The Emmy Awards may have been about the trophies, but backstage, the conversations went far beyond the wins.
The Buzz was inside the Emmy press room following television’s biggest night, where I had the opportunity to speak with four of the night’s winners: Tom Pelphrey, Allison Janney, Stephen Colbert, and the cast of Widow’s Bay, fresh off its Outstanding Comedy Series victory.
For me, it also marked a personal milestone: four questions in one Emmy press room—the most I’ve ever gotten in during a single ceremony.
And somehow, Guiding Light, NewsRadio and Strangers with Candy all made it into the conversation.
Tom Pelphrey Reflects on 22 Years and a Life in Acting
After reconnecting with Tom Pelphrey at Televerse, I got another opportunity to speak with my fellow New Jersey native—this time with another Emmy in his hands.
Pelphrey’s career goes back more than two decades, including his Emmy-winning run as Jonathan Randall on Guiding Light. Seeing him add another trophy to his career made this one personal.
“I am so proud of you,” I told him before asking what it meant to still be doing what he loves 22 years later and now holding another gold statuette.
Pelphrey traced it all the way back to when he was 14 years old.
“I stumbled into the right theater when I was fourteen and met a man who changed my life,” Pelphrey said.
He spoke about being a young man looking for male mentorship, purpose and confidence—and finding all three through acting.
“It was the first thing I was good at, and I was off and running and I never looked back,” he said.
More than two decades later, acting has become so fundamental to Pelphrey’s life that he struggles to separate one from the other.
“I don’t know how to pull it apart from who I am,” he said. “I’ve been doing it so intensely for so long on so many levels that it’s just kind of how I understand my life.”
Being able to continue doing it successfully—and experience a night like this one—is something Pelphrey said he does not take for granted.
Allison Janney on Reuniting With Bradley Whitford
My conversation with Allison Janney also began with a trip back in television history.
When I told Janney I had been a fan going all the way back to Guiding Light, her reaction was immediate.
“Wow, wow. Thank you. That is going back.”
But another important chapter of Janney’s television history has recently returned to the forefront: her longtime The West Wing costar Bradley Whitford.
Janney revealed that she was asked how she felt about Whitford coming aboard to play her character’s husband—and there was little hesitation.
“Absolutely, a hundred percent,” Janney recalled saying.
She described Whitford as one of her favorite actors to work with, calling him funny, charming and a wonderful scene partner. More importantly, their decades-long relationship meant the two actors didn’t have to manufacture the history between their characters.
Janney said that relationship was already “baked in.”
“We spent more time with each other than we did with our families during West Wing,” she said, remembering the 18-hour workdays they shared before smartphones became ubiquitous.
“He’s like a brother to me,” Janney said. “It’s just been amazing to be reunited with him in these two roles.”
Stephen Colbert Has Some Conditions for a Strangers with Candy Return
Then there was Stephen Colbert.
After congratulating Colbert on his Emmy night, I decided there was one question I really—really, really—needed answered:
Who do I have to beg to bring back Strangers with Candy?
Turns out, Colbert has given me an assignment.
“You just get Paul and Amy together and I’m in, okay?” Colbert said.
He also named writer Jocelyn Hershey Guest as an essential part of his hypothetical return, saying he’d do the show if she were involved and writing the episodes.
As for Colbert writing them himself?
“I’m too tired.”
So…Paul, Amy, Jocelyn: apparently we need to talk.
Matthew Rhys and Widow’s Bay Close Out the Night
And then came the final question of the night.
Literally.
As the cast of Widow’s Bay entered the press room following its Outstanding Comedy Series victory, I realized I was about to close out the room.
“This is bad. I’m the last one. This has to be real,” I said.
Matthew Rhys offered some immediate encouragement:
“Good luck!”
No pressure.
Before getting to my question, I also had to give Stephen Root his flowers as a longtime NewsRadio fan.
Then I turned to Rhys.
After hearing him discuss coming off The Beast in Me and returning to Widow’s Bay, I wondered whether any of that intensity followed him back to the comedy—whether he ever thought he’d gone too harsh in a scene and needed to pull back, only for everyone around him to say, “No, this was fucking great. Keep it.”
Rhys laughed off the idea of making that judgment himself, saying he leaves those decisions in the hands of director Hiro Murai and the show’s creative team.
But the finale apparently pushed him much harder than he initially expected.
“I thought I was signing up for a comedy,” Rhys recalled. “And then the finale, I was like, this is the hardest I’ve worked for a very long time.”
He called the experience exhausting before emphasizing the trust he and the cast placed in the people guiding the series.
“From the very beginning, we knew we were in safe hands,” Rhys said.
It was a fitting way to close an Emmy night filled with career milestones, reunions, nostalgia and some unexpected answers.
And yes, I’m apparently leaving the Emmys with a new responsibility: figuring out how to get Strangers with Candy back on television.
Watch the interviews by clicking on the player above and on Spotify.
