#and with ryan murphy's history. well.

[epiaphany]

:)

[cjlouwho]

I 100% agree with you that that was lazy writing. What was the point of deliberately picking someone the audience (and the 118) were familiar with to be Buck's LI when they could have picked some random. What was the point in delving into Tommy's history and his feelings, what was the point of showing him head over heels for Buck in the last ep, of getting a gift for their 6 month anniversary only to say "oh well, I figured we wouldn't last, so I'm gonna get out now before you break my heart". Why let him get that involved if Tommy's ideology was to never allow himself to move forward in the relationship because ultimately he thought it wouldn't last? It's whiplash for the audience after you saw how INVESTED Tommy was in the last ep! And how exactly is this Buck getting off the hamster wheel? This relationship has ended pretty much exactly like all his others - he gets invested, they leave! They had so much potential as a couple - seeing what it's like for two fire-fighters to date knowing they're both in risky jobs, maybe Buck having to meet/deal with Tommy's homophobic father, getting to explore a "new" character's back story instead of rehashing the same story lines from the mains as well as seeing more of how Buck deals with being in a same sex relationship. All wasted.

And since they referenced Glee, if the plan is for it to echo the Kurt/Blaine relationship in that show where they broke up so they could "explore" before getting back together, by doing so they ruined that relationship so much that by the end it wasn't satisfying that they WERE endgame - they weren't the couple we fell in love with. (And also, way to reinforce the negative stereotype of "you can't ever be long term with your first". I should let my sister, my cousin and my aunt know even though they've all been married for years to their husbands - all their first.) Even if they do decide to bring Tommy back down the line, would it even be the same relationship we fell in love with? Would we even trust the writers to stick with it and treat it well? Or if they did a final episode reunion so Buck doesn't end the series alone, how is that satisfying for the audience?

I have been watching 911 since it started, and I have always been part of the general audience up until S7 where I joined the fandom because I thought Buck/Tommy were adorable. It's the first time in years I've become invested in a couple on a show. It's the first time in years that I've dipped my toes back into a fandom. Like you, this ship inspired me to write fic again. I have a bunch of wip's waiting to be posted on ao3 and I honestly don't know if I'll finish them now. And if they have broken them up for Buddie to get together I think I'll stop watching. And not just because I never saw them as a romantic couple (I only ever saw a deep friendship) but because logistically I don't see it working. Besides the fact that I think that while they work as friends, they probably wouldn't gel as a couple, two people on the same team in a relationship? That will screw up the 118 dynamic, especially as this show looooves relationship drama. If they get in a fight, or worse, break up, then what? How would that work within the 118, unless someone transfers out, but then it's bye bye the 118 we love. And not to mention, in the only 4 months I have been in this fandom I have seen some VILE crap from the buddies, and from what I understand it they've been like that for years. And the show runners know about it, so if they go with Buddie, congratulations, you've rewarded toxic behaviour and given them a license to be worse (look at them already, going in the bucktommy tags and gloating).

I told myself after Glee ended and they royally screwed everything up that I wouldn't watch another Ryan Murphy show because he has a history of doing that sort of thing. When 911 came along I was cautious, but it looked like it would be different - more grown up if you will, especially since Ryan Murphy hasn't really been involved since season 1. I should have just gone with my gut. I just hope that, knowing these last two eps were filmed weeks before they aired, the showrunners see how popular they were and realise crap, we've made a BIG mistake. (Everyone should flood instagram and especially Facebook, whoch is more GA than most social media platforms, with RESPECTFUL comments about how devastated they are, and who knows, it might make them consider bringing Tommy back sometime in 8b - I believe they're still writing the back half of the season.)

Side note, I feel really sorry for Lou. Yeah he's going back to SWAT, and I love him in that (even though his character can be a dick sometimes) but he's said in interviews how he's tired of always being cast as "the muscle" due to his size and he seemed genuinely happy to get this role, which was exactly what he was looking for - the sweet, caring, romantic love interest role where he could show some depth, and they screwed him over (sounds like he even thought Buck and Tommy were doing well and wasn't expecting the break up until the end).

(Apologies for the long rant. But what you've been saying really resonated with me and I needed to share your sentiments.)

.

[waywardmillennial]

Puppet History Trailer Breakdown

The PH season seven trailer dropped on Watcher TV today and I'm going to try to break it down New Rockstars style - so settle in because this is a long one!

disclaimer: I am an oxymoron of a human who notices lots of details and misses other clues - so I might not have caught everything but I tried!

[s7 trailer easter eggs and spoiler-y thoughts under the cut]

The trailer opens with the Professor looking at the billboard for Phorgedytol, the tagline of which reads "(something) WITH YOUR BRAIN"

[note: this is different to the Phorgedytol billboard we see at the end of the trailer that reads "FRENCH THE VOID!"]

the first shot of Ryan in the trailer is from the episode with Aria Inthavong

behind them on the bookshelf you can see what I think is a brachiosaurus (from the late Jurassic era), a pair of alpacas, and the Genie lamp very prominently displayed!

then we cut to this interaction Ryan: How long has it been since we've been in class? to which the Professor gives a very non-committal "Uhhhh...."

[Interesting, no? Possible side-effect of the Professor taking Phorgedytol maybe?]

then we cut to guest Alex Song-Xia with a possibly foreboding comment

[this probably has no lore implications but I like that there's a framed copy of this photo that Ryan tweeted in 2021 on the set]

the trailer continues with the Professor talking to the guests

then the trailer cuts to what could be a major lore drop with Ryan saying, "You keep my wife's name out of your god damn mouth!" as he marches to the theater to slap the Professor

[notice how this is in black and white -that's the trailer edit not mine- so perhaps this is a flashback of some kind? Maybe to something that happened to make the Professor want to take Phorgedytol?]

Remember in s6 Ryan and the Professor were friends (see: the JC Penney photoshoot) so seeing a moment like this in the trailer is, for lack of a better phrase, a slap in the face

Based on what all the guests are wearing in the trailer it looks like The Slap will happen in Claudia's episode, based on the shot right before Ryan gets out of the chair (their reaction face is gorgeous btw)

we get a great out of context line from Sara Rubin

and the Professor talking about his anatomy with Brennan

Then the Lore Drop Hits

[yeah the rest of this was just a drop in the bucket in this trailer tbh]

The cuts happen fairly fast with overlapping VO - I posted most of the main shots earlier and there are some shots of the history skits that I skipped to focus on the Lore. These shots also have some alt descriptions in this post of things I noticed on the rewatch

VO Script Mysterious Puppet: No, you louse. You sops. You absolute men. Ryan: Well, this is collusion. They clearly- Professor: That's not collusion. Ryan: It's collusion! You guys fucking figured it out before this. Brennan: Just get on his wavelength, man. Professor: Get on my level! Ryan: You're just not ready for the truth!

[First reactions: The Professor is wearing a party hat for a lot of this trailer, and so is the new puppet. So they must have been at the same party. Also, the Professor is standing in front of a sign that reads "Six Nasty Seasons" even though this is the trailer for season seven. Is that from the season six wrap party? Could it also point to Phorgedytol symptoms that we're 'missing' a season?

The horse puppet looking through the door has a moustache, so is very likely not Dorothy Ruth or Stanley Melvin Murphy. Maybe DR's fiancé? This same moustachio'd horse is in the pasta scene

Hard to say which horse is walking towards The Brown Derby but fun to note that was a real chain of restaurants in LA starting in 1926]

Then the Professor meets with the new Shane character - shall we call them Patch for now?

and that's the trailer in a nutshell!

*Roll End Credits*

Other reactions:

Delighted that we get canon confirmation that the Professor goes by Connie McNasty, at least some of the time

Love that Joyce and Garrett are back this season!

The noir, old Hollywood vibes of this trailer are gorgeous and overall it looks really well-made!

I hope we get some explanation for the slap that's not Ryan and the Professor becoming enemies again

the Liza Minelli* of it all

Not too sure on many theories at this point, but I'm sure it's going to be a great (but maybe nail-biting) season!

[jgroffdaily]

Excerpts:

For two seasons and a TV movie, creator Michael Lannan and director Andrew Haigh (who was just coming off his breakthrough film Weekend and was years away from the award-winning 45 Years and All of Us Strangers) led the show’s cast and crew in crafting a new kind of gay TV show—raw, relaxed, character-driven and intimate. It didn’t fully work—in the end, Looking was cancelled due to low ratings—but a decade away from the show’s premiere, it’s clear that the show’s legacy lives on.

Onscreen, the cast of Looking—including stars-to-be like Jonathan Groff and Murray Bartlett—played characters who were working to find themselves while creating a chosen family with each other. Offscreen, the actors were doing the same thing, reckoning with their own identities and finding family in each other.

For the lead role of Patrick, the production looked at Jonathan Groff, the Tony-nominated Broadway star of Spring Awakening, who’d recently made the jump to TV with a splashy role on Ryan Murphy’s hit musical series Glee.

Haigh: I actually quite liked Glee. I thought it was a good show, but I wasn't sure he was going to be right. Then he came in, and I'm like, “Yeah, you're great for this.”

Sarah Condon (executive producer): Jonathan just had all these qualities of vulnerability and also an amazing ability, which to me is very similar in some ways to Sarah Jessica Parker, of doing the comedy and drama together—not a lot of actors actually, can do both so well and flip back and forth between. He is one of those people.

Jonathan Groff (Patrick): I came out of the closet later—I came out publicly at 23, came out to my parents that same year too. I was out but I was, in a big way, not fully accepting myself. I came out of the closet because it felt more painful to be in than out at that point, but I didn't really feel myself own who I was until I had had the experience of Looking.

I remember auditioning for the show, and feeling heat on my skin during the audition. It was the scene with Patrick and Richie on the train, doing this flirtatious scene, and I remember my skin feeling hot, and it feeling scary and exciting at the same time. I felt raw and exposed in a way that I had never felt before. So there was a real vulnerability in that, that made me feel nervous and excited.

Carmen Cuba (casting director): Jonathan Groff was out, but he hadn't played a gay character before. And more than anyone, he was the most experienced on the show, even Andrew. So he definitely must have understood more than any of us, the fact that playing the role is one thing but he was then going to be in press talking about it. It's a different thing you're agreeing to, I assume.

Groff: I remember Murray, Frankie, and I showing up to San Francisco during pre-production in March of 2013—I mean, this is 10 years ago. I remember the month. I remember Murray making us dinner, and me and Frankie going over there, and smoking weed and smelling the jasmine in the backyard of Murray's sublet that he had gotten. I remember Frankie was freaking out, because he had graduated from Juilliard and is this brilliant actor, but had never done anything on screen before, and so we were talking about that. I mean, just immediately, we knew we had to have this believable friendship in order for the show to work. And so we just started hanging out and we never stopped.

Groff quickly developed chemistry with Castillo, one of his onscreen love interests. While Castillo’s Richie was initially meant to be a minor character, the team later made the decision to make him part of the main cast.

Castillo: I remember standing on the platform in between takes with Jonathan [for our first scene together]. I remember our chemistry was developing and we were hitting it off, and I didn't want to ruin that but I also wanted to open up to him and be honest with him. I decided to tell him the story about meeting my now-wife, who at the time was my girlfriend. When she and I had met, there was an undeniable chemistry between us, like the minute we laid eyes on each other, it was just like there was this attraction. We were the only two people in the room in a room full of people. I wanted to tell Jonathan that story because I was relating it to Patrick and Richie meeting.

I was revealing to him that I was straight and he didn't bat a lash. He took it in, he listened and yeah, it was funny, because it was almost like a coming out.

Groff: I knew that he was straight, because I had asked our director or costume designer. I had gotten the intel already. It wasn't a shock. “That guy's cute. Is he gay?” [Laughs]

Condon: I mean, it sounds silly, in a way, but they were brave decisions. I remember having to have that conversation with Jonathan. “Are you up for this?” There were a lot of those kind of conversations. And Jonathan was so game, as was the whole cast.

Groff: I remember the premiere was at The Castro, and I remember feeling like I was in a fairy tale. The Castro, the audience is lit as fuck, and it's a lot of gays. They are there to celebrate, which is just such a special, unique energy at a premiere of any sort.

Michael Lombardo and Richard Plepler were running HBO at that time. I remember being at that premiere and Michael was standing there, talking about, “This is the first exclusively gay show we've ever had on our network.” It felt like, “Oh my God— we're in this. We're a part of this moment in history.” It felt like more than a TV show. It felt like a big deal when he would say that.

Despite its mixed initial reception and its relative underperformance, the show made stars out of the main cast—especially Jonathan Groff.

Groff: Between the first and second season in New York, they had asked me to be the grand marshal of the Gay Pride Parade—because of the TV show, and because I'm a New Yorker and had done a lot of theater. I felt scared to do it. I said yes, because my head and my heart were telling me that I wanted to do it, but there was a huge part of me that felt incredibly fearful, incredibly insecure, and incredibly scared. I did it anyway, and that was also a ring of fire moment. Doing the Gay Pride parade, being on the front, waving at people, and being so visibly out—it was just a constant experience of being, in a great way, pushed outside of my comfort zone.

Alvarez: He was coming off of this breakup and he's meeting somebody new and he's encountering all these feelings of being out in public and what his image represents to other people. And so you're swirling with all these other things, and also you're like, just a man trying to love other men.

Groff: I remember, oh my God, talking about douching [in a scene on the show], and I had never really douched before, as myself. Frankie Alvarez came with me. What we did in the show, where we go to the Walgreens? We actually did [that] in the West Village in real life, where he walked with me to get a fucking anal douche, and also a dildo to experiment with. He was in the gay sex shop with me, doing that in real life.

Alvarez: It was a moment of vulnerability, where he wanted to go dildo shopping, but he didn't want to be alone. He could have called any number of his gay friends, but he called me. And it was a testament to our friendship that he trusted me, that even though I was straight, he understood that he had a supportive friend there through that time. I was Doris.

As the series continued, the team looked to their cast for inspiration, sometimes borrowing elements of their personal lives and using them in storylines.

Groff: I remember sitting in a diner in San Francisco with Andrew and talking him through my most recent breakup as he was writing the big, final episode of season two and the fight between Kevin and Patrick—literally, me recounting and him writing down things that I said, that we said to each other, to get that in there. Everybody was offering up their own stories the whole time. It was incredible.

Weedman: The one thing I remember was, before we did the scene where I go see my dad's dead body, the three of us were sitting in this real funeral home and we're just talking about different times in our lives we'd seen a dead body and what that's like. I had just seen my friend Christopher's body and Jonathan had been through Cory Monteith’s [death]. We were telling all these stories that were just very intense.

And then I remember after we shot the scene, that Murray came to my trailer and just walked in, and we both just cried and cried and cried. And that's pretty rare, that actors aren't just on the phone, working out their next job, figuring out how they're going to renovate their house, how they're going to spend their money—they're not jerking off their ego in some way or some kind of “building their empire.” That wasn't going on—these were just sensitive boys.

In the aftermath of Looking, the cast and crew found themselves permanently changed. The experience of making the series affected everything, from their career decisions to their everyday lives.

Groff: It brought me out of my own skin in a way that I don’t know if I would’ve otherwise. And every set I walked onto after that, every rehearsal room I walked onto after that, I didn't feel insecure about my sexuality. Looking and the experience of being on that set with all those people was so liberating, and really, truly life-changing.

Condon: We've done about a yearly reunion.

Bartlett: Raul got married last year and a bunch of us were able to go—it was sort of a Looking reunion really. It was like, “Oh my God, this is our 10-year reunion.” And it was about Raul's wedding, but it was also a bunch of old friends getting back together and a lot of us from Looking days.

Castillo: Jonathan married [my wife and I] this summer so it's like a full circle.

Groff: That girl that he was talking about [while shooting the pilot] ended up being his wife.

Ten years later, many of the actors who starred in Looking have become bonafide stars. Jonathan Groff has appeared in generational projects on stage and screen, from Hamilton to Mindhunter to Frozen. Russell Tovey has appeared in shows like Quantico, American Horror Story: NYC and the upcoming Feud: Capote Vs. the Swans. O.T. Fagbenle, who had a minor role in season one as Agustin’s boyfriend, has gone on to do shows like The Handmaid’s Tale and appeared in the blockbuster Black Widow. And of course Murray Bartlett continues to be a staple of prestige TV, starring in The Last of Us and The White Lotus, which he won an Emmy for.

Groff: Even if the show didn't hit the way that we all wish it would have, it still affected people, including us, and it looks like that is the art that stays. I mean, I'm on Merrily We Roll Along right now. Forty-two years ago, it was a Broadway flop, and it's such an extraordinary show. People are finally, including me, getting to experience it for the brilliant thing that it is. And so that's encouraging, moving forward, that even though it might not be celebrated in the moment [it might have a moment later on].

Groff: I mean, ultimately, not enough people watched it, and we went off the air—that's just the story of what happened with the show. But the fact that it only lasted for two seasons and a movie, and 10 years later, we're still talking about it, there's something about the staying power of the show, and the people that continue, a decade later, to talk about the impact that it has had on them. It sort of helps heal those wounds of feeling rejected.

[lightofraye]

No way! GLEN POWELL?!?!?!? You're a fan too????!!!!

Oh boy.

All caps. Tons of exclamation marks and question marks.

I'm in trouble, aren't I?

Because... yes! I'm a huge fan of Glen's! And it's not because he has a hot bod either!

(Thank you, Top Gun: Maverick, for that volleyball scene. Ahem.)

But no, in all seriousness, the first role I distinctly remember him in was playing that stock market guy in The Dark Knight Rises--the one who promptly got his head beat in by Bane.

Why did it make an impression on me? Because I believed it when he stood up to Bane. It was a stand out scene.

Later, Hidden Figures, I remembered liking John Glenn--and hilariously didn't make the connection of the actor! Not until much later. He made other small roles that I remembered... and then forgot the actor. (Hey, life is busy.)

Then Top Gun: Maverick came out and I remembered sitting back in my seat and going, "Who the fuck was that?!"

Because wow. Arrogant, snarky, could back up his claims. It was another Tom Cruise in so many ways. Hangman, Glen's character, was just like Maverick, Tom Cruise's character. He popped on the screen and I just had to know more about him.

Cue a deep dive in his history, his Instagram, and his roles. And discovering he was in other roles that I liked!

Then learning about his history as an actor. He said it was Denzel Washington who inspired him to make a try for it in Hollywood--a real try.

By 2007, Glen had made a few roles, small ones, but he credits Denzel for putting faith in himself. Trying out for The Great Debaters, Denzel asked Glen to come back and try for a bigger role... and to drop his noticeable Texas accent. Glen was determined to impress the movie's producers--and succeeded.

He was just 17 years old.

Glen recounted Denzel's advice to him:

"This race, Hollywood, it's a marathon, not a sprint," Powell relayed from the Oscar-winner's advice. "You're running your own race. Don't look in the other lanes. It doesn't matter how fast somebody else is going, where they're going, or if they look better doing it. It doesn't matter."

When he tried out for The Expendables 3, he wrote to Sly Stallone and explained why he was the best choice for the role. Later, Stallone told him it was the reason he got the job.

He then got into Ryan Murphy's Scream Queens on Fox. (And making friends with John Stamos!) It helped him show off his comedic skills and helped make his name in Hollywood.

He actually admitted when he got into Hidden Figures, he was worried he ruined it. It was such a powerful movie and he feared he wrecked it. (Needless to say, no, he didn't. That movie shone!)

He made a rom-com with Zoey Deutch on Netflix that also cinched his skills as an actor who could do romance, comedy, and Top Gun (along with The Expendables) showed he could also do action. He's very well-rounded as an actor.

But what really catapulted him was Anyone But You with Sydney Sweeney. For the last few years, Hollywood had struggled to make really big rom-coms (in my humble opinion). Most just don't really break the box office.

Then Sydney Sweeney came along with her clever mind and manipulated the hell out of the chemistry between her and Glen. It worked too well--he had been in a three year relationship with Gigi Paris.

During the filming of Anyone But You, there were so many candids, behind the scenes photographs, that left quite a few convinced Sydney and Glen were having an affair. (Sydney is very much engaged with her longtime boyfriend of, what, 6 years now?) But some speculated it was too much for Gigi and she broke it off.

It's never been confirmed as to why they broke up, but it was interesting....

Then Glen went and adopted a freakin' adorable dog, a mutt, and named it Brisket. That dog has been with him everywhere now! Even during promos!

What I like about Glen? He includes his parents in a lot of his movies as extras! He's frequently seen with his niece and nephew, photographs with them all the time... and a couple of years ago, reenacted, I kid you not, some scenes from ELF in New York with his family. (Seriously. Watch it. I couldn't stop laughing.)

He's made a hit for Netflix with Hit Man. Twisters is doing pretty well in theaters. He's so busy I'm staring at his schedule and thinking to myself, "When does he have time to breathe?!"

What I'm also impressed with is how, upon talking to Matthew McConaughey and realizing how soul-sucking Los Angeles could be, Glen sold his home in Los Angeles and relocated back to Texas!

My last tidbit of amusement? He has green eyes. He's Texan.

Seriously, what is it with me and green-eyed men from Texas? Yeesh.

(I turned into a gossip columnist. Haha!)

[thewingedwolf]

honestly i really think ryan murphy should just do tragicomic thriller stuff again but make it law and order esque ripped from the headlines stuff instead of america horror story stuff i don’t understand this new obsession with writing true crime fanfiction when he knows damn well he doesn’t give a shit about the real story he just wants to dress up his muses in vintage clothes and write the most touchingly homophobic characters in history.

[puppet-purgatory]

season 6 thots

saved all my complimence and criticisms until the end for all our sakes

The new Professor puppet is great and I love him. He looks cuddly as shit, and I hope he continues to get more fun outfits.

Shane please put arm rods on the Professor I’m begging. If u can move his hands he’ll look so much more animated and can do a lot of funny shit that way

I enjoyed this season’s theme of “people who, no matter where or what they were, decided to just do some batshit stuff in life” and didn’t make us think in absolutes of They Were Obviously Evil/Good and let us draw our own conclusions.

(It also fit with Ryan and the Professor’s character arcs imo- they’ve both made mistakes, and the Antarctica episode Especially is about leaders whose personal shortcomings lead to uhhhh Death! so)

THAT BEING SAID I am WAITING for a follow up on the Catholic church’s abuse where it’s condemned. It was not right at all for that hat to get off scot free like it did. Send his ass to hell

idk who exactly writes the songs for puppet history but the fact they can write something that flops as hard as the Dragon's song and then something with the genuinely stunning vocabulary and imagery of Antarctica's is fucking insane.

i love the horse subplot going on. fuck elmer walter williams. go dorothy ruth murphy. chase the truth. while im at it? go dinosara. i'm so happy for her

season was a Bit Eurocentric imo. disappointing

the production quality of the puppets has increased so drastically. it's genuinely pleasing to see this medium being treated well even by amateur performers. i extend a Big Bravo to the cast & crew at Watcher!!!

i'm neither disappointed nor glad about the "lack" of lore- it's one of my favorite parts of the show, but what i love most is just getting to watch it and learn new things. however if you guys didnt want us asking so many questions you shouldn't have made such a cute and fun Host and cast of supporting characters to get attached to<3

already looking forward to next season, though i'm predicting a holiday special along the same lines as the funeral one- i think halloween is an appropriate time to find out what happened to all our "dead" friends and foes dont u 🤔 but maybe that is Wishful Thinking.....

[asraindarkness]

Title of 802 changed as well. It’s normal. The title eps are almost provisional until they decide to keep it or to name it something that fits more.

At this point literally no one knows what happened. We can speculate but to say: it wasn’t this, it was production putting a stop to it…

Well, it’s assuming. And there is some danger with that. So I would say, until we know (which we probably won’t), let’s stop putting the blame on people and swearing up and down it HAS to be that. Because we can say it as a joke at first, but it has the dangerous potential of becoming harmful.

i totally agree but im gonna keep hating ryan murphy and his history of bi phobia and tim for fuckass dialogs tho. im sorry yall are too kind couldn't be me.

[denimbex1986]

'Margot Robbie and Cillian Murphy — she the star of “Barbie,” he of “Oppenheimer” — have shared an experience, one unique in film history. On July 21, 2023, their two movies came out, and instead of cannibalizing one another during a time when box office receipts were sluggish, they actually boosted each other, creating the global phenomenon known as “Barbenheimer.”

On paper, the two movies couldn’t be more different. Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” produced by Robbie’s company LuckyChap Entertainment, is the story of the world’s most popular doll, who, after going on a journey to recover from an existential crisis, becomes a woman; Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” is a biopic about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who oversaw the invention of the atomic bomb. What they have in common, though, is that their directors made wholly original films, ones guided by their inventiveness, and it was the innovative spirit of “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” that in turn inspired audiences to be creative and participatory in their fandom for both films. The memes, the double-feature TikToks, the costumes people wore to go out to theaters again and again to experience Barbenheimer — after COVID had nearly destroyed in-person moviegoing — “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” proved joy is still to be had (as well as profits, with the box office for “Barbie” at more than $1.4 billion worldwide, and “Oppenheimer” recently crossing $950 million).

In other words, Robbie, sporting a “Barbie”-inspired pink polka-dot shirt with matching heels, and a darkly clad Murphy have a lot to discuss when they meet for Actors on Actors — a rendezvous during which Murphy professes he now knows what a meme is, after famously claiming ignorance about them in a 2017 interview.

CILLIAN MURPHY: Congratulations on your reasonably successful film. You’re a producer on the movie as well. How did you know a “Barbie” movie would connect with audiences in the manner that it did?

MARGOT ROBBIE: Yeah, 90% of me was certain that this would be a big deal and a massive hit, and 10% of me thought, “Oh, this could go so badly wrong.” It was all about Greta Gerwig. And it was like, “If it wasn’t going to be Greta, then, yeah, this could have been an absolute disaster.”

MURPHY: She was always your first choice?

ROBBIE: I just wasn’t going to let her say no. It was about six years ago we got the property. We got it out of Sony, set it up at Warner Bros., got Mattel’s blessing to let us produce, then went after Greta. Obviously, I didn’t know it was going to be the cultural phenomenon that it ended up being.

MURPHY: When did you realize that?

ROBBIE: It was all the way along. The fact that it’s Greta Gerwig, people are like, “Greta Gerwig and a ‘Barbie’ movie, what?” And then the pictures of Ryan Gosling and me Rollerblading on Venice Beach came out and went even wider than I was expecting. I’d been thinking big for it, and it still turned out bigger than I expected.

But what about you? Did you think so many people were going to watch a movie about the making of the atomic bomb?

MURPHY: No. I don’t think any of us did. Christopher Nolan was always determined that it would be released in the summer as a big tentpole movie. That was always his plan. And he has this superstition around that date, the 21st.

ROBBIE: Do all his movies come out on that date?

MURPHY: In and around the 21st of July — they always come out then.

ROBBIE: It’s a good date. We picked that day too!

MURPHY: Yeah, I know.

ROBBIE: One of your producers, Chuck Roven, called me, because we worked together on some other projects. And he was like, “I think you guys should move your date.” And I was like, “We’re not moving our date. If you’re scared to be up against us, then you move your date.” And he’s like, “We’re not moving our date. I just think it’d be better for you to move.” And I was like, “We’re not moving!” I think this is a really great pairing, actually. It’s a perfect double billing, “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie.”

MURPHY: That was a good instinct.

ROBBIE: Clearly the world agreed. Thank God. The fact that people were going and being like, “Oh, watch ‘Oppenheimer’ first, then ‘Barbie.’” I was like, “See? People like everything.” People are weird.

MURPHY: And they don’t like being told what to do. They will decide, and they will generate the interest themselves.

ROBBIE: I think they were also really excited by the filmmakers. People were itching for the next Chris Nolan film and itching for the next Greta Gerwig film. To get them at the same time was exciting. You’ve done five movies with Christopher Nolan now, right?

MURPHY: This is six, actually.

ROBBIE: So you like the guy? A big fan.

MURPHY: It seems to work. This is the first time playing a proper lead role for him. There’d always been supporting parts over the years — it’s 20 years we’re working together. Emma Thomas, his wife, the producer, she called me because Chris doesn’t have a phone. So she put me on to Chris, and he said in his very understated British way, “I’m making this movie of Oppenheimer — I’d like you to play the part.” I had just finished something; I wasn’t doing anything. I did realize then that it was different than the other jobs I’d done with him, because it was the story of Oppenheimer’s life. And then when he eventually gave me the script, it was written in the first person, which I’d never read before, and so I —

ROBBIE: The script was written in the first person? The big print would be like, “I’m going to put the cup down and walk towards the door”?

MURPHY: Exactly, exactly. Which I’d never read before. And so it was very clear that he wanted it to be truly subjective storytelling. And that did add to the feeling of “Oh, fuck, this is a biggie.”

ROBBIE: Why do you love working with him? And why do you think he loves working with you? I know you’re going to have to maybe be really humble and be like, “I don’t know, why does he like me? I can’t understand.” Take a guess.

MURPHY: With Chris, it’s just the work. He’s not interested in anything else other than the work and the filmmaking. And he’s incredibly focused, and it’s incredibly rigorous.

ROBBIE: When he called you and said, “Movie about Oppenheimer,” were you like, “Gotcha”? Or were you like, “Who’s that? I should go read a book.”

MURPHY: I knew the very basic Wikipedia level. I knew about the Trinity tests, and I knew about the Manhattan Project and then obviously what happened in ’45. But I didn’t know what happened afterwards or anything like that.

ROBBIE: So you read a lot to prep. What else did you do?

MURPHY: Walk around my basement talking to myself.

ROBBIE: Really? I prep like a psychopath as well. Did you have a thing that would get you into him?

MURPHY: Physically, there was loads of pictures of him, and he always stood with his hand on his hip. He was such a slight man, but he always stood with this very kind of jaunty angle. So I nicked that pretty early as a physical thing. And then Chris Nolan kept sending me pictures of David Bowie, like in the Thin White Duke era, with the big voluminous trousers.

And how about you? Such a difficult character. It’s this kind of 20th-century icon, but not a real person. How did you figure it out?

ROBBIE: It was so weird prepping Barbie as a character. All my usual tools didn’t apply for this character. I work with an acting coach, and I work with a dialect coach, and I work with a movement coach, and I read everything, and I watch all the things. I rely on animal work a lot. I was maybe 45 minutes into pretending to be a flamingo or whatever, and I was suddenly like, “It’s not working.”

I went to Greta, like, “Help me. I don’t know where to start with this character.” And she’s like, “OK, what are you scared of?” And I was like, “I don’t want her to seem dumb and ditzy, but she’s also not meant to know anything. She’s meant to be completely naive and ignorant.” And Greta found this episode on “This American Life,” where it was a woman who can’t introspect, who doesn’t have the voice in her head that’s constantly narrating life the way we all do. This woman’s got a Ph.D. and is extremely smart, but just doesn’t have that internal monologue.

MURPHY: Is she happy?

ROBBIE: Yeah, totally.

MURPHY: Is she happier, do you think?

ROBBIE: Oh God, I wondered about that. She kind of thinks about exactly what’s in front of her — a spotlight to what exactly is in front of her at the time.

MURPHY: Well, that’s perfect, right? We should talk about the costumes. So you’re clearly still not sick of pink then?

ROBBIE: No, I’m not done with pink yet. Yeah, the costumes were incredible. I mean, you just can’t have a “Barbie” movie without the color pink. And everyone really got on board with that. I’d make a “On Wednesdays, we wear pink” day. Do you know that reference from “Mean Girls”?

MURPHY: I had forgotten that reference.

ROBBIE: On Wednesdays, they wear pink. And so if you didn’t wear pink on set, you got a fine. And then I’d donate it to charity. It’s always the guys, I feel like, that are like, “Oh, finally I have permission to wear pink and get dressed up!” It would get crazier and crazier until Ryan would be like, “I think I need a mink.” It would just get insane.

In my opinion, there are two kinds of people in this world. There are the people who are obsessed with “Peaky Blinders,” and then there’s the people who haven’t seen “Peaky Blinders.” I obviously sit in the first category, so can we please talk about Tommy fucking Shelby for just one minute? I mean, that was years and years of your life.

MURPHY: Yeah, it’s like 10. That was also a 10-year adventure. We started shooting at the end of 2012.

ROBBIE: Is there going to be a spinoff movie?

MURPHY: I mean, I’m open to the idea. I’ve always thought that if there’s more story to tell …

ROBBIE: Please do it. Please! Obviously, I’ve now revealed that I am a big fan of yours, not just “Peaky Blinders.” I also love your sleep story on the Calm app. But because I’m a fan of yours, I have watched a lot of your things on YouTube, and it’s out there on the internet that you are not that aware of memes and things like that. First of all, is that true? And second of all, if that is true, were you even aware of the Barbenheimer phenomenon, or were you just blissfully unaware because you use a dial-up phone or something?

MURPHY: I have two teenage boys. I do know what a meme is. Now I know that there are memes about me not knowing what a meme is.

ROBBIE: It’s a great meme. It’s like the “Inception” of memes. A meme within a meme.

MURPHY: Genuinely at the time I did not know. But people forget that was a long time ago.

ROBBIE: I might not have known back then what a meme is. I’m not that tech-savvy.

MURPHY: Exactly. And I think children started that stuff, right? Now that it’s become this sort of meme that’s eating itself, I am aware. But it’s mostly because of people either sending it to me or showing me and saying, “Look, you gotta look at this.”

ROBBIE: You see any of the Barbenheimer fan art?

MURPHY: I mean, it was impossible to avoid any of that stuff.

ROBBIE: Weren’t there some great ones? People are so clever. People kept asking me, “So is each marketing department talking to each other?” And I was like, “No, this is the world doing this! This is not a part of the marketing campaign.”

MURPHY: And I think it happened because both movies were good. In fact, that summer, there was a huge diversity of stuff in the cinema, and I think it just connected in a way that you or I or the studios or anybody could never have predicted.

ROBBIE: You can’t force that or orchestrate that.

MURPHY: No, and it may never happen again.'

[girlwiththerubyslippers]

I know this is normally a departure from what I normally post—so my thoughts will be under the cut 🫶

Ryan Murphy deserves to rot in hell.

Like the deepest parts of hell.

His constant retraumatizing of families, glorification, and rewriting of history for people STILL ALIVE on a global scale is disgusting.

I did not watch Dahmer—had zero desire to, especially when clips from the trailer of the dramatization of the victim’s families making their statements was shown. I was disgusted. The victim’s families spoke out against it.

I have followed the Menendez brother’s case for about 10 years, don’t ask me why, I don’t know. And when I found out he was going to be “adapting” (I use that term SOOOOO loosely) the story I had a pit in my GUT because I knew exactly what was going to happen.

I have not watched it, especially after Lyle and Erik made their statements about how WRONG it all is.

Please remember this is a global scale, most people will not see anything past THIS! He did exactly what the prosecution did—completely negated the abuse the boys went through and turned them into “brats” who “just wanted their parents money”.

The story can be done well, look at Law and Order: True Crime. The brother’s themselves lauded the way the writers showed them both as victims of their parents while also showing them as the flawed individuals they were when it came to how they k!lled their parents.

Rant over

[afaimscorner]

AHS: NYC

Franky the most interesting thing about “American Horror Story: NYC” is the way people react to it. It’s a fact that the way a season of “American Horror Story” resonates with you says more about you than about the show itself, but with “NYC” we have reached the peek of this. Of course there is the thin veiled homophobia of those who hated it, but it is also interesting to see how many people generally did not get it. I mean, yes, there is room for criticism of course. Someone did point out righty so that the last two episodes feel very divorced from the rest of the the season, and of course they would, the serial killer plot ended with Episode 8 and the pandemic-plot had been on the back burner so long that no one really thought they would spend two whole episodes with pretty much everyone dying from AIDS in a very poetic way. I also think that many viewers honestly did not get that it was AIDS all along and generally thought it would turn out to be something else. And of course the issue with Big Daddy is that he is a metaphor for Death in general which did confuse some viewers because some characters that were killed by “him” did clearly die not from AIDS and some of those deathts never got resvoled, so yes, there were some - so to speak - plotholes and the last two episodes had no answers, not really. And I think many people also did not not want it to be AIDS, they wanted a Fantasy or Horror Version of it instead.

But this is the point of the season. “NYC” is the first really grounded season of the show. There is no real supernatural stuff going on, it’s magicial realism instead, and of course this would throw a portion of the audience. And of course some of them would get defensive about other people calling it the best season or even a good season, because in their eyes this does demean the Horror Genre and the rest of the show like: “How can death by AIDS be considered better than ghosts, witches, vampires etc.? Well of course you would say that because you look down on me for my taste because I do watch anything else but crime procedurals and soaps!” But there is literally no reason to get defensive. This is fucking Season 11! And with “American Horror Stories” now going on as well, we have literally had everything you can do with Horror done in the shows. “Apocalypse” was the big crossover season and should have been the end of the show, however they discovered they had not done a slasher season yet, so we got “1984″, but after that there was nothing left to tell.

So we got the weird “Doube Feature”, which was one of those Covid-Seasons, and the show still continued on, so it reinvented itself. It reinvented itself by doing a season of Real Life Horror. See, this season was very much a social commentary. And yes, after Covid, everyone and their father did a Pandemic Story, but Ryan Murphy decided to to a story about the other pandemic of our lifetime, the one no one is talking about anymore. And he did not to that because he wanted to educate Gen Z on the recent history of the world, he did it because this pandemic was something his community lived through and it was the scariest thing that ever happened to that community ever probably, because in case you did not know that: people were dropping dead like flies for no appearant reason for like a decade! “You think lockdowns and having to get a bad bad horrible vaccination were bad? Try being a gay man between 1980 and 1990!” is the message. And to make it even sacrier everything else was put in there too: a serial killer that targets the community, the hate crimes, the ignorance, and lack of BDSM protocol etc. This season, if you did like it or not, was the ultimate Horror Story because it was actual real life horror taken from the recent past.

I remember back when I watched “Apocaplyse” (which was in the winter right before Covid hit when something was in the air already) I was triggered really badly by the beginning of the season. This was the first and only time the show really did a number on me and the sacriest thing before that, the scene that haunted me the most, was way back in “Asylum” when Quinto did Conversion Theraphy on Sara Paulson. Why did those moments stand out to me? Because they were Real Life Horror Moments. I can deal with jump scares, gore, slashing, ghosts, vampires, aliens and all those things, but give me Real Life Horror and I am gone. And many many people out there are like me, if they want to admit it or not, they do not want Horror to deal with actual real life issues because that would scare them on a deeper and more personal level than any Torture Porn could.

Why do you think Steven King still is the undisputed King of Horror? Because he knows that it is essential to start out with Real Life Horror and then put a Supernatural Spin on it in order to get the catharsis the reader needs. And no one is better at this than he is. And for ten season “Amercian Horror Story” did exactly that and followed his example all eleven chapters of it at a time. But “NYC” did not do that. There was no Supernatural Spin, nothing you could fight in order to win, there was no catharsis, there was only death.

Does a story like this belong in an anthology show like “American Horror Story”? Maybe not. However this is not up to us to decide. It’s is up to Ryan Murphy, the writers, and Fox. They deemed it a good idea. Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was. Like I said, the show did essential end with “1984″, it will have to change if it continues, it has already changed. And it will continue to change.

It’s okay to say “NYC” did nothing for you, but it’s also okay to say it was the best season you ever saw on the show. Which is not okay is to attack someone for saying either of those things (unless the reasons for not likeing it are obvious homophobia). Like I said, the way you react to a season of this shows says more about you than that season.

My favorite season is “Roanoke” which says much about me but not anything about the season. Runners Up are “Murder House” and “Hotel”, which again does tell you what kind of Horror I like. Is “NYC” up there with the great ones for me? No, but it was both an important story to tell and a necessary developement in the history of the show. If changing the way the show works will not save it but rather end it, it still would have not been a mistake, just something they tried that did not end up saving the show from cancellation/ reaching its natural end point.

So yeah, that was my piece, I guess. Not that anyone will care, but I just wanted to put it out there.

(And, no, I am neither a gay man nor old enough to really remember the AIDS Panic, but I have that super power called empathy combinded with that superpower like backround called education by listening to other people, so yes, I will defend any story that obviously is something really personal to those who made it any time).

[beautifulgiants]

Boyd Holbrook and Michael Shannon Bond Over Their Kentucky Roots

By Michael Shannon

Photographed by Ryan Brabazon

Years ago, in a chance encounter at a Lazarus department store in Lexington, Kentucky where he worked, Boyd Holbrook met the now Oscar-nominated actor Michael Shannon. And it was their short conversation that would inspire Holbrook to pursue his dream of becoming an actor. Years later, these two southern (or midwestern, depending on your persuasion) gentlemen would find themselves co-starring in a forthcoming drama about a motorcycle club (The Bikeriders, directed by Jeff Nichols). After receiving widespread recognition for his role as real-life DEA agent Steve Murphy in Narcos, Holbrook has not been able to stop. “I worked straight through the pandemic,” he told Shannon when the two cut it up over Zoom last week, before the announcement of the SAG-AFTRA strike. “Because every time you finish a gig, you’re unemployed.” Now, he stars in the newly released Indiana Jones film, directed by James Mangold, as well as the highly anticipated limited series Justified: City Primeval, out this week. So Holbrook called up his fellow Kentuckian to talk fatherhood, actors’ egos (or lack thereof), Mads Mikkelsen, and how to keep your kids occupied over the summer.—ARY RUSSELL

———

BOYD HOLBROOK: Hello?

MICHAEL SHANNON: Hey, Boyd. Are you doing a big day of this?

HOLBROOK: Yeah, like a Good Morning America type of thing.

SHANNON: Oh my god. You did that this morning?

HOLBROOK: Yeah, earlier today.

SHANNON: Wow. You’re looking good, man. You’re looking lean.

HOLBROOK: I am lean and mean, dude. I’m 158 pounds.

SHANNON: Sweet Jesus. Are you getting ready for a job or something?

HOLBROOK: I’m getting ready for a job, I think in October. It’s a real cool project, man. It’s with Sam Jackson. He plays the chef at a prison, uptight type, and I play this guy on a hunger strike who’s pretty emaciated.

SHANNON: Oh dear, is that affecting your moods? Do you get hangry?

HOLBROOK: Well, my wife’s in the city right now. She’s doing a summer intensive with Terry Knickerbocker. I got my kid upstate alone so it’s trying. You know how that goes.

SHANNON: Oh, being a single dad.

HOLBROOK: Just until August. But yeah, I had some ups and downs, man.

SHANNON: Yeah. How old is your kid?

HOLBROOK: He’s five.

SHANNON: Can you get him in some activities to keep him occupied?

HOLBROOK: I figured that out last week. Swimming in the morning, and I got him to a little daycare thing, so I’ve got a proper four hours a day to study and work.

SHANNON: You need some alone time. I mean, kids are delightful, but they’re very demanding. Until they grow up and then they’re like, “Oh, I don’t need you anymore.”

HOLBROOK: You’ve got two girls, don’t you?

SHANNON: Yeah, my 15-year-old, she just went to Paris for a month. She’s studying photography and art history. I look at her and I think, geez Louise, she’s like a little goddess or something. She definitely does not need my services any longer, but that’s how it’s supposed to work out. Because they’re not really yours. People have a tendency to think of their children as belonging to them or something, and you’re really just helping them get out and find their own life. So, the last time I saw you was in Cincinnati, I think.

HOLBROOK: Yeah, you wouldn’t wear a jacket.

SHANNON: Oh, right. Because we were all outside and it was really cold, and they were handing out those parkas to try and keep everybody from turning blue. I guess people at home should know, we’re talking about The Bikeriders, which is a movie that you and I were both in about a motorcycle gang. What were they called, Boyd, “The Vandals?”

HOLBROOK: They’re called the Vandals in our story, but they were loosely based off of some others.

SHANNON: Yeah, it’s based on a beautiful photography book called The Bikeriders. Jeff Nichols directed it and I think they’ve locked the picture. They seem pretty excited. It should be out in the fall, I think. So your hometown is Prestonsburg, Kentucky, right?

HOLBROOK: Mm-hmm.

SHANNON: My hometown is Lexington, Kentucky, which means we’re both from Kentucky. Which is one of the reasons I think we’re having this conversation today, is because we’re both from the same place roundabout.

HOLBROOK: For me, we were both in the same place at a very important time.

SHANNON: Yeah. Can you describe that?

HOLBROOK: I remember it vividly. I had dropped out of college after working for UPS. They pay your tuition. You work the graveyard shift and all that, but you’ve got to go to class at eight. I lasted about a year and then I dropped out. I wound up moving into Lexington and working at a Lazarus department store. This is really when I started copiously acquiring movies and just watching everything. I had recognized you from, oh gosh, Vanilla Sky. Maybe two lines, but obviously you made an impact on me. I wanted to be an actor. And I just see an actor just come by in the store. I think your mom was probably taking you out to buy something. You had red track pants on and cowboy boots and a wife beater. I don’t know if you can call them a wife beater anymore, but that and a blazer. I think she was trying to spiffy you up or something. That’s how memory serves. I just asked you how to become an actor and it enlightened me. But it was fairly simple just to get into the theater. It dawned on me that that is the route. So my sister got me a job at a theater company because she knew a lighting director. She was going to Bowling Green at the time.

SHANNON: Oh, wow.

HOLBROOK: So I’ll be forever indebted to you and grateful for that.

SHANNON: Oh, thanks Boyd. Well, giving that advice, I always tell people, “Well, this is how I did it. I’m not sure if you would enjoy it or not, but this is how I did it.” I’ve told a fair number of people what I told you. I don’t know if many people have followed up on it, but the fact that you actually did…

HOLBROOK: Oh, I actually ended up working at a theater company, a little tiny theater where they did Charlie Brown and The Story of Jenny Wiley. So I got to know my tribe there and I felt like I was at home for the first time. I wasn’t even doing any acting at that time. But then I got into New York and it opened up more.

SHANNON: Talk about that a little bit. Because the way I came to New York was with a show that I had already been doing in Chicago and London. I really got lucky because I can’t imagine coming to New York City without some sort of calling card. I see people doing it all the time and it just seems like it’d be phenomenally difficult.

HOLBROOK: Well, I was kind of the same mentality like you’re having, but about going to Los Angeles. I wouldn’t go anywhere near Los Angeles without a credit or something on my resume. It wasn’t just like, falling off the apple cart and you’re some brilliant actor. They train for this, and I started realizing that. But I’m a hillbilly from Eastern Kentucky. My dad’s a coal miner. I talk funny. Coming to New York, people point that out really quickly. I thought, “I’m not going to be an actor. I’ll be a writer/director.” I saved up as much money as I could and I got into NYU’s extended film program. You can do a course on 16 [millimeter], on editing and lighting, directing, writing. It’ll take you about a year-and-a-half to do all that. So I did that and then found out about William Esper’s program. I desperately wanted it, but I didn’t know how to fit in at the time. So that was a lot of my navigation, of just not being able to feel like part of the club for a while.

SHANNON: But do you think anybody does? I mean, anybody in that William Esper acting class is like, “Oh yeah, I’m the one who belongs here.”

HOLBROOK: Well, yeah. Being an actor, you’ve got to be a pretty sympathetic person and to have that sort of bravado just doesn’t fit.

SHANNON: You do see cases from time to time that people have very large egos. I think that’s kind of the misconception about actors, is that they’re really vain and they’re always thinking about themselves. But I find a lot of times the opposite to be true. I think we’ve both had run-ins with people that seem a little more concerned with themselves than everyone else around them, but it’s pretty rare. I think sympathy and empathy, that’s really the name of the game, trying to understand how other people tick.

HOLBROOK: And you started out by going to Chicago and getting in that scene?

SHANNON: Yeah. Well, my dad lived in Chicago, so I’d go up and visit him when I was a kid. And then eventually I just started doing non-equity theater in Chicago, which is a hard life. There’s no money. A lot of times, noy many people would come see the play, but I was just hooked on it. I mean, that’s what I tell people: “If you want to do this, it’s got to be because you can’t imagine doing anything else. If there’s anything else you might enjoy doing, you should go do it.” To get to the point where you can actually pay your bills with this stuff is some kind of miracle, really. Are you feeling pretty secure now?

HOLBROOK: Well, yeah. I mean, if there’s anything you want to turn down and let me know about…

SHANNON: Well, that’s a separate conversation. [Laughs]

HOLBROOK: I’m starting to work with directors for the second time, and that seems like job security because every time you finish a gig, you’re unemployed. But I worked straight through the pandemic. I did that because my boy’s five now and I don’t want to be on the road all the time. I want to work a little bit less, make more money. Maybe you get these experiences too, but somebody’s got to pass on something before I get a look at it. I want to do my best work, and you do need great writing to do that.

SHANNON: That doesn’t always coincide, money and great writing. But it sure doesn’t hurt that you’re in this big Indiana Jones [and the Dial of Destiny] movie. That’s a lot of fun, huh? Did you shoot that during COVID?

HOLBROOK: Yeah, I basically went over to London and did Neil Gaiman’s Sandman for nine months and then went home for a couple of weeks and went back for another nine months to do Indiana Jones with Jim Mangold. You’ve got to work with him.

SHANNON: Oh, yeah? Isn’t he doing this [Bob] Dylan movie with Timothée Chalamet or something?

HOLBROOK: Yeah. You should play Woody Guthrie.

SHANNON: Oh, shit.

HOLBROOK: As a child, were you a ham? Were you acting out in front of the family and stuff like that? 

SHANNON: You know, I really wasn’t like that. I was really kind of introverted and quiet when I was a little boy, and the notion of ever becoming an actor was not in my brain anywhere. But this is about you, man. Don’t do this, please.

HOLBROOK: Hey, listen. I’m curious, man. [Laughs]

SHANNON: I took my daughter to see Indiana Jones.

HOLBROOK: Oh, you did?

SHANNON: Yeah, we both went on Monday. I picked her up from camp and I said, “We’re going to go see Indiana Jones.” I really loved what you did with that part. It was really interesting. It was very distinctive and you really made some choices. It’s easy with a part like that to just be like, “All right, where do you want me to stand?” But I’m fascinated to hear about your approach.

HOLBROOK: Well, I brought up Jim. He really is incredible. When he gave me a call about this, he’s like, “Listen, I don’t want to offend you.” I don’t know if he meant that it’s a small part or it’s playing a neo-Nazi. I read it. I’m like, “Man, this is Indiana Jones. This is the last one. I really want to do this, but how are you going to play this character? Why is this guy not off in Haight-Ashbury smoking a spliff or something?” But that’s why I love acting, man, because you start combing through it and figuring it out and making it yours. This guy, nobody else will have him. He just wants to be in this club and he’s so dumb that he thinks he’s getting on this enterprise that’s going to take off. So somebody didn’t love him. I started out wanting to do some John Cazale thing, really cosmetic, high forehead.

SHANNON: Were you a fan of Mads Mikkelsen going into it?

HOLBROOK: Yeah. I’ve seen Pusher II. The Hunt is incredible.

SHANNON: Did you see Another Round?

HOLBROOK: Yeah. My wife is from Copenhagen. There are some directors out there that are great. And Mads is another one who’s just unforgiving about who he is, and that’s an amazing quality.

SHANNON: Yeah, I would love to work with him. What was he like on set? Is he quiet? Is he mellow?

HOLBROOK: Well, we were kind of COVID buddies, just cutting up most of the time, talking about the state of the world that was going on at the time and how cuckoo that was. We were in London and Scotland and Sicily, and this was all COVID, everything is protocols. And then we get to Morocco and it’s like nothing ever happened.

SHANNON: Oh, boy. So you got to go to Sicily, huh?

HOLBROOK: Yeah. We started on the east of the island and went all the way west.

SHANNON: Tell me more about this TV show you’ve got, Justified. Is it a spinoff of the original one?

HOLBROOK: I think it’s not. It’s just a limited series. It’s taking that character Raylan Givens, who’s Elmore Leonard’s creation, and interfacing him in his most famous crime novel, City Primeval. Quentin Tarantino calls and says, “Hey, I want you to play the character Clement Mansel.” And then Quentin couldn’t do it but I still stayed on. I loved every minute of it, man. It worked out the way it should have. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that show. It’s fucked up, but it’s funny. They’re great characters and amazing writing.

SHANNON: It’s a western, right?

HOLBROOK: I was really timid to watch it because I am from Harlan County, a county over. So I was always like, “Man, it’s kind of making fun of us hillbillies.” I thought the show wouldn’t hit the tone right, but it’s great.

SHANNON: Timothy [Olyphant], isn’t he from Kentucky?

HOLBROOK: No, that’s just the character he plays. I think Tim’s from the West Coast. You worked with Tim too. Small world, huh?

SHANNON: Well, I just rubbed elbows with him a little bit on Amsterdam, but I sure do like him. There are a lot of actors from Kentucky.

HOLBROOK: I know. It feels like Boston’s got a lot of actors too, somehow.

SHANNON: Yeah, Boston does. What’s going to be keeping you busy once you’re done doing interviews and stuff?

HOLBROOK: I’m going to go take my son over to New Jersey. We’ve got an appointment for Jim’s movie, the Bob Dylan thing [A Complete Unkown]. And then we’re going to head back upstate tomorrow. I live about 45 minutes west of Woodstock.

SHANNON: Do you see any bears up there?

HOLBROOK: Yeah, there’s some black bears, little cubs and stuff. Do you live in Brooklyn?

SHANNON: Yeah, I’m in Brooklyn, but I actually spent most of the last week in Kentucky seeing my mom. [Holbrook’s son enters] Oh, hey buddy. Look at you.

HOLBROOK: Say hi to Mike. He’s discovered games.

SHANNON: Oh, yeah? Games of a video nature?

HOLBROOK: Yeah. He’s five-and-a-half going on ten.

SHANNON: Well, let me let you get back to him then.

HOLBROOK: Mike, I appreciate it, bud.

SHANNON: No problem. I was tickled that you thought of asking me to do it.

———

Art direction by Benyamin Arno

[themovieblogonline]

All of the Winners From the 2024 Oscars

After a year of phenomenal and innovative filmmaking, the 2024 Oscars winners are finally here to tell us what we already know: it was a great year for cinema. But it’s not all about personal opinions regarding what makes a great film. It’s about hardworking behind-the-scenes teams, talented cast members, and passion for the medium. The Academy Awards highlight some of the most talented folks, and we finally have our winners! So, let’s dig into the 2024 Oscar winners list and see who took home the gold from the 96th Academy Awards hosted by Jimmy Kimmel! The 2024 Oscars Nominees Who Won Big Most Awards Season followers had big predictions for Oppenheimer and for good reasons. The movie earned 13 nominations, including in the biggest categories. Close behind in nominations were Poor Things, Killers of the Flower Moon, and then Barbie trailing behind. Unsurprisingly, most of the films earned well-deserved awards, with Poor Things and Oppenheimer winning multiple awards each. The Zone of Interest was another big winner from the night, taking home two wins. There were no crazy surprises with any of the wins. Some races were too close to call before the night began, but Cillian Murphy for Best Actor and Emma Stone for Best Actress were exciting to see live. Still, Lily Gladstone's win would have been history-making, and it would have been lovely to see her on the stage. Highlights From The Academy Awards Ceremony The 2024 Oscar winners are the highlight of the night, but the ceremony is another big reason that fans gather to watch. This year's ceremony had no shortage of exciting moments, great speeches, and beautiful performances. The ceremony brought back an old trend of past winners presenting the awards in the acting categories. It helped put a spotlight on incredible roles while also bringing some of our favorite previous winners out, including Christoph Waltz, Nicholas Cage, Jessica Lange, Jennifer Lawrence, and more. One of the most anticipated events of the evening was Ryan Gosling’s performance of “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie. The star did not disappoint, bringing dozens of Kens on stage and getting everybody out of their seat. Another highlight of the ceremony was the inclusion of Messi, the newest canine star, on the red carpet. Messi was a key performer in Anatomy of a Fall and would have won the award for Best Boy if there had been one. He was brought back for the end of the ceremony, where host Jimmy Kimmel continued his trend of making fun of Matt Damon at every opportunity by having Messi pee on Damon's star on the Walk of Fame. The Full List of 2024 Oscars Winners Best Picture American Fiction Anatomy of a Fall Barbie The Holdovers Killers of the Flower Moon Maestro Oppenheimer - WINNER Past Lives Poor Things The Zone of Interest Best Directing Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall) Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon) Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer) - WINNER Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things) Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest) Best Actor in a Leading Role Bradley Cooper (Maestro) Colman Domingo (Rustin) Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers) Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) - WINNER Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction) Best Actress in a Leading Role Annette Bening (Nyad) Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon) Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall) Carey Mulligan (Maestro) Emma Stone (Poor Things) Best Actor in a Supporting Role Sterling K. Brown (American Fiction) Robert De Niro (Killers of the Flower Moon) Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer) - WINNER Ryan Gosling (Barbie) Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things) Best Actress in a Supporting Role Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer) Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple) America Ferrera (Barbie) Jodie Foster (Nyad) Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers) - WINNER  Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) American Fiction - WINNER Barbie Oppenheimer Poor Things The Zone of Interest Best Writing (Original Screenplay) Anatomy of a Fall - WINNER The Holdovers Maestro May December Past Lives Best Animated Feature The Boy and the Heron - WINNER Elemental Nimona Robot Dreams Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Best Documentary Feature Film Bobi Wine: The People’s President The Eternal Memory Four Daughters To Kill a Tiger 20 Days in Mariupol - WINNER Best International Feature Film Io Capitano (Italy) Perfect Days (Japan) Society of the Snow (Spain) The Teacher’s Lounge (Germany) The Zone of Interest (United Kingdom) - WINNER Best Animated Short Film Letters to a Pig Ninety-Five Senses Our Uniform Pachyderme War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko - WINNER Best Live-Action Short Film The After Invincible Knight of Fortune Red, White and Blue The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar - WINNER Best Documentary Short Film The ABCs of Book Banning The Barber of Little Rock Island in Between The Last Repair Shop - WINNER Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó Best Cinematography El Conde Killers of the Flower Moon Maestro Oppenheimer - WINNER Poor Things Best Costume Design Barbie Killers of the Flower Moon Napoleon Oppenheimer Poor Things - WINNER Best Makeup and Hairstyling Golda Maestro Oppenheimer Poor Things - WINNER Society of the Snow Best Original Song “The Fire Inside” from Flamin’ Hot (Music and Lyric by Diane Warren) “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie (Music and Lyric by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt) “It Never Went Away” from American Symphony (Music and Lyric by Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson) “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” from Killers of the Flower Moon (Music and Lyric by Scott George) “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie (Music and Lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell) - WINNER Best Original Score American Fiction Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Killers of the Flower Moon Oppenheimer - WINNER Poor Things Best Production Design Barbie Killers of the Flower Moon Napoleon Oppenheimer Poor Things - WINNER Best Film Editing Anatomy of a Fall The Holdovers Killers of the Flower Moon Oppenheimer - WINNER Poor Things Best Sound The Creator Maestro Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One Oppenheimer The Zone of Interest - WINNER Best Visual Effects The Creator Godzilla: Minus One - WINNER Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One Napoleon The Big Winners of the 2024 Oscars Did your predictions come true? And did your favorite films take home the gold from the 2024 Oscars winners list? Let us know your thoughts on the winners, the ceremony as a whole, and if there were any films that you still wish had made it to the show!      

[renyen808]

2023 Movies You Need to Watch (Part Two)

Hi there, I’m sorry that I lied, I’m back now and everything is okay! I will be posting a review of Percy Jackson this Friday, but today we are going to finish this and get back on schedule.

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (Released July 12th)

(Credit: Amazon)

Starring: Tom Cruise, Haley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg

Director: Christopher McQuarrie

I have loved the Mission Impossible series since the beginning, and this is no exception. Tom Cruise still has it as Ethan Hunt. This movie plays around with the real threat of AI, which scared President Biden. This movie is the perfect way to showcase just how terrifying AI can be, while also being a fun action packed movie. 

(Credit: IMDb)

This movie will leave you gripping on your arm rest as you watch the intense thriller portions. While I may not be a fan of Haley Atwell’s character (and she is in here a lot), I can overlook that for more Benji (love him) and the other characters. I cannot wait for the sequel to come out, but until then, I’ll be patiently waiting.

Barbie (Released July 21st)

(Credit: Microsoft)

Starring: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon

Director: Greta Gerwig

Now, onto the powerhouses of the summer. First, I want to talk about Barbie, which I watched second after Oppenheimer. Barbie was an amazing movie! I loved everything about it. From the perfect Barbie and Ken castings to the story of Barbie learning about the real world was something I didn't know I needed. 

(Credit: Deadline)

I have been a woman studies student for a while, and this movie literally answers everything that we discuss in our classes. I remember taking my boyfriend to watch this during the iMAX rerelease, and he cried during the montage part, and he squeezed my hand. He loves the movie, I love the movie, it’s great.

Oppenheimer (Released July 21st)

(Credit: IMDb)

Starring: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr. 

Director: Christopher Nolan

Oh, Oppenheimer. What a powerhouse. Fun fact, I did a History research project on Oppenheimer with two other classmates. We won our county’s competition. My portion was on the aftermath of the bombings, which included the Strauss’ hearings and the security clearance meetings. This movie was a masterpiece, visually, musically, every aspect was created with such care. 

(Credit: The Lantern)

And to everyone who thinks this movie is pro bomb, rewatch it. I promise you it is not. If you rewatch it and still come to that conclusion, I don’t know how much else to tell you than...you're dumb, I don’t know. Another fun fact, the first time I watched this, a guy gave me COVID.

Blue Beetle (Released August 18th)

(Credit: IMDb)

Starring: Xolo Maridueña, Adriana Barraza, Damián Alcázar, Elpidia Carrillo

Director: Angel Manuel Soto

Blue Beetle, the beginning of the James Gunn led DC Universe. Honestly, this is a great one to start on. Sure, it is a little predictable with the plot, what really sells it is Jaime (Xolo Maridueña) and his relationship with his family. This movie would not be what it is if it were not for the supporting casts’ relationship with Maridueña. 

(Credit: The Washington Post)

Maridueña also excels in this role as Jaime. I haven’t watched Cobra Kai, which is what he is known for, but I am completely sold on him just from this performance alone. He becomes the hero that not only his family needs, but the DC universe. I am disappointed it didn’t do as well as it deserved, so if you haven’t watched it yet, WATCH IT!

Five Nights at Freddy’s (Released October 27th)

(Credit: Wikipedia)

Starting: Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Mary Stuart

Director: Emma Tammi

Oh my gods, Five Nights at Freddy’s. I have loved the series since its release in 2014, which is where I was introduced to Markiplier. So, since I was a big fan of the game, I have been waiting for an adaptation forever. Honestly though, I was concerned as to how they were going to do it, since there wasn’t really a cinematic story when it came to the first game. I mean, the first Game Theory video on Five Nights at Freddy, MatPat linked it to a real Chuck E Cheese Massacre. What they came up with was not what I was expecting in the best way possible. 

(Credit: AP News)

This was a crazy ass movie, and it needed to be. Also, love that Living Tombstones had their song in the credits, I still listen to that song to this day. Along with that, Josh Hutcherson is amazing in this movie, carrying it, and my favorite, Matthew Lillard, steals the show. One critique I must say is that I wish they didn’t share that he was Purple Guy, honestly. Seeing the reveal would have been incredible, and with him saying his iconic line, it was a masterpiece.

The Boy and the Heron (Released December 8th)

(Credit: IMDb)

Starting: Luca Padovan, Robert Pattinson, Karen Fukuhara, Gemma Chan

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

The Boy and the Heron is one of, if not, the best animated film of the year. I love it so much, and hope to one day watch the sub version. This is an amazing story that shows the journey of a boy going through life in the wake of his mother’s passing. He ventures into a mysterious realm to save his stepmother. I love Miyazaki films, and this is no exception. 

(Credit: IGN)

He brings it in this film, especially casting Robert Pattinson as the titular Heron for the English dub. If nobody told me that it was Pattinson, I would not be able to tell. This movie relies on many different characters and the way they interact with the titular Boy, Mahito. It is honestly a joy to watch, and while it is a little jarring to hear some familiar voices in there, it doesn’t take you out of the movie.

Okay, I have some more movies, but we will do a quick Honorable Mention thing.

Honorable Mention Quick Round

Leave the World Behind

This Netflix movie is a must watch for those who are reliant on technology. This movie shows just what might happen when America falls victim to a cyberattack.

Fast X

This series never ceases to catch my attention. While this installment might be weaker than ones before it, I believe it is still an entertaining movie that will keep you entertained. 

The Marvels

The latest movie in the MCU was a fun, action packed film. Iman Vallani is a standout in this movie, carrying it on her shoulders. It was also nice to see Zawe Ashton, Tom Hiddleston’s fiancee, in a role.

Air

This movie based on the Air Jordan shoes is an interesting movie that showed the legacy of the shoe that became one of the best selling shoes in the world. I would give this another watch on a rainy day.

Quiz Lady

This straight to Hulu movie brings Awkwafina and Sandra Oh as sisters trying to get their dog back by going on a quiz show. This is a cute movie, which especially shows just how far siblings are willing to go for one another.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Indiana Jones’ latest adventure was an action filled, well, adventure. I really enjoyed it, but this movie also suffered from an unlikeable sidekick in the form of Phoebe Waller-Bridges character. 

The Iron Claw

A heartbreaking movie that I had known nothing about going in, and I was devastated by the end, crying until I had no more tears to give. Also, Zac Efron is unrecognizable in the role as Kevin Von Erich. Best role he has ever done, in my opinion.

Well, thanks for reading! I’m sorry it took me so long to get this out, but I am back now and I will make sure to meet my deadlines this time. This Friday is Percy Jackson and for the time being, I will be doing Wednesday and Friday releases, and it will literally be whatever I feel like writing about.

[areyoutheregoditsmejessica]

your post re canonbuddie stans ♥

you liking bucktaylor & megan west ♥♥

you liking bucktalia ♥♥♥

you not liking eddie ♥♥♥♥

you liking marisol ♥♥♥♥♥

your take on canonbuddie overall ♥♥♥♥♥♥

i agree with it all so wholeheartedly!!! buck and eddie literally feel like bros to me. yes, they are besties, and yes, buck has a very lovely bond with chris! but at every single point in the past 6 seasons that could have been used to give Hints to the audience that buck or eddie could ever be romantically involved with a man (or even each other), the show never took it. zero jealousy, zero hesitation to date somebody else, zero insecurity of their "family dynamic" changing when they date again, zero flirtation or appreciative looks or past experiences with men. buck and eddie are both so painfully heterosexual to this day that everybody who honestly thinks of buddie being a feasible option for a canon endgame couple is just delusional to me at this point. and i want to stress that this does not mean that people cannot enjoy and ship buddie to their hearts content! but i need people to fucking learn how to watch and comprehend a narrative realistically because things have gotten so extremely exhausting, even in the tags that are not even meant for buddie! it is everywhere, and i am so so so tired of it.

also, god, i am always so happy whenever i see somebody who enjoys buck and canon buck ships but also shares my disinterest in eddie dfjdsfk; i loved him sm in s2 but that love dwindled more with each new season, s4 and s5 eddie bored me to death. today, i am mostly just indifferent to him. i believe in marisol's power to make his scenes better lmao.

you have any wishes for bucktalia moving forward or some type of scene you'd like to see them in? i personally must see her in lingerie and/or in some really sexy outfit. i just want to stare at them being pretty and cute together, frankly speaking.

legit haven't gotten an anon ask in well over a decade hahaha so this was super neat to open the website and see <3

yes in s2, that character was one of the best male characters i had the pleasure of watching and that dwindled quickly, to the point i wish for the s1 118.

i don't wanna touch on the sexuality of anyone, even fictional characters but the writers have not gone out of their way in anyway to say they aren't straight and i think 7 seasons in, if it was in their plan it would've been done. it's a ryan murphy creation for goodness sake, if he wanted to he would've from ground zero.

i don't have much thought about them yet! they are very aesthetically pleasing. i just want them to stop having buck reinvent himself. we're on buck 345.0 at this point. (i love him and think oliver is GREAT at portraying him, but enough) i was really excited to see where buck and taylor could've gone especially given their history and how we had already been introduced to the audience and had a story independent of his. i also like how she wasn't falling at his feet and also in s4 when he basically used her and she called him out and told him he actually needed to treat her like a friend. why they just decided to take their story in the direction they did, i'll never know. they've written bathena AMAZINGLY and have done a wonderful job with madney, not sure why they aren't doing the same with buck. because after AB, PK, and JLH who came with an already established fanbase, buck/OS seems to be highly popular among the audience and deserves better writing. he was single majority of season 6, so i guess i can't say i wish he was single much longer. i hope natalia becomes a character we can invest in separately from buck. i'm pleased with what very little we've seen so far.

whoever, you are thank you for sending this! and here's to hoping we get season 7 by january 2024.