Variety’s Co-Editor-in-Chief just pulled back the curtain on how the Actors on Actors pairings are actually decided — and it sounds more complicated than you may have thought.
Variety / youtu.be
As I’m sure you know, Variety has a long-running video series called Actors on Actors. In each episode, two performers come together for an extended conversation about their latest projects ahead of the TV and film award seasons.
Variety / youtu.be
Since its first season in 2014, the series has brought us some pretty iconic pairings, from Cillian Murphy and Margot Robbie to Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Lopez, which remain among the most-watched episodes.
Variety / youtu.be
However, there have also been a few pairings over the years that have left viewers scratching their heads for the wrong reasons. The latest instance was Chloë Sevigny and Kim Kardashian, who teamed up for an episode in the 20th season earlier this month.
Variety / youtu.be
From the moment the pairing was announced, people raised questions about why Kim — best known as an entrepreneur and reality star — was involved in the series in the first place, and why she’d been paired up with Chloë, an Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe-winning actor.
The two women share that they’ve both worked with Glee and American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy. Kim starred in American Horror Story: Delicate last year, while Chloë previously appeared in Seasons 2 and 5 of the hit anthology show. More recently, she also starred in Ryan’s Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans.
Kim and Chloë also share strong ties to the fashion industry. However, fans of Actors on Actors still couldn’t help but feel it was a little unfair to pair Chloë — who’s been in Hollywood since the ‘90s — with someone with such incomparable acting experience.
After the episode dropped on June 5, the YouTube comments section was quickly flooded with people slamming the “dreadful” pairing. “Whoever paired these two together deserves therapy,” one user wrote, amassing over 2,600 likes.
Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
“This is like pairing up a Astronaut and a kindergartener who plays with a toy rocket to talk about being an Astronaut,” added another.
And now, Ramin Setoodeh, Variety’s Co-Editor-in-Chief, has revealed that the pairing-up of Chloë and Kim was a totally last-minute decision.
Variety / youtu.be
Appearing on the June 14 episode of Citizen McCain with Meghan McCain, the Variety boss was asked if he was “surprised” by the “robust response” to Kim and Chloë’s episode. In response, he fully explained how the pairings come to be — revealing it isn’t always so simple to get the duos you want.
Citizen McCain with Meghan McCain / youtu.be
“It’s very, very, very hard to pair,” he began. “I produce it and come up with most of the pairings. And so, it’s very, very hard to do it because it’s almost like you’re setting up your friends, your very famous friends, on dates.”
“I’ll want this person to pair with that person, and then their team will say, ‘No, actually, we want this person.’ And I’ll know that that maybe won’t be as an interesting conversation, so I’ll push back,” he continued. “There have been such great pairings that I’ve been close to getting or wanted to get, and often on social media, I’ll see people are like, ‘Why didn’t they pair this person and this person?’ And often, I’ve tried, and they just wouldn’t do it with each other.”
Talking specifically about Chloë and Kim, Ramin said they weren’t initially “supposed to pair.”
Variety / youtu.be
“Kim Kardashian had someone else that she was supposed to pair with, and that actor that she was supposed to pair with called in sick on a Friday night, and Kim was supposed to do this on a Sunday,” he said. “Chloë, having been in the Ryan Murphy universe, was incredibly gracious, stepped in at the last minute, and came in and did this conversation with Kim. But that wasn’t her original acting partner.”
Notably, Ramin directly refuted speculation that Chloë was in any way offended by the pairing, revealing instead that she was actually “really excited” to chat with Kim.
Kevin Winter / The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images
“I was in the green room with her right before she went on, and they really liked each other,” he revealed. “So, a lot of what was imposed on that conversation was just imposed because I think people have strong feelings about Kim Kardashian, and they don’t like that she’s acting, even though she was the star of her own show on FX, American Horror Story.”
