Juno Temple is no stranger to shape-shifting. Before inhabiting the role of Keeley, Ted Lasso’s resident social media expert and one half of TV’s most endearing couple, she spent years evading categorization. There were dramas (Atonement, Dirty John) comedies (Greenberg, Afternoon Delight), and Temple’s performances in them tend to defy all genre conventions.
But as the 32-year-old Emmy nominee for best supporting actress in a comedy series tells it, she’s on a journey back to herself. “It’s funny, I guess, the role that I’m saving until last is the role of actual Juno, I suppose,” she tells V.F.’s Katey Rich on Little Gold Men. “But I can figure her out later. It’s a slow process as all these other roles come into my life because I learn so much through playing all these different amazing female characters.”
Another portion of this week’s Little Gold Men episode is dedicated to Ted Lasso and the all-too predictable backlash to its second-season rollout. Katey, Joanna Robinson, Richard Lawson, and guest David Canfield also preview Jane Campion’s buzzy Oscar-hopeful The Power of the Dog (based on Thomas Savage’s novel) and dig into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Plus, Emmys favorite Maya Rudolph chats with V.F.’s Hillary Busis about her nominations for Saturday Night Live and Big Mouth.
Listen to the episode above, and find Little Gold Men on Apple Podcasts or anywhere else you get your podcasts. You can also sign up to text with us at Subtext—we’d love to hear from you.
Read highlights from the Juno Temple conversation below.
On empathizing with even her wildest characters:
Juno Temple: There’s a phrase that people always say, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” which I actually don’t fully believe in. But a version of it which, to me, makes a lot more sense [is], “What doesn’t kill you makes you interesting at parties,” because sometimes you go through things that make you really fragile and make you hard on yourself and make you not want to wake up. But, sometimes reliving it can be the most interesting way of actually dealing with it and talking about it. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve gotten stronger. It just means that within talking about it, you’re understanding it, I guess. Any battle that you go through, whether it be in your personal life or in a work situation, it is about understanding it so you can empathize with it, right?
On getting recognized after Ted Lasso:
It’s an interesting experience because I’m terrified of the idea of becoming a household name or being a universally recognizable person just because I’m very private about a lot of things, unless I’m meeting you one-on-one, then I’m an open book. I think you can learn a lot from that. But, I think things can be misconstrued when they’re taken by the masses. That’s always been quite terrifying to me because also, then, it’s harder to be a chameleon, to be Frances McDormand or Cate Blanchett, two actresses that I just think are extraordinary. Actually, when I think about them, they aren’t being talked about unless there’s a project that they want to be talking about. I recognize them in anything that they're coming out in on my TV or cinemas, yet I forget that it’s them when I’m watching a movie. So, the ability to do that is something that I strive for.
But, I do also really love Keeley and I mean, I don’t want to sound kind of trite for saying this but I really do feel honored to play her and lucky. I really love talking about her and I love talking to people about her and about what the show brought into their life. Even if it’s as simple as just saying, “Wow, it wasn’t what I thought it was going to be.” I love hearing that, too. That being said, have things changed enormously? Not really because I don’t go out much. I had some of my castmates that were out here doing press things. Jeremy Swift and Brett Goldstein and Hannah Waddingham, they all went to New York afterwards and Brett was telling me, “It was crazy. We couldn’t go more than a block without being recognized by a bunch of people and it was wack.”
On rooting for Hannah Waddingham at the Emmys:
I could not be more grateful that I get to go through this with Hannah because she is like a real life guardian angel that came into my universe. It’s such an incredible thing to get a nomination like that because that’s people appreciating you for what you love doing the most. But, it is scary because you’re then going to keep challenging yourself to, “Oh, okay, I’ve got to just keep getting better. I gotta just keep bringing it.” I really care about the work and hopefully we do get to go [to the Emmys] in person, because I feel very excited to go through that with Hannah. I really, really do. I was there with her when she won her Critic’s Choice Award and it was magic. I think she might win and I really think that would be exciting.
I think Hollywood can really, really use seeing a woman like that accept an award and hear her speech and see her beauty and her realness and her bravery and vulnerability and her grace and I think she’s a truly spectacular woman. It would be a very, very wonderful thing if she won at this moment in time, especially just for women, seeing her for being who she is. It would be a really special thing.
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