They Would Kill for An Emmy

When we made the guest list for this year's Emmy roundtable, we knew it wouldn't be too hard to break the ice. Three of our nominees, Rachel Griffiths ("Brothers and Sisters"), Michael C. Hall ("Dexter") and Rainn Wilson ("The Office"), starred together on "Six Feet Under." Mary-Louise Parker ("Weeds") and John Slattery ("Mad Men") have been watching each other for years on Broadway. Besides being nominees, our quintet shares a fondness for morally ambiguous characters. Among our motley crew: a serial killer, a debauched executive and a drug baroness. Still, they were all charming and candid, even when the talk turned to drinking, drugs and nudity—and the shiny awards they could win later this month for pretending to do all those things.

NEWSWEEK: John, you are the only one who hasn't been nominated for an Emmy before. Are you nervous?
JOHN SLATTERY: I was nervous at the prospect of getting up and having to say anything in front of a group of people. Not really nervous, though. It's a pleasant surprise.
RACHEL GRIFFITHS: You have to bring your own money to get your own drink—you know that, right?
SLATTERY: No open bar?
MARY-LOUISE PARKER: I've never even tried to get a drink at the bar.
GRIFFITHS: Did I just give myself away?
PARKER: I'm always too nervous to get out of my seat.
GRIFFITHS: Last year I was trying to borrow $5 from a man I've never met. I promised I'd send it back to him, and it took so long to get the money to get the beer to calm the nerves. I look up and Sally Field's on the television and I'm, like, "F–––!" I go running and bang on the door, like, "You have to let me back in. That's my mother up there!" They said, "I'm sorry, Ma'am, we're in lockout."
SLATTERY: Lockout?

So you had to watch it on a television monitor?
GRIFFITHS: I did, and I had to live with the shame.

Did any of you actually memorize what you might say if you won?
GRIFFITHS: I've never had the vibe that I was going to win, so I've never prepared for my four nominations.

If you had a vibe, would you prepare?
GRIFFITHS: Yeah.

Maybe it works the other way—if you prepared, then you'd win.
RAINN WILSON: I'm going to prepare a speech.

For Rachel?
WILSON: Yes, for Rachel. I'm going to have it written down. And if you win, I'm going to hand it to you and you're going to say, "I'd like to thank my wife, Holly." [Laughter]

Does the anticipation get easier if you've been nominated before?
PARKER: I think it does, a little bit.
WILSON: Last year was my first year, and I was really nervous. I didn't think I was going to be, and then I got in the seats, and then when the announcer is, like, "Up next, after this commercial, the best-supporting-actor comedy award!" Then all of a sudden my heart was just pounding—I really thought my heart was going to explode and I was going to vomit blood. And then they read Jeremy Piven's name and I was, like, Whew.
GRIFFITHS: I was not remotely nervous, but that's because I did not have the vibe.
PARKER: I was not nervous either.
GRIFFITHS: Did you win?
PARKER: No, and I was double-nominated, and I didn't prepare a speech for either because I knew I was going to lose twice.
WILSON: Man, that must have sucked.
GRIFFITHS: "Two-time loser Mary-Louise Parker, up next after the break!"
PARKER: It was actually kind of funny. Briefly.