"Right now on "Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter"..." "He was like-- ( sniffs ) he grabbed my head, and he's like, "Why does your head smell like goat ass?"" " ( laughter )" " What?" "I got told I wasn't hot enough, and they said, like," ""Would you come back and sex it up a little bit?"" "Ecch." "Yeah,butIdid it,  and I still didn't get the part." "( laughter )" "We'llhearfromthe year's mostbuzzed-aboutdrama actresses in television..." "Welcome to "Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter."" "I'm Stacey Wilson, awards editor at "The Hollywood Reporter"" "and your host." "Listen in as we sit down with the actresses who delivered the year's most compelling dramatic performances." "The roles for which you're here today, your current roles, what was the most surprising to you about playing those roles, and what scared you most?" "And, Lizzy, "Masters of Sex"" "is clearly your most dramatic undertaking." " Yes." " What frightened you the most about making that transition?" "'Cause you had done mostly comedic roles." "The transition itself was really scary for me." "Luckily it served the character really well to feel like a fish out of water, tobeintimidatedbytheman I was working with andfeellikehewas just more established intheworld I was entering into." "Itendedup reallyhelpingme." "Eventhough,yes, it's a very dramatic role," "I see myself as somebody who can do both now, which I did not see myself as somebody who could do both before, but I believe that the best dramas have moments of comedy and levity," " and the best comedies..." " Yes, absolutely." "have moments of, you know, real depth and emotional depth." "And that's what audiences are coming to expect, which is really nice, and so as an actor, you can find a role that has both of those things." "How 'bout the rest of you, your current roles?" "Start with Taraji your-- the most flashy..." "IhatethatbitchCookie." "She has stolen my identity." "I'mgettingcalled Cookie everywhere." "Peopledon't--my friends don't want to talk to me unless it's about Cookie, and I hate her." "Well, it's the curse of nailing a part like you have." "Well, thank you." "( laughter )" "Um, Cookie scared the hell out of me." " Why?" " I got that script." "Iwasdoingaplay ." "And so my manager was like, "Oh, God, you gotta read this script,"" "I said, "Didn't I tell you I don't wanna do any more television?" "Why are you talking to me?" "Good-bye." "I gotta go over my lines."" "And so finally I get home, and I read the script." "And I'm like, "Ehh." "Hip-hop."" "( scoffs )" " ( laughter )" " So I'm reading it, and I'm like, "Oh, my God." "What are they trying to do?" "Fox is gonna pick this up?" "This is not HBO?"" "And then I got nervous, and I got up, and I started pacing the floor, and my dog is pacing me." "'Cause now my brain is like, "Okay, ooh, people are-- were gonna get pissed off." "Oh, my God, Cookie is so bigger than life." "Itcouldgo eitherway ." "Youcouldeitherloveher or hate her." "She beats her son with a broom?"" " I mean, I was petrified." " Yeah." "But then, for me, that fear means it's a challenge that I had to take on." "Because if it doesn't shake me up, then why am I doing it?" "I'm not servicing the character or the fans if I just walk though it, you know what I mean?" "And that's not what I got in this industry to do." "Art is so powerful, and I felt like the subject matter that this project dealt with issomething that we'd never seen onprime-time network television, and I feel like" " I was like, well, if anything, if people receive it and if we do it well, if we handle it well, then it's gonna force people to have conversations that they are afraid to have," "and that's what art is supposed to do in my opinion." "So I thought, "Wow, finally, for a chance, you know, we get to, like, shake it up a bit."" "I just didn't know it was gonna shake up this much." "So let me get this straight." "Last Wednesday, you come to my house and give me a rose after you propose to that bitch?" "Watch yourself, Cookie." " What rose is she talking about?" " Watch yourself, Lucious." "The rose was a-- a friendly reminder of where we were yesterday." "That'sallit was." "Hmm." " Friendly?" " ( gasps)" "You think I came here dressed like this for a friendly get-together?" "How much of you did you bring to Cookie?" "Like, the final product, how much was on the page versus what we ended up seeing?" "A lot of the one-liners" "I create a lot of the one-liners, but a lot of people think that that's coming from a woman that I know in my life." "Actually, Cookie is my dad." "He was very straight, no chaser," "He said it like it was, and nine times out of 10, he was right." "You either loved him, or you hated him, because he was speaking truth, straight truth right at you." "What are some of his lines that you...?" "The goat-ass thing about the hair, that was his." "Um..." "I didn't wash my hair for two weeks one time, because it just kept the curl better when it was dirty." "And we were on a public bus, and he was like-- ( sniffs ) grabbed my head, and he's like, "Why does your head smell like goat ass?"" "Infrontof the-- everybody on the bus." "Well,I learnedthelesson." "I wash my hair every three days now, so thanks, Dad." "May you rest in peace." "Hadyouwashedyourhair , we wouldn't have that gem of a line, so..." "That's true." "See?" "Everything happens in life for a reason." " Roles come to you..." " ( laughter )" "How' bouttherestofyou?" "Viola, your first starring role in a prime-time series, that's a lot of pressure." "Yes, absolutely." "I had no precedent for this role." "I'd never seen anyone, 49-year-old, dark skin, woman, who was not a size two, be a sexualized role in TV, film..." " Ever." " anywhere, ever." "And then all of a sudden, this role came to me, but to say it was fear would be an understatement." "AndwhenIactuallysawmyself forthefirsttime in the pilot episode," "I was mortified." " Why?" " I'm just gonna be honest." "I saw the fake eyelashes." "I saw the wig." "I was like, "Are you kidding me?" "Who's gonna believe this?"" "And then my big aha moment was," ""Thisisyourmoment to not typecast yourself, to actually play a woman who is sexualized and actually do your work as an actor, your investigative work as an actor tofindout who this woman is andwomanup" "and put a real woman on TV that's smack-dab in the midst of this pop fiction." "I don't know what terrible things you've done in your life up to this point, but clearly your karma's out of balance to get assigned to my class." "I'm Professor Annalise Keating, and this is Criminal Law 100, or as I prefer to call it..." "How to get away with Murder." "And it's a chance for me to use my craft." "And don't you always think it's so much hotter, anyway, to see a woman who looks like an actual woman, whose, like, arms aren't perfect and whose" " Absolutely." " Except your arms are perfect." " ( laughter )" " Well, your arms are perfect." "Ican'tstoplooking at your arms." "I was just thinking about my arms." "I wasn't" "I'mactuallyreallycurious, like, how it feels to get one episode and say, like," ""I'm gonna do this thing for maybe many years, and..."" "Not know what's coming next." "And not know who's directing and not really even know who you're getting involved with?" "You know, but so the process of getting involved in "The Honorable Woman" was just like a movie." "I got all eight episodes at once." "Ireadthewholestory." "It was one director." "Itwasonewriter." "It was the same man wrote it and directed it." "Aboutthreedaysin,  I was like," ""This is eight hours long." You know?" "This is a scope I've never touched before." "And I had, like, a little panic in my trailer where I just kind of went, like, everybody is relying on me, and not only everybody on set, but also my two little girls..." " Exactly." " and my husband, and I just was like," ""How the ( bleep ) am I gonna do this?"" "And I had all my makeup on, andI hadabig scene to go and do." "I called my mom, which is weird." "I don't know why I did, and I kind of fix my makeup, and I went, "Okay, all I can do is just one thing at a time, and I can't do it brilliantly." "I can just do it."" "And I put all the feelings I was having into the scene I did, and the scene's pretty good." "It's actually not great." "It's all right, you know?" "And I had to sort of be okay with that and move on to the next scene." " Hey." " ( crying )" "I can't do this." "I can't." "Yes, you can." "Hey, we're strong, you and I." " What if they find out?" " They won't." "They might." "They will never find out." "I promise, never." "Never." "I don't know." "It posed all sorts of challenges all the way along, but I also have never learned more from anything." "My major concern was the ty-- yeah, signing up to something which you don't have a clue how it's gonna turn out." " Ah, yeah." "That's scary." " It's frightening." "And I-- you know, even halfway through the show," "Iwaslike, "I can't go even deeper intothesedepthsofdespair."" "I mean, I'm going further and further." "I'm gonna have a mental breakdown." "And I literally was like," ""I don't know how I'm gonna do this."" "I've got five weeks left." "I phoned my mum. "Mum."" "Without-- trying not to mess up your makeup." "She flew out, 'cause she was like, "Oh, I'm gonna be there."" "But it was like, "Mum, I don't know how I'm gonna get through these-- I'll cut myself."" "You did bear the brunt of a lot of the sadness." ""I've gotta walk in the sea." I was like, "Oh, my God, how do I get the journey of this?"" "Andonceyou'reinthework,  the anxiety goes away." "You're actually just in there digging deeper and finding the journey through." "I mean, having come from film to television, this is-- you know, these four seasons that I've done andthewaywe'veworked, which is the opposite of having a script." "You barely get the first one." "And then you think, "Oh." "Oh."" "Andit'sdifferent every season." "And it's different every season, so it's not even a character you've established ever before." "But I love that kind of tornado." "I love that chaos of not knowing where it's going, becauseitforcesyou , I think, as an actor, tolivewithinthe imagination rather than the idea of, like, okay, this is-- you know, you get a script." "You've got the first act, second act, third act, and you can see what the character's going to do, and you start to imagine how you're going to do it and get there and all of that." "But this way of working, to me, has been-- it's been so wild and so unstructured and so chaotic that I've found that the work itself" " has become more interesting..." " Yeah." "within that insanity." "Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves for the most death-defying scene." "Ittakesbutasplit-second for this knife to travel from my fingertips totheedgeofthewheel , a split-second that separates life from death." "Ineverthinkaboutthescene  the night before anymore." "Learnthelinessitting in the makeup trailer, andthenhitthe--youknow,  hit the stage, and it's amazing what comes." "( onlookers gasp )" "And it is so much more interesting to me to work that way than..." " TV affords you that." " Well, yes, especially this kind of TV, where you don't know, really," "I mean, from one moment to another, where your character's going." "Orsuddenly the backstory is introduced, and you discover that, you know, you've had your legs amputated in this..." " ( laughter )" " Or you were a man." "Oryouwerebornaman in, like, the Weimar Republic." "It's like, "Oh." "Oh, well, yeah, that makes it more interesting."" "Ryan Murphy was also throwing curveballs your direction." "Well, it's that element of surprise that they talk about in acting all the time and living in the moment." "Iusethatalot." "I ask myself a question," ""Why does the scene have to be that way?"" "Mm-hmm." "I'llsayit  completely different." "If I'm supposed to be screaming it, I'll say it calm." "And through that is a period of surprise and discovery where I find that the scene will take me to a place that's far more interesting than I possibly imagined when I was sitting in my living room." " Right." " Right." "But that-- see, that's the one thing" "I would say, like, about the" "Ihadarapescene in "The Honorable Woman,"" "where it was written really clearly." "I had, like, an idea about this scene which I'm glad I hold on to, which was, like, shewaswrittentobe immediately just saying, like," ""No, no." "Oh, no, no." "Please, no," right away." "And I wanted her to be, like, complicit, wanting sex, the strangest, darkest, most painful sex up until when it turns into rape." " Yeah, exactly." " You know, like," "I wanted her to want... something she knew she shouldn't want, like, all the way along." "That was, like, an idea I had in my living room." "Do you know what I mean?" "Like, it's like, that was an example of one where I was like, "How is this scene gonna work?"" " Like the way you're saying." " Yeah, exactly." "But sometimes you see-- I see actresses or actors, I see people who seem like they fought an ordinary idea with their mind, and I'm so glad they did, becauseittellsastory that's way more interesting." "Staytunedformoreinsights from this year's hottest drama actresses." "Welcome back to "Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter."" "We're talking with the year's mostbuzzed-about drama actresses." "I did want to get to something that affects every person at this table or has in your career, which is how to deal with nudity." "What is your relationship with having to do these kind of scenes now, and how has it changed since you were younger?" "And maybe start with Lizzy, because your show" " is definitely the most" " Show my titties all the time." " Showtits." " Yeah, Showtits." "Hey." " I think the time..." " ( laughter )" "People will meet you like, "Hey, it's nice to meet you." " I love your work."" " Yeah, a lot of that." "Like, my dad's friends, "I love the show."" "Oh, God." "Oh, God." "Oh,no." "That's the worst." "Yeah,itreallyis." "I think the moment that I was the most afraid of nudity was before I did it for the very first time, which was on another show, on "True Blood,"" "Andafterdoingit for the first time, itjustgotsomuch easier." "It still isn't my favorite thing to do at work." "It's never 100% comfortable, but I do think I'm at a point where it's as close as it's going to get." "We could have an affair." "Millions of people do, but an affair is a fairly pedestrian thing, andthestory always ends the same." "Does it?" "What we have between us is... so much more than that, more than a simple affair." "We have the work." "Therewasonemoment." "I actually just wat-- I haven't watched any of the second season of my show until last night." "There'sa moment where he, like, kindoftakesmyrobe off,  and I'm naked, and then I transition into a locked-eye, full-on masturbation scene, like from beginning to end" " completely naked." " Whoa." "Andthatmoment-- and mostly on my face, honestly." "We have a female show runner, andsheconsidersherself a bit of a prude." "Sheis ." " Yes, she is." "Wetalkedaboutit, yeah." "AndI don'tbelieve we have gratuitous sex scenes, eventhoughthere's so many sex scenes." "I really believe-- our show's about sex." "It moves the story forward, and we all really hold her to that, and it's not that difficult to do, because she doesn't really want to shoot those kind of scenes anyway." "But I remember being in my trailer and really for the first time since starting the show, thinking, "I don't want to do this." "I don't want to go out there and have to do this." "I'm very uncomfortable."" "Nobody was making me uncomfortable." "It's just ( bleep ) to have to sit there completely naked." "It's very vulnerable." "It's completely vulnerable." " Yeah." " Should be uncomfortable." "The reason-- exactly." "And it should be uncomfortable." "And the nature of that scene, it's the masturbation in front of a man is so easily, like, this sort of theatrical, like, moaning, like, "Oh, God,"" " but that's so for him..." " Right." "and that moment, it was the total opposite." "It was supposed to be for her." "Hewantsher to beg him for sex." "She's dominated him in that scene." "Yeah, and in that moment, it's so quiet, and, you know, she gets off, but it's for her." "Well, it's a power play." "It's not like, "Oh, look at me masturbating for your enjoyment."" "That said, it was rough." "The only-- the only good part about it is they're really cool when I say," ""Okay, let's do this in two takes, because I don't want to do this all day long,"" "and they're great about it." "And then two weeks later," "Michael Sheen had to do the exact same thing." "I think sex in film is so interesting." "I mean, of course it's uncomfortable to take your clothes off in front of people you don't know, and it feels weird, and-- but I think it can be such an opportunity for really interesting acting." "SoI 'm37, and I've had two babies, and I don't know." "I'm kind of, like, interested in nudity now, and like..." "More so than when you were younger?" "Iwasinterested in it then, too." "( laughter )" "But I mean-- but never-- look, I was never the actress who was asked to be the, like, hot girl who just took her clothes off on her first day of work." "I wasn't." "I never had that." "I always, whenever I was doing nudity, there was always something else that the scene was about." "I wasn't totally objectified that way." "But I am interested in, like-- you know, like, in "The Honorable Woman,"" "Nessa is such a controlled person forsomebigchunkofit , and I really wanted the sex to be, like, animal." "Or,youknow, like what a woman who's my age actually really looks like, andhowis thathot ." "And I actually-- I am much more turned on when I see shows where people's bodies" " look like bodies I recognize." " Totally." "There is a responsibility to show that kind" "I mean, on my show, there's women of all ages, all body types," "It's very equal opportunity, and I think it's an important thing." "I mean, again not for any gratuitous sex scenes, but, like saying something with a sex scene, other than like, "Look at my boobs." "And look." "It looks like we're having sex, and--"" "Very courageous, 'cause even when you look onstage at sex scenes, it's like, "You've been to the gym..."" " Right." " Yeah." "...fourtimestoday."" " Yeah." "No, it's true." "Don't-- no stretch marks." "I mean, I don't mean to act like I'm not doing that either." "That's the truth, is you're like, "Okay, so I'm gonna have a smoothie for breakfast."" " Yes." " I don't want-- it's the truth, but you look how you look." "I've had to do a couple of sex scenes in "How to Get Away With Murder,"" "one where I was thrown up against the wall, and I'm like, "I don't want to get thrown up against the wall anymore." It threw my back out." " ( laughter )" " But..." "I just allow myself to be uncomfortable." "Yeah,smart." "I'm not gonna talk myself out of it." "I'm not gonna stand in front of a mirror and look-- andthenerves and the insecurities and all of that, I feel, is a part of Annalise." "I cannot will her to be made of Teflon..." "Right." "...before she dives on top of a very hot-looking guy." "( laughter )" "ButI mean... my first time ever being nude was my very first movie ever." " Talk about intimidating..." " Wow." "and scared and just-- it was "Baby Boy,"" "andI knewthescene was coming." "I know." "Ireadthescript." "I knew what I signed up for." "Isaid,"Youknowwhat ?" "Taraji cannot be in that room."" "I gotta somehow deal with me before I have to take off my clothes, because then if I go in there feeling some kind of way about my body, it's not about Yvette." "It's about Taraji and her insecurities." "So I literally went home, and I stripped down naked." "I just stripped down naked, and I stood in front of the mirror, and I just looked at every morsel of my body, and I dealt with it." "I dealt with it." "I just said, "Well, you know, you don't like that." "Okay, get over it."" "That way, the next day, I was so free." "I was so ready." "I get to set." ""Tyrese is gonna hate me."" "He's over in the corner, 'cause he hadn't dealt with it." ""I don't want to be naked in front of everybody!" "Why do we have to do this scene, John?"" "So I see what's going on, and, like, the women, we always take control of the situation and calm everybody's nerves." "So I got over to John, and I say, "John, you know what?" "This scene has to really be intimate." "In order for it to live, we have to feel like we're in that room alone." "Is there some way-- clear the set first of all, in some kind of way, put up a fake wall with just the lens sticking out so we can feel comfortable."" "And then the next thing, the scene was beautiful." "It was like these two young people inthebedroom, and it was great." "I'd only done one sex scene before, and-- and it didn't show anything, so this was-- there was a demand, obviously, again." "It's about-- it's called "The Affair."" "There's a sexual content in it, and I was always quite insistent-- andDominicandI were really insistent thatsceneshadanarrative." "You can't" "Imean,to do just a normal, generic sex scene, they've been done so often badly as well as good." "So I always feel like, if you're gonna do it, it has to say something, and you have to-- there has to be a journey going on in both people." "And we worked really hard with the show runners to say, "Is this necessary?"" "Arewe-- what are we saying here?" "Ithinkthere's an assumption sometimes that women are the point of titillation literally, and I think that that's still an assumption that's made." "And I wanted to get in my contract equal orgasms." "You know, like every female orgasm, there has to be a male orgasm." " You actually requested that?" " I didn't, but I'm thinking about it, that I could." "Only because I sort of feel like there should be-- there's always-- the camera always lands, often, often lands on the female and asks for the female to provide that." " Right." " Whereas, I think it's-- it's equal, right?" "Sex is a-- it's happening between two people, so I don't know." "I think there's still more to be done in it, and I think that there is still an assumption." "Butintheseshows and what we all have been playing in these shows, is really interesting women, conflicted women, and complex women, and that-- and part of your relationship and who you are is sexual as well as anything else." "Soit'sreallyinteresting to bring that into those scenes, and that's starting to happen, which is really exciting." "We'll be right back with more inside stories." "Welcome back to "Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter."" "We're getting the inside scoop from Hollywood's leading ladies." "What moment in your career did you consider quitting, and what stopped you from doing so?" "Early on, when I first started out, coming out of drama school was quite tough." "And you're going up for every audition, and you're going for things that you would never... would want to go for, but you have to." "And I think early on, I'd got rejected so often that I was thinking-- I gave myself two years, and if I didn't act in two years," "I knew that I wasn't good enough and therefore I wouldn't do it." "And were you going out mostly for theatrical auditions or...?" "It was everything." "In Britain, you do everything, so it's like theater, TV, film, whatever you can get your hands on basically." "And what was the discouraging feedback you were getting on those auditions?" "I just think agents throw you everything to begin with, just see what you stick at and what you-- you know, where you belong or seem to belong." "So it would be that, "You don't look right,"" "or, "You're the wrong hair color,"" "things that were pretty discouraging, and nothing-- you had no control over." "And the access to the roles is what you don't really have control over." "Yeah, and there's people that have been in the industry for a lot longer, who are well known, who are gonna get those roles over you." " Right." " So you have to have-- you have to find somebody who's gonna take a risk on you early on." "And I think I felt that way before I even started, because I didn't know how to get in." " Yeah." " It's like there's no way in." "The only thing I had was a desire, and people thought I had talent." "Butthenwhat?" "And then I was like, "How am I gonna make a living?"" "I didn't come from people who could pay my bills." "And then I majored in English, and I said I could become a teacher until I realized I'd make a really bad teacher." " ( laughter )" " So how ultimately did you overcome those-- those obstacles early on?" "I dove." "I think that when your passion and your drive is bigger than your fears is when you just dive." "I'd been on my last unemployment check." "No way to pay my bills after that, and you stay in it, 'cause you know that's occupational hazard." "There have definitely been times where I've realized that I don't have any sort of real education or skills in any other area, so I have to make this work, or I'm on the street." "Mm-hmm." "Mine started in high school." "That's the only time I ever can remember quitting." "I auditioned for Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C., and I didn't get accepted, and at that young age, you just think that their word is law, thatmeansIcannotact." "So I went off to college to be an electrical engineer." "I don't know why." "I still count on my fingers." "ButI failed." "AndI guessthatdetour happened in my life so once I did make up my mind that acting was the thing that I wanted to do, nothing could discourage me." "So I kind of like-- I had to go through that, because once I got to Hollywood, I was like, "Okay, 'No.'" "I've heard that word before." You know?" "And then once I rerouted my life andI enrolled at Howard University and I actually took up theater and I studied the craft," "I felt like I was armored enough to come out to Hollywood, and I knew that I would get told no a million times, so that was no surprise." "So once I got out here with that kind of training," "I knew I had a talent." "I knew that it was just gonna take for somebody to open up the door for me." "Andsothat'swhereIstayed." "I never got into the place of, "I wanna quit,"" "because if I ever get there, I need to," "I need to just walk away, because then I'm not servicing the role," "I'm not servicing anybody." "I think what you're saying is true, that you kind of have to get used to getting told no." "Andyougettoldnoalot." "I mean, even now I get told no a lot." "It's not just when I'm starting out." "I get told no all the time." "But you-- when I was starting out, I used to hear a lot-- and I don't know who was actually coming back and telling me this, but, like, "You're not sexy enough." " You're not pretty enough."" " Heard that one before." "But who's giving you back that feedback?" "You know?" "But I remember one time being really young and auditioning for this really bad movie that I just wanted 'cause I was a jobbing actress, and it was like vampires were in it and stuff, and I" " Yep." " And I had worn this dress actually that I thought was really hot." "It was like this black, sort of like linen dress where you could see through it a little bit, and I went and did this audition for this vampire movie, and I got told I wasn't hot enough, and they said like" "well, this manager I had at the time said would you come back and, like, sex it up a little bit?" "Ecch." "Yeah,butIdid it,  and I put on, like, leather pants and..." "Heels." "...like pink, kind of leopard-skinny camisole, and I did the audition again, and I still didn't get the part." " ( laughter )" " And after that," "I was like, "Okay, ( bleep ) it." "You know what?"" "I'm like, "Sorry." "I'm gonna just have to--"" "I thought the first dress was way hotter." "And it's the same like you're saying." "Then somebody goes, "I'm gonna..." " "You're hot." - ...take a risk on the girl." "I'm into her," you know, and, like, someone has to do that for you." "I mean, maybe there are exceptions, maybea few." "Well, you can say." "If you're just extraordinarily beautiful..." " Yes." " ...what happens for you?" "Ms. Lange." "What was your experience, Jessica, early on?" "I don't know." "I've been in the process of retiring for the last 30 years, so..." "You're really doing poorly at it, by the way." "I know." "I know, but it's getting-- it's becoming more and more imminent." "I mean, I realize next year," "I will have been doing this for 40 years." "Ooh." "Whichseemslike... many lifetimes." "Ido." "I think about, like, having it finish at some point, you know, really saying, "Okay," "I've done this for 40 years." "It's been great, but now I'm done."" "You know, maybe moving on to something entirely different." "My kids always tease me." ""You've been retiring since we've known you."" "It's true." "I mean, but, you know, I think maybe there is a finite time." "There is an end date, you know, so I think about it a lot actually." "But the thing about acting is, you know, it's so seductive, you know?" "You get drawn into something, and it's like," ""Oh, yeah, this is--"" "you know, it's like a love affair." "It's like something-- there's something really alive about it, and you feel great, and it's, you know-- it's physical, and it's all these things, and then you remember why you were doing it to begin with," "and that, it can still seduce you after 40 years, which is-- yeah." "What would you do?" "Like, what do you fantasize about doing if you actually did?" "I've only done two things in my life." "I've been a waitress, and I've been an actress." " Yep." " And... waitressing was not anywhere near as interesting." "( laughter )" " To say the least." " I don't know." "I would do something so far afield." "I even thought about what if I went and studied to be a falconer?" "Amazing." "That's the greatest answer ever." "I actually read a script about a falconer." " Really?" " Which you should read, then you don't have to actually become a falconer." "Then I don't have to be one." "I can just pretend, which is what" "I mean, at a certain point, you do think, "I've been pretending for decades now."" "Andthat'swhat I love most about it is that you are, you're still childlike in that way of,like,make-believe, you know?" "Somaybethat'sthe answer." "Maybe I don't have to become a falconer." "It sounded like a lot of work, but..." "And a little dangerous, too, I think." "You could actually play a falconer, and that might get it out of your system, like most things." "But also the thing you're saying about pretending," "I listened to this podcast-- maybe you guys heard it, that Ellen Burstyn gave recently." "Didyouhearthat?" "Shesaidsomethinginit where she says, like, alotof peoplethink acting is pretending or,like,you'relying or something like that, but that actually-- even though, on some level, it is, obviously." "Like you're saying, you're not actually a falconer." "But it's actually telling the truth." " Yeah." " I find it very therapeutic." "I'vehealedmyself through characters and, you know, dark places you have to reach, to go to find the emotional place for that-- of that particular character you're portraying." "And then you come out the other side of it, andit'slikeyou try  to reach for the tears, and it's like, "I don't feel that way about it anymore." "I'm healed." "I'm healed."" "( laughter )" "Welcome back to "Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter."" "We're getting the inside scoop from Hollywood's leading ladies." "Let's talk about typecasting." "Tell me how it's affected you in your career." "Typecasting has directly affected our work as actors." "Because what is a type?" " Right." " What does sexy look like?" "What does sexy feel like?" "How is it played out?" "Who is the geek?" "Who is the nerd?" "You know, and therefore what happens is when you get these roles, you automatically fall into it of what you've kind of seen on TV and film, butyouneverreallygo to the truth of what it actually means..." " Right." " to be sexy." "I have found that at this point in my life, thatI nolonger want to do that." "I reject that notion." "It's like what Uta Hagen said." "She's like, "In my life, I saw myself as kind of sexy, funny, eccentric, and then I would look at myself on-screen andseethis,like, saggy, middle-aged woman."" "And I want to say to Uta Hagen now," ""You are that woman."" " Mm-hmm." " "You were that woman."" "If you get that narrative, you absolutely are that woman." "But do you ever find that, like, okay, you do a part, and if you get attention for that part, then lots of people offer you things like that?" " Yep." "Yes." " But then-- but then, the person who doesn't offer you that, somebody who, like, sees through that and says, like," ""Do you want to play this part?"" "Yes." "Inmyexperience, that is the part I need to play now." "You know what I mean?" "I did that with-- I had "Jane Eyre"" "and all these very sort of very costumed, innocent women, and then suddenly I was offered "Luther,"" "which was this psychotic, sexy, femmefatalecharacter, and it was amazing." "Itwasexactly the right timing for me and where I was in my personal life or wherever, and felt that I was more confident to play that sort of role." "Don't you think in some strange, kind of-- not to sound too psychedelic or anything-- that, like, parts come to you at a certain moment..." " Yeah." " in your life." "It'salmostlike a learning experience." "It's like the universe has presented you with, okay, now, you will, you know-- your father just died." "You are going to now have this period of time where you are going to work on..." " Yeah." " Yeah, absolutely." "Or you are, you know-- you're in a crisis here in your relationship, so here's a way to kind of move through something, tomaybelearnsomething, to experience it, and I always think that's the best work that you do." "But who is the person-- this is what I mean-- who like identifies in some way," ""Oh, that woman should do this part now"?" "That comes to you for that part that'snotlikeanything you've ever done, but is exactly the right part for you." "I think they're seeking that out, too." "You know, especially the, like, more independent filmmakers who get to make that decision." "They want the credit for seeing you differently, which is great, because it provides opportunities for us, and if we didn't have people doing that, that would be terrifying, 'cause you would just be playing" "the same role over and over and over again." "It's about your interests as well, isn't it?" "I think it's-- things come your way, and at a certain time, you wouldn't even look twice at that role." "But when you're in a certain time in your life, suddenly it feels really appealing." "So I think it's a combination of the two." " It might not have been ready." " Or not be motivated." "And that brings me to entitlement." "Now I see the new actor emerging who only picks the role they feel like they deserve." "So they're not out there, like, in the fields discovering" Youknowwhat?" "I did this role." "Ididit thisway , but didn't work."" "So then they'll go to a regional theater gig or a Broadway gig or off-Broadway or a bad after-school special on TV." "Andafteryearsofexperience, theydevelopaway ofworking." "Now they want to be Denzel Washington." " Right away." " They wanna be Jessica Lange." " Oh, yeah." " Right away, not even understanding the journey." "Theycouldtry." "They could-- one could go out and be like, "I'm only gonna do what you're saying, you know," "I'm only gonna take the best roles," or whatever, but everybody fails." "Everybody, right?" "Who is that person that's able to do that?" "Where is this mythical character?" "No, but do you know what I'm saying?" "" Ionlywanttheseroles."" " They're seeking-- yeah." "The seeking of fame or celebrity, and I always think that film is still seen as a pinnacle." "I mean, for me, I came from theater, so theater isn't somewhere to go back to." "It's what I need." " Yes, absolutely." " Every two years," "I need to go and do a bit of theater to make me feel my soul replenished a bit." "So it was like that actually..." "But how is that the English" "I mean, the way things were done there were so much more intelligent than the way things were done here." "I mean, I remember when I was" "I did two-- three productions in London, and those actors would come to work in the theater in the evening." "They would have done some kind of radio drama" " in the daytime." " Yeah." "Theywerealso doing television." " They were doing films." " Yeah." "I mean, it was just effortless the way you could move..." " They weren't put in a box." " ...from one to another." "Some way, it's getting somewhat better here, because television has become the equal to film..." " Yes." " as far as creativity and in some ways even surpassed it." "But I remem-- the first time, like," "I did theater in New York," "I was just beat up like crazy" " because I was a film actor." " Yeah." "How dare I come to... a serious play onstage?" "OnBroadway?" "Imean, as though it was like some kind" " of ( bleep ) Holy Grail." " ( laughter )" "And now Broadway's clamoring to have huge stars." "Yeah." "Is there a specific point in your career where you looked back and felt," ""Wow, I was really brave to do that"?" "Playing a pregnant whore..." " Let's talk about that." " ...with a pimp that no one wanted to touch in Hollywood." "This is "Hustle  Flow."" "Yeah, it was another character that scared the life out of me, butwheneveracharacter scares me like that, thenthatmeans, "Taraji, it's your job tomakethepeople empathize with her."" "I just want to show people that she's a diamond in the rough, like any girl that fell by the wayside in life." "Sothat'swhatIfocusedon." "I was like I just want people to reach through the screen and want to grab her and hug her or go find a ho on the corner and save her." "And we talk about likability factor." "I'm sure, Ruth, your character..." " Not very likeable." " on "The Affair" is-- no, she's likeable, but it's risky, because, you know, it's kind of chipping away at this thing, this institution that we all hold dear," "whichis fidelity." " Yeah, it was controversial." "This was about an affair, and from my point of view," "I really wanted to challenge the stigma of affairs, and they happen so often, so surely something must be-- they can't be all wrong, in some ways." "So I wanted to challenge and ask-- you know, have these two people falling in love that are both married." "I know what you think you see." " Tell me." " Well, some easygoing girl who's gonna shake you up with her free spirit so by the end of the summer you can go back home to your boring life with a bounce in your step." "Well, I wish you'd at least give me the chance to disappoint you." "Yeah, well, I'm not that girl." "And I won't rescue you from anything." "And I knew that she was gonna get a lot of stick forbeingthewoman, and we knew" "SarahTreem,thewriter, was very aware thatmycharacter would get a lot more-- could get a lot more antagonism from press and from people watching it, because it's a woman, and women are often seen as the" "you know, the victims and the scarlet lady, so-- and of course in his version, that's how I'm sort of perceived, and then in my version, it's a woman who's," "you know, lost a child." "So I think Sarah did help out-- major helped me out in terms of giving me a dead child." "That was sort of a" "No, it's true." "It made you very empathic." "Exactly." "Itmademehave a-- it gave me justification, whichI shouldn'tnecessarily have to have, but it was scary." "But those controversial characters are most interesting, and you find humanity within that, so that's your job as an actor is to find-- be empathetic to who this character is and why they do these things." "Welcome back to "Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter"" "with this year's top drama actresses." "Every actor has a dream role." "I'd love to know what yours is." "How 'bout revisiting something?" " Sure." " Oh, yes." "I'm gonna play Mary Tyrone again from "Long Day's Journey Into Night."" "So, I mean, it's like when you play a part, especially if you do it onstage and you play something that's written like O'Neill writes or William writes, so you've got, like, this amazing character," "thisamazingrole,toplay it and then to step back and to leave it for a decade or less, four years, five years, whatever, and come revisit it, to come back to it," "theworkbecomes like something else." "It's already all there like in your-- you know, your marrow and in the-- all your muscle memory and everything-- it's there, but then it finds a new expression, and that, to me, is really thrilling." "I want to be a superhero." "I want to be a Bond girl." "I want to play a man." "I want to play... a white woman." "I want to play everything I've never played before." " Absolutely." " ( laughs )" "That is quite a list." "I love it." "It sounds like an Eddie Murphy movie." "Exactly." "Right?" "I'd like to start working with some really good directors, 'cause I haven't done all that many films, let alone, like, those actually really good films." "What dream director?" "Who would it be?" "Imean,I'mahuge , huge Wes Anderson fan, but like the Coen brothers would be the first one." "You'dbeso awesomewiththem ." "David O. Russell." "Thanks, guys." " Tell 'em." "Tell them." " They make a movie a year," " so you have a good chance." " They do-- the script of that "Hail, Caesar!"..." "Right." "for some much smaller role that I don't even think I could have done anyway, but I was afraid to even read it, because I knew that I wouldn't want to read any other script andeveryotherscript would just pale in comparison," "for, like, six months." "So that's probably not the way to get a part in one of their movies, by not reading the script and not going after it, but, you know, baby steps." "Well, now they'll know that you're interested permanently." " Yeah." " How 'bout you, Maggie?" "I would like to be in a Quentin Tarantino movie..." "Thatwouldbe awesome." "...or a David Lynch movie or a Pedro Almodovar movie." "Okay." "Veryspecific." "And I'll play anything they want." "How 'bout you?" "You want to play a black woman, don't you?" " I want to play a black woman." " ( laughter )" "A blackman." " Just study me." "I'llgiveyousomepointers." "And I'm also revisiting a role in theater, which is another Eugene O'Neill part, but five years after having done it." " "Anna Christie"?" " Mm-hmm." "Same as you, that's kind of interesting." "Andgoingbacktotheseroles , which are so dense..." " Yeah." " to go and do again when you haven't got the first form of nerves approachinga character." "I want to do "Hedda Gabler."" "Oh,I wasjustthinking you should do "Hedda Gabler."" "Only because I think that so-- there's a lot of people who got it right." "I also want to revisit Isabella in "Measure for Measure."" "Ithinkit 's a very difficult role." "Andalltheroles that I really want to play," "I'm producing." "Harriet Tubman, because I want to be reintroduced to her, who she really is." "I want to feel like my past counts for something." "I've been doing it for 27 years." "I've been performing in basements of churches, off-Broadway, on Broadway." "I've got two Tony Awards." "I want the work to reflect my level of gifts and talent." "There it is." "I don't want it to reflect my color or my sex or my age." "That's what I want." "That's what I want." " I want that, too." " Mission accomplished." "So very quickly, what is your guiltiest TV pleasure right now?" "I don't feel guilty when I watch "Derek."" "That'ssweet." "That's a sweet show." "Ilovehisshow." "Andoccasionally when I need to forget my life," "I like to go and watch ratchet television." " Yes." " And that's "Housewife--"" "any "Housewife," hip-hop." "Thank you. "Love  Hip Hop," "Real Housewives."" "I'm very into the "Real Housewives."" "It's like eating McDonald's for your brain." " Yeah." " It's amazing." "It makes you forget about all the effed-up stuff in your life." " Maggie, what's yours?" " It's meditation." " "Downton Abbey." - "Downton Abbey"?" " Jessica?" " "Antique Roadshow."" "There you go." "I can't get down with that." "I've tried it" " if there's nothing else on." " It's very relaxing." "What's yours, Ruth?" ""Strictly Come Dancing" or something, which is..." "Okay. "Dancing With the Stars" in England." " "Dancing With the Stars."" " Okay." "And, Viola?" "I love "Snapped."" " What's "Snapped"?" " It's a show where they profile killers who are women." " ( laughter )" " Who snapped." "And they're seemingly ordinary women." "They're schoolteachers." "They have master's degree-- and then something happens, but when they snap," "I mean, it's like they decapitate." "Is there sound effects when they snap?" "And there's, like, reenactments or something?" " Yeah." " Oh, there are?" "That's amazing." "I like this." "You win." "You win." "Well, thank you all for being here." "It was a real pleasure, and, yeah, congratulations on everything."