Amy Landecker's 'Throwing Out the Spanx' and Gaby Hoffmann's Wearing Minimal Makeup at the Emmys

A majority of Hollywood’s A-listers are most likely already prepping for the Emmy Awards on Sunday night, getting colonics, manicures, pedicures, and rushing off to last minute fittings. But Gabby Hoffmann and Amy Landecker couldn’t care less about the pre award show hoopla. “Gabby has taught me to have fun and to minimize the efforts so I can enjoy the day,” Landecker tells Yahoo Style during a recent phone interview to promote Season 3 of Transparent, which premieres on Amazon Prime on Sept. 23. The co-stars made a pact to “toss out the rules” and take the stress out of the typically hectic time leading up to television’s most prestigious night. Landecker is throwing out her Spanx and limiting her time in the hair and makeup chair to one hour, while Hoffmann will continue her tradition of sipping a cocktail and simultaneously trying to convince her cosmetologist friend to apply the least amount of product to her face as possible. “You can do your job and be yourself and be comfortable all at the same time,” Hoffmann exclaims, who is nominated this year for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

And while there’s already been enough drama on Transparent to garner lots of acclaim, Ali (Hoffmann), Sarah (Landecker), and the rest of the Pfefferman clan will create even more chaos when the show returns. “I get to destroy a couple more lives,” Landecker jokes. Yahoo Style caught up with the actresses to discuss playing Wheel of Fortune with Caitlyn Jenner, the secrets to acting convincingly high on screen, and why they love portraying characters that are “perpetually screwed up.”

Yahoo Style: It seems like every season you guys get away with more on screen. Is that the case with Season 3?

Gabby Hoffmann: Yeah, hopefully we’ll keep diving and delving and destroying for years to come.

Amy Landecker: I get to destroy a couple more lives. It’s a fun season. Season 1 and 2 there was a theme of “will you love me if I do this?” And I think Season 3, Jill [Soloway, the show’s creator] and the writers wanted to explore the concept of “here I am.” I think it’s even on the billboards this year. And it’s part of a religious ceremony in Season 3, which is just this sort of “proclaim yourself and let the chips fall where they may and not even be so concerned about another person’s approval.” Shelly’s character (Judith Light) has a great year for that and one of the themes too is coming out of your shell. And we have a pet turtle that is sort of a metaphor for all of us. I think the strong themes of this year are “say what you need to say and be who you are even more assertively and without any need for approval.”

What do you think makes the Pfeffermans so lovable and relatable to such a wide array of people? Especially given the fact that on the surface, you guys are pretty screwed up.

AL: That’s why!

GH: I think because we as people are so fantastic that you can’t help but love us. Nah. I’m just kidding! I actually think they are very funny. I think without humor and without self awareness or irony, you might find them really annoying. But I think since there is such a great sense of humor to this show and to the characters, you’re allowed to connect. I think anyone who behaves boorishly but without a good sense of humor is not as fun to watch. I know that in my own personal life, the people who I have dated who are funny can get away with a lot more than the people who aren’t.

AL: I haven’t watched much television in the past 15 years but it seems like most of the shows that get a lot of attention have pretty nasty protagonists, be it Mad Men or The Sopranos or Curb Your Enthusiasm. And what makes them interesting is that they are very bad people doing very bad things but they are also human and vulnerable and we get to see how dynamic they are. So we’re doing a lot less bad things but we are also very vulnerable and human. And I think people like to see people who are screwed up because who the hell wants to watch someone who isn’t?

GH: And who isn’t screwed up really?

AL: And because it’s done with so much heart and humor, it’s powerful; it’s not just palatable. I’m so moved by this humanity that I am offered when I watch these incredible people that I get to work with.

One thing that is always funny to watch is how well you execute the scenes where your characters are high. What is the secret to acting convincingly high for the cameras?

GH: Our energy with each other is so intoxicating and silly that acting, the mere suggestion of it…

AL: We’re all very suggestible. It’s really easy and fun and there is a playful atmosphere on set anywhere so to add a dose of fake cannabis makes it even more ruckus.

It seems like you ladies have really done your drug specific homework. Is that true?

GH & AL (in unison): Yes!

GH: I don’t remember the drug I took in Season 1. Was it Molly? I’ve never taken that in my life. But I’ve taken other drugs. I’ve taken some drugs. I’ve had my fair share of all forms of intoxication. It’s very easy for me to recall them (laughs).

AL: Have you ever heard of contact high? It’s sort of like creating that without the actual initial. But you start to play off of each other’s energy and all of a sudden everybody feels high.

GH: Or you just smoke a joint!

AL: Or you get high. There’s that (laughs).

Caitlyn Jenner makes an appearance on this season. Of all the scenes that you thought you would share with her Gabby, did you ever think you would end up playing Wheel of Fortune together?

GH: Sure! It’s a Transparent set. It’d be a fool’s errand to try to predict what’s coming.

What was it like having her on set?

GH: It was great. She’s great. She is a real natural. She was very funny. She was very good at improv. She was just lovely. I had actually never met her before. Everybody else knows her and had spent a lot of time with her and I just was never at any of those events. I was just excited to meet her and it was a lot of fun.

A lot of people were campaigning to have her on the show so you must have been thrilled when it actually happened. What kind of energy did she bring to the set?

AL: Well she’s been a fan of the show since the beginning and has been very vocal about that. Van Barnes and Zackary Drucker, who are involved in our show, were also on I Am Cait, particularly Zachary. So there’s been a sort of sisterhood between the two shows. So it was very much like family coming to visit. It was very relaxed and open and lovely.

Did seeing Caitlyn on set make you even prouder to be a part of this show and tell the story that you’re telling?

AL: I think what I feel most proud of is when there are trans people in the camera department and wardrobe department and accounting department. Caitlyn is a very famous, beautiful, powerful trans woman but what’s more profound of an experience is when you see the employment and the participation on every level of a group of people that particularly in our society have been extremely marginalized and separated. Alexandra Grey is the African American first trans woman in this season. And for me it was very profound at the table to watch her have a beautiful role to play that had depth and dimension, which I think is hard for trans actresses to find. Caitlyn is amazing, but it’s the little things in life, as they say. It’s sort of those smaller victories that feel more profound. Those are people who really don’t have the money and support and power and fame that Caitlyn has. And she’s been very generous with that and is trying very hard to help people with less of a voice. But I also feel like our show really puts their money where their mouth is in terms of trying to infuse some economic reality into that community in Los Angeles. So I’m really proud of that.

Is it refreshing for you ladies to be able to portray these real, complicated characters, women who aren’t necessarily all dolled up and revered as sex symbols for a change?

GH: I thought I was a sexy symbol!

AL: Nobody’s ever complicated me with a sex symbol! … I do think that because our writers are sexual older women – I mean Gaby’s not older but I’m an older generation female. We get to have a fully realized three dimensional sexually complicated portrayal because our writers are given a voice. And I think as long as we employ female writers who have lived lives that are interesting and complicated, then the characters will reflect that.

One of the reasons you get two dimensional females in TV and film is that they have been written by men and I just think to write a character that is really authentic, it has to come from your voice. What’s great about our writers’s room is that we run the gamut from cisgender Jewish boys from the Eastside to gender queer from San Francisco to trans — probably the first staff writer that is trans in television history. And then we have seasoned show-runners. We have Jessi Klein who was from Amy Schumer. So we get to a lot of really authentic, smart, interesting voices.

The other thing that Jill does is we employ almost exclusively female directors, although we do have one trans male who directed two seasons in a row. She is very proactive in getting womens’s perspectives behind the camera, in front of the camera, in the writers’s room. I’m excited that it’s not just women who are watching the show. Women have been consuming mens’s stories for many, many years. Men are happy to consume womens’s stories, as long as they are well written and well acted and they are fun.

GH: And I think that finally with the last couple of decades, people are finally realizing that you don’t have to talk down to the audience and that people want to see interesting dynamic characters — that it’s boring to look at a pretty girl being pretty. You want to see human beings!

Congrats on the Emmy noms. What’s the day of the show preparation plan looking like?

AL: I have to tell you, Gaby has taught me to have fun and to minimize the efforts so that I can enjoy the day. So I usually hang out with my kid, order room service, and do an hour of hair and makeup. And last year I officially threw out Spanx for the rest of my life! So I will be a Spanxless, slightly made up actress on the red carpet (laughs).

GH: My friend comes and does my makeup and we argue over how much she is going to put on me because I’m always trying to have less and she’s always trying to have fun putting on more. And then I have a cocktail and I go and try to make jokes and be light.

AL: We have a really good time on the red carpet together.

That sounds so much less stressful than everyone else’s getting ready plan. I love it.

AL: Well who made the rules and when did we decide it has to be that way? It doesn’t mean you don’t care. I feel like Gabby has also taught me it’s not about not showing up and participating and caring about it, it’s just doing it in a way that feels more joyous and celebratory and free rather than oppressive.

GH: You can do your job and be yourself and be comfortable all at the same time!

I love that you’re the red carpet coach Gabby.

GH: Yes!

AL: (Laughs).

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