JOHANNESBURG — Presley Chweneyagae, the South African actor who gained international recognition for his leading role in the 2005 film “Tsotsi,” which won South Africa’s first-ever Academy Award for best foreign language film, has died. He was 40 years old.
His talent agency MLA on Tuesday confirmed Chweneyagae’s death and said South Africa had lost one of its “most gifted and beloved actors.”
“His passion for empowering the next generation of artists will remain integral to his legacy,” MLA Chief Executive Nina Morris Lee said in a statement. She gave no details about the cause of death.
Chweneyagae’s three-decade-long career spanned theater, television and film.
His award-winning performance in “Tsotsi,” based on the 1961 novel by South Africa’s preeminent playwright Athol Fugard and directed by Gavin Hood, catapulted him to international stardom.
Chweneyagae was also a gifted writer and director, co-writing the internationally acclaimed stage play “Relativity” with Paul Grootboom.
The South African government paid tribute to Chweneyagae, lauding his outstanding contribution to the film, television and theater fraternity.
“The nation mourns the loss of a gifted storyteller whose talent lit up our screens and hearts,” the government said in a post on X. “Your legacy will live on through the powerful stories you told.”
The South Africa Film and Television Awards organization, known as SAFTA, paid tribute to Chweneyagae, calling him a “true legend of South African Cinema” on X.
“Rest in Power … a powerhouse performer whose talent left an indelible mark on our screens and in our hearts,” SAFTA posted.
The secretary general of the ANC, the party that dominated South African politics for 30 years, offered his condolences.
Fikile Mbalula described Chweneyagae as a “giant of South African film and theatre.”
“His legacy in ‘Tsotsi,’ ‘The River,’ and beyond will live on. Condolences to his family, friends, and all who were touched by his brilliance,” Mbalula said.
Leave it to Kelly Reichardt, who turned Michelle Williams into a seething sculptor with frenemy issues in “Showing Up,” to make the gentlest, most self-deprecating heist movie imaginable. As such, she’s invented a whole new genre. The year is 1970 but don’t expect anything Scorsesian to go down here. Rather, this one’s about a half-smart art thief (Josh O’Connor, leaning into loser vibes) who, after snatching canvases of a lesser-known modernist from an understaffed Massachusetts museum, suffers grievously as his plan unravels. Reichardt, herself the daughter of law enforcement, is more interested in the aftermath: hypnotically awkward kitchen conversations with disappointed family members who won’t lend him any more money and would rather he just clear out. (The exquisite period-perfect cast includes Alana Haim, Bill Camp, Hope Davis and John Magaro.) Danny Ocean types need not apply, but if you hear skittering jazz music as the soundtrack of desperation, your new favorite comedy is here. — JR
If you are only going to be in one part of a movie, it’s best if it’s the most memorable part. For example, a thrilling set-piece that sets the template for an entire franchise.
So it was for actor Rolf Saxon, who appeared as a befuddled CIA analyst in the very first “Mission: Impossible” film. The sequence, in which Tom Cruise dangles from the ceiling of a stark white vault room to infiltrate the computer system overseen by Saxon’s character, is now the stuff of action-cinema history.
From a throwaway punchline in that 1996 film — exiling Saxon’s William Donloe to a remote radar station in Alaska — comes one of the most unexpected storylines in the new “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.” His part in the new film is substantially larger and provides the film with some of its emotional heft, making Saxon’s return as Donloe a triumph. (A rather memorable knife makes a comeback as well.)
For Saxon’s work in the first film, he was in the same physical space as Cruise but their two characters never interacted and had no dialogue together. So a moment late in the new film when Donloe makes a heartfelt expression to Cruise’s Ethan Hunt of what his life has been like all these years in Alaska provided relief for the character of Donloe — and for the actor portraying him too.
“It was something I was hoping for, and then it happened,” says Saxon, 70. “It’s a great scene. Working with one of the biggest movie stars in the world, that’s kind of cool too.”
Rolf Saxon in the first ‘Mission: Impossible’ from 1996.
(Paramount Pictures)
Finally sharing a proper scene with Cruise also gave Saxon some insight into the reason Cruise has been one of the world’s biggest movie stars for more than 40 years.
“There’s no question why he is,” Saxon says. “The energy that he personally brings into a room, I’ve never witnessed before. It’s focused, it’s practiced. I know this sounds like I’m supposed to say this about him, but it’s true. This guy’s unbelievable. And he does those effing stunts.”
Saxon is impressed, too, by the real-life mission Cruise is often vocal about. “His whole raison d’être is to enhance the industry that’s given him so much and bring people in, bring them back to theaters. And I just applaud that on my feet.”
Rolf Saxon as William Donloe in the movie “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.”
(Giles Keyte / Paramount Pictures)
Having had a steadily successful career between his two “Missions,” Saxon lives in the Sierra Foothills of Northern California but was recently on a Zoom call from New York City the day after attending the new film’s U.S. premiere there. It was Saxon’s second time seeing the movie, having also attended a premiere in London just a few days earlier.
Born in Virginia, Saxon studied acting in England, where he would land parts in numerous British TV series as well as assorted film and theater roles. Throughout his career he has also done voice-over work for video games, including the “Broken Sword” series, and was the narrator for the American edition of the popular children’s show “Teletubbies.”
According to Saxon, much of the business of what Donloe does onscreen in the first movie directed by Brian De Palma came from an unexpected interaction on set.
“I was given the script,” he recalls, “I read it and I thought, OK, there’s not a lot to do here. And then one day I was messing around on set, joking around, there was some downtime. And I got a tap on the shoulder from the first [A.D.], who said that Brian De Palma wanted to have a word with me. And I thought, ‘Uh-oh.’
“And I walked over and he had a very stern demeanor. Great guy, but he just always looked angry and he said, ‘You’re playing around on set.’ I said, ‘Yes, Mr. De Palma.’ He said, ‘Could you do that again?’ I said, “Sure, of course.” What am I going to say to say, no? He said, ‘OK, after lunch, we’re going to have you messing around onstage. We’ll film that.’” All of Donloe’s memorable physical mishaps — the vomiting, the double take — were Saxon improvs.
The vault sequence has become one of the signature set-pieces of the first film, seemingly lifting from both the silent heist in “Rififi” and the spacewalk of “2001: A Space Odyssey” and setting a stunts-centric guide for the franchise to come. To perform the scene, Cruise spent hours in a harness suspended from the ceiling.
“I mean, it was a long time,” says Saxon. “And they’d bring him down sometimes, but he’s that guy. He does what needs to be done. I was in the room a number of times with him, while he was filming it, but [our characters] never were supposed to meet.”
Saxon recalls that while shooting the first “Mission” film, he and Cruise shared a makeup room at the studio in England. One day the woman who did Cruise’s makeup wasn’t there because her son had an accident at his school. As soon as Cruise heard the news, he called his private on-call doctor and sent him to attend to the boy.
“And he hung up the phone, said, ‘Shut the door,’” remembers Saxon. “And he said, ‘This stays between us. If this comes out, it’s somebody in this room. I’m going to find out who it is and that’ll be your last day on the film.’ He wanted no publicity. He did it for this lady and her son. And the boy was fine, he was mildly concussed. When she came back the next day, there was a massive bouquet of flowers, saying ‘Welcome back.’ And then nothing was ever said of it again. That’s the kind of guy he is. And it took me two years before I would tell that story.”
Saxon had never had reason to encounter Cruise in the intervening years, because, as he says, “I’m an actor but I’m not a star.”
Director Christopher McQuarrie, standing, gives notes to the cast, including Saxon, on the set of “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.”
(Antonio Olmos / Paramount Pictures)
The call for the new film first came in January of 2022, and Saxon began shooting on the film in August of that year, finishing in July of 2024. (Saxon’s casting was announced via director Christopher McQuarrie’s Instagram in March 2023.) This time around, Donloe becomes a vital part of the team and is in the middle of the action at the film’s climax. In his years in Alaska he has even married an Inuit woman, Tapeesa (Lucy Tulugarjuk).
“The feeling on this set was one of warmth and inclusivity — welcoming,” says Saxon. “I was on it for almost three years, but people were on it for over five years. This schedule for the filming was very erratic, and [McQuarrie] kept very calm. McQ and Tom, they worked very much in tandem. I loved coming to work every day. Not that I didn’t with Brian’s stuff, but this was just a joy, and I was much more a part of it than I was in the first one. I was much more part of the team, the core group that was working.”
For “The Final Reckoning,” a sequence meant to take place in Alaska, with a team of agents arriving to the remote cabin occupied by Donloe and Tapeesa, was actually shot in Svalbard, an archipelago north of Norway.
“We were staying on a ship,” says Saxon. “We went to Longyearbyen, which is the furthest most populated area in the world. Then we took a six-hour ride north on the ship, parked on the glacier. And that’s where we lived for two weeks. Polar bears, walruses, reindeer and us. It was the most beautiful place I’ve ever been in my life.”
The cave sequence that is part of the movie’s action finale is set in South Africa but was shot in the Middleton mines in England’s East Midlands.
“This was in many ways a dream job,” says Saxon. “The people I’m working with, the thing I’m working on and the places I got to go to work. It’s just like, what would you really like to do? Here it is.”
Hayley Atwell, left, Simon Pegg, Tom Cruise, Rolf Saxon, Lucy Tulugarjuk, Greg Tarzan Davis and Pom Klementieff in “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.”
(Paramount Pictures)
From his initial conversations with McQuarrie, Saxon knew that his part would be significantly larger than in the first film. But even then it developed over the course of production. McQuarrie informed him that some scenes Saxon initially shot were no longer going to be used and due to rewrites, the actor would now be part of the climactic finale.
“He said, ‘We really like what you did, but we’ve had a story alteration, so we can’t use that. So we’re going to put you in in other ways,’” says Saxon. “And that was kind of like, ‘Oh, no’ and ‘Oh, yeah’ at the same time. Which is kind of the way this worked the whole way through.”
Among the actors in his scenes this time out, Saxon had previously worked with Simon Pegg on the 1999 British sitcom “Hippies.” He also discovered that he and Hayley Atwell had attended the same drama school in London, though some years apart. Also returning was Henry Czerny, whose character in the initial film sent Donloe to Alaska in the first place.
NEW YORK — MAY 19 2025: Actor Rolf Saxon for the movie “Mission: Impossible- The Final Reckoning” posing with the knife from the original Mission: Impossible film, photographed at the Museum of Moving Image
(Justin Jun Lee/For The Times)
As to whether he had ever imagined returning to the franchise, Saxon holds his arms out wide, saying, “Just a little dream.”
He adds, “I thought about writing Chris or Tom, ‘Dear Tom, here’s what I think we could do with Donloe.’ Or, ‘What about this with Donloe?’ And at one point, after listening to a friend, I drafted a letter to him. The next day I woke up and I thought” — he mimes wadding up a piece of paper and tossing it away — ‘That’s never going to happen.’ And then years later, bang, it did.”
Saxon said he has never been recognized by anyone for the part of Donloe. (That is likely about to change.) If pressed, his favorite of the “Mission: Impossible” films has remained the first one. Up to now.
“I suppose closure is one way of putting it,” says Saxon. “It’s been much more fun, this one. The other one, I did my job and I enjoyed doing it. But this one I got to really investigate. It’s like remounting a production onstage, or coming back to a project you did 20 years ago, 30 years ago and getting to redo it with what you know now, particularly with the excitement of a larger part. It’s fantastic. It’s another reason this is such a gift.”
He played a major role in the BBC soap’s 40th anniversary episodes when his wife Cindy’s Christmas Day attacker was revealed.
They couple were reunited after Adam’s hiatus from the soap in 2021.
When he returned to Albert Square last year, Ian was reunited with his presumed dead wife Cindy (Michelle Collins), who was revealed to have been in witness protection.
Throughout his long tenure in Walford, Ian has been married six times to five women and had two failed engagements.
He has also fathered three children and acted as a father figure to much younger half-brother, Ben Mitchell.
Coronation Street fans have been mistaking Mikey North, who plays Gary Windass, for his former co-star for 15 years – and he’s yet to correct any of them
16:29, 23 May 2025Updated 17:34, 23 May 2025
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Mikey North has been mistaken for his co-star for years(Image: ITV)
Gary Windass (Mikey North) has been on the cobbles since 2008, but fans still get him mixed up with another Coronation Street star. Mikey was the latest soap star in Kevin and Liz Fletcher’s Off Script podcast, where he spilled all the tea.
Since he’s been in the show so long, Liz was curious to know what Corrie fans call Gary when they see him on the street. “Is it Gary or Windass?” she asked. However, to Liz’s shock, it was neither.
“It’s Chesney,” he laughed – explaining that he gets mistaken for Chesney actor Sam Aston. “It’s followed me around all these years. It’s funny.
“It’s an in-joke at work that my name is Chesney. I guess people who dip in and out who watched it when Chesney was really young, and then tune in years later and see me, they think that Chesney grew up to be me, if that makes sense?”
Mikey revealed he gets called Chesney by fans(Image: Chloe Rivers )
Mickey then went on to reveal how himself and Chesney shared a dressing room at the studio for 15 years. “It’s sort of like they were congregating the gingers,” he laughed.
However, Mickey doesn’t bother to correct fans, as he told the hosts he “just goes along with it” when people ask him how Chesney’s late dog Schmeichel is.
Sam Aston first joined the soap in 2003, five years before Mickey. At the time of joining, he was just 10 years old.
There had been no mention of where he’d gone, and not a single storyline to explain his absence, leaving fans confused. During his return, Gary told Maria he was planning to sell his shop and buy the builder’s yard in an attempt at a fresh start. However, Maria wasn’t convinced that was a good idea.
Things then became worse for the couple when Maria found out Gary had offered Mick a job at the yard. However, .the position didn’t last long, after Gary discovered that Mick had locked his step-son Liam in a cabinet for hours. Mick was then sacked and the pair ended up having a brawl in broad daylight.
Asked which Emmerdale characters he wants to be mixing with, the actor replied: “It’s got to be Cain, hasn’t it?” “A Windass and a Dingle, that would be brilliant,” said Kelvin, to which Mikey laughed: “Windass V Dingle.”
CANNES, France — You see and hear the films of Scottish-born Lynne Ramsay long after you first take them in. They have a way of burning into your brain. Sometimes it’s a question of immersive soundscapes or settings, as with her brutal 1999 debut “Ratcatcher” or the euphoric post-boyfriend girls’ trip “Morvern Callar.” Elsewhere Ramsay makes violence grippingly personal, as with 2011’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” about the dissociating mother of a school shooter, or 2017’s “You Were Never Really Here,” a coiled revenge tale spurred by a kidnapping.
It’s good that we remember these movies so well because Ramsay’s output has never been steady. She’s had some bad luck with turnarounds and fickle producers (notoriously on the projects “The Lovely Bones” and “Jane Got a Gun,” which swallowed up years).
But today, sitting in the sunlight garden of a quiet Cannes hotel blocks from the action, Ramsay smokes and sips coffee contentedly. Her latest movie, “Die, My Love,” a marital psychodrama starring an impressively unhinged Jennifer Lawrence, has just hours earlier been acquired by Mubi, the upstart distributor that released last year’s “The Substance,” in a deal reported at $24 million.
It’s a cheering turn of events for a director who inspires devotion not only from critics and A-listers such as Tilda Swinton and Joaquin Phoenix, but from a generation of young filmmakers who see in her work a defiant, punkish way forward, especially for women in artistic control. We spoke to the 55-year-old Ramsay about her process and making “Die, My Love.”
I was very happy to hear you had a film at Cannes. It’s such a rare thing.
Hopefully less rare now.
So let me ask you directly about that and I hope you take this in the right spirit: Do you wish you’d made more films by now?
Oh, yeah. There was one I was just about to shoot called “Stone Mattress,” based on Margaret Atwood’s novel, a little short story in a novella. We were just about to do that. But the producers were pushing for Iceland as a location — it’s meant to be in the Arctic. I wanted Greenland. It just felt like we were cutting the lines down. The actor, Julianne Moore, would do a couple of lines in one location, fly four hours and do the rest of the scene.
And I just don’t work like that. I can’t do it all broken up in pieces and it’s not good for the actors either. So I was like, I don’t think this is the right thing. And then I was like, maybe I should have just done it. But I’ve written a lot. I’ve got three scripts, one that’s totally ready, one that’s almost ready and then another that’s in development.
I think people really want to know from your point of view: Are you just uncompromising or especially picky?
I don’t know. I was speaking to my friend Jonathan Glazer about that. Everyone says to him, “Why don’t you make many films?”
It was basically 10 years between “Under the Skin” and “The Zone of Interest.” He’s going to disappear now for another 10 years.
I don’t know if he will. We were both talking, like, We’re not getting any younger. We’ve got to hurry up. [Laughs.] But yeah, no, it’s not by design. It’s just life takes over. I have a daughter, there was COVID, stuff nearly gets there and falls through. It’s just a tough industry. I am picky in the sense that if you’re going to stick with a project for two or three years, then you want to know that you’re doing the right one. You don’t want to be down the line with it and think, God, I wish I hadn’t started this.
Jennifer Lawrence in the movie “Die, My Love.”
(Festival de Cannes)
Meanwhile, it must be exciting when a star like Jennifer Lawrence reaches out to you about a film you made 25 years ago, as she did about “Ratcatcher.”
Well, it was funny. She said she wanted to work with me. That was nice. She was talking about this particular book [“Die My Love” by Ariana Harwicz] and I was like: Look, I’ve just done “Kevin.” I don’t want to do more postpartum things and I won’t do that. And then I think I was doing “Stone Mattress” for a while and I probably was just being terrible and didn’t get back for ages.
But then I was like, OK, I have an idea. If it’s a love story — a bonkers, crazy love story — if it’s got many layers to it, I’ll do it as an experiment. We’ll see how it goes. And then it kind of worked.
A postpartum story isn’t the whole picture. Neither is a love story.
Right. I suppose it’s a bit of a lot of things.
I know that you like mashing up genres. Do you still want to make a horror film, like you’ve said in the past?
I’m making a vampire movie.
Really?
Yeah. I can’t tell you much. It’s with Ezra Miller who was in “Kevin.” He’s the main character. That’s in development.
I feel like I may be waiting a while to see that one.
[Laughs] You won’t wait for 10 years. I don’t have 10 years. I’ve got to do it quicker than that. That’s what Jon [Glazer] said. We need to speed up. He’s one of my favorite filmmakers. And PTA as well.
How does it feel being at Cannes again?
Actually, this time I feel quite relaxed. I think the first time I came, I got quite nervous. You get really wound up. My husband was a musician and I remember squeezing his hand so hard at “Kevin,” he said, “You’re going to break my guitar hand.” People were coughing. It was a real Cannes audience — they’re pretty hardcore.
But now I feel quite relaxed because I like the film myself. Sometimes you’re super self-critical. I was watching it in that big theater and I’m going: Change that, change that. We’ve only been editing for four or five months and that’s not long. So we’re still tweaking it. I did a mix in five days.
When you’re working with actors such as Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Lawrence, they bring so much iconography. How do you strip that away and be like, I’ve got this piece of work that I want to do here?
I think they were very willing participants. There was a lot of trust. I try and create an atmosphere of trust and I just threw them into the fire. I did the sex scene on the first day. I thought it’s a risk. It’s either going to work or it’s going to be a disaster. But I could see there was chemistry. And when they arrived, I was getting them dancing. They were dancing together, synchronized. And it was fun. And then I think Robert was a little nervous, but then something just kind of broke the ice.
Doing a sex scene on the first day will break the ice, I imagine.
The first day I was scared. I was like, oh, my God, was this a good idea? But it actually was a good idea. Sometimes I’ve left those scenes for later and then it builds up so everyone’s gotten all nervous. You start this scene and they’re all thinking about it and overthinking it. So I just chucked them in the deep end.
Then there was a different scene, a longer one, and there was loads of dialogue and we only had a few hours — the light was going, maybe an hour-and-a-half left. And I saw the DP lying in the grass, Seamus McGarvey. And we both looked at each other and were like: There’s no way we’re going to finish this scene. There’s no way we can do it.
And we’re both lying in the grass and we look down at the grass and I look at him and I go, “Well, what if they’re like cats in the grass? Why don’t we just do it here?” So I’m running back to the bloody actors and I’m going, “Right, OK, we’re changing the whole scene, taking all the dialogue out. And you’re both cats. You’re both like cats.” And they’re both like, what the f—?
You just discovered that in the moment?
Yeah. Because we didn’t have the time and I’m really glad I did. And they were so trusting. Robert was like, “That was a good scene.” Then Jen went, “Yeah, I can see it.” It was all at breakneck speed. We shot it in an hour or something.
Lynne Ramsay on the set of “Die, My Love.”
(Kimberly French)
And you’re giving them an experience they will never have with a director who follows a plan to the letter.
Yeah. A film’s a film but a script is a script. I mean, it’s a different beast. You’ve got be able to throw things out if they don’t work or you don’t have time. So you go to think of something and often that’s better. But after that first day, I knew they thought, oh, God, what are we in for?
I’ve heard that Jennifer Lawrence was pregnant in real life at the time.
Yeah. I didn’t know that until about four weeks before [the shoot]. I think she was a bit nervous about telling me. I was like, “You OK about this?” I was worried. But she was glowing and was so happy to play crazy. And she was excited by the ideas. She was like, “Yeah, let’s do it.” She’s a punk, man.
Your vision of America is very interesting to me. It’s never super realistic so much as an amplified America from the point of view of someone outside it. What do you think about America these days?
Well, I wouldn’t want to live there right now, but I always loved America. I lived in New York for quite a long time when I was making “You Were Never Really Here,” when I was making “Kevin.” I’ve always loved New York. It’s got a crazy, wild energy. L.A. I find a bit more difficult. I feel it’s like “Mulholland Drive.” But there’s a beauty to it as well. The light is amazing.
Your Montana of “Die, My Love” is also unique, filled with local color but almost an abstract place where a marital unraveling can take center stage. What was important to you to emphasize, setting-wise?
We actually shot in Calgary but Montana’s just down. My backstory was that they lived in New York — he was trying to get in a band, it didn’t really happen for him, he was kind of a slacker. And she’s written a couple of things that got published. Now there’s this idea that they’ll have a new life, because the house is free and a lot of young couples, if they get something like that, they’re like: I moved because New York’s expensive. And then the house becomes its own entity, in a way. We shot the beginning already inside the house, not from the outside [going in], and for a reason: The house is looking at them. There were elements of “The Shining.”
I picked up on those. And when you have actors like Sissy Spacek and Nick Nolte as parents, they create a kind of gravity of their own. Were they familiar with your films like Jennifer Lawrence was?
No, I went to them because they both meant a lot to me growing up. My dad loved Nick. Since “Badlands,” I’ve loved Sissy Spacek, In the book, the mother-in-law’s kind of gone crazy, but she played it much more that she saw exactly what was happening.
When we first meet the main characters, we hear them telling each other the lies they’ve probably been saying for a while: I could really record my album here. You can write your Great American Novel. Do you think that they end up in a place that’s more truthful by the end of the film?
I had writer’s block as well for a while and I was like Jack Torrance in “The Shining” writing the same sentence again. Recutting it. You get stuck in things and then when you’ve got a baby as well, it’s much harder to do anything. Your life completely is turned upside down. So I think they’ve got all these aspirations: It’s going to be great and wow. And then she just feels really isolated and she’s stuck with a baby. And she’s bored and she’s just gone nuts. I suppose I did think about “Repulsion” and, of course “A Women Under the Influence” — that sort of tragedy where they love each other but don’t understand each other.
Do you ever feel trapped by the massive reputation of your early films?
I love when I rewatch them, like, 25 years later. I saw “Morvern Callar” with a young audience a year ago or something. A couple years ago, because the film was 20 years old, and it was really nice. It still played and they were all laughing and they really got it. I think that film was kind of dumped at the time because I think I pissed off the financiers. I wanted a different poster and I made a big deal about it — and I love the poster still. And they wanted something much more conventional.
The poster for that is so perfect, though. I still remember it. It’s flush with a kind of heat, an intimacy.
I kind of fought for that. They wanted something that looked like a Mexican western or something. It was nice. But I’ve still got that poster in my place in Scotland against a black wall, where it really pops. And these kids were really getting it — even though she’s got a Walkman, which is completely, I mean, a million years ago.
It’s a little dated, but it works. You captured something essential about Samantha Morton and now with Jennifer Lawrence too. Do you ever find yourself thinking in terms of awards or Oscars?
No, I gave that up a long time ago. In fact, my mom had all my BAFTAs, so I hadn’t seen those BAFTAs for ages. We were cleaning out her house. I gave all them away.
Were they in her closet or something?
No, she had a little cupboard that she just put them in, but I just kind of forgot about them.
She was proud of you.
Yeah, they were in a little glass cabinet and I forgot all about them. Then I got them back and it was weird.
Where is home? Is it still Scotland?
London, actually. And Scotland. I have a place in Scotland too, but my mom passed away quite recently — it was only a couple of weeks ago. So I had the funeral as well as filming and then it’s been quite a challenge.
Is she the one the film is dedicated to?
Yeah.
“Die, My Love” is very explicitly about motherhood. What do remember about your mother? What did she teach you, in terms of being an artist?
She taught me how to be a filmmaker, to be honest. She taught me to sit. I watched the best films when I was a kid and they thought I was deaf for a long time because I just ignored everybody else. It was a big noisy family. And I think she just showed me these cool films. Her big one was — I mean it sounds so random for me — but she loved “Imitation of Life.” She watched that a million times. “Mildred Pierce.” And “Vertigo.”
She taught you how to give yourself over to a film?
Yeah, she just loved movies and so did my dad. But my dad would be a bit more annoying because he’d tell you the end. He’d be like, “This is going to happen.” You know what I mean? And I’d be like, Dad! I wouldn’t watch it. But I think she was a really interesting smart woman. Not from a film background. They were working-class people, blue-collar people. But they loved images, they loved cinema.
Glasgow is a place of blue-collar intelligentsia. It’s a really good education system there. So my dad was so bright — my mom as well. They used to say, “Let’s go to the movies, the pictures.” Really cute. And my mom had a photographic memory, so she would be like, “This film is from 1940,” blah blah blah. And then this actor’s in it. She’d know all these obscure actors. And it was great. They were excited and it made me excited. She just was a very kind person. Everyone was devastated.
I’m sure you’re still feeling it. I hope you don’t mind me asking about her.
I am. But I’m feeling a bit more at peace. It was quick and it wasn’t expected. And funnily enough, the music supervisor’s mom died one week later. I didn’t know it was coming. So we’re all a bit in shock. My mom, she was 88. She had a life.
When will be the appropriate age for you to show your daughter your movies?
[Laughs] I don’t know, 18?
How old is she now?
She’s 10. Maybe “Ratcatcher.” Maybe about 16 or 15. I don’t know. They’re all kind of hardcore.
You probably made it when you were 25.
I did, somewhere about that or 26. My daughter’s a really bright child. The one thing I’ve shown her that she came in for — I was watching it late at night and she woke up — was “The Shining” and she was glued it. And I said, “I don’t think you should watch this — you’re too young.” But there’s only one killing in “The Shining.” You know what I mean? And there’s not a lot of horror. She loved it. I mean, it was like the best. She said, “I might watch ‘The Shining’ again.” She’s super artistic.
Do I have a promise from you that I’m not going to have to wait 10 years for the next film?
Nah, definitely not. I’m on it. Jon Glazer too. We’re both like, we need to rock and roll, man.
Skai Jackson says Deondre Burgin, the father of her 3-month-old son, has been abusing her since last spring, including suggesting that she drink bleach while she was expecting in order to terminate her pregnancy.
Jackson was granted a temporary restraining order against him Monday, according to court documents. The actor, her son and her dog Otis are covered by the order.
The former Disney Channel star, 23, detailed a litany of alleged abuses by Burgin, 21, in her request filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Most of them are from 2024, but the inciting event behind the filing appears to have been an alleged attack on Mother’s Day of this year. Jackson said in her filing that Burgin attacked her on May 11 while she was carrying son Kasai.
“He grabbed me by the hair, slammed my head on the back seat window of my car and hit me in the face while holding my son,” the “Jessie” and “Bunk’d” actor wrote in her filing. “Deondre caused me to have a bloody nose. I don’t feel safe with my son being around him due to his violent history. He also said ‘F’ my child.”
Last June, Burgin took Jackson’s phone so he could check her messages because a man had texted her, the filing says. Jackson said he then broke her iPhone and choked her against a kitchen counter.
“He demanded that I drink bleach to kill our unborn child,” Jackson wrote about the June incident. “He then walked me to the car with a knife in his hand telling me to get in the driver seat and if I called out for help he would stab me in the stomach. He then called his friend … telling him he was about to kill me. He then told me to drive to the doctor to get an abortion. When I tried to he asked me was I crazy and why would I want to kill our child.”
Jackson said she had video documentation from July when he allegedly punched through the door of an upstairs bathroom she had locked herself in for safety and choked her until she couldn’t breathe. Jackson said that in 2024, there was a six-month period where he choked her or slammed her head into a wall about once a week, destroyed a television and punched holes in her walls.
Jackson said Burgin threatened her with a handgun and also has a rifle and a switchblade, the filing says. The “Dragons: Rescue Riders” voice actor said he threatened in September 2024 to have a member of his family come kill her and her mother.
In October, Burgin allegedly threatened to kill her after she asked him to go to therapy, the documents said.
He stands 6-foot-4 to Jackson’s reported 5-foot-2, according to her application. She asked the court to stop him and his family from posting anything about her on social media, saying that he had threatened to post revenge porn.
The two have brushed up against authorities in the past because of alleged violence between them.
“The Man in the White Van” actor was arrested at Universal Studios Hollywood last August after she and Burgin were detained by security on suspicion of domestic assault. She was arrested by sheriff’s deputies after security footage showed she had pushed Burgin twice. However, the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office didn’t pursue the case.
At the time, Jackson allegedly told authorities that she and Burgin were happily engaged and expecting a baby together.
A permanent restraining order will be considered at a June 9 hearing. The Times was unable to contact Burgin for comment. A representative for Skai Jackson did not respond immediately to The Times’ request for comment.
Former Times staff writer Nardine Saad contributed to this report.
During the programme’s original run on Channel 4 from 2005 to 2016, the executive producer and the banker turned out to be the same person
Deal or No Deal’s mystery banker revealed as iconic Coronation Street actor(Image: ITV)
The identity of Deal or No Deal’s mystery banker was a secret for many years before it was revealed that they were actually a huge Coronation Street star. During the programme’s original run on Channel 4 from 2005 to 2016, the executive producer and the banker turned out to be the same person.
Deal or No Deal’s banker turned out to be Glenn Hugill, who is best known for his role as Alan McKenna on Coronation Street from 1996 to 1997. The star appeared in 86 episodes of the show as he took on the role of detective Alan, who dated Fiona Middleton and was meant to marry her.
Glenn was best known for his role as Alan McKenna on Coronation Street from 1996 to 1997(Image: Granada Television)
However, their wedding ceremony was called off when Jim McDonald revealed his affair with Fiona, and Alan soon departed the cobbles. The actor also appeared in shows like Dalziel and Pascoe, The Upper Hand and Chandler & Co. In 2001, he took on a presenter role for the 2001 series The Mole.
In early 2023, Glenn sold his production company, Possessed, to ITV and became C.C.O. of Wheelhouse, the media empire founded by American talk show host Jimmy Kimmel. He was previously the managing director of the company, which quickly became one of the most successful production companies in the UK.
When he was 10 years old, Glenn scored a 207 in a national IQ test designed for under 16s, which was the highest recorded result in the country.
It is not known who the current banker is (Image: ITV)
Local newspaperThe Northern Echoonce reported he took another test made for adults and recorded a result of 177, the highest score the test was capable of registering.
Glenn is said to have held the role of banker on Deal or No Deal for a decade, but it isn’t known who replaced him for the new ITV version hosted by Stephen Mulhern.
Stephen previously said: “I don’t know who the Banker is. So I wouldn’t be able to recognise who it was. So, he could walk past me at any point.”
The voice on the phone is “male” but Stephen added: “Supposedly, he goes into the hotel and listens to the contestants and what they’re up to. So when he comes on the phone to me, I’ve got to repeat what he says.
“So, he’ll say, ‘Just tell them blah, blah, blah, blah, blah’. But he gives him nicknames. So like, ‘Two Wine Wendy,’ because she’s always having an extra wine. It’s quite creepy.
“That first time the phone rang, it was like, ‘What’s he going to sound like? What’s he going to be like?’ But he takes no prisoners. There’s one contestant in particular who has a really bad ride and a really bad time, and at the end of it, the contestant is nearly in tears, and the phone rings.
“I’m thinking ‘Okay, he’s going to at least console a tiny bit’. And he went, ‘Just tell him it’s not a pity party. Let’s crack on with tomorrow,’ and put the phone down.”
SOME of London’s biggest festivals face an uncertain future after residents won a court battle to block a major park from hosting events.
Backed by Oscar winning actor Mark Rylance, the campaign has ordered the council to confirm that events will be cancelled this summer.
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Festivals like Brockwell Live and the Mighty Hoopla might be banned from going aheadCredit: Alamy
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Lambeth residents have won a court case surrounding Brockwell ParkCredit: Getty Images
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The campaign was backed by Mark RylanceCredit: Alamy
Brockwell Park in Lambeth has long been a popular site for some of the UK’s biggest festivals.
Hundreds of thousands of Brits flock to the park every summer to attend events including Mighty Hoopla – which was set to host both Kesha and Jade Thirwall this year.
However, residents decided to fight back against the festivals after the park was left in a state they described as a “mud-bath”.
Rebekah Shaman, a member of the Protect Brockwell park group, successfully brought legal action against Lambath Council over the use of the area for events season – which kicks off on May 23.
The High Court was told that the challenge was over the council’s decision to certify the use of the land as lawful, since a change of the park’s use is allowed for 28 days per year.
Mr Justice Mold rule in Rebekah’s favour, since the park would be used as an event space for more than 28 days.
Now, events such as Brockwell Live and the Mighty Hoopla could be banned from setting up in the park.
Rebekah and her lawyers wrote a letter addressed to the council which asked if the “event has been cancelled” and ordered them to clear any fencing or infrastructure.
The draft letter from Goodenough Ring solicitors said that Brockwell Live does not have planning permission and cannot benefit from permitted development rights, and that a planning application could not be decided for at least three weeks.
The letter read: “It follows that not only do the Brockwell Live events not have planning permission, but permission cannot be obtained until after they are concluded.”
It continued: “As there is no planning permission for the Brockwell Live event, the event has to be cancelled.”
Billy McFarland Quits Fyre Fest: Festival Brand Put Up for Sale After Second Attempt Fails
Goodenough Ring has asked for a response by 10am on May 19.
A Lambeth Council spokesperson responded by saying: “We are currently assessing the impact of this judgement and determining next steps.”
Residents took Lambeth Council to London’s High CourtCredit: PA Media
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Residents have complained that the festival’s infrastructure damages the parkCredit: Getty Images
The Oscar nominated performer said: “Wonderful news. Brockwell park will be open to all for free again this summer. No walls. No trucks.
“The grass, and trees, and plants will have a chance to recover from the years of abuse.
“Now let’s help revive the beloved Lambeth country fair as it used to be, open to all. Congratulations to all who worked so devotedly to achieve this decision.
“Every small victory for nature makes a difference.”
However, the event’s cancellation is a blow to London’s beleaguered events industry.
Critics of residents’ associations have said that noise complaints have led to the closure of several major London locations.
His other notable roles include Wadsworth the butler in the cult classic Clue and Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the 1990 adaptation of Stephen King’s It.
The stroke had a severe impact on Tim’s mobility, leaving him reliant on a wheelchair and carers for support with everyday tasks.
Since 2012, Tim has undergone extensive physical therapy and rehabilitation to regain as much movement and speech as possible.
He has kept a low profile in recent years, rarely seen in public and not active in major acting projects.
However, Tim has made some notable appearances and engaged with fans through interviews and virtual events.
Neighbours legend set for huge UK comeback as he reprises iconic role for the first time in 25 years
In 2015, almost three years after his stroke, he made a rare public appearance at the Actors Fund Tony Awards Viewing Party in Los Angeles.
There, he received a lifetime achievement award and spoke openly about his recovery, highlighting how maintaining his sense of humor was vital to coping with his health challenges.
More recently, since 2023, Tim has participated in virtual video chats with fans through conventions like GalaxyCon.
He has also shared occasional video messages on social media, providing insight into his life post-stroke and answering fan questions about his recovery and career.
In addition to these appearances, Tim marked a notable return to acting in 2024 with a role in the horrorfilm Stream – his first feature film role in 14 years.
The film was released in select theaters in August 2024.
He has also remained active in voice acting, lending his talents to animated series and projects, further demonstrating his enduring passion for performance.
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Tim is a celebrated actor, known for his roles in cult filmsCredit: Getty
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His 2012 stroke left him partially paralysed on one side of his bodyCredit: Getty
Jamie Lee Curtis didn’t expect to be at the forefront of the artificial intelligence debate in Hollywood. But she didn’t have a choice.
The Oscar-winning actor recently called out Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg on social media, saying the company ignored her requests to take down a fake AI-generated advertisement on Instagram that had been on the platform for months.
The ad, which used footage from an interview Curtis gave to MSNBC about January’s Los Angeles area wildfires, manipulated her voice to make it appear that she was endorsing a dental product, Curtis said.
“I was not looking to become the poster child of internet fakery, and I’m certainly not the first,” Curtis told The Times by phone Tuesday morning.
The ad has since been removed.
What happened to Curtis is part of a larger issue actors are dealing with amid the rise of generative AI technology, which has allowed their images and voices to be altered in ways they haven’t authorized. Those changes can be wildly misleading.
Images and likenesses of celebrities including Tom Hanks, Taylor Swift and Scarlett Johansson have been manipulated through AI to promote products and ideas they never actually endorsed.
AI technology has made it easier for people to make these fake videos, which can proliferate online at a speed that is challenging for social media platforms to take down. Some are calling on social media firms to do more to police misinformation on their platforms.
“We are standing at the turning point, and I think we need to take some action,” Curtis said.
Curtis first became aware of the fake AI ad about a month and a half ago when a friend asked her about the video. The “Everything Everywhere All At Once” and “Halloween” actor then flagged the ad for her agents, lawyers and publicists, who directed her to send a cease and desist letter to Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram.
Nothing happened.
“It’s like a vacuum,” Curtis said. “There are no people. You can’t reach anybody. You have an email, you send an email, you never get anything back.”
Two weeks later, another friend flagged the same fake AI video. When Curtis wrote to her team, they assured her they went through the proper channels and they did everything they could do, she said.
“I went through the proper channels,” Curtis said. “There should be a methodology to this. I understand there’s going to be a misuse of this stuff, but then there’s no avenue of getting any satisfaction. So then it’s lawlessness, because if you have no way of rectifying it, what do you do?”
Curtis was concerned about the nefarious ways that people could alter the voices and images of other people, including Pope Leo XIV, who has identified AI as one of the challenges facing humanity. What if someone used AI to attribute ideas to the pope that he didn’t actually support?
Inspired by the danger of that possibility, she made her scathing Instagram post, tagging Zuckerberg, after she was unable to directly message him.
“My name is Jamie Lee Curtis and I have gone through every proper channel to ask you and your team to take down this totally AI fake commercial for some bulls— that I didn’t endorse,” Curtis wrote in her post on Monday. “… I’ve been told that if I ask you directly, maybe you will encourage your team to police it and remove it.”
The post generated more than 55,000 likes.
“I’ve done commercials for people all my life, so if they can make a fake commercial with me, that hurts my brand,” Curtis said in an interview. “If my brand is authenticity, you’re co-opting my brand for nefarious gains in the future.”
After she posted, a neighbor shared with her an email of someone at Meta who could help her. Curtis emailed that person (whom she declined to name), copied her team and attached the Instagram posts. Within an hour of sending the email, the fake AI ad was taken down, Curtis said.
“It worked!” Curtis wrote on Instagram on Monday in all caps. “Yay internet! Shame has [its] value! Thanks all who chimed in and helped rectify!”
Meta on Monday confirmed the fake ad was taken down.
“They violate our policies prohibiting fraud, scams and deceptive practices,” said Meta spokesman Andy Stone in an email.
As the technology continues to become more widely available, there are efforts underway at tech companies to identify AI-generated content and to take down material that violates standards.
Organizations like actors guild SAG-AFTRA are also advocating for more laws that address AI, including deep fakes. Both the writers’ and actors’ strikes of 2023 hinged in part on demands for more protections against job losses from AI.
Curtis said she would have wanted the fake AI ad to be taken down immediately and would like to see technology companies, not just Meta, come up with safeguards and direct access to people policing “this wild, wild west called the internet.”
“It got the attention, but I’m also a public figure,” Curtis said. “So how does someone who’s not a public figure get any satisfaction? I want to represent everyone. I don’t want it to just be celebrities. I wanted to use that as an example to say this is wrong.”
PARIS — French movie star Gérard Depardieu ’s fall from grace is now complete.
Depardieu further moved down from the pinnacle of French cinema Tuesday as he was found guilty of sexually assaulting two women on the set of a movie in which he starred in 2021 and given an 18-month suspended prison sentence. He was also fined a total of 29,040 euros (around $32,350), and the court requested that he be registered in the national sex offender database.
The actor, 76, has been convicted of having groped a 54-year-old set dresser and a 34-year-old assistant during the filming of “Les Volets Verts” (“The Green Shutters”). The case was widely seen as a key post-#MeToo test of how French society and its film industry address allegations of sexual misconduct involving prominent figures.
Depardieu, who has denied the accusations, didn’t attend the hearing in Paris. Depardieu’s lawyer, Jérémie Assous, said that his client would appeal the decision.
“It is the victory of two women, but it is the victory of all the women beyond this trial,” said Carine Durrieu Diebolt, the set dresser’s lawyer. “Today we hope to see the end of impunity for an artist in the world of cinema. I think that with this decision we can no longer say that he is not a sexual abuser. And today, as the Cannes Film Festival opens, I’d like the film world to spare a thought for Gérard Depardieu’s victims.”
Accused by more than 20 women
Depardieu’s long and storied career — he told the court that he’s made more than 250 films — has turned him into a French movie giant. He was Oscar-nominated in 1991 for his performance as the swordsman and poet Cyrano de Bergerac.
In recent years, the actor has been accused publicly or in formal complaints of misconduct by more than 20 women, but so far only the sexual assault case has proceeded to court. Some other cases were dropped because of a lack of evidence or the statute of limitations.
During the four-day trial in March, Depardieu rejected the accusations, saying he’s “not like that.” He acknowledged that he had used vulgar and sexualized language on the film set and that he grabbed the set dresser’s hips during an argument, but denied that his behavior was sexual.
The court, composed of a panel of three judges, concluded that Depardieu’s explanations in court were “unpersuasive” and “not credible” and stressed both accusers’ “constant, reiterated and substantiated declarations.”
The court also said that both plaintiffs have been faced with an “aggressive” defense strategy “based on comments meant to offend them.” The judges therefore considered that Depardieu’s lawyer comments in court aggravated the harm to the accusers and justified higher fines.
The two accusers testified in court
The set dresser described the alleged assault, saying the actor pincered her between his legs as she squeezed past him in a narrow corridor.
She said he grabbed her hips then started “palpating” her behind and “in front, around.” She ran her hands near her buttocks, hips and pubic area to show what she allegedly experienced. She said he then grabbed her chest.
The woman also testified that Depardieu used an obscene expression to ask her to touch his penis and suggested he wanted to rape her. She told the court that the actor’s calm and cooperative attitude during the trial bore no resemblance to his behavior at work.
The other plaintiff, an assistant, said that Depardieu groped her buttocks and her breasts during three separate incidents on the film set.
The Associated Press doesn’t identify by name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they consent to be named. Neither women has done so in this case.
“I’m very moved,” one of the plaintiffs, the set dresser, told reporters after the verdict. “I’m very very much satisfied with the decision, that’s a victory for me, really, and a big progress, a step forward. I feel justice was made.”
Some expressed support for Depardieu
Some figures in the French cinema world have expressed their support for Depardieu. Actors Vincent Perez and Fanny Ardant were among those who took seats on his side of the courtroom.
French media reported last week that Depardieu was shooting a film directed by Ardant in the Azores archipelago, in Portugal.
The actor may have to face other legal proceedings soon.
In 2018, actor Charlotte Arnould accused him of raping her at his home. That case is still active, and in August 2024 prosecutors requested that it go to trial.
For more than a half-century, Depardieu stood as a towering figure in French cinema, a titan known for his commanding physical presence, instinct, sensibility and remarkable versatility.
A bon vivant who overcame a speech impediment and a turbulent youth, Depardieu rose to prominence in the 1970s and became one of France’s most prolific and acclaimed actors, portraying a vast array of characters, from volatile outsiders to deeply introspective figures.
In recent years, his behavior toward women has come under renewed scrutiny, including after a documentary showed him repeatedly making obscene remarks and gestures during a 2018 trip to North Korea.
Corbet writes for the Associated Press. Samuel Petrequin contributed to this report.
Depardieu is put on the sex offenders list and receives a suspended sentence for groping the women on a film set.
A French court has handed down an 18-month suspended sentence to actor Gerard Depardieu after finding him guilty of sexually assaulting two women on a film set in 2021.
The Paris court announced on Tuesday morning that Depardieu, the 76-year-old who did not attend court for the verdict, would be placed on the sex offenders list.
In one of the country’s highest-profile Me Too cases, Depardieu, a prominent figure of French cinema who has acted in more than 200 films and television series, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
The trial relates to charges of sexual assault during the filming in 2021 of Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters) directed by Jean Becker.
One of the two plaintiffs, Amelie K, a 54-year-old set decorator, told the court that Depardieu had groped her as he trapped her between his legs and made explicit sexual comments.
“He touched everything, including my breasts,” she said, adding: “I was terrified, he was laughing.”
The second witness, a 34-year-old assistant director who was unnamed, said Depardieu initially assaulted her when she accompanied him from his dressing room to the set.
“It was nighttime … he put his hand on my buttocks,” she said, adding that the actor assaulted her on two other occasions.
Plaintiff Amelie K reacts as she speaks to members of the media at the court, after the conviction of French actor Gerard Depardieu of sexual assault of two women in Paris, France [Piroschka van de Wouw/Reuters]
Judge Thierry Donard said the actor’s explanation of the events had been unconvincing.
“I’m vulgar, rude, foul-mouthed, I’ll accept that,” Depardieu told the court, but added: “I don’t touch.”
“I adore women and femininity,” he also said, describing the Me Too movement as a “reign of terror”.
Depardieu also argued before the court that he did not consider placing a hand on a person’s bottom to be sexual assault and that some women were too easily shocked.
Amelie K’s lawyer described Tuesday’s ruling as a “beautiful decision” that gave recognition to Depardieu’s victims.
After the sentencing, Depardieu’s lawyer said they would appeal the court decision.
In recent years, the French actor has faced a growing number of sexual assault allegations, with about 20 women coming forward with accusations, but this case was the first to go to court.
The Me Too movement came to prominence in 2017 for people to share their experiences of sexual abuse and sexual harassment by influential figures.
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