News

The 2012 Emmy Awards: Top 10 Best Quotes From Backstage

September 24, 2012, 1:59 PM

LOS ANGELES, Calif. <br> Sept. 24, 2012  -- At the podium, they had mere seconds to say their thank-yous before the music unceremoniously ushered them off. But backstage, Sunday's Emmy Award winners got candid, predicting fights over trophies, extolling the virtues of nipple covers and even hinting at an on-set tryst (well, that was a joke by Damian Lewis of 'Homeland,' but still).

Here are the 10 best quotes from backstage:

1. Eric Stonestreet on how his "Modern Family" co-star Ed O'Neill will react to his Emmy win: "It's going to be pretty violent, I'm sure. Ed's going to do his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu on me and steal it."

2. Damian Lewis on how he and the very pregnant Claire Danes will celebrate their "Homeland" wins: "We're going to go away to a romantic island together just for the weekend. When that baby's ginger, you guys are going to have a field day."

3. Julie Bowen on nipple covers, which she mentioned three times in her acceptance speech: "It's a standards and practice thing and it makes me laugh every day and it becomes my on-set joke that I'll try and slide by it. And every day, there's some poor girl who's lovely and who has to pull me aside and hand me these bits of rubber. It makes me laugh."

4. "Two and a Half Men's" Jon Cryer on whether he watches anything surprising on TV: "Porn, but I don't think that's surprising."

5. "Modern Family" creator Steve Levitan on how the show has affected marriage equality: "I'm hoping that over time, all political candidates support marriage equality. It's never been the agenda of 'Modern Family.' We've always tried to make people laugh and make human, relatable stories. But if our show can contribute in any way, even the smallest way, in making people more open and understanding, then we will all be very, very proud of that."

6. Julia Louis-Dreyfuss on how the upcoming election has influenced "Veep": "There's a lot of good, rich material out of there from which to glean and there are little morsels we can take away, almost every day, it seems."

7. Claire Danes on President Obama's being a fan of "Homeland": "It's way cool that he's a fan. It speaks to the relevancy of the show and it's hugely validating. I don't have to write the thing, I just have to play it somewhat convincingly. It means so much to us. We're still stupefied by that fact, that he's tuning in consistently."

8. Louis C.K. on why his show "Louie" has won more awards than his past efforts: "Because I'm better than I was before. And hopefully I'll be better later too. If you think everything you've done has been great, you're probably dumb."

9. "Game Change" director Jay Roach on why he'll continue to make movies about politics: "Is this the best we can do? Is this how we want our country to run? Is this how we make the next Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln? I don't think so."

10. Sofia Vergara on losing the Emmy to Julie Bowen: "Even though Julie keeps winning all my awards, I am still very happy."