“F*** This, Let’s Just Talk About It”: Jodie Foster, Jennifer Aniston, Sofía Vergara Let Loose on THR’s Drama Actress Roundtable

Nicole Kidman, Brie Larson, Anna Sawai and Naomi Watts weigh on everything from method acting to menopause to snorting coke (on screen).

“I don’t know if anybody told you, but none of us knows what we’re doing,” announces two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster halfway through the Drama Actress Emmy Roundtable. She’s surrounded by two more Oscar winners — Expats’ Nicole Kidman and Lessons in Chemistry’s Brie Larson — who nod in agreement. The True Detective star continues, “and that’s the real beauty of it, having that freshness of doubting yourself.” Over the course of an hour at The Georgian Hotel in Santa Monica, that trio, along with The Morning Show’s Jennifer Aniston, Shogun’s Anna Sawai, Griselda’s Sofía Vergara and Feud’s Naomi Watts, discuss everything from mentorship to menopause.

Nicole Kidman, Brie Larson, Anna Sawai and Naomi Watts weigh on everything from method acting to menopause to snorting coke (on screen).“I don’t know if anybody told you, but none of us knows what we’re doing,” announces two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster halfway through the Drama Actress Emmy Roundtable. She’s surrounded by two more Oscar winners — Expats’ Nicole Kidman and Lessons in Chemistry’s Brie Larson — who nod in agreement. The True Detective star continues, “and that’s the real beauty of it, having that freshness of doubting yourself.” Over the course of an hour at The Georgian Hotel in Santa Monica, that trio, along with The Morning Show’s Jennifer Aniston, Shogun’s Anna Sawai, Griselda’s Sofía Vergara and Feud’s Naomi Watts, discuss everything from mentorship to menopause.

Related StoriesJENNIFER ANISTON I might have not been fully honest. I said I couldn’t ride a horse, just because I didn’t want to ride the horse.

WATTS Oh, I definitely added special skills to my résumé back in the day. Multiple languages, lots of weird sports.

SOFÍA VERGARA I didn’t lie to get a job, but I lied to my agents so they’d take me when I moved to L.A. I said I could sing and dance. Why not? I didn’t think they were going to send me out. Then they sent me to an audition for Chicago on Broadway.

EVERYONE No!

VERGARA But I got the part.

LARSON What?!

ANISTON Then what happened?

VERGARA I played Mama Morton in Chicago.

ANNA SAWAI Oh my gosh.

JODIE FOSTER So, lying pays off.

Jodie, you’ve been known to reach out to young actresses and offer advice. What prompts the outreach and what do you tell them?

FOSTER I guess I fancy myself as some kind of mother figure. If I see somebody drunk and on their face at an event, for example, I might be like, “So, what’s going on?” Because I feel for them, and I really am grateful for my mom getting me through all of that. Somehow I managed to have a series of rules that allowed me to survive.

For the rest of you, what would have been helpful to hear when you were still early in your careers?

WATTS Just allow yourself to be you and not compare yourself to other people. I lived very much under the radar for about 10 years, auditioning, and I was always finding myself in a waiting room with 10, 12 people, going, “Oh God, she looks sexy, I should be sexier. I wore the wrong outfit.” Or, “She looks intelligent, let me put some glasses on.”

FOSTER That you can say “no” was a big one for me.

ANISTON Yes!

FOSTER That’s what is good about this new generation. They’re very comfortable saying no, setting boundaries and going, “I don’t like that, and I want to do this.” I didn’t know that was possible.

Brie, I’ve heard you talk about your early days as a pop singer, and I’m amazed by the gumption you had as a young teen to push back and say no to things that didn’t feel right or good to you. Where did that come from and how was it received?

LARSON Oh, not well. I’m just more comfortable with how uncomfortable it makes people that I’m very clear about what a yes and a no is for me. I’ve learned that if I can understand what a no is and be able to say it before I’m upset about it, it actually just avoids a lot of drama in the end. And the thing I like to remind myself is that you all can have what you want with me on set, but I have to go home and live with myself. Not to say I have a perfect track record. Of course, there were times where I was like, “Please, someone love me.” But my team used to joke that I was saying no before I was allowed to say no. I was like, “I’m not doing that.” Or, “That’s inappropriate.”

SAWAI And your team was supportive of that?

LARSON Yeah, they were.

SAWAI Oh, nice. Because I was working in Japan for a while [also as a pop star], and they were like, “To say yes is the most mature thing that you can do. Always say yes, don’t really tell us what you want. We’ve been doing this for the longest time, so just trust us.” It’s only been in recent years that I’ve started to get used to saying what I want. And it’s so refreshing because my team will be like, “What do you want to do?” And I’m like, “Me?”

KIDMAN I still have trouble with no. Part of what we do is dive into things that are deeply uncomfortable. And I’ve had to teach myself to not always go, “I can’t do that.” My initial reaction can be that instead of, “OK, ease into it.” Because I need to be coaxed sometimes. I’m still finding that compass.Brie, I’ve also heard you say that if you hear someone’s going to be playing a superhero, you’ll reach out. What kind of tips do you find yourself sharing?

WATTS Wait, you’re a superhero mentor?

LARSON Always. I’m the first person to email everybody because it’s very specific and very strange. People are like, “I don’t know how to do this.” Yeah, no one does. Why would you? I’ll say, “Train, because you’ll want to be as prepared in your body as you possibly can because it only gets harder as the job goes on. And really understand how to be able to go to the bathroom in your suit.” The first Captain Marvel, it was a 45-minute thing to get me in and out of that costume.

LARSON No! That’s why I’m like, “Get a plan.”

ANISTON Yeah, a little zipper.

LARSON I can’t stand when people have to wait for me to go to the bathroom, so I’d have to time it out.

WATTS Oh, that would give me anxiety.

ANISTON You can’t have a sip of water.

LARSON It’s a whole thing, and it’s a lot of pressure. And I think it’s a strange thing, especially when you’re a newcomer and you’re tasked with being the most powerful blah, blah, blah of blah, blah, blah, and you feel scared. It’s so hard to be the cool, confident one when you’re like, “Do I know what I’m supposed to be doing?”

For everyone, how would you describe the current era that you’re in, in terms of the projects that are coming your way? Jen, a few years ago, you said you were being offered a lot of dark material …

ANISTON Well, living in that dark space as a comedian, ultimately, when I started, it’s really hard. That’s why I listen to SmartLess on my way to and from work [on Morning Show], just to laugh and get out of that [headspace]. I don’t live in my character, which I know some people do. I choose to just get rid of it as fast as I can. And then I usually say, when I’m done [with the season], “I need a comedy right now.”

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