[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Cosmic Cafe, the companion podcast to thecosmicsircle.com. I'm Ayla Ruby, and today we're talking about monsters, the monsterverse, that is. We have an exclusive chat with Marie Yamamoto and Anders Holm from Apple TV Plus's monarch legacy of monsters. So take cover in your Godzilla shelter and enjoy.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: Hi, it's so nice to meet you both.
[00:00:36] Speaker C: Hey, what's up?
[00:00:38] Speaker B: So I have a lot of questions for you, and I'm going to start with you, Marie. So your character dies in the first episode. This isn't not a spoiler, because it's the first episode. Did you film that? Was that, like, the first thing you filmed, or was it nonlinear, linearly filmed? Did you film the scenes from 53 and 54 beforehand? How did that work?
[00:01:04] Speaker D: I think the first day, the first week of the shoot was the scene where we encounter the russian boy in the forest. And that was a really eventful day because we encountered a bear in the forest.
So that was really fun. In the canadian forest, what did you do?
We clapped and said, go away, bear. There's a video of that moment, and I think it's Wyatt, but he's like, bear, go away.
[00:01:41] Speaker C: Yeah, I stood behind Wyatt, and he handled the situation.
[00:01:45] Speaker D: I slowly backed away, and then that was an eventful day.
That was the first day. And I sprained my ankle. And all these was, yes, a very fun first day.
And I think that scene came after. I think we shot the stuff inside the lot. And next, and then it was the reactor scene.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
So, Anders, for you, your character is essentially a young John Goodman, his character from Skull island. Can you talk about, did you get any advice from him before doing this? What did you do to get into the wish?
[00:02:32] Speaker C: You know, we were kind of ships in the night. He filmed his bit and obviously was in Skull island, and then I was filming my stuff separately. It was a strange show.
You'd see people coming and going, and you'd never work with them, but you'd be like, but you're my granddaughter. You know what I mean?
It was very fascinating. And sometimes you'd run into people and introduce yourselves and be like, hey, so how's your side of the show?
It was interesting, but, yeah, I wish I could get advice from him. He's one of the all time greats. And a piece of advice they gave me when the show started, they're like, don't worry. You don't have to do, like, a John Goodman impression. You don't have to do what he does. And I was like, that's great. I can't do what he does. He's John Goodman. You know what mean? Like, he's got that John Goodman energy, and I just kind of did my thing, and hopefully people don't care, and it's okay. We'll see.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: Well, I think it works out great. I love the show, and I'm, again, so excited to talk to you about. So besides the bear, because that seems really challenging. Can you talk about Marie? Was there anything really. And then for you too, Anders, was there anything really challenging that you can talk about that's not a spoiler to bring to life, to just kind of get on screen as an actor or just filming technically, anything like that?
[00:04:01] Speaker D: I would say you did ask me about it. The scene where I fall to my death.
I think I have an extreme fear of heights.
And I was on the wire. They asked me, do you mind being dropped on the wire? And I was like, yeah, sure.
I just thought, that's what you do. So I said, yes. And then we started doing it, and I was like, uhoh, what did I sign up for? And it was extreme exposure therapy. So I would wait for them to. For the last minute to take me up, because if you're suspended for a while up there, I was just going to have a panic attack. So I just went up right before and then dropped and then kept doing that. And I think I've conquered maybe the height bit. I think I'm okay now. So that was great.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: Were there a lot of takes to that, or was that kind of, once you're up there, you're done?
[00:05:01] Speaker D: No, we did multiple. We did a lot. Yeah.
[00:05:05] Speaker C: It's a human yo yo, literally.
[00:05:08] Speaker D: Yeah, that was.
Yeah.
[00:05:14] Speaker B: How about for you, Anders?
[00:05:16] Speaker C: I would say the hardest part of the shoot was keeping my pants high so that it know, period accurate.
And then probably the easiest thing for me was driving stick. As Mari knows, it was pretty smooth. I'd never done it before. And then we got in the car, and it was just super smooth sailing.
Not bumpy at all. No one got hurt?
[00:05:44] Speaker D: No, not janky at all. No seatbelts.
[00:05:47] Speaker C: Yeah, I'd never driven stick, so that was rough.
[00:05:50] Speaker D: The car did catch on fire one time.
There was that too.
[00:05:57] Speaker C: Yeah, we were on a processing trailer, and I think there was just a piece of, I don't know, plastic or something that got caught by the. Under the tire. And then it just started smoking as we were driving, and I was like, I think it smells like fire. And people are like, no, it definitely does. And I'm like, well, it smells like burning rubber, and I don't know what's going on. And then like a flame just showed up next to us and we're like, okay, let's go out that door and get another car on the trailer or something. Yeah. A lot of crazy things happen.
[00:06:28] Speaker D: Adventures on set. Yes.
[00:06:31] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:06:32] Speaker E: Okay.
[00:06:33] Speaker B: Moving away a tiny bit from the show. So do you guys have a favorite Godzilla iteration? There's like 70 years of history besides yours. There's like 70 years of history for this universe.
[00:06:47] Speaker D: I have to say the original, I always say this, but I don't know, it's incredible. It's just such a part of our japanese identity that know. So it means so much to me that I get to be part of the world of Godzilla now. And that's where it all started.
[00:07:13] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I'll jump on that. I hadn't seen the original until signing on to do the show, and I was like, well, let's get into it. And watching it, it's unbelievable what they do with just for me, it was like the, like, the soldiers are all getting together and all you hear is the boom, boom. And I'm like, oh, Spielberg ripped this off for Jurassic park. You know what mean? Like, you start seeing how good they were at using sound to create this atmosphere of something larger than life nearing. And the acting was unbelievable. It was just a true spectacle that holds up entirely.
[00:07:56] Speaker B: Thank you both so much.
[00:07:58] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:08:01] Speaker E: Thank you for listening. You can find the companion article for this podcast along with all the other news for those who like superheroes, science fiction and fantasy films, tv shows and other
[email protected]. Have a great day.
