with

Ridley

to understand his vision for

House of Gucci

?

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Adam Driver

37:53

I just had this experience working with him and I just loved working with him. So I was excited to do something again.

Share

37:60

And then and then uh we finished last tool and then we had been kind of talking the entire time and trying to figure out what the journey was for

Maurizio

and you know reading the book and kind of consuming what I could, and then we had two weeks of rehearsal before we started.

Share

38:15

And that kind of continued as we uh as we shot because there's so much information, you know that you know, it's kind of, it's hard to cherry pick what is the right to, I mean because it was very vast, you know, in reality,

Maurizio

had a spiritual advisor as well.

Share

38:32

And then there was at one point in the story, people were, you know, casting spells on each other like uh you know wizards and

Harry Potter

. So uh that's kind of a lot. Then there was a, there was an earlier scene with Pina and

Maurizio

on the, on the boat because he bought this massive boat that he restored, that was part of it.

Share

38:50

So it was, there was all these great details that somewhere let go somewhere brought back. It was a lot of shaping at, you know, even as we were shooting. But the overall journey of him, we, we was, we were constantly kind of talking about but that two weeks of rehearsal before we started was really helpful.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

39:05

The film is based on the book

House of Gucci

by Sara Gay Forden, was it a useful research tool for you?

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Adam Driver

39:11

Yeah, because it wasn't clear to me in the initial read of it. Again, there was so much information that we wanted to make sure that we are economical without getting a little, you know, over explaining which

Ridley

is really good about, he is very economical and loves loves the mechanics of filmmaking and hates wasting time and that, that expands to every department and how he shoots even and especially with the script, his direction is very succinct, he doesn't over explain anything.

Share

39:38

He kind of has a, he talks all the time on set of like, you know, I've done this in the past where I talk a lot and it ruins it. So he tries to promote spontaneity and he loves economy, like you know, he trusts the process and that a costume piece can do what a line can't do sometimes.

Share

39:56

So he likes to get it to a bare minimum and then let's move on. So for me reading the book and knowing a little about where, because it's very heavy in the book about it's very detailed about

Maurizio's

,

Maurizio's

journey. So it was good to kind of consume what I could.

Share

Rhianna Dhillon

40:13

You give such a wonderfully physical performance as well, your cycling, you're washing trucks, you're playing football, you're skiing, how did those physical embellishments help you get into

Maurizio's

mindset.

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Adam Driver

40:24

Well, the costume was really also helpful in shaping his physicality to, again what was clear about the book and, and I think what was clear, I think in our conversations and talking about

Maurizio

is how he goes from being meek and collegiate and uh someone who, you know is uh scared of his father, so he's hesitant physically, he's not quite embodied, he's not quite comfortable in the skin.

Share

40:49

So we talked about that a lot, particularly with the scenes with

Jeremy

, with his father

Rodolfo

.

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40:57

And then as the costumes became more control, he gets a little straighter. We always talked about kind of like a

Cary Grant

, you know, awkward elegance. You know, it's like even in the first date scenes, you know, there's a, he's very fluid, you know, uh, someone who is um can be very physical but is more, is more graceful and the costumes do a lot to your body.

Share

41:18

I think when you wear them and then by the end of the movie, the suits get a little less tailored a little bit more relaxed, you know, so he eases into everything, even getting on the bike, you know, that he that he gets on, goes that he moves from a Lamborghini to a bike is supposed to be telling of his journey.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

41:35

I wanted to ask a little bit more about the clothes actually because it is, you know, your character particularly, although they're kind of a little bit more understated than many of the others. They do seem to have this journey that you talk about.

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41:45

Did you work very closely with Dante to kind of select which looks you would wear and how they would shape your performance in turn?

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Adam Driver

41:52

Totally in the two weeks starting before rehearsal and all these conversations always talking about it was constant, constant talk about where is

Maurizio

going? Where does he start? And where is he going? Really, really was obsessed with this idea of it being like a play in 3X. So the first act,

Maurizio

is uh not quite his own, he's wearing a lot of tans, he's where a lot of things a little bit too big than uh when he becomes the boss, his hair gets shorter is back, it's a little straighter. He is like false confidence but he's always kind of play acting.

Share

42:21

He it's not his world and he doesn't, he's not at ease until he gets distance from being a

Gucci

. But

Janty

is again, she works with, she's worked with

Ridley

I think since

Gladiator

and has done every movie with him since. And so she did the last duel and he has everybody in the heads of departments who has worked with forever and he trusts them and she's incredibly detailed.

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Rhianna Dhillon

42:44

The real, the real heart of the film is

Maurizio

relationship with

Patrizia

who is played by

Lady Gaga

. So I mean we've heard so much about the way that she loves to work. What does she like to play off as an actor for you?

Share

Adam Driver

42:55

Easy because people are prepared and they work hard and are available. So it makes it all easy.

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Rhianna Dhillon

43:02

Were there any particular scenes that you're really excited about sinking your teeth into that you're anticipating before filming?

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Adam Driver

43:08

I try not to anticipate scenes. I've learned uh that that can be a detriment because you're always expecting it to be a certain thing and then uh it's never the thing that you expect, it's going to be.

Share

43:17

You know, you always are anticipating, even if it's like, I find sometimes the most innocuous scenes turned out to be very dramatic and shooting them, you know, so no, no, nothing in particular, nothing in particular that I was really excited or not, not not excited about, you know, for the sake of this podcast, I was excited about shooting every single scene.

Share

Teo Van Den Broeke

43:38

You slightly covered this tangentially through what you just said. But I mean, you've worked with

Ridley Scott

twice now in quick succession. What was kind of the main appeal about working with him again for this?

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Adam Driver

43:48

Well,'cause I do love his movies, but he has such a different way of working than me. You know, that I've worked with directors before who work fast, you know, who would like to one or two takes when it seems really complicated. They love the economy. And he shares that with them.

Share

44:05

But the multi camera thing, I think is really unique and his process is just so different than out of my comfort level. I tend to overthink it and I want to kind of chase perfection almost to a point that sometimes and now it's starting, it's starting to waste people's time and began a little indulgent.

Share

44:21

So it's nice to have a concrete like that someone who's working opposite. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, people just uh I just finished 1/5 time working with Noah bomb back and we'll do scenes that are, you know, 20 takes, you know, that that's, that's different too, but that's more of my comfort zone working fast and impulsively is I just find unique and with filmmaking, even though it's permanent.

Share

44:46

My favorite part is the process. So when people have a set process, I always find it exciting to watch and he, and he's just easy, he doesn't sweat the small... on a film set. You know, he doesn't get bogged down and like, you know, someone has a different idea, you know, do I sort my authority here. He just, he rolls with it, he's prepared, he trusts his actors, it's, it's easy, he's hilarious.

Share

45:08

Uh it's, it's really a great set to work on because you work fast, morale is high and the crew has been working with the same people. So there's a shorthand, you know, it's, it's, it's great, he and he gives himself a lot of limits. And so it's a, it's a great environment to be in really.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

45:23

Your scenes with

Jeremy Irons

feel particularly lived in with your character wanting to revolt against, but also I guess seek approval from his father. How was it working with

Jeremy

on those scenes?

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Adam Driver

45:34

It's hard to make a succinct answer. I love his acting and I've always admired him and uh I was really excited to work with him. And then when you get with people like that, again, it's just easy, there's no there's not, not only ego, there's no ego being thrown around, no one's bringing on their resume through a set like that.

Share

45:55

He's just smart about script, we talked about it those scenes a lot and then we just kind of went in there and did it, but it was a lot of, you know, we have like 20 minutes while we're setting up.

Share

46:06

Do you want to talk about the next thing? You know, it was a lot of like dialogue and and shaping the script and tweaking lines, and you know, talking about with

Ridley

a little bit uh presenting it to

Ridley

and getting all on the same page.

Share

46:19

So it just feels like a conversation that continues and then the cameras roll in, your continuing the conversation and uh and he's just easy, he's easy, he doesn't, again, he doesn't get he doesn't second guess himself. So it was such a pleasure.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

46:33

Adam

we have time for one more question and I'm just very intrigued to know which of the suits that you wore throughout the film. Did you feel most comfortable in and did you most enjoy wearing?

Share

Adam Driver

46:43

The one that stands out to me not as a comfort level, but when I was in

Studio 54

and had to wear an ascot that for me, you know, I, in life always tried to work an ascot into whatever I'm wearing. Uh never successful with a black t-shirt. But he in that scene is very uncomfortable.

Share

47:01

So... but there wasn't anything in particular that stood out to me. They're all kind of great. They're all kind of great and different from me and I like what they kind of make you do physically. And it was nice to do, like getting on

Vespas

and you know, riding bikes and cobblestones and dress shoes. And so there's nothing in particular that stands out to me. They were all unique.

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Rhianna Dhillon

47:19

Adam

thank you so much for talking to us, it has been a pleasure!

Share

Adam Driver

47:22

Thanks a lot.

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Teo Van Den Broeke

47:26

I just love talking to him, such a lovely energy and you can tell he's so passionate about what he's doing.

Share

Rhianna Dhillon

47:31

Yeah. And I loved hearing

Adam

talking about working with

Ridley Scott

, so insightful.

Share

Teo Van Den Broeke

47:36

And speaking of which we've got him coming up on the podcast later too.

Share

Rhianna Dhillon

47:40

But for now it's time to turn our attention to one of the extended members of the

Gucci

family

Camille Cottin

who plays

Paola Franchi

, aka

Lady Gaga's

rival.

Share

47:53

There is an incredibly electric scene at the ski resort with

Lady Gaga

where

Patrizia

tells you in no uncertain terms, to back off her husband essentially. So was that a moment that you were looking forward to filming or was it kind of nerve racking and I'd be terrified if lady gaga was telling me to go to hell whether it was acting or not, you know?

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Camille Cottin

48:14

Well, yes, it's interesting because you, for me, it was clear that I didn't I mean

Paola

didn't steal

Maurizio

, but it was interesting to feel as woman to woman, even though the way she's threatening and she's she's a little there's violence in the way she speaks to

Paola

a but at the same time there's a lot of despair and as a woman to woman, you feel that too.

Share

48:42

So there's there's a mix of getting that violence but also getting the yeah, the the sadness and vulnerability of the woman talking to you. So it was interesting to feel both things at the same time and see how the character react.

Share

Rhianna Dhillon

49:04

I've kind of got an impression of how

Ridley Scott

likes to work on his set, but how was it opposite

Lady Gaga

who, you know, they're always kind of talks about her methods and the way that she likes to do scenes. So how do you find bouncing off her in those scenes?

Share

Camille Cottin

49:17

It was the ski scene was the second day. So it's yes, it's like really embracing the character and the first days are very, for me as my personal experience, it's always very intense.

Share

49:34

Again, there's a strong vulnerability, like embracing the character, but it's the first days of wearing the costumes and being with the camera and being with your fellow actors. You know, we just met the day before. So it was like we had to build it so there was a lot of electricity inherent of the context too, of the very mounting of the movie.

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Rhianna Dhillon

49:58

When we meet

paolo

, you have to sort of very quickly sell us on decades of history really between her and

Maurizio

without the benefit of flashbacks. So how did you and

Adam

go about translating all of that history and just compressing that into just a few moments to make it as believable as it is on screen?

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Camille Cottin

50:18

Well, yeah, think acting. Yeah, yeah, that was the thing. But I remember that bit lay would even want the scene where we recognize each other on the ski slopes. He could almost he said they could almost be no dialogues, just the look and the laughing and the joy and the surprise and just this range of emotion just with a look.

Share

50:44

So that's how he felt. It should be.

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Rhianna Dhillon

50:49

And

Maurizio Gucci

was known in real life for being a bit of a playboy, but he kind of feels like

Adam

found this very sweet side to him as well. Like he's obviously really cool, but there's this dorky side to him as well, so that must be quite a nice vibe to sort of act falling in love with, Right?

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Camille Cottin

51:07

Yeah, it is, yeah.

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Rhianna Dhillon

51:09

So can you tell me a little bit more about, kind of when you first read the script and you were learning about these characters for the first time and how you could see

Ridley's

vision just in the script, could you see it sort of being portrayed on the big screen?

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Camille Cottin

51:23

It's funny because you don't know what what you as a person, you know, you feel as an actor you can do anything, but the fact is as a person, there's something that emanates from you and you don't always know what emanates more, it comes from you as a person and I think this is what casting is about and sometimes, you know when you auditioned for a part and you're not taken and you think I don't understand, I can't do anything, but it's not true necessarily to did you read the script already knowing who else had been cast?

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Rhianna Dhillon

51:58

Yes.

Share

51:59

So at that moment you knew that you were going to be with

Adam Driver

. With

Lady Gaga

. How did that impact the way that you were reading the script?

Share

Camille Cottin

52:09

To be honest, the script when they described

Paola

, er they said she's a tall young blonde girl.

Share

52:17

So I'm a small brunette and I was like, okay, I'm going to do my best, but I'm not sure I'm the right person, you know? So then it was hard to believe that, you know, also because of how she was depicted and you know, and then I kept watching pictures of the real

Paola Franchi

and thinking "do I look like her? I'm not sure" but in the end, I think when I saw the movie I'm like yeah, okay, I understand. Uh so that's you know, middle-aged magic.

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Rhianna Dhillon

52:50

We often see as you sort of touched upon, like the other woman, which you can your character can sort of be seen as often we see those characters in like kind of reds and fiery and sort of sultry and actually your character of

paolo

does come across as slightly maybe more innocent, she's calmer, she dresses in white compared to

Patrizia

.

Share

53:12

So is that something is that sort of inversion of what we've come to expect from the other woman, Something that attracted you to the part of

Paola

?

Share

53:22

She was said to be a gold digger, but this is really not high I felt about her. So she was arriving at a moment when the marriage was already over in

Maurizio's

mind and that makes a mature relationship and also the fact that she she's a woman of her age, so she she has a child, she has divorced.

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Camille Cottin

53:45

So I think there's uh an attitude towards love and relationship and an understanding of what makes a relationship harmonious and deep and strong, thank you so much for me.

Share

Rhianna Dhillon

53:57

That was absolutely delightful, thank you so much for talking to us.

Share

Camille Cottin

53:60

Thank you.

Share

Rhianna Dhillon

54:03

This film, this cast,

Lady Gaga

,