Off Camera with Sam Jones

If you want to know about Jenny Slate, you could see her standup, TV shows (Married, Girls, Bored to Death), or movies (Obvious Child, Gifted, My Blind Brother). But at the heart of her work and her identity as an artist is a child - a beautiful, eccentric, wounded, wishful girl who saw a garden and wanted to live in it. Slate knows its a metaphor, but like all good allegories, it carries a lesson: Find what is precious to you and about you, then guard and cultivate it with everything you have. Water your garden. Pull the weeds. And don't forget to sit in the sunshine for a while when you're done. We talk about the experiences that shaped her as an actor, her creative process, and the accidentally appropriate Marcel. But mostly, we talk About the House.

So no one told her life was going to be this way. Except Friends director Jimmy Burrows, who took Courteney Cox and her fellow cast members to dinner in Vegas, telling them to enjoy the last time they'd ever be able to go out together in public without causing total pandemonium. For Cox, who never had a master plan, it was the start of what was arguably the most successful 18-year run on series television, after which some actors might welcome a break and a margarita or two. Others might freak out just a bit. You probably know what camp she falls in. We talk to Cox about her meteoric acting career, what it's like to simultaneously finance and direct an independent film, learning her craft on the fly, and how none of it would have ever happened if Brian De Palma had actually listened to her back in 1984.

Hank Azaria became a character actor because With this face, I had no choice. But it's the plastic voice that really gave him no alternative, along with whatever mysterious, uncanny power has allowed him since childhood to hear someone once and mimic them for the rest of his life. What sets him apart even further is an innate emotional connection that makes characters out of what would otherwise be just caricatures. He never understood his ability, but he was grateful for it, because all he ever wanted was to be anyone but himself. Turns out, that doesn't work so well for an actor. In an animated conversation, we go inside baseball, The Simpsons, fatherhood, his career, and his head. Yes, he's one of the most talented and successful actors around, but we think you'll find a lot of common ground there.

For as long as she can remember, Maggie Siff has been measuring herself. It wasn't vanity or self-obsession; she was after honest self-assessment in the name of getting better at her craft. It's why she entered NYU grad school at 27, where the most important lesson she learned was how to deal with criticism, especially her own. Her unexpected television success since then has erased a lot of doubts, but not the eternal question of artistic fulfillment versus commercial success. Thankfully for Siff and her obvious talent, it's no longer an either/or proposition. Join us for some talk therapy as we discuss her roles on Billions, the film that made her revisit the path not taken and the six-month art project that launched her TV career. She's proven herself the serious actor she knew she could be. Now if someone would just put her in a screwball comedy.

For as long as she can remember, Maggie Siff has been measuring herself. It wasn't vanity or self-obsession; she was after honest self-assessment in the name of getting better at her craft. It's why she entered NYU grad school at 27, where the most important lesson she learned was how to deal with criticism, especially her own. Her unexpected television success since then has erased a lot of doubts, but not the eternal question of artistic fulfillment versus commercial success. Thankfully for Siff and her obvious talent, it's no longer an either/or proposition. Join us for some talk therapy as we discuss her roles on Billions, the film that made her revisit the path not taken and the six-month art project that launched her TV career. She's proven herself the serious actor she knew she could be. Now if someone would just put her in a screwball comedy.

Jerrod Carmichael grew up in Morningside Manor, which lest there be any confusion, is a far cry from Wayne Manor. His mom's goal was just that he graduate high school. Carmichael's goal was to have an HBO special and an NBC Thursday night TV show. Check, check and check, and he hadn't yet exited his 20's. You could question whether primetime is ready for a standup who cites Richard Pryor, Mark Twain and Socrates as references and builds his 30-minute "The Carmichael Show" around transgender issues, prayer, gun control, Cosby, cheating, abuse, abortion and gentrification - You know, just your happy sitcom stuff - and were not even going to touch kale. Or, you could question why its taken 37 years (All in the Family's last episode aired in 1979) to have a very adult - and very funny - conversation about it all.

It took a minute or 92 for people who watched Gillian Jacobs' stunning performance in Don't Think Twice to connect her with Community's Britta Perry. That she could inhabit such different roles so believably without ever having trained in comedy or improv is a tribute to her talent. Whether it's a tribute to Julliard is up for debate. A quirky, independent kid jettisoned by friends who saw her as a drag on their popularity, Jacobs threw herself into theater; later, Julliard almost threw her back out. It took her awhile to realize control can't fix an alcoholic parent or a conventional performance. But eventually, the kid who comes home with gum in her hair may also come home with a stronger sense of self. We talk to Jacobs about scaring herself silly, hanging out at celeb hot spots like the La Brea Tar Pits and playing the sex and drug addicted wrecking ball Mickey on Netflixs Love. Which we love.

If youve seen Veep, you likely know Richard Splett, which could mean you know Sam Richardson. It more likely means you know what it is to be so convinced by a performance that youre unsure where the actor stops and the character begins. How does an artist make that happen, especially when hes the newcomer to one of the most talent-packed comedies on TV? Well, it might be a stretch to say Richardson grew up on the mean streets of Detroit, but growing up on the citys tough comedy stages taught him a thing or two. Now, Motor City serves as backdrop and inspiration for his own TV show. We discuss the parallels between playing a pitchman on Detroiters and actually pitching Detroiters, and how growing up between two countries inspired its unique take on race and traditional sitcom relationships. He also explains why a fake laugh is no courtesy, but a crime against humanity.

Let's face it, Kenneth Lonergan will never be the Mr. Rogers of Hollywood. He's learned (kind of) to placate studio brass, but mourns the days when writers and directors had more artistic control (Nobody told John Ford to make Grapes of Wrath less depressing), and wishes he could just be left alone, trusted to deliver great films on his own timeline. After Manchester By the Sea, maybe that will finally happen. He's proven three times now that no writer possesses a keener ear for dialogue, no director a better sense of story, and no observer of life a more merciless grip on how it really works. The subject of his films? Us. Human beings. So why are they called small? Its not often we get inside the head of someone who's given so much thought to his craft and the world he makes it in. We didn't emerge unscathed, but we also didn't leave without hope.

It has been said that David Oyelowo makes film stardom look as easy as laughter, and it is a joy to watch such a truthful and talented artist find success. But friends, it was not easy. He had to stand up to a much-loved father who had different ideas for his career. When he tried to build on his UK success with the fascinating real-life story of an unknown boxer, he was told viewers wouldn't be interested in people they knew nothing about (that would be black people). Feeling his only chance to move forward was in the U.S., he uprooted his family and struggled to get his breakout role in Selma. His agents were told, David Oyelowo is not Dr. King. Someone higher up told him otherwise. We talk about characters and character, storytelling, and why who does the telling really matters. Yes, he's a joy to watch. And to talk with.