Jesse Plemons is never one to chew scenery. Even when handed a role that edges on madness, he doesn’t go big. Instead, he goes deep, building tension quietly from the inside out. And in Yorgos Lanthimos’ uncategorizable, darkly comic sci-fi thriller, Plemons — reuniting with the director after playing three characters in last year’s “Kinds of Kindness” — delivers one of his most riveting performances yet. As Teddy, a rumpled, reclusive beekeeper convinced that a pharma CEO (Emma Stone) is an alien from the planet Andromeda, Plemons channels paranoia, grief and righteousness into something both absurd and unnervingly sincere. The “I do my own research” archetype could easily veer into “SNL” sketch territory but he plays it heartbreakingly straight, creating a chillingly familiar portrait of a man lost in an algorithmic maze of internet rabbit holes and desperate for clarity in a world that no longer makes sense. Teddy enlists his younger cousin Don (Aidan Delbis, an autistic first-time actor in a mesmerizing turn) to help him abduct Stone’s steely executive, drawing him into the mission in a misguided effort to protect him. Even as things spiral into chaos, Plemons (a 2022 supporting actor Oscar nominee for Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog”) roots the performance in a warped but recognizably human emotional logic. The result captures the anxious, conspiratorial spirit of 2025 with eerie precision, proving once again that Plemons doesn’t need to raise his voice to deliver a performance that speaks volumes. — Josh Rottenberg
Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who needs a mental health break from the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce engagement vortex.
Three years after “The Terminal List” ended its first season, Prime Video’s prequel to the military-espionage thriller arrives. The debut season of the flagship series concluded with — spoiler alert! — Navy SEAL commander James Reece (Chris Pratt) discovering his closest ally, Ben Edwards (Taylor Kitsch) was involved in the ambush mission that led to the death of his platoon, as well as his wife and daughter. “The Terminal List: Dark Wolf” traces Ben’s journey from Navy SEAL to CIA operative. Creator and showrunner David DiGilio stopped by to discuss expanding the Jack Carr book universe and working with Kitsch.
Also in this week’s Screen Gab, our streaming recommendations are different types of nostalgia plays: Noah Hawley’s timely television prequel to the ‘Alien’ film franchise that is set on Earth, and “Gunsmoke,” the classic western that first hit TV screens 70 years ago and is finding new life in the streaming era.
ICYMI
Must-read stories you might have missed
Olivia Colman, left, and Benedict Cumberbatch of “The Roses,” a remake of “The War of the Roses,” photographed in London in June.
Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times
Sydney Chandler as Wendy in FX’s “Alien: Earth.”
(Patrick Brown / FX)
“Alien: Earth” (Hulu, Disney+)
Reimagining a nearly 50-year-old franchise like “Alien” isn’t for the faint of heart (or stomach). The iconic sci-fi horror saga has already spawned a tangled web of sequels, prequels and spin-offs of wildly varying quality. But Noah Hawley — who turned “Fargo” and “Legion” into bold, brainy extensions of their cinematic roots — brings a jolt of fresh, unnerving life to “Alien: Earth.” The horror is real, the xenomorphs still terrifying (and, yes, there are new critters too). But this isn’t just eight hours of people running from acid-blooded monsters. It’s a sprawling, idea-rich vision of a future ruled by tech oligopolies, where minds are uploaded into synthetic bodies and morality is outsourced to machines — a world as indebted to Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” as his original “Alien.” The monsters are back, but the deeper thrill is how Hawley keeps you thinking even as you’re bracing for the next kill. Now midway through its eight‑episode run, “Alien: Earth” doesn’t just extend a franchise. It reanimates it with a mind of its own and a brand-new set of fangs. — Josh Rottenberg
James Arness, Amanda Blake, Ken Curtis and Milburn Stone in “Gunsmoke.”
(CBS)
“Gunsmoke” (Peacock, Pluto TV)
I long for the simple times when my family and I would gather around the television to watch the latest episode of “Gunsmoke.” The drama that featured James Arness as no-nonsense Marshal Matt Dillon was a staple in millions of households throughout its 20-year run, which ended in 1975. In the streaming era, “Gunsmoke” is now sparking a lot of new heat, and has ranked at least twice among Nielsen’s top 10 list of most-streamed acquired series. Beginning Saturday, MeTV will kick off a month-long 70th anniversary salute to the drama, airing specially-themed weeks such as “Best Characters of Dodge City” and five made-for-TV movies. — Greg Braxton
Guest spot
A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching
Ben Edwards (Taylor Kitsch), James Reece (Chris Pratt) in “The Terminal List: Dark Wolf.”
(Justin Lubin / Prime)
Taylor Kitsch rose to fame with his portrayal of brooding football player Tim Riggins on “Friday Night Lights,” but he’s spent a good portion of his career since then stepping into the military mindset — as my former colleague Michael Ordoña astutely unpacked in his profile of the actor. With “The Terminal List: Dark Wolf,” which further expands Jack Carr’s book universe, Kitsch reprises his role as Navy SEAL-turned-CIA operative Ben Edwards in Prime Video’s prequel to 2022’s Chris Pratt-led series. Premiering its first three episodes earlier this week, the series takes place five years before the events of the first season of “The Terminal List” and explores Ben’s origin story and his crisis of faith that eventually led to his betrayal of James Reece (Pratt). Showrunner David DiGilio stopped by Screen Gab recently to discuss why Ben is a worthwhile character for a spin-off, the story behind that AC/DC needle drop and more. — Yvonne Villarreal
What was it about the story of Ben Edwards that resonated with you and made you so passionate about wanting to explore his origin story?
Ben is an ever-evolving character. He was different in the book than he was in our scripts for Season 1 of “The Terminal List.” Then Taylor arrived and brought a whole new layer of empathy, complexity and danger to the role. Unlike Reece, who represents a light wolf character pulled into a dark place by a conspiracy, Ben Edwards is a man with innate darkness inside him. But he also values loyalty, brotherhood and freedom. And that dichotomy in a character means we can give Taylor a ton of great stuff to play. It makes Ben unpredictable. And we get to watch how Ben evolves from a leader in the SEAL Teams to a Black Side Operator who thinks he can use his dark wolf for good.
You had involvement from real veterans in the making of the series, including in the writing of the season. There are seven episodes and five were written by veterans. Walk me through finding the voices to join the room and how did that enrich discussion as you broke stories?
As we were making Season 1 of the flagship series, we made a commitment to military authenticity. The lived experience is what defines Jack Carr’s writing in the books, and we wanted to make sure it translated to the shows. During Season 1 of “The Terminal List,” two military veteran storytellers in particular — Max Adams, a former Army Ranger, and Jared Shaw, a former Navy SEAL — really stepped up our action and authenticity and our storytelling overall. When it came time for “Dark Wolf,” we elevated Max and Jared to executive producer[s]. And we were able to include Jack Carr in more of the writing and creating side of the show as well. But we didn’t stop there. We brought writer-producer Kenny Sheard — also a former SEAL — into the writers room and brought back Ray Mendoza — a former SEAL and technical advisor on Season 1 — to second unit direct. So, between Max, Jared, Kenny, Ray and Jack Carr himself, I don’t think you have a show that’s more committed to getting it right for the military veteran audience.
Is there a personal connection — for you or the veterans who worked on the show — behind the use of AC/DC’s “Hells Bells” to score the time jump in the first episode?
Interesting story. We were trying to use Led Zeppelin for that training montage in the pilot. The band is notoriously tricky to clear, but we made it to about the five yard line before it got denied. Sadly, we’d been temp-editing with that song for months and were all quite attached. So we now had to pivot … quickly. We found AC/DC’s “Hells Bells” by asking our military veteran storytellers for bands/songs that were big for them during deployments. AC/DC was near the top of the list, and the civilian side of our EP team had connections to the music as well. We tried three AC/DC songs for the sequence, and “Hells Bells” was a no-brainer. But, truly, a classic example of the adage “don’t fall in love with the temp.” We made this music selection way tougher than it needed to be!
Tell us a good story about Taylor Kitsch and his time on the inflatable boat.
I think the biggest thing we learned from putting Taylor on that boat in the pilot is that we weren’t in Kansas anymore. Meaning, Budapest production is very different than production in the U.S. In the States, you would have a full “marine unit” dedicated to getting a scene like that. Half a dozen camera boats and follow boats built specifically to capture that sequence. In Budapest, we were tying camera men down on the boat itself, and turning tourist river boats into parts of our armada. Boats could not keep up with those beastly gunship engines. Smaller boats got waked. We got the scene, and we got it safely. But after the ease of filming the flagship series in Los Angeles, I think that day told all of us that Budapest would be a city with unique production challenges. But I give a huge hat tip to the Budapest crew, because even on a day like that, they never complained. And I think having the cast and American crew together in a foreign city really helped bond us all into one big family.
What have you watched recently that you are recommending to everyone you know?
My last watch was probably while flying to and from South Africa and Toronto for the filming of “The Terminal List” Season 2. I downloaded and binged “Adolescence” [Netflix] and Season 2 of “Andor” [Disney+]. I’m surprised more folks don’t talk about “Andor.” It’s probably the most smartly-written show on streaming these days. A World War II resistance film wrapped up in incredible sci-fi visuals. And on “Adolescence,” the performances were incredible. But note to all, whatever you do, don’t watch that show’s finale in a crowded airport lounge in London. I was bawling.
What’s your go-to “comfort watch,” the movie or TV show you go back to again and again?
Might not surprise folks to hear, but it’s either “Saving Private Ryan” [Prime Video, Pluto TV] or “Gladiator” [Prime Video, Paramount +]. Both movies capture the warrior’s ethos and sense of brotherhood that we strive for in the “Terminal List” shows. They also combine great action with big emotional character-driven scenes. Hollywood’s balance of VFX and character work was probably at its zenith right around the turn of the century. So I love to rewatch those films as a reminder of the balance I strive for in my writing, and for the balance we try to build into the Jack Carr Universe shows.
Actor Floyd Levine, whose career spanned numerous decades and a variety of projects ranging from films “The Hangover” and “Norbit” to TV shows “Melrose Place” and “Murder, She Wrote,” has died. He was 93.
Levine died Sunday, surrounded by family and “probably wishing someone would bring him a martini,” his daughter-in-law Tracy Robbins announced Tuesday on Instagram. Robbins, who is married to Levine’s son, former Paramount executive Brian Robbins, said Levine was “the best father-in-law, grandpa, and all around jokester.”
Levine began his screen career in the early 1970s and appeared in almost 100 productions. His notable credits also include films “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Bloodbrothers,” “Super Fly” and TV series “Kojak,” “Starsky & Hutch,” “Baywatch” and “Days of Our Lives.” He often played minor characters, including police officers, detectives, tailors, doctors and a crime boss.
A former taxi cab driver from New York City, Levine also collaborated with his son on Eddie Murphy starrers “Norbit,” “Meet Dave” and “A Thousand Words.” Robbins was inspired by his father to pursue an entertainment career and was also an actor, director and longtime producer before he became an industry executive. The father-son duo also both appeared in “Archie Bunker’s Place” and “Head of the Class.” They also worked together on “Good Burger,” “Kenan & Kel” and “Coach Carter.”
“Brian is basically his twin, and we will see Floyd’s grin every time we look at him,” Tracy Robbins added in her Instagram post.
“You all have made my life sugar, and I love you all so much,” he tells loved ones in a video shared by Robbins. “If I could do it, I’d hug you and kiss you all. God bless you all and keep punching.”
Levine was laid to rest on Wednesday. In addition to Brian and Tracy Robbins, survivors also include daughter Sheryl, son Marc and several grandchildren, according to the Hollywood Reporter. His wife, Rochelle, died in May 2022 at age 85.
“I would like to think there’s a casting call in heaven, and you showed up early, script in hand,” Tracy Robbins added in her post. “I will miss him dearly, but i know he’s making the angels laugh already and back together with his beautiful wife Rochelle.”
Alix Lapri, who portrayed Effie Morales on the Starz show “Power,” was arrested last week in Atlanta on suspicion of cruelty to children in the third degree and disorderly conduct, according to county records.
The actor, whose full name is Alexus Lapri Geier, was released the following day. Details on the circumstances surrounding the Aug. 17 arrest were not immediately clear.
The 28-year-old actor appeared in several episodes of “Power” as well as its sequel, “Power Book II: Ghost.” She also had a role in the film “Den of Thieves.” But Lapri hit the limelight as a singer.
She released an EP in 2012 titled “I Am Alix Lapri.” Lapri also appeared on BET’s sitcom “Reed Between the Lines” alongside Tracee Ellis Ross and Malcolm-Jamal Warner.
The state of Georgia considers cruelty to children in the third degree to be a misdemeanor.
It occurs when a person “intentionally allows a child under age 18 to witness the commission of a forcible felony, battery, or family violence battery,” according to Child Welfare.
Lapri’s manager did not respond Tuesday to a request for comment by The Times. Calls to the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office were not immediately returned.
By day, he helps audience members find their seats. By night, he’s onstage, commanding them. For actor Tyrone Huntley, the hustle is part of the role in Los Angeles.
Less than 48 hours after raising his voice to the heavens as Simon in the Hollywood Bowl’s electric, weekend-only production of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” Huntley was back at the iconic amphitheater — not under the lights, but beneath them — wearing a white polo and usher’s badge, guiding concertgoers to their seats.
“It was surreal getting back to work and being on the other side of the stage,” Huntley said, overhearing people talk about the early August show days later. “They didn’t know who I was, so I was just listening and smiling and knowing that we certainly made an impression.” Even marketing staff at the Bowl noticed, posting him on TikTok in a clip seen by some 30,000 viewers so far.
Tyrone Huntley, center, performs as Simon in “Jesus Christ Superstar” at the Hollywood Bowl, alongside Cynthia Erivo as Jesus, left.
(Farah Sosa)
Huntley is one of many working actors caught between ambition and survival. As film and TV production in the region drops to historic lows, many industry workers have turned to service jobs or side gigs to stay in the entertainment capital. The region’s slowdown has been brutal: the twin strikes of 2023, studio belt-tightening, productions lured out of state and wildfires that shuttered work this year. The result is fewer auditions, shorter runs and a scramble for survival jobs — even for performers who’ve just taken center stage.
The U.K.-born actor knows both sides. Trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, Huntley leaped immediately into a U.K. tour of “Sister Act” — alongside his future co-star Erivo — spending more than a decade in London original casts such as “Memphis,” “Dreamgirls” and “The Book of Mormon.”
Coincidentally, his breakout role came in 2016 when he landed the co-lead as Judas in “Jesus Christ Superstar” at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. The performance earned him an Evening Standard Theatre Award and a Laurence Olivier Award nomination. “It gave me the confidence to think big,” Huntley said. He later reprised Judas on the North American tour in 2021 after the previous lead was arrested for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
Huntley moved to Los Angeles in 2022 with an eye on the silver screen but found himself arriving in a city still wobbling. “Artistically, it just feels like everyone is struggling,” he said. For the last three years, Huntley’s flown back and forth to London — most recently for an acclaimed “Hello, Dolly!” revival with Imelda Staunton — using steady West End paychecks to bankroll life in L.A. And being a member of Actors’ Equity Assn., the stage actors’ union in the U.S., helps cover health insurance costs here, not a consideration he may have in the U.K. where coverage is free.
Tyrone Huntley stands in his usher uniform in front of the stage where just a few weeks earlier he played Simon alongside Cynthia Erivo’s Jesus in “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
For actors like Huntley, the financial backdrop is hard to ignore. California nearly scrapped its new Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund, which subsidizes nonprofit programs, this year before lawmakers restored it. L.A. County trimmed back its arts grants, forcing small theaters to do more with less. And in Washington, the Trump administration has moved to roll back federal arts funding, leaving some local companies without crucial National Endowment for the Arts support.
Determined to stay in L.A., Huntley auditioned for the Bowl’s “Jesus Christ Superstar” 2025 production, this time as Simon Zealotes, the fiery apostle with one of the show’s most rousing anthems. The casting was headline-making: Erivo, fresh off “Wicked,” as Jesus, and Adam Lambert as Judas. The production was hailed as “the musical theater version of the Avengers,” with theater critic Charles McNulty praising the supernova of talent that lit up the Bowl like a rock concert.
A few months before opening night, Huntley picked up usher shifts at the same venue. The Bowl granted him three weeks off for rehearsals in July, where he also understudied as Erivo’s Jesus. He also got time off to fly back across the pond for a series regular spot on Channel 4’s upcoming “A Woman of Substance.” He described working at the Bowl as fair, easygoing work that keeps him close to live performance, with the added perk of watching Bob Dylan, Earth, Wind & Fire, and the L.A. Phil. “They know a lot of us are working actors, musicians, writers, so they’re very flexible in giving us time to pursue our careers,” he said.
One highlight of working as an usher is that Tyrone Huntley gets to see acts like Herbie Hancock perform at the Hollywood Bowl.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
At the Bowl, ushers perform the invisible choreography that keeps the night in motion — steering picnic baskets and seat cushions toward the right rows and soothing the occasional ticket snafus or crises. It’s common for the ushering job to be summer gigs — or even first jobs. There are anywhere from 300 to 400 ushers for the season, with more than 100 working per night.
Huntley sees his dual roles as emblematic of the life of an artist here. “I have to support myself, that’s the case for most of us, especially in L.A.,” he said. “Sometimes you can have a proper job and do the acting as well. It’s not all showbiz parties and award shows. Sometimes incredible opportunities come along, you do them, and then you get back to normal. You can do both — and the pressure isn’t always to be on the stage.”
In the Emmy-season finale of The Envelope video podcast, Tramell Tillman opens up about the jobs that made him “miserable” before acting — and how they informed his performance as Mr. Milchick in “Severance.” Then, Katherine LaNasa explains what her Emmy nomination for “The Pitt” means to her as a self-described “character actress.”
Kelvin Washington: Hello, everyone, and welcome to The Envelope. I’m Kelvin Washington, alongside folks you are used to seeing at this point: Yvonne Villarreal, Mark Olsen. And we are excited about this episode because it’s Emmy season. Mark, I even wanna start with you. What sticks out to you? Maybe it’s just someone you think’s gonna win or something you’re expecting, maybe a trend with the theme of the show as well. What jumps out?
Mark Olsen: Well, I’m looking at the category of supporting actress in a drama, where all the ladies from “The White Lotus” were nominated, and people are really thinking that Carrie Coon will probably be winning in that category. Also, she’s just kind of on such a hot streak right now with “The Gilded Age” as well. But I have to say, I am so excited, my indie film queen, Parker Posey — who played, of course, the matriarch of the Ratliff family on the show — I’ve seen her give some award speeches before, and we would be in for a real doozy if they would pick Parker Posey. I don’t know if that’s gonna happen, but I think that category just in general is gonna be sort of a fun category to watch.
Yvonne Villarreal: Do you think she’ll thank Lorazepam? She mentions it so much as her character.
Washington: We didn’t even get an answer. Just a laugh.
Olsen: Well, mine just kicked in.
Washington: OK, copy that. So I go to you now, Yvonne. What about you? So we got a whole “White Lotus” phenomenon, as you mentioned, Mark. If you’re on the show, you’re nominated. What about you, Yvonne?
Villarreal: I’m really curious to see how the drama category shakes out. This idea of “Severance,” that was gone for so long, is really dominating, but then you have a breakout like “The Pitt” that’s really strong, and it’ll be interesting to see how that shakes out. I’ll be happy either way. If they miss the opportunity to stage an emergency with “The Pitt” people there, c’mon.
Washington: That makes sense. And plus, I like how you did that, kind of foreshadowing this episode with the two shows that you picked. Mark, I want to go to you. You had a chance to talk with Tramell Tillman, speaking of “Severance.” By the way, before you go, I brought this up one time. We talked about this. I did something on the morning news that I anchor. I came out with a marching band from the Palisades. We had the fires in Los Angeles in January, and we had a marching band bring us in the show. And everyone was saying that I was his character. That’s all it was. That’s literally all my entire timeline was about. And I think it dropped just a Sunday prior to me posting that.
Villarreal: You’ve got your Halloween costume ready.
Washington: Yes. So tell me more about your chat, Mark.
Olsen: Tramell plays what’s become a real fan-favorite character on the show, Mr. Milchick, who is the middle manager in the office there. And as much as this has been a huge breakout role for Tramell, it’s really fascinating the road that he’s had to get here. He didn’t really start acting professionally until he was into his 30s. He had originally studied medicine, then he had finally gone back to school, studied acting, and then kind of was outside the business for a while, and then really has sort of hit a stride, and it’s just exciting to see that happen for him. And then, of course, he has the marching band sequence this year, which became such a huge, popular thing; sort of a viral moment. And on top of that, he also had just an absolute scene-stealing performance in “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” and so this has just been a huge year for him so far.
Washington: We see those moments happen, right? Where someone has that role that finally [breaks through], and then you look at it and you realize, “Oh, I’ve seen him or her in a million other movies.” You just didn’t notice him until they finally had that role. And so it’s awesome to see when that happens for folks. I go to you, Yvonne. Tell us a bit more about Katherine LaNasa. You just mentioned “The Pitt.” Tell us about your conversation.
Villarreal: Well, it fits perfectly, because Katherine LaNasa is having a moment too on this show. You know, she’s been a working actor for a long time, but she’s really had this breakout moment on “The Pitt.” The medical drama really took off when it launched in January, just because of the format. You just want to keep going. It covers a 15-hour shift, and it just felt revelatory. And she plays Dana, the charge nurse at this hospital. And you really get a sense early on that she’s the one that makes this place work. She’s the one that knows everything. And she knows how to deal with all the personalities. And she really has, over this 15-hour shift, an existential moment where she experiences violence on the job. And it really rattles her. And she is grappling with, “This job that I’ve had for so long, is this still where I need to be? Is it time to go?” And that’s how the season sort of ends with her, of her having this reckoning of, “Is this over for me? Or am I going to keep going?” And it was really just great to talk to her about having this moment at this point in her career.
Washington: And that’s what we’re talking about. Folks get their moment. Whenever it comes, obviously, I’m sure very appreciated. All right, let’s get to Tramell Tillman and Mark’s conversation. Here it is.
Tramell Tillman in “Severance.”
(Apple TV+)
Mark Olsen: Before we start talking about “Severance,” I want to go back to talk about — and please correct me if I’m wrong, but as I understand it, you didn’t really start acting professionally until you were in your 30s. You’d been in school and working. And I’m always so curious about when people aren’t a prodigy, aren’t a success right out of the gate. For you, what was that road like? What was it like for you getting to be able to say, I’m going be an actor?
Tramell Tillman: It’s more like a cul-de-sac. I was kind of going in and out, going in circles a bit. It was not a straight journey for me at all. I had made the commitment that I wanted to be an actor when I was 10 and was really shy about pursuing it because I didn’t have a lot of mentors around that were doing the work that I wanted to do at that level. So I leaned on the academic side, more so in the sciences and studying medicine. And I told myself I was going to become an orthopedic surgeon and was going down that route. But performing was always a part of my life. I would perform for my family, especially the adults in the house. When they were bored and didn’t want to watch TV, they put all the cousins, the babies and the grandkids up in front of them. We had to do little talent shows. And my first performance in front of a live audience of strangers, if you will, was at the church when I was 10. But there was something that clicked, and I wanted to follow that spark and it never went away. Even when I was studying medicine or selling knives door-to-door in Maryland or teaching about abstinence in Mississippi or rallying and pushing kids about the importance of education here and there.
Olsen: So you always had the goal of becoming an actor. In your mind, you were on your path.
Tillman: Well, I didn’t commit to the path until I felt like life had just beat me down, and only in the sense that I was miserable doing everything else and had to tap back into myself. And I was fortunate to have a wonderful mentor, Dr. Mark G. Henderson, who basically inspired me to do a lot of soul-searching and figure out what was that thing that lit my fire, and it was performing. And it was he that inspired me to go to grad school to get the tools. He saw that I had the talent, but I needed to learn the craft. And I’m grateful I made that decision.
Olsen: Was there a movie or a performance, a play, some other actor that you saw that felt like a possibility model for you, like, “Oh, I want to do that. I could do that too.”
Tillman: Honestly, there were so many, so many actors. Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Laurence Fishburne, Meryl Streep, Gene Hackman. I was watching so many films as a kid growing up, and I loved what they were doing. I loved the stories that they were telling. And so they were all examples of what could be. I just didn’t know how they went about their journey. And then, if you look at all of their stories, it’s very different. So there’s no one way to get to where you wanna be. Specifically in this industry. But you just gotta keep trying.
Olsen: Even after you went to graduate school, I think there were a few years after school before you really sort of got your career going. What were those years like for you?
Tillman: They were tough. After graduate school, I had four jobs. I was living in New York and I was determined not to be a starving artist. So I had two jobs working at a nonprofit. I had a job working in catering. And then, of course, I have my acting gig. And so that kept me incredibly busy. But it’s a grind. The acting itself, the business of it is a grind, and then New York City is a hustle. So you’re always going, you’re always moving and learning, and you’ve got to move quick and learn quicker. But it really prepared me for “Severance,” in a way. I’d had all these corporate jobs, which who’d have thought would come in handy? These were just survival gigs, but it all fueled me to where I am now.
Olsen: With “Severance,” the first season was well received, but this second season has just seemed like a phenomenon. It just seems like the show has really skyrocketed. What do you think it is that audiences are really responding to?
Tillman: Definitely the mystery. We want to know what is going on at Lumon. But it’s also — there’s a human story there. We give so much of ourselves at work. And a lot of times, we are not who we are at work versus home. And so this show really speaks to that. It speaks to the human condition, the investments that we have within ourselves and the relationships. And it begs the question, why are we doing this and who is it for?
Olsen: Do you find that those are the same things that you responded to when you first read the script, when you first were approached about the project?
Tillman: I was very curious about what this show was. So I got the sides, and my audition sides were the red ball scene and the scene with Milchick and — we learned later — Helena in the stairwell where he’s encouraging her that she’s doing the right thing, go back into the wall and finish her work. So I didn’t really have a concept of what this thing was. I just knew that this guy was a motivator. He was a leader. He was a teacher. He was someone that you can trust, but he was also someone that you didn’t want to mess with. So I just really leaned into trying to find who this guy was and make him a whole human. And I really had fun with the process.
Olsen: There are so many wild fan theories around the show. I don’t know how much you even engage with all that or are aware of it, but does that inform your own understanding of the show at all?
Tillman: I had to kind of avoid it. First of all, it’s very addictive. You’re reading the comments, you’re reading the Reddit threads, and the contributions, the thoughts behind it are so intoxicating, and they’re really well thought out. And it makes me think as an actor, “But is that what we were doing? Is that the story we’re telling?” And then I’ll call Dan [Erickson] or Ben [Stiller] and [say], “Wait, but someone said this, and this is kind of a little spot-on.” And they’re like, “No, that’s not what’s happening at all.” But it’s just this whole journey. And I think it’s a testament to how great the show is. It also speaks to the intelligence of our fans and the passion behind the show. It’s enriching, it’s empowering as well.
Olsen: But is it challenging with this show in particular — how do you play to the enigma? How do you grapple with all the unknown factors to this world, to your character? Are you having to answer all those questions for yourself before you perform a scene, or can you somehow embrace the mystery and know that there are going to be unknowns?
Tillman: Well, with this character, he’s really special because this is one of the rare instances where the character knows more than the actor. And so that gets really tricky as well. And so there are things that you’re just not going to know and you have to let go to that, I found. And there are constant conversations that I have, with Dan and Ben and with the fellow directors, of trying to figure out what this world is. And so because the world itself is an enigma, you don’t have to play the enigma. You just lean into the circumstances that have been set up and trust that it will reveal itself in the process.
Olsen: The idea that the character knows more than the actor playing the character, does that make you feel wrong-footed? At any point, do you learn something about the character down the line and maybe wish you’d played an earlier scene a little different?
Tillman: Oh, yeah. All the time, all the time. But you know, that’s where the trust comes in. You’re trusting that you have a team of people that will lead you in the right direction, that there are people that have vision. That you have great writers and cinematographers and directors that really understand the journey. And while I might not get it, I can lean on them to help me get there. And they’re very vocal. If I’m off, they’ll tell me.
Olsen: Especially in this second season, it’s been so exciting in that your character of Milchick is very much a company man, but also there seems to be a growing sense of conflict inside of him. And so for you, how do you interpret that? What’s going on with him?
Tillman: We started in chaos from Season 1, Day 1. And Season 2 really ups the ante because now he’s in a position of leadership and no one is helping him navigate this new space. And he’s being thrust in[to] all these different situations and circumstances and the Innies are not helping him by any means. They’re making his job a lot harder. And he’s learning the lessons of what it is to move up in corporate America, that it’s not so much easier just because you have this leadership title. And I think that’s what the audience is experiencing. We’re starting to see the cracks beneath the veneer.
Olsen: Are you approaching him in a sense as a prison guard who’s suddenly becoming too sympathetic to his charges?
Tillman: I wouldn’t say a prison guard who’s too sympathetic. I’ve approached him as a man who is committed to the job. He’s a person of duty, by any means necessary. And we see the differences in how Cobel leads, which is very much old school, versus Milchick, which is, “Let’s do kindness reforms. Let’s give them what they want. Let’s kind of help them along, and maybe that will bring about positive results.” But we see it doesn’t.
Olsen: I think audiences have been really surprised by how empathetic they are feeling towards Milchick. I don’t think people expected that. And one way to put that as a question is simply, do you see him as one of the villains of the story?
Tillman: My tendency was to think he was a villain in Season 1, but as I stepped further into the script, I think there’s something more interesting about this story. And to categorize him as a villain, I think it’s a bit shortsighted. It’s easy to go that route. And so what I really enjoy is the conversation where people are discussing if he is a villain because I think that there is more to mine. There’s more to understand.
Olsen: How have you been exploring that for yourself? As you get a script for each episode, how are you sort of continuing to evolve your own understanding of who Milchick is?
Tillman: I really just allow the page to inform me, you know, try not to have any preconceived notions of where you think it’s going to go and just lean into the circumstances. And you know, Dan Erickson and his writing team do such a great job in presenting a wonderful road map to get you from point A to point B, and then C and then D. And if you don’t anticipate, it’s really quite a fascinating journey.
Olsen: How have your own experiences with office culture informed your performance as the character and your understanding of this world?
Tillman: One of the jobs I had, I was an assistant to the vice president of accounting and controls for a finance company, a world I knew nothing about. But essentially, my job was to file financial reports, do travel and scheduling and so forth. But on top of that, I was in charge of office culture. So I had to come up with these innovative ideas to keep positive morale in the office. Sound familiar? So that was a wonderful exercise that really helped me fuel building and constructing Milchick. I spent years as a cater waiter. So customer service was really important. I used to sell, I was in retail. So being [able] to anticipate a need, being able to offer a product or an idea, like we see in Season 2, where Milchick visits Mark’s Outie, he gives him all of these incentives, being able to construct that in such a way that is pleasant and not threatening was really important. So this guy, he’s having to go from being an administrator to the Innies to being almost a customer service rep to the Outies. And that was really intriguing to me.
Olsen: This season, we’ve seen Milchick suffer a lot of micro- and some not-so-micro-aggressions, many of them based around race. Was that something that was familiar to you from your own time in office culture?
Tillman: I think it’s just familiar to me, period. Just living and being in various circumstances, living in the South, being in the Midwest at times, just kind of a symptom of existing, unfortunately.
Olsen: I’ve seen you describe yourself as a reformed people pleaser. Would you say that Milchick is on that same trajectory?
Tillman: I was 100% a people pleaser. I don’t know, he’s definitely not reformed. He’s definitely not. When we see him at the end of the second season, we don’t know what to think. We don’t know where he’s gonna go next. And that’s exciting to me.
Olsen: But what made you change that in yourself?
Tillman: Being a reformed people pleaser? It’s exhausting. It’s 100% exhausting. And it’s impossible. Someone’s always gonna be upset about something or find fault in anything. So once I started following my bliss and going after the things that I wanted to do, there was a sense of freedom there. It was a liberation, and at a certain point you just realized that, you know what, I don’t have to prove myself to people. I can just be, I can just exist.
Olsen: I know there’s one line in particular in this past season, “devour feculence,” which turns into a real turning point for the character. He is standing up to one of his superiors, who had reprimanded him for the language that he uses. Can you tell me a little bit about what that moment meant to you and for the character?
Tillman: I felt it was a defining moment. Just like you said. We don’t see him talking back to administration at any point, even in Season 1. He’s always been respectful, always played by the rules. And so again, just like I talked about the road map earlier, what the writers have done is create a series of circumstances where it would make sense for him to respond in such a way that could jeopardize his job. And if you really think about it, this man has gone through a lot in a short period of time. So there really is no way for him to process any of this information. This company has been turned upside down, seemingly overnight, and he’s had to bear it all. And even though he’s keeping things on the track as best as he can, he still doesn’t get the respect that he deserves. So yeah, he would tell him, “devour feculance.” Just like, get off my back, dude. I’m doing what I can.
Olsen: But when you see that moment in the script, in particular that very distinctive two-word phrase — your delivery of it is so fantastic because you don’t oversell the line. Can you tell me how you decide on how to deliver that phrase? Because it could obviously go in many different directions.
Tillman: Sure. So first I had to look up the word. I was like, “What is that? Wait, what?” I didn’t know what this was. And I said, “OK, this is what we’re doing.” He’s telling him what to do. And this felt like such an empowering moment for him because this is the one moment we see him stand up for himself. And I said, “OK, you gotta sell this, but you have to sell it in only the way that Milchick would sell it.” And this man is very measured. He doesn’t need to raise his voice a lot to get a point across. I believe he knows his power. He’s able to manipulate people very easily and very quickly. So for him to deliver that line in that monotone and that simple delivery speaks to his power and the knowledge that he has of himself. And also it makes it so much more effective because if you yell it at somebody, you know, they’ll kind of overlook it. They don’t hear it as well. But to just like whisper it, it lands.
Olsen: And then I, of course, I have to ask you about the drumline sequence this season. It takes the kind of the “Music Dance Experience” from Season 1 to a whole new place. And I’m just so curious about the origins of that performance. When was it first just presented to you, “Oh, and by the way, we want you to lead a a marching band drumline through the office.”
Tillman: I believe we were in the middle of filming Season 2, and I was approached about this marching band idea. And I was reticent about it because I did not want to replicate what we did in the Music Dance Experience, because that’s iconic of itself. But we continued having [a] conversation with the creative team and trying to explore ways of making sense of the moment so it didn’t feel like just a one-off, like, “Oh, this man just has a band” and whatever. So we tried to find purpose behind it. And so knowing that this man was at a breaking point with Lumon and at this mysterious moment of where his next moves were, I felt that it was really important to infuse his own identity in this. Because in the second season, we start to see that race becomes a thing in the world of Lumon. So it’s how can we dovetail the microaggressions that you had mentioned before, his journey, his role in leadership, and also the showmanship this man has. If he’s gonna do anything, it’s gonna be big. It’s gonna be massive. And it was a wonderful marriage.
Olsen: Already, at PaleyFest, you did a live performance with a band and you’re going to be doing another one coming up soon. How are you finding that? Like, how are you preparing for these live performances leading a marching band?
Tillman: It’s a dream. Coming from a historically Black college and university, I would see the marching bands and I was in awe. I was in marching band when I was in high school, I played the alto saxophone. And to be able to serve as bandleader and drum leader, or drum major, for a group of incredible musicians is an absolute dream.
Olsen: But now is there a part of you that’s kind of like, “What exactly did I sign up for here?” Are you concerned you’re going to be asked to lead marching bands for the rest of your career?
Tillman: When I signed up to join the cast of “Severance,” and we had to pause for the pandemic, and I was reading through the rest of the script. It was at that point I realized, “Oh, this is something different. I signed up for something that is insane.” And every addition ever since in Season 2, I said, “Yep, that’s insane. That’s insane, this is insane. But you know what, it makes sense.”
Olsen: Are you enjoying that surprise aspect of it? That every time you get a script, you kind of genuinely have no idea what could be coming next?
Tillman: I am leaning into that now. More and more. Just allowing life to take its course.
Olsen: There was a big time gap just between Season 1 and Season 2. And there’s been a lot of talk that it’s not gonna take as long to make Season 3. How is that for you? Schedule-wise, are you able to take on other projects, do other things? In a way I’m asking if you are able to take advantage of this moment that you’re having, the great attention and success that it seems the show has brought you.
Tillman: Oh, absolutely. I filmed “Mission: Impossible” right after I had wrapped my portion of Season 2. I filmed a project with Mahershala Ali, “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.” I just wrapped a project with Lena Dunham and Natalie Portman. So I’ve been staying busy and staying active. And that’s just me, going from a shy kid to being a hustler and grinder and living in New York and just continuing the pace and doing more and more.
Olsen: And tell me about the Lena Dunham project, her new film, “Good Sex.” What was that like?
Tillman: Oh, it was fantastic. It’s a wonderful crew. Cast is beautiful. It’s a really lovely rom-com. And Natalie is a queen. And Lena is such a delight. She has a passion for this. She is so supportive. And I can’t wait to see it.
Olsen: And then you also mentioned Bassam Tariq’s “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother,” which has you, Mahershala Ali is in the cast, Giancarlo Esposito is in the cast. And I can only hope that the three of you have scenes together. Like, I would love to see the three of you onscreen together.
Tillman: Yeah, I would like that too.
Olsen: And I want to be sure to ask you about the “Mission: Impossible” film, “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.” I have to tell you, I saw the film at a public screening and simply when you came onscreen, the crowd burst into cheers, like people were very excited. And I think it really has been one of the scene-stealing performances of the year.
Tillman: Oh, wonderful. I have seen this movie about four times, and every time I came onscreen, it was quiet. So it’s nice to know that people were excited to see me in this movie.
Olsen: You have this one line, the word “Mister,” that you say throughout your screen time, and you just deliver it with such like verve and gusto. It’s really exciting. And again, like I don’t even know if that line was specifically in the script that you were referring to him like that —
Tillman: It was.
Olsen: But how do you come to decide just how much sort of spin to put on the ball there?
Tillman: How do I come to decide? I don’t know, you just feel it in the moment. And again, like when you’re in a position of power, I feel that these roles like Captain Bledsoe and Seth Milchick, they know that they’re in a position of power, and when you know it, you don’t have to do too much. It’s just, you command the room, you own it.
Olsen: Because the world of that submarine that you’re a part of, like yourself, Katy O’Brian, some of the other actors there, there’s just like a really specific and exciting energy among the people on that submarine. How did that come to be? Like, were you having conversations among the cast or with the director, Christopher McQuarrie, as far as what the world of that submarine was gonna seem like?
Tillman: The conversations were very much present, but a lot of it was really in the moment. We just dove in, and what all of those actors did beautifully was create these characters that were real. They weren’t playing at being in a submarine or playing being in military forces. They were just themselves and just allowed things to blossom as it is.
Olsen: And was it exciting for you to be a part of a movie at that that scale?
Tillman: Absolutely. I remember. Watching “Mission: Impossible” as a kid. You know, I never thought I’d be in it. And then working alongside Tom Cruise, I mean, that’s a big deal. That’s kind of huge.
Olsen: But in particular, again, you more than almost any other character in this movie in particular, you’re kind of putting him in his place, and there’s something that’s really — I think that’s part of the reason why audiences got such a kick out of your character, is you’re sort of dressing him down in a way that people aren’t used to seeing.
Tillman: Yeah, I don’t know how that happened. No, it was a lot of fun. It was so much fun. And Tom and Chris were so game and really allowed me the space to fly and have fun with it. It was a delight.
Olsen: And now with moving forward to Season 3 of “Severance,” have you seen any scripts yet? Like, do you know anything that’s gonna be happening?
Tillman: I haven’t seen anything, I don’t know anything. I know nothing.
Olsen: One of the ways you’ve described Milchick is as an iceberg, meaning that there’s a lot that we haven’t seen yet. Are there specific things about him that you would like to see revealed?
Tillman: I am interested in knowing how the man grew up, his background. I’m always interested in history, how people — their origin story, right? And I think he has a very compelling story. As an actor, I built my own idea of what the origin story is because that, for me, helps fuel the character or fuel my performance into the character. But we’ll see.
Olsen: For you as a performer, have you already conceived of what that backstory is? Do you have an idea of what you think his previous life was like?
Tillman: Yeah, I do.
Olsen: Anything you care to share?
Olsen: It’s probably invalid because it’s all wrong. That’s another thing I’ve learned about working on this show. Everything you think is going to happen, nope.
Olsen: And how do you grapple with that? Especially for you as a performer, you have ideas about the character, where he’s from, maybe where he is heading, and then the script takes him in a totally different direction. What do you do with that?
Tillman: There was a point it would make me break out in hives because it felt like I had no control over it. But then you realize how that bleeds into the state of the character. This man, Milchick, who thinks he has control every day, is shown that he has very little control. So being in that environment, while it’s not fun, to a certain extent, for someone who likes to have all of the answers, it really does fuel the performance in a whole other way.
Olsen: And now for you, with the attention, the acclaim that the role has brought you, your Emmy nomination, is this the acting life that you envisioned for yourself? Like, those times when you wanted to be an actor and you were trying to get your career going, is this what you were dreaming of for yourself?
Tillman: Did I dream that I would be on a show with Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, John Turturro? It wasn’t that specific, no. I did have dreams of performing and being proud of the work that I did. I did dream of being in movies and television. The vision was not clear, but the desire was there.
Olsen: And do you feel like, as you’ve been moving forward and gaining some success, has the dream changed at all? Like, what what are your goals now?
Tillman: What are my goals now? I definitely want to continue telling stories and narratives that I believe in. Stories we haven’t heard before or perspectives that we’re not familiar with. I want to keep working with quality actors and expanding in a whole different way. And it’s not just in front of the camera. I’m also interested in producing and directing as well.
Olsen: Do you have any specific projects you want to make?
Tillman: I’m really interested in African folktales. I really want to tell, retell, those stories. And I think there’s an avenue for it. So I’m trying to figure that out.
Katherine LaNasa in “The Pitt.”
(Warrick Page / HBO Max)
Villarreal: Katherine, thanks so much for being here. I don’t want to alarm you but before this interview is over, we’re going to have a patient roll through and we’re not gonna tell you what’s wrong. You’re going to have to figure it out.
LaNasa: That patient better pray! They better have a god they pray to because I don’t know anything about medicine — literally, even the fake stuff grosses me out so much.
Villarreal: Really, you don’t have the stomach for it?
LaNasa: Yeah, you’ll see. There’s some stuff in [Season 2]. I actually told the producer, “I think I need some jewelry for that.” I need a gift for dealing with it. It’s so disgusting. It’s so disgusting that I had to process that it was going to happen, and when [it] happened, I had kind of detach from my body and get through it.
Villarreal: OK, so Hour 4 in Season 2, we’re going to know what you’re talking about?
LaNasa: Oh no, I think it’s in [Episode 2].
Villarreal: What part of the body are you dealing with? Can you share that?
LaNasa: No. It’s gross, though. It is gross! It was a lot in [Episode 2]. It was a lot had to deal with in [Episode 2]. I was like, “Wow, OK, guys.”
Villarreal: Oh, my gosh, I can’t wait. Well, congratulations — Emmy nominee! You guys were in production on Season 2 when the news hit. Put me in that moment.
LaNasa: Well, my husband [actor Grant Show] and daughter came. They were in my dressing room, and I knew it was [time for the nominations announcement]. At that moment, Noah [Wyle, star and executive producer] ran up and he says, “I need a bathroom break.” So they gave us a break and I ran up to my room and they announced everybody — and somebody that they announced in some category that wasn’t mine, it was like a [last name that began with an S] or something, and my husband’s like, “Oh, no, it’s in alphabetical order. Oh, no!” He got so upset. I go, “Honey, it’s not my category.” But then they didn’t announce it. They didn’t announce it [in the live segment], and [Grant] couldn’t get [the online list] up in time. I said, “I have to go back to work.” I was waiting outside the trauma room [set], and [Myriam Arougheti, the show’s head of makeup] came and she’s like [makes excited facial expression], and I looked at her, and we went in a little hallway, and I posted those pictures of us. And she got nominated too. Then I went out and my husband was there and then [R.] Scott Gemmill [the show’s creator] came up and my daughter and the head writers. It was just a really neat moment. Then when we went in, they announced, and Noah came walking in. I hadn’t seen him. And that was just his response — that hug. It was surreal.
Villarreal: We’re very thankful you put that on Instagram so we could live in that moment. What do you shoot after something like that?
LaNasa: I don’t even know. I think we had a moment. We kind of hung around for a while. They had to take Noah to do press, so we had some time to kind of decompress for the excitement and stuff. We actually shoot short, so we had time; we had space [for a break].
Villarreal: Have you fully processed it? Is there processing of something like that?
LaNasa: I’m going to start crying. I’m trying to just live in the power of it; live in the blessing of it, because I didn’t know this was going to happen, and it doesn’t matter how good of an actress I might have been, if you don’t get the opportunity, if [executive producer] John Wells didn’t give me that shot, it wouldn’t have happened and, so, I’m so blessed by it. A friend is having a dinner for me, and it really was hard for me to say, “Will you come to this dinner for me?” It doesn’t matter that these wonderful people that I’ve worked with have written me [their congratulations] and they’re so excited, but it’s really hard to say, “Will you come celebrate me?” It’s hard to believe that it’s me. I’ve loved my career. I’ve always, at heart, been a character actress, and I’ve always been a supporting actress, and I think I know how to push on the story and push on the lead actor and make them look great, and I think I shine in that too, but it’s just — I’m not used to being in the spotlight.
Villarreal: You’ve been part of medical dramas before — “The Night Shift,” you’re on “ER” as the mother of a patient who has a little dalliance with with one of the doctors, and then you were on “Grey’s Anatomy.” What do you remember about those moments, just being like a small part of the thing and now to be at the center?
LaNasa: There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t remember all the years of struggle and all the auditions and the hallowed corridors of Warner Bros., where we [shoot] now, they’ve always just held a magic for me. I just was thinking this morning: “Here I am; I’m a series regular in in a hit show at Warner Bros.” It doesn’t pass me by. Doesn’t matter how many shows I do, it’s always so hard to get that next job. To be on one that’s a hit, that really sings, that you love — I’m so lucky.
I have a funny story about “ER.” So, my dad’s a surgeon. He hates every medical drama that’s ever been made, except “The Pitt.” And I was telling this to John Wells. We were at a cast lunch, and he says, “Yeah, we don’t have people making out in broom closets.” And I said, “[My ‘ER’ character] made out in the broom closet with Goran [Višnjić, who played Dr. Luka Kovač].” And he goes, “Well, it was like the seventh season or something. We jumped the shark already.” It was a very funny moment. What I remember about “Grey’s” — I was that girl that people would say, “Can you play like a witch doctor on Monday?” or “Can you have this weird disease?” I had Munchausen [syndrome] — not Munchausen [syndrome] by proxy — that was offered to me on a Friday to do on Monday. I was always that girl: “LaNasa will do it. She’ll try anything!” Like [Little] Mikey with the [Life] cereal. I was a vegetarian for about 35 years, and during that period I find myself on that show and, without any warning, they put a huge raw piece of steak on top of me that I guess is what they used to cauterize and look real in the TV operations. We don’t use steak on “The Pitt.” With “The Night Shift,” I was actually pregnant.
Villarreal: What do you remember about the audition for “The Pitt”? Noah wrote a note to people auditioning, right?
LaNasa: He wrote a note, and he talked about top-to-toe immersion. And I had this feeling — in the first episode, they write about how he [Dr. Robby] is outside, and when he comes through into the ER, that it’s just this whole vibe all of a sudden. Ever since I did “Judging Amy” — it sounds like a very weird thing — but I was left alone [as] a [district attorney] on “Judging Amy” for hours on end, and I figured out during that show how to create my own life and to have an inner life and have my business going all the time. And I thought, “I’ll use all this time just to [think about]: ‘What would I do now? And then what would I do? What does a lawyer do?’” Figuring all that out. So, it’s become a part of my craft that I find very grounding. I always like to be fully alive in my body, in the imaginary life of the character at all times. So when he [Noah] wrote that, I was like, “That’s what I’m into.” I got it. He also said, “Leave your ego and bring your creativity.” And, for some reason, that just spoke to me — that I could be as offbeat as I am; that I didn’t have to be, “Oh, now you’re the strict boss” or “Now you’re this” or “Now you’re the pretty lady” or something that was all constricted. I had this little feeling in the back of my head, even though I hadn’t gotten a good job in a couple of years, I thought, “I think if I can get in front of them, I think they would want me. I think they’d be happy with me. I think I’m the kind of actor they want in that job.” I didn’t really seem like the prototype for it, but then, lo and behold, the tape made it up there. I had a Zoom [meeting] with John Wells. I was out in L.A. and not prepared for an audition. [I] didn’t have any Dana clothes; had to rush to Target and get a sweatsuit. And the Zoom camera, when they came on, it was all upside down. It was just all kind of wonky, but it worked. Then they sent me another scene — the scene when I tell them I’m going to quit, which was a different scene than ended up in the show, but it was a dramatic scene, and I sent that to them and then I found out [I got it].
Villarreal: Did you have the accent all along?
LaNasa: I had done something vaguely East Coast for my first tape, and they told me to take it down a little bit for the second audition, so I took it down a little bit and I asked him, “Was it OK?” He’s like, “Don’t worry about it now.” I was like, “OK.” So I just let it go. But I knew that if I didn’t learn a Pittsburgh accent I would sound vaguely East Coast or like I was from New Jersey in the show. And being from Louisiana and being a Southerner, and having people get that wrong so much, I didn’t want to offend the people of Pittsburgh, and I thought I would try it, and it went actually quite terribly. It was really bad, and I cried a lot and I told my acting coach, “Why am I doing this? Why can’t I just be like a normal actor and not have to always be so extra?” She said, “Is there any way in hell you would play this character onstage and not do this accent?” And I said, “No.” She said, “Keep going.” And then I was watching “Mare of Easttown” so much that it was on in my bathtub and then it rolled out, and the [behind-the-scenes footage] came on and they started talking about the accent and the dialect coach came on. And I contacted her on IMDB Pro; I figured out how to find her, and she hooked me up with Susanne Sulby, who put my accent into shape in time to do the show.
Villarreal: Not even three minutes into Hour 1, we really get a sense of Dana and how crucial she is to this ecosystem. And it’s not only how crucial she is to the place of where she works but how crucial [she] is to us as viewers. It’s through her that we learn that Collins is pregnant. It’s through her that we realize why Dr. Robby is going to have a rough day. What did that unlock for you about who she is and how she moves through this space and interacts with her co-workers?
LaNasa: I think I was just at a place in my life where I’ve been through a lot, so I think I had a great understanding of a human condition, just as a person, and I think that I’m the kind of person, for whatever reason, strangers tell me a lot of stuff, so I have some of that. I think John Wells is good at casting and Cathy Sandrich [“The Pitt’s casting director] is good casting people a little bit close to who they are. I also think that I’m a very take-charge person — some people that are married to me might think I’m bossy — but I think I had a lot of the qualities of Dana. I think playing the role and dealing with people that are in such traumatic situations and having to focus on that in my imagination, like believe that this is what’s going on with them, it really did soften me up as a person. It’s a lesson every day in, you don’t know what people are going through. And how much a soft hand matters; how much empathy and compassion matters.
Villarreal: Dig into that a little bit more. You wrote a really lovely and touching essay for Women’s Health magazine about how this role was a love letter to the nurses who cared for you during your breast cancer treatment. Talk to me a little about how that formed or shaped what you brought to Dana and what do you remember about that time, in terms of the little details that really do, like, make a day or break a day for a patient?
LaNasa: I was pretty stoic during the process, but I have to say that at Piedmont [Hospital] in Atlanta, the nursing staff was incredibly kind. It was not like I’d experienced maybe in other places where I’d had babies. I was like, “I don’t know if everyone’s just nice to you because you have cancer; I don’t know what’s going on, but these people are really nice.” And it really mattered. The warm blankets really mattered a lot. It’s just so thoughtful. When you have to constantly be going in an MRI or these different machines, the radiation machines — that’s a head trip, to go get radiated every day. When someone is caring and offers you a warm blanket or offers you something like that, it really matters.
After my cancer treatment, I went through a rough period of a few months where we weren’t sure if there was some other things wrong with me, and I had to keep going back to the ER, and that was the part that kind of broke me because I had been very healthy and then, now, I never stopped going to the hospital. “Do I have this? Do I have that?” There was a lot of scans and a lot of stuff, and I broke down in the ER and the triage nurse just took me aside, and she basically wrapped me in her arms and was like, “The first six months after cancer are really bumpy. It’s not going to stay like this. Do you need an Ativan?” [Laughs.] And I was like, “No.” My husband’s like, “Are you sure?” But just the way that she was — and she said that, I think it was her sister-in-law, was just going through the same thing. Just taking that time [with me], it was so human. There’s just something about nurses; good nurses are so capable and yet they’re so human. They’re not coming down from the ivory tower like the doctors. They’re right there with you. They are in it with you. It really mattered, and so that’s what I wanted to show. But I think that tired, old working women everywhere relate to Dana. You don’t have to be a nurse. It’s like, “Oh, that’s me. I know her. That’s me or that’s my mom or that’s my aunt.” Everybody tells me: “My mom, my aunt — you’re their favorite character.” It’s always some tired, old lady and I get it. I see you, tired, old, working women.
Villarreal: She [Dana] covers the feet.
LaNasa: Yes, that was so sweet. They wrote that after I told them about the blankets. I’ll do anything for a warm blanket. If you ever have bad news, just bring me a warm blanket.
Villarreal: Dana is also loosely based on Kathy Garvin, a nurse at L.A. General [Medical Center]. What do you remember about shadowing her? What impressed you about what this job entails? What did it illuminate for you?
LaNasa: I think the two most impressive things were one, that she told me that she wouldn’t do this job if it wasn’t at a public hospital. She wanted to work for people who needed her — they kind of put that into the story — and that was really impressive. Also they had a [patient] there that was one of their regulars like we have our regulars and she knew him, and I couldn’t see him but I could see his feet and there were some guards there — because he was having a psychotic episode of some sort and they have to just be on guard — but no one was touching him or anything. And she was like, “He’s probably going to die soon. He’s lost this many pounds. He really comes [in] for attention.” And [listed] all the things that she knew about him. It was just so matter-of-fact, but there was a lot of compassion in it as well.
The other thing was about the sandwiches. They cut my line with Earl — I had a whole bit with Earl in Episode 1 about sandwiches and they ended up cutting it. Earl of Sandwich — inside joke. I wanted to know what’s the deal with the sandwiches, and she said, “Technically we’re supposed to write down if we give patients food, but if they’re hungry, I just give them a sandwich.” And I wanted see where the sandwiches were and everything. I also asked her: “If people are jerks — if they are Doug Driscolls [“The Pitt’s” agitated patient fed up with his wait time] — do you give them less preferable treatment?” And she said, “No, because it’s so serious whatever people are going through, if they’re here. But I might not give them a sandwich.” So, I understood the power.
Villarreal: Well, let’s talk about Doug Driscoll. Episode 9 is a big turning point for Dana. She’s attacked by Doug at the end and it’s a shocking moment that’s been building. And this episode was written by Noah, right?
LaNasa: Yes.
Villarreal: What do you remember about shooting that moment?
LaNasa: That was such a fun episode for me. That was the first episode where I really got to do a lot [to] showcase Dana, and I think he [Wyle] wanted just to showcase what a nurse in the ER might do and what it might look like to somebody that doesn’t know what she’s doing. You see both [sides] — his [Driscoll’s] frustration building and her exhaustion building — in a way that she needs a smoke break. He punches her — I think that I read it and I was detached from it. I thought, “Oh, and there’s a stunt. I do all of this fun stuff and I go out for a cigarette and stunt.” And I didn’t think about how I would have to process it until we did it and that was like, “Oh, this is a thing. I’m getting hit right now,” which I think was good. I trust my own instrument. But the journey after that was just so beautiful; to get that opportunity to play that and to think about her in a deeper way. It’s a person whose mother died when she was in high school — that’s what they told me — and then she’s worked there since she was in high school, and so you have to think: If you’re working with trauma every day, it’s convenient to not feel your feelings. I think that punch just brought a lot crashing down for Dana, and I think she’s going through an existential crisis in like [Episodes] 11 and 12 and there’s trauma [patients], so she’s taken out of her own feelings and sets it aside to keep working and keep saving lives. It was beautiful to get to consider all of that.
Villarreal: What did that do for you — did it make you think about [what you observed growing up] with your dad and what he brought home as a surgeon? When you reach a certain age and you look back at your parents, things sort of click into place or you understand things differently when you consider what they’re carrying into their role as parent.
LaNasa: My dad was a flight surgeon in Vietnam. I asked him once: What was the worst thing you ever saw? He’s there when he’s like 24 years old. He said that he had to tag and bag a gymnasium full of dead boys his own age. So, that’s a lot. I think he rubs really high, and I’m not sure if that’s not from the war.
Villarreal: In the final episode, it’s sort of unclear if Dana’s saying goodbye. It feels like a goodbye, but it also doesn’t feel like a goodbye. We know you’re in Season 2, but with the format of the show [covering one shift], I imagine you end with uncertainty — am I coming back? Am I not? And she hasn’t wanted to go home because, if she goes home, she has to confront everything. How were you thinking her journey, and how soon did sort of John and Scott fill in things for you about where she’s headed?
LaNasa: I really relax into the writing a lot in and just trust it. Scott Gemmill is really such a great architect. I thought it was so beautiful. Everyone’s stories paid off and everything. They told me when we got picked up that I was part of [the new season], so I knew pretty soon, but I think I’m still — even though we’re in shooting right now — just now coming into focus of where she is.
Villarreal: What can you tease about where she’s at?
LaNasa: I think that she’s changed. It’s funny because it’s not a broad stroke; they write in such subtleties. I think there’s definitely less porousness in Dana and less willingness to give her whole self over to situations the way that she did — to always put herself last. I think she’s trying to find some healthy balance. I filled in for myself that she wasn’t doing well, at all, and that one of her daughters confronted her and said, “This is not working — this white-knuckling of this situation; I think you need to get help.” And that I have gone and gotten some grief counseling for myself, going all the way back to dealing with my mother, [to] help me deal with this situation that happened. I think I view her as someone that’s now doing more self-care and taking care of herself like that. She’s got her meeting, she’s got her stuff, maybe she even has her impact classes — like, her self-defense classes. She’s got some stuff to fortify herself so that she could come back. A lot of people that go through [an act of violence like that] need to counterbalance that in a way that they feel like they can protect themselves should that incident come into their life again so that they’d feel safe enough to go back into the world. So I imagined something like that for her.
Villarreal: What do you think her husband thought when he saw the black eye?
LaNasa: I think he was probably pretty ticked. As they wrote it, I probably stayed out for a while. So I think he got what he wanted.
Villarreal: I know there’s the boot camp that happens. What can you share with me about the boot camp? Who’s the star student of the boot camp?
LaNasa: I think Taylor Dearden [who plays Dr. Melissa “Mel” King] would be the star student of the boot camp. I bet you she’s the star student wherever she goes.
Villarreal: And where do you fall?
LaNasa: I’m still the class clown, as I’ve been my whole life. I remember one time they had this video — a woman had an earring in her throat because she had scooped up a handful of pills and scooped up the earrings with a handful pills. I’m like, “I’m sorry, Mary, do you just have a pile of pills all over the table and are just like, ‘Oh, let me grab some of these!’” What happens when you accidentally get an earring in your handful of pills?
Villarreal: Wait, but was this an actual person?
LaNasa: An actual person in a video, and we had to watch [a doctor] going in with an instrument and get it out of the throat. There’s a lot videos.
Villarreal: How do you do in emergency situations? Are you calm?
LaNasa: Definitely calm. I get stuff done. I can remember when my son — I’d heard him fall and my ex-husband went up the stairs. It was such a crash, and I was freaked out when it was my own kid. I wasn’t sure if he had cut up his whole face or whatever. He did have an arm where he broke both bones and the arm was like a twisted snake, and that was kind hard.
I hate dead animals, dead birds. They’re very upsetting to me. But I’m super face-forward into death. I’ve been with a few people when they died, and I can handle that. I can handle a very scary-looking dying person and what they’re going through. People hallucinate a lot when they’re super sick and they look like a skeleton. And for some reason, I’m like, “Y’all can go home, I got it.” I don’t know what it is about it. I’m really happy that I’m able to do it. I don’t feel afraid of it, let’s put it that way. And I know that it’s scary for most people. I feel like I can just show up and be present with people when they’re dying and be in it with them for some reason. I didn’t know I could do it until my ex-husband [actor Dennis Hopper] was dying. And then I was like, “OK, I can do this.” And I could do it when my grandmother was dying. It’s not earned. I feel like it just came down from something. In other words, I don’t think I’m a virtuous person because of it. I just think it’s some part of my psychology, I can be present in that.
Villarreal: Before we wrap, Dr. Robby listens to [Baby” by Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise], as he starts and ends his day of work. Tell me what you think that song is for Dana.
LaNasa: Rema, “Calm Down.” I love that song. It’s also a little bit sad. Something about it has a lot of longing in it. I listened to that song when I was going through some of that stuff with Dana.
Villarreal: As we leave you, you’re taking a break from production, but what gory thing is coming up?
LaNasa: I’m going to have some stuff that I just talked about coming up. I’m going to have to deal with some death.
Villarreal: Well, I’m sorry in advance.
LaNasa: They picked the right actor.
Villarreal: Is there anyone you’re excited to see on Emmys night?
LaNasa: Oh, my gosh, I am just a fan of so many people. I’m a big fan of Jessica Williams [“Shrinking”]. I’m a big fan of Julianne Nicholson [“Paradise”]. I’m a huge fan of Jean Smart [“Hacks”]. Sharon Horgan [“Bad Sisters”]. It’s going to be a great night. I’m a fan of all of our competitors. Sterling K. Brown. It’s an honor to be nominated because there’s some really great work out there. And I kind of hate that both of my comedies are up against each other. Because I love “Shrinking” and I love Paul [W.] Downs [of “Hacks”]. That’s a deep bench over there. I feel like “Shrinking” and “Hacks” should not be on at the same time. I don’t like them competing. I love those shows.
Jerry Adler, who spent decades backstage on Broadway before reinventing himself in his 60s as a television actor, most memorably as Herman “Hesh” Rabkin on HBO’s “The Sopranos” and Howard Lyman on CBS’ “The Good Wife,” has died. He was 96.
Adler died Saturday in New York, where he lived, according to his family. A cause was not disclosed.
On “The Sopranos,” Adler played Hesh, a Jewish music producer and loan shark with long ties to the Soprano crime family. Not a member of Tony Soprano’s inner crew but close enough to be trusted, he was one of the few who could speak bluntly to James Gandolfini’s mob boss without fear of reprisal. Adler remained with the series from its 1999 pilot through the final season in 2007, a steady presence on the margins of Tony’s world.
Hesh turned up in some of the show’s most memorable arcs, helping Tony’s protégé Christopher and his girlfriend Adriana in their ill-fated stab at the music business, joining Tony in a horse-racing venture and, in the final season, watching their relationship sour when the boss pressed him for a large loan.
Steven Van Zandt, Adler’s “Sopranos” castmate and guitarist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, paid tribute to Adler on social media: “Such an honor working with you. Travel well my friend.”
While “The Sopranos” launched a number of previously little-known actors to instant fame, Adler’s rise was unusual, the culmination of more than four decades spent behind the scenes on Broadway before he ever stepped in front of a camera.
A Brooklyn native born Feb. 4, 1929, Adler began his career as an assistant stage manager in 1950 on “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and went on to work as stage manager, production manager or supervisor on more than 50 shows, including the original “My Fair Lady,” Harold Pinter’s “The Homecoming” and “The Apple Tree,” directed by Mike Nichols. He also directed several productions.
By the 1980s, he had moved to Los Angeles to be closer to his children and found steady work in daytime television as a stage manager. It wasn’t until his early 60s that acting entered the picture. After debuting on CBS’ “Brooklyn Bridge” in 1991, Adler found steady film and TV work as a character actor through the 1990s, appearing in Joe Pesci’s “The Public Eye” (1992) and Woody Allen’s “Manhattan Murder Mystery” (1993).
After “The Sopranos,” Adler remained a familiar presence on television. He joined “The Good Wife” in 2011 as Howard Lyman, a blustery, out-of-touch partner at the Lockhart/Gardner law firm. What was initially meant to be a one-off guest spot turned into a recurring role across six seasons, with Adler reprising the part in “The Good Fight” in 2017 and 2018.
Adler also recurred on FX’s “Rescue Me” as fire chief Sidney Feinberg and appeared in series ranging from “Northern Exposure” and “Mad About You” to “Transparent” and “Broad City.” His film credits include “In Her Shoes” (2005), “Synecdoche, New York” (2008) and “A Most Violent Year” (2014).
Adler returned to Broadway as a performer late in life, appearing in Elaine May’s 2000 comedy “Taller Than a Dwarf” and Larry David’s “Fish in the Dark” in 2015. Adler’s last screen credit came in the 2019 revival season of “Mad About You.” In 2024, he published a memoir, “Too Funny for Words: Backstage Tales From Broadway, Television, and the Movies,” reflecting on his unusual path through show business.
On Instagram, “Sopranos” co-star Michael Imperioli, who played Christopher, praised Adler as “a fantastic actor and the kindest of human beings. He brought so much humor, intelligence and truth to the role of Herman ‘Hesh’ Rabkin and was one of my favorite characters on ‘The Sopranos.’ I loved working and spending time with Jerry. A true class act.”
Survivors include his wife, Joan Laxman, whom he married in 1994, and his daughters, Alisa, Amy, Laura and Emily.
Schools are (mostly) back in session, and the threat of pumpkin spice has already made the marketing rounds — it’s still summer, but the fall scaries have crept in. As some of us try to process how we’re basically a sneeze away from 2026, there’s at least comfort in knowing there’s a promising slate of new films and TV shows to keep us entertained as we hurtle through time. For our special Fall Preview issue, The Times staff gathered to share our picks for the most anticipated movies and TV shows to watch this fall: from a Bruce Springsteen biopic to the movie version of Stephen King’s “The Running Man” and the “Wicked” sequel, here’s our list of 21 films to be excited about; meanwhile, the Jude Law-Jason Bateman-led “Black Rabbit,” the docuseries “Mr. Scorsese” and broadcast comedy “DMV” are among the 16 intriguing shows in our TV roundup.
(Sian Roper / For The Times)
But, hey, we get it if you’d rather not think about the future just yet. In fact, the theme of this week’s Screen Gab is all about traveling back in time. Our streaming recommendations include a documentary exploring the quirky style and misunderstood message of art-rock band Devo, and a reminder of 2003 HBO drama “Carnivale,” which starred Amy Madigan long before she was creeping us out with her chilling performance in “Weapons.” Plus, Matthew B. Roberts, the showrunner behind Starz’s expanding “Outlander” universe, discusses the new prequel series and the art of making love letters swoon-worthy.
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The members of Devo in director Chris Smith’s documentary about the band.
(Barry Schultz)
“Devo” (Netflix)
They are Devo, and this is a film about them. A pseudoscientific theme — “de-evolution” — taken from an old book — led to a band that led to a career. (And looking around, it’s hard to argue that civilization isn’t racing rapidly backward.) Chris Smith’s breezy film neatly recaps the group’s career, from their earliest performances, when they had long hair and were still in college — Kent State, where in 1970 the National Guard opened fire on student protesters, killing four — to MTV fame, to their finally running out of gas. Founders Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale offer good-humored, incisive commentary on the rise and fall of their satirical art project whose social criticism paled in the glare of big pop success — “Whip It,” you remember” — and the usual major-label misadventures. Smith floats his narrative on a river of ephemeral films that echo the spirit of the group’s own aesthetic. Brian Eno, David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Neil Young, who put them in his movie “Human Highway,” make anecdotal appearances. (The band has since gotten off the couch — they’ll be at the Hollywood Bowl Oct. 18-19 with the B-52’s as part of a “Cosmic De-Evolution” tour.) — Robert Lloyd
Clancy Brown and Amy Madigan in “Carnivale.”
(Doug Hyun / HBO)
“Carnivale” (HBO Max)
The huge success of the horror film “Weapons” has put a fresh spotlight on star Amy Madigan. Her sinister portrayal of the eccentric Aunt Gladys, a witch whose spells wreak havoc on the children and adults of a small community, is already sparking early awards buzz and is the latest in a gallery of distinctive performances in films such as “Field of Dreams,” “Streets of Fire” and “Places in the Heart,” to name a few. Madigan also was featured in “Carnivale,” which premiered in 2003 and ran for two seasons on HBO. In the eerie drama about a struggling carnival of freaks and outcasts that traveled around the Dust Bowl during the Depression, Madigan played Iris Crowe, the soft-spoken sister of the demonic Brother Justin Crowe (Clancy Brown). — Greg Braxton
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A still from “Outlander: Blood of my Blood,” the prequel to the popular period drama, that features Jamie Roy as Brian Fraser and Harriet Slater as Ellen MacKenzie, the future parents of Jamie Fraser.
(Sanne Gault / Starz)
“Outlander” meets “How I Met Your Mother”? Not quite. But “Outlander: Blood of My Blood” is a prequel to Starz’s romance epic that focuses on the parents of both protagonists from the original series, Jamie Fraser and Claire Beauchamp. The series alternates between WWI-era Scotland and the Scottish Highlands of the 18th century, often intertwining, as it chronicles the courtship and obstacles faced by Jamie’s parents — Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy) and Ellen MacKenzie (Harriet Slater) — and Claire’s — Julia (Hermione Corfield) and Henry Beauchamp (Jeremy Irvine). Here, showrunner Matthew B. Roberts discusses the inspiration for the show’s swoon-worthy love letters and reveals which TV drama he recently watched that echoes themes explored in “Outlander” through a modern lens. — Yvonne Villarreal
What do you find intriguing about each couple’s story and what it telegraphs about Claire and Jamie’s connection and their attitudes on love?
With Brian and Ellen, it’s the rush of first love — all passion, risk and discovery, which foreshadows Jamie’s all-in devotion to Claire. With Henry and Julia, it’s the strength of a tested love — the daily choice to stay together. Both show that true love requires surrender and courage, the same foundation that Claire and Jamie build their lives on.
The original series has delved into the complexities of PTSD. How did what you’ve explored there, particularly as it relates to Claire and her experiences as a combat nurse, inform how you shaped Henry Beauchamp’s journey? Are there connections you wanted to draw between father and daughter?
War scars everyone differently. Henry’s wounds are visible, Claire’s more contained — but both live with that same survival instinct. Even though Henry leaves when she’s young, Claire inherits his resilience. That ability to keep going when the world tries to break you is in her DNA.
Love letters are a hallmark of the “Outlander” universe. And the correspondence between Claire’s parents, Henry and Julia, are a key narrative element in their quest to be reunited — the declarations within have to be top tier. Any interesting references or sources of inspiration?
The inspiration came from my father, who fell in love with someone online before ever seeing her face. He said, “It doesn’t matter, I already love her.” He did meet her, they married, and they stayed together until his passing. That experience taught me how love can bloom through words alone. That’s what we aim for with Henry and Julia’s letters — each one has to feel like a real step deeper into their hearts. Everyone in the room weighs in, but the test for me is always the same: Does it feel authentic, does it honor the magic of falling in love?
What have you watched recently that you are recommending to everyone you know?
I really don’t recommend shows or movies. Everyone has their own tastes. But I did recently watch “The Better Sister” [Prime Video]. It’s a sharp look at family — love, betrayal, loyalty — all the same themes we explore, but in a modern world with cellphones and social media. The technology changes, but the struggles don’t. Families still compete, hide secrets and fight for trust. [It has] some great acting.
What’s your go-to “comfort watch,” the movie or TV show you go back to again and again?
When “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” [VOD] or “Fargo” [Tubi, MGM+] come on, I’m in — they just never get old. “Butch Cassidy” has that perfect mix of charm and tragedy; and “Fargo” is dark, funny and somehow still feels authentically real. For TV, my go-tos are “The Sopranos” [HBO Max] and “Seinfeld” [Netflix] — totally different, but both perfect at what they do. And true-crime shows are always in the mix. They are research. It’s the human condition on full display.
Oscar-winner Ariana DeBose is mourning the loss of her mother, Gina Michelle DeBose, who has died at age 57 after battling Stage 3 ovarian cancer.
The “West Side Story” actor and Broadway star announced her mother’s death Tuesday on Instagram, sharing photos of the two of them over the years — from the younger DeBose’s childhood to her historic win at the Academy Awards in 2022.
“I couldn’t be more proud of her and how she fought this insidious disease over the past 3 years,” DeBose wrote.
Ariana DeBose, 34, said in her tribute that her mother was her “favorite person, my biggest fan and toughest critic. My best friend.” The “Love Hurts” actor said her mother “fought like hell” to support her daughter’s ambitions, adding that her accolades — which include BAFTA, Critics’ Choice and Golden Globe awards — belong equally to her mother.
The actor said her mother was a longtime public school teacher who devoted her life to educating young people. She was “the greatest advocate” for arts education, she said, adding that the death of the elder DeBose would deeply impact her mother’s community: “She was a force of epic proportion.”
Actors including “Abbott Elementary” star Quinta Brunson, “Insecure” alumna Yvonne Orji, former “Dancing With the Stars” pro Julianne Hough and celebrity fitness trainer Amanda Kloots rallied around DeBose in the comments section as she broke the news. In addition to paying tribute to her mother, DeBose highlightedseveralcharities where supporters could donate in her mother’s honor.
“My greatest and most proud achievement will always be to have made her proud,” DeBose wrote. “I love you mommy. Now travel amongst the seas, the winds and the angels as I know you always loved to do.”
Terence Stamp, the prolific English actor who played General Zod in the “Superman” films and earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the title character in “Billy Budd,” has died. He was 87.
Stamp died of undisclosed causes Sunday morning, his family confirmed to Reuters.
“He leaves behind an extraordinary body of work, both as an actor and as a writer that will continue to touch and inspire people for years to come,” the family said in a statement.
Stamp began his acting career onstage in 1960 on London’s West End, but quickly received international attention and critical acclaim with his 1962 portrayal of the title role in Peter Ustinov’s adaptation of Herman Melville’s historical adventure novel, “Billy Budd.”
The humanity Stamp imbued in the tragic, stammering naval vessel crewman established Stamp as a talent to watch — with a Golden Globe Award for best male newcomer to prove it. Still, Stamp didn’t fully break through in Hollywood until 1978 when he embodied the chilling persona of Superman’s arch-nemesis, General Zod, in the first film of what would become a wildly successful franchise. Stamp took on the role again in 1982’s “Superman II.”
Stamp, with his calm demeanor and pale eyes, proved such a successful villain that he feared he was becoming typecast as one. In 1994 he decided to try something radically different when he took on the role of a transgender woman named Bernadette in Stephan Elliott’s now cult-classic film, “Priscilla Queen of the Desert.”
The film marked one of the first times a transgender character was portrayed as a lead in an international film. When the movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May of that year, The Times’ then film critic, Kenneth Turan, interviewed Stamp for a feature. Stamp told Turan that he had been extremely nervous to play the role, but that a good friend encouraged him to take it, saying, “If you don’t start doing parts like this all you can look forward to is playing villains in Hollywood movies for the rest of your life,” and that, Stamp said, “stuck fear and loathing into my heart.”
“Priscilla,” about a group of drag performers on a bus trip to play a show at a resort hotel in the Australian desert, was a critical success, with Turan writing that it, “added some needed life to the Cannes Film Festival scene,” debuting in a “raucous midnight screening.”
In 1999 Stamp teamed up with Peter Fonda in Steven Soderbergh’s crime thriller, “The Limey.”
“When ‘60s icons collide, that should be the pitch for ‘The Limey,’,” noted a feature in The Times about the project. Stamp called his role as a British ex-con named Wilson investigating the death of his daughter in L.A., “the best offer I’ve had in 40 years.”
Stamp and Fonda, old friends who had long wanted to work together, were both experiencing comebacks at the time, with Stamp having just played Chancellor Finis Valorum in the blockbuster, “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.”
Terence Henry Stamp was born in London in 1938. His father was part of the Merchant Navy, and was often away for long periods of time. Stamp was raised mostly by his mother, grandmother and a variety of aunts. He loved the movies and idolized Gary Cooper and James Dean.
As a young man he earned a scholarship to Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art — one of Britain’s leading drama schools — and soon began performing at repertory theaters. His roommate at that time was the young actor Michael Caine, and the pair made friends with Peter O’Toole, quickly becoming enmeshed in the good-looking, fast-moving London party scene of the 1960s. Stamp famously dated actor Julie Christie, whom he starred alongside in director Ken Loach’s first feature film, 1967’s “Poor Cow.”
Stamp was known for his intense dedication to craft, particularly his ability to hone in on the psychological underpinnings of a given character. He was known for bringing the same depth of devotion to all his roles, including 1962’s “Term of Trial” alongside Laurence Olivier; William Wyler’s “The Collector” (1965); Joseph Losey’s “Modesty Blaise” (1966); John Schlesinger’s adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s “Far from the Madding Crowd” (1967); and a 50-minute short film by Federico Fellini, “Toby Dammit” (1968), among many others.
In 1999, while filming “The Limey,” he told The Times, “When you’ve had a long career you kind of merge all your great roles together. So I don’t think about being good in an individual thing. I think of the collective total, of working with [William] Wyler and Pasolini … I recently thought to myself, ‘You know, if it had to end now, it would really be OK.’ From ‘Billy Budd’ to ‘The Limey,” no actor could ask for more, so it’s a very great moment for me.”
Terence Stamp, the English actor who played the arch-villain General Zod in Superman films, has died at the age of 87.
In a career that spanned six decades, the Oscar-nominated actor starred in films including The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Far From the Madding Crowd and Valkyrie.
Stamp died on Sunday morning, his family said in a statement to Reuters news agency.
“He leaves behind an extraordinary body of work, both as an actor and a writer that will continue to touch people for years to come,” they said.
Born in Stepney, east London, to working-class parents on 22 July 1938, Stamp attended grammar school before pursuing a career in advertising.
After securing a scholarship to go to drama school, he shot to fame in the 1960s, making his debut playing the titular role in Billy Budd, a 1962 film about a naive young seaman in the 18th century.
His performance earnt him an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor and a Golden Globe for best newcomer.
He soon made a name for himself as a villain, with stand-out performances in Superman and Superman II as General Zod and Sergeant Troy in the 1967 Far From the Madding Crowd.
Dan Ziskie, the veteran TV actor best known for his work on the Netflix political drama series “House of Cards” and HBO’s “Treme,” has died. He was 80.
Ziskie died July 21 in New York, his family announced in an obituary for the actor published on Legacy.com. Though his life “was cut short by arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease,” Ziskie’s family said in the obituary, his legacy will live on.
“His was a life lived with passion, a life that exemplified the beauty of pursuing one’s dreams and the importance of cherishing every moment,” the family said. “Dan will be profoundly missed, yet he will forever remain in the hearts of those who knew him, like a cherished character in the timeless narrative of their lives.”
“House of Cards,” which premiered on Netflix in 2013 as the first scripted drama produced for the streaming giant, starred Ziskie as Vice President Jim Matthews. He appeared in six episodes from 2013 to 2017, acting alongside stars including Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright and Michael Kelly. “House of Cards” won several Primetime Emmys and secured dozens of nominations.
Ziskie also notably appeared in HBO’s drama “Treme,” as New Orleans banker and reconstruction financier C.J. Liguori. The series aired from 2010 to 2013 and featured an ensemble cast of Khandi Alexander, Rob Brown, Kim Dickens, Melissa Leo, Lucia Micarelli, Clarke Peters, Wendell Pierce, Jon Seda and Steve Zahn.
Ziskie also had minor roles in “The Equalizer,” “Newhart,” “L.A. Law,” “Quantum Leap,” “ER” and “Law & Order: SVU,” among other series. His final credit was a role in the miniseries “The Bite” in 2021 and he was set to appear in the film “Very Close Quarters,” according to IMDb.
Daniel A. Ziskie was born Aug. 13, 1944, in Detroit and had a knack for athletics, pursuing track and football in his high school days. Ziskie studied at the University of Michigan, where he excelled in track and field and struck up an interest in performing arts. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in English, he took on a variety of jobs including as a crewman on a Great Lakes freighter before finding an outlet for his talents at improv hub Second City in Chicago. He began his screen career in the 1980s, landing a steady stream of acting jobs until the 2020s.
Beyond television, Ziskie also appeared in stage productions including “After the Fall” and “I’m Not Rappaport,” and the films “Adventures in Babysitting,” “Eight Below” and “War of the Worlds,” among others.
Ziskie’s family remembered him as a “gifted” photographer who shared his work in the photo book “Cloud Chamber.” He was also a travel enthusiast and took an interest in “complex” topics including the cosmos and quantum physics.
“Dan’s legacy extends beyond his family, as his colleagues and friends will remember him as a creative, thoughtful, and interesting man whose presence enriched their lives,” the family said.
Ziskie is survived by his brother David, wife Cynthia, nephews Jesse, Brett and Austin and their six children, the obituary said.
Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who struggles with setting boundaries in any type of relationship.
That sound you hear is the lingering sigh of relief — or is it sadness? Confusion? The frustration over what could have been? — as “And Just Like That” completed its last sprint in heels this week. The “Sex and the City” sequel concluded its three-season run with a Thanksgiving from hell and an epilogue for Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, Lisa and Seema that will surely generate plenty of TikTok analysis to occupy us all weekend. The decision to end the series was surprising, sure, but hardly shocking — even if it still feels like a fever dream that’s not quite over. Our crew of dedicated watchers unpacked some of what they’re feeling — grab a slice of pie, pull up a chair and join the attempt to process it all. It’s a safe place.
But don’t fret, there are some other peeps you can add to your friend group to help ease the loss. Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen prove that men and women can be strictly (incredibly co-dependent) friends in Apple TV+’s “Platonic.” The comedy returned earlier this month for its second season, and creators Francesca Delbanco and Nicholas Stoller dropped by Guest Spot to discuss the challenges of making opposite-sex friendship more compelling than a romance, plus the story behind the perfectly pathetic pet name they have Rogen’s character saying all season.
Also in this week’s Screen Gab, our streaming recommendations include a crime drama that sees a “Clueless” star enter her sleuth era? That’s right, TV critic Robert Lloyd tells you about a new Acorn series that stars Alicia Silverstone as an L.A. divorce lawyer who hightails it to Ireland after receiving a mysterious message from her estranged father. If you’re in the camp of people who prefer shows with a lighter touch on death, culture columnist Mary McNamara drops in to suggest an old-fashioned workplace/fish-out-of-water comedy set in the world of probate law — Huh, you say? Trust us! It’s funny!
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Must-read stories you might have missed
Daniel Dae Kim is the star and executive producer of Prime Video’s “Butterfly.”
Alicia Silverstone stars as Fiona Murphy, an American divorce lawyer — no husband for her! — whose unsuspected past comes calling in form of a photograph mailed from Ireland, showing a picture of a locker with a phone number written on the backside. Not being me, she calls it right away and so begins a dark treasure hunt that brings her to Wicklow, Ireland, where she discovers the father (Jason O’Mara in flashbacks) who left on her 10th birthday was living, and is now dead, under possibly suspicious circumstances. She also discovers a briefcase full of clues; family she didn’t know she had; an inherited house; potential romance with the local owner of a boxing gym (Leonardo Taiwo); and a quirky policewoman (Ruth Codd), excited to help when Fiona is mysteriously attacked. As in many, or most, stories in which a city person travels to the country — “I Know Where I’m Going” or “Local Hero,” just to be Celtic about it — Fiona will experience a feeling of renewal, notwithstanding the threat of death. The mystery keeps you guessing, the characters are appealing, and Silverstone gives a lovely, lived-in performance. — Robert Lloyd
“Fisk” (Netflix, Season 3 premieres Wednesday)
I can’t say I was looking for a comedy that revolved around Australian probate law, but one found me and now I’m hooked. Co-created by and starring Australian comedian Kitty Flanagan, “Fisk” is an old-fashioned workplace/fish-out-of-water comedy that follows recently divorced Helen Tudor-Fisk (Flanagan), who has fled the shining lights of Sydney for the more sedate Melbourne where her father, a retired Supreme Court justice, lives. And she needs a job. After a disastrous interview with a legal recruitment firm — Fisk only wears brown, has no references and “is not a people person” — she lands at Gruber & Gruber, a small firm dealing mostly with wills. Ray Gruber (Marty Sheargold), an easily distracted schlub, is thrilled to hire the daughter of a Supreme Court justice; his sister Roz (Julia Zemiro), a woman so tightly wound she controls the key to the firm’s one restroom, is not. But Roz has been suspended; hence the need for Helen. Misanthropic and quietly contentious, Helen has little patience for client hand-holding, social niceties and, well, patience; but, as time inevitably tells, she is a good lawyer and her heart is not nearly as hard as she wants everyone to believe it is.
With a revolving cast of clients, and the requisite Gen Z assistant (here played to great effect by Aaron Chen), “Fisk” is a deceptively small show — “The Office” seems hectic and flashy by comparison — but it deftly mines the mundane and often quiet absurdities of life to laugh-out-loud effect. Flanagan, too, plays it close to the vest (or in this case, an over-large brown suit), making Helen the queen of the raised eyebrow and muttered aside. She is neither savior nor saint — many of her problems are of her own making — but anyone who has ever wondered why ordering a smoothie, or renting an Airbnb, or having a straight-forward conversation about just about anything has to be so complicated these days will find a “but that makes no sense” advocate in “Fisk.” — Mary McNamara
Guest spot
A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching
Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen in Season 2 of Apple TV+’s “Platonic.”
(Katrina Marcinowski / Apple TV+)
In “Platonic,” the only will-they/won’t-they tension is about whether two longtime friends with co-dependency issues can avoid a breakup of their friendship. The Apple TV+ series stars Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne as formerly estranged besties who, in the first season, rekindled their friendship at pivotal junctures in their lives — Sylvia (Byrne) is a married mother of three children who feels unfulfilled, while Will (Rogen) is a middle-aged hipster and brewer going through a divorce — and help each other in their quest to get back on track. The series returned earlier this month with Will experiencing cold feet at the prospect of marrying his fiancée (and boss), while Sylvia, who is helping to plan the ceremony, gets caught in the crosshairs just as she must contend with developing sore spots in her own marriage. Creators Delbanco and Stoller stopped by Guest Spot to discuss how platonic friendships can be love stories, too, and the story behind this season’s embarrassing pet name.
What is the challenge in depicting a platonic friendship between people of the opposite sex when viewers enjoy character shipping? How do you make “just friends” something to root for?
Stoller: It’s definitely a challenge to break story as almost all TV show plots involve either sex or murder. But the funniest comedies explore human relationships honestly. Our artistic project with “Platonic” is to delve into the complications and rewards of male-female friendships. We think anyone who’s ever had this kind of friendship will find the show relatable. While “Platonic” is a hang-out show, we also are invested in the show having a strong story drive. We think we have figured out series arcs for our characters that go deep on midlife and hopefully will make you laugh out loud.
Delbanco: In a way, platonic friendships are love stories too — not exactly the same kind of love stories, of course, but they do have certain similar preoccupations: Can we survive our disagreements? Are we ultimately good for each other or not? Is our relationship going to last through all of the phases of our lives as we change and grow? Ultimately, we’re hoping we can make viewers feel the same degree of investment in “will they make it” as friends that we’re all accustomed to feeling in rom-coms. It’s definitely a creative challenge, but we all know how important friendships are to our overall emotional health, so it stands to reason that they deserve some exploration onscreen too.
This season provides an opportunity to explore the intimidation factor of a new significant other experiencing the Sylvia-Will dynamic. How did that make you think about Will’s fiancée, Jenna [Rachel Rosenbloom]?
Stoller: We originally conceived of “Platonic” as an anthology series where we were going to explore a different platonic friendship each season. While shooting the first season, we had such a great time making it that we asked Seth and Rose if they wanted to do more of the show together, and luckily for us they said yes. The Jenna character had been created to give Will a happy ending. We knew that to make more episodes of the show we would have to give Will a new conflict. We knew that Sylvia needed to understand Will in a way Jenna just didn’t. But we also wanted Jenna to be a legitimate partner for Will. So in the Season 2 writers’ room, we reconceived Jenna to just be operating at a slightly different wavelength than both Will and Sylvia. We worked with Rachel Rosenbloom, who plays Jenna and is super funny, to figure out a character that was just a little out of step with both Will and Sylvia.
Delbanco: We really wanted to write Jenna as a human, relatable character rather than a one-dimensional “lame girlfriend” type of comedy villain, because at its core, the insecurity that Jenna feels about Sylvia is a feeling most of us have had before: Who is this woman my boyfriend/fiancé/husband spends so much time with, and how can I be sure he isn’t actually in love with her? Likewise, we didn’t want Jenna to be someone Sylvia could easily dismiss: In many ways she’s good for Will, and intimidating in her own right. There have been so many amazing comedies about introducing a significant other to your parents, and your family, but there’s a lot of great dramatic tension to mine when new love interests collide with old friends.
What is the backstory with the “penguini” pet name? What were other iterations before you landed on that one?
Stoller: We just tried to think of the most embarrassing thing that Will would have to say in front of Sylvia. And so “penguini” was born. Hilariously, one of our locations where we shot this season turned out to be right next to a restaurant called Caffe Pinguini.
Delbanco: It made us laugh so hard to imagine Seth having to use a private baby-talk, lovey-dovey voice — it just doesn’t suit his character, and it’s so mortifying to be overheard in that mode. It felt like a strong way to announce that something new was going on with him this season.
What have you watched recently that you are recommending to everyone you know?
Stoller: I just watched the Billy Joel documentary [“Billy Joel: And So It Goes,” HBO Max]. I’ve always been a fan of his, but the documentary uncovers a lot of pain and history I was unaware of. It made me revisit his music and understand it in a whole new light. I also just saw the film “Sorry, Baby” [VOD], which is hilarious, beautifully-shot, moving and even, at times, slightly scary.
Delbanco: I recently finished the second season of “Wolf Hall” [PBS.org], and I can’t stop thinking about it — I loved the novels and was floored that they were adapted for the screen with such incredible depth and power. The finale is still haunting me even though I watched it weeks ago. Main takeaway: I am so freaking glad I wasn’t born during the reign of Henry VIII.
What’s your go-to “comfort watch,” the movie or TV show you go back to again and again?
Stoller: I watch “Rushmore” [Hulu, Disney+], “When Harry Met Sally” [VOD] and “The Shining” [VOD] once a year. The endings of both “Rushmore” and “When Harry Met Sally” never fail to make me cry. Every time I watch “Rushmore,” I notice a new detail. And “The Shining” casts a hypnotic spell that makes me want to revisit the Overlook [Hotel] again and again.
Delbanco: I guess we’re an early Wes Anderson household, because “The Royal Tenenbaums” [Hulu, Disney+] is the movie I see on repeat when I close my eyes. It makes me laugh and also cry in all the right ways, and I love its desultory, romantic mood. I don’t think any scene has ever worked for me as well as Gwyneth Paltrow’s walk towards Luke Wilson when she gets off the bus. The bus station! Her fur coat! Nico! What could ever top it?
Pamela Warner, the mother of late “Cosby Show” star Malcolm-Jamal Warner, looked beyond loss and offered some comfort to his fans as she broke her silence about his sudden death in July.
The elder Warner created an Instagram page dedicated to her son’s legacy and on Friday released a contemplative and lengthy statement saying the actor-musician “was at peace and more importantly, he did not suffer.” Warner, who was best known for his portrayal of clean-cut Theodore Huxtable, drowned while swimming in the Caribbean off Costa Rica. He was 54.
Pamela Warner reflected on her son’s accomplishments in TV, music and his personal life, honoring her son as a “kind, loving man with a huge heart for humanity” and an “exceptional” family man. In addition to his mother, the actor is survived by his wife and daughter.
“Malcolm left an indelible mark on the world and on countless hearts,” she wrote. “All who met him, however briefly, were better for the encounter.”
While she mourned the loss of her “teacher, coach, confidant, business partner, and best friend,” Pamela Warner also reflected on giving birth to him more than 50 years ago. She said she felt “blessed that he chose me to be his mother, to come into the world through the waters of my womb.” She went on to offer a full-circle perspective on her son’s death.
“Malcolm was birthed through water and he transitioned through water,” she wrote. “He departed as he arrived, through water. This was his time. His mission on earth had been completed.”
The Emmy-nominated actor was on vacation with his family at the time of his death. He was swimming when a current pulled him deeper into the ocean. The Red Cross in Costa Rica said its first responders also tended to another man caught in the same current that claimed Warner’s life. The patient, whose identity was not disclosed, survived. First responders found Warner without vital signs, and he was taken to the morgue.
Pamela Warner’s statement joins the collection of tributes honoring her son’s life. Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s co-stars including Bill Cosby, Geoffrey Owens and Raven-Symoné and, more recently, Keshia Knight Pulliam have mourned his death.
“A week ago I lost my big brother but I gained an angel,” Pulliam said of her TV brother on social media.
Malcolm-Jamal Warner was a multi-faceted entertainer who in addition to acting also pursued a Grammy-winning music career. After his time on “The Cosby Show” he also directed episodes for several other TV shows. Warner’s mother’s statement acknowledged his reach, encouraging his fans and loved ones to “Hold close to whatever part of Malcolm’s life that touched yours.”
Her statement concluded: “In keeping it near, you keep his spirit alive — nourishing you with the peace, love, joy and light that embodied Malcolm-Jamal Warner.”
The Walt Disney Co. and Lucasfilm have settled a lawsuit brought by “The Mandalorian” actor Gina Carano, who alleged she had been wrongfully terminated from the show and discriminated against because of her social media posts.
Carano and Disney each separately confirmed the settlement Thursday, with Carano calling it the “best outcome for all parties involved.”
“I hope this brings some healing to the force,” she wrote in a post on X. “I am excited to flip the page and move onto the next chapter. My desires remain in the arts, which is where I hope you will join me.”
She also thanked X owner and billionaire Elon Musk, who funded her lawsuit against Disney, calling it a “Good Samaritan deed” from someone she had never met.
A Lucasfilm spokesperson said in a statement Thursday that the company looked forward to “identifying opportunities to work together” with Carano in the “near future,” now that the lawsuit was concluded. The company did not disclose the conditions of the settlement.
“Ms. Carano was always well respected by her directors, co-stars, and staff,” the spokesperson said. “She worked hard to perfect her craft while treating her colleagues with kindness and respect.”
The settlement comes a little more than a year after Carano sued Burbank-based Disney, Lucasfilm and Huckleberry Industries after she was dismissed from the Disney+ series. Carano, who portrayed former Rebellion soldier Cara Dune for two seasons, had been criticized for several controversial social media posts.
In one now-deleted post, she implied that being conservative today was comparable with being Jewish during the Holocaust. Critics had also called out posts in which she falsely claimed voter fraud affected the results of the 2020 presidential election, derided pandemic-era mask mandates and made fun of stating people’s pronouns.
Her social media postings ignited a firestorm of controversy, with critics calling for her to be fired from the series, while her supporters urged others to cancel Disney+ instead.
In 2021, a Lucasfilm representative said in a statement that Carano was not currently employed by the “Star Wars” production company, and that there were “no plans for her to be in the future.” The statement also called her posts “abhorrent and unacceptable.”
Carano claimed at the time that she had been promised a role in the now-shelved “Star Wars” spinoff “Rangers of the New Republic.” In her lawsuit, she said she was “targeted, harassed, publicly humiliated, [and] defamed” for making “political statements that did not align with what [Disney] believed was an acceptable viewpoint.”
She had been seeking more than $75,000 in damages and to be reinstated in her role in “The Mandalorian.”
Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who channels Wednesday Addams’ contemptuous energy every day of the week.
After a nearly three-year absence, everyone’s favorite unamused teenager is back. “Wednesday,” Netflix’s spinoff of “The Addams Family” franchise that stars Jenna Ortega, became a megahit when it debuted — spawning memes and a dance craze that took TikTok by storm. Revolving around Wednesday’s adventures at Nevermore Academy, the boarding school for outcasts she’s forced to attend, the supernatural comedy returned this week with the first half of its eight-episode second season. (The rest will drop in September. And a third season has already been ordered.) Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, who created the series, stopped by Guest Spot to talk about the new episodes, including the unforgettable way Steve Buscemi, who plays the new school principal, made early-morning shoots more bearable.
Also in this week’s Screen Gab, our streaming recommendations are a bit off the beaten path: TV critic Robert Lloyd encourages you to dive into the oeuvre of Australian-based internet humorist Natalie Tran, and film critic Amy Nicholson tells you about a different body-swapping film if the new “Freaky Friday” sequel isn’t your thing.
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Must-read stories you might have missed
After years working a propane job in Saudi Arabia to earn their retirement nest egg, Peggy and Hank Hill return to a changed Arlen, Texas. Meanwhile, Bobby, center, is living his dream as a chef in Dallas, enjoying his 20s.
A thousand thanks to whatever algorithm brought Natalie Tran, a brilliant Australian internet humorist, back into my feed. In a typical video essay, Tran will notice an odd or annoying thing about modern life or take a random idea that’s crept into her head and create a speculative playlet in which she takes on all the parts. The great library of this work, which posted pretty regularly from 2006 to 2016, and irregularly since, resides on Tran’s YouTube-based communitychannel (1.77 million subscribers), but it is timeless, smart and funny across years, generations, continents and hemispheres. She might take on matters as mundane as a lost phone on silent, the types of friends you shouldn’t see movies with, or her inability to keep house plants alive; or as left-field as imagining monsters dressing up as humans on Halloween, a school for flies, or the person whose job it is to measure the height of celebrities. Nowadays she posts at communitychannel on Facebook and natalie.tran on Instagram, and co-hosts “The Great Australian Bake Off,” the down-under franchise of the British original, whose current season you can also find online, officially or not. — Robert Lloyd
“Dating the Enemy” (Tubi, Prime Video)
Wanna get freakier than this week’s “Freaky Friday” sequel? This edgy 1996 body swap rom-com stars Claudia Karvan and a pre-fame Guy Pearce as estranged exes Tash and Brett — she’s a nerdy science journalist, he’s an egomaniac veejay — who are horrified to wake up in each other’s skin. Both are workaholics, yet neither respects the other’s career goals. (“What’s Pearl Jam?” Tash asks.) Australian writer-director Megan Simpson Huberman’s inspired idea is that the girl is the geek, and the man is the sex symbol. “I have got a great ass!” Pearce’s Brett gloats. The future Oscar nominee has a gas peering down his undershorts to understand his new mechanics. While the former lovers’ mutual hostility leads to several funny bits of vengeance, Huberman smartly notes the tiny differences in how each one is treated as they stumble through the world — and their moments of reconnection, while incredulous, are incredibly sweet. — Amy Nicholson
Guest spot
A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching
Joonas Suotamo as Lurch, left, Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia, Jenna Ortega as Wednesday, Isaac Ordonez as Pugsley and Luis Guzmán as Gomez in “Wednesday.”
(Helen Sloan / Netflix)
“Wednesday” makes its big return this week with its morose titular character (Jenna Ortega) now navigating life as a local celebrity. But even after saving Nevermore Academy, the school for supernatural misfits that she attends, from destruction, things are hardly sunshine and rainbows — a relief, really, because she’d hate that. There’s a new mystery and looming threat to keep her psychic powers occupied. And this time, her family — namely, her mother Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and father Gomez (Luis Guzmán) — figure more prominently in the spooky and morbid tension. The season is broken up into two parts — the first four episodes were released this week; the rest will be released Sept. 3. Creators and showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar stopped by Guest Spot to discuss why they wanted to make the new season a more familial experience and the standout guest star moments. — Yvonne Villarreal
Wednesday Addams has often been described as “emotionless,” “antisocial” and “morbid.” How would you describe her? And how did you want to push against that perception of her in Season 2?
Millar: While Wednesday would certainly self-identify with all three, I would argue she is, in fact, deeply emotional. She is a character who struggles to express herself, often engaging in a silent internal war when she breaks her own personal code. She’s boxed herself into an identity and considers any emotional response as a kind of failure.
Gough: Our goal is to consistently place her in situations that challenge this rigid self-perception. We think of her emotional development in terms of micro-progressions. For most protagonists, a “hug” might be a throwaway gesture — for Wednesday it’s seismic. Her internalized struggle with vulnerability is something she’ll carry into adulthood. She may never feel fully at peace with the world, but hopefully she will discover a way to co-exist with it — on her own terms.
The season brings Wednesday’s family more into focus. What is most appealing about delving into their dynamic?
Millar: In Season 1, we focused on Wednesday carving out a life away from her family for the first time — we didn’t want the show to feel like a retread of a traditional Addams Family movie. Now that audiences are grounded into the world of Nevermore, it felt like the right moment to see more of the iconic members of the Addams family.
Gough: We loved the idea of her family literally living next door — its a delicious complication for a character like Wednesday. She can’t escape them, especially her mother. The Morticia-Wednesday dynamic is a central thread this season, and their mother-daughter tension felt very real — even when it culminates in something as heightened as a sword fight in the woods.
You have a number of prominent names, including Steve Buscemi, Christopher Lloyd and Lady Gaga, joining the ranks this season. What’s been the biggest “pinch me” moment so far?
Millar: There were so many “pinch me” moments. One that stands out for me: Joanna Lumley, who plays Grandmama Frump, sipping a Bloody Mary in the middle of a vast Irish graveyard. Surreal doesn’t begin to cover it.
Gough: An unforgettable moment for me was watching Steve Buscemi dad-dance to Bruce Springsteen at 3 a.m. We were shooting the scene in the middle of July, but it was bone chillingly cold as only an Irish summer can be. Still, Steve would come out dancing with the same off-the-wall energy every single take. He was the only reason the extras made it through the night. It was weird and wonderful — and very, very “Wednesday.”
What have you watched recently that you are recommending to everyone you know?
Millar: “Dark Winds” on AMC. It’s led by the phenomenal Zahn McClarnon, and it’s a show I had heard buzz about but never had a chance to watch until recently. The premise isn’t flashy — a ’70s set police procedural on a Navajo reservation — but the acting and storytelling are exceptional. I binged all three seasons in a week. Despite its limited budget, the series manages to capture the haunting beauty of the Southwestern landscapes. It deserves a lot more critical and audience attention.
Gough: A show I am genuinely going to miss is “The Handmaid’s Tale” [Hulu]. It’s been remarkably consistent across its run. Miles tapped out midway through Season 2 as it veered into “torture porn territory,” but I stuck with it and am glad I did. The storytelling is razor-sharp, and is written with deft craft and humanity. Cinematography is sumptuous and the performances are universally excellent. It’s definitely not comfort TV — it challenges you — but it rewards your attention. It’s a show I always recommend.
What’s your go-to “comfort watch,” the movie or TV show you go back to again and again?
Millar: Generally, I don’t rewatch TV shows. There is simply too much out there to keep up with. But movies? That’s a another story. I have a particular weakness for movies set in Los Angeles — “Heat” [The Criterion Channel, Prime Video], “Drive” [VOD], “Blade Runner” [VOD]. And anything by Spielberg, honestly — from “AI” [VOD] to “Jaws” [Netflix] to “Lincoln” [VOD] — his visual storytelling is so masterful, it feels like a free film school in every frame.
Gough: Having collaborated with Tim for over 5 years now, I have a soft spot for his work, especially “Edward Scissorhands” [Disney+] and “Ed Wood” [VOD]. If “Ed Wood” were released today, I am convinced it would win best picture. It remains one of the greatest love letters to filmmaking ever made.
Stoner comedy legend, actor and Chicano art curator collector Cheech Marin will be honored this year at the 38th annual Hispanic Heritage Awards.
The Hispanic Heritage Foundation named Marin as a recipient of the 2025 Hispanic Heritage Award for the arts on Tuesday, one of several honors bestowed on notable public figures for their accomplishments and cultural contributions to the Latino communities.
Past awardees at the Hispanic Heritage Awards include Bad Bunny, America Ferrera, Becky G, J Balvin and others. Marin will be awarded alongside National Public Radio journalist and “Alt.Latino” host Felix Contreras and Rizos Curls co-founder and CEO Julissa Prado.
“I’m extremely honored to be receiving this Hispanic Heritage for Arts Award,” Marin said in a press release. “I accept this recognition with deep gratitude and a commitment to continue uplifting voices, building bridges, and honoring the legacy of those who came before us.”
Having spent his childhood in South-Central L.A. and the San Fernando Valley, Marin’s comedy career kicked off in the late 1960s, when he fled to Canada to avoid being drafted during the Vietnam War. It was during that time that he first met his future comedy partner Tommy Chong — and the rest is burned into history.
“For over five decades, Cheech Marin has reflected our cultural impact on America and the world as a comedian, actor, director, art collector, and humanitarian,” said Antonio Tijerino, the president and CEO of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, in a press release. “His groundbreaking work has not only entertained but enlightened. We are thrilled to pay tribute to Cheech and the other 2025 Honorees and tell their stories to inspire, unite, and mobilize other generations.”
Cheech and Chong’s blazing success first reached national attention after the release of their first comedy album “Cheech and Chong” in 1971. The 11-track LP was nominated for a comedy recording award at the 1972 Grammy Awards and generated the famous “Dave’s not here” line. Their second album, “Big Bambú,” was nominated for a Grammy in the same category at the 1973 award ceremony.
In 1978, the duo released the stoner comedy feature film, “Up in Smoke,” which was based in L.A. Though it was critically panned, the film became a cult classic and was added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 2024.
Marin’s 1987 film “Born in East L.A.” — which includes a spoof of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” — was acclaimed by critics for blending of comedy with such serious subject matters as deportation and living as an undocumented person in the U.S.
“Without saying so much as a single word that could be even remotely described as preachy, Cheech Marin makes his points about the second-class nature of American citizenship for ethnic minorities and the desperate situation in which illegal aliens find themselves,” The Times wrote in a 1987 review of the movie.
Many consider the museum to be the largest private collection of Chicano art in the world, with more than 550 paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs from Marin’s personal collection will be on permanent rotation. Nicknamed “the Cheech,” the 61,420-square-foot, two-story art museum and education center resides in what used to be the downtown Riverside Public Library, and has displayed works by artists Chaz Bojorquez, Judithe Hernández, Frank Romero, Patssi Valdez and others. It’s considered the only permanent art space to exclusively showcase Chicano and Mexican American art in the country.
“You don’t have to be Chicano to love and appreciate this work,” Marin told The Times in 2022. “Just like I don’t have to be French to appreciate Impressionism or German to appreciate Expressionism. We recognize it as part of the conversation in the history of art. And now we are part of that conversation in a more concentrated effort than we’ve ever had before.”
Las Vegas — I turn a bend and see a figure in a cornfield. The gray sky is foreboding, a storm clearly on the horizon. When I take a step forward, I’m hit with a gust of wind and fog. Suddenly, it’s no longer a silhouette in the haze but a scarecrow, shrouded in hay, lurching toward me.
Only I am not on a Midwestern farm, and there is no threat of severe weather. I‘m in a warehouse in Las Vegas, walking through a maze called “Scarecrow: The Reaping.” I jump back and fixate my phone’s camera on the creature, but that only encourages them to step closer. I‘m hurried out of the farmland and into a hall, where giant stalks now obscure my path.
(Michael Kirschbaum / For The Times)
(Michael Kirschbaum / For The Times)
(Michael Kirschbaum / For The Times)
Welcome to Universal Horror Unleashed, which aims to deliver year-round horrors and further expand theme park-like experiences beyond their hubs of Southern California and Central Florida. Horror Unleashed, opening Aug. 14, is an outgrowth of Universal’s popular fall event, Halloween Horror Nights, which has been running yearly at the company’s Los Angeles park since 2006 and even longer at its larger Florida counterpart.
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Like Halloween Horror Nights, there are maze-like haunted houses — four of them here themed to various properties such as “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “The Exorcist.” Their more permanent status allows for a greater production factor — think disappearing walls and more elaborate show scenes — and they are surrounded by brooding bars, a pop-up rock-inspired dance show and a host of original walk-around characters. “Hey, sugar,” said a young woman as I near the warehouse’s main bar, a wraparound establishment themed to a large boiler. The actor’s face was scarred with blood, hinting at a backstory I didn’t have time — or perhaps the inclination — to explore.
Horror Unleashed is opening just on the cusp of when theme parks and immersive-focused live experiences are entering one of the busiest times of the year: Halloween. The holiday, of course, essentially starts earlier each year. This year’s Halloween Horror Nights begins Sept. 4, while Halloween season at the Disneyland Resort launches Aug. 22. Horror shows and films are now successful year-round, with the likes of “Sinners” and “The Last of Us” enrapturing audiences long before Oct. 31. Culture has now fully embraced the darker side of fairy tales.
A scene from the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” maze at Universal Horror Unleashed in Las Vegas.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre at the Universal Horror Unleashed.
A gruesome moment during the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” maze at Universal Horror Unleashed.
“You can make every month horrific,” says Nate Stevenson, Horror Unleashed’s show director.
That’s been a goal of David Markland, co-founder of Long Beach’s Halloween-focused convention Midsummer Scream, which this year is set for the weekend of Aug. 15. When Midsummer Scream began in 2016, it attracted about 8,000 people, says Markland, but today commands audiences of around 50,000. “Rapidly, over the past 10 or 15 years, Halloween has become a year-round fascination for people,” Markland says. “Halloween is a culture now. Halloween is a lifestyle. It’s a part of people’s lives that they celebrate year-round.”
There will be challenges, a difficult tourism market among them, as visits to Las Vegas were down 11.3% in June 2025 versus a year earlier, according to data from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. And then there’s the question of whether audiences are ready for year-round haunts that extend beyond the fall Halloween season to winter, spring and summer. I entered Horror Unleashed for a media preview on an early August night when it was 105 degrees in the Las Vegas heat. It’s also been tried before, albeit on a smaller scale. Las Vegas was once home to Eli Roth’s Goretorium, a year-round haunted house that leaned on torture-horror and shuttered after about a year in 2013.
But Universal creatives are undaunted.
Frankenstein’s monster comes alive during a Universal monsters maze at Universal Horror Unleashed.
More than a decade, of course, has passed, and Horror Unleashed is more diverse in its horror offerings. A maze themed to Universal’s classic creatures winds through a castle and catacombs with vintage-style horrors and a mid-show scene in which Frankenstein’s monster comes alive. Original tale “Scarecrow: The Reaping,” which began at Universal Studios Florida, mixes in jump scares with more natural-seeming frights, such as the aforementioned simulated dust bowl.
TJ Mannarino, vice president of entertainment, art and design at Universal Orlando, points to cultural happenings outside of the theme parks in broadening the terror scene — the success of shows such as “The Walking Dead” and “American Horror Story,” which found audiences outside of the Halloween season, as well as “Stranger Things,” which he says opened up horror to a younger crowd. Theme parks are simply reflecting our modern culture, which is craving darker fantasies. Universal, for instance, recently opened an entire theme park land focused on its classic monsters at its new Epic Universe in Florida, and even Disney is getting in on the action, as a villains-focused land is in the works for Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.
An anxiety-ridden actor in “The Exorcist: Believer” maze at Universal Horror Unleashed.
“We think our audience really wants this,” says Mannarino, noting theme park attendance surveys were prodding the company to give horror a permanent home. And at Universal’s Orlando park, Halloween Horror Nights starts earlier, beginning in late August.
“Just a couple years ago, we started in August, and we were selling out August dates,” Stevenson says. “On a micro level, we’re seeing that, boy, it doesn’t matter if you extend past the season or extend out before the season — people are coming. People want it.”
The central bar, themed to a boiler room, at Universal Horror Unleashed.
Universal is betting on it, as the company has already announced that a second Horror Unleashed venue will be heading to Chicago in 2027. Smaller, more regional theme park-like experiences are once again something of a trend, as Netflix has immersive venues planned for the Dallas and Philadelphia regions, and Universal is also bringing a kid-focused park to Frisco, Texas.
There are antecedents for what Universal is attempting. Disney, for instance, tried an indoor interactive theme park with DisneyQuest, for which a Chicago location was short-lived and a Florida outpost closed in 2017. Star Trek: The Experience, a mix of theme park-like simulations and interactive theater, operated for about a decade in Las Vegas before it shuttered in 2008.
“I know there’s horror fans and Halloween fans who are always looking for something to do,” Markland says. “What [Universal is] doing is very ambitious and big, and so I’m nervous along with them. We’ll see how it goes. I’m sure people will go as soon as it opens and through the Halloween season, but after that, I don’t know. … They’ve definitely invested in Halloween and horror fans. They’re all-in.”
Horror, says author Lisa Morton — who has written multiple books on the Oct. 31 holiday, including “Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween” — is thriving in part because today it is taken more seriously by cultural critics. The genre also has metaphorical qualities — the struggle, for instance, that is life, art and creativity in “Sinners” or the underlying themes of PTSD that permeated the latest season of “The Last of Us.” That makes it especially appealing, she says, for today’s stressful times.
“I suspect that’s part of the reason horror is booming right now,” Morton says. “Everything from climate change, that we seem to have no voice in, and our politics, that don’t seem to represent us. Many of us are filled with anxiety about the future. I think horror is the perfect genre to talk about that. When you add a layer of a metaphor to it, it becomes much easier to digest.”
(Michael Kirschbaum / For The Times)
(Michael Kirschbaum / For The Times)
(Michael Kirschbaum / For The Times)
To step into Horror Unleashed is to walk into a demented wonderland, a place that turns standard theme park warmth and joy upside down. Don’t expect fairy tale-like happy endings. The space’s centerpiece performance is twisted, a story centering on Jack the Clown and his female sidekick Chance, who have kidnapped two poor Las Vegas street performers and are forcing them to execute their acts to perfection to avoid murder. The deeper one analyzes it, the more sinister its class dynamics feel, even if it’s an excuse to showcase, say, street dancing and hula hoop acrobatics.
A circus show at Universal Horror Unleashed features various Las Vegas performers.
The space has an underlying narrative. Broadly speaking, the warehouse is said to have been a storage place for Universal Studios’ early monster-focused horror films. That allows it to be littered with props, such as the throne-like chair near its entrance, and for nooks and crannies such as a “film vault” to be renamed a “kill vault.” Somehow — horror loves a good mystery — the space has come alive, and don’t be surprised to be greeted by a vampire or a costumed swampland figure that may or may not be related to the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
The goal, says Universal creatives, is to give Horror Unleashed a bit of an immersive theater feel, something that can’t really be done among the chaotic scare zones and fast-moving mazes of a Halloween Horror Nights event. But here, guests can linger with the actors and probe them to try to uncover the storyline that imbues the venue. One-to-one actor interaction has long been a goal of those in the theme park space but often a tough formula to crack, in part because cast members are costly and in part because of the difficulty to scale such experiences for thousands.
“As we’ve evolved this style of experience, we have given more and more control of the show to the actors,” says Mannarino on what separates Horror Unleashed from Halloween Horror Nights. “It’s less programmed. It’s less technology. I’ve had conversations with tech magazines, and they’ll ask me what is the most critical piece, and I’ll say it’s the actors. … The lifeblood of our all stories — we can build all of this, but it doesn’t go without the actors.
“It’s what really drives this whole animal,” he adds.
A dark moment in “The Exorcist: Believer” maze at Universal Horror Unleashed.
It extends a bit to the mazes as well. Audiences should expect to spend about five to seven minutes in each of the four walk-through attractions, but unlike a Halloween Horror Nights event, where guests are rushed from room to room without stopping, in Las Vegas there will be one dedicated show scene per maze. Here, groups will be held to watch a mini-performance. In the “Exorcist” maze, for instance, that means witnessing a full exorcism, complete with special effects that will have walls give way to demonic specters. In the ‘70s-themed “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” haunt, look out for a bloody scene designed to drench guests.
Universal Horror Unleashed
The mazes are intended to be semi-permanent. Stevenson says there’s no immediate plans to swap them out in the near future but hints that Horror Unleashed will be an evolving venue and, if all goes according to plan, will look a bit different in a few years. Thus, he says the key differentiator between Horror Unleashed and Halloween Horror Nights is not necessarily the tech used in the mazes, but the extended time they can devote to unwrapping a story.
“When Universal builds a haunted house, the level of story that starts that out is enormous,” Stevenson says. “There’s so much story. All of our partners need that because they base every little nuanced thing off of that story. Unfortunately, we don’t always have the chance to tell that story, and all our fans tell us they want to know more story.”
A sampling of food and drinks at Universal Horror Unleashed, including a bread dish with bourbon-laced cheese.
Tacos and a chainsaw-themed flatbread at Universal Horror Unleashed.
Story percolates throughout the venue. Flatbreads, for instance, are shaped like chainsaw blades. Desserts come on plates that are mini-shovels. Salad dressing is delivered in syringes. In the past, says Mannarino, no one wanted their food to be played with. ‘“Don’t do horrible things to my food!’” he says in mock exaggeration. “But now, people really love that.”
Little, it seems, is obscene, when every day can be Halloween.
I will say this: I should be watching more cartoons. It has been harder to indulge this passion for some of the best, most pleasurable work television has to offer with so many ordinary series fighting for my professional time and attention, but here and now I make a more or less midyear resolution to get back to them. Please hold me to it.
Two great animated series are posting new seasons after long hiatuses (neither on the original platform, both on Hulu). “King of the Hill,” which ran on Fox from 1997 to 2009, lives anew with 10 fresh episodes streaming Monday; “The Amazing World of Gumball” (2011-2019), one of the greatest products of a great age of Cartoon Network, is back as “The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball,” in a 20-episode season now available. (Earlier seasons of both shows are available on the platform.) Each is under the protection of their original creators; both are their easily recognizable, extremely different old selves.
Visually, there is little to no difference between one multi-camera sitcom and the next, one single-camera mockumentary sitcom and the next, one single-camera non-mockumentary and the next, one CBS police procedural and the next. But every cartoon creates its individual grammar, its dynamic, its world, its synergy between the image and the actors, its level of awkwardness of slickness. (The voice actors, I mean — animators are also actors.) There are trends, of course, in shapes and line and ways to render a mouth or an eyeball, and much drawing is drawn from the history of the medium, because art influences artists. But the spectrum is wide, and novelty counts for a lot.
“The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball”
(Hulu)
Created by Ben Bocquelet, “Gumball” doesn’t settle for a single style — that is to say, not settling is its style. The characters comprise a hodgepodge, nay, an encyclopedia of visual references, dimensions, materials and degrees of resolution, and include traditional 2-D animation, puppet animation, photo collage and live-action, usually set against a photographic background and knit into a world whose infinite variety seems nothing short of inevitable. (Netflix’s late “The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants” is the only other cartoon with such a range of modes.
Like many modern cartoons (excepting anime, which I would argue is a different, if widely influential, art), its main characters are children. Gumball, currently voiced by Alkaio Thiele, is a blue cat, the son of a cat mother and a rabbit father; he has a pink rabbit little sister, Anais (Kinza Syed Khan), and an adoptive brother, Darwin (Hero Hunter in the new season), a pet goldfish who grew legs and gets around quite easily in the air. Their middle-school classmates include a ghost, a cloud, a banana, an ice cream cone, a daisy, a balloon, a cactus, a T. Rex and a flying eyeball. Gumball’s girlfriend, Penny (Teresa Gallagher) is a shape-shifting yellow fairy. Each is rendered in a different style, and that is just the tip of the animated iceberg.
Like the best cartoons ostensibly made for kids, it doesn’t underestimate its audience, what it might understand or can handle. Many “Gumball” episodes devolve into a sort of authentically disturbing horror movie, including the last episode of the original series, which saw the characters frighteningly transformed into realistic animated children and a void opening just before the closing credits. It also demonstrates an adult skepticism about the world that might profitably infect young minds. There are critiques of capitalism, consumerism and online culture: In the first episode of the new season, an evil talking hamburger controls the corporate universe; in another, mother Nicole (Gallagher again) is seduced into virtual reality by a lonely, jealous chatbot.
The decade and a half since “King of the Hill” went off the air — surreptitiously, if obviously, referenced in a remark about “that cooking show that Fox stupidly canceled 15 years ago” — is not exactly represented in the new season, but time has passed. (The characters did not age 13 years over the original series — but they grew a little.) Hank, voiced by co-creator Mike Judge, and Peggy Hill (Kathy Najimy), returning to Arlen, Texas, from Saudi Arabia, where Hank had been exercising his expertise in all things propane, are drawn older by the addition of a few wrinkles but are substantially unchanged. As a character, Hank, of course, distrusts change, though possibly not as much as the friends who gather, as before, in the alley behind his house; indeed, he worries that the love of soccer he acquired while away will reduce his standing in their eyes. Peggy, on the other hand, was enlarged by her time away; she likes to demonstrate a few words of Arabic. Both Hills are dealing uncomfortably with retirement; he looks for odd jobs, takes a stab at making beer (not that fruit-flavored stuff); she exercises.
In the revived “King of the Hill,” Bobby and Hank compete against each other in a home brew competition, to Peggy’s dismay (but eventual delight).
(Mike Judge/Disney)
The show is set in an awkwardly drawn but highly evocative, extremely ordinary environment that perfectly serves its stories; it feels like an accurate outsider-art rendition of its middle-class Texas suburb. There is little in it that couldn’t be handled as live-action situation comedy; indeed, for long stretches you can close your eyes and let it play in your head like an old-time radio show — “Ozzie and Harriet,” or “Vic and Sade” for the deep cut — which testifies to the quality of the writing and the performances. (Judge’s voice has an unschooled quality that perfectly matches the drawing. I was once almost certain that Hank’s voice was that of my friend Will Ray, a country-music guitar slinger — which would have made sense, given Judge’s interest in the music and his occasional moonlighting as a bass player. That is neither here or there, but I am happy to have found a place to mention it.)
Their son, Bobby (Pamela Adlon), is now an adult; little dots on his chin indicate either that he can grow a beard but neglects to shave or that he can’t quite grow a beard; it doesn’t seem exactly like a choice. A formerly established talent for cooking — the final episode of the original run concerned his ability to judge the quality of a cut of meat — has blossomed into his becoming a restaurateur, offering a fusion of Japanese and Texas cuisine; he is evidently good at this, though for whatever reason — more work to draw them? — his restaurant is devoid of customers. The torch he carries for sometime girlfriend Connie Souphanousinphone (Lauren Tom) occupies the other half of his storyline here.
There are light topical references — a sidelong joke about the names billionaires give their children, for example — but the show happily lives in its world of day-to-day annoyances and victories. Hank is excited by a trip to the George W. Bush presidential library, but one can’t imagine him with any affection for the current Oval Office occupant; he’s too common-sense for that. Extreme views and conspiracy theories are loaded into Hank’s pest exterminator friend Dale Gribble. The late Johnny Hardwick, who voiced him for the first six episodes of the new season, was replaced by Toby Huss. (Jonathan Joss, who played the character John Redcorn, died in a shooting this June.) Cartoons have a way of dealing with death — they don’t have to — and time means no more there than the animators want it to. It’s a comfortable state of being.
Remember when Heidi Klum drilled into our reality TV heads that, in fashion, one day you’re in, and the next day you’re out? Well, even she knows the past can come back in style. After a 16-season run on “Project Runway” as host and judge, Klum departed the fashion competition series in 2018 and, along with the show’s original mentor Tim Gunn, went on to create “Making the Cut,” their version of a fashion tournament for Prime Video that ran for three seasons. (Model Karlie Kloss assumed Klum’s “Project Runway” duties in subsequent seasons.) Now, as “Project Runway” launches its 21st season, moving homes yet again (to Freeform from Bravo), Klum brings the nostalgia factor to the show’s revamping, which includes the addition of super stylist Law Roach to the judges panel. Roach stopped by Guest Spot to discuss joining the ranks of the long-running reality competition.
Also in this week’s Screen Gab, our streaming recommendations include an illuminating documentary that explains how “The Ed Sullivan Show” amplified Black music and culture, and a collection of ‘90s films that defined an era through their soundtracks.
ICYMI
Must-read stories you might have missed
Luis Guzmán, Jenna Ortega and Catherine Zeta-Jones, photographed in London this month, return for the second season of Netflix’s “Wednesday.”
Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times
Ed Sullivan with the Jackson 5 and Diana Ross.
(Netflix)
“Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan” (Netflix)
Ed Sullivan was so famous, such an institution in his time, that his name became the text of a number in the musical “Bye Bye, Birdie.” It’s been half a century since “The Ed Sullivan Show” ended its 24-season run, but Sullivan, who gave Elvis Presley a platform and introduced the Beatles to America, will be seen as long as they continue to matter, which is to say, forever. The “Untold” in Sacha Jenkins’ affecting documentary is the show’s history with the many Black artists it presented to an audience of many millions, through years in which television networks bowed to the bigotry of what it called the Southern audience. Yet even had you taken Black acts on “Sullivan” for granted, the extent of the host’s progressivism might come as surprise. Those sharing memories include the late Harry Belafonte, Smokey Robinson and the Temptations’ Otis Williams; seen in performance are Stevie Wonder, Jackie Wilson, Bo Diddley, James Brown, Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson and the Jackson 5, in all their youthful glory. — Robert Lloyd
Guided by the words of an ancient samurai text, Ghost Dog (Forest Whitaker) is a professional killer able to dissolve into the night and move through the city unnoticed in “Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai.”
(Ghost Dog / Artisan Entertainment)
’90s Soundtrack Movies (Criterion Channel)
Now they exist as relics: banged-up soundtrack cassettes that slid around in the passenger side of everyone’s cars. But we all listened to them and in many cases, they ended up being more memorable than the films themselves. A lot of good was done when acts like U2, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode and Nick Cave lent their drawing power to director Wim Wenders’ mystifying 1991 sci-fi art thinker “Until the End of the World.” The songs were an adventure (though I couldn’t quote you a single line from the script). More substantially, Jim Jarmusch introduced his fan base to Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, who contributed a superb head-bobbing soundtrack to 1999’s “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai,” proving there was plenty of crossover between Soho and Shaolin. David Lynch, always plugged in musically, drew from David Bowie’s underrated “Outside” album for the white-line opening credits of 1997’s “Lost Highway.” And even when Bowie wasn’t game — as with the bio-in-all-but-name “Velvet Goldmine” — an inventive glam-saturated soundtrack could carry the day. Criterion’s new series is programming you can play in the background and still enjoy. — Joshua Rothkopf
Guest spot
A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching
“Project Runway” adds Hollywood stylist Law Roach to its judges panel.
(Rankin / Disney)
As one of Hollywood’s biggest stylists and image architects, Law Roach has bolstered the fashion profile of stars like Zendaya, Hunter Schafer and Anya Taylor-Joy and set the tone for every red carpet he’s touched with his viral styling choices. Now, he’s bringing his unparalleled fashion sense to the judge’s panel of “Project Runway.” The new season premiered Thursday on Freeform with two episodes; it will air weekly and also stream on Hulu and Disney+. Roach stopped by Screen Gab to discuss his feelings on constructive criticism, the fictional character he’d like to style and what he’s watching. — Yvonne Villarreal
As a creative in the fashion world, is “Project Runway” a show you watched at any point over its run? What value did you see in it and how do you hope your involvement elevates the show?
Yes, I watched it religiously, of course. The season that Christian won is hands down still my favorite. I think it gave me an inside look at an industry that I was craving to be a part of. I think my real-world experience and passion will come through not only to the viewers but also to the contestants.
You bring a bold and direct feedback style to the judges panel from the start. How do you prefer to receive feedback on your work and when do you trust it?
Criticism is a part of every job. I think it is important to hear it and if it fits you or can help you grow, take it in, and learn from it, but if it doesn’t, ignore it.
As a stylist and image architect, which fictional character of TV or film — past or present — would you most like to create a fashion profile for?
Jessica Rabbit because we only got to see her in one look!
What’s your go-to “comfort watch,” the film or TV show you return to again and again?
“Top Chef” [Peacock] or any cooking competition show. I love food and witnessing the thought that goes into making the food.
