EF: I don’t know why I don’t feel it personally. I’m tempted to judge myself harshly for it. But I can’t get past the gratitude of doing something I love. It doesn’t mean there aren’t steps to take to make things better. Maybe it’s a poverty mentality thing? I walk past seven homeless people on the way home, and I’m going to complain that I’m not getting paid as much as a man? I’m going to get my butt kicked for saying that.

VD: You’re being honest.

PG: Is it fair to say you took your stand in your moving Emmy speech, Viola — those beautiful lines of Harriet Tubman?

VD: I don’t want people to confuse lack of opportunity with lack of talent. There are great actors out there who will never have the chance to show what they can do. Being the first black woman to win in the category, I was thinking of the Mary Alices of the world, women I know are great actors, but who haven’t been given the chance. The idea that they could pass, go to the grave thinking they weren’t good enough, that killed me.

PG: Do you consider producing content for yourselves?

EF: It’s a piece of the business I don’t understand. I also don’t have an interest in it. Send me the script. I love doing my job, which is: You come up with the story, and I will take it and filter it through my experience and perform that person. As of now, I’m pleased that there’s still exciting stuff coming my way.

VD: I’ve got to seize this moment because not a lot out there is written for someone like me. And I need to do something with this leg of the race I’m running. So I created a production company with my husband. We’ve got a Harriet Tubman project at HBO. And a Barbara Jordan project that Tony Kushner is writing.

EF: Wow, wow.

VD: Necessity is the mother of invention.

EF: There you go.