Though Kate Winslet and Evan Peters had already reached a certain level of stardom when they won Emmys for HBO’s crime drama Mare of Easttown, the story was different for Julianne Nicholson. One of our finest screen actors for decades, the Western Massachusetts native had led underappreciated indies like Who We Are Now, popped as a guest star in series ranging from Boardwalk Empire to Masters of Sex, and superbly played one of Meryl Streep’s daughters in August: Osage County. But as Nicholson’s tortured mother Lori Ross moved to the center of Mare’s mystery, the actor finally got to show her stuff in a major, awards-bound hit—and made the moment count.

And then? She didn’t work for a year.

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On the one hand, the development surprised Nicholson, even as she’s learned not to put too many expectations on any juicy role or sense of momentum. But as she says on this week’s Little Gold Men (read or listen below), Nicholson had also been keeping her priorities straight. Around that time, she was set to go into production on Janet Planet, a film set in the area where she grew up and written and directed by the Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Annie Baker in her screen debut. Nicholson turned down other offers to make sure she could do the project.

The film bowed at last year’s Telluride Film Festival and was recently released in theaters by A24, on the strength of sterling reviews. As the complex single mother to an 11-year-old (played by Zoe Ziegler) who’s at once close to and increasingly alienated from her, Nicholson is in her element. The film is quiet, specific, and personal—another hallmark of the actor’s career. And if a few more people are paying attention now? Lucky them.

Vanity Fair: When Annie Baker approached you about this part, you realized you both had this Western Massachusetts upbringing. What were some of the sounds and the images that you talked about? This is a film very much about bringing the landscape to life.

Julianne Nicholson: We would share lots of pictures of books that our moms read, or that they forced us to read. We both bought our first bras at the JC Penney at the mall, and roller skating at Interskate 91. That’s still there. Then I remembered bird song. There was a whippoorwill that has this crazy sound, and it was a nightmare. They would come usually at sunset, which when you’re a seven, eight-year-old kid is when you go to bed. I sent her the whippoorwill call. It was basically an invitation to go back to being a kid and really live in that experience.

What struck you while watching the movie that you couldn’t have been aware of until you saw it?

Just to see little details around the house. We used to get this cream called Skin Trip. It was very late ’70s hippie, but they still make it. I still see it in Whole Foods or Erewhon, but I would get it every year in my stocking, and I wore it all the time. I told Annie that, and so it’s on Janet’s desk or it’s in the bathroom or something. And we both remembered that our moms—and this might be TMI—would leave their diaphragms out next to the sink to dry. We both had that. Her incredible production designer had to work so hard to try to find a diaphragm. You have to get a prescription for it, blah, blah. We never pan across it, but it’s there. There’s tons of little details like that, that you’re picking up on a subconscious level.

You’re playing a character through the eyes of a child. What were the parameters there as you saw them?

I struggled personally with wanting to find the warmth, while Annie was much more inclined—and I think she was right—to find the space between them. That’s actually more interesting than an easygoing, warm, physical, cuddly relationship. Sometimes that was hard for me.

Annie Baker is a revered playwright, but this is her first film. You have some experience working with more experimental directors. Are there ever any nerves ever about stepping into it with someone who’s never done it before?

There has to be something—I’m not just going to say yes. Oftentimes, they’ve made a short, or in Annie’s case, she has a whole body of work on stage. Matt Newton, when I did Who We Are Now with, I had done another film with him called From Nowhere. And he had done another film in Australia that I got to watch that I loved. I loved the acting, I loved his care around every actor in the film, whether they were one of the leads or someone who had one or two scenes. I go on instinct mainly, but there’s usually something I can latch onto that makes it feel worth the risk, if you want to call it that.

You and I spoke a few years ago, when Mare of Easttown had its moment. You said that it felt like no one got to see some of the movies you worked really hard on, and put a lot of hope on. Janet Planet has met a lovely reception so far, but are you still priming yourself for that kind of disappointment?

Just don’t have expectations, because you just never know. I feel like it’s just some sort of pixie dust on the thing when it works. It just has to be about the work and not about how it's received. Only disappointment awaits if that's what you're doing it for—it’s trouble. I’d had, in my mind, many, many, many [thoughts of] “This is it. It all changes on this date when the pilot airs!” Then it’s like, “Oh.” I feel like it’s going to be that way till the last job I do. You just never know. When it becomes something that people respond to, how wonderful. But in the meantime, it just has to be about who I get to work with, stories I want to tell, stories that I feel like are valuable to put out there.

Is there a role where it felt like you were kind of jumping off the cliff?

Monos.

That’s a movie I was going to ask you about. You’re playing a prisoner of war being looked after by these teenage commandments. You try to escape. It’s a very different kind of role for you, and a very different area of filmmaking in general.

Yeah, that was definitely jumping off an actual cliff. Alejandro Landes who directed it had done another film before that I watched called Porfirio, and then I read the script of Monos, and I saw their sort of lookbook type of thing—all these images in his previous films. It was sort of a no-brainer, but was still very much a risk, and it was a wild experience that I feel so lucky to have been able to do.

How does a project like that even come your way? How are you sifting through the pile of options that leads to a project like Monos?

I feel so lucky that I started working when I did, because I got to know casting directors. I had relationships with people in New York and LA—people that would bring you in for this or that, and maybe you didn’t get that job, but then they’d bring you in for something else. There is a casting director named Eyde Belasco, and she had worked with Alejandro at Sundance. There was another actress that was going to maybe do it, and then that didn’t work, so then she sent it to me.

I really feel for people who are trying to start their path now, and all they’re doing is sending in self-tapes, which is fucking a nightmare.

Going on Zoom.

Yes! It’s not the same thing. There are people that I still feel like kinship to, friendship with, grateful to. Avy Kaufman was the casting director on Mare of Easttown, and I’ve been going into her room since I was 24 years old…. That’s how I got it. It was just sent to me. I hope that the work that I choose to do sends a message of what I’m interested in doing, so that people will come to me with the risky things, with the weird things, with the new things.

How did Mare change things for you?

I don’t think it has.

Okay.

Is that true? [Laughs] I don’t know. I feel like it’s just one more thing on the pile. For me, it was very moving to feel like my work is recognized, and to feel like people responded to that character so deeply. That was hugely gratifying. I'm doing a Hulu show with Dan Fogelman, who did This Is Us, and I’m sure part of the reason they were up for hiring me for this role was because of Mare. I think it did help. But I didn’t work for a year after I won the Emmy.

Did that surprise you?

[Pause] Yeah. But I did also have Janet Planet to do, and I basically told my agents and managers, “We protect Janet.” I got offered another show and was like, “Can’t do it. We have to protect Janet.” That was my main goal…. Luckily I was able to hold onto that. I only can go on how I feel about the thing, and if it feels special, then those are the ones I want to protect and support.

What do you remember about the Emmys and your win? It was the first ceremony since COVID and yours was one of the first categories announced.

At first, it was awful, because I was a nervous wreck. You get a stylist, and they get you a pretty dress, and then you feel like you have to get your picture taken in it if you ever want anyone to lend you a dress again. This was the first sort of award show back, and still COVID, so there were no publicists or agents. It was just basically “talent.” There was the one tiny little red carpet, and people were cutting. Famous people were barging their way onto the carpet! I was sick to my stomach, like, “Oh, my God, I’m not going to get my picture taken. I’m never going to get a fancy dress again.” If you look at pictures before the show, of my husband and I, I look like I’m in a blackout, I look like I’m having such a bad time, which is kind of true.

But then I’m sat at a table with Evan [Peters] and Kate [Winslet], and Evan wins, and then I won. That colored the whole rest of the night, and then Kate won, and so it just felt so fun. Everybody felt like they were happy to be there. The world was coming back, things were going to be okay, people could gather again, and so it was a really sort of joyful evening. It was a treacherous beginning with a very happy ending. [Laughs]

You and Kate are so great together in that show. Looking back, is there a scene partner on screen who really kept you on your toes?

Of course, working with Meryl Streep blew my mind on August [Osage County]. There were scenes where, as her daughters, we were not supposed to be taken in by whatever story she was selling. There's a scene that I don't think it ever made it into the film, where she's talking about her experience of her mother, and I'm standing off camera just bawling. As her daughters, we're supposed to be over it. We've heard this story a million times, all this. But she's everything we think she is, and then a million times more when you're actually in a scene with her. Also, her dedication to her off-camera work—she's remarkable. All I wanted to do on that one was pay attention.

You had a small part at the very beginning of your career in One True Thing. Did you meet Meryl on that movie?

No, I didn't. Carl Franklin directed that movie. We almost did a film together, and then at the last hour, I did not get the job. He wanted me for the job, and the studio did not—I think because it was early in my career. This was the next movie he did, and so he offered me [this]. I think I was there for a day, sat on a bench. I don't even know if my face is on-screen. It was just to offer me a little kindness after a big disappointment.

You recently moved to the countryside outside of London. How has that impacted your life and career?

My husband is English, and we had been living in Topanga Canyon, and suddenly it was like, the fire's such a threat in Topanga, it’s no joke—we've been evacuated regularly. It was in the run-up into the 2020 elections, which was sort of making it hard to breathe. Our kids were about to start high school, so it was kind of “now or never.” Once they started high school, we wanted to be in one place, so it was like, “Let's go. Let's show them something different. Let's mix it up.” It was a much bigger deal than we had anticipated, bringing kids from tiny little schools in Topanga to England. It was a big adjustment, but we're so happy. I'm really happy to be there. It feels like a fun, challenging family adventure.

I did see that you're starring in the series Dope Girls, which is a wartime British series. That came out of this, I assume?

Yeah. The director, Shannon Murphy, did Babyteeth in Australia. After Babyteeth, I had just been following her, and so we were going to do a different show together for HBO, but which fell apart last-minute, and so then she got onto Dope Girls, which is a BBC show about right at the end of World War I. That was the first job that I've done through my UK agents since we've been here, and I'm excited for it. It was a really fun show to be a part of, and it feels like a great introduction platform for me to launch—

—your new act.

Exactly, [Laughs] UK, new act—whatever this is, 10, 12, I don't know.

How did you feel with the accent work?

Oh, my God. Terrible. It's so hard and scary. I got the job literally weeks before we started. They did not have a dialect coach on set. I had a dialect coach, but I would work with her on Zoom; she was there every once in a while, maybe once every couple of weeks, whereas when I did Mare, we had a dialect coach on set every single time the camera was rolling, so there's someone there who can tweak words, sounds, whatever. I did not have that for Dope Girls, so I missed that greatly. I just wish that I had had more time. I hope that I will sound believable enough.

This interview has been edited and condensed.