As the announcement of this year’s Emmy nominees draws closer, The Hollywood Reporter continues their Roundtable series, gathering together together some of the small screen’s finest for the TV Drama Actor Roundtable.
Bobby Cannavale (“Vinyl”), Paul Giamatti (“Billions”), Cuba Gooding Jr. (“The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”), Rami Malek (“Mr. Robot”), Wagner Moura (“Narcos”), and Forest Whitaker (“Roots”) get personal about their careers with host Lacey Rose in this one-hour discussion. Watch and learn how Gooding Jr. felt about taking roles after his post-Jerry Maguire Oscar win (“I didn’t want anything that could parody the fact that I was [best known for] a tagline in a movie, so I was saying no to all of these things”) or how Giamatti wants to star in a western (“I’d love to be in a Western, but I know if I’m in a Western I’m going to have to play this guy (wiping the table), ‘What’ya havin’?’ I’m going to be that guy. Or I’d be the corrupt mayor, the guy who’s building a railroad through somebody’s farm”).
It’s also refreshing to hear people talk about the acting craft as an art itself. We as a movie-loving public do tend to be a bit more director-obsessed when it comes to the filmmaking process, so it’s interesting to hear stories from in front of the camera, like Cannavale auditioning for “Starship Troopers” without a script, Moura saying his line is drawn when it comes to child brutality in a film, Malek rejecting the notion of directorial manipulation in reaction to Gooding Jr.’s story on Oliver Stone (“I don’t love being broken down. I want to be empowered.”), and how Whitaker would want to work with the U.N. if he wasn’t acting.
Check out the full talk — it’s a pretty damn good one.