Tavis Smiley interview
Esposito discusses his roles in the AMC drama Breaking Bad and the NBC drama Revolution in this interview for PBS.
Maybe it’s this laugh I have. But I never, I don’t know if I ever expected to be as successful playing the villain as I am, but I think it’s that you get a brief introduction, and you see a chink in the armor that is compassion.
Tavis Smiley interview
Brosnan discusses his new film, Love Is All You Need, about a widower finding new love, in this interview for PBS.
All the people in this film are somewhat mangled in their own way, fractured in their own way, and searching in their own way. So there was no remorse, there was no sentimentality; there was no kind of me trying to work out past histories of my own life. This was purely for entertainment value.
Tavis Smiley interview
Whedon discusses his new film, Much Ado About Nothing, and his upcoming ABC series, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., in this interview for PBS.
But I love the poetry of the thing, but then ultimately, the more I studied it, the more I go, “Oh, this is about me.” Which is the case of all great literature. But it really just, it strikes themes that obviously it’s 400 years since he wrote it and they still completely resonate, and the jokes still work.
Tavis Smiley interview
Aghdashloo discusses her career and new memoir, The Alley of Love and Yellow Jasmines, in this interview for PBS.
I was born an actress. Since I was four or five years old, I mocked each and every member of the family. As a matter of fact, after a while it turned into entertaining sort of nights for my parents and families.
Tavis Smiley interview
Galecki discusses his role as Dr. Leonard Hofstadter in the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory in this interview for PBS.
It’s been a really healthy, relatively slow climb, which is good for all of us on the show. Because I think to come out of the barrel and just be a phenomenon must be pretty jarring.
Tavis Smiley interview
Collette discusses her career, upcoming CBS drama Hostages, and film The Way, Way Back in this interview for PBS.
Well, I think the most interesting thing about any story is how people change. That’s usually a struggle, because change is pretty much an uncomfortable thing. We’re all really happy with what’s familiar. But what’s inevitable in life is change. That’s what life is.
Tavis Smiley interview
Torres discusses her career and her role in the USA drama, Suits, in this interview for PBS.
I have been very, very fortunate on this show, on Suits, where the writers do come to me and they ask my comfort level and, if they want to push an envelope in a certain direction, if I’m okay with that. And, by and large, I am. I think it’s important. I think I lend myself.
Tavis Smiley interview
Dern discusses her role in the HBO dramedy, Enlightened, which she also co-created, in this interview for PBS.
Well, I will tell you that it’s a huge story point this season for my character, and she and I are pretty much on par about how outrageously naïve we are about everything technological. She doesn’t have a clue, I don’t have a clue. She writes on the show, which she becomes, she gets on Twitter and her first tweet is “My first twit.”
Tavis Smiley interview
Newhart discusses his career and winning his first Emmy after 50 years in the business in this interview for PBS.
I found the most difficult thing when you became successful – when I had the record album, it won Album of the Year – that you were cut off from the source of your material. Your material was everyday people and you were kind of cut off from that and you had to work at it. You had to – I go into a city and people stop me and they say, “You sure look like him” and I say, “Yeah, I’ve been told that.”
Tavis Smiley interview
Harden discusses her new movie, Parkland, about the fallout in Dallas after Kennedy’s assassination, in this interview for PBS.
What’s so interesting that I didn’t know is that Parkland Hospital was a learning hospital. This is where the doctors went to learn how to be doctors. So they didn’t know what they were doing, and the person who would run that room would have been the head nurse. Can you imagine being an intern and you’re going there just to learn how to be a doctor, and in comes the president in such a tragic, tragic state, and not but three days later, Lee Harvey Oswald in the same hospital.
Tavis Smiley interview
Tripplehorn discusses her new movie, Morning, that was written, directed by, and co-stars her husband Leland Orser, in this interview for PBS.
It just so happened he was my husband, but I really – his script was stellar. It was a perfect, beautiful script, and I knew he knew what he wanted. So I knew as a director that there would be no tension, because all any actor wants from their director is for them to steer that ship, to lead them. I knew he knew what he wanted, so it was easy. It was pretty flawless.
Tavis Smiley interview
Lange discusses her new children’s book, It’s About a Little Bird, which is illustrated with hand-tinted photographs, and the upcoming season of American Horror Story: Coven, in this interview for PBS.
I really wrote it for my granddaughters, just with the intention of giving it to them, making a little handmade book for them, illustrated with these photographs, about our lives together and everything. But as I started writing it, this story came to me that I wanted to share with them about something that had happened to me, and it’s all true. When I was living and working in Rome one time, I bought a tiny little canary at a bird market on the streets in Rome.
Tavis Smiley interview
McQueen discusses his career and his film, 12 Years a Slave, in this interview for PBS.
Look again. Never forget. Look again, never forget. To remind ourselves where we are, where we come from, and possibly hopefully where we could go in the future. You have to go back to our past and see where we’re going, and the sort of unfortunate situation, events such as Trayvon Martin, the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, 50th anniversary of March on Washington, the voting rights being revoked, having a Black president.
Tavis Smiley interview
Abrams discusses his new project, an interactive novel entitled S, in which two readers leave notes for each other in the margins in this interview for PBS.
So what occurred to me was what would happen if someone found a book and there was a bunch of writing in it, and the person read some of the book and read some of the notes and, almost as a joke, wrote some notes in response, and then left the book back for the person. What if that person who originally wrote the notes found the book, saw those notes, and actually left a thing? What if a relationship began between two people through a book? What if a book became a means to communicate?
Tavis Smiley interview
Haysbert discusses his career and his role as host of the third part of the Smithsonian Channel’s documentary miniseries, CIVIL WAR 360, in this interview for PBS.
I learned about what, how steadfast I am in how I approach life. Because I saw on this show and I saw when they were introducing these artifacts just how cruel things were, how inhumane things were. But on the other side, I found bits of humanity that didn’t quite jibe with what’s going on. There’s one gentleman in the stories who had a book that he wrote and that his family wrote, and he was a slave. I don’t like to call our people slaves. I call it being enslaved.
Tavis Smiley interview
Bochco discusses his career and his upcoming series for TNT, Murder in the First, in this interview for PBS.
Well, cop shows are by definition melodramatic, they’re larger than life. They create very stark contrasts and conflicts emotionally. They’re provocative, assuming they grapple with – to the extent that cop shows are mirrors of the culture. They really provoke thought and conversation and I think people have always liked the sort of certainty of good guys and bad guys. One of the things I always tried to do in the cop shows I did was to blur those lines and be a little more ambiguous, whether it was a cop show or a lawyer show.
Tavis Smiley interview
Burton discusses the 30 year run of Reading Rainbow and his current campaign to relaunch the project as a mobile app in this interview for PBS.
It is a mobile library for tablets for kids. We’re on the iOS platform and the Kindle Fire platform right now. Our immediate plans are to get to the Web as soon as we can, so that our product can be enjoyed more ubiquitously. However, we are a mobile library on the tablet. A library of 300-plus books and growing, and 75-plus videos, new video content. Original video field trips with LeVar, just like the original television series. We deliver it all in an environment that kids are really excited about exploring, so that they can discover books they want to read.
Tavis Smiley interview
Huston discusses her new memoir, A Story Lately Told: Coming of Age in Ireland, London, and New York, detailing her early years growing up in a famous family in this interview for PBS.
I think – and that’s any help that I can get that may be people outside my family. I was always reticent about taking offerings from my father, and I think it was maybe because I felt the caveat was that I had to give something back, and I didn’t like that position.
Tavis Smiley interview
McDonnell discusses her career and her role as Captain Raydor, first seen in The Closer and now the spin-off, Major Crimes, in this interview for PBS.
This spinoff stayed in the environment and took one character and put her into a different professional position inside of it. So we were able to move it forward in a more organic manner than I would say other spinoffs, and it was highly successful, so we’re really thrilled.
Tavis Smiley interview
Dern discusses his life as an actor and coming from a family of well known politicians in this interview for PBS.
I ran from it all, and when I was 18, I ran for good. I ran because there was a lack of – when you grow up in that environment you’re taught that you’re privileged and you have a lot, but you still have to prove it every day to everybody in the household.