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Top row from left: Leah Lewis (Matlock), Timothy Simons (Nobody Wants This), Karolina Wydra (Pluribus), Charles Melton (Beef), Erika Alexander (The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins) and Tom Pelfrey (The Mission) Bottom row from left: John C. McGinley (Rooster), Taylor Dearden (Pete), Michael Peña (All Her Fault), Chris Perfetti (Abbott Elementary) and Naomi Watts (Love Story) The set was photographed on April 9 and 10 At PMC Studios in Los Angeles. Photography by Michael Buckner
Stars Ben Kingsley, Charles Melton and Naomi Watts, plus escapees like Luke Tenney and Karolina Wydra, reveal the best Hollywood survival advice they’ve ever received.
Shows in their first through fifth seasons are in the Emmy conversation this year, thanks to strong performances from their supporting cast, whether it’s Jamie Campbell Bower’s double duty as Henry Creel/Vecna in the Netflix hit’s final season. Strange things A decade later, or Karolina Wydra’s mesmerizing portrayal of the all-knowing human mind actress Zosia in the series’ first season. Multiple.
Here, THR’s supporting class of 2026 offers their heated opinions on their characters and which actors they hope will guest star in their series one day (hint: Viola Davis is in high demand).
Erica Alexander
Photo credit: Scott Grace/NBC My character (ex-husband’s manager played by Tracy Morgan) is summed up in five words “Bossy, upset, agitated, willful, suicidal.”
My dream guest star appears “Viola Davis”
At school, my character would most likely be voted for… “She ran for office and won, even though she didn’t campaign.”
If I could play any character past or present, it would be… “Inspector Clouseau of Pink Panther“.
Denny Benton
Photo credit: Karolina Wojtasik/HBO My character (Christine Baranski’s former secretary turned journalist), can be summed up in five words “Paddy, gentle, punk rock, tenacious, visionary.”
My dream guest star appears “Jeremy O. Harris as William Dorsey Swan, a black drag queen who throws the first known underground ‘ball of everything’ in D.C. in 1889.”
If I could play any character, past or present, it would be… “Elvira Hancock in Scarface. Michelle Pfeiffer’s work is iconic.
This is career advice I carry with me to this day “A working actor consists of a human being, an artist and a business. All three must be balanced and nourished to sustain their careers.”
Jamie Campbell Bower
Image credit: Courtesy of Netflix My character (Alpha Buddy series) can be summed up in five words “Lost boy finds dark power.”
My dream guest star appears “Robert Englund. Freddy Krueger was a great reference for[[Strange things [Creators]Matt and Ross Duffer, and I felt like season 5 was leaning more towards it A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors The area, which was great.”
At school, my character would most likely be voted for… “Henry is aloof, intelligent and committed. If someone really knew him – which many don’t – they would probably say he would be an astrophysicist, physicist or zoologist.”
The scene that I wasn’t sure I would finish shooting “In the final episode, Henry confronts the memory of his early trauma that shaped him into who he later became. It was heavy.”
Taylor Dearden
Photo credit: Warrick Page/HBOMAX My personality (ER doc, probably on the spectrum), summed up in five words “Enthusiastic, honest, sweet, inviting and warm.”
The scene that I wasn’t sure I would finish shooting “Mel was going through a tough time and had to go through a tough time [emotional] Reaction, Howell’s neighbors and Issa Briones were making up some very funny roommate stuff back and forth, and at some point we all broke up.
Paul W. Downs
Image credit: Courtesy of HBO My character (Deborah Vance and Ava Daniels’ manager), can be summed up in five or so words “The one that everyone admires and the glue that holds it all together.”
My dream guest star appears “Joanna Lumley”
The scene that I wasn’t sure I would finish shooting “When Jimmy and Kayla [Meg Stalter] Get bedbug and dress up clothes from teen girls clothing store. There was a lot of breaking in that day wearing sugar flip flops and Juicy Couture sweats four sizes too small.
If I could play any character, past or present, it would be… “Michael Bluth from Arrested developmentOr young Frankenstein.
If I wasn’t an actor, I would be… “An astrophysicist or an underwear model.”
Beau Garrett
Image credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+ My dream show to guest star “White lotus Or anything David E. Kelly. If there is ever another In treatmentThis will be my jam.
At school, my character (Clyburn’s romantically challenged daughter) will most likely be voted for… “Fire.”
The scene that I wasn’t sure I would finish shooting “Floating down the river. Those damn rocks kept rocking the boat, and I didn’t think I’d stop laughing.”
Lucy Halliday
Image credit: Disney/Steve Wilkie My character, Secret Agent Mayday, can be summed up in five words “Snarky, protective, loyal, brave, fierce.”
My dream guest star appears “Emma Stone or Cillian Murphy.”
At school, my character would most likely be voted for… “Speak again.”
The scene that I wasn’t sure I would finish shooting “There were a few that involved being in heavy layers in the hot Toronto sun. They were tough and dizzying.”
Allison Janney
Image credit: Clifton Prescod/Netflix My personality (the intelligent leader of the free world) can be summed up in five words “Calm, wise, charming, and uncompromising, right.”
My dream guest star appears “Bradley Whitford who came in as Grace’s husband was the best!”
At school, my character would most likely be voted for… “Managing Student Government – and replacing the director by the spring.”
The scene that I wasn’t sure I would finish shooting Map view [in season two, when she explains her nefarious decisions protecting the U.S.]. “It was like patting your head, rubbing your stomach, and speaking a foreign language all at once.”
Ben Kingsley
Image credit: Susan Tener/Marvel My character (a hired actor playing a real-life terrorist), can be summed up in five words “Scattered but with great focus.”
My dream guest star appears “Julianne Moore”
At school, my character would most likely be voted for… “banter.”
The scene that I wasn’t sure I would finish shooting “It didn’t happen.”
This is career advice I carry with me to this day “Learn your phrases and don’t bump into the furniture (Sir John Gielgud).”
Leah Lewis
Photo credit: Michael Yarish/CBS My dream guest star appears “If Dolly Parton wants to come to our show, you have a home.”
The scene that I wasn’t sure I would finish shooting “when [my character Sarah, a junior associate at the law firm] It talks about the so-called AI server Monulta. “The amount of M’s I said in that scene, I felt like my career was going down the drain because I couldn’t do it right.”
If I wasn’t an actor, I would be… “Maybe a botanist, writer or English teacher. The cool things in life.”
Kyle MacLachlan
Image credit: Courtesy of Prime My character, the villainous Vault 33 Overseer, can be summed up in five words “Ambitious, practical, brilliant, loyal, curious.”
Guest of my dream programP. “Cary Grant”
The scene that I wasn’t sure I would finish shooting “Say goodbye to Lucy [Ella Purnell]”.
John C. McGinley
Photo credit: Katerina Marcinowski/HBO My character, the sauna-loving college president, can be summed up in five words “So lonely, but deceptively optimistic.”
My dream guest star appears “Keith David. He is the best actor on the planet.”
The scene that I wasn’t sure I would finish shooting “Every time Steve Carell and I were at my house: two middle-aged white men, almost naked, having a heart-to-heart conversation.”
This is career advice I carry with me to this day “Olympia Dukakis, our lead mentor in the NYU graduate program, urged us to focus on verbs because that is where all the answers are.”
Charles Milton
Image credit: Courtesy of Netflix My personality (a non-certified physical therapist at the country club), can be summed up in five words “Kind, sincere, goofy, serious, confused.”
At school, my character would most likely be voted for… “Be a great car salesman.”
The scene that I wasn’t sure I would finish shooting “In episode eight, my character is running down the street, and I pulled my hamstring. I pulled a Tom Cruise; I wanted to run as fast as I could. I got what I thought was a cortisone shot in my hamstring, but it was salmon sperm. My legs were leaking caviar for three weeks. But the skin in that area is perfect.”
An actor I would love to play opposite “Ryan Gosling. I love Ryan Gosling. “It’s all about him.”
Nick Offerman
Image credit: Apple TV+ My character (a former professional wrestler turned nanny), can be summed up in five words “Badass, messy, lover, horny, jacked.”
My dream guest star appears “Alan Rickman, rest in peace. I’ll engage Dame Maggie Smith while we’re here. What I wouldn’t give to justify her discontent.”
The scene that I wasn’t sure I would finish shooting “We had a child who was in the entertainment industry and she didn’t really want to be in it, but her mother was adamant that she would become a star. The poor child screamed during what was supposed to be a quiet, emotional scene, so we had to turn her face away from the camera and pretend it was silent in the room.”
A piece of advice I carry with me to this day “From my family, Kathy and Rick Offerman: Be honest, work hard, be ethical, and treat others with the respect you want to be treated with. I do my best to emulate their example.”
Tom Belfrey
Photo credit: Peter Kramer/HBO My dream show to guest star “The sopranocertainly. I’m a jersey boy.
The scene that I wasn’t sure I would finish shooting “When Ruby [a garbage collector who robs drug houses] He dances with his daughter knowing that this will likely be the last time, but he doesn’t want her to know that.
If I could play any character, past or present, it would be her “Jack Nicholson has always been my favorite [actor]For two years, I walked around wearing a black leather jacket and a black hat like him One of them flew over the cuckoo’s nest. That would be Randall McMurphy.
Michael Peña
Photo credit: Sarah Enticknap/Peacock My character (a detective investigating the disappearance of a child), can be summed up in five words “Morally ambiguous, but a good father.”
My dream guest star appears “Meryl Streep or Daniel Day-Lewis”
The scene that I wasn’t sure I would finish shooting “The scenes with my special needs child, Orlando [Ivanovic]. He’s such a sweet, adorable kid, and I absolutely loved him because you couldn’t really tell him anything. He would do what he would do, so my job was to bring him back to the scene, and that was just fun to play with.
Chris Perfetti
Image credit: Disney/Jill Mingason My character, the bumbling sixth-grade history teacher, can be summed up in five words
“I think his students would sum it up as Huffpo-Reading Gay Pete Buttigieg – which is redundant and reductive. But if I had to pick five words, it would probably be social dog, Shakespearean, or mean clown.My dream guest star appears “Laura Dern will play the most dynamic and devilish role Abbott The most evil we’ve ever faced.
At school, my personality will be voted on… “More dramatic because, first of all, this superlative is kind of a weird cipher, but also, come on, the boy is a mess.”
This is career advice I carry with me to this day “The first play I did on Broadway was with Ellen Burstyn and the great Elizabeth Marvel. And someone, I won’t tell you who, asked me to put a sticky note on my door when I left the house that said, ‘It won’t be that way, honey.’ And I’ve kept that sticky there for almost a decade.
Judy Reese
Image credit: Disney/Darko Siekman My character (the sharp-tongued nurse) can be summed up in five words “Believe it the first time.”
My dream guest star appears “Viola Davis”
At school, my character would most likely be voted for… “Football player punch.”
Timothy Simons
Image credit: Erin Simkin/Netflix My personality (the goofy older brother of the hot rabbi) can be summed up in five words “Powerful, herbal gum, Mission impossible“.
My dream guest star appears “Mandy Patinkin rules!”
At school, my character would most likely be voted for… “He runs his family’s business, although he’s not particularly good at running a company.”
The scene that I wasn’t sure I would finish shooting “The threesome scene because Jackie Tonn and Justin Loeb are so funny, and I’m a non-professional, so I laugh when they do funny things.”
This is career advice I carry with me to this day “When you first move to Los Angeles, you need to do three things: get a car that won’t break down on the side of Highway 101, an apartment that you’ll love coming back to because you’ll end up spending a lot of time in it, and if you meet a really toxic person, just cut them out of your life immediately.”
If I wasn’t an actor, I would be… “Your worst employee.”
Luke Tiny
Image credit: Apple TV+ My character, Jason Segel’s beloved patient, can be summed up in five words “Cute, strong, fearful, brave, curious.”
My dream guest star appears “my wife [María Romero]”.
At school, my personality will be voted on… “Best smile.”
The scene that I wasn’t sure I would finish shooting “Hand the keys over to Jimmy [when Sean moves out of his pool house in the season three finale]”.
This is career advice I carry with me to this day “Be good at everything that doesn’t require talent.”
Naomi Watts
Photo credit: Kurt Iswarenko/FX My personality (former First Lady, obviously) is summed up in five or so words “Stylish, creative, intelligent, mischievous, with a sense of humor and worldliness.”
My dream guest star appears “I want to work with Sarah Paulson on everything from now on.”
The scene that I wasn’t sure I would finish shooting “Death scene. It’s always strange to die. It’s F It’s actually the first thing my kids ask me when I’m about to take on a role. But even for you, it’s a strange experience. I’m the dying lady at this point. “I’m at that age, guys, let’s face it.”
If I wasn’t an actor, I would be… “Lost. I really like my job.”
Carolina Widra
Image credit: Apple TV+ My character, the invasive alien who knows everything, is summed up in five or so words “Happy, content, calm, spiritual, the highest level of intelligence in the world. I am everything.”
The scene that I wasn’t sure I would finish shooting “Episode 4, when I get the truth serum. It was summer time in Albuquerque, New Mexico, probably between 100 and 110.” [degrees]so it was very hot
It was a very emotional and powerful scene.If I wasn’t an actor, I would be… “A psychotherapist. When you prepare for a role, you dissect human behavior.”
This story appeared in the May 20 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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