From left: Carrie Coon, Sarah Pidgeon, Claire Danes, Kerry Washington, Rhea Seehorn and Chase Infiniti get comfortable (and candid) at Santa Monica’s Georgian Hotel in April. “We all know we’re on a list,” says Washington. “We’re either on a list or we’ve got to be the ones creating the project.” Photographed by Beau Grealy After hearing The Gilded Age‘s Carrie Coon talk about the doors that remain closed to her, Love Story breakout Sarah Pidgeon asks whether anybody gathered for THR‘s annual Drama Actresses Emmy Roundtable ever feels like they’ve truly made it. The answer? A unanimous “no,” with the subtle implication that anyone who says otherwise may be delusional. “The vast majority of us are just working,” says Claire Danes (The Beast in Me). Climbing to another rung of the endless Hollywood ladder was something all six women — including Chase Infiniti (The Testaments), Rhea Seehorn (Pluribus) and Kerry Washington (Imperfect Women) — could relate to when they convened at The Georgian Hotel on a late April afternoon and covered everything from red carpet insecurities to becoming a 420 meme.
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Chase endured a six-month audition for One Battle After Another. What is the hardest any of you have worked to get a job, whether you booked it or not?
CLAIRE DANES Well, there’s a Leo [DiCaprio] connection. I auditioned many times for Romeo + Juliet.
CARRIE COON Who else would have done it?
KERRY WASHINGTON Nobody!
DANES There was a protracted waiting period before I heard that I did get the job, and my mouth was full of canker sores. I couldn’t talk because I was so stressed from the anticipation.
WASHINGTON Our bodies, they speak to us.
RHEA SEEHORN On Better Call Saul, there was a long period before I found out I got it, and I thought, “I guess I didn’t.” I had tried to do my best to let it go, but secretly, I had not let it go. My agent called me while I was walking in Venice, and I lost it.
WASHINGTON Were you by yourself?
SEEHORN No, I was with my partner, Graham, and my agent goes, “It’s not public yet, so you can’t tell anyone. Also, when they [announce,] it’s going to be a different name. Just go along with that.” Obviously she meant character name. I thought they meant I needed to change my name. “What’s my name?” And she was like, “Beth.” OK, I’ll be Beth. Graham says, “You’re not changing your name.” I was like, “You don’t understand show business, shut up!” [Laughter.] It took me a full 48 hours to find out that I didn’t need to change my own name.
SARAH PIDGEON I feel like if I’m not getting something, I usually find out pretty quickly. I haven’t had a six-month audition process. What do you even do for six months?
CHASE INFINITI At first [we’d meet] once a month. Then it started to be once a week, and I’m going for movement auditions, karate or just more chemistry reads with Leo and Regina [Hall].
WASHINGTON I had a really long process for Scandal. I was at a place in my career where they thought it would be respectful if I met with Shonda [Rhimes] first. So we met, but then I had to read as well. I had maybe four or five auditions until the screen test. Part of why it took so long was because, when Scandal aired, it had been almost 40 years since a Black woman had led a network drama. Everybody wanted to audition. And God bless Shonda, she was like, “Then everyone will audition.” Some of those roles, they live in you and you want them so badly. But other girls feel that way, too.
SEEHORN Exactly.
WASHINGTON There’s somebody who knows that this is hers, too.
COON When I was auditioning for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in Chicago, all the women who were called back, we all went out to lunch. That’s just the community it was, super supportive. In Chicago, nobody was getting famous. I haven’t had that experience in TV and film. I’m always getting called in at the last minute because they need somebody to fill in something. I wasn’t actually in the first round of consideration because my career started later.
DANES When I was a kid, literally Rollerblading from audition to audition, there was always the same pool [of actresses]. We were kind of pals. It felt reassuring.
WASHINGTON So much bonding happened in those waiting rooms.
COON And I miss that. I miss the power of the casting director because now it’s a tape farm.
And these women — I mean, there were men, too, but in my life, it was all women — I wouldn’t have a career without casting directors advocating for me. My getting cast in Gone Girl was a tape I made in Chicago. I was like, “No one’s going to watch this tape.” And she watched that tape.
Infiniti’s styling by Wayman + Micah. Victoria Beckham dress; LeVian jewelry; Christian Louboutin shoes. Photographed by Beau Grealy Claire, a critic recently referred to you — and this was in a very positive piece — as our cultural avatar for anxiety, given the throughline of My So-Called Life, Homeland, Fleishman Is in Trouble and The Beast in Me. What do you think of that take?
DANES I do think that we’re living in a kind of acutely anxious time. … Somebody told my husband that every time you play a role, you want it to be a human just up a tree with wolves barking at them — an everyday person in an extraordinary circumstance. Maybe anxiety is a part of that.
SEEHORN The very few times where I have been asked to play “the girlfriend of someone interesting, but you’re not interesting” … playing just utter peace and contentment is super hard. Just doing nothing, it sucks. I used to get a lot of notes from the director: “So there’s this thing you’re doing which is making me wonder about the character. Can you not do that?”
WASHINGTON Could you just be an accessory?
COON Change your dress so it matches the drapes.
SEEHORN It bugs me when there will be a male and female actor in something and they’re both brilliant and they will use subjective personality descriptions for the female’s performance. Like, “She’s just effervescent. She’s quirky!” And then the males will be craft-based compliments of their actual talents.
PIDGEON Do you think it’s changed?
SEEHORN It has changed some, yeah.
DANES But there’s also, “She’s really attractive. Don’t worry. She’s cute.”
Kerry, I read that earlier in your career, you adopted a persona that you called “Red Carpet Kerry” to help you lean into the more public-facing aspects of the job. What led you to that decision?
INFINITI Red Carpet Kerry?
SEEHORN I need that.
WASHINGTON It came about because there was a particular project that I was auditioning for — one of those, “I want this so badly; it lives inside me” roles. And, in the end, it wound up going to another actress. When I was talking about it with my team and other people that I respect in the business, there was an idea that [the actress who booked it] was more of an “It” girl. She was utilizing her personal marketing in a way that gave her more leverage. I didn’t want to prioritize marketing over craft, but I started asking myself if I was hiding and if I needed to challenge myself to step forward into hair and makeup and fashion in a different way where I could still feel true to myself. I would be in these situations on a carpet and feel terrified of it. I just thought, “OK, there has to be some other version of me. Still me but a version of myself that wasn’t entirely vulnerable and naked, that I could step into and show up in a different way.”
SEEHORN I’m always happy to be invited to the prom but terrified while I’m out there doing it.
DANES You know what I do? And then I discovered that Robert De Niro does this, too, because he makes fun of me all the time. I hum.
COON You make sounds?
WASHINGTON Oh, and you smile.
DANES I was going to say disassociate, but that’s a nicer way of saying it.
WASHINGTON So much of this work we do is about being willing to reveal ourselves. I was like, “If I’m scared to be pretty, if I’m scared of people looking at me, that could impact my work.” So it just became an exercise of like, “How do I play?”
PIDGEON I had a similar conversation with my agent when I was in my first junket. I was so nervous. She told me, “You look at all of these amazing actors and they have this red carpet personality. It’s an extension of themselves.” But I struggle with this understanding that I’m perceived. I want to be able to get lost in a role and transform, but part of this industry, especially today, is about presenting yourself.
WASHINGTON You as a brand.
PIDGEON I’m still figuring out what that line is that I want to walk where I don’t want to be crippled with anxiousness or fear of having to be public in these settings, but also not hiding.
WASHINGTON Glenn Close has this way of thinking about it that I love. She thinks about being a kind queen and sort of coming out on the carpet. All of these people, they’re part of your court. They don’t have the power. You have the power, and you show up with an elegance, generosity and graciousness, but you still hold what’s yours.
DANES Or you could hum. (Laughter.)
“I’m still moving through the world with people vaguely kind of maybe thinking they know me from their high school. It’s great, and I don’t want to change that.” Coon’s styling by Alicia Lombardini. Victoria Beckham dress; Anita Ko jewelry. Photographed by Beau Grealy Speaking to that divide between reality and perception, Sarah, you were playing this enigmatic woman whom the culture has fetishized but knew little to nothing about. And as you were filming it, the paparazzi were hounding you the way that they hounded Carolyn Bessette. When was that overwhelming and how did you cope with it?
PIDGEON So much of this experience was new for me. I certainly had yet to be on a set before this where there was so much interest from the public. But I think there wasn’t a moment that was lost on me that this was so similar to an experience that Carolyn would have felt. That helped me feel a bit more control over it, of understanding that I was having a physiological response that she would have had. There’s a kinship in that. The moments where I was able to recognize that there was a shared experience with Carolyn made me feel like I could embody her a little bit more.
DANES What was the raw material you used for Carolyn?
PIDGEON There are a lot of photographs of Carolyn, but so much of it is after she gained public recognition. You hold yourself in a very different way, as I’m sure you all know, when someone’s taking your photo [versus] you’re trying to go to the grocery store. And there were far less candid photos that her friends took. There was some videography, very little in terms of her vocal expression. I would curse, like, “Why can’t I just have two and a half minutes of her candidly speaking?”
DANES I remember her. I knew her.
PIDGEON I had no idea.
DANES Narciso Rodriguez is a good friend of mine, and I met her through him a number of times. I remember her pretty vividly. You did a great job.
PIDGEON Thank you. That means a lot to me.
Chase, you’ve been on a rocket ship essentially since August. What do you wish you knew a year ago that you learned on your own throughout this?
INFINITI Probably to pace myself. Before starting the One Battle press, Paul [Thomas Anderson] and Leo had told me, “Just so you know, this is a marathon. You’ve got to make sure that you energetically pace yourself.” “Yeah, sure. I get it. Makes sense.” Then we actually started the junket days and the traveling, and I was like, “Oh, this is really exhausting in a way that I’d never experienced before.” Granted, I had no idea what an awards season would look like. I had never promoted anything.
DANES In some ways, they’re more exhausting than the work itself, which kind of feeds you.
SEEHORN It’s figuring out who your authentic self is in that. But if your authentic self doesn’t feel like doing the 53rd interview, your authentic self needs to get the eff off.
Washington’s styling by Rob & Mariel. Yves Saint Laurent shirt, belt, skirt, shoes; vintage Cartier jewelry from Beladora. Photographed by Beau Grealy Rhea and Carrie, you’ve both recently had major profile boosts after years of working. When that happens, is there a part of you that’s like, “Where the hell have you all been?”
COON That part, the public discourse about you and your life, has always felt so far from me. Don’t get me wrong, I read reviews. I’ll haunt Reddit. I want to know how the work is landing in the world. It’s important to take in the good and the bad because then you know that it’s all subjective and actually has nothing to do with you. So, the slow and steady rise of Carrie Coon has happened entirely outside of my life — even now after The White Lotus. I was at a restaurant last night in Newport, and this sweet young thing who was serving me said, “Do you play guitar?” I’m still moving through the world with people vaguely kind of maybe thinking they know me from their high school. It’s great, and I don’t want to change that. As far as what The White Lotus does for careers, there were a lot of think pieces written about the show and the women. Maybe people started watching The Gilded Age. I haven’t seen the material results of that yet.
DANES But you always fly off the screen. It happens every time.
COON And I’ll do it as long as they let me. When they’re done with me, I’ll do something else.
SEEHORN You did a great interview where you said that it’s very helpful, career-wise, to have access to more material but you’re just on a new list. You were like, “I’m still on a list of many people that are ahead of me to get offers.”
COON I think I’m like top of the B-list now. Instead of the seventh person you come to, I’m like the fourth.
DANES Eye roll.
COON Here’s the thing: I still have to fight. I’m going to have to fight for big movies. What am I getting? I’m getting unfinanced indie scripts. That’s what I’m getting. And it’s probable that, if The Gilded Age were to go away, I would get another television job. For me, I haven’t leveled up in the way that you think of when you think of [to Infiniti] what you’re going through or [to Pidgeon] what you’re about to go through.
PIDGEON Do you think anyone ever feels like they’ve [made it]?
DANES A very, very, very, very, very, very, very few. The vast majority of us are just working.
WASHINGTON We all know we’re on a list. We’re either on a list or we’ve got to be the ones creating the project. For me, that’s why producing has become such a huge part of what I do. I cannot spend my life sitting at home waiting to be invited to the party. I have got to start throwing these parties. Not that that’s easy, but we’re all dealing with the “list” thing. By the way, the lists level up. First you’re just happy that anybody notices …
COON “I’m on the list!”
WASHINGTON There are bigger lists. Dreams get bigger. We get curious about other things.
“The moments where I was able to recognize that there was a shared experience with Carolyn [Bessette] made me feel like I could embody her a little bit more,” says Pidgeon. Pidgeon’s styling by Emma Jade Morrison. Calvin Klein Collection suit; Chanel earrings; own rings; Jude shoes. Photographed by Beau Grealy Claire, you played Beth in 1994’s Little Women. I hear you were told at the time that you had to reshoot her death scene because someone had spilled a Coca-Cola on the reel. But you recently found out that that was not the case, correct?
DANES Like last year. [At the time,] Gillian Armstrong, the director, told me that Coke spilled on the negatives, so I was like, “Sure!” I had no idea what any of that meant. Of course, now I realize. So, I was dying and was really excited about it. [Laughter.] I had a death rattle that I had researched, and it just got a little too guttural, I think. I really committed. It was maybe too authentic, let’s call it that, as opposed to clownish, but yeah.
SEEHORN Oh, the reshoot was to change your performance?
DANES We redid it, and it was slightly more muted.
COON The Hollywood version.
DANES I told Matthew Rhys that story when we were filming [The Beast in Me], and then he started calling me “Death Rattle Danes,” which has stuck.
For those of you who watch your own work, is there a scene where you’ve thought, “Oh, I really wish I could redo that?”
COON Well, I’m afraid I just shot it a couple days ago. I was like, “It’s time for me to quit the business, yeah?” Everyone was like, “Probably.”
SEEHORN You got to watch something you shot?
COON No, no, I was doing it.
DANES Did you have a morning-after, “Oh, I figured it out?”
COON Oh no. It was happening in the moment. The director and I were just like, “Nope!”
DANES There’s always at least one scene on a project where I come home and am devastated. I’m horrified by my limitations. Horrified. I’m in tears with my husband. It’s predictable at this point.
WASHINGTON When you watch it, do you ever feel like, “Oh, it actually should have been that?” Or do you feel like it should have been the thing that you imagined in your head? Sometimes I feel like I want it to be something and then it turns out to be something else.
SEEHORN (To Infiniti and Pidgeon) Do you guys watch your work?
INFINITI Yeah, I do. I find it to be fun. The first time you watch it, after the first 20 minutes, you have that buffer of like, “OK, now I know that’s me. Let’s get into it.” Then I can watch it without thinking back to what I did and where I was on the day and being like, “I wish I did this or that.”
PIDGEON I don’t think I particularly enjoy the experience of watching myself. I feel like I remember each take that I do, and I know the takes that I have when I think, “They’d better not use that.”
WASHINGTON Do you ever communicate with the script supervisor or the director about the takes you like or don’t like? You can.
PIDGEON No. All the takes that I don’t like, they always end up in the show.
WASHINGTON Oh, then maybe you shouldn’t talk to them. [Laughter.] What’s in the show is amazing, so maybe stay out of it.
SEEHORN I excruciatingly watch my own work to learn from it.
COON You’ve got to know your bad habits so you can make a choice.
“There’s always at least one scene on a project where I come home and am devastated. I’m horrified by my limitations. Horrified. I’m in tears with my husband. It’s predictable at this point,” says Danes. Danes’ styling by Petra Flannery. Kallimeyer top, skirt; Engelbert jewelry; Manolo Blahnik shoes. Photographed by Beau Grealy PIDGEON (To Infiniti) Did you find a difference between how you were able to take up space on One Battle versus The Testaments? You were working with such huge names. Did you feel different in how you approached the work or how you felt on set?
INFINITI I think it was more how I felt on set as opposed to the work. With One Battle and then Presumed Innocent, I was the youngest person on set. So when I got to do The Testaments, I was like the big kid. There’s a bunch of younger girls who are on that show. Coming from One Battle, I could piecemeal stuff that Leo taught me, that Paul taught me. Regina, Teyana [Taylor], everybody on that set taught me, even the whole crew. Because I would always ask every single question that I could. The one thing that everybody across the board has taught me is to be there for everybody, be a listening ear. I really wanted to make myself available to all of the other girls [on Testaments] because, for some of them, this is the biggest part that they’ve had or the most lines that they’ve had. I just wanted to make sure that I could be there to support them in the same ways that everybody had supported me. A lot of that was me being like, “If you ever need anything, I’m here to listen. If it’s something in the scene, I’m here to help you. If you need somebody to confide in after a take or if you just want to have a laugh, I will be that for you.” It’s scary to take up space in something when you’re new at it.
DANES Did they take you up on that?
INFINITI They did, and it was something that I found to be so special. I never worked with a group of girls before, and it was amazing.
COON That’s very impressive that that’s what you took away from your experiences. Not all young people would take that lesson from that experience.
Seehorn’s styling by Elizabeth Stewart. Brioni suit, shirt; Jennifer Zeuner jewelry; Gianvito Rossi shoes. Photographed by Beau Grealy What are some memorable exchanges you’ve had with fans?
COON On [the NBC comedy] Whitney, I played Roxanne. There were constant jokes that she was drinking. Her Sprite can was vodka. It’s a sitcom. It didn’t go super dark about it, but it was definitely a thing. I had been given fan mail that was sent to my agent, and I was like, “I’ll just read one or two for fun.” Bad idea. A woman had sent me multiple pamphlets from AA, legitimately believed that this character is real and is an alcoholic and needed help. But it also came with pictures of her. She’s a soccer mom. She has a job. I was like, “How is this person functioning in the real world if she believes people in the TV are real?” There was a long letter about how she wanted to help me.
WASHINGTON God bless her.
DANES Most of the time, people are really nice. I remember my son, who was like 4, said, “Why do people always say, ‘I like your work?’ ” That’s mostly what people say, and I’ve played some extra characters, right? I thought that might attract some colorful comments and attachments. I have met people who are bipolar, and they found some company in what I was doing as Carrie Mathison [on Homeland]. That’s very moving.
Looking at the body of your work and your public appearances, what is your favorite meme of yourself?
COON Me sprinting away from the gunshots in The White Lotus. I’m deeply gratified when my physical life is lauded, because I was an athlete. I love physical stuff on set. I love hanging out of a window. I love running. I also just felt like, yeah, that’s a very American response. You hear a gunshot, you’re out of there. That felt very real to me. There’s also my really ugly cry face. [To Danes] I know you and I both share that. The cry faces, we have that. And I will say, too, for fans, it’s always The Leftovers fans that recognize me. I always hear about people’s grief. It’s very moving. There’s such deep sharing that happens and it’s not trite, and I’m very grateful for it.
PIDGEON There are some from The Wilds. I’m covered in blood and dirt and kind of losing it, pacing back and forth. There are a few frames of me looking pretty rundown and crazy.
COON Good for the group chat.
INFINITI I make a face of disgust during the DNA test in One Battle. My friends love to use that one.
WASHINGTON My character from Little Fires Everywhere, there’s a scene where I’m smoking a joint. People love to send me that on 4/20.
INFINITI Happy belated!
SEEHORN I’m so deeply terrified about what is going to be said about me online, even though I can’t escape it. My friends will send them to me if they’re particularly unattractive. Apparently my listening face, when I believe the other person is an idiot, is very useful to a lot of people. There are quite a few of them.
This story appeared in the June 10 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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