Whether they clock their on-screen hours playing a contract killer, president's aide, or Lady of Winterfell, many of this year's most outstanding television actors have earned the right to take their hiatuses—Hollywood's answer to summer break—very seriously. On a sunny afternoon in April, the entertainers responsible for some of our favorite small-screen characters gathered on a sprawling Pasadena estate to play dress-up and discuss the hobbies that keep them busy away from the cameras. Sophie Turner, who played Sansa Stark on Game of Thrones, has been unwinding from all of that Westeros bloodshed by taking up painting and studying a brand-new subject. “I'm really just starting,” she said. “But I've just completed my introduction to criminology…. It's definitely something that I would have done if I wasn't acting.” (She recommends The Psychopath Test and the podcast To Live and Die in L.A.) Daniel Levy, who created and stars in Schitt's Creek alongside his father, Eugene, makes an annual trip to Tokyo “just to reset…. As a show-runner, you're so used to expectations and needing to have a very specific idea of how everything should be, so to go to Japan, where everyone's 10 steps ahead of me and I don't need to ask a question or make a decision, it's paradise.” And Mandy Moore gets away from the emotional work of This Is Us with some of the most extreme physical challenges on earth: “I climbed Kilimanjaro last year, and this year I set my sights on doing Everest base camp.” For one afternoon, though, some of television's busiest players got to sit back and actually relax.

Both Lyonne and Hader are old-film buffs. “Criterion Channel just started up,” said Hader, “so I've been watching Columbia noir movies.” Lyonne, meanwhile, hosts private screenings—recently of Seven Beauties and The King of Comedy.

During his downtime from Succession, the self-described “retro gamer” settles into the couch and fires up his favorite vintage video games: “Late-80s, early-90s Nintendo, Super Nintendo.”

Hale uses his hiatuses wisely—to line up more work. Meanwhile, Moore and Jerome pivot to music; the Bronx-born Jerome is hoping to debut his hip-hop later this year.

With Jane the Virgin over, Rodriguez is on the lookout for new hobbies: “When you are working on a TV show, it's 14 to 16 hours a day. You forget the things you like to do for fun.”

Schitt's Creek creator and star Levy, who has been wearing glasses since third grade, founded his own eyewear company—D.L. Eyewear—several years back. Next hiatus, he's going to get the brand back up and running.

Hall will visit her mother in Columbus, Georgia, this summer. “I let my aunts cook for me, and I eat too much,” she said, revealing the next item on her hiatus itinerary. “Then I have to lose the weight.”

Turner has been studying criminology and trying her hand at abstract painting. “My parents got me this big painting set for Christmas, which I love. It's very therapeutic.”

HAIR BY RENATO CAMPORA (LYONNE, MOORE, RODRIGUEZ, TURNER), SHORNELL MCNEAL (HALL), AND SYDNEY SOLLOD (ALL MEN); MAKEUP BY KATE LEE (LYONNE, MOORE, RODRIGUEZ, TURNER) AND LEWINA E. DAVID (HALL); MANICURES BY HANG NGUYEN; GROOMING BY SYDNEY SOLLOD; TAILORS, SHANA ALBERY AND CLAY G. SADLER; SET DESIGN BY ANTHONY A. ALTOMARE; PRODUCED ON LOCATION BY 3STAR PRODUCTIONS; FOR DETAILS, GO TO VF.COM/CREDITS.

Videos: DP: William Christensen. Edited by Dylan Knight.

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