TV directors Emmy nominee roundtable: ‘Baby Reindeer,’ ‘Abbott Elementary,’ ‘Hacks,’ ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith,’ ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

What do people who aren’t in the business think the job of a TV director is? Do they think they wear a beret and move around on a crane, barking orders into a bullhorn? That’s the cliche’, anyway. “I think the assumption sometimes is just that maybe you only direct the actors, or that’s kind of the main thing you do,” offers Lucia Aniello, who is a co-showrunner and chief writer as well as a regular director on the Max comedy series “Hacks.” “Similarly, when my parents are around, I think the thing they give the most feedback about is not realizing just how much prep goes into it, how much work goes into it after the actual shooting, and the post process and how long it takes. I think if we’re doing our jobs right, it looks like it’s easy. And sometimes I think the love that goes into it and the care is something I don’t think anybody’s given credit for, but it all takes a lot of time.”

We spoke to Aniello as part of Gold Derby’s “Meet the Emmy Nominees” TV directors roundtable, which also featured 2024 Emmy nominees Randall Einhorn (the ABC comedy “Abbott Elementary”), Weronika Tofilska (the Netflix limited series “Baby Reindeer”), Hiro Murai (the Prime Video drama series “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”) and Nick Murray (the much-decorated MTV reality series “RuPaul’s Drag Race”). Watch our exclusive video interview above. Click on each name above to watch that individual person’s chat.

SEE Lively chats with over 200 of the 2024 Emmy nominees

Einhorn doesn’t believe that the majority of people who hear he’s a television director don’t understand that his biggest job “is actually listening.” He emphasizes, “It’s not talking. It’s taking in what everybody’s feeling, the vibe of something. To me, that’s the most important thing that I do. You wouldn’t think so, but it really is.” One of the misconceptions Tofilska has found – particularly when dealing with her own parents – was the idea that being a TV director means you’re a fearless leader. “I think that’s hopefully changing,” she adds. “But yeah, very early on, when talking to my parents about wanting to be a director, there were a lot of conversations about how loud I could be.”

Murai says that when people hear he’s a director, they automatically assume it’s pretty glamorous. “And I guess there is a little bit of that,” he acknowledges, “but they’re also not thinking about eating pizza for a second meal after a 14-hour day. There’s a lot of nitty-gritty stuff that I love, but it’s not part of what you think of when you think director.”

“Actually,” Einhorn replies, “a second pizza meal in a day doesn’t sound so bad.”

As for Murray, he echoes the perception that what he does is “super glamorous.” He goes on, “They assume some sort of red carpet is permanently in front of you as you walk around the set. People are always amazed that you can have 12, 13 cameras running at the same time. They’re often like, ‘How on earth do you keep track of that?’ And the answer is that it’s a lot of prep. I mean, you’ve really got to care about this job, because if you don’t, it really comes through – not only on film, but when you’re doing it as well. People notice, and you’re effectively in charge of a great big crew. Ours is well over a hundred people. So there is a lot of what I call Chief of Staff work, that people don’t really understand. It’s making sure everyone’s on the same page.

“As for pizza after 14 hours, well, only if you’re really lucky.”

PREDICT the 2024 Emmy winners through September 15

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