Backstage Magazine Digital Edition: Emmy Awards 2020

Emmy Awards A look back at an unprecedented year of must-watch TV

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Special Edition: Emmy Awards 2020

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The Slate

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Emmy-nominated screen vets answer our weekly craft-andcareer questionnaire Backstage’s online talk-backs, seminars, and live industry discussions have been host to plenty of Emmy nominees

In the Envelope

We have in-depth conversations with small-screen standouts on our weekly podcast

In the Room

Casting directors behind nominated series share their top tips for getting cast

Meet the Maker

Award-worthy creators of this year’s best TV talk shop

Cover Features

TV’s biggest names get the star treatment and tell us how they got to where they are today

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Dear Reader, ’m sure you’ll agree with us when we say: Thank God for great TV— particularly during a time when many of us suddenly have all the time in the world to binge it. While awards are most definitely looking a bit different in 2020, the current circumstances take nothing away from the brilliant acting, writing, directing, producing, and showrunning work we saw on our screens throughout the year. We wanted to take a minute to highlight a bit of it.

As the race to television’s highest honor unfolded, Backstage caught up with many of this year’s illustrious nominees to dig into their career highs and lows, all things craft, auditioning, and more.

So, ahead of the 72nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, we decided to put all of our top-tier interviews with TV’s elite in one place for you!

We’ve got some of the greats speaking on the projects that landed them on the Emmys voting ballot, including creators who build the worlds we love so dearly (especially when we need to escape this one), keen-eyed casting directors, comedy legends like Eddie Murphy (nominated for

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his “Saturday Night Live” hosting stint), legends-in-the-making like writer-star-producer Issa Rae (“Insecure”), and brilliant newcomers like Sarah Snook (“Succession”) and Hulu creator Ramy Youssef (“Ramy”).

Plus, we’ve included a quick breakdown of recent trends from Backstage’s awards editor and “In the Envelope” podcast host Jack Smart.

We promise you’ll leave knowing some of your nominees— and how they do what they do—a bit better. Maybe you’ll even pick up a tip or two!

Briana Rodriguez Editor-in-Chief

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Letter From the Awards Editor

Takeaways and trends from this year’s Emmy nominations

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ow that television’s best and brightest are officially off to the races with the announcement of the 2020 Emmy nominations, I’m back in awards season mode and ready to give you an insider’s guide to industry trends—and, of course, to enthuse about worthy contenders for the prize.

First, the elephant-size virus in the room: The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a wrench of historic proportions into the Hollywood machinery, and awards shows are still figuring out how to adapt.

Since this year’s eligible TV season was on track for release within the June 1, 2019–May 31, 2020 window (for the most part—see you next season, “Fargo” and “The Undoing”), the Primetime Emmys ceremony is still planned for Sept.

20. But major questions remain: How, exactly, will the ABC broadcast present the awards safely? Did the pandemic’s effects on society, including enforced shutdowns, sway Television Academy members’ selections for nominations?

And what about campaigning—is a strong internet connection and glamorous lighting in webcam press interviews now the key to winning an Emmy?

The biggest takeaway from this

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year’s nominations—and indeed from the last several years—is the dominance of Netflix. Upping their total from 118 nods in 2019 to 160 this year is impressive enough, but when you consider that HBO led last year’s nominations with 137 and this year earned 107, there’s no question which platform voters are tuning into the most. However, the love was still spread across streaming, cable, and traditional networks; and while the best drama series race includes mostly repeat contenders, it’s anyone’s to win after “Game of Thrones” reigned over every Emmys except 2017, when current nominee “The Handmaid’s Tale” stepped in. And without “Veep” or “Fleabag,” best comedy series could go to brand-new nominee “What We Do in the Shadows,” or even to the final seasons of “The Good Place” or “Schitt’s Creek,” the latter hailing from the

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humblest Canadian distributor, Pop TV. The 2020 Emmys will also be remembered as a big year for new content platforms crashing the race. I was stunned to see Disney+’s “Star Wars” prestige hit “The Mandalorian” sweep in with 15 of the streamer’s 19 nods, including for the coveted drama series prize. Apple TV+ fared well with 18 nominations, eight of them for “The Morning Show,” a story of women in daytime TV that curiously received nods for four male actors and just one female actor, SAG Award winner Jennifer Aniston. And content platform Quibi’s bid to earn recognition in short-form Emmy categories paid off with 10 nods.

Bias alert! What was I personally excited to see on the nominations list? There’s D’Arcy Carden, whose Janet on “The Good Place” will absolutely go down in history as

one of TV comedy’s most iconic characters. There are Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross, who continue to uphold the gold standard of the family sitcom on “Black-ish.” And there are Regina King and Jean Smart, the fearless women of this year’s nominations leader, “Watchmen”; if you’re ever looking for examples of performances that are limitlessly rewatchable, look no further.

What about you, dear reader?

Which are your favorite series and stars in this golden age of television? What about the should-be nominees? And which contenders are you rooting for? If for nothing else, we hope this time confined indoors has allowed you to bingewatch in the buildup to the already extraordinary 2020 Emmy Awards.

Sincerely, Jack Smart Awards Editor

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Truly Outstanding

This is the only breakdown of the 2020 Emmy-nominated series you’ll need

By Jack Smart

IN A YEAR OF TUMULT AND UNCERTAINTY, IT’S NICE TO KNOW that the 2020 Emmy Awards are still on track. Television Academy members are currently considering which of the 2019–20 TV season’s dramas, comedies, and limited series deserve the distinction of most outstanding. Whether you’re a voter on the Emmy Awards and need a refresher or are just looking for prestige TV-watching options in lockdown, read on for your cheat sheet to the 2020 Emmy-nominated shows.

Outstanding Comedy Series “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (HBO) Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” returned after a hiatus, reminding us how to laugh at both Hollywood celebrities and ourselves. Now that it’s back, audiences may be in danger of taking it for granted. The distinct humor of this show, which pokes fun at and comments on current issues in a way that can only be described as David-esque, is at the exact degree of remove from reality we need in these chaotic times.

MICHAEL YARISH/NETFLIX

“Dead to Me” (Netflix) Season 2 of Liz Feldman’s darkest of dark comedies— seriously, every episode

Jamil, and Manny Jacinto play lost souls to Ted Danson’s friendly neighborhood demon, assisted by D’Arcy Carden’s charmingly all-knowing nonrobot—and expanded to encompass philosophical debates about human morality that are somehow both hilarious and touching.

features at least one emotional breakdown—about two wineguzzling frenemies getting away with murder in sunny Southern California earned far more Emmy recognition than its first outing.

And for good reason—Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini plumbed new depths in the increasingly strong bond between their hilarious Jen and Judy.

“Insecure” (HBO) Adulthood can be bleak. As depicted by “Insecure” series co-creator and star Issa Rae, friendships, sex and romance, and career paths take on a gritty sense of naturalism. Yvonne Orji, Jay Ellis, Natasha Rothwell, and more continue to give funny, touching, and relatable performances. Rae is forging her own path through Hollywood, creating space for more artists like her while upping her own game on- and off-camera.

“The Good Place” (NBC) Imagine if “Parks and Recreation” were set in the afterlife or if “Lost” had a sense of humor.

Such was the twisty world of four seasons of “The Good Place.” Michael Schur’s hellishly clever comedy took an already ambitious conceit—Kristen Bell, William Jackson Harper, Jameela

“The Kominsky Method” (Netflix) Chuck Lorre’s homage to Hollywood and its wacky characters continues to find opportunities to show off the talents of an impressive cast.

Michael Douglas gives one of the most lived-in performances of his career as acting coach Sandy Kominsky, generating a kind of

Alan Arkin and Michael Douglas on “The Kominsky Method”

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onscreen magic opposite Alan Arkin’s dry Norman Newlander.

With Sarah Baker, Nancy Travis, and the many other actors playing Sandy’s students, Lorre and his cast continue to create frivolous, feel-good TV. “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon Prime Video)

Three seasons into this streaming Emmy winner, we feel intimately connected to its cast of oddballs and the gorgeous, zany version of midcentury New York that Amy Sherman-Palladino has created.

There isn’t a moment of screen time when any of the actors— Rachel Brosnahan, Alex Borstein, Tony Shalhoub, Marin Hinkle, Luke Kirby, Jane Lynch, and now Sterling K. Brown, LeRoy McClain, and Wanda Sykes—aren’t at their heightened, hilarious best.

“Schitt’s Creek” (Pop TV) That this modest Canadian comedy from Eugene and Dan Levy had a small cult following in its early seasons and is now nominated for TV’s highest honor is a testament to its infectious hilarity. Following the one-percenter Rose family after they’re forced to file for bankruptcy and relocate to a backwater town, “Schitt’s Creek” has, throughout its six seasons, created characters who are both cartoonish and threedimensional—none more so than Catherine O’Hara’s Moira, who is a comedic masterpiece.

“What We Do in the Shadows” (FX) Based on his hit film of the same name, Jemaine Clement’s “What We Do in the Shadows” feels like the unlikeliest Emmy contender.

That isn’t to say it’s not worthy of the honor; it produced some of the most off-kilter, laughout-loud moments you could find on this TV season. But a wry mockumentary about modernday vampire roommates is strange enough on paper, even without the idiosyncrasies of stars Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou, Harvey Guillén, and Mark Proksch.

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Outstanding Drama Series “Better Call Saul” (AMC) This prequel to “Breaking Bad” is no longer just for fans missing that iconic series. Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould’s drama is a phenomenon in its own right, a triumph of writing, directing, and especially acting. In bringing to life Jimmy McGill, aka Saul Goodman, Bob Odenkirk coheres wonderfully with co-stars Jonathan Banks, Rhea Seehorn, Patrick Fabian, Michael Mando, and Giancarlo Esposito.

Together, they build a playground of moral ambiguity.

“The Crown” (Netflix) The Season 3 cast of Peter Morgan’s beloved prestige drama had to play real public figures while following in the footsteps of other actors. Olivia Colman is commanding and nuanced as Queen Elizabeth II, making the viewer understand the weight of the crown she must bear; Helena Bonham Carter brings her trademark charm to Princess Margaret; and Tobias Menzies makes us feel for the directionless Prince Philip.

Compelling supporters include Princess Anne (Erin Doherty), Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor), and Camilla Shand (Emerald Fennell).

“The Handmaid’s Tale” (Hulu) The dystopian world Margaret Atwood created in her 1985 novel—a military theocracy that uses female bodies as breeding vehicles—has always packed a political punch, but it takes a cast of nuanced performers to make the premise of “The Handmaid’s Tale” urgently distressing. Alexis Bledel, Madeline Brewer, Amanda Brugel, Ann Dowd, O-T Fagbenle, Joseph Fiennes, Max Minghella, Yvonne Strahovski, Bradley Whitford, and Samira Wiley do just that, with producer-star Elisabeth Moss, laid bare in a series of stunning close-ups, leading the revolution.

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“The Mandalorian” (Disney+) The Primetime Emmys and “Star Wars” have never had a chance to mingle, but the launch of Disney+ has allowed Television Academy members to consider a series that feels like both a prestigious, artfully made drama and pure mainstream entertainment.

Creator Jon Favreau crafted “The Mandalorian” to exist within the “Star Wars” galaxy but expand into other genres, namely the Western, to showcase Pedro Pascal’s masked warrior (and his adorable

Outstanding Limited Series “Little Fires Everywhere” (Hulu) Based on Celeste Ng’s hit pageturner of a novel, Liz Tigelaar’s “Little Fires Everywhere” proves to be far more than what it looks like on the surface: a star vehicle for producer-actors Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. Supported by Joshua Jackson, Rosemarie DeWitt, Jade Pettyjohn, Lexi Underwood, and more, it’s a story of both petty drama and dangerous deceit, specific to its picture-perfect suburban neighborhood yet all too universal.

“Mrs. America” (FX) Dahvi Waller’s limited series, depicting the movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s, defies expectation at every turn. Rather than starting the story from the perspective of the colorful characters who made feminism mainstream—Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug, and Betty Friedan among them, played by an all-star cast— we begin with Cate Blanchett’s shrewd conservative activist, Phyllis Schlafly. The series, like

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sidekick, popularly known as Baby Yoda).

“Ozark” (Netflix) Particularly on its explosive third season, middle-class American banality and the thrilling criminal underworld are woven together with increasing ambition by “Ozark” creators Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams. They also deserve credit for finding new depths in producer-director-star Jason Bateman—who plays a family man caught up with a Mexican cartel—and for showcasing the sheer darkness of Laura Linney as a steely matriarch and Julia Garner as a budding kingpin.

“Stranger Things” (Netflix) David Harbour and Winona Ryder are still magnetic on the Duffer Brothers’ binge-worthy ’80s adventure. But it’s the cast of kids, led by a heart-on-his-sleeve

Finn Wolfhard, who are the core of “Stranger Things.”

Noah Schnapp and Millie Bobby Brown are particular standouts, grappling with the supernatural in emotionally trying ways.

Caleb McLaughlin and Sadie Sink play off each other with ease, as do Gaten Matarazzo and Joe Keery, providing scenestealing comic relief with newcomer Maya Hawke.

“Succession” (HBO) A modern-day “King Lear” with a deliciously dark sense of humor, Jesse Armstrong’s satire about a family running a global media empire could succeed “Game of Thrones” as HBO’s buzziest drama about power and greed. Brian Cox’s aging patriarch, Logan Roy, coaxes the best and worst from his scheming family, brought to life by Jeremy Strong, Hiam Abbass, Kieran Culkin, and more.

Blanchett’s performance, is meticulously multilayered and gorgeous to look at.

“Unbelievable” (Netflix) Susannah Grant, Ayelet Waldman, and Michael Chabon’s adaptation of the real-life story of a serial rapist, told entirely from the perspective of a victim and the two detectives who hunted him down, is remarkable for what it balances: edge-of-your-seat suspense, heartbreaking trauma, and, most of all, outrage. Kaitlyn Dever, Merritt Wever, and Toni Collette give three of the most poignantly nuanced performances of this TV season, raising the bar for female-led stories and stirring depictions of resilience.

“Unorthodox” (Netflix) What makes Anna Winger’s “Unorthodox” such a worthy Emmy contender is how engrossing it becomes. The story of a 19-year-old Jewish woman named Esty, unhappy enough in her Orthodox community in Brooklyn to escape to a secular life in Berlin, doesn’t sound like the kind of experience that most people could relate to. But thanks to precise directing, insightful

Shira Haas on “Unorthodox” writing, and a stunning star turn from lead Shira Haas, this is a miniseries for the ages.

“Watchmen” (HBO) Damon Lindelof’s miniseries spin on the classic graphic novel “Watchmen” challenges and expands what adaptations can accomplish, presenting a sequel, a remix, and a rethinking of a known property in the context of American racism. Yes, there are science-fiction and supernatural elements: Regina King kicks ass as a masked nun, Tim Blake Nelson is obsessed with the squids falling from the sky, and don’t even try to understand what Jeremy Irons is doing. But at its core, this “Watchmen” is an urgently relevant dismantling of what we value in America.

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ANIKA MOLNAR/NETFLIX

“Killing Eve” (BBC America) Women are empowering themselves in front of and behind the camera in more and more projects recently, but “Killing

Eve” may be the standard bearer of unapologetically feminist TV. Creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge has invited new female showrunners to continue Eve and Villanelle’s murderous exploits, while stars Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer, and Fiona Shaw bring to life women who remain endlessly surprising, dangerous, and fascinating.

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The Actor’s Remote Resource We’re not letting creativity + productivity stop in the face of coronavirus. We’re taking you directly to industry power players through Instagram takeovers and Q&As, YouTube Lives, and most excitingly, Zoom-hosted seminars for interactive group classes!

Guests include: Actor Rachel Brosnahan Actor Maisie Williams Casting Director Alexa L. Fogel Casting Director Linda Lamontagne Talent Agent Laura Thede of DDO Artists Agency Casting Director Avy Kaufman Casting Director Carmen Cuba Actor Ricky Gervais Actor Anthony Mackie Voiceover Actor Laurie Burke Actor Samira Wiley and more!

To get all the details and view the full schedule, please visit backstage.com/magazine.

Paul Scheer and Don Cheadle on “Black Monday”

The Cream of the Crop

Get to know the 2020 acting Emmy nominees for lead and supporting

By Backstage Staff THE TIME HAS COME TO CROWN THE BEST OF TELEVISION’S BEST. Before the Emmy Awards, which will be held virtually on Sept. 20, Backstage is rounding up every nominee in the major acting categories with a refresher on their stellar performances, how they earned the Television Academy’s recognition, and why we couch potatoes at Backstage can’t stop thinking about them. Read on for your 2020 Emmy acting voting guide—and pick your favorites along with us!

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Anthony Anderson,

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If you enjoy the idea of Cheadle snorting a line of cocaine and then high-fiving a robot butler, “Black Monday” is the comedy for you. This wild ’80s throwback stars Cheadle as the suave Maurice Monroe, a stock broker who has the world at his fingertips and craves more. Watching this one-of-a-kind leading man, you’ll crave more, too.

Ted Danson, “The Good Place” The legendary Danson expanded his actorly repertoire as Michael, a demon who manages a section

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Michael Douglas,

“The Kominsky Method” Hollywood acting coach Sandy Kominsky has seen better days.

Douglas, however, is giving one of his best performances to date.

He manages to demonstrate funny or touching chemistry with every one of his scene partners, including Sarah Baker, Nancy Travis, and the many actors playing Sandy’s students.

Opposite Alan Arkin’s Norman Newlander, Douglas creates a kind of onscreen magic.

Eugene Levy, “Schitt’s Creek” A longtime vet of the industry, Levy knows comedy—which

means he also knows how to play the role of the straight man.

He stars with his real-life son, Dan Levy, on their co-created Pop TV hit. Levy plays a wellheeled stiff as the Rose family patriarch, Johnny, who’s in over his head and out of his comfort zone after being forced to liquidate his assets and move to the titular town. Over six seasons, his performance retains its absurdity but finds touching depths, too.

Ramy Youssef, “Ramy”

In this age of peak TV, we’re finally hearing stories and voices that have, until now, been pushed to the margins far beyond the small screen. We still have a long way to go, but on his semiautobiographical Hulu series about a millennial Muslim, the Golden Globe–winning Youssef provides hope. “Ramy” is whipsmart, hilarious, and proof of those changing tides.

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NICOLE WILDER/SHOWTIME

“Black-ish” Juggling a growing family, career, and his kids’ sense of Blackness in the lily-white surroundings of upper-middle-class suburbia, Anderson’s Dre Johnson has been equal parts modern philosopher and swaggering goofball on ABC’s hit sitcom for six wonderful seasons. The naturally funny Anderson’s ability to pull off both continues to impress, as do those moments where he digs deeper.

Don Cheadle, “Black Monday”

of the land of the departed on Michael Schur’s hilariously idiosyncratic and deceptively ambitious NBC comedy. On the show’s final season, Michael unveiled more layers of empathy for his human friends, all while never failing to crack us up.

Catherine O’Hara on “Schitt’s Creek”

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Mahershala Ali, “Ramy”

Ali was allegedly cast on Youssef’s comedy about modern-day Muslims because he reached out to say he was a fan. We’re glad the two-time Oscar winner did; his work as Sheikh Malik confirms his onscreen magnetism yet again. He serves as a foil for Ramy, delivering stirring monologues that guide the former on his religious journey, all while retaining a natural warmth that puts Ramy, and us, at ease.

Alan Arkin, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Christina Applegate,

“Dead to Me” We don’t want to live in a world where Applegate isn’t on the small screen. Luckily, Netflix’s “Dead to Me” is both infinitely watchable and rewatchable, thanks in large part to Applegate’s glorious turn as the widowed, wine-swilling Jen Harding. She’s as good at digging deep for emotional breakdowns as she is at muttering scathing insults under her breath.

“SCHITT’S CREEK”: POP TV; “THE GOOD PLACE”: COLLEEN HAYES/NBC

Rachel Brosnahan,

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” We never stop rooting for Midge Maisel, and the Emmy-winning Brosnahan’s portrayal of this midcentury housewife and burgeoning standup comedian is a big part of the reason why.

She stole the show from her first moment delivering Amy Sherman-Palladino’s rapid-fire dialogue, and she’s been guiding us through heartbreak, despair, triumph, and side-splitting laughter ever since.

Linda Cardellini, “Dead to Me” Cardellini has her work cut out for her on “Dead to Me” as a character who is both sweetly naive and a walking cyclone; Judy Hale leaves chaos in her wake, all while smiling the most earnest smile. But in Cardellini’s hands, material that shouldn’t feel cohesive combines to form a portrait of a woman soldiering through her pain and seeking to better herself.

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Catherine O’Hara,

“Schitt’s Creek” Much has been said about O’Hara’s iconic performance as Moira Rose—but we guarantee she’d have the oddest, most delightful way of saying it herself.

She dominates the spotlight every time she’s in frame with her line readings as the wacky, wig-wearing, past-her-prime actor and one percenter. Having rounded out her sixth and final season as the lovable narcissist, O’Hara has left us wanting more.

Issa Rae, “Insecure”

For four seasons, Rae’s comedic masterpiece has depicted life in Los Angeles for Issa Dee, played with blundering perfection by Rae. Although you constantly feel compelled to grab her by the shoulders and swivel her away from an impending bad decision, you never once lose empathy for the not-so-indefatigable heroine, and that’s thanks to the creator-star’s knack for the funny, relatable, and painfully insecure.

Tracee Ellis Ross, “Black-ish”

Rainbow Johnson is your typical sitcom mother: frazzled but poised, put-upon yet supportive.

But Ross and the creators of ABC’s most subversive comedy have turned that trope on its head by adding new qualities: goofy, badass, and often borderline deranged. The actor has again and again demonstrated her dramatic (and directing!) chops, making us love the Johnson family and its matriarch even more than we already did.

“The Kominsky Method” What makes Arkin a particularly remarkable presence on “The Kominsky Method” is his ability to undermine his sheepish demeanor with moments of subtle, heartfelt humility. It helps that Chuck Lorre’s Golden Globe– winning comedy features a cast of wacky Hollywood types for him to play off of. The moments when Arkin’s Norman Newlander is making us laugh are also when he’s most able to make us cry.

Andre Braugher,

“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” Captain Raymond Holt is so quietly nuanced, he’d be right at home in a prestige drama. In fact, the more seriousness and subtlety Braugher brings to the character, the more hilarious his line deliveries become.

Opposite the over-the-top Andy Samberg and the rest of the precinct’s crew, Braugher continues to make playing unamused amusing.

Sterling K. Brown,

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” Is there anything Brown can’t do?

From Christopher Darden in “The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story” to his tear-jerking work on “This Is Us” (both Emmy-winning performances) to now Season 3 of “Maisel,”

William Jackson Harper on “The Good Place”

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there seems to be no limit to his talent and versatility. He even sings! Watching him play the no-nonsense Reggie, manager to LeRoy McClain’s Shy Baldwin, is the treat Brown’s fans all knew it would be.

William Jackson Harper,

“The Good Place” It’s the sign of a great TV performance when, as a series finale approaches, viewers feel they intimately know a character and don’t want to see him leave their screens. As Chidi Anagonye, Harper delighted and endeared himself to us for four twisty seasons; we’ll miss his many inventive ways of conveying Chidi freaking the fork out.

Dan Levy, “Schitt’s Creek”

We would pay money for David Rose to hurl classic insults at our faces, and that’s thanks to Levy’s immense likability. It’s also a real testament to his skill as both the writer and star of “Schitt’s Creek” that, despite his never-ending sarcastic tirades and eye rolls, David manages to be completely endearing and loveable— someone you want to root for and then get drunk with.

Tony Shalhoub,

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” The similarities between Shalhoub’s Abe Weissman and Brosnahan’s portrayal of his equally neurotic daughter are uncanny at times. Shalhoub gets some of the biggest laughs when Abe attempts to regain a sense of control over his regimented life.

Case in point: his “Abe and Rose end-of-days calculations,” the amount of time he’s allotted until his and his wife’s deaths.

Kenan Thompson,

“Saturday Night Live” After 17 seasons on NBC’s live sketch show—a record, by the way—Thompson is inarguably the backbone of “SNL.” You’d think he’d be sick of giving his all every Saturday night for nearly two decades, but you’d be wrong.

The pure, genuine joy Thompson brings to every sketch is palpable.

We loved seeing this season’s return to “What Up With That?”— still funny in the show’s new webcam format.

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Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Alex Borstein,

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” Borstein’s Susie Myerson (a role for which she won a previous Emmy) feels like a character we’ve never seen on TV. The contrast between the colorful uptown world of the Maisels and Weissmans and Susie’s dark, smoky downtown scene leads to perfect comedic setups, which Borstein makes a full meal out of while walking the line between tough and vulnerable.

D’Arcy Carden,

“The Good Place” One of TV’s most consistently surprising and delightful performances in recent memory, Carden’s Janet is a character for the ages. The friendly artificial intelligence of the afterlife, programmed with nearomniscience, became more and more of a wild card as this series expanded its already impressive reach; the actor’s standout episode features countless Janets intermingling, and you can watch any one of them for laughs.

Betty Gilpin, “GLOW”

Much of the success of this Netflix ’80s comedy is due to its ensemble of wildly different but equally convincing women.

Stealing the show again on Season 3 is Gilpin, playing the headstrong, demanding, fabulous-but-frazzled starlet Debbie Eagan and her wrestling alter ego, the sunnily patriotic Liberty Belle. What distinguishes Gilpin is her ability to deliver a sarcastic line or reaction shot with off-kilter hilarity; she doesn’t look like the cast member who’ll crack you up, and then she does.

Marin Hinkle, “The Marvelous

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“Saturday Night Live” The MVP of “SNL” still has that enviable ability to turn mediocre sketches into brilliant ones with a simple head tilt or a widening of the eyes. Her co-stars often laugh so hard they can barely keep it together on the air. Her evolving impersonations of Betsy DeVos and Jeff Sessions, just two examples, are as blisteringly damning as they are hysterically funny.

Issa Rae and Yvonne Orji on “Insecure”

Annie Murphy,

“Schitt’s Creek” “Ew, David!” For lessons on how to use line delivery to produce instantly memorable quips, look no further than Murphy’s ditzy Alexis Rose. Her distinct combination of bubbly, bratty, and sweet reached its peak on the final season of “Schitt’s Creek,” which featured Murphy warming our hearts as much as she cracked us up.

Yvonne Orji, “Insecure”

Like all the stars of “Insecure,” Orji is superb at conveying comedy by way of cringeworthy awkwardness. She also lends a relatable authenticity to the ambitious-to-a-fault Molly Carter.

But what sets Orji’s work apart, especially in this season’s friend feud between Molly and Rae’s Issa, is her toughest job: fearlessly playing her less likable side.

Cecily Strong,

“Saturday Night Live” Strong is the quintessential “SNL” star: malleable enough to fit any role, no matter how wacky. In the course of her eight seasons, she’s portrayed the daffy Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With at a Party, a near-catatonic porn star, a spot-on Jeanine Pirro and Melania Trump, and countless others. So realized are each of her characters that it seems impossible she’s only had a week to prepare them.

performance as Marty Byrde, a financial adviser whose idyllic family life becomes a moneylaundering nightmare, was worth the wait. That classic Bateman dryness provides the perfect foil for the unsettling world of “Ozark,” where middle-class banality becomes menacing.

Sterling K. Brown, “This Is Us”

Playing the multifaceted Randall Pearson means Emmy winner Brown gets to preach the truth, have mental breakdowns, and occasionally throw out solid one-liners that reveal his superb comedic timing. He’s created one of the most enthralling characters in TV drama. Throw in his comedy chops on “Maisel,” and the double nomination was inevitable.

Steve Carell,

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series

“The Morning Show” An example of both brilliant casting and fearless acting, Carell’s turn as Mitch Kessler—a fictional stand-in for any number of real-life male celebrities accused of sexual assault—makes for quite the return to TV after “The Office.” Carell is once again astonishingly good at humiliating himself; but this time, given the drama’s real-life inspiration, the stakes are much higher. When Mitch gives in to his worst impulses, Carell doesn’t shy away.

Jason Bateman, “Ozark”

Brian Cox, “Succession”

It may have taken Bateman most of his acting career to prove he can play (and direct) drama as well as he can comedy, but his

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Veering from paranoid fury to schoolboy infatuation on Jesse Armstrong’s tale of the one percent, the Golden

Globe–winning Cox is clearly having the time of his life in the role of his career. He plays around with the loathsome manipulations (and utterances of “Fuck off!”) of Logan Roy, old-media mogul and sadistic family patriarch, painting a detailed portrait of a man accustomed to bending the world to his will from inside the prison of his own god complex.

Billy Porter, “Pose”

Everyone on this sequined and stunning series deserves accolades aplenty, but the performance that may most lodge itself in your heart is Porter’s Emmy-winning turn as Pray Tell. With countless friends and lovers dying of AIDS, he’s entrenched in sadness and death and unimaginable fear, yet he projects infectious joy without ever coming off as saccharine. We’re finally mining the depths of this veteran theater actor’s abilities on a bigger stage.

Jeremy Strong,

“Succession” “Succession” is a story of extremes, of people flying too close to the sun and plummeting to unimaginable depths—often multiple times over the course of a single episode. Its most psychologically broken player, the driven, hardheaded Kendall Roy, may also be the most relatable character. That’s because Strong imbues this drug addict and man-child with a raw impotence underneath all his braggadocio.

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“INSECURE”: MERIE W. WALLACE

Mrs. Maisel” The times, they are a-changin’, especially for Rose Weissman.

Hinkle is able to render this most rigid of characters with welcome layers of sympathy as the story of “Maisel” unfolds. Just when you think you have her cadences figured out, she’ll go and deliver a line with such unexpected timing or tone, you’ll find yourself rewinding to watch her again.

Kate McKinnon,

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Jennifer Aniston,

“The Morning Show” Aniston’s performance on Jay Carson and Kerry Ehrin’s “The Morning Show” is a fantastic return to form—and to TV. The executive producer and star of the freshman Apple TV+ series humanizes the otherwise heartless and power-hungry TV host Alex Levy without sacrificing her infectious charm and comedic timing. Even the way she almost breaks a phone by hanging it up is awardworthy.

Olivia Colman, “The Crown”

Colman completely captures Queen Elizabeth II’s stillness and composure from her very first appearance on Peter Morgan’s royal drama, now taking place in the Buckingham Palace of the 1960s and ’70s. From the accent to the posture, she smoothly executes a first-of-its-kind casting transition and quietly commands authority in each scene. She fills scripted silences with facial acting that expresses as much as a monologue.

Jodie Comer, “Killing Eve”

Villanelle kills people. She’s good at it. She’s gorgeous.

She’s completely heartless.

(Or is she?) This jet-setting assassin challenges our every preconception of psychopaths, assembling a character who both inflicts her deeply buried suffering on others and yearns for the unexpected. As portrayed by Comer in one of today’s gutsiest small-screen performances, Villanelle subverts our expectations at every twist and turn.

Sandra Oh, “Killing Eve”

Oh’s award-winning, critically hailed turn as the titular Eve Polastri reminds us why she’s so compelling to watch. We follow Eve’s ascent from disillusioned government employee to insatiable MI6 agent on the hunt, but her complicated relationship with Comer’s Villanelle proves that this cat-and-mouse story is anything but predictable. Oh’s Season 3 performance made us want to savor each and every suspenseful moment.

Zendaya, “Euphoria”

To go from Disney Channel darling to drug-addicted recluse in one fell swoop isn’t the typical trajectory for our anointed teen stars, but Zendaya’s full-bodied performance as the hoodie-clad Rue Bennett on HBO’s Gen Z series “Euphoria” has planted her firmly in the big leagues of cable prestige drama—and we should all shed a single glittering tear of joy for that.

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Nicholas Braun, “Succession” Braun’s profoundly awkward cousin Greg has been the stuff of comedic legend from the moment he was introduced: stoned and spewing vomit from within a giant mascot costume.

Since then, Braun has only upped his game, serving up a masterclass in how to make an audience cringe with vicarious

awkwardness on this dark satire– meets–family drama.

Billy Crudup,

“The Morning Show” Rising network executive Cory Ellison has access to everything a man could possibly want—money, drugs, women—yet none of it interests him. He is the embodiment of privileged, powerful men: always consuming, always wanting more. “Chaos! It’s the new cocaine!” he exclaims with wildeyed glee. Crudup’s performance is so weirdly riveting, alternating between exhilarated hedonism and shark-like remorselessness, that it demands a rewatch.

Kieran Culkin, “Succession”

Roman, the so-called “fuckknuckle” of the Roy siblings, is a limitless fountain of colorful insults. Culkin delights in slinging cutdowns so profane and seemingly off the cuff that they never feel scripted. (In many cases, he is indeed improvising.)

While Culkin still feasts on the scenery on Season 2, he also peels back the wisecracking veneer to reveal the neediness and doubt that come with being the runt of the litter.

Mark Duplass,

“The Morning Show” There’s an art to playing harried: It involves a wide-eyed, tense-yetmobile physicality, and Duplass has it down pat. Watching his daytime TV producer, Chip Black, undergoing stress so arduous

Zendaya on “Euphoria”

“EUPHORIA”: HBO

Giancarlo Esposito,

“Better Call Saul” Esposito brings such delicious menace to the camera frame that it sometimes feels like it can’t contain his power. Part of what makes drug lord Gus Fring on this “Breaking Bad” prequel so complex—and so terrifying—is that he’s apparently unafraid to get his hands dirty and commit violent acts effortlessly. In fact, it seems like he’s not afraid at all.

Matthew Macfadyen,

“Succession” Tom Wambsgans is a vain coward who punches down in order to soothe his imposter syndrome.

That’s the character on paper, but Macfadyen manages to imbue him with such inner turmoil in the funniest blinkand-you’ll-miss-it moments that he’s constantly unpeeling new emotional layers. On the Season 2 finale, his walls fall completely, and you can see the true, devastating ache underneath.

Bradley Whitford,

“The Handmaid’s Tale” It seems Whitford is leaning right into the unnervingly eccentric portion of his career, and, quite frankly, who can resist? Case in point: his Emmywinning turn as the duplicitous Commander Lawrence on “The Handmaid’s Tale.” He elicits audience sympathy, loathing, and downright shivers, all turning on the same frigid dime.

Jeffrey Wright, “Westworld”

Laura Linney, “Ozark”

For tips on how to make glancing over one’s glasses or brooding over a computer screen riveting, watch every moment of Wright’s performance as Bernard Lowe.

Or maybe that kind of charisma can’t be taught. He exhibits his character’s intelligence and curiosity in unassuming yet wholly captivating ways, and manages to share electric chemistry with each and every one of his co-stars.

Linney’s Wendy Byrde has gone from dissatisfied suburban housewife to money-laundering mastermind, and that sinister smile of hers proves she’s now in her element. On Season 3 of this increasingly dark Netflix drama, Linney excels at guiding us through everything on Wendy’s map: messiness, vulnerability, shrewdness, and, ultimately, devastating guilt.

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that it often verges on absurd, you may end up tense with anxiety yourself. Duplass also harnesses his natural decency to subtle effect; amid all the antics Chip must deal with, you always sense his loyalty.

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Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Helena Bonham Carter,

“The Crown” Taking over the role of Princess Margaret on this returning Netflix hit, Bonham Carter makes herself the center of any room. Yet we still acutely feel the struggle of a neglected wife and sister in middle age. It’s a range of emotions that can veer into soap opera territory, but Bonham Carter maintains her humanity (and her humor) throughout.

Laura Dern, “Big Little Lies”

Part of what makes “Big Little Lies” so enthralling is its dark sense of humor, straddling the line between drama and camp.

Nobody understands that better than Emmy, Golden Globe, and recently crowned Oscar winner Dern as the indomitable Renata Klein. Her tendency to drop her sweetly confident facade to spit scathing profanities at her husband or other Monterey alpha moms is downright alarming— and so much fun to watch.

Julia Garner, “Ozark”

Season 3 of Netflix’s “Ozark” finds ample opportunity to explore its morally bankrupt core cast of characters, giving an actor of Garner’s increasingly apparent skill level the juicy material she deserves. Her Emmy-winning Ruth Langmore is a survivor who’s prone to making dangerously criminal decisions, but there are always rational reasons behind them—even if Garner makes us guess what they are.

Thandie Newton,

Sarah Snook, “Succession”

A modern-day “King Lear” with a deliciously dark sense of humor, this satire about a family running a global media empire needs characters that feel like real people. Amid all the greedy scheming, actors like Snook are responsible for reminding us, at just the right moments, that even billionaires can be vulnerable.

As Shiv Roy, she walks the line between soulless and secretly thin-skinned with aplomb.

Meryl Streep, “Big Little Lies” Even before the grief-scream heard round the world, Streep established Mary Louise Wright as one of TV’s most unmissable characters. Is she a caring mother and grandmother, rightfully curious about her son’s death? Yes. Is she a heartless, manipulative master of passive aggression whose smiles are poisonous? Also yes.

Samira Wiley,

“The Handmaid’s Tale” This Emmy-winning star has managed to move the needle dramatically from her introduction on “The Handmaid’s Tale” to when we see her on Season 3, becoming a central figure through which we view the

Cate Blanchett on “Mrs. America”

a great performance. Opposite Daisy Edgar-Jones, with whom he generates the kind of turbulent chemistry it usually takes years to develop, he stakes his claim as a star to watch.

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie

Jeremy Pope, “Hollywood”

Jeremy Irons, “Watchmen”

As much as audiences are left wondering just what Irons is doing for the majority of Damon Lindelof’s “Watchmen,” they’re also struck with the question: Just how does Irons do it? A consummate stage and screen actor with an indelible voice and presence, he brings the exact authority and domineering intellect required of this mysterious role. By the end, he’s just about stolen the show.

Hugh Jackman,

“Bad Education” To call “Bad Education” Jackman’s best-ever onscreen work would verge on sacrilege, given his bona fides as an entertainer of all stripes. But it’s justified; his performance as Frank Tassone, the real-life superintendent of a Long Island school district, is so deliciously dastardly, you can’t help but want him to get away with embezzlement.

Paul Mescal, “Normal People” Heartfelt, devastating, so vulnerable you almost can’t bear to witness it—Mescal in this miniseries adaptation of Sally Rooney’s hit novel checks so many boxes of what makes

As one of the aspiring storytellers of this miniseries’ titular town, Pope has us rooting for him to make it big from his first moments as Archie Coleman. For modern audiences, we know his screenwriting success will require an uphill battle; how wonderful that Pope’s Archie is full of enough earnest determination to pull it off.

Mark Ruffalo, “I Know This

Much Is True” Playing opposite yourself as twins might sound like a dream acting job. But it comes with risks: You have to pull off the illusion seamlessly, making the audience forget they’re seeing one performer, and you can’t ever verge on gimmickry.

Ruffalo avoids such issues with astonishing precision in this adaptation of Wally Lamb’s novel, imbuing both brothers with distinct interiorities as well as magnetic physicalities.

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie Cate Blanchett,

“Mrs. America” One of this TV season’s greatest treats was watching Blanchett scheme. Actors could study her performance as Phyllis Schlafly, and should—as long as they remember no one could ever replicate her distinct subtleties.

Her exquisitely multilayered work as the conservative queen of the 1970s, a woman seeking power and finding her voice as she advocates for policies that would prevent fellow American housewives from doing the same, is only elevated by her restraint.

Shira Haas, “Unorthodox” Calling Haas’s part in this critically acclaimed drama a leading role hardly feels sufficient. In practically every frame, the actor carries this story of an ultraOrthodox Jewish woman fleeing

Fiona Shaw, “Killing Eve”

Watching the terrific Shaw think and react—and, best of all, scheme—on three twisty seasons

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horrific dystopia of Gilead. Wiley is perfectly cast as Moira Strand, the rebellious friend who bends but never breaks, and has us pumping our fists in the name of feminism.

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“MRS. AMERICA”: SABRINA LANTOS/FX

“Westworld” Newton has long showcased killer acting chops across film and TV, but she brilliantly bests herself again and again as fabulous super-host Maeve Millay on “Westworld.” Her progression from controlled to controller in the course of the drama’s three seasons, armed with a scornful smirk and a katana, makes for one of the series’ greatest arcs.

of “Killing Eve” reminds us why we love watching actors. In fact, the less she physically does, the better. Every moment that Shaw’s tense MI6 chief, Carolyn Martens, is onscreen, it’s clear that both her eager audience and her co-stars are in good hands.

Toni Collette, “Unbelievable”

Brooklyn for a secular life in Berlin.

The weight of the stakes facing her Esty Shapiro is visible on her subtly expressive face.

Collette wears her no-nonsense detective, Grace Rasmussen, with ease, instilling in viewers the trust she requires to successfully shepherd them through this twisty investigation of a serial rapist. Grace doesn’t care about being liked, but you can’t help but root for her as she tracks down the bad guy.

Regina King, “Watchmen”

We shouldn’t be surprised that King has added “vigilante action hero” to her legendary résumé; it’s obvious by now that there’s no role she can’t handle. Her work as Angela Abar, aka the fabulously kick-ass Sister Night, stakes King’s claim for yet another Emmy. It’s a performance that manages to ground shocking twists and the roller coaster of emotions that go with them in the weird, all-too-timely world of Damon Lindelof’s limited series.

Octavia Spencer, “Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker” How did a hair-care pioneer become America’s first Black female millionaire? Watching Spencer bring to life Madam C.J. Walker and rooting for her every step of the way, we’re reminded that history’s groundbreakers were usually ordinary people clinging to a dream with equal parts hope and grit. Based on the biography written by Walker’s great-great-granddaughter A’Lelia Bundles, this limited series is a fabulous showcase for Spencer, who is finally getting the lead roles she’s long deserved.

“WATCHMEN”: MARK HILL/HBO

Kerry Washington,

Regina King and Louis Gossett Jr. on “Watchmen” attention for doing so! Over the course of nine episodes, we watch the actor toggle between being the supportive better half to King’s Angela and the stoic, all-knowing (but emotionally plaintive) Dr. Manhattan. He brings such depth to each, doing exactly what a seasoned supporter should do: elevating everyone around him by bringing his best to the table.

Jovan Adepo,

“Watchmen” A surprise but deserving nominee from the stacked “Watchmen” ensemble, Adepo will take your breath away on Episode 6, which finds him sharing the screen (and a role—literally) with King as they retrace the traumatic origin story of the first-ever vigilante, Hooded Justice. Adepo commits more than just physical brawn to the high-concept premise and showcases the varied ways that wounds can fester into violence.

“Little Fires Everywhere” What a spectacular return to TV drama this is for Washington, one of those Hollywood stars who can straddle the line between juicy melodrama and multilayered subtlety. Her work as Mia Warren, a newcomer to the pictureperfect suburban neighborhood of Reese Witherspoon’s Elana Richardson, makes this smallscreen adaptation of the best-selling Celeste Ng novel all pleasure, no guilt.

Tituss Burgess,

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie

Louis Gossett Jr.,

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II,

“Watchmen” Abdul-Mateen does more than bare it all on “Watchmen”— though he got plenty of deserved

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“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend” Was Burgess given all of the funniest material on Netflix’s “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” or does he turn every one of Titus Andromedon’s antics into comedy gold on his own? In this interactive TV movie special, Burgess proves as whip-smart with his punchlines as he ever was, upping his game (and, really, it is all a game) yet again.

“Watchmen” An award-winning talent known for “An Officer and a Gentleman” and “Roots,” Gossett is again getting well-deserved buzz for his layered performance as Will Reeves, who begins the series by calmly murdering Don

Johnson’s Tulsa police chief and revealing the unspoken ties that bind him with King’s Angela Abar. Better than ever at age 84, Gossett sinks his teeth into the role; his delivery of the line “Wounds need air” is Emmyworthy in itself.

Dylan McDermott,

“Hollywood” Actors are usually allowed to have quite a bit of fun in a Ryan Murphy production, but McDermott seems to be taking that license to the next level with his portrayal of Ernie West. As a slick pimp who runs his business out of a gas station and revels in taking customers “to dreamland,” McDermott chews scenery to alarmingly entertaining effect.

Jim Parsons, “Hollywood”

Who knew Parsons could be so slimy? The actor transforms into the scheming talent agent Henry Willson, luring actors into his corner in a bid for power that’s sometimes thrilling and sometimes disturbing to watch. Under Henry’s cruel veneer, perhaps fueling it all, there’s a distinct shame that Parsons showcases in the most unexpected moments.

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie Uzo Aduba, “Mrs. America”

At this point in Emmys history, it’s a fact: If Aduba can be nominated, she will be, and for good reason.

Whether in a character-driven role like on “Orange Is the New Black” or as real-life Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm—the first Black woman ever to run for president— on this stunning limited drama, Aduba always acts with equal parts head and heart.

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Margo Martindale,

“Mrs. America” If anyone has the requisite chutzpah to play lawyer and politician Bella Abzug, it’s Martindale, whose portrayal on “Mrs. America” is one with whom you wouldn’t wisely argue.

Formidable and ferocious but loving, it’s yet another stellar performance from one of the all-time great character actors of Golden Age TV.

Jean Smart, “Watchmen”

Gunning down a masked vigilante within moments of her introduction and dryly calling him a joke, Smart’s scathingly sarcastic Laurie Blake sucks up the spotlight in all her scenes.

“Watchmen” is designed to give its actors twists and heel turns to play with; Smart only needs an arched eyebrow to flip a scene upside down. It’s the latest in a long line of superb performances.

Holland Taylor, “Hollywood”

In this alternate history of postWWII Hollywood, some studio bigwigs are—gasp!—women.

Watching Taylor as Ellen Kincaid, an executive with an eye for talent, you’re reminded how frustratingly rare the phenomenon still is. You also revel in Taylor’s stateliness and her ability to deliver a line like it’s born out of her.

Tracey Ullman, “Mrs. America” Some actors on “Mrs. America” were cast in part for their resemblance to their real-life counterparts (Rose Byrne as Gloria Steinem was inevitable).

But Ullman delivers one of the miniseries’ most effective—and infuriating—performances, despite looking nothing like Betty Friedan. It’s a testament to the actor-comedian’s ability to mine pathos from the preposterous.

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Linda Cardellini and Christina Applegate on “Dead to Me”

5 snapshots of Emmy Award–worthy TV

By Backstage Staff

GREAT TELEVISION COMBINES TOP-NOTCH WRITING, ACTING, directing, and so much more. In this era of peak TV, we here at Backstage have pinpointed those precise moments when everything on our small screens was firing on all cylinders. The unforgettable scenes on the scripted series below, all of which are up for honors, make them worthy of Television Academy attention. We could watch them over and over again.

“Dead to Me”:

Jen tells Judy I recently sat down and watched 14 consecutive episodes of “Dead to Me.” Thank you—I am very impressive. I simply couldn’t stop, because the Netflix series, I assume, was genetically designed for maximum bingeability. Naturally, the half-hours began to blur like very tearful tie-dye—people cry a lot on “Dead to Me”—but a sequence on Season 2’s penultimate episode announced itself like a bull entering a china shop, and it won’t be forgotten.

(Spoiler warning!)

When Jen (Christina Applegate, in the performance of her career) tells Judy (a devastating Linda

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Cardellini) that she murdered Judy’s husband, Steve (James Marsden), not because he’d been threatening her with violence, but because he’d hurt her with words, what does our emotionally battered Jen do? At her lowest moment, she brings down the person she loves most with her, hitting Judy with her deepest self-hatred. “You love anyone who just gives you a morsel of fucking attention,” she hisses.

When the spat then pours out onto the street and into Judy’s car, Jen watches in horror as her friend strikes herself repeatedly in the chest, then climbs into the passenger seat so the two can hold each other and wail. Their only comfort is their shared pain.

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Although Emmy-nominated in comedy categories, most standout “Dead to Me” moments like this one are about as funny as a biopsy. Humor on this series, as in life, happens between relentless heartbreaks. Thank goodness, as Jen and Judy would attest, for wine. —Casey Mink

Peli Motto When Amy Sedaris appeared on Jon Favreau’s space drama “The Mandalorian,” I felt like the stars, perhaps in a galaxy far, far away, had aligned. I recognized her as the grungy, bewigged spaceship mechanic on Tatooine and felt instantly that Disney+ was worth every penny; in fact, I’d probably pay more. It was a distinct TV-watching delight, a neverknew-I-needed-this moment.

Who would think to cast such a character actor—the creator-star of TV’s most oddball variety show, “At Home with Amy Sedaris”—in the “Star Wars” universe? Sarah Finn and her team of casting directors, apparently. Casting can be a tricky art form; someone too well-known for a particular role can pull audiences out of the story, distracted by their previously formed impressions.

But Finn (the CD behind Oscar winners like “Crash” and box office juggernauts like “The Avengers”) knows how to harness that phenomenon, selecting an actor we may have preconceptions about and using those to the story’s advantage.

Seeing Sedaris as Peli Motto, the harried mechanic swindling Pedro Pascal’s Mandalorian and falling in love with the adorable “Baby Yoda,” I felt it didn’t matter what she decided to do with her scene partners or lines; whatever zany choices she made would be correct. Within moments

Amy Sedaris on “The Mandalorian”

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“DEAD TO ME”: SAEED ADYANI/NETFLIX; “THE MANDALORIAN”: DISNEY+

Freeze Frame

“The Mandalorian”:

Dan Levy, Catherine O’Hara, and Noah Reid on “Schitt’s Creek”

of the realization that the last person I’d expect to appear in a space Western had indeed appeared, I felt certain I was in good TV-watching hands thanks to Favreau, Finn, and, of course, Sedaris. —Jack Smart

“SCHITT’S CREEK”: POP TV; “UNBELIEVABLE”: BETH DUBBER/NETFLIX; “WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS”: RUSS MARTIN/FX

“Schitt’s Creek”: David

and Patrick’s wedding OK, so, if you weren’t crying during David and Patrick’s wedding in this year’s series finale, you can’t really call yourself a fan of “Schitt’s Creek.” Sorry, I don’t make the rules! Catherine O’Hara may be leaving this beloved Canadian comedy’s six seasons with a legacy of wacky wigs and absolutely snatched designer wardrobes as Moira Rose; but her onscreen son, played by series co-creator Dan Levy, and his hubby, played by Noah Reid, get points for making us misty as each year wraps.

From karaoke nights to largerthan-life Tina Turner recreations to wedding bells, they just love each other so much! And seeing a so-heartfelt-it’s-cheesy queer relationship onscreen, notably with no homophobic roadblocks or “It Gets Better”–inspired backstory, feels like a breath of fresh air.

Back to their wedding: This series finale moment does more than bring two of our favorite characters together in holy matrimony; it nods to all the things that make the titular town special. Eccentric residents like Chris Elliott’s Roland line the pews; Annie Murphy’s Alexis steals some of her brother’s thunder by wearing a wedding

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Harvey Guillén on “What We Do in the Shadows”

dress to a ceremony that isn’t hers; the Jazzagals sing David down the aisle; and Moira finds a way to plug her latest film, “The Crows Have Eyes 3,” while officiating through genuine hiccups of tears. We’re really going to miss this bunch.

—Benjamin Lindsay

“Unbelievable”: Marie gets

the call There are countless moments that alternately tear your heart out and leave you breathless on “Unbelievable.”

It’s an unapologetically brutal examination of sexual assault and the pursuit of justice, as well as a stunning account of the ways law enforcement fails survivors.

From a painful-to-watch first episode—in which Kaitlyn Dever’s Marie reports her assault only to recant and be charged for filing a false report—to the miniseries’ end—in which a twist of fate gets her justice—viewers are

privy to her lonely, vulnerable, trapped feelings.

By the time Marie’s story converges with the two faraway detectives investigating a string of rapes, Marie has lost all hope— and everything else: her job, her friends, her boyfriend, the support of her foster families.

With nothing left to lose, she leaves the place that has taken everything from her. On her way to start over, she gets the call: The detectives, poignantly portrayed by Merritt Wever and Toni Collette, have discovered evidence that ties their perp to Marie’s attack. They’ve arrested him, and, more importantly, they believe her. In that moment, with no physical scene partner, you see eight episodes’ worth of grief, so expertly depicted by Dever, lift.

You somehow feel light, too. Of all the excruciating moments Dever manages to play in the most grounded way, this one soars.

—Elyse Roth

Charlie McDermott, Kaitlyn Dever, and Patricia Fa’asua on “Unbelievable”

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“What We Do in the Shadows”: Guillermo

kills vampires The amiable familiar Guillermo de la Cruz (Harvey Guillén), in his quest to eventually become a vampire himself, is willing to do a lot for Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak). But things become a bit more complicated when he discovers that he’s a descendant of Van Helsing with a natural talent for slaying vampires. This FX comedy’s second season opens with Guillermo’s skills on full display; he’s forced to secretly dispatch numerous assassins that have been sent by the vampire council to kill his master and the other vampires in their house, Laszlo and Nadja (Matt Berry and Natasia Demetriou).

Guillermo does this like he does everything else for the vampires: to the best of his ability and with no acknowledgment, although now that’s because if they discover that he’s killed vampires...well, they’re supposed to kill him.

So he stays up eating chocolate-covered espresso beans and saving his masters, setting the tone for a season in which Guillermo must face his heritage and kill more vampires—not all of whom are assassins. This series more than deserved its many nominations this year, but since the vampires haven’t done it (yet), let’s take a moment to truly appreciate Guillén’s reliable, sweater-wearing Guillermo and his epic slaying skills. —Lisa Granshaw

09.18.20 BACKSTAGE

BACKSTAGE 5

With Sarah Snook on ”Succession”

Matthew Macfadyen Show: “Succession” Nomination: Outstanding

Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

By Allie Volpe

BACKSTAGE 09.18.20

Art–trained range once and for all.

In conversation with Backstage, Macfadyen reflects on his 20 years of screen work and what he’s learned along the way.

How did you first get your SAGAFTRA and Equity cards?

[For] my SAG card, I did a film in Los Angeles, “Frost/Nixon.” My Equity card came with my first

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What’s the wildest thing you’ve ever done to get a role?

I remember sending a drunken fax to a director demanding he give me the part, but I knew him quite well, and he did give me the part.

There have been no threats of violence or blackmail—not yet.

What is your worst audition horror story?

It usually involves forgetting my lines mid–screen test or

How do you typically prepare for an audition?

I make sure I know the lines as well as I possibly can. I try to do my best. I do think it’s out of your hands, because they know what they’re looking for, usually. They pretty much know as soon as you walk in the door. You realize it’s not personal; it’s not about how good you are. It’s pretty cosmetic—putting people together, assembling a cast. After you’ve been at it for a few years, people know you don’t have a lisp, they know you can speak English.

They can watch your work to get a flavor of you. There’s not a lot you can do apart from doing the scene as well as you can.

Somebody said to me once, “They’re really willing you to be the one.” When you’re sitting in the room, the casting director’s thinking, “I hope they like this guy,” and the director’s thinking, “I hope this is the one.” There’s goodwill when you walk in the room. It’s useful to remember. They’re not thinking, “Ugh, another actor.” Maybe they are, sometimes. [Laughs] What advice would you give your younger self?

I would tell myself not to worry so much about things that are out of my hands. And it’s probably not a good idea to smoke so many cigarettes because you’re nervous before an audition. I have a tendency to be a little bit diffident and self-effacing. I would say to myself, “You could be a little bit more self-promoting.” The industry has changed an awful lot since I started. There’s a lot more of that self-promotion. People use social media. It was considered a little bit garish and embarrassing to put yourself forward for stuff.

I think now, that’s how the business works more and more. I wish I’d been a little less diffident about that.

This story was originally published on Aug 1, 2019.

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GRAEME HUNTER/HBO

UNTIL NOW, “PRIDE & PREJUDICE,” “Howards End,” and “Wuthering Heights” were just a few of the decidedly English period pieces that Matthew Macfadyen was best known for. But it’s as the vulgar and goofy (and American!) Tom on HBO’s “Succession,” which was nominated for 18 Emmys in 2020, that the U.K. actor has proven his Royal Academy of Dramatic

job, which was in ’95; it was a touring production of “The Duchess of Malfi” with a company called Cheek by Jowl. That was a 10-month tour. It was an amazing first job. It was thrilling and terrifying all at once. I couldn’t believe I’d gotten into drama school, and then I couldn’t believe I got a job and was walking around thinking I could call myself a professional actor.

mid-audition or sitting on a really uncomfortable bit of furniture.

There are none that were spectacularly embarrassing. I’ve probably washed them from my mind.

Bradley Whitford Show: “The

Handmaid’s Tale” Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

Nomination: Outstanding

By Benjamin Lindsay BRADLEY WHITFORD IS NOTHING if not versatile. Since cutting his teeth in the Juilliard School’s drama division, the actor has spent the last 35 years playing everything from a White House deputy chief of staff on “The West Wing” to a closeted crossdresser on “Transparent”—which earned him Emmys in 2001 and 2015, respectively. He won the Television Academy’s highest honor again last year for playing Gilead mastermind Commander Joseph Lawrence on “The

Handmaid’s Tale,” for which he’s nominated again this year.

There’s no doubt about the varied résumé you’ve built over your years onscreen. Did you have any idea when you were first starting out what you wanted your career to look like?

Honestly, the older I get, the more grateful I am for the opportunities that I’ve gotten. I think I’m greedy in terms of the variety of experiences I want to get. I love doing radically—whenever I’m doing one

thing, if I’m doing something dark and subtle, my first instinct is then to want to do some slapstick.

And I’ve been really, really lucky….

All I have ever done is taken the best part available.

How has playing Commander Joseph Lawrence on “The Handmaid’s Tale” made you a better actor?

I’ve gotten to play some wonderful characters. Lawrence is absolutely the most interesting to play. I always say that talking about acting

On “The Handmaid’s Tale”

BACKSTAGE 5 is like dancing about architecture: You can do it all day, but it’s really kind of pretentious. But at the risk of being pretentious, I had a pretty clear idea of what this guy might be like. There was a guy, Secretary [of Defense Robert] McNamara…a brilliant, brilliant guy who ended up using his brilliance to exterminate 3 million people in Southeast Asia during the [Vietnam War]. It was a situation where his humanity got obliterated by his big brain. That was my sort of starting point for this guy.

How did you first get your SAGAFTRA card?

I was at Juilliard and I somehow got cast in a movie called “Dead as a Doorman,” which was an extremely low-budget movie that was not very good.

Do you have an audition horror story you could share with us?

Yeah, I have a thousand! Listen, I think there are less now, but I will happily go on the record saying that Oliver Stone is the most toxic human being I’ve ever met in my life. Notoriously horrible, especially to women, but fundamentally just cruel. And, you know, being cruel to actors who are auditioning is like shooting fish in a barrel. I was auditioning for “Born on the Fourth of July.”

What advice would you give your younger self?

First of all, I think people always feel like they should have more confidence than they have, and I like to remind people that there’s nothing worse than a totally confident actor; some of the greatest actors we love the most precisely because—you know, I think of James Gandolfini walking around with that bag of insecurity, which was part of what made him such a fascinating actor. It’s a weird thing, because as an actor, you’re subjecting yourself to doing for a living what most people think of as their worst nightmare: standing up in public. And you’re constantly trying to get more comfortable there.

HULU

This story was originally published on July 8, 2020.

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BACKSTAGE 5 In “John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch”

John Mulaney Show: “John

Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch”

Nomination: Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special

By Jack Smart JOHN MULANEY, AN EMMY winner for his standup special “Kid Gorgeous at Radio City” and “Saturday Night Live,” finds himself nominated again for Netflix’s “John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch,” featuring a cast of talented youngsters and zany appearances from Richard Kind, André De Shields, David Byrne, Natasha Lyonne, Annaleigh Ashford, and Jake Gyllenhaal. It’s a one-of-a-kind comedy special–meets–variety show that pushed Mulaney into new creative territory.

How has your work changed since the pandemic?

I haven’t written “King Lear,” let’s just say that. I think I’m a better collaborator than solo. Maybe, other than standup comedy, I like to write with people, put sketch

comedy together with other people.... I miss people.

What did you learn from working on “John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch”?

It really cemented how much I love doing these hourlong specials. I’ve obviously done them in standup; and then the Broadway show Nick Kroll and I did, “Oh, Hello,” was similar in that it’s a lot of work leading up to this one hour. It’s why I loved working at “Saturday Night Live” and why I like doing standup specials: I get to take time, lay out every idea, [and] put together an hour of entertainment. I think of them a lot like albums. This special obviously has a soundtrack album, but the special itself—that was years of ideas in one thing. There’s something about running to the

finish line of a special that I really like. Whereas [with] a television show, every week, you’re trying to get 22 minutes together. That’s like a marathon. I like sprints.

Did you ever use Backstage for auditions or gigs?

No, I never did! But I had an idea at “Saturday Night Live,” which was to take Vanessa Bayer and go to every open call in Backstage. But then I thought, How [would you] bring a camera in? I pitched it to Vanessa but then had all these caveats. [Laughs] “I don’t want it to be like ‘Borat’—we’re not trying to make fun of the productions.

But also we need you to not be Vanessa, so we’ll have you in wigs.” Yeah, I really wanted to take her to every open call.

What is your worst audition horror story?

A very prominent film director—I started my audition, and he said, “Lower your voice, you’re not onstage!” That was years ago, but I can still get mad about that. I was

so mad that I left and called Nick Kroll and I told him every reason why I was a bigger deal than this very famous director. [Laughs] Like, “Who the hell does he think he is?” And, by the way, at the age I said this, I had done zero.

What’s the one piece of advice you would give your younger self?

When I was, like, 25, ABC was looking for pilots. They wanted a lot of people to make pilot presentations, seven minutes [long].

For me, a very young comedian, you could actually make a product to pitch that they would watch. And I said to my agent, “What kinds of shows do they want?” And he said, “Oh, they want hits.” And I try to keep that in mind at all times. Like, no one knows. What they do know is they want it to work. So rather than that old adage, “Nobody knows nothin’,” I think I would just say, “You know what people would like? Hits.” And whatever hits, they’ll be happy with, so you might as well do what you want.

This story was originally published on Aug. 26, 2020.

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THE SLATE

Annie Murphy on ”Schitt’s Creek”

as a young Goldie Hawn, which I thought was a really interesting reference point, because Goldie Hawn is bubbly, but she has a real likability and grounded side to her. That said, I went on the internet and [looked up] ‘Kardashians,’ ‘Lindsay Lohan,’ and ‘Olsens.’ [I developed] a way of speaking from them.”

She and Dan began copying each other’s physical tics. “[My mannerisms] came from stoned actor research and just kind of ran away with themselves.

And I think I took a lot of Dan’s kind of contorted facial expressions for myself, and he started taking some of mine—because you know, as siblings, you share similar speaking inflections and physicality, so we started borrowing from each other. But, yeah, there’s some scenes where I’m like, Goddamn it, do I look like the spawn of Jim Carrey? What is happening with my face at this exact moment in time?”

Annie Murphy Show: “Schitt’s

Creek”

Nomination: Outstanding

in a Comedy Series

Supporting Actress

By Lauren LaMagna she’s still in some ways none the wiser, Alexis’ growth over six seasons was fertile ground for comedy and heart in equal measure. The 33-year-old Murphy, now an Emmy nominee for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series, joined Backstage to discuss the final season, how she stays positive in the face of rejection, and what it’s like acting

Even the best actors can learn something from watching “Schitt’s Creek.”

“Someone who is willing to try things and someone who is fully with you and engaged [make great scene partners], and Catherine [O’Hara] is kind of the prime example of that. From her improv background, she’s a real professional, but she always has a glimmer in her eyes and is always ready to play around and give things a shot. Even though she’s so incredibly experienced and an exceptional actor, she never tries to control the scene.”

Be creative, even in an audition.

“On the breakdown for the audition, they didn’t describe [Alexis] as a Paris Hilton type. They described her

Finding a good reader can help you memorize your lines.

“Lucky [Bromhead] is the makeup artist on the show, and she helps me memorize my lines. She does my makeup, and I’m like, ‘And now you will sit with me and we will run lines into the ground.’ So thanks, Lucks, so much for my career, basically! But she was great because she’s a performer herself in her own way, and would do everyone’s voice. She was a good reader.”

This story was originally published on Jan. 29, 2020.

POP TV

LAST JANUARY MARKED THE beginning of the end for Pop TV’s “Schitt’s Creek”—and few characters are more missed than brat-with-a-heart Alexis Rose, played by Annie Murphy. As the spoiled daughter of a millionaire family who suddenly finds itself bankrupt, there was nowhere to go but up for the globe-trotting socialite once she lost it all. While

with comedic heavyweights Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara as her parents, and Dan Levy as her brother (all of whom are also up for Emmys this year).

Even after a rejection, keep moving forward.

“It’s very hard advice ’cause it’s not something you can just do, but growing that thick skin and knowing that if and when you do get that inevitable ‘Not for us,’ don’t take it personally and don’t let it drag you down—because it’s going to happen. It happens all the time, and you just have to keep going and keep going and keep going, because one day it’s going to be you. You’re going to get the callback, and you’re going to get the call.”

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THE SLATE

Jeff Schaffer Show: “Curb

Your Enthusiasm” Nomination: Outstanding Comedy Series

By Isabelle Sarraf AS A KEY PLAYER IN SHAPING the world of comedy television today, Jeff Schaffer has worked on everything from “Seinfeld” to “Curb Your Enthusiasm” to “The League.” His new show “Dave,” loosely based on Dave Burd’s life as a rapper, premiered on FXX this March and became the most popular comedy in FX Networks’ history at the end of its first season. Now, the long-awaited 10th season of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” is nominated for four Emmy Awards, including outstanding comedy series. Schaffer joined us for a Zoom interview and audience Q&A earlier this year.

“That all started with ‘Seinfeld,’ ”

Schaffer said of his showrunning career, “because Larry [David] and Jerry [Seinfeld], when it was your episode, [brought you] on casting; you were there on the floor, you were in the editing room, you went to the sound mix. You got to go to all these things. And I used to say to Larry that he just suffered the death of a thousand cuts because Alec [Berg] and I would be there going, ‘What about this?’ or, ‘How do you do this?’ ” Once David left for the last two years of “Seinfeld,” Schaffer said he was able to take over after picking up on his directing and producing skills.

Since both the “Curb Your

Enthusiasm” revival and “Dave” require considerable improv skills, Schaffer said he looks for flexibility and dexterity when it comes to playing off the jokes of other actors on set—actors like Larry David himself. “Curb” has an outline for each episode rather than a script, and doesn’t rehearse the episodes prior to shooting, Schaffer explained.

For first-time actors on comedy shows, Schaffer advised them to listen to what’s being said and to be on their feet in the scene. He said his role as showrunner is to steer actors and act as a “safety net” for their jokes, but that he trusts actors to carry out his vision and even exceed expectations.

“Every scene is a live rewrite,” he said. “You have a plan, and then you get ready to throw that plan out the window every day.”

Schaffer also answered audience questions, including his favorite role on a TV set, how he drafts unique jokes, and what it’s like pushing boundaries in the world of comedy. His best piece of advice for creatives wanting to get their art out into the world goes as follows: “You have the ability now—everybody does—that people didn’t have even 15 years ago, to just make stuff. If you’re a writer, there’s no substitute for writing; if you wanna direct, there’s no substitute for actually directing. They’re skills that you get better at. I would say it’s like building a barrel: If you give me a whole bunch of wood and you said, ‘Build me a barrel,’ my first barrel would stink! But eventually, I’d figure out which pieces go where and how to proportion things.”

This story was originally published on June 24, 2020.

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JOHN P. JOHNSON/HBO

Saverio Guerra and Larry David on “Curb Your Enthusiasm”

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backstage.com

THE SLATE Paul Mescal on “Normal People”

Paul Mescal Show: “Normal

People” Nomination: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie

ENDA BOWE/ELEMENT PICTURES

By Benjamin Lindsay PAUL MESCAL STANDS TALL AS Hollywood’s latest case study in overnight success. As one half of the breakout star duo leading “Normal People” (the other being his onscreen love interest, Daisy Edgar-Jones), the 24-year-old Irish actor is now Emmy-nominated for his first-ever screen performance. (He got one of the series’ four nods, which also include writing and directing.) During our Instagram Live interview, he walked us through his acting training at the Lir Academy at Trinity College Dublin, how his first professional stage experiences (including a standout performance in “The Great

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Gatsby” at the Gate Theatre) prepared him to act for television, and how he built such crackling chemistry with Edgar-Jones before the first day of shooting.

He’s been taking his overnight international fame in stride.

“The obvious answer is that that is something that just takes adapting to. It’s not something that you learn in drama school. I have amazing friends both in the acting community and outside of it, and a family that keeps me, I think, grounded.”

He doesn’t see much difference between acting for stage or screen.

“I’ve always kind of felt that acting

on stage and screen, the principles are still the same. It’s about understanding the character that you’re playing, doing your homework, and trying to use the tools that you’ve learned or that you naturally have to try and convey that character with as much honesty as you can. And, yes, there are modulations, but I think the fundamental principles are the same.

I tried to hold onto that. I feel like if I had gone into ‘Normal People’ feeling like I had to totally change how I acted onstage, I would’ve blown it, because I had no experience working in front of the camera.”

Director and executive producer Lenny Abrahamson makes his audition room comfortable for actors.

“The process of walking to that audition was actually more nerve-wracking than the audition itself, which I think is a testament to Lenny’s capacity to just make you feel totally comfortable and feel like you’re your best self in an audition setting.”

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Chemistry evolved naturally between Mescal and Edgar-Jones. “[Daisy and I] didn’t spend a huge amount of time together. We spent the guts of two weeks, but it wasn’t actually really discussed. The production wasn’t like, ‘Now you guys go off and spend time together and get to know each other.’ I think there was an understanding, and I don’t know where it came from, that me and Daisy would just fundamentally get on. And I think sometimes it can be detrimental to kind of force chemistry onto two people when you [can] let things breathe and sit and just trust that these two people understand the characters in a team perspective— in the sense that my version of Connell totally slots into Daisy’s [Marianne], and vice versa. And then ultimately just trusting that we’re good people who respect each other and who, when given the right [circumstances], over time we’ll be friends and pals and all of those things.”

This story was originally published on June 28, 2020.

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THE SLATE

Giancarlo Esposito Show: “Better

Call Saul” + “The Mandalorian” Supporting Actor in a Drama Series + Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series Nomination: Outstanding

By Paul Art Smith GIANCARLO ESPOSITO HAS A career spanning many decades on both stage and screen. Best known for his string of roles with filmmaker Spike Lee (“Do the Right Thing,” “Malcolm X”) and his thrice Emmy-nominated turn as Gus Fring on “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,” he’s also been seen on Epix’s “Godfather of Harlem” and Disney+’s “The Mandalorian” and “Stargirl,” among others, within the past year. Esposito offered Backstage readers the advice that’s helped shape him into who he is today.

Born to parents in the performing arts, acting has been ingrained in Esposito since childhood.

“I knew that the self-expression of acting was in my blood all along because of my family lineage….

[The Broadway stage is] where I cut my teeth, and that’s where the real discipline of acting took over my life. It was the transition between stage work that I did to the film work that was the real moment in time where I realized that this would be my life. I had thought maybe I’d just be doing summer stock and some Broadway

shows and be a theater actor all my life, but my desire was to reach a larger audience for one reason: to be able to think about how story uplifts people and draws them in and allows them a deep connection to a reflection of who they are. And to me, that became very important, being a mixed-race African American–Italian man in the creative arts. Those are the days I always look back to because I developed a great discipline and love, and it didn’t matter whether or not I became known or unknown.”

Giancarlo Esposito on ”Better Call Saul”

Esposito’s audition for CD Shirley Rich was life-changing—but not because it went well.

“I read for her, and I was feeling pretty good about my reading.

And she looked at me, and she said, ‘Giancarlo, your instincts are all perfect, but your acting style is for the theater. Of course, obviously, that’s where you come from, but you’ll need to adjust that for the camera…. You need to go and do Off-Broadway, call everything back, [and] you need to find straight dramatic acting and how that affects you and how that feels.’ That advice was the best advice I’ve gotten in all of my career because of the Anthony way she told me. She was loving Anderson on “Black-ish” and compassionate and encouraging. I think of her always, because when you have someone who believes in you and can be specific and nonjudgmental—she gave me that gift, and I just want to pass that gift on.”

An actor should know how to abandon the fear of failure and build confidence.

“Have confidence, understand that you are original and valuable—and then just do your work.

That’s all. Close your ears to that voice inside of you that says, ‘I’m not good enough,’ and listen to constructive criticism. Take the best and leave the rest. It’s the best advice I can give you, because you know your strengths and you know when you’re in the pocket and you know when it sounds right and you know when you kick butt, so you got to go with that. If you don’t believe yourself, have someone tape you. And your mantra should be: I am here, I am good enough, I am ready; there’s nothing that will stop me; I have an interpretation and an idea about what I want to deliver. And just go and do it, and let all those other voices melt away.”

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GREG LEWIS/AMC

This story was originally published on July 13, 2020.

Ashley Nicole Black Show: “A

Black Lady Sketch Show” Variety Sketch Series

Nomination: Outstanding

By Isabelle Sarraf ASHLEY NICOLE BLACK DROPPED out of her Ph.D. program at Northwestern to pursue comedy and was soon hired as a writer and eventual correspondent for “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.” She left the show in 2019 to co-write and star on HBO’s “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” now nominated for three Emmy Awards, including outstanding variety sketch series.

The Emmy winner and six-time nominee joined Backstage over Zoom to talk about her creative process and to offer tips for up-and-coming writers.

Quarantine can still be a productive time for writers.

“I think if you can write, and if you’re home right now and you have the time to, you should. I was

watching Apple TV+ last night. I saw they have huge stars, and I was like, ‘How do they get these huge stars on this new platform?’

And then when you watch the show, you’re seeing them play different kinds of characters they didn’t get to play before. They’re going to a brand-new platform where they have that freedom. I think every actor has something that they know they can do that the industry may not invite them to do. If you can write it, do it.”

flow, and it’s good, but you have to get up there. She was like, ‘Every time my kid comes in the room and is like, “Mom, look at this!” I’m back at the bottom of the hill, and I have to run up to get there.’ Even just hearing that metaphor helped me give myself some slack in knowing that it takes work to get into that flow, and if you’re not in it, that’s OK. But when I am in it, I treat it as so precious, and I try not to interrupt that time, and I try to write for as long as I’m in that space.”

When it comes to writer’s block, take advice from Shonda Rhimes. “[Shonda Rhimes] talks about writing in a really interesting way. She says that writing is at the top of the hill, and you have to run up the hill.

Once you get up there, you’re in the

Here’s the advice she would give her younger self.

“When I was applying to ‘Full Frontal,’ I did the first round of packets. Then they asked for a second packet, and I was like, ‘Oh, no, I might actually get this job.’ And I

THE SLATE

had a panic attack about the idea of moving to New York. I ended up having two weeks to move from L.A. to New York for that job, and I was freaking out. My friend Nikki said, ‘Every challenge you’ve ever had, you’ve lived through.’ It was such a profound thing to be like, ‘Oh, I’ve never failed myself before.’

I’ve failed—a lot—but I’ve never failed myself.”

So how does she deal with rejection? “[I] always have another thing on deck to trick myself into moving my focus there. When I was applying to be on ‘Full Frontal,’ I was also applying to Larry Wilmore’s show.

The moment I sent in my material to ‘Full Frontal,’ I started shooting my correspondent audition video for Larry Wilmore. I was already working on something else. I try to do that with everything.”

This story was originally published on Aug. 19, 2020.

HBO

Gabrielle Dennis, Quinta Brunson, Ashley Nicole Black, and Robin Thede on ”A Black Lady Sketch Show”

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THE SLATE

Anthony Anderson on “Black-ish”

Anthony Anderson Show: “Black-ish” Nomination: Outstanding

Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

By Isabelle Sarraf

BACKSTAGE 09.18.20

he looks at how much the kids in the cast—Yara Shahidi, Marcus Scribner, Miles Brown, and Marsai Martin—have grown. The evolution of the young cast from children to teenagers to young adults, he said, makes it all sink in. “Being on set, it does not seem like it’s been six years; it does not seem like it’s been a long time,” Anderson said.

“But watching it in reruns and syndication, you go back to those very first episodes and you’re like, ‘Oh, my God, we’ve been doing this for a minute now!’ ” Anderson said there are parts of his character, Dre Johnson, that he’s still learning about—because he’s still learning about himself.

Discovering new things about his own personality, he said, allows him to bring new things to the character and keep the content fresh.

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An executive producer since the pilot, Anderson said he was integral in developing Barris’ original concept for “Black-ish.”

Wearing two different hats, as an executive producer and an actor, he was more hands-on as a producer in the pilot phase and first season to help get the show off the ground.

“I’m trying to navigate through that as best I can and make sure that people are comfortable with me wearing those two hats,” Anderson explained. “We’re doing what we love to do, and that shouldn’t complicate anything.”

When it comes to auditioning, Anderson said his success in an audition room comes from being prepared. “It’s a simple equation,” he said. “The only thing I can control in the equation is me.”

This story was originally published on Aug. 21, 2020.

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EVANS WARD/ABC

ON THE HEELS OF HIS NINTH Primetime Emmy Award nomination, Anthony Anderson is well known for his role as a lead actor and executive producer on Kenya Barris’ ABC sitcom “Black-ish.” His scene-stealing comedic timing and chemistry with his costars, including fellow Emmy contender Tracee Ellis Ross, have cemented him in the small-screen comedy world for the last several years. He chatted with Backstage as part of our ongoing digital programming, The Slate, to chat about the challenges of life during COVID-19, his roles on the show, and his philosophy when it comes to the auditioning process.

Though he’s been working on “Black-ish” for six seasons now, he said he only realizes how long the show has been running when

As long as an actor prepares as much as they can beforehand, it’s important to acknowledge that the rest is out of their control. Whether he gets the job or not, Anderson said giving it your all is the best way to assure yourself that you have done the most you can in such a subjective process; with hundreds or thousands of actors trying to get one role, he said, you can’t lose sleep wondering why you might not have landed a role or why another performer did book it.

“I give 100% every time I enter a casting room, because I always believe that I may not get that job, but they will remember me for the next opportunity that comes across their desk,” Anderson said.

Before he goes into every audition, he claims the role as his own—if, of course, it’s destined for him. His mantra? “If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.”

Rachel Brosnahan Show: “The

Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” Nomination: Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series

By Johanna Bear OVER THE PAST THREE SEASONS, Rachel Brosnahan has become synonymous with “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and her 2018 Emmywinning performance as Miriam “Midge” Maisel, for which she has recently been nominated for the third time. But for Brosnahan, the role has required a process of continually redefining what she thinks is possible. It’s an approach that led to the creation of her own production company so that she can reciprocate the leaps of faith that she believes have been taken on her behalf throughout her career. Brosnahan spoke with Backstage as part of our ongoing Slate programming to talk about how she pushes herself as a performer and producer, and how she is staying engaged creatively until

“Mrs. Maisel” is able to resume shooting.

Fear can be a crucial motivator.

“The biggest challenge to overcome [on ‘Mrs. Maisel’] has been my own fear, which by the same token is also a gift. I’m utterly fucking terrified every single time I step on set for this show, and I think that’s the dream—I think I’m living it! I had never done comedy; this world felt so far away. And as Midge has had to become a better comedian, I live in complete fear that there will come a point where I can’t keep up. That keeps me motivated and excited and forces me to continue to take risks in my performance, and to put any kind of ego aside and keep growing and learning.”

Producing allows Brosnahan to foster a culture of reciprocal artistic risk-taking.

“I’ve been realizing over the last couple of years—I felt like as I was talking about ‘Maisel,’ I was talking a lot about how this was a role that I never felt was for me. I have not largely been considered, in my own life, a very funny person up until this point, and I’d never done comedy; it felt like something that was really far away. I said the same thing about ‘House of Cards’; back then, that was a real leap for me. I realized that I’m on the receiving end of a lot of people taking leaps of faith, a lot of people saying yes when I didn’t necessarily have anything to back up the idea that I could do this or that I could deliver.

I’m so grateful for those people who

THE SLATE

took those chances. But I think as a producer, that’s something that I would like to pay forward—to be able to be a company that says yes to different talented artists who just need someone to crack open the door a little bit.”

Support systems can help combat imposter syndrome and self-doubt.

“I think I’m learning through talking to people who have been doing this for a lot longer than I have that that voice never really goes away. It’s just about continuing to confront it in every moment, and I have found that the way to do that is to keep doing things that feel impossible…. I think having a grounding support system is so, so important. And that could be a number of people, whether it’s friends or family or a rep that you really trust or a therapist that you really trust.”

This story was originally published on Aug. 21, 2020.

NICOLE RIVELLI /AMAZON PRIME VIDEO

Rachel Brosnahan on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”

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THE SLATE Natasia Demetriou, Kayvan Novak, and Matt Berry on “What We Do in the Shadows”

Paul Simms and Stefani Robinson Show: “What

We Do in the Shadows” Nomination: Outstanding Comedy Series

By Isabelle Sarraf

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again establishes her as the first Black woman to be recognized with multiple nominations, per Deadline), recently joined Backstage to chat about writing the half-hour series, their casting process, and how they maintain the show’s documentary style.

When quarantine started in March, Simms said, the team had been in the midst of editing Season 2, so they had to figure out how to do it all remotely. The writing team had also begun working on Season 3, which he said has thus far all been done over Zoom.

“The scripts were starting to come in, and we got a really great season planned, but Zoom is an awful way to work, at least as far as a writers’ room goes. You want to be in there and talking and

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laughing at each other’s jokes, and Zoom just slows everything down.

So that definitely made things harder,” Simms said. “But then again, I have to say, on a social level, we’re all so isolated [that] it was great to see everyone every day.”

Talking about the casting process, the two noted how some of the leads came into auditions making strong choices. For example, Kayvan Novak got fake fangs and worked on the strong Western Asian accent he would use for the role. “Mark [Proksch], Matt [Berry], Natasia [Demetriou], and Kayvan all have pretty big sketch and comedy backgrounds, so they are no strangers to not only improv but creating characters and doing bigger, broader comedy bits,” Robinson said.

This story was originally published on Aug. 24, 2020.

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RUSS MARTIN/FX

PAUL SIMMS AND STEFANI Robinson are two of the creative heads behind the Emmynominated mockumentary comedy-horror series “What We Do in the Shadows.” The FX show’s second season has garnered praise for its writing and off-the-wall concept from creator Jemaine Clement. Based on the 2014 feature film of the same name that Clement wrote, directed, and starred in with “Jojo Rabbit” Oscar winner Taika Waititi, the series documents the exploits of four vampire roommates living in modern-day Staten Island.

Showrunner Simms and executive producer and writer Robinson, each also individually Emmynominated for writing episodes of “Shadows” (Robinson’s recognition

When it comes to playing a vampire on a comedy television series, Robinson said the greatest challenge was directing the actors to be grounded. The show, as an ensemble comedy, relies on each actor to pull off individual jokes and includes a lot of improv. But Robinson said the show works best when the mockumentary layer feels as real as possible.

Clement, in particular, was a “real stickler” on set when it came to sticking to the documentary rules, Robinson said. When crafting some scenes, she said they had to evaluate whether a camera crew would float in the air with the vampires while they’re flying, and whether it would make sense if they got caught in that moment in the fictional sense of the show.

“In that way, I think it’s tougher to write, because we’ve written scenes that make sense dramatically on paper that are funny,” Robinson said. “But when we really get to the practicality of how we’re going to shoot it, we’re like, ‘This doesn’t make any sense, because how would the camera crew even be here? Why would they be here?’ ”

THE SLATE

Samira Wiley Show: “The

Handmaid’s Tale” Nomination: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series

By Benjamin Lindsay FOR OUR SLATE INSTAGRAM LIVE interview with Samira Wiley, the actor covered everything from her early career roots to her Emmywinning performance on “The Handmaid’s Tale” (for which she’s nominated again this year) to her advice for others in the field who are chasing the dream. Plus, she shared how playing Moira Strand on “Handmaid’s” ignited her activism, and which causes are especially close to her heart today.

As an actor, you never want to be too rigid to play.

“Being on ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ I’ve been blessed with scene partners that push me and make me a better actor.... For me, [a good scene partner] is gonna be all about someone who doesn’t have their lines and their performance stuck in their head by rote, where they have rehearsed it a certain way and they’re not able to deviate from that. They’re just not able to, I feel like, listen and respond in the moment, because you never know how your scene partner is gonna say a line; you never know what they’re gonna do spontaneously in the moment. And if you’re [able] to be malleable and go with whatever they’re doing, almost like a tennis match—that is what makes a wonderful scene partner for me.”

then, because even just from the very beginning of getting to know a character, thinking of that tiny little thing—does this person move like chicken?—it’s helpful, even if you don’t say, ‘This person is an animal,’ to think about it in that way.”

Playing Moira for three seasons has made Wiley a stronger activist in her own life.

“I’ve learned things from Moira in terms of how I want to use my voice and use my platform to speak about the things that I am passionate about. She’s such an activist.... First and foremost, I’m always going to be a champion for my communities, including the LGBTQ+ community and the struggles that we have had [since] the beginning of time. And then, of

course, everything that’s been happening in the Black Lives Matter movement. It was really hard for me when [the] George Floyd and Breonna Taylor news came out.

It’s hit me, I think, in a way that it hasn’t before. I knew how horrible it was with all of these events that have been happening for years and years with my people; but this time, it really, really hit me.

[I’ve been] having conversations with my wife, who is white, about things that I’ve been taught and things that she’d been taught when she was a child. It’s really interesting, just having to come to a reckoning of what is happening in this country. But those are my communities, and I love y’all.”

This story was originally published on Aug. 26, 2020.

Samira Wiley on “The Handmaid’s Tale”

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The Juilliard School gave her character-building tools that she still uses today.

“One thing that [Juilliard] really taught us is how to use animals. It’s the weirdest thing, but it always helps me. You know, if you’re in a certain scene or you’re playing a certain character, what kind of animal comes up for you? How do they move? How do they react to certain things? That’s always something that I think of from [back]

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THE SLATE

Hannah Gadsby Show: “Douglas” Nomination: Outstanding

Variety Special

By Johanna Bear ACROSS HER TWO NETFLIX comedy specials, “Nanette” and her newest release, “Douglas,” Hannah Gadsby has taken audiences on a journey, fundamentally deconstructing and reimagining what comedy can be. For Gadsby, comedy has always been personal, allowing her to present the specifics of her experiences as a lesbian with an autism spectrum diagnosis in order to make a place for herself in an industry that she never felt was designed with her in mind. Gadsby sat down with Backstage as a part of our ongoing Slate series to discuss her decision to return to comedy after “Nanette,” and how voice and audience are inextricably linked to every part of the writing proces.

A comeback always had to be on her own terms.

“When I filmed ‘Nanette,’ the content suggests that I won’t come back, but there was a very layered idea there. Part of me wanted it to be true, because I was exhausted. And certainly, if I came back, it had to be on my own terms. The success of ‘Nanette’ meant that I could come back on my own terms.

And ‘Douglas’ is a very different show. I kind of took a wrecking ball to comedy with ‘Nanette,’ and ‘Douglas’ is what I built in the aftermath.”

For Gadsby, comedy works best when it’s personal.

“I think, starting out in comedy

at the time that I did, I felt it had to be personal in a way, because I have to explain myself, because [I’m] not your average person that was standing up on any given night. I’d stand up, [and] my point of difference, I couldn’t not address it. My personal life meant that my observations of the world were going to be different. If I didn’t address my sexuality or things like that— because people could tell—then I couldn’t get the laughs. People weren’t relaxed, because they were like, ‘I need her to name it.’

So I very quickly worked out that if I didn’t explain myself, name my differences, and wrangle those for an audience, I wasn’t going to get laughs.”

Writer’s block can be tackled through a number of different avenues.

“There are various techniques.

When I’m doing comedy, writer’s block doesn’t exist, because as soon as you’re onstage, you’ve got to say shit and make people laugh, so that’s a really effective and immediate and frightening way to take that. You just have to fly. But there are different forms of writer’s block. Sometimes it’s just like there’s no point. I’m tired; my brain is tired; it’s not actually working. With autism, I have a limited amount of energy. It’s a finite resource on any given day, and I can have a cumulative stress that means that my brain ceases to function normally, or as good as it can get. So if I haven’t slept, there’s no getting out of writer’s block.

I have to actually just rest. And then there are creative blocks, but they’re just puzzles. Being active helps me, so I’ll often go out into the garden if I’m home.”

This story was originally published on Aug. 28, 2020.

Hannah Gadsby in “Douglas”

ALI GOLDSTEIN/ NETFLIX

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THE SLATE Dylan McDermott on “Hollywood”

Dylan McDermott Show: “Hollywood” Nomination: Outstanding

in a Limited Series or TV Movie

Supporting Actor

SAEED ADYANI/NETFLIX

By Johanna Bear DYLAN MCDERMOTT’S TURN as Ernie West on Ryan Murphy’s “Hollywood” has been received as one of the series’ standout performances. He was recently nominated for an Emmy in the outstanding supporting actor in a limited series or TV movie category for the role—his first nod in 20 years. As he explained to us via Instagram Live, the character, based on Hollywood pimp Scotty Bowers, is different from any part he’s played before—in all the right ways.

you get older, you worry about that less and less. It’s more about pleasing yourself and making yourself happy in many ways. I think that’s where I’ve arrived. It’s like, OK, when I give myself the report for the day, how did I do? I think, over time, we relax into who we are.

The great thing about age is that you care less about what anybody thinks. I’ve noticed that in my acting in the last couple of years. I’ve sort of graduated to this new place that is so much easier and better than it was before.”

McDermott feels that he’s come to a new and better place in his acting.

“As a young actor, you’re so eager to prove to yourself that you’re talented, that you’re good. There’s so much of that going on. Then, as

He now prefers capital-C characters over leading man types.

“I got caught up in the leading man thing for a long time. [But] I really like doing the character work. Like, Ernie—to me, that’s my best day, when I can find out who this guy

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is and shape this different look. I was doing ‘American Horror Story’ and ‘Hollywood’ at the same time, and [I was playing] two wildly different characters. To be able to do that back and forth was the happiest I’ve ever been…. [Murphy] sees something in you that you don’t see in yourself. Like, he saw Ernie in me. I didn’t fully get that, and I think, because Ryan wanted to reinvent me as an actor, he said that, and he did! He saw something in me to play Ernie, and I just ran with it. I think Ryan instills that confidence; he gives you the opportunity. He says, ‘Here, take this and run with it.’ Most people don’t do that. They want proof that you’ve done that particular character so you can play it again. That’s the difference with Ryan: He trusts actors; he believes in actors.”

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You’ll handle rejection better if you’re acting for yourself.

“The hardest thing is, how do you carry on? How do you continue? I think this applies today.

As long as you love it, you can’t go wrong. If you’re becoming an actor because you want to be famous, have money, have power?

Don’t do it. One of the biggest lessons I ever learned was, I was doing a play and I was busting my ass. It was like three hours onstage, and I’m sweating and bleeding out. There were three people in the audience. But I learned a lesson that night: I asked myself, ‘Why am I acting? Who’s it for? Is it to get the approval of the audience?’ No, it’s for me, because I love it. So it doesn’t matter if there’s 10 billion people watching, 100 million people watching, or one person watching. It’s for you.

Therefore, you can never go wrong.”

This story was originally published on Aug. 28, 2020.

09.18.20 BACKSTAGE

IN THE ENVELOPE

Laverne Cox Show: “Orange

Is the New Black” Guest Actress in a Drama Series

Nomination: Outstanding

By Jack Smart “PEOPLE WANT TO BE ACTORS, and I’m just like...are you ready?” says Laverne Cox with a knowing laugh.

The award-winning triple threat, producer, and activist joined Backstage’s podcast to bare her soul, revealing how her technical approach to acting overlaps with maintaining her physical and emotional health. Cox has earned four guest actress Emmy nominations for playing Sophia Burset on Jenji Kohan’s female prison drama “Orange Is the New Black,”

one of Netflix’s first original hits.

Her 2020 nomination (the news of which befuddled Cox to no end while she was hosting the nominations announcement opposite Leslie Jones) honors her work on the series finale, as empathetic and naturally charismatic as ever.

As the first openly transgender performer to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy, the first openly trans woman to win a Daytime Emmy for her special “Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word,” and broadcast TV’s first trans lead in

CBS’ “Doubt,” Cox has been blazing trails since her early days dancing in Mobile, Alabama, and studying acting in New York City with Brad Calcaterra, Susan Batson, Kymberly Harris, and more. She has also appeared on “The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again” and as the voice of God on “Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens,” and recently produced Netflix’s hit documentary about transgender representation in media, “Disclosure.”

Her studies make for a

With Taylor Schilling on “Orange Is the New Black”

A version of this story was originally published on Aug. 22, 2019.

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JOJO WHILDEN/NETFLIX

fascinating and frank conversation, full of actorly terms (“the unfulfilled need,” “tragic flaws”) that aspiring stage and screen stars alike will find useful. “Acting is not therapy,” Cox advises.

“We as actors have to get to the core of who we are so that we understand how to give that to a character. It starts with our own stories, our own personalization.

A character might have a different accent from me or they might walk differently or have a different backstory. But that core ‘unfulfilled need,’ [the] human stuff has to be mine. It has to be personal.”

She repeats herself, like it’s a mantra: “It has to be personal.”

She also recommends that actors early in their career really get to the heart of their passion and prepare themselves for what might come their way. “My career would not have taken off if I wasn’t emotionally prepared to handle it,” she says. “If you want to be an artist and an actor, I believe you have to do a deep dive with yourself and find a way to take care of all this stuff. Some people don’t have as much trauma as I have, and some people have more trauma! So, finding a way to take care of that so that you can hold space for that with a career is crucial.”

As for representation in Hollywood and its awards voting bodies, Cox recognizes that we’re undergoing a sea change. “I believe the reason why I probably got some ‘success’ when it happened was because Sophia was necessary,” she says of her Emmy recognition. “The voice that I had that was part of a larger trans community was necessary in the world at the time. There was a lot of service that needed to be done.

None of this has been about me.

Even though I have to take care of myself and mind myself and excavate myself, it ultimately is about something bigger than me.”

Cox’s work always comes back to her love of the craft. “You must love it,” she states. “If you don’t love it, you should do something else. Because it’s not worth it.”

IN THE ENVELOPE

On “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”

Tony Shalhoub Show: “The

Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

Nomination: Outstanding

NICOLE RIVELLI /AMAZON PRIME VIDEO

By Jack Smart “IF A PERSON DOESN’T HAVE failures, then they haven’t really taken big enough risks.” Those are the wise words of Tony Shalhoub, award-winning master craftsman of the stage and screen. Although he hesitates to offer advice (“The advice I give is, don’t listen to me”), when he does so with Backstage, it’s pure gold.

Born in Michigan to a LebaneseAmerican family and educated at the University of Southern Maine and the Yale School of Drama, Shalhoub cut his teeth at the American Repertory Theater in

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Cambridge, then Off- (and OffOff-) Broadway. In 1985, he made his Great White Way debut in “The Odd Couple,” and went on to earn four Tony nominations, for “Conversations With My Father,” “Golden Boy,” “Act One,” and “The Band’s Visit,” the latter winning him the award for leading actor in a musical.

Shalhoub broke into Hollywood, meanwhile, on the sitcom “Wings” and was launched to superstardom on the procedural “Monk,” which earned him three Primetime Emmys and a Golden

Globe. He’s starred on the big screen in everything from the comedies “Galaxy Quest” and “Spy Kids” to “Big Night” and “The Siege.” He’s now delighting Amazon Prime Video audiences on Amy Sherman-Palladino’s awards-dominating “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” where his work as the hilariously uptight Abe Weissman scored him his fourth Emmy last year and four SAG Awards in the last two years.

He’s Emmy-nominated once again for the show’s third season alongside castmates Rachel Brosnahan,

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Marin Hinkle, Alex Borstein, Sterling K. Brown, Luke Kirby, and Wanda Sykes.

For Shalhoub, acting is often about “giving more than you believe you’re capable of giving.”

If taking on a role doesn’t cost an actor anything—some kind of spiritual, physical, or psychological toll—they can’t claim to have really done it right. “You have to sort of pay a price to get to or attain where you need to be in that particular job. The pursuit, the solving of that, the problem of that play or character...there’s gotta be a bloodletting, in a way.”

That explains his full-bodied commitment to such a wide variety of roles, a career that Shalhoub is quick to point out has also been peppered with dry spells. To live a life in the arts is to accept that you’re riding a roller coaster. Shalhoub often refers to “the void,” his understanding of the despair actors are all too familiar with as they wait for another opportunity to exercise their craft.

“There is only the void! And little intermittent periods where you step out of it,” he says. But, he adds, “the void is where all the good stuff happens.

“It’s daunting. But on the other hand, it’s also healthy, in a way, to confront that. [The void] forces you to reevaluate where you are and reassess and realign your goals and your ambitions. And so I think, for me, anyway, security and complacency sometimes go hand in hand.”

What about when the pursuit of an acting career isn’t panning out, and the void stretches on for too long? “What I’ve seen work for some people is if they let go, just sort of release it and move off of it—teach or find another way to give or another way to offer their skill and experience, stop worrying and fretting over it too much—in some weird way, it attracts work,” he says. “And also, I just tell people, there’s no point in doing this if you’re not in it for the long run.... You’ve got to play the long game.”

A version of story was originally published on Dec. 5, 2019.

09.18.20 BACKSTAGE

IN THE ENVELOPE

On “The Morning Show”

Billy Crudup Show: “The

Morning Show” Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

Nomination: Outstanding

By Jack Smart WHETHER YOU’RE JUST STARTING out and your job is, essentially, auditioning, or you’re a stage and screen veteran, Billy Crudup has valuable advice for working actors at every level: Do the best you can in the moment.

“Don’t think that your best performance is who you are as an actor,” he tells Backstage. “Don’t think of your worst performance as who you are as an actor. You’re somewhere in the middle, all the time. All you can do is embark upon it each night with the

enterprise to do the best you can that night. And the results are what they are.”

Crudup developed this philosophy—valuing the creative process over a results-oriented approach— through years of working on classic texts onstage, playing offbeat characters in “Almost Famous,” “Spotlight,” “Jackie,” and “20th Century Women,” and, in the case of his first real gig, an old-timey sailor. He moved around a lot as a kid but would return to his native New York to see theater,

pursued communication studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and used Backstage to book regional theater jobs. (“If you wanted to know about what was happening and if there were open calls or anything, or if you just wanted to read the interesting articles about the actors that were working, Backstage was the thing.”) He made his Broadway debut in 1995 in Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia” and later played a different role in its 2011 revival, earning him one of his four Tony

nominations (he won in 2007 for Stoppard’s “The Coast of Utopia”).

His fascinatingly zany work in 2019 as television executive Cory Ellison on Apple TV+’s “The Morning Show,” created by Jay Carson and starring and produced

by Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, earned Crudup a Critics’ Choice Award, a SAG Award nomination, and now a Primetime Emmy nomination.

It’s a surprising performance for its off-kilter qualities, cartoonish yet believable enough that the character must be inspired by real entertainment bigwigs.

“In order to play somebody who speaks so confidently and in such volume,” he explains, “you have to have the ability to hold an ornate idea in your head before you speak.

It’s sort of like saying you could divide four by two and get two. Or you can do the long division part of it that takes you through some addition and some multiplication and back through around, and you still get two at the end of it.

But he’s the guy who has the long-form variable equation about everything. Ultimately, it becomes indefatigable. It’s so impressive, what he said, that you go, Wait, has he thought of everything? Or has he just voodooed me there? I would have to make serious choices about how he moves from one thought to the next in the space of these monologues.”

Crudup also has plenty of experience with, and thoughts on, auditioning. “Early career is almost, for most people, entirely taken up with auditions,” he points out. “Your career is auditioning, and your work as an actor is auditioning. If nobody knows you, then that’s all you’re going to be doing.

“I think of that as the time I get to play the part. It’s mine. For that two minutes? That’s my part....

It’s a great way to get through the day,” he says. “And you feel like an artist, which is a really important thing to feel like when you’re starting out. Because mostly, you feel like a failure!”

A version of this story was originally published on Jan. 16, 2020.

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Laura Linney Show: “Ozark” Nomination: Outstanding

Lead Actress in a Drama Series

STEVE DIETL/NETFLIX

By Jack Smart LAURA LINNEY IS KNOWN FOR her technical prowess in film, theater, and television—she has three Oscar nominations, four Tony nominations, four Emmy Awards, and a SAG Award to prove it. And she goes beyond separating just stage and screen; they’re three mediums, she tells Backstage, requiring distinct approaches when it comes to crafting characters.

With feature films and screenplays, Linney says, “You have the whole story. You can craft something from beginning to end, and you know that that’s your job. With long-term television, you have to be a little open because you don’t know what’s coming.” That’s part of the thrill of everything from her stage-to-screen breakout “Tales of the City” to the award-winning “The Big C” and now, Netflix’s crime family drama “Ozark,” from Bill Dubuque, Mark Williams, and director-star Jason Bateman. For three increasingly dark seasons, the Emmy-nominated Linney has brought to life the deceptively dangerous Wendy Byrde, with no real idea of where the character’s trajectory would go.

“I started with the premise of, this is someone who doesn’t know themself very well,” she explains, which goes for every character in the “Ozark” ensemble. “If something doesn’t surprise you, why do it? You have to be careful about being too knowing. You do all this work, but you don’t do it to encase yourself.”

That echoes Linney’s advice for her fellow actors, whether they’re starting rehearsals for a play or entering an audition room: “You’re prepared so that you can be flexible. You’re prepared so that you can then really move around and explore without falling off the balance beam.”

Preparation is also key, frankly, to relaxation. If you’re wondering

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whether an actor as masterful as Linney still regularly deals with nerves, the answer is a wholehearted yes. “I learned early, if I’m not prepared, I get nervous,” she says. “You can be really specific if you’re relaxed. If you’re nervous, everything gets a little general, and you’re not in control of it.”

Linney’s determination as a performer to “make some tiny contribution to something that had been going on for centuries before me,” as she says, can be traced back to her training at the Juilliard School and a childhood spent

in New York City theaters with her father, playwright Romulus Linney. “I knew that if I wanted a life in this profession, I needed to know how to solve problems along the way,” she remembers. “Instinct is delicious. It’s wonderful. But it will only take you so far.”

With 12 Broadway credits to her name (including a recent London and Broadway run in the solo play “My Name Is Lucy Barton,” adapted by Rona Munro from Elizabeth Strout’s novel), Linney says she’s most at home treading the boards. That explains her

IN THE ENVELOPE “script-centric” process, a bigpicture approach to storytelling onstage and beyond. The questions she asks herself while memorizing lines include, “From a playwriting standpoint, what’s this character doing to the story? How am I helping move the story forward?

What is my job within this scene?... Am I the obstacle? Do I ignite something?”

That’s some of the “nerdy stuff,” as Linney puts it, that goes into creating three-dimensional people like Wendy Byrde. Another important step to the process? Knowing that your work will be bad before the preparation and finessing and perseverance makes it better. “You have to let yourself really suck in order to explore something and have it be rooted, really rooted, in good,” she advises.

This story was originally published on May 21, 2020.

On “Ozark”

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IN THE ENVELOPE

Sarah Snook Show: “Succession”

Nomination: Outstanding

Supporting Actress in a Drama Series

By Jack Smart WORKING ACTORS EVERYWHERE can take Emmy nominee Sarah Snook’s advice to heart, particularly when it comes to the many rejections that follow auditions.

“It’s not some fundamental core value or essential part of you that they’re saying no to,” she tells Backstage. “They’re saying no for you in this character for this moment, with all the many variables that you make up as an actor for this moment, for this character, for this time.... It’s not because you’re a bad actor or you’re a bad person or you aren’t very good or

you’ll never get a job. It’s just no for the moment. I think we take every no to heart.”

The Australia-born actor attended the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney and worked in theater before splitting her time with film and television jobs in the U.S. (including “Sisters of War,” “Predestination,” “The Dressmaker,” and “Jessabelle”).

She is perhaps best known to audiences as Siobhan “Shiv” Roy, the fabulously ruthless daughter of a media mogul family on HBO’s award-winning hit “Succession.”

She also remembers the moment that officially launched her acting ambitions: seeing her older sister play Peter Pan onstage—especially the flying. When a bed was tipped vertically, her sister lying across it as if soaring through the air, Snook thought, “Oh, my God. I didn’t know my sister could fly.

This understanding of what reality was, that’s a bed and then they can do that and then you could pretend to fly, but then also at the same time going, ‘I can’t believe she just knew how to do that.

Obviously, she can fly!’ ”

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This story was originally published on May 28, 2020.

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GRAEME HUNTER/HBO

On “Succession”

That initial inspiration seems to fuel Snook’s creative process; acting for her is about “where you as a person and a character meet—that imagined creation.”

Unlocking a character is about finding their vulnerabilities, their “cracks,” as she calls them.

The most satisfying acting jobs involve roles that she’s grappled with, the ones she’s “had to learn something from.”

Her No. 1 recommendation for getting into a character’s shoes?

Live your life. “If you’re a person who’s never traveled outside of your hometown and are expected to play a character who grew up in Alaska in some oil field,” Snook says, “your imagination can only take you so far.... Have experiences, go traveling, meet people.

Fail in other areas so that you can bring it back to your work.”

Snook also speaks candidly about her coping attempts with the ongoing global pandemic. As she points out, most people working in creative arts industries know what it’s like to live with uncertainty, both existential and financial. “You’re employed for six weeks and then you’re not for 12 weeks, and then you’re employed for a day and then not. We’re quite good at keeping ourselves busy or are used to volatility, I guess!”

Snook recalls a distinctly gut-wrenching audition horror story—a self-tape rather than an in-person audition. Both before and during the pandemic’s disruption of Hollywood, self-taping is an important, if grueling, tool in the actor’s toolbox. “I remember doing my first self-taping the year after graduating,” she says. “[I thought,] This sucks. This absolutely blows. Now I have to be conscious of myself? Now I look at myself on tape and see all my flaws and mistakes? Oh, you’re the worst actor ever, Sarah. But I think that’s a good thing in the end. It’s like, OK, well, it’s not as if no one else can see that when you’re performing. That’s kind of the point. You’re afraid of revealing yourself? You’re meant to as an actor.”

IN THE ENVELOPE

Song “BoJack Kang-ho with Bong Horseman” Joon-ho

Raphael Bob-Waksberg Show: “BoJack

Horseman” Nomination: Outstanding Animated Program

By Jack Smart with great help from an incredible staff of writers and other collaborators, but I still feel like I don’t know what I’m doing. I’ve kind of freed myself of the expectation that I ever will.”

So his advice to aspiring Hollywood writers, naturally, is to “stop asking that question and just start writing.... Part of being a writer is just getting it in your bones, getting the muscle memory down, just doing it. I think we’re so often, as writers, afraid of writing something that is less than perfect, and that fear paralyzes us. I’m a big fan of writing

less-than-perfect things.”

Raised in California and inspired in his early years by “The Simpsons” and talk show hosts like David Letterman and Conan O’Brien, Bob-Waksberg studied theater at Bard College and cut his teeth writing and performing in comedy troupes.

Meeting illustrator and production designer Lisa Hanawalt eventually led to the pair co-producing “BoJack Horseman” and her adult animated series “Tuca & Bertie.”

Last year, he teamed up with Kate Purdy to co-create the Amazon Prime Video dramedy “Undone”

This story was originally published on June 3, 2020.

NETFLIX

BOTH A WITTY HOLLYWOOD satire and a surprisingly deep character study of humanoid animals, Netflix’s Emmy-nominated, Annie Award–winning “BoJack Horseman” challenged and expanded TV audiences’ perception of adult animated series.

According to its creator, Raphael Bob-Waksberg, the beloved comedy began with a simple question: “How do I write good?”

It’s the question that launches pretty much any kind of writing project, jokes the comedian, producer, voice actor, and author. “I’ve written six seasons of a TV show

using special rotoscope animation technology.

Animation, as Bob-Waksberg points out, is one of the few areas of film and TV production still mostly going strong amid the COVID-19 pandemic’s ongoing shutdown of the industry. Even with the disruption, he says, “I feel like there are exciting things happening in animation. There are new kinds of stories happening in animation that haven’t been told before.”

For many actors, he adds, “it would behoove them to have that skill set in their tool belt.” Voice acting is similar to on-camera acting in many ways, he says.

“You want to allow yourself to be flexible. The more variety and the more options you can bring your collaborators, the more of an asset you are to have on set or in the recording booth. I think it’s very frustrating when an actor comes in and they have decided, ‘This is how this line should be said.’

“It’s important to think about how you communicate stuff with just your voice without the benefit of physicality,” he says.

Voice actors can ask all kinds of questions in that quest to provide variety during their recording sessions: “How do you give something air quotes with your voice? How do you wink at somebody with your voice? How do you leer at somebody?... What if instead of playing [a sad line] very sad, I tried to lighten it or tried to be funny with it? Would that help the sadness come through even more?”

Great actors in animation also don’t get enough credit for generating chemistry using only their voices or turning mediocre material into gold, he says. “I don’t believe there is any line bad enough that a good actor can’t save.”

As for an example of great voiceover acting, Bob-Waksberg points close to home: the voice behind the title role on “BoJack Horseman,” Will Arnett. “He’s such a pro when it comes to hitting jokes and finding the comedy in lines, but he’s also an incredibly emotive, emotional actor.”

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IN THE ENVELOPE

Mark Duplass Show: “The

Morning Show” Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

Nomination: Outstanding

By Jack Smart ASPIRING FILMMAKERS MAY feel that there’s a lot standing between them and their big break: inexperience, lack of funds, perhaps a dearth of inspiration or time. But according to Mark Duplass, your restraints are what you can use to forge ahead and tell your story.

“When I’m talking to people who are struggling right now, or even people who haven’t really found their creative voice yet and are wondering what to do with themselves, I am very encouraging of embracing limits. And if you don’t have that many limits, self-impose

them so that you can beat against those walls and find that as an inspiration to be creative,” says the prolific producer, writer, director, musician, and now Emmynominated actor for Apple TV+’s “The Morning Show.” It’s a philosophy applicable to any circumstance or stage in a storyteller’s journey, he adds, including a global pandemic shutting down production and keeping everyone indoors.

“The history of my creative journey has been finding ways so that I am not floating in the sea of infinite possibility, which is, in my experience, a paralyzing sea.

On “The Morning Show”

Working within limits and working within boxes has really helped me.”

That has been the guiding light in Duplass’ career and that of his collaborator and brother, Jay Duplass.

Their HBO anthology series “Room 104” is a perfect example of pushing the limits of creative restraints, born out of the question, “How many stories can you tell inside a 400-square-foot box?”

The brothers’ style of superlow-budget, highly naturalistic independent film and television began with the humblest of big breaks: a seven-minute short that premiered at the 2003 Sundance

Film Festival titled “This Is John.”

It was made for $3 on what Mark Duplass calls their “parents’ standard definition, 30-frame NTSC home camcorder with a dead pixel in the center of it.”

Since then, Duplass Brothers Productions has had a hand in bringing to the screen such indie classics as “The Puffy Chair,” “Baghead,” “Safety Not Guaranteed,” “The One I Love,” “Creep,” “Jeff, Who Lives at Home,” “The Do-Deca-Pentathlon,” “Togetherness,” and, more recently, Netflix’s “Paddleton” and “Horse Girl.” In addition to some combination of drafting and editing scripts, producing, directing, and acting in all of the above, Duplass often mentors others and leads small-scale filmmaking workshops. Despite his growing résumé of critically acclaimed projects, he understands the plight facing many aspiring filmmakers and knows how to illuminate the path before them.

“I’m a very big fan of [asking], ‘What’s the sword in your hand?’

Don’t go looking for other swords; swing the shit that’s in your hand.”

Projects on which Duplass has only acted, like “The League,” “The Mindy Project,” “Goliath,” and, as of 2019, “The Morning Show,” also inform him as a storyteller. “I pick up bits and pieces and I say, ‘You know what? I can use this and incorporate it and bring it back to what I’m doing and expand my world.’ ” That goes for the impressive “Morning Show” scripts from writers Kerry Ehrin and Jay Carson, and working opposite Reese Witherspoon, Steve Carell, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Billy Crudup, and, especially, Jennifer Aniston.

“I’ve learned from her [to] just be a kid, admit your faults, don’t worry about when you’re not getting it right,” he says.

Finally, Duplass offers key advice to those in the audition trenches: “Get yourself to the place where you create your own work, and then you either won’t have to audition or you won’t be as worried about the auditions, because you’ll have your own ability to do your work.”

This story was originally published on June 16, 2020.

APPLE TV+

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backstage.com

IN THE ENVELOPE

On “The Good Place”

D’Arcy Carden Show: “The

Good Place” Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

Nomination: Outstanding

COLLEEN HAYES/NBC

By Jack Smart “OH, MY GOSH, IT’S SO BLEAK thinking back on those days,” says D’Arcy Carden of her early acting career. She sighs. “But also so lovely.”

Bleak but lovely summarizes many (if not most) actors’ earliest years attempting to break into the biz. Carden did local theater in her hometown of Danville, California, graduated from Southern Oregon University, and moved to New York City with stars in her eyes. What followed was a period of studying acting, getting by with survival gigs, and developing a resilience

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that went on for what sometimes felt like an unbearably long time before finally booking her now Emmy-nominated role of Janet on “The Good Place.”

“Occasionally, I would take a look around and have that feeling of: ‘Everybody’s doing the thing that they’re supposed to be doing except for me,’ ” says Carden in her “In the Envelope” interview.

“You don’t have it every day. You don’t have it every second. But when you have it, it hits you hard.” It took years for her to learn the lesson she wants other artists

to remember: “Your timeline is your timeline.”

Was she aware of how much rejection and struggle pursuing such a career path would entail?

“I was aware of the rejection,” Carden says. “At the same time, I think, to get into this business— tell me if I’m wrong, I might be—there’s equal parts delusion and confidence. You have to be like, ‘I know what the stats are, but I’m going to be the one who breaks through.’ Otherwise, how can we keep going?”

Luckily, she had help navigating

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those early days in NYC: Carden and her friends would share copies of Backstage, finding open calls to attend and reading up on resources. “When you’re an actor, you learn how to act, but you don’t learn how to do any business of acting,” she says. “It’s just such a mystery, and you learn [from] your community, and you learn [from] something like Backstage.

“So much of being an actor is not actually acting. It’s all the stuff that leads up to the moment where you get to act, and that’s so much of what this job is. Having a place where you can find opportunities to get to do the acting...it was invaluable.”

Carden also offers superb audition advice: “Auditions probably live somewhere on some cloud or whatever, but you walk out of that door, and you can just never think about it again.”

Leaving an audition is easier said than done, of course, if the job in question is as desirable as “The Good Place,” Mike Schur’s critically acclaimed NBC ensemble comedy starring Kristen Bell, Ted Danson, William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil, and Manny Jacinto; its fourth and final season aired this year. It was Carden’s “dream job” throughout the many callbacks she endured in 2016 to earn the role of Janet, the cheerful virtual assistant of the afterlife.

“I knew with 100% certainty that I wasn’t getting the job,” she remembers. “I was like, ‘I am going to absolutely put everything into this audition in the hopes that Mike remembers me and maybe casts me in an episode in Season 3 or something like that’.... I was excited to be in the room, meet him, and maybe make him laugh.”

Carden’s best advice for artists in the early stages of their careers is simple: “Do your best, put in the work, and forget about it.” And, of course, celebrate and commiserate together through every highest high and lowest low. “I love actors and I love our little weird community. So much of what we learn is from each other.”

This story was originally published on July 2, 2020.

09.18.20 BACKSTAGE

IN THE ENVELOPE

Jean Smart Show: “Watchmen”

Nomination: Outstanding

Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie

By Jack Smart “WHO KNEW AT THIS STAGE OF the game I was going to become an action hero?” says Jean Smart, laughing wryly. Since her starry-eyed beginnings studying theater in her home state of Washington, there’s little the three-time Emmy Award–winning actor hasn’t taken on, from silly sitcoms to dark dramas. But in holding up a bank and gunning down a masked vigilante within moments of her introduction as FBI agent Laurie Blake on Damon Lindelof’s limited series “Watchmen,” the actor is proving

how much more she has to show.

“Lots of times I’ll read something and I just instantly hear [a character’s] voice,” Smart says when asked during her “In the Envelope” interview about taking on roles. That was the case with Floyd Gerhardt’s steely menace on Season 2 of “Fargo” and Laurie Blake’s bone-dry sense of humor on “Watchmen,” roles that earned Smart her eighth and ninth Primetime Emmy nominations.

Other times, she admits, making the material work presents a tricky actorly challenge. “If I

can’t hear the character’s voice in my head—literally hear it—then I think, OK, this is going to be a little tougher.”

It’s the kind of pointer that only an actor with Smart’s breadth of experience could provide; her breakout role as the naive Charlene Frazier on “Designing Women” was followed by “Overkill: The Aileen Wuornos Story” as the titular serial killer. In addition to Emmy-winning work on “Frasier” and “Samantha Who?” she’s stolen the show on “24” and “Legion,” in “Sweet Home Alabama,” “Garden

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This story was originally published on July 30, 2020.

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MARK HILL/HBO

On “Watchmen”

State,” and “A Simple Favor,” and on Broadway, earning a Tony nomination for “The Man Who Came to Dinner.”

Playing enough vastly different characters to avoid getting pigeonholed in Hollywood is no easy feat.

“Sometimes you’re making purely a business decision, but other times you’re making a decision totally from the heart,” she says of her path. “I have very few regrets about decisions I’ve made of either things I didn’t do or did do.

“The thing I’ve learned is, especially as an actor, to [not] constantly beat yourself up and think, Why didn’t I do this? Why didn’t I do that? Why did I do that? Everybody feels this way.

Regret is the worst feeling in the world. It’s so nonproductive and so unhealthy. All you can do is tell yourself, ‘I made choices. At the time, I made them for a reason, and I’m not going to regret it. I’m just going to decide that I’m right where I should be.’ ” Smart has plenty of other advice for her fellow performers, from preparing for an audition or acting job (“Research is great up to a point, but if it gets in the way or if it conflicts with the script, that’s not helpful,” she says) to the importance of hair, makeup, and costuming (“There’s a lot to be said, sometimes, for working from the outside in”). Ultimately, she says, taking on a character requires anything and everything at an actor’s disposal: “It’s whatever gets the job done.”

As for life in lockdown amid a pandemic, Smart reminds us that “this too shall pass.” Since production has halted on her next project, HBO’s “Mare of Easttown” opposite Kate Winslet, she’s focused on cooking and being a good neighbor. “Make a list of the books you’ve always wanted to read, because there’s nothing like a great book that will take you a million miles away,” she recommends. “Try to take the chance to really pay attention to your health, really notice what makes you feel relaxed, really notice what makes you feel good.”

IN THE ENVELOPE “The Simpsons”

Nancy Cartwright Show: “The

Simpsons”

Nomination: Outstanding

Character Voiceover Performance

2020 BY FOX MEDIA LLC

By Jack Smart “ARTISTS JUST LOVE TO CREate,” says Nancy Cartwright. “If they’re being stopped by either the industry or a person in their life.... You have to have an outlet.

You have to be able to rise above that and have some sort of way to express yourself artistically.”

That’s especially true, she adds, these days. Actors are struggling to express themselves using their craft, navigating an industry shutdown in the wake of an ongoing pandemic. But that’s where Cartwright’s area of expertise comes in handy: the voiceover acting biz remains alive and well.

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Cartwright is best known as the voice of Bart Simpson and other characters on Fox’s “The Simpsons,” now the world’s longest-running sitcom. The television legend won a voiceover performance Emmy Award in 1992, and is in contention again at this year’s Emmys for the third time. She has also lent her distinctive voice to “Animaniacs,” “Kim Possible,” “Rugrats,” “The Replacements,” and more, turned her autobiography, “My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy,” into a one-woman play, and wrote and produced the film “In Search of Fellini,” inspired by her

obsession with Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini.

“I don’t know who else is working in this industry besides the voiceover people because of the way things are right now,” she says, breaking down the basics of what is needed to launch a career in voiceover work. “With a computer and a good microphone and an imagination, you could create anything. You don’t have to buy a $2,000 microphone to do what you’re doing. You could do it from your iPhone, for crying out loud!”

For Cartwright, the artistic life in general—and voiceover work

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in particular—is about exercising the imagination. “If you just start doing it at home and have fun with it, you can’t really make any mistakes. You have the opportunity to create something that is uniquely your voice.”

She discovered a talent for voices and impressions growing up in Ohio, and transferred to UCLA midway through college to work in commercials and be closer to her mentor, renowned voice actor Daws Butler. After years of training and breakout roles on “Richie Rich” and “Twilight Zone: The Movie,” she met with Bonnie Pietila, the eventual casting director behind “The Tracey Ullman Show.” When that show needed talent for a series of animated vignettes from Matt Groening, Pietila remembered their meeting and arranged for Cartwright to audition—for the role of Lisa Simpson.

“I saw the monologue for Lisa and I saw the monologue for Bart,” recalls Cartwright. “And Bart, man, it just pulled at my heartstrings. I just loved him instantly....

I just went in and made the decision and told Matt, ‘Look, I’d like to do this.’ If I had gone in and just did what I was supposed to do, I don’t think we’d be having this conversation today.”

A record-breaking 31 seasons in, “The Simpsons” continues to draw gold-standard voiceover work from Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Julie Kavner, Yeardley Smith, and countless guest stars.

“There’s so much more leeway with just being a voice; you don’t have to memorize the lines, you don’t have to hit your mark, you don’t have to do makeup,” Cartwright points out.

“We all had a beginning,” she concludes. “You take your baby steps, and as long as you keep on cultivating yourself and challenging yourself and doing what you love and putting yourself out there—as small as you might think it is, your confidence level will start to build.... When the time is right, you’ll be ready.”

This story was originally published on Aug. 6, 2020.

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IN THE ENVELOPE

Cord Jefferson & Damon Lindelof Show: “Watchmen” Nomination: Outstanding

Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special

By Jack Smart

Regina King and Andrew Howard on “Watchmen”

LIKE ANY GOOD COLLABORAtors, co-writers Damon Lindelof and Cord Jefferson can find common ground despite drawing from different inspirations. One similarity they share may be familiar to artists on any career path: relentless imposter syndrome.

“All of us [have] some degree of imposter syndrome,” says Lindelof. “ ‘I don’t belong here. I don’t deserve to be here. These people are going to figure out that I’m completely and totally winging it.’ ” Jefferson agrees: “I’m terrified all the time of what people will think of my work. I’m

incredibly insecure.”

It may comfort film or TV storytellers early in their career to hear such an admission from Lindelof, the Emmy-winning creator of “Lost” and “The Leftovers,” and Jefferson, a journalist-turned-screenwriter and 2020 WGA Award winner for “Succession” and “The Good Place.” In their joint interview, the two peel back the curtain on their creative routines, the ingredients of a great TV writers’ room, and their childhood inspirations. Lindelof grew up in New Jersey and moved to L.A. to pursue screenwriting

upon graduating from New York University, inspired by Stephen King novels and blockbusters from George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Jefferson hails from Arizona; as one of “very few Black people in Tucson,” he says, he was steeped in the music of Wu-Tang Clan and the films of Spike Lee. Emmy-nominated together this year in the limited series writing category for HBO’s “Watchmen,” their sequel to, and radical reimagining of, the alternate-history sci-fi graphic novel from writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, Lindelof and Jefferson tell Backstage about the often

difficult process of bringing that show to the screen.

“I think that the ‘Watchmen’ writers’ room worked for a couple of reasons,” explains Lindelof, who is credited as the show’s showrunner and creator. “The first was that we were able to develop camaraderie as we went, because many of us were strangers.... You have to confidently present ideas, and then fight for those ideas, and then employ some level of group-think—it requires a tremendous amount of trust.”

Jefferson adds, “It was genre, but it was also incredibly grounded and full of rich details that I was super interested in, like generational trauma, like [the Tulsa race massacre of] ’21, all of these things that I was really, really captivated by, along with the genre stuff that people know and love from Damon.... You’re dealing with sexual violence and racial violence and secret identities and things that you hide from your loved ones and anger that you carry with you throughout the course of your life, not to mention things like reparations. All of these issues, it’s hard to talk about with your closest friends and family, let alone a bunch of your coworkers that you’ve just met.”

Asked for their top piece of advice for other screenwriters, both reiterate that the life of an artist usually entails a lot of internal insecurity. “The thing that I always say is, don’t get stuck on the one thing,” says Lindelof, who recommends churning through tons of first drafts that may never see the light of day. For Jefferson, working on several different writing projects is key to retaining peace of mind and being in control of your career. “There are so many obstacles to getting stuff made in this industry.... The thing that’s kept me from losing my mind and going crazy every time that happens is just working on a new thing, coming home every night and saying, ‘This is my thing. Nobody can say yes or no to this.’ ” This story was originally published on Aug. 13, 2020.

HBO

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IN THE ENVELOPE

With Larry David and Will Ferrell on “Saturday Night Live”

Maya Rudolph Show: “Big

Mouth”

Nomination: Outstanding

Character Voiceover Performance Good Place” + “Saturday Night Live” Nomination: Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series Show: “The

By Jack Smart “I think one of the amazing things that I discovered about my own strength is that, without being aware of it, I created something stronger out of what I saw as a deficiency,” the six-time Emmy Award nominee says. “My version of [acting] comes with a suit of armor and allows me to protect my little sensitive insides.”

The daughter of composer Richard Rudolph and the late singer-songwriter Minnie Riperton, Rudolph was born in Florida and raised in Los Angeles, “a kid performing for my parents in

the living room—maybe even a no-pants-on kid,” she remembers.

Despite her roots in the music industry, it was always acting—especially the idea of a diva being unapologetically herself in front of a crowd—that captivated her. “There’s something about a woman onstage that’s always really appealed to me. It’s probably watching my mom onstage singing in all these beautiful dresses and flowers in her hair and being adored.” And, yes, she admits, a lot of it came down to wanting attention.

This story was originally published on Aug. 20, 2020.

NBC

“I THINK SO MANY ACTORS, when you talk about it, will admit to this imposter syndrome,” says Maya Rudolph. “We all kind of feel like we don’t belong, we don’t know what we’re doing, we don’t fit in, we’re not good enough.” She rolls her eyes.

“Blah-bitty-blah-bitty-blah.”

The solution, at least for Rudolph, is to harness the inherent power of acting: By pretending to be other people, you’re empowering yourself to channel different energies and explore vulnerabilities.

Early comedic and musical influences set Rudolph on the path that would lead her to eight stellar years on “Saturday Night Live” and beyond. After her time at the University of California Santa Cruz, she performed in the rock band the Rentals and worked for years at the Groundlings in L.A. After joining “SNL” in 2000, Rudolph went on to steal the show in “Away We Go,” “Bridesmaids,” “Grown Ups,” and “Wine Country,” and produced and starred on “Maya and Marty” and “Forever.”

Rudolph is currently nominated for three Emmy Awards: for her voiceover work on Netflix’s “Big Mouth” and for outstanding guest comedy acting on NBC’s “SNL” (as vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris) and “The Good Place.” She’s the first actor in Emmy history to be nominated twice in the same guest category, and one of only a few ever in contention for three performances in the same year.

Asked for the secrets to a great sketch show impression, Rudolph says her strategy is to think of them as characters rather than imitations of real people. “You want to emulate that person. I think in the world of comedy, for me, what I like trying to go after is finding the thing that creates a character that’s got some sort of a goofy joy.”

She also breaks down what went into creating Connie, the Hormone Monstress on “Big Mouth”: “I was trying to create this game of highs and lows, as well as big. She’s a big, hairy lady!” Voice acting is another challenge and opportunity to push yourself in directions you may not otherwise go, says Rudolph.

“That really speaks a lot to the joy of doing voiceover and animation: You can really be anything.”

One of Rudolph’s best pieces of advice is passed on from “SNL” producer Lorne Michaels: “If it’s funny to you when you’re writing it, it’s funny. I think that’s a really important thing for me to constantly remember, especially when you’re creating content.... It’s just human nature stuff.”

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09.18.20 BACKSTAGE

IN THE ROOM and had everyone in the room, including Dan, who was reading with her, on the floor laughing.

The connection between them was magical and electrifying. It really was a match made in heaven.

How did you make sure some of the actors with less experience could hold their own opposite well-known comedic talent?

What’s key to remember is although an actor may have less experience on their résumé, I audition and therefore work through scenes with them. It may look to audiences like we took a risk on an unknown or lesser-known performer, when I’ve actually seen them prove themselves time and time again while auditioning for various projects over the years. I’m well aware of how talented and funny they are. It’s just a matter of the timing and role being right so that other people can finally see it, too.

Annie Murphy and Eugene Levy on “Schitt’s Creek”

Jon Comerford Show: “Schitt’s

Creek” Job Title: Casting Director Casting for a Comedy Series

Nomination: Outstanding

By Elyse Roth WHEN A LITTLE SHOW CALLED “Schitt’s Creek” first aired on CBC in Canada, nobody involved could’ve guessed that it would become an international hit. Six seasons, a pickup from Pop in the U.S., and a fistful of Emmy nominations later, including 15 nods in 2020, fans all over the world said goodbye to the Rose family and their small, unfortunately named town. Those beloved characters were cast by Jon Comerford and Lisa Parasyn, who were Emmynominated themselves in the final season, in addition to the four core Rose family members

that centered the cast. Filling out an ensemble around creators Eugene and Dan Levy and comedy legend Catherine O’Hara wasn’t easy, but they assembled a cast of mostly fresh faces to invite viewers into the show’s quirky locale.

Talk about how you went about assembling the cast of “Schitt’s Creek.”

We really went out of our way to make sure it wasn’t just a revolving door of faces you might expect to pop up on a show like this. The Rose family is suddenly dropped

into a totally new world and initially don’t recognize or relate to anyone around them, so neither should the audience. We really wanted them to stand out, because their characters do just that in the town. So, yes, you’ve got someone like the great Chris Elliott, whom everyone knows, but we really tried to populate “Schitt’s Creek” with fresh, new faces from there.

The most fun we had was casting Alexis Rose when we had the final callback and screen test in Toronto with Eugene, Dan, and the whole team from CBC. Annie Murphy’s final screen test was so dead-on

What can an actor expect when they’re auditioning for you?

I like to really work on a scene, so if I have you do multiple takes and give you notes in between each one, don’t mistake that as having done something wrong. We’re just circling in on the bull’s-eye, and that takes time. How long is often dictated by the weight of the scene. It’s best not to gauge how well any given audition went based on how many takes we had you do.

You say you looked for fresh faces. Where do you look for new talent?

I see a lot of theater. I began acting on the stage myself, so it’s my go-to when looking for new performers. For example, Patrick on “Schitt’s Creek” was a hard role to cast because it’s such an important addition to the main ensemble. I had just seen a great production of David French’s “Jitters” with Noah Reid in it. I was already very familiar with him, but that was just the right reminder at just the right time of what a strong comedic performer he is.

This story was originally published on June 26, 2020.

POP TV

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IN THE ROOM

Cornelia Mareth & Maria Rölcke Show: “Unorthodox” Job Title: Casting

Director Nomination: Outstanding Casting for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special

By Elyse Roth

ANIKA MOLNAR/NETFLIX

Amit Rahav and Shira Haas on “Unorthodox”

“UNORTHODOX,” NETFLIX’S four-episode German-Israeli miniseries from creator Anna Winger, earned international acclaim when it premiered in March. Now it has eight Emmy nominations, including outstanding limited series. The story follows Esty, a Hasidic Jewish woman from the Satmar community in Brooklyn, New York, who took a chance and fled the only place and family she’d ever known to explore the possibilities offered by the outside world. Inspired by Deborah Feldman’s autobiography of the same name, the show introduces viewers to narrative elements they may have never seen or heard before. Much of the show’s dialogue, for instance, is in Yiddish, a language almost exclusively

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spoken in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities. It was unlikely that the German casting team of Cornelia Mareth and Maria Rölcke would be able to find a cast full of bilingual actors for the show that spoke both English and Yiddish, so they embarked on a worldwide search for an ensemble that could fulfill the many requirements needed to tell an authentic story, connecting with casting teams in Israel, the U.K., and beyond. Backstage emailed the two Emmy nominees for their casting insights.

What was the casting process like for “Unorthodox”?

We wanted to find actors who really speak Yiddish. Our work is usually done via databases

where actors list their skills, but it was hard to find out whether they could speak Yiddish, so the search was different and unusual.

We started to do research and contacted agencies that work with older actors whom we hoped could speak the language or would know someone who could.

We contacted all of the Jewish theaters in German-speaking countries; we asked Jewish communities in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland; we called drama schools; we approached film productions that produced films with Yiddish-speaking actors. We left no stone unturned. We then had a very, very large number of actors of all ages and genders prepare voice tests in Yiddish so that we could guarantee the authenticity

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of the language. We learned that there are many different dialects in the Yiddish language. For this reason, too, the voice samples were evaluated by an expert, and only afterward were casting invitations organized. It was a long and intensive research process and an exhausting but fulfilling job.

What kind of research went into the process?

Of course, we read Deborah Feldman’s autobiographical novel.

Immersing ourselves in the world of Satmar, which was originally founded around the turn of the century and rebuilt in Brooklyn after the Shoah [the Holocaust], was of course also associated with a lot of new things for us. We had to immerse ourselves in the Orthodox world in Williamsburg for the casting. That was important in order to understand the inner religious and inner Orthodox arguments and ambivalences, and ultimately to be able to show them in the cast. Under no circumstances did we want to use the general clichés and still draw an authentic picture. That was one of the main difficulties.

What can an actor do in an audition that will make them memorable to you?

We have noticed several times that actors often have concerns about surprising and taking a risk interpreting a role in casting. [The audition] is an important moment; it has to be remembered by those who are involved, and therefore you should bring in all your skills, take your time and space, and ask questions about the background of a story. A basic requirement is, of course, good preparation.

What don’t actors know or realize about what you do?

Unfortunately, there is a misunderstanding that casting directors have a lot of power and are unapproachable. We rely on good actors to do good work ourselves. We need input from them and, if it goes well, we look forward to a great job together.

This story was originally published on July 8, 2020.

09.18.20 BACKSTAGE

IN THE ROOM helpful background. You’re able to read paragraphs about how those characters are thinking as well as what they’re saying. It’s often very insightful into the internal life of the characters. I try to pull certain things from those descriptions, although it’s really important to embrace what the screenwriter has written that’s different from the novel. Once I read the novel, I don’t go back to it or refer to it again; it’s really a supplier of general information, feeling, and tone, and then I focus on the adaptation.

Kerry Washington and Lexi Underwood on “Little Fires Everywhere”

David Rubin Show: “Little

Fires Everywhere” Job Title: Casting Director Limited Series

Nomination: Outstanding

By Elyse Roth

BACKSTAGE 09.18.20

including one for Washington’s portrayal of nomadic artist Mia. What was the audition process for “Little Fires Everywhere”?

It’s always a question of experimentation in the audition process, particularly with young actors, when many of them don’t have a tremendous amount of credits and history to explore. We do it incrementally, finding a scene or two that is emblematic of the character and gives you some idea of how the character moves the story forward. In each case, we had follow-up readings where we got more intense material and more demanding scenes. In

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putting together the Richardson family, we saw finalists read opposite each other to see resemblances and different energies, because the Richardson kids are so fundamentally different from each other. Seeing them together in a room in twos and threes and fours was extremely instructive and enlightening.

How do you factor in the source material when casting a novel adaptation?

I get a feeling from a novel of the mood, tone, and world of the piece.

There’s a fabric that you want to have be consistent throughout the telling of the story, so that’s

How did you ensure the chemistry between the siblings, friends, and teenage couples would come through onscreen?

We took a leap with regard to Reese and Kerry and their connection with these actors, but they were very involved. We did try to see the Richardson kids in a room together, and also Pearl in a room with the two Richardson boys. We wanted to see Jade Pettyjohn, who played Lexie Richardson, opposite the finalists for the role of Brian, her boyfriend, because that’s crucial to her storyline. To me, the key in casting young actors is to have enough time to explore and experiment.

I’m grateful that the producers and Hulu provided enough time to do a thorough search, because these roles are complicated, and you don’t always find an answer in the first several weeks. The process takes months.

This story was originally published on July 10, 2020.

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ERIN SIMKIN/HULU

IT’S CLEAR THAT CASTING director (and AMPAS president) David Rubin knows how to pick a good project. He’s behind some of the most exciting film and television of the past few years, especially when it comes to fan-favorite books that are adapted for the screen. He assembled the ensemble of “Big Little Lies” and found the residents of Wind Gap, Missouri, for “Sharp Objects.”

Most recently, Celeste Ng’s bestseller “Little Fires Everywhere” was adapted for Hulu with Kerry Washington, Reese Witherspoon, and a robust cast of young actors found by Rubin. The series was nominated for five Emmys,

What should young actors know about starting out?

For very young actors, I prefer limited professional experience, because I find that depending on their level of training, young actors are very often asked to deliver results and perform in a less-than-organic way in professional circumstances. That’s not the kind of performance I respond to. Children at play are natural actors. If you see kids playing in a playground, they just go at it with abandon. That natural instinctive playfulness of nonprofessional child actors is a huge asset, I think.

In The Envelope The Actor’s Podcast

Recent guests include: D’Arcy Carden Rob McElhenney Gugu Mbatha-Raw Michelle Dockery Hailee Steinfeld

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MEET THE MAKER

Susannah Grant Show: “Unbelievable” Job Title: Showrunner Nomination: Outstanding Limited

Series + Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special

By Allison Considine IN 2015, WRITER AND DIRECTOR Susannah Grant read the searing account of a teenager charged with filing a false report about a rape. The Pulitzer Prize–winning essay by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong, titled “An Unbelievable Story of Rape,” is about the detectives who uncovered the truth about the report and pinned the case to a serial rapist. “I thought it was fantastic and would lend itself well to another telling of it in another medium,” says Grant of the essay.

The harrowing, real-life crime story is the basis of her new miniseries “Unbelievable” on Netflix, now nominated for four 2020 Emmys, including limited series; it follows Grace Rasmussen (Toni Collette) and Karen Duvall (Merritt Wever), two detectives in neighboring districts who discover their units have similar cases.

They team up to connect the dots between a string of rapes that occurred between 2008 and 2011.

Grant is no stranger to narrativizing true stories; the screenwriter penned the biographical film “Erin Brockovich” in 2000, which earned her an Oscar nomination.

For “Unbelievable,” the creative team—which also includes writers Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman and director Lisa Cholodenko—looked to the actual case files and interviewed the detectives to storyboard their adaptation.

A new book about the criminal case also added context for the project. “It was an incredibly useful bible because the reporting is so great,” says Grant. “There was enough interesting storytelling to fill eight hours. It has just the propulsiveness that you need to tell a serialized story; it has it in its DNA. So, it seemed like

we could do more with it in the expanded format.”

That eight-episode order allowed the team to contextualize the case with the history of the way rapes are investigated in the United States, and to include facts about the challenges of solving sexual assault cases. “The number of news reports I’ve seen about similar cases in the time that we’ve been making this is really remarkable,” Grant says. “This is not a one-off; it’s probably not even a rare occurrence.” She hopes the story will spur important conversations and “people will be engaged, interested, and emotionally affected by it.” She adds, “If it wakes people up to this really pervasive issue in our culture—great.”

Even though the story was mined from reality, the project’s ensemble brought their own spin to the characters. “The cast was just fantastic and surprised us every day with what they did with the material,” she says.

“That’s always the sign of a great

collaboration—when you have written something and then others find something in it that you had no idea was there.”

As such, the facts of the real-life case were kept intact, but the creative team in front of and behind the camera took some liberties in fictionalizing the inner lives of the detectives and victims to respect those who had been through traumatic experiences. “The detectives didn’t sign on to have their personal lives dissected by us,” Grant concedes. “At the same time, these characters need to be dimensional and you need to show how the pressures of their job might affect the other aspects of their life.”

An example of an added story element is the dynamic between the two lead detectives. While the case unfolds, Rasmussen and Duvall’s working relationship evolves into a mentorship, a partnership that Grant says was a “really wonderful relationship to write. It seemed like a good opportunity to tell a story about women

in the workplace and that kind of mentorship or fellowship that can develop.”

It calls to mind Grant’s own mentor in writing, Nora Ephron.

Grant recalls this bit of advice the filmmaker once shared: “Don’t write what they want; they don’t know what they want. They want something good. Just write something good!”

Grant also advises emerging screenwriters to be true to their own voices. “The hunger for unique voices is greater than it has ever been,” she says. “Shut off your internet while you’re writing.

Just sit and listen to yourself for as long as you possibly can, which is harder and harder to do in this world.”

While there is merit in solitary creation, Grant also recognizes the power of collaboration in making a television project. “One of the actual detectives told me how important it was to her that we acknowledge that this was very much a team effort,” Grant recalls.

“She said it is very easy for the lead detectives to get all the attention.

And that’s true for a limited series, as well. We had a wonderful team of people who worked with great integrity and brought a tremendous amount of talent to it, so it was a real honor to work with everyone on it.”

This story was originally published on Sept. 10, 2019.

Toni Collette on “Unbelievable”

NETFLIX

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MEET THE MAKER

Jeremy Irons on “Watchmen”

Nicole Kassell Show: “Watchmen” Job Title: Director Nomination: Outstanding

for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special

Directing

COLIN HUTTON/HBO

By Casey Mink “WATCHMEN,” HBO’S NOIR MINIseries based on the DC Comics graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, is comprised of all the convoluted twists, turns, and easter eggs of that storied (and studied) superhero world. It may come as a surprise, then, that prior to directing the pilot, television veteran Nicole Kassell “knew nothing about ‘Watchmen,’ ” by her own account. Still, Kassell wanted in for one reason: “Honestly, it was Damon Lindelof,” she says of the acclaimed creator and showrunner.

Kassell, whose work on the miniseries is now nominated for a 2020 Emmy Award, had worked with Lindelof on his previous HBO outing, supernatural tear-jearker “The Leftovers,” but still, their professional history didn’t mean her hiring was a done deal—she still had to pitch. And needless to say, the gig was a coveted one.

“I’ve worked with a lot of writers, and many great ones, but Damon’s

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writing is just off the charts,” she says. “I bought the book when I heard he was going to do it and then still didn’t read it until it got to the point where I knew he’d been looking for a pilot director.

I sent him a note saying, ‘I would really love to be considered,’ and he was psyched…. I pitched for it.

I wasn’t the only one going for it, but I showed him my vision and what he inspired, and he loved it.”

Kassell was hired onto the series, which stars Emmy and Oscar winner Regina King and which airs its finale Dec. 15, but the rest was hardly history; the intricate nine episodes—set in an alternate reality wherein superheroes must carry out their duties as outlawed vigilantes—still had to be fabricated from scratch, despite its source material. Also in the series, diverging further from the comics, the villain is one we all know if not see: rampant racism, and more specifically, white

supremacy in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The look of the pilot, then, had to meld the terrors of reality with surreality, all the while setting the precedent for every subsequent episode. No pressure.

“It’s like making a feature in that you’re making a show from the ground up,” says Kassell, who also directed the pilot for TNT’s “Claws” and episodes of “Westworld,” “The Killing,” “The Americans,” and others. “For both [“Watchmen” and “Claws”], when I read the script, I saw it a certain way and put those thoughts down in images for the producing team, putting into words the passion and the vision. And then, I like doing that next step of the visual look book, to really put it on paper.

It’s so abstract describing things in words, so then I go literally through the process of putting into words how I see it. There’s many great directors and everybody would do a good job. That’s

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where, ultimately, it’s a very subjective choice.”

Also subjective when creating a new series: casting, especially because, as Kassell points out, actors are as much a part of world-building as those handling the script or camera. “There’s a lot of conversation to get to who this person is. It’s kind of a circular process, and each actor approaches it a bit differently,” she says of character development. “Some actors like to talk a lot. Others just kind of want to go in and see the costume first, and then thoughts come from that. It’s being very open to an actor’s process, as well.”

Of course, that process starts long before the actor is ever cast and Kassell, for her part, expects to see ample work already intact when the actor walks into the audition room. “What you’re really looking for is an actor who will take care of their character,” she says. “There is so much going on, so I really appreciate when they come in with a little bit of a nod to the costume that the character would be wearing, or they take that extra step in the sense of acting is very physical, so working with props and coming in with whatever you need and being willing to play. I love that spirit of, ‘Let’s try this! Let’s try that!’ A note does not mean you did something wrong, it’s figuring out: What’s the range here?”

That range, the ability to continually peel back layers to unearth whatever lurks at the character’s soggy center, is particularly crucial for television because it is inherently a long-haul. But for that same reason, Kassell explains, episodic storytelling is as much the actor’s medium as it is the director’s medium, the writer’s medium, and ultimately, the audience’s medium.

“It is beautiful in that it is the novel. It’s the long format,” she says. “You get to really spend time with characters and let them grow.

Where a feature has to be very, very tight, episodic allows for things to breathe. I think the viewer loves it because you get a lot of time with the character—and then you get to fall in love with them.”

This story was originally published on Dec. 6, 2019.

09.18.20 BACKSTAGE

MEET THE MAKER

Jessica Hobbs Show: “The

Crown” Job Title: Director Nomination: Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series

By Elyse Roth THERE’S A LOT HAPPENING ON “The Crown.” It’s a feat of television production with sumptuous shooting style, a notable cast, and elaborate sets. It’s history and drama, a bit of fantasy, and each new season is eagerly anticipated.

Despite the lofty standards set by series creator Peter Morgan—or because of them—director Jessica Hobbs, already a fan of the show, brought her talents to Season 3.

“Peter’s great skill as a writer and show creator is he takes huge macro themes and puts them

into personal journeys,” Hobbs says. “I thought he had some very profound things to say about humanity that I was really interested in.”

Hobbs helmed two of the season’s most personal episodes, “Moondust” and “Cri de Coeur.” For the former, the director decided to home in on Prince Philip’s (Tobias Menzies) obsession with the 1969 moon landing and a subsequent crisis of purpose and faith. For the latter, which notched her a 2020 Emmy nomination for directing on

Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzies on “The Crown”

a drama series, she put the period on the season with the finale, which follows Helena Bonham Carter’s Princess Margaret as she grapples with a failing marriage and love in the public eye.

As an admirer of the series, Hobbs was eager to join “The Crown,” and as a director, she was given the freedom to realize her vision entirely. “Peter said, ‘I want you to treat them as films. I don’t want you to think they have to be what anyone else is doing,’ ” she remembers.

This story was originally published on July 1, 2020.

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SOPHIE MUTEVELIAN/NETFLIX

For Hobbs, that means using every minute of each episode: “I always want whatever is on screen to have a purpose. It’s great for it to be beautiful, but I want to understand what it’s there for emotionally—what am I trying to portray? What’s going on for this character at this point? How can I allow the audience to have the experience I had when I read the script without putting it into exposition?”

Part of that search for meaning comes from working with the actors to make both the purposeful pauses and what Hobbs calls Morgan’s “economic, muscular” writing as effective as possible onscreen. “I have a lot of conversations with actors. I spend a couple of hours individually with each actor, and we just talk through the episode, their role, and what’s going on, to see if we agree on what the building blocks of the journey are,” she says. She then works out any issues or concerns the performers may have. “They highlight any areas where they’re struggling. We need to find a way to fill those gaps.

Is there a visual moment that might help us bridge that gap?”

Though endless components go into a finished episode of television, the director is in charge of the overall vision. Hobbs knows it, and she does not take the responsibility lightly.

“You have to be the audience at every stage of making it. No one else is going to sit in that position. Everyone will watch from a technical or different creative viewpoint, but your job as a director is to be the audience at any given moment. Do I believe it? Am I moved? Is this working?” she says. “I saw Ang Lee speak many years ago. He said he would close his eyes on set and think, What would I do if no one else was here?

I always remember that quote when I’m on set. That’s the thing I hold on to. Those other people can do the technical stuff. In terms of the heart of the creative material, the telling of the story, that’s your job. That’s what you have to do.”

MEET THE MAKER

Margo Martindale on “Mrs. America”

Dahvi Waller Show: “Mrs.

America” Job Title: Showrunner Nomination: Outstanding Limited Series

SABRINA LANTOS

By Casey Mink “HOW DO WE ALL KNOW ABOUT Watergate and we don’t know about the Equal Rights Amendment?” asks Dahvi Waller.

That question, years ago, compelled the “Mrs. America” creator to put pen to paper on a series about the women’s movement, and, specifically, the amendment that gives women equal protection under the law in the U.S. Constitution—or it would, if it had ever been ratified by the requisite 38 states and then passed. To this day, it has not.

“Obviously, television is primarily entertainment, but knowing this will be a lot of people’s first introduction to the Equal Rights Amendment battle, and for many, their first introduction to the

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women’s movement and to Phyllis Schlafly,” Waller says, “I did feel a responsibility to get that right and portray them in a way that’s honest.”

In November 2016, Waller was at work on a draft of the pilot and, as you may recall, another event also took place that month.

Though she’d always wanted to tell a serialized political story—particularly one that not only centered on women but was written and directed by them, bucking the boys’ club of political dramas she grew up on—her scope then shifted.

“After the election results, that was when I pivoted to tell a broader story: the takeover of the Republican Party by the far right in 1976, and how Phyllis Schlafly’s

backlash movement fed into the Reagan revolution,” Waller recalls of the show, which is nominated for the best limited series Emmy Award. For those who don’t know (and many still don’t), Schlafly was not only an architect of the antiERA movement but an indelible architect of today’s far right. That she is portrayed on the FX on Hulu miniseries by Cate Blanchett only makes her a more tantalizing TV antihero.

“Great villains have moments where you feel sympathy for them,” Waller says. “She was a human being, and I tried approaching her as a therapist, really figuring out what made her tick and where those inner conflicts inside of her were—finding

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what’s emotionally compelling about this person [while] at the same time not wanting to shy away from what is villainous about her.”

Blanchett being the first actor to sign on also threw the casting door wide open because, as Waller notes, “Who doesn’t want to be her scene partner?” With the show’s expanded focus on the key players of ’70s feminism, Waller was able to assemble a first-rate ensemble built entirely around women. In addition to Blanchett, there’s Rose Byrne as Gloria Steinem, Uzo Aduba as Shirley Chisholm, Tracey Ullman as Betty Friedan, and Margo Martindale as Bella Abzug, with Elizabeth Banks, Ari Graynor, and Sarah Paulson in other pivotal roles.

“What really excited me about this cast was I’d never gotten to see Cate Blanchett and Tracey Ullman in a scene together. What material is out there that would have them in a scene together?”

Waller remarks. “Cate always agreed she wanted it to be an ensemble and not just ‘her’ series.

Every single woman is at the top of their game and there was this camaraderie. There was a sisterhood on set where everyone was like, ‘We’re trying to make something bigger than ourselves’; I felt it with the writers and I felt it with the actresses.”

Of course, with anything historically rooted, there is always a balancing act in staying true to what occurred while still ensuring that every minute of the project— nine episodes, in this case—makes for captivating television.

As Waller describes it, sometimes you get lucky and events line up for great dramatic storytelling. Other times, “the history gods are not smiling on you.” For example, the real Steinem refused to meet the real Schlafly, “and for very good reason,” Waller insists.

However, “that really made my job as a writer difficult, that I could never put Rose Byrne and Cate Blanchett in a scene together.

That’s when you’re like, ‘Thanks a lot, history.’ ” This story was originally published on July 14, 2020.

09.18.20 BACKSTAGE

MEET THE MAKER

Peter Gould Show: “Better

Call Saul” Job Title: Showrunner Nomination: Outstanding Drama Series

By Ashley Steves PETER GOULD HAS AN ENVIABLE but complicated problem: how to conclude a hit series that is a spinoff of another hit series.

Right now, the “Better Call Saul” showrunner and his team are breaking the sixth and final season of AMC’s “Breaking Bad” prequel, this year nominated for seven Emmy Awards, including outstanding drama series.

“Intimidating” is the word he uses most to describe the process, both in reference to creating a satisfying ending to the show and having even started it in the first place

under the shadow of the parent series’ success.

“We’ve got so much goodwill from the audience and we’re so lucky to be doing this,” he says.

“I think the key phrase is always ‘Let’s not screw this up.’ ” Gould need not worry. With co-creator (and “Breaking Bad” showrunner) Vince Gilligan, he has created one of television’s most compelling and well-written dramas, spinoff or otherwise.

Starring Bob Odenkirk, Rhea Seehorn, Jonathan Banks, Giancarlo Esposito, Michael

Rhea Seehorn and Bob Odenkirk on “Better Call Saul”

Mando, and Tony Dalton, among others, “Better Call Saul” takes the overarching themes and questions of morality that “Breaking Bad” addressed over its five seasons and amplifies them, blending genres and working in a palette of even deeper ethical grays.

The biggest difference is the payoff. The audience knows what happens to Saul Goodman, Mike Ehrmantraut, and Gustavo Fring in “Breaking Bad,” but what happens to the characters never seen in Walter White’s world, including Kim Wexler? And how do you believably complete the full transformation from Jimmy McGill, Esq., to Saul Goodman, criminal lawyer?

For Gould and his team, which includes several “Breaking Bad” collaborators, those answers come in rules of their own making. The showrunner has had the benefit of the fictional universe for 12 years already, having come on board “Breaking Bad” in the series’ first

This story was originally published on Aug. 11, 2020.

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GREG LEWIS/AMC: SONY PICTURES TELEVISION

season as a staff writer before being promoted to executive story editor in Season 2. The eighth episode of that season, “Better Call Saul” (which Gould wrote), is the audience’s first introduction to Odenkirk’s Saul, comic relief to the increasingly megalomaniacal Walter.

Now, in “Better Call Saul,” Goodman gets his backstory as the affable McGill, and Gould has conceived his arc—and the arcs of those around him—by learning from his inimitable cast.

“We have discussions with the cast all the time about who these people are and what they’re thinking of,” he explains. “But the biggest learning experience is watching what they do and learning how they interpret the material.”

Part of the show’s success has also come from playing with the unexpected and finding the surprising. “We spent a lot of time poking at every idea we have, every scene we have, every moment we have,” he says. “Does it make sense?

Is it true to the character? Is it a good expression of what the character’s going through?

“We can make a lot of mistakes and maybe get away with them, but the one thing we can’t do,” he adds, “is lose sight of who these people are and what’s going on with them.”

The final season of “Better Call Saul” will have three more episodes than usual—13 instead of 10—to tie up all its threads, and Gould is writing (and sticking by) his own rules to take his biggest risks yet. It’s how he and Jimmy McGill have gotten this far, after all.

“What I’ve come to understand about the work that we’re doing is that you’re always an inch away from failure, and you just have to learn to live with the fact that any time you take a risk, it’s always a dangerous thing to do,” he says.

“But on the other hand, without taking the risks, there’s nothing worthwhile to show. So, you have to learn to live with anxiety and develop a high tolerance for creative risk.”

MEET THE MAKER

Hugh Jackman on “Bad Education”

Cory Finley Show: “Bad

Education” Job Title: Director Nomination: Outstanding Television Movie

By Jose Solís directing “Bad Education,” the HBO film inspired by a real-life case that’s been described as the largest public school embezzlement scandal in American history.

“Bad Education,” now nominated for two Emmys, including best television movie, takes a look back at what feels like too-recent history.

The film, set in 2002, stars Hugh Jackman as Frank Tassone, the suave superintendent of Roslyn School District on Long Island, who, unbeknownst to his staff and students, is using school funds to pay for an extravagant lifestyle of custom suits, plastic surgery, and travel.

“I knew Hugh first as a superhero, then as an amazing singer and

dancer,” says Finley. “So one of the joys of this role was seeing him do something so different from what he’s best known for.” In Finley’s first film, “Thoroughbreds,” which he also wrote, two young women rekindle a friendship in order to commit a murder. That project’s tone displayed Finley’s ability to dig deep into characters without snapping to moral judgments.

He achieves the same with “Bad Education,” which never feels like a sensationalist look at the amorality of affluent suburbs, but instead is a humanistic take on how seemingly innocuous decisions can lead well-intentioned people down a path of crime. When he directs

This story was originally published on Aug. 18, 2020.

HBO

WHEN HE WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL, Cory Finley starred as Sonny in a production of “Grease.” At the time, he didn’t care that he was playing “one of [lead character] Danny Zuko’s deadbeat friends,” he says, laughing. All he could see was how great it was to be the youngest member of the ensemble.

He was a freshman or sophomore (he can’t remember which) and the rest of the cast were all seniors, “so, despite the minor role, I thought it was really cool to get to hang with the big kids,” he continues.

Almost two decades later, the now-31-year-old found himself back in high school. This time, his role was far from minor: He was

actors, Finley remains respectful of the screenplay (“Bad Education” was written by Mike Makowsky) but also allows actors room for improvisation.

In fact, one of the film’s most memorable moments—in which Frank, who’s following a strict low-carb diet, is teased by his co-worker Pam (Allison Janney, in top form), who dangles a sandwich in front of him—was completely improvised. That’s what happens when “you have these really pro, experienced actors riffing on each other,” says the director.

For the look of the film, Finley was inspired by “All the President’s Men,” which “finds real poetry in not traditionally pretty institutions.” Going back to 2002 also forced Finley to come to terms with the passage of time. “It was surprising going back,” he says. Before he and director of photography Lyle Vincent, costume designer Alex Bovaird, and production designer Meredith Lippincott began diving into the specifics of the look of the film, the time period felt closer than it was. “As soon as we started looking back at old yearbooks and old photos and just seeing the fashion alone, [we realized] it was so deeply different from what it is right now,” says the filmmaker.

Vincent’s camera, guided by Finley, captures moments in which the unremarkable fluorescent lights of diners and offices illuminate the complex beauty of people we only know about because they happened to do things that are either extraordinary or heinous.

“Bad Education” was screened at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, where HBO bought it for a whopping $17.5 million. The film, released in late April, showed the director that there could be a new kind of audience reaction.

“It was there immediately for the whole world, [and] it gives me hope that we can still have sort of a communal experience around art and entertainment even when we’re all stuck in our homes on a Friday,” he says excitedly. “Although I hope it’s not the only kind we can have going forward.”

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MEET THE MAKER

Don Roy King Show: “Saturday

Night Live” Job Title: Director Nomination: Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series

By Casey Mink DON ROY KING ARRIVED AT “Saturday Night Live” 14 years ago, and he’s directed every episode since. How was it that he ended up at television’s most elite latenight institution?

“A mistake, I think,” he says.

On the heels of its 45th season, “SNL” is its own TV ecosystem in which one director helms every sketch of every episode in every season, reporting to the almighty Lorne Michaels. Until 2006, King had a robust career directing talk shows and morning shows, but never sketch comedy. “I’d probably directed every kind of show ‘Saturday Night Live’ makes fun of,” he says.

Then, that year, a call came from a former colleague who’d gone on to be an AD at the NBC series. He told King that then-director Beth McCarthy-Miller was leaving and, “ ‘They’re desperate. They can’t find anybody,’ ” King remembers.

“I said, ‘Well, there’s no show I’d rather direct than ‘Saturday Night Live.’ ” After as much hoop-jumping as you’d expect (including a decision-making meeting with Michaels), King was hired. And then, at age 58, the most arduous, fulfilling phase of his career began.

“They did take a chance on me, and it was a steep learning curve,” says the director, who’s nominated for a 2020 Emmy Award. “There’s a whole different approach to bringing these little one-act plays to life. There’s a whole different way to stage and shoot them. It needs to do justice to the material and make the people at home identify quickly with the situation and the characters.”

King’s biggest mistake early on was trying to do too much in order to show off his own style. “I was looking for unusual angles and soap opera-ish cross shots,” he

That comes before the directing, certainly, and it even comes before the performance. Lorne wants the material to be served by the writer individually.”

What King is there to do, then, is captain the ship through waters both rocky and smooth. Or perhaps another metaphor would be more apt.

“As a live director, my job is to continue to call the shots like a quarterback. We’ll find sketches that don’t click for one reason or another, or something goes wrong or a graphic is missing,” he says.

“It’s my job just to barrel through and to salvage as I go, and not let

This story was originally published on Aug. 19, 2020.

Elizabeth Warren and Kate McKinnon on “Saturday Night Live“

NBC

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admits. But he realized—thanks in part to a few wrist slaps from Michaels—that if an audience member thinks about the shot for even a second, admiringly or otherwise, it’s defeated the purpose: They’ve now been taken out of the sketch.

“It’s my job to sell it in the best way possible, whether it’s a hard, satirical political sketch or a one-joke fart sketch,” he explains.

Unlike traditional scripted series, directing “SNL” does not entail giving actors notes beyond technical ones. Those, instead, come from the script, which is the series’ grail. As King says, “We’re all there to fulfill the vision of that writer.

a single mistake start to snowball into others while we try to figure out who failed where. Whether it’s the passer or whether it’s a touchdown, we’re still in the game.”

But even the most battering football game has nothing on a show week at “SNL.” Notoriously grueling, it starts on Wednesday for King, when he arrives to find about 40 sketches on his desk. Three days later, after a table read with the week’s celebrity host, countless meetings, rehearsals, rewrites, and run-throughs, the show goes on.

“There are days when I think, I have no idea how to get this done,” King says. “But the end result is 14 years of by far the most challenging and rewarding work I have ever done, and it is thrilling to work with people who are the best at what they do, on a show that is designed to make people laugh and clap.”

And no matter what, he says, the week only ever ends one way: “And then, 11:30, we fly.”

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Betty Gilpin Show: “GLOW”

E

Nomination: Outstanding

Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

By Jack Smart | Photographed by Emily Assiran

ven the tiniest snippet of Betty Gilpin’s acting process sounds like a wild trip: “OK, now, in this line, a witch is reaching up through my throat and grabbing behind my eyeballs. And now it’s a kitten on helium.”

Gilpin is one of those actors whose looks suggest one type of person until she pulls the rug out from under you; her characters, self-described as “Barbie clowns,” have (at least) one screw loose— perhaps not unlike Gilpin herself.

Explanations of her process are full of flowery mental images and metaphors that she acknowledges might make no sense to anyone else. And she says that coming up with bizarre line readings “helps me not think about the boom mic guy, and it just entertains me throughout the day.”

She’s just wrapped up a photo shoot at Beauty Bar on 14th Street in New York City, a nightclub outfitted like a retro beauty salon complete with old-fashioned hair dryers and mannequins in wigs.

“Pretty amazing brows,” Gilpin notes, gesturing to a mannequin head—a long-haired, long-lashed gentleman staring at us from a table nearby. Then suddenly, it’s a scene partner: “This is my associate,” she deadpans in her masterfully droll manner.

Born and raised by actors Jack Gilpin and Ann McDonough in New York City, Gilpin can’t remember a time she wasn’t enchanted by the magic of performance.

“My upbringing was literally

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backstage,” she says. “It was a bunch of women in wig caps eating Werther’s candies and my mother saying, ‘Come in and shut the door,’ to anyone who wanted to gossip. I was sitting on the Equity cot, staring up at these people who in one minute would be eating grocery store sushi and crying about their afternoon, then putting on a wig and a gown. And [then] I’d hear them over the loudspeaker into the dressing room in a different accent, playing a queen.”

In other words, there was never a notion that she’d do anything else with her life.

So after high school in Connecticut and studying theater at Fordham University, Gilpin pounded the pavement Off- and Off-Off-Broadway (“I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard,” “We Live Here”), booking occasional TV work (“Nurse Jackie,” “Masters of Sex,” and plenty of “Law & Order”) to get by. “I basically cried and died on every cop and hospital show there was to cry and die on in New York for almost 10 years and did theater in between,” she remembers. “That was my life.

And I loved it. Oh, my god, I loved it so much.”

But at this moment in her career, as she’s breaking into a much

bigger scene with her three-time Emmy-nominated work on Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch’s ’80s wrestling comedy “GLOW” on Netflix, Gilpin sometimes finds her passion for the process at odds with the demands of the biz.

“I think so many aspects of being in the public eye are made for a person who’s a little braver and a little more self-righteous than I am, and not in a bad way—just someone who’s a little more self-confident,” she admits. Photo shoots, for example, aren’t necessarily her forte; something about presenting a freeze-frame version of herself feels naggingly false. “A picture, to me, is ‘That’s who you are and there’s no interpretation or movement at all.’ ” And interviews often seem to be about boxing herself in. “There’s an aspect of it that’s like, ‘Who is your frozen, credits-rolling identity? Write down on paper who you are.’ My job is to sort of sound bite my personality for you and cutesify depression or whatever [to] make the article good.”

That’s why she’s adopted a coping mechanism that helps both in acting and in life: inventing and giving space to multiple personas inside her head.

“The way I can make sense of feeling alive is moving through different women throughout my day,” Gilpin explains. “[Doing press is] where I’m going to have to sort of ‘stage mom’ myself and take my 7-year-old self and put a little lip gloss and some tap shoes on her and trot her out so that we can sell this thing.” On film and TV sets, as much as time allows, she tries to toggle between states of being in each take—first witch

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behind the eyeballs, then helium kitten—to stay in touch with her creativity. “If I can find a way to kind of Trojan horse some theater homework into a day on set,” she says, “it kind of keeps me out of my head of getting depressed, and keeps me out of my head of being a bad actor.

“So, yeah,” she adds. “I am insane.”

Particularly on “GLOW,” where Gilpin plays both Debbie Eagan, a former soap opera actor and mom, and her wrestling alter ego, the sunnily deranged Liberty Belle, maintaining some semblance of sanity is key. “GLOW” films for months of 16-hour days, five days a week, and the eclectic ensemble of neon-clad women— including Alison Brie, Sydelle Noel, Britney Young, Kia Stevens, and others—are all working with Emmy-winning stunt coordinator Shauna Duggins to do their own stunts in the ring.

Teams of hair and costuming artists are relying on the cast, too.

“You’re the parade float for various departments,” Gilpin explains. “For 16 hours a day, I’m balancing the canvases of many artists around me; I’m trying not to break your beautiful eye contour or these pants that someone stayed up all night sewing!” (“GLOW” Season 3 took the story to Las Vegas and premiered in Aug. 2019; it had so many spinning plates that Gilpin barely remembers it. “I feel like the show keeps reinventing itself every season,” she says. “Season 3 feels like a fever dream.”)

The challenge for Gilpin is staying grounded amid the bizarre extremes of life as a performer.

After wrapping “GLOW” and the film “Isn’t It Romantic,” she needed a month off in her New York apartment “in my pajamas and ChapStick, staring out the window.” It’s about more than just rest, she says. If you’re not tending to your life outside of acting, Gilpin believes, your acting will suffer.

“This time in my life has felt very front-footed and conducive to a person who has more ‘alpha’ energy than I do,” she says thoughtfully. “Working 80 hours a week for a year straight has been so incredible and I feel so lucky

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to do that. But doing that in a job that requires creativity and pulling from a well of more ‘beta’ energy, it feels like you then have to go, ‘I’m just going to stare out the window and fill that beta creative well so I’ll have something to pull from when I’ve got a 6 a.m. crying scene.’

“It’s a strange thing as an actor to treat yourself as the same person who deserves love and vitamins and intellectual food throughout your career when you could have months of sitting on the couch taking BuzzFeed quizzes and then months of working so hard that three weeks in you realize you haven’t called any of your best friends back or had a glass of water.” The task, says Gilpin, is to remind yourself you’re the same person in both instances. “It’s hard to teach yourself how to be an island of self-care when, sometimes, there are people with headsets telling me when I can pee.”

Which brings us to the phenomenon that befalls many actors: mistaking their role in the creative and production process for being the most important person on the planet. “The reason 10 people are surrounding you, adjusting your waistline and teasing your hair and asking if you need anything, isn’t because you’re Marie-Antoinette-Mick-Jagger,” says Gilpin, laughing. “It’s because you are just the parade float for that day for their artistry. Not that they don’t love you and respect you, maybe, and, happily, ‘GLOW’ is a very love-filled set...but I never want to get to a place where I can’t play other parts because I’ve been panicking about my own face and cucumber regimen or whatever.

It’s important to stay connected to the earth. I think one has to constantly humble and remind oneself that, you know, you are replaceable!”

That mentality can be traced back to Gilpin’s theater roots.

When, she says, “you are first and foremost a member of the ensemble and you don’t know when your next job is coming and it’s about working your ass off for $350 a week,” it’s impossible to become too bigheaded to function.

Hollywood, more so than the world of theater, asks actors to

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“monetize a little bit of narcissism” to center and promote themselves in order to continue doing what they love. “It’s the blessing and the curse of making your business your passion.”

And the demands of on-camera stardom have further implications, especially for female actors.

“I’m so grateful to [theater] in so many ways,” explains Gilpin. “It really taught me that I’m here to play the long game as an actor. I want to be acting when I’m 40, 50, 60—300. There’s an aspect of the social media world and the more Barbie-esque characters that I play that really place a value and necessity on youth. And I’m scared that my weepy, sensitive, malleable self will start to believe those big, scary things when [the industry] tells me what is valuable about myself. I don’t want to be indoctrinated by that. Then, all of a sudden, my tits are in my shoes and I’m like, ‘Oh, no, I’m not allowed to be an actor anymore’.…

I want to be throwing fake wine in people’s faces in the Berkshires onstage until I drop.”

Growing up, she adds, “You’re taught to sort of edit yourself to become the most neutral, inoffensive, sellable version of yourself.

And then I went to theater school, where the loudest parts of people’s personalities were the things I had told myself to muffle my whole life.” She remembers almost crying from joy when, during her first year at Fordham, she joined a fellow theater student at Jamba Juice, where they tried each other’s smoothies “and in the same weird, gremlin voice, we said, ‘I like mine better!’

“I felt chills all over my body, because I was like, I found people who are a mirror version of someone who I thought was [supposed] to be executed. And then spending four years in my pajamas making weird work with those people and realizing I could make that a living, to find other people who

were wearing the same internal, weird hats that my internal people were wearing was just the craziest thing.”

So, now, with a third Emmy nomination under her belt, starring in several movies this year, and, perhaps, the expectation to keep fitting into the boxes Hollywood assigns her, Gilpin wants more than anything to stay grounded in what inspired this career in the first place. “All of a sudden, I feel like, as an actress, there’s a camp of people being like, ‘No, go back to the muffling part, go back to the sellable, small, cutesy part.’ [But] I’m like, No. The reason I got into this business is literally to do the opposite of that.” She’ll continue to play Hollywood’s game and “stage mom” herself during interviews and red-carpet appearances, but, as she puts it, gesturing to the glittering mannequins at her photo shoot, “I guess it’s finding the wink and the camp in there.”

It’s that same attitude, in fact, that informs her “Trojan horse” strategy of injecting a theatrical playfulness into filming. “I used to spend the first take doing what I did in the audition, the second take doing what I thought video village wanted, [and] then I would try my weird theater idea if I got a fourth take.”

And now? Gilpin grins. “Now that’s the first take.”

To stay grounded amid chaos, take up space without apology, and maintain the art amid the commerce, Gilpin’s compartmentalizing of personas makes sense.

Feed the people in your head who love and support you, and don’t listen to the ones shaming you.

“I think I wasted, career-wise, so much time hiding,” Gilpin says. “My first couple of years out of college, I associated ambition and rooting for yourself with vanity. But the moment things changed for me was when I added a person in my brain who was more of a stage mom, or just a person who believed in themself. I eliminated self-sabotage from my regimen and just tried to like myself a little more.”

A version of this story was originally published in the June 20, 2019 issue of Backstage Magazine.

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Billy Porter

Show: “Pose”

A

Nomination: Outstanding

Lead Actor in a Drama Series

By Benjamin Lindsay | Photographed by Chad Griffith

If his history-making, Emmywinning turn on Seasons 1 and 2 of “Pose” as the HIV-positive ballroom emcee Pray Tell aren’t proof enough and you need evidence beyond his recent headline-grabbing red-carpet fashions (his couture velvet tuxedo gown from designer Christian Siriano remains a jaw-dropping highlight of the 2019 Oscars), allow us to direct your attention to the 73rd Annual Tony Awards last June.

A Tony– and Grammy–winning actor and singer, Porter is no stranger to the stage. But in a ceremony that celebrates the very best live performance has to offer, it’s quite the feat to walk away with the night’s most talked-about moment—and for it to happen in the middle of a commercial break, no less. His off-the-cuff, James Corden–nudged karaoke rendition of “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from “Gypsy” is the best argument yet that he’s the rightful, gender-bent heir to Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, and Bette Midler, a suggestion to which he

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theater and music industry veteran who has long marched—sometimes in heels—to the beat of his own drum, Porter’s foray into television, fashion, and mainstream pop culture was never a guarantee—yet luck has little to do with why his face is everywhere lately. To anyone paying attention over the last year, it’s evident that Porter is and always has been a capital-S star who is finally getting his due. jokes, “I know how to do it! And now every bitch in the world knows, too.” His Mama Rose even has LuPone’s endorsement; back on set filming “Pose” two days after the ceremony, she saw his performance and exclaimed, “Billy Porter, you have brass balls!”

Porter’s ability to be handed a mic unannounced and snatch the spotlight in a room as stocked with talent as the Tonys encapsulates what it means to make your own version of luck. “I’ve never had a problem with stopping anybody’s show,” he quips, but that’s all due to a preparedness that’s been honed to perfection over his 30 years in show business.

“I think the greatest part about what’s happening to me right now is that I’ve just really been set free.

I’m being myself without apology; I’m just being who I am.” About that Tonys karaoke, Porter says, “I am prepared! I spent my entire 20s in piano bars until 4 o’clock in the morning singing ‘Everything’s Coming Up Roses’!” (Reminiscing on his nights at Don’t Tell Mama

in Hell’s Kitchen, he adds that, for what it’s worth, such watering holes can be formative for the early-career musical theater performer: “I would always try out new material for auditions; my whole test was if I could stand in front of this room of crazy drunk people and silence them with the song, then it was ready.”)

At the time of our interview, we’re meeting at the Beekman, a hotel in Lower Manhattan’s Financial District, just three days after the 2019 Tonys. The week prior saw the New York premiere of “Pose” Season 2, so Porter is in the midst of doing press for the new season and a full-steamahead Emmys FYC campaign while simultaneously filming with co-stars Mj Rodriguez, Indya Moore, and Dominique Jackson.

Plus, he has a new song, “Love Yourself,” dropping in two days. Is he exhausted? Yes. But it’s nothing compared to a career in theater.

“Eight shows a week is eight shows a week, and it’s always eight shows a week, and it never goes

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away until the show is closed,” Porter says. “It teaches you how to gauge yourself. It teaches you how to take care of yourself, how to modulate, how to know when to give 100 percent and when you can hold back and fake like you’re giving 100 percent. It teaches you stamina. So I’m exhausted, but I know what exhaustion feels like and having to work. If I can just get six to eight hours of sleep, I’ll be fine; if I just make sure that I have that jug of water with me— and sometimes a nice sparkling wine.”

Right on cue, our server delivers his order: a Cobb salad and a glass of Billecart-Salmon Champagne.

Throughout our meal, Porter is uncensored, but not flippant; engaged and impassioned, but not overbearing. He’s confident.

Taking a page from Oprah Winfrey and Maya Angelou, he explains that everything changed when he redirected his life’s intention to be of service, even in an industry that’s “inherently narcissistic.” So, taking advantage of the forum Backstage allows, he’s eager to pass on what he’s learned along the way. He knows he holds the mic now, and he’s ready to make the most of it.

“I’m grateful that I’m 50 and I know what this is; I’ve seen it,” he says, referring to the pomp that comes with celebrity. “Thirty years of theater and 20 to 30 years of watching all of my friends become famous… To watch what’s required, to navigate these spaces and hang on to your humanity and not get burnt out by it, and to deal with fame in a way that has grace, in a way that you can hold on to your truth—I’m ready! I’m ready.”

A career in the arts, after all, begins with the belief that such a livelihood is possible in the first place. It means believing in yourself and telling yourself “yes” when others are saying “no.” It means actualizing the life that you desire.

“Everyone was telling me that my gayness was a liability, and, in fact, that’s exactly what I needed to lean into to be of service,” Porter says. Set during the HIV/AIDS crisis of the late ’80s and early ’90s (a moment in history that Porter experienced firsthand), “Pose” is a

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Pray Tell and elsewhere.

“What was lovely about our training is that they taught us all the techniques. Everything. It was just vomiting different acting techniques onto us, but never telling us what they specifically were so that we could pick and choose what worked for us individually,” he recalls. “So, I can’t tell you what technique I’m actually using, but I know that it’s a bunch of different things.”

Even without the explicit Meisner or Stanislavsky reference points, Porter clearly knows how to break into a character and deliver. He’s been proving it since he was first cast as an ensemble member in the original 1991 run of “Miss Saigon,” then as a reimagined Teen Angel in the 1994 revival of “Grease.” He was undeniably radiant in “Kinky Boots” and “Shuffle Along, or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed.” But it’s his screen work on “Pose” and last year’s “American Horror Story: Apocalypse” that proves he simply hadn’t been tapping into all he is capable of.

Acting on camera, he says, has been a learning experience. “I read the script at least three or four times before we start shooting it, because I find the challenge for me as a theater person is that with theater, you’re learning something [in full] and the skill set is to try to make the same thing fresh every time. So, how you learn it is to get the lines inside of you in a way that they never go away,” he explains.

“With film and television, it’s a constant influx of material, and so the brain—at least my brain—[is] not memorizing to hold onto it for any length of time. You’re memorizing for short, little moments.”

Additionally, without reading the script several times over, it’s difficult for an actor to find their place within the greater context of the piece. It’s essential to know your place, no matter the role. “What I love about reading the script is that I know where I fit—as a director, as a writer, I get where I fit,” Porter says. “I get what my archetypical function is. Sometimes it’s me in the front, sometimes it’s me as a supporter. But I know the big

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picture. I know what energy to come into.”

Through that process, “Pose” creator Ryan Murphy has been instrumental in giving Porter the space to bring his authentic self to the role of Pray Tell.

“Ryan Murphy has taught me to dream the impossible. I didn’t even know how to dream this. I didn’t know how to dream Pray Tell. It never looked like Pray Tell; it looked like me shoehorning myself into some archetype that already existed,” Porter says.

“Ryan has truly taught me how to own the power in that, the urgency in that. The leadership in that. It’s time to lead. I’m finding myself in a position where it’s like, ‘Oh, wait, I’m the leader now. My generation are the leaders now.

We’ve gotta step up.’ Whatever that means.”

In part, that means Porter is already looking to the future. So contagious is Murphy’s dream-fulfilling that Porter is already

drumming up his next chapter by following in his footsteps. He wants to be the HBIC. “I think it’s more about me becoming the person who creates it—me becoming my own version of a Ryan Murphy. Me becoming my own version of an Oprah Winfrey. Me becoming that,” he says. “Me having the power to make sure that our stories stay at the front, having the power to greenlight those projects and the power to find those stories and make sure that they’re told in the right way, in the right form with the right kind of focus and energy around it. I’m trying to be the Head Bitch in Charge! I’ve got to do that.”

Suffice it to say that if the past is any indication, it’s just a matter of time before Porter manifests that dream into reality. He’s ready.

A version of this story was originally published in the Aug. 1, 2019 issue of Backstage Magazine.

On “Pose”

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FX

landmark prime-time drama for its queer, POC, and trans perspectives.

“Kinky Boots” won Porter a Tony in 2013 for playing a business-savvy drag queen named Lola, and as last year’s “Pose” Emmy winner, he’s the first openly gay black man to be recognized in the dramatic lead actor category. (He’s up again this year.) So the star’s gayness, it turned out, is his asset.

“We speak into existence what we are. If you keep saying, ‘I can’t,’ then you won’t. If you say, ‘I can,’ then there’s a transition that happens all around you,” he says.

“Me speaking life into myself ultimately has changed my life.”

That self-actualization began when he first ignited his passion for performance—initially through afterschool programs, then regional summer work—as a child and teen in Pittsburgh. Porter has previously detailed how the arts were a means of getting him out of what was at times an abusive, traumatic home life. “And I had the kind of singing voice that could get me out,” he says. “I’m just grateful that I understood early that was what it took, so I could focus on it.”

At 17, he graduated from the Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School, where he set his sights on higher education at the behest of CAPA’s drama department educators, among them Peggy Hughes-Ruslander.

“If you don’t know, you don’t know. I didn’t know that I was supposed to go to college. I was like, ‘I’m going to New York!’ They caught wind of that, and they pulled me by my ear: ‘You’re not going anywhere but to Carnegie Mellon to learn how to talk, because while you are the greatest singer we know, and while you dance beautifully, every time you open up your mouth, it’s a disaster.

If you learn how to act, you’ll never be out of work by your own choice.

You will never be out of work because you’ll have every skill to work all the time.’ And they were right!”

While Porter may still occasionally find himself fine-tuning in a voice lesson or an acting or dance class, it’s his formal pre–New York training that continues to be foundational in his performance as

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FIRSTNAME/LASTNAME

Eddie Murphy

T Show: “Saturday

Night Live” Nomination: Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series

By Jack Smart | Photographed by Emily Assiran

hat’s got to be some kind of record,” says Eddie Murphy, who at age 18 booked a career-launching gig on “Saturday Night Live,” then, at 20, earned a Golden Globe nomination for his film debut.

As he readily admits, “It’s the closest you can come to walking out of heaven and into Hollywood.”

Chatting at the Four Seasons hotel in Midtown Manhattan at the end of 2019, Murphy is thoughtful and wry at just above a whisper—when he’s not launching into a hilarious bit. Maybe it’s because at the time of this particular conversation, the Brooklyn native is 58 (Murphy turned 59 in April 2020), having worked consistently as a comedian-singer-actor for just over four decades, that he’s looking back at his unlikely success in quiet awe. “I feel grateful, and I know that this is rare.

The way everything in my life happened? On paper, it could never happen.” He cites his favorite statistic: The odds of each of us being born, factoring in the probabilities of ancestors meeting and the many combinations of DNA, are apparently 1 in 400 trillion.

“Everybody you look at, even the bum in the street, is a walking miracle!” he exclaims. “Now, to get here and to make something of your life and connect with other human beings and find who you are and get a career—each thing that you do, the odds are slimmer and slimmer. What are the chances of becoming a fucking actor? And to become an actor who becomes known globally....

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That’s a super rare thing.

“And,” he adds for emphasis, “you’re Black!”

Murphy is one of those prolific artists whose career has lasted so long it must be categorized in multiple arcs: an explosion onto the comedy scene with “SNL” and his subsequent leather-clad standup specials “Delirious” and “Raw”; leading blockbuster films (“48 Hrs.,” “Trading Places,” “Beverly Hills Cop,” “Coming to America”) and supposed duds (“Vampire in Brooklyn,” “The Adventures of Pluto Nash,” “Norbit”); and a family-friendly era (“Mulan,” “Doctor Dolittle,” the “Shrek” franchise).

He’s also sung as a solo recording artist, and his electric vocals in the “Dreamgirls” movie musical earned him an Oscar nod.

And in 40 years, just the one audition. He’d forgive you for counting the time he had to put himself on tape, though. In pitching his 1996 remake of “The Nutty Professor,” Murphy wanted to again play multiple supporting roles in different makeup, an homage to his idol Peter Sellers. Studio heads were not convinced. “I think I had a couple movies that had flopped before that, and the studio was like, ‘Should we get somebody

to play all these characters?’ ” he remembers. “But I saw it this way.

To get the studio to see it, I did makeup tests where I got Rick Baker to make me up as all those characters and put it on video and send it to the studio. They said, ‘OK, we get it.’ ” After years of relative quiet following such mainstream success, Murphy is now tiptoeing back into the spotlight—or, as he’s put it, off the couch. The conversation naturally turns to the main reason he’s back in New York City: coming home to “SNL” to host for the first time in 35 years.

“There will be Gumby,” he guesses. “What else did I do?

Buckwheat! James Brown.... Who’s the other one? Velvet Jones.”

It’s been long enough that Murphy has trouble remembering his characters, but you wouldn’t know it from watching his Dec. 21, 2019 “SNL” episode featuring Lizzo. Buckwheat indeed returns, right at home in a sketch poking fun at “The Masked Singer.”

Gumby’s hilarious appearance on “Weekend Update” feels like a time warp to 1982.

And the episode’s final sketch reminds us of Murphy’s power,

his ability to turn something that shouldn’t be funny into a hurricane of comedy with gale-force winds. “A polar bear got into the workshop and started eating the elves!” he shrieks, decked out in pointy ears and candy cane-inspired suspenders. As usual, his physicality is what makes the entire premise funny; Murphy stands stock-still with wide eyes, until he’s suddenly ranting and raving and refusing to reveal his name (“Kiddle Diddles”).

Between last year’s buzzy appearance on Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” long-awaited sequels to “Coming to America” and the “Beverly Hills Cop” films in the works, and now a Primetime Emmy guest acting nomination for his “SNL” hosting, Murphy seems to be on a roll. Is this all part of a planned comeback?

“If you were planning, that would mean going into the movie knowing the movie was going to get received the way it was, which you can’t,” Murphy points out. “Things work in cycles. ‘Coming 2 America’ was in development for six years.

‘Dolemite Is My Name’ was in development 15 years ago. And [the

new] ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ has been in development since ‘Beverly Hills Cop II’...or ‘III’? Did we do a ‘III’?”

Yes, there was a “III.” He laughs.

“Yeah, that’s how bad ‘III’ was. I’m repressing it.”

He’s also—finally!—readying a big return to standup. The forthcoming Netflix special Murphy is planning will mark his first in decades, a prospect that feels simultaneously like flexing muscle memory and starting from scratch. “The way I come up with my stuff has always been: I’m having a conversation with a bunch of people and somebody says something, and I’ll say something funny. That’s how everything comes, just talking.” Recently, he’s been repeating those bits into a tape recorder. “I have a bunch of little things that if you listen to them by themselves you’re like, ‘Doesn’t sound like jokes!’ Like, ‘mayonnaise and ice cream,’ whatever I’m talking about.”

(Soon enough, we see that process in action: “ ‘Assouline,’ what is that?” he asks, pointing to a coffee table book. “That sounds like gasoline for your ass.” There

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are chuckles from the team of assistants and publicists hovering nearby. He keeps riffing on the publisher’s name until they become belly laughs. “Or some cream that you put on, Assouline.

Sounds like what a black person would put on their ashy ass. ‘I need some Assouline, I’m ashy.’ ”) And what about achieving the preternatural confidence he exudes onstage? Doesn’t he ever get nervous? “Nah,” he says. “I get an excited feeling: Oh, I want this to be good. I think nervous is a negative. Whatever process I have is a constructive one. I think thoughts like, I want to go out there and crush it, how do I crush it? Not, Are they going to laugh?

What could go wrong? Am I going to offend somebody?

“All I’m doing is getting on the stage and being who I’ve always been, you know?” Which is not to say you’ll see him in 2020 wearing a “Raw”-esque leather outfit. He barely recognizes that person. “I’m 58,” says Murphy flatly. “What’s the thing they say in ‘Star Wars’? It’s a galaxy far, far away. That’s who that guy is. You can’t wear leather

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at 58. Well, I mean, you can! But you want to laugh for the right reasons.”

It all begs the question: How can an aspiring comedian or actor dream of lasting this long? To have a career like Murphy’s, with a following that will support your every project, is to defy the very nature of a business as fickle as it is grueling.

Perseverance is key, advises Murphy—in the industry, but also, frankly, in life.

“All of my contemporaries are dead,” he says with a shrug. “All the people who came onto the scene when I did, in music and all that stuff—Prince and Michael [Jackson] and Whitney [Houston], all people around my age, are all gone.... They got shorted. They’re supposed to still be here. But the pressures of this business, the pressures of life, the pressures of the whole thing—a lot of people fold under that.”

His perseverance through it all is reminiscent of Rudy Ray Moore, the real-life Blaxploitation pioneer and Godfather of Rap in 2019’s Netflix film “Dolemite Is My Name,” which earned Murphy his sixth Golden Globe nomination. “Movies, TV

shows, records, entertainment— it’s a group of people who come together to do it,” says Murphy. “But you’ve got to have one person at the center of it who believes in it at every stage of development.

“There’s a movie called ‘Attack of the Killer Tomatoes,’ ” he adds, “and ‘Attack of the Killer Donuts,’ and ‘Sharknado.’ You’re flipping through the TV and go, ‘What the fuck is this?’ And, hey, this happened because someone somewhere got this killer tomato shit made.” Everything from Dr. Dre’s “The Chronic” album to the “Twilight” movie series, for example, was rejected by countless producers before someone took the risk. “There’s somebody that stayed on that shit: ‘This vampire shit is gonna work, I believe it.’ ” That’s how Murphy best sums up his ultimate craft and career advice. “You don’t have to be the best; you don’t have to be a genius,” he says. “You just have to believe in it, whatever it is.”

A version of this story was originally published in the Dec. 19, 2019 issue of Backstage Magazine.

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Issa Rae Show: “Insecure”

Nomination: Outstanding

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Lead Actress in a Comedy Series

By Benjamin Lindsay | Photographed by Stephanie Diani

ssa Rae has long been the type of creator to make her stars align rather than wait on them to right themselves. Since her rise to online and indie prominence in 2011 with her hit semiautobiographical web series “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl,” the 35-year-old multihyphenate’s career in front of and behind the camera has been a cultural litmus test for the DIY format: Can talented, self-starting millennials use the internet to get their foot in the door of establishment Hollywood? If her hit HBO series “Insecure” and a pair of studio features are anything to go by, the answer is a resounding yes. Yet, Rae and her contemporaries are taking it one step further: Now that they’re in, can they rewrite the rules as we know them?

While young creators are often told to make their own work in this age of accessible technology, Rae was among the first to find real-world success doing so, and she was certainly the first to find it while telling culturally specific, black-centric stories of everyday life—love, loss, and everything in between.

“It’s an ‘aha!’ to the people I was trying to sell scripts to in the past that were like, ‘You need to be more broad or you need to add a white kid, that’s the gateway,’ ” Rae says of her once-niche, now broadly resonant perspective.

“Thank god for the internet, or else we would be led to believe that, and I might’ve given up.”

Rae began writing short stories and plays in grade school while growing up in Maryland—not to perform in them herself, but to put on with her friends. She’d direct.

It wasn’t until a fifth-grade production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” that she first felt the itch to get onstage.

“I was one of the few black kids in my school, and they cast me as Demetrius. My mom was like,

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‘What the—they’re gonna cast this little black girl as a boy?’ ” she remembers. “But I really liked it, and my teachers were really encouraging, and it was my first time kind of performing [and] acting someone else’s words.”

Then her family relocated to Los Angeles and she enrolled in the predominantly black King/Drew Magnet High School of Medicine and Science. She remembers it as a time when she “really, really got into acting” while continuing to write, and her worldview opened in terms of how her blackness could inform her art.

“My English teacher, who was also the drama teacher, used to find these hidden-gem black plays, and there was just something about seeing the medium for us.

I hadn’t seen that,” she says. “I was always like, ‘Oh, we do the black-and-brown adaptation of “West Side Story” or “Grease” or whatever.’ But it was, ‘This is specifically written for us.’ As a creator and as an actress, I felt fulfilled in terms of trying to do that on that level.”

It’s a torch she carried with her to

the predominantly white Stanford University, where she studied African and African-American studies while immersing herself further into different pockets of fledgling creativity. “[Writing] in college became about: I wanna create because there are no opportunities for us,” Rae says. “The plays at the time didn’t resonate with black kids.” Getting behind the scenes to alleviate that tension eventually translated itself into “Dorm Diaries,” her mockumentary-style web series about being black at Stanford that featured her friends and their experiences around campus.

It was around this time that digital tools and specifically social media began playing a major hand in Rae’s creative output. To this day, she acknowledges that you can’t overemphasize the importance that YouTube and Facebook played in both helping her work get seen by people outside of her natural social circles, and in helping her hone her voice as a creator.

“Even though I hate it now, Facebook was the shit for me back in the day, just because of the

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audience that I was able to build from writing statuses and from engaging with people,” she says. “It started off with friends, but then I started adding different communities, I started adding other people that I just knew in randoms and things like that.”

While she primarily uses today’s platforms like Twitter and Instagram for promotion of what she has coming up (“It’s such a time suck, so I take hella breaks, [but] whenever I have something coming out, then I’ll re-engage with it”), she recalls how her friends would make fun of her for always being the one to hype the next big thing. “I was the one that was like, ‘You need to get on Facebook! You need to get on Snapchat! This is it!’

“And because I spent so much time on there, I was like, ‘I have to make this productive in some way,’ and had the idea that since people were engaging with things that I would write or post, maybe they would do the same with my videos while [I was] trying to break into the film industry,” she continues.

“I was just like: Let me just make content and make my own online soap opera show and see if this is an opportunity for people to gauge my work and potentially share it.

And that happened in college.”

After graduating from Stanford in 2007, Rae made her way to New York City for a fellowship to work at the Public Theater. While working various side jobs at Univision and the New Federal Theatre, she was also renegotiating her focus from theater to film. She soon created a community-driven short film collective online and was “trying to break into the film industry by networking and meeting other aspiring filmmakers who are in the same boat.” That effort was just getting off the ground when it came to a screeching halt thanks

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to an apartment robbery that saw all her film equipment stolen. She moved back to L.A. shortly after.

“New York is a tough track,” she says of those early days. “It’s a tough city. And it made me realize how many resources I had at home, because it’s hard if you’re out here to ask for shit if you don’t know people. There are so many different types of people in one spot who are looking for an opportunity and looking to build, but you can get so lost in the hustle and bustle that either sometimes you won’t create something, or there might not be anybody who’s willing to see it or have the patience.”

There were, though, a number of positives gained from her few years slogging it on the East Coast.

There’s nowhere in the world like New York City to sharpen your “New York hustle.”

“L.A. doesn’t necessarily have that same hustle. I feel like people who come from New York and go to L.A. thrive because they’re able to surpass all the bullshit, all the people who are just like, ‘Yeah, I’m working on my script,’ you know?

I was able to bring that New York hustle back to L.A. and just gun it.

It was a great training ground. It’s hazing. You’re getting hazed when you’re out here every day.”

It was also during that time that “creating this specific archetype that I felt was lacking” began percolating in the back of Rae’s mind.

While she was faced with options like law and business schools upon her return to L.A. (“My dad is very, like, ‘This should be your plan B, you should always have something to fall back on’ ”), she also got to work on the web series that would launch her to viral fame.

Rae created and starred in “Awkward Black Girl” as J, a woman who lives up to the series’ namesake while interacting with friends and co-workers through everyday discomforts. It marked not only Rae’s definitive breakout (the series was covered all over the web, landed Rae on Forbes’ annual 30 Under 30 in 2012, and won best web series that same year at the Shorty Awards), but it’s also when she really began finding her stride as a creative force. Producing

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specifically for YouTube meant the immediacy of the online audience became a sort of focus group for her.

“With ‘Awkward Black Girl’ specifically, we would release the episodes every month,” Rae explains. “I would write it one week, shoot the second week, edit it the third week, release it the fourth week, and so on. So I had time to see audience feedback, and sometimes there would be critiques about character development, there would be critiques about physical production like lighting and sound and things like that. In that way, I was able to use that as feedback to incorporate into the next episode.

You’re getting a sense of what your audience responds to and not necessarily tailoring it but keeping that in mind, which I found valuable at the time.”

She is quick to clarify, however, that her impulse is to do the exact opposite today: “It’s so funny,

because now I would never do that.

I hate audience story feedback when it comes to ‘Insecure.’ ” Which brings us back to Rae’s beloved HBO dramedy, now nominated for eight Emmy Awards, including for best comedy series and actress. Inspired by “Awkward Black Girl” and reworked for cable with co-creator Larry Wilmore and showrunner Prentice Penny, “Insecure” stars Rae as Issa, a floundering but well-intentioned creative grappling with real-world issues as a contemporary black 20-something in L.A. “This character, I say, is five years removed from me, and that gap widens and widens the more we do it and the more time passes,” Rae says of Issa, a role that’s also earned her two Golden Globe nominations since the series’ 2016 premiere.

She’s used that platform and acclaim to launch into film work, in the last two years starring in studio features “The Hate U Give”

and “Little,” and this year headlining Stella Meghie’s Valentine’s Day release “The Photograph” with Lakeith Stanfield, as well as Michael Showalter’s upcoming crime thriller rom-com “The Lovebirds,” on which she’s also executive producer with co-star Kumail Nanjiani.

Outside of “The Lovebirds” and “Insecure,” she’s currently producing through a multipicture deal between Columbia Pictures and her ColorCreative production company, which she said in a 2018 statement will continue “creating access for underrepresented writers.” Reflecting on what she looks for in collaborators, and specifically the kinds of voices she wants to get behind with ColorCreative and her new record label Raedio, Rae says she wants to see “hunger, passion, [and] a fresh voice—someone with a point of view that I don’t necessarily share.”

“You know, when you create

With Yvonne Orji on “Insecure”

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MERIE W. WALLACE/HBO

something, like with ‘Insecure,’ people sent more ‘Insecures’ my way, and I was like, ‘I already do this, why would I want to keep producing shit that I already have a point of view on?’ I’ve done that, so now I want to do more. What excites me are people’s own perspectives that either clash with mine or make me think about things in a way that I’ve never thought about them before. I feel like we’re just scratching the surface of so many stories that we haven’t heard.” She cites the “Parasite” sweep at this year’s Academy Awards as indication that there’s a hunger for different perspectives in the mainstream.

“Especially as the world gets flatter and we have access to different parts [of it], you want to know more about these different segments that we don’t fully know about. That’s what excites me: being able to give people the platform and getting out the way.”

Asked how upstart creatives can best find and strengthen their voice, Rae culls from her own experience to offer some advice: “I had a realization driving one day where I was like, ‘Oh, shit, I’m me.

And there’s nobody else like me.’

Yes, we have things in common, but no one thinks or has the same experiences or has been through what I’ve been through, and that’s what I need to mine, that’s my currency at the end of the day.”

The one tool that Rae can’t live without while building that currency to its full worth is time alone with her journal. Others should literally take note.

“That has been crucial to being in touch with my feelings,” she says. “It’s also where I put a lot of my ideas, where I test things that I’m uncomfortable saying out loud.

Through that process over the years, I think just writing it down has made me more comfortable with saying it, with knowing it. It’s my constant truth on a page, and the more comfortable you are with your truth, the more comfortable you will be with your voice.”

A version of this story was originally published in the April 2, 2020 issue of Backstage Magazine.

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Jeremy Pope

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Show: “Hollywood” Nomination: Outstanding

Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie

By Benjamin Lindsay | Photographed by Raul Romo

ust last year, Jeremy Pope became the toast of Broadway when, after making his debut as an ostracized queer high schooler in “Choir Boy” (a role he originated Off-Broadway in 2013), he made his sophomore outing that same season as Eddie Kendricks in “Ain’t Too Proud—The Life and Times of the Temptations.” That he was subsequently Tony nominated for both—the former for lead actor in a play, the latter for featured actor in a musical—cemented him as overnight theater royalty, and he had an eager base of fans and peers wondering what he’d do next.

Enter Ryan Murphy and his latest Netflix endeavor, “Hollywood.”

The glamorous, golden age Tinseltown–tinged miniseries stars Pope as the fictional Archie Coleman, a gay aspiring screenwriter in 1940s Los Angeles. Also starring Darren Criss, Patti LuPone, and “The Politician” breakout David Corenswet (among many others), the series is a revisionist spin on the period drama, imagining a midcentury world in which the minorities who are so often relegated to society’s sidelines were instead given the microphone, the camera, and the spotlight. The limited series earned 12 Emmy nominations, including one for Pope’s leading performance.

Pope’s longtime friend and theatrical peer Cynthia Erivo knows a thing or two about perceived overnight successes. Her Broadway debut in the recent revival of “The Color Purple” won her a Tony, Grammy, and Emmy, and the years since have heralded her as a newly minted mustwatch screen talent. (Last year’s “Harriet” earned her two Oscar nominations, for best original song and best actress in a lead role, and she starred earlier this year on HBO and

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Stephen King’s water-cooler drama “The Outsider.”)

“We’re both kind of eyes closed, dreaming, leaning forward,” Pope, now 27, says of the way he and Erivo operate through their artistic successes; as such, we recently tapped Erivo to interview Pope about his. Just as she has found since her Broadway breakout, the sky is hardly his limit.

Cynthia Erivo: You know what I realized? I haven’t actually asked you, like, about your life, childhood, where you came from. I met you when you were doing photography, making music videos. Then something happened, and there you were: everywhere.

Jeremy Pope: [Laughs] Well, I’m from Orlando, Florida, and I got the theater bug in high school. I used to run track, and theater and track season were at the same time, so I had to choose between running track or being in the theater program. I ended up getting a lead part in “Cats,” and the rest is history. We theater people are so weird and strange and lovely and understanding, and [I found] that at a time when I didn’t really know what I wanted to do once I got out of high school. Long story short:

I ended up sneaking away and auditioning without telling my parents for AMDA [the American Musical and Dramatic Academy], and I got in. So, I went to New York and went to school for musical theater. It was challenging at first, because I didn’t really see a lot of shows that I saw myself fitting in. This was before “Hamilton,” before “In the Heights” was as big as it was; [I was] just trying to find room for me. It was kind of like, “Am I just gonna be Seaweed in ‘Hairspray’? Am I gonna be Simba in ‘The Lion King’? Is there really work for me here?” But I had challenged myself to prove to my parents that I was going to follow through, so I ended up changing my thought process about it all.

Instead of trying to make myself become, let’s say, the next Norm Lewis, it was like: What do I have to offer? What tools do I have in my toolbox? My first audition out of school was for “Choir Boy” Off-Broadway; it was the first “yes” that I got in the sense of going into the room, preparing the material for people, and them [being] like, “We want you.” That made me feel like there were opportunities for me to work in this business.

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CE: So, at the time that you were working on “Choir Boy,” were you also doing music and photography?

JP: Yeah, so, when I was in college at AMDA, senior year is the time when you have to prep yourself and show yourself to the industry, get your headshots and résumé ready.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have any money, so I was just out there making it do what it do; I was taking my own headshots and not telling my professors. I don’t think they would’ve cared, but I felt a little bit embarrassed about that. But then my roommates were like, “Yo, can you take mine, too?” I started taking pictures for my friends and I fell into photography, and I started to succeed in it, and it was kind of a hustle to make some money. That was something that I was always doing to help make ends meet while I was auditioning and even while I was Off-Broadway.

CE: I feel like there’s been a pattern of you doing many things at once. Do you find yourself getting exhausted by it, or does it inspire you to pull from different sources of creativity?

JP: I think a bit of both, always.

But I love knowing it’s possible for me to do more things than I think I can. It’s just challenging myself with my artistry.

CE: Fast-forward to “Choir Boy” and “Ain’t Too Proud.” You and I both know what Tonys nomination day is like, but you being double nominated for both pieces—did you ever see that moment happening?

JP: No. I think, at some point, it surpassed all of my dreams. I think I thought I could get to Broadway and have my parents see me in a

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show, but the rest…I hadn’t figured that part out yet. I was trying to get there. So here you are times two, and you’re like, “Now what?”

CE: At what point did you think, I might do some screen work? Had you been auditioning for screen while you were doing “Ain’t Too Proud,” or were you expecting to move on to another show?

JP: To be honest, doing the two shows, I was like, “I think I might need a break from the eightshow-a-week schedule.” We were finding projects that lent to that, and here comes this show called “Hollywood” by Ryan Murphy, and we knew nothing about it, there was no script, it was just: “Archie, an aspiring screenwriter.” And I auditioned for it the week of the Tonys—and you know that week is crazy.

CE: It’s nuts! It’s ridiculous. I know.

JP: It was the Sunday a week before the Tonys, and I came in early and [asked my cast mate], “Can you just put me on tape for this thing?” Shout out to Taylor Symone [Jackson] for hooking that up. The next day, we sent the tape off, and on Tuesday, my agents called. I was walking back from our Tony rehearsal at the theater, and they were like, “Hey, we just heard from casting, and they’re interested in you for ‘Hollywood’—so interested that Ryan offered you this part.”

The Saturday before the Tonys, [Ryan and I] met, and he pitched me on what he was wanting to do and asked me if I would be interested in it. I was super excited about this idea, and that was kind of what I took with me on Sunday to knock out the Tony Awards.

I had dreamed of. I remember having conversations with Ryan early about who this character is, what does he want, and how does he go about getting these things? So I felt very grounded. What I learned in creating “movie magic” is you have to trust your director. A lot of these things, you can’t see. So, trusting their vision, not being afraid to ask questions. With theater, you have your beginning, middle, and end, and you just do it. But with TV and film, you’re shooting things out of order—you’re like, “Have we met? How much do we know about each other?”

CE: What’s your name again?

JP: Exactly. [Laughs] You piece it together as you’re filming. You have to have that freedom of just trying things. It’s a bit of an improv, it’s a bit of trusting your scene partner.

CE: I watched the whole thing, and you’re beautiful in it. I love the fact that it rewrites history; it’s the what-ifs. What about this particular piece made you decide: This is the thing that I’m going to start my screen career with?

JP: Early on, I hadn’t read a script, it was just Ryan kind of pitching me the three characters played by me, Darren Criss, and David Corenswet. And he was talking about Archie and being this black, gay writer and how that person would have to navigate in the ’40s and ’50s, how confident he would have to be. And I think in a similar way to how Archie feels; I often wondered if there was space for me in the industry that I was pursuing,

CE: Yeah, I did.

JP: And I feel that with the show “Hollywood,” that it’s bigger than just me. We’re lending a voice to so many people out there who want to be heard and seen.

CE: I feel like the projects that you pick aren’t necessarily for yourself or for the enjoyment of it, but because as long as it serves a greater good, that’s what you’re leaning toward.

JP: Yeah, that kind of revealed

With David Corenswet on “Hollywood”

CE: How did it feel to make that transition from stage to screen? I get asked that question a lot.

JP: It’s just so wildly different, in that theater is a thing where you just are, you are where you are.

And when you’re working in TV or film, your audience is the camera, so there are certain things logistically that you have to be aware of.

I remember my first day, thinking, We’re at Paramount and we’re setting up my coverage; it was exciting! This was something that

itself to me in the past couple of years. It has to be for the greater good, because if I don’t feel invested in it, I don’t think the work is going to be good. I just know how powerful it is that we’re able to create. I feel like that’s kind of what I’m called to do.

CE: So, if you were to write a blurb of your dream for the next few years, what would it look like?

JP: I just hope that in all that I do, I am able to bring up my brothers and sisters to inspire the next generation. There is space for you, and if you speak just a little bit louder, people will want to hear what you have to say. And if people don’t want to hear what you have to say, find some people who will—I think that’s something that I learned about New York City, that you build a community of people who understand where you’re at in the moment and who accept you for who you are and accept you for the person you will end up becoming.

Sometimes, we’re so tempted to want to look up at who’s up there instead of looking across and around. There are so many great people around you.

CE: You know that you serve as an inspiration to many young people in this industry. Someone who’s starting, who doesn’t necessarily know the ins and outs of it all but wants to be a part of this world— what would you say to them?

JP: Try it all. That is important to do as an up-and-coming artist. Stretch yourself. See what you can find and what characters you can play, and challenge yourself in that way.

Another thing is just to own everything that you are, all of the unique qualities about you. It’s OK to not be a carbon copy of so-and-so. Find what you have to give.

CE: The special thing that you’ve got.

JP: Some people may be for it, and some people may not. And that’s OK. That’s art. But know that it’s OK to share your art in whatever capacity that is.

A version of this story was originally published in the May 14, 2020 issue of Backstage Magazine.

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whether it be musical theater or theater, or TV, or music—whatever.

I feel this fire in my belly and this creativeness that I want to share with the world, but will it be received with grace and love, or is it just the thing that I keep to myself? And I loved this idea, as you said, of a revisionist history where, had people—women, queer people, people of color—been given the opportunity, how different would our history look? How different a feeling could it be? It felt like a story where I was going to be used for the greater good. It wasn’t about Jeremy Pope being in a TV show, it was about this young black character finding a voice. We were able to tell a very inspiring, hopeful story—how things have changed and haven’t changed. I mean, let’s be very real: From your personal experience, a couple of weeks ago, you were holding it down at the Oscars, a lead actress in a movie.

I feel like there were so many women, so many young girls, who felt seen, felt heard, who were rooting for you just because you were in the room. And you felt that.

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Anna Kendrick

A

Show: “Dummy” Nomination: Outstanding

Actress in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series

By Casey Mink

COURTESY ANNA KENDRICK

nna Kendrick has an idea.

“Every character should do a scene with her mother at the beginning of a shoot,” she suggests. Her theory is that this type of interior work could function as a sort of controlled breakthrough in therapy—but instead of your own lifetime’s worth of baggage, it’s your character’s.

The notion occurred to her during production on her new HBO Max series “Love Life,” on which Hope Davis portrays her mom. “I learned so much about my character during that episode; you go back to your own childhood stuff,” she says. And though she hadn’t previously considered it in such explicit terms, to hear Kendrick talk about her acting is to realize she’s actually been putting her roles under the proverbial microscope for years.

“Why does that person behave that way? Why do some people see the world in a different way?” she muses, chatting by telephone from her home in Los Angeles, where she’s been quarantining since mid-March. “And that’s the kind of driving curiosity that, hopefully, makes me effective at my job.”

Of course, having been acting professionally since adolescence, Kendrick knows that what initially lured her to the trade was a good deal less existential. “It would be really insane for me to suggest that finding truth in a person’s psychology interested me at that age,” she says, with just a little bite.

“It was more that I knew plays like ‘Annie’ and ‘Gypsy’ meant that I could get on a stage and wear a costume, and people had to pay

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attention to me. My goals were more streamlined: I wanted to sing really loud and be onstage.”

Streamlined, indeed. Kendrick starred in the 1998 Broadway premiere of “High Society,” for which she earned a Tony nomination at the ripe age of 12, making her one of the youngest performers in history to earn the distinction. Not long after, as it so often does, Los Angeles came knocking. And, as it so often does, it quickly proved less glamorous than advertised.

“I don’t really know what to say about it other than it sucked. It was hard,” Kendrick says of her early days navigating the “business” side of the business. “Every now and then, I’m walking around in L.A. and I notice some back alley, weird entrance, and remember I used to go around to that entrance because they didn’t want you coming in the front entrance if you were there to audition. It’s a very degrading process to be holding your sides and have some bored receptionist say, ‘Can you use this back entrance?’ And then, obviously, the image of walking into a room and there are 20 girls who look exactly like you.”

Though she hardly recalls the period with rose-hued fondness, it was a necessary steppingstone

to becoming the Anna Kendrick we know today, the singular one who is known as much for her turns onscreen as her quips on Twitter. (She even wrote a book of nonfiction essays, “Scrappy Little Nobody,” that went on to become a New York Times best-seller.) As it happens, learning to unleash the persona inside the person—to embrace rather than smother whatever nonconformity exists within—was a critical turning point in her approach to both acting and auditioning; one which, believe it or not, came courtesy of a certain vampire franchise.

“I remember auditioning for the

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family in ‘Twilight’ and running into a friend of mine and both of us being like, ‘Why are we here?’ ” Kendrick recalls. “ ‘[The role] is the bitchy mean girl, they’re going to hire some leggy blonde, because that’s the part.’ I thought, OK, I’ll just go in and do something dumb, because I’m not going to get the job anyway. Hopefully, the casting director will remember me as being funny, and they’ll bring me back in for something else. It’s such a hideous cliché, but I just had to realize the only times I got a job were when there was something I could do that nobody else could do.”

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partners. I have worked with a lot of talented men, and sometimes I feel like they have decided on their performance beforehand. And, no matter how good it is, it sort of weirds me out when it doesn’t seem like they’re engaging me. It’s less that either gender is working from a deficit and more that, I guess, I just personally connect more with female actors.”

Gender aside, Kendrick has come to recognize that what works for her may not work for others. An actor’s approach to any given role or material will be informed entirely by what they have in their toolbox. Naturally, she describes it more colorfully: “There are times when I’ll have this kind of supernatural desire to inhabit Angelina Jolie’s body for a day, just to act as her and be like, ‘Holy crap, this is such a different set of tools.’ I would play the instrument differently than she plays her instrument—” she cuts herself off. “Sorry, I feel like that’s so pretentious.”

What she’s getting at, though, is really an extension of the character psychosis she’s already been probing: that a role is irrevocably yours once you have played it, because no one else can and no

one else will do it like you.

It’s no wonder that by the end of a shoot, Kendrick is usually of the mind that no one understands her character better than she does. How could they? “There’s no amount of prep that I can do for a movie where I’ll feel like I know the character better than the writer,” she says. “But if we’re doing press for the movie [afterward] and I hear a director say, ‘Well, Anna’s character is really X-Y-Z,’ I’ll probably think, You don’t know her. She’s mine! Even if they wrote it. Once you start working on something, you find things in the moment. Like on ‘Love Life,’ I just felt like I knew this character better than anybody, because I’ve actually lived these situations now and had to react honestly.”

In addition to that ownership of her character, Kendrick has another deep investment in “Love Life.” The series, created by Sam Boyd, marks her first venture into producing. The decision to sign on as executive producer was in no small part derived from a desire to have more input both creatively and practically. “I think part of it is just being allowed to be as bossy as I can be normally,” she says.

“Being allowed to look at the shot

as it’s getting set up and say, ‘Wait, why are we using such a wide lens?’ Now, I’m allowed to say, ‘No, let’s not do that.’

“It’s nice to feel like I’m not just a yappy dog annoying everybody,” she adds. “To feel like I’m allowed to have my opinion, and that my opinion is, frankly, valued.”

Along with “Love Life,” this year also saw Kendrick star in and executive produce the Quibi comedy “Dummy,” which earned two Emmy nominations this year, including Kendrick’s first for best actress in a short form comedy or drama series. And while she doesn’t necessarily plan to anchor every project from both in front of and behind the camera, she will continue to seek opportunities that, above all else, engage her natural curiosity. Well, for the most part.

“I’m sure that there will be times when I’m like, Am I done learning?

Do I know everything yet?,” she prods before hanging up. “Isn’t it human nature to occasionally be like, Have I mastered it yet? Jesus, enough already.”

A version of this story was originally published in the May 21, 2020 issue of Backstage Magazine.

On “Dummy”

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QUIBI

To again lift that turn of phrase right off the therapist’s couch, it wasn’t just a career breakthrough, but a psychological one. That isn’t to say it suddenly unlocked the secret to enduring Hollywood success, but it did help secure the actor’s first Oscar nomination.

The story—well-documented in the history book of Kendrick’s life by now—goes that the writer-director Jason Reitman already had her in mind when she came in to audition for his new feature “Up in the Air.” The role was a co-lead opposite George Clooney. She got it, obviously, but as the greener of the two actors, how did she step on set and believe, I have a right to be here?

“Um, I didn’t,” she says with a terse laugh. “George was such an angel, and would say things like, ‘Are you nervous? Got to get nervous for your first day’—and that is complete bullshit. He absolutely does not [get nervous], but I believed it at the time, and that’s what I needed to hear: that I had permission to be nervous.

Because it’s one thing to be nervous, and it’s another to be pretending you’re not.”

Now, Kendrick is herself a formidable leading lady, having starred most notably in all three “Pitch Perfect” movies; the series has to date made more than $500 million worldwide and solidified Kendrick as a capital-N Name. In a position quite different from the one she was in about a decade ago, today she tries to practice the same on-set empathy that has been shown to her.

“No, I’m an absolute monster,” she says with just a split-second pause before answering in earnest.

“I mean, you try to adjust to your various co-workers. Obviously, there are people who you realize really thrive when it feels spontaneous, and it would be better if we weren’t word-perfect. And then, for other people, it’s those early takes that are really magical and you want to make sure it’s as on-book as it can be.” As for her ideal scene partner, when given a preference, Kendrick does have one in mind.

“I like it when they’re women,” she says. “Women, in my experience, are the most generous scene

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Kerry Washington

Show: “Little

Fires Everywhere” Nomination: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie

I

By Casey Mink | Photographed by Liz Collins

t turns out that Kerry Washington is a good deal less capricious than any of the women she’s become famous for playing. But that’s exactly how she ended up playing them. “I put a lot of thought into figuring out how to do this in a way that was sane,” Washington says of a life spent performing. “It was that combination of dreaming that anything is possible and then creating these structures wherein I could pursue those dreams with some sanity.”

Though it hardly makes for the sensational first scene of a pilot or play, Washington has maneuvered the business reason-first, both feet tethered firmly to reality, since Day 1. She has always, however, allowed herself to dream. The dichotomy explains why an acting career occurred to her at all, and why she was nearing adulthood when it did. Call it pragmatic dreaming, which, in practice, is exactly how Washington describes it herself.

“You have to pray to catch the bus—but then run as fast as you can [when it arrives],” she says.

“If you don’t run, that could have been your bus. But you can’t just sit around and daydream and expect things to unfold. You have to also have the pedal meet the metal. You have to take action. For me, there was always this idea of ‘Stay in faith, dream big, take action.’ Then, if I don’t get the bus, it wasn’t meant to be my bus.”

Washington always loved to tell stories, but growing up, the idea of acting professionally only existed on a far-off plane. “To me, actors

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were famous people, people on the covers of magazines,” she explains.

“I didn’t see myself as that kind of person, ironically.” Ironically because, well, Washington is now quite famous and she is also, presently, speaking (via Zoom) for the purpose of being on this very magazine cover.

But even now, with eight Emmy nominations to her name, her own production company, and, yes, having graced more than a few glossy magazine covers, Washington is clear that this type of exposure and adulation was never the pursuit. Actually, the big “aha moment” that made her say yes to a career in the arts—which many actors cite as a dazzling film performance seen as a child or an Oscars acceptance speech watched in the family living room—was a bit more functional.

“I was taking a class called Acting as a Business,” she recalls.

“It was part of a conservatory program that I did at Michael Howard Studios [in New York]. In that course, our teacher started

talking about unions. I hadn’t really conceptualized the idea that there were unions for actors. That, to me, meant there were lots of working actors who were making a living. I realized, ‘Oh, I could aim to do that.’ ” And there’s the rub: While so many aspirants are focused on the gleaming car, Washington has always been as concerned with the machinery beneath the hood. It explains why, even at George Washington University, where she matriculated, she didn’t major in acting, opting instead for anthropology and sociology. Her decision-making process, naturally, was multitiered and multipurpose.

“I didn’t study acting in college for two reasons,” she says. The first reason was for the realist in her: “I knew there were things like substitute teaching for New York City public schools that are harder to do with an arts degree. I didn’t know when I went into college that I wanted to be an actor, so I thought I might go to graduate school for anthropology, or that I might go

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to law school, or that I might get a master’s in education. I wanted to have options with my degree.”

The second reason, though, was for the dreamer who held out hope that the acting thing might pan out, even when the more rational parts of her id thought otherwise.

“I also had a feeling that studying liberal arts, in particular social science, could maybe make me a better artist, right?” she says. “If my job as an actor is to embody human reality and human beings in their journey through time, maybe knowing more about history and psychology and sociology could actually help me understand my role as an artist in embodying people.”

Though she didn’t intend to be an actor while there, she performed in many plays at college, and when it came time to graduate, Washington’s conflicting natures struck a deal: She’d give it a year, and if in that time she could land some work and make some inroads, she’d keep at it. But if the year yielded little sign she was on the right path, she’d circle back to law school or something similar. As always, there was a plan beneath the plan (and, likely, another plan beneath that one, too).

“Saying, ‘I’m going to give myself a year to see if anything happens and if it doesn’t, I’ll go in a different direction,’ that was also part of how I motivated myself,” she says.

“I knew a lot of people who were dreaming big but weren’t taking action. I think giving myself a year made me feel like I’d better be taking action in that year, because if this is all the time I have, I don’t want to waste it being in fear.”

Consciously choosing not to succumb to fear is another way in which Washington subverted the common pitfalls of early career actors. While she admits to not having done so perfectly, she tried from the start to abide by the expression “Wearing life like a loose T-shirt,” which means exactly what it evokes: relaxing, not taking oneself too seriously. It mostly stuck, and was especially seminal in how she learned to audition.

“It meant that I could show up for auditions [thinking] it was just an opportunity to get to do

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what I love to do, which is act, for 15 minutes. Maybe you wanted me in your play or maybe you didn’t,” she says. “I could walk into a room without this feeling that I could do something to control whether I was going to get the role. It allowed me more healthy detachment and flexibility around auditioning, in a way. I’ve definitely had moments where I’ve had to work hard to cultivate that level of: walk in the room to be of service, walk in the room to have fun, walk in the room to participate in a joyful, artful act, as opposed to walk in the room to try to get people to like me.”

That thinking also helped Washington approach her work without a “please pick me” desperation, which can lead actors at any stage of their career to take on projects they don’t believe in or, worse, actively resent. After all, fear does not dissipate when success has been attained, it just mutates.

Washington planned for that, too. After graduating but before pounding the pavement, she spent several months in India. “Part of why I did that was because I really wanted to go somewhere and study where theater and movement arts were grounded in a rich spiritual tradition, because I knew I would get back to the States and would be desperate to book a fast-food commercial to pay my rent,” she says. “I knew that was going to be the dynamic. I wanted to give myself some time really discovering and allowing myself to experience the sacred nature of theater in ancient traditions so that I could hold a little bit of that with me as I was in these huge cattle calls for some insurance company commercial.

“As a woman, and particularly as a woman of color, there would come along roles that I felt were demeaning or culturally insensitive or perpetuating a stereotype,” she continues. “It was important to me to say, ‘No, I’ll teach more yoga, I’ll do more shifts at the restaurant,’ whatever the hustle was, because I don’t want to be part of telling stories that I don’t think are good for people.”

She acknowledges, of course, that when it comes to selecting

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projects, “Sometimes you make the choice, sometimes the choice gets made for you.” But Washington has always tried to apply that thinking—having a net positive outcome from her work—when weighing a role. It was true for her early standout parts in “Save the Last Dance” and “Ray” and for the seven seasons she spent as a crisis manager on Shonda Rhimes’ genre-defining “Scandal.” It was also true for the 2016 HBO feature “Confirmation” and the 2019 Emmy-nominated Broadway-turned-Netflix production “American Son” (both of which, through their exploration of sexual harassment and police brutality, have unfortunately become even more relevant today).

And it’s certainly true of her latest project, “Little Fires Everywhere.” The Hulu miniseries, adapted from the novel by Celeste Ng, stars Washington as a single mother in the 1990s who moves to an Ohio suburb with her daughter and becomes enmeshed with an affluent family. As on “Confirmation,” Washington is

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a producer of the eight-episode series, on which she was equipped to act now and not a minute sooner. “I think characters come into my life when they have something to teach me,” she says. “Each character is a gift in that way, because they allow me to explore my own belief systems or values or mood or ideas. They meet me where I need to grow.”

Though she has more growing yet to do herself, part of the joy of doing “Little Fires” was the many scenes she shared with its young stars, particularly her onscreen daughter, played by Lexi Underwood. That, in itself, has been the lesson that keeps on teaching the actor.

“I learned really early on in my career that having this other human being to focus on wholeheartedly in the scene makes me better, because acting is doing,” she says. “If you’re just in a whirlwind of self-consciousness, that rarely lends itself to solid craft. I’ve found that if I come to the scene with the goal of making sure that

the actor across from me is in truth, then I’ll also be reaching for truth, because I’ll want to do whatever it takes to get them to have the most organic, authentic reactions. [It’s] that willingness to be more focused on your scene partner.”

That very same thinking—giving to receive—has been the driver of her work as a producer, which she has plans to do more of. “I love providing opportunities for artists and artisans to do what we love to do. I guess in some ways, it’s the importance of believing that there’s enough for everybody and not buying into this idea of one small pie,” she says. “I think producing is my way of helping to make the pie bigger, for myself and for other people, by not just focusing on where can I get a piece, but instead focusing on how do I make more for all of us to enjoy?”

A version of this story was originally published in the June 25, 2020 issue of Backstage Magazine.

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Christina Applegate

Show: “Dead

to Me” Nomination: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series

I

By Benjamin Lindsay | Photographed by Emily Shur

t’s mid-May 2020, and Christina Applegate is exactly where she belongs: lighting up someone’s screen. Sure, Season 2 of Liz Feldman’s acclaimed “Dead to Me” has just premiered on Netflix, but on this particular afternoon, she’s taking to Zoom, dialing in for an hourlong break from her two cats, one dog, musician husband, and 9-year-old daughter—all of whom are occasionally heard just out of frame during this unprecedented time of quarantine. “It’s weird to be talking about stuff like this when the world is what it is,” she admits, “but what’s nice is that people are getting an escape in. We all have to escape somehow.”

Applegate first began “acting” before she could even formulate words, appearing with her actor mother, Nancy Priddy, on an episode of soap opera “Days of Our Lives” and doing a Playtex commercial by the age of 1. She continued doing commercials for TV and radio through her childhood, and became a card-carrying SAG member at age 4 in 1975 for a project lost to time. (“My mom doesn’t remember—I obviously don’t remember, I was born in 1971—so no one really knows!”)

Films began filling her résumé around age 10 with “Jaws of Satan,” “Beatlemania,” “Grace Kelly,” and others, and the bit work continued. But it wasn’t until landing the role of Kelly, a bombshell teen with an ax to grind, on “Married” that Applegate became a household name.

Hers was a rather untraditional and untamed route into the arts

that would eventually lead to everything from 1991’s “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” to “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,” “The Sweetest Thing,” a Tony-nominated “Sweet Charity” run, and a string of Emmy wins and nominations—including a surprise nod last year for “Dead to Me,” which was matched again this year plus three, including outstanding comedy series. But the inroads she made alongside her single mother began more out of necessity than gumption.

“It was something that I was always doing because I had to for survival,” Applegate says. “My mom, you know, that was how we made our money, me doing radio commercials or commercials or whatever. It’s how we were fed.

It’s all I’ve ever known.” Asked if and when the flip ever switched from acting-as-survival to acting-as-passion and fulfillment,

On “Dead to Me”

NETFLIX

Here, sitting makeup-less in front of her fireplace with her hair in a bun, wearing a gray hoodie, AirPods, and dark-rimmed glasses, Applegate is a vision of fuss-free comfort. It’s well-deserved—considering she doesn’t allow herself that luxury at her day job.

“You should always be challenging yourself; if it gets too complacent or easy, then you’re not doing it right. This shouldn’t feel easy; you shouldn’t be comfortable,” Applegate says with a shrug.

“Being comfortable,” she adds, “that stagnation is where you die— you can’t be stagnant. You’ve got to push. You’ve got to expand.”

The lifelong actor has had this career MO since wrapping her 11 seasons as Kelly Bundy on “Married…With Children” in 1997, and she shares it with the kind of gruff but sincere wisdom of someone who, decades in, knows a thing or two of what she speaks.

she doesn’t miss a beat: That only came when she decided to quit acting for good.

“The moment it became a choice, I think I was 13 years old, and I said to [my mom], ‘I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to go on auditions anymore, I want to be with my friends.’ And she said, ‘OK, I’ll call your agent,’ ” Applegate recalls. “I’ll never forget, in our little 750-square-foot house, I went upstairs and all of a sudden I got a panic attack. I ran downstairs within 10 minutes and was like, ‘No, don’t call her.’

“At 13, do you even understand what having a passion for something is? I don’t think so. All I knew is that the idea of it going away didn’t feel right to me. Didn’t sit right. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I’d just gone off and [had] the freedom of being a normal kid.”

At the end of the day, forgoing the opportunity for normalcy has been to her benefit as an actor, so she can’t begrudge it—especially in 2020, when “Dead to Me” finds her turning in career-best work. Her performance as Jen, a widowed mother who befriends the offbeat-but-tenderhearted Judy (Linda Cardellini) during a group therapy session for the bereaved, is at times so raw you’ll find it hard to watch.

While the series is nominally a comedy, it’s often paced like a crime thriller, and emotionally, it serves as an exploration of how trauma and pain sit in the body and weigh on the mind.

Applegate’s Jen is broken by her loss and hardened by her anger; in other words, it’s an out-of-left-field powerhouse vehicle unlike any the actor has previously been afforded, and she wouldn’t be able to play it without imbuing it with shades of her own hardship.

“Oh, man, it’s all there. It’s all me.

I don’t think that it would’ve been what it was had I not had a lot of

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prepared her for the work she does today.

“It wasn’t about a professional thing, it was more a personal thing,” the actor says of her drive to do more. In the craft, she found therapy. “I wanted to go to the places that I needed to go for me as a person who had been through the life that I’d been through, to be in this really vulnerable, personal space and feel OK about that.”

Now, her character development process can look any number of ways. She’s written journals for some roles that run 150 pages long just to get their psyche down on paper; someone like “Anchorman” newswoman Veronica Corningstone, on the other hand, required more work from the outside in. “She’s putting on a character for the world, so what does that mean? Where does she hold her tension?” Applegate poses. “Everyone gets something special; it just depends on who the person is.”

For “Dead to Me,” Jen wasn’t as mapped out. “I read it and I was

like, ‘Oh, I don’t need to work on this.’ She has to be erratic. She can’t be planned. She’s gotta ping-pong.”

The approach allows for heart-onher-sleeve spontaneity and at-times harrowing authenticity.

Likewise, Jen lives with Applegate in ways she’s not used to. The actor has a laundry list of moments where things got a little too real to deal—where her body began shaking involuntarily, her sobs became unstoppable.

“I felt like my skin was falling off of my body,” she recalls of a particularly trying Season 2 scene that has Jen revealing her truth to Judy. But Applegate, for better or worse, goes there, and has learned what she needs to cope: She’s no stranger, for example, to turning to the on-set medic—who was called in after she busted her rib filming an action sequence last year—to make sure she’s not actually having a heart attack.

“He basically was my emotional support system,” Applegate says with a laugh. “He’d see me kind of spiraling out in my head, and

he’d come over and be like, ‘You’re OK. Take a deep breath.’ That was my self-care. Because there was no other way to have selfcare. The opportunity to take care of me couldn’t happen until I was done.”

Which brings our conversation back around to that acting career MO: Never get too comfortable.

“You’ve got to be able to be pliable,” Applegate concludes. “You can’t just head down one road and say, ‘This is the way it should be. I feel this about this and I’m snooty about this and I don’t do interviews and I don’t do this and I’m an artist.’ You’ve got to let all that go—and then the universe will give you more than you think you even want.”

Indeed, her approach has paid off and the universe has provided. But for now, Applegate rests.

A version of this story was originally published in the July 9, 2020 issue of Backstage Magazine.

With Linda Cardellini on “Dead to Me”

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pain in my life,” she says, “I had to be able to relate to her because she’s someone who is going through great trauma.” Applegate, who is also executive producer on the series, notes the Season 1 revelation of Jen’s breast cancer diagnosis and double mastectomy, a real-life battle Applegate fought herself in 2008. It’s a character detail that she fought to include as an in-passing building block of Jen’s backstory; something not shown onscreen that is nonetheless absolutely intrinsic to her day-to-day life.

“I think, for some reason, my soul needed to do this,” Applegate says of why she signed on, admitting that at the time, she was looking for a lighter commitment on an ensemble series. “My soul needed to say the words that I had to say and feel the things that I had to feel, talk about the things that I had to talk about, show the world what pain and trauma can look like and how messy it is, and to not feel bad about the fact that you’re not doing it ‘right.’ When that happens, you can’t say no.

“I’m sure there’s someone who had a great childhood and both parents and they lived with a picket fence and grew up at summer stock and went to Harvard and worked in this and that and was perfect and could go and perform and do that, too—that’s friggin’ art right there,” she continues. “But then there are those of us who have had a pretty scrappy life and who have seen a lot of heartbreak who can just tap in from our own personal experiences.”

That’s not to say, of course, that Applegate has never herself trained. She may have been born into acting, but her mother had her in technique classes early on.

She was a pupil of Uta Hagen until “Married…With Children,” and the years following it had her booked solid—“There was no time for that anymore.” But training came back to Applegate later in life. She’d turned 30 and found herself itching for more from her acting, and so she enrolled for some years in a class regimen that had her mining scenes she otherwise would never be hired for. It reached all her untapped nooks and ultimately

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Ramy Youssef Show: “Ramy” Nomination: Outstanding

T

for a Comedy Series

Lead Actor in a Comedy Series + Outstanding Directing

By Elyse Roth | Photographed by Koury Angelo

o create and star in an eponymous television show before age 30 seems like the kind of thing aspiring creators write on a Post-it Note and stick to their mirrors to stay motivated; few get there at all, let alone with as much success as Ramy Youssef, whose Hulu and A24 hit “Ramy” has turned a pipe dream into a reality long in the making.

“The first thing I ever saved up all my birthday and holiday money for in third or fourth grade was a camera,” Youssef says over Zoom on an early July afternoon in Los Angeles. “I would follow the mailman in my neighborhood in Jersey and I’d narrate a made-up plot that he was doing something shady. It was just kind of messing around.”

What began for the now Golden Globe–winning and Emmynominated multihyphenate as writing pretend stories about people in his hometown of Rutherford, New Jersey, and piecing together footage on his grandparents’ computer with Windows Movie Maker evolved into using “Saturday Night Live” references and a local TV station to start creating with his high school friends.

In those early days, he remembers his “writing process” being more about what made him and his friends laugh; while Youssef commuted into New York City to perform at the Peoples Improv Theater, they’d write morning announcements for the school and comedy sketches back in Jersey. “It would be us taking a small premise and really stretching it and

turning it into something. I think we had a whole sketch about farts, where somebody does a silent but deadly fart and we all die.”

Looking at Youssef now, the throughline from his humble beginnings to his success creating the first American single-camera comedy centered on a Muslim Arab family is inspiring for any young creative to follow.

“In the beginning years of comedy, you’re doing a lot of what you think is funny or what you think comedy should be,” he explains.

“You’re tapping into a perception as opposed to what you actually care about and want to do.” It’s a natural inclination he highlights as a valid part of the process for getting a sense of yourself comedically, but “you end up shedding it,” he says. “If you do it long enough and you’re doing it honestly, you get to what you really want to get into.”

Youssef had the idea for what “Ramy” would become once he leaned into the personal and specific. “I probably started talking about sex and then started talking about faith and realized how those two were playing off of

each other for me,” he recalls; from there, he knew that if he could “get a foot in the door,” situating that scenario within the lives of a realistic Muslim family was what he wanted to see, regardless of format.

On “Ramy,” Youssef plays 20-something Ramy Hassan, a Muslim first-generation Egyptian American growing up in New Jersey with his immigrant parents. The creator finds a lot of the show’s comedy in the tension between Ramy’s secular and religious tendencies, his struggles with his identity as a Muslim man with his family and the familiar fumblings of life in America as a young person.

“When I first started talking about centering something around a Muslim family, a lot of the initial conversation was, well, could they be neighbors to a white family, or maybe they’re best friends?” Youssef remembers about the assumptions around who would—and wouldn’t—watch the series. “The main concern was, well, you’re really funny and it sounds cool, but is there actually an audience for this? Are we going

to hold people’s attention with just one thing that we don’t really know about?” It was 2014, before representation became a priority in Hollywood, and the premise of a show like “Ramy” left it farther from being greenlit than it might have been in 2020.

So, how did the 20-something burgeoning actor-comedian actually get his own show? He pursued a political science and economics double major at Rutgers.

Of course, he also continued doing improv at the PIT and Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre until he got the chance to perform at the Arab-American Comedy Festival and met like-minded people like future “Ramy” castmate Laith Nakli. Youssef never expected to make a living in entertainment. “That stuff always felt like a hobby. Like, OK, this is going to be dope to do with my friends, and then at a certain point, real life is going to have to start,” he says.

It was Nakli who gave Youssef a glimpse into life as a professional actor. He’d trained and worked at the William Esper Studio in New York City and suggested Youssef try it out. “That was probably the

HULU

With Steve Way on “Ramy”

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first time I felt like I was actually going to put some real training behind what I had been doing informally for a really long time,” he says. “Doing Meisner [technique] at Esper totally changed the way I approached everything. It was a big shift for me”—big enough for him to leave Rutgers and commit to the studio’s two-year program.

He was planning to return to college when he was finished, but he booked a pilot, Nick at Nite’s “See Dad Run,” while he was completing his training and moved to L.A. instead.

Youssef seemed to be following the actor’s dream trajectory, from impromptu acting student to working actor, but the desire to continue making his own work followed him to the West Coast. “I started transitioning to standup when I moved to L.A. I didn’t have the same community of sketch [performers] that I had in New York, but I still wanted to get onstage,” he recalls. “I was acting on a show but not writing it.

It was really hard to replicate how it felt being in front of people, so I liked the idea of making something with people, for people, in front of people.”

“See Dad Run” connected Youssef with others in the comedy space, like Mark Curry, who brought Youssef along as an opener for his standup tours. This was before, Youssef says, he was ready to be in front of those crowds. “I would eat it, just totally bombed in front of his audiences until I kind of figured out how to get clearer about what I was saying.”

It was this process that would pull “Ramy” into focus. “What I started to figure out was when I didn’t get a laugh on something I thought was funny but didn’t really care about it or have anything I was trying to say, I would just feel embarrassed,” he says.

“That became the barometer: I have to be saying something that I actually think and believe, that I actually care about. I can’t say it because I think it’s going to get a reaction.” For him, those genuine topics were faith, sex, and family—the major themes at the center of the series. He continued to sharpen his comedy and make connections in L.A. through open

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mic nights until he had a network of people who could help get him into the right rooms.

While “Ramy” was taking form during and after the 2016 election, the political climate was shifting, and Hollywood began to change with it. “Once the president made a list of countries that should be banned, Hollywood started to say, ‘We need to get to know this group of people more,’ ” Youssef says, even though the call for Muslim representation onscreen wasn’t new. “I think there’s this idea that Hollywood pushes social change, but I really think that social change pushes Hollywood.

[Getting this show made] really opened my eyes to that.”

Eventually, with that groundswell behind him, the pitch for “Ramy” earned a pilot order and then a series, which made it time for him to adapt his standup into a 10-episode season.

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into dialogue for an ensemble, Youssef found it easy to assign it to his characters. “In the years leading up to making the show, my standup premises were about these things that are rooted in truth,” he says. “It becomes really exciting to put that in characters’ mouths, and it’s really easy to translate.” One joke might feel like it applies to the character of Ramy, but another topic might sound better coming from his uncle or his sister. “It becomes easy dialogue because it’s rooted in something.”

Youssef knows there’s something radical about having the only show on television that depicts Arab Muslims as they’ve never been seen on American TV before— which is to say, not terrorists. In creating “Ramy,” he followed a lesson that applies to every writer: “The process for writing starts to be less about what you think it’s going to do to other people and more about what you know is a

reflection of you and where you’re at. In this weird way, you’re putting something together for the audience, but you have to think about the audience last.”

Whether you’re familiar with Egyptian Muslim customs and traditions or not, this grounded approach to worldbuilding gets at what Youssef and any character-driven show is trying to do.

“Maybe you haven’t struggled to do Ramadan, but there are people who wake up at 6 a.m. and go for a run, and at 1 a.m., they’re in the Wendy’s parking lot with a Frosty and a Double Stack, and everything is falling apart from what they wanted 19 hours ago.

That’s the gap that we’re highlighting, between what you want to be and what you are. That’s not culture-specific, that’s human-specific,” he says.

In fact, writers should always look for that human aspect of any story, Youssef says. “I learned that

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the right spot to dig into for writing is the thing you’re really afraid of and you think is too weird or unrelatable. You think there’s no way it would make any sense, but if it’s something that genuinely scares you and has been rattling around in your head for years, it’s probably the right spot to dig into.

People will get it more than you think,” he assures.

That approach has struck a chord with audiences: The series was picked up for a third season in July, and Youssef earned 2020 Emmy nods for acting and directing on Season 2. The show’s sophomore effort premiered in May with the addition of twotime Oscar winner—and now Emmy nominee for “Ramy”— Mahershala Ali as a patient Sheikh whom Ramy follows in an effort to find meaning and purpose in his faith after stumbling through romance and falling short of family expectations on Season 1. The season establishes a tone that’s not quite as autobiographical as the first, but is still undeniably Youssef.

With a growing résumé, a Golden Globe, and a Peabody, he seems to have the hang of things, but he’s not getting caught up in the accolades. “The award isn’t the goal. You still need to know where you want to go and feel motivated by that,” he advises. “The motivation is the same from Day 1; it’s still the same from scrolling through Backstage. That feeling shouldn’t be about wanting to book something, it should be about getting to do what you know you’re supposed to do and wanting to express yourself.”

Yes, he’s capping off his 20s with a list of accomplishments—“Ramy,” of course, alongside Youssef’s HBO special “Feelings” and a deal with A24 that includes a forthcoming series at Apple TV+ as well as one at Netflix—but even with all that, he doesn’t feel like he’s scratched the surface of what he wants to do. “I feel like I’m just getting started. It feels brand-new, and that’s really exciting.”

A version of this story was originally published in the Aug. 6, 2020 issue of Backstage Magazine.

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Jeremy Strong

Show: “Succession”

Nomination: Outstanding

Lead Actor in a Drama Series

By Casey Mink | Photographed by Patrick Hoelck

ZACH DILGARD/HBO

or Jeremy Strong, acting is like tennis. It’s also like painting. Other times, it’s a lot like playing guitar. It really depends, at a given moment, on whomever it is he’s quoting.

“Everyone has said things better than me,” Strong insists with a laugh. “I rely on other people’s words, so I’m going to keep quoting things.” While he does cite everyone from Shakespeare to Bob Dylan to Federico García Lorca to Meryl Streep during our hourlong conversation, Strong has plenty to say himself, too—particularly about acting, the layers of consciousness it blends, and its metaphysical demands.

“I’m reading this book right now

by Andre Agassi called ‘Open.’ It’s his autobiography, and it’s basically about how much he hated tennis and how he was locked in this endless mortal combat with this

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thing he couldn’t stop doing, that he was obsessed with doing, but that caused him a lot of psychic pain,” Strong muses. “I wouldn’t say that I hate acting. I have a ton of joy in the creative process. But the idea, to me, is it’s like you get to be a beginner forever. You have to have a beginner’s mind.”

The “beginner’s mind” is a reference, too, to Zen philosophy.

But more on that later. The Agassi autobiography did not end up on Strong’s nightstand by chance. “I’m reading it for the show, because it seemed it could be useful,” the actor says, referring to HBO’s “Succession.” “[Agassi] had a very difficult relationship with his father.” A similar through line can be found on the pitch-black satire about the Roys, a media family of billionaires; each character, including Strong’s Kendall, is in some way vying for the affirmation of ironfisted patriarch Logan (Brian Cox).

Though the Jesse Armstrong– created series—which was mid-production on Season 3 when it was forced to shut down due to the pandemic—is an ensemble showcase in the truest sense, Kendall has become its best argument for a main character, antagonized by demons that could make even those of a tennis champion read like a bedtime story.

Oscillating between helpless and dead-eyed destructive, there’s no wonder why the role just notched Strong his first Emmy nomination for Season 2.

“His needs are so oceanic, and his pain is—there’s, like, a grand canyon of hurt in him,” Strong says. He’s speaking via Zoom from his sunny patio in Los Angeles, where he appears to carry none of the anguish of his onscreen counterpart. “I always thought of myself as a character actor, and those were my heroes—the chameleonic actors who would travel somewhere far from who they are every time they did a role. But Kendall feels like the only way out is through. I have to practice the discipline of moment-to-moment honesty without any disguises.”

Despite Kendall’s mercuriality, Strong maintains that in order to play a person who is endlessly at war with himself, it isn’t necessary for an actor to take a decisive stance on their character’s every motive or purpose. A great

performance instead comes from a visceral connection—or, as Strong once heard someone call it, “your belly mind.”

“Acting is not a theorem that you’re trying to solve. You don’t have to know those answers in an intellectual way,” he says. “You try and connect with the emotional physics of the character: What do they need? How are they in trouble?

In one of the books I read about the Murdochs”—who are, let’s say, an influence on “Succession”—“there was a mention about how tightly James Murdoch would tie his shoes. That was a little detail that honestly gave me so much, that told me something about a tension level in that person.

“What I feel proud of on‘Succession,’ ” he adds, “is that I’ve taken it as far as I know how to go as an actor and as a person, in terms of kind of endangering myself.”

If that sounds life-or-death serious, well, for Strong, it basically is.

But that’s only because acting is and always has been inextricable from his own personhood. When he was a kid in inner-city Boston, a self-proclaimed ham, his mother got him involved in a children’s theater group. Something clicked for him then, and it has kept clicking since. “I was 5, and I must have found it to be an escape and a release and all the things that it still is for me now, but for different reasons,” he says. “As adults, our creative selves and our social selves are pretty separate. And when you’re young, they’re fused.

You’re just present and are an open channel to your imagination

On “Succession”

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and instincts. And then as you get older, the world can muzzle that in different ways.”

As he grew up, Strong continued to do theater, feeling at home in a way that contrasted with the displacement he experienced in other areas of his life. As he explains, “I just had an elemental sense of sanctuary, and whatever I might have to offer, that’s where I wanted to offer it, on that altar.”

He followed acting like a faith all the way to Yale, where he studied theater before switching to English, still performing in plays as frequently as possible.

Eventually, as so many have before and after him, he tried his hand in New York City, where work as a waiter and in hotel room service subsidized what could generously be considered Off-Off-Broadway theater.

Still, his mind was one-track, and he kept knocking on the door even though it appeared bolted shut.

“There were so many years where I’d be in the subway, on the F train, and I’d see someone on the cover of Backstage and I would think, Fuck, man, am I ever going to get a chance to work?” he remembers.

“Am I ever going to get a chance to work at a level that feels exciting and meaningful? Am I ever going to be able to make a living doing this? Every actor is in a wilderness for some amount of time, and it tests your staying power and resolve and foolishness, in a way, because it’s a crazy thing to persist when there’s no evidence around you that suggests it might work out. And I guess something in you just keeps going. Something in me just had to keep going.”

As so rarely happens, things started to work out for Strong.

He amassed a few reputable Off-Broadway credits in the early aughts, and in 2008, he made his Broadway debut in the Roundabout revival of Robert Bolt’s “A Man for All Seasons,” starring opposite Frank Langella. The production coincided with another turning point in the actor’s career: He began working regularly in film, while theater took a back seat. Still, the play’s director, Doug Hughes, gave Strong some of the best advice he’s received to date:

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“You have to forget where you’re going.” Now, whenever you see him on camera—in “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Lincoln,” “The Big Short,” or today on “Succession”—know he fought to be conscious of that with every take of every scene.

The mantra may well have planted Strong’s fascination with the concept of beginner’s mind, which, as he applies it here, is the idea that one can never really know “how” to act.

“People talk about craft, about technique, in a way that makes it sound like these are known quantities, something that someone possesses, and I’ve certainly never felt that way,” he admits. “I wish someone had told me that. I spent many years thinking I was missing something, like some acting chromosome, because I didn’t have a sense of security in terms of, ‘I know how to do this.’ You have to perpetually be a beginner. Every scene, you’re starting from scratch again, and you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

There are, however, some controlled measures you can put in place to preserve your own beginner’s mind. For example, Strong is particularly thoughtful about where and when he reads a script for the first time. That way, “It can imprint itself on you the way it wants, because it will only do that once.” Ultimately, he believes, there has to be a reconciliation of preparedness and continued blankness, of knowing exactly how your character would react while still having no idea how they actually will.

“It’s like you enter into some kind of creative state, and in that moment, all of your preparation and acuity of perception and intuition—hopefully, those things are all firing on all cylinders,” he says. “I have to do so much work and really saturate myself and my unconscious as much as I can through research, through attuning, in blind exploration and through deeply internalizing the material. You can change, almost molecularly, cellularly, who you are. And when all of those things are done, then you can drop all of it and have a beginner’s mind.”

While reading recently, this

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time a book about painting by Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgård, Strong came across a passage that struck him like lightning, and he underlined it, by his estimation, 50 times. “He said that painting cannot merely reconstruct a moment. It must itself be a moment,” he says, relating the idea back to performance.

“It must not exist beforehand, but come into being in the moment it is expressed.”

It’s there that Strong signs off; but with just one last thing to say, he adds a coda via email the following evening. He knows he spoke about acting, specifically on “Succession,” in a way that makes it sound entwined with pain and endangerment. But he hopes to emphasize that in searching for that liminal space, in acting and in life, pain is just the cost of admission.

“That pain is because acting is

still a mystery to me. I love it, need it, am afraid of it; it constantly eludes me, and I think it is always only an imperfect attempt,” he says. “I think the thing that has motivated me is a search for authentic experiences where you go beyond yourself. And acting just happens to be the closest way I know to do that—to go beyond yourself and to, at times, break your own barrier and come upon some form of genuine expression.

“Everything I do is oriented toward that search,” he concludes.

“For the unexpected, authentic moment that comes only when you have prepared the ground in the right way and are giving it everything.”

A version of this story was published in the Aug. 13, 2020 issue of Backstage Magazine.

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Eugene Levy

W Show: “Schitt’s

Creek” Nomination: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

By Benjamin Lindsay | Photographed by Deborah Divine

hen his son, Dan Levy, approached him 10 years ago about co-creating and starring on their own comedy series, Eugene Levy was scared, well, “Schitt’s”-less. He knew his son, by then a popular host for MTV Canada, had the chutzpah to chart his own path in the business—“I would always go up to him and ask if he needed any help, and he always said, ‘No, I’ve pretty much got it,’ ” Levy recalls—but the endeavor still made his heart “pitter-patter.” my career, certainly, having no confidence in myself, so I would try anything I could to not be myself. Changing my appearance was important to me in terms of being a character and trying to get laughs through that character.

“Every time I looked too much like myself,” he continues, “I’d get an uneasy feeling, like, ‘I need something—give me a mustache!’

So, Johnny Rose, it was a big step for me, but a very exciting step.”

Growing up in Hamilton, Ontario, Levy had an early penchant for performance, acting his way through small roles in high school stagings of Shakespeare and more. He also formed a musical folk trio that was eventually absorbed into larger sketch performance pieces for an audience.

“I can’t say I would’ve turned on any casting directors who may have been out there watching,” he admits. “[But] I absolutely loved it.” He kept it up, so much so that during his first year at McMaster University, he started cutting class to spend all his time with the drama club and the McMaster Film Board, a student group led by peer and future collaborator Ivan Reitman.

“Come the end of the year, I

wasn’t going to make my year because I hadn’t been to class,” Levy remembers. “I had to go back to all of my professors and say, ‘Look, I’ve got to be honest with you: I’ve been doing a lot of acting. I haven’t gone to class. Tell me what books I need to read and what I don’t need to read. If you can tell me that, I might be able to get through my finals.’ Half the professors said, ‘OK, don’t read this, don’t do this, only focus on this.’ And the other half, with delight, said, ‘You are in trouble, my friend.’ ” Needless to say, he didn’t accumulate the passing grades he needed. But he returned in the fall with a new head on his shoulders: “I went back and said, ‘No, I’ve got to do this right for my family. I’ve got to make my year.’ The idea of quitting school, dropping out, or failing was just not an option.

So I went back to do it right and got involved in the same stuff: I started doing plays again, I started making movies, I cut classes again.

And that was that.”

Still, the idea of professionally pursuing what had been, until then, a distraction wasn’t taking hold. “With all the stuff I was doing at university, not one time

POP TV

“I put a little pressure on myself to make sure that I tried to come through for him on this, that this project that we [were] working on would actually come to fruition,” he says. On a recent Zoom call from his Los Angeles home, the beloved actor and writer looks back on his years as co-creator, executive producer, and star on “Schitt’s Creek” as a series of firsts.

And it wasn’t just his work becoming a family affair (both Dan and his daughter, Sarah, acted on the Emmy-nominated Pop TV series); it was also his first time playing a straight man to the heightened characters around him, magnified by his first time navigating a sitcom writers’ room. “I’ve never done that,” he says, “and that was scary to me.” You’d think that, nearing his 50th year on camera, the sketch and comedy icon would have seen it all by now. But to hear him tell it, “Schitt’s Creek” was a welcome exercise in continued learning and in exploring parts of himself that he hadn’t allowed with the characters of his past.

“I would say it’s less of a performance—it’s probably closer to me than anything I have done,” Levy says of bringing patriarch Johnny Rose to the screen. “I’ve spent

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did I ever think, ‘Boy, this would be great, to make a living at this!’ ” he says. “Nobody from Hamilton then became an actor. It just wasn’t on the radar.” But after dropping out during his second year at McMaster, Levy was scooped up

by Reitman to P.A. his first feature, “Foxy Lady.” For his second feature, “a little gem called ‘Cannibal Girls,’ ” Reitman promoted Levy to leading man opposite soon-tobe-regular collaborator Andrea Martin, knowing his acting and sketch work in college would serve the improvised horror-comedy well.

“Then, that was it,” Levy concludes. The year was 1972. He and Martin reunited soon thereafter in a “Godspell” residency at Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theatre, which also boasted the talents of friend and McMaster classmate Martin Short, plus Victor Garber and Gilda Radner. When Chicago’s famed Second City comedy troupe set up shop in Toronto, Levy was firmly set on the path of a career entertainer.

“Fortunately for me, these two major productions, ‘Godspell’ coming in from New York and Second City coming in from Chicago, were great things to get into—especially Second City,” he says. “In the world of comedy, that was the best schooling you could’ve had. If you

A With Catherine O’Hara and Annie Murphy on “Schitt’s Creek”

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thought you were funny before, forget it. Learning how to do it and learning the rules and seeing this kind of brilliant comedy on its feet in such an intimate setting as these Second City revue theaters, that was an amazing experience.”

To this day, Levy carries the lessons gleaned during that time into his work.

So what about those “rules” of comedy? Asked to walk through his tricks to character-building, Levy says that comedy works best when you keep it real. It’s a process that has benefited a wide-ranging list of harried, neurotic, oddball men, including roles from any of his twice-Emmy-winning “SCTV” bits; the affably out-of-place dentist of “Waiting for Guffman,” his first of several genre-defining Christopher Guest collaborations; and the cringe-inducing father of “American Pie.” “No matter how broad you want to take your character, you have to make him real,” he explains. “I was never a joke guy. My kind of work had to do with writing a real person and trying to make him funny through his behavior. There are people who are great at jokes, who look at life through a comic prism. Those are your standup comedians; those are people who have to find the humor in everything they do. That’s not me.

I’m just more regular than that, I guess, and I really try to get that humor in through the character work that I do.”

Levy cites his work on “SCTV” and its offshoots through the early ’80s (on which he and his “Schitt’s Creek” wife, Catherine O’Hara, worked together onscreen for the first time), where even the broadest sketches were populated by men and women reacting as they naturally would in their given circumstances.

“Nothing was ever done tonguein-cheek; you never stepped outside your character to get a laugh,” Levy says. “Everything had to be organic within the character, and that’s just the kind of comedy I’ve always been attracted to. You have to have the audience emotionally involved, no matter what it is or how broad it is. If you can do that, if you can hook the audience

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and have them care about your character, then you have the option of going a lot of different ways with how you want to tell a story, or how funny or not funny you want to be. You can create the kind of comedy that has such an emotional underbelly to it that you make the audience feel things they never thought they would.”

For years, Levy has been able to tap into that “underbelly” as a consummate supporting and bit actor on cult-classic indies and studio comedy tentpoles alike. While honoring Tom Hanks in 2002 at the American Film Institute’s 30th Life Achievement honors, Levy wryly noted that he had learned a lot while working with the Oscar winner on Ron Howard’s “Splash” 18 years earlier. “I learned the importance of controlling your eyebrows,” he quipped, before adding, “I learned that I probably don’t

have the physical attributes to be a Tom Hanks kind of leading man— unless the film industry flourished in Turkey.”

Speaking about his résumé today, Levy’s outlook remains the same: “Listen, my career—I’ve loved just about everything I was involved with,” he says. “My job usually was to come in for a few scenes in a movie, get your laughs, and get out, and that was great!

I didn’t have to carry anything; I didn’t have to carry any exposition.

My job was just to come in, bop, bop, bop—two, three, four scenes.

That was it.”

That is exactly, however, why his heart started pitter-pattering when his son proposed “Schitt’s Creek” and Johnny Rose came to fruition as a video store tycoon who takes a financial nosedive.

Flanked by a family of disastrously ill-equipped one-percenters—his

fussy fashionista son, David (Dan Levy), his globe-trotting “it girl” daughter, Alexis (Annie Murphy), and his wig-wearing soap diva wife, Moira (O’Hara)—it became clear that Johnny, while also in over his head after being forced to move to the titular town, would have to be their steady center.

Levy, for his part, believes that every successful half-hour thrives on the strength of its straight man.

“You had to have one character that makes sure the story moves forward,” he says, pointing to the likes of Jack Benny, Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, and Jerry Seinfeld. “So the idea of playing Johnny Rose as the straight guy I found very exciting because I’d never done it, and I liked the fact that I was this grounding force in the show [who] let everybody else do their thing.”

Of course, the success of “Schitt’s Creek” speaks for itself. After wrapping its sixth and final season last April, it’s been nominated for 15 Emmy Awards going into the 72nd annual ceremony on Sept. 20, including for comedy series and all four major acting categories. The cast has maintained that they finished the story as they wanted to, but that doesn’t mean a tear or two wasn’t shed; in the post-mortem behind-the-scenes documentary “Best Wishes, Warmest Regards: A ‘Schitt’s Creek’ Farewell,” Levy is shown getting misty in the shadows as an emotional scene wraps.

To quote Murphy shortly thereafter: “A sad Eugene Levy—that’s a heartbreaker.”

“It’s the most special—I love everything about ‘Schitt’s Creek,’ ” Levy says, looking back on the series and ahead to the future.

“I’m proud of a lot of things in my career, but this, for so many reasons, I’m proud of. I’m glad I was able to be a part of a quality show at this point in my career. And more than that, I’m glad I had something to do with getting it off the ground.

“Going into work every day, you just loved it. Is that going to happen again? I don’t know. But I’m glad it did.”

A version of this story was originally published in the Aug. 27, 2020 issue of Backstage Magazine.

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