Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
This has turned into one of those weeks when there are just way too many movies opening. From titles that premiered earlier in the year, to films that popped up only recently, distributors have decided that today is the time to drop them in theaters. It can make for some tough calls as a moviegoer but hopefully ones with pleasant returns. Here’s some intel.
Mary Bronstein’s “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” was a standout at Sundance in January and remains one of the most powerful films of the year. Rose Byrne gives a knockout performance as Linda, a mother struggling to hold onto her own unraveling sense of self as she cares for her ill daughter.
Rose Byrne in the movie “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.”
(Logan White / A24)
In his review Glenn Whipp said, “Linda makes dozens of bad decisions in ‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,’ many of them seemingly indefensible until you realize that just how utterly isolated she feels. … Bronstein demands you pay attention to her, and with Byrne diving headfirst into the character’s harrowing panic, you will find you have no other choice.”
Speaking to Esther Zuckerman for a wide-ranging feature, Byrne said of the part: “Anything dealing with motherhood and shame around motherhood, whether it’s disappointment, failure — she’s got this line in the movie, ‘I wasn’t meant to do this’ — these are pretty radical things to say. People aren’t comfortable with that. So performance-wise, that was the hardest part because it was like a tightrope, the tightrope of this woman.”
Another Sundance premiere hitting theaters this week is director Bill Condon’s adaptation of “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” starring Diego Luna, Tonatiuh and Jennifer Lopez. Already a novel, a movie and a Broadway show, the story involves two men imprisoned in an Argentine jail for political crimes during the 1980s, with Lopez playing a fantasy film star who exists in their imaginations — a reverie to which they can escape.
Tonatiuh in the movie “Kiss of the Spider Woman.”
(Roadside Attractions)
For our fall preview, Carlos Aguilar spoke to Tonatiuh, a native of L.A.’s Boyle Heights, whose performance is a true breakout.
“When I first met Jennifer, I was like, ‘Oh, my God — that’s Jennifer Lopez. What the hell?’ ” he recalled, with the enthusiasm of a true fan. “I must have turned left on the wrong street because now I’m standing in front of her. How did this happen? What life am I living?”
After praising both Lopez and Tonatiuh in her review of the film, Amy Nicholson wrote, “Still, my favorite performance has to be Luna’s, whose Valentin is at once strong and vulnerable, like a mutt attempting to fend off a bear. He’s the only one who doesn’t need to prove he’s a great actor, yet he feels like a revelation. Watching him gradually turn tender sends tingles through your heartstrings.”
Robert De Niro, left, and Martin Scorsese in an undated photo from Rebecca Miller’s documentary series “Mr. Scorsese.”
(Apple TV+)
The American Cinematheque is celebrating filmmaker Rebecca Miller this weekend with a four-title retrospective plus a preview of her documentary series “Mr. Scorsese,” a five-part portrait of the life and career of Martin Scorsese.
Miller will introduce a Saturday screening of her 2023 rom-com “She Came to Me,” starring Anne Hathaway and Peter Dinklage, then do a Q&A for the first two episodes of the Scorsese project on Sunday. Also screening in the series will be 2016’s “Maggie’s Plan,” starring Julianne Moore, Ethan Hawke and Greta Gerwig; Miller’s 2002 Sundance grand jury prize winner “Personal Velocity”; and 2005’s “The Ballad of Jack and Rose,” starring Miller’s husband Daniel Day-Lewis, screening with an introduction from co-star Camilla Belle.
Ethan Hawke and Greta Gerwig in “Maggie’s Plan,” written and directed by Rebecca Miller.
(Sony Pictures Classics)
I spoke to Miller this week about the retrospective and her new Scorsese project, which premieres Oct. 17 on Apple TV+. Along with extensive interviews with Scorsese himself, the series includes insights from collaborators such as Robert De Niro, Paul Schrader and longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker as well as childhood friends, Scorsese’s children, ex-wives and fellow filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, Ari Aster, Benny Safdie and Spike Lee.
“It feels like such an honor and so weird in a way,” said Miller of the notion of having a retrospective. “You feel like you’re just in the middle of making everything, but then you realize, no, I’ve been making these films for 30 years. And it’ll be really interesting to see how the films play now for people. It’s exciting to have them still be sort of alive.”
When you look back on your own movies, what comes to mind for you?
Funnily enough, there is a connection between “Personal Velocity” and Martin Scorsese, which is that when I was about to shoot personal “Velocity,” I was in Rome, on the set of “Gangs of New York,” and I was watching the snack trolley go by and thinking my entire budget is probably the same as their snack budget. And thinking: What am I doing? What was I thinking? How am I going to do this? But talking to [“Gangs” cinematographer] Michael Ballhaus, I told him how long we had to shoot everything, and he said, “Oh, I envy you. We shot ‘The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant’ in 10 days.” He was looking back on his days with Fassbinder as the good old days.
Then Marty gave me some advice on films with voiceovers to watch, and he ended up watching “Personal Velocity.” It was the first of my films that he saw, which then led probably to this [doc series] because he knew my films quite well. He watched them as time went on.
What interested you in Scorsese as a subject?
I knew that he was Catholic, that there was a strong spiritual element to his films. But I was interested in how that Catholicism kind of jogged with his fascination, or apparent fascination, with violence. Who is that person? How do those two things go together? And I thought that could be part of my exploration. I had a sense that all his work has a spiritual undercurrent in it, which I think it does. And I think that’s one of the things that I try to explore in the documentary. I felt I had something a little bit different to offer, for that reason.
The big questions that he’s asking: Are we essentially good? Are we essentially evil? And his immense honesty with himself about who he really is, the darkness of his own soul. I don’t think that people are usually that honest with themselves. And you realize that part of his greatness has to do with his willingness to look at himself.
Martin Scorsese in an undated photo from Rebecca Miller’s documentary series “Mr. Scorsese.”
(Apple TV+)
As much as we think we know about Scorsese, he seemed so candid about some of the darkest moments of his life, especially when he talks about his drug overdose and hospitalization in the late 1970s or about some of his issues with Hollywood, especially around “The Last Temptation of Christ.” Were you ever surprised that he was so willing to go there with you?
Oh, yeah, I was. I really didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t have an agenda. I had the scaffolding of the films themselves and a strong sense that this was a man that you can’t separate from the films. So the thing is like a dance, it’s like a permanent tango between those two things. You’re not going to pry them apart. I didn’t know about the addiction. I didn’t know a lot of these things. My questions are totally genuine, there’s no manipulation. It’s all me. I was very prepared in terms of the films. But in terms of the chronology and the connective tissue of his life, I was really right there discovering it.
Martin Scorsese at work on his film “Killers of the Flower Moon,” as seen in Rebecca Miller’s documenary series “Mr. Scorsese.”
(Apple TV+)
You’re catching him such a remarkable point in his life and career. He seems very happy and settled in his personal life and yet he still makes something like “Killers of the Flower Moon,” full of passion and fire. What do you make of that?
[Screenwriter] Jay [Cocks] says he’s learned that he can be selfish in his art, but he doesn’t have to be selfish in his life. Even if your outside is regular, your inside can be boiling. And I think Marty’s inside is always going to be boiling. The seas are not calm in there and never will be.
‘They Live’ and ‘Josie and the Pussycats,’ together at last
Roddy Piper in John Carpenter’s 1988 thriller “They Live.”
(Sunset Boulevard / Corbis )
There’s a real art to putting together a double bill. Sure, you can just program movies that have the same director or share the same on-screen talent. But what about deep, thematic links that might not otherwise be noticed?
The New Beverly has put together an inspired double bill playing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of John Carpenter’s 1988 “They Live” and Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont’s 2001 “Josie and the Pussycats.” Though one is a rough-and-tumble sci-fi action picture and the other a satirical teen-pop fantasia, they both use the idea of subliminal messages to explore how consumer culture can be a means of control.
In “They Live,” wrestler-turned-actor “Rowdy” Roddy Piper plays a drifter who lands in Los Angeles and discovers a secret network fighting against an invasion of aliens living among us.
In Michael Wilmington’s original review, after joking the movie could be called “Invasion of the Space Yuppies,” he adds, “You can forgive the movie everything because of the sheer nasty pizzazz of its central concept. … The movie daffily mixes up the paranoia of the Red Scare monster movies of the ’50’s with a different kind of nightmare: the radical’s belief that everything is tightly controlled by a small, malicious ruling elite. Everything — the flat lighting, the crazily protracted action scenes, the monolithic beat and vamp of the score — reinforces a mood of murderous persecution mania.”
Rosario Dawson, from left, Rachael Leigh Cook and Tara Reid in the movie “Josie and the Pussycats.”
(Joseph Lederer / Universal Studios)
In “Josie and the Pussycats,” a small-town rock ‘n’ roll band (Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid and Rosario Dawson) are plucked from obscurity when they are signed to a major record label and all their dreams of stardom seem to come true. But they come to realize the company’s executives (a brilliant pairing of Parker Posey and Allan Cumming) are using them for their own nefarious purposes.
Aside from some very hummable songs, the film has a truly epic amount of corporate logos and branding that appears throughout. Many reviewers at the time brought this up, including the L.A. Times’ own Kenneth Turan, who noted, “It’s a potent reminder that no matter how innocent a film may seem, there’s a Hollywood cash register behind almost every frame.” In subsequent interviews, Kaplan and Elfont confirmed these were not instances of paid product placement and, in fact, the production had to fight to get them all on-screen.
Points of interest
‘Eight Men Out’ in 35mm
Charlie Sheen, center, in a scene from the film “Eight Men Out.”
(Archive Photos / Getty Images)
Writer-director John Sayles has been so consistently good for so long that it is easy to take his work for granted. Case in point: 1988’s “Eight Men Out,” which tells the story of the infamous “Black Sox” scandal, when players from the Chicago White Sox were accused of intentionally throwing the 1919 World Series in league with underworld gamblers. The movie is playing on Sunday at Vidiots in 35mm.
The film captures much of what makes Sayles so special, particularly his unique grasp of the interplay between social and economic dynamics — a sense of how things work and why. He also fully grasps the deeper implications of the forces of greed and money setting themselves upon such an unassailable symbol of wholesome Americana as baseball. It’s also what makes the movie particularly worth a revisit now. With a phenomenal cast that includes John Cusack, David Straithairn, D.B. Sweeney, Charlie Sheen, John Mahoney, Christopher Lloyd, Michael Lerner and Sayles himself, the film was a relatively early effort from cinematographer Robert Richardson, who would go on to work repeatedly with Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino.
In a review at the time, Sheila Benson wrote, “ ‘Eight Men Out’ is not a bad movie for an election year. Everything that politicians cherish as ‘old-fashioned’ and ‘American’ is here. The Grand Old Game. Idealistic little kids. Straw hats and cat’s-whisker crystal sets. And under the slogans and the platitudes, a terrifying erosion and no one to answer for it. No wonder Sayles, hardly an unpolitical animal, found it such a relevant story nearly 70 years later.”
‘The Sound of Music’ in 70mm
Julie Andrews, center, in the 1965 musical “The Sound of Music.”
(20th Century-Fox)
On Sunday the Academy Museum will screen Robert Wise’s “The Sound of Music” in 70mm, a rare opportunity to see this classic in the premium format on which it was originally released. Based on the stage musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein , the film would eventually win five Oscars, including director and best picture.
Starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, it’s the story of the singing Von Trapp family, eventually forced to flee their native Austria as the Nazis take power.
In a Times review from March 1965, Philip K. Scheuer wrote of Wise and his collaborators, “They have taken this sweet, sometimes saccharine and structurally slight story of the Von Trapp Family Singers and transformed it into close to three hours of visual and vocal broilliaance, all in the universal terms of cinema. They have invested it with new delights and even a sense of depth in human relationships — not to mention the swooning beauty of Salzburg and the Austrian Alps, which the stage, of course, could only suggest.”
Even notorious gossip columnist Hedda Hopper liked the movie, presciently writing, “The picture is superb — dramatically, musically, cinematically. Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer were born for their roles. … All children — from 7 to 90 — wil love it. The following morning I woke up singing. Producer-director Bob Wise did a magnificent job and 20th [Century Fox] will hear nothing but the sound of money for years to come.”
Rebecca Loos candidly wiped away tears as she opened up on her infamous alleged affair with David Beckham as she made her debut on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins
Rebecca Loos candidly discussed her alleged affair with David Beckham as she made her debut on Celebrity SAS(Image: Channel 4)
Rebecca Loos candidly wiped away tears as she discussed her alleged affair with David Beckham on the first episode of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins. The model, 48, infamously claimed that she and football legend David, 50, had an affair in the early 2000s.
It was one of the biggest showbiz scandals of the time, and came about just a few years after he tied the knot with Victoria Beckham. And on Sunday night, viewers watched as the then-PA of the former Manchester United star broke down in tears as she addressed the whole thing during a tense interrogation scene.
Asked if she would do things differently, she said: “If I went back in time, yes, of course.” She added: “I was unhappy with the way I had been treated so I didn’t want to go around anymore carrying this secret, rumours started spreading.” It comes after Cruz Beckham ‘steals’ his dad’s tiny white trunks and family have epic response.
Rebecca was the PA of the former Manchester United star until their alleged affair catapulted her into the limelight(Image: FilmMagic)
She added: “I decided it would be better if it came from me, so I gave an interview thinking it would be something and it ended up being something else and I spent a few years seeing if I could get it back. I really put it really far behind me.”
Asked what she hoped to get out of the programme, Rebecca added : “I want to grow from this course as a person, I want to see how far I can push myself.” And then Rebecca seemed to have adopted a confident front, as she declared in a confessional: “I think I’ve definitely taken most of the blame for what happened, and rightly so. It was part of my life but we were two and he was all over me and he was my boss.”
But when mingling with her fellow recruits, she was seen breaking down in tears. It was then that former footballer Adebayo “The Beast” Akinfenwa rushed to put her arms around her as he spotted her wiping away tears. “You good?” he asked her and the two shared a hug.
Back in her confessional, she added: “You can’t change the things that have happened is my attitude. I just roll my sleeves up and get on with it because everything that I have experienced has brought me to where I am today and it has made me a little bit stronger.”
Rebecca, who has sons Magnus and Liam with her husband Sven Christjar Skaiaa, decided to sign up for the programme following a long break from the spotlight, as she explained: “I said yes to this because I felt that it was a really good time in my life to do this.
“I’d had a break from reality TV for a few years, become a mother, moved to Norway, changed quite a bit, and when I was younger I loved doing extreme things. I was finalist in Spanish Survivor where I was surviving on an island for three months in Honduras, and I’ve done quite a few extreme things, and adventurous shows. So I just felt like it would be really interesting to do.”
The drama began in 2003 after Beckham had just completed a high-profile move from Manchester United to Real Madrid, a career-defining transfer that promised fresh footballing glory in Spain. With the move came a new entourage, including 26-year-old Rebecca Loos, who was hired as a personal assistant to help the Beckhams settle into Spanish life.
In September that year, Beckham and Loos were photographed leaving a Madrid nightclub together. Whispers of an affair quickly began circulating, although both parties remained silent.
But everything changed in April 2004 when Loos sold her story in an exclusive interview with News of the World. She claimed that the pair had been romantically involved for four months.
Explaining why she chose to embark on the alleged fling, she said: “We just connected. People noticed it.” Explaining that the idea of group drinks back at the hotel were floated after a night out, she claimed David told her: “Why don’t we just lose the rest and why don’t we just go back together?”
“I gave him a look I was very surprised, very taken aback. I said, ‘**** off’ in a joking manner. But there was a look and he was still looking at me and I was looking at him. I think one of the girls we were with came up and sat between us. I think the chemistry between David and I was so strong.
Admitting she knew he was a married man and that she was worried about jeopardising her job, she shared her reason for agreeing. “I think the chemistry between David and I was so strong and people were not happy because I was being very unprofessional and he’s a married man.
“Then it dawned on me what he had asked me and I decided I did want to go back with him so we gave each other a look and paid the bill and left.
“I couldn’t wait to be alone with him and I knew he felt the same. We dropped off the other two people in the car and starting kissing quite passionately all the way back to the hotel… It was like magnets, pretty amazing.”
Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins is back and bosses have now confirmed the full line-up, including a member of the Peru Two drugs smuggling group and Rebecca Loos
The Celeb SAS 14 include stars from music, entertainment and sport(Image: Pete Dadds / Channel 4)
Celebrities from the world of music, entertainment and sport have lined up to take part in the most gruelling phase of Special Forces selection whilst being filmed so millions of people can watch from the comfort of their sofas.
Channel 4 bosses have chosen a wide selection of stars from football, reality TV and even a woman made famous as one of the ‘Peru Two’ drug smugglers for Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins. Michaella McCollum will line up alongside other star names like Rebecca Loos, who had a rumoured fling with David Beckham as well as former Premier League footballer Troy Deeney.
The Seventh series will see the action play out over eight one-hour episodes as the 14 celebrities are put through their paces by an elite team of ex-Special Forces soldiers – Chief Instructor Billy Billingham and his team of Directing Staff (DS) – Foxy (Jason Fox), Rudy Reyes and Chris Oliver. They take the famous faces to Wales, the home of the first phase of SAS Selection, where they will be stripped of their home comforts, families, agents and social media.
This year’s course will be physically demanding and psychologically gruelling; all but a few who take part will fail, but the question is who will make it to the end and eventually pass?
Commenting on this year’s group of celebrity recruits, Chief Instructor, Billy said: “This course is not an attendance course, the bar is set high and will not waiver. Every recruit is a volunteer who chose to step into our arena. Although many will start, very few will finish and even less will pass. This is not for the weak minded or faint hearted.”
DS Foxy said: “The world is now a complex and dangerous place with threats coming from all angles. Because of that, we as a country need to be ready. We want to show these celebrity recruits what it takes to prepare for war, but do they have what it takes, far away from their privileged lives?”
DS Rudy commented: “SAS: Who Dares Wins is brutal, revealing and a testament to human perseverance. Punishing elements, relentless pace, and standards that make war fighters proud to give these recruits a hard reset to find their true self. And in that truth, an insight into the human experience for us all.”
DS Chris added: “This isn’t just about physical strength; it’s about mental resilience too. The recruits will be pushed to their limits, both individually and as a unit. Trust in each other will be our greatest asset. When the waves are high and the wind is howling, they will need to rely on the training and instincts if they are going to succeed.”
Adebayo “The Beast” Akinfenwa
The Beast getting reading to take on the SAS challenges(Image: Channel 4)
Age: 43
Famous for: Former Wycombe footballer
What they say about challenge: “I’ve asked myself time and time again – am I built for the Special Forces? One of the reasons why I’m doing this is to find out. I would like to think that, put me in most situations, most environments, I’ll be able to put my best foot forward, get out of my comfort zone, hit my responsibilities and do what I need to do! I think that’s what I want to get out of taking part on this course.”
Troy Deeney
Footballer Troy has joined the line-up(Image: Channel 4)
What they say about challenge: “I’m at a crossroads in my life, so I’m hoping the course can highlight the good and bad in me, and hopefully we’ll see at the end that the good outweighs the bad. I’m sure the DS will get me irritated very quickly but they will also know how to nurture and to reshape and probably help me along the way.”
Conor Benn
Conor admits the show will be very different to his day job(Image: Getty Images for AELTC)
What he says about the challenge: “Although boxing is hard, I feel like this is going to be a completely different challenge, and I always want to challenge myself. I just want to see and experience the toughness and the grittiness you need to pass this course.”
Louie Spence
Louie is hoping to challenge himself
Age: 56
Famous for: Dancer, choreographer and television presenter
What they say about challenge: “This course I hope can walk away feeling I’ve actually really achieved something here, that I’ve really pushed myself to the edge of my boundaries and put myself in a position which is beyond something I could have even imagined a year ago. This is a course that is really going to challenge me. This is different to anything I’ve ever been part of before. There’s no fluff, there’s no glitter, there’s no getting myself out of a situation with a quick bit of wit. It’s really refreshing for me to do something like this…and, hopefully, come out a much better person, both physically and mentally.”
Tasha Ghouri
The Love Island star is ‘excited’(Image: PA)
Age: 26
Famous for: TV star
What Tasha says about challenge: “I’m very excited to actually take on the course and just go for it, push myself and really challenge myself. But I also want to show people that having a disability makes you no less able – we can also push ourselves, and do crazy challenges if we put our mind to it.
“I really want to be able to actually walk away from the course feeling like I’ve accomplished what I wanted to do and I want to look back and think, wow, I did that, I’m proud of myself. I’ll be doing this for the people who have doubted me. I want prove to them that they can’t bring me down. I can fight my way to the end.”
Harry Clark
Former military man Harry was inspired by the SAS(Image: Channel 4)
Age: 24
Famous for: Winner of season two of Traitors
What they say about challenge: “Growing up, I’d watch people close to me be in the SAS, which always inspired me. This show was a different experience to what I had imagined but I always love a challenge and it proves you’re always learning new things about yourself.”
Hannah Spearritt
Singer Hannah wants to gain ‘strength’ from her experience
Age: 44
Famous for: S Club 7 star
What they say about challenge: “I hope to take out of this experience, strength. I want to feel stronger again, mentally and physically, because there’s always improvement there. There are always dips that happen along the way with motherhood or whatever but I think when you just experience different stuff, it changes you. I have no idea what to expect, but I do know it will be an experience and it’s something that I will have for life.
“However the experience goes, I am going to learn about myself. Maybe I’ll find out I am a bit of a mess or I might find out that I’m stronger than I think I am…it’s finding out things about yourself that you would never, ever find out. We live in this world where it’s so easy to live in our comfort zone, so this is an opportunity to get outside of that and…for me anyway, growth and expansion is one of the most important things, and that is something that hopefully I can pass on to my kids.”
Rebecca Loos
The show represents a TV comeback for Rebecca who did reality show The Farm in 2004(Image: Channel 4)
Age: 48
Famous for: Yoga teacher who had a rumoured fling with David Beckham
What they say about challenge: “I honestly don’t know whether I am mentally strong enough but one of the reasons I want to do this course is because I want to find out whether I’m able to stick it through mentally. I think it’s going to be really, really tough. This is by far the toughest thing I’ve ever done. But I want to do this course because it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to do an SAS training course. It’s going to be really interesting to see how far I can go and how strong I’m able to keep myself.”
Bimini
Bimini is hoping to prove they can do anything(Image: Channel 4)
Age:
Famous for: Drag queen and DJ
What they say about challenge: “I want to do this just to prove to myself that I’m capable of anything I put my mind to. I want to prove to myself that I can do it. No glam, no red carpets, no magazine covers. This is literally just going to be me to my core and I am excited about it but I don’t think the course is ready for Bimini.
“People in the UK love to debate gender like it’s a concept, not a lived experience. It gets reduced to headlines and toilet talk. I’m doing this to remind them that behind every opinion is a human being. The course, the SAS and the Army have got a very masculine stereotype and I’ve got both elements of masculine and feminine and that’s my superpower. Vulnerable, raw, and stronger than ever. This bleached rat tail is gonna f**k it up!”
Michaella McCollum
Michaella McCollum was one of the Peru Two(Image: Pete Dadds / Channel 4)
Age: 31
Famous for: One of the Peru Two drug mules
What they say about challenge: “The level of resilience I learned from being in prison in Peru and knowing how important that mindset is, will definitely help get me through the course, so I’m going to need to use my mental strength to help me along the way. In Peru, I was completely stripped back to the rawest version of myself…and I know in this course, it will have a similar effect. I will get to see the real me again and I want to challenge myself to see how capable I am. I don’t know if I’m physically fit enough to complete the course but I have good mental strength.”
What they say about challenge: “I hope I have the mental grit to get to the end of the course. I have been through quite a lot in my life, and I’ve done a lot of work to navigate what that left behind, and I really hope that I can apply it to the course, and make it all the way to the end.
“I’ve always wanted to do this course, and what I love about this course is the sheer pressure it puts on a human being, that you will just not get anywhere else in life. And I’ve had pressure, I’ve had so many forms of pressure, nothing like this, so I really just genuinely want to see how far my brain can go.”
Adam admits he loves a challenge(Image: Channel 4)
Age: 29
Famous for: Fitness coach and Love Islander
What they say about challenge: “Hopefully during the course, the DS will peel back a few layers because I’m stubborn as hell. And maybe I need to be broken down to then go and sort some stuff out.
“I’m doing it for the little boy who hated himself and couldn’t do anything and was the last to get picked in everything. And from an emotional point of view, I’m hoping that this spits out a better person.
“I love a challenge. And I really think this course is exactly what I want to really tap into my fitness, the mental strength, the resilience, and see if I’ve got the grit to finish and go all the way.”
Lady Leshurr
Lady Leshurr hopes to feel empowered(Image: Channel 4)
Age: 37
Famous for: Rapper
What they say about challenge: “I think this course is not only going to make me become the best version of myself, but it’s going to make me the strongest I’ve ever been. It’s going to make me realise so much about myself that I’ve kept in. It’s going to push, motivate and inspire me. It’s really going to make or break me. But regardless, it’s going to teach me a lesson about myself that I can definitely work on.”
“Doing this course is going to make me regain my strength, my understanding, who I am as a person and just unpack all the trauma that is on my chest…I’m hoping to leave this course feeling empowered, feeling the strongest I’ve ever felt, a beast. I want to walk into the gym the next day, like I own this place.”
Chloe Burrows
Chloe learnt a lot about herself(Image: Channel 4)
What they say about challenge: “On SAS: Who Dares Wins , everything is completely stripped back. You have absolutely nothing. And I want the course to kind of remind me of that, because I’ve got a bit lost in myself and the industry. I want to feel a little bit grounded. I want to get a sense of it. I want to push myself, and I want to get a sense of achievement. I want to feel proud of myself for whatever I put into it.
“I think the course is going to give me a bit of confidence. If I even achieve half of the course, then I can walk out and be like, yeah, guess what? I did that on my own. No makeup, no hot shower. I’m very capable…I would love to come out and just feel really pleased with myself and really confident in myself. I want to feel like I’ve tried my absolute hardest and that I had nothing left in the tank…I don’t want to leave half-heartedly. If I leave, it’s because I physically cannot do anymore, which is fair, but I just want to know that I’ve tried my hardest.”
* Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins can be streamed or watched live every Sunday and Monday from 9pm on Channel 4, starting on 3 August.
