In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast

Billy Crudup has long been both a leading man and character actor of stage and screen, appearing on Broadway, with four Tony nominations and a win to his name, and films including “Almost Famous,” “Spotlight,” and “Jackie.” The native New Yorker studied communication at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, eventually developing a philosophy about performance valuing process over results. H...

Joey King has been acting, and passionate about acting, since her first acting job: in a Life cereal commercial. At only age 20, she’s already been nominated for Emmy, SAG, and Golden Globe Awards—all as the real-life Gypsy Rose Blanchard in Hulu’s limited series “The Act” opposite Patricia Arquette. She had her breakout leading role as Ramona Quimby in “Ramona and Beezus,” and has appeared in “Cr...

We have an extra special episode today! Kathy Connell has been the executive producer of the Screen Actors Guild Awards since founding it 26 years ago, and heads up national programming for SAG-AFTRA, Hollywood’s biggest guild. A former actor herself with plenty of craft and career advice, Kathy joins the podcast to talk about what went into creating an awards show exclusively for on-camera talent...

Paul Rudd has charmed and cracked up audiences in everything from his breakout in “Clueless” and “Wet Hot American Summer” to Judd Apatow’s comedy classics, “Friends,” “Role Models,” and much more. The Kansas City-born, theater-trained actor, screenwriter, producer, and philanthropist is probably best known as Scott Lang in Marvel’s “Ant Man” and its sequel, which he co-wrote. This year, in additi...

Capping off a year of terrific acting and looking ahead to an exciting awards season, we’re back with another discussion episode. Jack Smart and Benjamin Lindsay of Backstage’s editorial team break down this year’s Screen Actors Guild Award nominations and more: which individuals and ensembles made the cut, where we stand with both television and film awards races, and who were our favorite perfor...

A mastercraftsman of the stage and screen, Tony Shalhoub is the winner of two SAG Awards, a Golden Globe, four Tony Award nominations with one win for “The Band’s Visit,” and four Primetime Emmy Awards—one this year for his hilarious Abe Weissman in Amazon’s Amy Sherman-Palladino comedy “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” Born in Michigan and educated at the Yale School of Drama, the American Repertory T...

Da’Vine Joy Randolph is having a breakthrough moment playing an actor having a breakthrough moment. The Pennsylvania native and Yale School of Drama graduate portrays the real-life Lady Reed in Netflix’s film “Dolemite Is My Name,” directed by Craig Brewer and starring Eddie Murphy as blaxploitation comedian Rudy Ray Moore. Tony-nominated for “Ghost the Musical” and determined to work in theater,...

What is a character actor? Tim Blake Nelson, the supporting star of everything from “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” to “The Incredible Hulk” to the title role in “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” has specific advice on how to work consistently in Hollywood. The Oklahoma native and Juilliard alum also generates his own work a writer-director-producer, helming “The Grey Zone,” “Leaves of Grass,” “Anesthe...

Lucy Liu has become an award-winning artist and A-lister by nature of her attitude: she loves both the craft and career sides of acting. Born in Queens and schooled at the University of Michigan, Lucy took every theater job available to her—despite a dearth of Asian-American roles—until her breakout on the sitcom “Pearl.” She then earned an Emmy nomination for her work on “Ally McBeal,” and starre...

Taron Egerton was fresh out of drama school when he went through a rigorous audition process for the lead role in action comedy “Kingsman: The Secret Service”—a task the young actor relished, since he loves auditioning. Raised in Wales and bit by the acting bug as a teenager in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Taron trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before going on to play several real-life...

We’re back for another deep dive into Hollywood’s awards races! Jack Smart and Kasey Howe of Backstage’s awards team highlight this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Emmy results, and performances to keep an eye on during this 2019–20 film and guild awards season. Who will emerge as frontrunners at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Golden Globes, Academy Awards, and more...? -- For over 50...

Growing up in rural Illinois with dreams of launching an empire as a hairdresser, Jonathan Van Ness has achieved that goal and then some. He left the midwest for Los Angeles and broke into the online comedy world with the now Emmy-nominated Funny or Die web series “Gay of Thrones,” a recap of “Game of Thrones” filmed in his hair salon. He produces the interview podcast “Getting Curious with Jonath...

Award-winning triple threat, producer, and activist Laverne Cox has earned three guest actress Emmy nods for Jenji Kohan’s Netflix prison drama “Orange Is the New Black.” As the first openly transgender performer to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy, the first openly trans woman to win a Daytime Emmy for her special “Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word,” and broadcast TV’s first trans lead in CBS’ “D...

Anna Chlumsky has received six consecutive supporting comedy actress Emmy nominations as Amy Brookheimer on HBO’s award-dominating political satire “Veep,” from Armando Iannucci, David Mandel, and producer-star Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Breaking into the industry as a child star in “My Girl,” Anna didn’t come around to the idea of pursuing acting passionately until after a much-needed hiatus at the Uni...

Join us for another deep-dive episode of “In the Envelope,” this time with an eye on the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards! Jack Smart is joined by Backstage senior editor and fellow TV fanatic Elyse Roth for a dissection of all things 2019 Emmys: Which TV industry trends might affect the race? Which of our favorite series and performances deserve attention from the Television Academy? And which will win...

A fixture of late-night TV, specifically at the headquarters of NBC, Seth Meyers is the host of the acclaimed “Late Night with Seth Meyers.” With roots in Illinois, Michigan, and New Hampshire, Seth studied comedy in Chicago and Amsterdam before auditioning for “Saturday Night Live” in 2001, where he worked for 13 years as a performer, head writer, and “Weekend Update” host. Aspiring comedians, wr...

A reigning member of TV royalty, Debra Messing is a leading comedy actress Primetime Emmy Award winner for NBC’s “Will and Grace.” Her performance as Grace Adler, from 1998 to 2006 and now in its revival since 2017, has also earned her Golden Globe, SAG, and other nominations aplenty. Known also for “Ned and Stacey,” “The Starter Wife,” “Smash,” “The Mysteries of Laura,” and her work in feature fi...

Heléne Yorke (pronounced “huh-LAY-nuh york”) is well known to Broadway audiences for “Bullets Over Broadway” and “American Psycho,” and is now cracking up TV audiences in her breakout TV role: as the aimless Brooke Dubek in Comedy Central’s “The Other Two,” from Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider. She joins us to talk about her post-audition routines, living in the moment, and her hard-won ability to...

Actor William Jackson Harper went from his native Dallas to Santa Fe to the stages of New York City, following his passion for playing fascinating, sometimes oddball, characters. Just before catching his big break in TV, he was reevaluating his career, weighing its many rejections against that passion. Then he joined NBC’s inventive Michael Schur comedy about the afterlife, “The Good Place,” as th...

Join us for an “In the Envelope” first: our in-depth look at awards contenders! Jack Smart is joined by Backstage senior staff writer Casey Mink for a discussion on everything you need to know about the 2019 Tony Awards and what’s on Broadway today: Which productions and performances are the favorites (and our personal favorites) at the upcoming ceremony? And what do this year’s Tony nominations s...

Award-winning writer-director Jez Butterworth has come across the pond from his native London to stun Broadway audiences with plays like “Jerusalem” and “The River,” and now this season’s Tony-nominated family epic about The Troubles in 1981 Ireland, “The Ferryman.” In this fascinating peek at his writing process—and how ideas for stories chase him down—Jez ponders and untangles the many mysteries...

Raised in New York City and its theaters, Lilli Cooper became a Broadway star at age 16 in the original cast of “Spring Awakening.” She’s worked on and off Broadway, played Elphaba in “Wicked” and Sandy Cheeks in last season’s “SpongeBob SquarePants,” and is now nominated for her first Tony Award in David Yazbek and Robert Horn’s musical adaptation of “Tootsie” (as working actor Julie, the role th...

The incandescent Celia Keenan-Bolger is one of New York’s most respected actors and community activists. Originally from Detroit, she’s been nominated for four Tony Awards: “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” “Peter and the Starcatcher,” “The Glass Menagerie,” and now Aaron Sorkin’s acclaimed adaptation of the Harper Lee classic, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” in which she plays Scout Finch. C...

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is best known as Jaime Lannister the Kingslayer on the fantasy hit “Game of Thrones” from David Benioff, D. B. Weiss, and author George R. R. Martin. His performance on the award-winning HBO series, now launching its buzzy final season, has earned him SAG and Emmy nominations. Nikolaj also advocates for gender equality and climate change awareness as an ambassador for the Uni...

Timothy Simons is nothing like his character on “Veep”—well, except for the generous use of profanity. Growing up a class clown in rural Maine, Tim worked in theater and commercials before cracking up TV audiences as Jonah Ryan, one of the lovably horrible politicians on HBO’s Emmy-winning comedy created by Armando Iannucci and starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The valuable career advice he shares in...