Kristen Bell, Tina Fey, Bridget Everett, and the best of our Emmy Comedy Actress interviews
Over the past two months of Emmy campaigning, Gold Derby has spoken with several contenders in all categories. Now with voting underway ahead of the July 15 unveiling of the nominees, we have compiled nine interviews for stars vying for Best Comedy Actress, including: Kristen Bell (Nobody Wants This), Bridget Everett (Somebody Somewhere), Tina Fey (The Four Seasons), Kate Hudson (Running Point), Margo Martindale (The Sticky), Wendi McLendon-Covey (St. Denis Medical), Melissa Rauch (Night Court), Natasha Rothwell (How to Die Alone), and Allison Tolman (St. Denis Medical).
Read on for highlights from each interviews and links to watch our full video Q&As.
Kristen Bell (Nobody Wants This)
Created by Erin Foster and inspired by her marriage, the show follows the interfaith romance between Joanne (Bell), an agnostic podcaster, and "hot rabbi" Noah (Adam Brody).
"What I liked so much about the dynamic was I was able to see clearly Joanne was a child and Noah was an adult until they switch," Bell tells us. "But initially, Joanne is messy and can't really commit or doesn't know how to hold things down together. And Noah has all these adult attributes, like stability that she gravitates towards. And she wants that. She just doesn't know how to get it."
Watch our complete interview with Kristen Bell.
Bridget Everett (Somebody Somewhere)
In the HBO Max comedy series, Everett plays Sam, a true Kansan on the surface, but, beneath it all, struggles to fit the hometown mold. Grappling with loss and acceptance, she discovers herself and a community of outsiders who don't fit in but don't give up.
"Sam is just trying to learn to exist in these new parameters," Everett says. "You get a little bit older, people start coupling up, and if you're not one — a party of three is just a little different. That's life, so you just acclimate."
Watch our complete interview with Bridget Everett.
Tina Fey (The Four Seasons)
Fey is the star, producer, and writer of the Netflix comedy, which is a remake of the original 1981 film from star, director, and writer Alan Alda.
“It was a really conscious effort to work in a different tone,” Fey says. “We wanted to evoke the tone of the original movie. At the same time, we knew we were doing eight episodes for streaming, so we felt like we needed just enough story energy to feel like we were cliff-hangering and pulling people one episode to the next. It was a challenge for all of us to be restrained about where we put jokes. The few other characters we meet can't be too absurd. We have to stay grounded, stay tethered. And that's the goal — if we were to strip some things away, would we be able to hold tinier emotional moments and small behaviors as subtler jokes.”
Watch our complete video interview with Tina Fey.
Kate Hudson (Running Point)
In the Netflix series, Hudson stars as Isla Gordon, a fictionalized version of L.A. Lakers owner Jeanie Buss.
"Jeanie's approach, which was actually kind of surprising to all of us, was, 'Go, have fun, enjoy it, I'm hands-off.' She just was all trust. It was a great lesson," says Hudson. "When you give trust, we all want to honor what it is that she gifted us, which was this awesome place to tell amazing stories in so many different ways about family, about women, about high stakes sports. That allowed me to be able to create Isla and not do Jeanie. It isn’t a biopic. It really allowed it to take on a life of its own, which gives us freedom in comedy to separate it from the insanely high stakes world that Jeanie lives in."
Read our complete interview with Kate Hudson.
Margo Martindale (The Sticky)
The Emmy-winning star of Justified and The Americans spoke to Gold Derby about her star turn on Prime Video's The Sticky, a dark comedy about an unlikely, bumbling trio who team up to pull off a maple syrup heist.
"I love acting no matter how you throw it at me," she says. "But it was an honor to lead the tone of a show, meaning not the tone of the story, but the tone of the atmosphere of the group that, everybody's kind to each other and supportive." Martindale has long been called a "character actor," but that label has no meaning for her. "Acting is character acting. You think Meryl Streep's not a character actress? She's a character actress."
Watch our complete interview with Margo Martindale.
Wendi McLendon-Covey (St. Denis Medical)
The veteran sitcom star plays hospital administrator Joyce on the NBC/Peacock mockumentary comedy series.
“In my mind, she became an administrator because she got tired of being told how to practice medicine,” McLendon-Covey says of the backstory she created for her character. But now, instead of battling with insurance companies over patient care, all she does now is “beg for money all day. ... It's the delicious line I get to walk.”
Watch our complete interview with Wendi McLendon-Covey.
Melissa Rauch (Night Court)
Rauch plays Judge Abby Stone on NBC's reboot also starring John Larroquette.
The first scenes during the pilot, which were shot shortly after they met in person for the first time, had a real "electricity in the air," she says. And she's been picking up nuggets of wisdom ever since — down to the way Larroquette fills in the space between when the punchline lands and the audience stops laughing. "It's otherworldly," she says. "It's sort of like riding a wave and coming to the end of it. I love it so much, getting to watch him do it. … I'm constantly just taking notes from everyone."
Watch our complete interview with Melissa Rauch.
Natasha Rothwell (How to Die Alone)
Rothwell created the series, in which she plays broke, single, plus-size JFK Airport worker Mel, who is deciding she wants more out of life after nearly choking to death remains a tough pill to swallow.
"That show is the most vulnerable thing I've ever put in the world, and it remains the thing that I'm the most proud of," she tells us. "And it is definitely the product of 20 years of therapy, being able to say a lot of those things out loud. That scene in particular. … I went to school for theater. It's like, let's just treat the third act like a one act play. Let's just be in it. Let's just hear this conversation. Let's see these two people talk and say the things that have gone unsaid their entire lives, and that requires room to breathe."
Watch our complete interview with Natasha Rothwell.
Allison Tolman (St. Denis Medical)
The Emmy nominee talked to Gold Derby about playing supervising nurse Alex in the NBC/Peacock comedy series, a mom with two children at home who struggles with setting work-life boundaries.
“It can be lonely to be the straight man in a comedy like this because you’re not the one who gets the big moments or the big jokes or the big set pieces,” the actress says. But the role does have its unique attributes, too. “I really feel a kinship with the audience and I really feel like the responsibility and the honor of being their touchstone. … The joy of Alex for me is that she’s really aware of how all of this is coming off and she’s really aware of the fact that she’s being observed at all times.”