Comedy Actresses Roundtable: Debra Messing, Tracee Ellis Ross, Rachel Brosnahan | Close Up With THR

[Music] welcome to close up at Hollywood Reporter joined today by Molly Shannon Tracee Ellis Ross Frankie Shaw Debra Messing Rachel Brosnahan Alison Brie drew Barrymore and I'm your host Laci Rose let's get right into it what is the most amusing feedback you've received trying out for a part I went up for Cape Fear but I was like a washed up Hollywood actress so I went on a Sunday morning with the casting directors assistant in a basement and it was the scene where he sticks her finger his finger in her mouth and I was like so should I just stick my own finger and the assistant was like whatever like that I don't know why but the whatever was sort of the best feedback I got in the moment was you're never getting this I don't care and like let's just do this now I was like okay my first photo shoot my first sitcom audition out of NYU I went in and I did my thing first time on camera and I was like I just killed that killed it and my agent calls me and says okay you didn't get it it's like AHA just like they said you look like kabuki you what are you doing with your makeup and there oh no no no no the cameras right there I was like oh she looked like she was 39 and 23 she's got to go take a class ironically on 39 you look like 23 Oh my sister always I had a casting director need to work on my girls as they were referred to because they were too low which is where God put them so I think they're in a really good spot but she called down the hall for one of her assistants to bring another bra and she was like yes ma'am what what and I was like 34b she was like cool they come down and it was a 32 something or there I was like that's not gonna fit she was like it's fine they'll spill out it'll be great one time I was an audition for House of Lies terrible and the casting director was saying that I needed to show more skin so she took the shirt off her back and gave me her tank top so I could with Felicia vasana and she and so then I was wearing her tank top but I I still didn't get the part she was wearing yeah I've actually done that too when I was really young and I was auditioning a lot for you know like CW and ABC Family and I I grew up playing sports I didn't know how to do my own hair and makeup really and you know I was like I'm natural that people like that and and my real hair my natural hair is like really really curly and I had a ton of it and I just didn't know how to do makeup and and I had the same thing they said I think you need to wear like a more form-fitting top the casting director traded shirts with maven my form-fitting top and sent me out of the room with her assistant to have her do my makeup in the bathroom but that wasn't the only time that happened in that office it was like every time I went in there she was like and you were like a child I mean she's an adult woman when a her top was tight on your child body yes teen I'm not sure just because she knew that you were coming in I was like screaming question what sports did you play so I wrestled it nice you do like traditional wrestling we wear a little yes yeah and if you have hair a little cap under your hat it wasn't once going in addition when I was first starting out and I bumped into a girl she was like oh my god have you gained like a hundred pounds right before I went it really hurt my feelings and girl's name is but I'll never forget that was like how mean yeah but at the time I didn't have strong enough boundaries to be like trying to notch me down yeah have like the after moment of what I would have said yes I don't we are in the moment I usually am like I've been recently I gained a bunch of weight and I was in a restaurant and the woman goes God you have so many kids and I was like well - and she goes well and obviously one on the way and I go excuse me and she goes well you're pregnant right and I for the first time ever I said no I'm just [ __ ] fat the fact that people continue to make comments on weight size and whether it's just it's insane and I think there really are people out there who want to seriously [ __ ] with your mind and I am glad that I'm a kind of person that sensitive enough to like take the bullet and then have the afterthought rather than be the craft person who can play in that moment and I can do that maybe if I'm like it's written for me right and I can have that kind of moxie but in real life I'm just like oh yeah but that's that's actually the new one that I've learned to do is couch yeah yeah how is that helpful you want to let them know thankful thing with that good be a negative person and yeah I'm not combative I'm much more of a doormat and somewhere in between that was very hurtful but if you're going to be that person I'm so glad I take the high road there's so much less traffic thing recently like where you can fog them so you know what is that back it means you agree with a percentage of the truth like I saw somebody on the way to Park City she was like oh my god she packed so much luggage and it made me feel like that was her introduction yeah it's not a good introduction but anyhow I agreed with a percentage of the truth I was like you're right sometimes I like to pack a lot of luggage because you know you sometimes you get some stuff to bring home so you agree with the fog through you are have a show that'sthat's back now after the line of what's funny has it moved are there different things that make people laugh now than there was then and do you feel that as a cast I think that because 20 years ago when we started the thing that made Will & Grace very specific was that it was provocative from the get-go it addressed what was happening today in pop culture in politics and really pushed the boundaries and I think because that was in the DNA of the show coming back 11 and a half years later everyone knew the voice of the show everyone knew the characters and so we didn't have to ask permission we didn't have to apologize they were like oh they're just doing what they always did okay he's a man but he's aged into a LESBIAN Steven Tyler Jon Voight Newt Gingrich she's don't get me started Jada pinkett-smith yes oh oh we want to love her but she makes it impossible Caitlyn Jenner Oh rich hostage Melania borane [Applause] obviously now with the state of the world there is a lot more to comment on and it feels like there's a lot more at stake than when we began but I actually feel like we are are literally just staying the course do you guys feel a responsibility to be commenting on what's going on in the world whether it's through your shows or as actresses I think as a human being I do and not necessarily commenting on it but being an active participant and moving the needle in the direction that I think it needs to be going whether that's through my work which sometimes is not within my hands because it's the script that's handed to me but the beingness that I bring to that role or sort of how I use my voice in the platform that my work has offered me the story of rainbow Johnson has always started with hi I'm a doctor but that's only half of my story I am many things I am a mom a wife a fashion I don't get crazy fashion I got Nick is listening so maybe I can be all of those things just not at the same time so you're saying you're doing I think my show creator Victor fresco who is just a genius and has given me the greatest gift in my life at this moment I think he's commenting a lot with the show on the narcissism state of the world the gluttony state of the world the attitudinal like as far as women not wanting to take crap anymore but how do you you know live in your it'd and fight without being selfish and it negatively affecting everyone around you and just a woman who's dynamic but wrong but living her best who like life or stop moving out a full open holy are you chewing the post okay here's the deal mommy's gone a little crazy down here so I need to get out and they know you're worried I'm gonna go out there and kill somebody but think about all the people I haven't killed literally everyone in the world except three people look I'm sorry but you put me in charge I'm not letting you out and stop chewing the post it holds up the whole house you either have to have a big daring spine in a show mm-hmm I think and we're all Jews yes amazing or you've lost the current audience because we've just come too far it's all been put out there and we can't go back to like this marry Neverland type of Leave It to Beaver so they could make a show called Leave It to Beaver to be very different to far and so I like that whether it's metaphorical or character these shows that we're all a part of are in the advanced current state of womanhood and the world and then you can talk about it through a really cool channel rather than being on the soapbox which in this day and age it's so hard to be right you're possibly wrong then you feel bad then you pull back it's a very tricky slippery slope to put yourself out there so I like doing it through this character and this show that I know safe yeah a much harder time exposing myself politically as myself than I do through the show my show Smith and so you're writing it so it's yeah so I like often we you know before we start writing this season it'll be like okay everyone read all these books here's like the list of articles that we're gonna sort of incorporate and infuse in our show and that sounds like I sort of feel safe being you know sort of being behind the show in that way I'm going to meet him tonight and we're gonna get him to confess Richard Howe my dad yeah I'm going to meet him I'm gonna get him to confess I found him online well it's a bad idea how maybe you might just come with me you're not gonna get him to come back he didn't know what when you were little he's not doing it now okay yeah I'll just go by myself you know this show definitely would never have been able to exist in any other time like our first season was essentially about sexual assault like if that was like wow that's one of our core themes and sexual trauma and like and it's like this little feminist comedy on a you know premium cable network and so I do feel so grateful that the tides are changing I feel so lucky to get to work on glow with all of these feminists powerhouse women who are so intelligent and informed I don't write on the show so it's like out of my control I do think it's a show that could have been made anytime but the meaning has changed even from what started shooting it you think you got me but then with these soon-to-be-famous I'm bad you're good I'm winning you know when we started shooting it Liz Lee - Carly men charge are under thought we're making this show in the time where we're gonna have our first female president and that's where were leading this story and the election happened while we were shooting season one and obviously the tone of the world changed and it gave the show a different meaning and a different importance you know I agree that I think in the past I've felt much more timid about expressing and and I do still feel a little bit timid and you can be targeted and belittled in a way that's like you're an actress why does your opinion matter but it goes back to what you were saying Tracy about I'm a human being I'm a citizen in this country yeah so I'm allowed to have opinions you know and now we're living at a time where it is more and more vital to stay silent because you're afraid of losing part of an audience be a real shame where I feel like in the past I'd be like I am just an actress working on a comedy show and like I don't know do I want to ostracize people who disagree but that's there's such glaring issues it is a business decision I have other companies other than in doing film and you know I sell out of Walmart Amazon Ulta all these different companies and I don't want to alienate people and I don't but it's coming from a place of I don't ever want to alienate people I'm not one of those [ __ ] who says nasty things about anyone I don't have that kind of animosity I'm all about inclusion so it is a very slippery slope but the one thing about all of our shows and doing this and where I couldn't have more pride other than being with brilliant women is the world is not funny and we are doing comedy and if there is one medicine and I need with my life it is comedy take me out of [ __ ] as you are telling me what it is you're trying to say and comedy is the antidote to everything laughter is the key and when it's heavy and it's modeling and it's all steaks and I want to run away I can't help it I need laughter you have a show to wear it is become sort of relevant in a way that going into it while you were filming at Frankie you to you perhaps didn't know just how relevant these shows would be has that changed your approach or the conversations as you film season 2 or as you produce season 2 well the the best part about our show has been that it hasn't changed the conversation at all it just has added to a conversation that has been swelling and I think people are viewing the show through maybe a different lens but it actually has been created exactly as it was intended to be I have wonderful parents I've had a very comfortable life and though I knew that love would be great I had no idea would be anything that could justify when I paid for this dress but I paid for that dress we're very happy and because it's better than anything I could have imagined I thought I should get up here today and tell all of you that I love this man and yes there is shrimp in the egg rolls this theme and idea of a woman discovering a voice that she didn't know she had resonates in a new way now and that's I think been nothing but encouraging in the midst in the midst of a lot of turmoil and also a lot of hope I feel like despite a lot of sadness and trauma and worldwide despair I'm so encouraged by this moment we are living in this exact moment people are feeling a responsibility in a positive way to play an active role in their futures and these are all things that we talk about through the marvelous mrs. hazel and through the titular character midge it is interesting working on a period piece do you find because I feel like with our show said in the 80s there's so much stuff that you want to point out about the injustice --is that were happening to women and why we need to speak their voices that like the fact that it resonates so that we don't need to be rule-breakers and fight for certain rights is just interesting I would say the same that I don't think it's changed the dialogue of our show or how it's being made I guess it just makes it more relevant yeah well art at its best and I think especially comedy it holds up a mirror to the world we live in it shows you who you are who you want to be who you maybe don't want to be anymore what you can yes and period pieces have been utilized that way because I mean for instance to go like look what what's happening then and then you go wait you know yeah yeah well in that vein of humanity I think also the best comedy in the world is not just I love a good fart joke but there are also two different brands of comedy and it is always the comedy with heart yeah that's where I get the most excited by something funny it's like you know you're gonna film like terms of endearment that's one of the most heavy emotional films in the world it is just encompassed in this joy and love and humor and broad comedy it's like that to me was such a lesson in storytelling that you could want to rewatch something that's hard to watch but it's comedy in heart to me it's like in a man I want humor and intelligence or maybe something else I don't know what I wanted but I know in in storytelling I love heart and comedy those are the most dynamic and perfect combo and attracted to comedic sense of humor you want a guy that you yeah yeah yeah yeah laugh with yes laugh with you're not like a funny with the comedy yeah like comedian you notice a lot of laughter mom with the choir yeah turtle in the hail yeah we're putting on the show yeah funny guys comedian men or it's it's dad that's a different thing connection there while you were talking it was like sighs should have skipped that moment no agree and there is a huge chasm and difference because professional comedy I think a lot of people remove themselves from their life the world society the people around them to be able to comment on them objectively so you can't get in there and that's a connected vulnerability that is based and that would be yeah I just want a guy who's like has a sense of humor funny a lot of conversation around Roseann specifically recently can you and should you be able to separate the art from the artists do you mean like it depends on how bad they are idea of how harmful they are and what the harm is right and if people are actually hurt by by their beliefs and by their actions but she made it clear from the beginning that this was her she was a stand-up comic right and she said this is just me I'm just being me and so that's very different than saying I'm creating a different character and then when you have someone who is very outspoken on social media and says things that are incredibly racist tune analyzing white supremacy essentially yeah I think the problem is is that you know the she she is more right wing than her character and I think that's where it's it becomes at least for me very hard to separate the two that there's a difference between being tolerant and tolerating intolerance there's no need you know to tolerate intolerance that's not what leads to a productive or unified society and that to me feels like the thing at the core of can we separate an artist from their art yes we do all the time we have we have forever and ever and ever should we I think we need to reevaluate and we're in different times yeah there's a different compass that's been set and I think that there is a recalibration that needs to occur that I think is the reason that it feels so frightening right now mm-hmm let me answer how do I mean I mean your your show there was an episode that was shelved because it had to do with take a knee right is that true knows Trump right I think there's an episode that was shelved that was shelved but blackish has explored plenty of other charged issues as a casa do have conversations about what made this one different we have conversations about the subject matter of our episodes yes we do very vocal strong conversations about those things the details of why the episode was pulled and everything that has surrounded that I do not have the answers for and to a certain extent I have purposefully stayed out of those conversations because I've had no power to do something beyond that I have asked for the information and pushed for the information that I felt would be helpful to me and constructive in what I can do with it because I find it frightening we did an episode in our show all about Nazis and I like okay here we go again with the daringness of Santa created diet and their tone and then as it was being shot that charlottesville March was going on simultaneously we would go from our trailer to watching CNN and go in to shoot the scene and then the scene is really about when one of the Nazis comes in in a wheelchair what is the real discrimination there and are you discriminating because you're discriminating against me because I'm in a wheelchair she's like no that's not discriminate and then it just gets so crazy and then she eats them just a great way to sauce for me to deal with what is happening right now that I don't believe is happening and yet the make-believe gave me some way of dealing with it in a comedic and crazy way all right we're living in whether we call it the me2 era or the times up era I'm curious for you guys how your world and your perspective has changed in a concrete way whether there's one thing that you've done that you hadn't done before or a conversation you've had that you wouldn't have otherwise had before this movement in all honesty for me the the conversation the narrative is exactly the same this is a conversation in a narrative that I've been having both publicly personally privately like all of those things the biggest thing that has changed for me is the connection in the relationship with my fellow women there is a camaraderie a connection a partnership a shared experience I mean if the Golden Globes is one weird example that is very connected to our industry but just that red carpet experience was like epically different I mean I remember seeing you and you know it wasn't about like oh you're gonna sheer me dressed and she may went anywhere and like there was a real um there was a purpose we were connected to the collective power of us as women we sort of switched the power relationship on that carpet we were there as a collective force and that to me was a Hollywood example but I have experienced it behind the scenes in a way that I feel like has absolutely shifted there's also been a collective release of shame you know we're all like Oh would these were secrets that we all kind of had that we yep and now we're all like oh yeah we've all been we're all a part of it yep and the stigma has sort of gone away so that's been really cool the conversation has just gotten bigger in that way that like the conversations used to happen in tiny rooms just with your best girlfriend of like I don't think this was okay with a little shame involved totally with shame and maybe I read it wrong yet with a doubt and now it's like the floodgates are open and but in a good way where everyone is the shame has been removed the doubt has been removed hearing other women's stories in such an open and massive way is sort of given everyone permission to go like oh my god I'm not alone and like it's not okay I feel like it's connected us to the larger story of what is happening for women and you know I understand but for black and brown women sexual harassment and sort of the inequality has been a part of the experience and there has been work being done and being spoken for years not just for black and brown women across the board but I feel like the Hollywood thing sort of put it in the forefront and there's nothing wrong with that if that is a light that is shined on the larger picture towards women's equality in general and stopping violence towards women well there's political there's Hollywood about pulling together all the big all the possible groups I was always a producer named and I was never in aunjanue I was like a kid actress had a downfall came back was a producer so men never looked at me that way and I've wondered if that empowerment of just thinking you're next to someone and assuming that and not ever behaving in any way like you're asking for their not only permission but their acknowledgement or their sort of like do you think I'm okay it's always been a this is what we're doing and we're doing it side by side and I think that dynamic really saved me out of a lot of situations that could have been completely different I think the the question of is there something you you've done now that you would never have done in the past you know at the Golden Globes when I spoke on live TV and talked about E and saying why aren't you paying your women equally I never would have ever even thought about doing that and the reason why I did was exactly what you were talking about it was the community of women and being connected you know on a daily basis with groups of women and saying well what can we do how can we use our collective energy and our collective platforms to focus the conversation and it was because of this conversation it was like oh well you know if you can this might be a great idea was Amy Schumer she was like Deborah if you can get there first that would be awesome you know and it was her idea and you know it was only because I knew that there were tons of women who were like I am with you mm-hmm you know I have your back at you know there's not going to be fallout because we are all here standing right beside you it's really a fear of the fallout no I can't go back do you think it's as we're older maybe there was a writer in my room whose dad told her not to put times up like on her Instagram because he's like you don't know where this movement is going to for years so mad my head mill friends say to me okay you're going too far with this times up [ __ ] and I'm like [ __ ] does that mean I'm going too far with this equality thing what my point was earlier is like I was never looking for approval and that's how you approach that red carpet moment yeah and if we like it's almost like you know the constant like if you go at it without demeaning people maybe that's what your dad is questioning is like is it just gonna be such a male take down that as women were gonna wonder like oh god but that's not the point of any aspect of one's career or life or anything the point is not for you to do something you're not comfortable doing Yeah right I think you've got to go as slow as the slowest parts of yourself and everybody has a different way a different place a different kind of voice and a different different hands to put into this so whatever that looks like for you and if it looks like you just literally living your life in the most authentic way that you can live it that's exactly what it should be this is not about it's not about shaming someone for not being able to speak up about a hashtag times out in their platform it's it's really about them for me the times up is so that anyone can have the space to be who exactly who they want to be as they choose when they choose to be it yeah if you want to sleep with a man or a woman if you want to whatever that may be that is the Equality that I am fighting for and that kind of social racial sexual justice is what I'm looking for in a world and if my actor platform gives me a space in a way to reach a larger group I remember when I was campaigning for the Obama campaign early in 2007 and I was terrified and I also felt annoyed by myself I was like like I'd get them a human being in a citizen and an actor that has a platform but as an actor like why like why should I be going and doing this and my thought was you know what it the fact that someone watches girlfriends which at the time was the show if the fact that someone watches girlfriends and comes here to see me because I'm on girlfriends and I get to turn the attention to something else then that's all that matters for me if if my if my little thing can bring somebody towards something that they wouldn't normally come towards and then I can share something that would open whatever that is up and shine light somewhere else on the more vulnerable the most vulnerable whatever that is then my then it then it's okay for me is sort of what also a lot of all of our shows are doing when we talk about the relevance of the work that we're doing in the topics that are covered in our shows early on and shooting glow betty Gilpin who's on the show with me described our show is a Trojan horse like to get these like real stories about women into like men's homes who expect to see girls in tiny clothes like wrestling each other actually we're smuggling in like truth of and like it's a dynamic female friendship you in your leotardo female French that's you on that carpet was about pay parity that is something that has become a larger discussion in in Hollywood and beyond imperious if it's changed the conversations you've had in your own workplace something you feel more comfortable asking for and having conversations about yes yeah I think it feels part about again the shame the shame has run away out of this idea of asking for what you're worth and asking to be paid equally but also I'm noticing particularly with equal pay and obviously this industry is what's surrounding me right now so this is where this exact conversation has lived for me although it's it's rippling down through all sorts of other industries as well but the biggest thing that I've noticed with the conversation surrounding pay equality is the men in my life who are amazing who are progressive who love women who just don't realize the me2 movement the same thing who just didn't know and and all of these women having honest conversations with with the men in our lives as well has emboldened them to take action towards pay equality to which I found really encouraging I feel like pay equality is such it's it's a harder topic for people to discuss because people are so uncomfortable talking about money and and I can't speak to other industries but I know that in ours it's so taboo you're never on set talking to another actor about how much they're getting paid on the project that you're doing and that's why it's been able to run rampant for so long that the gap has been able to get wider but no idea you know those conversations is my point is they're now more pressure yes well I don't know if there's more of a pressure I have found that there's I have more freedom to have transparency I actually have had real dollar conversations with girlfriends of mine oh well in this industry and said okay here's what it is and as a black woman in this industry and we know what the dollar does in all those different areas with it is a staggering the difference so what do you do then well in what I'm fighting for versus what you might be fighting for I am fighting to get where you start things of that nature however I will say that one of the things I had a conversation with an actress friend of mine who is in this position and by the way recently a lot of actors actresses are discovering in hindsight as number one on the call sheet that the number two male was actually making more that yes we have discovered this there's a lot public you know it's been out there and then there's a lot that I know has been shared we'll say that one of the things in having a conversation that I said to one of my friends is you know what let's take a step back let's not worry about what he's making or was making let's take a second before we go there what do you think you should be making right outside of the context of the Equality of him or not what would be comparable to what you are contributing right to your show in the way with the career that you bring and with what you've been making and what you think is you making and the truth is that it's the same thing I did you come up with a number that's pretty accurate right without even thinking about what a man is making okay right you just said is really important to me because like the times up movement that you know all of these things that's happening for me it is tone and I don't want to make men feel bad or little boys who are growing up in this world and see women just eviscerating man that is not right I am NOT behind that and that is not a tone I can get behind women having each other's back that I'm behind I've always been the biggest girl's girl then I've grown up with that male-female dynamic with pay and Hollywood and my not to be heavy but my mom was in an unemployment line with me for most of my upbringing and even past et and so I think about it kind of on that level of like you know when you talk about Hollywood you're talking about so much money I mean like it's like I also get very humble and afraid of the conversation because I knew what it was like I was in those unemployment lines so when you're kind of demanding millions of dollars I'm like that's not the real conversation through the rest of the world so I'm very sensitive about that and so I have a timidness about equal pay but what you said is in Hollywood I started out as you know a kid when I'm 11 months old making a dog food commercial you're not making the big bucks and then you know I had a career and then it went away and so I know what it's like to grow up not having it I know what it's like to be like literally it lights out like you're you're done for a while sit on ice and the black list corner then revived my career and think about it as a producer and then I would be in charge of people's salaries so I was the one valuing others and then as an actress myself I just think the definition of success is employment and I'm so sort of timid to ever go back back to like having no career or being a kid or you know all the different kind of evolutions I've had with my relationship with the money I make you know and then I started like producing and having success with films and career and payment and all of that and it was like a real high for like 20 years and then I had kids and I step back and then I realized I was a single mom all of a sudden and like kind of had to go back to work but didn't know how to do that with kids and I was just like kind of in like a freak spiral and then I got this show and I was like I'll take whatever you can give me and then on season two and three I was like maybe I'm a value to this show equal pay is not it's it's not about the dollar number it's about being compensated for the work that you're doing that is what you said this is mine now your jr. anything yes so I understand and don't get me wrong I understand this is a very privileged conversation in Hollywood but it's still the same conversation yes no and I agree with in that's really all working women and it's not just women just its equal pay but what you said was so on point about what is my value so it doesn't become a competition or a takedown of others it's I want to be valued for my value and that to me has no gender line yes that is the perfect way to put it Tracy I think that is what makes it so difficult because all actors I think men and women have been made to feel it's the points in our career like this is the amount I'm worth and people were like well we're not going to give you that amount there's a quarter the fried totally constantly being made to feel that way it's hard to bolster yourself I mean in this industry what you so often have to do and so specifically as women are trained to not to think we are overreacting or less than interview yes or help out and laid it out and you know she's the highest-paid woman person in drama in dramatic television and she laid it out and she laid out how you know the numbers they were coming to her and how she thought that was [ __ ] and how she was able to you know look at the numbers of of how much money the studio had been raking in over the last 12 years and was able to monetize it and she was she was brilliant about it yeah and I think the thing that resonated with me the most was that you know she said I decided what my value was yeah and the question is are you going to value me or not if you if you won't I'll just leave and and it's about being prepared to walk away and that brings in that begs the larger conversation beyond Hollywood for most people in those vulnerable positions whether it a woman or a person of color or transgender or whatever that is they don't have the whatever it is to be a not not the the resources thank you that's the word I'm looking for this looks like I was saying the wrong thing yeah I meant the resources they don't have the resources and that is where I believe that as women in Hollywood as people in Hollywood it is our job to protect those that are more vulnerable yes soon as our voice either yeses somos our voices in a way that so it was not angry it was inspiring yes so Molly Ringwald wrote a piece in The New Yorker where she had revisited you know some of her early work in John Hughes movies and there were scenes with another male character sort of touching her in a way that was perhaps or approaching her in a way that in today's light we would say oh that's harassment or you are degrading a woman does she mean games real life or just wasn't part of the storytelling yes and at that time that is what the storytelling was so the question is and have you gone back and thought about any of the things that so you were asked to do or the parts that [Laughter] a good story about when I was first a struggling actress and I was where I was a waitress I worked at cravings restaurant as a hostess so I was living check to check renting a rack you know I had very little money Mike in my account but I got a job on a John Larroquette show and I played a female protester and they were all very nice I supposed to be a topless protester but they were gonna it's a sitcom so they were gonna shoot us from behind but then the director came and told me and I got the part it was like a speaking part he said I'm so sorry but you do have to you're gonna have to it was a bunch of girls too but I had to speak I was the lead protester but he said you're all gonna have to take your tops off and you know just because it's too weird from the back it shows it's not good so you're just gonna and I was like then I have to leave and I was a broke and um and I did I went started to walk out to my car and they came and got me and they said wait a minute hold on we think maybe you could wear like pasties and when I went back and I have to say John Larroquette was not part of that he was very much gentlemen it was somebody else I don't remember the director but how about that lady if you could think back yeah what was it because I'm curious and I feel like people out there should hear okay can you like think back and remember and articulate what it was in you that said no and the bravery to walk away yeah like what was that these girls after tops off and how dare you I was furious and I also felt embarrassed I was like no money I will go back in sweep floors in my restaurant and how you can use your anger sometimes to - that's right with it when it's used appropriately it made me really angry you know the thing that was a revelation for me was it wasn't until we started having the conversations that I realized I had been sexually harassed yeah I didn't even the amount of things that hide away in a place I had I had said oh that's the business yeah and then all of a sudden I was like wait a minute no that's not the business I was sexually harassed yeah and it was my my very first movie out of out of graduate school a walk in the clouds it's a long story but basically I was tricked into signing a nudity waiver by the producers and they basically said oh the director just has a big ego we can't because it's pg-13 we cannot show any so if you sign it nothing's gonna happen and the day I showed up they said okay this is your your lingerie for the first part and this is your nude scene and I said you'd seen and they're like oh yeah and I the producers were there and I went in I was like wait a minute we talked on the phone when you said that you said that it wasn't gonna happen is it pg-13 they're like not an international oh my god no I'm so sorry that's awful I think also those are the kind of professional graduations you have and then the times that movement makes you go back and think of just personal exchanges when you go worse I mean you know when I was on on set and he was lifting up the thing and looking at me and throwing it down just just to look at me to like it was a power thing and I said to him you know before we shot I'm like you know I like to be prepared you know can you tell me like where the angles are and he literally said you are an actress it's how dare you ask me to tell you what my shot is going to be you are an actress it is your job to get naked and that's it I was in LA my agents our agent was in New York and and I didn't have the strength that Molly had you know and you call your agent and they're like you could say no but you'll be fired you know when I was getting paid scale I was getting paid nothing but it was my big break you know and I just I think that's another powerful message to women too that's just in the right tone of me for me as women are afraid to rock the boat yeah yeah and there's gonna be days when they're afraid to rock the boat yeah exactly I also have to say I think it's okay for men to be uncomfortable I don't agree with tearing anybody down but I think it's okay for people to be uncomfortable and for things to be brought to people's attention that they are not aware that they're doing or aware that they're doing that need to be pointed out that we are in a different time we're like and I think part of the training and part of the systemic issue is that women are trained to worry so much about a man's feeling or an other person's feelings that we put ours aside I was at a group conference and if you know that I'm and I said someone said how do we teach young boys our sons our little ones in this time that they're not villainized and and then I was saying like oh well since evolution we've accepted like the man's superior Ness and everyone's been okay through the centuries of that I think the shift will be positive crickets on tumbleweeds in the audience and I was like did I say something wrong but I feel just like you I don't I it's just again I think the fight is for the Equality and the balance it's not about tearing an attention and on that note I don't know if you guys feel this way but sometimes it can feel because of social media and the time we are with Internet and everything that that if you don't say everything perfectly you can get past yeah and publicly now like you have to be some perfect robot politicians I agree with you and I posed in that way and it was like and these no citations are often messy you know sometimes yeah and you're not gonna say it perfectly and we need to cut a little slack here you know what I mean I make to another women too I mean one of the one of the most interesting and important parts of this I think has been speaking with other women that I disagree with young women of different ages of different backgrounds who we don't align and and it is uncomfortable and it sometimes it sometimes doesn't go so well but that to me also feels like one of the most important parts of this is that women begin to understand each other's experiences and how they differ and why we feel the way we do and how our own experiences have informed those things and that's something that we can then share outward to another I think it's a great point I'm going to take a sharp left turn all our shows are about lights mass and I wanted to get specific who really has moved into different types of comedy and drama why was this what was it about this show divorce and the stories that you were going to be able to tell that made you say this is what I want to do next well I was so excited to work with Sarah Jessica Parker number one and then secondly I think that you know so many people struggle in marriage it's really hard and you can feel really alone in that alone my character is a character who has a volatile marriage a rollercoaster marriage and I have so many women coming out to me like I relate to your character like they really related to it I felt like this is so great you know women need to see themselves represented on screen and I just felt like it was really real I mean look over 55% of marriages don't work you try to heal these old parts of your childhood through marriage and most of the time it doesn't work it's really hard this is jackie gianopolous I have heard so much about you that have you got so interesting cuz I I've heard nothing about you I didn't even honey you didn't tell me that Robert was gonna be our dinner guest tonight or that he was bringing the jack Jackie I left a message on yourself for God's sakes I haven't listened to that thing in two years I don't come from a traditional home I was raised by a man my mom died when I was little so I'm not from I don't have any kind of ideas about how life should be for women and children and families I I'm the most open person and so traditional marriage is like an odd kind of foreign thing to me that I really don't know about even though I mean [Applause] there's a great Nora Ephron quote where she says how could I know what's going on in anyone else's marriage when I don't even know what's going on in my life what is your personal favorite show or performance of the 2017-2018 she's my god like give me half an hour I'm gonna do mispronounced for him is it Yvonne or Avon or G or G I think in insecure I believe is maybe my favorite character on television right now and I think she's so over why I just I love their relationship I love their friendship I love how this show focuses on it and I feel like if the character I haven't seen much before where she appears to be so together mMmmm in in every way and yet she can't quite get the piece of her life together that she desires the mo she wants to be in a relationship and she can't quite figure it out um but but on the surface she maybe has her life and not not in a joking way genuinely she has an amazing job she has great friends and seems like she should have the perfect life and I just have loved watching her character show a performance I like Heidi Klum in Project Runway because I love Project Runway and she's so pretty watching Project Runway they're not [ __ ] it's not Housewives it's not anger people are making cool things and then judge is exactly when I'm like my kids have gone to bed and I've done everything I need to do I'm like I'm a die-hard Atlanta and baskets fan so Louie Anderson and I love paperboy I think he's very well just because she said Atlanta and I was gonna say Donald Glover as Teddy Perkins has been haunting should I know have him transform into that character I will know him but you know that was really like it took me a couple scenes even to be like is that I knew in the first moment and then I got lost I like three I would say Atlanta but from the Donald perspective and hero of the show the way they are telling story and the fact that each episode is not linear and you literally almost don't know what show you're in a different genre yeah well the way they're telling story is really interesting to me Wendy roads on billions the fact that a female is in the power position in every scene that she's in blows my mind and then CB wallet bridge in the bag to see a woman be so flawed and so mean and so human and the lead is in the creator when the crackling of it Molly's um one um Dateline like why do women in particularly love about you were a wrestler obviously there's glow so if you had to come up with your wrestling persona it would be like a stripper name although I do find that you know there used to be the way to your street or I thought it was your street in your first pet yeah lady joy I would be Lady Jaye is no it's my business that's really [Applause] lay the happiness on you great superhero power is just like while I've got my golden lasso on you you will be happy my brother and I got into a fight recently and he goes Frankie you and your articles that's Boston for articles so I don't know there's something in there sissie Waterford I love Harlington leather and lace [Laughter] streets past and your street of a buncha lot of baby Winthrop hi I'm Frankie shot hi I'm Molly Shannon I'm Debra Messing thanks for watching The Hollywood Reporter

Channel: The Hollywood Reporter

Views: 663,103

Rating: 4.8936343 out of 5

Keywords: thr, the hollywood reporter, hollywood reporter, roundtable, thr roundtable, actresses roundtable, rachel brosnahan, thr roundtables, tracee ellis ross, close up with thr, actresses, close up with the hollywood reporter, molly shannon, close up, hollywood, divorce, entertainment, the marvelous mrs maisel, frankie shaw, roseanne, drew barrymore, santa clarita diet, debra messing, will and grace, alison brie, glow, blackish, celebrity, interview, celebrities, smilf, tv, television, emmy, 2018

Id: HUTTt6ENBiU

Length: 59min 20sec (3560 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 03 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/laststance]

Damn, are power suits with massive shoulder pads coming back?