Latest news with #LonelyFlowers'
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a day ago
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‘The Bear' star Abby Elliott used her own birth experience to inform the standout Season 3 episode ‘Ice Chips'
Abby Elliott had known Natalie 'Sugar' Berzatto would give birth during the third season of The Bear for a while. So when it came time for Elliott to give birth to her son in June 2023, she was prepared to go the extra mile. More from GoldDerby Roy Wood Jr. on how 'Lonely Flowers' became his most personal special to date 'He feels like he's the smartest guy there': 'Abbott Elementary's' William Stanford Davis on Mr. Johnson's 'veneer' of 'mystery' 'The Shining' at 45: How Stanley Kubrick's Stephen King adaptation became the Razzies biggest regret 'I knew that the contractions would be a part of the episode, so when I had my actual labor with my second child, with my son, I had my mom in the delivery room with me, and she recorded my contractions,' Elliott says during the latest episode of Awards Magnet. 'So I could go back and watch them for acting purposes.' For Elliott, the immersive approach to preparation was critical. She wanted to make sure Natalie's contractions felt as real as possible, sharp and painful shocks that arrived quickly and broke up the tension of Natalie's conversations with her estranged mother, Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis). 'You're in excruciating pain, and then you're kind of like, 'OK, now, what do we do?'' she says. 'But then, having Donna there made for such drama.' 'Ice Chips,' Elliott's standout episode from The Bear Season 3, was written by co-showrunner Joanna Calo and directed by creator and co-showrunner Christopher Storer. The episode is essentially a two-hander between Elliott and Curtis, an Emmy Award winner for her performance in Season 2 of The Bear, where their characters try to find common ground after years of strife and difficulty. 'Jamie's just unbelievable. She's just so warm and nurturing. But also, I'm terrified of her, because she's so intimidating and incredible,' Elliott says of her screen partner. 'When you work with her, she feels like such a good friend, and then she snaps into Donna once that wig is on. She gets into it — like she is Donna. So all the hugging and the nurturing stuff that she has done as Jamie kind of goes out the window a little because she wants you to really feel the moment.' Elliott says she and Curtis ran through the episode's main sequence — basically a 20-minute scene — just once. 'If there was a lull or something didn't go as planned, we just kind of rolled with it,' she says of the show's improvisational nature. 'If one of us forgot a beat, I could always go to a contraction. It all just felt authentic. They need each other in this moment.' 'Ice Chips' ends without a significant resolution for Natalie and Donna; the baby is born (and the birth is not shown on screen) while Donna sits in the hospital waiting room. 'In this moment, there was a connection,' Elliott says of where the characters ended up and what lies ahead for their relationship. 'But Donna, with these traits — whether you want to call them borderline alcoholic, bipolar — that doesn't go away. You know she's trying, she's there, but it's still not perfect after this. And that's what I think Chris does so brilliantly with the show. It isn't wrapped up in a bow. Life isn't like that. It continues. And you can have this beautiful moment and some deep connection, and then return to being the people you are.' The Bear returns for its fourth season on June 25, where Natalie's child will presumably impact not just her life, but her relationship with Carmy (Emmy Award winner Jeremy Allen White). Through the first three seasons, Natalie has often bounced between being a sister for Carmy and being his surrogate mother as the older sibling. Elliott says the dynamic is invariably forced to change due to Natalie's new responsibilities as a parent. 'Natalie has wanted to step into that role of oldest sibling after Michael's death,' she says. 'With Carm, it's like this constant push and pull between deeply wanting to help him, and just dreading that she's going to be disappointed by him constantly. And I think that just with every season — and with him continuing to be in his patterns and in his head like that — it just escalates more and more for her. So now that Natalie has a child to take care of, there is a little bit of throwing your hands up in the air at Carm. Just like, 'OK, I can't help you!' And then, you know, immediately saying, 'Oh no, but I do need you so badly. You're the only one left.' So I think it's just the constant struggle.' The Bear streams on Hulu. Email your questions to slugfests@ Best of GoldDerby Inside 'The Daily Show': The team behind the satirical news series on politics, puppies, punchlines — and staying sane Dakota Fanning said 'yes' to 'The Perfect Couple' the moment she heard Nicole Kidman was involved, without knowing anything else about the show 'Slow Horses' star Rosalind Eleazar gets real about her MI5 outcast Louisa Guy: 'She's really not OK' Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Tina Fey on ‘The Four Seasons': ‘It was a challenge to be restrained about where we put jokes'
'Just one more time,' says Tina Fey. 'It was time for me to go back into something just one more time, before they put me in the ground.' With a string of successes from 30 Rock, Mean Girls, Saturday Night Live to Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, turns out it was a 40-year-old movie that inspired the award-winning triple threat to take another creative swing. More from GoldDerby Roy Wood Jr. on how 'Lonely Flowers' became his most personal special to date 'He feels like he's the smartest guy there': 'Abbott Elementary's' William Stanford Davis on Mr. Johnson's 'veneer' of 'mystery' 'The Shining' at 45: How Stanley Kubrick's Stephen King adaptation became the Razzies biggest regret 'I've always loved the movie since I was 11 years old,' Fey tells Gold Derby of the 1981 feature The Four Seasons. As luck would have it, the film was made for Universal Studios, where she happens to have an overall deal. More crucially, she also secured the blessing of Alan Alda, who wrote and directed the original, and has a cameo in Fey's limited series adaptation for Netflix. 'I think he's delighted that this movie he made 40 years ago is still speaking to people in these two different ways,' says Fey. 'I'm still so grateful that he trusted us not to screw it up.' Fey's vision would honor the original by surrounding herself with friends, on-screen and off (she brought on former colleagues Tracy Wigfield and Lang Fisher as co-showrunners). 'The idea of building this ensemble with beloved actors, and the thrill of seeing them pretend to be old friends, that was one of the things I loved the most about the old movie,' says Fey of the film, which also starred Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Sandy Dennis, Jack Weston, Len Cariou, and Bess Armstrong, about three couples who vacation together. Steve Carell was her first call. 'I thought if I could get Steve to say yes, then we'd really be on our way somewhere,' she says, 'because he's the closest we have to an Alan Alda.' 'He's our most beloved American comedy figure of a couple generations, probably because of the incredible shelf life of the American Office. I also thought there was something about Steve that he could get away with playing Nick, because Nick does some things that make people mad. Michael Scott [from The Office] does things that are ill-advised, too, and Steve is beloved, so I knew he could do that.' SEE Tina Fey, Steve Carell, and more on the 'once-in-a-lifetime' experience of filming 'The Four Seasons' Next in line was Colman Domingo to play Danny. 'He was the only person we ever talked about for Danny,' she says. 'I didn't know what we were going to do if he didn't want to do it.' She hoped he'd want to do some comedy after Rustin — and especially The Madness. 'It was a lot of running and getting shot at, and you know, we're the same age, so maybe he wanted to do a show where he could wear sweaters and go to the beach.' Domingo suggested Marco Calvani as his partner, Claude (adapted from the original's Claudia); Will Forte, Kerry Kenney-Silver and Erika Henningsen rounded out the ensemble. Naturally, Fey was always going to play Kate. 'TikTok will tell you that I only ever play people named Kate,' jokes Fey. 'I always loved the scenes between Carol and Alan [in the film], the way that they would argue, and the kind of healthy arguing style that they had. I just wanted to be in those scenes.' That said, she did check in with her co-showrunners to make sure the fighting didn't go too far. 'Am I just being a horrible bitch to [Jack] all the time?' she asked them, who assured her she wasn't. 'I have heard anecdotally from a lot of people who feel like they see their marriage reflected in Jack and Kate.' Getting the voice of the show just right was a priority — especially after the sharp-edged, deeply sardonic wit of 30 Rock. 'It was a really conscious effort to work in a different tone,' Fey says. 'We wanted to evoke the tone of the original movie. At the same time, we knew we were doing eight episodes for streaming, so we felt like we needed just enough story energy to feel like we were cliff-hangering and pulling people one episode to the next. It was a challenge for all of us to be restrained about where we put jokes. The few other characters we meet can't be too absurd. We have to stay grounded, stay tethered. And that's the goal — if we were to strip some things away, would we be able to hold tinier emotional moments and small behaviors as subtler jokes.' And all joking aside, the series does take a dark turn in the penultimate episode, when Carell's character, Nick, dies in a car accident. 'It was one of the things we talked about from the beginning, because we thought, something needs to happen, and what's a real-life thing that happens?' she says. 'And that's one of the things that happens.' 'I remember when we pitched it to Steve, he was like, why does this keep happening to me?' says Fey. 'And I was like, 'Oh no! Well, too late — it's happening again.'' Netflix Fey says the episode, which is inspired by thirtysomething, is ultimately one of her favorites. 'It's probably the biggest swing that we take in the whole season,' she says. That it happens off-screen, she says, is because 'that's the way it happens in real-life… You don't expect it, and you don't see it.' SEE'The Four Seasons' co-creators explain their decision to kill [spoiler] — and Tina Fey's remarkable performance in response: 'She's really good' Though Fey juggles her usual trifecta of roles – showrunner, writer, actor – on this series, the shorter episode run meant that the scripts were finished by the time shooting began, so the pivot was more seamless. 'You are pretty much ready to answer questions that the actors might have, because you've been thinking about it for a long time,' she says. 'And I guess one of the important things to remember on the acting side is to maybe then try to shake yourself loose from how you've been hearing it in your head the whole time, to try to actually be present with the other actors, because then you might find something new that surprises you.' That's another one of the benefits of the streaming world, Fey acknowledges. 'You don't have to cut to exactly 21:15 so you end up like speeding your episode to make the exact timing. Nobody puts a snipe for a singing contest over your show,' she says. 'Plus we did so much nudity,' she jokes. This also marked the first time that Fey's husband, Jeff Richmond, directed an episode she'd written. 'I think there were moments where he was so happy to get to direct the play within the episode, because he's a theater director also, and that was probably the closest we came to butting heads,' she jokes. 'I will say it was even more adorable thing to watch Jeff direct, his first three-way, same-sex love scene. That was a new fun challenge, because we didn't have those kind of scenes on 30 Rock.' But she's not ready to take on that role herself just yet. 'I would never say never,' she says. 'But I love the showrunner position, because you can have all the perks and the input that a director has without having to figure out the shots. I really do respect people who think in pictures. But I definitely think in moments and bits and words and characters more than pictures.' Far more challenging was shooting the seasons themselves — finding locations for four seasons of the year in just nine weeks of shooting time. Luckily, they had a road map: Arlene Alda, Alan's wife, was the set photographer of the original film. 'She put out a coffee table book at the time of how they did it and what order they shot things in,' says Fey. That meant Forte and Carell were able to get in some ski time. 'They always seemed happiest when we had them do sports; though Fey, however, didn't enjoy that it quite as much. 'This is horrible, why do people do this? It's so cold!' she laments. The ultimate reward, for her, is the success of the show, which debuted at No. 1 on Netflix. 'The closest for me would be playing Sarah Palin,' she says. 'I don't think I've ever worked on something that was seen by so many people. You can always tell anecdotally when you hear from a bunch of people that first weekend. Not to name drop, but I think the first person that texted me that weekend to say I watched it and I loved it so much was Lindsay Lohan. And I was like, if Lindsay Lohan is watching this in Dubai, people are watching it around the world.' Best of GoldDerby Inside 'The Daily Show': The team behind the satirical news series on politics, puppies, punchlines — and staying sane Dakota Fanning said 'yes' to 'The Perfect Couple' the moment she heard Nicole Kidman was involved, without knowing anything else about the show 'Slow Horses' star Rosalind Eleazar gets real about her MI5 outcast Louisa Guy: 'She's really not OK' Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘He feels like he's the smartest guy there': ‘Abbott Elementary's' William Stanford Davis on Mr. Johnson's ‘veneer' of ‘mystery'
William Stanford Davis is "just surprised at how far they'll go sometimes" as you are when it comes to the unexpected details of his Abbott Elementary character Mr. Johnson's life that the writers feature in every script. In Season 4, for example, Mr. Johnson showed up to school dressed as "Emo Jimmy Butler" for Halloween and busted out singing the Oscar-winning "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" at faculty karaoke night. "What I really love about him is his mystery. You don't know what he's going to do next, and you don't know what his experiences are," Davis tells Gold Derby. More from GoldDerby Roy Wood Jr. on how 'Lonely Flowers' became his most personal special to date 'The Shining' at 45: How Stanley Kubrick's Stephen King adaptation became the Razzies biggest regret 'The Bear' star Abby Elliott used her own birth experience to inform the standout Season 3 episode 'Ice Chips' Four season into Abbott Elementary, Davis has plenty of thoughts as to why Mr. Johnson continues to love his job as the reliable — and reliably unpredictable — janitor. "He keeps the school spick and span. I went to a school that was like that, and I saw how these guys worked hard to make sure that we had a place that we could be proud of and a place that was comfortable," the actor says. "That's what I try to base this man on, that he loves his job, he cares for the kids, and he loves needling the teachers and the principal. He loves giving them a hard time because he feels like he's the smartest guy there. He's been all over the world. He's had more experiences than them." In Season 4, Davis shared the screen with three big guest stars. In 'Volunteers,' the crossover of Abbott and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Mr. Johnson and Danny DeVito's Frank spar over how to handle rodents terrorizing Gregory's (Tyler James Williams) garden. The actor recalls of working with the screen legend, 'To have Danny DeVito on the show, that's an icon. That's like having royalty on the show, and he was just so cool. He was so easy to work with and he gave a lot of advice. … There's one scene where he's in a cage, he was there before we even got on set, he was in the cage in the mud.' SEE Janelle James on Ava's challenging year on 'Abbott Elementary': 'They kind of threw everything at me this season' A subsequent installment, 'Testing,' introduced Eric André as Cedric, a janitor in training sent to Abbott Elementary by the district to potentially replace Mr. Johnson, though the novice quickly comes to realize he could never do so. While the scenes of Mr. Johnson displaying his unparalleled expertise are hilarious, the episode also has a moment of sincerity between Mr. Johnson and the depressed science teacher, Mr. Morton, played by Jerry Minor. Davis appreciates the moments where he gets to showcase his character's depth. "I love those moments. I'd love to see them more, but Mr. Johnson still has to have that veneer, so they'll give me one in each season, but I love those. I love that you get to see that he's not a caricature or a cartoon, he is a 360-degree, three-dimensional human being like we all are." One of the final episodes of the season features actress and musician Jill Scott, playing herself as the entertainer at this year's school fundraiser. When Gold Derby recently interviewed director Randall Einhorn, he shared that the entire sequence of Scott's performance, which features Davis, had to be reconfigured due to torrential rain that shifted the concert from outside to the narrow halls of the elementary school. "Randall's a genius, man. He is such an amazing director,' Davis says of how the director adapted the scene on the fly. He says he and Williams decided to "keep the rhythm and support" Scott during her performance, adding, "She came out strong, but it was important that we not only kept up with her, but made her feel like we're a group, we're in this together." Disney/Gilles Mingasson The episode, titled 'Ava Fest: Tokyo Drift,' ends with Mr. Johnson admitting to Scott that he is a super-fan, frightening the musician because of how many concerts he has attended and the personal items of hers that he has swiped. Davis initially felt trepidatious about the scene. "I didn't want to stalk her,' he confesses, before asking himself, "How do I make this honest?" His answer: "I just became this over-enthused fan, someone that was just so in love with what she does, and that's who I am in real life. I love Jill Scott. I think I have every one of her recordings." SEE 'Abbott Elementary' bosses on subverting finale expectations, 'the season of Ava,' and their dream crossover Perched behind Davis during our interview is his SAG Award trophy from 2023, when Abbott Elementary took home the honor for comedy ensemble. Reflecting on that victory and Quinta Brunson's acceptance speech, the actor shares, "I think it was the most incredible moment I've had since I've been on the show. To win with them and to be recognized by our peers, by other actors, it just meant so much to everyone." He also comments on how it speaks to the series' legacy: "I think the show's going to go down in history as one of the best shows in television. I like the fact that it shines a light on what we need in our school system. I think that teachers are just as important as doctors, and Abbott in a very comedic way shines a light on how important it is, and I think that overall, that's what I love about the show more than anything." Abbott Elementary begins production on Season 5 shortly. Davis shares that he would most like to see a glimpse of Mr. Johnson's personal life in the next batch of episodes. "We've seen Janine (Brunson) in her home, we've seen Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter) and Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph) in their homes, and we've seen most of the personal lives of the other characters, and I think Mr. Johnson is due for that." He suggests that perhaps Mr. Johnson's mother could still be alive, riffing, "Maybe she's the only person that he bows to, and he's a little kid around her." Davis' dream suggestion for who could play his mother? Five-time Emmy nominee Marla Gibbs. "I've even spoken to her about that when I've seen her at the events," shares the actor with a smile. SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of GoldDerby Inside 'The Daily Show': The team behind the satirical news series on politics, puppies, punchlines — and staying sane Dakota Fanning said 'yes' to 'The Perfect Couple' the moment she heard Nicole Kidman was involved, without knowing anything else about the show 'Slow Horses' star Rosalind Eleazar gets real about her MI5 outcast Louisa Guy: 'She's really not OK' Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Dakota Fanning said ‘yes' to ‘The Perfect Couple' the moment she heard Nicole Kidman was involved, without knowing anything else about the show
Dakota Fanning laughs while recalling her spontaneous decision to join Netflix's suspense drama The Perfect Couple. "The first thing they said was, 'You're Nicole [Kidman]'s daughter-in-law, you're pregnant, and you're the murderer,' and I was like, 'Yes!'" The Emmy-nominated actor tells Gold Derby, "I was introduced to the project through Susanne Bier, who I had worked with before and became very close to. She called me, and told me a bit about the character. I don't even think she told me the title of the show or the book that it was based on. She said Nicole Kidman was involved, and I said yes. That was my introduction to it, and then, of course, I read the scripts and found out who was playing all the other parts, and as the cast was coming together I got more and more excited, but Susanne and Nicole were the two biggest draws for me." More from GoldDerby Roy Wood Jr. on how 'Lonely Flowers' became his most personal special to date 'He feels like he's the smartest guy there': 'Abbott Elementary's' William Stanford Davis on Mr. Johnson's 'veneer' of 'mystery' 'The Shining' at 45: How Stanley Kubrick's Stephen King adaptation became the Razzies biggest regret The actress "would do anything for Susanne" and had never worked with Kidman before. "I was super excited to do that, and it just came together in the most seamless way," she continues. "The story turned out to be so juicy, and I was getting to play a character that I really felt like I had never played before. I got to be a part of such an incredible ensemble of actors, and we just had the absolute best time." SEE 'The Perfect Couple': Nicole Kidman is awards-bound for juicy Netflix hit The Perfect Couple was created by showrunner Jenna Lamia and Emmy-winning director Bier, based on Elin Hilderbrand's 2018 novel. The six-part mystery limited series stars Oscar and Emmy winner Kidman as celebrated author Greer Garrison Winbury, with nine-time Emmy nominee Liev Schreiber playing her husband Tag. Eve Hewson and Billy Howle portray engaged couple Amelia Sacks and Benji Winbury, Emmy nominee Meghann Fahy plays Amelia's best friend, and Fanning co-stars as Benji's sister-in-law Abby, with Jack Reynor, Ishaan Khatter, and Donna Lynne Champlin rounding out the ensemble cast. Set in the luxury of Nantucket, the story follows the extravagant wedding of Amelia and Benji, which is thrown into chaos when a dead body is found on the morning of the ceremony. As investigators dig deeper, long-buried secrets come to light, placing everyone in the wedding party under suspicion. The series blends elements of mystery and family drama, exploring the darker undercurrents of privilege, love, and deception, keeping viewers on edge through its twists and layered storytelling. "Susanne's just the greatest partner an actor could have," Fanning proclaims. "Jack Reynor, who played my husband; it was like we were on our own show, the two of us a lot of the time, doing our own thing. We became so close. He's such a great actor. We leaned into the heightened nature of our characters and their marriage and had the greatest time. There was not one person that didn't just fit right in, like we all just became really fast friends. Eve is one of my really good friends in real life for years. So, getting to work with her was such a dream. We were all on the same page and on the same team and really having fun with it. And I think people can really tell that when they watch the show. It's fun when the real chemistry is actually there and it's not pretend." Netflix As for the show's marquee star, Fanning is as endearingly effusive as ever. "She's such an icon. She is one of a kind, and she continues to push her own limits and boundaries. She is constantly stretching herself into new characters and spaces. I don't know how she gets it all done — she seemingly is defying the laws of time and space with her career and also having a really wonderful personal life, too," she says. "It was really inspiring to watch her work and get to know her as a person. She has such an amazing sense of humor, is really funny and really warm, and is still really down for the adventure of being an actor, so many years into her career, which I'm very inspired by, and hope to emulate as I continue mine." Fanning plays a pivotal role in the series, portraying a privileged and often acerbic social climber with aplomb, giving the actor the chance to flesh out a character unlike any she has played before. "The character as a whole felt new, because people haven't seen me play this particular kind of character before. She's a little bitchy, she says socially unacceptable things in a very light, breezy tone, as if they're totally normal. She is pregnant and would like everyone to know at all times," she smiles. "She says these quips and remarks as if they're totally normal and I really enjoyed getting to play a character like her who worships Nicole's character, her mother-in-law, and is trying to be like her at all times, so much so to the point that she doesn't even know who she is anymore or what her real opinions are," Fanning notes. "She's constantly trying to fit into this mold and living in this kind of warped reality. And that's the thing that I also loved about the show itself, which you don't realize right away, but as we got into it, the heightened tone developed over time. Everyone looks like it's a real-life world and a real-life family, but everything has the volume turned up a little bit, and it's aware of itself in a particular way, which was really fun to play with as an actor, and I think also fun to watch as a viewer." Fanning has gone from strength to strength over the years, from her early days as a child actor, to her first Emmy nomination last year for the Netflix limited series Ripley. 'To be nominated for something is very exciting, and I was just happy for everyone, happy for all of us, that it was recognized in that way. It's something you can always hold on to and look back on. And so it was very special and unexpected, and I was very thrilled to be there.' Asked about one of the highlights of her career to date, Fanning looks back on working on Steven Spielberg's 2005 sci-fi thriller remake of War of the Worlds, which she filmed when she was 10 years old. 'Working on a movie directed by Steven Spielberg with Tom Cruise, it doesn't get more 'making a movie' than that. It's peak 'making a movie.' And I knew that at the time, and I look back on that experience and am so grateful for it because of getting to know the two of them,' she explains. 'The mark of a great director is where people want to work with them again and again and again, and would do anything for them. And so, I really saw that with Steven." The Perfect Couple is now streaming on Netflix. SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of GoldDerby Inside 'The Daily Show': The team behind the satirical news series on politics, puppies, punchlines — and staying sane 'Slow Horses' star Rosalind Eleazar gets real about her MI5 outcast Louisa Guy: 'She's really not OK' Tina Fey on 'The Four Seasons': 'It was a challenge to be restrained about where we put jokes' Click here to read the full article.
