THR Emmy Roundtable Discussions

July 18, 2016 8:53 AM

The Hollywood Reporter has, once again, released excellent roundtable discussions with notable television actors: Comedy Actor Roundtable (Rob Lowe, Aziz Ansar, Jeffrey Tambour, Tony Hale, Anthony Anderson, Keegan-Michael Key, Jerrod Carmichael) [1h7m], Comday Actress Roundtable (Allison Janney, Lily Tomlin, Gina Rodriguez, Rachel Bloom, Niece Nash, Ilana Glazer) [52m], Drama Actor Roundtable (Cuba Goodling Jr., Rami Malek, Paul Giamatti, Forest Whitaker, Wanger Moura, Bobbay Cannavale) [55m], Drama Actress Roundtable (Kirsten Dunst, Julianna Marguiles, Jennifer Lopez, Kerry Washington, Sarah Paulson, Regina King, Constance Zimmer) [lh13m]
posted by hippybear (8 comments total)

The gender segregation makes me sad. Is there a reason for it? I would have enjoyed watching a conversation between Forest and Lily, for example. I will now watch the videos.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 9:05 AM on July 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

The gender segregation makes me sad. Is there a reason for it?

If I had to guess, it's done in order to foster a more open conversation, especially for the women. I suspect having the men in on the discussion might, unfortunately, make some of the women edit their thoughts.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:53 AM on July 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I assume that it reflects the Emmy awards nomination categories, which are also divided by gender.

I wasn't able to find the Showrunner roundtables for this year. Which is a shame -- those have also been interesting and insightful in past years.
posted by hippybear at 10:00 AM on July 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've got two friends nominated this year and I hope they both win! And wait, I just checked, and Sam Bee only got one nomination (for writing) while John Oliver got... six? And it is impossible for both of my friends to win, because they are competing for writing. And my friend that works for John Oliver is a writer. This sucks. BOO TV PATRIARCHY.
posted by grumpybear69 at 3:02 PM on July 18, 2016

Thank you for posting these! They're so enjoyable. I watched them out of order and am now viewing the table of drama actors. When the host asks them about qualities of a good director, Cuba Gooding starts out with "he" and "him" and while some of the others just stick with "the director," no one ever says "she" or "her." After watching the women conversing, it's a bummer.
posted by Miss Scarlet with the Candlestick in the Lounge at 3:08 PM on July 18, 2016

Oh, pardon! Rami Malek interjects, "or she" toward the end. Kudos to him.
posted by Miss Scarlet with the Candlestick in the Lounge at 4:48 PM on July 18, 2016

The atmosphere in the men's (comedy, I didn't stick with the drama one for more than about three minutes) was really different as well - the women talking to each other were pretty collaborative and supportive of each other's experiences, but the men seemed to need to one-up each other (thinking particularly of Rob Lowe's embarrassing story here) or just talk over each other a lot, which made it much harder for me to watch because I find groups that interact like that to be really uncomfortable.

The women's ones were interesting though, particularly the discussion in the drama one about the stamina you need to make a 22 episode season, and the characteristics that make a good director.
posted by theseldomseenkid at 10:20 PM on July 18, 2016

The comedy actress one was a delight from start to finish - such good stories and supportive vibe!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 3:16 AM on July 19, 2016 [1 favorite]