(upbeat percussive music)
- Hi, this is Marya Gullo from The Hollywood Reporter,
and I'm in-studio today with Emma Kenney.
- Hi.
- Hi, Emma.
- Hello.
- We are here to talk about Roseanne.
- Yay!
- Are you so excited?
- Literally, the most.
You read my mind.
I'm so excited to have been able to join
this iconic 90s family, and to be working
with the class acts that have graced
the covers of Hollywood Reporter before.
- Yeah.
- Just working with that level of talent
is just a true blessing and an amazing experience.
- Yeah.
Now, you, I mean, you were on eight seasons of Shameless.
- Mmm-hmm.
- So, you are a member of two very specific families.
- Yes.
- The Gallagher family and the Conner family.
- Mmm-hmm.
- Now, I would like to,
I really wanna talk about Roseanne,
but before, I wanna give you a test.
- Okay.
- Okay? This is--
- Uh-oh.
- Yeah. (laughs)
- Ooh.
- [Marya] I wanna see how well you know your families.
- Okay!
- So, the answer is either Gallagher family
or Conner family.
- Okay, I think I will know this.
- (laughs) Okay.
- Ish.
- All right.
- Let's see.
- Question one.
Okay, here we go.
Household run by a charismatic matriarch.
- Uh, the Conner family.
- Household run by a charismatic older sister.
- The Gallaghers.
- Patriarch pees in the backyard.
- Patriarch?
Uh, the Conner family!
- Patriarch pees, vomits, bleeds,
and overdoses in the backyard.
- (laughs) Uh, the Gallaghers.
- (laughs) Splits their medication to make ends meet.
- Uh, the Conner family.
- Splits seven pounds of meth as a family inheritance.
- (laughs) Ah, the Gallaghers.
- Youngest male family member likes
to wear women's clothing.
- The Conner family.
- Youngest male family member accidentally
overdosed on cocaine, leading to possible brain damage.
- The Gallagher family.
(Marya laughs)
That was a really sad episode.
- At least one family member voted for Trump.
- The Conner family.
- At least one family member used ICE to have
her wife arrested and deported,
thus getting back control of her husband's bar.
- Hmm, I wonder.
(Marya laughs)
The Gallaghers. (laughs)
- Sells possible stolen clothing on Etsy.
- The Conner family.
Me. Harris Conner.
- Sells definitely stolen baby strollers on Craigslist
and accidentally kidnaps a baby.
- The Gallaghers.
Debbie Gallagher.
- Has an ex-cop who thinks she's a life coach.
- An ex-cop who, oh, duh!
Um, the Conner family.
- Has an ex-paramedic who thinks he's gay Jesus.
- Uh, the Gallaghers.
- (laughs) Comes together as a family to have dinner.
- The Conners.
- Comes together as a family
to dig up their dead mom's body.
- The Gallaghers.
- I think you know these families very well.
- I think so, too.
(Marya laughs)
Family bonding.
- Okay, so what's it like to act
in front of a live studio audience?
- You know, this is my first time having any experience
in front of a live studio audience,
in front of a stage.
And having an audience, it was very exhilarating.
And nerve-racking, because I thought I had stage fright
going up to it, and I was very nervous before.
And, you know, the entire cast were kind of telling me that,
you know, you're gonna go out there,
and you're gonna, you're gonna work off of the audience,
you're gonna feed off of the audience,
it's gonna, it's all gonna be fine.
And I went out there,
I think I stuttered my first time I went out,
on the first episode, but, you know,
it was a great experience.
I like it now.
- And, yeah, you're getting used to it?
- Yes, I definitely got the hang of it after episode two,
episode one, even, you know.
I just was very nervous before
because there was, like, 400 people staring at you.
And this most recent episode of Roseanne,
I had a shower scene, so there was, like,
400 people staring at me in the shower.
- That's right!
- I'm like, this is so great, wow.
(Marya laughs)
Very scandalous for ABC. (laughs)
- You have some really good physical comedy with Roseanne.
- I do.
- Yeah, you get scrappy with her.
- Yeah, that was the most fun scene, maybe,
I've ever filmed.
One of the most fun scenes,
other than digging up (laughs) our dead mother on Shameless.
That was actually a really great shoot. (laughs)
(Marya laughs)
But, um, yeah, no, Roseanne and I,
we go at it in this past episode,
and, I mean, Harris deserves it.
She's being a bratty teenager.
- Yeah. Yeah.
And, you know, you have some experience in that.
- I have some experience playing a bratty teenager,
(Marya laughs)
but they all have their morals,
and they all have their, their reasons in their mind
that they're being a bratty teenager, if that makes sense.
- So, you find motivation behind--
- 100%.
I don't think, yeah, no,
I don't wanna play a character,
I don't ever describe a character as bratty,
or, I mean, I just did, but it's not,
that's not who she is,
and who Debbie or Harris is.
Harris is frustrated.
She is living, all of a sudden,
she moves from Chicago, living, you know,
her life with her friends, and her mom, and her brother
and she has to live with her grandparents
in the middle of Lanford, Illinois,
the middle of the suburbs, and her family.
She doesn't want that.
She's lashing out.
She's trying to, you know, raise money on Etsy,
so she can move back to Chicago
and live her life the way a 16-year-old
thinks she can, on her own.
- Right. Oh.
So, do you think there are gonna be some
interesting plotlines regarding that?
- Yes.
- Because I feel like there's a lot of opportunities.
There's the opportunity to run away,
there's many opportunities to rebel
against the situation you're in.
- I'm, like: please, writers, don't make Harris run away.
(laughs)
- (laughs) Yeah, right.
You might be gone for a few episodes.
- Yeah, I'm, like: please, no.
- Okay.
So, something else, then. (laughs)
- I think that by the end of the season, though,
we will definitely see Harris at much more of a spot
in her life where she's feeling more content and happy
living with the Conner family, and taking her family values.
- Mm-hmm.
Do you get any advice from Roseanne
or from John Goodman about the show?
- Yeah, I get a lot of advice
just from the cast, in general,
but I observe, I watch them,
and that's kind of how I found I've learned the most
because they all just have the best work ethic,
and are just such class acts.
Like, I remember, um, one day before our live taping,
we all kind of had the flu towards the end of the season,
and we all were giving it to each other.
And, I saw John.
He was backstage, throwing up.
He was sick.
And, I gave him a water bottle.
I was, like: hey, John, are you okay?
And he was, like, "Yeah, I'm good, kid."
He drank the water.
A minute later, went out on stage.
- [Marya] Wow.
- Killed it.
That's how you do it,
like, that's what I look up to.
- Yeah. Yeah.
Um, do you guys talk about
the political controversy surrounding the show?
- No.
You know, it's a work environment.
I think politics are taboo, you know,
especially in a work environment.
And it's not,
the show has so much more to do
with everything than politics, you know,
like the media's kind of talked a lot about it
and made it seem like it's a very political show,
but the show is all about a family
and, you know, family differences,
and how they bond together at the end of the day,
and end up having a nice family meal.
And, maybe it's not so nice,
maybe they're screaming at each other, you know,
but it's all in normal family fun. (laughs)
- (laughs) Right.
Is there anything you can tease out
about the rest of the season?
I know that you can't really reveal any plot points,
but do you want us to be paying attention to anything?
- I think the rest of the season,
something that I want viewers to know,
that's coming out there, is
we talk so much more about things going on in current day,
other than, you know, politics, as we were just saying.
There's a whole lot of different storylines
that are going on, other than politics.
- Mm-hmm.
And do you feel comfortable, and,
I mean, you've already done Shameless for so many seasons,
so I feel like you feel comfortable in the environment
of a show that can be controversial.
- I do.
I don't, I wouldn't even use the word controversial
as a comfort zone for me.
I would more say I like to be able to create art
that more people can relate to.
'Cause not everybody can relate to upper class living,
Gossip Girl lifestyle.
Not, like, you know,
a very small percentage of the people in the U.S.,
in the world, can relate to that.
So, I love that we're making art.
I love when people come up to me in the street
and tell me that they can relate to Debbie,
or they can relate to the Gallaghers,
or the Conner family,
or they have an alcoholic father,
and watching Shameless, or watching Roseanne,
or anything, gives them some peace at the end of the day.
- Mmm.
- Like, I love that.
It's just creating art.
Like, Shameless is considered in the Emmy categories
as a comedy, and I've never considered it to be.
I've always considered it to be more of a drama
or a dramedy, 'cause I don't want people to think
that we're poking fun at the lifestyles of the Gallaghers,
or people living in the south side,
because that's not the case at all.
- Right.
- If anything, we're bringing beauty
and life to it, I think.
- Yeah.
Very well-put.
Can you name three people that you look up to, career-wise?
- Ooh, there's so many.
I look up to Meryl Streep.
I know that everybody looks up to Meryl Streep,
but how can you not?
She's Meryl Streep.
I really look up to Drew Barrymore.
She made it from child actress, you know,
she went through her struggles in her young days.
But, now she's killing it.
And, she's an adult actress, you know.
Who else?
There's so many.
I really look up to Emmy, as well.
Emmy Rossum.
She was a child actress.
You know, I've grown up with her, pretty much.
She's a Virgo like I am,
so we have a lot in common.
And, I've gone to ask her so many questions,
so many personal questions,
and we have a lot in common.
And, I really look up to her work ethic,
her poise, the way she carries herself on-set.
- Mmm.
What was it like to be directed by her?
- Amazing.
She knew exactly what she wanted.
She's a Virgo.
She has a Type A personality, as do I.
It was very interesting because Emmy,
the way she plotted out scenes,
was with little LEGO pieces.
So, it was, like, little LEGO characters,
and it was funny,
my character (laughs) had a little,
like, a red LEGO hair.
Like, it was very funny,
all the Gallagher house on LEGO board.
So, it was very cute.
And, Emmy knew just,
'cause she knows all the cast so well,
and she knows all the crew so well,
so she knows exactly how to talk to everybody
to get what she wants out of their performance.
- Mmm.
- Exactly what to talk about.
And, you know, if there's an emotional scene,
and maybe somebody's not able to connect
at that very moment,
or they're just having a difficult day.
She's, like, "Emma," or whoever,
"Do you remember this that happened in your life?
"Channel that."
She's always giving great advice, since day one.
- Would you be interested in directing someday?
- Oh, 100%.
- Yeah?
- You know, when I was younger,
before Shameless, actually, I started, um,
I've always been very into writing, and directing,
and casting, just the film industry, in general.
So, when I was nine, I'd wrote and direct this,
a bunch of short films, actually,
but a few of them made it into,
they made it into, like, little film festivals,
like the New Jersey International Film Festival.
- Uh-huh.
- And, um, yeah, I wrote those when I was, like,
nine and ten, but I really wanna get more into that.
I've actually been writing a script right now,
and I wanna end up directing and writing more, for sure.
- Would you ever wanna direct on
a television show that you're on,
or would you prefer to do something
like an indie film?
- I wanna direct a film of my own,
where I'm not acting in it, for fact,
but I also, I've wanted to direct
an episode of Shameless for years,
but I just turned 18, so now there's
actual possibility of it happening.
John Wells, please. (laughs)
- Yeah, put it out there.
- I know, I've actually, I've shadowed
some of the directors on-set before, so--
- That's awesome.
- It's an amazing experience.
On days I'm not working I'll go in and watch.
I'll sit next to John Wells at Video Village
and just watch the way he's dominating the set
in such a positive and empowering,
and such a collaborative, creative way.
- [Marya] Mmm.
- And his visions, he's just genius.
All of our directors are.
All of the people I've worked with,
I've been so lucky.
- Yeah.
Okay, so last question to you.
What was the first movie you saw
that inspired you to be an actress?
- Mary Poppins.
I can easily, quickly say that.
Mary Poppins.
It's funny, my mother always tells this story.
We went through maybe seven or eight VC,
VHR's?
- VHS's?
- Yeah, I was, like, a baby when this happened,
when I was watching that,
but we went through, like, four or five of them,
'cause I just kept begging my mom to play it again.
And, I wanted to play Jane.
Like, she was my first, like,
- Nice.
- I wanted to be Jane.
- Yes.
- In Mary Poppins.
- Excellent. Excellent.
Can you sing?
- No, I'm the one threat.
(Marya laughs)
I can't sing, I can't dance.
I call myself The One Threat.
- The One Threat. (laughs)
That's awesome.
- That's me. (laughs)
- Emma Kenney, thank you so much for being here.
- Thank you.
- And, we look forward to seeing you on Roseanne.
- Yay!
And more Shameless.
- And more Shameless.
(Emma laughs)
Bye.
- Thank you.