Kerry Washington, Kate Mara and more Drama Actresses on THR's Roundtable | Emmys 2013

you [Music] we'll throw open just a fun opening question obviously these are great jobs for you guys to have what are the worst jobs you've had in Hollywood in how in Dayton California or yeah okay in your ascent to being yes to your current jobs okay I worked at Chi Chi's which is the restaurant once for a day did you get fired or did you leave I quit I nice that was in Cleveland back in the day and yeah I have many more go ahead and it mean to start go ahead welcome to The Real Housewives look I'm not Camille don't say somebody said I was Camille I like to me own no no I mister I could be I worked at the gap and found out I am NOT a really good folder you have to be able to really fold well when you work at the gap was that when you were auditioning for roles Erza uh it was when I mean it was when I was just really pounding the pavement in New York does that count that doesn't count of course okay you said Hollywood not you nor on your challenges on your descent right no New York counts totally how about the rest of you any egregious horrible jobs you guys we're doing a terrible job right now are we over yeah crazy stuff too like I were I did murder mysteries and like you know the dinner theatres in the know or not I mean I had to fake my own death a whole bunch well uh-huh we're not any strange X today I did a Mexican Game Show you did I did I forgot about that called new Blues - sing and dance and it was like you know those Nickelodeon shows were there like um you you can can't do that on television or something it was like that except the FCC wouldn't let us in the country because we were like holding kids heads underwater and I don't really get picked up here where was it filmed in Peru Wow exotic Alima it was great grazie that's awesome yeah that's my claim to fame um I worked at the silent movie theater but that was kind of cool winning yeah that was cool I liked it they what I didn't like cleaning the bathrooms as much but I got into it you know about boys don't forget erase the joke yeah the job is you embrace yes but people are really messy in movie theaters hmm they're really just some weird stuff in there because you like a like a film you expect it's like a respectful experience and just like popcorn all the floor and coke and I get sticky that's not what was sticky that's all you got yeah that's a real Teeter not very high school yeah which was like it was great and hard and I even did it after I started working in films I did you know totally did not make enough money after my first movie to live off of that so I was I had to stop after I did Save the Last Dance I had to stop substituting in high schools because they were like chenille is substituting and could only do elementary school they would call you and leave you a message like can you work today yeah it was actually the perfect job because audition wise they call you in the morning so if I had auditions I wouldn't go but if I didn't have auditions I would go and substitute teach I've taught to everything from computers to Russian Wow so you're really smart and real wow that's great no I did what I yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I went to college I did you guys all go to college I didn't either yeah feel happy now oh I'm going to college I marry in Bali uh-huh I like a year really I don't know this has made that up my oldest is in college and I thought wouldn't it be fun to go to school with him oh he would yeah yeah yeah he's not having that not my child thanks to Cano VI yeah like I could be a cheerleader on the football team come in the making right what is that that was a movie with Rodney Dangerfield right yeah Wow deep pull back to school right and I were being very quiet over there which your what's your worst it was it was in Chicago and it was probably it was during the summer I just finished a play and I went play to play and I was just able to you know pay my rent while I was while I was doing you know doing the plays but then I was a terrible waitress terrible temp so the only job I could get that would let me off to audition during the day was um I found this ad for a cleaning service called Merry Maids and so I said would you let me off during the day because we cleaned in teams and she said yeah you can you can as long as you come back and finish up for your partner I said great fine and but we were cleaning we were doing clean outs for apartments like after somebody's lease was up so oh oh no oh so it was um intense because it was huge we were in huge towers downtown and it was like 110 degree weather humidity and the a/c was off and it was it was pretty pretty intense but it was good because it was it was the thing that made me you know I I remember calling my mom and saying this is oval and she said this is what you wanted to do and so get through it because you'll have to have you know they'll be times like this where you have to get through this and it was the it was that I remember was the turning point for me where I thought this is I'm glad she said you're you're on your own basically so make it work and I it was the time where I thought you got a you got to make this you better make this work or you're going to be scrubbing toilets and doing all what's been the most surprising thing about working in Hollywood something you didn't expect something that maybe call you off-guard read Kate bouncer the most surprising yeah something you didn't expect about being a working actor um I don't know I mean I've it's literally the only thing I've ever done so like as a child it's not like I expected anything really I guess a lot of people asked like what's your what was your worst experience or like working with certain actors and the most surprising thing is probably not having terrible experiences with people even when you know you hear rumors about certain directors or actors or whatever and I maybe I'm just lucky but I also don't feel like like people are generally pretty nice and generous and not that dramatic yeah especially actresses - I mean I think people expect actresses to be like burnt clawing at each other and I'm sure there are those but like a couple you guys have just met today but like most of you guys they've met before no and hung out with and everyone's really nice and like loves each other's work and is a fan a genuine fan and I don't reduce each other like we all encourage each other so yeah it's like a sisterhood it's a hard business to be in absolutely it's not you know all roses and daisies yeah I just quoted a real housewife okay my next job um my grades like it's all it should be fun and celebrated and I think the older I get the less competitive I feel or I really celebrate and get genuinely excited for for ladies I think when you have any successor you are working you realize that you meet people that are like you and they have the same struggles and insecurities and problems and everyone's got ups and downs and you don't get parts and you know you don't get what you want and you realize like oh everyone is like kind of like you and it's not you know it feels much more equal in a way it's not more fun if you can share stories and make friends and be in it together with people as opposed to isolate yourself and and you know I agree with you I think that that's one of the things I found here and particularly with actresses that I've really been able to surround myself with women who are who will empower each other and you know support each other and that's that's exciting I remember seeing you at auditions you know years ago and we struck up a friendship just seeing each other in rooms a lot yeah and it was nice to see somebody that you could talk to in a room that there wasn't the vibe of oh I can't talk to you because we're going in for the same job but it was always yeah it was always Harry's warm and supportive and nice to know that there was somebody you could talk to and and that was that was great to strike up a friendship in that particular situation so do you recall any terrible auditions offhand on a good day I feel like this is on a really good day I feel like auditions are an opportunity for me to just do what I love doing for 15 minutes and be detached from the result that's on you know on a when I'm in a good space and that is the most it can be you know as you're trying to solve somebody's problem either by letting them know what they want or by helping them know what they don't want but you're just in there to kind of see if you're the puzzle piece for them and that's how I prefer to think about it because then you're not buying to this myth of like you know what some I want what's yours it's like what's yours is yours and there's enough for everybody and just do what you love to do sounds like you may have a terrible story to share though that that's all nice but let's hear the bad yeah I'll think of one anyone else it doesn't have to be a terribly traumatic event just something that looks like for example January Jones last year brought up auditioning for coyote ugly and Jerry Bruckheimer told her she was a terrible dancer so we're looking for these uh milestone moments that make you question like to see him dance hey Jerry okay kind of tap shoes brother do you think something went bad and then you get it or it turns out it went great and sometimes you think something you were just like bond you know you don't know yeah Oh what am I see ya know I just got something great what what what I had my last kid my Molly she's seven and they're like you know your agents are like okay let's go ready to get out there I'm like it takes me a couple years to lose the chub mm-hmm it just does it you know I like to eat I gained about 60 or 70 pounds I'm not one of these girls that are like all hitting the yoga mat and like Cheetos I'm not gonna lie and then after I have the kid I like to have some drink so I'm like I went in an audition for oh they're a married couple one's a director and one's a producer the guy's a director the lady's a producer I'm shooting with the Kings do what TV yeah I think T yeah TV Burt Michelle King I'm the good one no it's like an Italian name mm-hmm one of them might have been Jewish I don't know I don't know your girl little bit about time yeah what was I saying Oh so with that away yes I went every drunk when you went in I guess I should have been in brains like get out there and you're gonna do it and I was like pushing you know like 180 this is after baby yeah okay after Molly and I went in I'm like you guys I just don't feel physically fit yet right I you know I have to get and so I went in and I tried out and I'm like I did a really good job I thought and I laughed him like had my Spanx on hey you're a damn sausage right and I came home and I got the call for my agency like I'm like I did good right right and they're like you did great the problem is that they're just it's not you are not you know I feel like I go I'm too fat is that the problem they're like you know yeah we're just going to wait a little bit I told you this you know and then so I was up here a little bit and then you just get knocked down a little bit more in the wedding mm-hmm is the weight thing is a is a crappy thing to deal with share his town you know it's like I'm from the town of eat drink and be merry and celebrate life and not like Christmas it's like that was that was a crappy audition and a crappy result so I just went home ate some Cheez Whiz straight I love ya have you guys ever actually been confronted about your appearance and sort of we need you to X Y & Z by this time or I mean how that's that's the common conception but is that common yeah every yeah absolutely give us an example No solutely not how'd it happen do you do you just sort of think of it as this is my job it's like you're an athlete where I have to sort of be in a specific form to perform this Wow I don't know because I mean on like the job that was like gave me the most sort of success would be Mad Men and that I had to wear a fat suit in the first season and prosthetic makeup that made me look bigger you know it means you sort of spend your whole kind of career like thinking that you have to be one way and then I got this amazing job and had to pretend to gain like 4050 pounds and so I think that you you're trained to think that or you're supposed to think that but it's not just actresses I mean it's all women and we all have this perception of what we're supposed to look like um and I think that I mean that's what's so kind of great about all these women here today is we're all completely different looking you know and we're all kind of beautiful but real women and um you know I think that's kind of a nice image to get out there yeah I agree yeah and I I don't know I've never had somebody say to me that I needed to look a certain way for a role but I've always sort of lived in dread of what that would be like if you know and I've heard stories that that people are told things like that and I think that as you're saying you know it's it's sort of our responsibility to to play these full-fledged women and to play women who look like women people that won't be in life I know and and I I think it's it's it's really more interesting and I think audiences appreciate that too and it's a myth too like because there's so many incredible performances and incredible actresses out there that has nothing to do with that you know so it's sort of this myth that you're told to believe like growing up in the business is like you know I think you did like it just you you you're told to think that and then one day you know you get old enough and you're like oh wait I wasn't - mm-hmm I know for me it's a little bit different sometimes also cuz all audition for something and they'll just decide that they're not going F Nick with a character which I hear a lot they use a word ethnic if not black yeah I mean you know just just that which it's in some ways you understand like people have artistic license to that's what casting is is fitting the right look to the right character but you know you whereas you could maybe lose some weight I mean there's not really anything I can do no but I want to about being black and I believe a lot has been made of Olivia Pope on your show being one of the first if not the first black characters to headline a network drama and I think since Diahann Carroll was that true in 40 almost 40 years and that's I think a disturbing statistic for people I don't think a lot of people realize that and obviously Shonda Rhimes has been famous for her colorblind casting and those the magic sort of what she's created when you were auditioning for that role how important was that like in your early discussions with Shonda what she liked telling you I want you to play this character as if she's and every zip she's black can I be she's very I have heard that actually um it she just knew that the character was going to be black because it's it's inspired by a real woman Judy Smith who's african-american so there wasn't a lot to talk about and what would you all say is the craziest thing you've ever done to get a role in terms of either cutting the audition tape yeah Oh have one your this could be really good ah no but I've written a lot of letters to directors I've done that thing like that yeah yeah didn't work I don't know if it works did it yeah yeah no no it has unhappy right there if you paste it together like her newspapers is that weird pictures of yourself in your different moods might you kiss the envelope yeah how's that approach works for anyone it's it has ones yeah it has once but I don't know that it worked all the time cuz you can't always her house no like through there all this the production office or whatever you could take it to their house okay show real passion great boys over your head get a restraining order hey but what's the role that you really fought for every one of them I mean I feel like every time you go in and read or meet or audition or whatever it is it's like you you're there because I don't know that's just me anyway I feel like I'm always fighting for yeah I have something crazy to say in that in regard to that I feel like the ones that I fight for really hard I don't get know if anybody else has that experience but to me it's funny because I sometimes I think that I have this idea of what I should be doing and I'll fight really hard for that and it doesn't mean that that's not something I should have been doing but for whatever reason it doesn't happen and then I find that the things that have come along that have actually been the most rewarding and most fulfilling have been things that I actually had questions about and or that scared me in some way are challenging in some way and I wasn't sure if I wanted to fight for it you know and I don't know maybe that's just my own blame I like a lot when you look back and feel like there is a logic to how things have fallen into place like if only I could have known now would I you know I would have cried a lot less or something that's a heartbreak moment of like before scandal the only other two pilots I'd ever done were shows that got picked up but I got fired like they recast my character and but when I look back it was like if I had gotten picked up if I had stayed on a show I wouldn't have been able to do ray if I had you know I mean like it when you look back it looks like the most awful my career is over a moment but then it makes perfect sense in the end absolutely yeah Connie what scared you about Nashville ah everything I mean the singing scared me a lot because I hadn't sung in a really long time and so that felt really terrifying but also was one of the big reasons I wanted to do it cuz I thought it would be so cool to as an actor to expand in that way and try to challenge myself in that way so I guess that's you know and what you're in terms of what you're saying too as we as I learn more about myself as an actor I realized that challenging myself is actually what ultimately provides the most reward so you know I was very nervous about singing I was very concerned about but you know I just adopted my son and I was now gonna have to take off and go start working in Nashville and that was concerning to and but I was also very dedicated to that because I wanted the show to feel authentic and real that's otherwise it was no point in doing it and so anyway there were lots of there were lots of factors but then there were also things that felt very exciting about the possibility of being able to play that role so and what's your experience been as a producer on the show that's obviously amped up your responsibilities and probably stress as well yeah well you know I I think part of that for me was because I really do love the I love being part of the creative process in as opposed to I mean n as an actor - I just love the entire the entire inception of of all of it and so and Callie Khouri has been really inclusive and great about that and and so it's taken a lot of extra time just because I do want to get involved with scripts and and some of them some of the production values of things and but it's but i but i but i think i would want to be doing that anyway so in a way the producer and and then on some levels i have no power at all I mean it means absolutely nothing I mean really truly nothing but but I think that it's it it's are those are things that I would love to be doing anyway so it's nice to have the leeway to do that how much of how much are you guys involved in the writing of your characters I know Matt's been very clear about the involvement of the actors which is not as much but how much the rest of you are you uh-huh yeah we we don't like yeah but the thing is is like it's so good it's like why would you I mean what am I gonna come up with it's gonna be better I'm not a writer I can't write and so I wouldn't even dare to try to come up with a better idea and my idea is probably just going to be this stupid run-of-the-mill idea that everyone else is thinking and maybe you know you got like a team of writers headed by Matt that are brilliant and that's their job so I think that's kind of like how we all feel on the show is is just sort of like yeah why would we I mean of course occasionally if you have an idea or thought about a scene you know you're listened to occasionally but it's all there and it's kind of you know you don't want to mess with it it's pretty good on its own you know how about the rest of you like Monica do they did the writers talk with you about the cancer storyline beforehand we um you know I had gone around this time last year for a screening breast exam a mammogram that's what it's called Jesus Mary and Joseph so I went do good I know I went and I got the mammogram and they said we found a little something we need you to come back in a few weeks I went home and I panicked and I thought this is BS nobody in my family has breast cancer this is my first exam and I emailed Jason and I said you know I'm really scared about something um can we sort of maybe explore this storyline for Christine I have to go back in a few weeks and hmm I knew that his wife had gone through it Kathy and he emailed me back and he said oh my god I have the chills I'm in the writing room we just broke the story for Christina so it was just kids meant wow and it was like I went back and I'm fine obviously I'm good um and so it was just one of those things where he said I really want you to be a part of you know this collaboration this year and I always I'm always asking the writers to write less for me I get nervous in the big family scenes where everyone's talking and I was telling caring that I just eat and those scenes okay it much easier it's fun I don't have to try and put my two cents feel like I'm gonna eat a piece of ham chicken Hey I don't know and anyway well product place we have to turn the can it's a bunch of work too hard too hard but so we're allowed were given freedom to kind of do that and you know that celebrated you know they're like oh yeah you can add this or say this so um did you know she was gonna make it through or did you I sort of it I did I kind of knew because Kathy did his wife did you know what I mean and so a lot of the stuff that's written mirrors what's going on in Jason's life like his child's as you know is on the autism spectrum and so you know I was like okay I think I'll be okay yeah yeah yeah I love the whole wig thing amazing specially on date night the fabulous date night way she's so very hard it went on a bad wig and like that wig was called Monique I got to pick that wig out I'm Wilshire wigs I was awesome I put it on him like so coming to wear a red wig named Monique I loved with the limo and out of it and like yeah I have it at mad that thing on and do you talk with Vince at all about the direction your character and is he are there specific things about her on the show that can be traced back to you mmm he he basically really knew the story very intimately in a very detailed way from the beginning I think so and I think that the same went for for all the characters and I think Skylar was pretty clearly drawn for him and we did some talking about her at the beginning because she wasn't particularly clear to me and she's a she was a tough character to play and she's pretty shrouded and she keeps everything pretty close to her vest and so I needed to know more about her so that I could play her right even if the audience didn't right end up knowing those things and he couldn't necessarily sometimes answer all those questions you know there were there were some hints that he could give me or some some direction that he could give me to go in but some of it he really couldn't and and so it was mine to fill in and fill out and so so a lot of that work was was done on my own or with Bryan Bryan and I did a lot of work together in terms of creating their past in their relationship and all that kind of thing but it was we did talk at the beginning about the fact that one of the things that was confusing and bothersome to me was that in the pilot Walt was working two jobs and Skylar was at home and I thought what is she doing at home all day she's you know he's doing all this stuff he's taking the kid to school and everything and what is she doing and he said she's pregnant and I said yeah and and he and he said well you know she's just taking it easy and I said well you know people still do things and so we came up with something for her to do at home which ultimately fell by the wayside but it was still for me it justified some things and it made it more understandable for me in terms of what she was doing with her day at home it was important for me and he respected that and so we got into some of those things and you know again ultimately I realized that Skylar was not necessarily ever going to stand on her own as a character as much as she was going to be there in reaction to Walt a lot of the time and so once I knew that it helped me a lot as an actor to not feel like I wanted more from her than what she was really there for and then I got to appreciate what she was there for and then embraced that and that was a big lesson in terms of the whole experience for me I think Kate have you had any conversations like that with beau or any of the other writers so mom's like he said on the he said on the children around cable that when they saw Corey Stoll and they saw how great he was they changed the storyline so that he would run for governor when that was supposed to be someone else but was that your experience where things tweaked based on your request or your performance or things like that um yeah I mean as the show sort of went on I felt I felt as if Zoe sort of was doing things that I kind of do really really subtle things but no not like that sexually but as simple as let you know at one point she's sitting at home like eating raw carrots for dinner and it's so stupid but that's one of those things that like beau got to know me really well and and we would joke about how my my notes on grips were always I think I should say less like let's cross out these lines sort of like you less is more and not not in every script but for Zoe in particular I always sort of felt like she wouldn't necessarily say that much and so anytime I would go up to bow while we were shooting or before he'd always get his pen out like ready to like cross oh mine and that was just sort of how it happened but he's such a brilliant writer that a lot of this stuff was just it was already there I didn't have to change very much how do you guys resolve disputes on the set like disputes with who yeah showrunner other cast members have service needs to be what are you I like bacon okay yeah what kind of dispute I don't think that's I don't think our job is to do is just resolve disputes and I I don't find that we have I mean I feel like that's something that happens sort of elsewhere right there just there in the writers room or between producers and network yeah it's not really like an actor thing necessarily I feel like how how much I know we talked about this last year with Parenthood's continuing sort of on the bubble presence for a lot of people just very frustrating because the show is so beloved how how much our ratings are part of your daily conversations with your cast mates and I know it's a huge stress for the show runners and riders if you are you able to tune it out or is it something that just kind of you just have to set aside I don't understand I don't understand so any electoral college it's just strange mathematical equation like a million that sounds like yeah this bowl certain area yeah number numbers are difficult have a shield I think they shield the actors from like oh you guys don't need to worry about that just now where's shielded from that art everybody at stresses about it whether you're in crap service or lucky they're getting dressed everybody's talking about it all the time I think people just on our on our show anyway we just sort of you know when they say oh we got a 1.9 I'm like that's good right I don't know what that means that mean 1.9 million no I don't think it no no it doesn't like that I'm thinking well that sucks I used it well literally Netflix doesn't reveal so you don't have to worry about that and then who really has those boxes in their homes anymore that's what's so strange about it all the shows the awash 5zd are right by it well now they include DVR numbers but they used that's new and in DVD making yeah it's not really strange I try not to do to pay attention to it mm-hmm uh Karen one thing just like I'm saying that we're not drinking right I know I don't know what you know that's not water yeah you've been pretty active politically over the past couple years and I'm wondering I know others okay you were mentioning that as well have been pretty politically active do you think that's a responsibility of actors or and have you experienced any you know career blowback or anything any negative reaction to that kind of stuff I don't think it's a responsibility of actors at all I just think for me I've always been somebody whose I come from a family where people really participate in the democratic process and I I don't think that I should let me being an actor prevent me from continuing to do the things I do because I'm an American so lots of people fought for me to have a right as a woman to be able to participate and as a person of color and so I don't want my acting to get in the way of that but I don't do it as a person in the public eye as a celebrity I do it as an American and blowback ABB's lutely um well when I after I spoke at the Democratic National Convention this year and the week after that you know we have a this show has very active life on Twitter and Facebook and all that and I couldn't go near any of it because it was there was so like threats to my life and violence and sexism and racism it was really it was all it was like it was shocking that that that just me speaking at the convention sort of incited all this anger but you know take on for a block on Twitter and angry about specifically just the audacity of an actor speaking it I guess so and also disagreeing with my views which I totally think is great I love I have no part I would never block somebody or for saying I disagree with you I think this right you know I vote in a different way I think that's amazing that's part of where we live but the threats to my life and the you know that's not so good yeah the others had experiences and politics or are you wary of that kind of thing I I have and actually this year I wrote or co-wrote an op-ed because Romney had started using clear eyes full hearts can't lose which is a quote from finite lights and so I wrote an op-ed along with the Sarah Aubrey our executive producer on that show and we just talked a little bit about what the actual intent of that slogan was and where'd it come from and maybe questioned what the women of Friday Night Lights would actually think of Romney you know using the the quote and and you know I was really nervous because we started doing Nashville and I thought I you know I got really scared about if there was going to be any kind of reaction to that and and you know I don't do Twitter or any of that stuff so I probably missed a lot of it and also hurricane sandy happened which I thought was a distracting which was really distracting to people so I you know I actually don't think that we got a lot of negative but I think also because my intent with the letter was really about was really about trying to just be honest to what the what the slogan was about and and not and it wasn't about being partisan per se you know so oh go ahead say what was it was was there a particular response that he got that was you know heartening or someone that you didn't think would respond that did um well I think I actually was just I think I was happy with the response from women because I think that we were we were going at it from the standpoint of the the women of Friday Night Lights and and so it was it was heartening to see that that women had really kind of embraced this the slogan for themselves which was actually a slogan from a football team so that was it ended up feeling like an expansive experience I was curious so I'll start with Anna what's the best or worst career advice you've ever been given probably as a young actor somebody said if if there's anything else you feel you can do you should do it it was that good advice or bad it was good because it's because it's such a tough it was from another actress and older you know a teacher of mine and she was just meaning to say it's a tough it's a tough thing to do so if there's anything else that pull is pulling your heart or your desire then you should go for that because the life is because the life is difficult and so if this is but if this is in your blood so deeply that you need to do it then you know it's that that's that's the thing and so go for it and I thought that was I thought that was a great piece of advice how about you Kate um I can't remember anything like specifically said but my mom has always been really really supportive of me and my sister who's an actress too she didn't know that um but since we were kids because it's all I ever wanted to do and no one in my family had ever acted before so it was very new and she had no idea my parents had no idea sort of how to help me sort of go that route or like how to get an agent like none of that it was all very foreign to us so but she never she was always so supportive you know I was playing like the tree in The Wizard of Oz for like the first ten years of my acting career and she was so she was it was a really long run I never get Dorothy I'm still upset about that red hair and everything yeah yeah um and and and you know so that was the gist of the support was sort of all that was the best thing she never doubted she never doubted me or if she did she certainly never didn't tell you never told me did you take acting classes did you study formally no I mean my sister and I were in you know some really horrible like new community acting schools as like nine year olds um it wasn't really acting in class but I never I was never comfortable with that I mean I think when I was about 14 I tried like a coach and I went once and it was not for me I felt so self-conscious and out of my own skin I didn't feel right so what's the worst advice someone's given you all the good it doesn't or maybe a piece of guidance someone gave you about a role or something that like we're talking about in hindsight was either terrible advice or I did this miniseries recently and Jane Campion directed it and she gave me the best piece of advice I've ever gotten before an audition for an audition we were on the phone and I was going to be like putting myself on tape with the casting director and then they're sending it to Australia and um she said to me I'm so nervous just talking to her you know and she said to me you don't have to hit the bull's eye just get the dart on the board and as an actress wow like oh my god thank you like such a relief like I don't have to come in and like give you this full fully realized character you know I just could show you a sketch of like what which I think an audition should be like it's just an idea of what you might do because it should be a collaboration and it's going to take a couple months and you know it's just an idea and so that was amazing and I think probably helped me to get the part because I don't you know just really relaxed me yeah yeah can I say something no no no you can put on my scrolling so my first food after were this great after my we were I'm one of four girls and my end we're all sort of athletic in our own way and my dad would always say I would always look at you know whether it's a scene or an audition or something and this maybe could help you if not you can throw it out but as a baseball you as a baseball player they step up to the plate and you just take a deep breath and you get your feet grounded and plant it in and you just point to over the fence and you swing and you imagine you're seen going over the fence and the crowd cheering and he told me that is a really little girl I didn't start acting so I was in my 20s but if it didn't help you at all it's okay oh my god and it really helps you know it really helps with the really scary scenes that we have to do sometimes and you're like holy you holy crap and there's all this you know stuff around and there's this and that you're just trying to stay focused and you just zone everything out and you can just you become grounded and you just look up and you in its a knowingness yeah that it's gonna happen and you're okay I love that I think yeah so the next time you're scared it's nice I like it I use a tissue my god tissue watching it bus right now who do you guys most rely on to tell you the truth about your performance I always rely on the director which isn't always I mean a lot of times it's it's it's the right thing to do I think but not always you guys have you have a lot of different directors or not really right yeah on house of cards David Fincher did the first two hours and then every two hours we'd have a new director which I thought was really was really nice and challenging because when you start with someone like Fincher it's me you get really used to that that's a specific world yeah I mean and not when I auditioned for him for the role his his note to me his note to me was okay when you come back in a couple weeks just I want you to do the whole thing without smiling and I thought I'm not smiling at Oh like what is he talking about I never smiled and so then for like two months I obsessed over like how am i smiling am i smiling and don't move your eyebrows people rely too much on their smile and their eyebrows which i think is really true and I thought it was just me then on set that was sort of his thing with most of us and so we all were really conscious of that but I think it's really I think it's a really fair thing to say about a bottom-up media listen I think that now I owe my guest already yeah all of our characters are gonna suddenly change but then when we were telling you to smile it was like oh it's exciting yeah actually no I think about I remember anyone smiling on house of cards like the entire show Lear area that's so cool you don't ever have to get Botox with venture because you won't let you move your forehead any development oh yeah how about the rest of you is there someone not necessarily bout your performance but somebody you rely on to help you sort of guide the craziness of the business give you advice if it's someone on your team family member someone you can always rely on to tell you the truth and I have that my cousin I have a my cousin who's almost like a sister to me and she is not in the business at all but she loves it and she grew up watching every movie and every TV show and she's always been the win over I've been nominated for an award she's been the first person to call me and tell me without question and you know so it's really nice because I feel like and she so she loves she loves the business and kind of hasn't understanding the business she's a lawyer so she has like a brain that can think in the business way but then she also loves the art of it so and she's a family member so it's a nice I trust that I have that yeah how about the rest of you know my Goldie my best friend um the Connie knows she's also kind of in the business but not an actor and and she's very very very smart way smarter than me and um she's just very just gives amazing advice professionally and personally right she's very close and she won't she wouldn't be afraid to be you know to say something you might not want to hear just like you know you're like your parents or you know sorry or someone who's part of your team it might be a slightly different thing they might kind of want to tell you what you want to hear but you know good friend will let you know if you need to hear something yeah there's a real distinction with our relationship mm-hmm for sure Connie you mentioned going to do Nashville after you just adopted there's a lot of personal sacrifice that goes along with these jobs what what do you guys think has been the biggest personal sacrifice you've made for your careers trying to do Nashville after I just adopted a baby that was big it's been it's been big you know I mean basically I had just become a mother and moved to town where I didn't know a soul and started working 16 hours a day without a support system and it's been it's been a journey for sure what did you do oh you know I'm still doing it I mean it's you know I luckily I work with wonderful people who are really supportive and the people in Nashville have been so great I have a nanny who came with us so that's been great but it's been it's been challenging I'm not gonna lie yeah yeah of course it is tough once you have kids to sort of go oh boy am I going to miss this parent-teacher meeting or am I going to you feel this you know sense of guilt sometimes and that's tough to deal with but you also have to look at it like okay mom's going to work putting food on the table you know that's how I grew up mm-hmm blue-collar kind of working-class home and they have to understand that you have to just have a life of balance and not feel guilty all the time because I think that your kids can then sense that and then they're like you know oh yeah even a - yeah yeah yeah yeah so it's just about balancing it I think of the others personal sacrifices for it well it's hard and so you know I'm not a mother yet but it's so when you hear these sacrifices it's you know oh I don't sleep sometimes like I can't either way sacrifices don't seem that it yeah sometimes a bleep II don't seem that important privacy aspect clearly that affects everyone here um I don't experience that me other people don't recognize him well I mean like at the airport but yeah they ever anything although you guys I flew in last night this is pretty funny I have to say cuz it has gotten really bad at the airport like that's the one thing like gosh you guys really dig me so I got in last night from Nashville and um the this woman is greeter came to take me out to my car and really their job is to keep the paparazzi guys away from you and like but still there was one guy and he was actually very courteous and nice and so we start walking to the car and she like looks behind us she's like oh god they're coming it felt like am I in a movie she's like they're coming run literally I was running down a sidewalk of the airport like dragging my bag I'm like I feel ridiculous are they gonna photograph me running away from the life absolutely really which is a nice like Connie Britton Landon is I know that's easy but it really was like I was such a bit like some role really exciting action movie with might with the greeter and she ran under the car and open the door finish it I get it does something about it happened to you in that to that well yeah I mean and I don't have my son with me last night which was also the first time like I usually they always get me with my son and which I don't really love but um yeah I've never been I've never had to run let's put it that way hey what does he get what are some strange fan interactions you've had about either I know people get stopped you thinking you're your character and maybe you know new insights about what we were talking about this before like the thing about like the backhanded compliment because like you I always get you look skinny or younger and it's like it's just every single time you're just like you know that's not a compliment right like you know like that thank you but that's not a compliment you know but do they know they real I don't think I know it yeah course they don't know never say we probably shouldn't say only 100 I'm not sure I could take that that's what I say I say that was like the time like glass and you're like no they just laugh but I think maybe next week they'll think yeah we were shooting in a grocery store in Nashville and um you know it just gets a lot of like they don't really lock down the set so much so it's like right outside of the shooting area there are people just standing around watching and so I like did my thing and they called cut and I everyone there were these two older ladies standing there and one on grandma she goes you look so much bigger thank you maybe she meant taller no I did yeah yeah I got I call myself died taller thanks a lot people do say people always say to me you're so short well yeah really small anyway make sure like you're like yeah like it's weird it's not even better than that yeah scale of things thank you imagine us Anna did you get a lot of out in New Mexico because you guys were so obviously the only show in town at that point yeah they're and they're crazy about the show I don't lot to do in Albuquerque too so I think the know seeing you guys out and about is yeah the highlight is very exciting it's very exciting and I think that it sort of harkens back to the thing about you know the privacy issue I think that for me the thing that I didn't expect with the show was was how people got they got so into the show and they got so into the characters but there was there was this incredible backlash against the character Skylar and it was something that none of us expected and didn't understand when it first started happening and you know it it I wasn't really aware that it was happening until somebody started bringing it up and then people would come and say you know people really think your characters a did you know that I do know thanks thanks for informing me and then I and then it really began to permeate my my daily existence because I would I started being aware that it was being discussed on the internet a lot there were blogs they were Chad you know things like that and having a daughter who's 12 years old Wow and knowing that she's she I don't let her on you know I know that she's guarded at my house from that but she may not be guarded at other people's homes and so that started to become a real area of concern for me and you can't control what people are going to do in terms of that but it started to really really become a different level of something in there that was very you know deeply upsetting not only because it was interesting that this sort of gender war broke out over over the character of Skyler in terms of Mensing a she's such a drag just to bid she's in she's a nagging was Walt just because he's cooking and crystal meth what's the big deal of his fun yeah ruining all the fun and then women were going are you kidding me this isn't funny that that would never happened with a male character that they're like there would be never a sense that the sky is ruining it's just as interesting it was such an interesting thing it was yes yeah yeah they're just they just saying yes interesting thing about TV to that that's new is this idea that that they're like we come into their homes it's very intimate so it's new for me like I have reclaimed yeah like I had I was sort of accustomed to people kind of knowing who I was but about that thing like that thing that they went to a movie theater and they saw and I had a beginning a middle and an end so it clearly wasn't me whereas this is like they're invested in not that thing they saw they're invested in what I'm going to do next week they're invested in things that haven't had like so it's like this ongoing dating relationship where you meet once a week at the same time in the same place and they're in their underwear you know and so it's very it's so much more interior as well I mean that's your show especially has had a lot of success engaging viewers on Twitter do you feel that the involvement that you have personally with fans is is a good thing generally or what's the downside to it as well um yeah I mean I am really you read the good stuff and you think that's what you do that's what you engage with and that's what you you know so I I don't I don't really feel that as much in the world um you're not tweeting as the character you're tweeting as yourself yeah but I don't I don't tweet about my personal life I don't tweet things that are about me tweet about the show about work so hmm do you guys feel pressure to do that to interact with fans that way I'm starting to a little bit I have someone explain like what the hashtag was like man I'm thinking hairspray on your show they have it online yeah yeah yeah yeah I've seen it already - - it's totally a hashtag ease this is the symbol is it not yeah the number sign it's the actual symbol that happens before or is it the phrase is it like it means I can search for it yes I'm like mad not the symbol no they would be it would be the number sign than Mad Men and then when you're tweeting about Mad Men people can look on Twitter just if they want things about Mad Men find it easy to me even like one thing and then it just attaches itself to everything a Google search on Twitter so if you had your own gear it would be like hashtag and then your name your yours we at yours would be hi honey bread she's like no god right we're gonna hope that's waiting Twitter I know I I actually I have a I have a woman that I work with who is a digital social media consultant who because I was terrified to go on Twitter because I'm I'm you know private and and and so she really helped me to figure out how to engage as you know as an actor around the work to be to be able to promote the work without feeling I look like I was promoting myself um and she's really helped me be phenomenally because yeah I was - it's scary it's like this whole other universe well also I think the self promotion aspect of it is awful it feels disgusting like not I want to feel like there's a purpose around kind of you know that's just not what it's been about so I'll give you her number yeah Alison Peters okay if you guys could be on any show in the history of TV what would you yeah oh my god Three's Company hands down Wow as who Krissi Janet anyone really care my favorite show of all time thank you on miscommunication I love I love her Tyler Moore did you tell Jason I mean it was crazy when I met him yes uh-huh no I just you I hate one wife doing because it was just such a perfect show was a half-hour comedy they were all such amazing like rich wonderful characters and she was just she got to be so badass like she was such an him she was such as she was so inspiring and funny and smart and head of her life and all those things were great inspiration you know growing up with that I think others mine's not as good but are not as inspirational but I was really obsessed with my so-called life oh yeah that's a good show and it only lasted how long one second which is like my dream because I don't want to have any commitment and so that would be oh man yeah so much yeah I really did I watch reruns yeah okay how about you Anna I'm sort of syncing the wire oh we went there something like different from Ricky what's wrong would you each side would you be ah god that's a tough one no I think I'd be at leats good to be bad wait oh yeah yeah it's fun to be bad your hashtag hashtag there it is my how much you care and your Foreman is hoping you do a show um ah I don't know um I keep thinking of The Cosby Show that's what I grew up on I we weren't actually allowed to watch a lot of television but that we were allowed to watch um yeah that maybe that would be it last question what bugs you guys about TV but one thing bugs you about TV not commercials anymore cuz you go hey that it just keeps going like Europe is show if the show is like on for a certain amount of seasons even if it's like five then I know like I can get through five seasons in like a year like because I'll watch an entire and I watched all of Mad Men in very short amount of time um been watching yeah I love binge watch yeah but if it keeps going then I get very overwhelmed I just think that there's a shortage of good shows and you know studios making the commitment and the investment to make those shows taking because it's much easier to make those other fluff shows and we all know what we're talking about I'm gonna go home and watch some all of them thank you next time I want to yes or no you [Music]

Channel: The Hollywood Reporter

Views: 515,907

Rating: 4.8485479 out of 5

Keywords: roundtables, drama actresses, Top actresses, Kate Mara (House of Cards), Kerry Washington (Scandal), funny jobs and crafting their characters. Watch THR conversation with Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad), Monica Potter (Parenthood), Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men), dish on bad auditions, and Connie Britton (Nashville)., olivia pope, oliva and fitz, the gap, subsitute teacher, friday night lights, maid, mexican game show, drama, emmys, rooney mara, silent movie theatre, don draper, jon hamm

Id: 3-jnoStYQJw

Length: 61min 18sec (3678 seconds)

Published: Wed May 29 2013