Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate kill in FX's ‘Dying for Sex'
It's hard to make cancer funny. It's almost as tricky, for different reasons, to make someone's search for sexual fulfillment narratively compelling.
FX's 'Dying for Sex' manages to do both.
The limited series, co-created by Kim Rosenstock and Elizabeth Meriwether, stars Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate as real-life friends Molly Kochan, who was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer in 2015, and Nikki Boyer, who supports her right up till the end in her twin quests to explore her sexual needs and die on her own terms. Based on the popular 2020 podcast of the same name, in which the two women discussed Kochan's sexual escapades (and leaving her 13-year marriage), the show juggles health, humor and horniness with brilliant assists from guest stars Rob Delaney, Jay Duplass, Esco Jouléy, Robby Hoffman and Sissy Spacek. It's a weirdly good time.
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Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
TV's Nepo Babies: Meet the Kids of Celebrities Breaking Out on the Small Screen
Good genes aren't just a plus when it comes to skin care. They can be a big help when trying to break into Hollywood, too. For as long as there's been a Hollywood, we've seen the children of stars forge their own showbiz careers, from Liza Minnelli to Charlie Sheen. And right now on TV, nepo babies are having a moment, with the kids of famous folks popping up everywhere you look on broadcast, cable and streaming. Some, you might be able to guess — The White Lotus star Patrick Schwarzenegger is an easy call, for example — but others, you might not even know that their parents have illustrious performing careers of their own. Well, not until now. More from TVLine The White Lotus: Walton Goggins and Aimee Lou Wood Reveal a Rick and Chelsea Sex Scene Was Cut From the Finale ('It Was So Powerful') Yes, George Clooney Has Seen The Pitt - Here's What the ER Vet Had to Say About Noah Wyle's New Medical Show The Pitt Season 1 to Air on TNT Ahead of Season 2 Premiere on HBO Max We here at TVLine are rounding up all the offspring of A-list stars we've spotted on the small screen in the past few years, clueing you in on who their famous parents are. (For the record, we left off obvious names who have long-established careers of their own, like Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay, daughter of Jayne Mansfield, and Matlock's Jason Ritter, son of John Ritter.) Read on to get to know which emerging TV actors already have stars in their family tree, and hit the comments to let us know of any we might have missed. As the daughter of Oscar winners Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, Beatty is certainly familiar with high society, which came in handy while playing Truman Capote's young protégé Kerry O'Shea on FX's FEUD: Capote vs. the Swans last year. After early roles on Sugar and Pistol, Chandler is ready to break out as the star of FX's upcoming sci-fi spinoff Alien: Earth, debuting in August. And of course, TV fans know her father Kyle Chandler from his Emmy-winning role as Coach Eric Taylor on Friday Night Lights, along with roles on Bloodline and Early Edition. Collins has been charming audiences for four seasons now as the star of the Netflix rom-com Emily in Paris, while her father Phil Collins has been charming audiences for decades with chart-topping hits both with the band Genesis and as a solo artist. Med student Victoria Javadi isn't the only one with a family connection on Max's freshman medical drama. Taylor Dearden, who plays Mel, is the daughter of Breaking Bad Emmy winner Bryan Cranston. And that's not all: Fiona Dourif, who plays McKay, is the daughter of Deadwood alum Brad Dourif, and Isa Briones, who plays Santos, also has a famous dad in Broadway veteran Jon Jon Briones. The daughter of The X-Files' David Duchovny and Madam Secretary's Téa Leoni, West Duchovny broke out with a pair of TV roles in 2023, on the Netflix opioid drama Painkiller and the Hulu murder mystery Saint X. She writes jokes for comedy legend Deborah Vance on Max's Emmy-winning comedy Hacks, and she has a comedy legend in her own family tree. Einbinder's mother is Laraine Newman, an original Saturday Night Live cast member. Hall has been booking plenty of TV roles lately, from Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story to Bel-Air to The Sex Lives of College Girls. But he still has a way to go to catch up to his mom: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, of Seinfeld and Veep fame. (Hall's father is SNL alum Brad Hall.) Hawke is set to return as Robin in the final season of Netflix's Stranger Things later this year, and we already know she's carrying on a hefty Hollywood legacy. Her mom is Uma Thurman, known for Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bill films, and her dad is Ethan Hawke, from Training Day and Reality Bites. Hewson plays rebellious sister Becka in Apple TV+'s dark comedy, and if you don't recognize her last name, it's because her dad only goes by one name: Hewson's father is U2 frontman Bono. One-third of SNL's Please Don't Destroy trio, Higgins already has a family member on the NBC payroll. His dad is Steve Higgins, an SNL writer who serves as Jimmy Fallon's sidekick on The Tonight Show. In addition, Please Don't Destroy's Martin Herlihy is the son of Tim Herlihy, a former SNL writer and Adam Sandler's frequent collaborator. Jacobson plays Marian Brook on HBO's sumptuous costume drama The Gilded Age, and her mom knows a thing or two about costume dramas — and all dramas, really. Jacobson's mother is the one and only Meryl Streep, and Jacobson's sisters are also in the biz: Grace Gummer had roles on Mr. Robot and The Newsroom, and Mamie Gummer was on Emily Owens, M.D. and The Good Wife. Following roles on High School and the acclaimed film Babygirl, McGregor is set to co-star in the Prime Video teen mystery We Were Liars, debuting later this month. One of her first TV credits, though, came on the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi… led by her father, Ewan McGregor. Nivola broke out earlier this year as awkward teen Lochlan on HBO's The White Lotus, and he knows something about living in a family with high expectations. His mom is Emily Mortimer, known for her roles on The Newsroom and 30 Rock, and his dad is Alessandro Nivola, with film credits including American Hustle, Face/Off and The Brutalist. She first grabbed our attention as Joel's ill-fated daughter Sarah on the HBO zombie thriller The Last of Us, and her mother is an HBO veteran as well. Parker's mom is Thandiwe Newton, who won an Emmy in 2018 for her role as Maeve on HBO's Westworld. Plus, Parker's dad is writer/director Ol Parker, with credits like Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Phillippe, who debuted on Netflix's Never Have I Ever, moved onto a role on Prime Video's car drama Motorheads — starring alongside his famous dad, Ryan Phillippe. Oh, and his mom is Reese Witherspoon, no big deal. That smile (and those muscles) might look familiar… and the name definitely sounds familiar, too. Yes, Schwarzenegger — who played arrogant vacationer Saxon on HBO's The White Lotus — is the son of '80s action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger, and his mom is former NBC newswoman Maria Shriver, too. When Quaid, best known for playing vigilante Hughie Campbell on Prime Video's The Boys, was just a boy himself, he had some very famous parents. He's the only child of film stars Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid. Along with starring as Stephen DeMarco on Hulu's romantic drama Tell Me Lies, White has also appeared on shows like SEAL Team and The Middle. And his mom is still appearing on the small screen, too: White's mother is Katey Sagal, whose long TV résumé stretches from Married… With Children and Sons of Anarchy to the just-wrapped The Conners. Best of TVLine Young Sheldon Easter Eggs: Every Nod to The Big Bang Theory (and Every Future Reveal) Across 7 Seasons Weirdest TV Crossovers: Always Sunny Meets Abbott, Family Guy vs. Simpsons, Nine-Nine Recruits New Girl and More ER Turns 30: See the Original County General Crew, Then and Now
New York Times
a day ago
- New York Times
How Jon Bernthal Became Hollywood's Most Dependable Bruiser
When Jon Bernthal was cast as a petty drug dealer in 'The Wolf of Wall Street,' Martin Scorsese's 2013 white-collar crime epic, the actor wasn't even supposed to have many lines. But Bernthal went into that film intending to take his shot. So he came in for a wordless B-roll scene in which the script had him lifting weights in a backyard, asked the second-unit director to mic him and riffed for 45 minutes. Scorsese wasn't there that day, but here's what he saw in the footage: a shirtless Bernthal curling dumbbells, tormenting some teenage boys with a baseball bat and peacocking his virility. 'Bring some of them chicks around here sometime,' he says. Then Bernthal makes a brilliant little decision about his tough guy's whereabouts. 'Hey, Ma, we got chicken or what?' he yells toward the house. 'Ma!' There was no 'Ma' in the script. No one even said he lived with his mother. The role introduced Bernthal as an excellent character actor. Since then, he has become the guy who shows up onscreen unexpectedly, delivers the most memorable performance in a scene or two and then vanishes. This is perhaps why he's so often playing dead men in flashbacks. He's the dramatic center of gravity in FX's 'The Bear,' appearing just once or twice per season as the deceased family patriarch, and the tragic romantic in the 2017 Taylor Sheridan film 'Wind River.' Bernthal was so good in 'The Accountant,' an improbable 2016 Ben Affleck-led movie about an autistic accountant turned gunslinger, that the filmmakers made this year's sequel a two-hander. Bernthal has had leading roles too, most notably in 'We Own This City,' the HBO miniseries about Baltimore police corruption in which the actor's performance was criminally overlooked. But for the most part, he has carved out a career of supporting roles. So it made perfect sense when he told me that one of his favorite movies is 'True Romance,' Tony Scott's 1993 adaptation of Quentin Tarantino's first script. Christian Slater may have been the lead, but it was the supporting characters played by Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt and Dennis Hopper who stole the film. 'There are so many people who are in it for a scene or two,' Bernthal said, 'but you could have made a movie about any one of those characters.' We were having breakfast in Ojai, Calif., where Bernthal lives. The previous day, he returned from New York where he was promoting 'The Accountant 2.' Before that he was in Greece and Morocco, filming a role in 'The Odyssey' with Christopher Nolan, which is perhaps the greatest honor that can be bestowed on a dramatic actor these days. In front of him was a pile of egg whites, spinach, fruit and gluten-free toast. 'I'm like a gorilla,' he said. 'I eat a lot.' Most actors, once they get lead roles, are advised to turn down anything smaller. But Bernthal is allergic to strategizing about how to become a leading man or listening to agents and managers who want to find him a 'star vehicle.' The only real mistake he made in his career, he told me, happened because he let that sort of thinking get in his head. But he has switched agents since then. He knows he has become the guy who everyone calls for a favor, but then again 'The Bear' was a favor. And that turned into one of the most rewarding experiences of Bernthal's career. The intensity he brought to the role won him an Emmy, and now he has even co-written an episode in the upcoming season. 'I can't imagine deciding what you're going to do in this super-tenuous field while being so dependent on some businessman's strategy,' he said. Image Jon Bernthal, right, with Jeremy Allen White and Abby Elliott in the 2023 episode of 'The Bear' that earned him an Emmy. Credit... Chuck Hodes/FX, via Everett Collection Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
‘Disclaimer' star Leila George on how she landed ‘the best job of her life'
Imagine you're an actor, the phone rings, and it's Alfonso Cuarón offering you a role in his next project. No audition. That's exactly how Leila George landed the part of young Catherine Ravenscroft in Apple TV+'s Disclaimer, alongside Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Lesley Manville. Cuarón wanted George to play Blanchett's character in flashbacks told from differing perspectives, which would prove key to unlocking the mystery at the heart of the thriller. More from GoldDerby Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate on playing best friends in 'Dying for Sex': 'It was love at first sight' Seth Rogen on taking big swings with 'The Studio': 'Are people just going to think this looks insane?' Emmy experts predict Drama Series race: 'Severance' out front, but watch out for 'The Pitt' Opposite such powerhouse acting talent, George found a way to make the role her own — so much so that Cuarón, who had originally intended to just use her as a body double, decided instead to let her performance stand fully on its own. Critics took note, calling her work 'strikingly remarkable.' 'Leila George shines as the younger Catherine,' wrote Carla Meyer in the San Francisco Chronicle. 'Shown in flashbacks, George nails Blanchett's signature emotionally distant allure and exhausted yet superior speech patterns.' Disclaimer follows the fallout of a long-held secret on the life of a journalist (Blanchett), her husband (Cohen), and her son (Kodi Smit-McPhee), as the father (Kline) seeks revenge for his son, Jonathan's (Louis Partridge), death. When we first meet George's Catherine, we're seeing her in flashbacks, seemingly flirting with Jonathan; we later learn the truth about their interactions. Here, George recounts to Gold Derby how she navigated the demanding dual performance. Gold Derby: Amazing that you didn't even have to audition — that you just got a call from Cuarón. Leila George: It was nuts. I got told that Alfonso was going to call me, which in itself felt just crazy, and that there was a script, but I wasn't allowed to have it. I didn't know how to prepare, so I decided to read the book, because like, how do I make sure I get this job? I was so nervous for the call because I'm just someone that will generally talk people out of hiring me. I'm not good at selling myself. I always feel like maybe they've made a mistake. But he got on the phone with me and told me the whole story, and then asked me if I wanted to do it, which I still don't know really how that happened. I've heard rumors — I feel like the casting director had a big part in it. I'm just very, very happy that it happened that way. SEEKevin Kline, Cate Blanchett, and every 'Disclaimer' Emmy acting submission What was that conversation like? He started telling me the whole story from beginning to end. About two minutes in, I interrupted him and said, just so you know, I have read the book. He didn't like that I'd read the book. I think he wanted me to experience it firsthand from the script. I thought I was going to get brownie points! And then he said, "Would you like to do this?" And there was obviously only one answer that I was going to give. We talked about some of the nudity and sex scenes, just to make sure that that was all understood up front. And other than that, he was just like, "OK, well, I need you here in three days." So I packed up my whole life and got on a plane. How did you get yourself into character that quickly? When I arrived, they handed me a big binder, and I just got reading. We started shooting about 10 days from me knowing that I had the best job of my life. I often go into a bit of a panic before the first day. Have I done enough work? Do I even know what this character is? Luckily, with this job, Cate Blanchett, the queen, had already created this character. So I got to essentially just find pieces of what she'd already done and decide it was really mostly about finding the balance between how much to be like her and how much not to be Something that Alfonso and I talked about was how much of this fictional, novel version of her that you see in the first four episodes, how much that has to be like Cate's Catherine, because we know it's not actually her. We know that this is a fictionalized version of the character who Jonathan's mother has written based on a five-minute interaction that they had in a coffee shop years go. But you also want to still be able to fool people into thinking that it obviously is her, and then just finding the balance between that and the last three episodes, the true version of her. And it was difficult because we were shooting both versions in the same day. So depending on how the lighting would be, we'd be on the beach, and maybe a cloud would go in front of the sun, so it's like, "OK, we're going to do the last three episodes now." That was tricky in that you're going from being this fantasy, sexualized, confident seductress to a woman that has just been sexually assaulted the night before. And so it's a lot of flip-flopping between those two things. That was incredible and very scary. SEE'Disclaimer' trailer: Cate Blanchett's life falls apart in teaser for Alfonso Cuarón's limited series How did you manage to do both on the same day? There really isn't a chance with Alfonso, because you're just thrown in and you have to do it. You sink or swim. And I think luckily, I was able to stay afloat. You don't have time to worry about things. You're on to the next thing. Being able to work with a director like him, you can trust that he's going to either fire you or not move on until he gets it. He's not really going to settle for mediocre. And so I just think having that confidence, that trust in him meant that I knew it was going to be OK in terms of going back and forth, I used music a lot, because I think that's the quickest way — a song can change your whole demeanor immediately. And so I have playlists. I had a playlist for one version and a playlist for the other version, and I would just need a few minutes to listen to some music to hone back in on whichever version we were doing. What kind of direction did Alfonso give you? He doesn't. I think with the seductress, in the first four episodes, his direction was mostly about turning up Cate and turning her down, do more of this here to just really feel turned on all the time, like she's got a fire in her all the time. He really wanted us to push the flirtation. For the other version of Catherine, it was such delicate material that unless he had something that he really had to say, he stayed away for a lot of it. It was about showing how Jonathan was like pushing his evil as opposed to pushing her vulnerability. He definitely doesn't micromanage, but he is going to get what he wants. It must have been so hard to film that second half. How did you protect yourself emotionally? I'm quite good at just leaving it there. I've always been quite good at leaving things at work. Sometimes character elements follow me around, like the way a character dresses, or the way they move physically. But the actual emotions don't stay. I actually find it really useful, really therapeutic. There's only so much I can do of it, and once it's done, it really feels like I've already given it all of it. So when we're done filming, especially something like that, those scenes, I'm so relieved that it's over, because I'm so scared. I don't know how much I have left. So I do find it quite, quite easy to leave it at work. How were you able to access Cate's portrayal? Did they show you what she had already filmed? When I first arrived, we did a block through in a studio of a couple of the scenes, and so I saw Cate's idea of what those scenes would look like. I just watched her, and I could see some of the things that she was doing, some of the mannerisms that she had going on. And so I got to make some notes of that. And then we worked with the same dialect coach, and I think that was hugely helpful just for us to have the same sound. Beyond that, I was a bit panicked because I hadn't seen anything, and it was our first day of shooting, and I'm in hair and makeup, and I know that I'm about to have to go outside and do my first shot, and and a PA knocks on my trailer door with an iPad. I had about 30 minutes to watch some scenes that she'd done, and I kind of knew I wasn't ever going to see this iPad again. I thought about recording it, but then I thought, Apple's going to know somehow that it's on my iPhone. So I set it up on a table, and I put my phone facing me in selfie mode, and I videoed myself just mirroring everything she was doing, so that I had a physical image of what she was doing in scenes that I could then refer back to that was on my phone. What did you think when you saw the finished product? I don't know if people know this, but when I was hired, it was just to be her body. They were going to face replace us. And about halfway through shooting, I remember Alfonso said, "I think we'd like to make it so that in the first four episodes, it's actually you, and then when we cut to the truth, we'll put Cate's face on your body." When we finished shooting, it was tough, because when we were shooting those last bedroom scenes that are really personal, and you're just leaving all of you out there on film, I'd be driving home thinking it's going be really hard to watch those scenes with someone else's face on my body. I'm not sure I'm going be able to do that. I don't think I'll be able to see it. I was trying to just savor everything about it, knowing that was not mine anymore, that I was giving that away. And then about a year later, Alfonso let me go to a screening they had of an early cut and it was me. He called me after, and he said, "What do you think? Do you like it?" And I was like, "I'm so, so happy I got to see it before you did all of the CGI. Thank you for letting me see that." And he was like, "Yeah, we're not gonna do it. We're just gonna let it be you." I just bawled my eyes out. I couldn't believe it, and I felt so, so honored that that they would decide to do that. Did you ask him why he changed his mind? I'm not really sure. I think maybe it just wasn't necessary in the end. When you're doing scenes like that, I think there is something really personal about it maybe doesn't feel quite right. I was very happy. It was really kind of affirming. Every step of the way, the confidence that Alfonso put in me made me grow as an actor, and he is my fairy godfather. I'm forever in his debt. What did you take away from the experience? The main takeaway is to be able to trust that I can do it, to have the confidence. I remember we were at dinner quite early on, and Louis Partridge asked Alfonso who his favorite actors were that he's worked with, and Alfonso said it was the ones who actually weren't actors like in Roma. And so I decided from that moment to show up on set and trust that. I do a lot of research before; my scripts are like a Rorschach test, there's no white space on them. So to trust that I've done that work, and to show up on set like I'm not an actor, like I'm one of the non-actors, that's been really useful. I always feel like I have to prove myself. I can relax now and go to a meeting or sit at a dinner amongst peers or people that I look up to and just feel like I belong a little bit more, That's been the main difference — confidence. Best of GoldDerby Gary Oldman on 'Slow Horses' being 'an extraordinary show to work on' and 'one of the highlights of my career' Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate on playing best friends in 'Dying for Sex': 'It was love at first sight' Dan Fogelman and team on the making of 'Paradise': 'It only works if you have talented people who you trust' Click here to read the full article.
