Latest news with #AmericanFiction
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Tracee Ellis Ross tells Michelle Obama the reason why she prefers to date younger men
Single-ish. Tracee Ellis Ross has opened up about her dating life – and the real reason why she prefers to be with younger men. The 'Black-ish' actress, 52, discussed her love life this week during an appearance on Michelle Obama's 'IMO' podcast, which the former first lady co-hosts with her brother, Craig Robinson. Although Ross admitted that she has dated men her age, she noted that their 'toxic masculinity' was an absolute turn-off for her. 'A lot of men my age are steeped in a toxic masculinity and have been raised in a culture where there is a particular way that a relationship looks,' the Golden Globe-winning actress explained to Obama, 61, on Wednesday. 'Anything that starts to smell of that for me – I did enough of it where I was controlled and felt like I was a possession or a prize – I just have no interest in it,' Ross added. 'And I will not do it again.' While the 'American Fiction' actress recognized that her comments suggested an overgeneralization about men her age, she noted that she has seen and experienced an 'openness' with suitors who are younger than herself, compared to those who are not. 'I have long been past the age where I feel like it's my job to teach somebody or grow them up,' she explained. 'That, I'm not interested in.' Even though Ross continues to date and meet new potential partners, she said she has also learned 'how to live life and enjoy it' without 'sitting around waiting' – even if she does still sometimes lament on the things that never were. 'I grieve the things that I thought would be and that are not,' the 'Mixed-ish' star admitted to Obama. 'I'm not married. I don't have children, and I think I grieve that at times.' 'As much as grief does surface for me around not having children and not having a partner,' she added, 'I still wouldn't want the wrong partner.' Ross insisted that she is 'not interested' in being 'in a relationship to be in a relationship,' and that she 'wakes up every morning trying to do my best.' 'I'm not interested in that,' she explained. 'You have to make my life better. It can't just be, 'I'm in a relationship to be in a relationship.' So even though the grief does emerge, and that comes, and I hold that, I think of what I've done. I wake up every morning trying to do my best.' 'I didn't wake up one morning and be like, 'I'm going to mess this day up.' So I must be where I'm supposed to be,' Ross continued. 'Sometimes I think of all of the things I've done, the courage that I have had to have, and what I've had to learn how to navigate as a single person with no one to hide behind.' 'And,' the actress concluded, 'I've built a really beautiful experience around me.' Although Ross has never been married, she did date music manager Abou 'Bu' Thiam from 2011 to 2013, per Thiam is the younger brother of singer Akon. She also expressed her decision to remain single and childfree during a speech at Glamour's Women of the Year Summit back in 2017. 'It's really interesting to be a woman and to get to 45 and not be married and not have kids,' she said at the time. 'I'm a good friend, a solid daughter, a hard worker, my credit is good, I take out the garbage before it gets smelly, I recycle, and I won a Golden Globe!' As for the former first lady, she and her husband, former President Barack Obama, 63, have been dogged by divorce rumors in recent weeks, although she appeared to dispel those rumors earlier this month.
USA Today
10-03-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Sterling K. Brown reveals he sings with James Marsden before belting a Wicked tune
Sterling K. Brown reveals he sings with James Marsden before belting a Wicked tune It's time to get Sterling K. Brown in a musical. The charismatic actor joined The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last week, chatting about his wildly popular new show, Paradise. Brown, who stars as Xavier Collins on the Hulu series, opened up about his connection with co-star James Marsden and their musical tendencies on set. "He likes to sing," Brown said of the former X-Men actor. "He'll hear me just sort of humming something. I only do the melody, but he will come in with the harmony. And, like, really. He kills it every time." Brown went on to reveal that he is a huge fan of the musical theater genre. When pressed by Colbert, the American Fiction actor revealed that his go-to song is "For Good" from the musical -- and soon to be second part of the movie -- Wicked. After a bit of cajoling from the host, Brown delighted the crowd with a few lines from the song. Marsden and Brown in a musical when?
The Independent
05-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Paradise creator answers burning question after ‘brilliant' season finale
Paradise viewers were left with one big question after the end of season one: when the hell would they get to see new episodes? However, unlike some of the show's burning mysteries, creator Dan Fogelman instantly answered this question in the wake of the finale, which has been branded 'brilliant' and 'unmissable' after airing on Tuesday (4 March). Paradise has become a word-of-mouth hit since starting on Hulu in the US and Disney + in the UK in January, debuting what The Independent called one of the best premieres in years. The remainder of the eight-episode series was a nailbiting thrill ride filled with twists and turns that capitalised on its intriguing genre-hopping opener – and fortunately, a season two is happening. Fogelman, who previously worked with lead star Sterling K Brown on This is Us, jumped in when one fan wrote on X/Twitter: 'Please don't wait two years to give us season two of Paradise.' He revealed: 'We start shooting in just a few weeks. It won't be two years, I promise!' This suggests that Paradise season two will drop in 2026. For those yet to watch the show, Paradise, on the surface, is about the assassination of President Cal Bradford (James Marsden) and the ensuing investigation by his head of security, played by Oscar-nominated actor Brown (American Fiction, Black Panther). What sounds like a run-of-the-mill espionage thriller, though, swiflty evolves into a series that hooks in fans of mystery shows like Lost and the recent sci-fi horror hit From. We won't be revealing any spoilers here but Paradise has a big early twist that changes the face of what you're watching. If the show cements Brown as one of the most charismatic on-screen presences around, he's matched by the scene-stealing Julianne Nicholson, who won acclaim for her roles in The Outsider and Mare of Easttown. She has earnt huge praise for her shady role as Sinatra. The show's official synopsis reads: ' Paradise is set in a serene, wealthy community inhabited by some of the world's most prominent individuals. But this tranquility explodes when a shocking murder occurs and a high stakes investigation unfolds.'
The Guardian
23-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Writer Percival Everett: ‘Deciding to write a book is like knowingly entering a bad marriage'
Percival Everett's ingenious novel James was indisputably one of the books of 2024: it was the winner of the National Book Award for fiction in the US and shortlisted for the Booker prize in the UK. The plot is a retelling of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, except this time round the narrator is Jim, Huck's enslaved sidekick. James cranks up the ever-swelling appreciation for the 68-year-old Everett: his 2021 book The Trees was also Booker-shortlisted and an earlier novel, Erasure, was adapted into the Oscar-winning 2023 film American Fiction. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the novelist Danzy Senna, and two children, and we caught up with him in his workshop, where he writes and also repairs guitars. James is such a brilliant concept. Do you remember the moment when you came up with it?Deciding to write a book, it never feels like a great idea. It's always like knowingly entering a bad marriage. If you had any sense, you wouldn't do it, but you know you're going to do it. But my wife, who is smarter than I am, said: 'This is a great idea.' She was behind the book from the beginning, but I still am not so sure about it. You must be thrilled by the response to the book, no?Of course, it's a positive thing, but I'm so sick of this book. To tell the truth, that a literary novel is getting this much attention – I don't even care that it's my book – makes me really happy for the culture. But I don't delude myself; my self-worth is not invested in this and it has very little to do with me at this point. Am I proud of it? I don't think so. But it's interesting to watch. Before you started writing James, you read Huckleberry Finn 15 times. What did you hope to achieve?I wanted to blur the story. I wanted to refer to it from memory of that world, rather than from memory of the text. The most brutal realisation at the end of 15 readings was I probably could have gotten away with 10. It was a good exercise, but I did end up hating the novel. I don't think there's a flaw in it that I haven't found, but the world remained. It seems you don't mind taking down a sacred cow. You once described Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird as 'poorly written' and said 'sentence to sentence, I fiercely hate it'.No, it was a really pretty badly written novel that made a great movie. Someone could probably make the same claim about me. You went to the Oscars with American Fiction, where it won best adapted screenplay. Was that a buzz?Aww, that's all silliness. My wife and I went and we thought it was kind of ridiculous. It was: 'Great, we never have to do that again!' The weirdest thing about the Oscars was going there dressed in that silly way, looking across the street, and there was a protest going on. And we felt like we were on the wrong side of the street. Are you braced for it happening again: isn't Steven Spielberg involved in making a movie of James?Spielberg is producing James. And right now I'm working with Taika Waititi [Jojo Rabbit and What We Do in the Shadows] as the possible director. And they're both great. I did tell Spielberg that I was hoping to work with someone slightly more established, but I'd go with a novice. Is your screenplay quite faithful to the book?Who knows how it's actually going to work. Waititi's got a wonderful sense of irony and a craziness that I'm drawn to. And Spielberg's really smart, earnest, and I think a genuinely good person. Maybe Steven alone would be too earnest for me, and Waititi might be too crazy for me, but together they seem a perfect match. Would you want to be involved in casting?First of all, I'm so dumb about who actors are these days. I'm always meeting people I have no idea who they are. One day on the street I was talking to a young woman who had a bulldog. I didn't know who she was, and I still am not sure who she was, but my wife said, 'That was…' I'm going to get the name wrong: Lindsay Luhan? Lindsay Lohan?Yeah. Still, I don't know who she was, but I know I should have known. What's the instrument on the wall behind you?That's called a cuatro. It's a 10-string instrument, very popular in Puerto Rico. Before Covid… well, I should say, before Trump, I would go to a music shop and play with these Latino guys and they gave me that. And then someone was deported and we fell apart. Then Covid hit and we never played again. What do you like about fixing instruments?Well, I like working with my hands. I used to train horses on a ranch about 60 miles from LA, so that's when I really started woodworking. I learned it on YouTube, actually, from some guy in Arkansas. His name's Jerry Rosa, and I'd probably never agree with him about anything on any matter, but I watched him fix guitars, and learned how to do it. Wasn't there also a period where you grew more than 100 varieties of roses?Yeah, that was when I was training horses. I had a garden on my ranch and it was all old roses. I don't like hybrid teas [the largest and most common group of the flowers], so old roses. And who doesn't like having an ongoing war with aphids? You seem to have a lot of hobbies. When does the work happen?Well, I have to do something when I'm trying to procrastinate. I usually put my procrastination off until tomorrow, though. That way I get some things done. But if you just came into my house at any time and said, 'Let's go to a movie,' we'd be on our way to a movie. James by Percival Everett (Picador) is out in paperback on 27 February. To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at Delivery charges may apply
The Independent
17-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Queer Eye's Antoni Porowski talks food and culture as he launches new series
Food is an integral part of culture. It's a way to celebrate traditions, explore history and a great connector of people across the globe. By learning about the food and eating habits of those around us, and those on the other side of the world, we can learn a lot about ourselves. This idea is the backbone of No Taste Like Home, a new series hosted by Queer Eye 's Antoni Porowski. The star, 40, who is the popular show's food and wine expert, is Canadian - but he loves to celebrate his Polish heritage in his food. He understands the importance of food in connecting with ancestral heritage, and his new foodie series sees him connecting with other famous faces and talking about the dishes that taste like home to them. With Barbie and American Fiction star Issa Rae in Senegal, Oppenheimer and We Live In Time 's Florence Pugh in the United Kingdom, Crazy Rich Asians ' Henry Golding in Malaysian Borneo, X-Men and Westworld star James Marsden in Germany, Awkwafina, of Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens fame, in South Korea, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice 's Justin Theroux in Italy, Porowski goes on a culinary adventure around the globe, learning about the food that makes us who we are. Let's catch up with Porowski about his journey of self-discovery, and find out more about some of the dishes that inspired him on his foodie quest. ANTONI, IT'S QUITE COMMON THAT AS WE GET OLDER, WE RECKON WITH WHO WE ARE, WHERE WE COME FROM. WHAT'S YOUR EXPERIENCE OF THIS? Nothing like introspection! Last year I turned 40… I'm not a big birthday celebrator. I tend to want to absolutely disappear and not have any attention and just be with my dog in the country. But turning 40 for me was a milestone, because it was the first time that I kind of had this epiphany of, like, I've had a life – not a full life, there's still a lot that I want to accomplish – but, like, I've done some things, I've learned some things, I've made a lot of mistakes, I've grown, and I've changed, and I've also stayed the same. I think as you get older, as you start to accumulate all these experiences in your own personal, mental memoir, I think it's normal to have the thought of wondering where you came from. Why are we the way that we are?… With my friends, we joke about therapy and about generational trauma and the things we take on from our parents that we really wish we didn't. But we have these, like, beautiful generational gifts, and Issa (Rae) was the one who really brought it to my attention in the strongest way, where she's always known that she's strong, that she's confident, but to know that she had ancestors – that she was standing on the shoulders of giants, I think that's how she worded it… For her to have that realisation of: We owe so much gratitude to those who came before us, I think it's such a beautiful and important and necessary journey to go on, on our path to self actualisation, or growing up, or whatever it is. HOW DO YOU THINK FOOD CAN GIVE US THOSE CLUES, CAN HELP US ON THAT JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY? Food, as a dish, being so much more than just the ingredients or the sum of its parts is something that I definitely reinforced and strengthened on the journey with No Taste Like Home. Because when you break something down… I mentioned Issa, so of course she's on my mind now, and so my brain is in Senegal, but having ndambe, which was beans in this beautiful, soft baguette – which the Senegalese, in my humble opinion, made better than the French did. And you know what? They deserved it, after all that occupation! To learn that the Senegalese decided: We're going to take these beans, which are indigenous to us, we're going to take the baguette, which was forced upon us, we're going to make it better, and we are going to make it the food that fuels our country as we try to rebuild and find our own sense of identity, which is, like, so beautiful. It's a sandwich, but it's so much more than just a f***ing sandwich! Like, it's important and it has history and it has meaning, and it dictates where you came from and where you're headed. It's so incredibly powerful. NO PLACE LIKE HOME IS AN INSPIRATION FOR US ALL TO GO ON A CULINARY JOURNEY THROUGH OUR OWN HERITAGE. WHY DO YOU THINK THAT IS IMPORTANT? I think the more we know about ourselves, the more we understand and remind ourselves of history – not to get all political – but the less likely we are to repeat certain things. And I think that's extremely important, especially with what's going on in the world right now… But also, I just think it makes you a more confident, well-rounded person when you understand your own culture, and when you really embrace it and all of the beautiful things that it has to offer, you can then share it with people… It's an opportunity to create your own rituals of breaking bread, however that manifests itself. It's cross-cultural, it's universal, and I'm an optimist, but I'm scared for the world sometimes, and to try to find the things that we can all latch on to, that we can all unite on as a truly united front, I think is extremely important and paramount, especially right now.
