Alia Shawkat on Arrested Development cast's "intense" New York Times interview: "I felt like I didn’t say enough to defend" Jessica Walter

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When Walter started crying during the controversial Times interview, "I realized we were having a public and private conversation at the same time, which is very unnatural," Shawkat said in an interview with Broadly. "All of a sudden, we’re having this intense moment as a group of people who’ve known each other for 15 years—and it’s being recorded. They were almost trying to cover themselves up while simultaneously talking, instead of actually listening to each other—which is the biggest theme that I learned from this whole experience, this 20-minute interview that made so much noise. The minute Jessica started crying, my instinct was just to go up to her and hug her and be like, ‘This interview’s over.’” After the interview, Shawkat said she also cried: "I felt like I didn’t say enough to defend her," said Shawkat. "I felt like I didn’t say enough to explain that the movement is so important—and that Jeffrey (Tambor)'s story is a piece of this movement, and we can’t silence it. Women’s voices need to be heard, and, ironically enough—I wasn’t able to be heard. I was really scared that the interviewer didn’t even hear me.”