THR Full Drama Actor Roundtable: Jeffrey Wright, John Lithgow, Ewan McGregor, Riz Ahmed & More!

[Music] welcome to close up with The Hollywood Reporter we're here today with sterling Brown Billy Bob Thornton Riz Ahmed John Lithgow Jeffrey Wright you and McGregor and we're going to watch right into this well done my favorite icons do it what was the last scene or role that made you genuinely nervous this one oh yeah the role or a particular scene uh this one you know what westerly Tomo being at this on about this round I was very nervous two nights ago I I did a solo show I travel around with a one-man show they hadn't done it for two and a half years I did it two nights ago in Oklahoma City and that's two hours and a quarter by myself on stage for about 1200 people and I'm no stand up I was terrified so without that it's called stories by heart okay you want to hear about it no no it is something well it's a two-act evening and each of the two acts features a short story okay a PG woodhouse and a ring Lardner in English an American very funny very ironic what the two stories have in common is they're both contained in a big fat book of stories of my father read to me and my SIDS when we were kids oak and I used the same book to read to him when he was an old man yeah very depressed near death and he picked the wood a story and it made him laugh and that little moment was the inciting incident of this whole solo show the only thing I've ever written for myself to perform and very personal to me but the two stories are great performance pieces I'm going to talk about this for the next hour and what I mean rest of you was there was it whether it was this current role or was a past one were there did you have reservations did you have questions did you worry about different repercussions of of these roles I just got a scene that made me nervous swab up in working right now in a film called hold the dark okay so on a novel working up in Alberta and we're shooting a scene with five wolves wearing a caribou suit and I wasn't sure about how appetizing the suit would seem to the to the wolves but it turned out they were a little confused that the caribou was actually speaking so they were freaked out by it so it was all good but I did walk into that with some reservations this is an amazing coincidence three nights ago your care hi I was lying down face down in the snow right outside of Boston a scene where four wolves were sniffing around me is that really I can't believe veterans well yes yeah just last week yeah what about you guys oh man what's that mean I will say Nina Jacobson was on a roundtable liner for People vs OJ's talked about how hard it was to cast the role of Chris Darden how the hell she had so much trouble finding black men who wanted to play that role because they so sort of detested who he was and what he should for no I she told me a little bit about that I would say that was pretty nerve-wracking for me because it's sort of the beginning of being invited to round tables like like these and you know your boy lived off Pico they were looking all over South Africa and in London it said as a young I'm right here yeah what was so interesting about the whole process was being surrounded by people who I admired who've been doing this for a much longer time that I had at a high level and how egoless everyone was in terms of their embracing with me which taught me when you are confident and feel good about what you do there's no need to make other people feel small and like I thought they were gonna have me making coffee runs or like you know doing push-ups in the corner you're a rookie do that but like everybody was just so cool from Jump Street and they got me over my nerves very quickly so we could just tell the story so that was nervous but when they were pretty fast it is true you know when you're the more secure you feel the more kind of giving and loving to other people which is why I'm always an [ __ ] I'm saying is making faces off don't do it like that I've had that done to me actually which is kind of weird really helpful in a because just brings out wild card fingers you would never do but probably don't belong in the scene though oh and we talk stigma nervousness I don't know about you guys I get nervous before every job I get nervous before every role I take on I've been doing this for as long as most of you but I know if that's something that ever you find all goes away it gets worse and worse right it's all I mean yeah generally I find that before every role now it's my wife will tell you there's a two-week period of I'm not going to be able to do it and I am NOT going to be able to do this one and I really truly believe it that it manifests itself in a really real way where you imagine yourself on set not being able to cut it things like not being able to remember Lindsay but you know we've been remembering lines for 25 years but the nerves and my experience get worse and worse I think that's the the central driver for for an actor is is not to make a fool of yourself you know I get that simple you know that what's your motivation not to make a [ __ ] fool but in a sense we're all sort of putting our insecurities in play sure I mean you at a certain point you realize well I'm terrified that's good yeah yeah good right catch-22 I got me I've done guest stars and stuff on you know a few different things and my nerves don't always get up to that but when I am nervous it means like that's the one that I should be doing and saying yeah that's exciting you look back and you realize that the best things you've done you're real breakthroughs came in roles that you were scared to do sure yeah and the one that is sometimes you felt at while you were doing you're just totally screwing up because you constantly felt like you are out of your comfort zone at least that's how sometimes I felt when I'm just I'm finding this up until the last day I'm still finding it I don't listen the transition that you undo it that your character went through on a night out man for my choirboy sort of dude to like tatted-up shaved head you know dry it was beautiful thank you so much thank you how to hair inherently linger you've obviously you've had this tremendous career what do you wish you would have known at the beginning about how to handle Hollywood success hmm would you've done anything differently probably not yeah I don't think I would have changed anything and it was not easy as a matter of fact I was I mean I was destitute out here for years and I now look back on those days as probably my best times out here because everything that I do now and draw on comes from that you know and I'm not wanting to go back to that place no I I loved it in the moment right uh I forgot how after a while you forget what it feels like to dream and so I remember being so alive and so eager and and so uh in a fever I mean a bad fever too you know all at the same time but when you have everything ahead of you and you're dreaming like that it feels so great and maybe and maybe at the time you know you wish things were different or you weren't starving to death or whatever it is but when I look back on those days now there were some of the best times in my life we're we're dreaming up the dreaming of being able to be I never thought I'd become a movie star I dreamed of being an actor and maybe being fifth six guy down the line playing a part like Walter Huston my head back in the old days whoever it was that's that's what I thought I liked warren oates yeah and guys like that you know anything differently yeah no no I don't think so because I believe our I think our path is our path isn't it and I wouldn't want to change any of it because it's led me to where I am now I don't know I don't know anything you wish someone had whispered in your ear about so this is what this will either get you there faster the path may be a little different no cuz I because I wasn't really aiming anywhere I don't think I wanted to I was always arrogantly self assured that it would be fine really really from the start I do you know people who reward would worry for me on my behalf family or whatever that it's a difficult profession and you might know me I I was always just know I'll be fine okay and I was right well you can always think tomorrow's the day yep I mean if you know how long it's going to be yeah if you knew that it would be different but you don't feel that you feel kind of like everything's going to be okay tomorrow's the day you know yeah you know I Billy you you're the only one of the table that I've actually worked with and I you know we regard you as one of our great serious actors but I remember being surprised and struck when you told me that you really started out in a sitcom with John Ritter well not really I did that no I did that for a couple of seasons but I started out doing theater around here also a one-man show and that's where the character from Slingblade came from was a one-man show and I my first job was on something like divorce court or something like that and then I and then I did a Matlock and a Knott's landing I mean you know it was just just like that if you took whatever you could get but one of the problems I had early on in the early 80s was I would go up for parts of southern guys because I was from the south and they always told me I wasn't sudden enough and I would go for parts of bad guys and I told me I wasn't mean enough because I was never a good auditioner and I didn't that's one that maybe I should have thought about if you didn't go into the casting director this is before you ever got to see the directors and all yeah if you were going in for a bad guy and let's say it's a southern or Midwestern bad guy if you didn't jump on the table and spit and scream you didn't get the part but and if I didn't play a southerner like this here and talk like Phil and come over boy I tell you what I ever did sitting you know if I didn't do that I didn't get the part so I came in for the southern bad guy and I said listen man one more word out of you and I'll [ __ ] kill you do you understand me and then yeah and they're like man I would say to that point the difference between which I went to grad school at NYU and I started my career in New York and it felt like the theater community prized the ability to transform more than the LA community they want to see you just come in as the guy so when I did Oh J like I just spoke like Darden the whole time as soon as I got out of the car and asked like where I was supposed to go because I just didn't want to do anything to mess it up cuz I have times when I'm like okay now I'm going to take my moment and then do something and they're like nah it's not him you know he's putting something on whereas in New York it's like great choice yep you know yeah choices appreciate it in LA it's like I want to see my guy done to the question you had asked Billy you obviously in your career you fluctuated back and forth when you've won an Emmy for being a serial killer and you've also won one for being an alien dad on a multi-camera hood come what do you get what do you offer that you hear the most and what for genre are you approached for well they they really come from all directions I mean I am a lucky actor in that sense because I've worked in different veins and I think all that comes from the first entire one-third of my career was in New York theater mmm and I have been hopping between movies and TV and stage my whole career I mean I'm a character man and I've done a lot of extremely excessive acting in my day so usually a total whack job I'm right at the top and it's a very short list uh-huh the profession surprises me all the time Winston Churchill could not possibly been have been a bigger surprise this came out of the blue and I couldn't believe they were asking me to play the role and it was a phone call from my agent and by the end of the sentence describing the offer I'd said yes it was just so surprising you know we're all the business of surprising people but it's best if we're surprises to know what are the roles the best in you sort of get approached for that you sort of say oh not this again anyone you're looking at me like you walk there I'm gonna do you like baby you know what I'm going to say very poignant essay on precisely this topic well it's funny I guess I came into this kind of they say you're referring to kind of speak about representation right yes that's really I think what we all do that's kind of the business that we're in and I kind of feel like sometimes when you when you first start seeing gay characters in mainstream culture or black characters or Muslim characters they can start off as the kind of stereotype stereotypical portrayal is a cab driver the shopkeeper the drug dealer yeah you know the shopaholic queen and then sometimes hopefully you kind of move beyond that and it's still storylines that are tied to that characters ethnicity it's still tied to their sexuality but they're kind of working against those stereotypes and I was lucky in a way that I came into the game just when we're moving from that stage one caricature kind of thing into stage two so a lot of my early work kind of deals with the issues around the war on terror or Islamophobia but I'm proud to say I think it deals with those engages those issues in quite creative ways and I hope in ways that kind of move us forward rather than kind of doubling down on you know lazy stereotypes so so yeah I think it was a matter of timing but yeah there was a lot of kind of terrorists number three I just made a decision I wasn't going to do it I just thought I'd rather be broke it's just you know wasn't a way too easy to say no but or not I just yeah I was just felt like yeah there was a time when when I started and and and John and in those days if there was a gang and a movie or TV show like a street gang yeah there'd be two white guys two black guys two Mexican guys and then they always had like a bandana all of them had a bandana and they wore clothes kind of like 80s once the guys it did working for the weekend you know that band out of Canada anyway and it was always just to watch this and we go where the hell is this gang I thought you got two guys from Brentwood to God Compton Brentwood Terry don't worry and they were all in one gang together it's like how did this happen the rest for you and whatever points Jeffery or you and that you felt you were pigeon-holed and you were sir very eagerly trying to sort of get out of whatever Hollywood wanted to make of you oh I don't know I've you know been pretty fortunate to have a varied opportunity I guess lately there's been kind of focus on sciences and scientific you know oriented characters West world is included in that but I think they're you know I try to at least have some type of variety within even those kind of similar roles you know coming in from different angles I don't think you know I've one of the reasons I think that I've been able to work for a while as I don't as I appreciate the you know the the process of transformation you know having come from the theater and also been moved you know by actors who transform like you know Dustin Hoffman was like you know a big you know influence on me you know and I was younger and just like the magic of that you know kind of you know just just drawn to that aspect of what we do no Alec Guinness and you know I you know that's the magic of it for me so I don't feel that I've you know been pigeon holed in that regard because you know I've got no choice but to kind of be all over the map in order to survive it you know are there roles that you guys are not approached for but you would love to do mean types of things that you wish that that you were be after that they went to you mean do we envy anybody do you wish you could be you know that bad guy in a movie but are never approached for that type of role do you wish that well you know I was asked to do a role a few years ago and a lovely little movie called love is strange iris acts co-wrote and directed and it was a it was finally a role where I was asked to do no acting at all good the most kind of muted and inconspicuous role it was the role I'd been waiting for for years I guess because I have this rep as being a real actor ish hundred not necessarily an actor's actor but an actor ish actors and it was under fire which is such almost a relief and as a matter of fact sax himself the one direction that I heard from him more than any other was no acting yeah so I'm rich I'm curious with you so you come off of the night of which is this wonderful rich role but a dark role and Lena Dunham calls you finds you somehow and says hey I want you to come on girls and by the way you're going to impregnate my character and not really care walk me through what that conversation was like and how you sort of got to the point reason yeah let's do this well I'm just a fan of hers to be honest I think that she's a really singular distinctive voice and is something that I try and seek out you know in these early stages of my careers one is to try and challenge myself as you're saying to to try and transform if I can roles that we haven't done but the other is to just add on myself we've distinctive voices people who want really we're doing something different anyone else nothing Lena's one of those people so really when she called it was just I'll do anything I'll do anything you want me to how much did you know about what you were going to do um she kind of we spoke we Skyped and yes you should break it all down for me uh-huh and I said you didn't play a surf instructor and I was like no one ever thinks of me you can I think I can throw that open but that that's that's a key to not being pigeon-holed is having the ability to to to recognize directors and talent you know that are creative and open because you know I've had I had a conversation with a guy a couple months ago it was talking to wanted me to do this thing exact but I you know I can't really imagine what you might do and I was like that's good because I can't either but that was a problem for him yeah you know and so I was like you know I don't think this is a conversation we should continue but but but you know to avoid being pigeon-holed is is not is is really the choice in director the choice in collaborative partner you know which which is everything in this stuff that we do you know I would say that you know it's the best you know the best thing about the work that we do is that it's collaborative and and the worst thing about the work that we do is that it's collaborative okay yes depends on you know who you know who you're married to who you're collaborating with yeah doesn't say these real quick you talking about things that you'd like to do that you don't always get asked to do people always tell me about my character who seems like such a good guy and I like I wonder if he stands a good guy like like Randall is from mrs. s etcetera and is like I'm actually a dick and I'm taking like a total douchebag so I look forward to stepping into that and then showing that side there was a recent column written in the LA Times by former colleague of mine who wrote about really praised this is us yeah um because it he said it was the first time on television or at least in in his memory and I certainly can't remember another time where a black actor sort of portrayed a sort of quote the simmering rage of the successful black man in white America I'm which I loved and I thought was fascinating what does that mean to you and how important was it for you to portray precisely that you know what I love so much about the show and about the character of Randall is that he's black on purpose mhm when what I mean by that is so many times for the sake of diversity on network television there's going to be a black guy or you know a Latino guys cetera et cetera and by happenstance and then it just happened to be that but the fact that he is black and we actually use that to tell the story of a black man being raised by this white family who still has the experience of being black in a man and he is sort of coming to grips with the fact that regardless of his family he is perceived in this way right and he has to walk a very particular line because he will be treated differently than his brother or sister honor and I enjoy it a great deal and the feedback that I get from people when I'm out on the street like we don't get a chance to see this night that often like a successful black man married with this with two children who's happy and succeeding in life but still has to deal with the fact that life is not the same mm-hmm you know the paths that we walk are going to be different because you know what this little black kid was doing I don't I was a little boy living in Bethel Park Pennsylvania which is pretty much the whitest place on earth I had this little notebook and every time I met a new black person I would put a mark in this notebook and every time I met a black man I wondered if somehow if that man could possibly be my father someone was asking me other day like a white woman who had adopted two black sons she was saying like what types of things do I need to tell my son terms of how they be well when you're horsing around and playing and somebody gets singled out for being in trouble when your little black boy it's not just boys being boys there's an added level of legs you know scrutiny mm-hmm that someone has to undergo and gentlemen grats oh yeah no I consider it a privilege and a great responsibility to try to be as truthful to the characters pause I'm Curt Smith this is the show that that's run by a white man in the room that is presumably largely white how much of that is you you know adding to the character and trying to sort of capture that sort of fundamental anger that you're that you're about seven writers in our writers room and two of them were black a little more african-american as a matter of fact so I found that very very helpful because if I have I or the writers had a question or suggestion to Dan everybody was incredibly open and the collaborative aspect of it was welcomed in that aspect because Dan would say like I'm not a hundred percent sure about this sounds like let me give you my purse button I can give you all of black America back give you my proper and then hopefully that will ring true as we put it out into the world it's so great when you do something that's very successful and that you also feel so personally invested in yeah and you feel like you're making a difference I mean all of us actors aspire that we want to do well but we want to do good sure sure and to open people's consciousness hmm no question about using our own vision receiver I'm sure chef ray in your case with this character obviously there was a moment later in the season where everything shipped oh yeah but I how did you know going in were you told about that yeah shifter is that something you found out and over the course of the season and reading a script and said oh gosh I'm not who I thought I was found out that morning that you know I showed up to shoot the scene for that I yeah have been possible with this because you know I think what's interesting about the show is that there was this big reveal but if you look back at the previous episodes you'll see these breadcrumb there are now more fluorescent instead we're already there but we're just very subtle hints at where it was going consciousness is the turning upward a journey inward not a pyramid amazed every choice could bring you closer to the center or send you spiraling to the edges to madness do you understand now Dolores what the center represents whose voice I've been wanting you to hear so you know there are a lot of people online you know per day but it was everything was foretold you know and many of the the layers and and and you know and the reveals everything was told you know um so I didn't know when we shot the pilot um you know I'll be very careful I haven't quite caught up um but I was when when we came back to go into full production Lisa joy pulled me aside and said Bernard's you know incredibly articulate woman who stumbled around twenty thirty second I um he's very complicated how do I say this heaven and she dropped it haha yeah huh and so it was necessary because again there were little flashes of forecasting that I would throw in here and there just kind of you know based on that just little you know just informed little moments you guys like knowing where where these characters are going is it helpful did you know in your case yeah well I feel like in the case of a play or film you know the beginning and a middle and end of the script so if you're in a position in television where the where the shoulder knows what the architektur is not me and that allows me to help shape that you know that journey with you yeah um the idea of not knowing I guess that can can be exciting but I like to know I've been in two situations now where when I was offered a role first was Dexter and the second is trial and error uh-huh where the writers told me the entire story but told me that I couldn't tell anyone including all the actors are working Wow so I went through Dexter playing the Trinity Killer with all these secrets they didn't intend to tell me everything but when they pitched it to me I kept saying no but what about this what about that so I knew the whole story nobody else did including two directors how I'm sure there was a moment when our city my character was sitting at a counter watching TV and a murder was being reported and it was clear to the viewing audience that I had done the murder crack I had not and the director Keith Gordon really good director he said something to me which betrayed the fact that he didn't know himself Wow and I had to take him aside until you know what's going on don't ya and it didn't go perfectly and I'm a clear we great there was so much tension this gutter of secrecy including the crew they were obsessed with the show they're similar what was going on with us we all had our own individual secrets bro and you know maybe a flurry of texts you know when this window when we revealed you know between cafes what we think about each other some were you know I knew a bit because there were you know multiple layers to you know to this day I knew a bit more than most I was you know cuz I was satisfied with my you know my my pile of knowledge yeah there were some who were yeah they were you know angling for more yeah they're getting vetting betting lines being uh being offered in odds being uh yeah that's great so you and you play on on Fargo to Vero to brothers but very different different types of roles you have one who is the sort of handsome self-made mogul and the other one is a balding pot-bellied guy who serves down on his luck and sort of have a chip on the shoulder which for you was more fun to play more freeing to play we more comfortable in one versus the other well they're both because they're both very different they're satisfying in different ways and the and it and I don't I don't have a favorite in terms of playing them because they're both interesting to play but I think in terms of like liking them I like Ray the race there's the the premise of this season of Fargo that I'm doing is that there's two brothers an older and younger who when their kid teenagers I think when raised 15 and Emmett is 17 their father passes away and I draw in their driveway and in his will he leaves Emmett a red Corvette he's the older brother and he leaves ray a stamp collection and that that's what they and so what else does all the power the show starts of course but what happens is Emmett persuades Rae to take the Corvette and raise probably a virgin and hasn't and so he says you'll get laid if you drive this car and Annie and he takes a stamp collection and he goes on to have an incredibly successful life as a businessman he becomes a parking lot king of Minnesota and his brother who know has a red Corvette ends up living a shitty life in this but parole officer and has a red Corvette look you're lucky I don't sue I mean a legal document which delineates things between them to specific parties that a father dead in a driveway an older boy taking advantage of a younger plan nobody took advantage it was a trade if I had a time machine you'd see I'd play back the tape Emmett come on I'm begging you take the stupid stance already give me the car that's not that was you tricking me ray but he's also just fallen in love with this incredible character Nikki swangle played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead and she's so out of his league like drop-dead gorgeous and clever and and and what's happened I found by playing them this but and it's interesting that we're doing this during the sort of Trumpy era is that Ray has become sort of the embodiment of love you know they like I'm playing this man who's so in love and he's got a soul in a heart and Emmett is the businessman and he has a wife and a family's a faithful man and but everything's sort of compartmentalized in a way he's sort of soulless and I and it's sort of raised more fun to play because it's much more fun to be in love than it is to be someone like Trump yeah yep fair enough time to talk politics about our problem yeah a few of you here are certainly Billy you're one who moves very fluidly back and forth comedy-drama do you a get treated differently in one versus the other and B are you more at ease in one or the other honest to god I I'm known for playing all these different types of characters I play myself every time I believe at least for me I'm not going to do my best work if I'm playing someone other than myself and the way I looked at things this is also you know you have to remember this is my experience I'm not saying so everybody will agree with this but I never saw an acting coach or a director or anybody make a good actor of better I've seen them make them worse mm-hmm and I've never seen one make a bad actor good I believe that there are a lot of personalities within someone yeah and that if you have life experience and you've seen a lot if you're a good observer and you behave exactly as you would in any given situation as yourself because the character tells you already you read a script hey how did you come up with whatever it's there's no explanation for it at least in my case I read the script I know what the guy looks like how he is and like in my season of Fargo I played this cat Lorne Malvo and it was so perfectly written that I didn't have to go in there and be the [ __ ] I usually am changing everything whatever yes yes but uh what I did do that was probably different than maybe they envisioned it was I played it much more low-key and laconic mm-hmm then maybe they'd thought which was the case in a movie called a man who wasn't there which I did with the Coen brothers which is the same kind of deal if you imagine Ed crane and the man who wasn't there losing some vivid sort of the same huh oh so that's a thing to add to more specifically answer your question the thing that I find in comedy is as opposed to drama is that I tend to not be very funny around a comedy set anything I on the other hand find myself very funny dramatic set you need that levity know what that is about because there's a certain energy that going back to the character in the man who wasn't there who most the time was just smoking and sitting on a couch or something or cutting somebody's hair I would talk to people right up to the time they would say rolling and make jokes run around I was wasn't that way at all that way when I'm sitting there still the energy of what I was just doing is still there I was never the type of guy if I was going to be still and like thoughtful and I seen the kind of guy who went in the corner and starts getting thoughtful and no method and that was right mm mm-hmm and or gobbling in the hallway or you know thinking about when your daddy ran over your puppy or whatever god I always just behave however I'm behaving so and then let that carry over in the scene and if you're out there trying to you know crack jokes with everybody on a comedy set once you get in the scene you're kind of blue I already mean I think because I don't and also I don't like to look at when young actors ask me advice I'll always say never look at a character as this mountain you have to climb and when you talk about the character don't say well you know Brad's the kind of guy who you know if you separate yourself from that character you've already lost in a lot of ways because if you're looking at characters a hill you have to climb a thing you have to become then your play-acting yeah and if you don't think about it mm-hmm and okay you're playing Bill Johnson here or whatever that runs a tractor shop in Nebraska just go in there when the scene starts and stir yapen yeah you know as opposed to sort of like I got to become Bill Johnson what do I do you know I just put some making teeth in or whatever it is Ben hi I'm Bill John you just don't do yeah so I'm curious oh you win the Golden Globe for Goliath and you've said I think in the press room backstage that you had wanted to play a guy who's had to fight his way back from nowhere because it was something that you related to what did you mean by that and in what ways do you relate to this Billy character well first of all this it was a fun not fun it was good playing a character who had the same name mm-hmm helpful because some I think Billy and you look so that was great I uh I played myself on that show pretty much and the really true sense of of that you know uh I didn't ever do much I I wasn't real patient on that on that first season you know I was a an irritable year inside my head how did that manifest itself every time somebody pissed me off I said look man you know don't do that you know and so people thought that was really good show but it was pretty real your co-stars around the table and get the real story they're saying no I mean I wasn't a story I'm just saying that you know it's like I was a commentator yes but it was a I like the idea of a guy who who knows what it's like to be somebody huh and right now they're not huh I like that idea sure and and you know it started out as well is it Paul Newman and the verdict or what you know but then it takes it on its own life and goes in other directions you know but the hardest thing honestly for me in that as well as movies like like an Armageddon the hardest thing for me is always if have a bunch of technical stuff to say mm-hmm like lawyer stuff charge if ya jargon if you have to say stuff like that I want to be able to say it knowing what it means well like I was saying we'll take that up with my hearing because I'm sure your honor knows is a good judge would even the corrupt kind that by holding me in contempt you entitled me to a hearing a hearing in which I'm allowed to introduce evidence including but not limited to misdeeds by defense counsel and here's the good one judicial bias that's right Your Honor I said judicial bias just put it on my tab if you don't know what it means and you're just listing stuff off audiences are not stupid they can tell them yep and so what do you do you go talk to NASA guys and hang out some astronaut since I hate when I say this what the hell does that mean and they tell you okay now I can say that with confidence you are in your and I played an air traffic controller one time in the 90s pushing 10 right sharp and I went there traffic control school accuse AK and I both went to air traffic control school on Toronto and I actually did it I mean I can land a plane in Newark yeah but you got to learn that stuff or you can't just say no and and so I found that the hardest thing on the Goliath was learning what all this legal stuff been and once I knew what it meant and then you feel like a lawyer and my wife says I'm like a lawyer anyway you know I kind of am tell you the truth I love that no that's one of my one of the things I enjoy most about what we do is the research aspect to actually get a nominal amount of research for this role um well yeah I mean I guess I just I agree with you the inside of us you know we will contain the possibility of being each other you know within us under a different set of conditions yeah you know if the given circumstances change I'm more like you you're more like me and we all kind of slaves to the circumstances that the breed us in suits situation breeds character I agree with that I do thing that you need to have sometimes those reference points you know as you did the air-traffic controller so playing a kid from Queens in New York and the Knicks fan I don't know about basketball no I guess I'm don't even know how to pronounce no I do know what is that process yeah I did all the research I could about New York inks and yeah really under the skin you got it you nailed it but it's interesting because when you start doing that it's crazy what that opens up and the idea of just being a hardcore sports fan who can't play the sport at all at all really and what's that about being a spectator in life and of living your life like watching other people live out your dreams always wanting to be in the game but just being sound of sidelines and lots of interesting stuff like that open up I guess something like something else I really enjoy doing because I'm always asked to play outside of my own accent so I started off being just for those purposes I interview people and record them but what I found in doing that is I guess so much more the crazy story Mina then you you spent time and you went to Rikers or yeah I went to Rikers Island prison which thankfully they're closing now because some of the stories that I heard there what were you wearing then what we know it's like even if you forget if you turn up there as a new inmate if you turn up there is a corrections officer the peon mates will test you so if you turn up your new guy the inmates will start messing with you or just disobeying you or like you know being verbally abusive and you've got to prove yourself and I said well what does that mean how do you do just your extra harsh with laying down the rules no you have to fight them it's like how do you mean like how do you fight them psychologically as I know you take the mountain cards you go out into the corridor you make sure the cameras are show off there and you uncross them and you call it oh that's how you that's how you you know win respect as a CEO so there's a kind of crazy gladiatorial dog-eat-dog situation there and interviewing people that been to Rikers been through the prison system yeah I mean those stories are all very flashy and they stick with you but it was a kind of detail of things like how people just let go of you know it's just it's too painful after a while it's just like you don't want to you don't want that umbilical cord to survive yo to actually use that cell phone my game why'd you say no this is mine [Music] what what I think I was just trying to save the chip to the payphone so Cass I'm seeing dummy $10 a minute oh I'm going to make a proper convict out of you yet so interviewing is something that I really enjoy doing I kind of go nuts on that and just forward people for hours and every now and again you hear someone in the way they talk and it's like it makes you sit up and can't quite explain it and you're like that's the cadence so that's the thing prison is an interesting place I've shot in a lot of prisons and that's that's an environment that can really put you put you in there and you get it right away and you start to see how people operate and everything we were shooting monsters ball in Angola prison and Louisiana we call it the farm show that you shot in Angola yeah yeah very interesting guest and Sean Combs who was in the movie no you know he wasn't an actor you know he was a huge huge stoner I'm good here yeah and I'll talk to you I'll tell you all about her go on later uh but but Sean said to me is it seen when he was going to the electric chair and we shot it on the actual death row and it was an electric chair they always used their right well Sean is in there before the scene and they shaved his head and all this kind of stuff and and he said to me he said listen man I'm nervous as hell because I I'm doing because this is not my back he goes I'm in the music business he goes I know you are too he said you're on stage you grew up as a musician he goes but I don't know if you need this but whatever you need in the music business if I can give you any tips about like moves on stage I said I'm not really a move yeah it's a human right yeah right and I said that's okay but I said but man just anything you exude help me yeah I just you got anything for me you know because I'm nervous yeah and I said well you vote you already there dude yeah yeah yeah and he says what you mean I said you're going to electric chair hmm and he goes oh yeah yeah 11 so in a real time I don't know if you guys are getting this but like it's almost like I feel like it's a process of the process of acting the process of getting out of your own way mm-hmm it's like the thing is happening that's if you surrender yourself to the circumstances not only on the page but on the set sometimes things have a weird way of mirroring dynamics and not mirroring each other John Turturro and I have this kind of relationship on the show he takes me under his wing and it kind of became a bit like that on the on the show sure you know and it's really fascinating I think the way that those dynamics end up replicating himself on and off to shadow shadow films this thing on the prison being familiar shot a film last year and I'm in a working maximum-security prison out in Indiana largely with inmates in the cast my co-star is a young man he's 34 years old he's in for 65 years there's another young man who's in for 170 years and plays one of the heavies his sentence was reduced from 210 another guy was an extra I was on death row for seven years talk about oh you know atmosphere kind of informing behavior and you know I think I'm still trying to figure out how we received this piece you know and I think it's it's I hope what we've done in in this piece is that we've it may be an act of forgiveness I think often we make films about prison or we make films about use of social importance and as artists we often leave the problem-solving to others you know we kind of raise the red flag of alert but we don't necessarily get our get involved with you know the dirty work of solution but I think what was interesting about this process was that built into it was a kind of solution in that it was you know a collaboration of unlikely partners coming together with men who are you know the wretched of the earth you know who have been completely you know forgotten and asking them to do something humane and do something positive and I think it can be replicated in other forms not just in filmmaking but it also required a human lens to view them and I think if we were to understand criminality they provide difficult and the drivers behind what led these men to this place then that's the necessary necessary lens but you know as you say in the era of Trump unfortunately that's not where we're you know how we're viewing complex issues through on sighs so anyway but I know I think it's I think it's really you know important point beautifully made man because I think we're living in a time right now where so many people are being dehumanized and it's a strange thing right now as a nice to just say being one team humans is really exact perfectly with the types of projects you want to do the types of roles you want to play in this era hope so do hope so hope so for everyone I mean it shouldn't be just about entertainment you you hope to be able to give people a break from certain things but hopefully you can also educate and edify people at the same time you know it's it but this is us has been the biggest comment that I've got an event like it brings people together in a very interesting way and it's the one show that's sort of it's a very family-oriented show it's about connection and it's so interesting because we have you know gay folks and you have overweight people and you have black folks and and going out into communities that may not have an opportunity to see things that are quite as heterogeneous as the show is and the more homogenized places in the country and in the world they're having an opportunity to meet people for the first and hopefully through meeting people the next time they encounter them they see them as people yep not some first time's a-wastin because I think it's certain stories or certain storytellers are kind of encumbered with the responsibility of being seen as political whether they like you or not work you know because sometimes it's like the first story of that type or you know thinking of some of the kind of transactions is in orange is the new black wheels on prefer or I mean I know the the Khan family in in the night of I fingers you know it's a Muslim American family right and it's being put and but a weird thing is is that I don't think that's a political act that wasn't a political decision that's it was doubling down on affirming or common humanity which is really a kind of baseline for all creativity it's nothing like crazily it's not a renegade move to do that but then you know a couple of months after the show comes out the dominoes fall and if people start doing it through a different lens but yeah I do believe it's you know its responsibility to engage at the time that we're living in sure you know a merit Meryl Streep's kind of extremely noticeable speech at the Golden Globes yes he's very political speech but she also there was a long passage in that speech which kind of defined what we're talking about when she said our job is to inhabit other people it's an empathetic gesture to be other people to inform I can she put it much better than I can but if I remember it correctly I just written down today she's right just to just to show people what it's like to be them and in a sense that's that's our mission at the best of times I mean that our most idealistic aspirations to do exactly that to just show people how other people feel absolutely active the active empathy is is a is treasure right now it's so important right now because yeah the these are the UH Napa thetic and and I tend to think though because I guess because I grew up in Washington DC that everything is political and I think even in the absence of a political gesture there's politest that is that almost the most political kind of yeah because it's kind of reinforcing a status quo if I'm not commenting or challenging it in any word and I've always found it sorry no no no Carrie I've always found it weird that people kind of would often say to me why do we do political work and the weird thing is is like I'm just telling there are certain subsets of stories that are open to me to tell you know and I'm glad to say that that subset is kind of expanding and I think that is maybe kind of progress whether a vehicle progress or social progress or cultural progress but it's weird because I think politics is just a point of view in the world and every story has a point of view on the world I think if it's just a point of view you're not used to hearing or seeing it suddenly gets labeled as political concern marginalized from the mainstream exactly the back of this DVD store with like you know the subtitled films uh-huh but actually you know what we think of as mainstream stories or stories are political are very political innovation absence of interrogators as well so we're good friends when friend shows in New York you know absent people of color you know that's that's there's politics in that it leads to an understanding of you know among those homogeneous communities in their on tree that you know that you know one of that in store looks like they exactly it validates their own isolation and and leads to you know a misunderstanding of the complexity of who we are migrate migrate turn but did you hear from the royal family what was the sort of feedback and we were quite taking a total left turn yeah um so I am curious in terms of feedback of seeing yourself on screen did you hear from family and no it is that in a sense that's kind of what the series is about there's this separation to not of church and state but of the monarchy and the public they never say anything hmm their job is to do nothing say nothing and there's Peter Morgan who wrote the script he he has modeled he has created scenes where they talk about this very idea never lived in the sea the real Elizabeth Windsor the cameras the television never let them see that carrying the crown is often a burden let them look at you but let them see okay they determine what the monarchy is so much of it is about about doing nothing in betraying I think and they betrayed nothing about whether they've seen the show or whether they like it they're little rumors to put letters whether words whatever I had a nickel for every time someone has asked me what if the royal family think but everybody's the fact is they are the most public and the most private people in the world and the only people that they can honestly let down their hair with and confide in if they do have to speculate on that too is each other we're in a little tiny little bubble in Buckingham Palace for some reason this is something that has really intrigued people they're fascinated about what pressures this put on this puts on royal people and Morgan has just done this remarkable act of speculation what are the conversations like between the Queen and the Prime Minister because nobody knows except the two of them well it's that you finally sort of drew back the curtain on this world that I think we didn't know a lot about now we feel like we do and yet whether that's real or not how they're reacting we don't have any idea surely must be based on some real source material as well right yeah Morgan did unbelievable research and he had a little team of researchers researchers and they circulated laid out all this information for him and might my notion is that he just picked these little episodes these tiny little details and expanded each one of them into an hour of drama like so many extraordinary little one-act plays with amazing characters you know and Churchill is just this very he's demand from the political world the Prime Minister who is the only one who intersects with rural world it was just sort of surprisingly fascinating I can imagine a really dull soap opera about the world now and that's what not is completely fascinating because he he paid so much attention to the psychological tensions among I mean you have stories like two sisters one of whom jealous of the other what how different that is when they're both when they're they are a queen and a princess who actually exists were a husband and wife one of whom becomes queen and the other suddenly emasculated I mean that's that is a fantastic psychological tale to tell absolutely I mean it couldn't be more rarified or more different from what we're talking about in terms of American reality so you guys have played these roles some of them dark some of the light they're all intense in their ways how do you escape when they're over when they yell wrap what is that sort of prize I think it's something all of us know very well I myself go into this predictable two-week state of gloom this this wonderful world has been taken away from you because while you're working on a play or a film or sitcom you're in this social organism you're in this creative process you're also very much catered to and taken care of your words are written for you audience you know applauding for you all of this is taken away from you and you just rejoined the quotidian world if you have a wife she's suddenly very very testy with you Ben uh-huh buddy but you know it's it's just because of the joy of acting you take all that away for a period of time so what does this cape look like for the rest of you know for me it's fairly simple I'm a young father I got a five-year-old an 18 month old and once once you go home it's there's no it's just your dad uh-huh and it's a it's a wonderful thing because you spend so much time necessarily thinking about yourself in this business it's nice to have something that mandates that takes you outside of your head and just is like I need you to be my dad mm-hm I need to you don't care about that anything to wipe my booty like I need to do whatever it is like and it's just automatically like okay cool absolutely it's wonderful yeah it's an extremely important thing in your life to have something that's more important to you than your not else and then I actually think that that's also kind of driver for the best work that we do when the work that we do isn't isn't about us and on a basic level I say you know when it's about the other character when it's about the scene I don't know I feel like sometimes when you when you're connected to it may just be a delusional notion of a higher purpose to work whether it's you know when you're working in prison you know what you were talking about about kind of representing in a kind of unseen archetype for a successful black man or I feel like that somehow brings out our best work mm-hmm but maybe no one does anything crazy come on there's not like a crazy trip that you take post well post or in the midst of I mean I've found actually kind of a fantastic relief relief that's like you know kind of change really kind of changed my life in many ways working out here on West world I live in New York my kids are there they they're they're older now so I was also I allow myself they allow me to go away a bit more than 15 and 11 to go away a bit more than I have in the past it was also kind of an arranged that I would be on week on week off so I could get back so I was flying back and forth but when I was here I found found the ocean here um and I finally discovered the singular advantage of Los Angeles over New York is the ocean so when I wasn't working I you know was I was staying up in Santa Clarita where we shot a lot and I straight to the ocean and you know surf and get in the waves and just be cleansed and away from it all and you know not that you know it was a necessary escape but I just found it you know clarifying revitalizing all these things and and then I go back home to my kids you know and do that but that's that's become my thing so when are you know even if I'm in the middle of Indiana you know I'm you know finding the nearest and ocean I want to say one more thing though just with Mike my kids go back to kids you know and they do you know ask you know they do demand everything of us my son said something to me before I went to do this movie because I've done a few things since we finished Westworld and been away you know a bit more than and he said after you know he saw the show you know Westworld he which he was really kind of enthralled by and he understood that you know they were kind of necessary things that needed to be done too you know because he does like the school that he attends and it's you know it's not a public school but he said when I left for this I said you know I got to go back you know away again I hope you know I'll be back when I can on weekend so he said okay he said make it count oh and it was like and so you know I have my mom I have life you know sometimes I have like mantras that out you know that I'd you know a drop in before I do something just to kind of you know get my head yeah it's become one of my mantras you know it's about something other than and bigger than yourself yeah and that's what you're motivate the best worker I love like you have a fun escape mine's the same as there's kids will need I don't allow me yeah we never do any I got my favorite story along this line in the 50s when Sid Caesar after he'd done your show shows he did a show called the Sid Caesar show it was working as a saw he was producing and performing and making comedy and had little kids and he came home to his daughter he always tried to come home in time to put her to bed but he was a little late she was kind of drowsy he came in to say good night she said daddy why are you never here when I go to bed well you know honey I have to work so hard you know on the show she said well what show well you know this in Caesar show and she said you're Sid Caesar we're going to take one more left turn just to report off which is what was the show growing up that you guys absolutely loved the 18th the Sid Caesar show the 18 for you I tell you one for me I was a junior or sophomore in high school with where I felt like television had done something that was very unique and special and it was in my PD blue all right and I remember watching it like nine o'clock Tuesday nights on ABC I was like I never seen like it's like real people like this is I got like like my breath got taken away from I'm the whole thing and I was like maybe this is something that I could do I would like to do that by growing up where I was from acting always meant in a very naive way like putting on types and speaking in a very high saluting way and I've worn types and spoken - ooh tell but to see that show and just like how this is raw you know is real I got very very excited about it and so all through grad school I was like one day I'm gonna be on NYPD Blue like y'all go away and the show's around and I made it into the last season with a co-star oh and I walked around the set and I was talking to friends I was like you know this is clearly hot you really like the show be where the blue is good I love that Union and I'm just thinking of all lots of comedy shows really have written you know Larry and why the more Martin wide and I don't know why guy well I guess when you grown up that was the kind of thing we watched on the week you know weekends when you think we'll go to watch television yeah I don't know I said another favor like I love mash I remember really loving mush I don't know this will date me I mean I'm clearly the oldest at the table like like I I really did love the early 50s comics on television yeah Bob Hope Milton Berle and since these are showing your show shows so vividly I mean they were and of course there was only three networks if that everybody was watching yeah yes and I had occasion to do a photo session with Milton Berle himself when at the height of 3rd rock it was sort of new TV and old TV comedy a real whack job a way of teaching me all sorts are stick with a cigar and I wasn't wild but we sort of hit it off for those few hours and that the Emmy Awards I think I presented an Emmy Award that was backstage a couple of years later and it was the night when Milton Berle Bob Hope and Sid Caesar were brought brought out on a stove that Bob Hope literally in a cannot halt and quit was carried out the audience's went mad just before then Milton Berle took me over and introduced me to these old guys in the serve half-light of backstage this is incredible for a moment I was 7 years old again it's funny that we've you know mentioned comedy you know I'll make some comedy because I think for me as well and if there's like if you you know if I pick up like a favorite Joan it's much more difficult now as you say be good back then we were all watching the tree Jam but it was a Sanford and Son Oh about to sing and it was because well normally yes but because I think red fox is one of the greatest performers that T is yeah yeah yeah telling the family I was just on the same level right oh yeah for sure it's funny that comedy you know called you so why are we not doing a comedy yes exactly thank you guys all for being part of my thank you all of you guys and I got honor to be we've done hi I'm Oprah have Easter Egg Katherine oz Kevin Bacon Billy Bob Thornton Elisabeth Moss Kris Jenner Minnie Driver and thanks for watching take Spanx thanks for watching thanks for watching The Hollywood Reporter on YouTube on YouTube hold on be sure to hit subscribe for more videos cool

Channel: The Hollywood Reporter

Views: 590,561

Rating: 4.8882408 out of 5

Keywords: thr, the hollywood reporter, hollywood reporter, entertainment, hollywood, jeffrey wright, westworld, riz ahmed, the night of, john lithgow, the crown, ewan mcgregor, fargo, billy bob thornton, goliath, sterling k brown, this is us, hbo, netflix, netflix original, interview, drama, drama actor, drama series, emmy, emmys 2017, drama roundtable, actor, drama actor roundtable, emmy roundtable, tv, tv series, roundtable 2017, full roundtable, thr roundtable, roundtable, television, 2017

Id: A6lLYpx05Gs

Length: 69min 34sec (4174 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 10 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/craftasopolis]

Billy Bob Thornton is so sincere. This was a quality post!

[u/twizzwhizz11]

Great all around - sincere conversation and contributions from everyone.

Shout out to Riz - he was so articulate and thoughtful in his responses.

[u/holy_cockroach]

Yes! I have waited some time for this to be released.

[u/marlefox]

Man, seriously, watch this. It's totally worth it even if you don't know all the actors. I got chills when they all talked about empathy in the role of acting and, in the same vein, the subject of political correctness was pretty enlightening too. They all have such awesome perspectives and brains to pick apart.

[u/biscuitime]

Really fascinating talk, thanks for this.

I'd not heard of this channel before and I'm currently watching the Director's one. I'll probably lose the rest of my week to the others if they're just as good.

edit: the moderator is slightly annoying though. Let them speak!

[u/Puppy34]

This was fantastic. Need more!