- Hi, we're the cast of Tales of the City.
- And we are in studio with The Hollywood Reporter.
(upbeat music)
- What a great cast that you all were able to work with.
Aside from yourselves,
Olympia Dukakis coming back,
then there was Murray Bartlett, Victor Garber,
and then you had Jen Richards, Daniela Vega,
I mean, we really can go on and on
with the list of the magnitude of the talent
that you guys are working with.
So how was that, working with such a great cast?
- Well, it was it I'm talking a lot so go.
(laughing)
- I mean it was fun.
- Yeah.
(laughing)
- This is it.
- This is it in a nutshell.
- This was us on set.
We never got along.
It was really intense, I mean, diva.
(laughing)
So, no it was phenomenal.
You literally, I mean, I'm just gonna
to get to work with Laura,
I mean not to talk to you in third person,
but, truly, was just a dream come true.
One of my just favorites of all time.
- Stop.
- Deal with it
and Zosia and Charlie, and you know everybody.
I'd say, for me it was the, you know,
maybe the most enjoyable part of the experience
was how much I feel like we did all connect
with one another and it felt so present
and everybody felt, you know,
everybody was just there to, you know,
give their heart and you really felt that, so.
- I think there's something important on from
what I've realized in my growing, but fresh career
that when the cast, the crew, everybody on every end
has a personal or a passion point to the project
it creates and environment like that that's more
of a family and yeah there's gonna be challenges
and struggles and problems
but you face them in a different way.
I think that was like a big, big opening point
or door that kind of flung open when we all walked into it
that make it so easy.
- It also did, I think when you are making something
that everybody feels is important, you know,
that you're not just making something
for entertainment sake,
I mean obviously we hope that you find it entertaining
but when you're making something that like down
to people on, you know, grip and electric,
and our makeup department, like everyone
from the writers room to the cast
felt like we were making something
that really, really mattered.
It creates this kind of like,
I mean what the poster says
it's like a very chosen family
like we all really chose to be there making this project
and it creates a very special bond.
- And almost goes beyond entertaining, right?
- Yeah, for sure.
- Something that I think that was really important
or remarkable about this project is that
you highlighted or spotlighted members of
the LGBT community, not only on screen
but behind the scenes, as well.
So, Lauren, could you be able to talk
a little bit about that and how important
it was to have that representation
within your writing and directing team?
- Yeah, it felt paramount, as far as I was concerned.
I think it's truly a once in a lifetime experience
to be handed these characters who represent
such a wide range of identities and as a queer woman
I have one way of understanding my identity
and that looks very different from someone
of a difference race, or a different class,
or a different gender identity.
So having a wide range of experiences represented
in the writers room felt like the only way
to get closer to authentic story telling
and I think in terms of what everyone's saying
about the feeling on set
when your director is trans and can speak directly
to the scene that you're talking about
this layer of richness gets added on top
because then that person can say,
you know when I experienced this in my life
this is how this scene played out for me
and then everything continues to shift and grow
instead of staying stagnant
and it just made the whole environment feel a lot safer.
- Yeah, and more authentic to the story telling.
- Yeah, exactly.
- One of the opening lines to the entire series
is how San Francisco has changed since the 60s
so how were you guys able to adapt or modernize
this story to fit a new generation?
- I think it was really important.
I mean everyone talks about San Francisco being a character
on the show but Tales has a very specific tone.
I keep saying that we represent life as we wish
it was not exactly as it is, right?
So finding ways to talk about San Francisco
becoming pretty unlivable felt important
but the tone of Tales is not a documentary, right?
It's two feet off the ground.
It's a little warmer.
It's a little more magical than real life.
So finding ways to weave that through the story telling
in a little bit of a humorous way
while also having some characters that are contending
with that in a real way toward the end
of the season was our way of commenting
on like this city's really changed
and yet there's a spirit to the people who live there
that remains the same, in my opinion.
I think there's something always really queer
about San Francisco even as it continues to change
and gentrify.
- Yeah, and I feel like another way that you guys
were able to sort of have that modernization
was bringing in a new generation
right into the cast.
So, for you guys, how was it like to represent that
new generation or represent that voice
within your roles?
- It's a little terrifying I'll say in the first point
because it's as much of an honor it is
and I'm thankful for the opportunity.
I'm thankful for the opportunity to see it out there,
even if I wasn't playing it.
It's scary because our community is very large
and very different and even in the fold of like
another brown guy who's gay walking down the street
we could be 150% different and I think finding
that reflection is difficult
and putting the weight of trying to reflect
it is also difficult
but as scary as it is you know you don't achieve anything
unless you kind of walk in fear
so it's like I'm ready and excited.
- Well I guess for me is one thing I'll say
is I feel so grateful to play this character
who's queer and I can be out and playing
and being a part of this, you know,
and the original Tales obviously is a huge part
of even getting to this place
and so to be able to be a part of this
and explore the differences of the generations
which is a huge theme in the show,
those conversations and so it feels wonderful
to be able to be a part of this
cause, you know, it's not even that long ago
where something like this felt very hard to happen.
- Conversations weren't even being had.
- Yeah.
- You know in '93 when we did the original series,
you know, the phrase LGBTQ did not exist.
(laughing) I mean it didn't exist.
So the map that is available now,
the geography that did not, you couldn't even see in '93
there was it's own set of issues and politics
and cultural divide and struggles and all of that
is a completely different landscape than
the one we're in now.
So it was the right time to bring the show back
and it was absolutely paramount that it be passed on
to the next generation and to explore the differences
between, you know, have a sense of history here,
of how we are all evolving and developing
and the things that hurt us and the things that help us
and how it's all sort of, you know,
and where is it possibly leading?
You know I think they're important questions
to be asked and sort of the reason to do the show.
- Now, Laura, as you said you were a part of this
from the very beginning.
So what was it like to come back, be a part of this project,
and step back into Mary Ann's shoes?
- No, it was great.
You know it always it's wonderful.
I mean not many people get to say
they've played the same part for 25 years
and it changed my life significantly
personally and professionally
and you know but then at the same time
it's very different.
It's a different time and it should be.
It should be very different
and it should reflect that and I think that it does.
So it's in some ways like having a great history
with something and then in other ways you're stepping
into something very new and very,
you know, appropriately altered, yeah.
- And where the show picks back up, you see where
she is now as a woman and as a mother
and there's this sort of very complicated
mother-daughter dynamic between her
and Ellen, your character Shawna,
so when I saw that sort of dynamic I
sort of thought, well that's kind of like
most mother-daughter dynamics where it's very complicated
where one minute you guys are best friends
and then the next minute you're like
oh I forgot I hate her
so it's a sort of back and forth
so what was it like playing Shawna's character
and sort of making that complicated relationship
relatable for viewers?
- Yeah I mean that was one of the most
obviously compelling parts of playing this character
and getting to embark on, you know, her story
and her narrative and I think, you know, it's like
she pretends that she's not craving that love
and not craving that nuturance but I think
in her core that's really what she wants and needs
and obviously there's a lot of baggage with this character.
She was adopted, Mary Ann left, she's been raised
by her father, and she doesn't know she's adopted
so she goes on this journey and they go on
a journey together that, you know, is about
finding each other, connecting with one another
and, you know, realizing that they're really
not that different in many ways, yeah.
- Charlie, I just wanna talk about
an incredible scene with your character, Ben,
at the dinner party where one of the guests
he says basically the sufferings of
the older gay generation paved the way
for his privilege as a younger gay man
but then there was sort of that inner conflict
with Ben saying I may understanding some
of the privilege that I've been given
but also, as an African American man,
I still understand discrimination.
So how did you personally relate to
that moment or Ben's reaction?
- 100% (laughing)
How did I relate?
I'm so thankful that they chose to bring this up
and I know I had specifically talked to Lauren
in the beginning of it about my interest in Ben
and this character being from a LGBTQ standpoint
but specifically from a race married
with LGBTQ life.
So I was really happy to get a chance to work on it
and to see it come forward.
I, where do I begin?
I relate 100% to it and it's obviously
why we are telling stories like this,
why we continue, you know, we've been asked
a lot today of like well, you know,
a lot's changed and a lots better and it's like
yeah but there still isn't
and there's still a lot of people who aren't
being heard and specifically on a racial divide.
So it's important for me to see that reflection,
to see it grow, to see even and I kind of hate
and I also love that I have to say that but
to see people of a darker race, you know,
I am mixed and that presents a point of privilege, too.
So seeing everybody of every color is another
aspect that we're gonna, I'm sure get to
and not just on the show but in life.
So yeah I reflect it, I relate.
(laughing)
- Yeah, so to have that representation, yeah.
- I'm just thankful to see it out there
as an audience member and to have an opportunity
to work on it there's much more to come
but I'm happy to see it beginning.
- Yeah.
- Zasha with your character, I don't want to give away
too many spoilers here.
- Don't give away any spoilers.
(laughing)
- Yes, I won't but your character, Claire,
she is sort of this, she's on the outside looking in.
Right?
So what was it like to play a character
that kind of walks into this community
and is playing it, witnessing it from the outside?
- I think it was actually, it was kind of great
given the fact that I sort of was in the same
position as Claire in a way in that like
echoing a bit to the questions you asked earlier
like there is this very new generation of Tales
stepping into this piece of work that has been
immortalized in literature and on film already
and it was, we were so incredibly welcomed
into the fold but there definitely was a sense
of we are stepping into something that's already
been established and like we are the newcomers
and I think that Claire is this interesting character
where you have this community in the show
that are so connected and bonded and she is sort of
I mean she even says herself like she is kind of
the ultimate outsider so yeah it was kind of like
myself coming into this experience and getting
to watch it from the outside stepping in
sort of tentatively and that's basically
the same thing Claire is doing.
- So, we're in pride month right now, we're also coming up
on the 50th anniversary of Stonewall
and the show also touches on the Compton's Cafeteria Riot
and all of that so how is this new iteration
sort of a testament to the progress
that we've made as a society?
- I think it's really, I think the show is about
what we are grappling with as a community
right now which is understanding and recognizing
where we've come from
and those who've come before us.
I mean I am so aware that I sit here because Armistead
came before me and all of his activism and all of his work
allows me to live the life that I currently live
let alone create the art that I create
but also where are we going, right?
How do we have both of these conversations simultaneously
understanding who's come before us
but not getting stuck there?
How do we allow the community to begin to expand
and evolve?
How do we allow people to identify in
the way that they want to identify
without getting really stringent around
what the words are and how we use them?
It's really exciting to be a part of
but I think it requires dialogue
and it requires expansiveness
and hopefully that's what the show has started.
- And it requires some discomfort.
- And understanding.
- It requires people to sit in discomfort
and be okay with that and to move through it.
It requires not skipping steps
and it requires just being there.
- I think something magical we've been kind of
mentioning today in these talk backs
that has given us the ability to tell these stories
from nuanced and not the, you know, it doesn't
have to be the gay story of a person
who's struggling or a person
who's going through all this pain
and you know you saw for so many years
that just a reflection from that standpoint
just the negative and this we get to see
just people living and I think it's because
of those struggles we get to just actually
have an opportunity to be like no we're just all humans
and just dealing with the same shit
oh can I say that?
Can I?
(laughing)
You know we're all humans and we're dealing
with the same stuff it's like that fight
has given us all the opportunity to tell that story
in a really kind of beautiful way, hopefully.
- Thanks so much for joining us.
- Thank you.
- Yeah, and you can stream Tales of the City,
streaming now on Netflix.