0:00

You're listening to Ruthie's Table four

0:02

in partnership with Montclair. Ask

0:07

Gray Fines about Carrie Mulligan and

0:09

he will tell you she is a brilliant actor and

0:12

was a uniquely brilliant partner in

0:14

their movie The Dick. Ask

0:16

Lord Michaels about her hosting Saturday

0:18

Night Live, and he will say she was

0:20

one of the best in almost fifty years.

0:23

Ask David Hare, the writer and Robert

0:25

Fox, the producer of their place,

0:28

Starlight, and they will talk about her

0:30

killer ambition for authenticity

0:33

and excellence and her kindness

0:35

to everyone involved. To

0:37

day, twenty four hours after being nominated

0:40

for an Academy Award for Best Actress

0:42

in the movie Maestro, she is here

0:44

in the River Cafe kitchen cooking

0:46

scallops and sage with River Cafe

0:48

executive chef Shawn Owen. And

0:51

I know that when this morning is over

0:53

and all of you ask me about

0:56

Carrie Mulligan, absolutely

0:58

and for sure the answer will be

1:01

I love her.

1:04

So nice.

1:05

So kay you just we're

1:08

cooking the recipe which I would love

1:10

you to read for scallops,

1:13

and then we'll talk about

1:15

everything.

1:18

Eight medium scallops

1:21

olive oil, sea salt

1:23

and freshly ground pepper. One tablespoon

1:25

salted capers prepared, half a

1:27

bunch of sage leaves, stalks removed.

1:29

One lemon.

1:31

Brush a frying pan with a little oil and

1:33

place over high heat. When smoking, add

1:35

the scallops. Season with a little salt and pepper

1:38

and cook for two minutes on one side. Turn

1:40

the scallops over and immediately add the capers

1:43

and sage leaves, plus a little

1:45

extra olive oil so the sage leaves

1:47

fry. Cook for a further two

1:49

minutes, shaking the pan constantly,

1:52

squeeze the juice of the lemon and serve.

1:57

Get the pan really hot. Yeah, put the scollops

1:59

around the and to see.

2:01

Them, and then let's check

2:04

in a turn a minute more.

2:06

I'm trying to think about a scolet and thinking about

2:08

what's delicious about a scolp?

2:10

Is it a texture?

2:12

Al because it's a very delicate sweetnes.

2:15

I think it's a sweetness because I'm funny

2:17

with texture some things.

2:21

And yeah, I think it's the sweetness

2:23

of something. Yeah, and usually it's pretty good thought,

2:26

right, yes, exactly exactly

2:31

how long is this?

2:32

Then?

2:32

I reckon two or three minutes? And then

2:34

that's it.

2:34

Yeah, yeah, then sweeze

2:38

a bit of lemon in now good

2:40

old.

2:40

Generous amounts of olive oil, isn't there. Yeah?

2:43

I love that.

2:43

Well, we're on pips.

2:44

Of it here.

2:45

Yeah, but it's very good for you.

2:47

Yeah yeah, yeah,

2:49

easy, easy.

2:54

It's about getting the right amount of color on and

2:56

letting them sit. And then you

2:58

know you can put instead of lemon juice, you can put vinegar.

3:01

Yeah, instead of capers, you can put chuvies.

3:03

Instead of saved you can put

3:05

that as all.

3:06

That's delicious, cool, Thank

3:10

you.

3:10

So much.

3:13

So having cooked it? What was that

3:15

like?

3:15

Oh, it's so well.

3:17

It's one of those things that I would have. I'd

3:19

love to do at home, but

3:21

I feel like you need to do it when

3:24

people are already there because you want to give it, you

3:26

know, to people straight away. I wouldn't have the confidence

3:28

with that, but I think I would have a good at now good.

3:31

I think it's about having really good

3:33

scollops. And I

3:36

always love when you actually are in a kitchen you see

3:38

how much olive oil goes and everything A

3:41

little bit of olive.

3:41

Oil, a lot of oil.

3:44

Yeah, And so when you say that

3:47

you would like to do it for dinner,

3:49

people coming to dinner. But then there is that

3:52

separation, isn't there where you're cooking and they're

3:54

there. Do you like to cook around people or do you.

3:56

Like our house we

3:58

have.

4:00

It's like a farmhouse kitchen. So we have

4:02

a big we don't have like a cooking isle

4:04

or separate. It's sort of a one big

4:06

room, sort of a big table. It was

4:08

an old chemistry lab table and

4:10

that's in the middle of the room. And then so everything

4:13

kind of you cook around.

4:15

My husband is more.

4:17

He does it more than like he does all the big event

4:19

cooking like Christmases and you know, Sunday

4:21

races and things like that. I'll do if

4:23

we've got you know, ten

4:26

people, I'll do like a big stew

4:28

or a big.

4:29

Castrole or something like that.

4:30

But he's he's good at knocking stuff up,

4:33

like we have barely anything in the fridge and he can make something

4:35

out of that, whereas I need a

4:37

very clear.

4:38

And yeah, you

4:41

have cooked on stage?

4:43

Was it?

4:44

That's just it? No?

4:47

It was west End?

4:48

What was it a first from west End?

4:50

It was first in the west End.

4:51

Yeah, David was telling me this morning

4:53

about cooking spaghetti

4:55

bolonnaise, on stage,

4:57

and he was saying that Stephen Dawdry

5:00

being Stephen Daldry, insisted on having

5:02

a chef come from somewhere who

5:05

was one of the great chefs to

5:07

tell me about cooking ANTSA. Was it the first time

5:09

you'd ever had to cook on stage?

5:11

Yeah?

5:14

Eating onstage? Really?

5:16

Yeah, because I would I would cook it

5:18

in the first half and I would eat it in

5:20

the second half.

5:21

What was it like?

5:22

It was very basic, but there was

5:24

a musicality to the way.

5:27

So much of it was cooking.

5:29

It was one thing, but also fitting it

5:32

in because she's cooking in what

5:34

turns into an enormous row, and

5:36

so much of the physicality of

5:38

the cooking was in the sort of

5:40

smashing of garlic and

5:44

chopping, and you know, so I

5:46

had to be cooking

5:48

but also furious, but also controlled

5:50

that I didn't cut my finger off whilest I was furious.

5:54

So and there was a lot of kind of comedy to you

5:57

know, the way that Bill would come over and sort

5:59

of aunts and judge the way that

6:01

it was being cooked. And you know, putting the oil

6:03

in first or not putting the oil in. That

6:06

was one of the little gags.

6:08

But yeah, and the theater would fill with

6:10

the smell of cooking, and so I

6:12

used to say to anyone who was coming to see it, particularly

6:15

my dad.

6:16

You have to eat before you come,

6:18

because.

6:18

If you come and you watch a play, that's mean it's like

6:21

two and a half three hours long, you know, and you're

6:23

hungry, you're going to hate it, And

6:25

that's so unfair of us.

6:28

Was it for real or was it mostly theater? Was it?

6:30

Was it?

6:30

It was totally edible.

6:32

I mean, it probably wasn't great, but

6:34

it was you know, I ate it and it was tasted

6:36

fine to me.

6:37

Yeah, what about eating on stage?

6:39

When I did it in New York, I was pregnant and

6:42

I did go through a phase of feeling incredibly

6:44

unwell and nothing was good to eat.

6:46

So for a while it wasn't.

6:48

I was taking very small nibbles in the second

6:50

half, but no, generally I kind of loved it.

6:52

And in film there are also scenes

6:54

of you eating, yes, and drive in

6:57

the diner and not

6:59

eating. And so most recently

7:02

in Maestrow, which I saw at the

7:04

opening night in your phenomenal

7:07

great movie and very compelling.

7:09

You know, I grew up with

7:12

the Bernstein's, you know, I didn't

7:14

know them, but I mean as as major

7:16

figures in our lives from

7:18

not just West Side Story and his concerts,

7:21

but their their involvement in

7:24

social politics, for which they were hugely

7:27

maligned, which was unfair by Tom Wolfe

7:29

for the radical chic because

7:32

and especially your character Felicia

7:34

was really involved

7:37

in the civil rights struggle in

7:39

the Vietnam War. And

7:42

as a character, I thought that it wasn't

7:44

so what, it wasn't really that much in

7:46

the film. But she was formidable.

7:49

She was and it was at one point

7:52

a whole radical chic scene.

7:54

Yeah. Yeah, but I think you

7:56

know the thing, the script evolved David five

7:59

years. But yeah,

8:01

and she wasn't actually when I went to I went to Chile

8:03

and I met her family there

8:05

and they talked about you

8:07

know, she was active from

8:10

a young age, from when she was a teenager in Santiago.

8:12

She waschet.

8:16

I wonder whether he was there then and

8:18

Chile had that been before I think before.

8:21

Yeah, But she was very

8:24

but she was a real homemaker,

8:27

you know, she she didn't cook. I

8:29

don't think I think she had Julia

8:31

Vega. She had people in her life that were

8:34

but she everything was. They called

8:37

her the living the dining room at the apartment

8:39

of the Dakota, the French restaurant, because

8:42

every time anyone came, it was beautifully

8:44

kind of table every tablescape

8:47

was unbelievable, the flowers that were

8:49

brought in, and I think every kind

8:51

of environment where she was a host

8:54

was very kind of beautifully

8:56

put on. And she talks about being

8:59

responsible for the kitchen of life, and

9:01

that everything was you know, it was ordering the

9:04

best produced and ordering the best flowers

9:06

and ordering you know, that was a big part of her

9:09

life, particularly in New York, also upstate,

9:11

I think, but in New York that was a big part

9:14

of her kind of she loved

9:17

fostering this kind of beautiful environment.

9:19

What was the filming like, what was the experience

9:21

of doing that movie?

9:23

It was amazing, I mean it was. It

9:28

was the closest I think to a part that I

9:30

had played. I always sort of felt

9:32

like I had played you know,

9:34

Nina and the Seagull and

9:38

you know, Kira and Skylight and doing

9:40

this monologue of girls and boys. I had these

9:43

kind of kind of epic roles

9:45

on stage, and I

9:48

felt when I read Felicia that

9:50

she had that breadth. So she had that kind

9:52

of you know, it felt like a kind

9:54

of Chekhov all. It felt like she's got this

9:57

huge journey and she starts and she

9:59

actually not dissimilar to Nina

10:01

in some ways, because she does start as this

10:04

actress with this burning ambition and

10:07

is disillusioned and you

10:10

know, driven to you know too

10:14

well, in my opinion, not madness,

10:16

but driven to sort of to a completely

10:18

different place by the end of the story and having.

10:20

Become a completely different person.

10:22

And I feel like Felicia really has that

10:24

huge you know, she

10:26

came to New York, you know, bright

10:29

as a button and full of hope and ambition,

10:32

and you really do get a sense

10:34

of her being worn down by her

10:36

experience. So

10:39

just the character on its own was amazing.

10:41

The way that Bradley works is

10:43

so unique and so and

10:47

I loved a completely different experience,

10:49

nothing like I'd ever done before, completely, you

10:52

know, and I think because he's in it as well.

10:54

But you know, the most amazing set

10:57

where you don't feel like you're in a film set,

10:59

feel like you're walking on stage.

11:02

And that was right. Where where

11:04

did we shot.

11:06

We shot in Tanglewood for

11:08

the first week, which was amazing. Then

11:11

we shot in New York

11:14

and then we were on a sound stage in

11:16

Brooklyn for a minute, and then we had a break, and

11:18

then we shot Ely Cathedral

11:20

and we shot in a

11:22

sound stage in London as well.

11:24

Yeah, and I in terms

11:26

of again about eating

11:29

in food and nourishment, this

11:31

is a character who wastes

11:34

away, who starts disappearing,

11:36

and the way you

11:38

conveyed her fragility

11:41

and his emotions, dealing

11:43

with you know, her husband's the effect,

11:45

well, dealing with the effect and the family.

11:48

And so to see this strong woman in the beginning

11:50

that you played and then how was that for you when

11:53

when having to show

11:56

someone dying a

11:59

terrible disease is Yeah.

12:00

It was I think, you

12:03

know. We we shot her.

12:06

Younger stuff right at the beginning of the shoot,

12:08

and then we jumped straight to a scene after

12:11

she's diagnosed with cancer. And it was

12:13

the first time I think I played anyone over

12:16

a span of so many years.

12:17

So she was the first week it was sort

12:19

of a.

12:19

Younger wig in black and white, and then

12:22

the following Monday I had prosthetics on

12:24

and I

12:26

think I was

12:28

surprised, actually, I thought that there would be a lot more I'd

12:30

have to like map it a lot more. But it was

12:33

interesting once I was in the prosthetics and the

12:35

costume of that point in her life.

12:38

It's funny what it does looking at yourself

12:40

in the mirror when you

12:42

know, we did the makeup for when she's right

12:44

at the end of her life. Took about four and

12:46

a half hours and was prosthetics

12:49

and lots of painting in and these

12:52

incredible contact lenses that took out the sort

12:54

of white around my eyes. And

12:57

when I had the head scarf on, and.

12:59

You know, you look in the mirror and you do feel

13:02

different.

13:02

It is an odd thing to look at also,

13:05

because we weren't trying to make her

13:07

look I wasn't trying to look like Felicia, because

13:09

Felicia isn't a well known face in the

13:11

way that Bradley needed to look like Lenny.

13:13

We I just looked like myself, And so, you

13:16

know, I remember saying to Duncan,

13:18

who was doing my prosthetics and Sean Gregg, makeup

13:21

artist, I said, is this basically

13:23

a time machine, like you know, without the illness,

13:25

before the illness? Is this essentially you know?

13:27

And I do look.

13:28

Exactly like my mom. Yeah,

13:30

in the Palm Court.

13:31

You know, I look exactly how my mom does, and

13:36

so it was it kind of interesting. Yeah, the whole thing was

13:38

very interesting, But when it came to the

13:40

six stuff, it was a lot of it was

13:42

based on Bradley's experience of his father

13:45

who had cancer and pastwaycounts. So and

13:47

I knew that, you

13:49

know, some of the detail that had been written in

13:52

folding up the napkins was

13:54

something that Bradley's dad did, and

13:57

lots of it was so lots of I've

14:00

felt constantly aware of him. And

14:03

then also when people would see

14:05

me in the makeup, and I

14:07

think, you know, if you've had anyone in your life

14:10

who's been through an illness

14:12

that has affected them like that physically

14:14

and visibly, you

14:16

know, I remember an ad sort of like bursting

14:19

into tears because she just sort of it reminded

14:21

her too much of someone that she loved,

14:23

and so I felt just

14:26

really determined

14:29

to not to get it right, but also that

14:31

if there was something about the sort of general

14:34

sense of everybody. By that point, we just had

14:36

the most incredible crew. There was so amazing. It really

14:38

felt like that it didn't when

14:40

you walked on set. It wasn't like this

14:42

actor has this hard thing to do. It was like, oh, this person's

14:44

not well. And that was an incredible

14:47

kind of feeling. And that's how the set felt

14:49

that whole week when we showed you

14:51

No, who didn't it?

14:53

What was that like?

14:54

I mean I ate at home and I ate, but when

14:56

I was at work now, I just yeah,

15:01

because there was you know, and I remember

15:03

the physical the way that she remember Mot

15:05

Bridges, our costume designer, brought this little shawl

15:08

that goes over her shoulders when she's receiving

15:10

visitors, and it's so it was my grandmother.

15:12

My my grandmother had dementia.

15:13

She didn't but she did

15:16

lose lots of weight and she did get you

15:18

know, as she was unable to feed herself, you know,

15:21

she it was you know, it was

15:23

constantly trying to get her to intake nutrition.

15:26

But I remember the way her shoulders

15:28

kind of came forward, and it was

15:31

so highlighted by this

15:34

this shawl that was over her. And so when

15:36

he brought that shawl, that sense of fragility

15:39

and it was just so it just I

15:41

felt it, you know, just it was so kind

15:43

of eerie. How you know

15:46

that physicality is just so familiar.

15:57

Did you know the River Cafe hairs a sharp It's

15:59

full of our favorite foods and designs.

16:02

We have cookbooks and then in napkins, kitchen

16:04

ware, toad bags with our signatures,

16:06

glasses from Venice, chocolates from

16:09

Turin. You can find us right next

16:11

door to the River Cafe in London or

16:13

online at shop the River Cafe

16:15

dot co UK. Growing

16:24

up, you grew up in a hotel, is that right?

16:26

For the first we.

16:27

Grew up in Yeah, we lived in hotels. I was almost

16:30

eight.

16:31

My father was a hotel manager

16:33

for Intercontinental for my

16:35

whole childhood until I was sort

16:38

of eighteen, so I was born.

16:41

I think we were at the Brittannia

16:44

when I was born. My dad was running the Brittannia hotel

16:46

in London, Yeah, and then the

16:50

Yeah Yeah, yeah, so there,

16:53

and then the Mayfair. And

16:55

then we moved to Germany to Hanover and Dusseldorf

16:57

and he ran hotels there, and then

17:00

we moved back to London. He ran I

17:02

can't remember in the hotel he then he was at the Churchill in Portman

17:05

Square, so he moved around those and he also ran hotels

17:07

in Vienna and Frankfurt.

17:09

Yeah, did you, but you actually lived

17:11

in the hotel.

17:12

We lived in the hotel till I was eight.

17:13

Were you were a bit like Elowise? Do you remember that

17:15

book Allowis? Did you ever know that growing up

17:17

in the plaza? Would you run around

17:19

the hotels?

17:20

Yeah?

17:21

Fine? What was that like living in a hotel?

17:23

It was amazing. I mean it was you know, it's kind of

17:25

all we knew.

17:26

But I look back and I think, oh wow, that was kind

17:28

of an extraordinary way to grow up. And

17:32

my brother and I were certainly you know,

17:34

we would sort of roll

17:36

around with the the

17:39

maids, you know, going into people's rooms after

17:41

they checked out, and sort

17:43

of you know, I remember sort

17:46

of sitting in the basket

17:48

with all the sheets, you know, with my hands

17:50

holding on, rolling around the corridor

17:52

and you know, sitting on with my whole body

17:55

wrapped around a hoover, you know, going up

17:57

and down the hallways.

17:59

We were ordering room service.

18:00

Did we had It was like that, you

18:02

know, they'll have a they'll have a little I

18:04

mean in the place at the hotels that we lived in

18:06

the sort of an apartment in

18:08

the top floor for the manager. So

18:11

we lived in a Yeah, Mum

18:13

talks about. I mean, we had our own little

18:15

mini kitchen and stuff, but it was more. Yeah,

18:18

we didn't do room service, but we did have

18:20

our linen changed.

18:21

I'm pretty sure.

18:22

So Mum always says that was a massive bonus.

18:23

And has been living at the arm

18:25

the job and being the manager and living

18:28

there. Yeah, I mean

18:30

great for the hotel to have the manager there.

18:32

Yeah. Are you one of many or are

18:34

you no?

18:35

Just me and my brother?

18:36

Yeah. Yeah.

18:36

But we were bilingual because we moved to Germany

18:38

when I was three and we went to you know,

18:40

we learned German. We went to I went to

18:43

a German kindergarten, Rudolph

18:45

Stein in kindergarten.

18:46

And then I went to school

18:49

in Hanover.

18:49

We were with a lot of X you know, with military kids,

18:52

and and then we were in distledor for in

18:54

international school, and.

18:55

Then we moved home. So we were there.

18:57

We was the only thing I remember

18:59

about the kitchen because we were, you know, nowhere near the

19:01

kitchen. That was not And I was saying

19:03

earlier, my dad, you know, I

19:05

think briefly worked in kitchens

19:08

on his way. He worked his way up from kind

19:10

of collecting glasses in a restaurant to being

19:13

the manager. Yeah,

19:15

and he so whenever he

19:17

cooks, generally I exit the building.

19:20

Because it's just not what

19:23

is it like.

19:24

He just likes things ordered

19:27

and the way that they and

19:29

you know, for us to sort of come in and sort of casually

19:32

start munching on something, his heart was not not

19:34

part of it.

19:35

So that, yeah, it's but my

19:38

memory of.

19:39

One of my birthday parties when I was little

19:42

was at the hotel in Disseldorf,

19:45

and you know, the pastry

19:48

chef made a bunch of dough.

19:50

We were all making little dollies

19:52

out of dough, and then they took them off and cooked

19:55

them in the kitchen and.

19:55

Brought them back.

19:56

And the birthday cakes,

19:59

you know, when we lived in hotels were always you

20:01

know, those very elaborate kind of I feel

20:03

like they always had liquor in them.

20:05

They always had like a bit of booze.

20:06

It like

20:09

properly kiddie birthday cakes.

20:11

And they had like very beautiful writing in

20:13

icing and all that kind of stuff. There was always

20:15

such a sense of occasion in hotels.

20:18

It's always like there's a big display

20:20

for Christmas or there's a big you know, it was like

20:22

there was always some sort of sense of there's

20:24

a sort of event happening. But

20:27

I always felt, really I

20:30

like being nomadic. I don't mind, you

20:32

know, I like being in hotel tells I'm not

20:34

someone who I don't need to bring. You know,

20:36

some people sort of need to bring stuff with them to

20:38

make wherever.

20:39

They are feel like home.

20:40

Carries with her, do you know.

20:42

The only time I ate lunch

20:44

here was with Tracy.

20:45

Tracy she described, you

20:48

know that she I think she's ever ordered

20:50

room service. She would always, you know, I

20:52

go out and find something and take her

20:54

food on the plane, or take an object. And

20:57

as you say, I love hotels so

20:59

much that I actually don't like

21:01

when I'm upgraded to a suite because

21:03

it reminds me too much of home. Yeah, yeah,

21:05

yeah, I like the confines of a

21:08

hotel room. You can find everything. You know where

21:10

your book is, you know where everything is. I always

21:12

thought that maybe I'd be one of those women who

21:15

age, you know, Richard be in a state

21:17

at Clarages for the rest of you know, of our

21:19

days. I had said to him, if we saw

21:21

our house, how many nights do you think we'd get in claritges

21:24

He's like probably six. And

21:28

do you think there was a performance that you had to behave

21:30

in a certain way with strangers?

21:32

I think so, yeah, yeah, we had you know, we

21:34

met people who were staying at the hotel

21:36

sometimes and there was a

21:38

real kind of day. It felt like being a bit of a

21:41

like a diplomat's daughter or something. You know, someone

21:43

would come and stay at the hotel and you would greet them.

21:45

You know, did

21:47

that prepare you? Do you think for acting in

21:49

a certain way? I think yeah

21:53

perhaps.

21:53

I think also moving around

21:56

constantly kind of being the new kid

21:58

and meetings.

22:00

The time I was eight, we had moved.

22:02

You know, I'd been at a I think three

22:04

places in Germany, three

22:07

four schools, no three so nursery and

22:09

then two schools and then home to

22:12

a convent school in Buckinghamshire. And then

22:15

when I was eleven I moved again, and then when I was thirteen

22:17

I moved again. So we were so I think I

22:19

was always kind of used to being new and

22:21

having to introduce myself

22:23

adapt to people, and you know

22:25

that sort of thing.

22:26

What was Cherman food like, do you have a memory of it

22:29

or did you?

22:30

Yeah, lots of quite

22:32

meat meat based food. I mean

22:34

we you know, we were amongst kind

22:37

of lots of Brits as well, so but

22:39

we spent we were amazingly

22:42

lucky. We got to go skiing in Austria

22:45

in our holidays and things, we you

22:47

know, spent lots of We had lots

22:49

of casia, keaza, spetzel

22:51

and you know venus nitzel and

22:54

delicious like warm brothy

22:57

things to be able to warm up.

23:00

But yeah, I think we you know, because it

23:02

was also an international hotel. It was you know,

23:04

it wasn't we were if I was eating stuff

23:07

from it wasn't necessarily German cuisine

23:09

or anything.

23:10

I usually asked people about their families

23:12

and growing up, and restaurants were restaurants,

23:15

But in your case, I often asked if restaurants

23:17

were a special occasion, which was

23:19

the tooth. In my family, we went out to restaurants

23:21

for somebody's birthday and

23:24

somebody's anniversary or something

23:26

great had happened and you'd celebrate in restaurant.

23:28

Here we see

23:31

people just coming out for dinner with their kids

23:33

all the time, and maybe

23:35

it was just more for you, that was that something

23:37

that was.

23:38

Just I

23:41

suppose that I don't really remember

23:43

going to restaurants at all. I don't remember going

23:45

to nice, you know, white tablecloth

23:48

restaurants.

23:48

Ever.

23:48

With my we would go to There

23:50

was a pizza place in Duzzledorf that we would go

23:53

to, but like really a hole on the

23:55

wall kind of pizza place, and that was sort of a treat

23:57

that we would go there. I don't

23:59

think we went to I remember what

24:01

for the Millennium my dad was running

24:04

the Intercontinental in Vienna and there was a

24:06

big Millennium meal there and I

24:08

was fourteen and fourteen fifteen

24:10

I think, yeah, fourteen, and my

24:13

best friend came with me and we bought

24:16

dresses, you know, for millennium

24:18

and we sat and it was a proper white

24:21

tablecloth, seven course

24:23

meal thing, and that

24:25

was very That was a big, big deal. So I don't

24:27

think we did necessarily. Although

24:30

when I was when we moved home and we

24:32

were living in you know, Buckinghamshire,

24:34

we used to go if there was anything to

24:36

celebrate, we'd go to Mister Poone's the

24:38

Chinese restaurant, and go and have big Chinese

24:41

and we did that kind of for years.

24:43

Your parents cook for you.

24:45

Yeah, I mean Mum's always you know, she couldn't

24:48

turn her hand to anything. She was never a sort of passionate

24:50

cook, I think because Dad was the cook. So

24:52

if there was meals that were cooked, it would

24:54

be Dad, you know. And

24:56

Mum, my grandmother was a was a

24:59

wonderful bacon.

25:01

Yeah.

25:01

I loved baking. Yeah.

25:03

So where did she live?

25:04

So she was my mother's Welsh

25:06

So she was in Carmarthenshire. So

25:09

and every time I went to

25:12

her for any kind of length of

25:14

time, we were just bake and bacon, bake, oh

25:16

well everything. Welsh cakes, famously

25:19

delicious Welsh cakes.

25:20

Welsh cakes, that's don't tell Sean, I

25:22

asked you this because I've lived in this country for.

25:25

Well if

25:27

you weren't it. But they're like their little mini

25:29

sort of flat cake with raisins

25:31

in and like a scone. Yeah, like a

25:34

sort of flatter scone. But

25:36

she'd make amazing Welsh cakes. A

25:39

cherry almond cake, a delicious cherry

25:41

almond cake that just got better the longer

25:43

you left it in the tin. You know.

25:44

It was that kind of thing.

25:46

I know that you're you're

25:49

from going from school. You knew

25:51

that acting was going to be an

25:53

essential part of your life. Yeah, can

25:56

you tell me how that happened.

25:58

It was all I wanted to do from a young age,

26:01

but I didn't think of it really as

26:03

a career until

26:07

I was probably twelve.

26:09

You know, maybe I

26:12

wanted to do musical theater. That was

26:14

the big you know, that's my mum and I

26:16

went to go and see every musical. Every

26:20

time we could go into London, we'd go and see musical. We

26:22

went to New York together, just the two of us, and

26:24

went saw did you Cabaret?

26:26

This was the original there's some Mendes studio

26:29

fifty four.

26:29

We saw that.

26:31

I told this to him the other day. But I saw

26:33

Kevin Bacon in a one man show

26:36

at the Walterkerk Theater. I forget the name of

26:38

it. But I then later years

26:40

later went and did The Seagull at the Walter curR and it was a

26:42

really crazy kind of full circle thing. So

26:44

I was I was sort of wanted to do musical theater.

26:47

Then was slowly sort of realizing

26:50

that that was quite a big job

26:52

in terms of dance and song. And

26:54

I wasn't a dancer, and I kind

26:56

of was a choir singer, but not a singer.

26:58

Singer.

27:01

Was not enormously interested in film

27:03

so much. I mean, I loved movies. I

27:05

loved, you know, my favorite all of my favorite

27:08

films like Indiana

27:10

Jones, Last Crusade, and you know, I

27:13

liked sort of Spielberg like proper

27:15

movies. And then I

27:18

slowly realized that it was

27:20

more kind of theater that I was probably

27:22

just straight theater just in place. So

27:25

it was when I was a I

27:27

auditioned for a bunch of drama schools basically

27:30

and didn't get into any of them. But that was my first

27:33

sort of big, sort of attempt

27:35

to do to kind of make it a job, which

27:38

didn't get very well. But then I

27:40

found another kind of way in luckily

27:42

actually right around the cord from me here to go to Riverside

27:45

Studios to do Young Blood Theater

27:47

Workshop, which was an amazing I

27:49

don't know if it still happens, but it was an

27:51

incredible experience. It was once a week,

27:54

I did it for months, where you

27:56

would come together with a bunch of other actors of a

27:58

similar age.

27:59

But I'd ever acted really with.

28:01

Boys before, you know, because I've been

28:03

in an all girls school and for people

28:05

from all different walks of life, and it

28:07

was a lot of improvisation, a lot

28:10

of just you would just be

28:12

sitting all in the circle on the floor and then you would suddenly have

28:14

to be in the middle of the room doing a scene about something

28:16

and it was just a real I loved it

28:18

and made really good friends and we did

28:20

I think one or two little productions there,

28:23

and then an audition for a new version of Pride

28:26

and Prejudice.

28:26

And that was my first job.

28:28

So so I knew we were working in pubs. Did you did

28:30

you have to have a job that wasn't Yeah.

28:33

I left school and that

28:35

was you know, I had not gone to rom school, so I was taking

28:37

a gap year and it was in that year that I worked in the pubs.

28:39

Yeah. Yeah, I remember the food

28:42

and it was like proper just pubs. Yeah.

28:44

I mean I worked on a barge, like

28:46

a restaurant sort of barge in

28:49

Marlowe, but I was serving, I was never making.

28:53

And then I worked in two pubs

28:55

at the same time, just picking up shifts in the

28:57

in whichever one. But I

29:00

liked I liked the sort of kind

29:02

of energy of it. I think I also

29:04

quite like being in charge of giving

29:07

people drinks. That I was behind

29:10

this bar and I was eighteen. I probably looked

29:12

about fifteen, and

29:14

yet I was sort of pulling pints for you know,

29:16

big burly men, and it felt kind of like

29:18

quite a powerful position to be And.

29:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a

29:23

performance, isn't it an acting and

29:25

cooking? You know? I think the reason I always

29:27

say that a lot of actors like

29:30

to work, of course it suits them,

29:32

you know, to work part time in a restaurant

29:35

if they're trying to pursue their career, is

29:38

that there is a lot of drama in a restaurant.

29:40

Yeah, and the energy in.

29:41

The Do you remember what you ate

29:43

in those years? When I

29:46

talked to Emily Blunt, it was, you

29:48

know, hamburger after hamburger after hamburger,

29:50

and eating and eating and eating. She ate, so

29:53

she would describe, even when she had small

29:55

parts, that she would have two hamburgers

29:58

before going on stage, being

30:00

in school. But do you remember when you were away

30:02

from or did you live with your parents when.

30:04

You were I didn't. I'm pride and prejudice.

30:06

I moved out for that job, and I do remember

30:09

that we were all in corsets, and I remember

30:12

for the first and it was a very lovely

30:14

production. It actually set me up for disappointment

30:17

future productions because it was so We stayed in such

30:19

nice hotels and the catering were so lovely,

30:21

and I remember for the first month

30:24

or so we had like really

30:27

delicious like snacks,

30:29

but you know, yummy cakes and biscuits

30:32

and like delicious granolla y things that we could

30:34

nibble on.

30:34

And after a while they had

30:36

to take out.

30:37

Our costumes because we'd all and our courses

30:39

had to get sort of loosen to because we'd all've been

30:41

having a lovely time. And

30:43

then I moved into a flat with two boys

30:45

in Highgate and I think I ate you know, literally

30:48

pot noodles.

30:49

Whilst I did theater.

30:51

I also got into a habit of having

30:53

to have a double espresso

30:56

before I did a show. I didn't eat really

30:58

before the play I did. I

31:00

did a play at the Royal Court straight after, which

31:03

it was called forty Winks. It was a Kevin Elliott play.

31:05

It was a real shock for me because

31:07

it went, you know, it was briden Bridges was a

31:09

summer of you know, real kind

31:12

of sort of basically massive

31:14

party and the best time and I and I

31:16

was delighted. It was oral Court is my favorite

31:18

theater in the world, hands down ten

31:21

million times. But I was playing

31:23

a narcolepts, a girl

31:25

with narcolepsy who also might

31:27

have been a victim of rape.

31:28

I mean it was.

31:29

It was really kind of harrowing

31:32

and and in a very

31:34

kind of surrounded by real

31:36

heavy weight, incredible

31:38

actors, and I suddenly thought, oh my gosh, this

31:40

is not what I don't know how to

31:42

do this at all, but it was. I was in

31:45

real kind of just yeah,

31:48

just theater, have an espresso.

31:49

The espresso started then before

31:52

yeah, before the place. Yeah.

31:53

And I did that for years through theater until

31:56

probably until I did Girls and Boys.

31:58

And I stopped well to talk about because

32:00

that the Royal Court is actually our local

32:03

theater hand car as we live further down

32:05

the keys. What makes

32:07

you love a theater?

32:09

I mean I think that was my first theater, so

32:11

that was special. Then

32:13

I went back there and did The

32:16

Seagull when I was twenty one Christopher

32:19

Hampton Ian Rickson, and

32:23

and that was just completely I just

32:25

that that role, everything about

32:27

it, I just and I

32:30

feel like I kind of I

32:32

don't know, there was something about the free

32:35

show thing. I would go

32:38

underneath the I'd

32:40

go down, all the way down to the bottom of the stairs, all

32:42

the way back up again. I'd run around like a mad woman

32:44

before so because when Nina comes on, she's really out

32:46

of breath, and I wanted to be genuinely

32:49

out of breath. So I would run around and then

32:51

I would sort of burst onto stage at the last minute.

32:53

And the smell

32:56

of it, I don't know, there was just so much about that theater.

32:58

Every time I step in there, I just feel, oh, I just

33:00

love it. I love it.

33:02

Yeah, And so you would have your espresso

33:04

before the play, and then

33:07

and then afterwards would you do that thing of

33:09

going out to dinner with a bunch of friends, people

33:11

who had seen the play.

33:12

And sometimes, I mean, Mason, what I also

33:14

love about the Royal Court is the downstairs.

33:17

I'd always just go down there afterwards and we all

33:19

would you know. I

33:22

don't remember eating. I remember I remember

33:24

eating corner shans, little corners and a glass

33:26

of red wine and corn, you know, just loads of

33:28

little corner shems back

33:31

then. But I don't

33:33

remember going out for food

33:35

much. I just sort of think I'd

33:38

probably just go home and eat whata bits or something

33:40

at the end of the night.

33:41

You know there's money an issue.

33:44

Yeah, at that time, Yeah, it was, you

33:47

know, it's it was the minimum wage

33:49

theater, so it was. And

33:51

I was spending money on living in a highgate living

33:53

and you know, paying rent up there, so

33:56

it wasn't Yeah it was.

33:58

I was. I ate quite a lot of cereal.

34:01

Do you remember when food became

34:03

a kind of measure of your success that you could

34:05

say, I can afford to eat well now

34:08

because I'm I'm earning more money.

34:10

Yeah.

34:10

I think I got really into sushi when I lived

34:12

in New York. I was

34:16

I was living in New York probably

34:19

what was I doing? I was doing theater there, but I

34:21

was also doing a bit of film. I did

34:23

the film Steph McQueen called Shame and

34:27

and I remember

34:30

I remember.

34:31

Sitting down with.

34:33

You know, my with a financial

34:36

advisor, sort of figuring out working in

34:38

America and working. And he looked at my bank's

34:41

name as he said, oh, you seem to have spent lots of money

34:44

on rent and sushi.

34:46

I was like, that was pretty good.

34:48

That's what we did. We lived in Paris. It was the same

34:50

thing we in those days. He had check books

34:52

and we used to look at our checkbook at the end of the mother Stubs

34:55

and basically it was all restaurants and when

34:57

we weren't working, we were just eating out

35:00

exploring, because you do learn about a

35:02

culture through the food, don't you.

35:05

Yeah. Yeah.

35:09

If you like listening to Ruthie's Table

35:12

for would you please make sure

35:14

to rate and review the podcast

35:17

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple

35:19

Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever

35:21

you get your podcasts. Thank

35:24

you for

35:30

a moment. I'd like to talk about war

35:32

child, and I think

35:34

that we see the effects of

35:36

war, and we're seeing it right now, aren't we.

35:39

We're seeing it every day. And I

35:42

was wondering what you feel about how that, how

35:45

warchild affected your your views

35:47

of children in poverty,

35:49

children in danger, and food

35:52

insecurity.

35:53

So I was doing Skylight and I

35:56

was I would I had this sort

35:58

of you know, I have a little routine that

36:00

I largely stick to, is I

36:04

go into a theater at sort of five,

36:07

eat, then have

36:09

a nap for twenty minutes twenty five

36:11

minutes poundnap, and then I wake up and I have my

36:13

coffee and I get.

36:15

Ready for the show.

36:16

But I would listen to the six o'clock news every night

36:19

and that summer

36:21

of two thousand and fourteen

36:24

was was terrible for

36:26

children in conflict, and that a

36:28

lot of the news was about.

36:30

What's happened in twenty fourteen.

36:32

It was when the year D's were escaping

36:35

Isis, and there there was a lot

36:37

of coverage and

36:39

lots of images on the news. I remember seeing

36:42

on the news as well, all the u ZD refugees

36:44

were on Sinjo Mountain and they were being evacuated,

36:46

and I remember seeing images

36:48

of you know, mums and dads

36:51

with their babies flinging them into the helicopter

36:53

to try and get, you know, someone

36:56

to take the baby. And

36:58

I didn't have kids then, but I but

37:00

I remember thinking, I cannot imagine

37:02

what it takes for you to think in

37:04

this moment, I'm just going to hurl my

37:07

baby into someone as strange as.

37:09

You know, and hope that they are even caught.

37:12

And what must that take to be in

37:14

that And I was just thinking about

37:17

a lot, as everyone was. And

37:19

my brother had been in Afghanistan

37:23

and he had encountered this girl's

37:25

school that had

37:27

been shut down by the Taliban, and he'd raised

37:29

on his own lots of money to

37:32

help this school reopen so the girls could get back

37:34

to school. And he had written

37:37

to a bunch of different endos asking for help kind of

37:39

facilitating this, and War Child

37:41

were the only ones that had written back and made

37:43

it very easy and so we'll take and we don't need a

37:45

commission and we'll just we'd love to do this and help.

37:47

And so he had come back from Afghanistan saying,

37:49

like, this charity is really interesting and really cool.

37:52

So I went to the

37:54

Democratic Republic of Congo that October

37:58

and we went around and saw the projects

38:00

that they were doing, met the children they worked with, and

38:03

at the end of that week, I said, I'd really love

38:05

to kind of focus on this, and

38:08

so they asked me to be an ambassador. I

38:10

went to the Ukraine with them in

38:12

two thousand and twenty

38:15

two.

38:15

At the end of that year.

38:17

Did you feel that children were

38:19

Yeah, we're hungry.

38:21

Yeah, I mean, it's so different in country

38:23

to countries. So in the Democratic Republic of Congo,

38:25

the thing that I noticed was how

38:29

I mean one of the camps that we went to was

38:32

an IDP camp internally displaced

38:35

people, and they were I

38:37

mean, it was one of the worst places I've

38:39

ever It was a really really awful, awful camp,

38:41

and two children there the week

38:43

that we visited had died of malnutrition

38:47

of you know, had starved to death. Basically,

38:50

it's definitely a huge

38:52

issue in some countries

38:54

and some you know, I remember we were in when

38:56

we were in Budapest, we met some Roma

38:59

refugee toi ildren who were living in a

39:02

in a homeless shelter. They had fled the

39:04

Ukraine, their homes had been destroyed and

39:06

they were now living in this sort of homeless

39:08

shelter in Budapest. And

39:10

there it was you know, they were having food provided,

39:13

but it was food that they had no connection to.

39:15

They had no so the children wouldn't eat.

39:18

You know that you can't make a child eat

39:20

something they've grown up their entire life having

39:22

the And these women who were in the shelter,

39:24

they said, all we want is a kitchen. We just

39:27

want to be able to make food. And

39:29

their little three year olds are just rejecting

39:31

because they're just first of all traumatized, but

39:33

secondly they've got no So there

39:35

was there was food available, but it was

39:38

packaged bought in kind

39:40

of you know, for them to be able

39:42

to make food, that was familiar and comfortable

39:44

and inexpensive, but something that

39:46

just for them to be able to provide their own and

39:49

also for these women who are also suffering

39:51

for their own trauma, for the ritual

39:53

of cooking together as a family,

39:55

for that to be something that they could do community

39:59

wise, I think, you know, would have been such

40:01

a powerful kind of.

40:03

Healer for them.

40:05

In times.

40:08

And a communicator.

40:09

When we were in Ukraine, we cooked with these

40:11

women in the in the shelter, and

40:13

you know, I couldn't speak any you

40:16

know, we were completely you know, we had an interpreter,

40:18

but really it was just peeling potatoes

40:20

together. And you know, it's a wonderful way

40:22

to communicate with them.

40:24

That story you told of the woman throwing her

40:27

child into the helicopter. I remember, Richard and I were

40:29

living in Paris in the seventies.

40:31

So you met someone whose grandmother

40:34

had knew that the you know, the

40:36

Nazis coming to take them away from the

40:38

Jewish ghetto in Paris. And she said

40:41

that she her grandmother

40:43

and her mother were on one side of the barricade

40:46

caving on a train to towards

40:48

Auschwitz, and they then Nanny

40:50

came rushing for them to see because she'd come

40:52

home and so and they threw her. They

40:55

just threw her physical I mean, throwing a child

40:58

is quite a big thing. And then nanny and

41:00

she never saw our parents again. So

41:03

we think about, you know, the

41:05

lack of food being denial

41:08

for children and the lack of food being

41:10

hunger, food being a

41:13

sign of illness or when your illness that you're

41:16

cutting yourself off from food and

41:18

whatever you know, and a sign of

41:20

frailty. It's also it

41:23

can work the other way, which your food is joyous

41:25

when we cook for our children. It's fun

41:27

when you cook with a hope, a chef. It's

41:29

fun when your family and your

41:31

husband are there in their farm

41:34

wanting to eat. Maybe you've grown or maybe

41:36

you've shopped for It also is

41:38

in times it's comfort. It's

41:40

comfort from an it's emotional eating

41:43

that we don't always eat when we're hungry. We

41:45

eat when we feel something. So my

41:47

last question to you on this beautiful day

41:50

and being here with you and thank you

41:52

for coming, is to say, Carrie Mulligan,

41:54

if you need comfort, which I hope you don't.

41:57

I hope life is just one joyous experience.

41:59

But if you need comfort, is there

42:01

a food that you would reach for.

42:03

Yeah, my husband makes

42:05

well. So when I had my first

42:08

child, we have a friend

42:10

who lives near us who's sort of a baby guru

42:13

called Rachel Wadelove. She's amazing and

42:15

she basically taught us how to look

42:18

after babies. Well me at least, was

42:20

work good at already. And

42:23

she said, when your breastfeeding,

42:25

must have you know, a slice of cake, you

42:27

know all the time. But also this,

42:29

she had this recipe for this chicken casserole

42:32

and it was just really simple, but the

42:35

crust on the top was wheatabix and cheddar

42:37

cheese. Yeah,

42:40

and so Marcus makes this delicious

42:42

Marcus, and it's

42:45

so yummy and it's just chicken and bention

42:47

whatever. But the crust is whutavix

42:50

mushed up with a bit of salt and cheddar cheese

42:52

and it melts and it's heaven.

42:54

And whenever I'm feeling like.

42:56

A little bit depleted or done

42:58

in, He'll make that and

43:01

will He'll make a big old thing of it,

43:03

and we'll start

43:05

with like fairly conservative portions.

43:07

And I think that's perfect.

43:09

Okay, Well, thank you very much. It's a great,

43:12

great time I'm with you and now you're going

43:14

to go have scalps

43:16

or whatever there is in the River cop I

43:19

do more together. Thank you, thank you, thank

43:25

you for listening to Ruthie's Table four

43:27

in partnership with Montclair.

43:38

Ruthie's Table four is produced by Atamei

43:41

Studios for iHeartRadio. It's

43:43

hosted by Ruthie Rodgers and it's produced

43:45

by William Lensky. This episode

43:47

was edited by Julia Johnson and mixed

43:50

by Nigel Appleton.

43:51

Our executive producers are Faye Stewart

43:54

and Zad Rogers.

43:55

Our production manager is Caitlin Paramore,

43:58

and our production coordinator is Bellas.

44:01

This episode had additional contributions

44:03

by Sean Wynn Owen. Thank

44:05

you to everyone at The River Cafe for your

44:07

help in making this episode.