My character has an affair with someone new, which is really fun to play. Um. Let's Cynthia. Naughty little minx. She's really She's busy.

I'm Olly Vittorini here on the Young Hollywood sofa with the lovely Saffron Burrows. How are you?

Very well, thank you.

Wonderful. We're just talking catching up on English.

I know. We're We're reminiscing about British culture. The big breakfast. Marmite.

Marmite. Are you a Marmite fan?

I'm a big Marmite fan.

Oh, you are. Yeah. So we're very different. Yeah. Oh, you hate it?

No, I hate it. You know what? Your mom should have rubbed it on your gums when you were a baby, 'cause that's what I'm told you have to do. I didn't do that with my boy and he's three and I tried to sneak it on to his toast. That's. And each time he detective and said off. It's disgusting. No, that's not. But you shouldn't rub it on their gums. Did Did mom do it? Did Susie do that?

She didn't. But but I think if you do, it it just gives them the taste. And I I neglected to do it with my boy and now I wish I had, 'cause he just three and he just goes what is that? Exciting times for you. It's lovely. Yeah. This is great. Yeah. Yeah. Mozart in the jungle, just a small small show, you know.

I know. Seems to be doing uh extremely well. It's really lovely. I was reading a funny um just an interview with Jason Schwartzman the other day where he was explaining. I mean we we've obviously talked about it because he's one of our writer producers. Right, right, right. But why it came about, you know. And he was just saying how he'd read an interview in the New York Times about the memoir, of the book. And he thought, "God, I'd love to see a I'd love to see a show about that." And thought, "You know, why doesn't someone do it for me?" And then suddenly realized, "Well, all right, then. Maybe I should just get off my bum and do it myself."

I don't know how much of it you've seen, but It's

I've seen a I've seen a bit. I've seen enough to know that there's a naughty side to the orchestra, which I didn't really. You know, and apparently, it's just the tip of the iceberg what we show. Right. Okay. Apparently, uh I've talked to some classical musicians who say the life of a symphony is often even more extreme than that in terms of. I would've never dreamed. Yeah. So they they're naughty little ones, aren't they?

Well, also, they often will enter the orchestra straight from college. Fall in love, have babies, get married, get divorced and often they'll want to keep their jobs because they're they're fantastic jobs to have. So they'll remain sitting four chairs from each other for 20 years. Sometimes not even speaking once they're divorced. So it's quite a there's all of life there. Right, right. And there's some good some happy stories too. Right, right. So that's why hence our cast ranges from 20 to 80. Right. Yeah, everyone's Everyone's. Which is lovely. Yeah. And then obviously for you going into the project, it sounds like you've done a lot of you you had to do a lot of research. With the orchestra and

Yeah, I did. I knew a little bit um about that world just from a conductor friend of mine. That helped. But then, yeah, just talking to people. I spoke to a lot of people about what happens when you get involved in union action in that world. Because um obviously orchestras are having their rates cut now and they're diminishing in size and so they're having to sort of get very involved in in negotiating with management. My character gets into that side of thing. Right. Right. Right. And then also I spoke to this lovely woman at the New York Phil who's been there since seventies. And when she joined, there wasn't a female dressing room. She was one of two women in the seventies who were in the orchestra and they had to change in the loo because there was literally no just no accommodation for women at all. So it's obviously changed a bit.

Changed a bit, yeah. And the gender balance is is there, I think. And and also just diversity in the orchestra is is more present now than it was. So it's it's much more interesting now, I think because it's sort of all of life. Right. Season one, you know, Golden Globe win. What would you say about season two? How is it different? How is it changing?

Season one, you're getting to know everyone, obviously, and you're dealing with some dynamics relationships. Like my character is very involved with Malcolm McDowell's character, who's the older conductor. We've complicated, we have a history. And everyone sort of finding their way a little bit and seeing through the eyes of this oboist. You you you get to see a a glimpse of this world and what what happens. And there's a very strong storyline. But then in season two, we travel. We go on tour. Right. Which is very cinematic and rich. And and also those things develop. My character has an affair with someone new, which is really fun to play. Um. Let's Cynthia. Naughty little minx. She's really She's busy.

You play the cello. Cynthia plays the cello.

Yes. Cynthia plays the cello.

And you do play a little bit now. You play like 90 seconds of each bit, is that right?

Exactly. You've done your research. Right, right. I play 90 seconds. I could do a mashup. Okay. Of uh bit of Tchaikovsky, bit of Mahler. They'll sometimes give you five days to learn a piece. Right. And then I I will sit down with my teacher and we'll say, "Okay, which bit is the camera gonna focus on?" Because you can't learn, you know, a 50-minute symphony.

I was gonna say that's a big ask.

Yeah. So we'll say, "Okay, where where are they gonna swoop in on me?" And then you, you know, it's never really what you think it's gonna be. You learn that chunk and then Mexico City when we were filming, for example, Gael was conducting us on the stage at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. And it's I've got this wonderful Mexican cellist next to me. She's playing really fast. And then Roman Coppola was directing that episode. He says, "Okay, just keep the camera swooping." So they played for something like four minutes, which doesn't sound long. Right. But when you've learned 90 seconds, you're just seeing my face looking very, very

It's a long four minutes. Right. Right.

intense. Right, right. I'm just watching the woman next to me. I'm looking at the music.

Especially surrounded by those sort of people as well.

Absolutely. And it is it's I feel it's good for my brain because once you leave school, it that that thing of having to learn something in a very short space of time. Right. It's very it's good exercise.

Had you played an instrument before? Before this?

I played guitar a bit. I did a film called The Guitar. That that involved a guitar.

That involved a guitar. And then I played a cellist in two or three films. Yeah. Right, right, right. I didn't know I knew you had played the cello before but I didn't know if you had to learn the cello for that as much as this. This was different, right?

I wouldn't. This is this is more probably just because of the the nature of our show, you know, the way we we'll shoot for two or three months and then come back a year later. So it's there's a there's a flow to it which which I think in the end you think, "Well, I might as well just try and get good at this." Right. Right. Um, and I and it also I've kind of fallen in love with it because it's such a lovely instrument.

So you will continue, continue to play. I think so, yeah. after the show. Yeah. It's a great thing to rock out, isn't it? house and. Dinner party, just pull out the cello. Just bust it out. That's brilliant. It's amazing. Pretty good. It's amazing. And the great thing is it's on Amazon, so everyone can just watch it. Yes. Right now, which is brilliant. You can binge it all. You can binge it all. You've got like 10 hours worth. There you go. There you go. What else would you do at the weekend? I know. You could do it all this Saturday. That is it. An amazing show. Thank you. Thanks for coming in. And yeah, excited to see what Cynthia gets up to next.

Thanks.

Or who.

Or who? I know. Yeah. What's gonna happen? Yeah. She's a naughty one.