Photo: Courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter.With Emmy nominations just a month away, it's officially time for all the prospects to embark on their annual campaign trails in hopes of boosting their shot at Emmy gold. Our favorite of these schmooze-fests are always The Hollywood Reporter's actors' roundtables, where the mag gathers a group of frontrunners to talk shop. Last week we showed you what happens when telelvision's leading men get together, and this week, it's the ladies' turn.
The Big Bang Theory's Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting, New Girl's Zooey Deschanel, Nurse Jackie's Edie Falco, The Mindy Project's Mindy Kaling, Shameless' Emmy Rossum, and Orange Is the New Black's Taylor Schilling put on their Sunday bests this past week to talk about the ins and outs of being TV's funniest women. Here's what they said:
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On Their Most Mortifying Audition Ever.
Taylor Schilling: I auditioned for commercials when I started out, which are awful. They make you do the weirdest stuff. There was one where there was a mannequin set up, and they're like, "Skip across this bench and plant a big wet one on the mannequin.
Zooey Deschanel: I had a TV screen test early on, and the creator of the show was in the back mouthing the words. I'm looking at the person who's reading with me there, and right behind that person was this guy saying the dialogue with me.
Edie Falco: I once auditioned for a musical, and I don't sing. I gave it my all but it was just awful. I couldn't look [the casting people in the eye].
On People Being Mean.
Mindy Kaling: You're ugly and fat, and that is so refreshing to us." I'm like, "What are you saying to me, sir?" "Well, we're used to skinny people, and you're so ugly and refreshing." That's not a question, sir.
Emmy Rossum: Some people say that I'm so much prettier on TV, and people come up to me in the airport, and they're like, "You kind of look like Emmy Rossum, but she's really pretty."
Kaling: And people who actually identify as feminists will say stuff like, "Are women funny?" Sorry, you can't ask that question again. It's so insulting and outdated. They like getting us riled up, as I am getting now!
On what Made Them Want To Act.
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Falco: I thought, "I want to do that," when I saw Sweeney Todd. We took a little trip on our school bus, and it was life changing. It starred Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury. The music is incredible. I was a different person leaving that theater. "If this is where this kind of thing goes on, I have to be a part of it.
Deschanel: When I was 2, I saw The Wizard of Oz, and I was obsessed with it. My dad filmed everything I did, because he's a cinematographer, and we have it on tape, me up at the screen. I learned all the lyrics to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," before I could really form sentences. I told my mom that I was going to jump in the TV. She was like, "Oh, really, you are?" I told her I would. And I did it!
Kaling: For me, it was watching Much Ado About Nothing, with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson, seeing that Shakespeare could be done like that. They had amazing chemistry, and it was truly funny.
For more of the professional side-splitters, watch a behind-the-scenes video of their shoot below. (The Hollywood Reporter)