Innholdsfortegnelse for Award Special 15A June 2020 i The Hollywood Reporter

Since the severity of the novel coronavirus pandemic first became widely apparent on March 11 — when, within a single hour, Tom Hanks tweeted that he had been diagnosed with the coronavirus, the NBA season was suspended and President Trump delivered an Oval Office address restricting travel from Europe — much of the world has stopped. But many of TV’s content creators never did. Most TV platforms had a bit of a content backlog but not enough to last indefinitely. Fortunately for them, many content creators, growing restless at home and/or fearful about a loss of income for themselves or their collaborators, quickly came up with ways to safely forge ahead with their work. And since the cutoff for Primetime Emmys eligibility wasn’t until May 31, some of this work…

MARK RUFFALO I Know This Much Is True (HBO) Grueling. Draining. Traumatic. These are just a few terms used to describe the deep dives into dark places actors take for the sake of, well, what exactly? Whether experiencing incomprehensible rage or bottomless despair, the type of material that these 10 men have been able to challenge themselves with professionally often is referred to, by themselves, as an actor’s dream. But it’s a gift that comes at a price. “It’s hard because you’re living in another person’s shoes, literally, more than you are in your own for the course of a shoot,” says Ruffalo, who embodied the troubled Birdsey twins in the six-hour adaptation of Wally Lamb’s novel I Know This Much Is True. “Even though it’s play, you are still…

John Malkovich, who would appear to be a strong contender for a nomination with HBO’s The New Pope, received his first Emmy for the 1985 TV movie Death of a Salesman, as best supporting actor. The CBS production had a stellar past. Its deepest roots were in Arthur Miller’s 1949 Broadway play, which ran for 742 performances and won a Tony. The 1984 Broadway revival starred Dustin Hoffman, then 47, as aging salesman-in-crisis Willy Loman, with Malkovich, then 31, as his son Biff. The New York Times had special praise for Malkovich’s Broadway debut, noting that he “gives a performance of such spellbinding effect that he becomes the evening’s anchor.” (Both actors and the play won Tonys.) “I think my biggest takeaway from the TV production was working with [director]…

ANTHONY ANDERSON Black-ish (ABC) Playing patriarch Andre “Dre” Johnson for six seasons on the sitcom — a perennial favorite among TV Academy voters — Anderson has twice been nominated for lead actor in a comedy at the Primetime Emmy Awards. Co-star who most successfully makes me break “Deon Cole. In every table read, there’s something special. Sheer brilliance and brings the house down.” Recent series I wish I could work on “Not to slight anyone, but I wouldn’t wish to work on any other show outside of Black-ish. To be able to work with a cast as talented as ours and to tell the stories about the community in which we come from — and how they affect us and the world around us — is truly a blessing.” My…

Tituss Burgess has earned four Emmy nominations for his portrayal of Titus Andromedon, the food-obsessed struggling actor on Tina Fey and Robert Carlock’s Netflix comedy Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt — but hasn’t yet sealed the deal. The 41-year-old Broadway veteran (he originated the role of Sebastian the Crab in Disney’s stage version of The Little Mermaid) has one more shot at nabbing Titus a trophy, for his work on Kimmy vs. the Reverend. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure-style Kimmy Schmidt TV movie that mimics the interactive features of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, with plenty of mole women and laughs thrown in. What’s the difference between making the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt interactive special and a regular episode? Oh man, it killed me. It’s so difficult. Tina Fey and Robert Carlock have a deliciously specific tone…

Billy Crudup has a theory about his career, and it’s that he tends to get some of his best roles when he’s not the director’s first choice. Exhibit A: his Broadway debut as Septimus in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia. Ethan Hawke later confided to him that he’d been offered the part, only to turn it down. Exhibit B: Crudup’s turn as Russell Hammond, the enigmatic guitarist in Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous. Brad Pitt originally was set to play the rock star before dropping out. Exhibit C: His superhero debut as Dr. Manhattan in Zack Snyder’s feature rendition of the beloved comic Watchmen. Keanu Reeves initially was attached to play the blue god. “It’s happened to me quite a few times. They either can’t find the exact right person, the…

Ask five top showrunners if, in this moment in history, they feel creative, and the response is a resounding no. At least not in the traditional ways. “Not on the things I’m being paid to create,” says Power boss Courtney Kemp, who’s joined on this early June afternoon by Watchmen’s Damon Lindelof; The Good Fight’s Michelle King; The Terror: Infamy’s Alexander Woo; and Little Fires Everywhere’s Liz Tigelaar, for The Hollywood Reporter’s (virtual) Drama Showrunner Roundtable. “The stuff that’s under deadline, I’m like, ‘Ugh, how do I squeeze out something to say with these characters?’ It’s almost impossible,” Kemp adds. “But I wrote a poem the other day. I haven’t written a poem since college.” Tigelaar has had a similar experience while in isolation. Any ounce of creativity she has,…

As a wise old puppet once said: “Do, or do not. There is no try.” The late, great Yoda’s words echo throughout The Mandalorian on levels as limitless as the expansive Star Wars universe in which it’s rooted. Executive produced and creatively helmed by Disney veteran Jon Favreau, The Mandalorian serves as the first major scripted series for streaming initiative Disney+. It’s also the first live-action Star Wars television effort (save for that infamous 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special) and far from the last, with series based on Obi-Wan Kenobi and others in development. And it’s all told through the lens of a stone-cold bounty hunter (Pedro Pascal) who never removes his helmet — at least not in public, and only once for the streaming audience. The list of high-stakes…