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Irish Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Celebrity wines worth trying: six of the best from Kylie and Brad Pitt to Sting and Gary Barlow
What do Sam Neill, John Malkovich and Francis Ford Coppola have in common? They have all had acclaimed film careers, of course, but did you know that each also owns vineyards and produces wine? Neill's venture is in New Zealand, Malkovich's in Provence and Coppola's in California, although the Godfather director recently sold some of these to fund the movie Megalopolis . With our obsession with celebrity, it is hardly surprising that rock stars, rappers, singers, actors, chefs, film directors, golfers, cricketers, soccer players and fashion designers have jumped on the bandwagon to offer a wine (or in some cases a collection of wines) or spirit adorned with their name. I stopped counting after 50 celebrities, so it must be profitable – and maybe it strokes few egos at the same time. I read Kylie Minogue has sold 17 million bottles of her wines. has a fairly comprehensive listing of available brands. Broadly, you can divide the category into two: the celebrities who simply slap a label bearing their name on to an existing wine, and those who get more involved. Some in the first category may take part in a blending exercise to create their unique wine, but that might be the extent of their involvement. If they are sufficiently well known, sales will rocket and a fortune on marketing will have been saved. The most successful names include Graham Norton and Kylie Minogue, both of whom sell a range of wines. Not all work as well; I was sent several rather mature vintages from some importers, suggesting sales are a little slow. However, most are well-made, easy-drinking, inexpensive fruity wines (often with a little residual sugar) that add a bit of fun to wine. Others are more serious in price; Jay-Z took over Armand de Brignac Champagne and turned it into one of the most sought-after bottles of fizz for many. The Gold Brut will set you back about $400 a bottle. READ MORE The latest celebrity to launch a wine is our own Amy Huberman, the actor and writer. Called Ah, (including the comma) the label has eye-catching imagery, and has a place to write messages and greetings. There are two wines, a sparkling rosé and a sauvignon , both from Spain. The Ah Cava rosé is pale in colour, refreshing with attractive raspberry and strawberry fruits and a dry finish. This is an enjoyable wine, not too sweet. The Ah sauvignon blanc is not like your average Marlborough version (Spain is not noted for its sauvignon) and may be a more difficult sell. It has light aromatics, lower acidity and plump peach fruits. It's a decent, well-made wine – fine if unexciting. [ Could I grow my own grapes and make my own wine? Opens in new window ] Some stars go all in by actually buying their own vineyard and winery. This has romantic appeal and also signals the celebrity has made it financially. It requires a significant investment in land and buildings as well as hiring good winemakers and viticulturists. Not surprisingly, these wines tend to be more expensive and available in limited quantities. The best-known is probably the Provence rosé Château Miraval started by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in conjunction with quality Rhône wine producer Perrin. From the start it has been in huge demand. However, ownership has become mired in conflict as Pitt fights to hold on to the estate, Jolie having sold her share to the Stoli group. I include the very good (and less expensive) Studio by Miraval. For the first category, where the label is key, celebrity recognition transcends terroir. Following a poor harvest in Marlborough one year, the Graham Norton sauvignon was temporarily sourced from South Africa. Both Norton and Kylie wines are sourced from different countries, Norton offering Shiraz from Australia, Prosecco from Italy and Malbec from Argentina. His gin comes from west Cork. I tasted a dozen celebrity wines, mostly white or rosé from the likes of Brad Pitt, Gordon Ramsay, Sarah Jessica Parker and Gary Barlow. My favourites? Sam Neill's Two Paddocks wines from Central Otago in New Zealand are fantastic. Also, we have Sting, whose Tuscan estate Il Palagio produces a range of good wines, usually named after one of his songs. As mentioned, Miravel is pretty good too. Apparently Dolce & Gabbana are such big fans of the Sicilian winery Donnafugata that they pour its wines at all their shows. They decided to collaborate with special releases of three wines and the Tancredi (named for a character in epic Sicilian novel The Leopard) is very drinkable too. Of the less expensive wines, Kylie's wines showed very well, with good clean fruit, as did several Graham Norton wines. Given celebrity wine must be sold at a premium in order to give the celebrity a share of the profits, they are unlikely to be bargains. But most of these were selling at €10-€15 and offered reasonable value for money. Six celebrity wines worth trying Kylie Minogue Rosé 2024 Terres du Midi Kylie Minogue Rosé 2024 Terres du Midi €10-€12 Fragrant fresh ripe summer fruits with a nicely rounded finish. Great summer drinking. Gary Barlow Sauvignon Blanc western Cape 2023 Gary Barlow Sauvignon Blanc western Cape 2023 €13-€15 Explodes with gooseberry and lime zest aromas; vibrant green fruits with a crisp dry finish. When We Dance 2018, Chianti, Tenuta Il Palagio When We Dance 2018, Chianti, Tenuta Il Palagio €22.50 Elegant dark cherries with a spicy touch and well-integrated tannins. Very stylish wine. Studio by Miraval Rosé 2024 IGP Meditérranée Studio by Miraval Rosé 2024 IGP Meditérranée €24.95 A very refined wine with fresh piquant wild strawberries, stone fruits and a good refreshing acidic streak. Two Paddocks Pinot Noir, Central Otago, New Zealand Two Paddocks Pinot Noir, Central Otago, New Zealand €30 Delicious complex pinot noir with ripe blackberries and cherries, underpinned by subtle toasty oak. Donnafugata Dolce & Gabbana Tancredi 2020, Terre Siciliane Donnafugata Dolce & Gabbana Tancredi 2020, Terre Siciliane €63.95 Smooth tobacco and dark chocolate with forest fruits and a spicy dry finish.
The Spinoff
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
All of the Jurassic Park movies, ranked from worst to best
Which dinosaur joyride will rise to the top? I'm five years old and I am very high up. I'm sitting in a saddle and heading through the school gates looking down upon fellow students and buildings and teachers – they're so far away but I can see they're all pointing up at me because I'm riding on the back of a brontosaurus who is my pet and best friend. I bet a billion I'm not the only one to have dreamed of being pals with such a mythical yet scientifically bonafide creature. Which is why it doesn't surprise me one bit that 2025's Jurassic Park: Rebirth is a box office hit in an otherwise sluggish market for mainstream cinema. Jurassic Park is a toothy, evergreen fantasy for all ages: a T-Rex sized 'what if?' that, like Tamar Adler's everlasting meal, keeps on making a new dish with the leftovers from the last one. But Jurassic Park isn't really about dinosaurs. After reviewing the seven feature-length films in the franchise I've reached the conclusion that these films are an all too accurate take down of homo sapiens: most specifically, our propensity for dumbass decision making and our species' infuriating and perplexing tendency to put commercial interests above all else even when it's extremely obvious there are more pressing things to spend money on than a Distortus Rex. It's easy to write Jurassic Park off as nothing more than a crude string of yarns about dino disasters but, and I hate to break this to you, it's a pretty freaking accurate metaphor for the near constant, movie-villain level shite that's going down on this planet. You just know that if we really could bring back dinosaurs some billionaire would do that instead of contributing to climate solutions. Instead of trying to help the life we haven't yet managed to kill, our species would allow just one or two of us to pour millions into joyrides to space or de-extincting a tall, flightless bird. Having said that, some J-Park films are better than others: here is a definitive ranking from worst to best. 7. Jurassic Park III, 2002 (directed by Joe Johnston) Not even Téa Leonie (remember Deep Impact? What happened to her?) could save this mess. Long-suffering palaeontologist Dr Alan Grant (Sam Neill) is once again lured back to Isla Nubar by a pair of millionaires who promise to fund his research into velociraptor vocalisation in return for a guided fly-over tour of the island. Turns out the rich couple are faking it because actually their son is missing on the island and Alan is forced to go groundwards and run from T-Rexes all over again. The dinosaurs are unconvincing, the opening sequences are laughably bad and the plot just doesn't flow. A highlight is when Téa Leonie and William H Macy try to convince Sam Neill's character that they are bonafide millionaires by saying that they've already booked their seats on the first commercial flight to space. This will become a subtle motif throughout the franchise which loves to stick the knife into our habit of squandering resources on really bad ideas. 6. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, 2019 (directed by J A Bayona) Too. Much. This is the follow up to Jurassic World which rebooted the franchise with Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard as the next-gen leads. Isola Nublar's volcano is now active and threatens to wipe out the island's dinosaurs. Old mate Ian Malclom (Jeff Goldblum) testifies (in some kind of court setting) that the dinos should be left to die so as to reverse the damage done by John Hammond's tampering with nature (Hammond being the elderly English gent and the original instigator of Jurassic Park). Pratt and Dallas Howard return to the island where they once worked to turn the tracking system back on and somehow move the dinosaurs to a new island sanctuary where they'll live without any fences (no issues there!). Highlights include that bloody brilliant Mosasaur (massive whale-shark thing) that everyone seems to keep forgetting now lives out in the ocean merrily swallowing boats and great whites whole; and the return of Dr Henry Wu (the geneticist who made the OG dinos way back in the first Jurassic Park) who has been busily affixing genes together to create new dinosaurs like the Indoraptor which is part Velociraptor and Indominus Rex, itself a genetically engineered hybrid. This film really didn't need the volcano plot – it turned an interesting twist on black markets and weaponising genetics into an absurd parade of fireballs. This was relentless and not in a fun way. 5. Jurassic World: Dominion, 2022 (directed by Colin Trevorrow) Three decades since Hammond's original Jurassic Park (the concept, not the film) was an instant disaster, and four years since Jurassic World was another deadly mistake, dinosaurs now live among us. Most of them roam about in Big Rock National Park but they're spreading even further (across America that is – we kind of assume everywhere else too, given Isla Nubar is in Costa Rica). Old Biosyn Genetics is trying to set up a reserve for dinosaurs in the Dolomites in Italy (lucky Italy!). Sam Neill is back! Laura Dern is back! Jeff Goldblum is back! The fun of this film is that the old world and the new collide as a Brand New Threat arrives – mutant locusts the size of cats that weirdly don't eat grain grown with Biosyn seed. This is the moment in the franchise where we really get into the genetics and the chaos that Dr. Henry Wu started by mixing raptor blood with frog DNA and whatnot. It's hysterical and sad at the same time because Biosyn is basically Monsanto. Honestly, I can't really remember much else about this film except that it contains, in my opinion, one of the most terrifying dinosaur chase scenes of them all: a huge birdlike feathered creature runs with its mouth open like a livid goose and dives under the ice and fucking SWIMS under the humans and then pops up and runs at them again. I screamed. I also think this is the one with insane shots of dinosaurs running with the wild horses at sunset and the winged dinosaurs flying with the regular birds to really drive home the message that they are among us now. 4. Jurassic World, 2015 (directed by Colin Trevorrow) This is the first reboot starring Chris Pratt as Velociraptor trainer Owen Gracy, and Bryce Dallas Howard as Jurassic World's park manager, Claire Dearing. So, yes, a new corporation has acquired InGen's assets and has made a new dinosaur park on another island and this time we meet it when it's full steam ahead and a hive of tourists and we know exactly what we're in for. This is the first film to introduce the idea that genetics must once again be harnessed so as to continue to charm and interest the homo sapiens for whom the novelty of the plain old T-Rex is wearing off. Enter the Indominus Rex, and re-enter Henry Wu who made him. Turns out this creation is very, very clever and can trick humans and, thanks to some cuttlefish DNA, can camouflage too. What I loved about Jurassic World is that it is self-conscious and nests a ton of Easter eggs for those nostalgic for the original Jurassic Park. Nick from New Girl (Jake Johnson) plays a Jurassic World control room employee who wears a vintage Jurassic Park t-shirt that he bought on e-bay. He's melancholic and we know that he knows shit is going to go down but he loves the idea of it all so much he's along for the ride, despite the dread. This film wisely reintroduces the fact that J-Park works best when kids are in danger of being munched. Two brothers (Claire's nephews) get to whizz through the park in an orb which is basically like a play toy for the Indominus Rex and narrowly escape death many times. The ending is both inevitable and hilarious and charming: T-Rex has his 'there's not enough room for the both of us' moment with the Indominus Rex and the humans finally see that maybe Jurassic Park 2.0 was a folly. 3. Jurassic Park: The Lost World, 1997 (directed by Steven Spielberg) Hammond: 'I'm not making the same mistakes again!'Dr Malcolm: 'No, you're just making all new ones.' Look, it's not subtle. But neither are we! The second film in the franchise is a rollicking ride. Dr Malclom (Jeff Goldblum) is the reluctant hero lured back this time by that sneaky old codger Hammond who has sent Goldblum's girlfriend Sarah (played by a sprightly Julianne Moore) off to the island to document the dinos who are thriving without the electric fences (apparently Malcolm and Sarah don't talk much – he's flabbergasted that she went without his knowledge). Spielberg x dinosaurs x a remote island with goodies and baddies is just so much fun. Spielberg knows how to elongate tension and propel the plot in all the right places. He has the actors hooning down rock slides (always, in his films, people are sliding down rocks that are shaped like actual slides); and knee-weakening dangling scenes with vehicles and ropes incorrectly tied and then wham! T-Rexes come in and stick their faces in windows with their pupils all contracting and fangs out. There's the brilliant Pete Postlethwaite (RIP) who plays a tish-tosh, gung-ho Brit; and there's a number of superb deaths: the arrogant French solider who is only there for the hunt gets nailed by those little tiny chicken-sized dudes; one poor chap gets ripped in half by two very pissed off mum and dad T-Rexes; and the entire crew of a ship is demolished with only parts of people left to show for it. All in all a well-paced, perfectly ridiculous and at times, beautiful, couple of hours. 2. Jurassic Park: Rebirth, 2025 (directed by Gareth Edwards) The film that made Scarlett Johansson the highest paid actress in history is almost perfect. Jurassic Park: Rebirth carries all the beloved hallmarks of the franchise – Mosasaurus! Crazily named new mutant dinosaurs! Tropical islands! Cute T-Rex escapes! Kids in danger! – while doing something really quite different and urgent for our times. The start of the film shows a sweet old brontosaurus dying on the side of the road with cars and people flowing all around it, totally uninterested. The creature is even sporting graffiti like a crumbling, defenceless building. From the very beginning it's made clear that the state of Earth can no longer sustain dinosaur life, and humans are taking over like mutant locusts. Enter, the baddie – Martin Krebbs (Rupert Friend) who is a pharmaceutical company rep from ParkerGenix; and the goodies – Zora Bennett (ScarJo) who is some kind of ex-military operative, and specky palaeontologist Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey). The three of them head to the equator (the last climate left where dinosaurs can thrive) to retrieve DNA from three of the largest remaining dino species to be used in new drugs to cure human heart disease. ScarJo's Zora harks back to badass leading roles from the 90s: she's all tank tops and muscle and owning long-range weaponry. Jonathan Bailey is an attempt to mirror Sam Neill's Alan Grant – the character dedicated to the 'old arts', the bone digging and data analysis, who is nevertheless awed and dazzled and moved to tears when he encounters the real thing in its natural habitat. The action is thrilling; the family-in-mortal-peril storyline is fresh; the dinosaurs are fun and scary and beautiful; and there's the sacred scene of humans running into shoulder-high grass which we know by now signals a velociraptor sequence. The film veers very close to ludicrous with a heinous new dinosaur called Distortus Rex (lol) with a very Godzilla-like countenance – but this film did have to follow the 2022 genetics god-fuckery storyline and the dome-headed horror really is something special. What I like most about the film, though, is that its message is stunningly and upsettingly a culmination of all that's come before: that we cannot afford to take our eyes off what we have. Instead of gazing at Terradactyls flying into the sunset, the final shot is of dolphins leaping in the sea. Those intelligent, graceful beings that are still here, for now. The question is whether the global leaders and corporations that insist on dictating our weather and our resources will ever put people and planet over profit. 1. Jurassic Park, 1993 (directed by Steven Spielberg) I'm sorry to disappoint with zero surprises here but the first Jurassic Park movie is one of the greatest movies ever made. It is the soup from which all subsequent Jurassic Park movies and TV shows and short films have taken their flavour – but none have ever achieved the perfection of this original attempt. The scene where Sam Neill and Laura Dern first see the Brontosaurus still moves me to god damn tears and I've seen it not less than 15 times. It's one of the most perfect moments in cinematic history: pure awe and overwhelm, adults brought to their knees by wonder. Just like in the world of Jurassic Park, it's very hard to be as moved by the sight of dinosaurs among us – by the audacity of it – to the same degree as this first, potent encounter. This is the film that established the sweeping shots of dinosaur herds running free and panicked through the fields; it's the film that brought us Velociraptors and their capacity for wit and cleverness and claws; it brought us Jeff Goldblum in leather and Laura Dern plunging her lovely fists into Triceratops shit. It's the kids that really make this film, though: Joesph Mazello plays little Tim Murphy, and Ariana Richards plays his big sister, Lex. They give standout performances as their juvenile minds and bodies are rocked by cars falling through trees, bone-zapping electric fences, T-Rexes slavering, and feisty Velociraptors hustling them into kitchen cupboards. In fact the entire cast is impeccable including minor roles like Samuel L. Jackson as a chain-smoking park engineer, and Wayne Knight as the dastardly IT guy with a plan to smuggle embryos out of the park and make some extra cash. And how can I write about Jurassic Park without writing about the soundtrack? In some ways I think this franchise is 50% John Williams, the composer. The genius of the music is that the tone captures the ups and downs of life on Isla Nublar perfectly and carries with it now the nostalgia of a simpler time – the 90s – before all the other Jurassic Park problems got lobbed into the boiling pot of major crises. I could leave all the other Jurassic Park films from here on in, but it's this very first go with its Sam Neill and its Laura Dern and its Jeff Goldblum that I'll return to over and over again. It's adventure, it's pathos, it's T-Rex.
Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
‘Untamed' takes the gritty murder mystery to a new locale: Yosemite National Park
Within minutes of his arrival at the crime scene, Turner establishes himself as the most competent agent in the park — and also the most unpopular, as he swiftly alienates his colleagues with his standoffish behavior. Only his longtime boss and mentor Paul Souter (Sam Neill) has the patience to put up with his attitude. That is, until Turner gets paired up with an energetic rookie, former LAPD cop Naya Vasquez (Lily Santiago), who needs to learn the ropes of solving crimes in the wilderness. Her first lesson requires her to travel by horse instead of car, a strategy that Turner argues is crucial for tracking clues through rough terrain. (L to R) Sam Neill as Paul Souter, Eric Bana as Kyle Turner. Ricardo Hubbs/Netflix/RICARDO HUBBS/NETFLIX Created by screenwriters Mark L. Smith ('American Primeval') and Elle Smith ('The Marsh King's Daughter'), 'Untamed' is more polished and mature than your average Netflix original, but it isn't exactly breaking new ground. Virtually every element of this miniseries is founded on a well-worn genre cliché, from the interplay between the gruff Turner and his upbeat sidekick to the structure of their investigation, uncovering sordid secrets about the deceased Jane Doe. As Turner tries to figure out what the woman was doing in Yosemite and how she came to die, he must also confront the fallout of an old, unsolved case that continues to haunt his career. Advertisement Best known for co-writing the Oscar-winning Leonardo DiCaprio Western ' Opening with a terrifically perilous rock-climbing scene, 'Untamed' leans into its title, constantly reminding us of the dangers of the Yosemite landscape. Epic in scope, the park spans hundreds of thousands of acres, full of mountains and forests where a person could easily die or vanish without trace. Yet there's still a small-town vibe to Turner's interactions with the locals; a diverse population that includes National Parks employees, hippie squatters and a Native American community, many of whom he's known for years. Given what you know of Kyle Turner so far, you probably won't be surprised to hear that he lives alone in a log cabin, drunk-dialing his ex-wife ( Advertisement Among the supporting cast, Lily Santiago provides a relatable counterpoint to Turner, and we meet a handful of memorable side-characters, including Wilson Bethel as a suspicious, gun-toting Yosemite local. Neill, the other big name star attached to the project, is given shockingly little to do for most of the season, to the point where you may wonder what he's doing there. Tapping into the UNTAMED Starring: Eric Bana, Sam Neill, Lily Santiago, Rosemary DeWitt. On Netflix
Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Times
Untamed review — Eric Bana delivers shocks and originality
If you like your TV series to start with a bang and to cause a severe drop to your stomach then Untamed certainly delivers on that score. Spoilers ahead. The first three minutes of Netflix's new thriller, set in Yosemite National Park and starring Eric Bana, Sam Neill and Lily Santiago, is one of the most visually dramatic openings to a drama that I've seen in some time. Two climbers are attempting, perilously, to scale the side of El Capitan, a 3000ft high granite monolith in Yosemite Valley, in scenes that will be challenging for those of you with vertigo. They slip, stumble and dangle but that's nothing compared to what comes next. Suddenly from the summit falls a young woman, crashing violently against the jagged stone face, until she stops, tangled in their safety ropes, and hangs there, swinging grotesquely and dead.
Geek Girl Authority
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Girl Authority
Lily Santiago Talks About Her UNTAMED Character and Filming on Location
Lily Santiago stars alongside Eric Bana, Sam Neill and Rosemarie DeWitt on Netflix's newest series, Untamed . The show follows Kyle Turner (Bana), working as a National Park Service agent, who is investigating the death of a young girl. As he begins looking into this death and working alongside Naya Vasquez (Santiago), he discovers there is more to the death than an accidental fall. Santiago's character is a rookie in the National Park Service, but comes with a heavy background story that is set in LA. As a young mother, she does everything in her power to protect her son while simultaneously working a case that might change her career forever. I recently had the opportunity to chat with Lily Santiago about her work on Untamed , working on location and her cute toddler co-star. RELATED: New TV Shows This Week (July 13 – 19) This interview with Lily Santiago has been condensed for length and clarity. Lily Santiago Pictured: Lily Santiago and Eric Bana in Netflix's Untamed Lara Rosales: It's very exciting to see you again on screen. Last time we talked, you were on La Brea, and that was also a show where characters spend a lot of time outside. This time, the characters are in a National Park, and nature is an adjacent character to everything happening. How do you, as an actor, prepare or approach a project that spends so much time outdoors, and your character has to be part of that nature? Lily Santiago: It's so funny. For some reason, I don't want to be indoors. I'm constantly filming outside. We're on location a lot for this project. First of all, all the locations I've been able to film for La Brea and now for Untamed are just stunningly beautiful. For episode one or two, the director, Tom Bezucha, said he wanted the characters to take it all in and acknowledge the beauty. We both agreed that it shouldn't be too hard. Luckily, my character, Naya, she's new to the park. She's from LA, and I, as Lily, come from New York, and so the character and I were both getting used to the wilderness at the same time. It was really convenient because I actually didn't have to do much preparation for any of the outdoor adventuring we do. And I love that you say that nature is like an adjacent character, because people keep asking, 'Who's untamed?' And I'm like, 'Nature is untamed. That's what the title is about.' RELATED: Everything Coming to Netflix in July 2025 Newcomer LR: Your character comes from LA into this wild world. Is there anything in particular about how you play her that gives away her background or helps the character better understand how she got into this situation before her story is revealed? LS: Initially, she has a couple of conversations with the captain, Paul Souter, played by the incredible Sam Neill, and he's like, 'How are you settling in? How's the kid, how's it all going?' That's one of the places where you can see it. In another way, it's her initial discomfort with all the aspects of nature, the animals, and the fact that Eric's character, Kyle, rides horses. Even the first time you see Naya on a horse, there's this stiffness, this fear, and this discomfort. Also, how she approaches the investigation itself is much more coming from an LA city cop perspective of, 'Well, this is the procedure and this is how we should take our next steps.' And she has to learn the new ways she can navigate things in the wild. Riding Horses in the Wild Pictured: Eric Bana and Lily Santiago in Netflix's Untamed LR: In the first episode, we immediately see you having to ride a horse. Was that also something you prepared for? Is it easier to approach it from the aspect that your character is coming from the city into a new world? LS: We had the most incredible horse team. We have the best horse trainers and horses that exist in the film world. They luckily got me out there to ride the horses a couple of times before we started filming, so that I could be comfortable and then act out the further discomfort. But I'm such an animal lover that on day one with the horses, I found it fun, and I was so happy. It was funny because Danny was in charge, as it's his horses and his show. He told me not to try to get it perfect. If my character came in looking like she knew what she was doing, then we were screwed. It just luckily lined up for me where it was, and I've always wanted somebody to hire me to learn a new skill. This is the best new skill to have now. RELATED: Chiké Okonkwo Talks About Ty's Journey on La Brea Continuing the Character LR: Sometimes, as the audience, we watch a character, and we know it's a limited series, and that's all we get out of the character. But do you think Naya's character is one that you would love to continue exploring beyond Season 1 and what we get to see of her? LS: I think of all the characters — and yes, I am biased — she has the biggest arc in this series. As we've been discussing, [it's] because of how much she has to adapt to her new environment and her new surroundings. That was so fun to play over the course of this first season. So, I think in a Season 2, you could see her finally settling in and accepting a newfound power. Also, her new abilities to navigate these things and analyze them differently based on what she's learned about where she is, who she is, and what she's capable of. Working With Omi Fitzpatrick-Gonzales Pictured: Lily Santiago in Netflix's Untamed LR: Your character is a mom, so we see her toddler onscreen. How was it working with a toddler? Do you prepare for that differently from when you work with adults? LS: People always say, 'Don't work with animals or babies.' I did both, but it was honestly one of the greatest gifts of this whole process. I was a nanny before for a couple of years at the start of COVID. So, I'm really comfortable with children, and I love them. Then, I met Omi, who plays my son, and he had just turned five, so he's basically four, and he'd never acted before. There were scenes that we would do one time. My character says, 'Go pick a book,' and he looked at me and he said, 'For real?' because his reality was starting to blur. 'Wait, Lily, are you going to read a book with me? Are you lying to me?' It was adorable. We had so much fun. And I think his nature and the childlike sense of excitement made it so easy for us to bond. RELATED: Zyra Gorecki Talks La Brea and Her First Major Acting Role Starting Something New LR: Something you just mentioned — him having this excitement. Is it just as exciting for you when you start a new project, and you have a different cast? You spent so many years working with the same people on La Brea , so is there an excitement in starting over with something new? LS: It makes me revert to feeling like a child on the first day of school, [those] nerves and excitement and wanting to do a good job and wanting to make friends. And I was so lucky with this group of people that it was all possible very quickly to feel comfortable, to feel capable. We had the absolute best time. But also, we dug so deep, so quickly. I don't know if I've ever been more excited for a show to come out. LR: Without giving too much away, is there something you're most excited for people to discover about this series, whether about your character or the show as a whole? LS: Watching Naya and Kyle together, their dynamic. It was like, 'Come on!' Just in the reading, it [was] like, 'You guys could be a great team.' So, I'm excited for people to watch how their relationship develops and goes from this awkward 'don't want to work together' to partners-in-crime. Untamed premieres Thursday, July 17, on Netflix. On Location: The Original Mr. Beef on FX's THE BEAR By day, Lara Rosales (she/her) is a solo mom by choice and a bilingual writer with a BA in Latin-American Literature known as a Media Relations Expert. By night, she is a TV enjoyer who used to host a podcast (Cats, Milfs & Lesbian Things). You can find her work published on Tell-Tale TV, Eulalie Magazine, W Spotlight, Collider, USA Wire, Mentors Collective, Instelite, Noodle, Dear Movies, Nicki Swift, and Flip Screened.
