- [Brian] Quyen Tran is a
creative force of nature.
She's a widely sought-after
cinematographer
for film, TV, and commercials,
a mentor to industry newcomers,
and a full-time wife and mother.
We talk about her dream to be a CIA agent,
how 9/11 drastically changed
the trajectory of her life and career,
and a little bit about her husband, Sam.
She's an incredible storyteller
and an articulate, wonderful person.
I hope you'll enjoy this
conversation with Quyen
today on Between The Sheets.
(classy music)
(smooth jazz music)
- I'm gonna refer to myself
as Sam Riegel's wife the whole time.
- Okay good, Mrs, Sam Riegel.
Did you change your name legally?
- Hell no.
- You didn't at all.
- No, Quyen Tran.
- Not even for like--
- Nope, no.
- Okay.
- Why do you keep asking me?
- Well I just--
- Because you want Ashley
to change her name?
- No, I'm gonna change my
name to Mr, Ashley Johnson.
- You better.
- I'm taking her first
and last name.
- She's way more famous than you.
- I could do Brian Foster Wallace Johnson.
- Where does the Wallace come from?
Oh that's your middle name?
- From David Foster Wallace.
No, my middle name's Wayne.
Well, the one I use now.
- Oh really?
- Thank you for joining me.
- Are we starting?
- Quyen Tran.
Not Quyen Tran Regal?
- Cheers.
- Not Quyen Regal Tran?
- No.
- Regal Tran sounds like
a type of blood disease.
She came down with Regal Tran
and I never saw her again.
(both laughing)
- Foster Johnson.
- Foster Johnson.
- That just sounds like--
- Foster Johnson and Johnson.
- Yeah something dirty or clean.
- Either side of the spectrum.
- Like a soap product yeah.
- Well that's how Ashley and I are though.
How is it?
- Dirty and clean?
- Dirty and clean.
- Very nice.
This is lovely.
- This is a sherry cobbler.
- It's beautiful.
- So this is sherry and some
homemade cinnamon simple syrup
and some orange and
it's really refreshing.
- It's lovely.
- Not too strong.
- It's not too sweet.
And you would think from cobbler,
it might be a little bit more hearty
but it's not, it's very
light and refreshing.
I think the acidity of the
orange really brightens it up
and the green contrasts
nicely with the orange.
- The mint.
- It's very beautiful.
It's nicely backlit right now.
I can see the condensation,
it's beautiful.
- I could listen to you talk
about drinks or food all day.
Maybe we should just do that.
- But then--
- Let's talk about
our favorite foods.
- You would be taking
over Sam Riegel's role,
'cause that's all I
do, is talk about food.
All day.
- That's true.
Well I'm gonna take over
his role in the other show
eventually too, so--
- What show?
- Once he becomes an E-guy
he's telling all of us he's gonna leave.
He says--
- What show is that?
- Critical Role.
- Oh okay.
- Yeah, you've heard of
it referenced in passing.
(both chuckling)
(smooth jazz music)
They did an episode in a rage room
where they smashed pictures of me.
- Of you?
- Yeah.
- Why are they so mad at you?
- I've been asking that too.
Liam is not, when I see Liam
there's a lot of intimacy.
There's a lot of affection.
- Bromance.
- We have deep conversations.
It's just sort of how
things go if you know Liam.
With Sam, it's very
cold, it's very distant.
He doesn't like being touched.
He's big about his eyeline.
You ever worked with actors
who complain about the eyeline?
- Um...
- You don't have to say who.
- Yeah of course.
It's what I do for a living.
- Does that happen a
lot, is it a big thing?
- Yes.
- There's some stuff that I can see,
if I'm acting with you
and I have to do a big emotional thing,
sometimes one of the camera
guys who's right here
will scratch their balls
while I'm talking to you.
And I see that, and I try
not to let it throw me off.
But I also don't wanna tell them,
you can't scratch your
balls on my show, man.
'Cause like, if it itches, it itches.
But if I have to act out
some crazy emotional thing
and then there's some guy
back there or whatever,
and he's picking his nose,
I can understand that.
- Yeah.
- But I've also been on sets
where people are kinda
just like looking down
and they're screaming, get
out of my fucking eyeline,
and shit like that.
- Yes.
No, I think there's a way to approach it.
I think if you say it once
or if you have a good producer on set
they'll make an announcement.
Hey, out of respect for the actors
let's try not to be on our phones
within the actors' eyelines.
If you need to take a
call, please step outside.
But just try to be respectful.
I think that's complete,
it's necessary.
- Yeah.
- It's professional.
- Right.
- And that's how the
protocol should be on set.
If a cameraman is working at a high level
of television or feature work,
he or she,
I said cameraman, didn't I?
Oh my goodness.
- I understand, camera person.
- A camera person.
- It's only been
a hundred years of calling them cameraman.
- Yes, a camera person,
operator, is operating.
They should know to not be distracting.
- Right.
- Because the camera person
and the camera is the
closest thing to an actor.
- Right.
- It's the closest relationship
and that's actually why
I become really close
friends with actors on set,
because I am right there.
Often times right here.
- Yeah.
- Filming the actor and if I'm handheld
I'm like sometimes brushing
up against the actors
and really close depending on the scene.
So I think it's part of
protocol and it's okay.
I don't think it's okay
for an actor to scream out,
"Hey you, get out of my eyeline,"
and that's happened before on set.
One time my gaffer was
there holding a board,
just because he had to be there.
It was a very small movie and
we were shooting with candles
and no one else could do it right.
So he was there, but he
had his eyes like this
and the actor was here and the actor said
"What's your name?"
And he said, "Well, I'm the
gaffer, I'm just trying to--"
"Can you leave?"
And I was like, "Well, I need
to have someone hold this.
"So let me take a minute,
let me get a C-stand in."
- Oh my god.
- Yeah, I was like, uh diva.
- Did you kick one of the
candles at his robe or whatever
and see if they would go up in flames?
- They burned the place down.
It was a 14th-century castle.
- Worth it.
- Worth it.
- Do you feel like you get close to actors
because you're so close to them
or is it important to you to
get them comfortable with you
because you're gonna be in that space.
Does that make sense?
- Both.
I think the proximity of being there,
as well as the intimate connection
that I have to have that relationship
in order to get the best
performance possible.
I think as a director of photography,
you're there to aide
the director's vision,
to help the director
achieve his or her vision,
through not just visuals and
lighting but storytelling,
and I really pride myself on
understanding the full script,
the full narrative,
because if I didn't, how
could I elevate the project?
- The material.
- Exactly.
So when I'm here and the
director is giving a note,
I will listen and then I'll say,
"Hey, is it okay if at
that moment I push in?"
And the director would,
"Yes, absolutely, do
whatever you have to do."
And so I'll say to the
actor just to warn them,
"Heads up.
"At this moment I'm gonna
just get a little closer."
Sometimes I won't say that
because if we're shooting verite
or the actor understands the
camera movement and philosophy,
I don't need to tell them
everything I'm doing.
But a lot of times I
will let the actor know,
"Hey, by the way, we're
starting here on a cowboy
"and then I'm gonna push in into a medium.
"Then after that we're
gonna do one more setup
"where we're gonna be on a close-up."
I think a lot of television
actors especially,
appreciate that knowledge.
- Mmm.
- So that they can either
prepare for that, or save,
or make sure that their eyeline is there.
- Yeah.
- A lot of actors
are very technical and I appreciate that.
So I've had actors who are
more technical than others,
actors who are more difficult than others
and won't come in for like,
we'll have first team and a second team.
So the second team will
come in and they'll stand in
and they'll do all the blocking
but it's never the same.
So when first team steps in,
if I have to do a lighting
tweak I'm like, oh gosh.
I don't wanna take time on set
because we have first team on set
and I wanna be as respectful
as possible to the process.
Especially if it is a very
intense, intimate scene,
where the actor's rearing to go.
- Yeah.
- They're in their trailer
and they come out and
they expect to shoot,
but I'm like, oh gosh,
I didn't know you were
gonna do a wardrobe change
and you're wearing this bright red
and the stand-in was wearing black
and I'm--
- Oh right.
- There's a lot of, yeah.
- Yeah, all the things
we have to adjust on the fly.
I've been with you when
you've had stacks of scripts
and you're working through stuff.
What's that process like for you?
When you first get a script,
what's the main thing you wanna do?
Just understand the story?
Or you're already like,
okay I can visualize
how I wanna shoot this.
- Well, if I say yes to a project
it's because I really
connect to the material.
So I'll sit down with the director
and we'll talk about all the scenes
and what I do is I ask the director,
even though I might understand myself,
I wanna hear it from the director.
Why does this scene exist?
How does it further the narrative?
How do we get to the next level?
And so everything that
happens in the script
happens for a reason.
- Right.
- I think my biggest pet peeve on set
is when someone will say,
"Oh it doesn't matter."
Well, why are we shooting it then?
Everything matters.
- Yeah.
- An insert matters.
Everything matters.
Everything furthers that narrative
one more step of the way.
- What do you do when
the director doesn't have
a clear vision of why it matters?
Or if you disagree with it,
you know what I mean?
- Sure.
- Because you both have to
work in such synchronicity
for the whole thing to work.
Obviously there's a ton of moving parts
in any production like that,
but what happens when you don't line up?
Do you have to--
- You have to compromise.
- Compromise?
- You have to meet somewhere
because, especially if it's on set.
If it's happening on set
and not in pre-production,
you've gotta get your act together fast,
because you have a team
of hundreds of people
waiting for you right now.
- Money is burning
every second.
- Money is burning, oh yeah.
So you have to be very, very prepared.
So yeah, you'll just come to a compromise
and just keep moving.
Yeah.
- Yeah.
(mellow jazz music)
What is your heritage?
- I'm part elf, part fay.
I'm gonna be--
- You know what fay is.
- Well that's 'cause I read
a lot of young adult novels.
- You do?
- Yeah.
- Which ones?
What are you reading right now?
- Right now, I'm currently reading
Sarah Moss, Throne of Glass.
- Wait, Ashley's reading that,
she just got the first one.
Is that the one where there's like eight?
- Yeah.
- Yeah yeah.
- So I'm on book three or four.
- Cool, and what do you
like about YA novels?
- I just disappear, I enter the world.
I love to turn my mind off 'cause my mind,
it's very active.
I have a lot I have to
deal with in my life
and as any parent has to deal with,
but also running a crew.
And the biggest job of all
is being Sam Riegel's wife.
- Who could ever have the patience,
the grace, the ability to overlook looks,
him getting his teeth swapped out
every six months for new ones.
- I mean, it's...
I think all my income goes
towards Sam Riegel's upkeep.
- His upkeep, his wardrobe.
- His manscaping.
- Ugh.
(laughs)
Does he do a lot of manscaping?
Do you ever just sit in
bed and read your YA novels
and you hear a lot of ZZZZ
coming from the bathroom
and 45 minutes at a time?
Like what could you possibly--
- What are you doing in there?
- Yeah.
- This thing, that thing?
- You don't have that
much back hair, Jesus.
- Actually--
- Yeah, okay.
So you're part-elf, part-fay.
- Yeah, and a 100% Vietnamese.
- A 100% Vietnamese.
- Yeah.
- Were your parents born here or there?
- No no no, I was the
first one born in America.
- Yeah.
- So my parents fled Vietnam
and were refugees and
landed in America in 1975.
So my two older sisters
were born in Vietnam
and I was the first one born in America.
- What is that experience like?
- I don't know any other experience.
- I mean yeah, but at what age
do you think you understood
what your parents left and why,
'cause if America's all you
had known, yet your sisters,
how old were they when you guys left?
- They were four, oh no, three.
My older sister was just born,
so she was a couple months old.
- So no memory really.
- No memory.
She has no memory, my
other sister was two.
So even she I don't
think has any memories.
I'm still trying to understand
what they went through
and I think only after 9/11 happened
did I get a taste of what my
parents may have gone through.
- The trauma, wow.
- Yeah, the fleeing a country.
Being so young, not knowing
where they were headed.
- How old were they?
- Like 21-and-3 or something.
So young.
- Wow.
- Yeah, it was intense.
And I had no appreciation of
what they had gone through
until I experienced it myself
to a fraction of the degree
that they had endured
all those years in that war-torn country.
- Where did they move when they came here?
- So they took, they're boat people
and they landed in Springfield, Virginia.
- Oh wow.
- Yeah.
So that's where I was born.
I think actually I was born in Fairfax.
- How long did you spend there?
- I went to university there,
so I only moved out of
Virginia when I was 22.
- University of Virginia?
- Mmhmm, yep.
Where I became Sam Riegel's girlfriend.
- Enough about him, Jesus Christ.
No, we're gonna get to that
'cause I have a lot of things
that I wanna hear your side of the story.
So then what was growing up like
those first, up until high
school and stuff like that.
Were you close with your sisters?
- I, you know as siblings, hard to like.
We were very competitive with one another.
Asian, especially.
Not to, you know--
- No, it makes sense.
- Live up to the stereotype.
- Right, right, right.
I know what you're saying.
- I played the flute though,
not the violin.
My sister played the violin.
- You liked playing the flute?
My sister played the flute.
- I loved it, yeah.
And I played it for many years, yeah.
- So you're growing up in a country
that you're the first
generation of, right?
And so, how did your parents
take to being in America?
Was it a huge, obviously a
huge cultural adjustment,
and this is in the late '70s.
- I, only now, still speak
Vietnamese to my parents.
- Really?
- We grew up
speaking Vietnamese at
home and we still do.
- Do you speak any other languages?
- I studied a lot of languages
when I was growing up
because I wanted to be in the CIA.
So I studied Japanese,
Latin, German, and Italian.
- Why did you wanna be in
the, what did you wanna
do for the CIA?
- 'Cause I just wanna
be a badass spy.
- You wanted to be a spy?
- I did, but you know what?
I did not have perfect vision.
So all my chances were shattered, yeah.
- Oh weird.
- Yeah, also,
it's really hard to get in
and also I maybe decided
that might be a little crazy.
- That kind of role?
- But I wanted to,
for many years, I wanted
to be in the CIA, be a spy.
I studied martial arts,
iI studied languages.
I was like, preparing.
- You were really gonna do it.
- I was, I was.
- How old were you at this point
when you were dreaming about that?
- Like, you know, 18.
- Dang.
Well, did you watch a movie or read a book
or what inspired that?
- Books.
- Books.
- That was, yeah, books
have always been my thing.
- Were you reading Tom
Clancy and you were like
I wanna be--
- I was not, no, no.
But Anne McCaffrey, Ursula
Le Guin, Piers Anthony.
Sci-fi fantasy, that was my jam.
- CIA.
- Yeah.
- I think you could still do it.
- I don't know, that'd be cool.
(smooth jazz music)
- At what point did you say
I'm gonna give up on my
dream of being a CIA agent?
I think of, did you ever
see The Long Kiss Goodnight?
With Geena Davis?
- Of course, classic.
- That could be you.
- Could be me,
could have been, still can.
- You still can.
- I don't know, I have kids now.
- Yeah, but once they turn 18,
you're still gonna be badass.
You could just like--
- I'll be so old.
- We'll all be so old.
- I can't like, I don't
know if I'll be able to
kick someone in the groin and like--
- But you could do this.
- Slice their throat.
- You could do one thing
and it would be this.
- I could do this,
I could do this.
- And speak on the phone
in languages to people.
- I could, I could,
it'll be cool.
- At what point did you go,
I'm gonna give up my dream
of being a CIA badass
and go and do accounting?
When did that happen?
- In college.
- Like college?
- Yeah.
I went to college not really
knowing what I was gonna do.
I thought maybe pre-med
so I took a lot of pre-med
classes the first year.
Quickly realized I cannot do this.
I don't like it at all.
- It just wasn't your thing?
- It wasn't my thing.
And I took a lot of
electives like mythology
'cause I've always been
really into mythology
and fantasy and sci-fi,
so I really excelled in the languages
and the art classes and the mythology,
but you can't really
make a living doing that,
or can you?
- Or can you?
That's a good point.
But no, at the time--
- At the time.
- There was nothing in the world
that would tell you you could do that
for a living.
- No.
There was not Critical Role.
- No, there wasn't.
- I didn't even know I
could be a filmmaker.
I started really late.
- Do you think if you knew
you could be a filmmaker?
But at that time,
it wasn't really something
in your mind, right?
- Mm-mm, no.
- So like, yeah.
- When I was a freshman in high school,
I took a film class and I
thought that was really cool.
I was the only freshman, it was a bunch
of theater, drama--
- Nerds.
- Seniors and I was just like
a little dorky freshman
who was in the higher math classes
and the symphonic band, and whatever.
But that was my first exposure to film
and I kind of left it alone
until I got to film school
for my masters.
- Yeah.
- 'Cause I didn't even do
anything film-related in college.
I sang a capella and I--
- You also sang a capella?
- That's how I met Sam.
- That's right, I'm know, I'm kidding.
What was the name of your group?
Did you have a group?
- Yes, so at UVA we
called ourselves Wahoos.
- Okay.
- It's like a fish thing.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- So we were the Sil'hooettes.
So clever.
- That's cool.
That's cool, that's cool, that's cool.
- Dork!
- How many years did you
do the a capella thing?
Was it like a part of college?
- Three years.
Oh, huge thing.
- Big part of it?
- It was everything, that was my life.
- Did you wanna be a singer?
- Instead of, no.
- But you loved singing.
- I'm a musician.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Yeah, but I never really
considered myself a singer.
Sam thinks I have a good voice,
but I'm like, nah, I can get by.
I'm good pitch, I can arrange.
I was musical director for two years.
- Doing what?
- I arranged all the music, did all the--
- Oh, for the a capella group.
- For my group, yeah.
- Okay, yeah.
- So I, yeah.
- Do you still play music at all?
Do you still ever like bust
out your flute or sing?
- No, I tried the other day.
- You sing to the kids?
- Oh, all the time.
Sam and I sing all the time.
- That must be fun.
- We sing, it's really nice.
- He likes to harmonize.
- And a lot of times,
we'll jump to the harmony at
the same time and we're like,
"Aww, we're so in love."
- Yeah.
(smooth jazz music)
You're in a capella and you meet Sam
and he's in a capella.
Tell me your side of how that--
- How we met?
- Yeah, tell me how that went down.
When you first met him, what
was your initial thought?
What happened there?
- I thought he was an asshole.
- You did?
- Oh yeah.
- A lot of people think he's
a dick when they meet him.
- Yeah, 'cause he's special.
I don't even know where to start.
So I met him, you know, I
thought he was very talented.
He's an incredible singer, performer.
Like it's in his blood.
And so that's not what I am
and not what I desire to be.
I don't like to really be
in front of the camera.
I don't like to be in the limelight.
So when I met him, I was like,
that guy is a total asshole.
Like why is he trying to get with me,
when he is clearly messing around
with all these other girls?
- He's got his pick of
the litter as they say.
- Oh yeah, well girls would
like throw their panties
at him basically.
- During a capella?
- I mean not literally, but--
- Guys, we chose the wrong profession.
- Well the girls would hold
signs up that would say
AVP, which stood for
Academical Village People,
Rocks My Box.
And Sam would say stuff like,
"Girls, you're gonna wet
your panties on this next."
So you know, he's just nasty.
- He played to it well.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, yeah yeah.
That's hilarious.
- So I was really
pushing him away a lot,
like c'mon man, you're
just a slut and I am not.
I am so innocent, I'm a Catholic girl.
- I'm an accountant.
- I'm an accountant.
But we became really good friends
and we became the best of friends.
So I couldn't really hide that fact of it
and with my boyfriends
before I had always become
really close with them
as friends before dating.
That's just who I am.
- Yeah.
- I like to meet people and socialize
and get to know someone.
So we became really, the best of friends.
And at that point,
I was dating another guy in the group.
And then we broke up--
- Another guy in Sam's
a capella group.
- In Sam's group.
We're very incestuous.
A lot of cross-dating.
- Of course.
- As you do in college.
- Crossing the streams.
- I don't know, I haven't tried that.
- You don't want to, you don't want to.
- I tried it this morning in
the shower, no I'm kidding.
- You can get dropsy from that.
(laughs)
Remember dropsy?
I don't think you do.
- No, what that?
- It was like something
I saw on Downtown Abbey.
- Oh god.
- It's like
an ancient disease, it's not ancient--
- Is there a vaccination for that?
- Yeah, I think so.
- It's probably
made a comeback.
- Adrenaline in the heart.
- Like polio.
- I think it's adrenaline in
the heart like Pulp Fiction.
- Oh God, oh that's...
(both gasping)
That was so good, that
was like this, so good.
- Okay, so you're dating some other guy
in some other a capella group.
- Yeah, and then we break up
and then Sam and I get very close.
You know, there's a little
bit of dancing here and there
like maybe a New Year's celebration
where we, you know, a little kiss.
- Oh.
- Oh.
- The vibes were there,
you knew like--
- The vibes were there.
- You knew like, I wanna be more
than just a friend with this guy.
- Yeah, but I was like, do I wanna?
Do I want to?
We're so different, so different.
- What were the biggest
differences in your mind?
Besides the fact that he was
so outgoing and you know,
throw your bras up here, ladies.
And then you're, you know--
- I think the whole actor thing, you know.
I think most actors are narcissists.
You have to be in order to be an actor
and I don't think it's a negative quality.
But you also have to be selfless at times
and I've since seen that.
Especially since we had kids,
but that's many years later.
- He's able to,
he's able to hold both.
- He's the best dad in the world.
He really is.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Sometimes I think he's a
better dad than I am a mom.
- You think so?
- Well because like,
I would go away for
months at a time to work
and I'm like, oh my gosh, what am I doing?
I'm the worst mother in the world.
That's still something
I'm coming to terms with.
- Yeah.
- But anyways--
- That's a part of
this whole crazy.
- It's so hard.
- Choosing a life in this business is,
there's sacrifices and
there's big sacrifices
and there's big rewards, you know?
But yeah, it's a trade-up.
- I don't think there's
any easy answer to it.
There's no solution and it's something
you just have to keep
working on, constantly.
But anyway, going back to college,
we became the best of
friends and then one day,
he said, "This is too painful for me.
"I don't think we can be friends anymore
"because you don't want
the same thing as me."
And I was like, why?
I--
- He wanted to take it
further than you did.
- He wanted to and I didn't.
And I said, well you
have to change your ways
because you're slutting under, you know--
- Pretty much like, yeah.
- You're slutting around
all the time and if you really like me,
why are you hooking up with
all these girls all the time?
And I gave him an ultimatum.
I was like, you can't do that anymore.
You gotta clean up your
act if you really wanna.
He was, well I can't just stop my ways.
I'm like, yes you can!
- Yes!
- That's what commitment is.
- If you really want this.
Yeah exactly, that's--
- It's like, why not?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Yeah.
So we didn't talk for like three days.
- Oh right, right.
- I was like, my life is so (groans).
- Um hmm.
- So.
- And then what happened
after the three days?
- I just went to his room
and I brought his favorite ice cream
and I said, okay, we're gonna do this.
And we've been together ever since.
- Do you think that part of
what attracted him to you
was the fact that you weren't
at all like those other girls?
- I didn't fall for that and
I don't think I have since.
I still don't.
- You don't buy
into that whole--
- I don't buy into
that whole like ah.
It's not just, no.
- But I think it's interesting
'cause it's not like
oh, opposites attract or
something like that with you guys.
It's on a deeper level like
you each cover different bases
and you each have different dreams,
but you're both okay with,
you're okay with each other's differences
but also encouraging them too, right?
- A hundred percent, I have
the biggest fan in Sam.
He's supported me in my career.
When I said,
after 9/11 happened I wanted
to quit my job and I did,
and I wanted to be happy.
And that has been the single most
consistent theme in our
lives since then is,
what makes you happy?
And we have those
discussions all the time.
And I ask my children that all the time.
Are you happy?
- Are you happy?
- What makes you happy?
And I wanna make sure that
my kids understand that
when I do go away,
it's not because I need
to work to make money.
It's because work makes me happy.
But just because I go away,
it doesn't mean that
I don't love you less.
- Why is that important
to you to communicate?
'Cause I can think of
so many situations where
my parents would travel a
lot growing up and that was
definitely not how things
were communicated to me.
I mean they did their best.
- Right, for sure.
- But it was we have to
make money or whatever else.
But that seems like a really good way
for them not to resent
work or what you do,
but also in their own path.
Does that make sense?
- Yes, well I want them to be happy.
That's all I want in life.
I don't care if they go to school.
I don't care if they quit gymnastics.
I don't care if they don't
want to play the piano.
I want them to be happy
'cause I think that is everything.
And I think happiness leads to success.
It leads to good relationships.
It leads to good people.
I think that Americans
needs to be happier overall.
I think there was some
article where Americans rated
the lowest in terms of
happiness across the world.
- Yeah, yeah.
- And so,
I don't know when this
became so important to me.
Maybe it was after 9/11
when I reevaluated life
and just went on a different journey
and became a cinematographer.
Basically switched my whole
career path and trajectory
because of that life-altering event.
So I think happiness is always a theme
and it comes up all the
time with Sam and myself.
Talking about Critical Role,
I get really upset sometimes
when he has to do a show on
Tuesday, a show on Thursday,
a show on Friday, and then
a photo shoot on Sunday.
That's four days out of seven.
And I just have to take a breath and say,
okay, this is what makes him happy.
So when I say that and then
I put myself in his shoes,
I can let it go.
- Yeah, I mean I'm sure there's,
I mean speaking from experience,
I'm sure there's times too
where you've had to be gone for months
and he's like, dang, this is gonna suck.
I'm gonna miss her like crazy.
- Yes.
- I'm gonna probably gain 15 pounds.
I gotta take care of the kids by myself,
you know what I mean?
- No way to help it.
- Well of course, but
you know what I mean.
You're not going to be there
to make sure he's not
raising them terribly
for the those couple of months.
But yeah, it's that weird
trade-off, like we said.
- It's a huge compromise too.
And it's been a struggle
over the last couple of years
with my job being--
- Career taking off.
- Yeah and just getting busier and busier.
And he said something the
other day that was like
a stab to the heart
- What was it?
- He said, "You know, with
your television schedule,
"You might as well be out of the country
"shooting a feature."
And I was like, huh, I...
- I mean, it's TV.
- And I stopped and I was like
I mean, yes, true.
But I am in bed every night.
And I'm here on the weekends.
- That's true, yeah.
Because you're able to
shoot right now locally--
- Yes.
- Which is not always the case
- No, Well it's the very conscious choice.
I stopped doing features
because every feature
shoots out-of-town and I
had an amazing opportunity
in television, which I took.
And then I've just been doing
television show in L.A..
But I'm looking to do a feature
next because I've earned it.
I've earned enough points.
I've been here for two years now.
- You've got your punch card.
- I'm like--
- All these TV shows.
- I'm like, look,
I've been here for 700 days straight.
- You should do like, I got four TV shows
and then I get a feature.
And then I get four TV shows.
- And we talk about that.
But he sees that I am unhappy sometimes
in shooting some content
because it's not as creative.
You can't really flex all your muscles
because you're trying to, you know.
- Yeah, you're trying
to match your vision.
- You're trying to make
eight to 10 pages a day.
Not necessarily match a vision,
because I try to only shoot pilots--
- Oh right, right.
- And establish a look.
But to be consistent and
to shoot multiple cameras
just to make the day.
There's only so much creativity
that you can work around.
- Yeah.
- So.
- And then if you come home
unhappy with how that goes,
it's like--
- Yeah, he knows.
- He knows.
- And the last
two projects, however, have
been really, really gratifying,
because of the subject material.
It's been a very socially impactful show.
I'm excited for it to
premiere next year and then--
- Unbelievable.
- Unbelievable, yes.
And then this Africa doc, that I just did.
- Oh yeah.
- Yeah.
- How long ago was that that you did it?
- I just got back a month ago.
- Okay.
- So.
And I was so happy.
And Sam noticed it.
- From doing it?
- Yeah, he was like, "You
should do more stuff like that."
- Yeah.
- So.
- You're like, I'll just go to
Africa then, whenever I want.
- I'm like, see ya!
- Later!
(mellow jazz music)
I talked to Sam about 9/11 when
he was here for his episode
and got his perspective on it,
but what in the world
was that day like for you
because you woke up that morning and--
- To the sound of.
- To the sound of.
- Of a airplane smashing into--
- Across the street from your apartment.
- Yes.
- And then you guys
just ran out?
- Yes.
Well we ran to the window.
- You ran to the window?
- 'Cause we were on the 18th floor.
- Oh right, yeah.
- And looked outside,
didn't see anything.
Looked up,
smoke.
People running around.
What is going on right now?
- Did you know it was a plane?
- No.
- Or did you think it was a bomb?
'Cause it was just a loud
explosion, basically.
- It was a loud explosion
that shook the bed.
We were sleeping in separate beds
'cause we weren't married yet.
- Oh right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dick Van Dyke show.
- Don't show my mom this.
- I won't, I won't.
And we won't subtitle it for her either.
- No, she can understand English.
- Oh okay, shit.
- Yep.
Yep, anyway, so...
The ground shook, the bed shook,
what was that?
Jump out of bed, run to the window.
Oh my god, what's happening?
Oh a little plane, just--
- Something happened.
- An accident.
- Yeah.
- Sam's father calls.
And he is a scientist, a very smart man.
He says, "Get out of the apartment now.
"That building is going to collapse."
What, you're crazy.
- Right.
- It's the World Trade Center.
- Yeah.
- It's built of steel,
it's not gonna fall, what?
- He knew when the plane hit, eventually--
- Yeah, he's a brilliant scientist.
So we did not listen to him.
'Cause we're not that smart.
- Right, you were young.
- Yup, we were young.
So I grab my camera and
I start photographing
and suddenly vroom!
And I put my camera down for half a second
and I see the second plane
go into the South Tower.
And it seemed like it was in
slow motion because after that,
I see this mushroom cloud.
- Of smoke and stuff, yeah.
- Of smoke and fire rush towards me
and I'm blown back from the window.
And the heat, and the sound,
and the smell overpowers
me and I fall back.
And Sam, he was in the other
room on the phone with his dad
when it happened so he did
not witness that plane crash.
So I go back to the
window and Sam runs in.
He's like, "Oh my good,
what just happened?"
And I said, "Another plane crashed.
"This is not an accident."
And he goes, "What kind of plane was it?"
And I said, "It was a commercial airliner.
"It was not small."
And so we knew at that point
that we were being attacked.
- Then what'd you do?
- So then I, like an idiot,
I took more pictures.
- Took more pictures.
- I didn't know what else to do.
- Right.
- What were we supposed to do?
We looked down, I've
got photos of that too.
And there're people running
out of the Marriott Hotel
and then firefighters running in.
And I think that, to me, I
will never forget that image,
is people running out and
the firefighters running in.
- Whoa.
- 'Cause we know what happened
to those firefighters.
- Yeah, yeah.
- So I have pictures of that.
Finally, we exited the building.
But when, we ran down 18
flights 'cause we were like,
"Oh let's not take the elevator,
"we might get stuck, whatever."
- [Brian] Just in case
you get stuck in there.
- We don't know, we have no idea.
We hit the ground floor
and at that exact moment
is when the South Tower fell.
- So it had just been like--
- Well we thought
it was more attacks.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- But the sound of the tower collapsing
was deafening.
- I can't imagine.
You were across the street.
- I thought literally,
an airplane or something
was right over us dropping bombs.
So we were running from the cloud
and it very quickly
encompassed us and overtook us
and then suddenly, silence.
And that's what I remember
the most is the smell
and the lack of sound at that moment.
- What was the smell?
Just that smoky fire-like,
there was debris everywhere.
- Debris and ash, but
it's a very specific smell
and every now and then,
I smell it and it's a
smell of death and ash.
And it'll take me right
back to that moment.
So we're running for our lives.
The smoke is everywhere.
I'm next to Sam.
He's screaming, I'm
screaming, and it's just...
Nothing, no sound.
Just silence.
And then a couple minutes later.
An EMT gives us masks, we put
them on, the first responders.
And then suddenly we start hearing
this high-pitched piercing
sound (imitates alarm blaring).
I'm like, "What is that?"
And then another one
(imitates alarm blaring).
The same pitch, and they keep coming.
And it's the sound of the
firemen's bands, when their heart
stop beating.
- Oh my God.
- You hear this sound apparently.
- Oh my God, and those started going off?
- Yeah.
(Brian sighs)
Yeah.
- Were you taking pictures
because part of you felt like
okay, obviously there's this crazy trauma
and there's experience,
but there's this is a moment in history?
Or was it just a reflex
to have something to do
to not panic at the moment
while you were still trying
to sort of figure out
the plan and everything?
- At that time, I had
just been gifted a camera.
I think I mentioned earlier,
I really got into the
filmmaking game late.
- Mmhmm, right.
- I was 22 when Sam
gave me my first camera
and I was like, oh, this is cool, so.
- For your birthday or something, right?
- It was for my birthday
and I was painting a lot and so.
I would work from photographs sometimes
so he was like, "Oh, I'm
gonna get you a camera
"to help with your painting."
But then quickly I realized
I liked the photographs more
than the painting process.
So I was really into photography.
I would shoot black and white
and process everything
and print it myself.
So at the point, I had been doing it
like two years, 2 1/2 years.
I don't know, I just felt
like I just had to document.
- What was happening.
- Yeah.
And this was before social media.
- Right, of course, yeah.
- I wasn't driven
by that at all.
- No, yeah.
- I didn't think like oh,
I can sell these photos.
That would never entered my mind.
I just felt this organic
need to photograph
and to document this moment in history.
So we were running and we were like,
should we jump over the fence?
The promenade down there by the park
and swim to New Jersey?
Because at that point,
we were running south and
people were running north.
- Oh.
- And we were like,
we are screwed, we're dead.
there's nowhere to go.
And people are just, it's just a melee.
No one knows what's happening.
We don't know if it's terrorists,
we don't know if that was
the U.S. Air Force flying.
We had no idea what was
happening, it was so scary.
And this was before really
the internet really took off.
So it's not like we
could check our phones.
It was just cellphones, and
flip phones at the time.
So we didn't know what was happening.
We got to the south end of the island
and we were lying on our stomachs
when the second tower
fell, the North Tower.
And then again, that mushroom cloud came
and it overtook us and...
I have this picture of Sam standing
before the North Tower fell
with the mask on.
- We showed it on his episode.
It's amazing.
- Oh you did.
It's just--
- Yeah you can just see it.
- It's everything, it will
take you right back there
and it's really scary to think about now.
But I don't really talk about it a lot.
- I know, I understand.
- Like a lot of people
don't even know I was there.
- Right.
- And that it was the reason
I became a cinematographer.
Like when I get asked, "Oh,
why did you become a DP?"
I always hesitate.
Do I wanna give them the long answer?
- Mmhmm.
- Or do I just say,
"Oh you know, I was a stills photographer
"and I just wanted to be
challenged more, so I,
"and it was a very solo job,
"you know photography is very solo,
"so I wanted to collaborate
more so I became a filmmaker."
That's kinda my easy answer--
- Right.
That's a good way to put it.
- Without getting into
9/11 changed my life, I almost died.
I quit my corporate job and
decided to pursue the arts.
- Um-hmm.
Yeah, because you ended up taking
some of those rolls of film
to the Associated Press.
So what'd you do?
You just walked in and said--
- I said, "I have images."
And then they looked at
them and they're like,
"These are incredible.
"We want you to go back and shoot more."
So I did that a couple times.
- They gave you a badge and--
- Yeah.
Yeah, I went and I did the whole thing.
- So, thank you for talking about that,
by the way.
- Of course.
- After that experience
obviously changed your life
and then, how did that transition into,
was it the near-death
experience that made you go,
I really wanna do what I
really wanna do with my life
because I had this close-call?
And then it was like, what
I'm really passionate about
is telling stories through
visually capturing it, right?
- It wasn't so clearly defined.
- Yeah.
- 'Cause I was so young.
I was like 23 or something
when it happened so,
I just knew I did not wanna do accounting.
I was always miserable doing it,
but this was my out.
And it gave me the
courage to just be like,
you know what, I'm gonna quit.
So I did,
and I tried to pursue
photography full-time and I did,
and I worked for newspapers,
and then at the time,
Sam was producing some short films at NYU,
one of his many jobs, you know.
- Yeah.
- He has a million jobs,
all the time, even now.
- Even now, right?
- Even now.
So he was producing some NYU grad films
and he brought me on
as stills photographer.
So I started to shoot stills
for all these short films.
And I made friends with the camera crew.
I was like, "This is
really cool, can I slate?"
So I like second AC'd, I
slated on a couple shorts.
On a whim, I applied to the
Master's program at UCLA and AFI
and I got into both so
we moved to California.
And I think because of 9/11 we kind of,
not that we wanted to
abandon and give up hope
and leave New York forever.
I just felt like we kinda
needed to get out of there
because it held so much trauma for us.
It was just hard.
- You said that you guys came to a choice
because of that experience,
where you would either call it quits
or stay together.
- Um-hmm.
- You obviously chose to stay together,
but what'd you mean by that?
Because an experience like that can--
- Yeah, well, I know that a lot of times,
in relationships that are borne
out of traumatic experience
like an EMT saves a woman from whatever.
Those may or may not work.
In our situation though,
because we had already been together--
- For so long.
- For three years,
at that point.
It just confirmed our
love for one another.
And having faced death,
knowing I don't think
I can live without you.
So it really just
solidified our relationship.
And that's when I say,
I'm sorry, I'm like--
- [Brian] It's okay,
it's okay, no, it's fine.
- You know, I would never want
anyone to go through that.
But for us,
it really just confirmed
that we should be together.
- Yeah.
You also see in a situation like that,
the most vulnerable part of that person
and how they react to you in that moment,
and that also can go one of two ways.
- Home or out.
- And you go like,
if we can survive this together
and react the way we did to
each other and become closer,
then what is gonna throw itself your way
that you won't be able to tackle, right?
- Exactly, it just makes you stronger.
And it makes you appreciate
life, really, it does.
And to know what's important to you
and what you can do to better yourself
and to make things better for your partner
and just working in a very symbiotic way.
You know, it takes a lot of hard work
to be in a relationship.
- Yeah, anyway, yeah.
- And it never ends.
It takes work to maintain
that relationship
and when you are thrown new obstacles
like a move or a house.
- Yeah, oh that's a huge one.
- A house can really
break up a relationship.
- Oh, I know, yeah.
- Or children.
- Or kids, yeah.
- Or children, yeah.
There's always something
new that will test that bond
and I am just grateful that
we have stood the test all these years.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Yeah.
(mellow jazz music)
- So after you guys worked
together on the short films
and then it was like,
okay, UCLA is gonna happen.
I'm gonna go on this Master's program.
It probably felt like
a fresh start for you.
- Oh totally.
- 'Cause you're in a new city,
a whole new--
- Yeah.
- But were you scared to switch
careers all of the sudden--
- Of course, of course.
- And go into this passion?
- I was so scared, I was like,
I don't know what I'm doing.
I don't even know how I got in.
I got in based on my stills.
The strength of my stills work.
And I, up until then,
had only worked short films for a year.
So--
- Did you know then that you wanted to do
cinematography in addition
to just photography?
- Yes, I applied to the
cinematography program.
- Oh okay, okay.
- Yeah.
So I knew for certain that I wanted to
be behind the camera.
- What was your family's response?
To not only you guys moving
but to your change in careers?
- I was already the black
sheep of the family.
- [Brian] 'Cause they're very traditional.
- Oh my gosh.
Well we still weren't married yet.
- Right, oh yeah.
- So I've been living
this lie the whole time.
When I moved out of my house after college
to go to New York, it was really bad.
I actually made a short film
about it at film school.
- You did?
- Yes.
- About what happened with--
- About my 9/11 story
and about moving out.
About being the black sheep of the family.
Not really talking to my
mom and then after 9/11,
reuniting and not being
afraid to show my emotions.
- Yeah, 'cause that's a big
part of it too, right?
- It's a really intense
six-minute short.
- I wanna see it.
- I should be a feature-length but,
like I tried to pack it
all in in six minutes.
- Let's make it a feature, I'll write it.
You've got like, 200 bucks.
I'll write it and then you can shoot it.
- I'll shoot it on my
iPhone, it'll be great.
- So yeah, hat level of
fear were you experiencing
in starting over in L.A.?
You have this secret too,
but then you also have this sort of
blossoming-out-of-tragedy career
that was super exciting at the same time?
- I think I was more excited
but I was scared about money.
- Yeah.
- Because Sam didn't really
have a lot of prospects.
He was traveling back to New York still,
to do voiceover.
- Uh-hmm.
- And to make money to pay
for our Los Angeles apartment.
So it was really hard.
In film school, I got
some scholarship money,
but out-of-state is a
lot of money at UCLA.
So after that, after the
first year I was fine.
But I was just scared financially
more than anything else.
I was too young to
really think about like,
"Oh, am I gonna make it?"
Because when you're that
young, you just have dreams.
And I'm not really a pessimist
so I never doubted that I would
make it, because I was like,
"Oh, I'm gonna go to film
school, I'll have a film career."
- Yeah, it's a given, right?
They give you one the last day.
- That's the thing.
- Yeah, yeah.
- But it's so not the reality, I think...
There's maybe two people in my class
who are still filmmakers.
- Wow.
- Yeah.
- Everybody else just--
- Yeah, or teach.
- [Brian] It fizzled out or it's too hard.
- I mean they're still in the
business in some respect but,
I'm trying to think like how many.
Maybe there were a
couple of directors but,
it's hard to call yourself
a director if you haven't
really directed anything
outside of film school.
- We all have that moment
where it sort of clicks.
Where our dream lines up
with or reality and we go,
oh my God, I always
wanted to feel this thing
and now it's happened.
Was there a specific gig
for you where that happened?
- I don't know and I'm asked that
all the time.
- Oh.
- You know, "Now that you've made it."
Well I, let's...
- Hold on.
- Hold on.
There's no such thing as making it.
'Cause I'm still trying to get
to that next level, always.
- And when you finish a gig,
you never know if the film's
gonna be ready or not.
- Oh yeah, I'm like, this
could be my last job.
I'm never gonna work again.
- Right, uh-hmm.
- I'll have to get a job here.
- Uh-hmm.
- I'm just kidding.
- We can't afford you,
I'm so sorry, I've tried.
- You always want to level up.
- Right, Exactly.
- You want to get to the next project
and I think complacency is
the killer of creativity.
So if I'm ever saying to
myself, oh I've made it.
I think at that point I should just quit
because then at that point
I don't think I'm growing
anymore as an artist
or learning anything new.
And I mentor a lot of young
filmmakers and I tell them,
no matter what job you do, do the best.
And there's always gonna be that next job
and you're gonna try to do
even better on that next one.
I still try to do that
and I look at something I shot last week
and I'm like, oh, why did I do that?
That's so ugly, terrible,
why did I do that?
Even now, always,
always trying to better
myself as an artist.
As a leader, as a
collaborator, as a storyteller.
- How do you do that?
How do you better yourself?
- I just look at my work and
I look at the circumstances
and I reevaluate and I just think a lot.
I'm a thinker, like you.
- Yeah, yeah.
Are you constructively self-critical
or does that get into like
you're too self-critical?
Of your own work?
- Both.
- Both.
- Both.
And I think as artists,
we tie a lot of our
self-worth to our work.
And Sam's always telling me,
"You're so hard on yourself.
"Oh you're going through the phase again
"where you look at something
once, you think it's horrible.
"You look at it the second
time, you think it's even worse.
"And then third time, you
think oh, it's not so bad."
- Yeah, yes.
- It's like this endless cycle.
Every time I've used it, I do a project.
I'm like, oh, why did I do that?
And he's like, "Oh, there she goes again."
- [Brian] Give it two days,
you'll be okay with it.
- Give it two days, you'll be fine.
And he's like, "Ugh."
So I'll be in this pit of despair
and then I'll get a call from my agent,
"Oh, you've just booked this job."
I'm like, yay, I'm worthwhile.
- Right.
- I'm a human being, I'm a
whole person, I can go on.
It's just so pathetic.
- It is tied to that, yeah.
- I'm not afraid to admit
that I have a lot of faults
and there's room to grow and be better.
(gentle jazz music)
- Living or dead.
Who are your favorite
people behind the camera?
Whose work do you just love?
- Yeah, my mentor Roger Deakins.
So I met him at UCLA.
He was the cinematographer-in-residence
and we just hit it off
and I was very very lucky.
- Of all the people.
- I got super lucky.
- Of all the people you got Roger Deakins.
- Yeah, he helped me a
lot in my early days.
- He's my favorite.
- He's incredible because
his way of telling a story
is very classical.
- Okay, yeah.
- He's not full of gimmicks and tricks
and when you watch a movie
that he shot 20 years ago,
it's still relevant.
And the cinematography
does not feel gimmicky.
- Right.
- And it's because it's very
classical in its approach.
And he would always tell me.
Story, story, story.
I would ask him for advice.
He's like well, did you like the story?
Can you relate to it?
And that was the best advice
anyone has even given me.
And I think that's why I pride
myself on being a storyteller
and have a strong understanding
of whatever script I'm given.
If I can relate to it and if I like it
then I will take on the project.
But if I can't,
I don't think it would
do anyone any justice.
If I don't like the movie,
how can I tell it and
fulfill someone else's vision
if I can't relate to it, so...
- Let's take that term, making it,
which we hear a lot in this town.
(mumbling)
- Oh gosh yeah.
- But isn't making it, for you,
the ability to go there was a time where
I wasn't able to take
a gig because of that,
but isn't making it really
I'm now at a place where
I only have to take a gig
if I really think it's a
story that I can help tell,
versus all the gigs you had to take
just to pay the bills or to
advance your career, right?
- Yes, yes.
- That's making it, that's
the fulfilling part.
- That is the definition, I would say.
To take only projects that
you're passionate about.
- In what ways do you think
you contribute to the telling of a story?
'Cause obviously you are
capturing those moments and stuff.
A lot of DPs nowadays
aren't behind the camera.
They're lighting and they're
doing stuff and then they
watch it on monitors at
video village and stuff.
But you're touched with all
those different aspects,
but then are you also ever
still like, I'm on the camera?
Do you like that, or do you like to be--
- I love being behind the camera.
Roger operates all of his work,
but he only shoots features.
- Right.
- And single-camera features mostly.
So when you shoot television,
you can't do that,
'cause there's too much to navigate.
- You have too many cameras.
- Yeah, you have to light
and pre-light the next set
because of the demanding
page count and schedule.
You have multiple operators
so I can't be operating
if I don't know what the second camera
or third camera is doing,
so I need to be at the
village and running the ship.
- You're looking at the full picture.
- But I like to light from the set.
I'm very traditional in that way.
I use a light meter.
I stand on set, I talk to the actors.
I know all their names.
- Yeah.
- As if I were still operating.
And only at the last minute
do I go back to village.
So I'm very involved.
I like to pride myself
in having relationships with the actors.
Keeping them abreast of what's next
'cause I like to be informed.
- Right.
- With the AD.
And I try to stay involved
as if I were shooting a
single-camera feature.
- I noticed that you were
kind enough to invite
Ashley and by proxy, me, to
your Christmas party last year,
and I noticed that almost
every actor in the last project
you had worked on before that
came to your Christmas party.
- Yeah.
- And was just speaking
so highly of that experience.
I haven't been on a set
where you have shot,
but I can tell that they
appreciate the attention to detail
and that sort of classical,
or traditional, I guess, approach to it.
- I think it's because I, first of all,
know that actors are
on camera for a living
and I want them to look good.
Even if it calls for a very
dark and dramatic moment,
there's a way to light things
where they still look movie-star bad.
But what I also do is I will
be looking out for something
and I'll see them do something
in a way that wasn't noticeable before
in the first or second take
and they'll do something new.
And I'm like, oh my gosh.
So then I'll go to the
director and be like,
"Hey, just now, the actor did this.
"Do you wanna like go on?
"I know we didn't plan a close-up,
"but do you wanna go in for a
close-up to capture that beat?
"'Cause this could be pivotal?"
So the actors know that
I'm looking out for their performance.
- Whoa.
- And I think that's
what really solidifies
that DP-actor relationship.
- Yeah.
- It's that I'm looking out
for their story and their character arc.
Not just making them look pretty.
- It sounds fun.
- I love it.
- It sounds really fun.
- I love my job so much.
I'm so lucky and grateful.
(mellow jazz music)
- You were like super pregnant
while shooting a feature or
show or something, wasn't it?
For a couple things?
- Yeah, a couple
of pregnancies I was shooting.
- What's that like?
- Until the end.
Well I did this little
short film called SMILF.
It ended up doing pretty well.
It won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
- Was that 2015?
- '15, yeah.
- Okay.
- And so,
I was eight months
pregnant and I was so huge,
like the Terminator lives up to her name.
- Uh huh, uh huh.
- And I basically was like,
sitting there with my belly.
I have the camera on
my belly and I'm like,
"Oh my god, why did I do this?"
- You gotta pee all the time.
- Yeah, I loved the director.
I thought she had an incredible
story, she's a friend.
I shot her boyfriend at the
time, they're married now.
Her boyfriend's short.
So he's like, "Hey, can you
shoot my girlfriend's project?"
I'm like, "Yeah, sure."
- I don't think they'd mind,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- So, yeah.
But I just love doing my job.
And I just feel so lucky that I can do it
in this environment now,
which supports women a lot more
than it used to even four years ago.
- Tell me how that's changed.
Tell me how that's changed.
- I am just a little worker
bee in this whole conversation.
I think change takes a long
time for it to be effective,
and for it to last, to have staying power.
Change has to be gradual.
So as a worker bee in this conversation,
I try to do my best to hire more women
and to also give back to
the filmmaking community.
I do a lot of outreach.
- Yeah, you mentor.
- I do a lot of mentorship.
I probably have one or two
conversations on the phone
or coffee or I have someone
visit my set like every week.
So just last week I had a
coffee meeting and a phone call.
And that phone call was like,
"Oh my gosh, I really wanna have kids.
"I'm 38, but my career
isn't where I want it to be.
"Should I wait another year?"
And I'm like, "No."
- Do it now.
- Do it now, just do it.
If you wanna have
children, just go for it.
- There will never be a right time.
- There will never be a right time.
Even when I had my first kid.
I was like, well whatever, Keanu.
I mean, look at that hair, anyways--
- Amazing hair.
- Amazing, amazing.
Thank you, he gets it from me.
- Duh!
'Cause I watch Sam spraying his on
before every show Thursday night.
- Aww.
- I'm joking, I'm joking.
He does it in private.
(laughs)
At what point did that mentoring thing
become important to you though?
Was it because of Roger and
your relationship and you went,
this was so awesome, or
was it something else?
- I think it was a conversation
I had with my agent.
And I think it was just when
the whole female cinematographer thing
was making headlines and
getting more in the news
and for me I was like,
"Ugh, can't we just
make it about the work?"
- Right.
- But you can't.
Like so many times,
people look up my name and I
don't have a picture on IMDB
because I specifically did not
want people to know I was a woman.
- Interesting.
- Yeah, yeah.
I may change that now, but at the time--
- A lot have changed, yeah.
- At the time,
I had shot this movie
and there was a variety review
of my movie and they listed,
"Quyen Tran's cinematography
elevates the story
"and his camerawork and
lighting and his photography--"
- Were you pissed?
- No.
- No?
- Okay, my initial--
- You were like, it's working!
It's working.
- I'm a man.
My initial response was,
"Oh my God, that's so lazy."
This person could have
just Googled me real quick
and known that I was a woman,
but then second, I thought
that's kind of cool.
I'm being reviewed
based solely on my work.
And sex is not playing any
part of this conversation.
And I think it was the best thing
that I could have ever experienced.
'Cause I was like, you
know what, this is awesome.
- Yeah.
- And they quickly revised it.
I think a couple people like wrote in.
- Sam wrote up an email.
- No, Sam...
If it's not in his Google alert,
Quyen Tran cinematographer.
It's just Sam Riegel,
Sam Riegel, Sam Riegel.
I'm kidding.
(Brian laughs)
- That's why his phone's
going off all day.
- Yeah, so I think that was kind of cool.
- Yeah, and then when
did you start mentoring?
- So I started mentoring
kind of inadvertently,
just I guess, since I graduated,
just talking to other girl DPs
and then just as I
became more experienced,
more people started calling
me because I'm very open.
I try to contribute my time and energy,
and I like to give back so--
- Is it as fulfilling for
you as the work itself?
- Yes.
- Being able to, it is?
- Yeah.
In fact, I'm about to teach
a class at a high school.
One of my friends is--
- Really?
- Yeah, a film teacher, a film
professor at a private school
and I'm going to talk.
And it's an all-girls private school.
So I usually do university
or AFI, or UCLA.
Just like master classes
or guest lecturer.
So this will be fun 'cause
they're really young, these kids.
So I'm looking forward to it.
That's on Friday, that's tomorrow.
- That's tomorrow?
- Mm-hmm.
- You're gonna see some
little Quyens in that--
- Yeah!
- And how cool because if you
were that age, there wasn't,
that wasn't really going on.
- No way, no, absolutely not.
And I think that's what I'm trying to do.
Just one meeting at a
time, one coffee at a time.
Just showing people that you can do it.
Even if you're a woman and
you wanna have a family
and you're a minority.
- Exactly.
- It's really important.
You know I had this conversation
with a young Vietnamnese DP.
He's still a student at UCI.
I did a lecture at their
university a couple weeks ago
and he followed up with a
coffee meeting and said to me,
"As a Vietnamese son, my
parents did not understand
"why I wanted to become a filmmaker.
"They didn't think I could make money
"or do this for a living.
"But then I saw your story
"and now my parents think
it's possible, thanks to you."
So--
- That must be--
- I'm like tearing up already.
- Wow, that must be like--
- Yeah, that's powerful
and just knowing that I
can affect someone's life
and help their parents see
the world a little different
and to not discriminate
and to give their child
a chance at happiness, to be an artist?
That is everything.
- So much of that that
you said you talk about
with your kids about checking in with them
about whether or not they're happy
and how you and Sam check
in with each other--
- Well I check in with Sam.
I don't know if he checks in with me.
(Brian scoffs)
No, I'm kidding.
- [Brian] You'd think he'll
learn after all these years.
- Well it's interesting.
A lot of the times, he thinks
he knows what's best for me.
He's like, "You should shoot a
feature, go shoot a feature."
I'm like, "Well, I don't
know if that's necessarily
"gonna make me happy
because there's so much
"good stuff in television."
He'll say, "No television."
I'm like, "Can you please
"listen to me for a second?"
- 'Cause the schedule?
Or because your career?
It's like features, 'cause in this town,
there was a long time where
television was the bastard child
and features were you-weren't-serious.
And you weren't serious
unless you were in features.
- Yeah, you weren't
considered a real filmmaker.
- Exactly.
- Yeah.
- And that's changing now,
because the box office is shrinking
and everyone's staying at
home and watching Netflix.
- Huge stars
are doing TV shows.
- Everybody is.
- In my last show, we had Toni Collette,
and Matt Weber, and Kaitlyn Dever.
It like, you know.
- That's unbelievable, right?
- Yeah, yeah.
Lisa Cholodenko.
- Right.
- The feature film director, directed it.
- Let's take it from just the cam,
like just the director of
photography part of it.
Not Quyen and how this
fits into your life.
But what do you like shooting
more, features or TV?
TV you get a longer amount of
time and episodes and coverage
to try and get to that story.
- Develop the whole story?
I do like that.
I think TV has come a long way.
As far as the day-to-day process,
I just love shooting,
but what I've been realizing lately
is that I want to only do projects
that are socially impactful--
- Socially impactful, okay.
- Socially impactful,
or have a really strong point of view,
and has something new to say.
I don't wanna shoot anything
that's kinda just for pure entertainment.
- Where do you think that comes from?
'Cause some people are okay just shooting,
it's like, I'll just, a gig's a gig.
- I don't know, I think it comes back to
the whole theme of being happy.
- Being happy.
- And knowing that I can
effect change somehow.
- And you want stories that are going to,
you wanna be a part of stories
that are gonna become a conversation
versus just a that was great.
- Yeah, that was fun,
haha, next.
- Yeah, and then next one.
- No, I want it to be
a conversation piece.
- So you're not going to do my,
I'm writing a Transformers movie,
you know they're still making those?
You're not gonna do that?
I'm gonna make
a Transformers Nine.
- I'm sure if it
comes from you--
- You won't shoot it.
- I'm sure you'll have some
really interesting twist
that will be...
- One of the transformers--
- Open someone's eyes.
- One of them is a junkie--
- There you go.
- And he skips town and
they have to go to Santa Fe
to get him and it's like he
fell asleep at a bus stop.
Yep, I get it.
- And he meets a beautiful woman
who helps him see life in a new way.
- Yep.
- I think, you know.
- I'm in, let's do it.
- Let's do it.
- Let's do a deal, I'll call your people.
Do you have people?
You have people.
- My people will call your people.
(smooth jazz music)
- You have shot in some dangerous places.
- In South Africa?
Or--
- I think it was a South Africa one.
- Or the other Africa story.
- What happened
in South Africa?
- In South Africa--
- What were you shooting?
- I was still in film school,
so I shooting a thesis film, on film.
- That never happens.
- Yeah.
- On Kodak, I shoot film.
And we were shooting in Johannesburg,
which is really dangerous,
and there's a lot of carjackings there.
And we narrowly escaped
a carjacking attempt.
- Somebody came up and
tried to get you guys--
- Yep, I'm kinda packing heat,
Oh my God, go.
And so that happened once
and then it kind of happened again,
and we'll just would
have to run red lights.
'Cause you see, you feel the threat.
And then there was another
time when Sam came,
after we wrapped the short.
Sam came and we were out clubbing.
I think we were in Cape Town at this point
and we were walking down the street
and these guys started triangulating.
Coming down this alley,
coming down this alley.
And it was really, really scary.
- You could tell they wanted something.
- Oh yeah, and so I grabbed
Sam's arm and I'm like,
"Oh my God, what do we do?"
He goes, "Just walk."
And then one of our
friends, South African,
he was like, "Go that way."
So we ran and he confronted the guys
and then I don't even know what happened,
but we got in the car and we're like,
"Oh my God," like shaking.
We were gonna get mugged or
shot or stabbed or something.
- Yeah yeah, or something.
- You knew
that was gonna happen
and it's just like this horrible feeling.
You know, when you feel that threat.
- Yeah you just know.
- You know.
You know, that instinct takes over.
- And then what happened in Africa?
- There were a couple
other things too, but,
and then on my most recent trip,
I'll tell you one funny, not-funny story.
Wherever I go, I take a picture
or I do a FaceTime video with my kids.
I'm like, "Here's Momma's hotel room."
So I took some pictures
of my room at the compound
and the bathroom door
had a steel door on it.
- Whoa.
- And yeah,
and so in our third or
fourth security briefing,
I forget what it was, they said,
"So this compound has been under attack
"and if it happens again,
"you are instructed to go to the bathroom,
"and close both doors and the steel door.
"And make sure the handle's down
"and make sure that your
steel window is shut.
"And that is the panic room."
So if we're under attack you go into there
and you lock yourself in.
- What did you think when they said that?
- I'm gonna die.
So at night--
- I'm gonna die
in a panic room.
- I'm gonna die
in a panic room.
It's gonna be like Jodie Foster.
So at night I would wedge a chair,
because I'm so smart like CIA.
- Uh-huh, yeah yeah yeah.
- I would put a chair underneath the door
and then I would push
the armoire up against it
so there's no way anyone could get in.
So basically, it would take
at least like three minutes maybe.
I like really wedged it in.
- You would have time
to get to the bathroom
and get to the thing.
- Even like escape
maybe through the windows.
- Mmm-hmm.
- But like, every night, I did that.
- For how long?
- For two weeks.
Yeah, yeah.
So that was a little scary.
- Was it a little thrilling?
- Of course.
- The promise of danger.
- You have to be stupid
to do what I do,
to go to a place that is threatened
by terrorists frequently.
- To make a film.
- To make a film,
for a cause that I really
believe in about girls education
and fighting global
poverty through education,
but not just the education of the girls,
their parents, their dads, their brothers,
their grandparets, to the community.
- Yeah.
- You know, it's important
that we understand that
education can end poverty.
(mellow jazz music)
- Do you wanna direct?
Or do you not have that thing?
'Cause I would think you would
make a fantastic director,
because of how technical you are,
but also you understand actors.
You understand obviously
how to shoot something
and how to get the
story you want visually.
Seems like you would be able
to cover all those bases in your...
- I think what I said earlier
about doing something at 150 percent,
I really want to excel in my craft
before I consider anything
else, otherwise I feel
like I failed.
- Interesting, yeah yeah.
- Or I've given up.
And I have been approached to,
you know maybe consider directing.
I've always told my agent, please,
I wanna focus on cinematography.
I wanna be the best at what I can do.
As a cinematographer, I
feel like I still have
a lot to contribute and a lot to learn.
So I feel like if I stop
doing it and I've given up,
and I'm not a quitter.
- Mmm, no.
- I'm very driven.
I'm very focused.
So I wanna really excel in my craft
before I consider anything else.
- Is there a milestone for
you that's attached to that?
Or is it one of those
things where you'll know.
You'll just know if it's time.
- I need an Emmy.
Just so Sam can shut up
- Shut the fuck up about it.
Yeah I was wondering about
that when it happened.
- Oh my gosh.
- But Women in Media
just honored you with a
award for cinematography
the other day and that's pretty amazing.
- Just contributing to the Film Society.
- Yeah.
- That's nice.
- Do you guys have a shelf,
where you're like, look,
my side of the shelf is
getting pretty heavy.
And his just like that lonely Emmy,
and his a capella work,
or his improv awards.
- Well, I was invited to become
a member of the Academy this year.
- Yes.
- So that's a big deal.
- It's been incredible,
and I really am trying to
be the best member I can be.
I'm on a committee and--
- You're gonna watch every film.
You're not just gonna vote for the ones
that you know people that worked on.
- And that's where Sam
and I are very different.
I'm very, I'm very committed.
110 percent to like fulfilling my role.
I'm not saying that Sam
doesn't do the best he can do.
- I know what you're saying.
- But I really try to do the best I can.
- So you are voting on who
wins the Oscars this year.
You are one of those people that's voting.
- Yeah.
- How's it feel?
Is there some good movies this year?
- Oh, my god there's so
many great films, yeah.
Yeah, a lot of foreign films
I've been watching, so.
- Do you think it's a good
time in film right now,
or do you think it's a dangerous time,
because of everything that's
happening with streaming
and people not going to movie theaters.
- I think it's dangerous.
Yeah, sorry to talk over you.
I think it's a tough time,
a tricky time and I think they,
I think, because of so much
material on television,
it doesn't leave a lot of
room for many features.
It just leaves room for really
small independent features
or really big majors.
So that middle feature
has kind of gone away.
So there's not a lot of $20
to $60 million films anymore.
They're either like 120 or over 100.
- Yeah.
- So it's really hard.
- Yeah.
- To get a lot of films made.
To make a film is really difficult,
because you see people
like Reese Witherspoon
and Nicole Kidman and,
you know De Niro and whoe'er,
like huge actors doing
television, Glenn Close,
like there's so many amazing actor.
Kate Blanchett is about
to do a television show.
- Yeah.
- Jennifer Aniston,
and Steve Carell returning to
television right now, so...
- Yeah.
- Yes, you know?
It's,
no one can really turn their
nose up at television anymore.
You don't hear that stuff
anymore, you don't hear it,
because everybody also knows
that they're one film under
performing away from television.
- Yep.
- And it's best to not
badmouth it anymore.
But also television has
been speaking for itself
in the types of stories
and that's telling.
- And there's more time
to develop character,
and I think it's more
challenging for actors,
'cause they get like
eight to 10 to 20 episodes
to develop this character.
- Yeah.
To know when to hold back,
to know when to let out,
to know when those arcs
are supposed to happen.
- And I think limited series
are just eight hour features.
The one I just shot an
eight-hour limited series,
and I'm really excited
for everyone to see it.
I think it's--
- Yeah.
- It's important material
that's very relevant.
- That's unbelievable it
comes out on Netflix, right?
- Yes.
- You did Camping on HBO,
the first season it was out.
- Yeah.
- How was that?
- It was fun, the cast was incredible.
- See, it's a great cast.
- I love the cast members.
They're so generous and so nice,
and so great to work with,
and it was challenging,
because there's eight
people outside all day long.
So doing the coverage on that and--
- Eight actors, yeah.
- Yeah, in full Sun,
but all the actors were
so lovely and no divas,
just really great people.
(mellow jazz music)
- You, when Sam tells you, we're gonna go,
I'm gonna go play Dungeons and Dragons for
Liam's birthday or whatever it was
that they did the one-off,
and then it became a regular thing.
Did you just think that was poker night?
It was like, okay, he's
just gonna go play.
'Cause he probably
don't know what the hell
Dungeons and Dragons was, right?
- Well, I did know, because I--
- Oh yeah, you got a
big fantasy nerd shed.
But you never played, right?
- No.
- Yeah.
- 'Cause, I don't know.
It just, it,
I don't know if that was ever
a thing in my neighborhood?
- Right, if anybody--
- We played outside
in the woods.
We did--
- You came home smelling
like the earth.
- Yeah, I did, I really
was really, adventurer.
Like I went into the
sewers, I did crazy stuff.
- You're a Ninja Turtle.
- I was, I was, yeah.
- I don't wanna really say,
but I did a lot of, I did a
lot of weird stuff down there.
Yeah, but.
- You did weird stuff in the sewer?
- Well, my parents
didn't know where I was.
I would just like, I
could have gotten hurt.
Like, no one would have found me.
This is before cellphones,
I mean I was an idiot.
- Well, they don't work down there.
- I was just being a kid.
- Yeah, that's true.
- I was an aventure seeker.
- Yeah.
But yeah when he, so when
he started playing D & D,
but what were you like,
it's basically a poker?
Right, it's like.
- Yeah of course.
I didn't, I thought was a one-off.
- Yeah.
- Is that what it's called?
- A one shot or.
- A one shot.
- But yeah that was a one-off,
because you just thought
they were just gonna play
one time and that would be it.
- Yeah, yeah, and then I
think one time we hosted
and I think I made hors d'oeuvres
or something, I don't know.
- Probably.
- I, yeah.
Like what do you guys want?
- Uh- huh.
- So I'm just happy because
Sam has found something that
he's really passionate about
with really good people.
And that's so rare to
have a group of friends
who love doing this,
actually like each other,
and hang out off-camera as well.
That is so rare.
I don't know anyone who has that.
What D & D has is very special.
What Critical Role has is so special.
Even I sometimes am envious about it.
'Cause I'm like, oh, I
don't have a regular thing
I do every Thursday night
and sometimes Friday
and maybe Sunday afternoons,
with a group of, you know, eight friends.
- Yeah.
- Except work on set,
but that's different.
- Yes, it's different.
And, it's a limited engagement.
- It's very limited, yeah.
So I think it's really special,
and I can appreciate that,
and it's something that I think,
it's so genuine too.
- Yeah.
- There's,
you can't fake it.
You can't fake the camaraderie
and the friendships
and the game.
It's just, it's magical.
- That's what's made it
successful in my opinion.
It's not just the story or the game.
It's really that element of it.
You're tuning in to see
the story, to see the game,
to see Matt's brilliant storytelling,
but you're really I think people
tune in for the friendship.
- Totally.
- I think they tune in,
because that connection that everyone has,
it makes the stakes so high.
- Yes, yes.
- If we just came on Thursdays
and played together
and that's the only time
everybody really knew each other,
if somebody's character were going to die,
they'd be like, oh that sucks,
but when you're so close to each other,
it's like oh man, this is
kind of a big deal, right?
- Yes, and I didn't even
watch the first campaign.
But Sam was telling me, he
was recounting the ending.
I don't think I'm giving away anything.
- You're fine.
- But when,
when Liam's character was already deceased
and Sam had the power to bring
him back but he couldn't,
because the greater good,
and he's earned crying,
I think, I don't know.
- Yes, yes, it was.
- Like, Sam the Robot cried?
- Yes.
- Really?
- Yeah.
- I started tearing up.
I was like, that is
the most beautiful gesture
you can offer to a friend.
- It was.
- But, I got it.
I got it because,
you know, I love this kind of world.
even though I read.
I don't perform.
- Right
- I could see where it was headed and
it's just really, really beautiful.
- Do you ever get jealous of Liam?
Are you ever like, man.
Or do you know that, you know he,
he maybe reaches parts of
Sam that you don't the words?
- No no no, no there's
no jealousy, not at all.
- Isn't it amazing though?
What I told both of them
when they were here,
we obviously make, we have so much fun
with that relationship and whatever else,
but that's rare.
But that thing that they actually have,
not just the jokes they
make about the bromance,
but that friendship that they
actually have is so rare,
and like especially in this town.
- Oh yeah.
- And for it to last as long
as it's had, and like that's.
- Yeah, well we knew them in New York,
before we moved here and
it's lasted all these years.
- Yeah.
- Ups and downs,
and then trials and tribulations.
And so, they've been there for each other.
- It's funny, I often wonder
if you're sitting in bed and
you've got all your scripts
and you're just like hard at work,
and your laptop and
you've got all the shit,
you know the super early day tomorrow,
and then Sam walks out of the bathroom
or the closet or ever,
in a hot pink outfit with
like does he show you
the ridiculous outfits
before we go to the live
shows or doing that stuff?
- I open them up, I usually--
- You open the mail and see?
- Well, if I'm home first or
whatever I'll open the packages
'cause I take care of,
it's very traditional.
I cook, I clean.
Sam takes care of the finances.
- He takes care of like
managing the finances.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Right right right.
So it's very traditional in that respect.
- Yeah.
- I don't, I mean.
- However you guys figure it out.
- Whatever, yeah so,
so I'll open the boxes and then,
literally like my daughter will be like,
ooh, is that for me?
And, it's like pink dragon outfit or like,
like sparkly red leg warmers.
- Uh-huh.
- Or.
- Of that one-piece screen.
You saw the cube thing right?
- I did.
- Yeah.
- What did you think?
- And I was like, ooh,
is that battery operated?
- And he was on stage in
front of all those people.
- I don't, I haven't seen it.
- But you had to have seen him
in some pretty ridiculous
outfits back in the day though.
- Yeah, oh he's been doing it for years.
Yeah, so I'm used to it.
- So when it shows up, you're like,
ah it's another dumb thing for whatever.
- You know what?
I don't fall prey to that.
- You're okay being the sophisticated one.
- [Quyen] I am.
- You're like, keep wearing that stuff,
because it makes me look even classier.
- I don't care about that,
it's not even about that.
I'm like Sam is his own thing.
- Yeah.
- He's his own species.
- It's true.
- Like it's amazing to
me, but it keeps it fresh.
- There's no one else
that you could go like,
oh yeah that person's exactly like Sam.
- No.
- Outside of maybe,
you know, everybody compares him to,
they say he looks like a young Tim Curry.
Do you think he looks
like a young Tim Curry?
I can see part of it.
- Dressed up as It?
- Yes!
(both laughing)
- Yeah maybe a little bit.
- Yeah.
- You know, it's such a character,
but Sam has always been a
performer his whole life,
and I think that's why I love him so much.
He's unique and he works hard
and he's very passionate about performing,
and I think that's why we get along.
We both have very strong
personalities, very different.
- Mmm-hmm.
- But we're very driven.
- Yeah.
- In our own careers,
and I think that's how
we remain successful,
is I don't really pay
attention to what he does,
and he just thinks about himself.
That is the formula to a happy marriage.
- Good to know, good to know.
- Yeah, yeah.
(mellow jazz music)
You guys have two beautiful children,
Keanu and I can't remember
the other codename.
- The Terminator.
- The Terminator.
Yeah, that's right.
- Yeah.
- Have they started to show interest
in anything that you
think is going to stick?
Or are they still in the
phase where they're trying.
You're seeing them experiment
with a lot of different stuff.
Are they starting to, you know,
'cause both of you are so
artistic and so intelligent,
and I feel like those kids
are gonna be able to
pick whatever they want.
- Oh, I knew from day one
that my daughter was gonna be an artist.
She, the way she thinks
is so outside the box.
- What do you mean?
- What does that smell like?
Um, I think it smells like
unicorns and a little bit of apple pie,
but maybe some red in there.
Like what?
- Oh yeah.
- The way she thinks is so incredible.
I learn something from her every day.
So that's what I mean when
she thinks outside the box.
She, her answers are so poetic.
You know, you're a poet.
- Yeah.
- And just so abstract.
Sometimes I think,
does she have like
synesthesia or something?
Like, w-what?
It's amazing, but I
really wanna foster that.
And I'm not afraid to
let her make mistakes.
I want her to try different things.
I'm never gonna force her into anything,
but I will help her
with her art.
- Right.
- And so like I, if you when
you see her house again,
whew, I had this huge art station,
and I have it stocked with
everything you can imagine,
glitter, pipe cleaner,
construction paper, scissors.
I'm like my daughter's been
cutting since she was two.
- Yeah, she's fine.
- I don't care.
- Yeah yeah yeah.
- She's like so dextrous.
I'm like, how did, what?
Like, she crawled when she was like,
I don't know, six months?
Like insanely like gifted.
- Right.
- So she, yeah she can
hold a pencil really well,
like beyond what most
four year olds can do,
and I just wanna really foster that gift
and nurture her craft,
you know the way she thinks
and the way she draws.
And it's incredible.
I learn something new every day.
My other child, Keanu.
- Keanu, yeah.
- Besides being blessed
with the most incredible head of hair,
he is very physically gifted.
- And skateboards.
- He's a skateboarder, a tennis player.
He's incredible at martial arts.
- Takes after his mom.
- Yes,
and he also is on the gymnastics team.
- It's crazy.
- So yeah.
- He's as physical as you could be.
- And he's a crazy climber.
He can scale anything.
- Yeah.
- And so when we have playdates,
and we have this beautiful
avocado tree in the backyard,
he'll climb to the top
and parents are like.
(gasping)
- Really?
- Yeah I'm like, oh yeah he's fine.
- He's fine yeah.
- I have so much
confidence in his climbing.
I've really don't want
him to see Free Solo,
you know that documentary?
- About the parkour people?
- No, that's the free climber.
- Oh yeah yeah yeah,
I know which film again.
- I will never let him watch that.
- 'Cause he'll just go do it.
- I wanna do that.
Well, the other day for
us asking him you know,
for your next birthday
you're gonna be seven,
and that free running gym
is open to seven year olds.
Do you wanna have your
birthday party there?
'Cause there's like a
parkour freerunning gym.
- Yeah.
- And I really wanna encourage it,
because that's what he likes.
- Yeah.
- And I think, you know
maybe parents might be like,
whoa, that's crazy to encourage that.
But I think if he has a
talent, I wanna nurture it.
So I think I'm really lucky
in that Sam and I agree on
that parenting philosophy.
That we want to let our kids
kind of decide for themselves.
We will expose them to
many different things,
but we recognize the gifts
and talents that they have
and we wanna nurture it.
- And that goes back
to how you feel about
younger filmmakers too,
and just sort of, yeah it
seems to be a thread there.
- I'm always a mama, mama bear,
even before I had kids.
- Because you're so good.
- On set, I like to take care of people.
(mellow jazz music)
Thank you so much for joining me.
- Thank you for having me.
- This was awesome!
- Yeah.
- Are you happy you did it?
Are you still feeling
like, this was a mistake.
- So you're asking me if I'm happy?
- I'm checking in with you to make,
- I'm checking in with you to make,
I'm checking in on your
level of happiness.
- I'm very happy.
- Good.
- Thank you for having
me, it's been an honor.
Thank you.
- Thank you, these are pretty good, man.
- Good.
- I might actually.
- If I didn't have to drive home,
I would finish this right now.
- You don't have to drive
home, you can just stay here.
Do you wanna watch a Critical
Role later from the--
- God no.
- You would have no idea.
Did you think though when
the second campaign started,
were you like okay,
I don't have to catch
up on this whole thing,
but it's also too you can't,
you can't watch four hours a week.
You have no time.
- No time.
- But then if they get stacked up
then it just becomes impossible,
so I guess I answered my own question.
- Yeah I mean I haven't
seen a single episode yet.
- You, but you know
like, you've seen parts.
- I know the jist of it.
- The jist of it.
- Yeah, I haven't seen anything.
- Did he come home the night that Molly,
that Tallison's previous
character passed, that he died.
Did he come home and like
tell you what happened,
or was it--
- You mean at like 1:00 in the morning?
- Yeah, 'cause that was a late one.
This last one--
- When I was asleep?
When I wake up
at five o'clock?
- Yeah.
- No, I'm usually asleep
by the time he gets home.
And then if I have an early
call time, I'm up at like 5:30.
So you know, two ships
passing in the night.
- Does he tell you about what happened?
- No.
- Or does he know like.
- We don't talk about it.
- You don't talk about it?
- Uhn-uh, and I think, like I said,
I think that's the success.
- It is.
- To our marriage.
- It is.
What are you gonna tell him about this?
You should, when he's
like, how'd it go today?
You know what did you say?
You should just be like, it was great.
- Big period.
- Big period, yes.
- Cheers.
- Quyen's episode, big period.
- Big period.
- It's a big period piece.
- Big period piece.
I would love to shoot a
period piece by the way.
- Let's make a Western.
- Yeah.
- Or like what period would you shoot
if you could shoot a period piece?
I immediately go to
Western, but what would you?
- The Renaissance.
- Ooh.
You go to the Ren Faire!
- Hmm.
- Or you went, I saw you
at Ren Faire with the kids.
- Yeah.
- He takes the kids.
- Yeah but it's, it was never my thing.
I was very like, oh my god.
What, Ren Faire?
Eww.
Even though I'm in that world.
- Yeah, fantasy novels.
- This is very different.
Reading a book is very
different from acting,
and I'm not a performer.
- Yeah.
- Anymore.
- People really get into it there.
- So yeah, so I was really like hesitant,
but we brought the kids,
we didn't dress up and--
- Was it fun?
- I had the best time.
- It was fun, right?
- The best time.
- Did you drink the oubliette?
- No I don't think I drank
anything, 'cause we had the kids.
- Oh yeah.
- And I was driving.
But like.
- I always forget about that.
- I used to do archery when I was younger
and so I did that and
I did a knife-throwing.
I was like yeah, this is
like totally up my alley.
- Did you hit the thing?
- I don't.
- I hit the thing.
- No, I let my son do that.
- I bet it was like, when I hit it--
- He's really strong.
- The hammer just flies backwards.
Travis did it
and then it like--
- He breaks the hammer.
- Yeah, backed up, Travis goes,
I'm gonna do it and than you do it.
I go no no I'll go first, and
then they'll be like ha ha!
And then you do it and like yay!
We can end on a celebration.
If you go first and then
I go, we end on sadness.
And he's like no it's gonna be funnier.
- Travis did it
and then it like--
- He breaks the hammer.
It just like
destroys the yeah.
- Boom!
Yeah, Ren Faire, so fun.
- So fun.
- Alright, that's it.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
(mellow jazz)
- Today we'll be making a sherry cobbler.
If that name sounds familiar,
you're probably well read.
Dickens fed these to his characters.
With flavors of citrus and spice,
this drink is bright and refreshing.
And, with no at proof liquor,
so don't be surprised
if you find yourself putting down a few.
Sherry for those unfamiliar
is a fortified wine made in Spain,
and no it's not just
for grandma's anymore.
For this drink you'll want to
mix it in metal shaking tins
using a shaking method
called whip shaking,
which I'll go over in a minute.
The ingredients for the sherry
cobbler are quite simple,
the process a bit refined.
You'll need three ounces
of Amontillado sherry,
an orange, and some cinnamon syrup.
What is cinnamon syrup you ask?
It's basically cinnamon simple syrup,
which you can buy or make
it home pretty easily.
You can find instructions online.
First, add around half an
ounce of cinnamon syrup
to your tin,
along with three ounces
of the Amontillado sherry.
Then you're gonna add one
orange slice to the shaker.
Up next you're gonna whip shake
the ingredients in your tin.
Now the whip shake is a technique
used to aerate and agitate
the ingredients in the tin
before pouring over
crushed or cracked ice.
Today we're gonna use crushed ice.
With all the ingredients in the tins,
rather than filling them
to the brim with ice,
instead use three or four small cubes.
Then we're gonna seal and shake
five to seven times aggressively.
Then we're gonna strain
over our crushed ice
into our Collins glass.
The advantage the whip
shake has over swizzling,
it's not just faster,
but you can throw in solid ingredients
like a citrus peel or mint for example
and get the benefit of gentle muddling
without the extra step.
Then you're gonna garnish
with a half orange slice and some mint.
I like to make
a little bouquet of mint.
(upbeat music)
And there you have it,
nutty and refreshing
with citrus, baking spice, and raisin.
It's kind of like a sherry cobbler.
Mmm.
My grandmother would love that
if we were still speaking.
Thank you so much for
watching Between The Sheets.
New episodes are uploaded
to YouTube on Wednesdays.
And if you want to watch the show live,
it airs at 7:00 p.m. Pacific
at twitch.tv/criticalrole.
Thanks for joining us.
