Long gone are the days of actors analyzing their craft across from James Lipton. Times have changed and so will Inside The Actors Studio, which is getting not one new host, but many. This time, actors will be discussing the art of their work with their fellow colleagues, further adding to a media era dominated by celebrity-on-celebrity interviews.
Last fall, Lipton announced he was stepping down as the endlessly curious host of Inside The Actors Studio after 25 years. The series will get a new version as it moves from its original home on Bravo to Ovation, where it’s set to premiere this fall. Instead of replacing Lipton with one host—because, truly, what shoes for one person to fill!—the new Actors Studio will feature a rotating list of guest hosts. First up to fulfill hosting duties will be Jane Lynch, interviewing David Oyelowo, and Alec Baldwin, interviewing Henry Winkler, according to The Wrap.
While the format of the new Actors Studio is expected to stay the same, it’s not hard to imagine having actors as hosts will change the nature of the conversations to some extent. That could be a fascinating thing to watch if the right hosts are paired with the right guests. But then again, at a time where professional journalists and interviewers are often replaced by celebs to interview with their fellow celebs for magazine publications—think Emma Stone and Jennifer Lawrence for Elle; Frank Ocean and Timothée Chalamet for VMan, and the many others that adopted the Interview magazine format (R.I.P)—sometimes those discussions can veer into cute, self-flattery and away from the deeper insight we’d hope get. With two actors focused on talking about the craft of acting itself, though, it could work.
The new Inside The Actors Studio premieres on October 13 on Ovation.
22 Comments
I can only assume that James Lipton’s duties as warden prevent him from returning.
And there’s also his upcoming wedding to Ice T to consider. By all accounts James cannot wait to become Mr Lipton-Ice T.
I hope the research team is the same. I always loved how sometimes actors would look at Lipton wondering how the hell he knew so much about them.
this is probably gonna be tough for you to hear, but actors act. They feign surprise when they are coached to. Many of those “surprising” details are provided by the celebrity’s publicist and the celebrity approves it beforehand. None of it is real.
Lipton was an actor (and writer, and more), though; he wasn’t a star, but he did the work.
Funny, I just saw a new issue of “Interview” on the newsstand. I picked it up to make sure I wasn’t seeing things and it was indeed a new issue. Also, how much can anyone listen to actors talk about acting, especially with each other? How about a show that rotates every member of production from directors to grips and gaffers? That I would watch, especially if the crew people had retired/quit the business and could really dish the dirt.
There are like numerous whole festivals dedicated to just that concept that people travel the world to attend so evidently a lot.
I read this headline and thought “Oh dear – did James Lipton die at some point and I missed the news?”. Quickly scoured the first paragraph and was relieved to read that, no, he’s just stepping down.Hope they keep the music at the end:
A pair of hammy over-actors who haven’t made a decent film in decades (Baldwin) or ever (Lynch)
What’s the over/under on number of times Baldwin half-listens to Henry Winkler, then makes the story about himself and smiles (or makes an OOPSY! face) at the camera?
55
I very quickly gave up on Inside the Actors Studio. Too much of This Is Your Life.And I was really disappointed in the Robin Williams broadcast. Here was an opportunity to ask him serious questions about his acting and all it was was an hour long (or however long the show was) comedy club performance.I quit watching after that.
I thought we were done with Alec Baldwin because of how big of an asshole he is?
BUT HE IS THE RIGHT KIND OF ASSHOLE, SO ITS COOLYOU FAT PIG
Oh geez, from having had to suffer through Alec as co-host of TCM’s similarly insidery styled “The Essentials” program this seems like a bad idea. He does know enough history to look competent but his presentation is unbearably unpalatable.
Genuinely horrible person Alec Baldwin already had a sit-down interview show and it was painfully bad… because he was painfully bad.More proof this dude definitely has dirt on the right people.
In all seriousness, this show in its heyday was a fascinating watch. Then it turned into actors showing up because they had a new movie coming out and it became just another talk show. Then episodes were barely made to the point where I didn’t know it was still on until this article came out.If you can find the time to watch the Robin Williams and Dave Chappelle episodes, do it.
Alec Baldwin is an exceptionally good interviewer.
Yes, he is.
His daughter begs to differ
Can’t think of this show without remembering the SNL parody, especially when “Lipton” interviewed Charles Nelson Reilly (played, weirdly enough, by Alec Baldwin). Scrumtrilescent
“WHO DARES QUESTION RYAN DORN!?”