Interview: Joe Mantello Opens Up About HOLLYWOOD, THE BOYS IN THE BAND Film, and the Broadway Shutdown

Netflix has debuted the new limited series from Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, HOLLYWOOD. The series follows a group of aspiring actors and filmmakers in post-World War II Hollywood as they try to make it in Tinseltown - no matter the cost. Each character offers a unique glimpse behind the gilded curtain of Hollywood's Golden Age, spotlighting the unfair systems and biases across race, gender and sexuality that continue to this day.

Tony winner Joe Mantello stars in the limited series as Ace Studios production executive Dick Samuels. Mantello took some time to talk with us about the show, his upcoming film adaptation of The Boys in the Band, and the current state of Broadway! Read the interview below!

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How did you get involved with Hollywood?

I was directing the film of Boys in the Band with the Broadway cast for Ryan [Murphy] for Netflix last summer and sort of midway or toward the end of shooting, he just came to me and said, "I want you to be a part of this new show that I'm creating for Netflix and I want to write this role for you." And so I spent several days trying to talk him out of it and telling him why it was not a good idea. But ultimately, I thought "I like a challenge, I love Ryan, I love working with Ryan and it was just too good to pass up."

Being such an accomplished director, it must take a lot to get you out from behind the camera.

Yeah, I have to feel like I'm in good hands, which I certainly knew I was with Ryan having done the HBO film of THE NORMAL HEART with him. When you work with Ryan, it is a real collaboration and sometimes he sees something in you that you don't necessarily see in yourself at first. But, he has such vision and such great taste and such intelligence and that it's easy to trust him, you know?

You said he created this character, Dick, for you specifically, what was it like for you to play him?

You know, it's interesting because we got each of the episodes came out shortly before we started to shoot them. So you didn't really have an overall arch to look at and map out. So we would shoot an episode or sometimes we were shooting a couple different episodes at the same time, but we were being handed new pages as it went on. So it was interesting because it was like reading a really good novel. And then when the newest draft of the next episode would arrive, you just tore through it like, "What happens, what happens not only to my character, but what happens to all the characters and where's it going?" And so that was kind of thrilling to be a part of.

The show has such an incredible cast that features so many Broadway performers, did you enjoy creating this Hollywood world so many talented people?

Doing film and TV is relatively new to me, I don't have a lot of experience doing it. And one reason that it's always felt really odd and off-putting to me is to walk on a set where you don't know anyone, and you meet the people you're acting with and the director and the writer and you sort of dive in. This was entirely different because Jim Parsons and I are great friends, I know Patti [LuPone], I know Holland [Taylor], I knew Jeremey [Pope] a little bit. And so walking onto the set, there was a sense of history there with people, especially with Holland - most of my stuff is with Holland - and we weren't starting at zero. We have this history of a relationship together. So that gave us all the confidence to move forward, even when we didn't know where the storyline was going.

How did you prepare for the role?

Dick Samuels is a fictional character, but he was based at least in part, or parts of him, were based on Irving Thalberg. So, I read a couple of biographies on him, and I knew nothing about him other than what we all know - which is that someone gets the Irving Thalberg Award every year at THE ACADEMY AWARDS - and he really had a fascinating life. He was very, very, very respected and very intimidating. And early on, one of the descriptions of him in the script when, when the characters introduced, was "Dick Samuels: a sphynx from behind his desk." And I thought, "Okay, that's a really good image to build from." That part of the way in which he has power, is that you sort of don't really know what he's thinking. And yet, you know he's in charge, but he plays his cards close to his chest. Now as the series develops, you understand in his personal life, why that's true, and that was true of Mr. Thalberg as well. He didn't say much. But he was really well respected in the industry.

What do hope people get out of watching Hollywood?

Well, I like that it asks a question, and even though it's set in 1947 and the question emerges out of this particular set of circumstances. I like that it asks the question of "What if?" One of the scenes I really loved was the first scene that Darren [Criss] and I have together and I make what I think is an airtight case on why we did not cast Anna Mae Wong, even though she was the best person for the role. I have the vision enough to understand that there would be no one better for this part, but I also have a bottom line mentality to say, "But the picture wouldn't have been a hit with her, because you can't make it with an Asian star." And he says to me, "How did you know, you didn't make the picture?" And I think that was sort of the key into the launch of the story, for me at least, "How do you know?" And I think that is the question Ryan is always putting out there. "How do we know?" "How do we know that an audience won't tune in for a series about trans people of color until we make it?" And then we make it, and we make it really well, and it's smart and it's compelling and an audience shows up for it. But on paper, I'm sure he must have had some sort of pushback about it.

It goes to show how a story that takes place in 1947 is still relevant in 2020, and that we still have to ask those questions and push those boundaries.

Yes and I think Ryan's whole career has been about challenging conventional wisdom and being authentic to who he is, and embracing the parts of himself that he really loves. And I think he believes that he loves it if he believes in it and he has a vision, then an audience will follow. I think that's incredible.

You were directing Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf just before the shutdown, and I was curious about your feelings regarding the return of Broadway, and what you hope happens?

I don't think any of us knows what's going to happen, right? I mean, it's the question that I ask and get asked and talk about with my friends. When are people going to come back? And I don't think anyone knows. But what's interesting is that having to put it on pause, I think it makes people really evaluate what they're missing. And that that act of assembling together to watch a story being told is really life affirming and that when it's there, and you take it for granted...you know, just becomes a night out. But when it's gone and you feel that void of where that part of your life was, then I don't know. I hope there's a newfound or a different kind of appreciation for it when we're back. And that people don't take it for granted and the people who are MAKING IT and the people that are the people that are in the audience, because, you know, we need one another in order for this to work. We all have to assemble in these buildings in order for these stories to be told.

Especially this current season when we were in the height of openings and in the blink of an eye all of that's gone.

Yeah, I've never had an experience like Virginia Woolf. I mean, I certainly had shows that haven't run for a long time, you know, for a number of reasons. But I've never had something that was nine previews in just evaporate. It's a strange feeling because there was no sense of closure for for any of us working on it. And so, that's it. There's nothing to be done. Now in the scheme of things, people have lost much, much more. So I'm not complaining, I'm just saying it was an odd experience because there was no delineating end to it.

Yeah, and this is all so unprecedented. Like you said, things close, but never like this.

Yeah, I mean, the last thing we heard was we're going away for four weeks. You know, those actors walked away and left their dressing rooms as they were. I don't think anyone really packed up or did anything, we just assumed we would probably be back in four weeks. Well, obviously, knowing what we know now that was not realistic in any way. But what an interesting project it would be for someone if they could safely get into these empty theaters now, and photograph dressing rooms. You know what I mean? I think it would be so beautiful to see this kind of interrupted artistic moment, and how people left it. I was talking to Laurie Metcalf and she said when she left, she was halfway through a puzzle and a mug of tea was by the puzzle and all sorts of things were just sitting there.

Does the shutdown make you itching to get back to Broadway and direct something new when it reopens?

Interesting question. I don't know, I think I'm still processing what happened. I have to go back to work and finish up the film of The Boys in the Band. So at least for the next month or so, whenever it's safe to go back to work, I'll go back and obviously put the finishing touches on that. We're almost done, but obviously was interrupted as well. So I'll focus on that and I'm supposed to do a play, Death of a Salesmen with Nathan Lane, but that's not for a year and a half or two years. I don't even know. But that's as far out as I'm thinking right now. And I think just kind of reevaluating everything, like I'm sure you are and a lot of people are.

We are so excited for The Boys in the Band film, and it's nice to have something to look forward to! How has that process been?

It's really good. I mean the actors, the nine of them, are so good. I thought they were really great on stage, they have gone to another level with this. I just think that the acting is really spectacular.

Really? That's exciting.

Yeah, they're great. And it's a whole different feel to it because the setting of our production was slightly more abstract with the apartment, but to see the characters in a very realistic duplex apartment and also to see them out on the streets, it's really, fascinating and fun.

It's always such a special thing to have the original cast able to make a film after doing it on Broadway.

It like sort of goes back to one of your first questions, what does it feel like? Well, you know, for that group of actors, almost to a person, they said to me, I wish every project was like this, because you tend to not get a lot of rehearsal when you're doing film and television. A lot of people just don't like it and you just don't have the time to do it. You usually come in, you read through the scene once with the director, make any sort of blocking adjustments that you want to make, then they call in everybody, you do it for the whole crew, show them the movement. Then you go away for an hour or so, they light it and then you come back and you start shooting. And that's it. But with Boys in the Band, not only did they have the run of the play behind them, but I also asked Ryan for a week of rehearsal on the set. And so it was really thrilling to kind of come back and it was in their bodies so organically, but we had to re-find the play in a new setting. And I think they all said, like "I wish every experience on film could be like this" and that their comfort level with one another, the way that they relate to one another, just translates so beautifully. You can just see them. They're absolutely free with and it's kind of amazing, their affection for one another. The camera captures that.

We are looking forward to its debut on Netflix.

Yeah, hopefully coming this fall.