Martha Plimpton

0:03Hello. Hi, Matt. It's Noel from ID. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm well. Thank you. I have Martha on the other line. Are you available right now? Absolutely. Let's give it a shot and once again my apologies if it cuts out. But I think we'll be okay. I've got three bars. So I think we'll be good. Oh, okay. Great. And remind me, how long could you need? Was it 15 minutes? How long does she have? I can make anything work. About 15 minutes really. 15 then. I got a timer running. Okay. Perfect. I'll let her know. Thanks so much. Matt, you have Martha. Hey Martha. Hi. How are you?

0:48I'm good. How are you? I'm doing well. So you're having lunch. You're good. We got some time here. Yeah, we have a little time. I have a very short lunch break. It's only half an hour. I will make it quick. I'll be. I'll be. I hope you don't want. You won't mind if I'm chewing while we talk. No, no, it's fine. I just. I'll warn the train scrubber later. Okay. So let's start with the Emmy. Congratulations. That must have been cool. Well, thank you. Thank you very much. It was pretty cool. It was really surprising and lovely. Yeah. Especially for a guest actress spot. Like, I mean, you were nominated last year for your role on this show, but. But it must be nice because that would have came out of nowhere. I would think. Well, you nominated for another guest spot once before on a law and order that I did a few years ago.

1:39And that was also really nice and out of the blue. But yeah, I mean, you know, it was a great category and there were awesome actresses in the category. So, you know, there's a lot of great work going on on television. Across the board. So I felt really. I don't know. I just felt really grateful to be singled out in that way. Where do you find time to do the guest spots about Miss human raising hope keeps you pretty busy. Yeah, we have. Yeah, we have. We shoot. One episode every five days. And we don't take a ton of breaks. So we're done. Generally by mid to late February, we start in the beginning of August. And so we're about a seven month. He's in for us.

2:24Okay. So when we're done with our season, a lot of shows are still shooting like good wipes still shoots until well into. April or May. Oh, wow. Okay. I'm going to ask you this given given your family and your lineage and not bringing everything was there ever a doubt that you would be an actress. I don't know. I mean, I never really thought about it in those terms. So I guess the answer is no, but I mean, maybe there have been times when I didn't want to do it anymore, but they didn't last very long. And also, I don't really know how to do anything else. So you would do it so long. Yeah. Yeah, right. Yeah, pretty much. How did this part come to you? Virginia. How did raising hope come?

3:10Yeah, Virginia. Well, well, they were. Greg Garcia was looking and looking for someone to play this part. And I guess he was having a hard time. And they were sort of late in the casting process. They were a cast Lucas first. And so I got the script while I was working on a small movie and independent movie in Canada. And they sent it to me. Can you hear me? Yeah, no, we're out of Canada. That's why I'm here. Oh, great. Yeah. No, I was outside Toronto up there in like, Mennonite country and shooting the shooting the small movie and. And I got the script and it made me laugh so hard that I thought, well, yeah, I think I'd like to try and do this.

3:59And so I talked to Greg Garcia on the phone and, and, you know, we scheduled the time for me to come out and test for the network and the studio and the rest is history. What's your process like when you get a script? How does that work for you? But process, I guess you mean I just read it, you know, I just read it and I see if it clicks for me. If it interests me, you know, usually by the first 10 to 15 pages, I can tell if something is something interesting or not funny or not. And the truth is like I was laughing at the script for Raising Hope. I think pretty much on page one. And what about during during the season when you get a script? How does that do you do you sit there in the makeup trailer and read it? I mean, you say you shoot very quickly so you don't have too much time to to really read.

4:54No, we don't have a ton of time. Well, we do we are very lucky in that our writers and Greg Garcia work really well ahead of time. So we usually see the scripts like two weeks before we shoot them, which is great. And we do a table read a couple weeks ahead of time so that the writers have a chance to do whatever, you know, changes they need to do. And, you know, we have time to sort of adjust with the written and we get a chance to hear everybody reading it loud, kind of like a play, you know, and we get a sense of how the pace is going to work and what the episodes going to be like. And so we have that kind of time, but you're right. I mean, in terms of working on the script, when you're shooting, you know, somewhere between, you know, 30 and 35 pages of every five days doesn't really give you a lot of time for doing white subtext work.

5:50You know, I mean, that kind of stuff. You got to get a feel for that in the first season. And then by season to it, you know, it's like a muscle like just, you know, it builds up over time and you're able to kind of, you know, you're able to sort of get there quicker. It builds up over time. I mean, obviously three, three years into playing Virginia, you must know her a lot better than you did coming into it. So, so what have you got to the character? How has she changed, I guess, for you as an actress playing this person. Well, in the beginning, Virginia was a lot sort of harder. She was a lot more. She was a lot tougher. And she was kind of taking a crap, you know, and she wasn't psyched about having the baby and, you know, she was smoked and she was hard and rough around the edges, you know, but she had the softness on the inside.

6:42And hence we've gone along. I think her soft sides come out more her neurotic, her wacky sides come out more. You know what I mean? And then the thing I've always liked from the beginning is that she's not your typical sitcom mom. You know, she's not a tister. She's right in there with everybody else, which I love. Yeah, I love how Bert will say things that usual TV mom would be like, Oh, come on, but you just go for it. Right. That's a testament to that as well. Yeah, they have a great Virginia have a great relationship. And, you know, it's an equal relationship and they love each other and they're into each other and you know what I mean? So that's really fun to play. I'm going to I'm going to print this around the time of the Halloween episode, which I heard you had a lot of fun shooting. So, yeah, I don't know how much I'm allowed to give away, but it's going to be our, our first sort of LGBT centric episode and we're sort of dealing with.

7:38What kind of broadening our social horizons a bit in this episode, which is really good and really makes for a good episode. I think it's really fun. It's exactly what I wanted you to say so I can get into a is for it's a perfect segue. Oh, good. Yeah, so why don't you explain what a is for for those who don't know. Well, as for is came out of the general conversation that was happening in the country earlier this year when Sandra Pluck was basically shamed for speaking out about women's right to preventive health care and reproductive health care. And she was humiliated and insulted and we felt that this was it was time for us to take a stand against this kind of thing because this is a revealed something in our country that we thought we were passed, which is this tendency to humiliate and shame

8:42and isolate women who dare to speak up about their reality or physical reality and the reality of the need for reproductive health care. And the fact that this is a an essential integral part of every woman's life and that it should be treated as such like any other medical medical issue. And so we started a sport to reclaim the scarlet letter essentially take that brand of shame and turn it into a tool of empowerment and awareness and advocacy for women's health rights. So we started the organization and then we quickly partnered up with the Center for reproductive rights.

9:30And which just recently launched their bill of reproductive rights. So that we could help them sort of on the advocacy side of things and the awareness side of things. And so we now for every donation that is for receives people receive an A they can wear that they can show people you know that they're in allegiance with the right of all women to basic reproductive health care and proceeds from that go to the federal right. I still can't believe that it's a conversation when Santoram started bringing that stuff up. And I'm sure most most people in the country must have been as well that that's even something. Yeah, we all are. Yeah, yeah, no we are completely stunned and amazed that in 2012 women still have to defend their right to access to a basic aspect of their physical health.

10:25And the fact that some people in this country feel that it's their place to control women's decisions about their own bodies is really appalling. And we need to, you know, as the bill of reproductive rights campaign says we need to all the lines. We need to say enough is enough. And one of the ways that we do this is by banding together wearing this scarlet letter and saying no we're not going to be shamed into silence. We're not going to be isolated. We're going to demonstrate just how much we just how serious we are and how much we need to protect this fundamental human life. We don't have too much time here but I do want to just ask you about I heard you lobbied in front of Congress on behalf of Planned Parenthood and I wonder we hear a lot about Congress not being able to get anything done.

11:11What was it like for you to be in the room? Did people listen or what was that like? This is a long time ago. This is the early 90s when when things were a little bit different. I mean, you know, you know, the Clinton was in office and the atmosphere was different but there was still the necessity and there was, of course, at that time, a good deal of sort of domestic terrorism being aimed at clinics that provided abortions and, you know, operation rescue was in full swing and we're seeing some violence and that violence was increasing. And, you know, basically what we were there to do was say, you know, don't turn your backs on the one consistent provider that is there for women, not just for abortions but for all aspects of their health care and provides that service to women.

12:10The women who need it the most poor women students, women with large families who can't afford high insurance premiums, you know, things like this. And unfortunately, as hard as we work back then, the situation is far worse today, which is really quite astonishing to me. I mean, even back in the early 90s, there wasn't quite the extent. I mean, you didn't see whole entire branches of Planned Parenthood being wiped out or being threatened with being wiped out because of a lack of funding. You know, this assault, this idea that Planned Parenthood needs to be eradicated just goes to show you how little actual foresight these people who are anti choice have in terms of their understanding.

13:05Of what is required in this country in terms of health care and for people who are of, you know, are a few means, you know, and I'd love to talk to you for a good go for hours about the politics and the topics of all that but I'm looking at my time here we got two and I'd be I didn't ask about chlorosleetron because you're working on a comedic legend and I mean, I know I know you come from a line of legends in the film industry and whatnot but what has chloros taught you in terms of, I guess, being fearless when it comes to comedy. Well, that's certainly what she is. I mean, you know, she's fearless and she's also a little bit crazy. It's certainly not hurt. But she's, you know, she's absolutely bliss.

13:53She's absolutely fearless and, you know, if I am as energetic and as enthusiastic and ready to go, 86 as that woman is, I will be very, very lucky. And she's just a little bit more she's unbelievable. And, you know, she's a, she's a nut. What can I say? She's incredible. There's a reason why she's a legend, you know. Before I let you go, we always do something called five questions. Five quick questions. One word answers. Okay. Film, TV or theater. Oh. Okay, trick me on that one. That's fine. Leninger McCartney. Oh, don't make me choose. These are good answers. I like them. I like comedy or drama.

14:40Oh, rule your most proud. Sorry. Well, I'm getting things. Well, most proud of. Yeah. Oh, she went trick me on that one. Well, I, you know what I can't say because I, you know, it would imply that I'm not proud of the others and, and maybe I should be aware is there one that has stuck out over the years as, as I don't know, maybe there's a character that you identified with more or something, something of that nature. Um, no. Or maybe one that launched that helped move you to it. Another stratosphere of your career, that kind of thing. Maybe head again.

15:25Nice. In one word. Raising hope. One word raising hope. Let me think one word. I know. That's why I like to end them this way. Uh, can I, can I use a compound word? You may. Long running. There you go. Get a job for a whole long time. Thank you so much. I really appreciate this. My pleasure. Good luck with everything and, and I'll send everyone. No, I'll get the links when, uh, when it's posted. Thank you. Okay. Excellent. Thanks so much. Okay. Bye.