AS REAL AS IT GETS

Laura Dern

“I’ve never cried so hard over a script in my life. I remember being 6, 7 years old, watching my mom [Diane Ladd], on a movie with Scorsese, my dad [Bruce Dern], on a movie with Hal Ashby, listening to the words, watching their collaboration, and going, ‘I want to do that thing.’ I read Noah’s script and said, ‘This is the kind of movie that made us want to make movies.’ ”

Dern to Josh Rottenberg about Noah Baumbach’s script for the Netflix film “Marriage Story.” Sunday Calendar, Sept. 8

Jodie Comer

“What I love about playing her is I am always encouraged to take risks. You don’t want people to underestimate her or not believe her danger, but ultimately, people should have fun with her, they should live through her mischief and naughtiness and her — this may sound weird — but her kind of honesty. That’s what I admire about her, anyway. I think she’s extremely honest, maybe too much sometimes . ... It’s nice that people are maybe taking me seriously. It’s kind of fun when they’re scared of me too.”

Comer to Yvonne Villarreal on playing the fashionista assassin Villanelle in “Killing Eve.” Daily Calendar, April 6.

Asia Kate Dillon

“I was assigned female at birth. I have light skin, which I think I benefit from. I’m thin, I’m fairly androgynous-looking. I feel those things make it easier to absorb my identity. Had I been assigned male at birth and I were a person of color and wore stereotypical feminine clothing ... well, I know from the experience of my friends who are like that that they are not as readily accepted. It is trans women and femmes of color, nonconforming trans people of color who started the queer revolution long before I was born. Those are the people who are still the most marginalized and the most disenfranchised from the movement that they started.”

Dillon to Greg Braxton. Sunday Calendar, June 2

Jharrel Jerome and Niecy Nash

“This was real life; he really went through this. And here I am playing somebody who has never been seen — like, really seen — before. He’s my brother now . ... I look up to his courage.”

Jerome to Yvonne Villarreal on playing Korey Wise, wrongly convicted in the Central Park Five case, in Ava DuVernay’s Netflix limited series “When They See Us.” Daily Calendar, June 1

“I have a son who isn’t much older than Jharrel Jerome. I have personal experience with raising a black man in today’s climate. Then you have to marry all that with the character of a mother and what she was walking through until her son was released from prison. It wasn’t something you could breeze through. It wasn’t like, ‘Upset mom! I got this!’ ”

Nash to Margy Rochlin on playing Deloris Wise, mother of Korey Wise. The Envelope, Aug. 22

Jay L. Clendenin Los Angeles Times LAURA DERN’S driven career woman in HBO’s “Big Little Lies” set the table for her buzzed-about performance as the driven divorce lawyer in Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story.” She’s also Marmee March in Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women” and earlier this year was in the Liam Neeson revenge thriller “Cold Pursuit.”

Brian van der Brug Los Angeles Times IN “KILLING EVE,” Jodie Comer’s Villanelle has an unexpected wit and fashion sense that makes her one of TV’s most fascinating characters. Plus, we love watching the sexual cat-and-mouse tension between Villanelle and Sandra Oh’s Eve.

Marcus Yam Los Angeles Times JHARREL JEROME, left, won an Emmy this year for his performance in Ava DuVernay’s Netflix limited series “When They See Us,” which cast a harsh light on the prosecutors of the Central Park Five case. Niecy Nash, right, who stars in the TNT dramedy “Claws,” played the mother of Jerome’s character.

Wally Skalij Los Angeles Times ON “BILLIONS,” Asia Kate Dillon’s math-genius character has been “a teaching tool,” they say, “about nonbinary gender identity as well as finance and corruption.” Dillon also made an impression this year as the Adjudicator in “John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum.”