MM: You’ve been very active philanthropically. Can you tell me about why that’s important to you and what you’re involved with currently?
OW: Well, I grew up in D.C. and I’m just a very political person. I actually think everybody should be political. It’s fascinating to be in this business long enough to have seen the tide turn from a general consensus that actors should not talk about politics to now, how it’s sort of in vogue. I’m very happy this has happened, but when I was starting out and I was talking a lot about different things, like Haiti, international affairs, the criminal justice system, guns, healthcare, and the environment, people told me that this was a risky trait for me to have. Now, there’s this sense of outrage that’s broken down that barrier and people are saying, “We must use our voices. We have influence,” and that’s so good. There’s no longer this sense of, “You’re an actor, why should I trust you?” Because that really is a bogus argument. Of course everybody should have opinions. At the moment I work with Save the Children on everything related to their international program and Syrian refugees. I’m also involved with Artists for Peace and Justice, which is based in Haiti and focuses on secondary education. My whole family is political. My sister is a criminal justice activist and lawyer and she’s a great source of information for me.
MM: Don’t you have Irish citizenship?
OW: Yes.
MM: After your mother ran for Congress you said that gave you new faith in this country and this system. Could you elaborate on that? A lot of Americans are kind of losing faith a little bit right now.
OW: Yeah. Well, if there’s one thing that Trump has taught us it’s that literally anyone can run for office. This climate has certainly inspired more women than ever to run. I felt inspired by the amount of effort people put into my mother’s campaign and by the participation. People were living and breathing politics. For too long politics has felt separate from our lives. People were like, ‘Well, I’m interested in politics, buuut…’ No. We all live politics. Every choice we make, every dollar we spend, that is our vote…
MM: There’s no not being political.
OW: Right. There is no not being political. I think this young generation gets that. They now have a sense of ownership. It’s so great that people are plugged in a real way. I’m really worried that Trump will be re-elected. I sometimes feel we don’t have enough time to organize.
MM: Then you’d go to Ireland.
OW: I mean… we can’t abandon ship. We have to stay here and tell stories. That’s the power of movies—to connect people in this country that is so much more disconnected than I had realized. That was the heartbreak of the 2016 election, right? When we realized we don’t even know each other. Movies are the one thing that connects us. We talked about the 2,500 screens earlier. Those 2,500 screens are in different communities all over this country.
MM: I’ve always found that fascinating. Anywhere you find strangers talking, almost the first subject they bring up to create a sense of connection is movies. I hope that continues with this new generation.
OW: I hope so, too. Stories will always be there, it’s an age-old ritual. We need them to survive. It’s like Joan Didion said: “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” It’s a necessary part of our culture. The thing that makes me most proud about Booksmart—and hopefully I can continue this in future movies that I make—is it feels like I’ve said something I wanted to say, something timely, while also making something that’s entertaining and delightful. That is a valiant, worthwhile endeavor.
Jump street: Lifelong friends Molly (Feldstein, L) and Amy (Dever, R) hit the streets in matching jumpsuits en route to a party on their last day of high school in Booksmart
MM: You knew that you wanted to go into the arts from a very young age, but not necessarily that you’d be a writer like most everyone else in your family.
OW: My dad is the greatest writer I’ve ever read. He’s the Washington editor of Harper’s. He just wrote a really kick-ass piece on Biden—tough, but really interesting. So writing was intimidating to me and still is. And yet, I love it.
MM: And your mother… a writer who ran for Congress. It was so brave of her to do that.
OW: So brave. She learned so much about politics in a more intimate way. I could never.
MM: You could do it.
OW: No, I could never. It is so thankless, exhausting, and vulnerable. People who commit themselves to it are extraordinary. I went on the trail with her and she’d be out campaigning for 17 hours, then come back and write a speech.
MM: Do you ever see yourself, if not running for office, being more political than you are?
OW: Oh yeah, I think I could dive in again and be more active and useful than I am. For the upcoming election I will absolutely be on the ground for whoever the Democratic candidate is with 100 percent of my whole energy and heart. And now, as a director, what’s cool is that I can create content. What moviemakers can offer that’s often missing from political races
is the power of storytelling. Regular people want to know the story of a candidate and how that’s going to affect their lives. Why don’t we get better at using our specific skills to help them? If everybody—editors, writers, music supervisors, directors—offered pro bono work, we could continue to churn out material. If you go to a little community in Kansas and their issue is, say, reproductive healthcare, because there’s only one Planned Parenthood in all of Kansas, you can make a little short film and put it on the Internet in three days. That didn’t really exist 10 years ago.
MM: And people will watch it because of the celebrity.
OW: Exactly. But I hope that for this next race, it’s more than just a well-meaning celebrity showing up and saying, “Healthcare is important, guys.” Whoever’s participating can say, “What I do is I’m an editor. I can edit this piece in one day and I’ll do it for free.” That’s invaluable. So that’s what I’m hoping to be able to do—wrangle everybody to work for free to save the world [laughs].
MM: You pick great scripts. You also pick a lot of projects by auteurs—Paul Haggis, Alex Kurtzman, Dan Fogleman, etc. Do you do that on purpose?
OW: Well, I wouldn’t say it’s part of any criteria I use. I’m more fascinated by the relationship
I can build with a director. I’ve learned as much from writer-directors as I have from writing-directing teams. It’s interesting to work for a director who knows the story so well because they’ve written it because your communication about the character can go really deep. But what that sometimes does to a director is hold them too closely to the predetermined plan of the story they want to tell, and sometimes it’s harder for them to be flexible. It depends. What turns me off is a director who doesn’t have a real sense of the story, and sometimes that happens when they haven’t written it. The director should be able to tell their story backwards, split in half, rearranged. If they can’t it’s a real red flag. It’s funny, now that I’ve directed, my conversations with directors who are offering me acting roles are very different. I ask how they’re going to shoot the film because I now understand how that relates to the telling of the story, whereas before I saw it as something separate.
MM: Are you ever attracted to projects solely because of the material and not because
of the makers?
OW: I have been, but that’s a mistake. I’ve learned an important algorithm. I’ve read scripts that were so good that I’ve taken a risk even though the cast and the director were question marks, and I’ve found that is not enough of a safety net. It doesn’t matter how good the script is.
MM: So what types of material do you seek out now? What turns you on as an artist these days?
OW: So now it’s just really director-driven. I’m looking for people who have an interesting perspective. If I’m going to act I had better act for someone I’m going to learn something from.
MM: Your latest feature as an actress—A Vigilante—certainly has an interesting perspective.
OW: A Vigilante was written and directed by Sarah Daggar Nickson, an incredibly fierce new filmmaker. She cared deeply about telling a story about the strength of survivors of domestic violence. She didn’t give a shit about making a commercial film. She truly just wanted to tell an authentic story about courage. I worked myself to the bone for that film and I’m very proud of it.
MM: You’ve been so generous with your time, Olivia. I truly appreciate it.
OW: Oh my God. What a pleasure. This was like my favorite conversation.
MM: And this was such a great place to talk with you.
OW: We’re so Hollywood, aren’t we? In the best possible way. MM
