just the fact that archie is just
extremely confident in who he is and i
love that
yes we're talking about sex work but he
is not ashamed of that
and i think that is a beautiful color
that we added to the story is that it
isn't a thing that he has to hide from
or
not allow people in to know about it's a
thing that he actually celebrates and
kind of leans into and i and i admire
that courage that we gave
you know archie in that moment so that
felt very specific and clear
hi everybody i'm maureen lee linker and
i'm a digital writer here at
entertainment weekly
i am so excited to have jeremy pope here
with us today
as part of ew's emmy awardist coverage
jeremy is nominated for outstanding lead
actor in a limited series or movie
for his role as archie coleman the
screenwriter in ryan murphy's hollywood
on netflix
your story is important don't go
thinking otherwise don't let your story
go untold
you are important welcome jeremy hey hey
good to see you
so first of all congratulations thank
you thank you very much
you make your broadway debut and you
become the sixth person
in history to be nominated twice in the
same year for different performances
now you make your television debut and
you're the only person
in your category for your show nominated
for an emmy
i mean how does that feel it's a roller
coaster if you will it's like my mind is
just blown
um i'm so incredibly grateful and this
past year has just been unbelievable
when you're envisioning your career and
all of the things that could happen
did this trajectory ever enter into your
like wildest hopes and dreams for this
to happen this quickly like this
it's really just been a beautiful
journey i moved to new york right after
high school went to school and just
started meeting people and
it kind of led me here you know and at
this point i'm just riding the wave
because
this has kind of surpassed a lot of my
dreams um
so it's really beautiful and kind of
cool to just see what's next you know
so for the outstanding limited series
category
um they don't have you submit specific
episodes for
for consideration it's sort of the
entire body of work
but you've selected a scene today from
hollywood for us to
dive deeper into and it's sort of where
archie
lays out who he is to jack who ends up
becoming an
essential partner in his journey here
through the rest of the series
what made you want to choose this scene
i mean what was it about it that made
you want to focus on it
explain yourself what do you want me to
say i can remember the feeling of
shooting that scene
only because it was one of the you know
first
scenes that we shot for hollywood and i
was working with ryan
you know i was a bit anxious and nervous
because there was just a lot of
new things that i was experiencing and
wanting to show up prepared and
we had spent maybe like two hours doing
wide coverage and kind of shooting
different things and
ryan is a man of few words on set so
you're kind of like checking in just to
be like
am i good or am i trash like just let me
know which direction to go in and
he wasn't really saying much but he was
like you're fine it's just other thing
he kept saying other thing you could
tell something was off but i didn't
really know what it was
um in about that third hour we were
starting to do some coverage and
close-ups
and he came in very politely and was
like we're done for today
and i was like okay so no one asked any
questions he was like it's just not
working i need to rework the scene i see
it some
i see it differently in my head so i
left and me and david
who was my scene partner for that we
just kind of were like what's going on i
don't really know
so we went to the trailer i'm taking my
wig off makeup i'm making dinner plans
with friends
as i'm getting in my car to like back
out the pa is running out like
just kidding ryan wants to do the scene
now and i was like okay but we came back
he had reworked the scene re-envisioned
it repositioned us
but really it was just a testament of
ryan is he knows
exactly what he wants and he
takes time to articulate that and to
create that and i appreciate it to him
especially being that this is the
introduction of archie he wanted it to
be a specific way and to be very clear
and it wasn't that way when we started
it so he was willing to take the l
if you will and reschedule the whole day
just so we can make that moment right
can you point to especially for archie
what it was that you tweaked that day
that made it start working
yeah i think really what it was was the
set was built to look just like
um the true restaurant that were the
true bar that we were you know in in
that time and
there weren't booths so i think in his
head he had imagined that there would be
two people sitting across from each
other
but instead we were sitting next to each
other so he hated
that i had to deliver this story about
my you know
my life and where i come from with my
head kind of turned to the right
he was like that's not i need you to be
strong and pointed and be able to like
really come across
so we just tweaked the scene a little
bit and had him go to the corner
of the bar so that we could be kind of
at an angle he also threw in the element
of
you know i want arch to be so cool that
he's smoking and mind you i don't smoke
so like here i am like
smoking these god awful fake cigarettes
trying not to cough in between takes and
we made it work and we finessed it but
you know i think again i just
really appreciated him taking the time
and being very specific with that moment
and not letting it be something like
in the edit we're like oh it didn't land
as hard as we want because again that is
kind of the first time we hear from
archie
um and you know we get to hear a little
bit of background about him and where he
comes from and what he does and what
he's after
it's like a lot of things there so he
really protected he and protected me and
made sure that that scene landed
um and i think it i think it did i
landed the smoking if anything
oh man it's so funny how hard that is
like you think it should be such a
simple thing
yeah yeah it's it's this intricate dance
of where your hands are and
when you're talking yeah like what are
you saying and doing it you know what i
mean and i think you know it's like
you know ron says are they giving you
like these fake cigarettes which just
taste
awful so you're out here like trying to
say your lines and about to choke
it was it was an experiment if you will
we we knocked it out and he was very
happy with it and
it was ended up being a good day i did
miss dinner plans with my friends but
it ended up being it was worth it yeah
yeah well there's that line in the scene
about
peg and aunt whistle and why archie
chose to write about her
because she was someone the town
wouldn't accept and then that's
something he could relate to
was that sort of a distillation of of
who he was for you or a touchstone that
you kept going back to throughout
for sure yeah i think specifically with
archie being
a black man and also a gay man he has to
code switch a bit and i think um a lot
of people a lot of black artists had to
do that during that time
so for archie to come up with this idea
that if i tell a story
about a white woman who's an outsider
maybe like
other people will start to empathize and
sympathize with that
but also it's a parallel to how most
black artists and most black people have
had to
to walk their life during that time and
that is kind of the brilliance of
someone like archie who knows that
he's got to be a bit smarter and he's
got to be a bit all-knowing and know if
he wants to get into those rooms if he
wants to take his
rightful place in this business in the
industry
he has to kind of finesse it a bit so i
think that was his way of
sure peg and twistle jumps off the
hollywood sign because she feels you
know unaccepted unwanted like
did he care about her doesn't know her
but like also that's what he experienced
and feels at times so
how about he writes a movie with that
narrative maybe the studio will accept
it and then maybe that will be his way
in
to write a movie or to have a movie
produced that isn't just for colored
people
that isn't just for black people that
isn't just running the south but it can
be a movie
that is you know ran across the country
be the first screenwriter to do so
the scene really lays out who he is he's
he's explaining
where he's come from where he wants to
go how he feels about
his life right now i think it's kind of
rare that we get scenes like that where
we just straight out
have a character say who they are and
what they're about and it's not
something that's just
subtext so how do you prepare for a
scene like that i mean is that
daunting to just come out and say it is
it helpful
i mean i think they they made it easy
for me because i
had a lot of conversations with ryan and
the writers in the room but
i think approaching someone like archie
and the story that we're telling
about this black man trying to make it
in hollywood at the time it's like
there's something about him that has to
be so competent and so swag like
because ultimately he wants to win and
he has these big dreams and wants to
break these you know glass ceilings if
you will so you can't come in timid and
i think
there's something about him that like
that is what makes him archies he's
like i'm gonna get this coin no matter
what like i'm making these moves so that
i can make these moves and him to just
say it out there
to lay it out there i think it's pretty
dope and pretty impressive so if
anything i leaned into that because he's
got more courage than maybe you know
most folks would have
um in a situation like that um and
especially if we're talking about a
period piece and you know
the the 40s where he's initially outing
himself
if you will he's giving so much of
himself to this man that he doesn't know
but again that's kind of like he's got
nothing to lose so he kind of puts all
of those things
out there which ultimately ends up
serving him for the greater
very courageous and incredibly
self-aware
um as you mentioned the scene is in
schwab's drugstore which they recreated
for the show
the sets and the costumes in this whole
series are amazing so when you're
working in a space like that
as we see in the scene how much is that
enhancing sort of the world building and
archie's identity for you
yeah it is kind of if one of the most
important elements as far as the world
we were creating because i had
a couple of fittings that were like four
or five hours long we were like spending
so much time really building archie's
closet
and while it was grueling in the moments
that we were you know fitting for it
made it
really cool to kind of walk on set and
then have a closet of four to five
outfits to choose from be like what is
archie feeling today and we
you know then walking on the sets and
seeing all background and all the people
just
it really transports you to the world
and adds that extra thing that you
needed so
while you're doing your homework at home
and you know preparing your mind for the
scene and the work you'll do
i started to leave a lot more room for
the surprises on the day if you will
what what what was going to happen
around me what was that going to feel
like
what was that going to smell like and
like entertain that and use that so it
was cool because again i got to
transport into this world here we are on
these sets of schwabs that
is identical to schwab so i'm like okay
use your space use your environment and
you know everyone that was
on set with us was so special i always
liked love going to talk to the
background because their hair was always
so nice and they're the coolest clothes
and i was just like this is so
dope we're like fully in a different
world right now but yeah it played a
huge part in how
you know how i entered the world as
archie and what i felt and how he
expressed himself
um so shout out to everyone who was on
the creative team for that because they
really made it easier to really fall in
deep into that world because it looked
identical i felt like so swag i felt so
cool with those clothes even though
those pants felt like they were up to my
neck
i always get a note like pull your pants
up they're supposed to be up past your
belly button but
when i look at the footage and i see the
photos we looked pretty sharp
jumping off this scene a little bit um
the great love story of the series
is archie and rock hudson and so i just
wanted to ask
how much of a well excuse the pun rock
uh jake was for you in this process and
kind of
how essential that collaboration was for
you in in building archie and his
journey
me and jake had a lot of moments
together and he was such a gracious
scene partner
and human being during that season
because it was our you know
our first time working with ryan um
a lot of we sometimes were shooting
multiple episodes at the same time so he
truly was my quote unquote rock if you
will
on my first day on set together we shot
we were shooting episode one and two but
we were shooting
um our a lot of our intimate uh scenes
so it was kind of like
hey nice to see you again also we're
fully naked there's an intimacy coach
there's like a lot of
things happening and i remember when it
was just me and him
in a room getting ready for the scene we
really just like made a pact to like
if you ever feel uncomfortable or if you
ever feel like you need someone to talk
to or whatever it is like let me be that
for you
because this could feel very daunting he
was you know going through his own
um journey of like how to bring rock to
life and how much of himself he can
bring and
we kind of just allowed each other to be
free and to like that this
relationship should feel safe at the
time we didn't know where the series was
going so we didn't
know the hopeful triumphant ending that
we have but we knew that if anything
we were going to need each other in the
show and in real life
so i was like if anything just always
lean into that and it did and we did
that day and
every day after that we you know he
really helped me down and made me feel
safe and comfortable in the scene work
and allowed us to kind of play and just
bounce off each other and
i think that's why the chemistry just
resonates so you know
so vibrantly off the screen just because
we really made a pact to like
lean in and be you know be there for
each other um and i love him dearly
because he really really like
did his thing and make sure i was i was
good so the series
spoiler alert ends with archie winning
an oscar
for for screenwriting and there's
this really incredibly moving speech
that you give
where you remind everyone that their
stories
are important and their voices deserve
to be heard
how emotional was that for you shooting
that i mean was there a little bit of
jeremy coming through in that moment
yeah
always um in that moment specifically it
was a beautiful day when we
filmed that because it was kind of the
you know our last episode
but we also was one of the first times
that everyone in the show was together
in the same space
you know i got to look out and see patty
and holland and dylan and jim
and all the kids and it was so really
really special and
again the background was so supportive
it felt like i actually won
an oscar they were like rooting and we
shot it we block shot the scene so we
shot maybe like 30 40 minutes of the
last episode kind of like as one take
so it felt like an award show where we
just kept running it wasn't a lot of
start stop
it was kind of like let's just run it
through i think we had eight or nine
cameras kind of moving all over
so we really just got to be in the space
and celebrate each other but
when i do give that speech and archie
speaking it is
it was very special to have those words
but i got to say them to the audience
say them to the crowd but also save them
for myself
and to know that i am enough and there
is space for me
and and that my story is important that
my narrative is
you know is important and i knew how
important this message was going to be
um once people saw that because i felt
that i would you know i had chills in my
body and i was like
i'm so grateful to be in this moment for
my own personal journey of how far i've
come
of the unknowns when i was 17 telling my
parents i wanted to move to new york to
like
do acting or to you know to to to to use
my creative gifts and
i really like took in that moment of
like this is what you prayed about this
is what you were manifesting for
yourself
and you know we're going to keep going
from here and i hope that people that
are watching
the show get that sense of hope get that
sense of
they are allowed to be in the room that
there is someone out there that
that is looking out for them and is
going to care for them and to to guide
them on the journey
and yeah it was just incredibly special
did you know
uh going in that they were gonna have
that inner cutting
with with the real people because that
is so impactful as well
for sure it it i think that is actually
what makes
makes the speeches um so incredibly
special to really see that narrative of
you know people listening
because at the time they couldn't watch
it wasn't something they were watching
on tv but just to hear the words of
you know a black man winning an oscar
and you're just kind of like stuck and
what that would have felt like and how
that would have changed someone's life
and how it could have changed the world
i remember reading the script
uh because we got it in parts again we
were like shooting the last episode but
hadn't got the full
oscar moment and i remember reading in
and i cried i cried a lot reading it for
the way that they
wrapped up um hollywood i think
dealing with ryan and just life you
sometimes are waiting for the
the sour ending if you will in the sense
of like oh that's too good to be true
we can win but to a point so when he
created this world where we're going to
truly rewrite the wrongs and make
history and make it an uplifting hopeful
ending
it brought tears in my eyes because i
knew how powerful this message was going
to be
you can watch all the episodes but i'm
like just watch episode 7 like if you
know what i mean like
you can get so much from that episode
like it's so much hard and
all the characters and players are in it
and it really was a special
episode when we were making it and it
felt that way on the page and i was so
you know glad to see it kind of resonate
the same way on the screen
that's such a good piece of advice
because if if there's anything ryan's
good at it's recreating the oscars
and um and and then you get that extra
oomph of this total wish fulfillment
there and it's really beautiful
i am proof that there are folks out
there who want to hear it
if you do win can you see yourself
saying some version of what archie says
like have the writers already helped you
out
listen i might just start right from the
top of archie's speech
and say you are important your life has
value
no i mean you know if i win truly i am
i'm so grateful to just be in the space
you know this is my first go around with
the television academy
and i cried when i got that nomination
um
just because it's it's a new group of
people it's a new group of support that
i i felt so strongly
um you know so much love was poured into
my life
and um to the craft and the art and it's
special to be recognized and um
to me the win is just in the nomination
and to have my photo next to some of you
know some really incredible actors and
artists
um but to know like the work isn't done
and i'm just going to keep on hitting it
and keep on moving because at this point
the sky's the limit
you know if anything that's the message
i think that's what i would say is like
for anyone watching just know the sky is
truly the limit and don't limit yourself
by your own insecurities and fears and
doubts well thank you so much for
joining us today jeremy
i think i speak for everyone here at ew
when i say that we really can't wait to
see
what you do next it's been a meteoric
two years for you and and i hope that
that trajectory just
continues because the work is phenomenal
and can't wait to see more of it
thank you