Holland Taylor is known for her imperious composure. Over her five-decade career, she has been cast almost exclusively in roles that demand significant degrees of sass and brass, which she somehow delivers without showboating. Any tally of Taylors highlights would feel incomplete, but here goes: Bosom Buddies, Romancing the Stone, To Die For, The Practice, Legally Blonde, The L Word, Two and a Half Men and a number of acclaimed stage parts, including a play she wrote about former Texas Gov. Ann Richards.

It was only a matter of time before Taylor landed in a Ryan Murphy show, considering that most female characters in Murphys oeuvre ooze sass and brass. Plus, shes in a relationship with the American Horror Story maestros longtime muse Sarah Paulson.

Thats where Hollywood comes in. Murphys seven-episode Netflix series, which premieres May 1, is set during the 1940s when the titular industry was still largely segregated. Queer people had to conceal their sexuality, and people of color were considered unbankable. Fusing fact and rosy fiction, Hollywood charts the development of a movie based on British actor Peg Entwistle, who in 1932 took her own life by jumping off the Hollywood sign .

Taylor plays Ellen Kincaid, an articulate, open-minded talent manager in a town run by obstinate blowhards. Ellen champions the Entwistle film even though its written by gasp! a Black man (Jeremy Pope). She also witnesses the early days of Rock Hudsons career as agents mold the young upstart (Jake Picking) into the eras notion of an archetypal leading lad (toned, white, heterosexual). Taylors other co-stars include Darren Criss, Jim Parsons, Laura Harrier, Dylan McDermott and a scene-stealing Patti LuPone .

When I got on the phone with Taylor earlier this month, she couldnt have been more enthusiastic about the series. Her career, unlike those of many other women in Hollywood, has aged exceptionally well. She won her first Emmy at 56 and has since received six more nominations. Now 77, Taylor works steadily, no longer hustling for gigs the way she did three decades ago (see: Saved by the Bell: The College Years and Cop and a Half). But shes also concerned about the coronavirus and its implications for her ability to work in the near future. In the meantime, shes quarantining with a new puppy and trying to figure out how to operate her vacuum cleaner.

During a lively conversation, Taylor and I discussed Hollywood, pandemic fears, meeting Hudson, LuPones on-set musical performances, the arc of her own career, and the time she was forbidden from saying blow job on TV.