Latest news with #Nicci
NBC News
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC News
Tanner's mom from ‘Love on the Spectrum' shares scene that made her ‘uncomfortable'
Tanner Smith, one of the breakout personalities from the Netflix series ' Love on the Spectrum,' encapsulates his life philosophy with a simple phrase in his Instagram bio: 'Bring the joy.' At 26, Smith brings that same buoyant spirit to his job in maintenance at the Shepherd Hotel in downtown Clemson, South Carolina, where he greets guests with warmth and enthusiasm. In a recent phone interview, his mother, Nicci Smith — a former nurse turned fitness instructor — recalls casually stumbling upon her son in the middle of a FaceTime call with actor Mark Wahlberg. Wahlberg, she explains, has a daughter enrolled at Clemson University, and Tanner struck up a conversation with him in the lobby of the Shepherd Hotel, where they became fast friends. 'Tanner can talk to anyone,' Nicci tells TODAY, her voice brimming with pride. There was a time when Tanner — diagnosed with autism at 2-and-a-half — wouldn't make eye contact with teachers and peers. As child, while the other kids rushed to the slide, Tanner would quietly drift toward the swings. 'If it wasn't me or a family member, he would turn his face away,' Nicci says. 'The world is seeing happy, social Tanner now, but there were years when he didn't play with other children. I couldn't take him to basketball games because the buzzers were too loud. And every time we went out as a family, we were all on edge — wondering what might upset Tanner.' Looking at Tanner today, Nicci is still in disbelief. A graduate of Clemson University's LifeSkills program, he's living with roommates, thriving in a job that he loves and stepping bravely into the spotlight — putting himself out there as he searches for love on streaming television. 'If you had told me when Tanner was a little boy that he would be doing now what he's doing now,' she says, 'he's a freaking miracle.' The date that made her squirm In Season 3 of 'Love on the Spectrum,' viewers — including Nicci — tuned in as Tanner embarked on a blind date with Shyann at a goat farm. Though the two bonded over their shared love of animals, the exchange was punctuated by awkward pauses. Ultimately, Tanner realized their personalities didn't quite align; he was looking for someone outgoing and talkative, while Shyann was more reserved and soft-spoken. 'To me, that date was very uncomfortable, because I know him,' Nicci says. 'I felt bad for both of them — I think she had a bit of stage fright and didn't know what to say, and he felt like it was his responsibility to carry the conversation but didn't know how to draw her out.' 'Everybody sees Tanner as the happy, joyful guy,' she says. 'But when you're autistic, anxiety is always there — and he was really struggling. I was ready for the goat date to be over. It just wasn't clicking. But he learned from it, and he did a good job.'
New York Times
18-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Best Interests' Is a Deeply Empathetic British Series
There are no villains in 'Best Interests,' a heartbreaking limited series that arrives on Acorn TV on Monday. Instead, the series, a four-part British drama starring Sharon Horgan and Michael Sheen, is about two people in impossible circumstances who are trying to do what they think is right. The episodes follow Nicci (Horgan) and Andrew (Sheen), a married couple whose daughter Marnie (Niamh Moriarty) has a form of muscular dystrophy. Early on, the cheerful Marnie ends up in the hospital with an infection that leads ultimately to brain damage. Her doctor (Noma Dumezweni) recommends stopping treatment. This is where Nicci and Andrew, whom we immediately understand to be dedicated parents, diverge. Andrew looks at his child and believes the girl he once knew is gone; Nicci sees a callous system that wants her disabled daughter to die. The writer Jack Thorne, known for 'His Dark Materials,' never allows one side to be the 'right' one. Horgan's passion convinces you there is a chance for Marnie; Sheen's despair makes you believe there isn't. In the middle there is Nicci and Andrew's other daughter, Katie, played by Alison Oliver of 'Conversations With Friends.' Katie is a teen who has always existed in the shadow of her high-needs sister. She copes by sneaking cigarettes and wants desperately to appease both her parents. While Oliver portrays Katie's pain well, her story ends up being the weakest because of an ill-advised plotline involving a bad girlfriend and the theft of Marnie's unused drugs. It is the most outlandish the series gets. 'Best Interests' is at its most fascinating, though, when it invests in the emotional compromises all these people make as they try to fight for Marnie. Andrew is shocked, for instance, that Nicci would align herself with a Christian organization, which is likely anti-abortion, in order to pursue a court case against the hospital. Nicci, on the other hand, sees Andrew's resistance as abandonment. Horgan and Sheen propel the show with their wonderfully complicated performances. Horgan, best known for sharp-edged comedies like 'Catastrophe' and 'Bad Sisters,' brings wry humor to Nicci even in her character's darkest moments. But she also depicts the unimaginable agony of a parent in limbo. In Sheen's dejected, empathetic depiction of Andrew, you see how crushed he is by the notion that Marnie is already gone. Sadly, the voice that is missing is Marnie's. Her life is rendered through flashbacks that feel like rosy, one-dimensional glimpses of what once was. But as a depiction of what happens once she can no longer speak for herself, 'Best Interests' is devastatingly complex.
