One of the great things about covering the TV biz is all the interesting writers, producers, stars and executives you get to speak to throughout the year. I combed through some of my IndieWire pieces to come up with some of the most interesting things people said to me in 2017:
“I thought that diminished the show,”
"Moonlighting" creator Glenn
Gordon Caron said of turning down
lucrative merchandising deals at the time. “I look back on that and think, what
a fool!”
“The fact that we have flat-earthers is evidence of two
things: that we live in a country with free speech and we live in a country
where our educational system has failed us,” said Neil
DeGrasse Tyson.
"If you go an
extended period of time without seeing a reflection of yourself, it’s easier to
believe you’re invisible and of minimal value," said Sterling K. Brown.
"I want everyone to know that they are seen, appreciated, and their story
is being told.”
“I think the world is
getting better despite some evidence to the contrary," "The Good
Doctor" creator David Shore
said of his show's success. "We are watching a character that we’re not
used to seeing on TV and we are relating to him.”
“The fact that I would
have eyelashes and makeup and pretty hair and a manicure — I’d never been considered
in that way — to tell you what that meant to me. I’m always thinking, ‘You
gotta lose 50 pounds, no one’s going to consider you for this or that.’ And
then this role came along, and on top of it all, she’s funny," actress Ann Dowd said of her role on
"Good Behavior."
"This guy is,
like, Marlon Brando good," Ryan Murphy
said of Sterling K. Brown. "This guy has huge, huge depth of talent, and
on top of that, he’s charismatic and good looking, and sexy.”
“How is that not
somebody who’s gay?” "Will & Grace" co-creator Max Mutchnick
said of Vice President Mike Pence.
“We’re in a very
dangerous, very degraded moment in time where the values that everybody who
came before us fought and died for are all being tromped upon,” Ron Perlman
said. “For no good end except power and greed.”
“I like to think of
myself as the king of streaming,” joked Paul Reiser,
who had shows on Netflix, Amazon and Hulu this fall. “And then I still need my
son to show me how to watch these things. But the point is, I am the king.”
"Now people have
to cobble together a career or a salary through four jobs where one job used to
pay," Nick Kroll
said of the modern economics of being a comedian. "But the reality means
there’s a lot more people working and making a living doing the thing they’ve
always wanted.”
“I’m fascinated by
writers," said Kyra Sedgwick,
who played one on "Ten Days in the Valley." "They’re such weird
creatures!”
"In this day and
age and this show, our goal is to never just brutalize people and leave them
brutalized," "This Is Us" creator Dan Fogelman
said of his emotional drama. "It may happen in an episode from week to
week, but it’s not our long-term plan. Our belief is even in tragedy, despair,
loss, there’s a way to come through it."
“It’s kind of a nutso
world right now,” said "The Opposition" host Jordan Klepper.
“Everybody is fighting. All we know right now is that we’re angry. Even when
the country seems to be agreeing on something what the news becomes is how
angry everybody is on the agreement. Boy, this is only going to get more
tumultuous and you can feel more addicted to this news cycle right now. It can
get pretty overwhelming.”
“I’ve had a number of
people murdered in my family and I know the pain of it,” said Robert F. Kennedy,
who is adapting a TV project based on his cousin, whom he believes was
wrongfully convicted of murder.
“Distractions will be
the new norm,” said CBS marketing president George Schweitzer.
“We just have to live within this world. This is survival of the fittest in the
entertainment marketing business. Everyone’s competing for leisure time
attention. Bring it on."
“I wanted to
make sure we weren’t ‘Slapsgiving’ it,” "You're The Worst" creator Stephen Falk
said, explaining why he didn't produce a "Sunday Funday" episode this
season/ “We were getting to the point where it felt a little stunty. We said we
were going to make it the last one and we did. I think it’s easy money now that
if we get a Season 5 that, like Freddy or Jason, there will be a new
beginning.”
“It’s so slow,”
"Young Sheldon" executive producer Chuck Lorre
lamented about the difference in producing a single-camera show. “A dinner
scene where the family is sitting around the table having dinner, that’s maybe
four pages long. It takes as long as it takes us to shoot an entire episode of
‘The Big Bang Theory’ in front of an audience. It’s unbelievably, torturously
slow. When the camera moves from one place to another, you start thinking about
alternate lifestyles for yourself, and maybe I should pick up a hobby… I’m
brand new, and still learning about this.”
“I truly believe at
some point everything will be the way it’s supposed to be," Faith Evans
said when asked whether she thinks the mystery of her husband Notorious
B.I.G.'s murder will ever be solved. "If it’s not meant for the LAPD to
finally resolve this and say this is what happened, then it’s not meant to be.
All we can do is pray that one day they do.”
“Our show is the voice
of the 21st century,” RuPaul said of his
Emmy-winning "RuPaul's Drag Race." “What’s happening politically in
our country is people trying to hold on to the 20th century. The kids who watch
our show are future forward thinkers.”
"I always try to
get some time with Jessica Walter, who plays Lucille Bluth, because right when
she starts saying Buster’s name in her passive aggressive degrading tone, it’s
just like a Pavlovian response,” "Arrested Development" star Tony Hale
said about getting back into character years later.
“Nobody wants to see
me get naked and say bad words,” Kellie Martin
said of playing a straight-laced character on "The Guest Book."
“People feel like they know me in a strange way, like they grew up with me or
they went to high school with me!”
“There isn’t a Plan B
for that,” PBS president/CEO Paula Kerger
warned if public broadcasting is defunded.
“I’ve told everybody
since the show ended, I’ve been on the record saying I have every desire and
intention to make a ‘Chuck’ movie," said star Zachary Levi.
"I just got to wait on the right time for it. I do believe whole-heartedly
there will be a day when it happens.”
“He has a standing
‘yes’ no matter what when he calls,” Danny Trejo
said of his relationship with filmmaker Robert Rodriguez.
“I come from knowing
my lines and the perfect scene, and none of those tools worked in the ‘Black
Market’ world," Michael K. Williams
said of hosting the Vice channel docuseries. "I had to let go of all of
that and be Mike. Mike is not the most educated person in the world. When I let
that go, that fear of looking ignorant in this world, I got to learn.”
“The language is
horrendous, but it’s not as damaging as watching a terrible Disney show,” Matt Walsh
said of when he'll introduce his kids to "Veep."
“Ultimately the
network’s largest fears won out and they decided not to air it,” Jerrod Carmichael
said of NBC's decision to pre-empt an episode of "The Carmichael
Show" about a shooting.
“In this day and age
of opposition research, we have to be buttoned up and squeaky clean," said
Vice boss Shane Smith.
"At some point there has to be a backlash. Everyone goes after everybody.
It becomes mud slinging.”
“People are worried
that she’s going to die, but just as worried that if she’s there, how corrupt
is she?” "Better Call Saul" star Rhea Seehorn
said of fan theories about her character Kim’s fate.
“I watch it and think,
if Hillary [Clinton] were president, this would be a very entertaining and
intelligent show,” writer Julie Plec said of "The Handmaid's Tale."
“Donald Trump is president, and I want to vomit. It’s so harrowing in the
context of the reality we live in. The speculative fiction feels so presently
of today in a way that it absolutely wouldn’t have if Hillary were president.”
“What Kathy Griffin
did, whether you like it or not, is a piece of political art,” said Javier Grillo-Marxuach
(“The Middleman,” Netflix’s upcoming “The Dark Crystal”). “For politically
conscious art it was fairly mercenary and kind of banal but she did it, and we
have to defend her right to do that. Or we will not be able to do much more
milk-toast crap that is much less defensive than what she did.”
"The President of
the United States has not lost his job for committing numerous crimes, and
admitting to having sexually assaulted women,” said "House of Cards"
creator Beau Willimon in
June. “The double standard is that the person who bears the most
responsibility, the leader of the free world, should be held to the highest
standard and that seems to be the only person not losing his job!”
"When Trump got
elected, almost all of the ideas that Mark and I had immediately dropped off
the table,” Jay
Duplass told IndieWire at a SAG-AFTRA Foundation panel.
“We were like, ‘everything has changed.’ Humor has changed. Impulse has
changed.”
Margo Martindale, who
plays the Russian handler, Claudia, on "The Americans," has a
specific request for her character before the show ends: “I want to slit one
more person’s throat!”
"The
Bachelorette" Rachel Lindsay on
why she ignores commenters on social media: “I don’t care. I don’t know you!”
"American
Gods" co-creator Bryan Fuller on
how actor Mousa Kraish, who plays the Arabic god Jinn, wound up with a rather
hefty prosthetic penis: “We got on the
phone and said, our intention was to do a beautiful love scene between two men,
and he was like, ‘OK, as long as its not exploitational, and as long as you
give me a beautiful cock.’ The funny part was somehow the visual effects guy
got it in his head that it’s an 11-inch cock… We sent this 11-inch cock to
Mousa with a note – ‘How’s it hanging?’ – expecting him to be like, ‘Jesus Christ!’
But his only response was, ‘It looks good, but should be darker!'”
Ron Howard on
why it took "Genius" for him to finally direct for TV: “Nothing came
along that I thought I could really lend myself to and make a difference.”
“I had written off network TV,” Jenna Elfman said. “I told my agents not to
come to me with another network show. I work really hard and I do my best to
promote the shows. I feel like mostly I do a good job. In any other field that
would give you job security. Sometimes it’s like it doesn’t matter.”
“It’s one thing to be
an idiot and not know what you’re talking about,” Chelsea Handler
said of her right, as a celebrity, to discuss politics. “But if you’re informed
and have an opinion, why would I not talk about politics?”
“There are moments
where it’s genuine disbelief,” Trevor Noah
said of his incredulousness over the past year. “I know, for all intents and
purposes, hypocrisy is dead. Hypocrisy is not the tool it once was. Shame is
not something you can use to smother the flame of a hypocrite anymore.”
“We piggyback on the
work of real journalists,” former "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee"
executive producer Jo Miller
said. “Sometimes we’ll fill in some gaps where there hasn’t been coverage, but
we couldn’t do our work without journalists. We’re commentary and point of
view, but we’re not a newsroom.”
Dan Harmon on
the delays in getting a third season of "Rick and Morty" on the air:
“If Justin were here he’d agree. He and I would go, ‘Yeah, we fucked up,’
and it’s hard to put your finger on how we fucked up. ‘Rick and Morty’ keeps
taking longer and longer to write, and I don’t know why.”
Bryan Tyree Henry, on
how he bonded with pal Sterling K. Brown by borrowing his shaver: “He went and
got clippers, and we’ve been best friends ever since. Once you shave a guy’s
face, man, you’re best friends after that.”
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