Pandora's Box, page 42
71. “Fincher is tough”: Ibid.
72. “Kevin Spacey was rude”: Allen Coulter, in discussion with the author, October 26, 2020.
73. “The basic thing was watching”: Reed Hastings, as told to Patrick J. Sauer, “How I Did It: Reed Hastings, Netflix,” Inc., December 1, 2005, https://www.inc.com/magazine/20051201/qa-hastings.html.
74. “No one is safe”: Sean T. Collins, “Game of Thrones Q&A: Richard Madden on Robb Stark’s Endgame,” Rolling Stone, June 3, 2013, https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/game-of-thrones-qa-richard-madden-on-robb-starks-endgame-129013.
75. “They killed three principal characters”: Tim Van Patten, in discussion with the author, March 8, 2014.
76. “wanted to explore with Jaime Lannister”: Mikal Gilmore, “George R. R. Martin: The Rolling Stone Interview,” Rolling Stone, April 23, 2014, https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/george-r-r-martin-the-rolling-stone-interview-242487.
77. “You suddenly wake up to it”: Alex Morris, “Game of Thrones: Emilia Clarke, the Queen of Dragons, Tells All,” Rolling Stone, June 28, 2017, https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/game-of-thrones-emilia-clarke-the-queen-of-dragons-tells-all-201327.
78. “I’d come fresh from drama school”: Adam White, “Game of Thrones Star Emilia Clarke Says She Was Pressured to Perform Nude Scenes,” Independent, November 19, 2019, https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/emilia-clarke-game-of-thrones-nude-scenes-dax-shepard-daenerys-a9208471.html.
79. Eventually, however, she began to wonder: Zack Sharf, “Emilia Clarke Was Told to Get Nude So Thrones Fans Wouldn’t Be Disappointed,” IndieWire, November 19, 2019, https://www.indiewire.com/2019/11/emilia-clarke-pressured-game-of-thrones-nudity-1202190609.
80. “I’ve had fights on the set”: Adam White, “Game of Thrones Star Emilia Clarke Says She Was Pressured to Perform Nude Scenes,” Independent, November 19, 2019, https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/emilia-clarke-game-of-thrones-nude-scenes-dax-shepard-daenerys-a9208471.html.
81. “There are a lot of people in that position”: Dawn C. Chmielewski, “Ted Sarandos Upends Hollywood with Netflix Revolution,” Los Angeles Times, August 25, 2013, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-netflix-ted-sarandos-20130825-dto-htmlstory.html.
82. “played his politics by being apolitical”: Quentin Schaffer, in discussion with the author, January 7, 2022.
83. “When we got through with the how’s”: Terry Winter, in discussion with the author, May 20, 2022.
84. “There was a lot of development”: Casey Bloys, in discussion with the author, November 1, 2021.
85. “Look, even if you get it right”: Ibid.
86. “It did not resonate well”: Debra Birnbaum, “Network Chiefs on Difficult Decisions, Increased Competition and Diversity Initiatives,” Variety, March 12, 2018, https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/network-chiefs-hbo-showtime-turner-fox-intv-1202723996.
87. “Looking back, people in general”: Allen Coulter, in discussion with the author, February 22, 2019.
88. “Let’s do another series”: Terry Winter, in discussion with the author, May 20, 2022.
89. “HBO was not feeling the latest draft”: Jessica Herndon, “Issa Rae Embraces Her Role as a Hollywood Trailblazer: ‘You Can’t Be Polite or Modest,’” Hollywood Reporter, August 19, 2020, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/issa-rae-embraces-her-role-as-a-hollywood-trailblazer-you-cant-be-polite-or-modest-4047809.
90. “watching white people dictate”: Brittany Spanos, “Issa Rae Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop,” Rolling Stone, April 15, 2021, https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/issa-rae-insecure-hbo-1155867.
91. “trying to convey that people of color”: Greg Braxton, “Issa Rae Takes HBO from White Girls to Black Women with Insecure,” Los Angeles Times, July 30, 2016, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-hbo-insecure-20160730-snap-story.html.
92. “focused on specific struggle stories”: Jessica Herndon, “Issa Rae Embraces Her Role as a Hollywood Trailblazer: ‘You Can’t Be Polite or Modest,’” Hollywood Reporter, August 19, 2020, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/issa-rae-embraces-her-role-as-a-hollywood-trailblazer-you-cant-be-polite-or-modest-4047809.
93. “I want the benefits of gentrification”: Mekeisha Madden Toby, “Emmy Nominee Issa Rae Sheds Light on Insecure Season 4 and Her Los Angeles Legacy,” Parade, September 16, 2020, https://parade.com/1019235/mekeisha-madden-toby/issa-rae-insecure-season-4.
94. “When I’m driving to work on Crenshaw”: Angelique Jackson, “Issa Rae’s Next Chapter: How Insecure Creator Is Becoming a Media Mogul with Production Banner Hoorae,” Variety, March 24, 2021, https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/issa-rae-insecure-hbo-hoorae-1234936020.
95. “ripped from under us”: Ibid.
96. “still being here”: Jessica Herndon, “Issa Rae Embraces Her Role as a Hollywood Trailblazer: ‘You Can’t Be Polite or Modest,’” Hollywood Reporter, August 19, 2020, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/issa-rae-embraces-her-role-as-a-hollywood-trailblazer-you-cant-be-polite-or-modest-4047809.
Chapter 9: Netflix’s Albanian Army
1. “‘You have to stretch it out’”: Conor Friedersdorf, “The Philosophy of Netflix: Its Chief Content Officer Champions Storytelling,” Atlantic, June 29, 2013, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/06/the-philosophy-of-netflix-its-chief-content-officer-champions-storytelling/277354.
2. “When you buy a book”: Reed Hastings, as told to Patrick J. Sauer, “How I Did It: Reed Hastings, Netflix,” Inc., December 1, 2005, https://www.inc.com/magazine/20051201/qa-hastings.html.
3. “Exposition is the writer’s enemy”: Bob Verini, “Binge Viewing Is Forcing Showrunners to Evolve,” Variety, June 19, 2014, https://variety.com/2014/tv/awards/binge-viewing-is-forcing-showrunners-to-evolve-1201221668.
4. “When you can give the filmmaker”: Andrew Romano, “Why You’re Addicted to TV,” Newsweek, May 15, 2013, https://www.newsweek.com/2013/05/15/why-youre-addicted-tv-237340.html.
5. “A simple, linear story”: A. O. Scott, “La Flor Review: Four Women in Search of a Movie,” New York Times, August 1, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/01/movies/la-flor-review.html.
6. “Streaming is like most things”: Robert King, in discussion with the author, March 17, 2022.
7. “With Money Heist”: Erik Barmack, in discussion with the author, March 28, 2022.
8. “In the early years there was more”: Ibid.
9. “We were getting all this research back”: Jenna Boyd, in discussion with the author, May 21, 2021.
10. “Hire, reward, and tolerate”: Patty McCord, “How Netflix Reinvented HR,” Harvard Business Review, January–February 2014, https://hbr.org/2014/01/how-netflix-reinvented-hr.
11. “The volume ambitions were massive”: Jenna Boyd, in discussion with the author, May 21, 2021.
12. “helping her would put a target”: Shalini Ramachandran and Joe Flint, “At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks,” Wall Street Journal, October 25, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/at-netflix-radical-transparency-and-blunt-firings-unsettle-the-ranks-1540497174.
13. “Maxing up candor”: Maureen Dowd, “Reed Hastings Had Us All Staying Home Before We Had To,” New York Times, September 4, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/04/style/reed-hastings-netflix-interview.html.
14. “complainers and pessimists”: Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer, No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention (New York: Penguin Press, 2020), chapter 1, iBooks.
15. “not that hard”: Maureen Dowd, “Reed Hastings Had Us All Staying Home Before We Had To,” New York Times, September 4, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/04/style/reed-hastings-netflix-interview.html.
16. “We’re not trying to do truth”: Joshua Caplan, “Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on Bowing to Saudi Censorship: ‘We’re Not Trying to Do Truth to Power,’” Breitbart, November 6, 2019, https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2019/11/06/netflix-ceo-reed-hastings-on-bowing-to-saudi-censorship-were-not-trying-to-do-truth-to-power.
17. “It’s actually taking funds”: Confidential source, in discussion with the author.
18. But as of 2023, Netflix is shooting: CJ Johnson, “Here’s The List of Movies Being Filmed in Atlanta, Georgia Right Now,” AtlantaFi, April 1, 2023, https://atlantafi.com/heres-the-list-of-movies-being-filmed-in-atlanta-georgia.
19. “If you go to a network and say”: Christina Radish, “Creator Jenji Kohan Talks Orange Is the New Black, Her Research into Prison Life, and Graphic Sex Scenes,” Collider, July 7, 2013, https://collider.com/jenji-kohan-orange-is-the-new-black-interview.
20. “said ‘No.’”: Jackie Strause, “Orange Is the New Black Creator and Cast Talk Binge-Era Breakthrough and Series Finale in Unfiltered Oral History,” Hollywood Reporter, July 29, 2019, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/orange-is-new-black-creator-cast-series-finale-oral-history-1227380.
21. “When I first heard about it”: David Nevins, in discussion with the author, August 9, 2021.
22. “I had come through decades of the pilot system”: Jackie Strause, “Orange Is the New Black Creator and Cast Talk Binge-Era Breakthrough and Series Finale in Unfiltered Oral History,” Hollywood Reporter, July 29, 2019, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/orange-is-new-black-creator-cast-series-finale-oral-history-1227380.
23. “It’s the Wild West”: Christina Radish, “Creator Jenji Kohan Talks Orange Is the New Black, Her Research into Prison Life, and Graphic Sex Scenes,” Collider, July 7, 2013, https://collider.com/jenji-kohan-orange-is-the-new-black-interview.
24. “That was miraculous”: Terry Gross, “Orange Creator Jenji Kohan: ‘Piper Was My Trojan Horse,’” NPR, August 13, 2013, in Fresh Air, podcast, https://www.npr.org/2013/08/13/211639989/orange-creator-jenji-kohan-piper-was-my-trojan-horse.
25. “Their opening statement was: ‘You’ve done TV before’”: Lesley Goldberg, “Weeds Creator Jenji Kohan Revisiting ‘Little Boxes’ as the Showtime Comedy Prepares to Sign Off,” Hollywood Reporter, June 15, 2012, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/weeds-jenji-kohan-final-season-spoiler-little-boxes-337979/.
26. “pissing in the corners”: Jackie Strause, “Orange Is the New Black Creator and Cast Talk Binge-Era Breakthrough and Series Finale in Unfiltered Oral History,” Hollywood Reporter, July 29, 2019, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/orange-is-new-black-creator-cast-series-finale-oral-history-1227380.
27. “was enormously challenging”: Christina Radish, “Creator Jenji Kohan Talks Orange Is the New Black, Her Research into Prison Life, and Graphic Sex Scenes,” Collider, July 7, 2013, https://collider.com/jenji-kohan-orange-is-the-new-black-interview.
28. “The pools of talent are so deep”: Ibid.
29. “character actors, women who weren’t stick-thin”: Jackie Strause, “Orange Is the New Black Creator and Cast Talk Binge-Era Breakthrough and Series Finale in Unfiltered Oral History,” Hollywood Reporter, July 29, 2019, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/orange-is-new-black-creator-cast-series-finale-oral-history-1227380.
30. “I would have given my left nut”: Diane Anderson-Minshall, “Why You Should Watch Orange Is the New Black,” Advocate, July 10, 2013, https://www.advocate.com/print-issue/current-issue/2013/07/10/why-you-should-watch-orange-new-black.
31. “You are not your crime”: Emily Nussbaum, “Jenji Kohan’s Hot Provocations,” New Yorker, August 28, 2017, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/09/04/jenji-kohans-hot-provocations.
32. “We have no makeup on”: Gabriel Mac, “Orange Is the New Black: Caged Heat,” Rolling Stone, June 12, 2015, https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/orange-is-the-new-black-caged-heat-65164.
33. “It seemed to be a show about”: Emily Nussbaum, “Jenji Kohan’s Hot Provocations,” New Yorker, August 28, 2017, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/09/04/jenji-kohans-hot-provocations.
34. “They can all fuck themselves”: Gabriel Mac, “Orange Is the New Black’: Caged Heat,” Rolling Stone, June 12, 2015, https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/orange-is-the-new-black-caged-heat-65164.
35. “There was some expectation that House of Cards”: Jackie Strause, “Orange Is the New Black Creator and Cast Talk Binge-Era Breakthrough and Series Finale in Unfiltered Oral History,” Hollywood Reporter, July 29, 2019, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/orange-is-new-black-creator-cast-series-finale-oral-history-1227380.
36. “At some point, Netflix told us that Bloodline”: Todd Kessler, in discussion with the author, July 13, 2022.
37. “Netflix didn’t really understand”: Ibid.
38. “When we win a Golden Globe”: Dade Hayes and Dawn Chmielewski, Binge Times: Inside Hollywood’s Furious Billion-Dollar Battle to Take Down Netflix (New York: William Morrow, 2022), xv.
39. “It was as if Walmart had set up”: Roy Price, in discussion with the author, March 5, 2020.
40. “If we’re talking about the golden age”: Casey Bloys, in discussion with the author, November 1, 2021.
41. “Roy’s big thing for the first year”: Ted Hope, in discussion with the author, July 21, 2020.
42. “We hired no one from the broadcast networks”: Roy Price, in discussion with the author, March 5, 2020.
43. “Roy really wanted bold movies”: Ted Hope, in discussion with the author, July 21, 2020.
44. “Amazon was happy to have Roy”: Ted Hope, in discussion with the author, July 21, 2020.
45. “They’d move in one direction”: Ibid.
46. “Still,” says an Amazon Studios executive: Confidential source, in discussion with the author.
47. “In a data-driven company”: Bob Berney, in discussion with the author, October 21, 2020.
48. “I felt like there wasn’t a future”: Ibid.
49. “We have all these customers”: Roy Price, in discussion with the author, March 5, 2020.
50. “Roy had little to do with series selection”: Confidential source, in discussion with the author.
51. “once or twice briefly”: Debra Birnbaum, “Amazon Showrunners React to Roy Price’s Ouster,” Variety, October 16, 2017, https://variety.com/2017/tv/news/amazon-roy-price-jill-soloway-tig-notaro-1202590969.
52. “‘Oh, Shonda wants Jill!’”: Joey Soloway, in discussion with the author, December 1, 2020.
53. “There are kids in school who if they”: Marti Noxon, in discussion with the author, September 15, 2020.
54. “Shonda called me into her office”: Joey Soloway, in discussion with the author, December 1, 2020.
55. “I couldn’t get my shows on the air”: Joey Soloway, in discussion with the author, November 6, 2020.
56. “My dad phoned me and told me”: Ariel Levy, “Dolls and Feelings,” New Yorker, December 6, 2015, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/12/14/dolls-and-feelings.
57. “women to feel like they’re the subject”: Jessie Katz, “Dynamic Duos: Jill Soloway and Gaby Hoffmann Are Ready to Inhabit Your Brain,” Hollywood Reporter, March 11, 2014, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/dynamic-duos-jill-soloway-gaby-687730.
58. “My agent got the word”: Joey Soloway, in discussion with the author, October 28, 2020.
59. “It wasn’t like going to CBS or NBC”: Joey Soloway, in discussion with the author, November 6, 2020.
60. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’”: Ibid.
61. “The consensus view was”: Joe Lewis, in discussion with the author, December 3, 2020.
62. “goddamn disaster”: Jane Martinson, “Breaking Bad Network Chief Calls Using Data to Pick Shows a ‘Disaster,’” Guardian, September 17, 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/sep/17/breaking-bad-network-chief-calls-using-data-to-pick-shows-a-disaster.
63. “surveillance capitalists”: Ken Auletta, “How the Math Men Overthrew the Mad Men,” New Yorker, May 21, 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/how-the-math-men-overthrew-the-mad-men.
64. “Netflix set the bar with a fire hose”: Kevin Reilly, in discussion with the author, August 13, 2021.
65. “I thought I would literally be buried”: Joe Otterson, “Ryan Murphy on Fox-Disney Merger: ‘I Thought I Would Be Buried on the Fox Lot,’” Variety, January 4, 2018, https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/ryan-murphy-fox-disney-merger-1202653472.
66. “it’s money coming at you”: Lacey Rose and Bryn Sandberg, “FX’s John Landgraf on Streaming Competition: ‘It’s Like Getting Shot in the Face with Money,’” Hollywood Reporter, August 9, 2017, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/fxs-john-landgraf-competing-netflix-amazon-like-getting-shot-face-money-day-1028106.
