Director Kari Skogland On 'The Loudest Voice's Cautionary Tale, Marvel's 'Falcon & Winter Soldier' & More [Interview]

With a 25-year career spanning virtually every genre, director Kari Skogland has effortlessly navigated the ever-changing feature and narrative television mediums over the course of her envious filmography. A veteran of the shifting, feature-leaning narrative landscape of prestige TV over the past two decades, she’s been nominated for an Emmy and won a BAFTA for directing episodes for “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and directed episodes of “The Americans,” “The Walking Dead,” “House of Cards,” “The Borgias,” “Boardwalk Empire,” “The Punisher,” and more. If three of her latest pilots, “The Loudest Voice,” “The Rook,” and “NOS4A2,” premiering last month is any indicator of her productivity, the Ontario native is showing no signs of slowing down. Furthermore, Skogland is directing all six episodes of Disney+’s “Falcon & Winter Soldier” next year.

Recently, I spoke with Skogland about her storied career, the collapse of the indie feature model and the rise of prestige TV, Russell Crowe‘s transformation into Roger Aile’s for “The Loudest Voice,” male entitlement and truth in journalism, Joe Hill‘s “NOS4A2,” what to expect from “Falcon & Winter Soldier,” and more.

What’s the key to sustaining such a career defined by longevity as a director?
In the whack-a-mole world that we live in, somehow keeping my head down when I needed to [laughter] and letting it pop up when I needed to. The most important thing is that you make it about the work. Hopefully, whenever things go politically sideways, you bury yourself in trying to do and be the best you can be as both a leader and as a creator. Somehow, I keep being asked to come back [laughter].

I’ve been very fortunate. Also, I have varied tastes. I’m very curious about the world, and I’m constantly making sure that my perspective is relevant, and I’m constantly self-educating and/or officially educating. As a result, when I go in the room to be interviewed for a project, I try to come in incredibly informed. It’s a unique body of work, like “The Borgias,” on the one hand, which was a 15th-century-period piece, which required some really unique skillsets alongside straight drama. But I needed to understand horses and I’m quite immersed in stuntwork. And then that builds on something else. Each new project, you bring something from the previous project that you learned from its unique world.

It doesn’t look like things are slowing down for you anytime soon.
I’m still astonished. I have three pilots coming out this month in June. “The Rook,” which is a supernatural, spy thriller for Starz. Then “NOS4A2,” which is AMC. It’s a family drama with a horror twist to it, based on the Joe Hill book. And then “The Loudest Voice,” which is [a] political drama. I’m very thankful that I have managed to get involved in so many interesting projects, and ones that are so uniquely different.

We just did a premiere of “The Loudest Voice” in New York at the Paris Theatre, and it played extremely well on the big screen, and plays extremely well on the smaller screen. Performance is now seamless between those worlds. It’s an incredibly exciting time where you can do a six-hour movie and author it. And that’s my endeavor in the future, now, to continue on that road, because I find it so satisfying.