Latest news with #Disclaimer
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4 days ago
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Kevin Kline, Cate Blanchett, and every ‘Disclaimer' Emmy acting submission
Apple TV+ will submit seven cast members from Disclaimer for Emmy consideration, Gold Derby has learned. Kevin Kline as Stephen Brigstocke, a retired teacher and author, will submit in Best Limited Series/Movie Actor, while Cate Blanchett as Catherine Ravenscroft, an award-winning documentarian, will compete in Best Limited Series/Movie Actress. Both A-listers are on the hunt for their first Emmy wins. Kline is a two-time nominee for Bob's Burgers (2017) and Great Performances (2009), while Blanchett has a pair of Emmy nods to her name for Mrs. America (2020) in acting and producing. More from GoldDerby Michael B. Jordan expands 'Creed' universe with new Prime Video series 'Delphi' Here's your first look at 'Spider-Noir' starring Nicolas Cage 'Fallout' gets early Season 3 renewal ahead of Season 2 premiere in December In the featured categories, Sacha Baron Cohen as Robert Ravenscroft, Louis Partridge as Jonathan Brigstocke, and Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nicholas Ravenscroft have been entered in Best Limited/Movie Supporting Actor, while Leila George as Young Catherine Ravenscroft and Lesley Manville as Nancy Brigstocke have been submitted in Best Limited/Movie Supporting Actress. Four-time Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity, Roma) is the creator, writer, and director of the limited series, which centers on Blanchett's journalist character in danger of having her secrets exposed by Kline's author character. Disclaimer is based on the 2015 novel of the same name by Renée Knight. It's coming off recent nominations at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Directors Guild of America, and more. The project has a 76 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critics' consensus declaring it a "dense and rewarding psychological puzzle" and "an intelligent offering from a dream team of talent that also dishes some plain pulpy pleasures." Kevin Maher (The Times) says, "The storytelling is exceptional. ... It's thoughtful, disturbing, thrilling and sometimes even overwhelmingly good." Ben Travers (IndieWire) calls it "a cunning psychological thriller with twists and turns enough to thrive as pure entertainment.'" And John Anderson (Wall Street Journal) writes, "The pleasures to be had in creator-director Alfonso Cuarón's extraordinary seven-part dramatic series are largely to be found in being led astray, kept in the dark, hungrily curious." Below is the list of Disclaimer's acting submissions for the 2025 Emmys. Note: These entries are being submitted by Apple TV+; additional actors from the series may still choose to submit independently. Limited/Movie Actor: Kevin Kline Limited/Movie Actress: Cate Blanchett Limited/Movie Supporting Actor: Sacha Baron Cohen, Louis Partridge, Kodi Smit-McPhee Limited/Movie Supporting Actress: Leila George, Lesley Manville SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of GoldDerby 'The Better Sister' showrunner Regina Corrado: Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks 'are at the top of their game' Danielle Pinnock on playing Alberta in CBS' 'Ghosts,' representation, and what's next for the hit comedy 'I didn't think he was a jerk': Paul Giamatti on finding the humanity in his standout 'Black Mirror' episode Click here to read the full article.
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4 days ago
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‘Disclaimer' star Leila George on how she landed ‘the best job of her life'
Imagine you're an actor, the phone rings, and it's Alfonso Cuarón offering you a role in his next project. No audition. That's exactly how Leila George landed the part of young Catherine Ravenscroft in Apple TV+'s Disclaimer, alongside Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Lesley Manville. Cuarón wanted George to play Blanchett's character in flashbacks told from differing perspectives, which would prove key to unlocking the mystery at the heart of the thriller. More from GoldDerby Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate on playing best friends in 'Dying for Sex': 'It was love at first sight' Seth Rogen on taking big swings with 'The Studio': 'Are people just going to think this looks insane?' Emmy experts predict Drama Series race: 'Severance' out front, but watch out for 'The Pitt' Opposite such powerhouse acting talent, George found a way to make the role her own — so much so that Cuarón, who had originally intended to just use her as a body double, decided instead to let her performance stand fully on its own. Critics took note, calling her work 'strikingly remarkable.' 'Leila George shines as the younger Catherine,' wrote Carla Meyer in the San Francisco Chronicle. 'Shown in flashbacks, George nails Blanchett's signature emotionally distant allure and exhausted yet superior speech patterns.' Disclaimer follows the fallout of a long-held secret on the life of a journalist (Blanchett), her husband (Cohen), and her son (Kodi Smit-McPhee), as the father (Kline) seeks revenge for his son, Jonathan's (Louis Partridge), death. When we first meet George's Catherine, we're seeing her in flashbacks, seemingly flirting with Jonathan; we later learn the truth about their interactions. Here, George recounts to Gold Derby how she navigated the demanding dual performance. Gold Derby: Amazing that you didn't even have to audition — that you just got a call from Cuarón. Leila George: It was nuts. I got told that Alfonso was going to call me, which in itself felt just crazy, and that there was a script, but I wasn't allowed to have it. I didn't know how to prepare, so I decided to read the book, because like, how do I make sure I get this job? I was so nervous for the call because I'm just someone that will generally talk people out of hiring me. I'm not good at selling myself. I always feel like maybe they've made a mistake. But he got on the phone with me and told me the whole story, and then asked me if I wanted to do it, which I still don't know really how that happened. I've heard rumors — I feel like the casting director had a big part in it. I'm just very, very happy that it happened that way. SEEKevin Kline, Cate Blanchett, and every 'Disclaimer' Emmy acting submission What was that conversation like? He started telling me the whole story from beginning to end. About two minutes in, I interrupted him and said, just so you know, I have read the book. He didn't like that I'd read the book. I think he wanted me to experience it firsthand from the script. I thought I was going to get brownie points! And then he said, "Would you like to do this?" And there was obviously only one answer that I was going to give. We talked about some of the nudity and sex scenes, just to make sure that that was all understood up front. And other than that, he was just like, "OK, well, I need you here in three days." So I packed up my whole life and got on a plane. How did you get yourself into character that quickly? When I arrived, they handed me a big binder, and I just got reading. We started shooting about 10 days from me knowing that I had the best job of my life. I often go into a bit of a panic before the first day. Have I done enough work? Do I even know what this character is? Luckily, with this job, Cate Blanchett, the queen, had already created this character. So I got to essentially just find pieces of what she'd already done and decide it was really mostly about finding the balance between how much to be like her and how much not to be Something that Alfonso and I talked about was how much of this fictional, novel version of her that you see in the first four episodes, how much that has to be like Cate's Catherine, because we know it's not actually her. We know that this is a fictionalized version of the character who Jonathan's mother has written based on a five-minute interaction that they had in a coffee shop years go. But you also want to still be able to fool people into thinking that it obviously is her, and then just finding the balance between that and the last three episodes, the true version of her. And it was difficult because we were shooting both versions in the same day. So depending on how the lighting would be, we'd be on the beach, and maybe a cloud would go in front of the sun, so it's like, "OK, we're going to do the last three episodes now." That was tricky in that you're going from being this fantasy, sexualized, confident seductress to a woman that has just been sexually assaulted the night before. And so it's a lot of flip-flopping between those two things. That was incredible and very scary. SEE'Disclaimer' trailer: Cate Blanchett's life falls apart in teaser for Alfonso Cuarón's limited series How did you manage to do both on the same day? There really isn't a chance with Alfonso, because you're just thrown in and you have to do it. You sink or swim. And I think luckily, I was able to stay afloat. You don't have time to worry about things. You're on to the next thing. Being able to work with a director like him, you can trust that he's going to either fire you or not move on until he gets it. He's not really going to settle for mediocre. And so I just think having that confidence, that trust in him meant that I knew it was going to be OK in terms of going back and forth, I used music a lot, because I think that's the quickest way — a song can change your whole demeanor immediately. And so I have playlists. I had a playlist for one version and a playlist for the other version, and I would just need a few minutes to listen to some music to hone back in on whichever version we were doing. What kind of direction did Alfonso give you? He doesn't. I think with the seductress, in the first four episodes, his direction was mostly about turning up Cate and turning her down, do more of this here to just really feel turned on all the time, like she's got a fire in her all the time. He really wanted us to push the flirtation. For the other version of Catherine, it was such delicate material that unless he had something that he really had to say, he stayed away for a lot of it. It was about showing how Jonathan was like pushing his evil as opposed to pushing her vulnerability. He definitely doesn't micromanage, but he is going to get what he wants. It must have been so hard to film that second half. How did you protect yourself emotionally? I'm quite good at just leaving it there. I've always been quite good at leaving things at work. Sometimes character elements follow me around, like the way a character dresses, or the way they move physically. But the actual emotions don't stay. I actually find it really useful, really therapeutic. There's only so much I can do of it, and once it's done, it really feels like I've already given it all of it. So when we're done filming, especially something like that, those scenes, I'm so relieved that it's over, because I'm so scared. I don't know how much I have left. So I do find it quite, quite easy to leave it at work. How were you able to access Cate's portrayal? Did they show you what she had already filmed? When I first arrived, we did a block through in a studio of a couple of the scenes, and so I saw Cate's idea of what those scenes would look like. I just watched her, and I could see some of the things that she was doing, some of the mannerisms that she had going on. And so I got to make some notes of that. And then we worked with the same dialect coach, and I think that was hugely helpful just for us to have the same sound. Beyond that, I was a bit panicked because I hadn't seen anything, and it was our first day of shooting, and I'm in hair and makeup, and I know that I'm about to have to go outside and do my first shot, and and a PA knocks on my trailer door with an iPad. I had about 30 minutes to watch some scenes that she'd done, and I kind of knew I wasn't ever going to see this iPad again. I thought about recording it, but then I thought, Apple's going to know somehow that it's on my iPhone. So I set it up on a table, and I put my phone facing me in selfie mode, and I videoed myself just mirroring everything she was doing, so that I had a physical image of what she was doing in scenes that I could then refer back to that was on my phone. What did you think when you saw the finished product? I don't know if people know this, but when I was hired, it was just to be her body. They were going to face replace us. And about halfway through shooting, I remember Alfonso said, "I think we'd like to make it so that in the first four episodes, it's actually you, and then when we cut to the truth, we'll put Cate's face on your body." When we finished shooting, it was tough, because when we were shooting those last bedroom scenes that are really personal, and you're just leaving all of you out there on film, I'd be driving home thinking it's going be really hard to watch those scenes with someone else's face on my body. I'm not sure I'm going be able to do that. I don't think I'll be able to see it. I was trying to just savor everything about it, knowing that was not mine anymore, that I was giving that away. And then about a year later, Alfonso let me go to a screening they had of an early cut and it was me. He called me after, and he said, "What do you think? Do you like it?" And I was like, "I'm so, so happy I got to see it before you did all of the CGI. Thank you for letting me see that." And he was like, "Yeah, we're not gonna do it. We're just gonna let it be you." I just bawled my eyes out. I couldn't believe it, and I felt so, so honored that that they would decide to do that. Did you ask him why he changed his mind? I'm not really sure. I think maybe it just wasn't necessary in the end. When you're doing scenes like that, I think there is something really personal about it maybe doesn't feel quite right. I was very happy. It was really kind of affirming. Every step of the way, the confidence that Alfonso put in me made me grow as an actor, and he is my fairy godfather. I'm forever in his debt. What did you take away from the experience? The main takeaway is to be able to trust that I can do it, to have the confidence. I remember we were at dinner quite early on, and Louis Partridge asked Alfonso who his favorite actors were that he's worked with, and Alfonso said it was the ones who actually weren't actors like in Roma. And so I decided from that moment to show up on set and trust that. I do a lot of research before; my scripts are like a Rorschach test, there's no white space on them. So to trust that I've done that work, and to show up on set like I'm not an actor, like I'm one of the non-actors, that's been really useful. I always feel like I have to prove myself. I can relax now and go to a meeting or sit at a dinner amongst peers or people that I look up to and just feel like I belong a little bit more, That's been the main difference — confidence. Best of GoldDerby Gary Oldman on 'Slow Horses' being 'an extraordinary show to work on' and 'one of the highlights of my career' Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate on playing best friends in 'Dying for Sex': 'It was love at first sight' Dan Fogelman and team on the making of 'Paradise': 'It only works if you have talented people who you trust' Click here to read the full article.
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4 days ago
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Seth Rogen on taking big swings with ‘The Studio': ‘Are people just going to think this looks insane?'
No one is more surprised at the success of The Studio than its cocreator Seth Rogen. After all, he and his cocreator, Evan Goldberg, set an impossibly high bar for themselves — skewering the very industry they live and thrive in. More from GoldDerby 'Disclaimer' star Leila George on how she landed 'the best job of her life' Emmy experts predict Drama Series race: 'Severance' out front, but watch out for 'The Pitt' 'You killed America's sweetheart!' Kaitlyn Dever teased for offing Pedro Pascal by 'Last of Us' cast, creators as bigger role looms in Season 3 'I did have a hyper awareness that a lot of the people I'd be interacting with professionally would probably see this, and if it was bad, it would be incredibly unpleasant for me to constantly be interacting with people that I knew thought I had failed,' Rogen tells Gold Derby. 'That did weigh on me, and it was something that I was aware of and something that did add pressure to the entire experience of it.' Thankfully, they did stick the landing — the eight-episode series of the Apple TV+ comedy scored with audiences, and sits atop Gold Derby's prediction charts across multiple categories, including Best Comedy Series, Lead Actor (for Rogen), Supporting Actress Catherine O'Hara and Supporting Actor Ike Barinholtz — not to mention its guest cast, including Bryan Cranston, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, and Zoë Kravitz. SEE'Is that about me?' Seth Rogen loves how 'The Studio' keeps Hollywood guessing Here, Rogen shares why he and Goldberg took so many big swings creatively, who said yes first (Scorsese), why nothing was left on the cutting room floor, and what's on the board for Season 2. Gold Derby: So I was going to joke about you wearing many hats for this series, and you are literally wearing a hat. Seth Rogen: I'm only wearing one single hat at this moment. Thank you for showing up dressed for my first question: Actor, writer, director, showrunner — how do you juggle all of your roles on ? It's funny, because to me, there are times where they are in conflict with one another, but in general, they are not. And when they're not, it feels like one seamless job. It doesn't feel like I am having to shift gears between acting and writing and producing and directing. It honestly just feels like I'm making a thing with my good friend and in doing that, there's a very fluid process in place. As I'm acting, I'm also directing the scenes in a very subtle way, and I'm also rewriting the scene sometimes. And so to me, I actually think I feel the most comfortable when I'm doing all those things. It's almost harder for me when I have been regimented to just one of those things, and that's when I start to feel, at times, a little bit more of the friction between the jobs. What has surprised you the most about people's response to the show? Honestly, I wouldn't say I'm surprised, but I don't take for granted anyone ever liking anything we do. I have been completely blindsided many times in my career where I really think I've done something everyone's going to respond to, and they just don't. And I've also made things that I don't think people are going to respond to that much, and they do, which is a pattern that always keeps me a little bit on edge, honestly. So I was just really happy people liked it, and that it seemed to resonate with people also outside of our industry. My wife's friends from Central Florida are staying with us right now, and they love the show, so that's been really rewarding. I was honestly very concerned that stylistically, we were taking a swing that would not resonate with people, and I was very happy and somewhat surprised, honestly, that it seemed to land in the exact way we hoped it would. Which, again, is not something I take for granted. Talk about those stylistic choices you made. Do you mean the shooting style, the episodic nature, the retro look and feel, all of the above? All of it, the choice to not make it incredibly serialized, from the writing to the directing. We made choices that go somewhat against my comfort zone in a lot of ways, very deliberately in almost every capacity, like the choice to make it very episodic, the choice to only give it one storyline. The idea that we only ever wanted to be a single propulsive story was something that I was very nervous about, honestly, because it just wasn't the trend of streaming comedy. SEE Seth Rogen explains how 'The Studio' pulled off its one-shot episode So why did you make that choice? I just thought it was exciting. That idea of self-contained great episodes of television is something that I feel a lot of nostalgia for. I still remember when I was a kid and 'The Contest' episode of Seinfeld was one that everyone was talking about. The idea of trying to create that type of conversation around the show was just something that Igrew up with and that I was missing a little bit. And then the idea to give it such a strong look — the design of the building, I was very nervous about. It was such a big swing. As we were shooting in these offices, I was worried, are people just going to think this looks insane? The reasoning behind it was all very sound, but I just wasn't 100 percent sure that it would necessarily land. It was great to really push myself out of my comfort zone, but it was also very uncomfortable at times. And then there's the oner shooting style, too. Exactly And that, again, was for comedy — so different and so nerve-wracking and so against what we had been taught and the school of comedy that we came up in, which was find it in editing, in the rhythms you can refine editorially. We were stripping ourselves of all that which was, again, very exciting, but it was just so different that I had no reason to believe it would land other than my hope and projected vision with Evan. We never committed as hard to having as specific a style directorially as we did as writers. And this was really in many ways, our first deliberate attempt to give our directing style as specific a voice as our writing style. SEE'The Studio' star Sarah Polley on playing herself, the question she didn't ask Seth Rogen, and the inside joke that drives her 'wild' You also set a pretty high bar for yourselves in terms of the casting. Who was the first person to say yes? Sarah Polley was actually the first person we went out to, way before we were making the show. And the main cast was very good, like Catherine O'Hara and Kathryn Hahn. Honestly, people were just very excited to be on a show that Catherine O'Hara is on. Scorsese came on relatively early in the process as well. Getting him early on in the process — that added a legitimacy to the whole thing that that put a lot of people at ease. They knew they weren't going to be the person putting themselves out there the most, with the highest stature in the industry. He gave us an amazing gift that we in no way deserved from him, necessarily. It solidified the show in a way that no one else could have done for us. Have you gotten any regrets from the people that said no? Yes, a couple. It's been very gratifying, I'll be honest. Yes, I've had a few emails from people that were like, 'Oh sh-t, I should have done it.' How did you pick what topics you were going to do episodes around, and what was left on the cutting-room floor? What's interesting was the way we shoot the show, nothing was done on the cutting-room floor. I think there's maybe one 30-second scene that we shot that we cut out of the show, and literally, everything else we shot is in the show, We're all very hard on the writing process. I really have a philosophy of if you find yourself cutting a lot of stuff, you do not write it well enough. I actually work very hard to structure things in a way where you can't cut a scene, because if you do, the whole piece doesn't make sense anymore. If you're structuring things in the right way, then every scene is leading to the next scene and building to the next scene. And so you shouldn't be giving yourself the opportunity to cut anything. There's no shortage of ideas to explore within the industry. The only limitation is our ability to turn it into an episode that stylistically fits into the show we are making, which is incredibly condensed, pressurized, high stakes explorations of singular ideas. I'm looking at a board of ideas [turns camera to show a storyboard with index cards] — we could have an idea about a bidding war, and it happens all the time in Hollywood, and it's something we've experienced, but what is the 30-minute story that is an exploration of a bidding war that is one singular story that's high stakes, that is inherently comedic, that has true opportunity for real comedic highs and incredible visceral moments, and hopefully maybe even physical comedy and slapstick. It's purely based on our ability to turn these ideas into episodes. So the awards campaign episode — that will happen next season? We've been talking a lot about it, honestly — film festivals, the standing ovations. We have a lot to crack. Looking back over the course of the season, what was the toughest episode to pull off? What episode are you proudest of? The Vegas stuff was hard, but to me, the Golden Globes one was the one I was most proud of. We had an incredibly specific vision for it in in every way, and the vision was incredibly complicated — we just had to shoot it at the Beverly Hilton. And that was incredibly restrictive and logistically difficult. I wanted there to be never a suspension in disbelief in the caliber of celebrity you were seeing — that's not who'd be winning a Golden Globe, that's not who'd be hosting the Golden Globes, that's not who'd be getting a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Golden Globes, that's not who'd be presenting at the Golden Globes. And so given that that was our self-imposed mandate, pulling off an award show was incredibly difficult, and getting that amount of cameos to show up in that time frame was incredibly difficult. It was also the first time that we were really using our oner shooting style in an environment with so many people. A lot of the episodes are pretty contained — maybe 30, 40 people in some scenes. But this, every scene had 500 people in it, and so we instantly saw, oh, the resets take so much longer, and so much more can go wrong. And even though very few people have been to the Golden Globes, and ever will go to the Golden Globes, very few people will understand the lengths I went through to obtain this. I just wanted it to feel like you were there. And when I watch it, to me, it really feels like what it feels like to be at the Golden Globes, and I'm very proud that I was able to do that. SEE 'Is that about me?' Seth Rogen loves how 'The Studio' keeps Hollywood guessing How many notes have you gotten from the industry for Season 2? We've gotten a lot of ideas sent to us, which is great. It's so nice that people are pitching ideas to us, and there's no shortage of ideas. Can we take these great ideas that people are bringing us and actually turn it into an episode of the show is always the question. What's the worst idea you've gotten? What's funny is, we've gotten calls from some studio heads who love the show and are giving us ideas, but they're also just giving us notes on the show that Matt just get over himself. Like, if he just didn't such an ego about this, he'd be much better at his job. And it's like, that's not a good note for the show. That is the show. I get as a studio head that would probably make it better, but comedically, that would hurt the show, not help it. Best of GoldDerby Gary Oldman on 'Slow Horses' being 'an extraordinary show to work on' and 'one of the highlights of my career' Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate on playing best friends in 'Dying for Sex': 'It was love at first sight' Dan Fogelman and team on the making of 'Paradise': 'It only works if you have talented people who you trust' Click here to read the full article.
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4 days ago
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Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate on playing best friends in ‘Dying for Sex': ‘It was love at first sight'
Talking to Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate, it's hard to remember that they haven't always been best friends. They hug, they finish each other's sentences, they check in with each other to make sure they're on the same page. While mercifully they haven't endured what their characters on FX's Dying for Sex had, it's clear the experience of playing Molly Kochan and Nikki Boyer has bonded the two actresses closely. The limited series, which was created by Liz Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock, chronicles Molly's (Williams) journey of self-discovery after she's diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer — with her best friend, Nikki, at her side through it all. Here, Williams and Slate share with Gold Derby the experiences of filming such a gut-wrenching series, the toughest scenes they faced — and why it's a "master class in orgasms." More from GoldDerby Seth Rogen on taking big swings with 'The Studio': 'Are people just going to think this looks insane?' 'Disclaimer' star Leila George on how she landed 'the best job of her life' Emmy experts predict Drama Series race: 'Severance' out front, but watch out for 'The Pitt' Gold Derby: How are you feeling about the success of the show and the response to it? Jenny Slate: I feel very glowy about it. I feel happy. I feel happy for every single person who worked on it. I feel happy for Nikki and Molly, the real people. And also relief. When you do something you really care about that's a little bit of a tightrope, it's a big relief. Michelle Williams: Relief first. You truly have no idea how it's going to be received. And your experience of making it doesn't always correlate to an audience's desire to see it. Which is why you have to really have your own goals for yourself in mind, because you can't control or predict or even plan for an outcome, and so you really have to be comfortable with what you personally take away from it and your personal experience of making it. Because you can't control how it's received, but what you can try and pay attention to is the experience of 120 people that are united for a finite period of time towards a common goal. You can try and have some safeguards in that experience. So in order to control my anxiety about how it's going to be received, I really just try and focus on how is this workplace for 120 people? Do they feel safe? Do they feel respected? Do they feel like their voices are heard? Do they feel included? Are they well-fed? Are they rested? Are they getting their needs met? So that's where I focus, and then when something like this happens, I just breathe a huge sigh of relief, and then just walk in gratitude. SEE'Dying for Sex' reviews: Michelle Williams limited series is 'raunchy,' 'horny' and ultimately 'heartbreaking,' say critics I know it's just acting, but it does feel like you're best friends in real life. How did you create your chemistry? Slate: It did bleed. It did roll over into real life. We luckily do enjoy each other very much, and became real friends. It's weird to say it, because of course, we had to learn about each other and learn our lines and prepare our scenes, but that crackle of connection was there, which is really exciting and wonderful. It's everything. Williams: When we first met and Jenny walked out of the room, there was no conversation. It really was love at first sight. There was chemistry and kismet and karma all rolled up into one, and that was it. We were going to be together forever in these roles and onscreen. Our children are going to go to school together next year. It all continues. Slate: Although when I left the room, I was like, 'Was that what I think it was?' I didn't know yet whether or not I would feel like when Anne of Green Gables is put on trial and she doesn't know if she'll get to stay, What did it mean to you to see that representation of female friendship on screen? These two go through an incredible journey together, and they're always each other's person. Williams: What it really speaks to is how passionate female friendship really is, and that it's much more of a love relationship than a friend relationship. It's not a casual thing. It's a life-sustaining thing. We both come to it from our own best friendships, and we know what those have meant to us over the years. And so to see this brought out and made central in a storyline was something that we had both had experience with, and both wanted to make larger. Slate: The ease of being beloved with a best friend, not questioning that, maybe wanting to know what they see, or maybe wishing that you could always feel in yourself the way they feel about you, I feel it with my best friend in my life. I think it's really important again and again to show ways of being beloved and primary with someone else that don't have to do with anything but allowing the most intimacy and the most change possible. It's such a lovely thing to put at the center of a story, and it felt so good to be in that pair in our scenes. SEE I would imagine you both listened to the podcast. What did you take away from it? Williams: I did. I listened to it a couple of times. At first, I just wasn't entirely sure why this thing was affecting me in the way that it was. I didn't know what kind of spell it had over me and why I could not even speak about the relationship between these two women without crying. And I was like, what has happened to me? What have they done to me? And that's really why I wanted to make the show. I was like, I have to figure out what this emotional core is that's affecting me, that's affecting Jenny, that's affecting Liz and Kim, and maybe it's just the four of us. But then when Rob [Delaney] signed on, I was like, "Well, it's affecting Rob." And then Jay [Duplass], and I was like, "Well, it's affecting Jay." I was like, "Well, maybe we're just a handful of weirdos that think this is right on." Turns out we're all a handful of weirdos, because the show is having this miraculous reach. What conversations did you have with the real Nikki? What did you want to ask her, and what did you take away from those conversations? Slate: Nikki really is very warm. She's giving. She's an open book. She doesn't appear to be scared to speak about her experiences. She's very respectful, like, "I don't want to say something sad to you, in case it will make you sad." I think she has a lot of respect for her own wide variety of experiences, but I asked her about how her grief felt when we started. It was the five-year anniversary of Molly's passing, but in the grand scheme of things, this is not a long time, and she shared what it feels like for her, and that it was kind of a wave form. Some days, she just feels Molly's spirit with her, and she feels they're always together, that they're always with each other. And some days, she said she does feel more of a sinking sadness, the weight of it. I asked her a lot about how she expresses anger. Because I do express anger in a more weird, repressed, withered way than in my life, than Nikki on our show does. Williams: It's so hard to get anything made ever, and so I think we were all kind of like warming our hands by the fire of this unlikely gathering. It was really a space of allowing trust, sharing, collaboration. It was not a, "Here's how it was, sit down and let me tell you a story, listen to me and do as I say." It was an honoring of these two women and their friendship, an honoring of how each of them took care of each other, supported each other, an honoring of this group of mostly women coming together, being given this opportunity to make something in a place, at a studio, in this moment in history. When you're on a set and you look around and you see this many women, you're like, it's hard to get here and to be given leadership. And so I think we were all in deep regard for this space that had opened up for all of us to collaborate and be our best selves at work. SEE Talk about working with Liz and Kim. How did you work with them to find the right tone for the show? Williams: You know, I kept asking them that, "What's the tone? What's the world I am inhabiting? How do I fit into this?" And then I realized, like, "Oh, the tone is Liz. It's Liz's tone." Slate: It's just watch her. It's watch her walk around and say stuff. It's such a funny combination. Williams: And that the tone is sometimes atonal, the tone is sometimes not harmonious. The tone is a clash. Don't be afraid of the clanging that sometimes life makes. It's possible for all these things to be happening at once. That's life. Slate: She and Kim both came from the theater, they're playwrights to start. When you get farther into Dying for Sex, and Molly is unlinking, it gets just so much more dreamy, theatrical. It has the comedy of people who really understand how to write hard, great, good jokes, and then also people who come from environments where it pays off to be experimental and admitting that we all have a psyche and that's really driving the rig. Flying penises! Williams: That was really a moment for me, when that script came in. You don't have all the scripts when you sign on, so it's a lot of surprise. Another script has landed — you're like, "Wow, I wonder what's gonna happen next." When I got flying penises, I was like, "This is the right show for me!" Slate: Wild, it really is wild. Michelle's dance — when Molly really finally feels her own forgiveness and power and everything else moving through her and that that becomes so physical. Michelle's dance is so incredible that is not, in my opinion, normal for TV. I have never seen that before, ever. And Michelle is one of the performers as a fan that I know will offer me something new that I haven't seen, and why I've always been eager to watch her work. What was the most challenging scene for each of you? Slate: I was really afraid in the scene where Molly is intubated. As myself, I really was uncomfortable with the medical equipment, really, and as much as I could put that into the performance, I remember feeling almost queasy to have to do it. And then in the scene where Molly is reading her notebook to Nikki in the bathroom, that story is, first of all, a true story, and not just true for Molly, but for so many people, and I found it to be very hard. In the scene, you need your levels, you need nuance. If I could choose, I would cry much louder and leave. It was very hard, and it was so beautifully read, and we needed quiet in that small bathroom, and I knew what the ending of the scene was. I'm so grateful for that scene. It's one of my favorite performances I've been able to be a part of. But it did break my heart a bit. Williams: I don't know what I would say was the hardest. Everything that happens is coming from that place, from that story. And so all of the scenes feel like they carry the seed of that. There's not really an easy day. Slate: Lots of beautiful, fun, worth it, filled with energy days, but no easy ones, I'll give you a chance to compliment each other. Michelle, talk about a scene of Jenny's where she just nailed it, and then Jenny, talk about one of Michelle's scenes. Williams: It would be impossible. It's everything. It's not just everything that you see; it's everything that you don't see. It's every single take, and they only use one. But that doesn't mean that there was only one good one, or one crackling one. There's just a lot of different ones. And this is the one that they chose to service the flow of the entire piece. But when you're really in the ring with somebody, I don't think that we were ever in a place where we were watching each other. It was every moment of every take of every scene, full commitment, full absorption, full integrity, full brain, full wit, full heart. It is like an onslaught of talent and commitment and bravery, and that's unwavering, so I couldn't pick nor was I ever in a place observing like that. Slate: That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me, and I'm so glad it was filmed! (Laughs.) I didn't get to see it on the day, but watching the sequence of Molly's different orgasms and the surprise, exhaustion, shock, the physical comedy was just like, oh, it reminded me of why I first wanted to see comedy and do it like it. It was so refreshing and funny. I laughed so hard and loudly, and I just remember being like, whoa. I've never seen that before. I've never seen it from this performer. I've never seen it in general, these orgasms are crazy, They're so funny. And like to see a character react to her own expressions of pleasure, but like shock. It is like a master class in orgasms. SEE'I cried a lot': Rob Delaney on the heart and humor in FX's 'Dying for Sex' — and Neighbor Guy's kick in the 'zone' The show is about death, it's about sex, it's about abuse, it's about cancer, it's about friendship. What do you want audiences to take away from it? Or is it all of the above? Slate: I guess what I've thought a lot about during filming and since, is my own fear of stasis, and that I thought I felt very threatened by the idea that, what if? What if something happens to me that's either too good or too bad, and I don't change anymore because I'm clinging to something that's already occurred. That fear just used to kind of mess with me. It didn't really have a greater function. And that is upsetting in itself, and I think that what Michelle performed so beautifully is Molly's really difficult decision to even admit to a wall or a stopping point or stasis and how gratifying it is to take oneself through and reject the idea that something gigantic that happens to a person negative or positive is so large that would block the entryway to any more change or progress. I want people to be excited about identifying what might be a stopping point or a definition that is entombing them in a way, and to decide to bust out if they want to. Williams: Damn! We have to end on that note. Best of GoldDerby Gary Oldman on 'Slow Horses' being 'an extraordinary show to work on' and 'one of the highlights of my career' Dan Fogelman and team on the making of 'Paradise': 'It only works if you have talented people who you trust' Brandon Scott Jones on CBS' 'Ghosts': 'I enjoy playing characters that are desperate' Click here to read the full article.
Boston Globe
12-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
FINNEAS spreads his wings on a solo tour
Advertisement Calling from Los Angeles the day before he embarked on a solo tour across the United States – which pulls up to Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'I'm not always living my own advice there,' he says, referencing his aversion to workaholism. 'That's probably a kind of intense way to work.' 'Intense' is the right word to describe the skyward trajectory of O'Connell's career, although he seems to joyfully lean into that intensity. It's been six years since he and his sister became a world-renowned tag team via Eilish's multi-platinum record 'WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?', which included the slinky megasmash 'bad guy.' Understandably, O'Connell says his career has already reached 'somewhere that I never thought I'd get.' For some artists, surpassing all personal expectations before age 30 would incur an existential crisis. Instead, O'Connell says he feels unintimidated by his early success. 'I think your dreams should be linear and you should explore things that are interesting to you – and if you achieve something that you hoped to achieve, you should be proud of that and then maybe try to move on with your life,' he says. 'I don't think you should be trying to always be in some opportune spot or location or something. I think you should just be working on things that you're happy to work on.' Advertisement Finneas performs Feb. 21 at MGM Music Hall at Fenway. Muriel Margaret While the artist hasn't abandoned any one sound or creative medium, his recent output demonstrates that he's not content to tread an award-winning rut, either. Now that O'Connell feels confident with his chops as a pop producer, he embraces being 'a novice in the scoring world.' Composing music for visual media like 'Disclaimer' is a welcome learning experience, one that he likens to developing 'a different muscle group' in a new workout. O'Connell is still doing reps in the pop/rock world, though. 'For Cryin' Out Loud!' balances striking balladry with breezy toe-tappers, true to the Eilish-O'Connell family's knack for molding vulnerability into undeniable earworms. But unlike his 2021 record 'Optimist,' which O'Connell wrote and produced himself, he approached his latest record as a venture among close friends, and invited folks like Bad Suns drummer Miles Morris and Aron Forbes, a longtime collaborator of Eilish, to join him. In addition to singing, O'Connell flexed his multi-instrumentalist skill set across the album, playing keyboard, percussion, synthesizer, guitar, and bass on various tracks. 'For Cryin' Out Loud!' began to take shape in the first week of some studio sessions with his collaborators in Los Angeles, yielding songs like '2001' and the fluttering album closer 'Lotus Eater.' Another early tune to emerge, the drifting and delicate number 'Little Window,' O'Connell says has been one of the biggest joys to play live. O'Connell has previously described the record as 'hyper-collaborative,' although he says his sister remains his 'favorite person to work with in any capacity.' When they perform together – as they did at the Grammy Awards two weekends ago, where he and Eilish played her nominated song 'Birds of a Feather' – the natural ease of their collaboration shines in their stage presence. (It's no surprise that when asked which musical family he wants to go down in history alongside, O'Connell cites the legendary brother-sister duo the Carpenters). The 2021 documentary 'Billie Eilish: The World's A Little Blurry' broadened the view of their relationship to include their parents, thwarting any misconceptions about an unhealthy family dynamic. Advertisement 'People [who watched the film] saw our parents for who they are, which is incredibly thoughtful, kind people,' O'Connell says. 'I think there's a lot of understandable wariness of stage parents, so to speak, in the music industry, and I get that. I would probably be wary of that, too, if I were somebody else. But I think people kind of being like, 'oh, wow, they're really not like that at all' was a satisfying experience.' While the pair doesn't work intimately on his solo music in the same way that they do when crafting Eilish's records, her input is still a valuable resource to O'Connell. 'She's a busy person, so I don't bug her very often about my music,' he says. 'I try to let her, you know, exist. But I always play her stuff if she asks to hear anything – I play it for her and super respect her opinion, so [I'm] always happy to have it. If she has a favorite song, that matters a lot to me, I lean into that one. If she is disconnected from something, I want to know about that, too.' Advertisement O'Connell then hints at a new project that they're currently working on – 'another can't-talk-about-it scenario,' as he explains it. Which is fine, because with his United States tour on the horizon, followed by a jaunt across Europe, O'Connell has plenty on his plate. 'Playing a sold-out tour is dreamy and crazy and amazing to me,' he says. 'I'm playing bigger venues than I thought I would play. We're playing the [Hollywood] Palladium on this tour – which is a nice big venue in L.A. – and a nice big venue in Boston. Again, that's such a joy, and I don't take it for granted.' FINNEAS With Bad Suns. At MGM Music Hall at Fenway, 2 Lansdowne St., Boston, Feb. 21, 8 p.m. $50.75,
