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Buzz Feed
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
One Day's Ambika Mod On Leo Woodall Career Comparison
Last week, actor Ambika Mod was questioned about her and Leo Woodall's contrasting career trajectories post-One Day. If you watched the heartbreaking Netflix series, you'll know that Ambika delivered an excellent performance as Emma Morley alongside Leo, who played Dexter Mayhew. However, while Leo has been pretty booked and busy since One Day aired in February, Ambika hasn't had as much time in the limelight. Post-One Day, Leo starred in the latest Bridget Jones film, and played the protagonist in the Apple TV+ thriller series Prime Target. He is also set to star in an upcoming crime film called Tuner alongside Dustin Hoffman, and true-life thriller Burning Rainbow Farm with Sebastian Stan. When asked about the difference between her and Leo's careers at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, Ambika heartbreakingly said, 'I think we're going to have very different careers. If I compare myself to someone like Leo, I'm always going to come up short, because there's a privilege there that I don't have access to.' Ambika, who is of Indian heritage, continued: 'Being brown is not particularly easy in this industry. You don't get the same opportunities. You don't get the same ascension. I've been the lead of two very successful, critically-acclaimed TV shows and I still feel like I have to keep on proving myself. A lot of my white peers don't really have to tackle that.' Ambika's raw comments have since sparked an important discussion online, with several fans looking back on other times POC actors faced more difficulty in gaining equal recognition and opportunities compared with their white costars. For example, one person pointed out that Parminder Nagra's career was 'overshadowed' by Keira Knightley's after the pair starred together in the 2002 film Bend It Like Beckham — despite 'the movie being about a young Indian woman.' And after pop culture reporter @stells_press perfectly broke down Ambika's comments on TikTok, another fan noted that since playing Eddie Munson in Season 4 of Stranger Things, Joseph Quinn has starred in numerous acclaimed projects — including the leading role in A Quiet Place: Day One alongside Lupita Nyong'o. However, some members of the main cast from the first season, like Caleb McLaughlin and Gaten Matarazzo, haven't signed on to many renowned projects outside of the Netflix hit. Highlighting the difference in Lana Condor and Noah Centineo's careers post-To All The Boys I've Loved Before, someone wrote, 'lana has been in barely anything since but noah has been in about 500 different films.' Other fans mentioned Bridgerton, pointing out that Simone Ashley and Jonathan Bailey's careers have taken different turns despite the fact that they delivered equally powerful performances as the leads of Season 2. Jonathan has starred in hits like Wicked and Fellow Travelers, while Simone recently bagged her first leading role in years in the Prime Video movie Picture This, which she co-produced. And on the contrary, some fans highlighted white actors who have had 'more similar' career trajectories after starring in the same breakout role, citing Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones' similar success after starring in Normal People. If you can think of any more examples, feel free to share them in the comments.
The Guardian
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Zero Day review – De Niro's cyberhacking thriller is an astonishing amount of fun
There's an awful lot of fun television around at the moment. I can only assume it is an equal and opposite reaction to, well, everything going on in the real world – and I'm very grateful for Prime Target, Paradise, High Potential, the forthcoming new series of Reacher and various other vital antidepressant contributions to life. But I think we can agree that there is always room for another serotonin-boosting entry into the viewing schedules. Enter Zero Day. It's as fine a piece of hokum as you could wish to see – not least as it stars an on-form Robert De Niro in his first big small-screen outing. He has, I feel, let contempt – either for the roles or for the profession as a whole – seep into a few of his later film performances. This, I worried, could have seen the actor dabbling in something he might have considered an even lesser art form. But here, De Niro is committed and playing a straight bat as George Mullen: a much-respected former US president dragged out of retirement to calm a panicked populace after a terrorist cyber-attack. But why? But who? But how? An important part of preposterous fun is knowing that all the answers will be given in full by the end of the run – in this case, six hour-long episodes – and nobody's going to ask you to engage your brain too much along the way. So, it looks first as if it must have been the Russians. But then there is news of a hacktivist group in New York that was showing every sign of preparing a massive comms strike. Clues from CCTV cameras join nuggets of information from the shadowy contacts gathered by Mullen during his days as commander in chief. It's a tale packed with twists from creators Eric Newman (executive producer on American Primeval, Griselda and Painkiller), Noah Oppenheim and the Pulitzer-winning journalist and author Michael Schmidt. As Mullen visits the scenes of accidents caused by a one-minute electronic blackout, he is assailed by voices from the crowd. They claim that the whole thing has been orchestrated by the government, or as an insurance scam, and that crisis actors are playing the dead and injured. Finally, he has to stop and deliver an impromptu speech about the true meaning of America, of patriotism and the real source of conspiracy theorising: 'You're afraid. You think if you get worked up over some bullshit nonsense that won't make you afraid … of someone who hates us and everything that makes us who we are!' Shakespeare, it is not. Deeply satisfying in the unthinking moment before the next helping of plot arrives, it is. Added to this is Mullen's appointment as the head of a commission put together to find the attackers and granted near-unlimited (and possibly unconstitutional) powers to do so. This puts him at further odds with his liberal daughter, Alex (Lizzy Caplan), who works for the Democrats and is then put in charge of the committee overseeing the commission. There is also a president (Angela Bassett) under pressure to get results quickly, and not necessarily correctly, Jesse Plemons as Mullen's increasingly shady righthand man Roger Carlson, plus chief of staff Valerie Whitesell (Connie Britton), who has a history that may have veered beyond the professional with Mullen, but who his pragmatic wife, Sheila (Joan Allen), insists is brought back to protect him. There's more. We meet a group of hedge funders who may or may not have something to do with things (they do, I bet). A rightwing blowhard stirring up Info Wars-type animus against an unspecified 'Them' (and Mullen specifically). And, of course, the ever present threat of another attack. There is also an additional layer of doubt cast across Mullen's mental – rather than moral – integrity, as the possibility of early stage dementia comes into play. Or is it a case of: 'Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you'? Zero Day was completed before the second Trump presidency, but there's no doubt that he and his rippling, destabilising effect on society, on the media, on the definition and handling of truth, and on the principles of democracy are the fuel that keeps this storytelling engine running. But it remains first and foremost an astonishing amount of fun – firmly grounded by De Niro and his portrait of a good man struggling to do the right thing in a world that offers corruption at worst, and only compromise at best. Zero Day is on Netflix.
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Leo Woodall on Why Playing a Heartthrob Can Make Him 'Feel Quite Vulnerable and Exposed'
For Leo Woodall, playing an onscreen heartthrob has its ups and downs. The actor, who caught audiences' attention for his roles in The White Lotus and One Day, recently shared with the U.K. magazine RadioTimes if he ever feels 'objectified' playing the leading man. More from The Hollywood Reporter Bridget Jones Is Mad About the Boy (And So Are We) Renée Zellweger and Hugh Grant Usher in Bridget Jones' Final Chapter at World Premiere of 'Mad About the Boy' 'Prime Target' Review: Apple TV+'s Math-Themed Conspiracy Thriller Doesn't Add Up to Much 'Yeah, it's a mixed bag. In some ways it's part of the gig,' he responded. 'But also, there are sides of it that can make you feel quite vulnerable and exposed,' Woodall continued. 'That side isn't as fun. When you're playing a role described like that, you can't help but look at yourself and go, 'Am I that guy?' There's sometimes pressure in making people buy that!' In season two of The White Lotus, he plays bad boy Jack, and in One Day, he plays lovable playboy Dexter. Now, he stars as Renée Zellweger's much younger love interest, Roxster McDuff, in the new Bridget Jones sequel Mad About the Boy. Elsewhere during the interview, Woodall also shared his thoughts on the recent trend in films and TV shows highlighting age-gap romantic relationships, such as in Babygirl, May-December and The Idea of You. 'It's a dynamic that has always existed in the real world. And for reasons I'm not sure of, it's now being portrayed on screen. That's important, because that's what filmmaking is best at: portraying all walks of life,' the Prime Target actor explained. 'But this particular Bridget isn't about that. A lot of it is her grieving and her motherhood. And thankfully my character comes in and puts a smile on her face.' Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy premieres on Peacock Feb. 13. Best of The Hollywood Reporter The Best Anti-Fascist Films of All Time Dinosaurs, Zombies and More 'Wicked': The Most Anticipated Movies of 2025 From 'A Complete Unknown' to 'Selena' to 'Ray': 33 Notable Music Biopics
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
One Day actor Leo Woodall ‘doesn't really get Tube any more' after fan remark
One Day actor Leo Woodall says he has largely given up taking London public transport after an 'uncomfortable' comment from a female fan. The British actor stars as Renee Zellweger's love interest in upcoming romantic comedy Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, and is also known for Prime Target and The White Lotus. Last year, he rose to prominence in Netflix hit series One Day, based on the romantic David Nicholls book of the same name. Woodall told Elle UK: 'I don't really get the Tube any more. (A woman) told me her husband gets really jealous. It was just so uncomfortable.' The actor said 'it did all go a bit nuts for me'. 'At first it was, like, 'oh this is cool', and pretty quickly it just started to feel a bit icky,' he added. Woodall said he will take inspiration from Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston on fame because 'instead of being in the limelight and getting caught up in all that, he's just kept a lid on it and made some really good work'. The 28-year-old has been reportedly dating his White Lotus co-star Meghann Fahy, 34, who played Theo James's wife in the second series. 'We're very good at keeping it as private as we can,' Woodall said. 'To me, that's the only way. You see public relationships all the time slapped all over social media and I can't imagine that's any fun. It should be a safe space and so I think letting people into it is completely counterproductive.' In The White Lotus, Woodall played a charismatic young man who begins a flirtatious relationship with an assistant to Jennifer Coolidge's character while hiding sinister interests, in the HBO show which is set in a different luxury hotel for each season. In Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, Londoner Woodall plays Hampstead Heath park worker Roxster, who meets the clumsy and lovelorn TV worker (Zellweger) after rescuing her from a tree. In Apple TV+ series Prime Target he plays student Edward Brooks, who is working on accessing all the world's computers, but faces hidden forces trying to stop him. For more see
The Guardian
28-01-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Paradise review – a whodunnit with wit, heart and Sterling K Brown. Who could ask for more?
Why, 2025 television broadcasting schedules, with this run of hugely entertaining drama-slash-dramedies you are really spoiling us. First there was Prime Target, about a brilliant young mathematician whose work with prime numbers has made him the – well, prime target – of a shadowy cabal of conspirators whose influence goes, naturally, all the way to the top. Then there was High Potential, about a brilliant cleaner-slash-intellectual who becomes her local homicide department's most dazzling crime solver. Now there is Paradise, a shinier, more prestigious and higher-concepted endeavour that provides just as much entertainment bang for your watching buck as the others. Basically, the last 10 days or so have been like working your way through an absolutely winning box of audio-visual chocolates. Paradise is hard to write about without spoiling an important part of the concept, but here goes. The story is set in what seems to be the classic American idyll – an affluent town full of professionals and large houses in the 'burbs, with neat gardens and safe streets for children to play in. Sterling K Brown (maintaining his recent run of great roles and performances) stars as Xavier Collins, a widower and Secret Service agent appointed five years ago – we see, as we see many things, in flashback – to lead the recently re-elected president's protection detail. The president is Cal Bradford, played by James Marsden – who arguably has never become an A-list actor because he is too good at everything and can't be easily slotted into a producer or viewer's mind as the man for that kind of thing. He is part Jed Bartlet, in his genuine wish to do right by America and its people (when 'the world is 19 times more fucked than anyone realises'); part Bill Clinton – the supposed dark side, a southern progressive who chooses Collins not just because he's the best, but because it doesn't hurt his optics to be seen with a Black man by his side. He is a smoker and a drinker, because the responsibility of everything weighs so heavily on him. Or rather, he was – because, back in the present, he is dead. Murdered by a person or persons unknown. The presidential safe is open and a boxful of national security secrets is missing. Collins is the man who discovers him and who shortly thereafter finds himself as a possible suspect. Courtesy of more flashbacks and minor reveals foreshadowing the big one, more and more reasons for his hatred of a man for whom he once took a bullet emerge. It is partly the light racism ('Does my directness bother you?'), partly something to do with the death of Collins' wife, and partly something to do with the idyllic surroundings which simply cannot be as idyllic as they seem. Building elsewhere in the first three episodes released by Disney is a plotline involving Julianne Nicholson as a tech billionaire shaping up to be the real power behind the throne (one of many timely touches – like Bradford dismissing his re-election because he beat 'an idiot goldendoodle' – that are never overplayed), and who is also pursued by a terrible grief. By the end of the first episode, the delicious and compelling concept will have you hooked – but the greatest achievement of Paradise is to keep the psychology of the inhabitants as its prime concern. The premise may be essentially ridiculous (or is it?) but the people are real and there is an unsettling air suffusing the atmosphere from the beginning. The series gradually becomes – amid the well-wrought whodunnit-and-why plot – a thought-provoking interrogation of what the life-changing decision the town's inhabitants made would have on a community. What binds us, what fractures us individually and collectively, who and whether you choose to trust again, and how you reconcile bereavements and other awful, irreversible things. All of this is helped along by a script that is much better than it needs to be and doesn't forget to scatter some witty lines over the whole. Plus, of course, the high calibre cast, and Brown in particular – an actor with limitless gravitas as well as charisma, who can play every nuance there is to find and who cannot help but encourage his audience to think too. Paradise is a precision-tooled thriller with wit and heart. You could hardly ask for more. Paradise is on Disney+ now.
