Uzo Aduba leads White House mystery series 'The Residence'
There's been a murder at the White House and eccentric detective Cordelia Cupp is on the job to figure out whodunit in the eight-episode Netflix series 'The Residence,' starring three-time Emmy winner Uzo Aduba.
Cordelia Cupp arrives at the White House tasked with solving whether chief usher A.B. Wynter (an impactful Giancarlo Esposito who stepped in for the late Andre Braugher) killed himself or was murdered during a state dinner. The investigation reveals the intricate inner workings of the White House from its head chef to its janitors.
Aduba told NBC News that she appreciated her character's sharp mind.
'I love her precision,' she said during the 2025 SCAD TV Festival in Atlanta. 'I love how she doesn't miss a beat. She's really exacting with her words. I think she's just smart. She sees every detail in the room and is able to put together all the necessary pieces to solve the case.'
Cupp incorporates another passion into her detective work: 'She's a bird-watcher,' Aduba said. 'She brings all of herself, including bird-watching, to her cases,' she added. Throughout the series, the ace detective is rarely caught without her binoculars and is prone to bird-watching as she interrogates.
The cast of actors includes 'This Is Us' star Susan Kelechi Watson as Jasmine, who had dreamed of replacing A.B. Wynter. 'Saturday Night Live' alum Jane Curtain plays the president's mother-in-law, while Bronson Pinchot, from the 'Beverly Hills Cop' franchise, is Chef Didier Gothard. Randall Park, from 'Fresh Off the Boat,' plays skeptical FBI agent Edwin Park working alongside Cupp to solve the mystery.
'The Wire' alumni Edwina Findley and Isiah Whitlock, Jr., play boozy White House butler/server and Metropolitan Police Department chief respectively. Comedian and former Minnesota Sen. Al Franken plays a senator leading an investigation into security failings at the White House. Even pop star Kylie Minogue is in the mix.
Aduba said Cupp's ability to sift through more than 150 murder suspects and a string of confusing clues comes naturally to her character.
'She has absolute confidence in herself and her abilities, and will not allow anyone's idea of who she is or what she can do be the dominating factor in defining who she is,' she said.
Being the best at what she does, however, is not what motivates Cordelia Cupp.
'I think Cordelia is definitely driven by the truth,' Aduba said in a Zoom interview. 'She wants to get the answer. She wants to get to the root. So she'll do whatever needs to be done to chase that down. And she loves, once she has done that, having everything explained in some way. That helps to make the world make sense.'
Aduba said taking on the lead for 'The Residence' was a fulfilling job, especially under Rhimes' 'warm and supportive' Shondaland banner.
'You can feel that from Shonda herself,' Aduba said. 'She does the good work, also.' She added that Rhimes buoys everybody up. 'I know it is not by accident that they have found that success, because they operate with discipline and their modus operandi is one of excellence that continually sets the bar for the industry.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
42 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Rising NBC News star Tom Llamas ruffles co-workers' feathers with 'challenging' management style
The new face of NBC News, Tom Llamas, has brought 'a much more hands-on and hard-charging' approach to the program than that of his predecessor Lester Holt, a new report has revealed. The no-nonsense style is reportedly upsetting staffers used to a more laid-back approach from Holt, multiple people 'familiar with the' matter told Breaker. Llamas, in contrast, is more aggressive, the insider accounts claimed. 'He has a management style that has been extremely challenging on some of the team,' one staffer said of Llamas, 46. 'He challenges people to do their best, to think more deeply about the editorial process,' a correspondent added. 'It helps us to raise our game. The expectations are high, but they should be.' A producer further told Daily Mail: 'His energy is infectious, he raises the bar for everyone.' The rising star's executive producer, Meghan Rafferty, called it 'super fun' working with Llamas', during a lunchtime meeting at 30 Rock Tuesday. There, she told staffers she was leaving to join MSNBC's new parent company Versant. Holt, 66, left the program last spring after ten years at the helm and was well-liked by viewers. Llamas now has his work cut out for him to try and catch up with ABC World News Tonight's David Muir, who last week scored his biggest ratings win over NBC Nightly News in more than a year. Llamas, once Muir's protégé, has done well with younger viewers, occasionally his older rival in the key 25-54 year-old demographic twice since his start in June. That age group is particularly sought by advertisers because it tends to have higher disposable income. He has also continued to anchor his other show, NBC News Now's Top Story, where there has been virtually no turnover turnover since he started hosting in 2021, sources told Daily Mail. But Holt, a fixture in American households for more than a decade, was a major loss. The 66-year-old newsman remains at the network with Dateline - a decision he told Variety in May stemmed from a deep-rooted desire to get his hands dirty with stories that do not demand a desk. Insiders told Breaker that Rafferty's move, similarly, stemmed from a desire to avoid the daily rat race of producing a show that requires a certain style of leadership. Llamas' style - at least compared to Holt's 'low-key and unassuming' style that the New York Times talked up in a profile penned in 2019 - has been difficult for some to digest. He's been in the hot seat for just eight weeks. Previously, before joining NBC News in 2021, he worked under Muir as a weekend host on World News Tonight. The show, once second-place to NBC Nightly News, is comfortably in first place with 7.272 million average total viewers as of the week of July 21, new Nielsen numbers show - much more than Llamas' 5.6 million. June was also ABC's biggest ratings win in three decades for the second quarter, continuing a trend of dominance started by Muir after he succeeded a then second-place Diane Sawyer. Llamas' strides against Muir, 51, with winning over younger viewers, however, unsettled ABC News bosses who regard Muir as the network's crown jewel, sources told Daily Mail last month. Llamas, 46, previously told The Washington Post of his desire 'to be number one.' 'It's not easy,' he said. 'But it's something I think we can do.'
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Mom of teen dismembered on first date launches blistering tirade at killer over 'copycat' Netflix-style murder
The family of the teen dismembered on a first date in Wisconsin launched a foul-mouthed verbal attack on the convicted Netflix 'copycat' killer as he faced his sentence. Maxwell Anderson, the 34-year-old who was convicted of killing and dismembering 19-year-old Sade Robinson, was sentenced to life in prison on Friday as Robinson's family delivered painful impact statements. 'My daughter referred to you as a man, you never be a f***ing man, you're a p**** a** b****,' Robinson's mother Sheena Scarbrough told the courthouse, Fox 6 reported. The teenager was brutally murdered in April 2024 after going on a first date with Anderson just days after they met in a bar. The pair had spent the evening of their fateful date getting dinner and drinks at the Twisted Fisherman in Milwaukee before eventually going back to Anderson's apartment. At one point, Anderson turned on the Netflix series Love, Death & Robots. The show's Season 2 finale, 'The Drowned Giant,' depicts the gruesome dismantling of a gigantic human body on a beach. Prosecutors claimed that Anderson mutilated Robinson's body on a Wisconsin beach overlooking Lake Michigan - a jarring detail that was almost too much to stomach for the jury. Sade Robinson (pictured) was brutally murdered in April 2024 after going on a first date with Anderson just days after they met in a bar 'I was like... that's disgusting because that could have been where he got some of his ideas or fantasies,' juror Melissa Blascoe told the Milwaukee-Journal Sentinel. 'I physically felt like I was gonna throw up at that point. I know a lot of people were shaking and crying.' Anderson was also charged with arson and hiding a corpse in connection with her death. He was found guilty on all counts. Robinson's father, Carlos Robinson, said to Anderson in his statement: 'You deserve what you get. He deserves the punishment that he gave to my daughter.' The teen's sister, Adrianna Reams, said Anderson's brutal killing of her sister continues to haunt her. 'I cannot meet any person without the fear that they're going to harm or kill me because all my sister did was meet someone and, as a result, he ended her life,' she said. 'The only one who took that from her is the man sitting right there. I beg you to not... I beg you to not let this man have any type of parole.' Judge Laura Crivello said Anderson had told a pre-sentence investigator he regretted not walking the teen to her car because she was abducted outside his home. 'I did not commit these crimes. And so I plan to appeal these crimes, while I hope and pray that further investigations not only prove my innocence but find and deliver true justice,' Anderson said publicly, speaking on the case for the first time. 'I don't think you're remorseful in any way,' Crivello said, Fox 6 reported. Anderson's father, Steven Anderson, made an emotional statement, and said: 'To Sade's family, there are no words I can share that will reduce your pain. 'To Max... we want you to know that we love you and support your plans for self-improvement.' Robinson's mother added: 'I'm gonna respectfully request that you confess where the rest of my daughter's crown is... you've already done the worst. You can at least give us that much.' Investigators said that Anderson is believed to have spread her remains around Milwaukee County and burned her car to hide evidence. Disturbing images showed Robinson being groped by Anderson while she lay face down on his couch, and prosecutors said she was far too incapacitated to have resisted. One image shows Anderson holding Robinson's right breast as she lay unconscious. That breast would later be cut off her body. 'This is his trophy in a way,' Blascoe said about the images taken by Anderson. 'Those pictures will be in my mind for quite some time.' Surveillance video showed Robinson's car leaving the apartment in the early hours of April 2 before arriving at the beach along Lake Michigan shores. The young student's disappearance sparked concern when she didn't appear for work the next day. Her manager, Justin Romano, told CNN that Robinson was 'very outgoing, she would talk to everybody here. She was always there to lighten the mood.' Romano said her not showing up for work 'wasn't like her at all,' and added: 'We kind of knew something was up; we had been calling her all day.' Anderson is believed to have cut her body into pieces and burned her car behind an abandoned building before taking a bus back to his apartment. Within the car, despite 'extreme fire damage,' investigator's identified the outfit Robinson had been wearing on the night of the date as well as part of an iPhone consistent with hers burned in the car, CNN reported. Police then were called to Warnimont Park where a human leg, that appeared to have been 'sawn off' at the hip, was discovered. The leg was then identified as Robinson's. A 'confidential informant' claimed that Anderson had planned to kill Robinson weeks prior to her death, Fox News reported. Anderson's attorney, Tony Cotton, argued, however, that the prosecution showed no evidence of Anderson's intention to kill Robinson. Cotton also pointed out he made no attempt to conceal himself on public transport home, and was wearing clean clothes despite having allegedly cut up her body in a muddy park. Jurors reached their verdict within an hour on the ninth day of trial. 'While we are satisfied with this verdict, our hearts go out to the family of Sade Robinson,' Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Ian Vance-Curzan said.
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
If even Pride & Prejudice has to have a ‘diverse' cast, the English period drama is dead
Five years ago the BBC website published an article headlined: 'Is It Time the All-White Period Drama Was Made Extinct?' Well, it clearly is now. These days every period drama has an ethnically diverse cast, regardless of when it's set: the 1920s (Wicked Little Letters), the 1530s (Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light), even 1066 (King and Conqueror, the BBC's forthcoming serial about the Battle of Hastings). So it came as no surprise to read, this week, that Netflix's new adaptation of Pride & Prejudice will have a diverse cast, too. Personally I find this a fascinating trend. Producers of period dramas always go to the most painstaking lengths to ensure that costumes, furniture and decor look scrupulously authentic. Yet when it comes to casting, they do the opposite – and pretend that, 200 or 500 or 1,000 years ago, England was every bit as multicultural as it is in the 2020s. They would die of embarrassment if, in the background, viewers were to glimpse a set of solar panels, or double yellow lines. But black Anglo-Saxons? No problem at all. It's a peculiar combination. If we've decided that historical verisimilitude no longer matters in casting, surely we should be consistent, and decide that it no longer matters in clothing or behaviour, either. Let Regency noblemen wear Arsenal shirts. Show the Normans riding into battle in Chinooks. Have Sir Thomas More take a selfie on the scaffold. At any rate, the author of the BBC's article about making the 'all-white' period drama extinct seemed to approve of this new trend in casting. 'Finally,' she wrote, 'the industry is demonstrating that period drama is a genre in which racial diversity can be both reflected and celebrated.' This is all very well. The trouble is, it makes it look as if racial diversity has been 'celebrated' throughout our history. To viewers, this must be puzzling. In recent years, we've been endlessly told that Britain's past was shamefully racist. Yet period dramas tell us it was a multicultural utopia, in which people of all races were welcome at every level of society. Still, we mustn't carp. I'm sure this colour-blind approach to casting applies equally to all. I look forward to the BBC airing a period drama about the Windrush, in which the main passengers are played by Hugh Grant and Keira Knightley. At last: a Labour policy I actually like Normally I believe that a job should always go to the best-qualified candidate, and that preferential treatment should not be given to 'under-represented' groups. On this occasion, however, I'm going to be brazenly hypocritical and toss my principles aside. This is because, from now on, the Government wants all civil service interns to be working-class. And I think it sounds like a great idea. Of course it's not meritocratic. But Whitehall is the one place that might actually benefit from a bit of naked class warfare. Remember that Laura Kuenssberg documentary from 2023, which revealed that, the morning after the EU referendum, civil servants were 'in tears'? How many working-class staff would have reacted like that? If Nigel Farage is worried that a Reform government would be stymied by Brexit-hating mandarins, this dramatic change in recruitment policy should please him no end. The trouble with the 'Islamo-Left' In 1999, the writers of the satirical website The Onion published a very funny book called Our Dumb Century. It consisted of spoof newspaper front pages, inspired by the key events of the previous 100 years. And among its countless highlights was the headline of a story about Japan entering the Second World War on the side of Nazi Germany. It read: 'Japan Forms Alliance with White Supremacists in Well-Thought-Out Scheme.' I always remember that phrase 'Well-Thought-Out Scheme', whenever I read about the Western anti-Israel LGBTQIA+ group that calls itself Queers for Palestine. Yet, no matter how often critics argue that it might as well call itself Chickens for KFC, its members remain undeterred. Mind you, they aren't the only ones who believe there's a happy and united future for the so-called 'Islamo-Left'. The new party led by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana is likely to attract many others who see no drawbacks to forming an alliance between one group that's extremely liberal on social issues, and another that is sometimes, shall we say, a bit more conservative. I wonder how many of these adorably well-meaning Corbynites are aware of what happened a few years ago in Hamtramck, Michigan. When the city elected America's first ever majority-Muslim council, local progressives were jubilant. This was a glorious victory for marginalised minorities – and a crushing defeat for small-minded bigots. Imagine their shock, therefore, when the Muslim council then banned the flying of the LGBTQIA+ Pride flag from city property. According to the Washington Post, the local progressives felt not just appalled, but 'betrayed'. 'We welcomed you,' wailed a retired social worker. 'We created nonprofits to help feed, clothe, find housing. We did everything we could to make your transition here easier – and this is how you repay us, by stabbing us in the back?' Sadly, as Robert Burns more or less put it: the well-thought-out schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley.
