actors

I can’t think of another time that I was quite as terrified as when I walked alone into an interactive horror maze called “Feast” at a chilling carnival-like event called “The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor: Summoned by the Seas,” which takes place in the parking lot in front of the famously haunted ship, and also in the creepy bowels of its engine rooms, through Nov. 2.

“Dark Harbor,” is the scarier sister event to Griffith Park’s famous “Haunted Hayride.” Both Halloween season fright fests are produced by Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group, which specializes in seasonal terror. The highlight of the nightly carnivals — which include food and drink booths, bars and rides — are a series of interactive mazes populated by bloody monsters, drooling ghouls, murderous clowns, spectral ghosts and maniacal serial killers.

The spooks are largely played by local actors — many of whom come back year after year for a guaranteed paycheck while pursuing a profession that is anything but financially sound. It is to these hardworking artists that the events owe their success. I was struck by just how dedicated the actors were to scaring us mere mortals out of our pants.

The masks, elaborate makeup and props, including butcher knives and bats, surely help the players stay in character— but this is not easy work. The actors must contend with aggressive guests who try to get in their faces (this is against the rules), as well as shrill, shrieking patrons who jump and run as they approach (guilty!).

But the actors are specially trained to handle these reactions and more.

“Each fall, Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor and Los Angeles Haunted Hayride hire a few hundred performers, most of our cast are locals who come back year after year. We hold open calls in the summer and focus on energy, movement, and presence more than traditional acting experience,” wrote “Dark Harbor‘s” general manager, Star Romano, in an email.

After the performers are hired, Romano explained, they attend orientation, safety training and rehearsals leading into opening weekend.

“It’s a huge community effort, part performance, part team reunion, and one of my favorite things about the season,” Romano wrote.

The result of those efforts led to me sleeping with the lights on for two nights straight.

“Get away from me! I’m too scared!” I shouted at one Leatherface-type character as he approached me with a chain saw.

“That’s the whole point,” he growled under his breath before obeying my wishes and lurching off toward another fear-stricken guest.

(NOTE: For a kid-friendly immersive Halloween experience, you can head to the company’s “Magic of the Jack O’Lanterns,” which features 5,000 hand-carved pumpkins on-site at South Coast Botanic Garden.)

I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, inviting you to sink into spooky season with me. Here’s your weekly arts and culture news.

On our radar

Benjamin Millepied’s L.A. Dance Project performs “On the Other Side.”

(Laurent Philippe)

L.A. Dance Project
Renowned choreographer Benjamin Millepied continues his exploration of the intersection of dance and visual art with the ballet triptych “Gems,” featuring artwork by collaborators Barbara Kruger, Liam Gillick, Mark Bradford and others. The performance is composed of three contemporary ballets inspired by precious stones: “Reflections” (2013), “Hearts & Arrows” (2014) and “On the Other Side” (2016). The show — with music by David Lang and Philip Glass — marks the first time these pieces have been staged together.
— Jessica Gelt
7:30 p.m. Thursday through Oct. 25. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. https://thewallis.org/show-details/la-dance-project-gems

New York artist Jon Henry stages photographs that reflect on reports of Black men killed by police.

(The Brick)

Monuments
The most eagerly anticipated theme exhibition this fall is reflected in the emphatic title, pointedly written all in caps. “MONUMENTS” was inspired by the wave of revulsion following the violent 2017 white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va. — a deadly riot opposing the proposed removal of a local statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. That statue is now gone, torn down along with some 200 other tributes across the country to American turncoats who supported chattel slavery. (The last known Confederate monument in Southern California was removed in 2020.)
A selection of decommissioned Confederate statues will be shown at MOCA and alternative space the Brick, joint organizers of the exhibition; they’ll be paired with contemporary work by Bethany Collins, Stan Douglas, Leonardo Drew, Jon Henry, Martin Puryear, Hank Willis Thomas, Kara Walker and a dozen other artists, borrowed and commissioned for the occasion.
— Christopher Knight
Thursday through May 3, 2026. Geffen Contemporary at Museum of Contemporary Art, 152 N. Central Ave., Little Tokyo; The Brick, 518 N. Western Ave. moca.org

Vikingur Olafsson will perform with conductor Santtu-Matias and Philharmonia.

(Timothy Norris / Los Angeles Philharmonic)

Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Vikingur Ólafsson join the Philharmonia Orchestra
It’s been almost a decade since Finnish conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali, a former Dudamel Fellow at the L.A. Phil, last returned to Southern California as a guest conductor of the L.A. Phil. In the meantime, though, he’s been busily attracting attention in London as principal conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra (having succeeded Esa-Pekka Salonen in 2021). For his first local appearance with the Philharmonia, he is joined by the stellar Icelandic pianist Vikingur Ólafsson in Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G. The program also includes the local premiere of a new score meant to awaken environmental awareness, popular Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz’s “Si el Oxígeno Fuera Verde” (If Oxygen Were Green), along with Shostakovich‘s Fifth Symphony. Shortly after fall, Ólafsson heads back to Disney in January as soloist with the L.A. Phil for John Adams’ latest piano concerto, “After the Fall.”
— Mark Swed
8 p.m. Tuesday. Renée & Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, 615 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. philharmonicsociety.org

The week ahead: A curated calendar

FRIDAY

Ethan Remez-Cott, left, and Matthew Goodrich in the play “Amerika or, The Man Who Disappeared.”

(Amanda Weier)

Amerika or, The Man Who Disappeared
There’s Kafkaesque and then there’s the genuine article. Open Fist Theatre Company presents the world premiere of Dietrich Smith’s adaptation of the Franz Kafka novel that details the strange experiences of a 17-year-old European immigrant after he arrives in New York City aboard a steamer.
7:30 p.m. Friday; 7 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday; and 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 20; through Nov. 22. Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave. openfist.org

Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson–Apt. 2B
Two free-spirited roommates embrace mystery and adventure in the L.A. premiere of Kate Hamill’s dark modern comedy, a gender-bent spin on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle directed by Amie Farrell.
7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday through Nov. 2. International City Theatre, 330 E. Seaside Way, Long Beach. ictlongbeach.org

नेहा & Neel
Asian American theater collective Artists at Play and Latino Theater Company collaborate for the world premiere of Ankita Raturi’s new comedy about an Indian immigrant and single mom on a cross-country college tour with her 17-year-old American-born son. Directed by East West Players artistic director Lily Tung Crystal.
Through Nov. 16. Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring Street, downtown L.A. latinotheaterco.org

17th OC Japan Fair
Japanese culture festival featuring food, shopping, a cosplay show, a tuna cutting show, popular Japanese entertainers, traditional instrument performances, games, kimono models meet and greet, and more.
4 p.m.-10 p.m. Friday; noon-10 p.m. Saturday; 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday. OC Fair & Event Center, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa. oc-japanfair.com

David Roussève will perform “Becoming Daddy AF” Friday and Saturday at the Nimoy.

(Rachel Keane)

Becoming Daddy AF
Renowned dance-theater artist David Roussève presents the West Coast premiere of his experimental movement journey “Becoming Daddy AF.” The piece marks Roussève’s first full-length solo performance in more than two decades and explores themes that have touched and shaped his life, including HIV, genealogy and the loss of his husband of 26 years. (Jessica Gelt)
8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. UCLA Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd. cap.ucla.edu

Unravelled
The story of Canadian biologist Dr. Anne Adams, who turned to painting at age 53, and her remarkable connection to French composer Maurice Ravel, with whom she shared the same rare brain disease. A play infused with music and visual art, written by Jake Broder and directed by James Bonas.
7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. thewallis.org

SATURDAY

British artist Edmund de Waal will install new work in three sites at the Huntington, including the Chinese garden.

(Linnea Stephan)

The Eight Directions of the Wind
British artist, potter and writer Edmund de Waal is obsessed with archives, which he describes as “places, streets, hillsides as much as card indexes.” For a body of new work, he once traveled to the place in China where the clay used to make porcelain was discovered — and then on to Dresden, Germany; Cornwall, U.K.; and the Appalachian Mountains, where subsequent cultures reinvented it. De Waal’s three site-specific, yearlong installations will be in the Huntington’s cultural and natural “archives” that are its art gallery and Chinese and Japanese gardens. (Christopher Knight)
Through Oct. 26, 2026. The Huntington, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. huntington.org

Lorde performs Saturday at the Kia Forum.

(Scott A Garfitt / Invision/AP)

Lorde
Just as her generation has, by all accounts, sobered up and gone sexless, Lorde returned this year with a defiant album about the giddy rush of partying and the frightening ramifications of a body in search of pleasure. “Virgin” pulls her back to the experimental electro-pop many fans were hoping for after the relatively complacent “Solar Power,” and the album is brimming with startling meditations on pregnancy scares, familial inheritance and the malleability of gender. (August Brown)
7 p.m. Kia Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood. thekiaforum.com

Orchidées
Cellist Kate Ellis performs composer Nick Roth’s cello étude — which traces the 100‑million‑year evolution of orchids by translating their DNA sequences into music — accompanied by time‑lapse footage of blooming specimens from the Huntington’s orchid collection. Also available to livestream.
7 p.m. The Huntington, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. huntington.org

Tortoise
The lauded post-punk band performs “Touch,” their first new album in nine years with opening sets from local duo Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer and KCRW DJ Ale Cohen.
8 p.m. Saturday. The Broad, outdoor East West Bank Plaza, 221 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. thebroad.org

TUESDAY
A Concert for Lowell
A memorial tribute to Lowell Hill, one of the great patrons of new music in L.A., featuring many of the city’s top local artists, including Wild Up, MicroFest, Piano Spheres, the Industry, Partch Ensemble, Monday Evening Concerts, Long Beach Opera and People Inside Electronics.
8 p.m. Monk Space, 4414 W. 2nd Street. brightworknewmusic.com

Morgan Siobhan Green as Eurydice and Nicholas Barasch as Orpheus in the 2022 “Hadestown” North American Tour.

(T Charles Erickson)

Hadestown
The Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical that reimagines the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice as a New Orleans-style folk opera returns on its latest national tour. “Born out of a concept album by Anaïs Mitchell, who wrote the book, lyrics and music, the show travels to the underworld and back again with liquified grace,” wrote Times theater critic Charles McNulty in a 2022 review. “Developed by Rachel Chavkin, the resourceful director who won a Tony for her staging, ‘Hadestown’ achieves a fluidity of musical theater storytelling that makes an old tale seem startlingly new.”
Through Nov. 2. Hollywood Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. broadwayinhollywood.com

Learning to Draw
The exhibition traces a 300-year evolution of artistic training and the mastery of drawing in Europe from about 1550 to 1850. Bringing together the physical control of the hand and the concentration of the mind, the foundational artistic act became essential to exploring, inventing and communicating visual ideas in the modern world.
Through Jan. 25, 2026. Getty Museum, 1200 Getty Center Drive. getty.edu

Dispatch: Ben Platt: Live at the Ahmanson

Actor, singer and songwriter Ben Platt stands for a portrait at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre in New York on Thursday, April 20, 2023.

(Justin Jun Lee / For The Times)

Breaking news sure to make L.A. musical theater fans swoon: Center Theatre Group announced Friday that Broadway superstar Ben Platt will be in residency for two weeks and 10 shows at the Ahmanson Theatre , Dec. 12–21. Two-time Tony Award-winning director Michael Arden is set to direct the the residency, appropriately titled, “Ben Platt: Live at the Ahmanson.” Platt’s appearance comes a year after he staged a wildly successful three-week residency at Broadway’s Palace Theatre, which included a cornucopia of famous special guests including Cynthia Erivo, Nicole Scherzinger, Jennifer Hudson, Kacey Musgraves, Sam Smith, Micaela Diamond and Shoshana Bean. The production is staying mum on who might appear onstage alongside Platt during his L.A. run, but it’s safe to expect more big names.

“When you think of the very best in musical theatre, it simply doesn’t get any better than Ben Platt, whose stage presence and charisma make him one of the seminal performers of his generation,” said CTG’s artistic director, Snehal Desai, in a news release that promised “the holiday event of the season.”

Tickets and information can be found at centertheatregroup.org.

Culture news and the SoCal scene

Bassist Tonya Sweets, from left, Marlon Alexander Vargas and drummer Dee Simone in “littleboy/littleman,” directed by Nancy Medina, at Geffen Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

A tale from a land of immigrants
Rudi Goblen’s “littleboy/littleman” is in the midst of its world premiere at the Geffen Playhouse. The two-person show about two Nicaragua-born brothers is much like a performance piece, writes Times theater critic Charles McNulty in his review. It’s also a deeply American story. “Lest we forget our past, America is the great democratic experiment precisely because it’s a land of immigrants. Out of many, one — as our national motto, E pluribus unum, has it. How have we lost sight of this basic tenet of high school social studies?” McNulty writes.

Les Miz at 40
I went backstage at the Pantages for the opening night of “Les Misérables,” which happened to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the legendary musical. The mood was euphoric and everyone in the cast and crew seemed to have a story about a formative connection to the show. Stage manager Ken Davis walked me through the maze-like wings and filled me in on what it takes to tour a show of this scale. Of particular note: The touring production travels with 11 tractor trailers containing over 1,000 costumes, 120 wigs and hundreds of props.

Patrick Martinez, “Fallen Empire,” 2018, mixed media

(Michael Underwood)

When the sum is less than the whole
Times art critic Christopher Knight was not impressed by “Grounded,” a newly opened exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The show’s theme, rooted in recent acquisitions of contemporary art, is promising, but ultimately falls apart. Viewed as a whole, “the 39 assembled contemporary paintings, sculptures, photographs, textiles and videos by 35 artists based in the Americas and areas of the Pacific underperform,” writes Knight. “Sometimes that’s because the individual work is bland, while elsewhere its pertinence to the shambling theme is stretched to the breaking point,” Knight writes.

Remembering Bernstein
Tuesday marked the 35th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s death, and reminders of the great composer’s tributes to John F. Kennedy abound, writes Times classical music critic Mark Swed. In a piece of commentary about what Bernstein’s work can teach us about memorials, Swed examines multiple L.A. productions rooted in that work, including L.A. Opera’s “West Side Story” and Martha Graham Dance Company’s “En Masse” at the Soraya. Swed also wonders whether those important pieces will reach the Trump administration’s newly configured Kennedy Center in the spring.

Guests attend the K.A.M.P. family fundraiser at the Hammer Museum on Oct. 12, 2025, in Los Angeles.

(Stefanie Keenan / Getty Images for Hammer Museum)

Everyone went home happy
UCLA’s Hammer Museum raised nearly $200,000 last weekend with its 16th annual K.A.M.P. (Kids Art Museum Project) fundraiser. More than 700 excited parents and children showed up at the gloriously messy event co-chaired by Aurele Danoff Pelaia and Talia Friedman. Kids roamed the courtyard over the course of four hours, creating art at stations set up and manned by participating artists including Daniel Gibson; Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee of the Johnston Marklee architecture firm; Annie Lapin; Ryan Preciado; Rob Reynolds; Jennifer Rochlin; Mindy Shapero; Brooklin A. Soumahoro; and Christopher Suarez. Fairy Gardens were constructed of thick clay and foraged leaves; cardboard boxes were painted with rollers; plates were spray-painted and affixed with knickknacks and jewelry; and geometric shapes were glued to canvases and painted an array of bright colors. Children went home with their art, and parents left knowing they supported a host of free Hammer Kids programs that serve thousands of children and families annually.

Fair wages on Broadway
Musicians working on Broadway, represented by AFM Local 802, voted to authorize a strike earlier this week — with 98% in favor. The nearly 1,200 musicians have been working without a contract since Aug. 31. According to an open letter the musicians sent to the Broadway League on Oct. 1, their demands include: “Fair wages that reflect Broadway’s success. Stable health coverage to allow musicians and their families to enjoy the health benefits that all workers deserve. Employment and income security so that hardworking freelance musicians have some assurance of job security. This includes not eliminating current jobs on Broadway.” Bargaining talks are ongoing.

Gene Hackman co-stars in “Bonnie and Clyde,” alongside Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.

(Associated Press)

Gene Hackman, art collector
The late actor Gene Hackman’s art collection will go up for auction through Bonhams in November. Highlights of the 13-piece collection — which is being offered as a single-owner sale — include works by Milton Avery, Auguste Rodin and Richard Diebenkorn. Hackman was passionate about art throughout his life, and took an extra-special interest in it after he stopped acting. During that time he dedicated himself to taking classes and art-making. He even kept a journal of everything he learned, according to Bonhams.

Historic homes tour
Paging architecture fans: It’s not too late to reserve a spot in Dwell’s open-house event, back in L.A. for its second year. Tours of three historically significant Eastside homes are on offer during the day-long event, which launches from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House in Barnsdall Art Park. The three additional houses in the tour are: Richard Stampton’s Descanso House in Silver Lake; Taalman Architecture, Terremoto, and interior designer Kathryn McCullough’s Lark House in Mount Washington; and Fung + Blatt’s San Marino House in — you guessed it — San Marino.

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

Still feeling sad about losing Diane Keaton? Me too. Here’s a list I put together of her 10 most important films. Watch one you haven’t seen — if that’s possible.

If there’s a scene that best encapsulates the tragically abbreviated career of John Candy, it’s not necessarily from his time on the sketch-comedy series “SCTV” or from movies like “Stripes” or “Uncle Buck.” It’s a moment in the 1987 comedy-drama “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” when his reluctant roommate Neal Page (played by Steve Martin) has spent several minutes berating him for his relentless storytelling.

With a lump in his throat, Candy’s wounded character Del Griffith replies that he’s proud of who he is. “I like me,” he says. “My wife likes me. My customers like me. Because I’m the real article — what you see is what you get.”

That moment proves pivotal to two new projects that retrace Candy’s life and work some 31 years after the actor died from a heart attack at the age of 43. The actor would have turned 75 this month.

A biography, “John Candy: A Life in Comedy,” written by Paul Myers (released by House of Anansi Press on Tuesday), and a documentary, “John Candy: I Like Me,” directed by Colin Hanks (released Friday on Prime Video), both rely on Candy’s friends, family members and colleagues to help tell the story of his ascent, his success and the void left by his death.

In their own ways, both the book and the film show how Candy — while not without his demons — was beloved by audiences for his fundamental and authentic likability, and why he is still mourned today for the potential he never got to completely fulfill.

A family photo of John Candy and his son, Chris, seen in “John Candy: I Like Me.” (Prime Video)

John Candy, left, and Steve Martin in “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.” (Paramount Pictures)

Explaining why it was still important to memorialize Candy all these years later, Ryan Reynolds, the “Deadpool” star and a producer of the documentary, said, “When it’s something people desperately miss, but they don’t know they miss it, it’s a beautiful and rare thing. John Candy is a person that they missed desperately.”

Since his death, Candy’s immediate survivors — his widow, Rosemary; daughter, Jennifer Candy-Sullivan; and son, Chris Candy — have weighed the pluses and minuses of sharing his life with audiences and the impact it might have on them (the three are co-executive producers on the film). “It’s a balancing act,” said Chris Candy. “You want to live your life and you also want to honor theirs.”

In recent years, Candy’s children said they were encouraged by documentaries like Morgan Neville’s “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” about the children’s TV broadcaster Fred Rogers, as well as Hanks’ film “All Things Must Pass,” about the Tower Records retail chain.

Hanks, whose father, Tom, acted with Candy in films like “Splash” and “Volunteers,” said he struggled at first to find a compelling way to tell the story of Candy, who had a seemingly charmed and uncontroversial acting career, first in his native Toronto and then in Hollywood.

But Hanks said he was drawn into Candy’s story by a particular detail: the fact that Candy’s own father, Sidney, had died from heart disease at the age of 35, right before John turned 5. “It doesn’t take much to think about how traumatic that could be for anyone at any age,” Hanks said.

Chris Candy, from left, Jennifer Candy-Sullivan and Colin Hanks, who directed the Prime Video documentary “John Candy: I Like Me.”

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Myers, a musician and journalist who has written books about the band Barenaked Ladies and comedy troupe the Kids in the Hall, said he was drawn to Candy as a fellow Canadian and an embodiment of the national comedic spirit.

“If you’re Canadian like I am, you never stop thinking about John Candy,” Myers said. Growing up in the Toronto area, Myers said he and his siblings — including his brother Mike, the future “Shrek” and “Austin Powers” star — were avid fans of sketch comedy shows like “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” and “Saturday Night Live.”

But “SCTV,” which launched stars like Candy, Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy, meant even more to them. “We watched it from Day 1 and we cheered a little bit harder for them because it was like they were shooting the show blocks away from our house,” Myers said.

Reynolds, who was born and raised in Vancouver, said that Candy’s essential Canadian spirit was crucial to his success as a comic actor.

“In comedy, Canadians typically don’t punch down,” Reynolds said. “It’s more of a self-effacing humor. Their favorite target is themselves. And John did that. On screen, I felt his willingness and joy in self-effacing humor that never really veered into self-loathing humor.”

Ryan Reynolds at the Los Angeles screening of “I Like Me” earlier this month. The actor was a producer on the film.

(Todd Williamson / January Images)

Candy parlayed his repertoire of “SCTV” characters — satirical media personalities like Johnny LaRue and real-life celebrities like Orson Welles — into supporting parts in hit films like “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” “The Blues Brothers,” “Brewster’s Millions” and “Spaceballs.”

His penchants for drinking and smoking were well-known and hardly out of the ordinary for that era; they rarely impeded Candy’s work and, in at least one notable instance, seem to have enhanced it: Both the documentary and the biography recount how Candy indulged in a late-night bender with Jack Nicholson before rising the next morning to shoot a scene in “Splash” where his character fumbles, flails and smokes his way through a round of racquetball.

“That’s his work ethic, right there,” said Candy-Sullivan. “He showed up and he did the scene.”

Candy graduated to lead roles in comedies like “Summer Rental,” “The Great Outdoors” and “Who’s Harry Crumb?,” and he found a kindred spirit in the writer and director John Hughes, who helped provide Candy with some of his most enduring roles in movies like “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” “Uncle Buck” and “Home Alone.”

But offscreen, Candy was contending with anxiety and he was sensitive to people’s judgments about his size — remarks which often came directly from TV interviewers who thought nothing of asking him point-blank whether Candy was planning to lose weight.

When he and his sister watched archival footage of these interviews in the documentary, Chris Candy said, “It was, for both of us, uncomfortable. I wasn’t familiar with what he was putting up with and how he would mentally jujitsu in and out of those conversations. He got more and more curt about it as time goes on, and you can see it in the interviews.”

But these psychic wounds didn’t make Candy a cruel or nasty person; he simply absorbed the hurt and redoubled his efforts to be a genial performer.

“If you’re looking for darkness in the story of John Candy, a lot of it’s just internalized pain,” Myers said. “His own coping mechanism was radical niceness to everybody — making human connections so that he would have community and feel like he’s making things better.”

In the early 1990s, Candy seemed to be working nonstop. He appeared in five different feature films in 1991 alone, a year that included duds like “Nothing But Trouble” as well as a small but potentially transformative role in Oliver Stone’s drama “JFK,” where he played the flamboyant attorney Dean Andrews Jr. He was preparing his own directorial debut, a TV film called “Hostage For a Day” in which he starred with George Wendt. Candy also became a co-owner and one-man pep squad for the Toronto Argonauts, the Canadian Football League team.

Eventually, the many demands and stresses in his life came to a head. Amid a grueling shoot for the western comedy “Wagons East” in Durango, Mexico, Candy died on March 4, 1994. He had a private funeral in the Los Angeles area, followed by a public memorial in Toronto that prompted a national outpouring of grief in Canada.

“He represented the best of us,” Myers said. “He was a humanity-centric person. He brought vulnerability and humility to his characters, which is not something you usually see in broad comedy.”

Candy’s films continue to play on television and streaming — both “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” and “Home Alone” have become year-end holiday staples. But for the people involved in chronicling Candy’s life, there is a creeping sense that the actor’s legacy will not tend to itself, and that the generations who did not grow up with Candy might need reminders of what made him worth remembering.

Hanks recalled a story from the making of “I Like Me” where he and some colleagues were dining at a restaurant where the hostess asked them what they were working on.

“We said we’re making a documentary,” Hanks said. “ ‘Oh, really?’ she goes. ‘Who’s it about?’ It’s about John Candy. She goes, ‘Oh, who’s that?’ No idea who it was. I said, well, have you seen ‘Home Alone’? Remember the polka guy that picks up the mom and takes her in the van? ‘Oh, I loved him. He’s great.’”

Part of his interest in making a film about Candy, Hanks said, is “wanting to showcase the man that people love and remind them why they loved them.”

But there is also the simple pleasure in introducing Candy’s work to people who haven’t seen it before. “If you’re lucky,” Hanks said, “you get to hopefully have them go, ‘God, I want to see those movies. I want to go watch ‘SCTV.’”

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 makers behind Netflix’s hit drama “Adolescence,” knew their series about a 13-year-old boy accused of murdering a female classmate was something special.

And while creators and executive producers Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne were thrilled after learning that the U.K. drama received 13 Emmy nominations in the limited series category, they were even more gratified that the collective efforts of the cast and crew were being honored.

“There was just something magical that happened with this show, and it was the true definition of an ensemble,” said Graham during a video interview with Thorne. The duo were nominated for writing and producing the drama, and Graham was also nominated as lead actor for his portrayal of the devastated father of the teen suspect.

“My true gratitude is not the fact that we got 13 nominations. It’s the fact that every single person, every single player, every single part of the crew is being acknowledged for what we achieved as a collective,” Graham said. “What we do is not a game of golf. We managed this collective consciousness between us.”

The four-episode series became one of the buzziest dramas of the year, and was highly praised for its approach of filming each installment in a single camera shot.

Thorne said of the hoopla surrounding the series, “I think we got very lucky in capturing a particular time, place and mood. We also got lucky with all the people we worked with.”

Win or lose, plans are already being formed for an Emmy night celebration.

“Stephen just declared that we’re all going to the Emmys in a minibus,” Thorne said. “We’re all going to stand on the red carpet as one. That will be really special.”

The minibus passengers will include Owen Cooper, who played the young suspect, and Erin Doherty, who played a psychologist. The two, who were both nominated in supporting actor categories, starred in the drama’s third episode where their characters engaged in a tense battle of wills.

Cooper and Doherty discussed the show and their nominations in a separate video interview.

Congratulations on your nominations and amazing performances. Where were you when you got the news?

Cooper: I was in my living room and I put on the TV. Then I found it we got 13 nominations. It’s just crazy.

Doherty: To be fair, I avoided it. So I was waiting for my phone to ring. My agent told me, “I’ll ring you either way.” Then she started phoning me and I thought, “Oh, what, is this going to me?” And all those nominations came in. I’m so over the moon for the show.

Owen, you’re making history as the youngest Primetime Emmy nominee in a limited series .

Cooper: I heard about that the other day. It’s hard to even think about that stuff, to be honest. It’s crazy. I don’t even know how to put that into words, really.

Did both of you know at the time you were doing the third episode that you were creating something really special?

Cooper: Yes. We knew it would hit many homes, and that it would create conversations. We didn’t know it would get 13 nominations. That’s just the cherry on top. The success of the show has been mind-blowing.

Doherty: We knew everyone who was participating on and off the screen wanted to be a part of this, having the courage to address this subject matter. We knew the importance of the story. You never know if something like this is going to hit the way that this has.

Owen, what impressed you the most about Erin’s performance?

Cooper: The fact that she could just think of things to say off the spot. I would put attitude into the line and she would put even more attitude into it.

And Erin?

Doherty: I would say the exact same thing. Like he would start yawning and start throwing around different things. It felt like the most exciting game of tennis that I’ve been a part of. You don’t get that every day with actors who have been doing this for 40 years. Owen has the ability and skill and bravery. For him to throw himself into this environment, which is nerve-wracking, overwhelming and over-stimulating. To have the ability to stay centered and be present with each other is really rare. I’m so, so proud of him and that I got to be there for his first go, because he’s going to be doing this for years and years and years.

I know it’s early, but any thoughts on how you’ll feel on Emmy night?

Cooper: I don’t think I’ll be nervous. I don’t care if I win. I’ll just get there, eat nice food, meet a lot of people. And I’ll be in L.A. where the weather is nice. I’m not bothered by the result at the end of the day.

Doherty: We’ve won. The show got 13 nominations. We’re all going to be there. It’s just going to be the best night ever. We’re going to treat it like a big party.

Marlee Matlin has a word tattooed on each of her wrists. On the left is “perseverance,” on the right is “warrior.”

“After 37 years, I’m still hustling,” she says by way of explanation in “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore.” Referring to the ink on her left wrist, she adds, “I look at this all the time. Every day.”

“Not Alone Anymore” is hardly the first celebrity documentary to salute its subject’s tenacity. But if the contours of this story are familiar — the rise, the fall, then the rise again of an Oscar winner — director Shoshannah Stern’s affectionate portrait is all the richer for the layers it reveals about both Matlin and the larger struggles of the Deaf community she embodies. The 59-year-old actor’s legacy may indeed be one of perseverance, but “Not Alone Anymore” touchingly details just how much more challenging her battles with addiction and sexual abuse have been than those of other famous people.

The film’s inventiveness starts with its opening frames, in which closed captioning describes the sounds that accompany the production companies’ logos: “[low humming],” “[dramatic, echoey flutters].” These descriptions occur throughout the documentary, as do subtitles for every talking head, including the Deaf participants. Obviously, these creative decisions allow Deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers to more easily experience “Not Alone Anymore.”

But it’s also a subtle acknowledgement of Matlin’s trailblazing work in the late 1980s, when she used her newfound fame to convince lawmakers to require televisions to include closed captioning — a groundbreaking development for a community who had been deprived of a fuller engagement with the media they were watching.

This wasn’t the only way in which Matlin has left her mark. In “Not Alone Anymore,” she breezily recounts how, at 19, she was plucked from relative obscurity to star in her first film, the 1986 adaptation of “Children of a Lesser God,” based on Mark Medoff’s acclaimed play, about a love affair between Sarah, a Deaf janitor, and James, a hearing teacher. Matlin won the Oscar, becoming the first Deaf actor to do so. (Nearly 40 years later, she remains the youngest lead actress recipient.) At the time, her victory was hailed not just as a coronation of a promising talent but also a triumph for the Deaf, who too often feel marginalized and underestimated. But, as the documentary reveals, real progress would prove trickier to achieve.

Matlin and Stern, who is also a Deaf actor, have been friends for decades, and their interviews are mostly conducted sitting together on a couch, the conversations exuding the cozy intimacy of old chums chatting. Making her directorial debut, Stern deftly draws out her subject. Audiences will learn about Matlin’s past history of drug abuse and her fraught romantic relationship with her “Lesser God” costar William Hurt, whom she has accused of sexual and physical abuse. (Hurt died in 2022.)

But “Not Alone Anymore” gently probes the unique difficulties Matlin’s deafness created as she navigated those traumas. When she went to rehab, the facility was ill-equipped to treat a Deaf patient. And during a poignant discussion about Matlin’s sexual abuse, she explains growing up with no understanding of the phrase “domestic violence.”

“Deaf people only have their eyes to rely on for information,” she tells Stern. It’s an illuminating illustration of the dangers of what the Deaf community refers to as language deprivation.

Despite her Oscar win, Matlin would repeatedly have to advocate for herself in an industry seemingly uninterested in Deaf characters. Stern uses 2021’s best-picture-winning “CODA,” which costarred Matlin, as a happy ending of sorts for her film, without denying the ongoing movement for greater Deaf visibility. But if “Not Alone Anymore” can sometimes lean too heavily on uplifting sentiment, Matlin’s story possesses a bittersweet aftertaste.

As evidenced by Matlin’s years of striking, engaging performances, she is a winning presence in the documentary — funny, charming and open — even while we sense the lingering wounds from a difficult upbringing exacerbated by sexual abuse she endured in childhood. Beyond being a spokesperson for the Deaf, Matlin has also emerged as a voice for survivors, even when the world wasn’t receptive to what she had to say. “Not Alone Anymore” notes, with pointed irony, that Matlin published her candid memoir “I’ll Scream Later” in 2009, years before #MeToo, so her accusations against Hurt didn’t carry the same weight in the media as the ones that would later stop powerful predators such as Harvey Weinstein.

It was hardly the first time Matlin waited for society to catch up with her. When she first arrived in Hollywood, she couldn’t have possibly imagined how much of a warrior spirit she would need. “Not Alone Anymore” honors a woman who learned how to fight.

Twenty-five years ago, on a warm summer night in Los Angeles, Broadway stars Patti LuPone and Audra McDonald closed a show at the Hollywood Bowl with back-to-back encores of “Get Happy”/ “Happy Days Are Here Again.”

Today, those happy days appear to be over for the two Tony Award winners.

In a May 26 interview with the New Yorker, LuPone ignited a firestorm when she referred to McDonald as “not a friend” and refused to comment on McDonald’s celebrated performance in “Gypsy.” (McDonald is nominated for a 2025 Tony Award in the category best actress in a leading role in a musical — its her 11th nomination.) LuPone also referred to Tony winner Kecia Lewis, who, like McDonald, is Black, as a “bitch.”

Speaking with Gayle King in a “CBS Mornings” clip, McDonald sounded surprised by LuPone’s comments. “If there’s a rift between us, I don’t know what it is,” she said. “That’s something that you’d have to ask Patti about. I haven’t seen her in about 11 years, just because I’ve been busy, just with life and stuff. I don’t know what rift she’s talking about. You’d have to ask her.” (A full interview is set to air this week, according to a “CBS Mornings” Instagram post.)

Broadway star Audra McDonald arrives on the red carpet at the 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles in 2024.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Following public backlash, however, LuPone did something she rarely does. The outspoken diva apologized.

But that was not without some stage direction.

In an open letter from her colleagues in the theater community dated May 30, more than 500 actors, including Tony-winning actors Wendell Pierce, James Monroe Iglehart and Maleah Joi Moon, called LuPone’s language “racialized disrespect,” “bullying” and “harassment.” They asked the American Theatre Wing and Broadway League to discourage those who disparage fellow artists, including LuPone, from attending industry events “including the Tony Awards, fundraisers, and public programs.” (The 2025 Tony Awards are scheduled for June 8 in New York, and will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+.)

On Saturday, LuPone responded to the criticism in a statement on her Instagram account: “I am deeply sorry for the words I used during The New Yorker interview, particularly about Kecia Lewis, which were demeaning and disrespectful. I regret my flippant and emotional responses during this interview, which were inappropriate, and I am devastated that my behavior has offended others …” She went on to write that she hopes to speak to McDonald and Lewis in person.

LuPone is well-versed in calling people out herself, particularly audience members who text during her theater performances. Last year, she even complained about noise from the Alicia Keys musical “Hell’s Kitchen” when she was performing in “The Roommate” with Mia Farrow next door.

After LuPone asked the theater owner to fix the sound because she found it to be too loud, Lewis took offense and posted a video on Instagram, describing LuPone’s actions as “bullying,” “racially microaggressive” and “rude and rooted in privilege.” She also noted that “calling a Black show loud dismisses it.”

Last year, Lewis won a Grammy for best musical theater album and a Tony in the category best performance by an actress in a featured role in a musical for “Hell’s Kitchen.”

Although flippant, LuPone’s words only serve to hurt everyone during a turbulent time for the arts in America, the open letter from the theater community said. “Our industry is under threat. The arts are being defunded, theater programs are disappearing, and artists are being pushed to the margins. We need each other now more than ever. We need community. We need leadership. And we need accountability.”

Humbled, LuPone agreed.

“I wholeheartedly agree with everything that was written in the open letter shared yesterday,” she wrote. “From middle school drama clubs to professional stages, theatre has always been about lifting each other up and welcoming those who feel they don’t belong anywhere else. I made a mistake, and I take full responsibility for it, and I am committed to making this right. Our entire theater community deserves better.”

Hailing from some of today’s funniest TV series, six actors gathered recently for an uninhibited conversation about what it takes to make people laugh at The Envelope’s Emmy Roundtable for comedy actors.

In Netflix’s “Running Point,” Kate Hudson plays Isla, a woman who becomes pro basketball’s first girl boss when she takes over the family franchise. In ABC’s “Abbott Elementary,” Lisa Ann Walter portrays Melissa Schemmenti, a tough grade school teacher in Philly’s underfunded public education system. With Hulu’s “Mid-Century Modern,” Nathan Lane takes on the role of Bunny, an aging gay man who brings together a chosen family when he invites two friends to reside in his Palm Springs home. “Hacks” co-creator Paul W. Downs does double duty as Jimmy, the manager to legendary comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) in the Max series. Bridget Everett, creator of HBO’s “Somebody Somewhere,” plays Sam, a cabaret singer who moves back to her family’s sleepy Kansas town to take care of her dying sister. And David Alan Grier stars as Dr. Ron, a devoted physician and cranky veteran who’s seen it all in the overrun ER of a small-town hospital in NBC’s “St. Denis Medical.”

The talented group spoke with The Times about their respective shows, typecasting and the risks one takes to make great comedy. Read on for excerpts from our discussion — and watch video of the roundtable above.

The 2025 Emmy Comedy Roundtable: Kate Hudson, left, Paul W. Downs, Bridget Everett, Nathan Lane, Lisa Ann Walter and David Alan Grier.

The best comedy pushes boundaries, which means it can also skirt the edge of offensive. How do you know if you’ve gone too far, or haven’t pushed it enough?

Downs: In the “Hacks” pilot, Jean Smart’s character, Deborah Vance, says there is no line. I think there’s nothing off limits, because it’s really about execution and thoughtfulness. The thing that makes edgy comedy not funny is when it causes harm, when it’s something that’s punching down, when it’s not something that can bring people together. That, to me, isn’t worth it. But there’s nothing that’s too taboo, because that’s what comedy is for. It’s to examine things, explore things, get close to the edge.

Everett: I think that comedy is about making people feel good. I want to make people feel joy. So as long as I’m not hurting anybody’s feelings, I think everything’s on the table.

Grier: I don’t think you know the edge and that’s why it’s dangerous. I’ve done things where I thought, “This is too much,” and things where I thought, “We didn’t go far enough.” So you have to play that game. My intention is never to anger and offend, but you do have to put yourself in that position and take a chance, especially with comedy. You can prescreen it, but who are you prescreening it to? Sixty-year-old white women? High school kids? You have to take a chance.

Kate Hudson of “Running Point.”

Hudson: I’m not a stand-up [comedian], so it’s fun to watch people walk that line. It’s exciting. What are they going to say? Is it going to be offensive? Is it not? Is it going to be brilliant? That’s part of what’s fun about being an audience of adult comedy. But I don’t like mean comedy. It’s really hard for me to see. I’ve been asked to do roasts a million times, and I just can’t do it. It just doesn’t move me in any way.

Lane: I was asked. This was the biggest mistake of my life. … A Friars [Club] Roast that was going to happen. [Jerry Lewis] was going to be roasted. And Richard Belzer said to me, “Oh, Nathan, would you be a part of it? Would you do it? It would mean a lot to Jerry.” And I’m like, “Oh, yeah, sure. I’ll do the roast.” And then I’m suddenly there and I’m sitting next to Paul Shaffer and Jeff Ross, who apologized in advance for what he might say. And I realized then that, “Oh, you’re not getting up and just roasting this person. You’re attacked. You’re on the dais.” So I thought, “Oh, what have I gotten into?” And I had asked them, “Please let me go first.” And I had worked out jokes. I had a couple of writers help me, and there was an initial joke, which was, “The only reason I agreed to do this was because I thought by the time it happened, Jerry would be dead.”

Walter: I’m on a show that’s got a lot of kids, and families can watch it together, which was [creator] Quinta Brunson’s intention. But there are things that the kids won’t get and that adults get. Melissa Schemmenti gets bleeped out regularly because she curses. She’s South Philly! As a comic, I only am interested in edge, that’s where I want to live … It’s easier to make a point and get ears when you’re making people laugh. And we do that on the show quite frequently. They’ll do a storyline about the school-to-prison pipeline, but it’s not ham-fisted, it’s not preachy. It’s edgy and it’s all within jokes. Anytime you’re making people laugh, I think you can say whatever you want.

What’s the strangest or most difficult skill you’ve had to learn for a role?

Hudson: In “Almost Famous,” [director] Cameron [Crowe] wanted me to learn how to roll cigarettes fast with one hand. And so I was learning how to roll, and I got really good at it really fast. And then when we were doing camera tests, I was doing it and I was smoking. And he was like, “No.” And I was like, “What? I just spent months trying to learn how to do that!” Then I started rolling my own cigarettes and got into a really bad habit and then spent years trying to quit.

Paul W. Downs of “Hacks.”

Downs: On “Broad City,” I had to learn and do parkour. It’s high skill level and high risk. You know, when you jump off buildings and roll around … [leap] off chairs and over fire hydrants. I did it, but not a lot of it ended up onscreen. Just the most comedic moments. I jumped between buildings and they didn’t even put it in!

Lane: When I did “Only Murders in the Building,” they said, “So you have a deaf son and you’re going to have scenes with him in ASL [American Sign Language].” It was challenging. I had a coach and I would work with him. And the wonderful young actor, James Caverly, who is Deaf … he was very supportive. If I had to become fluent, it would’ve taken six months to a year to do it well. But I had an advantage; they said, “Oh, your character is embarrassed by having a deaf son, so he didn’t learn it until later in life. So he’s not that good at it.” But it was a great thing to learn. I loved it.

Grier: I did an episode of a sitcom in which it was assumed, unbeknownst to me, that I was very proficient playing an upright bass. This is not true. I played cello as a child. I had to play this upright bass and as a jazz musician. It was horrible. Your fingers swell and blister and bleed. Of course, I went along with it because that’s what we’re all supposed to do. But by Day 4, my fingers were in great pain. I never mastered it. But I did want to ask them, “Who told you I could play?”

Everett: I did a little trapeze work, but since the knee thing, I can’t anymore … [Laughs]

Lane: This was the independent film about the Wallendas, right?

Everett: The truth is I’ve never had to do anything. Really. I had to rollerblade once in a Moby video, but that doesn’t seem like it’s going to stack up against all this, so maybe we should just move on to the next person. I would do trapeze, though. I’ll do anything. Well, not anything. Can we just edit this part out in post?

Hudson: I’m in love with you.

Walter: In a movie I did where I started out as the nosy neighbor, I found out that I was going to be a cougar assassin and I had to stunt drive a Mustang and shoot a Glock. It was a surprise. Literally. When I got to set, I saw my wardrobe and went, “I think I’m playing a different character than what I auditioned for.” … They put the car on a chain and I got T-boned. I was terrified, but then I was like, “Let’s go again!” That was the most dangerous thing until I had to do a South Philly accent as Melissa, and do it good enough so that South Philly wouldn’t kill me. That was probably more dangerous.

David Alan Grier of “St. Denis Medical.”

Let’s talk about typecasting. What are the types of roles that frequently come to you, where you’re like “Oh, my God, not again!”

Lane: Oh, not another mysterious drifter.

Hudson: Rom-coms. If I can’t get a job doing anything else, I can get a job doing a romantic comedy. When you have major success in something, you realize the business is just so excited [that] they want you in them all the time. It really has nothing to do with anything other than that. It’s something that I’m very grateful for, but you’re constantly having to fight to do different things. I’d be bored if I was constantly doing the same thing over and over again. But it’s just how the business works. Once you’re in that machine, they just want to keep going until they go to somebody else.

Walter: I can’t tell you how bored I am with being the gorgeous object of men’s desire. I named my first production company Fat Funny Friend … But as a mother of four in Los Angeles, I didn’t really have the luxury of saying, “I want to branch out.” But I did say, “Can I play someone smart?” My father was a NASA physicist. My mother was brilliant. I was over doing things I could do in my sleep, always getting the part of the woman who sticks her head out of the trailer door and goes, “I didn’t kill him, but I ain’t sorry he’s dead!” … It’s like, “Can I play someone who has a college education?” And I did, finally, but it took Quinta to do it.

Grier: I’ve found that the older I’ve gotten, the roles I’m offered have broadened. And I’ve played a variety of really challenging great roles because I’m old now. That’s been a real joy because I didn’t really expect that. I just thought I’d be retired. I did. So it’s been awesome.

Nathan Lane of “Mid-Century Modern.”

Lane: There was an article written about me, it was sort of a career-assessment article. It was a very nice piece, but it referred to me as the greatest stage entertainer of the last decade. And as flattering as it was, I can find a dark cloud in any silver lining. I felt, “Oh, that’s how they see me?” As an “entertainer” because of musicals and things [I did] like “The Birdcage” or “The Lion King.” I’d been an actor for 35 years and I thought, “I have more to offer.” So I wound up doing “The Iceman Cometh” in Chicago … and that would change everything. It was the beginning of a process where I lucked out and got some serious roles in television, and that led to other things. But it was a concerted effort over a period of 10, 15 years, and difficult because everybody wants to put you in a box.

Is it difficult in the industry to make the move between drama and comedy?

Walter: It’s a lifelong consternation to me that there is an idea that if you are known comedically, that’s what you do. We are quite capable of playing all of the things.

Grier: I remember seeing Jackie Gleason in “The Hustler.” I loved it. He was so great. Robin Williams also did serious. I think it’s actually harder when you see serious actors try to be comedians.

Downs: One of the things about making “Hacks” is we wanted to do something that was mixed tone, that it was funny and comedic but also let actors like myself, like Jean, all of these people, have moments. Because to us, the most funny things are right next to the most tragic things.

Hudson: And usually the most classic. When you think about the movies that people know generation after generation, they’re usually the ones that walk the line. And they’re the ones that you just want to go back and watch over and over and over again.

Bridget Everett of “Somebody Somewhere.”

Everett: I haven’t had a lot of experience with being typecast because I’ve been in the clubs for a long time doing cabaret. But on my show, Tim Bagley, who plays Brad … he’s been doing the same characters for I don’t know for how long. So we wrote this part for him, and one of the most rewarding things for me on this show was sitting behind the monitor and watching him get to have the moment he deserved … It’s one of the greatest gifts to me as a creator to have been part of that. It’s a whole thing in my show. We’re all getting this break together. We’ve all struggled to pay our rent well into our 40s. I waited tables into my 40s, but you don’t give up because you love doing it.

I’m sure many of you are recognized in public, but what about being mistaken for somebody else who’s famous?

Grier: I went to a performance of a David Mamet show on Broadway. I went backstage, and this particular day, it was when Broadway was raising money to benefit AIDS. There was a Midwestern couple there with their young son and they saw me, and the house manager said, “This couple, they’re going to give us an extra $1,000 if you take a picture with them. Would you mind?” I’m like, “Yeah, cool.” So I’m posing and the dad goes, “It is our honor to take a picture with you, Mr. LeVar Burton.” Now in that moment, I thought if I say no, people will die. So I looked at them and I went, “You liked me in ‘Roots?’” He said, “We loved you.” Click, we took the picture. I’m not going to be like, “How dare you?!”

Walter: Peg Bundy I got a couple of times. But as soon as I open my mouth, they know who I am. I can hide my hair, but as soon as I talk, I’m made.

Hudson: I’ve had a lot of Drew Barrymore. And then every other Kate. Kate Winslet, Katie Holmes … I’ve gotten all of them.

Walter: Do you correct them?

Hudson: Never. I just say yes and sign it “Cate Blanchett.”

Lisa Ann Walter of “Abbott Elementary.”

I’d love to know who everybody’s comedic inspiration was growing up.

Walter: My dad used to let me stay up and watch “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” and “Laugh-In.” I got to see Ruth Buzzi, rest in peace, and Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin. Jo Anne Worley. All these funny women. That’s what made me think, “You can get a job doing this, the thing that I get in trouble for at school?!”

Grier: My comedy hero was Richard Pryor. I was this Black little boy in Detroit, and George Jessel would come on “The Mike Douglas Show” and he might as well have been speaking Russian. I’m like, “How can this be comedy?” Then I saw Richard Pryor, and he was the first comic who I just went, “Well, this guy’s hilarious.”

Downs: I remember one of the first comedies that my dad showed me was “Young Frankenstein.” I remember Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman and Madeline Kahn. All of these women. I was always like, “They’re the funniest ones.”

Hudson: My era growing up was Steve Martin, Martin Short, Albert Brooks, Mel Brooks. But women were, for me, the classics. Lucille Ball.

Walter: There was a time when I was growing up where women really dominated comedy. They were your mom [nods at Hudson, Hawn’s daughter], Whoopi [Goldberg], Bette Midler. The biggest stars of the biggest comedies were women, and then that all went away for a really long time. I think it found its way back with Judd Apatow and then he made “Bridesmaids.”

Hudson: I tried really hard to make edgy comedy and studios wouldn’t do it. They wouldn’t. It took Judd to convince the studio system that women are ready. That we can handle rated-R. In the ’70s and ’80s, there was a ton of rated-R comedy with women. But for some reason, it just all of a sudden became like, “Oh, there’s only 1½ demographics for women in comedy.” I always felt like it was an uphill battle trying to get them made. Then I remember when Jenji [Kohan] came in with “Orange Is the New Black.” That was really awesome.

Lane: Above all, it was always Jackie Gleason for me. He was such an influence. He was hilarious, and of course, very broadly funny, but then there was something so sad. It was such pathos with him. … He was this wonderful, serious actor, as well as being Ralph Kramden.

Everett: There’s nobody that taught me more about how to be funny than my mom. She just had this way of being that I have used in my live shows. It’s led to where I am now. She used to wet her pants [laughing] so she had to put towels down on all the chairs in the house. She just didn’t care. That shows you to not care, to go out there. I live in fear, but not when I feel like she’s with me.

Grier: That’s the edge. You’re either going to weep or you’re going to [laugh] until you urinate.

After an extensive search, HBO has officially found young wizards Harry, Ron and Hermione for its upcoming “Harry Potter” series.

Newcomers Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stout and Arabella Stanton are the chosen ones to play Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, respectively, of the more than 30,000 children who auditioned during the open casting call.

Filming begins this summer and the show premieres next year.

“The talent of these three unique actors is wonderful to behold, and we cannot wait for the world to witness their magic together onscreen,” executive producers Francesca Gardiner and Mark Mylod said in a statement. “We would like to thank all the tens of thousands of children who auditioned. It’s been a real pleasure to discover the plethora of young talent out there.” Gardiner will serve as showrunner and Mylod will direct multiple episodes of the series.

Author J.K. Rowling, Neil Blair and Ruth Kenley-Letts of Brontë Film & TV, and David Heyman of Heyday Films will also executive produce.

Here’s everything we know about the reimagining of the classic franchise.

Who is Dominic McLaughlin?

Prior to nabbing the titular role in “Harry Potter,” McLaughlin studied at the Performance Academy Scotland for five years. He is set to appear in BBC’s upcoming series “Gifted,” about Scottish teens who discover they have superpowers, and the Sky film “Grow,” about a grumpy pumpkin farmer and her orphaned niece.

“The news is out and this one is MAGICAL!!” wrote the Performance Academy Scotland on Instagram. “We are not sure that this will ever feel real but we said from the start that Dominic was the perfect Harry & we are thrilled for everyone else to see this soon too.”

Who is Alastair Stout?

“Harry Potter” is Stout’s first major role. His only other credited appearance is a commercial for Albert Bartlett potatoes.

Who is Arabella Stanton?

Stanton starred as Matilda Wormwood in “Matilda the Musical” in London’s West End from 2023 to 2024. The English actress also played the narrator Control in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s play “Starlight Express” in 2024.

Who else is in the cast?

Previously announced cast members include John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid, Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Luke Thallon as Quirinus Quirrell and Paul Whitehouse as Argus Filch.

How will the show differ from the movies?

HBO has said the show will span a decade and remain faithful to Rowling’s books. The original films starred Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson. In addition to the seven bestsellers and eight hit films, the franchise also spawned the “Fantastic Beasts” movie prequels, starring Eddie Redmayne, the play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” and themed areas at Universal parks.