What they said: A look back at the interviews of 2022

Here, from our interviews, a look back at what they said.

LUKE GRIMES (“Yellowstone”)

How close is “Yellowstone” to the real Montana?

“There’s a lot less murder and it’s a little less dramatic,” says Luke Grimes, the actor who plays Kayce Dutton, the laid-back son of Kevin Costner’s John Dutton.

TRACEE ELLIS ROSS (Producer and host of “The Hair Tales”)

Life as the daughter of Diana Ross: “Her beauty was never a hindrance to me. It was an inspiring platform for me to springboard.”

MAX THIERIOT (Creator and star of “Fire Country”)

As daunting as his high-profile jobs may seem, Thieriot says the words of his grandfather resonate: “Make hay while the sun shines.” “It’s like, I’m young, it’s time to work and I can do it.”

REBA MCENTIRE (musician and guest star of “Big Country”)

“When I first started to have to memorize lines that didn’t rhyme — and there wasn’t a melody — it was really, really hard,” she says. “I would try to hum along to something and try to associate. Repetition is the way I memorize.

“What (boyfriend Rex Linn) calls ‘walking and talking,’ that’s hard. But it’s easy for me because when I’m singing I have to sing and get to this point because the lighting has to be there when I’m on stage. So that helped me with that. The acting is just being a ham and trying to get attention.”

LESLEY MANVILLE (Oscar nominee and star of “Magpie Murders”)

“Magpie Murders,” she says, heightened her own sleuthing skills. “If I wasn’t an actress, I’d be a detective because I would make a brilliant one. I’ve had ex-boyfriends who still don’t know how I found out stuff about them and, honestly, they’ll never know.”

ZACH WOODS (star of “Avenue 5”)

“When we went into lockdown, I did suddenly think, ‘Oh, our show’s way more relevant.’ And that was was exciting, but I have no idea what it’d be like to be stuck on a ship,” Woods says. “Genuinely, I think it would be even more harrowing because you can’t step outside. At least in the pandemic, you could step outside.”

ANIKA NONI ROSE (Tiana in “The Princess and the Frog”)

“You can only expect so much from people,” she explains. “Being a role model is being the best ‘you’ you can. I’m not always going to conduct myself in a way somebody else thinks I should – I have my own triggers and joys and hurt – but I need to live up to my own standards.”

That’s Tiana. “She’s strong. She looks very much like me and I can turn 92 and there will always be that version of me. It’s phenomenal.”

SHERYL LEE RALPH (co-star and Emmy winner of “Abbott Elementary”)

“People talk about your phone blowing up, but my phone absolutely blew up,” she says, just days after getting the award for Best Supporting Actress. “I’ve heard from all kinds of people – a mayor, a governor, a prime minister. People I went to grade school with, junior high and high school. The president of the university I went to reached out on social media because, ‘at least I know you will get the message there.’

“It has been just unbelievable. Even producers that I worked with. I also had to ask them, ‘Why didn’t you hire me again?’ It’s been like nothing I have ever experienced before.”

DIEGO LUNA (star of “Andor”)

“You can’t leave the gray areas out when you talk about a revolution,” he says. “When you talk about people surviving, the judgment is different. We’ll get to explain that and we’ll get to show you a community. It’s quite unfair to call the show ‘Andor’ because this is about a community. Our strength is in numbers.”

JACKSON WHITE (star of “Tell Me Lies” and the son of Katey Sagal, who plays his mom in the series)

“It was intimidating,” he says of acting with her, “because I didn’t want to be so passive/aggressive to her. I think we’re pretty good friends and I realized that it was hard to be so mean to each other.”

BRIE LARSON (Oscar winner and producer of “Growing Up”)

“I’m a super feeler,” Larson adds. “I feel people’s energy and all of these young people do as well. I was just there to kind of hold the room and be there if anyone needed anything. Very quickly, no one needed me to do anything.”

STEVE CARELL (Star of “The Patient”)

“You don’t play the research,” Carell explains. “Because then it’s very thin. You try to arrive on the first day as prepared as you can be. But once you’re there, either it’s inside of you to a certain extent or it’s not.”

DANNY DEVITO (voice of Satan on “Little Demon”)

“It was really liberating,” he says of playing the role. “We’ve all done voices but to put it all together in each stage with the demons — that was a really incredible experience. It allows me to play all of the devilish things that I’ve always done in my career. It also gives me a family to care about.”

KELLY MCCORMACK (star of TV’s “League of Their Own,” who says the show’s immortal line)

When McCormack learned she would say, “There’s no crying in baseball,” “I was absolutely terrified. I just wanted it to happen and then I could move on with my life.”

JEREMY ALLEN WHITE (star of “The Bear”)

“Carmy’s identity is so wrapped up in being a chef. He thinks if he fails at this thing, his life is going to end. As a younger actor, I think my identity was certainly very wrapped up in acting and what I do. I don’t know how well I knew myself outside of that.”

JASON EARLES (former star of “Hannah Montana” and guest on “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series”)

Singing, dancing, acting? “There’s no faking it,” Earles says. “Nobody is pretending like they can dance when they can’t actually dance. I think there’s a level of authenticity now in these young performers. You could fake more stuff back in the day.”

STERLING K. BROWN (star of “This Is Us”)

Life after “This Is Us”? Brown says he’s looking forward to an “E! True Hollywood Story” 20 years from now: “It’s going to be awesome,” he says. “It will be like the ‘Friends’ reunion.”

SHERYL CROW (focus of documentary, “Sheryl”) 

Now, at 60, “I’m writing my best work. To know that it simply would not get played because of my age…is demoralizing. I have more things to write about now. I feel liberated in my art because I’m not thinking about how to compete with the youngsters. I have embraced getting old and, in some ways, it’s liberating. But, at the same time, I want women to know you shouldn’t be kicked over to the side of the road or forced off the swing set just because your face isn’t perfect and you don’t have butt implants.”