"Right now on "Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter,"" "we'll hear from the year's most talked about drama actresses." "On network television, you're like "Yeah, I'll be naked,"" "but you know you'll never see a tit." "It won't happen." "(laughter)" "You direct... and then you go back to being an actor and you just have this, "Where do you want me?"" "(laughter)" "What was your first big purchase when you landed your first break-out role?" "I wanna know what your first big splurge was." "I'm sure it was fabulous!" "(laughter)" "(Rose) Kirsten Dunst, "Fargo"." "Kerry Washington, "Scandal," "Confirmation"." "Constance Zimmer, "unreal"." "Julianna Margulies, "The Good Wife"." "Regina King, "American Crime," "The Leftovers"." "Jennifer Lopez, "Shades of Blue"." "Sarah Paulson," ""The People v. O.J. Simpson:" "American Crime Story,"" ""American Horror Story:" "Hotel"." "♪♪" "Welcome to "Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter"." "I'm Lacey Rose, Television Editor." "Let's get right to it." "Kirsten, what was it that made this role something that you wanted to jump into, and did you have any hesitations?" "Because the first season was utterly beloved." "It's a great first season, so I knew that I was coming onto at least a, a group that knew what they were doing." "You know what I mean?" "So, and Noah's so smart and I read two episodes and I was like "This is one of the best roles--"" "(Rose) What-- what was it about the role for you felt like "I have to do this."" "(Dunst) 'Cause she's a total nut case." "It's like, I don't, you know," "I don't read roles that like, are, you know, inspiring in that way, and within one episode, I was just hooked." "They say "It's you."" ""You're faulty."" "Like..." "like..." "Like you're inferior somehow." "And, uh..." "Like, like if you could just get your act together until you're half-mad" "People are dead, Peggy." "(police radio chatters)" "(exhales sharply)" "It was so fun," "I got to do so much more in that type television show than I have in a film in so long." "Uh-huh." "It was the most challenging thing I ever did, except then I did a movie with my girlfriends, who directed their first movie, the Rodarte sisters?" "Yeah." "(laughter)" "Yeah, then I worked with them, and that was the hardest thing I'd ever done." "But I remember my friend Lizzie Kaplan, who was on "Masters of Sex" just being like, "Get B-12 shots." "You're gonna go down, like you're gonna be exhausted."" "I have never worked harder than working on a TV show, and that almost scares me" "You're doing what, ten episodes?" "Yeah!" "(laughter)" "Like, I don't think I can do this on a whole series." "If I ever did-- 22 was-- (all talking at once)" "Like collab-, like an ensemble." "Yeah." "That's a, it's a lot." "And especially if you have a lot of dialogue, then it's like" "I felt like I was cramming for SATs!" "(laughter)" "(all talking at once)" "It's like, uh, this!" "Like, I don't know." "It was just a lot." "You passed, so all is good." "I mean, hard." "There's a lot of dialogue." "Also the way my character-- the Minnesota accent, so it's like, so many stops and starts to, to the way she thinks." "It was learning the words to a song-- yeah, it was." "So weird." "Ellen Pompeo pulled me aside before we went into our first season and she said," ""You must treat yourself like an athlete."" "I was like, "What do you mean?"" "She said, "Sleep, eat, take supplements like an athlete." "You will need it."" "Thank God that I listened to her enough that I was kind of thinking in those ways, but it's-- I had no idea." "If I hadn't done Broadway," "I wouldn't have been able to do the show." "Broadway prepared me for "Scandal"." "Makes sense." "Do I owe you now, Fitz?" "Do I get to show how worthy I am of your sacrifices now, Fitz?" "Do I get to talk to wives at cocktail parties for you?" "Trade recipes for you?" "Plan dinners for you?" "Live in this cage for you and not breathe for you?" "!" "Tell me, what must I do to prove I am forever indebted to you for saving my father's life?" "Olivia" "Be your housewife?" "Your girlfriend?" "Your property?" "I'm curious with you" "I mean, you've obviously had this very successful film career and you would look at your schedule and say it's not all that accommodating to TV, and yet, here you are, dove right into a broadcast drama." "I didn't dive right in." "(laughter)" "I developed it for like, two and a half years, you know, to get the script right." "But why this?" "Because, like what Kirsten just said," "I hadn't seen anything in a long time where I felt like" "I was really doing something acting-wise, you know?" "Um, and I had a lot of things going on at the time and, and I'm a mom, so I felt like taking this on" "I already had like two full-time jobs, and I was taking on a third full-time job, and so it was a big consideration." "I have a daughter, okay?" "Which means youhaveadaughter, because that badge in your pocket?" "That makes us family." "And we love that daughter." "That daughter is beautiful and smart and talented and she needs us." "And that's how this works." "From now on, until death do us part." "I saved your ass today, which means tomorrow, in that Internal Affairs interview, you save mine." "I had done two two-hour dramas earlier in my career and I knew what the schedule was, and I remember how the dialogue and the hours and how fast the pace was, and this character, she's kind of always walking this tightrope" "and she's always lying and I didn't even know what I was doing sometimes, you know?" "And I, I knew that's what it was gonna be." "We crafted the character to be that way, so it was very scary to think, okay, let me put this into my schedule." "Mm-hmm." "But then I thought, there is nothing film-wise that is as exciting as this will be for me as an artist and as an actress." "So, you know, "F" it." "(laughter)" "We can't curse, right?" "You can, actually." "So (bleep) it!" "(all talking at once)" "Whoo!" "(talking, laughing)" "But it was so (bleep) crazy when I started 'cause I-- even knowing it, you know, I wasn't the lead." "I was part of an ensemble in those earlier dramas that I did." "But here, I was the true lead." "And I had to learn to meditate in the middle of the season." "I was like, "Okay, we're doing 'Idol' on the weekends." "And we're getting the Vegas show ready." "I'm looking at sketches" "You know, it was just a crazy amount-- and just the show itself was so much" "It's so good." "And I do think of myself as an athlete, and I have for years because of the pace of this business and all the things that I do" "And you have the dance background." "And I have the dance background, so I had that mentality already, but even with that, and being as active as I am," "I still had to do something for my mind and my spirit" "Mm-hmm, sure." "To keep it like, "Okay, I need to go back there tomorrow and do all the things that I need to do and walk that tightrope again tomorrow."" "(Rose) Sarah and Kerry, I'm curious." "For "Confirmation" and "The People v. O.J.,"" "you've taken on these very strong female characters, real-life characters." "Sarah, you have said that you became sort of defensive of Marcia Clark in that process." "A lot of the stuff about Marcia Clark makes me very angry, you know?" "But it's also-- I was guilty of it myself and I've said this too, that you know," "I was 19 when the whole thing happened and I was decidedly self-interested and was wanting to be an actress and was not focused on the case in the way that some people were, and certainly not on changing my opinion" "on whatever the narrative on Marcia Clark was." "Now, when I look back at it," "I just sort of wonder where everybody was, where all the women were." "Why people weren't rallying around her, why she didn't have a support system from other women sort of saying "Why are we talking about how short her skirt is?" "And her bad hair?" "And her no makeup-ness?"" "Mm-hmm." "If that's a way of saying something." "You know, she said that some of the court reporters would run after her after a day, just with some concealer and say "Just please..." Oh, God." ""Just put a little." Ugh." "And she was just like, "I do not care about that." ""There is a man I believe to be guilty." ""I would like to see justice done." "I really don't want to have to concern myself with my appearance."" "But because she resisted that, she just became a person who somehow was like a punching bag." "I have tried many, many cases in front of black women and won." "I have a rapport with them." "The data doesn't bear that out." "Well then, your data is horse(bleep)." "Some of those black women still write me letters." "Well, that's wonderful anecdotal information, but I think it would be wise to limit the number of African-American women on your jury." "You might also consider softening your appearance." "Skirts, instead of business suits." "(Rose) What point in the process did you meet her?" "I didn't meet her 'til we were" "Halfway through." "More than that, yeah." "Yeah." "What about you?" "I met her earlier on." "During the development of the script." "How did it influence your portrayal, do you think?" "For me, it helped because" "I really like studying behavior for characters." "I really come at characters from movement and behavior." "And especially when I play nine months out of the year playing somebody else when you do a network drama." "I remember the day Regina was like," ""Can we just talk about the walk?" "Where did you get the Olivia Pope walk?"" "(overlapping voices)" "I get things from my dreams." "Oh, that's so cool!" "I dreamt about Scooby-Doo in my dream." "Like, I saw a cassette tape and it said "Scooby-Doo"." "I was like, "Great!"" "Peggy walks like a Scooby-Doo character does." "(laughter)" "♪♪" "♪♪" "Welcome back to "Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter"." "We're here with TV's most talked-about drama actresses." "Constance, you play a producer who will basically go to whatever length necessary" "(laughter)" "To get the best episode out of these people." "Are there aspects of that that you've experienced on the other side as an actor?" "Quinn-- she would exist in the real world, which I've been told she does-- is also a little terrifying to me, 'cause I kind of liked believing that she was just this character" "I made up based on like, ten different people." "We have to take responsibility" "No, we don't have to do anything!" "Yes, we do!" "(Indistinct) switched out her meds" "Mary killed herself." "It is our responsibility." "Okay, you wanna turn this into a homicide?" "This show has zero chance of coming back." "Look, it dies along with Mary." "Who gives a (bleep) about a TV show?" "We're talking about somebody's life here." "Well, I am talking about more than one life." "170 people will lose their jobs if this show goes down." "Eddie and Frank will have to pull their kids out of college." "And why?" "Because we made Mary jump?" "No." "I definitely wouldn't deal with things the way she does." "(rueful laughter)" "No, not so much." "Okay." "She's a..." "(more rueful laughter)" "She's... ha ha..." "um..." "But are there shades of her that you've seen on sets?" "Oh, abso-- yes, absolutely." "Weirdly enough though, in more males than females, because the males can get away with it." "Which is I think why it's been fun to play this character because I am allowed to get away with what men get away with, and be given accolades because" ""Oh, you produced an incredible hour of television" ""because you held everybody by the balls, and it like didn't matter."" "And so, but no, like me, as Constance, as an actress?" "Oh God, no." "I am like, horribly insecure and if I was ever approached by a producer or somebody that dealt with me in the way that my character does on the show," "I would probably just cry." "Because I just wouldn't even know what to do with that much like, anger and aggression." "I would just be like, "Okay, I'm gonna go into my room."" "(laughter)" "You're obviously now doing a ton of, of directorial work, and I know you've" "Oh, she is the best director!" "What have you learned about actors in that process?" "And how is it sort of changed how you behave as an actress?" "(Paulson) How interesting." "You know, as an actor, the last thing you want is for a director to tell you "Okay, you're gonna sit right there."" "You know, you have thoughts and ideas about where your character is in this moment, in this scene." "And you direct, and then you go back to being an actor, you just have this "Where do you want me?"" "(all talking at once, laughter)" "No one would ever wanna hurt Evie." "She would never wanna hurt anybody else." "She's better than that." "(tearfully) She is exceptional." "Exceptional." "So often, when a director is not savvy enough to actually have a conversation with the actor, sometimes it can be as simple as" ""Oh my gosh, you look so beautiful right there--"" "Mm-hmm, in that light." "In that light, you know?" "And Kerry and I, we were doing a scene and she wanted to be up against this wall and I was like," ""I can't put you up against this green wall."" "(laughter)" "She said "The green and the wall..." "Undertone green, like serious."" ""I'm with you and I'm moving."" ""Just let me know, I'm good."" "But becoming a director allowed me to be able to have that conversation and know that an actor would get it." "As an actor, you want to hear something" "Direction." "Direction!" "You want direction!" "Yes, yes." "Totally." "(King) Something that's gonna elevate the thoughts that I've already had." "When anyone directs me, like," ""Oh, whoa, that was a good idea."" "It happens once, like, every few years?" "I know, yeah." "He actually says something that moves you to try something." "I feel like, I don't know," "I feel like I have to do everything on my own and then I don't expect anyone to tell me anything." "The best directors that you've had are the ones that actually inspire something in you." "You've had a thought, you've been working on these lines, you've done all your research, you've built your backstory as an actor, and those directors that can still come and tell you something and you go, "Oh, wow!"" "(Washington) That helps, that helps." ""Yeah, let me try it that way."" "Yeah, that rarely happens, though, I feel, yeah." "I feel, with my actresses, like, if it's a love scene," "I'm like, "Put it at the beginning of the day 'cause she doesn't want to eat before--"" "Yes!" "You see?" "That's so nice!" "(all talking at once)" "(Lopez) That's why we need more women directors." "Yeah." "(Washington) The other thing I've noticed about women directors that I love:" "we are taught we have to behave and we're taught we have to be team players." "So, we come into these work environments being really collaborative and listening and learning and soaking up." "So by the time, I find, that women move into the director positions where they really have the power, they are really there to collaborate." "They're not there for the power trip, they're not there just to boss people around, they're not there to just say they're a director and have it their way." "They're really there to create something with a group of people together." "And that makes a great director, somebody who really understands the spirit of collaboration." "And really wants to because" "(Washington) Yeah!" "Then if you don't want to, then that-- directing is not what you should be doing." "Sure, sure." "I think it's important for actors, especially when you're on a TV series," "I think directors come in and then they get scared of an already-formed cast?" "It's terrifying." "Hardest job." "(overlapping voices) It's terrifying." "I'm, I'm sure it's terrifying, and so I always make a point to go up to any new director we have and say," ""Please direct me." ""I love being directed." "It'll help me." ""I've got so much going on," ""I'd love to see the forest through the trees." ""If I don't agree, I'll let you know," ""but I'd rather try it than not."" "And then you sort of see them..." "Breathe." "Breathe!" "(laughter)" "I'm not built to be an unhappy person." "I like laughing." "I laugh like a banshee at videos on YouTube and then I just sit here... alone... in this stupid little apartment... (crying) wondering what the hell happened to my life!" "Was it all about having two kids who I don't even know if I like anymore..." "And just shoving them off to be someone important?" "Seriously?" "Was that the point?" "We'll be right back." "♪♪" "♪♪" "Welcome back to "Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter"." "We're here with the actresses from TV's most talked-about dramas." "What is it that you're getting offered in film?" "What are these roles that you're looking at and saying "I don't want this." "I can do much better in TV."" "I just feel like there's just better... better stories on TV right now." "It's just like the movies are not as... great!" "(Washington) I think this, this pull toward tentpoles in film has really led to "event" filmmaking being the focus in the film world, and so I think most of the writers who are really interested in stories" "started gravitating toward television because in television, your writer is king, or queen, where I am." "So I think the great writers are gravitating toward TV and so the great characters are in TV." "And then cable, Netflix, I mean, they've opened things up so much and doing installments that are only ten to 12 episodes allows the opportunity to tell like a ten-hour movie." "You can explore the characters deeper in a longer period of time, but not as long as network television." "It's a very" " The landscape in television has changed, just from the seven years ago when I was looking for a pilot, to now when the show's wrapping up and I'm seeing pilots." "It's so exciting because you'll get a script and they'll say "It's not quite set up." ""They're thinking maybe Hulu, maybe Amazon, maybe-- "" "And I said, "Well, how many episodes is that?"" ""Could be eight, could be ten--"" "Sign me up!" "Yeah." "And the characters are interesting." "I mean, they're three-dimensional" "And you get paid, you know?" "Yeah, and you make a living." "(Lopez) I feel like it's also changed, instead of people like going to movies, now" "Yes." "I wanna stay home and binge watch this series because I've heard amazing things about it." "It's a different thing now." "People are making it at home as an event." "You can make something that you're watching on TV an event, opposed to" "That'stheevent, yeah." "And you can put in just as much time doing like an independent film that has a great character that's been written, but if it doesn't go to film festivals and it doesn't get" "It disappears!" "You have one weekend and if it doesn't work, even a big movie, you know" "Right, bye!" "Friday night when the movie comes out, they're like "It's a bomb!"" "(laughter)" "Like, "We can't wait 'til Sunday and see what happens?"" ""Nope."" "(laughter) Right." "(Washington) There's so much more time in film." "So much more time." "That's the biggest difference for me." "You do three pages a day on a movie." "We do nine pages a day!" "If you see a great performance on TV," "I feel like that person is really good 'cause you're doing ten pages of dialogue, moving so quickly." "You don't have the luxury of going, you know," ""Let's just spend an entire day on a two-and-a-half page scene."" "And you get that in film!" "You do, you really do." "And you still walk away some days on a film being like," ""Gosh, I wish I had done that or I wish I" " Oh, you know what, or that--" when you're brushing your teeth, you're like," ""Damn, now I get what that line was."" "I mean, in film-- in TV, it's..." "Yeah, and you also don't have time to rely on your bag of tricks." "Yeah." "(all talking at once) ...Who me?" "These tricks you speak of..." "These tricks." "(laughter)" "It's true." "You gotta dig deeper." "Are there roles that you guys won't play or things that you absolutely will not do?" "Lines you won't cross?" "Sounds like you have a line." "No, I mean, obviously, I don't." "No, I don't." "I've done a lot of crazy (bleep) on that show." "Breastfed a 35-year-old, had two heads." "(laughter)" "You know, I don't think there's, there's really no way you can sort of go, "I will not do that."" "(laughter)" "I will not breastfeed a 40-year-old." "Or 37?" "No." "Draw the line." "35, yes." "I tend to just look at everything with an open platform and say "Let's just see,"" "If it's not appropriate for a woman or not appropriate for someone my age, or whatever it is, but I think nowadays, it's all about actually trying to make sense of it and making it work for you as the actor" "in order to tell the appropriate story, right?" "I mean, I'm not necessarily spreading my legs in front of a camera." "That, I don't think I could find" " There's my line!" "I found it!" "There it is!" "I definitely won't have sex with animals." "Well, there you go." "That's a good thing." "(laughter) I like that." "No, I mean, I mean it's a very" "Julianna, no animal sex." "No animal sex." "(all talking at once)" "And you have to look at what you're being given before you say" " I just can't go out there ever and say," ""I won't do that."" "Obviously, if someone sends you a script and says," ""By the way, in this script, you're gonna be on all fours with some pigs in a--"" "You know, you're probably gonna say, "Don't send me the script."" "You know what I mean?" "But, you pretty much should stay" "Yeah, you wanna stay open for everything." "(laughter)" "♪♪" "♪♪" "Welcome back to "Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter"." "We're here with the women who rule TV." "Have you found yourselves embracing things that you perhaps wouldn't have earlier in your career?" "Maggie Gyllenhaal last year talked about how all of a sudden nudity actually became more appealing to her because she felt like at the point in her career and her life that she was at, it brought on more interesting acting." "(Paulson) I can understand that." "It's the opposite for me." "It's the opposite." "Once I had kids-- it's funny." "(all talking at once)" "Having children would" "I think people would think the opposite of me because in videos and things that I do," "I am very sexy and wear little clothes and things like that." "Little clothes." "Little baby" "But the truth is, when it comes to acting, for some reason, I" "You know, did it earlier in my career, and now I just don't feel sometimes that you have to do it." "I've changed in that sense." "I think it was because I had kids." "Like, to really bare myself in a certain way." "Not saying that I wouldn't in the future, but that's my thinking on it right now, like," ""Well, I dunno."" "I think it depends on the character you're playing." "Yeah." "I've been playing the same character for seven seasons and all of a sudden, this season, the girl's taking her clothes off and you know," "I'm seven years older than I was when I started it." "And I love it." "I mean, I'm not-- It's CBS, so there's only so many things I can take off." "But there is something great about seeing a woman in her 40s having sex with someone and not being inhibited and it's not about me, Julianna" "It's about the character." "I'm doing it for her, under that wig." "On CBS, on TV, it's a different thing, though because you know they're not gonna show certain things, you know?" "(all talking at once)" "On cable, yes." "But on network television, which I do and you do, it's different." "But I think my point is" "You know they'll never see a tit." "It won't happen, yeah." "My point is you kinda don't think about that." "Like, I wouldn't have given really a second thought if it had been HBO and you know-- we had a hilarious moment where they actually have to pull the sheet over your ass, 'cause you know, the camera's up here" "and I wasn't even aware that my ass was sticking out." "I mean, I apologized to the crew profusely" "(laughter)" "(Zimmer) I'm sure they were really offended." ""No, Julianna, really." "It's okay."" "When you dive into a character that you've watched grow, it-- that becomes their journey." "It's not my journey." "I think part of it for me is the director and the producers and that trust, because I do feel like, there have been times in my career when they just wanted to show" "Mmm." "to show for show's sake." "Yeah, like, there's just-- nudity isn't about the story." "It isn't about the character." "It's just because that (bleep) sells." "And so, for me, the "Why?" has gotten a little bit more specific." "Agreed, yeah." "What do you do in that scenario when you don't want to do it and the director is sitting there saying" "That's what lawyers are for." "Ha ha ha ha." "I say no." "That's it." "Discuss it before you take the job." "Yeah, yeah!" "Those conversations need to be had." "job and the nudity conversation didn't come up until-- Right, right, right." "(all talking at once)" "And you know, you get that script and go, "Whoa!" "Oh..."" ""Hmmm." "Um... (laughter)" "That's what you do in the situation that I'm thinking of." "I just didn't feel like that was honest to the character." "I didn't feel like that's how she would be having sex." "Right." "So, if she was gonna have sex," "I just didn't see her having sex like that." "Mmm." "So, and they got it." "Gratuitous sex is, I think, what we're all talking about." "That's not something that's interesting for any of us to play." "(all talking at once) (laughter)" "I'm pretty much down for anything if the director's good, to be honest." "If it's with the right person." "You trust that person." "Yeah, exactly." "Trust their vision." "Yeah, I need a trust" "What's the point of doing all this?" "Except for like taking risks, moving people-- like, putting something that actually can mean something out there." "So for me, like whenever I choose something," "I always try and be a part of something that could be great." "So, sex is sex." "I don't know, right?" "(Rose) I'm curious, you know, as actresses, what have been the most overtly sexist things you guys have experienced?" "While we're all in our little bridesmaid's dresses at our round table," "I wonder what the men wear when they're at their round table." "I'm in this very surreal environment right now, you know, having Shonda Rimes as my boss, where it's almost the opposite." "I mean, it is specified in scripts, that guys take their shirts off all the time, like the guys are naked all the time." "And she has said to all the women on the show," ""You wanna do a love scene in a parka, you just let me know."" "It's this weird, like, a reparation of women, of like, the girls get to do what they wanna do." "It's fascinating." "The guys are always starving themselves." "It's hilarious." "Sit-ups!" "(laughing)" "(Washington) A different world." "That's really great." "So interesting." "There's definitely a difference with female show-runners and writers and on "unreal,"" "we have two female leads and our writers are females, our show-runners are females and" "It's on a female-driven network." "It's very driven towards us being empowered." "Mm-hmm." "And the men not being empowered, which is definitely different." "You see the guys on the set, and they're eating like lettuce, and all the women are eating like mac n' cheese and burgers." "And we're like, "What do you, what do you got over there?" "What, are you on a diet?"" "You know, and it's just like, all of a sudden, you're like," ""Oh, wait." "I just did what they do." "Okay, we won't do that."" "Let's all..." "It's all fine." "I'm like, "Here, eat a piece of cake." "You look fantastic."" "I've never been asked to play the leading lady without having to be a blonde." "Instantly." "Like, if I've met on it or auditioned a million times as a brunette." "Wow." "I don't mind it, I like the blonde, but to be told that" "That's fascinating." "That in order to be considered a romantic lady opposite some hunky guy, that I needed to have long blonde hair that looked L.A.," ""Real Housewives"-looking..." "I think that was always asked of me." "I mean, until I landed on "American Horror Story"" "where I" " And then I had two heads, and so it didn't matter." "One can do anything" "(laughter)" "I was able to let both things exist." "But it does do something to your brain when you sort of go "Gosh," ""so the way I came into the world is not as appealing as it would be if I were..." "altered in some way?"" "That's a sort of a funny message to..." "Mm-hmm." "Extend to a person." "At what point did you realize that you were receiving that message?" "Funny, I don't think until I got far enough out of it where I realized that that had been happening so much." "Wow." "I've always been fascinated about how much more well-behaved we have to be than men are." "It was just always fascinating to me because I did get a moniker of being like a diva, which I never felt I deserved." "Which I don't deserve." "Because I've always been a hard worker, always on time, always, you know, professional." "And getting that label because you reach a certain amount of success" "Or you care about something enough to give your opinion" "Or even, I always felt sometimes crippled to voice my opinion, especially, you know, because with certain directors and the Boys Club that they form sometimes makes you feel like," ""Oh, I can't say anything," and I was always very outspoken and very strong in certain situations but, I was always, was fascinated about how I could see somebody else being late or somebody else being belligerent to a crew" "or you know, whatever." "And it being totally acceptable." "Like, "Hey, how are you today?"" "You know, it's like, meanwhile, I would, you know, show up 15 minutes late and be berated." "Mm-hmm." "And be like, "Oh, I'm sorry!" ""I'll never-- It'll never happen again!" "There was traffic," or whatever." "We are not allowed to have certain opinions or be a certain way" "Or be strong." "Or be passionate." "Be even passionate about something, like." ""I don't feel this is right," or whatever." "They'll be like, "God, she's really difficult."" "(all agreeing)" "Am I?" "Am I difficult?" "(laughter)" "♪♪" "♪♪" "Welcome back to "Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter"." "We're talking about the most buzzed-about drama actresses of the year." "There's a lot of talk about sort of the diversity within the sort of television space, and how you getting cast when you did sort of blew open this sort of landscape." "I think it's changing." "I think, but there's-- We still have so far to go." "Debbie Allen was probably one of the first women that I saw, you know, when I would watch "A Different World,"" "and even knew that it was possible to be a producing director." "I didn't even know that women did that." "(Dunst) I've worked with so many female directors." "I have really strong, strong female relationships." "Sofia Coppola, obviously." "I'm gonna work with her again this year." "My girlfriends who did their first movie." "I've done Leslye Headland, like," "I've worked with so many female directors." "And I think it's like up to us as actresses too, to like" "To do what, though?" "Like what's the-- ?" "I think to like give the opportunity to first-time directors." "I mean, most of those people, it was their first time." "Ah, I see what you're saying." "And also, sometimes, I'm just like," ""I just wanna work with women."" "Like, I'm done." "I'm like, I don't wanna like work with all these dudes all the time, and then I find it." "You just gotta find it." "And like create it for yourself, like you were saying." "Yeah, I think more and more women need to just start creating their own and then, you know, to make a door for ourselves to walk through." "We had four female directors out of ten episodes, four being directed by women." "There's no limit, like, on our show, the more women, the better." "But it has to be the producers, it has to be the show-runners, they all have to come around it." "I will say that even though we don't have female directors, the show is always and always has been female-centric." "Yes!" "It's really just outrageously so." "I mean, in a great way." "(Zimmer) I think more women are supporting women now more than ever." "Right." "And we're all trying to help each other on, on" "(Margulies) It's more in the spotlight now than it ever was." "(Rose) Part of the conversation too." "What have these roles sort of taught you guys about yourselves?" "Anything that's sort of surprised you about who you are?" "For me, I just think that I've always been fortunate to play super strong women." "I did always think, Oh yeah, I'm confident!" "I can do this." "I'm a tough girl." "Yeah, and then I play those girls and I'm like, "Okay, I am so not."" "I'm like, clearly have issues." "That's all that stopped me, is that I have issues, and I'm actually okay with them." "Totally okay with my issues." "(King) I feel like every experience I've worked on as a whole," "I've learned something." "All right, so what?" "I mean, "American Crime"." "What have you learned about people" "That so many people think that black people can't be elitist." "Like, a black elitist doesn't exist." "Like, I mean, I was just like, surprised how many people were so shocked that Terri actually exists." "And I'm like, "You don't know a Terri?"" "I could show you three." "(laughter)" "So, um, which is fantastic that she gets to represent the Terris of the world." "I'm so curious for you, being that it's the end of the show soon." "What do you feel like she's taught you?" "Mostly, I've learned to listen more and not talk so much." "She's very silent and thinks things through, and you know, I'm an actress, so I'm always like, immediate with my opinion." "And I've learned to just scale back and try and look at both sides of a situation before having an opinion." "Or, even, "Does my opinion matter?"" "I mean, that's the biggest one, is she has made me really take stock in" ""What you say should mean something;" "otherwise, don't say it at all."" "(Rose) Kerry, I'm curious." "You have these two projects that are both set in the political sphere, and not always in the most heartening of ways." "But you are someone-- Drama." "And you are someone who ispoliticallyactive." "How have these projects sort of impacted your view of how DC operates?" "I think in terms of the current election, it's interesting because you know, Shonda and the writers decided to kind of bring a Trump-like character onto the show." "He's actually a character that has already existed on the show, but to have him run, and there have been times when we all thought," "Oh, we can't say that." "It's too outrageous." "We can't say that, it's too outrageous, even for our show, which is called "Scandal," so not much is outrageous." "(laughter)" "And the reality of what's going on in the world is far far scarier than anything we could begin to put on our show." "A lot of why I thought "Confirmation" was important to make is because it's really a film about process and participation and how our democracy can only represent us if we show up for the process." "And I'm very concerned about this election." "I'm very concerned and about things that in the beginning, almost seemed funny and nonsensical and they're not funny anymore." "It's really scary." "It's really scary." "(Margulies) It's depressing." "One of the biggest results of the Thomas and Hill hearings were that more people participated." "You know, more women ran for Congress than ever before and there were women on the Senate Judiciary Committee for the first time and people of color for the first time." "So, there were changes that happened because there was a national conversation about gender and race that had never been had before." "Um, so, for, for me, I've liked" "I like playing these two women 'cause they're on opposite sides of the political structure." "You know, one is incredibly empowered and the other one was the exact opposite end of the spectrum." "I believe that you have to understand that this kind of response is not atypical, and I can't explain it." "It takes an expert in psychology to explain how that can happen." "But it can happen." "'Cause it happened to me." "It was tricky for me as an actor-producer 'cause I felt like I only wanted to produce a film about the hearings that was really complicated and where you felt pulled toward all of the characters." "That was my producer hat, was like, you know," "Clarence Thomas has to be complicated, and Joe Biden has to be complicated, and Anita Hill has to be complicated." "And as an actor, I was like, "It's all about Anita."" "(laughter)" "It's all about Anita." "♪♪" "♪♪" "Welcome back to "Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter"." "We're here with TV's most talked-about drama actresses." "What was your first splurge, your big purchase when you landed your first breakout role?" "Do you remember what that feeling was like and" "Do you ask the guys that question?" "(all talking at once)" "We will ask the dudes that question, I promise." "I wanna know what your first big splurge was." "(laughter)" "It was" " I think I had," "I was driving a Honda hatchback that Keenen Ivory Wayans had given me." "(Washington) Oh, wow." "And I had been driving it to every audition and to everything, and when I think I just got a regular series, I think, and I bought a car." "I bought a Mercedes." "Wow." "Yeah." "And it was a big huge deal." "Because it was yours!" "You in the hatchback, you was a Honda." "And it was funny 'cause he had passed it from me-- to Sean, his brother, and then to me." "You know what I mean?" "Like, him to all of us" "It's a good luck car." "Yeah, yeah, yeah." "Absolutely." "I remember though, that I was signing the lease to the car, and I was breaking up with my boyfriend the same week." "That's what I remember about it." "Mmmm, that's heavy." "So, we were in the dealership and I was crying, but I was buying the car." "He was going back and he-- --Independence, yeah." "It became like a thing, like I'm gonna be on my own here," "He'd been living with me, and duh duh duh, and I was like, "Okay."" "And we had been dating for like ten years." "Wow, that's" "And I was like, "That's it." "The hatchback is out and so are you."" "On your way!" "Here's my new boyfriend!" "In my mind, I'm really sad about it too." "Yeah." "I bought a lot of stuff at the Gap." "I was still living at home and I was understudying Amy Ryan on Broadway in "The Sisters Rosensweig"" "and my check was substantial, for me." "I had never had a job before, e-ever, anywhere." "I was a waitress for two seconds and I couldn't spell "parmesan"" "and so I quit promptly." "I had like a panic about it and it didn't even occur to me I could like abbreviate it, like "parm"." "Ha ha ha!" "It was pretty pathetic." "(laughter)" "And yeah, so I got a pretty big check, weekly check, understudying, and I went to the Gap." "Went nuts." "Like, on the daily." "Like every day." "(all talking at once)" "I gave Gap presents to all my friends." "(all talking at once)" "That's fantastic." "I love the" "That, and there were some flaming Dr. Pepper drinks down on 11th Street and 3rd Avenue, I think." "And I was buying." "I should have gotten a car." "That would have been better." "Where you went wrong, clearly." "But the Gap." "Me, I bought a dining room table." "You did?" "Which is very grown-up." "No..." "Yeah, it was like, an eight-person dining room table" "Were you married?" "No!" "I don't know why!" "If you build it, they will come." "I want family, like" "People are going to sit here." "I'm going to, one day, have eight people" "I'll have seven friends one day." "But I still have that table." "Wow!" "I refuse to get rid of it because every time I look at it," "I was like, I remember that was a big deal, like I was like," "I can buy an eight-person dining room table!" "With acting!" "With acting!" "Yeah." "Yeah, it's in my house today." "So I've had it for over 20 years." "And by the way, I don't think" "I've ever like splurged on anything since." "Really?" "No." "We're gonna talk." "We're gonna" "Ha ha ha ha!" "That was it, the table did it." "I was like, I'm done." "And you?" "(King) A car." "I was 16, so..." "Car." "Wow, at 16, a car!" "What'd you get, Kerry?" "So, like Bronx Girl of me." "When I was doing "Save the Last Dance," it was my second movie." "And my first movie was like a crazy guerilla filmmaking independent movie." "Our transfer department was a Metro card." "But we had a per diem on "Save The Last Dance"" "and I couldn't believe someone was handing me cash." "They don't do that anymore." "Like, handing me cash!" "And your checks-- what is that?" "(laughter)" "So, like, coming where I came from," "I actually literally used to hide the cash under my mattress." "For the whole movie." "And put myself on a tight budget of what I could spend per day, and at the end of it," "I had used all the cash collected in the three months and bought my first laptop." "Oh wow." "See, dining room tables, cars, the Gap." "(laughter)" "It's embarrassing." "(Zimmer) I liked your story a lot." "Do you still have your computer?" "No, it's like a dinosaur computer." "Very old." "Yeah, I started acting so young, all my money just went into a college fund and then I probably bought my mom a house." "(laughter)" "That's good, that's-- all of our parents are now jealous." "Yeah-- ha ha!" "I just built my mom a house." "The only selfless one at the table:" "Kirsten Dunst." "Mine was the same with per diem." "I got my first movie and they flew me out to L.A." "and I remember thinking, if they had just told me it would have been first class" "I didn't know it was a first-class ticket 'cause I would have traded it in and gotten cash, 'cause I was so broke." "Mmm." "But, so I got to L.A., and there at the hotel was a wad of cash, per diem for two weeks that I was gonna be there, and my heart started pounding and I ran to the drugstore" "and I got Flex conditioner!" "I'm dating myself now, but Flex conditioner... and Flex shampoo was the..." "The jam." "The jam at that time." "And I was 22 and I just," "I remember sitting in the hotel room with the conditioner on my hair for like hours." "Aw." "(laughter)" "I was so excited that I'd have shiny pretty hair." "(laughter)" "I love it." "You acted this question, but those were great answers." "Thank you, guys, so much." "Thank you."