Angelique Jackson: Have you ever wondered what it's like to be on the set of a Hollywood blockbuster?

Daniel Craig: The character felt so multifaceted, multilayered.

Angelique: "Variety Studio" invites you to listen in as A-list actors break down the ins and outs of moviemaking.

Zoe Saldana: It challenges you to still try to connect on a human level.

Kate Winslet: Exactly.

Angelique: With Daniel Craig and Josh O'Connor, Zoe Saldana and Kate Winslet, and Cynthia Erivo and Angelina Jolie.

Cynthia Erivo: You can do anything you put your mind to, even when it's scary.

Clayton Davis: Welcome to "Variety Studio Actors on Actors."

I'm Clayton Davis.

Angelique: And I'm Angelique Jackson.

Today we're hearing from some of the world's biggest movie stars.

Clayton: As they reveal secrets about their unforgettable performances.

Angelique: Two of Britain's brightest stars, Daniel Craig and Josh O'Connor break boundaries in roles that are unlike any they've taken on before.

Known worldwide as James Bond, Daniel Craig pivots in "Queer," taking on the role of a man navigating love and addiction in 1940s Mexico City.

It's a bold, unforgettable turn, marking a defining moment in Craig's already illustrious career.

William Lee: The mind.

Tom Williams: All right now, let's, let's take it easy, huh?

William: Hey, Tom.

Tom: Come on.

William: You gotta, you gotta drink, Tom?

Tom: It's cup of water, man.

Angelique: Fresh off his Emmy-winning performance in "The Crown," Josh O'Connor courts a love triangle in "Challengers."

As a bad boy tennis player caught between rivalry and romance, O'Connor's charismatic portrayal explores the thin line between passion and obsession.

Patrick Zweig: But imagine if you could turn Patrick Zweig into a guy who wins a slam.

I still have a season, still have one good season, and I need you to bring it out of me.

So, what do you think?

Helen: How dare you!

Josh O'Connor: Daniel?

Daniel: Yes.

How did you first meet Luca Guadagnino?

Josh: Luca Guadagnino, I met him at his favorite hotel in London--Claridge's.

Daniel: Claridge's, so you met him at Claridge's, and then how long after that was "Challengers"?

Josh: Three months, three or four months later.

I can't remember if it was Luca or Zendaya or both mentioned my name, and then.

Daniel: You'd like to think.

Josh: I'd like to think both.

Neither, yeah.

So, and that was it.

It didn't take convincing, 'cause obviously I wanted to work with him, but it took convincing that I was--I could do that.

Daniel: What about the tennis stuff?

What did you think about that?

You thought, "Ah, that would be easy"?

Josh: Yeah, I guess you will, you will know this, 'cause we're both British actors who trained drama school.

And when you leave drama school, you know that thing where you say, "I can orchestrate it."

I once had an audition for a play at the Globe and I needed to know how to play an instrument, so I tried to learn the harmonica in a day.

And I was--and they said, "Can you play us something?"

Daniel: And you did?

Josh: Well, I just figured it was like breathing in and out with a thing a bit of metal in front of you.

It's not.

It's really hard.

And it was so bad.

So, so, like, tennis, I was like, "Yeah, no problem."

But it's really hard.

I really wanna know, did you ever have, like, jobs?

Did you do the bar, the waitings jobs, the?

Daniel: From the age of 14, I was working in restaurants.

Through drama school, I was doing bar work all the way through drama school.

And then I made a pact with myself.

I could not go back to waiting on.

And somehow, I said--and I said to myself, If I went back to waiting on, I would give up.

I'd give it up.

I'd go to retrain.

I'd go-- I'd go--whatever.

I'm not gonna do acting.

Because it would--I can't--there's-- either it's all or nothing.

That was what I promised myself.

Josh: Yeah, 'cause it's thee--I feel like that's the, it's often, like, the thing that people don't talk about very much is, is that, is those starting years.

Daniel: They're horrible.

Josh: They're so hor--they're so brutal.

Daniel: They're really brutal.

It's li--and it's like, "No, no, no, no, no," most of the time.

You gonna have to be slightly kind of cracked, I think, to sort of get through it, to try and convince yourself that it doesn't matter.

But there were often people that you came across who kind of gave you a break.

You needed people around you to sort of give you that confidence or just that little bit.

Josh: But I was thinking about that in terms--'cause I saw "Queer."

I thought it was, like, a total masterpiece.

It is really like nothing you've done before and, like, so different to the work you've done recently.

Does--was that conscious?

Daniel: I don't think it was conscious, no.

I think that--I think there's lots of things.

You've worked with Luca.

There's an atmosphere he creates on a set which is one of brilliant chaos but also absolute focus, and it's kind of--it's Italian.

It's like this thing which is like, as for a tight [no audio] Englishman, which is like, it's kind of like very liberating.

It's very like, "Oh, I've just got to chill out here 'cause there's not--I'm not in control of this.

There's nothing I can do about this."

And it was just Luca, he kept on sort of just gently pushing me.

Josh: Because it's als--you were very--he's basi--he feels, like, deeply insecure, and yet he--the way he walks around is like--is completely confident.

Daniel: But that makes so much sense to me.

Josh: Yeah, of course.

Daniel: That's what people are--and also the kind of artifice of, of masculinity.

Josh: Yeah, and Drew is amazing in the movie.

But like, when you two are together, the vulnerability he's able to show.

He's only really able to show that vulnerability when he feels safe.

Then when he doesn't feel safe, he goes back to this macho.

Daniel: Right, I mean, it just felt very natural thing to do with him.

Yeah, he doesn't have to be one thing.

How great is that?

When you were working with Luca, the sort of the three characters and bringing those together, you know, the great--I love, love the end of that movie, and I love where it goes to, and I love what it says and all of the things.

And so what I think, kind of, Luca's kind of about, he wants to hit the moment of love.

It's like--and there's--and you see a love between the two guys, and you see kind of--and that is trumps everything around it.

And that, you know, for me, is--I'm just a sucker for it, but I think that's--what else is there?

Do you--did you discuss that?

Did you kind of figure that out, or is that kind of always there?

And did you, just, it was just like that for it?

Josh: I don't know.

I mean, I think--I always saw it as these are three people who are pulled together and they just have this, this like-- Daniel: Really young people, really young people in a situation which is like, they've--in spite of the fact that they look like they're in control of their own destinies, they're not.

Josh: They're not.

And I think that's what was going on in this film is that, yes, there's the tennis backdrop but the desire these three people had for each other that's kind of torn apart, and there's, like, an invisible magnet dragging them back together.

And that was definitely a Luca component that he was, like, bubbling underneath.

We'd often get these questions about what was it, Luca, that brought you to a tennis movie?

And Luca would always say, "This isn't a tennis movie.

This is a movie about desire."

Daniel: Yes.

This summer we did-- "Wake Up Dead Man" and-- Josh: Which, by the way, you would be before a scene, and I haven't asked you this actually, you have your music thing where you go off into a space for a bit.

What's happening in that moment?

Some sort of like alchemy is going on, 'cause you put on.

Is it-- Daniel: I mean, I'm, I've done work before.

I've done all my work before has gone on.

I've done all that.

But when I get to set, it's that thing.

You, it's like, you know, you can rehearse and rehearse and rehearse and you get to set and suddenly, "Oh, I can't, I can't do it like I thought," and, like, that's the worst feeling, 'cause you're like, "Oh, well, what am I gonna do?"

So, I really try and blank my head.

I really try and just kinda get as much out of it.

But I'm so interested in what's going on on the set.

I want to talk to you 'cause you're funny and other people and, you know, and just joke and have fun and things and I can't.

If I do that, then actually I'm kind of, I'm filling my head with what I shouldn't be filled with, and I want to empty my head, because I feel like you've got to receive.

You gotta kind of receive.

Josh: But it is true that it's like, I always felt every single scene that we had together, it always felt like we were figuring out responding to each other all the time.

Daniel: Right, and that, I feel is, that's the joy.

That's the biggest joy.

You know, that's the thing, great thing about, I love about this movie is they walk a line.

They're kinda serious and they're funny.

They're--but they're not a gag a minute.

You know, you could play comedy like it's Shakespeare.

You play it for real, and if you play it for real.

Josh: And the situation is funny rather than-- Daniel: Rather than you, although-- Josh: We edged slightly.

Edged.

Clayton: It's an Avatar reunion for Zoe Saldana and Kate Winslet.

After working underwater for the sci-fi franchise, the superstars dive into new challenges in these dramatic roles.

Zoe Saldana is the queen of the box office, having starred in three of the top grossing films of all time.

But in the Spanish language musical, "Amelia Perez," Saldana uses her talent for singing and dancing to illustrate the inner voice of a quiet lawyer who gets involved with a cartel boss.

Clayton: Oscar winner Kate Winslet portrays fashion model turned war photographer Lee Miller in the biopic, "Lee."

Winslet's trademark boldness is a perfect match for Miller, whose grit allowed her to capture extraordinary images from the front lines of World War II.

Lee Miller: This happened!

This really happened!

female: Lee, Lee, Lee, Lee, these images will disturb people more than they've already been disturbed!

People need to move on.

Lee: Move on, move on.

This little girl in a death camp, raped and beaten, how does she move on?

How does she move on ever, ever, ever?

Kate Winselt: Hi.

Zoe: Hi.

Kate: So, when I was told that I was gonna be speaking with you today, my heart just jumped for joy.

Zoe: Mine too.

Kate: But not only because I'm so excited to talk to you about your movie, but it's such a joy to spend time, proper time with you, which we probably will never get to have again quite like this.

Zoe: Unless we find ourselves in the same city.

I have to say, I saw "Lee."

I was deeply moved.

There's something really rewarding about discovering women that, throughout history, have affected the fabric of life for the better, so thank you for, Lee Miller, for telling her story.

But how did this all come together?

Kate: Okay, so we're starting with me, okay.

So, thank you for saying that, because the reason I wanted to tell Lee's story was precisely because of what you just identified is that you didn't know who she was.

So many people don't know that that image, those photographs, they may have seen connected to the conflict of World War II, and the Nazi regime, and the truth behind the atrocities, so many people have never connected the dots and realized that actually it was a middle-aged woman who took those images.

And also, Lee, because she was a creative, she had been a model in her life for a brief period in her 20s, somehow she had been defined that way, defined through the male gaze, often described alongside her love life, and it just drove me crazy because her life was so much beyond that, and she became so much beyond her past relationships.

And this thing of separating a woman from the male gaze and putting her at the head of the table amongst the men, walking into those male-dominated spaces and knowing that she had every right to be there, and it's so true to now.

It's everything that we live by.

I know it.

You know, we're trying to live our lives as women redefining femininity to mean resilience, and power, and courage, and compassion.

And that, to me, is who Lee was, and that was why I wanted to make the film.

So this was the first time for me that I have actively really produced something right from the very beginning.

I was the person, kind of, sometimes pushing this thing that often felt like a boulder up a mountain, often single-handedly.

But let me ask you, if I may now, about this extraordinary movie, "Amelia Perez," in which you play Rita.

The second you open your mouth and your beautiful singing voice comes out, I'm like, "Yes!

She's done a musical!"

I was so--I just was so excited, 'cause of course, I've heard you sing on, on set on "Avatar," and I've heard you singing, and I'm like, wow.

How did it come to you?

How did the project come to you?

Zoe: Through my agents.

But I have to say that it's all, it's through the power of manifestation.

I really do believe it, and I never did.

And I was always--I've always been a little--a bit cynical.

You know, these films, I would say "Avatar," "Star Trek," "Guardians," they gave me so much.

But as they became super successful and became machines and worldwide phenomenons, that time we needed to put in, you know, to invest into those films is quite abundant.

And all that was happening while I was also getting married and starting my family, so there was very little time for me to start stretching my muscles again and challenge myself.

So I remember I had a conversation with my agent.

They called me up, and they said, "Jacques Audiard is casting for his next movie, and it's going to be in Spanish, and it's an opera, and it takes place in Mexico, and we really do believe there's a part that is just perfect for you."

Kate: You must have been like, "Tick and tick and tick and tick and tick and tick all the other boxes I didn't even know existed."

Zoe: While you're hearing that, you're self sabotage comes up, you know, immediately.

It's like, "Oh, wait, wait, wait, you know you're not Mexican.

Oh, wait, wait, wait, you can't sing, you can't dance, you can't do, you can't do this."

And I was like, "Well, but I wanna meet him.

I just wanna have a conversation with him."

And we had a Zoom, and it was such a great connection that I had with Jacques.

He's such an approachable individual, and I love having that kind of synergy with human beings.

But I do believe that Jaucques's decision to make this a musical, to make this operatic was brilliant in the sense that these women needed to have these breaths of song and dance in order for you to really get to feel them and get to know them.

Kate: When you got on that table in the gala scene, that incredible musical number in the gala, how were your knees?

Because I, that was all I kept thinking was, "Oh, her knees!"

I mean, you do a whole dance number almost entirely on your kneecaps on that table.

It's so fantastic.

You know, that blonde woman whose hair you just pluck a little piece of like that.

Zoe: That was, that was a wonderful, creative sort of idea that I had on one of the rehearsals when, when Jacques attended.

And he's like, "I just, I don't know, I just want her to--I want Rita to be a little more unhinged, and this is, she's the devil right now, and she's casting judgment upon everyone, and this is her opportunity to really, really say what she's been, you know, suppressing."

And there's a thing about, about containment.

Like Rita, even though Rita goes there, she's always so contained, you know?

So she just settles for just grabbing that hair and just flipping it and, you know, and, and putting it all over her body.

And I just remember feeling so grateful that I was allowed once again, with a director, to, to search for our most authentic self, which is what these women are doing regardless.

Kate: That's what leads these stories right through.

We had a female director on "Lee," Ellen Kuras, who has been a much revered cinematographer her whole life.

I did "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" with her years ago in 2003.

And when it came to the point of "the script is ready, let's go out to directors," I just suddenly realized it can't be a man, it can't be a man.

And so I spoke to Ellen.

I knew that she had moved into directing television, but I also knew that she hadn't directed her first feature yet.

And I thought, "Okay, girly, it's time.

Come with me."

And seeing her really jump in and use also that visual skill that she carries that has been her whole life, it's the fabric of who she is, using that to tell Lee's story, standing back sometimes, just observing, letting the actors play, that also takes a huge amount of courage.

Angelique: In their latest dramatic turns, Cynthia Erivo and Angelina Jolie sing their hearts out to give voice to a couple of misunderstood musical women.

After winning a Tony for Broadway's, "The Color Purple," Cynthia Erivo stars as Elphaba in "Wicked."

As the legendary musical soars onto the big screen, Erivo infuses her performance with deep emotion that shines through the witch's green makeup.

♪ And all of Oz has to love you ♪ ♪ When by the Wizard, you're a acclaimed ♪ ♪ And this gift or this curse I have inside ♪ ♪ Maybe at last I'll know why as we work hand in hand ♪ ♪ The Wizard and I ♪ Angelique: In, "Maria," Oscar winner Angelina Jolie transforms into Maria Callas, the world's greatest opera singer.

Jolie's raw and achingly real portrayal of the complicated woman behind those famous arias demands a standing ovation.

Maria Callas: Meaning, now, finally, I am in control of the end.

male: I'm begging you to see reason.

Maria: My life is opera.

There is no reason in opera.

Angelina Jolie: I'm so happy to be sitting with you.

I've been looking forward to this.

Cynthia: Yeah, I've been, like, chomping at the bit to get started and chatting.

I think, when I watched "Maria," I wanted to find out about all of the work that you had done to sing, 'cause, yes, I've been doing it my whole life.

So, for me it's sort of like skin, second nature, but to have to learn a new form of singing, because opera is its own form-- one, how brave.

And what gave you the bravery to do it?

And two, what was the process like for you to feel comfortable enough to sing in that way?

Angelina: I was terrified.

But I think, you know, it's a gift as an artist.

And I know you felt this going into to your film as well, when you're just not sure you're able to do it, you're not sure good enough, you know, the challenge is set and you feel small, it's a gift for an artist.

But it was the--it was the finding my actu--my voice and letting my voice out that was really hard for me, and I was really emotional about it.

I didn't know how much I had lost my voice in maybe when I lost my mother, maybe when someone hurt me, maybe when I--whatever it was, finding it and letting it come out was such a feeling that I wish for everybody to have.

I wish everybody could know what you feel when you sing at the top of your beautiful voice and you s--you know what can come out of your body, and it's not just what you can do for an audience or how you tell a story.

It's that you can make that sound.

Maria talks about it as being like the human song.

You can make that sound, deliver that truth.

Cynthia: I just felt like I was, you know, with her, with Maria, in her everyday life.

And you know, there's this wonderful, fearless way of--she never feels sorry for herself, ever, and I think that's what breaks your heart.

She's fighting still.

She's still fighting, and it's really beautiful to watch that, 'cause we don't get that very often in our women characters.

Angelina: I think some people see it as just strength, but it's not.

It's a--it's holding your grace as a woman.

It doesn't mean you're not suffering, but you're not leaning on the self-pity, and sadly, that comes from a lot of people who never got love, right?

You don't expect.

Maybe this is something similar about our characters, right?

You are used to Maria didn't have, you know, a mother that loved her and told her that she was enough as she was, you know, so both of our characters come from being alone since they were little and feeling a little different for very different reasons and that, at the end of the day, it's only gonna be you.

And so, any little kindness means everything-- Cynthia: Do you feel--you said that you were terrified.

Do you think that feeling is eased now?

Angelina: I feel so many emotions when it comes to this piece because so I had someone in my life say that I couldn't sing.

They didn't even say, "You couldn't sing."

I kind of was singing something little and they kind of laughed a little bit at me, and it really locked me, and I don't think I would have ever tried had this not come.

I would have just lived my whole life never finding my voice.

So, so yes, I went from being very terrified to being very grateful to having so much.

I love this music.

I love--I imagine you sing opera.

Cynthia: Yes, and I only discovered I could sing opera at drama school, because when I went to do "The Color Purple," my singing teacher who worked with me then, my vocal coach, was like, "The way we're gonna take care of your voice is to do opera."

Angelina: And why?

Cynthia: Because it forces you to use your vocal chords in a very different way.

You are, strangely enough, using your vocal chords in the safest possible way.

You're not pushing too hard, because you cannot.

You're not driving in the wrong way, because you can't.

You're not adding rasp where that you don't need to, because you're not.

And because I was singing eight shows a week with, like, lots of grit, it's--and it's big--to allow my voice to almost reset by singing aria was the best thing I could have done.

Angelina: Okay, I can't not talk about some of the wonderful--the joy of this film that you've made.

I remember taking my daughter, who, when she watched "Defying Gravity"-- And I remembered that moment, and I remembered catching her.

And I felt that feeling of there's endless possibility and something within her she hasn't discovered yet.

And I loved when it came at the end of this film.

Cynthia: Before I was going to do it, I knew there was, like, this huge responsibility because it's such a well-known song and people know it, people love it.

But I think, like, the journey of getting to that moment, not just in the film, not just in the making of this particular project, but the journey I've taken to get to here, you know, being at drama school, 20, putting myself through drama school, not getting jobs, and not really being seen, and not really feeling accepted, feeling very odd, very different, and having to figure out how to make my own way through this, 'cause this business is hard, and this business is very hard when you're a Black girl who's singing, you know?

So I think I just had to channel several different things, the little Cynthia who didn't know she could do this, who could-- who would be here, big Cynthia who wanted to make everyone proud and herself proud.

I wanted it to feel like the complete package--that it was servicing not just my desires but the desires of those who need something to say.

You can do anything you put your mind to, even when it's scary.

And I love singing, so to be able to take on that, I was so ready to do it.

Let's do this, yeah.

Angelique: Thanks for joining us for this episode of "Variety Studio Actors on Actors."

Clayton: We'll see you next time.

Daniel: Challenges wasn't--it isn't lights?

We lost the light though.

Josh: I have my bike chain.

I have my helmet.

Daniel: Sword.

Josh: Sword, shield.

Kate: And then it came into my home and I sat down a bit, and I just thought, "Fly."

And I would even go so far as to say it's a little bit sacred.

Zoe: It's very sacred.

Kate: Fly again.

Angelina: Thank you, everyone.

That was so nice.

It was so lovely.

Cynthia: Thank you.

Kate: I knew this would be a nice-- Cynthia: Yeah, yeah.