Eric McCormack and Debra Messing (Photo by: Heidi Gutman/NBCUniversal)
The following is a press release from NBC:
NBC, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) and dick clark productions (dcp) are teaming up for the “Golden Globes 75th Anniversary Special,” set to air Wednesday, Dec. 13 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
The two-hour special will be hosted by Eric McCormack and Debra Messing, who have a combined 13 Golden Globe nominations between them and star in NBC’s critically acclaimed revival of “Will & Grace,” which currently ranks as NBC’s most-watched primetime comedy in the last 12 years.
The program will showcase the best moments spanning 75 years of the Golden Globes, featuring the biggest film and TV stars, red carpet highlights and fashion throughout the years. The special will also feature new and exclusive interviews with Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Christine Lahti, Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts, Jacob Tremblay, Kate Winslet, Brad Goreski and more. Celebrating the nonstop glamour, humor, heartfelt speeches and classic moments from Hollywood’s party of the year, the “Golden Globes 75th Anniversary Special” will also include comedic highlights from past hosts and presenters and a countdown of the best Golden Globe Award-winning movies of all time, as selected by members of the HFPA.
The “Golden Globes 75th Anniversary Special” is produced by dcp in association with the HFPA.
The HFPA and dcp will present the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2018. The ceremony will air on NBC live coast-to-coast at 8 p.m. ET. Nominations will be announced Monday, Dec. 11.
About the Hollywood Foreign Press Association
Founded in the 1940s during World War II, the HFPA was originally comprised of a handful of L.A.-based overseas journalists who sought to bridge the international community with Hollywood, and to provide distraction from the hardships of war through film. More than seventy years later, members of the HFPA represent 56 countries with a combined readership of 250 million in some of the world’s most respected publications. Each year, the organization holds the third most watched awards show on television, the Golden Globe® Awards, which has enabled the organization to donate more than $25 million to entertainment-related charities and scholarship programs. For more information, please visit www.GoldenGlobes.com and follow us on Twitter (@GoldenGlobes) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/GoldenGlobes).
About dick clark productions
dick clark productions (dcp) is the world’s largest producer and proprietor of televised live event entertainment programming with the “Academy of Country Music Awards,” “American Music Awards,” “Billboard Music Awards,” “Golden Globe Awards,” “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest,” “Hollywood Film Awards” and the “Streamy Awards.” Weekly television programming includes “So You Think You Can Dance” from 19 Entertainment and dcp. dcp also owns one of the world’s most unique and extensive entertainment archive libraries with over 60 years of award-winning shows, historic programs, specials, performances and legendary programming. For additional information, visit www.dickclark.com.
Here is what this Golden Globe winner said backstage in the Golden Globe Awards press room.
Tom Hiddleston at the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 8, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
You filmed “The Night Manager” and “Thor: Ragnarok” in Australia. Do you pinch yourself knowing that you have these very different acting roles?
I do. I feel very lucky. When I became an actor, I wanted to move between genres and characters and never repeat myself or play the same thing twice. I have played Loki four times, but the idea that I’m allowed to play both Jonathan Pine and Loki and my character in “Kong: Skull Island,” which I was also in Australia for is truly everything I’ve always wished for is an actor, so I feel immensely fortunate.
How were you challenged in your “Night Manager” role? Did you feel you were challenged differently from your past roles?
Certainly. If you read the novel by John le Carré, it’s such a rich resource. And quite apart from being a master storyteller of espionage thrillers, John le Carré is it is a very curious student of British identity. And I think through Jonathan Pine, he’s trying to get underneath the skin of what it means to be English, how Englishness changes when were abroad, how it changes when we fight for our country, because Jonathan Pine is a former soldier, and also how it manifests in the character of Richard Roper who is an arms dealer to whom people are very drawn because Richard Roper is attractive and charismatic in and you like him, but he is deeply cynical. And I think that le Carré’s anger is that a man like Roper is an inheritor of the freedoms of British democracy but has chosen to the worst things imaginable.
With Pine, the challenge is he’s a spy. And spies dissemble and conceal and they have to be believable as they lie. And the nature of acting is always exploring identity but Pine is four different people he has to be believable in all his different guises. And that was fascinating for me to play different people with different names were different passports. So very different very new and very exciting.
At the beginning of the series, Pine is a night manager. How did “The Night Manager” director Susanne Bier talk to you about that character when we meet him at first?
Susanne and I talked a lot about uniform. Pine is a former soldier in our adaptation of the second Iraq War in 2003. And he has for reasons, perhaps known only to himself, hidden behind another uniform. He’s someone who feels comfortable behind the anonymity of service he was in military service now he’s in hotel service immensely capable, practical and resourceful.
And I think in the first episode he commits he put his heart on the line and he’s broken-hearted. And that is the thing that challenges him to do something to come out behind the uniform and stand up for something more. And I had a fascinating time. I did a night as a night manager at the Rosewood Hotel in London. And it’s all theater.
Staying in hotels since then has been a different experience because everything is immaculately managed to make the guests feel welcome. Of course, if you’re doing it well, they don’t see the work, which is very like acting. But yeah that we talked about service and putting other people before yourself because that’s what the uniform demands.
You’re so good at playing the bad guy now. When you read the script do you ever feel bad? How is it to be the bad guy?
I haven’t played the bad guy for a while. I just finished “Thor Ragnarok” in which I’m Loki again, but mercifully the bad boy pants who passed on to Cate Blanchett this time around who’s playing the goddess of death, which is significantly more bad than the god of mischief, I think in the bad-boy stakes. I do think about what the film is transmitting about people and about character and recently I’ve played people who might be construed as protagonist, as opposed to antagonists.
But with Loki, specifically, who’s the most out-and-out villain I’ve played, it always try to see to be compassionate to his point of view, and that’s how I think you get an honest performance. But I understand that at the end of Avengers he has to get Hulk-Smashed, and he has to go down.
There is a photo of you and Carrie Fisher at the White House Correspondents Dinner. How did you feel when she passed away?
Carrie Fisher was such a fighter, and I spent one evening with her in Washington last summer at the White House Correspondents Dinner as a guest of The Guardian newspaper. And she had this indomitable spirit that was bigger than the occasion. She was such a force for life and I think if we could take anything a lesson from there it’s just it’s to live as fully as we can, to embrace our weaknesses and that very act makes them become strengths.
And she was so funny. She insisted that when we were there she was looking after her dog Gary, and I was looking after Gary’s rubber duck which was a rubber duck of Princess Leia. So I felt in the presence of the outgoing president of the United States, it was only appropriate that they have a Princess Leia rubber duck in train because of Carrie’s contribution.
Here is what these Golden Globe winners said backstage in the Golden Globe Awards press room.
Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone at the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 8, 2017. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/NBC)
BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
Damien, how many “no’s” did you hear before you knew “La La Land” was actually going to happen?
Damien Chazelle (writer/director): Many, but enough to fill six years. That’s how long it took to actually get the movie going. I actually have to remind myself of that. All of this is so surreal, but the biggest dream come true I had was the first day literally standing there with the cameras rolling and being surrounded by people like Emma [Stone], Ryan [Gosling] and John [Legend] and my crew. It was the biggest gift. All of this is even more surreal because of that.
Why do you think “La La Land” has become such a critical and popular success?
Ryan Gosling (co-star): I think Emma spoke to that so beautifully in her speech. The thing that moved me so much about the film is the importance of pursuing your dream, despite the obstacles. It’s such a beautiful message for Damien to put out into the world. It seemed like a very appropriate time for that.
Emma Stone (co-star): Thanks. Yeah, I think that’s maybe the key to what’s inspiring about it now. I also think that something about these two characters and what they’re going through that feels very realistic and very human, even in these fantastical circumstances where they’re singing and dancing and everything is so beautifully colorful. I think two people struggling that way and falling in love and how it ultimately unfolds is something that everybody can relate to in what could have been.
How has the modern era shaped our fantasies about love?
Gosling: I’ve had too much champagne to answer that question. Emma?
Stone: I don’t know if I can speak to the entirety of the modern era right now. But by next week, I will have a solid answer for you—with footnotes and references.
Chazelle: I don’t know if this answers the question, but it was important for us to make a love story that was for the modern era, that was a contemporary love story but use older movies and older love stories to comment on the modern era. And look at the ways the time we live in how matches the old movies in some ways and doesn’t match them in other ways.
And also this idea that one does need to move forward, that nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake is not a place to live in. You should honor the past but actually find a way to push that forward, whether it’s in how you love or how you make movies or how you make any art.
Damien, can you comment on “La La Land” setting a Golden Globes record for the most Golden Globe Awards (seven) won by a single movie or TV show? And you’re also the youngest person to ever win a Golden Globe for Best Director. How does that feel?
Chazelle: Now that you say that, it feels incredible. I’m still processing it. This is my first time ever at the Golden Globes. I assume it doesn’t always go this way. I’m not going to get used to this. I was just so honored to be here at all, so to be on the stage with the people I made this movie with. I think what I was most excited about was to see [“La La Land” composer/songwriter] Justin [Hurwitz], who I went to college with and met in a college band, and we talked about movies when we were 17 and 18, to see him on that stage [accepting his Golden Globe Award] was actually the single greatest moment for me.
Here is what these Golden Globe winners said backstage in the Golden Globe Awards press room.
“Moonlight” team at the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 8, 2017. (Photo by Robyn Beck/Getty Images)
BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
What did it mean to you to be able to show Miami on screen?
Barry Jenkins (writer/director): It meant the world to me. You know, the whole the whole point of this film for Tarell Alvin McCraney, the playwright, and I was to tell a very truthful story about how we grew up. And so are going to Miami to make the film because this story I think not that is universally I think is very specific, to be honest, but we could have told the story in New Orleans you could’ve told in Atlanta, Georgia, where our budget would have gone much farther than did in Florida where there’s no tax incentives.
But Tarell and I are both from Miami, so the city—kind of cliché to say it—it was a character, but it really was a character in this film and whenever people see this movie I feel like they come to Miami. They sit down with us the experience what it’s like to grow up there. And then to have all these journalists from all over the world have taken this trip to Miami and award the film is proof positive that we did the right thing by sticking to our guns and shooting in Miami.
Janelle, this film deals with one of the toughest things that some people go through in this country on being young especially African-American coming out. Can you talk about performing on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” in place of Kim Burrell, whose performance was cancelled after her anti-gay speech?
Janelle Monáe: I’m pro-love. I’ve been very supportive of love. And at the end of the day, I think that no matter where you come from and who you love, you deserve to have a right to the American Dream and to also have your story told. So I’m so thankful to be part of this true American story.
I’m thankful to be a part of a cast and a director who is pro-inclusion. And I just think that anybody who is representing hate is a part of the problem and I hope we can learn from each other and be more empathetic of one another and I hope that we can all remember the end of the day we all bleed the same color.
Why do you think people are responding “Moonlight” the way they are?
Jenkins: For me, I’m all about process and the process of making this film going back to day one on set … was about making universal film. It was about getting it right and being very specific to where we were with what the actors were giving us on the day and trying to speak truth to power in that.
And so I think in doing that I think the movie touches people because they see the authenticity that we put into it we were trying to do anything but tell our story. I think people respect that because often you try to tell a story that you believe someone is going to be willing to pay to hear. That was not our goal.
Our goal was to just speak truth as to Tarell’s experience and my experience they can doing that you can go to Katmandu or I can say I’ve been to London or Rome or Toronto will Telluride, these places so far removed, or the HFPA, the Philippines, to Russia all these different places and people respect the fact that oh no I’m not trying to make a story that relates to you in your place here right now. I think we need more that as we move into the next four years of life on this planet.
Barry, you dedicated this award to your mother. Has she seen “Moonlight” yet?
Jenkins: I think she wants to watch it on the small screen, which as a filmmaker, like no, you see it in the theater as big as possible but I think she wants to make her peace with it, woman to screen. I think she wants to engage the story on one level not in a room like this with a bunch of—I’d say for her—strangers. I do think we’ve been talking a lot more and the conversation has accelerated. I will say Naomi has given all these interviews, every interview she gives my mom watches and it.
And she has seen I think the care and thoughtfulness that they will be put into betraying her and I do think she’s getting you know I can’t rush her bit-by-bit, but she’s a step closer to I think sitting down and watching and some version you know myself and Tarell’s depiction of herself.
Do you think movies can change things socially?
Jenkins: I see what you’re saying, but … people have seen this film three times, four times, not as escapism but for realism. They want to go to the cinema and see something real reflected in all these films. No one could have anticipated that we would be sitting on the president-elect that we have coming into office in the next 12, 13 days. However, we all made these films because we felt something was lacking in the soil at the root these stories that hadn’t been told.
I don’t know if it was that these two things are coming together at the same time but we’re here now you know and we have to keep telling these stories very truthfully and honestly. And we have to give people things not to escape to this room for escapism but things they can run to reaffirm that not that all lives matter, I don’t want to step into that, but that you know what if you’re feeling something that you want to speak it? You speak it and someone there will be there to hear your truth. And I think that’s been the spirit of “Moonlight” so far.
To the actors, how specifically did you acted against each other especially in the three different acts and how each relationship was different moving forward to the story?
Mahershala Ali (co-star): Let me just say that one thing that we didn’t do was act against each other we always acted with each other. And this is the greatest joy my career.
Ashton Sanders (co-star): I agree.
Trevante Rhodes (co-star): Yeah, it was really just about sharing the moment issue in the space with beautiful people and being able to listen and react. That’s all it was and just understanding situation and understand who the person was. And trusting this man right here [he points to Jenkins].
Ashton and Trevante, you weren’t allowed to see each other during filming “Moonlight.” How important was that for the overall effect and were you surprised actually to find continuation within the characters when you saw them on screen?
Rhodes: I think it was very important because me personally I would have done any and everything I could to try and at least a little bit mimic what the younger versions were going to try and force some similarity within myself. And I think just not having to focus on that and again trusting Barry, trusting the script, trusting my idea who the person was the most important thing and allowing me to be free and to just embody the character and just leave it at that. That’s where I’m at.
Sanders: Just to back up what Travonte was saying, I think it allowed us to focus on our sections and our circumstances within our sections. Chiron is a different person having three parts of the film, so it allowed us to again focus on our circumstances and to tap into that time period of Chiron.
Can tell us how difficult it was to find the producers for “Moonlight” and how many countries has the movie been sold?
Jenkins: A24 sold the movie to—and I’ll say ballpark—20 territories internationally, which is amazing for a film set in this world featuring these characters. I will say the myth has been propagated about what a film with a cast that looks like this in a story that’s set in this world where it can show where people come out and see it. This movie has defied—I won’t say expectations—but I think those perceptions.
I made a movie in 2008 called “Medicine for Melancholy”— a very small film, $15,000 budget. And the good folks at Plan B saw that film. We started talking; nothing came of it. I think I wasn’t ready at that point. And when I had the screenplay for “Moonlight” with my first producer, Adele Romanski, who I went to film school with, the cinematographer and both editors also went to film school with me at Florida State University, we sent the script to Plan B, and they read it and immediately they said that they wanted to get involved. They had seen the first film and thought, “What can this guy do? Look at what these people do with a larger canvas.”
And then from Plan B, they take it to A24. A24 at that point only distributed films, not finance them, but they believed in our voice so much—I’ll say Tarell’s and my voice—that they literally opened a new lane, as the kids say. And they are in their business to finance the film. It was the first film financed by A24. From there it was just like an open door. It was like, “This is the budget here and the parameters. Go out and make the film you want to make.” It was a beautiful process.
They allowed me to do the things I wanted to do. And yet they asked questions and those questions always led to answers, but they allowed me to decide when the answer has been reached. So it was a beautiful process. I feel very fortunate very privileged to have made this film with Plan B, A24 and Adele Romanski. Thank you very much. Much love to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
Here is what this Golden Globe winner said backstage in the Golden Globe Awards press room.
Viola Davis at the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 8, 2017. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
What’s the first thing you’re going to do when you get home tonight?
I’m not going to get in my Jacuzzi because it’s going to be too late. I’m probably take a shower and maybe have another glass of Prosecco with my husband.
Where are you going to put your Golden Globe?
My husband always takes care of the trophies because after tonight, I so appreciate this, but I’ve got put the trophy away get back to work. he puts in the office on a shelf.
Can you tell us something about your communication and your team work with your husband Julius that makes you better?
I don’t know. It’s like that’s a God question. Lord knows, I don’t know what I did to deserve him walking into my life 18 years ago. I just know that it worked. I just know that it’s a great friendship. I know that when I’m down, he’s up. And when he’s down, I’m up, so we could throw each other a rope.
And now, people kind of merge our names together. I was JuliusViola. But I think probably respect—respect on the greatest level and wanting the best for him as well as him one and the best for me. I think that’s probably the truest foundation of love.
You won a Tony Award for the same role in “Fences.” Can you talk about moving the story along with your “Fences” co-star/director Denzel Washington from the stage to in front of the camera?
It felt very natural, already kind of feels like an intimate story, but not intimate in a way that’s small. I think that you know with Shakespeare or Chekov or any great writer who writes tragedies we know that they write about big emotions, about people within the confines of a family or community fighting for their lives. And it was such a joy and pleasure to have that challenge and to have August Wilson’s words and have those characters.
And like I said on the stage, very seldom does the average person get their due—especially with people of color. It’s always biopics. It’s always which is fantastic. It’s always someone who did something tremendous in life that changed the scope of our country.
But I also like the stories of the smaller people. I think that it encapsulates time. I think that it’s universal and inclusive, and that’s what August did. And all of that, it just felt like a very natural fluid movement to bring it to the screen.
In Trump’s America, how can we really be sure of the progress we’ve made all these years, in terms of racial tension, in terms of everybody still having a shot at the American Dream, and make sure we’re continuing in the right direction?
Believe it or not, I will remove Trump from the equation because I feel that it’s bigger than him. I believe that is it is our responsibility to uphold what it is to be an American. And what America is about in the true meaning of what it means to pursue the American Dream.
I think that America in and of itself has been an affirmation, but I think that we’ve fallen short a lot because there is no way that we can have anyone in office that is not an extension of our own belief system. So then what does that say about us? And I think that if you answer that question, I think that that says it all and I know that’s very ambiguous, but thank you.
Here is what this Golden Globe winner said backstage in the Golden Globe Awards press room.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson at the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 8, 2017. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
What was the most challenging part of your role in “Nocturnal Animals”?
You know, every day was pretty intense and grueling. I think maybe the first day of shooting the big car sequence. Jake Gyllenhaal is a talented actor, and my role was to provoke and manipulate him and trying to get a reaction. And I think that was my challenge to give him as much material to work from, so I wanted to be as giving as possible.
What is your dream passion project?
To be working with people I enjoy working with. I love different characters, and I love to explore different genres, but it’s such a luxury to do what we do. You want to just work with the people that are also passionate and enjoy it too.
You got to briefly thank your parents in your acceptance speech right at the end. Do you want to expound on that at all?
Well yeah, I guess if I could … I started acting when I was 6 years old, so they gave me that opportunity, and I ran with it. I found my passion, and if it wasn’t for that and the fact that they … kind of encouraged me to do what I enjoy doing that I wouldn’t be here.
They just encouraged me to do what I enjoy doing. My mother would take me up and down from [where] I lived outside the city and I would get trained take about an hour and a half to get in. If I had an audition when I was young, she was there to support me and be by my side. She gave up her job to really help me do what I’m doing.
Are you wearing Tom Ford tonight? What did your parents say when they saw you play this role in “Nocturnal Animals”?
Yes, this is a Tom Ford tux. And my parents—shout out to them actually to see me because they got up at 4 a.m. They’re living in Qatar, so they’re watching on their TV screen right now, and I know they’re just extremely proud … I think they saw [“Nocturnal Animals”] at the London Film Festival, and they were just I don’t know … This is a really hard movie to watch. I think they were pulled in by the thriller, so they were moved.
The character is an extreme type of guy. A lot of people know you for starring in “Kick-Ass,” where you played a very moral character. Your character in “Nocturnal Animals” is the opposite. So how do you prepare for that?
I’m grateful for the opportunity from Tom Ford. I was perplexed why he chose me for a role like this because this is definitely something out of my comfort zone and a challenge. It was intense and grueling, and I spent three months prior to making the movie watching documentaries on serial killers or psychopaths.
And this guy was set in West Texas, so I would listen to characters from there, dialect-wise, and we kind of went from there. You know I had a lot of sleepless nights watching this material. Psychologically, it’s hard.
You sported some very serious facial hair in this role. Can you tell us the story behind that and how it affected your performance?
I remember Tom offering the job in summertime and it was about three months prior to making the movie. And he just said, “Grow your hair out, grow your beard, grow your fingernails out so that I have enough to play with. I don’t even know what I’m going to do yet but I just need to kind of be out to see what I can play with.” And that’s what he did. He got a razor out and he personally like gave me muttonchops. He took the chin off and played around, and they straightened my hair, and we started to mold this character.
Here is what these Golden Globe winners said backstage in the Golden Globe Awards press room.
Claire Foy at the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 8, 2017. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/NBC)
BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
Claire, if you had a chance to sit down with Queen Elizabeth and have tea with her, what would be one question you want to ask her now that you’ve been playing her for the television series?
Claire Foy: I’m really shamefully going to nick Andy Harris’ reply to this which is “Has she watched it?” And then probably I just like to hear her talk for about two hours that would be nice.
Peter and Stephen, what fascinated you about this and why do you think you were able to get such an amazing budget for it?
Peter Morgan (creator): We didn’t ask for that. Netflix gave it to us. I just sort of started this journey when writing the film “The Queen.” And it and even that was by accident. I started just thinking it was interesting what happened between the queen in her prime ministers. And that just grew and grew and grew.
And I wanted to know how must have been for her with her first prime minister, who was [Winston] Churchill, and the next thing I know these stories were coming back to me and I started thinking this is a much longer running thing, and now we’re shooting the second season at the moment. I hope that’s answered your question
How have you reacted to “The Crown’s” popularity? How did you pick John Lithgow to play Churchill?
Stephen Daldry (director): John is a very good person to answer the question about how on earth how surprising the response has been around the world.
Lithgow: It is astonishing. It delights all of us. We knew we were doing something fine. I think from day one, we knew this was going to be extraordinary. But we didn’t we didn’t dream that it would be massively popular internationally.
I suppose it’s because the monarchy is the subjective everybody’s attention and obsession internationally. And Peter and Stephen have just found a way of turning that very, very public family into an extremely fascinating private world ever and everybody connects with it. And you have to ask them about casting me. I didn’t do it myself.
Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said that “The Crown” could feasibly go on six or seven years. Any thoughts on that?
Morgan: The danger of writing a story about someone with a long life is the story goes on and on … We’re filming the second season at the moment, and that would take us through to 1964. We were there for about three episodes in at the moment, and that starts in the Suez crisis and then as Britain goes into the ‘60s, the world changes you know if we leave behind a certain kind of Britain and we enter a new kind of Britain.
And we will then at the end of Season 2, we will reach a point where we will have to start thinking about a new cast because our actors would reached what I think is the limit that they could reasonably play and we haven’t had those conversations with Netflix about going forward. I think they would like to, and I think we would like to, but it’s only now really that will have those conversations
John, how difficult was it for you to master Churchill’s speech patterns and the physicality?
Lithgow: It was difficult but it was fun it was all fun and I had tremendous help from the costumer Michele Clapton and the makeup artist Ivana Primorac and a remarkable dialect coach William Conacher, who helped me with not just the dialect but the sort of machine dream of changes explosiveness that was William. And I have to say he worked just as hard with the British actors as you did with me. He was remarkable. Put all those things together, and it came very, very easily. And I think the bottom line the greatest asset of all was the lines that were written for me.
Daldry: The bottom line is that John Lithgow is one of the great actors of our age. And that we had him in our show was a great gift, and it was a wonderful opportunity for us to explore the character Churchill. We’re blessed to have you, sir.
Do you have a favorite Churchill quote or anecdote?
Lithgow: There was a wonderful moment that Stephen and I derived. We wanted to do something appalling for Churchill to demonstrate that he should not be prime minister. There was a moment when he stands up in a cabinet meeting and staggers out of the room.
And it was my idea that he actually reach right straight into his trousers. This was inspired by a quote from Churchill when someone pointed out that he’d left his fly buttons open. And his quote was, “It’s not a problem. A dead bird never leaves its nest.”
Here is what this Golden Globe winner said backstage in the Golden Globe Awards press room.
Billy Bob Thornton at the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 8, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
Can you elaborate on what you said in your acceptance speech about sticking up for people?
I said that it’s easy to talk about people. It’s hard to stick your neck out. And I guess my point about that is a lot of people in the entertainment business get called “privileged” and yet … I came out here in poverty and spent a decade trying to eat. And that does things to you. At the end of the day, what separates people who come to these awards shows and who do television shows or movies or whatever it is or write a score, there are people who are willing to take a chance.
And maybe it was safer to work, but if you wanted to make something out of yourself, you’re willing to go take the chance. And so when people in this day of the social media, and when people are slamming each other left and right, what they have to remember at the end of the day is those who talk about those who do things, that’s not a very good job.
That’s why when the legitimate press … when you write a review or talk about something on your TV show, it comes from a place of knowledge, as opposed to a place of hatred or jealousy or whatever it is, you know. And I think we’re living in that society right now. I let it bother me for a few years. And now, when I accept an award, I accept it with pride, because I know I tried.
Who are you most excited to see tonight?
I was excited to see my wife being happy. I mean, she’s happy every day, but tonight, she’s just proud to be here with me and everything. But in terms of celebrities, I was very excited to see Warren Beatty because he’s one of the guys I admired growing up.
What drew you to your “Goliath” character?
I always wanted to play a lawyer, because I think lawyers and actors have the same job. A lawyer is trying to convince a jury, and an actor is trying to convince an audience. And I did it in “The Judge” with Robert Downey [Jr.] and [Robert] Duvall, but it was kind of a big cameo. It wasn’t really a full part. I’d always wanted to play a lawyer for a period of time, but mainly I wanted to play a guy who was trying to fight his way back from nowhere—and I’ve had to do that a few times, so I kind of related to the character.
You’ve said the “Goliath” was one of the best crews you ever worked with, and you recognized your PA [production assistant] in your acceptance speech. Can you talk a little bit more about the crew?
It was a very, very good crew on “Goliath.” There were people who enjoyed being there every day. They got who the actors were and related to us in that way. Luke Scott was a kid who was only 23 years old, and he passed away last year.
Luke made me want to come to work. He was the guy who, when I got there, I know that his face was such a joyous face. And he was so happy just to be there and have that job and be around a business that he wanted to be around.
To lose your life at 23 years old when you’re just starting something like that, I thought, “I can thank people all night long. I can thank lawyers and agents and everybody, but at the end of the day, the two entities I have to thank are Luke Scott, this PA that made me happy to be there, and Amazon, who was willing to do the show.”
Amazon is a company that was very kind to us and allowed us to be what we wanted to be, and in fact encouraged us to be more than what was there. But if I thank them publicly, then I need to thank every lawyer, and that takes a lot of time. So if I had to pick one out of two, I pick the kid who’s not with us anymore.
How would you say luck or blessings fit in addition to the chances you’ve taken and how good your work is?
In terms of luck and all that, I’ve kind of left it up to providence in a way because if Fred Roos hadn’t seen me in the theater back in the early ‘80s, I’d be nowhere. But then again, if this unemployed actor who I met named Don Blakeley hadn’t met me three or four years before that, I would never have been in the theater were Fred Roos saw me.
People say, “Was ‘Sling Blade’ the turning point?” or “Was ‘Once False Move’ the turning point?” And sure, you can say that in a way, but the fact of the matter is, if it weren’t for Don Blakely, this actor who would feed me when I was starving and who introduced me to somebody and put me in a play in this little theater group where Fred Roos, a big producer came and saw me, then none of that would have happened. So you have to really go way, way back.
So I think, as opposed to those defining moments that people usually pin on movies, I think you really have to think more about those people that led you to that moment. So my hat goes off to Don Blakeley, just like it went off to Luke Scott, a PA who made me want to come to work. I think the little woman and the little man aren’t recognized enough in the trajectory of someone’s career.
We have not heard about the future of “Goliath” from Amazon. What have you heard, and what are your hopes for the show going forward?
If I told you, I’d have to kill you. They would like to do another season, I know that much. This one was written in a way that it had a beginning, a middle and an end, so that was kind of the intention. But once they see what the potential is—and I honestly believe there’s more potential for the show than what was in the first season. I love the first season, but I think there’s so much more to mine.
I think we need to know where this guy came from and what happened and what it is that made him who he is and what his sense of justice actually is and what his desires are and what he does think about these people. And I think another season could unfold that and could answer a lot of those questions and lead the audience down a path that’s much stranger and much darker. I know that Amazon, to their credit, wants to do it, and I think it just depends on if they come up with the right story.
Is there some talent that you’re not so good that you wish you were better at?
Absolutely. I’m the worst dancer, maybe in history. I grew up as a musician, as a drummer, so I have a natural sense of rhythm. It’s not about that. On the dance floor, I freeze up like you can’t imagine. It’s incredible.
When I was in junior high school there was a band called the Yardleys in my hometown of Malvern, Arkansas, and they were like the Beatles to us. And they had a dance in the old high-school gymnasium.
And this senior in high school named Joan Burnett asked me to dance and her boyfriend Bucky Griggs was a drummer in the Yardleys. And she came over and got me by the hand and led me out to the middle of the dance floor because I was friends with her little brother, who was in school with me.
And I stood there sweating, like my hands are sweating, and I thought I was having a heart attack at 13. And I lost my mind I didn’t know what to do. So when I watch people dance and look at the old movies when actors couldn’t just be actors; they had to ride horses, shoot guns, dance, sing, everything—I admire those people so much, because now we can just sit in a room and a chair and talk, but they just have to do everything. I’m so fortunate, because I just can’t dance.
Here is what these Golden Globe winners said backstage in the Golden Globe Awards press room.
Isabelle Huppert and Paul Verhoeven at the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 8, 2017. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/NBC)
BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
What scares you the most in life or in movies?
Huppert: What am I scared of in life or in movies? Well, in movies normally things scare me. Actually, I think the most apparently scary things are the most rewarding. I think it all depends about with whom you do it and obviously going it with [“Elle” director ] Paul Verhoeven didn’t scare me. I don’t think truth never scared me. In life, life it’s a different story.
What made you and Paul Verhoven understand each other to surpass the craziness of this plot and create something that responded to people?
Verhoeven: well and the book was sent to me and I like the book. And then it was clear at a certain moment that Isabelle Huppert was go to do this and had to do this because there is really nobody else in the world that could have done it. That’s what I feel. I mean, that’s all.
Talking in retrospect because when you start an adventure like that you don’t know exactly where you will go where it’s going. You’re not so clear about things, but after finishing the movie and looking at the result I feel that what Isabelle did was so audacious and so authentic that basically, it saves the movie.
Huppert: I think most of the time moviemaking is all about confidence and trust. There is nothing else, actually. And if you if you trust someone if you should feel like you know you’re being watched and loved and understood, it’s all very easy and actually obviously that’s what happened in that film.
I think that both Paul Verhoeven and myself this is what we expect from doing movies. Being adventurous in certain subject matters but being scared of exploring anything, even if it is disturbing if it is, even if it is sometimes difficult to listen or to understand but exploring the human psyche. That’s what makes seen most of the time valuable and worthwhile.
You didn’t win the Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Did you expect to win at the Golden Globes?
Verhoeven: In reality, yes. Yeah because there was of course, especially in the United States some controversy about a movie. I didn’t realize that the Hollywood Foreign Press was also open-minded to accept this in all its strangeness otherness and—as Isabelle has called it—disturbance. Yes, I was amazed but on the other hand it was so clear to me that Isabelle was fantastic that I was really from the beginning believing that it would be very strange if she wouldn’t get a prize.
What moved you the most playing this character and what was it like to be in this category with so many amazing fellow actresses?
Huppert: What moved me the most by playing this character? So many things, actually. She’s such a memorable character I love the cat too. I’m joking. I think what I really liked is that also the fact that she’s such a central character around which the whole theme evolves and so it makes it so pleasurable and so easy to be able to little touch by little touch to build up a character and to complete and not to be obliged to choose whether she should be more ironical or more dramatic.
Paul Verhoeven has an incomparable talent to really combine this ability to go from drama to sometimes comedy to thriller through the project of a woman. I just had to you know to follow these as a day everyday experiment and that was amazing for me to create that role in this circumstance.
Here is what these Golden Globe winners said backstage in the Golden Globe Awards press room.
“The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” team at the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 8, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
What was the most gratifying part of working on this project?
Nina Jacobson (executive producer): The collaboration amongst these actors was a remarkable gift. These are all actors who under any conditions would be first on a call sheet. They all have enormous star power and yet they all work together to support each other in a way that it was immensely demanding. They all just gave so much to each other, and that was very gratifying.
What was your initial reaction when you heard of the nomination?
Jacobson: We were thrilled and excited pretty excited.
John Travolta (co-star/producer): Well, it’s the icing on the cake. You guys are amazing. You are opinion leaders, so you’re approving of our series. If you hadn’t given us all these wonderful nominations and acknowledged to this depth it would have been a disappointing year. And we’ve been very lucky this year, but you made the year, so thank you.
Now that you’ve had almost a year since “The People v. O.J. Simpson” premiered, did it surprise you the depth of the chord that this struck about contributing to the conversation about race in America? And what would you say has surprised you about the resonance of this project?
Sterling K. Brown (co-star): Unfortunately, it’s not that surprising because the show is more relevant than what it should be. You would think in 20 years time in this country that things would have progressed to such a place where you look back and be like, “Oh, how interesting that was back then.” But back then is what’s happening right now and so the fact that a primarily African-American jury in Los Angeles could find fault with the police department is not that surprising. We’ve got a lot of ocular proof over the past two years of police misconduct—an institution that supposed to protect and serve—and a lot of people don’t always feel protected or served.
And so, I think it’s because of all of the things that we’ve been able to see that there’s a level of understanding that people may not have had 20 years ago when that jury made the decision that they did to acquit. I think what’s really beautiful about what our writers and producers created was that the conversation existed in such a way that people who were appalled with that decision now understood the other side and people who actually celebrated that decision got a chance to see the amount of evidence that the prosecution had and can actually say like, “Well, maybe that wasn’t exact the right approach either.” So hopefully, both sides started to understand each other and instead of just being in fights all the time.
What do you think O.J. Simpson would think about this TV series? And do you care?
Ryan Murphy (executive producer): I don’t think we care.
Jacobson: We have never met him.
Brad Simpson (executive producer): I think that when we were developing the show, the thing that we wanted is everybody to have insight to what these main characters went through, especially the prosecution and the defense to see the other side. That was the main concern.
We made something that had a lot of complexity; that was the objective of the show. We didn’t really think about O.J. Simpson, what he would think. It was mainly about the legal teams that we wanted to present. That was the objective.
Many people on the legal team are saying that they were little upset they weren’t interviewed by the actors. Can you talk about that?
Sarah Paulson (co-star): I can’t speak to that. I didn’t speak to Marcia [Clark] until I think we had completed Episode 7. We were not trying to tell the story from any of their particular points of view, in terms of their personal stakes in it. This was this was something that we were trying to shed light on that may not have always completely lined up with their opinion about what it was that happened. I don’t really know how to answer that exactly.
