Author: Stacey Wilson

Lacey Terrell/HBO

“True Detective”

One last mystery surrounding HBO’s juggernaut crime series True Detective has been solved. The Hollywood Reporter has learned that the network plans to submit creator Nic Pizzolatto’s gritty gothic crime saga for best drama series consideration for this year’s Emmys instead of in the recently-reinstated miniseries category — despite the show’s anthology format and abbreviated first season at only eight total episodes.

True Detective, which has netted HBO giant ratings with an average 11 million viewers across platforms, is also the network’s most critically-acclaimed drama as of late. It’s anchored, of course, by its two movie-star lead actors: Woody Harrelson, also a producer on the show, and Oscar winner for lead actor in Dallas Buyers Club, Matthew McConaughey. (True Detective will have a different cast and storyline in season two.)

TV REVIEW: True Detective

If HBO had chosen to submit it for miniseries, which the Academy announced on Feb. 20 that it was breaking away — again — from its made-for-TV movies competitors, True Detective would have seemed a lock for a win against lighter genre fare like FX’s American Horror Story: Coven (the Asylum installment of the franchise earned 17 Emmy noms last year, the most of any program), which has yet to win, though star Jessica Lange took home a trophy for the first season. HBO has scored more than a dozen wins for made for TV movies and miniseries in the last decade, including for last year’s Behind the Candelabra and 2013’s Game Change.

The drama series category at the Emmys, consistently the most crowded and competitive, was already poised for a shakeup this year.

Even though last year’s winner, AMC’s Breaking Bad is indeed eligible for one final Emmy haul (its last eight episodes aired in August, well after last year’s late-May deadline), the series will have been off the air for an entire year by the voters consider it in phase two of voting this summer.

PBS/Masterpiece’s Downton Abbey has yet to net a drama series win despite two nominations in the category, and HBO’s own Game of Thrones — despite its monster ratings — is facing its fourth round of contention. And of course, the four-time winner, AMC’s Mad Men, saw it stock fall overall in recent years with fewer overall nominations and two-in-a-row losses against Homeland and Breaking Bad.

HBO’s two other entrants for drama series — The Newsroom and Boardwalk Empire — didn’t make the cut for last year’s competition. And the network will still submit True Blood in the category, though the outgoing drama has not been nominated since 2010.

This really leaves Netflix’s House of Cards’ as Detective’s chief competition in the drama series category, as the second season of the streaming content provider was posted out Feb. 14 and earned overall positive buzz.

McConaughey is the only Academy Award winner this year to also top-line an Emmy-contending series. This can only give True Detective more of an edge as voters begin to consider the hundreds of competitors battling it out in this year’s Emmys race.

Ursula Coyote/AMC

Dean Norris in “Breaking Bad”

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Sunday’s episode of Breaking Bad, “Ozymandias.”

Breaking Bad fans said goodbye to Hank (Dean Norris) Sunday in the most eventful episode of the series to date.

For “Ozymandias,” which saw Hank killed in cold blood by the Aryan gang, Norris drew from the emotions of saying goodbye to the show and costar Bryan Cranston.

“It all actually fed back into the loop of the scene because Hank was also saying goodbye to Walt,” Norris tells The Hollywood Reporter.

He also knocked out his close-up shots — in which he talks to Uncle Jack (Michael Bowen) and Walt — in just one take.

“I talked to [director] Rian Johnson and I said, ‘There’s one kind of face he will put up with Walt and another for bad guys, but either way, he knows he’s going to die. So let’s have three cameras?'” Norris says. “We did some other takes for larger shots, but for close-ups we did it in one take. Rian said, ‘Ok that’s the way you die on TV. Let’s move on!’ I got done in half a day.”

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Norris says Hank’s death was initially going to play out over an entire episode, back when it was being worked out by the writers.

“Tom Schnauz, one of our great writers, said ‘We’re looking to do it so Hank knows he’s going to die for the entire episode.’ And I asked, ‘If that’s the case, can we fit in a phone call to my wife [Betsy Brandt]? I can’t let her know I’m going to die, but I get one final goodbye to her, then I don’t cause her any more suffering and pain that I have to?'” Norris says. “We were all really down for that doing that, but it didn’t happen. Though I did get to say goodbye to her in the previous episode.”

Find THR‘s full conversation with Norris below.

I think it’s safe to say we’re all still recovering from Sunday’s night episode of Breaking Bad, “Ozymandias,” in which your character, Hank Schrader, is killed. Where and how did you first watch the episode?

I watched it for the first time on Sunday night just prior to doing [AMC’s Breaking Bad after-show] Talking Bad. I watched it in the green room on a computer screen. Then I saw it again Monday night again at a screening party with some Hollywood types and it was a lot more satisfying because I got see and hear peoples’ reactions. It was pretty intense!

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What was the overall mood?

There was an audible [makes a gasping sound]

And Hank’s death happened fairly early into the episode.

Right. And it’s interesting, a good year and a half ago, I was talking to Vince [Gilligan] about this whole thing and he was telling me how it was going to end in that fashion. Tom Schnauz, one of our great writers, said “We’re looking to do it so Hank knows he’s going to die for the entire episode.” And I asked, “If that’s the case, can we fit in a phone call to my wife [Betsy Brandt]? I can’t let her know I’m going to die, but I get one final goodbye to her, then I don’t cause her any more suffering and pain that I have to?” We were all really down for that doing that, but it didn’t happen. Though I did get to say goodbye to her in the previous episode.

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It was probably shocking enough that it happened the way it did. What was going through your mind filming those final scenes in the desert last winter?

That I was ending the show, that I was saying goodbye to Bryan. It all actually fed back into the loop of the scene because Hank was also saying goodbye to Walt. Also, I did the close-ups for that scene in one take, which is very unheard of. Usually you’d do a couple more. But I talked to [director] Rian Johnson and I said, “There’s one kind of face he will put up with Walt and another for bad guys, but either way, he knows he’s going to die. So let’s have three cameras?” We did some other takes for larger shots, but for close-ups we did it in one take. Rian said, “Ok that’s the way you die on TV. Let’s move on!” I got done in half a day.

A lot of people may not know you’re a Harvard grad and married father of five kids. How has the show changed your life?

It’s definitely given me more opportunities! Breaking Bad has always been really big in Hollywood among execs, producers, directors and writers, we started to get the benefit of that. And now, studio execs…

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Especially those who wished they’d picked up the show.

Exactly! It’s a great Hollywood story- turned down by everybody, no one wanted to make it. And AMC did it and good for them.

What was your main criterion for choosing your next role?

It was very specific: it couldn’t be a cop (Laughs). I wanted it to be very different in scope, maybe a comedy? And then Under the Dome ending up fitting the bill—it was kind of sci-fi, large, intense…

And it had Stephen King…

Yes, and Steven Spielberg and CBS. I met with all the networks after New Year’s. I met with Nina Tassler at CBS at 10 am and by 1 pm they’d offered me the role. Read it and said, let’s go.

STORY: ‘Breaking Bad’ Deconstruction, Ep. 14: ‘Ozymandias’

What’s been the biggest adjustment to acting in a network series?

Actually, part of what they wanted to do is bring the cable experience to network. But there are definitely more cooks! One thing about AMC is that they let Vince basically run the show without any notes. And there are a few more people with a few things to say on this one. But it’s crazy— 20 to 30 million people are watching Under the Dome worldwide and we are happy when 6 million people are watching Breaking Bad.

What’s your relationship like with your fans?

Breaking Bad fans have always been amazingly passionate, and I’m always appreciative. They never just say, “Hey, I like your show.” It’s like, “This show changed my life.” It’s great to see that reaction; that you could be on a show that causes that. It’s funny, after I (whispering) “died” on the show, I waited a little amount of time before I tweeted some jokey things.

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You have a fun Twitter feed.

Yeah, and I tweeted some jokey things and literally everyone was like, “Too soon! Don’t joke about it!” Whoa, ok. Sorry! People were very passionate.

If Breaking Bad wins best drama series this Sunday at the Emmys, and you get a chance at the microphone, what would you like to say?

The word “genius” is overused in this business, and it’s unfortunate because they should have reserved it for Vince Gilligan. On top of being truly a genius, he’s created the greatest show ever made on television. He’s also such a good-hearted man – not saying he doesn’t have edge— but he’s a classy gentleman. It’s been a delight and honor to have worked with a man like him.

Getty Images

Bryan Cranston at TCA

According to three-time Emmy winner Bryan Cranston, it was the summer of 1978 on Coney Island when his alter-ego Walter White had his biggest turning point — to eat or teach?

“He ate 38 and a half hot dogs and thought about entering the professional eating circuit,” joked Cranston, who appeared with Breaking Bad cast mates Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn, RJ Mitte, Betsy Brandt and Bob Odenkirk at Friday’s Television Critics Association press tour panel. (Dean Norris, who’s currently appearing in CBS’ Under the Dome, was unable to attend.)

“Hey, don’t ruin the ending!” quipped series creator Vince Gilligan.

Of his Saul Goodman, Odenkirk said, “He’s from Chicago and thinks anyone west of there is easy to manipulate. ” Gilligan also addressed the rumored prequel-spinoff featuring Goodman: “It’s my fervent wish for it to happen and I’ve been working with [Breaking Bad writer] Peter Gould to try and figure out what a Saul series would entail. I really hope it happens. It’s for powers bigger than me to figure out.”

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Mitte, who plays Cranston’s teenage son Walter Jr, said he channeled his own history with cerebral palsy to bring the condition of his character to life. “People don’t realize you have disease that affects your muscles,” he said, “and I really tried to use this.”

Brandt, who will next appear as Michael J,. Fox’s wife in the star’s new NBC comedy, addressed the lingering mystery surrounding her and Gunn’s characters’ personal histories. “What happened with our parents?” she asked, laughing.

“I always felt that these two didn’t have a happy childhood, so they had to stick together,” agreed Gunn.

As for the private back story Paul created for his “bitch”-spouting Jesse Pinkman, Paul said he suspected Jesse was always “looking for father figure, and found that in Walt.”

“He also always wanted to protect kids because he felt he never had that,” he added.

The groundbreaking AMC series’ final TCA panel also gave Gilligan and company an opportunity to reflect on the crucial push critics’ gave the risky series early in its six-year run. They also discussed some of the unexpected trajectories experienced by a few characters early on in the writers’ room.

STORY: Vince Gilligan: ‘I Cried’ Writing ‘Breaking Bad’ Finale

“All these actors added immensely onion-like layers of wonderfulness, but I do think Dean Norris’ character in particular served a limited function at the beginning,” said Gilligan of Norris’ cop character Hank Schrader. “He was kind of a frat boy, a mechanical construct. But Dean elevated him…. If you let folks in front and behind the camera add their personality and intellect, wonderful things derive from that.”

As for Walt’s notorious journey from “Mr. Chips to Scarface,” Gilligan admitted that descriptor may ultimately not be accurate when the finale is fully realized. “I would say now that Walt’s road to hell was paved by good intentions,” he said. “It’s a little like fame for some people: does it turn people into creeps or ultimately reveal who they really are?”

Gunn addressed the frequent feedback from fans that her character Skyler — Walt’s beleaguered wife-turned-partner-in-crime — was ultimately the villain. “People seem to put their dreams-deferred into Walter White and identified with him,” she said. “I think you had to know less about her to see who he really was.”

Of the intense online fan chatter surrounding Breaking Bad in its final weeks — the first of the final eight episodes airs Aug. 11 — Gilligan came clean with his coping mechanism.

“The series would never exist without critics or fans, and I feel guilty when I say this, but I don’t spend any time looking up Breaking Bad or myself online,” he said. “I’ve never Googled it!”