Dustin and Danes.

TV The last series of Homeland began well, fell into a trough that it now appears occured because of the contractual requirement to serve some actors and their regular characters, before triumphing phoenix-like in its final few episodes when it essentially became 24 with a college degree. Which isn't to say Claire Danes wasn't entirely impressive throughout, especially when the material allowed their to sour. Now here's an artifact: it's from last month's Interview magazine and its Danes being interviewed by one Dustin Hoffman, whose clearly a bit of a fan of Homeland but never seen her earlier work or knows much of her back story so she has to fill in the blanks and of course it's how she fills in those blanks, what she decides is important, which makes it interesting. Here she is on My So-Called Life:

"It's kind of fun to watch My So-Called Life when it comes on, though. There are only 19 episodes, which actually seems like a lot now that I do 12 episodes a season on Homeland. But it was a strange, cult thing where we didn't even do a full season, but the episodes that we did do got picked up and were rerun by a bunch of different cable networks, so the show was on for years and years and years—and was discovered by different generations, which was extraordinary. I guess I knew it was special back then, too, but it was my first big gig, so I had no sense of context. But I became close with a lot of people involved—and I am still. It was a seminal experience for me, both professionally and personally. The writer of the show, Winnie Holzman, is still a very dear friend of mine. She's kind of my mentor—my fairy godmother, I call her. But that was wild because I was the same age as the character, and there was an incredible symmetry between us—unlike Carrie Mathison, who in no way resembles me. I would be the worst case officer on the planet. I am so ill suited to Carrie's vocation. But Angela Chase was just another high school student."

There are also the moments when there careers and contacts intersect in interesting ways. Good interview. Also dying to know when they both felt they were being inhibited by directors whose vision didn't quiet match theirs.