She is really open-minded and really curious. I admired her, as a director and an artist, and she is a really good listener. That varies, interpersonally, from relationship to relationship, and friend to friend, or whatever. SLATE: It’s just a general ability to build trust with someone. When something like that happens, where you find somebody that you know you want to keep working with, what is it that about them or about their approach that gives you that feeling? And that’s a delight, as well, because whenever it does happen, I will be very grateful for it. I was like, “Oh, I wanna work with her for the rest of my life.” And so, I’m sure we will work together again, one day. I certainly set that goal for myself, the first time we worked together.

SLATE: Well, we don’t have anything scheduled right now, but I really hope that I can make many more films with Gillian. Do you have any collaborations coming up together, that you guys are hoping to do together soon? You and Gillian Robespierre have collaborated on things a few times now. This other thing should have been our focus.” When I watch the film now, I love Fridtjov’s performance so much, and I loved being able to act with him. Sometimes you’re on set and suddenly you realize, “Oh, this is really interesting. SLATE: Yeah, if I would do anything again, I would just write more scenes with Nils and get more into that relationship. I love their dynamic because they don’t say a lot, but there’s so much going on between them. It’s not always good, but I feel like those were my favorite scenes to shoot. We know how this goes.” With the character of Nils (Såheim), who Frances is there to be the apprentice of, his grumpiness is identifiable, but how she reacts to it is really a special thing that grows between them. For me, at least, performing those scenes, you don’t fall into trying to make them like, “Okay, this is a scene between mentor and student. SLATE: Yeah, and the people are not caricatures or tropes. Frances is such an interesting character because even though you would think she would show up at this place, shut down and not wanting to deal with anybody else, she has these really interesting experiences with quite unique people, along the way.

Jenny slate big mouth