Latest news with #Barinholtz
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Kate Hudson and Mindy Kaling shoot for Emmys recognition for ‘Running Point' at the Lakers training facility
Comedy heavyweights gathered at the Lakers training facility to celebrate Netflix's breakout hit Running Point. The series, starring Kate Hudson and loosely inspired by the life of Lakers president Jeanie Buss, quickly built a dedicated fan base following its February release. A second season is already confirmed and Friday night's FYC panel made one thing clear: Running Point has earned its place among the genre's elite. The talent behind the camera is just as impressive as the talent onscreen. Co-creator and executive producer Mindy Kaling partnered with her former The Mindy Project colleagues Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen to make the series happen, which she joked during the panel was 'fine' and 'like a B-minus.' Barinholtz and Stassen backed Kaling up on her Hulu comedy, which ended its run in 2017, and did the same on Running Point. 'When you're on [set] and you're there since 6 a.m. in hair and makeup, and you're like, 'I'm not sure about this material,' just to know that they are really funny, feminists, and want you to shine, look beautiful, and kill, that's exactly who you want for a show like this,' Kaling said. 'That was like a no-brainer. Also the three of us, while we're very different from each other, we love extremely heavy meals. We like going out to dinner and they're two of my closest friends.' More from GoldDerby Ready for her close-up: Nicole Scherzinger takes the lead in Tony odds for Best Actress in a Musical Inside the Drama Desk Awards: Sarah Snook, Nicole Scherzinger, Jasmine Amy Rogers and more on theater's big night 'Maybe Happy Ending' dominates the 2025 Drama Desk Awards with 6 wins, 'Boop!' and 'Gypsy' stage upsets Tapping Oscar nominee Hudson to lead the show as Isla Gordon in her first major role on television also seemed like a no-brainer. 'She's just Southern California incarnate,' Barinholtz told Gold Derby on the event's carpet. 'Her and Jeanie Buss share this quality where they just look like they emerge from the water in Santa Monica, and she's incredibly funny but also has a ton of heart and is an amazing actress. At the end of the day, people just like her. People like me, but they love her.' The Other Two alum Drew Tarver, who plays Isla's half-brother Sandy, agrees. 'She's unbelievable,' he told Gold Derby. 'I've been a fan of hers for so long. It was a real pleasure getting to watch her do TV. I was so excited in every scene I did with her. She's so funny and she's so right there with us at all times. … When she burps on FaceTime [in the series] and is like, 'Excuse me,' it's one of my favorite moments of the show. She's the best.' Max Greenfield, perhaps best known for playing the hilarious Schmitt on New Girl, found himself in the daunting position of playing Hudson's on-screen fiancé Lev. 'She's a real movie star,' he told us. 'I think I was really excited, and then I got to set the first day and she brings so much, and we were trying to make this relationship seem [real] and I was just like, 'Oh man. I am hanging on for dear life.'' Hudson knew Running Point was right for her when she read the show's log line. 'I was looking for something to do on television,' she said during the panel. 'Honestly, I got sent this traditional offer, and I remember reading the email and it was like 'offer' and then it said in big caps 'Mindy Kaling,' and immediately I was like, 'Ooh, yes.' Then when I read the synopsis I knew immediately. I was like, 'Oh, I'm going to do this show and I hope the script is good.' All the energy immediately, the log line itself, I felt like I could do it. I've had history with Jeanie and felt honored they even wanted me to do it, and then I read the script and it was so funny, and so good, and so smart. I remember sitting with Mindy and I said to her, 'Is this what we're making or is this going to change?' A lot of times in comedy I find that you read something and it's so good, and then people get scared and they kind of water it down. Mindy was like, 'This is what we're making.' And, you know, this is what we made, and it got better and better as the season went on. … I felt so safe and secure, and I know that sounds very female, but I did. I felt like I had so much support and the cast was so incredible. We had a ton of great actors who also write and so it was just constant ideas happening all the time.' She also praised Kaling for her dedication to getting the show's scripts right, even at the most inopportune times. 'I have to say, I've fallen in love with this woman,' Hudson gushed. 'She's not only so brilliant but is so trusting, puts the best team together, and let me tell you something. She was pregnant. We had our first table read, she's on Zoom, she then has the baby and is sending notes like an hour after she has the baby. We were like, 'Isn't Mindy literally in labor? I'm just curious.' She is a powerhouse and delivers what she says she's going to deliver. I've learned a lot from that.' Brenda Song, whose legion of devoted fans Kaling shouted out during the panel, was made for her role of Isla's right hand woman Ali (modeled after Buss's own, Linda Rambis). Song's love for basketball, and the Lakers in particular, is well-documented in dozens of viral videos from games over the past year. 'As a lifelong Laker fan, when I sat down and chatted with Mindy, Ike and Dave, within the first five minutes I was like, 'I will do anything. Do you need a PA? Do you need me to pull a cable? What do you need?'' Song said. 'I feel like I've worked my entire life for this moment and this project because I'm living my best life. We're at the Lakers practice center! C'mon! This is insane. … I truly want to be like Linda when I grow up. We have a lot of things in common. She has two boys, I have two boys. Her son actually has this really funny photo of us from our first cast dinner. We were sitting next to each other, both talking to tall men with our black curls and leather jackets and our hands in the air. Her son literally calls me his TV mom because we are actually quite a lot alike.' Chet Hanks (yes, son of Tom and Rita Wilson) plays part-time rapper/full-time baller Travis Bugg on the series in a role that's suspiciously like Hanks' now infamous online persona. 'When I got the audition the character description was that he's covered in tattoos, he's a wannabe rapper and he's just a huge liability because of the controversial things he posts on social media,' Hanks said over the audience's laughter. 'And honestly? I said to myself, 'Well I don't know how I'm going to pull this off 'cause me and this character are nothing alike. I'm really going to have to get my Daniel Day-Lewis on and get really Method with this.' I've been wanting to say this for a long time: my life has just been a series of performance art. All that stuff you guys saw was just me preparing for this role.' With Season 2 on the horizon, and table reads reportedly taking place this week, where do the cast and creatives hope this story goes? 'I'm trying to get in more adult scenes on the show of a sexual nature,' Barinholtz says, completely straight-faced. 'All of them do it, family be damned.' Best of GoldDerby 'Mountainhead' star Cory Michael Smith: 'This is one of my favorite jobs, easily, that I've ever had' TV showrunners roundtable: 'Cross,' 'Good American Family,' 'High Potential,' 'Poker Face' How 'Poker Face' showrunner Tony Tost deepened the storytelling and expand the creative range Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ike Barinholtz on That Chaotic ‘The Studio' Golden Globes Episode, Creating ‘Running Point' Despite His Bulls Fandom, and How He Won Both ‘Jeopardy!' and ‘Millionaire'
Ike Barinholtz is ready for you to start screaming 'Sal Saperstein!' at him in the streets. That's his character's name on Apple TV+'s Hollywood satire 'The Studio,' and in Episode 8, Sal becomes a bit of a running joke in the middle of the Golden Globes. As the faux version of that kudofest proceeds, a running joke erupts where everyone on stage thanks 'Sal Saperstein,' even though they don't know who the hell he is. 'I'm ready for it. It's better than some of the other things they yell at me now,' Barinholtz tells Variety's Awards Circuit Podcast, 'so I'll take 'Sal Saperstein!,' that's for sure.' More from Variety 'Andor' Season 2 Emmy Submissions Revealed in 23 Categories Including Directing, Writing and Four Guest Stars (EXCLUSIVE) Seth Rogen Sends Message to Daniel Day-Lewis to Guest Star on 'The Studio' Season 2: 'Please Consider a Zoom With Us, We'll Pitch You a Good Idea' How Oners Created Tension in 'Severance,' 'Adolescence' and 'The Studio': 'We Tried To Keep the Audiences Guessing' They might not know Sal Saperstein, but in this, the Year of Ike Barinholtz, they're sure getting a lot of the real-life comedic actor and writer. Besides starring opposite Seth Rogen in 'The Studio,' Barinholtz is one of the creators — along with David Stassen, Mindy Kaling and Elaine Ko — behind the hit Netflix comedy 'Running Point,' which stars Kate Hudson as the president of a basketball team (based on Los Angeles Lakers head Jeanie Buss, who's involved in the show too). Barinholtz recently spoke with the podcast to talk about 'The Studio,' 'Running Point,' his winning streaks on 'Jeopardy' and 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,' and his dad's surprising second career as an actor. Also on this episode, the Awards Circuit Roundtable dissects Clayton Davis' piece about ten changes the TV Academy should make to the Emmy categories. Listen below! The rise of Sal Saperstein on 'The Studio' takes place in what is quite a chaotic — and pretty accurate — take on the Globes ceremony, filled with celebrity cameos. 'It was crazy shooting that episode because we shot it at night at the Beverly Hilton, where they have the Globes,' he says. 'And they had it packed with extras. It really felt like an award show. I was so focused on my lines and the work that you didn't even really check around. You would just be doing the scene and all of a sudden be like, 'oh damn, there's Jean Smart on stage. Oh my god, there's Aaron Sorkin.' It was a crazy fever dream. That episode was just really fun to shoot.' Barinholtz's Sal is perhaps the character who enjoys themself the most on 'The Studio.' As Rogen's studio boss, Matt Remick, sweats bullets, Sal is happily snorting cocaine — while still getting the job done. Sal had wanted Matt's job — but when he realizes how awful it really is to be the boss, he's fine with being the No. 2. 'I think there's a version of the show where he doesn't get it and tries to angle for it throughout the season, and plots against him,' Barinholtz says. 'But I think he in the moment realizes, 'hey, my buddy who loves me has got the job, and I'm gonna do whatever it takes to stay.' I think he's a real survivor. I think he's the kind of guy who he was probably very nervous in 2018 and 2020 that someone was going to tell a story about something he said on a film set, and he was going to have to move out of LA!' 'The Studio' has been the talk of real Hollywood for obvious reasons. 'A friend of mine who's a studio head right now is like, 'thanks for making my biography. I love being stressed out at work all day and then watching your show and just feeling more stress,'' Barinholtz says. 'But I think it's good that a lot of people relate to it. I've had friends who are not in the industry at all tell me like, 'man, I was so uncomfortable during that episode.' And that was one thing that I was happy to hear from people is it's not just people in the business who love it. For the people in the business, it's like candy for us, it's a show about us.' Meanwhile, with 'Running Point,' the Chicago-bred Barinholtz wants to make it clear that he is still a Bulls fan first and foremost. (As is Stassen, who grew up pals with Barinholtz.) 'But I always did have like an affinity towards the Lakers,' he says. 'I loved Magic Johnson. I've been out here 25 years, and I don't think it's healthy to not be a fan of the team in the city in which you live. I think it can make you kind of misanthropic. When I got here, Kobe and Shaq were here, and I love watching them. My kids are Laker fans, so that really seals the deal. And just going to Lakers game is just so much fun.' Barinholtz has even become pals with the Lakers' Kurt Rambis and Linda Rambis; their kid, Jordan, is even a producer on 'Running Point.' 'It's wild, I get to bring my kids to the game, and they talk to Jeanie and see the players sometimes. It's an amazing organization, because it's a true family business. Jeanie really gave us incredible access. When we were writing the first season, she let us come to the training facility out in El Segundo, come to the games and watch her. I think you can tell a lot about a person by the way their employees react to them and treat them. And everyone she interacts with just loves her. It's just a just good vibes over there.' So what's the deal with these string of TV game show wins? Barinholtz won the first primetime season of 'Celebrity Jeopardy!' and was a semifinalist in its Tournament of Champions. He and his father Alan won the top $1 million prize on 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' last year. 'I love trivia,' he says. 'We grew up in a 'Jeopardy!' house, and my parents would play Trivial Pursuit. Child of the 80s! In high school, Dave Stassen and I were on our high school quiz bowl team.' Of course, despite those 'Celebrity Jeopardy!' and 'Millionaire' wins, he's still thinking about that Tournament of Champions 'Jeopardy!' loss. 'I made it to the semifinals, and the final question was one of two things, and I should have guessed the other one,' he says. 'I think about it like twice a week. I really do/ I'll be on the treadmill and be like, 'damn it, why did I say 'Spartans'? That's not the one!' Variety's 'Awards Circuit' podcast, hosted by Clayton Davis, Jazz Tangcay, Emily Longeretta, Jenelle Riley and Michael Schneider, who also produces, is your one-stop source for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each episode, 'Awards Circuit' features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives, discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines, and much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts. Best of Variety Emmy Predictions: The Art of the Submission Creates New and Viable Contenders Emmy Predictions: Writing (Drama, Comedy, Limited) - Pilots, Finales and Everything In Between Fuel the Competition Emmy Predictions: Directing (Drama, Comedy, Limited) - Will Ben Stiller, Philip Barantini and Seth Rogen All Become Award-Winning Auteurs?
