HFPA in Conversation

Golden Globe-nominated actor Peter Sarsgaard opened up to HFPA’s journalist Gabriel Lerman about what he learned from the Central Intelligence Agency while playing two different CIA employees: in  the Hulu limited series The Looming Tower he portrays Martin Schmidt, the head of Alec Station a section of the Counterterrorism Center that followed the steps of Osama bin Laden before 9/11;  in the Netflix docudrama Wormwood he plays a biological warfare scientist and CIA employee who dies under mysterious circumstances. “I read this book called Like a Sea of Ashes which is also a book I really highly recommend just in terms of really understanding the CIA from its inception to now, which it’s nothing like it was at the beginning, it’s changed almost constantly I think throughout the years the way it’s organized and the way it works, because the threats have changed.

Two-time Golden Globe winner Billy Bob Thornton sat down with me at the London hotel in West Hollywood. The actor and filmmaker - currently portraying alcoholic lawyer Billy McBride in the Amazon series Goliath -  talked about the Hitchcockian elements on the series' second season.

When Sofia Boutella met HFPA journalist Anke Hofmann at the Four Seasons hotel, she told how her childhood in Algeria shaped her. “I grew up during a civil war.

HFPA journalist Ruben Nepales met Darren Criss on a busy day at the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills. Recently, Criss has been seen on FX's The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story playing a serial killer based on real-life criminal Andrew Cunanan.

Golden Globe winner James Brolin stopped by the Hollywood Foreign Press office and talked with HFPA journalist Helen Hoehne about his long career as an actor, director and producer. He first got interested in filmmaking when he was eight years old.

Spanish-born German actor and Golden Globe nominee Daniel Brühl told HFPA journalist Jenny Cooney how he played a little trick on Quentin Tarantino in his audition for Inglorious Basterds:  “By the end of the audition, Quentin said ah, that was alright, but it’s a shame that I cannot see you acting in French when you are flirting with the girl.   And I said that’s not a problem, I can translate it right away.

HFPA journalist Michele Manelis met Antonio Banderas at Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s offices in West Hollywood.   In this in-depth interview, Banderas looks back to the beginning of his career as a theatre actor and tells why he feels that theatre was like a woman he abandoned.

HFPA journalist  Jenny Cooney met the powerhouse wife-husband writing-producing team, funny and witty Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino at the Hollywood Athletic Club. They have created TV shows like Gilmore Girls, Bunheads and the Golden Globe-winning comedy series The Marvelous Mrs.

HFPA journalist Ana Maria Bahiana sat down with writer/director Kenneth Lonergan at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills.   They talked about his new miniseries, Howards End, based on the novel by E.

HFPA journalist Tina Jøhnk Christensen met actor, playwright, musician and four-time Golden Globe nominee Jeff Daniels at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s offices in West Hollywood.  They talked about the importance of his TV show on Hulu, The Looming Tower.