Sarah Paulson Gets Real

Home , Gina Rodriguez, Holland Taylor, Kerry Washington, Sarah Paulson, Sasha Grey, Tammy Blanchard

THE INSIDER’S GUIDE TO ALL THINGS EMMYS

MINISERIES/MOVIES I JUNE 15, 2016

PLUS Kerry Washington, American Crime, Riley Keough, Roots, All the Way, The Night SARAH Manager and all PAULSON those live musicals GETS REAL HER LONG AND WINDING JOURNEY TO THE PEOPLE V. O.J. SIMPSON FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

“ONE OF THE MOST FASCINATING TRUE CRIME STORIES EVER TOLD”

OUTSTANDING DOCUMENTARY SERIES

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“ONE OF THE MOST FASCINATING TRUE CRIME STORIES EVER TOLD”

OUTSTANDING DOCUMENTARY SERIES

THE WRAP SPREAD NETFLIX: MAKING A MURDERER PUB DATE: 06/15/16 TRIM: 20” X 12” BLEED: 20.5” X 12.5” FRONT & CENTER / Table of Contents

THE WRAP MAGAZINE

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Sharon Waxman

AWARDS EDITOR CREATIVE DIRECTOR Steve Pond Ada Guerin

DEPUTY EDITOR Tim Appelo To be brutally honest,

VICE PRESIDENT, SALES I wanted to be Julia Caren Gibbens Roberts. But that was SALES Nicole Winters, Mattie Reyes, Joe Marmer a child’s dream.” ASSISTANT ART DIRECTORS Laura Geiser, Eric Hernandez

DISTRIBUTION Trevor Tivenan

THEWRAP.COM

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORS Thom Geier, Tim Molloy

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MEDIA SOCIAL Brian Flood Ashley Reyes

EVENTS Haley Davis

AD OPS Brittany Lawrence, Matt Rullo

The Wrap News Inc. is the leading digital news organization covering the business of entertainment and media. Founded by award-winning journalist Sharon Waxman in 2009, The Wrap News Inc. is comprised of the industry-leading website with its high-profile newsbreaks, investigative stories and authoritative analysis; premium magazines distributed to entertainment industry professionals; Wrap Events, a series of high profile gatherings of thought leaders including the Power Women breakfast series, Oscar season screening series and TheGrill, an executive leadership conference centered on the convergence of entertainment, media and technology; and PowerGrid Pro, the most current, relevant film development database. The Wrap News, Inc. is backed by Maveron, a venture capital firm based in Seattle, Washington and co-founded by Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and Dan Levitan.

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2 THEWRAP JUNE 15, 2016 Contents MINISERIES/MOVIES I JUNE 15, 2016

FEATURES DEPARTMENTS

16 On a Roll, at Last 4 Awards Beat: Why you can’t kill the Sarah Paulson reflects on the rocky career miniseries that led to The People v. O.J. Simpson 6 By the Numbers: Movies and minis 22 He Said, She Said through the decades In Confirmation, Kerry Washington goes from Scandal to scandal 10 Short Cuts: The Girlfriend Experience, The Night Manager, All the Way and Roots 26 High School Confidential Season 2 of American Crime put a heavy 14 Shindigs & Soirees: The red carpet heats load on a quartet of young actors up

30 Musical Fever 32 Emmy’s Back Pages: When Mary Tyler The new TV trend comes from the stage Moore ruled the Emmys

16 ON THE COVER Sarah Paulson was photographed by Corina Marie at TheWrap Studios on April 3, 2016. FRONT & CENTER / Awards Beat

TV’S REAL WALKING DEAD 4.8571 in x The Television Academy tried to 4.0903 in kill the miniseries, but it came back to become the hottest format in this year’s Emmy race

BY STEVE POND ILLUSTRATED BY BRIAN TAYLOR

he miniseries has been thumb- To its credit, the Academy spotted the (We’re not holding our breath for the return ing its nose at the Television resurgence as soon as it started happening, of, say, Best Kinescope Show or Best Western Academy for a few years now, and dealt in the best way it could. And let’s Series.) but never quite as resounding- face it, this has long been an odd, confus- And now we have Outstanding Limited ly as it did this year. Only five ing genre for the Emmys. The category was Series—the most exciting and competitive Tyears after the Academy decided that there created in 1973 under the unwieldy title Emmy category. There are reasons for this, weren’t enough of the shows being made to of Outstanding Drama/Comedy – Limited among them the advantage that a limited justify the Outstanding Miniseries category, Episodes, which was won by the PBS miniseries offers actors like Dunst, Cumberbatch, and two years after a resurgence in the form series Tom Brown’s Schooldays. Its title was Elba and Isaac, who might otherwise be caused the Academy to change its mind, the changed to Outstanding Limited Series in off making movies. They aren’t the kind of miniseries—or limited series, as 1974 (winners includ- performers who would easily commit to a TV it’s now officially called—isn’t just ed Upstairs, Downstairs, series, which generally requires a five-year alive, it’s hotter than any other Holocaust and the original commitment—but a six- or 10-episode run on form on television. To paraphrase Roots), then to Outstanding a project done with the care and quality of a Was there a more exciting piece Dr. Frankenstein Miniseries in 1986 (when feature film, yet with more freedom and less of television this past season than “ The Murder of Mary Phagan of an eye on the box office, can be irresistible. The People v. O.J. Simpson, a more about the once- and War and Remembrance So the Weinstein Company recently joined daring example of broadcast-net- nearly-defunct won). It merged with forces with Gary Oldman’s Flying Studios work nerve than American Crime? the Outstanding Drama/ to make a miniseries of Truman Capote’s Are there more deserving acting format: It’s alive!” Comedy Special category In Cold Blood, ABC has ordered an eight- contenders this year than Sarah in 1991, giving the award hour gay-rights miniseries from Dustin Paulson, Courtney B. Vance and Sterling K. to Separate But Equal, then unmerged the Lance Black and Gus Van Sant, When We Brown in O.J., Kirsten Dunst, Patrick Wilson following year for a 19-year stretch whose Rise, and Showtime made a deal with rock- and Jesse Plemons in Fargo, Idris Elba in winners included Prime Suspect 2, 3 and er and poet Patti Smith for a TV version of Luther, Oscar Isaac in Show Me a Hero, Tom 5, Angels in America, Elizabeth I and John her award-winning memoir Just Kids. “The Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie in The Night Adams. It was eliminated in 2011 in favor of medium of a television limited series offers Manager, Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock: the Outstanding Miniseries or Movie catego- narrative freedom and a chance to expand The Abominable Bride, Felicity Huffman, ry—which in its three years of existence was upon the themes of the book,” said Smith, a Regina King, Lili Taylor and Timothy Hutton won by one “miniseries,” the first season of gifted storyteller who assuredly would not be in American Crime, Anika Noni Rose and Downton Abbey, and two movies. And then it hitching her wagon to a defunct format. Malachi Kirby in Roots? was uneliminated in 2014, making it the first The lesson: Not only is the limited series To paraphrase Dr. Frankenstein: It’s alive! Emmy category to come back from the dead. not dead, it hardly seems limited, either. W

4 THEWRAP JUNE 15, 2016 FOR YOUR EMMY® CONSIDERATION

A NETFLIX ORIGINAL FILM RICKY GERVAIS ERIC BANA

OUTSTANDING TELEVISION MOVIE OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR DRAMATIC SPECIAL — RICKY GERVAIS OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE — RICKY GERVAIS OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR DRAMATIC SPECIAL — RICKY GERVAIS

THE WRAP REVISION 1 NETFLIX: SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS PUB DATE: 06/15/16 TRIM: 10” X 12” BLEED: 10.5” X 12.5” LIVE: 9.5” X 11.5” FRONT & CENTER / Do the Math

MOVIES & MINIS BY THE NUMBERS Entertainers, Nazis and record setters: Tallying the Emmys’ movie and longform categories over the years

Outstanding Drama/Comedy Special, 1980-1990 SYNDICATED 1

1 Outstanding Made For Television Movie, 1992-2010

1 1

1 6

12 miniseries 13 Emmys were were nominated won in 2008 by between 2011 and the miniseries John 2013, when movies Adams, the most and miniseries were ever won by any combined into a program in a single single category. year. 37 nominationsHBO went to the miniseries Roots in 1977, 1 program has 24 actors won 11 consecutive 6 movies were the most ever for a won all seven top for playing real years, 1995-2005, nominated in that program in a single Emmys in its cate- people in movies or found every winning time. year. gory: the miniseries miniseries from 1980 lead actor playing a Angels in America to 2015. real person. (2003), which won 1 miniseries won. 11 Emmys were for miniseries, won by the TV actor, actress, sup- 12 actors won 20 actresses movies Behind the porting actor and for playing fictional won for playing real 2 movies won. Candelabra (2013) and actress, directing characters in that people in movies or Eleanor and Franklin and writing. time. miniseries from 1980 (1976), the most ever to 2015.

for a movie. IMAGES HARRISON/GETTY FRAZER IMAGES; WINTER/GETTY KEVIN HELEN MIRREN (L-R):

6 THEWRAP JUNE 15, 2016 Outstanding Limited Series, 1974-1985

SYNDICATED 2 4 Outstanding Miniseries, 1992-2010

7 1

6 1 2 5 1

2 1 3

9actors and actresses have won Emmys for playing real- life entertainers in movies or miniseries: Polly Bergen as Helen Morgan in The Helen Morgan Story; Vanessa Redgrave as Fania Fénelon 1 person has in Playing for Time; Jane scored consecutive Seymour as Maria Callas in wins in a movies/ Onassis: The Richest Man minis acting cate- in the World; Geoffrey gory: Helen Mirren, Rush as Peter Sellers Elizabeth I (2006) in The Life and Death and Prime Suspect: of Peter Sellers; Lynn The Final Act (2007). Whitfield as Josephine Baker in The Josephine Baker Story; Halle Berry as Dorothy 4 actors have Dandridge in Introducing won for playing Dorothy Dandridge; Judy top Nazis: Anthony Davis and Tammy Blanchard Hopkins (as Hitler) 2 actors have as Judy Garland in Life With in The Bunker (1981), won for playing Judy Garland: Me and My Michael Moriarty Winston Churchill: Shadows; Michael Douglas in Holocaust (1978), Albert Finney in as Liberace in Behind the Brian Cox in The Gathering Storm Candelabra. Nuremberg (2000), (2002), Brendan Kenneth Branagh in Gleeson in Into the Conspiracy (2001). Storm (2009). HELEN MIRREN (L-R): KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES; FRAZER HARRISON/GETTY IMAGES HARRISON/GETTY FRAZER IMAGES; WINTER/GETTY KEVIN HELEN MIRREN (L-R):

MINISERIES / MOVIES 7 SEX OF MASTERS BILLIONS ©2016 Showtime Networks Inc. All rights reserved. SHOWTIME isaregisteredtrademarkofShowtimeNetworksInc.,CBSCompany.©2016 ShowtimeNetworksInc.All rightsreserved. Emmy PENNY DREADFUL ® isaregisteredtrademarkoftheTelevision AcademyandNATAS. “Homeland”:©Twentieth “TheAffair”,“PennyDreadful”,“HouseofLies”, “Billions”, FoxFilmCorporation. Allrightsreserved. Century FS:9.5” F:10” HOMELAND LIES OF HOUSE

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THE LIFE OF RILEY An experimental indie movie gave Riley Keough her entrée into television, and one more strong female role

BY TIM APPELO PHOTOGRAPHED BY EMMA MCINTYRE

wagger—that’s what Riley The original film was one of Soderbergh’s Keough has in The Girlfriend more adventurous and defiantly indie Experience, Starz’s limited series productions, and the TV version—creat- based on the Steven Soderbergh ed and written by Lodge Kerrigan and movie from 2009. As Christine, Amy Seimetz, and executive produced by Sa student-turned-prostitute who enjoys her Soderbergh—takes a similar approach. “The work, the 27-year-old actress embraced whole thing was very experimental and the role taken by Sasha Grey in the original fun,” said Keough, who got her start in the film, of a strong, sexual woman unapologetic 2010 rock movie The Runaways. “It was about her career. the format of independent film—tiny crew, “She’s happy with her choices,” said very low lighting. I heard that TV is very Keough, who also happens to be the grand- rigid, you have to hit your mark, and I daughter of Elvis Presley. “I don’t think she thought, ‘Oh, God!’ But the idea of this is to needs other people to make her feel better, shoot it like a film. We got to do what we which is very rare for a female character. If wanted. I think there was one Starz rep I was reading this pilot about a man, I would there the whole time, and they didn’t see a be like, ‘Yeah! He’s got swagger.’” cut until the end.” As usual, Keough is nobody’s victim in Like her grandfather during his largely the miniseries. “The Girlfriend Experience unfortunate years in Hollywood, Keough is about power,” she said. “Christine’s a said she is offered her share of lucrative controlling, selfish, manipulative person but lousy projects. “It’s tempting financial- who channels that into her law career, and ly for like 15 seconds, but I’ve never been in this new career that she seems to get more it for those things so I don’t have a problem,” power out of. She’s just a very practical girl said Keough, whose mother is Lisa Marie who likes sex.” Presley and whose stepdads have included Keough met with Christine’s real-world Nicolas Cage and Michael Jackson. equivalents, “girls who enjoyed it and Instead, she has the freedom to chart an chose to do it”—though in one way, the real ambitious artistic course. She appeared in Christines were different from the charac- the multiple Oscar-winning Mad Max: Fury ter. “The thing I was most interested in was, Road, and has a standout role as the scary ‘Do you have feelings for your client?’” she boss of a group of feral door-to-door maga- said. “And they did. It was actually very sad, zine salespeople in Andrea Arnold’s Cannes because a lot of them had stories about a cli- prizewinner American Honey. Now, she’s ent who might have feelings back, but they’d racing off to do Soderbergh’s much-heralded never get together. There was a sadness comeback film Logan Lucky with Channing that really struck me.” Tatum and Michael Shannon (her co-stars But if there’s any of that sadness in in Magic Mike and The Runaways, respec- Christine, the audience doesn’t see it. “It tively). “I got really lucky last year, with didn’t go into her inner dialogue or tell you strong woman roles,” she said. “You get lots how to feel. I thought that was a very inter- of passive female roles. I’m not really in the esting thing to do to an audience.” mood to play a victim.” W

10 THEWRAP JUNE 15, 2016 ROOTS: UPDATING A TV LANDMARK

ight one of History’s four-part Then you realize it’s a story we have to remake of Roots closed with keep telling over and over again.” N one of the most momentous And while comparisons between the scenes from the original miniseries, in remake and the original are inevitable, which Kunta Kinte (Malachi Kirby in the Wolper believes that the new mini- remake, LeVar Burton in the original) is series, which was broadcast on History, whipped for refusing to use his slave name, A&E and Lifetime, will stand on its own Toby. “On that particular day of shooting, two years after another slavery story, LeVar Burton was on the set,” Roots execu- 12 Years a Slave, won the Best Picture tive producer Mark Wolper told TheWrap Oscar. “TV is better now than it has ever of the scene, which was treated with been,” he said. “So the new version is incredible gravitas by the crew. photographically better, the wardrobe is “He made it a point to be on the set better, the makeup is better. The directing that day because of the iconic nature of style and pacing has been translated to that scene,” Wolper added. “There cer- the language of today. The original Roots tainly was an air of the spirits there. The was absolutely the best it could be for the set was very quiet, much more reserved 1970s. I believe our Roots is the best it than usual. During the first few test could be for 2016.” —JOE OTTERSON whippings, LeVar actually started crying. “After we’d been filming the scene for a while, LeVar went over to Malachi, and shortly after that, Malachi collapsed. He was being held up by these ropes and Roots star Malachi Kirby, left, meets his he said, ‘Please unhook the ropes.’ He predecessor as Kunta collapsed on the ground and had a very Kinte, LeVar Burton. emotional moment. He said he sort of felt like all this history was surging through him.” Wolper’s father, David, was a producer on the original Roots, which was based on the book of same name by Alex Haley. Airing on ABC in 1977, the miniseries received blockbuster ratings (its finale is the third-highest-rated episode of any kind of series) and set an Emmy record with 37 nominations, winning nine. It was followed by a sequel, Roots: The Next Generations, in 1979, and the TV movie Roots: The Gift in 1988. When asked why it was important to carry on his father’s work by telling the story again, Wolper said he thinks the answer is obvious. “Learning and understanding history is ongoing and every generation has an obli- gation to teach it to the next generation,” he said. “Pretty much anyone under the

ROOTS (A+E Networks) (A+E ROOTS age of 37 hasn’t heard the story. Maybe they’ve heard of Roots or Kunta Kinte.

MINISERIES / MOVIES 11 FRONT & CENTER / Directors’ Cuts

All the Way: Remember When Politics Worked? hen Jay Roach decided you can tell a story set in the past and have it to make an HBO seem to be as much about now as then.” movie from Robert He paused. “One of the other things I Schenkkan’s Broadway found interesting about this film and this play All the Way, he character is the kind of old-fashioned polit- Wwasn’t exactly thinking about how the events ical experience and strategizing that LBJ of President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s first demonstrated. Political experience wasn’t a year in office would reflect on today’s politi- dirty word back then—you see a guy who cal climate. But at some point, the director of believes in the power of government to do the Austin Powers and Meet the Parents mov- good, and he fulfills that promise. So much of ies and of the HBO political films Recount and what we’re seeing now is promising people Game Change realized that Johnson’s struggle that government is the problem, not the to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 spoke solution.” powerfully to voter suppression, to racial With Bryan Cranston reprising the role divides in the South and to other currents he played on Broadway, Roach said he knew playing out today. from the first time he saw the play that it “I was interested in aspects of the sto- would work on screen. “The story itself was ry because of my own anxieties about the epic and cinematic,” he said. “He wanted to political process,” Roach told TheWrap. “But be president his whole life, and he got to be in the middle of it, you can’t help but realize, president in the worst way possible, when ‘Oh wow, some of this is going on now.’ Voting JFK was assassinated. He could have folded rights issues and civil rights issues are not under pressure, but he took on the challenges resolved in our civilization. It’s interesting that and he got it done.” —SP

The Night Manager: The Spy Story Goes Big

usanne Bier, the Danish hours. I’ve also always been a fan of One thing Bier director of the AMC miniseries John Le Carré, so all of these factors insisted upon, SThe Night Manager, has made made the project irresistible to me.” however, was not films that have been nominated for The miniseries follows former British letting her female two Oscars, including the 2011 Best soldier Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) characters fall into Foreign Language Film winner, In a as he attempts to infiltrate the inner the roles women Better World. But when the celebrated circle of notorious arms dealer Richard typically occupy filmmaker was offered the television Roper (Hugh Laurie). “It was exactly like within the spy genre. “I To that end, Bier was adaptation of the John Le Carré spy working on a six-hour movie,” said Bier, was quite keen on making the women not fazed when she learned that novel, she found she could not say no. who directed all six episodes. “It shot breathe,” she said. “One of the things Olivia Colman, who plays British “I have been attracted to television sort of randomly. You do a scene from that has always been a part of this operative Angela Burr, was pregnant. for a while now because there is just Episode 2 in the morning and a scene genre is that it is a white, male world. “I thought, ‘That is great for the char- so much going right in television,” Bier from Episode 6 in the afternoon. So for I was quite keen to let the women not acter,’” she said. “I thought it gave the told TheWrap. “I was also tempted by me as a director it was like having three just be an extension of the men but character a lot of depth. It ups the

the idea of something longer than two chessboards running at the same time.” be characters on their own.” stakes.” —JO (HBO) THE WAY ALL Willie/AMC); (Des THE NIGHT MANAGER

12 THEWRAP JUNE 15, 2016 FOR YOUR EMMY® CONSIDERATION

‘‘A phenomenon, a ratings smash, a careening, plot-devouring, melodrama grounded in ssomething real, and the most important show on TV’’ –

To watch additional episodes of this and other 20th Century Fox TV programs, TM & © 2016 Twentieth Century Fox Television. All Rights Reserved. go to TCFTVScreeningRoom.com. FOX TM & © 2016 Fox and its related entities. All Rights Reserved.

JUNE 15 ISSUE DATE project: trim: bleed: mo#: 325730 EMPIRE - WRAP AD 10” X 12” 10.5” X 12.5” FIN client: FOX TV safe: 9.5” X 11.5” mech: 100% print: 100% date: 05/31/16 PARTY REPORT / Mikey Glazer

CHEERS TO THE OFF-SCREEN SCENE 2. THE MARCH TO SEPTEMBER 18 (AND BEFORE THAT, NOMINATIONS DAY) IS ON!

BY MIKEY GLAZER

1. Transparent stars Gaby Hoffman and Judith Light find reigning Emmy champ 1. Jeffrey Tambor a pillar of strength at the DGA. 2. Two big new faces at NBC, Miley Cyrus (The Voice) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (Celebrity Apprentice), 3. ruffle the peacock’s upfront in New York. 3. Mr. Robot’s Rami Malek and Portia Doubleday “go dark” during upfronts week in Manhattan. 4. The White House press corps was not ex- pecting West Wing press secretary “C.J. Gregg” (Allison Janney) in the briefing room on April 29. Janney won four Emmys for the role, part of her seven total wins. 5. CW’s superheroes Bran- don Routh and Gina Rodriguez light up the room at Park Avenue Spring. 6. Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda are too cool for school, but not too cool for USC’s “Rebels 4. With a Cause Gala,” where Larry Ellison donated $200 million for a new cancer 1. research institute. 7. In Beverly Hills, Danny Devito cuddles up with Katie Couric at the Under the Gun premiere. 6. 5. 8. TV legend Norman Lear’s gravity captures the orbit of Transparent stars Amy Landecker and Jay Duplass at a For Your Consideration event. 9. The People v. OJ Simpson standout Sterling K. Brown, who claims he is the only law- yer who actually auditioned, with The Blacklist: Redemption’s Famke Janssen. W

7. 8. 9.

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14 THEWRAP JUNE 15, 2016 Cinematic quality and breathless action”

— THE WASHINGTON POST

/ OUTSTANDING LIMITED SERIES AND ALL OTHER CATEGORIES

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client and prod special info: # A-004 job# 1537F artist BRIAN S. 1/4"=1' issue/ time 4c pub LAX FLIGHT PATH post date (est)N/A insert/ line Lisa Bourcier-Sams size 250' w X 65' h air date screen150 323-963-5183 8240 Sunset Blvd bleed 68.75" X 17.875" trim 62.5" X 16.25" live ALL Los Angeles, CA 90046

A-004 1537F CHRISTINA SCHIERMANN 1/4"=1' LAX FLIGHT PATH 9.01.08 N/A 4c 250' w X 65' h 9.18.08 SUNDAY 150 68.75" X 17.875" 62.5" X 16.25" ALL the WINDS of CHANGE SARAH PAULSON HAS SEEN HER CAREER TAKE OFF IN HER 40S, NOTABLY WITH A SEARING PERFORMANCE IN THE PEOPLE V. O.J. SIMPSON— AND WHILE SHE’S GIVEN UP HER DREAMS OF BEING JULIA ROBERTS, SHE’S NOT READY TO COAST JUST YET

BY STEVE POND PHOTOGRAPHED BY CORINA MARIE WINDS CHANGE SUCCESS, you could say, has snuck up on Sarah Paulson. At the age of 41, the actress finds herself unpredictably enjoying a career peak, with four Emmy nominations in the last four years and two more chances this year, most notably Roberts,” she told TheWrap of her child- for her searing and sensitive portrayal hood dreams. “I had pictures of her all of Marcia Clark in The People v. O.J. over my locker. I was obsessed with her. Simpson, the 10-part FX miniseries I just thought, ‘I want to do that.’” about the double murder trial that rivet- But that never happened for Paulson, ed the country in 1995. who gradually learned that hers would That Paulson is a standout in the be a slower, less glamorous road. “It was sprawling ensemble should not come as a matter of accepting what was in front Simpson trial, which dominated tele- much of a surprise to those who’ve paid of me,” she said. “I was left out in the vision in the fall and winter of 1994. attention. It comes on the heels of a cold a lot. I couldn’t get a job and I didn’t Paulson was all of 19 years old at the series of critically acclaimed portrayals, understand why. I thought, ‘Why don’t time, living in New York and trying to in the HBO movie Game Change, in all they want me when I want them so launch a career. Like everybody else, five seasons of American Horror Story much?’ I had to learn to go where you’re she was aware of the drama playing out and in a string of acclaimed indie mov- wanted, and don’t continue to try to beat on TV every day—and like most people, ies from Martha Marcy May Marlene to down a door where they’re saying, ‘We she scoffed at the resolutely grim and 12 Years a Slave to Carol. are not going to let you in.’ unglamorous prosecutor who was Still, this widespread acclaim at a “It wasn’t so much a conscious choice trying gamely to marshal a mountain relatively late age for an actress has as letting myself be open to where I of DNA evidence to convict the former caught Paulson off guard, because it’s was being led. It was like, ‘Oh, I’m being football star of the murders of his nothing like the career she envisioned asked to play women who have wit, and ex-wife and a friend of hers. as an aspiring actress at a performing- who are smart and complicated and not A flashy and expensive band of arts high school in New York City. “To two-dimensional. Interesting.” defense lawyers, dubbed “the Dream be brutally honest, I wanted to be Julia The most interesting role of all might Team,” captured headlines with lead be in The People v. O.J. Simpson, where attorney Johnnie Cochran’s showy Paulson’s performance as the embattled verbiage like “if the glove don’t fit, you Clark has landed her the best reviews must acquit.” But coverage of Clark was of her career. And she simultaneously typically accusatory and often down- if inadvertently picked up buzz in the right sexist. Clark was too stern and gossip columns when she acknowledged humorless, the critics said; her changing being in a relationship with actress hairdos were constantly mocked; she Holland Taylor. It wasn’t a coming out, was publicly humiliated when a topless since Paulson had been in a lengthy and photo of her taken on a European vaca- public relationship with Broadway star tion 15 years earlier was sold to a tabloid Cherry Jones that ended in 2009—but by her former mother-in-law. for a woman who only dated men for And Paulson, watching from her much of her life, it was an unexpected apartment in New York, didn’t question blast of publicity for her private life. the tone of the coverage or the indigni- “You know, what I am is a mystery ties visited upon the trial’s only asser- even to me,” she said of her relation- tive woman. “I thought, ‘Why isn’t she ships. “But this is a new experience, to smiling?” she said. “I completely bought be sure, that anyone would give a crap into it. I didn’t challenge one thing that I about what I’m doing. And it begs the was told by the media, or any commen- question, ‘Was everyone afraid I was tary that I heard flipping channels try- going to end up with four cats?’ A shrug. ing to find something I wanted to watch “I try to live my life the best way that I instead of the trial. I give myself a bit Above, Paulson at the see fit for me. The rest is just noise.” of a pass because I was a kid, and I was Emmys with her AHS co-star Jessica Lange; Just noise is a good description of really focused on becoming an actress. right, her first screen the attention that surrounded the O.J. But when I look back, I think about all appearance, on Law the women in their 30s and 40s and and Order, which she describes as “really 50s and 60s, people in her own field. stilted and weird.” Why were they not standing up and

demanding that this not be the way she FOX FOR IMAGES BUCKNER/GETTY MICHAEL

18 THEWRAP JUNE 15, 2016 I COULDN’T GET A JOB, AND I DIDN’T UNDERSTAND WHY. I THOUGHT, ‘WHY DON’T THEY WANT ME, WHEN I WANT THEM SO MUCH?’” MICHAEL BUCKNER/GETTY IMAGES FOR FOX FOR IMAGES BUCKNER/GETTY MICHAEL was being written about and talked about? Why was nobody taking Marcia’s side?” In a way, Paulson has now taken Marcia’s side. In the must-see miniseries, she sketches Clark in vivid shades of gray, showing the pressure, the strain and the incomprehension that a trial she thought was a slam dunk was being turned into a theatrical sideshow. “This is the third time I’ve played a real person, but the only time I’ve played a person who had such an iconic, immediately identifiable way and look,” said Paulson. “That contributed greatly to my terror. It wasn’t just from a vanity standpoint—even though there was that moment, I’m not going to lie, where I put that wig on and they were painting dark circles under my eyes and I was getting that little prosthetic mole placed just so. I remember thinking, ‘This is going to be on television, and I’m going to look tired and have a really bad hairdo.’” A pause. “In an actress’ career, if you’re lucky enough to have one that lasts any span of time, your beauty or lack thereof is always going to be part of the conversation. So it was definitely not lost on me that this was a moment of confronting my own vanity. And once I put the wig on, I was very excit- ed about it. It was liberating Right, the real Marcia and freeing.” Clark and Chris Darden confer at the Paulson said she’d like prosecution desk during to imagine that coverage the O.J.Simpson trial; far of Clark would be differ- right, Paulson as Clark and Sterling K. Brown as ent today—but when she’s Darden in The People v. reminded that the presiden- O.J. Simpson miniseries. tial campaign finds Hillary Clinton being judged on her look and mannerisms in a way male candidates are not, she agreed. “Absolutely, with- Instead, she’s found a career playing out question,” she said. “This those smart, complicated women—in whole idea of, ‘Why isn’t she connecting Aaron Sorkin’s short-lived TV series with young women, what is she doing Still, Paulson readily admits that she Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip; in Jay wrong as a woman?’ As if any woman herself was once enamored of the glam- Roach’s TV movie about Sarah Palin, is supposed to like and support another orous side of acting, the Julia Roberts- Game Change, which landed her her first woman just because she’s a woman. It’s style fame that was never within her Emmy nomination; in AHS, which got just disheartening.” reach as she began to get jobs on stage, her three more nominations for playing In today’s world, added Paulson, it’s on television and in occasional indepen- a lesbian journalist in Season 2, the head- likely that Clark’s supporters would have dent films. “I realized pretty quickly that mistress of a school for witches in Season taken to social media in her defense. But that career was not coming for me,” she 3 and a two-headed woman in Season 4; even that doesn’t mean that women in said. “The sort of mega-stardom, roman- in Martha Marcy May Marlene, for which the public eye aren’t held to a different tic-comedy charm-festival smiling-magi- she shared a Gotham Award nomination standard. “You know, I had two hours of cian person was not me. with the ensemble cast; in Jeff Nichols’ hair and makeup before I came here,” she “It was hard, because it makes you Mud, for which the entire cast won a admitted with a grin. “If I were a guy, I feel like you’ve failed somehow. But that Film Independent Spirit Award; and in probably would have splashed some cold dream was a child’s dream, it wasn’t a The People v. O.J. Simpson, and whatever water on my face and maybe brushed my dream based on something. It was the comes after. teeth, do you know what I mean?” She dream that you have when you see actors And now she’s trying to reconcile laughed. “It’s just a whole different thing, you admire and you fantasize that one herself to the fact that people are interest-

and I envy it.” day you can have a career like that.” ed and life is good. “I’m having something TODD & LARRY: SCOTT (STILL); FX IMAGES; CHUN/GETTY & CHRIS: MYUNG MARCIA IMAGES WILLIAMSON/GETTY

20 THEWRAP JUNE 15, 2016 BEYOND CARICATURE The writers of The People v O.J. Simpson say they were looking for humanity, not history

BY SCOTT ALEXANDER AND LARRY KARASZEWSKI

players from the case. Twenty years ago, everyone seemed to have a set opinion on how they felt about Johnnie Cochran, Chris Darden and Marcia Clark. And time had turned them into caricatures. Johnnie with the flashy suits and rhyming defense. Weak Chris in over his head. Shrill Marcia with the ever-changing haircuts. SNL, Seinfeld and Kimmy Schmidt made us laugh at them. We wanted to give them their rightful dignity back. The show took you behind the scenes and showed you their personal lives and hree years ago, when we started working on struggles. What they were fighting for and the scripts for The People v. O.J. Simpson, what was important to them. Johnnie’s Twe had no idea how the project would be sincere battle to expose racism in the LAPD. received. We just knew we had a good story Darden’s impossible position as an African- and hoped it would connect to today’s audi- American prosecutor trying the most famous ence. We didn’t want it to be simply viewed as African American in the country—Chris was a re-creation of a case from 20 years past. As left a man without a country. we dug deep into the research, we discovered The biggest transformation in the public many important themes that we felt were eye seems to have been Marcia Clark. still relevant today. Race in America. Gender Before our show, not many talked about the politics. Class issues. Celebrity culture. The O.J. trial in terms of gender issues. But the birth of the 24-hour news cycle and reality abuse Marcia had to put up with in 1993 was television. jaw-dropping. No one was calling F. Lee Bailey Then, as we went into preproduction with frumpy or telling Robert Shapiro to wear fellow producers Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson softer colors. Marcia just wanted justice for happen to me that I know is extremely and Ryan Murphy, a crisis erupted in this two innocent victims and could not under- rare, which is that in my late 30s and early country. The growing protests over the deaths stand how the trial had turned into a circus. 40s things started to turn, exactly at the of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Freddie Gray Her rivals on the case were all professional moment when the brakes are supposed to brought issues of police misconduct against the media pundits. Cochran, Shapiro, Bailey and go on,” she said. “And I know that because African-American community to the forefront. Alan Dershowitz were comfortable holding I’m a woman, there are fewer roles and Suddenly our show didn’t feel like a period piece court on Larry King’s show. Marcia was not fewer opportunities for me, and some at all. It felt vital. a public personality and wilted under the incredibly great actresses my age who are The current headlines helped young- spotlight. Sarah Paulson’s brilliant perfor- movie stars. I get it—I just wish some brave er audiences connect with the miniseries. mance as Marcia brought so much empathy people would go, ‘You know, I’m going Certainly, the most gratifying aspect of the last to the role. It caught viewers by surprise to go with Sarah Paulson instead of that few months has been seeing the way people that they were suddenly caring for someone really fancy movie star.” have been affected. It’s been more than just a they had maybe disliked for decades. And And yet she can’t help but wonder ratings success—folks were actively discussing you could see the relief in the face of the about what’s next. “After spending a long the show. Every week social media lit up with real Marcia Clark when she was interviewed time having so much hunger and desire an impressive level of discourse. People wanted on talk shows. People were finally seeing her and longing for it, and then getting a big to talk beyond the true crime/soap opera ele- humanity. W taste of it, I keep looking over my shoulder ments. They analyzed the themes and issues of thinking, ‘Is someone going to tell me this each episode. Essays, recaps and think pieces. It is a joke?’” she admitted. “‘Oh, God, is the wasn’t arguing, it was a true conversation. piano going to drop on my head out of the It’s also been very satisfying to see people

MARCIA & CHRIS: MYUNG CHUN/GETTY IMAGES; FX (STILL); SCOTT & LARRY: TODD TODD & LARRY: SCOTT (STILL); FX IMAGES; CHUN/GETTY & CHRIS: MYUNG MARCIA IMAGES WILLIAMSON/GETTY sky?’” W re-examine how they feel about the central

MINISERIES / MOVIES 21 Another Scandal KERRY WASHINGTON TAKES THE LEAD IN A TRUE STORY ABOUT THE “ABSOLUTE COLLISION OF RACE, GENDER AND POWER”

BY SCOTT COLLINS PHOTOGRAPHED BY CORINA MARIE

Audiences know Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope, the heroine of ABC’s Beltway drama Scandal. But the 39-year-old actress landed in a different type of Washington drama with HBO’s made- for-TV movie Confirmation, about the 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas. Washington plays Anita Hill, the law professor who accused Thomas of sexual harassment in an earlier job.

How much did you know about the Anita Hill case when you started working on Confirmation? When the hearings happened, I was about 13, so most of my memories of it are through the eyes of my parents. At the time, it had a really profound impact on me because my dad was really pulled compassionately in the direction towards [Thomas], this very successful black man who was having his reputation and his career maligned publicly in front of this panel of white men. My mom was very compassionately pulled in the direction toward Anita Hill, this professional black woman who was was being re-victimized after coming forward as a victim. Usually, my parents were on the same page politically, but this was kind of the first moment where I was aware of my identity as an African-American and as a woman and how that might be more complicated than I thought beforehand.

What did you learn about the case that you didn’t know before? We tend to think about the hearings and about that time as a this African-American man, Thurgood Marshall, was retiring, he-said, she-said story. The more research we did, the more and who was going to fill that seat? The Republican White we realized it was much more complicated than that. That House had to fill that seat. There was a political agenda from this was really a story about access and power and control the beginning. and political agenda. And then you throw in accusations of sexual harassment, at a time when sexual harassment were not words that we used In Confirmation, Kerry Washington plays Anita Why do you think the Anita Hill case became such a the way we use them today. Sexual harassment was this vague Hill, top, who in 1991 flashpoint? legal term that was only used in very few circles. appeared in front of Two of the things that are most difficult for us to talk about, as Suddenly you had an entire nation not only questioning the Senate to accuse Supreme Court nominee a society, as a culture, are gender and race. The hearings were itself on issues of race and power and access, but also asking Clarence Thomas of this absolute collision of race, gender and power. You had the itself, “Is it not OK to talk that way in the office? Can I not treat sexual harassment.

most important seat on the Supreme Court—this icon of justice, my secretary that way? Are we really going to have to deal IMAGES; LAW/AFP/GETTY JENNIFER HILL: ANITA MASI FRANK WASHINGTON:

24 THEWRAP JUNE 15, 2016 My job as an actor was to completely devote myself to her and yet not try to please her.”

wanted you to be pulled in the way that I was at 13. I wanted you to be pulled compassionately toward Joe Biden, and toward Clarence Thomas and toward Anita Hill. I wanted you to jump into this story and see how much more complicated it was than what we knew at the time. That was my goal as the producer: It was to be very well-rounded and even-keeled and even-handed. As an actor, my job was to completely devote myself to her, and really honor her, and yet not try to please her. I wanted to make sure I showed the parts of her that maybe she doesn’t identify with.

The hearings were extensively covered. Did you go back and watch them? I watched all of her press conferences and all of the hearings again and again, because I wanted to understand the rhythm of how she spoke, and how she made the choices about what she said, and how she held her body. Even our posture says so much about who we are and how we think about our- selves and our circumstances. I really try to lean into the raw footage as an artist and as a social scientist in a way to try to really uncover who she was.

You’re already busy working on ABC’s drama Scandal. How were you able to balance that schedule with making Confirmation? The preproduction period was complicated. As we were researching and developing and casting and hiring costume designers, we were literally meeting with the directors in my trailer at Sunset-Gower [Studios]. At my lunch hour from with gender in the workplace? Are we really going to have to shooting Scandal, we were interviewing different directors deal with gender in America? Are we really going to have to deal for the film. The same with cinematographers and costume with sex and talk about pubic hair in the Senate hearing room?” designers. A lot of them were phone calls that I would do at There was so much about it that was shocking to Americans. my lunch hour, on my way to the set, on my way home. Then You couldn’t turn away from it. we broke in time for me to really jump into casting. I threw myself in. Usually you play fictional characters. What were the HBO was really supportive of me being a hands-on pro- challenges in playing a real person this time? ducer. They understood that I didn’t want to be a figurehead It’s hard because Anita Hill is somebody that I respect enor- producer, that I really had a voice and really wanted to be part mously, and at the same time, I wanted to make sure we of the vision of how this film unfolded and was created. They weren’t making a film for her approval. As an executive also were like, “OK, it’s time for you to take the producing hat

ANITA HILL: JENNIFER LAW/AFP/GETTY IMAGES; IMAGES; LAW/AFP/GETTY JENNIFER HILL: ANITA MASI FRANK WASHINGTON: producer, I wanted to tell a story that was complicated. I off, and get into her shoes.” W

MINISERIES / MOVIES 25 THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT The second season of American Crime put a lot of its story in the hands of four young actors—but Connor Jessup, Joey Pollari, Angelique Rivera and Trevor Jackson held their own with a bevy of distinguished acting vets

BY STEVE POND PHOTOGRAPHED BY CORINA MARIE

26 THEWRAP JUNE 15, 2016 LEFT TO RIGHT: Trevor Jackson, Angelique Rivera, Connor Jessup and Joey Pollari were photographaphed May 6, 2016 at The Forge in Los Angeles

MINISERIES/MOVIES 27 nitially, I didn’t think it through very well,” said John Ridley with a laugh. The creator and producer of the ABC anthology series American Crime was thinking back to the planning stages of his show’s second season, which he decided should focus on the aftermath of a sexual assault at a high school whose parents and staff were played by the formidable likes of Felicity Huffman, Timothy Hutton, Lili Taylor, Regina King, Hope Davis, IAndre Benjamin and others.

“I had the idea of taking a big chunk Season 2 from Northern California to Monster. “It can be hard-hitting, obvi- of the storytelling, very mature story- Indianapolis, and its subject matter from ously, but underneath all that, there’s telling, and putting it on young people,” racial tensions to sexual identity, with an enormous empathy for people in he said. “And then I lined them up oppo- the first season’s class conflicts also disparate situations. The way that the site some of the best talent around— thrown in. In the first episode, Taylor show feels equally for all these people Oscar winners, Emmy winners, Blaine (Connor Jessup) confides to his who are often at odds with each other is Grammy winners, Tony nominees.” mother (Taylor) that he was sexually incredibly rare and incredibly appeal- He ended up with actors in their assaulted by a member of the basketball ing. Basically, no matter where you’re late teens and early 20s, and shipped team at a team party; the other boy, Eric coming from, you can come to the show them all down to the set in Austin for Tanner (Joey Pollari) says the alco- and feel understood and represented.” months of shooting. “It was a lot to put hol-fueled encounter was consensual, Like his fellow young actors, Jessup on them, especially after putting them but the repercussions make both boys hadn’t seen the entire first season when in a new environment, away from their outcasts and threaten to bring down the he got the job—and when he watched it, normal support structure,” said the private school’s administration, headed the prospect of joining Ridley’s all-star Oscar-winning screenwriter of 12 Years by Leslie Graham (Huffman), and its cast (returning in new roles) intimidated a Slave, whose series landed 10 Emmy basketball coach, Dan Sullivan (Hutton). him. “It was terrifying,” he said. “The nominations (and a win for Regina “The way that John and his team cast is the best cast on TV, I think. And King) in its first season. “I had high approach the show is very serious to join that mid-flow, to try and jump in expectations, and every one of those and the show is very serious and very and maintain balance, is very scary. The folks delivered.” focused,” said Connor Jessup, a 21-year- first couple of weeks, there were a lot of Ridley’s show, one of the boldest old actor from Toronto whose previous restless nights.” and most daring on broadcast net- work includes the TNT series Falling In fact, he added, he rarely felt com-

work television, shifted its setting in Skies and the upcoming film Closet fortable at the end of a shooting day. GREEN ABC/RYAN CRIME STILLS: AMERICAN

28 THEWRAP JUNE 15, 2016 then began working as an actor and only definitely be playing basketball,” Jackson attended sporadically during his junior said. “He’s a ladies man, I wouldn’t call and senior years. Joey Pollari, who plays myself necessarily a ladies man, but I his nemesis Eric, went through some- like ladies. And also, I feel like we’re in thing similar: a year of public school, then the same space in our lives, transitioning a year of private school, then two years from a boy to a man. You have to take of online schooling. on responsibilities and make the right “That experience of being in high decisions, and I feel like I connected with school and wanting to fit in—I think some him in that sense.” of those residue feelings are with you for- As Taylor’s girlfriend, Evy, 22-year- ever,” said Pollari, 22, who also appeared old Angelique Rivera faced one of the in the Disney movie Skyrunners. biggest challenges, because American “Masculinity, especially revolving around Crime was her first professional acting job sports, wanting to be (if you don’t count stage seen as an alpha dog, I roles, or playing Princess think that’s a universal Jasmine at Disney experience.” World). She landed the Like Jessup, though, he Everyone part of Evy six months admitted that watching after moving to Los the first season left him growing up Angeles. thoroughly intimidated. struggles with The role of a with- “It scared me to death,” drawn, quiet girl ques- he said. “Long close-ups, identity and tioning her relationship long scenes of dialogue, sexuality and was was different for thematically intense. And Rivera, who’d been what it asks of actors, it’s family.” Homecoming Queen, cap- an immense amount of — Connor Jessup tain of the cheerleading emotionality.” team and president of the Pollari and Jessup drama club at her own roomed together in Austin, high school in Florida. sharing their fears at night and going out “But I did have family issues at home, and on the weekends. “Those two characters that was something I related to with Evy,” were opposed to each other to their last she said. “I related to having to grow up breaths,” said Ridley. “Their characters’ pretty quickly because of circumstances, whole attitude toward each other was and I know what it’s like to have a lot on ‘He’s lying,’ and they were amazing when your plate and to find a way to keep going.” the camera was rolling. And then they’d Still, she admitted, “There was a lot hang out on the weekends and see obscure of anxiety going into it, just because I’d indie films or artists you’ve never heard never been on a set before. I remember of—stuff where you’d think, ‘Are you sure asking Connor, ‘How do you see those you’re only 20 years old?’” little marks on the ground and not look at Trevor Jackson, meanwhile, was hav- them?’ It was a lot of new things happening his own learning experiences playing ing all at once.” the star basketball player whose behavior Ridley, to his relief, found his young creates problems for his high-powered actors up to the task. “It isn’t hard to have businesswoman mother, played by faith in Felicity and Tim and Regina and Regina King, and father, played by Andre Hope and Andre,” he said. “But to put this Benjamin. Jackson, 19, whose previous much story on four young actors, you work included the Syfy series Eureka and don’t know if they’re going to be like deer a series of singles, EPs and mixtapes, said in the headlights. But to a person, this he loved the basketball scenes, joking group did everything they could to give “You go home at night thinking, ‘What that he almost had to tone down his real their best performances and make sure From bottom left: Connor Jessup’s Tayor am I doing here, why did they let me do hoops skills. But he had to adjust to life the best performance was coming from is taken into custody; this?,’” he said. “‘Tomorrow I’ll get it right.’ on a dramatic series. everyone around them.” Angelique Rivera plays And then you come home the next day “I’ve done guest spots on shows before, Jessup, who had the biggest role and Taylor’s girlfriend, Evy; Joey Pollari’s character thinking, ‘What am I doing?’ Sometimes but doing it every single day and always has gotten the biggest Emmy buzz of the is confronted by police; when you’re between ‘action’ and ‘cut,’ being ready was tough,” he said. “Some young actors, said he found something a mother-son moment you feel good, you feel like something’s days I’d wake up and think, ‘Let me have universal once he got past his initial working. But then the world comes along a good day.’ ‘No, Trevor, you need to cry, terror. “Everyone growing up struggles afterwards and starts to pull at you.” because that’s the scene today.’ That was with identity and sexuality and family Like his fellow actors, Jessup had probably the hardest part.” and who they are,” he said. “So if you an unusual high-school experience: He Still, he identified with his character. “I can’t identify with that, I don’t know who

AMERICAN CRIME STILLS: ABC/RYAN GREEN ABC/RYAN CRIME STILLS: AMERICAN went to school for the first two years, feel like if I wasn’t entertaining, I would you are.” W

MINISERIES / MOVIES 29 LIVE TELEVISION MUSICALS

HEY KIDS, LET’S PUT ON A SHOW...ON TV Over the last three years, live television productions of stage musicals have become a tuneful and unexpected new trend BY TIM APPELO

ince NBC’s 2013 The Sound of Music Live! with Carrie off the theater-on-TV revival with co-producer Neil Meron Underwood, over 62 million people have watched live on The Sound of Music and last year recruited Queen Latifah Broadway musicals reimagined for TV, notably The Wiz Live! as the Wiz and Amber Riley, Mary J. Blige and Orange Is the last December and Grease Live! in January. And the daredev- New Black’s Uzo Aduba as good or wicked witches. The result- ils who are bringing the genre back—or rather, inventing a ing show got more tweets than any special ever measured by Swhole new one that marries theater and TV—feel like pioneers Nielsen except political and awards events—and its producers at a barn raising, helping and cheering each other on. also got a shout-out from another of their competitors, Tyler Take Thomas Kail, who went from staging the titanic Tony Perry, who leaped into the arena by staging Fox’s 2016 The winner Hamilton on Broadway to co-directing (with Dancing Passion, starring Jencarlos Canela, Chris Daughtry and Trisha With the Stars’ Alex Rudzinski) Paramount and Fox’s 2016 Grease Yearwood. “He called to wish us luck, and said it was important Live! starring Julianne Hough and Aaron Tveit, with conspicu- that the show succeed—because if it doesn’t do ratings, it may be

↑ Above, Julianne ously strong supporting work by Vanessa Hudgens, Keke Palmer difficult to do it again,” said Zadan. Hough and Aaron and Carly Rae Jepsen. “We’re all part of a larger movement,” said With shows like The Passion, Grease Live! and Meron and Tveit in Grease Live! Kail. “I watched The Wiz Live! on Dec. 3 with my entire Grease Zadan’s own annual productions (in addition to TSOM and The tackled the roles originally played company. We’d just started rehearsals, and it was so thrilling. Wiz, they staged 2014’s Peter Pan Live!), the genre of staged TV on stage by Carole There was an energy around that show, and we caught the spirit musicals is clearly a juggernaut. Musical numbers are even infil- Demas and Barry as well.” trating the talk shows of Broadway-musical-friendly Stephen Bostwick, and made famous on film by The Wiz Live! producers felt the communal spirit, too. “Grease Colbert and James Corden, while Zadan and Meron also leaned Olivia Newton-John Live! was very supportive—we got lots of tweets, and we were heavily on musical numbers when they produced the Oscars and John Travolta.

supportive when they broadcast,” said Craig Zadan, who kicked from 2013 to 2015. The key to this renewed popularity is a word SHERWOOD/NBC THE WIZ: VIRGINIA GREASE: KEVIN ESTRADA/FOX;

30 THEWRAP JUNE 15, 2016 some critics said she did as an actor, despite her lovely voice. Yet sharing her likely terror was the attraction, and about 19 million people watched her take that risk. “When you look right down the barrel of the camera, the little red light has X-ray vision for confidence,” said Kail, who believes that the tension helps create excitement akin to a sporting event. “I grew up watching sports more than anything. When I worked on the 2010 Broadway play Lombardi, I learned there’s a lot that theater and sports have in common. There’s Left, top to bottom: an appetite for people to have an experience at the Mary J. Blige played the Wicked Witch same time as people all over the country, all over the of the West in The world. Awards shows, music and sports are what Wiz Live!; the recent people congregate to watch.” spate of live, televised musicals was But nobody would have bet money on live TV launched in 2013 with drama without the more recent success of Zadan Carrie Underwood in and Meron. “We cut our teeth on The Sound of The Sound of Music Live!; Christopher Music, when we were reinventing something that was lost, Walken chewed the learning as we went along,” said Meron. “With each iteration scenery as Captain you learn and adapt. Sound was incredibly stagelike and theat- Hook in Peter Pan Live! rical, and Peter Pan was done with more 360-degree camera. “With The Wiz, we wanted to create something unique with LED screens, the pop and colors and richness of it. With Shanice Williams, a newbie star thrust in front of the entire country, we thought, ‘Will she be able to hit that gigantic high end note on “Home”?’ We were just praying in the truck, because the whole show builds toward that moment. She nailed it effortlessly and we all breathed a big sigh of relief.” Even with their ratings success, Zadan and Meron said they’ve been working with less money as their journey through the Broadway canon has continued. “We’ve been getting smaller budgets, because we needed more when we were figuring it out,” said Zadan. “We didn’t know how much to spend, and now we’re better at managing it. It’s like the Oscars: The first year you don’t know what you’re doing—how could you? The second was light years better.” They’re now paying attention to their colleagues in live theatrical TV, Meron added, pointing to Grease Live! as a that Michael O’Donoghue once spray-painted on the wall at breakthrough in the way the production went outdoors and SNL: “Danger.” used multiple stages. Far from the old-school staginess of The “Danger, that’s why people watch awards shows, too,” said Sound of Music, Grease Live! literally spotlighted its theat- Meron. “Who’s gonna trip, forget names? You never know ricality, breaking the fourth wall. “In the very quick what’s going to happen.” Case in point: the fluky Los Angeles costume change right after Aaron and the guys storm that struck Grease Live! and forced an emergency go from ratty uniforms into fantasy and rewrite. “We had an opening number that happened back to ratty real clothes in ‘Greased under a structure we could not use because of the Lightning,’ Aaron looks in the wind,” said Kail. “It was 2:30, we were going on at 4, camera and winks,” said Kail. “We so we came up with an alternate end to the opening thought it would draw in the audi- we’d been rehearsing for six weeks. We rehearsed ence: ‘Look what we’re watching, it a few minutes after 3, the rain hit at 3:59. The look what we’re all in together.’” cast was so unfazed and ready for the moment.” Like his colleagues in the Added Meron, “Live musicals are terrifying TV-musicals game, Kail is upbeat about the for actors, because we’re living in an age of genre’s future. “There’s a movement that’s Auto-Tune. But if you hit a bad note happening we feel proud to be a part of,” on TV in front of millions of people, he said. “All these live musicals on TV are that note will never go away.” When opening this window up, and I can’t wait to Underwood played Maria, she could see what comes next.” W

GREASE: KEVIN ESTRADA/FOX; THE WIZ: VIRGINIA SHERWOOD/NBC THE WIZ: VIRGINIA GREASE: KEVIN ESTRADA/FOX; have fallen flat on her face—and

MINISERIES / MOVIES 31 EMMY’S BACK PAGES / It’s You, Girl HAIL

MARYFour decades ago, a miniseries was the big nominee, but the night belonged to Mary Tyler Moore

BY STEVE POND ILLUSTRATED BY CHRIS MORRIS

he New York Daily News headline past winners Carroll O’Connor leading up to the Emmys of 1976 was and Jean Stapleton from All in T“The Mini-series Has Arrived!,” but what the Family, were deposited in a really arrived 40 years ago was the coronation KTTV mailbox that wasn’t fully of Mary Tyler Moore. Sure, the miniseries Rich emptied until weeks later, past Man, Poor Man received a record 23 nomina- the Academy’s entry deadline; tions—but when the dust cleared on Emmy all were deemed ineligible to be night, it only had four statuettes, while Moore nominated. and her top-rated sitcom had enjoyed one of Meanwhile, some Emmy the most dominant showings ever. watchers griped about how the The Mary Tyler Moore British series Show was named the Upstairs, Downstairs had Outstanding Comedy managed to move from the Series of the 1975- Outstanding Drama Series 76 television season. category, where it had won Moore herself won the the previous year, to the award for lead actress presumably less competi- in a comedy series. Her tive Outstanding Limited co-stars Ted Knight and Series, where it won again. Betty White won the And further behind the awards for supporting scenes, fighting between actor and actress in a comedy series, respec- the Los Angeles and New York branches of tively. One of her writers, David Lloyd, won the National Academy of Television Arts and an Emmy for writing the “Chuckles Bites the Sciences reached the point where the day after Dust” episode of her show. One of the only the Emmy broadcast, the Hollywood chapter Mary Tyler Moore stars who didn’t win, Ed filed a lawsuit that would lead to the creation Asner, picked up an Emmy for his role in, nat- of an entirely new organization, the L.A.-based urally, Rich Man, Poor Man. Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Oh, and Mary hosted the show with John precursor to today’s Television Academy. Denver. Meanwhile, Mary enjoyed her very good Now, the MTM juggernaut did get a little night. “The unusual thing about winning,” she help from a snafu in the mailroom of the Los said onstage, “is that the more Emmys I have, Angeles television station KTTV, which also the more important they become.” It would be housed the offices of Norman Lear’s produc- her last win for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, tion company. According to the book The which lasted for one more year, but she would Emmys by Tom O’Neil, the submission forms land one more Emmy, for the TV movie Stolen for more than 50 eligible actors, including Babies in 1993. W

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