The Hollywood Reporters' Roundtables: Are They in on the Joke?

With media companies doing these panel discussions like a Comic Con or press junkets or random interviews, it's interesting to see what questions are chosen to be asked, either to dig deeper into a specific production, the behind the scenes of entertainment, or showing how hollywood is just like us! 

Sometimes these talks can borderline seem to be circlejerking each other about the craft of hollywood but others its a unique window into the day in the life. 

 When talking about the scrutiny of the media and press, five out of ten times, watching The Hollywood Reporters' Roundtables, the discussions about various aspects of entertainment, the journalists asking the questions laugh alongside the faces in entertainment like they are their peers. There really seems to be zero awareness to what side of the road the interviewers are on and the negative affect they can have, even while they are asking questionable things in real time. Asking things and bringing up hardships and embarrassments of their past.  

The journalists kind of harsh and negative questions like the most embarrassing things that have happened, or the different horrible auditioning processes or the worst interviews/backlash. 

The women conversations talked about the feedback rather than the shows and even less about the comedy. Looking at the actors comedian roundtable, there's more laughs about their different productions and even the questions were different. Questions for the men did seem more about the production but still talked about the hardships. 

Full negative questions like what is one job you hated, horrible audition stories, talking about the pay disparity, and the hypocrisy and double standards of entertainment needed good interview questions talked about who inspires them, talking about agents and managers, social impact, differences in TV back then and now, etc. 

The one thing you do see with both the actors and the actresses is how fans are so reactive with encounters. It's interesting like from Matthew Perry from Friends and even more specific comedy productions like Fred Armisen's Porlandia or SNL  fan reactions are more of the same just with technology advancing with iphones and social media. 

As a consumer it should be easy to separate an actor or actress from a television show to be a normal person, even any type of entertainment really. There doesn't have to be a barrier between the two but fans can and do go over the line. 

On sites like deuxmoi on Instagram and other gossip sites, it shows fans prank calling and borderline harassing these guys which is bazaar in itself. The new popular TikTokers talk about how parents will drive to their houses and stalking, taking weird liberties with people who don’t know them.

 On the other side, some famous people call the paparazzi on themselves to get their face out there or purposely go to places where they’ll get seen. Actors and actresses can become addicted being doted over, so they may want the fame, but not the crazy, but everyone’s different.

Talking about how much actors take on themselves because of their job, and how much of themselves they put into their acting, you can understand their passion and specific perspective. Comedy is such a unique multifaceted genre where each projects the actor or actresses work on, they do somehow have that shared experience. Slapstick comedy, to standup, to improv, to even the sitcoms, all have their unique audiences and it's interesting to hear the different backgrounds. It could be simply memorizing someone else's works and edited or just make it up as they go along. 

Is entertainment more to get at a viewer or an audiences funny bone or more formulaic with only money on their mind? Also on the same point, is journalism and media made for breaking news or getting finding a scandal for clicks? One does not necessarily need the other but there is that weird symbiosis and give and take of the two. I enjoy this small edited window into the world of hollywood and am curious about eh going ons of it all.