And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Pleased to welcome holly hunter back to the program. The actress back on the big screen in the big sick. Based on the real life courtship of a pakistani borne comedian and those who fall in love and struggle as their cultures clash. Here is a scene from the big sick. I know you guys said you dont need me but i think im just going to wait anyway. You guys broke up. Im not sure why youre here. You dont have to worry about being committed to anything. You didnt want to when she was away. There is no need to do it when she is unconscious. Its more complicated than that. You really dont have to stay. You have already done i just want to stay for a second. This is i guess a romantic comedy . Yes. Yeah. [ laughter ] i only say that because it is based on a true story. Number two, there is some serious issues in this thing and you guys have to kind of find the funny around those things. You know, the interesting thing is it is a great way to put it except i dont think we had to find what was funny really. It is a romcom by definition. About their own lives. They firmly wanted it to be in that genre. It really is. That gives us permission to discuss some stuff thats really much more serious, but always in that context. You like comedy . As an actor . Yeah. Its really fun. I have been away from it in movies for a while. Its fun. I ask that to follow up to ask, what was it about this script given you have been away from it for a while that pulled you back . Well, i think the pedigree of this movie is really pretty fabulous starting with judd appatow and walter and ray romano. It is filled with incredible standup comics who really do understand whats funny. But i also think that there is something other about the movie that there were experiences that i dont know about that i wanted to know more about. And the movie is a bit of an expert because it is an inside track. Its told from the inside. So from their point of view. I was very attracted to that. First a quick comment. The comedy and i know you would never say this because you are too modest. You mention the pedigree of the great comedians and that is true. I am told they were excited when you signed on to have someone of your stature on the set with them. The question, though, is when you situate yourself in a space where you are surrounded by that many experts about the subject matter of the project even at your level is there any intimidation . Yeah. Like all these guys were so completely differently than me. They have a totally different process than mine. At the same time i have been doing this for a few decades. So i do have a way of working and i do have a way of identifying things for myself. Is it going to work or does it not work on the page. And i do trust that. And i was with a group of people because they are so good at what they do, because they have such good instincts themselves there was a tremendous amount of confidence. Whenever there is a lot of confidence there is a lot of freedom on a movie set. That is just how it works. That freedom gave me a lot of room to come in and participate. That was key. This was a true collaboration and that starts with judd and my showalter. You have a process for figuring out how to get in where you fit in and how to situate yourself in a project. Has that process been constant or does it change based on the project . It changes based on the project totally. Each project i can almost feel like im like a different person. It is a little schizophrenic. Thats the fun part of acting, though. You get a chance to play and do so many different things. I have been the same boring guy every night, same time, same station. Your audience doesnt feel that way. They are tuning in. Because of you. Not because of me. Because holly hunter is going to be on tonight and whoever is on tomorrow night. Thats the fun part being able to be this chameleon. I think an emotional chameleon is what i feel like maybe could possibly partially describe what i do. But also the chameleon aspect comes with trust. And of course we were talking do you know what you want. Sometimes i dont know what i want. Do i trust myself . Sometimes i dont know but i can only throw my hat in the ring and hope for the best. Depending on how much i trust the other people is how much freedom i can allow myself to have on that particular set. Since you raised this on camera even though it was an off camera conversation we were talking about do you know what you want. You have this banner. Do you know what you really want . I think we both confessed that it is easier for us that we identify that we both agree to know what we want professionally versus personally. Totally. And why is that easier for you on a professional level . You kind of said it yourself. For a professional thing it really is singular. It is a Community Experience. What you have here is a Community Experience totally. This is a community for you. And like you said, when i sat down you said if you not happy we are not happy. I think you probably have that philosophy with your crew and your team here. And a movie is very much that way, as well. But it really is much easier for me to part out what do i want. If you are in a family and in your life the boundaries are a little more blurred. I mean, because it is other peoples happiness or absolutely can be very much equal to your own or maybe even more in the subject of children. So, you know, it just gets a little more blurred. I agree. When you say amen keep moving past that. I keep talking about my first choices. Let me go back to this film. You said something a moment ago that im going to kind of dig into if i can and get you to kind of unpack for me. That is the statement you made about this script in part turning you on because there is something you wanted to learn and experience you didnt really know this. Has that always been a requirement for you when you accept a role you look for something to learn and allow you to grow as opposed to just no. Sometimes its about sometimes i have to make money. You said doubt or debt . Dough. Pure and simple. You need cash. Simple i go this is a director i really want to work with. Like david croningburg i haunted him for years and then offered me a role. The reason why he did is because my agent haunted him is there anything for holly. And so finally he coughed something up for me and i would have done it no matter what because i wanted the experience of working with him. I have certainly felt that way with director sandy boyle who i saw train spotting and was like this is brilliant, original, frightening, exciting. I did the next movie because i really wanted to work with him. Then there are times when the character just kind of like really calls out. It changes with my mood. Im pressing this issue only because i want to see where you are going to go with this. Well see. So should an artist make decisions just purely based on dough, holly hunter . Like im not that artist. Listen, im almost 60. Where have been doing this for a while. In order to do this for that long you have to make decisions based on lots and lots of different criteria. I mean, the criteria have to shift especially if you are an actress, if you are a woman wanting to carve out a living acting you have to shift with the tide. You cant be unmovable. Youve got to be flexible. You have to be fluid. I love following you. You open the doors and i follow you. Let me ask whether or not as a woman, specifically as a woman, you end up resenting that, that you have to make those shifts, that you have to make those adjustments and have to make those compromises. Does that offend you in this business as a woman . Well, i mean, are thats an interesting question because of course it offends me. Yes. That cant be first for me. I cant lead with that. Then i cant do my work. I mean, its weird where the political makes friends with the personal in acting. When thats why i am happy to have an agent who does my contract because all of that stuff you can bump up with politics and dealing with negotiations particularly if you are an actress. A few years ago that whole thing came up where who made more money in the same movie. That stuff was running underground and with Communications Just stuff is not kept secret anymore. There could be rage with stuff like that. But i cant leave with that. I have to lead with Something Else that is positive in order for me to be creative, to feel creative. And to feel collaborative. This is getting good. I like this. Let me just confess to you that i have just a litany of reasons why i respect women across the board starting with my mom is a woman and my sister is a woman. One of the reasons is because in this business specifically i do not know that as a woman when you say start with Something Else i get that. I dont know as a woman that i can focus and concentrate on doing my job if i knew that i was being dramatically under paid as a woman standing next to a costar whose pedigree was similar to mine. I would have a hard time getting over that if i knew that, if i had reason to believe that was the case. I hear your point about starting something first. I want to confess i would have a hard time tolerating that. I dont know that you would get the best out of me on set if i knew home boy was being paid a few Million Dollars more than i was and our pedigree was the same. I turned jobs down because i wasnt getting paid what i thought the market would bear. That is not what i thought the market would bear, the market would bear that. I have lost jobs because of that. And once again anger can be creative. Bitterness, no. Bitterness doesnt you cant really fly with that. So i learned to kind of like get on with it. But thats certainly happened in my career. But like i said, i have to keep moving through it. But you know there are all these things like the guy who said im so tired of seeing these women wearing yoga pants and then a yoga pants parade in his hometown. All the women got together and like marched past his apartment. I thought that was just so fun. There are so many ways that i feel like women need to kind of step up to the plate and that they are discriminated against that i think that there is a certain kind of cognizance in awareness now with the internet and social media that there wasnt before. And that is a good thing. Let me ask you this. This didnt occur to me initially when i checked out the film, the new project. But it occurs to me now. Do you know camille . I dont know him. I love the story, though. And the story that you guys tell so beautifully on film. I didnt think about this initially when i first saw this but it occurs to me now. There may be nothing here but let me ask. The film is about a man and a woman who he more than she are trying to navigate this cultural difference in their relationship. He is a muslim and he knows what is expected of him. His parents are in an arranged marriage. He knows his mom and dad are not feeling this white girl who is your daughter. He is trying to figure this out. Thats the story. But it occurs to me to your earlier point that that story could be situated in this very moment politically certainly there is pushback by the president on muslims. When you were reading this did any of this feel like no. This was before. None of that is in play. Of course, there is prejudice in this country that we, you know, over and over again are going to continue to experience and that hopefully you know im hopeful but prejudice is a very difficult thing for people to confront to be honest about. But yes this feels urgent. Although they did not write the story in any way with that on their agenda. Of course not. It seems pretty relevant in this moment. Which is also a reason why i think it is so cool in the movie because that wasnt like in their top ten things. I was talking to kamil yesterday and it was reviewed in a big pakistani newspaper yesterday. The review was good and it said it was great because there is a movie out there that portrays pakistanis as normal people. It was like wow is this revelatory . You asked if i knew him. I dont know him. If he were here i would ask him did he expect that positive review in pakistan given that he is dating outside of his own . You would have to ask him that because that is a more complicated question. And i do think that that is the harder thing that i think he encounters with the movie. You said a moment ago something i found fascinating. I want to share your hope and optimi optimism. Why is holly hunter so hopeful that prejudice might be diminished . . I dont know. In the universe the details, universe lives in the detail. Sometimes i feel like just the interactions like i love living in new york city because i love the interactions with people. I like the minutia of my life, of momentary, tiny pieces of connection with people even if it is on the street or the subway or walking up a set of stairs and i pass someone. And you couple that with what trump has inspired which is a tremendous amount of conversation and uprising, resistance to in a way that what was it i was reading in the times that people are not fully woke yet but i think they are more awakened now than they have been maybe in my life. And at the same time prejudice is just writ in the body of human beings, i think. There is a desire to shut off what is not known. There is a desire to put up a wall against what is unknown to us. We have to rise to our better nature and scale the wall or tear it down. Lets say tear it down is the best. Im circling back out of this clip because in that clip youre the mother of this daughter who is sitting in a coma at that very moment and you are pushing back pretty hard on her muslim boyfriend. Yeah. Im, you know, im the line at the door. Im protecting my daughter. It has nothing to do with prejudice. It has to do with him not treating her well. He didnt treat her the way that she deserved to be treated. What is he doing there . Its full on protection. Mama grisly but i dont want to quote sarah palin. Lets forget i said that. What i dont want to forget the two minutes i have left i think i wrote some of this stuff down. I was looking at all of the stuff. You are busy. You are really busy. Im busy. You looking like you are 25. You have strange weather. Strange weather is a movie about a mother whose son committed suicide seven years before and so you are picking her up seven years after that event and like where is she . What is the Ripple Effect of that event in her life and how much has she moved on and how easy it is to not move on . Its easy to just not move on from a catastrophic event. You can just stay there. I say all the time you dont close on the death of a loved one like you close on a house. It is a different process. What else did i read . Hbos here and now . Im working with allen ball and tim robins. Allen ball was the creator of six feet under and true blood. He is fabulous. He is just fantastic. Talk about confidence. He inspires confidence and freedom on a set. Did i miss something . You have a lot of stuff going on. Right now its the big sick. Its a good project, a lot of fun. Im honored to have you on the program. The big sick starring holly hunter and a wonderful cast. She says romcom. Its a great romcom that you will enjoy. Good to have you on. Thank you. My pleasure. Appreciate it. Total pleasure. All mine. Thats our show tonight. Thanks for watching and as always, keep the faith. For more information on todays show visit tavis smiley at pbs. Org. Im tavis smiley join me next time for a conversation with John Mellencamp about his latest album. Thats next time. Well see you then. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Angeles. A conversation with suiten burton telling her powerful story. And then Actress Felicity Huffman joins us to discuss her role in american prime