Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter - General Discussion

[Meredith Quill]

A place to discuss particular episodes, arcs and moments from the show's run. Please remember this isn't a complete catch-all topic -- check out the forum for character topics and other places for show-related talk.

[FormerMod-a1]

I stumbled on this show a few months ago and finally requested the forum.  I have been enjoying it, I think they get some good people to interview.

 

It airs on Sundance, here's the link to their page.

 

And here's a link to the thetvdb.com's page that lists all the season 1 episodes.

[FormerMod-a1]

New episodes start on Sunday! (June 26).  

Six of the year's most sought after drama actresses engage in a candid conversation about sex scenes and nudity as they get older. Sarah Paulson (The People vs O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story/ American Horror Story: Hotel), Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife), Kerry Washington (Confirmation/ Scandal), Constance Zimmer (UnREAL), Kirsten Dunst (Fargo), Regina King (American Crime/ The Leftovers), and Jennifer Lopez (Shades of Blue) discuss the advantages of working with female directors, the new landscape of television, and what their first big splurge was.

[JBC344]

I thought this roundtable was just ok.  I usually anticipate these all year, and find myself very annoyed that we now have to wait until they air on broadcast before THR puts them on the site.  Regardless, I didn't find this one as "entertaining" as I have found a lot of the actress ones in the past.  What really surprised me was how I didn't care for Jennifer Lopez in the discussion.  I'm a JLO fan and usually find her very warm and personable in her interviews but found her very standoffish in this one.  I also didn't find that this panel to "gel" like some of the other ones in the past which was surprising because a lot of the women have been in previous panels, some of them together.  Really loved that Constance Zimmer was included and wish that I got to hear more from her.  Same with Kirsten Dunst, as a first times not only to the panel but to the roundtables, I was looking forward to hearing more of her perspective. 

Overall this one was ok, just no where as good as it should have been.

[attica]

The showrunner table was much more entertaining than I think it meant to be, if only by the inclusion of Julian Fellowes. Holy smokes, if they hung a neon light over his head reading "White Male Privilege", it couldn't have been more obvious. And some of the other participants had a hard time controlling the rolling of eyes every time he opened his mouth. Because, suuuure, a Lord of the Realm faces the same kind of aggro that John Ridley or Melissa Rosenberg does.

[7-Zark-7]

On June 30, 2016 at 11:21 PM, JBC344 said:

What really surprised me was how I didn't care for Jennifer Lopez in the discussion. 

These roundtables usually involve people who are likely to be nominated for Emmys or Oscars for their work that year, so there really wasn't a reason for JLo to be there.  Maybe she put out word that she'd like to be invited.

I would have liked to have heard more from Dunst too. She has an interesting body of work compared to most former child actors. While Reese Witherspoon and Anne Hathaway went for romcoms and other mainstream films, she went the way of Lars Von Trier, so yeah, I'd like to know how she thinks about the business.

I was impressed by how well the Actors roundtable went. I was pleasantly surprised that Anthony Anderson didn't hog the discussion. Everyone seemed genuinely interested in each other's stories. And even though I think Rob Lowe is a bit of prima donna, I did like his "I'm on Tiger Beat, Motherfucker!" line. 

The showrunners seemed to disagree with each other a lot.  I guess they have their own styles. They got on the same page about the pain of working with assholes actors though.

[FormerMod-a1]

I'm watching today's ep now - Directors. I didn't recognize Mel Gibson at all.  I really thought it was some other director with the same name.  I was also surprised he was on, given his not so distant issues.

Full list of guests today: Damien Chazelle (La La Land), Mel Gibson (Hacksaw Ridge), Barry Jenkins (Moonlight), Mira Nair (Queen of Katwe), Oliver Stone (Snowden), Denzel Washington (Fences)

Mel Gibson now, but on the show his mustache and beard are longer.

[sugarbaker design]

Did anyone else notice when the directors were rattling off 70's movie classics Denzel said Blue Velvet (1986)?  I've seen Stone, Gibson and Washington several times in venues like this, so it was refreshing to see and hear Nair, Chazelle and Jenkins.

[sugarbaker design]

Jeff Bridges should be on every panel.  What a delight!  Never seen such a young panel (besides Jeff) of actors before.

[FormerMod-a1]

The Documentary makers round table was much more interesting than I thought it would be.  Not sure why, maybe because I'd only heard of a couple of those docs.  After this discuss I want to see all of them.  I do like documentaries, they make up a good portion of my Netflix queue, so I should have known better.  

[peeayebee]

I just now came to this forum because I watched the Documentary one and found it absolutely fascinating. Every single person had something interesting and profound to say. Werner, of course, was amazing. He tells such great stories. 

I want to see all of the docs. I've only seen the OJ one as yet, and it was excellent.

[attica]

Interesting to contrast all the ebullient ambition from the comedy women with the fairly tepid men. Rossum and Macy especially.

[peeayebee]

I was a little irked by the women talking over each other so much. I wanted to hear the most from Minnie Driver and Pamela Adlon. Still, I always enjoy these shows for the most part.

[cpcathy]

I hadn't realized that both Bacon and Anderson seemed completely full of themselves. Kumail was so sweet with his curious questions to the other men.

[sugarbaker design]

2 minutes ago, cpcathy said:

I hadn't realized that both Bacon and Anderson seemed completely full of themselves.

Totally agree.  Everything they said brought the conversation to a screeching halt. 

4 minutes ago, cpcathy said:

Kumail was so sweet with his curious questions to the other men.

Totally agree again.  He was a delight!

[peeayebee]

The only one who bothered me was Brian Tyree Henry. I enjoy him in Atlanta, but I thought he monopolized the conversation too much here.

[sugarbaker design]

There was an interesting moment when the moderator posited a question like "Have you ever experienced sexual harassment/discrmination?"  (I forgot the exact question!).

KB told this stupid, ridiculous story how a producer said he was unfuckable.  The moderator quickly changed the subject, it was hilarious.

[peeayebee]

This TV actors roundtable was just about the best I've seen. Six articulate, interesting, gifted actors telling stories and talking about the craft: John Lithgow, Riz Ahmed, Ewan McGregor, Billy Bob Thornton, Sterling K Brown, and Jeffrey Wright. All of them were great, but I think Thornton was my favorite here. He's so smart and eloquent. The others were too, but he really intrigued me.

[attica]

Jeffrey Wright has the sexiest voice on Earth. If Alan Rickman were still alive, they'd have to fight for the title. I would watch that fight. Over and over and over.

I found it interesting that the conversation never went outside of acting. We know BBT writes and directs, as does Ewan. Lithgow writes (his memoir is quite good!) as does Ahmed.  But at the table, they were all happy to confine their comments to performing to others' tunes. NOt that this is a bad thing, it's just something I noticed. Contrasting last week's women, who were all bursting with wanting more control over their creative lives.

[sugarbaker design]

On 7/9/2017 at 1:47 PM, peeayebee said:

This TV actors roundtable was just about the best I've seen.

Couldn't agree more.

On 7/9/2017 at 5:05 PM, attica said:

I found it interesting that the conversation never went outside of acting.

I was grateful it stayed focused, then it would become a pissing contest.  Male actors and female actors have different challenges.  Given the dearth of women directors/screenwriters/producers it seem to make sense that would be an issue for the actresses.

There wasn't a weak link, each actor seemed to bring something to the table.  The only problem I had was deciding who had the dreamiest accent, EMacG or RA?

Edited July 11, 2017 by sugarbaker design

[attica]

One upside of these shows is it gets me a hit of immediate voice-recognition, so I can beat my friends at 'who dat in the commercial?'* I've been fussing over the nice British lady vo-ing the Lexus ads lately. Turns out it's Minnie!

 

*What, you guys don't play that?

[peeayebee]

I just play that with myself. I get aggravated when I can't figure it out. I'll have to listen for Minnie. She has a lovely voice.

[sugarbaker design]

Susan Sarandon and Juliana Margulies seem to be doing a lot of commercials as well.

Minnie Driver does have a velvet, smoky voice.

Edited July 11, 2017 by sugarbaker design

[peeayebee]

What commercials are Susan Sarandon and Juliana Margulies doing?

[sugarbaker design]

I don't know specifically, I just know I hear their voices.  Juliana Margulies is doing a credit card/bank campaign.

[attica]

Sarandon has been Tylenol-ing for years. Margulies = Chase.

[attica]

I wonder what the dress code is for these things. All the drama ladies were styled in silver and blond loose waves, except Oprah. The dudes tend to be dressed more haphazardly, at least that is my impression. 

Good discuss. I wanted to hear more from Chrissy, though. And J-Lange looks more like her old self again!

[sugarbaker design]

12 hours ago, attica said:

I wonder what the dress code is for these things.

There cannot possibly be a dress code, the styles are so disparate.  Rob Lowe wore an ascot last year!  There was that roundtable for actress in films where everyone wore black except Brie Larson (the eventual winner) wore this gorgeous number.  Here's a pic.

 

[attica]

Well, the dress code could have been "wear a black top" or something equally vague-yet-uniform. Maybe they have a stylist on hand and clothes to foist upon the participants. Maybe that's how Lowe got is ascot....

[peeayebee]

Or maybe they just called each other -- "What are you wearing?" "Oh, let's all wear silver!" -- But who's going to call Oprah and tell her what to wear? :D

I thought this was pretty good, though there's too much interruption and talking over each other. The one I wish hadn't been there was Oprah. Nothing against her per se, but a few times it seemed like she was conducting the roundtable.

What I loved most was when they were talking about acting itself.

I liked seeing who had worked together. Off the top of my head... 

Lange and Metz: American Horror Story
Witherspoon and Kidman:  Big Little Lies
Winfrey and Witherspoon: A Wrinkle in Time
Moss and Kidman: Top of the Lake (S2)

Then on IMDB I found...

Lange and Moss: A Thousand Acres

I don't know if there are any more.

[attica]

14 hours ago, peeayebee said:

a few times it seemed like she was conducting the roundtable.

Agreed. Sometimes Oprah can't help being Oprah.

[sugarbaker design]

14 hours ago, peeayebee said:

Or maybe they just called each other -- "What are you wearing?" "Oh, let's all wear silver!" -- But who's going to call Oprah and tell her what to wear? :D

I just thought the silver theme was prevalent because the all the stylists (save Oprah's) use the latest trends (which must be silver!).

[FormerMod-a1]

I thought they were in fact, all asked to dress in a certain palette.  I remember on one of the prior actress roundtables, when talking about something or other, one of the actresses said something like "just like here, when we were all asked to wear something peach..." (paraphrase, I may have the color wrong).   It wasn't an exact, specific, color like "pale peach no darker than X on the depth scale", so there'd be variation, and the style was completely up to them.

[SoCal Mema]

On 7/17/2017 at 4:03 PM, peeayebee said:

Or maybe they just called each other -- "What are you wearing?" "Oh, let's all wear silver!" -- But who's going to call Oprah and tell her what to wear? :D

I thought this was pretty good, though there's too much interruption and talking over each other. The one I wish hadn't been there was Oprah. Nothing against her per se, but a few times it seemed like she was conducting the roundtable.

What I loved most was when they were talking about acting itself.

I liked seeing who had worked together. Off the top of my head... 

Lange and Metz: American Horror Story
Witherspoon and Kidman:  Big Little Lies
Winfrey and Witherspoon: A Wrinkle in Time
Moss and Kidman: Top of the Lake (S2)

Then on IMDB I found...

Lange and Moss: A Thousand Acres

I don't know if there are any more.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one feeling Oprah was misplaced on this roundtable.  Perhaps they were doing really current people; however, I would have much rather seen an actress from Queen Sugar who has done some phenomenal acting the past 2 seasons (and is very time relevant).  The lack of diversity on the panel was glaring.

I wondered if they had all just come from some photo shoot or event - hence, the silver dressy outfits.

Jessica Lange looked great and I wanted to hear more from her.

Edited July 24, 2017 by SoCal Mema

[attica]

Ugh, the drama showrunners table was a snooze. No chemistry among the participants, and Lacey's questioning didn't spark any juicy responses. And what an ending! It felt like everybody was checking their watches waiting for the bell to ring, nobody even bothering to come up with a final quip.

[sugarbaker design]

I blame the moderator, she's asked basically the same dumb questions to every panel.

[peeayebee]

Thanks. Now I'm not sorry I missed this one. I was going to check online, but I'll skip it.

[Frisson]

That interviewer has an annoying habit of saying, "Sure," after almost every comment made. Once I noticed it, I couldn't stop hearing it, and some of the other interviewees started doing it, too. While the Comedy Showrunner group wasn't super exciting, I did enjoy listening to their thoughts and the hour (?) went by quickly. 

[attica]

Okay, the reality show table was good. Somebody must have dropped out; they only had five people. I enjoyed hearing Salsano talk about 'the villain edit' (like, lol no), and although I think Bell felt out of place with the likes of Jenner, he was polite and respectful, along with being interesting. RuPaul was my favorite, with his long elegant fingers and kindness to the kids he casts. 

"Ohhhh, Stair Climber!" Hee. Stars: They're just like us, killing who knows how much time watching infomercials.

[shallow] Lacey's hair looked especially good at this table.[/shallow]

Edited August 7, 2017 by attica

[sugarbaker design]

Who would've thought the producers' round table would be more informative and entertaining than the actors' (male and female) and directors'.

[FormerMod-a1]

Anyone watching the new shows?  They've already done Comedy Actresses and Actors.  Up next (tomorrow) is Drama Actors.

[peeayebee]

I've been watching. I haven't watched today's yet.

My favorite part of the comedy actors show was when Marc Maron (I believe) started talking about getting out the vote in 2016, then Louie Anderson, in mid-coffee-sip said, "How'd that work out?" His delivery was perfect. Marc didn't seem amused for some reason.

I wasn't so crazy about Tracy Morgan. 

The comedy actresses show was kind of annoying when they were talking over each other, but I honestly can't remember much.

I'm eager to watch today's show. Matthew Rhys, JK Simmons, Michael B Jordan, Jason Bateman, Darren Criss, and Jeff Daniels. Rhys is hilarious. 

[sugarbaker design]

Rhys is hilarious, but Criss, Daniels and Bateman bored me to tears.  Lacey Rose is still an atrocious moderator.

On the other hand,  the panel for dramatic actresses looks quite promising.

[peeayebee]

Yeah, and unfortunately Criss, Daniels, and Bateman dominated the roundtable. I really wanted to hear more from JK Simmons and Rhys.

[sugarbaker design]

1 hour ago, peeayebee said:

I really wanted to hear more from JK Simmons and Rhys.

Couldn't agree more.

[sugarbaker design]

Wow, 6 dynamic actresses sharing their interesting stories.  Excellent episode, way better than last week.

[attica]

This is the second cycle in a row where I've found the men's conversations dull and formless, in stark contrast to the women's,  which are so smart and engaging. 

I did not know about how common the practice of using prothetics to prevent men from having to do full frontal is. It kind of pisses me off! Men are so protected, even when they have all the power. The best women can hope for is to have footage approval. And maybe a merkin. (And it is especially galling when one considers how quick dudes are to show you their dicks when they're meeting with you privately in hotel rooms to talk deals...)

[attica]

Although I've watched the Marvel netflix shows, I'm at all ensconced in their fandoms. So to hear Melissa Rosenberg complain that she gets bothered all the time to make Jessica and Trish lovers startled me significantly. I mean, I know they're not related, but they were in the same household, in a sisterly construct. So to think of them as a romantic pair kinda skeeves me. Good thing I'm not ensconced!

I liked the showrunners' discussions. It's interesting to hear what-all they have to pay attention to in order to get the job done.

Also: Salim Akil is handsome.

[peeayebee]

I started watching this, but it didn't hold my attention. Although I do enjoy hearing showrunners discuss the work, I couldn't get into this. Maybe one problem is that I don't watch any of the shows except for Legion. I think that was the only one. I did watch S1 of Jessica Jones, but that was so long ago.

[peeayebee]

I really wanted to hear more from Mike Schur. He's always interesting and thoughtful. I wanted to hear less from Whitney Cummings and Amy Sherman-Palladino. They dominated the conversation and were the least interesting people for me. I was also looking forward to hearing Pamela Adlon because I love her and LOVE Better Things.