Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Congratulations on your Emmy nominations.Thank you.
Were thrilled, obviously.
Very, very excited.
Yeah, I was up watching.
Im not going to say I wasnt.
I believe you were supposed to be starting production on the second season when the pandemic shut everything down.
Is that right?That is true.
So we were ready to go, which sucked.
We were so close, but the safety of my cast and crew obviously was the most important thing.
We shut down even before some other shows did.
Do you have a sense of when you might be able to start?I do.
Can you say?We will start as soon as people wear their masks.
I mean, the numbers in L.A. are not good.
I know other productions have been shooting without incident, so thats encouraging.
I want to shoot as soon as possible, but we have to do it so safely.
Theres no reason for me to keep adjusting scripts ad nauseam.
So that part doesnt need to change.
People ask, Are you going to do COVID sketches?
Im like, No.
I have no interest in that.
I could make literally the show we made last season a year from now.
It would still be relevant and nothing would feel dated.
Thank God I dont have that pressure thatSNLhas to have to poke fun of things in real time.
You mentioned the quarantine interstitials from last season.
Its more relevant than ever.
I know everybody makes a big thing of that series of sketches being relevant.
Im like,Thats just how we do it now.
Thats not even a joke.We were so prescient in so many ways on this show.
That is a nod to whats going on in the larger universe and the interstitials.
Our sketches live in this universe that takes place around where they are hunkering down in the house.
MyRundownpieces always end up resurfacing when people decide to care about race.
Thats what Seth was saying.
Im like, I mean, it would have made everything easier.
It was just too grown for me as a kid.
Im appreciating it now, decades later.
I dont think Angela Lansbury would be mad that Im just now discoveringMurder, She Wrote.
That sounds so stupid.
Why would Angela Lansbury care what I think?
I say that to say I dont feel any kind of way.
I mean, Ive been saying this stuff for a decade at least.
I think its fine.
I think information has to meet people where they are.
I think the time for progress is always now.
I think some people dont believe it unless they see it.
They always think, Well, what were they doing?
Theres always that he was no angel defense.
Look, me watching George Floyds death was just as heartbreaking as watching any of the others.
when you see that someone was murdered by the police, thats inherent prejudice.
You really have to examine that, because you dont think that about non-Black people.
We dont think that about non-brown people.
And I think thats what systemic racism is.
Being racist it doesnt mean youre in the KKK.
Thats what I keep trying to explain.
Or based on their system, wont even interview them.
All of its racism, though.
And all of it has to be tanked.
These are shows that are rivaling all of the other shows that are amazing, that were up against.
No one is getting a pity Emmy nomination.
These are incredible shows that deserve to be recognized, and its about time.
And if you think about it, I think were just becoming more visible.
Im glad that that work is being recognized.
The Emmys feel very silly compared to the death of George Floyd.
But it all has to do with the shift in our country in terms of Black people being seen.
Those were my own people.
I didnt get none of that shit in Iowa.
Its so important that we authentically tell our stories so that people understand.
Were like, Were not saying that.
Of course all lives matter.
We just want to be included in all those lives, and were not.
I think that was hard for people to understand, but I think theyre getting it now.
