'We Were Liars': Esther McGregor breaks down 'bravest' and 'difficult' scenes with Candice King, Emily Alyn Lind
The most popular show on Prime Video, We Were Liars, is bringing fans to tears with it's devastating and shocking finale. Starring Emily Alyn Lind, Mamie Gummer, Caitlin FitzGerald, Candice King, David Morse, Shubham Maheshwari, Esther McGregor, Joseph Zada and Rahul Kohli, the captivating drama has audiences hooked.
We Were Liars really leans into its most emotional moments, with the cast really taking on every twist, turn and wounding moment with conviction. One of those moments that really stands out is between Mirren (Esther McGregor) and her mother Bess (Candice King), after Bess finds out her daughter saw her affair with "Salty Dan," a harbour service worker, and shared that information with The Liars.
Specifically, Bess is angry her sister Penny (Caitlin Fitzgerald) has that information and is holding it over her head, preventing her from getting more money from her father to reconcile her debt.
In Episode 5 Bess confronts Mirren, destroying all of Mirren's beautiful art.
"You are not an artist. You are a dilettante and you're a child," Bess says.
"I'm your child," Esther says in response. "I didn't ask for you to waste your life on me. And neither did the twins. You chose to be a mother. ... It's not our fault that you decided to hate it."
"It was written very well, first of all, so it was easy to kind of get there," McGregor told Yahoo Canada. "I think that it is a lot of people's narratives to kind of feel shut out as a kid, especially if you've got a young mother, or whatever it is."
"I've not necessarily [had that] with my mother, but I've dealt with similar stuff in terms of ... not feeling like I have a place. And I think the courage it takes to say that is really big. ... When she hurts me, ... she hurts my art, and she hurts my art that I made because I was so happy with The Liars, and that was my safe place. And when that fractures, that's big enough to break me. I think Mirren tries to keep it together quite a lot, especially towards her mother. So that was something really interesting ... and I think it's one of her bravest moments in the series. So it's lovely to find that, but really heartbreaking too."
By the time we get to the last episode, we see a particularly close bond between Mirren and her cousin Cadence (Emily Alyn Lind), who's spent the season trying to figure out the circumstances of her injury during the summer of her 16th birthday.
The conversation in Episode 8 starts with Mirren telling Cadence she wishes she had been kinder to The Littles, but Cadence says Mirren shouldn't have regret, she should be "light as air." Then Mirren starts talking about how she always wanted to be "excellent" at everything, that both she, and her mother, never let themselves me "messy."
"I don't think anyone really saw me," Mirren says to Cadence as she starts sobbing. "And now no one ever will."
"No, look at me," Cadence says in response. "The Liars saw you Mirren. And I'll see you for the rest of my life."
"That moment, that's a difficult one," McGregor said. "It was interesting because that one was I think in the last week of us filming, I think we had like a few days left, so that goodbye felt very real and present."
"She was such a guiding light for me, quite motherly towards me, which is really what I needed. Like even if I had my stomach ache, she would set me up with some saltine crackers and my medication. Emily's a very thoughtful person that's very attentive, and I think that definitely blended into our characters and our togetherness."
But one satisfying part of the We Were Liars Season 1 ending is that Ed (Rahul Kohli) gets back together with Carrie (Mamie Gummer), after previously leaving following Ed's failed proposal.
While Ed and Gat's (Shubham Maheshwari) bond as outsiders to the Sinclairs was compelling to watch, it was also interesting to see how Ed is so important to Carrie's kids, Johnny (Joseph Zada) and Will (Brady Droulis), but is still on the outside of the larger Sinclair family.
"That dynamic, it's super relatable," Kohli said. "It's not too dissimilar to my current living circumstances."
"I am obviously British born and I live in America, I've been there for 10 years, and some of the people I call my family I still, even at Thanksgiving or across the table, still don't feel 100 per cent a part of that. It's just something that comes with being a fish out of water."
But in order for We Were Liars to bring the audience through the peaks and valleys in this thrilling story, the show needed directors who could take on the task. In this case, all five directors, Nzingha Stewart, Julie Plec, Tara Miele, So Yong Kim and Erica Dunton, brilliantly crafted their elements of this intertwining story.
"[Nzingha Stewart], who did the very first episode, she set the tone," David Morse, who plays Sinclair family patriarch Harris, said.
"She's really excellent with actors and taking time with us as we're discovering things. Especially in that first episode you feel so naked the first time you open your mouth as a character on that first day, and you'd like to know there's somebody there who's there to protect you and help you a little bit. And Nzingha was great with that. ... Towards the end, we had a really terrific director for those really challenging last two episodes. ... And I think we had the right directors at the right time."
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‘People Are Going To See Something They've Never Seen Before': How Pixar's Next Hit Film Was Made
Fans of laughing out loud one moment and crying into your popcorn bucket the next are in for a treat with Pixar's latest release. Elio is the newest offering from the award-winning animation studio, centring around a lonely boy who becomes obsessed with the idea of being abducted by aliens – and gets more than he bargained for when his dream comes true. As has come to be expected from the studio that gave us the likes of Inside Out, Coco and Toy Story 3, Elio dives into some pretty hefty themes, exploring everything from loneliness and grief to toxic masculinity, all with Pixar's signature sense of humour and adventure to keep younger viewers as gripped as everyone else in the cinema. In the lead-up to the film's release, we spoke to directors Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi about how sci-fi horror had a surprising influence on Elio, creating something people have 'never seen before' with their unique take on space and releasing an original film in the current sea of sequels and live-action remakes at Walt Disney Studios… Right at the beginning of the film, there's a key scene soundtracked by Talking Heads' Once In A Lifetime. Why was that song chosen, and how easy was it to get? Madeline Sharafian: That scene and that song were in the film from the beginning that Domee and I started. That montage of Elio going out to the beach every day, desperately trying to be abducted, was almost the way that we explored his character as we changed his motivations to wanting to be abducted by aliens. And I think the song was [Domee's] idea of just a way to showcase that he's stuck in this cycle, and he wants to get out. It was a great idea. Domee Shi: Yeah, I always loved that song, I always felt like David Byrne kind of gave off alien boy vibes as well. And the way that the song starts always sounded kind of synthy and celestial and spacey in some way. I felt like there was a connection between Byrne and Elio, and it felt like a cool needle drop choice to put in this montage where we're introduced to Elio's obsession with getting abducted, but being unable to, every single day that went by. MS: It helped a lot that Pete Docter and Jim Morris, our company leadership, really like that song. So I do think that kind of helped us hang onto it and get it for the final, and we're very grateful that we got to keep it. It adds so much to the scene. DS: There was one moment where we did try another song… MS: Oh god, yeah… DS: I was like, 'what about Beastie Boys' Intergalactic?'. And then we tried that for a minute and we were like, 'no, I think we miss Talking Heads', and we went back to that. And also I feel like I haven't really seen [Once In A Lifetime] used a lot in media, in like TV or movies, whereas Intergalactic is used quite a lot. I love that song, though! But yeah… Something else people are going to pick up on is Elio's eyepatch. It really works as a plot device later in the film, but was that always going to be there, or were other ideas explored? MS: It was always an eyepatch, I'm pretty sure. I mean, the eyepatch was there in Adrian Molina's original version [Coco writer and director Adrian Molina originally conceived the idea of Elio to helm the film himself, but left the project halfway through to focus on Coco 2, at which point Madeline and Domee took over as lead directors]. When we took the story, we loved [the eyepatch], just as a way that it supports Elio's feeling of otherness, when he's on Earth, he feels even more out of place. And when he goes to space, all of a sudden, he looks like a dashing space sci-fi captain with this cape and his eyepatch, and the aliens love it, it's like '[you have] one eye, [I have] one eye, this is amazing'. All of a sudden it's accepted and loved. DS: Yeah, it's been great seeing the response to Elio's eyepatch online and with audience members that have come up to us and thanked us for including a kid with an eyepatch – it is something that kids do deal with, and it makes them feel othered. And it sucks! To have a sci-fi hero in a Pixar movie sporting one and looking cool I think is very empowering. Let's talk about the look of the film – sci-fi is a huge genre and even within the Disney and Pixar canon, we've been to space a few times. How did you decide what your version of space was going to look like, and what was going to set the Elio universe apart? MS: Pixar has done two sci-fi movies already [2008's Wall-E and 2022's Lightyear] and Harley Jessup, our production designer, really wanted to shoot for a version that we've never seen. So, he knew that the Communiverse needed to be this sort of beautiful almost Utopia, that there would be aliens from all over the universe gathering there, and almost designed it, one of his very first pieces of production art that I saw that I fell in love with, it was kind of glittering in the sky, almost like a disco ball – the way the lights shimmer on it were like a disco ball. We ended up taking that and putting it in the [finished film], we were like, 'we need to hang onto that'. So, it's bright, it's colourful, it's also softer and round, which I do think is very different from other sci-fi movies. And everything – even the technology – feels very organic, and kind of squishy and alive, which I think gives it a very unique identity. DS: Yeah, all of it points to Elio just truly feeling like he belongs there, and that he doesn't want to leave when he first arrives. And I also love that Harley challenged our character designer to design non-humanoid-looking aliens, and kind of look at deep-sea, underwater creatures for reference. We went with designs that you couldn't possibly do with humans in a costume, right? MS: Yeah, because live-action, especially some of the classics are a little bit limited by that. Like, the alien in Alien is a guy. Really awesome, though, but we were like, 'we're in an animation, we can do whatever we want, so let's make sure that our aliens are taking advantage of what we can do'. Some parts of the film are quite intense and surprisingly quite scary – especially for a Disney film. Was there much pushback because of that? DS: I mean, we were excited to explore other aspects of the sci-fi genre that maybe you don't usually see in a Disney and Pixar movie. We're both sci-fi horror fans, and I think there's a good balance between scary and fun – like a fun scary. There's a sweet spot that you can hit, and we tried to do that with all the scenes with Elio's clone, really pushing the clone's friendliness, but also upping the weirdness and the horror surrounding him, from Olga's point of view where she's slowly realising, 'am I living with a clone?'... MS: …which is a pretty crazy realisation for her! Especially since she starts off the movie as a sceptic of aliens, she doesn't really believe that they're out there, so to take her to becoming a believer… we almost talked about her B-story as in, 'she's in a totally different kind of movie', she is in a pod person movie, and I thought it was fun that we treated her sections almost like a different genre, a little bit. DS: And you know… we'll fine-tune the execution of it, just to make sure that the music isn't too crazy and the sound effects don't give you too much of a heart attack and we release the tension immediately with a joke or a gag or something. But I don't know – I remember being a kid and loving movies like A Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline, where there is like a fun scare. I feel like the original Monsters Inc. taps into that a little bit, too. Elio is coming out at an interesting time for Walt Disney Studios, where there area lot of films coming up that are either sequels, live-action remakes and other ideas based on existing IP, so it's great to see an original story coming from the studio, too. Is that something that's important to you both as filmmakers? MS: Yeah! DS: Definitely. MS: And it's important to Pixar, too, I think. Even though we release our own sequels [Inside Out 2 was the biggest film of 2024, with follow-ups to Toy Story, Coco and The Incredibles currently in the works at the studio], we do talk a lot about how important originality is to us, just as a filmmaking culture, we have a lot of originals coming [Pixar's next release, Hoppers, is slated for 2026, followed by Gatto in 2027] and I would say, whether they're sequels or originals, we hold ourselves to the same standard for both. And our main goal is just to make incredible movies, and amazing stories. I love originals – but Toy Story 3 is one of my favourite movies that Pixar has ever made! So, as long as we're holding that standard of storytelling, hopefully we can make any kind of movie great. But it is exciting to have an original coming out. I think we're the only original [Disney film] coming out this summer, which is so wild [the studio also has sequels to Freaky Friday and Tron coming later in 2025, with live-action remakes of Snow White and Lilo & Stitch having also been released earlier in the year, while Marvel projects have included Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts* (which featured a main cast of existing characters) and the new reboot of The Fantastic Four]. I hope people enjoy [Elio] and they're going to see something they've never seen before – and that's really exciting, and worth seeing in a theatre. Elio is in cinemas now. Watch the trailer for yourself below: Lilo & Stitch Remake Director Addresses Backlash Over The New Film's Changed Ending 'Sobbing, Screaming, Traumatised': Frozen's Josh Gad Opens Up About Olaf's Axed Death Scene Snow White Remake Faces Yet More Criticism Over CGI Characters
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People Are Sharing The Not-So-Scary Movie Scenes That Absolutely Terrified Them As Kids, And I Guess We All Had The Same Childhood
When we watch movies as kids, sometimes the weirdest things scare scar us for life. On the popular r/AskReddit subreddit, u/GabeyTheArtist asked people to share an absolutely-not-scary movie scene that absolutely terrified you as a child. Some of the answers left me scratching my head (and remembering how messed up some of these movies were): 1."When the lights dimmed and the movie started, and the MGM lion roared, 4-year-old me screamed and crawled for my life over my father's shoulder and into the lap of the lady in the row behind us." —u/TurtleRockDuane 2."When Boo started crying in Monsters Inc. and the lights started flickering." —u/GreatXs 3."That scene in The Little Mermaid when King Triton discovers Ariel's collection of land junk, loses his sh*t and screams at her." —u/PigeonsInSpaaaaace 4."In Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird when they capture Big Bird, paint him blue, put him in the cage, and make him sing that sad song. Terrified me as a child. Still hate it." —u/Current-Slice9979 5."The nuclear bomb scene in The Terminator. Nightmares for weeks. I live in DC. Still live in fear that a bomb will vaporize us some day." —u/Asininephilosopher 6."For some strange reason, the heffalumps and woozles in the Winnie the Pooh movie terrified me as a kid. I can't remember anything about that movie or why I was so scared." —u/SadAioli3082 7."Jim Carrey's How the Grinch Stole Christmas, when he goes crazy in the mail room, wrapping up Cindy Lou Who." —u/bardcunninglinguist 8."In Ice Age: The Meltdown, when the iceberg slowly turns around to reveal the two water dinosaurs. I hid until I knew the next scene was playing, like the monster could see me." —u/AddictedtoSmirnoff 9."Aladdin, when he steps into the sand lion's mouth. I always had to cover my ears and my eyes." —u/Slowmotion_ii 10."The Fates in Disney's Hercules passing around (and at one point dropping) their shared eyeball." —u/Friendly_Coconut 11."The Bumble from Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer." —u/cjrjedi Related: "That Sentence Sat In My Head For Months": Men Are Revealing The Most Hurtful Things A Woman Can Say To Them, And It's Actually Fascinating 12."The end of the 'I Love To Laugh' scene in Mary Poppins, where the laughing people start to cry to get back to the ground. I thought crying was a horrible thing to show people doing." —u/Chafing_Dish 13."The furnace scene in Home Alone. I was constantly scared of the basement after that, and we didn't even have a furnace down there." —u/_spectre_ 14."The zombie in Hocus Pocus gave me nightmares for literally years." —u/PunkSpaceAutist 15."I have beef with Janice from The Muppets." —u/QuetousPatootous 16."I couldn't watch the Siamese cats song from Lady and the Tramp without losing my sh*t when I was a kid." —u/YawnfaceDM 17."In Pinocchio, when that one kid turned into a donkey." —u/Dangerous-Coach-1999 18."The pink elephants from Dumbo scared the absolute sh*t outta me as a child." —u/EspeonLeafeon77 Related: People Are Sharing How What Happened In Vegas Did NOT Stay In Vegas, And This Should Be A Lesson To Never Go To A Bachelor/Bachelorette Party There 19."In E.T., when E.T. screams, running through the forest." —u/oookaythen45 20."When E.T. gets all sick and white, and they put him in the bag. That frightened me for YEARS." —u/Loud-Lab8802 21."Everything in Mars Attacks! scared the living sh*t out of me as a kid, then I come to find it was a comedy." —u/SlumpDoc 22."I think when they went in the trippy tunnel in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate a kid, it scared the heck out of me." —u/Chris_Scagos 23."The scene of Augustus Gloop going up the pipe in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory." —u/the_ice_rasta 24."The witch's feet curling under the house that fell on her in The Wizard of Oz. It still seems scary." —u/Original-Ad5439 25."The flying monkey scene in The Wizard of Oz." —u/maler27 26."The Wheelers from Return to Oz." —u/8u2n0u7 27."'Be sure and tell 'em Large Marge sent ya!''" —u/Boring-Pudding 28."The skeksis from The Dark Crystal really did a number on me as a kid. They were terrifying." —u/maybetomorrow98 29."The Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!" —u/Healthy_Syllabub_765 30."When the mutant toys appear in Toy Story." —u/Paintguin 31."The waterfall scene in The Brave Little Toaster." —u/Accomplished_Emu_198 32."THAT Bilbo scene in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring." —u/aggressively-nice 33."The forest fire when Bambi's mother dies." —u/Johnrevolta 34."The opening scene of The Great Mouse Detective. When the dad gets kidnapped by the bat." —u/cattlol finally, "The CATERPILLAR in Alice in Wonderland. 'Whoooo are you?'" —u/Rogue-313 Also in Internet Finds: Holy Crap, I Can't Stop Laughing At These 28 Painfully Awkward And Embarrassing Conversations Also in Internet Finds: I Need To Call My Doc For A New Inhaler After Cackling So Hard At These 41 Funny Tweets From The Week Also in Internet Finds: Here Are 50 Pictures That Make Me Grin Uncontrollably No Matter How Many Times I've Seen Them, In Case You Need Them
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Caitlin Clark's Personal Decision Turns Heads Before Aces Game
Caitlin Clark's Personal Decision Turns Heads Before Aces Game originally appeared on Athlon Sports. Caitlin Clark had a disappointing performance in the Indiana Fever's 88-77 loss on Thursday to the Golden State Valkyries. Advertisement In her third game back from a quad injury, Clark had 11 points, nine assists and seven rebounds while shooting 3-for-14 from the field and recording six turnovers. "I'm not gonna play perfect for 44 games," the second-year guard conceded at Fever practice. "I didn't play very well at Golden State, and to me, I wasn't defeated after the game." In an attempt to turn things around ahead of a huge matchup with the Las Vegas Aces on Sunday, Clark made a noticeable change involving someone very close to her. Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22).© Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images In practice photos posted to Instagram by the Fever, fans noticed that Clark had changed shoes after Thursday's loss. Advertisement She was photographed wearing her custom Nike Kobe 6 Protro shoes featuring her dog, Bella, that she debuted in her comeback from injury against the New York Liberty on June 14. "Bella is coming back for round 2," said a popular comment on the team's Instagram post. "the bellas!" another exclaimed. "CC needs to retire the shoes she wore in San Francisco," added one fan. "The bellas 😍" said a comment. "I kinda think The Bellas are the official 22 lucky shoe," one reply said. "Bring back the Bella's tmrw," urged another fan. The shoes feature a printed image of the Clarks' family dog, a golden retriever. She joked with the media that her teammates thought Nike used a stock photo, but it was a real image of her beloved dog on the insole. The shoe's tongue is pink to match. Advertisement Clark put up a monster game in the "Bellas" with 32 points, nine assists and eight rebounds on national television as the Fever handed the Liberty a 102-88 loss, their first of the season. She did not wear them against the Connecticut Sun or the Valkyries this week. Whether or not she goes with them on Sunday against the Aces, fans were excited to see the personal touch return to the court with the Fever star. Related: WNBA Veteran Sends Clear Message on Caitlin Clark Incident Related: WNBA Fans Refuse To Accept Truth About Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 22, 2025, where it first appeared.
