There’s something that just feels right about Patti LuPone playing a grand old Hollywood dame. The Broadway legend fits right in as one of the stars of Ryan Murphy’s new Netflix series Hollywood, playing Avis Amberg, wife to the head of Ace Pictures. She’s sexually and maritally frustrated, but through some twists and turns, starts to see her life turn around. It’s a perfect role for LuPone, which makes perfect sense, considering Murphy said he penned it just for her.
Dylan McDermott also fits perfectly into his character, the suave gas station owner Ernie, who’s also getting a little something extra on the side, thanks to his handsome station attendants’ willingness to take drive-up clients to “dreamland.” The A.V. Club talked to LuPone, McDermott, and David Corenswet, who plays one of those Hollywood-starved pump junkies, about what it meant to make Hollywood under the actual Hollywood sign.