Two directors revealed on social media that they declined opportunities to direct episodes of HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter TV series over author J.K. Rowling‘s trans views.
First, writer-director Ally Pankiw (Black Mirror, Ponies) took to Instagram to post a screenshot of an apparent text-message exchange with her agent where she was asked if she would be interested in the high-profile fantasy series.
“I have an instinct on the answer but I feel compelled to ask,” the unnamed agent wrote. “Harry Potter? Hard no?”
Pankiw shot back: “Absolutely fucking not! lol… (But thank you for asking).”
To which the agent replied, “Of course 🙂 … I assumed as much… (And agree).”
Pankiw added in the comments: “It simply is this easy to say ‘no’ to funding transphobia.”
The post inspired director Kate Herron (Loki, Doctor Who) to write in the comments, “They’ve asked me twice and I’ve had to explain my answer is never going to change from a ‘no.’”
Pankiw added in her Story, “Also want to shout out the amazing @herronthatkate who also said ‘no’ … twice! And that’s actually hard!”
The disclosures mark a rare instance of prominent behind-the-scenes creatives revealing they turned down a major upcoming studio production to protest a person involved in the project. An HBO representative for the show had no immediate comment.
Franchise creator and executive producer Rowling’s views on transgender issues have been an issue for HBO and the show’s talent since the series was announced. While Rowling has long denied that she is transphobic, she regularly posts anti-trans rhetoric and has celebrated legal and political developments opposed by trans-rights advocates.
Several actors on the show have spoken out against Rowling. Bel Powley, who plays Potter’s aunt Petunia Dursley in the highly anticipated series, told The Telegraph in an interview published on Monday, “I strongly disagree with J.K. Rowling’s views on gender. I think that the trans community deserve safety and dignity and respect and total acceptance.”
Powley then added, “But I love Harry Potter. I grew up with the books. I am from that first generation of readers and, again, I love magic and spookiness.”
Nick Frost, who plays the Hogwarts gamekeeper Hagrid, said last year, “She’s allowed her opinion and I’m allowed mine, they just don’t align in any way, shape or form.”
John Lithgow, who plays headmaster Albus Dumbledore, has given somewhat conflicting statements on the topic. In April of 2025, he told The Times UK, “Why is this a factor at all?” and, when asked if her stance on trans rights gave him any pause about accepting the role, replied, “Oh, heavens no.” After receiving backlash for those comments, he called Rowling’s stance “ironic and inexplicable” in February at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. But then Lithgow made headlines again in April saying Rowling’s views had been “twisted and misrepresented.”
Paapa Essiedu, who plays Severus Snape in the series, signed an open letter supporting trans rights in the U.K. last year. Responding to an article speculating that she would “fire” the actor from the show, Rowling posted, “I don’t have the power to sack an actor from the series and I wouldn’t exercise it if I did. I don’t believe in taking away people’s jobs or livelihoods because they hold legally protected beliefs that differ from mine.”
When asked about Rowling last year, HBO chief Casey Bloys told The Town podcast, “The decision to be in business with J.K. Rowling is not new for us. We’ve been in business for 25 years” — referring to Warner Bros.’ long relationship with Rowling through the film franchise. “It’s pretty clear that those are her personal, political views. She’s entitled to them. Harry Potter is not secretly being infused with anything. And if you want to debate her, you can go on Twitter.”
The first season of the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, premieres Dec. 25 on HBO.
Since moving on from their playing days in the NFL and NBA to running the production company Mortal Media, they’re about to add a few more jobs to their resumes: co-owners of a Mexican-league football team and co-stars of a new unscripted series that follows the team. “We Are Osos” began Aug. 3 on YouTube.
Kalil, who played for the Carolina Panthers, credits their retirements as pro athletes with a renewed focus they’re bringing to their second acts as TV producers. “Us being able to now be done with our respective sports careers, we’ve been able to kind of sit down and build more structure and road map out” the future of Mortal, he said on the latest episode of Variety‘s “Strictly Business” podcast.
In January 2025, Griffin and Kalil announced they were joining a group of other former NFL vets including Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle in taking control of the Monterrey Osos, a football team in Mexico’s Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional (LFA). The “Osos” series documents not only their new adventures in ownership but the lives of the players on and off the field.
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“It doesn’t feel like you’re watching football in a different country with a different culture,” said Griffin, who currently has yet another job as an on-air analyst with Prime Video’s NBA coverage after playing pro basketball for 14 years.
As if they weren’t busy enough running Mortal Media, which also produced scripted series including Apple TV’s “Hello Tomorrow” and the Hulu reboot of “White Men Can’t Jump,” the “Osos” production marked their foray into self-distribution.
“We have a ton of stuff that we’ve set up at major studios and networks and streamers, but this one it’s been kind of a beast, but it’s been really fun,” said Kalil. “We do feel like this going to be the future moving forward.”
“Strictly Business” is Variety’s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. (Please click here to subscribe to our free newsletter.) New episodes debut every Wednesday and can be downloaded at Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Play, SoundCloud and more.
Not everyone wants to climb aboard the Hogwarts Express, it transpires.
Top TV director Ally Pankiw has posted on Instagram a screenshot from a text exchange with a rep in which she scoffed at the notion that she would consider enrolling with HBO’s forthcoming series adaptation of J.K. Rowling‘s “Harry Potter” novels.
The reason? Rowling’s views on trans persons’ rights, which many have alleged are transphobic.
The Canadian filmmaker, who’s helmed multiple episodes of “Black Mirror” and “The Great,” and was a writer on “Schitt’s Creek,” commented on the post, “It simply is this easy to say no to funding transphobia!,” adding, “Also this was for directing, not acting… obviously lol.”
In the screenshot of the text messages, a representative for Pankiw (who is repped by talent agency WME), asks: “I have an instinct on the answer but I feel compelled to ask ‘Harry Potter? Hard no?’”
Pankiw shoots back, “Absolutely f—ing not! Lol.” And she adds, politely, “But thank you for asking.”
The representative responds, “Of course 🙂 I assumed as much (And agree).”
Another leading TV director, Kate Herron, whose credits include Marvel Studios’ “Loki” and Netflix’s “Sex Education,” shared that she had a similar experience.
Commenting on Pankiw’s Instagram post, preceded by three hearts, the British filmmaker says, “Yeah thank you exactly! Respect and love to you Ally. They’ve asked me twice and I’ve had to explain my answer is never gonna change from a no.”
That said, the roll call of actors joining the show grows ever longer. This week Nicholas Hoult signed on to play Gilderoy Lockhart.
Other cast members include John Lithgow, who plays Hogwarts headmaster Dumbledore, Janet McTeer, who is Professor McGonagall, Paapa Essiedu plays Snape, Bel Powley is Aunt Petunia, and Nick Frost has been cast as Rubeus Hagrid.
Powley, for her part, recently spoke of her disagreement with Rowling’s views on trans rights. “I strongly disagree with J.K. Rowling’s views on gender,” Powley told The Telegraph. “I think that the trans community deserve safety and dignity and respect and total acceptance.”
The series is due to debut on Dec. 25 on HBO and HBO Max, with the first season adapting the first book in the novel series, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.” The show has already been renewed for a second season, which will be based on “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.”
Variety reached out to reps for Rowling, who declined to comment, Pankiw and Herron, as well as HBO.
Phoebe Bridgers tends to stand out in a crowd, and not just because of her celebrity or natural star quality, but because of the hair; other women around L.A. may go for the platinum blonde look, but not quite that platinum. So it was fairly easy to pick her out for the entirety of the 10 minutes or so she spent skating with her fans Tuesday night at the Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale, California. But she was easy to spot, in this instance, from head to toe, as she was the only skater on the floor in brightly strobing light-up skates… an equipment option that the Moonlight was not able to offer any of the couple hundred fans who joined her. At this very action-packed listening party for her. The beaming Bridgers had earned the right to wear skates that special; this was not her first rodeo, clearly, when it came to making dozens of laps around a rink and outpacing a crowd.
As one fan commented on Reddit after the YouTube-sponsored event: “She was skating right with everyone, and if you could match her speed then you could say hello, but she is FAST so it may have been a bit difficult.”
Of all the albums that could be previewed with an evening out at an old-school roller rink, “Lost Weekend,” the singer’s long-awaited third solo album, would not jump out as the most obvious candidate… even if Bridgers is hell on wheels, as it turns out. The 16-track record has as many hushed passages as you’d expect from a Bridgers album, and it does not sound at all designed to inspire extended bouts of cardiovascular activity. And Bridgers did use the word “weird” in characterizing the juxtaposition when she spoke about her reasons for hosting the event there in a brief Q&A she did with fans at the event after the skating wound down. Yet, for her, it was an aspiration being realized.
“I’ve had this idea forever” she said to the crowd of about 200 sitting on the rink’s floor. “I always thought it would be cool to do like a Grouper Moonlight night… You always kind of skate to ABBA or something. I thought it would be interesting to listen to sad and slow songs and skate.”
Phoebe Bridgers skates at the Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale, California during a YouTube release party for ‘Lost Weekend.’
@linusandhiscamera
She’s had the same impulse at amusement parks, she pointed out. “I always thought about that at Six Flags,” she said saying that, while waiting in line for rides, she’d wished she could take the typical revved-up theme-park soundtrack and “catapult it somewhere” and replace it with music that was “30 bpm or something.” To her mind, slowcore and Tatsu might be the perfect fit.
Anyway, Bridgers’ promotional campaign for “Lost Weekend” has been unusual enough that a rollerskating listening party almost — almost — doesn’t stand out as that unusual. ,The singer-songwriter first began teasing “Lost Weekend” a few months ago with a series of pop-up gigs in small towns and middle American cities, places like Roswell, New Mexico, before the album was announced or even widely known to be in production. WIth the moment of release finally at hand, her team booked planetariums across the country and even in Europe for Spotify-sponsored listening parties where fans could experience the album for the first time this week with trippy visuals, if sore necks — a way of getting “Lost” in space, sort of. (And no phones allowed, as with virtually every pre-release event for the record.)
Another fairy unusual element of the promo campaign: no interviews. She hasn’t done a single one for “Lost Weekend,” so the roughly six minutes she spent answering fan questions at the Moonlight Rollerway may have constituted as much talking about the record as she plans to do, at least right away. Bridgers didn’t exactly talk anyone’s ear off in her quick, friendly response to the fan queries, but the answers still offered glimpses of insight as to where she’s coming from with this album and its attendant cycle of events and touring.
One of the first hands that went up from the crowd was to ask whether she’d been inspired by any other artistic media while making the record. “Well, there’s a movie called ‘Lost Weekend’ that’s about alcoholics’ kind of fugue state,” she said, referencing the harrowing 1945 Billy Wilder drama that some of her younger fans might not know. “That probably goes well (with the album), unfortunately.” She hesitated while trying to think of another example, then did come up with a musical reference point. “Do you guys know ‘The Lemon of Pink’ by the Books?” (Not everyone did — the Books are not exactly a household name — but some murmured their assent for the 2003 album, which has a strong following as a seminal indie-oughts cult record.)
Phoebe Bridgers does a Q&A with fans at the Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale, California during a YouTube release party for ‘Lost Weekend.’
@linusandhiscamera
Someone else wondered: Why the small-town pop-up tour? And what was her takeaway from what seemed like it might be an experiment? “I just wanted everything with this album to feel like it’s happening in real life,” she explained. “Like, I didn’t live through a time where I didn’t find out about something on the internet. Even cool pop-up shows and stuff, it was all kind of phone-based. So I just liked the idea of plastering a small town (with flyers)… It was so fun.” Her answer to the second part of the question: “The biggest takeaway was like, yeah, the internet’s not real. It’s all a fake,” she said, to laughter.
Another question: How did she decide it was time to come back? — the unspoken assumption being that six years between albums counts as a lot, even if there was a monumental Boygenius album and tour in between that came to feel like a very viable separate career.
“I mean, I didn’t love all parts of being away,” she said, with a chuckle, noting that while she knew she needed to pull away for a bit, it wasn’t necessarily a plan to wait this long. “I kept booking studio time and then putting it off… and booking studio time and putting it off, and putting it off… I really wanted to be making something,” she allowed, but the album was not yet ready to take shape. “So I just started going in and then taking six months off and then going (back). So this album took forever. Which is great!,” she added, harboring no regrets about leaving anyone in suspense.
After those and a few other questions, it was time for her to sign the big stack of posters commemorating the event. Prior to the Q&A, meanwhile, Bridgers premiered a rough cut of the second video for the album, for the song “I Can’t Wait,” which she said was nearly done, except for some drone footage that was shot during this very event that will be folded in.
Phoebe Bridgers signs posters for fans at the Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale, California during a YouTube release party for ‘Lost Weekend.’
@linusandhiscamera
There was a no-phones policy, but there were also no NDAs, so fans freely shared their experiences on Reddit and other forums after the event… including their impressions about Phoebe Bridgers being as good at skating as at music.
“I ate shit 3 times out there and got a sore ass today,” wrote one fan. “It was even more embarrassing because she was shredding around the rink.”
Others spoke of approaching Bo Burnham or Bridgers’ mother, Jamie Bridgers, for off-rink convos. But when it came to meeting the star attraction, some found her intimidating, despite her best efforts to be a fairly unassuming skatergrl. Some agonized afterward about not having found the right words when they made it to the front of the signing line. One spoke of becoming tongue-tied, but “I was towards the end of the line and it had been almost 2 hours at that point. She probably did appreciate our efficiency lol!!” Another wrote, “I just said ‘Yo this album fucking rips,’ and she laughed and said thanks.” One person who admitted being unable to do anything but blurt out their name said that as they left the signing table, Bridgers politely called out, “It was nice to meet you.”
Phoebe Bridgers skates at the Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale, California during a YouTube release party for ‘Lost Weekend.’
@linusandhiscamera
What will she do for an encore? That’s obvious: do sold-out two- and three-nighters at the nation’s biggest arenas, like the three-night stand she has upcoming at the Intuit Dome Oct. 30-31 and Nov. 1. Between now and then, there is much parsing of the 16-track album’s rich content to be done, with millions of words of formal and informal think-pieces to come. (Read Variety‘s own take on the album here.)
While fans who didn’t make it to the Moonlight Rollerway may have a lingering case of FOMO, it may still be possible to replicate the feel that Bridgers was going for, as she’s longed to marry slow sounds with frenetic action. You could go to Magic Mountain and do X2 while listening to “Lost Weekend” on earbuds; we can now be certain the author would approve.
The Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale, California during a YouTube release party for Phoebe Bridgers’ ‘Lost Weekend.’
Troye Sivan has kicked off a new era with the release of his new single “She’s the Best” along with a music video co-starring Nicole Kidman.
In the clip, directed by Gordon Von Steiner, Sivan holds the spotlight at a club filled with drag queens, including Sasha Colby. Kidman, a fellow Aussie, sips a drink while watching Sivan perform his sultry track, joining forces with the singer while he’s in drag by the end of the video.
Steiner previously collaborated with Sivan on the music videos for his singles “Rush,” “Got Me Started” and “One of Your Girls,” which were featured on his 2023 album “Something to Give Each Other.”
Sivan is currently gearing up for the release of his fourth studio album “She’s the Best,” out October 9. The title track is written by Sivan alongside George Daniel, Jack Antonoff, Leland and Kaeyln Behr, with production by Sivan, Daniel and Antonoff as well as Styalz Fuego.
“‘She’s the Best’ is a painting that captures my life in all of its moods and colours,” says Sivan of the album in a statement. “It explores the high-octane highs of the last few years, and the solitude and longing that sat underneath. It’s chaotic, layered, organic, troubled and alive. It feels like the truest and most creative version of myself I’ve ever shared. At some point along the way I realised – the only constant in my life keeping me somewhat sane has not been the work, or the men, but the feminine. Thank god for them.”
Amid the recent online commentary surrounding Jenna Ortega‘s health and body, her younger sister is coming to her defense.
On Wednesday, a fan of the Emmy-nominated actress took to Instagram to tell people to “mind their own business and leave @jennaortega alone, especially after her recent interview has created so many questions and assumptions about her health.”
The fan’s comments were in response to the wave of discourse on social media about Ortega’s appearance in a recent Esquire video interview, with many fans pointing out her noticeably thinner physique in the footage, comparing it to past videos and photos of the actress.
“She doesn’t owe anyone an explanation her life is her life, and her body belongs to her,” the fan, named Amrita Singh, continued in their lengthy post. “She has every right to make whatever decisions she feels are best for herself without being judged, discriminated against, or subjected to unnecessary speculation. We don’t know what she may be going through, and we shouldn’t assume anything based on appearances or a few comments from an interview. Sometimes the most respectful thing we can do is simply give someone privacy, support them, and let them be.”
“Please, For God’s sake, she is a human being first, before she is a celebrity in the public eye, and I think that’s what people tend to forget. She deserves privacy, peace, and the freedom to live her life without constantly being questioned or analyzed. Stop concerning yourselves with her personal life and asking intrusive, unnecessary, and random questions just leave Jenna alone and allow her to live her life on her own terms,” they added.
Ortega’s sister, Aliyah Ortega, commented on the post, “!!!,” seemingly emphasizing that she agrees with the fan’s perspective. Her sister didn’t appear to add any additional remarks.
The Wednesday star isn’t the only celebrity to be battling online commentary about their body recently, as Ariana Grande has also been at the center of the conversation, especially after the release of her “Petal” music video.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that Grande would be “taking a step back from visibility after she completes the Eternal Sunshine Tour” and “taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny.”
The singer later clarified that the announcement “was not a reactive or impulsive thing. It was something that I have decided. A plan that I had quietly made a long time ago.”
Ortega is currently busy filming Wednesday season three for Netflix and will next be heading out on the press tour for the dystopian sci-fi adaptation Klara and the Sun, which hits theaters on Oct. 23.
Months after a resolution to the sprawling legal battle over the filming of It Ends With Us, Hollywood power lawyer Bryan Freedman is still dealing with fallout from the case.
Zoey 101 alum Alexa Nikolas won a key ruling on Wednesday in a defamation lawsuit against Freedman, with a court finding that she’s established a probability of prevailing on defamation claims accusing him and those in his orbit of marshaling a smear campaign against her.
Nikolas, founder of advocacy organization Eat Predators, has a long and contentious history with Freedman, who had represented her ex-husband Michael Milosh when she sued the musician for sexual abuse. She had organized protests outside of his offices in 2022 after discovering that he had also been accused of sexual assault in a case that resulted in a no-fault settlement in 1991. Around the time of these protests, a smear site that aimed to undermine her activism — including through assertions that her current husband was a predator — popped up about her.
Nikolas didn’t connect Freedman to the site until Lively sued It Ends With Us director Justin Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer. The thrust of Lively’s lawsuit focused on alleged sexual harassment on the set of the film, but it also accused Baldoni and his public relations team — led by top crisis publicist Melissa Nathan and digital fixer Jed Wallace — of spawning a smear machine that threatened her reputation. This led to sister lawsuits, including one from publicist Stephanie Jones, who claimed that Nathan and Wallace have long engaged in creating smear sites targeting women. That gave Nikolas the ammunition to file a lawsuit, which points to alleged data identifying Freedman as involved in the generation of some of the sites.
In Wednesday’s ruling, Los Angeles Superior Court judge Michael Whitaker rebuffed Freedman’s bid to dismiss the case. He concluded that Nikolas has produced enough evidence to potentially prove the alleged campaign was defamatory.
Among the findings: Nikolas sufficiently demonstrated a probability of proving the allegedly defamatory statements were untrue. This includes a claim on a second smear site about her that she partnered with former California senator Joe Dunn to push others into making false accusations of sexual assault.
Whitaker also pointed to court records across multiple cases in which several plaintiffs describe a “similar modus operandi and common website traffic optimization tactics.”
Freedman had argued that Nikolas can’t prove the assertions advanced in the sites were false and that some were simply statements of opinion, which can’t give rise to a defamation claim. On this front, the court said that the allegations in the site “all imply provably false assertions of fact” that Nikolas is “either a criminal who has committed criminal acts, or she is not.”
Multiple smear sites identified in the case between Jones and Baldoni appear to have evidence of common authorship, including Alexanikolas.net, which claimed she extorted multiple ex-boyfriends by threatening them with manufacturing sexual abuse claims, among other things. In Jones’ case, a cybersecurity expert submitted an expert report indicating that those who created the site about Nikolas may have also created ones about Amanda Ghost, who’s engaged in a defamation battle against Rebel Wilson.
“There is a tangled web of connections between these sites and numerous others in addition to that authored about plaintiff,” Whitaker wrote, noting a “conspiracy to smear various individuals” who had adversarial connections to Freedman’s clients. That not only suggests a motive, the court found, but also indicates that the lawyer may have been “involved in directing or otherwise effectuating all of those alleged smear campaigns.”
Earlier this year, Wilson’s crisis public relations team — comprised of Nathan and Wallace — was heard discussing plans to create anonymous sites that accused Ghost of sex trafficking as part of an alleged smear campaign solicited by the actress against The Deb producer. In a recording obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Wallace instructed Nathan to assert without evidence that Ghost is a “madame” whose work involves procuring young women for wealthy and powerful men.
“We can’t just do, like, oh, she’s a bitch, she sucks,” Wallace says in the recording. “It’s, like, it’s got to be really, really heavy and connected to something that heavy.”
At one point in the conversation, Wallace referenced the involvement of Freedman, Wilson’s then-counsel in the case. Freedman and Nathan didn’t respond to requests for comment, though they’ve previously denied involvement in the creation of the smear sites.
“House of the Dragon” concluded its third season on HBO on Sunday night, with the finale reaching 21 million viewers in its first three days of availability. More than 11 million of those viewers were in the U.S.
That total comes from a combination of Nielsen’s measurement of linear viewers on the HBO cable channel plus Warner Bros. Discovery’s own tally of streams on HBO Max. It represents a mostly steady trajectory for the season, with a slight decrease of 2% from the Season 3 premiere’s 21.5 million viewers. (WBD did not disclose viewership totals for Episodes 2-7.)
Overall, the season is averaging 34 million viewers per episode thus far, nearly matching Season 2’s 35 million-viewer average. According to HBO, this puts it among the HBO Max’s top three most-watched returning seasons ever.
Sunday also marked the seventh and final episode of “Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness.” The sketch series, created by and starring Larry David, is averaging approximately 4 million viewers per episode in the U.S.
Warner Bros. Discovery president of international Gerhard Zeiler has been tapped to receive the 2026 International Emmy Directorate Award. He joins Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria, who was previously announced as this year’s honoree for the org’s founders award. Zeiler and Bajaria will acceot their awards at the 54th International Emmy Awards Gala on Monday, Nov. 23, in New York.
“Gerhard Zeiler has built and led some of the world’s most influential media businesses, helping shape the international television industry through periods of profound change,” said International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences president/CEO Bruce L. Paisner in a statement. “Throughout his career, his commercial acumen has been grounded in a deep appreciation for the creative talent and storytelling that define our business.”
Per the International Emmys, the directorate award “is presented to organizations or individuals in management, administration, engineering, news, programming, and/or international relations for outstanding contributions over a period of time to the arts and sciences of international television.”
Recent winners include Grupo Globo president João Roberto Marinho (2025), Gaumont CEO Sidonie Dumas (2024), Balaji Telefilms’ Ekta Kapoor (2023), CJ ENM’s Miky Lee (2022) and ZDF’s Thomas Bellut (2021).
Zeiler first joined Time Warner’s Turner in 2012, expanding the company’s international operations, including its regional sports and pay-TV businesses. He was named WarnerMedia International presidnet in 2020, and as president of international for Warner Bros. Discovery, Zeiler has expanded HBO Max footprint to more than 130 countries in just over three years and helped oversee the integration of WarnerMedia and Discovery.
Prior to Turner, he was CEO of RTL, and earlier in his career held senior leadership roles at Austria’s public broadcaster, ORF.
“I am deeply honored to be recognized by the International Academy with the International Emmy Directorate Award,” Zeiler said in a statement. “My passion for media began before I can even remember, and from a young age I understood the power of television to bring people together and open a window into different cultures and ideas. The role of media in connecting the world requires a deep understanding of distinct cultures – global trends and local nuances alike – and I feel very fortunate to have had a career filled with learnings and perspectives across the world on what makes compelling television. This is an industry like no other, driven by passion, ambition, and the desire to create stories that audiences can connect with. I receive this recognition with great appreciation for the colleagues, partners and creative talent who have inspired that journey.”
Over the course of Sally Field‘s storied career, there have been opportunities to discover her character on set (like the ad-lib-heavy Mrs. Doubtfire) and those where it was all on the page (Tony Kushner’s Lincoln script). In Netflix’s, an adaptation of Shelby Van Pelt’s novel that’s sold more than 2 million copies, it was a little bit of both. “Lewis Pullman and I were improvising all the time,” Field says of her primary co-star … at least the one that’s not a CGI octopus. “That relationship was really created out of he and I playing with each other. You can kind of see it in the movie.”
Her Emmy nom for the work isn’t just interesting because it’s her 10th (she has three wins), she’s also the first actress in nearly a decade to earn one for a TV movie. But for Field, who went from ABC’s The Flying Nun to an Oscar winner for Norma Rae early in her career, the medium is something she’s learned not to focus on.
Is there some role or project you’re still itching to do that’s not being presented to you?
My whole life, it’s been very difficult to find projects that I wanted to do. In the beginning, it was very difficult to find projects where they would even let me in the room to audition. I started in situation comedy television in 1964. In those days, they didn’t let you out. You lived and you died on that railroad track. You weren’t getting out. Even after I got to a place where [they’d let me audition], it has always been difficult to find films, characters, stories that I want to be part of me … that I would go, “OK, that’s it. This is the one.” It’s always taken me a long time. I never was an actor that was able to work back-to-back-to-back, doing one project after another. I just had to keep my head down, as they say.
What were the conversations with your team like in those moments where you felt like you weren’t booking what you wanted?
I didn’t think it was their responsibility. They would perhaps come across something that I might like, even if it wasn’t offered to me, maybe they would show it to me. But many times, the things that I finally, eventually did do, I found it. I came after it. Certainly Lincoln was one of them. I fight like crazy. You don’t get delivered things, and at least women don’t and certainly not older women. You don’t get a whole box of chocolate, so to speak, and say, “Hmm, which one do I want today?” It just doesn’t happen.
Lewis Pullman and Field in the Netflix movie.
Courtesy of Netflix
Was Lincoln the role that you fought the hardest for?
No, I fought hard for Sybil. That was a huge turning point. And I fought hard to get into this movie, Stay Hungry [1976]. That was the first [feature]. It was incredibly difficult to even get in the room. Nobody wanted me there. I could hear [director] Bob Rafelson in the back room yelling at Dianne Crittenden, the casting director, for even letting me sit in the waiting room because I was wasting his time. I had to use that anger as my fuel. It was a long haul to get to my movie career and then to find the things I wanted to do.
You talk about this stigma of working in sitcoms at the beginning of your career. You went back to TV in 2006 with Brothers & Sisters — a time before a lot of other Oscar winners started working in both mediums. Did you feel that the iron curtain was lifting?
I wanted to tell stories that were worth telling. I wanted to act. When I finally transitioned to film, I was able to find Norma Rae, Places in the Heart, Absence of Malice, Mrs. Doubtfire, Forrest Gump, Steel Magnolias and whatever they were. But the industry was changing at the same time. When Brothers & Sisters came along, it just struck me. Those five years, I’m proud of them. It’s about a woman who’s older, obviously, because she’d raised children. I understood that because I had raised sons. Also, I had a gay son who was just coming out or had just barely gotten his feet under him. I got to play a mother with a really great family and a great son [Matthew Rhys] who happened to be gay. And this was a very crucial time in our country when this was not done. I mean, Will & Grace had been done, but it was comedy and very broad.
Matthew Rhys, the onscreen son from Brothers & Sisters who you just referenced, is nominated for two Emmys this year.
Yes! Good for him. He deserves it.
Do you keep in touch with him?
I sure do.
A very important scene in film history for me and several of my friends is you repeating the phrase “The whole time?” in response to learning your husband had been cross-dressing as the nanny in Mrs. Doubtfire. Would you mind telling me a little about filming that scene?
That was me improvising. That whole sequence, we shot it at the end of the film. It was several days in that restaurant. But that moment, that is an ad-lib because the line was [supposed to be] very calm. “The whole time” was an improvisation. Robin [Williams] and I had created a relationship, a world where we improvised a lot. It allowed Mrs. Doubtfire to come alive because it was such a weird circumstance.
I don’t know how much you think about how the work is going to be received commercially or critically while you’re making it, but I’d imagine that many people involved in Mrs. Doubtfire expected it to hit as big as it did. Did you feel that was the case?
I think they thought it would be successful. Robin was at the height of just … brilliance. But I don’t think anyone saw it being as huge as it was. The script wasn’t what was on the page because of what Robin and I were allowed to do by [director] Chris Columbus. We did not want — and Robin felt this strongly, too — the mother to be the villain. We both felt that there were no villains in this divorce. Marriages don’t always last. Sometimes there are no bad guys. It’s time to move on. Without getting in the way of the comedy, it was a delicate dance to allow her to not be mean. She was hurt to lose her marriage, too, but he was impossible. Who could be married to this guy?
Field with Robin Williams in 1993’s Mrs. Doubtfire
20th Century Fox Film Corp/Courtesy Everett Collection
Looking back at the whole of your career, what do you feel like the biggest risk you took was?
Everything’s a risk. Otherwise, forget it. If it’s not a risk, then stay home. Easy is overrated.
You and your Lincoln collaborators Tony Kushner and Steven Spielberg saw Oh, Mary! before it went to Broadway. Now that Cole Escola has ceded the role to a revolving door of famous actors, would you ever step back into Mary Todd Lincoln’s shoes?
No, no, no. (Laughs.) Maya Rudolph [just did it], and I couldn’t be in her world. She’s never not great. And Cole is so dazzlingly talented. I think they tried to keep it from them, the three of us were in the audience when we saw it. I can be in awe of it, but I can’t do it.
This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
