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- You have a show that's back now after...
(drumming on table) (laughing)
The line of what's funny, has it moved?
Are there different things that make people laugh now
than there was then?
Do you feel that, as a cast?
- I think that because 20 years ago, when we started,
the thing that made Will & Grace very specific
was that it was provocative from the get-go.
It addressed what is happening today in pop culture,
in politics, and really pushed the boundaries.
And I think because that was in the DNA of the show,
coming back 11 and a half years later,
everyone knew the voice of the show,
everyone knew the characters,
and so we didn't have to ask permission.
We didn't have to apologize, they're just like,
"Oh, they're doing what they always did."
- (stutters) Okay, he's a man, but he's aged into a lesbian.
- Steven Tyler!
John Voight!
Newt Gingrich! - Yes!
(bell rings) (audience laughing)
She's...
Don't get me started. - Jada Pinkett-Smith!
- Yes. (audience groaning)
Oh, we want to love her, but she makes it impossible!
- Caitlyn Jenner. (audience laughing)
(bell rings)
- Oh, rich, hostage-- - Melania!
- Beret. - Patty Hearst!
Yes! (bell rings)
(audience laughing) (cheering)
- Obviously now with the state of the world,
there is a lot more to comment on,
and it feels like there's a lot more at stake
than when we began,
but I actually feel like we are literally just
staying the course.
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My very first movie out of graduate school,
A Walk in the Clouds, I was tricked into signing
a nudity waiver by the producers, and they basically said,
"Oh, the director just has a big ego."
"We can't, because it's PG-13, we cannot show any,
"so if you sign it, nothing's gonna happen."
And the day I showed up, they said,
"Okay, this is your lingerie for the first part,
"and this is for your nude scene."
And I said, "Nude scene?"
And they're like, "Oh, yeah."
And the producers were there, and I went in,
and I was like, "Wait a minute, we talked on the phone
"and you said that it wasn't gonna happen,
"because it's PG-13!"
And they were like, "Not in international."
- Oh my god, I'm so sorry. That's awful.
- And you know, I was on set, and he was lifting up
the thing and looking at me, and throwing it down.
Just to look at me, as a power thing.
And I said to him, before the shot,
that I like to be prepared, could he tell me where
the angles are, and he literally said,
"You are an actress, how dare you ask me to tell you
"what my shot is going to be.
"You are an actress, it is your job to get naked,
"and that's it."
(women sighing)
I was in L.A., my agent--
- I'm sorry that happened to you, it's awful.
- And I didn't have the strength that Molly had.
You call your agent, and they're like,
"You could say no, but you'll be fired."
And I was getting paid scale, I was getting paid nothing,
but it was my big break, you know?
And I just--
- If I was Sheila, I would beat him right now.
(laughing)
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- There's been a lot of free conversation
around Roseanne, specifically, recently.
Can you and should you be able to separate
the art from the artist?
- She made it clear from the beginning
that this was her.
She was a stand-up comic, and she said,
this is just me, I'm just being me.
And so that's very different than saying,
I'm creating a different character.
And then when you have someone who is very outspoken
on social media, and says things
that are incredibly racist--
- [Frankie] Normalizing white supremacy,
essentially, at its core.
- Absolutely.
- Yeah, and I think the problem is that she
is more right-wing than her character,
and that's where it becomes, at least for me,
very hard to separate the two.
- What is the most amusing feedback you've received,
trying out for a part?
- I went in, and I did my thing for the first time
on camera, and I was like, I just killed that,
I killed it!
And my agent calls me and says,
"Okay, you didn't get it."
And I was like, "Uh-huh..."
He was like, "They said you looked like kabuki."
(laughing)
Kabuki, like, what are you doing with your makeup?
(groaning)
And I was like, "I'm doing theater makeup!"
And they were like, "No, no, no!
"The camera's right there!"
I was like, oh, I do it for a lot of people
in the background!
They were like, she looked like she was 39,
and I was 23, and they're like, she's gotta go take a class.
- Ironically, at 39, you look like 23. Joke's on them.
- Oh my god, you will always be my sister.
(laughing)
- Always.
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