Premiering on Prime Video beginning July 1st is the new action series ‘The Terminal List,’ which is based on the novel of the same name by Jack Carr and directed by Antoine Fuqua.
The series stars Chris Pratt as Lt. Commander James Reece, a former Navy SEAL officer investigating why his entire platoon was ambushed during a high-stakes covert mission.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Constance Wu and JD Pardo about their work on ‘The Terminal List.’
(L to R) JD Pardo and Constance Wu in Prime Video’s ‘The Terminal List.’
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Wu and Pardo, as well as Chris Pratt, Taylor Kitsch, Jeanne Tripplehorn, LaMonica Garrett, author Jack Carr, writer David DiGillio, and director Antonie Fuqua.
Moviefone: To begin with, can you both describe your characters for our audience?
JD Pardo: That’s an interesting question. My character is an original character created for the series, so I can’t really get into it too much because I think I’ll start spoiling some things. I play Tony Layun, who’s an FBI agent in San Diego, which is a smaller market. When he sees that James Reece is a fugitive and he’s wanted, and that everyone says that he can’t be caught and how dangerous he is, Tony wants to get him. So, that’s where I come in.
Constance Wu: I play Katie Buranek, who is a war correspondent, and has a personal history with journalism that makes journalistic integrity really personally important to her. She gets involved with the story of James Reece and what happened to his team of SEALs. She finds that there are a lot of inconsistencies and mystery around it. As someone who is committed to uncovering the truth and doing it with journalistic integrity, she sets on a mission in the same way James Reece sets on his type of mission. Her mission is to uncover the truth, to do justice to and for these service men and women who are so often overlooked, when they really are our nation’s heroes fighting for us.
(L to R) JD Pardo as Tony Liddel, and Christina Vidal as Mac Wilson in Prime Video’s he Terminal List.’ Photo: Courtesy of Prime Video. Copyright: Amazon Studios.
MF: Finally, can you both talk about how your character’s react to Reece’s actions in the first episode?
JP: In the beginning, my character, he got into fugitives because he likes things being black and white. He doesn’t want to get into the emotion. He doesn’t want to get into that gray. If you’re bad, you’re bad, you do bad things and I want to catch you. As it starts to unfold, he gets thrown into this gray area and then it becomes a question of morality. What is good? What is bad? What is the truth? How is the truth manipulated? What are we told? Then eventually he has to start looking within himself and what his own heart tells him. It’s really complicated, and at the same time feels completely relatable.
Constance Wu: I think Katie’s relationship with James Reece, Chris Pratt’s character, one of the things I love that it continues to evolve and change. I do think at the beginning, it’s a journalistic scoop. She’s looking for a story, but as she looks at the pieces of the story and finds some mystery and inconsistencies in it, then it becomes about a personal quest to uncover the truth, and Reece is a means to that. He’s also a person who this affected. The tragedy that happens in the beginning, it affected him and his family. So, she cares about it from a human level. The more she utilizes him as a source, the more she gets to know him as a person.
I think that evolution of understanding him and everything he’s going through, and what his goals are and why they are those goals, I think changes her point of view almost from episode to episode. That’s really fun that it’s not static because we’re all humans and we’re way more complex than that. I think that’s a good thing we can all think about.
Constance Wu as Katie Buranek on Prime Video’s ‘The Terminal List.’ Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video. Copyright: Amazon Studios.
(L to R) Wendi McLendon-Covey, Joe Lo Truglio, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Thomas Lennon, Niecy Nash, Cedric Yarbrough, and Robert Ben Garant in the Roku Channel’s ‘Reno 911! Defunded.’
Premiering on the Roku Channel beginning February 25th is the ‘Reno 911!’ revival series, ‘Reno 911! Defunded.’ The series will serve as the eighth season of the show, which originally ran on Comedy Central from 2003-2009, and then on Quibi in 2020.
Moviefone recently had a chance to speak with Thomas Lennon, Robert Ben Garant, and Kerri Kenney about their work on ‘Reno 911! Defunded.’
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You can read the full transcript of our interview below or watch the video in the player above.
Moviefone: To begin with, there were 11 years between season 6 and season 7, when the show moved from Comedy Central to Quibi. What was it like to return to these characters after such a long break between seasons?
Kerri Kenney-Silver: I think we were afraid at first. Like, is this going to work? This has been a big break. But then we quickly realized, oh, that’s right, this genius cast has only gone out in the world and gotten bigger, and stronger, and better. We came back, put on the same outfits and within five seconds, we were back. We started the show 20 years ago in the year 2000. So, we had been doing this. This was in our DNA. It was quick, and it was such a joy.
Robert Ben Garant: It’s crazy. It’s been a long time and it’s all improv. So, it’s a lot to rely on your cast to do. We have some jokes for them, but mostly everybody is creating their own dialogue in every situation. So, if people had been rusty or if the chemistry wasn’t there, we wouldn’t have anything at all. That very first day after coming back, it had been more than 10 years and Wendy and Kerri were just in it. The biggest problem is people laughing and that’s a great. So, it was great. It was very scary until it happened. As soon as we took off, it was a total blast.
MF: The series is completely improvised, so when other actors come on the show, how do you explain to them exactly what you need them to do to make the scenes work?
RBG: It would depend. Because sometimes, like Michael Ian Black, we tell him he’s trying to sell us body parts, illegal organs. Then we don’t really know what he’s going to say or the character he’s going to play. We didn’t really know the look he was going to do until we saw him on set.
Then at the other end of the spectrum, Jamie Lee Curtis reached out to us and said she wanted to be in short shorts like Tom and with an eye patch. That’s all we knew. She came in and started bossing us around. So, it really is improv. Like we have a structure sometimes, but with Jamie Lee Curtis, we didn’t have anything. She came in and just started yelling at us and making Kerri go under the table.
KKS: Generally, with guest stars we’ll ask them like, what do you want to wear? Who are you? Who do you want to have in the scene with you? Do you need an explosion? Is there any, and then it’s improv.
(L to R) Wendi McLendon-Covey, Kerri Kenney-Silver, and Thomas Lennon in the Roku Channel’s ‘Reno 911! Defunded.’
MF: Thomas, is there any subject that is off limits?
Thomas Lennon: As far as I can tell, it doesn’t seem like there is. Like on paper, there’s an astonishing number of inappropriate things that no TV show could or should talk about that we sort of do very casually.
RBG: We made the decision, because it was a big decision, no COVID. We talked about it, like are the background people wearing masks? Are we going to do any of that? And we just said, “No, this is a universe where that’s not existent.” We also made the decision, no Trump. So, we had Weird Al Yankovic play Ted Nugent. So, any of our political energy went to that.
KKS: We weren’t doing those things because they were taboo. We didn’t want to date a season. We wanted you to be able to watch years from now. But also, we wanted people to have a break from that. It felt like everything was about COVID. Like, who wants to look at masks anymore? Who wants to hear about Trump right now? So, that was really the reason. It wasn’t because like, oh, that’s too hot a button.
MF: What can fans of the original series expect from ‘Reno 911! Defunded?’
TL: We got sort of lucky in that the police were in the headlines every day, all day. So, if you’re in the business of writing a comedy show about cops, they just kept giving us three by five cards to put up on the wall of` more crazy stuff. But I mean, it didn’t really change the kind of stuff we do, but some stuff got a little specific.
There’s way more material we started doing about Karens and the idea of Karens, that became a big thing. Then also, one of our running jokes was to see who would say what our lowest salary was. If you watch episodes of ‘Reno 911!,’ the cops are always like, “Well, I made almost $9,000 last year.” We never had a lot of money, but I think we took it really far with this season.
RBG: I was playing to our strengths. I mean, we have always talked about how we don’t have enough money. We’ve always talked about how everybody hates this. We’ve always talked about how we are under trained. I think the one thing that you’ll notice is that it was actually really lucky because it was COVID, so we couldn’t have guest stars. But this last season is more about cops than it is about perps.
I think that’s twofold, one because there was COVID and we couldn’t really have that many guest stars, but also there was so much subject material just about police trying to get through their day without toilet paper. There’re all these new rules, and you got to take away our tank. It was a lot of us playing to our strengths with material that was fresh in everybody’s mind. We didn’t have to pretend we were good at something, which was a relief. I don’t know what we would’ve done.
KKS: We had never done before the concept of a riot. That was so big in the news at that very second. So, that was sort of tailor made for us being locked together in a space, like what happens when there’s a riot outside the station?
TL: Well speaking of, that was another thing that is one of the trailers for ‘Reno 911! Defunded’ is Kerri and I just improvised a PSA about please be nice to us. That sort of became part of the trailer. Us just crying in our riot gear saying, “Please, please be nice to police officers, please.”
‘Reno 911! Defunded’ premieres on the Roku Channel on February 25th.
(L to R) Wendi McLendon-Covey, Joe Lo Truglio, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Thomas Lennon, Niecy Nash, Cedric Yarbrough, and Robert Ben Garant in the Roku Channel’s ‘Reno 911! Defunded.’
Ben Schwartz from Netflix’s ‘Space Force’ Season Two.
Premiering on Netflix February 18th is the second season of the popular comedy ‘Space Force.’ The series is a workplace comedy that revolves around a group of people tasked with establishing the sixth branch of the United States Armed Forces, the United States Space Force.
Moviefone recently had the opportunity to speak with actors Ben Schwartz, Jimmy O. Yang, Diana Silvers and Tawny Newsome about their work on ‘Space Force’ season two.
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You can read the full transcript of our interview below, or watch all the interviews in the video played above.
Moviefone: As season two begins, the US Space Force is really having to prove its worth. Ben, as the social media director and the publicist, what is Tony’s biggest challenge this season?
Ben Schwartz: By the way, you’re exactly correct, that is what is happening. Tony’s biggest challenge is trying to spin this thing into something that looks positive. He has to spin this thing into showing that Space Force is worthwhile and keeping these people who work there is worthwhile.
Somehow, now he is the underdog trying to keep the story of what’s happening as positive as possible, to give people hope that this thing could actually be wonderful for our country and things like that. So, there’s a lot more on his shoulders, but also failure is just a skip away. He is very aware that he may have to start looking for another job.
MF: Jimmy, what is Chan dealing with personally and in the workplace this season?
Jimmy O. Yang: I’m not sure of the Chan and Angela possibilities. Will they, or won’t they? Relationships can cause HR complaints, but you know, it’s happening. So, I think he’s a capable scientist. He approaches everything like science, like a math problem. So, he really has to learn how to grow as a human being with his interpersonal relationships.
But it’s not just with Angela. It’s also his bromance with Tony, Ben Schwartz’s character, him being a mentee to John Malkovich’s character, almost mentoring this new intern, all while under the family umbrella of General Naird. It’s all very, very fun with very relatable human family dynamics and circumstances, even though it’s set in the very high stakes and grand scale of ‘Space Force.’
MF: Tawny, does Captain Ali have a larger role this season than she did in the first season?
Tawny Newsome: Yeah, for sure. You know, I think the writers did a great job of not ignoring the fact that she did this wild thing. She literally went to the moon. She was the first black woman on the moon. Then to just come back and kind of jump into everyday life is a big ask. So, she definitely has some tumult going on. I think we got to play with it in a really fun way.
You know, (producer) Greg Daniels had asked me, do you have like something that you do? We need an outlet for her or whatever. I was like, well, I play the drums. Could she be drumming somewhere? He’s like, yes. So, the writers ran with that. Then when I got the scripts later, I was like, oh wait. So, she’s drumming in the middle of the night in an apartment complex. That’s a serial killer move, who does that? That’s truly insane to drum, even to drum in a house, in a regular neighborhood, or in an apartment. So, that told me a lot about where she’s at and the amount of F’s she was giving at that moment, which is less than zero.
MF: Diana, your character has matured a lot between season one and season two. What happened to her between seasons that helped her to grow so much?
Diana Silvers: I think especially at that age, everything is kind of life or death. Because your emotions are heightened, you’re hormonal and there’s just a lot going on. You truly are the center of everything that revolves around you. You are the center of your universe. I think in season one, Erin felt like she wasn’t. She felt like a side character in someone else’s life. I think when, that big event happened with her mom and General Naird, she actually sees that she does matter.
She means something, and she is kind of like the center of not just her universe, but her family’s universe. I think it allowed for her to get grounded again and reground herself. So, going into Space Force and finding a parental figure in Mallory and having like two parents in a way again. Having a support system and being around other adults that genuinely care about her, she was able to explore her own identity and figure out what she wants for herself and where she wants to go with her life.
‘Space Force’ season two premieres February 18th on Netflix.
(L to R) John Malkovich, Tawny Newsome, Lisa Kudrow, Steve Carell, Jimmy O. Yang, Ben Schwartz, and Diana Silvers in ‘Space Force’ Season Two. Photo Courtesy of Netflix.
The series follows the story of Nicole (Wainwright), a widowed single mother raising her son, Dion (Young). However, things get complicated when Dion begins to manifest superpowers. To protect her son, Nicole only tells his secret to Pat (Ritter), her late husband’s best friend. Now, Nicole must help Dion control his special abilities in order to keep him safe, while also dealing with the threat from the evil Crooked Man.
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Moviefone recently had a chance to speak with Alisha Wainwright, Rome Flynn and Jason Ritter about their work on the second season of Netflix’s ‘Raising Dion.’ You can read the full interview with Jason Ritter below, or watch all of our interviews in the video player above.
Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about where we left Pat at the end of season one?
Jason Ritter: Pat turned into the giant, evil, Crooked Man at the end. It was revealed that he had been the Crooked Man the entire time. At first, we see him turn into the Crooked Man, and then he is defeated by Dion, his mother and her friends. They all come together, and we just see the dissipation of all this smoke.
Then at the very end of that season, we see one piece of smoke go to Brayden and follow him around, and that’s where we ended. We pick back up two years later, after Brayden’s been with this Crooked energy for all two years.
MF: So, we assume Pat is no longer the Crooked Man, is that correct?
JR: We hope so. Pat certainly does. Yeah. You know, it’s tough, because while he was feeding this Crooked energy, trying to survive and do all these things, he did lie to everybody. He wasn’t going around saying, “Hey, this thing is happening to me. Someone help me out.” He’s trying to figure it out all on his own, and he really did a lot of bad things.
So even though he’s coming back and saying, “You can trust me now,” anybody who has lied to anybody for a long period of time knows that you can’t just flip a switch and say, “Okay, now I’m telling you the truth. Let’s just start with you believing me now.” It takes a long time, so he’s at that stage in his redemption journey, which is at the very bottom.
I think that’s one of the fun things about Pat, is it’s sort of hard to pin him down, even how I feel about him sometimes. I can see where some of his pettiness comes in. He’s definitely a certain way when he is talking to Nicole and some of the people that he’s wounded, and then a different way talking to David, who he finds a bit frustrating. A little bit more of his selfish, angry and petty instincts come out with certain other characters, but he’s trying. He’s got some problems.
MF: As an actor, how did you go about creating this character?
JR: He is very complex. A lot of it was in the writing, and then the rest of it is that I took pieces of my own feelings about certain things. Certain ways I felt growing up and some of the ways that I was bullied, and I wasn’t bullied like crazy, but just like a normal amount of bullying.
I remember I eventually, at a certain point in my life, called it my mad scientist syndrome, where there was an element in high school where I felt like, “I think I’m okay. My friends think I’m okay. Why does the outside world not reflect that?” The mad scientist part was like there was a part of my head where I was going, “You’ll all see one day!”, or something like that.
I think that part is what I really used for Pat, this sort of thing without evidence that he has, like he deserves this certain thing that he’s not getting. The truth is, I didn’t deserve anything that I wasn’t getting at that point in my life, but this feeling of like, “I feel like I’ve done enough. I feel like I’m okay enough, so why isn’t the world mirroring how I feel on the inside?” My response to that was to work on myself and try to get better. Pat’s response is maybe the world needs to change and come to him.
MF: Can you expand on that? What did you do differently in your own life when you thought that “the world was not mirroring how you felt on the inside?”
JR: I think I really dove headfirst into my little group of friends, and we just tried to make each other laugh all the time. We all thought we were funny, even if other people didn’t. We kind of built each other up and helped each other feel okay, and feel like we had worth as people, at least to each other. I think that eventually gave me a little bit of confidence in who I was, as opposed to, I think what was happening before is I was trying to be someone who I wasn’t, and I think people can sniff that out.
I think people can go, “You’re trying to make me believe something about you that’s not true.” There’s something that’s comforting to people about people who just are who they are and are just jerks or they’re not or whatever. You go, “At least I know who you are.” Whereas this guy who’s being overly something, they’re like, “What’s your ulterior motive here?” And so, I think eventually, I was just able to let go of trying to control what other people felt about me and just getting more comfortable in who I was.
(L to R) Alisha Wainwright and Ja’Siah Young in Netflix’s ‘Raising Dion’
Opening in theaters, on digital rental, and VOD beginning January 28th is ‘Clean,’ from director Paul Solet. The film stars Oscar winner Adrien Brody (‘The Pianist’), who also co-wrote the screenplay with Solet, created the music for the movie, and served as producer.
The film centers on Clean (Brody), a recovering alcoholic and former criminal who is now living a simple life as a garbageman after the death of his daughter. He soon befriends a young girl named Dianda (Chandler DuPont) and after helping her out of a dangerous situation, gets put in the crosshairs of local mobster, Michael (Glenn Fleshler). With Michael out for revenge, Clean has no choice but to protect himself and fight back.
Moviefone recently had the opportunity to speak with Oscar-winner Adrien Brody about his new movie, ‘Clean.’ You can read the full interview below or watch it in the video player above.
Moviefone: To begin with, you are not only acting in ‘Clean’, but you are also a producer, you co-wrote the screenplay, and created the music for the movie.
What was it about this particular story that made you so passionate about this project and what was it like having the opportunity to express yourself artistically in ways that you hadn’t before?
Adrien Brody: I mean, that was part of the impetus to make it. I had been looking to find a role somewhat within this vein for forever. I love films where the hero of the film is so deeply flawed and tragic, and in spite of all of those factors, that some of them are even unlikable qualities, you root for him. That he or she is able to surmount that and do a heroic act.
I think those are the real heroes in life anyway, and sometimes characters are depicted in too clean of a heroic manner and they need a bit of grit, and they need a bit of frailty within them to overcome that. It’s a genre of films that I’ve always loved, and I wanted to bring some nuance to the character within that genre.
It’s something that I know I can do well, to play the physicality that often hasn’t been afforded to me. I just wanted to tell a story that also felt that it honored and spoke to a lot of what I am troubled with in this great nation and a lot of the frustration and anger that I feel within that ‘Clean’ represents.
Adrien Brody in ‘Clean’
I think it’s a collective feeling that we all have of a sense of powerlessness against oppressive forces. The ability of pharmaceutical giants to create mass addiction that then they’ll reign in. Then all these people turn to street drugs because they can’t afford to get their fix that they’ve been fed.
There’s this undercurrent of so much hardship that people and young people, especially in impoverished areas must escape from in order to have a life ahead. So, I wanted that in the scope of an entertaining film, not to shy away from them, if that makes sense.
Then the music. The music is another part of that. That is also deeply influenced by my life growing up in Queens, New York, through the birth of hip hop and through everything that feels right for the tone. It felt like a character within the movie. So, that was an afterthought, I didn’t set out to take on even more responsibility. It just felt like it was my responsibility to share that and to help bring more emotional complexity to the overall picture.
MF: Finally, can you talk about collaborating with director Paul Solet both on the screenplay and as well during production?
AB: Paul’s wonderful. We had worked in the past on ‘Bullet Head.’ I pitched Paul the idea of doing this together and really asking his help. Because I didn’t really have the confidence to write a screenplay on my own. I trusted his sensibilities and he brought so many interesting qualities to this that were truthful to him as well. It was a very interesting process and I greatly appreciate all that he’s brought to this.
(L to R) Director Paul Solet and Adrien Brody on the set of ‘Clean’
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Staying in a bungalow over the ocean, the couple soon finds themselves fighting for their lives when a storm carries their bungalow away from shore and out to sea. Lost, exhausted, injured, hungry, and in need of fresh water, they attempt to survive but that becomes even more difficult as a great white shark begins to circle them. Now, they must put their past aside and work together, if they want to survive.
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Moviefone recently had the chance to speak with Alicia Silverstone about her work on ‘The Requin.’ You can read the full interview with Silverstone below, or watch our interview with both her and actor James Tupper in the video player above.
Moviefone: To begin with, you spend most of this movie either in the water or wet. Can you talk about the challenges of acting in those conditions?
Alicia Silverstone: Well, it’s freezing and that’s miserable. Every time the dear man, who was in charge of spraying me down, would come near me, I would just say, get away from me. Please get away from me. Because they have to make you wet. I would say, we don’t have to be wet now. I’ve dried, negotiating how wet I have to be. The water was freezing. We had a freezing cold pool.
At one point, the set medic had to pull me aside and he’d taken my temperature and it was dropping really low. He was like, “She needs a break. She has to get warm.” I’m face planted in the sand and they’re throwing a bucket of water on my face trying to give the idea that the ocean is waking me up. I’m shivering because there’s no sun, and it’s just freezing. That happened a lot.
I got bruised, I got beaten, but I was so happy the whole time. It’s extraordinarily challenging physically, the freezing. I was even just hurting myself all the time, pulling things from the act of survival. But in the end, every single day I was just so excited to be there.
I love Le-Van Kiet’s films. He made these Vietnamese films and two of them that I saw were so beautiful. So, I was just there for that. I was so willing to do whatever, to jump into that ocean and just see what would happen and that’s what I did. I actually was happy all the time. No matter how hurt I was, I was having fun.
MF: Can you talk about the emotional and mental state of your character when the film begins and what a survivor she is, not only because of what she goes through in the movie, but also because of what happened to her before the film begins?
AS: Thank you for asking that. She essentially loses her child at birth and what a traumatic experience that would be. Losing a child at any time is just the most gut-wrenching thing. So, she’s got PTSD, as you would. It’s really destroying her marriage. She’s got rage. It’s like she’s experiencing this thing, and no one can understand it. Her husband isn’t upset enough or he’s not doing it right enough, because she’s so consumed with this grief.
Then when they’re on this trip, they’re really trying to save their marriage. That’s what they’re there to do. You see glimmers of it, you see where they are coming together, and it feels hopeful again. Then you see her have another PTSD moment where she goes right back in. He cuts his foot on a rock and she’s like, “Blood.” She goes crazy about the blood, and that’s all very real and present for her.
I think that when they have to fight for their lives, somehow all that trauma melts away. Because now it’s just the new trauma. It’s a new trauma and they have to just live, and she becomes a warrior. I noticed on day one that I have no muscles. I’m working on that now. I was very soft when I arrived. I exercised a little, but I’m not a Rock-type person. I don’t exercise every day with muscles. You know what I mean?
I like that for this movie because It might be less interesting if I had ripped muscles everywhere. Because then it’s like ‘The Terminator.’ She’s not that. She’s just a woman trying to make it. But I noticed that because they would say, “Can you do that?” I’d say, if I had muscles I think I could. But I don’t have any, so I don’t know. I would just do everything, but then I would be in pain afterwards.
Alicia Silverstone in ‘The Requin’
MF: Finally, are you a fan of shark movies?
AS: I am not. I’m not your normal person, because I don’t watch a lot of movies at all. So, I haven’t seen a lot of films. The genre definitely would freak me out. I don’t like anxiety. I don’t want to be stressed. I get it every day. I don’t need more. But I like acting in it. I want to also say I love sharks and I don’t think they’re so scary. I don’t want one near me, but I want them to be left alone and unharmed.
I like to think she’s being hunted (by the shark). The director does too, because of the environmental damage that we’ve done as consumers and people in the world. They’re coming closer and closer, coming after us because they don’t have what they need. But I think that if you like shark movies or you like thrilling adventure, this is the movie for that. People love being scared, frightened and anxious. They like that. This movie does all of those things very well, I think.
Emeraude Toubia, Desmond Chaim, and Rome Flynn talk about the relationship between their three characters.
Moviefone: Emeraude, I loved this series. It’s just so… It’s like a big hug to watch it. So Lily is… She has family love, she has sibling love, and she’s searching for romantic love. So, talk to me about her sibling love and her search for romantic love.
Emeraude Toubia: Yes. I love Lily so much, because I feel she reminds me of myself. She reminds me of all my girlfriends, and we’re all desperately, sometimes, looking for love. We want to find the perfect person. So she has ups and downs. She has her perfect on paper boyfriend, but unfortunately he’s not fulfilling her in other ways. So I think it’s really brave of her to break up with him and value herself and realize she needs more. Not that he’s not good enough, but for her, it’s just it’s time to move on. So I think that’s brave. And I just think it’s she’s spunky, she’s human more than anything. And I think it’s really nice for just everyone to see all her struggles and what she goes through and how it’s okay to sometimes just be by yourself and learn a little bit more about you before taking that next step with somebody else.
MF: Well, Desmond, she kind of leans on Nick’s shoulder.
Toubia: That’s all she does. I promise!
MF: Nicks naked shoulder, I might add.
Desmond Chaim: I wish. Yeah. Look, I don’t know if he is what she needs in the long term emotionality of the thing. But there is definitely that moment of it’s Christmas, there is this thing of love in the air and when you’re single on Christmas, which I think can be a very universal experience. There can be this explosion of passion that just drives a very, very intense encounter. And can lead both parties to consider a bunch of things that they maybe haven’t considered before.
MF: And Rome, Santiago’s got some issues.
Rome Flynn: So, what issues do you think?
MF: He is the most stand-up guy. I feel like he has so much integrity, but he’s got some love issues.
Flynn: Yeah. I don’t know if I would classify his issues, but I just think his perspective is one more practical. And that’s what I think is more unique. The dynamic between Lily and Santiago is that, they’re on completely different ends of how they see relationships and see love. And somehow they meet in the middle. And I think that’s kind of how it works in life sometimes, and you end up being closer to those people that don’t necessarily believe in everything that you believe. But, you want to see them win after that. You want to see how that develops. And so, yeah, maybe a little bit issue with love, but in a way I think that’s the relationship that people go through. And so it’s been great to be able to play that.
MF: You said practical. Love is not practical. That’s the whole thing.
Flynn: And you can’t say that it’s right or wrong. And that’s the unique thing about it.
Chaim: Love’s infinite.
Flynn: Exactly, loves infinite, right? But it’s also there is, I feel like, some sort of science behind it. What he’s saying is kind of true about the relationship patterns and how people get in relationships, and then they’re doing the same exact things, it’s kind of right, but hey…
Actors Vincent Rodriguez III and Mark Indelicato talk about what the show means to them.
(L-R): Desmond Chiam (Nick Zhao), Vincent Rodriguez (Henry), Mark Indelicato (Jorge Diaz Jr.), Emeraude Toubia (Lily Diaz)
Moviefone: So Vinnie, we’ll start with you. I really loved this series. I loved the love in all different forms, the inclusivity of it. What does this series mean to you?
Vincent Rodriguez III: Gosh. I mean, to me, the series means positive, compassionate, authentic humanity for all.
MF: Those were great adjectives.
Rodriguez: Our show is… I mean, I feel like a broken American saying this, and I feel like, oh, other shows might chime in like, “Hey, what about us?” But I really feel like this show is going to have a huge impact on the people who watch it. And it had definitely had an impact on us as the actors. We just had a press conference, and hearing the stories from my fellow cast mates who are incredible and have amazing careers and have played amazing roles. And now the fact that we all got to be assembled to portray these characters to tell this story led by Gloria Calderón Kellett, who wrote it with the intention of showing the world that we’re all different, we’re all beautiful, we all need family, we deserve joy, and we deserve a community, and we’re all capable and deserving of love.
No matter how old you are, no matter what ethnic background you have or what spectrum of the LGBTQ Queer Transgender community that you’re a part of, you belong, and you are deserving, and I think it’s something we need. We need to see these characters celebrated in the way that they are celebrated in With Love. Which is why December 17th is going to be a very exciting day when 250 countries get to actually experience what we felt for two months through five episodes. So it’s pretty…it’s a lot, and it feels our hearts and hopefully the audience will feel that too.
MF: And Mark, how about for you?
Mark Indelicato: Well, I was very, very excited to explore a very multidimensional character. I think that Jorge Jr is dealing with familial relationships, Platonic relationships and romantic relationships all at the same time simultaneously. And I think that as an actor, that’s extremely rewarding and extremely interesting to be able to have on the page and also get the liberty and the agency and autonomy to create a very well-rounded and fully realized character. And that was really the impetus for me to come onto this project. And also, I’ve never done a romantic comedy before, and I felt like this was just a joy to do. It made me feel very happy to make, which I hope shines through for the audience and that they’re very happy to watch it.
MF: Oh, it did shine through for me, and I was so happy watching it. Can you describe for me, Mark, your relationship with Lily and also your relationship with Henry?
Indelicato: Sure. Well, my relationship with Lily is extremely interesting because I feel like there’s a lot of times a sibling rivalry, right? And I think that in this show, in With Love, Jorge and Lily are “ride or dies.” They wear each other’s names on their necks, literally. And that was something that I was very, very adamant about is that, rather than having our own name plate necklaces, we would wear each other’s. Because when I read the pilot for the first time, I felt such a strong connection to this relationship, this familial relationship, between brother and sister that is completely rife with unabashed love. And I think that in a show called With Love one would perhaps assume that this is all about romantic love, but it’s not.
And I think that Jorge and Lily’s relationship is very indicative of the kind of multiplicity of love. But then you have Jorge and Henry who are very much in love with each other in a romantic capacity, but that is still very rife with conflict, whether that’s…perhaps not conflict between the two of them in a very traditional way of fighting and this and that, slamming of doors and… But I think that for Jorge, the conflict stems from his own insecurities about falling in love and staying in love. And what does that mean to be in love and be a good partner? And so I was very, very happy and very grateful and very interested in exploring the different ways in which we all love.
Constance Marie and Benito Martinez talk about their characters’ relationship.
(L-R): Constance Marie (Beatriz Diaz), Benito Martinez (Jorge Diaz Sr.)
Moviefone: Constance, what does this series mean to you?
Constance Marie: Oh, it means Latinos have finally made it to the upper middle class. I’ve been waiting for…30 something years for that to happen. And to have multifaceted, diverse…rom-com love is groundbreaking. And I think in society right now with all that we’ve dealt with COVID and divisiveness in America, we really need a show like this. And especially around the holidays, when we all need love. And this show is great for that.
MF: And like I said, this show deals with all kinds of love, like romantic love, family love, self-love. It’s not just a rom-com.
Marie: Yes.
MF: So, Benito, where is the love relationship between Beatriz and Jorge Sr. at?
Benito Martinez: Yeah. Well, it travels…it moves around, that’s our journey. So it starts in one place. I think I’m in one place. I realize I’m not in one place. And then I have to work hard to get back to some place. But ultimately, it’s a long term related that is built in trust and love that has some bumps in the road. And it’s that a…that investment that we’ve made over time that helps us get past the rough parts.
But it’s…you said it, “It’s a big warm hug.” And for me, it’s fun to see it as a story of a family and all the celebrations that happen. All the weirdness that happens at holiday time. The expectations of what it’s like at Valentine’s and 4th of July.
There are weird expectations that we have of the holiday within themselves, and then add to that family and church and relationships. It’s a mess.
Marie: Yeah.
Martinez: It’s expensive, it’s a mess, it’s time-consuming. It’s all of that.
Marie: Yes.
Martinez: And so for me, what’s fun about the show is we just do it, and we have fun with it, and we grow from it. And I like that.
MF: I think there’s something in this for everybody.
Marie: Yes.
MF: Something that everybody can see in it and grow from it. Constance, I love the family aspect of this and the huge Diaz family and all their quirks. Can you kind of give me an overview of the Diaz family?
Marie: I think at the core of the Diaz family is humor and love and acceptance. And that is something that all of us crave from our families. And we have a lot of diverse love relationships in our family. And it breaks down a lot of stereotypes, like Benito’s character, who’s the Stoic Latino man. You would think that he’s very closed-minded, and he is not at all. And the generational acceptance of younger generations and their diverse sexual paths. It’s…at the core of all of that is that your family is here for you. And I also learned a lot of the Latino celebrations because every episode is a different holiday and some of them I knew about and some of them I didn’t. And it is just…this show is like a wonderful…and our family is like a one wonderful invitation to be a part of the love.
MF: And Benito, there’s some strife in the marriage of Beatriz and Jorge Sr. How does Jorge handle this?
Martinez: He goes on the drinking binge.
Marie: No, he wasn’t.
Martinez: It’s off camera, but he’s a mess.
MF: That’s the backstory.
Martinez: She finds him in the car, out cold in the backyard. No, it is actually the discovery of that things aren’t perfect that sends Jorge into that moment of, what happened? And I think anytime you’re in a relationship where you don’t realize your partner is…isn’t happy, and you think you are. You have to realign things and that’s basically it. I mean, in a nutshell it is a realignment, but it’s the learning to realign that wakes up a relationship it’s a…but yeah, it’s the challenge of the journey.
Isis King and Todd Grinnell talk about how the show’s inclusivity is so special for them.
(L-R): Isis King (Sol Perez), Todd Grinnell (Dr. Miles Murphy)
Moviefone: Isis, this series is so beautiful. I really loved it. I loved all different forms of love. Also, the inclusivity of it. What does this series mean to you?
Isis King: Well, I’ve never seen a storyline of like this for someone who looks like me. So to have a career, to have the family support, to have the friend support and then to possibly find love. I think those are things that we’ve always just said we wanted to see. And, I think that every human being should be able to see that type of representation. So, to be that representation is kind of mind-boggling because I didn’t know, it hasn’t been done yet, for a holiday theme rom-com, tv series, or movie. So, I’m just so grateful to be a part of it. And I watched it back the other day and I remember laughing, saying aw, to crying, and I’m just so grateful. There’s no trauma related, they are just people living their lives, trying to find love.
MF: Yeah, Todd, this is what I love about it. I was so happy watching it. What does this series mean to you?
Todd Grinnell: It means everything to me. It’s just so, it fills me with a lot of pride to be able to be part of a storyline like this in a show like this, where we’re just celebrating love and destigmatizing relationship constrictions and stereotypes, and just telling a story about two human beings who have fallen in love and are finding happiness with each other. And, to get to do that with Isis is such an honor. It’s… We’ve had so much fun working together and I just, I love acting with you, Isis!
King: I love acting with you too, Todd!
Grinnell: I miss it.
King: I miss it too. Hopefully we get to do more.
Grinnell: We’ve got to do more.
MF: I love it. More love going on right here in this interview, Isis, who is Sol and what is that relationship with her and Dr. Murphy?
King: So Sol, is a non-binary trans femme, and they are an oncologist, who works at the hospital. Who’s super focused, super kind of conservative and Miles Murphy is a plastic surgeon and always finds himself over on Sol’s side of the hospital. And so, just kind of need a reminder to give people a chance. I think Sol is just so focused on career, family, friends, that’s enough. And I can really relate to that because I’m kind of the same. And, sometimes I have friends like you need to go on a date, you need to give somebody a chance. So I really resonate with this character, and it’s refreshing to see a trans or non-binary character who isn’t just overly sexualized, and that’s all. It’s like, nope, they have a career, they have all this support system, and just a normal person. We are super diverse, complex people, and it’s nice to just see a character that reflects that.
MF: Absolutely. I think sometimes the feeling is people like that are a mess and Sol is so, not a mess, at all. And Todd, what does Dr. Miles Murphy mean to you? And what does that relationship with him and Sol?
Grinnell: Well, Miles to me just represents a big, open heart. He’s a guy that just wants, he just wants love, just like every character in this show. And it’s been, gosh, it’s just so fun to get to do this and share this whole thing with the world. It’s just… the show is really special. And, I think everybody’s going to… It’s a… To me shooting it, felt like… and being with this cast and being with Gloria and being with our crew and our writer’s room, I mean, it’s, it feels like a big warm hug. And I think that’s what it’s going to feel like for the rest of the world too.
Series creator Gloria Calderón Kellett shares her inspiration for the project.
(L-R): Constance Marie (Beatriz Diaz), Gloria Calderón Kellett (Showrunner, Executive Producer, Gladys Delgado)
Moviefone: I just feel so happy after watching this series.
Gloria Calderón Kellett: Good. That’s the goal.
MF: It’s like a big hug. That’s what we’ve been talking about in the interviews. It is so heartwarming, all the different forms of love and the inclusivity. Where did this idea come from?
Kellett: The pandemic, two years at home, not seeing people. My Instagram feed was full of black and brown and queer and Asian bodies in trauma. And I was like, I need to make something for this community. It’s been so heavy.
And so I think that the antidote to hate is love. And so to be able to put out stories of multi-generational, multi-faceted people that happen to look like us and have them experience joy and love and celebration and family was really what I needed as a creator, what I wanted to see on TV, and what was severely lacking.
So it’s just a cocktail for me because I get something out of making it that heals my heart, and then hopefully the people receiving it are getting that hug you’re talking about. That was intention. I always think about the person on the other side of the black box, and that is what I want them to receive right now.
MF: You absolutely succeeded.
Kellett: Good.
MF: 100%. And you also act in the series?
Kellett: I do.
MF: Yeah. That must be fun.
Kellett: It was so fun. I didn’t intend to. I just kept on pitching things for Gladys, and my number two on the show was like, “Well, you’re obviously playing Gladys. That has to happen.” I was like, “Oh, okay.” So it was so fun. So fun to step in with titans. Constance and Benito, they are titans. So it was really glorious for me.
MF: Now, where did the idea of centering the episodes around holidays come from? Because the holidays are such a heightened time anyway. Emotions are higher during the holidays.
Kellett: Emotions are high. Well, again, that was just a lack. We have so many New Year’s traditions, Latinos have. I’ve never seen them on TV. We walk around with the suitcase. We eat the grapes. All that stuff is stuff that we do. And I was like, “I would love to have it at the periphery. I want it to be in the background because that’s what we really do.” And people will be like, “Wait, what are all these fun traditions?” But it’s not a very special episode. It just happens to be going on the way it would in a family while all the family drama is playing out.
And so I just wanted to see us in the holidays. It just feels like there is an erasure of our existence, generally speaking, that I get to make up for on the show, and I get to wrap it in a beautiful … All of our directors were women, women of color. Our DP, Sandra Valde-Hansen is Filipina. We had all these women making a beautiful, warm show. And so all of that together was just glorious for me.
MF: Your filmmakers just sound fabulous, as well as your cast. Did you have a hand in casting this?
Kellett: Oh, yeah. Oh, no, I cast the whole thing. Yes. Yeah. It’s very important, this cast. Amazon was so supportive. Leslie Litt was our casting director. I’ve been working with her for many years, so she knew exactly what I wanted. Grounded people, grounded actors. It just so happened they ended up being gorgeous, but really they’re there for their immense talent, their immense heart, the layers with which they give these characters that could be stereotyped in other hands. And we were all very aware that we got to make something special. And to be able to put in a little bit of nutrition into a rom-com, which is seemingly an innocuous entertainment, we got to break ground with so many of these characters. And it’s really, really exciting for us.
‘Harlem’ is a new comedy series on Prime Video about four best girlfriends living in Harlem NYC. The series was created by Tracy Oliver, and features Meagan Good, Jerrie Johnson, Grace Byers, and Shoniqua Shandai as the stylish and ambitious women that the show follows. Tyler Lepley plays a former flame of Good’s character, and all of these talented folks spent time talking to Moviefone about their new series.
(L-R): Grace Byers, Shoniqua Shandai, Jerrie Johnson, and Meagan Good in ‘Harlem.’ (Photo courtesy of Amazon Studios)
First, Meagan Good and Jerrie Johnson talk about how much fun they had on set.
Moviefone: So, let’s talk ‘Harlem.’ Listen, I can truly appreciate a real sisterhood. These ladies had each other’s backs, genuinely. They were there for one another, through their wins and their losses. Or I would say lessons actually, right?
Jerrie Johnson: Yes.
MF: So Meagan, Camille is a professor, but I would say that she learned her most valuable lesson through her life’s journey. So what is something that Camille could teach us?
Meagan Good: Oh gosh. What I love about Camille is that she’s hopeful. She’s always hopeful. Something can get her down and she can get really disappointed and hard on herself and feel a little bit crazy. And then she always resets her mind and goes, “You know what? It’s okay. I got this. I’m going to figure it out, and it’s going to be great. And no matter what, it’s going to be fine.” You know? I love that about her, because I think that we all, at some point, need to take that approach. Because we do get down on ourselves, and we do get hard on ourselves, and we do get really discouraged.
And being discouraged can cause depression and all kinds of stuff. And I think we need to have the mindset of, you know what? It’s always going to always be okay, and no matter what. And we will figure it out. And it’s okay to not know and not have the answers for a minute and to walk this thing out called life. So I think that’s what I’ve learned most from Camille, and I hope that it’s something that the other people take away as well.
MF: So Jerrie, if you can give Ty any advice based on her love life, her passions and careers, what would you say to her?
Johnson: I would tell her that she can be a little bit more vulnerable. I think her heart chakra may be a little blocked. Yeah.
Good: She’s cold as ice.
Johnson: (Laughing) Oh!
MF: That’s good. This series, it just seems like it was so much fun to film. What was it like with everyone on set?
Good: Like this. Just absolutely ridiculous. One second, we’re praying, the next second, we’re twerking. Just, one second, we’re singing Lloyd’s, “Lay It Down,” and songs from, what is the movie called with Robert Townsend and Leon?
Good: And then we’re singing, ‘Dreamgirls,’ and she’s doing Effie’s part and there’s just so much going on. And it’s so wonderful, and such a breath of fresh air, because it’s not always like that. And with TV, it’s different. It’s not a race, it’s a marathon. You got to pace yourself. And there’s nothing more wonderful than coming to work, and you’re excited about the role you get to play, and you’re excited about the people you get to play with, and you genuinely love them, and you genuinely pray for each other, and hold each other down, and confide in each other, and pour into each other, and love on each other. And then you leave set, and you go do that in the real world with the same people.
Johnson: Yeah.
Good: t’s really special and wonderful.
MF: That’s beautiful.
Johnson: There was a moment where I was sick and Meagan was on FaceTime with me, while I’m in the hospital. And Devon came in and prayed over me, and I’m, “You gonna sit here with me while I’m in this hospital?” And she’s, “Yes. I want to make sure you are okay.” And I think it’s just a testament to the kind of people that were hired to be on this show. These women, we know what it costs to be nasty. We just know that we don’t have to do that. We’re not in competition with each other. We’re actually in flow with each other. We’re actually building with each other, and that makes us all rise to the occasion.
Good: Yeah.
Johnson: So the set was a good old time.
Good: Yeah.
MF: That’s great.
Good: You ever see that picture? It’s an animated meme where you see the woman, here, put your foot here, and you go like this, and then they go like that and the person pulls them up. That’s what it’s like every day on set.
Next, Grace Byers & Shoniqua Shandai discuss the challenges their characters face in the first season.
Moviefone: So Grace, what is it about Quinn that did not allow her to give up on her passion despite the ups and downs of the business?
Grace Byers: Oh, I think that there is a very pure part of Quinn. And honestly, I believe that this lives in all of us where we are born and built to love, we’re born and built to connect. I think that’s why whenever we disconnect, it’s so difficult because it takes no time to fall in love with someone or to express love with someone or to really feel a comradery or a closeness to someone, but it takes forever to disconnect. And so I think that Quinn really zeros in on and amplifies that desire and that need for love because I believe that she truly feels like it’s a core part of her identity. And I think without love or without the hope or idea of love, I’m not sure that she would even know who she is. And I think that that’s all of us, just in this world as human beings.
And so I really love that about Quinn. I love that no matter what, she will pursue that love. She will go for that love. And she won’t ever stop chasing after that because I feel it truly is the strongest kind of energy that can permeate throughout the world.
MF: Absolutely. Absolutely. Shoniqua, I love Angie.
Shoniqua Shandai: Thank you.
MF: She’s so vibrant and real, she’s the type of girlfriend everyone needs in their circle.
Byers: Yeah.
Shandai: Absolutely.
MF: Yeah. So, what challenges would you say that Angie faced when it came to her career, her love life, her passions?
Shandai: Yes. I think the challenges she faces in her career and her love life are actually very similar. Angie almost had it. She was looked at somewhat as successful in school and always had this trajectory of being the star, getting exactly what she always wanted. And she suffered this disappointment that completely rocked her world, that came out of nowhere. And now she’s doubting everything while also putting up this outward persona of, “I got it together. I’m cool.” But inside, she doesn’t know whether it’s going to come. She doesn’t know whether it’s possible for her. And it’s the same thing I feel like in love. She has these relationships that are almost impossible to keep together. Almost setting herself up to know that, “This won’t last because then it won’t hurt me. It can’t disappoint me.”
And I think really her biggest journey is going to be healing from that. And also beyond that, getting the confidence. As much as she’s outwardly confident, it’s having the confidence to trust in something she can’t control. Which is, “I can’t control whether people receive me or not musically. And I can’t control whether of people receive me in love, but I’m going to go for what I deserve,” in spite of always feeling like she is deserving. She is a big old complexity.
Byers: Yes.
Shandai: Yeah. These complications.
Byers: We all are. That’s the truth.
Shandai: Yes.
Tyler Lepley talks about his character, Ian.
Moviefone: So, let’s talk about Ian, because Ian comes in, and he shakes some things up.
Tyler Lepley: For sure.
MF: So, give us some insight on your character. Who is he, and what is he about?
Lepley: He’s about finding who he is. He’s about finding his purpose. On one hand, he’s this very gifted, creative, studied chef. He’s studying under a world-renowned chef to try to find out his passion and how it’s going to come to fruition. He is a very passionate, driven person, whether it’s about his work life or his love life, which, really, where we meet him at, he’s left in conflict between the two. And he’s like all of us in the sense that he’s just a man trying to find his way. He’s in the process of trying to figure out who he is and where he stands. That’s how we’re introduced to Ian.
MF: So, Tyler, if you could give Ian… If you could give him any advice about his career or relationships, what would you say to him?
Lepley: First, I would say, “Ian, pull up a chair, I want to have a talk with you.” I would say, “It behooves you to chase your passion.” We’re not here to settle, we’re not here to pay a couple bills, and then just croak out. At least in terms of how I feel, not to take it too deep. But, you’re right. Even though you’re going through some obstacles, and you’re going through some conflicts that may feel negative, you’re right on the path you’re supposed to be.
And you’d be surprised, if you just take a few more steps, what it’s going to bring back to you. In terms of your love life, let’s figure out what your priority is first. Is it finding who you are, or is it making your girlfriend happy? And, based upon your answer, we can figure out if you’re in the right space. So, I believe, based upon watching your 10 episodes, that your answer is your passion. So, then, we may have to try to revisit this, or put it to bed as is, because the secondary can’t come before the primary.
MF: Wow. That’s good. Do you think he would listen to that advice?
Lepley: I don’t know. Ian’s like myself, we’re a little hardheaded. He might not listen, but I think even if he didn’t listen, he would feel that though, because, even as we watch the show, that’s what he does. He chases his passion, as opposed to letting the passion go and letting his dreams go, and then just sitting here in a space that he already knows. So, I think he would… As a matter of fact, I’m going to change my answer. I think he would end up listening.
MF: So you were surrounded by amazingly beautiful, talented women. I mean, what was it like? What was the experience on set, working with everyone?
Lepley: What I realized is that… I had a hunch that it was going to be like this, but you look on the outside, and they’re all so beautiful, but then to work with them, the beauty is on the inside. It really resonates from the inside first. They’re all, I mean… It’s just such a… I used this analogy earlier. They’re just like… I know it’s about two, but they’re really like four peas in a pod, and to see them play off each other and to watch their bond, to watch their sisterhood, it’s inspiring. And to have them be so welcoming, to open their arms and have me be a part of this, not just on the script, but in real life too, it’s just a treat, man. It’s just been a blessing to be around those ladies. And I learned a lot from them on set, as an artist, and it was a great thing to be able to work with them, but it was even a bigger treat to be able to build a friendship with them off of set.
Series creator, writer, and executive producer Tracy Oliver shares her inspiration for the show.
Moviefone: How did the concept of ‘Harlem’ come about, and why Harlem?
Tracy Oliver: Well, it came about just from real life and the stuff that I was looking at the time was showing New York. ‘Girls’ was really popular, and ‘Broad City’ was really popular, and I love those shows and have so much respect for the creators. I just didn’t see myself and I didn’t see a lot of black and brown people in New York represented. And just in general, over the years, I’ve just noticed New York doesn’t have a lot of diversity, and it shows when they’re set there and Harlem almost never was getting shot in comedies, in particular.
It just was, they would shoot it every single neighborhood in Manhattan, except for Harlem. And for me, I just always felt I was kind of home in Harlem, even though I’m not from there. I just felt it was a place that I belonged and it was beautiful. And it was a rich history there. And I just wanted to give it some love, to give the residents and the people of Harlem who are so special some love. And I wanted to do that way back in the day because there was just nothing like it. And yeah, so it just came from a place of love for me. Because I enjoyed my experience there, and it was a really magical time.
MF: I love that. And the cast was great too. Definitely, great cast. Everything definitely came together, and I could definitely foresee a lot more seasons of ‘Harlem’ to come. So I’m excited for that.
Season three of ‘Hanna’ finds Hanna (Esmé Creed-Miles) teaming up with her former enemy Marissa Wiegler (Mireille Enos) to take down Utrax from the inside. That means manipulating John Carmichael (Dermot Mulroney) into helping them, but they discover a deeper conspiracy involving a new foe; the ruthless Gordon Evans (Ray Liotta). The cast recently sat down with Moviefone to talk about the upcoming season.
‘Hanna’ stars Esmé Creed-Miles and Mireille Enos
Esmé Creed-Miles and Mireille Enos talk about their characters learning to work together.
Movefone: So Esmé, tell me where season three picks up from season two.
Esmé Creed-Miles: Season three picks up with Hanna returning to the Meadows, which is confusing. And we wonder is she perhaps one of the baddies now, which of course we don’t really wonder that, but then it’s revealed that she’s working alongside Marissa to infiltrate from the inside, the Utrax world place.
MF: I think that’s key to this series. We are always wondering like, Who’s who? Are they bad now? Are they good now? I think that’s part of the charm of the series. And Mireille, where do we find Marissa in season three?
Mireille Enos: So, part of the plan that Hanna and Marissa have is that Marissa is going to pretend to be dead. So she has to go deep, deep, undercover, and she’s moving the chess pieces from her hidden bunker. Together, they have Carmichael under their thumb, and they are going to try to deconstruct Utrax from the inside.
MF: Tell me as much as you can about the interaction that you have, Esme, with Carmichael this season.
Creed-Miles: Well, working with Dermot was a dream. He’s the best. And it was interesting. I mean, again, he’s a character who, I guess, in season two is more of an ominous figure, and then in season three, just feels like a Q-Tip who’s just being like pushed around by these different powerful people, like Stapleton. He’s like this guy who’s just being, meh, by Stapleton and, meh, by Marissa. It’s funny.
Enos: Yeah. He’s fighting for his life. He’s just like, whatever opportunities are in front of him, he’s trying to take so that he can get out. We feel bad for him.
Creed-Miles: Yeah. He’s not the baddie or the goodie, he’s just-
Enos: No, he’s really a pawn this year.
Creed-Miles: Yeah.
MF: He’s out for himself this season, right?
Creed-Miles: He’s trying to just look after himself. It’s true. Yeah. Yeah.
MF: And Mireille, tell me out Gordon Evans. I mean, Marissa and Gordon are familiar with each other.
Enos: Yes. They know each other. They have known each other for a very long time. He’s a very powerful figure in the United States in government in the espionage world. And he had a powerful effect on Marissa early on when they knew each other. And he’s one of the few people that she’s scared of. And it’s been a long time. She hasn’t seen him. And then he reemerges in her life in a way that really just rocks hers.
MF: And Mireille, how would you describe the relationship between Hanna and Marissa this season?
Enos: It’s very hard for Marissa to work in a team. She always likes to be the one in charge, and there’s still that dynamic at the beginning that she’s the final say on everything. And as the season continues, that shifts, and they grow to trust each other. They each give each other room to take the lead, and that’s very new for her.
MF: And Esmé, I’m always, when I watch the show, just so astounded at these girls and how finely tuned they are. They’re not scared. They show no emotion. They never get worked up when something horrible is happening. So this has been really coming of age for Hanna through the seasons. So I’m wondering what it’s like for you personally coming from season one now to season three, because your character has really grown. We’ve really seen three different parts of Hanna’s life in these three seasons.
Creed-Miles: Well, I was just turning 18 when I was cast, so it was a lot of pressure, and sometimes I didn’t handle that great. Sometimes I did. It was just being a young person, essentially a teenager in this big with all this responsibility, so it encouraged me to, I guess, grow up and take care of things that I probably wouldn’t have done if I didn’t have the responsibility of a TV show. And so for that, I’m very grateful. And also just to have a footing in an industry that’s really difficult to get into again, I’m very grateful for.
MF: And Esmé, back to your character now, Hanna and the rest of the girls, at the end of the day, you do see things through it that shows that even though they’re so finely trained, they are still young girls. And so Hanna has a relationship this season with Abba. So what is that relationship like?
Creed-Miles: I think it’s the first time she really falls in love and I think that it complicates her obligations, and it complicates her life because now there’s not just the goal of whatever espionage-esque endeavor that they’re on. It’s like, oh, there’s someone else to protect and that person’s child as well. So it adds another element of tension into the narrative arc, I guess. That’s super pretentious. I’m sorry.
Enos: No, it’s not at all. Something I love about it is there’s these two scenes, there’s one scene in episode one in which Hanna says to Marissa, I” only know how to fight. If you gave me the life I’ve always wanted, I wouldn’t know what to do with it.” And then a few episodes later, she’s having a conversation with a boss in which he’s describing the home. If in some fairytale life, they got to build a home together, what it would be like, and it would have white walls, and it would have orange trees. And those two things in juxtaposition, it’s like the first time she’s able to imagine what a life she would want might look like.
Dermot Mulroney gives an update on his character John Carmichael.
Movefone: Tell us where season three picks up from season two.
Dermot Mulroney: Season three starts just a couple of days after season two. Carmichael just got shot in the arm by Hanna. Not cool. And Marissa Viegler has just said to him, “Now you work for me.” And we go back to the Meadows. This is how it opens, at least on my character, which is that country of state in England, where I’ve been training up the girl assassins. You’re seeing the third season a year or more after we had that second season out, but it’s almost the next day. Carmichael, however, is in a completely different circumstance. Last season, he was running the show, right? Or at least it seemed that way. And now he’s being forced to take down his own program. So it’s a pretty cool turn right from the beginning. And then season three is just full of other plot twists and turns.
MF: As always. There’s always so many twists and turns and so many uncertainties for the audience watching it. What is the relationship in this season between Marissa and Carmichael?
Mulroney: Well, that’s somewhat even a mystery to me still. I love that it’s never fully defined and that there’s some definite sensation of them having, I don’t even mean a romantic relationship or anything, but it’s pretty dense the way that they are around each other. This season, however, now she’s engaged in pulling, using… Hanna goes back into the Meadows to take it down, to take down Utrax, but they still don’t know everything about it, even Marissa doesn’t. So they need to get that information from Carmichael, so they’re using me. We also learn in this season, as Ray Liotta comes into play the chairman, that Carmichael hasn’t been in charge of the Meadows and the DNA dosing program. He’s just been a middle management guy. So that was news to me too, but it reframed Carmichael’s place in Utrax for me, and then that’s happening as he’s getting in deeper and deeper trouble. So there are good bits after that, that I won’t share with you, but know that the action increases right to the end and the way they twist this story around is quite incredible.
MF: Where do you think Carmichael’s loyalties lie in this season?
Mulroney: Well, as always, Carmichael’s main concern is Carmichael. So you see him especially deeper into this season. You see him in real trouble. And so you’ll see a side of Carmichael you haven’t seen where he’s out of control and where he is seriously desperate and fighting for his own survival. So it’s a really fun turn for me, the actor, but also for Carmichael to… The table’s turn on him. It’s that simple. He’s now more like Hanna in that Hanna’s never really had a say in who she is, what her true identity is and where she fits into the world. And now Carmichael’s world has turned completely upside down. He’d been in total control last season, and now he can’t really put two and two together until he has to. Then he goes feral, pretty much. He gets down and dirty.
MF: He does, which I’m not completely used to seeing you in those types of roles. I did watch ‘Hard Luck Love Song.’ I did some interviews for that, so I saw you in that.
Mulroney: Right on. Thank you for supporting that film. Thank you. We love that movie.
MF: And kind of a rough and down and dirty role as well.
Mulroney: Yeah. I think I was some sort of poolroom punk.
MF: In my mind, I still see you in rom coms. I don’t know.
Mulroney: Understood. I get that. I know. But sometimes that helps for me then to play the bad guy, because then it’s a little more unexpected maybe, or so I think at times, but really I’ve played so many different types of parts. I’m more and more proud of the things that everybody likes. Amazing. Yeah.
MF: Going back to the season of ‘Hanna,’ there’s a kill list, an assassination list. Who are they targeting?
Mulroney: Well, that’s the amazing thing. This is the distinctive part of the story. David Farr cooked up an Utrax program. He knew what it was doing all along, but he didn’t tell anybody in season one. Season two, we learned a little bit, but really now we finally realize that this program has taken decades to get to the point of launching these young female assassins out into the world to kill any young person, I think they say under the age of 29, that the CIA has determined might be a future threat to the United States of America. So Carmichael’s a company man, G man, he’s CIA through and through. He’s doing what he knows to be best for his country. Now, we all watching the show know that’s not cool going around killing people because they’re activists or protesters or all that. We also get to know one of those young people, Adam Bessa plays Abbas Naziri in our show.
He and Hanna have a really strong connection. I won’t give too much on that. Wonderful actor. And that’s part of the story that helps Hanna get in touch with who she really is, which is ultimately the heart of this entire story, is who she really is instead of what she’s been manipulated, down to her DNA, being manipulated. And we see a young woman coming into who she is, where she fits in the world, what her true identity is. So I know so many people can relate to that now. And Esmé Creed-Miles is exquisite in this role.
MF: She absolutely is. And we’ve seen her really grow from the first season to the third. When you start a season, do you know the arc of the whole season, or are you just getting script by script?
Mulroney: No, I think this was more a script by script, which in its own way is wonderful. I’ll do it either way, but it’s its own exercise in acting, because you don’t really know the end of the character, but that teaches you to just be in the moment. Right? I mean, it sounds really corny coming from an actor, but since you don’t know where the story’s going, you have to really commit to the truth in the scene you’re in. But I have these incredible actors to work with, so it is that anyway. Mireille Enos plays the lead grown up spy who just really goes even further this season, and they added Ray Liotta to the thing to be the chairman of the Utrax program. So that was a super highlight for me. The two old bulls do have a scene in the middle of the show that turns the plot again. So it was a real honor to be working with Ray, and he’s an integral part with lots of plot twists involved in his character too.
MF: You must be very comfortable in your character now that it’s season three. So is it easier just to play now in season three because you know Carmichael so well, you know how he’d react to something?
Mulroney: Well, yes, except that the circumstances are so new that some of those scenes, I didn’t know Carmichael had it in him. He really is depicted more like a man behind the scenes, sitting at the desk on the computers in our previous season. And we kind of start out that way, except we know he’s being asked to work against himself. But then, yeah, it gets pretty gnarly. I have to say, script upon script, I didn’t see that coming to that extent. So he has been trained as a spy, let’s say genius spy craft. But when it gets down to it, he’s got to fight tooth and nail, so it takes on a whole other quality.
Series newcomer Ray Liotta describes his character and what attracted him to the show.
Movefone: Ray, you’re new to the cast this season. What intrigued you enough to say yes to this role?
Ray Liotta: I liked the script. I watched the first two seasons and thought the acting was really compelling, so between the script and that … I wasn’t sure at first, but then I said, “You know what? Let me just give it a shot.” I’m glad I did because … I haven’t seen it yet, but people seem to like it.
MF: You are the villain in season three, Gordon Evans. What does he want with Hanna? Why does he want her so badly?
Liotta: Well, Hanna’s a connection to my daughter, and I know my daughter would do whatever I want her to do if I could manipulate Hanna and get her into me, I knew I’d be able to get my daughter and try to connect with her again. I mean, it’s a twisted way of thinking, but that’s what this was.
MF: When you were building your character, what kind of is the backstory of Gordon Evans?
Liotta: I think that all the information that you need is within the script. Like I said, there was the backstory with my daughter. There’s a scene and there are a couple of times … Although I’m not sure if it made it into the cut. But it’s a twisted, bizarre relationship. I mean, it’s very, very extreme.
MF: Tell me about Pioneer, who is Pioneer, or what is Pioneer?
Liotta: It’s the way of doing what it is that my character thinks is the right thing to do. He cloaks himself in patriotism and extremism because he doesn’t want bad things to happen. There’s a mention about 9/11, and if we could get those guys before it even happened, it might not have happened. But now, like I said, it’s very extreme, and as Roy points out well, what happens if you get the wrong people? What if … You’re going after these bad guys when they’re young. Again, but Pioneer is what these girls … I mean, I’m grooming them to do bad things to other people.
MF: There’s this kill list, the assassination list. Who are they specifically targeting?
Liotta: People that I think we think that could end up doing something bad to the country, their belief system and how… It’s almost as extreme as McCarthyism, when back in the fifties they’re going after people that they think might have leaning towards communism. So they go after them made some mistakes like we do in this. But basically the character thinks that this is the way to go to protect our country. It’s just a very twisted way of doing it.
The new Apple TV+ series ‘Hello, Jack! The Kindness Show’ is aimed at pre-schoolers and stars Jack McBrayer as he inspires kids to solve problems with “The Three Cs” – caring, connecting, and cascading. Executive Producer Angela Santomero co-created the series with McBrayer, and they both sat down to talk to Moviefone about their new series.
Moviefone: Well, Jack, tell me about where the idea came from.
Jack McBrayer: Well, it did come from a very personal place for me, where I was just noticing how grownups were behaving towards each other. There seemed to be a lack of compassion, a lack of civility, a lack of kindness. And so I thought about when we, as humans, learn these lessons and I started thinking about my preschool years and the television programs that I grew up with, specifically ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,’ and how learning those social and emotional lessons… maybe every now and then we need to be reminded of them. So I’m happy to pick up the baton.
MF: Especially during the pandemic. I don’t know how this timed out. Was this idea before, or was this during this time when we’ve been isolated at home?
McBrayer: Long before, long before. I think I met with Apple in 2018 and the good news is over the past couple of years, we have been able to, even through Zoom, write the scripts, cast the show, get a lot of work done before we actually try to get in there and film.
MF: So Angela, Jack comes to you with this idea, and it’s very specific. It’s not like, “Let’s do a kid show, and we’re going to do A-B-Cs and one-two-threes and also learn about some life lessons.” He says, “It’s kindness.” What’s your reaction?
Angela Santomero: You know, for me, kindness has always been at the foundation of everything that I’ve ever done, right? And so it was just serendipitous to meet and to bond over our love of Fred Rogers, and what can we do for kids today? And then it really became the idea that kindness is the tool to tell the great stories that we wanted to tell and to build out this gorgeous world. We had our writing meetings and Jack’s in our meetings, and then see the visuals that came out after that because all of these great ideas to create this world and showcase, visually, kindness growing was really the spark and the excitement for the show.
MF: Jack, can you try to describe visually for our audience? What it looks like, the show?
McBrayer: Imagine a pastel dream. No, it’s very gentle. It’s very kid friendly. It is very pastel, but it reminded me of just this magical dream world in a way. It was fun to have not only our younger actors join us every day, but whenever we’d have any background or guests come in, they were just so taken by everything. And I’m including the wardrobe, the props, all of the design elements came together to create this sort of dream world. But we wanted it to feel realistic enough where kids at home would want to come and visit us, so the invitation stands.
Jack McBrayer and Lucie Vuong in ‘Hello, Jack! The Kindness Show’
Santomero: And then I have to say the inspiration of ‘Gilmore Girls’ that there’s this gorgeous neighborhood that everybody knows each other, that they’re always saying hello and all that kind of stuff. That’s also what was in our head, I think a little bit.
MF: Yeah, I really love that community feeling, and I wore my pastel-y lavender sweater thinking about The Hummingbird Café, and Jack, your character, because you’re always kind of in sweaters…
McBrayer: Yeah.
MF: Kind of the Mr. Rogers feel, right? Angela, what age group are you aiming for?
Santomero: It’s preschool. Those are the best. That’s the best age. Preschool and then co-viewing for parents, right? Like sitting and snuggling and watching and asking questions. That’s what we hope.
MF: And Jack, there are the three Cs that you’re trying to hit in this show. So what are those three Cs?
McBrayer: Three Cs, we want to explore connection, we want to explore caring, and we want to explore the cascade of kindness that can occur from that, sharing acts and words of kindness from one person to the next.
MF: Angela, I’m sure you have some advisors for this show. What does that all entail?
Santomero: We do. We have an amazing advisor. I’ll let Jack speak to that because it was his excitement to get Dr. Junlei Li, but we also have a formative research department. So every idea, every installation of a script, as we start to visualize the script, we bring it into our research department who takes it up to kids and watches them lean in and get excited. And we also rewrite and we re-talk about what we’re going to be doing, so that’s really exciting as well. And then Dr. Junlei Li…
McBrayer:So we have Dr. Junlei Li come in as a consultant. This man is a legend in children, childhood education and development. I had met him at a convention. His lecture was what would Fred Rogers think about current day? And to me, it was like a light from heaven. I was like, I want to know everything this man can teach me. He’s been a great, great asset for this project.
MF: Okay, before we go, we need to talk about songs, original songs and the singing. So what are those original songs? And what’s it like? You do a lot of singing.
McBrayer: I do, but the music come from this incredible band, OK Go. Check them out, watch their amazing videos. It was such an honor to have them come on and create an original song for every episode, as well as our theme song, the closing song. I’ve been a fan of theirs for so long. So, I mean, I think the first part was me just trying to act normal. Like yes, yes, what a wonderful idea. “Hey, when you sang this one song…” I was totally fanboying out, but OK Go was just a tremendous get for us.
MF: I know you’ve done voice-overs for some kids shows, but in general we don’t think about you acting live, doing kid shows. So it’s a break. It’s a break from what we’re used to, and how is that for you?
McBrayer: Well, I mean the good news is I have experience doing live action through shows like ‘30 Rock’ and then the voice acting is super fun. And so I was real happy to kind of bring this together where children can watch a grown man address them directly through the screen. And again, hearkening back to Fred Rogers, be that source of listening and caring and connecting and understanding. I was happy to do that. Very happy to do it.
‘Hello, Jack! The Kindness Show’ is now on Apple TV+.
