Rose Byrne

Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome to our channel. I'm Dan Shepherd and I'm joined by Lily Padman. Hi. Today we have one of my all-time favorite actors.

I've been singing her praises for a long time now. She's so good. Because she does this thing that very few people can do, which is perfect comedian, perfect dramatic actor. Yes.

Rose Byrne, she's a powerhouse. She is an Emmy nominated actor and producer, platonic, currently on Apple Plus, neighbors, insidious, bridesmaids. She has a new movie in theaters now called If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You. It's a great title.

And of course she's from Australia, which is just endlessly charming. I find that as charming. I know. As you'll hear, she is reluctant to tall poppy, but we try to get her there.

We tried. I think we made a little progress by the end. I think we maybe. And she was not reminiscent at all of that AI that would not come to a million.

No, she was nothing like her. Nothing like her, that Australian woman. Also, we have arm-chair anonymous prompts. Oh, yes.

So make sure people are sometimes confused. How do I get an arm-chair anonymous? Which is on Fridays, which is many people's favorite show. Check it out if you know what it's doing.

Really, people love it. Here's what you do. You go to our website and you submit your story based on. I'm chairexpertpod.com.

So here are the prompts. Tell us about an unexpected orgasm. This is a repeat. We had a lot of luck with the first.

We did. Let's hope. But guys, don't lie. Don't lie.

That goes for all of these problems. Don't lie. But mainly that one. Tell us about a dental disaster.

Ooh, get ready for pain. Aaron, you're calling on. He's dealing with some right now. Tell us about a Thanksgiving disaster.

We're in the morning. I'm caught on fire. Yeah. I'm not even Christmas, but it was still good.

I think I was Thanksgiving. Tell us about a nightmare holiday experience. Oh, yay. Excuse me.

Unexpected orgasm, dental disaster, Thanksgiving disaster, and a nightmare holiday experience. Please enjoy Roseburn. This episode of Armchair Expert is presented by Apple Pay. You know, holiday shopping can be a hassle, but Apple Pay makes it so much easier.

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Pay the app away. Terms apply. He's in our chair. Oh, I know you're good to see you.

I don't think that I've seen you since we did the movie. Going down memory lane. And I was like, I feel like that was probably. And how good is your memory of that?

That would have been Toronto, right? Yeah. And then I remember running into you at Jen Carpenter's wedding. Oh, wow.

Oh my god. It was like about nine years ago, because I go by the kids like hell. Oh, yes. So that was about nine years ago.

And you had one of your little daughters. A little girl who ever refused to put a dress on. So we showed up as it was ending. Oh, that was the Asheville wedding then.

Yes. And they came down the aisle way. And secondly, fuck me. Well, fuck me.

No, the wedding was like a laid-back vibe. Yeah, they're really lovely. It was really lovely. And you just did Charlie Shain.

We did. It's going to be very dull. Very, very dull. Just lower the expectations.

Sometimes we do have two people in a day. Tell them the most extreme one. Yeah, we had a sex expert on. She was incredible.

Yes. And she taught us. And it was wrong. She was wrong.

She taught us how to squirt. Oh, what? Yes, it was full on. Then she leaves.

And then an hour later, we have a guy who is imprisoned in Russia. For four years. Jokers. I'm front up charges.

I was like, wow, this is a big ship. Oh my god. Sometimes we get crazy days like that. Do you ever join Bobby on things where you're just hanging while he has to do all the bullshit?

No. Oh. Oh. I think about it.

Two actors. It's just a juggling act of children. You know what I mean? You're 79.

You're 79. How old are your girls now? 10 and 12. Wow.

Are you in tween? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

My nine is getting a little. Some testosterone is arriving. Yeah. It's just the social conditioning ride of the peers and the friends and all this.

But it was like, gosh, he's still so little. Yeah. Over and now. But your partner is kind of a ball now.

I don't remember. But he seems like a bit of a ball. You've never met him now. So you might get some ball energy.

And these names are very bold like names. Rocko. Oh, I love that. Bobby's is the big love.

Oh, yeah. It's Cuban. It's the masculinity, but very big art. Yeah.

I love how you say alpha. Alpha. Alpha. What's her name in Wicked?

Alpha. When is the sequel, guys? What's it coming? I think I'm going to be pumped.

My family went so off the deep end. We had Wicked Christmas. Did you? We did do that.

We did not do Wicked Christmas. It was the entire house was green. It was a Wicked Christmas. Wow.

That's Kristin. The kids love it. But Kristin really. She went to six or seven screens.

She went to the sing alongs. That's her thing. Well, she's a musical. She's a musical.

She's a musical. She's a musical. She's a musical. She's a musical.

She's a musical. She's a musical actress. That she is. So this is her.

She coveted that role when she was younger. That's a different world. Can you sing? No.

No. Are you mean? Manus. I'm not.

I think it's such a gift. If someone can speak several languages, they can sing opera. I think it's like they're a secret agent. You can also do that.

It's such a skill. When people say, would you want to fly? Would you want to be invisible? I say really high on the list.

Probably just below flying. If I could open my throat, a Dell came out. I have to imagine that feels so cool. I know.

we get from here and yeah I think really just because it's a jump off the deep end commitment it's I'm gonna go Full throttle. I'm gonna let it fucking rip into you here. Oh my god. I'm right on pitch and Tony and I nailed it Yes, it has to feel like the perfect golf swing it feels good.

She can't hear it the way we hear it I don't think she listens to it and it feels as good as it feels to us. I love her. They're just like we know how she feels about anything. I don't know if actually she's been here.

I don't know not yet. I remember when she had this surgery on her. Oh my god. Great point.

We don't have a no compassion for that. I'm just gonna suckle back to that right. She was really shitty. What's that?

Like literally good job with that. She I'm not gonna lie to you. I thought he and I said no I'm gonna say she I had to think about it. Sometimes we have to think.

We got to step over bad. You guys know what's your story? No, you can go ahead. No, I tell it all the time.

I started out as a babysitter for Kristin and Dax. She was in our adjacent. I was in an adjacent friend. I met them at random parties and so very very superficially and I was acting.

I was trying to act and I did an episode of Kristin's show House of Lies where I played her assistant and she was like, Oh, I know you. I recognize you. Yeah, I was like, yeah, and also I make money by babysitting. So they just had their first kid and I was like, you ever need babysitter?

So then after that she called me. So I started date night babysitting then they brought me on full time babysitting with it exactly the other second my soul mate. Here's where I'd be at Bragg for you. So I'll take over.

So now we started noticing like, Oh, you see me. Oh, really funny. Great texture. Really good writer.

And then she started working with that's a good clue. It is. I love it. It's true.

Yeah, this is what I do wish I was younger and dating because I could do this. Yeah. Were you single at any point during texting? You've been together 13 years.

So yeah, I remember Blackberry days. Person I run the team over sidekick. Oh, I got full fucking typewriter. Oh, you guys went together.

Over 18. Really? But I did. Where were the texts actually?

If you hear her tell the story, she'll say, I'm sorry somewhere. I'm sorry somewhere. We had a mutual friend. I got her number.

And my first textor was, Hey, it's next. We met at China's party. I violated your privacy. That's right.

Yeah. Yeah. I said I violated your privacy and got your number. How do you feel about that?

And then she was like, Oh, that's a good start. Cute. So you saw her talent and then. So I worked with Kristen kind of full time.

I went to Delta went to preschool and they're like, Oh, what do we do with her now? We like her. But what do we do? I sit here and watch TV.

Yeah. Because I mean, you could have that with nice. But you didn't. So then I became Chris and assistant then.

And that's when I started writing a bunch of stuff for her. And she was like, Oh, and then I started writing all her commercials and became creative partners. And then I left her because we decided to do this. How did this idea?

You wanted to do a podcast because he loved doing podcast as he said. Yeah. Also, we were both listening to cereal and we had different takeaways from it. And we would often debate in the kitchen about.

Okay. Okay. Okay. And we just debated on stuff.

I was like, Yeah, this is a great. Dynamic. Yeah, you had a good chemistry. So then this started and it took off in this very unexpected way.

And one, but she had to go like, we got to do this thing. And this job became bigger and bigger and bigger. And you're Chris, are you on speaking terms or no? We just got back together.

Thank God. She's a person on Earth. She also wants the best for everyone. So she, you know, she's like a nice lady.

Yeah, she's a little bit. She's quite graceful. I can't put you on a point on that because they were so intertwined at that point. Very very.

She was an award to a monologue. I mean, she really relied on her. I still show up. Does she have a new you?

She does have a beautiful new me. And then Monica again, you love this. The longer we can. No, we know.

Yeah, very Timothy. Again, this is where we do you. We had a lot of you. But he also kept asking me about cheerleading.

Yeah, yeah. And eventually I got to put a flag on this. I don't like you. And then we are going to talk about you.

Well, thank you for the back story. I was genuinely grounded. I was relieved to see that I did see this percolate up in a lot of different interviews that you've done where you kind of are pretty honest about the fear level. Regardless of the amount of success on paper, how can you not have that?

But it's really reassuring because minimally put your fear over here for one second. You'd have to acknowledge this on paper. You've had a fucking gangbuster career. Oh, yeah.

I am so grateful. I've had such a good luck. This is a hard business. This is one of the more successful careers you could ever have in the notion that you're still fearful is very comforting.

This business is littered with extraordinary talented people who have not had luck or had timing. I cannot take anything for granted. Melissa McCarthy had worked for a decade. You knew from Brownlee.

Yeah. And she was working. It's not like a bad career. She was hiding in plain sight and such a good actress.

Obviously, this comedic fucking bullet. So that kind of stuff's happening all the time. There's people like Melissa McCarthy who, if not for Bridesmaids. Not for Paul Feig and Kristen.

It's interesting. The artist like Mike White. Jennifer Coolidge. Yes.

Like a incredible career. Obviously, so revealed such an uncontainable presence. But he was like, I want to write for you and I can't be in for her according to what I've read. But to your point, it's like, takes these minds like a Mike White or a Paul Feig or someone who can harness that and gives that person a shot.

And that's out of our hands. They're so little agency in our careers. No, I have so many friends who graduated from drama school who are raising. Who you know I was rejected from every drama school.

Wow, really? Yeah. It's so random. Can I ask that?

So I learned that and I thought that was really strange. You started acting at eight and you're in a suburb of Sydney. How far out? 20 minutes from the city.

You're the youngest of four. Two older sisters, one older brother. You're a ham in the family or? Yeah, the youngest.

You get away with murder. Well, like your parents are tired. By the time it's number four. Like what are you doing?

Yeah. But yeah, you start acting at eight and then you're in your first movie of 15, right? 12 actually. That was the casting agent that was looking at kids in my little class and yeah, I put this part.

And then two series. I did a soap opera in Australia when I was 15. And that was great training actually. I don't know if you ever did a soap, but it's technically amazing.

The training. Because you do 100 pages a day, right? That's so much stuff. And so it's in Australia.

Different from American, they're half an hour and they're hugely popular in the UK. Carly Manogue was on a soap opera. And when it was huge in Australia, Marga Robbie was on a soap opera. It was really popular in Australia.

Heath was on a what? You worked with him on one. I went with him on film, but it's a great training ground. I have great friends who weren't shows back.

So I did one that was very shortly. But technically it's incredible because you work so hard. You move so fast, thrown into press, thrown into all that nonsense too, which at a young age can be, I mean, you see, it's littered with kids who don't make it. This was in Australia.

So it's much more of a bubble. And it's a smaller pond where here it's obviously way more exposure and all the eyes are on your content leader of the world. Better that you say that. I'm glad it was said.

I just made that statement. But it's true. It's way more exposure if you're doing that here. In a way, Australia is much more sheltered and protected.

But what confuses me is at the point you start auditioning for these kind of procedures acting schools. This is now post high school. Yeah, finished high school, started at uni and then started audition for all the acting schools. So how on earth was it not relevant that you're already like a very working actor with momentum?

It's two very separate camps acting schools in Australia, way more interested in theatre and your skill around that. Like Shakespeare-y kind of? Yeah, it felt way more unattainable. Acting schools felt out of my league.

But do you think they were punishing you for having success? I think they were jealous. That happens sometimes with theaters and theaters as well as they really don't like on screen performers. Look, I would wonder now because the majority of work for an actor to make a living is unfortunately not in the theatre.

Yeah, it's not. It's just not if you're going to live in New York or like you can't financially survive. Especially if you have a family. So I wonder now, obviously I'm so old now, but no idea.

But if they take that into consideration at these schools, the back then it was way more snobby. So my other thing that makes no sense is why did you even go to uni? My parents, they were like, got to go to uni, got to keep your brain working. And I studied English literature and gender studies.

I didn't finish my degree, but I went to Sydney uni, which is a gorgeous campus. It's a bit like Hogwarts, beautiful old sandstone buildings. I did half my degree and then I started getting more jobs and I ended up like, I'll finish it online. I never did and I wish I had.

Do you know, though? I don't get this. I do. You don't believe it?

I don't buy it. It's hard. It's hard to have something half done. That's like, it's always going to be sort of hanging just that sense of accomplishment that I finished it.

That's fine. But it's like, you were blessed, which almost none of us are. You were blessed with actually knowing what you wanted to do from a young age. And so anything other than that thing doesn't make any sense to me.

And whether there would be any guilt or shame or I'm like, oh, I didn't go get a degree. It's like, yeah, you weren't trying to become a professor. I think that because I started so young, there was a part of me was like, do I just like this? Because I like that when I was little or do I still like this opportunity to study and what a privilege to be able to do that.

I really liked university. I love the independence of it. It's very fun. It's so fun.

It's a different culture here because in Australia, you don't go away, at least at home. Most people don't travel to go to college. But we do another thing where we go overseas for six months after you finish school, you'll work and save money, which is a bit of an Australian tradition. And then you go and travel for six months and you're like, living London and you work in a pub and then you travel around Europe and you go backpacking.

But I think we're so far away in Australia. So you've passed the travel. So where did you go? I went to Italy.

And then we went to London. Did you have an Italian lover? I wish. I wish.

Okay, you're working a bunch in Australia. It's going very well. Well enough to drop out of uni. I know there are a couple of American mothers, Ghost with Matt Dillon.

Oh my god, that's such a deep cut. Well, it had a few different titles. But one point was called Beneath the Banyan Trees, but I think the name changed. City of Ghosts.

Thank you. Oh, so that's 2002. So you would have been 23. And so that's an American movie.

How did you get that movie? He was auditioning Australian backpacker. So he was looking at Aussies, honestly, it was a very international class. She was in Robert Duvall.

Was studying Cambodia, which he has a relationship with Matt Dillon did at the time. I was shot in Japan. It was incredible. I was in Japan for like six weeks.

Wow, I can see the poster now. It didn't connect at all. But he's like in Angor Water. He's one of the monuments.

Yeah, I went to Angor Water. Oh, is this spectacular? Incredible. It's like when I went to Uluru, which is a sacred site in Australia in the Northern Territory.

Feeling of spiritual awakening. I'd love to have a spiritual practice. I think it's so wonderful. But it's one of those places where you are taken over.

I mean, this was many, many years ago. I went, but it's beautiful. We had that in Sedona where we had to concede. Okay.

Yeah. I think there's something like this. You know, there's also down here is supposed to be a vortex. I didn't know that.

Vortex is so beautiful. But we were there. I mean, something is happening here. That is like ankle work.

Because mom was an atheist with dad and you are agnostic. Yeah, Australia. It's definitely not the same relationship with religion as is here. Yeah.

It's very, very different when something I'm still understanding. It's wild that the people have met over the years and their relationship with their practices or religion. A lot of people in recovery from a religious practice or a very extreme religious family. Oh, there's a bazillion culty type religions here.

There's just less of a thing in general. It is obviously, it's less fundamental than it is for sure. But growing up, my parents didn't practice any religion, but they sent me to scripture, which is like a Sunday school at my school, but it wasn't on a Sunday. It was on a Friday.

That's such a boring story. In any case, but they said to me, it'll be educational and you can decide. And you were like, Oh, where are the women in the story? Oh, there's none.

Okay. I think I'm going to run. I just remember harassing the poor man going like, but if there's a God, why do people kill each other? Why do people?

What's God's mind? What's going on? Fair. Yeah.

I know. Like what's the deal? And the poor priest or whoever he was trying to talk to this 10 year old girl. Were you guys brought up anything?

Can I ask quickly? Of course. Technically, my parents are Hindu, but they're not practicing. Actually, the older my parents are like, my dad now will go to the temple every month, but it wasn't a thing we did really when I was young.

So I didn't know much about it. One of my grandparents, I was visiting them on the weekend baptized me Southern Baptist and then the other set of grandparents baptized me in a Catholic church independently without any permission from either parent and neither stuck. Although I did prefer the Southern Baptist vibe because there was a picnic after every Sunday. Great food.

There's all these pockets within Baptist. There's Southern Baptist. There's Pentecostal. Methodist church.

I'm from Georgia. And so there's just certain streets where all churches, it's all different kinds of Presbyterian methods. Catholic, there's so many. Our friend Hannah moved to Nashville and her parents were going to visit and they're very religious.

And I said, you know, you guys should do a church crawl. Because there's so many. You could really do a church. It is wild shooting in Atlanta and outside of Georgia, based camp.

You're you're eating in a church. But growing up in Australia, no, it wasn't part of my childhood. And I started acting so early. I didn't really do school.

That was my thing. So does that movie though, City of Ghost, had you a always been like, well, we got to get there ultimately or the opportunity presented itself and then you followed it? It was the content capital. As I said, Bollywood.

Oh, that's a concept. I traveled to India and I went to a Bollywood film and it was incredible. It was one line for men, to see the movie, one line for women lining up and then one line for tourists. Wow.

And it was packed. I think we were in Jaipur. I will never forget it. I was like, if this many people could see an Australian film, we would have the richest, there's a great history of rich in Australia, but this was unbelievable.

It was three hours long. There was a half an hour break in the middle. Everybody's talking the whole time. Oh, the whole time.

It's all in Hindi. I don't know. People next to me are explaining it to me. It was the most joyous communal.

I'll never forget it. Anyway, we should acknowledge the content. Yeah. I did my hat to them.

Did you travel here over as a kid? I'd been to New York at 18 with my family. We took a trip. I had never been to LA and then I did a film with Heath Ledger when we were 18.

We were just kids. Did you just fall in love with him? He was such a charmer. Did you ever spend time with him?

He was a generous guy and such a talent and could have gone so many ways. We were close to more 1819. We did film together and it went to Sundance. He was such a great example of an artist that he was always getting off of these TV shows when we were starting out and he was really like, I don't want to do that.

I don't want to just be a hothrop. Biggie to him on a silver platter after that night movie. You want to be sexy and make 10 million a movie? I had age.

I had that confidence to be like, okay, I'll just not do it. I do have 20, but I really wanted to work internationally and wanted to have those ambitions. But by no means knew how. Really through Heath, I came up here and stayed with him a bunch of times and he was so sweet to get me into audition for his things.

I got an agent that was exciting and I started auditioning and spending time in LA and then I went back to Australia and worked more there and then I never heard from the agent again. Oh, really? But I still see her around. Oh, that's so weird.

I was tiptoeing around this the other day in a fact check. We went to the night before party, which we haven't been to in, I don't know, 15 years. Yeah, before the party. I think they do the Oscars.

Yes. In the second we walked in, I'm like, oh, I remember this. You bump into endless representatives that you no longer work with that is very, very awkward and this is the party. So fun.

What fun party. I think you see a lot of people with a friend but you see people that you can't talk to each other because too many people are right and you're like, yeah, this is a disaster. That was definitely part of my journey. And then I worked more back at home.

And then I got a partner movie called Wicapoc and that was this film with Diane Krueger and Josh Hotnet and Matthew Lillard. Did you love Lillard? Such a sweetheart. You have a tiny baby then who's probably now at a 27 year old young woman.

I'm sure other than the film with Matt, that was my first American job. I said it guys. I got it right. And you instructed New York.

No, then after that, I lived in London. I didn't want to live in LA. I liked London better. My sister was living there.

We bought a house and lived in London. So I was there for two years. I love that. I don't know if you spent time there.

Yeah, we love it. I love it. And then I booked the damages. And that's when I moved to New York.

We were enormous. Were you really enormous? I didn't know the degree to which we were fans of. Please share with me.

Are you going to say the thing? Because it's still a thing. Yeah. I'm going to say it.

So Kristen does a movie with Ted Danzen. Neither of us know him yet. It's up in Alaska. So we go up to Alaska, a lot of dinners together and we're sitting on one set at dinner.

We say we are bonkers for damages. And he's like, really? And I said, oh my god, do you know what we are at this hotel as? Which we have been for a couple years at that point.

We check in everywhere is Holly and Arthur Fobisher. Wow, that's fair. We made that our identity. Oh my god.

That was your student name? Yes. I'm so flattered. We loved it.

We came out the same year as Madman. It was that chapter of prestige. I mean, this is promise. It's at the bar.

Yeah. But at the time we thought only HBO could do that. You and Madman were the two were like, oh shit, cable's going to do this. And then it's breaking bad.

We're soon after that. And then now we're obviously it's all way up years later. It's like that's where you see drama. It's really on TV.

Let's be honest. It's gotten way better than movies. It's hard not to do that. Three good movies here.

And I can name like 600 episodes of TV that were brilliant. That's a good way to put it. Were you hesitant to sign up for a TV show? Because you had your foot so firmly in the door in the future world.

The material was so good working with Glenn was like a mask class. But signing that contract. Seven years. That was a conversation I had with myself.

But it's funny when you look back, right? And I was just like, wow, look how far it's been since that show. And I feel very proud of the show. I'm so glad you show it.

I'm so glad you show it. And you used it. We had the most incredible support. Ted is so brilliant.

He's so against type. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. This sleazy maniacal hire. And like so funny. Anyway, they were brilliant with that casting.

We had William Hurt, Marshige Hardin. He had some incredible people. Yeah. Are you a people pleaser?

I feel like you are a people pleaser. Of course I am. I'm Australian. Yeah.

Are you Australian? Oh, you're a tall poppy situation. Don't brag. Keep your boots on.

You're allowed to be a top poppy. Unfortunately, you're a top poppy. You have to take that back immediately. Immediately.

We canceled. Please. Please take that back. I'm going to come out with it right now.

I was going to wait. But Oh, my gosh. Yeah. This is it.

It's making me so good Lord. We are tall poppies. It's too exhausting to knobby. I love it.

You keep too much to yourself. It's exhausting. Yeah, that's true. I'm tired.

It's hard guys. I'm out of podcasts. I'm very tired. In Rose, for who's saying it's a macellia level.

You're at least cultural. I'm leaning on that. But no, I interrupted you. What were you going to say?

What I was going to say, this will be hard for you to hear. But I have said it on here. Many times I really would put you in Walton Goggins in the exact same category, which is I don't think I've seen two people that can be that good at drama and that good at comedy at the level you both are. It's astounding.

I already love you from damages. But then when I saw it had to be probably neighbors. No, I saw him. I mean, she was great.

Melissa had the stuff. I'm very much a student person. Neighbors. Neighbors.

You had a loose rhythm and confidence that I just hadn't seen yet. And I was like, it's a fuck out. She can do comedy like this. And then I thought that doesn't more time sense that it's so impressive.

Thank you. I hope you and my wife, my wife can do it. Well, I was going to say I would put your wife in that category. I would too.

And she's also incredibly disarming. I've only met her once, but she's so funny and immediately put me in a way that we're really not doing. She was so, so funny. Yes, she is.

Yes, she's incredibly funny. Funny people aren't necessarily funny actors. Funny actors aren't necessarily funny people. And usually comedians actually be serious, which I've learned over the years.

Yeah, that's my point. That's such a sweet thing to say. I'm very flat out. Everyone we've had on who's worked with you, which is a lot of people at this point, you always come up and it's always an absolute love fest about you.

Everyone loves working with you. Can we jump to neighbors? Because a I'll wear of it are you, you have to be and then be how do you explain it and see how quickly did you notice it? You and Seth have this crazy symbiotic rhythm.

It's so fun. How quickly and then like meeting him and starting to work with him. Did you go? There's a magic floating around.

Chemistry. So weird. How do you know? How do you describe it?

Obviously we're so different. But we sort of work the same way that we've really into the work kind of private people. He's an open book in many ways. Isn't he?

Isn't he? Is it a little bit of a trick? Yeah, I told them. I'm like, you're someone who I think I could get close to, but I know I can't get close to you and I don't know what to do with that because I'm the opposite.