{"id":472200,"date":"2026-06-02T11:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T11:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/472200\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T11:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T11:02:12","slug":"michelle-pfeiffer-katherine-lanasa-more-on-2026-emmy-drama-roundtable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/472200\/","title":{"rendered":"Michelle Pfeiffer, Katherine LaNasa, more on 2026 Emmy Drama Roundtable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sit at a table with a bunch of actors and it inevitably becomes an impromptu acting class, one in which even the Michelle Pfeiffer<\/a> is leaning over to observe. At least that\u2019s what happened on a recent afternoon when The Envelope gathered six actors from some of this season\u2019s most talked about television series for its 2026 Emmy Drama Roundtable. <\/p>\n

It all began when Pfeiffer (\u201cThe Madison\u201d) shared that, while studying acting, she couldn\u2019t grasp the technique created by Sanford Meisner, which trains actors to stop overthinking and encourages them to listen and respond actively to their scene partners. The revelation immediately activated Katherine LaNasa (\u201cThe Pitt\u201d<\/a>), who beckoned Tom Pelphrey (\u201cTask\u201d<\/a>) to join her in a spontaneous application. (Both had studied the method.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI like your jacket,\u201d LaNasa said, locking eyes with Pelphrey.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou like my jacket?\u201d he replied playfully.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do like your jacket … You\u2019re smiling at me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exchange, which had a flirtatious energy, continued for a minute, before Pelphrey and LaNasa emphasized that it\u2019s essentially looking at and listening to what the other person is doing. <\/p>\n

\u201cSomehow I was doing it wrong and I didn\u2019t understand why I was doing it wrong,\u201d Pfeiffer said. <\/p>\n

This openness and encouragement carried the entire conversation, which brought together Pfeiffer, who plays Stacy Clyburn, a wealthy New York City matriarch whose life is upended by the tragic death of her husband, which compels her to move to Montana; LaNasa, who brings depth to the burnout plaguing steadfast, straight-talking charge nurse Dana Evans; Pelphrey, in his turn as Robbie Prendergast, a sanitation worker who robs drug houses at night to provide for his family; Zahn McClarnon<\/a>, who stars as Det. Joe Leaphorn, a stoic man battling his past and the loss of his son in \u201cDark Winds\u201d; Billy Magnussen<\/a>, who portrays Duncan Park, the eccentric and profit-hungry CEO of a tech company in \u201cThe Audacity\u201d; and Karolina Wydra, who plays Zosia, the eternally cheerful liaison to a utopian, hive-minded collective in \u201cPluribus.\u201d<\/a> Read on for excerpts from our discussion.<\/p>\n

I know all your characters are going through some personal things, but if you were to transform into them for 24 hours, what would you do with that day? <\/p>\n

Magnussen: I live with Duncan daily because I think your job as an actor is to check the morality of the character you\u2019re playing. And at the same time, you have to question your own morality, see where you stand, to then deal with that character. Duncan\u2019s a really messed-up guy, and doing it for five months … I was on set 16 hours a day every day. I was with him nonstop. And his temperament and pace was just out of this world. It\u2019s exhausting. So what would I do? I would try to go to a spa, personally, because it\u2019s exhausting. <\/p>\n

\"Billy <\/p>\n

Wydra: Do you find that it gets blurry after a little while? <\/p>\n

Magnussen: I still know who Billy is. <\/p>\n

McClarnon: But there\u2019s times where you can\u2019t see that line between [fiction and] reality, just moments. I\u2019ve found myself in those moments where I know the difference, obviously, but I\u2019m so emotionally attached to Deanna Allison, who plays my wife on the show, where I can\u2019t separate them anymore. It\u2019s not like 24 hours, but just moments where I\u2019m like, \u201cWait a second, where am I? Am I in the show? Is this Joe Leaphorn or is this Zahn?\u201d Usually in the middle of the season, it starts to get a little blurry for me.<\/p>\n

Magnussen: Do you think it\u2019s the job, though, to keep it separated? Or do you guys believe in Method acting? <\/p>\n

Wydra: Rhea Seehorn, who is on \u201cPluribus,\u201d who\u2019s incredible, who\u2019s my partner in crime, she gave me a book about Method [acting] \u2014 the Method and what really Method was. And it\u2019s not what we think it is. We all do Method acting, but it\u2019s not staying in the character and living in the character forever. … And that\u2019s what people think Method is, is that you never break the character, you take the character home, but it\u2019s not. It\u2019s building a world. Building it, personalizing it. <\/p>\n

Pfeiffer: Isn\u2019t that what we all do? Some actors will go live on the ranch. They won\u2019t take a bath for six months. They really take it to another level, which I\u2019m not willing to do … From the minute I commit to something, it\u2019s right there [in my head], I\u2019m thinking about it. It can be a year away, and it\u2019s right here torturing me, which is I think why I\u2019m a bit of a commitment-phobe. My agents always call me \u201cDr. No\u201d because I know no matter what, even if I\u2019m not consciously aware of it, it\u2019s there just badgering me.<\/p>\n

LaNasa: I have found that people want Dana, want my character, in real life. And it\u2019s cool because she\u2019s very comforting to people. But I had an experience recently in New York where this table of girls, they were having some party, and someone said, \u201cOh, you mean a lot to us.\u201d And I said, \u201cOh, are they nurses?\u201d Well, some of them are. And then they asked at the end of their dinner would I take a picture. And then one girl told the other people to leave and then she told me her illness journey. And I had breast cancer. She was going through breast cancer. And it was really interesting. And it was the most meaningful that I\u2019d ever felt about taking a character home where it\u2019s like … I think I spoke about my wellness journey because I was playing the role. It ended up coming up through the press. … And for some reason, because I was Dana in someone\u2019s mind, it meant something. And I thought, \u201cWell, this was actually useful. This breaking of that wall between character and person was actually useful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Katherine <\/p>\n

Tom, you get the call that you\u2019re cast as Robbie in \u201cTask.\u201d What\u2019s the first thing you do to figure him out?<\/p>\n

Pelphrey: When I read the first two episodes, I felt like I understood Robbie\u2019s soul perfectly, but I knew that I would have to break my ass to get that accent right. So that was where I focused most of my conscious energy and discipline and time, was just [on the] technical, just on the accent. The fun part was, because he would be my age, thinking about growing up in Philly at that time and who his heroes would be, having ideas for tattoos, stuff like that. We had more time than you get sometimes before we had to start filming because we knew and then the writers\u2019 strike happened. I had a lot of months to sit with him and emotionally and spiritually. And I\u2019d just become a father. Obviously [with] Robbie, everything he does is for his kids.<\/p>\n

Pfeiffer: It changes everything. It opens your heart.<\/p>\n

Pelphrey: I was a new person. And I understood him in that regard perfectly and I couldn\u2019t have before. I could have imagined it and now I knew for sure.<\/p>\n

\"Tom <\/p>\n

For \u201cThe Audacity,\u201d Billy, you spoke with some tech folks. What did you come to understand about what they\u2019re after as innovators versus what you\u2019re after as a creative?<\/p>\n

Magnussen: Listen, no one\u2019s a villain in their own story. I believe that from Day 1, these people probably came to the Valley with genuine ideas. The genesis of their idea was to connect and really bring something powerful and important to society and people. And, \u201cOh wait, we\u2019re making a lot of f\u2014 money.\u201d And through that lens, you start being blinded by this humanity that\u2019s around you or caring for people around you rather than a bottom line. When you\u2019re in an incestuous pool or in a small bubble, culture is created. And like Facebook, their slogan was \u201cMove fast and break things.\u201d Being a bull in a china shop is not a good idea anywhere, but for some reason that was the culture. People just started doing that more and more and breaking things and breaking things and breaking things. I don\u2019t think they started off that way, but the culture just bred them to become this way. I personally relate that to, I don\u2019t want to say Hollywood or the entertainment world, but we\u2019ve seen the toxicity. And we\u2019ve been slowly trying to filter that out, I think, of Hollywood. But when you have a microclimate kind of culture feeding in toxic behavior and rewarding toxic behavior over and over again, it breeds it. So you start to have to scrape away that cancer. But again, the genesis of all these ideas were pure. We were 6 years old just dreaming to be something or being like, \u201cI could do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pfeiffer: Pretending to be something else, other than what we were. <\/p>\n

Magnussen: I empathize with that. I don\u2019t think people are bad. I just think they\u2019re lost sometimes. <\/p>\n

\"Karolina <\/p>\n

Karolina, your character in \u201cPluribus,\u201d Zosia, is carrying the weight of almost every person in the world. What do you remember about those discussions with [creator] Vince Gilligan and how he helped you unpack this character and the relationship with Carol, Rhea [Seehorn]\u2019s character?<\/p>\n

Wydra: I took a break for five years from acting before Zosia came into my life. I walked away at 39 to have kids and my agent and my manager dropped me and it was really terrifying to also be a woman and turning 40, to have children at that time. When Lou [her second son] was maybe a year-and-a-half [old], I got the itch of like, \u201cGod, I miss acting so much. How am I ever going to come back? How am I going to get an opportunity?\u201d And I was 43 at the time and out of nowhere I got an email being like, \u201cHey, there\u2019s this thing …\u201d from a commercial agent that I was on their roster, but I did not work with them. And they said, \u201cThere\u2019s this audition.\u201d And I go, \u201cOK.\u201d I read it and I said, \u201cWho wrote it?\u201d And she said, \u201cVince Gilligan for Apple TV.\u201d I went, \u201cWhat? OK.\u201d And I didn\u2019t know anything about the project and it was always my dream to work with Vince from when I saw \u201cBreaking Bad.\u201d <\/p>\n

Long story short, I\u2019m here and the whole journey has been so wild, so insane. When I first would talk to him about Zosia, I was like, \u201cGod, how am I going to tackle the world and someone that has the highest emotional intelligence, someone that does all these different things? And how do you see the Others? How do you want them to move about the world and the complexities of who they are?\u201d Vince is such a beautiful human being. He\u2019s like, \u201cThey\u2019re just happy and content.\u201d You go, \u201cOK, yeah, but … what else?\u201d For me, Zosia is extremely spiritual. Meditation was my key, my go-to to get into that zone of connection to humanity, not in the physical but very spiritual way where, [if] you meditate enough, the ego gets lifted and you truly feel connected, and you feel one with everyone. And the wild thing, I think the greatest gift, was becoming a mother; I understood what it means, unconditional love. Because my heart lives outside my body all the time. And so becoming a mother was a gift to play Zosia, because I unconditionally love Carol. And now, no matter what she throws at me, I just love her, and take care of her, and I want to nurture her.<\/p>\n

\"Michelle <\/p>\n

Michelle, you get the call from Taylor Sheridan, who also created \u201cLandman\u201d and \u201cYellowstone.\u201d He says he wants to meet with you and he wants to do it on his turf in Texas, not yours. There\u2019s no script. What does someone like Taylor Sheridan say to someone like Michelle Pfeiffer that will get her to agree to the show? <\/p>\n

Pfeiffer: Well, he gave me a lot of tequila. <\/p>\n

LaNasa: Writing this down: Tequila, check.<\/p>\n

Pfeiffer: I got a call that he wanted to meet with me, that he had an idea for something, \u201cBut you have to come to Texas.\u201d And I said, \u201cIs there anything? Is there an outline? Is there a paragraph?\u201d \u201cNo, no. He wants to explain it to you in person.\u201d I had to stay the night in Fort Worth and then met with him and he gave me tequila, and then after a while I had to stop drinking. He gave me a very rough outline of the show, of the character … She\u2019s been with the love of her life for 50 years. It\u2019s the marriage that we all dream of having. And he dies suddenly, tragically, and … all of a sudden the rug is really just emotionally and psychologically pulled out from underneath them. And it\u2019s how do you rebuild a life and it\u2019s the study of grief. He said that I had committed that night, which I did not. I\u2019d had a few cocktails. We went back and forth a little bit about [the fact] that I really would like to read something. And he said, \u201cWell, I would really like to cast this before I write anything.\u201d Then I realized I wasn\u2019t going to win this battle and I reached out to Helen Mirren [who starred in Sheridan\u2019s \u201c1923\u201d], who I don\u2019t know, but I figured she doesn\u2019t suffer fools and she would give me the truth about what it\u2019s like to do this. She couldn\u2019t have spoken [more] highly of everything. She said the scripts are wonderful. The production is wonderful. And loves Montana. And so I took a leap of faith. I never do that. <\/p>\n

What stands out to you about his process versus then working with your husband, David E. Kelley, also a prolific writer, who adapted \u201cMargo\u2019s Got Money Troubles\u201d? <\/p>\n

Pfeiffer: I couldn\u2019t be luckier working for two of the most talented and prolific writers in the history of television. [They\u2019re] not that much different. I purposefully didn\u2019t want to bug David because it\u2019s not like we had any hard-and-fast rules about not working together, but we weren\u2019t really actively seeking it out because that can get a little dicey, just looking at it from afar. I really cherish my marriage, and our family, and I just didn\u2019t want to mess it up. I really mostly went to the director and every now and then I might throw a little something his way. And [with] Taylor … I would go through Christina [Alexandra Voros], our director, because he\u2019s just not honestly that accessible because he\u2019s got a bit going on. I personally don\u2019t like to spend my time trying to rewrite things. It\u2019s more interesting to me to try to make something work and then I end up finding something I never would\u2019ve decided. It just takes you to a new place and it\u2019s so much more interesting than anything I would have conjured up. <\/p>\n

\"Zahn <\/p>\n

Zahn, you\u2019re not only the lead in \u201cDark Winds,\u201d but also an executive producer and directing episodes. I know there was a moment where your character was supposed to shoot someone in the face early on. And you felt strongly, \u201cMy character\u2019s not someone that would do this.\u201d Talk to me about leaning into speaking your mind.<\/p>\n

McClarnon: There\u2019s not a lot of Native characters on television. The foundation of that character obviously comes from Tony Hillerman\u2019s books. So the foundation was set for that character. And when I got to a point in the season where I\u2019m supposed to kill a man, shoot him in the head in the middle of the desert \u2014 first off, I didn\u2019t see that in the books. And I know it\u2019s television and we want drama and all that stuff, but also, to be honest with you, I want Native kids \u2014 see, I\u2019m going to cry now \u2014 to have something to look up to. We grew up with these stereotypes and we grew up with these tropes of Native Americans. The only one I can really remember that I really looked up to was Will Sampson in \u201cOne Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest\u201d because he was playing a trope, but he becomes the hero at the end of the story. It\u2019s one of my favorite films. So when it came to that point where the writer said, \u201cHe\u2019s going to kill this rich white man in the desert and shoot him in the head,\u201d morally, I think Joe Leaphorn is more than that. <\/p>\n

And it was simple. I sat down with the showrunner [John Wirth] and we talked about it, and we went back and forth for about a week. And I\u2019m so glad that I have access to somebody like that. I have access where they\u2019re not telling me, \u201cNo, this is the way it\u2019s written. This is what you\u2019re going to do.\u201d So yeah, we decided not to shoot the guy in the head, where I\u2019d just leave him out in the desert to fend for himself.<\/p>\n

Katherine, you\u2019ve talked to nurses and medical professionals in the making of \u201cThe Pitt,\u201d but you were also a patient during your breast cancer journey, interacting with them a lot from the other side. What is something that they\u2019ve told you or even something you observed in that time that really spoke to you about what they\u2019re going through on the day to day in these jobs? <\/p>\n

LaNasa: It\u2019s funny, I\u2019d always wanted to work with John Wells. I go through this period of all this unemployment, and then I get this job for John Wells. I had had cancer a year before and then had complications up to like six months before. It wasn\u2019t until I got to the emergency room set that I was like, \u201cOh, this whole period … \u201d \u2014 the spirituality of that. I really believe that we need to be grateful for our life while we\u2019re living it, no matter what\u2019s going on. Because I still have my children, and I have nature, and I have my husband, and cooking, and my dog, and so many wonderful things. And I was really trying to hold onto that. It\u2019s always this idea that maybe something is for a reason or whatever \u2014 now I\u2019m going to cry. The fact that that was so purposeful, that I understood so deeply what it was to be a patient, what it was to be terrified going into the emergency department. I also understood how much it mattered when a nurse took a little extra time and was a little bit kind. <\/p>\n

Pfeiffer: You\u2019re going to make me cry.<\/p>\n

LaNasa: And there was one particular nurse \u2014 I had my cancer, went through my radiation and then [went] back and forth, back and forth [to the ER]. And there was a week, the second trip to the ER [they thought I might have multiple sclerosis]. \u201cNow do I have MS on top of having had cancer?\u201d And I had a breakdown in the ER. And she\u2019s like, \u201cListen, first six months after cancer are really bumpy, and it\u2019s not going to stay like this. Do you need an Ativan?\u201d<\/p>\n

Magnussen: Did not see that turn.<\/p>\n

LaNasa: It was that human touch. Or when they would come and give you a warm blanket or something. There\u2019s a nurse, Kathy Garvin at County, who told me she wouldn\u2019t do the job that she does being the [emergency department] charge nurse if it wasn\u2019t in a county hospital. She wants to do that hard work for people that really need her. For the most underprivileged, for the unhoused. And I try to honor that in the story and to just bring that to life \u2014 their generosity and their humility.<\/p>\n

\"From <\/p>\n

The Envelope\u2019s 2026 Emmy Drama Roundtable: From left, Zahn McClarnon, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tom Pelphrey, Katherine LaNasa, Billy Magnussen and Karolina Wydra.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of discussion in the industry right now about runaway production and can L.A. rebuild and what\u2019s lost. I\u2019m curious how you feel about this topic.<\/p>\n

Magnussen: I live in Georgia and … one of our biggest exports as Americans is our culture. And if we just keep it isolated to Hollywood, I think we lose out at expressing everything we are as Americans. <\/p>\n

McClarnon: We shoot on the Tesuque Pueblo. There\u2019s 19 pueblos in New Mexico. We have taken over their old casino and we\u2019ve converted it into a soundstage. We use their back lot. We obviously help out the tribe with renting the place out. And so I like shooting in New Mexico and supporting the local community, especially local Natives. <\/p>\n

Pfeiffer: I think there\u2019s room for all of it. We shot [a movie] in London that took place in Los Angeles. And it\u2019s ridiculous that our entire industry has left. Los Angeles is really hurting. And a lot of people are hurting. All those jobs, all of those restaurants where people used to eat, people used to shop. And I think to not give the same sort of tax incentives that other states are doing \u2014 look, if it takes place in Georgia, you should go to Georgia. But I think Los Angeles was really built on the movie [industry].<\/p>\n

LaNasa: I have a 34-year-old and a 12-year-old. I remember with my 34-year-old, even just being a young, starting-out mother, I would be like, \u201cWell, I\u2019m not going out of town. I have a child.\u201d I would never go do a TV show out of town. I had a kid and the kid was in school and I needed to provide consistency for that child. And then with my second one, that was impossible. We would just not have been able to work. But it\u2019s really hard on families. We are actors and we\u2019ve come here to pursue the industry. We\u2019ve moved here and we\u2019ve risked something … L.A., for all of its problems, is a city of dreamers. It\u2019s a city of people that came to pursue their art. And I am one of those people. And so in a way, I wasn\u2019t really a citizen like the other citizens of Atlanta. I was outside. I didn\u2019t have my community. <\/p>\n

Magnussen: I know, but that\u2019s the thing I have an issue with is this idea that, \u201cIt\u2019s only there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pelphrey: I\u2019ll say this. Love that we get to film all over our beautiful country. Would love to keep the jobs in this country. That would be the nice part. Because when everybody\u2019s like, \u201cOh great, we can go to Belarus or London.\u201d Guess what? All of us get to go. Our crew doesn\u2019t get to go \u2014 the people that we know that we need, that we work with, that we make these things with. We get to go wherever the f\u2014 we want, actors, directors, but the crew doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

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