Stick the stars of six top comedies around a table for an hour, and it becomes increasingly impossible to keep composure. At least, that was the case for The Hollywood Reporter’s latest Comedy Actor Emmy roundtable, featuring Adam Brody (Nobody Wants This), Ted Danson (A Man on the Inside), John Mulaney (Everybody’s Live), Seth Rogen (The Studio), Jason Segel (Shrinking) and Julio Torres (Fantasmas).
The rollicking conversation hit on topics as far ranging as the ways in which they’ve been typecast — the schlubby stoner type (Rogen), the confident nerd (Brody), the “soulless wooden boy who’s fast on his feet” (Mulaney) — to the “dream roles” they didn’t land. (Spoiler: Brody fought hard for Blues Clues.) They also talked in earnest about the most challenging period in their careers and swapped tales about the most baffling creative notes they’ve ever received.
At one point, the six men even found themselves on an outrageous tangent about actresses who play princesses at Disney parks. As it turns out, Rogen knew a woman who used to be a Disney princess, and, as he shared, she has some amazing stories. “I remember asking my friend, like, ‘I bet there’s a lot of guys who are handsy with the princesses?’ She’s like, ‘Oh, very much.’ That’s a big problem,” he revealed. When asked how the princesses in the parks respond, Rogen said they have a party line: “The prince wouldn’t like that.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, the line elicited an instant “Eww” from nearly everyone at the table.
At another point during the hour, several of the actors assembled were quietly, if hilariously, re-evaluating their life choices, as Torres explained how he doesn’t have a credit card. “It’s an aversion to being part of systems that I don’t consent to being a part of,” he told the group. “I get to decide whether or not I play a board game, why am I being forced to have a credit score? According to who? You’re grading me on my credit? Like, no.” Mulaney looked like his mind had been blown by Torres’ explanation, but he said no: “His answer about how the credit score is not a game he consented to, I just really liked. So, I was more like, can I apply this to my own life? And then immediately, no.”
Watch the full Emmy roundtables on IFC on Fridays at 9 p.m. PT/12 a.m. ET or stream it on AMC+. THR Emmy Roundtables will be rolling out in print and online until June 17. In addition to catching broadcast episodes of Off Script With The Hollywood Reporter on Fridays, look for complete videos of each Roundtable on THR.com and YouTube on Sundays through June 22.
