Julianna Margulies, Connie Britton and more Drama Actresses on THR's Roundtable | Emmys 2011

it's the best advice you were ever given about how to navigate Hollywood navigate television and anyone can start with us inspired Melissa smiling I mean as Julia I have a slightly an anticipation of everyone else's answers the best advice best advice shoot you were ever given about your career specifically um the best advice I think I was ever given actually was by Warren Beatty who happened I was shooting an episode of the Larry Sanders Show and he they're good friends he happened to be there and he said it was sort of the beginning of my er days and he said don't do too many publicity things it makes people know you too well and here we are nobody you know because on television you play a character every week here in someone's house and if you start then doing a lot of press in other and showing who you are it gets very convoluted and the acting versus the personal life gets too close together when you do movies it's different because you're not in everyone's house once a week and on television where these little people that people think they know and can hold and and on movies you're untouchable you know because they're it's larger than life so I think it was really good advice because it you know it helped me sort of navigate how I wanted do I want to be an actor or do I want to be famous you know it was a good do you think that helped you reinvent yourself after ye are because you were on such an iconic show for so long and maybe people weren't as familiar with you which it definitely helped me decide to go off and pursue a life that I wanted not a life that other people wanted for me havin others I went in between my freshman first semester and second semester and a little bit of time I did at college at soon I had an opportunity to go down and created a role in Tennessee Williams play and I asked Tennessee who came to some of the rehearsals not all of them and oh he was looking for somebody script to do a line change and I said here you go oh and then as we were parting ways after the production had ended I asked him to sign it for me I've never really asked for anybody's signature don't quite understand god sakes is Tennessee Williams and when you asked I'd maybe that is what made me smile I didn't even know I'd thought of it but then there it was he wrote to me Melissa a great future is assured I swear and I puzzled over it over the years and I thought well this perhaps is this great future that he spoke maybe I'll get a job next week and along the way well there you go there you go thank you Tennessee how about you Regina oh my gosh Oh best advice that's a hard one cuz I mean I've been getting advice always along the way maybe the worst yeah what's the worst advice I haven't really gotten any bad advice I think I kind of let it go in one ear and out the other if I have had but I guess Marla Gibbs when I was starting on 2 to 7 just telling me that even if I'm off camera my job is just as important is when I'm on because the more I give that person the better both of our performance would be so that probably that's the first one came to mind so that's also good for a teenager too yeah yeah but at the time I was like okay the kid was not on me why we didn't matter you know here's a teenager it's all about you but but I got it and it's a hundred percent right and when I am working to this day and I see actors that are huge that don't do off camera and then and it just frustrates me and then I have wonderful opportunities like working with Tom Cruise where he literally waited his day was done and over and he's like what you need to let me go run and take off my makeup and he came back and did off-camera for me so to know that other actors even though they're huge still you know go by that same idea of making the project better because we all do it together I mean it's not just one of us how about you Katie I was just kind of reflecting on the first job I had on a television series with a sitcom with Mary Tyler Moore and up until that point I'd just been a singer my my goal in life was I was a musician and somehow I ended up on a sitcom I still to this day it was not quite sure now I feel like I yes I kind of know what I'm doing but at the time she said to me I was so over won by the process and she said to me it's one page at a time one page at a time one one beat at a time and she did this to me because this is how I was to the camera I was doing she would come over to me she'd go like this be in the light and it to me I mean it was such because I sort of learned on the job I didn't go to school to be an actor and I learned as I learned on the job and so everything people have said to me has been some form of advice because I I was sort of um I was bluffing for something here's what felt like like I acting as if I knew what I was doing and so I very intently to to people that I was working with I I pick it up all the time I still do I think I remain I think to remain teachable through this entire process is why we why we continue to be interesting and stood in all this so I'm getting it all the time and what you've fascinated between comedy and drama sort of almost equally at this point I was curious for you process-wise what is more which one is more difficult for you um I don't use the word difficult a lot I think that whatever I'm in it's just a different muscle you know both mediums are it's just a different it's just a different process I mean from doing multi camera work to doing single camera work is really different too so um I find them both um you know it's all about the writing for me and if something is written well and I can put myself in that imaginary situation then I don't find either one difficult it's add writing is what's difficult there's nothing my husband is a writer he's an excellent writer but you know babba I can always tell when I read a script if I can't remember the lines wrong always something is wrong how do you guys handle them and Christina how do you I'm sure I should have that I'm lucky I'm lucky at first of all we don't you know deviate from that script one one little letter um ended it and it's written beautifully there everyone Saul there'll be something and you also know when you when it comes out of your mouth and you're like no one talks like that it just doesn't flow we'll go back to the writer and say did you see this out loud because it's really strange and and they'll everyone's won't fix it or they'll be like no you just have to figure that out but I'm very very lucky so and you also have a sort of different time period people did actually speak differently back then or maybe there was a different vernacular that maybe doesn't feel as comfortable for you that no one would say actually yeah I think in the very very beginning that was getting used to you know not saying can't and saying cannot and just adjusting a little bit in that way now it now that we're going into season five it comes quite naturally but there was a little adjustment or just even like why did I say that like that because I watch friends 500 times that's why I just did that because it was like it was to like just saying something a little too modern even just the way that you know but that's also been really really fun to remind yourself every once a while you catch yourself and you're like cool here it is five years later and I just caught myself doing it and Kelly you that you are Scottish and you're doing an Irish accent in 1920s I'm in America yeah how is that all I want to say I really like I keep joking to Terry and the the created our show and the head writer that the all markets lines are written for you da entirely I would like Emma's a dad certain legal difficulty of X front I just had to keep so thinking well you know itself its Timon but nobody else has to totally you I point I it's other actors on retirement once a head in like lik miserable he is like it's great what's been the hardest this is the first time you've done serious television in America what is what's been the hardest or anywhere I haven't really I've done them TV movies yeah I did sort of one-offs every TV for the BBC a couple of things and then that so this is my first I didn't know what I was getting into right so yeah it's all it's all a learning curve I was to give it the advice thing and I know but II like I'm not from a time where people do this forever either there's no advice really that that I I can think of I mean I give her some advice by them gun is just right now say I am if I think about it some of my best advice that I got was from my high school acting teacher mr. acklie I had to give him a shout-out and he said it he took we were not allowed to be late for rehearsal favor late three times we were out of the play and take care of your own props two of the best pieces of advice I've ever gone and it's Dave I mean seriously it's stay with me and and I mean I'll be really late for social events but I will almost never be late for work and it's I mean it's that you know he kind of put the fear of God on me about that but I I think it's a good one folks are mr. Ross now I need to go by skill for Tropes we have a lot of people lots of directors and props words I don't lose that there's only one open yeah miss ours is a pen no pressure in terms of learning lines I'm always curious to see first of all how many pages you're getting in advance when are you actually doing the core learning of your lines is that the day of is it the night before how about - Connie it really depends on what I'm working on you're in a new pilot right now so you're sort of yeah kind of getting back into she um and and what we were everybody was saying about good writing it's so true because people are always like how do you learn all those lines and it's like well if the writing is good it's very it's actually very easy because it becomes very it feels very organic when you're learning it and you know on Friday Night Lights even though some of that ended up being improvised we actually did spend a lot of time on our lines and Kyle Chandler and I we used to say all the time you got to know your lines backwards and forwards and then you can go and run with it do whatever you want and let it come to life but the foundation is knowing knowing every bit of that and so but I I also at the same time you know so again like we're in the world of advice some somebody down the line told me to write everything out without punctuation and just sort of write it all out just words words words words and kind of learn it that way so that it's not too regimented and again it depends on what you're doing not so useful for Shakespeare but you know it does allow a certain freedom it's like if you can learn what that is and then just kind of let it come to life I I find that to be very useful and how comfortable where you are you improvising is that because a lot of people don't actually like that they prefer the sort of the structure of the script yeah I I love it you know and um when I think about I realize I've worked that way a lot you know particularly when when I'm when I've been working with the same writer and director because the writers right there and he's also directing so it almost it feels so collaborative because you're kind of you feel like everybody for creating it together in that moment and so I really love that about about improvising but it's true and you know on our show people would come on you know get guest actors would come on and feel really uncomfortable about that and it's almost like we wanted to say just come with it just have a good time just run free you know and and but it's it you know for some people that really goes against their rules you know and and so again I think with that read project it's different how about you Giuliana um it depends on the situation in the show I'm and now because it's a legal show it um all I do is learn lines if I have half but the problem is for me because I'm in every day 14 hours a day I have to get the lines out of my head to get the new lines in my head so the challenge is always when to learn the lines because if I'm in the middle of a huge court case and I have legal dialogue that I don't really understand oh I can't learn tomorrow's court case because I have to get this one out to have room and and so that's always the challenge for me is figuring out I have to know my lines inside now I I can't show up on a set without knowing them inside and out because it it's a handicap otherwise for me if I know my lines I'm so free to do whatever and surprises happen when I know my lines when I don't know my lines it's all about knowing my lines and then I'm a wreck and I feel terrible for the actors on my show because I have had to set the bar so high because I'm in every day and because I have a toddler so my sleep deprivation is so severe that when actors come in unprepared I literally look at them I there's just no room for error in my way I just always think my god the first thing you should know is your lines and worry about your trailer later like are you kidding me I can't I have no and it's in the certain way has made it incredible for all of us because the actors that work every day are incredibly respectful of X I'm just so tired all the time but then there's times when you have to do reshoots because actors didn't know their lines and those are the moments where I say you know what here's the deal it's so unprofessional and and I think it just doesn't service the work and I and so I'm always I haven't read I don't read a book for 10 months out of the year I just I know always learning lines that's all I do I put less pressure and myself this year because I'm new to television and kind of grim from last season to this season it's it's a bit for release I really for me because I was just a film work before and I put everything into the few scenes that I might have in a movie and I didn't you know so a lot of work for and then because I don't know what what's happening really evarin and things change and I've had to I've had to listen up that bit lines are really really important you definitely I can feel like I don't give myself as long I've learned that my brain actually can I don't need three weeks to learn I don't have it is a muscle like I always notice the actors that have had a few days off come back and you can always see how hard it is to get back into it because they actually it does it atrophies and and and it's a constant and it's exhausting like my head starts to get shy of audience - yeah stuff that you're explaining of it but the legal jargon are they play a doctor and you have to hold all those things if you have a conversation with your daughter or with this yeah the family stuff is always the stuff that's easy to learn you know and and I find exactly what you're saying is very true in those cases where it's almost better to not know it too well right you sit on for days with five sentences exchanged between two people and you think of too many great ideas and that's the beauty I don't take you know I think if you have no luxurious time - so you just by the seat of your pants yeah you can and there's a real beauty to that I mean I think that just gives a real spontaneity to the pets you know and in a way that and I think that in combination with the longer run of a TV show it's like you can have that spontaneity and also I really get to know that character and really let that character have an evolution that's what I love about that on cable - because cable you have even a quicker shorter schedule everybody's like you still have to do the same amount of film but you have a shorter time to do it so there's not a lot of you know it's much more spontaneous but everybody needs to know their lives because it just slows it down - no and also decreasing - oh and then there are some that doesn't know their lines comes in and you're the biggest pain in the ass yeah okay but that's what they're Maris with egg one thing you mentioned a little bit giuliana is the sort of balance between personal professional lives how much is that something that you guys struggle with on a daily basis and how much does it influence your decision even to take on a series knowing what that entails well I have three children and and I've had my two older children are 16 and 15 and I had them while I was on a series and they were so very accommodating they could come they were there on the set all the time but that was in that multi-camera world and now I have my I have a littler one I have a four year old as well and you know I don't like to leave town that's one of the reasons that I've been so grateful to work in television because I think speaking of advice I think at some point somebody said to me your life is is it is your life it's not your work is not your life and it made me a better person it made me a better actor made me a better art artist to have children I mean that's just my bend my family just opened my heart so my choices are always based on them first you know it's like really still very hard for me to get to the set at 6:00 in the morning it just is you know and that and the scheduling of the nanny or the housekeeper or somebody to drive them to the bus to join you know it's really it's a challenge it is a challenge boy is it harder or less hard knowing that you work with your husband oh that has nothing to do with the development because we have you know he's the he's the creator of the show so he has a whole different schedule than I do and you know his job is way harder than my job you know he's just he's just at work all the time but just to always taking them into consideration and you know you I've missed things that I wish I hadn't had to miss in the lives of my children but my children really know that they have a mom who who's fulfilled and loves what she does and that's been a great role model for them you know for all those things that I've had to miss those little choir events or you know whatever I've had to miss I've had about I balanced it in my brain thinking well you know my kids are really pursuing their passion because they've had parents that have done it as well so that's kind of how I justify it but it's a juggle boy it really is you know go no you need the white really I need I need done why well that was wasn't I think Juliana you have said that one of the reasons why you'd want to do good wife was it was in New York or that they did it in New York for you or something yeah I've never I mean I got married and had a baby and and I thought why I should probably work um but I you know I'm married to someone not in the business and he can't just get up and go and I was schlepped all over the world as a kid and it was very unstable for me so I wanted to make sure that my kid had a stable home no matter how often I was gone from it then I still would come home every night so I said I'd the good one The Good Wife came I was scared to do it because it wasn't capable because I had done that work before and it's a really hard grind to do an hour on network and I was worried about it getting watered down and all of that stuff but I love the script so much and the writers and I felt like it had good movie producers behind it that would keep it on track and I said yes and then they said we're going to shoot in Vancouver I'm not like oh no I can't go there not because I don't like Vancouver but because my life is in New York and I said I can't do it unless it's in New York and they moved it to no and that was a huge blessing because I love I love working there and I be the last time I was on a TV show was in LA and I'm not from here so I felt like I was living this life for an actor or not for me in a place I didn't long so now I'm home working and it's just haven't we see you guys sometimes across the river but it is there's something lovely about being able to stay home and do your craft because so much of our business is being doing our craft elsewhere so you can't make a life of it for insisting on that I mean it well they're not shooting Treme anywhere else and my son will be 24 in June what so so on the the need for me to be in a locale for him is no longer this is a dilemma that faces female actors far more strongly than male actors yeah that's just the way it is with their nurturers and there's plenty fine Papa's out there and all the rest of it but something happens inside of us that is undeniable and this you know for me and I maybe for all of you that the birth of the child being this first thing that ever it was like whoa that's some more important all of a sudden yeah right and you find a way to work it out I mean I've been each one of us in a different way we started yeah the choices that you made yeah I specifically chose to do TV so that I that's right I was turning down movies yeah because there's a month year or a month there and can't do that I mean there are some actors that do actresses they do but I think they pair advice for it no they definitely do I want I've talked to them personally in you can I take your cue we can't no well I know some of them they homeschool right you know but even then with the homeschooling and taking them from this place if they know the home school there in your life is they're going there I'm always so amazed at how many people say to me what do you bring him to the set all the time I'm like he hates coming he comes sees me and then I tell him to be quiet Oh mom is working he has a life his friends yes Julian you know he's I don't want him to live my life I want to live his life I like to live their lives yeah I would here's a good life my life Oh being a mom but it's a good choice like I someone was saying more you exhauster and terms like I love it I love them both I don't not want to have my kid and I don't know what not what I have my job so you make it work and you sleep when you're dead and you figure it out no coffees I find like I'm always figuring it out those always see because I'm a control freak in so I've never had a nanny so I knew God after I had my son that I when he was about five not gonna have any kids yeah that this is works for me I'm not gonna because I'm too controlling I don't want someone to spend that much time in my house I don't want other than my housekeeper they you know she comes when I'm not there and yeah I'm like that so um I find myself always balancing you know I have like three families at his school that I'm close to camera you can pick them up okay you know and I pick them up on my way home and we work with the same crew they move so fast you know so I'm lucky I'm still getting off of work at 6:00 you know that's like really yeah barely yeah it's traffic time where I was like lunch I'm like but it's 9:00 at night I was curious uh Cristina star with you what's the most difficult thing about watching your performance either when it's actually airing or I don't know if you see dailies or if you're seeing cuts of the show before it airs I don't see dailies and and I just watch it when it's on um I I find that I actually learned a lot from watching I'm critical of course you know and I'll be like ah fitter Oh God like what are you and but that goes away real fast and then and then I find it actually quite helpful and I feel like I learned like sometimes I'll think I'm projecting something or that something that I've done something and it comes across very differently and I'm surprised by it I think I learned from that but so I think it's a learning tool for me how much really I but I'm really bad I don't want to anything and I watched the pilot or a show because they made me I press ego oh I wouldn't add ear plugs in a blank open right so you haven't watched the whole series no it's really good but yeah yeah I hear hotel but and yeah I fight I I I think I probably would find it useful I just do not believe enough for something I'm scared I wouldn't turn off for work again if I had myself and I can I think if if there's like throughs big problems on say and I really wasn't getting something then then there's been nothing that's made me think I should watch and learn from it I'll just I I just like to keep my head down and just do it and yeah sorry someone else's job to tell me what to do so I think you'd be pleasantly how about you money um well yeah I sort of agree with Cristina it does feel that I can learn a lot from it but then I also do as you do for especially the our final season of Friday Night Lights I could not bring myself to watch it it just felt like you know I think that I think it's hard for me to be objective and also at the same time you know there was so much sort of emotion wrapped up into it so it's it's sometimes I find it hard it's like pulling teeth to get there and to go and to watch it and then to try to be objective and then of course there was the whole thing of like oh that outfit or oh they oh they cut this you know another Friday nights we'd shoot so much material and that it was bound things were bound to get cut and and but I so I found it useful to watch only to see what the story was that we were telling because you know things would get sort of cut down but then also do you all have that thing where people stop you on the street and they say oh you're so much younger than you look on TV or you're so you look like auntie you look so much better yeah I got real life and I had it last night I was crossing the street from um going to my hotel here and this guy was on his bike he's staring me across the street and I was like oh no he's not he's made me yeah and I finally across for you goes oh man you looked so much like julianna margulies but you're way younger Oh Eddie was an ER intern better and prettier you're so much prettier oh yeah dinner you're pretty yeah and I started to go well thank you I think because I kind of want to make them aware that they've said something slightly really you want to be nice cuz you don't want them to walk away and go that girl from man haunts you want to be nice but you kind of want to go you always behave you should adjust I once said to someone I don't know what to do with that information yeah well it's interesting because they seem to have such a disconnect about the fact that you are actually also the person that they're talking about watching on television right right it's completely disconnected in their mind that's what you were saying about being in people's living rooms that's it because it changed my entire late for me just because it's so like I said it just is sooo new for me and it and it changed immediately and it's like wow when you're in people's living rooms they they don't they can watch you in their housecoat yeah I don't have to get dressed yeah you're inside oh yeah hopefully a house cup sweet with movies ours and they don't go near the movie star right there's an excessively qix estimating about what I'm wearing like if they don't visit everything to get to actually feel like they're being negative they don't know they date it's not coming from a mean place even though it it's very off-putting you know I have audience that knows me only from movies and then you know newer audience with South Klan and I'll give the people who are not familiar with Southland they'll say oh hey so you're not working on anything why cuz I'm in the grocery store I'm not working on when I'm down in New Orleans I mostly passed through the world quite simply not being noticed I don't wear makeup in my own life I just flew up from New Orleans today and nary a word said to me to and fro the air even after winning the Oscar people even not it is like I mean there's a little more heightened awareness and anything but by-and-large for the amount of time I spent in people's living from living rooms and on the big screen for 25 some years it's a remarkable small amount of people that come up and say anything at all but untrim a there are technical advisers and for my character a woman who's an attorney in town marry how she's an astonishing woman who's helped musicians and other disenfranchised people in all kinds of situations and after Katrina well what's remain you'll see but Mary how lives in New Orleans and people come up to her after the show is there and go oh Mary you were so great on the show Oh see I love that I think that's wonderful i-i have such problem or uncomfortability with celebrity with the whole being recognized and being in people's living room thing i think it's it's very it's not my favorite part of our job you know I like to go to work and have them put clothes on me and be somebody else I don't when I have to come somewhere and be myself I find it so like still after all these years like really uh it's awkward and I'm not quite sure and I love that you can go through the why I'm that way too as claim characters that really don't look like me mascots and me because I I still think that if someone comes up to me that we must have gone to school together yeah like like okay you're Christina right I'm like yeah are you from Idaho like hums like right I still like don't get it but I guess do those know each other right hey buddy do you think that's something that all after struggle with or do you think some people just really are more comfortable I think able that lawsuit ooh yeah and I'm like well you know you know that's a whole different I mean sometimes I wish I was a little more self promoting in those ways I don't know I think it might help her I don't know whatever it's not who I am but yes I think some people love it I think some people are driven by attacks yes I think there are there are actors who are actually that is what drives them and even ultimately maybe not initially but ultimately makes them a good actor by the sheer desire to be so little ever died you know which which is also very different for me too but but I do think that there is that kind of I mean even you know coming up in New York and you know pounding the pavement days like I could recognize people like that mm you know I'm acting classes or whatever and it's like definitely not very talented we're gonna go but there are some people that would be even better actors if they weren't so caught up in the celeb I mean I have a friend that she's an awesome actress but she it is all about the hair that makeup and done and you know we'll go to eat I'm like we're going on Pizza Kitchen I've also I've also seen with actors that tend to be more of that kind than what it seems we have here in the room people who are doing the work because the works what floats are both we have a joke right and that the first you know for somebody young that it's thinking about going into acting that notion of Fame and celebrity is more often than not the thing that they think they're going for and then every once in a while you run into people probably like these women here that so didn't new somewhere that that thing of pretending to be other people was comfortable and interesting and fun and went looking to be employed as that which brings me to the piece of advice that I did get in school oh you want to be an actor if anything can stop you let it I would have to say when when someone asks me for advice because oftentimes like I'll have a mother would be like my daughter wants to be an actress is there anything and I don't have much to give but I the one thing I do say is just make sure she really loves acting just make sure she really loves that look because that's that's like well that's when you're when you're depressed and it's pilot season or whatever that's what will make you keep going in where I'm going you know I always say learn your craft because I think it drives it drives me crazy to see what what's going on or people just think that acting is it's like me suddenly being able to dance or sing I mean there's training involved and there's technique and there's respect there's such a disrespect and I feel like there's a real class differentiation between people who have studied their craft and really love doing what they do because they love acting and then people who act for other reasons and and it comes a you know it comes full circle in the end but I think whenever someone mothers say you know my kid I want my kid to be an act I would say no kid you know let them be a kid and then at 18 let me decide what they want to do but I always say teach them their craft let them study or take them a great place or go there for them to understand it's a art form yeah I think so that's what why I feel disrespected so much when it comes to our art form that people aren't looking at it that way I've had friends um you know I could do what you do you know you can get it and then why you're doing it is over onto the set and you'll get one of those really busy days and I love my crew and I love my set people but you know when they've had a hell of a day and your scenes been pushed for four hours later and you finally get in there and you're finally working and it's like the cameras are all pointed at you and the lights are all pointed at you but who are you and why are you in the way because we're working here and that that can be a funny disrespect that ends up happening of what that end or then they can go the other way with it where they don't talk to her don't look at her don't smile but with you know motionless a meeting with what we walk under the set it's like oh I need that if there's a an emotional scenes are upon the page and kind of like the scene where it's like I'm one tear oh that's gonna be interesting and then suddenly everyone in the create everybody's really quiet and you just see what happened ya know like I've had scenes like that before where it says where they were the other character says why are you crying and I will almost without question always start the scene by saying you might have to cut that line tell you right now we'll see how it goes but yeah I think we're so lucky as actress who are on TV shows because we get an intimate relationship with a hundred and fifty people that are our crew members pretty much daily when you do a movie you come in and out and get introduced to so many people and you don't know their names and then in two months it's over to never see them again whereas with us we actually have this family and it allows you I've never understand people who aren't respectful decree because I'm going to do my most vulnerable work in front of these people these people if they're not supporting me I won't be able to do my best work and I think it's so lucky on that we get this family we've had a few we just wrapped two crewmembers told me there believe me I was hopping like oh my god you know breaking up the family it is it's your family and you don't get that anywhere else you know so yeah and on Friday Night Lights tweet it was so our crew was with us the whole time and you know we were all in Austin so it felt very it felt like localized family you know and there was a sense that every single one of those people was integral to what we were creating you know so it wasn't just about them supporting us it was that every single one of those camera people was telling a story because they were finding it and every single you know and everyone had a sense of ownership you know and I think that's a beauty of television as well is that as over time people really have this collaborative sense of we're creating this thing together and you know everyone becomes absolutely essential and I think that's rare I think it's rare that you have that situation I've been on sets I've been I've been guest starring in arcs and blah blah blah where you don't have that feeling kinda grew and you think well maybe it's just because I'm visiting but I think that when you have people that invest in the material and in you I mean I think it's so we should be so great is so much material right because in our community we have this one most I mean most crewmembers don't read scripts ours like it's an episode that is one week I think it's from the top down at trickers Day founder writers and I think and you know the producer is whenever and everybody it comes from them and if you've got good people that's help then it just so it likes everyone else shying yeah I get what we do two sets the tone you know I've been on sets where I'm not the the lead actress and I've seen you know bad behavior yeah which sort of trickles down to every button I think that if you you have a responsibility if you are sort of in front a lot just set such a tone I know that means if I ever not no one Minds again that's that's you know when you're believers name I mean it sets if you're working with these people every single day months out of the year certain load groups yeah we work with different I don't know how it works with you guys but we have like a different director for every episode right and the directors that come back or or is the directors that spend the time to know the hair and makeup artist moves the prop guys names you know they're the people that become part of the family and the ones that just come in and think they can just rule the roost they're not back and I down I Jamaica a few people from the years I work five years on homicide in Baltimore and we've got a handful our sound guy or dolly grip are people I was so basically I've known these people 20 years it's extraordinary I'd be working with them and I think it makes all the difference in the world at least for me and the work that I'm able to do yeah like but I have that sense of it's that sense of security and cohesion and it's so it's so empowering and it's empowering to everybody you know and I had to do this big scene in season two where I was raped and I had never done that before in a in a film or television situation and the love and support and silence and and respect I got from the crew I mean for me it was the first time I'd ever done yeah it was unbelievably vulnerable the whole thing and I felt so loved and supported and not afraid I mean it was really you know until I got there absurd of you know but we marked it and we walked and it was like a dance really like that yeah I mean it's it makes the show better you have a great crew like that it makes the show better one thing you guys mentioned a little bit about this sort of notion of disrespect one when John was on the roundtable for showrunner John Wells and when Jason was on for the last one they mentioned the sacrifices that they had to make taking the shows from network to cable situation and it seems you know when that happened I thought of the Mad Men situation where they've got the network and the showrunner and the studio all fighting over how the show is going to get made and broadcast and when they started talking about cutting actors on Mad Men to make the economics work so what are these actors think when they're sitting there reading this that one of the options is to just cut some of the actors from the show it to me it seemed very disrespectful and I was wondering what you guys when you saw they're like oh my god what was going through your mind well I was reading all that information along with the general public I wasn't any more in the loop or anything so you know a couple people have already been cut out of the show and that was very emotional for me and and so hearing that it's it sounded like it could happen because it's happened before so so it scared me and and you know every single person is such a contributor and and and I and every person on Mad Men has such a like people just love these characters you know it just it seems such a shame and it does feel disrespectful when you hear those things but I also know they're trying to do their job and they're trying to save money and their there's this whole power play thing that else settles in comfortably and it all works itself out but there's a lot of scary words thrown around I think every for every one show every year it's always the balance between art and commerce you know it's like it's sort of that whole lesson if you can't take it personal because at a certain point television is designed to sell soap that's what it's there for and we are lucky enough to be able to artistically help it out but I think there does come you know it becomes about there's all this money that it's a bit business so when I hear stuff like that I did I'm sure it's it's disrespectful but I think it's also not to be taken personal because I don't think that's the intention of it yeah if you don't take first up you have to you know you much better off if you don't hear what's being said in Rohtak what's that everyone's in heart and it's not to say that it's not but it's really you know it's it's what we do I mean we have to also be business people you know which is kind of odd but we're all strong enough and to been doing this long enough now we're not we're not stupid you know that is a shame because when actors become business people were thought of as difficult that's right well and we so when I come your man is a ball yeah and when you know actress like well I've been doing this dismiss and I have to paint upon suddenly you're asking for too much and you're difficult you know and that's it's a very good and you can calibrate it older like Emily a person it's not personalized right yeah Regina I was curious when southland transitioned from a state transition let me see it CNT I was curious how kind of shielded the talent was from all of that because I remember I spoke to an Bitterman last year about that and she described that day as the worst day of her life when she had to tell you guys that the show was leaving Assisi and I was curious how shielded were you during that transition and and they like sort of how in the loop you were as well and that was going on none of us were in the loop I mean Wales was neither no I mean it just kind of happened you know it was a surprise to be quite frank I was pissed they all off because I felt like you know here this network is telling us how great we are and how awesome we are but you know they're dating another chick on the side you know that's you know what it felt like are you ten a really big big is really big so I went out with that guy to me he's something else but now we get the last laugh cuz he wears the comb-over and we're with the young hotter cat but I always felt that that wasn't the end of the show because just like how you were talking about just everything all the different I think you were saying all the different people that bring something to it so many people beyond just the actors put so much into making this show the style that it is and that it was that I just there is no way that this much energy collectively is gone into something and it's not gonna continue and when John called me to tell me I was like this is not it well we were staying on he was like keep that keep that keep that energy and I was like I am Telling You this show will continue well I don't know where it's gonna be but it will continue so I always kind of you know had that feeling that it wasn't gonna end now when we were waiting for the pickup from titi for the third season yeah I felt like they took a little longer than I needed and who take to tell us we're coming back but most of it is because I love doing the show I love I mean it is sometimes 5in o'clock in the morning is a but I love going to work every day and everyone that I'm working with and seeing them enjoying what they're doing and just sharing that with I just feel like the universe pays pays it off it just keeps going around so read that confident honey about Friday light speech oh gosh confident is not even feeling that radio correct word but um but you know there was something and I think very similar to what you're talking about we we just loved our show so much and and you know when we were down in Austin so to some degree we felt a little removed from all of that stuff all business aspect of it and and we just we were always on the bubble and it was we just kind of kept thinking that we were the little engine that could or something and and in the way that you are we had no reason to believe that we would ever come back each year or that we would get you know be able to be ultimately saved by the NBC Direct TV you know joining of our show and all that but somehow we thought something would work out you know and so we it just it's that same thing where you know when all those pieces come together you just have to believe that it's gonna it's going to work out somehow as it should and you know we had to we got five seasons out of it and that was pretty good for the little show that could and do you feel like collectively that you were speaking at the craft that you're more able to practice your craft of television that you are in film and actually enjoy and get feel totally immersed in it compared to the movie roles you've had I can actually speak well since I played the role that I play on our TV show also in the movie Friday Night Lights that's always sort of an interesting one because I think it's a great example on Friday Night Lights the movie my role was small to begin with and then by the time it made it up on screen it was almost non-existent you know and it was really cut to smithereens and I think in film it's it's much more difficult to find really fully what fully wrought female roles and and so specifically when Peter Berg decided to make Friday Night Lights into a TV show he really he almost he almost felt like he owed it to me like he wanted to have us do this so that we could give that woman life that we weren't able to give her in the film and and I was scared to do I was like no way I said no so many times because I didn't see how they were going to do that but you know he was he was very committed to do and I think that having the breath of time and and character and community that you have in a TV show really helps that least in my experience about other people with Treme we have a front page in every script and a blood oath that we've sorne sworn and secrecy to not reveal the content of the scripts and with our show there is a absolute tale that begins with the first episode of season 1 and if God is willing take us through however many years that that may be and so I had had the experience somewhat playing K Howard for five years but there wasn't such a continuing story as Treme really really truly is each each year now and we're coming back it's another year beyond Katrina and all that disaster and the nut knowingness of it makes this really wonderful game a lot of what's fun in work is not the easy part but the obstacles right and so that thing of you could to go well where's she going what's she going to do what's going to happen next week and like the audience we hope does with the character but rather if I have questions or don't really understand where she's intended to be coming from in a particular line or something I'll go have a conversation about where she has come from because that we all know and what we don't know because it came before the show we can make up and that thing of living in tandem with somebody as their scenario grows and changes as you grow and change it's an extraordinary kind of thing where with a film you you have a beginning middle and end before you begin and you can can sculpt her into that and what happens before and after then has a different relation to the arc that you're trying capturing the film yeah I really like I know for my character I have a huge backstory that I know that I know and and studied and learn way before we started shooting and it's fascinating to me because throughout however long we go I'm able to bring that to each situation you know because that forms whatever situation you're in where you've been and and I love that because it week by week I don't really know what's going to happen but I but all this comes with her so it's really mmm you know it's just like we are as a human being you know it's sort of Lee you know all of us comes with us so I find that process really interesting I I know it's been I haven't done as much film work as I've done television so that's kind of all I really know and so I but I watch the people on our show that are basically film actors and it was it was difficult for them because not knowing where that beginning middle and end is so did they struggle with that which I but I find it very freeing I do I always ask them not to tell me yeah I don't know what's going to happen or yeah because I have to do this every day so I have to be in the moment and if not in the moment that it's not going to be truthful so don't I don't want to know I don't know what's gonna happen to me when I go home I'm gonna get hit by a bus or you know meet a stranger in an elevator or you know I don't know what my day is gonna be so why would I know what her day is gonna be we don't know what's behind it yeah yeah I remember on on ER I had worked there wasn't much in the pilot of ER I was on maybe seven minutes of screen time in a two-hour pilot and I'm supposed to die and I didn't but but I did all this research on nurses who commit suicide and what you know and I went to my whole thing no one needed to know is my own little story and and I was sort of following how they were making this character go and I was like of course she's an only child so I started studying only children because I'm from three so I didn't know how an only child would react four years down the line I have a line that says well I shared a bathroom with seven sister ruby is just such a dude like well we need to bring new characters onto the shows like no that's the one thing I had a wedding where were my sisters of my winery the first year like I went to the ball with the riders too much they did so good not even the same writer it wasn't their new shows and the nother writers like oh really okay well we wanted to bring so on so on alright forget that sir I'm just like all this craft I've been trying to put into this character that not telling anyone but you know it's your stuff oh sure that brings up an interesting issue so how you guys resolve conflict with writers of the showrunner I just sleep with them works well no really very much condenses we all agree guys good job actually it's just the opposite of my situation people think because my husband is my boss at this time in my life that you have resolved things that make it easier it's really it's you know see yourself so we try not to talk about it so much when we get home because that's really like can you imagine 24 hours on a good it yeah trust me girl Valek worked it all out I think it takes a very special kind of relationship nothing makes me happier in the morning back bye honey have a good day oh I think it's healthy and good yeah I think doing that isn't it you have to really know each other well and we do we adapt well we had to learn how to do it you know we really uh you know I just really respect him thank God so I trust him right you know I pretty much you know he has the final say right I have to keep I know that I work on a show that the writers are the show that really RL that's how the thing operates they produce it and and rightfully so and so basically I was getting a little consensus here and my job right now writer wins I'll fight I'll fight tooth and nail for something that I feel it's not enjoying with what we've laid down already but if they want it one other way another way if a director because we get a different director is guiding me in a direction and insisting on a reading that I just think is ludicrous I will then go to the writer producers on the set and I will say don't let me ruin your script please write and they'll sort it out but I think there's a real sense of at least on our our set of respect for the writers I mean that I felt this when I did an arc on The Sopranos to where I really don't need to change an if Andrew but whenever I mess up a line and the script supervisor will tell me what the right line is I always say oh of course that's so much better and that's so rare to get that usually like how do I make this work how can I make you know make this human and I I'm so grateful because it's half the battle if you have good writing then all you have to worry about is the acting you know and that's ain't gonna script supervisor oh yeah I know my husband is said to me the thing that irritates him the most is when an actor will come to him and say my character wouldn't say that it drives me insane well you know and he'll say well you know what yes they would but I wrote it you know it's basically that's the deal yeah it really it's their vision we're just sort of facilitating yeah I never had an issue with my character I've never thought that because I'm telling their story right so I'm just there to deliver it and tell the story so I can't I've never know people just being recorded so they don't need to know what I do we may actually just we worked really well together but it was a straight it was an unusual scenario because we were in Austin and our writers were all in LA our bars are - ours are in LA yeah and so we created this great it was this great sense of trust you know and I would be on the phone with Jason Katims like almost every week you know having a conversation about what they haven't but they also wrote knowing that we you know wanting us to kind of like take it and run with it and that was just the style of our show but what was beautiful about that is that it we were able to do that and then it actually worked which i think is is a rarity and particularly in television you know to be able to they they wrote these wonderful scripts in these wonderful characters and then they were like okay now go make it into that you know so it was a roof l-like a true collaboration which is not rare or unique and that one that speaks to the quality of the actor as well that they would trust you to do i I think you know that they would trust that situation that happened well guys are good yeah well I mean I'd also think it's it's it's the quality of everybody down you know like what everybody was saying starting from the top it was just everybody was truly empowered to do their part in their in our show and it was every single person writers actors grips lighting guys hair and makeup you know it's cool hmm I think there's time for one last question I wanted to ask all of you how has choosing roles changed for you since you started or what you look for in a role that's like for example you one of your first films is Trainspotting very different from what you're doing now mm-hmm I was just curious what do you look for in a role and maybe how that's changed since you started well I'm a bit of a nightmare a for my agent I think because I I kind of don't want to mark after it I'm sure I'm kind of we walk when anybody tries to talk to me about other other projects I kind of am like no I'm doing this no I don't understand like this is like everything Boardwalk and I'm quite committed to that committed to it and and you know there might be a couple of things they're counting an anime shouldn't snow a voice and Pixar thing and and that's quite fun because it doesn't take you too much out of a boardwalk but and it's a it's a big commitment it's long hours it's a long looking long shoot and I'm delighted and so happy to be doing that and and yeah I don't know how about you Christina that's the first time in my career I've had had choices and had options it's it's opened all sorts of doors and sort of changed all of our lives involved in the show and and I get to I get to read really lovely scripts now and I get to audition for really great parts and I didn't have that before so it's it's really changed my entire career and so I'm just like giddy and excited did I answer that question one thing how important for you is it to do completely no joan work meaning to distance yourself you have such an iconic character thank you i I don't um I think Joan is a bunch of different things and and I I'm not particularly concerned about typecasting in particular before I play Joan I often times plays the sort of quirky goofy bestfriend sort of nerdy so recently yeah always and everyone would always say you're not strong enough or tough enough I can't imagine you playing this and so Joan has opened up all these doors to characters that people always doubted that I could play before so it's been fantastic because I can still play that working there working nerdy goofball because that's who I am so I so it's been helpful for me hmm Regina I'm open to more options wish I had more options I wouldn't say that I'm looking for a specific type of role I just know when I'm reading a script if it moves me if the woman seems real sometimes you get a script and just this person that is not even real person so I think that that's what I'm always looking for and whatever character the truth so that's yeah that's pretty much it uh well first I like them to want me mm-hmm and then um you know people it's so funny to me because people always think that you get to a certain level in your career and then just you know dude it was about oh you know like more times than not you know I'm the phone's not ringing and I think the biggest change for me was I had done comedy for so long and I really really was loving that but I wanted to just break out and I've been in this one situation I was unmarried the children people thought I was I had big red hair and I walked around in high heels all the time so it it took a minute to get other kind of work and I had to really say no to certain kind of work at a certain point which was awesomely weird for me and and so that I could let something else happen and so you know and I had to go in and really prove myself and knock down doors and show them you know when I was on lost it was like this long audition process for this kind of small arc really but it was just getting past that you know oh you're a dramatic actress as well so for me it's kind of that I just want to stay interested along enough to keep wanting to do it and if I keep doing the same thing over and over again that's not so interesting to me so if there's any prerequisite it would be that but mostly it's you know I want to be wanted we can't want Melissa how is the Oscar changed what your the material you're saying I don't I think it's a little too early to answer that because honestly what I have seen and there have been scripts that have come but it is sort of the thing that for the first time in life because I've just taken anything that given me 30 years no choosing that one yes thank you and and so there there there were there's been a you know growing over the last 10 years really not just the Oscar you know offering us but now there's a lot of things there that are you know but what I was thinking about an answer the question is many years ago a very good close friend of mine notice that the last couple of parts I had gotten as probably maybe a 23 year old actress at the time last couple of parts up were victims and he just was noticing that and I said well that doesn't sound like very good idea and that was all I did was know in my mind that maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea to play to many more victims and lo other things showed up hmm and at this point maybe ii only and all this your transition with that casting thing for me and waiting now and know i know that would help you out for me to come and play the mom to these bumblebee teenage boys we don't know what direction to go when cuz your mother and never explained the mother's side of this I'm not going to be doing those for a little while I won't say that time won't come when I need the work and I'll take it on but if I have an opportunity now to be choosing that is the one thing I'm wicked to see it but I think there's been enough adolescent boy movies and probably adolescent kronos how do you Julian uh you know right right now anyway if it's if it's not brilliant I love the role I play and I I work ten months out of the year so the ten weeks I have off it's just not worth it to me I you know I I there's been some interesting offers this year because I said well if I do anything it should be really opposite what I do and I got offered porn movie yeah well that's different they were listening to me wait not an actual porn you mean a movie about you know right it's not a porn it's a porn movie I mean James Franco is doing it and it's and because he's doing it's attracting all these people but I was like ultimately I'm I'm like a lesbian porn star going down on women like I can't I have a child like that you know what I mean that's what's being offered to me I think I'll just keep my watch that and it wasn't that I was was insulted by it I was actually incredibly thrilled by it many you know I just time is so precious and I just if it's not great I haven't seen that many roles in film that even can put a light up to the roles I see for women on television and it's not to say I don't love films I love them but they don't seem to celebrate women the way that television does so I think you have to be when you're lucky enough like we are to have these roles on television you have to be very careful what you choose in other venues because we're looked up to and respected as women in this business so and when you can as you've talked about guide how that character grows over the end of the series that's that sound yeah it yeah I mean and you know usually it's independent movies that are the roles I get offered which makes me happy because there's the ones that are the most interesting and the ones that don't pay which is why you could offer them but um haven't even been that many of those lately there's less movies there's left less movies it's shocking we're so blessed and Connie don't you well I it's you know Friday Night Lights is over so it's sort of I'm in this new position where I'm having to figure out what the next move is and it's a hard one because I loved playing that character and I loved that show and I loved that family that was that show and so and and I am I'm also being really having this new experience of having much more opportunity than I have before which is amazing but then it's like okay but where do you go with that and it really does boil down to is is this a real person is this a person that I can find a tan in an inroad to bring something to this character because as you're saying you know people really I have this sense of responsibility after playing Tammy Taylor on Friday Night Lights because people who love who will love the show and watch the show really got a lot out of that character and look up to the character and so it's like oh gosh I don't want to let anybody down on the pressure it's real I know it's sort of the pressure and so therefore I'm going to go off and play a porn star you should it's a try oh I I'm not woman enough together hi on that note yeah we went thank you very much that was awesome

Channel: The Hollywood Reporter

Views: 150,434

Rating: 4.9374022 out of 5

Keywords: actresses, Boardwalk empire, christina hendricks, Connie Briton, Drama, emmy, Friday Night Lights, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, Julianna Margulies, Katey Sagal, kelly mcdonald, Mad Men, melissa leo, Regina King, roundtable, sons of anarchy, Southland, the good wife, THR, treme

Id: ENUahNNUk0k

Length: 68min 29sec (4109 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 03 2011