Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Chairman and chief content officer of NBCUniversal, the first British woman to run a major Hollywood studio, overseeing blockbuster franchises.
On the island
Eight records
ABBA was my first love. It was the first album I ever bought with my own money… This song really gets to me even today. Those lyrics spoke to me as a little girl. They gave me hope that I could actually turn into something, that I could become something, that my dreams may come true one day.
This song really reminds me of my parents… I think about when making films. Great filmmakers do this brilliantly… they start off low and small and then they build it and build it… I used to dance around my living room to it.
The aria that I heard in the film Diva… This film had a very big impact on me. It was the first time, I think, for me, I saw a foreign film in the movie theatre… This song really struck me as what music could do in film… it was a very pivotal and seminal moment for me.
This song was very much the soundtrack of my life in those days… The world was my oyster. I thought I was capable of doing anything… Every time I hear it, I get so happy and it takes me right back.
This song makes me think of blue skies and palm trees, all of those iconic things you think about when you think about Los Angeles.
I'd just broken up with a boyfriend of two years… a time where I was beginning to mature… This is a song that really moves me. It's about a broken promise, I think.
All My FriendsFavourite
It makes me think about friends who I'm with and friends who I wish I was with… It reminds me of a really beautiful time… right around the time maybe we had our first son… we were still irresponsible enough that we would have late-night dinner parties and then have to get up at six in the morning.
Anderson .Paak featuring André 3000
Anderson .Paak is a wonderful LA-based artist… one of the only artists that we can all agree on to listen to when we're in the car, in the family… it evokes a really beautiful time actually during the pandemic. My sons learned to surf and we would drive along the highway with all the windows open listening to this song.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:26Tell me about your decision-making process when you're deciding whether or not to greenlight a film.
It starts with whether or not I love it, it's really hard to imagine making a film and going through that process, which can take anything from a year to three years, without absolutely loving it.
Presenter asks
2:38Oppenheimer… it's obviously a dark subject, it's three hours long and technically hugely ambitious. What made you say yes?
I was looking for people who make films that are undeniably theatrical. You have to see a Christopher Nolan film at the cinema. So I went to Chris and Emma's office in their home and sat by myself and read the script. And I took with me a basket of snacks because I'd heard the script was quite long. So I went loaded up with an iced tea and water. And what struck me about the script was that not only was it an ambitious historical story, but it had a lot of emotional elements to it, like betrayal and love. So it was just a great read.
Presenter asks
5:14You say about your mother, Anne, that she was creative. She also had a political conscience. What do you remember about that side of her?
The keepsakes
The book
Gabriel García Márquez
It's so romantic, but it's also about missing people and yearning... it would be just good to sort of confront some of those feelings through the book.
The luxury
I could consult my tarot cards... tarot cards are quite fun because they're characters... a way of being able to make up stories and imagine their lives.
I remember her taking me to a slaughterhouse when I was quite young… I just remember my mom always instilling in me this sense of social awareness, that the world was a bigger place than the one just where we were living and to be mindful of our impact on the world. She was very focused on the environment even back then in the seventies and I was out on the streets of the Isle of Wight with a little collection tin often raising money for Greenpeace.
Presenter asks
13:48How aware were you of [a lack of diversity] growing up and did it ever cause problems for you at school?
I did run into some bullying from time to time. People just didn't understand me and didn't really like my features. They made them uncomfortable. Curly hair and darker skin. But I was always surrounded by great friends, and they would stick up for me… I rarely fought back, but would always stand strong. And so it was a great life lesson… Could be [physical], absolutely. I was pushed and roughed up a bit. Somebody spat in my face… But you know, my mum was also a great support here too. She would just give me great advice… She would just say, 'You just have to think about what they're going through. They obviously are afraid because you're different. And it's great that you're different.'
Presenter asks
19:20In 2001 you joined Universal as Senior Vice President of Production. That was a big step, especially for someone who didn't have a long track record. Did you have any moments of self doubt?
I thought, oh gosh, at some point, yeah, someone's gonna find out that the gig is gonna be up, you know, that I don't have any qualifications. And it wasn't until probably 10 years ago that I looked around and said, oh, hold on a minute. I actually do know what I'm doing.
Presenter asks
25:53What was your reaction when the full extent of the sexual abuse perpetrated by Harvey Weinstein came to light?
It was shocking. I'll never forget where I was when the article broke… And we knew that Harvey was a bully, but we did not know, as an industry at large, the extent of the abuse… Back then you just didn't really talk about it. And I think that he created a system. It was pathological and he was very clever. This was decades of behavior going unchecked and abuses of power in a myriad of different ways… And I think for myself and my peers, we just knew that it came with the territory.
“Those lyrics spoke to me as a little girl. They gave me hope that I could actually turn into something, that I could become something, that my dreams may come true one day.”
“I don't know very much about them actually. My father was Egyptian, my mother was English, and I think they were college students… I got to imagine that my father was Omar Sharif. And I've always had in my heart a lot of respect for my birth mother because I imagine that back then it wasn't easy as a young woman to go nine months of pregnancy and have a baby and have to give it up for adoption. So I thank her.”
“I thought, oh gosh, at some point, yeah, someone's gonna find out that the gig is gonna be up, you know, that I don't have any qualifications. And it wasn't until probably 10 years ago that I looked around and said, oh, hold on a minute. I actually do know what I'm doing.”
“[Harvey Weinstein] created a system. It was pathological and he was very clever… And I think for myself and my peers, we just knew that it came with the territory.”
“Being a mother is the most joyful experience. Just watching them develop, watching them turn into these wonderful humans, these young men, and seeing what they're interested in and what moves them and their personalities come to life, it's an incredible feeling.”