The Daily Show: Ears EditionAlison Brie Talks Working Behind the Camera | Vampire Weekend's Return to NYC
Actress Alison Brie sits down with Desi Lydic to discuss her experience preparing for her roles in Peacock's "Apples Never Fall" and the new horror film, "Together." Plus, Vampire Weekend stops by to talk with Michael Kosta about their new album "Only God Was Above Us."
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Ken the Night.
It's an after show.
In the new Peacock series Apples Never Fall. Please welcome Alison Grace. Hello a man, Thanks for being.
Honest for having me.
I am such a big fan of yours. Thank you, true story you have been Yes, no, I'll tell you, mar I will elaborate. You've been on two of maybe the biggest television shows known to man community.
To have the biggest, biggest known to a small group of very avid fans. We appreciate it.
We appreciate it so fierce fan base and so mad men. But I have to be on if my personal favorite is Glow. I was such a Glow super fan.
I love my life. I know I loved that my life. I loved working on Glows so much. I've never felt like more of a badass. Hell yeah, but when I worked on it. We're doing our own stunts. I'm training, I'm flipping women. Let's be honest, I'm getting flipped by women more and that still felt cool.
So it was so it was so inspiring. I love that show and it was a real bummer to all the fans that it didn't come back, But I heard that it opened up an opportunity for you to explore more writing and producing.
Yeah.
Absolutely, you know, I think there was something just about working with so many women, and that was the first time. I mean the show was created by Liz Flaheive and Carly Mench and there were female directors, there were women behind the camera. There were women first AD's just like in every department, female writers rooms. I mean, like it sounds like it shouldn't be a thing that you have to say, wow, there were so many women on a set, but there were and even within the cast, you know, we were all learning how to wrestle. And each woman on the show was talented, you know, behind the scenes in their real lives. They were dancers, there were singers, there were real wrestlers, and that was really inspiring to me. In the time that I was working on that show. I directed an episode, I wrote a few films that have been made, and like, it was very inspiring to me for sure, soiring, I'm blushing, being so earnest too, earnest, feel so vulnerable, vulnerable, telling you my real feelings.
You wear it well, You wear it well, and now you're part of this incredible ensemble Apples Never Fall. I am obsessed with the show. I'd been in about three days, yes, which tells you how good the mystery is.
It's a bingeable show, so I feel like the episodes keep you wanting more. The book was great. It's based on a book by Leanne Moriarty. She wrote Big Little Lies, Nine Perfect Strangers also been made into buzzy shows, and yeah, it's I think the reason people really connect to it too is that it's about a family and a family that is not perfect, and every family has those idiosyncrasies, and you kind of watch this family fall apart and come back together and sort of everybody has to like come to their own truth throughout the course of the show, and that they get stronger.
I don't know, Yeah, I think it explores all of these interesting themes about you know, it explores the invisible woman. It explores playing these roles in your family and then your family members seeing you in a different role.
Definitely the dynamics that we play in our family and then sort of like all the things you sort of keep from your family members, and also they know some of your deepest secrets. Also, you can be honest with your family members in a way you can't with anybody else, and the things you say to your family members cut deeper.
Yeh, you know anyone else.
The show will definitely make you want to call your mom.
I think I can.
Confirm that that's a thousand percent true. That's exactly how I felt. And your character Amy is described by her sister as I want to get this right, an emotional chaos sinkhole. Yeah so lovingly, isn't that those are the words of a sibling?
Yeah definitely. But you play her.
So beautifully and she's kind of this like hot mess on the surface, but you you play her like she's truly like one of the most emotionally evolved characters in the show.
She's definitely the best communicator in this family. She's the only person who knows the word feeling, I think, and she uses it often. But yeah, I love that she wears her emotions on her sleeve. It was a fun part of the character to play and I also think because she's a bit of a catastrophis, she's sort of gets all of her mess out early on. Other characters continue to be surprised and she's like, I've been there, I'm evolving now. Yeah, you know so that's kind of ways.
Yeah, and the ensemble is incredible. The cast, it's a Nette Benning, an all time icon.
This was like a bucket list thing for me working with a net truly. I like, I like get a little emotional talking about working with them at Betting.
You see that she was attached to this thing and were you just like, I don't need to read it. I don't need to know the character play her kitchen table if it was a Net Benning and Sam.
Neil, and I just was like stop, Yes, they are the best icons and cool cats, Like just Sam Neil's rolling up like let's go to the cabaret and we did.
Love that.
That's your definition of a cool cat.
I mean, how often does someone say I've bought us all tickets to the cabaret and you're like excited.
To go, oh, that's amazing. Great it's and you were right there with them, you beautiful scenes with them. The show is so much fun. I also want to talk about you have an upcoming project coming up. It's a horror film, yes, with your husband Dave Franco.
Yes.
Now, when I think about the purpose of going to work, it's to get away from my husband. You feel differently about this is.
Very much the opposite. Yes, especially this one. It's a horror film. I don't want to say too much about it. The film is called Together, and it's about the horrors of codependency. We play a couple that's been together over ten years and is a bit codependent. And you know, we spent two months on this choot together, twenty four hours a day every day, producing this movie, acting in it all day every day. And I loved it.
Can we push in on a close up to get the single cheer and I love it the inside blink twice.
I did love it. I did love it.
I love my husband.
I want him to be able to watch this late. Yes, it was really fun.
It was really fun. Yeah, I'm very excited to see it. Congratulations on everything. I love the show so much. I cannot wait to see the movie. The entire season of Apple's Never Fall is now available on Peacock.
Alison Green, I guess tonight are the members of the Grammy Award winning band Vampire Weekend.
Their new album is called Only God Was Above Us. Please welcome Ezra Cannig, Chris Bayo, and Chris Thompson.
Yeah, it's gotta feel good.
I mean, they didn't. They certainly didn't do that when I came out. So you all met while you were at Columbia together, which I'm pointing to uptown.
That's right.
What was there a back up plan if this didn't work out? Let's let's let's start with you, Baio.
I was going to maybe teach math for two years?
Teach math.
Yeah, I took the l SAT and stuff. Yeah, you should say I did rather well at it. Yeah yeah, but I like a musician better than being a lawyer.
What was your backup planets Room.
Well, there was one year where I had a real job after graduation, before the band took off, and I taught eighth grade in Bedsteade, Brooklyn.
No way.
Yeah, what did you teach English?
Out?
English?
Yeah?
Okay, well you have a thing with words.
Yeah, it's all connected.
What about Jucy too?
I also had a real job for one year, okay, not too far from here. I used to work at Sony Music Studios as an entry level tape archivist.
Tape archivist. Yeah, yeah, and that doesn't even exist now does I don't think it.
No, it doesn't.
Your album is tremendous. I love it. The song I read somewhere that Vampire Weekend has a superb return to form? What I mean? Are we thinking about this in the studio and recording? Are we thinking about our form? What is Vampire Weekend's form? Does that annoy you even that someone else is talking about your former but annoy me a little bit?
Now, that's what you hope they say every time we returned to form, we went home and we returned to the form. Right. It's hard to say because we've made five albums now and they're all pretty different from one another. Yeah, it's it's funny. I know it when I hear it. That's how I feel about what sounds like Vampire Weekend recently.
Though a lot of you. I believe you're you know, you're you're iconic New York City band, but you now live in LA What the f? No?
I mean, what we have?
We have earthquakes here now?
To you?
I know, has that done anything for the band is adjustede in you in any way start with you.
I guess it's been really nice all being in the same city for the last five years because we were spread out for a while. I lived in London for a period of time, and I feel like, you know, we hang all the time. We see each other every week when we're home. It's like, really nice.
What's your response to LA helping the band or hurting the band.
Or I like LA And you know, I know a lot of it's like any place it's spent. Like our producer Ril, who produced this album, he born and raised in LA. And I just think any time you're in a city and you spend time with people who know it, grew up there, love it, you come to love it too.
What's a well tried path to New York? New York musicians go to LA. Yeah, there's always a chance for return.
You never yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think there's just a lot of great people out there that we've been able to work with in the studio and live and stuff. It just it's felt like really vibrant for us.
I think I can certainly say as a comedian, going somewhere new always helps a little bit well, yeah, I got some new ideas in la you don't interact with anybody. I'm sitting on the bus now instead, but only God was above us. Explain the title of the album a little bit.
Well, we we were lucky that we found the cover kind of early in the process, and it's this amazing photo taken by a guy named Stephen Siegel who took all these amazing pictures in nineteen eighty eight.
Steve, No, not that Stephen, Steve, who.
I think's birth would probably said earlier that if we're going to edit something, yeah that's what we'll let it out.
But I have a feeling I think Stephen Siga was probably born Stephen Siegel, absolutely right. But so that there's a photographer, Steven Siegel, and he the images were all taken in this what he described as a subway graveyard, so all the cars were overturns. He took these really surreal pictures of these gritty eighties New York subway cars and it was such a good image, and I kept thinking, like, where's the vampire we can going to go and eventually realized why ruined this beautiful image? And the only text on screen is the newspaper, which is a daily news headline. Only God was above us. So at first and I thought, well, that works, But then as time went on, I started to feel like this is the perfect title. Actually.
I also love when a band doesn't need to plaster its name all over the place. There's a confidence with that. And that's your fifth it's your fifth album, you know, maybe that played into it. I don't know the song Mary Boone?
Can you can you?
Can you describe a little bit about what? Who is Mary Boone?
Where does this come from?
Well?
Mary Boone's a very important figure in the downtown New York art world, came to prominence in the eighties, you know, which is an amazing time for New York art, well known gallerist. And this song is kind of about the you know, people coming from this to the city, trying to make it and so I don't know, I kind of picture the person sing the songs like addressing or something like an artist or something. It wants to take it to the next level.
Do you remember when this band took it to the next level? Was there a moment when you said, holy shit, we actually have a little bit of money in the bank, or we can eat something now I don't have to teach math the rest of my.
Well, no, not well.
One moment where I felt like maybe early on we leveled up was we played our first gig in Brooklyn in two thousand and six at Pete's Candy Store for about thirty people. But it was the first time we're all here apparently. I mean that we packed it out because that's all it fits. But we played Mansard roof Apunk and one of our other songs for the very first time, and it felt like, really with us, it was the first time you maybe had enough music to make an album someday. So that was something that was very exciting that I remember. Do you remember leveling up, Ezra?
I mean, yeah, there's been so many small level small levels up. I mean, look like you said, the band started in New York. We all have deep New York connections and heritage. So even on our last album twenty nineteen, we finally played the Garden, I mean, because that's true from Pete's Candy.
Yeah, see two level up. Nobody ever to talk to the drummer, you know, So this is a bit I appreciate.
I appreciate you having me aske quite Frankly, I think the one that comes to mind is the first time we played Glastonbury, which is a big music festival in England, and you know, we're like twenty four, like twenty four year old knuckleheads, and all of a sudden we're playing for fifty thousand Britons and it's just like, oh, my goodness, how did I get here? One of those moments where it was really just I barely remember the set, but I remember the feeling right before it.
That's so cool. I say that to myself every time I sit here, How did I get here? And how stupid is everybody else to put me here? You record a lot of this album in New York, London, La and Tokyo. I have so many questions, how why? How did that transpire?
What else?
I mean?
You know, La New York were always in La New York.
But I just thought a.
Band like goes to their studio and then three weeks later they drink whiskey and they fight, and then three weeks later they have this album. Is that not how it works? Am I mistaken?
In the music industry, only some people are blessed and it works out that way. We we liked to take our time. But the I was living with my family over the last few years for a while in London and then Tokyo, but my wife was working both those places, so it was good to be somewhere different, have some time apart. And then Aril came out and we found studios and so yeah, we just ended up recording okay, of cities.
The real reason I brought you here today is I want to talk to you about your podcast.
Thank you, I mean.
Here, okay, all right, Literally the whole reason your rock stars. So you don't have to do a podcast As a comedian, I'm like, I have to do my podcast, but it's like you guys don't even have to do a podcast. But tell me how this started.
What is it about?
You asked me backstage how tall I was? You said, we talk about this a lot.
What the hell does that?
Well, so, like you other, you're going to kick the shit out. No, no, it's a lot of hockey jersey.
I mean, well, yeah, if you haven't heard our new podcast, it's called Vampire champ.
Fire and invite to their whole studio.
I think one of the origins of it is that in the fall, when the record was almost done. We went up to Oregon for the first ever Vampire Weekend corporate retreat.
Oh wow.
And corporations have been having corporate retreats forever, but I don't think many bands have had corporate retreats. So it's very fun. But the last night we were on the ocean and had a nice fire going and sort of discussing our plans and stuff like that. And I think it's just really fun to sit around a fire and talk about your future and talk about the things you want to achieve. So that was like one of the reasons why we did Vampire Campfire. Vampire Campfire for.
Anyone who hasn't listened to what are we going to find? What are we going to live?
We did talk about height heights just because I'm six feet tall, but I'm the shortest member of the band. Yeah, because these two guys are six too, so we people always ask which one of them is taller. It's actually him, oh some people think.
So we were talking.
About our got us next question, and so we got kind of interested in our relative heights and also the height of the fictional character Jack Reacher, because the character is taller than the actor who plays him. Correct and you're somewhere between the actor and the character.
And I'll let you talk in a second. But I was furious when Tom Cruise played Jack Reacher. I mean it was like, this is but the I love that show. That show is male ego at its finest, isn't it. I just want to get a cup of coffee. I don't want anyone to bother me. Oh shit, I have to kill everybody?
Right? Very cool?
Yeah, what's the podcast to do for you?
You know?
I think a big part of being in a band is can I say bullshitting, Oh my god, and just kind of like chopping it up on the bus and airports, like there's a lot of sitting near each other while in motion. Kind of the biggest part of being in a band. And yeah, I think we just were thinking about this record and how it feels and how it feels for us to be together, and we just kind of felt like, yeah, oh, this is something we're kind of doing anyways, Like this is something we could share and it contextualizes in a cool way.
Who doesn't want to hang out with their favorite band? And that's what the podcast can be. So vand bo ezra CT thank you very much.
Thank you.
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