9.0/1012 votes#1 - Amy Schumer & Lily Tomlin
Season 3 Episode 1 - Aired 12/12/2015
Amy Schumer and Lily Tomlin tackled tough roles this year. Schumer wrote and starred in “Trainwreck” as a hard-partying journalist who reluctantly falls in love; in “Grandma,” Tomlin’s character must drive her granddaughter to an abortion clinic. At Variety‘s Actors on Actors studio, they discuss the joy of playing unlikable women.
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NaN/100 votes#2 - Bryan Cranston & Jason Segel
Season 3 Episode 2 - Aired 12/12/2015
Both Bryan Cranston and Jason Segel established themselves with long-running TV shows. Now both are playing real-life writers on the big screen: Cranston as the titular blacklisted screenwriter in “Trumbo” and Segel as “Infinite Jest” author David Foster Wallace in “The End of the Tour.”
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8.4/109 votes#3 - Cate Blanchett & Ian McKellen
Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 12/12/2015
After journeying to Middle-earth together for the “Lord of the Rings” movies, Cate Blanchett and Ian McKellen are playing more grounded roles in this year’s films. In “Mr. Holmes,” McKellen stars as the famous detective in old age. Blanchett pulls double duty in “Carol,” as a 1950s housewife who falls for a younger woman; and in “Truth,” in which she plays embattled “60 Minutes” producer Mary Mapes.
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NaN/100 votes#4 - Charlotte Rampling & Isabella Rossellini
Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 12/12/2015
Veteran actors Charlotte Rampling and Isabella Rossellini trade stories about Hollywood and their new dramas.
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NaN/100 votes#5 - Samuel L. Jackson & Michael Keaton
Season 3 Episode 5 - Aired 12/12/2015
Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Keaton have shared the screen several times, in comedies like “The Other Guys” or dramas such as Quentin Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown.” Jackson is reunited with Tarantino for “The Hateful Eight,” in which he plays a bounty hunter in post-Civil War Wyoming. Keaton leads an impressive ensemble in “Spotlight,” Tom McCarthy’s drama about Boston Globe reporters who broke the story of the Catholic Church’s cover-up of child molestation by priests.
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NaN/100 votes#6 - Steve Carell & Rooney Mara
Season 3 Episode 6 - Aired 12/12/2015
After earning Oscar nominations for their breakthrough film roles — Rooney Mara as the hardened sleuth Lisbeth Salander in “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and Steve Carell channeling John du Pont in “Foxcatcher” — the two actors are back with very different performances. Mara is shy and subtle as a young woman in the 1950s who falls for Cate Blanchett’s lead character in “Carol.” And Carell is all manic energy and heart in “The Big Short,” which details the individuals who cashed in on the recent housing collapse.
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NaN/100 votes#7 - Will Smith & Benicio Del Toro
Season 3 Episode 7 - Aired 12/12/2015
Benicio Del Toro landed an Academy Award for 2000’s “Traffic,” in which he played a conflicted police officer. His new film, “Sicario,” puts him back in the world of drug trafficking, but as a very different character — a mysterious, dangerous man bent on revenge. Will Smith has earned two Oscar nominations for playing real-life people in “Ali” and “The Pursuit of Happyness.” He stands to earn his third nod for his portrayal of Dr. Bennet Omalu, a doctor who fought against the National Football League to expose the danger of head trauma in players. Among many topics, the two spoke about their mutual love of Roger Deakins and Eddie Murphy.
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NaN/100 votes#8 - Brie Larson & Joel Edgerton
Season 3 Episode 8 - Aired 12/17/2015
Brie Larson (“Room”) and “Black Mass” actor Joel Edgerton talk about the making of their new films.
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NaN/100 votes#9 - Carey Mulligan & Elizabeth Banks
Season 3 Episode 9 - Aired 12/17/2015
Elizabeth Banks and Carey Mulligan are earning buzz for their portraits of strong women: Banks won some of the best notices of her career playing Melinda Ledbetter, the wife of Beach Boys singer Brian Wilson in “Love & Mercy”; and Mulligan portrays a working-class wife and mother who joins the fight for British women’s right to vote in “Suffragette.”
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NaN/100 votes#10 - Kate Winslet & Saoirse Ronan
Season 3 Episode 10 - Aired 12/17/2015
Saoirse Ronan and Kate Winslet each won acclaim as teenagers. Ronan was 13 when she earned an Oscar nom for “Atonement,” while Winslet was 17 when she burst onto the scene in Peter Jackson’s “Heavenly Creatures.” In their new films, both use accents that are not their own. Ronan headlines “Brooklyn,” playing an Irish girl who immigrates to New York in the 1950s. Winslet disappears behind a wig, glasses, and a Polish accent for “Steve Jobs” to portray Joanna Hoffman, a friend and adviser to the Apple founder.
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NaN/100 votes#11 - Paul Dano & Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Season 3 Episode 11 - Aired 12/17/2015
This year, both Paul Dano and Joseph Gordon-Levitt portray real-life legends on screen; Dano plays the young Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys in “Love & Mercy,” while Gordon-Levitt takes on the role of wire-walker Philippe Petit in “The Walk.
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NaN/100 votes#12 - Seth Rogen & Jennifer Jason Leigh
Season 3 Episode 12 - Aired 12/18/2015
Seth Rogen (“Steve Jobs”) and “The Hateful Eight” star Jennifer Jason talk about awkward auditions and the challenges of shooting their acclaimed new dramas.
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The Best Episodes of Variety Studio: Actors on Actors Season 3
Every episode of Variety Studio: Actors on Actors Season 3 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Variety Studio: Actors on Actors Season 3!
PBS SoCal and Variety take you inside the biggest movies and T.V. shows of the past year through candid conversations with today's hottest actors. Hosted...
Genre:Talk
Season 3 Ratings Summary
"Amy Schumer & Lily Tomlin" is the best rated episode of "Variety Studio: Actors on Actors" season 3. It scored 9/10 based on 12 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 12/12/2015. This episode is rated NaN points higher than the second-best, "Bryan Cranston & Jason Segel".