Latest news with #TellMeLies
Elle
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Elle
First Look: Olivia Cooke and Robin Wright Face Off in 'The Girlfriend'
Landing the man of your dreams is one thing, but impressing his mom? That's a whole other challenge. Prime Video's The Girlfriend takes that obstacle course to a dangerous extreme, turning the clash between a mother and her son's new flame into a juicy, gripping psychological thriller. Adapted from Michelle Frances's bestselling 2018 novel of the same name, the story follows Laura, a successful art gallerist and protective mother—played by star, director, and executive producer Robin Wright—and Cherry, an alluring real estate agent with a mysterious past, played by Olivia Cooke. The six-episode series, which premieres on September 10, will have you constantly second-guessing whose side you're on. Laura lives an exquisite life in London with her son, Daniel (Laurie Davidson), and husband, Howard (Waleed Zuaiter). The three have in an elegant home (plus a vacation property in Spain), and she boasts a fruitful career. But Cherry's arrival, in her high heels and flashy dresses, sends Laura spinning. After an awkward first meeting over dinner, Laura believes Cherry, who hails from a working-class background, is hiding something. Is she with Daniel for the right reasons? Meanwhile Cherry has her own suspicions. Is Laura just out to get her? Amid their snooping and sabotage, things get taken too far. Naomi Sheldon and Gabbie Asher adapted the book for TV. The cast also includes Tanya Moodie as Isabella, Shalom Brune-Franklin as Brigitte, Karen Henthorn as Tracey, Anna Chancellor as Lilith, Leo Suter as Nicholas, and Francesca Corney as Millie. Frances remembers beginning to write the story around 2015. 'I was toying with the idea of this thriller about these interlocking two women fighting over this guy, and it's such a universal problem,' she tells ELLE. At the time, her children were young 'and I became a real tiger mother,' and the story evolved from there. Wright agrees on the universality. 'I think you would ask any mother, and they probably had a little bit of that, where they're like, is she good enough for him?' she says. The project came her way a few years ago during COVID, when Imaginarium Productions reached out for her to possibly direct. (Wright has previously directed episodes of House of Cards, Ozark, Tell Me Lies, as well as the film Land.) 'I read the pilot, and I could see the show just from that one episode,' she remembers. Filming ultimately took place from the end of May to end of September last year. The team had to move fast, though. With meetings quickly approaching to pitch the series to streamers, they were running out of time to find an actress for Laura's role. 'At the end of the day, I think [they] all were like, 'Why don't you just play Laura?' And I was like, 'Okay,'' Wright says. 'But it worked out great in the end, and then we got Olivia, which was heaven.' Cooke was her top choice for Cherry after watching her in Thoroughbreds, Vanity Fair, and Slow Horses. 'I liked the kind of toughness that she has embedded in her,' Wright adds. Cooke, on the other hand, had no idea she was favored. 'I thought that I was having to beg, borrow, and steal that part,' she jokes. The House of the Dragon star loves 'an underdog story' and is a fan of Wright's work, hence why she was drawn to The Girlfriend. 'There was something that was so ballsy and confident about Cherry that I just really wanted to play,' she says. The character is 'so daring and cutthroat and sort of Machiavellian, but also just with a heart of gold, in a way.' Cherry clashes with Laura's seemingly perfect life and tight-knit bond with Daniel. After suffering a personal tragedy in the past, Laura put all her energy into her son. 'He was her buddy until Cherry moved in,' Wright adds. 'It's just almost like the rug got ripped up from under Laura, and she's like, I don't like her. I don't trust her, and I need to get my son away from her.' And while they're on opposing sides, Cooke believes Laura and Cherry have some things in common. 'I don't think they're that dissimilar, really. There are moments in the show where you're like, oh God, these two people could really be friends. ... I think Cherry, at the start, looks up to Laura and thinks, 'God, what an amazing, just incredibly accomplished woman who I would want to be.'' And in the middle of them both is Daniel. 'Through one lens, you see it as this beautiful thing,' Davidson says of the mother-son relationship. But it's 'hard for someone [else] coming into that. Laura occupies a lot of the same space that a girlfriend [or] a partner would occupy or should occupy. So when Cherry turns up, she's like, 'Where do I fit in?' And that's where some of the problems start.' To exaggerate the drama, the series is told from Laura and Cherry's two different points of view. 'Halfway through the episodes, you're going to get the other perspective of what actually happened,' Wright says. Often, you'll see the same event portrayed differently depending on who's telling the story. It's not far from real life: Frequently, two people won't remember an incident in the same way. But that meant the actors had to tweak their performances slightly based on how each of the two women would view a scene. 'In Laura's perspective, it needs to look like Daniel is moving away from her completely and is going towards Cherry, and she's trying to hold onto … her son. So in those moments, Daniel would seem like he was just kind of ignoring his mom and moving towards Cherry,' Davidson says. 'And in Cherry's perspective, we probably pushed the sense of him being a bit of a manchild, a bit of a mummy's boy, because that's what she sees. And my job was to try and make sure that these are part of the same person and that there's continuity of character there, so they're not just two completely different people.' That added a 'tricky' layer to Wright's responsibilities, as both an actor and director on the series. 'When you're in the scene with Laurie or Olivia, I'm looking at that actor going, oh yes, they got that beat, they nailed it, but then you have to remember you have a line. … So, you're looking out of two sides of your brain at the same time.' Cooke, for one, was amazed to see Wright's brain in action. 'One of our first days was her filming this really emotional scene, and she'd be bringing this really gut-wrenching performance, and then she'd be like, 'Okay, and cut. Okay, we're going to go to a mid shot. What lens is that? Okay, yeah, let's go with that.'' The series also dives into more than just mother-girlfriend rivalry and family dynamics. It also explores wealth disparity, privilege, and the lack of social mobility, as Daniel grew up wealthy and Cherry did not. 'When I was much younger, I remember just wanting to try and change where I came from socially,' Frances says of her experiences that inspired The Girlfriend. 'Classism in our country is so embedded in our daily lives. It sort of feels innate at this point,' says Cooke, who hails from Manchester. And though the series is set in the U.K., there's no doubt it'll resonate across the pond and elsewhere, especially in an era of TV that is obsessed with analyzing the rich (think The White Lotus and Your Friends & Neighbors). But even if the series doesn't radicalize viewers against the 1 percent, Cooke hopes that, at the very least, audiences can 'sink their teeth into this world for a little bit and have some reprieve.' After all, The Girlfriend boasts plot twists, steamy scenes, jet set-worthy filming locations, and bold wardrobe, on top of all the drama. As for Wright, 'I'm hoping that they get hooked, and they're like, I can't wait to go to episode 2.' If the response is anything like it was for Frances's book, that's likely. The author remembers receiving personal messages from readers debating whether they're 'Team Laura' or 'Team Cherry.' 'That was really exciting,' she says. 'And I'm sure it'll be the same with the TV [version].'
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Iris Apatow joins 'Tell Me Lies' Season 3: Other new cast members, returning faces and plenty of toxic relationship drama
Tell Me Lies is returning to Hulu for Season 3, and with it, the most toxic situationship known to mankind. I am, of course, talking about the dynamic between Lucy (Grace Van Patten) and Stephen (Jackson White), who meet at the fictional Baird College and then proceed to hook up, break up and attempt to destroy one another … before repeating the cycle all over again. All the drama then bleeds over into adulthood, when the gang meets up again for the wedding of their college besties Bree (Catherine Missal) and Evan (Branden Cook) eight years after Lucy's freshman year — a flash-forward that we'll see more of when the show returns for Season 3. In the Season 2 finale, a voicemail from Stephen threatened to implode that relationship — and Lucy's friendship with Bree — moments before Bree was slated to head down the aisle. Classic Stephen. The series, which is executive produced by Emma Roberts and based on Carola Lovering's novel of the same name, has outpaced the book's narrative, meaning it's anyone's guess what comes next. However, we already have some juicy tidbits about the upcoming third season. Here's what you need to know before the series returns. Hulu renewed Tell Me Lies in December 2024, two months after its Season 2 finale. There's no release date for Season 3 just yet, but the show is currently in production in Georgia, where Agnes Scott College in Decatur is a stand-in for the fictional upstate New York college. There was a two-year gap between the first and second seasons of Tell Me Lies, so it's possible we may have a while to wait before new episodes arrive. One person who we're not sure will return is Thomas Doherty, who played Lucy's fan-favorite boyfriend, Leo. Unfortunately, Lucy dumped Leo in favor of getting back with Stephen at the end of Season 2. (Big mistake. Huge.) 'I wasn't actually too surprised about the fans' reaction to my character,' Doherty told Us Weekly. 'After Season 1, Leo just slotted into that gap. It made sense. What did surprise me was all the outpouring of love. It's really kind of overwhelming at times.' For fans of the actor, you can see him on another show: Doherty is joining the cast of Paradise Season 2 opposite Sterling K. Brown. One surprising returning love interest? Tom Ellis, who played college professor Oliver in Season 2. In the second season, married Oliver has a secret relationship with Bree (his wife's student!), which soured when it was revealed that his wife was well aware of the affair. Originally, Ellis — who is married IRL to creator Meaghan Oppenheimer — said that he would not be coming back to the series, but in a May 6 interview with People, he said he's returning to film Season 3 imminently. 'I've got to be honest, the focus isn't so much on my character this season, but it still plays very much into the Bree storyline,' he teased to the magazine. The Lucifer star also hinted there's more drama to come, calling the series as 'dark, toxic and funny' as ever. 'Just when you thought our characters couldn't do anything more ridiculous to themselves, they ended up doing it,' Ellis said. Iris Apatow is making her Tell Me Lies debut in Season 3. She'll play a recurring character named Amanda, described by Deadline as "a bubbly but fragile college freshman keeping a big secret." Meanwhile, Tell Me Lies is diving deeper into Bree's storyline this year. Costa D'Angelo will play Alex, described by Deadline as a psychology grad student and part-time drug dealer who has a 'complicated past with Bree.' He also sounds a little bit like Stephen, as he's described as 'aloof and borderline rude' with 'hidden depths.' Let's just hope that, unlike Stephen, those 'hidden depths' don't reveal more narcissistic personality traits. Alex's addition is particularly intriguing for fans who are eager to know who Bree was having a tense phone conversation with on her wedding day. While some speculated it could be Oliver on the receiving end of the phone call, others thought the call could be connected to Bree's foster care past. Perhaps Alex is her foster brother or someone else she knew before her days at Baird?! Some of the Tell Me Lies cast is dating offscreen — like Van Patten and White, who, as of fall 2024, were still in a relationship. The two originally met around the time of the audition process and have been together ever since. 'Because we established that dynamic first season, the second season was a lot easier to switch on and off,' Van Patten revealed to E! News in fall 2024. 'And we're so different from these characters, so it's honestly just an opportunity to get all of our bad feelings out so that there's none left by the time we go home.' They're not the only members of the Tell Me Lies cast to have found love offscreen with their costar. Cook, who plays Evan, is dating Katherine Hughes, who portrayed his short-lived girlfriend in Season 2. Cook recently appeared in her birthday Instagram post, holding the cake.
IOL News
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- IOL News
Unravelling the truth: Grace Van Patten to star in 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox'
"The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox" stars Grace Van Patten. Image: Instagram True crime fans can prepare to delve into a harrowing chapter of legal mishaps and personal tragedy with the upcoming limited series, "The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox". Disney+ recently announced that the eight-episode journey, inspired by one of the most controversial criminal cases in recent history, will premiere on Wednesday, August 20. The gripping story will follow Amanda Knox, an American student wrongfully accused of murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher in 2007 while they were studying abroad in Perugia, Italy. Twenty-one-year-old Kercher's body was found in her bedroom, partly undressed and with multiple stab wounds. She had been sexually assaulted. The series chronicles Knox's unsettling odyssey - from being sentenced to 26 years in prison alongside her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito due to inadequate circumstantial evidence, to navigating the Italian judicial system. Grace Van Patten and Giuseppe De Domenico in "The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox". Image: Instagram After a protracted battle, burdened by media scrutiny, false accusations, and personal tragedy, an Italian supreme court ultimately cleared Knox of all charges in 2015, leading to her exoneration. Grace Van Patten, popular for her role in "Tell Me Lies", stars as Knox. Van Patten's portrayal promises to capture Knox's experience, from her wrongful conviction to her difficult fight for exoneration. Sharon Horgan will portray Knox's mother, Edda Mellas, with John Hoogenakker as Knox's father, Curt. Francesco Acquaroli takes up the role of the Italian prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, Giuseppe De Domenico will embody Raffaele Sollecito, Knox's then-boyfriend, while Roberta Mattei infuses the series with intensity as Monica Napoleoni, a fierce prosecutor's aide determined to see Knox and Sollecito convicted. "The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox" will premiere on Wednesday, August 20 on Disney+. Image: Instagram The case captivated global audiences, highlighting issues of media influence and the legal injustices faced by those wrongfully accused. In an exclusive interview with "Us Weekly", Knox expressed her gratitude for the opportunity to retell her story. 'It really comes down to this idea of do I have a voice and does my voice matter in how a story is told? That is what Hulu has recognised,' Knox remarked. Meanwhile, in another online report, Meredith Kercher's sister, Stephanie Kercher said Meredith's 'strength and love remains strong after 17 years' and that she 'will forever hold a lasting legacy in friendship and kindness that no media can change'. Stephanie said her family had been through a lot and found it 'difficult to understand' how the series served any purpose. 'Meredith will always be remembered for her own fight for life, and yet in her absence, her love and personality continues to shine ... We will forever feel this indescribable void but we live by Meredith's standards with dignity.'
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Tell Me Lies' is returning for Season 3: New cast members, returning faces and plenty of toxic relationship drama
Tell Me Lies is returning to Hulu for Season 3, and with it, the most toxic situationship known to mankind. I am, of course, talking about the dynamic between Lucy (Grace Van Patten) and Stephen (Jackson White), who meet at the fictional Baird College and then proceed to hook up, break up and attempt to destroy one another … before repeating the cycle all over again. All the drama then bleeds over into adulthood, when the gang meets up again for the wedding of their college besties Bree (Catherine Missal) and Evan (Branden Cook) eight years after Lucy's freshman year — a flash-forward that we'll see more of when the show returns for Season 3. In the Season 2 finale, a voicemail from Stephen threatened to implode that relationship — and Lucy's friendship with Bree — moments before Bree was slated to head down the aisle. Classic Stephen. The series, which is executive produced by Emma Roberts and based on Carola Lovering's novel of the same name, has outpaced the book's narrative, meaning it's anyone's guess what comes next. However, we already have some juicy tidbits about the upcoming third season. Here's what you need to know before the series returns. Hulu renewed Tell Me Lies in December 2024, two months after its Season 2 finale. There's no release date for Season 3 just yet, but the show is currently in production in Georgia, where Agnes Scott College in Decatur is a stand-in for the fictional upstate New York college. There was a two-year gap between the first and second seasons of Tell Me Lies, so it's possible we may have a while to wait before new episodes arrive. One person who we're not sure will return is Thomas Doherty, who played Lucy's fan-favorite boyfriend, Leo. Unfortunately, Lucy dumped Leo in favor of getting back with Stephen at the end of Season 2. (Big mistake. Huge.) 'I wasn't actually too surprised about the fans' reaction to my character,' Doherty told Us Weekly. 'After Season 1, Leo just slotted into that gap. It made sense. What did surprise me was all the outpouring of love. It's really kind of overwhelming at times.' For fans of the actor, you can see him on another show: Doherty is joining the cast of Paradise Season 2 opposite Sterling K. Brown. One surprising returning love interest? Tom Ellis, who played college professor Oliver in Season 2. In the second season, married Oliver has a secret relationship with Bree (his wife's student!), which soured when it was revealed that his wife was well aware of the affair. Originally, Ellis — who is married IRL to creator Meaghan Oppenheimer — said that he would not be coming back to the series, but in a May 6 interview with People, he said he's returning to film Season 3 imminently. 'I've got to be honest, the focus isn't so much on my character this season, but it still plays very much into the Bree storyline,' he teased to the magazine. The Lucifer star also hinted there's more drama to come, calling the series as 'dark, toxic and funny' as ever. 'Just when you thought our characters couldn't do anything more ridiculous to themselves, they ended up doing it,' Ellis said. As Ellis promised, Tell Me Lies is diving deeper into Bree's storyline this year. Costa D'Angelo will play Alex, described by Deadline as a psychology grad student and part-time drug dealer who has a 'complicated past with Bree.' He also sounds a little bit like Stephen, as he's described as 'aloof and borderline rude' with 'hidden depths.' Let's just hope that, unlike Stephen, those 'hidden depths' don't reveal more narcissistic personality traits. Alex's addition is particularly intriguing for fans who are eager to know who Bree was having a tense phone conversation with on her wedding day. While some speculated it could be Oliver on the receiving end of the phone call, others thought the call could be connected to Bree's foster care past. Perhaps Alex is her foster brother or someone else she knew before her days at Baird?! Some of the Tell Me Lies cast is dating offscreen — like Van Patten and White, who, as of fall 2024, were still in a relationship. The two originally met around the time of the audition process and have been together ever since. 'Because we established that dynamic first season, the second season was a lot easier to switch on and off,' Van Patten revealed to E! News in fall 2024. 'And we're so different from these characters, so it's honestly just an opportunity to get all of our bad feelings out so that there's none left by the time we go home.' They're not the only members of the Tell Me Lies cast to have found love offscreen with their costar. Cook, who plays Evan, is dating Katherine Hughes, who portrayed his short-lived girlfriend in Season 2. Cook recently appeared in her birthday Instagram post, holding the cake.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Tell Me Lies' is returning for Season 3: New cast members, returning faces and plenty of toxic relationship drama
Tell Me Lies is returning to Hulu for Season 3, and with it, the most toxic situationship known to mankind. I am, of course, talking about the dynamic between Lucy (Grace Van Patten) and Stephen (Jackson White), who meet at the fictional Baird College and then proceed to hook up, break up and attempt to destroy one another … before repeating the cycle all over again. All the drama then bleeds over into adulthood, when the gang meets up again for the wedding of their college besties Bree (Catherine Missal) and Evan (Branden Cook) eight years after Lucy's freshman year — a flash-forward that we'll see more of when the show returns for Season 3. In the Season 2 finale, a voicemail from Stephen threatened to implode that relationship — and Lucy's friendship with Bree — moments before Bree was slated to head down the aisle. Classic Stephen. The series, which is executive produced by Emma Roberts and based on Carola Lovering's novel of the same name, has outpaced the book's narrative, meaning it's anyone's guess what comes next. However, we already have some juicy tidbits about the upcoming third season. Here's what you need to know before the series returns. Hulu renewed Tell Me Lies in December 2024, two months after its Season 2 finale. There's no release date for Season 3 just yet, but the show is currently in production in Georgia, where Agnes Scott College in Decatur is a stand-in for the fictional upstate New York college. There was a two-year gap between the first and second seasons of Tell Me Lies, so it's possible we may have a while to wait before new episodes arrive. One person who we're not sure will return is Thomas Doherty, who played Lucy's fan-favorite boyfriend, Leo. Unfortunately, Lucy dumped Leo in favor of getting back with Stephen at the end of Season 2. (Big mistake. Huge.) 'I wasn't actually too surprised about the fans' reaction to my character,' Doherty told Us Weekly. 'After Season 1, Leo just slotted into that gap. It made sense. What did surprise me was all the outpouring of love. It's really kind of overwhelming at times.' For fans of the actor, you can see him on another show: Doherty is joining the cast of Paradise Season 2 opposite Sterling K. Brown. One surprising returning love interest? Tom Ellis, who played college professor Oliver in Season 2. In the second season, married Oliver has a secret relationship with Bree (his wife's student!), which soured when it was revealed that his wife was well aware of the affair. Originally, Ellis — who is married IRL to creator Meaghan Oppenheimer — said that he would not be coming back to the series, but in a May 6 interview with People, he said he's returning to film Season 3 imminently. 'I've got to be honest, the focus isn't so much on my character this season, but it still plays very much into the Bree storyline,' he teased to the magazine. The Lucifer star also hinted there's more drama to come, calling the series as 'dark, toxic and funny' as ever. 'Just when you thought our characters couldn't do anything more ridiculous to themselves, they ended up doing it,' Ellis said. As Ellis promised, Tell Me Lies is diving deeper into Bree's storyline this year. Costa D'Angelo will play Alex, described by Deadline as a psychology grad student and part-time drug dealer who has a 'complicated past with Bree.' He also sounds a little bit like Stephen, as he's described as 'aloof and borderline rude' with 'hidden depths.' Let's just hope that, unlike Stephen, those 'hidden depths' don't reveal more narcissistic personality traits. Alex's addition is particularly intriguing for fans who are eager to know who Bree was having a tense phone conversation with on her wedding day. While some speculated it could be Oliver on the receiving end of the phone call, others thought the call could be connected to Bree's foster care past. Perhaps Alex is her foster brother or someone else she knew before her days at Baird?! Some of the Tell Me Lies cast is dating offscreen — like Van Patten and White, who, as of fall 2024, were still in a relationship. The two originally met around the time of the audition process and have been together ever since. 'Because we established that dynamic first season, the second season was a lot easier to switch on and off,' Van Patten revealed to E! News in fall 2024. 'And we're so different from these characters, so it's honestly just an opportunity to get all of our bad feelings out so that there's none left by the time we go home.' They're not the only members of the Tell Me Lies cast to have found love offscreen with their costar. Cook, who plays Evan, is dating Katherine Hughes, who portrayed his short-lived girlfriend in Season 2. Cook recently appeared in her birthday Instagram post, holding the cake.
