They Would Kill for An Emmy

What about taking a role no one else thought you should?
SLATTERY: I don't think my agent wanted me to do this show, because she thought it was AMC, and they had never done a television show, and it doesn't pay any money and it isn't the lead, but I thought, "I don't care."
GRIFFITHS: Why did you do it?
SLATTERY: Well, initially I thought it was the lead. [Laughter] And then they informed me that they had that guy. I just knew the writing was so good. I thought, "If it doesn't go, if it doesn't turn out the way they said it would, then you can always just find your way out of it." And it turned out to be just as good of a part as he said it would be.

Did your agent say anything about that afterward?
SLATTERY: Now she says it was a good idea.
GRIFFITHS: Does she give you back the 10 percent? [Laughter]
SLATTERY: She was just being protective and just doing her job.

Rainn, you had a very bohemian kind of childhood. Are all actors kids who were once outsiders?
WILSON: I fit right in as a child. I was a very popular young boy, well loved— nay, beloved. [Laughter] Not all artists, but I think for most artists, their work comes from being an outsider in some way, shape or form.
GRIFFITHS: But there's insiders and outsiders in the human race and as actors. I'm sure that Gwyneth Paltrow and George Clooney were not unpopular in high school. They play people who can walk into a room and have 100 percent confidence. People who play outsiders understand them and are more likely to come from that knowledge. The acting world needs to represent the general population.
WILSON: But I always feel great compassion for characters that are outsiders and a fascination with them, but I was also a real goof-off when I was a kid. I just loved making people laugh and getting attention. And girls would like me if I made them laugh; that was the only way that was going to happen. So there were a lot of things that drove me to be an actor.
GRIFFITHS: When did you realize you were funny?
WILSON: I think it was late high school. I mean, I always knew I was a little funny, but that's when I realized, in my first acting class my junior year of high school, that I could do silly things onstage and people would laugh, and then all of a sudden girls would say, "Hey, you're really funny, do you want to sit at my lunch table?" or whatever was the equivalent, and I was, like, "Wow, this is a great way to make a living."

© 2008