My colleague Yvonne Zusel covered aTVFest while I was out of town. Here are some highlights filed Monday, February 9, 2015:
If you were tracking the whereabouts of the stars of your favorite TV shows this past weekend, chances are all roads led to Atlanta.
Primary cast members from “The Mindy Project,” “Empire,” “How To Get Away With Murder,” “Girls” and other critically acclaimed shows descended on Midtown from Feb. 5-7 for SCAD’s third annual aTVFest, an event that celebrates all things television with panels and workshops featuring actors, directors and other industry insiders.
aTVfest also screened episodes of shows and honored big names, including "Empire" star Terrence Howard, who received the Spotlight Award, "American Crime Story" actor Timothy Hutton, who received the Icon Award, and Jack Falahee, Aja Naomi King, Matt McGorry, Karla Souza, Charlie Weber and Liza Weil from "How To Get Away With Murder," who received the Rising Star Award.
The stars – many of whom were visiting Atlanta for the first time – sat for interviews before their panels to discuss their shows and their southern experiences (see photos from the event here).
“The Mindy Project”
Credit: Yvonne Zusel
Credit: Yvonne Zusel
In Atlanta for the first time, Mindy Kaling hit up the interactive theater show "Locked In A Room With a Zombie" and ate at Kevin Gillespie's Glenwood Park restaurant Gunshow with the show's writers and co-star Ike Barinholtz.
“Gunshow? More like Funshow!,” Barinholtz said. “It was unbelievable.”
“It was delicious, and all the chefs were hot,” Kaling said.
SPOILER ALERT: Kaling, whose character on the Fox show recently found out she's pregnant, said Mindy Lahiri will be a great mother in that "she'll think her child is special and perfect. But she'll be the worst pregnant woman in the world…She doesn't want to not drink and not eat fattening foods."
“Or not go to clubs and slay dudes,” Barinholtz added.
Credit: Yvonne Zusel
Credit: Yvonne Zusel
“Empire”
Actor Terrence Howard and show creator Lee Daniels – who became close while working on the 2013 film "Lee Daniels' The Butler" -- were
celebrating the buzz around their record-breaking Fox hip-hop soap opera, set in New York and filmed in Chicago.
So will we ever get an Atlanta story arc?
“For sure,” Daniels said. “How can you have a show about hip-hop and not include Atlanta in the house? And then have some (Real) Housewives on it, too.”
“Atlanta is the hotbed of fashion and the hotbed of music,” said Howard, who plays family patriarch Lucious Lyon. “A lot of musical artists, hip-hop, country, pop stars – a lot of them live here and hail out of Atlanta, and I think it’s going to continue to grow more and more from that.”
“How To Get Away With Murder”
The ensemble cast – many of whom have found breakout roles on the Shonda Rhimes-produced ABC crime drama – proved to be a tight-knit crew who palled around between interviews.
Jack Falahee, who plays law student Connor Walsh, said being on a Rhimes show is like being “part of a family.”
Credit: Yvonne Zusel
Credit: Yvonne Zusel
“We share a (studio) lot with “Scandal,” and so it’s really nice just to have all of those alums come by our set and say hi, have coffee with us, give us some advice, invite us over to the White House,” Falahee said.
The gang – who are dealing with the fallout of the death of the husband of law professor Annaliese Keating (played by Viola Davis) – hinted at what's to come for the rest of the season.
“It kind of kicks into high gear, and if you thought there wasn’t downtime before, there’s really no downtime now,” added Katie Findlay, who plays Rebecca Sutter who’s (seemingly) wrongly accused of the murder of a pregnant college student.
Liza Weil and Matt McGorry, whose characters, law assistant Bonnie Winterbottom and law student Asher Millstone, had a one-night stand in a recent episode, said the relationship will be explored over the course of the next few episodes.
“It kind of shifts,” Weil said.
“Like any new relationship, there’s ups and downs,” McGorry said. “You’re figuring out the other person, you’re figuring out, is this right or is this wrong? The initial complications, them working together, don’t make it any easier, and them being in very different places in their lives. Either way, whether they end up continuing to be together or not, it’s certainly going to be addressed, it’s going to be the elephant in the room.”
Credit: Yvonne Zusel
Credit: Yvonne Zusel
Girls
It was the men of “Girls” that hit up Atlanta to talk about the HBO show.
John Glaser – who played Hannah's drug addict neighbor Laird in seasons two and three – said his character makes a triumphant return this season.
“He comes back, he’s cleaned up his act, and he’s driving a Corvette. It’s pretty sweet.”
The romantic entanglements of the show’s female foursome will hit some interesting snags this season, particularly in the case of exes Ray and Shoshanna, who seem to be circling a reconciliation.
“I think they’re trying to find out if they make good friends, and if so, what are the contours of their friendship,” said actor Alex Karpovsky, who plays Ray and begins shooting the movie “Folk Hero & Funny Guy” in Atlanta this week. “How much can they use each other, how much can they learn from each other, how much can they share with each other, how much can they grow from each other? And I think that’s kind of where they’re going, at least for the first leg of the season.”
Potentially an even bigger question – will we ever get to hear Andrew Rannells, who plays Hannah’s flamboyant friend Elijah and has starred in several Broadway musicals – sing again on the show?
“No immediate plans for that, but we’ll see,” Rannells said.
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