I am Elizabeth Olsen, and this is my last meal. Every person has exactly two things in common. We all gotta eat, and we’re all gonna die. Today’s guest is an actor and producer who you might recognize from “WandaVision,” “Ingrid Goes West,” and “Martha Marcy May Marlene.” Her newest movie, “Eternity”, is in theaters this Thanksgiving, and she was once the starting setter for your Campbell Hall Vikings! Elizabeth Olsen, welcome to the show. Thank you very much. I really appreciate that last fact, and it was very important to me, so thank you for knowing that. And I want to take you back to your first ever game in Vikings uniform. It was against Malibu High School. You’re starting on varsity- Oh, wow, okay. As a freshman. It was at home. You won in a straight set sweep. Wow! You put up 35 assists. Did you know at that time that you were gonna win the Alpha League title? Oh my god. I was a freshman playing varsity, and it was a very big deal. And we had a great coach in Tanner Ragland. Hey, Tanner. He does watch the show. We’ve talked to him. Wait, what? We didn’t talk to him. No, that was a joke. Yeah, we don’t do that. – Whoa. I practiced all the time. I did finger push-ups. I was always practicing my setting against walls all the time, and I loved it so much. I thought I would, like, get into college for volleyball. I mean, you probably could have, right? I was pretty short, and the club that I played with, I was never on the ones team. I was always on the twos team. And so I was humbled, like, always, because that was since I was 11. So I’ve always had really healthy expectations of myself, and I’ve always been told that I’m not number one. And so I just have continued to live my life that way, as not, like, with not being number one. And I really appreciate it, because then there’s always somewhere to grow. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think you’ve maybe artificially stacked certain odds against you in a way, because that’s become, like, your only mechanism to fuel yourself? I don’t think I do it intentionally. But I do love improving. I love knowing that there’s something that you haven’t accomplished yet. And to me, that there aren’t many specific goals I have that aren’t more, like, process-based. Yeah, yeah. Like, I don’t really have, like, reward-based goals. But it’s so funny you brought up volleyball, because I was doing an interview. There was a question, like, what would you want to do for eternity, what activity it was. And the first thing I thought of was bump set spiking. And I was like, I actually don’t want to do that for eternity, but I don’t know why it was the first thing that came to my mind. You mean peppering. You’re talking about peppering. Yeah, I am. I’m talking about peppering. You could just pepper for eternity. I guess so. There is an actor who I was working with on a TV show called Sorry For Your Loss. Zach Rabidas. And he loved playing volleyball. And so we would pepper. It’s crazy how hard it is on your body. Yeah. I had bruises that the makeup department had to cover up for a week. I had purple and blue bruises, like, fully covering my arms. Have you ever thought about your last meal before? Yes, often. You have? Yeah. Do you remember the first time you thought about it? Yeah, I don’t know. I just know what was on it. It was the il buco kale salad. And then the il buco alimentari bucatini. How often do you think about death in general? Every day. Every day? Yeah, absolutely. In what way? In, like, a very serious way? In a memento mori way where you, like, remind yourself to live for the moment? Or is it just utter fear? I think about, while I’m driving, sometimes I think, oh, wow, what if that person just decided not to stop at that red light and hit me instead? I did have a weird experience once where I was making a left, the left turning lane across the road from me. All of a sudden became surrounded by police officers, and they were all pointing guns. And I’ve done a lot of gun training for Wind River. And so the rule is, like, if you’re pointing your gun, you’re comfortable with shooting anything that you’re pointing at or anything behind it. And I was like, oh, wow, this is all pointing. I’m, like, in so many lines of fire. And so I, like, ducked down under my steering wheel and, like, made the left-hand turn. I don’t know. You see roadkill and I think about death. I mean, I’m not like, ew, roadkill. I’m like, well, that thing just died. How often do you think about death outside of the show? Quite a lot, but I think less since I started doing the show. Because you talk about it all the time. Because I talk about it all the time. You get it out. I get it out, but also I think I actually stopped engaging with death on a real level in a certain way. Yeah. That sounds freeing in ways. Maybe? Or no? I don’t know. I’m worried it’s sort of cresting to a head and something bad is going to happen. You ready to eat? Am I ready to eat? Yeah, yeah. I’ve been so ready to eat this whole day. Oh, I should have shut the f*** up. No, I’ve been really excited about it. Elizabeth, for the first course of your final meal- Yeah. We have the Danish rye bread with some Beurre de Berat Normandy butter and Don Boccarte anchovies from the Bay of Biscay right on top. We have the cabaret crackers with your mom’s very 1970s salmon ball. That’s right. We copied her recipe to the T, except we did use fresh salmon instead of canned. Oh. We’ll see how it holds up. And then we have the crispy smashed potatoes with creme fraiche and golden osetra caviar. And then we have the XO egg. And then finally, we have an extra bruised vodka martini that smells suspiciously like water. Yeah, it is definitely water- Cheers. But that twist makes me feel like I’m drinking a martini. It does. So you have recently stopped drinking for almost no reason. Quite literally for no reason. When I made this list of food and pairings, it was like six weeks ago or something. And I was traveling a lot, came home, wanted to do a cleanse, which means so many things to so many people. To me, it just meant not eating only whole foods. Bunch of chia seeds in the morning. They call it an internal shower on TikTok. No, thank you. That sounds wild. Truly the worst thing I’ve ever heard. No, it just means whole foods. I don’t cut out dairy or meats or whatever, but it’s just whole foods and not drinking. And then I got really sick and had a really bad cold for seven, eight, nine days or something. Two days after, driving home from a Dodger game, the only game that they lost against the Brewers. So I wasn’t drinking. And then it was all of a sudden like 13, 14 days accidentally, and I’m doing a press tour. And I was just like, why don’t I just see how long it goes? And I’m usually very like, let’s bring drinking back. I fully support drinking more responsibly, of course. Responsibly, yeah. But also I respect the arbitrary self challenges. It’s so random. Couldn’t be more random. So cheers to our water. Cheers to the sugar on your strawberries. Let’s go fight a horse. Where are we digging in on this? I don’t know. How do you want to do it? There’s a little bit of fish in all of it. Well, I actually want to introduce one more dish. Okay, great. We do have a little surprise. Whoa. Tell me about the first time you really fell in love with caviar in your Christmas morning tradition- Oh my gosh. Of bagels and lox with your mom. And somebody showed up with caviar Yes. And launched a lifetime appreciation of it. That is what happened. And I was probably in high school. And I think I was kind of scared of cured fish maybe at that age. I think I was probably like 16, which is silly because I grew up eating like, you know, spicy tuna roll or something. I mean, you kind of grew up in like the sushi epicenter of America. And in the valley. Yeah. Ventura Boulevard. Yeah. And so it was very normalized. But for whatever reason, I don’t know. It was when I fell in love with smoked salmon. And it was when I fell in love with caviar. And it’s so embarrassing to want to be so fancy. But if you’re going to die, eat caviar. Thank you. This is a golden osetra. One of my favorites. It’s going to be like a little bit brinier and less kind of iodine-y than your classic beluga. Just because we’re not, we’re like, we can really just go in it. I just decided to give myself two insane bites. I love that so much. Wait, hold on. I’m coming, I’m coming. Oh, sorry. I’m just really hungry. Go, go, go. Okay. Well, thanks for the surprise. It’s a gift from the chef, not me. Great cream cheese. I have a question, though. After eating this, do you regret that? The? The water. Because how good would like, I’m not trying to get you back on the wagon. No, no this is the point of snacks, right? My favorite thing at five o’clock around the holidays is I make myself one of these snacks. It has to be washed down with a martini. Yeah. And I read at the same time. And I do it so slowly, and it is. You said you read? Yeah. This is how I do it. I eat snacks with my martini, and I read. And I am just the happiest girl. This is an interesting segue. Here, please. Take an anchovy on the densest Danish fry bread ever. That is very sort of like 92-year-old woman-coded in a way, but a very elegant one. One like decked out in, you know, mink. Ethical mink, of course. We don’t have mink, but… Sipping the martini. But you said that you kind of always fantasized about being old from a young age, and you now got to play a 92-year-old woman- Yes. In your new film, “Eternity”. Yes. Did you like, learn anything about embodying that fantasy? Or like, oh yeah, this is going to rock? I think the thing I don’t think about about aging is how it physically affects you. Part of the humor of our film is them waking up and being in a whole new younger body and assuming the aches and pains that they’re used to having. And so when I think of my fantasy, I think of like a woman who’s so like assured of herself and confident and unapologetic, but like has had all these like world travels and like continues to travel and maybe has a dog and like gets to look at a sea or an ocean or a lake or whatever. I always imagine it somewhere in the UK. And of course my husband’s dead in this fantasy- Yeah. If I ever were married. But I am married now, so my husband will have to be dead for this fantasy to work out. Does he know that? Okay, that’s good. I don’t want him to find out either. No, this is a fantasy I’ve had since high school, is this like woman in this cottage in this small remote town in England and just kind of like whatever that is, like taking a nap while reading. I don’t know why, but I just, I think I was so excited. I think it might be because I wasn’t very close with my grandparents. I only had one that was alive since I’ve been alive. And I think it was so exotic- Yeah. For me to be old. And so I think that’s why I always kind of fantasized about it, but not about how it hurts your body. Interesting. The squatting scene was so funny. Yeah, Yeah. It was incredible. Cheers. Cheers. I’ve got to tell you about my Danish rye. We got the densest one possible. I mean, it’s like every single thing here has some sort of like processed preserved fish product. That’s right. And dairy. That’s right. And starch. Did you know I went to college in Russia for a semester? This is zakuski. Do you know what zakuski is? I don’t. No one taught me that while I was there. It’s like a Russian style of eating that’s almost like the Russian version of tapas, but just ripping ice cold vodka with various preserved fish. Yes. Is this what you were doing in Moscow? I was, yeah. That is awesome. They give you vodka for every reason possible, even if you’re a college student. I love that. If you like feel sick, if you have a fever, you like have vodka and then you run it off or something. Like it’s crazy. There also seems something very Russian about imagining yourself an old woman with a dead husband by the sea. That feels like a very Russian affectation. It could be. How at home did you feel there in certain ways? It was 2009. So it was before the Sochi Olympics, which is when they started to instate their very homophobic laws. It was before they invaded Crimea. It was before a lot of our issues as a country with Russia started to reemerge again. And so I was there kind of at this time where it was all brushed under the rug. And so I got to be there at a time that just felt enriching. And the arts there, the theater, everything is… I really feel sad that all the artists left because it was rich with such amazing creatives and writers and filmmakers. When people are asking why I was there, I would say I’m going to Mahat for theater school. Or I’d like try and say in Russian, which I probably don’t remember how to do that anymore. But they were like, oh wow, that’s like so honorable. Yeah They thought it was so honorable to become an artist because they are the people who were the voice of the people during so many fascist regimes. And so it felt like when I was coming back to New York, I didn’t feel ashamed of wanting to be an actor because I’d had this experience of remembering what it means in history for cultures and for societies. Yeah. It was my first time also eating black bread. This is Danish rye, which is different, but it was the first time kind of engaging with the denser bread. Yeah. It holds up to the dense fish. But how good are these anchovies? Honestly, so good. Tell me about your mom’s salmon ball. This is a very 1970s recipe. They loved to put food in balls back then. That’s right. I’m really curious to see what it tastes like with real salmon. But the funniest ingredient is liquid smoke. Yeah. That is the funniest ingredient. I think we should bring it back. I love liquid smoke as I cook. So, really? It’s real smoke. How else do you… And also these, I mean, not to mention the cabaret crackers. Do Keebler club crackers work in a pinch or absolutely not? What’s a Kleebler? A Keebler? The elves. You don’t know of the elves. Who are the elves? You don’t know the Keebler elves? They all live together in a tree house and they make fun crackers such as club and townhouse. I’ve probably seen a commercial because I’m getting cartoons while you’re talking in my head. I don’t know for what reason or why my mom has made this my whole life, but- Real quick question on ball etiquette. Yeah. Do I go into the cavity that you made or go separately around? It’s whatever you want it to be. Wow. So she makes it with canned salmon and liquid smoke. Obviously, when you look online, you make it with smoked salmon if you’re having a smoked salmon ball. Let’s see. I mean, I’m really curious. I’ve never asked anyone to make it and it’s perfect. Wow. My mom would be fooled. This is really spooky. What are the memories that are coming back when you’re tasting? I mean, it’s like literally every single Christmas Eve. I’d ask her to make two. We just ate at Christmas Eve, Christmas Day. It was the only thing I wanted to eat. My first Christmas in New York, my best friend, I was understudying. My first year, I couldn’t come home for Christmas. My best friend, Clay, came out to hang out with me because I couldn’t travel. And this is what we made. We made this in quail, which I’ve never made before. Not quail, Cornish game hens. Cornish game hens. Yeah, another thing that my mom would make for the holidays. That said, both are very 70s things to do. Yeah. Speaking of the Cornish game hens and you trying new proteins, you’re obviously very, very in tune with not just food and eating good food, but with food culture in general. You tried to throw a dinner party when you were 17 and you butchered an entire lamb by yourself. I think I was 16. 16? Yeah. How did that go? It was terrible because my mom has such dull knives. Moms have the dullest knives. There’s an epidemic of it. It was really dangerous. Sharp knives save lives. It was so hard. I had no idea that you could ask the butcher to do special things for you. It was probably really kind of awkward for our friends because it made us sit around a dining room table. I would play make-believe restaurants before then without food. It was just about this idea of serving someone- Yeah. In my friend’s bedroom. And yeah, I started hosting then and I don’t stop. I won’t stop. I just love hosting food events. I think I might dig into this potato. Yeah, sorry. At some point. No, no, no, no, no. More food to come. I get so excited by snacks. As you should. It’s the best way to eat. I hate the fact that we didn’t have a main course. We should have just had 50 different plates of this in a rotation. I know. That’s cute that you’re eating that way with a fork. Did you go hands? Wait. Okay. Because I’ve been talking so much, the potato’s no longer hot and I feel responsible. It’s one of those dishes that’s like an ice cream cookie sandwich where it’s like a thermal paradox. Yes. Cookies are best warm. Ice cream is best cold. Why did you sandwich them together? Did it with this. It has to be eaten immediately. Tell me about the XO egg. More eggs than preserved fish. I love this. I live in Sonoma. And my friends have this great restaurant called Sonoma Bar and Bottle. Yeah, yeah. She’s drunk. Wasted. And they do this XO egg. And it’s absolutely delicious. And now anytime XO sauce, like anchovy XO sauce, like anything with XO sauce, I’m having it now. I respect that so much. Why am I reaching with a fork? I don’t know. You’re being so polite. We actually got them to ship us their XO sauce. Stop it. Wait, stop it. Actually, yeah. Shout out to Sonoma Valley Bar and Bottle.- Yes. That’s the right word? Yeah, Em and Steph, the chefs. Em and Steph, you’re wonderful. Thank you. Tanner and Lauren, front of house. Love you guys. I want to go back to “Eternity” real quick because I watched that movie and a couple things happened. One, I ran home to my wife and I hugged her and I told her how excited I am to grow old with her, the real thing that happened. And then the other thing is, earlier on in the movie than I was expecting, I got hit with a little bit of death panic, which is something that’s pretty rare for me these days because I intellectualize it so much and I talk about it so much here, but there’s very rare times where I can truly imagine the feeling of an “Eternity” of nothingness. I kind of call it like touching the void. Did you ever feel anything like that while shooting that movie? I don’t think about the afterlife. So I don’t think about an “Eternity” of nothingness. But then what? Is it just the experience before you were born? And then the stories that you put into other people’s lives or the ways you impacted other people that survived you, that’s the thing that continues and you can call that energy, you can call that stories. That’s what I think. I think that’s the impact we leave behind is how we affect people as we’re alive. Yeah. So your general thoughts about death are always sort of about… Oh, this is what I was going to say. I would be very strong legs. What? Thank you so much. That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me. What a quad! If you tell them that I don’t skip leg day, they don’t believe it out there. He doesn’t. Thank you. I would be so comforted if I believed that there was something else, but I don’t. And so I really try and enjoy that five o’clock hour when I’m not working. Yeah. There’s a line that you say in the movie, life is beautiful because it ends. Yes. And that was something I really loved getting to say, actually. I loved that scene a lot. Maybe that’s what this is all for. It’s all meant to end. Yeah. And maybe that’s what’s so beautiful. And, you know, there’s a whole other journey that happens after that moment. But I love that you had that experience with your wife because I had that experience reading it with my husband. I was just hoping that we would be lucky enough to get old. Yeah. Again, I think that’s why I have this fantasy of being old. And it would be such a privilege to get to grow old. And so I was thinking about that a lot, I think, when shooting it, like, wow, how lucky would we be if you get to be with someone for that long? And there’s something that… Okay, it’s an actor I’ve worked with before. He said something to me about, you know, the thing that’s so exciting about being married for a long time is every year you’ll never know what it… Like, it is something new. Like, I’ve never been married for 15 years. When I get to that, that will be a whole new experience. Having, like, a fling with someone, I’ve done that, been there, like, that’s happened, but I don’t know what it feels like to be married for 25 years. Like, those are actually new experiences. They’re not, like, repeat. It’s not monotonous to me. It’s actually something to discover. It sounds like you don’t want to be the old lady. You want to have become the old lady in a certain way. Sure. Through that process- Yes I think- The process-based goal. My high school boyfriend always thought it was… Name him! You know who you are. He was actually, his family were the people who made me love cooking so much, actually. They were very important in my life. So he thought it was so weird that I always fantasized about being old, and I kept saying, well, I think I want to have the memories. By the time, like, for when I get there, I want the stories and the experiences. And he was like, yeah, but don’t you want the experiences and not the stories of the experiences? But I don’t know. I think they’re one and the same. It’s the weird paradox of never actually living in the present. The last time we took a bite of that same bowl was now a memory. Yeah. We are a collection of our memories, and that’s all we are, in a certain way. Yeah. You ready to go to the next round? I really am. Yeah. Let’s do it. I’m very excited. Lizzie, for the second course of your final meal on Earth, we have the kale Caesar from Il Bucco. This is made with lacinato kale or cavolo nero. And then we have the whole Thai fish from Anajak Thai with dried branzino from the joint. Shout out to Leeway Liao. That’s right. Actually, Justin from Anajak- Nice. Did give us this fish. What? And not only that, he also let us borrow his grill from Anajak that you walked by in the parking lot earlier. Yes! So if you smelled any burning binchotan Japanese charcoal, thanks, Justin, for letting us borrow the grill. Stop it! We’ll bring it back. So this should taste as authentic and fresh as possible. Oh, my gosh! You got all the players involved. We really did. So did you already know the joint? I did know the joint. The joint is also my local fishmonger for the last five years. We live in the same neighborhood. We certainly do. And then we have the Fabio Gea Onde… Gravitazionale. Bravo. Yeah. Dominic DeCotto. Wine, tell me about this. So… God, I have to remember what it’s called. Oh, gosh. Oh, this is when it’s frustrating when you rely on your phone for information. There is a wine shop that I go to that is in Encinitas. He is such a great buyer. And I had this. And I think it was around the holidays. And I then was like, I need more. I need to save this. I need to find wherever this is. And he was sold out. The only place that I could find that would come up online that was selling it was in D.C. And he shipped me the six bottles that he had. I still have one. I think the year was 2019 or 18. And so it has only been re-released I think like a year ago because he doesn’t make the same wines every year. And I just love it. And I’m not going to drink it. I’m just going to smell it, which is psychotic. It is psychotic, but- But I’m really trying to stick to something I’ve never stuck to before. And I don’t know why I’m doing it. But it’s because no one told me to. That’s really great. Super balanced. Pretty high acid for how much of that black fruit that you actually get on it, which is fun. The acid is a little stronger in the smell. I’ve also not had this year. So you’re kind of having it for me right now. Good salinity to it, which I love. Low tannins, but not in a bad way. I always want low tannins and minerality. Can I cut you a filet? Sure. Is this boned? Let’s see. No. You’re the master butcher. You butchered a whole… Well, I did just make a whole flounder for game seven of Dodger Stadium from the joint. I wasn’t at Dodger Stadium. For game seven of the Dodgers World Series. I can’t do two things at once. Some people do like chili dogs. And you did a whole flounder? I did a whole flounder for two people because the two other people that were coming over canceled. And so it was just me and my husband eating a very nice fish. I love that so much. But it was for game seven, and they won. So I think it all worked out. Do you call yourself a foodie? How do you feel about that? I used to, and then I was like… And then the internet happened. Mm-hmm. So goddamn good. Like, I used to say, like, I had to learn how to like cheese if I wanted to be a foodie when I was in high school. That sauce is so good. I know. I love food. I love learning about cultures through food. I love community through food. I love feeding people. I love watching people eat, like a wedding singer style, like eat my meatballs. And I just think it’s such a gift. And I, yeah, I just, I think food is so special. So my mother, when I was growing up, I was having a sleepover party. She wanted to know exactly, like, what each kid loved in the morning. Mm-hmm. And so, she would always have raisin bread for Veronica. And she would always… My friend Elle, one night, when we came home drunk, made banana flambe. And my mom, for whatever reason, made sure there were ingredients for banana flambe, like, every time we had a sleepover after. And so it was just sweet that she was always thinking about feeding us in that way, but specific to each person, what they like. And so it’s something I enjoy, and I want, when someone comes over to my house, I want to know what they don’t like. I don’t need to know, like, tell me your allergy, sure, but, like, also tell me you don’t want to eat. Yeah. Because I want you to have a good time. Can I give you some Caesar salad? Yes, please. You’re a fourth-generation Angeleno. That’s right. And most people would hear that and think that you were an industry kid growing up. That’s right. But you really weren’t. Like, a lot of your family members worked with their hands in a way. They did something tactile. Your dad was, like, an amateur golfer. Your mom was a dancer. You have cobblers in the family. Did you ever think about not going into acting and doing something tactile, like cooking? Or are you happy to leave that as a hobby? No, I think I always wanted to be a performer since I was a little girl. Like, I had a mimetic nature. I would always be mimicking everything that I watched and loved, and I wanted to be in Gypsy. I wanted to be in Grease. I wanted to be in My Pal Joey. I just… And Carousel. Like, I just wanted to… I wanted to do that so badly, and I just kind of lived in my imagination, and then it became dance classes and it became singing classes, and I would do acting classes with professional child actors. I just loved it so much, and it wasn’t really until I got to junior high I was insecure about wanting to do it so badly that I pretended I was going to do something in accounting or banking or something because I loved math. But you were insecure about wanting to become an actor, so you started telling people you wanted to be an accountant or a banker because you loved math. That’s right. Most people have that flipped a little bit. Is that coming from being in LA, surrounded by industry kids? Does it come from you being on sets with your sisters when you were younger? I think it’s because I knew it was why people came to LA. So when you’re from LA, you shouldn’t want that dream. It felt foolish for me to want something that people came to the city for. I was like, well, I know better, and most people don’t become actors. Yeah. And then high school theater started, was able to do the musical only because of volleyball when I first got into high school. And then my junior year of high school, I really wanted to do the straight play, which was in the same season as volleyball. So, that’s when I stopped playing volleyball in the circle. And that changed my life. And then I was just like, this is all I ever want to do. I don’t know why I pretended I did it. And I wrote a huge letter to my teacher because I was so grateful that something was reawoken in me that was what I always, was my passion since I have a memory. I don’t really, there’s nothing that I wanted to do more before that besides maybe be a princess. You know? There’s still time for you to be a princess. Apparently. Luxembourg, I think, could be a real option. Really? Liechtenstein, I think, you know, your husband dies and then you can be the Dowager Princess. It’s a possibility. Who knew. Was any part of you sort of avoiding the idea of fame? Was that part of just embarrassment or fear? For sure. Because the term fame is an actor go together, but they don’t always have to be. They don’t have to be. And so my way around it was studying theater and thinking I was going to go into theater and not film and TV. Like when I was in college, I would always go to independent cinema, but I didn’t understand like theaters, but I didn’t understand or like that blockbuster, I’d be like, what’s that movie with Parker Posey? Because I loved all the Christopher Guest films. And so I would get all accidentally get these independent films not knowing the mechanism that made them or how they were made, or how like how much money they were made for or how there were film festivals. I didn’t know any of that, but I knew all about the theater festivals and that community and regional theater and Steppenwolf. And so I knew more of that stuff and so it was only when I started auditioning that it kind of all happened with Martha, Marcy May, Marlene where I wasn’t really aware of Sundance. I’d heard of it, but I didn’t understand the system of it because I really just thought I was going to avoid everything by just doing theater- Yeah. Which was a harder community to break into. No, it makes sense and it’s so much you don’t get that wide distribution. You have to do it all like live. It seems like the people who I’ve talked to that like really enjoy the process, like there’s nothing like live theater because you get that immediate feedback and you’re riding that rush every single night. It’s been so long for me. I really want to go, I really want, I was supposed to do something in London and that fell apart last minute and there’s something I’m hoping to do in New York in the next couple years when we figure out the time. When you’re the princess of Luxembourg you can build your own theater, it’ll be great. That’s right and then I can make all my people watch me. If you’re trying to avoid fame, joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe does seem like a bad idea. I think I got over it by then. I think yes, but go ahead. Going to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is like really not the way to do it. Oh yeah, if I were to try and not be famous. No, but was there any part of you that feared your life changing in a way that you couldn’t control after joining the MCU? No, because I signed on for like one or two or something so I thought that I was only going to be a supporting part in a couple. Oh, gotcha. So, I thought it was an exciting opportunity to be on a different kind of scale. I mean, I had done “Godzilla” before that, that Gareth Edwards directed and he came from like a very small independent film before that and it was an amazing cast. I was kind of confused why I wasn’t being considered for these larger films and my agent said it’s because everyone just thinks you want to do independent cinema and I was like well I do, but I also like “Iron Man.” Yeah, yeah. And I like “Indiana Jones.” So, I started having these general meetings and Marvel happened and I didn’t audition, but it kind of worked out for me and for Aaron who I loved watching on your show, and it was really nice to get to do that back to back with him from “Godzilla” to Marvel and he and I, we were husband and wife and then we were brother and sister. With all of like the otherworldly and fantastic elements in the Marvel Universe- Yeah. I think you did the most grounded and human show in all of that with “WandaVision” which told like a very human story of grief and love. Was it sort of like gratifying for you to like take all of you know the Marvel superhero stuff and really ground it in the personal experience of somebody? What I felt really grateful for more than anything was that we were I was so scared to bring these characters to television because they are made for like these larger than life experiences and a big cinema. I mean, if you don’t have your television programmed in a way, a lot of special effects look really silly- Yeah. And so that, like, the default of a television doesn’t usually look great, and so you kind of, you kind of are worried about bringing these characters to a small home, and I think what was so brilliant is, if you’re going to do that, make the whole show about television. Make it about how it makes people feel, the nostalgia, the comfort, and then tie it into this entire character’s backstory of, like, her and her childhood and her brother and, like, where she would go when their families were in war or when her, like, country was at war, and so I loved that we were using television as an art form within the storytelling, and I thought that was just so beautiful, and that was always the plan before even Jack Schafer came on board to write it. That was always the intention with the film, with the show, and I thought Kevin Feige, it was Kevin Feige’s, like, nucleus of an idea, and I thought it was brilliant. And I think it turned out that way. It meant a lot to a lot of people. It was really, and also, who knew there was going to be a pandemic when it was released? You know? Did you? What did you know? What did you know? Ready to move on to course number three? Pizza! Lizzie, for the final course of your final meal on this earth, we have the rabbi pizza from Gorilla Pies, hold the pastrami. We wanted to bring it to you fresh, right off the paddle. This is wood-fired in the parking lot. Thank you so much, chef Colby. Thank you. Can I cut you a slice with the scissors- Yes, please. Or would you like to do the honor of the bris? No, I don’t think I’ve ever cut pizza with scissors. You don’t cut pizza with scissors? I have the roller. I thought you were a foodie. Well, I’m not a chef, and it looks like it’s in a specific shape for pizza or something, or is that just, like, a normal pair of scissors? Thank you. Oh, these are my hair-trimming scissors, actually. Delicious. I was curious what that tasted like. You don’t use the hair-trimming scissors for.. For cutting my food. You know what I do, which is probably not sanitary? I use my kitchen scissors for gardening. That’s not that bad, right? I don’t know. That’s where the food comes from. Yeah, it gets really dirt, it’s like dirt. Yeah, I thought you were going to say something way worse than that. Like stems and stuff. ‘Cause I’ll, like, use kitchen shears for, like, I don’t do a lot of art projects, but I’ll, like, crop top t-shirts. Oh, cute. Thank you so much. Do you ever cut rug mats with them? What’s that? Rug mats. You cut rug mats with your kitchen scissors? A rug mat is, like, rug broad? No, like a mat for underneath your rug. You’re supposed to put a mat under a rug. What are you made of- So, it doesn’t slip? They’re very cheap. I’ve never done that before. They’re very affordable. It’s so that you don’t slide all over on the rug. I think this is probably a thing that my wife has done in our house. Yeah, or else you’d be slipping and sliding on rugs. I, this is real. When I lived alone as a young man bachelor… How often did you fall? I didn’t fall because I used wet paper towels. Well, you were being inventive, and you could have invented the rug mat. I basically- You did. I only did it because, I don’t know if you ever used wooden cutting boards, you put a wet paper towel on the wooden cutting board so it doesn’t slip. I thought I would just put a cloth down. Oh yeah, I guess- Like a damp cloth or something, but yeah, that’s really funny you did that. Yeah, and then every, like, two months I’d slip because the paper towel was dried up. Well, you… When was the last time you thought about that? Never. I could have died. How exciting is this? This is so exciting. So what we have here today… That’s right. What do we have? This is the rabbi pizza with pastrami from Gorilla Pies. We did wood-fire it in the parking lot with the krauts, the thousand island, sorry, Russian dressing, tying it all back to Russia, caraway crust. I’m so rude. That is so good. He would be so proud. Well done. You specifically asked for this. It was for dessert. What was the call there? Are you not a sweets person? Not really. I like ice cream, but I didn’t really want to, like, just eat ice cream. I like Humphrey’s Yogart. Incredible. I love Humphrey Yogart. For people that don’t know, you can pick all of the mix-ins, and they kind of put it in a proprietary grinding machine. Like a McFlurry. It’s like a McFlurry, but it’s, but then it comes out, like, as… Blended. Hard ice cream. So I feel like a McFlurry is halfway to milkshake. Yes, no. This comes out hard. Well, it doesn’t, like, get harder or anything. It doesn’t get harder? No- It stays the same hardness. Yeah, it stays the same hardness, but it blends whatever. Do you think you have a valley girl accent? No. I don’t. Do you think I… You specifically don’t? Do you think I have… Do you think you answered that question specifically with non-regional theatrical diction? No, I do not. I absolutely do not have a valley girl accent. I am not dentilating my t’s. I am not a valley girl. I have received pronunciation. People usually think I’m from New York. That’s why I said that. People assume I’m from New York. Interesting. Yeah. Do you think that’s a theater accent? Because there is a uniquely theater-trained accent. I agree, but I don’t think I speak in that accent. I don’t think you do, because I listened to an interview with Carrie Coon- Carrie Coon speaks in that accent. Carrie Coon speaks in that accent. Yes, she does. And I thought about your accent, and I was like, is she trying to conceal a valley girl accent? No. So when I went to NYU, the voice class I took and dialect class blew my mind. We recorded our first day reading the exact same stuff from this Edith Skinner dialect book. You go through your year of your voice classes, everyone’s voice dropped an octave, and not intentionally. Everyone’s voice just dropped an octave. I had a mean friend from high school who bullied me when I came back from college. Why do you sound different? And I was like, well… And I don’t think I ever really sounded like that, but I definitely had a higher-pitch voice, which I equate with trying to take up less space. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Does that ever factor into you on set, trying to take up less space? Because thinking about a role like “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” where you kind of play very scared and confused- Yeah. In a way that’s very, very affecting to the viewer, did you actually feel a little bit scared and confused in that sense? I mean, I do quite a lot of prep for everything. I don’t know if I did that much vocal prep for her, but I felt very connected to, like, what I, how I thought she was as a person, like not wanting to take up space, being kind of shy, being kind of impressionable, but then also trying to find her strength or whatever it was with her family, feeling misunderstood, and then feeling, like, seen for the first time with these other people. But I do use vocal work as I’ve gotten older for everything. It’s, to me, is really an important thing that, like, unlocks a character for me, and then so does their walk or their physical traits or their posture, and there are certain things that I could do that, like, remind me of, like, playing Candy Montgomery in Love and Death and, like, they’re just, or even Joan in the thing that’s embarrassing with me is that I do start, like, taking on the accent of these people after the fact, and it is annoying to my husband, and it’s harder for me to shake, and then I do this thing when I was working with Carrie Coon or I was working with Natasha, I just start talking like them, and it’s, like, a form of flattery maybe, but I also start, like, doing how other people talk. Like I was doing a Hahn for a long time. Like it was, yeah, it’s like, who am I? They talk about, like, the fight-flight reflex, but there’s another couple of people rarely referenced, which are, like, fight, flight, fawn. Do you mind if I just take some more topping? Are you sure you don’t want me to cut you… I realize this is now annoying that I have to hold the key. No, I’m not. I don’t think that’s weird. I just want more topping. You just want the salad. Yeah, I want some kraut. I want some cabbage. You starred and produced in a really incredible show called “Sorry For Your Loss” that tackled grief in a way that I hadn’t seen done before, and I think… It’s the only subject I tackle. Have you dealt with a lot of grief in your life? Do you think you’re sort of, like, preempting what that feeling might be through art? One was an accident. Wanda Maximoff, that ended up becoming, like, her main trajectory of a character because she lost everyone in her life that was important to her. “Sorry For Your Loss” was a spec script I read that really moved me. I thought the tone was really funny. I thought it was interesting to be a young widow. How does one start their life over again? I think about that a lot, actually. Both my aunts were widows and kind of young, and so I think that might have been also why I was drawn to it. I think the thing that’s been really interesting is having done that show, I used to be scared to bring up how someone was doing after someone died, like three months after the fact or something. You’re kind of like, they probably don’t want to talk about this anymore,it’s been three months, and then you learn that actually people want to talk about them all the time because our relationships with the dead don’t die. They continue. They’re relationships that will forever continue. So, I guess that was something that I really took away from that show. There’s something, I’m not exactly Wu. I kind of don’t believe in manifesting at all, but I do believe in that. I kind of believe in manifesting, though. In what way? It’s like, if you get, if you get a car, like a new car or a rental or whatever, it’s, like, the only car you see on the road. So it’s, like, the moment you start noticing it. Yeah, 100%. And so I think of it similarly, where if you put it out there, it actually might be something that comes, you’ll just start noticing different signs along the way. Yeah. So in that way, I think of manifesting. There’s one scene in “Sorry For Your Loss” that I really wanted to ask about because it felt very, very lived-in in a way. It’s when your character thinks that something terrible has happened to her husband, and she finds him just sleeping off a drunken night in his car, and you’re banging on the windows, but you say, don’t die, don’t ever die, which is a thing that I’ve, you know, my wife has said that to me constantly, and it’s this fear of sort of being without somebody. Had you ever felt that before in your life? Because it seemed very natural. Maybe I was reading too much into it. I think you’re reading into my, me just doing my job. I want to believe that there’s something greater out there. No, I, I don’t really fear other people dying all that much because I just, I don’t think they’re going to die. I think I’m going to die. Maybe that’s just such a narcissistic thought, but you know, there’s a lot of different types of narcissism. There are people who I know who have said they are not afraid of death. They tend to be, like, surfers or, like, somewhat people who do extreme sports because they have, they have children, and they have to, like, meditate on the fact that these are things that could happen. I am not one of those people. I’m not ready to die. I’m totally scared of it. It doesn’t sound like a nice thing. There’s too many things I want to do and places to go and things to eat, but I want to be prepared for it. Death is really sad. Death is really sad. I was about to ask you, like, why are we talking about it so much? That’s, like, the whole premise of the show, sure. Well, do you, do you think it’s, do you think it’s sad because ultimately I think death is sad. You don’t find any of the sort of beauty in it, the fact that nobody would have created great art if they had an unlimited amount of time, the fact that, you know, we all go through this? I mean, that’s, that is nice to think of it that way. I just, I think I also think about, like, god, we’re just such, like, small grains of sand on this planet, and our lives are really, like, meaningless and, like, but then I think about how spectacular this whole situation is that, like, we’re surrounded by, like, electricity and technology, and we’re recording things that then get to be projected on whatever is the internet. But I do think the human, like, what we’ve created as humans is really spectacular, and then I also think what we didn’t create is even more spectacular if you think about, like, the ocean and trees that are, like, massive for only dinosaurs, and I find that all kind of remarkable, and I don’t really want to, like, leave it behind. I know you do, but I don’t want to do it early. I’d like to live a full life. When you were that 92-year-old, do you have any memories that you sort of want to be playing in your head as you slip into that eternal nothingness? I think I want, like, lots of babies in that memory, like other people’s babies. Maybe I have a baby. And just remembering, like, what discovering the world looks like. Like, I, like, I’m having so much fun watching little kids right now grow up, and I am, it’s something that’s new for me, and I am just so moved by how they look at the world, and yeah, I think those kinds of memories are really amazing, and then probably memories of, like, long laughs and nights and jokes and people having a good time laughing. So you ready to get in the lightning round? I am. I’m, like, brain dead right now and full, and, and then I’m thinking, like, you’re right, why did I ask for pizza? I do love Humphrey’s, but I’m so grateful we ended in pizza because you have to have pizza before you die. Who’s the one person, dead or alive, you’d want to share your actual last meal with? I’d love to, I would love to have met my mother’s mother. What song do you want to be played at your funeral? I’m just thinking of, like, people, like, I’m thinking of, like, Sharon Van Etten, Weyes Blood, and then I’m thinking of like Pulp, and I’m thinking Ani DiFranco, and I’m thinking of Lilith Fair. I don’t know. Both Hands by Ani DiFranco, it is. Such a good song. Flirt, Marry, Kill. Legendary Valley Restaurant Edition. Barone’s, Casa Vega, Smokehouse in Burbank. I don’t know the first one, so kill it. Barone’s pizza spot? No, no. Okay, we’re gonna replace that with Bob’s Big Boy. I’d kill Bob’s Big Boy. He’s just a child. He’s- I mean, I like what they have. I like what they have with the fun cars, yeah, on weekends, like, that’s nice, but I’ll, I’d kill Bob’s Big Boy. I’d flirt with Smokehouse and marry Casa Vega, but if Casa Vega, if I could replace Casa Vega with Art’s Deli, I would. Oh, you- And I would marry Art’s. Who’s your dream eulogizer at your funeral? That’s a funny idea. Not one to be shared. I don’t know, like, part of me wants to say someone, like, philosophical, like Benjamin Labatut or something, and then part of me is, like, my friend Madeline- Also equally philosophical. Yeah, she is. She is philosophical, actually. She’s very wise. If and when Tarantino makes his tenth and final movie, what would your dream role be? Anything. I don’t, I’ll do anything. I love his films. What’s your biggest fear? Probably dying. What’s your greatest regret in life? Probably, like, how I spoke to my mom as a teenager, you know, something like that- Yeah. Because, like, that’s hard, and you know, being a parent to teenagers is hard. I thought you were going to say not getting pastrami on the rabbi pizza. I don’t regret that. I really like it this way. How do you feel about it this way, since you always have it with pastrami? It’s not meaty enough to carry. This is about- We just had so much protein. What do you mean we had so much protein? You had half a hard-boiled egg with some extra sauce. I had more than that! I have protein powder over here. I can give you some afterwards if you need it. Stop it. Those thighs. If you had your own Food Network show, what would you make on the pilot? Probably Danish rye bread. Who’s on your Mount Rushmore Food Network shows? Martha wasn’t Food Network, but she’s up. She counts, though. Okay. She could be on the Mount Rushmore. Ina. I would do, is Jamie Oliver considered a Food Network show? He had a Naked Chef. Okay, so Jamie Oliver and… Tom Colicchio. Finally, Lizzie, are you happy? I’m very happy. Yeah, I’m really happy. Thank you for doing, I’ve been truly looking forward to this since the invitation that was in my inbox, and I really thoroughly enjoyed it, and honestly, I think this is something that people can reimagine at different times in their life, and I hope you have me back. I would love to have you back. Maybe I’ll be drinking then. Please, please be drinking then. Yeah, I probably will be, but what if this is, like, the rest of my life? It could be the rest of your life. Who knows anything can happen? Because, you know, you could also be around for “Eternity”. Go check out “Eternity” in theaters. Nailed that plug. Thank you. Go check out “Eternity” in theaters this Thanksgiving. It is truly a wonderful movie. Thank you. You’re fantastic in it. Thanks. Lizzie if you want to deliver your last words to that camera right there. God damn it. Things I wish I prepared for. And that’s a wrap, folks. I think that’s it. Thank you. This is everything and more. Thank you so much. You can take the wine home, and you can age the open bottle.