Latest news with #TheLeftovers
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘One of the things that made it so special was that it wasn't for everyone': ‘The Leftovers' EPs and cast on the show's legacy
Damon Lindelof is the first to admit that The Leftovers was a bit of a hard sell for mass audiences. The critically acclaimed show, which ran for three seasons from 2014 to 2017 on HBO, attracted a devoted, passionate but relatively small fan base, who were drawn in by the haunting exploration of grief and its aftermath. More from GoldDerby David E. Kelley on the secret of his prolific career: 'Don't ever assume you're smarter than the audience' 'I'm glad I'm still alive': Jon Hamm and John Slattery on 'Mad Men,' 10 years later 'King of the Hill' cast and creators on revival: 'Bobby's got a little bit of fame and a little bit of swagger' Lindelof reunited with executive producers Tom Perrotta (whose novel inspired the series) and Mimi Leder and cast members Carrie Coon (Nora), Amy Brenneman (Laurie), and Ann Dowd (Patti) at the ATX TV Festival in Austin to "reheat" The Leftovers, sharing their first impressions of each other and the series, the most 'terrifying' scene, and the show's lasting legacy. Lindelof revealed he was nervous before his first meeting with Perrotta. 'It was a job interview in a lot of ways, but you just completely and totally put me at ease, and by the end of the meeting, that was the beginning of the next five years of our lives,' said Lindelof. As a fan of Lost, Perrotta said he felt like it was a 'blind date' — 'because what does he think of me?' he recalled wondering. 'And then what I remember feeling was, this guy has the quickest mind that I have encountered and I'm going to have to really be on my toes.' ('Somewhere my wife and son are laughing,' quipped Lindelof.) SEERemembering 'The Leftovers': Why do Emmy voters hate TV's best show so much? Dowd said she wasn't impressed when she first read the script. 'I thought it was ridiculous,' she said. 'And I can tell you I have never loved a character more. I thought, 'Well, what's gonna happen if I'm not talking?' I can't believe the power you have in your room when you're not speaking. Everybody is waiting for you to do what you're going to do. I loved her. It took me a minute but only a minute.' Brenneman said she had 'whiplash' from the transition from her far more glamorous role on Private Practice. 'Damon said, 'Here are the reasons you shouldn't take this job: It shoots in New York, you can't wear any makeup, and you have no lines,' she recalled. laughing. But she said yes because 'I like new things. I don't think I've ever seen this, and you seem to be making it up on the fly.' For Coon, she said it was her first 'real job,' having done mostly theater and some commercials at that point in her career. 'I had no idea what was going to happen and I remember learning several years after the show ended that because I come from the theater and you respect the writer, I was the only actor on the show who wasn't constantly emailing and asking questions,' she said. 'I would just get the script and then I would do it. I still don't do it.' Joked Brenneman, 'That's why you work a lot.' Leder was brought on for the fifth episode, which happened to be the stoning episode. 'How am I going to direct this and not kill the actor?' she worried. (The answer: CGI rocks.) From there, though, she came on board as an executive producer to pursue 'the meaning of life, miracle of life. And I'm still in search of it.' 'You can make a TV show or a movie and it can be really good. But this was making this big beautiful baby that touched everybody's soul,' she said. 'If there's a theme it's that there is so much loss and we continue on. And we live with our loss and our grief we have beautiful lives sometimes.' Lindelof credited Perrotta with the idea of moving the show to Texas for the second season. 'Tom had the initial idea for a town where no one departed in Season 1,' he said. 'And when he pitched the idea, all the writers were like, that idea is so good, we can't burn out the four-week story. So it just sort of sat there in the back of our heads. And when the first season ended, we all sort of really good about this. This was the ending of the novel, we could just end it here. Let's not double down' But then HBO ordered a second season, and the ideas that had been percolating came to the forefront, including Perrotta's pitch for a place that had been protected from the Departure. 'The show ended up dealing with so many different ideas, and it's ultimately, I think, about faith,' said Perrotta. 'But I think for me, it was about randomness and the way people make sense of a random universe. What meaning does Nora derive from what happened to her? What kind of meaning do they derive from their protected status as they perceive it? What does it mean for Nora and her family to show up there?' For her part, Dowd was thrilled about Season 2 — because 'Patti got to talk,' she said. But when she asked Lindelof why, he gave an elliptical answer. 'I think ghosts are more interesting when they're annoyed,' he told her. (Dowd would go on to earn the show's lone Emmy nomination for guest actress in the show's third and final season.) The second season also allowed more joy and warmth and humor to infiltrate the show, recalled Brenneman. 'What I always loved about this premise was something unexplained happens and people have all sorts of responses,' she said. 'Some people go to a faith place, some people go to a nihilistic place, some people crack jokes, some people weep. It gives you a range of things that I feel like we accessed more and more.' Coon recalled her pivotal Season 2 episode, when she went face-to-face with Regina King, administrating the questionnaire. 'I've often said I've only been intimidated two times and that's Holly Hunter and David Thewlis,' she said. 'But that's not true because I was scared of Regina. I was scared of Regina because she's so uniformly excellent. But then you work with her and you realize that the work she has done to get there is in her bones. She's one of the best listeners I've ever worked with.' The scene 'was extraordinary and it was terrifying,' said Coon. 'And it was really a scene that people call back to it a lot when they talk about the show. My makeup artist remembers just the eyelash on my face,' she said. 'But they didn't want to stop the scene.' And the other famous scene that they all debated was Laurie's near-suicide. 'When Laurie went into the water, scuba diving, we as writers were absolutely and totally convinced at the time that we wrote that episode that she was dead,' recalled Lindelof. 'But then everybody was super depressed, and we couldn't generate ideas. 'Finally I walked into Tom's office and I said, 'I think Lori is still alive.' And he was like, 'Thank god, because we've all been talking about it.' That was a case of the show just out and out rejecting something that we were trying to force onto it.' Finally, Lindelof grew emotional talking about the audience's response in the packed Paramount Theater in Austin. 'All I ever wanted to do for a living was tell stories because I was inspired by the stories that were told to me,' he said. 'As proud as I am of the collaborative efforts that remain on other things that I've worked on, this is the one that is the closest to my heart. And one of the things that made it so special was that it wasn't for everyone. So much of the work that we all do and are asked to do is to make it as accessible to as many people as possible. And that isn't to say that we were purposefully trying to exclude people, but what we were after was going to be challenging. The first season in many ways is like, 'Stop f--king watching. You have to lean in. This is going to be a show that's about suffering, and then it's going to be about what people need to do to overcome it or live with it.' And so the idea that there is a theater filled with human beings who understand that and tolerate that and appreciate that, it truly means the world to us.' Best of GoldDerby 'I cried a lot': Rob Delaney on the heart and humor in FX's 'Dying for Sex' — and Neighbor Guy's kick in the 'zone' TV directors roundtable: 'American Primeval,' 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,' 'Paradise' 'Paradise' directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra on the 'chaos' of crafting 'the world coming to an end' Click here to read the full article.
RTÉ News
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
When Tommy Tiernan when Paul Giamatti - their epic chat revisited
Now that the ninth (!) season of The Tommy Tiernan Show on RTÉ One is done and dusted, let's revisit one of last season's highlights - Tommy's chat with actor Paul Giamatti. Watch the interview in full above. For the unitiated, Giamatti is an Academy Award-nominated actor known for his acclaimed performances in films such as Sideways, Cinderella Man, and The Leftovers, as well as his starring roles in the hit TV series Billions and the Black Mirror episode Eulogy. Once Tommy gets over his shock at Giamatti's arrival, the duo settle into a fascinating and utterly frank chat about the art of acting and negotiating life's ups and downs. It's classic Tommy Tiernan Show. It's a buddy movie comedy waiting to happen...
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
28 Years Later's Trailer Shows A Terrifyingly Weird World Most Zombie Movies Don't
It's probably fair to say that zombie movies and TV shows have something of a pattern. There's an outbreak, we cut to years later when only a few survive, then follow a small band of survivors who get stuck on the roof of a mall. I think that's about 90 percent of them. Which is why the complete weirdness featured in the latest trailer for 28 Years Later is so incredibly welcome. One of the greatest TV shows ever made was Damon Lindelof's 2014 series The Leftovers. Where many shows have previously covered the territory of large numbers of people mysteriously vanishing, In The Leftovers, two percent of the Earth's population inexplicably vanished in a single moment. The program was set two years later, focusing on a small New York community, exploring the repercussions of this event. And it was weird. It was rooted in the unknown, in the lack of an explanation, and the consequences on society, whether it was the formation of deeply peculiar cults, or the personal trauma of losing loved ones. But also, other stuff: dogs were turning feral, deer became less timid, and there was this one waterfall... I bring this up because it's that same vibe of humanity's spiraling into strangeness that seems most key to this new footage from 28 Years Later. Rather than exploring the horror of the immediate zombie apocalypse, here director Danny Boyle seems to be using the three-decades-on approach to envisage a society that's known little else, and the bizarre, uncomfortable, and spiritual effects this has had on people. Plus, you know, people running away from brain-hungry undeads. The movie is out on June 20, so there's still a fair amount of waiting to do. But this is looking like it could be something very interesting. . For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Express Tribune
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
The Leftovers to leave HBO Max in June 2025
HBO Max is set to remove its critically acclaimed drama The Leftovers from its streaming platform, sparking disappointment among long-time fans. The series, which gained cult status since it concluded in 2017, will officially leave the platform on June 3, 2025. Originally scheduled to be removed on April 11, the departure date was pushed back by nearly two months. The Leftovers, based on Tom Perrotta's 2011 novel, explores a world shaken by the mysterious disappearance of 2% of the global population in an event called the "Sudden Departure." The show follows Kevin Garvey, played by Justin Theroux, and his family as they navigate the aftermath of the event, including grief, cults, and societal upheaval. The series became a critical darling and remains a fan-favorite, with a 91% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While HBO Max has built its reputation on a strong library of original series, The Leftovers' removal is puzzling, as the platform rarely takes down its own productions. The reasons behind the decision remain unclear, though some speculate it could be due to licensing agreements, cost-cutting measures, or an effort to reserve certain titles for ad-supported tiers. Despite the uncertainty, HBO Max's decision to delay the series' removal by nearly two months may reflect an effort to respond to fan complaints. With The Leftovers set to leave in June, fans are encouraged to stream its three seasons before it vanishes from HBO Max for good.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Carrie Coon Exited Marvel After the Studio Said ‘We're Not Going to Pay You Any More Money' for ‘Avengers: Endgame,' Says Husband Tracy Letts
Carrie Coon is beloved for her work on HBO series such as 'The Leftovers,' 'The Gilded Age' and 'The White Lotus' Season 3, but her filmography also includes a quick detour to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Coon portrayed Thanos' henchman Proxima Midnight via voiceover and motion capture in 2018's 'Avengers: Infinity War.' She did not return for 'Avengers: Endgame.' Coon's husband, the actor and playwright Tracy Letts, said on 'The Big Picture' podcast (via People) that money was the reason she dropped Marvel. 'I believe [Marvel] went to her for the second one, and they asked her to be in the second one,' Letts said on the podcast. 'And she said, 'Well, the first one is the most successful movie ever made. Are you going to pay me any more money?' And they said, 'No. We're not going to pay you any more money.'' More from Variety Iron Fist Actor Finn Jones Says 'Give Me a F--ing Chance' to Come Back: 'I'm Aware of the Critiques... I Want to Prove People Wrong' Carrie Coon Says Her 'White Lotus' Character Was Written to Have a Nonbinary Child, but That Scene Was Cut After Trump's Election 'Fantastic Four' Will 'Start a New Tide of Successful Storytelling' for Marvel Just Like 'Guardians of the Galaxy' and 'Black Panther,' Says Paul Walter Hauser 'She said, 'Wow, you're not going to pay me any more money, then I don't think I'm going to do it,'' he continued. 'And they said, 'Well, you should feel yourself fortunate to be part of the Marvel Universe.' So she declined… We would've made a bigger deal out of this, but it would have involved us watching the movies and we weren't going to do that.' Variety reached out to Marvel for comment. 'Infinity War' earned more than $2 billion at the worldwide box office after opening in late April 2018 to become the year's highest-grossing movie. The sequel, 'Endgame,' was even bigger with $2.7 billion worldwide the following year. Letts said on the podcast that he and Coon have still never seen either Marvel movie. Coon spoke to Entertainment Weekly in 2018 when 'Infinity War' was opening in theaters about joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, saying: 'It started as a voiceover audition. They were just looking for the voice of Proxima Midnight, and [they reached out] perhaps because they were interested in my voice or maybe because I've actually done motion-capture work previously. I used to do motion-capture work for video games, back in Madison, Wisconsin. I was an athlete in college, and so it was very physical work that I enjoyed tremendously, and I had such a ball working on it.' 'I'm much older now than I was then, so it was a very different experience,' she continued. 'I was also pregnant when I did it. I flew down to Atlanta and did some mo-cap, mostly the facial capture. Of course, I can't take credit for all of it — it's a gifted team of animators that are taking on the bulk of that performance. But it morphed from a voiceover job into a mo-cap job, and then suddenly I realized I was in the highest-grossing movie of the year.' Coon currently stars in 'The White Lotus' Season 3, which wraps its run on April 6. She will be back on HBO later this year for the third season of 'The Gilded Age.' Best of Variety What's Coming to Disney+ in April 2025 New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week The Best Celebrity Memoirs to Read This Year: From Chelsea Handler to Anthony Hopkins
