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Olivia Wilde on SmartLess

1:02:41 recording · EN · 4 speakers

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Brief overview

Olivia Wilde traces her path from Cockburn to directing The Invite, shot in order in 23 days.

  1. A hard name builds characterShe kept Cockburn as a middle name and says the teasing years were good for her.
  2. Rehearsal is the first thing films sacrificeShe fought to sit the six of them at a table for two weeks before rolling a frame.
  3. Lowered expectations win auditionsSam Rockwell's five-minute memorisation legend turned out to be a repeatable performance.
Executive Summary AI
  • After long opening banter about glasses, private jets, a $10 cake lady and the Meadow Lane market, Will Arnett introduces Olivia Wilde as an actor-director he has worked with twice.7:43
  • She and Will Arnett both appear in Behemoth, directed by Tony Gilroy and starring Pedro Pascal as a cellist, a film about film composition with at least seven composers on it.12:32
  • Born Cockburn, spelled C-O-C-K-B-U-R-N but pronounced Coburn in Scotland, she changed her name at 18 after falling for The Importance of Being Earnest and Oscar Wilde, keeping Cockburn as a middle name.15:07
  • Because Catherine Keener had done it, she worked for casting director Mally Finn at 16 and again at 18, where she heard the legend of Sam Rockwell learning ten pages in five minutes for The Green Mile — a stunt Rockwell later admitted he pulled often.19:49
  • Her new film The Invite, adapted by Rashida Jones and Will McCormick from the Spanish film The People Upstairs, put her with Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton through two weeks of workshopping and 23 days shooting in order on 35 millimeter at Sunset Las Palmas.44:13
Key Quote
“I think that everyone should be given one really devastating part of their name.”
— Olivia Wilde17:12
Key Quote
“I really saw how the sausage was made.”
— Olivia Wilde20:01
Key Quote
“It's that they just respect the city enough to not litter.”
— Olivia Wilde36:27