Ask Anything: The Year in Movieline Interviews

Betty White (June 15)

On how Hollywood has changed during her career: When we started in television, there was that magic box in the corner of the room, and "Oh my gosh -- look what it's doing!" But as the years went on, the audience has become very jaded. They've heard every joke, they've seen every story line, they know where you're going before you even start to get there. And that's a hard audience to keep interested, and that's why I think so much of the shows now try to throw language, or situations, or sex -- anything to get the audience's attention. I think it's hard to go back and find that innocence. You can't. Once it's gone, it's gone. [...] You used to watch something and be so focused. Now it's running in the background, or they've got it on iPod, or they're Twittering each other.

Judd Apatow (July 29)

On allegations of sexism in his films: For me, whenever anyone talks about the issues of how men or women are portrayed in my movies, I think, I want to show women being just as awful as the men are being. In Knocked Up, there's an earthquake, and Seth Rogen saves his bong before his pregnant girlfriend. So I don't think that men are being portrayed as perfect people and women aren't. I think it's more about how there are so many miscommunications that make messes, and I'm trying to show that it takes hard work for people to work through those things and not bail on each other. [...] I actually think if anything, I'm a pussy. I'd go the other way with it -- I don't think I'm a sexist, I think I'm just whipped!

Jim Parsons (Sept. 4)

On Big Bang Theory's ping-pong obsessives: The people who win, like major wins, you wouldn't know necessarily. The on-camera people that win, Kaley [Cuoco] does pretty well. Kaley does very well. She used to play professional tennis though, so that's not fair. [...] Kunal [Nayyar] is very good. And Simon [Helberg] is pretty good. Johnny [Galecki] doesn't play at all. It's literally not his thing at all. I love it and I'm very competitive and I don't do very well. Sometimes, I have mad skills and get a couple of points. And then I'm screwed. [...] As soon as you see the stage manager start looking at his watch about the break, people start going, "Dibs!" Literally. And there's running, you run. I'm not kidding at all. I'm not making any of this up.

Willem Dafoe (Sept. 9)

On how he selects projects: I think it's all gut instinct. In a simple way, it's like, "Do I want to do these things? Does this excite me?" That's really it. Sometime I read scripts very quickly, I react on a gut level, and then I have to read them again to really see what the story is. But I really think it's just, "Do I want to do these things?" [Laughs] It sounds moronically simple. I don't ask myself what they mean, or necessarily who's going to see it, or if I'm going to see it. I really don't. It's more like, "Is this a good invitation to an adventure?"

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