You know when you read something someone has written, and you think they must be really angry, and then you meet them in person and they're shockingly nice?
That happened at the Television Critics Association summer press tour Saturday, where a smiling Kurt Sutter decidedly took a pass on bashing Emmy voters. This, after a furious series of tweets in which he ripped them for overlooking the work of his wife, Katey Sagal, on his show, "Sons of Anarchy." (His brutal honesty puts him at the top of The Wrap's list of show-runners you should follow on Twitter.)
Sutter says he intended the tweets sardonically. But many interpreted them as the refreshingly blunt thoughts of a show-runner spurned.
"I don't regret ultimately anything I say or do because I can't at this point," he told The Wrap. "My part in that is that I should have realized there is history and I need to take all of that sort of in context so that I protect myself and the show from it being sort of ripped out of context and made into something that it's not."
Sutter has long complained that Emmy voters are out of touch. But during a Q&A with reporters Saturday, he joked that his tweets were more about more about "my bad realtionship with my father" than his true feelings.
He tried to deflect questions to the actors on the show. "We have a tremendous cast up here so I'd rather point the questions at them than at my neurosis," he said.
He was asked after the panel if he thought his tweets have created a cycle in which Emmy voters will never give his show the respect its due because they don't want to admit they were wrong before. "I think that's overthinking it," he said. "Most of the Academy members are working slobs like me that work a lot of hours … It's not like they all get together and say let's not recognize 'Sons.' The Academy is made up of a lot of people in all different areas of the business."
He said other, more stylized shows may win more respect from costumers and others in the Academy.
His tone couldn't have been more different than it was after his wife was snubbed. Highlights of his Twitter tirade:
"The worse part of not getting an emmy nod. katey [segal] promised me a threesome if she won. now i have to settle for me, her and the shaved bunny. Best part of not getting an emmy nod. now i don't have to pretend i give a s— about the profiteering douchebag academy … because you know if we were nominated i'd be all humble and blowing smoke up their asses."
He later told a series of jokes: "These two academy members walk into a bar. one orders a beer. then they both die because they're so f—ing old… broke into an academy member's porn locker. found sticky fully-clothed photos of mariska hargitay, kathy bates…and matt weiner. very odd… saw two academy members on the gold course. one asked the other what club to use. then they both died because they were so f—ing old… if my mom and dad were alive this emmy snub would kill them. that's not true, they were too old to understand my show. just like the academy."
