Latest news with #Waller-Bridge
Express Tribune
10-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Pregnant Phoebe Waller-Bridge spotted with notes amid Tomb Raider delay
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the award-winning creator of Fleabag and co-writer of the James Bond film No Time To Die, has sparked speculation about a possible new project after being spotted in north London carrying a folder of notes. The 40-year-old actress and writer, dressed casually in denim dungarees and a striped T-shirt, was photographed with the folder tucked under her arm — prompting speculation she may be developing a fresh script. Waller-Bridge signed a landmark $100 million five-year deal with Amazon Studios in 2019 after a bidding war between major Hollywood studios. However, her highly anticipated Tomb Raider TV reboot has reportedly stalled, with industry sources describing the project as 'dead.' Plans for filming in early 2025 have yet to materialize, and the recent departure of Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke — the executive who secured Waller-Bridge's deal — may have further complicated the show's future. Sophie Turner, previously rumored to be in talks for the role of Lara Croft, is committed to other projects this year. Beyond Tomb Raider, Waller-Bridge was originally attached to the Mr. & Mrs. Smith TV adaptation but departed in 2021, with her contributions removed from the final version. She has since taken on select acting roles, including Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and the upcoming fantasy film A Big Bold Beautiful Journey alongside Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell. Waller-Bridge has been in a relationship with playwright and filmmaker Martin McDonagh since 2017 and has described their creative partnership as mutually inspiring.
Time of India
10-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Is Fleabag about to become a mum? Phoebe Waller-Bridge's London stroll in dungarees fuels frenzy of baby rumours
Fleabag creator and actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge was spotted on a shopping trip in London this week, dressed in denim dungarees, white trainers, and sunglasses. The relaxed look marked one of her rare public appearances this year; however, many online were left amused by what appears to be a baby bump during her latest outing. Phoebe MOTHER Waller Bridge Phoebe Waller-Bridge's new pics spark pregnancy rumours Soon after the images emerged online, social media went into overdrive with speculation that the 40-year-old might be expecting her first child. Several users claimed the photos showed what appeared to be a baby bump, fuelling widespread chatter across X, Instagram, and celebrity news pages. Waller-Bridge, known for guarding her private life, has not responded to the rumours, and no official confirmation has been made by her representatives. Long-term relationship with Martin McDonagh The Emmy-winning star has been in a relationship with British-Irish filmmaker Martin McDonagh since 2018. The pair are believed to be engaged and maintains a low profile, rarely discussing their relationship in public. McDonagh, 55, is best known for acclaimed films such as The Banshees of Inisherin and In Bruges. Before meeting McDonagh, Waller-Bridge was married to Irish presenter and documentary filmmaker Conor Woodman from 2014 until their divorce in 2017. From theatre beginnings to global acclaim Waller-Bridge's career began on the stage in 2009 at London's Soho Theatre. She first presented Fleabag as a one-woman show at the 2014 Edinburgh Festival before adapting it into a BBC Two series in 2016. The show earned multiple BAFTA and Emmy Awards and established her as one of the most distinctive voices in television. Beyond Fleabag, Waller-Bridge served as head writer and executive producer for season one of Killing Eve, winning a Golden Globe for the series. She also co-wrote the screenplay for the James Bond film No Time to Die. More about Felebag Waller-Bridge's creation, Fleabag, was a cultural earthquake. Bursting onto screens in 2016 after its Edinburgh Fringe debut, the razor-sharp comedy-drama instantly resonated with audiences for its brutally honest take on love, grief, and self-sabotage. Also starring Andrew Scott as the 'hot priest', viewers devoured its fourth-wall-breaking confessions, whip-smart one-liners, and painfully relatable chaos, turning it into an Emmy-winning phenomenon. Even years later, fans still find it impossible to separate Phoebe from her on-screen alter ego, the sardonic, messy, vulnerable Fleabag, with many seeing her real-life moves, from public appearances to romantic updates, through the lens of that iconic character. While her latest outing has reignited public curiosity, Waller-Bridge has remained silent on the pregnancy rumours. Her representatives have not issued a statement, leaving the speculation unconfirmed.
Time of India
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Octopus! OTT Release Date: When and where to watch nature documentary by Emmy-award winner Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Octopus! OTT Release Date: Just in time for Earth Day season, Emmy Award winner Phoebe Waller-Bridge returns with something far more unexpected: a nature documentary that's as strange as it is stunning. On May 8, Prime Video will release Octopus!, a two-part documentary narrated by Waller-Bridge herself, exploring the mysterious world of one of the most intelligent animals on the planet - the octopus. But don't expect a typical underwater documentary. This series blends science, personal stories, surreal humour, and emotional depth into something entirely unique. From tales of love, loss, and obsession to strange encounters in Mexico and a unicorn sighting, Octopus! is a quirky, emotional rollercoaster that uses the octopus as a lens to examine the human experience and our connection to creatures that seem almost alien. The docuseries will drop globally in over 240 countries and territories and is included with any Amazon Prime membership. That means no extra fee to watch, just click and stream. Octopus! is directed by Niharika Desai and produced by Waller-Bridge's own Wells Street Films, alongside Amazon's MGM Studios and Alex Gibney's Jigsaw Productions. Waller-Bridge in the wild Best known for creating and starring in Fleabag, Phoebe Waller-Bridge is now stepping into the world of nature storytelling. But in classic Waller-Bridge style, this is far from ordinary. What she brings to Octopus!, is a feeling. You'll get to meet scientists trying to save them, divers trying to understand them, and even celebrities like Tracy Morgan who are obsessed with them. These personal narratives are stitched together to show just how deeply one species can touch so many lives. With only two episodes, Octopus! is a quick binge, but one likely to leave a lasting impact. Sounds exciting? Drop your thoughts @indiatimes.
The Guardian
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘It's Fleabag's home – the audience is unshockable': Phoebe Waller-Bridge and more on 25 years of Soho theatre
A fixture on London's Dean Street for 25 years, Soho theatre has hatched plays that won Oliviers, shows that earned the Edinburgh comedy award and ideas that became TV hits. On any night, across its upstairs studio theatre, its main house and basement cabaret bar, you'll find plays from new writers, experimentations in clowning, drag performance, standup comedy, or a hybrid of them all. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. In those rooms, I've watched American clown Natalie Palamides giving such a spirited performance that she vomited on stage, dancer and comedian Adrienne Truscott challenging rape jokes, and performance artist Kim Noble pushing audiences beyond comfort. I've sung along to ballads with sketch group Daphne, and folk songs with Sh!t Theatre. Soho does all this by running a 'festival programme', with multiple shows per room, per night. 'It allows us to take risks,' says executive director and CEO Mark Godfrey. 'You can say now, 25 years on, we had the first play from Tanika Gupta, from Moira Buffini, early work from Chris Chibnall.' And perhaps most famously of all, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who first performed her one-woman show – and later hit TV series – Fleabag at the venue. 'Soho theatre has a genuinely experimental, risk-taking attitude,' Waller-Bridge says. 'It's one of the only theatres that consistently puts on provocative work from lesser-known writers and performers and encourages them to be original. I've seen some of the best work of my life in those spaces.' Waller-Bridge began her artistic relationship with Soho in 2009, in finance-industry satire Roaring Trade: 'I remember throttling Andrew Scott with a tie as the lights went up every night, which was the beginning of one of the most happy collaborations of my life.' With colleagues in her DryWrite theatre company, Francesca Moody and Vicky Jones, she became an associate artist at the theatre, commissioning Adolescence writer Jack Thorne's play Mydidae in 2012. Fleabag first appeared in Soho's upstairs room. Being offered space to preview 'was no small thing', Waller-Bridge says. It returned, post-Edinburgh, and Soho supported its West End transfer. 'It's Fleabag's home. The Soho theatre audience is so up for it … unshockable, game for anything, fun-loving and curious.' Now that game-for-anything is going to get a lot larger. As the theatre celebrates its 25th anniversary, it's also starting a new chapter – the opening of 1,000-seater Soho Theatre Walthamstow, in north-east London, where it will entertain its biggest audiences yet. It's been a long journey. Soho theatre on the West End's Dean Street opened in 2000, but the company was founded as the Soho Theatre Company in the late 60s by theatre directors Verity Bargate (namesake of Soho's new writing award) and Fred Proud. It became Soho Poly when it moved into a university basement in 1972. Deliberately free from 'the trappings of bourgeois theatre architecture', it was a pioneer of lunchtime theatre, allowing performances to 'reach a different sort of audience', write Matthew Morrison and Guy Osborne from the University of Westminster. That basement showcased future stars such as Bob Hoskins, Harriet Walter, Hanif Kureishi and Caryl Churchill. 'It was about new plays and new writing, that fringe explosion of the 70s,' says Godfrey, who's been with the company since 1990, its final year as Soho Poly. By the mid-90s, after a stint at Cockpit theatre, Soho theatre was homeless. Fortuitously, the national lottery was emerging. With director Abigail Morris and producer David Aukin, Godfrey found a building on Dean Street that had formerly housed a synagogue. The vision was influenced by the diversity and collective spirit of the south London theatre Ovalhouse, the ICA's punk aesthetics and experimental performances, the fun of comedy clubs. Rather than one artistic director, Soho has 'a plurality of voices', Godfrey says. 'They love the work,' says performance artist Bryony Kimmings. 'In the curating of their programme, they're also artists.' Those voices now include creative associate Pooja Sivaraman and head of comedy Steve Lock. Comedy is now a core part of Soho's identity. In 2000, short-ish plays meant Dean Street's stages were free by 9pm, so mixed-bill comedy, then eventually solo standup shows, filled the gap. Lock started working on the box office in 2001, but soon moved into comedy programming, scouting experimental shows at the fringe, and programming things crowds couldn't find at comedy clubs. 'It was about full-length shows, which intrinsically felt more theatrical. We started to feel like the natural home for people's one-hour shows in the early 2000s, and it's snowballed from then.' Soho welcomed American drag performers such as Kiki and Herb, plus acts such as Hannah Gadsby before their rise to fame. For the first 10 years at Dean Street, the basement was an Indian restaurant, which also ran the ground-floor bar. In 2011, it became Soho Theatre Bar, and the basement became a bespoke cabaret space. They decided 'to give equal importance to theatre, comedy and cabaret', Godfrey says. Lock points to artists like Kimmings and Noble, who could never be squeezed into one box. Temi Wilkey, whose recent show Main Character Energy blended performance styles, says: 'It's an extraordinary space for people whose work is genre-pushing.' Kimmings says: 'They never say no. They trust you to be creative.' When I ask artists what sets Soho theatre apart from other institutions, many say community. Associate artists used to be given membership to the Groucho Club, but when the theatre started running the bar, this was swapped for bar discounts instead. The idea was to build a club-like atmosphere right there. When you enter Dean Street's bar now, chances are you'll recognise someone – it's a 'snipers' alley' per one TV producer's analogy; you're always in the eyeline of an artist, writer, agent. For punters, this means the chance to spot a star. Social media was abuzz in 2023 when Florence Pugh, Andrew Garfield and Phoebe Bridgers were snapped after attending Kate Berlant's show. It helps that many of the artists connected to Soho arrived as fledging talent, such as Waller-Bridge, growing within the theatre, before achieving mainstream status. Kimmings had never visited Soho theatre until a meeting to discuss the transfer of her 2010 fringe show Sex Idiot, a tale of chlamydia and reappraising relationships. She's spoken in the past about the snobbery and classism that can come with traditional theatre. Soho is 'not like that at all', she says. Meeting Lock and dramaturg Nina Steiger: 'The two of them felt like family, like home, immediately,' Kimmings says. They earned her respect. '[Steiger] taught me how to use the principles of narratives, that was so exciting to me,' she says, and she saw Lock's passion for new work. When she wanted to make another show – an exploration of alcohol and creativity – they gave her space to develop and she wanted their input. Kimmings now teaches young artists and says most dream of staging their work at Soho. 'It's managed to establish a mark of quality and experimentalism. It feels like if you're there, you're original, you're good quality.' Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion Cheerleading new artists is vital, says Waller-Bridge, especially in the current funding climate: 'Writers need places to take risks, and to have the support of a theatre who back you as an individual rather than just a single project means you can push the boundaries.' Without that, 'we'll just end up with more and more generic work because people need to hedge their bets'. Poppy Jay, of the podcast Brown Girls Do It Too, used to walk past Soho theatre on the way to Topshop in nearby Oxford Circus. It seemed like 'a cool place', but not for her. 'Brown women, south Asian people, the theatre space doesn't really feel like ours,' she says. Jay and co-host Rubina Pabani were invited to create a stage version of their podcast, which they developed at Dean Street into a theatrical mix of jokes, sketches and discussion of sexuality and cultural expectations. Despite initial fears of not belonging, she says the theatre is 'embracing of talent and people from other backgrounds. It's completely different to how I always imagined theatre spaces to be.' While many artists are scouted, Soho theatre also runs 'labs' to coach new talent. Comedians Jack Rooke and Olga Koch started in the comedy programme and playwright Ryan Calais Cameron in the writers' lab. Rooke, creator of sitcom Big Boys, remembers the comedy lab as 'the most valuable education I've ever had. One day would be being taught how to apply to go to the fringe by Richard Gadd, the next week we'd have a masterclass with the DryWrite team,' he says. 'It taught me to be OK with putting darkness and silliness next to each other.' It led to the live show Good Grief, about the aftermath of his dad's death, and two subsequent shows, the seeds of Big Boys. He commemorated Soho's role in his career by naming a Big Boys' character after staff member Jules Haworth, who helped him secure a comedy lab bursary. Soho got TV commissioners in the door, Rooke says: 'It's always been good at taking a risk on new talent and not just following where the buzz is.' In the upstairs studio, Sivaraman describes the importance of the labs while in the background performer Shafeeq Shajahan rehearses The Bollywood Guide to Revenge. 'Shafeeq started on the writers' lab and drag lab, and this show was programmed as part of Soho Rising [a new talent festival] last year. Now it has a one-week run.' With the opening of Soho Theatre Walthamstow, there's potential to reach a larger stage. Palamides, who's worked with Soho since her debut show Laid, will be the first to grace the beautifully restored theatre with Weer, her absurd 90s romcom that earned plaudits in Edinburgh. Jay will perform Brown Girls Do It Too later in the year – as a Walthamstow local, she saw films in the venue as a teen, so it feels like a full-circle moment. In the autumn, Kimmings will present Bog Witch, about rediscovering nature, her first show in more than five years: 'I don't think I could've done it with anybody else.' It's been nearly 15 years since Godfrey joined the fight to transform the Walthamstow venue, which nearly became a church, into a functioning theatre. With the launch imminent, he reflects on Soho's origins. 'One of the challenges is: how do you become a bigger organisation and still keep that queer-punk, radical-fringe core identity?' They hope that 'plurality of voices' in the theatre's artistic team and the relationships they've built with artists over the years will preserve the Soho spirit. In the early days of Dean Street, the company was 'under the radar', says Godfrey, the pressure was off and creativity flowed. Will it be easier to fill an auditorium now on the cachet of Soho's past successes, or will people expect mainstream acts from a larger venue? Alongside the company's usual genre-melding works, tickets are already on sale for a pantomime and shows from Jon Ronson and Adam Kay. 'We believe it will work, but it will be nice when you actually see it.' During the redevelopment, there was some criticism over the loss of local LGBTQ+ venue The Victoria, which adjoins the site, but there has also been local outreach work. There are new labs programmes for Walthamstow locals, and many of the staff, including Godfrey and Soho Theatre Walthamstow co-chair Alessandro Babalola are locals themselves. Growing affection and audiences among residents, as well as persuading others to make the journey out, will be crucial. Memories formed at Dean Street might hold lessons in how to retain the theatre's identity. Kimmings laughs as she recalls one night in the cabaret basement, when an audience member bit her leg and she ended her show dancing on stage next to Juliette Lewis. To her, Soho theatre is 'a place where you get to be free. A place where you can cast off your baggage and really belly laugh. That is so precious.' Soho Theatre Walthamstow opens on 2 May.
Daily Mail
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Crashing: Trailer, certificate and where to watch
The lives and loves of six twenty-somethings living together in a disused hospital. 2016 Certificate: 15 Before Fleabag, Phoebe Waller-Bridge created this six-episode sitcom about a bunch of twentysomethings making their home in the most affordable housing they can find - a disused hospital where they get cheap rent in return for keeping the building safe. As an ensemble comedy it's a very different animal to the personal, confessional style of Fleabag, but the romantic and sexual chaos and toe-curling scenarios are there, as are the frank dialogue and moments of melancholy. Joining Waller-Bridge are Jonathan Bailey (aka Viscount Bridgerton) and new Bergerac's Damien Molony. (Six episodes)
