Tony Hale is the only actor to break into the Comedy Supporting Actor Emmy race. But will a brilliant viral campaign benefit secret weapon Timothy Simons?
First, let me assure you, I love Tony Hale as a comic actor. I’ve loved him on Arrested Development. I love him on HBO’s Veep. Yet, with a supporting cast like the one Veep boasts, it’s time, Emmy friends, to ask Tony Hale to step aside and let some of the others have a turn. Kevin Dunn. Gary Cole. Matt Walsh. Reid Scott. On any series with a smaller cast, these guys would be raking in the awards. Yet, it’s incredibly difficult to break through when Emmy loves a particular actor as much as they love Tony Hale. Still, let me propose an alternative: comic ninja warrior Timothy Simons.
Timothy Simons has emerged as an extremely reliable comic presence on Veep. Previous arcs saw the political beanpole run an independent “Washington insider” website in addition to the many peaks and valleys of his hilariously inept career. Yet, Veep season five has given Simons and the audience a brilliant, brilliant gift.
Jonah Ryan is running for Congress.
I was born and raised here in the Granite State in the shadow of the majestic White Mountains. I grew up swimming and fishing in our lakes, hiking and skiing on our mountains, exploring our fields and forests and enjoying the fine dining and rich cultural offerings of our vibrant towns and cities. I attended the University of New Hampshire, first in Durham and then after a year off, at the Manchester campus and, although I left before completing my degree, I can attest firsthand to the world-class quality of that fine institution. – Jonah Ryan
The “why’s” of the situation hardly matter. Set up as a patsy to run against an recently deceased New Hampshire politician’s popular widow, Jonah had… well… a very hard time connecting with the eccentric voters of New Hampshire. He wasn’t above engaging in verbal and physical assaults with his potential constituents. None of it worked until he embarked upon a verbal tirade against incumbent President Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). That seemed to click, and Jonah’s fortunes started to rise with his poll numbers.
Logo courtesy of Jonah Ryan for Congress.
Now, we don’t know what will happen with Jonah, but, for Timothy Simons’ sake, please let him win. It would be astoundingly amazing to see Jonah Ryan losing yet again, but the loser note is one Simons has played multiple times over the course of the series. I’m betting Timothy Simons would love to get in a win or two for Jonah. Imagine Congressman Jonah Ryan.
With this recent enhanced focus on Timothy Simons, I’m wondering if Emmy voters wouldn’t find themselves a little more likely to consider the actor thanks to a unique and very funny unofficial Emmy campaign. Meet the Jonah Ryan for Congress website, a brilliantly funny bit of viral marketing that provides ten (as of publication) campaign ads. Each ad is more wonderfully awful than the last. Here’s a sample:
The website has gone viral a thousand times over and has been featured in many major entertainment publications. In an Emmy world where each category could be filled three times over thanks to the gluttony of excellent content, it’s side stunts like this one that could make or break an Emmy campaign.
I’m not 100 percent convinced of Timothy Simons ascension into the upper ranks of the Comedy Supporting Actors just yet, but he definitely has more buzz than Transparents‘ Jay Duplass. So, for now, he’s in the tenth slot on the Emmy Tracker. A convincing argument could be made for the talented comic actor to actually warrant a nomination, though. Simons has long labored as the (relatively) unsung hero of Veep. And he’s really, really funny on the show.
Maybe it’s time Emmy paid a little attention. After all, he’s won’t… back… down. That is, until Tom Petty follows through with that copyright infringement lawsuit.
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.
Photo courtesy of USA.
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.
Photo courtesy of USA
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.
Photo courtesy of HBOAwardsDaily TV: How is The Leftovers season three going?
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.
Janel Moloney as Mary Jamison, Christopher Eccleston as Matt Jamison, Carrie Coon as Nora Durst. Photo: Van Redin/HBO.ADTV: How did the whole of season two just challenge you as an actor?
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.
Christopher Eccleston as Matt Jamison. Photo: Van Redin/HBO.ADTV: Well, we love it at AwardsDaily TV. There’s a lot of interest in The Leftovers.
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.
Emmy voters, Becky Ann Baker is playing your mother in HBO’s Girls. Nominate your mother, please.
HBO’s Girls will wrap up its 6-year run next year. As it readies for its end, the writing team, including star/director Lena Dunham, has given each Girls actor a beautiful gift of at least one major, memorable scene in its most recent season. Perhaps no one on the show has benefitted quite as much from this renewed sense of clarity and excellence as actress Becky Ann Baker. Baker plays Loreen Horvath, mother to Hannah Horvath (Dunham) and wife to newly outed gay man Tad (Peter Scolari). This surprising turn – and Loreen’s varied reactions to it – elevates Becky Ann Baker to MVM status: Most Valuable Mom.
Craig Blankenhorn/ HBO
Becky Ann Baker has several epic scenes in season five, mostly centering around a girl’s weekend Loreen and Hannah embark upon in Girls‘ “Queen for Two Days.” One scene in particular is a prime example of Baker’s range as an actress. Loreen listens to a table full of bitter and troubled women talk about their middle-aged romantic lives. Baker has few lines, but the performance is uniquely in her face, reacting to all of the trauma and distress around her.
This is a classic scene from a classic actress who deserves an Emmy nomination for Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.
AwardsDaily TV: So, Becky Ann Baker, whenever we at ADTV do an interview, we always ask each other for questions. One of the best comments I received was, “Please tell I her have a huge ‘mom crush’ on her.”
Becky Ann Baker: [Laughs] That’s great! That’s a wonderful compliment. That’s so great.
ADTV: Given the number of “mom” roles you’ve worked on over the years, what’s the challenge in keeping them unique?
BAB: That’s a great question. I think certainly… well, like in Freaks and Geeks for example… she was kind of the perfect mom. The 50’s mom. A woman who grew up without any kind of terror in her life and was innocent to anything that her kids were doing. She was always caught unaware, and then we flip to somebody like Hannah’s mom who’s aggressively telling her that they’re cutting her off from any kind of money from the first season on and trying to school her in a totally different, adult way. I think the big difference is always going to come from the writing. Happily in both of those situations – both produced by Judd Apatow – there was a lot of creative discussion. On something like Girls, we have our table reads and, if anybody is having questions or thoughts about things, they’re openly discussed. Happily, we have a really wonderful relationship with the writers, and I’m a huge fan of the writers from Girls and from the old Freaks and Geeks days.
So, I just feel incredibly lucky – especially those two jobs – to have amazing writers that are writing things that are true. One [Girls season six episode] that we just shot was written by another woman – we’ve got a lot of women on the Girls writing team – so that’s really the key to it all, the writers and their perspectives. And of course Lena [Dunham] and Jenni Konner, who is our showrunner, really helm this show in a way that makes it considered one of the best jobs in town. I really tip my hat to those two and the writers in terms of picking up my cues in terms of how these women are different. That being said, what’s great in my life is that I am a mom of now an adult young woman. She and Lena have become friendly, and it’s pretty great to see how our kids change as they get old.
ADTV: I know most of the detail is in the script, but in terms of making sure your character’s actions are true and honest, do you draw a lot of inspiration from your own relationship with your daughter?
BAB: Absolutely. I mean, our circumstances aren’t the same because my daughter is nothing like Hannah Horvath, but certainly the relationships and how we speak to each other… But also I think I’m incredibly lucky because Lena and I have from day one had a remarkably open working relationship. It’s incredibly easy to relate to her as my daughter. And then the crazy thing is we’re shooting the scene, playing these two roles, and then I realize when we cut that she’s calling “Cut.” She’s thinking of it in a totally different way while we’re working it as actors which always surprises me… to watch her multitask is pretty amazing. I’m her biggest fan. Having a daughter that’s similar age helps, but it’s also, I think, that openness that Lena works with has made it so easy to make ourselves feel like we’re mom and daughter. We talk to each other, we gossip, in a way that informs that relationship.
ADTV: One of the things I love the most about Girls is that the characters are not static. We’ve just finished up the fifth season, and there have been so many changes through the years in all characters. What are some of the changes in Loreen that have excited you most as an actress?
BAB: Well, of course, my husband coming out to me as a gay man [on the show]. That’s been huge and fascinating because I’ve watched marriages break up at a later age for various reasons and watched friends of mine negotiate what it’s like to be, all of a sudden, alone in a time when they thought they were going to have companionship. How do you conduct the rest of your life thinking, “What am I going to do with the rest of this life now that I’m on my own?” I think it’s particularly interesting of a woman that’s of my generation to find herself… You know, it’s been a 30-year marriage… my own marriage, which is still in tact [to actor Dylan Baker, Happiness], has been a 30-year marriage as well… so, it’s just fascinating to see what we’re working on here with this woman all of a sudden thrust back out into the world all on her own and not knowing how to cope with that. It happens a lot, so I think it’s kind of great that we’re exploring it. Loreen doesn’t always handle it very well which I think is also wonderful. There are some scenes coming up in season six that are pretty harrowing. Sad but true. It really is an interesting place to find yourself at a certain age.
Having a daughter that’s similar age helps, but it’s also, I think, that openness that Lena works with has made it so easy to make ourselves feel like we’re mom and daughter. We talk to each other, we gossip, in a way that informs that relationship. – Becky Ann Baker
ADTV: Wow. I’m both sad and excited for season six, but I want to get into that a little later. So, you’ve broken my heart twice as an actress. Once, in Freaks and Geeks in that Halloween episode when you realize your daughter, played by Linda Cardellini, doesn’t want to hand out candy anymore with you. Second, that mother / daughter retreat with Hannah in Girls and your reactions to the other women at that dinner scene are truly heartbreaking. Were you put on this Earth to personally torment me?
BAB: [Laughs] I don’t think so, but the scene where we go away was written by a woman named Tami Sagher… I thought that was just genius what she did. I can’t say enough about her really. I thought she captured so many things in that episode, including writing the things that were being said around me as in that table scene. It’s wonderful to be able to interpret things like that.
ADTV: Yes, that episode was really some of the finest work I think I’ve seen you do. Both not only with the dialogue scenes you have with Lena Dunham, but also the silent reaction scenes you have at that dinner table. There’s not a great deal of dialogue for you there, but it’s all in your face. I actually want to ask a few questions about that episode [“Queen for Two Days”]. Have you ever been to a female empowerment seminar like that?
BAB: You know, I haven’t. I’ve been away to little spa getaways with girlfriends and things like that, but I’ve never been to something along those lines. Interestingly enough, one of the women that episode was written about was on set and talked about that experience at length. It sounded so fascinating, and now I’d kind of like to go just so that I can see what’s going on. It’s really odd and peculiar and, I’m sure, helpful to many, many people but just not quite my cup of tea but I’d love to see how it works. I don’t really see myself being someone… who’s driving to grunt and thrust my body around. I thought that was pretty interesting stuff, especially for somebody like Loreen who has not been in touch with herself in a more organic way. She’s been more sheltered than that.
Craig Blankenhorn/ HBO
ADTV: There’s a scene with you and Hannah when you first arrive at the retreat, and you’re getting ready for bed. Loreen is having that initial conversation with her about how she’s convinced their bad marriage has ruined her ability to have a healthy relationship. Then, you close that scene with you asking about Hannah’s dental habits. Is that “mom code” for “Can’t you even do that right?”
BAB: Yeah, I mean, there’s so many mixed messages in that scene to me. I’m still mom-ing her while I’m telling her that she should be standing on her own… There’s so many crazy mixed messages in that scene. It’s sort of wonderful to witness if not to live if you know what I mean.
ADTV: Let’s get back to the dinner scene. Tell me what was going through your mind as you were filming that scene.
BAB: What’s great was the way we shot it. The other women went first, so I really got to listen to everything they were saying. I had a lovely kind of warming to listening to their stories and their gab… Loreen is just looking for some iota that everything’s going to be okay. She’s looking for some kind of guidance from these women – some drop of encouragement… And then everything they say, every story, even their disdain for my husband coming out as a gay man… Everything single thing they said was something that Loreen is listening to for their guidance, and, of course, she’s just knocked down every time with what they say. It was just a wonderfully written scene. I think just the tool of listening in that scene was the big thing.
ADTV: Another big scene – a smaller but impactful one – was your last scene of the season where you’re sharing a 40 with Elijah [Andrew Rannells].
BAB: Oh my god, isn’t that a great scene! With Andrew! Oh I love that scene so much!
ADTV: What’s behind that scene for you personally as an actress?
BAB: What’s lovely for me as the character of Loreen is that she’s kind of getting along… so many things have been shot down in her life but she’s still enjoying somebody like Elijah’s character. She’s not so bitter and mean that she still has that willingness to be open and watch her daughter’s performance story and then continue on with Elijah. I love that scene so much and that we got to end there for the season. To me, that signals there might be a little bit of growth in Loreen and in her acceptance of this wonderful friend of Hannah’s. We’ll see how that kind of thing can go forward… If there can be real growth in this woman who at the top of season one seems pretty immoveable.
ADTV: So, we’ve talked about season six a little bit, but what can we looking forward to for Loreen in the final season?
BAB: You know, without giving anything away, she continues to try to grow and expand her world but also definitely she is searching for what her life now going to be. When somebody’s kind of blindsided and surprised by their change of life circumstances, she’s definitely searching for her new identity as a single woman. I think that’s probably the best way to put it.
ADTV: What do you think she’s going to be doing in ten years after we leave the series?
BAB: Oh that’s a great question. I think in ten years… call me crazy… but I think Loreen’s definitely going to get out of her small world and probably will move to a larger city. Maybe be closer to Hannah. She’ll be a terrific parent later. Maybe she wasn’t so great in certain ways, but I think she’ll be closer to Hannah as she goes in ten years. I think she’s definitely headed to a larger city in ten years.
ADTV: That’s great. That’s a very hopeful, positive message. That’s a nice thought to leave the character.
BAB: Yeah, I definitely think she’s opening up.
ADTV: So, in closing, what’s next for you as an actress after Girls?
BAB: Well, we’re shooting season six this summer. I’m also involved in a recurring series called Doubt for CBS [starring Laverne Cox]. I play Elliot Gould’s assistant in this one. It was supposed to shoot in New York City but now it’s filming in LA so that may change things a bit. I hold high hopes for that. I’ve been doing a lot of theater. I’m currently in a production of [Ibsen’s] Peer Gynt here in New York City at the Classic Stage Company. That runs for a few more weeks. I’m really hopeful for Doubt. It’s an amazing cast, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed. It’s picked up for mid-season so we won’t start shooting for a little bit.
ADTV’s Robin Write advocates for the comedy duo of Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson as Best Actresses in a Comedy Series for Comedy Central’s Broad City
Even with a strong respectful whiff paid to, say, Seinfeld or Woody Allen, Comedy Central hot property duo Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson are still somehow unique in their comic entertainment endeavors with Broad City. Twentysomething women, Jewesses if you will, still trying to figure out where they ought to be or what they are doing under the social labels of professionalism and personal life is compelling enough as a notion. It’s also essential viewing when it is executed this well.
Photo courtesy of Comedy Central
Like endless American TV shows gone by, the flamboyantly talented actresses and creators of Broad City keep their first names in character: Ilana, an openly off the wall, sexual young woman, seemingly unfiltered in her full throttle approach to life and constant use of air quotations; and Abbi, endearingly goofy, sensitive, a well-meaning bag of nerves, whose hesitations can say more than words. Ilana and Abbi are indeed a match made in a funny New York City heaven. Barring an understandable split in the voting, Emmy ought to be all over this.
Although exaggerated to perfection in places (many places actually), the performances of Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson ooze a kind of natural comic ability as well as portray a sharp look at the changing world around us. An absurd world, sure, but the everyday situations and human behavior they indulge in are familiar to you and I. Even their respective job roles offer unforgivingly droll circumstances: Ilana is more circle-peg-in-square-hole than out and out lazy bones at a small sales company but warrants her eventual dismissal. Abbi wears her “cleaner” fitness center vest with less pride than she would the “trainer” one she strives for – though becoming an illustrator is her true forte.
The oddball, sometimes slapstick, comedy and physical allure are created and delivered in season three pretty much as they were the prior two seasons (you know, Ilana has the tits, Abbi has the ass) – which will suit fans and newcomers alike right down to the ground. Glazer and Jacobson throw out there some of the more cynical ways of living in the modern world like having to wait for a table in a fancy restaurant or the new wave of clean modern living. The slices of life humor are keenly observed, depicting a casual but relevant set of narrative themes from your basic clashes in culture and lifestyle to current world events affecting Americans and assumptions about race or class.
The girls are not here to teach us a lesson about the world or have the intention to rub people the wrong way. Neither do they lash out blame to anyone else for their downfalls or high points. They tend to just shrug it off and leap onto the next wobbly stepping stone. In fact, their primary piss-take is with the characters Ilana and Abbi themselves – none more obviously (and hilariously) so when they get to literally mimic each other in one episode.
Photo courtesy of Comedy Central
What season three does allow the actresses to embrace is a deeper sense of humanity, pulling us ever-so-closer to the heart and soul of Ilana and Abbi. This is something we can be forgiven for misinterpreting as stupidity. There is snippet of an emotive warm glow and a small dose of melancholy, which both puts us in their shoes and compliments the humor. As well successfully demonstrating the acting chops of both actresses without making their writing anywhere near rusty. Ilana’s crisis of conscience (when Abbi hides the date with Trey to instead pretend she makes a surprise appearance to Ilana’s parents anniversary dinner) turns out to be really about Lincoln with whom Ilana shared a sexual relationship. He apparently rejected her for a girl who can offer him commitment. Bringing on the tears, it is a splendid, poignant moment for Glazer. Equally affecting is Jacobson, adding true remorse to her usual intense, mouse-like-timidness.
There is a definite enticing lunacy to behold here. As contentious or outlandish Ilana and Abbi may seem, they are surrounded by a whole host of players one might consider far less interesting regardless of scruples. This is not a criticism on the writing or set-up at all. It is rather an observation that the contrast between Ilana and Abbi and the other normal, sensible, every-day (all life-affirming traits) folk by default of execution makes the lead misfits all that more interesting and enlightening. Comparing them to the “normal” people in the world makes you realize Ilana and Abbi are actually not so weird after all.
The magic constant here is the enduring friendship. No matter how bonkers or unrealistic the antics of Ilana and Abbi may appear to be at any given time, you know their friendship is cemented and true. Their hapless behaviour and ensuing bedlam does not deter from their clearly solid, heart-felt bond. Even with an array of what you might call guest appearances (including Hilary Clinton), Abbi and Ilana are still the stars of the show. A mere ten episodes per season is nowhere near enough for me. I could watch these girls and their misadventures all day long (which means I will be re-watching again), but as far as Emmy voters are concerned it is more than ample comic material to earn both actresses (and writers) huge recognition.
The great Hairspray search is over. Meet Maddie Bailio.
When NBC announced that they were looking for an unknown to play the perky Tracy Turnblad for their live presentation of Hairspray, girls came out in droves to the casting call in New York City. Maddie Baillio won the coveted role of Tracy Turnblad, and she joins a cast that includes Harvey Fierstein as her mother, Edna, Jennifer Hudson, Martin Short, and Derek Hough. More supporting players have yet to be announced.
Last year’s The Wiz Live made a star out of Shanice Williams who was plucked out of obscurity to play Dorothy, and she her wide eyed wonder is one of the reasons why that musical was so good. Watching Baillio’s reaction to winning the part is just as adorable. That genuine loveliness is something that makes us want to see how she is going to do in the role. She seems perfect.
NBC’s Hairspray Live!, starring Maddie Bailio will air on December 7, 2016
Emmy-worthy Eva Green possesses viewers’ minds, hearts, and souls in Showtime’s gothic horror series Penny Dreadful
Eva Green’s season one Penny Dreadful performance was the stuff of legends. For such a beautiful woman with that china doll’s face, Green demonstrated a proficiency for contorting her entire physique to render the tortured character of Vanessa Ives. Green astonished with an impossibly nimble interpretation that, during one early season seance, seemed to suggest that Ives was a marionette’s doll, fighting against her master’s strings. It wasn’t simply a well spoken performance. To coin a phrase, Green acted the shit out of that character. Emmy sadly failed to notice though.
To be fair, Penny Dreadful premiered late in the Emmy cycle and chose to defer its eligibility into the next Emmy year. While Emmy watchers certainly understood it, it’s possible Emmy voters were simply confused after the faded a bit by the time it was eligible. Most likely, though, is the series’ status as the textbook definition of an acquired taste. In a recent interview with AwardsDaily TV, Bates Motelwriter/producer Kerry Ehrin lamented the fact that someone referred to her acclaimed series as one where “they just kill people in the motel every week?” Penny Dreadful likely suffers from the same preconceived notions. Looking from the outside in, casual viewers unfamiliar with the material may simply consider it extremely well art directed gore.
And they’d be half right, of course. Yet, what sets it apart from such a close-minded reputation is the passion star Eva Green pours into the material. While season two does not give her as many stand-out, buzzy moments as season one, Green is allowed to portray a much broader experience, a challenge that she clearly accepts and exceeds.
Photo courtesy of Showtime.
The first half of the season throws many obstacles at Eva Green’s Vanessa Ives. The assailants – Satanic female monsters led by witch Evelyn Poole (a brilliant Helen McCrory) – hardly matter. In fact, the less you know about them and their backstory, the better off you’ll be as an Emmy voter. The focus here is Vanessa Ives’ increasingly unstable and beleaguered persona, culminating in a near-mental breakdown in the middle of the season. Ives retreats with Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett) to a cabin owned by a former mentor, the Cut-wife (Patti LuPone).
This episode, “Little Scorpion,” gives Eva Green her finest moments of the season. I would argue she excels here because she’s allowed to play something of a normal, well adjusted human being. Arriving at the cottage, Ives is a mass of jittery, unsettled nerves. She is constantly looking over her shoulder at the potential evil mere steps behind. It’s not until she and Ethan begin setting about the average, everyday tasks of setting up a house – finding a bedroom, clearing up the cobwebs, finding food, and lighting candles. There must always be candles. At least 42 of them.
Green’s performance completely amazes here thanks to the effortless joy she employs when relaxed and entranced by Ethan Chandler. Green even smiles and laughs broadly. Those of you who know Penny Dreadful are well aware what a unique event that is, and Green wears it exceedingly well. Her conversations with Hartnett may appear to be throw-away material, but this is Green spreading her acting wings and showing how brilliantly she can perform the easier acting notes provided in the series. She clearly loves a challenge, but there must be valleys to accompany the peaks. A true sign of acting genius is how confidently you play the valleys while waiting for the peaks. These quiet, comtemplative, and dialogue-heavy scenes are perfection thanks to Eva Green’s confidence as an actress.
That’s not to say she doesn’t have peaks in the episode. Season two liked to give her extended sequences in which she launches into nearly possessed states as she rattles off Satanic spells in an ancient tongue. She has one near the end of “Little Scorpion” where she exacts revenge against a local who recently insulted her but was directly responsible for the death of her beloved mentor. Green again contorts and constricts her body into near-impossible states as she flies through what could be pages of otherworldly dialogue.
Photo courtesy of Showtime.
She has a similar moment in the season two finale where she summons the rage and aggression collected over the course of the season and unleashes it against Poole and her creepy collection of possessed dolls. An amazing sequence, it perfectly completes the high-tension Penny Dreadful season two.
Whether or not Emmy voters love these scenes is up for debate. I, however, remain a committed fan of Eva Green’s work here. She has mastered the brilliant interpretation of the complex and damaged character that Vanessa Ives has become. Green has ignored the season breaks and uses all material at her disposal from season one to build an extremely convincing air of despair and anguish from year to year. When Green/Ives finally breaks at the end of the season, it is a staggering achievement of acting brilliance.
Or, to coin a phrase, Eva Green just acted the shit out of Penny Dreadful season two.
Penny Dreadful season three continues to air Sunday nights on Showtime at 10pm ET.
Broad City and its cast are the perennial outsiders in Emmy’s Comedy race. Season three should change all that.
Four! And three! And two! And one!
Welcome to the misadventures of the bonkers variety. Never mind Bill and Ted or Lloyd and Harry or numerous other comedy double acts that pop to mind. Here we have the odd couple that is Abbi Abrams and Ilana Wexler. Played with outlandish and perfect comic skill by stars Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer – who also created the show based on their own web series – Broad City is a vivacious, free-wheeling New York City romp, a genuinely expressive and brash TV comedy. It may well be reminiscent of the kind of unfiltered, girls-behaving-badly antics depicted in shows like HBO’s Girls, or the kind of idiotic, ludicrous, potty-mouthed comedy that came out of the UK decades ago. Somehow, this is a fresh take on the social, personal mishaps of two Jewish American women in their twenties in modern day New York.
Having successfully closed its doors on the third season and gladly renewed for seasons four and five, Broad City continues in the same tried and tested formula as the first two. Where blurred out nudity and bleeped cursing is not brought to the forefront but is merely par for the course. And Abbi and Ilana’s uncompromising recognition and flaunting of their own imperfections, reflecting many aspects of mental behaviour and body image. Their outward portrayal of these attributes are still somehow endearing and engaging for two characters so scattered and deranged at times you would be forgiven for not associating them as life role models.
The regular, and mercifully small, supporting players are all in the mix once again. Illana’s bed buddy Lincoln is getting itchy feet in her lack of emotional commitment. Abbi’s gym mentor and quirky crush Trey begins to warm to his romantic colleague. Abbi’s roommate is still never seen, but her couch potato boyfriend Bevers certainly is as is Jaime, Ilana’s gay roommate. Season three benefits from not only the same sort of compelling comedy capers of its predecessors but also a subtle development of the relationships of those characters, a further human depth to both Abbi and Ilana especially. That gives the show a well-earned, perfectly-pitched extra layer.
Don’t worry. The usual sporadic physical comedy is still sprinkled around generously – too many to name here surely. Ilana half-dancing down a city street, ass-bumping a business women into a trash bin. Abbi’s failed handstand has her crashing into a meticulously arranged store display. The DIY tampon of the season finale. The bike lock chain and store security tag dilemma. I could go on. And on. Broad City carves out sufficient plots and turning points any comedy requires, and never yields the urgency for a long-term narrative or character arc structure to keep the overall show chugging along. It is snippy and bold in its development, splendidly paced throughout.
Broad City also, again, uses New York City so damn well (I won’t be a walking cliché and say that the city itself is a character). Its streets and parks serve as the venue for the girls’ various antics without apology. Remember Ilana yelling “Wanna fook?” to the hot guys playing soccer? New York City’s locations across the five boroughs still depict a great romantic love of the city even in its most hectic and crazed moments. A non-New-Yorker like myself can fully appreciate and feel that.
Ilana and Abbi themselves dive headfirst into their own manic intentions and obsessions (which actually feel relatable quite often). Both seem charmingly clueless a lot of the time, but they more than make up for this with their ridiculous energy and short term ambition. The season itself opens with a split-screen montage with Abbi and Ilana in their respective bathrooms peeing, farting, sexing, doing pot, dancing, vomiting, eating, and shaving pubic hair. Sounds revolting and tasteless sure, but in the context of the show this is a reminder of their characters and the creators’ ambivalent execution of them. If you can’t stand the heat (mistaken for erratic behavior), then stay out of their bathrooms.
Even when the antics perhaps go a little too far to the standard viewer or perhaps the comedy misses somewhat, the show doesn’t fail. In fact it never stops rolling along on its madcap journey. Jacobson and Glazer’s writing is playful, opportunist, sceptical, buoyant and often sidesplittingly funny. Their humor is a kind of social humor we somehow recognize and appreciate. Just one of many in-jokes or direct homage is to Mrs. Doubtfire in the dinner scene with Ilana’s parents anniversary dinner. Abbi’s back and forth between tables is straight out of the movie’s climactic sequence where the waitress is played by none other than Mara Wilson, who played Robin Williams’ youngest daughter Natalie in the 1993 film.
The season three guest appearances do not stop there. Memorable faces of TV comedy hits gone by include Vanessa Williams, Cynthia Nixon, and going even further back into America’s comedy history you have Alan Alda and Tony Danza also showing up. Sports are also represented with Blake Griffin, and musician Adam Levine (who pops up everywhere doesn’t he?) makes a self-parodying appearance. Whoopi Goldberg pays homage to Sister Act. And Melissa Leo is also impressive as a super-fertile woman and shop owner. Perhaps the most statuesque guest star has to be the one and only Hillary Clinton, playing herself as Ilana lands a voluntary position in a campaign office thinking it is a paid position. How can such a good show slip under the net any further with such prestige and magnetism in its arsenal?
An extremely topical and heavily appropriate notion then, that every vote counts here. I know the comedy categories are heavy in their competition, but come on, get your ha-ha hats on Emmy people! Support the women, clearly for comic power and influence. Broad City has plenty of moments that make it the best out there without really being pretentious or gimmicky. While the real world presidential race carries a certain satirical value, I implore Emmy voters to make the right call with Broad City when ticking their boxes.
Yas yas yas!
Possible Nominations
Comedy Series
Ilana Glazer, Lead Actress
Abbi Jacobson, Lead Actress
Writing
Melissa Leo, Guest Actress
Cynthia Nixon, Guest Actress
Joey Moser talks to the Grease: Live production team about the blood, sweat, and tears behind bringing the beloved musical to a nationwide audience.
I’m not sure a lot of people knew what to expect from Fox / Paramount TV’s live presentation of Grease: Live. Sure, a lot of people love the musical – the stage show is still one of the most continually produced across the country – but could this show really stand out following the massive successes of NBC’s live performances of The Sound of Music and the critically acclaimed rendition of The Wiz? What could director Thomas Kail and his creative team bring to the table that would make this beloved musical feel fresh and alive again?
Kail and his creatives adapted Grease in a way that I didn’t expect. The iconic lines and moments are all there, but they have produced something that makes theater geeks like me squeal with glee. The sets are massive, and the camerawork allowed us to feel like we were attending pep rallies and boring classes at Rydell High. In short, the at-home audience felt like an integral part of this giant musical. We weren’t just watching it from a comfortable seat in a Broadway theater. We were living it.
Live musicals are still tricky to predict in the Emmy race. The Sound of Music picked up 4 nominations back in 2013, but no other show has been nominated for coveted trophies since then. Will the scale of Grease: Live and the excitement of the immense production land it some Creative Emmys? Director Thomas Kail seems like a sure bet for changing the way that musicals can be produced for a television audience. He’s one of the hottest stage directors working right now, and he’s behind a small, little show on Broadway. You may have heard of it? Hamilton?
While talking to Kail on the phone, I could sense his real enthusiasm for the project and his respect for the work. We talked about the rehearsal process and about how there isn’t a definitive version of the beloved musical. I try my best to not sound like a total nerd, and I do end up asking him about a much-maligned movie musical that I would love to see adapted for the stage.
Kail (center) on the set of Grease: Live
AwardsDaily TV: I wanted to congratulate you! You’re having a ridiculously great year. How does it feel to be the director of two very huge—but very different—successes?
Thomas Kail: Oh, I don’t know. [Laughs] The beauty of having a chance to make things in different places is that you get to take what you’ve learned and try to apply it to the next task and see what still fits in your toolbox and what’s still needed. I feel very fortunate that I’ve had the chance to do two works in the last little while that allows theater to be part of the cultural conversation. That’s very important to me that theater is at the big kids’ table and that it’s not the kid brother. It’s been a beacon for me. It has been a place that’s embraced me and so many of my friends and given us a place to feel relevant and useful. The fact that we can reach so many people with Grease in one night and continue to as it spins into the universe is very meaningful.
ADTV: I recently found out that you had done some television work before, but Grease was your first huge television project.
TK: It was my first live musical of Grease, I can tell you that!
ADTV: Yes! What made you the most nervous about taking on a project so large? Is there something in particular?
TK: I don’t know if it was nerves as much as I was very keen on trying to honor the show and the spirit of the show. That’s something that we talked a lot about with my music director, Tom Kitt, my choreographer, Zach Woodlee, Marc Platt the producer, Alex Rudzinski (live television director). All of us talked from those early, early meetings about how to capture the feeling of Grease. How to put forth something that we felt captured the spirit of what the original show did and then what the original film did for so many people. That was a thing we were conscious of at every single turn. How do we make our own version of this, but also honor what’s coming forward. And acknowledge why we’re here.
ADTV: I actually re-watched it, and everyone is very familiar with either the show or the movie. A lot of those lines are very quotable, and I was very surprised by how a lot of it felt so fresh and so different and so new. I wanted to thank you for putting in “Those Magic Changes” and “Freddy My Love” back into the show. “Magic Changes” is my favorite song from the stage show, so I was very happy to see that again. Was walking that fine line difficult—especially for those who may be watching it for the first time?
TK: Well, there’s a particular challenge with Grease, because there isn’t a definitive version. There’s the version they did in Chicago, there’s the one for Broadway, there’s the version that’s done in high schools, the film—which is quite different from that. The writers on the show—Jon Tolins and Rob Carey, and I—thought very hard about all of those different iterations and the things that we loved from each. We wanted to pull in all of the things they admired or moved them–as did I. We knew that we wanted to use the spine of the film because that was the version most people had access to. But then for the numbers that existed on stage that didn’t make it into the film, this felt like a way that we could introduce this version which was our version of Grease. The car race that’s in the film—which is clearly not on stage—and sort of put them all together and make it all feel cohesive. And a lot of that was we knew that the glue would be the spirit. We knew the glue was the feeling. It wasn’t even about the events or which scenes, because there are a lot of scenes in our version that weren’t in either of the other versions. There’s a lot of new material that’s infused with that same spirit of Grease and yet you get to go to the Frosty Palace. You get to meet all the characters that you know and then were some opportunities to bring in some of the things that we knew were going to make someone say, “Oh, this is that thing that didn’t make it into here, and now it’s there.” It’s the same feeling you had.
ADTV: Something I’m very curious about is where you watched it. Where did you watch the show?
TK: I watched it in the truck. Right behind Alex.
ADTV: I wasn’t sure if you were incognito in the live audience watching it.
TK: What’s funny is when we were first rehearsing just in the rehearsal studio, I was talking to the cast and they were asking where I was going to be. And I said, “Where will I be most useful?” They said it would be great if I was out there, so I thought I’d be like Lorne Michaels—I’d be around, checking things out. And as we got closer to it, I realized a) I’d just be in the way, and b) I’d be far more utilized if something was needed in the truck. But I did… at the very end of the curtain call… Mark Platt and I ran out. That idea of having the fair with all the people out there was one of the first ideas we had. We were sitting there having watched the whole thing and I said, “This is our chance to actually go and be in the middle of it. We’ll know what it looks like when we watch it, you know, sometime in the future. You want to go?” And he sort of looked at me and we sort of just booked it out of there. If you look really closely in the final bow right after Aaron and Julianne take their last bow in the deep background on top of one of those golf carts, you can see me and Mark very, very small on the screen. So, I was out there for the last thirty seconds.
ADTV: I’ll have to look for that!
TK: I’m surprised the internet hasn’t discovered it yet…because nobody cares [Laughs].
ADTV: [Laughs] I’m sure it’s in some Buzzfeed article somewhere
TK: There’s probably 4 articles now [Laughs].
ADTV: Speaking of the rehearsals, was there any clear difference between this and maybe a Broadway show that’s made for the stage?
TK: For the first month, no. We were just in the rehearsal studio. We ran it like you would for a show whether you were in Florida or on Broadway or a national tour, or Off-Broadway. The rehearsal day was structured in a very similar fashion. There were always two rooms going. Zach Woodlee in his room constantly. Tom Kitt had his own room where he was orchestrating and arranging, and if he wasn’t doing that he was teaching music. And then I was in another room and we’d all join for certain moments. Obviously, the closer we got to leaving the studio, we were together a lot more than we were apart. It was very important to me that we routined and ran the show as many times as we could. The red light of the “ON AIR” was an x-ray vision machine for confidence. My job was to prepare everybody on stage as well as that crew and Alex and his team. They had real repetition at the movements, so when something went left when it was supposed to go right or zig instead of zag, they’d have that information. The version that was on Sunday when we did that, that was our third full run through with an audience (and we had two previous run throughs), and our fifth run we’d gone through of the show. If you’ve ever worked on a show you know that you never get to run a show that many times before your first preview, and it’s my job to get the show ready to meet the audience. So that structuring or skill that you learn from your stage managers when you’re making a musical on Broadway or Off-Broadway is actually what we were trying to accomplish. The big shift is when we got on stage. Instead of it being eight, nine, ten days of tech, we were on the set. These sets were three dimensional with real walls and real integrity. It was about putting it there and shooting everything single camera to then use as a map for us to do the camera coverage for when Alex was ready to break that down.
ADTV: The show is huge, and it’s unlike any of the recent live musicals. The first time I was watching the live broadcast, I was sitting very close to my TV with my face screwed up thinking, “How the heck are they doing this?” It works so seamlessly. Was the idea of going so big there from the beginning, or was that something that came along as you were rehearsing?
TK: No, we were thinking of this scale from the very early conversations we had 14 or 15 months before we ever did it. This idea of having an opening number that showed it was happening live, that there were scenes, that there were actors playing these parts was one of the early conversations. We wanted to show how really high we were on the wire. I knew we wanted to end it in that with the big party rain or shine—little did we know it would actually rain that day. That we did not know [Laughs]. We didn’t know necessarily that it would be on two soundstages and that it would be outside. With my production designer David Korins, we had conversations with Mark Platt, we just thought to design the version that we want to do, and whether we do one soundstage in New York or two or three in L.A. Let’s find the vocabulary and language for the show and then we’ll make sure it will work wherever we end up. Sometimes where you end up is based on very practical things than just artistic idea. We didn’t want to compromise the vision of the show no matter where we were.
ADTV: I was surprised that other live musicals didn’t have a live audience. I believe that The Wiz Live would have benefitted from having that energy from the audience. How important to you was bringing a live audience into the space?
TK: Having a live audience felt like it was necessary component for Grease, so we were talking about that from the very initial conversations with Paramount and FOX. Grease is a musical comedy so we felt that back and forth energy that we were trying to harness would really benefit from having a live audience. We were able to incorporate them in the way that we did. When you’re in the gym and you have 200 people in that totally immersive scene, it was such a full expression of the storytelling within the show, the dynamism of Zach Woodlee’s choreography, Alex’s camera coverage of that and letting that happen in front of an engaged and electrified audience was a dream. It was feedback loop. The actors were giving the audience and the audience was giving to the performers—it made it feel combustible and alive.
ADTV: In my experience with theater, getting an audience—no matter what type—is so important just to see how the pace is sustained and to get the reactions, whether it’s laughter or applause. Since I was so used to all the other musicals not having real reactions from a crowd, the audience really fed into the energy of the performers.
TK: Hopefully, the cadence of the experience we have of going to see theater and live musicals was something we could transport. So that was our goal.
ADTV: Was there any particular actor from the audition process or rehearsal process that surprised you in a good way? Did anyone blow you away when you first saw them in the rehearsals?
TK: This cast was so uniformly remarkable that it’s impossible for me to distinguish. These things are contingent on the alchemy of the group, and that’s not something you can always control. This is a show about wanting to belong and be a part of something, so the fact that the T-Birds have this bond that began at the photo shoot weeks before (and the Pink Ladies also had that) made me think we were onto something. We were just getting to know each other. The standard was so high! We had Ana Gasteyer and Haneefah Woods, Wendell Pierce who I’ve worked with—everyone was a ringer. Tom Kitt mentioned this on the day of the show. When this kind of production comes together, it’s this relay race, and everybody takes the baton and they run with it so swiftly and so securely and just hand it off to the next person. And that’s what happened that day in all departments. There were 450 people that went to work that day to make that show, and all of them had their finest day. It was quite the thing to behold.
ADTV: Grease: Live had such an ethnically diverse cast. There has been a lot of talk about the diversity of Hamilton.
TK: It was not conscious in its relation to Hamilton. It was conscious in that we wanted to populate this Rydell High where the world could be watching it. It felt like that was only going to inform and infuse the spirit of the show that we were trying to capture.
ADTV: To close, is there any way for me to convince you to direct Grease 2: Live?
TK: [Laughs] Let’s put it this way. I know Grease 2 better than I know Grease. We owned two movie musicals growing up – I have two sisters, and I’m in the middle – and they was Grease and Grease 2. I already have it worked out how I’m going to do “Reproduction.” The bowling alley has been rented. And we can bring back Didi Conn!
ADTV: So if I give you Michelle Pfeiffer and a ladder, you’ll do it just for me?
TK: If there’s a ladder and a bowling alley available, we should probably just set it up.
The more you research the production of Grease: Live, the more you realize how top-notch everyone involved is. This is a dream team stacked with so much experience and assured talent that it’s no wonder that the musical felt so smooth and effortless. With such a dependable group of people collected to work on Grease, how could it not be a rousing success?
We were afforded the privilege to reach out to some of the creatives to ask them a few questions relating to their field in the making of Grease: Live.
Working closely with Kail was Alex Rudzinski, the live television director. Rudzinski has directed a lot of well-known reality television, but he’s probably best known for his directorial work on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars.
ADTV: Did you rehearse at all with an audience to give the actors any sense or how the live audience would react to certain aspects of the show? How did you maneuver the audience around so seamlessly?
Alex Rudzinski: Yes, we had a full dress rehearsal the night before air with a full audience, and three days before transmission we also had an audience where we invited just the friends and family of the cast and crew. We learned a huge amount from both of these. The audio team had a lot of balancing to do and we had to test the logistics of moving the audience around our different locations during the 3 hours – It wasn’t just the cast and crew moving between different stages but we also moved the audience live on air!
ADTV: In what ways is directing something like Grease: Live similar to putting together Dancing with the Stars?
AR: The main similarity is how I work in designing and executing a camera script – every shot is storyboarded and called in real time musically to bars and beats – there are approximately 1,500 shots in the show.
ADTV: Did the death of Greg Hudgens change the atmosphere of the presentation at all backstage?
AR: When you work on a show for as long as this, the cast and crew become a special family. Of course everyone was hugely sympathetic with Vanessa for her loss, but her response on show day was so professional. She helped the team to stay focused on that night’s broadcast.
ADTV: You stated that Grease: Live was going to feature handheld cameras kind of like a professional football game. Do you think this could be used for all live musicals from now on, or was this technique better suited for something looser and fun like this musical?
AR: We used some handheld cameras for logistical reasons due to the enormous distance between our locations. We had 21 different sets spread out over nearly half a kilometer. Without using some handhelds that could reposition live between locations we would have needed 30-40 cameras which just would not have been financially viable. Hopefully, our viewers were unaware of the camerawork and just enjoyed the immersive presentation of the performances from our cast.
Costume designer William Ivey Long has won six Tony Awards for Broadway hits like Nine, The Producers, and Grey Gardens, and he’s designed probably every iconic look on stage that you can remember. He occasionally dabbles in television, but Grease: Live was his first foray in over a decade. If you look up pictures of Mr. Long, you can immediately tell he has an affinity for clothes, and he has killer style. The musical was a huge undertaking, but the bright colors and the cohesive design signifies that we are in the presence of a total master.
ADTV: You haven’t been involved with a television presentation since The Man Who Came to Dinner over 15 years ago. Was it exciting to come back to television for the live broadcast?
William Ivey Long: Yes, this hybrid event had every feeling of urgency – like a live Broadway show – with the addition of the technical requirements of a live television show. In fact, I had such a good time on Grease: Live that I’ve designed two more television projects since: Rocky Horror Picture Show for FOX (airing this Halloween) and Maya and Marty for NBC (currently shooting).
ADTV: Was there a look from the original film that you were eager to do your own spin on? Were you tempted to change anything up dramatically?
WIL: We were a valentine to the 1980’s film, which was a valentine to the 70’s musical which was itself valentine to the actual 1950’s teen movie phenomena. Of course we always stand on the shoulders of our predecessors and my hat is off to the great Albert Wolsky – legendary designer of the original film.
ADTV: You’ve designed for so many legendary Broadway musicals, and your work encompasses so many different eras and time periods. Do you have a favorite?
WIL: Yes, actually, the glamorous period 1936-1938. All of the best fashion designers were working at the height of their artistry; and our country was about to go to war. Glamour on the brink!
ADTV: The cast of this musical is huge, and everything is so exquisitely detailed. When you begin to tackle something as big as Grease: Live, where do you start? Was this one of the largest projects you’ve taken on?
WIL: Yes, this is one of the largest – almost 500 costumes! We began with actual 1950’s research – high school students, greasers, and the wide-eyed cultures of that innocent time in America. I then worked with production designer David Korins to create different color schemes for each production number – from a controlled school-colors opening number to the explosion of confetti colors at the carnival finale.
ADTV: One of the best moments from the first half of the show was when Marty transformed into her fantasy dress during “Freddy My Love.” With this change and with Cinderella’s transformation before the ball in the latest revival, I have to ask: are you the master of the quick change?
WIL: Ever since working with Siegfried and Roy, I have been in love with magic, and specifically, magical transformations. In fact Keke Palmer who played Marty and sang Freddy My Love was my last Cinderella on Broadway – so I had already worked with her on several magical transformations and knew she would be more than up for it.
ADTV: Your next television project is the remake of the cult classic musical, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Were you ready to jump into something more scandalous and sexy after such a squeaky clean musical?
WIL: Yes ABSOLUTELY!!!
The music supervisor, Tom Kitt, is a Pulitzer Prize winning musician who both composes and conducts. He has written the music for the stage adaptations for High Fidelity and Bring It On (where he worked with Tony winner and fellow Pulitzer Prize winner, Lin Manuel Miranda). Being associated with one of the most intense musical theater pieces in the last 10 years (the exquisite Next to Normal), I was most curious as to what drew Kitt to Grease in the first place.
ADTV: Next to Normal is one of the most beloved and emotional musicals in the last decade. What interested you about getting involved with such a “fluffy” musical like this one?
Tom Kitt: Grease was one of the first musicals I saw as a kid. I loved it so much, that I must have seen it over 50 times in the movie theater. And looking back, I think my love of musicals began with Grease. It’s a show that I have great passion and admiration for; a show that taught me a lot about the craft of creating a musical. So to be given the opportunity to work with such iconic material and become part of the Grease family was quite an honor for me.
ADTV: Grease is one the most produced musicals in the country. What was the most rewarding aspect about bringing it to such a huge audience with the live presentation?
TK: There were three things that were incredibly rewarding: First, the opportunity to work with such a virtuosic group of creatives was a thrill by itself. Second, having never worked in the genre of the TV/Musical, the fact that we were able to work at a fast and high level and never felt adrift or unprepared was incredibly gratifying. And lastly, Grease as we know is beloved and already comes with such strong personal feelings from those who revere it, so the fact that we were able to make our own version, which was both faithful to what people love, but was also able to find its own voice, was quite a challenge that I feel like we were able to pull off. At the end of the day, we wanted to honor this material but bring a new audience to it with the same passion we had when we first saw it, and it feels like we did that.
ADTV: Were you tempted to incorporate more of the original musicals’ music into the live production, or was that strictly off the table?
TK: We were constantly going back to the original musical to see about incorporating more songs. “Rock ’N’ Roll Party Queen” and “Mooning” were additions that were made during the rehearsal process. And one of my favorite moments was “Those Magic Changes,” in which we utilized aspects from both the musical and the film to create a new version of that song. Between the film and the musical, there are so many great songs and I think the writers did an extraordinary job of finding ways to incorporate the music from both versions so that the piece felt cohesive and faithful to the different incarnations we all love.
ADTV: To end, I wanted to know if you could tell me anything about your upcoming production of Magic Mike (another show with your Normal collaborator, Brian Yorkey).
TK: We are currently in the development process for Magic Mike and I am having a phenomenal time working with Brian and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, as well as the entire creative team from the original film. There is no specific timetable as of now, but we’ve had some exciting first few steps so I’m hoping there will be more to share about the show’s trajectory soon.
You can’t think about this rock-n-roll musical and not immediately think about the dancing. With such insanely hummable tunes like “The Hand Jive,” Summer Lovin’,” and “Greased Lightning,” attention must be paid to choreographer Zach Woodlee. He’s mostly known in front of the camera for his stint as a mentor on The Glee Project on Oxygen, but he was putting the teens from Glee in dance boot camp from day one. His work on Grease: Live is infectious, vivacious, and just downright fun. Every inch of your television screen had Woodlee’s stamp on it.
ADTV: Since you were the main choreographer on Glee, would you say that high school kids have the most fun dancing between classes?
Zach Woodlee: I wouldn’t say working with a younger cast is necessarily more energetic. Dancing at any age creates a fun, kinetic energy. I love seeing the dance process from the creative inception to the final product, regardless if they are 16 or 60.
ADTV: How many hours a day did you rehearse choreography?
ZW: We worked from 10am-7pm every day. Grease: Live was a tightly run ship, and needed multiple rooms running at all times. There was a rotation throughout the day from scene work, vocals, and dancing. In our room, someone was always dancing!
ADTV: The Hand Jive was one of the highlights of the entire production. Is it hard to dance that fine line between honoring the original choreography and putting your own spin on it?
ZW: Of course! Everyone loves Grease. The fear of not being able to honor the original was daunting, but that goes with the territory of recreating a hit. For me, I think it was more about highlighting our actors’ talents and using their strengths to win over our audience. This cast was very well versed in movement already, so it made it more interesting to push the room to a much more athletic version for our hand jive.
ADTV: I was a big fan of The Glee Project, and it was great to see you teaching the choreography to the actors for that show. Did you have to put The Pink Ladies and the T-Birds into a serious dance boot camp?
ZW: This whole project was a boot camp! From day one, we all came in knowing time was short. The buzz of a live event helped to get us through the long yet rewarding days. Our entire cast and crew worked nonstop to create something that everyone would be proud of.
One of the most striking things of the entire production was the scenic design. Unlike Peter Pan or The Wiz, Grease: Live planted you into Rydell High. It’s not that the sets from previous musicals were poorly constructed, but designed David Korins stepped it up in a major way. You could almost feel the stiff desks in the science classes or you could have had some real gym class flashbacks during the dance scene or during “Summer Lovin’.”
Korins has designed for Broadway, regional theater, televion and music festivals. You name it, he’s done it. Like Mr. Kail, he has been nominated for a Tony for his work on Hamilton.
ADTV: When you signed on to do Grease: Live, were you surprised by how large it was going to be?
David Korins: I don’t think that Grease: Live was necessarily large or small – it was exactly the size it needed to be. It was really amazing to watch it find its way from being a piece of theater or a piece of television and define itself as a live television event. We didn’t originally imagine that it would take place all over the Warner Brothers lot, but when we got the multiple sound stages we decided to use them to their fullest extent. Even before I was on the project, director Tommy Kail knew he wanted to use the live audience, and the additional sound stages allowed us to really expand their presence and show them along the way as we moved from one scene/location to another. And, of course, the addition of the “golf-cart-ography” was a ton of fun. In the end, Grease: Live sort of presented two parallel experiences, for both the live audience and the viewer at home: the performance of Grease itself and event of the scenes taking place all around this sprawling lot. That duality gave a gravitas to the whole experience.
ADTV: The sets are so incredibly detailed. With other recent live musicals presented on television, it does feel like we are watching a stage musical, but Grease: Live is a much more immersive experience. Was it a go big or go home mindset from the beginning?
DK: We never really thought about it in terms of “go big or go home.” We began by asking ourselves: what are the best storytelling methods unique to theater, and what are the best storytelling methods unique to television? Theater uses obvious scene changes that explicitly show how we go from one mood or setting to another. There is no such thing as a jump cut or a dissolve or a cross fade, so we get to see those things happen and it’s a honor and a privilege to see how a piece of theater comes to life. On television, you can do scale tricks with the camera and play with size and proportion. You can actually have a legitimate cathartic revelation of space where you can see expanses of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of feet. Once we identified what the best storytelling devices of each medium were, we had to find a way to conflate them and actually take advantage of both media. So, in Grease: Live you get to actually see the scenery change and then bust outside and have a full blown carnival. So that didn’t necessarily feel like “go big or go home”, that felt like “identify the awesome and then exploit it!”
ADTV: You’ve worked several times with director Tommy Kail. Was it easier to take on such a massive project with someone you’ve worked with several times before?
DK: Absolutely. It probably takes 10 times working with someone before you even start to get to know them and the way their mind works. It’s crucial to create a shorthand of language and build a foundation of artistic references. So of course, knowledge is power, and the more experiences you have with someone the more you can feel like you trust them and know where you’re headed.
ADTV: There are over 20 sets, but which one was your favorite to design?
DK: The two that stand out to me are the ones that exist as the purest microcosm of what we were trying to do with the whole production: Frenchy’s bedroom into “Freddy My Love” (which is really two sets), and the Frosty Palace into “Beauty School Dropout.” I love that these both start in realistic, grounded places, that are very nuanced and dramaturgically specific with all sorts of detail and narrative driven ideas. Then, they both elevate and explode into these magical/totally abstract spaces that epitomize the “theater” of it all before coming back to reality. It’s like an abstract sandwich on magical realistic bread. The “realistic” versions of these rooms also aren’t exactly “realistic” – we use line and color and texture and perspective and scale to our advantage. They basically only employ 3 colors, they’re very treated theatrical worlds, but the places they heighten to are so much more magical, so it feels like a really big departure.
How will Grease: Live do with Emmy voters? It’s a bit harder to predict since most of the awards these gentlemen will be considered for are in the Creative Emmy ceremony categories, and they, unfortunately, won’t be aired with the big show. I think every one of these people will be considered for their work with the productiobecause everything was handled so deftly. The direction, scenic design and costume design feel like the surest bets. Kitt could definitely hear his name mentioned, and Woodlee could also be nominated since the choreography is one of the strongest things about the show.
I mentioned on last week’s podcast that Vanessa Hudgens (as Rizzo) could land a surprise nomination in the same vein as Emma Thompson’s nomination last year for Live from Lincoln Center: Sweeney Todd. Hudgens’ stood out in a tight ensemble. Don’t count her out.
Guaranteed Nominations
Outstanding Special Class Program
Direction
Choreography
Production Design
Probable Nominations
Costume Design
Music Direction
Possible Nominations
Vanessa Hudgens, Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie
Casting
