Over the past year, The Frame spoke with several of the winners from Sunday night's Emmy Awards, including "Transparent" showrunner Jill Soloway and lead actor Jeffrey Tambor; Uzo Aduba, who plays Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren in "Orange is the New Black"; and Tony Hale from HBO's hit political comedy, "Veep."
JILL SOLOWAY, Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series: "Transparent."
As the creator and showrunner of the Amazon series, "Transparent," Soloway has been on The Frame twice. The first time was in September 2014 as the show premiered and before it became a cultural phenomenon. Soloway was nominated for writing and directing Emmys. Notably she was the only woman nominated in both of those categories. Gender inequity and how to rectify it is something we discussed with Soloway more recently when we visited her on the set as "Transparent" shoots its second season. (One linguistic note about Soloway's remarks: CIS means people born as that gender.)
[In] season one we had 100 percent female directors. Season two we had one CIS male director, one trans director and the rest CIS women directors. You know, I’m often thinking about privilege and the privilege of protagonism...Every day I notice when I’m writing [and] directing that I’m in some ways creating propaganda about the way I see the world.
And I realize how much men have been doing that without really noticing that they’re claiming their privilege...I don’t mean to get all preachy and political, but the more I see it, the more I realize that it’s really as simple as allowing people access to the camera and to the directing chair and to the scriptwriting.
JEFFREY TAMBOR, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series: "Transparent"
Until "Transparent" came along, Jeffrey Tambor was primarily known for his roles on "The Larry Sanders Show" and "Arrested Development." In "Transparent," he plays a retired father of three adult children transitioning to life as a woman. And in so doing he goes from "Mort" to "Maura." When we spoke with Tambor on the set of the show's second season, he reflected on the first time he met "Maura."
The first night that we dressed up was the first time that I met Maura, and I met her right in the looking glass. There she was, and she looked exactly like what I thought she was. Not pretty, just... it was something where I said, "There you are." And always, when I come to L.A., I go to that particular hotel room. I call it "The Maura Suite." That's where Maura was invented.
We went out dancing at a club in West Hollywood and I just wanted to try it on. I even took her shopping to Gelson's, of all places. I wanted to take her shopping, and I said, "Would she dress up?" It was great, but yeah, I got the stares and I got "clocked," as they say.
Tambor clarified for us what the term "clocked" means.
"Clocked" means someone sees you for being transgender. I didn't know if I was clocked as being Maura or clocked as Jeffrey Tambor, but I [thought], Don't ever forget that, and don't ever forget how nervous you are.
UZO ADUBA, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama: "Orange is the New Black."
Uzo Aduba won a second Emmy for her work on the Netflix show, "Orange Is the New Black." But before she got the part of Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren, she didn't know where her acting career was going.
Right before I started [Orange is the New Black], I was getting a lot of no's when I was trying to explore film and TV. I got tired of the no. And then [show creator] Jenji [Kohan] took a chance on me.
Aduba is first generation Nigerian and grew up in Massachusetts in a very white town, where she says she felt like the "other." Add to that, she had a gap between her front teeth,. "I begged, begged, begged for braces as a kid," she said. But her mother told Aduba that, back in Nigeria, a gapped-tooth "is a sign of beauty." A moment with a photographer in high school shifted her view of her teeth to the point that years later, as she began her acting career in New York, she told her first agent that she was keeping the gap. And she has.
TONY HALE, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: "Veep."
Hale also won last year’s Emmy for Best Supporting Actor for his work on the show. He plays the uncomfortable yet dedicated personal assistant to the President. The Frame spoke with Hale about comparing his roles in "Arrested Development" and "Veep," what he brings to his characters, and why he loves going to auditions.
When Hale came to The Frame studios he reprised his role of "Gary" from "Veep."