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Maybe this is silly, but it's charming when famous people get nervous around other famous people. When two-time Oscar winner Sally Field arrived for our first Emmy Roundtable, America Ferrera, the radiant young star of hit series Ugly Betty, stayed bolted to the floor.
"I'd go up to her, but I'd just say something dumb," Ferrera said. "All I could say is 'Hi'. I mean, what do you say to Sally Field?"
Fortunately, Entourage nominee Jeremy Piven broke the ice during the photo shoot. "Is it awkward if I do this topless?" he asked. Then our five guests sat down, fully clothed, for a two-hour conversation about success, auditions, speeches and why Masi Oka's mum won't be her son's date when the awards are handed out on Monday (New Zealand time).
Let's start with the hard stuff. Who's your date going to be? Jeremy, you took your mother last time, right?
Jeremy Piven: I did. I take her all the time.
Are you taking her again?
Piven: You know what? I think she's over it. She said to me, "You know, Jeremy, I think it's time for you to take someone else". So basically, she turned me down. It was awkward [Laughter].
Sally Field: Maybe you'd like to take me.
Piven: Absolutely! We're all definitely going, right?
Sally didn't go once.
Field: I didn't.
It was the year you won for Sybil, though there are conflicting stories about why you didn't go. What's the real story?
Field: Well, first of all, it was a very strange year because they cancelled the Emmys - some weird thing happened, some boycotting thing. So they invented this other award, and I got nominated for that. I went with the person I was dating at the time.
Whose name was? Come on, Sally.
Field: Uh, Burt Reynolds [Laughter]. So I went to the thing, and I didn't win. Which was fine. But being me, I thought to myself, "Oh, of course. Why would I win? I'll just crawl back into my worthless hole". But then they decided to resurrect the Emmys. It was all done very quickly, and I just didn't feel like it was real. I thought, "Wait, first it's not happening, now it is happening ... and I didn't win the last one, and I don't have a dress, and I'm working, so I'll have to get on a plane, and Burt doesn't feel good ... " So I just didn't go. I guess I should have.
America Ferrera: You're going this time, right?
Apparently she's going with Jeremy. Seriously, who are you taking?
Field: Probably my youngest son, Sam.
Masi Oka: I want to take my mom, but I can't get her to come.
Why not? Is she playing bridge with Jeremy's mother that night?
Oka: She's very shy. She doesn't like cameras. I can't convince her. She says if I force her to come she'll fly to Japan [Laughter].
Did any of you know that Masi, in addition to being a terrific actor, is also a visual effects wizard?
Julia Louis-Dreyfus: Wow, really?
Ferrera: I heard something about this.
He worked on Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean and The Perfect Storm for George Lucas' company, Industrial Light & Magic. Do you still work for them?
Oka: I'm still on their payroll, but just for one day a week. It's more like consulting now. Heroes is definitely my top thing.
Louis-Dreyfus: So you really are like a superhero.
Oka: Supergeek, maybe.
Piven: Do people come to you and go, "Look, man, you've gotta help me out with this situation with my computer"?
Oka: I do get that a lot, actually. Even on our show, they'll ask me about some of the effects. Sometimes they go, "Hey, maybe you can do this for us for free.".
Do you guys watch much TV?
Louis-Dreyfus: I have a 10-year-old son - I almost brought him today because he's addicted to your show [to Oka].
Field: I have a 19-year-old son who's addicted to your show [to Piven].
Sally, do you find TV and movies to be very different? Are they less different now than when you started in the business?
Field: I started in sitcoms in 1965, and at that time, television was the poor stepchild of the motion-picture business. I did three TV series before I was 25, but people were telling me they didn't want me to read for any films - my own agent was, too. I remember what he said very clearly, "First of all, you're not pretty enough. And second of all, you're not good enough". And I said, "Okay. Goodbye".
Ferrera: I had a very similar experience. I didn't start acting professionally until I was 17, and I had a really small agent and manager, and they were sending me out for anything - bail-bondsman commercials, whatever. And I never got a single callback for anything. Because they'd always say, "Can you speak English with a bad Spanish accent?" They were always, like, "We don't get it - you're Latin, but you don't sound Latin". Even my own family, my own friends, would say to me, "Look, we think you're really talented, and it's not that we don't believe in you - we just don't believe that industry is accepting of any kind of variety".
Jeremy, you probably didn't have a tough time convincing anyone you could play Ari.
Piven: I knew that Ari's energy was so interesting that if I did it right, then I could make it something bigger. There's a reason certain people are blowhards and want to take up all the space in a room, you know? At some point in their lives they were crushed and they had to overcome it. I remember I had this mantra for Ari: $40 million by the time he's 40 or he'll kill someone.
What happened to Ari? What's his secret pain?
Piven: That's something I keep pitching to our writers. I came on to this show late in the game as a hired gun. So I would love to be more a part of ... Oh, I'm saying all the wrong things now.
Keep going, Jeremy [Laughter].
Piven: I don't care about titles or whatever, how you're billed on the back of your chair, any of that stuff. I just like to be in the mix, you know? So you asked, what is Ari's secret pain? I think this show can keep exploring these characters. Like, for instance, what is Passover like at Ari's house? Why does he desperately need to prove himself? When people meet me, they're usually surprised that I'm so calm. They're disappointed that I don't bark at them.
Julia, do people still identify you with Elaine?
Louis-Dreyfus: Yeah. Still.
Is it annoying? Or do you find a way to be ...
Louis-Dreyfus: I find a way to be very gracious [Laughter]. Look, it has its challenges, but ultimately what actor wouldn't want an experience like that? To complain would be moronic.
Piven: You know the way Elaine would shove people? Has anyone ever done that to you? Like, literally pushed you?
Louis-Dreyfus: Nobody's ever pushed me. But people do feel they can be very close to me. Maybe it's because I'm short.
Field: Oh, they do that to me, too. I'm sure you get that, America.
Ferrera: Oh, yeah. They touch you.
Field: Yes! They'll grab you.
Louis-Dreyfus: I think it's because you're in their homes. They're very familiar with you. But it's important to remember that it's very, very fleeting. This is an incredibly rough business, and 10 years from now, who knows? Look, I'm assuming everything's going to be great for everybody at this table, and I certainly hope so, but who knows?
Have you guys had parts that you've desperately wanted and didn't get?
Louis-Dreyfus: I'm not sure I want to go down this road. There are a lot of parts I wish I'd gotten and didn't. But then I got some big parts, so I focus on that.
Piven: I wanted to play Idi Amin, Forest Whitaker's role in The Last King of Scotland [Laughter].
Field: The part that changed things for me was in this tiny movie that Bob Rafelson directed called Stay Hungry. When I went to read for it, I heard Rafelson yelling from the back room, "How dare you let her in here. I have better things to do than see Sally Field!" But by then, I knew how to use the fury, the rejection. The "I'm not sexy enough".
And this audition was for a very sexy, risque role, right?
Field: Yeah. By then I had learned that people go with whatever they've seen you in last. So I had to convince them that everything they had seen me do before was acting and what I really am is this absolutely sleep-around tart.
So did you dress provocatively?
Field: Oh, yeah. And I straddled the guy I was reading with. I, like, sat on him.
Did any of you ever straddle somebody in an audition?
Louis-Dreyfus: Oh, yeah. For every job.
How about going to great lengths to get a part?
Louis-Dreyfus: One time I screwed up an audition very badly, but I really wanted this role and thought I was perfect for the part. So I went back to the hotel where I'd met the producers and I wrote a note saying, "I feel strongly that I'm this person, blah blah blah, and could you please give me another chance?" They called me back in, and I still didn't get the part.
At what point in your career was this?
Louis-Dreyfus: Early on.
So you were still willing to humiliate yourself.
Louis-Dreyfus: You have to put yourself out there. You've got to fight.
Ferrera: I had a friend who is a writer, and he wrote this beautiful script and I fell in love with it. I said, this is me, I have to do this. For a while it was a possibility and then it was, like, well, listen, the producers don't want - they're looking for someone who's blond and who has, you know, lighter skin. And basically that was it. I didn't even get to fail on my own. It was the first time I felt really angry. And so I went out and bleached my hair.
How old were you?
Ferrera: I was 17 and it was the first time I'd done something out of anger. I bleached my hair and put on lily-white powder makeup. But my friend called and was, like, "I get it, I understand that it's warped and twisted and it sucks. But you still don't have the part."
Do you feel a certain obligation as a role model for young women and Latina women?
Piven: I do. Oh, I'm sorry [Laughter].
Ferrera: I feel like what the show is doing - and not just what they've done for Latinos or for young girls but for the gay community - has been immense. The show does it, so I don't feel like I have to go about my days preaching it.
Masi, have you found that it's hard to get roles as an Asian-American?
Oka: For me, being a minority has made it easier to break in, to be perfectly honest, because there are a lot of small parts that go to the minority of choice because of affirmative action or something. "Oh, we want to show diversity, so we'll give this small part to him." But the ceiling is very low, without a doubt.
How sick are you of hearing about the Seinfeld curse?
Louis-Dreyfus: Well, I'm thrilled you brought it up. I thought it was just so absurd, and I still do. I think there's the curse of showbiz, which is to say, it's really hard to hit it out of the park. It wasn't a Seinfeld curse - it was a Seinfeld blessing. Lots of people have success in their lives and then try to have it again, as they should. And sometimes they get it and sometimes they don't. And that's life.
Let's end with a question about the big night. Is there any part of it you're not looking forward to?
Ferrera: The red carpet is the most nerve-racking, isn't it? The focus is all on something I'm just not comfortable with. The whole point is to stand there so people can criticise you - What are you wearing? It's a meat market.
Couldn't you boycott, just not do it?
Louis-Dreyfus: My sister said to me, "I think you should just keep wearing the same dress over and over."
Field: I think we should just rebel and all go in sweatshirts and jeans and say, This is it, folks!
Who: Emmy award nominees Sally Field (up for lead actress in a drama series - Brothers and Sisters), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (lead actress in a comedy - The New Adventures of Old Christine), America Ferrera (lead actress in a comedy - Ugly Betty), Jeremy Piven (supporting actor in a comedy series - Entourage), Masi Oka (supporting actor in a drama series - Heroes)
Where & when: The 59th Emmys screen from noon, Monday on Sky 1
Newsweek
