Watkins' role was originally written as a best friend character.
“And Nicole said, ‘No, but she’s got a best friend.’
And I was like, ‘Oh, wouldn’t that be fun?’
Owen Teague, Julia Louis- Dreyfus, and Michaela Watkins in ‘You Hurt My Feelings’.Jeong Park/A24
I tried to be cool and then assumed if she wanted me, she would’ve said something.
But then a few months later, it did happen and she’d made it her sister!”
“Working with Nicole Holofcener is an utter delight and really an actor’s dream,” adds Louis-Dreyfus.
Arian Moayed and Michaela Watkins in ‘You Hurt My Feelings’.Jeong Park/A24
“Because the material is so thoughtful and elevated and fresh and absolutely not derivative of anything else.
So I’m really happy that this came together.”
But how did you build that sibling bond?
Michaela Watkins, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Nicole Holofcener.Bryan Bedder/Variety via Getty
JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS:We’ve worked together now in multiple projects and have always bonded during those various projects.
Because there’s an intimacy there that is specific to a sister bond.
MICHAELA WATKINS:Sometimes best friend storylines can feel like a equipment more than a real thing.
And I know a lot of sisters who they’re almost primary partners for each other.
And then they just have husbands.
LOUIS-DREYFUS:As like trinkets.
LOUIS-DREYFUS:I was thinking about the scene with Jeannie Berlin [who plays our mom] at lunch.
Because you couldn’t have been as dismissive of Jeannie.
But because we were sisters, we have this shared sort of alliance almost against our mother.
Or with our mother, depending on the moment.
It really does shift it completely.
WATKINS:We’re watching the same character in front of us.
LOUIS-DREYFUS:The same car wreck.
Should a partner always be truthful or is being supportive more important?
LOUIS-DREYFUS:Both for sure.
But I can usually smell out bulls— and that’s insulting.
That’s worse than just being brutally honest.
So, I like both personally.
Have you ever had to wrestle with that on the flip side?
Like whether you should tell someone whether you like something or not?
LOUIS-DREYFUS:Of course.
I mean we’re in the arts.
They’re not all winners.
WATKINS:There’s people who you love their work and something might not be their greatest thing.
And I’ve never seen a person more angry at me at the end of a show.
LOUIS-DREYFUS:Well, I heard you were wonderful in that show.
[Laughs] It was a magnificent performance.
I’m certain of it.
WATKINS:It was an awful production.
And she really let me know how miserable she was.
I’ve obviously never forgotten it.
Were you hoping there would be a scene in there where she had to fess up?
WATKINS:I wanted to believe that he is sometimes a good actor.
That happens, I’m sure.
So I had to believe that sometimes he was great and sometimes he wasn’t just like my sister.
We get this play that Mark is in at the end.
Did you make a decision for yourselves though?
WATKINS:I genuinely thought like, “Thank God it’s good.”
I was watching your face to see if you were truly enjoying it or not.
Did playing a novelist make you want to potentially dive into that at all?
LOUIS-DREYFUS:Good God no.
[Laughs]
WATKINS:Your next chapter is to be a novelist.
You’ve got a podcast now.
LOUIS-DREYFUS:No, that’s not a skillset of mine.
I write rough drafts to thank you notes.
I obsess over what words go onto a page and so on and so forth.
So I can’t.
Michaela, the lamp that you find for your client is so absurd.
Was that something production design made or is it real?
WATKINS:No, Nicole found it, and it just dazzled her.
It made her so happy.
It was so absurd and so expensive.
I was not allowed to drop it.
It was probably the whole budget of our film.
WATKINS:I didn’t know I could do an impression of Julia until that moment.
I don’t even know if it was any good to honest with you.
LOUIS-DREYFUS:I don’t even remember it.
Can you do it right now?
WATKINS:[Imitating Louis-Dreyfus] “Can I do it right now?”
Can you do me?
LOUIS-DREYFUS:[Imitating Watkins,mutters gibberish] She’s a mumbler.
“Oh that would be so fun.”
[Mumbles] That’s pretty good!
WATKINS:[Laughs] No one ever does impressions of me!
LOUIS-DREYFUS:[Imitating Watkins] “No one ever does impressions of me.”
I have to show Nicole.
WATKINS:Oh God, you do.
She’ll love it.
I thought about us being siblings forever.
I’m gathering from your rapport that you two are eager to work together again.
LOUIS-DREYFUS:No, I really can’t work with her ever again.
WATKINS[At the same time]: Yes, very much.
LOUIS-DREYFUS:It’s not gonna happen.
WATKINS:Well, she says that until she eats.
LOUIS-DREYFUS:[Imitating Watkins] “Wellllll, she says that…until she eats.”
[They begin to talk concurrently imitating each other word for word.]
LOUIS-DREYFUS:We’re goofy today, sorry.
This is an article, is it not?
This is gonna be madness.
you’re able to’t print any of this s—.
Was that something that the two of you did a lot of together?
WATKINS:We did, but I don’t know how much ended up in the thing.
God, now I’m doing an impression of you doing an impression of me.
LOUIS-DREYFUS:I know, I’m enjoying it.
Yes, we did improvise, out on the street, and playing around with the language and stuff.
We got to set every day with an A-plus script.
It didn’t any zhuzhing or help.
It was all there.
But Nicole is incredibly collaborative.
She’s not egocentric about her work in a crazy way.
And if we came up with a joke that worked, she would put it in and she did.
WATKINS:We like to play.
Especially if we get caught up.
So sometimes it just inspired us to keep going.
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