Amy Schumer and Lily Tomlin tackled tough roles this year. Schumer wrote and starred in “Trainwreck” as a hard-partying journalist who reluctantly falls in love; in “Grandma,” Tomlin’s character must drive her granddaughter to an abortion clinic. At Variety‘s Actors on Actors studio, they discuss the joy of playing unlikable women.

Both Bryan Cranston and Jason Segel established themselves with long-running TV shows. Now both are playing real-life writers on the big screen: Cranston as the titular blacklisted screenwriter in “Trumbo” and Segel as “Infinite Jest” author David Foster Wallace in “The End of the Tour.”

After journeying to Middle-earth together for the “Lord of the Rings” movies, Cate Blanchett and Ian McKellen are playing more grounded roles in this year’s films. In “Mr. Holmes,” McKellen stars as the famous detective in old age. Blanchett pulls double duty in “Carol,” as a 1950s housewife who falls for a younger woman; and in “Truth,” in which she plays embattled “60 Minutes” producer Mary Mapes.

Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Keaton have shared the screen several times, in comedies like “The Other Guys” or dramas such as Quentin Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown.” Jackson is reunited with Tarantino for “The Hateful Eight,” in which he plays a bounty hunter in post-Civil War Wyoming. Keaton leads an impressive ensemble in “Spotlight,” Tom McCarthy’s drama about Boston Globe reporters who broke the story of the Catholic Church’s cover-up of child molestation by priests.

After earning Oscar nominations for their breakthrough film roles — Rooney Mara as the hardened sleuth Lisbeth Salander in “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and Steve Carell channeling John du Pont in “Foxcatcher” — the two actors are back with very different performances. Mara is shy and subtle as a young woman in the 1950s who falls for Cate Blanchett’s lead character in “Carol.” And Carell is all manic energy and heart in “The Big Short,” which details the individuals who cashed in on the recent housing collapse.

Benicio Del Toro landed an Academy Award for 2000’s “Traffic,” in which he played a conflicted police officer. His new film, “Sicario,” puts him back in the world of drug trafficking, but as a very different character — a mysterious, dangerous man bent on revenge. Will Smith has earned two Oscar nominations for playing real-life people in “Ali” and “The Pursuit of Happyness.” He stands to earn his third nod for his portrayal of Dr. Bennet Omalu, a doctor who fought against the National Football League to expose the danger of head trauma in players. Among many topics, the two spoke about their mutual love of Roger Deakins and Eddie Murphy.

Brie Larson (“Room”) and “Black Mass” actor Joel Edgerton talk about the making of their new films.

Elizabeth Banks and Carey Mulligan are earning buzz for their portraits of strong women: Banks won some of the best notices of her career playing Melinda Ledbetter, the wife of Beach Boys singer Brian Wilson in “Love & Mercy”; and Mulligan portrays a working-class wife and mother who joins the fight for British women’s right to vote in “Suffragette.”

Saoirse Ronan and Kate Winslet each won acclaim as teenagers. Ronan was 13 when she earned an Oscar nom for “Atonement,” while Winslet was 17 when she burst onto the scene in Peter Jackson’s “Heavenly Creatures.” In their new films, both use accents that are not their own. Ronan headlines “Brooklyn,” playing an Irish girl who immigrates to New York in the 1950s. Winslet disappears behind a wig, glasses, and a Polish accent for “Steve Jobs” to portray Joanna Hoffman, a friend and adviser to the Apple founder.

This year, both Paul Dano and Joseph Gordon-Levitt portray real-life legends on screen; Dano plays the young Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys in “Love & Mercy,” while Gordon-Levitt takes on the role of wire-walker Philippe Petit in “The Walk.

Seth Rogen (“Steve Jobs”) and “The Hateful Eight” star Jennifer Jason talk about awkward auditions and the challenges of shooting their acclaimed new dramas.