PRESENTS AUGUST 16, 2017 EMMY NOMINEES / PART 2
The Curiosity of
NICOLE KIDMAN
As she rides high on the success of one of the most prolific periods in her life, the Emmy-nominated star of Big Little Lies reflects on her art and appetites.
Ron CEPHAS JONES Milo VENTIMIGLIA Anthony ANDERSON Samantha BEE Claire FOY Thandie NEWTON Gordon RAMSAY DEADLINE.COM/AWARDSLINE
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Kathryn HAHN
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7
EMMY NOMINATIONS ®
OUTSTANDING
VARIETY TALK SERIES
OUTSTANDING
VARIETY SPECIAL
OUTSTANDING
WRITING FOR A VARIETY SERIES
OUTSTANDING
WRITING FOR A VARIETY SPECIAL
OUTSTANDING
DIRECTING FOR A VARIETY SPECIAL
OUTSTANDING
PRODUCTION DESIGN FOR A VARIETY, NONFICTION, EVENT OR AWARD SPECIAL
OUTSTANDING
INTERACTIVE PROGRAM
TM & © 2017 Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.
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PRESENTS
G EN ERA L MA NAG E R & C HI EF R EV ENUE O FFICE R
Stacey Farish EDI TOR
Joe Utichi C R EAT I V E DIR ECTO R
Craig Edwards
AS S I STA N T E D ITO R
Matt Grobar
DEA DL I NE CO - E D ITO RS - IN- CHIE F
Nellie Andreeva Mike Fleming Jr.
AWA R DS ED ITO R & CO LUM NIST
Pete Hammond
DEA DL I NE CO NTR IBUTO RS
Peter Bart Anita Busch Anthony D’Alessandro Greg Evans Lisa de Moraes Patrick Hipes David Lieberman Diana Lodderhose Amanda N’Duka Dominic Patten Erik Pedersen Denise Petski Dino-Ray Ramos David Robb Nancy Tartaglione V I DEO P ROD UCE RS
David Janove Andrew Merrill
C HA I R MA N & CEO
Jay Penske
V I C E C HA I RM A N
Gerry Byrne
C HI EF OP ERATING O FFICE R
George Grobar
EX EC U T I V E V ICE PR ES ID E NT, B U S I NES S A FFA IRS A ND G ENERA L CO UNS E L
Todd Greene
EX EC U T I V E V ICE PR ES ID E NT, B U S I NES S D EV E LO PM E NT
Craig Perreault
S EN I OR V I C E PR ES ID E NT, FINA NCE
Ken DelAlcazar
V I C E P R ES ID E NT, CR EATIV E
Nelson Anderson
V I C E P R ES ID E NT, TV
Laura Lubrano
V I C E P R ES ID E NT, FILM
Carra Fenton
S EN I OR ACCO UNT EXECUTIV ES , T EL EV I S I ON
Brianna Hamburger Tiffany Windju ACCOU N T MA NAGE R
London Sanders
A D SA L ES CO O R D INATO RS
Kristina Mazzeo Malik Simmons
4-8
FIRST TAKE Bob Odenkirk’s Saul success
Designing Feud Aging the stars of This Is Us
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COVER STORY Nicole Kidman on her brilliant year on screens big and small and what’s still to come
18
FEATURE Noah Hawley’s Fargo goes from strength to strength
22
THE DIALOGUE: EMMY NOMINEES Ron Cephas Jones Milo Ventimiglia Anthony Anderson Samantha Bee & Jo Miller Claire Foy Thandie Newton Gordon Ramsay Kathryn Hahn
30
EMMY HANDICAPS Pete Hammond makes his picks in the top races
34
FLASH MOB Evenings with Better Call Saul & Feud: Bette and Joan
P RODU CT I ON M A NAG E R
Andrea Wynnyk
DI ST R I B U T IO N D IR ECTO R
Michael Petre
A DV ERT I S I N G INQ UIR IES
Stacey Farish
S FA R I S H@ PM C.CO M 3 1 0 -4 8 4 - 2 553
FOLLOW US: FAC EBOOK
f facebook.com/deadlinehollywood l @Deadline TWITTE R
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ON THE COVER Nicole Kidman photographed for Deadline by Josh Telles ON THIS PAGE Samantha Bee photographed for Deadline by Drew Wiedemann
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Feud’s Lavish Production Design p. 8 | Aging Actors For This Is Us
p. 8
|
Plus:
Gold Derby’s Emmy Odds
JUDGE
and Jury
As Jimmy McGill slips into Saul Goodman, Bob Odenkirk examines his own conflicted sense of identity BY MATT GROBAR
IN SEASON 3 OF AMC’S BETTER CALL SAUL, Bob Odenkirk’s “Slippin’” Jimmy McGill continues burning his bridges—as his broken brother Chuck (Michael McKean) self-immolates—setting the Albuquerque attorney further down his crooked, predestined path. He is now on steady course to becoming the sleazily cunning, bottom-dwelling lawyer—“Saul Goodman”— that we first met in Breaking Bad. But in Better Call Saul, still, we see the reticence with which Jimmy is walking that road. Where Walter White was often frighteningly willing to transform himself into
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PHOTOGRAPH BY
Michael Buckner
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F O R YO U R E M M Y C O N S I D E R AT I O N ®
4 NOMINATIONS
OUTSTANDING TELEVISION MOVIE OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE ROBERT DE NIRO OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MICHELLE PFEIFFER OUTSTANDING CASTING FOR A LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR SPECIAL
CAPTIVATING
“
”
- THE BOSTON GLOBE
©2017 Home Box Office, Inc. All rights reserved. HBO ® and related channels and service marks are the property of Home Box Office, Inc.
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for Episode 7—“Expenses”—featuring a breakdown scene for Jimmy full of “absolute sorrow”. “There’s a fairly pure comedy sequence with the film crew, and the commercial I’m trying to make for the music store,” he says. “My interactions with the film crew are really fun, really silly, and verge very close to the comedy I’ve done in my sketch comedy world.” He jokes that there might also have been a more strategic aspect to this selection. “Any other episode I would have chosen, Michael McKean kicks the ass of pretty much everybody on screen, including me—so if I submitted any other episode, I don’t know what they would do… ‘Why would we give this guy an Emmy when that guy, Michael McKean, is slaughtering everything in his path with the best acting I’ve ever been close to?’” Heisenberg, we’re never quite sure
storytelling, balancing the story
whether Jimmy can’t or won’t stop
progression and the arcs, discover-
line, script by script, Odenkirk found
himself from tumbling toward Saul.
ing motivations for the characters
out about the season’s pivotal
It’s not hard to wonder whether
With his tendency to toe a direct
that weren’t there initially, and
scene—Chuck’s determined self-
Bob Odenkirk relates to Jimmy’s
making everything play honestly and
destruction—only a week and a half
struggles with identity. After all, the
organically.”
before shooting the series finale, and
work he has become best known
When it comes to Better Call Saul,
from Michael McKean himself.
for is becoming increasingly distant
Odenkirk identifies more as a viewer
“In the course of this season, the
from the comedy writing that
than as its leading man. “I leave [the
plot has progressed and taken some
defined his career since the early
writers] alone as much as possible,”
big leaps forward,” Odenkirk says. “As
’90s, through work on the likes of
he says. “I like the fact that I don’t
a viewer and a fan of the story, I am
The Ben Stiller Show, Saturday Night
know where we’re headed. I like
as excited about those progressions
Live and Mr. Show.
playing the person, and playing the
as anybody. But then when they
With five Emmy nominations for Better Call Saul at his back, Odenkirk has had to reexamine his drives
moment, without a sense of where it’s going to go next.” Stopping in the writers’ room
come, there’s a huge wealth of sadBREAKING GOODMAN Bob Odenkirk in Better Call Saul (main image, with Rhea Seahorn).
ness that accompanies them.” At Season 3’s end, Odenkirk
an artist. Has there been a change
once or twice a season, the actor
in self-perception as Saul Good-
will occasionally ask questions,
man—and then Jimmy—became
to ground himself with only the
no uncertainty there, that these two
singular character, but also the
household names? “Yes, but I speak
information essential to doing his
are having a full-blooded relation-
loss of the Jimmy he knew. “In the
with great humility,” Odenkirk says. “I
job. Sometimes, he asks for clarity;
ship. There are so many ways you
case of Jimmy, there’s the feeling of
think you’d be crazy to not read the
sometimes, he makes a request, but
can make that clear without having
his humanity being stepped on, or
tea leaves, as it were, and see that
only as a fan of the show.
to do a porno.”
thrown away by his own volition. I
on some level, I’m connecting, and
“One thing I said is, ‘There’s an
mourned not only the loss of a terrific onscreen collaborator and
For their part, Gilligan and Gould
think this was the year we really saw
I’m able to be effective in this realm
element of Kim and Jimmy where
are more than happy to offer up
Saul Goodman. I don’t know what
of dramatic performance.”
people aren’t sure how physical
what they can. “The only problem
happens next, but I think he’s more
their relationship is. I think it’s on a
they would have is they do discover
than halfway there.”
Peter Gould for nearly a decade,
completely physical dimension, and
the show as they tell it. Things do
Odenkirk has come to appreciate
I think we need to land that with
change, and fairly drastically, even as
have been may be gone, Odenkirk
the creative possibilities of drama
the audience,’” Odenkirk says, of his
they write the ninth and 10th shows.
prefers to reserve judgment when it
and the intense labors of those who
subtle onscreen romance with Rhea
They are totally willing to share the
comes to his own arc. “Look, I take it
work within it. “I’ve never written
Seehorn’s more ethically-inclined
outlines with me. I’ve never asked for
all very seriously, but still—just as a
drama, really,” he explains, noting
attorney. “That doesn’t mean that
them, and I don’t want to read them.
fallback in my own mind—the way I
two more dramatic adaptations in
I’m asking for a naked scene with
I don’t want to know.”
see myself is very much as a writer.
his past, the exception to the rule.
Rhea—it does not mean that. It just
“I really respect the long-form TV
means that I think there should be
Working with Vince Gilligan and
6
Tellingly, when selecting his Emmy episode this season, the actor went
While the Jimmy that could
Maybe I’m wrong,” the actor says. “Just maybe I’m wrong.” ★
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“2016’S MOST LIFE-AFFIRMING PIECE OF TELEVISION.”
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CHARTED TERRITORY
Gold Derby’s Emmy Odds At press time, here is how Gold Derby’s experts ranked the Emmy chances in the Comedy Series, Drama Series, Limited Series, and TV Movie races. Get up-to-date rankings and make your own predictions at GoldDerby.com
LAP OF Luxury Feud production designer Judy Becker explains her approach to the period piece.
WITH FEUD, HER FIRST TELEVISION SERIES,
a contemporary audience, expanding the living
production designer Judy Becker knocked it
spaces of Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Hedda
out of the park, assisting creator Ryan Murphy
Hopper and others to convey Hollywood luxury as
in his meticulously faithful recreation of 1960s
it is understood today.
Hollywood, in all its glamour and gut-wrenching
“The way Joan Crawford lived was very lav-
drama—a process which Becker found “creatively
ish for people of her time, but it wouldn’t come
rejuvenating”.
across that way to a contemporary audience,”
Having tackled several starry period produc-
the production designer explains. “I saw her real
tions in recent years, Becker begins her work on
house—we shot very close to it. It would look small
such a production with a simple mantra: “It’s
by today’s standards, for the way people live now.”
always good to start with what was real.” Staying extremely close to reality for most of
“We amped up the size, we amped up the glamour a bit, so that to an audience watching
Feud’s first installment—even shooting the 1963
it, you get the idea of how glamorous it would
Oscars episode at the award show’s original loca-
have seemed to the people of her time,” she
tion, the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, with a
continues. “She was a big, glamorous movie star,
few adjustments—Becker did take some artistic
and we wanted people now to see that about
license when it came to translating the story for
her.” –Matt Grobar
HAYDAY
makeup for stars Mandy Moore and Jon Huertas.
This Is Us makeup designer Zoe Hay on the art of understated aging
“Our camera department loves to do a lot of forehead-to-chin close-ups, which is very tight on HD, so we wanted to make sure
IF YOU WANT A SHOT AT PREDICTING NEXT YEAR’S EMMY
that we were working with pieces THE TIMELINE JUMP Aging Mandy Moore’s Rebecca
that would hold up to scrutiny,”
upcoming credits. After all, the
another runaway success looking
small pieces that allow as much of
makeup department head spent
to score big come September: This
the actor’s face in there, only add-
last year working with Ryan Mur-
is Us. Hay knows how to pick ‘em.
ing dimension where needed.”
RACE, keep an eye on Zoe Hay’s
Hay explains. “We came up with
phy on Emmy phenom The People
As intimate as any show on
Developed alongside Stevie
v. O.J. Simpson (which earned her
television, This is Us was nonethe-
Bettles, these pieces go on “almost
a nod), and this year she’s been
less sprawling, spanning several
like a sticker,” while the edges
hanging with Dan Fogelman on
timelines and requiring aging
“blend off seamlessly into the skin.”
8
OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES
ODDS
1
Veep
2/3
2
Atlanta
19/10
3
Master of None
50/1
4
Black-ish
66/1
5
Silicon Valley
80/1
OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES
ODDS
1
The Handmaid’s Tale
13/5
2
Stranger Things
27/10
3
The Crown
4/1
4
This Is Us
4/1
5
Westworld
66/1
OUTSTANDING LIMITED SERIES
ODDS
1
Big Little Lies
2/3
2
Feud: Bette and Joan
15/8
3
The Night Of
40/1
4
Fargo
66/1
5
Genius
80/1
OUTSTANDING TELEVISION MOVIE
ODDS
1
Black Mirror
5/6
2
The Wizard of Lies
7/2
3
Sherlock: The Lying Detective
11/2
4
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
11/1
5
Christmas of Many Colors
100/1
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FOR YOUR
EMMY CONSIDERATION ®
LIEV SCHREIBER
WILLIAM H. MACY
RAY DONOVAN
SHAMELESS
OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A DRAMA SERIES
HOMELAND
OUTSTANDING SOUND EDITING FOR A SERIES
AMERICA FIRST
CRAIG A. DELLINGER , SOUND SUPERVISOR RYNE GIERKE , DIALOGUE EDITOR ERIC RABER , SOUND EFFECTS EDITOR SHAWN KENNELLY , FOLEY EDITOR JEFF CHARBONNEAU , MUSIC EDITOR MELISSA KENNELLY , FOLEY ARTIST VINCE NICASTRO , FOLEY ARTIST
MASTERS OF SEX
OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION DESIGN FOR A NARRATIVE PERIOD PROGRAM (ONE HOUR OR MORE) FREEFALL • INVENTORY • THE PLEASURE PROTOCOL ELIZABETH H. GRAY , PRODUCTION DESIGNER SAMANTHA ENGLENDER , ART DIRECTOR HALINA SIWOLOP , SET DECORATOR
SHAMELESS
OUTSTANDING STUNT COORDINATION FOR A COMEDY SERIES OR VARIETY PROGRAM
EDDIE PEREZ , STUNT COORDINATOR
MANDY PATINKIN
HANK AZARIA
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
STEPHEN COLBERT’S LIVE ELECTION NIGHT SPECIAL
OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
HOMELAND
OUTSTANDING VARIETY SPECIAL
RAY DONOVAN
HOMELAND LESLI LINKA GLATTER
PENNY DREADFUL
OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION DESIGN FOR A NARRATIVE CONTEMPORARY OR FANTASY PROGRAM (ONE HOUR OR MORE)
PERPETUAL NIGHT • THE BLESSED DARK JONATHAN MƜKINSTRY , PRODUCTION DESIGNER JO RIDDELL , ART DIRECTOR PHILIP MURPHY , SET DECORATOR
OUTSTANDING HAIRSTYLING FOR A SINGLE-CAMERA SERIES EBB TIDE
LUCA VANELLA , HAIR DESIGNER ALEXIS CONTINENTE , HAIRSTYLIST SEVLENE RODDY , HAIRSTYLIST JOSEPH WHELAN , HAIRSTYLIST ORLA CARROLL , PERSONAL HAIRSTYLIST OUTSTANDING MAKEUP FOR A SINGLECAMERA SERIES (NON-PROSTHETIC) PERPETUAL NIGHT
ENZO MASTRANTONIO , MAKEUP DESIGNER CLARE LAMBE , KEY MAKEUP ARTIST CATERINA SISTO , MAKEUP ARTIST LORRAINE MƜCRANN , MAKEUP ARTIST MORNA FERGUSON , PERSONAL MAKEUP ARTIST
OUTSTANDING PROSTHETIC MAKEUP FOR A SERIES, LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR SPECIAL
AMERICA FIRST
STEPHEN COLBERT’S LIVE ELECTION NIGHT DEMOCRACY’S SERIES FINALE: WHO’S GOING TO CLEAN UP THIS SH*T? OUTSTANDING VARIETY SPECIAL
STEPHEN COLBERT , EXECUTIVE PRODUCER CHRIS LICHT , EXECUTIVE PRODUCER TOM PURCELL , EXECUTIVE PRODUCER JON STEWART , EXECUTIVE PRODUCER BARRY JULIEN , CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCER DENISE REHRIG , SR. SUPERVISING PRODUCER TANYA MICHNEVICH BRACCO , SUPERVISING PRODUCER
PAUL DINELLO , SUPERVISING PRODUCER MATT LAPPIN , SUPERVISING PRODUCER LIZ LEVIN , SUPERVISING PRODUCER OPUS MORESCHI , SUPERVISING PRODUCER PAIGE KENDIG , PRODUCER OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A VARIETY SPECIAL JIM HOSKINSON , DIRECTED BY
OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A VARIETY SPECIAL JAY KATSIR , HEAD WRITER OPUS MORESCHI , HEAD WRITER STEPHEN COLBERT , WRITER MICHAEL BRUMM , WRITER NATE CHARNY , WRITER AARON COHEN , WRITER CULLEN CRAWFORD , WRITER PAUL DINELLO , WRITER ROB DUBBIN , WRITER ARIEL DUMAS , WRITER GLENN EICHLER , WRITER DJANGO GOLD , WRITER GABE GRONLI , WRITER BARRY JULIEN , WRITER DANIEL KIBBLESMITH , WRITER MATT LAPPIN , WRITER MICHAEL PIELOCIK , WRITER TOM PURCELL , WRITER KATE SIDLEY , WRITER JEN SPYRA , WRITER BRIAN STACK , WRITER JOHN THIBODEAUX , WRITER
NO BEAST SO FIERCE
NICK DUDMAN , PROSTHETIC MAKEUP DESIGNER
SARITA ALLISON , KEY PROSTHETIC MAKEUP ARTIST
BARNEY NIKOLIC , PROSTHETIC MAKEUP ARTIST
DENNIS PENKOV , PROSTHETIC DESIGNER
©2017 Showtime Networks Inc. All rights reserved. SHOWTIME is a registered trademark of Showtime Networks Inc., a CBS Company. Emmy® is a registered trademark of the Television Academy and NATAS. “Penny Dreadful,” “Ray Donovan” & “Stephen Colbert’s Live Election Night Democracy’s Series Finale”: ©Showtime Networks Inc. All rights reserved. “Homeland”: ©Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved. “Shameless”: ©Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved. “Masters of Sex”: ©Sony Pictures Television and Showtime Networks Inc. All rights reserved.
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THE CURIOSITY OF KIDMAN 10
After a career lived in front of the camera, Nicole Kidman finds herself, in 2017, a master of her art, turning her attention to shepherding untold stories, challenging easy presumptions and nurturing her family life, writes Joe Utichi.
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REMEMBER THE GLOW OF THOSE EARLY SUMMER DAYS WHEN RESTLESSNESS called to you beyond the school gates? Recall those days, full of experiences that defined your youth, bathed in the magic hour sunset of memory. Perhaps, like Nicole Kidman, you ducked into a theater and saw a film you shouldn’t have seen. One that taught you something about the world around you, spoke to the teenage rebel in your heart and introduced you to the possibility of this strange, dark room, with its flickering shadows on the wall.
“I didn’t know quite what I was walking into,” says Kidman, of the time her 14-year-old self skipped class and, still in school uniform, slipped into the seat of an inner Sydney arthouse to watch Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. “We’d done the book in school, so I knew in that sense what it was, but I didn’t know the film version. I remember being startled.” As the synth strains of the film’s classical soundtrack started to play, Kidman became enthralled by what the film was doing to her. “I think that’s when I discovered the power of the director. I wasn’t yet a massive Kubrick fan or anything. I was a Vivien Leigh fan, and a Marlon Brando fan, and I’d go and see European films like Betty Blue; off-beat French films that were embraced in Australia. But the way [Kubrick] was able to grasp ideas and images and music… that’s when I went, ‘Oh, so this is what a director does.’” Kidman has spent the life that followed that screening prodding and poking at the possibility she saw in that moment. “I love being able to move into these different directors’ worlds and somehow explore with them,” she says. “That’s what I’m interested in: to be molded or shaped, and find different parts of my artistic expression that haven’t come out yet.” It is writ large today in every choice she makes, and in every role she plays. She may not have become a director herself, but she has worked with the best of them. Sofia Coppola, Gus Van Sant, Jane Campion, Lars von Trier and, yes, Stanley Kubrick. “I felt I was on a mission to work with him,” she says. “It seemed to be somehow destined.” On which, more later. Because there is much to discuss with Nicole Kidman in 2017. It is just the latest of a string of anni mirabiles for the
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actress and producer, this time consisting of an
day, both the first series and the second. She gave
unbroken run of work that began with HBO’s Big
a shit.”
Little Lies in February, and continued with three
’90s, first in Australia where she starred in films like
Girls at Parties, Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Killing of a
BMX Bandits and Dead Calm, and then in Hollywood
Sacred Deer and Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled—and
with Days of Thunder, Far and Away and Batman
another TV show, Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake:
Forever. By the time of Van Sant’s To Die For and
China Girl, at the Cannes Film Festival. It will end
Campion’s The Portrait of a Lady, Kidman was
with one more movie, Neil Burger’s The Upside,
already using her newfound profile to satisfy the
premiering in the fall. This, off the back of her fourth
rebel spirit she took from that screening of A Clock-
Oscar nomination for her role in Garth Davis’s Lion
work Orange, and it wouldn’t be long before she was
last year. For their part, it seems, directors can’t get
led to Kubrick himself, and Eyes Wide Shut.
enough of working with Kidman either. “She’s a unique talent,” Coppola says. “She
Kubrick knew what he was doing when he cast the hottest celebrity couple of the day, Kidman and
brings so much more to the role [in The Beguiled]
Tom Cruise, in his dark examination of marriage.
than I could have imagined. She brings an energy
And Kidman knew what she was signing up for, well
to the set for everyone to do their best. She really
aware that the press would project the movie’s
thinks everything through, [and] you get the feeling
content onto her relationship with Cruise. A similar
that she wants to help the director get what they
fearlessness exists in choices like Jonathan Glazer’s
want in every sense.”
Birth, in which Kidman plays a woman whose dead
Kidman’s artistic curiosity manifests in this kind
husband has been somehow resurrected into
of steadfast commitment to the part and the team,
the body of a 10-year-old boy. And even in Moulin
her collaborators say. “I’ve worked with a lot of
Rouge!, which called on Kidman to sing profession-
actors, and you can tell when it matters to some-
ally for the first time, and played on the image of her
body and when it doesn’t,” says Elisabeth Moss,
as a kind of untouchable demigoddess.
Kidman’s co-star in Top of the Lake. “You could just MOTH TO A FLAME Left: Kidman in Yorgos Lanthimos's The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Above: in The Beguiled (left) and as Celeste on HBO's Big Little Lies.
Kidman ascended quickly in the ’80s and early
films—John Cameron Mitchell’s How to Talk To
In fact, the Kidman I meet at the London Hotel
tell that this mattered to her. She wasn’t 100%
in West Hollywood one summer afternoon is far
confident all of the time. She wasn’t, like, ‘I’m Nicole
removed from notions the tabloid press has spent
Kidman and I’m going to be amazing.’ She cared and
decades selling. With her stately carriage, ice blue
she took her time with it, which meant a lot to me
eyes and porcelain skin, the red carpet image
as a person who had worked on this almost every
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distance from the experiences of the average
piece of filmmaking that people have strong ideas
person. But that fiction is too easy—a by-product of
about. I love that. I’m so glad to be in those films,
a celebrity-obsessed culture that too often serves
and I want to support the filmmakers that make
to denigrate and underestimate talented women.
them. I don’t want to be scared or shy or worried.
The reality is much more down to earth, of a curious,
The idea of not having limitations or boundaries
oftentimes geeky film obsessive who loves her work
is important to me. And maybe that’s not the
and the human collaborations that come with it.
healthiest thing, but I’m not here to be healthy. I
And there is rarely anything inhuman about the characters Kidman plays. They are born of compassion and emotion. Kidman’s well is deep, and her
don’t approach things from that safe place. I’m not interested in it.” That has never been truer than in Big Little Lies,
willingness to bring her own truth to the screen
in which Kidman plays Celeste, a suburban mother
suggests she has very little to hide.
living in the well-heeled paradise of Monterey,
“I’ve been in probably some of the most divisive
CA. As director Jean-Marc Vallée weaves David E.
films there have been,” she says, like Sacred Deer,
Kelley's adaptation of Liane Moriarty's novel around
which split the Croisette. “That’s a very powerful
a murder and a town on edge—and as we are trying
“I love being able to move into these different directors’ worlds and somehow explore with them. That’s what I’m interested in: to be molded or shaped, and find different parts of my artistic expression that haven’t come out yet.”
to work out not just who the killer is, but who the victim was—his camera alights on Celeste while she is forced to come to torturous conclusions about the way she is being treated by her husband, Perry (Alexander Skarsgård). “It was the hardest character to work on,” Kidman says. “Virginia Woolf [in The Hours, for which she won an Oscar] too, but I almost got to give that up, in a way, because I walked into the river in the end. But for Celeste there wasn’t an end.” Celeste came with raw physical and emotional baggage that followed Kidman off the set. “A lot of that was brought home with me,” she admits. “I went home crying. I was lucky to have a partner that would put his arms around me and hold me, because I would cry and I would be physically in pain, and he was like, ‘What is going on on that set?’ He would see the bruises and be aghast. But he’s also an artist, so he gets it and he’s willing to support me. That, for me, is an extraordinary act of love. To step back and just let me do the work.” Of course Vallée and his crew worked hard to keep Kidman and Skarsgård safe. “We had a double when it was really violent,” Vallée says. “But the double would often do the first take. Nicole would be watching, and she would take over on take two, learning from the double.” Real women in Celeste’s position suffer much worse, Kidman reasoned. And she has been overwhelmed by the response she has had to
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I’ve got to stop this, and I’ll stop it now.’ That, to me, was Celeste finding her strength, even if it is not for herself, which is the saddest thing. It breaks my heart.” “[Nicole] was completely, wholly given to this process,” says her Big Little Lies co-star Reese Witherspoon. “The deep way she analyses material, reads so thoughtfully, and thinks so comprehensively—not just about her character, but about the entire journey of every single character in the piece—was such a gift to the production. She just gave me incredible courage, and that’s the mark of a really great actor; [someone] who can give another actor the courage to do something that they don’t feel comfortable with.” In 2017, it hurts to admit that Big Little Lies is unusual, but it is. Based on source material written by a woman, it is co-produced by Witherspoon and Kidman through their respective production companies, Pacific Standard and Blossom Films, and stars perhaps the most female ensemble on television today, including Laura Dern, Shailene Woodley and Zoë Kravitz. A friend of Witherspoon’s handed the manuscript to her and her producing partner, Bruna Papandrea, before it was published. Kidman was their first call, perhaps because Moriarty’s novel, Truly Madly Guilty, was set in Australia rather than Monterey. “Nicole happened to be in Sydney, and Liane was living there,” recalls Witherspoon. “She went and closed the deal, and got the option. It was Celeste’s struggle, from women who know that life. Big Little Lies is her first TV series since Bangkok
“Liane was being pursued by numerous studios
Hilton, the Australian show she made early into her
and networks,” adds Per Saari, Kidman’s producing
career. “Telling a story in someone’s living room,
partner in Blossom Films. “It was a highly competi-
where they’re sitting intimately close up, watching
tive situation. Nearly every one of Liane’s books had
it… that’s a different way of reaching people,” she
yielded enormous book deals, but none of them had
says. “The reaction has been intense, and some-
gotten made. Nicole met her at a cafe in Sydney
times very sad, and I feel responsibility to people
and proposed a very persuasive offer. Nicole said
too. So many people either know someone who has
she would make sure Liane’s book got made into a
lived this or have lived it themselves. It is insidious, is
series, but in return Liane had to, then and there, let
what it is.”
Blossom and Pacific Standard run exclusively with
And yet she frets about a subset of reaction that
the rights. Liane countered that she would agree
has asked, “Why didn’t Celeste leave right away?”
to that, but only if Nicole played Celeste. The series
For a long time, Celeste is convinced that separat-
was on air within two-and-a-half years, which is
ing from Perry would be detrimental to their two
warp-speed for book-to-screen adaptations.”
sons, and as long as she is the sole victim, keeping
“We make decisions quickly, Reese and I,”
her children happy is her priority. “Maybe I didn’t
Kidman says. “It was one of those perfect storms
do justice to that,” Kidman demurs. “But that’s the
where everything comes together. This kind of had
nature of abuse, isn’t it? I can tell you why Celeste
its own life. It made its own way.”
doesn’t leave, and I would hope now a lot of people could tell you why she doesn’t.” Indeed, the real tragedy of Celeste’s story, and
LADY SINGS THE BLUES Left: Kidman with Richard Roxburgh in Moulin Rouge! Above, clockwise from left: with Sunny Pawar in Lion; The Blue Room on the London stage; The Portrait of a Lady; Dead Calm; Birth.
a one-two attack.”
This is especially unusual for a project with so little precedent. “I’m normally the only woman in the cast,” admits Witherspoon, “so to have an experi-
why it resonates so strongly, is that it is all too easy
ence where I’m looking across at four incredibly
to diminish oneself in service of a greater notion
talented actresses and calling on them to help
of happiness, whether or not that notion truly
me for my performance, it’s a gift I’ve never had
exists. “In the end, I believe Celeste really is leaving,”
in my entire career. I feel really proud of the fact
Kidman says. “She thought the boys were protected
that Nicole and I worked really hard to make that
and then she found out they weren’t; that it was
happen.”
manifesting in a way that meant the pattern would
Saari says he and Kidman founded Blossom
continue. Her love for her boys was her saying, ‘No,
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RANGER Above, from left: with Tom Cruise in Far and Away; Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut; How to Talk to Girls at Parties. RIght, clockwise from top: To Die For; Batman Forever; The Hours.
writers with interesting things to say about the world”.
directed Kidman on the London stage in 2015, says he
It is formed in the image of many actor-led produc-
believes a side-effect of Eyes Wide Shut’s protracted
tion companies today. Where once, actors might have
production—and the fact that, while Cruise worked
become producers solely in order to find themselves
most days, Kidman had more time off—was that it gave
the juiciest roles to support their acting careers, today
Kidman an opportunity to fall in love with West End
Blossom, Pacific Standard, and others like Brad Pitt’s
theatre. It wasn’t long after Eyes Wide Shut that she
Plan B and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way, are most
made her well-regarded London stage debut in the Sam
interested in supporting the sort of projects studios
Mendes-directed The Blue Room. It would be 17 years
aren’t offering, with or without starring roles for their
before she returned in the Grandage-directed Photo-
famous founders. “We don’t gravitate to stories
graph 51. “She used the rehearsal process to get match-
because they are easy or popular,” Saari insists, “but
fit,” Grandage recalls. “She’s pretty remarkable, but it’s
because they shed some light on parts of the world that
not by fluke. It’s by an applied, serious approach.”
need exploring.” Kidman’s quest for understanding continues, even though she knows there is no end game here. “You
role in the discovery and understanding of DNA, even as
always think, ‘Ah, I could have done better,’” she admits. “I
the male-dominated field in which she worked kept her
think every filmmaker will tell you it has to be ripped out
from the credit she deserved for her work. And bringing
of their hands. I’ve never heard the word ‘perfect’ from
the play to life was joyous. “The rehearsal process was
anybody that’s very talented. It’s why I could have stayed
so great,” Kidman says, “because we were just in a
with Stanley [Kubrick] for five years. Never come back.”
church hall. It brought me back to being in Sydney doing
In fact, when she made Eyes Wide Shut with Kubrick—his final feature—she and Cruise spent two
theatre. No one has any money, so you’re just doing the show for 10 people in a church hall.”
years in the UK. “Six months of that was just rehears-
But it took work. “Stepping onto the West End
ing,” she recalls. “But I look back at that and go, ‘Thank
stage with a new play, having not been on stage for 17
God I had this slightly zen approach to things.’ Because I
years… I realized I hadn’t thought through all that. I had
was married and I had my kids there. It wasn’t like I was
a moment where I went, ‘What was I thinking?’ Midway
rushing to get finished, to get somewhere else. I was
through rehearsal they said, ‘We’ve got to do some press
there, with Stanley, and I didn’t care. Whatever.”
to sell tickets,’ and I’m thinking, ‘Sell tickets? I haven’t
I tell Kidman I feel Kubrick is misunderstood; that
even considered selling tickets.’ I was approaching it like
when the people that knew him talk about him, they say
a kid in drama school going, ‘Yeah, this’ll be fun to try.’
very different things from the critics who have judged
But if I can keep that approach, that’s the way to do it.”
his work. She agrees. “He was mischievous. Provocative.
She wants to return to the stage and says Photo-
Funny. He had a great wit and he was a philosopher,
graph 51 will transfer to Broadway. “We just haven’t
but he was never preachy. It was always coming from a
set the exact day.” Things are harder than they once
place of curiosity and questioning and exploration.”
were. Logistics. Kidman’s life is in Nashville, TN, with her
Perhaps Kubrick’s lessons have fueled Kidman’s approach in the years since. Michael Grandage, who
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Kidman fell in love with the story of the play, about Rosalind Frankin, the researcher who played a critical
second husband, the country musician Keith Urban, and their two children together. “As a mother and a wife,
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“The idea of not having limitations or boundaries is important to me. And maybe that’s not the healthiest thing, but I’m not here to be healthy. I don’t approach things from that safe place. I’m not interested in it.”
as much as I’d love to say, ‘It’s only me, and I get to go and do whatever I want to do,’ that’s not the case anymore.” She’d have it no other way. “I want the family, because family, for me, is what I’ve always been headed toward. I just also have this massive creative fire within me that doesn’t burn out.” She brought her husband and her kids to Cannes this year where, with four projects in the festival, she was the Cote d’Azur’s MVP for two weeks. It was tough for her. “My nature is an introverted nature,” she insists. “Not when I work, but in my actual life. I’m not the girl that needs to be the center of attention, so the idea of that was mortifying to me. I said, ‘I want my little girls to be there, and I want Keith to be there, and if they’re there, it’ll be a whole different thing for me.’ Then I’ve got my family life colliding with my artistic life and that’s going to be balanced. Getting to give them breakfast, and go for a quick swim, and then get organized and into a gown for a premiere… that juxtaposition was fabulous.” Really, as an artist who talks so fervently and passionately about the role of the director, it’s a surprise that Kidman has never directed anything herself. She’s tinkered with writing, she says, and has ideas she thinks might lead her there eventually. But she carries the weight of the names she had worked with. “To step into those shoes,” she says, “I would have to really feel it. I think it would probably be something I write, if I was going to direct. I can’t see it being somebody else’s screenplay.” It seems likely that Kidman will scratch this particular itch before long. Her curiosity is too unrelenting, and she has faced bigger challenges before. “I’m going to have to go, ‘No matter what, this story has to be told. By me. Now.’ And I can go in there and get lost in it and exist in the limbo that is required.” ★ D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
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THE THIRD SEASON OF FX’S FARGO is
minds no matter where you are,” says Carrie Coon,
bookended by one-on-one inquisitions. In Noah
the Emmy-nominated actress who plays Eden
Hawley’s Emmy-nominated first episode “The Law
Valley police chief Gloria Burgle. Gloria wages a
of Vacant Places”—which he directed—a man in
battle of the sexes against a new commanding, dolt
1988 East Berlin is getting the third degree from Col-
male officer as the police force is reorganized. “Most
onel Horst Lagerfeld (Sylvester Groth) who firmly
conversations I’ve had since November, if they go
believes that the accused is Yuri Gurka, a 20-year
longer than 15 minutes, the subject of Trump is apt
old Ukraine murderer who recently strangled his
to be broached. It’s why shows like Fargo and artists
girlfriend Helga to death. But the man in question
like Noah are filtering what’s happening and putting
says he’s Jakob Ungerleider, a German citizen who is
that to work in the art they’re making; they’re creat-
much older than 20, and happily married. It seems
ing opportunities for us to express some of these
as though the state is mistaking Jakob for Yuri, since
frustrations and confusions. Fargo always deals with
the former is living at the latter’s address which the
this idea of truth—and I really think Noah leaned into
murderer vacated some months ago.
that for obvious reasons this season.”
“This is a problem, you understand?” Lagerfeld
Similar to the onset of Episode 1, we find
tells the accused, “Because for you to be right, the
ourselves in the last scene of the last episode in
state would have to be wrong.”
another tête-à-tête, this one with a hue of sweet
While Hawley’s Fargo has continually been
justice as Burgle, now a Homeland Security officer,
esteemed as a riveting crime noir series, the show
finally collars this season’s nemesis V.M. Varga
with the “This Is a True Story” disclaimer took on a
(David Thewlis, also Emmy-nominated for Best
whole other meaning during Donald Trump’s U.S.
Supporting Actor) who has extorted every penny
presidency of alternative facts, which has been
out of Minnesota parking czar Emmit Stussy
dodging an alleged Russian hack of the November
(portrayed by Ewan McGregor who was recognized
election, one welcomed by Trump himself during his
by the Emmys this year for his double duty as
run. Every presidency yields a specific type of com-
rich and poor twin brothers, the latter being Ray).
mercial art—raunchy comedies like Porky’s and war
Burgle is slapping Varga with money laundering
hero action movies like Rambo were popular during
and six counts of conspiracy to commit murder.
the Ronald Reagan years, Barry Levinson’s Wag the
And while we want nothing more than to see Varga
Dog predicted Bill Clinton’s Lewinsky affair, but dur-
get his comeuppance for all the mental torture
ing the first year of Trump’s reign, Orwellian-inspired
he’s brought upon Emmit and his late brother’s
dramas like Fargo have become de rigueur.
girlfriend, Nikki Swango (Mary Elizabeth Winstead),
“I think the whole Trump thing is on everyone’s
CALL OF THE WILD David Thewlis is V.M. Varga, a Fargo antagonist for all times, toppling the Stussy's lives and the lives of those that surround them.
The irony, in this twisted era of state justice, is that
How the alternative truth era has shaped the third season of Noah Hawley’s acclaimed Coen brothers adaptation By Anthony D’Alessandro
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we know that Varga never specifically killed any of the good guys. But Hawley intentionally leaves us with a cliffhanger as the camera slowly zooms in on the clock: Burgle tells Varga he’s headed to Rikers Island while the mastermind asserts that one of her superiors will enter the room and set him free, a complete abuse of justice. Hawley concocted this open ending prior to Trump winning the election, and he shared this with Thewlis during their first meeting in London. Typically Fargo has happy endings: Marge gets in bed with her husband in the 1996 movie, Molly (Allison Tolman) becomes police chief at the end of Season 1, and Patrick Wilson’s Lou Solverson takes his daughter (the younger Molly) fishing. But for Hawley, the cliffhanger took on a greater meaning during Trump's America in that we’re “living in a complicated moment in time. If I present you with a choice, you have to decide how that door is going to open and if it’s going to end well. It still has a happy ending if you’re an optimist. It just becomes a more active process. It’s an allegory to the conversation we’re having at this moment. How will we treat each other? Is it American carnage?” Further expounding about the cliffhanger, Coon brings up her first big movie role: “When Gone Girl came out, people were so upset about the ending. [Author] Gillian Flynn’s response was ‘Oh, so you want justice? Look around, where do you see justice?’ I thought that was a smart answer to those questions. There’s a lot of bad guys who are winning and we would do well to be vigilante. I think that’s smart. It’s like frogs boiling in a pot of water; that feels like the crucible we’re in right now.” AMERICAN CARNAGE From Top: Officer Winnie Lopez (Olivia Sandoval) and Police Chief Gloria Burgle (Carrie Coon) in a low moment; a scheming Ray Stussy; Nikki Swango, a force to be reckoned with.
The final scene was literally the last scene shot, and its production spanned from afternoon to evening. No alternate endings were filmed per Coon and Thewlis: the finale was exactly as Hawley pitched it to them. There were two drafts of the final scene which was set at JFK airport. “The first was more cynical and the rewrite felt more balanced with Gloria coming out on top,” says Coon. “Or it would be easy to feel nothing but despair. Really, that scene was the sum of the whole season: alternative facts versus the truth. If we lose sight of what the truth is, how can we have a rational argument? How can we create rules if we don’t agree on where the moral compass is pointing?” Both actors felt enormous pressure since it was the sequence that capped off the entire season. “I didn’t want to blow it and have people say ‘Oh, those were two mediocre performances, a disappointing denouement,’” says Thewlis. “We wanted a really fucking great rush scene to cap the whole thing off. I thought because we’re doing TV, it’s going to be quick, but it was no quicker than a film. Fargo doesn’t get to look the way it does unless it’s lit and shot over a certain
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number of days.” “I caught myself looking at him as an artist trying to learn, instead of an actor in a scene,” says Coon about acting opposite Thewlis. “Ever since I saw (Mike Leigh’s) Naked, I wanted to work with David,” says McGregor who learned of Thewlis’ attachment after joining the series. “I remember walking out of a cinema in London feeling so powerful I wanted to start a fight.” McGregor took on the daunting task of playing brothers having been inspired by “one of my acting heroes Alec Guinness.” The late British actor played eight roles in the 1949 crime comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets. “Noah says he had a dream about what the third season would be, with the same actor playing both brothers,” says McGregor. “There is a lot of discussion of truth,” he explains, referring to the way in which both Emmit and Ray are victims of alternative facts: Varga’s duplicitous financial maneuvers knock Emmit’s parking empire off kilter while Ray gets the short-end of the stick in the family inheritance after his brother lays claim to a valuable stamp collection, the genesis of his wealth. And then if there was ever an allegory to today, Emmit “the uber rich guy gets away with murder,” exclaims McGregor, “It’s like the presidency; every week, we’re waiting for the axe to fall, for this truth to come tumbling to, and it doesn’t.” Hawley killed off Ray first instead of Emmit for various reasons, dramatic upset being prime. “Ray’s death is unexpected and Noah is always looks for the unexpected,” says McGregor.
WEARY TRAVELERS From Top: David Thewlis' Season 3 villain, V.M. Varga; Emmit and his more sensible righthand man, Sy Feltz (Michael Stuhlbarg); Burgle rules the day.
“There’s always a character [in Fargo] like William H. Macy’s character who is presented with the choice to do right or wrong,” explains Hawley, “and the idea was to find a way to root for the richer brother, the overdog.” “Emmit, you feel until the very last episode, is punished by surviving, and he has to live with the guilt of what he’s done,” says McGregor. In these trying Trump times, we could certainly use more Fargo, but we’ll have to wait a while. It appeared Hawley was stepping away from the series for good at last June’s ATX TV festival; however, the creator later clarified that he simply has a full upcoming dance card over the next couple of years with Legion Season 2, and two film directing gigs on the horizon; Reese Withersoon’s female astronaut title Pale Blue Dot at Fox Searchlight and an adaptation of Hawley’s novel Before the Fall at Sony. “I don’t think we’d continue to get the volume of the nominations if we just went out and rushed [Season 4]. We’re rewarded for taking our time and continue to take time. “Please don’t tell people this is the end,” Hawley urges. “Right now, I just can’t point to [a start] date on the calendar.” ★
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D THE DIALOGUE
EMMY NOMINEES 2017 PART 2 INTE RVIE WS BY ANTO NIA BLYTH, MATT GROBAR, D O M INIC PATTEN & DA MON WISE
Ron CEPHAS JONES
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (This Is Us)
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M A RK M A NN
Having worked on all kinds of TV, why do you think This Is Us works so well as a network drama? I think the beauty of This Is Us is that it makes you wait—it makes you think. There’s a lot you have to feel, and to watch the whole thing all the way through, I don’t know if people could handle that. It works best for me that way—it slows you down a little bit, and that’s a good thing. — M.G.
M I CH A EL B UCK NE R
With all the TV roles that have come your way in recent years, what was it about This Is Us that was compelling as a project? How they wrote an AfricanAmerican character was special, in the layers. I felt William was very close to characters that August Wilson wrote—he was like James Baldwin, or Bayard Rustin, or Billy Strayhorn, especially in lieu of the fact that you find out he has a gay lover. All those elements come from the African-American experience, also, on Beale Street in Memphis, with the music. There’s a famous song, “If Beale Street Could Talk”—it was all a part of the character.
Milo VENTIMIGLIA
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (This Is Us)
Have you been surprised by the fan obsession with how Jack dies? Yes, actually. Even when any of my costars will do press and I’ll ask them how it went, they’ll tell me, “Oh, they just want to know how Jack dies.” Like we’re all carrying this one big secret. You know, if anything, it means that the character has impacted people, and I think that’s always the biggest compliment to the process of the storytelling.
M A RK M A NN
M I CH A EL B UCK NE R
Dan Fogelman has said that he never intended Jack to be handsome. What did you know going into the audition? He never told me that he had a different vision when I walked in. Dan’s a very kind man, a very optimistic man, someone who wants the best for people. So when I went in, I never felt like he was hoping for someone different than me. As he explained to me, in his mind’s eye when he created the show and the characters, he just saw someone different. But he said, “There was no doubt that when you walked in, and we started talking, and you did your reading, that you were Jack.” — A.B.
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THE DIALOGUE
Anthony ANDERSON
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (black-ish) This show is partly based on your life experience. What inspired the idea? Kenya [Barris] is from Inglewood, California; I’m from Compton, California, and both of us are first generation successful. Both of us are the only African-American families living in our respective neighborhoods. All of our children are in private school. Dealing with the trappings of our success and the effect that it has had on our lives, individually and personally, as well as on our children. Now we’re able to provide for our family and get our children a different—I don’t want to say better—childhood than what we had growing up in the inner city.
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D R E W W IE D E M A NN
M I CH A EL B UCK NE R
What was the conversation with Barris that started it all? For a while, not only was my son the only chocolate drop in his class, he was the only chocolate drop in his grade for more than four years. Kenya was going through the same thing with his children and he made a comment like, “I feel like I went from raising a black family to a black-ish family.” Our meeting lasted a couple of hours, and a couple weeks later Kenya called me up and said, “I got our show,” and here we are five years later. — A.B.
Samantha BEE Jo MILLER
Outstanding Variety Talk Series; Outstanding Writing For a Variety Series (Full Frontal With Samantha Bee)
You’ve said you’re too old to be afraid of criticism; how so? Bee: We spend so much of our life being scared, and being people pleasers, and we have a lot of young women that have been that. It’s the most exhilarating, liberating thing in the world to just reach Nofuckistan, and spend the rest of your life there. Unbelievable. I actually think it gets better when you turn 60, so I look forward to that as well. I will let you know. It’s so freeing. The bottom line is that we’ve been in the TV industry for a long time but we also have other lives. So we don’t feel like we owe TV our souls anymore. Miller: Also, this is a place where we’re bringing up a lot of young talent who are going to be off doing their own shows in a few years, and this is the example that we want to set for them, to give them permission to use their voice and not try to fit their voice into what they think is expected or rewarded. — A.B.
D R E W W IE D E M A NN
M I CH A EL B UCK NE R
Outstanding Variety Special; Outstanding Writing For a Variety Special (Full Frontal With Samantha Bee Presents Not The White House Correspondents’ Dinner)
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THE DIALOGUE
Claire FOY
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M I CH A EL B UCK NE R
What kind of research did you do for The Crown? Oh God. I can’t really remember! I think I did what I usually do, which is to buy thousands of documentaries and watch them all, because you can pretend it’s work. And then I got loads of books and read them. Actually, I had a very long time to get used to the idea of playing the Queen. I’ve never really had that before, actually—that expanse of time to get into character. Then we started working with a voice coach, William Conacher, who’s a genius—we couldn’t have made The Crown without him. It all happened very slowly, which was probably a benefit. There was no pressure to make any sudden, mad choices. How do you approach playing such a famous real-life character? You just have to take a step back from it. It’s an exercise in not jumping ahead of yourself and second-guessing every decision that you make—you have to try to go slowly, and not overwhelm yourself. I don’t really know what I do when I approach a character, I just try to get to know them and understand them. For the Queen, I just felt like there was a huge hook for me in the fact that she lost her father when she was very young. Just as a person, I was thinking how that must have felt, and how lonely she must have felt, and how scary that was. Then all of a sudden you’ve got the biggest responsibility of your life, and the one person that you want to help you isn’t there anymore. — D.W.
DAVI D V I NT IN E R
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (The Crown)
Thandie NEWTON
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Westworld) With 22 Emmy nominations, Westworld is tied with SNL as the most nominated series this year. What does that say to you for a first season drama? Goodness, it says that our peers are supportive of the work that we’ve been doing. So to get that kind of validation is really special because it’s very hard these days to know what an audience is going to want, because there’s so much available. It means a hell of a lot to be recognized in that way, a hell of a lot.
M I CH A EL B UCK NE R
DAVI D V I NT IN E R
We had a glimpse of Season 2 from the trailer unveiled at Comic-Con, but where does the upcoming cycle take your character, Maeve Millay? In Season 2, we’re going to see her going back into the world that she has abandoned, which felt to me like an incredibly courageous and ultimately rebellious choice. Particularly as Maeve was informed by Jeffrey Wright’s Bernard character that everything that she’s done, like escaping the park, was programmed. I found deeply disturbing, and Maeve also found it violently disturbing to feel like your mind is not your own, that these acts of defiance that were brave and rebelling against her oppressors were preordained. It’s terrifying. — D.P.
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D
THE DIALOGUE
Gordon RAMSAY
Outstanding Host For a Reality or Reality-Competition Program (MasterChef Junior)
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DA N D O P ERA LS K I
As an executive producer, how have you found five seasons’ worth of young talent? This wasn’t about finding rich kids, putting them into a circus, and faking out who can become the best. This, for me, was East meets West, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, finding kids that were as passionate about food as other kids were at playing football or baseball—kids that see cooking as their relief, and that little bit of canvas. It’s artistic, and it’s very important that we give them that kind of freedom. — M.G.
DA N D O P ERA LS K I
What were the seeds that initially sparked you to this series? I’m fed up with the level of blame that kids get due to their bad eating habits. It’s not the kids—let’s get frank—it’s the frickin’ parents. What MasterChef Junior has become is a benchmark, where kids are reeducating parents and becoming way more fierce than their parents were. My goal, down the line, is to have a curriculum at every high school in the country where cooking is as important as geography and history, because the one thing they need to do three times a day, seven days a week, is eat.
Kathryn HAHN
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Transparent) You’re part of a kind of repertory company that has followed Jill Soloway through one film and two television series. What have this creative family meant to you? I think all of us that were involved with Afternoon Delight would describe it as a life changer. It’s such a hard thing to find someone that speaks your creative language—if you continue to be turned on and curious about what that person can bring to the table, then why not? There’s something very moving about growing up alongside somebody in this creative kind of way.
DA N D O P ERA LS K I
DA N D O P ERA LS K I
Three seasons in, Transparent has maintained a powerful connection with both TV Academy voters and its broader audience. Why do you think that is? I think the reason this show has gotten all sorts of under peoples’ skin is because you feel like you know these people so deeply. Even if on the surface you might not have a way in—if your parent isn’t transitioning, your family isn’t Jewish, or your family doesn’t come from the Palisades— there is something on a cellular level that is so human and recognizable. It really does feel like it kind of seeps into your bones. — M.G.
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EM M Y H AN DICAPS / BY P ETE H A M M O N D
OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES Atlanta
Black-ish
Donald Glover making his way through the rap scene in Atlanta has found enormous success in his first season for the FX series, already grabbing Golden Globe, PGA, WGA, Critics’ Choice and other awards in an impressive sweep of early honors this season. Why wouldn’t that all naturally translate into some Emmy action, especially for triple threat Glover?
Slowly growing its Emmy profile, this third-year series finally won its first Comedy Series nomination last year and followed up with another this year. Still yet to win anything, this companion series that ABC programmed with Modern Family has hit the zeitgeist in terms of relevance and is the best bet for the broadcast networks to score a major win here.
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Veep
FX
For five consecutive years, ABC’s Modern Family ruled the roost, and for the past two years it has been HBO’s Veep. Emmy voters definitely like consistency in their comedy series and both these shows are back in the hunt again. In fact, other than FX’s first season hit, Atlanta, the lineup is identical to last year with only Amazon’s Transparent missing the cut, probably since it crossed the line a bit too often between dramatic and comedic moments. Emmy likes their comedy winners funny and they don’t care where they find them. Cable and Netflix dominate the list, but unlike the Drama Series contest the Big 4 networks are usually not snubbed, and again this year ABC has two of the contenders. Can Veep repeat? Can Modern Family return to the winners circle? Will Atlanta do it in its first year?
Master of None Netflix
This largely autobiographical comedy series from Aziz Ansari is back in this race for the second consecutive year after winning the comedy writing Emmy in its very first season, and it’s hoping for more this time. With six overall Emmy nominations, this is the dark horse in the category, and perhaps the best spoiler against a Veep repeat.
Modern Family ABC
This venerable ABC series won the Emmy in this category for its first five seasons, tying a record set by Frasier. Although it lost to Veep in the last two years and many thought it might not even be nominated (for the first time since its debut) this year, the comedy hit defied expectations as usual. A win though would be unprecedented in the category for a fivetime winner that came back after falling off the bandwagon.
Silicon Valley HBO
With 10 nominations, this perennial runner up has more nominations than any other entry in the category except reigning champ Veep. It has consistently shown strength here even though it has yet to win. HBO’s heart may be stretched with both this show and their Emmy juggernaut Veep duking it out for the win, but this one is overdue.
Netflix
After three years on the Netflix air, this series from producer Tina Fey has shown it has what it takes to land a nomination in this category for each of its years in existence. Whether it has what it takes to actually win one of these days probably depends on Veep disappearing.
ABC
HBO
With star Julia Louis-Dreyfus on the precipice of setting an Emmy record by winning six years in a row, Veep is also hoping to keep its streak going with a third consecutive win in this category, something that seems entirely doable, especially since the series feels more pertinent than ever considering what is going on in Washington. PETE’S
WINNER PICK
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OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES Better Call Saul
The Crown
With eight nominations again this year, this series has been riding the goodwill of its multiple Emmy winning predecessor Breaking Bad, but has sufficiently delivered the quality in a prequel that had a lot to prove, and continues to prove it. As it gets closer to merging with the show that inspired it, the ambition in the sharp writing and direction just seems to accelerate. Of the two shows returning to the category this year, this one has the best shot of finally landing a win.
Netflix’s hit drama about the early days of Queen Elizabeth’s reign has won acclaim, SAG and Golden Globe awards and a spot as the successor in the category to another British staple, Downton Abbey. The only problem with that is Downton never won here. The Crown’s across the board loss at the BAFTA Television Awards also was an unexpected setback but Emmy voters I talk to seem to love it. Will this be the first Netflix show to crack a major category win?
AMC
In a truly remarkable, record-breaking development, no fewer than five of the seven shows nominated for Outstanding Drama Series this year are not just first timers, but series in their very first season. Part of this can be attributed to the absence of the victor of the past two years, Game of Thrones, which started to air its latest season after the eligibility window closed. But what it really points to is the extraordinary quality of this year’s new output of dramas, as well as the emergence of cashrich streaming services like Netflix and Hulu (Amazon is sitting this one out), which between them have four nominees. In terms of holdovers, Netflix’s House of Cards is on its fifth consecutive try for the gold, and AMC’s Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul is nominated for the third time here. This Is Us, meanwhile, becomes the first commercial broadcast network show nominated in this category since 2011’s nod for The Good Wife.
Netflix
PETE’S
WINNER PICK
The Handmaid’s Tale Hulu
Like The Crown, this powerful, dark and much talkedabout series has 13 nominations and has put Hulu in the hunt for the first time. The dystopian setting and treatment of women seems uncannily timely as it emerged just about the same time as the Trump administration and has drawn parallels. Might that help its cause here? Certainly a recent Television Critics Association award in the same category won’t hurt its profile.
House of Cards
Stranger Things
This is Us
Westworld
Netflix got this D.C.based series in the race early and has seen it land a Drama Series nomination for each of its five seasons. As events in the real D.C. started to eclipse the storyline of Francis Underwood as played by Kevin Spacey, it was thought that maybe its time had come and gone, but with seven nominations it seems there is still life left in the show, at least as far as Emmy voters are concerned. A victory now, though, seems like a long shot.
Another Netflix entry, this inventive and out-there series from the Duffer Brothers and 21 Laps caught on immediately, even with only one season so far. Though it falls into a genre not often honored in this category, the success of Game of Thrones proves the times are changing, and 18 nominations—second highest in this race— only confirms that. With SAG and PGA wins under its belt it is a real contender.
This ensemble family drama crossing several decades is the first broadcast network series to crack the code of the Drama category since The Good Wife did it for CBS in 2011. Can NBC save the day for the nets? With 10 nominations it is an impressive haul, but with none of them for writing or directing, a win seems a bit challenging, at least in the first season.
HBO’s new series adaptation of the Michael Crichton novel and movie tied Saturday Night Live for the most nominations of any other program this year. So with 22 noms, Westworld is suddenly one to beat as this recognition crosses across numerous branches and represents a wide range of support. Though HBO doesn’t have Game of Thrones to bank on, it looks like they may have the next best thing.
Netflix
Netflix
NBC
HBO
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EM M Y H AN DICAPS / BY P ETE H A M M O N D
WHO DESERVES IT?
OUTSTANDING LIMITED SERIES Big Little Lies HBO
For six years I served on the Television Academy’s Board of Governors, representing the Writers’ Branch. During that time there were attempts to downplay, eliminate, or move the category once known as Miniseries, and now more broadly referred to as Limited Series. There simply weren’t enough contenders, or at least enough reasonably strong contenders, to even pass the Academy’s so-called “Rule of 14” that determines if there are enough candidates to trigger a category. Minis and Movies were even combined for a brief time. What a difference now as Limited Series has not only eclipsed the TV Movie category in hot prospects but it is one of Emmy’s most anticipated and highprofile categories. This year a strong field might just come down to a fierce race between two nominees that prove television is a fertile field for the ladies.
Perennial contender HBO hit the motherlode with this upscale, enormously popular adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s best-selling book focusing on sex, murder, motherhood, and female bonding in upper middle class suburbia. The star power alone of Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern, and Shailene Woodley could certainly help, as might the heavyweights behind the scenes like writer David E. Kelley and director Jean-Marc Vallée. Kidman and Witherspoon are also producers on the project. PETE’S
WINNER PICK
Fargo FX
Nominated for 16 Emmys this time around, and a past winner in this category (when it was known as Miniseries) for its first go round in 2014, FX’s continuing adaptation of the Oscar winning Coen brothers movie has made just as big a mark on viewers as that 1996 original. With another strong season, Fargo should never be counted out, especially if there is a split between Big Little Lies and another FX nominee, Feud.
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Feud: Bette and Joan FX
Ryan Murphy’s ambitious and wickedly entertaining eightpart series focused on the legendary feud between Hollywood screen legends Bette Davis and Joan Crawford during the troubled making of their 1962 horror movie Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? With Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon on board playing Crawford and Davis, plus a sterling supporting cast and outstanding production values, this was perhaps the season’s guiltiest pleasure and a TV event for the ages.
Genius
The Night Of
This 10-part limited series focused on the life of Albert Einstein, and its 10 nominations include a directing bid for Ron Howard whose Imagine Entertainment produced the series, as well as Geoffrey Rush who played the “Genius” in question (sharing the role with Johnny Flynn as the younger Einstein). The well-regarded show has put National Geographic in this particular contest for the first time ever.
A thrilling murder mystery from writer Richard Price and director Steve Zaillian joins Big Little Lies as HBO’s other entry in this contest, and with 13 nominations it is definitely in the race. But coming so much earlier in the season, it runs the risk of being largely forgotten in comparison to its competition which are all much more fresh in mind.
National Geographic
HBO
OVERALL I WOULD SAY the choices this year by the Television Academy (of which I am a member) were right on target and forward-thinking. Although I am not picking specific shows here over another, I can say I would be thrilled to see certain things happen. One of those picks would be to see the ever–controversial Bill Maher finally take home his first Variety Talk Series Emmy for his HBO show Real Time. He has been the most consistent and brave voice for sanity in the political arena, without fear of “politically correct” backlash. He has also been the most consistently nominated person over the years in this category, and it is getting a little ridiculous to keep overlooking him. Last year’s winner John Oliver broke more than a decade-long string of Comedy Central dominant wins, mostly for The Daily Show, but he’s an acquired taste if you ask me. He’s sharp and funny with his rants but a little goes a long way. I’d be just as happy to see Jimmy Kimmel take this as well, if not only for his nightly show but for the superb way he handled the Oscars this year. And speaking of that memorable awards broadcast, no show was more talked about on TV this year than that one. And despite envelope-gate, it was one of the best ever. Perhaps it is time for the Oscars to once again win an Emmy in the Special Class category? The only thing really standing in its way is NBC’s superb musical, Hairspray Live, which truly showed how these now frequent TV events should be done. Grease Live won it last year for Fox, so why not Hairspray? The Tony Awards is also nominated
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(as is Lady Gaga’s halftime Superbowl performance for some reason) and they usually win, but maybe this year will hopefully give us something a little less predictable. Sometimes we Emmy voters are lazy and just go to the same well over and over (witness all those Emmys for The Amazing Race). I guess even nominating The Bachelor for Reality Competition Series is beneath the dignity of the Academy, but I have to say there is no slicker, sicker series on TV and it is brilliantly produced, but alas no nominations. Maybe someday, probably not. In the writing and directing categories there is an embarrassment of riches to choose from, and for me in Limited Series it is a true Solomon’s Choice between Big Little Lies and Feud: Bette and Joan. All seven of the former’s scripts were written by David E. Kelley and that’s a prodigious achievement. All seven of the episodes were directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, the only one in his category nominated for more than a single episode, another prodigious achievement. But I am torn because of Ryan Murphy, who not only turned Feud into a must see event, but wrote and directed the most remarkable part of it, Episode 5, “And The Winner Is”. For his direction alone in flawlessly and meticulously recreating the 1963 Oscar show, spending months in pre-production and research to get it just right, he probably deserves it as much as Vallée. What a choice, indeed. Wouldn’t it be ironic to see not only Glenn Weiss (who coincidentally is directing the Emmys this year) win an Emmy for directing The 2017 Oscars (very possible) in the same show where Murphy wins an Emmy for re-directing the 1963 Oscars? Stranger things have happened, but not often.
OUTSTANDING TELEVISION MOVIE Black Mirror: San Junipero Netflix
HBO tends to dominate this category, with numerous victories over the years, so there is no reason to believe that their two entries this year, The Wizard of Lies and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks aren’t immediate frontrunners. But this could be a year for PBS as well in a critically uneven field of contenders that pale compared to their Limited Series counterparts. The broadcast networks long ago virtually abandoned this format, which they once championed, so the presence of NBC’s Dolly Parton holiday sequel is something of a breakthrough, or evidence that the cablers and streamers are focusing more on the once endangered Limited Series format.
Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors NBC
Every bit as sentimental and sweet as its title might indicate, this holiday movie defied the odds and landed NBC a spot in the TV Movie race with its sequel to last year’s not-nominated first entry, drawn from Dolly Parton’s childhood memories. It is a long shot to win here since this kind of subject matter rarely seems important enough for Emmy voters, but don’t underestimate the appeal of Parton who has made herself available to campaign for it.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Sherlock: The Lying Detective
One of HBO’s two nominations here, the film was widely publicized by the network but failed to get Oprah Winfrey an expected Lead Actress nomination in the story of a major medical breakthrough in the 1950s where an African-American woman’s cells were used to create the first immortal human cell line. Winfrey didn’t play the title character, but rather her daughter in the film that nevertheless did make a big enough mark to get this single, but very important, nomination from the Academy.
A new chapter in the PBS series of Sherlock Holmes movies starring Benedict Cumberbatch, this one called The Lying Detective, follows another last year that actually won the Outstanding Television Movie Emmy for the first time, even though this sporadic series of movies has been honored with numerous other Emmy statuettes, including one for Cumberbatch who is nominated again this year.
HBO
PBS
Hardly a “movie”, this episode of the Twilight Zone-like Netflix anthology series only ran an hour, but that was enough to stand out in what is really an exceptional TV series in the spirit of those classic kinds of spooky and weirdly fascinating sci-fi anthologies of TV’s golden age. This one focused on the bond between a party girl and her very shy opposite when strange things happen indeed.
The Wizard of Lies HBO
In the battle of Bernie Madoff movies, this HBO production featuring the star power of Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer is the winner, since Emmy virtually ignored last year’s attempt to tell the story in a two-parter that starred Richard Dreyfuss. With De Niro on board, this film got nominated for four Emmys, but it did it in a category of movies that failed to get a single directing or writing nomination.
PETE’S
WINNER PICK
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AN EVENING WITH BETTER CALL SAUL LOS ANGELES, CA AUGUST 7 Clockwise from left: Bob Odenkirk; a view of the stage; Peter Gould and Gordon Smith.
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M IC H A EL BUC KN E R /D E AD L I N E/ RE X /S HU T T E RSTOC K ; BECKE R, SA RAN D O N & EY RI CH ( P IN K BAC KG ROU ND): F RAN K M IC E LOT TA / 2 0 T H C E N T U RY FOX T E LE V I S I ON / P I CT U RE G ROU P
AN EVENING WITH FEUD: BETTE AND JOAN LOS ANGELES, CA AUGUST 10 Clockwise from top left: Lou Eyrich; Ryan Murphy, Susan Sarandon, Eyrich and Judy Becker; Sarandon; Becker, Sarandon and Eyrich; Murphy.
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LEAH REMINI:
SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH 2017 E M MY AWAR D NOM I N E E ®
O U T S TA N D I N G I N F O R M AT I O N A L S E R I E S O R S P E C I A L
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FOR YOUR EMMY® CONSIDERATION
OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
“STUNNING.
VIOLA DAVIS BRINGS HER A GAME.“ TVLine
#HTGAWM
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Watch full episodes at abcfyc.tv through 8/31/17
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