Enjoy my conversation with Uzo Aruba. She is not only very nice and talented, she also has impeccable taste in TV. We discuss her favorites and even dive into one of the biggest moments in TV history. (If you have not watched The Sopranos yet, proceed with caution - there are spoilers.) Just listen around them.
#Orangeisthenewblack #CrazyEyes #TheResidence #TheSopranos #TheWire #ShondaRhimes #Scandal #TV #FYC #EMMYS #Acting #UzoAduba
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Episode Transcript
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(00:03):
Hey, where's the remote? It's time for TV Topics, where
those who love television discuss the series and
performances that should be on your radar.
Welcome to TV Topics. This is your host, Stephen
Persikowski. Today's guest is an actress many
people will know for her Emmy winning work as Crazy Eyes on
the acclaimed Netflix series Orange is the New Black.
(00:25):
But there's so much more to her than that one unforgettable
character. She's delivered amazing
performances in Misses America in Treatment and most recently
starring as Detective Cordelia Cup, who is solving a murder in
the White House in the mystery comedy The Residence on Netflix.
It was a pleasure to speak with her, to learn about her work and
the TV she enjoys. And she loves TV.
(00:47):
She tapped into a lot of shows Ialso really love.
Of course, I'm talking about thegreat Uzo Aduba.
One important message. If you have not watched Sopranos
yet, there are spoilers ahead not only once, but twice.
One of the spoilers is everywhere in pop culture.
The other, brought up during theTV death question, is a little
more obscure. So if you want to avoid, please
(01:09):
proceed with caution. But still listen because Uzo was
a wonderful guest and we had a fascinating discussion.
You'll want to hear it. Hi, this is Uzo Duba and today
I'm hanging out with Steven Prusakowski on TV Topics.
Welcome to TV Topics, Uzo. I have been a fan of yours since
Orange is the New Black, and when I saw you playing a
(01:30):
detective solving a murder in the White House, I knew I had to
watch. And then when I learned the
character's name was Cordelia, which is my eldest daughter's
name, I doubly had to watch. It was a treat hearing her name
in this great mystery and that with a great character attached
to it. Yay.
Shout out to the Cordelias. There's not many of them.
It's funny, even though I believe it originated in
(01:50):
Shakespeare, still hundreds of years later there's not a lot of
Cordelias. But it's a solid name, and I
loved it when I heard it, too. You know, her whole name was a
Cordelia Cup. Oh, I kind of like that.
That's a great name. But we're going to get into your
work on the residents in just a few.
But before we do, we'll have some TV topics questions.
And remember, there's no pressure, no right or wrong
(02:11):
answers, just a bit of fun. OK, so looking back over the
years, what has your relationship with TV been?
Are you ATV junkie, watches, everything?
Were you very selective? Do you go to shows?
I think I'm selective even even with my reality television, a
bit of select. I'm selected there even too, and
I watch everything. I definitely love to hear what
(02:35):
people are watching and if I geta good recommendation I will
jump in and watch it. But it doesn't have to
necessarily be highbrow or anything.
You know, I think they're smart lowbrow that's really funny or
broad comedy that can be really great.
But as long as it has a unique point of view, I think is
usually or something interestingto say.
(02:56):
That's usually something. I'm drunk.
I like that approach, so let's continue.
What was the 1st prime time showthat you remember loving?
It doesn't matter if it was goodor bad, it was yours.
Remember really loving you know it's so funny.
OK, this is going to sound so random, but like, I can remember
(03:18):
watching and finding hysterical and my I would be kind of
watching through the corner peeking in because my mom loved
the show Golden Girls. I was really hilarious as a kid
and I'm sure there were many jokes that were still going over
my head, but I think that was one that I really loved.
(03:39):
But like, for myself and adulthood.
Well, yeah, so the style stuff there, that's probably my #1.
If you have one, it's great. I'll take it.
OK, so for myself in adulthood, I think I have to say The
Sopranos. One of the best.
That is my that's my all time favorite show.
That's my all time. Yeah, well, maybe I'll dip into.
(04:01):
Well, I guess I'll ask, do you have, do you have a stance on
the ending? I know it's not all about the
ending, but no. I know, I know and I know.
It's, I know. It's a talking point, a touchy
point for people. I loved it.
Oh, same here. I loved it.
I personally loved it. I remember at the time I was
doing a play at the Denver Theatre Center Regional House in
(04:25):
Denver, Co, and I raced home to watch the finale.
And I remember I thought the power had gone out somehow and
the sudden the outlook and I waslike, no, I think we were almost
there. And then when the credits come
up, I was like, whoa, OK, that'skind of cool.
I loved it. You were you.
Yeah, what had happened? I didn't, I same thing.
(04:47):
I same reaction, but I, I didn'tknow how to react.
I was like, I didn't know if I loved it at first I did and then
I didn't. Then I'm like, and about an hour
later I, I kind of let it seep in.
I was like, that's incredible. And then the watching the people
react, like all, all social media blew up because everyone
was talking about it. People like worst ever.
And I'm like, that's great when you can make people react that
(05:09):
way in, you know, this tug of war and all these different
reactions, all these different interpretations.
Yeah. You did something right, people
care. Yeah, and you didn't know what
to think. What is?
And it's exactly what you want. We don't know what's going to
happen to him. We know once something is going
to inevitably. But what you know?
Well, that's the thing too. You had your heart racing, you
(05:31):
know. You're so well caught, Meadow.
Parking the car, the guy going to the bathroom.
I've watched that show start to finish no less than four times.
I love that show. I really love it.
So. So is Tony die there, or does he
make it past that night at the diner?
(05:51):
I think he makes it past that night, but I don't think he
makes it past many more nights because there was so much heat
on him. Remember at that time the walls
were just closing in. I don't know if it's that night.
I think because also the thing, OK, so now I'm going to really
like eek out. You have to remember, they tell
you maybe is it season two or three?
(06:14):
The rules when you're in the organization is not when you're
with your family. So he was with his family.
That's the only thing that makesme think not that.
Yeah, there's a lot of clues outthere.
One of them is that it doesn't fade to black like people were
saying. It cuts to black, but the music
from the scene keeps going and you have.
(06:36):
So I'm like, well, this is not credits, this is this is and
there's nothing there. There's are no credits.
It's black with the music going and then and or I'm sorry, no,
it doesn't. The music doesn't keep going.
It cuts to black and then the black stays there.
So that is your show going on, which when they reference, I
think the pre season before whenthey say that it just goes to
(06:58):
black when you get when you get whacked, I was like, so it fades
to black, it cuts to black, the credits roll.
I'm like, no, it doesn't roll. You've got about 10 seconds of
black, black screen right there.That's something that's a
decision so we don't have to keep debating.
But you know, it's AI love. I love how you just brought up
something that even though I I've watched it twice and I've
(07:19):
talked to people endlessly aboutit, that I'd never picked up
upon. So maybe have to watch it one
more time. Worth to watch.
Yeah, definitely. How about shows on the opposite
end of the spectrum? What show makes you laugh the
most? Or one that you go to to when
you need to pick me. Up oh, if I want to laugh the
most, OK, The Office is pretty hilarious.
(07:41):
I think that's a show that I think is absolutely hysterical,
absolutely hilarious. For the longest time when I
would watch, I was wondering, are these actors and if they
are, are they acting or are theyimprovising?
And I think they're acting and these people, every single
person here is a genius. I think the function that every
single person has on that show, from Michael to Dwight,
(08:03):
everybody, it's interesting to watch performative behavior, you
know, like the person you want people to think you are and then
the person you are. And it's just hilarious.
And also, I haven't seen every episode of The British Office,
but I've watched quite a few. Both are hilarious to me.
(08:25):
Yeah, I was going to bring up the British Office.
I that's that's my favorite. I'm like, I think that is peak
cringe television and watching. There's some moments in that
that are like I've seen numeroustimes and I'm like every single
time. It kind of makes you just feel
queasy and like, I can't believeanybody, even if it's fictional,
people had to live through this sit.
There and make it very uncomfortable.
(08:46):
You know who else is funny and good for that?
Another show that I like that that Kirby or enthusiasm.
Oh yeah. Oh my gosh, that always has me
dying. Hilarious.
I think it's hilarious. That show had me die.
Another one with a great cast top to bottom and everybody
comes in there and just deliverssomething a little bit different
and you don't know what they're,you know, they do have the
improv aspect of that. So it's not watching the same
(09:09):
beats, you know, of, of the samewriters over and over.
Everybody brings in their own element and kind of adds to the
to the buffet. Next thing you know, you have
this amazing, amazing feast. Of 100 percent, 100,000% This is
a genius. I love that he's a bald faced
liar. That line will live in my head
forever. I was about to chef.
(09:30):
So are you a crier as well? Say it again.
Are you a crier? Do you cry during, you know, for
TV? Yeah.
Do I cry? Not.
I'm trying to think of the last time I cried watching a show.
(09:50):
I have cried for sure. I'm trying to think of the last
time, but not like, not regularly.
I wouldn't say that I'm a regular crier, no.
There might be a line or something that might get me.
And I'm like, you know, choked up.
Yeah, I, I get choked up. The, the, there's an episode of
of the Pit this season that really hit me.
(10:11):
I was like, did not expect it. You know, the rest of it,
there's a lot going on in the series, but I didn't expect what
what they delivered. And I was like, that's just too
much. You know what, actually, what's
coming to me, I'm remembering. You know what episode I did cry
at Scandal, I think it's called the Chair episode with Courtney
B Vance guest starring. And that I mean, and I don't
(10:38):
even say that because I'm my boss is currently Shonda Rhimes,
but I genuinely was moved by that episode.
I remember, wow, what AI thoughtevery every actor came to work
that day in such a profound and powerful way.
And Courtney B Vance, who I love, was very moving.
(11:00):
I remember in that episode. What was the scenario?
Was it about the electric chair?No, it was about his son, who
had been shot by a police officer and he had a chair.
He wouldn't move the chair. I think it's, I'm pretty sure
it's called the chair. He wasn't going to move outside.
(11:25):
He had set a chair in front of his son's body and he wouldn't
move. And he was, you know, protecting
his being. And Olivia was brought in to
sort of figure out what had happened on the day.
And I remember whoever the gentleman who played the
officer, he was also excellent. That guy was really incredible.
And it was really, really, really intense.
(11:48):
But he just came with this really soft, you know, what a
father's love, what a parent would do for their child, You
know, just remember, you know, watching him protect his son,
even post mortem, I, I just thought was he was just very
(12:09):
moving. I just remember that episode
being very, very, very moved by it.
Yeah, anything with, ever since I became a parent, anything with
kids, you know, someone, a parent and their children
definitely digs a lot deeper than it used to.
Very quickly, for sure. And on the other side of the
coin, what TV show do you watch that you think would surprise
(12:31):
your fans? Is there something that's like,
you know, maybe guilty pleasure,if you would want to call it
that, Real Housewives? Real Housewives, You know, In
fact, when you were asking aboutwhen I last cried watching TV,
that was what first came to my mind in episode Real Housewives
(12:54):
was actually what came to my mind.
I was like, all right, I actually most recently cried
probably on an episode of Real Housewives.
Real Housewives. I watch all of them.
I have only not watched Miami, and that's not because I have
anything against Miami. I only discovered it so late
that it was so many seasons thatit was too heavy for me to jump
(13:14):
in. But I hear it's excellent.
But I watch all of them. I think it is.
I don't, I don't feel guilty. I love it.
I, you know, I'm, I'm a proud fan of housewives.
I feel like it's like today's, you know, dynasty or something.
It's so good. It's just over the top and
(13:37):
wonderful. And I think everybody is amazing
and fascinating. I love the one liners that come
out of them. That's my escape.
There's a, you know, there's about a dozen of them, right?
So they must be doing something right.
Exactly. Not my cup of tea, but you know
what, I drink a different tea. No big deal.
OK, so before we continue with the TV topics questions, let's
(13:59):
discuss your work on the residents, which I really enjoy.
Like I said, as soon as I heard the premise and I knew you were
attached, I was like, OK, I'll watch this.
This is going to be something unique.
And it was which I, which is always a huge plus.
Like you said early on, is as long as you have something, it
doesn't have to be high brow, low brow, whatever it is, as
long as it delivers something unique.
(14:20):
And that's what I think is sometimes LAX.
But, you know, over the last fewyears, we've been kind of
spoiled with, you know, people getting out there, being able to
make shows that they really speak to them and speak to a
unique audience. So how did this role come to
you? Was it directly from Chandra?
Yeah, I got a call from Shawna LAN asking if I would like to
(14:43):
come and meet and read the material and sit with the
showrunners of the show, showrunner with the show creator
Paul and the Shonda Land family,which I did.
And I read the first few scriptsand was really captured by it,
(15:07):
to be honest with you. You know, I really enjoyed
reading. When I was reading, I thought
her voice was really strong to me.
I hadn't read anything quite like it in terms of how the
jokes that were inside the script in the stage directions,
you know, it was really funny and very precise.
There was a precision to the wayshe sort of operated, which I
(15:28):
thought was unique and exciting.And we just had a conversation
and then a few days later I got a call saying that they'd like
to offer me the job, which I wasreally excited about.
And yeah, that was my journey with the show and.
(15:52):
Did you have any favorite detectives before taking on the
role of Cordelia Cup? Yes, I loved, I absolutely loved
Angela Lansbury and Murder, She Wrote, I thought was so.
She was so amazing. Jessica Fletcher again, another
show that I just can remember mymom really loved.
(16:14):
And so I just would be watching.I was like, this is cool.
And having my own ideas of what I thought that show was about,
too. I have a theory on that show.
And yeah, that was probably the And I watched Clue, too.
I loved, I loved Clue the movie.But yeah, so that was my war
(16:36):
experience with the murder mystery whodunit in its space.
And it's taking on a detective. Is there any kind of research
you did to prepare for the role and specifically about detective
work? Detective work, you know, I had
just not so much specific to this job.
I had done a part recently aboutwith a character who was an
(16:57):
investigator. So I was sort of familiar with
the what I the work of detectivework going into.
And what I was less familiar with was some of her
idiosyncrasies and her unique style of detective work and what
she used as sort of her strengthto get her into solving cases,
(17:22):
which is her hobbies and her herattention to detail.
Those were things that were unique and specific to her.
So those were things that I had to learn more into and do more
research work because I was not at all familiar with any of her
hobbies. And you know, she, she's
(17:44):
somebody who has a face that doesn't give anything away, you
know, and I have a face that does give everything away.
So she so I had to sort of tune myself into figuring out how to
be her in that way and learn howa bit more about the things that
were interesting to her so that I could really bring alive or
(18:08):
hope to bring alive her skill set.
And as you're doing that, you know, how much of A back story
were you given to who she was and to kind of what made her the
character that you find on the scripts?
Yeah, I think for me, I leaned into the back story of her, the
4th episode where we get to see young Cordelia, little Cordelia
(18:32):
looking for her sister's sock. And there was so much rich
information in there, for me anyway, as far as learning that
there had been a family loss of,you know, a sibling.
And it, it really put for me thequestion of, oh, maybe she
(18:54):
wasn't always this way. You know, she has a very sort of
just the facts, ma'am, sort of sterile, straight to the point
that, you know, no entertaining of folks about her.
But when I read that script, I really wondered, you know, the
(19:14):
people we grow up to be are shaped by the lives we lived as
youth sometimes. And I wondered if perhaps this
loss is part of how she became the Cordelia Cup we are
watching. And that was a bit of
information for me that the closed off person, closed off
(19:37):
quote, UN quote way in which sheexpresses herself.
That might be I, you know, sort of created in my head, You know,
I don't know what it's like to lose a close family member.
That might be how she's able to get through life now every
single day, because it might be too much, you know?
(19:57):
Yeah, for a lead character, she's very efficient with her
words. Let's say.
You know what? But you can see she's always
observing. There's always those wheels
turning behind her eyes. But like you said, she doesn't
really give many clues as to like there's not, there's not
that aha moment where you here it comes.
So every you have to listen to everything she says and and and
then like, you know, it's a verydifficult puzzle to put together
(20:20):
because you aren't given a lot of the pieces.
Was there a challenge to doing that, to kind of trying to
convey? More with less.
Oh, yes. Oh, my gosh.
Yeah. You know, I'm, like I said, I'm
very expressive. I talk with my hands, I talk
with my body. I do a lot of this.
You know, I just, I'm constantlymoving.
But So what the challenge becamefor me was the stillness,
(20:46):
because it was really apparent that she gets a lot of
information from a seed. She can pull a lot of
information from something that is obvious and then less
obvious, and she processes information very quickly.
And so I love a script for what a character keeps creating the
(21:07):
question, why for me. Well, why?
Why, why? Why?
And it's like, oh, why? Because she can see so much and
why? Because she thinks really fast.
Oh, why, you know, And that's how I started to build her out
and everybody. She could be a room full of
people and she could be the onlyperson to notice something that
everyone else might miss. Well, why is that?
(21:27):
It's oh, because she's really smart, but also why she pays
attention. And then that cracked for me the
detail of the stillness that, oh, OK, she really zones into
her environment. And therefore, when she's
listening, that means she's really dialed in to what a
(21:50):
person is saying, which means she is smart enough also to not
let her response inform how someone else excuse me, how her
response so that her response does not impact how someone else
might respond. And so for me, what started to
(22:15):
come alive was a she talks really fast because there was a
lot of language that she was pulling.
So in order for me to do that, that required me to sort of keep
my mouth at a certain spacing. You know, I didn't talk like
(22:36):
myself, like the way I'm talkingnow.
I kind of had to talk a little bit more like this so that I
could get everything out in one breath and be able to do it as
quickly as I needed to do it. And I had to drop her voice like
1/2 register lower than my own because in order to maintain
that breath, that's where I needed it to live.
And so then it became an exercise in stillness.
(22:57):
And the stillness was one part technical to be able to get the
language out. But then that brought alive to
me the idea, oh, she also needs to be really still when she's
listening so that her responses don't impact the people giving
her the information to her question.
(23:18):
And so that really started to shape for me who this woman is,
how she does her investigative work, how she gets to answers,
what she's listening for. She's listening down to
prepositions, Stephen, you know,whether somebody says they're by
the door or at the door, that's how closely and intently she's
(23:42):
listening. And she's holding that
information in a file somewhere to cross reference it with her
next interrogation. And so, yeah, so that then
became an exercise for me. For me, Cordelia became an
exercise and stillness. Yeah, And there's so much noise
around her. All these different people with
(24:03):
their own stories. Some are very animated, like Ken
Marino, for one. His character is just, like,
endless energy throwing things at you.
And yet she's sitting there just, like, Stoic and taking it
in and never giving anything away.
And you're like, I, I can't figure out if you, you know, if
this is a killer and you know, if the killer is right in front
(24:25):
of you or what's, you know, where it is.
Not until the end. I would, you know, I'd say
pretty rare. It seems like you usually kind
of there's a lot of bread crumbsout there.
Is is there something in particular you wanted to bring
to this role that was not on paper something about her, you
know, was it stillness somethingthat was written in there?
Or is it something that you, youknow, came up with on your own?
(24:45):
Still, I think the stillness wasthe part for me, like that was
the part that I really could hear and feel that she could you
look at me, if you look at the lines, like I said, it was born
out of the language and being able to get it out of my mouth.
And so that sort of became an inspiration.
That stillness was something that felt very clear to me.
(25:07):
And, and, and I think in terms of how she interrogates, it
became really clear. And I think it's episode 2 when
she's interrogating my castmate Izzy, and he's going out and
coming back and she doesn't say a word.
You know, silence and gold. Silence is golden.
(25:27):
This is what I think I wrote in that script, that silence is
golden that day as some one of my acting notes for myself from
reminders is, you know, you'll get more, you catch more flies
with silence. Not even honey, you know,
silence is golden here. And that sort of came alive.
And it felt like the right marriage given the way that I
(25:48):
was needing to speak and place pitch her voice.
It felt like that felt a great way to wed how she sort of
exists. And I got to say another place
of inspiration for that was the birding.
You know, she's a birder. That's her hobby.
(26:09):
I went birding. I had never been burdened
before. And So what I learned there was
that birding is a patient man's game.
You know, that is something where you still miss again or
you're going to make the birds fly away.
You kind of have to just sit, bestill, wait, and you have to
wait for the thing that you're looking for to come to you,
(26:31):
which is not unlike how she practices her detective work
either. She's got to wait.
She's waiting for the information to come to her.
And so all of that sort of went into a melting pot to sort of
draw out for me that inspirationand the shaping of that
character. I think it felt very organic as
(26:54):
I was reading to bring that sortof alive, you know?
Yeah, I was going to bring up the birding and I thought it was
unique how they, the birding becomes part of her solving the
crime in the way that she explains things to people where
you're like, well, you know, youthink it to be something maybe
she has inside of her and she uses but the tool then she ends
(27:14):
up saying, well, this bird and this and all this, like that's
how her her brain works. It's a very original thing.
Did you embrace the the, the, the birding?
Is it something that you continue to do?
Something that you enjoyed? I did not.
(27:39):
I did not. I respect it.
I have. I still wear ears.
I still have my birding book. Thank you.
Ken Kaufman. My idea.
That was our birding expert. My birding bag actually is down
here, too. Bring that up.
This is my birding bag. You know, with all my stuff in
(28:01):
here. My my, my journal and my
binoculars that I went birding on.
Collecting dust. Exactly, exactly.
But I did understand why people do it.
It's very relaxing. I will say that it's extremely
relaxing. There is, you have to remember a
(28:26):
lot as well because, you know, you have to be sketching and
writing descriptions and then goto the book and be able to look
for the one that you're you're think you saw.
But yeah, I was able to draw outwhy, how she is using this as a
tool in her investigations for sure.
(28:47):
And you get this amazing ensemble with so many suspects,
so many theories all going on atonce.
Was it tough to keep track of itall?
Like, you know, as you're kind of portraying this, you know,
this character who's got all this thing, all these theories
and ideas processing in her head, but you also you really
(29:07):
have to understand it in order for you to play each scene
right. So was that was that a lot of
work? Oh my gosh, definitely.
So it's like a mess. The show is as large as the
White House, you know, the scopeof the characters and
interestingly so. I think I thought it was
interesting to be able to hold that.
Definitely dense with information.
(29:29):
But that challenge of doing thatto me felt like a worthy 1
because that's what she's holding, you know?
That's what Cordelia is holding.And she's coming into this house
with 137 rooms, 32 suspects, youknow, all all of this
information, a place that's unfamiliar to her, you know, one
dead body, all of this, she's holding all of this information,
(29:49):
all of these contradicting accounts that people are giving.
And what the exercise, the exercise of that is exciting
because you get to of trying to hold all of that information
because you start thinking that's how great she is at this
job. She's able to take all of this
(30:10):
information, file it, figure outwhat makes zero sense, come back
to it, you know, re interrogate something if it needs a revisit,
can discount something as false and want to know why that person
is saying that false thing and what is drawing her closer or
further away from the truth and why.
(30:31):
I think is it was great and madefor an interesting ride when
going from scene to scene, person to person, person of
interest to person. Because there would be things in
my notes in my script, you know,that would you would want to
(30:51):
Draw Something out that somebodysaid because you knew, you know,
5 pages before that or the episode before that, somebody
said that something in direct contradiction.
And it made me, I hope, you know, like a better analyst of
script because I was like doing script analysis that I'm like,
you really have to pay attentionto every single word here
(31:11):
because what I was clear about in the writing is every single
word counts, not for writer's sake, but because it actually is
necessary for her to solve this case.
Those every word is actually that critical.
If somebody wanted to go throughthis script, come through it and
(31:34):
prove that it's possible, I alsohad to be listening with that
sharpness. So like to be able to listen
when somebody says I heard them at the door to really catch
that, you know, because I knew that that was a tell, you know,
5 for five episodes later, you know.
And I think it's really impressive at the end, like
(31:54):
you're not just reading words inthe script, you're building a, a
blueprint for everyone to see ofthis murder line by line, you
know, age by age, filling up that paper until you to the
point where you go, oh, it's complete.
And there's your murderer. And here's why even creating
misdirects and saying, well, we thought it was so and so.
And but I'm like, I just thought, my gosh, the, it's a,
(32:16):
it's a very long process too. This isn't like a 32nd.
And the killer is they pull off the mask.
You have this big in depth breakdown of, of when they said
it, how you noticed it, that the, the, the settings in the
room, the different variations of the stories you were told.
And it's like, and then it comesdown to it like, holy shit,
(32:37):
that's impressive. You know, just great work on
that. Thank you so much.
And that's like, you know, that's the real corner where I
direct to Paul, you know, because Paul did such a great
job. I thought Paul William Davies,
our show creator, did such a great job of really putting this
puzzle together thoughtfully andintricately and smartly.
(32:57):
You know, those steps that sometimes you might see sort of
glossed over or missed or not not thoroughly carved out.
He really did that work of really creating a crime and
tooling it and reverse engineering it back to ensure
that it happens the way that shesaid it happened.
(33:19):
And I appreciate that because itreally honors, you know,
everybody keeps saying she's theworld's greatest detective.
It really honors that, that she really was able to see all of
these little things. And, and I also loved that by
the time we get to the end, she was confident she would get to
(33:40):
who did it. But it was also really wonderful
to watch the growth between her and FBI agent Edwin Park in that
final moment where she's, you know, she doesn't have very many
vulnerable moments. But her version of vulnerability
when she tells him to look for the blink, where you see a bit
(34:05):
of her willingness to rely on his eye because he has proven to
her or shown that he is, you know, maybe keeping up in the
same way. I thought that was a nice touch
that Paul incorporated as well. And it was such a joy to be
working with Edwin, who, excuse me, Edwin Park's character
(34:27):
played by Randall Park, was sucha joy to be working with
Randall. I, I thought it was nice that
even though she was sure she hadthe pieces set, she's, she's
not, you know, unimpeachable there.
(34:49):
She can find she she's willing to open the door up to somebody
who might be able to also see something that she could
possibly miss. So I thought that was also a
nice touch. I I really like that moment.
You know, I won't reveal spoilers for anybody, but.
And then you're like, yeah, it's, you know, we are.
(35:11):
It's this case has come to a close.
You know, you knew it was done right there.
So, you know, you had a great cast to work with, but you also
had another character of all itsown, the White House.
What was that set like? Was that done on like a studio
set or was that a building? No, we were at the White House.
No, just kidding, we weren't. That was all the White House.
(35:37):
No, we were. Yes, that was a set of Francois,
our production set designer built that was unbelievable
between production design and our props who and costumes too,
who were just out unbelievable. Trish, Lynn, Paolo, everybody,
they were just all amazing with their jobs.
(36:01):
They really built something quite exceptional that we had
something like, I want to say wewere on maybe 14 stages, rooms
built to scale. It was to the point when we were
walking in in the beginning, youknow, people didn't even want to
(36:23):
come in with their coffee or, you know, anything to make a
mess and not really sit on the furniture because it felt so
real. It looked so real.
And I had, by the way, had just been to the White House maybe
two weeks prior to starting. And I had seen been given a tour
and was walking around and beingtold all these different details
(36:49):
about the White House and how itworks and going through the
bowels of the White House and upand through.
And, you know, our, our guide social secretary who gave us the
tour said, you know, here in thegrand Fourier, often times a
little, you know, insider tip some, often times there are a
(37:11):
lot of shows that don't have these two flags outside of this
particular room. And that's usually a tell for us
who work here that they they haven't quite gotten it quite
right. So if you don't have those two
flags, you know, you should leanover to somebody and make sure
that you have those two flags. I was like, I don't know if I'm
gonna lean over to that person, but OK, good to know.
(37:35):
But I didn't have to, Stephen, because when I came in on the
first day and we were outside that room, the two flags were
there. And I was like, Oh my gosh.
And I told everybody, they said,they said this is usually the
thing that's missing here, that it's usually doesn't have those
two flags. And they had those two flags and
just the amount of research work, detail attention that was
(37:57):
paid there, I think matched up with to the amount of detail
research work and attention thathad been shown in the script.
Which is why I think all of us were coming with our level best,
you know, and trying to get as much detail as we could to our
(38:18):
respective roles because so muchwas so much detail and attention
was in the script itself. So they did an amazing job when.
It comes to the scale of it, howlong would it take you to walk
through? Because it seems massive, like
you know, the amount of different rooms they've put you
in and like you said, they're all built to scale, so.
I mean hours. I was there for hours when I
(38:41):
went to the real lighthouse to go hours because it's much
larger than you think. It's something like 6 floors.
It only looks like it might be two or three.
But deep down underground, yeah,I think it's six floors all in.
It's 5 acres wide, the whole property, 5 acres, it's massive.
(39:11):
So yeah. And I mean, obviously we did not
build 5 build out five acres of lawn, but of grounds.
But yeah, it was pretty elaborate.
And when we would be shooting, it was just as elaborate.
Like I said, we had so many stages on which we shot, and the
space is so grand and there's somuch detail.
It's ornate, from the the wallpaper to the molding to
(39:35):
books and the statues. Everything is done with absolute
purpose and intention for every single room.
Every single room has specifics that are meant to evoke some
type of feeling and honor, some group and piece of American
(39:55):
history. It's really, really elaborate.
And just a couple more questionsabout the about the series.
But what do you think Cordelia'sfavorite TV show would be?
Oh wild America, Marty Stauffer on TBSI think that would be her
favorite TV show and or C-SPAN. A lot of stillness there.
(40:23):
C-SPAN. And after seven years of playing
crazy eyes on Orange is the New Black, what was it like hopping
series real quick, But what was it like saying goodbye to that
character? And do you think it'd be
possible for you to have, you know, seven seasons or more
with, with Cordelia? What was it like playing that
character? It was a true gift.
It was a joy. There she is over there.
(40:43):
It was a joy. I have that picture there
because I remember how wonderfula day it was to shoot there,
shoot that day, and to never lose sight of my happiness and
my passion and why I do this. It was amazing.
It was obviously where I got my start.
(41:05):
It was it was where I learned totry things, you know, in this
medium that always try. It's, there's no bad idea.
You can try something. It may not work, but you should
at least try it and to explore the wild thing, you know, to
always give that space and room.And it was a show that had such
(41:31):
a depth of talent that was incredible, unique talent.
Everybody had such a unique voice and it was really great to
come into this show. The residents that also had such
a huge ensemble as well, much like Orange that add a depth of
talent, each person bringing something unique to the story.
(41:53):
I loved working on Orange and finding more years to dig deeper
and more into who Suzanne is andwould love nothing more than to
be able to do the same with Cordelia if we're so fortunate.
I know right now when I finish the show, when I finished it, I
(42:13):
said, oh, she's off. And I wonder what she's off to
do. And she still is off doing
something. And I hope I get to, you know,
be at a window to take a peek into see what that is.
But I know she's off somewhere, solving another case, answering
another question, discovering another bird.
Do your characters still live with you?
(42:34):
Do you after years later still think about about Susan for?
Sure, absolutely. Suzanne will always live with
me. She was such a gift to my heart.
She really cemented for me some ideas that I had in my own
growing up, that being yourself is enough, even as wild or
(43:00):
different as that person might be, to hold firm to that.
And that's something that she affirmed for me and through her
existence. So she lives with me, but
absolutely, she's well, well, well alive in my mind.
She's out at this point and she's finding her way through
(43:21):
the world and being as pure, honest, authentic and creative
as she's always been. I love that.
That's great. So let's close with a few TV
topics questions and get you on your way.
They're fun, hopefully pretty easy, but you grab a remote
control and the genie pops out and offers you this TV based
(43:43):
wish. What TV show do you want one
more season of? And it can be a prequel season.
It can be a season put right in the middle between, you know,
whatever seasons you want, or itcan be 1 tag on to the end and
that would be the same cast crew.
No time has passed. Just as if it was shot when it
was actually being produced. The Wire.
The Wire What would you have? The sequel, Prequel.
(44:05):
The extra season. I would have I would have an
epilogue where it goes further into the larger branches of
power that are involved in the drug trading systems.
Great answer. So that's that's an all time
favorite, obviously. Yes, and I'm about to do a
rewatch of that actually. It's funny, I just spoke with
(44:28):
Carrie Kuhn recently and she's like, I don't have time to
rewatch anything. And I'm like, I understand there
are very few shows I get to rewatch.
And you know, getting to go backin, you're watching, you're
doing it with the best of shows too.
So it's. A good one.
That's a solid one. Oh my gosh, I love that.
Yes. I completely agree.
And is there a favorite theme song?
One that you can't skip. Absolutely, and we sang it
(44:50):
weekly. Onset of the residents growing
pains theme song does. That show me that smile again
that's. Exactly it.
Yes, that's that's a classic. I I like the Cheers theme song
WKRP in Cincinnati for some reason.
Solid punky Brewster, but that'salso lives in my heart.
Saved by the Bell also lives in my heart.
(45:12):
These ones I can readily living single like lives in my heart.
I can draw these in living color.
I can keep going. Like I love theme songs.
I wish they would come back. I wish theme song would come
back. Yeah, there are a few that they
still exist when I still listen to them.
You know, I, I, I don't unless if I like the show, I, I
(45:33):
continue to listen to them everytime.
That's how you know you like a show, because I actually want
that. That for some reason I get
cemented into you and it becomespart of the experience.
A. 100%. Golden Girls is another one.
Golden Golden girls, that's likeborders on theme song and radio
for me. That's that's that's a great
song. Full stop.
Family ties solid. Yeah, you're naming it some of
(45:55):
the best. Did you have a list ready?
I I'm telling you, I look different.
I could keep silver spoons. I could Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
These are all This is a. All different variant, A catalog
and all different variety of songs too.
It's not like you didn't just find 1, you know?
My examples were I kind of like this thin slice, but you're kind
(46:15):
of hitting all over the the board.
Do you prefer binge watching or weekly watching?
I think it depends on the show, how great.
I think I, you know what I thinkI like, I was about to say like
I think I like weekly. I think it depends on the show.
(46:36):
I think it depends on the show. I can go both ways.
I think it depends on the show, but that's the beauty.
I, that's also where I say, I think, I think I, that's where I
have to lean with the binge because that's where it's like
binge watching is kind of like Burger King.
You can have it your way, you can watch it all at once.
You can watch it every week, youknow.
Yeah, I, I liked it. It's out to binge.
(46:57):
Like I didn't binge The Residence.
So I, I did, I think it was like2 episodes at a time because
there's just so much going on. Like you got to kind of be able
to take it in a little bit. You know, you can't if it if all
these different perspectives on this crime were delivered at
once, I think it would be too much for me.
But but I agree. Have it your way.
(47:19):
The old Burger King, the. Old Burger King, another song.
And if if there was one TV deathyou could stop, which would it
be? Adriana's and The Sopranos.
Oh wow. That's a good.
One. Yeah, yeah.
Christopher too, but but but Adriana.
(47:39):
'S Adriana reacts. That's the difference.
You could see that moment when it's like, oh, this is it, yeah.
Yeah. And when she's dreaming of going
off, she wanted so much for her life.
And then it's like, yeah. And then the crawling that one
got. Painful.
Yeah, there's like that, Christopher, I think he was, he
was unconscious when it happened, right?
(48:01):
He was in the car. Yeah.
They the car accident with he and Tony.
Tony. Yeah.
I mean, that's, that's an amazing series.
I'm, I'm thankfully no one, no one really brings it up that,
you know, when I have spoken with people, I'm very glad you
did because yeah, it comes up, but just not it is it doesn't
have we, we haven't gotten in depth with it.
So I always love to hear different people's takes.
(48:21):
I love it. I love every character.
I think everybody is perfect. I think everybody's amazing on
that show. I love the story season after
season. It's like food that you set in a
really delicious piece of fish or chicken that you set in the
fridge. Marinades.
It just gets more and more delicious with each season.
I love that show, the performances, Edie Falco, you
(48:48):
know, James Gondolfi, everybody,Steve Van Zandt, everybody is
excellent in that show. Lorraine Bracco, Michael
Imperial, everybody is superb and it's shot.
So it's the writing. I mean, I'm doing a commercial
for The Sopranos. I love that.
(49:08):
Show I love it's 2020 years out right, 2025 years out.
Yeah, I love that show. That show Scandal.
These are my shows I love. Good picks and this is a
question I've never asked before.
So it'll be the first, the greatest moment in TV history,
according to Oozu Aduba. Greatest moment.
Oh well. OK, so now I'm throwing it back
(49:29):
to my jam finale of Seinfeld. Seinfeld.
That was my show. Wow, that's a lot of people are
not fans of the finale. I know I liked it.
What was it? What about it?
It started right as it began. I loved for people like me.
I mean, I was a super fan. All that, the testimonies, all
(49:52):
those characters that you'd cometo know who had just become so
iconic, watching them all come through.
And then I loved Just Like That Pull Away in the Cell and how it
just started, exactly how it began, which was a show about
nothing. It was never about anything.
Did you happen to watch all of Kirby?
(50:13):
Have you finished? I have not finished.
Oh well, you have to watch. If that's your answer, you have
to watch the final season. Oh, OK.
You know, it, there's some parallels there that will, which
I think is Larry David commenting on, on the, on
Seinfeld's closure without commenting on.
Maybe it even does. I, I can't recall exactly how it
(50:35):
went, but it's definitely if you're, if that's the greatest
moment in history, I think you'll, you'll appreciate this
the the finale or the final. Interesting, interesting.
I didn't know. The final question, if you had a
magic door, one that allowed youto access at any place, any TV
show, whether you could walk on the set, But it's real life, so
you get to pop in and out and live in that world.
(50:58):
At the same time, though, your life pauses so you don't miss
anything. There's no like, well, I stayed
too long and I missed my life. No, you could have the best of
both worlds. Which would it be and why?
OK, I'm going to say a theme song that I brought just brought
up, I would say In Living Color.I loved that show so much.
(51:20):
I I loved everybody on there wasjust so inventive, so creative.
You know, we see all of the people that came out of that
institution. I would love to pop in there and
maybe I'm really trying to pop in the writing room to see how,
(51:41):
you know, Jamie Foxx came up with Wanda to see you know how
Damon Wayans came up with homie the clown to see how Damon
Wayans and David Alan Grier cameup with men on film or Keenan
Ivory Wayans came up with the show or Jim Carrey came in
(52:01):
coming up with fire Marshall Bill.
I would love Kim Kim Wayans be you know how she came up with
the woman on the block. You know, you didn't hear from
me, but you didn't hear, you know, all these characters.
I would love to just these iconic characters that that were
so real and hilarious and funny and fun and smart and creative
(52:28):
and original and unapologetically like vibrant.
I thought I love that show as a kid and I love the originality
of the show, its existence, its place, you know, on with from
the music it had, it had culture, it had energy, it had
(52:51):
pop, but it still was very centered and an intelligence and
a seriousness for craft of comedy, craft of sketch, craft
of storytelling, craft of character development.
I would love to see that roster of people in their early days
(53:13):
discovering their artistic voices.
I would love that. I give that answer 2 snaps way
up, yeah. Yes.
And deformation. Well, thank you so much for
being my guest today and for allthe amazing insight and, and The
Sopranos talk and everything else.
I really appreciated the conversation, but also your time
(53:35):
and the work on the series. Thank you so much.
Come back again, maybe when Cordelia is solving her next
crime. I would love to.
I would love to. Have a great day.
Thank you so much. Thank you, Steven.
Bye. Bye.
Bye now. Thank you so much to the
incredible Uzo Aduba for being such a great guest on TV Topics.
Be sure to watch Uzo's work on The Residents and Orange is the
New Black, both streaming on Netflix.
(53:57):
Keep tuning into TV Topics and be sure to subscribe on Spotify
or Apple Podcast or wherever youfind your podcast.
And if you really enjoy the show, please give it a five star
rating. It really helps.
You can also follow TV topics onInstagram at TV under score
Topics. Thanks for listening and stay
tuned for more TV topics. TV Topics is produced by Stephen
(54:18):
Brzekowski. ZAP.
Hey, where's the remote? It's time for TV Topics, where
those who love television discuss the series and
performances that should be on your radar.
Welcome to TV Topics. This is your host, Stephen
Persikowski. Today's guest is an actress many
people will know for her Emmy winning work as Crazy Eyes on
the acclaimed Netflix series Orange is the New Black.
(00:25):
But there's so much more to her than that one unforgettable
character. She's delivered amazing
performances in Misses America in Treatment and most recently
starring as Detective Cordelia Cup, who is solving a murder in
the White House in the mystery comedy The Residence on Netflix.
It was a pleasure to speak with her, to learn about her work and
the TV she enjoys. And she loves TV.
(00:47):
She tapped into a lot of shows Ialso really love.
Of course, I'm talking about thegreat Uzo Aduba.
One important message. If you have not watched Sopranos
yet, there are spoilers ahead not only once, but twice.
One of the spoilers is everywhere in pop culture.
The other, brought up during theTV death question, is a little
more obscure. So if you want to avoid, please
(01:09):
proceed with caution. But still listen because Uzo was
a wonderful guest and we had a fascinating discussion.
You'll want to hear it. Hi, this is Uzo Duba and today
I'm hanging out with Steven Prusakowski on TV Topics.
Welcome to TV Topics, Uzo. I have been a fan of yours since
Orange is the New Black, and when I saw you playing a
(01:30):
detective solving a murder in the White House, I knew I had to
watch. And then when I learned the
character's name was Cordelia, which is my eldest daughter's
name, I doubly had to watch. It was a treat hearing her name
in this great mystery and that with a great character attached
to it. Yay.
Shout out to the Cordelias. There's not many of them.
It's funny, even though I believe it originated in
(01:50):
Shakespeare, still hundreds of years later there's not a lot of
Cordelias. But it's a solid name, and I
loved it when I heard it, too. You know, her whole name was a
Cordelia Cup. Oh, I kind of like that.
That's a great name. But we're going to get into your
work on the residents in just a few.
But before we do, we'll have some TV topics questions.
And remember, there's no pressure, no right or wrong
(02:11):
answers, just a bit of fun. OK, so looking back over the
years, what has your relationship with TV been?
Are you ATV junkie, watches, everything?
Were you very selective? Do you go to shows?
I think I'm selective even even with my reality television, a
bit of select. I'm selected there even too, and
I watch everything. I definitely love to hear what
(02:35):
people are watching and if I geta good recommendation I will
jump in and watch it. But it doesn't have to
necessarily be highbrow or anything.
You know, I think they're smart lowbrow that's really funny or
broad comedy that can be really great.
But as long as it has a unique point of view, I think is
usually or something interestingto say.
(02:56):
That's usually something. I'm drunk.
I like that approach, so let's continue.
What was the 1st prime time showthat you remember loving?
It doesn't matter if it was goodor bad, it was yours.
Remember really loving you know it's so funny.
OK, this is going to sound so random, but like, I can remember
(03:18):
watching and finding hysterical and my I would be kind of
watching through the corner peeking in because my mom loved
the show Golden Girls. I was really hilarious as a kid
and I'm sure there were many jokes that were still going over
my head, but I think that was one that I really loved.
(03:39):
But like, for myself and adulthood.
Well, yeah, so the style stuff there, that's probably my #1.
If you have one, it's great. I'll take it.
OK, so for myself in adulthood, I think I have to say The
Sopranos. One of the best.
That is my that's my all time favorite show.
That's my all time. Yeah, well, maybe I'll dip into.
(04:01):
Well, I guess I'll ask, do you have, do you have a stance on
the ending? I know it's not all about the
ending, but no. I know, I know and I know.
It's, I know. It's a talking point, a touchy
point for people. I loved it.
Oh, same here. I loved it.
I personally loved it. I remember at the time I was
doing a play at the Denver Theatre Center Regional House in
(04:25):
Denver, Co, and I raced home to watch the finale.
And I remember I thought the power had gone out somehow and
the sudden the outlook and I waslike, no, I think we were almost
there. And then when the credits come
up, I was like, whoa, OK, that'skind of cool.
I loved it. You were you.
Yeah, what had happened? I didn't, I same thing.
(04:47):
I same reaction, but I, I didn'tknow how to react.
I was like, I didn't know if I loved it at first I did and then
I didn't. Then I'm like, and about an hour
later I, I kind of let it seep in.
I was like, that's incredible. And then the watching the people
react, like all, all social media blew up because everyone
was talking about it. People like worst ever.
And I'm like, that's great when you can make people react that
(05:09):
way in, you know, this tug of war and all these different
reactions, all these different interpretations.
Yeah. You did something right, people
care. Yeah, and you didn't know what
to think. What is?
And it's exactly what you want. We don't know what's going to
happen to him. We know once something is going
to inevitably. But what you know?
Well, that's the thing too. You had your heart racing, you
(05:31):
know. You're so well caught, Meadow.
Parking the car, the guy going to the bathroom.
I've watched that show start to finish no less than four times.
I love that show. I really love it.
So. So is Tony die there, or does he
make it past that night at the diner?
(05:51):
I think he makes it past that night, but I don't think he
makes it past many more nights because there was so much heat
on him. Remember at that time the walls
were just closing in. I don't know if it's that night.
I think because also the thing, OK, so now I'm going to really
like eek out. You have to remember, they tell
you maybe is it season two or three?
(06:14):
The rules when you're in the organization is not when you're
with your family. So he was with his family.
That's the only thing that makesme think not that.
Yeah, there's a lot of clues outthere.
One of them is that it doesn't fade to black like people were
saying. It cuts to black, but the music
from the scene keeps going and you have.
(06:36):
So I'm like, well, this is not credits, this is this is and
there's nothing there. There's are no credits.
It's black with the music going and then and or I'm sorry, no,
it doesn't. The music doesn't keep going.
It cuts to black and then the black stays there.
So that is your show going on, which when they reference, I
think the pre season before whenthey say that it just goes to
(06:58):
black when you get when you get whacked, I was like, so it fades
to black, it cuts to black, the credits roll.
I'm like, no, it doesn't roll. You've got about 10 seconds of
black, black screen right there.That's something that's a
decision so we don't have to keep debating.
But you know, it's AI love. I love how you just brought up
something that even though I I've watched it twice and I've
(07:19):
talked to people endlessly aboutit, that I'd never picked up
upon. So maybe have to watch it one
more time. Worth to watch.
Yeah, definitely. How about shows on the opposite
end of the spectrum? What show makes you laugh the
most? Or one that you go to to when
you need to pick me. Up oh, if I want to laugh the
most, OK, The Office is pretty hilarious.
(07:41):
I think that's a show that I think is absolutely hysterical,
absolutely hilarious. For the longest time when I
would watch, I was wondering, are these actors and if they
are, are they acting or are theyimprovising?
And I think they're acting and these people, every single
person here is a genius. I think the function that every
single person has on that show, from Michael to Dwight,
(08:03):
everybody, it's interesting to watch performative behavior, you
know, like the person you want people to think you are and then
the person you are. And it's just hilarious.
And also, I haven't seen every episode of The British Office,
but I've watched quite a few. Both are hilarious to me.
(08:25):
Yeah, I was going to bring up the British Office.
I that's that's my favorite. I'm like, I think that is peak
cringe television and watching. There's some moments in that
that are like I've seen numeroustimes and I'm like every single
time. It kind of makes you just feel
queasy and like, I can't believeanybody, even if it's fictional,
people had to live through this sit.
There and make it very uncomfortable.
(08:46):
You know who else is funny and good for that?
Another show that I like that that Kirby or enthusiasm.
Oh yeah. Oh my gosh, that always has me
dying. Hilarious.
I think it's hilarious. That show had me die.
Another one with a great cast top to bottom and everybody
comes in there and just deliverssomething a little bit different
and you don't know what they're,you know, they do have the
improv aspect of that. So it's not watching the same
(09:09):
beats, you know, of, of the samewriters over and over.
Everybody brings in their own element and kind of adds to the
to the buffet. Next thing you know, you have
this amazing, amazing feast. Of 100 percent, 100,000% This is
a genius. I love that he's a bald faced
liar. That line will live in my head
forever. I was about to chef.
(09:30):
So are you a crier as well? Say it again.
Are you a crier? Do you cry during, you know, for
TV? Yeah.
Do I cry? Not.
I'm trying to think of the last time I cried watching a show.
(09:50):
I have cried for sure. I'm trying to think of the last
time, but not like, not regularly.
I wouldn't say that I'm a regular crier, no.
There might be a line or something that might get me.
And I'm like, you know, choked up.
Yeah, I, I get choked up. The, the, there's an episode of
of the Pit this season that really hit me.
(10:11):
I was like, did not expect it. You know, the rest of it,
there's a lot going on in the series, but I didn't expect what
what they delivered. And I was like, that's just too
much. You know what, actually, what's
coming to me, I'm remembering. You know what episode I did cry
at Scandal, I think it's called the Chair episode with Courtney
B Vance guest starring. And that I mean, and I don't
(10:38):
even say that because I'm my boss is currently Shonda Rhimes,
but I genuinely was moved by that episode.
I remember, wow, what AI thoughtevery every actor came to work
that day in such a profound and powerful way.
And Courtney B Vance, who I love, was very moving.
(11:00):
I remember in that episode. What was the scenario?
Was it about the electric chair?No, it was about his son, who
had been shot by a police officer and he had a chair.
He wouldn't move the chair. I think it's, I'm pretty sure
it's called the chair. He wasn't going to move outside.
(11:25):
He had set a chair in front of his son's body and he wouldn't
move. And he was, you know, protecting
his being. And Olivia was brought in to
sort of figure out what had happened on the day.
And I remember whoever the gentleman who played the
officer, he was also excellent. That guy was really incredible.
And it was really, really, really intense.
(11:48):
But he just came with this really soft, you know, what a
father's love, what a parent would do for their child, You
know, just remember, you know, watching him protect his son,
even post mortem, I, I just thought was he was just very
(12:09):
moving. I just remember that episode
being very, very, very moved by it.
Yeah, anything with, ever since I became a parent, anything with
kids, you know, someone, a parent and their children
definitely digs a lot deeper than it used to.
Very quickly, for sure. And on the other side of the
coin, what TV show do you watch that you think would surprise
(12:31):
your fans? Is there something that's like,
you know, maybe guilty pleasure,if you would want to call it
that, Real Housewives? Real Housewives, You know, In
fact, when you were asking aboutwhen I last cried watching TV,
that was what first came to my mind in episode Real Housewives
(12:54):
was actually what came to my mind.
I was like, all right, I actually most recently cried
probably on an episode of Real Housewives.
Real Housewives. I watch all of them.
I have only not watched Miami, and that's not because I have
anything against Miami. I only discovered it so late
that it was so many seasons thatit was too heavy for me to jump
(13:14):
in. But I hear it's excellent.
But I watch all of them. I think it is.
I don't, I don't feel guilty. I love it.
I, you know, I'm, I'm a proud fan of housewives.
I feel like it's like today's, you know, dynasty or something.
It's so good. It's just over the top and
(13:37):
wonderful. And I think everybody is amazing
and fascinating. I love the one liners that come
out of them. That's my escape.
There's a, you know, there's about a dozen of them, right?
So they must be doing something right.
Exactly. Not my cup of tea, but you know
what, I drink a different tea. No big deal.
OK, so before we continue with the TV topics questions, let's
(13:59):
discuss your work on the residents, which I really enjoy.
Like I said, as soon as I heard the premise and I knew you were
attached, I was like, OK, I'll watch this.
This is going to be something unique.
And it was which I, which is always a huge plus.
Like you said early on, is as long as you have something, it
doesn't have to be high brow, low brow, whatever it is, as
long as it delivers something unique.
(14:20):
And that's what I think is sometimes LAX.
But, you know, over the last fewyears, we've been kind of
spoiled with, you know, people getting out there, being able to
make shows that they really speak to them and speak to a
unique audience. So how did this role come to
you? Was it directly from Chandra?
Yeah, I got a call from Shawna LAN asking if I would like to
(14:43):
come and meet and read the material and sit with the
showrunners of the show, showrunner with the show creator
Paul and the Shonda Land family,which I did.
And I read the first few scriptsand was really captured by it,
(15:07):
to be honest with you. You know, I really enjoyed
reading. When I was reading, I thought
her voice was really strong to me.
I hadn't read anything quite like it in terms of how the
jokes that were inside the script in the stage directions,
you know, it was really funny and very precise.
There was a precision to the wayshe sort of operated, which I
(15:28):
thought was unique and exciting.And we just had a conversation
and then a few days later I got a call saying that they'd like
to offer me the job, which I wasreally excited about.
And yeah, that was my journey with the show and.
(15:52):
Did you have any favorite detectives before taking on the
role of Cordelia Cup? Yes, I loved, I absolutely loved
Angela Lansbury and Murder, She Wrote, I thought was so.
She was so amazing. Jessica Fletcher again, another
show that I just can remember mymom really loved.
(16:14):
And so I just would be watching.I was like, this is cool.
And having my own ideas of what I thought that show was about,
too. I have a theory on that show.
And yeah, that was probably the And I watched Clue, too.
I loved, I loved Clue the movie.But yeah, so that was my war
(16:36):
experience with the murder mystery whodunit in its space.
And it's taking on a detective. Is there any kind of research
you did to prepare for the role and specifically about detective
work? Detective work, you know, I had
just not so much specific to this job.
I had done a part recently aboutwith a character who was an
(16:57):
investigator. So I was sort of familiar with
the what I the work of detectivework going into.
And what I was less familiar with was some of her
idiosyncrasies and her unique style of detective work and what
she used as sort of her strengthto get her into solving cases,
(17:22):
which is her hobbies and her herattention to detail.
Those were things that were unique and specific to her.
So those were things that I had to learn more into and do more
research work because I was not at all familiar with any of her
hobbies. And you know, she, she's
(17:44):
somebody who has a face that doesn't give anything away, you
know, and I have a face that does give everything away.
So she so I had to sort of tune myself into figuring out how to
be her in that way and learn howa bit more about the things that
were interesting to her so that I could really bring alive or
(18:08):
hope to bring alive her skill set.
And as you're doing that, you know, how much of A back story
were you given to who she was and to kind of what made her the
character that you find on the scripts?
Yeah, I think for me, I leaned into the back story of her, the
4th episode where we get to see young Cordelia, little Cordelia
(18:32):
looking for her sister's sock. And there was so much rich
information in there, for me anyway, as far as learning that
there had been a family loss of,you know, a sibling.
And it, it really put for me thequestion of, oh, maybe she
(18:54):
wasn't always this way. You know, she has a very sort of
just the facts, ma'am, sort of sterile, straight to the point
that, you know, no entertaining of folks about her.
But when I read that script, I really wondered, you know, the
(19:14):
people we grow up to be are shaped by the lives we lived as
youth sometimes. And I wondered if perhaps this
loss is part of how she became the Cordelia Cup we are
watching. And that was a bit of
information for me that the closed off person, closed off
(19:37):
quote, UN quote way in which sheexpresses herself.
That might be I, you know, sort of created in my head, You know,
I don't know what it's like to lose a close family member.
That might be how she's able to get through life now every
single day, because it might be too much, you know?
(19:57):
Yeah, for a lead character, she's very efficient with her
words. Let's say.
You know what? But you can see she's always
observing. There's always those wheels
turning behind her eyes. But like you said, she doesn't
really give many clues as to like there's not, there's not
that aha moment where you here it comes.
So every you have to listen to everything she says and and and
then like, you know, it's a verydifficult puzzle to put together
(20:20):
because you aren't given a lot of the pieces.
Was there a challenge to doing that, to kind of trying to
convey? More with less.
Oh, yes. Oh, my gosh.
Yeah. You know, I'm, like I said, I'm
very expressive. I talk with my hands, I talk
with my body. I do a lot of this.
You know, I just, I'm constantlymoving.
But So what the challenge becamefor me was the stillness,
(20:46):
because it was really apparent that she gets a lot of
information from a seed. She can pull a lot of
information from something that is obvious and then less
obvious, and she processes information very quickly.
And so I love a script for what a character keeps creating the
(21:07):
question, why for me. Well, why?
Why, why? Why?
And it's like, oh, why? Because she can see so much and
why? Because she thinks really fast.
Oh, why, you know, And that's how I started to build her out
and everybody. She could be a room full of
people and she could be the onlyperson to notice something that
everyone else might miss. Well, why is that?
(21:27):
It's oh, because she's really smart, but also why she pays
attention. And then that cracked for me the
detail of the stillness that, oh, OK, she really zones into
her environment. And therefore, when she's
listening, that means she's really dialed in to what a
(21:50):
person is saying, which means she is smart enough also to not
let her response inform how someone else excuse me, how her
response so that her response does not impact how someone else
might respond. And so for me, what started to
(22:15):
come alive was a she talks really fast because there was a
lot of language that she was pulling.
So in order for me to do that, that required me to sort of keep
my mouth at a certain spacing. You know, I didn't talk like
(22:36):
myself, like the way I'm talkingnow.
I kind of had to talk a little bit more like this so that I
could get everything out in one breath and be able to do it as
quickly as I needed to do it. And I had to drop her voice like
1/2 register lower than my own because in order to maintain
that breath, that's where I needed it to live.
And so then it became an exercise in stillness.
(22:57):
And the stillness was one part technical to be able to get the
language out. But then that brought alive to
me the idea, oh, she also needs to be really still when she's
listening so that her responses don't impact the people giving
her the information to her question.
(23:18):
And so that really started to shape for me who this woman is,
how she does her investigative work, how she gets to answers,
what she's listening for. She's listening down to
prepositions, Stephen, you know,whether somebody says they're by
the door or at the door, that's how closely and intently she's
(23:42):
listening. And she's holding that
information in a file somewhere to cross reference it with her
next interrogation. And so, yeah, so that then
became an exercise for me. For me, Cordelia became an
exercise and stillness. Yeah, And there's so much noise
around her. All these different people with
(24:03):
their own stories. Some are very animated, like Ken
Marino, for one. His character is just, like,
endless energy throwing things at you.
And yet she's sitting there just, like, Stoic and taking it
in and never giving anything away.
And you're like, I, I can't figure out if you, you know, if
this is a killer and you know, if the killer is right in front
(24:25):
of you or what's, you know, where it is.
Not until the end. I would, you know, I'd say
pretty rare. It seems like you usually kind
of there's a lot of bread crumbsout there.
Is is there something in particular you wanted to bring
to this role that was not on paper something about her, you
know, was it stillness somethingthat was written in there?
Or is it something that you, youknow, came up with on your own?
(24:45):
Still, I think the stillness wasthe part for me, like that was
the part that I really could hear and feel that she could you
look at me, if you look at the lines, like I said, it was born
out of the language and being able to get it out of my mouth.
And so that sort of became an inspiration.
That stillness was something that felt very clear to me.
(25:07):
And, and, and I think in terms of how she interrogates, it
became really clear. And I think it's episode 2 when
she's interrogating my castmate Izzy, and he's going out and
coming back and she doesn't say a word.
You know, silence and gold. Silence is golden.
(25:27):
This is what I think I wrote in that script, that silence is
golden that day as some one of my acting notes for myself from
reminders is, you know, you'll get more, you catch more flies
with silence. Not even honey, you know,
silence is golden here. And that sort of came alive.
And it felt like the right marriage given the way that I
(25:48):
was needing to speak and place pitch her voice.
It felt like that felt a great way to wed how she sort of
exists. And I got to say another place
of inspiration for that was the birding.
You know, she's a birder. That's her hobby.
(26:09):
I went birding. I had never been burdened
before. And So what I learned there was
that birding is a patient man's game.
You know, that is something where you still miss again or
you're going to make the birds fly away.
You kind of have to just sit, bestill, wait, and you have to
wait for the thing that you're looking for to come to you,
(26:31):
which is not unlike how she practices her detective work
either. She's got to wait.
She's waiting for the information to come to her.
And so all of that sort of went into a melting pot to sort of
draw out for me that inspirationand the shaping of that
character. I think it felt very organic as
(26:54):
I was reading to bring that sortof alive, you know?
Yeah, I was going to bring up the birding and I thought it was
unique how they, the birding becomes part of her solving the
crime in the way that she explains things to people where
you're like, well, you know, youthink it to be something maybe
she has inside of her and she uses but the tool then she ends
(27:14):
up saying, well, this bird and this and all this, like that's
how her her brain works. It's a very original thing.
Did you embrace the the, the, the birding?
Is it something that you continue to do?
Something that you enjoyed? I did not.
(27:39):
I did not. I respect it.
I have. I still wear ears.
I still have my birding book. Thank you.
Ken Kaufman. My idea.
That was our birding expert. My birding bag actually is down
here, too. Bring that up.
This is my birding bag. You know, with all my stuff in
(28:01):
here. My my, my journal and my
binoculars that I went birding on.
Collecting dust. Exactly, exactly.
But I did understand why people do it.
It's very relaxing. I will say that it's extremely
relaxing. There is, you have to remember a
(28:26):
lot as well because, you know, you have to be sketching and
writing descriptions and then goto the book and be able to look
for the one that you're you're think you saw.
But yeah, I was able to draw outwhy, how she is using this as a
tool in her investigations for sure.
(28:47):
And you get this amazing ensemble with so many suspects,
so many theories all going on atonce.
Was it tough to keep track of itall?
Like, you know, as you're kind of portraying this, you know,
this character who's got all this thing, all these theories
and ideas processing in her head, but you also you really
(29:07):
have to understand it in order for you to play each scene
right. So was that was that a lot of
work? Oh my gosh, definitely.
So it's like a mess. The show is as large as the
White House, you know, the scopeof the characters and
interestingly so. I think I thought it was
interesting to be able to hold that.
Definitely dense with information.
(29:29):
But that challenge of doing thatto me felt like a worthy 1
because that's what she's holding, you know?
That's what Cordelia is holding.And she's coming into this house
with 137 rooms, 32 suspects, youknow, all all of this
information, a place that's unfamiliar to her, you know, one
dead body, all of this, she's holding all of this information,
(29:49):
all of these contradicting accounts that people are giving.
And what the exercise, the exercise of that is exciting
because you get to of trying to hold all of that information
because you start thinking that's how great she is at this
job. She's able to take all of this
(30:10):
information, file it, figure outwhat makes zero sense, come back
to it, you know, re interrogate something if it needs a revisit,
can discount something as false and want to know why that person
is saying that false thing and what is drawing her closer or
further away from the truth and why.
(30:31):
I think is it was great and madefor an interesting ride when
going from scene to scene, person to person, person of
interest to person. Because there would be things in
my notes in my script, you know,that would you would want to
(30:51):
Draw Something out that somebodysaid because you knew, you know,
5 pages before that or the episode before that, somebody
said that something in direct contradiction.
And it made me, I hope, you know, like a better analyst of
script because I was like doing script analysis that I'm like,
you really have to pay attentionto every single word here
(31:11):
because what I was clear about in the writing is every single
word counts, not for writer's sake, but because it actually is
necessary for her to solve this case.
Those every word is actually that critical.
If somebody wanted to go throughthis script, come through it and
(31:34):
prove that it's possible, I alsohad to be listening with that
sharpness. So like to be able to listen
when somebody says I heard them at the door to really catch
that, you know, because I knew that that was a tell, you know,
5 for five episodes later, you know.
And I think it's really impressive at the end, like
(31:54):
you're not just reading words inthe script, you're building a, a
blueprint for everyone to see ofthis murder line by line, you
know, age by age, filling up that paper until you to the
point where you go, oh, it's complete.
And there's your murderer. And here's why even creating
misdirects and saying, well, we thought it was so and so.
And but I'm like, I just thought, my gosh, the, it's a,
(32:16):
it's a very long process too. This isn't like a 32nd.
And the killer is they pull off the mask.
You have this big in depth breakdown of, of when they said
it, how you noticed it, that the, the, the settings in the
room, the different variations of the stories you were told.
And it's like, and then it comesdown to it like, holy shit,
(32:37):
that's impressive. You know, just great work on
that. Thank you so much.
And that's like, you know, that's the real corner where I
direct to Paul, you know, because Paul did such a great
job. I thought Paul William Davies,
our show creator, did such a great job of really putting this
puzzle together thoughtfully andintricately and smartly.
(32:57):
You know, those steps that sometimes you might see sort of
glossed over or missed or not not thoroughly carved out.
He really did that work of really creating a crime and
tooling it and reverse engineering it back to ensure
that it happens the way that shesaid it happened.
(33:19):
And I appreciate that because itreally honors, you know,
everybody keeps saying she's theworld's greatest detective.
It really honors that, that she really was able to see all of
these little things. And, and I also loved that by
the time we get to the end, she was confident she would get to
(33:40):
who did it. But it was also really wonderful
to watch the growth between her and FBI agent Edwin Park in that
final moment where she's, you know, she doesn't have very many
vulnerable moments. But her version of vulnerability
when she tells him to look for the blink, where you see a bit
(34:05):
of her willingness to rely on his eye because he has proven to
her or shown that he is, you know, maybe keeping up in the
same way. I thought that was a nice touch
that Paul incorporated as well. And it was such a joy to be
working with Edwin, who, excuse me, Edwin Park's character
(34:27):
played by Randall Park, was sucha joy to be working with
Randall. I, I thought it was nice that
even though she was sure she hadthe pieces set, she's, she's
not, you know, unimpeachable there.
(34:49):
She can find she she's willing to open the door up to somebody
who might be able to also see something that she could
possibly miss. So I thought that was also a
nice touch. I I really like that moment.
You know, I won't reveal spoilers for anybody, but.
And then you're like, yeah, it's, you know, we are.
(35:11):
It's this case has come to a close.
You know, you knew it was done right there.
So, you know, you had a great cast to work with, but you also
had another character of all itsown, the White House.
What was that set like? Was that done on like a studio
set or was that a building? No, we were at the White House.
No, just kidding, we weren't. That was all the White House.
(35:37):
No, we were. Yes, that was a set of Francois,
our production set designer built that was unbelievable
between production design and our props who and costumes too,
who were just out unbelievable. Trish, Lynn, Paolo, everybody,
they were just all amazing with their jobs.
(36:01):
They really built something quite exceptional that we had
something like, I want to say wewere on maybe 14 stages, rooms
built to scale. It was to the point when we were
walking in in the beginning, youknow, people didn't even want to
(36:23):
come in with their coffee or, you know, anything to make a
mess and not really sit on the furniture because it felt so
real. It looked so real.
And I had, by the way, had just been to the White House maybe
two weeks prior to starting. And I had seen been given a tour
and was walking around and beingtold all these different details
(36:49):
about the White House and how itworks and going through the
bowels of the White House and upand through.
And, you know, our, our guide social secretary who gave us the
tour said, you know, here in thegrand Fourier, often times a
little, you know, insider tip some, often times there are a
(37:11):
lot of shows that don't have these two flags outside of this
particular room. And that's usually a tell for us
who work here that they they haven't quite gotten it quite
right. So if you don't have those two
flags, you know, you should leanover to somebody and make sure
that you have those two flags. I was like, I don't know if I'm
gonna lean over to that person, but OK, good to know.
(37:35):
But I didn't have to, Stephen, because when I came in on the
first day and we were outside that room, the two flags were
there. And I was like, Oh my gosh.
And I told everybody, they said,they said this is usually the
thing that's missing here, that it's usually doesn't have those
two flags. And they had those two flags and
just the amount of research work, detail attention that was
(37:57):
paid there, I think matched up with to the amount of detail
research work and attention thathad been shown in the script.
Which is why I think all of us were coming with our level best,
you know, and trying to get as much detail as we could to our
(38:18):
respective roles because so muchwas so much detail and attention
was in the script itself. So they did an amazing job when.
It comes to the scale of it, howlong would it take you to walk
through? Because it seems massive, like
you know, the amount of different rooms they've put you
in and like you said, they're all built to scale, so.
I mean hours. I was there for hours when I
(38:41):
went to the real lighthouse to go hours because it's much
larger than you think. It's something like 6 floors.
It only looks like it might be two or three.
But deep down underground, yeah,I think it's six floors all in.
It's 5 acres wide, the whole property, 5 acres, it's massive.
(39:11):
So yeah. And I mean, obviously we did not
build 5 build out five acres of lawn, but of grounds.
But yeah, it was pretty elaborate.
And when we would be shooting, it was just as elaborate.
Like I said, we had so many stages on which we shot, and the
space is so grand and there's somuch detail.
It's ornate, from the the wallpaper to the molding to
(39:35):
books and the statues. Everything is done with absolute
purpose and intention for every single room.
Every single room has specifics that are meant to evoke some
type of feeling and honor, some group and piece of American
(39:55):
history. It's really, really elaborate.
And just a couple more questionsabout the about the series.
But what do you think Cordelia'sfavorite TV show would be?
Oh wild America, Marty Stauffer on TBSI think that would be her
favorite TV show and or C-SPAN. A lot of stillness there.
(40:23):
C-SPAN. And after seven years of playing
crazy eyes on Orange is the New Black, what was it like hopping
series real quick, But what was it like saying goodbye to that
character? And do you think it'd be
possible for you to have, you know, seven seasons or more
with, with Cordelia? What was it like playing that
character? It was a true gift.
It was a joy. There she is over there.
(40:43):
It was a joy. I have that picture there
because I remember how wonderfula day it was to shoot there,
shoot that day, and to never lose sight of my happiness and
my passion and why I do this. It was amazing.
It was obviously where I got my start.
(41:05):
It was it was where I learned totry things, you know, in this
medium that always try. It's, there's no bad idea.
You can try something. It may not work, but you should
at least try it and to explore the wild thing, you know, to
always give that space and room.And it was a show that had such
(41:31):
a depth of talent that was incredible, unique talent.
Everybody had such a unique voice and it was really great to
come into this show. The residents that also had such
a huge ensemble as well, much like Orange that add a depth of
talent, each person bringing something unique to the story.
(41:53):
I loved working on Orange and finding more years to dig deeper
and more into who Suzanne is andwould love nothing more than to
be able to do the same with Cordelia if we're so fortunate.
I know right now when I finish the show, when I finished it, I
(42:13):
said, oh, she's off. And I wonder what she's off to
do. And she still is off doing
something. And I hope I get to, you know,
be at a window to take a peek into see what that is.
But I know she's off somewhere, solving another case, answering
another question, discovering another bird.
Do your characters still live with you?
(42:34):
Do you after years later still think about about Susan for?
Sure, absolutely. Suzanne will always live with
me. She was such a gift to my heart.
She really cemented for me some ideas that I had in my own
growing up, that being yourself is enough, even as wild or
(43:00):
different as that person might be, to hold firm to that.
And that's something that she affirmed for me and through her
existence. So she lives with me, but
absolutely, she's well, well, well alive in my mind.
She's out at this point and she's finding her way through
(43:21):
the world and being as pure, honest, authentic and creative
as she's always been. I love that.
That's great. So let's close with a few TV
topics questions and get you on your way.
They're fun, hopefully pretty easy, but you grab a remote
control and the genie pops out and offers you this TV based
(43:43):
wish. What TV show do you want one
more season of? And it can be a prequel season.
It can be a season put right in the middle between, you know,
whatever seasons you want, or itcan be 1 tag on to the end and
that would be the same cast crew.
No time has passed. Just as if it was shot when it
was actually being produced. The Wire.
The Wire What would you have? The sequel, Prequel.
(44:05):
The extra season. I would have I would have an
epilogue where it goes further into the larger branches of
power that are involved in the drug trading systems.
Great answer. So that's that's an all time
favorite, obviously. Yes, and I'm about to do a
rewatch of that actually. It's funny, I just spoke with
(44:28):
Carrie Kuhn recently and she's like, I don't have time to
rewatch anything. And I'm like, I understand there
are very few shows I get to rewatch.
And you know, getting to go backin, you're watching, you're
doing it with the best of shows too.
So it's. A good one.
That's a solid one. Oh my gosh, I love that.
Yes. I completely agree.
And is there a favorite theme song?
One that you can't skip. Absolutely, and we sang it
(44:50):
weekly. Onset of the residents growing
pains theme song does. That show me that smile again
that's. Exactly it.
Yes, that's that's a classic. I I like the Cheers theme song
WKRP in Cincinnati for some reason.
Solid punky Brewster, but that'salso lives in my heart.
Saved by the Bell also lives in my heart.
(45:12):
These ones I can readily living single like lives in my heart.
I can draw these in living color.
I can keep going. Like I love theme songs.
I wish they would come back. I wish theme song would come
back. Yeah, there are a few that they
still exist when I still listen to them.
You know, I, I, I don't unless if I like the show, I, I
(45:33):
continue to listen to them everytime.
That's how you know you like a show, because I actually want
that. That for some reason I get
cemented into you and it becomespart of the experience.
A. 100%. Golden Girls is another one.
Golden Golden girls, that's likeborders on theme song and radio
for me. That's that's that's a great
song. Full stop.
Family ties solid. Yeah, you're naming it some of
(45:55):
the best. Did you have a list ready?
I I'm telling you, I look different.
I could keep silver spoons. I could Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
These are all This is a. All different variant, A catalog
and all different variety of songs too.
It's not like you didn't just find 1, you know?
My examples were I kind of like this thin slice, but you're kind
(46:15):
of hitting all over the the board.
Do you prefer binge watching or weekly watching?
I think it depends on the show, how great.
I think I, you know what I thinkI like, I was about to say like
I think I like weekly. I think it depends on the show.
(46:36):
I think it depends on the show. I can go both ways.
I think it depends on the show, but that's the beauty.
I, that's also where I say, I think, I think I, that's where I
have to lean with the binge because that's where it's like
binge watching is kind of like Burger King.
You can have it your way, you can watch it all at once.
You can watch it every week, youknow.
Yeah, I, I liked it. It's out to binge.
(46:57):
Like I didn't binge The Residence.
So I, I did, I think it was like2 episodes at a time because
there's just so much going on. Like you got to kind of be able
to take it in a little bit. You know, you can't if it if all
these different perspectives on this crime were delivered at
once, I think it would be too much for me.
But but I agree. Have it your way.
(47:19):
The old Burger King, the. Old Burger King, another song.
And if if there was one TV deathyou could stop, which would it
be? Adriana's and The Sopranos.
Oh wow. That's a good.
One. Yeah, yeah.
Christopher too, but but but Adriana.
(47:39):
'S Adriana reacts. That's the difference.
You could see that moment when it's like, oh, this is it, yeah.
Yeah. And when she's dreaming of going
off, she wanted so much for her life.
And then it's like, yeah. And then the crawling that one
got. Painful.
Yeah, there's like that, Christopher, I think he was, he
was unconscious when it happened, right?
(48:01):
He was in the car. Yeah.
They the car accident with he and Tony.
Tony. Yeah.
I mean, that's, that's an amazing series.
I'm, I'm thankfully no one, no one really brings it up that,
you know, when I have spoken with people, I'm very glad you
did because yeah, it comes up, but just not it is it doesn't
have we, we haven't gotten in depth with it.
So I always love to hear different people's takes.
(48:21):
I love it. I love every character.
I think everybody is perfect. I think everybody's amazing on
that show. I love the story season after
season. It's like food that you set in a
really delicious piece of fish or chicken that you set in the
fridge. Marinades.
It just gets more and more delicious with each season.
I love that show, the performances, Edie Falco, you
(48:48):
know, James Gondolfi, everybody,Steve Van Zandt, everybody is
excellent in that show. Lorraine Bracco, Michael
Imperial, everybody is superb and it's shot.
So it's the writing. I mean, I'm doing a commercial
for The Sopranos. I love that.
(49:08):
Show I love it's 2020 years out right, 2025 years out.
Yeah, I love that show. That show Scandal.
These are my shows I love. Good picks and this is a
question I've never asked before.
So it'll be the first, the greatest moment in TV history,
according to Oozu Aduba. Greatest moment.
Oh well. OK, so now I'm throwing it back
(49:29):
to my jam finale of Seinfeld. Seinfeld.
That was my show. Wow, that's a lot of people are
not fans of the finale. I know I liked it.
What was it? What about it?
It started right as it began. I loved for people like me.
I mean, I was a super fan. All that, the testimonies, all
(49:52):
those characters that you'd cometo know who had just become so
iconic, watching them all come through.
And then I loved Just Like That Pull Away in the Cell and how it
just started, exactly how it began, which was a show about
nothing. It was never about anything.
Did you happen to watch all of Kirby?
(50:13):
Have you finished? I have not finished.
Oh well, you have to watch. If that's your answer, you have
to watch the final season. Oh, OK.
You know, it, there's some parallels there that will, which
I think is Larry David commenting on, on the, on
Seinfeld's closure without commenting on.
Maybe it even does. I, I can't recall exactly how it
(50:35):
went, but it's definitely if you're, if that's the greatest
moment in history, I think you'll, you'll appreciate this
the the finale or the final. Interesting, interesting.
I didn't know. The final question, if you had a
magic door, one that allowed youto access at any place, any TV
show, whether you could walk on the set, But it's real life, so
you get to pop in and out and live in that world.
(50:58):
At the same time, though, your life pauses so you don't miss
anything. There's no like, well, I stayed
too long and I missed my life. No, you could have the best of
both worlds. Which would it be and why?
OK, I'm going to say a theme song that I brought just brought
up, I would say In Living Color.I loved that show so much.
(51:20):
I I loved everybody on there wasjust so inventive, so creative.
You know, we see all of the people that came out of that
institution. I would love to pop in there and
maybe I'm really trying to pop in the writing room to see how,
(51:41):
you know, Jamie Foxx came up with Wanda to see you know how
Damon Wayans came up with homie the clown to see how Damon
Wayans and David Alan Grier cameup with men on film or Keenan
Ivory Wayans came up with the show or Jim Carrey came in
(52:01):
coming up with fire Marshall Bill.
I would love Kim Kim Wayans be you know how she came up with
the woman on the block. You know, you didn't hear from
me, but you didn't hear, you know, all these characters.
I would love to just these iconic characters that that were
so real and hilarious and funny and fun and smart and creative
(52:28):
and original and unapologetically like vibrant.
I thought I love that show as a kid and I love the originality
of the show, its existence, its place, you know, on with from
the music it had, it had culture, it had energy, it had
(52:51):
pop, but it still was very centered and an intelligence and
a seriousness for craft of comedy, craft of sketch, craft
of storytelling, craft of character development.
I would love to see that roster of people in their early days
(53:13):
discovering their artistic voices.
I would love that. I give that answer 2 snaps way
up, yeah. Yes.
And deformation. Well, thank you so much for
being my guest today and for allthe amazing insight and, and The
Sopranos talk and everything else.
I really appreciated the conversation, but also your time
(53:35):
and the work on the series. Thank you so much.
Come back again, maybe when Cordelia is solving her next
crime. I would love to.
I would love to. Have a great day.
Thank you so much. Thank you, Steven.
Bye. Bye.
Bye now. Thank you so much to the
incredible Uzo Aduba for being such a great guest on TV Topics.
Be sure to watch Uzo's work on The Residents and Orange is the
New Black, both streaming on Netflix.
(53:57):
Keep tuning into TV Topics and be sure to subscribe on Spotify
or Apple Podcast or wherever youfind your podcast.
And if you really enjoy the show, please give it a five star
rating. It really helps.
You can also follow TV topics onInstagram at TV under score
Topics. Thanks for listening and stay
tuned for more TV topics. TV Topics is produced by Stephen
(54:18):
Brzekowski. ZAP.
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