Inside the Actors Studio is an American television show on the Bravo cable television channel, hosted by James Lipton. It is produced and directed by Jeff Wurtz; the executive producer is James Lipton. The program, which premiered in 1994, is distributed internationally by CABLEready and is broadcast in 125 countries around the world reaching 89 million homes.[1] It is currently taped at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University's New York City campus.[2][3][4]
Contents
- 1 About the program
- 2 In popular culture
- 3 Guests
- 4 Ensemble guests
- 5 Declined/standing invitations
- 6 DVD releases
- 7 Further reading
- 8 References
- 9 External links
Guests
Guest list for the show sorted alphabetically by last name. For a full list of episodes, see List of Inside the Actors Studio episodes.A
B
- Lauren Bacall
- Alec Baldwin
- Antonio Banderas
- Roseanne Barr
- Drew Barrymore
- Ellen Barkin
- Kim Basinger
- Jason Bateman[7]
- Kathy Bates
- Ned Beatty
- Halle Berry
- Juliette Binoche
- Jack Black
- Cate Blanchett
- Alex Borstein
- Julie Bowen
- Jeff Bridges
- Matthew Broderick
- Josh Brolin
- Pierce Brosnan
- Carol Burnett
- Ty Burrell
- Ellen Burstyn
- Gabriel Byrne
C
- James Caan
- Nicolas Cage
- Michael Caine
- James Cameron
- George Carlin
- Jim Carrey
- Stockard Channing
- Dave Chappelle
- Don Cheadle
- George Clooney
- Glenn Close
- Chris Colfer
- Jennifer Connelly
- Bradley Cooper[cast 1]
- Francis Ford Coppola
- Kevin Costner
- Russell Crowe
- Tom Cruise
- Billy Crystal
- John Cusack
D
- Willem Dafoe
- Matt Damon
- Geena Davis
- Benicio del Toro
- Robert De Niro
- Johnny Depp
- Danny DeVito
- Cameron Diaz
- Matt Dillon
- Stanley Donen
- Michael Douglas
- Robert Downey, Jr.
- Richard Dreyfuss
- David Duchovny
- Olympia Dukakis
- Faye Dunaway
- Robert Duvall
E
F
- Peter Falk
- Jesse Tyler Ferguson
- Sally Field
- Ralph Fiennes
- Colin Firth
- Laurence Fishburne
- Jane Fonda
- Harrison Ford
- Jodie Foster
- Michael J. Fox (with Tracy Pollan)
- Jamie Foxx
- James Franco
- Morgan Freeman
G
- James Gandolfini
- Andy García
- Richard Gere
- Ricky Gervais
- Danny Glover
- William Goldman
- Whoopi Goldberg
- John Goodman
- Hugh Grant
- Lee Grant
- Seth Green
- Melanie Griffith
H
- Gene Hackman
- Jon Hamm
- Tom Hanks
- Ed Harris
- Jared Harris
- Teri Hatcher
- Ethan Hawke
- Goldie Hawn
- Salma Hayek
- Christina Hendricks
- Mike Henry
- Dustin Hoffman
- Philip Seymour Hoffman
- Anthony Hopkins
- Dennis Hopper
- Ron Howard
- Kate Hudson
- Helen Hunt
- Holly Hunter
- John Hurt
- Anjelica Huston
I
J
- Hugh Jackman
- Anne Jackson (with Eli Wallach)
- Samuel L. Jackson
- Norman Jewison
- Billy Joel
- Elton John
- Angelina Jolie
- January Jones
- Tommy Lee Jones
K
L
- Martin Landau
- Diane Lane
- Nathan Lane
- Jessica Lange
- Anthony LaPaglia
- Queen Latifah
- Hugh Laurie
- Jude Law
- Martin Lawrence
- Denis Leary[7]
- Spike Lee
- Jennifer Jason Leigh
- Jack Lemmon
- Jay Leno
- Jerry Lewis
- Laura Linney
- James Lipton[cast 2]
- Jennifer Lopez
- Julia Louis-Dreyfus
- Sidney Lumet
- Jane Lynch
M
- Seth MacFarlane
- Shirley MacLaine
- William H. Macy
- Leslie Mann
- Mary Stuart Masterson
- Ian McKellen
- Lea Michele
- Bette Midler
- Arthur Miller
- Liza Minnelli
- Mo'Nique
- Cory Monteith
- Julianne Moore
- Mary Tyler Moore
- Jeanne Moreau
- Matthew Morrison
- Eddie Murphy
- Ryan Murphy
- Mike Myers
N
O
P
- Al Pacino
- Gwyneth Paltrow
- Sarah Jessica Parker
- Estelle Parsons
- Arthur Penn
- Sean Penn
- Bernadette Peters
- Michelle Pfeiffer
- Brad Pitt
- Amy Poehler
- Sydney Pollack
- Tracy Pollan (with Michael J. Fox)
- Natalie Portman
Q
R
- Daniel Radcliffe
- Robert Redford
- Vanessa Redgrave
- Christopher Reeve
- Burt Reynolds
- Julia Roberts
- Chris Rock
- Diana Ross
- Mickey Rourke
- Mark Ruffalo
- Meg Ryan
- Mark Rydell
S
- Susan Sarandon
- Robert Schneider
- Martin Scorsese
- Kyra Sedgwick
- Charlie Sheen
- Martin Sheen
- Brooke Shields
- Kiernan Shipka
- Martin Short
- Neil Simon
- Gary Sinise
- Christian Slater
- John Slattery
- Will Smith
- Stephen Sondheim
- Sissy Spacek
- Kevin Spacey
- Steven Spielberg
- Sylvester Stallone
- Ben Stiller
- Sharon Stone
- Eric Stonestreet
- Meryl Streep
- Barbra Streisand
- Donald Sutherland
- Kiefer Sutherland[cast 3]
- Hilary Swank
T
V
W
- Mark Wahlberg
- Christopher Walken
- Eli Wallach (with Anne Jackson)
- Barbara Walters
- Naomi Watts
- Sigourney Weaver
- Matthew Weiner
- Forest Whitaker
- Betty White
- Gene Wilder
- Robin Williams
- Bruce Willis
- Debra Winger
- Kate Winslet
- Shelley Winters
- James Woods
- Joanne Woodward
Z
Ensemble guests
- Cast of Everybody Loves Raymond: Ray Romano, Patricia Heaton, Brad Garrett, Doris Roberts, and Peter Boyle
- Cast of Family Guy: Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Seth Green and Mike Henry[7]
- Mila Kunis, who plays Meg Griffin, had a schedule conflict and was unavailable.[8]
- Casts of Law & Order: creator Dick Wolf, Chris Noth (Law & Order; Law & Order: Criminal Intent), S. Epatha Merkerson (Law & Order)
- Christopher Meloni (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) had to leave before his interview during the taping because of an illness he had that day, he was edited out of the introduction since he was not able to be interviewed during the show.
- Cast of The Producers musical: director Susan Stroman, Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick
- Cast of The Simpsons: Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer
- Kavner left in the middle of the show without an on-air explanation, leaving an empty chair for much of the show, until it was removed during a commercial break. When James Lipton appeared on The Simpsons Season 13 DVD Audio Commentary (Episode "The Sweetest Apu"), he explained that Kavner was scheduled to go to Shelter Island on Long Island on an 11:15pm ferry, so she had to leave. Although Kavner is known for not approving of doing her Marge Simpson voice in person, she did perform the voice (as well as that of Patty and Selma Bouvier) while hiding her face behind a cardboard cutout of Marge's face.
- Cast of Will & Grace: Debra Messing, Eric McCormack, Sean Hayes, and Megan Mullally
- Members of Bon Jovi: Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, David Bryan and Tico Torres
- Cast of Modern Family: Ed O'Neill, Sofia Vergara, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Eric Stonestreet
- Cast of Glee: Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Chris Colfer, Jane Lynch, Matthew Morrison, and creator Ryan Murphy
- Cast of Mad Men: Jon Hamm, January Jones, Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks, Kiernan Shipka, John Slattery, Jared Harris and Matthew Weiner
Declined/standing invitations
- Gregory Peck repeatedly turned down Lipton's offer to be interviewed ever since the beginning of the show, but he finally agreed to do so. However, he died before his scheduled appearance in 2003.
- Adam Sandler, George Lucas, Woody Allen, Howard Stern, Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Chevy Chase, Daniel Day-Lewis, Denzel Washington, Michael Keaton, Bill Murray, Warren Beatty and Sean Connery all declined the chance to appear on the show. Any and all prospective guests that elude the opportunity to visit the Actors Studio are given a standing invitation every year.
- When the program was based at New School University, Gary Oldman was selected as the most popular request for which guest should come visit the Actors Studio. As of 2011, he has not appeared on the show.
- From the show's beginnings, Lipton had tried to persuade Marlon Brando and Katharine Hepburn to come on the show. Although they were both members of the Actors Studio, neither wanted to interrupt their retirement from show business. Hepburn died in 2003, and Brando died in 2004.
