Innholdsfortegnelse for 6/7/2023 i Variety

We’re extremely proud of the latest edition of our favorite awards franchise. Actors on Actors returns in time for Emmy season, as we celebrate the performers of the biggest shows of this past year — from “Succession” to “The White Lotus” to “Abbott Elementary” to “The Bear.” Through all the ups and downs of a challenging 2023, these 26 actors remind us why great story-telling still matters. If you thought this was going to be a slow summer for Hollywood, the early days of June proved that theory wrong. Just before midnight on Saturday, the DGA reached a tentative three-year deal with the studios — averting at least one other strike. Now all eyes are on SAG-AFTRA. For its part, the WGA issued a statement that the DGA deal won’t…

Actors on Actors is our favorite awards-season franchise, and just like Carmy in “The Bear” as the clock ticks on dinner service, we’re always trying to raise the stakes. This season provided major get after major get, including a reunion many thought would never happen: Katherine Heigl, 13 years after leaving “Grey’s Anatomy” under a cloud of controversy, opens up to Ellen Pompeo, who has only this year hung up her fulltime scrubs. It’s a revealing chat that will make you see both stars, and what’s happened between them, in a new light. That sort of intimacy and trust flourishes between old collaborators — and the TV boom gave us plenty of options for pairings between friends. Kieran Culkin and Claire Danes, co-stars of the 2002 indie film “Igby Goes…

Adapted from the video game of the same name, HBO’s “The Last of Us” finds Pedro Pascal’s Joel in a post-apocalyptic landscape not unlike “The Walking Dead,” the zombie series that gave Steven Yeun his breakout role in 2010. As Yeun returns to TV in the Netflix series “Beef,” which chronicles a gnarly feud sparked by a road rage incident between a contractor (Yeun) and a vengeful business owner (Ali Wong), he and Pascal discuss humility (including Pascal’s faceless performance in “The Mandalorian”), shame and the chaos of driving through Los Angeles on 4/20. STEVEN YEUN: How much did you know about “The Last of Us”? PEDRO PASCAL: Ugh, next question. YEUN: OK, cool. PASCAL: I didn’t know anything about the game. The first things that came to me were…

Kieran Culkin and Claire Danes worked together on Burr Steers’ 2002 indie “Igby Goes Down,” in which Culkin played the angst-ridden 17-year-old title character to Danes’ slightly older Manhattan socialite Sookie Sapperstein. All these years later, Danes is visibly pregnant, and they chat like old pals about the difficulty of naming her third child with Hugh Dancy. “‘Cyrus,’ we came to pretty readily. ‘Rowan,’ we had to fight harder for. This one is impossible,” she says. “I realized the movie you and I did together is over half of our lives ago,” Culkin says. “It’s very nice to see you again,” Danes replies wryly, “in our midlives.” But the two actors have serious business to discuss, with Culkin convincingly telling Danes that her show “Fleishman Is in Trouble” — particularly…

Jennifer Garner’s first starring role in a TV series, as a butt-kicking spy on 2001’s “Alias,” made her an international star and launched a movie career that includes “13 Going on 30” and “Electra.” And Sheryl Lee Ralph has spent decades building a formidable list of acting credits on TV — from the ’80s soap “Search for Tomorrow” to “Moesha” — but she’s finally getting her due as the motherly teacher Barbara Howard in “Abbott Elementary.” Garner, whose family members count themselves “Abbott” fans, recently returned to the small screen as a stepmother, Hannah, dealing with the disappearance of her husband in Apple TV+’s “The Last Thing He Told Me.” Days after Garner’s birthday, the two discuss their favorite topics: motherhood, generous co-stars and dessert. SHERYL LEE RALPH: Happy birthday.…

Brian Cox and Emily Blunt have come together to discuss “Succession” and “The English,” two character-driven projects that examine the brutality of American culture. Both shows deal with wealth: Cox’s brooding media mogul Logan Roy met a shocking demise on the HBO series that had us bawling in its fourth and final season, while Blunt’s Lady Cornelia is an 1890s aristocrat seeking answers about the death of her son in the Amazon Prime Video limited series. In person, the two New York transplants have too much in common to capture in one interview. They begin chatting well before cameras roll, and keep going for 20 minutes after the shoot wraps. The two make plans for Blunt to show Cox “the best croissant in Brooklyn” as their handlers wait patiently in…

The 2023 Tony nominations aren’t just a portrait of theatrical excellence. They’re also a snapshot of Broadway in progress. After the events of 2020 prompted a wave of public pledges and new initiatives aiming to expand equity and diversity across all sectors of the business, this year’s nominations give theatermakers a chance to check on the change. No nominations list can render a complete picture of an industry and no one would argue that Broadway is done with the work, but all of this year’s nominees say they’re conscious of the ways the nominations reflect a larger, industry-wide shift. “I think this year shows we are gradually getting better,” says Bonnie Milligan, a 2023 nominee (and, for many, the frontrunner) for featured actress in a musical. The plus-sized actor finds…

For all the awards shows filling up Sunday nights and network television, it might be hard to imagine that one of the most star-studded such events is an invite-only, insider affair that has never been televised or live streamed. It’s not a corporate event or a private Rolling Stones or Beyonce concert for some billionaire’s pampered offspring. The annual Songwriters Hall of Fame induction ceremony — which takes place June 15 at its longtime home of the Marriott Marquis hotel in New York’s Times Square — is like a cross between the Grammy Awards and an annual family reunion for the tight-knit songwriting and music-publishing community. Every year, superstars receiving honors tell the room that the accolade means more to them than any other because it’s a validation from their…

This is editor-at-large Kate Aurthur’s eighth time as an Actors on Actors moderator — and while she loved doing all of them, before the Katherine Heigl-Ellen Pompeo conversation, she told them, “This is my Super Bowl.” When senior TV features editor Emily Longeretta began preparing to moderate her first Actors on Actors, she discovered a unique connection between one pairing — and surprised them with it during the conversation. Reporter Selome Hailu’s first time as an Actors on Actors moderator was for a conversation between Jenna Ortega and Elle Fanning, who had never been featured in the franchise. Before cameras began rolling, Ortega nervously joked, “We’re all virgins!” Frequent Variety contributor Greg Swales photographed our Actors on Actors pairings in Los Angeles from April 21 to April 23. “My favorite…

Jennifer Coolidge first met Jeremy Allen White at the Golden Globes in January, when they were both waiting backstage to get their statuettes engraved. Coolidge had just added another trophy to her mantel for playing the desperately lonely heiress Tanya McQuoid in Season 2 of “The White Lotus,” HBO’s biting parable about American excess. Jeremy Allen White, meanwhile, won his Globe for his tightly wound portrayal of Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto on FX’s “The Bear” — a show and a performance that function as an ode to America’s working class. Far from the idyllic beauty of Tanya’s Sicilian vacation (which ends tragically for her), Carmy cooks restaurant food as he boils with rage and grief in a cramped Chicago kitchen. Coolidge — who started out a waitress, and dated toxic chefs…

Old friends Natasha Lyonne and Melanie Lynskey have lots to reminisce about, having first forged a bond during the filming of the 1999 Kiss-inspired movie “Detroit Rock City.” But their most memorable on-screen pairing was in another movie that premiered that year — director Jamie Babbit’s queer cult classic “But I’m a Cheerleader.” A quarter century into their friendship, Lynskey and Lyonne appreciate that both of their careers are peaking now that they’re in their 40s. On Showtime’s “Yellowjackets,” Lynskey plays Shauna, a reckless New Jersey housewife traumatized by her experiences in the wilderness as a teenager. In the Peacock howdunit “Poker Face,” Lyonne portrays human lie-detector Charlie Cale, who solves crimes as she traverses the country while on the run. NATASHA LYONNE: Welcome to my soundstage. I told you…

Elizabeth Olsen and Meghann Fahy deliver two of the most nuanced performances of the Emmy season, both playing complicated women who are wives and mothers. In “Love & Death,” Olsen’s Candy Montgomery is based on a real housewife in late-1970s Texas, who out of boredom instigates an affair with Allan (Jesse Plemons), a member of her church — an illicit assignation that eventually leads to Candy being on trial for murdering Allan’s wife, Betty (Lily Rabe). In a very different setting, Season 2 of Mike White’s “The White Lotus,” Fahy plays Daphne, a character on a luxury Sicilian vacation with her husband, Cameron (Theo James), and another couple: Ethan (Will Sharpe) and Harper (Aubrey Plaza). As the tension among the four escalates, it’s both sexual and violent — and odd-smakers…

Hayden Christensen and Diego Luna have never met, but as Christensen puts it, they’ve occupied the “same galaxy” for years. Christensen rocketed from teenage obscurity in Canada when George Lucas cast him as Anakin Skywalker for 2002’s “Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones” and 2005’s “Revenge of the Sith,” which chronicled the young Jedi’s transformation into the iconic villain Darth Vader. The Mexican-born Luna — who rose to prominence in Alfonso Cuarón’s 2001 coming-of-age masterpiece “Y tu mamá también” — joined “Star Wars” for 2016’s “Rogue One,” a prequel about the band of rebel spies, led by Luna’s Cassian Andor, that steal the plans for the Death Star. Both men thought their “Star Wars” journeys ended with those films — in Luna’s case, because his character dies…

When Ellen Pompeo sees Katherine Heigl before our photo shoot, she offers a greeting worthy of Barbra Streisand. “Hello, gorgeous!” Pompeo exclaims, giving Heigl a hug. And suddenly, it’s like no time has passed since “Grey’s Anatomy” premiered as a midseason replacement in 2005 — after ABC executives considered not airing the show at all — in the time slot after “Desperate Housewives.” Ultimately, these two women somehow not only surpassed the ladies of Wisteria Lane, they redefined pop culture. Throughout this reunion, we seriously take you back to the first days of TV’s longest running primetime medical drama. As “Grey’s Anatomy” became an overnight sensation, Pompeo and Heigl were launched into the stratosphere of fame together, for better and for worse. On the plus side, the Shonda Rhimes-created series revolutionized television,…

In October 2017, Bryan Singer appeared energetic and in control as he welcomed Olympic diver Greg Louganis and Queen guitarist Brian May on the London set of “Bohemian Rhapsody.” But behind the scenes, chaos reigned. The onetime Hollywood wunderkind’s career was about to unravel, as Fox executives were growing weary of Singer’s prolonged absences and erratic behavior. On Dec. 4, Fox pulled the trigger and fired Singer, replacing him with Dexter Fletcher. As Louganis and May smiled for photos with the acclaimed director, it marked one of Singer’s last known days on a film set. Getting fired from “Bohemian Rhapsody” was a public humiliation for a filmmaker who had racked up hit after hit. But a series of personal scandals would dwarf that professional setback. Over the ensuing five and…

AWARDS CIRCUIT We write about everyone else’s awards shows all the time, so I’d like to take a moment to let Variety take a victory lap for its recent record 96 nominations for the Los Angeles Press Club’s SoCal Journalism Awards. My colleagues earning Journalist of the Year nods in various fields include Tim Gray, Clayton Davis, Owen Gleiberman, Chris Willman and Daniel D’Addario. And humble brag alert: I received nine nominations myself this year. Now it’s my turn to say, “For Your Consideration.” I bring all this up not just to boast, but also to note that one category in which I was nominated was “Feature, under 1,000 words,” for a piece about how Netflix revived the comedy “Girls5eva” after it was canceled by Peacock. It was a…

Elle Fanning, 25, and Jenna Ortega, 20, have learned a lot from their roles as Catherine the Great and Wednesday Addams (respectively). Hulu’s “The Great” and Netflix’s “Wednesday” have educated them about their craft as actors, but also about how producing can liberate them from toxic workplace dynamics. These former child stars let each other in on how they’re navigating adulthood and the pressures of social media, a topic that makes Ortega teary. ELLE FANNING: Are you a good auditioner? I’m terrible. I fainted once. I think I was 12. But I got Pinkberry and Burger King afterwards, so I was like, “This is great!” They make me so nervous. JENNA ORTEGA: I had really awful experiences with screaming and things like that. The first time I ever had to…

Four years ago, Taron Egerton revealed on “Watch What Happens Live” that his celebrity crush was Rachel Weisz. But he probably never thought anyone would tell her. When we surprise them both with the clip during this conversation, Egerton turns bright red with embarrassment. Beyond that connection, both actors have stretched to new heights on streaming shows this TV season. Weisz portrays identical twin gynecologists Elliot and Beverly in the Amazon Prime Video drama “Dead Ringers,” based on the 1988 David Cronenberg film starring Jeremy Irons. And Egerton gets jacked as prisoner James Keene, a former college football star arrested on drug charges, in Apple TV+’s “Black Bird.” TARON EGERTON: I love your show. I thought I’d start by asking about the genesis of it and whether it came from…

On their latest shows, Brett Goldstein and Theo James have created characters who unpeel deeper truths beyond their hunky appearances. Goldstein, who’s won two Emmys for portraying soccer player and coach Roy Kent on “Ted Lasso,” returned for the Apple TV+ comedy’s third season. (He’s also a co-creator and writer on “Shrinking,” about a therapist played by Jason Segel.) James joined the second season of HBO’s “The White Lotus,” set in Italy and from creator Mike White, as a chiseled, privileged vacationer. THEO JAMES: How did you end up writing for “Ted Lasso”? BRETT GOLDSTEIN: I’d done a pilot for Bill Lawrence. The pilot didn’t get picked up, but we stayed in touch, and he knew I was a writer as well as an actor. When people ask me for…

It’s no surprise that Jason Segel hit it off with Ali Wong, given their common backgrounds in comedy. And yet both performers don’t want to be boxed in by humor — they’re contenders in the Emmy race for playing characters who are far from happy-go-lucky. In Apple TV+’s “Shrinking,” Segel (also a co-creator on the show) plays a widowed father dealing with his monotonous life as a therapist, while Wong stars in Netflix’s “Beef” as a business owner caught in a game of revenge. ALI WONG: I first saw you on “Freaks and Geeks” on the VHS tapes that my boyfriend at the time’s father bought on eBay. JASON SEGEL: I was a kid. I started out acting in high school, then comedy found me. I did “How I Met…

Christina Applegate was very intentional about who stood at the podium last November when she received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Watching from the crowd with her husband and daughter at her side, Applegate heard remarks from her other family –– “Married… With Children” co-stars Katey Sagal and David Faustino, and her “Dead to Me” support system, co-star Linda Cardellini and creator/writer Liz Feldman. For Applegate, the foursome represents the full breadth of her 40-year career in Hollywood. “There was no mistake as to who I asked to speak, kind of my beginning and my…,” she hesitates for the moment, editing her thoughts in real time, before she continues, “…my possible end. That was really important to me. It was about where I came from and where…

On April 15, 2012, 2Pac made his debut appearance at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. At this point, it had been 16 years since Tupac Amaru Shakur had been murdered on the streets of Las Vegas at the age of 25. And yet there he was onstage, his holographic likeness projected with uncanny vividness alongside his onetime collaborators and labelmates Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, whom he now appeared to be speaking to and trading bars with in front of an audience of 80,000. As the first performance of its kind, the 2Pac hologram became national news, and sparked worries that a wave of holo-tours, featuring ghostly apparitions of long-dead stars, would soon be filling festival grounds and amphitheaters. Aside from a few one-offs, however, this did not…