This issue features a “micro-interview” with Sheila Nevins, HBO’s “de Medici” of television.

–Kathleen Hale

PART I

THE BELIEVER: You’re very good at saying no to people. Is this a skill you had to hone, or were you born with it?

SHEILA NEVINS: I’m scared of a lot of things, so no is a protection. It’s easier than going out. I don’t like to go out; I don’t like to make talk, to be judged. No is easier. No means you can get home and read, or watch TV, do work—and if you say no, people don’t expect yes. For instance, they had a party for Larry Kramer, at the wrap-up for our Larry Kramer bio, and I love Larry. I probably visited him fifty times since we made this film. But the idea of this dear man—this dear, impossible man—going to a party at Cowgirl—or whatever it is, on West Tenth Street—with the crew was like… I would pay not to go to that party. So I didn’t go. Nobody expected me to go. As a matter of fact, the woman who invited me said, “I’m sorry, I know you don’t go to parties,” and I said, “No, I don’t”—but it was fine because nobody got insulted, because even Larry, who went, said, “Oh, yeah, Sheila doesn’t like parties.” I don’t like to talk to people. I want to go home. But I was happy that they did it for Larry, and if I’d thought it would have mattered to him, or that I hadn’t loved him enough, I would have gone. For myself, I would never go to one of those things. I’ll go to the HBO party this year, but only because I don’t want to be invisible in California, not because I like parties. I’m comfortable performing, but not with small talk.

PART II

BLVR: People often call you zany—you know this. You have a reputation for being kooky, which is annoying and sexist because you’re actually just smart and funny.

SN: I don’t think I’m kooky, per se. I have a very good sense of humor, which is off-putting, and I use it to disguise the ferocity of my intent. I can make people laugh, and it amuses people that I can do that. It’s calculated on my part. I grew up as a woman playing dodge football with men, so I had to come up with a form of dodge that wasn’t obvious. I can sit in a room full of men and tell a joke and rearrange the power structure. Once you make people laugh, they turn toward you.

BLVR: Is your appearance and how you dress calculated in any way to disarm...