Latest news with #WhatWeDointheShadows'
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How the longtime ‘Severance' cinematographer wound up directing Season 2's standout episode
As Severance has refined its wintry, corporate aesthetic over the course of two seasons, one woman in particular has been central to crafting the show's look. Jessica Lee Gagné has worked as cinematographer on most of the show's episodes so far, continuing her collaboration with director Ben Stiller from the 2018 miniseries Escape at Dannemora. Mark Chernus, who plays Ricken on Severance, recently told Gold Derby of Gagné that 'her eye, her lens, is the look of the show.' But towards the end of the most recent season, Gagné finally made her directorial debut — and created one of the show's standout episodes in the process. 'I definitely had a lot of doubts going into it. I've doubted myself for a long time,' Gagné tells Gold Derby of taking the step towards directing. 'But then it seemed so obvious that this episode was meant for me to direct, just because of the themes and the possibility of style and language that it could have, and also what the writer wanted from it. So I was like, 'Well, if anyone's going to do this, I have to do it.'' More from GoldDerby Justine Lupe on the unexpected chemistries that power Netflix's 'Nobody Wants This' 'What We Do in the Shadows' cast on alternate series finale endings and the parody that didn't work Catalina Sandino Moreno on 'From' fan theories: 'Whenever you think that you're in the right lane, you're not' 'Chikhai Bardo,' the seventh episode of Season 2, breaks from Severance's usual format by focusing on the character of Gemma (Dichen Lachman). Gemma's shadow looms large over the show, since her supposed 'death' is the reason that Mark Scout (Adam Scott) volunteered for a job on the severed floor of Lumon Industries in the first place. Back in Season 1, viewers met her own Lumon 'innie' persona, Ms. Casey. But 'Chikhai Bardo' actually introduced everyone to Gemma herself for the first time, both in flashbacks to her relationship with Mark before her disappearance and in present-day scenes showing her being experimented upon as a prisoner on Lumon's testing floor. Through the flashbacks, viewers see how Gemma's struggles with getting pregnant pushed her towards Lumon (who apparently own and operate fertility clinics among their many mysterious business holdings). Gagné felt a strong connection to this material. 'I feel like one thing that helped me direct and work with actors in this capacity for the first time is my own life experience with my career and how I've gotten where I've gotten,' Gagné says. 'I got to have access to amazing projects at quite a young age. I really lost myself within my work for a long time. So going into my 30s, I went through a big questioning phase of, 'OK, I need to find my partner, freeze my eggs, do all of these things … or did I miss out on that part of life?'' Gagné adds, 'I felt like those everyday moments, those everyday conversations, are things that I've felt and lived. So it hit really close to home in that sense.' Bringing this perspective to the director's chair was a big help to Lachman, who in addition to portraying Gemma's fertility struggles also had to do something that no other Severance actor has had to do yet: Portray multiple 'innies.' 'When I found out she was directing that episode, I was very excited,' Lachman says. 'I think she's an extraordinary talent, and I love her vision. I love her creativity, and I love how flexible she is in terms of doing whatever she has to do to capture the moment. And I thought it was really nice to have a female director for that episode.' Most Lumon employees have two personas: The 'outie' that exists outside of work, and the 'innie' they become when they take the elevator to their office on the severed floor. But on the testing floor, Gemma becomes a different 'innie' with every room she enters. This revelation has greatly expanded the possibilities of what can happen within the world of Severance. 'I was terrified because it's an expansion of the idea. It's a new iteration of the concept of the show. And I was like, 'Can the show sustain this?'' Severance creator Dan Erickson tells Gold Derby. 'I love the idea in my head, but you always wonder, 'Is it going to play? Is it going to come across?' What I knew we had was this amazing secret weapon in Dichen. Not that she was a secret, but I knew that she was going to be able to play each of these versions of the character so strangely and tenderly and differently, and she just knocked it out of the park. She nailed it. And then of course Jessica Lee Gagné, who directed that episode, is one of the most brilliant people on the planet. Even with all of us knowing how good she was, she managed to surpass those expectations.' Each of the rooms Gemma is forced into seemingly represent a different unpleasant life experience. One of her 'innies' only goes through dentist appointments, for example, while another has to endlessly write out Christmas thank-you cards. Making all of these selves feel real with limited screentime was the episode's main challenge for both Lachman and Gagné — but thankfully they both made each other feel comfortable in their collaboration. 'Dichen's openness to exploration on set and trying different things made it a lot easier for me, working with actors like this for the first time. She wasn't afraid of doing anything or trying anything. There were some moments that we were just exploring and trying stuff,' Gagné says. 'Like I said, I have a lot of personal experience with these kinds of themes. So I just wanted to really anchor them in reality with her as much as possible. So we had lots of conversations, personal conversations, to see what we could touch on. This very female way of hiding parts of ourselves and not fully showing what we feel in order to put other people first, was always a thing we'd come back to. We had many conversations and we moved through it together.' Gagné didn't make things easy for herself. In addition to directing 'Chikhai Bardo,' she still worked as cinematographer on five other episodes in Season 2. But she thinks this amount of work made it easier for her to push through without getting caught up in her own doubts. 'I think that's what really pushed me through. I would be shooting Episode 10 and then prepping Episode 7 at the same time. It was like I had two or three full-time jobs. I lived and breathed Severance for sure. The main difference between cinematographer and director, Gagné found, is how many more questions you have to answer as the latter. 'The prep work is much more laborious and you are answering 3 million questions. I wasn't used to that as a cinematographer,' she says. 'As a DP I'm very involved in terms of set design and these kinds of things, I'm that kind of cinematographer who really gets in there, but I don't get to take over any of the smaller details. So for me, those meetings with the props department and the costume department, when we were researching all of these new things, that was just joy. I was like a kid in the candy store. To get to direct for the first time on Severance was a pretty luxurious first-time directing experience, and I felt like I needed to live up to it. So I gave it everything I had.' The results of her hard work speak for themselves; the episode astounded viewers and set pieces in place for the epic season finale. Not everyone was surprised by this. 'That was not surprising to me because we've been working together for a while and I know how talented she is,' Stiller tells Gold Derby. 'I thought it was really important that that episode had a female point of view. Jessica is just so talented and really is interested thematically in a lot of the ideas that are in that episode, in terms of how we connect with each other, and how people who have some sort of spiritual connection are linked in different ways. What she did with it visually was just so impressive. It's great to watch her do her thing.' Now that Gagné has gone from cinematographer to director, she's ready to start working on her first feature film. She 'leaves some really big shoes to fill' as Severance's go-to DP, according to Patricia Arquette, but also everyone's excited to see what Gagné does next. 'When you're putting your name on something like that and saying that you approved it, you have to be quite vulnerable. You're opening yourself up to criticism, and I have to admit, I was really afraid of that,' she says. 'But after seeing that it went so well, I think I needed that to help push me forward in the rest of my career.' Gagné isn't yet ready to share many details about her plans, but says, 'We're in the beginning stages, but I'm giving it my heart. It's going to be a personal one, and it's very different from Severance.' Best of GoldDerby Chloë Sevigny on Kitty Menendez and 'Monsters' fascination: 'People are endlessly curious about those who have privilege and abuse it' Jason Isaacs relives filming 'The White Lotus' piña colada scene: 'It was one of the reasons I was worried about taking the job' Kaitlyn Dever on playing 'horrible' characters in 'Last of Us', 'Apple Cider Vinegar': 'I just don't see any other option but to give 100 percent' Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Justine Lupe on the unexpected chemistries that power Netflix's ‘Nobody Wants This'
For any good rom-com, chemistry is key, as Netflix's smash hit series Nobody Wants This so delightfully demonstrates. But it isn't just the romantic relationship between leading love interests Joanne (Kristin Bell) and Noah (Adam Brody) that gives the show its spark: The crackling repartee between sisters and podcasting partners Joanne and Morgan (Justine Lupe) — calling each other out with affection, mostly — proved just as crucial to the show's appeal, and that special alchemy was almost instantaneous. "I've got to be honest: I feel like it happened pretty quickly!" Lupe told Gold Derby at a recent FYC event for the series at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, where she and castmates Bell, Brody, Timothy Simons and Jackie Tohn joined series creator Erin Foster and her sister Sara Foster, also a producer on the show, to record an episode of their own real-life podcast. More from GoldDerby 'Wicked: For Good' trailer teases more monkeys, a wedding, and Dorothy Walton Goggins and Aimee Lou Wood: The debunked 'White Lotus' feud explained 'What We Do in the Shadows' cast on alternate series finale endings and the parody that didn't work "I think Kristen's such an incredible actress, and I kind of just made it my mission: If I focused on her, if I put my attention on her, that everything would kind of fall into place and that it would be easeful and that the chemistry would just be there," said Lupe. "Because she's such an open person, and I know myself and I'm a really open person, so the dialogue was there, the script was in place and the direction was there. So I think just us being present with each other kind of did enough that there was some good chemistry from the very beginning."Lupe also found fertile opportunities to create an unpredictably off-kilter bond — part feud and part fondness — between Morgan and Noah's unfiltered, often socially maladroit brother Sasha, played by Simons; though Sasha is devoted to his domineering wife Esther (Tohn), viewers were left wondering if the pair's chemistry might percolate into something… more. "You'll have to see what happens this [coming] season in terms of our dynamic, but I think last season we kind of were kept in the dark about what exactly was going on between them," Lupe teased while describing how she and Simons came at crafting their banter. "We wanted to play the kind of magnetism that was there and the chemistry was there and the attraction that was there without kind of veering it too far into a necessarily romantic attraction," she revealed. "And so living in that gray space was really interesting for both of us, especially because as an adult you really do understand what that dynamic is when you have your own kind of life and your own relationships, but you meet someone later on that brings out a different energy in you." Lupe pointed out the sparks that fly between several of the show's characters, romantically entangled and otherwise, as the show both leans into and upends romantic comedy traditions. "There's just incredible chemistry and I think that's a big part of every good rom-com," she said. "I like that they're doing something a little bit different, coming into the romance at a different time than we normally see people coming into a romantic relationship in their lives. I like that these people are in their late thirties and they're finding each other when they're more evolved and they know themselves really well, and yet there's still a lot to learn about each other and themselves and a lot of growing to do." Erin Foster told Gold Derby that she knows that as the show heads into its second season there's an inherent challenge in adapting the established rom-com formula into a long-form streaming series, finding a steady stream of fresh and believable obstacles to challenge Joanne and Noah's relationship, but "the best way to do it is the real-life small challenges." "The first year of a relationship is all the tricky stuff of how you merge your friends and what the day-to-day looks like and how you see the next five years," she said. "To me that's the easier way to create challenges instead of the big formulaic stuff. It's really like the small stuff." "I think that's why Erin, her writing resonates so much with people, because she writes complicated, messy real-life stories" added Sara Foster. "Real-life relationships are not simple. They're multifaceted. They take a long time to get to where you kind of want to go, and so there's a lot to cover." "There's a lot of small stuff!" the sisters said in unison. Season 2 of Nobody Wants This will premiere Oct. 23. Best of GoldDerby Chloë Sevigny on Kitty Menendez and 'Monsters' fascination: 'People are endlessly curious about those who have privilege and abuse it' Jason Isaacs relives filming 'The White Lotus' piña colada scene: 'It was one of the reasons I was worried about taking the job' Kaitlyn Dever on playing 'horrible' characters in 'Last of Us', 'Apple Cider Vinegar': 'I just don't see any other option but to give 100 percent' Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Walton Goggins and Aimee Lou Wood: The debunked ‘White Lotus' feud explained
"There is no feud." The words—a quote from The White Lotus star Walton Goggins—that top Variety's joint interview with him and his costar Aimee Lou Wood are very direct. They seek to bring to a close a sort of Schrödinger's drama around the third season of Mike White's resort-based anthology. Internet sleuths were convinced that the on-screen couple was feuding, despite no direct evidence existing and both sides denying the rumors. But if they hadn't had a falling out, then why did they unfollow each other on Instagram? Doesn't that have to mean something? More from GoldDerby 'Wicked: For Good' trailer teases more monkeys, a wedding, and Dorothy Justine Lupe on the unexpected chemistries that power Netflix's 'Nobody Wants This' 'What We Do in the Shadows' cast on alternate series finale endings and the parody that didn't work Just as Emmys season is kicking into full-swing, a joint interview puts the whole matter to bed. So what was this all about? What—if anything—actually happened? Why did anyone care? That last one might be too big of a question to answer in this article, but here's everything else you need to know about Goggins, Wood, and the story surrounding them. The backstory Viewers of the Thailand-based third season of The White Lotus watched as the star-crossed, age-gapped tragic lovers Rick and Chelsea marched toward doom together in a beautiful resort. Everything appeared to be just as loving off-camera, where they had the kind of relationship that involved Goggins posting things like "You are the brightest light in every room. A Human's Human. Miss you," on Wood's Instagram. But in the months that followed, something changed. Specifically, both of their Following lists. Internet sleuths realized that Goggins and Wood had mutually unfollowed each other on the platform and left it to everyone who cared to connect the dots. And, of course, no one was chill about it. The foundation of the rumor seems to have come from context-free quotes their costar Jason Isaacs gave to The Guardian during a preview piece for the season. "There were alliances that formed and broke, romances that formed and broke, friendships that formed and broke," he said. "It's a long period of time for people to be away from their family with an open bar and all the wildness being in Thailand allows." Talking around it The first big refutation of the rumor came from Goggins. But it wasn't an outright denial and mainly added fuel to the fire. While speaking with The Times, the actor seemed to get frustrated by questions about the potential feud, but that could have been due to the interview being pegged to an entirely different project. "I'm not gonna have that conversation," he said, before later adding, "There is no conversation to be had about that." A few days after that story was published, both Goggins and Wood attended the Met Gala, but were not photographed together. Fielding a question about whether she would stop by her costar's upcoming Saturday Night Live hosting gig, Wood—who had weeks before been mocked on the show—responded "I'm not doing that," then added "Yeah, why not? Why not? Yeah, it would be fun." The interview The cover story dates the interview to the first weekend in May, which winds back the clock a bit for those timestamping the drama. The meet-up was their first in months and was, from the trade's account, quite emotional. "Visibly emotional seeing each other, the two embraced for 30 seconds as the Variety team suddenly felt we were intruding on a private moment." The interview with The Times had come out just days before the Variety interview and was fresh in Goggins' mind. He spoke directly to the rumors. "There is no feud," he said, at one point getting choked up. "I adore, I love this woman madly, and she is so important to me. This is Goldie Hawn. This is Meg Ryan. She can do anything, and she will. You watch what the next 20 years of her experience will be. I'll be on an island, I think Greece. But she's special. There is no feud. She is love and I know that I am that to her. We care about each other very deeply." Wood took a broader view of the controversy, saying that it was indicative of where we are culturally. "Why is everyone obsessing over Instagram?" she said. "That is irrelevant. We don't give a sh-te about Instagram. Why not have conversations about the story and Rick and Chelsea and enjoy it?... Eventually I just started to sit back and watch these people making something out of absolutely nothing." Best of GoldDerby Chloë Sevigny on Kitty Menendez and 'Monsters' fascination: 'People are endlessly curious about those who have privilege and abuse it' Jason Isaacs relives filming 'The White Lotus' piña colada scene: 'It was one of the reasons I was worried about taking the job' Kaitlyn Dever on playing 'horrible' characters in 'Last of Us', 'Apple Cider Vinegar': 'I just don't see any other option but to give 100 percent' Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Wicked: For Good' trailer teases more monkeys, a wedding, and Dorothy
"Elphaba, they're coming for you." And now we're finally getting to see what that looks like. More from GoldDerby Walton Goggins and Aimee Lou Wood: The debunked 'White Lotus' feud explained Justine Lupe on the unexpected chemistries that power Netflix's 'Nobody Wants This' 'What We Do in the Shadows' cast on alternate series finale endings and the parody that didn't work Universal just released the trailer for Wicked: For Good, which will hit theaters November 21 — and Cynthia Erivo's Elphaba and Ariana Grande's Glinda are back in perfect pitch, along with Michelle Yeoh (Madame Morrible), Jeff Goldblum (the Wizard), Jonathan Bailey (Fiyero) — and a barrel of flying monkeys. The trailer also reveals a sneak peek of Dorothy and her friends, including the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and, of course, Toto. The film is directed by Jon M. Chu and is written by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox. The first Wicked film, which collected $750 million at the box office, earned 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Lead Actress for Erivo, Supporting Actress for Grande, Costume Design, Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Production Design, Original Score, Sound, and Visual Effects — and won for costume design and production design. Watch the trailer below: Best of GoldDerby Wes Anderson movies: All 12 films ranked worst to best Liam Neeson movies: 12 greatest films ranked worst to best Paul Giamatti movies: 16 greatest films ranked worst to best Click here to read the full article.
Los Angeles Times
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Saying goodbye to ‘What We Do in the Shadows': an oral history
'What We Do in the Shadows' was an unlikely success story. Rising from the coffin of a hilarious but obscure mockumentary feature about four sort-of loser vampire housemates in suburban New Zealand, the FX sitcom shifted the action to Staten Island and cast its undead ensemble as blithely murderous, petty, pansexual and often dim-witted. The result: critical acclaim and three Emmy nominations for comedy series. Now, having driven a stake through the series' heart, showrunner Paul Simms and the main ensemble — Matt Berry (Laszlo Cravensworth), Natasia Demetriou (Nadja of Antipaxos), Kayvan Novak (Nandor the Relentless), Mark Proksch (Colin Robinson, energy vampire) and Harvey Guillén (Nandor's human familiar, Guillermo) — chatted about the series' sixth and final season and the bloody, wild ride that was. Was it surprising the TV Academy would embrace a series this offbeat? Paul Simms: Going into it, I was, like, this seems really fun but not the kind of show that's ever going to get nominated for anything. The PR people get mad at me when I say that the show is stupid, but it's stupid in the best way. When we first got some Emmy nominations, that was a real surprise. I wouldn't call it stupid. I'd say it celebrates stupidity. Simms: Yes, there! That's what I should have been saying all these years. And the actors fully committed to being really stupid characters. They made incredibly bad decisions all the time, despite having hundreds of years to figure everything out. They're like the rest of us. No matter how much time you have to figure it out, you never really do. Matt Berry: It was a surprise when it cut through, but I always felt like it was a decent show. Natasia Demetriou: There were endless moments during filming where we'd look at each other like, 'I will never again be in a big-box store at 4 a.m. watching a fake Doug Jones puppet be wheeled along in a Barbie car —' Berry: '— a candle attached to its head —' Demetriou: '— and I'm dressed as a mad vampire.' Simms: It felt like what you imagined show business was going to be when you're a little kid, where someone's dressed as a monster and you're about to have a big explosion and someone fly by wires over a house, and you see a little half-Guillermo, half-sheep hybrid creature smoking a cigarette between scenes. Mark Proksch: I think a lot of TV comedy, especially these days, insults the audience by having to overexplain who each character is and why that joke is funny, and 'Shadows' never did that. Harvey Guillén: I think we were recognized for everything except the acting. If I got the nomination, it would make history as … the first queer Latino to be nominated [for] supporting role for comedy. Last year was the first year Matt got nominated, and we were ecstatic. Kayvan Novak: I wasn't ecstatic; I was furious. [Laughs] Had to ruin my f— day. Nominate my fellow actor for a best actor Emmy. I mean, Jesus Christ. Ecstatic! [Laughs] Guillén: We're still surprised if we get [acting] nominations. Novak: We had fun at the Emmys. We sat there saying, 'Please don't win. Please don't win.' [Berry did not win.] So that was a plus. We're all still on an even keel. We've all still won f— all. Will we ever see a 'Shadows' blooper reel? Simms: We really don't have many bloopers because of the way we shot, that fake-documentary style. You can be on camera at any moment, so people would absolutely stay in character through anything that happened. Demetriou: It's because we're such professional and incredible actors. That's my answer for that. Proksch: The only time we would laugh at each other is when the other person would screw up so the scene was already ruined. Demetriou: There was a lot of coughing over people's lines or saying someone's line — Kayvan would often come up with a one-liner he thought was zingy and once he'd done it a couple of times, people would start saying it before he could say it. [Laughs] 'Oh, I've got a really good one!' 'What is it?' And he'd tell us, then Matt would say it. [Suddenly reproachful] There was a lot of that nasty, nasty sort of behavior. Berry: I did that to him quite a few times, and he always took that like a gentleman. Guillén: Kayvan is the funniest person I've ever met and literally the only person who makes me break on set. I'm really a stickler, but he would be [singing in bombastic pop-crooner style] 'The Greatest Actor in the World!' [laughs] — he would sing that, and that alone would make me break. What was your favorite episode? Simms: I loved Jackie Daytona ['On the Run'] and the way we follow one character and it turns into a completely different documentary that's almost like 'Harlan County, USA' or something. Sarah Naftalis wrote one about them going to the casino, going to Atlantic City, that was one of my favorites. Berry: Mine would be a season. I think we reached our zenith in Season 4. When you look back at Season 4, it's like a greatest hits. There's just so many great episodes there. So that would be my choice. Proksch: The dinner party episode with Tash [Demetriou], the last season, we had so much fun doing that one. Matt and I got to work a lot together [largely because of a bizarre plot in which Colin is reborn as a baby vampire and Laszlo raises him]; that was always fun because our characters were so different from each other, yet there was some sort of connection, whether they would admit it or not. Demetriou: I would definitely agree with Matt; I thought Season 4 was so fun. I got to have a nightclub, seeing all the vampires in the nightclub, turning the nightclub into a wedding — that was such a spectacle and so funny and stupid. The short-lived Colin-as-a-teenager was unbelievable. And I loved the singing episode where Colin managed me and Matt, and we were the human music group. Novak: 'The Casino' is my favorite episode. I'd say any scene with Harvey, really. They always surprised me because it was always quite emotional and intense and really rewarding. Harvey's such a great actor, I always felt like, 'Got to be good in this one.' Guillén: We really had a great time when Mark Hamill joined us [in 'On the Run'], and Haley Joel Osment. Haley was really a trouper. Mark Hamill's kids got him into the show, and he tweeted about how loves the show; Kayvan and Mark were really big 'Star Wars' fans. The characters were actual monsters … who were petty and foolish yet somehow relatable. Novak: The fact that this group of degenerates, these bloodsucking, mass-murdering vampires and wannabe vampires, [could be] so lovable is amazing. It transcended all normal rules of engagement. There's no virtue signaling going on. Demetriou: It's rare and refreshing to be able to play a bunch of a— because, let's face it, we are all a—. We're all fools. It was very fun and liberating to play people who know that they're evil, and I think that's endlessly funny, and that violence, timed right, can be hilarious. There was an episode that we did this fake home improvement show, and these two really happy, chipper guys, the Sklar Brothers, are presenting, and they walk through the door like, 'Welcome!' and within seconds, I kill one of them. That made me laugh so much. And … dead. Berry: We didn't apply any caution. I think once you start doing that, you have a lot less colors to play with. And because these were vampires … the comedy could be as free and as filthy as you wanted because these people didn't have to adhere to [morality] because they weren't from the here and now. You cheated death in the finale, with three different endings, including that 'Newhart' reference. Simms: Bob Newhart was my favorite comedian of all time. He said [in Parade magazine] that he and his wife watched 'What We Do in the Shadows.' I was very excited. Guillén: I loved our 'Newhart' ending … in a weird way, [Guillermo and Nandor] ended up together. Novak: I think it satisfied a lot of the 'Nandermo' fans, even though they didn't get to see a full-on sex scene. A lot of the fan art used to be them kissing and fondling each other in Nandor's room. Now it's them kissing and fondling each other whilst fighting crime. They captured a lot of hearts, those two. Demetriou: I was sobbing for most of those [alternate endings] because we filmed that episode last … us singing 'We'll Meet Again' around the piano. Novak: We became a big happy family and that was very wonderful to experience. We laughed a lot, man. A lot. Demetriou: My dad has dementia and he still remembers the show. He wears my Nadja T-shirt all the time and doesn't really know what it is anymore, but to me that's the most special thing in the world, that he absolutely loved it and thought it was hilarious. Guillén: I want to say thank you to the fans for watching all these years and making us feel so loved. Novak: And thank you, FX, for picking up the tab.
