In Greenroom Confidential, reporters and editors at TODAY.com share a look at what actors, authors, performers and more guests told us behind the scenes at TODAY. This first week of April, some of Hollywood’s biggest stars rolled through Studio 1A, from Kevin Bacon and Jenny Slate, to Danielle Brooks and Glen Powell. Take a peek!
Jason Momoa had a proud dad moment
After Jason Momoa spoke to Craig on the air Monday about his role in “A Minecraft Movie” — his first comedy role, if you can believe it — he chatted with TODAY.com a bit about parenting his two kids, Lola, 17, and Nakoa-Wolf, 16. His daughter is a singer, he said, while his son is pursuing acting.
“He really loves it,” Momoa added. “He just did a play last night. He was amazing in it. … He had to do a monologue from ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.’ It was a big, like, conglomerate of different kids doing different things, and he got to do ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.’ He did great.”
How Michelle Buteau handles it all with ‘Survival of Thickest’
Also on Monday, Michelle Buteau stopped by Jenna & Friends to tell Jenna and guest co-host Olivia Munn about the second season of her Netflix series, “Survival of the Thickest.” She’s a co-creator, executive producer and star of the show and told us in the greenroom that it takes a “deep rooted sense of confidence” to be all three.
“Rejection is a part of it, and rejection is actually kind of fun — to know that it’s going to work out no matter what,” she said. “I think people get caught up in, ‘They said this and they don’t want this from me, and they canceled me.’ Yeah, that s— is going to happen no matter what. … It’s not supposed to be easy the whole time. That’s so boring. You get comedy from pain. So experience it, go through it, and then write about it.”
The lesson Hannah Einbinder learned from Jean Smart
“Hacks” is back for a fourth season on Max, and star Hannah Einbinder stopped by Tuesday to tell Jenna and Olivia Munn about what she and co-star Jean Smart have up their sleeves for their characters this time around. Einbinder and Smart are friends outside the show, and Einbinder told TODAY.com that she’s learned a lot from her co-star.
“Just as a person, she really shows up for people,” Einbinder said. “She’s really present, and she really, like, remembers birthdays and buys presents, and is, you know, attending what’s important to you, making sure that she’s there. She says yes to a lot. It’s huge.”
Judy Greer believes her pal Jennifer Garner is ‘superhuman’
Walking out of the TODAY greenroom Wednesday, Judy Greer was “starstruck” during her run-in with “The Pitt” star Isa Briones, who happened to be there to support her friend.
“I was so excited. I hugged her!” she said. Greer raved about the HBO medical drama: “I I grew up watching Noah Wyle be a doctor, and I hope to die watching Noah Wyle be a doctor.”
Greer, who was here this week to promote her movie “Eric LaRue,” was also spotted filming Season 2 of “The Last Thing He Told Me,” alongside her friend and “13 Going on 30” co-star Jennifer Garner.
“Jen is exactly the kind of friend you would imagine. People are like, ‘What’s she really like? ‘I’m like, ‘She’s really like that. Whatever you’re thinking, she’s perfect in every way. She’s better than the rest of us. She’s somehow superhuman. I don’t think I’ve ever read a text message from her that didn’t make me laugh,” she said.
Glen Powell was once ‘traumatized’ by ketchup
Glen Powell stopped by TODAY Wednesday to discuss his new condiment line, and we learned about the time he was “traumatized” by ketchup in a sleepover mishap as a kid. He later held court in the TODAY greenroom, passing out samples from Smash Kitchen. At one point, he and Kristin Davis chatted about being on airplanes playing “Top Gun.”
On the show, he discussed bringing Sydney Sweeney to his sister’s wedding. He also gave more details about the celebration, including what he shared in his toast.
Kristin Davis shares her wisdom with the Home Edit ladies
Kristin Davis — on the show Wednesday to talk about her podcast, “Are You a Charlotte?” — taught Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin of The Home Edit breathing techniques that help them adjust to the spotlight. It’s not the first time she’s helped people out.
“When people who are not performers are thrust into, you know, the public eye it’s hard, it’s really hard,” she said. “You forget to breathe.”
How Joanna Teplin and Clea Shearer get their kids to clean up
Joanna Teplin and Clea Shearer, the duo behind The Home Edit, a home organizing brand, on Wednesday let TODAY.com in on the tough love method they use to encourage their kids to clean up.
“The thing is, literally, if anything is out of place, I’m like, ‘Well, I’m going to donate it,’” Shearer said. “I assume you don’t like it.”
She said she “100%” follows through on her threats to donate. “I don’t even let them own enough things to get messy because I can’t have it in my house,” she said. “It makes me insane. So I’m going to donate it.”
Kevin Bacon has one place he goes to every week
After revealing to Savannah and Craig on Thursday that his new-found love of doing jigsaw puzzles helps shut off his brain for a while, Bacon chatted about his latest role as a demon hunter in the supernatural-action series “The Bondsman.”
Bacon later talked to TODAY.com about the upcoming Netflix series “Sirens,” in which he once again stars alongside Julianne Moore, his love interest in the film “Crazy, Stupid, Love.”
“She’s amazing,” he said of Moore. “I mean, she’s just one of the greats and an absolute joy to work with.”
Outside of working with the “great cast” of the new show, which also includes Meghann Fahy and Milly Alcock, Bacon said that making “Sirens” had another benefit.
“It was here in NYC and I could sleep in my own bed,” he says. “Which is not a requirement, but it is a bonus.”
His other favorite pastimes? Going to the movies.
“I go to them, I would say, once a week,” he says. “I go to the theater, sit in the room, get the popcorn, go through that experience, because I love it.”
Danielle Brooks shares what inspired her daughter’s name
Danielle Brooks told TODAY.com on Thursday she can’t wait to bring her 5-year-old daughter, Freeya, to see the new “Minecraft” movie she stars in opposite Jack Black and Jason Momoa.
“As soon as I get home, I’m doing a private screening in Georgia. I get to take her. I cannot wait,” she said. “We’re going to watch this movie in a room full of family and friends. It’s going to be fun.”
Speaking of Freeya, Brooks also shared the inspiration behind her daughter’s name: She wants her to feel free, “plain and simple.”
“I want her to walk in this world and just know that whatever she wants to do, wherever she wants to be, she has the freedom to do so without judgment from her parents. I’m excited for to see who she becomes. We obviously still want to have structure in her life, but the freedom to be the human that she wants to be is important,” she said.
How Jenny Slate connected to the real-life person who inspired her new role
Jenny Slate is only choosing projects that let her go “full wingspan,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. What does that mean, exactly?
“It means to me that I’m really touched by the material,” she told TODAY.com on Thursday. “I want to do projects that reflect how much I believe in myself.”
Slate stars opposite Michelle Williams in the FX series “Dying for Sex,” which premieres April 4. In the series, which is based on a true story, Williams plays Molly, a woman who embarks on a sexual awakening after being diagnosed with cancer. Slate is her best friend, Nikki. (As for the real-life inspirations: Nikki Boyer is an executive producer on the show; Molly Kochan died of breast cancer in 2019.)
Slate remembered a day that stood out from set when she felt a connection to Kochan. At the time, Slate and Williams were waiting in an apartment in Brooklyn to film a scene.
“I was thinking about Molly and feeling just really intense emotions. And I looked out the window and there was this absolutely beautiful apple blossom tree. I felt so strongly a connection to Molly in that moment. That beautiful blooming. And I remember thinking like, I will really, really try to do my best by you,” she said.
What Rachel Brosnahan will bring to Lois Lane
Rachel Brosnahan has a new spy thriller movie called “The Amateur,” in which she stars alongside Rami Malek, and dropped by Studio 1A on Friday to share all about it. It was perfect timing, too, as a trailer for “Superman,” in which Brosnahan steps into the iconic character of Lois Lane, had also dropped the day before.
So how did she prepare to step into Lois’ shoes?
“She’s one of the characters that’s evolved the most in the history of these comics,” she told TODAY.com. “She always represents whatever the modern intrepid journalist who is hungry and courageous and determined feels like, and that’s looked like a lot of different things over time. So (writer-director) James (Gunn) laid the roadmap for us with his brilliant script. We had a lot of conversation about how he saw this character fitting into the canon of previous ‘Superman’ iterations, and then, and then just spend a lot of time trying on things for size.”
What Dichen Lachman thinks about those goats in ‘Severence’
“Mum” was totally the word when “Severance” actor Dichen Lachman spoke on TODAY about spoilers for the Season 2 finale. The cliffhanger left fans pondering the fate of Lachman’s character, Gemma Scout, otherwise known as Ms. Casey.
While Lachman couldn’t say what’s to come when the series returns, she did talk to TODAY.com about the show’s other compelling topic: those goats!
“I do believe that the others had an opportunity to work with the goats,” Lachman said. “I, sadly, only got to sort of wave to them from afar. But they’re so cute.”
Perhaps it was for the best, because according to the Australian actor, working with goats can sometimes be a real challenge.
“I did, once, in a very old movie, get head-butted by a goat. That wasn’t on film, but I have worked with goats before and they can be quite diva-ish,” she laughed.
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