{"id":38081,"date":"2023-01-23T02:19:14","date_gmt":"2023-01-23T08:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tvmeg.com\/?p=38081"},"modified":"2023-01-23T02:21:25","modified_gmt":"2023-01-23T08:21:25","slug":"chiklis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tvmeg.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/23\/chiklis\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Michael Chiklis, Marlee Matlin and Billy Porter"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>TV Interview!<\/strong><\/h3>\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- TVMEGBODY -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1056557952271337\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"8801203268\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-38084\" src=\"https:\/\/tvmeg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/accused.png\" alt=\"&quot;Accused&quot; on FOX key art\" width=\"359\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tvmeg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/accused.png 359w, https:\/\/tvmeg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/accused-300x251.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 359px) 100vw, 359px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong> Interview with Michael Chiklis, Marlee Matlin and Billy Porter and others of &#8220;Accused&#8221; on FOX by <a href=\"https:\/\/tvmeg.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/13\/biosuzanne\/\">Suzanne<\/a> 12\/14\/22<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is a new anthology drama on FOX, and I think it&#8217;s pretty good. We saw a few episodes. The first one stars Michael Chiklis as a father who&#8217;s worried about his violent son; Jill Hennessy plays his mother. Another one has a deaf woman who&#8217;s surrogate for a couple with issues; Marlee Martlin directed that one. One has Billy Porter as a drag performer who gets involved with a married man.\u00a0 Another has Malcolm Jamal Warner as a father whose young daughter is molested. They&#8217;re powerful stories about people accused of a crime, and we see them waiting before their trial. It&#8217;s an interesting concept.<\/p>\n<p><strong>FOX ENTERTAINMENT <\/strong><strong>WINTER PRESS DAY &#8220;ACCUSED&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Howard Gordon (Executive Producer\/Showrunner)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Michael Chiklis (Actor \u201cScott\u2019s Story\u201d and Director \u201cJack\u2019s Story\u201d)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Marlee Matlin (Director, \u201cAva\u2019s Story,\u201d with Interpreter Jack Jason)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Tazbah Chavez (Director and Co-Writer, \u201cNataani\u2019s Story\u201d)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Billy Porter (Director, \u201cRobyn\u2019s Story\u201d)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Michael Thorn (President, Scripted Programming, FOX Entertainment)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Virtual via Zoom <\/strong><strong>December 14, 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 2022 FOX Media LLC. \u00a0All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p>JEAN GUERIN:\u00a0 Good morning.\u00a0 Happy Holidays and welcome to FOX Entertainment\u2019s 2022 Winter Press Day.\u00a0 Now, before we begin today&#8217;s panels, I thought I&#8217;d take a moment to reflect on the past as we look to the future.<\/p>\n<p>At FOX Entertainment, we&#8217;ve spent the last three years building a strong portfolio of businesses and content engines, including Bento Box, TMZ, MarVista, Studio Ramsey Global, Blockchain Creative Labs, FOX Alternative Entertainment, FOX Entertainment Studios, and most recently our international sales and distribution unit FOX Entertainment Global.<\/p>\n<p>And now with that foundation in place, we&#8217;re maximizing those assets, creating world\u2011class content to fill each studio\u2019s production pipeline development slate, and growing library of content.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, we&#8217;ve welcomed some of the industry\u2019s great storytellers into the fold, signing broadcast direct deals with talents such as: McG, Marc Cherry, Carol Mendelsohn, and just this morning we added to the impressive roster Academy Award\u2011winner Rodney Rothman, whose film &#8220;Spider\u2011Man: Into the Spider\u2011Verse&#8221; won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.<\/p>\n<p>And this on top of an incredible bench of creators and storytellers already set to debut their work on FOX, including Howard Gordon, Alex Gansa and David Shore, Jamie Foxx and John Eisendrath, Dan Harmon and Jon Hamm, just to name a few.<\/p>\n<p>As you know, we are also busy preparing for and promoting our midseason lineup, featuring our first FOX-owned comedy <strong><em>Animal Control <\/em><\/strong>starring Joel McHale.\u00a0 Season 2 of Gordon Ramsay&#8217;s hit competition series <strong><em>Next Level Chef <\/em><\/strong>debuting in the post\u2011Super Bowl time slot.\u00a0 And <strong><em>Special Forces: World\u2019s Toughest Test<\/em><\/strong>, which is getting a lot buzz as audiences get a sense of the courage of our cast and their stories of survival, guts and glory.<\/p>\n<p>And, of course, there&#8217;s our two thrilling dramas coming in January:\u00a0 <strong><em>Accused<\/em><\/strong> and <strong><em>Alert<\/em><\/strong>, which we&#8217;re excited to focus on for today&#8217;s panels moderated by our own SVP of Corporate Communications, Les Eisner.<\/p>\n<p>HOWARD GORDON:\u00a0 Hi everyone.\u00a0 Thank you for being here.\u00a0 I&#8217;m Howard Gordon.\u00a0 I&#8217;m the Executive Producer and the Showrunner of the new FOX drama <strong><em>Accused<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a collection of 15 intense stories of crime and punishment.\u00a0 Every week viewers will meet a new character in a new setting, someone who is just like any of us until that person\u2019s life is suddenly upended by a choice they make that changes their life forever.\u00a0 And rather than being passive bystanders, our viewers will be actively engaged as invisible jurors challenged to lean in and find out moment\u2011to\u2011moment what really happened.<\/p>\n<p>Every episode is an unpredictable entertaining ride, but also one that challenges viewers to think a little differently and ask themselves a question more profound than innocence or guilt.\u00a0 What would I have done?<\/p>\n<p>Every episode of <strong><em>Accused<\/em><\/strong> explores the moral complexity of what it means to live in the world today.\u00a0 But to tell these stories as authentically as possible, we actively looked for creative partners who could bring their own unique experiences to the process, both in front of and behind the camera.\u00a0 And we were lucky enough to attract some real heavyweights and trailblazers.<\/p>\n<p>Among our outstanding roster of directors are: Oscar winner, Marlee Matlin; Emmy and Tony Winner, Billy Porter; Emmy Winner, Michael Chiklis; and acclaimed writer and director, Tazbah Chavez.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re all so excited to be here today, but before we get started let&#8217;s take a look at <strong><em>Accused<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>JEAN GUERIN:\u00a0 Hello, everyone, and happy holidays.\u00a0 I hope you all are well.\u00a0 Let&#8217;s jump right in and get started.\u00a0 I think it&#8217;s safe to assume you know the routine, but for good measure, please click the hand on the bottom of the screen to ask a question. Transcripts of our two panels today will be emailed to you by end of business today. And, lastly, recording of our sessions are not allowed.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s start off with our first session, <strong><em>Accused<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Joining us today are directors Marlee Matlin, Tazbah Chavez, Billy Porter and Michael Chiklis, who also stars in our premiere episode on Sunday, January 22nd.\u00a0 Executive Producer\/Showrunner Howard Gordon, and Michael Thorn, President, Scripted Programming of FOX Entertainment.<\/p>\n<p>QUESTION:\u00a0 Hi, everyone.\u00a0 Thanks for doing this.\u00a0 Michael Chiklis, my first question \u2011\u2011 my question is for you.\u00a0 As the director of the first episode of this, normally with a series one might ask about establishing the whole format of the show, the tone of the show. In this case, though, it&#8217;s an anthology, so you don&#8217;t have linking things that go between the episodes.<\/p>\n<p>MICHAEL CHIKLIS:\u00a0 I&#8217;m going to have to stop you right there.\u00a0 I starred in the first episode. I did not direct it.\u00a0 So that would be another \u2011\u2011<\/p>\n<p>HOWARD GORDON:\u00a0 Mike, I can probably answer that a little bit, and it&#8217;s a great question. And it really was, at the beginning of the series, acknowledging that it&#8217;s an anthology that has a format uniformity.\u00a0 We wanted, at the same time, to give all the filmmakers and all the storytellers and the diversities of, like, locations and tones its own kind of vocabulary.\u00a0 So it really was a line and finding that line between what&#8217;s kind of an esthetic rule book and set of parameters and at the same time just kind of giving the filmmakers and the storytellers the latitude to tell the story in the best way possible.<\/p>\n<p>And that was Michael Cuesta, by the way, who was an old friend who directed, among other things, the pilot for <em>Homeland<\/em>.\u00a0 So I hope that answers the question.<\/p>\n<p>QUESTION:\u00a0 Am I able to follow with a quick question for Michael Chiklis, then?<\/p>\n<p>LES EISNER:\u00a0 Sure.<\/p>\n<p>QUESTION:\u00a0 Michael, as the director of your \u2011\u2011 as the director of your episode, what was your thought process in terms of doing your own thing stylistically but also having to hold to what the entire series was meant to be?<\/p>\n<p>MICHAEL CHIKLIS:\u00a0 Well, I thought one of the things that was really refreshing as a director is I didn&#8217;t feel constrained.\u00a0 You know, when I&#8217;ve directed episodes of, say, THE SHIELD, that was a very specific template and you had to really adhere to it.\u00a0 It really \u2011\u2011 because this is an anthology series, they&#8217;re sort of standalone featurette&#8217;s and the \u2011\u2011 there was a huge difference in terms of tone and tenor between the pilot episode that I starred in as an actor and the episode that I directed, very, very different, tonally completely different.<\/p>\n<p>So I didn&#8217;t feel constrained at all, which was wonderful and I was able to collaborate with Howard and all departments and the cast and crew to achieve a totally different feel for the show.\u00a0 And that&#8217;s \u2011\u2011 I think that&#8217;s wonderful because it says to the audience there&#8217;s going to be \u2011\u2011 there&#8217;s this template that&#8217;s set in terms of the storytelling rules, but in terms of what you are going to see, just from what I&#8217;ve already seen, the episodes that I&#8217;ve watched that I wasn&#8217;t involved with and even some of, like &#8212; for instance, you were just talking about Billy Porter&#8217;s episode, and some of the shots that he does in that episode are phenomenal, and it&#8217;s just a completely different tone and tenor.\u00a0 So I think each episode is like a standalone featurette.<\/p>\n<p>QUESTION:\u00a0 Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>QUESTION:\u00a0 Thank you very much.\u00a0 Howard, sorry about the nuts-and-bolts question, but I&#8217;m just curious.\u00a0 Did you have in mind people to direct and then hand them a script that you wanted them to direct, or did you \u2011\u2011 did you say, &#8220;Hey, I want you to direct.\u00a0 Here are my scripts. Pick one&#8221;?<\/p>\n<p>And, secondly, does the anthology format make it easier \u2011\u2011 I know you want everybody to watch every episode, but do you think the anthology format makes it easier for people to pop in and out?<\/p>\n<p>HOWARD GORDON:\u00a0 Well, I&#8217;ll start with that one because that&#8217;s a really \u2011\u2011 that&#8217;s a really easy one, and the short answer is yeah.\u00a0 I mean, it is \u2011\u2011 I think it is \u2011\u2011 an anthology episode, to me, is a perfect antidote to \u2011\u2011 you know, I&#8217;ll quote John Landgraf \u2011\u2011 well, although, I can&#8217;t remember what his exact quote was, but to the complete overwhelming, you know, nature of this sort of \u2011\u2011 even the idea of \u2013 \u201cbingeing\u201d to me is a disgusting word, the way we consume series, and I think that this is \u2011\u2011 we have \u2011\u2011 there&#8217;s no meat \u2011\u2011 there&#8217;s no fat on the bone of these stores.\u00a0 It is really lean, I think, compelling storytelling that you watch kind of in any order.\u00a0 And so I think as a viewing experience I think it&#8217;s going to be a promising one.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of like, you know, the episodes that we assigned or developed, I mean, look, we had written \u2011\u2011 Daniel Pearl, brilliant writer, wrote \u201dRobyn\u2019s Story\u201d &#8212; and, again, we just said who&#8217;s the fantasy director?\u00a0 Billy Porter.<\/p>\n<p>We said to him\u00a0\u2011\u2011 didn&#8217;t think he would say yes. He said yes.\u00a0 We wrote \u201cAva\u2019s Story,\u201d Marlee \u2011\u2011 you know, Maile Malloy.\u00a0 And, of course, there&#8217;s a lot of M&#8217;s, Maile Malloy and Marlee Matlin.\u00a0 Marlee has never directed, and we sent it to her. And, well, we didn&#8217;t know she had been exploring that, and lo and behold, she said yes too.\u00a0 So these are like \u2011\u2011 and so these are stories that we just sort of picked this fantasy team and we just got a lot of great RSVPs.<\/p>\n<p>In the case of Tazbah, for instance, you know, I think Taz and I had met through like a Writer&#8217;s Guild speed-dating introduction thing, and at the end of it I said, &#8220;Taz, it sounds like I&#8217;ve got to send my resume to you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Because she was just like \u2011\u2011 you know, it was on the \u2011\u2011 you know, during <em>Reservation Dogs<\/em>, which if you haven&#8217;t seen, was wonderful.\u00a0 And anyway, we began to talk about &#8212; when I got the series \u2011\u2011 when Michael agreed to the series, she was among the first calls.\u00a0 So she was more ground up and wrote the series \u2011\u2011 the episode that she wound up directing, but a lot of these were very specific, you know, wishes and we got a lot of our wishes.<\/p>\n<p>QUESTION: \u00a0Hi.\u00a0 Quick question for Billy.\u00a0 I just wanted to follow up on what Howard was saying. When you came into it, was the script locked, or did you have some input on the script? And if so, what were those contributions?\u00a0 And then I have a follow-up.<\/p>\n<p>BILLY PORTER:\u00a0 You know, first of it all, it was such a gift for Howard to call me and sort of came out of the blue.\u00a0 I directed my first feature a couple of summers ago that debuted on Amazon this year, and I&#8217;ve been directing in the theater for about 20 years, and I have wanted this expansion to happen.\u00a0 So I sort of came in and the script \u2011\u2011 and I read the script, and what I loved about the script so much is that it fit right in line with my intention as an artist and where we are as a culture.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s time for the people whose stories are being told to tell their own stories.\u00a0 And so when I read this, it was like this a queer \u2011\u2011 a queer sort of story, and they&#8217;re actually calling a queer person\u00a0\u2011\u2011 it&#8217;s about a black drag performer, and they&#8217;re actually calling a black queer person to direct it.\u00a0 Yay.<\/p>\n<p>So it was an immediate yes to me \u2011\u2011 yes for me because what I love in this space for my life is I get to shape these narratives and control these narratives in the most authentic way possible, and that is a gift.<\/p>\n<p>QUESTION:\u00a0\u00a0 And my quick follow-up was, as you mentioned, you&#8217;ve directed a movie, you&#8217;ve done episodes of <em>Pose<\/em>, you&#8217;ve done theatre.\u00a0 Is there a particular challenge that comes with directing an episode in an anthology that is different than those other directing duties that you&#8217;ve done?<\/p>\n<p>BILLY PORTER:\u00a0 Well, know because, just like Michael Chiklis said, you know, my experience in directing for film and television in particular, which is \u2013 this is only my second one &#8212; is that, you know, when you&#8217;re directing a movie, it&#8217;s your own vision.\u00a0 So to sort of fall in line with this anthology series, it was also \u2011\u2011 I was also allowed to employ my own vision.\u00a0 And that was nice and that was \u2011\u2011 that was good for me.<\/p>\n<p>With <em>Pose<\/em>, I was supposed to direct &#8212; and just so we&#8217;re clear, I ultimately did not get a chance to direct because COVID happened.<\/p>\n<p>QUESTION:\u00a0 Thank you very much for doing this.\u00a0 This question is for Billy and Marlee.\u00a0 I&#8217;m wondering \u2011\u2011 you know, you&#8217;re both \u2011\u2011 you both have an extensive resume of acting credits. You&#8217;re doing directing now.\u00a0 I&#8217;m wondering, of the two, which do you find more challenging or perhaps more difficult to do?\u00a0 Is it acting or it is directing?<\/p>\n<p>BILLY PORTER:\u00a0 Marlee?<\/p>\n<p>MARLEE MATLIN:\u00a0 Thank you.\u00a0 Thank you, Billy.\u00a0 I adore you, by the way, Billy.\u00a0 I adore you.<\/p>\n<p>BILLY PORTER:\u00a0 Right back at you.<\/p>\n<p>MARLEE MATLIN:\u00a0 Anyway, muah.\u00a0 As an actor, you know, clearly, for 35 years I&#8217;ve always thought, you know, when I&#8217;m developing a character, I focus on that and I do my thing.<\/p>\n<p>I show up on set.\u00a0 I go to makeup. I go to hair. I go into my trailer. I wait for my call.\u00a0 They call me to set and that kind of thing.\u00a0 It&#8217;s the long hours you spend waiting, mostly.\u00a0 Now, as a director, my time passes so quickly.\u00a0 I mean 12 hours has already happened?\u00a0 I&#8217;m so focused on every aspect of production, you know, that takes on a set.\u00a0 I have to be involved with a crew.\u00a0 I have to work with the creative team.\u00a0 I have to work with the cinematographers.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a completely different experience, and it accesses a different and creative side of my personality at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>The pleasure of mine was to be able to learn about how each and every person on the set works and how my fellow actors work.\u00a0 I get a chance to watch them work as actors, as actors to actors, and I became enthralled.\u00a0 It was a treat for me to be able to direct.<\/p>\n<p>BILLY PORTER:\u00a0 I personally, as an actor, I realized early on \u2011\u2011 well, I knew early that I would want to direct, and I thought oh, you know, I will direct when the acting sort of becomes boring. Maybe in the twilight of my career, you know, I will begin to act \u2011\u2011 I mean, began to direct. You know, like a Clint Eastwood kind of thing.\u00a0 I thought, oh, I&#8217;ll do it then.<\/p>\n<p>It never occurred to me \u2011\u2011 you know, as a minority African American performer, when I came out in the business, there wasn&#8217;t a whole lot for me to do. So I got bored really quick.\u00a0 And all a sudden, I found myself in this space of directing that sort of activated my mind, my creative mind that never stops.\u00a0 So similar to Marlee, as an actor, you know, I find \u2011\u2011 I found myself sitting around and my brain being inactive.<\/p>\n<p>What I love about directing and which is also the most challenging part, is all cylinders are firing at the same time.\u00a0 I have never in my life done anything harder than directing film and television.\u00a0 It is so hard.\u00a0 I am so exhausted at the end of every day, because just like Marlee it&#8217;s like it never stops.\u00a0 And, like, you know, for me it&#8217;s like as an actor you get to focus on the one moment.<\/p>\n<p>MARLEE MATLIN:\u00a0 You&#8217;re on the move.\u00a0 You&#8217;re constantly on the move.\u00a0 You&#8217;re never stopping.<\/p>\n<p>BILLY PORTER:\u00a0\u00a0 Right.\u00a0 And it&#8217;s only you.\u00a0 But when you&#8217;re directing, it&#8217;s like \u2011\u2011 you know, I&#8217;ve had to learn \u2011\u2011 you know, I&#8217;ll be sitting there directing a scene and somebody is asking me a question about three weeks later.\u00a0 And I&#8217;m like, I don&#8217;t know.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t know.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t know the answer that to that. Ask me in a \u2011\u2011 ask me on a break in three hours, you know.\u00a0 I love it.\u00a0 I love every single solitary second of it.<\/p>\n<p>It really does bring me joy creatively in a way that instinctively I knew it would, and in the process \u2011\u2011 and in the process of being able to do it, it really does.<\/p>\n<p>MARLEE MATLIN:\u00a0 You know, for me, people would warn me:\u00a0 You&#8217;re going to be a director. You&#8217;re going to be asked questions all day.\u00a0 All day.<\/p>\n<p>I said, okay. So I&#8217;ll have to deal with that.\u00a0 How am I going to prepare for that?\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 You know what, this is what I&#8217;m going to do:\u00a0 Yes, no, maybe, and I don&#8217;t know.\u00a0 Those are the four answers I&#8217;m going to give everybody.<\/p>\n<p>And that&#8217;s how I worked every day.<\/p>\n<p>BILLY PORTER:\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 You actually have to make a choice.\u00a0 You have to actually make a choice, because when you make a choice, then you can pivot from a choice.\u00a0 If people know what they&#8217;re doing, then the pivot from the choice is so much easier if it changes.<\/p>\n<p>HOWARD GORDON:\u00a0 I was going to say the energy you&#8217;re hearing from Marlee and from Billy and also Taz, I hope I&#8217;m not speaking out of turn, but I&#8217;m sharing the story that you mentioned, maybe you should tell it, about the opportunity for me to have this show and for it to sort of be the Trojan horse for these voices and these stories has been one of the most incredible, you know, pleasures of my \u2011\u2011 you know, of my career.<\/p>\n<p>Just to sort of \u2011\u2011 for one thing is to just sort of shut up and listen but and also to bring to bear my knowledge of this \u2011\u2011 of the mechanics and the dramatics of this particular series but also to just get out of the way and let other voices, you know, speak and have a chance.<\/p>\n<p>And Taz mentioned to me \u2011\u2011 there was an anecdote you mention when we were working, you said, \u201cYou know, I&#8217;ve always been the only woman in the room, or the only Indigenous woman in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But on <em>Res Dogs<\/em>, and I think on ours as well, you said that energy and freedom that comes when the people in front of the camera and behind the camera are all the same, I was so struck by that.\u00a0 You were just like \u2011\u2011 I think you said you can breathe in a way that&#8217;s very different.<\/p>\n<p>TAZBAH CHAVEZ:\u00a0 Yeah, absolutely.\u00a0 I think that when you have \u2011\u2011 and I think I see it come across mostly in performance when you have Indigenous actors who are being directed by a Native person. And in the case of <strong><em>Accused<\/em><\/strong>, it was incredible because we were able to cast \u2011\u2011 three of our four leads were actually Navajo actors playing Navajo characters. And for so long, we&#8217;ve been told, you know, there aren&#8217;t Native actors. And then if you want to get Tribal-specific actors, that&#8217;s even harder. And we pulled it off.\u00a0 And I thank you for &#8212; and all the team for going to the lengths to find folks.\u00a0 But what that ultimately did was that created a certain comfort and energy on the set and a trust that&#8217;s, I think, hard to replicate.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s like we know where each other came from. We know the story we&#8217;re trying to tell.\u00a0 And also, what I think I had shared with you previously, what I experienced on <em>Reservation Dogs<\/em> and also in the <strong><em>Accused<\/em><\/strong> with that is it&#8217;s also a different culture in the way a set can be run.\u00a0 And I think that&#8217;s really incredible to be able to create for the <strong><em>Accused<\/em><\/strong> set, which is there&#8217;s \u2011\u2011 that you bring your way of working and your way of community with you, and I think it creates a really fun experience that I think reads across in performance in the final product.<\/p>\n<p>MARLEE MATLIN:\u00a0 You know, she&#8217;s absolutely right.\u00a0 The same with me in the deaf community.\u00a0 The fact that we were able to cast the actors &#8212; I applauded Howard and the entire production team\u2019s encouragement of that, knowing we were telling authentic stories and representing our community appropriately, showing our culture, showing our community.\u00a0 In my particular episode, it&#8217;s just exactly as she just said.\u00a0 It&#8217;s the exact same feeling for me.<\/p>\n<p>MICHAEL CHIKLIS:\u00a0 Can I just weigh in on the actor\/director aspect of the question if I might?<\/p>\n<p>LES EISNER:\u00a0 Go ahead.<\/p>\n<p>MICHAEL CHIKLIS:\u00a0 There&#8217;s just countless examples of actors who have become directors over the course of their careers, and I honestly think it&#8217;s a natural progression.<\/p>\n<p>For anybody like myself or Marlee or Billy who&#8217;ve spent many years in front of the camera, there&#8217;s \u2011\u2011 some actors are sort of trailer actors.\u00a0 They go and they sit in their trailer and they wait, or, you know, they&#8217;re sort of off set.\u00a0 But I&#8217;ve never been that kind of an actor, and most actors are very curious people naturally.\u00a0 So I&#8217;ve spent a tremendous amount of time on set and asking questions and making directors and photographers\u2019 eyes roll because I was simply bothering them with questions &#8212; Why are you doing that?\u00a0 What&#8217;s that do? &#8212; you know, from when I was \u2011\u2011 when I first started as an actor.\u00a0 So constantly asking questions, constantly, you know, talking to different people in different departments.<\/p>\n<p>And I think one of wonderful things about being an actor and becoming a director is you become the filter where all departments filter through you and you really have a love and a respect for all departments and what they do. So \u2011\u2011 oh, you lost me on camera but \u2011\u2011 oh, there I am again.\u00a0 But I just think that it&#8217;s a natural progression for an actor, and that&#8217;s why there&#8217;s so many examples of actors who do it well and successfully because we&#8217;re storytellers at our core.\u00a0 We&#8217;re natural storytellers, and if you give me motion pictures, music, and sound and say, \u201cGo tell a story with all of those tools\u201d &#8212; so there you go.<\/p>\n<p>QUESTION:\u00a0 Tazbah, because you&#8217;re the one who&#8217;s got the \u2011\u2011 kind of takes the story from the start, tell us about that.\u00a0 What made you think of this particular story?\u00a0 Is there any particular protest when you first had it in your mind?\u00a0 And you ended up directing an action adventure that people didn&#8217;t have there.\u00a0 So tell us how the whole thing evolved in your mind.<\/p>\n<p>TAZBAH CHAVEZ:\u00a0 Yeah, absolutely.\u00a0 Howard and the co\u2011writer of the episode that I directed, I met with them and they had an idea.\u00a0 You know, they had a story area written out of the story they wanted to tell, and there was environmental justice issue at the core of it, and I was so excited they wanted to tell this kind of story on the show.\u00a0 And I had pitched to them an alternative environmental issue, and I chose uranium.\u00a0 And the reason I chose uranium is because I saw \u2011\u2011 my mother&#8217;s side were Navajo and my father&#8217;s side was Apache.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And there was a uranium spill in 1979 on the Navajo Nation that was the U.S.&#8217;s largest radioactive spill that went largely overlooked all of these years.\u00a0 And when I started talking about uranium, we also started to talk about how there are still 500 \u2011\u2011 over 500 abandoned mines on the Navajo Nation that are very far from being cleaned up.\u00a0 There is still uranium mining happening that&#8217;s potentially going to happen near the Grand Canyon.\u00a0 There&#8217;s an operating mill near White Mesa in Utah.\u00a0 And so we looked at the Southwest.\u00a0 I thought that this was a really cool opportunity to shed a light on an environmental issue that I think has gone largely overlooked.<\/p>\n<p>And I think the episode serves as a cautionary tale not to repeat the past, and we made a conscious choice to put something in 2022 to make it very present, to create a sense of care and humanity at the core of these issues.\u00a0 And, you know, there are environmental justice issues in Indigenous communities all over the country, and this was the one that felt closest to home for me and one of the ones that I thought was most emblematic of sort of the unfortunate environmental racism that Indigenous communities face in the Country.\u00a0 And also to say this is all of our issue because we all share this land and the water resources together.\u00a0 But that&#8217;s sort of the genesis of sort of where it came from.\u00a0 It was something that they had, and then I threw in the uranium topic at the core of it.<\/p>\n<p>QUESTION:\u00a0 This is question is for Michael.\u00a0 First of all, hi, Michael.\u00a0 What is it that every time you attack a character you bring a little bit of yourself into that character?\u00a0 You share a part of yourself in that, whether that be a good part or a part you&#8217;d like to bury.\u00a0 As a director what parts of yourself do you bring to that role?\u00a0 To that aspect?<\/p>\n<p>MICHAEL CHIKLIS:\u00a0 That&#8217;s a great question.\u00a0 My camera keeps going out on you guys.\u00a0 I&#8217;m so sorry.<\/p>\n<p>LES EISNER:\u00a0 Your audio&#8217;s fine Michael. So you&#8217;re good<\/p>\n<p>MICHAEL CHIKLIS:\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 Very good.\u00a0 As a director, when you&#8217;re looking at \u2011\u2011 there&#8217;s a remarkable freedom actually with regard to directing that isn&#8217;t there when you&#8217;re acting.\u00a0 As an actor, you&#8217;re sort of constrained to the particular role that you&#8217;re working on, that you&#8217;re cast in.<\/p>\n<p>I think one of the wonderful things about directing is your creative mind really, really is firing, as my fellow directors mentioned earlier, on all cylinders.\u00a0 Because, again, there&#8217;s someone coming to you with the nail polish color of a particular actress or, you know, whatever it is.<\/p>\n<p>So also, you&#8217;re creating the narrative.\u00a0 You&#8217;re able to put your sort of vision of a particular story that&#8217;s being told.\u00a0 You&#8217;re controlling the way it&#8217;s told.\u00a0 And I think it has to do with opening your imagination.\u00a0 You&#8217;re constantly asking yourself the question \u201cHow would I respond to this?\u00a0 What would I do if this were me?\u201d\u00a0 And I think when you bring that sort of openheartedness to storytelling \u2013 see, it&#8217;s not enough for me \u2011\u2011 and I&#8217;ve always said this as an actor and now especially as a director. It&#8217;s not enough for me for you to watch something that I&#8217;ve made in some sort of passive none\u2011involved way.<\/p>\n<p>Ideally, I want to entertain you, but I want you to think and particularly to feel.\u00a0 I want you to be moved, and in two dimensions, that&#8217;s not always the easiest thing, but it&#8217;s the goal.\u00a0 And it&#8217;s very, very important to me as a director and as an actor to move you.\u00a0 So I want to find whatever is authentic and human about the story and the characters that I&#8217;m telling and bring that to the fore so that you as an audience member can be moved.\u00a0\u00a0 Does that answer your question?<\/p>\n<p>MICHAEL THORN:\u00a0 I think it&#8217;s one of the powerful things about this series is that, on one hand, it&#8217;s an entertaining, provocative, thrilling courtroom drama at its most simplistic.\u00a0 But on the other hand, it has this emotional contrast in every episode with the audience where we&#8217;re going to move and surprise, you know, the audience.<\/p>\n<p>And our goal, really, is to pierce culture and the best way to do it, we believe, is to reflect culture.\u00a0 And you look at this panel, this incredible panel under Howard&#8217;s, you know, writing and showrunning.\u00a0 But you look at this panel and can&#8217;t really talk about the stories we&#8217;re talking about when it&#8217;s not borne out of authentic voices and authentic storytellers.<\/p>\n<p>And it&#8217;s so exciting to start with this group right here and bring that show out to America to really talk about these both entertaining and weekly provocative stories. So &#8212; but I hope every one of these episodes moves people in a different way and connects people to these kind of universal stories.<\/p>\n<p>LES EISNER:\u00a0 We have time just for two more questions.<\/p>\n<p>HOWARD GORDON:\u00a0\u00a0 I was just going to say thank you, Michael.\u00a0 Michael was very good.\u00a0 So crucial in literally saying go for it.\u00a0 Don&#8217;t pull \u2011\u2011 I mean, and we did.\u00a0 And it was like he gave us like the green light but, you know, insisted that every one of these has to be something that you&#8217;re dying to tell.\u00a0 Every story has to be.\u00a0 And I feel like that metric and really the north star stood for the whole duration of the whole show. So thank you.<\/p>\n<p>LES EISNER:\u00a0 So we&#8217;re going to close out with two questions.\u00a0 We&#8217;re running out of time.<\/p>\n<p>QUESTION:\u00a0 Yeah, Michael.\u00a0 You&#8217;re constantly met with challenges, whether it&#8217;s acting or directing.\u00a0 Are you ever scared when you start a new challenge? And if you are, what do you do?<\/p>\n<p>MICHAEL CHIKLIS:\u00a0 I think everyone on this panel would agree.\u00a0 Every single time &#8212; I don&#8217;t care what I&#8217;m doing &#8212; I&#8217;m always terrified before I do it, and it&#8217;s because I care.\u00a0 I think experience helps a lot because you&#8217;ve been there before.\u00a0 You know, my father used to say to me, \u201cKid, be afraid, but do it any way.\u201d\u00a0 Because you have to fight through your fear and realize that the payoff is so much greater than \u2011\u2011 you know, the fear is just a natural \u2011\u2011 it&#8217;s anticipation.\u00a0 It&#8217;s anticipation of the unknown, what might happen, all that could go wrong.\u00a0 You still have to marshal that, put it aside, walk through the fire, and go, \u201cYou know what? This is important.\u00a0 This is something that I want to do.\u00a0 It&#8217;s all going to be okay.\u201d\u00a0 And you take some deep breaths, and you move forward.\u00a0 That&#8217;s what you do.<\/p>\n<p>QUESTION:\u00a0 This is for the actors\/directors.\u00a0 How do you treat actors, then?\u00a0 Are you very reticent, then, to give them, you know, line reading directions?\u00a0 How do you deal with that?\u00a0 Because I&#8217;m sure you hated it if any director tried to give it to you.<\/p>\n<p>BILLY PORTER:\u00a0 Well, I know what I like and I know how I want people to talk to me and I know how I want people to communicate with me and I know how I want directors to respect me.\u00a0 So I do that.\u00a0 I live by that example, and I treat my actors with the utmost respect.<\/p>\n<p>MICHAEL CHIKLIS:\u00a0 Golden Rule.<\/p>\n<p>BILLY PORTER:\u00a0 Because they are smart people that make it work.<\/p>\n<p>MARLEE MATLIN:\u00a0 Exactly.\u00a0 Exactly.\u00a0 Yeah, I find, myself, that I am transparent.\u00a0 I am extremely transparent.\u00a0 I have to be transparent with my actors.\u00a0 I always start the day when I shoot by saying, you know, let&#8217;s first focus on safety.\u00a0 Let&#8217;s talk with our A.D.s.\u00a0 Let&#8217;s talk with our set and crew.\u00a0 And I take 30 seconds to say hello to each and every actor, and I give them a pep talk of sorts. And \u201cLet&#8217;s kick ass\u201d is basically what I say.\u00a0 And then, as we began shooting, then I just make it my point, especially with my deaf actors, to communicate clearly and make us both, as actor and director, to communicate without any barriers. And that&#8217;s the fact.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s never happened for these actors before.\u00a0 Many of them said we&#8217;ve never had a director talk to us this way because we&#8217;ve never worked with a director that&#8217;s deaf.\u00a0 So if I feel like my hearing actors aren&#8217;t hearing me, then I work with my interpreters and I make sure that the communication is just as clear with the deaf actors.\u00a0 I pay attention.\u00a0 I let them be who they are and treat them, as Billy just said, with respect as how I would want to be treated.<\/p>\n<p>MICHAEL CHIKLIS:\u00a0 Also, you invite them into the collaboration.\u00a0 A lot of times, my direction comes in the form of a question.\u00a0 You know, I&#8217;ll say to an actor \u201cWhat do you think is\u201d \u2013 \u201cdo you think there&#8217;s any room for her to be angry here?\u201d\u00a0 You know, \u201cdo you think there&#8217;s\u201d \u2011\u2011 and just by virtue of coming to them and asking, you&#8217;re inviting them in to collaborate with you.<\/p>\n<p>And actors really appreciate that.\u00a0 They want for their voices to be heard.\u00a0 They want to be respected, as Billy said.\u00a0 And that&#8217;s the way \u2011\u2011 you know, if you treat someone the way you \u2011\u2011 it&#8217;s the Golden Rule.\u00a0 Treat them the way you want to be treated, with respect and dignity.<\/p>\n<p>LES EISNER:\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 That&#8217;s all the time we have for <strong><em>Accused<\/em><\/strong> today.\u00a0 There&#8217;s a number of questions still in the queue, and we apologize we couldn&#8217;t get to you, but we&#8217;re on a really tight schedule this afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>As I mentioned earlier, <strong><em>Accused<\/em><\/strong> will premiere on Sunday, January 22nd and then make its time period premiere on Tuesday, January 24th, following the season 4 debut of <strong><em>911: Lone Star<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Alison Daulerio and Aly Sands are running point on the <strong><em>Accused<\/em><\/strong> publicity campaign. So please reach out to them if you have any follow-ups or need more information.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-38082\" src=\"https:\/\/tvmeg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/accused3.png\" alt=\"Michael Chiklis in &quot;Accused&quot; on FOX\" width=\"269\" height=\"219\" \/><\/p>\n<p>MORE INFO:<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">Accused\u00a0is a collection of 15 intense, topical and exquisitely human stories of crime and punishment. Each episode is a fast-paced provocative thriller, exploring a different crime, in a different city, with an entirely original cast. Based on the BBC\u2019s BAFTA-winning crime anthology, each episode opens in a courtroom on the defendant, with viewers knowing nothing about their crime or how they ended up on trial. Told from the defendant\u2019s point of view through flashbacks, the show holds a mirror up to current times with evocative and emotional stories. In the end, audiences will discover how an ordinary person gets caught up in extraordinary circumstances, and how one impulsive decision can impact the course of that life \u2013 and the lives of others &#8212; forever. The show features cinematic auspices and production values anchored by Oscar, Tony and Emmy-winning talent, including Michael Chiklis, Abigail Breslin, Whitney Cummings, Margo Martindale, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Wendell Pierce, Rachel Bilson, Jack Davenport, Molly Parker, Rhea Perlman, Betsy Brandt, Keith Carradine, Aisha Dee, Jason Ritter and directors Billy Porter, Marlee Matlin, Tazbah Chavez and Michael Chiklis.<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">Accused is co-produced by Sony Pictures Television and FOX Entertainment, and executive-produced and developed for American television by Howard Gordon, and executive-produced by Alex Gansa, David Shore, Glenn Geller, Erin Gunn, All3Media America\u2019s Jacob Cohen-Holmes, and Jimmy McGovern, Sita Williams, Roxy Spencer and Louise Pedersen for All3Media International. Frank Siracusa and John Weber also serve as executive producers. Created by Jimmy McGovern, the original series debuted in 2010 on BBC One.<\/p>\n<p>Proofread and Edited by <a href=\"https:\/\/tvmeg.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/20\/biobrenda\/\">Brenda<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tvmeg.com\/index.php\/interviews\/\">Back to the Primetime Articles and Interviews Page<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-38083\" src=\"https:\/\/tvmeg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/accused2.png\" alt=\"Aaron Ashmore and Megan Boone in &quot;Accused&quot; on FOX\" width=\"386\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tvmeg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/accused2.png 386w, https:\/\/tvmeg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/accused2-300x194.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 386px) 100vw, 386px\" \/><\/p>\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- TVMEGBODY -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1056557952271337\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"8801203268\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TV Interview! Interview with Michael Chiklis, Marlee Matlin and Billy Porter and others of &#8220;Accused&#8221; on FOX by Suzanne 12\/14\/22 This is a new anthology drama on FOX, and I think it&#8217;s pretty good. We saw a few episodes. The first one stars Michael Chiklis as a father who&#8217;s worried about his violent son; Jill [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,7],"tags":[1438,79,1441,496,346,1440,1439,1442],"class_list":["post-38081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","category-primetime","tag-accused","tag-article","tag-billy-porter","tag-fox","tag-interview","tag-marlee-matlin","tag-michael-chiklis","tag-tazbah-chavez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvmeg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvmeg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvmeg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvmeg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvmeg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tvmeg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38085,"href":"https:\/\/tvmeg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38081\/revisions\/38085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvmeg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvmeg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvmeg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}