Late Night with Conan O’Brien - 05/01/2003

August 2nd, 2007 | by mima |

Conan: Alright everybody, we’re back. You all know my next guest is in such films as the Mummy, the Mummy Returns and Enemy at the Gates. She can now be seen in the brand new movie Confidence, lets take a look.

[They show a clip from Confidence]

Conan: Please welcome, Rachel Weisz!

Conan:You look amazing.

Rachel: Oh, thank you!

Conan: Nice to have you here.

Rachel: Nice to be here.

Conan: I have to ask you about that clip, because we were watching that clip today from the movie. It’s a very intence scene between you and Dustin Hoffman. And this clip was edited for television, I guess. I don’t know, but I heard that he really, when you were shooting for the movie put his hand right on your chest, is that right?

Rachel: That is correct.

Conan: And that was not in the script for Dustin Hoffman to do, he “improvised”. He improvised that little nugget, didn’t he?

Rachel: Yes.

Conan: Tell me about that!

Rachel: I have never work with him before, it was the first time. He doesn’t do anything like stick to the script, he improvises whole time. This was just one of his many improvisations, for putting his hand on my chest.

Conan: It’s a good story:”I was improvising!”

Rachel:Yeah, haha ha!

Conan: It’s Dustin Hoffman, so I’m thinking he’s had so much stature, he is such famous actor, so you have to go with the trust in that situation.

Rachel: Yes, yes. I think that when Dustin Hoffman touches your chests it’s art.

Conan: It’s art?

Rachel: Haha, yes it’s art.

Conan: So, if I did it I would be shot immediately?

Rachel: Yes, yes, yes.

Conan: So, I’m not gonna do it.

Rachel: No, no.

Conan: Right. Thank you. But I.. I…(the audience is laughing out loud). I thought I had a possibility… “I too am an artist!” No, but yeah, he is the exception.

Rachel: Yes. When I was about.. I think I must have been ten or eleven, my parents, who were very stright about what kind of movies I saw with like sexual context. When I was a teenager, they took me to see..mm, I think it was Don Giovanni, the Mozart opera that was made on the Film. And it was essentially porn. I mean, looking back on it now, it was just Don Giovanni fornicationg with tons and tons of women.

Conan: It was their represention, it sounds like a rage version from Don Giovanni?

Rachel: No, it’s true to Mozart, but they just showed like more stuff you would normally see in an opera.

Conan: So, people were naked up there?

Rachel: Yes, people were stark naked up there, having sex all over the place, and I was, you know eleven years old. And I remember saying to my parents after the show:”oh, that was a little shocking to me”. And they said:”No, no, it’s art.” You know, it was Mozart. It’s that weird thing that happens like art and porn to meet. You know what I mean? (she looks at Bob sitting right next to her)

Conan: Yeah Bob, help us out!

Bob: You know, I’m actually clueless.

Conan: Yeah it’s the…(the audience is laughing out loud)

Conan: (looks at Bob) Bob, why do you keep dragking this show to the gutter?!

Bob: I have no idea.

Conan: You keep holding us down to your level. No, you’re watching. It’s classical music to it, if there was *wakowakozakowako* (Conan makes funny noices) to it, it would be porn.

Rachel: Right, if you have 70’s bass-line, it would be porn.. Not that I’ve seen any of course.

Conan: No, I don’t think anyone of us have.

Rachel: Right, Bob? Har har har har!!! (she’s laughing out really loud)

Bob: Of course not, except perhaps as research.

Conan: Yes.

Rachel: For base-get-ball?

Bob: For base-get-ball. You have to understand your characters’ motiovations, that’s how I feel.

Conan: Exactly. And as a sports announcer watching porn helps you eventually.

Bob: In case of rain emergency.

Conan: Alright, now listen Bob, please! Rachel, I apologize. I didn’t want him to stay in here, but this is just how kind of filthy man he is.

Bob: I stay over here.

Conan: Yeah, you stay right there. Now, in this film you’re playig a pickpocket. You actually had to learn how to be pickpocket.

Rachel: I did, yeah.

Conan: Where do you learn to be a pickpocket, I would love to know?

Rachel: It’s a good guestion. Unfortunately I couldn’t meet any real pickpockets. They were not interested to come out of the woods to train me. I met a… he’s a magician in L.A. who had been studying pickpocketing. He said it is the ultimate passive-aggressive act, and the slang for it is “kissing the dog”.

Conan: Pickpockets call it “kissing the dog”? Why they call it kissing the dog?

Rachel: It’s like a poem, when you hear it. It’s hard to understand, but basically the idea is because you go up to your victim and it’s a very gently act. You steal from them very gently. You could be smiling at them and picking the pocket at same time. The idea, I guess, is that to kiss the dog in the mouth is unpleasant.

Conan: It’s not that bad. Overtime it gets better.

Rachel: (laughing out loud)

Conan: Bob, please!

Bob: I didn’t say a word!

Rachel: This guy, he’s a magician, he’ll go to corporate dinners and gets business men on to the stage. And he’ll say: “Dude I’m gonna get your watch, belt and wallet”. And they are like: “No, you’re not”. But he does, he did it to me, he managed to…

Conan: That’s amazing. I’m almost convinced that I could feel, if my wallet was leaving my pants, I would feel it. I’ve got a big wallet that have receipts from the late 80’s on it, you know. I’m almost convinced I could feel it, but I guess you don’t.

Rachel: No. It’s all about misleading them, by touching them some very else.

Conan: Rachel, that would work!

Rachel: Oh, I set myself in to that, didn’t I?

Bob: Dustin Hoffman got her wallet and necklace, but she didn’t know that.

Conan: Yeah, he took your home IN L.A. and everything.

Rachel: Dustin is amazing to work with. He really is. It’s electric to work with someone who improvises the whole time.

Conan: He’s famous for doing that too.

Rachel: Yeah, yeah.

Conan: Let me ask you, before you go. And I’m asking because Bob is here. I know that you’re going to your first baseball game ever tonight.

Rachel: Yes, I’m going to see the Yankees.

Conan: He is a world expert on baseball. Anything to ask from Bob before you go to the game?

Rachel: I actually understand the rules a little bit, because as far as I know, please correct me if I’m wrong, it’s based on english girls game rounders. What girls have been playing in England few hundred years.

Bob: Yes, It’s based on it.

Conan: No, no, no! Our national sportgame isn’t based on english girls game!!

Rachel: Bob?

Conan: No!

Bob: It has some of its roots in that.

Conan: Some of its roots. Get out, buddy! U S A, U S A!! Is it based on girls game?

Rachel: Yeah, we used to play it in school.

Conan: How many bases?

Rachel: Four. How many you have?

Bob: Four.

Conan: No, we have really three bases. I never count homebase.

Bob: Well, that’s why you never score.

(Conan gets really pissed off and is staring at Bob very meanly. The audience is laughing and Rachel looks sympathetic.)