So excited to have a bonafide English rose in the studio with me today, Emily Mortimer.

Hello.

Hello. Thank you for dropping by.

Thank you for having me.

Was that an appropriate introduction? Is that?

English rose, I will take any day.

Okay. It's not on your like business card.

No.

Okay. On your headshot, like special skill. I I'm Emily Mortimer, English rose. Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.

Well, we don't have that obviously here in in America. What does what does that actually mean, I guess? Because we hear this term thrown around a lot.

I don't know, but it's it's it's I don't know. I think I guess it means What does it mean? It means sort of fragrant and nice.

Doll and M's, your show that you write on. You you're also the creator of it. Stars you as a character named Emily. And then also your best friend, Dolly or doll. Yes. I mean, you get asked this a lot, but but really, how close is it to real life, or is it not close at all to your relationship with doll?

Well, in that we um look very like how we do in real life, and we talk very much how we do in real life, and we're called by our own names, and we're both actresses. Yeah, other than that, absolutely nothing. And there's no no common ground between us and our characters. No. We we what we've really enjoyed doing on the show in both seasons is establishing this very kind of authentic reality, um, with our relationship, because we really are best friends, and we've really known each other our lives. And we just love that playing with that kind of dynamic, where there are these two people. Very often, they're the same sex. They could be, you know, from the same background. They look the same. They're the same age. They have so much in common, and they're friends with each other, and yet there's this severe difference in kind of status and power, and one of them's working for the other, and in some ways, sort of serving them. Yeah. And um, and so where what the gray areas of that relationship can be really kind of quite gruesome and fascinating and wonderful to um, you know, investigate. And Dolly and I are always really obsessed by those relationships, and how weird it must be for the people in them. Although I think a lot of people navigate that assistant's um, servant-master thing very well, and and and it goes it goes without hitch. But in our imagining of it, it was a real disaster.

Yeah. Um, and and something that a lot of people have picked up on is that, yes, it's about a female friendship, but it's there is this like dark side to it that you're not afraid to touch on, you know, like the jealousy side of it, which is super interesting.

We've always been really talked a lot about this idea of jealousy, me and Dolly and and um before we were even writing this thing. Um, because it's such a taboo subject. It's not not just between women, but between everyone. And I I think it's an incredibly common emotion that we all feel all the time. Um, but yet, we're so embarrassed to feel it, because um, it it's sort of seems unseemly or something to be jealous. And and the irony is that you're you're generally most jealous of the people that you love most, and who for whom you want the world, because you care deeply about them, but inevitably, their success always makes you think back to yourself, and compare yourself to them, and and It's like this weird, super selfish thing that happens. You're just like, wait, hold on a second. Yes. It's the most human thing in the world, and I think that it doesn't really get outted as a as as a conversation, because we're all too shy to say it. But we all feel jealous of our friends, of our spouses, of our even of our children sometimes, of our ourselves. So what we were doing with the first season, particularly, was outing jealousy as a as an emotion.

Interesting. Uh, this season, you have some really amazing guest stars with you. You have Olivia Wilde. Evan Rachel Wood. How are their English accents?

They were doing brilliant English accents, but of course, what happens with this season is that Dolly and I don't get jealous of each other. We get jealous of we cast these incredibly glamorous, beautiful, much younger

Yeah.

another scenario that does happen in Hollywood.

Yeah. Yeah.

And we seem we're in complete denial about the fact that we've cast actresses who are like at least 10 years younger than us in the parts of playing us in this play that we've written. Um, and then an interview points a journalist points it out to us, and we're just completely, you know, baffled. You keep saying, are they really 10 years younger than us? I think they're much more than 10 years younger than us in real life. But, yeah, so we cast them in roles of us in the play within the play kind of thing. Right. And then get really jealous and annoyed. And so we think their English accents are terrible. But actually, they do brilliant English accents. And Olivia and um, and Evan were just so brilliantly game and are so funny and droll and deadpan and just brilliant in in the show. And we're so lucky to have got them.

And also, uh, Ewan McGregor, who you work with before, who seems just like such a bore, no fun at all.

Oh, God. No. He's really horrible. Yeah. He's terrible.

Yeah. I will be when this comes out on like the gossip blog.

Yeah. I do not want that headline. No. That has it's going out there. We're going to tweet it out there. That is so mean. You started. I'm so good. I'm so good. If I had a mic. I do Emily McGregor. Ewan McGregor is just the best, and I'm very annoyed actually. I really did get jealous of Dolly. And I really did admit to my jealousy of Dolly, because she gets to snog Ewan McGregor. Spoiler alert, I guess. But

You made everybody jealous. Everybody.

I was really jealous. She got to snog him in a loo. I mean, that's a that needs translating, I guess, but

Yeah. Made out with him in a toilet.

Exactly. There you go. Um, that's what it is in America, you guys. Just This is an educational program, so

That's here we are. We're educating people.

Yes. about more than just Dolly and M.

Public public service, really. Really. Uh, you also have your moms on there. Yes. Are they the biggest divas you've ever had?

No. But they are very delighted with themselves now, having seen the show, and realized how good they are. Um, and it was so funny, because because we were shooting it in New York, and and our moms flew in from London specially, and had their own trailers and everything with their names on the door. Everybody kept saying, gosh, are they, you know, big grand dames of the stage in in England? We were like, no. They're just our moms. But they were brilliant. They are annoyingly good on the show. Annoyingly good. Yeah. And everybody actually, everybody who has never acted before in the show, a lot of our family are in it, and they're all really good. And they now none of them have any sympathy or time for either anyone. Um, either me or doll complaining ever about acting. They keep saying, it's so easy. Why do you ever complain about it? It's just just turn up and say your line.

Um, you are married to an American. You have dual American and British citizenship. Do you feel like an American now? Like I feel

I don't know what I feel like. But I feel like I really like America, and I'm very grateful to live here. And I I sort of am nothing now. I'm not I'm neither one thing nor the other. Or I'm everything. Maybe that's a more positive spin. I'm a I'm a world citizen.

You're a world citizen.

But I really I love America, and I love my children are American. I've had to accept that fact. There was a moment where when my little boy was um little, he used to speak like me, because I was pretty much the only person that was with him all day every day. Right. Um, and he had a completely English accent and

Adorable, by the way. Yeah. We love that here.

And he would talk about wiggly worms and things like that, and say the wiggly worm, because he'd get very cross. And um, but then one day, he started going to school, and that's when they become American. Yeah. He came back from school and said pants instead of trousers one day. And I

Which means something completely, not completely different. But it means something a little different.

But it's just it's not even that. It's just the fact that he was saying pants and not trousers. And I completely lost the plot. I was very peculiar as a result. I was like, Well, that's interesting that you said pants not trousers. I mean, you know, I guess you're now going to have to make a choice. You know, Mommy says trousers. Daddy says pants. So, I mean, which is it going to be? Are are you going with pants? Did you did you have a

He was like three, and he was just looking a bit baffled. parental meltdown? You're like

Anyway, I've accepted that he says pants.

You've accepted that he's American. And they say bangs, and they say talk about the freeway and all that. Right.

And football means not soccer. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, maybe there's like a support group for you. Yeah. I'm sure there is. For weird old ex-pats. Well, before we go, I wanted to because your your show is obviously about a female friendship, the complexities of that. Um, I just want to do a little rapid fire, you know, some female friendships from TV. So, I'm going to throw out and then I'll be honest, Just this is going to be a disaster. Just name a name. Just whichever one comes first, which which one you prefer. So, Laverne and Shirley?

I have no idea who any of that is. I mean, I'm I'm I'm English.

You really are British. Laverne, I don't know what that means. Perfect. I liked Laverne too. Good. Okay. That was the right answer. Yeah, you're right. You're good. You're good so far. A+. Lucy or Ethel?

So, Lucy.

Perfect. Perfect. Uh, did you watch the Golden Girls? Tell me you watched the Golden Girls.

No, but I know Betty White was on the Golden Girls.

Okay. So, Okay. Betty White or Bea Arthur?

Betty White. Of course. Clearly.

RIP, Bea Arthur. Um, Sex and the City. Please tell me you watch that.

I mean, it was brilliant. Yeah. But but this again was before I

You're making a mess. Okay. Carrie.

Carrie. There you go. Carrie is amazing, and I think she's an incredible actress. And I've seen her in loads of things, and I really am her big fan.

We're grading on a curve, so I think you still get you get to keep your A. Emily, thank you so much for coming by. It was such a pleasure having you. Please come by.

Thank you for having me.

Anytime. Thank you.