The Hollywood Reporter Celebrates TV’s Top Creators With Inaugural Directors in Focus Event

In the thick of awards season, The Hollywood Reporter spent a day sitting down with the minds behind some of TV’s biggest shows at its inaugural Directors in Focus event.

The conversation-filled afternoon, which took place Saturday at the DGA, began with the Duffer Brothers breaking down Stranger Things with THR‘s David Canfield, with Matt Duffer explaining how the two have approached working with young actors over the hit show’s decade-long run.

“The more fun and relaxed you make it, I think we found that results in the better performances,” Matt said, admitting, “I don’t know what’s wrong with me and Ross but [the child actors] — I don’t want to say they lose respect for us quickly but they just start — like [actress] Nell [Fisher] within a day was giving us so much shit. But I thought that was a good sign, it was like, ‘OK she’s certainly not frightened of us.’”

He added that now that the main cast are grown, in the last season they “started handing over some directing responsibilities to them. The more they feel like you’re trusting them, the more confidence you give them, I think that results in better performances.”

Ross also spoke about growing as filmmakers over the course of the show, saying, “Each season gets bigger and bigger so we keep throwing new challenges at ourselves. I think that’s part of why we’ve kept doing this show for 10 years, because it’s been exciting and hard every year but in a fun way; we’re learning something new every time we go out and do a new season.”

An Alien: Earth conversation followed with showrunner Noah Hawley, director Dana Gonzales, editor Regis Kimble and composer Jeff Russo sitting down with THR‘s Borys Kit. The group began by each choosing their favorite alien (and which they would most like to be killed by), and Hawley weighed in on if he thinks the human race is doomed, as seems to be the case in the series.

“I’m rooting for us. I like our chances, but we’ve got some growing up to do, I think,” he told the room. “The show is sort of asking the question I ask when I look around these days, which is where are the grown-ups? Where are the people who think more about tomorrow than today?” as he noted that he wanted the project to tackle moral horror on top of body horror and creature horror.

Hawley also pointed out that although the industry often doesn’t give the sci-fi genre its proper respect, “If you look at the billionaires who have created the technology that we’re living with, they were all sci-fi nerds when they were teenagers, right? So the reality that they have created for us was actually created by the science-fiction writers and filmmakers of the ’60s and ’70s. So we have a responsibility, as science-fiction writers, to create a future that we want to live in, because the odds are we’re probably going to end up living in it.”

Veteran director and former DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter then stopped by, as she discussed the ongoing sale of Warner Bros. Discovery and the fears of the “shrinking of jobs.”

“We had a huge shrinkage as a result of COVID and the strikes and we’re still recovering, and production is down around 40 percent. That to me, it sickens me, it hurts my heart, that so many people are out of work,” she continued. “We’re in a team sport and we’re only as good as our team, so it’s hard to see and this will not help.”

Glatter also spoke about how A.I. should “never, ever be the creative force,” but instead a tool used by storytellers, and advocated when it comes to production ,”We need to keep as much of the business here in America, that is the main thing.”

After a brief break, director/EP Salli Richardson-Whitfield and star Tom Pelphrey took the stage for a conversation about Task with THR‘s Scott Feinberg. Richardson-Whitfield said she had been “fiending for a show like this” after working on The Gilded Age and Winning Time, and described “the edge” that having previously been an actress gives her behind the camera.

Pelphrey also mused on the Philadelphia accent required of the series, set against the same backdrop as Mare of Easttown: “Mare is so successful, there’s an amazing Saturday Night Live sketch about the accent, so you’re like, ‘You can’t screw this up.’ You can’t even be a little bit off.”

Hacks co-creator/director Lucia Aniello closed out the day alongside Hannah Einbinder and THR‘s Brande Victorian, with Einbinder teasing, “I know this is DGA, this is kind of a SAG tangent, but all of these amazing women [on the show] get to do the best, funniest, coolest parts. It’s all women! And I’m just like heck yes, Hacks freaking rips!”

The pair spoke about how they have made “each other better in the way that [main characters] Deborah and Ava do” on screen, while also teasing what’s to come in the currently filming fifth season.

“You know these girls. You know they’re going to be saying mean stuff to each other and they’re going to be smiling,” Einbinder joked. Aniello continued, “We end season four with the idea that Deborah’s obituary has been falsely misprinted, so I guess at the very least we can say that it really puts into question what is the legacy that she wants to leave and what is the legacy that has been forced upon her in this obituary? She’s asking some bigger questions about how to live a life and how to define that life.”