Latest news with #Dopesick
UPI
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- UPI
'Last of Us' family helped calm the nerves of S2 newbie Kaitlyn Dever
1 of 2 | Kaitlyn Dever and Pedro Pascal star in "The Last of Us" Season 2, wrapping up Sunday. Photo courtesy of HBO NEW YORK, May 25 (UPI) -- Justified, Last Man Standing, Unbelievable and Dopesick alum Kaitlyn Dever says she has had a long personal history with The Last of Us and felt overwhelmed with emotion when she was hired to star in HBO's adaptation of the blockbuster video game. "it was like all of the feelings. I was nervous. I was anxious, but also very excited. I've been a huge fan of this game and the show for a very long time," Dever, 28, said in a recent virtual press conference. Season 2 of the post-apocalyptic drama wraps up Sunday. Created by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, the show follows Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced) as they trek from Wyoming to Washington state to exact revenge against Abby (Dever) and the group of soldiers who executed their surrogate father Joel (Pedro Pascal) in front of them after Joel saved Abby's life. Just when I thought I couldn't miss them more. #TheLastOfUs HBO (@HBO) May 23, 2025 The heartbreaking murder came after Joel killed numerous people, including Abby's father, a doctor, at a hospital in an effort to protect Ellie, one of the few people in the world immune to the virus that killed billions and caused the breakdown of civilized society, in Season 1. When Dever was younger, she had been considered for the role of Ellie in a movie version of the game, which never got off the ground. "The world of The Last of Us is so large. You can definitely feel that in wardrobe fittings when you're first in prep and then, finally, getting on set," Dever said. "I felt less nervous once I got onto set just because of this wonderful group of people and being held by Craig and Neil. It really felt like I was being cared for and taken care of in a way that I haven't ever really experienced ever before. So, it was really a thrill as a person and an actor." Dever said she played the game with her real-life father Tim and felt like getting the Job on the show was something of a full-circle moment. "I loved what [Mazin and Druckmann] did in the first season. It was just pure magic. It was really so wonderful. I was a fan of the game. It was like a real bonding moment for me and my dad playing it together," she recalled. "When it did come back around, it felt surreal because it really kind of felt like, 'Oh, well, things that are meant to be in your life will happen if they're supposed to.' And it just felt right. Abby felt right. It was very cool." Mazin said Dever was the perfect fit for the character. "Kaitlyn did things that I'm not sure you even should have done. I don't know how you did them," he told her. "We knew her, obviously, as an actor and what she could do, but when you then meet the person and you're like: 'Well, what can you actually do? What are you comfortable with?'" Mazin continued. "And Kaitlyn just would never say, 'No.' And it was amazing. And when you see how physically tremendous her performance is, it's kind of insane." Mazin said he thinks the show's casting is the best contribution he and Druckmann have made to expand the story in a meaningful way for television. "I can't wait for you to see what they do and how they interact with each other. It's amazing," he said, referring to the other members of the ensemble present, including Ramsey, Pascal, Merced, Gabriel Luna, who plays Joel's brother Tommy, and Young Mazino, who plays Dina's boyfriend Jesse. The series has already been renewed for Season 3. Pedro Pascal's career: hit series, films, red carpets Pedro Pascal arrives on the red carpet at the premiere of "Game of Thrones" Season 4 in New York City on March 18, 2014. Pascal portrayed Oberyn Martell on the series. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Why we may be underestimating Hulu's ‘Good American Family' at the Emmys
Unlike its real-life subjects in the news, Good American Family has not exactly made a big splash in Gold Derby's Emmy charts. Following a mixed-to-negative critical and audience reception and muted online buzz throughout its eight-episode run, the Hulu limited series isn't expected to land any major nominations, according to the odds, which currently account for the series and top acting races. But people may be writing off the show too quickly. It's a top priority for Hulu in limited this year, and if the past few years have taught us anything, it's never to underestimate the streamer in this field. Since becoming the first streaming service to win a series prize, with its flagship drama The Handmaid's Tale in 2017, Hulu has only been growing stronger at the Emmys, particularly in the limited series categories. It finally broke into the Best Limited Series race with Little Fires Everywhere in 2020, and it has since fielded three additional nominees in the category in Dopesick, The Dropout, and Pam & Tommy, all of which were nominated in 2022. Since 2020, it's also notched an impressive 19 acting bids and one win, for Dopesick's leading man Michael Keaton. Much like Netflix, it's a streamer to which the majority of Emmy voters now likely have access and whose titles therefore benefit from visibility. More from GoldDerby Film reviews trash the Weeknd's 'Hurry Up Tomorrow' as 'self-indulgent' and a 'feature-length ego-stroke' 'It was just so seemingly unbelievable': 'Earnhardt' director reflects on Dale Earnhardt's NASCAR fame, quest for greatness, and tragic death 2025 Drama League Awards winners announced: Nicole Scherzinger takes Distinguished Performance Of the streamer's combined 23 series and acting nominations from the past five years, the following 12 were not predicted by the odds: — Under the Bridge (2024): Lily Gladstone, Best Limited Series/TV Movie Supporting Actress (eighth place in the odds) — Tiny Beautiful Things (2023): Kathryn Hahn, Best Limited Series/TV Movie Actress (11th), and Merritt Wever, Best Limited Series/TV Movie Supporting Actress (10th) — Welcome to Chippendales (2023): Kumail Nanjiani, Best Limited Series/TV Movie Actor (12th); Annaleigh Ashford (41st) and Juliette Lewis (40th), Best Limited Series/TV Movie Supporting Actress — Dopesick: Mare Winningham, Best Limited Series/TV Movie Supporting Actress (20th), and Will Poulter, Best Limited Series/TV Movie Supporting Actor (13th) — Pam & Tommy: Best Limited Series (14th) and Sebastian Stan, Best Limited Series/TV Movie Actor (seventh) — Little Fires Everywhere: Kerry Washington, Best Limited Series/TV Movie Actress (sixth) — Normal People (2020): Paul Mescal, Best Limited Series/TV Movie Actor (sixth) Good American Family has a lot in common with these under-predicted titles. Like Under the Bridge, Welcome to Chippendales, Dopesick, and Pam & Tommy, it's an accessible drama based on true events with an emotional hook that makes it stand out within its genre. Created by Katie Robbins, the series tells the story of Natalia Grace (Imogen Faith Reid), a Ukrainian-born orphan with a rare form of dwarfism who is adopted by a Midwestern couple, Kristine and Michael Barnett (Ellen Pompeo and Mark Duplass), just to be abandoned by them once they suspect she's lying about her identity. After telling Kristine's version of events, which paint Grace as an evil con artist trying to drive a wedge between Kristine and her family, the show switches to Grace's POV halfway through its run, forcing viewers to question whether the adoptee has actually been an innocent girl who was abused and neglected by her American family all along. Disney/Ser Baffo Though perhaps not as divisive as Good American Family, none of these other ripped-from-the-headlines series were big critical and audience darlings themselves, nor did they, with the exception of Pam & Tommy — an attention-grabbing retelling of the turbulent marriage between actress and model Pamela Anderson and drummer Tommy Lee — elicit a ton of online chatter. But that's also not uncommon for shows of this genre, especially those inspired by more obscure and/or grievous true events, as these rarely lend themselves to memes, theorizing, and other conduits for online conversations. What mattered most for these shows was that they were watched by voters — and there's no reason to believe Good American Family hasn't been. Boosted by Pompeo's star power, the miniseries consistently ranked in the top five on Hulu's Top 15 Today list throughout its six-week run and drew in record numbers for its finale across Hulu and Disney+. Within the first six days of its release, the finale, which dropped on April 30, became the most-viewed one of the year across the two streamers, as well as the third most-viewed one ever for a Hulu original. SEE A 'roller coaster' of perspectives: Good American Family creator on the show's unique structure and breakout star Imogen Faith Reid Per Gold Derby's odds, the show's best shot at a nomination is Best Limited Series/TV Movie Actress for Pompeo, who sits just outside the top five, in sixth place. Despite being the face of one of the longest-running scripted shows in prime-time history and one of the most defining series of the past few decades, the Grey's Anatomy star has never been nominated for an Emmy. But on Good American Family, her first major TV project since Grey's that she also executive-produced, she gets to show new sides of herself as an actor that might impress her peers in the TV academy. Plus, though a typically unsentimental bunch, Emmy voters may finally want to give the TV vet a pat on the back after overlooking her for so long. What further helps Pompeo's case is that her category is fluid outside the predicted top three, Cristin Millioti (The Penguin), Michelle Williams (Dying for Sex), and Cate Blanchett (Disclaimer), who are all safe bets for nominations. In fourth place is Renée Zellweger for Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy — a theatrical release internationally that went straight to streaming, on Peacock, in the U.S. — but she would have to overcome the apathy voters have recently shown toward performances in TV movies. The last person to be cited for one in this category was Laura Dern for The Tale in 2018. Rounding out the top five in the odds is Kaitlyn Dever for Apple Cider Vinegar, an Australian production that was liked by both critics and audiences but was only a modest success for Netflix and is currently not listed among the streamer's priorities in limited. If Pompeo makes the cut, there's a good chance she could bring along one of her co-stars in supporting, who could similarly capitalize on their races being rather unsettled. Particularly formidable are Reid, who's in 18th place in her category's rankings, and Duplass, who's in 22nd place in his. Though still a relative unknown as Good American Family marks her first-ever speaking role in a project, Reid, 28, is not just the heart of the miniseries by its end, but she's also essentially a co-lead next to Pompeo, especially in the back half. And Duplass is a previous winner (for producing the docuseries Wild Wild Country in 2018) who has surprised before — not once but twice — for The Morning Show in drama. Should the acting branch of the TV academy turn out for Good American Family, their support may also be enough to carry the show to a Best Limited Series nomination, seeing as that field, too, is largely wide open. Outside the top two in the odds, Netflix's spring breakout hit Adolescence and HBO's guild juggernaut The Penguin, both of which are shoo-ins, the predicted nominees all have strikes against them. Dying for Sex is in third place, but despite receiving glowing reviews, the eight-episode FX cancer dramedy debuted to little noise on April 4 on Hulu. Next in line is Apple TV+'s star-studded Disclaimer, which has also fizzled out since its fall release and was shut out of several of the top guilds, including the Producers and Writers Guild of America Awards. In fifth is Netflix's Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, which was an audience hit for the streamer but may lack in industry support, having missed at all of the major guilds save for the Screen Actors Guild Awards, where it nabbed a single bid for supporting actor contender Javier Bardem. Having premiered with two episodes on March 19, Good American Family also came out at the perfect time: early enough to give voters time to catch up with it before voting begins on June 12, but not so early that it risks being forgotten by then. So at the very least, you may want to rank the show a little higher than it is in Gold Derby's odds, where it sits in a distant 25th place at the moment. Best of GoldDerby How Natasha Rothwell helped Belinda get her groove back in 'The White Lotus' Season 3 Making of 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' panel: Bringing the Balrog to life was 'like doing a slight of hand card trick' TV Animation roundtable panel: '#1 Happy Family USA,' 'Secret Level,' and 'Arcane' Click here to read the full article.
Gulf News
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf News
Post-apocalyptic 'The Last of Us' more timely than ever
When "The Last of Us" -- the smash hit series about a post-apocalyptic society ravaged by a mass fungal infection -- arrived on our screens in 2023, the real world was emerging from a pandemic. Its timely premise evidently struck a chord, as the video game adaptation's debut season drew a record-breaking 32 million US viewers per episode, according to HBO. Now season two, which premieres April 13 and hinges on themes of conflict and vengeance, will be equally relevant and prescient, promises returning star Pedro Pascal. Part of the show's strength is its ability "to see human relationships under crisis and in pain, and intelligently draw political allegory, societal allegory, and base it off the world we're living in," said the actor, who plays lead character Joel. "Storytelling is cathartic in so many ways... I think there's a very healthy and sometimes sick pleasure in that kind of catharsis -- in a safe space," he told a recent press conference. In the first season, smuggler Joel is forced to take teenage Ellie (Bella Ramsey) -- seemingly the one human immune to the deadly cordyceps fungus -- with him as he crosses the United States seeking his brother. 'Conflicts' Although fans of the original video games will know what to expect from season two, HBO is trying to keep plot details of the dark and gritty second installment under wraps. A recent trailer makes clear that Joel and Ellie have come into conflict with each other, and a new character Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) is a soldier on a murderous rampage. In a quirk of fortune, rising star Dever ("Booksmart," "Dopesick") was originally in talks to play Ellie when a film adaptation of "The Last of Us" was in development in the mid-2010s. Though the film collapsed, she became a fan of the games, and said getting cast as Abby -- a main, playable character in video game "The Last of Us Part II" -- for the TV series years later was "surreal." "I was a fan of the game. It was a real bonding moment for me and my dad playing it together," she reflected. "And to have it come back around, what, 10-plus years later?... It just felt right. Abby felt right." Gabriel Luna, who returns as Joel's brother Tommy, agreed with Pascal that "there's a huge catharsis element" to watching the second season at a time when, in the real world, conflicts are raging and alliances are fracturing. "The first season, we made a story about a pandemic, fearing that maybe there was a fatigue. But I think the experience that everyone had just gave them an entry point to what we were doing," he said.
The Independent
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Kaitlyn Dever shares heartbreaking detail about shocking Last of Us scene
Kaitlyn Dever has shared the heartbreaking personal context of her big, shocking scene in the latest episode of The Last of Us. In a new interview, the actor revealed she shot her pivotal scene just days after the death of her mother. The acclaimed post-apocalyptic TV show continued on Sunday night (20 April) with an episode that saw Abby (Dever) brutally murder Joel (Pedro Pascal), one of the series' two lead characters up until this point. While fans of the video game on which The Last of Us is based had anticipated the twist coming, the moment was nonetheless a devastating moment for viewers. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Dever spoke about the personal circumstances surrounding the shoot. 'It was just a massive scene emotionally, and with blocking, too,' the Dopesick star said. 'There were so many moving parts and so many things to navigate.' 'To be as honest as possible, I will just say that my days leading up to this scene were horrible.' The actor revealed that she filmed the scene weeks after the death of her mother, Kathy, from breast cancer. 'I lost my mom two or three weeks before I actually shot this scene [on The Last of Us ],' she said. 'And my mom's funeral was three days before I did my first day. So I was sort of in a fog. I was in a daze.' Series showrunner Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) recalled: 'We said, 'Take your time. Take all the time you need.' While I care extraordinarily about the show, it's a TV show. I'm not going to disrupt someone's grieving process for their own parent, especially [with] a show that's partly about the grieving process.' The shooting schedule was changed to accommodate Dever, with the actor recalling that she subsisted on 'donut holes' and coffee. 'That's all I was in the mood for,' she said. 'Because of my life circumstances, I wasn't actually able to do my normal routine as an actor, which was really interesting because I was kind of worried about it. 'Usually if I have a monologue like that, I'm memorising it three weeks before I do it. I had a different approach, and I think that it really served the character in a lot of ways. I was able to sort of… I don't know, just really let it go and not think about it too much because the words on the page are so powerful anyway.' The Last of Us is available to watch in the UK on Sky and NOW, with new episodes arriving every Monday.
Washington Post
31-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Why ‘The Last of Us' Season 2 takes big departures from the video game
Every video game adaptation to TV or film has to face the urgent question: What happens to the audience's relationship to characters when we're no longer the puppeteer? After all, it isn't us playing as Abby in the upcoming second season of HBO's 'The Last of Us' adaptation. It's Kaitlyn Dever, Emmy-nominated star of 'Dopesick.' Abby is a new character for the TV series, but she's well-known among fans of the video game. In 'The Last of Us Part II,' first released in 2020, her motivations and background were a mystery held off for the back half of the game. In the very first episode of this second season, premiering April 13, Abby is immediately introduced, removing the veil of intrigue that shrouded her in the first half of the original story. Game director and co-showrunner Neil Druckmann said there are two reasons for this change. First, it's because the second game has been split into two TV seasons, and Abby's motivations wouldn't be a factor at all for an entire season. Leaving that critical context unexplored for another season years from now 'didn't feel correct,' Druckmann said in an interview. 'The other reason, in the game, you play as Abby, you're connected. We can withhold certain things here.' Druckmann pointed to the famous opening of the game and the first TV season: In the first game, players control the protagonist Joel's ill-fated daughter, Sarah, for a few minutes. Upon her death, players are wrenched into another character. Druckmann's studio, Naughty Dog, has a long history of using this technique, in which narrative shake-ups are tied to the player's ability to suddenly switch perspectives. 'When you play as Sarah, there's something about when you play a character, you have an immediate empathic connection to that, and it's a shortcut that the interactive medium affords us. We don't have that here,' Druckmann said of the show. 'We need you to connect through a different way, through empathy, through sympathy or just tying it back to the events. ... 'This felt correct for this version of this story.' 'The Last of Us Part II' was controversial for many reasons, including an ambitious, nonlinear story structure that was broken up by location, time and perspectives. Its story continues to follow Joel Miller, a bereaved father who lost his daughter during a zombie outbreak, Ellie, a teenager who's grown to love and admire Joel as a father, and introduces Abby, whose journey becomes entangled with theirs. The sequel's structure was also informed by its very nature as a video game. Splitting the game between two protagonists, Ellie and Abby, meant honoring the player progression of 'skill trees' for each character. 'The reason we limited how much we go back and forth is because of upgrade trees,' Druckmann said. 'You play the character a particular way based on how you're upgrading them, and then you have this mental shift you gotta do when you have a totally different upgrade tree. Every time we would do it, it would be incredibly disruptive from a gameplay standpoint. We don't have any of that for this show, so obviously we don't take that into consideration. It often leads to different choices.' The HBO follow-up introduces new elements, including a tough, wizened therapist played by Catherine O'Hara. She's cynical enough to see through Joel's macho posturing and deflections. The show also expands the lore from the game, adding a postapocalyptic city council for Joel and Ellie's new adopted home of Jackson, Wyoming. Then there are small changes. The first game and season featured a surprise discovery of a giraffe herd roaming a wasted Salt Lake City, one of the more memorable, quiet interludes in a violent story. This second season features that same giraffe herd seen through a new context. 'The question was, what if those giraffes hang out there all the time, and what if other people who now live in Salt Lake, broken by Joel's actions, see them,' said co-showrunner Craig Mazin. 'It would mean something else, the memory of a beautiful thing that has been ruined. We try as best to synthesize and combine all those things in a way that are consistent with the game.' Mazin, an evangelist of the games who pitched the show to HBO executives, calls the original works 'the world's best pre-visualization ever.' It's why the show replicates so many shots from the game. The game's most memorable scenes often remain intact. For Mazin, that's the whole point. But there are many conversations with his team about how to adapt certain scenes for TV. 'You can tell how carefully Neil and his team directed the light to move or what a set should look like,' Mazin said. 'So Ksenia Sereda, who is our lead director of photography, has a way of saying, if we did this in reality, it would look horrible. She finds things that evoke the feeling you had in the game without necessarily copying.' The show will once again have a companion podcast hosted by Joel's original actor from the game, Troy Baker, along with Mazin and Druckmann. Baker often brought interesting creative insight as the quintessential, original embodiment of the character, and Druckmann said no doubt he will have plenty more things to say about being Joel in the second game. While 'The Last of Us Part II' remains one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time, there's been ceaseless discourse about whether its story could've been structured better. 'Halley Gross, who co-wrote the game with me, and I stand by every decision we've made of the game,' Druckmann said. 'Yet we're not precious about any of it. So now when we approach it for this new medium, I'm okay to interrogate every moment. And then what we try to do is just remove any external pressure so we don't read what people are saying, what they want us to do. We have to just interrogate and ask what is the best version of this story that's being delivered as roughly one-hour-long episodes, week to week.' In an age of art fueled by key performance indicators, it's rare to hear a creator of pop entertainment commit to ignoring what an audience claims to want. It's the reason 'The Last of Us Part II' was an unforgettable, challenging experience, and it's why, for veterans of this series, the most interesting viewing experience is not what happens in the show, but how new audiences might respond to it. 'When I've met people that only watched the show and not played the games, I would ask them, 'Do you know what happens?'' Druckmann said. 'They're like, no, why? And I just say they should just watch it. It'll be fun. Right?'
