The threat of AI replacing human creativity loomed large over the 2023 Webby Awards Monday night.

During the New York ceremony honoring the best of the Internet, host Roy Wood Jr. frequently did battle with what was introduced as an AI voice, which claimed it could replace Wood Jr. as host due to all it had learned about humor. Initially appearing as a graphic on a screen with a computerized voice, the AI later took the form of a small child, Kanye West and Wood Jr. himself, as the bit continued throughout the show.

Every time, though, the AI, which called itself “Asshole,” wasn’t able to get much of a response from the audience with its jokes, allowing Wood Jr. to dismiss it by saying things like “Get out of here, Asshole.”

Before the Webbys AI stole the spotlight, Wood Jr. spoke about the dangers of the technology, which is one of the issues at the center of the ongoing writers strike.

“People are concerned, and rightly so,” Wood Jr. said of the rise of AI, specifically calling out, “what it could do to the film and TV industries.”

“It’s important we remain vocal when it looks like companies are going to be shady in how they use AI,” he added, before advising the audience at Cipriani Wall Street that the tech companies experimenting with AI work in the same industry as the people behind Fyre Fest.

Later, he joked about another threat posed by AI. As dinner was served, he urged the audience to “get that chicken before ChatGPT.”

“It’s only a matter of time before AI comes for the food,” he added.

With the Webbys taking place against the backdrop of the strike, Wood Jr. also joked that absent honorees Kerry Washington and the SmartLess team of Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett weren’t there because “they got hired to write the new season of everything.” In all seriousness, though, the host wished Washington and the SmartLess team well, indicting they were sick.

And before the ceremony, Wood Jr., winners and presenters talked to The Hollywood Reporter about attending this event amid the strike.

Wood Jr. highlighted the “irony” of the role of the internet in raising awareness of the strike.

“If not for the internet, the writers strike, in terms of the level of knowledge and being able to spread the word about what’s happening, there would be a bit of a muzzle on it because then we’d be at the mercy of local press,” he said. “The web has been one of the most integral tools in terms of spreading awareness about what’s happening with the writers strike, but also it’s one of those things where tonight we want to honor people that have helped to make the web a better place.”

Wood Jr., who previously hosted the Writers Guild Awards New York ceremony, said it was “bittersweet” to be at this celebratory event amid the backdrop of the strike “turmoil.”

“What’s happening with the writers strike is very, very important and it’s something that I hope gets resolved very very soon. I really do,” he told THR. “When you look at not only the writers but the other industries that are going to start to be affected by this if the shutdown goes on too long, that’s something that could definitely be fiscally devastating.”

Daily Show alum Wyatt Cenac, who filled in for a raspy-voiced Wood Jr. as host for part of the ceremony, took advantage of his attendance at the event to raise awareness of the strike.

“To me, I feel like if I can use this opportunity as a way to keep talking about the strike and what the writers, but also what so many people in Hollywood and the general labor movement is fighting for, fair wages and working conditions, that’s what I try to use it for,” he told THR.

Honoree Sharon Horgan, who expressed her full support with the striking writers to THR ahead of the event while clarifying she was attending as an actor, used her five-word acceptance speech to advocate for her fellow scribes.

“Pay writers what they deserve,” she said.

Fellow honoree SZA ended the night with a similarly memorable speech, declaring simply, “The internet scares me; thanks.”

Late last month, the Webbys announced this year’s winners, including Hoda Kotb, Anderson Cooper, The Hollywood Reporter‘s Blackfamous roundtable and the “Always & Forever” video supporting reproductive rights.

Producer Mary Ann Marino, and co-founder Gutsy Media, the company behind the 60-second ad, talked to THR about the impact she and the Gutsy Media team hoped their win would have.

“Especially right now, where abortion bans are ripping through the country, if this continues to bring the pressure on state legislators to pass abortion protections around the country,” Marino said, “we’re thrilled the Webbys are acknowledging this real issue for everyone in the country.”

Gutsy Media co-founder and producer Julie Hermelin added of ongoing efforts to restrict access to abortion, “We can’t let this issue fade into the background and become a new normal. We need to keep telling these stories. There was a silence around these stories for decades and in that silence these bans happened. People think, ‘Oh, it’s inevitable.’ It’s not inevitable. We can change this.”

Other honorees at Monday night’s event included Tracee Ellis Ross, Tobe Nwigwe and emoji creator Shigetaka Kurita.

Louis Theroux is not comfortable with the disruptor moniker. He almost recoils at the notion, sitting back in his chair, chewing over the word and its literal, historical and symbolic connotations. “It has become a cliché; it’s definitely a cliché,” he eventually says.

But then comes one of the pensive expressions Theroux is famed for. His eyes fixed behind black-rimmed glasses. A man silently arguing with himself, jostling for clarity of thought. Suddenly, a revelation. Maybe he is a disruptor after all — or at least he once was.

“There’s a sense in which I came along in my presenting work and was a bit of a disruptor,” Theroux decides. “I took elements of conventional presenting and elements of classical vérité filmmaking and combined them.”

His talent in front of the camera was spotted by Michael Moore, who gave him a starring role in NBC’s TV Nation, interrogating evangelical Christians about the end of the world and launching mortars at an Arkansas shooting range. By 1998, he had graduated to his own show on the BBC, Louis Theroux: Weird Weekends, and he has remained a durable screen presence ever since. 

Theroux enjoys an almost unique status in the U.K. He is a respected journalist, author, and interviewer whose brand of immersive reporting does excellent business for the BBC, and Netflix, which licenses his films. He is also adored by legions of internet fans, who have printed his face on T-shirts, spammed social media with Theroux memes, and turned his viral  “Jiggle Jiggle” rap into an actual Jason Derulo hit. Some even describe him as a national treasure.

“Once you’re recognizable, and your shows do well, then audiences respond and come to your programs in the future,” he says, about his longevity. 

So, you might find it surprising to learn that Theroux is deliberately doing less of what has made him a success. For the second act of his career, the filmmaker is handing over the presenting keys to others through his production company, Mindhouse. He’s still keeping his hand in on-screen, but right now, Theroux is intent on building something bigger than himself. 

He agreed to this interview because he wants to raise awareness for his producer-first reincarnation, arguing that Mindhouse is now a serious player in the documentary and podcast space. The company, co-founded by Theroux’s wife, Nancy Strang, and former BBC producer Aaron Fellows, boasts 16 employees and an equal number of announced commissions.

These include Prime Video film KSI: In Real Life, spotlighting the outrageously successful YouTube star JJ Olatunji, and Sex Actually with Alice Levine, now in its second season for Channel 4. Theroux also talks animatedly about Gods of Snooker, a three-part BBC deep dive into the breakout stars of the British table sport. Theroux does not feature in the Snooker series, but he drunkenly re-watched it recently and was left glowing with pride about what Mindhouse is attempting to achieve. “That’s very big-headed of me,” he says with a knowing smile. 

Four years ago, Theroux was still a BBC employee, producing and presenting only his own films in a small enclave of BBC Studios. He remains umbilically linked to his former employer through a development deal, which Mindhouse recently renewed for 12 months. He also continues to present shows for the U.K. broadcaster, though he feels that the success of his back catalog on Netflix means audiences no longer consider him a BBC star.

How would he fare if he ran the Gary Lineker gauntlet? Or, to put it another way: if, like the Premier League presenter, Theroux skewered the government’s asylum policy on Twitter, would it send the BBC spiraling into an impartiality crisis because he is perceived to be a BBC presenter? No is his answer, but that’s largely because he wouldn’t have tweeted in such a nakedly political way in the first place. 

“It’s always been more helpful for my work if my true opinions are kept slightly ambiguous,” he says. “It’s my job as a presenter and journalist to have a freewheeling critical attitude; to have an all-purpose, polyvalent sense of subversiveness so I can upset any political orthodoxy.”

Theroux adds that this goes to the heart of his documentary-making: “I try not to make audiences too comfortable and try to challenge the viewer about whatever particular received opinion they hold. If you’ve got an attitude that is capable of surprising, which is unpredictable, then I think that’s a much more interesting place.” 

So much of Theroux’s work is marked by his desire to find nuance, to spend time with people to understand their outlook, no matter how extreme their views. He recently filmed with Nick Fuentes, a leading figure in America’s white nationalist far-right movement. Past documentaries have seen him explore Scientology and immerse himself in the Westboro Baptist Church, an organized group that pickets funerals with incendiary homophobic signs.

Does Theroux believe that people are less tolerant of those they disagree with? His response is carefully worded. Theroux thinks that social media has “collapsed” the public and private spheres, meaning we all know what everyone else is thinking and are “constantly being shocked and outraged” by one another. Having said this, he does not subscribe to the idea of cancel culture, which he considers simplistic and unhelpful.

“There are people who are censorious, quick to judge, and overly sensitive. There are also people who are trolls and provocateurs who are attracting clicks and views based on being outrageous,” he says. “Can cancel culture be a real thing in a world in which Andrew Tate can get hundreds of millions of views and build a media empire by pushing misogynistic messaging?”

Theroux thinks provocateurs can be canceled in a very literal sense, such as being blocked on social media or banned from university campuses, but he is skeptical of the idea that freedom of speech is being strangled. “The notion that we’re in a suffocating and censorious atmosphere, which has been pushed and amplified by people like Piers Morgan, is obviously not the case in any simple and straightforward way,” he adds.

However, Theroux acknowledges that certain subjects have become increasingly complicated to discuss. He agrees that it would have been “more difficult” to make his 2015 documentary, Transgender Kids, in a climate in which gender identity has become one of the vogue issues of the so-called culture wars. 

Somewhat ironically, he praises a one-time subject matter for plotting a successful path through the debate, saying he enjoyed The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling podcast by Megan Phelps-Roper, a reformed member of the Westboro Baptist Church. Phelps-Roper has gone on her own journey from extreme to enlightened and applied this experience to hours of interviews with Rowling, who has become equal parts pariah and heroine for her staunch position on transgender ideology. 

Podcasting is a medium that comes naturally to Theroux after he launched his own BBC interview show during lockdown in 2020. Grounded with Louis Theroux has evolved into Spotify exclusive The Louis Theroux Podcast, a long-form interview format produced by Mindhouse. “Podcasting at its best is about authenticity, and that’s very much in the DNA of all the programs I’ve made. I’ve always valued the parts of my shows that feel real and unexpected,” he says.

Mindhouse is building out its podcasts business with another series featuring Rylan Clark, a British presenter known for his work on Big Brother and the Eurovision Song Contest. The interview podcast is titled Rylan: How to Be a Man and features guest including comedian Phil Wang. Theroux interviewed Clark and says he is an exceptional broadcaster. “He’s like warm maple syrup being drizzled into your ear,” he laughs. 

Theroux clasps for a piece of paper featuring what appears to be prompts for our interview. There are lots of presenters he is developing projects with, he says, including Amelia Dimoldenberg, whose YouTube Chicken Shop Date series gave rise to Theroux’s “Jiggle Jiggle” rap. He is also developing projects with Netflix and A24, though is reluctant to reveal any further details. Theroux also declines to comment on a yet-to-be-announced documentary Mindhouse is making for CNN and the BBC about the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003. 

Scripted is another area of interest for the company. “There’s something beautiful about telling stories where you don’t have that restraining influence of worrying about the real-life people behind it, whether it’s platforming them or their vulnerability,” Theroux says. Getting a drama away would be a full-circle moment for Theroux, who wrote TV scripts as a child.

His love of the medium is obvious, but are we getting to the point where audiences have too much of a good thing? Is there too much television? 

“It feels like there’s been a thinning of the herd,” he says. “It seemed to me that there was a tipping point when CNN+ broke down its data. They launched with tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars, and then they found out that in America, only 10,000 people a day were watching. A mid-level TikToker or YouTuber was getting bigger numbers than the CNN streaming service, which sort of tells you everything you need to know about television in 2023.”

What was the last thing he watched that blew his mind? “Probably Watchmen, the Damon Lindelof series on HBO,” he says. There’s a mention for White Lotus too. “I like really good television. I mean, I’ll watch crap television too. But I prefer to watch TV that is outstandingly creative and interesting.”

The conversation points us back to the BBC, which he says is “embattled” by the big streaming services. Theroux would like to see the license fee survive beyond 2027, when the U.K. government says it plans to scrap the funding mechanism, raising questions about the corporation’s future. “If you look at the TV landscape in America, it’s very far from ideal,” he says. “I know that it makes some of the best programs in the world, but when you go there, you do miss the BBC. You miss that sense of the calm, center-ground voice.”

You can take Theroux out of the BBC and set him free in the world of independent production, but you will never take the BBC out of Theroux.

SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from “It Chooses,” Episode 8 of “Yellowjackets” Season 2, now streaming on Showtime.

In the last moments of the Season 1 finale of “Yellowjackets,” viewers were tipped to the fact that Lottie was alive and well, and out there somewhere in the world. In the show’s second season, the adult version of Lottie, played by Simone Kessell, is revealed to be running a wellness center in Upstate New York — and there’s been an air of doubt around her. Can she be trusted or not?

As it turns out, not.

Lottie’s sessions with her therapist have been purely a figment of her imagination, and she’s still haunted by the Antler Queen, as well as her past in the wilderness.

Episode 8 sees Lottie’s mask really come off, as she reveals to her fellow Yellowjackets that they have to make a blood sacrifice, and their past has caught up with them.

In a climactic scene, surrounded by Shauna (Melanie Lynskey), Misty (Christina Ricci), Natalie (Juliette Lewis), Taissa (Tawny Cypress) and Van (Lauren Ambrose), Lottie offers them a Russian roulette round of tea. One cup is poisoned, and not even she knows which one.

Kessell spoke with Variety about her own confusion surrounding Lottie’s therapy sessions. “I didn’t know,” admits the actor, whose also plays Princess Leia’s mother Breha Organa in Disney+s “Obi-Wan Kenobi” and Blackbeard’s (Taika Waititi) mother on HBO Max’s “Our Flag Means Death.”

“My confusion as Simone was very real.”

The therapy revelation heralds a turning point for the character, says Kessell: “She is unhinged, and has fully unraveled — and something needs to change. We move into another realm of Lottie.”

Kessell also shares her take on whether the women are indeed suffering from PTSD, or if there’s a supernatural force at play.

Let’s go back to the therapy sessions for a moment, and Lottie’s therapy being a figment of her imagination. There was something off with the framing which hinted at that, but how much did you know?

I did not know until later. I want to preface it with, we decided the therapist would wear the same color palette as Lottie in her civilian clothes. She would be in a cream, and Lottie would be in cream. We purposely matched them, so it was subliminal, and it doesn’t click until it does.

Someone said, “Well, you know she’s not real.” And I asked, “Who’s not real?” I spoke with the director about it, and it was great because as an actress, I had the illusion that she was real in that first session. With the second, I was a bit confused, and by the third therapy session, she was the Antler Queen. So my confusion as Simone is very real.

It gives me chills, because Jennifer Lines [who played the therapist] was great. She went out, and came back as the Antler Queen, and I thought, “Oh wow” — because it was the full costume, and she sits in the armchair, and we do the scene again. It’s quite harrowing and haunting, because it’s such a vision of what these girls went through.

So, when we see the Antler Queen in her full regalia, it means that the past has caught up to the present day, and the wilderness is there with them. And something has to change, because she’s really seeing it.

We get a hint of it when Natalie is in her lap, and she looks over and she sees a shadow. But for the first time as an audience, we’re seeing this as the symbol of the past. I think it’s Lottie’s big turning point in the season that there is no therapist, that she is unhinged and has fully unraveled and something needs to change. We move into another realm of Lottie.

But aren’t they all unhinged?

They are all unhinged. The others are really grappling with it in their own ways, and they’re all in a little bit of denial, but for the most part, Lottie realizes before the others that something drastic needs to happen. It’s more than just a sacrifice, it’s a blood sacrifice. She’s so tormented by the past that Lottie says, “I will take my own life if it means we can all be free of this pain.”

When you think of what the girls went through, the trauma and PTSD, how did you dive into Lottie, and unpack her when you don’t know what was going to happen?

I don’t know. It’s so honest and real. When I can, I take a moment from Courtney Eaton’s Lottie, and I put it in my pocket and I cherry-pick: I wonder if that would vibrate in her now as a woman in her mid-’40s.

There’s a moment where Melanie Lynskey’s character Shauna has the goat, and she bursts into tears. My instinct was to touch her and embrace her, because Lottie is very tactile, but I chose not to. Knowing that Shauna beat the shit out of young Lottie, and Lottie took it as a way to feel alive — if you look at Lottie’s take, and this was my take on this, it was, “Give me something to feel. Bring me back to life, because I am numb.” These women are so messed up. That’s the sacrifice that Lottie gives as a young woman.

That was just my internal performance, because there’s still a little someone who has abused you so badly. As much as Melanie is one of my dearest, I chose not to touch her in that moment — and that was a choice. So you’re right, the past does catch up to them in some ways, and as actors, it’s our job to find where that plays and where that beat is.

When you have the shit beaten out of you, that’s going to screw you up no matter what. How does that affect Lottie, and is she carrying any of that with her?

Early in the season, Nicole [Maines, who plays Lisa] maims Juliette [Natalie] with the fork. We see Lottie standing there, watching her.

All those beats play into where we get to. Lottie has this way of watching everybody. Even when Misty shows up, is it a celebration? She knows what Misty has done. She doesn’t know about the fentanyl or the journalist, but she knows crazy stuff has gone down in the past: Crystal falling off the edge, the black box flight recorder, she knows all of that. So, she presents that. And I try to pepper it into the performance of Lottie, that every moment does kind of tap into her as a layer. It’s how she decides to speak that layer, how she decides to play that. We can say PTSD or traumatic past, but the truth is, all of that would still be very alive within you. So it’s just choosing where to play that.

I’d go back to the past, and the girls in the wilderness, and try and see what I can find. Because those layers are so vital to make those performances land so that it’s not a caricature, and they’re real women.

OK, I asked Liz Garbus this after I spoke with her about directing Episode 6, but do you know what the stick figure means?

I think we’re all meant to be confused by it. It’s the writers again, Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, they’re too cool for school. They’ll say, “It means what it means.” I don’t think there’s a right and wrong.

I’m on the fence with this, but I don’t think it’s supernatural: I think the monsters are the girls, with everything they’ve gone through. What’s your stance on that?

I agree with you, because I don’t think it’s a supernatural thing either. I don’t think Lottie’s working in another realm — maybe young Lottie is. I think these are all mechanisms they’ve put in place to survive.

I think it’s their karma catching up. I think they’re so warped from what has happened. There’s no therapy that is going to fix that. Lottie says that — and that’s a turning point for Nat. She’s like, “You had me living in this community and you can heal and fix me and I got to see and get over Travis, and now you’re saying there’s no therapy that can fix what’s inside of us all?”

On the subject of Nat, almost every Friday, Lottie is always trending on Twitter. Are you aware of that?

Courtney texts me and lets me know, “Babe, we’re trending.” Since Elon Musk took over, I’ve been very reluctant, but occasionally I’ll go on.

I keep going back to this fanbase of Lottie and Nat, and they love them. They’re such thinking fans, and I’m grateful and intrigued by that. Star Wars was different, because that’s like religion — and it’s canon. With “Yellowjackets,” the fanbase is pretty spectacular, and the theories are wild.

They’re going to be sad after Episode 8, aren’t they?

When Nat and Lottie turn against each other? Everyone thinks we’re gonna be the greatest love in the world, and we’re gonna go off and get married.

Are you enjoying that reaction?

I am. Juliette hasn’t been watching the episodes. She’s always asking, “What’s the vibe with Lottie and Nat? Are they into it?”

When we were doing the scenes, we’d be ever so slightly in each other’s space. Again, the writers are so open to everything. No one ever said, “You’re going too far with this tactile intimacy thing.” If anything, it’s created this buzz and the fans are right. It was fun and titillating to play. I think there was one scene where we kind of launched on each other, so maybe that’s what they’re reading into it. But yes, I think the fans will be devastated when they see this episode.

Lottie’s mask comes off and Natalie wants to kill her. That’s gonna be upsetting for so many.

This interview has been edited and condensed.