Thursday, June 8, 2017

The Hollywood Reporter's Drama Showrunner Roundtable

The Hollywood Reporter recently gathered Ryan Murphy, Jenji Kohan, Ava DuVernay, David E. Kelley, Noah Hawley, and Lisa Joy for a drama showrunner roundtable interview. Here are some highlights:

Many of you have multiple projects right now. How much industry pressure is there to build an empire?

JENJI KOHAN (Orange Is the New Black, Netflix) There's a lot.


DAVID E. KELLEY (Big Little Lies, HBO; Goliath, Amazon) I think we should defer to Ryan.

RYAN MURPHY (Feud: Bette and Joan and American Horror Story: Roanoke, FX) Once you get an opportunity to get a yes, you lean into the yes because you're used to years and years of no. If you are so lucky to have something that works, that's a dream come to life — and if you get another dream, your impulse is to move toward it. What I've learned to do is to have a group of three or four really strong collaborators who can help me, who also have the same dream.

NOAH HAWLEY (Fargo and Legion, FX) I think there's a freelance muscle where you know it's feast or famine. Certainly as a showrunner in broadcast, you put everything you have into a show and they cancel it after two episodes, and then you have nothing. The more things you have going, the less you're riding that roller coaster.

Was there ever a point where you looked at your plate and realized it was overflowing? And if so, what did you do about it?

HAWLEY Well, yeah. For me, what I didn't realize was: At the point at which the show that you make is successful, then whatever you say yes to is going to get made. I was still in the old paradigm. So that's how I found myself with so many things. I've learned to say no. Well, I'm not sure I have yet, but I'm learning. There will be a no soon.

How hard is it for the rest of you to say no? Do you have the confidence to say no?

KELLEY It gets easier when you're older. If you look around this table, they're all good at what they do — and with success comes the burden to be successful.

AVA DUVERNAY (Queen Sugar, OWN) Embedded in that very question is the idea that privilege does not apply. For me to say no — in my mind, there may not be another chance. There's a natural tension with anyone to keep the chance for the open door. When you add to that issues of representation and marginalization that go on top of the artist's feeling of, "Can I get my thing made?" it becomes challenging for me to say no. I get an opportunity from Netflix. "Do you want to make a doc?" "Yes, I want to make a doc." Apple: "Would you like to make a commercial?" "Yes, I will make that commercial." I'm running around doing everything because I love it, but also because there is the fear that any artist has that there won't be another question asked to say no to. And on top of that, the fear that the industry might shift in terms of its attention to women right now or the current renaissance regarding people of color, specifically black folks on TV, and then you're left with nothing.

LISA JOY (Westworld, HBO) There is that pressure not only to be prolific but to not f— up. And especially when you feel the added burden of being a woman who is doing this now. I represent opportunities for other women and other people of color, and I'm trying to start my own kind of movement.


KOHAN Everyone loves a new baby. And giving birth to a new show, it's a high. You get a hit off that and it's hard to turn that down, especially if you've been grinding something out for a really long time and it's a little more awkward, a little more adolescent. The thought of, "Oh, you can start fresh and create something new" is exciting.

Ryan, in making Feud, what was the most surprising thing you learned about the entertainment business and a woman's role within it?

MURPHY Probably that nothing has really changed. For me, talking to a lot of the crewmembers who were older and, specifically, talking to Jessica [Lange] and Susan, who have been around since the '80s, that was the most painful thing: how women are treated and the ageism in our culture. There has really not been that much progression. The saddest part about it was hearing Susan and Jessica talk about the last years of Davis' and Crawford's lives and their own current creative lives: how difficult that has been for them and how much they have to give and want to contribute. And they both have said, you hit 40, 42, and suddenly the phone stops ringing, and that's right when you're figuring it out. So that was not fun.

Read the full interview at The Hollywood Reporter.

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