Awards Season is a time of speculation and competition for those in the entertainment industry celebrating itself. The anticipated nominated persons in film & television all gather at various functions for interviews and photo-ops promoting the year’s works to be nominated and then hopefully win.
For those who work in the business, it’s a small world. So even when working against each other they’re also making connections for future collaborations. They’re all rooting for themselves but have to/should/usually remain at least cordial with and respectful of their peers.
Variety’s Actors-on-Actors series gives actors an opportunity to sit-down with each other, talk about their appreciation for each other’s works, their careers, share some behind-the-scenes stories, and also learn more about each other’s processes.
The series started in 2014, airing on PBS, on the Variety website, and Variety’s YouTube channel. (Some internet posted videos include content or language that couldn’t have aired on broadcast).
There’s an array of pairing types. Those who:
- Previously worked together several years ago
- Previously worked with the same director, or actor
- Are veterans of the business, but haven’t worked together (yet)
- Are newbies to the business and/or awards circuit
- Are a veteran with a newbie
- Each played very intense/notable characters
- Each played outside their stereotypical roles/comfort zones
- Are women and/or a person-of-color discussing diversity
- Might have a good vibe and/or photograph in the promos well together
Some pairings seem traditional or expected, while others might seem random or surprising. Some have a fantastic conversation, while others unfortunately fall flat. (I won’t be dividing conversations up into this kind of classification system – but I can confidently say that Tom Hiddleston and Aaron Paul’s conversation wasn't a particularly good one.)
Season 1’s 4 aired episodes edited together 16 paired celebrity interviews for films, as Oscar buzz was starting-up. In 2015, a new season premiered featuring those contending for Emmy (television) nominations. There were 10 interviews across only 2 episodes. While the film actors’ conversations usually maintain a sense of upright posture, the television/shows’ conversations get a bit unfastened.
I’ve been watching these interviews for several years. For this post, I saw some I hadn’t seen before, and re-watched some for recall.
One of my favorites was from 2017 between Sterling K. Brown on behalf of This Is Us and for American Crime Story with Pamela Adlon on behalf of Better Things (but also her voiceover work, and previous series supporting roles).
Sterling’s career definitely took flight playing Randall on This Is Us, but I’ve been a fan since watching him in Army Wives that aired on the Lifetime channel from 2007 to 2013 (where he played a (nearly perfect Randall-like character named Roland, as the Army Husband of Joan Burton). Meanwhile, I’ve been a fan of Pamela’s without knowing it was her. She has 212 acting Imdb credits, but her first ever was playing Dolores in Grease 2 in 1982 (nee Pamela Segall), that I watched on Cable several times growing up. She also was in Say Anything (1989) that starred John Cusack, Bed of Roses (1996) with Mary Stuart Masterson and Christian Slater that I somehow convinced my dad to let me order on Pay-Per-View, and of course all the characters she’s voiced from the animated shows like Jumanji, Bobby’s World, Pepper Ann, Recess, and The Oblongs.
Sterling was beyond thrilled to meet Pamela and admittedly she’d just recently become familiar with his work. But from what she had seen of his shows, she was very impressed. He was actually almost cast in her show Better Things, but it went to (her long-time friend) Lenny Kravitz instead. However, she appeared on This Is Us as Randall’s therapist, Dr. Leigh through 2020. I am now convinced this was because of their Actors-on-Actors conversation!
Even though they had some points to hit, the details and discussion itself seemed authentically unscripted. It is so lively and lovely to watch them interact. They complimented each other A LOT and made each other laugh A LOT. But it moved across the spectrum pretty nicely. They spoke about time spent working “under-the-radar” until getting recognized. Then it also unveiled an interesting connection between them: Sterling’s co-star Susan Kelechi Watson who plays his on-screen wife Beth played the ex-wife on Louie, that Pamela had a prominent role in. And in regard to the business, they discussed getting to choose roles, her role as a producer/writer/actor of her own series, his big break, and their audition stories. At the end, Pamela talked about her audition for Grease 2 with Maxwell Caulfield.
Although I haven’t seen Pamela’s more adult series (yet), I have seen Sterling in a lot he’s done since 2017. He’s stepped out of the Roland-and-Randall comfort zone to play the dubious roles in Black Panther, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Hotel Artemis, Waves, and The Rhythm Section. There was a special screening of Waves I got to attend. It had me on a roller-coaster (per the cinematography and emotional story told). And as the credits played, I turned around and saw him getting ready to go on stage for the Q&A, making sure nothing was in his teeth from eating earlier. I gave him a thumbs-up! He’s as dynamic in that 9pm Q&A as in the Variety conversation.
Two pairings that caught me off guard when I first saw them listed was one between James Corden for Into The Woods and Kevin Costner for Black or White in 2014, and the one between Emilia Clarke for Game of Thrones (in its 5th season) and Jay Duplass for Transparent (1st season) in 2016. For the former, obviously James was in awe of Kevin, but Kevin shared his adoration of James for getting to star in a musical. Perhaps it was Kevin’s way to lean into the gap between their notoriety but done so in a smooth sincere way. Their conversation hit the ground running, James leading the topics-train with a professional manner, which he’d take with him into the next year hosting The Late Late Show. Kevin mentioned the then upcoming talk show gig, and James was shocked he’d been asked to do it and didn’t want to regret not doing it. Kevin has yet to star in Oklahoma! but James’ Carpool Karaoke segments have gone viral since the beginning, cementing his place in late-night! As for the latter pairing, Emilia and Jay got along like reconnected friends, bonding over their newfound fame and uncomfortable or extreme sex & nudity scenes on their respective shows. While discussing how they got involved or auditioned, Emilia confirmed the rumor she’d danced the Funky Chicken, and Jay said he met Joey Soloway at a writer/director party held to specifically talk about actors.
A recent pairing that I couldn’t believe exists is the conversation between Pete Davidson and Glenn Close. Always making headlines for his SNL skits and relationships, Pete was getting decent critical acclaim for his Judd Apatow produced, semi-auto-biographical written film, The King of Staten Island (has a score of 67 on Metacritic). And Glenn is known the world-over for nearly a 100 (legendary) credited characters since the early 1980s, but promoting the critically panned Hillbilly Elegy (has a score of 38 on Metacritic). At the beginning they discuss their first impressions of each other. He was shocked she’s from the United States (specifically Connecticut) instead of Britain. And she’s in awe of (his) stand-up comedy. You can see from how they look, are dressed, speak, and what’s in their literal backgrounds in the rooms behind them, it’s like watching Pete Davidson’s Zoom office hours with Professor Glenn Close. But you can’t help noticing how straightforward, respectful, and even funny their conversation goes; despite feeling heavily based upon the pre-written questions. They especially connected over understanding the struggles of drug abuse, sobriety, and mental health. It shows that my initial superficial impressions were quickly proven wrong; just as I’m sure others were – as Variety Studio wants to do. (You have to trust in their process.)
Over the several seasons of Actors-on-Actors, some are returned participants whose second or even third pairings exhibit how chemistry works; but also goes to show that over the years some actors are continuously recognized for their work.
Constance Wu had starred on Fresh Off the Boat from 2015 to 2020. But it was her first major film role as Rachel Chu in Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and then a year later as Destiny in Hustlers for which she participated in two consecutive film-based Actors-on-Actors conversations; first with Felicity Jones for On the Basis of Sex and then with Mindy Kaling for Late Night.
In both conversations, they each appreciated the other’s company, and all three films shared the similarity of telling a main character woman’s unique story and perspective. The three actresses were able to discuss their characters’ complexities. Constance’s Rachel is incredibly different on paper than from Destiny; an NYU economics professor meeting her wealthy boyfriend’s family versus a single mother working as a stripper who teams up with her co-workers to con their wealthy male patrons. But their mindset and mission are the same: proving others wrong for underestimating them and proving to themselves being worthy of respect. Constance’s articulation and enthusiasm was easily expressed by sharing strong perspectives and telling some funny but also meaningful anecdotes.
With Felicity, Constance clearly led the conversation from one topic to the next but showed she’s actively thinking and listening to Felicity’s answers; not just waiting for her to finish – again those slight interruptions as if saying “Yes, and…”. They discussed so much but so well: their mutual fascination and veneration for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, how they brought their characters’ humanity to the performance, their emotional process towards acting having to be verbalized so others understand (even though it’s not easily put into words), their techniques to get comfortable on set, and how Crazy Rich Asians has been such a massive hit - which then created a space for them to more so discuss diverse representation, the Me-Too and Times-Up landscape, the “push-back” of change, and the opportunity for more and better stories. Constance said how she had a manager who joked, “honey they don’t call it show art, they call it show business” to which she clapped-back, “without my art you ain’t got no business”. And Felicity agreed and then said, “ideally it’s a fusion of the two”. Their conversation turned towards the disparity between male and female critics as in those who review movies but also on film festival juries “split among gender lines”. They agreed there needs to be more female critics. (Ladies, I hope you're reading this!)
There was a moment when Constance was slightly apprehensive to ask Felicity if she’d met Ruth, as if she was tiptoeing into a place of worship, but was immediately thrilled to hear Felicity’s, “Yes” and quietly paid attention as she described the experience being in Ruth’s presence.
Towards the end of their conversation, the topic changed to how they each handle fandom; as in those who approach them but also when they approach other actors they’re fans of. And Constance brought up how films and television can affect change and progression. In the last six minutes of the video Felicity emphasized that people should not just be acting, but also producing, writing, and directing to “be in control of the content” and creating their own jobs instead of just “waiting for the job” to come along.
When Constance sat with Mindy, they shared the floor with each other. They each took space and time to share their stories and perspectives, asking each other questions and answering in a balanced way. Their personalities and manners seemed really on the same level. Not just they were both women of color and whose careers were mostly in television, but also the volume and cadence of their voices, and how they sat across from each other, looking at each other while speaking or listening, and when emphasizing a point.
However, Mindy was able to discuss having a position of creative power in her Late Night as its writer and producer – getting to pick the director and department heads – while also getting to act alongside her idol Emma Thompson; in addition to being on the writing team of The Office from 2005 to 2012, and creating her own shows The Mindy Project (that ran from 2012 to 2017), Four Weddings and a Funeral (2019), and the now amazing second season of Never Have I Ever. Despite Constance admitting to Felicity that she’d prefer not to produce or direct, one cannot not feel inspired listening to Mindy’s mini-career retrospective.
What Constance was able to prove again in her conversation with Mindy is that she approaches her craft for characters as well as empathy for others with the opposite kind of perspective most would not admit to. She talks about having “rep sweats” in reference to being one of the few actors representing a certain ethnicity or other under-represented quality but not being able to completely satisfy the expectations of representation. And she feels for the white man who is all of a sudden getting pushed aside, not getting as much work because of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. Yet her way is posing an excellently phrased metaphor: “It’s a great time for men too because you’re finally getting to see stories that you’ve been robbed of when you were young because it was all by the same people. What a great time! It’s like if you had fried chicken everyday of your life – which is great – but then all of a sudden you get to try pizza! What’s bad about that?...Love pizza, love fried chicken too, don’t get me wrong!”
Although since their conversations, Felicity, Constance, and/or Mindy have not
worked together, I’d rather see something with Constance and Mindy in the
future. Both conversations were interesting and all three women are clearly
intelligent, but you can see the chemistry between Constance and Mindy plays better
on screen than Constance with Felicity. Despite Constance’s success in television and in movies, she is definitely
someone to continue watching. Her episode and role of “Jenny” in the recent
Amazon Prime series Solos, is the only one among the seven worth
watching and re-watching!
While earlier in the series there may have been a few reunion-pairings, this seems to be the go-to design in the more recent seasons. Yes, it’s so cool getting to see actors from a beloved movie or show together again, but Entertainment Weekly gives us those on a pretty regular basis already. When the conversation is almost too easy going between people who have known each other for so long, and especially worked together more than once, then there's less opportunity for sharing a new story or sharing a new perspective.
Dakota Johnson and Armie Hammer played a couple in the 2019 Netflix horror film Wounds and were paired together that same year for a conversation to discuss other projects: His On the Basis of Sex and Sorry to Bother You, and her for Suspira - in addition to their having separately worked with director Luca Guadagnino. Also in 2019, Natasha Lyonne was paired with Maya Rudolph, on behalf of Russian Doll and Forever (respectively) – but who are well-connected friends via Fred Armisen. In 2020 Chris Evans was paired with Scarlett Johansson for his Knives Out and her Marriage Story. Not only do they have the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s actual movies. press tours, and award ceremonies as part of their mutual history, but also their previously shared film credits of The Nanny Diaries (2007) and The Perfect Score (2004). Another too-easily but at least enjoyable conversation was between Beanie Feldstein for Booksmart and Florence Pugh’s Little Women – both sharing very recent stories about working with Greta Gerwig.
Seasons 12, 13 and Season 14’s (mostly) Zoom-filmed episodes featured the most pairings for the most obvious reasons: Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman, Sandra Oh and Kerry Washington, Chace Crawford and Penn Badgley, Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow, Claire Danes and Damian Lewis, Chris Evans and Paul Rudd, Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer, and Ewan McGregor and Pedro Pascal. Perhaps these pairings were meant to give audiences comfort and joy during the difficult pandemic. At least, I hope the sentiment of ‘getting the band back together’ was the main reason instead of just being like, ‘Duh and Done’.
Now let’s discuss a bit about Adam Sandler and Brad Pitt’s conversation in 2019, featuring their respective incredibly well-received Uncut Gems and Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. Getting these two in the same room is perhaps one of the series' greatest achievements. They’ve been working in the industry since the early 90s but HAVE NOT worked together, and have very different styles and roles they’re known for. Their conversation opened by talking about how they’re getting old and colonoscopy exams! But then it veered into the movies and their careers with the utmost appreciation. They are genuine fans of each other! Some in the comments section caught on to this and loved their bromance. Jennifer Lawrence's conversation with Adam the previous year showed more her getting to tell him she loved him on SNL and in his movies like Billy Madison, The Waterboy, The Wedding Singer, Big Daddy, and 50 First Dates and getting to pick his brain, while Adam maybe wasn't as familiar or reciprocal with JLaw's works. Adam was getting some good reviews for his dramatic turn in The Meyerwitz Stories (after having not done many since Punch Drunk Love), but he blew all expectations out of the water with Uncut Gems. As Brad's career ranged across genres, he'd only been in a few blatant comedies like Burn After Reading and sneaked in small moments of (even unintentional) humor in dramas. Adam and Brad know they exist on opposite sides of the Hollywood male celebrity spectrum. Yet they share a mutual connection: Jennifer Aniston. She was very publicly married to and divorced from Brad, and she played Adam’s romantic co-star in two movies where they had a fantastically surprising screen chemistry: Just Go with It in 2011 and Murder Mystery in 2019. In the nearly hour’s conversation, they didn’t talk about her! Makes me think they didn’t want to acknowledge it on purpose in order to avoid an uncomfortable situation between them, as well as to kindly avoid putting her in the spotlight when the conversation gets picked up by other entertainment stories (like TMZ, cough cough). Good guys.
IN CONCLUSION:
In the entertainment industry, there are thousands of performers. They are all hustling for work. Thankfully, the amount of content keeps expanding and employs performers of all kinds; amateur to the professional and from all diverse backgrounds. For those performers who keep getting work, stay in the public eye, and are at least nominated for awards if not winning, their celebrity status raises from the D list to the A list. Sometimes a performer’s status rushes up the ladder, has a hard fall, and/or rides it like a rollercoaster.
Variety’s Actors-on-Actors series features celebrity performers at that higher echelon, documenting their existence beyond the red carpet and grand searchlights to give cinephile audiences an opportunity to watch them discuss in detail what makes acting a real job that requires hard work, and how collaborative it is. Anyone who thinks acting is easy will be sorely mistaken and will be very upset when they try it themselves based upon that simplistic naïve assumption.
For the purpose of producing a structured episode, there needs to be an outline of questions the celebrities need to ask each other. When there’s a pairing trying to find their vibe, the questions’ phrasing is practically verbatim but when there’s a pairing super comfortable with each other, the conversation naturally veils the questions.
Although not discussed in detail above, some additional pairings worth mentioning for your suggested watching are:
- Natalie Portman and Michelle Williams
- Gal Gadot and Kumail Nanjiani
- Jessica Biel and Alison Brie
- Mahershala Ali and Greta Gerwig
- Issa Rae and Michael B. Jordan
- Uzo Aduba and Gina Rodriguez
- Chadwick Boseman and Viggo Mortensen
- Reese Witherspoon and Regina King
- Bobby Cannavale and Sarah Paulson
I still have dozens more conversations to watch in my spare time so there’s surely pairings that would will be worthy of including in future article updates.
(*Sources include the Wikipedia page for Actors-on-Actors – which lists almost but not all of the pairings for each season, and the Variety YouTube channel. And I've been told that the amazing Jenelle Riley was involved with the series from its beginnings until Season 9.)
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