Interviews

Kenneth Branagh talks to AwardsDaily TV about the complexity of Masterpiece’s Wallander and about finding the truth in portraying Alzheimer’s.

There aren’t enough hours in the day to talk to someone like Kenneth Branagh.

For those uninitiated in the world of talent interviews, you’re normally allotted around twenty minutes of their time. Sometimes you luck out, and you can talk that into 30 minutes. Sometimes more. Such was not the case with the extraordinarily talented – and extraordinarily busy – Kenneth Branagh. Talking with Kenneth Branagh is akin to taking a master class in acting theory. The man is so rich, so full of tremendous insight into the craft of acting, that asking questions feels a bit like being in said class when you didn’t read the text the night before.

Still, Kenneth Branagh (or “Ken” as he graciously asked me to call him) is an incredibly kind and professional person, extremely approachable despite his award-filled pedigree. His latest project, the final series of  PBS’s Masterpiece presentation of Wallander which was based on the celebrated Swedish crime novels by Henning Mankell, is an engaging and intense journey into neo noir. Ranging in locales from sunny South Africa to the hazy grey of Sweden, Wallander is, at its heart, a brilliant character study of a man growing and changing as life continues to hand him difficult circumstances. Based on the final Wallander novel, The Troubled Man, which aired late May on PBS’s Masterpiece, sees Kenneth Branagh as title character Kurt Wallander struggle with the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s. Needless to say, it’s a powerful and honest portrayal of someone suffering from the disease. It never falters or becomes melodramatic. Branagh’s turn feels real and true. I should know. My grandmother died from the disease.

Kenneth “Ken” Branagh talked to me about the challenge of finding the truth in Wallander’s circumstance and the overall acting choices he made to bring this celebrated character to the small screen one final time.  He received an Emmy nomination for the role once before in 2009. Here’s hoping Emmy voters look beyond the noise of the awards season to embrace this quietly devastating series and Kenneth Branagh’s stellar work in it.

AwardsDaily TV: Kenneth Branagh, it’s an honor to speak with you today. I can’t tell you how surreal this is. I grew up watching your films. Dead Again was probably the first time I truly realized what cinema could really do.

Kenneth Branagh: Oh that’s so nice to hear. It’s a favorite film of mine actually because it was such a great experience to work with Scott Frank and on an unusual script… We got tucked away in little corner of Paramount as it were, and it was somehow like an underground studio. We somehow got away with it. I have very fond memories of the making of it and of the film itself.

KB: I think that I try to – you have to as best you can – to leave things at the office. It was particularly true of exploring this notion of dementia and Alzheimer’s which [Henning] Mankell describes in the book. The nature of acting requires finding this sort of state of openness to what the character requires in turn, and yet not being so married to it or carrying so much away from it that you are sort of undermined as a human being because that’s ultimately not helpful to you. It’s certainly not helpful to the art that you’re trying to produce, but it’s not always easy, especially with intense subject matter that is about what being a human is like. That’s what you are, so you are the raw material. It’s a very interesting thing to contend with because you’re aiming for truth, but you have to function as a human being and yet you cannot be too dryly technical otherwise the audience somehow intuits this. They understand it. They know when your’e being a phony. So, you’ve got to find a way to get on with the doing of it. Wallander has always been like that for me. In the fourth season, I got better at walking away from the scene or the take or the day and into just being who I was and not carrying Kurt’s burdens.

ADTV: I can imagine you’d have to. Looking at season four, there’s a certain melancholy or depression that seems to hang over Wallander through the season. What keeps Kurt Wallander pushing forward?

KB: Well, in a way, it’s his newly discovered passion for his family, for his granddaughter. Across the previous nine films, the challenges of those relationships functioning were always difficult whether it was the impact of his divorce on the relationship with his daughter or the permanent effect of the work on his relationships generally. What I find poignant about that last season is that Mankell has him with the awareness of his diabetes attempting to be – in Wallander terms – fitter and better, more nutritionally aware. Actually exercising. Actually shaving. Actually taking more notice of things and seeing their impact as well.

Generally, what keeps him going in this instance is family and particularly the enjoyment of that cross-generational thing with his granddaughter. A lot of grandparents note this special bond that they have when they don’t have the direct responsibility but they’re at a stage in their life when they really appreciate the playfulness of that young person. I suppose he sees this tremendous potential, and he sees in a way a symbol of why he does what he does which is to try and protect and preserve the world for the life and livelihood of his granddaughter.

Suddenly, the kinds of questions the asks in the first film of the last season – Do we make a difference? – are in part answered by, well, yes because we make a difference to the lives of five, six, seven year old kids who have their whole lives in front of them. That is a driving factor. Also, I think he welcomes Clara’s [his granddaughter’s] curiosity, and her sense of fun. His relationship with her is so much simpler. In a way, he sees in that connection with a younger generation, I suppose, a way to have a simpler life away from his work and away from, as you say, his melancholy that comes with the preoccupation with violent crime.

ADTV: Watching Wallander season four, I’m struck by how quiet and contemplative your performance is. Of course, Wallander, due to the nature of his job, is constantly observing. What are you playing internally as you navigate a scene?

KB: I think that my observation of policemen and women, particularly in Sweden, is that they are highly observant, highly attuned, and sensitive individuals – people who listen well – and who are reading not only for signs of practical evidence of the forensic kind… but who are looking for and attempting to interpret these behavioral signs in individuals that can often be the key to understanding the guilty that the perpetrator of a crime might have. The psychological read on people is key, and in order to do that the capacity to be entirely in the moment and sort of neutral, allowing someone who you may be suspicious of as a criminal to reveal themselves.

As an actor, it seemed to me a great way to try and be as utterly present in the scene with the other actor as possible and in the situation. Of course, we try and do this all the time, but the seemingly naked requirement of it in this is a particular quality that Wallander has. He’s often vulnerable and apparently opaque, and I think this allows people to either ignore him or say things to him they might not to other people because he isn’t pushing a particular behavioral tic. He’s not trying to over impress them with his personality. He’s often leaving silences in which that person may either implicate themselves or they simply may reveal an emotional depth that wouldn’t be possible without that particular gaze and his listening.

The requirement as an actor was this very difficult thing to do which is to be try and be simple and be right there in the moment of connection with that other character. I found this completely fascinating because you keep having to try and stop acting and doing and try to provide as much being as possible. Ultimately, you want all of that. The result that you’re after is unaffected, simple truth, but technically and imaginatively it’s an elusive place to find. Kurt Wallander as a character makes you pursue it and attempt to find it as an actor.

ADTV: The final chapter of series four – The Troubled Man – shows Wallander confirming a diagnosis of dementia or Alzheimer’s. Knowing that the series would reach this point, did that diagnosis inform your overall series four performance?

KB: Yeah, it did. I found that Wallander audiences are so attuned to the sort of micro-subtleties of what the show does. They’re very patient with the fact that the show takes its time. It’s definitely one of its characteristics. In the episode in South Africa, the beginnings of a certain kind of dizziness, a slight minor key, low-impact disorientation, start to apply themselves. Yes, Ben Caron, who directed all three of the episodes, was very helpful in trying to find ways that eagle-eyed viewers would start to, like Wallander himself, catch and question in terms of what was normal in the context of Kurt Wallander. Trying to chart that was most interesting.

With Wallander, even though his spirit some might describe as sort of heavy, the ways in which he reveals himself are very, very lightly done, so it was again trying to be as subtle and effortless as possible but still leave the viewer clues as to the beginnings of this descent into a darker place which wasn’t his normal melancholy or preoccupation or obsession. It was beginning to be the first signs of being actually lost. It was great to be able to do it and chart it across the first couple of episodes until it becomes overwhelming to him and us in the final chapter.

KB: Well, I remember being struck many years ago by a friend of mine who told me the story of his own father who was a very together individual going missing on a local golf course and club to which he had belonged and where it had been a place that very much represented the person he was – very together, very ordered, very an in-charge alpha male kind of guy. It was at this very same golf course wandering semi-naked… his father had been found using language that he wouldn’t have normally used in any circumstances before and being violently disorientated. As this friend told me, that image stuck with me. I knew his father, and I knew what he’d been. It was very hard to imagine what he had become. I certainly saw the impact of it on my friend.

As I started to think about how that would manifest itself, I found myself talking to more than a few people who had these very direct and strong personal experiences… where people they knew and loved and who were very sort of distinct in their personalities become something very, very different. So, it seemed to me that, for Kurt – a quietly passionate man, to literally lose his way… to be so close to home and lose his way… was also going to be an echo of what David Warner [who played Wallander’s father earlier in the series] had brought to the show. Poval, [Wallander’s] father, also goes missing and is found wandering on a road and who also has difficulty connecting with Kurt. I went back to those episodes to sort of remind myself of exactly what David had done and how his loss of self manifested itself. I started to put together all these pictures and images of people who had sort of described how a parent [suffers from the disease]. The confusion puts them in an almost Tourrets-like, driven, manic phase that can be part of that same struggle.

What I did find was that there were so many different versions of how these forms of dementia might manifest themselves. To some extent, I prepared for what was on the page and to some extent played it with Jeany Spark, who played my daughter and has across these 12 films… to try and sort of have in my mind the immense frustration of being, in his case, in a very familiar place – a field behind his house – and not knowing where it was and sort of critically who he was and perhaps most profoundly and pointedly and potentially damaging for him who she was.

ADTV: At the end of The Troubled Man, Wallander has a conversation with his dead father about his failing memory. The image of his father tells him “Someone else will remember for you.” Who do you think that “someone else” is in Kurt’s life? Is that his granddaughter, Clara?

KB: Well, his daughter and his granddaughter. Like all of Wallander and all of the complex and charged world around dementia, some of the voices in his head will remember for him… The people who will remember for him are both inside and outside of his own mind, but I think that you’re right to say that Clara is potentially the key… the simplicity and directness of their relationship… and also because of that the possibility to remove, what is clearly such a factor in certain forms of dementia, to remove more of the anxiety that people have about this thing that may be engulfing them. As troubled as this troubled man is, there is a sort of compassionate possibility in his story there may be support and stimulus and a way to experience it that does not contain only darkness.

I somehow felt Kurt maybe had something more to say than that. It may be just an Irish sentimentalist speaking, but I know that it’s been an absolute privilege to play the part, to have known Henning Mankell, and to have visited and spent time in that part of Sweden and with that particular kind of man. As they say, never say never.

ADTV: Is there another Kurt Wallander performance in you?

KB: I know that way back when Henning wrote the book, he said that’s the end. I don’t know. I left wondering is there another story that are the last moments before he goes into that good night or retires into a place that is sort of further away spiritually. As I watched that last film, I felt as a viewer, which is in no way objective, I didn’t want to leave him on that beach even with his family. I somehow felt Kurt maybe had something more to say than that. It may be just an Irish sentimentalist speaking, but I know that it’s been an absolute privilege to play the part, to have known Henning Mankell, and to have visited and spent time in that part of Sweden and with that particular kind of man. As they say, never say never.

PBS’s Masterpiece presentation of Wallander, starring Kenneth Branagh, completed in late May. You can find Wallander series four on iTunes and Amazon.

Golden Globe-winner Gina Rodriguez talks about the magic in Jane the Virgin.

Currently in London filming the new Alex Garland movie Annihilation, Golden Globe-winner Gina Rodriguez and I spent half our time talking about London and things she’s been doing there when she’s not filming. We almost forget to talk about Jane The Virgin. The CW show was shut out of the Emmys last year, but will things change this year? Gina Rodriguez was nominated for a second Golden Globe in the Best Comedy Actress category, and recently Emmy voters turned out for a For Your Consideration event, filling the room with tears of laughter.

If you’re not watching one of the funniest shows around, here’s a brief overview of why you need to catch up with the CW show before season three begins. Jane The Virgin stars Rodriguez as a virgin who gets accidentally artificially inseminated and ends up falling for the sperm donor. Jane hails from a Latino family, and that’s where the comedy arises. Comedy aside, the show deals with serious issues such as immigration and abortion. Many episodes have ended with cliffhangers that leave you waiting desperately for the next episode or next season!

I caught up with Gina Rodriguez to talk about season two and that wedding cliffhanger!

AwardsDaily TV: The emotions for the wedding episode ran the gamut and that dance with Rogelio was brilliant.

Gina Rodriguez: I love him so much.

ADTV: I did think, at one point, that the dance would not happen. I think everyone thought the same thing.

GR: With Michael getting shot, it’s the perfect suspense.

ADTV: Well, I was going to ask you, is Jane going to be a widow? There’s that episode where they say, “For as long as Michael lived, until he drew his very last breath.” Is that a foreshadowing?

GR: I don’t know that answer to that because I don’t know what’s going to happen. Jennie [Snyder Urman] keeps it real private. We see the following episodes the day before we start shooting it. We don’t really know anything in advance… maybe a few days in advance. So, I don’t know, but I don’t think so. My guess is not. After season one when Mateo got kidnapped, it was resolved quickly. In the same form from first to second season where she resolved it quickly, I have a feeling she’s going to do the exact same thing.

ADTV: On that episode, there were so many great moments – that silent moment between Jane and Rafael was one – but what were some of the stronger moments for you?

GR: I feel like this season was so magical. We had such an opportunity to play so many different characters with all the fantasy sequences. Jennie is so lovely in allowing all of us to do this kind of work. She just allowed me to fly where I got to do things where I wouldn’t as Jane in these fantasy sequence. It allows me to stretch my craft and to stretch and extend myself. The swimming, the rap, and the dance sequence are just some examples. Being able to dance with Derek Hough was such a highlight for me because I love salsa dancing, and I loved Derek Hough. It was magical.

All through the season, I get to play with comedy and with drama. Jennie does such a great job writing. As for the season finale, from that moment which is such a great moment with Rafael and Jane, the idea that we walk through life sometimes so selfishly. We don’t think about what our actions are going to do to somebody else. That was such a beautiful moment to show someone being selfless, and Rafael’s character being really selfless with Jane.

The exchanging of the vows was so emotional and so incredible. Michael doing his vows in Spanish, I love it, I died for it.

ADTV: I loved it so much.

GR: We do those scenes from five different angles. A master, a close-up, over the shoulder, a track. We do so many, to do that scene with Bret fifteen times where we were crying every single time. Working with somebody so strong like Bret Dier, being able to be so connected to someone in this fantasy world. It’s a fantasy because we’re not married, we’re not in love, we’re not going to run off into the sunset. We’re friends and co-stars, so to be connected to somebody so well that you could just get to that space every single time. That was a really long day. We shot the wedding sequence over multiple days. Looking back, I feel so lucky that I get to work with somebody so fantastic and that I get to work my craft, my tool, and my engine. Also to look and to feel so proud.

Just talking to you is a huge triumph because you put out your art and you do as much as you possibly can. You say, I’m not going to be stopped by whatever limitations people may think we have because are on The CW, and we have “Latino show.” We have a great showrunner that allows us to do amazing things. The whole season has been better than season one. She just keeps getting better. She just keeps writing these magical storylines, and these fantasy sequences that we really can exercise our craft. It’s freaking awesome, and I can not wait to get back to season three. As much as I love London and I want Jane to come to London, I’m so excited to be part of a project that I actually freaking love.

ADTV: Let’s talk about the guests. You’ve had Britney Spears, Derek Hough, and of course Bruno Mars on the show. Who else would you like to see on the show?

GR: The truth is, every single person who has been on the show has wanted to be on the show. I met Bruno at the Cotto/Canello fight. He and his girlfriend are such big fans of the show. He asked me to come to the suite, and we were talking about Jane. They were saying how much they loved it. It’s the same with Lupita. I saw her in Eclipsed on Broadway. She said it was the only thing that gets her out of this negative space after this heavy play I do every night. She told me how she goes home and watches re-runs and it’s lightens her life. The truth is, everyone who has been on the show has wanted to come on the show. This was my second audition and I booked it, so come and play, have an amazing time, experience love and art.

ADTV: I have to ask about your foundation, We Will. What’s going on with that and how can people volunteer?

GR: We just put the foundation up, this past year. We’ve already started to work in the WestSide family health center which is located in Santa Monica. The majority are latino patients, and there are 95 percent of Latinos who work in the clinic. We are also working with multiple camps across the country that help inner city youth find sports to get scholarships for college be it lacrosse or rowing or sports that aren’t really taught in inner city communities, outside of basketball and baseball.

There’s a large opportunity for scholarships for children of color to get, but they’re not being utilized because those children aren’t taught those sports. We’re working with organizations that are doing that. We’re just starting up and are in our first few months. We have an amazing awards show coming up. I’ll be executive producing that, our foundation will be a part of as well.

Hopefully, we’ll have more opportunities for volunteers coming up. At the moment, my sister runs the foundation and is collecting information as to who needs assistance. So WWHU foundations stands for, We Will Help You, We Will Serve, We Will Be There, We Will Assist. We’re continuing to raising money so that we can help who ever is in need.

You can find out more about the Will Will Foundation on Twitter. Gina Rodriguez and Jane the Virgin will be back for season three on The CW this fall.

ADTV talks to The Leftovers season two star Regina King on acclaimed series and on working with co-star Carrie Coon

The Leftovers‘ critically acclaimed second season saw a shift in setting to Jarden, Texas, a town unaffected by the Sudden Departure. As part of this dynamic new season two of the HBO series, audiences are introduced to the Murphys. The mother, Erika, is played by the brilliant Regina King who, with that recent Emmy win for American Crime, is having a wild ride of success at the moment on American television. I spoke to her about both shows but could not resist digging up the excellent work in Jerry Maguire too.

Damon and Tom Perrotta came up with the idea. What if we have this other family we introduce? What that would be like in our world. There are other families living and doing things the same time as other families in the world. A way of telling that story and what happens when these lives intercept. They had to almost start with a different story, and allow these families to collide, or whichever way you interpret it when you watch it. You almost didn’t miss the Garveys.

AwardsDaily TV: So to warm things up, American TV or any TV in general then. What are you watching at the moment? Or what are you trying to watch?

Regina King: I’m catching up on things. I just finished the final season of Getting On, which I love. That is what I watched last night after the basketball game.

ADTV: You’ve been in the business since 1985’s 227, but your first Emmy nomination and win was last year’s American Crime. Congratulations on that. 

RK: Thank you very much.

ADTV: What was that whole Emmy experience like for you? Being a contender. 

RK: Well, it was great. I am so proud of the work we did on American Crime. So excited it received that many nominations, and it was nice to bring us one home. I think it was a special year with Viola and Uzo winning. The moment was great on it’s own, but there were so many things that made it shine even brighter. With Taraji (P. Henson) presenting the award to me, we are so tight, and we have known each other for so long and been through so many things together. Not just in the industry, but outside of it. To have my sister give me that made it even more emotional.

ADTV: It was a great show last year. Did that Emmy win open any more new doors for you? Closed any doors? 

RK: [Laughter] No, it’s definitely not closed any doors. I don’t know if it has opened any doors. I have been working for thirty years. I’ve developed a lot of great relationships along the way that have opened doors along the way. When I see my name written in something, it has changed the way it is written. Now it’s “award winning actress,” rather than whatever other adjective they use. I will say this, I like “Emmy Award-winning actress” better than “veteran actress.” [Laughter]

ADTV: Absolutely. American Crime offers nightmarish scenarios for parents between school and social media bullying as well as school violence. Did you ever experience any of those issues as your son was growing up? 

RK: We did actually. Not so much with the bullying but with the phones and pictures on phones. We have definitely experienced that. You know, like that picture has to be removed from your phone. As really sensitive and emotional of an arc this season was on American Crime, it was much more acceptable in season one. There’s parents with younger kids, and it is a kind of wake-up call.

ADTV: How much can you say about the next iteration of American Crime? Will you be a part of it? 

RK: I can’t say anything. Sometimes I get terrible because I don’t know what to say. Especially The Leftovers, it is shrouded in so much mystery. So I have nothing for you on season three, other than I will be part of it.

ADTV: So you’ve got an impressive body of work, with the likes of Southland recently, the current two shows. You were also in 24, obviously you did Ray. But for me, and I don’t know if this is common, but my favorite Regina King performance ever is Marcee in Jerry Maguire. Amazing. 

RK: That’s a lot of people’s favorite I think.

ADTV: Yeah you were brilliant in it, very funny. 

RK: Oh thank you very much.

ADTV: What do you remember about working on that terrific movie? And that particular time. 

RK: I remember that I was actually pregnant when I went to audition for Jerry Maguire. So they got the opportunity to see me, as Regina, and how she dressed as a pregnant woman. I wore athletic things. I never bought maternity clothes. I had my leggings underneath my belly. [Laughter] So they thought that was kind of cool, and that was the template for Marcee. And they shot her in mostly athletic gear. And with her husband being a football player she probably had access to a lot of athletic gear. Reebok was kind of like the sponsor. And the producers wanted her to be more glamorous and put together, which a lot of wives of athletes are. So we had to go back and re-shoot those scenes. Hair and make-up and I decided like why don’t we change her wigs all the time – what if she is that lady? That’s how came up in every scene she had different hair.

ADTV: Now, you and Cuba Gooding Jr could actually be reunited as you both could well be going to the Emmys. You are both in shows that could be nominated. 

RK: Right, wouldn’t that be something? And both for shows that are almost the same title.

ADTV: Yeah, there’s a lot of “American” dot dot dot shows around.

RK: A lot of American. The Americans, American Crime Story, American Crime. But I guess The Americans was the first one out of the gate. Yeah, I would love to be reunited with Cuba in front of the camera. I think we have a great chemistry. That is something the audiences wold be interested in seeing, they loved the Tidwells in Jerry Maguire. It would be interesting to see what other characters we could explore. That is one of the things on my wishlist.

ADTV: What with The People v. O.J. Simpson, Fargo, Roots, War and Peace, American Horror Story: Hotel, the list goes on and on, that limited drama category is a volcanic mix. Don’t you think the excellent competition here is indicative of the high quality of TV right now and in recent years in America? And has almost taken over cinema. 

RK: Absolutely. Not almost, it has taken over. To be quite frank there is not a lot to choose from in the theatrical films that are interesting. If they are not really embracing art as part of culture, then those are not acceptable. If you are not in L.A. or Austin or New York, those type of cities, people don’t know anything about, say, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. They have never heard of that. On the other side with TV almost everyone has cable, and when TV is cranking out well made material, all you have to do is pay your cable bill. You don’t have people going to the theatre as much. Cable has kind of changed the template that network TV is starting to develop. You have all these shows that have eight, ten, twelve episodes can tell a really concentrated story like a 10-hour movie. Audiences appreciate that, really great story-telling throughout.

ADTV: Now, when I started watching season two of The Leftovers, the introduction of the Murphy’s straight off the bat was a bit of a curve-ball for audiences. Where was the other cast? Turned out the Murphys were super-critical to the plot this time around, and the show’s new dynamic. What is your take on Erika Murphy? What was her part in the show’s evolution?

RK: Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta came up with the idea. What if we have this other family we introduce? What that would be like in our world. There are other families living and doing things the same time as other families in the world. A way of telling that story and what happens when these lives intercept. They had to almost start with a different story, and allow these families to collide, or whichever way you interpret it when you watch it. You almost didn’t miss the Garveys.

ADTV: Yeah it was a brave move, but it definitely worked. 

RK: I am glad it did. I don’t feel that we, the actors that played the Murphys, all looked at it that way.

ADTV: Do you know where The Leftovers season three is headed? I know you maybe don’t know. Are you involved? 

RK: I can say with The Leftovers I don’t know. I didn’t know were season two was headed while I was shooting it. [Laughs]

ADTV: I spoke to Carrie Coon about that great scene with just you two, and compared it to that big scene in Heat with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino.

RK: Oh wow.

ADTV: When you watch it and Carrie walks out, you almost have to pause. It was a great scene.

RK: Thank you, thank you. I was really excited about doing a scene with her. After season one I really wanted to do something with Carrie Coon, and got the opportunity to do it. As an actor it was so much fun, like two athletes in a championship game.

ADTV: Yeah, it was like a chess game.

RK: Yeah, chess game, tennis match, it was eight pages of she and I. As an actor the more giving you are the better the other actor is. To be able to have that type of scene with an actor who is giving, it was so much fun. In between takes we were cracking jokes. It was pretty awesome, and I would love to work with her again.

ADTV: Actually she said the same thing, and we had a joke about why don’t you do a buddy cop show. That would work I think.

RK: With Carrie and I, I would do whatever we could do together. She is so witty, and I could pay straight really well, so that could work together. Something really dark, we would embrace that either way the project went on the spectrum. We would both love it and just dive in head first.

ADTV: Then we have found your next project. 

RK: Yeah. [Laughs]

ADTV: Okay, so between the two seasons of American Crime and The Leftovers, you’re getting the opportunity to play some dramatically diverse roles. What’s next for you? How do you top that lineup? 

RK: You know, it is kind of tough. The bar is set so high after working with Damon and Tom. Their writing is definitely in that valedictorian category. They are just at the top of their class. And that energy trickled down to everyone else that was part of the production. I just am going to breathe and continue to spiral to the next great thing.

ADTV: Thank you for talking to us, good luck with Emmys, future projects, and all forms of recognition.

RK: What time is it were you are?

ADTV: About 6pm.

RK: Thank you for taking the time before you have dinner.

ADTV: No worries, I am going to go home and watch Jerry Maguire now. [Laughter]

HBO has renewed The Leftovers for a third and final season of eight episodes which began principal shooting in May 2016.

Animal Kingdom‘s Shawn Hatosy talks to ADTV about what makes his character tick and what it’s like working again with director John Wells.

Critics’ Choice-nominated actor Shawn Hatosy (Southland) returns to television Tuesday night in TNT’s dark and wonderfully twisted new drama Animal Kingdom. Inspired by the 2010 film of the same name, Animal Kingdom tells the story of the Cody family, a criminal family run by ruthless matriarch Smurf (Ellen Barkin), as they negotiate the risks of engaging in criminal activity and the perils of their insular, animalistic family dynamics.

Shawn Hatosy plays Pope, Smurf’s recently released from prison son who has to determine a new place for himself now that his adopted brother Baz (Shawn Speedman) has ascended in the family ranks. As Hatosy describes him, Pope Cody could be either a school teacher or a serial killer. It’s this brilliant tightrope act in Hatosy’s performance that is already garnering raves from preview screenings and could be a source of Emmy contention this time next year.

I recently talked to Shawn Hatosy about what it’s like playing such an unpredictable character and how director John Wells, with whom Hatosy has worked multiple times in the past, helped Hatosy and the rest of the talented cast navigate the impact of Pope Cody.

Shawn Hatosy: Well, I think he’s a zombie, [Laughs] but I don’t know. Nobody told me anything. In fact, I remember when that offer was presented to me they said, “Yeah, this is going to be three episodes, and Adams is going to die in the finale.” That show is very secretive with their scripts, so I think we got the draft the day before we were shooting. I got to that part of the script, and I was like, “Wait a minute, he just beat him up. I don’t know if he’s dead or not!” So, I have no idea. Nobody’s mentioned it to me. I’m just assuming he’s a zombie somewhere.

ADTV: I’m looking at the press cast photos for Animal Kingdom, and the main cast is glowering at the camera. It’s quite an intense bunch of actors. Was there any “glower-offs” or competitions to see who could have the most threatening look?

SH: I think they’re just all trying to be like Pope because Pope’s just naturally… that’s just the way I look when I try to [Laughs] take a picture. Pope is king of that dead stare… It’s just a blank, glossed over, shark-eye look. That’s what I was going for when I took the pictures.

SH: Well, his relationships are all complicated, and so I think it’s likely a consequence of how he was raised and his very sheltered relationship with Smurf [Ellen Barkin, his mother on the show]. He has a history of these mental issues, and he’s been managed and he knows it. Also, he’s right out of prison when we meet him in our narrative and he has not been taking the medication that he needs, and we kind of go into that a little bit in the subsequent episodes. It’s unnerving nonetheless.

ADTV: As you mentioned, Pope has just been paroled in the beginning of the series, but he doesn’t say much about the experience. Is this something the show will be exploring further? 

SH: We talk about it a bit and delve into that. Of course, the motivating plot point there is that Baz [Scott Speedman] is somewhat responsible for Pope taking the fall, and it also explores Pope’s loyalty to the family because, you know, he kept his mouth shut and he served the time and was quiet. So, there’s that. There’s also that bit of guilt that Baz feels when Pope comes home. It complicates the wires a little bit, twists them up, and adds another level of tension for the family.

ADTV: Absolutely, and it’s a very interesting family. In the pilot, there is zero emotional acknowledgement of Josh’s [Finn Cole] mother’s death, and the remainder of the family is similarly emotionally detached. What’s going on with these people?

SH: Well, we all take our cues from Smurf, and as this story unfolds… well, you see a little bit of it in the pilot… It becomes apparent that Smurf’s relationship with Josh’s mom, Julia, was not the best. We’re kind of walking on egg shells a little bit because we know Smurf hated her, so we just don’t want to upset that… no one wants to upset her. I think, as the story unfolds, you see that there is a very complicated history with Pope, Julia, and Baz which we really do explore. Smurf has to present to Josh that she cares about Julia to the best that she can, and it comes off very cold. We all know what’s really going on there.

ADTV: In the pilot, one of the most intense scenes happens when Pope watches Josh’s girlfriend as she sleeps, then carries her to the bedroom and lays her down on his bed. You’re really uncertain of what his next move was going to be. What’s going on in his mind as this scene unfolds?

SH: That’s one of my favorite scenes of the series… we’re on episode 10 now… because it just shows so much about this show, I think. It kind of captures the essence of it because there’s no dialogue. It’s just this action. It’s unnerving. It’s uncomfortable, and you’re right, you don’t know what he’s going to do. I mean, some people view that scene completely differently. Lynn, our wardrobe designer, she’s like, “What do you mean, he was going to rape her. That’s what he was going to do!” And then some other people were like, “Well, no, maybe he was just caring for her because she looked uncomfortable.” I really like that kind of ambiguous notion. But, for me, Pope is as unpredictable as they get. As the series unfolds, he is loyal and that is in regards to the family. He would do anything for them, anything that he’s asked to do for them, including going to jail. I also think that, if I’m doing my job right, you’ll see that there’s more to it than just this darkness. The history and the trauma, I think it will lend itself to the viewers to see him in a little bit more of a sympathetic way. I know it sounds crazy [Laughs], but I think that’s true of Pope.

SH: I think it is just the way that Smurf has controlled them and her hold on them. If you look at Baz in being a childhood friend of Pope’s who she took in and adopted and now Baz is Pope’s brother… He’s also in the hierarchy kind of climbed the ladder and now he’s captain of the team. So, that is a major hangup for Pope, and I think that’s sort of responsible for that anger and aggression, and, as I see it, you’re stronger in packs within the family, so a new mouth to feed [Josh] has come in and you want him on your side. And also, you have to keep him close because we’re trying to determine whether or not he’s somebody that we can trust. So, I think there’s a little bit of competition between all of us to see how the teams are going to line up.

ADTV: So, as an actor, did you use any particular tricks to get yourself in such an aggressive state?

SH: Well, I don’t see it as aggression. He is, by nature, because of this family – they’re animals – but there’s that kind of aggression. I think Pope for the most part doesn’t really allow himself to get to that point. I wouldn’t call him a hot head or anything like that. That is one thing that John Wells [director of the first two episodes and producer of the series] was really cool about helping me with just always letting the cast know… you just never really know when Pope is going to go off… It helps me as an actor seeing people react to me in character, and I think, in the way that he looks at people too as we were talking about before, it doesn’t feel good to him to be managed. And then you’re introducing Josh / Jay into it…

ADTV: Talk about the relationship between Pope and Jay. It looks like a constant fraternity hazing on the surface, but there’s just something deeper there between the two of them.

SH: Yeah, we sort of delved into the whole history of Jay’s mom and Smurf. This history is revealed, and it is a fact that Pope was a lot closer to Julia than it seems at first, and he was actually pretty devastated when she left the Cody house. So, there’s that connection. In the pilot, he tells Jay that “Your mom and I shared the same room.”

ADTV: Yeah, there’s that line where [Pope] says, “Your mom was afraid of thunderstorms,” and it’s kind of nice… but it’s also kind of menacing and creepy at the same time.

SH: [Laughs] Yeah, that’s by design. That’s my favorite thing about Pope. There’s almost this sparkle about everything he says that could be interpreted as a serial killer or a very kind preschool teacher. It’s very fun to play and to carve out those dimensions.

SH: It is a challenge because, you know, he is so unpredictable. As an actor, what we strive for is consistency in the character. Well, the character is so wildly inconsistent, so that becomes what you have to go for is inconsistency. It has been consuming to try and get it right, but I think, if I am doing my job right, it can’t just be the creep factor which he has in spades. Every once in a while, you have to think, “Is he just going to rape her or is he making sure she’s just getting a good night’s sleep?” That’s the line you want to draw and step on both sides a bit.

ADTV: You mentioned John Wells a few minutes ago. Clearly, he has a very strong track record with actors. What have you found he’s brought to the table to support your process?

SH: Well, I can also speak from personal experience with John because I worked with him on ER in a very twisted character there, and then we spent five years together on Southland and now this. Just having that kind of creative relationship for that many years… It’s hard to put it into words how that feels, but it’s the freedom to make big choices and take risks that I don’t necessarily have on other projects. It’s definitely rewarding. I think one of the main things that helps all of the actors is that they’ve sketched out this concrete foundation – this backstory – that has become like our Bible. We’re all coming from the same place. Often as actors, we have to interpret it and make it up, but he laid it out for us in a pretty explicit way so that we know what’s at stake. So that helps a lot. And, you know, it’s John Wells. He’s got a pretty impressive history combined with all of the scripts being “10’s” – they’re all great, so that, as actors, is important. We aren’t spending a lot of time interpreting what the writer means because it’s right there. Because it’s a character drama and it’s about the relationships – it’s not really plot driven – we have the time to play a scene for truth. It’s grounded in reality. He gives us a chance to take the looks and feel something rather than a narrative that’s trying to get information to the audience… I’m really proud of it. Because it’s dark, it might turn some people off, but the Cody’s are wild beasts. They’re living together in this wild habitat that’s about to explode. I enjoy it.

ADTV: So, what’s next for you when you wrap up the season?

SH: It’s been a pretty rough shoot in that we’ve been so consumed with filming. It’s been a pretty rough shoot. I’m excited to see how people respond to it. I’m already starting to see that. I enjoy this modern age of social media where you get feedback real time while the show airs. Even the negative comments. I get off on hearing people’s bizarre interpretations. I read somebody saying, “Oh, there’s Shawn Hatosy playing a hothead just like he did on Southland.” [Laughs] These characters are so vastly different. But to me, I enjoy that. It’s like doing a play live where you kind of feel the audience and that energy. In this era, you have a slice of that thanks to Twitter or Facebook be it good or bad.

Animal Kingdom – starring Ellen Barkin, Scott Speedman, and Shawn Hatosy – has a 2-hour premiere Tuesday, June 14, on TNT at 9pm ET. 

Rob Corddry and Erinn Hayes talk about ending the Emmy-winning Childrens Hospital and how the Emmys kick Oscars’ ass.

This past April, Rob Corddry and Erinn Hayes hung up their scrubs and scrubbed off the clown makeup when Adult Swim’s Childrens Hospital aired its final episode after seven seasons.

The show was ahead of its time, starting out as a web parody of medical dramas, before becoming Adult Swim’s late-night comedy treat. Like any medical drama, the cast included a revolving door of the best comedic (and sometimes dramatic) actors working in the business, including Rob Huebel, Paul Scheer, and even a certain Mad Men actor.

I talked with Corddry and Hayes about this final season, the show’s Emmy history, how long it took to apply Blake’s makeup, and whether the show’s one-time muse Grey’s Anatomy will ever end.

AwardsDaily TV: How did the decision to end Childrens Hospital come about? Was the cast surprised when they got the news?

Erinn Hayes: It was a hard decision for me. (Laughs.) We were surprised.

Rob Corddry: (Laughs.) Everybody was surprised, except for me because I hadn’t talked too much about my growing feelings about the show and about how and when and why would it ever end. It was something I’d been thinking about for a long time. Like a lot of big realizations, for me, it hit me like a lightning bolt, and then there was no turning back after that. Everyone really liked doing the show, and they were left in the wake of that. I did feel really bad about that.

EH: It was very surprising because this last season that we did, season 7, was so much fun to do, and everyone was pretty relaxed and the scripts were for the most part done, so there was no last-minute stress. Except for the last one, which you were writing up to the minute. I think we all just kind of assumed, “That was so great! We’re gonna do another one!” But then when Rob told me and told all of us, it did make sense. There is something about going out on top, and have something you’re really proud of and feel good about.

RC: That was really important to me. The show is the first thing I’ve made that got on TV and I  really feel connected to it like it’s my baby. I felt like it was respectful to the show in general to go out on that note.

ADTV: Childrens Hospital was the second show ever to win for the Emmy for Outstanding Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment Program (the first being The Daily Show).

EH: Wait, The Daily Show won one before that?

RC: Yeah, for like a web thing. People were like, “What’s this category? Oh, The Daily Show’s in it? I’ll just check that box.” (Laughs.)

ADTV: Childrens Hospital was the only real non-web series show in the category. Well, even though it started out as a web series. But it was nominated and won for being on Adult Swim.

EH: There’s always been the halftime show at the Super Bowl. And web companion pieces, like The Office. It’s such a hodgepodge.

RC: I do think our edge was not only were we a good TV show, but this was our show.

EH: Compared to some of them, we were a very produced television show.

RC: Even when we were on the web the first season, that was the most important thing: It has to look like a television show. Everybody’s gotta play it straight, including the camera.

ADTV: One of my favorite episodes is the live episode (“The Sultan’s Finger” – Season 2, Episode 12). Actually, that probably is my favorite episode. (Laughs.)

RC: That’s a good one.

ADTV: To this day, I will watch clips and just laugh when the camera falls over.

EH: When Matt Walsh comes on and has a terrified look on his face and Huebel is vamping. “And then you’d say something. And then I guess you’d say something like this.” That all was so much fun to do because all of us are used to working in movies and in TV and you rehearse a little bit, but you rehearse each scene as it comes in your day, not necessarily from point A to point B. We came in for a full day of rehearsal and were giddy to do it. Lake [Bell] was hilarious because she comes on at the very end, and she was so nervous she was going to come in and fuck it all up and send us back to that one long take.

RC: She had one of my favorite lines. Actually, your exchange with her. It clearly defined our tone of the show, and it was: “Long story short, I didn’t die.”

EH: That was also our first Jon Hamm episode, right?

RC: Ohh, yeah.

EH: And you got a lot of giddy ladies on the set.

RC: Oh my god. (Laughs.)

ADTV: Did you guys ever imagine that your show would have such a cultural impact? That it would be the second show to win an Emmy for this format?

RC: (Beat.) No. (Laughs.)

EH: (Beat.) No.

ADTV: (Laughs.) I guess it sounds stupid now that I say it out loud!

EH: No, it’s not because I do think people go into making television thinking, “It should be incredible, guys.” But this is a show on the web about people wiping boogers on kids. We didn’t do it thinking, “awards bait.”

RC: (Laughs.) It was like summer camp.

ADTV: Speaking of Emmys, the Academy has significantly expanded its short form categories this year to include acting. Why do you think the Academy is suddenly taking this genre more seriously?

RC: You would expect showbiz in general to be behind the zeitgeist a little bit, but the Academy is aware of all these changes happening in television and they are adjusting accordingly. Like, right on time. There’s no delay. There’s no resistance to it, like you’d assume there would be.

EH: I think it’s awesome, too, because having been on set with all of these people for seven years, like, give Rob an Emmy, give [Rob] Huebel, give [Ken] Marino, give Megan [Mullally]. I’ve had the chance, we’ve all had the chance, to work with such wonderfully talented people, and good work is good work, just because you’re not on a network television show doesn’t mean that the work isn’t as good.

RC:It’s cool that the Academy itself understands that. I think it’s really great.

ADTV: People are always talking about how the Oscars are a little behind, but I think TV and the Emmys are way ahead.

RC: Exactly.

EH: Way ahead. Especially after reading all of the casting notices this year for pilots. TV can address the issues in a quicker way.

RC: They’re literally calling it the Golden Age of Television. Television itself has surpassed movies as people’s prime source of entertainment. I feel like the Oscars used to be dating the Homecoming Queen, but now the Emmys kicked the Oscars’ ass and are dating the Homecoming Queen.

ADTV: (Laughs) I love that analogy.

EH: Rob, do you think they’re going to get it on?

RC: Oh, yeah. And the Oscars? That dude is racist.

EH: That old white dude.

ADTV: Erinn, you mentioned there was so much talent on the show, and that’s always something that’s blown my mind, how many great actors are on Childrens Hospital. Was it hard getting everyone together to film? Because you guys had other things going on, too?

EH: That seemed like probably the trickiest thing.

RC: It was a puzzle that we were trying to solve every year. We found a couple of small solutions, but still it was very rare that an episode would include the entire cast. There’s also ways around it. I knew I would be there every day on set, so I would write myself into the script. Or I would not write myself into as many scripts because we could always plug Blake in if somebody couldn’t make it.

EH: I think Lola was on the receiving end of a lot of good stuff in the last season because I was 100 percent available that summer.

RC: You are my Swiss army knife. Erinn Hayes can do anything.

EH: That’s very sweet. I’m also a lovefest of the Rob Corddry talent. You didn’t write yourself in enough this season.

RC: I don’t care. It’s the one thing I hate acting in because I have so many other things to do.

EH: I think you also discovered you’re never going to be an official drag queen. You can’t do the makeup.

ADTV: How long did it take to do the makeup?

RC: Well, we got it down to a science. Heather [our makeup stylist] has been doing it since day one of the web series. The only thing that’s tripped her up is the eyebrows. They’re very hard to get even. Everything else, she could do with her eyes closed, and it takes about 20 minutes.

EH: It’s not even about getting the makeup on. Guys aren’t used to having makeup sit on their face.

RC: I feel such empathy now for women because I realized that eyelids are the weakest muscles in our body. That’s science, and to put heavy makeup on those, it’s counterproductive.

EH: It’s not strengthening them.

ADTV: You both have worked on so many other projects while portraying Blake and Lola, some more serious, some funny. Were these roles always fun to come back to? Will you miss playing these characters?

EH: For sure. I love Lola. It’s been so fun to play, especially this show because you don’t have these set parameters for who you are and what your character can do. I’ve had the chance to act in an old-fashioned television show, in a stylized ‘70s show, in a caper, a political thriller, in a sitcom. It’s all different every time, and finding the tone of the episode in keeping with the tone of our show is such an incredibly unique acting challenge and experience. I’ll definitely miss it. But I know the door is definitely open in the future. I hope we do take advantage of that.

ADTV: You’re going to be on Kevin James’s new show. That’s so exciting.

EH: I signed on for a very fun, traditional family sitcom. I’m really excited about it. Look forward to starting. We had a great time shooting the pilot and the chemistry is working. The cast is great. We’re not going to be like doing our “Run, Lola, Run” episode with Kevin James. (Laughs.) Having a show where every two days you’re doing something completely different, I’ll miss that.

RC: I won’t miss anything about the character [Blake], who’s a reprehensible person in makeup. But I will definitely miss writing all of the characters. I’m ferociously tweeting jokes these days because it’s scratching an itch for me.

EH: There was a day the other day, where I was looking at Twitter and thought, “Corddry might be losing his mind.”

RC: Yeah. That’s what I was doing. I was sitting in a trailer, literally typing words into Twitter until jokes crystallized.

EH: I almost called to check on you.

RC: I’m not even kidding. That’s how I’m doing it. “Boats.” Let’s see if this turns into a joke. My draft folder is like a manifesto of horrible jokes.

ADTV: Do you think there’d ever be a Childrens Hospital movie, maybe? A reunion show?

RC: I’m less interested in doing a movie than doing a special, like coming back to the characters in a year or so with a funny half-hour idea and we just do a one-off. And then maybe we can serialize that over the course of a few years. It would be kind of fun. I’ve always thought of this sort of company as a rep company and it would be great to take the exact same cast and do a movie about something totally different. Something that would allow us to have the same fun, to have the same range. I don’t know what that would be, but that’s sort of a long-term goal.

EH: I’ll make myself available.

ADTV: Finally, how do you feel that Grey’s Anatomy, for which Childrens Hospital often parodies, is still on the air? And their storylines are about as crazy as the ones on your show. Do you think it will ever end?

EH: It might not ever end. (Laughs.)

RC: Somehow weird dimensions got crossed, and that show did end in one parallel universe, and we’re all happier for it. The second season was when we stopped being a parody of Grey’s Anatomy entirely. And not even Grey’s Anatomy, just hospital shows in general.

EH: I feel like the “Do the Right Thing” episode was a real turning point.

RC: It really was.

EH: It was like, “We can do whatever we want and whatever genre we want, set in this hospital with these people.”

ADTV: Well, no offense to Grey’s Anatomy, but I always preferred your show over Grey’s anyway.

EH: But what about Mere?

ADTV: Erinn, you were on Grey’s Anatomy, right?

EH: I was. I died with blood coming out of my eyes!

RC: Ken Marino was, too, right?

EH: I feel like there were more of us on there.

RC: I think, given the chance, everyone would prefer Childrens Hospital. I mean, come on.

Veep‘s Matt Walsh talks about how the series changed his reaction to political reality and his favorite moments from season five.

Despite its White House locale, Veep‘s Matt Walsh reminded me very early in our conversation that the HBO series is still an office workplace comedy. Sure, the boss is the President of the United States, but ultimately the cast of characters are effectively typical office archetypes. As such, Matt Walsh is absolutely someone you would meet and instantly befriend in your typical office setting. He’s as easy-going a person as you’d meet. By the end of our talk, we’d already swapped vacation plans for our kids’ summer breaks (his were much better than mine). Matt Walsh is also an incredibly funny and engaging presence on Veep. His contributions to the classic ensemble should not go unnoticed. Without him, the political office world of Veep would be a sadder place indeed.

Just like that friendly and very funny guy you know in the cube down the hall from yours.

AwardsDaily TV: Matt Walsh, it’s remarkable from the viewers perspective how little the tone of Veep has changed since the change in show runner from Armando Iannucci to David Mandel. Have there been any subtle differences that you’ve notice or had to adjust to as a cast member?

Matt Walsh: No, I would have expressed the same concern. There was a big transition, but I think getting to know people… it is a collaborate process and human beings what they are you have to sort of trust them and everyone has to be on the same page. I think in the beginning there was a “getting to know you” process, but once we were up and running I thought it went really well. After seeing the finished product, I agree with you. It doesn’t feel any different.

ADTV: Oh yeah, in fact, it just feels like the show keeps getting better and better as the show goes on. 

MW: Yes, it’s a unique process. I think there’s a learning curve for sure. I don’t know many shows that rehearse… we’ll read the table draft and then we’ll rehearse scenes without script with the writers in the room… I think it’s a unique process and everybody has to get used to it. That’s a tribute to Dave Mandel, our new showrunner, and all the new writers who came aboard. They’ve obviously had four seasons to study, and I think the characters are pretty well defined. Their intention was to make the show consistent, and they executed that exactly.

ADTV: Absolutely. So, one of the things I’ve noticed that has escalated season over season are the scenarios in which the cast gets themselves into – the botching of the recount in Nevada, the issues with China, and now Jonah Ryan’s campaign. Given the current political climate, was there a need to try and compete with similar real world political ineptitude?

MW: You know, what’s happened in this year’s election will raise the bar for the insanity that we’ll be able to do next season. Quite frankly, a lot of the stuff and storylines that we were doing in season five were already being written and conceived in the writer’s room in May/June. They’d already started cracking away at season five, but I think next season the rules are broken. We can go a little sillier. [Laughs]

ADTV: Do you ever look back and think, “Damn, we should have thought of that?”

MW: Well, every season there’s a big trip out to D.C. where the writers and Julia [Louis-Dreyfus] and the producers will go out and interview politicians and aids and directors of communications. They’ll get stories or backgrounds on what those jobs are like or what recent things in politics have happened behind the scenes. They use that as fodder to create the next season. As a character on the show, I pay attention to what’s going on in the news, but I don’t really draft my story for myself. I read what they do, and then I pitch them what I think Mike’s version of that is. Or, if I have an idea for something that I read in the news or saw, I can pitch it, but the responsibility lies with the writers.

ADTV: Given that you play Mike McLintoch, White House spokesperson on Veep, how political were you before you took this role?

MW: I think I was always an active participate in our democracy, but I’m not a pundit in any way. I think as the show has gone on, I feel like what I’ve gotten a knack for is, when I see a story break, I’m more curious about what happened behind the scenes or what the fallout is once they get off the mic. I’m more knowledgeable about the human beings or the machinations of the process of drafting legislation or drafting press quotes, points, etc. So, I think I’m more reactive as someone who can be empathetic to like “Oh boy, someone really got in trouble on that one.” Do you know what I mean?

ADTV: Definitely. My actual next question was how Veep changed your reaction to the political world? Seems like you’re reacting to the behind the scenes possibilities rather than just taking political events at face value.

MW: Yeah, I’m more empathetic. Veep is a workplace comedy. I mean, obviously, it’s a satire of our democracy, but I think it’s a workplace comedy. It’s about the people who work in D.C. You know, if I’m in an airport, I’ll get stopped by people who tell me, “I work in politics, and you guys are nailing it.” The big issues we nail. They do the research on the constitutionality, but I think also the way we portray a director of communications and what his life is like or the staff and the arguments that would happen in the room before she takes the mic or before they draft a statement. I think we’ve captured the work life of those people really well and the flowery language that happens in the halls of Congress. Apparently, they have filthy mouths in D.C.

I mean, obviously, it’s a satire of our democracy, but I think it’s a workplace comedy. It’s about the people who work in D.C. You know, if I’m in an airport, I’ll get stopped by people who tell me, “I work in politics, and you guys are nailing it.”

ADTV: They certainly do on Veep. [Laughs] Some of my personal favorite scenes are when you’re handling the press in the briefing room. I know this is a very heavily scripted show, but you come from a strong background of improvisation. Do you ever ad-lib any of those scenes?

MW: I think by the time we get the final drafts, since it goes through many rehearsals and phases, we’re pretty much acting on 90 percent as scripted. If the show is zipping along, we can do a free take where we get to mess around with it or Dave and the writers will run in with different lines to try. As you start doing it and putting it on its feet, you can sort of paraphrase what’s on the page or you can try things because you have a better feel for it now that you have the other actors in the scene. So, there’s some fluidness to the process. It’s not like an Aaron Sorkin or a David Mamet play where you have to hit every word. Most of it is on the page, but, yes, you can play with it and the writers want you to try and pitch ideas to try things in the process of it. Typically, it’s always like making more of moments that are on the page. This is a great moment. We can really milk this. We can really live in this a little longer. That’s typically our contribution as actors. Also, that press room is so big and cacophonous when they’re angry at Mike or there’s a story that he’s dying, it helps with the energy and the sort of stammering escape route that Mike has to take. I think there’s freedom with that.

ADTV: I love the scenes where you’re the lone man against the press corps, and you look so completely befuddled while trying to defend the ever-changing policies of the Selina Meyer administration. Is it a challenge to look so completely befuddled or are you just really excellent at turning off your brain?

MW: [Laughs] Well, that position is very difficult because you’re the face of the administration many times, and your job is to deny or lie or obfuscate. I think Mike ethically struggles with those moments at times. He is at conflict with what his job is at times, and, at the end of the day, he has to take a bullet. He doesn’t have a great poker face, so I think that’s really fun to lie poorly or sort of barely get out what you’re supposed to say but obviously sweat through it. I enjoy the scenarios they give me to portray. The hostility in that room, I think, represents the nation’s hostility at times with the bad choices Selina has made. He’s really on the front lines, and it’s fun to feel that.

ADTV: It is, but I have to tell you that, as a viewer, it’s a brilliant frustration because the main cast is so likable but you’re also doing horrible, inept things. I want Selina to be president for the comedy, but at the same time… No…

MW: [Laughs] Yeah, and also, historically… we’ve seen politicians who just give you sound bites that aren’t even related to the question or they just don’t say anything. I think that’s a great fallback if you’re the press secretary. Don’t give them anything or just stick to the talking points. We’ve seen that work with presidents and congressmen because that’s a way to control the conversation even though it’s obvious they’re sort of lying.

ADTV: A very funny recent episode dealt with the “C***gate” scandal. Has there ever been a story line proposed for the show that went too far?

MW: Sometimes I worry a little bit about Mike’s ineptitude or in the middle of giving a press briefing Mike is more concerned about his fit bit steps as opposed to the job. I think I worry about… I don’t lose sleep over it… but in the moment of execution I think great effort and conversation with the director and writers about will he be able to get away with this or can he do this. It always works out, but I think there are moments where there’s a comedic thing happening but Mike also has to execute his job. Those are the moments I just want to make sure that, at the end of the day, he does do his job well. He is a good press spokesman in that room. Obviously, he has capacity to be an idiot or terrible at his job, but I feel like in that room he always to be pretty good at his job. He has to be believable, and he has to do that job well for the comedy to work. Those are the moments that I work with. As far as big crazy things happening, as you know, the news bears it out that the reality is always crazier than the fiction.

ADTV: Unfortunately recently yes, that has been absolutely true which is sad… 

MW: It is sad. That’s happened consistently where we’ll do something and the conversation around that will be “Is this too crazy?” Then, six months later, somewhere in some state house or the federal government that exact thing happens.

ADTV: Right. Also, I never imagined that I would see a presidential debate where the size of someone’s member became a topic of conversation. That feels like it was written for Veep. 

MW: It is. It’s crazy. Obviously, it pushes the bounds of reality, and it’s embarrassing as a country to have a candidate like Donald Trump. It’s embarrassing that he could be our president, but it’s really a strange reality…. Let’s hope it doesn’t go there.

ADTV: Absolutely. What’s your personal favorite Mike moment from season five?

MW: I always like when I see things that we discover in filming like a bit where Tony or Julia or I will be doing a scene, and it’s like “Wait a minute. What if we do this?” We sort of try something. There’s a couple of things like when Ben Cafferty pitches to Selina in a very safe way “You know, there was this Chinese hacking thing. Maybe the Chinese hacked your tweet, and maybe that’s how [a private joke was made public].” There’s something in there where Mike is… and they have to be very careful about their language or they could be litigated if she actively participated in this… At some point, they say “Obviously, we cannot tell anyone about this.” Mike’s sort of on the outside of the conversation and he’s like “Can? Or cannot?” He completely gets it wrong. Stuff like that makes me laugh because it’s Mike being terrible at his job, but it’s also something that we choreographed in the room that became part of the show. I really enjoyed the funeral where Selina was actually crying about her losing the popular vote and not about her mother. I really enjoyed Martin Mull coming through to play Bob Bradley. I get a kick out of playing with people like that… Brian Doyle Murray… These heavyweight legends of comedy coming through. It’s fun to see Tim running for Congress. I’m enjoying Jonah. I think Anna’s [Chlumsky] had some super filthy jokes – she’s really had some awful things to say this year. And I always enjoy when Ben [Kevin Dunn] has to fire somebody. He got to fire Diedrich Bader again. It’s always good. He’s a great hitman. I enjoy Gary Cole’s “Rain Man” like contributions during any scene. That always makes me laugh.

ADTV: I loved that throw-away second where Mike realizes the China issue will stop the adoption process.

MW: That was a great moment to play. To publicly mask… or try to, Mike’s not that good at it… but to try and get through that as best you can in a public environment.

ADTV: Yes, and considering the comedy legends as cast members and guest stars, how often do you break? How do you keep from doing that?

MW: I still break. I always break when we do limo scenes because we’re basically sitting right on top of each other staring at each other’s faces and there’s a cameraman in your lap. It’s really tight quarters. It’s sort of like trying not to laugh in church at some point. Those are always difficult to me. I still laugh, but I’ve probably gotten better at resetting quickly.

ADTV: So, outside of Veep, what else are you working on? 

MW: I have a small part in Ghostbusters, which I’m dying to see, and then I’m in a movie that comes out in October called Keeping Up with the Joneses with Zack Galifianakis, Jon Hamm, and Isla Fisher. I directed another small improv movie called A Better You that’s OnDemand. Just doing shows at UCB (Upright Citizens Brigade). I do comedy once a week at my theater. That and going on vacation with the kids when they’re out of school.

Veep season five concludes on June 26. You can see Matt Walsh and cast each week on HBO at 10:30pm ET.

ADTV’s Robin Write chats with The Leftovers‘ Liv Tyler about her role on the critically acclaimed series

You have to have a little bit more pride in the town you live in, believing many in America will not even have heard of it, when none other than The Leftover‘s Liv Tyler tells you she not only knows it but has been there several times. It’s a name-dropping story for the locals that’s for sure. Then, about to ask her about the whole 90’s scene with her generation of young movie stars, Liv cuts in and asks me to guess who she was with just the other day, having not seen her in years. The pair had lunch and caught up on old times (like when hey starred in an Aerosmith video together). None other than Alicia Silverstone. Small world all around. But before we could get too hung up on approaching 40, I started the interview with the delightful Liv Tyler, the ice well and truly broken in several places indeed.

AwardsDaily TV: Well, thank you first of all for agreeing to briefly talk to me and AwardsDaily TV. A pleasure to meet you.

Liv Tyler: Thank you.

ADTV: So I’ve seen both seasons of The Leftovers, which I will come to in a moment, and have to say it is pretty great. Such a unique notion – quite bonkers at times – but really compelling and well executed. So congratulations for being part of such an ambitious project.

LT: Thank you.

ADTV: Now, I remember the nineties fondly, they were just great for the development of indie cinema for starters. Other than the obvious, I remember you from movies like Empire Records, That Thing You Do!, and of course Stealing Beauty. What did that mid-nineties spell mean to you? Do you want fans to remember you for those movies, those roles?

LT: I was just a kid, a teenager, graduating from high school. And acting, just kind of beginning my life, it was a nice time. I am really grateful as an actor now when I go to work and see how things are. I am grateful I was part of that generation, things were a little bit different then, the whole process was different, it was not completely the modern world yet, there was still a lot of the old school ways of making films. I am grateful to work with some of those film-makers, it was amazing. I think about how my children might remember me [Laughs]. There might be an actor or an actress and there might be one film you really connect to, and that’s how you always think of them. There seems to be a big nostalgia now for the nineties in the way things were and the way things worked, and it is so fun to see people interested in it.

ADTV: So you started your career with modeling. Was that what you wanted to do? When and how did this transcend into acting?

LT: I was so young, and it was happening so fast. I was living in Maine, and I moved to New York in the summer I turned twelve and I just kind of blossomed. I was really tall, but had like a perm and braces and I was chubby. Then I just kind of suddenly started to change my mom was very good friends with Paulina Porizkova, the supermodel, and her husband Ric Ocasek. Paulina was taking pictures and she asked if she could take photographs of me, so that was kind of the first pictures I ever did. And from that I started modeling. It was not something I particularly wanted to do, it just sort of happened. You try it out, it was such a fun world to get to experience, so sophisticated, incredible, and amazing. When you’re a teenager it is not necessarily what you want to be doing with your time. I had a little bit of a love hate relationship with it, and then my acting stuff just happened so quickly. I was asked to go on a couple of auditions, and because of my family history I think people were a little more interested in me as a person, which I am really grateful for. That definitely helped me in the couple of years I was modeling, there was more interest in my whole story I guess. I had my first audition, and before I had a chance to have a desire or a dream of my future – I use to want to be a marine biologist [Laughs], and I wanted to be a singer – it gave me a nice purpose in those tricky teenage years that can be hard. I absolutely fell in love with acting, so I am glad I did that.

ADTV: When did you feel like Liv Tyler the actress in your own right, and not the daughter of whatshisface from that rock band?

LT: You know I never felt like I was just the daughter of someone or in the shadow of someone. I always felt my own person. I feel very blessed, and it was not a hindrance for me. It was something that I don’t think ever effected the way people looked at me. I think if anything it made people go “Oh that makes you a little bit more interesting.” The only sort of downside of it is that it makes people have this preconceived idea of how you grew up, like everyone just assumes that I grew up on a tour bus or in LA. I grew up in Maine in the country with my family. I had a very grounded, a very beautiful upbringing. My mom and my dad were definitely very eccentric, magical, crazy beings, but I had a lot of normal stuff in my life as well.

ADTV: That’s good to hear.

LT: Yeah. It was never really a problem for me thank goodness. I remember my dad always coming to the premiere of my movie or seeing a screening with me, and he would be like “What happened? Where did you come from?” [Laughs] Like this thing just happened. We have always been kind of independent in that way.

ADTV: I guess a lot of audiences have admired you over the years for your serenity, your ethereal screen presence. You certainly played against type in HBO’s The Leftovers. You were brilliantly sinister. Almost a bad guy. What attracted you to such a different role in Meg? How did you get the part? Is it something you were looking for?

LT: I am always looking for interesting characters and interesting parts, and sometimes they are very few and far between. It takes time to find those ones that are right, that are good. I think in my first movie ever I did a movie called Silent Fall. I played a woman who killed her parents. I don’t know if I have ever played anyone quite like that before. I was very interested with what was going on with television in America. I know in England TV has always been incredible, and a lot of wonderful actors have done television. But in America it really wasn’t like that, you were a movie star or in movies, or you were a TV star and there was a big divide between it with the quality of the work or how that work was perceived. Those barriers have really come down. I noticed with TV I was enjoying it a little bit more than the films I was seeing, so I decided to take an interest in trying to find something.

ADTV: I think with the quality of TV now actors who made movies are now making TV shows.

LT: Yeah, and as an actor that is incredible. I was encouraged to find something to be the star of, and I was like “No no no,” I want to be part of an ensemble cast on a show on a network I respect. If I wanted to be a part of that thing you get with television that is so unique and different, I didn’t want to take the mold of a movie actor. I wanted to do exactly what this show is. It’s a nice platform. You can still work and do other things but still be part of that. Whereas if it is always you, it can take up all of your time and you can’t do other projects. I’ve always been such a fan of the quirky, complex kind of storytelling like Twin Peaks and The Twilight Zone, shows like that, and wanted there to be a show like that again, and this [The Leftovers] has some of those elements.

ADTV: Oh definitely. Your character, especially at the end of that second season, your role got much juicier.

LT: Yeah. The only hard thing with the ensemble is that you don’t always get to do a lot.

ADTV: No. But you did at the end of the season, those last few episodes. So what is your view on Meg now you know her? You want her to succeed even though she is maybe not doing things for the greater good? Or do you want her to suffer? Do you relish that menace?

LT: I don’t really think about it in that sense, Meg has had such an evolution of being this woman who was confused and frustrated and searching and pissed off. She kind of finds this outlet in the Guilty Remnant, and she finds her power and her strength, and this whole other side of her personality comes out. But even within all that she still has a problem with authority, and she’s wondering what does that mean, and is still kind of searching, trying to figure everything out – you see a lot more of that in the second series. But it is such a crazy, bizarre sort of world, I always imagine if something like that happened, a lot of people are going to be in denial, pretending nothing happened, or that you’re over-reacting. I think Meg was just pissed off that everyone was just trying to go back to normal, like everything was normal. She was trying to be in this relationship with this man and her mother was dead and her world had changed, and couldn’t pretend like everything was normal, and I think that is something that she carries with her all the time. She definitely acts out, and you could say she is the bad guy, acting badly, but I think she is just searching for some truth.

ADTV: Who from The Leftovers cast or crew did you get inspiration from while you were making it?

LT: I loved working with all the actors. Particularly working with Christopher Eccleston, he’s a Brit. [Laughs] That was really fun, we had some intense scenes, I really enjoyed it, everybody. It is a very different style of working than on a film, we basically shoot every two weeks, like a little movie every two weeks, and everything changes – the cinematographer is different, the director is different, sometimes the crew is different, the actors can change. You really have to be on your toes, you have to know yourself well, know your character well, and be ready for anything. And that’s a process I have found very inspiring.

ADTV: Any funny or interesting stories relating to the filming, that we don’t know about?

LT: I had to go to work very very very pregnant, and am not pregnant on the show, so it was quite funny for me. I was waddling around like a penguin. [Laughs] They had to make my trousers bigger, and my shirt a bit bigger. Oh we have so much fun.

ADTV: Well congratulations anyway [on the pregnancy].

LT: Thank you

ADTV: Do you know what The Leftovers has in store for Meg in season three? There is probably not a lot you can tell me, but do you know?

LT: I don’t actually. I did a little bit of filming, I have a very vague idea of something that might happen, but really I don’t know because they are still writing it. They have a whole outline and then over the course of a certain amount of months, I think the amount of work and dedication and focus that Damon [Lindelof] and Tom Perrotta and the team of writers have put into this is really super intense, quite extraordinary the level of writing they are doing. I don’t think it is normal for television writing. It goes above and beyond. It takes a lot out of them to write each episode – that many complex characters and stories.

ADTV: You get the scripts quite late don’t you?

LT: Yes. In the first season we would get the scripts a week before we started filming.

ADTV: I am looking forward to that third season anyway.

LT: I think its going to be really really good.

ADTV: Yeah, I am sure they will go out with a bang. Just to finish I know you do a bit of work outside of the acting, you’ve done a bit of charitable work outside of acting, like being an ambassador and the support of United Nations Children’s Fund. Is that something you are still doing?

LT: A little bit, but not enough, I do a lot of things locally. I have done work with UNICEF over the years but past couple of years I have been at home having babies. [Laughs] I would love to be doing some charity work. David, my fiance, works very very closely with UNICEF and is about to go to Africa next week. I honestly haven’t been involved in that, a lot of that stuff for the past couple of years, that I can be proud of, that I can share. There are a lot of things I am apart of here in New York that are local things where I can help out when I can.

ADTV: Building a family is something to be proud of.

LT: Yeah absolutely. I have just been doing so many new things, having two kids back to back, then working on The Leftovers, and just produced and starred in little independent film just last year working with Belstaff which has been really fun. I have been producing a couple of short films for them. I’ve been designing a capsule collection, about to do the second one which was fun. Though I have been part of fashion and costumes all my life, I have not actually designed anything myself.

HBO has renewed The Leftovers for a third and final season of eight episodes which began principal shooting in May 2016.

Rami Malek is on cloud nine.

He’s in Los Angeles and, prior to our interview, he’s just been speaking to Robert Downey Jr. for the August issue of Interview Magazine. It’s a special moment for him. It also caps off a year where he’s received awards attention for his star-making role in USA Network’s breakout hit, Mr. Robot. Critics and guild members alike have praised his performance, nominating Malek for the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Critics’ Choice Television Award as Best Actor, winning for the latter.

But, rest assured, Rami Malek is far from his TV persona, Elliot, the cyber security worker and vigilante.  On a break from a shoot, Malek is in town for press, and we sat down to talk about Elliot, paranoia, and how best to watch Mr. Robot.

AwardsDaily TV: Rami Malek, what’s it like for you? Your star has ascended rather rapidly.

Rami Malek: It comes down to three words, “Don’t blow it.” It’s an experience that you just can’t prepare for. People always prepare you for the worst, “This is not going to work out.” Or “This is going to be a very difficult road.” Or “Acting is a one in a million career.”

To have not only the success of working as an actor but receiving some type of acclaim for your work is a very rare and humbling place to be. It humbles you as a human being to think that not only do I have the opportunity to do what I love, but receiving praise for it is something I never would have expected. Hoped for, but never expected.

ADTV: The show is a visual show, there’s a lot going on. How should viewers watch the show? Binge it or watch it on a weekly basis?

RM: I watched this documentary in New York about Marlon Brandon. I remember one thing he said. “What I aspire to do when I’m working is to stop the movement from popcorn to the mouth.” So, with this show, it strikes me as one that I wouldn’t want to be opening candy, or chewing on anything, or having to take my eyes off the screen as every visual is so poignant and so pertinent that you don’t want to miss anything.

I’m not telling anyone not to snack while watching, just have it all prepared before you sit down. Bingeing is not the appropriate viewing experience because it requires some absorption when you’re done watching it. For me even reading the script, things hit me days later. I’m not telling everyone to wait a week, but just take some time. I wouldn’t just let episodes bleed into the next credit sequence as we tend to do while bingeing.

However, if I was telling people how to watch TV, I think it would be very un-Mr Robot of me. Having said that, watch it how you please.

ADTV: How close is this show to reality because, certainly while watching it, it made me think…

RM: Me too. I mean I’m borderline paranoid regarding the way I treat technology. There are phone calls I won’t even make on cellular phones anymore. I don’t have anything to hide, but if there are discussions about the script or the show, I like to make those from devices that are not my own. That might be a little too much, but who knows. There are some very smart people out there who can do some very damaging things just from sitting right behind a monitor.

ADTV: It’s rather terrifying when you think of what society is capable of.

RM: Does it scare me? We’re in a world where every day it feels like the earth beneath us is shifting because of the climate we’re in, this over load of social media and hyper-consumerism that we live in, that everything is changing. I think no one really knows where it’s going. As frightening as it is, it’s also this new normal of we really can’t predict anymore and things seem off kilter and it is and it can be at any moment. We’re more aware of just how devastating technology can be. I don’t know if that makes it more or less frightening because we actually acknowledge that it exists.

For me as an actor, I’ve always felt like I’ve gotten some great advice from women, and I feel soothed and comforted by the sound of a woman’s voice. I always thought of speaking to a woman when I was working on it, so why not have that voice when I’m shooting. – Rami Malek

ADTV: In terms of the tech jargon that we see on the show, are you a techie?

RM: I’m an actor, that’s what I do. I’m not big on social media. I don’t spend too much time in front of a computer. I don’t share similarities in that realm. It’s a role, and one that I enjoy playing. At the end of the day, I’m acting.

ADTV: How much of your story do you know ahead of time?

RM: I know physically where we might be shooting in season three. I don’t know any more than what happens in the final scene of season two, episode ten and it is a very magical experience.

ADTV: I’ve heard that you have a female voice feed in when you’re working on Elliot’s inner voice. Is his inner voice a woman?

RM: Elliot’s voice is ultimately anyone who watches the show. When he breaks the fourth wall, he’s talking to anyone who will listen. The advice he might be getting or sharing, could be any one of us who’s watching. For me as an actor, I’ve always felt like I’ve gotten some great advice from women, and I feel soothed and comforted by the sound of a woman’s voice. I always thought of speaking to a woman when I was working on it, so why not have that voice when I’m shooting.

ADTV: What were some season two highlights?

RM: I enjoyed anything that we shot in New York in the street because it’s palpable, you’re out there among the people. Shooting in New York is like no other experience. It’s something Hollywood has attempted to build on back lots trying to replicate that city. When you have it at your disposal like that, there’s something really magnetic and energizing about that. When you put actors in like Christian and put up a camera, those situations are beyond special. Shooting in Times Square with Christian and him throwing me up against the massive American flag is an experience that I will never forget.

ADTV: What time of day did you shoot that scene?

RM: We started around 9 or 10 and went all the way to 4am. We did the majority of the shooting between 2 and 4 because on a week night that’s when we knew we’d have the least amount of pedestrians and cars going through and we want that area to look as vacant as it could. There’s something really unique about being able to shoot like that. No one knew who we were so we didn’t draw as much attention. A guy in a black hoodie? No one recognized him. Christian Slater had the homeless man disguise so everyone was befuddled as to why someone who looked like the Unabomber got to take over Times Square.

ADTV: How many black hoodies do you have?

RM: The one in the show is my personal hoodie. One day I’m going to ask for it back.

ADTV: You did theatre in college? do you want to explore it again?

RM: I’d love to. I’ve done it in a lot of places. It’s something that was my entrée into acting. I’m eager to get back, but it’s difficult as my career is busy. If there’s time, I’d like to give it what I’ve got.

Mr. Robot season two premieres on July 13 at 10pm ET.

Christopher Eccleston discusses HBO’s The Leftovers and how the Book of Job inspired his preacher character on the hit show

It’s the weekend, and Christopher Eccleston is in town ahead of a panel for HBO’s hit drama The Leftovers. He’s reading A Childhood: The Biography of Place by Harry Crews and is engrossed in the book after just flying in from the UK. Then, he’s about to go to Austin after which he’ll head to Australia to shoot the final season of The Leftovers. He will continue to portray the recurring character of Reverend Matt Jamison which has already nabbed him two Critics’ Choice Television Awards in addition to a plethora of Emmy buzz.

Christopher Eccleston and I caught up and bonded over being Brits in Los Angeles as well as his love of running around Santa Monica. He’s also a massive Manchester United fan, so we got some football talk in while reflecting on season two of The Leftovers. We also discussed what lies ahead for the drama.

Christopher Eccleston: It’s the final season. I think it’s been announced that this is the third and final season. We’re doing eight episodes instead of ten, too. Two in Austin and six in Melbourne, Australia. Everybody is getting ready now, some are already out there and some are due to go shoot the final six.

ADTV: Did you read the book before?

CE: I did, yeah. Julian Farino, a director I worked with, gave me the book and said that he thinks HBO is going to do something with it. I read it and really enjoyed it and when the auditions came around, I asked to meet Damon about Matt Jamison, who’s about two pages in the novel. I think he was a little like, “Why that character?” I thought that if it was going to be a biblical rapture and a reverend had not been taken, there’s a dramatic character. We met in London and he’d probably started on Star Trek 2. We ended up having this huge religious conversation, and he wrote him into it and made him Nora Durst’s brother, which is not the case in the novel. He’s been a great character to play.

ADTV: He’s an interesting character. You got almost an entire episode dedicated to you. Do you like the format of the show?

CE: Me and Carrie [Coon] have been very fortunate because we’ve both had a standalone episode. I think coming from a British theater background, the idea of an ensemble is not new to me and I’ve enjoyed that. Obviously, sometimes, you get frustrated because you want to be doing more. But I’ve enjoyed it very much.

ADTV: How does that challenge you as an actor with this format?

CE: I don’t particularly see it as a challenge, I just relish it. Obviously, when you get a standalone episode, I love that responsibility.

ADTV: What’s it like working with the two directors? In season one, you had Keith Gordon and in season two you had Nicole Kassell. How does that compare on those two episodes?

CE: This job, for me, has been a little bit magical. We actually started off with Keith because they told who the director was and then he walked on set and I realized that he was a former actor who had given a performance which I had seen when I was about 18 that made me decide to be an actor. He was the lead actor in a film called Christine with John Carpenter writing the script from a Stephen King novel and Keith played a nerd who becomes a psychopath. That performance had a huge impact on me. I was very fortunate because, having been an actor, he’s very interested in process and he’s very good. Actors can be very fine directors. I was nervous surrounded by an American cast and I was very, very fortunate to get Keith and then it was the same with Nicole. Nicole is a director, she’s never acted, but we clicked because she was all about performance and knew exactly what she wanted. I feel like I got the pick of the directors.

ADTV: Do you know your full character’s arc yet?

CE: No, and that’s been interesting because, obviously theater trained, you always know your beginning, middle, and end. And, in British television, you know your beginning, middle, and end. I think there’s an area there where you can get neurotic and paranoid. I’ve studied American television for a few years and read the book Difficult Men, which goes into detail about how shows such as Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Sopranos were made. It goes inside the writer’s room and talks about the entire process. What I thought was that I wasn’t going to be hassling Damon Lindelof for what I’m going to do because I trust his intelligence. I know he’s not going to ask me to do anything stupid. I know he’s not going to ask me to do anything that doesn’t come from the character and I’ve enjoyed finding out as I go. I think it’s a new way of working, but you have to have an intelligent showrunner on hand. If you’re in the hands of someone who’s just making it up then you’re going to have problems. Some of the things I’ve felt the character might do, Damon’s ended up doing them. There’s a strand kind of intuitive process that goes on.

ADTV: So you’re on the same page? That’s incredible.

CE: It is. And I think it happens a lot. If you look at something like The Sopranos, the writer looked at that lead actor and they understood each other and nudged each other in a certain direction. Damon is really good at reading the actors who are playing these roles and understanding their preoccupations and strengths. It’s a fascinating process. The book is called Difficult Men, if you want to look it up.

ADTV: So how did you research for the role of Matt? Did you base him on anyone?

CE: I was entirely lead by the script. I’m not really a research junkie. Damon tells me that after our first meeting, I said to him that if an Episcopalian reverend was not taken in the biblical rapture that that would make a religious man more religious. He claims I said that, but I don’t remember saying that. What that clicked into for him, though, was the book of Job, so I know that inside and out. That’s been my touchstone for the character and Damon has run parallels with that character throughout. I’ve had a couple of weird experiences, too, with that. About two years before I’d even read The Leftovers, I was asked to go to Westminster Cathedral for the anniversary celebration of the publication of the King James Bible and I was given a section of Job to read. I read it in front of the, then, Archbishop of Canterbury and it was the section when God turns on Job. Then, a year later, I took my mom to Cornwall on a holiday, my dad had dementia and she having a break, and we walked into this tiny, deserted church and a Bible was open to the book of Job [laughs]. I read it out and my mom’s religious and told me I read it very well and I told I had rehearsed it. Then, The Leftovers happened.

ADTV: That’s a crazy coincidence.

CE: Job is fascinating. He’s the first existential man. I remember being stunned by it. I had never read the Bible. So, I read Job and I quietly in the back of a couple Episcopalian churches when we were in New York for the first season and just observed preachers. But, really, it comes from the script.

ADTV: Were you a religious person growing up? You said your mom was.

CE: I said this to Damon actually and he said that was a very difficult question. At the time, I would definitely have said I was an atheist, but in the intervening years things have happened, good and bad, and I have had more difficulty with absolute Atheism. What about you?

ADTV: I grew up Catholic because my parents are Filipino. I went to Westminster Cathedral, when I was in London, every Sunday. For me, I just needed to be grounded and just have a moment of refocusing.

CE: I was raised Church of England, but was never confirmed, which my mother dislikes to this day. My mother has a very strong faith. We used to go to church. I’d watch my dad say his prayers, but I never really had a conversation with him about religion. My mom’s faith seems to have grown more important and deeper as she’s moved through life. I admire it because it’s a very practical, working class area and the church targets people in the area who are poor. There’s a very practical and social function that my mom’s church fulfilled.

ADTV: Let’s talk about that episode, episode five, which is your dedicated episode. Those scenes with his wife are, would you say, it’s a great love affair that they have?

CE: Yeah, I’ve always thought of it in very romantic terms. I watched my mother care for my father with the dementia and there were parallels there. I thought it was very brave in the opening scenes to see the abuse because he’s verbally abusing her, but it’s all too human and all too understandable. I’ve always seen it as a very romantic story. The whole thing is reinforced by Matt’s faith and Matt’s identification with Job and that this is a test and God is testing him, his faith, and his belief. She is the center of his world.

CE: I think there was a slight change in tone, there was more humor. What we experienced there was Damon, who is very loyal to Tom’s vision in the first series, but I think there’s a sense that Damon could throw that off, and Tom as well. Tom is being faithful to his own novel, but once that was done, there’s a slight change in tone in season two. Damon was doing what Damon’s great at: creating original television. Tom Perrotta, I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago, and he said that this has changed his life. The challenges were just to get inside the thoughts and emotions of the character, but it’s not that much of a challenge when it’s that strongly written, I mean a monkey could do it [laughs] with the writing I’ve had. You just have to be present and be as truthful as you can. There’s no anguish on my part about acting.

ADTV: You’ve got quite a background. You’ve done theater, you’ve done TV, you played Doctor Who for a year, you’ve got this, and then you’ve done film as well. Do you have a preference of one over the other?

CE: It’s interesting because I never imagined it. I have to say that a lot of my years at the Central School of Speech and Drama, 1983-86, all we thought we’d have was a career in theater. It honestly never occurred to me, even though I watch television drama more than I went to the theater, I never thought I would be a television or film actor. Very naively I thought I’d get a job at the National, theater was my first love. You get the edit as an actor and you get a complete experience when you perform the show, but it’s very difficult to make a reasonable living as a theater actor so we do television and film. I would say television over film, I like the immediacy of television and the fact that certainly the television I absorbed as a young man was addressing social issues, for instance I was in Hillsborough, that was an ambition fulfilled for me because I was a piece in British television that actually had some import. I like the pace of television when you’re making it and immediate response and broad audience you get.

ADTV: That’s the one thing I miss about London that you don’t get here, the theater. I’m surprised that there’s not a bigger theater culture here.

CE: A lot of the ensemble in The Leftovers are New York theater actors. Ann Dowd and Carrie’s from Chicago, and we’ve had a lot of people with a theater background.

ADTV: I love theater. So what’s next for you? You’re going to go off back to London then Australia?

CE: End of July I go to Australia until October first and there’s a show that I did late last year/early this year called The A Word, which is going on Sundance in July. It was broadcast in Britain in the last couple of months. And I’ll be doing a second series of that when I get back. There’s two possibilities that I can’t curse by mentioning them, but they’re not nailed up.

ADTV: It’s so weird how TV and all that has changed now because when we were growing up, we had like three channels and then channel four came in.

CE: When I became an actor for television, there was four channels.

ADTV: Now there’s so many channels, especially with cable and satellite, and now you’ve got the opportunity to binge Netflix, which changed everything.

CE: My binge watch was The Sopranos and Breaking Bad. They have been my two ambitions to work in long form American television. They’re great shows.

ADTV: I think The Sopranos is one of the best, if not the best show.

CE: You’ll enjoy the book [Difficult Men] then because they get right inside the making of that and the whole culture of the writer’s room and how it’s changed drama.

ADTV: People don’t appreciate the creativity or the process that goes into the final product.

CE: I think there might be a documentary about the writer’s room and that’s what I like to see. There’s great stuff in there where the head writer, say Damon Lindelof, and all these writers have to, to a certain extent, become his brain so they find themselves analyzing aspects of his character. Imagine all those alpha male and female writers in a room having to throw their own voice a little bit. There must be huge tensions in it.

ADTV: Is it something you’d like to do?

CE: Oh yeah, but I don’t think I have the discipline or the talent to write, but I do find myself reading again and again about the writing process. I’d like to be a fly on the wall in a writer’s room.

ADTV: It’s hard work. What about directing or producing?

CE: Working with Keith was very interesting because it made me believe, certainly for a performance point of view, that I think I could help actors. I think I’d know how to talk to actors and there’s a desire in me to do that. I think if I want to do that, I’ll do it, but I’m busy acting at the moment. One day, I would like to take responsibility for a project because I’ve got a lot of experience now and you learn more from the directors who can’t do it than you do from the ones who can.

ADTV: Does Matt catch a break in season three? When will he?

CE: Oh, Matt in season three [laughs]. Obviously, I don’t know the whole story. I don’t know where he’s going to end. I can’t imagine Matt [laughs] catching a break any time soon. He’s obviously knit up with the whole journey to Australia and has some kind of a relationship with Kevin, Sr. which was brought up in series two, so I’m sure Matt will be enjoying himself.

ADTV: How do you shake him off when you’re done?

CE: Very easily, really. He’s suffers a great deal, but he’s got this remarkable durability which comes from his faith and also from his personality. The fact that he can always, always reinvent himself and always find hope makes him a very rewarding character to play. He’s an example really because we all face stuff, don’t we.

ADTV: He’s a tough guy.

CE: He really is. I’ve loved him and playing him. I’ll miss it.

ADTV: Now, you’re off to Australia to film. Have you been before?

CE: I haven’t. I shot in New Zealand when we did a film called Jude. I did that 24-hour flight. I’ve been told Melbourne is a superb city. I think it’s going to be really interesting for us to build up a relationship with an Australian crew and see what that dynamic is like. We’ve had a different crew each time because we were in New York, then Austin, and now Melbourne.

ADTV: Did that move to Austin come as a surprise?

CE: Yeah, and a very welcome one because I fell in love with Austin and the people. It’s a great place.

ADTV: It’s taking you on a journey.

CE: We shot the pilot in New York summer of 2013 and it was like 90 degrees and we had extras and people fainted. And then we shot through one of the worst New York winters on record the first season. Then, last year, we were in Austin in the summer. We were out in the camp where Matt did all his business in the scorching heat. Now, we finish in Australia in the winter.

CE: It’s interesting now that we’re ending. I think it’s changed the dynamic on set. In an odd way, we’ve all relaxed because we know the end is in sight. Justin and I had a drink the other night and we were both saying how sad we’re going to be. We’ve all got on and it’s been a great example of an ensemble.

ADTV: Do you all hang out together, as well, when you’re not working?

CE: It’s odd because people are in and out. I think what has been set up is that Justin has set the tone as the leading man. I think his performance hugely underrated and he’s a fantastic fellow to work with. When people come in and are nervous, he relaxes them. He really leads us well. That’s one of the main things I’ll remember, watching him set the tone. When we get a chance, there’s a few drinkers and a few non-drinkers.

ADTV: Is there anyone you do want to have a massive scene with?

CE: I think every actor on The Leftovers will name one person in common that we all want a scene with: Ann Dowd. The only exchange Matt and Patty have had is a glare at each other in season one. Everybody wants to work with Ann Dowd. Damon makes jokes about how everybody on the production is in love with Ann Dowd.

ADTV: Something in season three needs to happen where everybody gets one scene with Ann Dowd [laughs].

CE: Me and her have talked about wanting to do theater together and I always want to direct her. We should make it happen.

HBO’s The Leftovers season three is currently filming.

J. Michael Straczynski looks back on a career in television and film and explores new creative boundaries in Netflix’s Sense8

In a recent study, Netflix’s Sense8 ranked among the most binged-watched shows on the streaming service. We’re absolutely sure that has little to do with the graphic nudity and sexual content. Wink. Wink. Seriously, though, created by Lana and Lilly Wachowski and J. Michael Straczynski, the show tells the story of eight strangers from different countries who find themselves connected through their thoughts and actions.

I caught up with J. Michael Straczynski to talk about the challenges of working with eight different characters from around the globe and to discover which of his shows from his body of work would he like to see rebooted.

AwardsDaily TV: Are you having fun with Sense8, now in its second season?

J. Michael Straczynski: During season one, the three of us (Lana, Lily and I) were all very much hands-on during writing, prep, production and post. In order to focus on her transition, Lily opted out of season two before the writing period began. There were erroneous stories about Lily leaving during production. This is flatly untrue. She would never leave something mid-stream. We all wanted to give her space for her to get this new phase of her life in gear, so she’s been clear of season two from the beginning. In season one, I brought in the television background to help get that season off the ground, and, once Lana had her TV land-legs, she felt that she should run season two as the filmmaker. So my direct involvement on season two was primarily during the writing stage. It’s now all down to Lana.

ADTV: Let’s go back. How did Sense8 all begin?

JMS: I’ve known the Wachowskis for many years. We met when they invited me to a cast and crew screening of the last Matrix film where I discovered they were fans of my work on Babylon 5 and in the comics world and even read my monthly column on scriptwriting for Writers Digest Magazine for inspiration and pointers when they were still trying to break in as writers. A few years back, when they needed someone to rewrite the entire script for Ninja Assassin in 52 hours in order to hit camera on schedule, I was able to do that for them, and we always wanted to work on something else. Finally, Lana invited me to the house she shares with her wife Karin in San Francisco to try and figure out something to do in the TV space.

We share a belief in the idea that as a species we are better together than we are apart. That we are strengthened, not diminished, by a multitude of voices. At a time when politics are pulling us apart, we wanted to tell a story about people coming together. We also liked the idea of connectivity and how this works in evolution. The glue that allows civilization to exist is empathy: first for one’s family, then one’s tribe, then one’s community, nation and outward from there. So what would it look like, we wondered, if suddenly you had a mental community of seven other people who knew everything about you, your secrets, your dreams, your skills. How would people react? Would the cultural differences still divide them, or would they learn that despite those differences we are still more alike than we are different? And it went off from there.

ADTV: One thing I love about the show is the diversity of characters. How did you decide that this was going to be done on a global scale?

JMS: To properly explore the idea of people from different cultures suddenly being in telepathic or empathic contact with each other, we knew we had to cast a very wide net. We wanted this to be the first story truly told and produced on a global scale. It wouldn’t be just a Western story set against a foreign background, those countries would be as much characters in our story as the eight protagonists themselves. If all the sensates came from the same neighborhood or country, the differences wouldn’t be as profound and there’d be less to overcome once they made contact. One of the things we did in order to play this out properly was to go against the standard TV production model where you do as much as you can on the stage, then pop out for locations (or fake it). We shot the entire show on location in San Francisco, Chicago, Mexico City, London, Iceland, Berlin, Nairobi, Seoul and Mumbai. This gives you a real sense of scale that just can’t be faked.

ADTV: What challenges did that pose for you?

JMS: The challenges of shooting like this were huge. We started shooting in June, and shot all the way through to the end of the year. Because our sensates can see each other as though they’re in the same room despite being in different countries, we would shoot a scene — say, Nomi talking to Wolfgang — in San Francisco, where she lived, then shoot the exact same conversation, same blocking, six months later in Berlin, then intercut the two in order to create the sense of simultaneity. So all of our scripts had to be written before we shot the first frame of film, and once a conversation was filmed in one place, we couldn’t change it later for the other side. We also had to factor in time zones. If Will in Chicago needed access to Sun in Korea, she might well be asleep. So not only did we have cards on boards with every beat, we had clocks for every time zone overhead so we could be sure we always knew where every character was when something was going on. It was very much a game of pieces. Logistically, it was a nightmare, but the result speaks for itself.

ADTV: How about the languages? How did you approach that idea?

JMS: We wanted to have all of our characters speaking their own languages among their own people, which we “hear” as English only when they’re among their own, the way everyone is speaking German in a World War II movie but we hear it as English. When the sensates first make contact with each other, those different languages move to the forefront and we now hear one speaking Spanish and the other speaking Korean and nobody understand the other person. But as the sensates get to know each other, the communication becomes easier, and now they can begin to understand each other’s language.

ADTV: How did season two differ from season one for you?

JMS: Now that the writing is done, season two is really Lana’s show as she takes the bit in her teeth and runs with it. I keep an eye on production long-distance, checking dailies and the like, but primarily I’m now working on other projects, developing several new series for CBS Studios, ITV and others, as well as working on two new feature film assignments.

ADTV:Do any characters speak to you more than others?

JMS:  I think to a degree all of the sensates represent parts of the three of us. Certainly there’s a lot of my own family background in Wolfgang’s personal history.

ADTV: Let’s talk about your career, you’ve worked on so many of my favorite shows that I watched growing up as a kid: He-Man, She-Ra, Jake and the Fatman. Is there a difference between working on animation and on a weekly show like Murder She Wrote to Sense8 which launches its entire season?

JMS: The best thing about the launch of a full season at once is that it lets you really invest in and trust the intelligence of the audience in ways that wouldn’t work as well on a standard network show. The first few episodes of Sense8 season one are deliberately confusing because we made a tactical decision to shoot the show from a subjective perspective, meaning we never cut away from the perspective of our eight sensates. Normally you can cut away to other characters to show, say, what the bad guys are doing and why they’re doing it. Once we committed to staying in that POV we couldn’t cut away, so as a result the audience only knows what the eight main characters know, and they have absolutely no idea what the hell’s going on and why it’s happening to them. Gradually, as the characters begin to figure things out, so does the audience. But that means the first episode or two don’t appear to make any kind of goddamned sense.

On a network show, where viewers might have to wait a week, I’m not sure they’d have the patience to come back. But in a streaming situation, the impulse is more like “Okay, let’s see where this goes” and they keep watching as the show begins to make sense. Interestingly enough, according to some of the marketing folks at Netflix, the usual pattern for viewers is to watch a season through, then go back and rewatch one or two episodes they liked in particular, then they’re done. In the case of Sense8, they’re seeing a majority of viewers rewatching the entire show two, three, or four times. In some cases people have rewatched the show as many as six times. I think it comes down to the sense of optimism the show brings, and the idea of community. We’ve definitely struck a nerve in there somewhere.

ADTV: Hollywood loves reboots. Would you like He-Man to get a reboot? Or even Babylon 5?

JMS: He-Man I don’t own, so I can’t comment. I would love to reboot Babylon 5 as a series, but Warner Bros. has made it clear that they don’t want to do anything with the show since it didn’t come about through the WB Television division (it was developed by WB Domestic Distribution during the PTEN network stage), so as far as they’re concerned it simply doesn’t exist. I do retain the film rights, however, and I plan to try and get a Babylon 5 feature in the works soon.

ADTV: How did Netflix get involved in Sense8?

JMS: The three of us wrote the first three episodes of Sense8 on spec, and made an abortive effort a few years earlier to take it around to the town. Nobody could wrap their heads around the concept and we pulled it back. After the TV landscape became more friendly to this kind of concept, more experimental in places, we decided that this was the right time to take the show back out again. We had arranged to pitch the show around town over the course of a week, after everyone had a chance to read the scripts. Our first stop was Netflix. We met with them around 11 a.m., told them about what we wanted to do with the show, went to lunch…and at 1 p.m. they called to take it off the market with a pre-emptive bid for a full first season. Scared the hell out of us.

ADTV: When did you get into writing?

JMS: I’ve always known I wanted to be a writer. I started writing and selling when I was seventeen, first as a reporter for everything from the San Diego Reader to the Los Angeles Times to TIME Inc., then flipped to animation, then to live action TV, then to movies. I’ve always just had this voice in my head telling stories. It’s not like I have a choice, the voice is always there, whispering at me. What’s been gratifying and humbling is that not only is the work still happening, this has been the busiest year of my career. I’m getting to tell some cool stories, work with amazing people…I get up every day and do what I love for a living. How amazing is that?

All seasons of Sense8 are now streaming on Netflix.