The BEST episodes of Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter season 2
Every episode of Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter season 2, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter season 2!
The Hollywood Reporter looks at the awards seasons through the eyes of the nominees. Oscar and Emmy nominees discuss their experiences and process with each other during round-table discussions that include the actors, actresses and producers whose work has been noticed by the academies.
#1 - Comedy Actresses
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 7/10/2016
TV's leading funny ladies – Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin), Allison Janney (Mom), Niecy Nash (Getting On), Lily Tomlin (Grace and Frankie), Ilana Glazer (Broad City) – disclose the best advice they ever got, the moment they knew they wanted to become actors and their funniest fan interactions.
Watch Now:Amazon
#2 - Comedy Actors
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 7/17/2016
Comedy masters, Jeffrey Tambor (Transparent), Aziz Ansari (Master of None), Anthony Anderson (Black-ish), Tony Hale (Veep), Jerrod Carmichael (The Carmichael Show), Rob Lowe (The Grinder), Keegan-Michael Key (Key & Peele), divulge their most embarrassing moments, who inspires them and the challenges of taking a comedic look at serious topics.
Watch Now:Amazon
#3 - Actresses
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/29/2017
Amy Adams (Arrival), Annette Bening (20th Century Women), Naomie Harris (Moonlight), Taraji P. Henson (Hidden Figures), Isabelle Huppert (Elle), Natalie Portman (Jackie) and Emma Stone (La La Land) talk about what inspired them to go into acting, having stage fright and what it's like working with Hollywood's best directors.
Watch Now:Amazon
#4 - Drama Showrunners
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 7/24/2016
Six of television's top drama series bosses- Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot), Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey), Nina Jacobson (American Crime Story), Marti Noxon (UnREAL, Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce), Melissa Rosenberg (Jessica Jones) and John Ridley (American Crime)- open up about the stories that made them genuinely nervous, diversity in Hollywood and what it takes to cast their shows.
#5 - Actors
Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 1/22/2017
Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea), Mahershala Ali (Moonlight), Jeff Bridges (Hell or High Water), Andrew Garfield (Silence, Hacksaw Ridge), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Snowden) and Dev Patel (Lion) discuss how they go about researching roles, being typecast and what it's like working with celebrated directors.
Watch Now:Amazon
#6 - Drama Actresses
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 6/26/2016
Six of the year's most sought after drama actresses engage in a candid conversation about sex scenes and nudity as they get older. Sarah Paulson (The People vs O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story/ American Horror Story: Hotel), Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife), Kerry Washington (Confirmation/ Scandal), Constance Zimmer (UnREAL), Kirsten Dunst (Fargo), Regina King (American Crime/ The Leftovers), and Jennifer Lopez (Shades of Blue) discuss the advantages of working with female directors, the new landscape of television, and what their first big splurge was.
Watch Now:Amazon
#7 - Comedy Showrunners
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 7/31/2016
Comedy TV writer-producers including Kenya Barris (Black-ish), Marta Kauffman (Grace and Frankie), Aline Brosh McKenna (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), Alan Yang (Master of None), Nahnatchka Khan (Fresh Off the Boat) and David Mandel (Veep) talk condoms, stunt guests and what they have (and haven't) been able to get away with showing and talking about on the small screen.
#8 - Directors
Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 1/15/2017
The directors of this year's most acclaimed films, Damien Chazelle (La La Land), Mel Gibson (Hacksaw Ridge), Barry Jenkins (Moonlight), Mira Nair (Queen of Katwe), Oliver Stone (Snowden), Denzel Washington (Fences), talk about the filmmaking process.
Watch Now:Amazon
#9 - Reality Showrunners
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 8/7/2016
TV’s top reality talent - Mark Cuban (Shark Tank), Jane Lynch (Hollywood Game Night), Guy Fieri (Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives), Nick Cannon (America’s Got Talent), Mike Darnell (500 Questions) and LL Cool J (Lip Sync Battle) - discuss on-set psychologists, coaxing contestants and America’s first reality star presidential candidate, Donald Trump.
#10 - Writers
Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 2/12/2017
Pedro Almodovar (Julieta), Tom Ford (Nocturnal Animals), Noah Oppenheim (Jackie), Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea), Allison Schroeder (Hidden Figures), and Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water) talk about what principles guide their writing, how to escape writer's block and dream projects that they have yet to tackle.
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#11 - Songwriters
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/26/2017
Songwriters Tori Amos, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Sting, Justin Timberlake and Pharrell Williams reveal their process and how to emotionally connect songs to movies.
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#12 - Documentary Filmmakers
Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/19/2017
Six documentary filmmakers sit down for a discussion about when to intercede in a scene, how much brutality to reveal on screen and other key issues in the doc world. Ezra Edelman (O.J.: Made in America), Werner Herzog (Into the Inferno, Lo and Behold), Kirsten Johnson (Cameraperson), Josh Kriegman (Weiner), Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro), and Roger Ross Williams (Life, Animated) talk about how they got into filmmaking and what draws them to commit to a specific story.
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#13 - Drama Actors
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 7/3/2016
Six of the television season's most eclectic drama actors – including Mr. Robot's Rami Malek, Vinyl's Bobby Cannavale, Narcos' Wagner Moura, The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story's Cuba Gooding Jr., Roots' Forest Whitaker, and Billions' Paul Giamatti reveal the challenges of letting emotionally demanding characters go, the nuances of real versus fictional characters, and the little known movies they wish everyone had seen.
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#14 - Producers
Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 2/5/2017
Darren Aronofsky (Jackie), Todd Black (Fences), Matt Damon (Manchester by the Sea), Frank Marshall (Sully), Marc Platt (La La Land) and Emma Tillinger Koskoff (Silence) talk about the challenges they have faced during production, developing scripts, making decisions on the fly and what it takes to be a successful producer.
Watch Now:Amazon