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Tavis Smiley

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23 May, 2014

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Weiner discusses his career and the upcoming final season of Mad Men in this interview for PBS.

I had a litmus test when I was casting the pilot and I was given the luxury by AMC of getting to pick someone who was not famous yet. And I knew that they would be that character of people. They wouldn’t have previous associations or anything.

22 May, 2014

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Favreau discusses moving back and forth between blockbuster movies such as Iron Man and indies such as Chef in this interview for PBS.

But the big ones are about escape and the big ones are about spectacle, and the big ones have to travel around the world and be a ride. To make a movie specific about our culture and about real life and real life problems and real life humor based on our culture, that’s not something the studios are greenlighting anymore. So I had to pull back to my independent roots and do something with limited resources. But what it is is it’s a throwback to my independent comedies, where it could be about – Swingers is about dating, it’s about Hollywood.

13 May, 2014

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Britton discusses playing a country music superstar in the ABC drama Nashville in this interview for PBS.

Well the character is, Rayna Jaymes is the queen of country music, as we like to say, and she has had a very illustrious career which – and that’s so much fun to play too, to try to play somebody the likes of, I don’t know, I think of Bruce Springsteen or somebody like that, who’s really kind of legendary.

12 May, 2014

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Slattery discusses his directorial debut, God’s Pocket, and working with Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his last screen appearances in this interview for PBS.

Well the bottom line is he was extremely proud of the movie, pleased with it. We were partners, producing partners on the thing, and he had been there at rough cuts and gave notes, extensive notes.

8 May, 2014

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Dancy discusses his career and role in the NBC thriller Hannibal in this interview for PBS.

Straight off the bat in that first script there was something going on that was different to me from a character point of view. Then after that, Mads, who plays Hannibal, Laurence Fishburne, who plays the other lead character in the show, got attached, and it just got a stronger and stronger package, really.

5 May, 2014

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Senator Sanders discusses the minimum wage debate, poverty in the United States, and presidential politics in this interview for PBS.

Well first of all, let’s be very clear. You have many, many Republicans, and I don’t think most Americans know this, but you have many Republicans from the Koch brothers on down who not only do not want to raise the minimum wage, their view is that we should abolish the concept of the minimum wage. That means if you’re in a high unemployment area and an employer offers you three bucks an hour, then that’s what the wage will be. But the bottom line for the Republicans in general, it’s the same old story.

Tavis Smiley interview

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Bruni discusses her first North American tour and fourth CD, Little French Songs, in this interview for PBS.

It’s wonderful to be able to be in America and to play my French music in America. But so music has no language, right, so yeah, I feel a lot freer and very happy, because we have time for the family, a lot less pressure.

1 May, 2014

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Hamlin discusses joining the cast of the AMC drama, Mad Men, in this interview for PBS.

In this case I went in to read for a swinger boss, which was another smaller character, and they said it was one or two days’ work. I thought I did a good job, and then I got the call that I didn’t get the part. I went, “Aw, shucks. Well, there goes Mad Men.” Then three months later I get the call to come in and play this guy. I don’t know, I think it’s – however Matt Weiner works, there’s a particular kind of genius going on there.

30 Apr, 2014

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Roberts discusses her career, her bout with cancer, and her new memoir, Everybody’s Got Something, in this interview for PBS.

And yes, when I was a little kid playing in Mississippi and somebody would hurt my feelings or something and I’d come in, and Mama said, “Oh, honey, everybody’s got something.” When I got older and the challenges became a little bit more than someone just picking on me, I remember in 2007 when I was diagnosed with cancer, and she sweetly said, “Honey, everybody’s got something.”  That’s what I tried to impart in this book, the life lessons that I learned, to help me get through my something and hopefully get people on the road to something better.

29 Apr, 2014

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King discusses his six decade spanning career, the Donald Sterling scandal, racism, and segregation in this interview for PBS.

I’ve never understood prejudice, which means to pre-judge. To pre-judge is stupid. I don’t like this; I won’t read that, I won’t look at this – that’s insane. Even if I looked at it just from a standpoint of monetarily, as Ross Perot told me once: “Forget morality. The insanity in the South of building two bathrooms when you only needed one.”

22 Apr, 2014

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Somerhalder discusses his work as a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador and his environmental advocacy in this interview for PBS.

I think there’s a growing sensibility that whether you’re a sports figure, a movie star, or an evangelical preacher, if you have a platform, you’re ultimately responsible to provide information that’s real to people. Particularly when it involves something that deals with all of us. Climate change is not just happening to you or them; it’s happening to all of us.

17 Apr, 2014

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Collins discusses her career and previews her latest novel featuring Lucky Santangelo, Confessions of a Wild Child, in this interview for PBS.

I wrote this as a young adult book. I thought, this will be fun. I gave it to my publishers, I delivered it, and they go, “Oh, no, no, no, this is for everybody. Everybody loves Lucky, so we’re going to put this out as a book for everyone.”

15 Apr, 2014

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Cash discusses her newest album, The River & The Thread, and how it’s different from her previous work in this interview for PBS.

It’s like you work hard to reach a level that you feel you’re at the top of your game, and I felt that we were both at the top of our game in making this record, and songwriting. Also it’s the most old-fashioned thing I could do. I made a concept album. There’s a single narrative that goes through this album. They’re all songs about the South, the deep, dark, mystical, beautiful, strange South.

14 Apr, 2014

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Burns discusses his newest documentary, The Address, about the Gettysburg Address, in this interview with PBS.

Because we’re all liberated by this speech. We’re all liberated by the struggle, and that liberation can extend in many places. When 9/11, first anniversary of 9/11 happened, the English words spoken besides the desperately sad list of the dead? The Gettysburg Address. Has nothing to do with 9/11 but everything, because words, as you know as well as anybody I know on this planet, are medicine, are medicine.

9 Apr, 2014

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Langella discusses his career and newest projects in this interview for PBS.

I think the danger of my generation and certainly some of my colleagues is oh, I’ve been there, oh, I’ve done that – why bother? But my feeling now at this age, and I’m lucky, I’m healthy and I’m in relatively good shape, is if I don’t do it now, when am I going to do it?

21 Mar, 2014

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Conway discusses his career and memoir, What’s So Funny?: My Hilarious Life, in this interview for PBS.

Well, I think when I learn the rules, then I kind of go against the rules because why would you have somebody sitting out there not saying anything but elephant? So I try to fill in those blanks, yeah. A lot of times, it doesn’t work out because people are doing this. But it’s not my show, so why would I worry?

20 Mar, 2014

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McBride discusses her career and latest CD, Everlasting, in this interview for PBS.

You know, I just have always wanted to make a record like this, and I just kind of listened to my little voice, that little creative voice that said, “This is a good thing. You should do this.” I just love this music. I’ve always put songs like this in my show over the years. We’ve covered everything from At Last, Natural Woman, songs like that. So yeah, it just felt – it’s just fun.

13 Mar, 2014

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Shyamalan discusses his career and book, I Got Schooled, about the state of education reform in the United States, in this interview for PBS.

What I did was go around and research and meet with all the experts around the country, and spent my time and resources from our foundation to put on the table all the information. All I wanted to do was put all the information in one place that the experts had proven to see if it made a picture, and to see the picture, and it did. It was the answer that I wanted five years ago.

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Gordon-Levitt discusses hitRECord on TV, his re-invented for the social media age variety show, which has debuted on the new network, Pivot, in this interview for PBS.

So in our first episode there’s 426 people whose work is all featured in that. In that first short film there were around 1,400 contributions that we whittled down to I forget the exact number, 60-something, and that’s people who did the voiceover, people who played all the different instruments on the score, people who did the animation behind the actress and who contributed the individual illustrations that went into the animation, all coming from different people.