#she gives every season but Emmy ate this season | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

madisonrooney · 3 years

Note

hi it's your secret santa! first of all HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! i hope you have a wonderful day! how are you celebrating, if you are at all? safely, i hope! either way i hope you manage to find a way to have a great day full of love!! consider my christmas gift a belated birthday gift as well lol. anyway i loved reading your last answer, it was so thoughtful and sweet. i realized after reading that i barely know anything about dove lol so follow up q: what about dove makes you love her so much?

sorry for the late response! the last couple days have been v busy and ive been super tired and dissociative on top of it so i made a point to save this bc i wanted to give it my full attention!

first of all thank you!! i was going to do a virtual meet and greet with one of my favs from jersey boys but he got confused about timezones so we rescheduled but were doing it next week! then i went to a virtual walt disney family museum panel, had pizza for dinner and watched some liv and maddie, my mom made a cookie cake that we ate while watching the grinch musical, and then some friends and i watched the jersey boys movie together over skype!

im so glad you enjoyed reading my last answer! and oof thats another loaded question (i love it tho)

- like i said when first talking about what drew me to her and liv and maddie, a big thing is just how much passion and love she puts into her characters. ofc she puts passion into every character she plays, but its the passion she puts into characters like liv, maddie, and mal that means the most to me. that goes back to the fact that ive dealt with a lot of negativity directed towards me for enjoying disney channel, and then you have dove out here saying “yah im a teenager/twenty-something who not only respects what theyre doing on disney channel, but puts my all into it” not to mention she even won an emmy for playing liv and maddie in season 4! i hope that passion and talent has started to change the conversation about disney channel, and tbh i think it has at least a bit. ofc, none of this is to say other people her age acting on disney channel arent talented and passionate, but idk, something about her has always stood out to me. i find her to be more animated and expressive than most. it can be hard for me to read emotions in live action movies and shows, so thats been really important for me. not to mention she was not only playing the lead but TWO lead characters on a four season show with distinct personalities but also subtle similarities. AND the main character in the biggest DCOM franchise in years for 5 years running now. PLUS the fact that there was a period where those were both happening at the same time. she was only 16 when she started all this and hadnt even had any big roles prior to it!! she had a lot of responsibility so it was amazing to see her not only pull it off, but excel at it.

- i just love like....her aesthetic?? shes always seemed to be a very old soul to me, into old jazz music and poetry and stuff like that. its just very charming. and for her to have that aesthetic on top of being a disney channel actress is a fascinating juxtaposition.

- this is kind of sappy and it gets tiring to hear it said over and over again but that doesnt mean it isnt true: i love how transparent she is about her struggles with mental health issues, trauma, and such. she has been for a long time but even more so over the last year or two. no shade to anyone else, but a lot of actors dont really give you a look into their personal lives, they just share and promote their product. im not saying theres anything wrong with that, its good to know what youre comfortable sharing, ive just felt all the more close to her with her being as open as she is, especially as someone who has gone through trauma myself, albeit different from hers.

- kind of connected to that, i love how important spreading kindness, positivity, and love is to her. thats another thing thats been said a million times but still, its very important to me.

for example. she’ll randomly tweet things like “i love you” a lot. im one to always think of the thought process that goes on behind whatever someone posts, texts, etc., bc personally i put a lot of a thought into pretty much anything i say or do before i put it out there publicly, probably bc of my social anxiety. even tho its a simple statement and takes her a couple seconds to post, she still had to have the thought “i want to remind my fans that theyre loved” or something along those lines. and she has this thought FREQUENTLY. to just randomly get a notification every few days or weeks or so of her saying something like that is just very heartwarming to me.

the reason i connected with miley so much when she helped me through my initial trauma was bc it felt like even if no one loved me, she loves her fans, thus she loves me. thus the person i love and admire the most loves me. even if its only one person, it can be enough. it was for me at the time. i feel that same way with dove. when she came into my life, i didn’t feel as unloved, but her love was still helpful to me.

- of course i need to specifically talk about her kindness in person too. dont get me wrong (ive been saying that a lot havent i lol), i totally and completely loved her long before i met her, but naturally, i love her 10x more after the experiences ive had getting to know her in person.

i could go ONNNNNNN about the experiences ive had with her, and i have lol, and if you already heard me ramble about this in the server i apologize, but the most important thing ive taken away from every encounter ive had with her is this: she always goes the extra mile. she always goes out of her way to make people feel special. what i mean by that is she could say/do HALF as much as she has when meeting me and i would still leave over the moon feeling loved. you can tell she does this in excess bc she really truly means it and cares about people like me, she doesnt have any kind of ulterior motive and isnt just going through the motions doing whats asked of her, she simply cares about me and the rest of her fans. some examples - the first time we met, i was sobbing (lol) and she hugged me for a really long time, rocking me back and forth, brushing my hair with her thumb, calling me sweetheart and honey. she even started to tear up a bit herself. - a couple months later, i went to my first liv and maddie taping. i was preparing to reintroduce myself (i looked a little different bc id been cosplaying as maddie the first time i met her) and ofc when preparing myself, i fantasized pretty heavily as i usually do and pictured myself showing her the pic of us on my phone, her gasping, jumping out of her chair screaming, and hugging me, thinking that was probably way more than i was gonna get. that is EXACTLY what happened. then she went on to tell me how my costume made her whole weekend. things like this would continue to happen where i would set the bar impossibly high and not only would she meet it but she’d exceed it. - our usual interaction from there on would start with her face lighting up when she saw me, her calling me some kind of cute name like love or baby, and then hugging me without me even having to initiate it. - when i saw her in mamma mia, i didnt know when id be seeing her again afterwards after pretty consistently getting to see her for 2 years, so i wanted to make sure we got some kind of closure. at the stage door, i reminded her how much she meant to me and just expected like an “aww i love you too” or something back, but she said “you are an angel in my life” and i will never forget that. obvs, i havent told her ALL the details about what she and her characters mean to me but like...she can tell. she can tell if im in a homemade maddie costume sobbing into her arms that theres something there, and shes VERY appreciative of that. - i thankfully got to see her at a meet and greet a few months later and every time i thought i should get going cuz i didnt want to hold the line up, she would just open her arms for another hug. speaking of being appreciative, she even said “thank you for being such a supportive fan.” as i left, i turned around to say one last goodbye. i made sure she wasnt with the next fan yet and yelled out “bye!” and she yelled back “I LOVE YOU!!” and blew me a kiss. again, its the little things. - i saw her at a small panel in new york a few months after that. she walked in the room when the lights were down as they were playing a clip, she quietly waved hi to everyone, then saw me and loudly whispered HI BABY!!! and stopped on her way to the stage to give me a hug. (then she looked at me from the stage and asked which way i thought she should cross her legs for the interview lol) - sometimes when she sees im next in line, shell give me a knowing smile or whisper “hi baby!!” or something like that. she saw me in the crowd after clueless and seemed to make a point to come to me last bc she knew wed be talking for a while, which we did. she even told me she’d seen me in the audience, asking if i was in the front on the left, which i was.

even all that is still just scratching the surface. weve “known” each other for 5 years now and every time i think she’s done the most she can do, she outdoes herself again. not to mention when im at these events, i see her treat all the fans she meets with all of that kindness too. naturally all of this has made me love her all the more.

- finally, lets just be honest here..........................shes REALLY fucking hot.

#gcwca secret santa #Anonymous

4 notes · View notes

secretlittlerandezvous · 4 years

Text

Lonely In Boston - Brandon Carlo

Summary: The reader moved to Boston and feels lonely whenever Brandon leaves her. He makes up for it with taking her on a walk and getting them two little puppies.

Words: 1951

“You get me. There’s no other way to put it. When I am a whirlwind of a person, a mess of bad moods and even worse ideas, you move in slow, wrap each of those arms around me and in an instant, I am understood. When I am blind of all else, I see the way through you.” - Beau Taplin

She was sitting in the chair in front of the big window and adored the view. The trees around the building were slowly changing their color and there were only a few green leaves left. Most of them were golden now. She enjoyed the view on the Boston Harbor from the living room or the views at the city from each of the four bedrooms they had. She thought it was unnecessary to have four bedrooms, but he insisted. She agreed eventually because the whole neighborhood captured her heart. Who could resist having a boat dock in front of their home or the water taxi? Who wouldn’t love to be able to go on a walk around Harbor? There was a children’s playroom which they will surely find useful in the future. All their neighbors were lovely and friendly people. It seemed like a perfect place and most importantly it seemed like a perfect home for the two of them. He gave her a free hand with designing their place because he wanted her to be comfortable and happy and to feel like she really was home now. But despite all the efforts, she found herself lonely.

Every day was the same for her. Brandon wished her a good day and left early in the morning and usually got back home much later. She stayed in bed for a little longer before she got up and made herself some breakfast. She ate alone in their dining area and then she moved to the living room. There were always fresh flowers on the table. Brandon got her new flowers every couple of days. This week it was white peonies. Then she went for a walk around the neighborhood or drove to the center of the city to get familiar with her new home. Sometimes she stopped at the ice rink and Brandon took her out for lunch. Then she returned back home and applied for a few more jobs - just in case. Brandon got home later, they cooked some dinner and then snuggled up on the couch. Those were the only times she enjoyed. The only moments she wasn’t lonely.

She imagined it quite differently. She spent two years of her life in a long distance relationship with Brandon. She visited him from time to time during the season and Brandon always returned home to Colorado for the summer. She spent two years wishing for a life with Brandon. Both of them in the same city and in the same home. She knew he wouldn’t always have time for her, and she never painted it differently in her mind. She just imagined herself happier or rather she believed she would adjust to her new life much better and quicker. But she was in Boston for two weeks and she felt no change.

Every time Brandon left, she wanted to tell him “stay with me please”. She never said it out loud, but those words always stuck in her mind and they lingered in the air because Brandon could feel the sadness. She never found the courage to tell him, she didn’t want to be a burden and she didn’t want to make Brandon feel bad about it. There were moments in the evening when she had a glass or two of wine to prepare herself to start the conversation with him. She wanted to tell him how she truly felt just for the sake of getting it off her chest. But it never helped, and the conversation never happened. Brandon was aware she wasn’t feeling well but he didn’t want to mention it. He waited for her to come to him because he didn’t want to make her feel like he was pushing her into a conversation she wasn’t ready to have. And so, it lingered in the air every morning and it disappeared by the afternoon when it was replaced by the loneliness.

“Brandon? You’re home early!” She said in a shock when Brandon appeared in the living room. She was so lost in her thoughts she didn’t hear him open the door and come inside. She immediately felt less lonely when she saw him there.

“Thought I would surprise you,” Brandon smiled and kissed her on the cheek before he sat down on the couch and pulled her from the chair into his arms. The smile on her face grew wider every second. “I missed you,” Brandon whispered and rested his chin on the top of her head.

“I missed you too.” She mumbled against his skin and closed her eyes to enjoy the moment even more.

“I actually have a plan for us, so we don’t sit home all day,” he chuckled and pulled his phone out of the pocket of his black jeans to check the time. “First we’re gonna take the dock water taxi to the city and then I’ll take you to some of my favorite places. And I have a surprise for you planned for the end of the day. What do you think?”

“Just let me get ready!” She answered with excitement and ran to their bedroom to change her outfit.

A couple of minutes later they were on the boat heading towards the city. The air was a bit colder now, another sign of summer being replaced by the autumn and she for once enjoyed the change of the weather. It reminded her of the new situation she was in. She always loved the water and being close to it. Waters seemed to have the same melancholic soul like her. Brandon was standing behind her; his strong big hands were tightly wrapped around her waist and he rested his head on her shoulder so he could kiss her cheek easily from time to time. His face was more serious than hers because she had a small smile on her face. He was more focused on making her feel good while she focused on the happiness she felt.

First, he took her to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. A place he knew she would love. And he was right. It seemed like she belonged to the palace in the middle of the garden. She was overwhelmed by the whole place. With the halls decorated with ornate wallpapers and carpets, with the collection of rare books and old paintings, with all the trees and plants, archways and patios. Brandon watched her with joy and his heart was full when he finally saw his girl happy when the smile that used to be on her face all the time returned. She looked divine.

Then he took her to the Brattle Book Shop. She jumped from one book to another. Got excited about a different title every few seconds and when she found old journals her eyes lightened up. She put aside most of the books and replaced them by the journals she couldn’t wait to read.

They went window shopping on Newbury Street. Brandon wanted to take her shopping, but she refused. She wanted to discover the city rather than the shops. Brandon never left her side and he always held her hand tightly in his. Few people on the street chuckled at the height difference between the two of them and Brandon smiled to himself when he heard them.

“I promise I’ll take you to other places some other time,” Brandon said once they sat down in the Sarma restaurant. One of Brandon’s favorite. “I thought we would get to visit more places, but you took so long choosing the books that we ran out of time.” Brandon teased her. She almost said something in defense, but the waiter disturbed them.

She then sat down on the chair next to Brandon and put her hands on his cheeks and kissed him. It was more powerful than a simple “thank you” could ever be and she was sure it expressed her happiness and gratefulness better than words could. The people around them completely disappeared and it was just the two of them but not lonely, it was the opposite of it. He wanted to pull her closer to him because no matter how close to him she was, it was never enough. For now, it was going to be just the two of them. Away from their families they left back in Colorado, she was away from her friends and classmates from the college she finished a few months ago. She only had Brandon while he had a full hockey team of friends who were like a family to him. But after the heartwarming day she had, she saw things in a positive light. She now believed things would eventually get better, she was sure she would meet the boys more often and become good friends with some of them. There was a party they planned for her coming up. She was going to meet everyone and the girlfriends and wives of the boys. She will get a job sooner or later and befriend some of her colleagues. The day spent with Brandon put things into a completely different perspective for her.

“I know moving was hard on you and that my busy schedule doesn’t help it at all. I know you currently feel lonely, but I promise it won’t always be like this. I’ll make sure you’re happy and comfortable here and I will make more time for you,” Brandon paused because he forgot what he planned to say next. He was rehearsing this speech all day, yet he still managed to forget and he couldn’t remember a single word of his speech. So, she took the lead instead.

“Brandon,” she said quietly. “It’s okay. I promise. I felt lonely and I probably will feel lonely for some time, but I wouldn’t trade living with you for anything in the world. I love you and I’m happy I finally get to be with you.” She smiled and stroked his hand slowly.

“I love you too,” Brandon kissed her cheek and then looked her in the eyes. They were full of excitement. “Now it’s time for you to meet someone.”

Brandon led her outside and then down the street. He didn't tell her anything no matter how much or how often she begged him to give her at least a little hint. She had butterflies in her stomach from the nervousness of meeting with someone without knowing who. Brandon knew how uncomfortable she was at situations like this one and he kept smiling at her to tease her some more.

“Honey, I want to introduce you to Emmy Lou and Winnie,” Brandon announced and at that moment a woman with two dogs appeared behind him. “They will keep you company when I’m away.”

“Brandon!” She yelled out in disbelief and ran towards the little dogs to cuddle with them. “Are you serious?”

“I hope you don’t mind. I thought it would be a nice idea.”

“Thank you.” She whispered and hugged him tightly.

“You’re welcome, honey.”

The four of them returned to their new home which suddenly wasn’t as lonely anymore. They finished the day like most days; chilling on the couch while watching a movie except that they focused on the puppies more than on the tv. Life was about to get busier and messier, but they didn’t want it any other way.

#brandon carlo #brandon carlo imagine #brandon carlo one shot #brandon carlo writing #brandon carlo imagines #boston bruins #boston bruins imagines #boston bruins one shots #boston bruins imagine #boston bruins writing #nhl players imagines #nhl imagine #nhl writing #nhl one shot #hockey imagines #hockey writing #hockey one shot #hockey imagine #🐻💛

57 notes · View notes

toldnews-blog · 5 years

Photo

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/technology/entertainment/watch-jennifer-lawrence-reportedly-engaged-to-cooke-maroney/

WATCH: Jennifer Lawrence reportedly engaged to Cooke Maroney

Transcript for Jennifer Lawrence reportedly engaged to Cooke Maroney

Lara Spencer. Thank you, robin. Good morning, good morning, we’ll begin with big congratulations for Jennifer Lawrence. She and her boyfriend Cooke Maroney reporting they’re engaged to be married. Isn’t that nice? The Oscar winning actress and New York art dealer were spotted dining at rules in town where Lawrence was wearing a lovely looking ring and this morning her publicist is confirming the happy news to “People” magazine. Let’s give it up for Jennifer Lawrence. Always one of our favorites to come to “Good morning America.” The notoriously private couple first started dating back in June 2018. Congratulations again to both of them. Good for them. More good news from modern family fans. Reps for the venerable ABC comeave just announced it will return for one more season, but season 11 will be its last. Ah. I know. Bittersweet. They declared there will be milestone events that fans have longed for and some that will surprise. ABC’s longest running comedy has already tied a TV record winning five straight best comedy series emmys. Do you guys realize how hard that is to do? There’s a lot of good shows out there and this show has done it five times. Now to have one more chance to do it and take the record for themselves. One of the stars of the wonderful cast Jesse Tyler Ferguson is weighing in on the news writing on his Twitter page, it will be hard to say good-bye. Love my family and, Jesse, we love you too. We certainly do and they really are a family. They’re so close. Love when they come. It’s always nuts. Hopefully they will soong. Finally Chris Pratt stopped by “Good morning America” yesterday to chat about the new “The Lego movie 2″ and gave him a few engagement presents and he gave us a gift back and stopped at bubba gump restaurant and he posted this picture to Instagram. So as it turns out he has a special connection to the chain writing, 20 years ago I was a waiter at a bubba gump shrimp company restaurant. Every time I go back I’m reminded of the thousands of shrimp I ate off people’s plates on the way back to the kitchen. Oh! He goes on to say, please tip your server. Leave at least 20%, also leave some shrimp. So, did you know that Chris got his first acting gig while he was waiting tables at the bubba gump in maui where he was working and living in a van trying to make it as an actor? He also was named gumper of the year for his service to customers. There was a plaque with his picture hanging on the wall of that restaurant, Chris. Employee of the year. Gumper. A little news” investigation getting all those facts. Right across the street and some shrimp. We move to our “Gma” cover

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

#bollywood movie #celebrity gossip #celebrity news #entertainment news #hollywood movies #movie reviews #music concerts

0 notes

cutsliceddiced · 4 years

Text

New top story from Time: Cooking In Quarantine With Top Chef Host Padma Lakshmi Means Tasting Many Nations

Once quotidian aspects of our lives can now feel like high-concept challenges thought up by malicious reality TV show producers. Dating without being able to touch is akin to Love Is Blind. Jockeying for the last few canned goods at the grocery store compares to Supermarket Sweep. And trying to cook over Zoom video chat with Padma Lakshmi feels like a Quickfire Challenge on Top Chef, the Emmy-winning reality show that Lakshmi has hosted for more than a decade.

That show is airing a highly anticipated all-star season right now, featuring the best competitors from years past. But rather than promoting the series, Lakshmi is stuck in her house like the rest of us. She’s been filling her time filming popular home-cooking Instagram videos with her daughter. “Television fetishizes food,” says Lakshmi. “We love to linger on these shots of Kobe beef. This moment will hopefully be a return to home cooking. Beans are looking pretty sexy now, huh?”

I want to cook with Lakshmi over Zoom, but coordinating our ingredients is an impossible task: in New York, grocery deliveries must be ordered days in advance, and even then some foods will be out of stock. So I watch Lakshmi cook, take copious notes and later try to replicate the results at home.

The pandemic is driving people inside and into their kitchens. Google searches for online cooking classes shot up by a factor of 15 from mid-February to mid-April. A recent survey from marketing firm Hunter found that 54% of people are cooking more than before the pandemic, and 75% say they feel more confident in the kitchen. Just over half of the people surveyed said they plan to cook more at home even once social distancing ends. For proof, look no further than social media, where home cooks are nursing their sourdough starters as tenderly as newborns and exchanging tips on how to grow a new stalk of scallions from old bulbs in a jar.

The newfound interest in home cooking has been driven by boredom and necessity. But in times of uncertainty, we find ourselves increasingly drawn to the certainties of cooking in a moment of chaos: it is a concrete truth that if I see bubbles in the pancake batter, it’s time to flip the pancake.

Lakshmi, too, has found a sense of control during quarantine: she can have direct contact with her fans, without the typical filter of Hollywood. Her quarantine persona is far more casual than the polished host Top Chef fans usually see. On the show, she never seems to spill sauce on her immaculate jumpsuits, and her poker face while tasting food has been known to send contestants into a panic. But at home, she cooks in her pajamas, sometimes without a bra, which caused a minor stir on Twitter. Lakshmi responded cheekily by layering two bras on top of each other for her next video. “I wore a bra for this Zoom call,” she tells me, laughing. Overall, though, the response to her videos has been positive. “Cooking in a ratty T-shirt, which is obviously very different than how I appear on television, has given me this confidence that I’m in charge of my own destiny,” she says.

For our socially distant cooking lesson, Lakshmi chooses a vegetarian dish involving butternut squash, green peppers, ginger, chilies, curry leaves and a handful of spices like cumin and mustard seed that evoke Indian flavors. Her kitchen is admittedly much bigger than mine, and at one point she tests out a pricey gift from a friend: a chain-mail glove designed to prevent cuts, though it proves bad for gripping peppers. “I knew it was too good to be true,” she says, tossing it aside. But as promised, the dish is easy to replicate. In fact, it’s so simple that I’m skeptical of the results until I taste it and realize the work the spices are doing to elevate the squash.

Lakshmi has seized this moment to evangelize about Indian flavors. The cuisine, she says, hasn’t pervaded the U.S. food scene yet, like it has in Britain, where the Indian population is larger. “Indian culture does have small moments in weird places. Like, Madonna is into yoga, so we all get into yoga,” Lakshmi says. “And I see on Instagram that everyone is using turmeric [in their recipes] now? Stuff like that makes me laugh. My bullsh-t meter goes off.” Lakshmi predicts Indian food will become increasingly popular across the globe as we all inch closer to vegetarianism to stay healthy and limit our environmental impact. When she’s not judging on Top Chef, she consumes a mostly vegan diet.

A self-described “latchkey kid,” Lakshmi learned to cook early. Born in Delhi, she lived with her grandparents for a spell during her early childhood until her mother–who had left a toxic relationship with her father and immigrated to New York City on a nurse’s visa–brought her to Elmhurst, Queens, at age 4. Lakshmi has chronicled a history with adversity: a sexual assault as a child and, as an adult, suffering debilitating pain from undiagnosed endometriosis. Cooking consistently served as a refuge.

She established her bona fides: before Top Chef, she hosted a show on the Food Network, and she has since published two cookbooks, plus a food-focused memoir titled Love, Loss, and What We Ate. But people have selective memories and often focus on a few other biographical details: that she began her time in the public eye as a model, then as Salman Rushdie’s wife, then as a woman who tasted food on TV but didn’t cook on it. She struggled to be taken seriously as a food writer. “I am a brown woman on TV working in a country where a lot of people don’t consider me American because of my funny name or the way I look,” she says. “I spent a lot of my career trying to fit in, to be what the toothpaste audition or lingerie catalog wanted. At this point, I’m sick of trying to make everybody happy.”

As she has been mulling her priorities in quarantine–“I need to say no to more things”–leveraging her new connection with fans to advocate for the immigrant experience has risen to the top of the list. Three years ago, she conceived of a show in which she would visit immigrant communities around the U.S., using food as a “Trojan horse” to examine the politics of immigration. Just about every network passed on the pitch until, after she’d already given up on the idea, Hulu bit.

In the first episode of Taste the Nation, premiering on June 19, she travels to El Paso to talk to cooks who commute from Mexico to Texas every day to work at a taqueria that is owned by a white Trump supporter who worries about how building a wall would affect his business. The show sheds a light on often unheralded cooks. “Food trends in America,” she says, “trickle up, not down. The people working in the best kitchens in America are brown people.” Restaurants often borrow their ideas and flavors, and give them little of the credit.

Immigrants are being disproportionately affected by restaurant closures. And even as Lakshmi champions home cooking by teaching followers how to make yogurt rice, she is concerned about that community. A lot of the places Lakshmi visited on her show, she worries, may not be there by the end of the year. She is working with the James Beard Foundation on a program offering relief grants, but the organization doesn’t have nearly enough money to fulfill the more than 4,000 applications they received just in the first few hours of launching. “It’s like a fire,” she says. “You have to clean up and rebuild, and hope that at least the soot has fertilized the ground in some way.”

via https://cutslicedanddiced.wordpress.com/2018/01/24/how-to-prevent-food-from-going-to-waste

#Time #top stories #IFTTT #news

0 notes

njawaidofficial · 7 years

Text

'Awards Chatter' Podcast — Stephen Colbert ('The Late Show With Stephen Colbert')

http://styleveryday.com/2017/08/20/awards-chatter-podcast-stephen-colbert-the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/

'Awards Chatter' Podcast — Stephen Colbert ('The Late Show With Stephen Colbert')

“I wanted to change as a performer,” Stephen Colbert says as we sit down in the offices of CBS’ The Late Show, high above the Ed Sullivan Theater in Midtown Manhattan, on a “Pizza Tuesday” — a Tuesday when Colbert’s staff is treated to pizza because The Late Show topped the previous week’s ratings — and begin discussing why he agreed to say goodbye to “Stephen Colbert,” a character he perfected over 20 years on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, in order to succeed David Letterman as the host of the Tiffany Network’s late-night centerpiece. “I wanted to change what my responsibilities were on a daily basis,” he continues in an intervew with The Hollywood Reporter‘s Awards Chatter podcast. “I just wanted to go out there and do jokes for people.”

It’s been almost two years since Colbert’s debut as The Late Show‘s host. And it’s been almost one year since disappointing ratings, an Emmys snub and a general lack of buzz prompted some to begin writing off a man who had shared in two Peabody Awards and three writing Emmys during his tenure at The Daily Show (which won five Emmys for best variety series while he was there) and who subsequently had picked up another two Peabodys, four writing Emmys and two Emmys for best variety series at The Colbert Report. There even were suggestions that he would be asked to swap time slots with James Corden’s The Late Late Show — or be replaced altogether.

What a difference a year — and a presidential election — can make! This year, The Late Show, rather than NBC’s The Tonight Show, finished the season atop late-night ratings for the first time in 22 years; The Late Show, and not The Tonight Show, garnered a nom for best variety talk series (plus two others); Colbert’s election-night special for CBS’ sister cable network, Showtime, Stephen Colbert’s Live Election Night Democracy’s Series Finale: Who’s Going to Clean Up This Shit? received a nom for best variety special (plus two others); and Colbert himself is set to host the 69th Emmy Awards on Sept. 17. As “Stephen Colbert” might have asked, were he still around: great comeback, or greatest comeback?

(Click above to listen to this episode or here to access all of our 170 episodes via iTunes. Past guests include Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep, Eddie Murphy, Lady Gaga, Robert De Niro, Amy Schumer, Will Smith, Jennifer Lopez, Louis C.K., Emma Stone, Harvey Weinstein, Natalie Portman, Jerry Seinfeld, Jane Fonda, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Nicole Kidman, Aziz Ansari, Taraji P. Henson, J.J. Abrams, Helen Mirren, Justin Timberlake, Brie Larson, Ryan Reynolds, Alicia Vikander, Warren Beatty, Jessica Chastain, Samuel L. Jackson, Kate Winslet, Sting, Isabelle Huppert, Tyler Perry, Sally Field, Michael Moore, Lily Collins, Denzel Washington, Mandy Moore, Ricky Gervais, Kristen Stewart, James Corden, Sarah Silverman, Michael B. Jordan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bill Maher, Lily Tomlin, Ryan Murphy, Allison Janney, Eddie Redmayne, Reese Witherspoon, Trevor Noah, Elisabeth Moss, Jay Leno, Kris Jenner, Rami Malek, Jill Soloway, Robert Pattinson, Kate Beckinsale and Jimmy Kimmel.)

Colbert, who is 53, was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in South Carolina, the youngest of 11 kids in a deeply observant Catholic family. At the age of 10, his life was rocked when his father and his two brothers closest in age to him were killed in the crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 212. “I have said to myself more than once, ‘Gosh, I hope I live long enough to figure out what that did to me,’ ” he solemnly reflects. “It’s almost like that event created a labyrinth in my mind in which I could hide when I was younger — no one could find me if I went into the labyrinth of that experience — but I was also lost in there.” By that time, Colbert’s surviving siblings were out of the home, meaning that he and his mother largely were left to take care of each other. During his ensuing adolescent years, Colbert’s spirits were lifted by comedy albums that he listened to every night (“Comedy saved my life,” he says) and it was out of a desire to brighten his mother’s spirits that he increasingly gravitated toward performing comedy himself (“I wanted to make her laugh and feel better”).

After “barely” graduating from high school as a result of having neglected his studies in favor of reading for pleasure and playing Dungeons & Dragons, Colbert studied for two years at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, before transferring to Northwestern University in order to pursue a theater major. There, a drama teacher insisted that students drop their facades and open up about their innermost feelings, and, Colbert says decades later, “I think it was the first time in my life I started to reflect on what had happened to me and my family as a child.” While in Chicago, Colbert also met Del Close, one of the legendary gurus of improvisation, and began studying improv on the side, ultimately at fabled Second City, where he was hired to join the national touring company in 1988. (There, he understudied Steve Carell, whom he would later recommend for a job at The Daily Show, and became particularly close with Paul Dinello and Amy Sedaris, with whom he would later co-create, with Mitch Rouse, Strangers With Candy for Comedy Central.)

In 1994, Colbert left Second City and headed to New York, where he had been offered a job writing for the Comedy Central sketch-comedy series Exit 57 — which promptly was canceled. Following a brief return to Chicago, he, his wife and their newborn child moved to New York for good when he was hired to write for ABC’s The Dana Carvey Show (on which he and Carell also voiced the characters of Ace and Gary, respectively, in Robert Smigel‘s The Ambiguously Gay Duo cartoons, which they later reprised on Saturday Night Live). That show was canceled after only eight episodes had aired. Thus began for Colbert a “dark period” of “soul-crushing work,” stints on the unemployment rolls and general uncertainty about his future. Interestingly, it had been at The Dana Carvey Show that he first was asked to play a newsman (the episodes in which he did so never aired), and it was after its cancellation that he was hired, as one of many short-term gigs, to do the same in humorous segments for ABC’s Good Morning America (just two of those segments aired). That, in turn, brought him to the attention of The Daily Show, which he reluctantly joined as a field correspondent in 1997, when Craig Kilborn was still the anchor. He recalls, “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m an actor, why am I going to be a correspondent?’ “

Two years later, Jon Stewart succeeded Kilborn, and Colbert — who had been splitting his time between The Daily Show and launching Strangers With Candy — couldn’t have been happier. “We hit it off immediately,” he says, explaining, “He was injecting the show with purpose and an editorial position, and when I came back, he invited us to put our own thoughts, our own feelings, our own editorial position in what we were doing. We weren’t widgets to him; we were creative partners.” One of the things that Colbert took upon himself to do was create “Stephen Colbert,” a self-important newsman “persona,” initially modeled after a local TV news reporter; then after an all-business pro like Stone Phillips; and ultimately after a selection of the talking-head pundits who were beginning to proliferate across TV at the time, but one, in particular: Bill O’Reilly. “I really do think that he’s a well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot,” Colbert says of the now-disgraced Fox News alum, “which was my model.”

By 2005, having become immensely popular over his years on The Daily Show, Colbert was ready to move on to his next adventure. “I really liked working with Jon, but I wanted to leave because there was only so much I could do,” he recalls. “Jon was always going to be the guy with the ball, as well he should be — there’s no greater runner, he’s the master — but I knew I could only do so much for him. It was a beautiful note, but it was only one note that I could do for him in his chorus of correspondents.” Colbert and Stewart pitched a sitcom to NBC, but the network passed, and then Comedy Central asked if they might like to create a Daily Show spinoff, starring “Stephen Colbert,” which would follow The Daily Show each evening. They bit, and for the next decade, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report arguably were television’s best — and certainly its funniest — one-two punch.

In April 2014, when it was announced that David Letterman would be vacating his job as host of The Late Show, few imagined that Colbert, who had been Letterman’s guest 10 times over the years, might replace him. But, Colbert says, “I had already decided I wasn’t gonna do the [Colbert Report] show anymore,” and when CBS approached him about the position, he began seriously considering it — largely because he thought his mother, who had died less than a year earlier, would have liked him to. “In some ways, all of this was for her,” he says. “She would absolutely have been so tickled.” Colbert realized that he would be trading in cable for broadcast, giving up four half-hour shows a week for five hourlong shows and, most significantly, retiring “Stephen Colbert” for Stephen Colbert even though, as he puts it, “No one ever knew that guy” — and he took the plunge. His first Late Show aired on Sept. 8, 2015.

Did Colbert make the right move? “I was an actor, and this is not acting,” he says. “This is a harder job. There’s a challenge to driving a car straight, as opposed to swerving all over the road.” Even though Colbert brought almost all of his Colbert Report staff — some 80 people — with him to the new job, and even though he had not had a showrunner before, it quickly became apparent that without one, he, “a control freak” who was hands-on with every detail of the show, from its set to its greenrooms to its comedy, was in trouble. “I lost my mind,” he acknowledges in hindsight. “I couldn’t sleep at night because clearly, aesthetically or in terms of having an editorial intention, the show was not coalescing. People didn’t know what they were gonna get — they didn’t know what it was about — because neither did I. I had thrown out the baby with the bathwater: In trying to not be my character, I also threw out my interests which led to the character.”

The first of two major turning points for the show came on April 2, 2016, after it already had been on the air for eight lackluster months, when CBS chief Les Moonves arranged a meeting between Colbert and Chris Licht, a producer who had helped a number of other shows on the network find their footing. Colbert recalls Licht’s proposal for a collaboration: “He said, ‘Any moment you’re not thinking about comedy, I’ve failed.’ And I said, ‘Let’s shake on it. Do you want the job?’ ” Ever since, Colbert asserts, he has gotten better about “letting go and just enjoying being onstage with the audience,” and he also has arrived at an understanding that “what works in one of these shows, at least in my experience, is, I’m gonna talk to you about the thing that you’ve already been talking about today, and we’re gonna give you our take on this thing that everybody’s talking about, to give you some context — and maybe calm you down about it.”

The second turning point came on Nov. 8, 2016, the night of the U.S. presidential election, when Colbert was hosting his live Showtime special, for which he and his team had planned all sorts of comedic material. But as it became apparent, to everyone’s disbelief, that Donald Trump actually was going to win, Licht approached Colbert with a piece of advice that the host says he took to heart. “He said, ‘No more bits. All the things we have planned, let’s just throw [them] out the window. Just go over there and talk to people.’ So that’s what the show became [that night], and we’ve tried to not let go of that.” Colbert continues, “That show changed us because it showed me the value of not pretending to feel some way you’re not.” In other words, rather than avoiding politics simply because it had been the bread and butter of “Stephen Colbert,” Colbert would tackle politics head-on because it was precisely what was on his mind — and therefore, in all likelihood, others’ minds, too. Two weeks after the election, Colbert’s Late Show topped the ratings for the first time, and it hasn’t looked back since.

“There’s a lot of things that have changed,” Colbert muses. “I have an even deeper respect for [ABC late-night host Jimmy] Kimmel and [NBC late-night host Jimmy] Fallon and [TBS’ current/NBC’s former late-night host] Conan [O’Brien] and the people who came before us. I always respected their comedy, but I really respect them professionally because I didn’t know what they were doing until I got here.” He hastens to add, “I’ve learned to trust my staff,” noting that he could not have done 17 live shows over the past year if he hadn’t. And, above all, at long last, he’s having fun. “I love this job,” he says with a big smile. “I couldn’t love it more. This feels, right now, like the first year of the old gig. There’s a sense of excitement, and I hope that is throughout the whole building — that people feel like they’ve created something new that wasn’t here a year ago.”

Stephen Colbert Primetime Emmy Awards The Daily Show

#Awards #Chatter #Colbert #Late #Podcast #Show #Stephen

0 notes