It’s a dry, silly and brutally frank response — exactly what you’d expect from Hoffman, who plays Randi, the unnerving assistant to Paul W. Downs’ and Megan Stalter’s characters, Jimmy and Kayla. There’s also a note of truth to it. “Hacks” was Hoffman’s second high-profile acting job ever, after FX’s “Dying for Sex,” in which she plays a BDSM practitioner who helps Michelle Williams’ character on her quest for sexual exploration. She doesn’t have a PR team — a must for most Hollywood stars — which makes being thrust into the Emmys’ campaign machine, with its many panels and press interviews, “weird.”

“There are the biggest stars you’ve ever seen on [these panels and me, and we’re
talking about the difficulties of acting,” she said, perhaps referring to the SAG-
AFTRA interview she did recently with Zoë Kravitz, Bryan Cranston and Ron
Howard (who seemed particularly amused by her anecdotes). “I feel weird even contributing to the conversation. I find acting one of the easier things I’ve done. I just thought it was a pleasure and a great gig and really a dream job.”

If you’re familiar with Hoffman’s intense yet sincere style, you won’t be surprised to learn that the “Hacks” team wrote Randi specifically with her in mind. “I’m an inspiration in the industry,” she deadpanned.

A comic’s comic known for her stand-up and for writing the PBS children’s
series “Odd Squad “(for which she won a Daytime Emmy in 2019) as well as “The
Chris Gethard Show” and “Workin’ Moms,” Hoffman, 35, often appears on “Comedians You Should Know” lists. Initially, her “Hacks” character seems to be the result of another questionable decision made by Stalter’s impulsive Kayla. Randi saw her first movie a week before joining a talent agency and seems more excited to talk about her Hasidic Jewish roots and sexuality than anything related to showbiz. But as the season wears on, Randi’s openness and dedication to the job win Jimmy over.

“It’s very intimidating. I will say that Randi and I felt very similarly in the sense
that she was new to this job and wanting to be a good assistant — overly eager, aggressive but kind, hard-working, a little rough. But in real life, I wanted to keep this job,” said Hoffman, who grew up in Brooklyn and Montreal, the seventh of 10 siblings in a Hasidic family. In January, she married “The Bachelorette” and “The
Traitors” alumna Gabby Windey.

Hoffman’s acting journey is just beginning. When she spoke to TheWrap, she was in the middle of shooting HBO’s as-yet-untitled Steve Carell comedy created by Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses. Though this side of the industry may be new to her, she’s embracing the increased attention with the same excitement and confidence that’s integral to her comedy.

“Everything I do takes time. When you’re doing things on your own, that can be especially true,” she said. “But when you do get the time, wow, you really get to shine. You’ve been cooking. So it does feel nice to come out of the oven a
little more baked.”

This story first ran in the Down to the Wire Comedy issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.

Read more from the Down to the Wire Comedy issue here.

The post ‘Hacks’ Star Robby Hoffman Has a Question for Emmys Voters About Her Nomination appeared first on TheWrap.

When The Studio was nominated for all those Emmys, I looked at the reaction statements from all the nominees. I don’t understand why nobody thanked Sal Saperstein.
It’s really disrespectful. I was obviously let down by the lack of mention. I can only assume that they’re gonna save that for when they eventually win.

You should probably talk to them before the show.
Yeah. We’re gonna do an awards-campaign thing where I’m gonna personally visit every nominee and tell them what’s at stake if they forget to mention Sal.

Have you compared notes with your fellow acting nominees Martin Scorsese and Ron Howard?
I have not checked in with those guys yet. But I did see Marty’s reaction on Instagram and he seemed to be genuinely flattered. I just hope those guys get a break. It’s been tough for them in show business, and I think it would just be nice for Ron and Marty to have some kind of recognition in this industry at some point.

It’s kind of crazy, because The Studio got five of the six nominees in guest actor and one in guest actress, and yet I didn’t think, “Oh, wow, that’s a lot.” I thought, “Why didn’t Sarah Polley and Olivia Wilde get in too?”
Honestly, truly, yes. Like, I’m thrilled for everyone. Zoë is incredible — she gave it her all. But those two in particular, Sarah and Olivia, I thought were arguably the two best guests we had all year. So they’ll have to come back in Season 2.

Do you have a wish list for Season 2?
In terms of actors, I think Leo would be very funny. I know he doesn’t like to do a ton of stuff, but he is the biggest movie star around, still. Timmy C. would be great. Get some Chal going, Chal in the chat.

And then, you know, I do love the directors we have on. So let’s keep that train going. Would love to see Steven Spielberg on there. Would love to see the Coen brothers. Bigelow, PTA. Quentin!

Come on, QT, get on here!

You’re aiming high. But I guess when you start with Scorsese in the first episode, why not?
Literally, we have Scorsese, Charlize and Steve Buscemi in the last [scene]. So it’s like, we have to heighten, which is tough.

Making the show, it must be a kick to have this endless cycle of people coming through and doing these killer guest spots.
Oh, yeah. Season 1, because it’s a new show, sometimes you have to pull a little bit harder to persuade people, but hopefully now people will see that if you come on the show, you’re gonna have fun. You’re gonna look cool or look like you have a good sense of humor about yourself. So hopefully it’ll be even easier to get some of the folks for Season 2.

Plus they might get an Emmy nomination.
The odds are you will get an Emmy nomination, so why not? And we give you your own half-trailer. And the craft table’s great.

When you got the scripts, did you have a sense of “OK, I know who Sal is” from the start?
Yeah. I love the way that (Rogen and Goldberg) write, and I love the way in one or two lines early on, you can tell what this character is all about. The first time you meet him, he’s like, “Hey, do I smell like vodka? I was out partying with Pedro Pascal all night.”

Right away, that said to me, “You know this guy. You’ve had drinks with this guy. This guy made an inappropriate joke when he came to the set to visit.” This is a party guy who loves his job, who has maybe overstayed his welcome a little bit.

Have people in the business told you, “Oh, yeah, I know lots of Sals”?

Oh, yes. And I’ve heard from some guys who are Sals who are like, “Hey, man, that was so funny, really great character.” And I’m like, “Yeah, it’s kind of based on you a little bit.” (Laughs)

You’ve already won “Celebrity Jeopardy!“and “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” How would winning an Emmy compare in terms of satisfaction?
I mean, winning those was incredible. Being able to give that money to charity was a dream. They’re different levels of happiness, but I’m humbled and honored to even be in the conversation. Also, I could sell the Emmy and use that money for charity, so it would be like being on one of those shows.

I wonder if maybe we should start a new EGOT-style acronym for Emmy, “Jeopardy!” and “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.“
I would call it EGOG. Replace the T in Tony, which is tough. I’m not doing Broadway right now and I don’t see it happening in the foreseeable future. But, you know, Emmy, Grammy — ’cause I have my collection of spoken-word poetry that’s coming out — Oscar and then game show. So EGOG is what I’m trying to get started.

I was thinking of being more specific and doing something like JEM for “Jeopardy!,” Emmy and “Millionaire.“
Oh, that is good. So “Jeopardy!,” Emmy, “Millionaire” and then we need one more. I think these are both very viable. 

This story first appeared in the Down to the Wire: Comedy issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.

The post Ike Barinholtz Has a Bold Wish List for ‘The Studio’ Season 2 Cameos: Spielberg, Leo and Tarantino appeared first on TheWrap.

The film charts a cross-country trek made by Will Ferrell and his close friend Harper Steele, a former “Saturday Night Live” head writer who recently came out as a trans woman. Early in their journey, they phone their “SNL” pal Kristen Wiig and ask her to write them a theme song that’s a little folky, slightly jazzy, uptempo but not too up, sort of twangy, kind of country and will make you cry.

Their repeated but futile attempts to get back in touch with Wiig to check on her progress become a running theme throughout the movie, until the song pops up during the credits and pretty much checks all those boxes.

“The actual conversation was longer (than what you see in the film),” Wiig said. “They originally listed every type of music that you could possibly imagine. We had talked about making that version, but it would’ve been a crazy song that made everyone anxious.”

Instead, Wiig and composer/producer Sean Douglas sat down with “Will & Harper”director Josh Greenbaum to fashion the song in Douglas’ home studio.

“We started by talking about what it was going to be like, what themes, what styles we were going to use,” Wiig said. “I was extremely moved by the movie because Harper is an old friend, so it was a very emotional thing for me. And we didn’t want the song to just be a joke, but we wanted it to have some lightness, some humor.”

While he was editing the movie, Greenbaum said he struggled to find the right tone: “If I let things become too comedic, the film would not do justice to the pathos and emotion of the story. But if I stripped the film of all things comedic, I’d be incredibly disingenuous to the very funny people that Will and Harper are.”

In the studio, the songwriters reached for that same balance. “The biggest challenge was to make sure we were walking the line of celebrating the movie and the real emotional journey that they go on together, but also wanting to be funny,” Douglas said. “I was probably overly eager because Josh is so funny and Kristen’s famously funny. I was like, ‘What if we said this? What if we said that?’ And then you’re like, what are we really talking about here? You have to make sure the core of it stays true.”

Douglas started throwing out melodic ideas on the piano, and the song’s opening lines — “Harper and Will go west/Just a couple old friends and a couple brand-new breasts” — came quickly. (Douglas and Wiig are credited with writing the music, and all three with writing the lyrics.)

“We had a certain groove going and the first couple of lines, and then we were off and running,” Douglas said. “Everyone was kind of passing the ball back and forth, and we had a song by the end of the day.”

The movie and song, by the way, underwent an awards transition. “Will & Harper” received enough of a theatrical release to qualify for the Oscars last year, but not enough to lose its Emmy eligibility. Last December, the movie made the 15-film shortlist in the Oscars’ Best Documentary Feature category, and “Harper and Will Go West” did the same in the Best Original Song category.  

An Oscar nomination in either category would have stripped the film of Emmy eligibility – but because it wasn’t nominated, it lived to resurface at the Emmys several months later.

A version of this story appeared in the Down to the Wire: Comedy issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.

The post First Rule of Writing the Emmy-Nominated Song ‘Harper and Will Go West’: Don’t Be Too Funny appeared first on TheWrap.

But Peacock’s new TV version, created by Ronan Bennett, is different — partly because it’s a continuing series, so you expect its title character to survive, and partly because the Jackal is played by Eddie Redmayne, whose innate likability means that we’re bound to root for him at least some of the time.

Redmayne’s Jackal is meticulous and relentless, but one of the conceits of the show is that the British detective who’s out to get him, played by Lashana Lynch, is as remorseless as her target, and almost as willing to bend the rules. Between that dynamic and the Jackal’s increasingly conflicted personal life, the series weaves a tangled web, morally and legally.

The last time we spoke, it was for the movie “The Good Nurse,” where you played Charlie Cullen, a real-life nurse who was responsible for a string of deaths. Both that project and this one play off your nice-guy persona. We just tend to be on your side.
It’s interesting that you say that, because I think the reason I got cast is that Brian Kirk, our director, had seen “The Good Nurse.” I don’t want to relate fiction to reality, but the thing I found in (director) Tobias Lindholm’s take on that piece is that it never gave you an easy reason as to why Charlie Cullen did these things. I think as human beings, to feel comfort we need to know, “Oh, this person had a trauma, and that’s why he did it.” But that lets us off the hook somehow. And I find qualities of sociopathy in the Jackal and in Charlie that somehow connect these two polar-opposite lives.

There is a moment late in “Jackal” when your character meets up with an elderly couple who help him out. As we were watching it, I turned to my wife and said — and this was just a guess — “I think he’s going to kill those nice people, but I’m still rooting for that guy.”
I didn’t know the extremity of what he was going to do when I signed on. They sent me the first three episodes, and the targets in those first couple of episodes were people that you didn’t necessarily have empathy for. But that was the threading of the needle: How do you do such appalling things and yet still keep people engaged?

I found that there was space to find this inner life in him that remains while he’s being pulled apart. And he’s also someone who is so meticulous. I think we all relate to that moment when a curveball is thrown and your plan is completely dismantled, seeing how you try to survive.

What was it about those three episodes that interested you?
They arrived in my inbox and “The Day of the Jackal” was the title. That was one of my dad’s favorite movies, and one of three or four VHS movies in our house when I was growing up. As those scripts arrived, there was a moment of trepidation, because you don’t want to butcher something you adore, but what I read was so different. It was contemporized, but it had the qualities I loved in the original movie.

It was a ’70s thriller, so it was kind of analog rather than from the digitized age that we’re in. I loved the feeling of those earlier Bond movies where you would set things up and then watch the dominoes fall. Also, there were so many challenges in those episodes. It was like an actor’s playground: languages, disguises, physicality, action. So I jumped right in and signed on as a producer.

When you had three scripts, did you know where the story was going?
I asked not to know because I was so excited by the scripts coming in. But also, when I signed on, I joined as a producer. And this whole experience has been a massive learning curve for me. For years I’ve worked quite intimately with directors and producers I’ve worked with. I’ve always been allowed a kind of input, I suppose. But this was really seeing behind the curtain in an intriguing way. It was a rigorous process but a rewarding one.

I always wonder about actors who get involved in TV shows on the basis of a couple episodes. When you get a script for Episode 6, do you ever think, I wish I had known that about this guy in Episode 1?
Yeah. I mean, I did ask what the general arc was. But the truth was that I assumed the next seven scripts were arriving in the next two weeks. And that was not the case. (Laughs)  

It’s not specific to television. I’ve worked on films where there is a release date and the script’s not ready, and you go in not knowing the entire arc of something. What I found complex about this one was that I could do all this prep for the first three, and then suddenly things were arriving: different prosthetics, different languages, and now you’re shooting and you’re on the hoof. So I had to juggle prepping with shooting.

You talked about how meticulous the character is. And it’s fun to watch it a year after seeing the David Fincher film “The Killer,” where Michael Fassbender plays a very different but equally meticulous assassin.
It was really funny, that. We were already shooting when that film came out, and I remember the original opening was the Jackal doing a plank (setting up a shot at his target). He checks his Apple watch. And my initial instinct was, it can’t be an Apple watch. This guy is an analog guy in everything. I find that intriguing, because in this world that we’re living in now, when it is all online, the way to disappear is to be completely analog.

And I remember that when I saw the trailer for “The Killer,” it was Michael doing a plank and looking at his Apple watch, checking his pulse. I was like, “OK, thank God we made that change.” But I’ve also found it interesting that there seems to be a revival in this type of genre, whether it’s “Jackal” or “Black Doves” or “The Agency.”  

But again, one of the things that appeals to me about playing Jackal is that as a British kid growing up, I always loved these sorts of characters. And yet the Jackal, because there being something specifically old-school about him, I felt this might be something I could do. Whereas I don’t necessarily have the physical heft to play the butch-er spies. (Laughs)

The character is living a double life that his family does not know about. Do you feel like he really does love his wife and son and is committed to them?
On one hand, there is a ruthlessness and a lack of morals and a kind of refined, terrifying elegance. And then there’s this family man, and I believe both of those things are true. In some ways, I saw him as an addict. I think he believes it when he’s saying that this is his last job. But the idea of him just sitting there in his beautiful house with his beautiful wife and child reading a book for the rest of his life, I just don’t see it happening. (Laughs) There is a pull, and also his virtuosity. I relate to the addiction of doing something you love. It’s very rare to find a job that fulfills you and is more than a job. So I was trying to draw on my own passion for acting, I suppose.

At the end of Season 1, the character comes right out and says what his two goals are going forward. I assume that’s where we’re going in Season 2?
Those are the initial aspirations. I’ve just seen the first script, and what I love is that it’s staying true to the character, but the ambition seems to have inflated. The second I read it, I thought, “When can we start?” But we’ve got a few more to write.

So are there still things for you and the audience to learn about the Jackal?
Oh, I think there’s a s–tload. (Laughs) I think we’ve only scratched the surface of him.

A version of this story first appeared in the Drama Issue of TheWrap’s awards magazines. Read more from the issue here.

The post Eddie Redmayne Explains the Art of Getting People to Root for a Ruthless Killer in ‘The Day of the Jackal’ appeared first on TheWrap.

Michael Fassbender plays Brandon Colby, a top CIA operative better known as “Martian” who’s been summoned back to the organization’s London office after years of living undercover in Africa; Jeffrey Wright is Henry Ogletree, the CIA London Deputy Station Chief; Richard Gere is James Bradley, the London Station Chief who reports to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia; and Jodie Turner-Smith is Dr. Samia Fatima “Sami” Zahir, who was in a relationship with Martian when he was stationed in Africa and shows up unexpectedly in London, forcing him to hide his continuing interest in her.

The espionage genre is very popular on TV right now. What’s the appeal?
MICHAEL FASSBENDER: I think there’s a lot of mystery around it. When you’re doing stuff like this, you have access to a world that you’re trying to represent. But for the most part, we don’t know what it’s like. And the stakes are the highest they can be. It’s an opportunity to peek behind the curtain, and I think that’s endlessly fascinating.

And I suppose it feels timely when the world seems particularly chaotic.
RICHARD GERE: I talked to the writers about that. What is our agenda? I mean, what Trump is doing is challenging. What are we supposed to be doing, and who’s going to control us? Who are the adults in the house back in Washington and Langley? This definitely should be part of what we engage with on the show.

JEFFREY WRIGHT: If you look at the end of Season 1, Martian betraying the U.S. on behalf of the U.K. has even more multidimensional resonance now than it did when the show came out. There’s an additional tension that didn’t exist then between the U.K. and the United States, and the EU and the United States. That alone brings up a whole different set of potential scenarios going forward. It’s just the accelerated nature of change on the geopolitical landscape right now.

Jodie, were there particular reasons the show appealed to you? Your character’s not in the building with these guys, but you certainly have a window into that world.
JODIE TURNER-SMITH: I do like that I’m always in the room, even when I’m not there. I thought that was interesting, to make that kind of an impact. It’s not about how much screen time I have. It’s about the way that I get to watch this really incredible performance unfold from Michael and this dynamic between these guys happen. I think it’s very compelling, the story between Martian and Samia. It feels good to be the sort of very human element of all of this.

GERE: She’s probably the only example of purity in this.

TURNER-SMITH: Absolutely, yeah. These guys are all cutthroats.

GERE (To Fassbender): Actually, your daughter, Poppy (India Fowler), has a similar purity, too.

FASSBENDER: Yeah.

When they bring Poppy into the CIA office to protect her, Martian is shocked and upset that she has been exposed to that side of his life.
FASSBENDER: Well, it’s one of the most horrible things that he does. He makes her complicit for his own ends. He’s been pretty much absent in her life for six years, and then to come back, manipulate her and get her to be part of this lie was really a clinching sign that he is a sociopath.

All of his relationships, in both his work life and his professional life, appear to be built on lies.
FASSBENDER: One of the lies that stood out for me the most was the first scene with Poppy (when she comes to the London apartment the agency has prepared for him). She’s like, “Oh, where’d you get the place?” And I’m like, “Some guy who lives in Cape Town owns it. I think he’s a sculptor and artist.” That’s such a weird lie. It doesn’t mean anything. Lies are just interwoven in his reality. It was a piece of information about the character that he’s just [lying] indiscriminately.

The relationship between the three CIA agents has clearly been going on for decades, to the point where you three have a shorthand that comes from things we don’t know about. Michael, Jeffrey and Richard, did you work together to establish those relationships?
WRIGHT: Between all three of us there’s history, and as I understand, we’ll get into it in the second season to ramp up the betrayal and the tension that exists between Henry and Martian. But as far as trying to figure out something together, no. It’s all in the script.

GERE: Yeah, it’s in the script.

WRIGHT: And I think you just kind of dig it out as you go about it on the day. I think we were able to find that between one another and make similar assumptions about how they exist relative to one another, just based on what we read on the page.

TURNER-SMITH: I think this is exceptional casting, though. The three of you, your scenes together are so interesting. And the tension that you’re holding, the relationships, the weight, the game that’s being played is so interesting to watch.

FASSBENDER: Thank you. When you’re working with people who do their homework and who know what they’re doing, it’s more interesting sometimes not to discuss things. To see what the person’s going to bring you in the scene, and to be awake and alive and respond to what they bring to the scene.

WRIGHT: We understood pretty quickly that we were working on the same equation when we showed up in the morning. We talked through things and asked questions of one another and the director, whoever the director was on a given day. And we found that we were in the same universe. It doesn’t always happen like that, but we were able to mesh in that way.

GERE: We all work pretty much the same way. It’s surprising. That doesn’t always happen, for sure. It can be somebody who’s got a completely different way of approaching the work, but we all pretty much worked the same way.

It feels like a show that trusts the audience by not providing as much exposition as viewers might usually get.
FASSBENDER: The audience has got to lean in a little.

WRIGHT: There’s a respect for the level of interest and knowledge from the audience. You know, this is not necessarily for the low-propensity, low-IQ voter. It’s for people who are interested in the world around them and somewhat attuned. (Pauses) I used that more as disparagement of Steve Bannon, who uses that term “low-IQ voter.”

FASSBENDER (Laughs): This is the first time Bannon has been brought up in one of our interviews.

WRIGHT: This is the first. But that’s the phrase he uses for their target audience. You know, these things are not existing in a vacuum. And a certain level of awareness enhances the experience, for sure.

A version of this story first appeared in the Drama Issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.

The post ‘The Agency’ Stars on Why the Espionage Drama Feels Timely in the Trump Era appeared first on TheWrap.

Bates’ latest role is the title character in Jennie Snyder Urman’s “Matlock,” which borrows its name from the Andy Griffith legal drama from the 1980s and ’90s but knowingly subverts it in the process: Bates’ Madeline Kingston, aka Matty Matlock, solves cases just as Griffith’s Matlock had done, but it turns out that she’s playing the role of Matty in order to infiltrate a law firm that hid evidence on behalf of a pharmaceutical company that was complicit in the opioid-related death of her daughter.

The series is the most successful new show on broadcast television this season, and it could well bring Bates, who is 76, a rare Emmy nomination for a lead role. (So far, 10 of her 13 Emmy noms for acting have come in supporting and guest categories.)

I was sitting one table away from you at the Critics Choice Awards in January. And when you won the Best Actress in a Drama Award for “Matlock,” the room seemed completely thrilled, and you seemed absolutely shocked.
I was gobsmacked. I was sure that Anna Sawai (from “Shōgun”) was going to win. I never thought in a million years I would win. That’s why I didn’t get all dressed up. People thought I’d come from riding a Harley or something.

Has “Matlock” been a surprise for you in other ways, too?
It’s been a surprise in every way. I’m surprised that the material is so wonderful, and surprised that Jennie is consistently someone I love working with, and surprised that (CBS Entertainment President) Amy Reisenbach and (CBS President and CEO) George Cheeks and (CBS Studios President) David Stapf are such wonderful people, and that the cast gets along so well. And surprised, of course, at what a tremendous audience response we’ve had. It’s just unbelievable, right?

When I watched the first episode, I thought it was going to be a law show with a different case each week until the last few minutes of the show, when your character’s real intentions were revealed. And that changed everything. What was your reaction when you first read it?
It was exactly the same. I had no expectations, and I had not seen Jennie’s other show, “Jane the Virgin,” which I hear was very successful. As I began to read, I thought, “Oh, I’ve done this before, and I don’t know if I’m interested in playing another lawyer.” And then when I got to the twist at the end, I thought, “OK, now we’re talking about a character that has a cause.” It just blew everything wide open. And it was also about the opioid crisis, which I know from personal experience. Years ago, when I had breast cancer, I wanted to have more medication, and my doctors were very reluctant. And now I understand why. That’s how 90% of people get addicted, because of injuries or surgery. So it’s been a very sobering journey.

Knowing that, did you respond to the script immediately?
They gave me a script on Friday, and I met with Jennie on Monday. I liked her very much, and we settled down right away and got to work. I had a million questions that I had written down over the weekend. When I sat down, I remember saying to her, “I love this. Don’t change a word. Let’s talk about this character.” And then I just dove right in.

What kinds of questions did you have?
I have the list here somewhere. I keep everything. Let me see if I can find it. (A minute later) Found it! (reading) How do you see this character, Matty? What would Matty have to do to create her character? What about her age? I’m 74, that’s too old for a daughter. What does her husband do? How rich are they? How did they make their money? How many episodes have you written? Can I see them? Who will be directing the pilot? Where do you see the series going after the first season? Does Matty solve the case during the first season? And I said to Jennie, “I don’t want this to start out unique and turn into ‘Boston Legal.’” I wanted to know, Will Matty be arguing in court? Who else was in the cast? Will we have rehearsal time? That is really important to me.

(Laughs) So that’s good, right? All of those questions. I ran across this list of questions recently and I went, “Whoa, I’m really granular.”

Has that been typical for you over the years?
This one was very unusual because of Jennie and who she is. She wants to know everything that’s going on, and any questions that I have, she gets back to me right away. She’s very transparent. I can sit and talk to her, and that has not always been the case. I don’t want to go into details or name any names, but that has not always been my experience. Often times you’re cast, and the next time you see the creator is on the set. And maybe I didn’t push hard enough to say, “Look, I want to sit down and talk to you about this.”

Matty is consistently dismissed and underrated because of her age and her gender. Has that happened to you in Hollywood?
I don’t want to beat a dead horse, because I’ve talked about this before, but yes. I thank God for Ryan Murphy, because he really helped me rejuvenate my career after being sick with cancer. At that time, when I had my mastectomy back in 2012, I was feeling like my career was over.

I remember when I got sick, I said, “I don’t feel like a woman.” And my doctor said, “You have the Y chromosome, you’re a woman. Every cell of you is a woman.” But I think especially when you have your breasts removed, it’s difficult for a woman. I was older and I just felt, “This is it. I’m done.”

And “Harry’s Law” (a 2011-2012 show starring Bates) had been canceled, specifically because (then NBC Entertainment Chairman) Bob Greenblatt said at the TCAs, “We cannot monetize this show with an older audience,” even though we had amazing numbers. I found it very unfair and very disconcerting. And I can’t tell you how many people I’ve run into over the years who have said, “What happened to ‘Harry’s Law’?”

So it’s lovely to be able to have “Matlock” satisfy all those people that were upset about “Harry’s Law.”

You have done a huge range of things over the years. Are you happy with where your career took you, or do you have regrets?
I would have obviously loved to do more leads, more meaty roles like (the 1995 film) “Dolores Claiborne,” which unfortunately did not get the attention we deserved that year. I also think, candidly, that my weight played a part of that. I do look back and regret that we were not able to do “’night, Mother” after we had done it on Broadway. (Bates and Anne Pitoniak were nominated for Tony Awards for their performances in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, but Sissy Spacek and Anne Bancroft were given the roles in the 1986 film version.) I have regrets when I look back and think, “Gee, I wish I could have done this, I could have done that.” But there we go. I don’t regret the four Oscar nominations.

So with the success of “Matlock,” where do you want to go from here?
I’d love for “Matlock” to run for five years or more. I love working on it and I want to see where Jennie goes with it. And if there is a wonderful movie role that comes down the pike during hiatus, I would love to do that. But I would need to do something great if I was going to do a film. And other than that, I’m just really enjoying this TV schedule.

A version of this story first appeared in the Drama Issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.

The post Kathy Bates Thought Her Career Was Over – Then ‘Matlock’ Left Her Gobsmacked appeared first on TheWrap.

“I’ve done 17 years of stand-up, but there’s no proof,” he said with a laugh. “I could be lying.”

That’s because Goldstein was not a fan of filmed stand-up — until this year, when his “Brett Goldstein: The Second Best Night of Your Life” came to HBO. “I’ve always resisted filming, and I never put stuff I did online,” he said. “It’s about the live experience, and I feel that quite strongly.”

“There’s a pact you make with the audience, which I love. The exchange happens in a room with an audience, and when you take that out of context and stick it on the internet for people to weigh in on, I sort of think, ‘Yeah, but this wasn’t for you. It was for the room where we did it,’” he added.

But on the heels of his success with “Ted Lasso” (where he was hired as a writer and also ended up playing Kent) and “Shrinking” (where he’s a co-creator and acted in Season 2), Goldstein decided to take an offer to do an HBO special of the stand-up act with which he had been touring. “And then it became this challenge of: How do you make it work on screen?” he said.

“I know it worked in the room, but how do you edit stand-up?” he said of the experience reworking the act for the small screen. “How do you frame it? Where do you cut into a joke? Thank God I worked with brilliant people who knew what they were doing, because I was constantly like, ‘How do we make sure this is funny on screen?’”

The special comes from the first extensive tour he did in the wake of his success of “Ted Lasso,” for which he won two Emmys and became a household name. As for whether the audiences reacted differently to him once they knew him as Roy Kent, he can only speculate.

“I don’t know what people were expecting when they came to see me,” he said. “It amazed me that they bought tickets, not knowing me as a stand-up. I think it probably worked in my favor, because their expectations must have been very low.”

He laughed. “Maybe they thought I was gonna come out and kick a ball and say ‘f— off” and leave, and that would be enough. But instead I came out and did stand-up as myself. In a way, it’s helpful, because I’ve promised them nothing and their expectations are low. So when I’m a competent stand-up, I seem like I’m really good.”

For the special, he shortened the set from 90 minutes to 60 minutes because “an hour sounds bearable at home,” and he cut out some of the digressions that were among his favorite things in the show. The special landed on HBO around the same time that it was announced that “Ted Lasso” would be returning for a new season two years after going off the air in 2023, and shortly after “Shrinking” dropped a second season in which Goldstein played the drunk driver who killed the wife of the character played by Jason Segel.

But that kind of schedule is typical for Goldstein, who has been tackling a variety of jobs for his entire career. “I was always all three: writer, actor, stand-up,” the London native said. “I was paid to do stand-up. I would do club gigs four nights a week on average, but in the days I’d be writing and acting. That was enough to pay my bills and buy a cinema ticket once a week. It was always just enough.”

These days, he’s finishing Season 3 of “Shrinking” and he’s back in the writers’ room on “Ted Lasso,” which will shoot during the second half of the year. He’s also prepping for the 2025 release of “All of You,” a romantic comedy that he co-wrote with William Bridges about a slightly futuristic society in which a test can positively identify each person’s soulmate. (The test does not identify the characters played by the stars of the film, Goldstein and Imogen Poots, as soulmates, but of course the audience knows better.)

“I like to be busy and I’m very lucky to do all the things that I’m doing, but it is sort of insane,” he said of his schedule — not that he wants to change it. “As long as I’m allowed to, I would love to act, write and do stand-up. I would never want to stop any of them.”

“And I also think they all lead into each other. Stand-up’s really good for your brain: The adrenaline when you’re on stage makes your brain work so fast, and I think that keeps me sharp when I’m in the writers’ room. And then you can take all of that and put it into acting. They all feed each other. It’s a very lucky system.”

A version of this story first appeared in the Comedy Issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.

The post Why Brett Goldstein Returned to Stand-Up Comedy After ‘Ted Lasso’ and ‘Shrinking’ appeared first on TheWrap.

It was a chilly evening on the beach in Southern California, with a cold wind coming off the water near Los Angeles Harbor. And as a disembodied voice coming from somewhere in the crowd of bundled-up crew members suggested, it was indeed the final night of shooting on the fourth season of the HBO Max series that is the reigning champion in the Emmys’ Outstanding Comedy Series category.

Apart from a couple of pickup shots and a stuntwoman running into the frigid Pacific Ocean while pretending to be Jean Smart, there was one big scene to nail on this early-March night. And in many ways, it was the pivotal scene in all of Season 4. The previous season had ended with writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder) blackmailing her way into the head writer’s job on the new late-night talk show hosted by Deborah Vance (Smart), and the two women went to war for the first six episodes of the new season.

After a particularly stressful stretch, Ava finally freaked out, quit, drove off and headed to the beach, where Deborah, worried Ava might harm herself, ran into the water to save the writer she had realized is essential to her comedy career. It turned out that Ava was in the parking lot and Deborah got soaking wet trying to save somebody else, who didn’t need saving at all and who was annoyed to find a stranger trying to pull her out of the water.

And that’s when Ava and Deborah, both of them bedraggled and exhausted and at their lowest moments of the season, had a quiet conversation in which they decided to work together again. It reset the relationship for the final four episodes, which involved a trip to Singapore that had already been shot.

So all that was left of the season was this conversation at a little shack of a restaurant — The Slippery Oyster, the sign said — that the production built on Cabrillo Beach. A few palm trees were “planted” in the sand and some strings of lights were hung around the set, giving things a desultory dose of glamour.

“We knew that the sixth episode was going to be a breaking point for Ava, and it was going to be the reconciliation where Deborah says, ‘I set you up to fail, and I shouldn’t have done that,’” co-creator and showrunner Paul W. Downs, who directed the episode, said. “We always knew that, but we went through many, many, many, many, many drafts to figure out the environment and the mechanics of that reconciliation.”

Einbinder described the stakes similarly. “The idea is: How can we make sure that one conversation turns Ava from ‘I’m done’ to ‘I’m coming back’?” she said. “It is definitely a delicate and meticulous transition to play.”

As Smart and Einbinder went through a low-key rehearsal, Downs and his co-showrunners, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky, were still fine-tuning the scene. Downs sat close to three monitors with the script supervisor; Aniello and Statsky sat behind him, Aniello in a wool hat and Statsky in a Knicks cap, with all three sporting heavy jackets. While the actors did an initial take of the lengthy scene, the producers kept up a running dialogue out of earshot of Smart and Einbinder, offering constant suggestions for tweaks and revisions: delay this laugh, trim this line, smile at that point, rephrase this, add a little more exhaustion and a little less anger.

When it was over, Downs looked at the notes he had been writing down on a pad, then went to the set to deliver the collected suggestions to the actresses. On the second take, Smart and Einbinder adjusted immediately, making a string of deft tweaks that left Downs, Aniello and Statsky with an array of choices in the editing room.

“After you shoot a scene like this, you lie awake thinking of all the different permutations,” Aniello said with a shrug. “But the truth is, as we evolve the scene with the actors, we’re usually getting to a place — and once we know we have it, we move on. We’re not too often trying out a bunch of different things in the edit.”

On a break, Einbinder wandered over to the video village and nodded at the showrunner threesome huddled together. “So,” she said, “you’ve seen the hive mind at work.”

Of course, the hive mind has been responsible for “Hacks” from the beginning. Aniello, Downs and Statsky have steered the relationship between Deborah and Ava from antipathy to friendship and back, carefully calibrating how much verbal and behavioral brutality they can display. “We are very aware that viciousness can sometimes be uncomfortable, but it also serves as great grist for the two characters and as a very strong POV for their jokes,” Aniello said.

Statsky added, “It has to feel like an evolution, and it has to get to a place in their relationship that they’ve never gotten to before.”

The evolution has impressed Smart, who won the comedy-actress Emmy for each of the show’s first three seasons. “Every season, the relationship has gone to a different level and gotten deeper and deeper,” she said. “I was worried that it was so dark in Season 4. You know, we get pretty ugly between them.”

She laughed. “But they still managed to keep the humor in the show, and they timed it so well that we could do things in Season 4 that we couldn’t have gotten away with in Season 2. Our fans are so invested in the relationship that we can take them anywhere and they’ll go with us.”

Einbinder shook her head. “I’ve been saying that the audience is the third in our toxic relationship,” she said. “We’re a throuple. And I want them to get help, frankly.”

Back at the beach, the conversation between Deborah and Ava came down to a key exchange, during which Ava confessed, “I don’t even know your voice anymore” and Deborah softly said, “Ava, you are my voice.” It changed the atmosphere, and slowly the characters built a bond in a scene that played out much more quietly and subtly than usual for the show. There was humor, but it was also wrenching, and it ended with the two sharing a bottle of bad Champagne.

When the scene ended, Smart grimaced. “Champagne mixed with cold coffee,” she said. “It’s like, yum!”

But how much more of this deliciousness is coming for “Hacks?” You could say that the show is on a roll, winning its first Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy last September in a upset over “The Bear” and taking the Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards after that. But the upcoming season will be its fifth — and according to the outline the creators drew up when they pitched the show to networks, the series was designed to end after Season 5.

So will 2026 be the last of “Hacks?” “As of today, the answer is yes,” Aniello said, and then laughed. “But like Sheryl Crow says, every day is a winding road.”

Downs groaned. “Wow,” he said. “Wow. You did that.”

“This is something we think about all the time,” Statsky added.

“We are still planning to end in the same way,” Downs clarified. “But we could think, ‘Dang, we have so many stories to tell, we gotta break this season into two.’ I think that would be the only way (to extend the show past the fifth season).”

And if it ends, how hard will it be to say goodbye? “It’ll be difficult,” Aniello said. “This is lightning in a bottle. We love making a show with all the people we make it with, and we would love to do it forever. But we don’t want to overstay our welcome, and we feel really sure of how we want to end the show.”

“On the other hand, how many times can something like this happen in a career?” she added. “I don’t know. It’ll be difficult.”

The actors agreed. “I can’t even imagine it,” Smart said, who left “Designing Women” of her own accord after five seasons. “We weathered Covid and strikes and all sorts of stuff, and it’s been like a family. It’s going to be very strange.”

“It is,” Einbinder said. “My big joke is ‘If you think Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are crying (while promoting “Wicked”), just wait until ‘Hacks’ ends.’ It’s gonna be a problem, you know?”

A version of this story first appeared in the Comedy Issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.

The post On the Set of ‘Hacks’: Intense Conversation and Bad Champagne appeared first on TheWrap.

“The Righteous Gemstones” casting department similarly went right to the top when looking for an actor to kick off the final season’s first episode. “Prelude” is a flashback-driven origin story of one Elijah Gemstone, a violent charlatan and drifter in the Civil War who possesses a gift for the grift, and the role is played by none other than Hollywood superstar Bradley Cooper.

“We needed somebody who the audience would immediately connect to, and that they would want to watch while not missing and hoping and wondering, ‘What’s going on here and where’s [Danny McBride’s] Jesse?’” casting director Sherry Thomas said. “So we started with a list, and on that list was definitely Bradley Cooper.”

The character, assumed to be either a great- or great-great-grandfather to patriarch Eli (John Goodman), would be seen in only one episode and share no screen time with any cast regulars. “Bradley read the script really fast,” Thomas said. “And I remember getting a text from Danny and it said, ‘He’s in.’ And in the text back to him, I’m pretty sure my response was ‘Are you f–king kidding me?’”

But that casting coup was part of a long tradition of “Gemstones” taking an unorthodox path to finding guest actors, as the series has always been interested in nontraditional drop-ins. This is a show, after all, that has employed people
as atypical as Macaulay Culkin, Eric André, Steve Zahn, Marla Maples and Joe Jonas (as himself, no less) for small parts.

“There was a really interesting balance of people that were offered a role (without an audition) and a lot of people that in other circumstances might be in that category but said, ‘I don’t care, I’ll read,’” said Thomas, who has been an integral part of casting some of the most enduring recent series in TV history, including “Breaking Bad,” “Dead to Me,” “Barry” and “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which have helped bring her nine Emmy nominations in 10 years.

“We start with an episode, and we determine what roles are likely going to come from Los Angeles or New York or what roles are probably going to be regional,” she explained. “But we simultaneously look at those roles and determine the person for it that fits the role best.”

Another important final-season role was the chanteuse Lori Milsap, the one-time singing partner of deceased materfamilias Aimee-Leigh Gemstone (played by Sugarland lead singer Jennifer Nettles), who strikes up a romance with the widowed Eli. On casting Megan Mullally for the deeper-than-it-seems role, Thomas said the actress just checked every box: “The conversation started with wanting an actress who could sing. And from there, you have to balance it with comedy. Then you have to balance it with somebody who is going to feel appropriate for Goodman so that it’s not ick. We always kept coming back to Megan, because it just felt right.”

Thomas won’t single out her greatest casting triumphs over the years, as everyone is so right for what they do — from Walton Goggins’ outrageous, often pantsless in-law Uncle Baby Billy to the letter-perfect young actors playing the Gemstone children in the fan-favorite “Interlude” flashback episodes. But Kristen Johnston’s May-May, Eli’s younger sister in Season 3, is a highlight for her. “That was an interesting part to navigate,” she shared. “We hadn’t seen her in a bit. There was such a heart and soul to her, a brokenness and a vulnerability. I don’t know that Kristen’s ever been able to show that side of herself as an actor.”

Now that the series has concluded, Thomas is enjoying the victory of casting directors finally being recognized at the Oscars, as they have been at the Emmys for many years now. Does that, combined with a new Oscar category for stunts, give her hope that her branch of the industry is seeing real change?

“It just took time for whatever reason, right or wrong, but we are part of the process, and it is a skill set,” Thomas said proudly. “We do advocate, we do fight, we do go the extra mile all the time where we’ll spend a half hour with an actor on an audition because we believe in them. It’s also cultivating those relationships over the years that you get to know an actor and the depth of their work and have the ability to champion and advocate for people and get them these jobs that are life-changing.”

This story first ran in the Comedy issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.

The post Why Bradley Cooper Was the Perfect Person to Kick Off the Final Season of ‘The Righteous Gemstones’ appeared first on TheWrap.

“Yeah,” Newport-Berra said. “But that’s kinda what gets me out of bed in the morning.”

EXTERIOR, STUDIO

The series filmed on the Warner Bros. lot, which won out over Paramount and Universal because of its nostalgic feeling. But for the Continental Studios headquarters, Berghoff designed a building that would look as if it came from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Mayan Revival period. “A movie studio founded in the ’20s that in the present day only makes movies and doesn’t have streaming is antiquated,” she said. “We wanted something that felt a little crumbling, but it had strong bones. It felt rooted, you know?”

The interiors took up a two-story,  8,000-square-foot set on Stage 23 at WB, while the exterior was a photo backdrop erected in front of the Warners TV building. “Julie was very quick to include me in discussions about ways to remove walls and move through windows and between floors,” Newport-Berra added. “We made sure to get enough headroom and wide enough doors so that cranes could get through.”

INTERIOR, STUDIO

Inside, Berghoff worked with set decorator Claire Kaufman to come up with a mixture of old and new. “Using the 18-inch textile block, like Frank Lloyd Wright, we created really graphic walls and spaces for the furniture, and we only used natural materials,” Berghoff said. “All the furniture and built-ins are mid-century. But then we wanted to integrate old and new, and Apple computers fit perfectly into our space because they’re designed with the similar philosophy of clean, simple lines.”

EXTERIOR, PATTY LEIGH’S HOUSE

For the houses of studio executives – or recently ousted studio executives, like Catherine O’Hara’s Patty Leigh, based on former Sony chief Amy Pascal – Berghoff knew she had to be impressive. “We were looking for special, unique houses,” she said. “Amy Pascal was known for being architecturally influenced, with beautiful homes. A lot of executives do. They’re gonna live in the most interesting houses in Los Angeles. All those mid-century architects bought the best property when Los Angeles was being developed and built houses on top of the hill, like Catherine O’ Hara’s house, which has almost a 360-degree view of Los Angeles. It’s spectacular. We went big.”

EXTERIOR, MATT REMICK’S CAR

Episode 2 is designed to look as if it’s shot entirely in one take, though in fact it was four different shots filmed over four days and then stitched together. The first of those shots started in the car driven by studio chief Matt Remick (Rogen) as he drives to a hilltop location.

“We would use electromagnets on the car,” Newport-Berra said. “So there’s basically these magnet mounts that when turned on are creating a magnet force that keeps the camera on the car. So while we’re driving, it’s latched on that way. Once the car stops, as the operator goes to grab the camera, there’s a grip right next to him who unhooks a safety chain and flips a switch. That switch turns off the magnet, and all of a sudden the camera is free from the car and we can pick it up and keep going with it.”

EXTERIOR, HOLLYWOOD HILLS LOCATION

The rest of Episode 2 takes place in and around another of Berghoff’s spectacular hilltop homes with floor-to-ceiling windows. “With the location we chose, we made it about as hard on ourselves as we possibly could,” Newport-Berra said. “It’s an architectural masterpiece, but quite small. And the property is on a ridge that slopes down on either side, so there was no flat space outside the house and nowhere to put cranes for lighting. We really were at the whim of the weather and the sun. It boiled down to getting a couple of hours of shooting time over the course of a few days.”

INTERIOR, BEVERLY HILTON

For an episode set at the Golden Globes, the schedule didn’t work for them to piggyback on the real Globes. “We had four days of prep and then 12 hours to dress the Hilton,” Berghoff said. “Usually they spend weeks prepping that show.” She designed a modular set that could be set up quickly once they gained access to the hotel ballroom. For Newport-Berra, the scale made things difficult. “There were so many background actors,” he said. “We had hundreds of people in the background, but everyone who showed up very quickly understood what we were doing and fell in line.”

INTERIOR, LAS VEGAS

The last two episodes were set in Las Vegas for the CinemaCon industry conference, with the finale involving the Continental team doing a chaotic presentation in a huge hall. “At the very end, we do a long handheld shot that transfers to a drone, and then the drone moves around the entire space and lands back on the stage,” Newport-Berra said. “Shooting with a drone inside is crazy enough, but doing it from a handheld shot into a drone and then back into a handheld was quite challenging.”

A version of this story first appeared in the Comedy Issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.

The post How ‘The Studio’ Staged Long Shots and Made Its Own Frank Lloyd Wright Building appeared first on TheWrap.