Fornia attorney general to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration a day after day issued a regulation designed to preempt the state's authority to set its own rules for how much pollution can come from cars and trucks the Sarah said 2 other courts have already upheld California's emission standards and the administration's decision does not affect California 13 other states plus the District of Columbia have adopted California's emission rules students across the world and here in l.a. Are participating in a global climate strike to draw attention to climate change. Vironment reporter Emily Guerin was with students in Mid City this morning as they started their walk out students at the magnet school laces have just walked out of class a bunch of them are holding signs they're drawing in chalk on the sidewalk things like you know what will a degree do in 30 years and planted over profit and a bunch of them are all walking down the sidewalk now down to Fairfax to catch a bus to go to Pershing Square where the really big rally is happening Emily is at that protest at Pershing Square right now she'll have more reporting this afternoon during all things considered that starts at 4 right here on k.p.c. The f.c.c. Has sued the mana Bello Unified School District its former chief business officer and superintendent of schools for allegedly defrauding investors in a $100000000.00 bond offering according to the complaint mana bellows auditor repeatedly raise concerns about potential fraud to the Board of Education and management in response the city they say refused to authorize the fees needed to complete the audit and instead decided to end it no response yet from the montevallo city attorney well the Dodgers kick off their last home series of the regular season tonight against the Rockies with just over a week left to play the n.l. West champs are still in the running to get the best record in baseball which would give them home field advantage during the playoffs. Tonight's game against the Rockies gets underway just after 7 o'clock I'm happy Lin her. Support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include dual lingo a language app whose mission is to make a language learning fun and excessive bill to the world with lessons in more than 30 languages including French Spanish and Chinese available in the App Store or at dueling go dot com This is Fresh Air I'm Dave Davies in for Terry Gross Downton Abbey the feature film based on the masterpiece series that ran on p.b.s. For 6 seasons opens today in theaters much of the cast returns of the movie for a plot set in motion by the visit of King George the 5th to doubt him in this scene conflicts emerge as servants at Downton are talking about preparations from the royals with the king's Page who is part of the royals advance team so my mates and I will not be involved in the preparations you mean joining the state you'll be the butler and excuse me I'm not a I'm the king's page of the back stuff. So our stuff has nothing to do I'm sure they can be useful but how do you make and get dressed up maybe castle if the staff in the valley and the maid are all here we have 2 of the the principal valid in the principal dresser with the Dr in advance of them Majesty's who bring. A lady in waiting 2 detectives and 2 shifts the other chef goes from rabid to Hollywood for footman go with him and the other for a man. Duel on the staff. Today will listen to an interview I recorded with Maggie Smith who regularly stole scenes in the Downton Abbey series as the Dowager Countess and returns to the role in the movie but 1st we'll hear from Julian Fellowes the screenwriter of the film and the creator of the series fellows is an actor as well as a writer and much of his writing has dealt with class distinctions and how the. Affect human relationships he grew up the son of a diplomat with an aristocratic background and he has a title himself Lord Fellowes of West Stafford his screenplay for the 2001 Robert Altman film Gosford Park won an Oscar I spoke to Julian Fellowes in 2013 Julian Fellowes Lord fellows welcome to Fresh Air Well it's very nice to be here you know a lot of your writing both for television and film and your novel involves distinctions of social class and now you grew up the son of a diplomat with an aristocratic heritage I believe did you have servants growing up . And I mean I think my background is much more ordinary than the newspapers have made it I mean you know we had people who came in and did some cleaning but I mean you know who'd plenty of other people have that I think in a way why I became quite aware of class as a kind of life defining issue was because my parents came from different backgrounds my father's was grander than my mother was and so my mother have to sort of put up with the disapproval of my father's relations and I suppose from that grew a kind of interest in the way the unfairness of class the fact that it is so true and it's selection and you know so so nothing to do with merit and yet it shapes a life and and creates entitle mint and all sorts of other fact that you know have a long term effect honest one of the things that makes downgrade and Gosford Park which is a movie I really love is the intimate look at the servants the life downstairs where did you become so acquainted with their lives and customs and rules. You know I was lucky in one way I mean I was I'm now kind of 150 years old and so when I was young I still had great aunts and that kind of thing who had lived to a degree that life before the war I mean my eldest great talent who was really the model for Violet Grantham was born in 8980 you know and she was presented in 8098 and married before the 1st war and all of that and I knew about it when she and he died when I was 21 so I was able to hear a lot of this stuff and where I was tremendously lucky is I was interested when I was young I one of the problems you know when you don't get interested in things until you're much older is a lot of people are dead and because I was interested as a teenager there were still many members of the family who could talk about what life had been before the 1st and 2nd wars and you know and I was very glad to hear it well let's talk about Downton Abbey and I want to play a clip from season one this is a moment at a table in the kitchen downstairs where the servants are all having tea and we hear one of them is O'Brien who's played by Sean Finneran disparaging Matthew Crawley he's a cousin of the master of the House who's arrived on the scene and may inherit Downton the whole place will hear a shuffling of furniture as the servants spring to their feet because Lady Grantham who's played by Elizabeth McGovern has suddenly showed up in the kitchen and has overheard Mrs O'Brien her own lady's maid talking down Matthew Crawley she rebuked Ms O'Brien and this leads to an interesting exchange after that among the servants Let's listen. Now seriously. It's just. That if anyone thinks I'm going to pull my phone off and cause it to this Mr nobody for to know what surprises. Me discussing Mr Crawley. Yes minute it is your place to do so. I've got my opinions and I did and as anybody. Can I help your ladyship this is the only thing from an evening Co definite line in the graphic but I was shocked at the talk I heard as I came in. Mr Crawley is his fortunes cousin and heir You will therefore peace accord him the respect he's entitled to. But you don't like you self and I'd say you never wanted him to go sailing perilously close to the window Brian if we're to be friends you will not speak in that way again about the crawlies or any member of what Grantham's family. Now I'm going to rest wake me at the dressing gown. I don't think there's one here in the servants' hall I agree. If she was a real lady she would to me if she'd have room for me and give me the not so this isn't it's our children say what we like down here who says the law and all of it there is such a thing as free speech you know what I'm in charge. Don't push your luck to miss. And that's from the series dome created and written by our guest Julian Fellowes it's such a lovely scene and what we hear here is the law the class lines are clear the roles are clear and yet they're changing the series begins what in 1912 this was a particular moment in class relations in Britain isn't it well I think it was attractive to us but because it was a period of tremendous change in quite a short time you know between 1912 when they we begin the show and 1922 where we are at the end of season 3 is only 10 years and yet the changes in Britain were enormous between the sort of end of high confidence and so on and then through the war years and finally into the on 70 of the twenty's when all sorts of things were being challenged and even in these great revolutions of women's rights or workers' rights or whatever then they don't come out of nowhere that they are that early and they're just below the surface and then something like a war happens and it makes everything come through but you know you don't invent from from nothing it hasn't quite come yet but it's sort of fizzing away somewhere and that's what a scene like that will tell you that they I merely at the end of always being 2nd banana and you know they they can express that right and then some among them say not so fast. Remember your place well I mean one of the interesting things about this kind of drama is that you know the family up status are on the whole all equal as 70 equal in terms of class and position but you know they might record respect to the Father or something like that but they're not told different socially that's not true of the people below those that is who are working that there is a vast social range between Carson. And Daisy the kitchen maid and all of these ranks was sort of observed you would have a special sitting room for visiting valance and a special sitting room for visiting ladies' maids and so on and on it went the detail of this extraordinarily complicated structure but you know that said it was on the brink of starting to come down one of the things that I love about the series is that as a viewer I gradually become aware of the distinctions among the servants and others by the forms of address I mean the you know the aristocrats are referred to as Lord and Lady or her your lordship or your ladyship the the servants even those of highest rank are referred to by their last names only by the aristocrats even when speaking affectionately I mean when there's a moment when Lady Grantham is talking to Mrs O'Brien and she she says they're having a nice intimate conversation but she still calls her O'Brien and then among the servants Some are called Mr and Mrs those of lower rank like the kitchen maid Daisy only by their 1st names there was a there were a clear set of rules and forms of address here. Well I mean we live in an era where there are sort of no rules for anything anymore but of course the good thing about rules is you always know what you're doing you always know what you should when you always know we have supposed to be when you're supposed to get that what you're supposed to do when you do get that you know we've lost that kind of security I think that that is one reason why you know the show appeals because it seems to show more. And and kind of ordained world in fact of course that is largely a myth it was a world where all sorts of as I've said things were bubbling just beneath the surface but nevertheless in terms of your daily life what you wore when you got out what you called people what you did next I think it was sort of easier to follow the plot than in our own time. Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes recorded in 2013 we'll hear more after a short break this is Fresh Air I mean Martinez on the next take to as part of our series covering climate now l.a. Mayor Eric Garcetti talks about his green and New Deal and how it's working so far it's take 2 days to 89.3 k p c c. K p c c supporters include the gets men group managing consulting careers for accounting professionals for over 20 years working to employ individuals who seek to advance their careers and fully utilize their abilities geo a t z m a n group dot com This is Fresh Air and we're listening to my 2013 interview with Julian Fellowes who created Downton Abbey the masterpiece series and also wrote the screenplay for Downton Abbey the movie which opens in theaters today. In season 3 an American arrives on the scene a real American hero I mean Cora Lady Grantham is an American but has spent a long time in England as the wife of Lord Grantham but her mother who's played by Shirley MacLaine arrives tell us a little bit about her and the role that she plays well what I really wanted the audience to be reminded of really by Martha Levinson played by Shirley MacLaine is that Cora is not some ancient American Arris to crack she's not a Winthrop you know or as Stuyvesant or one of those founding father families she is the product of new money quite a lot of it but she's that's who she is but there were others like Mary Leiter who married Lord Curzon who came from men who had made their own fortunes and that is what chorus come from and the reason I want the audience to be sort of aware of that is chorus story is really that she married into the system and swallowed it wholesale and got it all down but now that the world is changing and things are being challenged in a funny way her original value is a much more suited to the modern world than Robert's You know she has the American work ethic she is not obsessed by rank she is kind of much more free about accepting the changes that are coming as as you will be seeing in the 3rd series The Future doesn't frighten her so you know you've got I hope an interesting clash there of beliefs and philosophy. You know I thought we would hear just a moment of their interaction this is the Maggie Smith and Shirley MacLaine The 2 grandmothers in a moment from season 3 dear. Through the war has made old women of us both. But then I always keep out of the sun you. How do you find Downton on your return much the same really probably too much the same but then I don't want to cast a pall over all the happy as how could you ever do that to. Tell me what to think of young Lochinvar who has so ably carried off our granddaughter and our money do approve them not as much as you will when you get to know him. Has he gone home to change on you please he can't get the green never cease the prize hate the night before the wedding. Nothing ever alters for you people doesn't revolutions erupting mounted his crash to the ground and the groom still cannot see the bride before the wedding you Americans never understand the importance of tradition Yes You know we just don't give it power over us history and tradition took Europe into a world war maybe we should think about letting go of its hand. That's from season 3 of Downton Abbey written and created by our guest Julian Fellowes of course one of the changes that comes to the Crawley family the shocking development of one of the daughters Lady Sybil marrying the family chauffeur Tom Branson I don't know how likely this would have been to happen in 1912 or 14 or 15 but one of the one of the things I love about the way it's portrayed here is that of course the aristocracy is shocked and they have to come to terms with it some react differently but then the chauffeur goes back to the house where he was a part of the service and has to interact with the other servants who are so used to clear social distinctions and he has changed I mean I always like to base these things on a real story and when people say that would never of happened of course it did happen just as love affairs between servants and members of the family happened and . They were they disapproved but they still happen and this particular story is based on the daughter of an o. Who ran off with the groom actually it wasn't the chauffeur it was the groom and I don't think there's a great distinction in that and they had to put out with it I think it was very difficult and of course they rather encouraged the couple to live in Dublin because it's sort of easier if they're out of sight but you know families then like families now when your children marry someone you would not have chosen for them there is a moment where you have to decide am I going to quarrel with my son or my daughter and literally no longer have them in my life or am I going to find a way to get on with this person and I think most of us hope for the 2nd and that's really what the Grantham's have to do what kind of research did you do for Downton Abbey I mean you obviously had a lot from your you know from your own experience and discussions with your relatives what kind of research did you do. You know one just kind of reads a lot of books around it I mean the truth is I've always been interested in the whole setup of the old world you know when I was young it had only just for many people come to an end you know I mean I was a little boy in the fifty's and that was when a lot of people were chanting in the towel and selling the house and you know so when I would see empty servants' rooms and empty cupboards in the basement line didn't green baize or whatever I can remember all that quite well so a certain extent I just have been buy from the air but I also have read quite a lot about it I mean one of the great advantages of the Internet if you want to use a piece of slack all you want to use a song you just type in you know the thing and you go into the dick etymology dictionary and it gives you the year of 1st usage and so on or 1st printed usage but on the whole I do sort of I mean it sounds rather pretentious actually but and but I do sort of know how this way of life worked out you know at this point and I take advantage of that really. You said you saw houses with empty servants' quarters because essentially that way of life had just disappeared. Yes I mean you know you'd go into the stable and there were no horses and then you go into the old kitchens huge old kitchens and there'd be sort of signs for the village fete and you know old perambulators and broken bicycles and things and they would have created some horrible slot kitchen in some ante room upstairs and you know all of that was was very fresh I mean one of the great changes now actually is that these houses the ones that have survived have essentially been reinvented by their owners who are normally the children or grandchildren of the ones who threw in the towel and they come to it differently this generation doesn't you know long for the days of their youth when they were footman behind every chair because they want their youth was spent after all that had come to an end so they just look at it differently and they have different ways of running it and now help in the house comes in from the village instead of coming from ups there's and everyone calls each other by their Christian names everything else and it it just runs on different wheels and I like that I like the fact that these houses have in a sense been reinvented and and you know I think it's very attractive you know Downton Abbey begins in 1912 when there are all these social trends that that are causing the the old order to begin to unravel Did did your. Observation of kind of the disappearance of that way of life make you want to really explore the end of that period and the dissolution of the aristocracy. I just remember one time when I was quite young I was I forget now 70 as I left. And I was staying in a house and I got lost and I went through the wrong door and I was standing at the top of the staircase that led down into the kitchens and everything and there was a tremendous Rao going on between sounded like 456 people shouting and yelling and this that they are and I suddenly have such a powerful sense of the lives that were being lived by the people who work there and not you know only the family who live there but the people who work there were also you know enjoying life or hating each other or loving each other or whatever. And I suppose you could say that in that moment because for park and Downton Abbey were at least conceived whether or not they had yet been Bohem. And that at some point I would explore that fairly simple emotional recognition that everyone's life is of a 100 percent importance to them they don't matter who they are and you know I've been sort of in a sense exploring it have a sense Julian Fellowes created Downton Abbey the masterpiece series and also wrote the screenplay for Downton Abbey the movie which opens in theaters today after a break we'll hear more from fellows and from Maggie Smith known for her whole areas one liners as the Dowager Countess of Downton Abbey also Justin Chang reviews the new film Ad Astra starring Brad Pitt I'm Dave Davies and this is Fresh Air. When you our Family Foundation supports w.h.y. Wise fresh air and its commitment to sharing ideas and encouraging meaningful conversation support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from Western hotels and resorts offering a range of wellness options for guests including their Eat well menu on demand fitness gear lending program and signature Heavenly Bed learn more at Weston dot com a member of Marriott Bon boy is listening to 89.3 k p c c news. Hundreds assembled in downtown l.a. In around the Southland today for the global climate strike events aimed at raising awareness of climate change including some students who walked out of school to take part in the event. A student at laces Magnet School in Mid-City was writing spare change in chalk on the sidewalk outside laces and when I heard there was an opportunity to kind of walk out on a situation like this I feel it all this is something that kind of applies to me because for so I'm living here and 2nd of all you know not much is being done on this issue compared to other issues like guns rights and like the teacher strike to happen before so I think of this is something that can apply to everyone since we all kind of live on the planet are the students then went to Pershing Square for l A's main youth climate rally that started at noon investigators are trying to determine what caused a single engine Cessna to crash onto the roof of a commercial building near Torrance Municipal Airport killing the pilot and critically injuring his passengers police officers and firefighters were sent to the scene yesterday along Crenshaw Boulevard one occupant was pronounced dead at the scene the other survived with non-life threatening injuries a judge is expected to rule today whether a former college student should stand trial for the fatal shooting at a synagogue in San Diego County John Ernest is facing charges of firing an assault rifle at lot of power back in April on the last day of Passover one woman was killed 3 others injured if convicted Ernest could face the death penalty. News. This is Fresh Air I'm Dave Davies in for Terry Gross Downton Abbey the movie opens in theaters today with much of the cast of the Masterpiece series that ran for 6 seasons soon we'll hear some of my 2016 interview with Maggie Smith who plays the Dowager Countess in the series and the movie but 1st let's listen to what Julian Fellowes the creator of the series and screenwriter of the film had to say about that role I spoke to fellows in 2013. The Maggie Smith character in in Downton Abbey is just such a delight to tell us who she is how she fits into the family well she really as I said it is really based on my eldest great town who was quite a tough character but she was no tougher on anyone else and she was on herself in fact in real life she had quite a tragic life her husband died of wounds at the end of the 1st World War and her only child drowned on active service in the 2nd so she had a lot to babble of thing but she was tough and funny and some of the phrases that Matt you know what's a weekend and stuff like that come from a membrane cause for the park one question Maggie asked me she said I didn't understand about the marmalade and I said Oh well that was this particular. Because Lady Trentham in goes for it is sort of based on and I said this particular under always thought that if a house ran out of its own jams and jellies that it was it was not being well run that it was a sign of its weakness Oh she said I've got it I've got it and she does that line so wonderfully when she looks into the jam pot and says we bought marmalade I call that a feeble and and what I love about Maggie is that she has this extraordinary skill to bring many different aspects of a character into her delineation but they never seem contradictory that she never turns. Into a different person a less act would you know find it difficult to be kind and cruel simle tenuously or superficial here but quite deep Yes but she manages to synthesize all these elements into a believable woman well we should hear one of these moments and this is from the 1st season where she and Lady Grantham played again by Elizabeth McGovern are sitting and discussing the difficult matter of finding a suitable husband for Lady Mary the oldest of the Crawley you daughters. How about small house parties she's been asked to one next month by Lady and her terrible idea 710-0100 I might send her over to visit my aunt she could get to know New York I do think things are quite that desperate. Mary she's been terribly down in the mouth lately she was very upset by the death of poems to pollute why should it one conquered to pieces of the death of every foreigner a little bit of a state of collapse for haven't really been used it. Can't get enough of Maggie Smith That's her visit with McGovern in Downton Abbey created and written by our guest Julian Fellowes dinners are really something at the crawlies Lord Grantham dresses basically like an orchestra was this done every night I mean didn't you ever want to just dress down and eat leftover turkey sandwiches It was pretty well done every night I mean I there's a wonderful quote When Dr Cooper asked his brother in law the Duke of rock and he said. When black tie was just beginning to come in in the twenty's but still white tie was normal in the sort of great houses and he said to the Duke Don't you have a wet black tie and that you thought for a moment and said When I'm dining alone with the duchess in her bedroom and you know that's his idea of letting it all hang out but now I mean they were a formal people those were the correct clothes for eating dinner and one of the difficulties when we wear those costumes is that most of our set dressing on a road so we're in a wrestling match with dogs and pins of this and that and links and so on where is there you were always being helped with it as you as you would be in a film or a television and that makes it different I mean in the fifty's Dior very much revived the sort of course it it almost crinoline dress and so on but it didn't last very long because it wasn't suited for getting into on your own Julian Fellowes thanks so much for spending some time with us now I'm delighted it was nice of you to oust me. Julian Fellowes created the series Downton Abbey and wrote the screenplay for the movie which opens today I spoke to him in 2013 now let's hear from Maggie Smith who played the Dowager Countess in the series Downton Abbey and returns to the role in the film Maggie Smith has appeared in more than 50 films she's among only 17 performers to win Best Actress awards at the Oscars Tonys and Emmys and among only a handful to win Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards I spoke to were in 2016 as Downton Abbey the series was wrapping up its 6th and final season. Maggie Smith welcome to Fresh Air It's great to have you think here we interviewed Julian Fellowes awhile back and he said that he based your character on an aunt of his I believe who Yeah yeah and he said what was terrific about Maggie Smith was that she was able to combine the contradictions in the role someone who could at time be so cutting and then be so kind and sort of integrated them and he said that only an actress of your talent and stature could pull it off any particular any particular. I don't inspiration for you finding this character you know what it was maybe the way it was written by Julie and me which is terrific you know I mean the wonderful say and it was written so if he couldn't play it she was always very in sympathy with the I think the very. She was very helpful to all of the. And I think she knew that they've felt restricted right she understood the constraints of those roles and that a lot of Yes right yes completely because she'd been through it even even stricter but I think she was very aware that. You know Julian Fellowes writes about this life partly with some personal knowledge and he actually holds a title which I don't remember but frightfully grand. Right and so he had a couldn't do enough of cut saying. He had a personal connection to that world or what was your sense of the English aristocracy Oh goodness it's so way beyond me. And I'm fond of fun from that. But of course that's part of the joys of acting is that you you couldn't move up in the world even if you're in the characters in your playing even if you didn't. So it was it's always very nice to be separated rather ground now I seem to be stuck with it which is a bit of a bit of a strain start with the real him just. A little mad women I mean. They seem to be. Well the one thing I can do now. You know it's funny to be picked you know say late in life but then you know you can go on youtube and find montages of your lines and down one after the other after the other after the other do you have a favorite one yourself I don't remember and you have to speak truth to one of those there are to see there are so many I don't remember the line people most mentioned to me is when Matthew Crawley is talking about how he would manage his time and he said there's always the well you know and you say yes. And yes but truthfully I mean it's funny but I it's weird that it sticks in people's memory sim actually isn't it. I mean what do you say finally about saying what she said Weekend Well it's the fact that this woman has grown to her age and hasn't distinguished the weekend days from any other and that it will be lazy idle time has been even so it seems all just in it it's the way she says it I think maybe it's the only way you say it the thing I remember a lot is is this swivel chair right I remember like I like that your characteristics are swivel chair and yes and she's very surprised you can dig deep moves she hasn't come across the haze Yeah electric lights no use for electric lights yeah you know that was a terrible shelter where they had electric lights and I think it must have been to many people actually if you think about it in all in that sort of the gloom of oil lamps and candles and things or. The other thing we must mention is you were for oil in so many of the episodes Isabel Crawley played by so many people ran Penelope a little too yeah isn't she terrific You're both terrific in it she's stunning. You want to tell us anything about how you do those things the 2 of you well we did it with a great deal of in our future we used to laugh a lot it was quite funny one day we be doing a scene and I had to stick all the time in the and in the series which is just as well because I needed to have a new hip by the end of it but it was quite funny concise I go shopping the scene to say something to penality and I had my stick and I was sort of taking that all for teaching and. Crouching about and I said to be what he why am I acting know. I've had this is the thing I need to act. Quite Erica why didn't did my do you all for that really when you go to stick can you do sort of Crouch a very I don't need to do this. For you to drama school when to play you something way out if you're. Out of your reach anyway we used to laugh a lot about that I used to say I'm not going to act old Pinella p. I just dream for Maggie Smith recorded in 2016 we'll hear more after a short break this is Fresh Air. Swedish teenager wanted to be down about climate change I just felt like. And so I decided to try something and that's when I started. Around the world are expected to join. The head of the u.n. Climate Action I'm Audie Cornish that story on the next All Things Considered from n.p.r. News. The 9.3. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from Capital One offering a variety of credit card options with features for a range of customers from foodies to travelers Capital One what's in your wallet credit approval required capital one bank USA. And from Dana Farber Cancer Institute where research findings on how the immune system could attack cancer or shared worldwide to help change the course of cancer care more Dana Farber dot org slash beat cancer this is Fresh Air and we're listening to my 2016 interview with actress Maggie Smith who played the Dowager Countess in the masterpiece series Downton Abbey and returns to the role for the new film which opens today. You didn't grow up in a in a theatrical family your dad was a pathologist I believe read to tell us a bit about what you did but yeah total us a bit about how you grew up what you were like as a kid well I knew. Nobody in the family. Before all. My brothers I had 2 brothers they between us and they both became. But they could do. So that was that was a mystery I think to my parents too because they had no idea that that was around in the family anywhere we made maybe it never was. But. They broke the way for me if you know what I mean I have no idea where I got the idea from to do what I do but I think that he and Alice my my brother is kind of a lot of doors for me. To the world you know and made it seem to be a very very interesting place were you an entertaining kid to your friends did you make them well I don't remember doing that particularly I went to a school where they were. Well though they were they did place in things I was I was never in is really but I had a very good English teacher who said to me that she thought I ought to do it she I didn't know she saw something thank goodness because I think if it hadn't been encouraged by somebody that serious I'm not sure what would have happened to me. Do you watch your films and your television performances now why. Would you because I can't tell you about them. That's that's part of the pressure Yeah so you're so you're never you're never quite satisfied we're not letting you watch in these things why in the name of God did I do that. And it's you hate cringing listening to. Max It's things you think oh no I do it all differently now we're all enjoying it and you're crunchy I do every I do everything different that you know I wouldn't you can't go back and do that. When I told people I was going to interview Maggie Smith I just can't tell you the number of people who said Oh my heavens you're so lucky I just love her and I think you know you've particularly had an expanded audience with Downton Abbey and the Harry Potter films but you know you have such a terrific career and you've achieved so much and so many people just love you and I'm wondering what that kind of mass adoration feels like to you is it gratifying is it scary is it can even comprehend. Well it didn't happen to me since Downton Abbey say I blame the hoofing on television. It's its own and I've said this before but I find it very difficult to to do anything on my own. Because people recognise me this is never happened to me before because I haven't really done television before but I suppose if you're in people's rooms all the time I don't know who I was thinking that the other night with people like the Caprio and. Big star Sue Cate Blanchett you just think how do they exist it's so difficult and I think now it's very intrusive because if these. So phones you know with cameras right what have you got people want to take a picture of you or take a picture of him with you and it's. So how do you know it's very hard it's hard to do anything on your own and how do you react when someone you know John Cleese told me he just tells people I don't do pictures I'm sorry like I do say that it depends on the seed you depends who it is if it's a very young person. Yeah child of course you would but it is incredibly intrusive. I usually say do you like having your peach take maybe they do. And if it's not too intrusive you live in a sufficient century farmhouse is that right the moment it looks as though it's never been a tool because it's being now I'm having to really have a rewiring into things because it is indeed very old electric lights. But he has I think you'd turn every light on with Robert. If you got the sense do you want to take one question about Harry Potter or would you rather be released which I would doubt that paper lays down I think you've been there during her Ok Well no I don't know about why do you want to know about Harry just what was it like to play that role to act in those films. Well I'll tell you I just adore Diane knew that Daniel Radcliffe who I had worked with before Harry Partch and spent a long time telling telling all the produces they had to see him because I thought he was a terrific. And it's it's been sound thinking about it because of. That I don't recommend. The resources Yes he was such a terrific character and that was such a terrific character that he played and it was a joy to be with him. We used to love together because we ran out of reaction shots they were always. When everything it been down and the children were finished they would turn the camera around and we'd have to for his reaction shots of amazement or sad things. And we say we got to about number $200.00 and something we'd run out of knowing what to do when the camera came around on us. But he was he was a joy. Maggie Smith it's been a pleasure thank you so much thank you. Maggie Smith recorded in 2016 she plays the Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey the movie which opens in theaters today Coming up Justin Chang reviews the new film at Astra starring Brad Pitt This is Fresh Air skip the hassle of trying to get rid of a car and donated to Katie c.c. Instead you'll be checking 2 things off your list at once avoiding the time and costs associated with selling your vehicle and supporting the independent fact based journalism you value on k.p.c. C we'll make sure it's picked up handle the paperwork and turn the proceeds from the sale of your car into a great radio start the process of donating your vehicle now by going to Cape b.c.c. Dot org slash cars. This is Fresh Air the science fiction drama at Astro stars Brad Pitt as an astronaut who sets out on a dangerous voyage to the outer reaches of the solar system it's the latest picture from writer director James Gray who earlier movies include We Own The Night 2 lovers and the lost city of z. Our film critic Justin Chang says Ad Astra is a space odyssey that sometimes stumbles but ultimately soars the title of Ad Astra James Gray's gorgeous modeled and weirdly entrancing space epic is a Latin phrase that means to the stars it's a fitting name for a movie set in a not so distant future where space travel has become ever more advanced even as Planet Earth is in peril electrical storms are wreaking havoc throughout the solar system and the fate of humanity rests on the shoulders of a skilled astronaut named Major Roy McBride played by a quietly soulful Brad Pitt Roy is a man of swift action few words and great inner calm in one harrowing early action scene a high altitude explosion sent him falling to earth and his pulse barely accelerates as he deploys his parachute. Roy is more comfortable floating in the vast sterile emptiness of outer space and he is on solid ground where he has to deal with the messiness of feelings and relationships he recently split from his wife who was fed up with his workaholism and emotional detachment Roy inherited both those qualities from his father Clifford McBride a legendary astronaut who vanished 29 years ago on a deep space mission in search of intelligent life but one day Roy is called in by 2 top generals who have some startling news for him about the source of the electrical storms known as the surge. Major tell us about the Lima project. First manned expedition to the outer solar system so. Some 20 years ago and the commander was. Was my father's or. The ship disappeared approximately 16 years into the mission and no there is a recovery deep space missions were halted after. The Royal. We have something that might come those are the shocks you. We believe your father is still alive and you're not. In the father's alive. Beliefs. Roy Those sure seems to be the result of some kind of an anti matter reaction. Now the name of project was powered by the jury that your father was in charge you. Were talking about a potentially unstoppable chain reaction here. On a controlled release of active matter could ultimately threaten the stability of our entire solar system. All life could be destroyed. Roy's mission is to travel to a military base on Mars to transmit a secure message to Clifford and persuade him to stop the surge but 1st he'll have to head to the moon which has morphed into a. Littlest dystopia a giant shopping mall surrounded by a wasteland crawling with pirates there's a gripping chase sequence in which some of those mercenaries pursue Roy and rickety vehicles across the lunar surface later there's a frightening scene aboard a spaceship to Mars where Roy makes a shocking discovery a reminder that humanity's desire to conquer new frontiers can have disastrous consequences these little jolts help break up a long episodic narrative that shuffles genres that will starting out as a futuristic noir before shifting into an action movie a paranoid thriller and finally a cosmic male weepie Ad Astra can feel both overwritten and under imagined I wish there were less of Roy's incessant voice over model log and more of a sense of how this mind bending often downright kooky vision of the future came to be the story becomes even more disjointed once Roy arrives on Mars shot in a bold red palette by the cinematographer Tamara although I did love Natasha Leone's hilarious one scene performance as a disgruntled Martian office worker James Gray is often regarded as one of the film industries last remaining classicists a director of smart stirring grown up entertainments built on Hollywood's most enduring myths and genres he's working on his biggest most expensive canvas to date with Ad Astra and while the strange shows at times he also displays an ambition that feels increasingly rare in big studio movies as well as a desire to stir the audience's emotions on Asli and respectfully at its best at Astra Mary's the meditative space odyssey of saleratus to the down river madness of Apocalypse Now with Tommy Lee Jones playing the movie's Colonel Kurtz figure as Roy's elusive father there may be something unabashedly ridiculous about the idea of a man saving the world by travelling millions of miles to be. United with his long absent dad but it's in that mix of absurdity and sincerity that Astra finally transcends its lapses and approaches the sublime like Gray's previous adventure epic The Lost City of z. This is a surprisingly critical portrait of masculinity in crisis it's about neglectful fathers and needy sons and the often unbridgeable distances between them the most striking of the movie's many affects maybe Pitt's performance which couldn't be more different from his recent work in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. In that movie Pitt was all swaggering physicality in Ad Astra he's almost otherworldly in his stillness holding the camera's gaze with eyes that seem to contain multitudes he shows us a man getting back in touch with his deepest emotions and makes that experience deeply emotional for us in turn if that's not a sign of intelligent life at the movies I don't know what is Justin Chang is a film critic for the l.a. Times on Monday's show Terry talks with Teagan and Sara twins singer songwriters and l g b t Q icons they have a new memoir about their tumultuous high school years in the mid ninety's and they have a new cd hope you can join us. To. Face child our associate producer for digital media is Molly c.v.s. For Roberta Shorrock directs the show Terry Gross and date. Her. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from fair for 100 years Verdi has partnered with individuals businesses institutions and communities working together toward their financial goals more information is available at varied 100 dot com and from life long life lock was Norton offers cyber security solutions to help keep hackers out of consumers' devices learn more at Life Lock dot com Coming up next on 89.3 k.p.c. See it's b.b.c. News hour starting at 4 on All Things Considered Swedish teenager gratitude Berg once more to be done about climate change millions around the world are expected to join her today in a climate strike sunny through the week once the low clouds disappear highs today ranging from the seventy's at the beach to the low eighty's in the valleys but starting tomorrow it's going to heat up Valley highs into than ninety's it is 1 o'clock at 89.3 k. P.c.c. . Next time on the New York Radio Hour we're looking at the multibillion dollar industry of legal marijuana who set to cash in and who's not while we're waiting for huge corporations are getting their stuff in order working on their packaging how they're going to come to the market if we don't have the same freedom that's next time on The New Yorker Radio Hour Saturday mornings at 10 on 89.3 p.c. See. This is $89.00 he k.p.c. Say Pasadena Los Angeles a community service of Pasadena City College you can claim your place in the workforce of the future with over $100.00 specialized certificate programs learn more at Pasadena dot edu. Welcome to News Hour from the b.b.c. World Service on James Tamara saw me on the day when millions of young people have taken part in global climate change protests we hear from the Swedish teenager who started the movement. First power we're not worried about how it will affect our reputation or our income or we say what we want to say and we say it how it is also the whistleblower in America who's been prevented from saying what he or she wants to say if we were moved the sense that it was aborted come forward the person incentive. To prosper today may go the Edward Snowden route and that is share the information publicly and why isn't Britain's neighbor France getting more worked up about Bracks it all about coming up after the news. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm Lakshmi saying President Trump is again defending himself against a whistle blower's claims that he made an inappropriate promise to a foreign leader during a phone conversation last month it's a partisan whistleblower. They should even have information I've had conversations with many leaders it always appropriate Trump speaking today from the White House multiple news outlets are reporting the complaint appears to center on Ukraine House Democrats are looking into a Wall Street Journal report on whether Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani traveled to Ukraine to pressure the government to help with the president's re-election by investigating the activities of the son of his potential Democratic rival Joe Biden Biden's son Hunter worked for Ukrainian gas company Trump is due to meet with the president of Ukraine on the sidelines of the u.n. Summit next week House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says while the administration is breaking the law by not providing the whistleblower's complaint to congressional intelligence committees she's still wary of pursuing impeachment proceedings but as N.P.R.'s Susan Davis reports Palosi said in an interview with n.p.r. That she supports changing the law to make it clear that a sitting president can be indicted Speaker Pelosi hasn't changed her mind on not pursuing impeachment but she would like to change the law I do think that we will have to pass some laws that will have clarity for future presidents President should be indicted if he's committed a fondling right now the Justice Department operates under a decades old policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted many Democrats believe the president would have faced charges as a result of the miller investigation if not for those guidelines Plus he said he would also like to clarify the law that allows presidents to declare national emergencies Trampas invoke that power to redirect funds to build a wall along the Us Mexico border Susan Davis n.p.r. News the Capitol from Sydney to London to New York City millions have taken to the streets for a global climate. Day N.P.R.'s Frank Langfitt is in the u.k. The thousands jammed the streets of the British capital what do we want. Let's really. Loved work George politicians dactylic rising temperatures Caroline Lucas the lone member of parliament in Britain's Green Party addressed the crowd as recorded here by the Guardian newspaper. Later step on the streets of London that day but I've haven't made up other. Students skip school depressed or holy musical groups taking stage sing songs addressing the looming threat and. Demonstrations all the earlier school strikes inspired by activists read a tune Burke Frank Langfitt n.p.r. News London the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 160 points to end the day at 26934 this is n.p.r. And your listening on 89.3 k. P.c.c. California attorney general have a today along with Governor Newsome and the California Air Resources Board lead a coalition of 24 attorneys general and the cities of l.a. New York and filing a lawsuit against the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration the lawsuit challenges the Trump administration's regulation to preempt California's greenhouse gas emissions and 0 emission vehicle standards in the lawsuit the coalition says this preemptive rule is unlawful and should be thrown out the Department of the Interior says it'll transfer several 100 acres of federal land along the southern border to the army to build roughly 70 miles of new or replacement border fence the California reports Max Rivlin Nadler says more than 40 of those acres are in California near Green meant between the Interior Department and the Army says that $44.00 acres in San Diego County will be set aside for border construction this area lies directly south of 0 timeout and protected wilderness close to where President. Visited a reconstructed border fence on Wednesday under the agreement the Army has 3 years to build in the area if completed it would mark the 1st new section of fence in San Diego County under the trumpet ministration Katherine Phillips director of the Sierra Club's California chapter says new construction would be detrimental to the animals whose habitat knows no border the Sierra Club and other groups are currently suing the president over an emergency declaration he made in February speeding up work on the border and reappropriated government funds to do it I'm actually another in San Diego and I'm headed Linhardt is k p c c news support for n.p.r. Comes from the Alfred p. Sloan Foundation bridging science and the arts by supporting Please continue part of l.a. Theatre Works relativity series of science audio place more at Sloane dot org And listeners like you who donate to this n.p.r. Station. We're. Following welcome to News Hour from the b.b.c. World Service coming to you live from London and James come are so many today will be reporting on a day of climate change protests led by schoolchildren and students around the world will be hearing from the Swedish teenager who started the whole movement and later in the program we'll hear from know the Norway about no debt issues plan to study climate change by freezing a ship into the ice this is no it's simple you need to have the possibility to measure through lots. Of changing act existence will out the fuel cycle this is also really exciting 5 to see how will people see n.z. .