Maggie Gyllenhaal Jessica Lange Faces the Horror, Damian Lewis Gets Royal, David Oyelowo Goes Solo and James Nesbitt Enters the Darkness

The Insider’s Guide to All Things Emmys

MOVIES / LIMITED SERIES I JUNE 15, 2015

AMERICANJOHN RIDLEY’S DARK MINISERIES ASKS HARD QUESTIONSCRIME ABOUT RACE, CLASS, JUSTICE AND FAITH AT A TROUBLED TIME ON AMERICA’S STREETS

MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL JESSICA LANGE FACES THE HORROR, DAMIAN LEWIS GETS ROYAL, DAVID OYELOWO GOES SOLO AND JAMES NESBITT ENTERS THE DARKNESS

1 / THEWRAP / FEBRUARY 11, 2015 hbo • emmy 2015 the wrap magazine fp 4c 06.15.15 06.03.15

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creates divisionandprejudice.” “The minute we put someone “The minutewe putsomeone in abox, we stopseeingthem as a whole person. And that as awholeperson.Andthat interviews with Felicity Huffman, John Ridley, Elvis Nolasco and Richard Cabral go to thewrap.com For exclusive behind-the-scenes video and ON AMERICAN CRIME ON AMERICAN FELICITY HUFFMANFELICITY ON THE COVER THE ON 12 TheWrap offices on offices TheWrap by Dove Shore at at Shore Dove by Richard Cabral photographed May 16, 2015 16, May

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Give This Man Another Gold Statuette, DAMMIT A farewell Emmy will no doubt make David Letterman uncomfortable, which is reason enough to give him one

BY STEVE POND

don’t even remember exactly when this glorious at it: absurdist humor, stupid pet tricks surgery, or when Warren Zevon wanted to do happened—sometime around 1977, I and a guy who wasn’t really interested in his one more television show before he died, when expect, though the exact year is lost in guests at 10 a.m. What the hell was that? there was something that needed to be dealt the mists. Early in my writing career, I’d Great TV, that’s what it was. I watched the with on the unique forum that is late night, Igone to a comedy club near my home in Orange show most mornings and wondered how he Dave was the one you and I and Zevon would County, California to see a comedian friend stayed on the air. The inevitable happened after turn to. And Dave would rise to the occasion named Gary Mule Deer, a prop-oriented comic four months, when the show was cancelled. and find exactly the right tone. Always. (Even whose bio I’d written for his PR company. But What the hell was that? turned into How when he was admitting his own adultery.) The club was nondescript, with three acts on great is that? when it moved from morning to He had another chance to rise to the occasion the bill. Gary was the headliner, preceded by late night, as we all learned in 1982, when NBC on May 20, when his show came to an end. defected Soviet comic Yakov Smirnoff, who said put Dave where he belonged. I’ll leave it to Letterman being Letterman, his was not a teary from the stage that it was his first American gig others to analyze the many ways in which he farewell, but a self-deprecating one, with the ever. But the first comic to take the stage that changed the face of late night, how he made host turning the jokes on himself and acting like night was a former weatherman from Indiana absurdity and self-consciousness and irony a a guy who just happened to be surrounded by named David Letterman. My wife-to-be and I bigger part of every subsequent host’s toolkit. talented folks for 33 years. It was anything but a saw him do 15 minutes or so on a tiny stage that Who among the hosts now doing the job could victory lap, but of course it was just right. night, and we knew it immediately: This guy have come up in a Dave-free world? None of You know who else has taken Dave for was going to change the face of comedy. ‘em, that’s who. granted? Emmy voters. He won a bunch of OK, that’s a lie. We did see David Letterman Over the years, I suppose, it got easy to take Emmys back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, but nothing at the beginning of his comedy career, almost Dave for granted. Back when it was Letterman since 2001. And that feels wrong. The Television 40 years ago, but there were few signs that this v. Leno, I’d never watch Jay instead of Dave. But Academy is known for bestowing golden guy was going to become DAVID LETTERMAN. in the new late-night landscape I’ve certainly parting gifts on the final seasons of shows like As I recall, Letterman was good that night, but turned to Kimmel regularly, and checked in on Breaking Bad, and there are far worse things I couldn’t tell you any of his jokes, or his topics. whatever viral silliness Fallon was doing. they could do than salute a man who changed We were entertained, for sure, but that was it. Maybe Dave took the gig for granted, too. television. Sure, it’d be a sentimental sendoff for The rest came later. (Thirty-three years in the same job will do that the least sentimental guy in late night, and it The rest began with the morning talk show to a guy.) But he still had something nobody else would make Dave uncomfortable and he might that Letterman began hosting in 1980. The guy had. When the chips were down and the stakes not even show up. had no business doing a morning talk show, were high, in the aftermath of 9/11 or Hurricane But so what? As I’ve been saying since 1977,

which was the whole point and why he was so Sandy, or when he came back from his bypass this guy is gold. W TAYLOR BRIAN BY ILLUSTRATION

4 / THEWRAP / JUNE 15, 2015 ILLUSTRATION BY BRIAN TAYLOR BRIAN BY ILLUSTRATION

MOVIES/LIMITED SERIES / 5 FRONT & CENTER / By the Numbers THE TELEVISION MOVIES AND LIMITED SERIES WITH THE MOST HOW TO TELL EMMY WINS WHAT KIND OF TELEVISION OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES John Adams SHOW YOU ARE 13 wins, 2008

HOW MANY EPISODES DO YOU HAVE?

MORE 1 THAN 2-5 Angels in America 5 11 wins, 2003

IS YOUR RUNNING TIME AT LEAST 150 MINUTES? “A masterpiece of impressive depth” -Huf ngton Post Blog “First-rate performances” -Los Angeles Times YOU’RE SHORT-FORM! NO YES

DO YOU TELL A COMPLETE, NON-RECURRING STORY? Behind the Candelabra 11 wins, 2013

NO YES DO YOU HAVE AN ONGOING STORYLINE THAT WILL CONTINUE IN YES SUBSEQUENT SEASONS? Eleanor and Franklin NO 11 wins, 1976

DO YOU HAVE MAIN CHARACTERS WHO WILL CONTINUE IN SUBSEQUENT SEASONS? Outstanding Lead Actress Outstanding Lead Actor Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series In A Drama Series In A Drama Series

YES NO CAITRIONA BALFE SAM HEUGHAN TOBIAS MENZIES

YOU’RE A SERIES! YOU’RE A LIMITED SERIES! AND ALL OTHER CATEGORIES Roots holds the minis/ movies record YOU’RE A TV MOVIE! for nominations with 37 STARZFYC.com

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“A masterpiece of impressive depth” -Huf ngton Post Blog “First-rate performances” -Los Angeles Times

Outstanding Lead Actress Outstanding Lead Actor Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series In A Drama Series In A Drama Series CAITRIONA BALFE SAM HEUGHAN TOBIAS MENZIES

AND ALL OTHER CATEGORIES

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PBR4459-15-AB EmmyAd_TheWrap_June3_OLS1.indd 1 6/3/15 1:40 PM FRONT & CENTER / From Sundance to Durango

ANOTHER LIFETIME The tough, creepy indie movie Stockholm, Pennsylvania has found an unlikely television home

BY STEVE POND

he phrase “a Lifetime and reunion stories, and I think research on those stories, because melodramatic terrain. movie” usually it really affected my worldview,” the real-life stories are very “To me, one of the main conjures up a specific writer-director Nikole Beckwith specific to those women. For what themes of the story is when type of film—one told TheWrap at Sundance, where we wanted to do, my reference you’re raising a child, what kind Tgeared for a female audience and Stockholm premiered. “I thought wasn’t real cases. It was the script.” of freedom do you allow that typically genteel. In recent years, about how vulnerable it is to be a Added Isaacs, “The situa- child?” said Nixon. “How much the network’s Emmy nominees child growing into a woman in a tion that Nikole has imagined is do you want to imprint that child have included A Trip to Bountiful, predatory culture, and I thought completely atypical compared to with all the things that you think Georgia O’Keeffe, Prayers for of this as a window into a story what’s in the papers. This is not are wonderful, and make sure Bobby, Coco Chanel and Why I about love and relationships a story of abuse and rape and they don’t like the things that you Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy. and identity and nature versus forced abortion and all the rest of think are terrible? And how much But Stockholm, Pennsylvania, nurture.” it. So I created an entire backstory do you create an environment in which the network bought out of In the film, Irish actress Saoirse and life that led me to the point which they can discover those the Sundance Film Festival this Ronan plays Leanne, a girl who where I needed to have some- things for themselves?” year, might be the least Lifetime-y is kidnapped at the age of four body in the basement who meant Beckwith’s film is deeply movie Lifetime has ever aired. by a man (Jason Isaacs) who everything to me.” creepy, with an unsettling ending The dark, emotionally wrenching holds her for 17 years, renaming The film flashes back to the that’s hard to take and hard to story of a girl who is returned to her Leia and lying to her about years of captivity, but its focus shake. In other words, it’s a story her parents almost two decades why she can never leave the is on what happens when the for those weaned on indepen- after being kidnapped and held house. “One of the first questions girl—who identifies as Leia, dent film and the darker edges in a basement by a man who I asked Nikole was whether any not Leanne—is returned to the of cable TV. “For me, the story is dotes over her, it etches fine lines particularly stories inspired the home she’s forgotten. Cynthia about themes of connection,” said between love and control, bond- script and the play, [on which it Nixon plays a mother who’ll go Isaacs. “What makes us who we ing and brainwashing. was based]” said Ronan. “I was to any lengths to reclaim a lost are, what makes us love, what “I grew up at a time when I relieved, actually, when she told emotional connection, which makes us lose, what defines us as

remembered a lot of kidnapping me that she hadn’t done any leads the story into darker, more a personality?” W LIFETIME TELEVISION SOMONTE/HISTORY CARLOS

8 / THEWRAP / JUNE 15 , 2015 Bill Paxton, Rising The veteran actor climbs back in the saddle for another miniseries, Texas Rising

BY STEVE POND

f it weren’t for a miniseries Bill Paxton starred in for History in 2012, the channel probably wouldn’t have made the miniseries he starred in in 2015. IThe earlier series, Hatfields & McCoys, was such a sensation that it boosted the channel’s interest in original scripted programming, setting History records for ratings and Emmy nominations. (It scored 16.) In doing so, it led directly to this year’s Texas Rising, a 10-hour chronicle of the Texas Revolution starring Paxton as Sam the HBO series Big Love even more invested out to Hollywood, one of my biggest dreams Houston. to the role. “There were a lot of scenes I felt was to be in Western movies. And when I “It literally legitimized the network could be stronger or more specific or clearer, got involved with Texas Rising, I had actors overnight,” said Paxton of that so I fought for the integrity of coming out of the woodwork to see if I could earlier miniseries, in which he the character the whole way put in a good word for them.” co-starred with Kevin Costner. “I through,” he said. The key to Paxton’s next move will be back to the felt it was going to do pretty well, Houston: “This man was a great big screen with Vince Vaughn in Term Life. but it became a phenomenon. I’ve built student of human nature, but he “When I came out of Big Love, which was And it was at a time when HBO also had an incredibly deep code the longest steady job I ever had, I don’t was starting to back off long- “a career of honor, integrity and ethics. know if people quite knew what to do with form programming, which left an being That was the feeling I tried to get me,” he said with a laugh. “And then I put opportunity for smaller networks across.” on the beard and played Randall McCoy [in to get into that business.” the guy Of course, filming Texas Hatfields & McCoys], and suddenly people So when History came calling Rising in Durango, Mexico realized I was a versatile actor again. And with Texas Rising, with Hatfields supporting wasn’t just a matter of trying since then I’ve built a career being the guy producer Leslie Greif in charge the guy.” to accurately present a distant supporting the guy. and a subject matter dear to the relative —it was also a chance “I supported Costner in Hatfields, then heart of the Fort Worth native, to climb back in the saddle in a Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg Paxton was ready. A bonus was genre the actor has long loved. in Two Guns, then Tom Cruise in Edge of that he’d be playing a Texas icon with whom “In our generation, we were steeped in Tomorrow, then Jon Hamm in Million Dollar Paxton shared common grandparents six Westerns,” he said. “Not only did we have Arm, then Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler, generations back—which, he said, “makes us the classic Westerns like Shane and The Sons now Vince Vaughn… I’m trying to get back second cousins four times removed.” of Katie Elder, but we also grew up in the in the director’s chair more than anything The relation to Houston made the veteran days of revisionist Westerns like The Wild in the world, but to stay relevant as an actor,

LIFETIME TELEVISION SOMONTE/HISTORY CARLOS actor of films like Apollo 13 and True Lies and Bunch and Little Big Man. So when I came you keep working.” W

MOVIES/LIMITED SERIES / 9 PARTY REPORT / Mikey Glazer

WIN, LOSE & BOOZE OUTSTANDING LIMITED SERIES The Critics’ Choice Television Awards shuffled the deck, but will those predictable Emmy voters be paying attention?

BY MIKEY GLAZER

1. Two of this past TV season’s break- 1. outs connect: Jane the Virgin’s Gina 2. Rodriguez and victorious Empire “The performances matriarch Taraji P. Henson. 2. “A Million Ways to Die in the West was a are superb at every level, $40 million excuse to make out with me,” Mad Max star Charlize Theron with each actor rising joked while presenting the Louis XIII Genius Award to Seth MacFarlane. to the challenge.” 3. Tituss Burgess spots a Critics’ Choice poster devoted to his show, - San Francisco Chronicle The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. 4. Presenter James Corden received a full-facial surprise from Mom star Allison Janney as she accepted the “Television at its very best.” supporting-comedy-actress award. 5. Silicon Valley star T.J. Miller celebrates 3. - Deadline Hollywood with his supporting-comedy award and with his wife, Kate Gorney. 6. Shiri Appleby, Lifetime’s Nina Lederman 4. and Constance Zimmer revealed the faux-reality UnREAL at the SIXTY Beverly Hills. 7. Jeffrey Tambor is 2-0 at the Beverly Hilton, winning at the 6. 5. Golden Globes and again at the Critics’ Choice. Will we see a triple crown at the Nokia in September? 8. Eva Longoria and Debra Messing coordinated their finger poses and their fire-engine red couture at Bob Greenblatt’s party at Del Posto. 9. Zach Braff, Neil Patrick Harris and Kevin Huvane got face time at

CAA’s upfronts party at Dirty Laundy (9) CAA FOR IMAGES (8); KEVIN MAZUR/GETTY DRINKWATER/NBC LIFETIME (6); PAUL FOR IMAGES GRANT/GETTY JESSE ; in NYC. W

7. 8. 9.

Outstanding Lead Actor Outstanding Lead Actress Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Limited Series Or Movie In A Limited Series Or Movie In A Limited Series Or Movie CHRISTOPHER POLK/ GETTY IMAGES POLK/ GETTY CHRISTOPHER JAMES NESBITT FRANCES O’CONNOR TCHÉKY KARYO

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PBR4459-15-AB EmmyAd_TheWrap_June3_TMS1.indd 1 6/3/15 1:39 PM OUTSTANDING LIMITED SERIES

“The performances are superb at every level, with each actor rising

to the challenge.” - San Francisco Chronicle

“Television at its very best.” - Deadline Hollywood ; JESSE GRANT/GETTY IMAGES FOR LIFETIME (6); PAUL DRINKWATER/NBC (8); KEVIN MAZUR/GETTY IMAGES FOR CAA (9) (9) CAA FOR IMAGES (8); KEVIN MAZUR/GETTY DRINKWATER/NBC LIFETIME (6); PAUL FOR IMAGES GRANT/GETTY JESSE ;

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PBR4459-15-AB EmmyAd_TheWrap_June3_TMS1.indd 1 6/3/15 1:39 PM A CHRONICLE OF TROUBLED TIMES — RACE, CLASS AND AMERICAN CRIME

BORN OUT OF TRAYVON MARTIN, FILMED DURING THE FERGUSON RIOTS AND AIRED DURING BALTIMORE’S UPRISING, JOHN RIDLEY’S DARK, DARING DRAMA IS A MINISERIES THAT ECHOES

Left to right: creator TODAY’S HEADLINES John Ridley, actors Felicity Huffman, Elvis Nolasco and Richard Cabral. PHOTOGRAPHED BY DOVE SHORE

Styling by JORDAN GROSSMAN Huffman wears a white Asillo dress; Ridley wears a black-hooded Guess jacket; Cabral in a Jacob Davis jacket and Anthony Franco pants; Nolasco in a Bravery for All jacket A CHRONICLE OF TROUBLED TIMES — RACE, CLASS AND AMERICAN CRIME BREAKING THE NETWORK MOLD

BY PETER BISKIND

inally, the greening of the networks, where the only good relationship is at least ABC, where a few sprouts between two hardcore dopers. Even more are poking up above the dry, arid soil. difficult to get away with, the characters I’m thinking mainly of John Ridley’s are not only unlikable, they are played American Crime, a series unlike by actors who either look like normal Fanything I’ve seen on network—or cable people—no detectives might be models—or either, for that matter. are actually unattractive, some even hard Almost everything about it would to look at. And yet their humanity comes have made it persona non grata at a net- through. work as recently as a year ago. Finally, Even the editing is unorthodox, “My life and my character are a show that’s about something, that with lots of flash cutaways, overlapping resonates with American reality circa sound, sound and picture going their own intertwined. My family had 2015—Ferguson, Baltimore, Cleveland, separate ways. Those devices would get been in gangs since the 1970s, etc.—without being, excepting one or two Ridley’s knuckles rapped in film school, slips, preachy. The crime in question is but here they’re an index of how far the and by the time I came of age the home-invasion murder of a white ABC seems willing to go to break the Modesto war vet, and its tragic effects mold, and accept new, non-formulaic in a broken home, I didn't know on the victim’s bitterly divorced parents artisanal storytelling. there was anything else. We (Felicity Huffman and Timothy Hutton), Of course, he gets away with a lot rid- his wife’s folks (W. Earl Brown and ing his strengths: spare, powerful scripts don’t know anything different, Penelope Ann Miller), and the suspects: a and smart direction that refuses to pander but it changes us. The trauma black meth head (Elvis Nolasco), his white to the audience. Like Bennett Miller in girlfriend (Caitlin Gerard), a Mexican- Foxcatcher, he gets some of his strongest changes us, the violence American teen (Johnny Ortiz), and a effects by withholding information with tattooed hustler (Richard Cabral, a former long shots where we don’t hear what’s changes us, jail changes us. gangster turned rising actor). It presents being said, and this in a network series And you can strive to change a gallery of totally unlikable characters— where conventional practice dictates whiny, self-pitying, lying, violent people, overstating and underlining every plot yourself, but not everybody point. makes it.” And of course, there are the stunning performances by all hands. I’ve always —RICHARD CABRAL admired Felicity Huffman, but who knew she could deliver an Emmy-level impression of a relentlessly bitter, racist, but somehow sympathetic mother, the way she does here? The rest of the cast— especially Hutton, House of Cards’ Benito Martinez (as the Mexican-American kid’s all too cop-trusting dad), Regina King (as the meth addict’s activist Nation of Islam sister), Gerard and Cabral—match her beat for beat. I could have done without the pre-chewed message delivered by fatuous men of the cloth in the preamble to the finale, suggesting that Ridley didn’t trust his own narrative skills, but the rest of it is a knockout. American Crime proves that maybe, just maybe, the networks are responding to pressure from cable, pull- ing their heads out of the sand, and best of all, suggests that the TV renaissance

ABC isn’t over. W

14 / THEWRAP / JUNE 15, 2015

‘WE’RE PUTTING OURSELVES IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE’ A Conversation With Showrunner John Ridley

BC came to John Ridley with an idea for Ascendancy for the Modern American the show that became American Crime Nigger”] that dealt with race, and how the long before the writer-director-produc- media can be sidetracked from the bigger er won an Oscar for his screenplay for picture. 12 Years a Slave, because the network My point with that article is that we get andA producer Michael McDonald knew that focused on the tip of the iceberg. And the Ridley had been exploring issues of race in reality is that these situations are far more America for years. Not only did his previous complex than we tend to give the space. One of films include Spike Lee’s Red Tails, but he had the things coming out of Ferguson is that Eric been writing commentary on the topic for such Holder, our attorney general, who I would give outlets as NPR and Esquire. deference to, said that there was not enough evidence to indict this officer [who shot and STEVE POND It was disconcerting to watch killed Michael Brown]. But what he also found some of the later episodes of American Crime was that there were these daily indignities, “Whether it’s racial issues, followed by newscasts about what was hap- these systemic biases that were going on in pening in Baltimore. Ferguson every single day. But we would not police profiling, the judicial JOHN RIDLEY Yeah. Before the show started, know this had this young man not been shot. system, these are the we had Trayvon. In the middle of it we had His being shot was not necessarily directly Ferguson. And as we closed out, Baltimore. related to all these other things, but certainly kind of issues we’ve been I went from feeling like maybe we’re not was suborned by these things. And that to dealing with in American relevant, maybe we’re post whatever we were me is the problem: Why does it take a young going through, to a sense of being too timely. man being shot to pay attention when people society for years—and as say, “We’re being hurt every day, we’re being we kept shooting, more and Didn’t you rework some of the show when crushed every day”? Ferguson happened during the shoot? more stories were coming We did. Even though it’s a created show, we We always hear, “We need to have a conver- have to remind people that this is going on sation about race.” But does the conversation out in the news. Is the show in the real world. We changed some things— ever really advance beyond that statement? a mirror of what’s going more images than words, just to remind all of No. I mean, look: There are folks who, forget us that this has an immediacy. And I think it about a conversation about race, they can’t on? It’s a human story, made me keep the show dark a little longer—it have a conversation about lawn care or sports. and there definitely are didn’t feel right to start bringing in hope as The people who need to have a conversation early as I was going to do. about race need to start someplace else. It can’t parallels.” But with Baltimore, I think it was good that be, “I’ve never met a person of color in my life. we were wrapped. There was not just Trayvon, Slavery, let’s go.” —ELVIS NOLASCO not just Ferguson, not just Madison, Wisconsin, I mean, you can see how sensitive a guy like not just South Carolina, but Baltimore. I was Ben Affleck was, and rightfully so. Can you truly getting frustrated. It was good that we imagine? You go through your history and find were done, because there was the desire: “Oh, an ancestor who owned slaves? Oh, Jesus. Who man, I wish I could comment on that.” And peo- wants to acknowledge that kind of thing? So ple didn’t need me using the show to preach. you can imagine people who have never been in a space where they’ve dealt with things on This is a subject you’ve been exploring that level—are they going to start with slavery, for years, including a controversial essay start with the Trail of Tears, start with Cesar for Esquire in 2006 [“The Manifesto of Chavez? You cannot start at that point.

16 / THEWRAP / JUNE 15, 2015 Elvis Nolasco, left, piays a drug addict and accused murderer clinging to his relationship with another addict, played by Caitlin Gerard. Below, creator John Ridley talks to Timothy Hutton, who plays the victim’s anguished father. VAN REDIN/ABC VAN

I hope that this show is not about “conversations about race.” I hope that it is about emotions and commonalities, and people feeling something they did not expect.

What was ABC looking for when they came to you? They approached me with the idea of looking at one of those “trials of the century,” like Trayvon Martin and Jodi Arias, where people were galvanized about race, about sexual politics or gender politics. The subject matter was interesting, but I thought, how do you separate that from other terrific shows like Murder One or Law & Order? What about the families of the victims, the families of the accused? How do they behave, how are they forced to behave in front of the camera and away from the camera? How do they interact? So that’s what I came back with: Let’s not do a procedural. Let’s not make it about the police or the prosecutors. It’s about people.

It’s a very different approach to the topic than, say, your script for 12 Years a Slave. It’s looking at race or class or orientation or biases in the now. When I did Red Tails or 12 Years a Slave, it was looking at ourselves in the past. That’s more comforting, because I’m not talking about you, I’m talking about those bad people back there. People can go, “Wow, haven’t we evolved?” It’s a whole other thing to say, “I’m talking about us now.” We are not doing history. We are doing something that is far more immediate than any of us ever believed when we were getting into it. And on a broadcast network, people are going to come to us in a different way than they would if we were on Netflix, than they would if we were on cable. So we’re very much putting ourselves in the public square as far as faith, race, biases, ethnicity. And for a network to have the capacity and the wherewithal to withstand all that is really pretty amazing.

Do you see yourself sticking with these themes? This is a subject matter that’s not going away, and I feel like I’m staying with it in some way, shape or form. Two years from now, three years from now, I can promise you I will still be exploring this space. W

MOVIES/LIMITED SERIES / 17

Honorable & Fierce MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL WAGES A CONSTANT STRUGGLE TO PLAY REAL, MULTI-FACETED WOMEN ONSCREEN

BY SHARON WAXMAN PHOTOGRAPHED BY J.R. MANKOFF Would this be a biopic? I think probably it will be a long-form television series, just like The Honorable Woman.

How did you find that role? It just came to me. Most of the time the things that you’re meant to do, there’s an ease in the way they come to you. I read it over a weekend, my manager and I were reading it together. We both have little kids and we’d keep calling each other. “Have you read to Episode 3?” “No, I have to put my kid to bed.” I was really, really blown away by the script, by the spectrum of the person On television, Maggie I could play. I’d never seen anything Gyllenhaal defines strength, leadership, vulnerability, naïvete like that before. Not just because it is and femininity as the lead in The Honorable Woman, where eight hours long and written by someone she plays Nessa Stein, the head of a Jewish industrialist family who was interested in women. It’s an caught in the tangled web of Israeli-Palestinian politics. In unusual part of women not usually put real life, Gyllenhaal has been defining those same traits: Her on television. outspoken remarks on ageism in Hollywood, published online in advance of this magazine, set off a firestorm of debate, driving In what way? tens of thousands of tweets, a Facebook trend and hundreds of She’s very intelligent, very graceful, comments on TheWrap. powerful—and also, at the same time, The conversation with Gyllenhaal started with no agenda like a tiny baby, totally disoriented and except to talk about how her performance on the Sundance confused. She’s full of sexuality and Channel show last year was sparking Emmy buzz. (She has femininity at times. And other times, already won the Golden Globe for the role.) She was headed to not at all. She’s terrified and extreme- the airport with husband Peter Sarsgaard and en route spoke ly brave, and all the things that lie in about her career, the scripts she gets and why she favors strong- between. Like all of us actually are. minded roles. There’s usually not an interest in exploring all those things. SHARON WAXMAN What are you up to at the moment? There’s a fantasy of what we think MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL I finished The Real Thing on Broadway, we’re supposed to be—that’s the script and I’m developing some interesting things I’m excited about. that I usually get. After Crazy Heart, I’m not shooting. Working on The Honorable Woman and with so many scripts I got were for the sexy Tom Stoppard—[after that] it’s hard to find something that really single mom. So where is the kid when turns me on. It’s a luxury to take a second and wait and look for you’re fucking on the kitchen floor? I something that’s really exciting. can’t relate to those except in a kind of fantasy way. What are you developing? I often get sent scripts of women who are completely We’re developing this really interesting thing about this woman crazy and fucked up. And yes, there are some people that are Maggie Gyllenhaal Victoria Woodhull, who in the 1860s and ‘70s was a spiritualist. that far over on that spectrum, but most people just have a in The Honorable Woman, above, and There was a big movement toward spiritualism then. It was after little flash of that. photographed by J.R. the Civil War, everyone had lost people important to them. She Because of Nessa, lately I get sent very, very powerful, Mankoff on May 19 at was probably a prostitute, a stockbroker, an advisor to Cornelius exemplary women. And that, also, I don’t buy. We actually live the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood. Vanderbilt and the first woman to ever run for president. somewhere in between. That’s the thing that excites me.

20 / THEWRAP / JUNE 15, 2015 I’m 37 and I was told recently I was too old to play the lover of a man who was 55.”

she’s supposed to be. By the end of the first episode, that veneer starts to crack. Then you have a couple of episodes of her trying to keep it together, and she gets carried out into the ocean of being alive. I totally relate to that, in my own much less Greek, operatic way.

Does Peter chime in on the work? Peter read a little of Honorable Woman for me, which is really unusual. I said, “I can’t do this job. I’d have to take our kids to London and Morocco—it’s eight hours of television.” He said, “I don’t see how you can say no to this.” He really did push me to take it, and to do it. It was a beautiful thing. We talk about the work when we’re having a problem, mostly. Sometimes talking about what happened during the day is a way of making a connection. When you’re working hard, you don’t see each other that much. There’s no one who sees my work more clearly than he does.

I almost hate to ask about this, because I don’t want to sound cliché, but there’s a lot of discussion about where women are in the entertainment industry. How do you feel about that situation? I did go see Mad Max this weekend, and Charlize Theron fucking killed it. That’s a much larger-than-life movie, it’s not about reality, but she’s playing a woman that I felt I could relate to. She swung open the door for all sorts of things in film. I read somewhere that [director George Miller] wants to do two more. If that’s true, then we’re going to be seeing this beautiful, powerful, intelligent, breathtaking woman in her forties at the center of this piece. An action movie star. That’s amazing. In terms of film, I read very little that’s exciting to me. In TV I read things that are more interesting, but I also read a lot of things that are really bad. Men and women are both looking for women to be real, something that actually looks like the world around us. There are things that are really disappointing about being an actress in Hollywood that surprise me all the time. I’m 37 and I was told recently I was too old to play the lover of a man who was 55. It was astonishing to me. It made me feel bad, and then it made me feel angry, and then it made me laugh. But at the same time, I feel like things are pretty amazing right now. A lot of actresses are doing incredible work playing Nessa goes through high drama—having a child with a terrorist, real women. I don’t feel despairing at all. I’m not turning a blind for example. eye to the sometimes really disappointing reality, but I’m more The stuff that Nessa was dealing with—it’s an opera, definite- interested in looking with hope for something fascinating. ly, larger than life. Peter, my husband, said it’s Greek. But the It sounds naïve, but there’s a naïve element and pure element things Nessa is fundamentally dealing with are things I relate to what’s happening in television now. I feel really hopeful about to as a woman in her thirties. When the piece begins, she’s it. Everything I have, except for one project for $500,000, every doing an exquisite job of performing herself, of who she thinks idea I have, I want to make on television right now. W

MOVIES/LIMITED SERIES / 21 sex & death, tudor style Wolf Hall makes Henry VIII’s bloody power games both logical and personal

BY TIM APPELO

ven if you’ve seen A Man for All Seasons and Anne onscreen Stateside. “He’s like a brick wall to Anne,” said Foy. of the Thousand Days a thousand times, few things “He’s got that unbreakable reserve—you don’t know what on television are fresher than Wolf Hall. The BBC/ powers he has.” When Cromwell’s searchlight eyes notice PBS miniseries of Hilary Mantel’s Booker Prize- something his opponents don’t, he puts a word in the King’s winning fiction is about Thomas Cromwell, the ear, and the rivals are done for. “Mark is the still center of a Ebutcher’s son who rose to power by helping Henry VIII dump his spinning world,” said Lewis. wife to marry (and later behead) the haughty hottie Anne Boleyn His own character is a far cry from the familiar. “This idea in 1533. Mark Rylance as Cromwell may be the most amazing- of Henry as this philandering, drunk, sybaritic Elvis type is ly restrained Emmy heavyweight in history, and he’s joined in probably not accurate,” said Lewis, who plays him as impulsive the ranks of contenders by Damian Lewis’s Henry, Claire Foy’s yet cunning. “He’s a dangerous man—mercurial, changeable, a Boleyn, Jonathan Pryce’s Cardinal Wolsey and the miniseries huntsman, falconer, composer, archer, taller than anyone else— itself, nominated for four Critics’ Choice Television Awards. really a rock star of his time. His tragedy is, he killed the people The familiar tale plays out with a vivid historical immediacy, he loved. As Wolsey said, ‘Be mindful of what ye shall put into

↑ Above, Mark lit by 4,000 candles, not modern spotlights. “The director, Peter the King’s ear, for ye shall never pull it out again.’” Rylance as Thomas Kosminsky [White Oleander], started as a documentary filmmak- Because Henry was brought up surrounded by strong wom- Cromwell in Wolf er, and naturalism is his personal taste,” Lewis told TheWrap. en, he wanted one for a bride. “I don’t think he defied Rome just Hall; opposite page, Damian Lewis as King “Nobody feels like they’re acting.” Added Foy, “It’s very subtle, to get into her panties,” said Lewis of Boleyn. “He was also per- Henry VIII and Claire and that’s what’s great about it.” suaded by the intellectual rigor of her argument to have a look Foy as Anne Boleyn.

The subtlety of British stage great Rylance is seldom seen at the Protestant faith.” And she was smart to tantalize Henry by GETTYIMAGES BBC/PBS;

22 / THEWRAP / JUNE 15, 2015 FOUR WAYS IN WHICH WOLF HALL IS LIKE GAME OF THRONES AND EMPIRE “WOLF HALL IS LIKE EMPIRE 500 YEARS AGO, AND IT’S ALSO ALMOST LIKE A SEQUEL TO GAME OF THRONES,” THE SHOW’S PRODUCER, COLIN CALLENDER, TOLD THEWRAP. HERE’S WHY:

Like Lucious Lyons, Terrence Howard’s hip-hop mogul on Empire, Wolf Hall’s Henry VIII is a guy with dicey health vying for power with 1. an ex and a formidable wife in a murderous, glamorous business. Game of Thrones was partially inspired by England’s War of the Roses, which happened just before the time of Henry VIII 2.depicted in Wolf Hall. Lena Headey’s Cersei Lannister on GoT is like Margaret of Anjou, the “she-wolf” who helped provoke the War of the 3. Roses, and who shared Cersei’s yen for heads on spikes. GoT’s sneaky character Petyr Baelish (Aidan Gillen) and Wolf Hall hero Thomas Cromwell (Mark Rylance) are both cunning, low-born 4. advisors to kings and masters of court intrigue.

denying him access to said panties. “She made him wait for five years, and treat her like a real romantic suitor.” AND THREE WAYS IN WHICH IT’S NOT Wolf Hall dazzlingly dramatizes real-seeming people driven by palpable passions. “Claire’s not afraid to seem You can tell in Rylance’s sad eyes that Cromwell feels unlikeable as Anne,” said Lewis. “She’s dismissive, snob- bish, but calculating—there’s a burning intelligence and bad about having people killed. Baelish has yet to show ambition in her eyes. And those big eyes of Claire’s are anything approaching regret. so captivating! It’s very easy to imagine Henry falling in 1. love with her and being driven to distraction, going once “Wolf Hall has a little less leather a week to stroke her thigh, and that was the extent of his action for that week.” than Game of Thrones, and definitely When she realizes she’s lost Henry’s heart (and a lot less nudity,” said star Claire Foy. therefore, soon, her head), her luminously expressive face 2. records a dozen emotions. “It’s like the stages of grief,” Empire includes songs from Mary J. Blige, said Foy. “Hang on, this is real, this is actually happening! The jig is up.” The achievement of Wolf Hall is to make the Jennifer Hudson, Juicy J and Courtney Love, bloody power game of Henry’s court seem utterly logical, while the distinctly unfunky “Greensleeves” deeply personal, and as sharp as an axe in the hands of a 3. topped the charts in Henry’s court.

BBC/PBS; GETTYIMAGES GETTYIMAGES BBC/PBS; gifted headsman. W

MOVIES/LIMITED SERIES / 23 JESSICA LANGE’S AMERICAN HORROR STORY SWAN SONG For four seasons on Ryan Murphy’s anthology series, the actress found herself in the deep end

BY MATT DONNELLY

s Jessica Lange’s run on FX’s American Horror Story comes to an end after four seasons, two Emmys, three Emmy nominations, a SAG Award and a Golden Globe, show creator Ryan Murphy has many reasons to thank the leading lady who gave his horror anthology both Aweight and class. And the feeling, clearly, is mutual. “I feel like Ryan, who I think is a genius, gave me four of the best characters that I’ve ever played over my entire career,” Lange told TheWrap by phone from her New Orleans residence. “There’s always things about the work that you don’t agree with or whatever, but I have to say it was thrilling. There was something in the way that we shot—the chaos, the velocity—that opened up a whole new way for me to work.” Riding high on the success of Fox’s Glee in 2011, Murphy had wanted to explore the horror genre on television. His first step was securing an icon to anchor the series, one who would at first deceive the public regarding the format of a show that would change themes and characters with each season but retain most of its repertory players. And Lange made a bet that Murphy’s experiment was a golden opportunity to do brilliant character studies and introduce herself to new generations with the artful camp Murphy is famous for. ↑ Clockwise from above: Jessica That camp took Lange to dizzying new places. Across four Lange sings “Gods years of Horror Story, she played a homicidal woman responsible & Monsters” on for raising the Antichrist in the first season, subtitled Murder escaped from Germany and came to the U.S. to run a Florida American Horror Story: Freak Show; with Ryan House; a deranged nun who administered corporal punishment freak show. Murphy at the Santa and electroshock therapy to the criminally insane in Season 2, “You could never be tentative,” she said. “You just had to be Barbara International Asylum; a witch selling her soul to an ancient voodoo deity who brave, you had to trust your instincts and you just had to jump in Film Festival; opposite page, at the demanded primo cocaine to sweeten the deal in Coven; and, in the deep end from the very beginning. It came at exactly the right Emmys with co-star this past season, Freak House, a Weimar Republic dominatrix, time in my work, something that I really needed—to mix it all up.” Sarah Paulson.

Elsa, whose legs were amputated in a snuff film before she The workload hit a sweet spot for Lange, who, despite the FX IMAGES GETTY

24 / THEWRAP / JUNE 15, 2015 have to sustain this character year after year. That doesn’t interest me.” But while her four AHS characters were dramatically different, the veteran actress found common ground. “There was a thread through all four of those characters, which is a kind of desperation, a profound disappointment in life,” said Lange. “As on-edge or neurasthenic as they appear to be, they have a spine of steel. It’s exactly the kind of complexity in a character that I love, that it appears to be one thing and it’s something else.” “With Elsa [the legless dominatrix], she had that killer instinct and yet she was like this wounded bird. It’s wonderful to be able to “I feel like play those extremes. She’s in some ways so stoic and coldhearted, but Ryan, who she’s barely surviving. She’s barely I think is functioning.” It’s not surprising that the a genius, Oscar-winning actress could handle complexity, but don’t let it gave me be said that American Horror Story four of didn’t throw her curveballs—for instance, when the godfather of the best Glee asked Lange to sing. characters “I got to sing David Bowie!” she said of one of several Freak Show that I’ve musical numbers, which included ever Bowie’s “Life on Mars” and Lana Del Rey’s “Gods & Monsters.” played “When am I ever going to get that opportunity? It’s crazy.” It also har- over my kened back to a scene in Aslyum in entire which she performed Shirley Ellis’ quirky classic “The Name Game” career.” with co-stars Sarah Paulson and — Lange Evan Peters. The moment generat- ed rampant Twitter conversation, a medium on which the series is consistently a top trend—not that Lange is paying much attention. “I am so not into social media,” she said with a laugh. “The tweet- ing, the Facebook, the pictures of one’s self [a.k.a. selfies]. I’m firmly opposed to all of it.” But she’s not, she admits, firmly occasional 17-hour day, felt the limited series format gave opposed to a return to the American Horror Story universe, her just enough time to relish a character before moving on. even as a fifth, Lange-less season arrives this fall with Lady “You don’t have to tell the whole story in an hour and twenty Gaga, Matt Bomer, Angela Bassett and Kathy Bates. minutes, so you’ve got certain hours of unrolling, unspooling.” “Who knows?” she said. “If Ryan came to me and said, she said. “It was a perfect storm, in a way, because I got to play ‘Would you want to do a small character for a couple epi- these fabulous characters for 13 hours and then walk away sodes?’ I would absolutely say yes if I liked it. This was a great

FX IMAGES GETTY from it, which is very different from a drama series. There you collaboration, so I would love to keep working with him.” W

MOVIES/LIMITED SERIES / 25 A METHOD TO HIS MADNESS David Oyelowo’s descent into split personalities in Nightingale led directly to Selma

BY LINDA GE

avid Oyelowo is a well-known and well-respected actor these days, thanks in no small part to his Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice and Independent Spirit-nominated performance as DDr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in last year’s Oscar-nominated Selma. But it’s Elliott Lester’s Nightingale, an HBO movie that premiered in May, that prepared him to play such an iconic figure. It’s the The Nightingale role of a mentally unbal- anced veteran was to be Oyelowo’s first film kind of lead when he signed on in 2013. The film was role that also, crucially, the first time he decided to try method acting. That decision to stay in char- any actor acter for the duration of the shoot, he told looking TheWrap, was necessitated by the story of Nightingale, in which his character Peter, a war to push veteran who commits a heinous act and suffers from delusions and split personalities, is the himself only person on screen for the entire film. wants.” “I’d never done [method acting] before, partly because I was histories of each of the variations of him. In order to believe concerned about coming off as a pretentious actor,” Oyelowo said what he believes about Edward, the man he’s infatuated with, with a laugh. “I’d been around actors who did it to great effect, there’s a specific history he’s built in his head to enable him to some of those being Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland feel that way. There’s a specific history he has with his mother, and Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln. The results are undeniable. I in order to live with the choices he’s made in relation to her. And think I just never had a role where it felt necessary to use it. so all those different variations of him have their own specific “But when I learned that there were various versions of Peter histories.” in the same human being, I realized that to have David in there Oyelowo went on to use method acting to play King in Selma, as well was just going to be too much. To be on set and interact- and credits his experience on the HBO film for the decision. ing with people as myself and then have to get into character—I “I don’t know that I would have made that choice if I didn’t do just didn’t feel like I would be able to immerse myself as much as Nightingale first and feel the effect,” he said. I would like.” And even though he’s now in a very different place than Oyelowo typically prepares extensively for his roles, but he was a few years ago when he took the job on Nightingale, ↑ David Oyelowo is the only actor Nightingale required even more prep than usual, despite the fact he would still take the role all over again. “I think I would have onscreen in HBO’s that the character remains mostly mysterious to the audience. taken Nightingale at any point in my career,” he said. “It’s the kind Nightingale. ”I knew “I always have a fairly fleshed-out notion of who the charac- of role that every actor who is looking to push themselves would if it failed ,” he tells TheWrap, “it would ters I’m playing are,” he said. “That’s just something I do regard- read and then think, ‘Wow, okay, let me take a breath here be glaringly obvious less of whether that is hugely important for the audience or before I dive in.’ Which is what I will always look for, I hope, in whose fault it was.”

not. But for Peter, I felt that it was very important to have the my career.” W HBO ONE/STARZ BBC

26 / THEWRAP / JUNE 15, 2015 THE DARK SIDE

← “It’s a story of love and loss—about the the 50-year-old actor, who was born in best we can be, and Northern Ireland, added, “It was vital the worst,” says James Nesbitt, playing a that we shot one time zone and then the father whose son next, and what helped enormously is that disappears in The we shot the present-day stuff first. The Missing. weather was sort of gloomy and cold—it matched the template of the story.” Another tool the actor credits for grounding him across time: having the same director, British TV vet Tom Shankland, for the duration of the shoot. “I was lucky we had one director through- out, which is becoming quite unusual,” he said. “Certainly, over here, I’m not sure if that had been done before.” Shankland’s priority was to isolate Nesbitt while the actor worked to create Tony. “He never let me get away from where I was in the story,” Nesbitt said. “What helped was being very isolated, being away from my own daughters during the week. I was able to try to create Tony’s world as much as possible on my own in Brussels. “I turned my apartment into a kind he cliché has it that in comedy, of Tony den. I had all the case reports, timing is everything—but never possible sightings up on the wall, media T underestimate its relevance in reports. I lived quite like him, and that drama, too. Take James Nesbitt and his helped being in the moment. When I came THE riveting turn in the limited series The home on the weekend to my girls I was Missing, which follows the disappearance very ready to step outside that.” of a five-year-old boy and its effect on The series made a celebrity out of numerous characters over eight years. Nesbitt in London, which took the veteran Nesbitt plays Tony Hughes, an every- actor by surprise. “I’ve never had any- man who loses track of his boy Oliver thing like it,” he said. “I travel on the Tube HAUNTED on holiday in France. A darker mystery daily, and people were kind of grabbing unfolds almost immediately, taking the me, desperate to know what happened series into True Detective territory, but with the characters. Audiences are a lot the mystery is balanced with wrenching more intelligent than we give them credit emotional portraits of a husband, a wife for—they’re not just crying out for a diet and their grief. of reality TV or home improvement. They MAN Originally airing on BBC One before love drama, and there’s still a place for James Nesbitt explores isolation heading stateside to Starz last fall, the intelligent human drama.” and obsession in The Missing series is split between two time periods: Mild spoiler: Tony Hughes’ journey Oliver Hughes’ original disappearance doesn’t end so much as it spirals down- BY MATT DONNELLY in 2006, and a reopening of the case in ward, with the character never truly 2014, when new information emerges. As accepting his son’s fate. The last glimpses Nesbitt’s Hughes and a detective played we have are of a hunched, disheveled by Tchéky Karyo veer off into obsession, Hughes in an ice-coated apartment com- Oliver’s mother Emily (Frances O’Connor) plex in Russia, knocking on the door of attempts to move on. a home where a young boy resides who “There are various targets to meet in Nesbitt’s haunted character believes to be the two time zones in terms of perfor- Oliver. mance,” said Nesbitt, who won BAFTA TV “There was a moment when we and Critics’ Choice Television Award nom- thought, Maybe there’s hope for him,” said inations for the role. “It’s a big journey, a Nesbitt. “Maybe he will get it together and big arc, and thankfully the writing was find peace. But I think the only peace he strong enough to support that.” can have is that demented peace, where

HBO ONE/STARZ BBC Speaking to TheWrap from London, he can only be searching.” W

MOVIES/LIMITED SERIES / 27 EMMY’S BACK PAGES / Bill’s Excellent Adventure Bill Murray’s Low-Grade Awards Infection BY STEVE POND

f the pundits are to be believed, Bill Murray is the odds-on favorite to win the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Movie or Limited Series this year for his role as a stuffy Harvard grad who dates Frances McDormand’s Ititle character in the HBO miniseries Olive Kitteridge. Of course it’s premature to be engraving a statuette, since the nominations are still a month away—and with the 64-year-old actor being the elusive sort, it’s hard to tell if he’ll even show up in the event that he’s nominated. But if he did, it wouldn’t be his first trip to the Emmys. Murray, in fact, won the award back in 1977, after his first year in the cast of Saturday Night Live. He didn’t win for performing on that show—and was never even nominated for playing Nick the Lounge Singer or Todd the Nerd—but as one of a team of SNL writers including Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Lorne Michaels, the late Michael O’Donoghue and the current senator from Minnesota, Al Franken. Murray won a second nomination for SNL two years later, when show stars were included as nominees in the Outstanding Comedy-Variety or Music Program category. And he showed up at the ceremo- ny to watch his program lose to the Steve Lawrence/ Eydie Gorme music show Steve & Eydie Celebrate Irving Berlin, on a night when the miniseries Roots was the big winner. But over the years Murray became less visible, dropping his agent and making it famously difficult for filmmakers to reach out to him. And anyone who thinks he might hit the campaign trail for Olive Kitteridge wasn’t paying attention a dozen years ago, when he found himself landing an Oscar nomination after winning the Golden Globe and an array of critics’ Murray looked awards for Lost in Translation. delighted to be “I was just sort of surprised,” he told Charlie Rose years later of losing to Sean Penn in Mystic River. “I at the Emmys in wasn’t, like, angry or anything. But…about six months later, I realized that I’d come down with something… 1979, when he I sort of had a low-grade infection of liking winning was nominated the prize, and wanting to win the prize. It was only months later I went, ‘Oh my god, look what happened for SNL.

to me.’” W GETTYTIMAGES

28 / THEWRAP / JUNE 15, 2015 WE CHAMPION, RECOGNIZE AND UNITE THROUGH CINEMA

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GRILL THE connect : debate : think : grow The 6th annual conference TheGrill will be held on October 5–6, 2015 hosted at Montage Beverly Hills

TheGrill is the leading, annual conversation about the convergence between GRILL Entertainment, Media and Technology, bringing newsmakers together to debate the challenges and opportunities facing content in the digital age.

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