Clayton Davis: Have you ever wondered what really goes on behind the scenes of your favorite TV shows?

Steven Yeun: Sometimes I walk in, and I'll be like, "I feel bummed today."

Pedro Pascal: Yeah.

Steven: And then I'm like, "But that works."

Clayton: Variety Studio invites you to listen in as today's top actors discuss their craft.

Kieran Culkin: I don't wanna know any more than my character knows.

Clayton: With Pedro Pascal and Steven Yeun, Melanie Lynskey and Natasha Lyonne, and Kieran Culkin and Claire Danes.

♪♪♪ Clayton: Welcome to "Variety Studio: Actors on Actors."

I'm Clayton Davis.

Elizabeth Wagmeister: And I'm Elizabeth Wagmeister.

In this episode, we're taking a look at some of the best TV characters of the past year.

Clayton: And the accomplished actors who brought them to life.

Elizabeth: Pedro Pascal and Steven Yeun are getting used to making history, especially with the stories that bend the genres they explore.

In their latest roles, both actors showcase their range of talent in some of the buzziest TV shows of the year.

Pedro Pascal has skyrocketed over the past year, hitting multiple home runs, including his return to the hero under the helmet in "The Mandalorian" and his notable performance in "The Last of Us," playing a survivor who tries to save humanity's last hope.

Joel Miller: I've lost somethin'.

I'm failing in my sleep.

Talkin'.

It's all I've ever done is failin'.

Elizabeth: In "The Walking Dead," Steven Yeun was part of one of the most successful shows in cable television history.

Now in the miniseries "Beef," the Academy Award nominee returns to TV and takes on a new kind of role, playing a man obsessed with a stranger he encounters in a road-rage incident.

Danny Cho: I just wanna know if you're like, I don't know, happy.

Amy Lau: What?

Danny: All your hard work paid off, right?

You're fulfilled?

Amy: Why do you care?

Danny: I just wanna know if I'm gonna get to where you are.

Steven Yeun: Hi, Pedro.

Pedro Pascal: What're you doing here?

Steven: I don't know.

How did you find this place?

Pedro: You know what?

We should sit down and talk.

Steven: I just appeared here.

It's super cool to meet you.

Pedro: It's really, really cool to meet you.

I'm very happy to be sitting down with you, Steven.

Steven: Same.

Pedro: I'm Pedro.

Steven: Steven.

Nice to meet you.

I guess I'll start it off.

How much did you know about "The Last of Us"?

Pedro: Ugh, next question.

Steven: Okay, cool.

Pedro: I didn't know anything about the--I didn't know about the game when they got in touch with me about the project.

I hadn't heard of it, but I learned, like, immediately what it was, what the context was.

The first thing that came tome were just the scripts written by Craig Mazin, and I should've assumed that it was connected to some serious IP because the world was, like, immediately present and really rich and cool, and I was like, "This story is amazing," and my nephews were like, "It's a video game, you idiot.

It's amazing.

If you don't do it, we won't talk to you anymore."

Steven: I feel weirdly connected to you in multitude of ways, but one is when I was shooting a show that is kind of spiritually connected to your show, "Walking Dead," I remember--like, I don't know what season it was, but the game came out, and I remember I played it 12 hours straight.

You just push the characters forward as they're having that last, beautiful scene you have.

Pedro: Are you serious?

Steven: Yeah, you just--nothing happens.

You just walk through the forest.

Pedro: You've told me more about the game than the creator of the video game.

Steven: Oh, no.

It's beautiful.

Pedro: I have to say this because, especially when you mention "The Walking Dead," because I started "The Walking Dead" when it premiered, and I remember just noticing you.

I was like, "That guy's a star."

And the character could've just easily worked without somebody who the camera just drinks in and is, like, so charismatic, yeah.

Steven: I appreciate it.

I feel like--I don't know if this is what it feels like for you, but the journey continues to be a self-effacing one, in a way.

Like, I don't see judgment in your performance.

I see, like, real love in your performance.

Pedro: Your observations are so good.

What a word.

What a fancy word, "good."

Steven: That's a great word.

Pedro: That kind of intelligent and astute observing has so much to do with, like, what I see you do, and it helps me actually understand what it is that is so engaging and watchable, which "Beef" is a perfect example of somebody who has so much going on, you know, not in a world that--he's not being chased by zombies, but there's so much danger within the averageness of his life and the generosity of sharing that in the performance with us and inviting us into all of his intimacies, all of his self-loathing, all of his guilt, all of his rage.

How do you approach that?

Where do you start with something like that?

Steven: I really look inward.

I start inside.

I go, "Where is the part of me that deeply understands this person?

Where is my Danny?

Where is that part of me that, like, feels isolated or alone or cringe or gross?"

I would walk up to set every day and be like, "I gotta do, what?

I gotta, like, get dropped from a tree and everybody just watching, and I look pathetic?"

And, like-- Pedro: Was that challenging, or did you see it as an opportunity to kind of, like, lean into the richness of that?

Steven: Well, it was this thing where I, just, I had to use my own shame that, I'm sure, was connected to Danny in that way where you're like, "Don't ever bail on Danny.

Don't ever bail on yourself."

It's easy to bail these days, especially, forever, but, like, it's really easy to bail.

Pedro: Totally, and not look at things, you know?

Steven: How often does the day shape the performance, and how often do you let go to whatever the day is having you experience?

Even if it's not directly correlated to what's on the page, like, sometimes I'll walk in, and I'll be like, "I feel bummed today."

Pedro: Yeah.

Steven: And then I'm like, "But that works," you know?

Pedro: Yeah, totally.

Steven: And what a joy to have a scene partner that was immersed in the role and the moment and the space with you.

Those are the blessings where you're like, "Oh, we're in."

Pedro: Yeah, I relied on Bella for so much of the experience, and it was weird because it was easy for us to focus on what we were meant to fulfill and the kind of chemistry we were supposed to have, and we were both really sort of scared and shy about that, but I will say, I really don't think I've met anybody like Bella in that I was truly inspired and humbled as a person.

Steven: And that is the journey that Joel goes on.

Pedro: Yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah, yeah.

Can I ask about Ali?

Steven: Yeah.

Pedro: Your characters are apart for so much of it.

How much proximity did you have with one another through the experience before you actually had to confront each other's characters?

Steven: We never really hung out or talked to each other much, and what's really fun about Ali is that she is my inverse in a lot of ways.

I would always notice we kind of had, like, different entry points for the same thing, but we would end up at the same place, and I was like, "Ooh, this is gonna be really interesting."

And a very yin-yang situation that way, and there was this level of professionalism there, too, that felt like Ali was gonna take care of her side; I was gonna take care of my side, and then every time we come together, there's gonna be this, like, interesting tension.

Pedro: It really is brilliant writing because the two opposing figures of your show finally end up, you know, in nature together on nature.

Steven: Sonny, Lee Sung Jin, our writer and creator, he wrote something airtight, where you could just enter in and, like, it works.

But, for me, I look at that--your finale in the same way, leading--you know, having known the story, like, leading to this, you know, "I'm doing this for a reason," "I have a mission; I have a goal," and then to, like, take that whole arch and land it in that last episode and then, like, make that turn where you become conscious of what they're gonna do is amazing.

Pedro: I haven't seen it.

Steven: You haven't seen it?

Pedro: I haven't.

Steven: You crushed it.

Pedro: I haven't.

Steven: You haven't seen it, Pedro?

You crushed it, hell, yeah.

Oh, congrats.

Pedro: Thanks, man.

Steven: But, yeah, like, you can see the "lived-in"-- it didn't feel like "chummy."

It felt very lived in.

Pedro: We both have good finales.

Steven: Yeah.

Pedro: Aren't we lucky?

Steven: Yeah, super-lucky, super-lucky, super-super-lucky.

♪♪♪ Clayton: Melanie Lynskey and Natasha Lyonne each lead blockbuster series with passionate admirers.

The two actors, who happen to be best friends offscreen, talk about the mystery and intrigue surrounding their fan-favorite characters.

Clayton: Emmy-nominee Melanie Lynskey explores guilt and dark secrets 25 years after surviving a plane crash in the psychological thriller "Yellowjackets."

Shauna: I never even wanted to be a mom.

In fact, I did not start out a bad person, but in case you haven't noticed, life doesn't tend to turn out the way you think it will.

Clayton: In the whodunnit series, "Poker Face," Emmy-nominee Natasha Lyonne takes on the role of a woman who always knows when someone is lying, giving her plenty of jaw-dropping moments.

Natasha Lyonne: My eyes not twitching, which is to say that's the first honest thing I've heard all week, ah, and I'm sorry for your loss.

Hey, listen, I don't know what kind of a griever you are, but if havin' some company helps, I'm in no rush to get back to work.

Natasha Lyonne: Melanie Lynskey.

Melanie Lynskey: Natasha Lyonne.

Natasha: In the flesh.

We've been friends for, I guess, over 20 years now.

Melanie: Yeah.

Natasha: And I'm such a big, genuine fan.

I was very excited to get to do this with you today.

Melanie: Me too.

I didn't--I can't think about it too much 'cause it really does make me emotional.

Natasha: When did we meet?

Melanie: We met on "Detroit Rock City."

I remember meeting you and just being like, "Oh, my god."

I just remember being very, like, excited by you.

You were so fun, and you had so much energy, and I, sort of, tend to be a bit shier.

Natasha: Not anymore.

My energy is zapped.

Melanie: Do you think so?

This is zapped?

Natasha: Completely, yes.

Melanie: Oh, my gosh.

Natasha: Yes, this is middle-aged, baby, yeah.

So, Melanie Lynskey--they've asked me to use both names.

Just to segue organically to a show called "Yellowjackets" that you're on, you play a character named Shauna.

Shauna is an incredible character.

My question to you is how does it feel to play a character that's that complex?

It's almost like she has multiple lives going, and she has multiple lives going with multiple players in her life, and then this season's, sort of, how beautiful that she's actually bringing her family into it.

You and your husband in that show play really well off each other, I love him.

Melanie: It's really fun.

I love him too.

I love working with him.

Natasha: What is his name?

Melanie: His name is Warren, Warren Kole.

I love working with him.

There's, like, kind of, like, a comedic energy that we have together that is so fun.

Natasha: Yeah.

Melanie: And the character is, like, amazing.

I did not think I'd be at this point in my life in getting to play someone who's this complicated and interesting and difficult and funny.

It's just such a dream.

I feel so the same about where you're at in your professional life, like, just how exciting it is to see--you know, "Russian Doll," I was so obsessed with, and it's just, every episode, I just was like, "You made that."

Like, you made that happen, and the same with this show.

Like, how much were you involved in creating the character?

Did you have an idea of what you wanted her to be like?

Did you and Rian Johnson work to create her together, or was it--did you have, like, an idea for a person that you wanted to play?

She's so fun.

Natasha: Well, thanks, Melanie.

Melanie: You're welcome.

Natasha: You know, it's been a good time for us, and I'm grateful.

In creating Charlie Cale with Rian Johnson, we mostly spoke about the character in a, just, in the sense of like, "Wouldn't it be cool if she was a little bit more laid back sort of like the dude or like--you know, I'm never very far from Peter Falk, but the bottom line is, you know, you have a lot of those conversations, and what was so profound and moving, to me, is that he actually, you know, like, wrote it and sent it to me, and we actually made it, and I feel like that's very, very rare.

Melanie: It is very rare.

People like to talk about ideas and, you know, that's--but it's amazing.

Natasha: Do you like knowing what is gonna come next with Shauna, like, the mysteries of sort of where she's headed next or what's happening to teen Shauna?

Do you like knowing ahead so you can sort of play into it, or do you like being sort of surprised by it?

Melanie: I like knowing ahead.

Like, I really--it's helpful for me to have the history 'cause, you know, like, in real life, someone says something that triggers a memory.

Your feelings are hurt.

If I could have every single script, I would love that.

Do you like to be surprised?

Natasha: No, I would say, part of what I love about being in the writers' room is knowing everything that got cut.

I think it's really helped me, over the past few years, to become a better actor.

Like, I really saw it on "Russian Doll," knowing stuff much more from the inside out and even being a part of crafting it.

So I, too, really enjoy knowing the most.

Melanie: Yeah, for sure.

So I was wondering, with "But I'm a Cheerleader," I do feel like the movie was very ahead of its time, and did you have any hesitation, I guess, about telling that story about somebody who was in conversion therapy?

Natasha: I was not hesitant at all.

Melanie: Yeah.

Natasha: In general, I really believe in making people that, like, society wants to, sort of, like, "outside" and "other," feel, like, safe and home is very important to me, and so I remain, like, so proud of "But I'm a Cheerleader" and so genuinely confused that now we're, like, in 2023, and we're still in a debating society around things like, "Hey, you say you're a person.

Are you sure you're that person?

I have an opinion on it."

It's really deeply dark and disgraceful.

Melanie: I remember, at the time, like, after "But I'm a Cheerleader," somebody was like, "Oh, you've played a lot of lesbian characters," and I was like, "I think it's two.

Like, what are you talking about?"

Like, I don't--it was so weird to me also that anybody was a talking point or anybody had any kind of issue.

Natasha: You know, I mean, I also think is interesting, obviously, the way that times are changing such that what is, for me, seductive, often, about playing a lesbian character is not being puppet-mastered by, like, a male story line that I feel like we're often asking women to exist in response to men.

And gay characters that I've gotten to play are sort of on their own trajectory, so, sort of, like, they're not living a life in response to, sort of, you know, what their boyfriend or husband wants or how to appease him in some way and so also, in many ways, I think, spent my career playing really, like, loving the male characters that I grew up, in the '70s, watching, whether that was, like, Harry Dean Stanton or Jack Nicholson in "Five Easy Pieces."

Like, I just so much wanted to get to play those parts and often was not seeing that in this idea of, like, "Well, here, we've, like, you know, handed you this sort of beta."

Melanie: You know, there's been so many years of fighting for an opportunity and fighting for a job for all of us and then, having seen the journey of your whole career, you're such a chameleon.

You do so many different things, and I just think you're a treasure, and I love you.

Natasha: How cool is it that they, like, they're into us now that we're 40.

Melanie: I know.

Natasha: I mean, it rocks.

Melanie: Could you have imagined, like, if we had a time machine-- Natasha: Yeah, if we had only known.

Melanie: --on the scene of "But I'm a Cheerleader," and we saw this very moment?

We'd be like-- both: "What?"

Natasha: "So what do you want us to do with our 30s?"

But it's fun for us, and I, also, I feel like a lot of gratitude around that.

♪♪♪ Elizabeth: Kieran Culkin and Claire Danes first met over 20 years ago on the set of the indie film "Igby Goes Down."

These two former child actors now get a chance to catch up and discuss their latest roles.

In succession, Emmy-nominated actor Kieran Culkin masters the spoiled, immature, and wildly inappropriate actions of the youngest son of a media mogul.

In the show's final season, Culkin's character changes his tone, showing he is capable of dramatic and heart-wrenching moments.

Roman Roy: You're the one who did it.

You just--and you did.

You drained the life out of him.

You dragged this thing out for six months, and then you bring us out here now.

You couldn't wait, like, a few days.

You actually couldn't do that for us.

No idea, huh?

God.

Elizabeth: In classic Claire Danes fashion, the three-time Emmy winner leaves it all on the screen in "Fleishman Is in Trouble," playing a New York City career woman who seems to have it all.

The actor's raw performance delivers revelations of a broken marriage and abuse through painful flashbacks.

Rachel: I feel like I don't know where my toaster is, but I do have some bread.

Libby: Rachel-- Rachel: I wanna be honest with you.

I don't think I can make you coffee right now.

Claire Danes: Hi.

Kieran Culkin: Well, that pretty much sums it up.

Thanks for coming--a living room.

Wow.

Claire: Yeah.

Kieran: I realized the movie we did together is over half of our lives ago.

Claire: It's shocking.

It feels like a couple months ago, but, no, it's a couple of solid decades.

Kieran: Yeah, something like 22 or more years ago we shot "Igby."

Claire: I had a really good time on that movie.

Kieran: You did?

So did I. Claire: You had heavier lifting though.

You were carrying that beast.

Kieran: I was terrified.

Claire: Were you?

Kieran: Yeah.

Claire: You didn't seem terrified.

Kieran: I mean, that was when I first started to develop whatever, sort of, like, process or whatever that I would eventually have, which was like first years had me memorize.

Claire: Or it was our director.

Kieran: Our director, writer-director, he had me memorize the entire script for weeks.

I had everybody's lines in my head before we even started the rehearsals, and that was in my noggin.

Claire: There's kind of a direct line between "Igby" and "Roman."

I mean, they're not--well, maybe it's not so direct, but they're not wildly dissimilar.

They're both privileged, broken people.

Kieran: Yeah, well, yeah, but people draw that comparison a lot, and I get it.

There's something-- Claire: Do they?

I'm not the first?

Kieran: No, sorry, but, to me-- 'cause, I mean, you know, internally it feels very different.

I'm sure, if there's characters you played that are very similar, I'm sure they feel different to you.

Claire: Yes.

Kieran: They feel very different, but then I try to, like, look at it-- like, "Igby" comes out of--comes from sort of old money, a lot of expectations, you know, something that's, I think, a sort of world that he's sort of being fed into that he doesn't really want, that he resists, and I think--and, you know, sure, they both New York City and very privileged, but, you know, Roman is just the son of this extremely influential billionaire who's self-made, and there's sort of different expectations of him and almost no expectations of him.

He could sort of fail and fail upwards, and I think, to me, that's why there were differences whereas, like, where Igby couldn't get anything right by, like, whatever he did to fit in that life, to leave it, Roman can sort of almost never fail.

I feel like he never really has to suffer consequences 'cause he's got his dad.

He's got all this stuff behind him, and there's sort of the freedom to say and do what you want.

Claire: Right, right, and the distribution of pressure is maybe not evenly distributed among the siblings, but yeah-- Kieran: Somewhat.

Claire: It's diffused a little bit.

It's not squarely on you.

Kieran: Yeah.

Claire: So, I've loved everything that you've been doing as Roman.

What does your dad call you?

Romulus?

Kieran: Romulus sometimes, yeah.

For some reason, whenever I have to shoot with Brian, and it's like dad.

I feel like I'm seven, and I don't know.

He's a scary--he can be a scary guy--not to me.

I can approach him as an adult, but for whatever reason, in character, I feel like I'm seven.

Claire: Right, but I just thought that was so exquisitely done, obviously, "the episode"-- Kieran: "The episode," yes.

Claire: Were you aware that it was-- Kieran: Not really.

Claire: What does that mean?

Kieran: Means, you know, when Jesse told us, like, "Hey, Logan's gonna die," and I said, "When does that happen?"

he goes, "Fairly early on episode three, the beginning of it."

Just, he told me before he'd even written it, and I was-- Claire: It was so smart to place it where he did in the season too.

Kieran: Jesse told me before the season started that he thinks this is the end, but he doesn't know.

Claire: Ay, yai, yai.

Kieran: Uh-huh, and we had--and usually, I don't wanna know any more than my character knows.

Claire: Yeah, yes, and it kind of forces you to be in the present.

There's not a choice.

Kieran: Yeah.

So then, when you started working on "Fleishman Is in Trouble," did you--that's eight episodes, and that's it?

It's just that's a miniseries--done.

Have you done that before?

Claire: Well, I've--yes, I had done now three limited series, and they're tough.

They're deceptively tough.

They're, like, kind of worse of both--of film and episodic-- Kieran: It's a movie that takes much longer.

Right, you have the arch, but it took forever to get to.

Claire: Yeah, you don't have the history or the trust or the camaraderie.

You have all that uncertainty, and it takes forever to lay that much material down so-- Kieran: The very least, you have, like, you knew the complete story.

You have the source material.

That's pretty much directed from the-- Claire: Yeah, "Fleishman" was different.

I did a limited series called "The Essex Serpent," where I was kind of in everything, and by the end of it, I was, like, devastated.

I was so--my body was breaking down.

I was exhausted, and I was confused by it because, I have to say, like, I can cope with plenty and think of myself as pretty resilient.

Actually, with "Homeland," I realized that they did distribute the narrative responsibility more evenly so that no actor was, like, completely swallowed by the ask, and with a limited series, that wasn't the case.

I was just in every scene for seven months or something, and I--it just--it like--I couldn't quite catch my breath or recover the energy lost.

Kieran: In "Fleishman," you felt like you-- Claire: Yeah, "Fleishman," I mean, I disappear for quite a while, but I'd never played a character as seen by somebody else before, you know, like, the version of the person through the embittered husband's filter.

I've only played, you know, the authentic expression of the thing, but I felt so held by Taffy and her work and our directors, and I really loved what we were attempting to do together, and it was a reality that had not been rendered all that often.

I was actually just so grateful to have a chance to embody that and explore that because it's underrepresented.

Kieran: Well, like--said she's like is the most accurate depiction of, like, postpartums she'd seen.

I just wanna say it's one of the greatest performances I've seen in, maybe, television, but possibly ever.

Claire: Oh, Kieran, thank you.

Kieran: It blew me away, and stop making me cry so much.

I'mma stop watching your work.

I hate crying, so stop it.

♪♪♪ Elizabeth: We hope you've enjoyed this episode of "Variety Studio: Actors on Actors."

Clayton: Please join us again next time.

Steven: I don't wanna gas you up too much, but, like, selfless and-- Yeah, is this what it is, gas party?

Pedro: This is fantastic.

Melanie: Fly in here.

Natasha: There's nothing there.

Claire: Yeah-way.

Kieran: Whoa, I can say, "Way," yeah.

I will now.

Claire: In my head, you did.

Pedro: I don't fall in love, you know, 'cause it hurts too much.

♪♪♪ ...

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