'You Get To Go Back To An Era That Was Glamorous': Dylan McDermott On Netflix's 'Hollywood' & Ryan Murphy

(CBS Local)-- Dylan McDermott has had many different chapters in his career.

The actor has been the lead on a hit TV show in "The Practice," and worked with actors like Julia Roberts and Sally Field in "Steel Magnolias" and Clint Eastwood and John Malkovich in "In The Line Of Fire." McDermott is one of the stars of the new Netflix series from Ryan Murphy called "Hollywood." The show takes place in a post World War II era where aspiring actors and directors will do whatever it takes to make their dreams come true.

"When Ryan Murphy asks me to do anything, I'm always right there," said McDermott in an interview with CBS Local's DJ Sixsmith. "He is the big attraction and I trust him implicitly. American Horror Story, The Politician, Hollywood, I know his content is going to be great. Hollywood doesn't fail to deliver. There's so much fun in this show. It's entertainment and it's what we need right now. Turn your brain off and have a good time. You get to laugh, you get to cry, you get to see beautiful costumes and go back to an era that was glamorous."

FULL INTERVIEW:

After many years in the entertainment business, McDermott knows the difference between good shows and great shows. When he read the script for this series, he had the same feeling he did when he read the script for the pilot of "American Horror Story" and the pilot for "The Practice."

"I've only had that happen three times in all the scripts I've read in television," said McDermott. "In television, it was The Practice, American Horror Story, and Hollywood. I knew that they would all be big shows. In the movies, it was Steel Magnolias and In The Line Of Fire and Olympus Has Fallen. I knew those were going to be blockbusters."

While the television industry has changed dramatically during McDermott's career, he remembers a time when going from movies to television was looked down upon.

"Back then if you went to TV, your movie career was in trouble," said McDermott. "Now it's just the opposite by the way. I actually saw the trend. The movies were not as good with the scripts that I was getting. I felt that I needed to get better as an actor. The Practice when it first came out was not an instant success. We were on Tuesday night for a few episodes and we did okay. We did 19 million people and they were disappointed in that. We got picked up for 13 episodes and moved to Saturday night. It's the graveyard of television and I was so depressed. I worked my butt off and the show was so good, they moved us to Sunday night and that's when the show took off. Having a hit show is like hitting the lottery."

Watch all of DJ Sixsmith's interviews from "The Sit-Down" series here.