And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Tavis for any actor playing different characters in one season it must the challenge and the reward. Winnerme emmy award Allison Janney is starring in whilet cbs comedy mom at the same time she stars in the acclaimed showtime series masters of sex. 180 playing a staid and conservative woman in the 1950s. We start with a scene from last whichs masters of sex returns to showtime in july. I have spent the day wracking my brain, pacing, wondering, maybe i should like his close on fire. Maybe i should drive his far into the pool, maybe i should tell him about the man i have been seeing who wanted me in his bed. I do not say this to punish you. Prostitutes . That is so insulting to me. I will never do it again ever. I swear to you. Even if you never laid a hand on a hooker again that will not change what is so impossible to understand. This morning when you came in my room i was practically naked and you did not look at my body once. Not once. And yet your face was filled with such love. I start with a confession. When this thing came out i did not think i was feeling it. Episode andfirst it was ok. I tuned in the next week and got a little more interesting. He for i knew it i was hooked before i knew it i was hooked. I did not expect to be. The writing on this thing, is so good. Some of the issues that are being explored in the 1950s are just so to leading. And still relevant and back to, but definitely the storyline with Margaret Scully, they had not written it when they asked me to come on board. Talked to me about where they wanted to go with this character and i thought it sounded like an amazing story line to get to work on. Just heartbreaking to what this her lifelizes, and unravels. Getting, she is not she is not orgasms, having sex and why does her husband not love her and for him, an amazing time to be a gay man. Not an amazing time. Not a warm and accepting environment to be gay. Reallythe people are connecting to it or a lot of feeling for these characters, both sort of repressed for different reasons. If i heard you correctly that sounds to me like a lot of trust that you put in these two women or Production Team to sign onto something that had not been fully developed. Y at this stage in your career. I know of masters and johnson and i knew of michelles writing and i did not have i was not worried, i was worried that i would be allowed to with doing mom on cbs. They are run by the same mothership. They own everything these days. The thing i was most nervous about was the fact they told me up front i would have to do, there would be some nudity, some sex scenes involved and that was a little bit scary but they were michelle and sarah were lovely with me and said nothing will be done that youre not comfortable with. I just trusted them. I love the way they were talking i certainly knew that any sex scenes would be part of the integral to the story as all the sex scenes are. There is nothing gratuitous even though it is called masters of sex. Was just mortified by the title. What is your daughter up to, she is doing this lovely show for cbs and this other so show, it is with bo bridges. She could not say the name. I suspect, i have asked this question a few times of Different Actors who are playing different sex scenes. I never asked you this question. What is your process when you are told that there is going to , you havex scenes been in this business for quite a while. That, whatprocess goes into your deciding whether i was not thinking about the age thing. It is better than being dead. My mom says all the time. The only way to not lift a girl does die young. The larger thing i was getting at is you do not have to do that at this point. You have earned the right to say no. When you decide youre going to subject yourself to that what is your process for making that decision . Had no idea i would get offered this and i started changing my diet and eating, not eating as much pasta and bread and i was working out so my body had changed and i my bodye better than than i did in my 20s are 30s. Theought, that cant be reason i say no. I trusted them and i doubt they would respect what i felt comfortable doing. I thought it was worth it, the story line. After i got closer to it i just knew that it was a real interval part of Margaret Scullys journey. In,from there it is a day day out. Meeting the director. It is terrifying. I was not very comfortable but the thing that made it comfortable was they are so respectful of everyone on that set. Always a closed set and the director is there and you go through it i paint by numbers. I will pay put my hand here. Really aint sex. The camera is rolling and you feel free to play within the boundaries of what you have established. I look at the lighting. And look right. Only assume that there is an artistic value that you know when you get a chance to play a character like this. But what is the value to the audience of seeing you play a woman who is request repressed and denied, etc. To takeaway for people like me who watch this . Way audiences have fallen in love with margaret and her story. Arent have not been fulfilled sexually or feel inadequate. Margaret taking it all on herself that her husband is not want her because she is not good in bed or she is inadequate or it is heartbreaking especially when you know what the real truth is, she has been andng a lie her whole life still having to find a way to accept it and move on. I feel like what woman does not have to go through all of those issues whether or not she is being pleased or not by her partner or whether her husband is gay or she could have been so many things, i could have done this with my life, margaret represents that. This microcosm of this home in that incredibly repressed time. I think that is what it is. You root for her and you want to see her be fulfilled in her life. Tavis let me do something i should not do which is answer the question. Answerctor i want to from the standpoint of i cannot speak for all viewers but myself as a viewer. Ist made me connect to her the sex thing, i cannot connect to that. This feeling of her very dignity and humanity being contested because she has been lied to. Because shes being deceased. That aint about sex or about race or anything else. None of us wants to live a life where we are being lied to and deceived and denied. Iat is the level to which connected. Quickly put that in there but they also want there to be a real love between the two of them. Out and secretly hated him, she truly loves this man and he truly loves her, too. Hases, she has been she a great pride. Her dignity is what you said. Tavis yeah. [laughter] i should have my a sound likemaking [screech] it sticks to your integrity as a thespian. A lot of people are getting a kick out of this. I am thrilled that they are. She is quite a different character. I would say i am more like Margaret Scully than bonnie. She is a little scary. Not afraid to play here because like to be big and bold and the comedy is large and i am not afraid of that. I attribute that to my theater training, growing up doing ofces and all those sort comedy of errors and going back and forth from different styles was nervouscause i about doing that. I was doing masters of sex and i had to go do the mom pilate. Once i got on the set and was ath anna and chuck, i am in different world than i can exist in this world, too. That chuck has given a story lines that allow us to be pretty emotional and a half hour with the issues we deal with and i am grateful to him for that because otherwise it tends to be that format. High andit exists at a there is not a lot of variance and deep lows and i love that he is letting us do that with a different issue, the issues we are tackling. Tavis this is a question i should ask of chuck but since he is not here i will ask you. How do you have a comedy that does allow you to do with that sort of emotion and he could all work and make it all work in that kind of sitcom . I dont think of myself as iing in a comedy or being try to live truthfully under the imaginary circumstances and i think in the back of my head, i know if it is a comedy or drama. I think they all include every emotion. I don i do i do not go for the laughs. I do not try to make people laugh because that is why do not make people laugh. , how hard to be on the set do you know when i will get a laugh and i cannot do that. If i do that i will not get a laugh, i will jinx myself. I try to be truthful and never try to make anybody left. When i have to do these and when bonnie had to talk about where she came from rowing up in foster homes and the deep pain that is there that caused her to behave the way she did and become an addict and drink and expose her daughter to terrible things, it was a window into her life, what it was like for her growing up and people felt for bonnie. She went through all that. It is not an excuse. She is a person who has been wounded incredibly and doing that monologue, really feeling the sadness of what she had gone through and feeling the tears and be able to make a joke about it. I did steal a tv. It felt very natural and real to do that. I do not even know by answer the question. Something gave me that i am going to have to marinate on be on this combination this conversation. There is one or two lines that you just blurt out. Let me go back and unpack that. I used to go to a church and the preacher was kind of funny whenever he would Say Something he thought was really deep and it usually was, he would act up and say, i think i just said something. I think i just said something. And you just said something a moment ago and i want to go back because i will have to write this down erie it i love this phrase you used, living truthfully under imaginary circumstance. That is a great line. They say that the mediocre borrow and the great ones steal. Whoever you got it from. Neighborhood playhouse in new york city. Was living truthfully under imaginary circumstances. Tavis that is a great line. Is that just for actors or is that applicable to those who are not this mans . Thespians . To pretend. Ood way if you are afraid of public speaking, you can imagine yourself in a situation where everyone in the audience is in their underwear, whatever those tricks you do. But yeah. No matter what the imaginary circumstances, you try to be honest and tavis that line makes perfect sense to me for actors. If you cannot make the audience believe it, whatever those imaginary circumstances are, if we cannot buy that you are that character that does not work. Fracking it is perfect. For acting it is perfect. You have to hide behind a lamppost, you really have to do that and leave that you are hidden behind it. Except for maybe audrey hepburn. It. Atter how far, do i tend to i like to go big or go home. Someone gives me a direction i usually go to far. You have to bring me back in. Tavis go big or go home. I love it. What does it mean, set your modesty aside for just a second. At this point, what does it mean, how do you process that you are playing to a different different two characters on two different hit shows at the same time . This is an actors dream and you are living it. Yeah. Tavis how do you process this moment . I am so proud that i got to be a part of these and i did not know it would turn out this way that they would be on the air at the same time or either one of them would be so incredibly lucky and it looks like a Great Party Trick i am doing. I always remember back in new york when Cynthia Nixon was burly, it was hurly two shows on broadway at the same time and i was like, i want to do that. Hearing about that, i want to do that. That stuck with me. I am doing my little version of Cynthia Nixons trick. But not having to race across town in a cap. Tavis we all still love you in the west wing. Nothave two first run shows counting the reruns. What is your sense of television, one of the things you are on is pay cable and the other is network. From your perspective, is tv Getting Better or getting worse . You have been on tv for a while. I feel like in some ways it is so much about television that i hate. I am not a fan of the reality shows and for me that started our ratingwing when started going down when we were up against the bachelor. How could how is that the same audience . I thought it was rubbernecking and i was embarrassed that that is where we were going. It will saturate fast and be on. Tavis you could not be more wrong. I could not be more wrong. Is still i felt there room for everyone i suppose but in some ways i feel it takes out away from the writers and actors. That being said there is also some great, wonderful shows on television. And the way we watch them now is so different. In oneed breaking bad weekend and game of thrones. There is some great television. There has been a great resurgence of new, wonderful shows so i hope that we still keep going if we have to live with reality tv. If we have to. Tavis how long do you think you can manage doing both of these . For as long as they will have me, i will do it. Yeah. It works out. Tavis this is another one of those inside the Actors Studio questions. When youre trying to learn your scripts. Loves to run the lines and in the halfhour world you cannot memorize them to quickly because they change all the time. So usually we started monday and we film and preshoot thursday and she live on friday and and i and i will run them anna and i will run them. Whoever mys, it is assistant is. Anybody. I will have my friend come over and run them. I do much better if i get them off the page. I have three dogs and they do not like it when i sit in bed and i will be doing my lines and its like they go like this and they run off and going to the other room because they do not want to hear me to talk about like margarets goalie or body. It upsets them. I cannot do that. Scenario is iible get to the studio and get one of to come and sit with me. I would make you run lines with me. Honored to runbe lines with you. As anyone ever asked you . Your sound turn down. I would run lines with you and play act with you in certain scenes. You read between those lines. [laughter] call me anytime. I would be happy to show up to rehearse with you. Got that . Anyway, ok, that was politically incorrect and my mother had the volume turned down so it is ok. The rest of you, save your letters. Allison janney is in a couple of series right now. I made you blush, i like that. Coming back in july. I will be running lines with her at her house in june. Getting ready for the return in july. Mom on cbs allender big all under one big umbrella. It was good to see you. That is our show for tonight. Thanks for watching and as always, keep the faith. All right. Alvin. Who is that . Your father. What . You always said you did not knw who he was. It could have been a dozen guys. I lied. I always knew it was alvin. Oh, my god. Oh thats a load off. [laughter] for more information on todays show, visit tavis smiley at pbs. Org. Tavis hi, im tavis smiley. Join me next time for a conversation with dr. David b. Agus and clark latest, trust me. That is next time. We will see you then. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Be more. Be more. Pbs. Welcome to film School Shorts, a showcase of the most exciting new talent from across the country. Experience the future of film, next on film School Shorts. Film School Shorts is made possible by a grant from maurice kanbar, celebrating the vitality and power of the moving image. And by the members of kqed. [ crowd cheering ] shoot, shoot, shoot