June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss) is going to face the consequences of her actions when Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale returns for its fifth season on September 14, and the first trailer (above) is setting up all the drama.
To briefly recap, June savagely attacked and later murdered Commander Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) at the end of Season 4 seeking revenge for the pain and trauma he caused her and countless of other families. After the dust has settled when the series returns, June will have to face off with her nemesis, Waterford’s pregnant widow Serena (Yvonne Strahovski), who will stop at nothing to avenge his murder.
“The founding father of Gilead, he took away our country. He had to pay for what he did,” June says in the trailer before admitting to her husband Luke (O.T. Fagbenle) that she killed Waterford.
She added, “And I loved it so much.”
Serena, no doubt, knows exactly who is behind the killing, though unsure who helped her see the plan through. June has proven to be resourceful and has plenty of allies who will now have to cover their tracks or face similar consequences as the former handmaid.
June is a changed woman forever following the slaying and there’s no telling what she is capable of doing while trying to bring down the patriarchy.
Dan Harmon gave his most concrete answers to date when asked by Newsweek about the long-aborning movie.
“I will now say it’s a matter of ‘when.’ I have been so careful about [saying] that,” Harmon told Newsweek. “It would have been accurate three years ago to say ‘it’s a matter of when, not if.’ The wheels have been in motion for that long.”
Harmon once called the constant guessing about a feature treatment of the show that ended in 2015 “a weird Ouija board thing” that was dependent on many factors.
“The fan that Instagrams every day about Community, how can you tell them, ‘Yes, it’s definitely going to happen, but it may be between one and eight years from now’ — which is how the industry works, especially when you factor in pandemics and whatnot.
“How about this for a concrete thing?” Harmon offered, “There is an outline for it. There’s a product put together and pitched out in the world. I guess that’s how real it is.”
It’s clearly what fans want, and also what castmembers Joel McHale, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Jim Rash, Yvette Nicole Brown and Ken Jeong want.
“Who is supposed to say, ‘everyone do this’?” Harmon asked in 2019. “That’s what I’ve always said. I don’t know how it starts.”
“I think it starts with you, Dan,” Brie told him at the time.
EXCLUSIVE: Former The Killing star Mireille Enos is returning to AMC, taking a rare comedic turn as the female lead opposite Bob Odenkirk in Straight Man, the network’s series adaptation of Richard Russo’s novel from former The Killing writer-producer Aaron Zelman and The Office alum Paul Lieberstein.
In the dramedy, from TriStar TV, William Henry Devereaux Jr. (Odenkirk) is the unlikely and reluctant chairman of the English department in an underfunded college in the Pennsylvania rust belt. His discontent is rooted in unresolved issues with his father, a mediocre and entitled student body, and in the fact that his department is more savagely divided than the Balkans.
Enos will play Lily Devereaux, the emotionally grounded, unflappable wife of Hank Devereaux, Jr. (Odenkirk), and the Vice Principal of the local high school in rural Pennsylvania where they live. As Hank’s life starts to unravel, Lily begins to question the path she’s on and the choices she’s made. She’ll start to explore other opportunities for herself while doing her best to keep Hank and their adult daughter on track.
“We could not be more thrilled to have Mireille on board to play Lily. She brings with her a steamer trunk full of dramatic chops, an unflinching eagerness to explore character, and a megawatt smile that absolutely lights up every Zoom. She’s a delight.” said Zelman and Lieberstein, who are adapting the book and will serve as co-showrunners.
Zelman and Lieberstein executive produce with Odenkirk, Peter Farrelly, who directs, Russo, Naomi Odenkirk and Marc Provissiero. Sony Pictures’ Television TriStar TV and Mark Johnson’s Gran Via are producing.
Enos, known for her Emmy-nominated role as Detective Sarah Linden on AMC’s The Killing, will next be seen in Michelle Danner’s courtroom drama feature Miranda’s Victim, alongside Abigail Breslin, Ryan Phillippe, Donald Sutherland and Taryn Manning. In television, she most recently starred in Amazon Studios’ action-thriller, Hanna, which ran for three seasons on Prime Video. Enos is repped by CAA and Howard Green Entertainment.
Sarah Michelle Gellar is opening up about taking an acting break following the death of Robin Williams. The actor stepped away from her career after her The Crazy Ones co-star died to reflect and process the life-changing event.
“I’ve been working my entire life. When I had kids — and it was right after Robin passed away — there was just so much going on in my life and I just said, ‘I need to take a break,’” she told People.
Gellar and Williams worked on the CBS sitcom between 2013 and 2014. The David E. Kelley show ran for one season on the eye network and it would be Williams’ last television acting role.
“I need to be here for these early formative years of my kids’ life,” she added. “I needed that break to be the parent that I wanted to be.”
Gellar has two children with actor husband Freddie Prinze Jr.: Charlotte Grace (12) and Rocky James (9). Now that her kids are older, Gellar found the right opportunity to return to acting with Wolf Pack.
Deadline recently reported that Gellar would be joining the supernatural series at Paramount+ set in the Teen Wolf universe. The Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum would not only star on the show but serve as an executive producer.
Wolf Pack is based on the book series by Edo Van Belkomand follows a teenage boy (Armani Jackson) and girl (Bella Shepard) whose lives are forever changed when a California wildfire awakens a terrifying supernatural creature.
Gellar will play arson Investigator Kristin Ramsey, a highly regarded expert in her field and no stranger to personal loss, brought in by authorities to catch the teenage arsonist who started a massive wildfire which may have also led to the reawakening of a supernatural predator terrorizing Los Angeles.
EXCLUSIVE: They call it “the show that captured hearts for 30 seasons.” And now, the hope is that hearts will follow the former ABC hit to Disney+.
Dancing with the Stars released a new trailer to gin up excitement for the show’s return. It features sentimental images of past contestants like James Van Der Beek, Bindi Irwin, and JoJo Siwa, who talked about “how this whole experience changed me so much.” There’s also some old footage of season 19 winner Alfonso Ribeiro, who will join Tyra Banks as a co-host when the show debuts Sept. 19.
Len Goodman will be back on the judges’ dais, along with Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough.
Dancing with the Stars, which is produced by BBC Studios Los Angeles Productions, received a two-year pickup and will become the first live series to debut on the service. It is also believed to be the first live streaming reality show in the U.S., marking another milestone for direct-to-consumer platforms.
Disney brass certainly hope that DWTS’ big following will translate into new viewers — and ultimately additional subscribers — for the platform. DWTS is a unique family show that fits well on Disney+, and the show’s signature Disney-themed nights will create synergy opportunities for the platform which carries the movies showcased on the program.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is set to premiere on Amazon Prime Video on September 2 but eager fans will get a chance to watch the first two episodes on the big screen days before. Amazon teamed up with Cinemark to screen the debut episodes on August 31 for one night only.
The theatrical push is a nod to The Lord of the Rings film series by Peter Jackson that made movie night an event for tentpole movies.
A prequel to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, The Rings of Power is set in the Second Age of Middle-earth — thousands of years before the events of the Lord of the Rings films and the novels. The series brings to screens for the very first time J.R.R. Tolkien’s fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth.
Cas of the series is made up by Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Charles Edwards, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, Daniel Weyman, and Sara Zwangobani.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is led by showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay. They are joined by executive producers Lindsey Weber, Callum Greene, J.A. Bayona, Belén Atienza, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill, Gennifer Hutchison, Bruce Richmond, and Sharon Tal Yguado, and producers Ron Ames and Christopher Newman. Wayne Che Yip is co-executive producer and directs along with J.A. Bayona and Charlotte Brändström.
The biggest marketing campaign in HBO’s history, reaching 130M people in the U.S., culminates this weekend with the premiere of the long-awaited Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon.
Like Thrones, House of the Dragon has a massive cast. It cost $200 million to make, per Warner Brothers Discovery CEO David Zaslav.
Based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, the series, set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, tells the story of the House Targaryen. Paddy Considine stars along with Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Sonoya Mizuno and Rhys Ifans.
Zaslav also predicted that House of the Dragon “looks to be the next big cultural moment.”
Click through the gallery of images above to see the cast in character.
SAG-AFTRA‘s national board voted overwhelmingly today to approve a new agreement with the AMPTP that will sharply limit exclusivity terms in actors’ personal service agreements that hold series regulars off the market and unable to work for unreasonably long periods of time. The vote was 95.5% in favor, 4.5% opposed, and does not require membership ratification as this was a mid-term modification of the guild’s existing film and TV contract.
It’s a major victory for the guild, which has been trying to curtail the practice for more than a decade. SAG-AFTRA officials say the breakthrough was made possible by the guild’s lobbying efforts on behalf of a bill they sponsored in the California legislature that would curtail exclusivity provisions. That bill, AB 437 – dubbed the Let Actors Work (LAW) Act – was moving close to passage by the full legislature but is now expected to be withdrawn in light of the agreement the guild has reached with the companies.
Concurrently, SAG-AFTRA members are in the process of ratifying a separate new contract with Netflix that includes similar changes to its options and exclusivity provisions that will give the streaming giant’s series regulars the right to work on other programs when they’re not working on their Netflix shows.
“The companies would not have entertained reopening this issue during the term of the contract were it not for this legislation,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the guild’s national executive director, told Deadline. “We’ve been working on this for over 10 years, and we hadn’t been able to get them to budge meaningfully on exclusivity. So, I really think that the legislation had a huge impact, not only on the timing but also on the leverage that we had to get something done here. I think our members, especially our members who work as series regulars, are going to feel in a very real way the impact of these changes.”
“This negotiation reflects a healthier collaboration between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP in the interdependent relationship we share,” SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said in a statement. “The AMPTP was motivated to come to the table and improve a contract that has hindered our members for years. I want to thank the negotiating committee and our members for their participation and activism on this issue, especially the series regulars who came and testified, wrote op-eds and stood with us in the room during the negotiation. I particularly want to applaud Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and Ray Rodriguez for leading these negotiations.
“I also want to acknowledge California Assembly Member Ash Kalra, Senator Anthony Portantino, Senator Tom Umberg, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, Senator Dave Cortese, Assembly Member Tasha Boerner Horvath, Senator Toni Atkins, and California Labor Federation Executive Secretary-Treasurer Lorena Gonzalez for taking this on and pushing the needle. Their support for the LAW Act helped us move forward on issues we hadn’t been able to get movement on in many, many years. Everyone involved, members, legislators, and staff alike rallied together to achieve this fantastic result. I can’t wait to see what the future holds as we continue to move mountains together.”
The agreement with the AMPTP goes into effect on or after January 1, 2023, provided that Assembly Bill 437 has been withdrawn, and that the guild agrees that it will not pursue legislation on the subject of exclusivity prior to the expiration of the successor agreements to the current Codified Basic Agreement and Television Agreement between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP.
One of the most significant changes in the new agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers provides for a “conflict-free window” of at least three months following principal photography of each season during which a series regular can commit their time to another program without having to confirm availability or schedule with the company for which they’re working.
Going into the negotiations with the AMPTP, SAG-AFTRA maintained that Exclusivity contracts “are outdated and harmful to creative artists and their families. Since 2009, series seasons have been cut from 24 episodes down to an average of 12. The amount of downtime between seasons has increased from five months to 14 months. That’s a long time to be out of work and it has severe financial impacts on actors and their families.
“Producers have moved their production and exhibition models into the 21st Century and it’s time they allow their employees to join them. Forced unemployment is unethical and outrageous. Exclusivity provisions or unfair, outdated contract provisions that keep actors tied to employers and unable to work for months and years at a time. Actors must often forfeit other employment opportunities, even when there is no conflict with their original employer.”
Here’s a summary of the agreement:
Exclusivity Money Breaks
Under the current Television Agreement, series regulars making at least $15,000 per episode or per week on half-hour programs or $20,000 per episode or per week for one-hour or longer programs may “bargain freely” on the subject of exclusivity. That means that the minimum terms of the collective bargaining agreement, which prevent a series regular from granting exclusivity under which they do not retain the right to do certain other work in addition to working on the series on which they are a regular, do not apply to series regulars who make at or above that amount. Such series regulars may therefore agree to greater exclusivity and have lesser ability to do other work. Under this agreement, those figures would increase to $65,000 for a half-hour program and $70,000 for an hour or longer program, which means that many more series regulars will benefit from the exclusivity limitations in the Tentative Agreement.
Permitted Appearances
Subject to conditions referenced below, a series regular employed under the current Television Agreement who is paid less than the Exclusivity Money Breaks may not grant exclusivity under which they do not retain the right to do at least 3 guest star appearances in each 13-week period but may agree that none of these appearances can be in a “continuing role.” Under the Tentative Agreement, a series regular paid less than the new, higher exclusivity money breaks may not grant exclusivity under which they do not retain the right, subject to conditions, to do:
• Non-Dramatic Appearances: Unlimited second position radio guest appearances and unlimited second position guest appearances on talk shows, game shows, news, panel and award shows, but may agree that none of these appearances can be in a continuing role.
• Unlimited guest star appearances: Unlimited second-position guest star appearances on live-action and animated television and New Media programs. This includes an unlimited number of continuing roles provided that such continuing roles may not include more than 6 episodes on the same season of a series or miniseries.
• Second Position Series Regular or Miniseries Lead: In addition, a series regular must retain the ability to take either one second-position series regular role or one second-position leading role in a miniseries each calendar year.
Conditions on Permitted Appearances
• Series Producer in First Position: Except as provided under the “Conflict Free Window” provisions summarized below, the series producer remains in “first position,” which means that the “First Position Series Producer” must approve the Permitted Appearance and the series regular must confirm availability and scheduling before accepting it. The First Position Series Producer may only exercise its first-position rights, however, for legitimate, work-related reasons.
• No “Substantially Similar” Role: The First Position Series Producer may deny a Permitted Appearance if it is a “substantially similar” role. “Common, generic attributes without further distinction” are not sufficient to establish substantial similarity. The genre, setting, theme, plot, premise, and the “distinct, identifiable and detailed characteristics and storyline(s) of the performer’s character” must be considered in making that determination.
• No Irreversible Changes to Appearance: Voluntary changes to the series regular’s appearance that are not readily reversible are prohibited, e.g., temporary hair dye is acceptable, but cutting hair is not.
• No Parody: The Permitted Appearance may not parody the First Position Series Producer, series, role or platform.
• Promotional Materials: The series regular may appear in promotional materials for their Permitted Appearance provided that their name and/or likeness does not appear either alone or more prominently than any other performer in any key art or in any photography or soundtrack reused in the promotional materials.
• Telecast Time Period: The First Position Series Producer may refuse a Permitted Appearance that is scheduled to be telecast, to the best of the performer’s knowledge, during the regularly-scheduled telecast time period of the first position series.
• Cooperation Requirement: The First Position Series Producer may not use any of the foregoing restrictions as a basis for automatically refusing a Permitted Appearance, must instead work cooperatively to give good faith consideration to the performer’s request and must maintain records of such requests and the First Position Series Producer’s responses that the Union may review.
“Conflict-Free Window”
The First Position Series Producer must provide series regulars a “Conflict-Free Window” after completion of principal photography of each season during which the series regular may accept a Permitted Appearance without first having to confirm availability or schedule. Otherwise, the conditions on Permitted Appearances will continue to apply. The “Conflict Free Window” need not be the same or the same length for each series regular.
• Three Month Minimum: The Conflict Free window must be not less than 3 consecutive months. The First Position Series Producer, however, will use reasonable good faith efforts to provide a Conflict Free Window of more than three months and to extend Conflict Free Windows beyond three months whenever possible.
• 30-Day Notice: The First Position Series Producer will provide notice at least 30 days in advance of the start of the Conflict-Free Window.
• “Best Efforts” Availability: During the Conflict Free Window, a series regular will use their best efforts to make themselves available for work on their first position series, e.g., recalls for added scenes and reshoots, ADR/looping, and promotional/publicity services.
• Short Hiatus Exception: A Conflict Free Window need not be provided where the hiatus between the completion of principal photography for one season and the commencement of principal photography for the following season is less than 4 months.
• “Permitted Appearance” Must Be Completed: The series regular must complete the services for their Permitted Appearance during the Conflict-Free Window. Services occurring after the conclusion of the Conflict-Free Window will be subject to first-position rights.
• Penalty: In the event that the First Position Series Producer does not provide a series regular with a Conflict Free Window as set forth above, it must pay the series regular a penalty equal to the series regular’s episodic fee for the prior season. The penalty is subject to the episodic cap for benefit plan contributions.
Children’s Programming
• Definition: A “children’s program” is a program created for an audience primarily consisting of viewers under the age of 16 and of the type traditionally produced for Disney Channel or Nickelodeon.
• Minor Series Regulars on Children’s Programming: The terms of the Tentative Agreement set forth above shall apply equally to adult and minor series regulars (i.e., series regulars younger than 18 years old) on children’s programming except that:
• A minor performer employed as a series regular on a children’s program that earns at least two times weekly minimum per episode, but less than $26,000 per week or per episode, may agree that the second-position series lead or second-position lead on a miniseries referred to in section III.C above may not be on another children’s program.
• A minor performer employed as a series regular on a children’s program that earns $26,000 per week or per episode or more may agree to the foregoing and further agree that the “unlimited guest star appearances” referred to in section III.B above may not be on another children’s program.
Application to Other Agreements
The Tentative Agreement modifications to exclusivity terms shall also apply to the following provisions and agreements:
• The CW Supplement (Section 83 of the Television Agreement). • Sideletter G to the Television Agreement. • Dramatic series made for television and all High Budget SVOD Series produced under the: • Prodco, Inc. Agreement • It’s a Laugh Productions, Inc. Agreement • Uptown Productions Inc. Live Action Agreement • Comedy Central Productions LLC Agreement • King Street Productions Inc. Agreement
The Film That Lit My Fuse is a Deadline video series that aims to provide an antidote to headlines about industry uncertainty by swinging the conversation back to the creative ambitions, formative influences and inspirations of some of today’s great screen artists.
Every installment asks the same five questions. Today’s subject is Laura Linney, who heading into the final weekend of voting is at the center of the Emmy race for Outstanding Lead Actress for her work as Wendy Byrde in the ground breaking Netflix series Ozark. This is her third nomination for Best Leading Actress for Ozark (as co-Executive Producer she is also up for Outstanding Drama Series). Linney has won the Emmy four times including for The Big C and playing Abigail Adams in the HBO mini John Adams. Ozark just finished its series run with the Byrde parents Marty (Jason Bateman) and Wendy trying to stay one step ahead of the drug cartel they money launder for. Linney’s Wendy has been a study in devotion to family, personal ambition, and an ultimate betrayal. The actress, who has been nominated for three Oscars and five Tony Awards, describes the films that were invaluable in finding her voice as a great actress.
A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit.
In this column: interviews with the director who guided Chadwick Boseman to a posthumous Emmy nomination for his final performance ever and a chat with Amanda Seyfried on the challenges met and conquered in playing Elizabeth Holmes, for which she received her first Emmy nomination.
Emmy ballots are due Monday evening, so all you stragglers out there better get your act together and start voting. Certainly the campaigns have not let up at all, even as we head into the crucial final weekend, and they won’t stop until it is all officially in the envelope, as it were. I was off for a week and came back to piles of boxes awaiting my X-Acto knife. Abbott Elementary sent an entire “back to school” kit, at least back to that school. The Dropoutsent another box with specially labeled items like green juice and a black turtleneck exactly like what Elizabeth Holmes wore. There was a box of chocolates branded as “Lucy and Desi” in honor of the multi-nominated docu Amy Poehler directed for Amazon, and another box of Compartés Chocolates courtesy of Emmy-nominated Top Chef competitor Jackson Kalb, who wished me a “Happy First Day of Final-Round Emmy Voting!!” He promises to be serving them as well at his Venice restaurant Ospi on Emmy night. The Tommy Lee official Pam & Tommy drumsticks I got were pretty cool. No one sent the actual drums, though. Oh well, the long, long Emmy season is about to end and give way to the long, long Oscar season, which will be going full force as Emmys are handed out and Oscar contenders are being unveiled for the first time at the fall film festivals in Venice, Telluride and Toronto. It never ends.
AN EMMY FOR CHADWICK BOSEMAN AND HIS MOST FAMOUS ROLE?
Chadwick Boseman died almost exactly two years ago, on August 28, 2020, tragically way too early at age 43, leaving behind an impressive body of work including some then-unseen — and, as it turned out final — performances. That work over the past couple of years has resulted in remarkable awards recognition for the actor, beginning with the 2020 release of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which brought him his first leading actor Oscar and BAFTA nominations (he lost to Anthony Hopkins), as well as posthumous wins for that performance from SAG, Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards and countless other groups.
And now he has his first Emmy nomination in the category of Outstanding Voice Over Performance for Disney+ and Marvel’s animation series, What If…?, which also is up for Outstanding Animation Series and representing Marvel’s first foray into the TV animation wars. It already has nearly completed work on Season 2 and is mapping out Season 3 on the premise of “what if these Marvel heroes had different fates and alter egos in store?” In the case of Boseman it takes his most famous role, that of T’Challa, and somehow makes him Star-Lord. It is a wacky premise that has caught on, and Boseman was thrilled to be part of it not only in the key episode he dominates and for which he is Emmy nominated, but also as part of a couple of other episodes in Season 1. Earlier this week I hopped on the phone with What If’s… director and executive producer Bryan Andrews, who talked about what this meant to him and the show, as well as to Boseman, who was able to do most of his voice-over work live in-person in studio, as well as more remotely once the pandemic shut things down in the spring of 2020. He would die about six months later, and this represents his last work.
“I think Chad was one of the first celebrities in the MCU that actually officially said yes to us. I think he was literally the first one, and that was an exuberant yes,” Andrews told me. “He had a bunch of ideas and things. He’s really excited about the character, and he also liked that we brought a certain degree of humor. He liked that this character didn’t have the weight of the crown of Wakanda on you, so he can be a little bit more of that like charming rogue, a Robin Hood, still totally a great person, insanely confident and charming. But he didn’t have the weight of the crown. And it’s funny, we heard that even before his passing, he enjoyed what he did in our season with that character — so much so that he was talking to [Black Panther director] Ryan [Coogler] about trying to get this vibe. ‘It’s like we gotta get some of that into Black Panther 2,’ he told Ryan.”
Andrews said Boseman was even thinking beyond this initial foray into animation. “He was having so much fun, and actually early on we were thinking, ‘Oh, this can be a spinoff series.’ We really wanted to do a spinoff series with him,” he said, noting all that sadly changed after he shockingly passed away, having kept his cancer secret from nearly everyone for years. “No one had any idea. I mean, that came out of the blue for almost everybody. He kept it quiet.” Andrews added that he noticed that Boseman seemed much thinner but surmised that actors are always putting on and taking off weight for various roles. “I thought like, ‘This is how he likes to roll in the offseason for Black Panther,‘ right? So I thought nothing of it, and I still didn’t think anything of it the final time we recorded him, but I think he may have been in pain. He put on a brave face. He was stoic. He was as strong as he could be. I just chalked it up to, ‘Oh man, the guy’s getting ready for Black Panther, he’s probably working out like crazy.’ He was a little slower, but his level of focus was intense. So I never knew anything was wrong. None of it ever hindered the performance. He’s so good. He was so good. He brought so much in the way he treated the material. Yeah, we were writing it like a Marvel thing anyway, so it wasn’t like he was quote-unquote ‘dumbing it down’ for animation or slumming with animation. We all just looked at it as like, ‘This is T’Challa, it’s coming from Marvel, and here we go.’ He said he was down for this, that ‘this is my character,’ and then we got to riff and play a little bit on the lines, but he brought 110%. So, that’s amazing.”
As for the Emmy nomination?
“It’s a shame he’s no longer with us, but he would be enjoying this moment, just for the recognition of this for this character,” Andrews said. “It’s an honor to be recognized, and I’m so thankful that the academy was able to notice his performance and pick it out. He brought so much to it.”
AMANDA SEYFRIED GETS REAL
Playing real-life characters is paying off — awards-wise, at least — for Amanda Seyfried, who has bagged her first Emmy nomination as the notorious Elizabeth Holmes, who, as founder of the bogus Theranos, went from Silicon Valley sensation to disgrace in no time flat. Seyfried is nominated as Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her performance in Hulu’s acclaimed The Dropout. Coincidentally, around the same time as the Primetime Emmys on September 12, the now-convicted herself faces a sentencing hearing where she could get up to 20 years. Meanwhile, the woman who plays her could get an Emmy.
Portraying a real-life figure also was the lucky charm for Seyfried at the 93rd Oscars, where she got her first Academy Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actress as Golden Era actress Marion Davies in Mank, David Fincher’s 2020 look at the man who wrote Citizen Kane.
As she told me in a recent Zoom interview between scenes of a new project with Tom Holland that she was shooting in Harlem, Seyfried is well aware of the two different fates of being Holmes — one on TV, one about to go to prison. “Now, the idea that the Emmys are happening in September and she’s also going to be sentenced in September is not lost on me. It’s not,” Seyfried said. “It just gets weirder and weirder, and I don’t know if I’m, as an actor, done with her story because I just had such a good time doing it, but also as a spectator, as somebody who’s empathetic to the things she’s going to have to go through separate from how I feel about her choices. It’s weird. It’s hard and it sucks that she’s in such a different place.” She added that in order to play Holmes, or any real person, you have to have some empathy for them.
“Our job as actors portraying these people is you have to care about them or else you’re not really going to play the whole spectrum. I mean, we are all so complicated, we are such a complicated creatures whether we’re famous, infamous, you know, just whatever choices we make in life, we’re still all very nuanced. And so, I was very empathetic to those eccentricities and those, those moments of, of fear that everybody feels. You know, I’m not a psychologist, I can’t diagnose her with anything, I just saw her as a human being who found herself in a bind and chose the wrong, the wrong way to deal with it. And so, it’s all empathy, I mean, it’s not like I’m making her out to be a victim or anything like that, because that’s, that’s totally wrong, too,” she said.
Among the challenges Seyfried says she faced was just the simple fear of embodying someone who is so different from herself, and yes, that unique — and controversial — voice Holmes used, some say created, actually to sound more like a man. “The thing is she’s not from anywhere,” she said. “She’s doesn’t have any regional accent. Somebody I spoke to during the preparation said that it sounded like she was part of some women’s business school sorority-type club, if that makes any sense. So I researched that a little bit, and then I came to realize that it didn’t matter where it came from, when it started, it just had to be present at all times. And so, not the depth so much, not the frequency, but the mouth shape. And I was like, ‘OK, what can I control?’ I can control how I move my mouth and make it sound like her, so I just did until it was muscle memory. And now, my next step is to be able to deepen it, and that was hard, but it wasn’t as much of an issue with, if I got the mouth shape right the depth came later.”
The Dropout is just one of an increasing series of limited series focusing on women caught up in various degrees of deception and/or crime. You can add to the list this year The Thing about Pam, The Girl from Plainville, Impeachment: American Crime Story, Candy, Inventing Anna, etc. What’s up with all this kind of storytelling now? “I think we’re just sick of seeing stories about men, right? I’d like to think that that’s what it is,” Seyfried said. “I’d like to think that, you know, these stories are real true stories of human beings and they happen to be about women. I mean, and each one of them is incredibly smart or creative in a way. And you’re just, like, kind of in awe of the power that they have to ruin or create such chaos you kind of can’t look away. And I will always be a fan of the true-crime stories. I think that people don’t expect them to behave this way. We’re not as surprised when a guy, you know, defrauds people for millions and millions of dollars. We’re not as surprised,” she added with a laugh.
Seyfried, of course is primarily a film actress, but drifting into television was a no brainer when you get scripts like The Dropout. “I go where the good roles are,” she said. “I mean, things have shifted so much in how we digest things. And, you know, I think just as someone who watches a lot of content, I do lean toward the episodics more these days; it seems like everybody’s kind of going for what moves them. And as an audience member I want to invest eight hours into somebody’s story because you get so much more out of it, and it seems like everybody seems to feel that way, so there’s just more TV than there are movies being made.
“I never did see myself doing episodics until this whole limited series niche,” Seyfried continued. “This limited series category came about because there is the same amount of commitment as a movie is without having to sign away seven years of your life, which is how TV used to work. And it is more interesting, especially for an actor, because you have so much more to do, so much more to learn about your character. There’s so much more of an arc, and that’s served me well. It was definitely the most — the most fulfilling experience playing Elizabeth over the course of four months.”
As for going to her first Emmy ceremony as a nominee?
“Listen, I’m nervous about it,” she admitted. “I wasn’t nervous at the Oscars, because I knew there wasn’t a chance in hell that I was going to win it. It was just about the nomination. Getting the nomination was, like, a massive deal for me, but this I feel like I’m closer. But, you know, the people I’m up against are heavy hitters. … I think I just have to let go and just have fun because there are so many things that the whole show is nominated for. So another great part of going to the Emmys is that I’m going to see a lot of people. It’s ‘post-pandemic.’ I’m saying that in quotes, of course,” she said with a laugh. “But its post-pandemic, and I think I’m going to be able to socialize with a lot of the people that I had so much fun making this show with. I’m going to bring my husband [actor Thomas Sadoski]. He has another premiere [Sony’s Devotion] that night at the Toronto Film Festival, and he’s skipping it to come with me because I said, ‘If I win, and you’re not there, then that would be a major bummer.’”
EXCLUSIVE: Sex and the City fans can rejoice — John Corbett’s Aidan Shaw will reunite with former love Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) on HBO Max’s And Just Like That… I hear Corbett is set for a substantial, multi-episode arc on the second season of the Sex and the City followup, reprising his role as the likable furniture maker. Reps for HBO Max and Corbett declined comment.
Corbett’s Aidan was one of two notable Sex and the City fan favorite characters that did not appear in the first season of And Just Like That…, along with Kim Cattrall’s Samantha. While the revival of the iconic HBO series was announced from the get-go as focusing on Carrie (Parker), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) with no plans for Cattrall involvement, fans waited until the last seconds of the season finale for Aiden to show up after Corbett had teased his participation, telling Page Six in April 2021, “I think I might be in quite a few [episodes].”
Parker, who also serves as executive producer on And Just Like That…, found the stunt amusing.
“It was fun. It was fun for him to say that,” she said on Watch What Happens Live this past February. “When he actually reached out, very kindly, because he’s nothing if not a gentleman, and apologized for doing that as a joke, and then I was like, ‘No, no, no, it’s a free country first of all.’ And I thought it was kind of delightful and kind of fun.”
Following the February finale, executive producer Michael Patrick King explained to Deadline why Aidan did not appear in the season, which dealt with the aftermath of Carrie’s husband, Mr. Big (Chris Noth), dying at the end of the first episode.
“It really just felt like this was a lot for Carrie,” he said. “This season was a lot. We wanted to get her through [Big’s death] and into the light—the last episode is called, ‘Seeing the Light.’ We wanted to get her out. [Aidan’s return] is a big storyline that everybody at home wrote that we had never intended.”
In the same February interview, Parker did not rule out a potential Corbett appearance for Season 2.
“I think he would be… I mean, I’m not going, yes, all of it’s possible,” she said.
In the final moments of the Season 1 finale, Carrie is seen kissing podcast producer Franklyn (Ivan Hernandez), a sign that she is ready to begin dating again following a period of mourning.
Corbett portrayed Carrie Bradshaw’s (Parker) on-and-off boyfriend and later fiancé Aidan Shaw in seasons 3 and 4 of Sex and the City. They broke up twice, the first time after she confessed to sleeping with her future husband Mr. Big, and the second time when she couldn’t commit after Aidan proposed and the two got engaged.
Carrie and Aidan mended fences in Season 6 when they bumped into one another on the street, with Aidan revealing that he was married with a young son. Fate brought them together again in the film Sex and the City 2 at a market in Abu Dhabi. The pair shared a passionate kiss during a later dinner but with both being married at the time (and Aidan also a father of three), Carrie ran away. A Carrie and Aidan reunion years later will likely have to address what has happened to Aidan’s wife, Kathy.
Corbett is coming off reprising another beloved character in a romantic comedy franchise, Ian in the third My Big Fat Greek Wedding movie, which just wrapped production in Greece.
A confluence of hard bargaining and legislative lobbying helped secure significant gains in two new agreements SAG-AFTRAreached earlier this month covering exclusivity, which are standard provisions in TV contracts that can hold TV series regulars off the market and unable to work for unreasonably long periods of time, guild leaders said in a podcast released on Thursday.
Earlier this week, the union reached an agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers on new exclusivity provisions, and SAG-AFTRA’s national board will meet on Saturday to approve it. The guild also reached a tentative agreement with Netflix earlier this month that includes new exclusivity terms, and members are now voting to ratify it.
SAG-AFTRA leaders, however, say their lobbying for a bill that’s nearing the finish line in the California legislature is what that finally got the companies to move on the issue. That guild-sponsored bill – AB 437 – dubbed the Let Actors Work (LAW) Act, would sharply limit exclusivity in TV actors’ deals.
“The fact of the matter is that our legislative activities gave us the leverage that we needed to accomplish a lot of what was done in this negotiation about options and exclusivity,” said SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland during the guild’s podcast about the new Netflix agreement. “And sometimes I do hear from members who ask: ‘Why do we have lobbying? Why do we have a legislative program? How is that what we should be really doing as a union?’ And I think this is the perfect example. Here, our legislative activities line up directly with our contract negotiations. They’re about core terms that our members are working under as performers in this industry.”
Speaking on the podcast about the new Netflix agreement, Ray Rodriquez, the guild’s chief contracts officer, agreed that those negotiations got a big boost from the pending legislation.
“The changes that we achieved in the area of options and exclusivity – we have been trying to make these improvements for more than 10 years in collective bargaining,” he said. “We’ve made extraordinary efforts; we’ve met with network presidents and the CEOs of studios. We’ve brought delegations of members to talk to them about how serious this problem was, about how urgent it was to get this problem fixed…The ordinary bargaining process for these contracts had proven insufficient to get us to what we needed to do in the area of options and exclusivity, and it really was this legislative initiative that gave us the additional leverage and made such a visible difference.
“The way the companies have responded on this issue while this legislation has been pending represents a night-and-day difference than how they were responding to us when there wasn’t legislation pending…And so the timing lined up perfectly for us to use the fact that we had that legislation pending as further leverage to get changes that we need in that area, but also the (Netflix) agreement was expired and it was time to renegotiate the agreement that we first established with Netflix in 2019.
“I just want to reiterate the legislative component of that,” added Ben Whitehair, SAG-AFTRA’s executive vice president. “To me, as a member, it’s another example of the ways that SAG-AFTRA is fighting on behalf of members. We think about the contract negotiations and enforcement, but it’s a powerful reminder in seeing how the legislative work that the union does as well is yet another area that can provide gains or leverage for our members. So I just want to highlight that because it really helps flesh out, you know, when people say, ‘What exactly does SAG-AFTRA do?’ – that these are some of the most core functions: we’re negotiating contracts with the employers; we’re working to get better terms and conditions for our members; we’re fighting to keep these things enforced, and we’re going out and getting legislation in the works if needed to do that as well.”
SAG-AFTRA spent $1,097,586 for “political activities and lobbying” in support of legislation beneficial to its members during its last fiscal year, according to its latest financial disclosure report filed with the U.S. Department of Labor. The guild, however, does not endorse or contribute to political candidates.
According to SAG-AFTRA, major changes to the options and exclusivity rules giving series regulars the right to work on other programs when they are not working for their Netflix series include: • Increasing the options and exclusivity money breaks from $40,000 per episode or per week to $65,000 per episode or per week for half-hour programs and $70,000 per episode or per week for one-hour programs. This means many more series regulars will be protected by the options and exclusivity terms of the collective bargaining agreement that give them more freedom to work. • Secured the right for a performer to be a second-position series regular on another series or a second-position lead in a miniseries each calendar year, in addition to unlimited guest star appearances and unlimited guest star recurring roles of not more than six episodes per season of a series. • Netflix can no longer refuse to allow a series regular to appear on another program because that program is made for pay television, a streaming service or a linear channel that has the right to stream the program within 30 days. • Netflix can no longer refuse to allow a series regular to appear on another program because another series regular appeared on the same season of that series. • Netflix must provide a “conflict-free window” of at least three months (and, if possible, longer) following principal photography of each season during which a series regular can commit their time to another program without having to confirm availability or schedule with Netflix. • Option exercise timelines have been reduced, and the ability to extend them is also reduced and made more expensive, meaning series regulars will know much sooner whether Netflix will employ them for another season of the series. • For the first time in any contract, there is now a deadline for starting a series regular’s services for a subsequent season of a series and/or commencing payment to them for those services: Three months after option exercise, with the ability to extend by another two months in exchange for a non-recoupable, subsequent-season episodic fee.
Other gains in the new Netflix agreement, which has been overwhelmingly approved by the guild’s national board, include a first-ever background coverage zone in Albuquerque, New Mexico, covering all stand-ins and the first 10 background actors; residuals for stunt coordinators for continued exhibition of their high-budget streaming programs on Netflix, using the day performer minimum as the basis for the residual calculation, and the establishment of Juneteenth as a new contractual holiday.
As part of the agreement, Netflix will also become a member of the AMPTP – the bargaining arm for the major companies. And while the Netflix Agreement will survive Netflix’s membership in the AMPTP, future negotiations with Netflix will occur concurrently with AMPTP negotiations.
Membership voting on the new Netflix deal, which is now underway, will conclude on Aug. 31.
