As showrunner of three CW shows The Vampire Diaries(Fridays at 8 p.m.
ET),The Originals(Fridays at 9 p.m.
ET), andContainment(Tuesdays at 9 p.m. Over the years, shes done both.
Credit: Michael Stewart/Getty Images; The CW
When shes in town, Plec can be found atSotto Sottoroughly three nights a week.
The owner knows her name.
The bartender knows her wine (and meal) of choice (strozzapreti and a Chianti).
And with her headphones on, Plec writes the words that will affect millions.
To talk about the family shes created.
On the actor-showrunner relationship
PAUL WESLEY:My experience has been one of safety.
I feel like theres this beautiful bond that I dont know if Ill ever experience in my lifetime again.
JULIE PLEC:We probably never will.
Thats what I keep realizing.
WESLEY:But youve worked on shows for a lengthy period of time, what is it ordinarily like?
There are great rules that Ive just completely st on probably.
WESLEY:TV is a really weird thing because you could potentially be together for six, seven years.
PLEC:In five minutes youre making this choice.
Fear is generally a repressive quality.
The other thing thats great about Julie is work ethic.
I know a lot of producers and showrunners that are 9-to-5ers.
This table is one third of my life.
WOOD:Ians [Somerhalder] not here, so thats …
WESLEY:Hes the other two thirds.
DANIEL GILLIES:Of all of our lives.
WOOD:Of everyone here, really.
And I fully applaud people who can figure that out.
But a lot of times the personal life overlaps.
I have a deep-rooted personal life with all these people here.
GILLIES:Yeah but I know doctors who work less hard than you.
WESLEY:Oh my god, yeah.
WOOD:Youre also smart about surrounding yourself with people that you trust.
PLEC:Its been really easy to delegate onContainmentbecause the show is so real-world.
WOOD:Theres no mythology.
It doesnt have to have my signature on it for it to be good.
Most of these scripts onContainmentdont have my signature on it, and I love it.
GILLIES:Are you getting better at delegating?
PLEC:100 percent, because the show allows for it.
There are people in our writers room who know more about medicine than I ever will.
But in a vampire universe, like who knows more?
[Laughs]
WOOD:The answers nobody.
PLEC:Thats the thing.
Youre making it all up, right?
Powerfully good, but hard.
You second-guess everything, whereas in a medical virus show, its medically accurate or its not.
So the mysterys gone.
You have to continue trying to find new storylines.
Its hard to find the balance.
What do you feel when you get hammered with ratings?
So I can make that excuse all day long, or I could say nobodys watching live TV.
But thats true for everybody so you cant really target that as the reason for a ratings decline.
It was massive, the biggest premiere for the CW.
But also,Twilightwas really popular and it was a very zeitgeisty thing.
And now,True Bloodhas ended.
Second is I think some genre and long-running series fatigue that is to be expected.
Thats also one of the great things about working on the CW.
PLEC:They keep shows on in spite of ratings because they want the shows to live on.
So we do get that freedom.
I dont think Ive had anybody ever say to me, Well, what are you doing for sweeps?
Every episodes sweeps, you know?
NEXT: What does it take to run three shows?
Plec manages to get out, Daniel and Paul and Chris before Wesley interjects had a threesome.
Plec adds, Are good friends, completely oblivious to the interruption.
After seven years, shes used to it.
An actors job; we should all be trying to elevate the work.
If were taking something and just handing it out at the same dimension, then why are we here?
GILLIES:I agree.
Its radio with models.
WOOD:An actors only perception is of their character and theyre looking at one piece.
A writer is looking at the entire story.
Theyre going to see things that the writer didnt see because theyre only looking through their lens.
WESLEY:And vice versa.
WOOD:Absolutely, which is why the debate has to happen.
GILLIES:Its a beautiful debate.
The issue I think in the United States is this weird idea that confrontation is bad in this country.
You cant do collective art with people without there being debate.
And thats actually a great, great thing about Julie.
Youre always trying to find the best way.
WOOD:Shes focused, but shes malleable.
Nothing is too precious.
PLEC:Its all very precious.
I resent everything that theyre saying.
[Laughs]
GILLIES:Thats not true.
Whats the most important thing for a showrunner theres two parts to that.
One is permission to fail, and two is give me the fking ball.
GILLIES:Im a little bit Denzel, lets be honest.
[Laughs]If only in looks.
Spike Lee goes, Its like what they say when theyre talking about Jordan: Give him the ball.
Just give him the ball.
I like to be given the ball.
GYASI:For me the word is flexibility.
What Im trying to do is make the best show that I can make.
PLEC:If we do it well, then Im okay if people dont like it.
WESLEY:Thats whats hard about being a showrunner though.
I would imagine that its difficult to be in that place and feel safe and comfortable in that place.
GILLIES:Thats not a concern.
PLEC:[Laughs]Daniels like, Trust me youre not.
My fear is 1.
Not to be a pushover.
GYASI:I dont envy it.
PLEC:Its crazy.
But I think that, for me, the key word is compassion.
Is that really what they meant?
And more often than not, the truth is in some sort of in between.
Rarely is someone an asshole, a bad person, a diva, a sthead.
GILLIES:Now and again though…
PLEC:Now and again.
Every now and then people are just fking crazy, you know?
Showrunning is an arrogant job.
You have to be arrogant and hold yourself strong in order for people to hear you.
Confidence partners with arrogance.
The only person you have to trust is yourself.
The only instinct it’s possible for you to trust is your own.
WESLEY:Arrogance is good.
PLEC:Because somebody needs to be the person that makes the decision.
Gyasi returns, and Gillies and Plec work together to catch him up on her thoughts on compassion.
WOOD:Thats why my one word was bullst and it was two words: Firm malleability.
PLEC:Thats an oxymoron.
GYASI:Thats the point.
I think thats the word right?
When youre unwilling to be flexible.
[Plec looks to Wesley to see if shes correct.]
WESLEY:Youre the writer.
PLEC:Oh fk it.
If you are too malleable, you are weak.
And your point of view is confused.
That, to me, is a fate worse than death.
Id rather not work.
Id rather go back and wait tables.
I liked waiting tables.
GILLIES:God, youd be the richest waiter in the world.
PLEC:Dude I was really good.
[Laughs]It goes back to family.
Youre not going to award internet television and certainly not the CW.
Do you ever feel that theres an injustice to that?
They nominated Keri Russell; they nominated Sarah Michelle Gellar.
And I was like, St!
That actually couldve legitimately been Ninas award.
But were a show that shoots in Atlanta.
The Golden Globes are a campaign awards.
WESLEY:Also theres a stigma with a supernatural show.
So at least acknowledge him in some way.
Dont give him an Emmy, I dont care.
But find a way to acknowledge the craftsman.
GILLIES:Well I am.
Its no big deal.
WESLEY:No carb Mondays.
I never want to hear your fear of dirtying someone up because of the online grid that were on.
That is completely counterintuitive to what were doing.
WESLEY:I think so.
PLEC:SoArrowandFlash, they do those shows very smartly and they spend money and they do them well.
And they dont say, Oh were on the CW therefore we dont have to try that hard.
Its free reign, which I love.
GILLIES:Lets talk aboutReign.
[Laughs]
WOOD:No one talks aboutReignanymore.
GILLIES:Lets talk about making it rain.
Lets go to the fking strip club.
