Netflix Supports Brazilian Cinematheque Restoration With $875,000 Cash Donation
In a significant move for Brazilian cultural preservation, Netflix has announced a BRL 5 million ($875,000) donation to the Brazilian Cinematheque as part of its architectural restoration, modernization and expansion initiative. The streaming giant becomes the first private company to join the revitalization effort of this historic institution since its reopening in 2022.
The funds will support the renovation of Sala Oscarito, the Cinematheque's first screening room at its current headquarters, originally inaugurated in 1997. The modernization will bring the space up to current regulatory standards, upgrade technical infrastructure, and install an advanced climate control system, ensuring accessibility and state-of-the-art technology.
More from Variety
Netflix's Medical Drama 'Pulse' Is Nearly Dead On Arrival: TV Review
Netflix Adds Full Multilingual Support on TVs for Subtitles, Dubs in Over 30 Languages
NFL Christmas Games 2025: Prime Video Gets One Game Alongside Netflix's Holiday Double-Header
'It is a joy to contribute to the revitalization of such an important space for the history of Brazilian cinema,' said Elisabetta Zenatti, VP of content at Netflix Brazil. 'Preserving audiovisual memory is essential to keeping Brazilian culture alive, ensuring that future generations recognize and appreciate the richness of our cinema. Netflix has always supported and will continue to support national cinema, investing in technology, infrastructure, and, above all, in stories that reflect the diversity and talent of our country.'
The partnership is being carried out through the Rouanet Law, marking the first time Netflix has utilized Brazil's cultural incentive mechanism to support the arts and audiovisual sector locally.
Maria Dora Mourão, general director of the Brazilian Cinematheque, underscored the significance of this step: 'The modernization of Sala Oscarito is an important step in the revitalization of the Brazilian Cinematheque. This effort not only helps preserve our audiovisual heritage but also reestablishes the Cinematheque as a reference space for film and audiovisual exhibition.'
The restoration project doesn't end with Sala Oscarito. The broader plan includes masonry repairs, climate control improvements in research and technical areas, enhanced landscaping and increased accessibility across the Cinematheque's facilities. An estimated BRL 30 million ($5.2 million) will be needed to complete the full restoration.
The initiative is part of Viva Cinemateca, a program launched in 2023 to restore significant collections like nitrate film reels and the Canal 100 archive. The project has also brought exhibitions and film showcases to over 20 cities in Brazil.
As public-private collaboration becomes increasingly essential for cultural preservation, the Cinematheque continues to seek corporate and individual donors. Contributions can also be made via the Friends of the Cinematheque Program.
This donation cements Netflix's ongoing commitment to Brazilian storytelling and audiovisual heritage, reaffirming the platform's role not just as a content provider, but also as a cultural patron.
Best of Variety
New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week
What's Coming to Disney+ in April 2025
The Best Celebrity Memoirs to Read This Year: From Chelsea Handler to Anthony Hopkins
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
‘The Better Sister' Bosses Break Down the Series' Spiderweb of Secrets, Complex Family Dynamics and Mysteries They Can Explore in a Season 2
[This story contains spoilers from all eight episodes of Prime Video's ] When crafting Prime Video's eight-episode limited series The Better Sister, starring Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks, showrunners Olivia Milch and Regina Corrado asked themselves, 'What is the most uncomfortable path we can take and can we bear telling it this way?' More from The Hollywood Reporter 'The Better Sister': Jessica Biel, Elizabeth Banks on Wanting the Audience to Root for Their "Messy" Characters and That "Rallying Cry" Ending 'The Better Sister' Review: Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks' Chemistry Gets Squandered in Amazon's Dull Sisterly Mystery 'The Wheel of Time' Canceled at Amazon's Prime Video After Three Seasons That path proves to be a spiderweb of mysteries as Milch and Corrado explore both the unraveling of a whodunit and the trauma and history between two estranged sisters Nicky (Banks) and Chloe (Biel). Adapted from Alafair Burke's novel of the same name, Biel and Banks star as sisters seemingly living opposite lives — Chloe with an established career and devoted family that includes lawyer husband Adam (Corey Stoll) and teenage son Ethan (Maxwell Acee Donovan), while Nicky struggles to stay clean. However, when Adam is murdered, the two sisters must come together, especially when Ethan is accused of the murder. To make matters more complicated, Nicky is also Adam's ex and Ethan's biological mother. When exploring the lingering secrets and complex family and personal history that exist for Chloe and Nicky, Milch tells The Hollywood Reporter that they were really exploring 'the emotional and psychological unraveling' of each character. 'I think so much of the show is about the stories that we've told ourselves about who we are, about who our siblings are, and about what happened,' Milch says, adding, 'As you get to know the characters, you start to understand more and you start to understand how they didn't understand each other at a certain point, how they sort of moved away from each other.' Throughout the series, the audience watches Biel's Chloe and Banks' Nicky fight to save their son from jail while also having to confront their own demons whether personally or ones that spurred from each other and their parents. As for who is actually the 'better sister'? That was a 'real guiding light' for the show, Milch says, adding, 'All of us are trying to sort of be better than our worst selves, and we don't always succeed. These two sisters think things about each other. The world thinks things about them. And, at different moments, one of them is trying to do the right thing, and one of them has made a mistake, and yet they sort of keep finding each other.' Corrado says, 'I think they ultimately have have destroyed the trust between them, and there is this slow rebuilding. But the question remains, can they actually move on from these things that they've done to each other, which are very deep and unforgivable in some ways? Can we forgive, but can I live with you and move forward?' Ahead of the show's premiere, Milch and Corrado chatted with THR about show's spiderweb of mysteries, exploring a complex yet 'perfect alcoholic family' and break down that killer reveal ending — and the new mysteries to explore. How did this project come to you both and what about the story made you want to be a part of it? OLIVIA MILCH Tomorrow Studios, the amazing producers on the project, had sent the book to me in 2019. It's so twisty and turny and fun, and [author] Alafair [Burke] does such an incredible job. Then her prosecutorial background and how well researched all of the trial stuff was, it was just such a fun read. I think for me personally, the thing that I really connected to is this notion that siblings get different versions of their parents, particularly when a parent gets sober, and how that affects one kid getting a sober version of the parent and one kid having experienced a parent when they were in more of an addict or in use. I really connected with that. My dad got sober when I was 10, and my brother was 13, my sister was 15, so I really felt like, 'Oh, I understand that.' And even if you don't have experience with sobriety, everybody, I think can understand that their parents change as people and you are getting them at different stages of their life. As you become an adult, and you look back, you realize, 'Wow, that had such an effect on who I am, and who my siblings are, and also the way that I think of my siblings and the stories that I tell.' Then the idea of getting to work with Regina. Regina is like on the Mount Rushmore of writers to me. Tomorrow Studios was so committed to the project throughout all of these years and just so believed in it. So we're very much indebted to them and grateful to them for helping us see it through, and now we got to make it, which is just crazy! REGINA CORRADO I have a very big family. Each one of us has a different version of the sobriety. My favorite is, 'He wasn't sober.' (Laughs.) You think you had one version of, 'Oh, no, he kicked it.' Everyone's got the real scoop. That's my favorite piece of it. So we connect a lot on the family aspect of this, which is really fun to explore and continue to explore, because the exploration doesn't end. This series is presented as a spiderweb of mysteries where we have the central mystery of Adam's death but also other mysteries including of the sisters themselves, Adam as a person and his job, Ethan's secrets and the detective and her past. And once you think you know something, something else happens to steer you in another direction. Going into this, how did you go about crafting how you were going to explore these different mysteries and present the varied pieces of this overall puzzle we watch throughout the series? MILCH All the characters have a secret pride and a secret shame. At the heart of a lot of the mysteries in the show, which you've done such a beautiful job elucidating how you think you know you're solving one thing and then another thing, is a lot of these characters have secret shame and [exploring] to be seen and to be known once your secret shame is revealed. And to ask, can I still love myself? Can other people still love me? All the characters are asking that of each other at different times. So I think so much of the plot is the emotional and psychological unraveling [and] our exposure of the characters to each other. And the web that you talk about is understanding that they're all in it together and their fates are really intertwined, which is the truth of all of us. We spent so much time thinking about the past and the care of each character that having gotten to know them so well, and then getting to understand the actors and what they were bringing to the characters as we approached every moment of revelation, we understood what that might give us access to in the past, the character, and how that might then come to light in that present moment. That was a lot of fun. CORRADO I think also the shame that one thinks is going to do you in, sometimes has that surprising liberation attached to it. I think that was a theme Olivia and I were very interested in exploring and talking about is that we carry this darkness around, and then when you finally expose [it], whether voluntarily or not, there is a freedom to live in a different way. And we can say that that that applies to every single one of our characters too. The narrative centers on these unreliable narrators, given it doesn't seem like anyone is really trustworthy and there are lingering secrets with everyone involved. Can you talk about creating Chloe and Nicky and the conversations you had with Jessica and Elizabeth in who you wanted them to be? CORRADO I think that they are both very different in their process, both incredibly smart and invested in layering and I think sobriety, particularly for the Nicky character. It's complicated. And it's also complicated for how old they are. I think the conversation was always, how do we make them more interesting and the more courageous choice as writers and as actors? What is the most uncomfortable path we can take and can we bear telling it this way? And I think that they were both very committed to that. I think Elizabeth and Jessica were just delightful to get into it with, because they always showed up on set with something that they had been grappling with. It wasn't like they came in and they were like, 'I got it.' They were like, 'Well, what about this? I have this question.' It's hard work, because when you're honest about it, it's uncomfortable. MILCH There was so much mutual vulnerability that was being brought to the process, and that's what makes it messy in the best way, because it makes it human. I think part of what you were pointing out with the web of all of these characters is that nothing is clean. The unreliable narrator, you're never 100 percent honest with yourself, let alone other people. Both Elizabeth and Jessica, they're so smart, and they're such pros. They've been doing it for so long that I think there was so much excitement and they were so down to go to that place of vulnerability. They weren't afraid of the moments of messiness in the characters. That excited them the most. That's the best you can ask for with creative collaborators. We spend a lot of the show taking the time to understand these characters and their choices and peel back their layers. I think it humanized them because you may at first not have sympathy or even know whether you like them based on what we think we know about them. CORRADO But you hope that those two things can exist at the same time. Your heart is big enough that you feel for them. That's the trick of it: to be unlikable in some instances and moments and then all of a sudden break somebody's heart when they're watching you suffer. You also explore Nicky and Chloe's childhood and upbringing and how the both of them had different experiences, especially given their difference in age. Can you talk about how their childhood shaped how they conceived themselves and each other and what you wanted to get across with their backstory? MILCH I think all of us are products of our mother and father, or lack thereof, and our childhoods. It was so important to us, particularly with the sisters, to go back to those original wounds and those original traumas. I think so much of the show is about the stories that we've told ourselves about who we are, about who our siblings are and about what happened. It was really important for us to be able to start interrogating some of those memories and charting the course of our characters, also tapping back into them and understanding them in a different way. I think that happens for a lot of us. I think it's so potent and so powerful to just even see those glimmers and those moments of childhood, because it makes you understand that inside of us we all have the kid version of ourselves still. Getting to access that rawness and that pain directly is so important for our characters and then so important for our audience. We know there's volumes of story about our characters before we met them. So that was something that was so special for us to be able to do. And I think really starts to complete the picture. As you get to know the characters, you start to understand more and you start to understand how they didn't understand each other at a certain point, how they sort of moved away from each other. CORRADO I feel like to meet their parents it all becomes abundantly clear what happens: It's the perfect alcoholic family (Laughs.) As Chloe and Nicky work together to protect Ethan, their bond grows, but it is a slow progress and almost felt like their relationship was strongest when there were secrets. Can you talk about the progression of their relationship and the complexities of that sibling relationship? CORRADO I think it's a push and pull, like five steps forward, six steps back. I think they ultimately have have destroyed the trust between them, and there is this slow rebuilding. But the question remains, can they actually move on from these things that they've done to each other, which are very deep and unforgivable in some ways? Can we forgive, but can I live with you and move forward? MILCH Or how do you embrace the totality of a person, including that that person was capable of hurting you and harming you in that way? Can you hold the truth simultaneously, that they can love you and that they can hurt you so much? That's really family, right? I think when you're with your siblings, you revert back to being kids immediately, and you have all of the stuff that's happened between you in the present. And so I think that Jess and Elizabeth do such an amazing job of getting at that dynamic where there's so much distrust, so many secrets between them, and yet, the second they get with each other, it's the bickering, and it just comes out. We always talk about the moment on the terrace when Guidry, the cop [played by Kim Dickens], comes out, [and they're like], 'She's such a bitch!' Siblings unite talking shit about an outsider. So I think that was also very important to us to find those moments of humor and levity and the dynamic that is unique to sisters. Adam may have been murdered but he's very much a central character. We learn he went with Nicky's sister, is abusive and involved in a shady business. How did you view Adam and the motivations he had with the choices he made when it came to Nicky and Chloe, Ethan and then his career? MILCH Adam also was always so important to us — not necessarily that there were redeeming qualities about him but that we understood him. He was complex and nobody's all bad. In the eighth episode, you meet his mother and get that glimpse into a little bit of what he came from and what he was trying to leave behind. You're sort of starting to understand how does a kid who has a pretty broken background start to try to piece themselves together and have a sense of control? Even when they have demons that either have been passed down to them or have been developed as coping mechanisms. For us, Adam was somebody who really viewed himself as having a profound sense of integrity and belief that there are ways things ought to be. And as you piece the story together, the understanding that when he was with Nicky, it was such an affront to the way that he thought things were supposed to go. When he says in his sort of apparition ghost figure to Chloe in 107: If it wasn't then it would have been another time she [Nicky] was gonna kill him. We also wanted to show that, yes, Nicky was terribly wronged and horrifically set up, and her child was taken from her, but she also was a drunk. Nothing is totally black and white or has 100 percent moral clarity. When he's with Chloe, this is also a life he didn't sign up for. We have that tension between the two of them, of her comfort in the spotlight and his thinking, 'Okay, now I'm with the right sister. This was who I was supposed to be with.' And then, 'Oh no, wait, this also isn't the life that I want, and this is also a life that lacks integrity, and now I'm at this job that she wanted me to be in that is corrupt.' Just trying to tap into the frustration and the resentment and the anger that he felt, never justifying the choices that he made with that anger but trying to know that the underpinnings of it were real feelings that he was having, and how clearly toxic it can be when you don't have the capacity to process those feelings in ways that are that are healthy or safe. That was super important to us as we were building that and, of course, an actor like Corey Stoll, it's very rare to find somebody who could really bring all of that to light. So we were very fortunate to have Corey help tell that story with us. CORRADO We did also want to explore that he was very aware of the fact that he was very damaged and dangerous. And we went through different iterations of how we could share that, whatever that inner struggle was, and we ended up doing it the way we did. We felt like it was very important to fill that color in, because it's very easy to demonize a character, and then when you demonize them, you write them off. So it was so important to understand him and, as Olivia said, not to justify or to excuse but sort of say, 'This guy is tortured. He wants out too.' Each time this violence happened, he swore it would be the last. Ethan goes through it in the series. His dad is murdered; he's accused of the murder; he has a close relationship with both Chloe and Nicky and in the middle of that dynamic. But then learns that his situation could've been different had Adam never lied about Nicky putting him in danger and he's left to reevaluate his life. By the series' end, where does that leave him? Do you think there's any resentment there with him and Chloe? MILCH There's so many heartbreaking realizations about what he's been through. As you said, there's sort of this onion that's being peeled back and I think when you first encounter Ethan, you think, 'This is kind of a spoiled, wealthy kid. He's sweet. I like him. He's a little bit awkward.' And Maxwell Donovan, who plays him, is just so amazing. But when he does get arrested, you think he's capable. He's tall. He could have maybe taken his dad on. And it's very important to have that kind of all play out as you encountered him as a character and looked at him in a new light. But I think exactly as you're saying, there's so much confusion and there's so much that's unknown for him about the truth of his life. There are stories that you tell kids to help simplify things, especially when there's been trauma that has happened to kids when they're little. And I think Ethan was told a certain story that was convenient and direct, even though it was painful, about what happened with Nicky and then he went on to live a very privileged life. Then at this moment of peak adolescence, the rug gets pulled out from under him. In a certain sense, he's going through something quite similar to what Nicky and Chloe are going through; Reexamining his childhood and reexamining the truth of what happened to him and what he can believe. I think all teenagers have that moment where they look at their parents and they realize, 'You are fallible figures. You are not just abstractions of security and authority. You are people capable of making mistakes and of lying and of doing the wrong thing.' And that is unnerving, but you have to sort of process that in order to become an adult. I think he gets the most extreme version of that and the feelings he has toward Nicky of what does it mean to get to know her and then the questioning of: Was I supposed to stay with her? Would I have made more sense if I had grown up in Ohio with Nicky? I think a lot of people, when they find out things about their childhood, start to ask those kinds of questions. How different would I be if it had been different? But I think you were very smart to pinpoint. I think that there is a lot of resentment and anger toward Chloe, particularly at the end, as he sort of realizes a lot of this was a lie, even if some of that was not her fault or her intention. CORRADO What I think Alafair [Burke] set up for us beautifully, too, was the use of the internet as a place to put his anger that does not bring it into real time. It was actually unusually a healthy outlet for him, so he was able to to voice that: accusing of her hypocrisy and all of the things that he hated about her [Chloe] and he wanted to hurt his father. I think that that, to me, is one of his most interesting aspects as a character, because he has that one very sweet facade, but is capable of a lot of things. Like what is there underneath all of that? It's revealed that Nicky was the one to kill Adam. But why do you think she didn't share that especially given Ethan was arrested and on trial for the murder? MILCH I think there's a question you always ask yourself when you're thinking about characters' choices: What if it all went according to plan? We don't believe that Nicky came there with the intention of murdering Adam. She says, 'I'm getting my sister and I'm getting my son, and I'm getting out of here.' So it really was self defense. It was, 'If I don't defend myself, he's gonna kill me. And I know he's capable of that, and he feels justified in doing that, because he's gonna say I was crazy. He's gonna make up some story about what I came here to do.' I think in the aftermath of that, when she gets that call from the police, there's two ways that call is gonna go. She thinks, 'Oh, my God, are they calling me to say we know that you've murdered Adam Macintosh and we're gonna come arrest you?' But they call her and say, 'You now are the legal guardian of your son' and that is the thing that she's wanted more than anything in her life and here it is. So in a weird way, this spur of the moment decision that she had to make gives her the thing that she wants most. And how is she going to deny that to herself? But I think the thing that Elizabeth does so beautifully and is always at play with Nicky is that anxiety and that fear [of] 'I'm going to be found out.' The second she gets to be with Ethan, it's such a balm and salve to her soul of what she's wanted for so long, and she gets to be back with her sister, which as much tension as there is, I think they both did really miss each other. If she turns herself in, she's going to jail. She doesn't get to be with them anymore. How could she choose that after just getting them back? I think she thinks she would never let Ethan go away for it. But is there a way to salvage the possibility that they can all be together? It's not rational but none of it is. That was always Nicky's North Star; getting to be with Ethan and her sister and protecting both of them. And then ultimately Chloe decides she's going to figure out a way to protect her sister and protect her son. CORRADO I think she could find out if Chloe was the enemy or not because she [Chloe] had betrayed her trust and taken so much from her. Coming in with the truth was probably, in her mind, a ticket right to jail. They worked some shit out. At the end, Chloe and Nicky imply that they're going to tell their story in a book after all. What did you want to get across with their decision to do that? CORRADO This is also a way of healing. They're going to tell this story, and they're going to do it together, and the money is going to be life changing, and they'll have a whole new set of lies they need to sort. But it begs the question of what story are they going to tell? It feels like they're forever bonded by secrets and their relationship is strongest when there are secrets. MILCH I think that's exactly right. At the heart of many families, the secrets are what bonds you together. That question of, what story are they going to tell for us? That's sort of the story of the show. It's this love story with these sisters but it's, what story have you told yourself? What story are you telling together? What story are you telling the world and all of those different versions? That's a big question for how they go forward. At the end of the series, we see Jake (Gabriel Sloyer) lying dead on the beach. It seems to be hinted that he was killed by Bill and Gentry, can you confirm that? MILCH To confirm? (Laughs.) CORRADO Confirm or deny (Laughs.) I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something, but it seems there's another mystery to solve! MILCH I think we very much wanted to deliver a very satisfactory ending for the first season and have it feel like you know what happened, like the mystery is solved. But I think that obviously the truth, particularly around these ladies in this family, is things happen. So there certainly is no definitive answer to that. For now. (Laughs.) We also see Detective Guidry aware that despite Bill being arrested for Adam's murder, that's not what actually happened and knows Nicky has something to do with the murder. Is that something that she just will have to keep to herself going forward or do you see a world where she tries to still expose the truth somehow? MILCH You know, you are asking so many wonderful questions about what it might be like to say, continue to tell this story, which is certainly something that we've given thought on our own. And should we be so lucky to continue to get to explore! But yes, I think Guidry, like [with] so many in this story, there's sort of the version that is out in the public, and then the private truth. Even though at the end of the season, so many secrets have been revealed and so many mysteries sort of have been solved, there's now this new set of lies agreed upon, and secrets and choices that have been made that are setting things in motion. She knows something that isn't out there, and what is she going to do with that information? I think that cat and mouse between Guidry and Nicky is such a fun and satisfying dynamic and relationship in the season. So Nicky gets away, but for how long? Well my other question was going to be whether you envision continuing the story for Chloe and Nicky, but I suppose I got my answer. MILCH AND CORRADO (Laughs.) Given the series is called , I think while watching the series the answer to who is actually the better sister can change and be hard to answer. But what is your take on who is the better sister and why? MILCH I think you nailed it. It depends on any given moment. That was, for us, what we were always interested in exploring. That's also true in your relationships, it depends on the day, and we all fuck up, and we all hurt each other, and then we're all the person who needs something, and we're the person who shows up. That was a real guiding light for us in telling the story: All of us are trying to sort of be better than our worst selves, and we don't always succeed. These two sisters think things about each other. The world thinks things about them. And, at different moments, one of them is trying to do the right thing, and one of them has made a mistake, and yet they sort of keep finding each other. CORRADO It was a great opportunity for other characters to comment on how fucked up they were (Laughs.) Like, 'Oh, these sisters…' The surrogate for the audience is not who's better, it's who's worse? (Laughs.) *** All eight episodes of The Better Sister are now streaming on Prime Video. Read THR's interview with Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
‘The Better Sister': Jessica Biel, Elizabeth Banks on Wanting the Audience to Root for Their 'Messy' Characters and That 'Rallying Cry' Ending
[This story contains spoilers from all eight episodes of Prime Video's .] What's a family without some drama? But add in a murder, lingering secrets and scandals and you get the recipe for Prime Video's The Better Sister starring Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel. More from The Hollywood Reporter 'The Better Sister' Stars React to Murder Mystery Reveal: "They Totally Threw Me Off and I Was There" 'Lee Soo Man: King of K-Pop' Director and Subject Talk New Prime Video Documentary Nicole Clemens Hired to Head Amazon MGM's International Originals Biel and Banks star in the eight-episode series, from showrunners Olivia Milch and Regina Corrado and adapted from Alafair Burke's novel of the same name, as estranged sisters Chloe Taylor (Biel) and Nicky Macintosh (Banks) who despite living opposite lives — Chloe leads a picturesque existence with her lawyer husband Adam (Corey Stoll) and teenage son Ethan (Maxwell Acee Donovan), while Nicky struggles to stay clean — must come together when Chloe's husband is murdered. To make matters more complicated, Nicky is also Adam's ex and Ethan's biological mother. While viewers follow the mystery of who killed Adam, they get glimpses into Nick and Chloe's harrowing past, trauma and the mistakes that haunt them. Depicting this estranged relationship, the power of sisterhood and motherhood and flawed human beings all drew Biel and Banks to the series. 'I saw myself in both of these women,' Biel tells The Hollywood Reporter. 'It's like two opposite forces coming together.' 'It felt like Greek tragedy to me,' Banks adds. 'I, for one, felt like it's going to be really satisfying for the audience to watch them struggle to build this family back up, knowing all the history and the secrets that they hold. We want the audience to root for them, like a love story, to figure out how to be together and be connected as a family again.' Ahead of the premiere, Biel and Banks spoke with THR about portraying the secretive sisters, showcasing 'unlikable women' taking on a system attempting to tear them down, the series' twists and turns and why that surprise ending felt like a 'rallying cry.' How did this project come to you, and what about the story made you want to be a part of it? JESSICA BIEL Craig Gillespie, our director of the pilot, and Olivia [Milch] and Regina [Corrado], our amazing showrunners and writers were honored to read the material and get to take a look at these amazing women. We were able to read the book kind of all at the same time. My first question [was] who's going to play Nicky? And hearing that it was possibly Elizabeth [Banks] and all of these elements coming together all sort of at the same time, for me, was just a jumping off point of 'Oh this is something that could be really, really interesting!' And I think also just the nature of [the story being on] human beings [that are] flawed, beautiful, complicated, smart, hiding things, keeping secrets, as we all do, I saw myself in both of these women, and specifically, really saw my way into playing Chloe and thinking about how exciting it would be to to work in the world of someone who keeps everything inside and contains, contains, contains, while her counterpart, everything is external. It's like two opposite forces coming together. So it was a pretty thrilling opportunity. ELIZABETH BANKS I agree with Jessica. All the elements were really exciting to me. And I also felt like the story had a really large canvas to play with. It felt like Greek tragedy to me. The murdered husband, the two wives, the shared son living in his father's shadow, talking to ghosts, the past sort of having an impact on the present, the betrayals and the lies. So I love that we were going to have this big canvas. I love that it was set in New York, which felt like another character, and that we were actually going to be able to shoot it there, which is such a blessing to get to do. Then great partners like Jessica to play with. So I really loved the entire endeavor from jump. I thought it was such an interesting opportunity. I also really appreciated that the central relationship was sisterhood and motherhood. Nicky and Chloe especially are seemingly bonded by secrets but also both struggling with their identities whether it be personally or as sisters. Can you talk about who you wanted Chloe and Nicky to be individually and get across with who they were? BIEL They're two sides of the same coin. They both have their secrets. They both know these truths that they've been telling themselves. I mean, really more Chloe, I guess. Nicky has been on her path and on her process of self discovery and self forgiveness. These characters, they are our friends. They are our sisters. They are ourselves. We contain multitudes of everything. Human beings are capable of everything. So I think Elizabeth and I just really wanted to have these people feel really authentic with all their flaws, with all their beautiful things, with all their messy beauty, whatever it is, we just wanted it to feel real, and we wanted it to feel like you could recognize yourself in these people. BANKS I think also, at the end of the day, this sense of a need for connection between the two of them is very deep, and they built real walls against it. So through this tragedy that happens in their lives, they get the opportunity to break down those walls and reconnect in a deep way. And especially for Nicky, this is the only family that they have there. Their parents are dead. It's Ethan and the two of them. This is it. This is the family unit now. And I, for one, felt like it's going to be really satisfying for the audience to watch them struggle to build this family back up, knowing all the history and the secrets that they hold. We want the audience to root for them, like a love story, to figure out how to be together and be connected as a family again. The show explores Nicky and Chloe's childhood and how the both of them had different experiences especially given their difference in age. What were your thoughts on their backstory and how their childhood shaped how themselves and each other? BANKS I know that Olivia and Regina really appreciated this notion and theme that children can get different versions of their parents, depending on birth order and time. That really struck a chord with me. I'm the oldest of four kids, and my younger brother is 11 years younger than me, so of course, my parents were different people a decade into parenthood than from when they had me. When I read that that made a lot of sense to me. I also think this is about alcoholism and how it affects families and the lessons that are learned and the protection that older siblings have for younger siblings and the protection that gets put in place when the bad things start happening to one sibling. We want to protect the younger one. Nicky got a very different version of her father and her mom than her sister did, and I think that came to bear on their lives in really profound ways and what it means for them is that they don't have a shared reality of their past. They don't have a shared sense of their history. They have two different histories, and revealing to each other. What was really going on is part of the rebuilding process that I'm talking about that's going to connect them as family again. They don't share the same facts, and when you don't, it's very hard to agree on what happened and to not blame and carry shame and guilt about it. There's a push and pull with Nicky and Chloe where they take steps forward together then take steps back because there's this trust between them that was destroyed at a time. And though by the series end they decide to team on a book and tell their story, what did you make of their relationship by the series end? Do you think they can forgive and forget or is there always going to be some distrust there and things to hash out between them? BIEL I don't think that there's any distrust. I think they've been through quite an experience together, and they have been the most vulnerable that they possibly can be. And at this point, it's the first layer of trust [and] the foundation has been poured again. Now they're really starting from a different place. They have a common goal and a common enemy, and they have a common interest in protecting Ethan no matter what. I think they have no reason at this point to not trust each other. I mean, of course, stuff is going to come up. Family shit just comes up. But they have to trust each other. They only have each other now, and if they can't trust that, then what are we even doing here? Because that's the point of what we're trying to say and what we're trying to tell as Elizabeth was saying. It's like they are going to be successful in overcoming this estranged relationship and overcoming this thing that Nicky had to carry for so long that Chloe didn't know about, which caused their two separate experiences. That's over now. Chloe has shattered her glass house, her pristine world. Now they're level playing fields. They're backing back, like arms linked, kind of feeling. BANKS They came to this scenario with their own secrets, and now they have a shared secret, and I think that's really powerful for them as a way to keep fighting for each other and for Ethan. One thing Nicky and Chloe share in common is their love for Ethan. Though we see he has built relationships with both of them, by the series end he's also left to reexamine his childhood and himself and what's true and isn't. I'm curious for your thoughts on where Nicky and Chloe's relationship with Ethan stands. Do you think there's some resentment there with both Nicky and Chloe or what do you make of their relationship now? Not to mention he doesn't even know the truth of what happened to his father. BANKS I think it's tenuous at best. I think that what's interesting is what we're trying to impart the entire time is that carrying secrets is detrimental to your relationships and to your mental health, to your sense of belonging, and yet we are going to keep a big secret from him. I think we both know it's a danger to our future relationship, to the future bonds that we'll have with him. I think we both know that it's a big risk, but it's one we feel like we have to take — for now. (Laughs.) I don't know! I like that we leave it flawed. You plug one hole, [and] you fix one thing and another leak pops up. That's life. That's the fun of the these characters. They are messy. They are flawed. We don't wrap it up with a bow. At the end, we learn that Nicky was in fact the one to kill Adam. What did you both make of that reveal? Then Elizabeth, can you talk about why Nicky kept it hidden even after Ethan was blamed and the drama aftermath? BANKS Obviously we knew the whole time what had happened. And I think what's fun is going back the clues are all there. I mean literally, I think in episode three, I say, 'I'll say I did it. Just put me in jail instead,' and everyone tells me to shut up, and that's stupid (Laughs.) She couldn't be more open. She goes to AA and says, 'It was a bad idea me coming here.' I know that Nicky came with good intentions. When you know better, you have to do better. And Nicky finding out that Adam didn't change, that she can't disclaim herself: he is the villain of the story; she is going to save her sister and Ethan from him. And he [Adam] turns to what he always does with his violence. And so it was in self defense. I think she believes that all the entire time. She shows up thinking that the tracks were hidden. She doesn't realize what Ethan did. There are so many things being revealed to Nicky when she shows up. She had a plan, and it's gone sideways. That being said, this is the first time that Nicky has had real access to her son and to her sister. She went there with the purpose of making sure Adam did not continue to steal her family from her. And she still has that goal. So I think when she's told you can't say anything, you'll go to jail and lose Ethan and Chloe again, her goal is to not let Adam win. The reason I don't say anything is because I know that at the end I always can. I have a card. I can always play it, but let's play this out and hope that Adam doesn't win. Let's get Ethan off. Let's go home together. Let's be a family. He's got to play a longer game of chess than she realized, but that's what's happening. She's taking the long view. She just has to be a strategist so that she can get her family back and not let Adam win. BIEL What the Nicky character does for Chloe when she commits that act of violence is the greatest sister sacrifice and loyalty ever. On some level, I think Chloe can't even believe that someone stood up for her in that way. That this person whose life she ruined, basically, even though she didn't have all the information, but she took this life from this beloved sister, and she did all these things that put her life spinning down one path, and her sister's life spinning down another path — like she did that for me? To just make sure that I didn't have a life that would go on and on and on with violence and pain and suffering in private, because she knows I would never say anything? And Ethan can't live this way. It's a humongous sacrifice and it's the greatest act of love in this dysfunctional, fucked up family. BANKS I'm the big sister protector, and they set it up in the series. You see us in our past, I'm supposed to keep Chloe from drowning. And I take that seriously as an adult. I felt very alone with pain that I had over Adam for so long. So to know that I actually share it with my sister, it's an incredible relief that I am actually not alone, but I'm not going to let her suffer in the way that I did. There was a moment where Nicky says it was better for Chloe to be with Adam because she could handle it better than she could. So it felt like a full circle moment that she'd be the strong one to ultimately put an end to it all. BANKS But Nicky has done a lot of work to get to that place and believe in herself, right? I think that's a survivor. She had to actually survive it to believe she could be a survivor. We see Nicky really committed to her sobriety and attending AA meetings and working the program. What sort of discussions did you have with the showrunners about it and what research of your own did you do to understand that? BANKS I've actually played a recovering alcoholic a couple times so I've spent time with AA and Al-Anon. I have friends and family who have worked those programs, so I was really honored to represent it onscreen that way. It's one of my absolute favorite organizations; I think it's incredible. It gave me a lot as an actress to work with as Nicky because I know how those meetings go and I know what the steps look like, and I know how much work, internally, and honesty someone has to bring to that process to stay sober. So I know that Nicky had done a lot of that work and that she was trying to introduce her truth to her sister in the show, so it helps me to play this role a lot. We also see Detective Guidry (Kim Dickens) be on to Nicky and seemingly know that though they arrested Bill Braddock (Matthew Modine) for the murder of Adam, that's not what happened and he's not the murderer. Do you think Nicky is still at risk of being exposed by Detective Guidry or do you think they'll find a way to keep what happened a secret? BANKS You know, I have no idea if we will ever get the opportunity to explore this further. I love that there's still a sense of danger for this family going forward. Jessica and I talked a lot about why we had to pin it on somebody else. Why did we have to do that? And that was about protecting Ethan. Ethan was accused of this crime and that accusation was going to follow him and we needed to offer up another idea. Because even though he was acquitted, there was always going to be this shadow over him that maybe he did it. I feel like Nicky, at the very least, couldn't live with this idea that Ethan had to go through the rest of his life with people believing he had murdered his father. So finding another avenue for us was a way to fight the system that had been holding us down throughout. We're two villains in this piece. I mean, we're unlikable women. I'm a bad mom who's a drug addict and an alcoholic who loses her son, and Chloe is a cheating, (laughs) ambitious social climber with a target on her back, you know? We live in a system that wants to hate us, that wants to tear us down. And so it brings out all of our fighting instincts, and Bill Braddock is the embodiment of that system that is holding us down, of that oppression. So be able to nail him for it felt really right to me as a sort of a rallying cry for us as two women in the in the series. Given the series is called I think while watching the series the answer to who is actually the better sister can change and be something hard to even answer. But what is your take on that question that lingers with the series with who is the better sister and why? BIEL I'm with you on that one. It is unanswerable. You cannot point to one or the other at the end of the series. I think that's what I love about the title. It is subverting the expectation of that title, because initially on the out front you think, 'Oh, I'm going to be able to pick it out.' And you probably think it's Chloe at first and then you think it's Nicky, and then you think it's Chloe. And then it goes back and forth the whole time. Then it kind of points to other people too. Just because the word sister is there doesn't really necessarily mean you have to be pointing at us. We are all culpable. We're pointing at everybody. So many different people have a hand in this thing. There's just this big, very gray area that question is living within. BANKS The better sister is not a statement, it's the question. I think it invites the audience to play with the series, as Jessica says, and go back and forth like I think one thing, and now I think another. One of my favorite things about the writing is these cliffhangers at the end. You're pointing in one direction, or you're walking down a certain path, and then all of a sudden we're taking massive right turns and U-turns, and I think it's a it's a great way to pose a question to the audience that invites them to investigate alongside us. *** All eight episodes of The Better Sister are now streaming on Prime Video. Read THR's interview with the series' showrunners. Hilary Lewis contributed to this story. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
‘The Better Sister' Stars React to Murder Mystery Reveal: 'They Totally Threw Me Off and I Was There'
[The following story contains spoilers from the Prime Video limited series .] When the execs at production company Tomorrow Studios were talking to people about producing a TV adaptation of Alafair Burke's The Better Sister, they would ask prospective partners after reading the first episode who they thought was behind the story's central murder mystery of who killed Adam Macintosh, played in the Prime Video limited series by Corey Stoll. More from The Hollywood Reporter 'Lee Soo Man: King of K-Pop' Director and Subject Talk New Prime Video Documentary Frank Gehry, Theaster Gates and Wendy Schmidt Earn "Legend" Status at Star-Studded MOCA Gala Keanu Reeves Applauds Ana de Armas' "Joy for the Action" as She Joins 'John Wick' Universe 'People had different answers,' Tomorrow Studios president and Better Sister executive producer Becky Clements told The Hollywood Reporter at The Better Sister's New York premiere last month. 'And for us that was perfect, because you wouldn't be able to predict.' Even the Better Sister actors were surprised when they learned who did it, despite helping to realize the narrative. 'I was shocked because they put so many twists and turns,' Maxwell Acee Donovan, who plays Adam's son and murder suspect, Ethan Macintosh. 'Even after we made it and I've been watching it, they totally threw me off and I'm like, I was there. I did not see it coming.' That sentiment was echoed by the actors behind a number of other key characters in Ethan's murder trial. 'I was shocked,' Austin Smith, who plays the prosecutor making a case against Ethan told THR. 'As somebody who usually figures it out, I was shocked. So I'm hoping audiences will be as well.' And Bobby Naderi who plays Detective Bowen indicated he was upset he wasn't able to connect the dots: 'I was like I can't believe I didn't see it. But I was genuinely paying attention because I know what type of world I'm in but I was like I can't believe I missed that. The nuggets are there but you just have to be super observant and into that world.' And Lorraine Toussaint, who plays Chloe's (Jessica Biel) mentor Catherine, hopes audiences get caught in the story's twists and turns as she did. 'I got screwed up several times when reading it because I thought, 'I know who the murderer is; I know who the murderer is' and, 'Oh God, it's not that person; it's not that person,' so I was really shocked when it turned out to be the person it turned out to be,' she said. 'So I think the audience is going to go on the same kind of journey I did, which is a lot of wrong guessing, which is the fun of it all.' In addition to learning who killed Adam, viewers see Chloe and Nicky (Elizabeth Banks) come together to protect Ethan, who has learned the truth about why he was taken away from his biological mother and raised by his aunt. For Ethan, who's already been through so much in the series, Donovan says what he thinks comes next for his character involves some real psychological work. 'He's in such a different place than we found him at the beginning. He's going to have to basically rebuild his life and kind of redefine what he means and how he interacts with the world,' Donovan said. 'It's interesting because he's still 17. He's still a kid. He's got that opportunity to reinvent himself at a very young age, but I don't think it was anything that anyone was expecting him to have to do.' As for Chloe, Biel has a radical suggestion of what her character should do next. 'I hope Chloe changes careers fully and moves away, starts a new life, gets a new haircut — not that I don't love the bob — but I think she needs new color, new vibe, new wardrobe,' she told THR. 'I think she needs a full re-do, start over situation, with her new family.' Though The Better Sister is a limited series and based on a book with a beginning and end, showrunners Olivia Milch and Regina Corrado told THR they were open to telling more of the sisters' journey, with Milch specifically teasing, 'Even though at the end of the season, so many secrets have been revealed and so many mysteries sort of have been solved, there's now this new set of lies agreed upon, and secrets and choices that have been made that are setting things in motion.' Speaking to THR again at the Better Sister premiere, Milch stressed that she and Corrado wanted the limited series to feel 'satisfying and complete as a story,' but as for what's next for the characters, 'I think for us the question is, 'What happens now that the sisters are now back together?' They start so far apart, and then have to find each other once again. So where does that go? Is it possible? You find each other. Do you forgive? Can you move forward and what does that look like?' Corrado added, 'There's so much that's unresolved too. It's the big stuff that was resolved but not the internal.' Tomorrow Studios' executive vp, development, and Better Sister executive producer Alissa Bachner, said the production company would be open to continuing on the Better Sister journey if the opportunity presented itself. 'Yes, of course we would,' she told THR. 'Olivia and Regina are incredible storytellers and creators and if they want to keep telling the story, we would love that.' All eight episodes of The Better Sister are now streaming on Prime Video. Read THR's interview with Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks and the series' showrunners. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
