00:00I had no idea that this woman, Whitney, was a part of both of these apps at a moment in
00:05tech history where these apps were exploding, and really was a part of how we revolutionized
00:11how we engage online, how men and women interact, and how we date now, and so I was just completely
00:18sort of like, wow, who is this person?
00:25The first thing that happened with this movie was I was sent the script,
00:28and was bowled over by this woman, Whitney Wolf Heard, who our story is about, and her achievements,
00:37and who she is as a woman, and what she overcame, and then what she put out into the world as a direct
00:44response to her experiences felt so profound, and so I then came on board, and as things developed,
00:53it became clear really quickly that I also wanted to produce so that I could be really a part of the
01:00DNA of telling this story. I didn't know anything really about her story. I knew about obviously
01:07Tinder, the dating app, which is humongous, and I knew about Bumble, which is Whitney's app that she
01:12founded, but I had no idea that in the kind of that this woman, Whitney, was a part of both of these
01:19apps at a moment in tech history where these apps were exploding, and really was a part of how we
01:26revolutionized how we engage online, how men and women interact, and how we date now, and so I was
01:32just completely sort of like, wow, who is this person? And this story should be told. It's an
01:39important story. It's an inspiring story, and yeah, it's really kind of been very profound in my life,
01:47taking on this role. I was just so shook to my core that there was this really young woman in her
01:5420s, and this is pre-MeToo, you know, that when this whole event happened, the way in which she was
02:03treated online and in the media, and the narrative that was put out just was inexcusable and so upsetting,
02:13and but I guess what what's so wonderful and what we focus on in the film is like these brilliant,
02:21courageous, kind of once in a generation people, they take those experiences and make something
02:27good out of it, and creating Bumble, which she did, which is puts women in the driver's seat,
02:35and endeavoring to make the internet safer for women, so that the girls that come after don't
02:42have to hopefully experience what she and many women have been through in similar instances, so
02:49it's a really, it's really powerful. You guys show her really having a hard time after she was like
02:56pushed out of Tinder, but then she pretty quickly and miraculously like channels it, and I was like,
03:04okay, it's something for me to work on, like not wallowing when something happens, but like how
03:09good are you at like, like where do you fall on the spectrum of like, you know, being able to channel?
03:16I think, you know what's amazing as an actor is you're continually given these opportunities to
03:22channel experiences that you've had into your work, and it can be deeply cathartic. I also think we can
03:28give ourselves some grace. It's okay to have, you know, if something difficult happens to you in your life,
03:34challenging, you're allowed to, and you should, I think, you've got to let it move through,
03:39and you've got to lean into it, and then hopefully all these experiences are teaching us something
03:43about ourselves, and it's what we do with it that really matters, so there's definitely good lessons
03:48in there. Yeah, I'm on, I'm on a journey with that stuff. If you've had like even just like a crazy day,
03:55what do you reach for at the end of the day? Like is it candy? Is it an episode of Friends?
03:59Oh, I love Friends. I just, I just, I definitely watch Friends. I recently was watching it one
04:04Sunday rainy afternoon in London, just like last weekend. I love, I kind of, a creature of comfort
04:10in that like, if I can just climb into bed with a hot chocolate, or like, it often involves chocolate,
04:16and I like to feel kind of cozy, and, and for me, I like to get out of a city. If I'm having a tough
04:27time, I need to be, kind of see the horizon and be in nature and get a bit of perspective, clear your
04:32head. Talk to me about the, like creating this character, but she's also obviously a real person,
04:38but you're not playing exactly, you're not mimicking it by any means, but like where was that line,
04:42and even just like from her, like the accent? Well, no, you completely nailed it. I was trying
04:47to embody the essence of, of, of this character of Whitney and kind of do justice to her story,
04:54but bringing all of my own self to it and my own interpretation. But I did spend hours and hours
05:05watching her and I would watch, there's an amazing masterclass that she does, which is brilliant.
05:09I implore everyone to watch it because it's very inspiring. And I would sit in front of the TV,
05:13and I would stop and pause and I would like, and I would slow down YouTube clips, um, so that I could
05:19talk alongside her and mimic her hand gestures. And often it's, it's about a kind of a rhythm and a
05:26pace of speaking her from watching her. Something I was really picked up on is how fast her brain is
05:32going and how many thoughts she's having and how much impulse there is in her to kind of act and make
05:37a change. And so there's a kind of speed and an energy to the rhythm of how she speaks. And she
05:41doesn't, it keeps, she keeps, she speaks faster than I do. Um, so I was trying to capture things
05:47like that, which are clues about the human. I loved your chemistry with my Hala in this.
05:52And I also loved like, I feel like she got to have a lot of fun with her look, but as a producer,
05:57can you tell me anything about like what your conversations were about, like kind of what
06:01her character should be, the hairstyle, et cetera. Oh, my, my Hala like came up with that whole
06:06look. We had an amazing team. We had, um, the same hair and makeup team actually that I worked
06:12with on Pam and Tommy, who are just formidable Barry and David. And then we had our amazing,
06:17um, costume designer Beth and, and obviously alongside our director, Rachel, they kind of
06:22created each character. And I'm, I thought that was so cool. It was very, um, you wanted her to feel
06:28like kind of, uh, she had her band and a whole energy outside the tech bro space so that she
06:34brought that in with such life and kind of power. Um, I mean, but that time it was, it was when I
06:41first did my question fittings, I was like, wow, these skinny jeans, and this is not a good look for
06:46me. I'm going to really struggle with this fashion. And Beth, our designer did a great job at kind of
06:53making it feel so authentic and real, but also elevating it. So it felt kind of cinematic and
06:58um, cool. And it's an important, you know, cause that moment, it's in our, such our recent history,
07:04but how different it was with, with how fast tech has progressed and how fast things are moving even
07:09quicker now with AI. It's like, um, it was important to get a kind of very retro feel,
07:15even though it's our very recent.
