Julianne Nicholson Was ‘Paradise' Creator Dan Fogelman's Only Choice for His ‘Complicated' Villain
Ahead, 'Paradise' creator Dan Fogelman explains why Julianne Nicholson, this season's IndieWire Honors Performance Award winner, was so worth the wait (and the white lies) it took to get her 'transcendent' work in the series.
More from IndieWire
Natasha Lyonne: The Maverick Behind the Madness
'Stick' Review: Owen Wilson's Golf Comedy Takes Too Many Shortcuts Trying to Be 'Ted Lasso'
It's summer of 2024. We are shooting Episode 2 of my new [Hulu] series, 'Paradise.' While a lot of my mental energy has been devoted to the pilot, I'm equally focused on the second episode… an episode that expands our world and tells the backstory of our complicated 'villain' — Samantha Redmond, AKA Sinatra.
I have come to set today — a rarity for me. Because today Julianne Nicholson is doing her big therapy scene — a monologue where she processes the loss of a child and her failed attempts to move forward — and I want to see it live. There are some things you just need to see in person.
Julianne begins her monologue. The directors — knowing what's about to happen before it happens — have chosen to start on her and shoot the scene in one shot. No editing. Just let her go. And, so, the scene begins.
I am standing in the back room, watching on the rear monitors. Julianne launches in. It is transcendent. And to no one, or maybe everyone, I simply say, 'Oh, my God.'
And with that, as I'm inclined to do in many of my screenplays, I FLASHBACK.
It's a year earlier now. I've been an admirer of Julianne's from a distance for years, and I've been obsessed with the idea of her as Sinatra from go. We've Zoomed, connected, and agreed to take this journey together. I'm so excited. And then I get a phone call… there's been a hiccup. Julianne has been filming another project, a project that still has time left to go, and their dates conflict with ours. They conflict in a way that makes shooting with her impossible.
'Dan,' I'm told, 'You're going to have to move on and cast someone else.'
A decade of running TV shows has taught me to roll with the punches. A location falls apart, you change the location. An actor can't get their head around a speech, you change the words. But having Julianne in my show — in this part — and then losing her? I can't roll with that.
There's a multiple week overlap between projects. I would have to push our project multiple weeks to accommodate Julianne's schedule. At a very late date. It would cost the show, and the studio that employs me, a LOT of money. I worry I'll never be able to convince anyone to push, not for one actor in an ensemble, no matter how great they are. And so…
I lie. I tell everyone I need more time to prep the show (which I kind of do), and that we are rushing into production before we were ready (also a partial truth). But the real truth: we could shoot now. Just not with Julianne.
And I don't want to shoot without Julianne.
BACK TO PRESENT
Julianne only needs two takes at the monologue. We will wind up using her first take in the show. It is one of the most extraordinary single pieces of acting I've ever witnessed — a broken woman, a mother who has lost a child, grasping at anything she can hold on to as she tries to survive for her remaining child. It's so raw, and so real… one of those performances where the lines blur between reality and art. You can hear a pin drop on stage. Everyone knows they are witnessing 'special.'
I have a five-year-old. We're entering the 'not good to lie' portion of his development. But the white lie I told that allowed Julianne to play Sinatra is one of those few lies I'll be proud of for the rest of my life. She's a woman at the very top of her craft, who is kind and generous to boot.
Working with Julianne Nicholson is, indeed, Paradise.
Best of IndieWire
The Best Thrillers Streaming on Netflix in June, from 'Vertigo' and 'Rear Window' to 'Emily the Criminal'
All 12 Wes Anderson Movies, Ranked, from 'Bottle Rocket' to 'The Phoenician Scheme'
Nightmare Film Shoots: The 38 Most Grueling Films Ever Made, from 'Deliverance' to 'The Wages of Fear'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘Only Murders in the Building' Fans Celebrate After Season 5 Release Date Drops
'Only Murders in the Building' Fans Celebrate After Season 5 Release Date Drops originally appeared on Parade. Our favorite trio is back, and fans could not be more excited. On Wednesday morning, the release date for the fifth season of the beloved show Only Murders in the Building starring Selena Gomez, Martin Short and Steve Martin was announced on social media. Season 5 will premiere on September 9, starting with three episodes, then new episodes every week on Hulu and Disney+. The television series follows three neighbors, Mabel Mora (Gomez), Oliver Putman (Short) and Charles-Haden Savage (Martin), who live in the Arconia, a New York City apartment building located on the Upper West Side, and bond over their shared love of true crime podcasts. When suspicious deaths occur in their building, they decide to investigate and document their findings in their own true crime podcast. Only Murders in the Building has been widely praised by both critics and fans. The Hulu series has a 97% Rotten Tomatoes score, and has earned an impressive 49 Emmy nominations across its first three seasons. It was officially renewed for a fifth season just a week after the fourth began airing. After the doorman, Lester (Teddy Coluca), is found dead after Oliver and Loretta's wedding in the Season 4 finale, the trio refuses to believe it was an accident. Their investigation leads them to uncover a dangerous web of secrets connecting powerful billionaires, old-school mobsters and the mysterious residents of the Arconia. With the show's continued success and a new season underway, fans have taken to social media to share their excitement—and their reactions say it all. "OMG ITS HAPPPENINGGGG," a viewer commented on Instagram. "I absolutely love that they're still going with this! Only Murders was such a breath of fresh air when it first came out and now it continues to shine, a user wrote on X. "It made me a Selina Gomez fan and continues my love for Steve Martin and Martin Short." "Yayyy so excited!!" another fan commented. An X account dedicated to pop star and Gomez's close friend, Taylor Swift, wrote, "Please don't be the last season Please don't be the last season Please don't be the last season Please don't be the last season Please don't be the last season Please don't be the last season Please don't be the last season Please don't be the last season Please don't be the last." "i need this to not be the last season pls keep making more," another wrote. "Finally!" one said. "I can't wait as I have a feeling it's going to be the best season yet! 🔥." "CAN'T WAIT," an Instagram fan account dedicated to Gomez commented. The first three episodes of Season 5 of Only Murders in the Building will be out on September 9, with new episodes following weekly. Fans can stream all four seasons of the show on Hulu and Disney+. 'Only Murders in the Building' Fans Celebrate After Season 5 Release Date Drops first appeared on Parade on Jul 23, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 23, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘Swiped' Trailer: Lily James Plays Billionaire Bumble Founder Whitney Wolfe Herd
Deadline was the first to tell you that Lily James would be playing Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, the first to bring you a production photo and now we finally get the trailer. The Hulu film Swiped also stars Myha'la, Jackson White, Dan Stevens and Pierson Fode, as Deadline previously announced. It begins streaming September 19. More from Deadline Lily James To Star In Film Inspired By Story Of Bumble Founder Whitney Wolfe Herd For 20th Century Studios & Ethea Entertainment Lily James' Bumble Movie Confirmed For Hulu Launch As 20th Unveils First Look Photo 'Buffy' Reboot: Merrin Dungey, Audrey Hsieh & Audrey Grace Marshall Join Hulu Pilot Plot details for the film remain vague, as it's said to be somewhat loosely inspired by Herd's life and career journey, rather than a beat-for-beat recounting. Famously launching the online dating platform Bumble after co-founding and departing Tinder, Herd became one of the youngest self-made billionaires at age 31 when Bumble went public in 2021. While she stepped down as CEO last year, the app continues to be popular amongst the single crowd. The trailer follows Herd's rise among the Twitter boys club, her disillusionment and departure, and her effort to 'change the rules of online dating' by empowering women to choose on Bumble. Watch the trailer above. [youtube Best of Deadline Sean 'Diddy' Combs Sex-Trafficking Trial Updates: Cassie Ventura's Testimony, $10M Hotel Settlement, Drugs, Violence, & The Feds A Full Timeline Of Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni's 'It Ends With Us' Feud In Court, Online & In The Media 'The Boys' Season 5: Everything We Know So Far
Los Angeles Times
5 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
‘Alien: Earth' is a tense, dark meditation about what makes us human
It is not the least of this world's wonders that it's been nearly half a century since Ellen Ripley, in the person of Sigourney Weaver, sent the Alien, in the person of a person in an Alien suit, hurtling into space — that place where, according to 'Alien's' immortal tag line, no one can hear you scream — and an afterlife of sequels and prequels and side-quels. As these things go, the franchise has managed to stay classy through the years, with directors including Ridley Scott, James Cameron, David Fincher, Jean-Pierre Jeunet ('Amélie,' if the name doesn't ring a bell) taking a swing at it; prestigious casts (notwithstanding the 'Alien vs. Predator' offshoot); pricey productions and special effects; and Weaver on board for the first four films, lending the young franchise her personal and professional cred. Now, as all IP seemingly must, the franchise has come to television, with 'Alien: Earth,' an eight-episode series landing Tuesday on FX and Hulu (with two episodes). It's been created, mostly written and directed in part by Noah Hawley, who helmed the successful televisionization of 'Fargo' and the marvelous Marvel-based 'Legion.' As with 'Fargo,' he's made something true to the spirit of the original yet colored by his own goofy predilections. Hawley has a penchant for poetic concepts, literary references, political inferences and out-of-the-mainstream ideas that may not always make perfect sense, but his ambition shows through. He knows how to keep things interesting over a long series, and he understands the assignment here. 'Alien: Earth' is darker — or, I should say, more relentlessly dark — than either of those series, and a sensitive viewer might want to consider the wear and tear eight hours of body horror and rarely relieved tension might have on a human. Even when the mood is relatively light for a moment, you know what's coming. And it comes. It's rare that a newcomer joins the ranks of the famous monsters of Filmland — Frankenstein's creature, Dracula, the Wolfman, King Kong, Godzilla, that lot — but the H.R. Giger-designed Alien, or Xenomorph, has definitely made the cut. A big vulpine armored lizard with a mouth inside a mouth, the better to eat you with — and it is a very messy eater — it is perhaps the most disturbing member of this club. At the same time, after nine films, we know its tricks pretty well, so that when a baby Alien pops out of someone's chest, as famously happened in the first picture, it's more a matter of, 'Well, they finally got around to that' than, 'Oh my God can you believe what just happened?' In recognition of the need for novel scares, the TV series offers a little tentacled eyeball monster, shaped and smart like an octopus, that zombifies its hosts. The series begins in space, appropriately, aboard the USCSS Maginot. USCSS stands for United States Commercial Star Ship, though in the future that 'Alien: Earth' posits, the world having been completely corporatized, 'united states' must be a vestigial concept, like the vermiform appendix or democracy. The year is 2120, just before the events of 'Alien,' if you are interested in chronological order, and the ship belongs to the Weyland-Yutani corporation, which controls North and South America. Naming the ship Maginot, after a famously failed French defense in World War I, is clearly a little joke for history buffs, and also apt. The crew, who are near the end of a 65-year mission — suspended animation keeps them young and pretty — are transporting an extraterrestrial bestiary back to Earth. Given the typical body count in these films, I declare it Not a Spoiler to tell you that only one of them, a security-officer cyborg named Morrow (Babou Ceesay), will survive to the second episode and that the ship itself will come crashing to Earth in New Siam, territory controlled by the Prodigy corporation and its bathrobe-wearing CEO, 22nd century tech dude Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin), the 'youngest trillionaire ever' — just that description makes me want to see him eaten. ('I don't know how things are done here in Bureaucracyville,' he'll say in a meeting with rival corporate head Yutani, played by Sandra Yi Sencindiver, 'but in the future, where I live, we move fast and we make trillions,' and if that doesn't sound familiar, you're not listening hard enough to 2025.) The aliens, of course, will emerge intact to become the focus of industrial competition and skulduggery. To the usual agglomeration of humans, half-humans, humanoid robots and outer space beasts, 'Alien: Earth' adds a new variety of beings, upon which it builds the series' central metaphor/literary reference: J.M. Barrie's 'Peter Pan,' not subtextual but explicit, spread all over the screen. In a brand new unexplained technology, Kavalier uploads the consciousness of terminally ill children into adult synthetic bodies, creating a human-robot hybrid. He seems to identify himself with Pan, whose narcissism he shares; he has named his secret 'research island' Neverland, reads passages from Barrie's book and shows his young subjects a clip from the 1953 Disney film before their transfer. (The actual process is the work of a wife and husband team played by Essie Davis and David Rysdahl, who have differing ideas about family; it's a theme.) The initial subjects are children because, says Marcy (Sydney Chandler, making a strong impression), our heroine and the first to go, because 'grown-up minds are too stiff — they can't make the trip yet.' To hammer home a point, she will become Wendy (because her new self 'looks like a Wendy'), while the kids who follow her, and who are not nearly as smart, brave or competent as she, will be referred to as the Lost Boys (though there are girls among them) and given their names: Tootles (Kit Young), Nibs (Lily Newmark), Slightly (Adarsh Gourav), Curly (Erana James) and, stealing a moniker from Hook's crew, Smee (Jonathan Ajayi). Just why these particular kids have been chosen is not mentioned, possibly because there is no reason other than their individual usefulness to the plot, but the cognitive dissonance of being kids in grown-up bodies — often the stuff of comedy — is one of the more intriguing aspects of the series, if not as deeply explored as it might have been. But there are monsters fighting for screen time; they cause a lot of exciting havoc — and fair enough, they didn't ask to be kidnapped — but they're fairly one-note dramatically speaking. As usually happens when robots or androids or other artificial people with personalities are in the picture, questions arise as to A) what makes a human and B) what's so great about being human, anyway, which form the emotional core of the series. (It does have one.) 'Blade Runner,' 'Star Trek: The Next Generation,' 'A.I.'— it goes all the way back to Karel Čapek's 1920 play 'R.U.R.,' which I mention particularly for the fun fact that it is the source of the word robot, from the Czech 'robota,' meaning 'forced labor,' if you'd care to think about that. (They kill all the humans.) Not even completing this cast of characters are Alex Lawther as Marcy/Wendy's brother Joe, an army medic with whom she will reunite, and Timothy Olyphant as Kirsh, a synthetic person who is her mentor, a cynical realist but not unkind, and the only funny character in the show; they have conflicting ideas about what's best for Wendy, who has her own ideas about that as well. Olyphant, who has dyed his hair and eyebrows white for the part, manages to be expressive while hardly changing his expression and funny without saying anything funny at all. Someone has to be.
